The David Pakman Show - 1/3/24: Trump finally posts the proof, RFK hires anti-vax lunatic

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Michael Fanone, former Capitol Police officer who was injured while defending the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and author of the book "Hold the Line: The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul," joins David to discuss what took place on the day of the Trump riots. Get the book: https://amzn.to/48iqKCF -- Infamous anti-gay Kentucky County Clerk Kim Clark suffers a final humiliation and is ordered to pay a $260,000 fine -- Independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr hires a top anti-vaccine extremist, Del Bigtree, as his communications director -- Failed former President Donald Trump posts a PDF claiming to be the "proof" of the 2020 presidential election being stolen -- Unable to continue arguing that the Biden economy is terrible, Republicans shift to claiming that the economy is only good because the Federal Reserve "rigged" it for Joe Biden -- Growing concerns about Donald Trump's cognitive state make news after a strange video of Trump's posture on New Year's Eve brings up the specific concern of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy -- Sean Hannity simultaneously argues that President Joe Biden is suffering from advanced dementia and that he is also the leader of a wide-ranging crime syndicate -- Absolutely painful cringe at a recent Vivek Ramaswamy campaign event -- Voicemail caller, furious with David, tells him he is wrong about his "pronoun thing" -- On the Bonus Show: Harvard President Claudine Gay resigns after plagiarism and antisemitism scandal, lawsuit filed to remove Congressman Scott Perry from Pennsylvania ballot, updated indictment against Democratic Senator Bob Menendez adds details to bribery conspiracy chargers, much more... 💻 Get Private Internet Access for 83% OFF + 4 months free at https://www.piavpn.com/David 💰 Oxygen: Sign up for a personal or business account at https://davidpakman.com/oxygen 🪒 Henson Shaving: Use code PAKMAN for FREE blades at https://hensonshaving.com/pakman -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

We start today with what I hope will be the last time I will ever mention the name Kim Davis on this program. You know, people who have been watching this show, listening to our podcast from back in the day when gay marriage was legalized nationally. You may remember this woman. You may remember that kooky, conniving, conceited and condescending Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis. This is the woman who proudly and courageously denied a gay couple a marriage license even after the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 state bans on gay marriages are illegal. She said, I am going to do it because I am a proud Christian and whatever.

And there were anti gay advocates who raised their hands with her hands and cheered that she was doing this heroic thing. And I said at the time, what is this woman's legacy going to be? It's so obvious that gay marriage was an inevitability in the United States. It's so obvious that 10 years from now we will look back at Kim Davis and say how stupid her behavior was. She thought she was going to be able to do something heroic and notable by refusing a marriage license when it is obvious that this is going to be no big deal a decade from now.

And indeed, that is where we are. And the final insult is that Kim Davis must now pay two hundred and sixty thousand dollars in legal fees over that same sex marriage license refusal. In addition to three to one hundred thousand dollars in damages that she should pay the couple who sued her. You know, I don't take pleasure in people's misfortune, but I take pleasure in just outcomes. And what this woman tried to do as supported by the homophobic religious right was, hey, I don't care what the law is. I'm going to do whatever I want. And as a representative of the government, what she did was wrong. And there is now a penalty. The Guardian reports, Kim Davis, the former county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses in Kentucky to same

sex couples, must pay a total of two hundred and sixty thousand one hundred and four dollars in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one couple, according to a federal judge's ruling. That's in addition to one hundred thousand dollars in damages. A jury said the former Rowan County clerk should pay the couple who sued attorneys for Davis argued the fees and costs that the attorneys wanted were excessive. But the U.S. District Judge David Bunning disagreed and said Davis must pay since the men prevailed in their lawsuit.

Attorneys for Davis are expected to appeal the ruling. Davis drew international attention when she was briefly jailed in 2015 over her refusal. Despite the Supreme Court's legalization of same sex marriage. She based her refusal on the belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Well, that was her feeling. It wasn't the fact. And it wasn't the fact as decided by the highest law in the land, the Supreme Court. When I think about legacy, I am I mean, first of all, she seems moronic. I mean, quite frankly, we now many of us knew it at the time. OK, it's sort of like we can tell that in the future there will be more normalization and legalization

of cannabis. We just know we can tell it's very obvious. And it's state after state after state. We know the direction it's going. We could tell at the time that obviously in the future of the United States, marriages between any two consenting adults, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, et cetera, were going to be legal. And as we now see the obvious nature and inevitability of that is the law of the land. Her faux activism back in 2015 seems even more pathetic. But this really reminds me about a speech that Arnold or statement that Arnold Schwarzenegger gave last year and Arnold Schwarzenegger when addressing these vile right wing movements, neo-Nazis, white nationalists, et cetera, that have cropped up and coalesced in the Trump

era. Arnold said, you know, my dad was on the side of hate. And when you are on the side of the hate movement, when you are on the side of the discriminatory movement, you end up being a loser in history. And Arnold said, don't be like my dad. Don't be the equivalent of that today. Don't be the neo-Nazi. Don't be the white supremacist. When you take the side of hate, you tend to end up a loser as history will see you. And that is exactly where county clerk Kim Davis is ending up. And that is the right place. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has hired a top anti-vaccine lunatic who happens to be pro-Trump as his communications director. Remember when

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told us vaccines aren't really a big part of his campaign. He only talks about vaccines because people want to talk to him about it during interviews. But it's not a big issue for him. Well, he has chosen now as his communications director, Dell Big Tree, a pro Trump anti vaccine lunatic. What's that thing they say about the company you keep or something like that? NBC News reports Del Bigtree, who leads the country's second best funded anti vax organization, announced his new role with a letter rife with misinformation. Even the letter announcing he was going to be working for RFK Jr. was riddled with misinformation. I encourage you to check out the article.

It says Big Tree is the executive director of the Informed Consent Action Network, the country's second best funded anti-vaccine org. After Robert F. Kennedy's own organization, the Children's Health Defense, from which Kennedy stepped down in April so he could run for president. As you know, the article points out the pandemic was a boon for both organizations. Big Tree also hosts the High Wire, an anti-vaccine and conspiracism Internet show. This OK. Look at think about whatever your view is about RFK Junior's candidacy and now look at the letter that Big Tree published, OK? Announcing his new role, Big Tree released a letter rife with misinformation alleging covid vaccines were

responsible for widespread injury and death. Big Tree called for supporters to, quote, stop the globalists new world order and unite under the banner of medical freedom. He also solicited thousand dollar donations. No opportunity where a grift isn't possible. Soliciting thousand dollar donations from supporters to join a health think tank funds that would go towards creating television ads. This guy's a big Trump fan. OK, here are some samples of Dell Big Tree. This is now officially the communications director

for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign. You know, but this is from January. It's rare that I get to follow an act like Donald Trump and you can't beat that. Can't beat it. You know, I tried to think about as I was flying here, what is it that I represent and why am I going to Washington, D.C.? Great question for what is a giant appears Trump rally. Right. Now, we were all wondering why is RFK Jr. hiring a guy who spoke at a big Trump

rally that led to one of the biggest threats on our democracy in the history of the country? Here's another clip of Dell Big Tree talking about how what he tried to do during covid. He tried to get covid as quickly as possible, and he tried to give covid to as many people as possible. This is who RFK Jr. has hired the company you keep my friends. So when Joe Biden says, all of you not vaccinated, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? I'm waiting for some damn science to take place up there in the White House. I'm

desperately trying to get infected with COVID-19, if I was going to be totally honest. I've hugged about half of you today, and I hope somebody has it so I can get this thing out of the way. And here is why. Yeah, the paper's going to go crazy. Del Bixby said go out and catch this cold. So let me be perfectly clear. For all of you that are healthy, not suffering from diabetes and obesity and cancer and other comorbidities that are under the age of about 75.

Let me be perfectly clear. You need to go out and catch this call. That's who RFK Jr. has hired. Now let me give you the good news. You might be wondering, David, you know, I'm not hearing nearly as much about Bobby Kennedy Jr's candidacy when he was running against Biden in the Democratic primary. I would turn on Fox News and it seemed like just about every day, certainly every week,

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was on there. That's right, because he was useful to Fox as someone who would hurt Joe Biden. Now that RFK Jr. is running as an independent and there's the real possibility that he hurts Trump as much as if not more than Joe Biden, the right wing media don't want to hear from him. So the good news is that his campaign does appear to be fading. Kennedy, who at one point was polling 14, 15, 16, even 17 in some polls about six to eight weeks ago, he is now polling as low as four percent in some polls, admittedly as high

as eight in a couple. But his campaign, I I believe that people are understanding what's at stake here and that we can't mess around with this Bobby Kennedy Jr. stuff. And by the way, if you thought that he was a good representative of an alternative left to what Joe Biden presents. The fact that he hired a Trump loving anti-vax lunatic hopefully, hopefully will dissuade the few remaining left wing voters that are considering voting for this overt grift. So that's the latest on the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign. After the break, this is explosive. Now, I hope you're sitting. If you're driving, pull over because this may be so emotionally rattling that it may cause you to get into an accident after the break. We finally have the evidence of the 2020 presidential election

being stolen. Trump posted the evidence yesterday. It's the proof. We will review it after this short break. by your Internet service provider, by advertising companies, and then that data can be sold, which means your personal browsing data is floating around out there. You should use a VPN that helps make you anonymous online. It encrypts your Internet activity. The VPN I've been using for years is private Internet access. Our sponsor, Private Internet Access, is the VPN that people trust because it's the only VPN that has proven multiple times in court that they do not log user activity. People also love private Internet access because it's fast.

If you're streaming movies, downloading large files, it works great. You can use private Internet access on unlimited devices with just one account. They have a 30 day money back guarantee, 24 seven customer support. It's a service you can count on. Private Internet access is giving my audience a huge 83 percent discount. You can subscribe for two or three per month and get four extra months for free. Go to PIA VPN dot com slash David. The link is in the podcast notes. every day just for you. You'll also get commercial free audio and or video feeds of the show every single day. Access to the members only soundboard invitations to members only town hall events

and so much more. And you can do it all at a 60 percent discount with the coupon code Save Democracy 24. That's all one word. No spaces. Lowercase at join pacman dot com. The coupon code is save democracy 24 because that is genuinely what is at stake in the election that is upcoming just 11 months from now. Donald Trump has finally posted the proof of 2020 election fraud. This on his platform, Truth Social Central posting a PDF yesterday, along with the message, quote, summary of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election in the swing states. I am pleased to share a report that is fully verified. Most of the information was gotten from government sources, tapes and other public records and compiled by the

most highly qualified election experts in the capital C country. These numbers are determinative and in all cases are hundreds of thousands of votes per swing state more than I needed to win that state. If the Republican Senate does not step forward and address this atrocity, it will happen again and be virtually impossible for Republicans to win elections in the future. Now we're going to get to the proof. But Trump continued, adding, Remember, I was not campaigning. The 2020 election was long over.

What I was doing is bringing to light the fact that the election was without question rigged and stolen with a capital S as president and commander in chief. It was my duty to do so. If I did not do this, I would have been in violation of my oath of office and the take care clause, which requires the president to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Therefore I am entitled to total immunity because that is exactly what I was doing. Taking care with a capital C of our capital C country, guarding it with a capital G from capital R rigged and capital S stolen elections. Why these capitals? We will never know. All right, listen,

let's skip page three and go right to the report. I've reviewed the document and it is complete and utter BS. I don't know any other way to say it. You can look up this document on your own. It's I mean, 32 pages is really not that long, but just about every every line contains a lie. So let's look at an example claim. The document claims the set that in Fulton County, Georgia, quote, the second machine count was over 17000 votes short. Fulton County was instructed to reconcile the results by the secretary of state and recertified its results without divulging the extent of the vote deficiency to members of the Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections. This is one of their smoking gun bullet points of proof. Now they cite a source. Well, I encourage listen, if you want to do this

seriously, just follow it through. OK, so here's a bullet point with an allegation about a machine being 17000 votes short. We look at the source. The source is another document. OK, this document is merely a letter. This letter is a complaint letter written in July of 2022. Remember, this is their proof. It's nearly two years after the election, and it's a complaint submitted to the election board, which includes conjecture. It includes opinion. It includes out of context screenshots, but it includes absolutely no proof of the underlying matter that a 17000 vote discrepancy was just reconciled despite the numbers being, as they are alleging, completely wrong. This would sort of be like, imagine I file a lawsuit, right? Like,

imagine I thought Sam Cedar stole my set, right? And I file a lawsuit and I go, Sam Cedar stole my set. And, uh, he put up a camera in my studio so he could actually preview what my set looked like. And then he had it manufactured so that he could deploy a copy of my set before I even did to then claim I stole his. Like, imagine I filed such a lawsuit and then later a report comes out and says, hey, we have proof that Sam Cedar stole David Pakman's set. What's the proof? The proof is David's lawsuit. Hold on a second. My lawsuit's not proof. My lawsuit is the allegations. How could it possibly be the proof? That's what most of these sources amount to. And if you read through the 32 pages, there are countless other examples.

The document says about forty three thousand drop box ballots in DeKalb County and fifty nine thousand in Fulton County violated chain of custody requirements and weren't transported in the right way to the registrar. However, those claims were investigated and they were found to be unsubstantiated. They make the allegation and they they point to, hey, here's someone who made this complaint, but the complaint was investigated. It was found lacking any kind of substance. They make claims about so-called QR code mismatches in Dominion voting machines in sixty five

of sixty seven Georgia counties. The problem is that state and federal authorities investigated that claim and found it completely without merit. I could go on. OK, this is not proof of anything. And if anything, this tells us if this is the best they've got, we can feel really confident that this election was not actually stolen, regardless of how many times Donald Trump says it. And one last thought on this as well. If this so-called proof was

actually compelling, some court would have found it compelling and meritorious back when they were trying to litigate this. Now, you could say, well, they hadn't had time to gather all of this stuff. Most of these allegations, if you actually look back, there are preexisting or similar allegations from around the time that they were trying to litigate this. It is true. They've come up with some new doozies since. But if even a fraction of this stuff was true, you would think that at least some court would have found it with merit. Finally, the smoking gun proof and there is nothing there. But the Trump is don't care. It's a PDF, guys. I mean, PDFs look official. You type it into your

browser and it downloads a file. It's much more official than just a website. It turns out that at the end of the day, it's just nonsense. Let's talk about the Biden economy. Right wing media figures, including Tucker Carlson, can no longer tell the lie that the economy is it is a disaster. Why can't they tell that lie? Because it is so obvious that the economy is not a disaster. So what are they switching to? They're switching to our right. The economy is good, but it's good because it's been rigged to be good for Joe Biden. This is not a new claim. Trump and others have previously said the Fed worked to hurt the economy under Trump

and has been working to improve the economy under Biden. Unfortunately, it's not true. But I'm going to play this clip for you. This is from Tucker Carlson's extraordinarily compelling new show on X. That's the platform formerly known as Twitter. And here is Tucker Carlson shifting from the economy is terrible to the economy has been rigged to be good for President Joe Biden. Take a listen to this.

About three weeks ago, Jay Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, announced that it was, quote, premature to conclude with confidence that we have achieved a sufficiently restrictive stance or to speculate on when policy might ease. That's Fed speak. And in case you're not familiar with it, that means we plan to keep interest rates high. OK. Then last week, two weeks later, with no warning at all, Jay Powell seemed to pivot dramatically and say almost the opposite. Actually, he said cutting interest rates is something that, quote, begins to come into view and is clearly a topic of discussion out in the world and also a discussion for

us at our meeting today. In other words, they had a big meeting at the Tucker program to discuss interest rate policy. They're lowering rates. So many people who are paying attention concluded that this was political. Joe Biden is losing the race and the Fed is trying to save him. But what is even worse than that? What if it's not just Joe Biden they're trying to save, but the U.S. economy? What if the fundamentals are so weak underneath that the Fed is desperately scrambling, groping in the dark to figure out what to do? Right.

You have to think that's possible. The Fed is supposed to be stable. That's why they speak like 19th century jurists to convey stability. But if they're changing their mind and the biggest question that they address in two weeks, one direction, another direction, that suggests chaos. And that's bad. So let me tell you what this is really about. These folks are realizing presidents get reelected when the economy is this good. Now, we can say that there are problems in the economy and we are right when we say this is not a perfect economy, but this is an economy that by every

historical standard is doing very well. Could it change between now and November? Sure. Then it changes the calculation. But it is now 2024. This is not often the far distance. It's 10, 11 months away at this point in time. And so what they are realizing is presidents get reelected usually when this is what the economy looks like. They are terrified. So they are starting with it's not really a great economy. They've juiced the numbers to help Joe Biden. Now, let me tell you the truth. The reality of this is Donald Trump benefited from lower interest rates far more than Joe Biden has. Interest rates have been higher under Biden. Now, Tucker's argument that it's very obvious that the Fed is panicking to help Joe Biden.

And so while two weeks ago they weren't saying Fed rate cuts are coming now, they are because they're helping Joe Biden. That's not even representative of the truth. Some time ago, what we started hearing from the Fed is we're done raising rates. We're done raising rates. We don't yet know whether the plan is leave rates stable in twenty four or lower them. Anybody with any kind of conventional wisdom has been looking at the situation and saying, OK, maybe we're not going to get a rate cut at every Fed meeting, but we're expecting at least

a couple of rate cuts in 2024. The question is, do they start right away or do they start closer to the middle of the year? The truth is that Joe Biden's economy attribute however much credit you want to Biden or not, but just be fair and do the same to Trump. The economy, while Joe Biden's economy attribute however much credit you want to Biden or not. But just be fair and do the same to Trump. The economy, while Joe Biden has been president, has been good in a high interest rate environment. Mortgage rates as a result of high federal funds rates are higher than they've been in a long time. They've started to trickle down now to some degree. So it's untrue that Biden has been the beneficiary of Fed policy so far. It's untrue that all of a sudden the Fed talking about cutting rates is new and haphazard

and panicked for four months now. The target has been the increases are done. We are now level. We're going to start declining in twenty twenty four. And there is every indication that that's what's going to happen. So what is taking place here is that despite high federal funds rates, the economy has been solid. Anyone who understands the relationship between the federal funds rate and the stock market, when the federal funds rate comes down, it often helps the stock market is predicting, wait a second. If the Fed does start cutting rates, it's probably going to help the stock market. This is very good for Joe Biden, regardless of whether it's some plot to help him or just what makes sense based on economic indicators. So now they have to switch from the economy is bad to the economy only seems to be good because Joe Biden's Federal Reserve is working

in cahoots with him to make the economic indicators we look at appear good, even though the fundamentals of the economy are weak. This is where we are. And I'll tell you, they are dishonest. They are mischievous. They are all of the things that we know them to be. But at least they're recognizing the reality, which is it's really hard to convince people that the economy is poor right now when so very clearly it is not.

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Michael Fanone, who's a former Metropolitan Police Department officer who was injured while defending the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. He's also author of the book Hold the Line, the Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul. Michael, really appreciate your time today and the opportunity to talk to you. Yeah, no, I appreciate you having me on. So, I mean, listen, to start with, those hours on January 6th are now some of the most scrutinized, debated in some sense and discussed and maybe even consequential hours as it relates to

a recent American election in a very long time. I don't know in how long, but for a very, very long time as someone who was there, is there some big picture item that is being misrepresented about what took place that day? Or do you think that I mean, save for the conspiracy websites, I know they're saying things that are obviously wrong. but do you think the average person now has a pretty good understanding of what took place on that day? No, not even close. I mean, listen, I don't even know where to begin with to the Capitol, the most significant aspect of that day as being something of a tourist visit or, you know, a normal day at the Capitol, I Uh, in many cases it was intentional. Um, the actions were intentional on behalf of, you know, those Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol complex. Um, and it,

it has become a national disgrace. We, I was streaming that day covering what I thought was going to be something pretty unremarkable and and very low key. And with my audience, we saw live and initially it wasn't even clear. Oh, wow. There's large groups that are gathering. You know, they seem to be exerting pressure on the crowd control barriers that are there. Oh, it kind of looks like they've gotten beyond the crowd control barriers. I don't know that they're supposed to be there. You know,

they're looking like they're really close to the Capitol. Right. We saw this whole thing happen in real time. And one of the things that has been said again and again is that at a certain point, the officers, some officers, we can't say the because there were so many officers involved, but at least some officers allowed in so-called allowed in the protesters, rioters, call them what you want, which leads to allegations that some of you knew ahead of time what was going on. You were complicit. It was part of the plan, whatever. Tell us about what you knew about what was either expected or happening that day in advanced or as as it was happening. How did you learn exactly what was going on? So. I was a 20 year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department on January 6, 2021.

I had spent the vast majority of my career working in special mission units, mostly focused on violent crime and narcotics trafficking. The events of January 6, that is the political rally that took place, was so far from the scope of my responsibilities on that day. I mean, obviously, you know, I'm an American. I don't have social media, but I'm aware of a lot of the rhetoric that was being utilized in the weeks leading up to January 6th. I obviously I knew about the Stop the Steal rally. My department was well aware of the Stop the Steal rally.

We had addressed the potential for violence by activating every officer that worked for the department, canceling days off, restricting leave, so on and so forth. But even then, I mean, that's not out of the ordinary. You know, we are the traditional law enforcement agency in Washington, D.C. And as a lot of police officers will tell you, there's a protest that takes place every single day of the year in D.C. This one, I think everyone would agree there was was slightly different. However, I wasn't thinking about the rally. I wasn't thinking about the Capitol. I was thinking about, you know, my responsibilities as a narcotics officer, the D.C. police. That being said, I remember late morning on January 6th,

getting phone calls and text messages from colleagues, some of which were already at work that day, either in the city or at the Ellipse, where the rally was taking place. And they were reporting things like, you know, there's individuals in the crowd that are armed and there are arrests being made for individuals who brought guns into D.C. That was disturbing. But it really wasn't until I started hearing about, you know, large groups breaking off from the rally and heading towards the Capitol that I became, you know, focused on what was taking place.

And it was shortly after that, that I started receiving reports again from colleagues that the outermost perimeters at the Capitol had been breached, that officers were under attack, that the Metropolitan Police Department was deploying officers to the Capitol at the request of the U.S. Capitol Police. And so, you know, I knew that what I was going to be doing that day was was dramatically different from from a normal day at work. Now, in terms of the. At some point, those barriers were pulled back and protesters were, quote, allowed in from everything I've read in crowd control at a certain point where that crush gets to a certain

degree for both the safety of officers and the people that can be in that crush barriers. Sometimes a call is made that you move a barrier. Talk to me about that. Is is that the explanation for what it seems like is in some of the videos? Yeah, I mean, speaking from, you know, just my experience as a rank and file officer, it was clear to me and I think to everyone involved that the U.S. Capitol Police was understaffed and under prepared or unprepared for the events of that day. I think that goes without question. That being said, I can't imagine a scenario in which, you know, even a fully staffed U.S. Capitol Police could have repelled the thousands of individuals who went to the Capitol, many of which with the predetermined intention of attacking law enforcement, breaching the perimeter, and making their way into the Capitol.

As for individual officers allowing people into the Capitol, I think that, I mean, I can't get inside the heads of those officers. I don't know if they were acting out of cowardice. I don't know if they were just fearful, if they felt overwhelmed. It's probably a mixture of all those things. You know, there were a lot of officers whose actions that day were investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police Internal Affairs. I think it's important that there be transparency and that those investigations, at least the findings of those investigations, or maybe the words of the officers themselves explaining their actions, be made public. Can you talk a little bit for people who did not hear your testimony when you gave it some time ago or haven't yet read the book? What were the circumstances of how you ended up injured on that day? So like many D.C. police officers, I self-deployed to the Capitol. I heard the distress calls coming from other officers and I felt that as a police officer, it was my responsibility to respond there and help in any

way that I could. Once I arrived at the Capitol, I heard a distress call from what's known as the Lower West Terrace Tunnel. That tunnel is significant in that on the inauguration, the president-elect will walk out the tunnel onto the inaugural stage to take the oath of office. Right. Once I got to the tunnel, I found a group of maybe 40, uh, DC police officers and a handful of U.S. Capitol police officers, uh, defending that entranceway. Um line and helped those officers repel the attack. At one point, I was pulled from the police line by the neck by an individual whose name is Albuquerque Head from Tennessee. He's the individual who on my body-worn camera footage you could hear yell out,

I got one. Mr. Head was later convicted or pled guilty for those crimes and was sent to prison. While out in the crowd, I was violently beaten from what seemed like every direction. My police badge was stripped from my chest. My radio was stripped and ammunition that was strapped to my belt was also removed. All the while, at the insurrection, to strike me in the neck a number of times. And as a result of those injuries, I sustained a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury. When you think back to that day and everything that's happened since the hearings, the trial of the individual you mentioned, the sentencing, do you feel like there is closure? I mean, it sounds almost crazy to ask it because you've suffered physically, you've suffered

emotionally. This has become, you know, an incredible thing in your life and the lives of others. Is there closure when the guy gets sentenced? Uh, no, I, you know, to be totally honest with you, um, I see the criminal prosecutions into the individuals that assaulted me as relatively insignificant. I mean, it's important. It's important work that the Department of Justice has undertaken to hold those individuals accountable. Right. I mean, in my humble opinion, accountability is the cornerstone of our criminal justice system. But to me, it was just a good start. Closure comes when those

who were responsible for peddling the lies that inspired those Americans to attack the Capitol, when those individuals are held accountable, not just politically, um, they committed crimes. Uh, you know, the former president has been indicted for his role in the January 6th insurrection. And I think it's important that, um, that he be tried. When we think about that day, I don't know the political makeup of your colleagues, right? I don't know if your department leaned one way or the other politically or how everybody had voted in the election or you tell me whether it matters or not. But what I'm curious about is as that day extended and it wasn't a half hour and it

wasn't an hour, but it went hour after hour after hour and Trump says nothing. And eventually he puts out that message saying, listen, we love you and you're right to be there, but it's time to go home. Was there a conversation amongst your colleagues about why isn't Trump saying anything? Why is it, why is hour after hour going by? And he's not telling these people to go home? Is that a conversation that was taking place? No. Well, first and foremost, I mean, I'll tell you about myself.

I voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and politics played zero part in why I responded to the Capitol on January 6th, as I think it played no role in most police officers, if not all, who responded to the Capitol that day. Okay. That being said, we were too busy fighting for our lives to be having conversations as to why or where Donald Trump was in quelling this insurrection. You it was just you just couldn't do it in that scenario. You were too busy trying to stay safe, essentially. Correct. When it comes to conversations you've had at this point with elected officials, there are many elected officials who have

publicly downplayed the seriousness, the level of violence, the level of actual threat to our democracy and democratic systems publicly. They've done that when you've spoken to some folks privately. Do they sometimes also when they talk to you, do they downplay it in the same way or is it different when you have private conversations? Uh, I mean, most of the private conversations that I have with people, they're either, um, unwilling to, or, um, I'll just say if they do feel that January 6th was something other than what my experience proves. Yes. They're unwilling to share that perspective with me face to face. I see. You're not the guy that they're going to say this was Antifa wearing a costume sort of thing? No. Okay.

And again, I think that while saying those unsubstantiated or giving credence to those unsubstantiated rumors in the immediate aftermath of January 6th was dangerous. Continuing to peddle that crap today is a crime. I mean, we've had investigation after investigation into, you know, the individuals that stormed the Capitol on January 6th. And unequivocally, each and every one of them, at least in part, named the former president and his rhetoric as an inspiration into their being present at the rally and their storming the Capitol. Right. We are talking about some of the things that are in Michael Fanone's book, Hold the Line, the insurrection and one cop's battle for America's soul. We're

linking to the book and I do encourage our audience to check it out. Michael, I really appreciate your time and insights today. Speaker 5 Yes, sir. I thank you for having me again. our sponsor, Henson Shaving. Henson actually manufactures parts for the International Space Station and the Mars Rover, and they are bringing that exact same precision engineering to the shaving experience. It hurts when you shave because blades extend too far and thus they wobble slightly. But with their aerospace grade CNC machines, Henson is able to make metal razors that extend just 0.0013 inches. That's less than the thickness of a human hair, which means a secure, stable blade with the vibration free shave. It also has built in

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hinged forward at the waist on New Year's Eve? I did see it and I'm going to play the video for people. And this is something we've actually seen Trump do many times before, which is that when he stands he doesn't really stand straight up, but he leans forward almost like Michael Jackson and smooth criminal. For people who are familiar with that video, seemingly locking his knees to stay balanced and and this sort of thing. There are a number of pictures of this that have been published of the way Trump does it.

And this is also something that is sometimes linked to something called PSP, progressive supranuclear palsy. It's a form of fronto temporal dimension. When we look at these images, you see Trump standing on stages in this position, Trump standing at speeches in this position, Trump speaking to reporters in this position. Now, this is not proof of anything. I want to be super clear for those emailing me saying, David, what is this that's going on? It is believed that Donald Trump wears these lifts

inside of his shoes, similar to Ron DeSantis is high heels to look taller. And because Trump has an internal heel, it sort of pushes him forward. And then he's using this position to try to counterbalance that. That's one possibility. Now, the other possibility that's been raised. And of course, I am not the one coming up with this. This is what neurologists have written to me and said is that there is this condition PSP and it includes standing in exactly this way. Now, some of the other things we see with this form of dementia include changes in behavior and personality, sometimes slurring speech, problems with memory and decision making, although that tends to be later in the disease. But in this progressive

supernuclear palsy, individuals can develop this posture where they lean forward. And there's a number of reasons that it happens. The condition can cause stiffness and rigidity in the muscles, including neck and trunk. And so it pulls the body into that forward leaning position. We see Trump in sometimes folks with PSP lean forward to try to counteract the tendency to fall backwards that can accompany the disease. We just don't know. But it's notable that so many people seeing this video of Trump wrote to me and said, David, that looks really strange and like PSP. We just don't know.

Is it Trump's internal high heels? Is it PSP? Is it some weird thing about when Trump gets anxious in public, he stands like that. We really don't know. But now, you know, everything that I know and maybe someday we'll know the full story going from Trump cognitive decline to allegations of Biden cognitive decline. I have the funniest video to play for you. You know, I've joked before that there's this incongruency between two different stories that are being told by the right wing. One story is Joe Biden has such advanced dementia that he doesn't know that he's president. He doesn't know

what day it is. He doesn't know where he is. That's one story told about Joe Biden. The other story told about Joe Biden is he is a borderline genius criminal mastermind running a multi-decade crime syndicate, the likes of which we would normally see in mob movies while so demented. He doesn't know what date is. Now they've told those stories separately. Here's video of Hannity making the transition. Here's Hannity going back to back between these two stories in the same 22nd period. Hannity tells us both stories. Take a listen to this. Speaker 3 Joe Biden's cognitive ability is not good. Anyone with eyes to see you can see it every week. It gets worse and it's getting worse by the day.

Now keep in mind, Biden is also dealing with very real and serious corruption and bribery allegations along with a very real impeachment inquiry. Right. This guy is up to so many hijinks that have been perfectly planned and executed with destruction of evidence so that Republicans are struggling to find the proof of it. Also, he's completely demented and has no idea where he is. Really? You know, it is really difficult to believe both of those stories. This reminds me of the stories told about January 6th and the writers, right?

There were no actual violent told about January 6th and the writers. Right. There were no actual violent riots on January 6th. It was all completely peaceful. And also it was Antifa pretending to be Trump is writing to make Trump ists look bad. Wait. So were they violent riots that weren't really Trumpists or were there not actually any violent riots? Yes, it was both. What? That doesn't really make any sense. And it becomes a choose your own adventure, whichever one is more believable. And if we abstract this even more,

it gets back to a lot of the conspiracy theories that are not overtly political, like Flat Earth, for example. You put six flat earthers in a room together, they will disagree as to the proof that the earth is flat. They all believe the earth is flat, but they will have contradictory explanations as to why one will cite something about atmospheric conditions that couldn't possibly be true if someone else's hypothesis of why the earth is flat were true. They all conflict. And it's just sort of like, I don't know, pick the one that sounds least crazy to you. They now are mixing the two in the same segment, demented Joe Biden running a genius crime syndicate that has left no trace of evidence behind. Incredible stuff, actually, if Biden can pull that off. I have a really wacky video for you

from a Vivek Ramaswamy campaign event yesterday. This is one of the strangest videos I've seen. And by the way, this is Vivek connecting with so-called real voters. If you're watching the TV right now, if you're watching your screen right now, maybe it's TV, maybe it's your phone, maybe it's a computer. There's a guy to Vivek Ramaswamy is right wearing overalls and a flannel shirt. And the topic of Vivek Ramaswamy his wife comes up and this guy, I guess what he's saying is Vivek Ramaswamy his wife isn't fat. And the way he the way he refers to that is saying she doesn't have an ass six axe handles wide. Vivek reacts strangely. And maybe the funniest part of it is Vivek acting like his wife is going to be the first lady. That's maybe the funniest part. Check this out.

What a weird moment. Oh, they're there. Yeah. I mean, and she's, she's going to be a legendary first lady for this country. She would be here, but she's seen patients by telehealth, but she'll be set a good example for children in this country. Spread the message in this community. That's right. You've seen her. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. She doesn't have a, she doesn't make a big production out of it. She doesn't have an ass six Six Axe handles wide either. No, no. She does her job. Exactly.

Thank you. I appreciate it, guys. This is my wife of 50 years and two weeks. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. He's a good man.

Yes. Dear God. Dear God. Dear God, dear God. She doesn't have an ass six ax handles wide either. Really a claim to fame at this point, I would say. Are these the real Iowa voters that are that are representative of the Republican Party? What a bizarre conversation.

And I don't know how many of you heard this, but Vivek didn't even qualify for the next. It's all getting so stupid. You know, Trump's not going to the debates, as you know, and Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie didn't qualify for next Wednesday's debate. So I guess the final debate before the Iowa caucuses will be just Nikki Haley versus Ron DeSantis, which I have to tell you sounds worse than watching paint dry. almost like more interesting maybe than this debate is going to be. But what a bizarre Republican primary two people qualifying for the debates. But the guy who is obviously winning won't even be there. And then Vivek Ramaswamy hasn't qualified, but he claims somehow he's going to Vivek claims he will win Iowa despite the fact that he didn't even qualify for the debate. So the next two weeks are really going to be something. And again,

as I've said, I think the vague will be done by sometime in early to mid February. I don't think he makes it to Super Tuesday, but at least he will be able to go home to a wife whose ass is not six axe handles wide, as told by the guy on the left who. Let me just leave it there. Let me just leave it there. We have a voicemail number two one nine two. David P. Here is a furious caller who says I'm totally wrong about my pronoun thing. With respect. Does anybody in my audience know what on earth this guy is talking about? Hey, you, you worthless piece of shit. You want to know something interesting?

You are completely wrong about your pronoun thing. Of course, progressives are pushing pronouns and puberty blockers on people. It's even a PBS article said that the progressive environment in the schools is dangerous because it's leading kids into puberty blockers and they don't even know about it. 15 year old getting double mastectomy and you don't think progressives are pushing puberty blockers, man, you're ignorant. I don't know of anyone pushing puberty blockers. And we also know that the stories about 15 year old double mastectomies. Remember, it used to be it was seven year old. Then it was nine year olds. Then Matt Walsh got humiliated.

And it's like, yeah, that's actually not happening. This guy may not have all of the information. You may be shocked to hear missing the plight of the common people. It's funny. You guys are really the elitist, the progressive. Fuck you. Hope you have a nice life. You're completely worthless and you're just like that stupid bitch, Anika's theory.

And like the stupid, worthless piece of shank you. Yeah. Would you be shocked to know that this guy's a neurosurgeon? Would that would that surprise anybody in the audience? No, I have no idea who that is. Listen, I don't know what this guy's talking about. I can't even think of the last time I spoke about pronouns on this program. Now I will admit and I hope this doesn't get me canceled.

I use pronouns on the show all the time. I use verbs. I use nouns. I will sometimes make declarative statements, sometimes interrogative statements. This program is riddled with both parts of speech and sentence formats. And at this point, I don't know which are allowed and which which are not allowed. But I don't know what on earth that guy is talking about. But remember, that guy votes probably or at least he's allowed to. And so if we are all say, well, I if you say I'm going to stay home, this is the most important takeaway. If you say you will be staying home, what you're saying is you will let people like that guy decide who becomes the next president. I don't want to live in a country where

it's that guy deciding who the president is. So I'm registered and I'm going to be voting. We have a fantastic bonus show today. Another one down. Harvard president Claudine Gay has resigned after the debacle during the hearings on, uh, antisemitism on campus combined with plagiarism that she was caught engaging in. She is now gone after the UPenn president resigned. Uh, we will discuss the details. A lawsuit has been filed to remove Republican Congressman Scott Perry from the Pennsylvania ballot. And it is a similar a similar bill or proposal action as that which has been used to remove Donald Trump in Colorado and Maine. And lastly, we have an updated indictment against Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, as is, of course, the case. I don't hide it.

When you have alleged wrongdoing by Democrats, we will discuss the additional allegations against him. They are not good. I will tell you that it is very, very much not good. All of those stories and more on today's bonus show, the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. We're going to make a little bit of money on the bonus. David Pakman membership costs six

bucks a month. Right. Normally six dollars a month discounted to two dollars a month. If you use the coupon code Save Democracy 24 all one word, no spaces. We will see you on the bonus show. Otherwise, I'll be back tomorrow.