The David Pakman Show - 12/1/23: They're still pushing Biden impeachment, David gets confronted again

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

-- On the Show: -- House Speaker Mike Johnson claims Trump's impeachments were “brazenly political” and “meritless" whereas Joe Biden's potential impeachment is okay -- Joe Biden expertly handles a reporter's gotcha question -- Caller is a left-wing and having difficulty finding employment in a right-wing area -- Caller discusses trans issues -- Caller wonders how America today would react to a 9/11-like event -- Caller asks about Project 2025 -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: Gavin Newsom vs. Ron DeSantis debate review, and much more... 🔊 Babbel: Get 55% off your subscription at https://babbel.com/pakman 🎁 Uncommon Goods: Get 15% off at https://uncommongoods.com/david 🖥️ UPLIFT Desk: Get 5% OFF with code PAKMAN5 at https://upliftdesk.com/pakman 💪 Athletic Greens is offering FREE year-supply of Vitamin D at https://athleticgreens.com/pakman 📰 Straight Arrow News: Download the FREE app at https://straightarrownews.com/pakman 💻 Stay protected! Try our sponsor Aura FREE for 2 weeks at https://aura.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni: The first 100 people to use code PAKMAN will get 60% off at http://incogni.com/pakman ☕ Beam melatonin hot cocoa: Get up to 50% OFF at https://shopbeam.com/pakman -- 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

Republicans are not stopping with the Biden impeachment threats. We've talked about this now off and on for several weeks, if not several months in a broader sense. But there was the question, are Republicans realizing they don't have any actual evidence against Joe Biden? This criminal bribery conspiracy that he was involved in doesn't seem to really exist. Maybe we will quietly move on from talking about impeaching Joe Biden. No. Two weeks ago, we started hearing from various Republicans that they expect Joe Biden to be impeached in 2024. And one of the fascinating pieces of video related to this include Mike Johnson, the

speaker of the House, being asked about the merits of the Biden impeachment, the merits of the Trump impeachments. And essentially what Speaker Mike Johnson says here is of the Trump impeachments, and essentially what Speaker Mike Johnson says here is that the Trump impeachments were bad, but the Biden impeachment would be good. That is, of course, if they decide to go forward and do it. Take a listen to this. President Biden and the Biden family. We owe it to the American people to continue this process, but to do it methodically and transparently. Many of you know I was on, I'm a lawyer, I'm a constitutional law attorney.

I served on President Trump's impeachment defense team twice. Right. And we lamented openly and we decried how the Democrats politicized that process. They were brazenly political and how they brought those meritless impeachment charges against the president. This, what you're seeing here, is exactly the opposite. This is different, guys. This is different. We are the rule of law team. The Republican Party stands for the rule of law. So the argument here, Trump impeachment, bad Biden impeachment would be good. A number of Republicans, they are very clearly ramping up to this. A number of Republicans now talking about this. Here is a clip from yesterday, I believe it is from Fox News

where they are talking about this very issue. Speaker 4 Jordan House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, gentlemen, I apologize. It's a little shortened segment than we had planned for. Congressman Comer, this is your committee. This is 2018, a money laundering investigator warning about Hunter's unusual erratic payments from China. Why didn't anything happen? Well, that's a great question. The bank did what it was supposed to do. The compliance officer caught it.

They realized that this is a wire into what they said was a company with no known purpose. Now remember, it's really important as you hear James Comer talk about this stuff. It's not even clear there's a crime here. I am not going to come here and defend all of Hunter Biden's business practices because there could be all sorts of different reasons why this money is moving. Maybe there's not. Maybe it's completely innocent. Maybe it's not. Maybe it's completely innocent. Maybe it's not.

But we don't even know that there is a crime here and we absolutely have no connection to Joe Biden. That's the important thing. How is this all supportive of an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden? It was a shell company or a fake company, and they were concerned because the the politically exposed person who owned the account was the son of the former vice president of the United States. Remember the son of the former president of the unit, vice president of the United States,

who at that time did not even have an official role. They knew through press accounts, uh, and through his ex wife's testimony and interviews that he had a drug problem, that he was in financial trouble. So they knew that he was compromised. They knew that China did this. This is the way that China bought influence. This is the way that China compromised politicians.

They would send money to compromised family members of big politicians to try to gain influence. So when they contacted the Biden staff, what was this $5 million wire? They said it was alone. Just like what Joe Biden said, the checks that we identified he received was alone. So there it is. They find a way to crowbar Biden in by saying, well, if these were loan repayments to Hunter Biden, that sounds very similar to this thing. Joe Biden said, which related to his cousin, which is completely public and on the up and up. And there is still nothing connecting Joe Biden to any kind of crime or even evidence of a crime at all. Let's look at one more of these.

Here is Elise Stefanik, Republican congresswoman, taking questions during the this sort of like a weekly question thing that Republicans do. Good morning. Thank you for coming to our weekly House Republicans stakeout. I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. Welcome back. I wanted to begin with a quote from Thomas Jefferson, who said, quote, The most sacred of the duties of government is to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens in pursuit of that sacred duty. House Republicans have worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people for months to deliver transparency, following the

money and the facts to uncover what I believe will prove to be one of the largest political corruption scandals of our lifetime. Is there any crime that you've identified yet, Elise? And potentially in our nation's history, This impeachment inquiry led by the chairman here today, Jamie Comer, Jim Jordan and Jason Smith, continues to provide the American people the answers they both demand and deserve. Does it? They have found over 10 million dollars from China, Russia, Ukraine and Romania funneled through the corrupt influence peddling schemes to line the pockets of the Biden crime family. Notice, by the way, that she doesn't say where that money was going, because so far what

they found is that Hunter Biden's company received money. They did work in exchange for money. There is no connection to Joe Biden. She's always very careful with her words on the DOJ, FBI and other federal agencies mobilized to play cover up and attack Biden's leading political opponent, Donald Trump, in a desperate effort to distract from Joe Biden's failings. There you go. So there's the conspiracy that the indictments against Donald Trump are timed in order to distract from all of Joe Biden's problems.

Of course, it's like, what problems are you talking about? This investigation has found nothing. So let's just review Donald Trump's first impeachment was because of abuse of power and obstruction, obstruction of Congress. The abuse of power came from the allegation that Trump solicited foreign interference in 2020. It relates to Ukraine and the idea that he wanted Biden investigated in the investigation to be publicly announced and so on and so forth. Trump's second impeachment was for incitement of insurrection after the January 6th riot. We know what happened on that day.

In both cases, there was an inquiry. There was an investigation. Charges were brought based on specific actions that were attributed to Donald Trump. Now, he was ultimately acquitted. But remember that being impeached, really what we mean is the House has impeached you. Then it goes to a trial. The Senate decides whether to convict or acquit. On the other hand, on the other hand, what we have with Joe for Joe Biden are allegations without any evidence, no evidence of a crime, never mind evidence that Joe Biden is connected to a crime. And when you call them out and say it doesn't seem like you have evidence,

they say, well, the evidence is being covered up. They're stonewalling us. We believe we expect we we we are thinking that this is what's going to find what we are going to find when we investigate. But we need to do the impeachment inquiry to find the evidence because they're obstructing us. Now, the simplest explanation in this case, to me, seems like the most reasonable one. They haven't found evidence that in his 40 plus year public career, Joe Biden committed a crime because Joe Biden didn't commit any crimes. I would be the first to say if evidence of a crime was brought forward, that's something he needs to be held accountable for. At this point in time, they have nothing. It is not stopping them. And it is yet another thing that's on the table.

If Republicans do well in 2024, they almost certainly will impeach Joe Biden if he wins reelection and Trump does not. And so this is not just about November from the standpoint of the Oval Office. It's about November from the standpoint of the Senate, the House of Representatives. They don't care that they don't have evidence. They are actually using that to say it must be covered up. So therefore, we need to do more. I want to play a video for you that I think is super interesting. Our friends over at Midas Touch edited this together. Joe Biden was taking questions two days ago and he was asked about proposed cuts from Republicans and Kevin McCarthy. And what is really interesting about this is that Joe Biden turns around.

Some are calling it a gotcha question. Some are calling it an uninformed question. Whatever the case may be, Joe Biden turns it around and makes it clear that the entire premise of Republicans complaining that Biden won't give them the cuts they want is very silly. Listen to this, how Biden really does handle this very well. He said that he asked you numerous times if there was anywhere in the federal budget for cuts, but he did not get an answer.

So is there a specific answer? Got a specific answer again today. The first you didn't listen either. So why should I even answer the question? We cut the deficit by one hundred and sixty billion dollars, billion bill, a lion dollars on the Medicare deal. We cut the deficit by raising the tax on people making fifty five corporations and made 40 billion dollars to 15 percent.

And the list goes on. So in terms of what he is proposing, is there any room for negotiation? What's he proposing? Did he tell you? So this is this is a this is very well handled because the reporter is running with the line. Joe Biden is not considering any of our cuts. He's just he doesn't even want to look at what we're proposing. He's not even going to look at it.

And Joe Biden turns around and said, what is the substance of these cuts? I mean, do you even know or are you just repeating what Kevin McCarthy told you? You're not being facetious. Did he tell you what he's proposing? He was talking about the bill. Yeah. What what does it propose? Do you know?

I'm not being a wise guy. You are very, very informed people. Do you know what that bill cuts? There is a long list of things that it cuts. No, no, it doesn't say it says it doesn't say what it's going to cut or just say generically it's going to cut. Exactly, exactly. This is a classic from Republicans. We have all these cuts we're proposing and he's not even willing to listen to any of them. Well, you're just generically saying we're going to cut 10 billion, whatever. When we hear from many of these Republicans similarly, that they have a proposal for X

and they won't even Biden won't even listen to the proposal. What is the proposal? What's in the proposal? And this is how Republicans will operate. They will feed Republicans. They will feed journalists questions based on no real information. And then when you actually look into the details, you go, oh, yeah, what are they actually proposing to cut?

They do this with regulations. We have we have proposed cutting 2000 regulations. I'm going to cut two regulations for every new one or whatever the case. What exactly are you looking to cut? Generically saying regulations doesn't tell us whether these are worthy regulations or not. The number of regulations, by the way, also doesn't tell us their merit just because you can find what does it even mean to cut a regulation? This is very well handled. And what I would like to see, what I would prefer would be that the reporters ask Kevin McCarthy,

what are you asking for? So that then they are more informed when they go to Joe Biden. And then maybe you could actually get Joe Biden say, oh, yeah, here's six things they want to cut. Here's why it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Nicely done by Joe Biden. I don't actually know who this reporter is. She sounds perfectly nice. It's not a personal attack, but she is taking a talking point from Kevin McCarthy and then making it a question to the president with no actual evaluation or analysis. That's exactly what Republicans want. Joe Biden was smart to interfere with it. We're going to take the quickest of breaks and then we'll be back with much more on the Friday show. prepare for the show, do my office work. I'm sitting at an uplift desk at this very moment,

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You can once again sign up at join Pacman dot com. Let's hear from some people in the audience. We take calls on the Friday show via discord. You can find our discord at David Pakman dot com slash discord. And people are welcome to ask me about absolutely anything they want. Let's start today with Greg from New Jersey. Greg, what's going on? What's on your mind today? What can I do for you? Greg from New Jersey, please accept my invitation to join the program. Greg. Hello, David. Hi. First time, long time. I had a question about. All right, Greg, your connection is not good enough to do this right now, so I am unfortunately

going to have to let you go. Let's go next to Justin in Arkansas. Justin in Arkansas. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Kick us off here, hopefully with a strong connection. David, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Hey, David, I've been in Arkansas since 2009. OK, I was brought here by the Air Force. I'm actually

a military police vet. And I'm here because of it's where the support structure is for my special needs son. And I just got out of working for the government. And I'm finding it really difficult to find employment anywhere because of just how many, you know, how Republican this place is. And the ideology that is shared amongst just a large number of the population. And my question to you is a huge one is like, what what do we do in these states that are just so dominated by like magnetism? Yeah. Like we're progressive Democrats are such a small minority. Like, what do we tell you more? Can you tell me in what way are you struggling to find employment on this basis? Is it that you go somewhere and just the

entire environment is so very clearly right wing that you don't want to work there? Or are you not getting hired because of your political views? Speaker 4 Well, I think I have to say that even beyond that is that I've worked in law enforcement. Right. So that leans heavily conservative. I think we can agree. And then in Arkansas, especially you're you're even more far right. And then it's just been. And then I have an even further complication with like legal matters against the state. But I can't really get into that. But just to keep it simple, Justin, just to kind of.

So are you are you finding it hard to find a place you want to work because of the political environment or are you being discriminated against for your views? I feel like no, even if it's not outspoken, if you're just not an open Christian conservative, like it's very I stick out like a sore thumb and I feel like. But you stick out in what way? How do people how do potential employers know that you stick out like what's happening? Well, like if I don't say Merry Christmas, you know, like if I don't say God bless you when somebody sneezes, like I have a special needs son who has had numerous neurosurgeries and I get zero empathy from these people outside of thoughts and

prayers, you know, like from which which people which people like state leadership like i worked for the government of the state of arkansas it's it's pretty pretty difficult i guess i my broad question that i wanted to ask david was just like what hope is like to gather and like organize and places like Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, where you are actually just you're stuck, you're stuck financially, you're stuck by economics like. Well, listen, I wish I had a specific solution for you. I don't, of course, but I think at a certain point, it's a matter of kind of determining what is it that you can or need to do for your family. And for some people, they might say,

well, what I need to do is I need to move to a different state. For example, I'm not suggesting you do that, but I think everybody kind of has to figure out in my particular situation, what, if anything is there that I can do? And maybe your future is in Arkansas. Maybe it's not. I wish I had better advice. I know, David. I mean, listen, long term, everybody would benefit from more people like you going to Arkansas and changing the political system.

Right. That's a longer term solution. Short term, you've got to do what you've got to do for your family to some degree. You know, so there's a conflict here. There is. It's just unfortunately being bound by he my child has special needs and that requires an enormous amount of support structure. I guess I've just had a very hard time finding like minded individuals.

And and I love listening to your program. Uh, I was just happy to be able to get through and talk to you, even if you weren't able to provide me with an answer, just to, I listen to you daily, man. I'm a big fan. I appreciate everything you put out. And, um, you know, uh, it's, it's hard, uh, when you're, you feel isolated, uh, and it's it's hard when you're you feel isolated and it's nice to hear a voice that echoes a sentiment that I agree with. So I appreciate it. I appreciate that. Justin from Arkansas.

Great to hear from you and hope that hope that you get it figured out and that that it improves. But it is definitely a complicated situation. Let's go next to. Oh, I don't know. How about who? I can't even see the name. Who's this from New Jersey? Is it Colton or Connor? Connor from New Jersey. Welcome to the program. What is on your mind today? Connor from New Jersey, you've got to accept my invitation in order to be able to talk to me.

And there goes Conor. Conor is gone. Let's go to Ellie from Seattle. Ellie from Seattle. Welcome back to the program. What's on your mind today? Speaker 6 I well, I'm wondering, I know that, you know, you like, obviously like to do your research before you opine on things. Um, there's one area, you know, I love to show and

agree with most of the things you have to say. Um, but, um, I'm wondering how much, uh, research you do, um, you know, as a, as a a cis person opining on things like transgender folks, specifically like the trans and sports issue. You know, I'm wondering, have you actually talked to any transgender individuals about this issue before forming your opinion? Well, I've not talked to any trans or cisgendered individuals in the sense that I'm doing my research by reading the things people people write by looking at studies that have been done or, you know, I don't I don't know. I don't know.

I guess I don't know if you're asking, do I take any special precaution when researching trans issues as opposed to any other issue? I mean, I try to research every issue I talk about. I'm not sure. Let me let me put it a different way. Is there something specific I said that didn't sound well researched to you? Well, I mean, I think, you know, obviously, you're right that, you know, the issue of trans folks in sports is very nuanced, you know. But I think that the right wing, you know, wanting to exclude trans folks from from sports is is pretty, pretty blatantly, you know, rude is not the right word. Speaker 1

Well, it's not really just all trans people that they want to exclude from sports. They're really focused on on trans women. Right. Like, I don't hear anything about we need to deal with trans men in sports. They seem obsessed with trans women in sports. Is that fair? Speaker 5 But, you know, sort of similar to, you know, trying to like ban drag shows, you know, it's it's it's it's about way more than just, you know, trans women in sports or drag shows. You know, it is trying to regulate and dehumanize these people.

I guess the biggest question I have for you, I don't think at least in my recollection, I've been watching for a couple of years now, but I don't think you've had any trans guests on the show. I know you did an interview with was it Pandora Box, but that didn't even make it onto the regular show. Yeah, we've had we've had a couple of trans guests on the show. I mean, the thing is, Ellie, this is for this show. Trans issues aren't like the biggest thing. So in general, I mean, it's also I don't think I've had a guest on in the last many years on a whole bunch of different issues. I guess I'm trying to figure out is is the is there a criticism here?

Is it that I don't sound well researched about a particular thing I said? Or is it that you're not happy with the representation of guests on the show? Or tell me, tell me what I'm doing wrong so I can try to correct it. I think. Sometimes when you do talk about trans issues, it seems like there might be some more research that you need to do. Like, for example, I don't I think you were talking about the women's sport, the sports issue at this point.

But. In fact, trans women do actually experience periods or at least period like symptoms, you know, PMS thing, you said something about, you know, trans women not getting periods and that's actually not correct. Well, trans women don't get periods in the sense that a period is the monthly ovulation process, right? Do we agree with that? Sure, sure.

Okay. So I think maybe what you're referring to, Ellie, is that there, yeah, that the hormone therapy that some trans women are on can mimic a symptom of, of periods, which is particularly like the, the, the lower pelvic pain. Is that is that fair to say? Is that what you're getting at? Yes. But we agree it's not a period in the sense of menstruation. Fair, correct. Yeah. OK, so it sounds like we're on the same page on that, I guess. I, you know, in the interest of getting to other callers, Is there anything else specific that you feel I've said that's wrong about this issue? Um. Comes to mind, I just wanted to, you know, bring it to your attention and to just maybe, you know, I just want to talk to experts on things and, you know, this might be

an issue you want to speak to, you know, someone who is transgender since you're not. OK, that sounds sounds. I mean, in in general, it's just not like trans issues aren't the top issue for this show. For me, as a as a progressive, obviously treating everybody kindly, treating everybody fairly, non-discrimination, all of these are values that are important. They're just as important for trans folks as any other group. But certainly if it's an issue that we start talking about more, it would be very reasonable to have trans voices represented on the show. Perfect. Thank you.

And just one more comment. Thanks for ditching the mustache. Oh, I still have it. I still have it, but it'll be gone. It'll be gone soon. All right. Ellie from Seattle, thank you so much for the call. Why don't we go next here to. Oh, I don't know. How about Drew from Seattle? Drew, welcome to the program. What's going on? Hi, David, can you hear me?

Yes, I can. David, I have a couple of questions about Biden's student loan forgiveness. First of all, do you think he's going to try to make a push towards anything prior to the election? Or at this point, is he going to say, I've made my attempts, I did what I could and maybe do something if reelected? My instinct is that Biden may do one more thing on student loans in like August, September, you know, try to time it in a way that maybe it's beneficial for him. But the truth is, Biden has done more student loan forgiveness, both by measured as by number of dollars and by number of of debtors than any president in the history of the United States. So interestingly, I wasn't super optimistic when it comes to Joe Biden and

student loans. He's actually done way more than any other president. I find it very interesting. And another question about his his loan forgiveness plan, the one that ultimately failed, didn't go through the Supreme Court. So it was if you were a single person and made less than one hundred and twenty five thousand, it was fully covered. And if you made more than that, it was not covered at all. I remember being a little. No, it was the difference between it was either the difference between 50, 10 and 20 thousand or 10. I don't have it in front of me, but it there were requirements that based on if you had

certain jobs or maybe it was certain types of loans, you qualified for a larger amount of forgiveness. I don't have it in front of me. I admit. OK, I just remember being thinking it was odd that it didn't seem progressive, like the like the covid relief payments, how it made it. It made it seem like it was if you made one hundred and twenty four, you would get full benefits.

And if you made one hundred and twenty five and one dollar, you wouldn't qualify. And I remember thinking that was odd and I didn't know if the messaging was quite right. In other words, that instead of I didn't phase out, I could just like you just go to zero benefit. Yeah, I don't have it in front of me, Drew. But in terms of your question, I think Biden should should make sure people know about the amount of student loan forgiveness that he's done. And I wouldn't be surprised to see him make another push over the summer.

Great, thanks. And my only other question about student loans is I've heard it come up around the Thanksgiving table. This is trying to make the the middle class pay for the wealthy. And you do quit Google search and it's still maybe 50 percent of people are going to college. So how do you how do we from the left have those conversations around student loan forgiveness with that being the case? Is it more to the middle class? Because I feel like a lot of those conversations will often pivot.

People on the left might say, well, what about COVID relief or other loans or what about this or that? But how would you have that conversation if someone challenged you to say, you know, this is just a middle class or people that didn't go to college trying to pay for people who did and that not being fair? Yeah, I mean, I think what I would what I would do is just go to the facts of what we know. There was a there was an analysis done of Biden's proposal, and it found

that as proposed, if you look at who actually has the loans in the amounts that they have them, the percentage of loans that would be forgiven based on the amounts that are in that plan, it still does go disproportionately to those debtors with lower income rather than higher. And number two, I think we need to be making it clear that we should be making it easier for more people to be able to go to college. Part of this is about the cost of college has to come down. We should also offer incentives for trade schools. There's a whole bunch of different rebuttals to that. They're all very sensible. I think oftentimes the people who say what you're saying, Drew, they don't really want to get any of this information. They just

want to keep repeating that talking point. Right. Yeah. I mean, it does seem like there's opportunities to address college maybe more across the aisle because there seems to be some criticisms from both sides. But thanks for answering my questions, David. Thank you, Drew, from Seattle. Great to hear from you. Let's take a quick break and then we will go right back and hear from some more people. One of our sponsors today is Straight Arrow News, an independent news website and app really focused on unbiased, fact based journalism. The top two independent media bias rating services have recognized their reporting as having a center or middle bias, no spin bias or filter to get the news. You can download their free app at S.A.N. dot com slash Pacman or go directly to Apple

or the Google Play app stores and type in straight arrow news in the app. You will get access to daily news, investigative reports, exclusive interviews. Their free media mistool is great. It helps me find stories that are either underreported, sometimes being totally ignored by different sides of corporate media. This gives essay and app users the most complete picture of the news. Also in the app, there's a cool feature to set up personalized notifications about topics and contributors like me. I do an Thanks so much, David. Go to S.A.N. Dotcom slash Pacman to learn more and get their free app. That's S.A.N. Dotcom slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes.

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We are going to go next to, oh, I don't know. How about Rose from Oregon? Rose, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? I'm curious, do you think that when Democrats write articles about polls saying we should freak out, i.e. David Axelrod, that someone's got to them? Maybe somebody was like, I'll cut you a check to write this stupid op ed. Speaker 1 No, just wouldn't. Doesn't make there's no evidence of that. And it doesn't even seem like

there's really a monetary value to attach to it in that transactional way. I don't I don't think that I don't think that that's the case. Now, David Axelrod may get paid for writing op eds in general. He may be on some kind of contract to write op eds. But I don't think anybody's going and saying, hey, I'll slip you 30 grand if you write like one hundred dollars. Right. Yeah. I mean't I mean, I don't it just I have no reason to think that that's going on. It just seems so like it just seems so goofy that it's like, why are you guys doing this? Why aren't you just talking about positive things that have taken place? Yeah, I mean, listen, I don't think there's anything wrong with recognizing Biden. Twenty twenty four is not God's gift to Democratic candidates. It's OK to say, OK,

there's a lot of ways in which Biden is not the ideal candidate. At the same time, you've got the power of incumbency. So far, a pretty good economy and a lot of people who if they say, hey, you get a chance to do 2020 again, are you going for Trump this time are going to say, hell no, I'm going to be out there making sure it doesn't go to Trump. So I don't think it's the end of the world the way some people do. I could be wrong, Rose, right? Maybe I'm wrong. And Biden gets blown out of the water. I just don't see it. I mean, I think I can completely ignore incumbent elections in the past. I mean, I feel like everybody is just like they've like zapped their brain and forgot what we do with incumbents.

You know, people are saying it's different. We've never had an incumbent who was so old and seemed low energy or whatever the case may be. Yeah, we've also never had a situation in which a former president lost reelection and then is running again while facing for criminal trials. It's unprecedented in every sense of the word. I went to work for somebody that was 86 when I went to work for them and they were sharp as a tack. And people were like, well, what if he dies? And here he is, you know, 96 still kicking,

you know, so it's like the guy he didn't even get old till he was 92. You know, that's when he and listen, Biden and Trump are almost the same age. Trump's obese. I go with Biden on the health issue of longevity. That's what the actuaries are saying when they look at it. Well, this kind of leans me into I have another question for you or just a comment, maybe. But, you know, in terms of people just sort of ignoring the message in the wrong voice. And so like the Tupper, the Tucker deep fake, it seemed to work well in that direction. I thought that immediately yesterday. I was like, well, maybe this is positive before you ever read what the O.P. said. Right. I was like, well, this is

positive because this is like hearing something they should hear in a voice they might listen to rather than just skip the video. Yeah. If my entire show was redubbed to sound like Tucker Carlson, maybe it would pull in a bunch of right wingers. Who knows? You may be onto something. Well, but you couldn't go the other way. You couldn't dress up a Ted Cruz statement or a Rick Santorum or let's even just go worse. Like, let's go further back. Like you could dress up a Strom Thurmond statement in AOC's voice. It wouldn't pass the sniff test. That's true. No, that's very interesting. That's true. I'm going to think about that more, but that's an interesting point. And I just would just would like to comment, uh, back to the other caller, Ellie. Um, you know, I don't think that your comments on trans people are ever, I don't,

I always feel like I'm learning something and I am of the demographic. So I feel like, I mean, one, I really actually appreciated a few weeks ago, you had the show with the war photographer on, I thought that was an amazing interview. And there were some callers that have been calling in with trans stuff. Yep. And I thought that I love that you were responding to these callers. I thought that it was very well stated. And there's, you know, there's comments about people being like, well, you don't want your daughter to see a penis in the locker room. One, these comments almost always come from penis owners. So they look like what's this bodily self-hatred or something here? But I get the point.

But something that people act like is act like, again, trans men are left out of this conversation. But they act like trans women are in the bathroom waiting with their body. They've weaponized our body against us. But for many women taking hormone therapy, your parts are on call. It's not like that. And they act like you're in the bathroom like masturbating or something. And like, that's a part of our body. That's things change quite a bit. And yeah, and there's already laws against, you know, be hit. Plenty of behavior is already not allowed in bathrooms. And the trans issue doesn't really change that. You know, Rose, I'm going to let you go because I have so many people waiting. It's great to hear from you. Let's go next to Yahia from Virginia, who is currently undecided. Welcome

to the program. What's on your mind today? Yahia from Virginia, you're on the air. What's going on? And last chance for you here from Virginia. All right. Sad we couldn't make it happen. Let's go to Donald from California. Donald from California. Welcome to the program. What what's on your mind today? Oh boy. Donald's asleep at the switch, not even accepting my invitation. That's too bad. Let's go to Brendan. Brendan from New York, who is currently undecided. What's going on, Brendan?

Hey, David, you wouldn't know this, but you and I are kind of similar age. I think coming up one piece of sort of like political orthodoxy was this idea that George W. Bush not benefited himself, but approval rating was benefited from 9-11. And I mean, listen, you just have to look at his approval rating. It's absolutely the case that his approval rating went sky high after 9-11. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So my question was kind of we sometimes look at existential threats as the sort of thing that can definitely buoy a candidate. Do you think that a similar type of event, not necessarily a 9-11, not wishing anything, obviously, but

do those do you think that we would have a similar response in terms of unification? Does it matter the candidate or person? Or do you think it's more of a how the rest of us would respond type of thing? This is a really good question. After 9 11, there was incredible unity in the United States. It wasn't total. Not everybody supported George W. Bush. And once George W. Bush attacked the quote wrong country after 9-11, support went

down and down and down. But there was a period where the country really was, hey, we're in this thing together sort of sort of stuff. I would love to be able to tell you, Brendan, that if something like that were to happen now, the country would also rally around Biden and his approval would hit. I think it was like 80 percent or so that George W. Bush, 81, 82 percent, something like that. The difference, I believe, is that today versus 9-11, the Republican Party has become such an abortive political project. It has become so partisan. Many of its voters have become so extreme that if there were to be a similar attack under Joe Biden, I think Joe Biden never gets to 80 percent approval because of this contingent of hardcore extreme right wingers who will never get behind a Democratic president.

I wish it weren't the case, but that's where I think we are right now. That's fair. Brain teaser. Do you think it would be Biden or Obama would inspire more or less unity? Or do you think it's one of these things that's sort of out of their hands? I'm not sure I know what you're saying. If there was a terrorist attack with Biden versus Obama as president, which one would inspire more unity? Yeah, it's tough to answer because this problem that I'm talking about, the radicalization of the Republican Party is way worse now than it was when Obama was president.

So I don't really have a good answer. You know, if you replace Biden today with Obama and there's a terrorist attack, I don't know that they're both pretty acutely hated by the right wing at this point. Cool. Thanks. All right. Brendan from New York. Great to hear from you. Let's go to David from Philadelphia. David from Philadelphia. Welcome to the program. What's

on your mind today? Speaker 2 So my mind is I just I want you to be sure of something. The whole Project 2025 event agenda 47 stuff that you and Keith Olbermann, Midas Touch, and everybody else is sounding the alarm on. Right. I agree with you guys. I believe you when you say it. But at the same time, it sounds like all of the, it just, it sounds like Alex Jones sounding

the alarm about how it's going to be the end of the world, just, you know, on the left side. So I just want to be sure. No, I disagree with you, David. So here, let me tell you the difference. Project 2025 is organized by the Heritage Foundation. This is like an establishment right wing group. They have presentations.

They have PowerPoints. They have PDFs that you can look at. There are dozens of sources that are speaking on the record to media outlets and saying, I've been at these meetings. Here's the plan and the stuff that is in there. It's not we're going to put everybody in FEMA camp stuff. It's it's really practical stuff. You know how Trump got three radical Supreme Court justices.

OK, if he gets in again, he is going to do something similar. But at lower levels of the judiciary, he's going to cut you off. I'm sorry to cut you off. I agree with everything you're saying and I get it. My question is, I mean, is this the is this, you know, the doomsday scenario that you guys are making it out to be? Well, who's making it out to be a do? I mean, again, what I'm telling you, David, is when I report this to my audience, I tell my audience, this is what's in the plan. And I think these things are bad. I'm not I don't doomsday scenario is sort of a characterization that I don't know what you're necessarily. Well, that's more that's that's more how that's more how Keith Olbermann frames it on his podcast.

Well, I would ask him about I haven't seen anything he's done. I'm asking. It's easier to talk to you about it than him. You're reachable. Thank you. I mean, I just I respect your opinion and you're a lot more pragmatic about. I think it's as bad as I've said it is. It's not the world will explode in fiery disaster. It's the things I told you about, the things that I've outlined that are in Project 2025. So I think with respect, I think I'm being proportional in my concern about it. Okay. Yeah, I'm just I just wanted to bounce it off you because that whole thing is exhaustive

to me that it's exhaustive or exhausting. Exhausting means that it exhausts me. It's exhausting. Got it. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, listen, I'll look into it again and I'll keep reporting on it. Kind of just the way I see it. I'll try to be precise about it. I appreciate it. Can you give me time for one more quick thing? Sure. OK, so the whole I think that you showed where they they dubbed something you did with Tucker Carlson'slson's voice right i was listening to that and the way you framed it i knew it tucker wasn't going to actually say it but in the middle of that i was listening to it i'm like this sounds like something david packman said my person i personally think i'm pretty good at uh telling when it's an telling when something's AI and it's not actually said by somebody.

It lacks that actual human touch, their inflections. I think everybody being upset or scared over AI replicating people's voices, I think they just need to – what's the word I'm looking for? They need to just be a little smarter. They need to actually think critically about what they're listening to. And it's like, does this sound something like this? What this person would say? Right. All right. I agree with that. David from Philadelphia. Thank you so much for the call. Let's go next to Sarah Beth from Washington. Sarah Beth from Washington. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Oh, Sarah Beth, you've got to the program. What's on your mind today?

Oh, Sarah Beth, you've got to accept. I just wanted to know what you do with your latkes. My family does applesauce and sour cream together. So how do you eat them? I find the mixture of applesauce with sour cream a little bit off putting, to be perfectly honest, Sarah Beth, I'm really just an applesauce guy with my lot. Because do you use the cinnamon applesauce or you just. Oh, God, no, no, no, no, no, no. Absolutely not. Just plain applesauce, please. OK. And then what are your favorite doughnuts for the holiday? I don't really eat doughnuts. I'll be honest. What do they have? I guess they I don't even know. I don't know. Give me I'll be honest. What do they have? I guess say, I don't even know. I don't know. Give me a couple options and I'll pick one. Well, every year I make the traditional jelly and then I, my son likes the Nutella ones.

So I make those. My family sometimes makes cream filled because they're weird, but. I mean, I've never had a Nutella donut. That sounds pretty good. It's, he likes it a lot. He's autistic and he loves Nutella. So no. Well, I can't can't argue with the success of the product. That's for sure. Speaker 1 Yeah.

I hope you have a happy holiday and thanks for your show. Speaker 1 All right. Thank you so much. There is Sarah Beth from Washington and a great note on which we can wrap calls for today. We will take calls again. It'll just have to be on next week's show. Have you seen these people search sites? It's a big data privacy problem in the United States.

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Use code Pacman for 60 percent off. The info is in the podcast notes. People in my audience who sometimes struggle with sleep, you know, you've got those habit forming prescription medications which sometimes have side effects. You've got your herbal remedies that often do nothing. That's why the go to can be melatonin, which is clinically proven to work and without the side effects and the grogginess. Our sponsor beam makes delicious nighttime hot cocoa drinks called dream with melatonin to help you get to sleep. Melatonin Thanks for having me. Thank you. like an hour before going to bed. If you want to try beams, bestselling dream powder, take advantage of their biggest sale of the year. Get up to 50% off for a limited time. When you go to shop beam.com slash Pacman that's shop B E a M.com slash Pacman for up to 50% off. The link is in the podcast notes. All right. It's time for Friday feedback on the Friday show. We'll look at emails and Reddit posts and Twitter messages and YouTube comments and the entire

thing and see if we can get, you know, make heads or tails out of some of the different things that are said by people. So let's look at some of these first message today came from Aaron Euler and says this is about the abortion debate to the extent that there is one. Why can't the two sides just use the heartbeat as the deciding factor and settle this? We call someone dead when their heart stops beating. Right. What a waste of time and energy. Well, unfortunately, this would not be a good idea

saying, well, you can have an abortion up until there's a heartbeat and then not beyond that doesn't actually make any sense. First of all, you can detect a fetal heartbeat now with modern technology as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. many women don't even know that they are pregnant yet. So the fetal heartbeat idea for determining when you can and can't have an abortion is one of the most reactionary anti choice things you can do. If you have a plus minus a week on your period and you're a week late, you could essentially end up being five and a half weeks pregnant before you miss your period. And then you wait a little longer. And it just it's

completely not practical. It doesn't really allow women to make the decisions that they should be allowed to make. Secondly, the fetal heartbeat is really not the developmental milestone that many people think it is. A heartbeat is a sign of life that is developing, but it's not indicative of viability in any way. Viability, meaning the point at which a fetus can survive outside the mother's body is between 24 and 28 weeks. I think there's some record where there there have been some 22 week or something like that. Emergency type situations might even be under five. But the point here is a heartbeat at six weeks does nothing to indicate that this is a fetus that can live independently or is even viable. You can also have a fetal heartbeat and a non-viable pregnancy for other reasons that don't don't relate to the heart. So lots of people like Aaron come up with this thing.

Listen, let's just let's all get above the political fray and make abortion illegal after you detect a heartbeat. It's extreme. It doesn't make practical sense. And it also doesn't make any medical sense. Here's a message. This is a post on our subreddit from Lumen Walters Reborn about the Vivek interview, which was before the Thanksgiving break. But we're catching up on this stuff and says this Vivek interview is wild. I wish the video was up so I could have seen his smug face while his assertions collapse under basic questioning. Absolutely insane assertions that there's some machine or puppet masters behind government

leaders. What a sad, unhinged little man. Also, how does he think the party of Unite the Right is ever going to nominate a man of color? I hope that was the this is the last we see of him after he loses. He also claims he will be top three in Iowa. Ha ha ha. Yeah, the Vakes not going to be top three in Iowa, but I would stop. This is basically accurate. Where I would stop short is I don't know that the right will never nominate a man of color. They're just not going to do it in 2024. It was never going to be Tim Scott. It was never going to be Vivek Ramaswamy. Could they go with Nikki Haley, who is an Indian woman? Unlikely, but maybe I think it's the least unlikely of the options that remain.

Louisa says Michelle Obama in 2024 with a heart. Now, there's two sides to the Michelle Obama 2024 thing. There are people who really like Michelle Obama and just want her to run. They think she'd be a great president. On the other hand, there's the people who believe that Michelle Obama and just want her to run. They think she'd be a great president. On the other hand, there's the people who believe that Michelle Obama is going to be injected like bleach into the race once Joe Biden can no longer even speak due to dementia. And it's sort of like a right wing conspiracy thing. I think the important reminder is Michelle Obama has said she doesn't plan to run for president. Now, Vivek Ramaswamy said to me, I don't think it's up to her. The idea that someone's going to force Michelle Obama to run for president is pretty silly.

But whether you like Michelle Obama or you don't, if you're waiting around for Michelle Obama to be the 2024 nominee, I think you'd better not be holding your breath. That's that's my suggestion. Ron Lugbill says, according to five thirty eight average of polls, Chris Christie is at three percent lower than Marianne Williamson. But he is all over the media. So your argument fails. Well, there's a difference,

which is Democrats are not running a primary. OK, it's not a question of opinion and it's not a question of whether we want a primary. The difference is the reason Chris Christie is getting more attention than Marianne Williamson is that Republicans are running a primary and they are having debates. And so Chris Christie is at the debates. He's on TV. Then he gets interviewed. Marianne Williamson is in a primary that the DNC is refusing to run. That doesn't mean she's not allowed on the ballot. It doesn't mean she's not allowed to run. As I've said, if she wants to run, she should run. Everybody should. But it's not a matter of opinion that Chris Christie is in a contested primary with debates and Marianne

Williamson is not. That's the point. Even if we wish it to be different, that's the difference. Ralph wrote in and says, you are so judgmental and you lack wisdom. He was very successful and did it with grace. He will win at every avenue you Democrats throw at him. Count on it. He is a first class businessman and one hell of a president. You are sinking with your party, Dave. Couple different things. Trump was not successful as president.

And when you ask people, tell me Trump's successes, they either lie or they don't know. Can't list any. OK. Secondly, I am not a Democrat. So the idea that I'm sinking with my party, I voted for Biden over Trump because I thought he was the better choice. And as I evaluate it in a completely objective and empirical way, I see Joe Biden doing a fine job, a fine job. And then as far as Trump being a first class businessman, I think the record is pretty clear on that. Not so much. Now, here's a counterpoint. Here is reflex point on the subreddit asking, do we underestimate Joe Biden while I do? This is reflex point.

Now, while I do share the worries everyone has about Biden in 24, one thing that does make me feel better is he always outperforms expectations. It seemed like he didn't have a shot in 2020. He managed to come up from behind and take first place, even though he supposedly has dementia. Everybody said Bernie was going to destroy him in the debates. Bernie did not. Everyone said Trump was going to destroy him in the debates.

Trump did not. People said Tara Reid. This is the woman who accused Biden of sexual harassment or assault, I believe. People said Tara Reid was the end of his candidacy and he should step down. He powered through it while remaining a gentleman. They said he doesn't know where he is and he can't give a State of the Union speech. He wittily tricked Republicans into agreeing not to cut Social Security. He's gotten more legislative accomplishments than anyone in recent history.

Trump only had one in four years. One. I could go on, but you get the point. People have been underestimating Biden for four years and they have been wrong every time. I think that this is someone looking at the facts and trying to make an assessment. And I think that it is a completely reasonable assessment to make, but it is also not predictive of the future.

The fact that Biden did overperform in the past is not proof he will overperform in the future. So once again, my recommendation is make sure you're registered and plan to vote no matter what you expect. Fit dad says, I fully agree with you. But every time I notice in God, we trust on my money. I wonder if we've ever had proper separation of church and state. Well, the in God we trust on our money thing is interesting. In God, we trust was first added to coins back during the Civil War in 1864. And there was increasing religious sentiment in the US at the time during the Civil War. A lot of Americans, because it was so crazy, turned to religion for comfort or for guidance or for whatever that may be.

That led to more calls to include in God we trust on currency. It was inscribed on the two cent coin starting in 1864. It then was added to paper currency much later. In 1955, there was a law mandating its inclusion. And it is true that it doesn't really make sense to have that, but it doesn't change that we still have a constitution and we still have a bill of rights. And so let me put it this way, Fit Dad. If all we have to suggest that there is not separation of church and state is that our dollar bills and coins say in God we trust that in my mind doesn't trump everything that's in the Constitution

and in the Bill of Rights. I think that's where I would leave it. And what I would say, JP Dalby says, are you really saying you're happy with the state of our country since Biden took office? Did you forget that Trump had the Middle East in peace during his term? Well, first of all, that's a lie. Trump did not have the Middle East in peace. You know, saying I'm happy with the state of the country in a country of more than 330 million people. We always have serious problems that we need to deal with, and that continues to be the case today. But if I zoom out a little and I say, how's the employment situation now? It's better. How's the stock market doing? It's doing fine. How's wage growth? It's pretty

good. How's inflation? It's down to three point two percent. How are our relationships with our historical and traditional allies around the world much repaired from when it was Trump? It's not about, oh, I'm so happy the world is perfect. The country is perfect. It's about let's just evaluate these things one by one. And when we do that, it becomes much harder to get away with these sort of blanket statements that JP Dolby is making.

Tell me something specific that's not going well. I might agree with you, or if I don't, I'll tell you why. We have a fantastic bonus show for you today. Sign up at join Pacman dot com. Get instant access. We'll have that and then we'll be back.