The David Pakman Show - 11/15/24: Dictator confirmation plan exposed, Lara Trump for Senator proposed

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Donald Trump's dictatorial plan to get his cabinet confirmed with recess appointments is exposed, and it is horrifying -- The incoming Trump administration is reportedly drafting a framework to allow the purging of military generals that Donald Trump doesn't like -- Trump supporters expect progressives to go away, but we're not going to -- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is appointed by Trump as Secretary of Health and Human Services -- At the end of the day, Donald Trump still won't stop lying about his height, as exposed in stark relief during his recent visit with President Joe Biden at the White House -- Republican Congressman Troy Nehls gleefully welcomes a Trump dictatorship -- The idea of having Ron DeSantis appoint Lara Trump to the Senate to replace Marco Rubio starts to gain traction -- Desperate for a fresh face, Democrats start to consider frontrunners for 2028 -- Tom Homan, the likely "border czar" under the forthcoming Trump administration, threatens to force his way into blue cities to complete acts of mass deportation -- This week's Friday Feedback -- On the Bonus Show: The Onion buys Alex Jones's Infowars, and much more... 🪒 Henson Shaving: Use code DAVIDP for free shave cream at https://hensonshaving.com/davidp  🛏️ 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 ⚠️ Ground News: Get 50% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 🧔‍♂️ Integrated Men: Watch David’s interview with their founder at https://integratedmen.net/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

I have to start today with something very, very serious. Any normal person would say after looking at the list of nominations to the forthcoming Trump administration that we talked about yesterday, tool C gabbered to director of national intelligence, Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, uh, Matt Gates to attorney general, any normal person would say, how do you get Matt Gates confirmed to a G how do you get a Fox news host confirmed to secretary of defense? One way is by becoming a dictator.

And this is really red alert stuff. Ed Wellen, Whelan, I don't know how he pronounces his name. It's only one E. Ed Wellen works at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. And here's what he posted about the plan. This is how it could be done. He posted, quote, Hope it's wrong, but I'm hearing through the grapevine about this bonkers plan. Trump would adjourn both houses of Congress under article two, section three and recess appoint his cabinet continuing as predicate for Trump's exercise of adjournment power.

One house of Congress would seek the other houses consent to adjourn and be denied. So speaker of the house would need to be complicit in the evisceration of the Senate's advise and consent role. House Speaker Mike Johnson needs to say no to this right away. We know that Donald Trump is indeed thinking about doing something like this because he posted to Twitter right after last week's election quote, any Republican Senator seeking the coveted leadership position in the United States Senate must agree to recess appointments in the Senate without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.

Sometimes the votes can take two years or more. This is what they did four years ago and we cannot let it happen again. We need positions filled immediately. Additionally, no judges should be approved during this period of time because the Democrats are looking to ram through their judges as the Republicans fight over leadership. This is not acceptable. Thank you. This may be the plan. You might say Pete Hegseth could not make it through a confirmation hearing except if they do it as a recess appointment. Now, here's the thing. This mechanism, article two, section three is so rarely used that its invocation would be extraordinarily

controversial and it would be extreme. And what Trump wants to do is exploit these rarely used powers to directly contradict what was the intent of the founders. The founders established the separation of powers for a reason. And using article two, section three in this way creates a constitutional gray area. And even that may be putting it lightly. It's untested territory, meaning it would be challenged immediately in court. But as we know, I mean, I'll, I'll just be honest. These legal gray areas have not really scared Trump and the legal gray area areas have never really hurt Donald Trump. The real question is how long would it take the courts to strike it down and whether the damage would already be done. Now, if this plan sounds like it belongs in an autocracy rather than a democracy, that's because it's exactly the sort of thing

that autocrats would do to try to consolidate power in one person's hands. Trump gets to choose, but the Senate then gets to vote. Well, how about recess appointments? Just put all the power in Donald Trump's hands. This isn't normal. We're hearing about things on the fringes of legality and constitutionality. Trump's allies are testing the waters for the sorts of things we would normally associate with authoritarian leaders abroad. But Trump is enamored with those leaders. It's not hyperbole. Trump is never impressed with the leaders of our Western Democratic allies. And Trump is enamored with those leaders. It's not hyperbole. Trump is never impressed with the leaders of our Western democratic allies. And Trump is regularly impressed with Kim Jong Un and Putin and the whole list of them. If Trump or anybody else can just sidestep Congress in this way, what checks are left?

If Speaker Johnson allows this, he throws the Senate's role into the trash. And that's why it is a red alert moment. If the power is abused, the precedent that it would set for future presidents to exploit is terrifying and it's not alarmism. It's not hyperbole. This is the legitimate threat to our democratic norms. We were told saying Trump doesn't respect democracy is inciting violence against Trump.

And of course that wasn't true. But using article two, section three to recess a point, your entire clown car cabinet is circumventing democracy as intended by the founding fathers. If you care about democracy on either side of the aisle, you should be paying attention to this. This is why it's not a good idea to let people who tried to circumvent democracy to become president, even though they lost. It's not a good idea to put those people back in the Oval Office. And it's what the American people did. I said this yesterday. I'm going to repeat it. I expected it to be bad. I expected it to be worse than bad. I did not expect it to be this bad. And if you're worried about recess appointments, I have to tell you what Trump's thinking of doing

with the military generals. There is an exclusive report in the wall street journal, not known as a left-wing rag, which has obtained a draft executive order from Donald Trump's transition team, which would create a warrior board, which would have the authority to review and remove high ranking military officers. This is project 2025 personified. They're doing it. This is not restructuring. This is Trump flexing control, circumventing the Pentagon's regular channels to put his generals in place. Remember that Donald Trump over the last several years has been talking about, I don't want woke generals. I want the real generals. I don't respect Millie, a decorated military veteran. I don't respect the generals unless they pledge ultimate loyalty to me. Now, normally these decisions would not be left up to

such a board, but what this draft executive order that has been obtained by the wall street journal will do is it would create a board of retired military personnel, which Trump selects. They would be targeting generals and admirals that are unfit as far as Trump is concerned. If they are woke, according to Trump, they are unfit, according to Trump. If they don't lay down like a doormat for Trump, they are unfit, according to Trump. And the message that's being sent is clear. You fall in line or you're out. If you talk about the importance of diversity in the military, you're out. If you question Trump, you're out. If you say, I would not obey an unlawful order. If that's what Trump gives, you're out. Trump has criticized the woke generals. He's

previewed this plan during the campaign. He said he would remove the generals he doesn't like. And the code here is clear. Social justice, awareness of social justice, woke. What if it's all out? If you have a difference with Trump's worldview and the audacity to express it. So what this will lead to as, as always is the case with Trump respected officers with long careers, presumed job security for defending this country. They are at risk. Their jobs are at risk simply for acknowledging, for example, racial issues exist in America, or as Mark Milley said, it would be useful to know what critical race theory is. If that's a topic of conversation, we know what Trump does want when it comes to the department of defense, because he nominated

a Fox news host to be secretary of defense. That Fox News host, Pete Hegseth, is a complete and total Trump loyalist. What Trump wants is generals in MAGA hats, either metaphorically or literally, and it's not going to go anywhere good. It would undermine the structure of a neutral constitution based military. We also would have to worry that this board could pressure officers to obey questionable orders and fire the officers who say, that seems like an unlawful order. I'm not going to follow it. So this is that this is all scary. And one of the scariest parts is that the few officers, generals who might be willing to challenge the most extreme

stuff that Trump tries to do, they're figuring out a way to either silence them or force them out. It's absolutely terrifying. You know, I had a realization after I was on the Piers Morgan show this week, these Trumpists expect us to do nothing and just shut up for the next four years. And I realized this really based on how I was treated on the Piers Morgan show earlier this week. Some of you I know saw it because you emailed me and you picked up on this dismissive attitude, the eye rolling, the ad hominem attacks, like Dave Rubin calling me a smug prick because I had the audacity to call out

that he had been receiving Russian influencer money. Here's that moment, by the way. You know, this has nothing to do with a well-funded evil money machine that the Republicans were doing. There's something called boys and girls and they are the right guy to talk about that. Most parents, most parents. Oh, God, you're such a smug prick. You know, uh, it's funny because it's very easy for me not to resort to insults and ad hominems, but some of these magas now are visibly struggling not to resort to them. Piers Morgan opened the entire thing, reconfronting me about a study on trans athletes that he misrepresented last time and he misrepresented again. Take a look. David Patman, I want to start with you. You were very clear to me when we spoke before the election that this whole issue of

transgenders in sport and so on was completely irrelevant and nobody cared. Let me remind you, they support policies that protect transgender athletes performing in women's sport. And I think that is madness. You're saying, well, because most of these things in this UN report were outside of America, it doesn't matter. It does matter. What I'm saying, it's a completely contrived issue that almost no one cares about in every single opinion. Wow. Well, the problem is, David, you couldn't have possibly been any more wrong because the New York Times, the liberal

Bible, did a whole piece about the ad that Trump ran, which is the, it's harmless for they, them, Donald Trump's for you. This is one of the most effective 30-second spots in political history. Do you want to admit you were completely and hopelessly wrong about this? No. In fact, in the aftermath, we figured out how dishonest you were, Piers, during that. Hopefully we can get a little bit of an opportunity. So let me lay it out. First of all, I went back and looked at the UN report in more detail. The UN report said nothing of the sort that you said. What you were referring to dishonestly was one footnote from an anti-trans

organization making completely unsubstantiated claims. So I will wait for the apology from you. The UN report doesn't say that, but that wasn't the crux of your question. Second part of it, that ad from with Kamala, I would have loved Kamala to respond to it. All she had to say was at the time that she said that it was Trump administration Bureau of Prisons policy, that that's what's available to trans inmates when determined medically necessary. she would follow the law. You haven't said that. And then number three, Piers, on who cares about the issue, I checked Gallup survey, trans issues at the very bottom. The reality is almost no one's trans, almost no trans people are in competitive sports and people do not care about the issue.

However, there's a lot of money made grifting about trans this and trans that even from people on this panel. So I get why they keep bringing it up. It's still just a footnote from an anti trans group called the Women's Liberation Front. And then, you know, to be honest, it just goes completely off the rails. Check this out. And David Patman, the appointments that Trump has put forward so far, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramasamy will run a new Department of Government Efficiency. I mean, having, you know, the most successful, richest and possibly smartest guy on the planet

getting stuck into government bureaucracy, I would have thought that's very popular, isn't it? You know, it's so funny. A department for government efficiency, new department when Trump wants to eliminate departments and instead of being run by one person, it's being run by two. They are going to eliminate, according to Musk, they are going to eliminate dozens of departments, though. So by the end of the process, he's going to get rid of 300

departments. They're going to get rid of a lot of departments, David Pakman. So, I mean, that seems to me to be a good thing, doesn't it? Or do you think that they should be? Listen, in his first term, it was not exactly promises made, promises kept. I'm in a reserve judgment to see what happens and the reason why. And Dave, honestly, I know we're not getting along here. I do like you. I wish we were still friends. I'd love to get our kids together to play soon. Dave Rubin making predictions is crazy because his predictions always go wrong. Red wave for Republicans in 2018 didn't happen. 30% black vote for Trump in 2020 didn't happen. Republicans get 54 Senate seats in 2022. I've got a list of 30 Rubin predictions. They're always wrong. So I'm going to wait and see. I'm going to wait and see.

I can see why you're looking for new friends, Pac-Man. You know, I think peers can attest to this. You know, being in the business we're in, you're going to get election predictions wrong. I have no problem admitting that. I get election predictions wrong all the time. But when it comes to getting the ideas right, I think I've had a pretty damn good track record on that. And again, you're just illustrating why nobody likes progressives. Your smug, holier than thou attitude, it's just disgusting to most people. You think you're the savior for people that want nothing to do with you. And frankly, for all the David Pakman subscribers that want to watch a show that actually is informative and funny and interesting and dare I say a Reverend, I would tune into the Rubin report.

So that was something, but it got me really kind of thinking about what's going on. There is something palpably new here. They're not just annoyed by us. They expect us to be silent, to vanish, to know our place and stay in our lane. Now that Trump and Republicans have taken the white house, the Senate and the house barely, of course, and it really couldn't have been any clearer. There's just no room for debate or for challenge. As far as these people are concerned, they want obedience.

Trump wants obedience, pure and simple, just like he wants from his nominees and from his staff. They want us erased from the conversation. They believe that with last week's win, the ideological battle is over. We lost, they won. Now we have to go away. That's their mindset. And they're pushing this narrative that now that they've got the power, the left is supposed to just accept it quietly, pack it in, fall in line with all of their insanity. And in a sense, I understand why they feel this way. I mean, think about it. They are gearing up to dismantle everything they see as woke from climate action to basic protections against marginalized groups or for marginalized groups and immigrants. They want to get rid of the

Department of Education, and they assume we're just going to sit on our hands and let it happen. They don't want arguments. They don't want to understand anything other than we want conformity and you must comply. They want to eliminate the left from public discourse. Trump won the popular vote as of right now by less than Hillary won it in 2016. They gained one seat as of right now in the House of Representatives. It might end up being a little more, but right now they've taken control by gaining one seat and they want to act like their movement is 98% of this country. So they're going to keep labeling any opposition or dissent as radical or Marxist or communist

or un-American. They will frame the protests that I can only imagine at some point there, there will be, they will frame protests as chaos and whining and looting and insanity, basically the stuff they did on January 6th, 2021. And they will frame themselves as the real Americans while the rest of us will be shoved to the margins. And it's funny that Rubin used the word smug, their smug superiority and expectation that we're just going to slink away with our shoulders down. I do not believe that it's going to happen. They're banking on us being tired and many of us are tired. They're banking on us being burnt out and ready to throw in the towel.

And to be honest, it would be reasonable after seeing how they again elected a complete and total clown who is nominating a clown cabinet. They assume we will fade away and that we don't have the stamina for another round. And some people don't. I've been hearing from them. It's true. But I do not believe that big picture what they expect to happen is going to happen. In fact, I expect that after we regroup and we get through the last couple of months of Joe Biden's presidency and Trump comes to power with this clown car cabinet, RFK now is going to be part of it. We'll talk about that, too. I expect that the left is going to be louder and more insistent

and more unyielding than ever. And the irony is that they claim to be the champions of free speech, but they want to silence our speech. We should now shut up and go away. The same people who spent four years railing against cancel culture are now trying to cancel every voice that doesn't fit their agenda. They went bloodthirsty as soon as we had this temporary decline in subscribers saying, hey, this is the opportunity to end left wing media for good. They want us to shut up about the climate, shut up about the fact that they're trying

to take health insurance away from millions of people, shut up about inequality, shut up about democracy itself. So I do not believe we are going anywhere. Every rollback that they succeed in doing every attack on rights, every attempt to drag us backwards into, is it 1950 or 1850 that they prefer? It's going to be met with resistance, law abiding resistance, nonviolent resistance, of course. And we're going to keep track. And at the first opportunity, and we will get it, okay? Sometimes patience is the best virtue. We're going to get it. I don't know if it'll be 26 or 28 or 30. It's going to happen.

We will get the opportunity and we will reverse every last thing that they ruin. And if they think, you know, calling me a smug prick on Piers Morgan or dismissing the entire audiences of progressive independent left wing media media, if they think that's going to get us to disappear, I believe that they are in for a rude awakening. All right. Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the secretary of health and human services. Dear God.

Donald Trump posting to Troth Central, quote, I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as the United States Secretary, I should say the United Shaysh Secretary of Health and Human Services. For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation and disinformation when it comes to public health. Everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming health crisis in this country. Mr. Kennedy will restore these agencies to the traditions of gold standard scientific research and beacons of transparency to end the chronic disease epidemic and to make America great and healthy again. So listen, we've talked for a long time about how even if we grant that RFK's intentions are good and let's assume that they

are, let's assume that they are. He's just off on a lot of this stuff. Are COVID-19 vaccines less effective at preventing transmission than we hoped? Yes. Are COVID vaccines dangerous and ineffective at reducing hospitalization, serious illness and death? No, they are very much effective at that with a strong safety record. So he goes too far. The issue of food in America. Do we have a problem

with food in America? Yes, we do. Is the problem the additives per se in some cases? But, you know, when you dig into this stuff, they love to say, oh, my God, here's 10 food dyes that are banned in Europe and they're legal here. I try to avoid food dyes. I just, I buy foods that aren't died. But while it is true that there are some food dyes banned in Europe and legal in the U S there are also equivalent food dyes legal in Europe that are banned in the U S the real issue is that we've gone away from nutrient dense food to this calorie dense ultra processed stuff. Are the dyes really the problem? I'd rather not have the dyes, but the overwhelming focus on this one molecule or that one molecule kind of misses the broader point. And meanwhile, Trump loves McDonald's and, and

RFK is like, well, they use tallow for their fries. No, they don't. They don't do it in the UK, by the way, he said they did. They don't. And the real problem is these non-fresh ultra processed foods, the likes of which the guy he's now going to be serving under loves promotes and serve to everybody. So this is the case with a lot of this stuff. Uh, you know, the raw milk thing, raw milk has been explored. Raw milk does not have any advantage that can be identified nutritionally, even though they claim it does. When you tell them that they go, well, it's an intangible, you can't find it in any study, but it's just better for you.

When the reality is that not pasteurizing milk doesn't get rid of E. coli, salmonella and listeria and raw milk has been associated with transmission of that foodborne illness. I'm not saying raw milk should be illegal, but it should certainly be known that it is not at all something that provides the advantages Robert F. Kennedy claims. And it also has potentially significant downsides. And there are little kids who end up hospitalized after having raw milk with listeria. It's horrible. It can be life threatening. So I, my hope with all of this, and I don't want to be overwhelmingly alarmist. My hope is that he just kind of fails to do most of the stuff he says he wants to do because a secretary of HHS, I don't believe from what I've

read, he can just go in and wholesale decimate FDA standards, CDC stuff. I know he's going to try. I hope he doesn't succeed on a lot of this stuff. If he can do something to get people exercising more. I mean, listen, I I've said before, you don't need a vaccine conspiracy theorist or whatever to come in and go listen. If everybody walk 10,000 steps a day, reduced ultra processed food to under 10% of the calories you consume, got 30 grams of fiber per day, and at least 30 minutes of being outdoors

when the sun is out using appropriate sun protection based on where you live and the UV index. If everybody did that, we reduce diabetes, we reduce obesity, we probably reduce colon cancer. You don't need Robert F. Kennedy to come in and eliminate vaccine requirements for public schools to tell people, hey, do these four things. And on average, you're going to be way healthier. So I don't want to go hyperbolic. I think a lot of the stuff he wants to do, he won't be able to do. He's got some bad ideas.

And my wish would be come in and create. It's probably like a six point plan. You know, it's get your 10,000 steps, 30 grams of fiber, sunlight, sleep, drink enough water, limit ultra processed foods to under 10% of calories. Six point plan that you don't need to the Marisol and vaccine. Just those six things. If 80% of the country adopted them, we would be so much healthier. And that, that would be my hope. I don't think it's a Bobby's priority. By the way, my funny Bobby story is speaking of Bobby and food. I once had dinner with Robert F. Kennedy

Jr. I have never, when you get French fries, totally normal. You grab a French fry, you dip it in ketchup, you eat it with your fingers. Bobby ate a baked potato with his hand. I've never seen anyone do it. Fascinating. I'm not saying it's good or bad. It's not a criticism. Just very interesting. I've never sort of like the Snickers eating with a knife and fork. Bobby ate a baked potato with his hand. So he certainly has ideas as far as nutrition is concerned. And we will see what happens. All right. We, we need a little break from the more serious stuff. So I just want to remind you, I was chuckling to myself yesterday when I was looking at the pictures of Joe Biden welcoming Donald Trump to the oval office, something that Donald Trump didn't have the testicular fortitude to do.

Biden did it and he did it respectfully. This is so not important or maybe it never was. But a number of you noticed and wrote to me that Donald Trump is still very clearly lying about his height and his weight, by the way. And my reaction is, of course, Donald Trump is lying about his height. Donald Trump claims to be six three. And as far as we know, Joe Biden is six feet tall in every damn picture from the White House yesterday. Biden's obviously taller when they are walking outside the White House. You can clearly see that the supposedly shorter Biden is taller. Oh, David, sir. Maybe it's the angle. Maybe it's some forced perspective image that

makes it look weird. Well, you see it in every picture when they are inside the White House in this image and are clearly standing next to each other in the same distance from the camera. You see that Biden is at least an inch taller than Trump. Oh, but maybe Joe Biden's wearing lifts. Well, Biden's not known to wear lifts, but even if he is, we know that Donald Trump wears lifts. So what is this about? Is there, is there something substantive here? Is there, or is this just more of Trump's hijinks? There is something here. Trump and his followers have bought and sold the idea that Trump is the alpha in every way.

He's tall, he's fit, he's tan, he's brave, he's not bald. And the reality is the opposite. Trump is simply not the alpha in their image that he claims to be. He's not nearly as tall as he claims to be. He's obese. He's not fit. He doesn't exercise. He eats a terrible diet. He got a doctor's note to get out of the draft. He's had numerous hair transplants to avoid being bald. It's not the most important

thing, but it's a reminder that Trump's political worldview is built on lies. I'm running as a Republican. I've got to say I'm against abortion. Sure. Why not? Uh, I'm running against Republican. I'm running as a Republican. I need something to distinguish myself. How about if I say I'm anti-war, even though he's not actually. And the same thing happens with his physical presence as has happened with his political presence. The policy lies. Yes. But he also lies about simply who he is. Let's take a quick break. We are starting to see something happen in the Republican Party that is quite terrifying. And I'm going to explain it to you after this short break. There are two big problems with the cheap plastic disposable razors.

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3000 pre-orders for my forthcoming book, the echo machine now beyond 3300. We believe that we are getting into territory where the book could indeed make the New York times nonfiction bestseller list when it comes out. If we can get from 3300 to to four or five thousand preorders, we will feel much stronger about that. And there is free stuff available. I've been signing book plates with Sharpies by the hundreds and thousands. Everybody who preorders can get a bunch of free stuff. Submit your preorder receipt at David Pakman dot com slash free book stuff. And of course, the book is available. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, call any local bookstore. They can get it for you. Audible, Apple Music podcasts everywhere. It's truly everywhere. I'll say more about that at some point in the future.

If you want to see what it looks like to completely debase yourself, to say, I no longer, I am a mere vessel. I am no longer a, a, a thinking being machine. I am just a vessel for every whim and demand and desire of Donald Trump. Well, I have just that video for you. I don't know how many of you were looking for that, but I have it. Uh, Republican Congressman Troy nails a couple of days ago after Donald Trump gave a speech to congressional Republicans said, if Trump says jump, we say how high he is desperate for the very dictatorship that we are afraid of, quite frankly, a perfect articulation of authoritarian politics. Let's listen.

There's no question he's a leader of our party. So now he's got a mission statement, his mission and his goals and objectives, whatever that is. We need to embrace it. All of it. Every single word. If Donald Trump says jump three feet high and scratch your head, we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads. That's it. That is terrifying. That is this. These 19 seconds are a horror. But this is where they are. And we talked about this on the bonus show yesterday. We talked about it with Tim Miller yesterday as well. There is a feedback loop that is taking place here.

Republicans are realizing this is a MAGA party, at least for two more years. It's a MAGA party. Trump won 2016. OK, we lost a bunch of stuff in the middle and then he years. It's a MAGA party. Trump won 2016. Okay. We lost a bunch of stuff in the middle and then he won 2024. This is MAGA. He's appointing tool. See, he's appointing Matt Gates.

Qualifications don't matter. All that matters is total loyalty to Trump and very few Republicans at this point can resist the allure of being adjacent to power. They don't want to be Willard Mitt Romney. They don't want to be Liz Cheney. They don't want to be Adam Kinzinger. They don't want they don't want to be on the outs. That's boring.

They want to be in Tulsi straight up left the Democratic party to be able to, uh, approach, you know, the, to be fed by the teat of Trumpism, uh, for lack of a better term. Um, Hegseth, who is a law, Pete Hegseth, the Fox news host, who's been nominated secretary of defense, long time Warhawk, total opposite of what Trump claims his views are on foreign policy. opposite of what Trump claims his views are on foreign policy, but he is a suck up Trump loyalist who is just going to do whatever it is Trump wants. So Troy nails as disgusting as it is, is reflecting both the confidence that these people now have, but also the desperation not to be on the outs. What goodies can they get if they say what Trump

wants, he gets almost as if Trump was their commander in an, in a military, uh, platoon rather than someone who is supposed to be reflecting the democratic will of the people and so on and so forth. So they're desperate. They are going to lay down. If our expectation is that the Republican Party is going to find any check or balance they want to place on Trump, it looks like they're going to green light all of these lunatic nominations. It looks like they will stand aside and let Trump do whatever the hell he wants. And the funny thing is Trump's still more concerned with just appointing his friends

and family. And I'm going to talk about that next. Marco Rubio is nominated to be Trump's secretary of state. Marco Rubio is also a senator in Florida. And what this means is that there will be a vacant Senate seat there, which will be filled by Governor DeSanctimonious. Ron DeSanctus will be choosing a replacement for Marco Rubio. The idea that they are now floating is that it should be Lara Trump, the wife of Eric

Trump, Trump's daughter in law. Axios reports Senator Katie Britt is pitching Lara Trump to fill Marco Rubio's Florida Senate seat. She said she gets the America first agenda. She'd be tremendous, a voice for hardworking families. How on earth would Lara Trump be a voice for hardworking families? It's pathetic. So that is what, uh, Katie Britt wants. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna from Florida also says DeSantis should appoint

Lara Trump to Ruby OC. They have no shame. They criticize DEI. They criticize affirmative action, but then it's fine to appoint your daughter in law to the Senate. Well, that's different. Just imagine, just theorize for a moment. OK, if President Biden had said, you know, I might appoint even Beau Biden's widow, I'm going to appoint her senator or Hunter Biden's wife. I don't think he's married right now or ex-wife or Ashley. I think his daughter's I don't even see. I don't even care about that. We just I just want to see what the guy's going to do. I think Ashley Biden is his daughter.

What about Ashley Biden's husband? What if if Biden said, I'm going to do that, it would be outrage. But Republicans just go, yeah, what? What about his own daughter in law to be senator? Now, Lara Trump, she wants this. She wants this. Here she is on Fox this week saying, well, it would be an honor to serve the people of Florida.

If I am able to serve, I would love to serve the people of Florida. This is my home state now and has been for three years. This is where Eric and I live. And truly to have that opportunity, I think would be incredible. No one knows better than I do the America First agenda or the goals of Donald Trump in the coming four years. So if I am asked, I would love to consider it. But I have yet to have a conversation with Governor DeSantis. So we will have to see. There you go. And of course, the conversation with Governor DeSantis, I'm sure, would only happen after Trump or someone associated with Trump calls DeSantis and goes, listen, just nominate Lara. OK, select appoint Lara. Make make Lara Trump the

senator here. Affirmative action, DEI, all of that is terrible. No, no, no. It's merely merit. And we are supposed to believe that the most meritorious person in the state of Florida to be senator happens to be the daughter in law of Donald Trump, who's already shown he loves nepotism when he said, really, she should be co-chair of the RNC. And of course, they did it. These people are pathetic. That's it. We can't expect them to act.

They the way they want us to act. It's only to us that they express that they will do whatever. And so Lara Trump may well be the next senator from Florida. I hope she's not. Of course, if she's not, it'll still be someone I'm sure who's cuckoo. If it's up to the Santas, it just won't be a Trump family member, which I guess is sort of like cuckoo and a Trump family member or cuckoo, not a Trump family member. I guess I'd skip the nepotism. You tell me. Zippix toothpicks are a convenient way to curb the nicotine cravings. Zippix toothpicks are super discreet. You can use them anytime, anywhere. Smoking and vaping aren't allowed,

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supporters would cause problems after the election, but that the left would saying the left is the enemy from within and might be needed to be handled by the National Guard. The Washington Times reported this interview with the headline Trump says no chaos from his supporters this election day, which totally whitewashes and saying washes what Trump actually said. Luckily, we have ground news, the app and website that provides context on every story. Like for this Trump interview, ground news provides more context. Like Trump's defense secretary said, we should believe Trump when he says he wants to use the military against

Americans because that's what he wanted to do during the unrest in the summer of 2020. That's why ground news is so valuable. Our sponsor ground news is an independent, nonpartisan news analysis tool dedicated to exposing the hidden agendas that influence the news you consume. Ground news has features designed to expose the narratives that circulate in biased media bubbles and it'll even show you your own media blind spots. We all have them so that you can understand every story from every angle. in the podcast notes in the desperation following last week's poor election performance for Democrats.

We are already seeing calls for an heir apparent to come forward. There's a very interesting Politico article and it is called who will lead Democrats in 2028 meet the leaders positioning themselves to make moves. The article is sort of one of these, a whole bunch of people at Politico wrote it and contributed to it. It's a very interesting article. And I want to go sort of through the list, bearing in mind that I am not going to be doing this to you for the next four years. I think I just want to set sort of a draw line in the sand as to the names that are floating right now. And then when we

check back in on this in two and a half years or something like that, uh, as the 2028 democratic primary gets going, we'll compare were the names we mentioned today still in the running or did the party move in a completely different direction? Now let's start with, you know, absent any really deep thought without digging deep into the bench. Certainly, Gavin Newsom's name seems natural here. Gavin Newsom from the governor of California, extraordinarily well-spoken, et cetera. But what other names are coming up?

You've got Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. I think he's fantastic. I think he's excellent oniro. I think he's fantastic. I think he's excellent on policy. I think he's a great speaker. He's articulate. He's energetic. The problem, hypothetically, and I know you all know I've brought this up before. Do Democrats take the risk given the latent and overt anti-Semitism in this country? Do you take the

risk with a Jewish candidate? I ask this myself as a Jewish person. I hate that it's a question I have to bring up, but I don't know how many of you have been seeing what's going on, uh, in the Netherlands. Uh, we are seeing globally and in the United States a resurgence. It might not be in anti-Semitism, but in anti-Semitism, people are willing to be public about is the way I would put it. And is that sort of setting yourself up for failure to select a Jewish nominee? I think it would be fantastic. I think Shapiro is top notch, but that is a question going back to Gavin Newsom for a moment. You know, he's tremendous on his feet.

Optics of how he presents are excellent, very much an existing target of the right. Even some Democrats don't like him and say he's not progressive enough. So while I think Gavin Newsom is a very interesting idea, he still seems like the natural person right now. We may feel differently about that in a few years. It seems like he's inevitably going to be the nominee at some point. There is the question of even some Democrats don't don't like the guy. Pete Buttigieg is being mentioned youngest of the group that I'm talking about today. Tremendously smart, good at debating clowns. I hate that.

I have to ask this. I, I, I'm sorry. Will the country that just elected Trump vote for a gay guy for president? It's horrible that I have to ask this question. I don't know with Shapiro and Buddha judge, will there be a significant contingent of the country that says that's DEI? They're being chosen for their identity or whatever. I don't know.

I don't know. The political article also mentions, hey, you know what? Kamala Harris could run again. I will be honest. Maybe it's too soon. The election was only a week ago. Kamala Harris is brilliant. When I met her in March, I was totally impressed with

her ability to talk about any issue extemporaneously. Think on her feet. I voted for her. She would have made a great president. Did we fire that bullet already? And thus, it's not a good idea given the defeat that she already faced. Certainly a question that we have to ask. What about Tim Walls? Tim Walls is a great idea in terms of fighting the sissy men thing. As you all know, Hunter football coach knows how to fix a transmission and a clutch on a car and all of this other stuff. Did he sort of fail out by losing last week? And when Democrats say they want someone younger, will 64 65 at the time of the next election be young enough? I mean, I it's certainly much younger than Biden and Trump.

The contrast with the, you know, Trump will be 80 whatever at the end of his term. Tim Walls at 64 certainly would be a much younger man. But is the combination of the failing last week and his age at that point potentially a liability? Then you've got the folks that always say, oh, we need Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. Andy Beshear, you know, he's perpetually mentioned. And the idea is you bring a Southern Democrat, a Democratic governor from a red state. He'll appeal to red state voters. Now, this is something that keeps getting repeated. It's been floated around since the year 2000. But I don't know that it really matters right now.

And so for me, it's more about does Andy Beshear have the notoriety? Because that one of the things we learned earlier this week when AOC asked her followers, why'd you vote for me and Trump to the people that did? The responses were overwhelmingly about passion and imaging and optics and this sort of thing. I don't know that Andy Beshear is remotely well known enough. I think he'd have to be better known before the start of the primary, I guess, is where I land. Illinois Governor J.B.

Pritzker is being mentioned as a possibility. You know, Pritzker, I think he's a good governor and a smart guy. I like him. However, are Democrats looking to bring in their own billionaire president? I just I don't know. Is is that really you know that there will be people on the left and right who will say this rich dude, J.B. Pritzker, does not have the American public's best interests in mind.

He would have to fight that. I'm not sure. And then the other name I would add is Maryland Governor Wes Moore. I would certainly add Wes Moore to the list. Veteran, young business background. Very interesting to me. Very, very interesting to me. Again, black guy. Will the Republican party respond to any minority individual, whether it's gender, race, religion, ethnicity? Will they say D.I. and more importantly, do we care? Because I do

not believe that Harris lost because she was labeled the DEI candidate. She lost for all of the reasons we've already talked about. So maybe it's like, do we? Yeah. Any minority will be called a DEI hire by Republicans. But at the end of the day, do we care? Bottom line, what we are learning from last week's election, what we're learning from AOC's informal focus group with her voters who also voted Trump for president, is that a lot of the things we thought mattered may not really matter. And, you know, speaking of celebrity, also Jewish, would Jon Stewart have a better shot than everybody I mentioned because of how well known and popular he is? I don't know. I don't know.

But be curious to hear what you think. We have a new video from Trump's forthcoming border czar, Tom Homan, where he says, we don't care if blue cities and blue states are going to tell us no on helping with the mass deportation. We are going to force our way in. We are coming up on some dark days, my friends. There is no doubt. I told you yesterday and the day before and the day before California governor Gavin Newsom, LAPD, LAPD chief Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and others are all planning not to cooperate with and to stonewall Trump federal government efforts to do mass deportation. Here is Tom Homan essentially saying, we don't care.

We're coming in. I've seen I've seen some of these Democratic governors say they're going to stand in the way they're going. They're going to make a hard force. Well, I know a suggestion. If you're not going to help us get the hell out of the way, we're going to do it. So if we can't get assistance from New York City and I may have we may have to double the number of raises we send in New York City. We're going to do the job. We're going to do the job without you or with you. But it's much easier to arrest a bad guy.

Like I just said, we're concentrating on public safety, human and national security threats. It's much easier to arrest a bad guy in the jail. Give us access to workers that we've been kicked out of. Let us get the bad guy in jail. It's safer for the alien. It's safer for the officer. It's safer for the community.

But if you want to release these bad guys out in the community, then we're going to have to go find them, which puts the officer at risk, puts the community at risk, and puts, you know, and bottom line is, no one, sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals. And the letter keeps saying, well, we want victims and witnesses of a crime to feel safe coming to the police department knowing we don't work our lives. Let me make one thing clear that that's just a stone cold lie. Victims and witnesses of a crime does not want the bad guy back in the neighborhood. That's true.

Certainly. And so listen, it's going to get ugly. I don't know. I wish this is not pointing to a peaceful resolution. You have authorities at police department level, mayoral level, gubernatorial level saying we're not going to participate. Federal agencies, federal authorities are not going to be welcomed in here. It's going to be a no. And meanwhile, you have the incoming border czar for Trump, former director of ICE, saying we are going to do it. If NYPD won't help, we'll send double the number of federal agents in there. As always, I hope that this does not

get violent. And I really worry about what is ahead here. You know, we played that video earlier this week of the Latino Trump voter who said, I heard what Trump said, but I'm assuming that they're not really going to deport the undocumented family oriented Latinos. They're going to do it. They're going to do it. Assuming they have the resources for it. Homan is making it clear and it is potentially going to get it, assuming they have the resources for it, uh, Homan is making it clear and it is potentially going to get very ugly. Now, as we get closer to the Trump administration being sworn in

in January, we will come to you probably with expert interviews on knowing your rights and people in general, knowing their rights when it comes to these planned raids and enforcement. We'll get to that. But in the interim, know that we are going to need a plan. That's the point. Let's take a very quick break. Make sure that you have preordered my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine. This book is available everywhere. I'm about halfway done recording the audio book. We talk in the book about how things got to be the way they are now. I can't imagine the book being any more relevant than as a result of what we are now facing once the Trump administration is sworn in. So preorder the book.

We'll take a break and be back with more men in the audience. This is for you. One of our new sponsors is integrated men and online support community dedicated to helping men reclaim their power, break free from outdated masculinity norms and find purpose. Integrated men hosts weekly meetings that guide men in overcoming shame and self-limiting beliefs. If you feel lost, stuck, or like you're just trying to please others at the expense of your own happiness, this community can help you break free. It's not about pretending everything's easy. It's about embracing the chaos, facing fears, learning how to live with

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more and check out my interview with a deal and check out also the quiz that is a short assessment for taking that first step. That's integrated men dot net slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. All right, let's dig into the Friday feedback on Friday feedback, still getting a lot of election related feedback. A lot of, uh, I'm kind of actually enjoying going through the different views as to what on earth happened in the election last week and many conflicting views among some in our audience. So let's dig right into it over on the subreddit. Absinthe Joe wrote, fuck policy. It's about charisma, charisma. Uh, and Joe wrote, we've learned that policy doesn't matter to most people. You can argue that many were victims to misinformation or just didn't know the facts, but in this day and age, everyone has a smartphone.

And if they can't access basic facts about the candidates policies or just look at the material gains they've received right in front of them, then they clearly aren't seeking policy out as a priority. It's time to go all in on charisma. Obama won because he was a generational charismatic figure. Trump is, too, in a dark and effed up way. He's stupid and insane, but he was a generational charismatic figure. Trump is too in a dark and effed up way. He's stupid and insane, but he is a brand. He has an aesthetic.

He's got his own shtick that stands out. It's clear people want to follow a cult of personality. The next four years needs to be the search for a charismatic, preferably male, unfortunately, character who is wholly different and will sweep people up in populist rhetoric. All right. So the, the Joe is saying, and I want your feedback, the way that Democrats will win in four years says Joe is with a charismatic man, not someone who supports X, Y, Z policy, not someone whose experience is from ABC industry or field, just a super charismatic man. Do you agree with that? Let me know. Let's continue. Ian says, David, I've been following

you for four years. Listen to you every day. And it hurts me to say this, but you were wrong in your analysis. Joe Biden should not have sought reelection two years ago. Well, I agree with that. At the very beginning, I said, unless Biden drops out, forcing him out over the summer won't work. But I said from the beginning, my preference would have been that he stick to the one term and we have an open primary. Ian says we needed a true primary.

I agree. We needed a change candidate like Bernie at the top of the ticket. I agree on a charismatic change candidate. I have not seen evidence that Bernie would have won last week. I think that may go beyond where the facts point us right now. Ian continues. The weight of this failure is on the shoulders of the DNC. We clutched our pearls

with Joe and then like sleeps to the slaughter. I guess he meant like sheep to the slaughter, followed the DNC to Kamala Harris. We need to start going after the institution of the DNC and take it over like the right has with the RNC or we will continue to lose. Do you agree with Ian more than Joe or do both Joe and Ian have elements of being correct? Dire Avenger said simply so much for Alan Lichtman's keys. Yeah. I mean, listen, you all know, and I know about you from your comments on my two interviews with Alan Lichtman that I was skeptical as to whether his keys could account for the unprecedented nature of this election. Number one and number two, even if we accept his keys, my opinion of who held the keys was different than his.

During our interview, I even said to him, here are two keys that I think you can really argue are not in Harris's favor. And he would say, no, they are. So listen, I mean, close to the end of his career, this one is not going to bolster those 13, 13 keys. My instinct is we never hear about the keys again. And he revises his assessment of who held each key to kind of like retroactively fit the results to the keys. I wouldn't be surprised to see him do that. Uh, okay. Next rum runner says, I hope you address the concern that this election may spell doom for the American progressive left for at least another generation. Will the democratic party shift further to the right?

Maybe closer to the third way of the nineties. Will the progressive left abandoned the party or tune out of politics even more than they have been in recent years? Or will Democrats adopt more progressive populist stances and move further to the left to rebuild the traditional working class base? I mean, based on the way I phrased it, one can probably tell what I'm hoping they'll do, but I'm concerned and want to hear your thoughts. You know, I'm going to reserve judgment on what they are going to do, because we are a little over a week out from this election.

And I don't even think that the DNC and Democratic Party have yet even really assessed the reasons for the loss. And until you fully diagnose a problem, I just don't think you can fix it. So there needs to be an assessment done. You're making a lot of sense and a lot of good points, but I think it's going to be a little bit of time before they are actually ready, ready for that. A frosty Arctic says WTF is wrong with the left right now and the pathetic petty attitudes. And frosty says the left has lost elections before worse than this, yet they weren't dead.

Like so many people are crying about. They went on to win big in four to eight years. Things can change fast in our country. We went from Bush to Obama, to Trump, to Biden and back to Trump. The pathetic gloom and doom defeatist BS does nothing to solve anything. The whole let's just concede all of our positions to the right. Doesn't do anything. You hold onto your values. You decide which ones take priority, which ones you might need to add. And you move on just as the left has done before. And just as the right has done to win this time, conservatives were not crying and having a meltdown about how they just can't do it. And they're giving up donations to their

creators and organizations increased. Okay. you get it. You get it. I completely agree with this. First of all, the 26 Senate races, I haven't evaluated in detail yet, but we might be able to take back the house and Senate in two years. And if we take back the house and Senate in two years, uh, Trump gets nothing done those last two years and it may be cripples magas of a possibility for 2028. Secondly, it is absolutely the case that when the right loses, they double down. They say, let's fund our media ecosystem. Let's fund our PAC ecosystem. Let's fund our cultural groups. They do it

instantly within hours of losing. They do it. It's not what I'm seeing from the left right now. And that does scare me. That absolutely does scare me. Um, mega roll a Tron says Trump didn't win this election. The Democrats lost it. Tepid policy wonkery simply doesn't carry the appeal that populism does. I could go on, but I just think the Dems failed Kamala women, minorities, LGBTQ plus, and young people who chose not to turn out. I don't know if you if you mean the Dems failed because of or as a result of. But there is you know, I've talked about populism a lot over the last many years. And one of the realities is populism is a rhetoric.

It's not a set of policy ideas. You can be an economic populist saying that it is the lower and middle class that has been subjugated by higher, uh, by elites of different kinds. And a lot of people would agree on that. All right. Greenless two nine nine nine says, do you think we would have been better off if Trump one 2020 instead of 2024? Now, this is interesting. A green list rights, the logic being the Trump administration would have

inherited their own mess and the global inflation crisis happening would have put much of the blame for high prices on MAGA. And now the administration is likely to yet again, inherit an economy that's going in the right direction. So even if they pursue reckless policy that hurts the economy in the long run, Americans may end up associating to Trump terms separately in this scenario with a strong economy. It's worth noting that many additional lives would likely have been lost to COVID under Trump 2020. To me, this is difficult to answer. And also who knows what authoritarian moves a four-year younger Trump might make. Uh, I actually think this is a really is difficult to answer. And also who knows what authoritarian moves a four year younger Trump might make. I actually think this is a really difficult question to answer.

It's not obvious to me looking back now, and we won't really know the answer until we see what this guy does from 25 to 29. If he lives that long, we just don't know. It's not obvious to me that the current scenario is better than if Trump had won 2020. But the main point against that is for the good of the country, for the good of the economy, for the good of the people, it is better that Trump did not win 2020 and now we figure out what we can do to resist. Here is a wild one. Novo Russia, which I don't know how much we read into that username.

Novo Russia says Biden 2028. I don't know how popular this opinion is going to be, but if we look at the facts, Biden was pushed out in 2016 so we could run Hillary. We lost. He was pushed out in 2024 so we could run Kamala. We lost. We let him complete his run in eight in 2020 and we won huge. Biden excites the base, peels away at the center and center, right? It's time to learn from these mistakes and stop making the same mistakes again and again. If we as Democrats want a democratic president in 28, the only move is to run Biden. He still has one term left. It would be foolish, foolish as hell to run anyone else.

He is the only one who can beat Trump and quell the MAGA movement. Well, listen, uh, Trump is not going to be running in 28. The idea of running 86 year old Joe Biden in 2028, who would be 87 roughly when he takes office and 91 when he leaves office does not strike me, does not strike me as a particularly brilliant idea. So I want to hear from you. Sometimes it's time to move on. Biden had a great presidential term, significant, significant accomplishments, excellent economy. I believe it's time to move on from Biden. Biden 2028 scares me. I don't think it's going to happen either. By the way, I don't think there's any possibility.

Let me know what you think. Great bonus show today. Don't miss it.