The David Pakman Show - 12/23/22: Another Lie from George Santos, Trump Demands Reinstatement

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

-- On the Show: -- More falsehoods come to light about Republican Congressman-elect George Santos -- Donald Trump on Truth Social demands he get reinstated as president and suggests overthrowing the US government -- Caller thinks Ron DeSantis will win the presidency if he runs -- Caller questions why Republicans aren't more ashamed to claim elections they lose are rigged -- Caller wonders if Trump's NFTs are a new low for him -- Caller talks about the idea that Barack Obama led to Donald Trump -- Caller compares patriotism and nationalism -- Caller wants to know who David supports for president in 2024 -- David responds to viewer emails and social media messages -- On the Bonus Show: Republicans triggered by Zelenskyy visit, Mike Lindell claims Ron DeSantis is in on the voter fraud, congressional stock trading bill won't happen, and much more... 💪 Athletic Greens is offering FREE year-supply of Vitamin D at https://athleticgreens.com/pakman 👩‍❤️‍👨 Try the Paired App FREE for 7 days and get 25% OFF at https://paired.com/pakman 🌳 Use code PAKMAN for 20% off HoldOn plant-based bags at https://holdonbags.com 🔊 Try Blinkist for FREE and get 25% off at http://www.blinkist.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 -- Subscribe to Pakman Finance: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanfinance -- 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

Speaker 1 I cannot tell you how sick of and disgusted by this new incoming Republican congressman, George Santos, I am. This is the guy who earlier in the week I told you that the openly gay Jewish Republican who had been elected lied about his employment history and he lied about his educational history and he lied that four of his employees were victims in the Pulse nightclub shooting and that it was lie after lie after lie. And then after that, we learned, OK, well, he lied about all of those things, but he is Jewish, right? It appears that he lied about being Jewish as well. OK, I said, at least he really is gay. And I said it jokingly because, of course, he is. And it has now been revealed that three years ago he was married to a woman. Now,

you could be gay and have been married to a woman. We know of situations that due to stigma or family shame or for whatever reason that a member of the LGBT community might live in a way that is different than their true feelings. And maybe that's the case with this guy. But he hid the fact that he had been married to a woman and divorced her as recently as just a couple of years ago. And he lied about everything else. So what are we to believe? And it is just stunning. Openly gay congressman elect George Santos didn't disclose divorce with woman, writes Roger Sullenberger for The Daily Beast. Santos ran his campaign as an openly gay Republican since he was elected. A number of key biographical details have started to crumble.

Here is the latest one. And it is yet another one of these cases where we find out that the truth appears to be very different from the story that he told. As the article reads, and this is accurate, Santos, who claims he has, quote, never experienced discrimination in the Republican Party, broke barriers when he became the first openly gay, non incumbent Republican candidate elected to Congress. But according to court records obtained by The Daily Beast, Santos appeared to be the subject of a previously unacknowledged September 2019 divorce almost September, almost 2020, rather, with a woman in Queens County, New York.

The divorce, which Santos has not discussed publicly, adds new uncertainty to his already shaky biographical and political claims. I am openly gay, have never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade. And I can tell you and assure you, I will always be an advocate for LGBTQ folks. Now maybe he's bisexual. He didn't say that. Maybe there's some other explanation. But when you've lied about everything, it starts to become very, very difficult to believe that we also have additional new information about the stories related to his supposed Jewish ancestry.

CNN reporting incoming congressmen's claim his grandparents fled the Holocaust, contradicted by genealogy records. And as I said earlier this week, it's not stolen valor. We apply that to the military. But it is taking it is appropriating a story that includes trauma and oppression and discrimination that your family did not suffer and making it your own. And it's disgusting.

Stek and Kaczynski write for CNN claims by George Santos that his grandparents, quote, survived the Holocaust as Ukrainian Jewish refugees from Belgium who changed their surname to survive are contradicted by sources reviewed by CNN's K file, including family trees compiled by genealogy websites, records on Jewish refugees and interviews with multiple genealogists. Santos, who has called himself half Jewish and a Latino Jew, folks, I'm actually a Latino Jew, OK, has claimed his maternal grandfather was originally from Ukraine and fled to Brazil to escape Nazism. Sounds like my family history to Argentina, except fake. In another telling, the New York Republican said his grandparents

converted to Catholicism during the rise of Nazism in Belgium after fleeing Stalin. In another telling, he claimed his family changed their name to survive Nazism. Anyway, no proof of those claims. It all appears to be completely and totally made up. So. There's a lot of important things here. I don't want to discount the possibility that for whatever reason, it happens that gay people marry, they get in a heterosexual marriage and there's all sorts of different reasons. And if that's what happened, they get in a heterosexual marriage and there's all sorts of different reasons. And if that's what happened, but he lied about everything else. Well, then we can still talk about all those other things. But this guy, it's hard to find a more dishonest person than George Santos based on what we've seen and learned so far. And so I believe everything

has to be under the microscope. Now, does it matter? He was voted by the people to become a congressman and he is congressman elect. As I said earlier this week, in any normal job, not a job where you're elected, you would be fired for misstating so much about your history. Now, you wouldn't declare your sexual orientation as part of a normal job interview. So that's kind of off the table. I don't know that if you tell your employer you're Jewish and you're not, I don't know about that having consequences, but your resume, where you worked, where you got your your degree. These are things where if it turned out you falsified it, you would be fired essentially in just about every job. And so what happens next? What happens next with this guy? Probably nothing, quite frankly, but a disgusting turn of events. And what started with he may have misstated or exaggerated his work

history and his role as what was it like an asset manager or something? It seems his entire background is completely and totally fake. I'm going to now take another step back. It does seem this guy is from the species Homo sapiens. That appears to be true. He claims to be human. He presents as human. I believe he is actually human. Maybe that's the next thing that will be proven wrong. Donald Trump is demanding reinstatement and suggesting the government be overthrown. This is what happens when you try to lead an insurrection. It fails and you suffer no real consequences. What do you expect to see happen? Newsweek reports. Donald Trump demands

reinstatement, suggests overthrowing government. This all happened, of course, on Donald Trump demands reinstatement, suggests overthrowing government. This all happened, of course, on Donald Trump's platform, Truth Social, which I know you're familiar with. I won't even bother playing the clip in the midst of a crucial week for the former president over his role in January 6th Capitol attack and his tax returns. Trump doubled down on his big lie, the debunked conspiracy that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Trump posting to Truth Social, quote, The FBI and Twitter colluded to elect Joe Biden. Now, that's a lie. Jesse Waters quoting Jesse Waters. In other words, the 2020 presidential election was rigged. It was not and stolen. It was not. Trump says it all began a long time ago. They spied on my campaign. They did not.

I will remind you the claim about spying on my campaign is the following. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump and people around him were in touch with so many targets of law enforcement investigations who were under surveillance that when the Trump people would get on the phone with the targets of law enforcement, they would be surveilled incidentally because they were in touch with so many suspicious people. Trump's campaign was not being spied on. Trump's campaign was so sketchy and it was in touch with so many believed to be criminals that they were incidentally surveilled. OK, let's go back to the truth here. Spied on my campaign. Not true. And tried to rig the 2016 election, but failed. That is a lie.

Remember, our government is doing this, not a person or party. What should be done about such a terrible thing? Or should we let someone who was elected by cheating and fraud stay in office and continue to destroy our country? Understand what he's saying there. He's saying based on his misunderstanding and lies about what happened, Joe Biden shouldn't be allowed to stay in office. Now, there is no constitutional or legal basis for that. So all that is left is exactly the type of violent government overthrow and coup that Donald Trump attempted to pull off in 2020, but thankfully failed. And one of the things that I hope we have learned at this point is that the argument over he's

deluded or he believes it, he's joking or he's positioning and it's a grift and it's financial or whatever. It doesn't matter in the end what we believe about the individual that is making the claims. What matters is what do their followers ultimately believe? And what we learned in January of twenty twenty one is that the followers believed it enough that hundreds of them, nearly a thousand, maybe the real number is over a thousand and we just don't have the full number yet. Seven hundred or so committed specific crimes for they allegedly committed specific crimes for which they are being charged and many have already been adjudicated. And thousands and thousands more were willing to add their add themselves to a mob that was filled with hundreds of specific lawbreakers. So

whether Trump believed it or he didn't or he wanted to instigate or he wanted to use it as a tool to raise money, it really doesn't matter. It's sort of like yesterday we talked about. Oh, Sean Hannity, under oath, said he didn't believe any of Trump's claims. Fine. He didn't believe him. So it's actually almost worse. Knowingly, he repeated incorrect statements that fed the machine that ultimately led to the January six riots. And I go back to what I said at the beginning. If you're never held accountable, if you don't suffer any consequences, why on earth would you change your behavior? So Trump is back talking again about the removal of Biden, the overthrow of the government and the reinstatement of himself. Now,

it's not going to happen. The way he could get himself reinstated is by winning in November of 2024. And let's hope that does not happen. But unless there are real consequences for these people and maybe we will soon know whether there will be for Trump, why would they ever stop doing the same stuff over and over again? They wouldn't. And so we're fomenting this very thing happening again via that lack of consequences, scary and disgusting stuff. Good habits have to be sustainable in order to become habits. It has to be something you'll actually do. And when it comes to nutrition, some people have hours to plan out every meal, their exact vitamin intake. I'm not doing any of that. I don't have the time.

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Make sure that you set your nickname in the waiting lobby to your name and where you're calling from. Those are the rules. Nicknames, et cetera, are not welcome. Let's go first to Tyrone from Ohio. Tyrone, welcome. What's on your mind today? Tyrone, welcome. What is on your mind today, my friend? You got to set your audio device to the appropriate one. And Tyrone, last chance, what is going on, my friend? What's on your mind today? Hello, can you? Yes, now I can hear you, Tyrone. What is going on, my friend? What's on your mind today? Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Now I can hear you, Tyrone. What's going on? OK, so like things in Ohio, they're getting real bad in here. And I'm wondering, like, if DeSantis wins, what do you think is next? What is the game plan?

If DeSantis becomes president of the United States, you're saying? Yes. Well, that was we're skipping ahead. I mean, first, he's got to become the nominee. You know, your question depends on what exactly is happening in January of twenty twenty five when a hypothetical DeSantis presidency would start. What's on your mind? What specifically is getting bad in Ohio that you're worried about? Oh, I mean, just the name itself, it's already kind of bad, but, you know, just like it seems like this European future would be most ideal if the census became president. I'm just wondering, like, what's the direction of the country if he does? Speaker 1 Well, it's going to continue in this sort

of like modern. I think what we're calling it is reactionary populist direction. And it's not going to be about policy. It's not going to be about helping people. It's not going to be about improving the country. It's going to be about culture, war issues and reactionary populism and some authoritarianism sprinkled in. And unfortunately, DeSantis is arguably more dangerous than Trump because he's less incompetent. But let's you know, let's first deal with the primaries, I would say, just to not get ahead of ourselves. And we've got local elections coming up in 2023. So there's still a lot of work to do before we get to that. Let's let Republicans have their primary first. Then we'll worry about DeSantis. Tyrone. All right, Tyrone, thank you very much

for the call. An important question. Let's go. Oh, I don't know. Let's go to our friend Eduardo from Brazil. Hey, David. Hey, how Fubini I'm good. How are you doing? Mezaltof from Argentina, by the way. David Fubini Thank you. Very, very exciting. David Fubini Yeah, very exciting. So I have one question for you. David Fubini Sure. David Fubini We're about to go to transfer power here in Brazil to the president on the

first. David Fubini Yes. David Fubini To Lula. And something has always been bothering me. Like, before, you know, the sort of denying of election results has always been bothering me like uh before you know the sort of denying of election results has always been kind of a third world country kind of fear you know and um and then trump kind of pulled that into his playbook uh for it with a big lie and everything um so i guess my question to you is um did Trump kind of legitimize that for like developed

like like like first world countries or is it just becoming kind of this or borrows where they just kind of like creating their own playbook according to, you know, sort of what usually happened in sort of underdeveloped countries? No, I think Trump absolutely legitimized questioning the election results, whereas you're right. I mean, you know, just to say that it was the sort of bailiwick of third world countries. Maybe it's sort of like more accurate to say or maybe more precise that questioning election results really just makes your country look bad more than anything else. But Trump figured out a way to do it where at least among his followers, because he kind

of couched it as well. It was Democrats running elections. And when it was Republicans running elections, it was the Democrats doing the voter fraud and and or it was Democratic judges. But when it was Trump appointed judges, then it was like the county commissioner. You know what? It was just like a special pleading no matter what. He figured out a way to do it where his followers can say with a straight face, we believe it

was rigged without realizing what that would suggest about the United States. And I do think that it's being copied in other countries, as you're pointed at pointing out. It's it's kind of discerning because, you know, the fact that it's I mean, I hate to say it, but it's kind of successful in some way, shape or form. Yeah. By you saying that, like a lot of people, you know, due to the cult of personality or the man can do no wrong. So if he says something, it's gospel, you know? Now in Brazil are the Bolsonaro supporters saying it was stolen from him? He really won. Well, technically he conceded, but his followers haven't like, I mean, I, I've, I've been in Brazil for about two weeks now. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, yeah it it's there's a very sort of uneasy feeling uh for january 1st because there are still picket lines they still come out you know with with the

shirt like uh it's it's almost confusing because every time you see like a car with the brazilian flag sticking out you that automatically goes that that's like a Bolsonaro follower. Yeah. But it's confusing with the World Cup because you don't know if it's a World Cup kind of like flag. But once Brazil left the World Cup. Yeah. So the there is a little feeling of an ease here.

See seeing what happens, because a lot of people haven't accepted it, even though he has conceded. Understand. Understand. Yeah. I mean, listen, I I don't know about in other countries, but I think in the US Republicans saying if they lost that it was rigged is going to be with us for at least another election cycle. Speaker 5 No, it's the new normal, which is worrisome for me because it's it's become kind of part of the playbook and uh yeah i just wanted to run

it by because it's like the the legitimization of of um you know denying an election result and unfortunately kind of fairly successfully done by trump um is is scary because it's just kind of like again crosses that Rubicon that I don't think it will be hard to come back from. It's extremely scary. You're absolutely right. Eduardo, thank you for the call. Thank you, David. Take care. All right. There goes Eduardo from Brazil. Let's go next to Brian from Ireland. Brian, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Hey, David. How are you? Okay. Yeah, I'm doing well. Yeah. Yeah, I'm doing well too. Thanks very much.

Just a couple of small questions today. When Trump teased that announcement and, you know, it turned out to just be those trading cards. I don't know. I was a bit, you know, the whole thing has been ridiculous for the last number of years. But yes, I didn't think it would go to this stage. So that was a new low in your mind, the digital trading cards. I just, I don't know, in any of my wildest dreams, I didn't think that's what the announcement was going to be. But just one, like, what do you think here? What do you think could be the next bottom of the barrel that we find? Like, what could be the next just, you know, just a wireless possible imagination thing in the world of Trump?

What honestly, I don't know. Is it is it Trump Trump? Is it Trump doing some kind of celebrity boxing match? I honestly I have no clue. I have no idea because every time there's a new low and we say it can't possibly get any worse than this, then there's another new low. Is it Trump doing infomercials for some kind of rotisserie cooking device like Ron Pope peels, you know, whatever it was called?

I genuinely don't know, Brian. You could tell me anything and I would say it's possible that that will be the next thing. Yeah, it's it's increasingly funny to imagine, you know, if it got into a coma back in 2014 or whatever, if someone was waking up now, just where do I start explaining? It would be completely unbelievable. No, you're absolutely right. And part of that, I think, is there's an important lesson in there, which is even all of us in 2017, in January 2017, when Trump was inaugurated, I think if we had been told here's what it will be like in 2022, most of us would not have believed it. Yeah, 100 percent. And now it is what it is, you know, in Ireland or people just making fun of

Trump, like, is he a laughingstock? I certainly he was for a long time. I think, you know, since, since, um, he left office and I guess left Twitter, et cetera, he's been talked about a bit less, but, uh, you know, I, I follow his colleagues closer than most people. So I'm still interested, but yeah, I think like most of my family wouldn't know much these days, but what he's up to. Interesting. It's probably for the best, to be honest. Probably. Just one quick thing on the World Cup briefly, while we can still talk about that. Sure.

I'm just going to outdate quickly, but what did you make of the Argentina goalkeepers kind of mind games in the penalty shootout? Do you think that was an effective strategy? Do you think that came into play, or is it being overhy is it being when you say mind games what specifically are you referring to well there was i can't remember which of the french um takers it was whether it was their the first one that missed or not but um the the goalkeeper martinez had the ball in his hand and looked like he was going to give it to the french guy but then actually threw it away and made him walk after it. You know, things like that.

Oh, I didn't notice that. That's interesting. I mean, listen, it's pretty funny. My view on all this stuff. It's sort of like this controversy about chess grandmaster and friend of the show, Hikaru Nakamura stalling in order to take advantage of a rule related to how the match clock relates to the game clock. It's sort of like if it's not against the rules, you figure out what to do to win. And I don't know if throwing the ball, I just I don't have much of a feeling on it one way or the other, you know? Yeah, no, fair enough. Yeah, no, I'm not certainly not accusing him of breaking rules or anything. I just thought it was interesting that he was getting into the French players head and it seemed to work to a degree. So. Hey, listen, real quick. A friend of mine, when he was in Ireland, went on a potato walking food tour where it sounds like a joke,

but he would stop at they would stop at different places with a local guide, each place preparing potatoes in dramatically different ways. Is is that a complete tourist trap or is that actually something like locally interesting culinarily in Ireland? Well, I haven't heard of that specific attraction, but to be to be perfectly honest with you, even though it is a stereotype, I would still go on that tour. That does sound I love potatoes. I mean, it sounds pretty good to me. Yeah, I have to say if you're if you're a wedding here in Ireland, I'll finish up with this. But if you're a guest at a wedding and it's kind of food being served family style, you know, dishes, et cetera. Yeah, there'll be there'll be three different types of potato, at least, you know, there'll be mashed or be dolphin was whatever. You know, there's going to be a few different options.

I like that. That's it. All right. Well, I got to get over there and try some of these potatoes. I have to tell you. Please do. All right. All right. Brian from Ireland. Thank you so much for the call. Very much appreciate it. Let's go to Jill from Burbank, California. Jill, welcome to the program. What is on your mind today? Hey, David, how are you doing? I'm doing well. OK, well, big fan and just have many questions. I have written them down, but I'm just going to do two of them. I don't know. Whenever we watch one of those Trump rallies, at the end, he says, this country doesn't

belong to them. This country belongs to you. Yes. Isn't that a fascist? Like that's the biggest dagger in like America's throat saying this country basically belongs to you guys only. What America is is all about, you know, everybody else. And we love our neighbors like. Speaker 1 Well, if you question them about it, they would say what Trump means is this is the country of the people, not not literally just the people at the Trump rally. It's just the country of the people is what they say is meant by it. Speaker 6 Well, to me, how it sounds, it's those people and not the other people.

Speaker 1 Totally fair. I'm just telling you, like if you confronted them with it, this is what they would say. I mean, they say a lot of things that are basically made them hypocrites. Yes. Like the one I saw from yesterday, the lady was driving a SUV with a hashtag FJB in the back.

Yep. But she had all the Christmas stuff around it. Christmas stands for love and everything from sharing and caring and all. That's what Christmas is. And she had, I mean, how can you be an evangelical or a true Christian and also put in, you know, FJ being in the back of the card? That really blew my mind. I'm with you. The hypocrisy is quite stunning, but it is prevalent and it is, it's like its own virus in the United States. Right. Can I can I do one more question? This is going to be actually a question. All right. Those were just statements. It's better when people just get right to questions going forward. But I'll allow it's got to be real quick, though.

I got a lot of people holding. OK, so if you remember, Trump said oranges of the investigation, and he said it like many, many times. And then he explained it as origin, like the beginning. So that was from many, many, many, many examples. The other one was during the rally, he said, oh, Mark Zuckerberg last week came to the White House and he was out of office. Yeah, it was like years after he left the Oval Office. Yeah, right. So is he done in your in your in your head? Is he done done from a mental standpoint? Listen, I don't know. I don't know, because on the one hand, Trump does remember things and can sometimes be coherent.

But he just like glitches so much. And I really don't know what's going on with Trump cognitively. I'm not sure I'm not really in a position to say it's very strange. And that's what our position has been is bizarre. And as he just loses his train of thought and that everything. But ultimately, I don't know what's going on. Question probably more for a neurologist. Right. OK, maybe we should have a neurologist on your show to go over. Jill, I will look into it. I appreciate the call. Thank you. All right.

Thank you. All right. Let's a lot going on there. A lot, lot, lot going on there. Let's go. Actually, you know what? Let's let's take a very quick break. If you're holding, don't hang up because we're going back to the phones. But we're going to take a very brief break. Reset. Let emotions simmer. And then we'll hear from some more people in a moment. Plastic is everywhere we look and not enough is being done about it. One hundred billion plastic bags are used and thrown away every year. But you can help make a change. Our sponsor, Hold On, makes trash and kitchen bags that are heavy duty, plant based, non-toxic and 100 percent home compostable, which means they break down in weeks rather than decades.

They don't fill up our landfills. They don't pollute our oceans. Their zip seal kitchen bags come in sandwich or gallon bag sizes to fit your needs. And the best part about Hold On bags The David Pakman Show David Pakman dot com. If you care about the planet, you can do something by using hold on bags instead. And it's a really easy way to do your part. Go shop plant based bags to replace single use plastics all over your home. You'll save 20 percent when you go to hold on bags dot com slash Pacman and use the code Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. Let's go back to the phones and by phones, I mean, discord. We're using digital phones at this point. David Pacman dot com slash discord

is the place to go. Let's go to Ty from Connecticut. Ty, what is going on? Hey, David, I just wanted to kind of give my two cents on like i think it was a re-upload you did um about obama like comments that he had about like the too far left and the woke left and this and that and i just i really i really struggled with that one, because in my opinion, I think Obama is probably more. Responsible, you say I'm still here. Yeah, it's probably more responsible for, I think, the disillusionment of a lot of activists and maybe the rise of wokeism than any other phenomenon I could think of. Certainly, that was how I was affected,

being disappointed by the lack of progressive ideals and policy. I mean, his whole habit was written in by Citigroup. You know, he bailed out banks and not the homeowners. He continued torture. He I think I think more than anything, any single policy issue that really drives me insane is that I think that he is somewhat responsible for the rise of Trump. I think that he here's the here's why I struggle with. Let's just pick one thing because you're mentioning you're mentioning a lot.

And I don't know if a question is coming. So let me just comment on one aspect of that. It's not really it's not really a question. It's not it's just me being disbelieved. Yeah. So listen, I mean, here's the thing. The entire like Obama led to Trump sort of thing. The reason I find that to be really tough is one perspective is Obama led to Trump by

not being as progressive as he pretended he was going to be, which disillusioned people, which caused some people to say, I disillusioned people, which caused some people to say, I'm not going out to vote for Hillary. So let it be Trump if that's the alternative. OK, so like that's one perspective. The other perspective is Obama, by being half black, allowed Trump to coalesce nativist xenophobes, starting with the birth certificate thing, moving into the Mexican rapist thing. And so like that's a different way in which you could say Obama led to Trump.

But it's just Obama's identity. It's nothing he can control. So I don't know. I think there's a mix of stuff that went on. Can I just add one little quick thing to that very last point? Because I wanted to touch on that. Yeah, sure. that myself sure is that i find him responsible for a lot of that because in in the face of that that virulent gross racism that was festering and targeted at him i mean the reason why donald

trump even became a popular political figure in this modern era was because he was on fox news every other month talking about how obama was wasn't a you know american because he was black yep and and oh and here's my frustration with kind of like where you're going with obama saying is that was the moment we needed the wokeism that was the moment that we needed him to call that a spade for a spade and not play around with it and joke with it like it was something fun and to bring attention to it and to have the political historical foresight and retrospective to understand what it is that you're placating instead of having beer summits with police who murder innocent black people.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't I don't I think I get where you're going. I don't know that my view on it is so black and white. I think you can have the beer summit to send one signal and then you can take seriously the birth certificate thing and then you can joke about it at the White House Correspondents Dinner. I don't know to say those are the reasons that I struggle with that. But let me give it some more thought. I'm glad you've had your opportunity to to to make your point.

And I hope to hear from you again. OK, thank you. Take care. And just as a reminder, please get right to your question, because we do have a lot of people that want to get on. And I think as a general thing, people will be appreciative of that. And that's an important thing. Let's go to Steve from the San Francisco Bay Area. Steve, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Hey, Dave. Cool to talk to you again. Thank you.

I agree with Jill about the FJB stickers on the Christian cars. Like I'm a Christian, you know that. And that's just not cool. Anyways, on to my question. So I was talking to a coworker the other day about like, how much money would it take for you to just quit your job, retire and just pursue whatever you wanted to pursue and not have to like work for money? Um, like my, my number would be like five to 10 million, I guess.

Um, but that's arbitrary for each person. What would, uh, you don't have to share what your number would be, but what would you do if like money wasn't a factor for you? Would you continue doing the show? Would you do something else? Yeah, I'm doing it now. I mean, that's the amazing thing. I'm doing what I want to be doing. And it's great that it's worked out to be, you know, a business that functions, but I'm doing the thing I want to be doing. That's great. Yeah. It's not just money. That's pretty sweet. I mean, I guess maybe I'd consider going and like selling athletic shoes or something like that. But I kind of like what I'm doing. Cool. What do you do in your free time for hobby hobbies and like just personal growth?

This is quite a call. I read, I travel, I go to the gym, I bike and run. You know, I hang out with my baby daughter, which takes up a lot of time, a lot, a lot of time. If you want to if you want to figure out, you know, how to really optimize your time, have a have a baby around. What else? What are my other hobbies? I don't know. Making prank phone calls to other political shows. Oh, damn. I'm not supposed to say that. No, I don't know. I mean, you know, it's all it's all pretty basic. Cool 4 Yeah, I just wanted to ask an atypical question more about your personal opinions on some nonpolitical things. So that's all.

Thanks for taking my call. Speaker 1 What show are you watching right now? Speaker 4 I'm not watching anything. I'm just waiting in the lobby, getting ready to go to work. Speaker 1 No, I don't mean literally right now. I'm saying is there a TV show right now that you're watching? Speaker 4 Oh, I don't mean literally right now. I'm saying is there a TV show right now that you're watching? Oh, I'm sorry. I mean, a show I'm I mean, there's a lot out there. I'm I really was in the rings of power while that was on and I binged the crap out of that. Haven't heard of that. All right. All

right. Well, thank you for the call. I appreciate it. Oh, thanks, man. All right. There we go. I'll have to check out to check out that show. It sounds sounds compelling to some degree. All right. Let's go to Jorge from South Florida. I will soon be in South Florida and it's going to be pretty explosive. I think Jorge. Hey, David, how's it going? It's going well. Wonderful. So I'm going to make it really quick because I know you want to do questions. I got two questions. Please. One is a ideological question that I want to ask, see if you can tackle it better than I could. A lot of people here in South Florida talk about the whole difference between nationalism and patriotism.

Yep. And I've come to the conclusion that is very similar, but it's very different at the same time. OK, take on that. I don't know that. Sorry, did I cut you off there? No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I asked afterwards. Sorry. I'm not totally sure I understand the question. So I think that I was raised in Spain. You think that you were raised in Spain or you were raised in Spain? Sorry, I was raised in Spain. I think in my idea that the difference would be nationalism being something that the government tells you, you got to love the country opposed to patriotism being you love the country because you love where you live. Does that make sense? Yeah, we we did like a patriotism versus nationalism thing. You know, here's the thing.

I have two thoughts on this. One thought is this is a meaningful distinction. And there's something patriotism is not condescending or discriminatory or oppressive, whereas nationalism can be right. That's like one view, I guess. The other view would be we're really just kind of arguing about semantics and both and patriotism can be just as toxic as nationalism, depending on what you mean by it? I don't know. I'm not really sure, to be totally honest. I do think I do think, for example, in Argentina. One of the things a lot of Argentinians will mention to me when they come to the U.S. is there's just so many American flags out like all the time. And it's weird for two reasons. It's weird on the one hand, because it does feel more nationalistic than patriotic. But also it also loses meaning when the flags are out all the time.

We're like in Argentina, people don't just tend to display flags all the time, but like there's a flag day and people display flags that day. It seems more meaningful because it's a specific day. But also in Argentina, the people displaying the flags aren't more likely to be the nationalist types like in the U.S. So so I do think there's definitely a difference in the U.S. when it comes to flags, nationalism and patriotism. I just don't know that I would focus on the difference between nationalism and patriotism. That makes sense. Thank you. That makes sense. My other question would be, as an Argentinian, I got to bet with my wife on this one. Do you eat asados or no? Yes, I do. Yeah. Oh, okay. I just had a feeling that you were more

by what you publicize more like plant-based diet. So I thought maybe you weren't into asados. Okay. I don't eat a lot of red meat, but when I go to Argentina, you know, and of course, yes, absolutely. Yeah. Oh, okay. Thank you, David. Did you win the bet or lose it? I lost it. You lost the bet. All right. Well, I apologize. All right. Quarter kick from South Florida. Very, very good. Lost a bet. And we can all sort of explore, explore that further. Let's go to it's either Ali or Ali from Finland. Welcome to the program. Ali, Ali. So so who do you want to win in 2024 and who do you think will win in 2024? You're talking about the presidential race? Yes. It depends who runs. I don't know who's

I don't know who's who the candidates are going to be yet. Well, who do you want to be the president? Well, I there's people I think would be good presidents that I don't even know if they're thinking of running. I think Jamie Raskin would be a great president. And I've mentioned to that to him when I had him on the show. I think Pete Buttigieg would be a great president. John Ossoff probably lacks the experience so far, but John Ossoff is interesting. Stacey Abrams is brilliant and, you know, I think would be a very interesting president. But, you know, a lot of this stuff is pie in the sky. It's like, would George Clooney make a good mayor of L.A.? I mean, maybe, but I don't know that he has any interest in running. I it's hard because I I'm maybe too pragmatic or let's let's see who runs,

you know. Honestly, I think Gavin Newsom would be a good president. He's not the most progressive, but he's striking the right tone when it comes to dealing with Republicans. I think there's lots of interesting people. I just don't know if any of them are going to run. Right. OK, so the second question, what do you think are the greatest priority goals for the country and how would you prioritize achieving those? Well, I mean, that we need I need 10 hours, really. But zooming out, I think the most important issues for the country to deal with that will trickle down and affect other issues include campaign, a campaign finance and how politics is financed, how elections are run, where I would like to get off of the electoral college system,

and I would like to get off of first past the post. And we've talked about, do you do that via the national popular vote interstate compact? I mean, each of these topics is hours of discussion. I think dealing with climate change, because if you're in a climate crisis, you can't be an activist for any issue. And then probably number four, getting health care to everyone, because if you're sick and can't get care, you're also limited in your ability to be an activist, to work, to earn a living, et cetera. So I would say those are the four top issues. Right. So so do you think like it's better to campaign

for the president or Congress or overall or what was the best way you're saying as a candidate or as a voter? As a voter, yes. Oh, I think you can do all of the above. I mean, listen, you can phone bank for multiple candidates. You can donate to multiple candidates. I think that it's it's not about more or less important. It's your your congressperson and your senator deal with different things than your mayor and city councilor and the president. So, I mean, in an ideal world, people would be involved in all of them. And not all of those elections are at the same time either.

Right. OK, that was all my questions. All right. I'll leave from Finland. How is Finland these days? Snowy. Snowy. Okay. Do you live in, where do you live? Helsinki? No, Tampere. Oh, well, I used to live in Helsinki. What's that like? Is it a large city, town? It's the third largest, I think, based on population. What's the population? You're putting me on the spot. I think 300,000. Oh, okay. Very interesting. And is it a place where, when does the sun set at this time of year? Oh, it's like four o'clock. Oh, all right. Well, that's not that crazy.

Like 10 and goes down for six hours, maybe. Oh, the sun doesn't come up until 10. Yeah. Oh, is that is that rough? Yeah. Oh, interesting. Interesting. Wow. Wow. Yeah. I don't know that I would deal well with that. Well, listen, I really appreciate the call. It's been great hearing from you. Oh, you too. All right. There we go. Folks, listen, I really appreciate the call. It's been great hearing from you. Oh, you too. All right. There we go, folks. We heard from all over the world. We went to Ireland. We went to Finland. We went. Where else did we go? We went everywhere. That's it for calls today. I will take calls again and hope to speak to you soon. We'll take a quick break and be right back. The David Pakman Show David Pakman dot com. insights from all sorts of perspectives, make connections, have those kind of aha moments that don't happen so easily, which is why I feel enriched when I use Blinkist. Blinkist also summarizes episodes of popular podcasts into 15 minute explainers. And with the Blinkist connect

feature, my girlfriend and I can share one account, share books, podcasts with each other, talk about them on the go. And don't forget, Blinkist makes the perfect holiday gift. My audience can try Blinkist free for seven days and get 25 percent off after that. Go to Blinkist dot com slash Pacman. That's B-L-I-N-K-I-S-T dot com slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. Let's get to the mailbag for the week. You can email info at David Pacman dot com if you have something to say. Hopefully it doesn't have to be positive, but maybe at least thought provoking in some way or interesting. I don't know something up. Dottie wrote in to me and this one came in via Facebook and Dottie said, you're an idiot. First word is already wrong. As you know, almost a requirement in these emails that you use the wrong

your you're an idiot. You don't talk about our president that way. President Trump is our president. And he said exactly what he should have said. Those people that are in jail are not criminals. They're innocent people that were put there just to show face in the Democratic Party. So don't talk about President Trump. He's exactly right. And he's not confused about anything. You're the one that's confused. Examine your own mind.

Open up your mind and realize what you're saying. He's a smart ass and the best president we've ever had. One sentence, I guess, no punctuation, complete cult. Commitment to Donald Trump and MAGA Trump ism. This is someone who will vote Trump in 2024. So if we're thinking about what is the math, what is the what is the constituency that takes Trump down? It probably doesn't include Dottie. And that's OK. That constituency may still exist.

But this is what I don't even know where we're going. This is what we're up against. And it's really, really scary. Michael wrote in with a slightly more grammatically correct, but still factually vapid statement called leftist hypocrisy. Michael wrote the six January. I'm sorry. The January six, quote, rioters did not break the law. They were allowed in, even invited by Capitol Police, as seen on video. They are innocent, but you don't care because you're a demo rat. Wrong. You're suffering, tedious and happy to jail political opponents. Not me. You must have my politics mixed up with someone else's. You never called for Antifa arrested, even though they did millions in damage, way more than

the protesters on January 6. Also, people died in the Antifa riots. The only death at the Capitol was Ashley Babbitt killed by rogue cop. Yet you don't want him jailed. Just walk free like nothing. You are a hypocrite. And it's clear to anyone who isn't a demo rap. So this is crazy. But a few important points, I think, to mention, I have never said if someone committed a crime, don't prosecute them. I have never said that. I have always said if there were crimes committed during an Antifa demonstration or a Black Lives Matter demonstration, no matter who did it, whether it was a member of Antifa to the extent that there's membership, if it was a part of whoever. If there is evidence that a crime was committed, charge the person. I don't care about the affiliation. I also know that the

700 defendants from the Trump riots are obviously not innocent. And in fact, courts and juries have adjudicated them guilty in already dozens, if not hundreds. I don't know where we are in the process of all those cases. I am not happy to jail political opponents. In fact, I'm against it. I don't believe in jailing people because we have different politics. I do believe that if you want to make an argument that pretrial detention in this country is a problem, by the way, it's an argument I've been making for a decade. You are the one who has to be consistent because all of these right wingers only now care

about pretrial detention for defendants. They never cared about it before. They never cared about it when it was people with whom they disagreed politically. So they are the hypocrites, not me. Better marketing. Spencer wrote in about the left and better marketing and says, David, do you think the left needs to market and message their policies better? Medicare for all doesn't seem to be driving people to the polls. Remember, more people supported gay marriage once it was called marriage equality and more people supported gun control once it was called ending gun violence. Medicare for all seems like a government program, like a welfare giveaway. Maybe call it guaranteed health care or something similar. Best Spencer. So there's two questions

here. The first is about the best name for a health care system where everybody has coverage. I quite frankly don't care what you call it. I'm totally open to the idea that Medicare for all may not be the best term. I don't know about guaranteed health care. Who's guaranteeing it? I don't know. But just focus group it. Let's figure out what the right term is. Does the left need to better market and frame a thousand percent. And I've talked about this so many times before the left loses so much on framing. We've talked about pro-life. We've talked about tax relief. We've talked about, you know, medical freedom, but used in a completely dishonest way.

Yeah, there are so many examples. The left does need help on that. It seems like a worthwhile thing to to put some money into, quite frankly. Fritz wrote in and Fritz is happy. Because there's finally a progressive voice on the radio, Fritz writes, Hello, Mr. Packman and crew, I grew up and still live in rural Indiana. I currently live in Goshen, Indiana, which is a micro city. I've been to Goshen. Radio is still a major part of rural life in Indiana. It's free and people spend a lot of time in their vehicles. Yes, we have public radio and it's OK, but there's so little testosterone on the public stations in comparison to the bombastic crap on the right that leftists are just sane,

really arguments seem weak or unenthusiastic. Please note, I'm not saying you are some sort of super macho man for progressive values. Fritz, I don't think anyone thinks you're saying I'm some kind of macho man. I don't know that that's necessarily a correction that was necessary, but at least you're willing to be argumentative. And quite frankly, it works in this area. You're willing to engage with them and where they are on the radio in rural Indiana. It will make a difference, or at least it will stir the pot a bit.

Thanks again, Fritz. Fritz, thank you. You know, we do the radio show. Some people may or may not know this. We don't make any money from the syndicated radio show. And I'm not saying this like, oh, I have tears in my eyes, even though I'm a big, strong guy. I'm just saying we've decided, even though we don't monetize radio, like our income comes from the online podcast, YouTube, etc. We produce the radio show at our expense. It's a loss.

OK, it's like a Trump business. It's a loss because we think it's worth being on in a lot of these rural places where there are very few options for a non right wing or religious radio. So we're doing it and we're going to continue to do it. Irv wrote in Irv says, David, it always amazes me when right wingers call you a communist insultingly. Yet our devotees of Tucker Carlson and the Fox News cabal who idolize the most communist country and its leader, Putin. In fact, so much so that they are featured in virtually all of Putin's propaganda campaigns. Aren't they the communists? They will never accept this analysis ever, ever, ever. They will say it's not about defending communism.

It's about the left has a vendetta against Russia for no reason or what they will squirrel their ways out of it. But it is interesting that many of the people that Trump was most impressed by are from countries that don't exactly have market economies. Russia, North Korea. We've seen it all. Good luck convincing them. Sam wrote in about the death

penalty and says, David, I have to disagree with your views regarding the death penalty. It is definitely true that many people have been convicted incorrectly where the evidence is circumstantial. No death penalty is warranted. But when you have mass murder, I assume they mean mass murderers like John Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer and mass school shooters like Nicholas Cruz, where there is no contradictory evidence. There should be executions. These people serve no function and are of no value to society. To the dismay of the victim's families, Nicholas Cruz was just recently sentenced for life. Perhaps if your daughter had been one of his victims, you would have a different point of view.

This is so important. Sam is not wrong. If my daughter had been a victim of one of these school shootings, I might have a different point of view, but that would be out of a desire for revenge. And we shouldn't have a justice system based on revenge. So Sam is actually making my point, which is that is not a good justification for the death penalty. The fact that if I was in this situation, I might want revenge by saying kill them. It wouldn't make it any more right. It would just mean I want revenge. So super interesting. And I think Sam not making the strong point that Sam thinks he or she is making a rod wrote in about Trump sweating and says, I believe that Trump is sweating because he may be diagnosed with ADHD, which is treated with Ritalin and sweating as a possible side effect. This fits his profile.

Well, if it is true that Trump is medicated for ADHD, that medication was not revealed in the medical release about the medications that Donald Trump takes. Now, would it be a big shock if Trump had hidden elements of his health record? No, it wouldn't because he put something out claiming he's six three and weighs two hundred and thirty nine pounds. And we all know that that's not true. But as far as the record is concerned, Trump is not on Ritalin and not being treated for ADHD. Write in info at David Pakman dot com. If you have something to say, questions are welcome.

Comments are welcome. Demands for corrections when they are accurate are welcome as well. We will see you on today's bonus show. We're off Monday in observance of the Christmas holiday and we will be back on Tuesday. on the show.