The David Pakman Show - 2/15/24: Republicans losing at record pace, Trump demands immediate impeachment

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Kevin Walling, former Biden campaign surrogate, joins David to discuss the dynamics of the 2024 campaign, the battle over who has more cognitive decline, and much more -- A "serious national security threat" is announced, believed to be related to Russia -- Republicans are losing elections and ballot initiatives at a record page under MAGA Trumpism, and especially since the overturning of Roe v. Wade -- 1/3 of conservatives believe Taylor Swift is involved in a conspiracy to help re-elect President Joe Biden -- Fox News host confronts 2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley with the difficult reality that she is going to lose, including her home state -- 2024 presidential candidate Cornel West explains why he has switched parties four times during this election cycle -- Failed former President Donald Trump holds a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, during which he demands the immediate impeachment of President Joe Biden and continues to display cognitive decline -- Donald Trump is quickly running out of money for legal fees, likely making him even more desperate -- 11-year-old voicemail caller loves the show and is getting one of David's children's books -- On the Bonus Show: Border crossings see biggest drop since President Joe Biden took office, House Homeland Security Chairman announces retirement day after leading impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, Rachel Dolezal, under a new name, loses job over OnlyFans account, much more... 🥂 ZBiotics: Use code PAKMAN for 15% OFF at https://sponsr.is/zbiotics_pakman 💻 Stay protected! Try our sponsor Aura FREE for 2 weeks at https://aura.com/pakman 🖥️ UPLIFT Desk: Get 5% OFF with code PAKMAN5 at https://upliftdesk.com/pakman 👍 Use code PAKMAN for 10% off the Füm Journey Pack at https://tryfum.com/PAKMAN 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman 😮 DealDash: Use code PAKMAN for 100 free bids at https://dealdash.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 the serious national security threat that was announced yesterday, believed to be related to Russia. Very unclear as of this moment, extremely cloudy situation. But I'll tell you what we know and then we can discuss. CNN reports U.S. has new intelligence on Russian nuclear capabilities in space. Now, this can mean many, many different things. The article says the intelligence was briefed to Congress and key allies and some lawmakers say it is serious enough

that it should be declassified and made public. While the intelligence is concerning, multiple senior members of Congress briefed on the information on Wednesday, emphasized it does not pose an immediate threat to the U.S. or isn't or its interests. The system in question remains under development and is not yet in orbit. According to three U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence, it's not clear how far the technology has progressed. A separate U.S. official told CNN the threat does not involve a weapon that would be used to attack humans.

That's a critical part of this. It was not immediately clear whether the intel referred to a nuclear powered anti satellite capability or a nuclear armed capability also being discussed as a possibility is that it is some sort of weapon, but that it would not be a weapon that would carry out a physical attack, but rather a technological attack of some kind. On the margins, there were people talking about a bioweapon. You probably would not go to space for that. You wouldn't need to with with a bioweapon.

You would probably be looking at I mean, it's kind of horrible to talk about this stuff, but you might be looking at water supply or air or weapons. Experts don't think that you would need to originate in space to most efficiently go that route. So so let's not even discuss that for now, but certainly possibilities with regard to influencing or affecting electricity, Internet, other utilities of different kinds, really sort of unclear what this is all about. We heard from Maga Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House. You know, when there are complicated and stressful times. I immediately want the comfort and the stable hand of Maga Mike, right? I mean, he just inspires confidence with everything he does, like impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas. I'm, of course, being sarcastic. Here is MAGA Mike saying everybody

should remain calm. I do have a statement and I'm going to be very precise and I'm not going to take questions. But last month, I sent a letter to the White House requesting a meeting with the president to discuss a serious national security issue that is classified. In response to that letter, a meeting is now scheduled tomorrow on this matter here at the Capitol with a gang of four and with the president's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. I will press the administration to take appropriate action and everybody be comforted by that. I saw chairman isn't that comforting her statement on the issue.

And I want to assure the American people there is no need for public alarm. We are going to work together to address this matter as we do all sensitive matters that are classified. And beyond that, I'm not at liberty to disclose classified information and really can't say much more. But we just want to assure everyone steady hands are at the wheel. We're working on it. The steady hand of the Republican Party overseen by Mike Johnson, who is part of a party that can't even or won't even pass their own border bill that contains just about everything they

wanted. When he says we're going to get a briefing and we have a steady hand and everything's fine, it's not exactly reassuring to me. And this is the absurdity. And and it's not just absurd. It's a real reminder of the fact that we can laugh all we want about the fact that there are cartoons in charge of the House of Representatives. Right.

MAGA Mike Johnson, it's filled with maggots like Marjorie Taylor Greene and others. And they're a joke and they ridicule and humiliate the United States. OK. And then the proverbial you know what hits the fan and we realize there is an undisclosed serious national security threat here. And the very same people are blindly driving the ship. We realize, hey, the people we vote for actually has consequences. The people we vote for makes a big difference.

Are you more reassured by having Maga Mike Johnson at the helm of the House when something like this is going on? Or would you rather somebody like Hakeem Jeffries, who was the Democratic selection to be speaker of the House? I know the answer. Very clear answer. Important not to forget that this isn't just sport when we vote for our representatives. It has a real world impact. And OK, I mean, now we're waiting to try to figure out what is this undisclosed national security threat. Republicans are losing at a record pace since MAGA Trumpism has taken over. And in particular, since the Supreme Court, with three Supreme Court justices nominated by the failed former President Donald Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade. There is a very interesting article in Salon by Chauncey de Vega that reads Republicans

amass a record of loss under Trump. And quotes Democrats have been winning at an impressive clip. Now much of what is in the article, people who watch this show or pay attention to politics know, which includes the realization that since Trump won in 2016, just barely Republicans underperformed in 2018, lost the White House and the Senate in 2020, we're going to supposedly have a red wave in 2022 that actually saw Democrats expand their majority in the Senate slightly. Yes, a minority in the House, but not by much.

Every ballot referendum related to abortion did not go Republicans way since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Twenty twenty three was not good when it comes to special elections and off year elections. Twenty twenty four so far has not been good for Republicans. So there has been defeat after defeat for MAGA Trump ism and for Republicans more broadly since MAGA Trump ism has become the norm and the default for the Republican Party. The next question is what is going to happen in November. And there are really two sides to this.

And we have the duality that we must accept and acknowledge on the one hand and on the other hand is number one, there is the real potential that Trump wins in November, that Republicans keep or extend their majority in the House, that they take the Senate and that we are up against some of the most dystopian, dangerous and dilapidated four years of American governance, certainly in my lifetime, if not the last hundred years or longer. That's a real possibility. The Republican Party seems addicted to Trump like a drug that they want in their veins. Even if it's bad for you, you just keep going back to it because you're addicted.

That's a real possibility. Every single one of us must be aware of it and understand the consequences of not voting or throwing our vote away on. We'll talk about Cornel West's four different parties that he ran under this cycle a little bit later in the show or tomorrow. So that's one real possibility. We should all be motivated to vote. On the other hand, we also have to contend with the possibility. It's an optimistic possibility. It's a possibility that we make a reality. It's not, oh, maybe there will be a blue wave. Well, no, it's if I get out to vote and you get out

to vote and if we all get out to vote, we may be able to create a real blue wave in which Donald Trump, as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is soundly defeated. Sure, millions of votes in the popular vote, but. It only a few states with small margins landed Joe Biden in the White House from an electoral perspective. We have the possibility of a resounding, even bigger defeat for Donald Trump. The basis for suggesting that might happen is that Trump lost in 2020. And I don't understand how Trump does better in 24 than 2020, assuming turnout on our side

is just as good as it was in 2020. Now, of course, if we stay home, if we go, maybe I'll vote RFK, maybe I'll vote. I'll write in Jill Stein. Right. OK, so it could go south. But if we all get out to vote in the same proportion that we did in 2020, Trump now is running as the guy who tried to steal the 2020 election, the guy who inspired violence, the guy who has been found civilly liable for rape, the guy who is for criminal trials with ninety one felony counts against them. Now, this doesn't change the minds of every MAGA voter for sure, but there are independent voters who aren't happy with this. There are the non-Trump Republicans who aren't happy with this.

So we have a real possibility of an even bigger blowout win in the White House in November than we had in 2020. Correlating with this or being dragged along by its coattails, for lack of a better term, we could see favorable results in the House and Senate. So these are the two possibilities. I know which one I prefer because I know which one is better for the country. We have to see if we can make that a reality. But what we'll link to this article and it's a it's a good explanation of the reality that

the losses for Republicans have never come as fast and as furious as they have in the MAGA Trump era and particularly since Roe v. Wade was overturned. So that's the optimistic view that depends on us making it a choice. You can have a great night or a great next day until Z biotics came along. Our sponsor Z biotics makes the world's first genetically engineered probiotics created by PhD microbiologists. Z biotics is a probiotic drink, breaks down the byproduct of alcohol, which is responsible for some of those feelings the day after. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. This byproduct, not dehydration, is to blame for how you feel the next day. Z-biotics pre-alcohol probiotic produces an enzyme to break that byproduct down. It's designed to work like your liver, but in the gut

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your personal info, emails, passwords, social security numbers and alerts you if anything We'll see you next time. can do on their devices with really easy to use parental controls. You can try or for free for two weeks at or dot com slash Pacman. Your usernames and passwords could already be floating around. It takes just seconds to find out using or as free trial. So you can change your passwords if you need to. That's a you are a dot com slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. We're increasingly getting more of a sense of the texture and contours. How about that? The texture and contours of this very sick obsession

with Taylor Swift among the MAGA right. You know, you hear less about QAnon these days, somewhat less. You hear less about some of the other conspiracy theories, but increasingly the obsession has been Taylor Swift, the supposedly rigged NFL, in order to generate public and very prominent endorsements for Joe Biden by people like Taylor Swift, et cetera. We now have polling on this and there's a Rolling Stone article that summarizes the Monmouth polling. One third of conservatives think Taylor Swift is part of a conspiracy to help elect Joe Biden. Travis Kelsey said of these conspiracies, you're all crazy, crazy. Of course, the idea being that the relationship between Kelsey and Taylor Swift is stage managed

and fabricated by those close to Joe Biden in order to generate an environment in which Taylor Swift is injected into football discourse so that then she has a bigger platform from which to endorse Joe Biden. As you can see, I sound like a nut when I talk about it, but this is what they believe. And here's the data. A new Monmouth University poll finds that one in five Americans. Oh, this is overall. OK, one in five Americans overall believe, quote, a covert government effort for Taylor Swift to help Joe Biden win the presidential election actually exists. Among conservatives, the number is higher. It's about

one third. Thirty two percent of conservatives self-described believe that there is a government conspiracy involving Taylor Swift. Seventy one percent of those who believe in the conspiracy identify with or lean towards the Republican Party. Not surprisingly, 83 percent of those who believe in the Taylor Swift conspiracy theory say they are likely to support Donald Trump in the fall. So a couple of different things here. There is often some kernel of reality. I don't sometimes we call it a kernel of truth. Sometimes we call it a kernel

of reality. There is often a kernel of reality to these conspiracy theories in the sense that Taylor Swift expressed her preference for Joe Biden in 2020. So it's not crazy to think that at some point an endorsement of Biden could be forthcoming. That's not a conspiracy. That's just, well, her politics probably haven't changed since 2020. And if the same people are on the ballot, she will probably have the same preference. OK, second part of it. It is absolutely true that due to the success of her tour and other cultural flashpoints, Taylor Swift is even more prominent today than she was in 2020. And thus,

if you are Joe Biden or anybody that Taylor Swift might endorse, you would be well incentivized. It would be logical for you to be thinking, hey, is there a way that we can leverage her fame and followers in order to help ourselves? Who wouldn't do that? If Taylor Swift, like Donald Trump, you can be sure. I mean, listen, Trump will try to name drop and take advantage of people like Jon Voight, Kid Rock and Ted Nugent, who are far less well known than Taylor Swift because he thinks it helps him.

And so obviously, anybody who has Taylor Swift's is in Taylor Swift's good graces would try to get some kind of endorsement from her. The conspiracy idea that this is covert, it might involve the NFL. It might involve a scripted NFL season. Right. This is where it goes overboard. They've scripted the outcome of the entire NFL season and the relationship of Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift has been concocted. They don't even they're not even really in a relationship. It's all so that she can dump the big endorsement of Biden to help him defeat Donald Trump. Not only is there no evidence of that, you don't really need to do any of that, especially since Taylor Swift has already shown herself based on her 2020 behavior to prefer Joe Biden over

Donald Trump. So when you see these numbers, my takeaway is this is a really sick country. It's a really deranged electorate that we are up against. And to be quite honest, that same third of conservatives that believes in this conspiracy is probably the same third that believes Trump is an intelligent guy who has the best interests of the American people in his in his mind as a priority, as opposed to just what's good for him. And this is really the kind of moral and intellectual sludge of America. There's it's a grease trap of sorts. And this is why I continue to say it is not a worthy effort as an electoral strategy to try to change their minds at an interpersonal level. If in your family you've

got someone who's cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and believes this stuff for either sport entertainment or just to feel like you're trying to do something to help your family. I am completely on board with you trying to change the minds of these misguided individuals. But as an approach for winning elections, you've seen the interviews that Luke Beasley does for us at the rallies. You've seen the focus groups. It is not a viable strategy to try to change the minds of these folks, especially when only 50 or 60 percent of the country votes, we can win by making them irrelevant. That's what I say. We don't call for violence. We don't need to insult them. We don't need to restrict their

access to voting rights. We just need to make them operationally, politically irrelevant by coming out in such large numbers that they are diminished as a percentage of the total electorate. That's my view. It continues to be that way. And certainly these numbers don't change that. Fox News hosts confronted Nikki Haley with a very realistic question. You're going to lose.

Why are you doing this? This is Fox anchor John Roberts, who asked Nikki Haley about this. Her answer is just about as much about what she doesn't say as what she does say. But I like this. This is a good conversation to have. Take a look. Last question is on that whole point of South Carolina. New CBS poll out shows that Donald Trump

is 35 points ahead of you now. He's increased his lead. And here's a question I have. We're just a little more than a week away from South Carolina. At the moment, it looks like you're going to go into that contest and lose badly in your home state, which would forever be a cloud over your political career. Why go through with it? So first of all, that's what they said before New Hampshire. And I got 43 percent of the vote. OK, now just just on that, it is true that Nikki Haley has done better in actual elections primaries than in the polling.

But she still hasn't won a single state. And at some point she needs to start winning some states. Polls do not show that that is not what we're seeing. And we're going to close that gap. But more than that, you're asking me about my political career. That's the problem with politics. Donald Trump's worried about his image. Joe Biden's worried about his image. I'm not worried about mine. I'm worried about the future of America. I'm worried about my kids and what country they grow up in. I'm worried about my kids and what country they grow up in. I'm worried about your kids and what country they grow up in. This isn't personal.

It's not about me or what happens to me. This is about the fact that if we don't see how bad this can get, it's already bad. If we don't become part of the solution and realize that we can change it, that's the problem. I will say again, don't complain about what happens in a general election if you don't play in this primary because Donald Trump cannot win a general election. He's already said he's going to spend more time in court than on the campaign trail. He spent $50 million of campaign contributions. All right. So this is a very nice answer, right? You know what, John? This is not about my legacy. If I lose my home state, then so be it. That's not how I guide

myself. I do what's right. And I am here for all of the right reasons. Beautiful explanation, right? Selfless Nikki Haley running even if she will lose because it's the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it's a total fantasy. Let me give you the real interpretation. If it weren't for Trump being almost 80, declining and facing a de facto life prison sentence, she would be out already because she has no voting path to victory. Nikki hit. The real answer here is, listen, John, I'm losing everything, even my home

state. But this isn't about getting to the nomination by winning the vote. This is about being around to be the number one backup in case Trump dies, is incapacitated or otherwise so tied up with criminal trials that he somehow quits the race or gets kicked out through mechanisms that we don't even really understand at this point. That's the real answer. Now, you will never hear that real answer from Nikki Haley. Maybe you'll hear it later, right, once this campaign is over. But that's actually what she is doing. If this were a normal primary where Trump wasn't clearly declining and almost

80 years old and also the guy he's running against is very old and not at his peak. If this wasn't a can, a de facto, a presumptive candidate, presumptive nominee facing 91 felony charges, who is going to be going from courthouse to courthouse, who's running out of legal money quickly, which we will get to later. If it wasn't for any of that, Nikki Haley would be out or she would be out after next Saturday when she loses her home state. This isn't a normal primary. It's a very different situation. It's like the Seinfeld episode where Jerry hangs out with his friend who just went through a breakup. He's there for her and he's just going to keep hanging out until he's then just there and can swoop in by virtue of circumstance.

Nikki Haley wants to just be there. She's not there for the voters. She's not there for Trump. She's just there. And if something happens to Trump, she wants to be the obvious go to rather than getting out early. And then maybe people go, well, should we go to the sanctus or should we go to who do we go to?

The longer she stays in while losing, the better position she is to be the obvious de facto a runner up. If something were to happen to Donald Trump, that's the real answer. I understand why she's not using that answer. Instead, she's telling this story about not caring about the numbers and just doing what's right. Will it work? It completely depends on Donald Trump. I'm going to play for you a very funny video. Some of you may know that Cornel West is running for president. Now, he initially went under the People's Party, then the Green Party, then Independent. And now he's under some new party.

He's he's creating, but only in some states. This is absolutely hilarious. Jordan Chariton from Status Quo interviewed Cornel West and he says to Cornel West, hey, Cornel, can you explain why youel West, hey, Cornel, can you explain why you're running through all these different parties? And my editorializing is it is yet another sign of the complete and total chaos and lack of seriousness of this entire presidential campaign. I want to play this for you.

Here is Cornel West's explanation of why he keeps switching parties. And this this is the best possible explanation you're going to get. It's coming from the guy himself. So I got to I got to ask you some tough questions, too, which I'm sure you appreciate. Let me tell you, I read the room and I'm looking at, you know, folks online, leftists who say, I love Dr. West and what he stands for, but goddamn, I can't keep up with him. He started out with MPP, then he moved to the Green Party, then he moved to Independent. Now I hear he's launching another, a new party, still Independent, but the Justice for All Party. You do have ballot access now in Alaska and Oregon.

Right. But there's a lot of people who look at this dynamic. I mean, Biden's got the lowest approval ratings for an incumbent Democrat in recent memory. No incumbent president at 37 percent approval rating. The only other two that were that low were Jimmy Carter and Papa Bush. They both lost. And Trump just lost his immunity case. And he might be convicted before the election. So they look at this as, you know, I know you've made your choice, but there's a chance a third party candidate could really compete here, get 5% or more. Yet you're running now independent Justice Party. Jill Stein's running. You guys are kind of pulling from each other. Do you think that was a mistake possibly to leave the Green Party? Because it seems like you're starting a party. So you're not against

having being part of a party. It just seems like you guys might be pulling from each other. Yeah. Jordan, in very polite terms, could have asked this in 15 seconds. Listen, it seems like utter chaos. You've run under four different parties. You're running under different parties in different states. This is not a way that is going to inspire confidence and get you anything. Is it, Dr. West? Anyway. OK, so here we go to Dr. West's explanation where if you were together, you could be, you know, people have a clear choice of the left. I don't consider RFK Jr. left at all. Right. So what do you think of that criticism that you kind of have switched too much and people, you know, want you to reconsider? Well, I mean, no. I mean, the idea of starting with the People's Party was because they came to me.

Right. And I always appreciate that. But there was no way that could work for a number of different reasons. It was very kind of Chris Hedges to suggest that I then move with Sister Jill and Brother John will work with the Green Party. But it was clear that that was in no way a fit that would work. It was too much work inside of the Green Party, too many Green Party events, all the different internal Green Party debates with the various candidates.

And I had no idea that Jill Stein was going to end up running. I mean, you know, she's right with our campaign, but before that, that pressure is about a time. And I'm appreciative on the one hand, but on the other hand, I was glad to get out. Right. Because there was no way that I could be myself, be fully and freely myself within the context of the Green Party. So I was glad to be independent. And you see, the justice just ask on the Green Party. Was the issue that you guys had a difference in values or more like there was too many bureaucratic layers that you had to jump through?

It was many bureaucratic layers. I mean, we resonate in terms of policies and so forth. But there's also a number of tensions that were personal that not even worth talking about. But I want to be honest about it. But the only reason, but there's two reasons that's just for all parties important. One is that as you know in certain states,

you run as an independent. You have a certain number of signatures. You run as a party. You have far fewer. In other states, it's the opposite. So in some states, I'll be independent. In other states, I would need a party. In other states, there have been parties who come forward. Thank God for my brothers and sisters in Alaska, the Aurora Party.

That's how I ended up gaining access to the ballot. So listen, I mean, listen to this story. And my point here is not to make fun of Cornel West. He just doesn't know what he's doing. And none of this makes any sense. And it's not going to help us prevent four years of Trump. That's the the end point. But listen to this story. You know, the People's Party came to me and I like that. I like it when they come to me. So I said, let's do it. But then I realized that's not actually going to work because they don't have valid access.

Everybody knew that. Go back to my first clip about this. Everybody knew this. It took him weeks to figure it out. So then he says, well, Chris Hedges came to me and said, hey, why don't you move to the Green Party? All right. I don't know. Chris Hedges told me to do it. So I did it. Then I realized the Green Party is a party that has their own stuff. They have events. They want me to do things. There's meetings and events and fundraisers. That was no good. So then I became independent. The problem is, in some states, there's not even a path to ballot access by doing that. So then I've got the

this new party that he's creating or in some states, I'll run under the umbrella of some other party altogether, whatever maybe gets me ballot access. If they come to me and say, sir, be on our party, then I'll do it. How can anyone see this chaos and say this is a great alternative to just voting Biden and making sure that Trump doesn't win? OK, most importantly, this level of chaos, it's not. I would suggest to you it doesn't even matter how Cornel West's position on health care compares to Joe Biden's when there is this level of obvious chaos and on a practical level, he simply can't win. It's just a waste of time. And if we had a

different situation, if this was a different sort of election, I would be much more understanding of entertaining. Well, maybe I'll vote RFK or Cornel West or Jill Stein or write in, you know, whoever I it would make more sense morally and practically. We have a situation where we either give four more years to the guy who on paper has been the most progressive president, at least since FDR, Joe Biden, and has accomplished dozens of important things, even according to people like AOC. Or we risk who knows what level of untold damage by giving another four years to Donald Trump. I am not going to take that risk with my vote. I hope that you don't either. Let me know your thoughts. We'll go to a quick break and be right back. When I'm doing any kind of my work, prepping for the show, whatever it might be, I love

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and several flavors to try. That's try f um dot com slash Pacman. Use the code Pacman for 10 percent off the journey pack. The info is in the podcast notes. Today we'll be speaking with Kevin Walling. Kevin is a Democratic campaign strategist, a partner at HG Creative and is a former 2020 Biden Harris campaign surrogate. Kevin, it's great to have you on just to get right into the thick of it. Right. You look at the polling.

I look at the polling. We all look at the polling. Some portion of my audience writes to me and says, David, the polling makes it obvious that this thing is over. There's no way Joe Biden can win. He's losing every poll. Others say some version of a lot of those polls don't yet account for the reality that a lot of the people that are saying they're going to vote third party aren't really going to vote third party.

Trump's trials haven't started. Neither of them is officially the nominee. Fill in the blanks. Right. Here's why we don't really need to worry. The second view that there is no concern here is not striking me as super compelling, although I still do think the most likely outcome here is Biden ultimately wins.

It seems risky to me to just say the polling is obviously wrong because the last few election cycles, the polling is more or less been right. So give us first as an entryway to this conversation. What do you see when you look at these polls? Yeah, David, it's a great question. Listen, you know, we're 264 days out from the election. That's an eternity in politics. And as we saw from the special election results in New York three, Tom Suozzi, a guy I've known for a long time, worked for in previous campaigns, outperformed those polls. You know, it was a two, three point race.

He won by eight points. So there's a lot of variables at play to your point. And, you know, we talk about third parties as a great example. And part of the equation with that is actually ballot access, right? So, you know, you have Robert Kennedy Jr. out there campaigning, he's raising money, he's doing some events with some celebrities. But it's a real question as to the actual practicality of getting him on the ballot come November in a lot of these key states. It's very difficult to run as a third party, especially if he's not going to align with the libertarian line or the Green Party line. So, you know, I don't put a lot of merit and trust in polls, especially this far out,

given to your point to, you know, questions around Donald Trump's legal predicaments, questions around, you know, the fate of the war in Israel and Hamas, you know, questions just now that have arisen with Russia and their nuclear capabilities that just came up to the surface just this past week. So there's so many variables at play and nothing is a foregone conclusion. One of the variables at play that you've engaged with, we've covered some of your clips on on Fox discussing this is this issue of the cognitive state of both Trump and Biden. I've been covering the apparent cognitive decline of Trump for a long time.

I also can do nothing but concede that Joe Biden is not at his peak. And as I've said before, if they've both got dementia, I'm voting Biden because he's been an incredibly successful president and has good people around him. I'm not saying that that's what I believe. But if we just say these are both old, demented guys, the choice is still very clear for me. But what I'm curious about from your perspective is behind the scenes, is the right acknowledging that something is up with Trump, even if on the air they are not yet willing to talk about it? Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, there's no question.

And you just look at, you know, the speech that former President Trump gave in my home state of South Carolina last week, where he's doubling or last night, rather, where he's doubling down on, you know, the attacks on NATO. He's slurring words. He's mispronouncing individuals. He's mixing up world leaders. And that's been a trend that we've seen for a long time in recent and not just, you know, in this recent campaign. So, you know, again, I think the American people, as the president has said, are going to judge both of these men. They're both, you know, approaching, you know, one's over 80, one's approaching 80. They could have been, as the White House has said, they could have been high school colleagues.

So, you know, I saw a meme the other day. You know, you had Yoda and you had the emperor from Star Wars. And the meme said, you know, both are old and throw threw up their hands. So your point, David, it's going to be you know, it's going to be a choice election between these two individuals. And we'll see how that process plays out when it comes to the Biden side of it. What's the right way, in your view, for the left to handle it? Because I, I, I'm completely honest with my audience 100 percent of the time.

And for years I've said, if you look at Biden's 2020 debates and his 2012 debate against Paul Ryan, there's a difference. What he did with Paul Ryan was so stunning and humiliating that it almost made you feel bad for Paul Ryan. And while Biden made his points in 2020, it's certainly a different Joe Biden. It's now been almost four more years. We can't bury our heads in the sand. And so what's the right approach here while still maintaining the North Star? That is, there's two very different choices here and we know what the right choice is. Yeah, David, it's a really good question.

I think part of it is is not denying the undisputed fact that, you know, Joe Biden is old. He's 81 years old. I think, you know, you saw him give a speech just the other day before an audience in Washington where he talked about the fact that he's old, that he's been around the block. And to not acknowledge what people are seeing with their very eyes, I think is wrong. I think, you know, playing in the idea that, yeah, he's old, but, you know, he's still delivering for the American people. I mean, this guy, you know, is so funny. Politico had this article out, you know, will Joe Biden get out of his cocoon? And I tweeted at them and it got some attention.

You know, this guy has been to 14 different states in the last three weeks. You know, he is not shying away from the travel schedule and the intense pressures of of the of the office. So I think playing into that, not not not acknowledging it is problematic, but playing into the idea that this guy has been around the block. He knows all these world leaders. You know, he mixed up President Sisi of of Egypt and the president of Mexico. You know, Donald Trump doesn't even probably know the names of the two presidents, let alone where Mexico and Egypt are on a map. So, again, I think that contrast message, while acknowledging the limitations of age is important.

But what that age is able to deliver for the American people, I think, is also important. What do you make of the ideas of replacing Joe Biden? And there's a bunch of iterations of this. There are those who say he will be forced out by who I don't really know. It doesn't seem the DNC is going to do it, but someone will force him out. Jill won't let him run or whatever the case may be. Biden himself will realize he can't do it and will exit. There's a bunch of iterations of this.

And what I want you to address is not just the likelihood of this, but my view is that even if you say if Biden wasn't president today and you said, David, who excites you on the Democratic side, who would you pick if Biden's not already president with dozens of major achievements? I don't choose Joe Biden. I certainly choose Joe Biden. I certainly choose someone younger. There's no doubt.

But understanding where we are today, it seems to me that a lot of the replace Biden people ignore the chaos element of a party saying to a guy that's already won every primary, including in states where he was just a write in, right. Saying we're removing him on what basis? I don't know. And picking someone else, it actually seems like bad strategy to me as well. Yeah. Listen, this is a guy, you know, who spent 50 years in public life. He first ran for the presidency back in the 80s.

So this is something that he's desired for a long time. He has it. He's working hard. He's delivering for a long time. He has it. He's working hard. He's delivering for the American people. So it's not something he's going to give up without a lot of thought into it. And again, I think he you know, the first lady are up for this reelection fight and are in it to win it. So to your point, it would be chaos, I think, you know, depending on the calendar, the timing of it, if it happens before or after the convention. But but I don't see that happening.

You know, this this is a guy that I think was actually pretty candid the other day at a fundraiser where he said, you know, I don't know necessarily if I would be running for reelection if Donald Trump wasn't the nominee on the other side. And he views a second Trump presidency. You know, you know, he's a religious guy. It's almost like a religious calling that he was called up with his experience, with his knowledge, with his affection for and from the American people to defeat this existential threat. And that's what Donald Trump poses in a second Trump term. And there's a lot of powers of incumbency of the presidency in our history. You know, 250 plus years, it's very difficult to beat a an incumbent president. And he did it by eight million more votes last go round. So, again, I think he's views that through the lens of history,

through the lens of Donald Trump being this existential crisis and candidate and he being one of the sole people that can defeat him come November. There's a slice of my audience and a slice of the left that's not happy with Joe Biden for his handling of what's going on in Israel and Gaza. And the gist of that displeasure usually is along the lines of he is enabling too much aggression and killing by the Israeli military. He's not being tough enough with Benjamin Netanyahu.

He's looking the other way. The specifics of the critic criticism are less important for this conversation than the practical question of is that something that could possibly affect Biden's reelection chances? My instinct, my instinct, Kevin, has been no, because that is primarily an issue that the youngest element of the electorate is concerned with. That's the piece of the electorate that votes at the lowest rate. And also, I do think that at the end of the day, people are more going to be motivated to vote or not vote based on domestic

issues, the economy, et cetera. That's just my completely, you know, amateur assessment of it. What do you see on this? Speaker 3 No, I think you're absolutely right. I think it's an animated animating issue for some certain segments of the population. Clearly, we've seen that resonate with young people, the war with Hamas and Israel. And that might be a key factor in some states where you see not just young people outperforming their numbers, but also Arab American, Muslim American, Democrats in some of these key states

like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, what have you. And it will be interesting to see where that stands, again, nearly 250 days plus away from the election in terms of the state of the war in the Middle East. But I think you're right. I think it's going to be domestic issues. I think abortion is still going to be an overwhelming, important factor for a lot of people voting about this. We've seen that resonate in all of these special elections and some of these ballot initiatives that have gone forward, whether it be in Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, what have you. And again, part of this issue, too, is, you know, you've got, you know, an issue that resonates with a lot of young people. But where's Donald Trump's stance on the war with Israel and

Hamas? You know, he's again doubling down on his calls for a Muslim ban, for example. And so he's far, far farther out of the mainstream than I would contend that President Biden is in his support for the people of Israel and some of somewhat tacit support of Benjamin Netanyahu. So we'll see again how that process plays out. Yeah. And, you know, people will sometimes call me and they'll say, David, I'm on the left. I voted Biden in 2020, but I just can't vote for him because of what he is doing in

Gaza. And whether he's doing it or not, doesn't matter if that's the perception. OK, people are entitled to vote however they want. When I ask them, but hold on a second. Trump basically doesn't care if you bulldoze all of Gaza and kill everyone. Why would you then do that? And they say, well, no, it would probably just motivate me to stay home and not vote for anybody or maybe vote third party. I believe some of them will do that. But when it really gets to October and the possibility of four more years of Trump becomes a real possible outcome, my hope is most of them will realize this is not a good reason to make this to vote in this way. Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely right. And again, you look at some

of the indicators right now, again, 250 plus days out, there's a good segment of the population that don't realize that it's going to be a Trump Biden rematch once again, that we're doubting that Donald Trump was going to be the Republican nominee again in twenty twenty four. So as more and more, more people realize that that is the dynamic at play and that this really is a binary choice for the American people. I think to your point, they're going to come home to to Joe Biden. We've been speaking with Democratic campaign strategist Kevin Walling, who's a partner at HG Creative and also a former 2020 Biden Harris campaign surrogate. Kevin, really appreciate your time and insights today.

David, thanks for having me. Did you know there are hundreds of commercial databases and people search sites that hold your personal information and the number is growing every year. Anyone in the world, the boss and X can use these people search sites to see your online activity, to find your home address, phone number, email address, license plate number, family members, financial info, even your political beliefs. Europe has certain laws that protect people against this.

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primary, not this Saturday, but next Saturday. Trump poised to win and defeat Nikki Haley, even in her home state. Trump starting off the rally with overt provable lies, looking disoriented the entire rally, appearing agitated and confused at different times. Here, Trump claims there has never been an empty seat at any of his rallies, despite the fact that at many rallies they seem half empty and often empty out while Trump is talking. I've never had an empty seat. Right. This place is back the rope. I never get credit for being a great speaker. I don't know if I'm a great speaker or not. Who the

hell knows? I never get credit. I never get credit. I don't know. Henry thinks I'm a very good speaker. But, you know, now every rally like this one turns out they're all rallies because if we have a thousand people, 10,000 people show up, they're all rallies. But they come by the thousands. We never have empty seats. We never have anything empty. We usually have to put screens like this outside so people can see. We did it in Nevada. Obviously, this is a lie. There are regularly endless empty seats.

And this only led to Trump then fixating on Joe Biden, pointing out that in a television appearance, Joe Biden's eyes were round, which, based on my understanding of Joe Biden's race, isn't that normal? Wouldn't you expect his eyes to be round? I don't understand. We get it. Congress ought to impeach crooked Joe Biden for attacking his political opponent by weaponizing the DOJ, the FBI and even the local DAs and attorney generals. Oh, and by the way, sorry, this is the clip. The first he starts with

they should impeach Biden right away. Then we'll get to the round eyes thing against his political opponent. They ought to impeach him because that is the most undemocratic thing that you can do. This happens in demanding the immediate impeachment of President Joe Biden and then going into the his eyes are round material. They are. Do you see this guy on television today? Yeah. I mean, he's he's like a crazed lunatic. Round eyes. The eyes are all round as hell. But I know he didn't have any plastic surgery. Anybody know what Trump is talking about?

And maybe Trump's reaction to Joe Biden's eyes is because Trump's eyes are noticed, especially the right one, are almost completely swollen shut during these rallies. They're just almost completely swollen shut during these rallies. They're just almost completely closed. I don't know what the obsession is with Biden's eyes, but probably projection on some level and then attempting to be more substantive. Trump substantive attempting to be more substance substantive Trump talking about Bidenomics versus Maga Nomics. See if this makes any sense to you. Let's compare the smoldering records of Biden omics. How about that name?

By nomics with the incredible success we had just three years ago under President Trump on Maga nomics. You ever hear that term? I just heard it and I like it. I said, let's use it. I said, let's use it. Everyone said, let's use it in South Carolina. It's it's really quite a record to compare, isn't it? The smoldering remains of Bidenomics.

First of all, when he talks about three years ago, how great things were. Joe Biden was president three years ago. So again, does Trump not remember when he was president? Does Trump not understand what year it is? Three years ago was already Joe Biden. Now, Bidenomics sees unemployment at record lows sustained under 4 percent for the longest stretch in 50 years. Fifteen million jobs added under Joe Biden.

Explosive stock market growth, beautiful GDP numbers. Inflation has come down dramatically. Magonomics, as I've said for a while, the Trump economy was fine. It was basically continuing a similar trajectory to what we saw under President Obama. Trump did leave office with fewer jobs than he started, making him the only president other than Herbert Hoover to experience that in his partial defense. He did have covid as a major factor for that. The unemployment rate was six point three. When Trump left, it's now under four.

And then never mind Trump's mishandling of the pandemic, both medically and economically. So this idea that the economy is just rubble under Joe Biden but was perfect under Trump just doesn't comport with the facts. And then lastly, Trump tells an obviously made up story about mountain climbers being unable to get over a prototype of the US Mexico wall that I guess he wanted to build but didn't itself. But they needed the panel. It's called an anti-climb panel.

I said, I don't like the way it looks. They say the difference is they can climb over it without it. With it, you can't climb. We had Mount Everest climbers and we had a lot of drug deals. Frankly, we said, give us your best climbers and they couldn't get over the panel. We built we built five. Trump arguing that they got the best the best drug dealers at scaling fences and also Everest climbers to test the wall. And they were unable to get over it.

Of course, widespread viral videos of just random people utilizing under one hundred dollars worth of parts from Home Depot were able to get over Trump's prototype wall very, very easily. So Trump disoriented and distracted, clearly concerned about what's coming for him. And if you need to understand the latest source of this concern, he's running out of legal money. Legal money is drying up. That's what I want to talk about next. We haven't even started the criminal trials of Donald Trump, and he is already running out of money for lawyers. There's a very interesting Bloomberg article which says Trump on pace to drain legal funds

by July with only twenty seven million left. A Trump allied group has twenty six point six million to spend on legal fees, meaning Trump is either going to have to go to the RNC or go to donors for more money. This is a very interesting story. Why all of a sudden does Trump urgently want to install his daughter in law, Lara Trump, as co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Well, we know why she told us in an interview we looked at yesterday, we will be 100 percent behind Donald Trump if I am co-chair. And this involves shoveling money at him that he can use for legal fees.

This is why Trump wanted to put her in place and put her in place so quickly. We've also talked about can Trump even legally go to donors and use the money for legal fees? The law is, as we understand it right now, is that as long as Trump somewhere, even in some teeny tiny fine print two point font, as long as Trump somewhere says donated funds may be used to pay for legal fees, he can do it. That's the legal pieces I've seen written and the couple of lawyers I've spoken to say that's their understanding. He has to disclose it somewhere. So this is the situation. And we haven't even started the criminal trials. All sorts of things could immediately happen as the criminal trials get going.

That will actually require Trump to find even more money than what he currently thinks he will need, depending on how the trials go, depending on what sorts of motions are put forward, depending on the scheduling of the trials, depending on whether there are overlapping trials that will blow up the legal budget or require even more lawyers or even more travel. Or who the hell knows. Trump is panicking because he has five major criminal trials coming up and the bank account is increasingly drained. Now, in terms of the whole Lara Trump becoming RNC co-chair thing, to some degree.

I like the idea of it happening because the more money the RNC funnels to Trump for legal fees, the less those funds can be used to help any of these Republicans get elected. In other words, under normal circumstances, the RNC would say, OK, let's give some money to the presumptive Republican nominee for campaign ads and for door knocking and for on the ground stuff. Let's give money to Republicans running in the Senate for reelection, Republicans running in the House challenger candidates who are trying to unseat Democrats. That would be the normal situation in a world where Lara Trump is at the helm of the RNC and they're just shoveling the money to Trump to try to keep him out of prison for life.

That denies those very funds from being used for campaigns. And that's a great thing. So my interest here is doing as much damage as we can to MAGA Trumpism and the RNC shoveling money to Trump for lawyers certainly would be one way to deny a bunch of that money to candidates who are trying to get themselves elected. That sounds pretty damn good to me. Trump quickly running out of legal cash. We have a voicemail number. You can call it any time. The number is two one nine two.

David P. Here is an 11 year old calling in. I love this. Hey, David, this is Bailey. I'm 11 years old and I'm calling to tell you how much I love watching your show. Thank you. My parents live in Maine and we watch your show almost every day. They even said they're going to buy me Think Like a Scientist for my birthday. Thanks a lot, David. Keep having the great shows.

Well, Bailey, thank you so much, Bailey. Clearly upper management written all over them. And I love that you're going to be getting the book. If I could get you a signed copy somehow, I would do it. The logistics of it have just proven to be very difficult. But Bailey, I hope you enjoy the book. Really appreciate it. And I don't know how many 11 year olds we have in the audience. I know of a handful.

I don't think it's our bread and butter. But the earlier you start following what's going on in the country and what's going on in the world, the more informed and prepared you will be to be a materially contributing member of society when you are legally able to do it. So Bailey, really appreciate it. We have a fantastic bonus show for you today. Border crossings have seen the biggest drop since Joe Biden took office. Now here's the funny thing.

Whether the numbers are up or down, you can argue that it's good or bad in terms of the job being done by the president and by Border Patrol and by others. I'll explain how you can take these numbers and get whatever you want out of them. Like Plato, you can shape them on the bonus show. The House Homeland Security chairman, Mark Green, announces he's retiring the day after leading the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas. What's that about? And this one is just wild.

Remember Rachel Dolezal, who said she was black, but she wasn't. And that whole crazy thing. She now has lost her job because of an OnlyFans account that she had with explicit content. But her name is something different now. She's no longer going by Rachel Dolezal. Bizarre story to me, mostly sad and indicative of someone who's really struggling. All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Sign up at join Pacman dot com.

We will see you then.