The David Pakman Show - 1/25/23: Pence Had Classified Docs at Home, The Truth About Cancel Culture

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

-- On the Show: -- Classified documents have been found at the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence -- Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson baselessly suggests that Mike Pence is working with prosecutors to screw Donald Trump -- Seven are dead in yet another mass shooting, bringing the number of mass shootings in 2023 to 40 separate shootings -- A look at whether cancel culture actually exists -- Failed former President Donald Trump is struggling to find people to show up and support him at his upcoming event in South Carolina -- Failed Republican Arizona Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is hosting a horrifying "Save Arizona" rally on January 29 -- Republicans have put Marjorie Taylor Greene and Trump's former doctor Ronny Jackson on the coronavirus committee -- It is actually the American right wing that is indoctrinating children, despite their claims that it is the left -- Voicemail caller asks whether David will be having fast food with Farron Cousins in Florida during his upcoming trip -- On the Bonus Show: Kevin McCarthy plans to block Dems from Intelligence Committee, journalist deaths up 50% in 2022 led by Ukraine and Mexico, Netflix finally cracking down on password sharing, much more... ⚠️ Use code PAKMAN for a free supply of BlueChew at https://go.bluechew.com/david-pakman 💻 Stay protected! Try Aura FREE for 2 weeks: https://aura.com/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.com -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- 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

Well, my friends, it is happening again. A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence recently discovered a dozen classified documents at Mike Pence's Indiana home. These documents have now been turned over to the FBI for review. Now, at this early stage in this new investigation related to classified documents, it's not completely clear what documents were found at Mike Pence's house, their level of sensitivity or other details. But let's remember that multiple times former Vice President Mike Pence stated there are no classified documents in my possession. There are no classified documents at my house. Now, let's think about this

just for a moment, because this is becoming a much bigger story than any particular classified document, although we will get to the aspect of the story that relates to classification. That's a separate story. It's a relevant one, but it's a separate story. Think for a moment. The same Republicans who were furiously apoplectically up in arms about the supposed mishandling of classified documents at Joe Biden's private office and residence are now conveniently silent about the discovery of classified documents

at the home of another one of their own. Because remember, the same thing happened with Donald Trump with hundreds of documents which he tried to keep and wanted at his house. Orders of magnitude difference between these stories. But you one could argue you put the Trump situation aside that the Biden and Pence situations are much more analogous or similar. I want to remind you of some things that former Vice President Mike Pence previously said. Here is an interview that Mike Pence gave to ABC News back in November. And this exact topic came up. You take any classified documents with you from the White House? I did not know.

Do you see any reason for anyone to take classified documents with them leaving the White House? Well, there'd be no reason to have classified documents, particularly if they were in an unprotected area. Right now, is his answer technically correct in that someone else took them? Assistants took them, whatever. You know, we start to get into this more semantic discussion of what does it really mean to take? What does it really mean to have? What does it really mean to relocate a document? But of course, the spirit of this conversation is that there are no such documents at his house. Here's another example of Mike Pence. This was from earlier this month. In fact, take a listen to this one.

Our staff reviewed all of the materials in our office and in our residence to ensure that there were no classified materials that that left the White House or remained in our possession. And I, I remain confident that that was done in a thorough and careful way. I guess it wasn't right. I guess I guess he was wrong about that as well and has completely lost control of what's going on in his home. I mean, there were fun house mirrors and you couldn't tell that the documents were class. Who the hell knows? But obviously not true. Let's look at one more instance of this. Here is Mike Pence in a previous interview saying he doesn't want to

diminish the importance of protecting classified documents and that everything was very buttoned up. Every I was crossed and T dotted. I know. I know it's a it's a Hannity thing. Here is Mike Pence ever want to diminish the importance of protecting classified documents in the nation's secret. And there was there was a very formal process during my time. It was super formal. Everybody wore tuxedos while they did it at the White House to see to that. Yeah, no, it all have. Oh, by the way, he had documents at his house despite claiming multiple times that he didn't. So my biggest ask, my biggest issue with this story is the astounding hypocrisy that has that has come to light and has become, I mean, unabashedly, they don't even blush when they present their double standards. And it goes to show that the Republican Party will play politics with national

security if we believe that they consider this issue of classified documents to be a matter of national security. They claim it is at least when it's Joe Biden. If we believe that and yet they still use these situations to attack the opposing party, but never themselves. It means they are turning a blind eye to the very national security issue that they claim these national these classified document situations represent, which means there is nothing they will not play politics with. And that's absolutely the case. Now, there's another

issue. OK, I read online people saying, well, you were at this point, you should really check every former president's house and office and every former vice president's house and office, apparently because of what's going on. I propose to you that this is not limited to presidents and vice presidents. It would be a shock to me if they were to search the offices and residences of cabinet members, for example, maybe not secretary of the Interior, but certainly like secretary of state as an example. I would be shocked if there weren't some classified documents at the homes of others as well. Democrats, Republicans notice I'm not mentioning partisan politics here.

Is it ridiculous or is it to be expected? I don't know. You know, the truth is that elected officials review thousands or tens of thousands of files when they're in office. Things get moved around. Things could get misfiled, misclassified, misplaced, whatever. It's not a defense, by the way. I believe every one of these cases should be investigated. And I'll get to that in a moment. But when you are dealing with this volume of documents and you're dealing with human beings, after all, it's not a huge shock. What it shouldn't be is a partisan issue. If it is determined that files have been found and it genuinely seems that it was

an accident in oversight, whatever, they should be returned immediately. Law enforcement should look into it. And then we have to move on and go beyond that. Now, as I said before, the DOJ should treat every one of these situations the same in that they should investigate all of them if and when the investigation reveals that the facts of each situation is different. Then you start dealing with the situations differently. And so if you look at the Pence and Biden situations, which I do believe are quite similar, and you find this was not intentional, these documents were found and immediately turned over, et cetera, et cetera. And then you look at the Trump situation and you're talking about hundreds, not a dozen documents. You're talking about people on video

moving them or moving these documents around when Trump has already been asked to return them. You look at Trump using lawyers to try not to return them. And then the lawyers lie and say, we've turned over everything we have. But then it turns out they didn't. That is a different set of facts. And so that would change the scope and nature of the investigation. Now, Mitch McConnell was asked about this and he sort of played coy. Take a look at what he said. Speaker 4 What is your level of concern about classified records showing up at place? Joe Biden's home and now Mike Pence. And what specifically should Congress do to prevent

this from happening? Speaker 5 Well, regard to how the Justice Department handles it, I think they ought to treat everybody the same who has misplaced classified documents. Speaker 1 Now, that is an interesting statement because it does appear that Joe Biden misplaced documents. From what we know at this point, it seems as though Mike Pence misplaced documents. But Trump stole documents. Trump gathered up, had gathered up hundreds of documents and had them sent to his house. That's very different than a dozen documents were left over and they were found and immediately returned. So in a sense, you know, the spirit of what Mitch McConnell is saying, sure. Yeah. I mean,

treat all of these things the same and that they should all be investigated. But misplaced is a mischaracterization of much of what we believe took place here. Now, I want to bring up a separate but valid issue. Is there over classification of documents in the United States? You know, I'm not going to be able to answer this question for you in order to really answer this question accurately. One needs to have access to documents I simply don't have access to. And one needs to have insight into the exact process for classification that I certainly don't have. But we've talked about over criminalization in society as a problem. And separately, there are people who have access to this apparatus of classification who say that in the United

States we habitually over classify documents and that arguably some of these documents could be the Biden documents, the Pence documents, the Trump documents, whatever. Some of these documents maybe really shouldn't even have been classified in the first place. A difficult question for me or many of you in the audience to answer, but certainly a valid question that can and should be asked. Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson is proposing a different explanation to the Mike Pence classified document situation. And Tucker Carlson's theory, really a hypothesis, but sometimes we say theory colloquially, is that Mike Pence just

happened to find these documents at his house right now because Pence is in cahoots with the Justice Department under Merrick Garland's leadership to take attention away from what Joe Biden did and to try to screw Donald Trump. We are really learning a lot about propaganda this week from Tucker Carlson. You might remember on yesterday's show, we had a segment about the floating space vagina. You and I would call it a cloud because that's what it was. But Tucker Carlson found it extraordinarily disturbing. That was an instructive view into right wing fear mongering. Today, it's conspiracy theories. Here's what Tucker Carlson had to say. He said that a few times. Then just days ago,

Mike Pence sent his personal attorney to search his family's home in Carmel, Indiana, for classified documents. Now, if Mike Pence didn't think he had classified documents, why would he send his lawyer to go look for classified documents? We can't say for certain, but it's entirely possible. In fact, it's likely that Mike Pence was asked to do this by federal prosecutors who are trying to build a case against his old boss, Donald Trump. Now, the point would be to show that not every federal official walks off with state secrets. Donald Trump was uniquely evil in that regard, as in so many others. And again, he's minimizing the fact that the Trump situation is so dramatically different than the Biden or Pence situations stole versus misplaced,

refused to give back versus immediately turned over, used lawyers to prevent returning the documents versus used lawyers to immediately return the documents. But Tucker doesn't want you to think about any of those differences. Mike Pence didn't do it. So if that was the plan and we suspect that it was right, it backfired spectacularly because Mike Pence's lawyer promptly discovered classified documents. Oh, he immediately loaded these documents into his car and drove them back to Washington to hand them over to authorities. Mike Pence. Yeah. So, you know, one of the things about most of these conspiracy theories is that they are either unfalsifiable or unlikely to ever be proven or disproven. And that fact becomes part of the conspiracy theory. Let me explain what I mean by that. Tucker Carlson says,

you know what? This could have been. This could have been the Justice Department recruiting Mike Pence in order to help build a stronger case against Trump. So they said, go have your lawyer look for documents. Your lawyer certainly won't find any. And then our case that what Trump did is uniquely bad will be a stronger case. Now, of course, there is no evidence whatsoever of that. And it is unlikely that there is ever going to be evidence stronger case. Now, of course, there is no evidence whatsoever of that, and it is unlikely that there is ever going to be evidence of that. The most reasonable explanation for why there won't be evidence of that is because Tucker Carlson made it up. But the way that Tucker Carlson and his followers interpret these types of unfalsifiable conspiracy

theories is that when there is no confirmation one way or the other, because, again, there's no evidence, it's sort of like if you said to me, David, can you give me proof that you don't own a Lexus? And I would say to you, well, it's hard to prove a negative. But I mean, I can show you the car I do have and I can show you the insurance for the car I have and you'll see it's not a Lexus. And then you could go, well, it's not really proof you don't have a Lexus. You also might have registered it under someone else or you might have it stored in a different garage.

How can I prove a negative? And for a lot of these conspiracy theories, the way it will go is remember, Tucker proposed that thing that the Justice Department was working with Pence and he never really was able to disprove it. Well, right. But no proof was found that that was going on. Yeah, but it's very suspicious that they weren't able to clear themselves of that. Well, but how do you prove a negative? It's the exact same mechanism. The other and this is common. Conspiracy theories are often based on at least some premises that can't be disproven. And what that leads to is whether or not the theory is true,

the people who follow it have no way to verify its authenticity. And that becomes part of the problem. So another clinic from Tucker Carlson on how this stuff works. And remember, his audience is uniquely suited to be targeted by this type of stuff. And when it comes to in court, Fox News lawyers are quick to remind courts that Tucker Carlson is not a news person. He's doing entertainment using hyperbole and nothing he says should be taken as literally the truth because he's not doing news. But he does a segment like this and all of a sudden a huge portion of his followers believe, well, that sounds right. It sounds like this was Pence in cahoots with the Justice Department. There is no such evidence. We'll take take a quick break. We'll be back after this with just a packed program today. One of our sponsors today is Blue Chew, a unique online service delivering

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notes and they'll give you an entire month's supply for free when you use promo code Pacman. That's P-A-K-M.A.N. All you do is pay five dollars for shipping. Well, there are seven dead in another mass shooting, this one in California. Now, what's confusing, and I admit it is confusing. This is not the mass shooting from a few days ago. This is a different California mass shooting. And BBC News has a brief article about it. Half Moon Bay, seven dead in another California mass shooting. The U.S. state of California is reeling from its third mass shooting in eight days after a man shot dead seven former co-workers south of San Francisco. This was in Half Moon Bay. Some of the victims were Chinese American. The suspect, Chun Li Zhao, 66 years old, was arrested after driving to a police

station. This is, remember, separate from the death of 11 people in Monterey Park, which is six hours southeast of Half Moon Bay. And just over a week ago, six people, including a teenage mother and baby, were killed at a property in Goshen in central California. Now, there have been 40 mass shootings in the United States this year so far. Let me make sure I'm being clear about that. Mass shootings. If you want to know how many shootings have there been, it's hundreds, hundreds, hundreds. But if we limit it to mass shootings, there have been 40 this year. And it is, of course, the 25th of January. So more than one per day. You can find information about them on the gun violence archive. They have a category called

mass shootings. They also have a separate category for all shootings, which you can find. And you will see the shooting I just mentioned listed Half Moon Bay. Since this incident yesterday, there were two more mass shootings, including not including the two. Those two shootings were in Oakland, California, one killed, four injured. And in Red Springs, North Carolina, three killed and one injured. Also listed here from a few days ago is the Monterey Park shooting, 12 dead, nine injured. We're out of ideas, guys. We don't know how to prevent this. Of course, this is the only country where this happens with this regularity, but we have absolutely no idea how to prevent it. We're all out of ideas, even though we haven't really tried

anything yet. And I think this is as good a time as any to remind everyone's memory, refresh everyone's memory of the list I provided. Who knows after which mass shooting? Maybe this was after a Texas mass shooting a year ago. It's constant. So I don't know when I last showed you this list. It's probably been about a year. We have things that we can do and what I would immediately do if things were up to me. And again, remember, this is all without displacing the Second Amendment, that we have a Second Amendment. None of my suggestions here say get rid of the Second Amendment. But here are things we could immediately do. And the gun show loophole, which refers to the fact that federal law doesn't

require unlicensed private sellers to do a background check. If you just privately sell a gun and someone shows up to get it, you are not required as an unlicensed private seller to have a background check done on that individual. That's a horrifying loophole. We should have universal background checks, which would require just about every firearms transaction to go through the NICS National Instant Criminal Background Check System. And that would close what is sometimes called the private sale exemption. Universal background checks are not required by federal law. There are 22 states in D.C. which do require them, at least for some private sales, but is not nearly universal.

There should be a mandatory waiting period from when you purchase the gun to when you actually get the gun. There should be no high capacity weapons sold to anybody under age 25. You should be required to have gun insurance and it should be significantly more expensive without a parent. If you were under 25, if you're under 25 and you want a gun, you should be required to get community support letters from adults in your community that can say, I know this person and I have no concerns about them having a firearm. Some weapons should be banned. I mean, there are some weapons that they're they're of no recreational or other value than as mass killing machines. They aren't valuable as in terms of sport or hunting. I'm not pretending I have the full list right now, but there should be some weapons banned. You should

be required to have a periodic mental health evaluation and the licensing process itself to even get the license to get the gun in the first place should be significantly more extensive. There should be a written and practical test like for a driver's license. There should be a training and licensing period that isn't just one weekend. It should be longer, like with vehicles. And we should also have a gun buyback program. Give people an off ramp that feels better than we're going to be confiscating guns. Now, I know every time I present this list, someone writes and says, David, that wouldn't have stopped this specific shooter or that specific shooter.

Well, but it might stop the next one and it would have stopped some of them. If we think of each shooting that has taken place in almost every case, some of these items would have been relevant. Some of these items, not all. And it would still be a worthy cause to reduce the number of mass shootings. It's January 5th and we've had 40 mass shootings in the United States. So that is a list that every time I look at it continues to make a lot of sense. Some of these items there actually is significant national support for some of them. There is not necessarily. But we have things we can try. And so far, the things that have been done other than that period when there was an assault weapons ban in the 90s and there was a reduction in mass shootings during that period of time, nothing else seems to prayers aren't helping.

Fixing doors isn't helping. Triple pane windows are not helping. Right. I mean, the things that the right talks about aren't helping. And then lastly, the right says, oh, mental health. They also don't want to fund making the mental health support system in this country more robust. So they're also hypocrites as far as that goes. Hey, does cancel culture actually exist in light of the latest right wing cancellation of the new M&Ms, we have to talk about cancel culture.

Does cancel culture actually exist? Someone sent me an article from the Center on a Stateless Society, which is sort of the basis for this segment. And that article really got me thinking. And what I mean by does cancel culture really exist is sometimes things are canceled in the sense that people are fired or a show is canceled or someone is ostracized or people change their views or activists express opinions that say, I don't like what you said. That happens, right? That takes place. But does the cancel culture that Republicans describe actually exist? Does this culture exist when Republicans scream we are being canceled by the woke left? I believe that it does not really exist. Often

what is happening is that someone's words or actions are having consequences as those words and actions are being evaluated in the free market of ideas which Republicans claim to support. Oftentimes, the canceled still have a bully pulpit, plenty of access to corporate media, social media and other platforms to spread their views. Sometimes they're, quote, canceled in the sense that they lose when they're entertainers. They lose one opportunity, but then they come back and they get another opportunity. And sometimes it takes a little while. You look at Mel Gibson, who had this horrible incident where he was pulled over drunk driving and he said to the officer,

are you a Jew? And I guess the officer was Jewish. You know, what are the odds? And then he made all sorts of other horrible statements. And there was a period during which Mel Gibson wasn't doing much work in Hollywood. But like then he's back, then he started getting work again. And so is that is that really a cancellation? There was a period during which his statements and actions impacted his career. It seems logical that in such a free market, there are consequences to the things that you say and that you do. And so often, and this is really what I believe is at the crux of this meme of cancel culture that the right likes to talk about. Often those who are accused of doing the canceling are people from groups

that only more recently are getting a louder voice. They are from previously marginalized groups. And thanks to social media and the Internet, some of those individuals, some of those groups are now having more of a voice to express their views. People speak out and they push back against marginalization. And sometimes there are consequences to the person doing the marginalizing. And now they have been canceled as if it's bad that there are consequences for the things that they have said or done. Now, it's also worth noting that by their own definition of canceling, it is often Republicans that are doing the canceling, despite the fact that they say

it's the left that does the canceling. And we see this in the way that they try to silence dissenting voices in the media and in academia and in politics. They want to control the narrative. They want to shut down voices that challenge their ideology. And when they get called out, they say it's cancel culture as a way to deflect responsibility and to play the victim. Everything they accuse the left of doing, they do. Let me remind you of something else. This isn't as popular in the last couple of years, but you used to often hear from the right.

Saying you're offended isn't an argument. And I agreed with them, right? If someone makes a statement and someone on the left or the right responds by saying that's offensive. Boom. Conversation over. I think that that is a way to shut down an argument, to shut down debate. And it's not actually an argument in and of itself. You've offended me. Boom. Well, let's let's talk about what I said. Let's talk about why. OK, that's cancel culture is exactly the same thing. It is exactly equivalent to I'm offended and the conversation. Oh, that's cancel culture. That's it. No, we're done. It's exactly the same thing. Now, I'll be up front with everybody here. You all know I am not blind to the reality

that sometimes people may go too far in their activism. Sometimes the calls for someone's head are premature or they are inappropriate. If we go back and think about, by the way, when Democrats demanded that their own Senator Al Franken resign. Al Franken participated in a tasteless joke that was photographed and it was tasteless. There's no question about it. But in a sense, Democrats were too quick to say you got to resign Al Franken, partially because Democrats wanted to show how how fair and nonpartisan they were when it came to these things. And the reality is that what Al Franken did was really quite minor compared to the things others have gotten away with. So I'm not blind to the fact that sometimes people go too far,

but that doesn't mean you can't hold anyone accountable. And if you do, it's cancel culture. So we need to shift from calling people out to it's so cliche, like sometimes that people say we need to call people in to talk. Right. This is all the reality of there are now many more platforms on which people can speak and there are many more platforms on which people can respond to speech. And so that's the reality. And so the idea of cancel culture is this monolithic movement to silence people is basically meaningless. It's not accurately representing what's happening. There's no conspiracy. It's the marketplace of ideas that the right holds up as a place where ideas or jokes or bigotry or ad campaigns or content or whatever are open to criticism and they're open to consequences. So let's get away from the term cancel culture.

I use it tongue in cheek when I say, look, it's cancel culture from the right, but it's really a political boogeyman and it's meant to silence voices, often marginalized voices. It's meant to protect the status quo, particularly when it comes to Republicans, by making them immune to the consequences of their actions and their words. Don't fall for it. Let's actually push back against the concept of cancel culture. You might remember that a few years ago, the show got hacked and many thousands of dollars were stolen. We never got it back. It's a terrible feeling. It can happen to anyone.

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really struggling to find state lawmakers willing to show up at this stupid rally event he has planned for this weekend and support him on stage. Now, let me kind of remind you what's going on. Trump's running for president again in twenty twenty four. He announced relatively early. He basically hasn't left his house since the announcement in November. But now he is starting events. One such event is in South Carolina this weekend. Our correspondent, Luke Beasley, is going to be there. He will be interviewing people. Should be pretty interesting content that we will have for you as a result.

Now, Trump doesn't seem to be struggling to get federal level lawmakers who represent South Carolina to go and stand with him at the rally. But the state lawmakers are hilariously not super thrilled about participating. There is a Rolling Stone article. So sad. Trump's South Carolina rally getting little support from state lawmakers despite making numerous pleading phone calls. The former president's team is hitting a wall in the state, writes Peter Wade for Rolling Stone.

The Washington Post reports that Trump's team has been making pleading phone calls to potential supporters across the state, but many are responding with less than enthusiasm because South Carolina lawmakers are not yet ready to commit to a candidate, especially when two of the state's Republicans are eyeing presidential runs themselves. That's South Carolina, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and current South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. The article also mentions Lindsey Graham and Henry McMaster are expected to show up and show support. This is really, really interesting, because if you look at polling in South Carolina, you find that the majority of South Carolina's residents disapprove of Trump. And to a certain degree, it seems as though the state politicians,

people in the state House, state Senate are either on the same page in their disapproval for Trump or are kind of reading the tea leaves and saying, well, I don't know that I want to get ahead of myself and to support Trump and be publicly seen and tied to Trump when many of my constituents don't seem to be big fans. We don't even know if Trump will be the nominee. We don't know what things will look like come next year. And so you end up with this situation where only five of the state's Republican senators and representatives are publicly supporting Trump. Some, like Jeff Duncan, are pushing back against his policies and have been critical of Trump's trade policy, for example, or have said Trump hasn't been doing the right things to make the immigration system more fair or whatever the

case may be. And then some state reps from South Carolina have gone even further than simply not voicing support. You've got, for example, like Nancy Mace, who is trying to pass legislation that undermines some of Trump's policy ideas, like she wants to protect so-called dreamers from deportation, whereas Trump was open to deporting dreamers. So this is potentially going to be a problem for Trump as this campaign tries to get going. There have been advisers to Trump just blanketing South Carolina, trying to find people to come and support him. And the important thing to remember, and we learned this from the Democratic primary,

just because a candidate can have a rally with a few thousand people, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are well liked statewide. And, you know, one of the things we experienced during the Democratic primary was that if you based your estimates of support for Bernie Sanders based on Twitter and Reddit, and I was one of his supporters, you had a much inflated sense of Bernie's support within the Democratic Party. And then when voting actually started taking place, you got a very different sense. And we know ultimately how that went down. That all being said, the polls, as we reviewed yesterday, are still looking pretty good for Trump in the Republican primary. There was a period there in early December where Ron DeSantis

was really doing quite well in the polling. But it does appear, at least right now, that Donald Trump has a commanding lead in just about every Republican primary poll of substance. That being said, nobody else has announced Trump is being put up in polls against people who aren't even officially running yet. And that could mean something quite different once we get more announcements. So we're going to follow it. I will not be covering the rally this weekend. I'm actually going to be away. But Luke Beasley is going to be there. And then we'll have clips for when I am back. We have to come terms with a reality. Maybe it's a new reality. I don't know. Donald Trump and Carrie Lake aren't like Hitler. OK, that's not what I'm saying. But the growing fad of right wing rallies by people, especially when they

aren't running for elected office to fire people up with their authoritarian rhetoric and right wing populist rhetoric are in the style of the rallies that used to be done by Mussolini and Hitler and others. Not saying Trump is Hitler, not saying Carrie Lake is Mussolini. OK, but understanding the history, if you have an understanding of the history, you could come only to this conclusion. The latest example is that Carrie Lake, who lost her race to be Arizona's governor, she's holding a rally called a Save Arizona rally, presumably to save Arizona from what I don't know, maybe Katie Hobbs, the person that actually was elected governor. We will learn more about it, I guess, on January 29th. She tweeted, Get ready.

Carrie Lake is holding a rally on Sunday, January 29. You do not want to miss this. Hashtag Save Arizona. If you look at the picture they use, it is it's certainly Trumpian. It's a listen. If you're if you're only listening today, check out Kerry Lake's Twitter and look at the picture that was selected to promote this this event in Arizona. Kerry Lake lost. Kerry Lake isn't going to be governor. I mean, if she runs in the future and wins, she could end up as governor. But none no legal mechanism, no maneuvering, no lawsuit. None of what Carrie Lake has been raising money for is going to make her the governor.

Katie Hobbs is the governor. This is an agitprop rally. And we really have to understand the history. These rallies are very reminiscent of the fascist rallies that people like Mussolini and Hitler would do. Mussolini and Hitler would routinely hold rallies to show their authority, to get people behind their cause as misguided as it might have been. The rallies would often include shouting and chanting and music similar to modern Republican rallies. The fascist rallies would include rhetoric that was meant to make people

afraid and make people hate certain groups of people. Trump and Lake have been doing this regularly. You've got to be afraid of Democrats. You've got to be afraid of Marxists. You've got to be afraid of immigrants. You've got to be afraid of academics. You've got to be on media elites. You've got to be afraid of all of them. They're going to come for your kids. You've got to be afraid of drag queens and trans people and all of this stuff. And Mussolini specifically would use rallies to vilify opponents as well. That's a Trump Carrie Lake classic. Our political rivals must be vilified. Hillary's bad. Adam Schiff has a watermelon head and Joe Biden's a dangerous Marxist and Hunter Biden and Barack Obama and all the different people. Yeah. The fascist rallies also have a

tradition of using language and symbols that are crafted to manipulate followers. Hitler was well known for using dramatic, emotive language and grandiose gestures during his speeches and symbols that were Nazi symbols all over to boost morale. Mussolini had this phrase, believe, obey, fight in his speeches, and it's become a slogan of Italian fascism. And Trump has this routine he does where you see what he does. We will make America strong again and we will make America, you know, and it kind of just builds and builds and builds from there. There is a big similarity. Music was a part of these fascist and Nazi rallies. And Trump has started to do this thing where he will lament the downfall of America over a backdrop of sort of melodramatic music. The similarities are stunning. And we're not

saying Trump is Hitler. We're not saying Carrie Lake is Mussolini or, you know, whoever. But it's important to understand prior movements that have used this type of imagery that have used these types of events. We we don't have anyone going to the Arizona rally. If someone wanted to be our correspondent and do some interviews, it would be interesting sociologically and culturally and psychologically to see who the hell goes to these rallies anyway. But you can get it. Get in touch.

Info at David Pakman dot com. If you're like set up to record interviews and want to want to go to the event on January 29th, we will be at Trump's South Carolina rally. Luke Beasley will be there. And then when I get back from my trip, I will have those clips for you. So a lot of wild, wacky and dangerous stuff going on. And maybe there maybe there's one other thing that I think is worth saying about this. I didn't use the word cult once in this particular segment.

We can't ignore that storyline either. And on the one hand, you have how reminiscent the Trump Lake type rallies are of fascist and authoritarian rallies. Yes, you have that at the follower level. We also have the cult analysis, which is that much of the when you interview these folks, as we have done many times, the thinking, the statements, the speech, the rationalization, the all of it that we see is very reminiscent of someone that has been brainwashed into a cult. And to a great degree, we've spoken to experts on cults and psychologists and experts on authoritarianism and all these different things. To a great degree, you have

at the top this authoritarian fascist rally style and mode of messaging and below what are essentially cult members as the followers. And that is a dangerous and disturbing combination. Make sure you're subscribed to The David Pakman Show on YouTube. It's easy. It's free. I will update you tomorrow on the aftermath of the YouTube fiasco that I told you about. But as of last check, let me see here. We have somehow these are unbelievable numbers added. Hold on. Let me see here. On Monday, we added twelve thousand YouTube subscribers. And yesterday, Tuesday, we added about six. That's eighteen thousand new subscribers over the last two days. Stunning. All from that one clip. So I'll have a full report to you about that tomorrow. But

remember, you can subscribe free at YouTube.com slash the David Pakman show. vape clouds, the ashtrays, the thing in your lip that people can see. I've seen that around. This is an easier and less messy way to curb the cravings. And you can use Zypix just about anywhere. Zypix is available in six flavors with two or three milligrams strength. The nicotine and the flavor are long lasting and ZipX has helped countless people kick the bad habits and they are bad habits. ZipX toothpicks are FDA registered. Their customer service is second to none. It is one of the most cost effective alternatives. Also check out their B12 and caffeine toothpicks. See for yourself why so many people have switched to ZipX toothpicks. We'll be right back. Well, the next layer in the American laughingstock of Republicans controlling the House of Representatives is happening now.

Not only are Republicans blocking Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence panel, they have placed Marjorie Taylor Greene and Trump's lunatic Dr. Ronny Jackson on the coronavirus committee. I know. I know it is an absolute pathetic joke. Now, on the bonus show later today. Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Yeah. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. Exactly. We are going to talk about the first part of what I just told you, Kevin McCarthy blocking Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intel panel. NBC News reports Speaker Kevin McCarthy followed through on his threat to prevent the two Democratic lawmakers from keeping their seats on the Intelligence Committee. So that's happening. Let me mention

a different aspect to this, which is closer to the bottom of this article. Meanwhile, McCarthy named Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had been suspended from social media platforms for promoting covid disinformation to the select panel on the coronavirus pandemic. Congressman Ronny Jackson of Texas, a Republican who was Trump's White House physician, also got the nod for the covid panel. Jeffries will now have an opportunity to appoint Democratic members to the special panels. They also, by the way, before we start weighing in further on this, there's also a weaponization panel. What are they studying themselves?

No, Republicans have said the new weaponization panel will examine Republican accusations that the Justice Department, FBI and other law enforcement are being weaponized to investigate conservatives, including Trump. They're going to look at the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago and other things. OK, listen, we knew they were going to do this. We knew that they were going to flip everything on its head. Up was going to be down. Left was going to be right. They were going to investigate Hunter Biden rather than anybody actually connected to government today. We knew that they were going to do all of these different things. And look at the reactions from these folks. Ronnie Jackson, this is maybe one of the most dishonest prominent doctors.

I mean, I can think of some others, actually. But Ronnie Jackson's the guy who, as Trump's doctor, said Trump was six feet, three inches tall and weighed two hundred and thirty nine pounds. Listen, I'm not about fat shaming. I'm not about whatever. I'm against lying. And there is no way in hell Trump is six, three and weighs two thirty nine. But Ronnie Jackson kept up the lie. Ronnie Jackson tweeting and gleefully responding to this committee assignment, saying, quote, I'm proud to announce that I've been chosen for the select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic. Every lie told to us by Fauci will be revealed. Every lie about the vaccine will be revealed.

Every lie that was used to lock you down will be unearthed. We will reveal the truth. By the way, does anybody remember being locked down? I remember when I had to get takeout for a couple weeks and then sit outside at restaurants. But I have to tell you, I don't remember any lockdowns. Ronnie Jackson going on in a separate tweet to say, be ready, Fauci. The American people are about to find out everything you did to this country during covid. I think Dr. Fauci would be glad for the country to learn about all of the things he did during

covid. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeting. I am honored to serve on the select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic. It's time to reveal the truth on the origins of covid. Wow. I didn't know she knew anything about that. The authoritarian Democrat response vaccines and Fauci's NIAID involvement in gain of function research. We are a joke, folks. We are a joke. The world sees this and wonders what the hell is wrong with these people.

Remember this moment where Marjorie Taylor Greene was asked by a reporter about how children died of covid people who weren't obese died of covid and Marjorie Taylor Greene laughed. Do you feel any responsibility for keeping people in Georgia safe? You know, there are children, skinny people who have died of the coronavirus. Do you feel any responsibility to correct me? You know what? I think people's responsibility is their own. Yeah. So she now will be examining and investigating what happened during the coronavirus pandemic. It is absolutely bonkers. And, you know, this is going to be endless grandstanding. Now, one thing I want to ask you about is. When they have these covid hearings, right? It's something we could cover live, but would my

coverage of it legitimize or legitimate to use a less common version of the term? Would my coverage in a sense legitimize hearings that are completely unserious in every way. The entertainment value might be high, but these really are people who should be relegated to, you know, irrelevant jobs, not anything serious. So is it the type of thing that we should cover live or not? Let me know. Leave a comment. And I'm curious to know your thoughts. Despite the American right wing claiming that the left is indoctrinating children through critical race theory and left wing university courses the left is indoctrinating children through critical race theory and left wing university courses. It is actually the right wing that is indoctrinating children. Now, we have this recent example from Florida where Ron DeSantis and the Florida Board

of Education banned an advanced placement. Every time I see AP, I think Associated Press banned an advanced placement black history course because they claim that it contains queer theory and indoctrination and things that should not be in such a course. Now, yesterday I talked to you about how absurd this is and the fact that this is not a required course. This is actually it's not even elective. It's an elective advanced placement course. This is actually it's not even elective. It's an elective advanced placement course. And if you think about it as a college equivalent, college courses regularly have more niche topics of interest to the people that want to take the course. You don't have to take it anyway. It was all absurd. But this is an example of the right claiming we are working very hard to stop the left from indoctrinating our kids. But the reality is that the propaganda of child

indoctrination is overwhelmingly from the right. Here is the latest propaganda being promoted by Mike Huckabee. This was this came on during a commercial break on Fox Business. It is promoting the kids guide to fighting socialism, which you can get at socialism stinks dot com. We've spoken before about the President Trump kids guide from it looks like the same organization because Huckabee promotes it and like the font looks the same. This is the free kids guide to President Trump, which will allow children to learn about President Trump's accomplishments in office, President Trump's vision for America and how President Trump's policies are right for America. This is straight up for kids. OK, this is not the type of thing I want to teach kids, which is here's how you think for yourself.

Here's how you can determine whether you are reading something that is true or false. That's what I want to teach kids. OK, that's not what the Trump kids guide for children teaches them. In 2017, the Trump administration proposed cutting funding for after school programs that provided a safe and positive environment for children. And instead, they redirected that money to religious organizations and groups that promote conservative value. That is the right funding the rights indoctrination of children. But they say it's the left that does it. In Texas, the State Board of Education has promoted a conservative agenda in state schools. They promoted the teaching of creationism, the downplaying of the role of slavery in the Civil War to children.

That is right wing indoctrination of kids in Arizona. The State Board of Education approved a curriculum that promotes a conservative pro Trump agenda and it downplays the contributions of minorities and marginalized groups in American history. In Idaho, a school board member promoted the teaching of Bible courses in public school and said we should be teaching creationism alongside evolution in West Virginia. The state's Department of Education promoted a conservative agenda in public schools, including promoting coal mining and downplaying the role of climate change in their educational standards. I'll give you one more example. In Oklahoma,

State Board of Education promoted a conservative agenda and approved textbooks that present a conservative perspective on American history and on government. They say the left indoctrinates children. They are actually the ones that do it. So what is it that we can do? All the things we talk about, you? You've got to be involved with school boards. You've got to be involved with education issues at the local, state and federal level. And we have to fight against the idea that teaching kids critical thinking is liberal

indoctrination. And this is something that is unfortunately becoming widespread. When you talk to conservatives, many, not all, when you talk to some conservatives and say, we should really be teaching critical thinking when kids are 10, 11, 12, we should be teaching media literacy. We should be doing all these things. Many of these right wingers say that's liberal indoctrination. But of course, it's not. The the reality, though, is that if more kids knew how to think for themselves, if more kids knew how to think critically, if more kids knew how to think for themselves, if more kids knew how to think critically, if more kids knew how to suss out whether messages they are being given in the media are true or false or are trying to convince them of something that isn't true.

It is true that it would hurt the conservative movement. Fox News relies on having an uninformed audience where they turn on the TV and Tucker Carlson says, see this floating space vagina, which is just a cloud. You should be scared of that. And then the audience goes, yeah, I should. Whereas an audience that is more media literate and that is more well versed in critical thinking wouldn't fall for that. So I've mentioned this before. We are very, very close to publishing a kid's book on critical thinking. This is going to be quite literally an illustrated children's book. I've been saying for years and years and years, there need to be better materials and more materials for teaching kids this stuff early. We are doing it. We are almost done with the text of the book. We are trying to get the

illustrations finalized and set up the printing of the book, et cetera. We are sort of putting our money where our mouth is and we are going to be publishing such a book. It's going to be fantastic. A couple of people already reached out and said, David, when you do this, I'm buying a hundred copies and I'm going to send them. I'm going to bring them to libraries in my area. This is super, super exciting and I'm glad to be doing it. And I'll have more information for you about it very, very soon. We have a voicemail number. That number is two one nine two. David P. Thank your lucky stars every day. You're not Dave Pacman, but you can call Dave Pacman at two one nine two. David P. Here is a caller who learning that I will soon be in Florida is asking whether this is the trip during which I will eat

fast food with Farron Cousins. Listen to this. Hi, David. I'm on the bonus show on Monday. Yes. You mentioned going to Florida. I just want to remind you, if you happen to see Farron, then I just want to remind you that like a year ago, he said he would – I think he said he would get you McDonald's. Or maybe it was Burger King. I think it was just a fast food burger basically. But I remember the night he tweeted it at you, so I just want you to recall that. You two would be good hosts if there's ever some sort of progressive equivalent to, you know, CPAC or something. Yeah, I would love to co-host something with Farron. So listen, I am going to be in Florida,

but I'm not going to see Farron on this trip. I'm going to be in a different part of Florida doing some appearances, including on the Patrick David show and with Anthony Pompliano. Of course, all assuming it doesn't get canceled. As I told you, Lex Friedman canceled our appearance together last week, a very, very last minute. I'm hopeful that next week's appearances in Florida don't get canceled. My goal is not to have any fast food while I'm in Florida. I am looking forward to the restaurant's great food scene in the Miami area. So I am looking forward to that. Many Argentinian restaurants. I'm going to be. Many Argentinian restaurants. I'm going to be going to Argentinian restaurants, getting some empanadas, getting a little

Milanese. It's all happening. But I hope not to have any McDonald's or Burger King or anything like that. Is it conceivable some kind of emergency could take place and I end up having no choice but to get a double whopper? It's possible. It's possible. But let's hope it doesn't happen. On today's bonus show, Kevin McCarthy blocking Swalwell and Schiff from the Intel Committee. We will talk about it when I'm joined by producer Pat. Journalist deaths jumped 50 percent in 2022, led by Ukraine and Mexico. And Netflix is finally they're really doing it this time. They're going to crack down on password sharing. And will talk about how and why and is it fair and all these different things. Get instant access to the bonus show by signing up at join Pacman dot com. You can use the coupon code 24 starts now to get yourself a sizable discount and it will be maybe the best bonus show we've ever had.

Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. That's right. Money will be made on today's bonus show. And I hope, Alex, I really hope it is not money that I ever end up having to pay someone in a defamation settlement. Let's hope that that's the case. We'll see you then.