The David Pakman Show - 12825 Pipe Bomber Pardons And A President In Decline

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

-- On the Show -- Brian Cole is revealed as the suspected 2021 DNC and RNC pipe bomber who believed Donald Trump won the 2020 election -- Donald Trump repeatedly appears with a swollen and bandaged right hand while mainstream media downplays the injury despite earlier aggressive scrutiny of Joe Biden's health -- ProPublica reports that Donald Trump declared two Florida houses as primary residences despite never living in them, matching the same mortgage fraud accusations he falsely leveled at political opponents -- Speculation grows about Donald Trump's health after photos show large hand bandages and the White House offers only vague medical disclosures -- Senator Tom Cotton struggles to answer CNN's John Berman's straightforward question about whether police can legally kill drug suspects on a lake -- Donald Trump openly says he will be involved in deciding whether Netflix can buy Warner Bros, highlighting his political interference in antitrust decisions -- Donald Trump displays bizarre physical behavior on stage while ranking the Supreme Court and Senate like fantasy football players -- Marjorie Taylor Greene says in a 60 Minutes interview that some Republicans privately mock Donald Trump and that she is distancing herself from the MAGA label -- Donald Trump posts on Truth Social describing his pardon of Henry Cuellar in terms that frame the pardon as tied to expectations of personal loyalty -- On the Bonus Show: Supreme Court to weigh in on Trump's ability to fire people, Supreme Court to hear a case on birthright citizenship, Trump given a bogus peace prize at a World Cup event, and much more... 💡 Outskill: Grab your free seat to the 2-Day AI Mastermind at https://link.outskill.com/PAKMANDEC1 🖼️ Aura Frames: Use code PAKMAN for $35 off Carver Mat frames at https://auraframes.com/pakman 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code DAVID for $30 off & free croissants FOR LIFE at https://wildgrain.com/david 🛌 Helix Sleep mattresses: Get 27% OFF sitewide at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://davidpakman.substack.com -- Get David's Books: https://davidpakman.com/echo -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- David on Bluesky: https://davidpakman.com/bluesky -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow (00:00) Start (01:43) Suspected DNC/RNC pipe bomber (08:21) Trump's hand injury ignored (18:00) Trump's Florida homes controversy (23:29) Questions about Trump's health (27:53) Cotton struggles on police question (36:43) Trump on Netflix-Warner Bros deal (42:48) Trump's strange on-stage behavior (51:11) Greene distances from MAGA (1:00:16) Trump frames Cuellar pardon    

The alleged pipe bomber tied to the January 6th riots turns out shocker, right? He seems to be a Trump supporter who was disappointed with the results of the 2020 election. MAGA is losing its mind over a story that is pretty unsurprising, quite frankly. And then Trump's hands, bandages, bruising, MRI scans, quietly happening in the background, and the legacy in corporate media that was wall to wall on Biden's health is basically silent. Why are they no longer curious about presidential health? And meanwhile, mortgage fraud, that which Trump accused Adam Schiff and Lisa Cook of, appears to be something he did himself.

We have reporting from ProPublica about it. And also the accidental confessions continue, whether it's, pardons for loyalty or merger approvals for loyalty or whatever. They are now saying it out loud and Marjorie Taylor Green is interviewed on 60 minutes. She's taking shots at Trump that will really get under his skin. But I don't believe that Marjorie Taylor Green is suddenly on the side of good against that which is evil. I will show you the clips and you can decide for yourselves.

We are in the dwindling days of 2025. The 2026 midterm season is basically on. And we have quite a program for you today. All right. In some of the least surprising news in a while, hope you had a good weekend, by the way. It turns out the suspect in the 2021 attempted pipe bombing on the eve of the January 6th riots appears to be a Trump supporter who was disappointed by the results of the 2020 election and believed Donald Trump's lie that he was the rightful and true winner of the 2020 election, not Joe Biden.

Now, I know, I know that the Magas and the Magadonians and the Magapitanians, all of them, and Trump himself are not taking this news well. As a reminder, the suspect is 30 year old Brian Cole. He would have been about 25, years old at the time of the attempted pipe bombing. If you've forgotten the details because it's been so long, it has taken so long to find the alleged perpetrator, he is accused of leaving one explosive device outside of the Republican National Committee and one explosive device outside of the Democratic National Committee. Now, thankfully, the devices did not explode. We don't yet know the motive for the attempted bombing, but we have a lot of information

about the suspect. Now, two law enforcement sources said on Friday that the suspect is believed to be a supporter of President Donald Trump. Even Janine Piro, the former judge, former Fox News host, now the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, that Janine Piro, big Trump supporter. Even she says that the suspect was, quote, disappointed in the 2020 election results, the election won by Joe Biden, which. did not allow Donald Trump to remain as president of the United States. She also added that it isn't clear if he is a supporter one way or the other, but there is a whole bunch of other reporting saying that the suspect is indeed a Trump supporter. There is of course innocence until

guilt has been proven. This is the United States of America. But I will tell you what law enforcement says they have on the guy. Number one, cell phone records showing him in the relevant areas at the relevant time. Number two, his car was nearby as evidenced by license plate readers. Number three, there are records of the alleged pipe bomber, the alleged attempted pipe bomber, buying components that ultimately found their way into the pipe bombs and were found at the sites. If you look at the surveillance video, Cole is wearing very noticeable particular shoes and he has reportedly admitted to investigators that he got rid of those shoes after the incident. It's alleged that he is saying, yes, those were my shoes.

I got rid of them in order to distance myself from the evidence. Now, even without the pipe bombs having exploded, thankfully, the potential sentence here is 20 years in prison. Now there's a couple important takeaways and he's going to get his day in court. The investigation continues. we will ultimately hopefully know more about the motive, but there for me are two really important takeaways here. Number one, violence and these sorts of conspiracy theories like election conspiracy theories are not disconnected. And one of the reactions that we often get is like, okay, listen,

flat earth is not a very serious conspiracy theory. No one's going to be hurt or killed because some people believe that the earth is flat to which when we have interviewed conspirators, conspiracy theory experts in the past, they say, yeah, no, I mean, like in a direct sense, it's not like a conspiracy theory about Jews, which might directly lead you to commit violence against Jews. It's not that. Flat earth isn't that. But there are these sort of then diagrams where some of these beliefs overlap with other beliefs. And if you believe that the earth is flat, what else do you believe and do those other beliefs connect to violence? That's an example. In this particular case, we sometimes hear, listen, you can believe that Trump won the 2020

election and not want to go and commit violence or do anything about it to anybody else. And of course, in most cases, that would be true. But the point here is here is a suspect if we're thinking stochastically, if enough people become convinced that the election really was stolen by Joe Biden and that Donald Trump should be president starting in January of 2021, Some of those people will go and take certain actions. And while we are still waiting on the motive, we know more and more about the political beliefs of this of the alleged pipe bomber. We see that the election conspiracies can indeed connect.

And the fact that the guy allegedly turned his belief about the 2020 election into part of an environment that got him into pipe bomb making, targeting both major parties, is just a reminder that. denying reality and subscribing to conspiracy theories can morph into real world violence. That's takeaway number one. And then number two, when when we consider unchecked, conspiracy driven rage and the effects that it can have, yes, it can lead to angry tweets and turning X into a cesspool of bottom feeding right-wing conspiracy theories, sure.

But it can also point in the direction of attempted mass violence. And so this should really be a cautionary tale about radicalization and the dehumanization of political opponents, which even though this will get us to something we'll talk about later in the show, even though she's now kind of doing her Maya Kulpa apology tour, I don't totally buy it from Marjorie Taylor Green. And she participated in some of that same sort of radicalizing content and becoming a pervary purveyor of the sorts of ideas that may have led the alleged pipe bomber to go from. I have a belief that Biden is not the rightful winner of the election to I'm going to put

together pipe bombs and leave them at the RNC and the DNC. So that's the latest. Trump doesn't like it. The magas are insisting the guy was a Democrat, but the evidence simply does not point in that direction. Have you ever noticed how when unusual things happen with the president, sometimes. the press will treat it like a big red alert. It's a week of stories. We need hearings. We need investigations. And sometimes when something unusual happens with a president, it basically gets ignored.

We right now are in that situation. We have a sitting president, Donald Trump, sporting, clearly bandaged, bruised, swollen right hand bruises on both hands. We've seen it repeatedly at public events. First, he was covering it with makeup. Now he's covering the right hand with bandages. We are learning about MRIs during supposedly routine exams that weren't disclosed, only mentioned because Trump accidentally admitted to it and then months of not telling us why they did it. And when they finally do it, doesn't make any sense.

And yet, despite all of that, legacy, mainstream and corporate media coverage is treating this Trump health situation, kind of like a background drama. It might incidentally be mentioned. But meanwhile, just think back to how they treated Joe Biden's physical and mental health fitness when he was in office. It was front page prime time stuff not only in right wing media, but increasingly in non-overty partisan media as well. And you think back to Biden's presidency and the short-lived re-election campaign of 2024. And many outlets argued, we are simply doing our job by flagging concerns about President Biden's age, about Biden's stamina, about his sharpness. But there was no immediate reason to believe that we were not getting Biden's health records, for example.

Now, of course, Biden was declining. The disastrous debate performance. It became undeniable. and ultimately analysts, insiders, it just became clear that he was not the right guy to continue. But the point is that all along, relative to the facts and what was visible, the coverage was nonstop. Now contrasts that to what's happening right now with Donald Trump. Trump is showing unmistakable bizarre signs.

A battered, swollen, bandaged hand. the MRI stuff, the confusion, the distraction, falling asleep five, six times in public last week. And we will, you know, occasionally get a story that repeats what the White House said, oh, frequent handshaking and aspirin and chronic venous insufficiency. And there is no real corporate and legacy media call for full disclosure. We aren't getting serious discussions of what's going on with his hands. They had no choice but to sort of cover the MRI stuff because it kept coming up at press briefings, but it's sort of lack of curiosity.

So this is really not about partisanship. This is a question about journalism and the media. What gets covered? What doesn't get covered? And it does reflect editorial decisions. Story selection, framing. These are things that define public awareness and what people are thinking of. And when the same sorts of red flags appeared under Biden, people talking about misstatements or

gate issues or, you know, a sleep schedule or stamina, you had legacy in corporate media doing wall-to-wall coverage about it. And it was framed as can he do the job? We are seeing worse red flags under Trump. And the sort of auto response becomes that that is not really worthy of discussion. I'll mention a story, which I think I also mentioned in the past. which is that when I was set to appear on CNN about six weeks ago, the segment ultimately got canceled like 15 minutes before it was set to start because there was some industrial

accident somewhere that they decided to cover instead. But I was asked to give a list of like what is my audience worried about when it comes to Trump that I want to talk about? And I said, well, they're worried that he hasn't reduced prices the way he said he would. They're worried that even though he said he was the peace president, he's not really being peaceful. and they're worried about his cognitive decline. And I was told by CNN, oh, you know, you're not really a doctor. I don't know that you should bring that up.

And I said, well, you didn't ask me for a medical diagnosis. You asked me what is my audience writing to me about? And my audience is writing to me about their concerns about by a judge, not Biden, Trump's cognitive decline. And ultimately the segment got canceled. My plan was to talk about it anyway. But this gets me to the next issue. Is there an explanation at least to a degree that.

relates to fear of lawsuits from Donald Trump because Donald Trump hasn't just mocked or dismissed critical outlets. He has sued them after all. In 2025 alone, Trump has filed these massive defamation lawsuits against major news institutions, uh, 50, however many billion against the New York Times and he's threatening lawsuits over the BBC. He's gotten some small settlements. And so I also wonder, is there an additional reason why we are not really hearing of the BBC? about Trump's health and the very strange situation with his hands on legacy and corporate media because they want to chill media coverage of it for fear of getting sued. Now, when you are talking about the president of the United States and if you care about

democracy, not about partisanship, we can't have this silence about Trump's health. We should be demanding honest reporting rather than spin. We should be asking for full disclosure, actual medical records rather than. a note summarizing the alleged MRI report. We need independent verification and we need real experts commenting, not like Fox News, Dr. Mark Siegel, who says it's a travesty that Trump's health is even being discussed. When the leader's physical condition is visibly deteriorating publicly, it shouldn't be sidebar that legacy in corporate media try to relegate to, you know, the comment section. It is a matter of public interest. It deserves more than a shrug from

the media. And if they continue to treat what's going on with Trump as trivial, we should all be asking what other major stories are legacy and corporate media not covering right now? AI tools are everywhere now, but most people aren't even aware how much AI can help their business and their daily workflow. Our sponsor, Outskill, is hosting a free two-day AI mastermind training this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern, you don't need any coding or technical background. And over those two days, you're going to learn practical skills, how to use AI to automate repetitive tasks or building agents that can handle multi-step work, connecting it to sheets or notion or CRMs. So the information moves on its own. They are going to give you ready-made

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who signed up today at joinpackman.com. Very much appreciate both of them. A new report finds that Donald Trump may have indeed committed the exact type of mortgage fraud that he is accused others of committing. Let me explain this to you. I think you're going to like this one, I think, before being horrified by the double standard nature of it. So you might remember that Donald Trump has publicly accused several people of committing

mortgage fraud. Now, what does mortgage fraud mean? Well, when you apply for a mortgage, one of the questions that you're asked is, is this this going to be your primary residence? Are you going to live in this house? I've done this many times on mortgage applications. It is the place you want to live in. It is the place you want to move to. And you get the best rate on a mortgage, the best terms, the best deal. Usually if you are going to live in the home, if you're buying the place to rent it out, if you're buying it as a second home, a vacation home that you'll use two months out of the year, you're not going to get as good of a rate.

The best rate is on a primary residence standard mortgage. Now, Now, Donald Trump over the last year has accused Lisa Cook, a governor at the Federal Reserve, and also our friend Adam Schiff, now a U.S. Senator, of exactly that kind of mortgage fraud. Trump said Lisa Cook listed more than one property as a primary residence on a mortgage, and she got a good deal on her mortgages because she lied and said she has multiple primary residences. Trump said Adam Schiff did the same thing in order to get a better mortgage rate. Now, I'm going to get back to that in a moment because the truth of it is a little more complicated. What we have today that's new is that ProPublica is reporting that they've been looking into Trump's

mortgage history. And back in 1993, Trump signed a mortgage for a house in Florida saying this is going to be my primary residence. And he got a nice, beautiful mortgage the best possible terms. Seven weeks later, seven weeks later, Trump signed another mortgage for a different Florida property and said, yep, this one is going to be my primary residence and he got the best possible terms. Now, let's not go any further yet. Let's just evaluate what we have. So far, Trump has done the same thing that he says Lisa Cook did and that he says Adam Schiff should be prosecuted for. But the devil is

really in the details. And the truth is that what Trump appears to have done does seem to be mortgage fraud while it doesn't seem, or at least we don't have the evidence to say that what cook and shifted is mortgage fraud. Let me explain why. It doesn't appear that Donald Trump ever lived in either house nor intended to. These were always just investment properties for Donald Trump that he rented out. Let me go deeper. All we know with Cook and Shift is that they signed mortgages as primary residences.

and then moved into those homes. And then later, they got mortgages on other homes said, this is going to be my primary residence and moved in to those homes. That's okay. That's not mortgage fraud. As long as you're not lying at the time that you get the first mortgage, you're allowed to say, I'm going to live here. This is going to be my primary residence.

You move there. And then you go, okay, I live here now. Now I'm looking at a different property and I'm going to move. And that's going to be my primary residence. As long as both were true at the time and you live there, it is not mortgage fraud. You sign, I intend to occupy. I intend to live here. Now, some mortgages have stipulations about how long you actually have to live there.

Could be six months, could be a year. Some don't have that. It's not set in stone. But the key is if you're telling the truth about your intent and you ultimately move in, you have not committed mortgage fraud. if later you say this is going to be my new primary residence. Trump never lived in those houses. And with only seven weeks between signing one mortgage and saying this is going to be my primary

residence, seven weeks go by, he signs another one and says, this is going to be my primary residence. It seems very clear, not only did he never live in those houses, he never intended to live in those houses. Trump appears to have committed the exact type of mortgage fraud that he says Democrats, should be prosecuted for. Now, if Cook and Schiff committed mortgage fraud, which it doesn't appear that they did as of right now, then Trump committed it far more brazenly and multiple times as he never intended to live in those properties and he never did live in those properties.

He rented them out. The guy in the glass house is throwing stones again. and as we have unfortunately become way too accustomed to, every accusation is a confession. Now, this was longer ago. Oh, it's so long ago, statute of limitation. We're not talking about that. We're talking once again about Donald Trump holding other people to standards to which he doesn't even hold himself because with these people, it's always the case that if I do it, it's okay, but if others do it, especially if Democrats do it, then it is a major, major problem.

So that's the latest. It seems Trump has committed the exact type of mortgage fraud. He's accusing others of having committed. All right, this is going to be a tough one. You've all by now, I'm sure, seen or heard of, especially since I've been talking about it, the pictures of Donald Trump with the large bandages on the back of his right hand. And this instantly started a fire storm of speculation. Some in the White House said these are bruises from handshakes and aspirin. And of course, we didn't really ever believe that. Trump only shakes hands with his right hand. Why is his left hand bruised? We saw Trump try to cover it with makeup. We now see Trump covering the makeup with bandages. So now it's getting very ominous because there are many commentators and even

some elected officials who are suggesting that the bandages are. to cover up bruising on Trump's hand from IV infusions, possibly, possibly from an Alzheimer's treatment drug like Lekembe. This is a hypothesis that is gaining traction because Lekembe, which is a newly approved treatment for early stage Alzheimer's can require infusion through an IV and regular. MRIs. And adding to the recent speculation about this are Trump's signs of fatigue and slurred or incomplete statements, moments of visible confusion during public events that some are saying this looks

like a decline. And meanwhile, the disclosures from the White House are always extraordinarily limited. They never sound complete. And they are always way later than they should happen. So it's important to stress. We do not have hard evidence right now that Trump is being treated for Alzheimer's or for any form of dementia. Everybody talking about this should report on it and not do TMZ style stuff suggesting

that there's evidence Trump is on Alzheimer's treatment medication. The theory is conjecture, not backed by medical records. What we know is that Trump's hand bruising has been a. attributed to things it can't possibly be from. And in addition to that, it's the lack of transparency, you know, the vague disclosures, the delayed disclosures, the cryptic medical details, the denials with no documentation that are fueling the speculation about Donald Trump. Now, a lot of Trump's recent behavior does raise questions about what is going on.

There are people talking about small strokes. There are others talking about early, early stages of Alzheimer's, getting facts mixed up, losing his train of thought, stumbling over words, all of this stuff, language declining dramatically, including his vocabulary. These are things that are earlier signs of dementia or Alzheimer's. And people have noticed moments where Trump is tired and confused or doesn't seem to know what's happening around him. And these are all things that can be the result of early stage Alzheimer's.

It also could be the side effect of a medication that we don't know that Donald Trump is on. It could be because Donald Trump's four to five hours of sleep per night. night were never enough, but now he's getting two to three hours of sleep a night because he's up all night posting to truth social. And these are signs of exhaustion in an elderly individual. The point here is the speculation is fueled by the lack of transparency. We know based on Trump's age and family history that something in the sort of umbrella area of dementia or Alzheimer's is at least hereditarily plausible. And we continue to not get full medical reports about Donald Trump. So then you get the hand bandage pictures. We still have no explanation about it. And all of a sudden,

people are talking about Lekembe. So what we certainly have are a number of unanswered questions. And we have a lack of transparency. This is only going to keep the speculation going. The, the speculation is not going to die down for as long as the lack of transparency remains. And so the latest that is now going viral is Lekembe. I have really good work from CNN to show you. I'm often very critical of CNN or other corporate media networks. But I've got to tell you, John Berman interviewed Republican Senator Tom Cotton about the bombing of these alleged drug boats off the coast of South and Central America. Tom Cotton, I don't think expected to be. confronted like this and John Berman was really prepared. I'm just going to play it and then I'll

sort of jump in and give you my thoughts as we go. This is really good stuff. Let me ask you this specific question. Would it be legal for police in Arkansas to kill suspected drug dealers on a boat in overturn Lake? Well, John, let me go back to the premise of your question. The Washington Post reported that Pete Hagseth had given an unlawful order of no quarter or Notice, so first thing is, Cotton actually wants to focus only on reporting and not on the facts of what happened. No one left alive or killed them all. Pete Hage said denied that last week and it didn't deny that there was a second strike.

Mitch Bradley and Dan Kane both flatly denied that yesterday as well, which some of the Democrats who watched that video and got those briefings confirmed. So that was what the Washington Post reported. That is a total and complete lie. I just respectfully disagree with my Democratic friends here. I think notice that he's, he doesn't want to touch the question because if he acknowledges, no, we would never be able to do this with suspected drug dealers in the United States. It starts to raise questions of what are the legal bases for engagement off the coast of Venezuela?

Cotton knows it's a problem. So he doesn't want to acknowledge it. The problem they have is not with the second strike. It's with the first strike and every other strike on these boats. They think the entire operation is not well-founded. I just disagree with them. I think with the analogy I would draw is not Arkansas police officers dealing with American citizens if those boats were loaded with bombs or missiles.

But they weren't, right? I mean, this is what they want to act like an alleged narco trafficking boat, which by the way they have not proven. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but they have not proven it. They want to act like an alleged narco trafficking boat. thousands of miles away is the same as a boat bearing down on the coast of California loaded to the gills with bombs and piloted by terrorists. But that's not the situation.

Headed for the United States. I don't think anyone would dispute that we had every right and indeed a duty to intercept them. But those drugs detonate. And we would as they approach the coast of the United States. Like a bomb all across Arkansas and all across America killing hundreds of of Arkansas and hundreds of thousands of Americans. Our government has a duty to protect our communities from those drugs.

That's exactly what we're trying to do. Can I just take this in peace? Notice that he took 90 seconds not to answer the question. And we first answer my question, would it be legal for police in Arkansas to kill suspected drug dealers in an overturn boat in a lake in Arkansas? Just answer that and then I will address your question on the other thing. John, John, the premise of your question is not well-founded. criminals in Arkansas are not foreign nationals who are affiliates of a foreign terrorist-designated organization.

The answer is no, it would not be legal. It's like saying like... Hang on, Senator. The answer is no, it would not be legal to kill them. But let me ask the follow question. If they are terrorists, when did Congress pass the authorized use of force to attack them? John, the reason why your question is not well-founded, it's like saying, would Barack Obama be okay, droning an American nation? citizen when he was present like he did that is a red herring okay they love to point out anytime

someone brings up was there an authorization of military for the use of military force passed here they go well obama did stuff with an old stale a umf yeah and we had a problem with it at the time that i mean it's it's really an it's not actually a salient way to approach this because we all said during the Obama drone campaign. This is on very shaky legal ground using an old authorization of military force that does not seem to apply here. They don't have any just to it. If they had a problem with that, they should have a problem with this, but they don't. They just like to mention Obama drones, Obama drones. To Ann or Al-a-Laki over in the Middle East, these are totally different categories. The president- That's why I asked, that's why I asked, that's why I asked, that's why I asked when Congress passed the authorizing.

use of military force. There was an authorized use of military force against terrorists. I'm not saying what he was legal or not, but that's what they based it on. In this case, one was the authorized use of military force to attack suspected drug dealers off the coast of Venezuela. John, the president has inherent authority as the commander in chief under the Constitution to protect America using our armed forces. Yeah, the problem with that is that if indeed there were a bomb-laden boat 50 miles from the coast of New York or L.A., then that would apply. But if you have alleged narco traffickers off the coast of Venezuela, it does not apply. You can't say that that is self-defense.

Now, I want to mention one other thing, and that's a good job, actually, by John Berman. One other thing about this entire issue. They don't want to even touch the fact that as long as there is demand for these drugs in the United States and a market for these drugs, even if this was a narco-trafficking boat, even if Trump had the legal authority to bomb him, even if Trump had the legal authority to bomb the survivors, which he doesn't, right? Even if you grant them all of that, do you really think this is how we're going to stop the drug problem in the United States, when you're doing nothing about demand for the drugs. If we learned

anything from the drug era of, you know, the 60s and 70s in the United States, it's that disrupting the supply can temporarily affect availability. It'll drive prices up. But unless you deal with the demand, you're not actually going to deal with the problem. The drugs will find their way here one way or the other. They never want to talk about that. That's not even part of the discussion. Nice job there by John Berman. Tom Cotton continues to be pathetic. There is something about winter that makes warm bread and pastries at home feel nicer than ever. And that is what you get with wild grain. No effort or cooking. Our sponsor, Wild grain is the first bake from frozen subscription box for real artisanal bread, pastries, and handmade pastas.

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and Melania seems perplexed by what Trump is talking about. Donald Trump went to the Kennedy Center honors, which he has completely taken over. He wants to manage the entire thing and make sure we are not awarding woke people with prizes. And anyway, so he answered some questions right before the event. He was asked about the impending purchase of Warner Brothers by Netflix. Trump asked, should it be allowed to have? happen and Trump certainly suggests that there is funny business going on which we all suspected take a listen to this should they be allowed to buy Warner brothers should no that's a question

they have a very big market here and when they have Warner brothers you know that chair goes up a lot so I don't know that's going to be for some economists to tell and also and I'll be involved in that decision too did they have a very big market share did he make any guarantees to you about the merger they do merge now no no he came up he was in the oval office last week i have a lot of respect for he's a great he's a great person but he's done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things he's uh and he's got a lot of interesting things happening aside from what you so the big thing here is trump says he will be involved in the decision why on earth would Trump personally be involved in such a decision that should be based on

meeting regulatory, financial and legal requirements and evaluating its place within the world of antitrust law. Why would Trump be personally involved in that? He's acknowledging that he's playing politics with every single one of these big merger decisions. Now, Elizabeth Warren was right on the money in her reaction. Elizabeth Warren put out a tweet where she said, quote, Donald Trump said he'll be involved in deciding if Netflix can buy.

Warner Brothers. Is that an open invite for CEOs to curry favor with Trump in exchange for merger approvals? It should be an independent decision by the Department of Justice based on law and facts. Well, this is the Trump administration. I saw a video clip from yesterday of Trump saying, you know, with this White House ballroom, all these companies came to me and they said, sir, Carrier said we want to donate the air conditioning. And then some, you know, some company donated the steel for the construction and all of this stuff. This is all a way of currying favor with Donald Trump. It is all a way of getting involved in a way that Trump is going to remember.

He's going to take names. Who was on my side and who wasn't on my side? Trump also, by the way, when speaking to the press before the Kennedy Center event, he said, Why isn't Ukraine just accepting this deal while ignoring that this is a deal that is very good for Russia and very bad for Ukraine? Listen to this. What's your next step in Russia, Ukraine talks after last week's negotiations? So we've been speaking to President Putin and we've been speaking to Ukrainian leaders,

including Zelensky, President Zelensky, and I have to say that I'm a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn't yet read the proposal. That was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn't. Russia's fine with it. Russia's, you know, Russia, I guess, would rather have the whole country when you think of it. But Russia is, I believe, fine with it. But I'm not sure that Zelensky is fine with it.

His people love it. But he hasn't read it. So someday you'll explain that one to me, Jeff. Yeah. You know, anybody who was following. Russia, Ukraine would have predicted that the end of this story was going to be exactly as we are finding it to be right now. All along when Trump was arguing, oh, the day I get elected in November of 24, the

war will end because they'll know they got to end it. Didn't happen. The day I'm sworn in in January of 25, the war will end because Putin and Zelensky will know that's it. It didn't happen. The new goal was within 100 days. it's going to be ended and it didn't happen. And we all suspected that the way to end it quickly and maybe the way that the only way that Trump would be able to end it is by convincing Ukraine

to take a crappy deal that's great for Russia. And so the possibilities were Trump walks away from the entire thing and the war continues or or Trump attempts to force Ukraine into taking a crappy deal that's great for Russia. And now Trump is going. why isn't Ukraine taking the deal? Ukraine loves the deal. It's a great deal for Ukraine, except it's not. It's a deal that even Scott Besant didn't deny was written by Russia. It's a deal that lets Russia keep territory that it has taken.

When Trump was asked, well, what does Russia have to give up? Trump goes, well, they wouldn't be allowed to take any more land, any more land, more doing a lot of heavy lifting there. So listen, we expected it. We expected not only that Trump would be unable to resolve this issue in one day or in a hundred days or in however long it's been, but we also expected that the only way Trump would even be involved in trying to resolve it would require Ukraine to take a crap deal. And that's exactly where we are.

So this was Trump outside the room for the Kennedy Center honors. Let's now look at Trump's speech at the state department. hosting this Kennedy Center dinner. It is not often that a single person can stun an entire room into silence while glitching, lying, and generally being the sort of antisocial, deluded, dishonest person that nobody wants to deal with. But you know what? Trump was able to do it. Trump spoke yesterday at the State Department at this Kennedy Center honors dinner. First and foremost, extremely glitchy behavior. Listen to this nuclear glitch.

And Gary says, you don't understand. Just any drop five, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Every ball readdhics and all this guy. Oh, it reminds me of this classic. Remember this one? Saudi Arabia and Russia will repeat. Yeah, okay. So glitches aside, the substance of Trump's speech at the Kennedy Center honors dinner,

not the way Obama would have done it, not the way Clinton would have done it, not the way Biden would have done it, not even the way George W. Bush would have done it. And I am not romanticizing the presidency of George W. Bush. Trump ranking the Supreme Court and the Senate like they are his fantasy football team. Get a load of this. your families here and we appreciate that and they appreciate you I can tell you a very special thanks as well to our juror of Kennedy Center border of trustees along with executive director Rick Grinnell the board of trustees has been amazing it's it's got to be the hottest order I don't know

the Supreme Court is pretty hot I would say the Supreme Court the U.S. Senate the NFL owners committee I think that's pretty good too but I think the board the board The court of the Kennedy Center is setting on to be who we have. So. Yeah. The, the Supreme Court is really neat right now. It's just the, uh, the, by the way, the idea that the Supreme Court is hot based on whether they're making legal determinations that are favorable and pleasing to the great orange leader.

Just the, the entire context and framing here is really one of dictatorship and. and authoritarianism. Trump then going into his construction stuff where he says everything, everything comes down to what kind of tile do they use in constructing the $300 million, corrupt, cronyistic, bribe-alicious White House ballroom. So we went through four years of that stuff. Nobody does it better. This year it's just so good that they actually said the White House looks phenomenal when you head up all of the other things that we've done to do.

You know, I tell people for the first four years, I was the hunted. So I didn't have a lot of time to fix up the floors to redo the Lincoln bathroom. I took a little heat. It was the worst job was done many years ago. It was done during actually the Truman administration with a very cheap green tile. Yeah, you know, they had, wait, sir, are you the president? Yes, yes, I'm the president. The tile was really cheap and green.

And I don't even know that they leveled the floor correctly. And they used this drain that's just and nothing was covered in gold. That wasn't like it now we have it done in beautiful, beautiful paradisio marble. It's all bookmatched. It's so beautiful. But people said, oh, why is you wasting time? That's how we've seen time. They're saving our heritage.

You know, many, many things like that. It's saving the heritage of this country. Right. Right. Our heritage was endangered by non-bookmatched cheap tile. But lest anyone be concerned, spoken like a true real estate grifter, Donald Trump is rejoicing in the heritage of this country by making sure that we have the right marble tile and over his dead body, you would better believe that they are going to bookmatch the marble tile.

What a pathetic farce we have become. Trump sort of admitting he's kind of more into doing real estate stuff than being president of the United States. You can really hear it in his voice. Good is what we already have. So sort of, I don't know, I like to tell you those little construction because we talk politics all the time. And I like politics too.

I said somebody to somebody the other day, am I a better politician or construction real estate person? Maybe neither. And they didn't know how to answer that question. I'm not sure how to answer it even if you want to know what I actually get great relaxation on fixing the White House, fixing the Kennedy Center. Yeah. Remember that the architect quit, as I reported last week. It's a pretty tough question. Trump is so appallingly bad at both real estate and being president that it's tough to figure

out which is, which is better. Trump unable to resist attacking Joe Biden saying, Biden could never play golf. Even like a 90-year-old, Biden couldn't do it as well. Spent their lives making the most of their incredible, God-given talents. They have talent. They have talent. The great Gary player, he had shots. He's 90 years old.

He's still playing a 70 with me the other day. He's 90. He played pretty far back too. He's so incredible. You think Biden could do that? I don't think so. There you go. Biden clearly living.

rent free in Donald Trump's head and apparently living by himself up in Donald Trump's head where there doesn't seem to be anything else. And then finally, with one of these, sir, I'm sobbing stories, Trump says the women in the White House constantly come up to him crying. We've had virtually no crime. We had terrorism two weeks ago. We can have a horrible terrorism. Horrible.

But it sounds like we were doing so well. felt they didn't want to see us too very well, but we have right now the safest capital. We have a safer capital as anywhere in the world and we had one of the most unsaved by them. And I walk through the White House and I'll see, especially young

women, say, sir, thank you very much and I know immediately what they're saying. They're not thanking me for the wars that we've stopped, and I thank you me for even the tax cuts or any of the other things we've got to thank you me because they can actually walk to the White House. They feel safe now in the city.

The women came up to me and they said, I'm crying, but just not for the reason that Donald Trump believes they were crying. Whatever is wrong with Trump. And I think malignant narcissism is a high candidate. I recently read a very interesting book, by the way, about narcissism. Trump does seem to fit malignant narcissist to a T. Whatever is wrong with Trump seems to be getting much, much worse. And even the people in the room reportedly stunned by what this guy was dumping on them.

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The link is in the description. All right, Marjorie Taylor Green, Congresswoman, Republican, former MAGA, former Trump friend, but no more is resigning from Congress. As we learned, she would be doing it January 5th. This is the day before the five-year anniversary of the Trump riots. And it is two days after she will qualify for a congressional pension. What a perfect day for her to choose to resign on. She got her big 60 minutes interview.

She's doing her Maya Culpa tour. And I got to tell you, I acknowledge and believe that she has soured on Trump. But I don't believe her in terms of the reasons why. And I don't think that we should be seeing Marjorie Taylor Green as this great truth teller now. I know I got a bunch of emails from people in the audience saying, David, you're being a little tough on Marjorie Taylor Green. She does seem to have changed her views and she is still doing all the same toxic stuff. You'll see in this interview. But interestingly, she admits that behind the scenes, Republicans are all clowning Trump.

I have thoughts on this. Take a look. Behind the scenes. Do they talk differently? Yes. How? Oh, it's it would shock people. Well, let's shock people.

Okay. I watched many of my colleagues go from making. fun of him, making fun of how he talks, making fun of me constantly for supporting him to when he won the primary in 2024, they all started, excuse my language, Leslie, kissing his ass and decided to put on a MAGA hat for the first time. Now I believe her, I don't think there's any doubt that behind the scenes, a lot of the Republicans think Trump is a dufous. We've heard that from Democrats in the House and Senate. We've also talk to some Republicans who say that that's what's going on. I believe that she's telling the truth.

What is important is that this should make us dislike them even more because it proves that they are allowing, they have allowed Trump to do what he has done over the last decade, not because they agreed with it, many of them, but because they said I'd better get in line. I don't want Trump to target me, et cetera. So I understand it, but I can't say that I respect it. It's very interesting. It's certainly going to rattle Trump because one of Trump's greatest desires at the end of the day is to be liked, but it does nothing to change the fact that they mostly let him do whatever the hell he wants to do. Marjorie Taylor Green mentions during this interview that she shared with Trump the death threat she received as a result of his attacking her and that Trump's response

was not kind. You decided not to stay in fight. You decided to give in. After President Trump called me a traitor, I got a pipe bomb threat on my house, and then I got several direct death threats on my son. On your son? On my son. You say the president put your life in danger.

You blame him. You say he fueled a hot bed of threats against me, and that you blame him for the... threats against your son. The subject line for the direct death threats on my son was his words, Marjorie Trader Green. Those are death threats directly fueled by President Trump. I, and I told him, I told J.D. Vance, I told them all, sent those directly to them. And response? J.D. Vance replied back to me, we'll look into it. I got response back from President Trump that I will keep private, but it wasn't very nice. Give us a hint of what the president said? It was extremely unkind. Her life is in danger? Who's that? Marjorie Taylor Green,

she says. Marjorie Trader Green. I don't think her life is in danger. I don't think, frankly, I don't think anybody cares about her. Four more years. Yeah. Listen, I believe her. Trump has a way of generating death threats against people. That's absolutely true. It's sad, but it's predictable. And it's something Marjorie Taylor Green participated in for a long time as a supporter of that movement. Now, Leslie Stahl asks her about that. She goes, you participated in the toxic culture. And what does Marjorie Taylor Green say? She says to Leslie Stahl, you also have participated in the toxic culture by doing journalism.

If you believed that Marjorie Taylor Green has changed, this clip should disabuse you of that notion. It's the most toxic political culture and it's not helping the American people. But you contributed to that. You, you were out there pounding insulting people. Leslie, you've contributed to it as well with your own. Yes, you're accusatory just like you did just then. I know you're accusing me. You know, it's crazy because Leslie Stalled just points out as a matter of conversation, right?

You did some of what you are now criticizing. That is not participating in toxicity. She's doing journalism. And Marjorie Taylor Green looks at her and goes, you just did the same by asking me a question that is accusatory. Marjorie, that's journalism. But I'm smiling. You're accusing me.

I am accusing me. But we don't have to accuse one another. I want you to respond to what you have done in terms of insulting people, yelling at people, and then saying, I'd like for you to respond for that. I don't know you are, but what am I? You can respond to that. I don't insult people. You do in the way you question and you are you're accusing me right now.

It would see see what she did there? Journalism if the question is pointed is insulting and accusatory. She wants people to feel sorry for her. It's the same old Marjorie Taylor Green. The topic came up of policy. Okay. And Marjorie says Trump's now siding with the very establishment he claimed to oppose. Are you saying that the president now is siding with those establishment powerful people and against Maga? He passed a crypto bill that helped out all the crypto donors. He has served Israel's interest,

even attacking Iran. He has served big pharma. He didn't take away the COVID vaccines that we want to see. taken away. So those are the areas that are still getting everything they want while the people we're still out here saying we want to see action on on areas for the American people. All right. So she says Trump is no longer the populace he claimed to be. Questions as to whether her resignation has some greater political ambition in the background. She says it doesn't. People want to know is this a true conversion, a true change of heart, or is it kind of a shrewd political calculation. A lot of people think you're doing it and that you, in a year or so, are going to run for

some other office. I have zero plans, zero desire to run for president. I would hate the Senate. I'm not running for governor. But, Leslie, it doesn't matter how many times I say it, I'll have face-to-face conversations with people, and I'll flat out tell them to their face, and they won't believe me. And they're like, oh, yeah, sure, and then wink at me. I'm like, okay.

I just like, I don't know how to make it more clear. You mean, you just jumped off the cliff and you don't know where you're going to swim to? Surprise, surprise. I'm not your politician with a whole itinerary of plans. There you go. She says no plans whatsoever to run. And finally, is she still MAGA? Here's how she answers that.

Are you MAGA? I am America first. And that's not the same as MAGA. MAGA is President Trump's phrase. That's his political policies. I call myself America first. But you're not saying you're Maga. I'm America first.

All right. So listen, I'm not impressed with this. I find it interesting. I think the left needs to figure out how to take advantage of it. Is there some way Marjorie Taylor Green can be useful? But I'm not impressed with her. Things started hitting her. and so she's scrambling.

But this is not a profile and courage. I think probably 80% of my audience agrees with my view. 20% says I'm being too hard on her. Listen, to the extent that there is some maya culpa here, maybe she can be useful. But this is not our ally that is going to allow us to ride to victory. Now, save it. I don't buy it. Donald Trump just said something absolutely wild and did something absolutely wild by

his standards. Trump went on truth social and launched into a long rant about his decision to pardon Democratic congressman, Henry Quayar, and in the process, Trump admits his pardons are quid pro quos. The other person is supposed to do their part. Now, we've suspected this for a long time. It's not a big shock to us. Everyone knows Trump treats pardons like political bribes favors in exchange for loyalty. But now he just says it out loud like it's normal. It's not subtle. It's not a dog whistle that only some people hear. This is Trump confessing to corruption at insane levels. Let's put the truth up.

Trump says, quote, can you imagine? The Democrats under the Crooked Joe Biden administration, who always use extreme force in jail time to destroy their political opponent, wanted to put Congressman Henry Quayar and his wife Imelda in prison for 15 years, which I predicted these radical left lunatics would do. And they never stopped wanting to fulfill this evil quest. So Trump goes on and on and then he talks about his decision. And he says his daughters wrote him a beautiful letter.

After reading it, I decided in the interest of justice and based on the daughter's loving request that I would give Henry and Imelda a full and complete pardon. I never spoke to the congressman, his wife or his daughters, but felt very good about fighting it, about fighting for a family that was tormented by very sick and deranged people. They were treated so badly. I signed the papers and said to people in the Oval Office that I just did a very good, perhaps life-saving thing. God was very happy with me that day. Then it happened only a short time after signing the pardon. Congressman Henry Quayar announced he will be running for Congress again in the great

state of Texas as a Democrat, continuing to work with the same radical left scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in prison and probably still do. Such a lack of loyalty, something that Texas voters and Henry's daughters will not like. Oh, well, next time, no more Mr. Nice Guy. So there it is. Trump spells it out. I pardon you. You'd better get loyal to me. And if you don't, no more Mr. Nice guy. It is the definition of a quid pro quo. I do something for you. You do something for me. It is a form of bribery or extortion. It's an abuse of presidential power. And Trump is bragging about it. It's an admission of something we suspected, which is his pardons are political transactions. It is leverage to force people to serve him.

It's not justice. It's not mercy. It's how a mob boss thinks. What favor can I do? And then someone will owe me. And remember that this is the guy who promised and then did pardon the January 6th rioters. Trump doesn't believe in the law. Trump believes in loyalty and he makes the most corrupt confession. Now, Henry Quayar doesn't seem that he's going to do it. He was asked by Maria Bartaroma, are you going to change parties? Have you considered switching parties?

Look, I'm a Democrat. I'm probably one of the most, if not the most bipartisan Democrat. And as I told some of my Republican friends on the House floor, I vote better than some of the Republicans in the Republican. caucus and they agree with me i i i just feel that you know i follow the words of president lbj we said many years ago i'm an american i'm a texan and i'm a democrat in that order and i think anybody that puts party before their country is doing a disservice to their country okay but president trump is out with a new truth social today on your uh on your decision to run again as a

Democrat and the president and saying, oh, well, next time no more Mr. Nice guy. He's talking about the fact that you are going to continue to work with the same radical left Democrats. What do you want to say about the president's truth social this morning? Well, again, let me let me just say this. I was at church this morning with my wife. I prayed for the president. All right.

So that's probably enough of that. He's not going to do it. And Trump is furious. And Trump's pardons are indeed quid pro quos. We suspected it and now we know it. We have a phenomenal bonus show for you today about the Supreme Court hearing a case about presidential power. We will talk about the 2026 World Cup draw and Trump's pathetic little prize that he got.

And we will hear about the Supreme Court hearing a birthright citizenship challenge. Where could that end up? All of those stories and more. On today's bonus show, sign up at joinpachman.com. I hope to see you there.