The David Pakman Show - 11/7/23: Obama advisor calls on Biden to drop out, Trump testimony goes horribly wrong

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

-- On the Show: -- David Axelrod, former advisor to President Barack Obama, calls on President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race based on the recent New York Times/Siena polling data -- Is President Joe Biden the most successful President of the last 50 years? -- Failed former President Donald Trump melts down while testifying in his civil fraud trial, leading Judge Arthur Engoron to direct Trump's attorneys to "control" their client -- Failed former President Donald Trump explodes in court as his testimony goes horribly wrong -- Alina Habba, lawyer for failed former President Donald Trump, is almost in tears after Trump's disastrous testimony -- Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds says that Donald Trump can't win in 2024, and endorses Ron DeSantis -- Republican Congressman Steve Scalise is asked six times by ABC's George Stephanopoulos whether Donald Trump won the 2020 election and refuses to give a simple answer -- Lying disgraced Republican Congressman George Santos once again attempts to claim that he is Jewish -- David tells a Circuit City story wherein he was investigated for insurance fraud -- On the Bonus Show: Dean Phillips is loaning his campaign $2 million to challenge Joe Biden in the Democratic primary, Alabama Mayor's apparent suicide underscores dangers of outing, Biden announces $16 billion for Amtrak train improvements, much more... 🔊 Babbel: Get 55% off your subscription at https://babbel.com/pakman 💸 Qube Money: Try it for 2 months totally FREE at https://davidpakman.com/money 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 👍 Use code PAKMAN for 10% off the Füm Journey Pack at https://tryfum.com/PAKMAN 👨 Fix Your Lid: Get 25% off with code PAKMAN at https://fixyourlid.com 🤢 Reliefband: Use code PAKMAN for 20% OFF + free shipping at https://reliefband.com -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

There is continued panic among even senior Democratic officials about new polling related to Joe Biden and the question, can Joe Biden win in 2024? It's a predictive question. So obviously, all we can do now is speculate and say, well, this piece of data signals us one way and that piece of data signals us another way. But there is indeed growing concern. We're going to talk about why and then I'll give you my sense. And by the way, my interest in this and my perspective has zero ideological or emotional attachment to Joe Biden. I don't care about Joe Biden in the sense that I don't idolize or deify elected officials. I care about what are my options, which is the best option and who am I going to vote for and then evaluating

what they do. Cults of personality are not interesting to me. All of this sort of sidebar stuff is not interesting to me. So let's start. What is going on? Well, former senior adviser to Barack Obama, David Axelrod, considered a bright and insightful, thoughtful guy by many, is urging Joe Biden to drop out. And the reason that Axelrod says Biden should drop out is indeed that recent polling from The New York Times, Sienna, that we looked at yesterday from over the weekend. Now, I already told you some of the limitations of that polling, but let's first look at what Axelrod had to say and then we will evaluate it. Axelrod putting out a tweet on Twitter now called an excretion on X where he said, quote, it's very late to change horses. A lot will happen in the next year that no one can predict. And Biden's team says his resolve to run is firm. He's defied conventional

wisdom before, but this will send tremors of doubt through the party, not bedwetting, but legitimate concern. Referring, of course, to that New York Times polling continuing. The president is justly proud of his accomplishments. Trump is a dangerous, unhinged demagogue whose brazen disdain for the rules, norms, laws and institutions of democracy should be disqualifying. But the stakes of miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore. And lastly, David Axelrod saying only Joe Biden can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether this that is wise, whether it's in his best interest or the country's. So Axelrod primarily making this

declaration on the basis of the Siena New York Times poll, which, as we discussed yesterday, says that Joe Biden is behind in five critical swing states, which he won in 2020. So let's review once again the polling data. As far as the poll is concerned, a year out before we even have official nominees, hypothetical general election polling is of limited value. It's tough to get data that will represent the situation a year from now when it is this early and we have Trump facing 91 felony counts and none of those criminal trials have started. Biden is not officially the nominee, although he's going to be. Trump is not officially the nominee, although every sign is pointing to Trump is going to be the nominee. We have an economy that is clearly doing

well and I believe is generally improving rather than worsening, although things can certainly change in the year that is to come. And again, there are some details about this Siena poll that are a little bit questionable. Number one, the partisan split has been questioned, is not representative of the general voting public. If you speaking of Siena polling, if you think back to the day before the twenty twenty two midterms of a year ago, Siena said Democrats were going to lose Congress by four percentage points, generated a ton of headlines, generated a ton of fear. It's a disaster.

And the outcome a few days later was close to a tie, close to a tie. So there is certainly cause for concern here. And the bottom line on this is we shouldn't take the Siena poll so literally that we believe Biden has lost those five states and it's over. That's not useful and it's not based in reality. On the other hand, the takeaway that is useful is, oh, there's definitely cause for concern. Best case scenario, Biden is slightly ahead. Worst case scenario, Biden is slightly behind and we have a situation where a radical extremist ideological demagogue, Trump, who already had four years during which he was a disaster as president, lost almost everything for the Republican Party, by the way. Twenty eighteen, twenty twenty, twenty twenty two.

We don't we know about all that. Despite all of that. He could be president again for four more years. So the important takeaway a year out, the important takeaway is no matter what we see, we all must vote and that we can be sure of. Now, all of that being said, let's actually talk about the Biden record. I've been talking about doing this for a while. Let's do it today. As I sit and think and research. I start to become increasingly

convinced that Joe Biden may be the most successful and effective president of the last 50 years. Oh, David, no, that can't possibly be. Oh, this is going to be nonsense stuff. Well, let's actually think it through. As someone on the left, me evaluating presidents going back to, I don't know, Nixon, Gerald Ford, when you actually go president by president and you look at Biden's accomplishments, it's difficult to argue that anyone has been more effective than Joe Biden. And he's not even done with his first term. Now, I know people will hear this and they'll say, David, this is a propaganda segment or it's ideological or you're doing this because you're scared. Do you really think that if I'm scared Trump's going to win, talking about

Joe Biden on a left leaning podcast is going to be the way to save Joe Biden? No, I'm scared Trump's going to win. Talking about Joe Biden on a left leaning podcast is going to be the way to save Joe Biden. No, I'm talking about this because the more I think about it, the more it is where the facts lead me. So let's set the stage. Richard Nixon, psychopathic war criminal, right? I mean, liar, criminal, just insane. Nixon is not the best president of the last however many decades. Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, which I believe was not the right thing to do and generically forgettable as a president. Ford's not the most effective president of the last however many decades. Jimmy Carter, relatively ineffective, some good environmental policies. I think he was right morally and

ethically in a number of ways, but generally not the most effective president in terms of his accomplishments. Ronald Reagan deregulated everything he could find to deregulate, attacked the Environmental Protection Agency, tax cuts for the rich, arguably fueled China's rise, increased the national debt dramatically. Reagan's not the best president of the last many. George H.W. Bush, you know, on foreign policy, a relatively widespread disaster, illiberal politics, not a particularly memorable president and ended up being a one termer supplanted by Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton, known for having a good economy. But I have to tell you, that was not really through Clinton's doing. Clinton benefited from circumstance and the dotcom boom. But he did a bunch of deregulation.

He did a bunch of offshoring. He acted in ways that, again, strengthened China, probably to the detriment of the United States. So Clinton, a fine president in terms of the economic record. But that didn't have that much to do with Clinton. He benefited from circumstance. We then get to George W. Bush, war criminal, tax cuts for the rich, Afghanistan, Iraq disaster. Hard to say Bush was the most effective president.

And then we get to Barack Obama, Barack Obama, who, again, presided over a solid economy. I do think Barack Obama deserves some credit more than Clinton anyway for presiding over a recovery from the Great Recession. But at the end of the day, you know, fell short of the hope that had been exhibited during his presidential campaign. Not a bad president. I'm not saying he was a bad president, but we're talking about who has been the most effective. OK, then we get Trump. I don't have to explain to you why Trump is not the best president of the last 50 years. So then we get to Joe Biden and we start to look at the list of accomplishments. The American rescue plan, massive economic stimulus. Yes. Timed because of the pandemic

and pandemic recovery. Extraordinarily efficiently done, much less corrupt than the recovery packages that were done under Trump. Certainly an accomplishment. Inflation Reduction Act, which does so many different things with regard to the economy where inflation is now coming down, combating climate change, lowering health care costs, reducing the deficit provisions for clean energy investment. And we are now seeing one of the greatest aspects of that come to life. The drug price negotiations where the Biden administration has now forced essentially big pharma to come to the table. The 10 most widely 10 of the widely most prescribed drugs, drugs under Medicare will now be negotiated, expecting at least 25 percent price cuts on those drugs.

Massively impactful to so many people. The Chips and Science Act, which will boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing, a huge issue in the supply chain problems that we started experiencing during the pandemic, will address a number of other supply chain issues that became evident during the pandemic. Technological advancements will be fomented. A major, major deal. The PACT Act, which expands health care benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxic substances. Really important thing. Broadly, covid response that made more sense than what we saw under Trump. Incredibly widespread vaccination campaign. Now we're in a different

phase with the latest one. But when Biden took over, really had a disastrous infrastructure for vaccine distribution, certainly another success. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, known as the bipartisan infrastructure law, Again, infrastructure spending, roads, bridges, public transit, airports, ports, broadband and more already seeing some of that money allocated to really worthwhile projects. Going back to many of the international agreements that Trump on a hissy fit, basically the equivalent of a toddler pooping in the sandbox before it's time to go home. The Biden administration rejoining the Paris climate agreement, rejoining, restating, re envisioning, recommitting to our commitments with the World Health Organization and showing that, hey, we are not going to remain in

this humiliating position in which Trump left us. Biden using executive actions on climate change in ways that I think are excellent, including when it comes to the Keystone XL pipeline revoking the permit. I think that was the right decision. New climate targets, et cetera, getting us out of is it the longest war in American history in Afghanistan? Trump said he would do it and he didn't. And Biden did it. There was some chaos. There was going to be chaos no matter what. But Biden got us out an extraordinary accomplishment. The American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, which create jobs through investments

in education and child care, paid family leave. Not every aspect of that has made it into law as of yet, but certainly a worthy thing. And then you look at appointments and judicial nominations, an extraordinary number of judges confirmed. Trump would often brag. I'm getting so many judges confirmed. And he was right. Joe Biden on a per year basis has done even more.

And that will shape the judiciary in an extremely important way. And then a bunch of other little things, a little expansion of the Affordable Care Act, which is going to make it so many more people will be able to get health insurance. Some little things on gun control legislation. Much of it doesn't have to do with the president, but he was able to do some things there, enhancing background checks for buyers under 21, funding some mental health services, doing some school security. These are a lot of accomplishments. And then there's a whole other list of 50 things that I can't mention because I'd spend an hour reading them. This is pretty extraordinary stuff. And so this is not a defense of Biden's age or any. I'm simply looking at accomplishments. When I think back, Trump,

Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton, George H. As we go back. It's really difficult to think of a more effective president than Joe Biden, and he still has 15 months left in his first term. If you disagree with me on the facts, let me know if you plan to write to me and say, David, you're shilling for Biden. I don't even want to hear from you. And in fact, I don't even triage the emails anymore. So I won't. You'll be screaming into the void. Don't even bother.

It's pointless stuff. But the more I look at it, the more impressive this record actually seems to me. Let me know your thoughts. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube. We are in the final stretch to two million YouTube subscribers. Budgeting can be a tough thing for a lot of people to stay disciplined about, but our sponsor, makes it much easier. The Cube app lets you easily separate your budget into categories called cubes and then make all of your purchases from your cubes with your cube debit card. Let's say you've budgeted a thousand dollars a month for groceries. You're at the grocery store. You're ready to spend, say, two

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fraud trial in New York yesterday, having a complete and total meltdown on the stand, requiring Judge Engeron to direct Trump's attorneys to control him or he will control Trump. An insane scene, an insane scene. Here is video of Trump from CNN before taking the stand in court. Back to our special live coverage. We're looking right now. This is inside the courtroom. Donald Trump sitting down with his attorneys as we're getting just consider it kind of like a pool spray. We've seen this in other moments. The cameras are allowed in for a moment to kind of seem set each day

in the courtroom. This is Donald Trump moments before he is set to take the stand and be under oath to take questioning from the judge. All right. So you see Trump there looking, I don't even know how to describe it. To be totally honest, the testimony was completely and utterly insane. Rolling Stone reports. Judge repeatedly asks lawyers to, quote, control Trump as testimony goes off the rails. The former president dodged questions and wouldn't stop ranting while on the witness stand. I don't think it's much of a surprise to anybody. And Garan said, I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can't,

I will. I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can. The warning came after the judge repeatedly cautioned Trump against delivering political diatribes in lieu of answers. Quote, some of your answers have not been in response to the question, adding that prosecuting attorney Kevin Wallace has been, quote, very patient after repeated attempts to get Trump's testimony back on track. And Garan told Trump's attorneys that this is not a political rally and suggested maybe they need to have a talk with him right now. We have reporting for a reporting from Bloomberg as well. Trump testimony called a broken record by the judge. That is certainly an understatement. Bloomberg reporting on a number of different elements of this. Of course, we know that Trump has been attacking the judge, including calling him a disgrace. Trump finished his testimony at 325 p.m. and the judge called it

a broken record, saying, I'm going to date myself, but I feel like this is a broken record. Trump stated that the banks and his accountants all seem to be happy. He called the judge hostile and repeated claims that it was a witch hunt as well as a disgrace salon reporting that Trump's testimony is, quote, verging on a confession and legal experts said Trump, quote, admitted to more fraud in his complete and total word salad testimony. This does appear to be the case. Trump did admit that he would sometimes say we need to state different values for properties. Trump sort of mildly keeping up the guys that it was because

he really believed the property values were different. But he is essentially admitting to the facts of what he is being accused of here. And then also Trump saying a whole bunch of insane things to the judge. This is a political report. It's a terrible thing you've done. You know nothing about me, Trump said to the judge during one verbal strike from the witness stand. You believe that political hack back there, he said, looking towards the attorney general, Tish James, who brought the case. This is an insane situation to have in court for any defendant and witness. It's a former president of the United States. So here's the major takeaway.

If you think this is nuts and this is completely and totally nuts, just imagine how Trump will be during his criminal trials, which could land him in jail for the rest of his life in prison for the rest of his life. This is bad enough in terms of behavior. It's a civil trial. At the most, it will cost Trump money and the ability to run his business in New York, which is significant. I'm not going to understate that. But Trump's not going to end up with what is effectively a life sentence in prison based on this civil trial. And of course, the lawyers cannot control him here. Does anyone think And of course, the lawyers cannot control him here. Does anyone think they're going to be able to control him in his criminal trials?

One other really funny moment during this thing, and then we're going to look at some other video now in a moment of Trump afterwards. Trump was asked about his involvement with his 2021 financial statements, which presumably were were created in 2022. But OK, it doesn't matter. And Trump tried to say he was busy being president at the time. He was busy with, you know, dealing with China and Russia and keeping the country safe, to which he was reminded you weren't president in 2021.

You were, you know, 20 days until January 20th of 2021. Does Trump not remember when he was president? Is he lying? We will never really know. But here is Trump after testifying, continuing to attack the case and everybody involved with it. I think it went very well. I think you were there when you listened. You weren't scamming us. This is a case that should have never been brought. The court has committed fraud, not Trump. It's the court that committed the fraud. That were very valuable. And they said they had no idea. They had no idea what the numbers were. They said 18 million dollars from our office and it's 50 to 100 times that amount

of estimation. It's a terrible thing that's happened here. We're taking days and days and weeks and weeks. And those are the outside world. What's happening? Now remember, Trump bemoaning that it's just going on and on. Today is really the only day or yesterday was really the only day Trump had to be there. He chose to be there on other days. This didn't have to consume as much of his time as it has. It's by his choice.

Getting the wish because I don't have to be here for the most part. But I think you have to be here because I want to be here. Oh, yeah. It's by his choice. witnesses who admitted that I never told him what he originally said I did. He admitted that he lied and he has absolutely no credibility whatsoever. He admitted he lied at Trump's direction in order to further Trump's goals. Only witness. That's your only witness. And I think you saw what I had to say today. And it was very conclusive. everything we did was absolutely right. To think that we're being sued and spending all this time

and money, and yet people being killed all over the world, that this country could stop. With inflation and all of the other problems that this country has, I think it's a disgrace. And when you look at the numbers, the phone numbers that came out today from the New York Times and CBS, I'm sure the Times is not too happy, but people are sick and tired of what's happening. This is a sad, I think it's a very sad day for America.

But anyway, this is a case that should have never been brought. All right. So Trump truly like a broken record inside the courtroom and outside of the courtroom playing his greatest hits, saying Mar-a-Lago is worth what is a gazillion dollars, 11 billion or something. Who knows? That's none of none of that is a surprise. Let's now talk about the potential impacts of this testimony. All right. So a bright orange Donald Trump exploded before, during and after his testimony yesterday in the New York civil fraud trial. Let's start with Trump's statements now coming into the court. This is Trump entering for testimony, asked whether

he's looking forward to testifying. And he says that indeed he is looking forward to testifying and he says that indeed he is looking forward to testifying today. I am. So while Israel is being attacked, while Ukraine is being attacked, while inflation is eating our country alive, I'm down here and these are all political opponents attacked by the Biden administration. They have all numbers of terrorism. You know what happened today in the New York Times and CBS came out with a poll that I'm leading all over the place. But it's a very unfair situation.

This is really election interference. It's all ridiculous. It's probably ridiculous. The numbers are much greater than on the financial statement. We've already proven that. They said Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 million. Now, remember. The assessed value of Mar-a-Lago is not what anyone claims it's worth on the open market. The assessed value for tax purposes is one thing.

And then the value in the market of Mar-a-Lago is another thing. It's not one point five billion that we know. But Trump in Trump's lies, he also conflates assessed value for tax purposes versus market value. Supposedly the big businessman, big big boy businessman with real estate. But is he lying? Does he know that? We'll never know. And it's a terrible, terrible thing. These are political operatives that I'm going to be dealing with right now. You have a racist attorney general who made some terrible statements and this is someone that came over the wires today. It's a very sad situation for our country. We shouldn't have this. This is for third world countries. And it's very unfair. It's

very unfair. today. It's a very sad situation for our country. We shouldn't have this. This is for third world countries. And it's very unfair. It's very unfair. So listen, remember, part of their strategy is to convince you. And this will be even more relevant once the criminal trials start. Part of their strategy is to convince you the fact that a former president is being prosecuted and here we're talking about a lawsuit is a sign that the country is bad. It's a bug. It's a defect. It's like a so-called banana republic. The reality is holding people who do bad things accountable, apparently bad things right now, their allegations is actually a good thing. We don't want a country where if you're just a random person and you do something,

you're held accountable. But if you're the president or a former president, it's like a get out of jail free card. That's what would be bad. Trump and the people around him want to convince you of the opposite, that the fact that they are going after him because of the apparent wrongdoing is a problem when in fact it's not a problem. We know they can go after random people. That's not new. But now we are learning, hey, maybe you can also hold the president accountable. Trump, again, just continuing with the unable to stop talking about the sort of sort of

imaginary value of his property. The numbers are much greater than on the financial statement. And we've already proven that they said Mar-a-Lago is worth 18 million dollars. Mar-a-Lago is worth anywhere from probably 50 to 100 times more than that. And it's a terrible, terrible thing. All right. Now, I'm actually unsure now whether this is a piece of the same statement or it's just Trump saying it again.

It's never really totally clear. And then here is Donald Trump coming out in the middle of the testimony, asked how it's going. And Trump does the my lips are zipped motion, I guess you would call it. We can all see it together, which has happened. All right. So Donald Trump, they're making that motion, zipping his lips, not speaking, which is interesting in and of itself. Yeah, Trump rarely is a zip my lips sort of guy. So listen, at the end of the day, this particular trial is only a preview of what we are eventually going to see.

First and foremost, a judge has already determined that Trump did the thing he is accused of doing, which is, uh, committing fraud. This is all about the degree to which he will theoretically be held accountable. What are the damages? What will Trump be allowed to run a business in New York or not? That's what's at stake here. Trump's life as a free man is not at stake here. And he's behaving like an absolute child. What are we to expect when four criminal trials start, some of which will will be overlapping? And this will be Trump flying from campaign rally to primary stop to courthouse to courthouse starting in March of next year.

I don't know. I don't even have. I believe we are going to see a Trump more unhinged and deranged than any that we have seen before. And it all could culminate. I don't think it's likely, but it could culminate in Donald Trump serving time in prison. That would be effectively a life sentence based on his age and his health status. That's what we're up against in 2024. I would argue the most insane and ludicrous circumstances for an American election, probably in the history of the country. Let me know what you think. We'll have these clips on tick tock. We'll have them on Snapchat. Of course, they'll be on YouTube as well. Many people know how hard it is to break bad habits, and sometimes you have to replace a bad habit with a better habit. And that is exactly what our sponsor fume helps you do. Fume is not a vape. I don't advertise

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The info is in the podcast notes. All right, let's look at the last component of yesterday's disastrous testimony by Donald Trump in court. We heard both from the prosecutor, Letitia James, as well as Trump's hilarious attorney, Alina Haba. Now, I'm going to play some of Alina Haba statements to you, statements made to the press. I'm going to play them for you. One of the really important things to understand is that Alina Haba is making these statements outside of the courtroom rather than inside the

courtroom in a place where she is much safer to make them important to mention. And here is what she had to say. It doesn't matter what your politics are. Everyone has a right in this country to get up and put a defense. I don't care who you are. You have a right to hire a lawyer who can put objections on the record. You have a right to hire a lawyer who can stand up and say something when they see something wrong. But I was told to sit down today. I was yelled at and I've had a judge who is unhinged slamming a table. Let me be very clear. I don't tolerate that in my life. I'm not going to tolerate it here. All right.

Well, she seems to not understand how courtrooms work. I mean, it's sort of a weird comment because judges tell lawyers to sit down all the time. Lawyers often stand to make objections and judges frequently. I mean, it's not a super rare thing. Judges then get tired of objections or repetitive objections about the same thing. Or judges say, I've already made it. I've already ruled on that. Please sit down. Please sit down is so common in courtrooms. But it's almost like she's trying to make herself out to be the victim, which is what Trump tries to make himself out to be and what Alina Habba

tries to make Trump out to be. She's really losing her mind in an incredibly unprofessional way. And remember, she's not saying this stuff inside the courtroom. She's saying it outside of the courtroom on television. She, as we have said before, is far better suited to be a television lawyer than an actual lawyer, as are many of Trump's lawyers, because they have all sorts of different talking points that might sound good on TV, but they aren't legal arguments. And Alina Haba, certainly representative of that. We also heard other things from Alina Haba. Let's take a listen. I'm not here to hear what he has to say. That was what rang true, loud and could not have been Now, remember, that's a really important thing.

She's trying to make it seem as though the judge somehow prejudged the case before evidence was presented. This was a bench trial. The way it works is the judge, if they feel they have the evidence they need, makes a determination about the facts. We are now looking beyond that in this part of the trial. She's a lawyer and she knows this. I know she's pretending that this is different. She's not actually this dumb. I'm confident that she actually knows this, but she's again acting as though the fact that this is a bench trial and that's how it works is somehow fundamentally unfair to Donald Trump. This is really for those who don't know any better.

The audience is people who don't know any better political and partisan actors. I'm not here to hear what he has to say. Then why exactly am I being paid as an attorney? And why exactly are taxpayer dollars being used in this courtroom? The answer is very clear. Because Ms. James wants to stand right here like she did this morning and call my client a liar, call the company fraudulent, and make a name for herself. She said this morning that the numbers don't lie and they won't lie in this case. Well, Ms. James, I have a message for you. The numbers didn't lie and they won't lie in this case. Well, Miss James, I have a message for you. The numbers didn't lie when you ran for governor and that's why

you dropped out. So, again, a totally bogus, fallacious argument. Any prosecution you bring must be invalid because you lost a political race. I mean, what does that mean? It's it's just not an argument. And this is the level on which these folks political race. I mean, what does that mean? It's just not an argument. And this is the level on which these folks are thinking. So eventually, after the testimony, we did hear from the prosecutor, the attorney general, Letitia James, a very different approach, measured, sober and calm. Let's listen to what she had to say. I've heard from Donald Trump in our case against him, other defendants, and the Trump organization. He rambled.

He hurled insults. But we expected that. At the end of the day, the documentary evidence demonstrated that, in fact, he falsely inflated his assets to basically enrich himself and his family. He continued to persistently engage in fraud. The numbers don't lie. And Mr. Trump obviously can engage in all of these distractions. And that is exactly what he did, what he committed on the stand today, engaging in distractions and engaging in name-calling. But I will not be bullied. I will not be harassed.

This case will go on. We look forward to hearing the testimony of Ivanka Trump on Wednesday, and then we plan on closing our case. And then there will be some motions on Thursday and then the defense will present their case in chief. Justice will prevail and it's important that all of you understand that we have already been victorious in our motion for summary judgment and now we look forward to disgorgement and to the remaining counts in our action

against Donald Trump and his repeated and consistent fraud And now we look forward to disgorgement and to the remaining counts in our action against Donald Trump and his repeated and consistent fraud against the citizens of the great state of New York. All right. So that's the final detail I want to end our coverage of Trump's testimony on. The defense has not yet presented its case. One of the genuine curiosities that many legal observers have had, certainly with the upcoming criminal trials, but to some degree with the fraud trial as well,

is the question, are Trump's lawyers going to try to make in court the arguments that they're making in the media to defend Donald Trump? Because as far as the criminal trials is concerned, many of those are not really legal arguments. They're not going to fly in a court of law. Trump's lawyers haven't yet started their defense in the civil fraud trial. When they do, we will get our first taste of what it might be like to see Trump lawyers build a defense that may not actually be a legal defense. That'll be next week. There is a Republican governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, who now says Trump can't win. He cannot win. And she is endorsing seemingly inevitable loser Ron DeSantis. Let's discuss NBC News reports. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says Trump

can't win in 2024 as she endorses Ron DeSantis. She touted DeSantis's accomplishments and endorsed him for president, saying she believes he will be able to win the 2024 general election while Donald Trump cannot. She said, I believe he can't win and I believe that Ron can. And that's a big reason I got behind him. Reynolds said she would stay neutral in the Republican primary race, but she appeared with DeSantis at least eight times, but she is now breaking with tradition and throwing her support behind the Santas. The Santas is pretending that this is really important. The Santa says of her support, quote, This one's obviously very meaningful because Kim

has proven to be a great leader that Iowans love. I mean, any time I mention her name out there, they cheer. And it's because of what she's been able to accomplish as governor. There is also reporting from the Des Moines Register. Governor Kim Reynolds says U.S. can't gamble on a Trump candidacy as she endorses Ron DeSantis. This is super interesting to me because there's both an ideological element to this. There's an internal Republican politics element to this. There's an internal Republican politics element to this. And there's also sort of a factual aspect to this that we can look at. And we're going to

do all of that. So first, let's just start like with the numbers. OK, if you look at Biden versus Trump as compared to Biden versus DeSantis, it's a mixed bag. And I'll tell you what I mean. The very kind of shaky New York Times Siena poll on Biden versus Trump says Biden wins on Biden versus DeSantis. It says DeSantis wins in Wisconsin. Now, that's one state, one poll which says, hey, DeSantis is actually stronger. If you look at Pennsylvania, similar results, Biden versus Trump is tied. But Biden versus DeSantis, DeSantis is winning. You can then go down to non Siena polls and you see a different situation.

So, for example, you look at Morning Consult from a few days ago. Biden, Trump is even, but Biden is leading DeSantis by four. So you can find polling that says DeSantis is an easier candidate for Biden to beat. You can find polling that says Trump is the easier candidate for Biden to beat. So as far as the math of it, sort of an open question, the most critical part of this to understand is that it really doesn't seem like Kim Reynolds is right as far as DeSantis' ability to win the primary at all. And I welcome this sort of disagreement among Republicans about who can win to the extent that it generates chaos and disarray within the Republican primary.

But it's not even clear that Reynolds can help DeSantis win Iowa. Never mind. It's obviously not clear that DeSantis has any path to the nomination. And then once we get to the general election, it's not at all clear that DeSantis is actually a better candidate than Trump. He might be. You can find polling that says DeSantis is stronger, but you can also find polling that says Trump is stronger. The sad and scary reality, however, is Trump can win Iowa. Trump can win the primary and Trump can win the general election. That's the reality.

He is dominating the Republican primary and he is ahead of Biden in much of the early polling. He's behind or tied in much of it as well. But the takeaway for all of us needs to be let Republicans have as much chaos as they want, as much chaos as they are interested in generating during the primary, because it's not good for them. And then once we get to the general election, we must activate and make sure every single one of us votes because the stakes are too damn high. But Trump can win. I wish Kim Reynolds was right. I wish it were true that there's no way in hell that this country would elect for a second time this dangerous authoritarian demagogue. I just don't see any evidence that she's right. Sadly, Trump can win. And that's why we all

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in combination with medication. Relief Band has an A plus rating from the Better Business Bureau, over 100000 satisfied customers online. See if Relief Band can help you kick nausea. Go to Relief Band dot com. Use the code Pacman at checkout for 20 percent off plus free shipping. The info is in the podcast notes. We're only a year from the 2024 election and there are still sitting members of the House of Representatives who refuse to just say Donald Trump lost in 2020. It's that simple. Joe Biden won. Here is Republican Congressman Steve Scalise on ABC's George this week with George Stephanopoulos. George Stephanopoulos asks six times, six times.

Can you just confirm the 2020 election wasn't stolen? The guy who won is the president. Six times Steve Scalise refuses to do it. This is where we are in almost 2024 right now. Can you say unequivocally that 2020 election was not stolen first time? What I've told you is there are states that didn't follow their laws. That is what the state constitution, the US Constitution requires. Now let's just circum pre preempt that this is a cop out. They love to say states didn't follow their own laws. And what they mean by that is that mail-in voting was allowed despite not having the legislature vote on it. However,

this is not against the law in situations of public health emergency. You can circumvent that process in order to allow vote by mail. You can argue it's unfair. You can argue it's wrong. You can say you don't like it, but it is not true that they didn't follow the law. They did follow the law. There was a public health emergency. You can say it shouldn't have been an emergency till your head is blue. I don't know. But it doesn't change the fact that everything that the states did was legal. So he's been asked once to say it wasn't stolen. He refuses to do it. Let's continue. You know, I've seen in my own state where we had to send our elections commissioner to jail years

ago for fraud and corruption, and we cleaned up our act. And remember, that has nothing to do with the 2020 election in our state. Every state ought to follow the laws that are on their books. That's what the U.S. Constitution says. That's not what I asked. I said, can you say unequivocally that 2020 election was not stolen? Second time. Look, Joe Biden's president. I know you and others want to talk about. All right. That's the second cop out. Was the election stolen? I don't deny that Joe Biden is the president. Wasn't what I asked you. So two attempts to cop out to keep going. We're focused on the future.

We've talked about 2020 a lot. We're talking about how to get our country back on track, how to get our economy moving, how to stand up to the bad actors around the world. She is not slowing down in China. He was asked about the 2020 election. He's talking about China and Taiwan. You see what's going on in Russia. You see what Iran is doing to work with Hamas and other terrorist organizations. This administration needs to pick

up the pace. They're not standing up to the bad actors around the world. The world, they need to. We're passing bills to address this through the House. The Senate needs to take action. The president needs to take action as well. That's what I know that Joe Biden is president. I'm asking a different question. Can you say unequivocally that the 2020 election was not stolen? Third time. What I've told you, and you've seen this, there are states that didn't follow the laws that are on their books, which is what the US Constitution says they have to do. So you just refuse to say unequivocally that the 2020 election was not stolen. Fourth time. So do you wanna keep rehashing 2020?

We're talking about- I just want an answer to the question, yes or no? That's to this country. We've asked, look, we've talked about- That was the fifth attempt. Before, but again, will you acknowledge that there were states that didn't follow the actual state legislative enacted laws on their books, which the US Constitution says they're supposed to do. I know that every single, I know that every court that looked at whether the election

was stolen and said it wasn't rejected those claims. And I asked you a very, very simple question. Now I've asked it, I think the fifth time that you can't appear to answer, can you say unequivocally the 2020 election was not stolen? I told you there were a handful of states that didn't follow their laws. The rest did. The rest did. The rest followed six times, six times, four of the times or I guess five. He says some states didn't follow the laws.

That claim was rejected by the Supreme Court. That got to the Supreme Court. It went up to the Supreme Court. Oh, we believe that what states did was legal. Turns out it wasn't. Turns out that what they did was perfectly in accordance with how they are allowed to to manage elections in the state of a public health emergency. And then once answers by saying Joe Biden is the president. Thanks, Steve. We knew that you can just say you don't like the results. Right. I mean, just say you don't like the

results, but it wasn't stolen. I hate I think I think Biden's terrible, but it wasn't stolen. They're not willing to do it. And that is an extraordinarily extraordinary example of that obfuscation. George Santos, the lying Republican congressman. Is claiming again that he's Jewish. Now, I challenge you as we watch this interview with CNN's Manu Raju, I dare you to figure out what the hell George Santos is talking about. He's back to claiming he's Jewish or Jew ish, I guess. I don't know. It's true. It's true. Oh, it's true. I took I spent the last ten months DNA hiring genealogists to act because I don't think there's any is there a documentation of this?

That's what I spent the last 10 months doing. He's looking for it, guys. He's looking for the documentation that he's Jewish together. But unfortunately, Ukraine is in the middle of a freaking war. Right. My grandfather comes from Ukraine. So this is this is the biggest lift that I've had to do my entire life. But that's something I'm going to I'm going to die.

I'm going to prove before I die, because the reality is I never said I was Jewish. I would always joke for years. I say I'm Jewish. I was raised Roman Catholic. I said that in the middle of RJC just last year, a year from today, just last year in Las Vegas. I joked on the mic that I am, after all, Jewish, joking. Everybody thought it was funny. Everybody knew what I was talking about. Nobody knew what he was talking about. No one knew. It was coming from and then for me to sit here and be like, wait, this is something I've always made very clear. I'm Catholic, come from a Jewish family. Here's my Jewish family's history. Why is this now a problem? I'm not. But you just to make clear you, you have documented proof that your grandparents fought the Holocaust.

I am working on finishing getting the last pieces of it. He's got almost all the puzzle pieces in place. Any second now, he's going to be able to prove it. Specifically the piece in Brazil where they go to Brazil and then have documents forged so that they can blend in and all of that. And once I have everything ready, I will allow the same company I hired to submit the report to the press with glee, because that is going to be that one thing that I'm going to be able to say.

I never intended to hurt anybody. By the way, it's funny that he says when the when it's all done, he will allow the report to be given to the press. The you think he's doing this for himself? Like the only reason to even seek out a report would be to be able to say publicly, hey, I didn't lie about this thing. He's he's such a great guy. He'll allow it to be published. Was he going to just keep the document at home for no reason? I never wanted anybody to feel like I misrepresented myself or my family's heritage. That's I will

not stop working until I have every single part of that. There you go. All right. So still, still no evidence that George Santos is Jewish. And I don't know if it's because Israel's in the news that it's once again important for him to be making these claims. Really hard to know. But that is it is what it is. And he's not going to stop. All right. Let's do something different. Normally, I would play a voicemail right now. but I got a really great message from a viewer a few days ago said, David, I used to work at Circuit City when I was in high school, just like you did. Can you tell another Circuit City story? Because I love the story. So I'm going to tell a Circuit City story. You guys tell me, is this at all interesting? This is the Circuit City story

that included me being investigated for insurance fraud. All right. I think that this is a funny story. You tell me. Here's a reality at Circuit City. We used to be on commission. Circuit City went bankrupt. It's like a former like a Best Buy type chain for people who don't remember Circuit City. And I worked there from the time I was a junior in high school through freshmen in college. I sold computers, laptops and digital cameras. We made commission. OK. It turned out that I did really well in that job. And when I was 17, so it was basically like the my senior year of high school, essentially. I sold a ton of these laptops and whatever, and I made forty eight thousand dollars. And this was

back in 2002. It would have been 2002 and 2001, 2002. Anyway, somewhere around there, which was an insane amount of money for a 17 into 18 year old to be making inflation adjusted. I don't even know what that would be. And I just enjoy doing it. I built a rapport with people. I enjoyed chatting with people. I did really well in that job. And one of the things I did sort of stupidly was I got a nice audio system for my car, for the car that I drove at the time. You know, this nothing I would do now. But at the time, I liked listening to loud music and I got one of these systems with subwoofers and amps and, you know, all this different different stuff. And one morning, my mom comes into my room to wake me up and says, I don't want to alarm you.

This was like 6 a.m. I don't want to alarm you. But did you remove the wheels from your car last night? To which I popped up in bed and said, remove the wheels. What are you talking about? Immediately, my heart rate's going 180 and I'm running out to the garage to figure out what's going on. I get out to the garage. My car has no wheels. The wheels are gone. The car is on cinder blocks or not even cinder blocks. It's on like a spare tire on one side. And I don't even remember what else on the other window is smashed. All my audio stuff is gone. My CDs are gone at the time. Music was on CD. It's everything's gone. It's just the car has been ripped to shreds. It's it's totally destroyed. So we do what everybody

does. You call the police, you file a police report, you file an insurance claim on the insurance claim. I put the equipment I had. And remember, I was only 18 at the time, 17, 18 at the time, but I was doing really well in a job. I had zero expenses. So I spent a bunch of money on this audio system. Very quickly, we are notified. We're sending an insurance investigator to take a statement. They're going to be interviewing you. This will be recorded and you are allowed to have an attorney present if you want. Now, as I see this and I go, what on earth is going on? So we show it to a lawyer, friend of the family, and he says this to me strikes me as they suspect some kind of fraud.

Is everything you told them legit? Yeah, I've got the receipts. I've got all this different stuff. He says, OK, be prepared, be prepared with your tax return, be prepared for everything. This insurance adjuster shows up. I remember we sit on on my mom's porch. My mom, my mommy was allowed to be there with me for the insurance fraud interview. This guy puts a recorder on the table. Big, strong guy, burly man, mustache, eyeglasses. I remember the whole thing. And he starts asking questions and he says, OK, these are the receipts you submitted for the items that were supposedly stolen. Is that right? Yes, sir. Yes, yes, yes, they are. OK. How much money did you make last year? I go, I made forty eight thousand dollars. He goes, hmm. And you're in high school. Yeah. OK, how did you make that? Oh, I work at Circuit City. How much do you make

per hour? No, we make commission. You can make really as much as you're able to. Oh, do you have a tax return that proves that that's how much you made? I go, yes, I do. I pull out the tax return. And at the time I would go to like H&R Block to have it prepared. Here's my tax return. Forty eight thousand, you know, and change. He goes, hmm, who prepared this tax return? I go, I don't know. This lady from H&R Block, here's her name. Hmm. Do you know this woman personally? No. And obviously this guy's gears are going and he's saying there's no way this kid bought this stuff because no one his age would be able to afford to buy this stuff. Oh, now there's a tax return that says he made forty eight thousand dollars. The tax return must have been conspired. He conspired with an H&R Block person to do the tax return. At the end

of the day, I had everything this guy wanted. And two weeks later, I get a letter from the insurance company where they say, despite the fact that you submitted all of these receipts, we have determined that your policy maxes out at a thousand dollars for whatever the category, you know, like add on electronics or things that didn't come with the car, whatever the case may be. You are free to pursue a claim through your homeowner's insurance instead, since the vehicle was parked in your garage at the time. So this entire investigation takes place.

I'm worried they're going to bring me to jail. I've got all the documentation. And at the end of the day, they don't give me the money anyway because they go, oh, the policy is limited to a thousand bucks. Why didn't they just start with that? I don't know. I'm sure there's there's insurance policy rules or whatever. So that's that's my that's the only other good Circuit City story I can think of. The insurance fraud investigation all related to my job there. So those were the days. Those were the days. All right. We've got a great bonus show coming up for you today. We will talk about this guy, Dean Phillips, running against Joe Biden, who is loaning his own campaign money. Why? He has no shot. We'll talk about it. Alabama's mayor has apparently taken their own life

after, I guess we call it being outed. It's a horrible story, which we will discuss. And we will also talk about 16 billion dollars for improvements to Amtrak authorized by the Biden administration. All of those stories and more on the bonus show, the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. Exactly. Sign up at join Pacman dot com. We'll see you then.