The David Pakman Show - 10/30/24: Kamala record crowd size, Trump plays dumb on Puerto Rico fiasco

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Joaquin Castro, Democratic Congressman from Texas, joins David to discuss the upcoming election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the House and Senate contests, and much more -- Kamala Harris speaks to a record audience of 75,000 in Washington DC in her closing message to the voting public -- Donald Trump starts to claim election fraud in Pennsylvania -- Donald Trump holds an event in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, where he declares himself the best President in American history -- Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner facts checks Donald Trump's claims about the 2020 election, not out of journalistic integrity but due to fears about lawsuits -- A panicked Donald Trump wildly lies that he has no idea about what Tony Hinchcliffe said about Puerto Ricans during his rally at Madison Square Garden earlier this week -- Nikki Haley's explanation of why she is supporting Donald Trump is incoherent and disgusting -- Republican Senator Marco Rubio seems confused about why he is supporting Donald Trump -- On the Bonus Show: Mysterious statues popping up in Washington DC, Washington Post cancellations hit 250,000, Steve Bannon feels "empowered" after four months in prison, much more... 📈 Manifold: Get free Sweepcash when you sign up at https://manifold.markets/pakman 🧘 Attend the PHD Weight Loss workshop for FREE on Feb 29: https://davidpakman.com/phd ⚠️ Ground News: Get 40% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 💪 AG1 is offering FREE year-supply of Vitamin D at https://athleticgreens.com/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN10 saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.com 🛌 Helix Sleep: Get up to 20% OFF all mattress orders at https://helixsleep.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- Pakman Discord: https://www.davidpakman.com/discord -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave a Voicemail: (219)-2DAVIDP

. Welcome to the show. Six days to go. And if you care about the size of your candidates crowds, then there is much to be impressed about last night. Kamala Harris holding an event at the Ellipse in Washington, DC. More than 75 75000 people. Real number.

The Ellipse at capacity guests directed to an overflow area on the National Mall and sort of a closing statement of sorts from Kamala Harris, the vice president who wants to be president of the United States, making what couldn't be a starker contrast between how she will handle being president even to Trump supporters in direct contrast to the things Trump has said about Kamala Harris supporters if he were to become president. But the contrasts were bigger than that. And we're going to look at a few clips here.

I think this was a very good speech. Contrast on policy, contrast on character, a defense of American democracy and our freedoms attempting to take back what Republicans have claimed a monopoly on for so long, which is that they are the party of liberty and they are the party of freedom. And it's simply not the case. We've seen it firsthand over the last decade and Kamala Harris doing a good job at drawing a distinction there. And once again, I know it's almost cliche to say this at this point, but laying out a positive vision for America, not just for the people who vote for Kamala Harris, but also for the people who don't.

And that's where I want to start. And we're going to talk about the asymmetry of this in a moment. Kamala Harris saying, even if you don't vote for me, I'm still going to treat you well, essentially the drive to protect hardworking Americans who aren't always seen or heard and deserve a voice. And I will tell you, that is the kind of president I will be. And look, I'll be honest with you, I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. But here's what I promise you. I will always listen to you, even if you don't vote for me. I will always tell you the truth, even if it is difficult to hear. I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done.

And if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way. I want to talk about the bigger issue here, because, yeah, I mean, it's smart to extend an olive branch to Trump supporters, but there's actually a lot more to this. And I want to talk about an asymmetry that doesn't have so much to do with individuals, but it does have to do with what we're seeing with The Washington Post and Blue Origin and Elon Musk and all sorts of large companies. There is a reality where if you as a prominent figure, if you was one of the wealthiest people

in this country or as the CEO of a big corporation, if you publicly come out in favor of Trump and Kamala Harris wins, we all know Kamala Harris is not going to go after you. She's not going to go after you. She's not going to go after you politically. She's not going to direct the justice department to try to go after you in a legal or criminal sense. You're not going to be targeted in terms of Kamala Harris. We'll try to hurt your business. There's, we all know that if you come out and you go, I support Trump, whether your kid rock or whether you are Elon Musk or whatever, Kamala Harris is not going to come in and target you for retribution.

On the other hand, we all know because he tried it and because he says it, that if you come out and you say, I am for Kamala Harris and Trump wins, Trump might go after you. Trump might go after you through the Justice Department. Trump might go after you with sanctions or regulations. Trump might go after you in a public facing PR campaign. And so there is this asymmetry at that top level. Now, at a lower level as Kamala Harris is addressing here, even if you vote for Trump, I'm not going to target you. I'm not going to ostracize you.

I'm not going to alienate you because I'm going to be president for all Americans because I would be the president of the United States of America, not the president of the Democrats, uh, Democrats in the United States of America or whatever. And I think that this is a critical distinction given the things that Donald Trump has been saying. Now, she did not mince words during this record audience speech when it comes to the view of global leadership about Donald Trump. Let's listen to that. Look, world leaders think that Donald Trump is an easy mark, easy to manipulate with flattery or favor.

And you can believe that autocrats like Putin and Kim Jong-un are rooting for him in this election. I will always uphold our security, advance our national interests and ensure that the United States of America remains as we must forever be a champion of liberty around the world. We don't know. Or let me put it a different way. I have no confidence that Donald Trump would act in the best interests of the country. Donald Trump would act in the best interests of himself. And if that happens to align with the

better interests of a foreign nation over the United States, he won't hesitate. And we know because he's done it before. Kamala Harris also laying out that the United States shouldn't be a vessel for the schemes of other dictators. Again, getting to the same idea of whose best interests or whose interests at all would Trump have in mind as he makes decisions? I see it in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom and the men who support them. I see it in Republicans who have never voted for a Democrat before, but have put the Constitution of the United States over party. I've seen it in Americans different in many respects, but united in our

pursuit of freedom, our belief in fairness and decency, and our faith in a better future. America, I know the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us. I know it. And that's why I am in this race to fight for the people just like I always have. This was a very good speech overall. And Kamala Harris closing it out by saying it is time sort of her closing statement here. Those who came before us, the patriots at Normandy and Selma, Seneca Falls and Stonewall on farmland and factory floors. They did not struggle, sacrifice and lay down their lives only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms. They didn't do that only to see us vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.

OK, and then now we're picking up on the earlier clip. So bottom line with this speech, if what you care about is crowd size, well, she has Trump beat seventy five thousand people. If what you wanted to see was in contrast to Trump's direct attacks and threats at Harris supporters, how would she deal with the supporters of Trump? Very harsh words about Trump himself, but saying, even if you don't vote for me, I'm going to be your president too. And overall a really good speech.

Now we'll, will any one thing be enough? We just don't know. But one thing we can be sure of is that whatever the results, Trump will claim fraud. And the reason we know that is he's already doing it. Let's talk about that next. Wasting no time, not even waiting. Forget about Election Day, not even waiting. Forget about election day. Not even waiting until election week. Donald Trump is now claiming fraud in Pennsylvania.

We suspected he would do it. We ultimately became convinced that he would do it next week. As I jokingly say, we're going to find out whether Trump wins or whether it was rigged against him. And so far, Trump is taking the it was rigged against me route, claiming that there is already voter fraud taking place in Pennsylvania. Now, as is often the case, these claims are related to something that took place in the real world, but dramatically distorted. So let's talk about what Trump said and what's really going on. First and foremost, Trump making this claim on truth, social, central, where he said,

quote, wow, York County, Pennsylvania received thousands of potentially fraudulent voter registration forms and mail in ballot applications from a third party group. This is on top of Lancaster County being caught with 2600 fake ballots and forms all written by the same person. Really bad stuff. What is going on in Pennsylvania? Law enforcement must do their job immediately. Wow. And then Trump also speaking to a crowd in Allentown, Pennsylvania

yesterday saying Democrats have started to cheat. Take a listen. So if you have a mail in ballot, get mail in a damn ballot and please immediately because because they've already started cheating in Lancaster. They've cheated. We caught it with 2600 votes. OK, so let me explain to you what's going on. Why the number 2600? What what is the kernel from which this sprouted? I will try to explain it in the simplest terms possible.

And this is sort of the architecture of election fraud propaganda. Someone we don't yet know who as of this exact moment, as of when I'm recording this, we don't yet know who someone filed twenty five hundred, maybe twenty six hundred, somewhere in that range. Twenty five hundred illegitimate voter registrations in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Someone a person went in and filed twenty five hundred illegitimate registrations. Law enforcement caught the scheme. In other words, it didn't get through unnoticed. Law enforcement has identified that this took place and there is an investigation that is taking place. We don't know who did it.

We don't know what the goals are. And we certainly don't have any proof that any actual fraud went on. All we know is about voter registrations. Now, as you know, registrations and voting are two different things. We sometimes hear, oh, they're registered in two places. Trump's daughter, Tiffany Trump, was registered in two places at one point. It happens often when people move their old location location doesn't automatically deregister them. So you're registered in two places as long as you only vote in one. There's no legal issue.

What we know is that someone submitted registrations and there's an investigation. When Trump says we Republicans caught them, Democrats, there's no evidence of that whatsoever. And I think it's a really important reminder as we go through. And there are going to be many such claims. I mean, Trump's been saying for years that this is going to be fraudulent and he's been saying it for months and he's been saying it for weeks. And now he's saying the fraud has started. There are going to be many claims of this. One really important question that we should ask ourselves whenever such a scheme is asserted is first of all, do we have proof that this took place?

But then there's a critical second question, which is even if that did take place, do we have proof that it benefits Harris over Trump? And when we think back to 2020, there are a bunch of examples that we should really think critically about. If it were true, just to pick one thing, right. If it were true that in Pennsylvania, the ballot counting suspiciously stopped at 10 p.m. supposedly with food for the workers. But the number of sandwiches in the van didn't really correspond to the number of election workers, which leads us to wonder whether fake or fraudulent ballots were brought in in a van. There's no evidence for any of what I just said. They did

stop counting at 10 p.m., but because those are the rules in Pennsylvania, you stop counting, you resume the next day. Even if it were true that a van showed up and there weren't that many sandwiches and the sandwiches that were there claimed to be Italian, but they had no capicola. And that's very right. Grant them the whole thing. It could have been a scheme if it was a scheme to help Trump rather than hurt him. Even the initial claims, if true, don't prove that it's something that benefited Biden in 2020 or that would benefit Kamala Harris in 2024. So it's important to go to that second layer with some of these people, which is to say you're asserting something for which there's no proof.

But even if there were, you still wouldn't have demonstrated that it was to the benefit of one candidate over another. When they talk about 20000 ballots were thrown out. OK, if it's true that 20000 ballots were thrown out, if 10000 of them were for Biden and 10000 of them were for Trump, it doesn't have any material effect. We still don't want legitimate ballots thrown out. They still haven't proven legitimate ballots were thrown out, but if they did, it could have a null effect if it was half for Biden and half for Trump. So keep that in mind. And of course there is nothing, nothing to the claims

of Trump that the fraud has started. We've got a wild six days ahead of us. Make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel and consider pre-ering my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine, everywhere that books, audio books and e-books are sold. is the app and website where you can win cash for predicting what will happen next in politics. And it is free to play questions like will Trump win the presidential election? Will Kamala Harris flip a state? Will political commentator destiny appear on Joe Rogan's podcast? If you predict correctly, you win play money called manna or sweep cash. One sweep cash is redeemable for a U.S. dollar. So if you predict right, you can turn it into cash. And the platform gives you free mana and sweep cash to play with every single day. Go to manifold dot markets slash Pacman and you'll get free extra sweep cash just for signing up to start you on your journey. No purchase necessary to win cash or prizes. If you want to go bigger, you can use my link to get 40 extra sweep cash when you spend $20 on

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so much better than sleepy Joe. This took place in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. And as usual, we ask ourselves, did these stories ever really happen? And the answer must be no, right? And when they endorsed me, they said he's the greatest president on the border, but he's the greatest president overall that we've ever had. I said, Mike, I said, does that include I said, they said he's the greatest president we've ever had. And then one of them said, sir, he's the greatest president we've ever had. And then one of them said, sir, he's the greatest president of my lifetime. I said, I like, sir, the first one more than we've ever had. I said, so greatest president that we've ever had.

I said, does that include Abe Lincoln? Yes, sir. Does that include George Washington? Yes, sir. I said, that's good. But but they also said, I mean, more importantly, for purposes of this, they said the best board of president and without question that I was that I was the best folks. Please clap. Can you think of a more self-serving imagine Obama

doing this? Imagine Obama showing up and going, you know, people come up to me and they say, sir, you've been the best president. You've been the best on health care, but you've been the best president overall. You're better than Abe Lincoln. You're better than George Washington. People come up to me and they say this is the most egomaniacal, self-centered, delusional sort of rant that you could expect. And just think for a second what would happen even in this race. If Kamala Harris started saying, you know, behind the scenes, White House staffers come up to me, they say, ma'am, you're the best vice president we've ever had.

We've had many vice presidents, but you really are the best and using it to generate applause from an audience. It's absurd. And we're just kind of used to it. When Trump does it, we kind of just look the other way. Now, the topic of Puerto Rico came up during this event in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, and a Puerto Rican panelist during this roundtable said Puerto Rico is behind you and Trump continuing the delusions by saying, I've been the best of

all for Puerto Rico. So Maribel, you have had a lot of experience working with Medicare, both as a provider and now as a customer. Would you mind speaking to your experience working with the 1-800-Medicare hotline? Mr. President, I just wanted to tell you that I moved here in 1981 from Puerto Rico, and I want you to know that Puerto Rico stands behind you,

and Puerto Rico loves you. Damage control. Well, we love it. I know it very well. And we help you through a lot of bad storms. I'll tell you, we had some really bad ones. You remember you were there when I brought the hospital ship against everyone's advice and we got it in there and took care of a lot of people. But I think no president's done more for Puerto Rico than I have. So thank you.

That's really not. No one ever has done more for Puerto Rico than Trump has. I mean, OK, he considered trading Puerto Rico for Greenland. Sure. He showed up and shot paper towels like basketball free throws while laughing during disaster response that could have been much faster and much more comprehensive. But sure, he's been the best on Puerto Rico. He's been the best on the border.

He's the best president. He knows more than general scientists, doctors, engineers, pilots starting to see a theme here. Trump continuing with the America is like a garbage can claim to the United States of America and dumped like where you like were a massive dumps garbage can like we're a garbage can. Now remember, Trump is talking about people. He's not talking about foreign countries dumping trash in the United States. Rubbish.

He's talking about garbage people. They're sending us their garbage. People is what Donald Trump is saying. Quite a contrast from Kamala Harris's speech on the Ellipse yesterday, where she said to a record crowd, I'll be everybody's president even if you vote for Donald Trump. Trump again pulling the idea that there is an obsession among the left, I guess, with just forcing what he calls transgender operations on people borders. Who would want men playing in women's sports?

They wanted who would want trans gender operations for almost everybody in the world. They want that. This is a sick group of people, I'm telling you. And there's a great evilness. You know, we want to come together as a country, but there's a lot of there's a lot of evil there. There's a lot. And of course, no one is trying to force any gender reassignment or gender affirming care

or sex change. You know, they have all these terms for what is ultimately the same thing. Nobody's trying to force that upon anybody. And of course, the idea that that's taking place is part of the inherent transphobia of what has become the Republican Party today. So a ridiculous roundtable event and maybe one of the most interesting moments actually came in the immediate aftermath. Let me talk about that. Harris Faulkner is a Fox News host. She's relatively Trumpy. She's shown herself to be

essentially a right winger, although she'll sometimes pretend, oh, I'm just a straight down the middle news anchor or whatever. After Donald Trump's roundtable event, Harris Faulkner pops up on Fox News and goes back to something Trump said at the start of the event and says, whatever Trump feels, Biden won the election. And there's a reason that this took place. I'll explain it in a moment. But check this out. This was this really raised some eyebrows for some who didn't necessarily understand

why this was taking place. At the very beginning, you heard the former president talk about a stolen election. And while he may feel a certain way, the facts remain. Joe Biden was declared the winner with 51 percent of the vote. State certified those results of the 2020 election and Congress accepted those results. Now the nation is moving toward November 5th. Right. It's a very big.

Why is it that Harris Faulkner reads a very obvious teleprompter snippet about Trump didn't really win? Trump can feel whatever he wants. But Joe Biden legitimately won and was certified the winner. There is one reason that Fox News News did this. It's not because out of the goodness of Harris Faulkner's heart, they said we must correct this and we must. No, no, no, no, no.

Fox would not be doing this if they hadn't already been ordered to pay seven hundred and eighty seven million dollars for their conduct during the 2020 election as it relates to voting machines and supposed voter fraud, election fraud, et cetera. This was out of a desire to circumvent and prevent any further legal issues as a result of obvious lies getting out on their air. That's why they did it. And it is very funny. And in a sense, it's kind of rewarding. I get a little bit of pleasure out of seeing Harris Faulkner have to, uh, you know, sort of reluctantly read this off of the teleprompter and say, well, I guess if push comes to shove, Biden did sort of win the 2020 election.

This is where we are right now. We have to move beyond this. And the best way to move beyond it is a resounding and clear victory on Tuesday. We will see if we get there. But the damage control continues with regard to Puerto Rico. And I want to talk about that next. Donald Trump did an interview in a dark room with Sean Hannity, meant to be a damage control interview after the fiasco involving, quote, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe

at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday evening. You may recall that before Trump spoke at that rally, Tony Hinchcliffe showed up and said that Puerto Rico is a floating pile of garbage in the ocean. The Trump campaign put out a statement saying that doesn't reflect Donald Trump's views about Puerto Rico, but we've been waiting to hear Donald Trump comment on it. Trump tells the most unbelievable lie you can imagine, which is he doesn't know anything about Tony Hinchcliffe, doesn't know who he is, doesn't want to know who he is, didn't hear the comment, doesn't know a word about it. I want you to consider whether this could even theoretically be the truth. I'll tell you my view in a moment. I don't even know if you were there for the whole thing. I don't know what time you got there. I was told and made aware that you had no idea about

this comedian who made comments. I still have. I have no idea who he is. Somebody said there was a comedian that joked about Puerto Rico or something. And I have no idea who he is. Somebody said there was a comedian that joked about Puerto Rico or something. And I have no idea who it was. Never saw him. Never heard of him and don't want to hear of him. But I have no idea. They put a comedian in, which everybody does. You throw comedians in.

You don't vet them and go crazy. It was in the teleprompter. It was vetted. Trump is lying. But there's a bigger lie, which we'll address in a moment. His fault. But somebody said some bad things. Now, what they've done is taken somebody that has nothing to do with the party, has nothing to do with us, said something, and they try and make a big deal. But I don't know who it is. I don't even know who put him in.

And I can't imagine it's a big deal. I've done more for Puerto Rico than any president. I think that's so Trump is saying he said some stuff. Don't know what he said. Don't know who he is. Don't want to know who he is. Wasn't there. Doesn't matter. It just I have no idea. No one believes this.

Trump watches everything. He watches the rallies as he is on his plane on the way to the rallies. He knows every narrative. Why is Trump now constantly talking about how he has no cognitive decline? It's because he watches all of the other coverage, which is increasingly pointing out that Trump seems to be suffering from cognitive decline. He watches everything. He's obsessed with watching coverage of himself,

his rallies, everything he does. And we're supposed to believe he hasn't seen the Puerto Rico clip anywhere, even though it has been everywhere for days, doesn't know who Tony Hinchcliffe is, doesn't know how he got there. It wasn't vetted, even though this stuff was on the teleprompter. It is a pathetic lie and it's one that people who want to keep supporting Trump will probably accept. Now, I want to say one other thing about this, which is just so funny. Imagine being Tony Hinchcliffe where you do this, you do, you tell these jokes about black people and watermelon and Puerto Rico being garbage in the ocean.

Half the country is disgusted by it at its face. Even some Trumpists are disgusted by it. There were people in the room at Madison Square Garden where when he told the Puerto Rico joke and it's weird to even call it a joke because it's not funny when he tells this Puerto Rico joke, even the reaction in the room was muted. So you alienate half the country completely, another portion of the MAGA people, but at least hopefully there will be someone embracing you. Right. And now Trump goes, had nothing to do with me, said some bad stuff. Don't know who he is. Don't want anything to do with him. Don't want to know who he is. What a disaster for Tony Hinchcliffe. And it's not even about, oh, he's getting canceled.

He just told some jokes that very few people found to be funny. And there is something ironic about that. Now, Trump continuing the sort of false I don't even know what to what to call it about Puerto Rico. But now he says Puerto Ricans, when they see Trump, they give him a hug and they give him a kiss with Hispanics. But I've had really great relationship with Puerto Rico and people from Puerto Rico. They love every time I go outside, I see somebody from Puerto Rico.

They give me a hug and a kiss. They're giving Trump hugs. Aren't they? He should go further. They salute me when they see me. People from Puerto Rico and they cry. They weep like Jordan Peterson, overcome by emotion, verklempt the Puerto Ricans every time they see Donald Trump.

At what point does this just become pathetically unbelievable? Trump obsessed with supposed gender reassignment surgeries happening during school hours with no parental consent consent. Trump talking about this one again with Hannity. And yet they do it. Maybe it's because they want to destroy the country. I don't know. Or gender affirming care for minors. Sure. Care without parental consent. So a young man leaves for school and goes to school and the authority takes him over without parental consent and they do things to him that you don't want to know about. I mean, is this supposed to be America? I don't think so. These people are radical people. And let me tell you, she's not a smart person. She's a low IQ individual. I've said it for a long time.

She speaks so slowly, everything so slow. She thinks of answers to ask her a question. She talks about she was grown up with a lawn growing on her front yard. Everything is. So if Sean Hannity were a serious person, when Trump tells this ridiculous story about how kids go to school, a boy goes to school and come home as a girl comes home a girl. If Hannity were serious, he would say to Trump, you know, you've mentioned this before. Can you tell us about an incident where this happened? Can you point to somewhere? Oh,

well, it happened in Ogden, Utah, or it happened in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And little Steven went to school. And when Steven came home to mommy and daddy, Steven had become Sally and they had done something to his genitalia. Right. There are no stories because it doesn't exist. And Hannity just sits there and nods. It's it would be the simplest thing to do to just say, give me one example, give me one example. And then finally, Donald Trump going back to the topic of Puerto Rico and saying that when he went and shot the paper towels like a basketball free throws, it was fun and people really liked it. I was I was there handing out food. I got in trouble for that, too, because we were having fun. We had a lot of people and I was throwing paper towels to the back. They were all having fun.

And the fake news came. Oh, that was very disrespectful to be throwing towels. Now, I have unbelievable good relationship with Puerto Rico on the. Yeah. Now, of course, it wasn't just, oh, he's throwing paper towels and that's bad. The reaction was slow. The recovery effort was slow. Trump apparently didn't even realize that Puerto Rico

was part of the United States. He played coy with the entire thing in so many ways. And then ultimately he shows up as happens when presidents show up to disaster recovery areas, disrupts the recovery and then turns it all into a game by shooting individual paper towel rolls at people. That was the problem. The totality of the situation was the problem. So I don't know that this Hannity interview does much to clear up Trump's views about Puerto Rico, but at least as far as he's willing to say, he doesn't know a damn thing about what Tony Hinchcliffe said and he doesn't want to sad for Tony Hinchcliffe, isn't it? From Saudi blood money to shady crypto schemes, we shouldn't overlook any of Trump's scandals. Trump barely understands

the concept of crypto himself in the past, having called it a scam. And now Trump conveniently found his way into one of the least regulated markets on the planet using the platform Ground News. I can see even Fox News isn't sold on this. Their headline says Trump crypto venture unveiling stirs skepticism. Our longtime sponsor, Ground News, compiles news sources for each story into one place so you can make up your own mind instead of being limited by the loudest and most biased opinions around you. Ground News breaks down the ownership and biases influencing each source's reporting so you can sort out for yourself what the truth is. So while Trump's fans keep rallying around the idea that he's a self-made billionaire with

America's best interests at heart, you can follow Trump on Ground News and see all the ways that Speaker 1 I want to tell you about an important part of my morning routine. The David Pakman Show David Pakman dot com. probiotics and more. Just filling the nutritional gaps supporting my gut. AG1 contains prebiotics, probiotics and gut supporting ingredients just to support digestion, reduce bloating. In a recent research study, AG1 was shown to double the healthy bacteria in the gut. These healthy bacteria work together, break down food and alleviate bloating, promote digestive regularity, aid in digestive comfort long term. AG one is made with bioavailable ingredients that work with your body. And what good is a supplement if your body can't absorb and use it? AG one's powder form makes it easy for your body to digest and access the nutrient

dense ingredients in the formula. AG one is giving you a free one year supply of vitamin D3K2 plus five free AG one travel packs with your first subscription order at drink AG one dot com slash Pacman. That's drink AG the number one dotcom slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. It's great to welcome to the program today for the first time, Congressman Joaquin Castro, former chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who's represented his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, in the House of Representatives since 2013. Congressman, it's so good to have you on.

You know, I'm going to start with something where, I mean, listen, I, I, depending on who you ask, things are looking great. Things are not looking so good in terms of house Senate presidency on Tuesday. It really seems to me starting at the top that the presidential election is a coin flip. If you said to me, make a really optimistic case for the vice president, I could do it. If you said, make an optimistic case for former president Trump, I could do it. What do you think this ultimately will come down to? And how much of a role do you think the Puerto Rico fiasco last Sunday at MSG as will, will play in the ultimate results?

No, I mean, you're right, David. Look, I mean, every presidential race is within a certain margin. Even the blowouts were within about a seven point margin. So once somebody becomes the Republican nominee or the Democratic nominee, they're about seven points away from being president. And this is a close race, but we knew all along that it was going to be a close race. And the gaffe and the mistake of Donald Trump putting on a platform this guy that spewed a lot of racism, you know, at that Madison Square Garden rally, I think was a huge mistake. It's obviously, it's really, it's offended a lot of people, but it's really struck people to the core in the Latino community in a way, I think, that has broken through a lot

of the usual noise with Donald Trump. You know, oftentimes he'll say something and maybe it'll get covered for a day and then everything moves on. This has found a lot of staying power, you know, because it really hit to the core. And part of it was, I think, also like the Mike Madrid I saw said this, that it wasn't Donald Trump that was speaking it. You know, Donald Trump is able to say things and get away with it in a way that other people, including his supporters, aren't. So it was somebody else besides Donald Trump that said it. And you notice that they didn't use any coded language here. They didn't say immigrants or migrants. They said the guy said Latinos. He was talking about Latinos and he was

talking about Puerto Rico, you know, all of Puerto Rico. And so, you know, a lot of folks I've talked to in the community are just on fire about it. Yeah. You know, as a non Puerto Rican, Hispanic American, myself from Argentina, with no particular allegiance to Puerto Rico, when I hear those comments and then the reaction, I know it's not just about Puerto Ricans because there's, there's this idea that, okay, yes, it's Puerto Ricans, but I think their opinions about Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are probably not dramatically distinguished. And that applies going south to Venezuela and Columbia and Argentina. So a lot of these analyses have said, Hey, if you look at Pennsylvania, for example, 490,000 Puerto Ricans, if this sways just some small number, think of what it could

do. I think that's too narrow because it's not just about Puerto Ricans being affected by this. In my view, I don't know if you agree. Yeah, no, I think that's right. No, I agree with you. I mean, you remember, you've got a lot of Mexican-Americans in Arizona, in Nevada, you know, and other places that are swing states as well. And, you know, and of course, other Latino communities. And for somebody who's undecided at this point or Latino that's undecided at this point, I think it becomes a matter of a few things. First, just a matter of self-respect, you know, that a guy that's running this brazen before the election, before he gets power, what's the guy going to do if he's in there for four years and he's not running for reelection, doesn't have to worry about pleasing anybody for their vote anymore. You know, I think people

start to feel like it's dangerous. There's a very interesting race in Texas over on the Senate side, which is Ted Cruz again, struggling to defend his seat. He had trouble with Beto O'Rourke. Now it's Colin all red. Now if you just said 50 50 bet who wins, I think the numbers still favor Ted Cruz. But the fact that he's having to defend the seat, the fact that the polling looks as tight as it's looked for him, and also that when you look at the presidential level, there is growing trouble in Texas for Republicans for 20 years.

We've heard as the demographics of Texas keep shifting, it's going to become purple and someday blue. And it's always like one or two election cycles away. What do you think is going on specifically with Cruz and then maybe like bigger picture in Texas? Well, I mean, look, Ted Cruz has had a likability problem for a while because when he came on the scene, we took office in January 2013. And I really think he thought he would be the Republican nominee for president in 2016.

And so he really wasn't paying much attention to things like constituent services. We had so many people that would call and say, you know, we call Ted Cruz's office and they don't call us back. I mean, just a basic thing of serving people, business groups and education groups that said we tried to set up a meeting in his office and, you know, they don't want to meet with us. And these weren't all liberal progressive groups. You know, they were, you know, what people would say are mainstream groups in Texas. And so I think fundamentally, he wasn't really paying attention to the job for a while.

And so there was some arrogance there. And then after that, that failure, like his, you know, his unforced error of going off to Cancun during that horrible winter storm that claimed hundreds of lives in Texas. It just continued to build this narrative for him that was really tough to get over. Sometimes, David, as you know, people will hold more against you if it's something personal or something principled than if it's a policy position. And the idea of somebody leaving in the middle of a freeze and not doing their job, you know, that's something whether you're a Democrat or Republican, if you do that, it's going to be a problem. And so he's got this likability issue. And then Texas has been

moving towards Democrats for, you know, at least a dozen years now. President Obama lost the presidential race, I think, by 16 points in 2012. Hillary Clinton by nine, Joe Biden by about 5.6. And so it's consistently getting closer. And it's not all demographics. That's not the only answer. Part of it also is the Republicans have just gotten so extreme. You think about it, the attorney general who himself was under indictment, Ken Paxton, he has been on the front line of, for example, trying to criminalize abortion and, you know, the most virulent anti-immigrant policies or lawsuits that you can think of. He's been leading the states in that, you know, so this has been ground zero for the extreme MAGA right-wing policies across the

country. And so I'm not surprised, you know, Texans have maintained, I think, a lot of their kind of either center- or center left positions. And they've seen the Republican Party just go to the far right now. You mentioned abortion, and I want to drill into that a little bit more and more of these specific stories about a woman in Georgia had this happen or in South Carolina. We hear this other story as a result of states really clamping down on just people being able to make the decisions that are right for them with medical professionals rather than politicians, uh, participating in those decisions. What are

you here? We know Texas is also at the forefront of this. What are you hearing or what can you share just about in Texas, some of the real practical consequences of what's happening with reproductive rights? Well, I think women are they're scared. They're scared to seek out an abortion. Some of them, you know, in the conversations that I've had with folks and folks have told me about their family members, some of them are scared to talk to extended family members about what's going on with them because, you know, they're literally afraid somebody is going to turn them into the attorney general of Texas. And so people are fundamentally worried. And but, you know, unfortunately, I think that's exactly what these some of these Republicans want. some of the extreme Republicans want. They want people

to be scared. And they also have gotten to a point, some of them, not all of them, but some of them have gotten to a point where they believe that if you're a woman who wants to consider having abortion, don't stay in Texas, move out of state, go to California, go to New Mexico, go somewhere else. If you're somebody who needs food stamps and you don't qualify in Texas, move out of state, go to California, go to New Mexico, go somewhere else. If you're somebody who needs food stamps and you don't qualify in Texas, just get out of here. You know, if you're somebody whose kids need a certain healthcare coverage or medical services that aren't offered in Texas because we've rejected federal money, then get out of here, go move somewhere else. You know, they're almost trying to to they're kind of disinviting people from staying in this state through their very harsh policies.

And they've got because they've been dominant in state politics now, you know, for close to 25 or 30 years, they've gotten to a point of incredible arrogance and just kind of shooing people off. If we zoom out a little bit and we could talk about Texas, but also nationally, there have been claims that this time around the black vote is not going to be with Kamala Harris. And I look at the polling. I don't see that reflected in the polling. We've heard from Donald Trump and others that this time around, the Jewish vote is going

to lean more heavily Republican. And I start with with black Americans and Jewish Americans because these are the two most reliable Democratic voting blocs. As a Jewish person myself, I couldn't tell you of a single Jewish person I know that's voting for Donald Trump, although I know they exist. But it doesn't seem reflected in the polls. When I look at the polls on the Latino vote, I do see a shift.

I see numbers that now, you know, it used to be, well, it's Cubans and Venezuelans that because of what happened in Cuba and Venezuela, they come to the U S they tend to support Republicans more than Democrats, but I'm hearing from Mexican Americans. I'm hearing from Colombians and not so many Argentinians, but occasionally do. Are you worried about what the numbers are looking like right now in terms of the expected Harris-Trump split with Latino voters? Well, I think she's going to do better than a lot of the prognostications early on. I mean, there were two recent polls that had her in the 60s. Actually, I think it was the TargetSmart analysis that had her at about 62, with still some undecided or unaccounted for, and then an ABC poll that showed her at 64 now. You know, so I still think, I'm optimistic, I still think she's going to be approaching at least those Biden numbers.

But no, I mean, look, the best I can make of it is this. With a lot of Latinos, and I'll speak for the Mexican-American community in Texas, because you've seen some bleed off in the Rio Grande Valley, for example, and some of the rural areas in Texas. There's a lot of people who feel like they've been screwed by the system. Like they've been left out, they're disadvantaged by it. And, you know, just at this meta level, Donald Trump has this image of sticking the finger at the system.

And so if you just look from afar, I think, oh, well, there's this guy who's sticking the finger at the system that screws me over. I like that. I like somebody like messing with the system. I like somebody shaking things up. But, you know, if you drill down to what he's doing, yeah, he's got no plans for anything. He's making it harder

for people to achieve their American dreams in this country, harder to buy a house, harder for students to get out from all this student debt, harder to get health care coverage. Mike Johnson just the other day said that if Donald Trump wins and they've got a Republican Congress, they are going to undo the Affordable Care Act. They're going to do away with Obamacare. There's so many Mexican-Americans in Texas that are suffering through things like diabetes right now that if you take away Obamacare, all those folks now have this pre-existing condition again that's going to make it harder to maintain healthcare coverage for them. You know, so, so from this like meta level, I can see where some people see him and think this is the guy taking on the establishment, but really he is the very

creation of the establishment, somebody who inherited all this money from his father and that set him up for success in business. He complained about paying overtime the other day to his workers. You know, so he's kind of the physicist to the working guy. Last thing I want to ask you about temporary protected status. When the topic of the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, comes up, sometimes there are people in the Republican Party who just say they are here illegally. Now, of course, we know that that's not true. They're here with temporary protected status and it dates

back if it's either 91 or 93. This is not something that Biden Harris created or Obama created. This has been around for more than 30 years. Then when confronted with that, Donald Trump and to some degree, J.D. Vance have said, well, we're going to change that. And what that alludes to is deporting individuals who are here with legal status. Have you and your colleagues talked at all about how plausible is that that that could become a reality? Is there really a path to doing that? Even if you change the law around TPS, would it be retroactive or are these folks

who here are here now with this status, are they relatively safe? Well, I think what they would do, what his approach would be is that when when TPS is up for these groups because you've got to renew it, they would let it lapse. I see. That's the real danger is that if it's up in a year, if it's up in two years for a particular group, then they would let it lapse. And that's consistent with what we hear about mass deportation. Also, just a very aggressive policy of of going after anybody that they don't consider American. And by the way, if you're a Hispanic male thinking about voting for Donald Trump, the last two times in this country where Latinos were really affected by mass deportation policies, once around what was called Operation Wetback, and then before that during the Great Depression, there were over a million American citizens, Latino Americans, who were deported to Mexico, who had every right to be in this country, but because of mass deportation by the federal government, they got wrapped up in this effort

and got sent to Mexico. I mean, they literally, they had every right to be in the country, and they ended up in Mexico. So, you know, my feeling is that folks have not really, that we, since it's not in our generation, none of us has seen it up front. But that's what's at stake is that a lot of people or their their mothers or their sisters or their godchildren, whoever it may be, are going to get wrapped up in these kinds of policies. Speaker 1 Congressman Joaquin Castro, really appreciate your time today.

Good luck on your race. And we're going to be following all of it very closely. Speaker 2 Good to on your race. And we're going to be following all of it very closely. Good to be with you. the ashtrays, the thing in your lip that people can see. I've seen that around. This is an easier and less messy way to curb the cravings. And you can use Zypix just about anywhere. Zypix is available in six flavors with two or three milligrams strength. The nicotine and the flavor are long lasting and Zypix has helped countless people kick the bad habits and they are bad habits. Zypix toothpicks are FDA registered. Their customer service is second to none. It is one of the most cost effective alternatives. Also check out their

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new Helix mattress with a full money back guarantee? And right now, Helix is offering my audience 20 percent off all mattress orders when you go to Helix sleep dot com slash Pacman. That's H E L I X sleep dot com slash Pacman for 20 percent off. The link is in the podcast notes. All right, we're going to review the comments of a couple of Republicans that have endorsed Donald Trump and sort of seem to be doing so for reasons that I don't understand, but maybe even more importantly, that they don't understand. We're going to look at Senator Marco Rubio's recent comments. But before getting to that, I want to start with Nikki Haley and the Nikki Haley story

is an interesting one because Nikki Haley ultimately kissed the ring and said she is endorsing Trump, although she's done it in a way that is much more hesitant by kind of re clarifying and restating many times that it's in a context where the alternative is Kamala Harris in which she is endorsing Trump. She and Trump have had their disagreements. But the reality is that she has previously said many times Trump is unfit to serve. He is disqualified. He shouldn't be anywhere near the Oval Office.

And now she goes, well, he's still better than Kamala Harris because that's a disaster. So Nikki Haley now with just days before this election appears on Fox News yesterday and tries to justify her support for Trump by referencing her own husband, her own husband, who's in the military. What is I don't know what the right word is. Is it ironic? Is it humiliating? Is it embarrassing?

Is it sad? The reality is Trump made fun of her husband. Trump demeaned her husband for missing a debate in which she participated because her husband was deployed, something that Donald Trump would never do. And so it's really weird, really weird to hear Nikki Haley defend her support of Trump in these terms. Let's listen. I look at an economy that's been tough for Let's listen. I look at an economy that's

been tough for all of us. I look at my son who's worried about paying rent. I look at my husband who's a combat veteran who I worry about any world wars that are going to happen. All of these things have put us in a much more challenging position with Donald Trump. We know what we're going to get. We lived the economy under Donald Trump. We know how strong he was on the border. We know how energy dominant we were. And then we also know what our national security looked like. And so I don't agree with Trump 100 percent of the time, but I don't agree with Kamala Harris on anything. You know what's so funny about this? We could pick apart each of these things. You know, I look at my husband who's a combat veteran.

Trump has said that people who join are suckers and losers. Trump said, oh, where's Nikki's husband? He's not even there. Well, he's deployed. He's made fun of her husband not being there. And her husband was doing something Trump would never have the testicular fortitude to do. Nikki Haley says we were energy independent by their definition, which is how much oil and gas are we producing? The country is more energy independent now under Biden than it ever was under Trump. None of these are good reasons to support Donald Trump. And so, of course, at the end of the day, what it is is that Nikki Haley knows she has no credible path to doing what Liz Cheney did.

She just has no path to it at all. And so she's just going with Trump. She's going with Trump. And maybe it's because of her future ambitions or whatever the case may be. Brett Baier, not a guy I'm a fan of, but Brett Baier did ask a pretty reasonable question of Nikki Haley, where he said, you don't see him as dangerous and a threat to democracy because you've said it many times. And Nikki Haley just kind of minimizes it to a question of style.

And lastly, very quickly, because tonight we're going to hear a lot about it. You have no doubts that this president is not a threat to democracy, is not dangerous, is not unhinged, that they will hear tonight. Look, I don't have to. You don't have to agree with his style. His style and his wording isn't always the best, but his policies. I am choosing policy over personality. She is so pathetic.

She is it. It almost makes me feel bad. But but it doesn't because she's just she's choosing to do this. She says it's about policy over personality. But she said American people will not vote for a convicted criminal. Now she's voting for one and telling other Americans to do it. She said that he's unhinged. And now she's saying the unhinged guy is the guy to carry out the right policy. That's what we're supposed to believe from Nikki Haley.

It's as pathetic as anything I've seen other than maybe Marco Rubio yesterday. So let's talk about that. Marco Rubio spoke at the Trump rally that took place yesterday in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Marco Rubio is a Republican senator representing Florida. And Marco Rubio is of a Cuban background and generically part of the Latino electorate that is running away from Trump as fast as they can after the comments made on Sunday by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico being a floating pile of garbage. So here's Marco Rubio speaking at the rally, and he seems confused about why he's supporting Trump.

And from what he says, it sounds like Marco should be supporting Kamala Harris. We are tired of being a country where everything is bad news. We're tired of being a country constantly in fear of what's next, what's going to happen now. Some other bad headline about something happening bad in the world and we can't do anything about it or. Bad headlines about what's coming next in our economy or bad headlines about things are going to cost more and you just have to put up with it. People are tired. They want to be hopeful again.

They want to be joyful again. They want to believe in a prosperous America again. They want a better future again. That's what he likes. He seems to be saying Americans are sick of the chaos. And so Marco is voting for the chaos machine, which is Donald Trump. That is a wild justification for voting for Donald Trump. It would be more credible if Marco said, hey, you know what? I just like his tax policy. His tax policy is going to help me.

I know a few people who have said to me, I think Trump's nuts. I'm disgusted with the things he says. I'm disgusted with the things he does. But if Kamala Harris gets her way, she's going to raise my taxes and Trump's going to lower them. And I'd rather have more money in my pocket. That's all it is. And I don't find it morally upstanding, but at least it's honest where it's not, oh, we

need to get away from the chaos and we need to go to joy. Therefore, vote for Donald Trump. There's too much chaos with Kamala. So let's instead go to the guy that incited the riot on January 6th, 2021. And there's a moment as Marco Rubio is speaking here where he kind of seems to pause for a second and kind of, I, I dream he's realizing, damn, I really should be voting for Kamala if this is what I want, but I'm here at a Trump rally and people are expecting me to say good things about Trump. It's complete incoherence.

And one of the things that I don't know when, you know, hopefully it'll be in three months if Trump loses and we can do the honest postmortem. If Trump wins, it's going to be four and a half years before at least before we can do the honest postmortem. It would be great if at some point a large swath of these people who supported Trump were willing to publicly kind of cop to what they did and go, yeah, you know, I, I was just led by group think and peer pressure, but it was all bad. It really was.

And I wouldn't forgive them because they're knowingly being deceptive about this. I wouldn't forgive them because they're knowingly being deceptive about this. I wouldn't forgive them, but I would at least acknowledge that all along they were part of the grift. They were part of the bamboozling of the electorate into telling people who some of whom don't seem to know any better. Sadly, I know that it's like we don't want to take agency away from people, but some of these people have just been grifted and bamboozled and they don't seem to know any better. They were part of the grifting. They grifted and bamboozled and they don't seem to know any better. They were part of the grifting.

They were part of the bamboozling. Marco Rubio absolutely is part of that. Nikki Haley absolutely is part of that. Chris Christie was part of that and he opted out now where there are still some repercussions. He's not going to be close to the president if the president is Donald Trump. He's given that up because of the things he said. I respect that to a degree. We've got a fantastic bonus show for you today.

Mysterious statues are popping up in Washington, D.C. What are they? What is going on? The Washington Post has now seen 10 percent of its subscribers cancel because they decided they will not be making an endorsement for president this time around. And Steve Bannon is out of prison and he says he is empowered now. Yikes. Empowered to do what? We will talk about all of it on today's bonus show. Sign up at join Pacman dot com. And remember to preorder my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine. I've got to get an update on preorders. I need to do that. Add your name to the preorder list at David Pakman dot com slash echo. I'll see you on

the bonus show and be back tomorrow. Just five days as of tomorrow before this major, major election.