Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Speaker of the House Vote & Kevin McCarthy’s NIGHTMARE

Episode Date: January 5, 2023

The Republican Party is in disarray after Kevin McCarthy has now lost 6 straight Speaker of the House votes. MeidasTouch co-founder Ben Meiselas gives the latest updates with his co-anchors, national trial lawyer Michael Popok, and former prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: GREEN CHEF: Get 60% off PLUS Free Shipping at https://GreenChef.com/LEGALAF60 Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And welcome to the Midas Touch Network, our continuing coverage of the other Maga Republican humiliation taking place on the floor of the House of Representatives. This is a continuation of our live coverage from earlier today. After the sixth roll call vote, the proceedings were adjourned. There were discussions taking place to see, I suppose if Kevin McCarthy was going to just keep on losing, all throughout the night.

So they are now back after adjoining. Members of Congress are trickling in right now. And frankly, I don't think anyone really knows what to expect right now. Well, Kevin McCarthy, when he exited the office that he's essentially squatting in, when we just pull up this clip right now of what we saw Kevin McCarthy say as he was leaving,

saying that he doesn't want to have a vote tonight. He says that they're ongoing discussions, but he doesn't want to have a vote tonight. He says that they're ongoing discussions, but he doesn't want to have a vote tonight. So let's just play this clip of Kevin McCarthy. Thank you guys. You know, I think it's probably best. I love people who work through some more. I think I don't think the vote tonight doesn't exist,

but I think voting will be future. Do you have a deal with those guys right now? I don't know about that. That's put a lot of progress. Does that mean no votes more? I don't think voting tonight is a productive. I think that people work a little more. Here's I don't think voting tonight will be productive,

but what will be productive is going to the house floor right now, and then I want to welcome our guests. They're doing a prayer on the house floor right now. And then I want to welcome our guests. They're doing a prayer on the house floor. But I want to welcome our guests and our co-hosts right now from legal AF. This is the normal time when legal F takes place. And since we don't know what to expect, this is now becoming tonight's legal AF. We will break down the legal news.

Let's pause for this moment of prayer. And then let's bring in our two co-hosts. This race and creed that collectively we would serve as a city on a hill, a light to the world, revealing the strength and nobility to be found in our union. Remind us that we fulfill this divine mission only when we acknowledge that we are meant to function as one body. Nothing you ordain can be accomplished without the trust in and respect for each other. You have graced each of us differently, with passion and compassion,

insight and oversight, voice and vote, that we would use these gifts to build up the larger body, which is these United States. Deliver us from entranjidents and impudence, free us from fear and control, that in our deliberations this night, the light that shines from the dome above us would clearly reflect the commitment we each make to freedom, justice, and peace in our world. In the name of our guardian, guide, and stay,

we offer our prayer. Amen. We offer our prayer. Amen. We bring back in our co-hosts now, Karen Friedman, before my co-pok looks. approval there of representatives elect are invited to join in the pledge of allegiance. For what purpose that's a gentleman from Oklahoma. I move that we adjourn until noon tomorrow. The question now occurs on the motion of the gentleman from Oklahoma. Those in favor say, I, those opposed say no So what purpose does's a gentleman from California. Madam Clerk asked for the Yez and Nays. Oh snap they're doing a count right now.

You know who I love. And the Yez and Nays are the water. Carol Johnson. Clerk of the original one hundred and seventeenth Congress. It has to lay over the Ye and days of this proceeding because there's no speaker now a sufficient number heaven risen the years and days are ordered members will record their votes by electronic device So now what we are going to see is if those 20 or 21 or so Magga Republicans who have been blocking Kevin McCarthy, whether they are going to vote against the O'Jornment, whether

they are going to force the vote right now so that Kevin McCarthy can be further humiliated. To be clear, Kevin McCarthy wants the ojornment right now. Why does he, why do we know that? How do we know Kevin McCarthy wants the ojornment? He said he did as he was walking on to the house floor. Let's play the clip of Kevin McCarthy saying that he did want the ojornment. Let's play the clip of Kevin McCarthy saying that he did want the adjournment. Let's play that clip again. Guys, it's not for the threshold. You know, I think it's probably best. Sorry.

Let people work through some more. I don't think vote tonight doesn't exist, but I think vote in a future vote. Do you have a deal with those guys right now? No, I don't have a lot of progress. Let me know about some more. I don't think voting tonight is a good thing. I think that people work a little more. And in contrast, let me tell you, this is what Matt Gates had said out when he left Kevin McCarthy, who was basically squatting in the speaker's house, and he's called him out for that. He goes, I am never going to vote for this person.

Let's play what Matt Gates had said. Let's play this clip. In some ways it tries to divide our conference, but look, he's a desperate guy whose vote shared is dropping with every subsequent vote. And I'm ready to vote all night, all week, all month, and never for that person. So I'll tell you what, when he comes out,

it heads back to his squatting in the speaker's office, which why isn't he allowed to be there? Like, is there some basis in law or statute or rule for someone who comes in second place and sixth consecutive speaker racist to be able to? Karen, your reaction. It's amazing to watch the Republicans implode like this. The Republicans usually circle the wagons around each other and to watch the dysfunction here is really it reminds me a little bit of watching

Parliament, you know, in the UK when you see the English Parliament and you see how how boisterous and loud and and you know how how they can get very animated. It feels a little bit like that right now. So yeah, super super interesting to watch this historic moment of not electing a speaker and to learn how important a speaker is to, you know, just the functioning of Congress. You know, it's not just the titular head of the party. It's really you need to elect a speaker to make rules, to make appointments, to even swear in the new members of Congress.

It's just very interesting how it's a very important thing that they're going to have to do. And I wonder whether the they're going to have to do. And I wonder whether the Republicans are going to be able to find someone or whether this is a great opportunity. Some people are saying for a consensus person reach across the aisle and get someone moderate that the Democrats could work with and see if there could be someone like that, rather than being pulled further to the right and McCarthy having to make concessions to get these crazy 20 or 21 people to agree to vote for him. So it'll just be really interesting to watch what happens. And here's the thing, I mean McCarthy and himself is a crazy maggot extremist as well.

So we're just talking about degrees here. Popo, what are you looking for right now and what are your observations well just offer your clips i think that that gates is full of you know what you know i i know what a cluster f is i didn't know what a congress f is until i watch this they are all behind to the cameras they're saying i'll never vote for that guy but it's well reported that i'm behind the scenes they're all negotiating to

try to get subcommittee and committee gavils for themselves, including Matt Gaetz. And you'll see Matt Gaetz standing up and supporting Kevin McCarthy. If it gets him the gavil that he's looking for on armed services or one of the other ones, that's the problem. Right now, Kevin McCarthy has to sell himself off, digit by digit, finger by finger and toe by toe. There won't be much of a Kevin McCarthy left standing if the deal that he has to make off, digit by digit, finger by finger and toe by toe.

There won't be much of a Kevin McCarthy left standing for the deals that he's has to make to put people into these committee positions and to count out. One of the major rules that he's considering is to guarantee that he'll step down after two years, make himself instantly lame duck. Just give him the gavel for now,

but that he'll turn it back over. mean i even the republicans have to be longing for the day of a secure parliamentarian like nancy polo see who knows how to run congress and right now been we have one uh... one of our uh... uh... uh... a branches of government that's completely offline and maybe offline offline for a long, long time. They're going to vote tonight to your point. They're going to, these 20, he needs less than that 20, but these 20 are going to make him get pilloryed again and get and lose for the seventh time because they don't think he's

softened up enough to make the deals that they want because they believe that they're in control. Well, there's one nay for Republicans. That's what I'm looking at right now. 146, yay, one nay, all of the Democrats in unity voting nay, they want to force the vote. So I keep looking at nay. I'm trying to follow if those 20 Republicans are going to start falling into that nay category, there's clearly a delay going on in terms of the Republican voting right now. So that group, I'm not sure if they

voted. To your point, Popoq, there was someone who wrote something really funny on Twitter. They said, Kevin McCarthy, and they're quoting Kevin McCarthy. They go, I want to delay the vote for two years when cooler heads prevail, and Democrats can retake the House. And there's a lot of truth in that joke as well. It also besides the chaos that it shows America of what they've elected to run Congress. Now, I love when they talk about, we're the people's House and we're all representatives

representing the people. Well, they are on full display now, because all eyes are now on this. I mean, people never watch C-SPAN or CNN before. They're watching it now, because it's so as Karen said. It's so bizarre for our democracy, although it's happened 100 years ago. But if this is how they're going to run the election of their speaker so that the house can function,

you can imagine what the next two years is going to be like. And it shows how solidified that the Democrats are, even Marjorie Taylor Greene, had to comment with a little bit of awe at how unified and solidified the Democrats are right now. And we look great, Akeem. Looks great. He's not going to be the speaker of the House right now. Hopefully when Joe Biden gets reelected, but it's a contrast. It's a contrast between the chaos on the one side of the aisle and just the unifying galvanizing array on the other side with the Democrats.

We showed you the clip of Gates. We showed you the clip of McCarthy. I want to show you the clip now of a Trump spokesperson, Liz Harrington, making it clear it seems that Trump is done helping Kevin McCarthy. This is Liz Harrington on one of these right-wing echo chamber media outlets. But let's play that. He's done what he could. He's voiced his support, his position where it is. And I think now, as we see it play out, we'll have to let the conference figure it out and go forward. So there you have it there.

It looks like, as I see the nays, it looks like one of the nays votes changed to a yay vote. So there is a possibility here that the that group of 20 is going to agree to a jorn. But throw away a lifeline. He's a drowning man right now. I mean, he is a it is embarrassing. I don't care what he's acting like whistling in the graveyard. It is embarrassing for him and shows how feckless and lack of power he has and the other loser tonight is Donald Trump. I couldn't agree more with you and I think the third loser as well with every all the

mega or losers but George Santos and as we watch the count it's a good time to give a little legal analysis here but George Santos is now under prosecution, not just in America by local, state, and federal prosecutors, but also under criminal investigation or criminal prosecution, rather, in Brazil. You tell us about this, Karen or Michael? Yeah, so if you want I can I can start. Sure sure sure so George Santos was that what you're referencing in Brazil is there was a time when he was living in Brazil and in 2008 he was investigated for Czech fraud. He was 19 years old at the time and he used a stolen Czech book

and a fake name to spend something like $700 and close, and he admitted to it. He admitted to committing this crime. And in 2011, fraud charges were brought against him, but at that point he had already been in the US, and so they dropped the case, Brazil dropped the case because they couldn't locate him. They recently have said that they are going to revive the case and if necessary, try him in absentia. So he has, he's going to have to face those charges in Brazil. But in addition to that, it has been widely reported

that there are multiple investigations into all of his various lies. A federal investigation, the NASA County District Attorney and Donnelly, who's a Republican, she is also going to, she's also started her own investigation and New York Attorney General, Tisch James, is starting as an investigation into all of his various lies as well. The prosecution of his various lies as well.

The prosecution, his level of lies, he likes to say, it's just resume padding, who doesn't pad their resume and kind of BS a little bit, but his levels of lies are nothing short of astounding and really cross a different threshold. He lied about just about everything. I mean, he lied about his religion. He says he was Jewish, but no, he's Jewish.

He lies about whether that his mother died on 9-11, that there were Holocaust survivors in his background, that he graduated from, you know, university, even though he didn't never graduated from university, that he worked for Goldman Sachs, but he never worked for Goldman Sachs. I mean, you know, he, there are lots and lots and lots and lots of lies that are just of a different nature and quality than resume padding, if you will. But the question is, will that be a crime and is lying to the public a crime? And that's going to be what the various prosecutors are going to have to try and sort through, because just lying alone is probably not a crime.

And at first blush, you say to yourself, how's that possible, right? He lied to get our votes. He lied to get elected to Congress. And so it's not just lying for no, and he's not like eating, get anything from it. But unfortunately, all of our laws require that you have to lie to get some kind of tangible property or something of value. And so it's going to be very interesting whether the feds can, you know, can prosecute

him. And it's not going to necessarily be for these lies, the lies that make headlines and the lies that we all talk about. What the feds are going to necessarily be for these lies, the lies that make headlines and the lies that we all talk about. What the feds are going to do is they're going to look into his campaign finance documents that he has to file and whether or not he committed campaign finance fraud. Because he is mandated to file certain financial disclosure

statements. And that's something, you know, in order to run for Congress that he's had to do. And so, for example, it was reported that in 2020 he disclosed that he was making $55,000 a year in salary and had no assets. But then two years later, in 2022, he reported that he was making a salary of 750,000, had an apartment in Rio de Janeiro, and was worth up to a million dollars, and had millions more indivitance and bank accounts. Now, unless he has an explanation for how that happened in two years, that in and of itself

might be false financial disclosures that were filed, that he could be prosecuted for. He also had to file, he also had to submit filings to the Federal Election Commission and because any campaign contribution expenditure that's over $200 requires an FEC filing and this is to prevent illegal contributions. And so if he violated this, he could get up to five years in prison. And it'll just be very interesting. There was a personal loan he gave to his campaign for $700,000.

I'm sure they'll look into where does somebody claim he had no assets, get that kind of money, or legally divert campaign funds for personal use. Those types of things are things they're going to look into. When you think about when you can be prosecuted for lying, think about somebody who sells you fake concert tickets, and they're scalping tickets.

How come they can be prosecuted for lying to you, but somebody who just lies to get votes can't? And the reason is you need to basically have to be for lying to you, but somebody who just lies to get votes can't. And the reason is you need to basically have to be, it has to be something that's monetary value or property. And votes aren't either money or property. So that's going to be the types of things that they're going to look at.

And Karen, as you go there, I want to just alert all of our viewers. There's 20 seconds right now. There's 18 no votes yet in Republicans. 18 people have no votes. Let's watch what happens. In the next 13 seconds, let's pull up the C-SPAN floor. Let's watch what happens if those are going to go to the Yays or the Nays. Pull it up right now. Okay, we see two nays. If there are six nays on the Republican side, there's three nays.

The adornment will fail. There's three nays the adornment will fail. There's three nays right now. Let's see if that goes up. Does any member elect wish to change his vote? All new on eye for Mr. Gosar. on this boat the yays are 213 And the Monium right now on the floor. It's more like kindergarten. This is Jacksonson. This is Patterson Vogue Snow. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one.

I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying.

This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This is Ben Dying. This, voted Dijn. on on on this vote on this vote the

yeas are 200 on this vote the yeas are 216 the nays are 214 accordingly the motion is adopted accordingly. The house stands you join until noon tomorrow. So there you have Republicans celebrating the fact that they called for an adjornment and the adjornment barely passed, it passed by two votes. Popaka, I think that at some point you've been a camp counselor back in the day where we just watching Kindergarteners here. No, I wrote you guys. I said I was a camp counselor for five

year olds and they were more organized than these guys. I want to ask you a question. Is ad jornment the same as a jornment? Is that like a parliamentarian thing? Or that's how you say it? I think that's just how I say it. That's how you say it. Popeye going back to Karen's analysis on the George Santos situation under criminal investigation,

Karen gave us a great analysis there. What's your take on these Santos criminal investigations as we segue out. And just for those tuning in and and Pope, let me just set the context for everybody just watching. We've had a historic 48 hours, not since 1923. We had a situation where somebody running for speaker did not obtain that on the first roll call vote. We've gone through multiple multiple multiple multiple roll call votes today. Six roll call votes. There was an adjournment called after Kevin McCarthy lost six times before the seventh roll call vote was set to take place. The Republicans asked for the adjornment that that would take place this evening at eight Eastern. They all then arrived and then

the Maga Republicans after making everybody go back at eight, then fought with each other over whether or not there would be an adjornment. there had to be a roll call vote over the adjornment and they are celebrating, I suppose, the fact that they've now adjorned until tomorrow, to be very clear, they don't have the votes for Kevin McCarty. They just simply don't wanna go through with more votes this evening,

where Kevin McCart McCarthy will undoubtedly lose. And with that as background, one of the other pieces of humiliation taking place that for our legal AF purposes, I want to focus on is George Santos. Karen gave a great analysis there. And Michael, want to hear your analysis on Santos as well. Yeah. Well, let me take it. I think Karen, as the prosecutor, former prosecutor did a great job about outlining things.

I think he's got a major problem in Brazil. He was actually a 2008 charge for stealing somebody's identity and writing a fraudulent check and obtaining clothing. They didn't know where to find them until he ran for Congress, became very notorious very quickly. And then the Brazilian prosecutors and reordering Aero woke up and said, hey, that's our judge, Santos. And let's get them. So now they filed the appropriate paperwork, the letters, Rogatory request to the Department of Justice. So the Brazilian Ministry of Justice has made a request through the judge to the Department of Justice in order to serve George Santos through the Department of Justice with the bill, whatever

it is, the bill of prosecution at the indictment. And so that's up at running. I don't know about extradition. You know, at the end of the day, it may be barely grand larceny. I mean, how much clothes could he possibly stolen? But it's certainly another badge of dishonor that is quickly being racked up for George Santos while the U.S. base prosecutors are all looking into it.

And I think he's got, as Karen laid out, a fraud problem as it relates to raising money. I mean, I think he raised money under false priesthoods, whether you call it theft of honest services or some version of that. You can't tell people you're one thing when you're another and take all their money in, although we've seen Trump do that for years, but I think he's in trouble as well. As to the question of why is George Santos even there and why is he voting? It's because there's almost no way to remove. There's no eject button to remove Representative still representative elect but because without a speaker of the House

They haven't been able to swear anybody in apparently under the House rules. They are able to vote But they're not able to be sworn in another weird peculiarity. But George said, Representative elect George Santos. There's no mechanism to remove him automatically because of pending criminal investigations, even based on fraud or an indictment in Brazil or in a foreign country. In fact, only one member of the House has ever been removed because of a felony conviction. There is an impeachment process, but you gotta have the numbers for that.

There is a process by which he could be referred to the ethics committee. And there are Republicans that are on record as saying that they will support, including the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who is on record, along with one of the other leaders, as saying they will refer him to the ethics committee,

because they want to police their own chamber. The problem is that you see the pressure. You've spent all day watching this with our minus touch followers, but you see the pressure on McCarthy. McCarthy probably ends up being the speaker of the House after he sells tonight until 12 tomorrow. He sells his soul and all of his body parts in order to get it,

because this is a guy who's just transparently, he just wants this, he just wants this with all his heart and soul, even if he has to give up his entire soul in order to get it. So he's going to be likely the speaker of the house, all these other theories, I think, don't play out. He's ever so close. He just has to cut like three or four more deals, which he will. Now, once that happens, the question, the slim majority that's in the house, what is it, eight seats? Is they're not going to toss Santos out because they know that third district in New York, which actually covered, I think, a place where you and your brothers lived.

I grew up in a third congressional district. Used to be the second, but yeah. Right, so you got Long Island and parts of Queens. That's usually reliably democratic. He fraudulently obtained it by all the ways that Karen outlined and all the lies that he made that resonated with one voter or another, 9-11 financial services. I went to Baruch College.

I'm Jewish. I'm not Jewish. I'm gay. I'm straight. I mean, you know, I'm surprised he didn't get every vote in that district, but he won't. And if there's a recall election or a new election, there's a special election, it's going to go Democrat and they're worried about that. So that's the problem. And there's no other way to get rid of the guy. I mean, a felon can serve in the house of representatives under the Constitution and there's nothing the American people can do about it. It was funny. I like to think of today when the chaos was happening with Kevin McCarthy

was the person having the best day is George Santos because all the attention is being deflected away from him and All the news was about him. Usually, the election of a speaker is such a boring, pro forma thing. All the news is going to be all about the more lies and the more grift of George Santa. I think he's having a great day today because... Well, I disagree with you.

I disagree with you. But I think it's all relative from where the depths were Kevin McCarthy is because we've been showing videos all day of George Santos hiding in the cloakroom, picking his boogers, looking just, you know, doing some weird stuff. He's been all of the media has been grilling him and asking questions. He looks utterly flustered. Nobody lives. Nobody lives. Where's he living bed freshman freshman don't have a lot of money freshman congresspeople they can't use campaign funds even him

you know you're popoq he's a billionaire oh that's where he's living he's got three mansions all over somebody somebody checked the greyhound bus station tonight in dc i want to talk about the legal effect though uh... the fact that there is no speaker uh... being selected and

what can and can't be done because we basically because there is no speaker we have the clerk who's done an incredible job you know presiding overiding over this chaos right now. So we're kind of in this purgatory, if you will, between the 117 Congress and the 118 Congress. You may reflect back prior to the Democrats taking back control of the House of Representatives. In 2018, it was another situation of complete mega-republican dysfunction and shutting the government down and not being able to do anything and fighting over, you know, Trump's wall and Trump claiming Mexico was going to pay for it and you know, that's how the Republicans exited come back in stage left and basically,

in essence, shutting down our government again, stopping the House of Representatives from doing its work, because the House of Representatives, right, Michael, can't engage in its business as usual or business at all, while this is taking place. And so, this is what President Biden said earlier. It's like, this hasn't happened in 100 years. Our country's trying to rebound from the chaos that you threw us into on January 6th.

We're trying to build back our stability. And now you're throwing us into this. Think about how we look internationally. And so would love to hear your thoughts there, Popeyes, and Karen, and how this is affecting us legally. And I love the split screen today, and you were doing, when you were doing your live commentary, and it was just masterful by Biden. He got the split screen of Biden with McConnell at that bridge, talking about infrastructure and the billions of dollars that are going to go

to fix that bridge at the moment that they can't even on there, at that moment at the six-ballot, pick a speaker of the house, just so such a tremendous juxtaposition of leadership encourage versus what's going on here. But here's the law, right? We're legal AF on this one without a speaker of the house and the and the constitution in article one has like one sentence. You need to pick a speaker. That's it.

There's no other guidance. There's no other guidance, there's no other law, there's no other requirements. The speaker of the house doesn't even have to be an elected member of Congress. They could reach out and go grab somebody else, hopefully not named Donald Trump, and make him poof or her miraculously the speaker of the house. That's how that works. But until there's a speaker of the house and they pass the rules, this rules bundle, this rules package that comes with the speaker of the house. They are completely immobilized. They are offline.

This Congress does not exist in the sense that they cannot transact any business at all. There are no committees. There are no chairs. There no work can be performed. No legislation can be passed. No bills can be proposed until there is a speaker of the house. That's how important.

It's one of the only positions that's mentioned by name in the U.S. Constitution. And even though there's not a lot of language around it, you have to have one in order to run the House of Representatives. We never really thought about that before because we've always had a functioning house and a functioning selection of a Speaker on first ballot. You have to go back to 1923 where it took nine ballots He's getting awfully close to nine ballots Mr. McCarthy nine ballots in three days getting close to that too to select the speaker then and then you got to go back to 1885 Where it took four months then four

months to pick the speaker of the house meeting. The house was offline for four months. So what happens in the meantime, they can meet but they can't do anything official. The last ranking member of the committee from the 117th Congress is the Republican, is the chair for now, but they can't do anything. And the house, we're learning about all these new positions. You and I like to laugh about, who knew the national archivist?

There is a chief administrative officer for the house. And he has issued a bundle of rules that has said he's drawn a line in the sand. If by January 13th, they don't get a speaker, then they can't fund anything and all the staff have to go on on high aides. They have to like fire the staff because they can't fund it by the 30. I don't think anybody on this podcast thinks they're going to stretch it out to the 13th, but if they did, that's it.

They've got to pass the house Rules package or they can't govern. They can't do that until they have the speaker. And in the meantime, everybody might be wondering, who is that very nice lady with a gavel who we keep seeing every time Ben cuts away to the CSPAN feed? She is the presiding officer of the entire chamber. And if she's not there, she's the clerk. She's the clerk for the last Congress. She's the 117th Congress is clerk.

And she holds that gavall as if she were the speaker until there's a speaker she can pass it to. And if she has to take a break, it's the sergeant at arms. And then the last bit of a domino effect, if not having a speaker, is that the line of succession to the president just got changed because normally the speaker of the house is is a third in line to the second in line to the president after the vice president, that it's the speaker of the house, that it's the Senate, the president of the Senate, tempore. Well, there's no speaker. So the Democratic Senate president, tempore is now right behind Kamala Harris in the succession line to Joe Biden.

If anything, God forbid, what happened? Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Thank you for breaking the downpour. But I want to show the clip that you were referencing of President Biden before turning it over to Karen to get her thoughts on some of the legal ramifications we should be focused on here. But let's play this clip of President Biden speaking to the press and talking about how what the MAGA Republicans doing here and while we all have this shiden Freud kind

of seeing their humiliation, seeing the chaos, having the popcorn and kind of watching this collectively is great, This is humiliating. You know, this is destructive to our democracy. And what President Biden links this to the January 6th insurrection, he's so right because the world was looking at us in January's after January 6th that saying, is this even a functioning democracy? And President Biden worked incredibly hard to restore our standing internationally and improve our standing internationally? And now the world sees this.

They see these performative, baguette extremists want to be fascists who are so incompetent they can't even select their own leader. Let's play this clip of President Biden from earlier in the day. for the first time in a hundred years. You can't move. I mean, I really need it. I know you know an international relations. It's not a good thing. It's not a good thing. It's the United States of America. I hope they get their action together. And what's going to happen if there is no seat here for a week, or a month?

What's the impact? Karen, what are your thoughts from the legal perspective here of what the Republicans are doing to our democracy, to our just the basic systems, the institutions, these people call themselves conservative. They're anything but conservative because then I could serve in our institutions. They're destroying our institutions. What do you make of all this? I think this is really dangerous because it's one thing to have a Republican Congress and to have conservative Congress, you know, in the majority. But what Kevin McCarthy is going to be doing

in the next 24 hours as Popoq and you saying, is he's going to be making deals with people. And the deals he's going to be making, and the people he's going to be making deals with are these ultra right mega extremists. And I know you're saying he is also extremely right, far right. Well, these other individuals are even further to the right. And what's going to happen is he's going to agree to give them these committee positions. And that is power.

When you're in the House of Representatives, who you, what committee you sit on, who's the chair of that committee, that equals power. Those are the people who decide, for example, what legislation even gets to reach the House floor for a vote. What legislation will even get there so that there will be new laws passed in this ultra-right agenda. And I am just terrified about what this means to our country where you're going to have, if this happens, to get himself elected, because as you said, he really, really, really, really wants it.

So he'll do anything to get this position. He's going to make deals with people who are going to take our country so far to the right legislatively that it's scary. And not only that, don't forget that they also are going to, you know, all of what they can do in terms of investigations and hearings, et cetera. You know, this ultra-right extremist congresspeople have just this agenda that they are going to attempt to bring this country so far to the right

it worries me in terms of of laws that they're going to try to pass Karen want to thank you for that analysis right there and we have a lot more to discuss here on legal a f. Make sure you hit the subscribe button right now on our YouTube channel. We're on our way to 1 million subscribers. It is free to subscribe. We are 100% independent. We are 100% accountable to you. Michael Pope, I tell us about our partner, green chef before we go to more news. I'm really happy about this one, Ben. We got a new sponsor to help keep our show rolling in 2023. Green Chef is the number one meal kit for eating well with dinners that work for you,

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is pressed for time running 100 miles per hour in the opposite direction. We started off with the Mediterranean set with menus changing every week and with our discounts. It came to about $5.40 a meal. We had last week rose to chicken with lemon crema. And the next day we tried the pecan-crusted sustainable sockeye salmon. That's a mouthful.

And it was really tasty. Reduce waste. That's a focus of the sponsor of Green Chef. It's environmentally friendly. And it helps you kick off healthy living for 2023. And Ben and I and Karen have negotiated a terrific discount for first time customers-c-h-e-f.com slash legal a f 60, L-e-g-a-l-a-f 60, and get 60% off free shipping. Green chef, the number one meal kit for eating well. One of the strange developments, Popak, that was breaking right before the 8 p.m.

adjornment that then led to another adjornment was that these two super PACs, one club for growth and the other, the Congressional Leadership Fund, had cut a major deal with each other. The Congressional Leadership Fund is backed by McCarthy, where the Congressional Leadership Fund would stop spending money in safe open-seat primaries with Republican candidates, which was apparently something that the opposition led by Gates was focused on. And it's being reported as this deal is a breakthrough where two super packs were involved in cutting a deal for the speaker of the house based on not challenging Republicans and open primaries that everything they say is like they go, oh, the swamp, this, the swamp, that.

It's like alphabet soup, what I just said, you know, and even as I look at it, I have to like read that multiple times and go, what the heck are they talking about? That was one of the major issues. So we'll see if that's a breakthrough at all. But I want to share with all the people watching this, again, just a reminder. This is what Matt Gates had said just before the adjormant started or this new adjormant commenced that led to the current adjormant that we have. I know it's a little bit confusing, but it was adjormed until eight Eastern tonight, but this is what Matt Gates said as he

left the speaker's office where Kevin McCarthy is squatting and Gates was very clear. I mean Gates said I am never voting Kevin McCarthy. We are never putting Kevin McCarthy. If we've got that clip let's play that clip right now just to remind everyone what transpired earlier before we're just a place. In some ways it tries to divide our conference but look he's a desperate guy whose vote share is dropping with every subsequent vote, and I'm ready to vote all night, all week, all month, and never for that person. So I'll tell you what, when he comes out and heads back to his squatting

in the speaker's office, which why hasn't he been allowed to be there? Like, is there some basis and law or statute or rule for someone who comes in second place and sixth consecutive speaker races to be able to. And Mark Elias, the super lawyer for the Democratic Party, more than just a Democratic Party for democracy, he just commented, did I miss something or did two Republican super PACs just cut a deal to try to make McCarthy the speaker of the house? That doesn't exactly sound legitimate.

It sounds like that's fraught with issues there. Karen, overall observations of tonight so far, what should people be focused on? When you say things like two Republican super PACs joined together and kind of deal, it feels it reminds me of like when ISIS and Al-Qaeda come together and you know make some kind of deal together. I mean, it's just crazy to me. Look, like I said, I'm very concerned that this is going to empower, there's this small group relatively speaking of extreme right, MAGA, Republicans who are now going to have an outsized power in the House because of this power play that they're doing. And they are going to pull whoever the speaker is so far to the right to get themselves onto

really important committees and they are going to be the ones who hold the key to what even gets voted on and what gets to the House floor. So I am concerned by this. I think they'll have a speaker soon, but this power play is going to pull the house way further to the right and give these the small group of individuals outsized power in the House. Well, we already, the rules package that was already proposed by the Republicans before all this chaos and pandemonium happened would allow five of these Republicans to have a no confidence vote and oust the speaker.

And so we know that there's more than five. We know that there is 20, at least 20, maybe 21. There was one individual who voted present to Republican from Indiana. And so I think the bigger story that's really not being discussed here is that this could be happening Like every day for the next two years, you know in in assuming Kevin McCarthy even gets the speakership in three or four days They can say you know what you're out and they probably do that. This is gonna be like the Italian government We're gonna have a new prime minister, you know every well. This is what to be like the Italian government. We're going to have a new prime minister. You know, every, well, this is what we're seeing. We're just not used to it.

Karen alluded to it earlier about parliamentary and process in countries like the UK, or really throughout Europe, when you have to make the devil's bargain with different parties in order to hold on to power. We see it in Israel with a kinesse, we see it in parliament in order for somebody to get power and to rule. And that's what Kevin McCarthy is going to have to do. He's going to have to make Devils

bargains, some of which are going to be both counterintuitive and also hazardous to his health as a speaker. And he'll never last. This is the difference between the iron lady that was Nancy Pelosi, who ruled with an iron fist, and people she got a lot of flack for that, but we had discipline as a Democratic party, and we legislated, I mean, one of the voters yesterday during one of the rounds that Ben U and I joked about, one of the Republicans stood up on the sheepishly

and said, I vote for Kevin McCarthy because I have an interest in legislating, in governing. So, you know, the rest of these 20, well, a lot of them would like to disband Congress. They think that they were sent to Congress in order to shrink it in order to shrink government, in order to, they'd love for Congress to be disbanded. But I just can't believe the people from their home districts sent them there to do this. You're supposed to be doing the people's business.

I don't know how right wing and red your district is. They can't be happy and satisfied with this unless you just want to see a pound of flesh taken out of Kevin McCarthy's hide, which by the way it couldn't happen to a nicer person or a nicer party. Well, and speaking about a flesh out of Kevin McCarthy's hide, let's play this clip this evening from Tucker Carlson's show and what he's saying about Kevin McCarthy. Let's play this clip. It's a simple electoral math, something that Kevin McCarthy is highly familiar with since he does this for a living. At this point as of right now, facing that mathematical reality, Kevin McCarthy has two

choices. He can either step aside and let somebody else do the job, acknowledging in the process that he is not the only person in Congress capable of being speaker, or he can try and win over the people who oppose him as you traditionally do in elections. Or you've got reservations about Kevin McCarthy? You don't want to be ruled by a man who wears Ukrainian flag lapel pin and lives with Frank Lons? No problem. We get it. Let us tell you how he's better than you think he is. Let us try and change your mind. Let us try to convince you. In a normal race, that's what you would do. But

that is not what Kevin McCarthy's team is doing. Instead, like the left, they purport to oppose, they're using threats and fear to force people to support the candidate. Anyone who opposes Kevin McCarthy, one of his surrogates explains today, is quote, an enemy, a quote, terrorist. That's their message. In a moment, we'll tell you. That is their message. Obviously, everything Tucker Carlson said was complete garbage and he's a complete fascist trader and Everything he says is always anti-Ukraine. It's always spreading Putin propaganda, but the one thing that I think is Accurate there is Kevin McCartney and his team are calling

Matt Gates and people they're trying to win over. They're publicly calling them traders and terrorists and calling them names like that. And there is part of it, and I'm trying to give Kevin McCarthy advice here, but when you call out these people who are so self-absorbed and so egotistical and who will destroy our constitution because they never made it as a celebrity or whatever they want to be or they want a podcast presence or whatever it is that they're doing and you call them out publicly and say they're traders or they're not real Americans and you're trying to negotiate with them. The result that's always going to flow is what you saw

from Matt Gates there. It also looks like Donald Trump is withdrawing his, I mean, not that. He comes out looking incredibly weak today because when he put out his statements, he said that he was, first he was like on the fence about supporting Kevin McCarty yesterday. This is what he said yesterday, then I'll show you what he said today. So, by the way, this is so pithy, right? This one paragraph of rambling by a madman? Rambling, randthings and ravings of a complete mad person who living in a weird resort in, in flar, I mean, it's really strange, strange, weird stuff.

But Trump said yesterday, after the debacle after three failed roll call votes for Kevin McCarthy. Trump says there's so much unnecessary term oil in the Republican Party in large part to large part due to people like the old broken crow Mitch McConnell, his wife Coco Chau, who is a sell out to China and their rhino allies, who make it difficult for everyone else by constantly capitulating to hopeless Joe Biden, the Democrats, the $1.7 trillion new green deal, green new deal booster, then McConnell and the Rhino's handed to the Dems last week was a real downer

and embarrassment to Republicans, blaming the spending bill and that that was a downer on the reason. And being a racist, by the way, Elaine Chao's nickname is not co-co. And a complete xenophobic racist misogynist and this is what Donald Trump put out earlier this morning before Kevin McCarty actually lost support after this post Trump said some really good conversations took place last night and it's now time for all of our great Republican House members to vote for Kevin closed the deal take the victory and watch crazy Nancy Pelosi fly back home to a very

broken California. The only speaker in US history to have lost the House twice Republicans do not turn a great triumph into a giant embarrassment defeat. It's time to celebrate you deserve it. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job and maybe even a great job. Just watch. Kevin McCarthy lost support after that social media post-bam. I think Donald Trump forgets that Kevin McCarthy lives in California, that he represents a district in California, by the way a district with the highest crime in California, the highest homicide rate in California, and among these cities with the highest crime in the entire United States is Kevin McCarthy's district

in Bakersfield. And then after that, this is what Trump spokesperson, this is what Liz Harrington said today. Let's play this clip just before. He's done what he could. He's voiced his support, his position where it is. And I think now, as we see it play out, we'll have to let the conference figure it out and go forward.

So utterly cowardly there. And as we're speaking about Donald Trump, you did a hot take on this Pope, and Karen, I want to get your view because amongst those posts, he's back engaging in this heinous, defamatory conduct against Ruby Freeman, our family, the Georgia election workers who Giuliani spread all of these vile and racist conspiracy theories about, destroyed their lives, these individuals experienced death threats, Ruby Friedman and her mother did give an incredible presentation before the January 6th committee.

And you saw how Rudy Giuliani really just made and her mother did gave an incredible presentation before the January 6th committee. You saw how Rudy Giuliani really just made these despicable despicable lies. They filed defamation lawsuits. They've settled one. They still have a case pending. Popok and Karen. There still is legal AF. If you can break down the legal ramifications.

I think there's going to be a possible defamation lawsuit. Again, Trump, he's not cloaked with any of the immunity. I think we're going to see a def a defamation lawsuit again Trump. He's not cloaked with any of the immunity I think we're going to see a defamation lawsuit filed to what about you. Let me throw it. Let me throw it out Let me do one minute and then I'll throw it over to Karen Here's the problem with Donald Trump in attacking Ruby Freeman again and lying about her and her mother about And to remind everybody or if you don't know, Ruby Freeman and her mother, were volunteer election workers in Cobb County, Georgia. Literally, we're not paid.

And all they did on election day was help with the vote count and the rest of the things that election workers do when they're inside of a precinct. That's all they did. And they did it appropriately. And there are, in that that process and I've witnessed that process in Florida. You have locked black suitcases where you take counted votes and you lock them away so they're not double counted and there's transfer of ballots that happen normally piles of ballots

that get moved from processing and the processing stage into the voting if it's an optical reader and optical reader all that is completely legitimate. But to Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump were the slice and dice video that they used, that they try to present to Georgia election officials, they made it look like something nefarious was going on when it was just innocent, normal vote counting. They acted like there was the secret suitcase

underneath their table that Ruby and her mother were accessing for ballots to turn the tide and the election for Biden, false fraudulent to Famitory and libelists. They even claimed that they passed back and forth a USP drive, a thumb drive, which they said, you know, back to their whole theory about dominion voting machines, somehow corrupted the software and turned Trump votes into Biden votes. Well, when you look closely at the video, which a law enforcement has done, including the state of Georgia, it is a breathment package that's being passed between mother and daughter.

So, they're not public figures. They have the right to privacy, and they were defamed. So, they filed a suit in Washington DC and the presiding judge here is really important the presiding judge over the case of Rubin your mother against what was then a a o n no o a n a right wing media network and Rudy Giuliani For those statements about her is before barrel how, the chief judge of the DC Circuit Court, who, part of her day job, is supervising all of the grand juries

who are looking to prosecute Donald and Dyke Donald Trump. So she's heard a lot of evidence against Donald Trump, and I'm sure she has formed some opinions. She's already formed opinions about Ruby Freeman to her credit, to her favor, in ruling against Rudy Giuliani in a motion to dismiss and outlining all the reasons Rudy Giuliani is a cook goose, a cook duck when it comes to the allegations against them, basically suggesting that he should try to settle the case. OAN already

settled the case with them, but that didn't stop Donald Trump on a slow news day before the home of Karthi voting debacle. And going after Ruby Friedman, again, to this time directly, not through a henchman, not through Rudy Giuliani, in one of his true social posts, or several of his truth social posts, saying that she lied under oath, that this is corruption, that this is fraudulent ballots,

we're back to the black bag under the desk again. I mean, all the stuff that had already been debunked by law enforcement, cybersecurity, Donald Trump's own attorney general, Donald Trump's own White House council, which means he has no defense to this. This is not opinion. This is straight defamation. And if I'm Ruby Freeman's lawyers,

and I'm sure they're going to do it, they're now going to suit Donald Trump in front of Barrel Howell the judge that may be in charge of his indictment and prosecution. In the same year where we have E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit and civil rape lawsuit in federal court that's in the Southern District of New York going to trial this April. It looks like Karen want to get your take on this potential defamation case. And he's just defaming everyone. He just wants to be, he just wants to be sued by everybody at this point.

Yeah, look, it's this, this really makes me sad. You know, Ruby, sheamus was the election employee, but Ruby Freeman was her mother who was the volunteer, who there's a few ways you can serve the public in our society, right? You could serve as a juror and do your jury duty. You can be an election worker. And I'm talking about public service jobs,

like police officers are joining the military. I'm talking about just times in your life when you can truly do your civic duty by volunteering. And Ruby Freeman is one of these heroes, frankly, that allows our system to function because having election workers is not a full-time position, right? But every time there's an election, you need people, you need the Ruby Freemans of the world to volunteer and to give their time and to come and do this so that our democracy can continue on and can function. And this woman who volunteered her time

so that we can have a democratic election, the thing that allows this country to be this country. And because all she was doing was what the job entailed. She's got the former president of the United States coming out and saying some pretty vicious, vile, horrible things about her and her daughter. And everybody has taught, you know, everybody has, has debunked everything that he has said. And it's all lies. It's all been completely debunked at this point. And yet the fact that on Monday night, on Truth Social,

you've got Donald Trump, once again, just in all caps, this rant, this screed, about poor Ruby Freeman, once again. And they were like 20 minutes apart. I think there was three different tweets. It was the middle of the night. It was like midnight that he's doing these all caps, you know, kind of screeds. And I've read them over and over again, and they make no sense.

There is, there is nothing in, these are like run-on sentences that make no sense. I mean, I actually question his, his mental ability because I can't even understand what he's saying about her. But he's once again perpetuating this lie, that he knows is a lie that's been debunked over and over and over again. And this is the time, you know, where, unlike George Santos, where, you know, the First Amendment may protect some of his lies, believe it or not, when you defame someone,

especially a private citizen, like Ruby Freeman, who's not a public figure, lying about her and lying about her to the detriment of what she has said that she has undergone, the damages that she has incurred as a result of these lies. I think she's got an excellent defamation case and I think he just added another count of defamation on Monday night perpetuating these lies. I mean, it's one thing to say at once and you think that it might have been true, but once it's been proven over and over

again through investigations, through video tapes, et cetera, to be a lie, and that he continues to perpetuate it. I think she's got an excellent defamation case against Donald Trump, and I hope she adds this count to her complaint. Well, and he no longer can try to claim any basis of immunity that he could when he was the president. Obviously, we think that he shouldn't be able to make those immunity claims. The immunity claim he made against E. Jean Carroll is being

litigated in a Washington D.C. Court of Appeals, which is their highest court in D.C. But we're going to see how ultimately that plays out there. But it's almost irrelevant because he then defamed E. Jean Carroll again when he was a private citizen. So there is no basis to claim the immunity through a certain piece of legislation where it grants sovereign immunity to the United States government and its officials acting in the course of scope. And without getting into it because it's a little bit complicated here, it would function to dismiss the defamation case against Trump if it's indeed in his course in scope of employment.

And if he was acting as a government official at the time, that issue against E. Jean Carroll back from the defamatory conduct while he was in office, that's being litigated. But he took to truth social and then defamed E. Jean Carroll on his social media platform, no immunity there. Same thing here, when it comes to Ruby Freeman, no immunity here at all, and you're right, she's a private citizen, she's not a public figure, the threshold would be easier to bring that case.

All right, I'm seeing in the YouTube chat room though lots of people talking about George Santos. Everyone is having a great deal of fun with that. So I got to just show you the George Santos clips right now. Let me just show you this clip from yesterday though. Karen, this was to your point where you say, maybe, maybe it's all relative as compared to McCarthy. Santos is doing a little better, but let's watch Santos walking through the halls, getting peppered with questions by the press, by popular demand from the legal a efforts. Here you go.

Your constituents. Do you feel like you're qualified to serve in this Congress right now? How do you hope your constituents can trust you even though you've misrepresented your biography to them? What's your response to Calls for a House Ethics investigation by the Globe? Do you have any statements about your campaign and how you hope to govern? Do you hope to carry out your full term? What can you say to reassure your constituents that you'll do what you said you're going to do on your campaign

job given the concerns of the come-up about statements you've made in the last few months? I'm not exactly someone having a good day there. I want to show you this other clip too. Do we have the one salty where he got up and voted under the wrong? Yeah, I'm not sure if we have this clip. Salted. Under the wrong name, which is totally appropriate in ironic. See if we got that clip. And if Salty's looking for that clip, let's show the clip of him walking in the hallways though right now,

back to his office. Let's play this clip. Do you have any statements here? Constituents? Do you have any statements here? Constituents? Are you going to talk? Do you have any statements you own constituents? You didn't know his office because he doesn't know his name. He doesn't really know his you George Santos is in hot George Santos. I mean, this is the Republican Party. This is the Republican Party in 2023. You voted for it. You got it. This is who the Republican Party is. Want to remind everyone hit the subscribe button. If you're not subscribed to the

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And as Ben just said, you'll get 60% off plus free shipping. 60, Karen Friedman Agnifalo, I'll give you the final word. I just want to say how much I love our followers and listeners and the people who are joining the live chat tonight. They, I'm reading the comments and they're actually making me laugh out loud. Just, they're going on and on about things. Santos is an all time leading NBA rebounder.

Santos climbed Everest without oxygen. You know, Santos, Todd Ben had a, you know, his law school class. I mean, it's just, you know, I, you got to laugh, you know, and maybe, maybe it's too soon and it's sad because this guy is in Congress, but I have to say, I have to say, just, it days like today that are so depressing with, you know, when you see that someone like George Santos can be elected to Congress and you see what's going to happen to our Congress, to our beautiful House of Representatives, it's going to be pulled so far to the right.

I just want to thank everyone for making me laugh and bring a little bit of levity to the evening because that always makes my day. During our coverage of this maggot debacle too, the people in the chat would put clown emojis and puke emojis, puke emojis, and popcorn emojis, depending on the speaker, and it would just be flooded with those emojis. It was incredible, but I want to bring that interactivity

to the community, to your point, Karen. We are nothing without the Midas Mighty community, to all the legal aeifers out there. This is not just some media network. This is a true community, truly grassroots. And when I ever I get asked, well, how'd you do this? How'd you build this? I go, I did nothing.

We started off with one or five or 10 people watching. It was lots of our family members. And then slowly but surely, the mightest touch community, this unapologetically pro-democracy, impassioned community, all joined together and started saying, look, we need independent media. We need to call fascist fascist. We can't both sides.

And the entire identity of this media network is because of the hard work, the passion, the dedication of everybody watching, everybody listening, everybody spreading the word. This is a true movement and you're the ones who are leading this movement. I'm just so grateful that I can work hard each and every day to try to make you who are watching this and you who are listening to this proud. So thank you from the bottom of all of our hearts. Here at Legal AF, want to thank you all for watching this special crossover edition of the Midas Touch Meets Legal AF, a very successful one as well managed to integrate legal analysis

with the events that transpired today. Thank you Michael Popak, Karen Friedman, and thank you all to the legal a EF's and might as mighty. We'll see you next time on legal AF. I'm Ben Myceles.

Shout out to the might as mighty. Midest Mighty.