The David Pakman Show - 12/13/24: Trump flip-flops on grocery promise, more trouble for Hegseth

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

-- On the Show: -- There is now a political movement pushing raw milk, sparked by Donald Trump's victory and his selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services -- Trump supporters are way too confident about the control they have of government now, as history shows they'll lose it after a few years -- Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth is backtracking on previous comments as his nomination hangs by a thread -- Fox News host Sean Hannity interviews Pete Hegseth in an attempt to help him get confirmed by the Senate -- Donald Trump is named TIME's "Person of the Year" and backtracks on his campaign promise to lower grocery prices -- Trump picks Kari Lake to lead Voice of America (VOA) -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: Biden issues record pardons, House passes bill to add judges, Republicans want to scrap IRS's free tax-filing tool, and much more... 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN for $30 off & free baked goods at https://wildgrain.com/pakman 🧴Geologie: Use code PAKMAN70 for 70% OFF your skin care trial set at https://geolog.ie/pakman70 🖼️ Aura Frames: Use code PAKMAN for $35 OFF & free shipping at https://auraframes.com/pakman 🧠 Try Brain.fm totally free for a month at https://brain.fm/pakman 💪 AG1 is offering you a FREE $76 GIFT when you sign up at https://athleticgreens.com/pakman  👍 Buy the FÜM Journey Pack and use code PAKMAN for a FREE GIFT at https://tryfum.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- Pakman Discord: https://davidpakman.com/discord -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave a Voicemail: (219)-2DAVIDP

Welcome, everybody. I want to kick off the show today by telling you I have an important message. I'm not drinking the raw milk. Sorry. Raw milk, the thing your great grandfather drank before pasteurization was invented to stop people from dying. It has become a political Thank you. He loves it. RFK even wants to bring in a raw milk CEO who is currently the subject of a raw milk recall to advise the administration. And I want to be super clear. I'm not drinking the milk. It's not the Kool-Aid. It's the milk that I'm not drinking. The MAGA crowd is screaming freedom over their unpasteurized milk. and the rest of us are screaming that's listeria in a glass as if being anti-vax wasn't enough. RFK Jr. is now on a crusade for natural health and nothing says natural like milk from the utter unfiltered and full of potential pathogens. They love to say raw milk is healthier.

It'll cure your allergies. It'll fix your gut. It tastes better. Maybe it'll align your chakras. But the truth is that there is zero science to back this up unless you're looking at the science of hospital admissions, which do go up when raw milk is introduced. Now I'll tell you, maybe it does taste better. I have a few friends who have said, Oh, David, this milk will blow your mind. It tastes so good. You know, do I care that much? Am I missing better tasting milk from my life? Is it really worth the risk? Because raw milk is 150 times more likely to cause foodborne illness than pasteurized milk. We're talking about salmonella, E. coli, listeria. Between 1998 and 2018, raw milk was linked to more than 200 outbreaks, more than 2600 illnesses and even a few deaths. That's not freedom. It's

more like diarrhea on demand. Now, there's also the nutritional myth. A lot of the raw milk advocates will say the pasteurization destroys the nutrients. And so pasteurized milk doesn't have the same nutritional value. No study has found that to be true. So then they'll back up and they'll go, well, those studies were funded by big dairy. They weren't. So then they'll back up and say, well, there's something beyond measuring the nutrients that's better about the raw milk. So you're saying that what's better about it is completely undetectable to science starts to become almost like a religious belief. The other really funny thing is I saw some raw milk advocates on Tic Tac. They put up these videos where they said, listen, if you're worried about the bacteria in your raw milk, just boil it

before you drink it, which is mind blowing because that's essentially what pasteurization is. So it's what are these people even talking about now before pasteurization milk wasn't just a drink. It had death risk. There used to be tuberculosis, tuberculosis, typhoid, uh, milk, the raw milk would bring them all. And Louis pastors process of pasteurization eliminated those dangers. It has saved lives.

And now talking about going back to raw milk, it's like banning seatbelts to go back to freedom. It is not a big dairy conspiracy. And, um, this is the same RFK who pushed the anti-vax nonsense during a pandemic. And now he's championing the raw milk. The bigger picture is that this is not just about milk. Okay. I talked about milk for four minutes. Many of you maybe don't even drink milk. This is part of a broader movement to turn public health into this kind of choose your own adventure game. And most of these adventures end in the ER. If raw milk becomes mainstream, the outbreaks and the hospitalizations are going to spike.

Kids are the most at risk. Pregnant women, the elderly, farmers caught in outbreaks could face lawsuits. It'll be bad for their businesses and taxpayers will end up paying for what was in many cases preventable illness. Just use your brain. Now let me say, let me say a little something about the natural thing. I get it. There's a perceived appeal of natural raw milk, like it's the elixir of the rugged individualist. But the truth is that it's not rugged to spend two weeks on IV antibiotics.

Natural sounds very good. But what does it even really mean? It conjures up images of, you know, green pastures and sunshine and purity. Everything's wholesome and untouched by scary modern science. But natural doesn't always mean good. Poison ivy is natural. Arsenic is natural. Raw milk. Yeah, I guess it's natural. Doesn't make it a magical health elixir. And the word natural has become a very clever distraction that skips inconvenient details like the bacteria. So I'm not drinking the raw milk, not because I don't love freedom, but because I don't want to have salmonella that that's basically it. The lesson here is simple. And it's that sometimes, sometimes the modern world gets it right. And RFK and

the tick tock influencers and others are selling a bill of goods and a lot of people are buying it. All right, let's talk about winners and losers a little bit. Winners often come to believe that they will never lose again, but they always do. And it's important to remember this right now. We had this great interview earlier this week with Andrea Chalupa about resisting authoritarianism and how to do it. You know, history is littered with winners who were convinced they were never going to lose again.

Democrats, to some degree degree after Obama's win in 2008 controlled everything. How Senate white house declared a new progressive era and two years later, the Republican tea party wave wiped them out in the midterms. The same thing happened to Republicans after Reagan in 1984, confidence became arrogance and arrogance ended up with them losing. And so we fast forward to today, the waning days of 2024 Republicans in Maga are riding high. They won the white house. They've got the Senate.

They've got the house, although by a very slim margin, they are claiming that this is the start of a Maga revolution that will last generations. And it might if we do nothing. But the thing about winners is that they often end up thinking the good times will never end and they're always wrong. That what was that thing? You can only count on death and taxes and winners eventually losing. Republicans aren't just confident right now. They

are drunk on power. They're acting like they've secured this permanent mandate, despite the fact that Trump didn't even get half the vote. Maga world is declaring a new era where they will bring in even more incompetent people. They're touting their victory as proof that America has rejected progressive politics once and for all. And they plan to gut environmental protections and go all in on anti-immigration crackdowns, no measured moves, just over the top declarations of dominance. And the MAGA mouthpieces are already predicting decades of hardcore right wing rule as if the rest of the country is just going to roll over and take it. But the problem for them is that overconfidence breeds mistakes and we're already seeing some

of the cracks. There's a reason that overconfidence backfires when you overreach. It's not a sign of strength. It's actually the first step towards collapse. The Republican far right agenda might be thrilling to their base, but it's going to push moderates and independents away. Voters who swung Republican in 2024, maybe because of inflation or they bought into talking points about crime. They might not stick around when they see the party, maybe gutting Medicare, maybe gutting social security, pushing abortion bans or inflationary tariffs.

Think back to the Republican overreach in 1994 with the whole contract for America. They went extreme in reaction to taking the house after Bill Clinton won in 1992. Their extremity alienated swing voters and it paved the way for Bill Clinton won in 1992, their extremity, uh, alienated swing voters, and it paved the way for Bill Clinton to be easily reelected in 1996. So we see the growing divides inside the party right now. How long before the establishment Republicans start clashing with the MAGA wing over spending or foreign policy? The only thing really holding the Republican party together right now is their shared hatred of Democrats that can get you pretty far, but it won't get you to indefinite victory. So the overconfidence leads to mistakes. The mistakes lead to the

bad headlines. And if history teaches us anything, it's that political dominance does not last. We have a pendulum. The Democrats dominance in 2008 did not even survive the midterms Republican control after Reagan fizzled by the early nineties. No party holds onto power forever. At least they haven't yet. And especially they don't when they mistake a wind for a blank check, they believe they are untouchable right now. When you believe you're untouchable, you stop listening to voters. You make reckless decisions to help yourself and your friends. That's Trump's plan. And every election is a chance for the opposition to regroup and magas might wake up to quite a, uh, um, uh, an alarm in 2026, even in their moment of triumph. We see the warning signs right now,

the abortion bans, hugely unpopular entitlement cuts that they are sort of playing coy with. The agenda is completely out of step with Americans. And this stuff is really unpopular. If the, if the economy stumbles, whether because of a recession or their own policies, the ruling party gets blamed. Obama took the blame for the red state governors not doing the Medicaid expansion back in 2010. It was the fault of red state governors, but Obama was president and Obama was blamed. Progressive organizers are mobilizing. The energy on the left is growing. And remember that it was grassroots outrage that flipped the house blue in 2018. Not everybody going home and hiding under the covers, although I understand the instinct to do it. So the Republicans overconfidence today

could very well be their undoing tomorrow. Winners think, think that they will never lose again, but they always do. The pendulum swings back and the countdown is on. The question is how quickly will it swing back and how quickly can we take back control? I, uh, if you missed my interview with Andrea Chalupa, uh, on Wednesday, definitely check it out. She lays this out and we're going to continue pressing forward. Yes, this holiday, treat yourself and your loved ones to fresh baked goods. Wild grain has incredible new fall and winter pastries. But don't wait, because once they sell out, they are gone for the year. Wild grain is the first bake from frozen subscription box for artisanal breads, pastries and pastas.

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Uh, certainly, I mean, I think I have to say in my time doing this for sure, if not much longer, I invite you to grab a membership at join pacman.com. It comes with a bunch of perks and you'll also be doing something to help build the progressive independent media ecosystem. You can use the coupon code. Not again, a desperate Pete Hegseth whose nomination continues to hang by a thread is now just saying, listen, I'll say whatever I need to say for Trump to continue considering me for secretary of defense. Here is Hegseth on one of these.

Let's clean up the mess. Sean Hannity, Fox News propaganda interviews where the whole concept of it is, uh, you, you're so great. Pete, why, why isn't everybody bowing down at your altar? Here is Hegseth saying, I never said anything about no women in combat roles. Take a listen to this. Then we'll hear the original comment. It's a lot. And I also want an opportunity here to clarify comments that have been misconstrued that I somehow don't support women in the military. Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there are women who serve, praise their right hand to defend this country and love our nation, want to defend that flag. And they do it every single day around the

globe. So now he does something a little bit tricky, but we can see right through it here. Pete says, I never said we shouldn't have women in the military. Of course, no one accused him of that. What he said is we shouldn't have women in combat roles. However, the problem is he says women are some of our best warriors. Well, it seems logical based on English that if you're talking about women warriors, that that does include combat roles. So he's playing a linguistic game. But here is the comment he originally made, which is what generated this entire discussion to begin with. I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal,

has made fighting more complicated. We've all served with women and they're great. It's just our institutions don't have to incentivize that in places where traditionally, not traditionally, over human history, men in those positions are more capable. So you might say, David, his position is very clear. He supports women in the military. He doesn't support women in combat roles. What's the problem? The problem is that the entire statement on the Hannity show was meant to debunk the claim that is being made about him, but he doesn't.

The claim is he says, get women out of all combat roles. He then says, I never said that. I think we should have women in the military, but these are of course two different things. But then he says, well, what about women? Warriors is a woman, a warrior, if not in a combat role, what's really going on here? It's obvious desperation. Desperation is fully set in. He brought mommy on TV to try to help him. That that's not clear. It worked super well. Um, and now he's just willing to say whatever, Oh, the thing I said a couple of weeks ago, cancel that. I both don't have a drinking problem

and I will immediately stop drinking if you make me secretary of defense. Wait, so which is it? You have a problem or you don't because if you didn't have a problem, there'd be no reason to stop having an occasional beer. You would only make the promise. I will stop drinking like many people with alcohol use issues make if you're acknowledging that it is a problem. Now, as far as the women combat roles thing, um, this is not primarily a show about the military and military readiness is not, uh, the, the primary policy focus, I believe of the left. But I do think that there is something to learn here from the way that

many fire departments do it. It is a qualification based test. If the rule is in order to be eligible for this combat role, you need to be able to drag a 170 pound body 50 feet in under two minutes and March X miles a day with Y weight on your back. If you can do that, it seems to me that that's what matters. And, uh, that seems to not really be the focus here where Pete Hegseth is talking about from a morale standpoint or from a distraction standpoint or from a distraction standpoint or from a cultural standpoint, no women in combat roles. It seems to me that if that's a role that you want to have, there should be a clearly established set of guidelines that are gender and sex agnostic.

And if you can do the thing, then you should be allowed to be in the role that that is appropriate for that. So that that's my view on it. If that doesn't make sense and I defer to the people who know more about the military than I do, if it doesn't make sense to say it's competency based in that way, let me know why they are going full speed ahead to try to clean up Pete Hegseth's mess so that he can be confirmed to be secretary of defense. Once again, they are playing semantic games.

We just looked at Pete Hegseth previously said there should be no women in combat in the military. He then went on Hannity's show and said, Oh, um, I never said that. I think we should have women in the military in combat and in the military are two different things on the topic of sexual assault, rape, drugging, et cetera. Sean Hannity sets him up for another one of these propaganda fests where they throw bouquets at each other. And Hannity goes, you were exonerated, right? Just you've been exonerated on everything.

And of course, you know, and I know, and Hegseth knows that there's a difference between I wasn't charged and I didn't do it. Wasn't charged, didn't do it. These are two different things. Take a listen. Top spot. The media mob doing what they predictably do. You had a consensual relationship. It was investigated. You were fully exonerated. And correct me if I'm wrong here. Wasn't there videotape evidence that was largely responsible for exonerating you? I mean, in addition to personal personal witnesses and all of that, it was fully investigated at the time years ago and I was

completely cleared. And that's why, Sean, you know what I look forward to? I look forward to the FBI background check. I look forward to the actual under oath conversations with senators as we go through the process, because again, this is what the left does. Sean, it's the anatomy of a smear. They take something and then they add anonymous sources and contortions and flat out lies. And then they try to try you in the media before you can get even get into the doors with senators. And this is this is so dishonest. As I've

said before, police decided not to charge me is different than I didn't do it. The woman accepted money is different than she now says, I didn't do it. Uh, I did not ultimately pay a consequence criminally is different than I've been exonerated. And this guy is very slippery with the language and he's been well coached. You have to admit because he knows exactly what to say in that sort of scrum of reporters. We looked at last week where he was asked, did you sell sexually assaulted woman in Monterey, California? I think the location was, he said it was investigated and I was not charged. Okay. None of those things are a no to the question. Did you do the thing that we're asking you about? Um, here's just a little bit more from this interview. And it's just,

you know, it's all bouquets, just bouquets all the way down. Let me ask you this. There are more liberal senators like Lisa Murkowski. I don't know Lisa Murkowski. I do know Susan Collins and actually got a lot of time to spend with her. And she was beyond reasonable, but she is the only Republican from New England. Have you had a chance to speak with them up to this point? We will be meeting with Senator Collins on Wednesday and Senator Murkowski on Tuesday. And let me tell you, Sean, the founders got this right. This is this is not a trivial process. This is a real thing. Advise and consent of a nominee who the

president has chosen. And I'm so grateful that President Trump would have the faith in me. Isn't everybody just awesome? To lead the Defense Department or to choose me to do that. But this advise and consent process, meeting with all the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and they all have great questions. And my answers are for them, Sean. The left has tried to turn this into a trial in the media, a show trial. And we're not going to let that happen. I'm going to walk into the door of every one of these senators with just as an open book, willing to answer their questions because they deserve answers. And that will be

I've heard great things about all of these senators and the questions they want to ask and we look forward, they're all such great people earning these votes. That's what it's about. Ultimately earning the votes through the committee and through the entire US Senate and hopefully I'll have the honor of being able to stand up for our war fighters. That's what this all about. It's all about the men and women who put the uniform on for us. They, all right, so you know, he's just flattering everybody.

Sean Hannity is an interviewer is so good and Republican senators are so awesome and members of the military are so great and Trump is so fantastic and brilliant and a genius for selecting him. I can assure you that if this nomination goes south, which it may, we just don't know yet for now, Trump is standing by Pete. If this nomination goes south, this everyone's so awesome thing is going to do a very, very quick 180 continuing to take the pulse of whether we believe Hegseth will ultimately become secretary of defense. Last Friday, my sense was probably not probably like he only has a 45%

shot. I still think there's a really good chance he doesn't make it, but I think my, my odds marker has gone from 45% he gets the job probably to 55% he gets the job because it does seem as though Trump is standing by him. Let me know what you think. Let me know what you expect. Info at David Pakman.com does Pete Hegseth ultimately become secretary of defense? Let me know. We're going to take the quickest of quick breaks and the show will continue if I have

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on one of his major campaign promises, and that was to make grocery prices cheaper. Now he's saying it's going to be too hard to do that. So Trump hasn't even assumed office yet, and he's already backtracking on campaign promises. During the campaign, he talked all the time about how he was going to lower the cost of things, he was going to lower the price of groceries, He was going to lower the price of groceries.

And he did that photo op at a grocery store where he gave a woman $100 to help with her grocery bill. And we said all along, Trump's not going to be able to do this. The inflation that we've experienced in the United States and globally over the past few years is largely baked in at this point because we're not seeking to have deflation because that would have other tumultuous effects in different segments of the economy. What we want is to make sure that prices stabilize, that wages catch up so people can afford things, and we can also do things around the edges like stop corporations from price gouging. But a lot of this doesn't have to do with what the president can reasonably accomplish. Egg prices, for example. The reason egg prices have soared over the past year or so is because of the bird flu. How is Trump stepping into power going to be able to bring about a quick remedy to that? He can't. Obviously, there are market forces at play that he can't control. Now he's singing a very different tune about what he can do when it comes to the price of groceries. But here is just one such example of Trump on the campaign trail,

promising to lower the price of groceries. A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper. So many people mentioned, I go in, so many people mention groceries, that beautiful but simple word groceries, sir, my groceries, you don't think of it that way, but that's what they mentioned more than anything, my groceries. Yes, groceries, a simple but beautiful word. That's exactly what I think of when I hear the word groceries. The key point, of course, is that he said he'd be able to lower the prices as president. Well, now that he's actually been elected and doesn't have to face the voters ever again,

he can afford to be just a little bit more honest with us. This week, Trump was named Times Person of the Year. He claims he should get that award every single year. This year, he actually did get it, which I suppose makes sense because it's given to the person who's been most influential for the year, not necessarily who's done the most good. So in that sense, okay, Trump getting person of the year, I think it is reasonable. Along with that distinction came an interview with Time Magazine,

and we have a transcript of that interview that I'll put up for you full screen now. Trump was asked, if the price of groceries don't come down, will your presidency be a failure? And Trump said, I don't think so. Look, they got them up. I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard. But I think that they will.

I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down. You know, the supply chain is still broken. It's broken. You see it. You go out to the docks and you see all these containers. And I own property in California in Palos Verdes. They're very nice.

And I passed the docks and I've been doing it for 20 years on and on and on. He starts rambling, never connects the dots, never returns to the price of groceries. Instead, he goes on and on talking about the supply chain before veering off into talking about electric vehicles. I suppose he never came full circle in this weave that he supposedly likes to do. But the bottom line is his presidency, he says, can be a success without bringing down the price of groceries. So he's starting to sound a little bit more sensible. And he also doesn't want to continue to set himself up for failure. That's what I'm sensing here. Unlike with other issues that he can just lie his way through and argue that his presidency has seen tremendous gains on he can't exactly do that with the price of groceries, because it's something that people

encounter week to week. So it's not one of these esoteric issues you can lie about. If you're lying about the price of groceries, people are going to be able to see through that. However, he was able to accomplish what he sought to accomplish, right, which was to bamboozle his supporters and the American public at large to get them to believe that he would be able to lower the price of groceries. And now that he's been elected and there's no turning back, well, all of a sudden it's going to be quite hard to do, too hard to do. Unfortunately, it worked and maybe it'll serve as a wake-up call to the American people. But Donald Trump already backtracking on his campaign promise to lower

the price of food at the grocery store. After Carrie Lake lost her election in the Arizona Senate race to Ruben Gallego, we started to wonder whether she would get chosen for a role in the Trump administration. And from the standpoint of being a competent and qualified pick, of course, Carrie Lake would not be that. But this is the Trump White House after all, so you don't have to be those things. All you have to do is demonstrate yourself worthy of Trump's good graces by sucking up to him and being loyal to him, which she certainly has over the past few years. She even went on her own voter fraud tirade after she lost the governor's race in Arizona a couple of years ago. Well, Trump has indeed given Carrie Lake a role in his incoming administration.

She is slated to become the next director of Voice of America. This is the international news broadcaster funded by the U.S. government. In a statement on Truth Social, Trump said, quote, I am pleased to announce that Kerry Lake will serve as our next director of the Voice of America. She will be appointed by and work closely with our next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who I will announce soon, to ensure that the American values of freedom and liberty are broadcast around the world fairly and accurately, all caps. Unlike the lies spread by the fake news media,

Kerry was a beloved news anchor in Arizona, which supported me by record margins for over 20 years. Congratulations, Carrie. Typically, the VOA director is not a position that's picked by the presidents of the United States, and Trump's truth social post alone does not guarantee that she will get the job. By law, there is a bipartisan advisory board that must approve the VOA director, and it also must get approved by the head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who Trump has yet to nominate. As he pointed out, that pick is apparently coming soon, and I'm sure he would put in

place someone who would be willing to give Lake the green light, but that doesn't mean she'll be able to get past the bipartisan advisory board. So like with many of these Trump picks, this one is far from certain. Assuming Lake will be able to get the position, however, she'll be able to help Trump do what he's long tried to do, which is to turn the VOA into his own partisan propaganda arm. During Trump's first term, his USAGM pick, Michael Pak, faced criticism for firing VOA leadership, for meddling in news coverage, and for filling roles with political appointees. Hopefully Lake doesn't get the position.

I gotta say, part of me wonders if Trump actually doesn't want anything to do with Lake at this point, and that's why he gave her this position, one that she may not even get confirmed to. Because, remember, Carrie Lake was talked about as a potential VP pick for Trump. She was a TV anchor in her previous career, right? Remember, Carrie Lake was talked about as a potential VP pick for Trump. She was a TV anchor in her previous career, right? So she could have potentially been picked for White House press secretary or communications director, positions that are more prestigious, I would argue, and certainly are more public facing. Instead, she got this VOA director role, something she may not even get confirmed to. It sounds to me like Trump isn't so crazy about Lake and threw her a bone with this pick, but didn't want her to have a more prominent role in his administration. I wonder exactly why that is.

I really don't know at this point because she really has been such a Trump sycophant. Maybe he thinks it's too over the top. Maybe he doesn't genuinely believe it. I don't know exactly what's going on. Hopefully she doesn't get confirmed because that would be the ultimate humiliation after losing two elections in two years in the state of Arizona. We'll be sure to follow the process. All right, let's take a break. And when we return, David will be back to deliver this week's Friday feedback. Staying motivated and eating healthy during the holidays can be a challenge. That's why I love our sponsor, AG1.

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will also sometimes feature a YouTube comments, a blue sky replies. Uh, what else? Um, Facebook messages sometimes anytime that we gather feedback, we may feature it here. Let's start with a poll that we did on the David Pakman show YouTube channel. We asked Ken Democrats win in 2028 without major changes. One hundred and five thousand of you voted. Seventy nine percent say that Democrats need a complete strategy overhaul to win in 2028. 7% of you say the strategy is perfect, but Kamala Harris was just a bad candidate and 14% just wanted to see the

results. So really it's, it's really more, more like in the nineties percent believe that a strategy overhaul is needed. I don't disagree. Um, I, I, I believe that as far as 2028, I would like to see a candidate overhaul in terms of thinking of the sorts of candidates that we want. I would like a policy overhaul and I would like a strategic communications overhaul. It's it's really a complete and total overhaul. I agree with that very, very much. On Instagram, Scotty Jared said this transgender stuff really bothers them.

Where is this passion for the children being killed by guns. Yeah. You know, the number of quote problems in sports related to trans people or whatever, almost non-existent. Now it doesn't mean we don't care about problems that affect a small number of people. But what I can tell you is look at the number of kids being killed by guns and, oh, we can't politicize it. Let the experts, meaning the NRA handle it. Uh, no, no, it's, it's quite sick in fact. And my belief is if in a thousand years we explained to people, there was this political party in 2024 kids were being killed by guns, people being killed by guns.

They didn't want to do anything about it, but they were very worried, very worried about a trans woman participating in swimming. That was a really big priority for them that they thought faced humanity. Um, I assume the people a thousand years from now would go, what the hell was wrong with people in 2024? Um, okay. Diane said on YouTube, one problem with our food supply is not enough regulation, which is why Europeans enjoy food with fewer chemicals. What do you think food companies will do if regulations are removed? So I, I think it's important to be really careful with this stuff. I do believe we need food regulation and we need it in order to stem the spread of foodborne illness. And, but we need it to absolutely, we need regulation. I also think it's important to acknowledge that some of the Tik TOK food safety stuff that we see

is kind of nonsense. For example, people have to say, you know, in Europe they've banned red dye. It's illegal in Europe. It's clearly so bad. Well in Europe they have a identical but differently named version of it, which is illegal here, but it is legal in Europe. So I, I am the first person to say we got to cut the unprocessed foods. We have all sorts of problems with food in the United States, but also some of the stuff you're seeing on Tic Tac about red dye and seed oils and you know, all this sort of stuff.

It's very much a just fodder for, for a videos and it doesn't really reflect the views of science. Iris dude has advice for them for Democrats and says, stop running as diet Republicans. Start talking about working class issues, build a megaphone capable of getting your message to the correct audience. All good advice. Part of the, um, you know, three pronged, uh, framework I laid out earlier, which is we need to overhaul our view of what makes a good candidate. We need to overhaul policy and we need to overhaul the communications plan. And that includes, you know, podcasting, a left-wing media ecosystem,

uh, really, really all of it. Mrs. Garcia about the Pete Hegseth nomination to run the Pentagon says I'll quit drinking on the job if you let me run the Pentagon is the most alcoholic thing ever. Yeah. You know, this struck me. I I want to be careful as someone who does not have a drinking problem myself, I don't in any way want to be insensitive to people struggling with an alcohol use disorder. But when I heard Pete Hegseth say both, I don't have a problem. And also I'll promise to quit drinking. If you make me secretary of defense, it struck me as the sort of thing that

someone who has a problem with alcohol would say, which is both deny the problem and say that you'll stop that. That's what I heard. And at least anecdotally, Mrs. Garcia seems to agree also about the hag Seth nomination. Cindy wrote, have you ever applied for a job and had your mom listed as your character reference? Any employer would laugh and throw the resume away. You know, I found it humiliating when Republican senators after Pete Hegseth's mommy went on TV and talked about what a good boy he is. I found it humiliating for the senators who said, no, I think she made a difference.

I'm finding myself influenced. You're influenced by what the mom of the nominee says. Of course she's going to say good things. Um, of a 44 year old man, I was embarrassed for the senators who said they really thought that she did a good job. Sam wrote in and says, I don't think David gets enough credit. I agree. But Sam specifically said, I don't think David gets enough credit for being a great debate moderator. Even in the past, when he's had people like Dennis Prager on for debates, he doesn't put in his thumb on the scale too much and keeps the conversation on track. Well, I try, I'll be honest. I don't think I'm that good as a

debate moderator, but I do not try to inject myself unless it is absolutely necessary. There was one debate I did or a panel I moderated where everybody was talking about Jewish stuff and nobody was Jewish. And I felt like I should maybe just give my perspective as the only Jewish person even participating in the conversation. But, uh, wild American said, don't worry. You and everyone that's been on your show will be investigated by the new FBI director for defamation of chapter, start kissing your kid. Goodbye. You know, uh, I don't even really want to respond substantively to bringing up my kid. And I don't, I don't, I don't like this. What I, I will take this opportunity to remind the people in my audience.

There is a large swath of MAGA that is out for blood. Now that Trump won, they want to see anyone that they perceive to be a political adversary, hosts of left-wing media shows like this one, Democrats, Joe Biden's family, Obama's family. They want to see everybody targeted. And the, the really scary thing is that Trump is picking people who have said, we want to do exactly that. We want to target our political enemies, our political adversaries. That is our plan. That's what we plan to do. So as far as what wild American is saying, all right, I hope it doesn't happen, but there is no doubt that there is a movement that wants that. Exactly. They want revenge. They're out for blood and we've got to make sure they don't, they don't achieve that.

Danny Van Hoose says on Facebook, David Pakman needs to be charged for slander. And David crop responded and said, sorry, truth is a defense. So slander is a type of defamation that happens with oral communication. Okay. I guess, uh, sometimes if it's written, it wouldn't be slander. It's libel. So slander would be things you say they have to be false. They have to be defamatory, meaning it harms someone. You have to be able to show that you were damaged by it. It must have included negligence or intent to harm. We do not slander on this program. When I say things that are negative about others, it is because I believe them and I believe that they are based in fact, and I am saying them only with the intent of communicating the truth

of the world around us. So is it possible that in a new Trump era, they're going to come after me for slander? It's, it's possible with people like cash app Patel nominated to the FBI. It's certainly possible. Uh, would it be appropriate? It very much would not. I want to let you know that we had a great achievement over the last week. I finished recording the audio book of my forthcoming book, the echo machine. I'm going to be completely upfront with everybody. I think it came out awesome and it was not my favorite part of the process. And the part that I didn't like about it is that it takes a very long time. It's excruciating. And then the, the, the audio engineer who I worked with, who was awesome, he would say, David, I I'm going to stop you there. I'm going to stop you there.

Can you go back four sentences? Because that P was a little bit explosive. You popped that P it's got to come out. Perfect. I can't be popping peas all over my book, but, um, I am so glad that it was done. You can pre-order the book in, um, hardcover. You can order it in audio book. You can order it in ebook, Kindle, et cetera, anywhere books are sold. And for those of you who want to support local independent bookstores, any bookstore can order this book and get it for you on its publication date. You call the bookstore, you say, sir or ma'am, I'd like to preorder David Pakman's the echo machine from beacon press. They will get it for

you. So many exciting things for forthcoming about book events and all this different stuff for now, everybody who preorders gets assigned book plate and a bunch of other free goodies, truly free, no shipping costs, no handling fee, no processing, none of that. Okay. You've got to order the book and then go to davidpacman.com slash free book stuff where you can submit your receipt. They'll get you everything works internationally. Exciting. Can't ship to North Korea, but most of the world we can ship to. We'll see you on the bonus show.