My Interview With Ben Wikler, Fighting The Unacceptable 4, What's Happening In NC Is Wrong And Our Leaders Should …

 

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more

Watch now

My Interview With Ben Wikler, Fighting The Unacceptable 4, What's Happening In NC Is Wrong And Our Leaders Should Say So

Catch my new interview with Anthony Davis of MeidasTouch on 2024 and what comes next

Simon Rosenberg Dec 16

Good afternoon all. Got a few things for you today:

A New Interview With The Great Ben Wikler, Chair Of The Wisconsin Democratic Party - I got to spend some time with Ben Wikler this morning, and am pleased to share our discussion with all of you (video above).

Ben holds a special place in the Hopium community. The very first campaign we worked on together after Hopium launched in March of 2023 was the campaign to elect Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Ben was our very first live Hopium interview, and many of you donated and worked on that campaign which we won by 11 points, 55%-44%. Among the many things that came from that big win was the unwinding of Wisconsin’s extraordinary gerrymandering of its federal and state legislative districts (the Fair Maps campaign). This fall our community raised $150,000 for the Wisconsin state legislative races; we made calls during our Thursday night postcarding/calling sessions into Wisconsin; and many of our 2,000 subscribers in Wisconsin and others across the country worked hard to help support the statewide efforts there and our candidates in the newly redrawn state legislative maps.

As Ben discusses in our interview while Harris-Walz lost Wisconsin by just 0.9 points, our best showing of the seven battleground states, Senator Baldwin did prevail and we picked up 10 seats in the Wisconsin Assembly and 4 in the state Senate. So, like North Carolina, impressive down ballot wins in a tough year. For a good recap of the vital state legislative gains we made in Wisconsin, check out Democrats flip 14 seats in the Wisconsin Legislature in 2024 after redistricting. An excerpt:

Wisconsin Republicans held on to the state Legislature in the Nov. 5 election, but the flipping of 14 Senate and Assembly seats from red to blue provided the clearest evidence yet that the 2011 partisan gerrymander was real and is now dead.

Republicans will maintain majorities in both the Assembly and Senate — though at much slimmer margins than during the most recent legislative session. The math sets up a chance for the Democrats to retake at least one chamber in 2026, especially if Republicans face the usual midterm headwinds that check a new president.

Ben is now a leading candidate for DNC Chair. We caught some of his ideas on what we need to do now in the interview, but you can learn more about Ben’s vision by visiting his DNC Chair website. Here’s the introductory text from Ben’s site:

Today, the country we love needs the Democratic Party to be stronger. To unite. To fight. And to win.

In Wisconsin, we run a permanent campaign. We organize and communicate year-round, in every community—and it works. We've ended GOP control and unrigged our state.

What has made a difference here can make a difference everywhere. So I'm running for Chair of the Democratic National Committee—to UNITE, FIGHT, and WIN across every state and territory in our country.

The vote for DNC Chair, and other top offices in the Democratic National Committee is February 1st. We will be covering the election closely, and interviewing other promising candidates for some of the other leadership positions at the DNC too. Enjoy our interview with Ben and thank you to everyone who participated in our important victories in Wisconsin over the past two years.

Fighting The Unacceptable 4, Disney’s Betrayal, What Is Happening In NC Is Wrong And Our Leaders Should Say So - We need to keep fighting:

• Call your Senators and Representative to let them know your dissatisfaction with the rapist, fraudster, traitor and 34 times felon’s pick of Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth and Robert Kennedy; and to inform them of your expectation that they will leave it all out there on the playing field to block these profoundly dangerous nominations whether they have a vote on them or not.

• Contact the White House and ask President Biden to order the FBI to begin background checks into Trump’s nominees immediately and before Trump installs Patel to disable the process. Last week the Trump team signed an agreement allowing these background checks to go forward. President Biden should do Mr. Trump a favor and expedite the clearance process for the most sensitive jobs of State, Defense, DNI, CIA, Homeland Security and HHS (pandemic preparedness) so the new team can hit the ground running in January.

I will have more to say about Disney’s extraordinary betrayal of our democracy in the coming days, but will let The Bulwark’s William Kristol speak for me today:

Trump sued ABC and Stephanopoulos for saying he had been found liable for rape. It’s very likely, given the law on defamation against a public figure, that Trump would have lost the case, as he has lost many others. But on the eve of depositions, ABC News folded, announcing it will pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation in a settlement and issuing a statement of “regret.”

One need shed no tears for Disney, the corporate parent of ABC. That $15 million is a drop in the bucket for them to buy goodwill with the incoming president of the United States.

But the precedent this sets, the floodgates it opens for many other such suits, the signal of open capitulation, are all terrible. What other corporate counsels are going to advise their clients to fight such lawsuits if mighty Disney won’t? What other corporations—media or otherwise—are going to resist bullying by the Trump administration? What outlets, in the future, will walk on eggshells? Will they even avoid telling the truth in hopes of avoiding litigation?

Our friend Greg Sargent also goes deep on Disney/ABC’s disastrous decision in a new interview with one of our patron saints here at Hopium, the historian and author, Anne Applebaum.

Here’s Trump in his press conference this morning talking about how now, unlike his first term, this time everyone wants to be his friend:

Finally, as part of learning how to become an effective opposition in Trump II, we need to grow more comfortable to condemn and say things are wrong, even if they are legal. Silence can become complicity. The silence of our party’s leaders about what is happening in North Carolina right now has been a bit shocking to me. What Disney and ABC News did was wrong. What the NC GOP is doing is wrong. Our leaders should say so.

New Podcast With Anthony Davis And MeidasTouch - I sat down for an in-depth interview this weekend with Anthony Davis for his weekly podcast on the MeidasTouch network, The Weekend Show. It’s the most comprehensive interview I’ve done so far about the election and what comes next, and we cover a lot of interesting new ground. Hope you will make the time to watch or listen in the coming days. It is below.

What Happened, What Comes Next - To help make sense of what happened in the 2024 election and where we go from here I’ve launched a new video discussion series to bring outside voices and experts into our conversation, one that starts with many more question than answers. Here are the first seven of our discussions:

• On Winning Arizona And Getting Latinos Back - With Senator-Elect Ruben Gallego

• On Winning Virginia In 2025 - With Rep. Abigail Spanberger, The Democratic Nominee for Virginia Governor | Learn more about Abigail | Volunteer | Donate To Her Campaign

• On The Future Of The DNC and The Democratic Party - With Ken Martin, Minnesota Democratic Party Chair and A Leading Candidate For DNC Chair

• On North Carolina’s Impressive Downballot Wins - With Anderson Clayton, Chair Of The North Carolina Democratic Party

• On Trump’s Big Gains With Young People, Particularly Young Men - With John Della Volpe Of Harvard’s Institute For Politics

• On The Power of Networks - With Joe Trippi, Legendary Democratic Strategist and Campaign Manager, Founder Sez Us and Resolute Square

• On Reinventing Government and The Perils of DOGE - With Dr. Elaine Kamarck Of Harvard and The Brookings Institution

You may also find these two segments from our fall Closing Strong collaboration with COURIER Newsroom and Tara McGowan helpful:

• On The Need For Pro-Democracy Media - With COURIER’s Tara McGowan and Dan Pfeiffer of Crooked Media

• Beyond MAGA Creators - Russia’s influence on the Republican Party runs deep with Stewart Stevens and Jiore Craig

And here are my three most important recent post-election analyses if you haven’t gotten to them yet:

• More Notes On Trump’s Unprecedented Ugliness And Becoming The Fercious Opposition - early thinking about how Hopium evolves next year

• For Dems It’s A Time For Re-imagination, Re-invention and Innovation (video too)

• More Notes On What Happened And What Comes Next (video too)

Give The Gift of Hopium This Holiday Season - I’ve set up a thread for paid subscribers to offer their thoughts on what this wonderful and plucky community should do next. I’m grateful for the many comments we’ve received so far. Weigh in if you can in the coming days, and note that an annual Hopium paid subscription is now 10% off through the end of the year for those who may want to sign up or give a bit of Hopium as a holiday gift!

Simon on Bluesky - For those on Bluesky you can find me here, @simonwdc.bsky.social. So grateful to be spending far less time on Twitter.

Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon

 

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more   Watch now   Legal AF Ad-Free: Urgent Legal Update on Trump Settlement and More Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok dive into the latest legal and political bombshells on this week’s Legal AF Podcast — brought to you ad-free exclusively on Meidas+. MeidasTouch Network and Ben Meiselas Dec 15 On this episode of Legal AF, Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok tackle the biggest stories of the week at the crossroads of law and politics. The duo breaks down Trump’s sudden settlement with ABC after the network capitulated rather than face him at a deposition, debates whether President Biden should issue blanket pardons to defenders of democracy, and exposes the alarming trend of Republican states electing convicted felons and sex abusers to office. They also spotlight the ongoing efforts of Biden’s DOJ and SEC to hold corrupt individuals and companies accountable. Enjoy this ad-free episode of Legal AF brought to you here on Meidas+! Remember to add the Legal AF podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

 

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more

Sunday Coffee with Ben Meiselas

Ben Meiselas and MeidasTouch Network Dec 15

Written by Ben Meiselas

I am not going to let ABC’s settlement with Trump over his absurd defamation case ruin our cup of coffee together this morning. This coffee is the perfect temperature. I have my toast at the perfect level of crunch. Not too soft, not too burnt. I may even put some cream cheese on the toast like my mom would make me when I was home sick from elementary school decades ago.

Back to the news… Look at it this way: By obeying in advance in their race to the bottom, corporate media has revealed its true colors, and they are no longer hiding it. They hate we the people. They hate democracy. They care solely about protecting their billionaire backers. That’s the game. It’s been that way for a while now. But now they are flaunting it in our faces.

That ABC settlement to pay Trump $15 million for his future presidential library is so preposterously offensive and so humiliating for journalism, it’s hard to make up scenarios in your mind of such a total capitulation. I did a detailed analysis of the settlement yesterday afternoon I posted on Substack. Read it at your leisure, but let’s finish this coffee together first.

I learned two days ago that MeidasTouch legal analyst and host Karen Friedman Agnifilo was hired to be the criminal defense lawyer for Luigi Mangione. Karen is one of my best friends in the world and she is like family to me. She was the former number two prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. She is the top criminal defense lawyer in New York. She is an incredible person who I care about dearly. I believe that all people accused of crimes, even the most serious crimes, deserve their day in court and have a constitutional right to competent counsel. That’s the way our criminal justice system works. Karen is the best of the best, and it has always been incredible to have her on the network. I am not sure what she can or can’t talk about with respect to the case, but we will see. One of the interesting things about the MeidasTouch Network is we have the top people in their professional fields as hosts who remain active in their fields and are involved directly with some of the biggest news stories.

Give me a second, I want to check on my daughter Ximena… Be right back…

Ok, back. My baby girl Ximena is almost three months old. She is just the best. My wife Xochitl has made my job far easier than it should be by being the best mom ever. Love you, Xochitl.

Back to the coffee… You know what… I am going for the cream cheese on the toast…

Ok, really back this time…

I am loving the expansion of MeidasTouch in Canada. I am proud of our Canadian coverage that no one else is doing in the United States… or even in Canada.

Our YouTube video on House of Commons MP Charlie Angus’ floor speech calling out Trump and his enablers in Canada did over 1.5 million views. I did a one-on-one interview with MP Angus as well that we posted, and it was well received.


 

MP Angus told me that the MeidasTouch Network is very big in Canada and that people in his district were telling him how they saw him on Meidas. MP Angus told me he was surprised just how big the MeidasTouch presence was everywhere he goes in Canada. That was great to hear. It was great to have MP Angus on the network and learn from him.

An interesting part of the interview with MP Angus was his discussion on how Canadian politics is not controlled by special interest groups and big money. He explained that an entire campaign to be an MP costs $100,000. MP Angus also explained how Canada’s Supreme Court has not fallen victim to extremism like the Supreme Court in America. Angus explained how America was trying to export its grievance and rage-baiting politics internationally, and it was important for pro-democracy communities to unite at an international level to confront the international threat of MAGA.

I enjoyed last night’s Legal AF with Michael Popok… What did you think?

We debated President Biden giving preemptive pardons, and we also discussed how MAGA Republicans who were also convicted felons were winning elections in heavily red areas across the country. It’s definitely worth watching if you have a minute today.

Alright, folks, that was a good coffee and good toast with cream cheese. I enjoyed spending this morning with you. I am excited for Ron Filipkowski’s bulletin later. He’s the best in the business, that’s for sure.

Finally, it’s always awkward making this request at the end of these stories, but it is actually very important. MeidasTouch Network has zero outside investors. One of the main ways this network grows is through our paid Substack subscriptions. When we see corporate media like ABC fold to pursue the agenda of their oligarch billionaire leaders, it shows why it is so important we stay independent. Please become a paid subscriber now if you can to this Substack.

Thanks for having coffee with me. I hope you enjoyed your coffee.

Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

 

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more

Shame on ABC…A National Embarrassment!

Brett Meiselas Dec 14

Written by Ben Meiselas

ABC is trash. Shame on them. Let’s not mince words after what they just did moments ago in settling a civil lawsuit with Donald Trump for $15 million and issuing a written apology to Donald Trump. In announcing this settlement to Trump, ABC has declared to us all that it is compromised. It is no longer legitimate. It works only for Donald Trump now and billionaires. It takes its orders from Donald Trump now. It obeys its master, Donald Trump. I’m sure it did before. They are putting an exclamation point on that now and giving us all the middle finger.

Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

To give you more context about what just occurred, ABC and George Stephanopoulos announced they have settled a defamation lawsuit filed against them by Trump. They issued a written apology and are “donating” $15 million to a future Trump presidential library. I put the word donate in quotes because it’s probably a way for ABC/Disney to take a tax deduction or write-off by structuring the settlement this way.

Trump previously sued ABC and Stephanopoulos for defamation because, on his weekend TV show, Stephanopoulos described what Trump did to E. Jean Carroll as “rape” and not “sexual assault.” E. Jean Carroll prevailed in her New York federal civil lawsuits against Donald Trump for sexual assault and defamation. Trump had to post a bond close to $100 million after losing and is appealing the unanimous jury verdicts.

Trump’s defamation lawsuit against ABC and Stephanopoulos claimed Trump was injured because Stephanopoulos described the jury verdict against Trump as a rape instead of a sexual assault. Under the technical definitions of New York law, using a finger to forcibly penetrate a woman’s vagina without consent is classified as a sexual assault but not rape. Trump argued that Stephanopoulos injured Trump by not making this technical distinction about New York law.

To be clear, this is how the federal judge in the New York civil case filed by Carroll against Trump, Judge Lewis Kaplan, described the verdict by the jury in those cases:

“Instead, the proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly found, that Mr. Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long-lasting emotional and psychological harm. Mr. Trump’s argument therefore ignores the bulk of the evidence at trial, misinterprets the jury’s verdict, and mistakenly focuses on the New York Penal Law definition of ‘rape’ to the exclusion of the meaning of that word as it often is used in everyday life and of the evidence of what actually occurred between Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump.”

In another order, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled:

“As the Court explained in its recent decision denying Mr. Trump’s motion for a new trial on damages and other relief in Carroll II, based on all of the evidence at trial and the jury’s verdict as a whole, the jury’s finding that Mr. Trump ‘sexually abused’ Ms. Carroll implicitly determined that he forcibly penetrated her digitally—in other words, that Mr. Trump in fact did ‘rape’ Ms. Carroll as that term commonly is used and understood in contexts outside of the New York Penal Law.”

In my opinion, Trump’s entire lawsuit against ABC for defamation was nothing but an attempt to bully and intimidate them and other journalists. In my opinion, Trump saying he was injured because Stephanopoulos should have called it “a forcible digital penetration of the genitals” is utterly absurd and disgusting. The fact that ABC just settled this case and gave Trump $15 million and a public apology shocks the conscience.

The timing of this settlement was related to an order issued by the judge in Trump’s defamation case on Friday.

The judge ordered both Trump and Stephanopoulos to sit for four-hour depositions under oath next week.

Donald Trump was a cornered rat by this order, and ABC bailed him out.

Trump would have had to sit in front of a video camera next week and answer questions about his sexual assault, his past behavior toward women and girls, statements he has made in the past about grabbing women by their genitals without consent, potentially his connections to people like Jeffrey Epstein, and his finances. All of this would be relevant in a defense to a defamation case. It would have been highly embarrassing to Trump.

When Michael Cohen was sued by Trump for $500 million, Trump dismissed his lawsuit before he had to sit for a deposition. Trump did not want to sit for an under-oath deposition noticed by Cohen and withdrew his lawsuit against Cohen. Trump backed down after he was ordered to a deposition.

Here, it is very doubtful Trump would have sat for a deposition in this ABC case he filed. Also, if Trump did sit for a deposition, in my opinion, ABC would have been easily armed with more than enough evidence to win their lawsuit against Trump on summary judgment (a type of motion to dismiss) before there was ever a trial.

I think ABC’s lawyers clearly knew this. They were afraid that forcing Trump to do a deposition and beating Trump in court would embarrass Trump and he would retaliate against them and their parent company Disney when in office. As a result, ABC devised this settlement plan to issue a written apology to Trump and donate $15 million to a future Trump library, which it could also likely structure as a tax deduction or write-off. ABC and its parent company Disney clearly viewed this as a way to curry favor with Trump, in my opinion, and to avoid retaliation.

In entering this settlement agreement, ABC has also entered its own fate in history as being a total and utter disgrace.

There are some good reporters at ABC. I don’t know how they can continue to work for an organization that has completely capitulated in advance in such a humiliating and cowardly way.

In many ways, given the subject matter of the lawsuit filed by Trump against ABC, it is also a slap in the face to sexual assault victims. ABC’s settlement with Trump is perhaps one of the, if not the single most, pathetic acts of any journalistic entity in the history of America.

ABC is a subsidiary of Disney. It is funded and owned by billionaires. You probably didn’t know this, but Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, is also one of the largest shareholders of Disney, through the Murdoch Family Trust. Disney is owned and funded by other billionaire oligarchical interests as well. Their interest is money. Not democracy. They don’t give a crap about we the people.

Let me be clear. Here at the MeidasTouch Network, we will never obey in advance, or ever. I don’t want billionaire investors here. I don’t give a crap about appeasing Trump. I don’t care if Trump or his goons come after me. I am not scared. I’m reminded of the saying, “A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once.”

Let that be our motto. Let us not be scared. Let us not sacrifice our dignity, our respect, and our values. Let us never submit to Trump and the billionaire oligarchy. We will fight every single day for this country.

At the end of some of these posts, I request that you become a paid subscriber. I think it’s critical I do so here. No pressure if you can’t. But MeidasTouch has zero outside investors. We are independent. We want to stay that way. We grow because of things like this Substack. It helps us continue to grow and compete and get more viewers than corporate media. So if you can, and only if you can, please become a paid subscriber to this Substack now. Thank you.

Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.