The David Pakman Show - 12/26/23: Trump's crazy Christmas request, Joe Rogan self-owns

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

-- On the Show: -- Brittany Page, host of Page Perspective and co-host of the I Doubt It podcast, fills in for David -- Donald Trump's lawyers ask a court to toss his election interference case in a late-night filing before Christmas, citing "absolute" presidential immunity -- CNN airs a lengthy segment with a New York Times op-ed author about Trump being a moderate, featuring a chyron reading, "Is Trump actually a moderate?" -- Joe Rogan owns himself in a major error, mistaking Biden's comments for Trump's -- Lindsey Graham appears on ABC News' This Week and rambles about Hillary Clinton when confronted about Trump's lies -- Iowa and Nebraska are refusing to participate in a summer food assistance program for poor kids -- North Dakota Republican State Representative Nico Rios gets exposed on body camera footage using homophobic and racist slurs during a DUI arrest this month -- A judge says Ron DeSantis spread misinformation about trans health care in his attempts to ban care -- A San Francisco homeless man is acquitted in an attack on a former Fire Commissioner that left him hospitalized -- On the Bonus Show: Donald Trump's bizarre Christmas message, and much more... 🔊 Babbel: Get 55% off your subscription at https://babbel.com/pakman 👍 Manscaped: Use code PAKMAN for 20% off & free shipping at https://manscaped.com 🥘 GreenPan: Use code PAKMAN for 30% OFF and free shipping at https://greenpan.us 💪 Athletic Greens is offering FREE year-supply of Vitamin D at https://athleticgreens.com/pakman -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

Welcome to the David Pakman show. My name is Brittany Page, host of the Page Perspective here on YouTube and co-host of I Doubt It podcast. Thank you for joining me. I am here the day after Christmas to work through the news with all of you. I'm new to this guest hosting gig, and I must admit I was nervous to come on the day after Christmas, wondering whether there would be any news. But the news does not stop because of the holidays. Evidently, everyone shares Melania Trump's Christmas sentiment. You know, who gives a f*** about Christmas stuff? That one, because there is a lot of news to get to.

So let's cover it. First, and you may be happy to learn, even on Christmas, Trump cannot escape his legal issues. It's hard to keep track at this point, given the 91 criminal counts and four different cases. But the one we're talking about right now is related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. His legal team submitted a late night filing just before Christmas, asking a federal appeals court to throw out this case, making the bold argument that Donald Trump possesses absolute presidential immunity. This filing, of course, comes after the Supreme Court declined special counsel Jack Smith's request to fast track the case, deciding whether Trump is immune from prosecution for

crimes he allegedly committed while he was president. The U.S. Court of Appeals here in D.C. gets to determine first whether Trump can be prosecuted in this case. Special Counsel Jack Smith is trying to stay on target here with a March 4th trial start date. The D.C. Court of Appeals apparently is working quickly on this with oral arguments scheduled to start January 9th. According to reporting from NPR, quote, In their brief, Trump's lawyers argue that no current or former president may be criminally prosecuted for official acts unless they have been impeached and convicted by the Senate. Since that did not happen to Trump, they write, he has absolute immunity. They also call the indictment, quote, unlawful and unconstitutional and warn that it, quote,

threatens to launch cycles of recrimination and politically motivated prosecution that will plague our nation for many decades to come. So this is similar to what we've heard before, always with the threats that if Donald Trump is held accountable for wrongdoing, it sets a dangerous precedent that other presidents who allegedly lie about the election being stolen use their legal team to pursue lawsuits

in states where they lost, spend who knows how long campaigning to overturn election results in the face of evidence the election was not stolen, and in the face of repeated rejections from courts about these claims of election fraud, anyone who does these things may then also be held accountable. And what I really want to know, where does this absolute presidential immunity end? I mean, kidnapping, murder, rape. Do they know what absolute means? One thing that I think is important and that I follow every day as a person thinking out loud in public,

on the internet, is to admit the limits of my knowledge. I'm not an attorney. I am not an expert in legal matters. I'm a licensed therapist, so I spend a lot of my time talking about things that impact people in my work in that field, poverty, homelessness, drug use, psychology, public policy generally. The law? Not an expert. So what do we do when we're not an expert and we want to be responsible? Well, we turn to the experts. Norm Eisen is an attorney, and he recently made an appearance on CNN to talk about the implications of this argument from Trump's team and focus specifically on the argument that the indictment is unconstitutional, that because Donald Trump was not impeached and convicted, he has absolute immunity argument is a loser. The impeachment argument is frivolous. I mean, it's not even colorable, Jim. I checked the Constitution this morning. And what the Constitution actually says is that if a president is convicted, he or she shall, quote, nevertheless be liable for criminal proceedings.

Nevertheless is not the same as only if they're convicted are they liable. So they're they're turning the Constitution upside down here. Turning the Constitution upside down, as one would expect with Donald Trump and his legal team. He appears desperate to do whatever it takes to delay as many of these cases for as long as possible, and is willing to use whatever argument he can to achieve this goal. I guess we should know relatively soon how this will go, given the oral arguments start January 9th. And sticking with CNN, specifically Smirconish on CNN, hosted by Michael Smirconish, where I came across this segment. And I want to show you this chyron.

So you can see with your own eyes that this actually happened in December of 2023 after everything, after everything we know to be true about Donald Trump. This is Michael Smirconish hosting an almost eight minute long segment with is Trump actually moderate in the chyron? Yeah, it happened. Is he a moderate? For this segment, Smirconish hosted the author of a recent New York Times op-ed, Matthew Schmitz. If you haven't heard of him, he is the founder and editor of an online magazine called Compact. I hadn't heard of him either, but before introducing him in this segment, they flashed up a copy of the cover of his magazine where you can see titles of articles like The Liberal Plot Against Democracy

and an article written by Peter Hitchens, the conservative brother of the deceased Christopher Hitchens. So we're getting an idea of who this guy is, but it really comes into focus when we see this op-ed that he wrote with the title, The Secret of Trump's Appeal Isn't Authoritarianism. Now in it, he argues, and I want to quote, quote, Mr. Trump enjoys enduring support because he is perceived by many voters, often with good reason, as a pragmatic, if unpredictable, kind of moderate. Ah, yes. Pragmatic and moderate. Two words I definitely think of when I hear the name Donald Trump. Listen, if Donald Trump is a moderate, then I am Margot Robbie. If we're out here living in fantasy land, let's really go for it, right? But the fantasy continues in that this Matthew Schmitz argues something we've heard ad nauseum at this point, that we need to delineate between Trump's rhetoric, which is often extreme,

and his actual governance, which, according to Schmitz, is moderate. We need to look at his actions, he says, not just his rhetoric. And he takes us through several specific examples to make this point. But I want to focus on abortion. And let's actually hear the excerpts on abortion from this op-ed that Michael Smirconish chose to highlight for this segment. With regard to the abortion question. He writes this, though he championed the overturning of Roe versus Wade and has charged Democrats with supporting laws that make it legal to rip the baby out of the womb, quote unquote, in the ninth month of pregnancy, he has also broken with a portion opponents. After Mr. DeSantis signed Florida's ban on abortions after six weeks, Trump called

the move a terrible mistake. By criticizing both late-term abortions and the most comprehensive restrictions on access, Trump has managed to reflect the muddled views held by much of the electorate. Don't you just love when one of the most prominent news networks uses their precious few minutes to misinform their audience? As though Donald Trump's inconsistent messaging on abortion is anything other than proof of his lack of principles. If we pay attention to Donald Trump's rhetoric, we know it is extreme, but we also know his actions on abortion are extreme. And briefly, let's just go back to March, 2016, when then presidential candidate Trump sat for a town hall with Chris Matthews. And during this town hall, Trump made it clear that he wanted to appoint

conservative justices to the Supreme Court to ban abortion. He makes it clear what the consequences of those bans would be and also says that women would need to be punished for their abortions. I am pro-life, yes. What is ban, how do you ban abortion? How do you actually do it? Well, you know, you'll go back to a position like they had where people will perhaps go to illegal places. Yeah.

But you have to ban it. Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no, as a principle? The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. For the woman? Yeah, it has to be some form. 10 years. I don't know. That I don't know. Why not? I don't know. You take positions in everything else. Frankly, I do take positions in everything else. It's a very complicated position.

I'm asking you're running for president, I'm not. So I love that clip because it illustrates so much of what we know to be true about Donald Trump. The answer to the question is, as he thinks about what his base wants to hear, and apparently in the moment he decided the wrong answer because hours after that he had to walk back that statement about punishing women who have abortions. Because again, he has no principles other than what is politically expedient. But if we take Matthew Schmitz and his argument that Trump is only radical in his speech, but not in his action, how does he explain the fact that Trump has always been set on banning abortion in this country, intent on appointing the conservative justices he wanted to appoint,

who he knew would overturn Roe v. Wade, which has now caused widespread chaos, pain, and confusion in this country. Donald Trump knew the consequences of it. You just heard it. Abortion would be inaccessible. He said people would try to get illegal abortions. He didn't give details. He didn't elaborate on what that would mean. But we now know what it means when abortion is banned. Because of his extreme actions on abortion, not just his rhetoric, the recent case of Kate Cox in Texas, We know women are prevented from obtaining abortions in their state, even after being admitted to emergency care four times. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that she wasn't ill enough

to justify an abortion to save her life, making it clear that these exceptions for the life of the mother are nothing but lies. Because of Donald Trump's extreme actions, beyond his rhetoric, OBGYNs are now fleeing red states where 99 minutes until they die, while their parents watch in agony, unable to do anything because they were prevented from obtaining an abortion, as is the case with baby Milo in Florida. And I can't even cover the number of stories that have been done on people who were forced to have babies that they can't care for now because they get little to no assistance from the state. Is this moderate? Is any of this pragmatic and moderate? Is all of

this what Matthew Schmitz meant when he argued that, quote, Trump has managed to reflect the muddled views held by much of the electorate. He thinks the electorate is confused about what they're seeing when it comes to abortion bans. They're not. One year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a PBS NewsHour NPR Marist poll found 61% of U.S. adults say they support abortion rights, which was a six percentage point increase over the previous year. And the number, you know, it may vary from poll to poll.

And Americans may disagree on the certain number of weeks that they may support an abortion. But the reality is the majority of Americans support abortion rights. And we see time and time again in the recent elections in Ohio, in Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, when abortion rights are on the ballot, when candidates center the issue of abortion, Democrats win. And part of it is stories like that of Kate Cox, who I just talked about earlier. Data for Progress recently conducted a poll about her specific situation, and they found 83% of voters believe a woman in her situation

should be allowed to have an abortion. The electorate does not have muddled views on abortion, especially now that they're seeing what abortion bans do. So I guess the question here is, will the media continue, even after everything Donald Trump has done? Will they continue trying to convince us that he is a moderate who won't be as bad as everyone thinks when he's proved time and time

again that he is exactly as bad as everyone knows he is. I guess so. You know, this really illustrates how important independent media is because it seems like these big news networks are prepared to mess it up yet again. And I can hear it now. The Alex Jones drop about the bonus show. Oh, the bonus show. You want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to find themselves is bad. The bonus show. And by the way, we have a great bonus show. Oh, the bonus show. You want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad.

The bonus show. And by the way, we have a great bonus show planned for you with my I Doubt It podcast co-host, Jesse Dallimore. But it is important that we support independent media because we need better than Michael Smirconish in 2024. What do you think? Be sure to let me know in the comments. One of our sponsors today is Manscaped.

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I have all of this stuff at home. Get 20 percent off and free shipping with the code Pacman at Manscaped dot com. That's M.A.N.S.C.A.P.E.D. Dot com. Use code Pacman for 20% off and free shipping. The info is in the podcast notes. Welcome back to The David Pakman Show. My name is Brittany Page.

From the Page perspective here on YouTube, I want to give a special shout out before we get started to David Pakman, sir. With tears in my eyes. Thank you so much for the opportunity to guest host. I appreciate you. I appreciate your team and the audience. Thank you for joining me today. We are going to be talking about Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan has consistently one of the most popular podcasts. He is considered a thought leader by some people. And even though he continues to illustrate how irresponsible he is with his very large audience, no matter how many times Joe Rogan gets embarrassed or owned, as they say, even if he's owning himself, he continues to be popular. People continue to download his show. They continue to

watch him on YouTube. And I don't know why, especially when you see the clip I'm about to show you. Now in this clip, Joe Rogan is having his guest, an MMA fighter named Bo Nickel, and they're discussing a statement that both of them claim President Biden made. And I want you to listen carefully in this clip for not only how they describe the comments, but what they say, this comment that they claim was uttered by Joe Biden, what it means for him.

Well, you know, there's people that voted for Biden that are doing it now. They're like, what did I do? Right. What did I choose? How is this guy? Yeah. You just can't listen to an interview or he's saying some of the stuff he says that just makes no sense at all. It's like you can't listen to those interviews and feel like you made a good decision. I don't know how you could.

Did you hear what he said yesterday or a couple days ago? Mm-mm. He was talking about the Revolutionary War. He's like, one of the reasons why we lost the Revolutionary War, one of the problems with the Revolutionary War was they didn't have enough airports. Yeah. Have you seen that? I saw that.

Like, what the hell? Like, pull him. It's crazy. Imagine if you had any other job and you were talking like that. Yeah. They would go, hey, you're done. If you talk like that to a doctor at your medical exam for to fight they'd be like okay like obviously they're not fighting you'd also here's you know eight weeks of

being helped out by professional like right you might not ever do anything no it's it's it's one of the wildest things ever it's insane yeah the media gaslighting you to protect it's just people are so afraid of trump being in office and Republicans being in office. You know. So just to make sure we're all keeping up with what we heard there, what was said, they say that people regret voting for Biden. They you can't even listen to him without feeling regret for voting for him. They then give an example about a quote that he made talking about the Revolutionary War and airports. Joe Rogan says, because of this statement that he made about the Revolutionary War and airports, you need to pull him. Pull him. It illustrates that there's such a significant

cognitive deficit in Joe Rogan's mind that Joe Biden can't do the job because he said this. He needs to be done. He needs to be removed. People, he says, are just too afraid of Trump. They can't admit it. The media is gaslighting. Can we pause for a second and ask, does Joe Rogan not think he's the media? I looked it up and it's estimated that his podcast per episode brings in 11 million listeners. 11 million. He's consistently the top podcast worldwide on Spotify, including for the past three years in a row. So he is the media. He is convincing people. He's telling them what to believe. He's informing what people believe. And this is how he chooses to use his platform. And I think you can guess what's coming here

with Joe Rogan's gaslighting. You know, Jamie, he has that guy, Jamie, I think is his name, who pulls up the fact checks sometimes in the moment. He just throws something into Google and then he pulls it up on the screen. And Jamie's really the only protection that we have from Joe Rogan's misinformation. If he puts something into Google, he brings up the first thing that he sees, and we're just all crossing our fingers that it's not some sort of confirmation bias occurring where he's just clicking on the first link he sees that validates what Joe Rogan is saying. Well, in this instance, it's not because he pulls up that clip of Biden saying the Revolutionary War and airport comment.

And you may be surprised to learn that he was actually referencing something that Donald Trump said. But I want you to pay careful attention here to what's happening with Joe Rogan and his guest as they're listening to this clip. And as they're realizing that it actually wasn't Joe Biden that made this comment, it was Donald Trump. I was a guy, I'm like, man. Well, you know, it's just the media narrative. I mean, so many people were fed this lie

that the Russia collusion. Was this the video you're talking about? Let me see what this one says. I don't think it is. What? By the way, the same stable genius that said the biggest problem we had in the Revolutionary War is we didn't have

enough airports. Whoa. Yeah, that's it. Whoa. Just for the record. Is that fake? It's not fake, but he was referencing Trump saying that. Here's what Trump's saying in 2019.

Donald Trump said something about that. He didn't say Jesus. He said a stable genius, and that's where the transcription. Let me hear what it says. What did he say? In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York and named after the great George Washington, Commander-in-Chief. The Continental Army

suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware, and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our army manned the airport. It ran the ramparts. It took over the airports. It did everything it had to do. Oh, okay. Yeah. So he f***ed up.

Yeah, he did. But I feel like you can tell, too. It sounds like a little different. You can tell he messed up his words. Yeah. I don't know. To go to the airport is funny. Well, that's the thing about media these days. It's like you've could tell he like messed up his words, but yeah. Yeah. He was, I don't know. To go to the airport. Well, that's the thing about, that's the thing about media these days.

It's like, right. You got to look into it. So what this is, is a gift. It's a gift to all of us, but also I think teachers who are looking for a perfect example to teach their students about cognitive dissonance. And you may have witnessed something like this in real time, maybe at your Thanksgiving table, at home with your families, when you're talking politics with people that you disagree. Seeing this in real time, people having to grapple with

admitting they were wrong, number one, but also having to figure out what to do with information that isn't in agreement with what they previously thought. And you can see how difficult that is for Joe Rogan and his guest because he starts there talking about the media narrative. And then he learns that it was Donald Trump who made the comment about the Revolutionary War and airports. And he gives a very muted, oh, okay, he messed up. So when it was Joe Biden that he thought said that, it was a major problem. It illustrated a cognitive problem. He needed to be hospitalized, dealt with for eight weeks, they were talking about. He needed to be hospitalized, dealt with for eight weeks, they were talking about. He needed to be removed from office because he said this. But when Donald Trump says it, oh, okay.

So he just messed up. I mean, come on. What are we doing here, Joe Rogan? He also said that's the thing about the media these days, or his guest said this, that's the thing about the media these days, or his guest said this, that's the thing about the media these days. You got to look into it. You know what? I really agree with that. You really do need to look into it, especially when you're listening to Joe Rogan, especially when you're listening to him. So can we stop pretending now that Joe Rogan is a thought leader? He has the brains of millions of people in his hands,

and he fact checks nothing. He just sits there and is like, oh yeah, I saw this headline the other day, and I saw this, and I saw this. But he's filtering it through his own perception, which is clearly biased in favor of defending Donald Trump and criticizing unfairly in a way that is not factual Democrats. Joe Rogan ever addresses any of these instances of him owning himself. It seems like he can just move along without addressing it, give a half apology when he messes up and then just move forward. But I'm wondering when is it finally going to stick for him? When is that going to happen? I'd love to know. Let me know what you think in the comments. So I briefly touched on

this idea that people who are prominent in the media make these appearances on their show or they go on as guests on other shows and they didn't lie, as though they aren't irresponsible with their platforms. And in that case, it was Joe Rogan. But in this case, we're talking about Lindsey Graham, who went on ABC News' Sunday program this week with Pierre Thomas. And of course, Lindsey Graham is a senator from South Carolina. He is a Trump supporter. He is consistently on TV making the rounds, defending anything and everything that Donald Trump does. And, of course, we're not going to see anything different here.

But there is something remarkable in his response to Pierre Thomas that I think is worth talking about, that I think is important to talk about. And in this question, he's going to be asked about Donald Trump's consistently denying the election results. He's continuing to deny the election results. And is that something that Lindsey Graham thinks is a problem? I have to ask you, the president, former President Trump continues to say he won the election. He claims to be an election denier, proudly. Now, we teach our children, when they lose something, to shake the opponent's hand and move on. Are you concerned that the former president is not setting the proper standard going forward here, sir? Well, you know, Hillary Clinton didn't had the same view that she was cheated.

He's not the first politician to claim to have been denied a fair election. But here's what I would say. I accept the election results of 2020. I'm worried about 2024. If President Trump puts a vision out improving security and prosperity for Americans, he will win. If he looks back, I think he will lose. So at the end of the day, the 2020 election's over for me, we need to secure the ballot in the 2024 cycle. But Donald Trump's not the first person to complain about an election. Okay, can you imagine after all this time, after all this time, his first response to that question is Hillary Clinton. And you can kind of, you can kind of see him there searching internally for buzzwords that will have conservatives thinking that he made a successful

appearance on this show. And the first one that comes to mind is Hillary Clinton, because if you say Hillary Clinton, then automatically the conservatives watching it are going to be very excited and thrilled. It doesn't matter if it is illogical, it doesn't make sense. And he's saying that Hillary Clinton felt that she was cheated. He's trying to draw a comparison between Hillary Clinton's actions following the election and Donald Trump. And Hillary Clinton conceded immediately. The election was Tuesday, November 8th, 2016. She conceded in a phone call to Trump early Wednesday morning, the very next day. And then she gave a speech that day on Wednesday the 9th. and she said, Donald Trump is going to be our president.

Quote, Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. That was what Hillary Clinton's approach was. She wasn't calling Georgia election officials to pressure them. She wasn't calling election officials in Michigan to pressure them, as we're learning. There was no widespread campaign and conspiracy to challenge the election results. Hillary Clinton can feel a certain way if she felt cheated. I don't know, but she can feel a certain way. And that is very different from Donald Trump's actual actions following the election. And he's continuing to mount a pressure campaign within his base and encouraging people within his base to challenge those election results, like we saw with the insurrection.

Hillary Clinton did not instigate an insurrection. Donald Trump did that. You also heard Lindsey Graham say he's not the first person to complain about an election. It's always with this like childlike sense of responding to things. I don't understand it. He's not just complaining. Again, we just talked about this. He's not just complaining. It's more than that. He attempted to overthrow the United States government. That is very different than just complaining. So Lindsey Graham went on to say during this appearance that he's worried about 2024. He said that if President Trump puts the vision out, improving security and prosperity for Americans, he will win. If he looks back, he will lose. That's Lindsey Graham's take. And I have to wonder if this is going to be a new approach for Republicans,

but I feel like it's a little too late for this because Donald Trump will not stop talking about the election. He will not stop talking about how we need to challenge the election results, how it was stolen from him. And he's continuing to lead the Republican presidential election. He's continuing to lead over Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, in some polls by double digits. So he is continuing to be the choice for the Republican Party. Why would he change course now when it's obvious that what he's doing is working with the Republican base, with the people who are going to vote for him, who like what he does. Lindsey Graham's opportunity to rein Donald Trump in and convince him to behave in a different way, I don't know if that could have ever happened, honestly, but if that was going to happen,

it would have been a long time ago, years ago. We are past that. There's no reigning Donald Trump in. Donald Trump is going to do what he wants to do in order to get into power, whatever it takes. And Lindsey Graham has shown that he's going to go along with it, regardless of what his principles are.

He's ready. He's all in. He's going to go for it. So again, we have people making appearances on TV, saying things that are inconsistent with previous things they've said, making it clear that they don't have principles, and Lindsey Graham is just another one. I love the sponsor. Our sponsor, Greenpan, makes the best ceramic nonstick cookware money can buy. I've been using it for years. You're probably familiar with Greenpan. They really

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You can follow me on threads, Twitter, Instagram, at Brittany E. Page, if that's your thing. So there are just facts of life that we can all agree on. Earth, Wind & Fire is the greatest band of all time. There is no such thing as a bad dessert. The series finale of Six Feet Under is the greatest series finale of any show ever created. Naps are healing. Are you getting where I'm going with this? Okay, maybe these are just facts for me, but one fact that we should all be able to agree on is that it's good to feed hungry children. Something you'd think was not up for debate,

but unfortunately, apparently it is. As evidenced by what is taking place in Iowa with their refusal to participate in a federal program during the summer, which gives just $40 per month per child in low-income families to assist them in covering the cost of food while school is out during the summer. According to reporting from AP, quote, the state has notified the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it will not participate in the 2024 Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer for Children, or Summer EBT, program. The state's Department of Health and

Human Services and Department of Education said in a Friday news release, quote, federal COVID-era cash benefit programs are not sustainable and don't provide long-term solutions for the issues impacting children and families. An EBT card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic, Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds said in the news release. You know, why don't we ever hear about how the almost $1 trillion annual budget for the Pentagon is not sustainable, especially as they continue to fail audit after audit after audit, six years in a row, by the way? It's only when it comes to investing in improving people's lives, when we hear this argument, when someone wants to create a robust social safety net,

they start asking, is it sustainable? It's only when we're talking about providing necessities, providing children with food. Iowa doesn't have the highest child poverty rate in the country, by the way, that would be Mississippi with 26.4% of children living in poverty. But Iowa is not in a position to be turning money down for hungry kids when they have a child poverty rate of 12 percent. Now, states that participate in this summer food program have to cover half of the administrative expenses. And according to the news release, that would be about 2.2 million in Iowa. And it's important to note, Iowa ended

2022 with a budget surplus of $1.91 billion. Yeah. The reason this is all in the headlines right now is because states have until January 1st to notify the Department of Agriculture whether they will in fact prioritize feeding hungry kids in their state. And Iowa isn't alone. Nebraska has also decided to make it clear that feeding hungry children is not a priority. Reading now from the Lincoln Journal Star, quote, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen on Friday defended his administration's controversial decision this week to not apply for federal summer grocery aid for low-income families. The state's Department of Health and Human Services notified the legislature this week that the state does not intend to participate in summer EBT, a new federal program that would give $120 in EBT benefits to students who receive free

or reduced-priced lunch at school. The program would provide about $18 million in benefits to students who receive free or reduced priced lunch at school. The program would provide about $18 million in benefits to be distributed to about 150,000 low-income children in Nebraska who experience food insecurity in the summer months. The state, which has until January 1st to apply the aid, would have to foot about $300,000 annually in administrative costs. And you may be wondering, does Nebraska have a ban on abortion? Is Nebraska a state that forces the birth of children, it then refuses to invest in and support? And the answer is yes. Nebraska has a very restrictive abortion ban, banning abortion at 12 weeks and later, in addition to placing obstacles in place like counseling and a waiting period, which as we know, only delays care and increases

the risk that someone will then be forced into a period beyond 12 weeks and be unable to obtain an abortion. And listen, I definitely have a soft spot for this because I was raised by a single mom. I remember very clearly, depending on food stamps for food, getting free lunch at school. I was raised on the very welfare this Republican Nebraska governor denounces. And my success is absolutely in part due to this investment. I got a Pail Grant to help me through college and grants to help me in graduate school. I would not be where I am today without these investments. So this is personal for me, but as we know, and as I know David Pakman's audience knows,

anecdotal evidence is just that, anecdotal. The reality is that research shows the importance of investing in our kids. Looking now to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, quote, SNAP can help families afford a healthier diet, reduce the stress of not being able to afford adequate food, and free up income to spend on medications and other basic needs. Pinpointing SNAP's impact on health is challenging, in part because people who choose to participate in the program are generally more disadvantaged than those who are eligible but don't participate. But rigorous research that controls for these differences

has linked SNAP with improved health, both when participants are receiving benefits and later in life. So keep all of this in mind as we head into the next election season. So next up, the Republican Party is having a tough time beating certain allegations given the continued headlines that illustrate their policy priorities and I guess their priorities generally. I mean, we just had the past week of headlines dominated by the Republican Party's leading presidential candidate, Donald Trump, quoting Adolf Hitler, having to say that he's not quoting Adolf Hitler

after making comments, racist comments, about immigrants poisoning the blood of the country. So Republicans are often faced with accusations of racism because they continue to promote two positions of power by electing racists. And we saw this again in a recent DUI arrest of a Republican state representative in North Dakota, his name, Nico Rios, a lawmaker from Williston. Republican Representative Nico Rios was arrested on December 15th after police spotted him struggling to stay in his lane while he was driving. So according to reporting from AP, quote, Rios was elected last year in the North Dakota House of Representatives. He sits on the House Judiciary Committee,

a panel that handles law enforcement legislation. So we'd expect someone like this to have respect for law enforcement, right? Nico Rios was the one to break the news of his arrest by posting a statement on Twitter. We do not call it X in this house. And the reason he did that, he was trying to get out in front of the news, probably because he knew that the body cam footage was coming and he knew that it was going to be bad when the body cam footage was released. And it is. So we're going to play this and there are going to be a lot of bleeps for the language. But if you're watching this on YouTube, there will be captions. So here is Republican Representative Nico Rios making vile, homophobic and racist remarks during his recent arrest in North Dakota. Okay. Because you don't know who to f*** him. Just one second. I'm going to give you a chance. I'm going to give you a f***ing distance. It's literally two blocks away.

Listen, this is what I can do, though. Instead of leaving it on that side, I can put it over there. I can put it right over there. I want to drop my f***ing truck off. All right, now we're not doing that. We're going to go to this vehicle. You're a f***ing f***er. Okay.

Do you want your phones? There's two phones in there. Do you want those and do you want your... I would take two phones, sir. I would appreciate it. Okay. Because I got to call Attorney General Drew Wrigley to let these guys know what you're being an a***** to me. Okay. Just to let you know, all this is video and all of it recorded on body camera, including your language, all right? Hey, wait, it's all your cameras right here. Have you got a wallet? It's in my... My... My... God damn it. My... My arms are hurting. Alright? Uh, do you want your wallet? Hey, hey, hey, it's all your cameras right here. Have you got a wallet?

It's in my b****, my, my f******, god damn it, my f******, my arms are hurting. Are you proud to be from England? Yeah, I like my country. I have... What? Yes, I like my country. Are you proud to be English at least? Why is that relevant? Because...

Why, what, what you doing here in North Dakota, harassing people? Why is that relevant? You're arresting me for driving home. But people come into your country and rape your women. Yes or no? And I'm the f***ing bad guy? Yes or no? Tell me. Tell me, bro. Yes or no? You can't even answer me.

Because you know you're f***ing wrong. I don't give a f***. I don't give a f***, bro. I'm going to fight for the people in England. Or do you ever would, you little b***h? So clearly, Republican Nico Rios used homophobic slurs, then made racist comments about migrants and refugees, quote unquote, raping the women in, quote, his country, referring to the police officer who was arresting him. He exhibited general disrespect toward law enforcement,

believing himself to be above the consequences of driving while intoxicated, allegedly, saying he was just two blocks away, as though you get to drive short distances while intoxicated. You get a pass on those, that's allowed. It's a problem that he was driving while under the influence. It is also a problem that he is harboring very clear racist and homophobic views while in a position of power within the Republican Party in North Dakota. Being intoxicated does not suddenly make one racist. These are his views. These are his beliefs. So what is the plan? It looks like there are not calls for him to resign at this point, not yet. His colleagues are going for the typical lines about how they are troubled by what they've seen

and indicating that they need to sit down and discuss this story with him a little bit and see what's actually going on. So this is definitely a story to follow, folks. the David Pakman show at David Pakman dot com. of a multivitamin or fumbling around with 10 different vitamin bottles. I've just replaced all of it with one scoop of AG1. I get the vitamins, the minerals, the prebiotics, the probiotics, all the stuff I'm looking for. It's delicious. It goes great in a smoothie. You can drink it straight with water like I do in the morning before my famous cappuccino. I've been doing it for years. You're just covering your nutritional basis for the whole day. It's simple. You don't have to buy a bunch of different vitamins. My audience knows I don't advertise miracle solutions and cures, and there's no miracle cure solution here. It's just a simple product that works, that replaces the clumsiness and the cost of a ton of different vitamins. Go to drink a G1 dot com

slash Pacman. You'll get five free travel packs of a G1 and a free year supply of vitamin D, which, as I've said, I take in the winter when there's a lot less sun out that drink a is an atom. G is in green. The number one dot com slash Pacman to get five free travel packs of AG one and a free year supply of vitamin D. The link is in the podcast notes. it if you would take some time to subscribe to my channel over there. You can also follow me on social media. I am at Brittany E. Page on Twitter, Threads, TikTok, and Instagram, if that's your thing. So up next, we have Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis, of course, not doing well in the polls. Everyone thought he would be the one to beat. Turns out that was not the case because everyone got a glimpse of Ron DeSantis' personality. So Ron DeSantis is known for his attacks on the trans community. He is someone who uses the word

mutilation often when he is discussing trans health care. He keeps using the most extreme language, he and other Republicans, because it's intended to radicalize people against supporting trans rights. And we've seen the consequences of this. It leads to dehumanization. a challenge to a transgender health care ban for minors in Florida, as well as restrictions on care for adults, said that Ron DeSantis has repeatedly spread false information about this, specifically about doctors mutilating the genitals of children, which is something we've all heard Ron DeSantis say. And the judge cited that there's no documented cases of genital mutilation. I want to read from the AP here. Quote, the law was sold as defending children from mutilation when it is actually about preventing

trans children from getting health care. Judge Robert Hinkle said to a lawyer for the state, quote, when I'm analyzing the governor's motivation, what should I make of these statements? He asked. This seems to be more than just hyperbole. Hinkle said he will rule sometime in the next year on whether the legislature, the Department of Health and presidential candidate DeSantis deliberately targeted transgender people through the new law. The trial is challenging Florida's ban on medical treatment for transgender children, such as hormone therapy or puberty blockers, a law DeSantis touted while seeking the presidency. The law also places restrictions on adult trans care. Now that piece is interesting, isn't it? That the law also places restrictions on adult trans care. Because what we hear from the Republican Party often on this issue

is that they want these bans on trans care because it, quote, protects children. Now, if it were about protecting children, why would they also go after adult trans care? Why would that be one of their priorities? For me, this issue is similar to abortion. It's a health care issue. I don't want someone like Ron DeSantis weighing in on matters of health care. I want people who are educated and that this is their expertise. This is their area of expertise. They went to school for years. They have practiced for decades. They have worked hard

in this field to accumulate the knowledge and expertise to be able to work in this field. Ron DeSantis has not. He just has opinions that are based on his values, apparently, and that ends up harming people. So I don't want someone like Ron DeSantis involved in this. And unfortunately, a lot of these efforts on the part of Republicans have been successful. There's at least 22 states that have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender affirming medical care for trans minors. Many of those states face lawsuits. And so it remains to be seen what's actually going to end up happening with a lot of these bans. When you are hearing attacks on the trans community, when there are extreme outlets that highlight these stories and attack this community on an ongoing basis, it creates a dangerous situation for people that are in this community. So trans rights are human rights.

I think it's important to support the trans community. I wonder what will happen with this judge. I can imagine, given that there's a lot of radicals that pop up, that this judge specifically just saying that Ron DeSantis is spreading misinformation on this issue, that he's kind of putting himself out there as a target for a lot of these people that are known to threaten judges when they don't like what they say. So it'll be interesting to see how this story continues to play out and how things go for this judge. But I certainly appreciate him speaking what I think a lot of us know to be true in that Ron DeSantis is a dishonest character

and is continuously spreading misinformation on this issue with this community. So the next story is going to bring some good news, specifically if you're in the business of combating misinformation about the unhoused population in this country. And that is because there was a very important acquittal in the case of the unhoused man named Garrett Doty, who was caught on camera beating a former San Francisco fire commissioner with a metal pipe. Now, this was back in April 2023 in San Francisco. The trial just got underway. The unhoused man was just acquitted.

But just to kind of refresh your memory, at the time, a lot of narratives started swirling around this related to crime. People on the right jumped on this story in the video of the unhoused man beating the former fire commissioner with a metal pipe. They said that this illustrated that there's a connection between violence and the homelessness crisis. And then we learned that this was actually in self-defense, that the former San Francisco Fire Commissioner, Donald Carmanani, he actually had been going around, allegedly, and attacking homeless people while they slept or while they sat on the street

with bear spray. And I'm going to read directly from the Washington Post right now. Quote, Carminani's attorney has denied he was the attacker. When asked about the incidents during a pretrial hearing, Carminani repeatedly invoked his right to remain silent. Carminani has not been charged with any of the attacks, but they loomed over Dodi's trial, which began on December 7th. Jurors heard testimony about Carmen Ani's brushes with the law over allegations of domestic violence.

The deputy public defender suggested Carmen Ani was behind at least eight attacks on homeless people who had been camping near the block where he and his parents live. On the day of the incident, Karmanani threatened to stab and kill Doty if he didn't move his belongings from the street, defense lawyers said. When Karmanani left, Doty tried to move his belongings and also obtained a metal rod from a garbage bin for protection, the press release said. Attorneys said Karmanani returned 15 minutes later and baited Doty to come closer before spraying him again.

So jurors in this case cited the video that the public defender's office had showing someone who looks like Carmanani attacking homeless people as a part of what sealed the deal for them, that it made it clear to them that this was in self-defense. And again, they're alleging that he has attacked eight other people. He's involved in eight other additional attacks on the unhoused. And this is an important story because

the unhoused are often accused, wrongly accused, and they're often victims of violence. They're victims of harassment, but they don't have the resources or support to defend themselves. And in fact, when we saw this story first broke and there was initially only the video of Dodi attacking Karmanani, many people jumped to this and said, wow, this is an example of how serious the crisis of violence is in the unhoused community. This is proof that there's a crime crisis. We need to do something about this. Then weeks later, it was revealed when another video was released of someone who, again, looks like Karmanani going around and spraying homeless people with bear spray, unprovoked, around where he and his parents live.

So again, it's someone who looks like him. He has not confirmed. He continues to deny. But this is an important case because often the unhoused do not have the resources to get assistance in the way that Doty did in this case. You know, he said that he didn't have a phone call to call the police for help before this incident with the metal rod occurred. Those are the kinds of things. They don't have the resources to obtain the support that they need.

And so this appears to be a very happy ending, even though Carmen Nani is maintaining that he was not the attacker. And, you know, I just want to end with a shout out to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are right now homeless. And the people who are out there worried about how to provide necessities for their families. And the people who are continuing to work while other people are enjoying time with their families. We hope that 2024 brings a renewed focus on the issues of the poor and the working class, the issues impacting the poor and the working class, and the policy changes that are necessary and needed to improve people's lives. So I'm eager to do my part to ensure that that's the focus. And I certainly hope that you join me. You know, this has been a lot of fun. This was my first time guest hosting for David. So I want to thank David and his team very much for helping me out with this process. And thank you for joining me. I'm excited to do it again tomorrow and I hope you will be

here to join me. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. You can just type my name into YouTube or Page Perspective. Again, it's Brittany Page and you can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, all of the things, TikTok at Brittany E. Page. I look forward to going through the news with you tomorrow. Take care.