The David Pakman Show - 10/9/24: Kamala has a gun and drops the hammer, Trump attacks women

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

-- On the Show: -- A deep dive into the comparisons between, and often taboo of, comparing Donald Trump or other modern-day authoritarians to the dictators of history, including Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Kim Jong Un, and others -- Kamala Harris reveals that she owns and has fired a gun, among other interesting statements that sent MAGA into a frenzy -- Bob Woodward reveals that Donald Trump regularly speaks to Vladimir Putin since leaving office and that Trump sent Putin COVID tests at the height of the pandemic for his personal use at a time when they were scarce -- Exploring the real reason that Donald Trump canceled his interview with 60 Minutes, including the disastrous last time he was on with Leslie Stahl -- Kamala Harris does not hold back when asked about Donald Trump canceling his interview with 60 Minutes -- Donald Trump's memory once against fails badly, this time when talking about hurricanes -- During a Fox News event with Laura Ingraham, Donald Trump launches a final and disgusting attack against women just weeks before the 2024 election -- On the Bonus Show: Florida prepares for Hurricane Milton, and much more... 🔊 Babbel language learning: Get up to 60% OFF at https://babbel.com/pakman ⚠️ Ground News: Get 40% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 👕 Sponsored by Printful: Build and grow your business at https://davidpakman.com/printful  🛏️ Eight Sleep: Get $350 OFF the Pod 4 Ultra at https://eightsleep.com/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN10 saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.com -- 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, my friends, to day two in Las Vegas, Nevada. A lot of very interested comments from people in the audience about yesterday's bonus show, including the hijinks on my flight and a bunch of other things. But alas, there will be more on forthcoming bonus shows. Kamala has a gun and MAGA really doesn't like this. So they started with she's obviously lying. Now we're going to look at an interview here. Kamala Harris is asked about her gun ownership.

Kamala Harris addresses this issue of gun ownership that she has talked about before. This is on the now much discussed 60 Minutes interview. She agreed to be interviewed by 60 Minutes. Donald Trump agreed to be interviewed by 60 Minutes. Donald Trump backed out and it's a complete and total mess. Why is it that they are so furious about Kamala Harris having a gun. The same reason that they're really insecure about the fact that Tim Walls is a guy who knows about guns and knows about farming and knows about fixing the clutch on his truck because they want to be the monopolizers of this kind of de facto view on masculinity and gun ownership and stick-to-itiveness and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, even if it's an impossibility of the physical world to do so. They want a monopoly on that.

And so what they've resorted to is just saying everything Kamala says is a lie. She says she works at mcdonald's i don't have any videos of her running the friolator she says she has a gun i just don't want to believe that so here is kamala harris asked do you have a gun what kind of gun have you ever fired it's a hard left turn here but um you recently surprised people when you said that you are a gun owner. And then if someone came into your house... That was not the first time I've talked about it. That's not the first time I've talked about it. So what kind of gun do you own and when and why did you get it?

I have a Glock and I've had it for quite some time. And I mean, look, look bill my background is in law enforcement and um so there you go have you uh ever fired it yes of course i have at a shooting range yes of course i have all right so i i don't know how many people realize this but there are many liberal gun owners in the United States. And I've talked in detail about the view of so many of my friends, and I try to keep myself out of it. I don't think it's really useful in this context to talk about what guns I do or don't own or anything like that. But let me speak generically. Many of my liberal friends in blue states and in red states

and in the United Shaysh, regardless of where they are, there is a growing view that they would love everything to be different about guns. I wish we didn't have what's the number 400 million guns floating around. I wish they weren't so easy to get. I wish permitless carry wasn't a thing. I wish we didn't have what's the number 400 million guns floating around. I wish they weren't so easy to get. I wish permitless carry wasn't a thing. I wish you were required to carry liability insurance. I wish you had to be relicensed. I wish you had to all of these things. But given that there are 400 million guns and they are so easy to get, I don't think I want the right wingers to be the only people with the guns, I don't think I want the right wingers to be the only people with the guns.

I don't think I want a situation that is extraordinarily unlikely to come forward. But if it were to happen, I don't want to have an entire political group that lacks a tool that the rest of them have. Now, the conflict for a lot of liberal gun owners that I talk to, and it makes sense to me intuitively, is on the one hand, you might be aware of the data about defensive gun uses versus accidental shooting and all of these different things that point to, this is not really that great of an idea. And yet and yet this feeling that we don't want only the right wing nuts having the guns in certain scenarios has inspired many liberal, many liberals, I know, to become liberal gun

owners. And Kamala Harris is apparently one of those. And MAGA really doesn't like it. Now, a couple of interesting things. Kamala Harris was asked, how would she pay for her economic plan and how would she get it through Congress? The press have been wanting to ask this. MAGA has been wanting her to be asked this. Here's what she had to say. The question was, how are you going to pay for it? Well, one of the things I'm going to make sure that the richest among us who can afford it pay their fair share in taxes.

It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations. And I plan on making that fair. But we're dealing with the real world here. But the real world includes- How are you going to get this through Congress? When you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I'm talking about because their constituents know exactly what I'm talking about. Their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses.

Their constituents are middle class, hardworking folks. And Congress has shown no inclination to move in your direction. I disagree with you. There are plenty of leaders in Congress who understand and know that the Trump tax cuts blew up our federal deficit. None of us, and certainly I cannot afford to be myopic in terms of how I think about strengthening America's economy. Let me tell you something. I am a devout public servant. You know that I'm also a capitalist. All right. So like, listen, I don't think this is a blockbuster, like, oh my goodness, she completely killed it sort of answer. But it is the truth in the sense that whenever you're

talking about getting legislation through and so on and so forth, you always have a balance between here's my campaign and here's what I would like to do. All right. Ideally, candidates promise things that they genuinely want to do. Remember that Donald Trump often promised things he has no interest in. So we start with here's my campaign wish list. I really want to do these things. Great. We next get to how are you going to pay for them and how do you build the consensus that's required? How do you want to pay for them is our first branch, which is a fair question. It's a beautiful question, should be answered. And also, we never really ask that question when it comes to how are we going to pay for

all these missiles we keep buying as part of the military industrial complex? How are we going to pay for this war? The question of how are you going to pay for it is disproportionately asked of democrats and it's disproportionately asked in bad faith but it's still a fine question the answers generically are i will pay for it by raising net revenue or cutting expenditures somewhere it's that simple and then the devil in the details is what do you cut? Who do you increase taxes on? How do you do it? We then get to how do you get these through legislatively? And then this takes us to our final branching path. There are certain things a president can

do by executive order. And there are certain things a president needs the House and Senate to do. The takeaway should be, I believe Kamala Harris wants to do the things she says she wants to do. I don't believe, I don't believe that even with a majority in the House and Senate, she gets to do everything that's on her economic plan. And very importantly, number three, if we want her to have a shot at doing any of these things, any of them that don't require that, that require congressional approval, we need to focus on down ballot. And I know we're now 27 days, 26, 28 days from the election. It's not just about the presidential election. It's not just about the presidential election. It's about the House and Senate.

And there's no greater reminder of that than the fact that she may well need the House and Senate in order to have a shot at getting any of these things done. Lastly, Kamala Harris talked about compromise and consensus. And on this question, it was more supposed left-wingers that were angry. You're going to compromise with the devil. And Kamala Harris talks about the difference between compromise and compromising your values versus compromise to get something done without compromising your values. Let's look at that. Let me tell you what your critics and the columnists say.

OK. They say the reason so many voters don't know you is that you have changed your position on so many things. You were against fracking. Now you're for it. You supported looser immigration policies. Now you're tightening them up. You were for Medicare for all.

Now you're not. So many that people don't truly know what you believe or what you stand for. And I know you've heard that. In the last four years, I have been vice president of the United States. And I have been traveling our country. And I have been listening to folks and seeking what is possible in terms of common ground. I believe in building consensus. We are a diverse people, geographically, regionally, in terms of where we are in our backgrounds. And what the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus, where we can figure out compromise and understand it's not a bad thing, as long as you don't compromise your values,

to find common sense solutions. And that has been my approach. This is really interesting. Compromise with people you disagree with without compromising your values. It's not a wild idea. And the supposed left-wingers who are saying this is the proof that she's going to give the right what it wants. Think about criminal justice reform. I would like all nonviolent drug offenders out of prison. Republicans have power and they want no

nonviolent drug offenders out of prison, but they'd be willing to allow some out in exchange for stepping up police budgets in high crime areas. Okay, maybe there's compromise there. We're not compromising our values. We're getting some of what we want. We're not giving away anything we think is terrible or really compromises at a principle level. So you compromise and you get something done. Or as another example, drug price negotiation. Progressives and some Republicans think drug prices are too high. Okay, the reasons why may vary. The solutions may vary. Legislation that lets Medicare negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies allows progressives to say, here's the approach we want to take. And Republicans might come in and say, okay, we'll allow you as the government to negotiate drug prices with

pharmaceutical companies, but only 25 drugs. And we want to maintain market dynamics elsewhere. We're not sacrificing our values in the sense that the market system we already have. We're taking the system we have and saying, let's improve upon part of it. And then in another year or two, you try to go further. This is the Ted Kennedy incrementalist view. And I think it makes a lot of sense. I have a whole chapter in my forthcoming book about accelerationism, which is like destroy all of it to then build it back up from the ground up.

I don't think history tells us that that works. And so the incremental approach makes sense. Kamala's approach makes sense. And I thought she did a really good job with this interview. In Bob Woodward's forthcoming book, you know, I'm going to tell you something that on the one hand, so insane that I have to report to you. And on the other hand, is it really a

surprise? Bob Woodward reports in his forthcoming book that, number one, Donald Trump has had seven meetings in the three and a half years since he left office with Vladimir Putin. We didn't know about this. Trump sort of offhandedly said at the debate a few weeks ago, I've been meeting with Putin. I talked to Putin. And everybody said he? Is he talking about since leaving office? Yes. Trump is talking to Putin since leaving office. And in addition to this, we found out that during the height of COVID, when tests were even in short supply in the United States, Donald Trump sent tests to Putin for personal use. There are people raising the question of whether this behavior is treasonous. Number one, why is Trump talking to Putin? What are they talking about? What is going on here? Especially in the context of Donald Trump's

unwillingness during the recent debate to talk in real terms about what he thinks should happen in Ukraine with Russia's illegal invasion there? And we find out Trump's been talking to Putin roughly every six months. And then, of course, while Trump publicly was saying we're trying to get tests, we're going to get more tests, we're manufacturing tests. In the meantime, find out that Trump is sending tests to Vladimir Putin. This re-raises questions about Trump being a de facto Russian asset. Oh, oh my goodness, David. I'm not saying he's a Russian spy. I'm not saying he's a Russian agent.

I'm saying that he becomes this kind of useful idiot asset, maybe even despite himself, because he's so charmed by Vladimir Putin. saying that he becomes this kind of useful idiot asset, maybe even despite himself, because he's so charmed by Vladimir Putin. Bait, he lets slip that he talks to Putin when that wasn't public information. Seems he finally told the truth about something. He has been talking to Vladimir Putin. So an extraordinary series of revelations.

And if I'm honest, what's with Bob Woodward keeping these bombshells of national security consequence in his books to sell copies of the book? Now, I would not deny anyone the ability to sell your book. I understand. I've got a book coming out. I understand that you want to not give it all away so that people go and buy the book. I get it. And this is the second time. This is not idle celebrity gossip is the point I'm trying to make.

This is the second time that Woodward has held back issues and facts related to national security and Trump's possible connection to a brutal authoritarian Vladimir Putin simply for book sales. And that's where I want to leave a question with you. Do you believe that Woodward is genuinely doing something wrong here by withholding these matters of national security for the book? Or is it, hey, that's the world we live in. He gets to do it. And we still have

four weeks during which this information can now be evaluated and considered by voters. Let me know what you think. Info at David Pakman dot com. And please remember to make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel, YouTube dot com slash the David Pakman show. I love exploring new countries. If you follow me on Instagram, you see me in Italy or France or Denmark, Spain. I do speak English and Spanish fluently, but if I'm going somewhere where there is a different language spoken, I turn to an app called Babbel. Our sponsor Babbel is the app that can help you start speaking a new language in as little as three weeks. I'm busy running a business. My daughter is running around. So Babbel's bite sized 10 minute lessons are just

perfect for me. I can do it on the go, do it during a lunch break. It's only a little bit of a time commitment each time. And you end up with a surprising level of comfort with the language after just a few weeks, which was perfect before my recent trip to Italy. Studies from Yale, Michigan State University and others continue to prove Babel is better and Babel is faster. One study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a semester at college in a language class. Here's a special limited time deal for my audience right now. Get up to 60 percent off your Babel subscription, but only for my audience at Babel dot com slash Pacman.

Rules and restrictions may apply. Get up to 60 percent off at Babel dot com slash Pacman spelled B.A.B.B.E.L. dot com slash Pacman. B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash Pacman. Rules and restrictions may apply. The link is in the podcast notes. Donald Trump has made it clear in a truth social post that if he gets elected, he will prosecute people in response to imaginary voter fraud using the Justice Department as his personal tool for revenge. And it's crazy how conservative news outlets are framing this story like this headline from Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire, which says Governor Burgum defends Trump against leftist outrage over his demand for fair

elections. Meanwhile, when independent media outlet Mother Jones is reporting on the same story, their headline is the Trump plan to prosecute election officials and suppress the vote. So you get a totally different idea of the story depending on who's reporting it. Our sponsor, Ground News, makes it really easy to see these differences for every news story. Ground News shows me a breakdown of how each outlet is framing the story, who owns the outlet, what their political biases. So you can make up your own mind. I can also follow Ground News's dedicated twenty twenty four presidential

election page for each candidate, which is an amazing tool right now just to sort out fact from fiction on the race. And my viewers get 40 percent off the same unlimited access vantage plan that I use. When you go to ground dot news slash Pacman, dodge the manipulation and see the media landscape more transparently. Go to ground dot news slash Pacman to get 40 percent off ground news is unlimited access vantage plan. The link is in The David Pakman show, of course, is supported directly by our audience. This has been the case for a long time. You know, revenue sources, they come and they go. Advertisers are here or they're gone when you say the wrong thing.

You have YouTube revenue or it's cut off by YouTube when all of a sudden they don't like you. Facebook, same thing. Tic Tac, same thing. But membership is really the sustaining revenue source that both keeps us independent and kind of helps to ride out the ups and downs that take place with a lot of these other revenue sources. So consider signing up at joinpacman.com. We do an extra show every single day for our members. And it's a beautiful thing, they tell me. And you can use the coupon code SAVEDEMOCRACY24 to get a significant discount off of the cost of your membership. 60 minutes.

Why did Trump cancel the damn 60 minutes interview? You will be led to believe by MAGA, by Trump, by Trump's advisors, by dilettantes and, you know, by whoever. You will be led to believe that Trump canceled because the interview would have been unfair because they were going to do this, that or the other thing. There is a damning video, a damning video of Scott Pelley explaining what the Trump administration or the Trump campaign rather wanted from them in terms of the interview that would not

be on 60 Minutes. Take a listen to this. Then a week ago, Trump backed out. The campaign offered shifting explanations. First, it complained that we would fact check the interview. We fact-check every story. Later, Trump said he needed an apology for his interview in 2020. Trump claims correspondent Leslie Stahl said in that interview that Hunter Biden's controversial laptop came from Russia. She never said that. Trump has said his opponent doesn't do interviews because she can't handle them. He had previously declined another debate with Harris. So tonight may have been the largest audience for the candidates between now and Election Day. How pathetic is this? How pathetic is this?

Trump is the guy who claims to be a tough negotiator and he can't even sit down for 60 minutes and answer a few real questions. And let's be real. This is what Trump always does. He loves the stage when it's about him and praising him. And he's this pseudo deity that everybody should be genuflecting in front of. But here's a moment, an opportunity for accountability. How will you achieve the things you claim you will be able to achieve? We will fact check as we do everybody. There's nothing special.

It's not biased to fact check Trump. It would be biased not to fact check Trump. And this gets us to a critical principle about a group that wants to wants you to believe that they are the pinnacle of manliness and strength and all of it. They want you to believe that everything is biased against them. But the reality is that if they got what they wanted, everything would be biased in their favor it cuts to voiceover, and it says, when we investigated, we determined that A is actually not true. B is true. When we asked the guest for proof of A, they simply said they would get back to us. As of this moment, they never did, right? We all know that 60 minutes voiceover. If they didn't fact check Trump, it would be biased in his favor.

And the reality is that for a lot of reasons, Trump can't handle a serious interview. Trump constitutionally and for personality reasons, he can't handle a serious interview. He has no real answers. Secondly, Trump doesn't even understand most of the policy that he espouses. I talked about this. I just filmed a great interview with sean mike kelly got a big podcast here in vegas i taped it this morning and hopefully it'll be it'll be out soon um and we talked about the fact that trump has ideas whether they are good ideas or bad ideas is one layer of analysis. Whether Trump even understands the ideas is another layer of analysis. Trump would be confronted in a real interview, not with Brian Glenn or Real America's Voice, Right Side Broadcasting, Sean Hannity,

Laura Ingraham, whatever, with the researched empirical realities about the things he wants to do. But there's another aspect to this. Yeah, Trump can't talk policy. He can't talk solution. His brain is also not what it was at one point in time. And what Trump has internalized is personal grievances, witch hunts, imaginary enemies, a sort of paranoid, delusional state of mind. very common, very common among those suffering from cognitive decline. I'm not saying that's why Trump is such a triggered snowflake, but it's certainly not helping. He's a guy running for president yet again, and he refuses to show up for a basic sit down. And so the question that we really should be asking is, if he's this afraid of 60 minutes, how does anyone expect him to leave the country? You know, Trump loves saying about Kamala Harris, if she can't handle the press,

how could she handle Putin? Well, Trump seems to be the one enamored of Putin. Trump seems to be the one that unquestioningly accepts everything that Putin says. But if Trump can't handle 60 minutes, how can we expect him to handle anything? Now, as a reminder, I know I played this clip last week when the 60 minutes story started. Here is what happened with Trump last time he did 60 minutes. He did not like basic journalistic questions from Leslie Stahl, and he just walked off in the middle of the interview. Do you think that your tweets and your name-calling are turning people off? No, I think I wouldn't be here if I didn't have social media.

But the media is fake, and frankly, if I didn't have social media, I'd have no way of getting out my voice. Do you know what you told me a long time ago when I asked why you keep saying fake media? Yeah. when I asked why you keep saying fake media, you said to me, I say that because I need to discredit you so that when you say negative things about me, no one will believe you. I don't have to discredit you. But that's what you told me. You've discredited yourself.

You know, I didn't want to have this kind of angry... Of course you did. No, I didn't. Of course you did. No, I didn't. Well, then you brought up a lot of subjects that were inappropriately brought up. Well, I said I'm going to ask you tough questions.

They were inappropriately brought up right from the beginning. No, your first question was, this is going to be tough questions. Why? You don't ask Joe Biden. I saw your interview with Joe, the interview with Joe Biden. I never did a Joe Biden interview. It was a Joe, the interview, 60 Minutes. I see Joe Biden giving softball after softball.

I've seen all of his interviews. He's never been asked a question that's hard. Okay, but forget him for a minute. No, but you start with me. You're president. Excuse me, Leslie, you started with me. Your first statement was, are you ready for tough questions? Are you?

That's no way to talk. That's no way to talk. Leslie, one second. questions. Are you? That's no way to talk. That's no way to talk. At this point, one of our producers interrupted to advise about the time remaining in the interview. I think we have enough of an interview here, Hope. Okay, that's enough. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go meet for two seconds, okay? Thanks. I'll see you in a little while. Thanks. Be careful. Yeah. So, I mean, put everything else aside. That's also part of why Donald Trump doesn't want to do another 60 minutes interview.

And then finally, an interesting moment, a moment when Tim Walls also sat down with 60 minutes. Everybody's doing it other than Trump. Tim Walls sat down with 60 minutes and said, people know who I am and they know the difference between his verbal slip ups and Trump who lies pathologically. Take a listen to this. In your debate with J.D. Vance, you said, I'm a knucklehead at times. And I think you were referring to the time that you said that you were in Hong Kong

during the Tiananmen Square unrest when you were not. Yeah. Is that kind of misrepresentation, isn't that more than just being a knucklehead? I think folks know who I am, and I think they know the difference between someone expressing emotion, telling a story, getting a date wrong by a rather than a pathological liar like Donald Trump. But I think it comes down to the question of whether whether you can be trusted to tell the truth. Yeah, well, I can. I think I can. I will own up to being a knucklehead at times. but the folks closest to me know that I keep my word.

I have no problem with this explanation. I did have a problem last week when Tim Walls was initially questioned about, hey, you know, you said you were in China during the Tiananmen Square situation, but you didn't get there till months later. And Walls didn't do a good job of just going, I got the dates wrong. I was there that summer. I got the dates wrong. I'm sorry. He didn't do that right away. And he didn't do that in the interview after the fact. He now has come to what he should have said at the beginning, which is I got the dates wrong. And what I love, I actually believe that there's strength in Walls saying that for two reasons. Number one, Walls getting a date wrong is different than Trump's pathological line.

And drawing that contrast is really important. But more importantly, Trump never apologizes. Trump never says he got anything wrong. When he got when he told the wrong story about where a hurricane was expected to go, rather than say, oh, I got that wrong. It wasn't going towards Alabama. He got a Sharpie and he drew with a Sharpie on the hurricane map. So Wall's also acknowledging I got a date wrong, makes him relatable in that way. And that's also a very interesting 60 Minutes interview in and of itself. Let's now go to Kamala Harris's opinion about Trump bailing on 60

minutes. We heard from so many different people about Donald Trump bailing on 60 minutes. We heard from Trump and people around him. It's all biased. It would be unfair. We've debunked all of that. We've gotten that all out of the way. During her interview with 60 minutes, Kamala Harris was asked, what do you think of Trump canceling his plan to be here? And here's what she had to say. You are sitting here with us. The Trump campaign canceled an interview that they had agreed to, to participate in this broadcast. What do you make of that? If he is not going to give your viewers the ability to have a meaningful, thoughtful conversation,

question and answer with you, then watch his rallies. You're going to hear conversations that are about himself and all of his personal grievances. And what you will not hear is anything about you, the listener. You will not hear about how he's going to try

to bring the country together, find common ground. And Bill, that is why I believe in my soul and heart the American people are ready to turn the page. I believe that Kamala Harris nails it right here. Trump ducking out of a 60 Minutes interview, first of all, is not surprising because it's always about Trump. How great are you, sir?

With tears in my eyes, you're so great. He's never been able to handle tough questions. His rallies are sort of like his public therapy session where he vents the same personal grievances and lies on repeat, whining about the media, whining about his legal troubles, whining about how everybody's out to get him. And what's missing from the rallies and from the discourse is any plan to help Americans when Trump doesn't have a direct stake, helping people

just for the sake of helping people. If you're watching the rallies, you're not hearing how he'll reduce inflation. He tells you that it's high, even though it's come down, and he'll tell you it'll come down when he's president, even though he won't tell you why. If it's health care, he's been promising a health care plan since, really since 2016, but more acutely, it's been two weeks away since August of 2020, and we never get it. And only when he's actually confronted, do you have the plan? And he goes, well, I have concepts of a plan. I'm not president right now.

We finally realize he has no idea what is going on here. And so the only way, whether you want to hear, how will you bring back manufacturing jobs? Like how exactly will you do it? I will make deals. Doesn't really cut it or healthcare or abortion or whatever. You're not getting it from the rallies and you're not getting it from the sycophant interviews or the brown nosing town halls. It's woe is me. I'm the biggest victim in the world. And Kamala Harris is spot on, which is people hopefully are done with it. And even people who lean right want, I believe, serious solutions to problems. There are people on the right who would propose solutions I don't think would work.

But Trump's not proposing any solutions at all. I will fix inflation and I will fix crime and I will fix trade and I will fix health care and I will fix abortion. These are not solutions. In the interview with 60 Minutes, Trump would have been forced to account for how he would do it. And if he refused, the voiceover would come in from Scott Pelley. When pressed for details, Trump's campaign refused to say or provide any documentation for a claim A, B, C, D. We would expect nothing less of 60 minutes. Trump can't do it.

He can't do it because his brain's not up to it, and he can't do it because he doesn't think he should have to, and he can't do it because the policies don't actually work. Will this make a difference in terms of the trajectory of the campaign? Probably not. Probably not. Probably not. But another real test of character. And Trump failed the test and he failed it badly. If you run a business or organization and want to get your brand out there or even just

have your own DIY project, like maybe helping a political candidate spread their message, Printful is the perfect way to do it. Our sponsor Printful is the world's number one on demand print and fulfillment service. Printful empowers your business or personal projects by giving you a huge range of high quality products, easy to use design tools and seamless integration with your online store. So Printful can ship directly to your customers. Or if you're just getting The David Pakman Show David Pakman dot com. We'll handle everything, production, packaging and shipping. You can get your design printed or embroidered on just about anything. Clothing, coffee mugs, magnets, even unusual ones like dog collars and puzzles. And it is election season. So if you want to help get the word out about your favorite candidate, Printful is the perfect

place to do it. Get your political message printed on T-shirts, posters, flags, bumper stickers. The possibilities are endless. Get started at David Pakman dot com slash printful. The link is in the podcast notes. That's David Pakman dot com slash P.R.I.N.T. F.U.L. I always get hot when I sleep. It's plagued me my whole life, but I found the solution and it is eight sleep. Our sponsor eight sleep has released the newest model of the pod, the incredible device that fits right over your mattress like a fitted sheet. It can cool down your bed to just 20 degrees below the room temperature, or it can heat your bed up,

which can be useful in the winter or for muscle relaxation. I keep mine on the cold setting. It is a great feeling to sleep with one of these. I just wake up more refreshed. And science has shown that lowering your body temperature at night can let you sleep better and feel better the next day. And eight sleeps new model. The Pod for Ultra has a revolutionary new feature. It can detect when you are snoring and lift your head so that you can breathe better. Pod for ultra also introduces an adjustable base that fits between your mattress and your bed frame to add reading and sleeping positions. Go to eight sleep dot com slash Pacman. Use code Pacman to get three hundred and fifty dollars off the pod for ultra.

That's E.I.G.H.T. Sleep dot com slash Pacman. Use code Pacman for three hundred and fifty dollars off the pod for ultra. The link is in the podcast notes. When we hear comparisons between Donald Trump and infamous dictators like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Kim Jong Un. The reaction is often one of outrage. How dare anyone make such a comparison? It's offensive. It's crazy. It's disproportionate to history. But the reality is that comparing political figures to past authoritarians isn't about equating their every action or saying that they're exactly the same.

It's about recognizing patterns of behavior, power grabs, authoritarian tendencies and the undermining of Democratic norms. And so today we're going to break down why these comparisons shouldn't be taboo, I guess is the word I would use, and how Donald Trump has exhibited traits that in any other era would have raised major red flags. And they raise major red flags today. Now, before we dive into the details, I think it's worth saying something briefly about the taboo on these sorts of comparisons. Timothy Snyder, who I had on the show recently, laid this out clearly in a sub stack a few days ago. And he pointed out that many times if you mention a right winger in the same breath as Hitler or Mussolini or whoever,

you are immediately attacked. How dare you make such a comparison? There is never a comparison to Hitler. And Timothy Snyder said, quote, But before broaching the subject of Trump and Hitler, I have to say with a word about the American taboo on comparisons. Anyone who refers to Trump's Hitlerian moments will be condemned for comparison. Somehow that comparison rather than Trump's deeds becomes the problem. The outrage one feels about the crimes of the 1930s and 40s is transferred from the person who resembles the criminal to the person who points out the resemblance. This cynical position opposing comparisons exploits the emotional logic of exceptionalism. Americans are innocent and good. We would like

to believe we are not. We take for granted like the Germans between the world wars. We would never, we imagine, tolerate the stereotypes German Nazis invoked. We have learned the lessons of the Holocaust. And later, Snyder goes on to add about these comparisons, quote, I hope that the irony of all this is clear. The idea that comparison is a sin rests on the notion of the inherent and unimpeachable virtue of the American Volk, who by definition do nothing wrong and whose chosen leader therefore must be beyond criticism.

In this strange way, outrage about comparison reinforces fascist ideas about purity in politics. We should hate the dissenters. We should ignore whatever casts doubt on our sense of national virtue. We should never reflect. And Snyder finishes by saying democracy, of course, depends on the ability to reflect. And that reflection is impossible without a sense of the past. The past is our only mirror, which is why fascists want to shatter it in fascist Russia. For example, it is a criminal offense to say the wrong things about the second

world war. The reason why we keep alive the memory of Nazi crimes is not because it could never happen here, but because something similar can always happen anywhere. That memory has to include the details of history or else we will not recognize the dangers. So with that out of the way, now understanding it shouldn't be taboo to explore the similarities and that it is valuable in preventing such atrocities from happening again. Let's figure out what about the authoritarianism of past dictators. And remember, authoritarianism doesn't appear all at once. It sort of creeps in what is similar to Trumpism. And we will start with Hitler. Similarities between Trump and Hitler. Hitler

quickly tried to consolidate power by dissolving Germany's democratic structures that included the Reichstag fire decree and the Enabling Act, which gave him dictatorial powers. Trump's attacks on democratic norms have included discrediting elections, the 2020 election fraud claims that we dealt with for years and still deal with attacking the judiciary and judges he doesn't like going after and encouraging supporters, in fact, to challenge legal elections and wanting to entirely eliminate government departments inconvenient to him. Hitler used the Ministry of Propaganda under Goebbels to control the narrative, manipulate media, spread misinformation. Trump attacks the press, labels anything critical of him as fake news while using outlets like Fox or whoever is

temporarily on his side and social media to shape his narrative and to inflame division. And of course, there's the cult of personality that surrounded Hitler, who was elevated to this nearly mythical figure who could do no wrong in the eyes of his supporters surrounded Hitler, who was elevated to this nearly mythical figure who could do no wrong in the eyes of his supporters. And we have Trump's cult like following as following as well, where Trump's base displays that unwavering loyalty. Trump's base ignores any scandal or failure by Trump and accepts any of Trump's claims, including the one that he is the only one who can save America

from its supposed decline or enemies. That's Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Stalin purged anyone he suspected of disloyalty, whether in the Communist Party, military government through these show trials and Max mass executions. Trump has a loyalty obsession as well. Trump has fired or ostracized officials and allies who he perceives as disloyal. This includes FBI director James Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, close advisors, Bolton, whoever. And Trump's view of loyalty

is a cartoonish and exaggerated view. It's total and complete loyalty. You never question anything he says. You never question anything he does. This is why J.D. Vance didn't want to answer. Did Trump lose the 2020 election? Stalin also used control through fear and intimidation. The secret police creating this atmosphere of paranoia and uncertainty. Trump loves using fear and intimidation, encouraging violence at rallies, speaking approvingly

of rough tactics by law enforcement, threatening those who aren't on his side, either media outlets or voters or those who voted for Nikki Haley of what it might be like if he wins. Stalin also altered historical narratives to suit his needs and to make him look better. He would erase enemies from photos. He would falsify records. He would spread disinformation to maintain control. Trump loves distorting facts in history, promoting blatant lies, revisionist history about 2020. Revisionist history about his handling of COVID.

Drawing on hurricane maps so that he can distort what meteorologists said versus what was convenient to him to self aggrandize and feed his ego. Those are the similarities to Stalin. Benito Mussolini. Mussolini's rise to power was fueled by aggressive nationalism promising to restore Italy to its former glory through Mussolini's fascist ideology, similar to Trump's make America great again, directly appealing to nationalism, saying America is not great anymore. One saying we've got to keep our country gay.

Trump didn't mean that he meant keep our country great because it's not great anymore. Mussolini eliminated political competition through violence and through legal mechanisms, transforming Italy into a one party state. Trump wants to criminalize opposition, calling for the imprisonment of Hillary Clinton, regularly labeling Democrats as enemies of the state, floating authoritarian moves to stay in power, including maybe we won't count mail-in ballots. Maybe states will find votes for him. Mussolini relied on the black shirts, this paramilitary group to intimidate and attack. Trump loves those violent factions. Stand back and stand by about the proud boys who have been significantly emboldened by Trump.

The commentary in the aftermath of people getting roughed up at Trump's rallies and saying he'll pay for their legal bills. Very similar vibes. Vladimir Putin. Putin has maintained power in Russia through highly manipulated elections, and Trump has tried to do the same. Putin has maintained power in Russia through highly manipulated elections, and Trump has tried to do the same. Putin silences opposition, eliminates genuine Democratic opposition in Russia.

Trump has tried to undermine American elections, repeatedly falsely claiming there was widespread voter fraud in 2020, predicting voter fraud in 2024, trying to overturn the 2020 election. It's really the Putin playbook of undermining the legitimacy of Democratic elections to stay in power. Putin goes after rivals. He will imprison. He will exile. He will assassinate those who pose a threat to his rule.

Look at what happened to Alexei Navalny facing poisoning and imprisonment. Trump attacks opponents as well. He hasn't imprisoned them. He has called for it. He famously has smiled during the chance of lock her up, whether it's about Hillary or more recently Kamala Harris. He uses threats in order to show that he will use the power of government to attack opponents. It's the same authoritarian mindset. He just hasn't been able to get away with what Putin has gotten away with. And of course, I can't skip over Putin cultivating vast disinformation machines through state controlled media outlets like RT that just push pro Putin propaganda and silence critical voices. Trump hasn't done that, but he does support those media outlets that are friendly to him

in the moment while threatening to pull off the air those that are not. He said MSNBC might be off the air if he becomes president again. He said ABC News should lose its license because he was fact checked during a debate against Kamala Harris, a debate that he lost badly. By the way, he has taken away press credentials from people like Jim Acosta when he didn't like their adversarial questions and his tactic of repeating falsehoods and getting those around him, including media outlets to repeat falsehoods, very much mirrors Putin's disinformation strategies.

And finally, we come to Kim Jong Un from North Korea. Kim Jong Un is at the center of a powerful cult of personality where North Koreans are required to show absolute loyalty and devotion to him with his image and quotes omnipresent in North Korea. Trump's cult like following is not quite as extreme, but Trump has cultivated a fervent vase that show base that shows unquestioning loyalty where any criticism of Trump is a betrayal, whether it's J.D. Vance or whether it's a lower level Republican or just a voter at a town hall. He is supposed to have his words treated as gospel even when there

is evidence to the contrary. In North Korea, dissent is met with brutal punishment, sometimes labor camps or execution. Trump demonizes dissent, repeatedly attacking protesters, journalists, political opponents, labeling them as unpatriotic, encouraging violent responses to protests, claiming that those who oppose him are enemies of the state, not on the scale of North Korea. Of course, we talk about similarities, not exactly the same, but his attempts to crush dissent and promote blind loyalty are very much like the Kim family. Kim Jong Un inherited power from his father, Kim Jong Il, continuing the Kim family's

dynastic rule of North Korea. Trump's nepotism is not exactly the same, but he would love to do that. He's talked about, hey, maybe one of my kids would run for president. But importantly, he brought his family into key roles within the administration. Ivanka, son in law, Jared Kushner, both of whom had senior advisory positions. He has talked about I was looking at Ivanka for what was it, U.N. ambassador or something. I don't even remember now. He relies on family loyalty to perpetuate his support at the top of the cult. And finally, Kim often uses exaggerated military rhetoric, threatening to use a nuclear arsenal to intimidate enemies and project strength. And Trump has also employed inflated bellicose rhetoric when it comes to the military,

threatening North Korea with fire and fury, calling for militaristic solutions to domestic and foreign policy issues. What about why can't we nuke Europe? What about invading Mexico? And on and on and on. Trump is not Hitler or Stalin or Mussolini or Kim or Putin. Thankfully, some of our pro democracy institutions in the US have held better than what we've seen in some of these other countries.

But in order to really understand the dangers of Trump, we have to understand history and we have to know whether there are analogies. And I've just given you a bunch. Did I miss any? I know we didn't include Erdogan, Bashar al-Assad, Duterte, other leaders past and present. Did I miss any big one? Let me know. Info at David Pakman dot com. You can't vapor smoke inside. You're tired of people seeing you put those little pouches in your lip. There is a nicotine alternative that people won't notice. Zippix nicotine toothpicks.

Our sponsor Zippix makes the only nicotine toothpick on the planet that is FDA registered. You can use it anywhere, work, restaurants, airplanes, sporting events after a meal. The toothpicks stay in a convenient little tube that goes in your pocket or on your key chain. It's way more convenient than carrying around a huge can of pouches all day or a whole bunch of The David Pakman Show David Pakman dot com. toothpicks with caffeine instead. A quick and easy alternative to coffee. Do your lungs a favor. Cut the cigarette smoke. Cut the vape juice. Go to ZipX toothpicks dot com today. Save 10 percent with the code Pacman 10 at checkout. Just remember, you must be 21 or older to order. That's ZIPPX toothpicks dot com. Use promo code Pacman 10 at checkout for 10 percent off. That's Pacman 1 0. The info is in the podcast notes. Donald Trump's failing memory continues to

be of growing concern to people who are paying attention. Now, there's a lot of people not paying attention. I mentioned that in Vegas here, I recorded an interview with Sean Mike Kelly, who describes himself as a Trump supporter, and it was disturbing all of the Donald Trump reporting and stories that Sean had no idea about whatsoever. So a lot of people don't know what's going on. But to the extent that people are paying attention, it's harder and harder to miss Donald Trump's failing memory. Donald Trump did an event and he talked once again about hurricanes bearing down onto different parts of the United States, including Florida. And Trump pulled one out that might ring a bell to you if you remember that he has been

confused about the exact same thing before. Trump talked about how there's a Category 5 hurricane coming towards us. We have never seen a Category 5 hurricane come onto land. Here's what Trump said. To tell you that there's a very violent hurricane that's coming down the line, and it's a Category 5, which is something that I've never heard a Category 5 actually coming onto land, but it looks like it's going to. And right smack in the middle of Florida, nobody's seen a line like that. And it's heading there quickly. I have to tell you that I called Miriam. I said, I was in New York and I said, Miriam, maybe I shouldn't be flying. I think I'm the only person that flew down to Florida tonight. Folks, we've played this same game before.

We've played the same game before. Remember Hurricane Milton, which intensified into a Category 5 storm? Here is Trump saying, when he was president, he had never even heard about a Category 5 storm. Listen to this. I have not sure. I'm not sure that I've ever even heard of a category five. I knew it existed and I've seen some category fours. You don't even see them that much. But the category five is something that I don't know that I've ever even heard the term other than I know it's there. Now it's even worse when Trump said that, which is the exact same thing that he just said about this new hurricane. When Trump said that

it was the fourth category five hurricane to strike the United States during his presidency. We had Irma, we had Maria, We had Michael. We had Dorian. Four times Category 5 storms have hit land. Trump never remembers. Even more times storms have gotten to Category 5, like Milton in this particular case. He doesn't remember. He always says the exact same thing. And there is a long history here of Trump remembering nothing about stuff we go over

and over and over and over again. Remember the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, Hurricane Camille in 1969, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Hurricane Michael in 2018, all Category 5 storms that hit land. Now, I'm now realizing I may have misspoken. I think earlier I listed category five hurricanes under Trump's watch. I didn't mean that those hit land. But you had Irma Maria, Michael Dorian, category five under Trump's watch when he said, I've never heard about category five. He dealt with responses to those. But critically, Hurricane Michael in 2018 did hit land as Category 5.

At the time, Trump said, whoever knew about Category 5? And he's saying it again. Now, this is just one little sliver. You could say, David, he's not a meteorologist. If he isn't, he should stop talking, by the way, about climate with regard to it changing. But that's a different story. This is emblematic and a microcosm of what we see every single time that Donald Trump talks. He doesn't remember anything. He forgets the same things over and over again. He forgets who he ran against. He forgets who he's running against. He forgets who's president. He doesn't recognize

that Rudy or Melania or whoever are next to him in many president. He doesn't recognize that Rudy or Melania or whoever are next to him in many cases. He doesn't remember when he gets off Air Force One, which car it is that he's supposed to go to. There are reasons related to policy not to vote for this guy. You could show me a Trump with a perfect memory and his policies would be a disaster. You could show me a Trump with a perfect memory and I would still say that his personality is such that I don't want him anywhere near any centers of power. But he also can't seem to remember a damn thing, and that's also a problem. Donald Trump did a softball event on Fox News with Laura Ingraham. He launched what appears to be his final attack on women just days before the election. This town hall type event on Fox

News was completely abortive in every way, with Trump reminding us that he knows nothing and doesn't really care about anyone. And Trump's message to women is that he's going to keep them safe. I think what he's implying here is keep them safe from scary non-white immigrants, I think. They're who, you know, maybe don't like this tweet or this joke or this nickname. Tonight, what do you say to them about the safety of our homeland? I say to the women, and I think I do very well with the women, actually. I think it's a lot of fake polling. I think I do very well with the women, actually. I think it's a lot of fake polling. I think I do very well because I say, I will keep you safe.

I'm not going to allow prisoners to come out from Venezuela and many other countries all over the world. The Congo, the Middle East. They come out from the Congo in tremendous numbers. They're coming out of the Middle East, Yemen, and lots of countries that aren't particularly friendly to us. I'm going to keep you safe. I'm not going to let people hurt you. I'm going to have a very strong. They were bugged by that. The protector line, like some of the people went crazy about that. He said he's going to be my protector. That's that that's looking down on us. So that's patronizing. I'm looking up at them. I am going to protect. I'm going to protect men, too. It's my job to

protect as president. They don't protect right now when they let 13,099 criminals, I mean, murders. These are people in prison, some getting ready for the death penalty, and they allowed them to come into our country. When I get them out and when I say it's not happening and when I close the border so that bad people, you know, we want people in our country. But they have to be people that are capable of loving our country and that are good people. They have to go past tests. So I say to people and I'm very I'm not ashamed of that. I saw a couple of wise guys on the left saying, oh, who is he? I want to protect women. I'm going to protect women and I'm going to protect men and I'm going to protect children. And that's my obligation to do it with the military and with law enforcement.

So the continued attacks on immigrants, continuing to play every side of women's bodily autonomy and health and safety in every way, this is disgusting. And here's my hope. And I think that my hope is sort of backed up by the data. I don't believe women are falling for it. We are seeing a record gender gap, record gender gap. And I know that you go to a Trump

rally and you see these boisterous conservative women saying Trump's Trump's Jesus. And he's just just so good. It's all fantastic. If you step back from the Trump rallies and the five women that speak to people and the anecdotes. The gender gap in the polling suggests women aren't falling for it. And if Kamala Harris does win, it very well may depend on how many women, not just how women vote, but what percentage of the female electorate actually turns out. Trump was asked about the belief that he's going to go after people if he wins the election. Trump says, you know, people want me to do that. People want me to do that. Look, how will you restore faith in our justice system? A lot of people will say, well,

he's just going to do to them what they did to him and get back at them. And there are a lot of people say that's what should happen. You want to know the truth. Right. Well, but I think... That means, yes, I will, Laura. Thank you very much. Yes, I will, Laura. Thank you very much.

I've said it so many times. Trump probably would fail to go after his enemies is not a good reason to vote for him. It's not a good reason to vote for him. It's sort of like saying attempted murder is no big deal because they failed. It's a very big deal. And also kind of interesting during this event with Laura Ingram, some funny little fact checks. Here is where Trump said Kamala Harris should be taking North Carolina seriously. And Ingram says, oh, she was here, but she shouldn't be there anyway. She should be. I would say that North Carolina is so bad.

And she was there today for three hours, I believe. Kamala Harris. But and then another example of Laura Ingram correcting her boss. Sorry, her guest is Trump saying they're giving migrants 750 bucks. And she says it's for immediate need. This isn't some kind of long term universal basic income program for migrants. Very concerned about that. So we're into almost 300 billion dollars for Ukraine, and yet they're offering people 750 dollars for immediate for the worst. Yeah. But for the worst hurricane that anybody's seen. So kind of interesting, I guess. Laura Ingraham is kind of a mixed bag. I think big picture.

She still supports Trump, but occasionally we'll get a fact check. And then finally, any polling Trump doesn't like or is inconvenient is fake. And he stuck to that when the issue of how he's polling with women came up. He goes, oh, those polls are fake. And he stuck to that when the issue of how he's polling with women came up. He goes, oh, those polls are fake. I say to the women, and I think I do very well with the women. Actually, I think it's a lot of fake polling. I think I do very well because I say I will keep you safe. Yeah. I mean, listen, believe that the polls are fake at your own risk, at your own risk. If Trump really believes that there's no gender gap and women are supporting Kamala Harris by this overwhelming margin, if he doesn't believe

it and he thinks women want to hear him talk about how everybody wanted Roe v. Wade repealed and it's going to go to the states and it'll be beautiful despite the fact that we are seeing women forego care. Some women have died because they didn't go and seek the care that they needed. If he is confident the polling is fake and he's going to do fine with the women, he can keep doing what he's doing and we'll see where the results land in November. You all know my hope and my expectation. Trump will win among women voters. The question is by how much and is that gap going to be enough to push Kamala Harris to

the Oval Office? And I think, I hope I didn't say Trump will win among women. I meant Trump will not win among women voters. We are going to see in this election critical crosstabs, as they are called. How do college-educated versus not college-educated. How do college educated versus not college educated? How do men versus women vote? How do young people vote? As Donald Trump is increasingly claiming, the young people just love him because he said that thing about Bitcoin that he probably misunderstood. The exit polls will be absolutely fascinating this time around.

We have a great bonus show for you today. Make sure you're signed up at joinpacman.com. You'll have instant access and I will see you right back here tomorrow.