The David Pakman Show - 10/18/22: GOP Surging, Stacey Abrams Hit with "Angry Black Woman"

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

-- On the Show: -- Melissa Jo Peltier, award-winning filmmaker, joins David to discuss her newest film, “The Game Is Up: Disillusioned Trump Voters Tell Their Stories." -- Republicans are now surging against Democrats in both the Senate and House 2022 races, according to the latest polling -- The Department of Justice is asking for six months in jail plus a $200,000 fine for former Trump adviser Steven Bannon -- Despite their claims about what the left is doing, it is actually the American right wing that is overtly trying to indoctrinate children -- Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker delivers an unintelligible explanation of why he have the mother of his eventual child a check for $700 -- Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker continues to lie about his bogus police badge -- Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker finds a "police officer" who defends his fake badge in the most bizarre way possible -- Republican Governor of Georgia Brian Kemp hits Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams with the "angry black woman" trope during their recent debate -- Donald Trump hotels reportedly charged Secret Service five times the standard rate for mandatory stays, the latest apparent fraudulent grift for Trump's own self-enrichment -- Voicemail caller is glad that David was banned from TikTok because he is a "lowlife" -- On the Bonus Show: Kanye West to buy social media platform Parler, court rejects appeal to give American Samoans citizenship, more US companies charging employees for job training if they quit, much more... 🌿 Sunset Lake CBD: Get 20% OFF using code PAKMAN at https://sunsetlakecbd.com 👍 Quit smoking with Fum! Use code PAKMAN for 10% OFF at https://breathefum.com/pakman ❄️ ChiliSleep by SleepMe: Get 25% OFF your bed-cooling system at https://chilisleep.com/pakman 👍 Munk Pack: Code PAKMAN saves you 20% at https://thld.co/munkpack_pakman_1022 💻 Get Private Internet Access for 82% OFF + 3 months free at https://www.piavpn.com/David -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Subscribe to Pakman Finance: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanfinance -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

All right, let's start today, not hyperbolically, but just in a way that aligns with the facts, letting you know that the polling for the 2022 midterms in both the House and Senate is looking a little bit worse for Democrats than it was three weeks ago. There was a very clear, although for now not massive shift away from Democrats towards Republicans in both the House and Senate. And this just is another reminder that we all have to vote and we have to take nothing for granted. Let's start first with the House of Representatives. Republicans have been favored to win the House and they remain favored to win the House. But the the rate of the probability of that event taking place has increased. And if we look at the 538 forecast of the House of Representatives, one of the things that you see is that over time,

the Democratic chances of controlling the House surged from about June through late September and then started to decline. Now, it is not a massive change, but there is this inflection point in late September, early October, wherein Republican odds of controlling the House, taking control of the House have increased. What do we do about it? Well, we all have to vote. That doesn't change. But this is starting to look like a trend. We then look at the Senate. Democrats have been for a while and remain favored to control the Senate after the midterms to retain control.

But again, if you look at how those odds have changed, you see an even more notable inflection point. Again, this was right around, I don't know, mid-September. And since mid-September, Democratic odds have declined and Republican odds have increased. This doesn't change that the most likely outcome, the most likely single outcome is that Democrats retain control of the Senate and Democrats lose control of the House. That's been the most statistically likely outcome for a while now, but it's looking a little bit less good in the in the Senate and even worse than it was in the House.

So what is the takeaway? Later on in the show, we're going to be looking at more debates from yesterday. We're going to be looking at other polling and specific races. The takeaway is simply every single state has to be fought for. And whether it's looking like an easy Democratic win. So, for example, there's a key race in Michigan, the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, the incumbent trying to beat off a challenge from Tudor Dixon. And Whitmer is up by somewhere between eight and 11 points. It's looking pretty safe. But that does that does that mean our Michigander viewers stay home? I certainly hope not. Then you have very, very tight races, like, for example, in Arizona, the Arizona gubernatorial where Carrie Lake, the deranged big lie conspiracy

theorist Republican, is about half a point to one point ahead of Katie Hobbs. That's a disaster. Do we stay home there? No. Actually, Arizona is one of the main places, as I talked about yesterday, where we have to make sure everybody's voting. And then there are other races that are looking more in favor of Republicans. So an example would be tonight.

There's a debate in this race. Marco Rubio, the incumbent Republican senator of Florida, he is facing a challenge from Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings. He's up like five or so. Do we give that one up? No. Whether the Democrat is up, the Republican is up or it's a tight race. You're allowed to vote.

So take advantage and make sure that you do vote. And we'll look in more detail at some of these other races a little bit later. Stephen Bannon, former Trump propagandist Stephen Bannon, awaiting sentencing. He is now potentially facing six months in jail and a two hundred thousand dollar fine. CNBC reports the Department of Justice wants Steve Bannon jailed for six months for contempt of Congress. But ex-Trump aide is asking for probation. This is typical. Prosecution usually asks for a stricter punishment than the person who is about to be sentenced. The key points, as reported by CNBC, federal prosecutors recommended Steve Bannon get six months in jail for defying that subpoena from

the congressional probe of the January 6th Capitol riot. Remember, what is at issue here is that the January 6th committee subpoenaed Steve Bannon and he ignored it. That's called contempt of Congress. And indeed, that is what he will be ultimately sentenced for. The DOJ also sought a two hundred thousand dollar fine for Bannon, who was a senior adviser and former President Donald Trump's White House. The DOJ recommended the maximum fine and top sentence under the federal guidelines range because of Bannon's consistent, quote, bad faith strategy of defiance and contempt. Bannon's lawyers are asking the federal court for a sentence of probation. Now, there are some who are reacting to this and have emailed me and said, David, you know, I don't like Steve Bannon as much

as the next person, but this is just too high. I mean, six months for defying a subpoena. That's bonkers. On the other hand, there are people who wrote it and said, you know, this is just too high. I mean, six months for defying a subpoena. That's bonkers. On the other hand, there are people who wrote it and said, you know, this is actually really serious. If we actually are for law and order and we respect separation of powers and we respect the constitutionally assigned task of the House of Representatives, run it representatives to conduct investigations, then you have to take really seriously what Steve Bannon did, because he deliberately, willingly, brazenly, I would argue, obstructed the House of Representatives from carrying out its constitutionally

assigned task. And that needs to be taken really seriously. You can make arguments on both sides. I do believe that this needs to be taken seriously. And I know that the stricter the penalty for Stephen Bannon, the more he and other Trump is will make him out to be a martyr, someone who was made an example out of for no reason other than the MAGA people are being attacked and whatever else. But you've still got to assign the penalties that are appropriate for the wrongdoing that was done and it should be taken seriously. So we have the sentencing coming up. Let me see if I can find the actual date here in the article. He's going to be sentenced Friday. OK, so by the beginning of next week, we will know about that. However, his lawyers also asked to stay any sentence imposed pending the outcome of an

appeal. So once the sentence happens, it's not likely that if prison is jail rather is assigned that he's going to serve that anytime soon because they have already made clear they plan to appeal and will ask for a stay of that sentence. Six months too high, too low. Let me know in the YouTube comments on Twitter. Email in info at David Pakman dot com. One little story about projection that I want to tell you about one of the really popular storylines from the American right wing for more than a decade now. I remember Rick Santorum talking about this maybe in the Bush era, certainly early in the Obama era,

is the story that they tell where they claim the left is indoctrinating our children. They, of course, more recently talk about the left is indoctrinating children in elementary school. For a while, they've been arguing and claiming not very convincingly, I might add, that college and university are nothing but left wing indoctrination. At the same time, it is they who are overtly, truly overtly trying to indoctrinate our children. There is a publication called The Kids Guide. I don't totally understand whether Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas Republican governor,

is the publisher of this nonsense or just a spokesman. But The Kids Guide, as it says, and you can see it on the screen if you're watching today will help your kids learn the truth about President Trump and to celebrate America with a free patriotic gift bundle. And you sign up for this thing and it's sort of free, except you've got to pay shipping and handling, I guess, for each of the items that they send you. And then based on what some people told me, it's only free for the first month and you've got to pay 20 bucks a month and on and on and on. This is overt right wing propaganda. Oh, yeah, here it is. You can get a new kids guide

every three to four weeks for twenty one ninety each. And then you get. The magazine alone for seven ninety five, and it's all it's all crazy. So it is another one of these grifts, but it is another indoctrination. Here is a little clip here. Yes, as you can see, you just pay a dollar each for shipping on this stuff. OK, here's a little clip from an ad for this very same kid's guide. Pay parents and grandparents as we wait to see what's next for President Trump. Mike Huckabee's education comes as we anxiously wait. Oh, and I guess it is Huckabee's company. Huckabee's education company wants to help your kids learn all about President Trump's greatest achievements during his first term.

That's why we're giving away the kids guide to President Trump for free. This fun kids guide will help your kids to understand everything President Trump has already accomplished for America. What's more, it's part of a very special gift bundle that includes a free kids magazine and a free video lesson, too. Yeah, this is the indoctrination. And, you know, I don't know whether I would call it funny. It's actually really sad and scary. The indoctrination that they worry about from the left, especially in college, is being indoctrinated into critical thinking, media literacy. These are not actually indoctrinations. These are some of the most important tools. Critical thinking isn't a belief system. It's a framework and a set of tools to figure out for yourself what you should believe and what you should not believe.

And I mean, give them some credit. The right seems to accurately realize that when you give people those tools so that when they hear abortion is murder, supply side economics is good. There's no such thing as climate change. People can think for themselves and evaluate and say, hey, you know what? Let's actually go on Google Scholar and search for peer reviewed studies on that thing that they're telling me. And let me figure out for myself what's true and what isn't. When I hear a media message, let me think through what are the biases of the platform

on which I'm hearing this? What are the biases of the host that is telling me this? Those are tools which don't lead to right wing nuttery. In fact, they prevent it. And so to the extent that the right wing recognizes that critical thinking and media literacy and epistemology will hurt their movement, they are activating against it. But it's not indoctrination. It's not indoctrination. And they seem to know in order to survive as a movement, they need to lie to people and tell them college will indoctrinate you. Well, college will teach you to think for yourself, something

that is not particularly revered among this movement. Send me your thoughts. Find me on Twitter at Deepakman. One of the best things about being an independent show is that I can pick advertising partners that share our values and our sponsor, Sunset Lake CBD, grows the highest quality CBD you can find anywhere. And it's an awesome company. It's a hemp farm outside Burlington, Vermont. I love Burlington that uses sustainable farming practices and is majority owned by its employees. Last year, Sunset Lake CBD donated over sixty thousand000 to drug decriminalization, animal shelters, public radio stations, union strike funds, nature conservation, food shelves and refugee resettlement organizations.

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Sign up at join Pacman dot com. All right. Let's check in on the Herschel Walker campaign. Herschel Walker is the Republican Senate candidate in Georgia. Herschel Walker knows very little about anything. He had a debate last week during which he flashed a fake badge. He claims to be a police officer. He claims to have trained with the FBI. He has been credibly accused of paying for an ex-girlfriend's abortion and urging her to have a second abortion despite claiming to

be vehemently pro-life against abortion. Abortion is murder. No exceptions whatsoever, except he has paid for a woman's abortion. We are continuing to follow the breakdown of any semblance of truth and reality from Herschel Walker. So let's go through piece by piece. First and foremost, he was interviewed. Herschel Walker was interviewed by NBC News. And in this NBC News interview, he continues to claim, no, I never paid for anyone's abortion. And the explanation that he gives in this clip suggests either he doesn't know how many or which children he has. OK, that's possible. Or you have to believe in time travel for this explanation to make sense.

So let me set it up for you. Herschel Walker's new denial is OK, fine. I do know the woman who says I paid for her to get an abortion after urging her to get an abortion. I did send her a seven hundred dollar check, but I sent her the seven hundred dollar check for the child we have together. The only problem is the check was sent years before that child was born. So is it a case of time travel? Did Herschel Walker travel back in time to give her the money for a kid that would be born years later? I don't know.

Take a listen. This is still alive because she's the mother of my child. So you're going to see me a check or somebody giving a check. So that I'm saying it's a lot. Do you know what this seven hundred dollars? I have no idea what that can be for. Is that your signature? Oh, let me see.

It could be. And it doesn't matter whether it's my signature or not. Is this my check? Speaker 1 Yep. OK, so, yes, it's my my signature. Yes, I sent seven hundred dollars to this woman. Yes, I do know the woman, despite previously playing dumb about it until you no longer could because she's the mother of one of your children. The money was because we have a child together.

But that child did not exist at the time that he sent the seven hundred dollar check. Now, in Herschel Walker's defense, if I understand the timeline, he did have a different kid with a different woman that very same year. It's possible that he's confused about which woman he sent the seven hundred dollars to. I don't know. The other possibility is that Walker is confusing children that he has. I just don't know. And it is quite stunning how many media outlets continue to accept these bogus explanations without doing the just fundamental math. It's not even really math.

It's just understanding time and that time moves forward as far as we understand it right now and that the timing completely debunks these completely bogus stories. And unfortunately, almost everybody is kind of treating him with kid gloves on this. Even during the debate last week with Raphael Warnock, as I told you, one of the worst moderated debates I've ever seen, the moderators not pressing at all. Oh, the story is untrue. All right. Well, he says it's untrue. Well, but hold on a second. Is the woman in question the mother of one of your children? Well, yeah. So you do know the woman. Yes. And you were dating her at the time that she claims you paid for her abortion. Well, yeah, I guess I was. And is it possible that she became pregnant

due to someone else's doing? Well, no, they could easily break this down and get to the bottom of it very, very quickly. But they can continue to treat him with kid gloves. And it is abundantly clear at this point that he is lying. Speaking of lying, Herschel Walker is doubling down about his bogus police badge. As a reminder, Herschel Walker flashed a bogus police badge during his debate with Raphael Warnock late last week. Raphael Warnock correctly pointed out Herschel Walker has falsely claimed to be a police officer. Herschel Walker took falsely claimed to be a police officer. Herschel Walker took out a badge.

Now a badge in and of itself doesn't actually mean anything. But Herschel Walker continues to focus on the badge. You have to see this clip. This is also part of the NBC News interview with Herschel Walker. He says it's a real badge and the badge was given to me by a police officer. And then listen to what Walker claims the badge allows him to do. This is just beyond belief. Let's talk about that moment at the debate where you flashed the badge.

I don't know if you have the badge with you, but a lot of people are wondering, what was that badge? Do you have that is a legit badge? OK, it's a legit badge, he says. Let's continue. That's a badge that I was given by a police officer. OK, a police officer gave him the badge. I do have the badge. You have it. I carry it with me all the time. It's not it's a real badge. It's not a fake badge. By the way, at what point does this become impersonating a police officer?

The real badge who gave you the badge? This badge is from this badge. And I have badges all over the, all over Georgia. Wait, we're not to believe that he's an officer all over Georgia, are we? Even from Chatham County. I have, wait, wait. I have from Chatham County, which is a county, which is a county, which is a county from, you know, I have it upside down, which is right, which is the county

from where Senator Warnock is from. I have an honorary sheriff badge from that county. Oh, it's honorary. Well, that is meaningless, Herschel. Where's this one from? This is from my hometown. This is from Johnson County, from the sheriff of Johnson County, which is a legit badge. Everyone can make fun, but this badge, give me the right. If I let me finish, if anything happened in this county, I have the right to work

with the police and get things done. OK, did you hear what he just said? He's using he's using words. He's the his vocal cords are vibrating and producing sound audible to the human ear, but it doesn't mean anything. He says the the honorary badge gives him the right. It's interesting for him to use the word the right when these right wingers insist we actually have very few rights. But now he says an honorary badge gives him the right. You have the right to to do what? To work with police, work with them in what way? If anything, anything like what happens in this county? It doesn't mean anything. How far does this charade have to go before Herschel Walker can be charged with impersonating a police officer and understand that since the fiasco at the debate last week,

they obviously brought in the entire staff, presumably to figure out how do we deal with this? And what they came up with was keep carrying the badge, keep flashing the badge and insist that you're like sort of a police officer. It's absolute and utter insanity. And this isn't even the most humiliating badge related event over the last 24 hours. All right. Let's do one more. Herschel Walker badge related story.

This may be the funniest video I've seen this entire campaign cycle in order to continue defending his having a badge, which is completely meaningless, completely honorary, confers absolutely no law enforcement powers or abilities to Herschel Walker of any kind whatsoever. He got a police officer, I guess. And, you know, I have to say he got an obese police officer to say, I gave Herschel this badge because he's my friend. And I tweeted about this.

And there were people online who were saying, David, why is it relevant that the guy is obese? You're fat shaming. Not at all. Part of the absurdity of this entire thing is, is this guy even really a police officer? And part of it is in general, police officers at least shouldn't be allowed to be morbidly obese. OK, it's not about fat shaming. It's about listen, we understand you can't have a 55 year old morbidly obese firefighter. It doesn't work or military personnel or emergency medical technicians or whatever. But do do we actually have 55 year old morbidly obese police officers? And if so, why is that guy the one who is the one

saying I gave Walker this badge? And it also makes it less believable. This guy's even really a police officer. Now, again, I the guy doesn't have the sort of like police belt. He doesn't have a firearm. He's just wearing like a hat and a shirt. I don't even know if this guy's really a police officer. So that's the relevance of the obesity. OK, it's not about fat shaming. Here's Herschel Walker and his friend says he gave him the badge. This is Herschel Walker. This is the badge I flash at the debate, and this is my sheriff, Sheriff Rowley. Yes. If Herschel's badge is a prop, then I guess this badge I wear every day to protect the citizens, I guess it's a prop also. But these are real badges, and I gave this to my friend for all he's done for this country and this county.

Okay. for him for all he's done for this country in this camp. OK, so I may maybe in this part of Georgia, the sheriff. Dresses like this, I don't know, I gave this to my friend isn't exactly Herschel Walker is in law enforcement. Every single one of these moments that are meant to prove that Herschel Walker is really sort of a police officer only reinforce the reality that he is not. And these are the sorts of moments where I have family in different parts of the world, Europe, Argentina, et cetera. And I hear from them and they say, what the hell is going on? What is going on with this Herschel Walker guy? I wouldn't want either of these guys protecting me or my family.

It every single step, the story gets even more insane. And now the latest is Herschel's my friend and I gave him a badge. Well, I guess he's a police officer then, right? It's pathetic, folks. All these clips you can find on our Instagram at David Pakman show. and your sleep is better. Our sponsor, Sleep Me, is the home of Chili Sleep, the customizable climate-controlled sleep solutions that can improve your sleep by keeping you cooler at night. There are three different Chili Sleep systems. There's the Ooler, the Cube, and the new Doc Pro with double the cooling power. All three systems are water based, temperature controlled mattress toppers that fit over your existing mattress to provide you with your ideal sleep temperature. You can go as cool as 55 degrees. You can go really hot if you want. I keep mine at 60. Beautiful temperature for me. Don't wake up hot and sweaty. Chili sleep keeps me asleep all night. It feels great. I didn't know it was possible to love

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We welcome to the program Melissa Peltier, who's an award winning filmmaker and producer of the documentary. The game Is Up. Disillusioned Trump voters tell their stories. Melissa, really great having you on. I appreciate your time. Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

So, you know, we we've seen and even done interviews at Trump rallies with those who are not disillusioned. In other words, they still are Trump supporters. And it's interesting to ask them why they have not abandoned Donald Trump, given that, of course, just about every promise he made, he didn't keep. He made very clear that he only even really cares about these folks to the extent that they're useful to him. And then he no longer cares, you know, all these things. So we've heard from the people that are that are sticking with him. You did something interesting, which is you spoke to many disillusioned Trump voters

to figure out why are they no longer sort of part of the cult as as it may be. Was there one coherent story about what ultimately drove them away or was it really different things for different people. It was different. There were a couple of people who had pinpointed Helsinki with Trump and Putin as one trigger. But I mean, everyone kind of mentioned that, I think all along. But everybody had a different reason because they all had different reasons for voting for him. Oh, that's interesting. So in other words, the reasons whatever originally attracted them to Trump was a factor in what ultimately dissuaded them. Exactly. Can you give a couple examples? Well, off the top of my head, our farmer, Chris Gibbs, he was you know, he was kind of laser

focused on the agricultural aspect of it, which is, you know, you have to remember that people often vote just for their own personal reasons, not just because they're a blanket, they're a racist or they're whatever. He was really laser focused on agriculture. He liked the idea that Trump was going to lift the waters of the U.S. rule. He was just he didn't like Trump. You know, like he wasn't in love with him, but he voted for him because he didn't like Hillary. And he also felt that Trump was really kind of anti-government on your property kind of thing. And so he voted for him and he was impressed with some of the things he did in the beginning. And then he began to see what Trump's real

agricultural policy was doing. And really, the trade wars just decimated the agriculture business. And nobody knows that except the people who are decimated. Only a few of them, I think, with Trump, like Chris, have gone away from Trump. But he was watching it very carefully. He had actually worked for the Department of Agriculture as a farm bill guy, and he just was disgusted with it. And then he kept hearing Trump lie and lie and lie, like saying that China China's paying the tariffs and he just broke. It was it. That was it. The tariffs thing is interesting because it doesn't really seem that Donald Trump has ever understood how how tariffs work. And of course,

he insists China pays the tariffs. But really, what happens is the United States puts a tariff on Chinese imports. And so whoever is buying the Chinese imports still pays China for the stuff, but then also pays a tariff to the United States government. Now, there's like macroeconomic stuff which would indicate that over time, China would lower the prices in order to account for the tariff. OK, but that that's not the nuts and bolts of how the tariff works. In your experience, did did did Chris understand that all along or did he come to know it after those tariffs were put in place or how did he understand that?

Well, he first of all, he was very angry about also withdrawing from TPP. OK, but with the tariffs, I think he was smart enough to know what would happen. Yeah. And I think he didn't know how long it might go on, but when it really, really dragged on and really started killing their business, because as he points out, you know, it was actually farmers who negotiated those those international agreements. Farmers had, you know, their buyers and they had and they had been doing this over 30 years.

And basically overnight, Trump wiped away their their tried and true markets. You speak in the film to a Jewish woman who was a Trump supporter and then Charlottesville happened and Trump made the fine people on both sides comments, which I am glad to admit were slightly taken out of context and were a little bit different than what was the original reporting. But needless to say, it still impacted this this particular woman. Can you talk about that a little bit? And I mean, this is kind of a bigger trend wherein actual American Jews are one of the most left wing voting blocs that there is. Recently, Trump has done this thing on Truth Social where

he says, you know, the American Jews should really shape up here because bad things can happen. You should be more appreciative. Talk about the Jewish woman you spoke to and how her views changed. I haven't talked to her in a little bit. She's in college in Israel. But I think that she was a Brooklyn girl and she was the head of the Brooklyn Young Republicans. In fact, she'd revived the club and she was the head of the Brooklyn Young Republicans. In fact, she'd revived the club.

And she was extremely Republican. She was really dedicated. She was very young when she got into it, but she was blowing people away with what she could do and what she knew. And she hung out with those turning point people and, you know, all the young, young Charlie Kirk type Republicans. And she was a really, really a true believer in Trump. Absolutely. She worked, you know, to help get him elected. She worked on Republican campaigns in New York. And she went to rallies. I mean, she talks about the rallies as being like a very unhealthy drug where everybody sort of got even more in his thrall the more the longer the rally, the longer they waited in line in fact.

And so she really was all in for him. And then she heard the Charlottesville comment and it really upset her and disappointed her because of family who'd been killed in the Holocaust. And she was very aware of it and she also was very upset by Charlottesville and Her parents actually were refused nicks who has escaped from Russia right around the time of Paris Troika, so they had finally got out she'd her the mutt her mom's

Dad had been a dissident. So her mom was on the watch list just because of her dad. And so it took them a long time to get out. And they had told her her whole life, she was born in the US. They told her her whole life that, you know, this is what happens when you get this kind of extremism. This is what happens. This is what happens. And she started to see that happening. And then shortly after that, she saw Helsinki and Putin. And she started to get scared. And she started to realize this guy is dangerous. He's not what I thought he was.

And I think, you know, the very fine people on both sides comment. She was interviewed by a local news station who said, what did the Brooklyn young Republicans think of that? And she said, well, we were all very disappointed. And she immediately gets a call from the head of the New York Republican Party saying, why did you say that? And she said, I just said we were disappointed. It's just how we felt. And he said, well, you can't say that we're Republicans and say anything bad about Trump. And that really that was another trigger for her with her parents, because, you know, they told her how you were, what you said was controlled and what your thought was controlled. And she just really that really got to her.

So it took her a little bit of time, but she finally realized she didn't care. She didn't want this guy. The you mentioned the rallies and I've covered so many of these Trump rallies. And it is absolutely true that the lines to get in, even when there aren't that many people, the lines to get in are still crazy because of multiple layers of security. Sometimes they're held in really rural places that aren't actually equipped to handle the number of people that are going all sorts of different reasons. Trump often runs, you know, an hour or more late and folks are sometimes there all day, sandy hands, blazing sun, you know, all the horrible conditions. In my mind, it's who would go through this in order to hear this guy give the exact same speech that he gives everywhere. The feedback you got is the long

wait almost reinforced the cult. Oh, yeah. There's a psychology to long waits. And it's one of the reasons sometimes artists on purpose will go out late. It it basically it makes you believe that, you know, you've already thrown in. You've driven driven all the way there you've gotten in line you've gotten your tickets now you're waiting wow this must be really important because i'm waiting so long and it starts to the value in your psychology of this event goes up so it primes you to think wow we finally got in this is it you know it's like getting into a rolling stones concert right and joe walsh's wifeene, said it was like a big rock, you know, rock music event. One of the interesting things is that once the rally actually starts, we've seen so many times when Trump starts rambling, the crowd will look visibly bored. Sometimes

they start filing out even during the speech. It's almost like it's just about Trump's there and he starts speaking and then it becomes almost irrelevant what he says. They've been there for the event. Speaker 4 Right. Right. I think that's a big part of it. And also, I remember reading an article, I think it was in The Post, about how tailgate parties and the people that you see at rallies your friends, even though they live a state away. And so that there was a whole event part of it, like a reunion of all these like minded people who thought Trump was like the Messiah. And that was a big part of it, too. And one of the things, again, Helene pointed out is that there's the same group of people who go

from rally to rally to rally to rally. Yes. Yeah. You bring in locals or whatever. But but he has a core group who come in buses and they go to all the rallies. It's like they go to every Grateful Dead concert. The same thing. Evangelical support for Trump. This is something that in 2016 we saw, you know, because there was a very big Republican primary of which Trump only had a very small slice to begin with. And as we all know now from the historical record, slowly but surely, different people were sort of fell off and the support consolidated around Trump. The evangelical vote was initially very much not around Trump in

the Republican primary. And when we think about why, it seems sort of obvious Trump is a guy who was in favor of choice for 68 years and then had to come up with this story of why he became against abortion. Not a church going guy, married, divorced, cheating, all these different things. So it sort of made sense that he didn't have the evangelical support. Eventually, he got most of the evangelical support. And the way we look at it now is, well, they weren't going to vote for Hillary. And it's sort of like that simple. What more is there to the eventual evangelical support for Trump? Well, how I understand it is that he promised them he would he would make sure, you know,

to appoint these anti-abortion judges, right? Any leaders of the community? But the people we talked to, really, they were influenced by their pastors. A couple in Detroit had pastors who would tell them, you know, from the pulpit who to vote for and who was evil, Hillary, you know, evil. And then there was another evangelical that we profiled who is just a recently Liberty University graduate. That was going to be his first election. And he said basically at Liberty University, they did all but tell you where to make your mark. I mean, they basically, everything was pro-Trump. They had a rally for him there.

It was flyers everywhere. It was the whole community being told, essence to do this. And evangelical Christians tend to be very sort of hierarchical in terms of we listen to our pastors, they're above us. And so pastors have a huge amount of power. And if they're preaching from the pulpit to vote for or go to hell or, you know, or the woman who comes in is going to, you know, prevent you from ever going to church again, which is one of the things they said that, you know, she was going to destroy the churches, which is, of course, totally not backed up by anything. She was actually a pretty religious person. But I think, you know, people

hear it from their pastor. They want to hear a simple thing. Yes, no, good, bad. And that's what they heard. And so that's how they voted. And they still believe that. So you told us about the farmer who over agricultural policy bailed on Trump. You told us about the Jewish woman who over Charlottesville bailed on Trump. What what are some of the other reasons people gave for, you know, how did they feel betrayed

by Trump, I guess? Well, Joe Walsh, it was definitely Helsinki and Putin. But I actually got inspired to make this documentary by watching Joe Walsh in in real time change over Twitter. Yeah, because it was fascinating to watch him completely turn around over about a year and a half. And for him, it was Helsinki. And that was like his, I mean, as he describes, he was throwing things around the room.

Because he really felt that was treason. That was his belief. But the evangelicals had different reasons. One of them was the Liberty University grad. He had lived all over the world with his parents who were teachers internationally. They had taught in South Korea, they taught in Saudi Arabia. So he had a much more global perspective, and he really felt that what Trump was doing

to the refugees, beyond just what he was doing to them, it was more the way he talked about them and the more he made them sound like a plague. And that really upset him because having lived all over the world, he's seen all sorts of conditions. And he believed that his Christianity, you know, made him need to love all those people and welcome them and try to help them.

It's rather than demonize them. So that was what really turned him around. The other couple, the husband was a machinist, and he had only been a Christian for about four years. And he went to his pastor and said, you know, I'm not sure I like this guy, Trump. I don't feel very good about him. And the pastor said, yeah, but you know, we need to get the judges in, and we need to get some laws passed, and this is the best thing for Christianity. And he just said said okay well that's what i'll do then and he describes leaving the voting booth just feeling dirty just feeling wrong something was wrong he didn't know what

but he pushed it to the back of his mind until a year or two later he's sitting in the break room with one of his workers and the worker, he's talking about Christianity and God to this worker. And the worker is like, I just don't see why I would want to be a Christian if you support such a terrible human being. And it was like a lightning bolt hit him. Wow. And he heard it. And that, you know, when people change, when people leave cults, whatever, you never know what it is. It's going to be the first crack in that bubble. Yeah. But once that crack happens, if enough more information gets through, gradually that can change people's mind.

And for him, for Ron, this guy, this evangelical who was in our doc, he went home and he started looking in the scripture for himself. At this point, he's been a Christian long enough and he really knows how to study it. He goes to Bible study three times a week and he finds all sorts of passages that describe people like Trump being bad. Right. And he said, no, no, no, I'm done. I'm done with this guy. The film is the game is up.

Disillusioned Trump voters tell their stories. We've been speaking with the filmmaker Melissa Peltier. Super interesting work. And I really appreciate your time today. Speaker 2 Oh, thank you for having me. Thanks. You already know that you need a VPN to protect your privacy from your Internet provider, from tech platforms, from hackers, and you've seen a ton of ads for different VPNs.

They seem similar. Which one do you choose? There is really one thing I look at. Can it be independently verified that the VPN isn't logging your activity. That's why when we were looking for a VPN sponsor, we reached out to private Internet access because private Internet access is the only VPN with a no log policy that has been proven in court not once but multiple times. Their VPN is 100 percent open source. The code is public. Their server networks and management systems are independently audited by Deloitte to verify there is no logging with their new next gen server set up.

It's also one of the only VPNs fast enough for streaming and other activities. My audience gets private Internet access for 82 percent off. That's just two dollars and 11 cents a month, plus three months free. Go to PIA VPN dot com slash David. The link is in the podcast notes. Let's talk about the much anticipated debate last night between the current Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and the Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. Stacey Abrams is genuinely brilliant. She's really good at debates.

She actually knows things about so many different issues. And it came through in the debate. But Brian Kemp just couldn't resist doing the angry black woman routine. Check out what he had to say. This is really like a good old boy, tired debate strategy. The black woman is upset and she's mad and she's angry. I know Miss Abrams is upset and mad. And that knowing tilt of the head from Stacey Abrams. Now, I have to tell you, she was no more mad than anybody else on the stage. In fact, the libertarian guy was furious that they wouldn't take his ideas seriously because they're crazy ideas or let him speak as much as much as he wanted to. And we're going to get to that in a moment. But this entire you're mad and upset. She was no more mad and upset than anybody else. And it was just another one of these

pathetic, racially based tropes. Now, she did really, really well. At one point when she was asked something along the rights, along the lines of what's the biggest danger facing Georgia? She said the biggest danger is the guy who's currently the governor. This is a governor who's for the last four years has beat his chest, but delivered very little for most Georgians. He has weakened gun laws and flooded our streets. He has weakened our privacy rights and our women's rights. He has denied women the access to reproductive care. The most dangerous thing facing Georgia is four more years of Brian Kemp. We need a governor who actually understands the math and the morality.

Yeah, this is a governor. She I mean, listen, it's very common right now that candidates don't know anything. Like when you ask Mehmet Oz, hey, can you like talk about health care policy and how you would bridge the gap between A and B? And what do you think is the best way to get care? But, you know, he'll just go with one of those weird rants like the one he did about, you know, send people to like a medical tent and just give them like a five minute exam or something like he doesn't really understand things at a policy level.

There's a total lack of empathy. There's a total lack of lack of pragmatism as to how you actually get bills passed and get money for the things you need to do. Stacey Abrams knows so much like she is head and shoulders above so many of the people that are running right now. And she's stuck in this insane situation with a lot of cuckoo Georgia voters, many totally sensible Georgia voters as well. And a governor who goes, oh, she's angry. She's mad and she's angry. And she really knows about so many different things. Here's another clip where Brian Kemp. Oh, by the way, this is another theme in a lot of the debates that we've been covering and we've covered now must be about 10 or so just in the last few weeks.

The Republican will just lie about what the law is or lie about their record. They'll just completely make it up. Brian Kemp did a lot of that last night where he said, listen, we have a full background check law for firearms purchases in Georgia. Every single purchase requires a background check. And of course, that's not true. There's the private sale loophole. There's the gun show loophole. And Stacey Abrams can do nothing to prevent herself from interrupting, understandably so, because Kemp just can't stop lying or won't on. Well, there is a 30 second background check. There is a federal background check on every individual that buys a firearm in the United States of America. Which should not exist either. That is not true.

Well, the point, I understand the point you're making. But the point is, when you buy a firearm, you get a background check. Mr. Kemp, all right. None of the laws changed. Mr. Kemp, if you purchase a weapon in Georgia through a gun sale or a private sale, you're not. Yeah, she's completely correct. Of course, this this is the widely known gun show loophole, private sale, you know, family family sale loophole. And the libertarian guy in the middle who is trying to talk over everybody, he says we shouldn't have any background checks whatsoever, I guess. I mean, he,

by the way, the libertarian during yesterday's debate said, get rid of gun safety regulations, get rid of fiat money, get rid of public education. I can't even remember the full list of what he said. Then he was furious. No one was taking him seriously. So Kelly Stacey Abrams doing everything she could here to try to inject some truth and reality into the conversation. One other moment that I will play for you, a moment about a plans where Brian Kemp took this sort of this is kind of like a an escape hatch to any issue you don't really want to deal with is to say, let's study that issue. Stacey Abrams was having none of it when it came to helping minority owned businesses. A lot of Georgians, including African-Americans and other minorities, cannot go to work if their kids are not in the classroom.

We have the lowest unemployment rate in the country for African-Americans. We also were named the top. We're in the top 10 of the states for black entrepreneurship in the state of Georgia. So our economy is incredible and we will continue to work with all of those entrepreneurs in the days ahead and working class Georgians because we are the ones that have been fighting for you when Miss Abrams was not. We were giving tax refunds. We were doing tax cuts. We were suspending the gas tax to help you deal with 40 year high inflation when she was criticizing us. Stacey Abrams, 32nd rebuttal. I would point out that Mr. Kemp did not address the needs of purchasing and contracts for black and brown owned businesses, which is what he has refused to do for the last 16 years. We know that $10.9 billion has been delivered to

the state of Georgia through two recent acts at the congressional level. And Brian Kemp does not have a plan for making certain that people of color have access to those contracts, access to purchasing. It was only in July of this year that he finally acknowledged that there might be a problem. He has said that we need to study it. I would tell him just cheat off of my paper. I know the answer. We need a governor who actually believes in equity, racial equity, economic equity in the state of Georgia. And I will deliver. So listen, here's the bottom line with this race. Unfortunately, Stacey Abrams, I keep mistaking Kemp and saying Kelly Abrams, which is not what I mean to

say. Stacey Abrams is falling further and further behind Brian Kemp. And much of this is happening. I believe because there have actually not been really clear statements made about what is at stake if these Republicans win in November. Now, Stacey Abrams has made it clear. But the bigger picture, we have to zoom out and really think about all of these races. And this applies in Pennsylvania. This applies in Florida, Arizona, Georgia, really everywhere. You know, we can have substantive policy debates about what should the level of taxation be

or as far as states go, property taxes or some of these other policy things. There is a movement nationwide right now from the Republican Party wherein their focus is how can we just take more and more control of all of the basic systems on which we depend, voting, infrastructure, education, torpedo some of them deliberately in order to reinforce our control. It's insanely authoritarian. And that big picture, I don't think, is being effectively enough communicated to voters. Now, OK, that's sort of a bigger rant in terms of the numbers.

Stacey Abrams, five and a half points behind Brian Kemp on average right now. It's it's not out of reach necessarily. But let's be honest that two and a half weeks to make up five and a half points in a gubernatorial race in a sort of reddish leaning state, which sometimes votes for a Democratic president and right now has two Democratic senators, I should mention, is is something that has to be overcome. Now, one last thought on last night's debate, there was this libertarian guy who was also part of the debate.

And on the one hand, I've mixed feelings as to what position I should take on this, because on the one hand, I want third parties. I hate the two party duopoly. We need more voices at debates. If you qualify for the debate, you should be there and get as much time to speak as everybody else. At the same time, we know the guy has no shot. He was a complete lunatic, anti-vax, anti-everything, and he's not going to be the next

governor. So there was also time wasted from really forcing Brian Kemp to have to engage with Stacey Abrams on the issues. And so I have sort of mixed feelings about the participation of the libertarian guy. But needless to say, Stacey Abrams, super smart, did an incredibly good job. Will it make a difference? We'll have to wait and see. We now have learned about yet another fraud perpetrated on you, the American taxpayer, by Donald Trump and his family. The Washington Post is now reporting Donald Trump charged the Secret Service exorbitant rates at his hotels. This was another grift in order to make money. Listen to this. Records show that in 40 cases, the Trump organization billed the Secret Service far higher amounts than the approved government rate. In one case, charging agents eleven hundred

eighty five dollars a night to stay at the Trump International Hotel in D.C. The new billing documents, according to a congressional committee's review, show that taxpayers paid the president's company at least one point four million dollars for secret service agent stays at Trump properties for his and his family's protection. The records, by the way, contradict the repeated claim made by Eric Trump, the president's son and the Trump or executive vice president, that the family's company often gave the Secret Service agents the hotel rooms at cost or free. Maybe it was sometimes true, but it often was not. This is the latest grift on you, the American people. This is,

by the way, sometimes this is used as a way to money to launder money, which is like the real price of something is 400 bucks. But you start billing twelve hundred bucks and then you can launder eight hundred dollars. That's not apparently what's going on here. Here it's just a form of fraud. Listen, the hotel room is worth 400 bucks. We're going to charge the government twelve hundred bucks a night. We will direct Secret Service to stay at these rooms and then taxpayers are going to pay for it. And it is another complete and total grift. And of course, oh, Trump donated his paycheck. OK, four hundred thousand dollars a year. Look at the millions upon millions of dollars. If you look at all the hotels that were made on the back of Trump being

president. Remember, the other side of this was foreign leaders staying at Trump properties when they went to D.C. or elsewhere to ingratiate themselves with Donald Trump. So it has been a scam after scam after scam, extremely profitable, despite Trump's claim. Oh, I could have made a bunch more money. Trump made plenty of money while he was president. And so the fact that he donated his four hundred thousand dollar salary really is neither here nor there. Added on to the list of more investigations that will be done. We have a voicemail number. That number is two one nine two. David P. Here's a caller who's glad we were banned from tick tock. I'm glad you were banned from tick tock.

You're a lowlife. Oh, well, that's really sad. I think the caller will be saddened to hear that we are back on TikTok. So last week I talked about being banned from TikTok, which is increasingly a great platform for us to be reaching young people, young voters. Here's how it all went down over the weekend. We were originally banned from TikTok for covid and election disinformation. OK, we appealed it. We were then told, no, you're going to continue being banned for violating the nudity policy. Now, I can assure you. We did not post any nudity. I didn't post nude pictures of myself. There were no nude pictures of Trump posted. There was no nudity

on our account whatsoever. We again appealed that. And hundreds of you wrote into TikTok legal, which I very much appreciate. Without explanation, the account was reinstated. We don't know why. Days later, TikTok responded and said, we've reversed the decision. Your account has been reinstated. We still know very little about what happened, But much to this caller's dismay, we are back on TikTok. We have a great bonus show for you today. Kanye West is apparently in talks to buy the social media platform Parler. I know you probably forgot about Parler. We will talk about it. A court has rejected an appeal to give American Samoans U.S. citizenship. We will talk about the basis for that decision. And lastly, more and more

American companies are charging employees for job training if they quit before a certain amount of time has gone by. Is it legal? Yeah, it appears to be as long as it's done in a certain way. Is it ethical? Well, that's a different question. All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Sign up at join Pacman dot com.