The David Pakman Show - 2/20/25: Another plane crash, another demented rant, another terrifying day

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

-- On the Show: -- Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, joins David to discuss what went wrong in 2024, the disaster that is the Trump-Musk presidency, and the path forward for Democrats -- Yet another plane crash takes place as Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy flippantly says "air crashes happen" -- Out of ideas, MAGA-world begins to transition into claiming that everything not going well today is the fault of former President Joe Biden -- Lawyers have started to warn us exactly how a Trump administration would go after independent left wing media -- Donald Trump stops pretending and goes full Putin in a deranged Truth Social rant -- Part 2 of the Donald Trump / Elon Musk interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News reveals that Musk is the one holding the real power, not Trump -- An addled Donald Trump glitches badly during a speech to "investors" in Miami, Florida -- On the Bonus Show: Trump declares NYC congestion pricing dead, Brazil's former president faces charges over alleged coup plot, Trump's death penalty order sparks huge Luigi Mangione donation, much more... 🍵 Pique: Get 20% OFF delicious Pu’er Teas at https://piquelife.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman 🧠 Try Brain.fm totally free for a month at https://brain.fm/pakman 🥦 Lumen lets you master your metabolism. GET 20% OFF at https://lumen.me/pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep: Get 27% OFF and 2 free pillows at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 📈 Manifold: Get free Sweepcash when you sign up at https://manifold.markets/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- Get David's Books: https://davidpakman.com/echo -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- David on Bluesky: https://davidpakman.com/bluesky -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow

Speaker 1 welcome to the show. Everybody, Senator Elizabeth Warren will join us later and tell us whether she believes Trump or Musk are really in charge. Looking forward to that conversation. 2025 has barely begun and we are already witnessing a disturbing trend, plane crashes and not just minor incidents, catastrophic, deadly collisions that are raising serious questions about the state of air safety in the United States. Plane crashes that while they pile up, the Trump administration pushes to cut funding for the very agencies tasked with keeping our skies safe.

So let me tell you the incidents that we've seen kind of in reverse chronological order. The most recent one yesterday, yesterday, two more planes collided midair at Marana regional airport in Arizona. Two people are dead. The planes involved are a Lankair 3600 and a Cessna 172. The Lankair is a sort of high performance kit plane destroyed. The Cessna miraculously remained intact. Investigation is ongoing, can take months, if not years to get answers. Nine days earlier, February 10th, two aircraft Gulfstream G 200 and a Learjet 35 collided at Scottsdale Airport.

One person died, at least three others injured. The Bering Air Flight 445 crash on February 6th, the Cessna 208 B grand caravan went down over the Norton sound in Alaska. Everybody on board, 10 people killed 10 lives lost in an instant. That was a scheduled domestic flight. It wasn't an experimental flight. It wasn't a private plane operation. And then there's the med jets flight zero five six crash.

That was January 31. A Learjet 55 operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance crashed in a Philly neighborhood shortly after taking off. Everybody there died, including the patient being transported and her mother. And then, of course, I think we all know about the Potomac River incident on January 29th, where an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near DCA. Everybody on board, both aircraft killed. Now, here is where it gets infuriating, because while these crashes are happening at an alarming frequency, the Trump administration is both blaming Biden

and actively working to cut funding for the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and for ATC air traffic control. The same agencies responsible for ensuring, if not guaranteeing the safety of our skies are facing budget cuts under president Trump. Trump's transportation secretary, meanwhile, seems more focused on attending sporting events and flying on air force one than on addressing the crisis. And in fact, when he was asked about these plane crashes, his response was blame Biden. And also sometimes there are plane crashes. But again, air crashes happen,

but they were more under Biden than than Donald Trump. But the point here is we want to get to a place where we have zero crashes. We don't want people to die in aircraft, which is why what I've done is focus on how do you upgrade the system? But you look at what's happened, the airspace around DCA that was allowed to stay open under the last administration. The inspections that were done of the aircraft that have crashed that was open under the last administration. The inspections that were done of the aircraft that have crashed, that was done under the last administration. So it is rich that they would come at this administration for the mistakes that they've made and blame us for the crashes. We're going to fix what they refuse to fix over there. We'll fix it. But listen, sometimes planes crash. And if they do, it's never our fault. It's Joe Biden's fault. We're going to get in a moment to how now the new as things are clearly not going swimmingly.

They're retreating to blame Biden. The truth, of course, is that air travel is statistically one of the safest ways to get around. But the safety doesn't happen by magic. It doesn't happen by osmosis. It's the result of rigorous oversight, regulation, well-funded government agencies, highly trained professionals. When you start cutting funding to FAA and ATC, you're not just trimming the budget.

You're gambling with people's lives. We're seeing it. It's a tragedy. I don't know how many more lives will be lost before they act. And if anything, we should be staffing up these agencies and giving them the regulatory teeth that will enable them to keep the sky safe rather than saying cut, cut, cut, fire and lay off. It's the wrong instinct. And isn't it always the wrong instinct with these people? Maga world is transitioning fully into blame Biden for everything. They were going to reduce gas price. I'm sorry. They were going to reduce egg prices.

They were going to reduce gas prices too. Neither is happening. They were going to reduce egg prices. Egg prices are up 30%. Well, you blame Biden. They are now dealing with, as we just talked about the plane crash and aviation safety situation. They are blaming Biden. They are now dealing with, as we just talked about, the plane crash and aviation safety situation. They are blaming Biden. They are blaming Biden for everything because they are realizing we're actually not going to fix things. So for as long as we can, we're going to blame Biden.

Hey, the upside is they're no longer blaming Obama. They've moved on from that. So let's start here with a few of these examples. Here is Congressman Mark Alford. He was being asked, isn't Trump kind of selling out Ukraine here in a way? And he decides to change the topic to bashing Joe Biden. Your reaction to the war of words now playing out. Well, look, it's very clear that this war should have been over a long time ago. I lay this at the feet of President Joe Biden. This never would have happened had he not pulled out of Afghanistan the way he did and shown weakness on the world stage for America.

Putin would not have been emboldened to invaded Ukraine. Biden practically signaled that, hey, if you're just going to have a little invasion, it's OK with us. That is not the way to be a world leader. Biden is to blame for Russia invading Ukraine. It's Biden's fault. Now, as we looked at recently, Trump asked about egg prices reaching an all time high. He blames bird flu to a degree, something he doesn't care about. And also, of course, Biden. This is not my problem. This was like this before I got. Reached an all time high. What's your. Before I ever got here, it was at an all time. This seems I remember I've been here for three weeks. And when you saw the inflation numbers, I've been here for three weeks. I have had nothing

to do with inflation. This was caused by Biden. I had four years of virtually no inflation. So I'm just taking over. But I'll tell you what, this country has made more progress in the last three weeks than it's made in the last four years. And we're respected again as a country. Right. Even though the egg prices are Biden's fault, things are going really well, except for where they aren't. And in those cases, I should be blamed for none of it. Trump in the Hannity interview, night one of two of the Hannity Hannity interview saying inflation is back, but it's Biden's fault.

It's all by. And inflation is back. I'm only here for two and a half weeks. That was generally inflation. They're back. Don't think of it. Inflation's back. And they said, oh, Trump and I had nothing to do with it. These people have run the country. They spent money like nobody's ever spent. No doubt it is somebody else's fault. And then once again,

here is Secretary of Transportation Duffy just to get it in here in the long list. It's all Biden's fault what's happening with the airplane. But again, air crashes happen, but they were more under Biden than than Donald Trump. But the point here is we want to get to a place where we have zero crashes. We don't want people to die in aircraft. Right. Air crashes under Trump are the fault of Biden. Inflation under Trump is the fault of Biden. High egg prices under Trump are the fault of Biden. And Russia invading Ukraine is the fault of Joe Biden. The question that remains is whether the average MAGA will fall for it. In my interview with Elizabeth Warren coming up a little later in the show, I will ask the senator, listen, I think you're right

on a lot of the facts when it comes to crime, immigration, the economy. But what matters is whether people understand that, because as we saw in November, even though we could say here are the economic numbers, here are the crime numbers. If voters feel or believe that it is not being taken seriously or that things aren't going well, they won't vote for you. And so what is the plan that Democrats have to make this connection between what is happening out there, what people believe is happening and how that will influence how they vote? Because a great economy is useless politically if nobody believes or feels that the economy is great. Crashes under Trump, high egg prices under Trump, high inflation under

Trump. We can point to the facts until we're blue in the face. But if people, voters don't become cognizant of the fact that these things are not Joe Biden's fault, they are not Kamala Harris's fault. They are not going to vote for Democrats. And this is the problem we saw in November. And this is potentially the problem we're going to see in November of 2026. So we'll talk to Elizabeth Warren about that when she joins us in a moment. Signed copies of my book, The Echo echo machine are available exclusively at David Pakman.com. We are now, I'm sorry, at David Pakman.com slash book Smith. We are now at 6,200 pre-orders, a beautiful number. Thank you to the 6,000 of you that subscribe to the YouTube channel

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on the progress. We'll take a very quick break and be back right after this to talk to you about a warning I have received from lawyers. Oh boy. I know. I know. One of our sponsors today is Peak, who make delicious Puerh tea. These are absolutely delicious. I've become a huge fan. Peak's Puerh tea is naturally fermented, delivering probiotics that can support gut health and digestion. It's sourced from 250-year-old tea trees, which means it's as nutrient-dense as tea can get.

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But in the US, the data is widely accessible. Even the FBI will buy this information from companies to spy on people without a search warrant. Our sponsor, Incogni, provides a solution. It takes just seconds to sign up and Incogni will send removal requests to all of the major Thank you, David. and this will save you hundreds of hours. Very few people have the time or resources to do this on their own. This service can also reduce the number of spam calls and emails you get, since many solicitors and scammers get your information from these very same sources. Go to Incogni dot com slash Pacman and use the code Pacman for 60 percent off. That's I.N.C.O.G.N.I. dot com slash Pacman

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focus or relax, give brain FM a try for 30 days, totally free. Go to brain.fm slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. That's brain.fm slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. That's brain dot FM slash Pacman. Well, thanks to you, this program exists. We are a mostly audience funded program. The primary mechanism through which that funding trickles in very quietly is membership, which you can find out more about at join pacman.com. You can also use the coupon code. It's an, it's a very optimistic coupon code forward looking. The coupon code is it will end soon. It will end soon. We do an extra show every day for our members. Great fun to be had by all. And right

now producer Pat is undertaking some pretty serious investigative journalism on the bonus show. I don't know how many of you have been following this, but producer Pat is carrying out a series of investigations in Mexico. One of the things he did the other day was he went to a Mexican grocery store and looked at egg prices and then told us what they are. So really hard hitting, explosive investigative journalism. We then converted Mexican pesos to us dollars and figured out how expensive our eggs in Mexico. We now know the answer and it is all thanks to Pat's great investigation. So sign up at join pacman.com with the coupon code without the coupon code have at it Haas. All right. I spoke to a couple of lawyers in DC who don't represent me.

Okay. These are, these are just casual conversations I had with a couple of lawyers in DC and they are warning me. They believe based on what they are hearing that the Trump administration will come after me. Now it's not just me. This isn't about, Oh, David Pakman. Uh, th this is about independent creators on the political

left. Now, from what I'm being told, it's not going to be, let's frame you for a violent crime or anything like that. The likely playbook we've been wondering, will they come after us? What I'm told is the likely playbook are the following things, tax audits and scrutiny, social media, deplatforming pressure, lawsuits and legal harassment, doxing and harassment campaigns and investigations into our funding. These are the five. These are sort of the five prongs that these lawyers said they believe if and when the Trump administration turns its attention to independent progressive content creators, they would employ. Here's how these five things would

work. First of all, you get hit with a tax audit. Doesn't matter if your books are clean as a whistle or as clean as Trump's, they will dig and dig until they either find something or until the process itself becomes the punishment. Audits are expensive. They are time consuming. They are extraordinarily stressful for the person being targeted. Even if I came out unscathed, the legal and accounting fees and the distractions would take a toll. That's one mechanism. These lawyers said this is what might be used. Secondly, they will lean on the social media platforms. It won't be directly. It won't be someone from the West Wing calling Twitter or whichever platform and saying,

you've got to hurt David Pakman. It'll be you get accused of spreading misinformation or inciting violence. And next thing you know, your accounts are suspended or they're limited or YouTube removes your monetization or Twitter, uh, uh, throttles your reach. And these are platforms that are certainly plausibly going to cave to political pressure. As you know, since we are primarily audience funded, if I temporarily lose access to my audience, that could really hinder my ability to keep the show going and to spread the message. Number three, they will find someone to sue you.

Maybe a Trump supporter says, I defamed them. Maybe a random troll files a frivolous lawsuit with the backing of some organization that is nebulously tied to the Trump, uh, white house. It doesn't matter if the lawsuit has no merit. It's about draining resources because defending against lawsuits, even baseless ones is expensive. It costs money. And with the courts increasingly stacked with Trump aligned judges, even a meritless lawsuit, you can't assume you know what the conclusion will be, what the outcome will be.

Number four, they will weaponize their base to flood my inbox with threats. Try to get me swatted. Make me fear for my safety and the online harassment would be relentless. Even if law enforcement isn't participating, they're inaction under the guise of we've getting, we're getting a lot of reports and we can only deal with credible threats is going to send the message that I would be on my own. The progressive independent creators would be on our own. And then finally, investigations into funding, will they go and start saying which advertisers are funding you? What about people who have, you know, subscriptions or whatever the case may be? It would be chilling. It would be chilling and a devastating blow

because without the backing of the audience, we would quite literally struggle to keep the lights on. So the question becomes, what do I do? What should others in my position do? I think all we can do right now is we keep flawless records for audits and tax agencies. We diversify the platforms that we are on and the revenue sources so that if they do politically pressure YouTube into demonetizing us. We have nine other rather than four other revenue sources. We build coalitions with other creators, which we're doing, and we immediately all shine a light on anything they do. If they start this stuff up, the bigger we are in a way, the more protected we are. And I talked to the lawyers about this.

I said, you know, our, our, wouldn't we better be better off small because we get less attention and are less likely to attract the interest of a Stephen Miller like vindictive figure? What the lawyer said is, no, you're already big enough that there's really no going back. And actually, the bigger you are likely puts you in the best position to withstand or get support to withstand what happens. So help us get to the three million YouTube subscribers. It's free. Get a membership at join Pacman dot com. If it's in the budget, preorder my book at David Pacman dot com slash book. Whatever we can do to diversify revenue sources, grow the audience is going to best prepare us for what might be coming. I have been talking to other creators about this.

We are all aware of what might be coming. All we can do at this point is to be prepared. I don't believe that it will shock you that Donald Trump put out a statement yesterday on truth social growth central in which he goes full Putin, full Putin on the Russia Ukraine war. The statement, I think you will also not be shocked to hear is riddled with inaccuracies and exaggerations and misleading narratives. And it attempts to shift the blame from Russia invading Ukraine from Putin to Zelensky and to Biden. The invader is not to blame for the invasion. The invaded is to blame and Joe Biden

is to blame. Uh, here is the statement from Donald Trump. Think of it. A modestly successful comedian, Vladimir Zelensky talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion to go into a war that couldn't be one that never had to start, but a war that he, without the U S and Trump will never be able to settle. The United States has spent $200 billion more than Europe and Europe's money is guaranteed while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn't sleepy Joe Biden demand equalization and that this war is far more important to Europe than it is to us. We have a big, beautiful ocean, a separation on top of this.

Zelensky admits that half of the money we sent him is missing. He refuses to have a lick elections is very low in Ukrainian polls. And the only thing he was good at was playing Biden like a fiddle, a dictator without elections. Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a capital C country left. In the meantime, we are successful, successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia, something I'll admit only Trump and the Trump administration can do. Biden never tried. successful, successfully negotiating an end to the war with Russia, something all admit only Trump and the Trump administration can do. Biden never tried.

Europe has failed to bring peace and Zelensky probably wants to keep the gravy train going. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job. His country is shattered and millions have unnecessarily died. And so it continues. See folks, it is the lens ski to blame for everything, not the invading force of Putin. Now just about everything Trump says here is untrue. He says the U S spent 350 billion. The U S has committed 75 to a hundred billion.

Much of it is military equipment. Much of it is humanitarian aid up to Ukraine since the war began. Uh, does it matter is 75 billion, not a lot. No, 75 billion is a lot, but it's not 350 billion. And of course they love to pretend that it's cash that we are sending when it mostly is not. Trump says it is a war that couldn't be one that never had to start. Now, of course the war didn't have to start, but it's wrong to go after Zelensky for that because it is Russia that invaded Ukraine. It's Russia that violated international law. It's Russia that violated Ukraine's sovereignty. Trump insists that the US has spent 200 billion more than Europe. The reality is that while the US has contributed more than any single European country, collectively

European countries have provided substantial aid and that includes military support. That includes taking in, uh, uh, endless numbers of refugees. Uh, Trump claims that Zelensky is admitting half the money we gave them is missing. No credible source can confirm that Zelensky said that there have been reports of corruption concerns. Those happen in any situation where countries provide aid. The U.S. has strict oversight mechanisms in place. Trump says that Zelensky is refusing to have elections.

The reality is that Ukraine postpones elections during martial law during the war. I don't like it. I'll the war. I don't like it. I'll be honest. I don't like it to call Zelensky. A dictator is, of course, very much inaccurate. And it is consistent with Ukrainian law. Ukrainian law says that during martial law, you don't hold elections. Ukraine is a democracy.

Postponing elections during wartime is not unusual. It has historical precedent. It has historical precedent in the U S during the civil war. I would of course love that to be different. Uh, and then Trump also argues that Zelensky wants to keep this gravy train going, that he benefits in some way. The accusation implies that Zelensky is personally absconding from, or I guess living a life of luxury because of the aid that Ukraine is getting. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of that. The aid is closely monitored. Funds are directed to the military, to humanitarian and economic support. If someone wants to come forward

and say Zelensky is using this stuff for self enrichment, then I would, of course, look at it. The guy who does use the country's resources for self enrichment and is arguably the richest person in the world. I know that officially it's Elon, but there are those who believe like Fareed Zakaria that actually Putin is wealthier. We we we know that Putin's doing that. And yet Trump doesn't mention that. And Trump defers to Putin in absolutely every way that he can.

So this is a disgusting rant. It's a disgusting rant, not only because it continues to be the exact same sort of thing that we would expect from someone who prays at the altar of Putin, but it's also extraordinarily destructive because you are going to struggle to be an arbiter of peace when you have clearly, clearly already decided, I believe the aggressor is in the right. I believe the aggressor is the one who should come out on top. I believe the aggressor is the one that should get a bunch of free stuff that they didn't,

that they are taking by force. Meanwhile, I'm going to attack the smaller, less powerful country that is defending itself in a defensive war situation. It's what we expected. It's what Maga told us. No, no, no. You don't have to worry. And Trump's in on it.

J.D. Vance is in on it. They're all in on it now. What will happen with Ukraine? I hope that it's not going to end up all carved up and increasingly under the control of Russia. Right now, we are seeing increasingly that that appears to be the direction things are going. I hope that it doesn't end up that way. I'm not confident it won't. I want to introduce you to an amazing tool that has helped a huge number of people reach their health goals. It is called Lumen and it's the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures

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or a free bedding bundle with a Lux or elite mattress. The link is in the podcast notes. It's great to welcome back to the program after a much too long hiatus. The senior senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, Senator, it's so good to have you on and I want to talk about CFPB. I want to talk about Doge, but I thought maybe we would start more 40,000 foot. I saw this video a few days ago of you being accosted by a so-called citizen journalist of sorts. And it led me to want to ask you, is there something palpably different right now about what your opposition party has become in terms of being either emboldened or more aggressive or disinhibited by the return of President Donald

Trump, as evidenced maybe by that episode that I saw you involved in? You know, I think of it this way. The threat that Donald Trump and his co-president, Elon Musk, pose right now to our democracy, but also just day to day to day, what it's going to cost you to live, what kind of risks you're going to run when you take a drink of water, or when you use your credit card. Those risks are growing fast. They're real. And it's starting to feel to me like this really intense, all hands on deck. And that the Musk running buddies are out there and they are determined no matter what, they're going to get theirs in. They're going to make it happen. And that the rest of us are saying, whoa, we better get in this fight and start pushing back on this. Along those lines, some of my audience was a little bit disheartened with Congressman

Hakeem Jeffries sort of saying, listen, we don't control we being Democrats. We don't control anything right now. We don't have the white house. We don't have the Senate. We don't have the house. And some in my audience said that sounds kind of defeatist. What is your sense of given that for at least the next couple of years, Democrats don't control the white house house or Senate. What are the mechanisms that exist through which change can be achieved or at least destruction can maybe be resisted? So that is a great question. Here's how I think of it is at this moment. One is Congress. And we still have a lot of tools in our toolbox. Look, do we have as many tools as I want? Hell no. I want a whole lot more tools. But that doesn't mean we have no tools.

And it doesn't mean we curl up into a little ball and do nothing. We've still got all of our oversight tools. Man, I'm out there. I'm writing letters. I'm demanding answers to stuff. I want to see the data. At least you push back. And look, I think of it this way in the Senate.

We've watched them with these nominees that come through. Pete Hegseth, a person credibly accused of sexual assault, somebody falling down drunk on work events, and a guy who doesn't think that women ought to be in the military, or if they are, they should be confined to cooking. He actually said that in his book. He still got through. He got the votes. The Republicans voted for him. But you know what? They didn't get it for free. Man, we stayed in there. We asked the questions. We stayed after this guy. We talked about it until it is now clear and there's a scrutiny on him and what he does that otherwise wouldn't have been there. And the Republicans have to own whatever comes next from this guy. It's no more free passes in this system. So I think that's part of what's going on. Next week, I'm going to be doing a

spotlight hearing to come in about the CFPB. So you use the things you've got available. Second thing I want to point out, we have the courts and we are in the courts and we want to see that. Trump, Musk have shown just an astonishing willingness just to violate the law. I mean, just say, who cares? You know, just move right in, not even learn what the law is before they mow into something. So there's going to be a lot back and forth in the courts. And the third part, the third leg on the stool here is you and everybody who listens to this podcast and everybody out around the country. Remember that when Donald Trump was first elected, the largest march in the history of the world

occurred. Remember the Women's March? Yes. We got out there. We held up our signs. We talked about what we're going to do as a resistance. We need people in this as well. This is not a, oh, this is your problem. This is all of our problems. And so I see this as a moment when if I had to order my jobs, the number one is to say, understand the urgency of this, understand how much these folks are breaking and taking, and pull as many people as I can into that fight. And sometimes that means my fellow senators, and sometimes it just means somebody out there in Enid, Oklahoma, who says, I've had enough, and I'm willing to get into this fight. And that's what it's going to take. You describe it as to hold the line. It's to make sure that people understand what they are doing

and make it clear that this is not what the United States wants. This is not what Americans want. This is not what hardworking families want. We make that push hard enough. I think we can make a real difference between now and the next election and then a really big difference when we hit 2026. You mentioned Pete Hegseth, who was subjected to questions and congressional approval. Elon Musk was not. Yeah, I want to talk about that now. Big picture question. Trump golfing the last three days. Elon Musk babysitting him on Fox News alongside Sean Hannity. Trump's hunched over looking dejected in the Oval Office as Elon Musk and his son do all sorts of different things, as Trump kind of

looks on. Who's in charge right now of the federal government in your view? Well, let's just look at the facts. Where is the real action coming from? It's coming from Elon Musk. You know, I'm trying to be deferential to Donald Trump by calling Elon Musk co-president, but Elon Musk is the one out there saying, we're going after this agency, we're doing that. He is the one describing the overall strategy that this administration is now executing. And he is also the enforcer at the same time, saying to Republicans who are looking left, looking right and saying, wow, this isn't somebody I want to have to support. This is not a policy I want to have to support. And Elon Musk saying, in effect, you supported her. I'm putting $100 million against you

in a primary when you're up for elections. So, you know, he's the guy. He's the guy who's coming up with the policies. He's the guy who's executing on the policies., he's the guy he's the guy who's coming up with the policies. He's the guy who's executing on the policies. And he's the guy who's the enforcer to make sure that the Republicans go along with the policy. So you tell me who's in charge. Well, you were instrumental in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This has become a target of Doge slash Musk slash the 21 year olds who have been given the keys to a lot of this stuff. We're starting to hear about tens of millions of dead people receiving Social Security payments,

which is very much not true. Maybe at its peak, it was 12 or 15000. It seems to get corrected very, very quickly. All of these initiatives, for lack of a better term, seem to point for towards reducing protections and safety nets for the average person. Why do you believe that this is interesting to Elon Musk in this sense? Is it about his business interests? Is it about doing personal favors? What drives this as being the focus? So yes and yes. Let's do, first of all, Elon Musk's own business. Remember, Elon buys Twitter, renames it X, hemorrhages money, and then decides he has a better business plan, and that is X money.

So he not only wants to have all your social media information and be able to monetize that, he actually wants to have all your financial information as well and be a platform for everything financial. So he has this idea, says he's going to launch it. He has one speed bump in the way, and that's the CFPB. And the speed bump is not that they'll say, you can't launch, you can't do this. It's you got to follow the law. You can't cheat people. You can't lie to them.

You can't trick them on certain financial products. You have to tell them kind of what you're doing. And you can't suck up their personal financial information and then sell it to whoever you want to sell it to or use it however you want to use it. Those are the same rules that apply to everybody in the financial space, including a financial platform like Elon wants to launch. So what has Elon done? He said, ah, Doge, we're just getting started here. And first we want to take out foreign aid, explain what he's doing there. And then the next thing he wants to do is shut down the CFPB. How does that save money for any Americans? Remember Donald Trump, day one, I will lower costs for American families starting on day

one, said he would do it immediately. The CFPB has returned more than $21 billion directly to people who got cheated. It finds the scams and makes them reversible. That is its only job. It lowers costs for American families. But Elon Musk, by sidelining the CFPB, now, boy, it looks like smooth sailing for him to launch his financial website, his financial platform, and do as much cheating, lying, and scamming as he wants to do. It's just really stunning to watch. You know, this is a little like a bank robber saying, wait, wait, wait, just before I go in, what I want to do is I just want to fire all the cops and let's get the cops out of here. Now I'm ready to go into the bank. And all I can say is sure fits the facts. That's where you're you're really you've given us a sense kind of of what

we're up against. Let me tell you what my concerns are beyond just what they are doing. Right. I mean, we've seen egg prices go up 30 percent since Donald Trump was sworn in. What's happening with aviation with another incident now is concerning many people as the FAA is being gutted. The CFPB, everything you've said. On the other hand, I can't honestly say that I feel as though the Democratic Party is well positioned to take advantage of all of this. And by take advantage, I mean really make the average person understand this is why things are happening. I'll give you an example from the Obama era after Obamacare.

Of course, states had the option of the Medicaid expansion. Some states disproportionately Republican governor run states opted not to do it. So when the average person in one of those states said, there's this thing, Obamacare, but I don't have health care. I blame Obama. You knew and I knew it was the choice of that Republican governor that was really responsible, but it didn't really get through to so many people. And so my concern, especially given what I would call the sort of mishaps of the Harris campaign and what I think was a winnable election. Do you see any kind of change happening with regard to the Democratic Party and really figuring out? I think we're

right on the facts in so many cases, but making people understand the connection between what's happening and the people that they voted for. I'm worried it'll be another disaster. Fair enough. But let's remember, first of all, there is one part we've gotten the messaging right on, and that was at the beginning of the Trump administration. You remember, he only had one legislative achievement in his four years. And that was the $2 trillion tax cut that was most sucked up by millionaires, billionaires and giant corporations. We hammered that tax cut enough that it drove Trump to his lowest approval ratings in his entire four-year presidency. The only time they were that low again was January 6th. And it became the jet fuel that kept us going into the 2018 election.

And remember, blue wave and a 2020 victory so that we get House, the Senate, and the White House. Watch where we are right now. The one message that Democrats are coalescing around is billionaires win, families lose, and it's a tax fight. That we understand that everything the Republicans are doing, you and I have had a good conversation about CFPB and what Elon Musk is over here doing. But what's happening here in the United States Senate literally today is the Republicans are working on their strategy to try to figure out how to cut taxes the most for millionaires and billionaires, and then force people to pay for it with Medicaid cuts, which means your grandma in

the nursing home can't afford to stay there and has to come and live in your extra bedroom. It means that the kid with disabilities who needs an aid to be able to stay in public school loses the aid and has no way to stay in school. Those are the cuts they want to make so they can fund tax cuts for billionaires. That is the core of what the Republicans are trying to do. And that is the core of what we are going to keep driving. I believe we are going to drive that very effectively. Is it everything that's wrong?

No, it's not. There's a whole lot drive that very effectively. Is it everything that's wrong? No, it's not. There's a whole lot more that's wrong. But we drive that core message, and that makes it clear across the board. Donald Trump was always just out for the billionaires. Elon Musk is just a guy who's come in, seen an opportunity to run another con, and he's running a con to help himself and his fellow billionaires. I think we can drive that message, but I'm going to go back to the central point here, David. Nobody drives a message by themselves. I'll say it till I'm blue in the face. I'll even try to get every single Democrat in the House and in the Senate to say it.

But at the end of the day, it's going to take all of us on board on this one. And this one is not hard. Republicans are doing the hard labor right now, thinking if they move early, they can put in tax cuts for billionaires and they can make everybody else pay for it. And our job is to say, no, no, no, we will not let that happen. Senator, I know you've got to run. I want to ask you one last thing. In the twenty twenty four election, I saw the data about crime and immigration and I was not convinced that there was a crisis nor a crime epidemic. But it

doesn't matter what I thought, because enough voters believed that there was a problem and they didn't feel they got what they wanted from Kamala Harris. What is your thought as to how Democrats can, on the one hand, stick to the facts, but on the other hand, not appear to be brushing off issues that for whatever reason, many voters decided did matter and they didn't hear a message that they liked. You know, I think part the day, I think we have to be better at listening to people and hearing how they describe their own lives. Why we're in this fight is just to try to put government on their side. And sometimes we may not get the words right, but the intent is right.

And it's not to come in and tell people what they should want or argue with people that they're doing better than they think they are. It's really to say, in a democracy, you have a right to come to your elected representatives and say, here are my worries. How do we work together to deal with those? How do we work together so that everybody has an opportunity to build some security in this country, a chance to buy a home, a chance to have a partner, a chance to build something yourself, and that government should be there to help us make sure the playing field is level, to make sure we make the investments in things nobody can build alone, like roads or bridges or public education. But the government is us in that sense. And so I think of this as a time when we need to remind each other

about our fight from the heart. I want to hear what people are saying they worry most about and how we can work together to fix that. But here's the part I'm damn sure about, and that is making life work better for billionaires should not be the job of our country. Making it work better for hardworking families just trying to build a future, that should be our job. our country, making it work better for hardworking families, just trying to build a future. That should be our job. Help us get the details right. But I'm sure about the central part. Republicans are on one side and on that Democrats are on the other. Senator Elizabeth Warren, thank you so much for your time. Really great having you on today. It's so good to see

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Part two of this absolutely pathetic softball interview on Fox news that Sean Hannity did with Donald Trump and Elon Musk shows the degree to which Hannity is deferring to Musk as the guy who's really in charge. Trump completely dominated here by Elon as this interview, which was supposed to be a great PR stunt, has ended up as a total disaster. Ratings are usually lower on the second night of these two night interviews and it seems as though they really saved some of the most gruesome stuff for night two. You are going to see Sean Hannity visibly prioritizing Elon Musk.

He knows or seems to know where the real power is. And one interesting question that came up was Hannity asking Musk, do you think you'll be here for four years? And this is a great topic because from a personality standpoint, it's very difficult to imagine Trump is going to allow Elon to stick around for years getting the attention he's getting. Let's take a look at how Elon handled it. Do you anticipate you'll be here for years? My last question. I'll be as helpful as long as I can be helpful. That's a good question. I mean, I was thinking about that just now. I wonder how long he and look at how low energy Trump is going to be doing it.

You can't get somebody like this. He cares and he's brilliant and he's got energy. You need energy also, in addition to those other Trump's lacking the energy. That's for sure. I have a lot of guys who are very smart, but they have no energy. Yeah. Trump being one of them, except he's also not that smart. It's not looking good. You know, I don't know if there is a betting line on how long Elon lasts, but I would be interested to see what what the over under is. I am not a betting

man. I know that may come as a shock to many people in the audience. I've never mentioned it. I don't I don't really bet. But if I were, my bet is there's no way in hell that Elon lasts for four years. It's just bound to implode one way or the other. By the way, anybody heard from Vivek Ramaswamy lately? It gives us a sense of the direction this is likely to go. At another moment, it was interesting that Elon Musk brought up, you know, we really have to fix things here in the United States. We can't like run to New Zealand or something, which is funny because a lot of his billionaire

buddies have a plan to do exactly that. If the shit hits the fan, very much. I'd say if the ship of America sinks, we'll go going down with it. You know, this idea that people can escape to New Zealand or some other place is false. If the central pillar of Western civilization that is America falls, the whole roof comes crashing down and there is no escape. One of the things that's interesting is Donald Trump is looking increasingly sort of uncomfortable with these joint appearances.

He has this sort of hunched over, dejected look during the Oval Office fiasco, during which Elon ranted while his son rubbed boogers on the Resolute desk. And Trump had this very, you know, just kind of orange and hunched over and low energy. He's adopting that same sort of thing during this interview. And it would be a shock if this really survives even the first half of Donald Trump's term, uh, Trump at various moments struggling to get a word in edgewise as Elon completely dominated. Hannity was more interested in what Elon had to say. Elon dominated the conversation and Trump almost like a potted plant at some moment. We either solve the deficit or all we'll be doing is paying debt.

Nobody knows. It's got to be solved or there's no medical care. There's no total securities, no nothing. It's got to be solved. It's not optional. America will go bankrupt if this is not done. That's why I'm here. The president's Europe takes advantage of this.

And I also just send a message. Trump trying to squeeze in Europe. Europe takes advantage. But Elon just keeps on talking and Hannity just keeps on talking to Elon. The topic of conflicts came up. What if there is a conflict of interest? It came up again. And Elon says there's no way I'd get away with anything.

If there's any conflict, he will stop it. But if he didn't, I'd stop it. I'd see if there's a conflict. I mean, we're talking about big stuff, but he's under a pretty big microscope. I mean, everybody's watching him. If there's a conflict, I'm keeping a close eye on Elon. You're going to be reading about it within about two minutes after the conflict. Exactly. There's the possibility of me getting away with something is zero percent, 0.0.

I've scrutinized to a ridiculous degree. And the other thing is that we're, you know, what's, you know, what's better than saying, trust, trust me, it's just full transparency. So what we're doing with, with the Doge. We're posting it to X. Just go to doge.gov. You can see every single action that's being taken. And I want to be clear, we are going to make some mistakes.

We're not going to be perfect. Nobody bats a thousand, but we're going to fix the mistakes very quickly. That's what matters. You don't make mistakes, but they fail quickly and fix the problems. Now, of course, if you go to doge.gov, talk about excretions. It is a lot of really trashy stuff. Um, but if anybody else is not feeling reassured by Elon saying, there's no way I would get away with anything. I'm with you.

I am also not feeling reassured. What a disastrous interview. And it's, it's interesting with Trump, the easier the interview is supposed to be, it's almost like the worst he does because he, the worse he does because maybe he's disinhibited or not prepared. I don't know. But the more softball the interview, the worse the guy does. And just wait until you see the stuff he said at an investor conference in Miami. Donald Trump glitched badly yesterday at a so-called investor conference in Miami, where he forgot the names of people in his cabinet and generally dissembled as he seemed feeble and addled, certainly low energy. Let's start with the first clip where Trump again raises this brilliant idea.

Remember dare drug abuse, resistance education. When a police officer came in, I remember it was officer rust when I was in elementary school. Very nice guy. Okay. But that doesn't mean the program worked and said, you know, smoking pot is like little green aliens that come down and inject your brain. And it didn't really work. Trump says we're just going to tell kids drugs are bad. OK,

Trump insisting this is the plan because we're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising how bad drugs are so that kids don't use them, that they chew up your brain, they destroy your teeth, your skin, your everything. Because we're going to it's brilliant guys. Poor as Donald Trump is saying hundreds of millions of dollars into just saying to kids, drugs are bad. Drugs are bad genius. As we know, we have lots of evidence that that works very, very well.

Trump bragging that he put Elon Musk in charge of Doge. And in this instance, Trump says Elon is in charge. Now, remember, the controversy here is that if Elon is in charge, then he should probably be subject to some oversight. At the same time, they don't want to acknowledge that because they don't want him to be subject to oversight. So it goes back and forth. Is Elon in charge? Is he not in charge? In this instance, Trump says, yes, he's in charge. I signed an order creating the Department of Government Deficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge. Thank you, Elon, for

doing it. Got it. OK, so Elon is in charge and therefore he should be subjected to some regulatory oversight. I understand. Glad he cleared that up. Trump then rattles off completely unproven allegations about millions of people older than 150 receiving fraudulent Social Security payments. They've not presented a shred of evidence that this is going on. Three point five million people from the age 140 to one hundred and forty nine years old. One point three million people are on Social Security from the age 150 to 159 and over one hundred and thirty thousand people are on Social Security over the age of one hundred and sixty years old. OK, right. Including one thousand thirty nine people think of it over one thousand people between

the ages of two hundred and twenty to two hundred and twenty nine. When will they show us the proof of 220 to 229. When will they show us the proof of this? The answer is never. Now let me prepare you for something. Okay. There is a huge difference between the Social Security Administration having people who, if alive, would be 160 years old on some list and those people receiving payments. Those are two different things.

And so if the question is, when will we get proof that people aged one that that a million people age 160 are getting payments? The answer is never because it's not happening. If the question is, is there some Social Security record of people whose birthdates are in the eighteen hundreds that they could come up with. Yeah, I don't I don't doubt that there is some list somewhere where they could go, look, here's a thousand people who would be 220 years old.

OK, but do you have proof they're getting Social Security money right now? I believe we will never get that because there's no evidence that it's going on. Trump even goes further and says there's a 360 year old person who is, I guess, getting payments. And one person between the age of 240 years old to 249 and the record topper, there is one person on Social Security who's 360 years old, which is approximately 110 years older than our country. That's going to be really difficult to believe since Social Security did not exist during that person's lifetime. Now, I don't know if that's a technical glitch, if he's making it up completely.

I don't know what it is. But if I were a betting man, I would love a little proof. I don't think there's a 360 year old currently getting social security payments. Trump does also forget Kristi Noem's last name. And, you know, he's sort of OK at covering it up, but you can tell he doesn't remember her last name from all over. And they were allowed to come into our country and we're getting them out in record levels, just like they came in in record levels. I want to thank Tom Holman and Christie, who was just doing she's doing a fantastic job. Governor of South Dakota and classic Trump. When he forgets someone's name, he will substitute some other trait or characteristic about the

person that he remembers. But he does not remember Christine Ohm's name. He will substitute some other trait or characteristic about the person that he remembers, but he does not remember Kristi Noem's name. And then finally he calls Vladimir Zelensky a dictator, not a term he would apply to Putin much more appropriately applied to Putin. Nope. Zelensky is the dictator like a fiddle. He played him like a fiddle.

That's an expression we use. Yes, sir. To say that, uh, he's pretty easy, pretty easy. A dictator without elections. So let's keep at a move faster. He's not going to have a country left. Got to move. Got a dictator without elections.

We are on the side that is the wrong side of a whole hell of a lot of stuff. I hate to break it to you. And we are learning that Americans are leaving the country in record numbers. The I'll move to Canada stuff. It's usually pie in the sky nonsense, but we're actually seeing the numbers and people are terrified by this insanity. People are leaving and we will talk about it tomorrow or next week. Don't miss today's bonus show. We will talk about King Trump declaring New York City congestion pricing dead. We'll talk about it tomorrow or next week. Don't miss today's bonus show. We will talk about King Trump declaring New York city congestion pricing dead. We'll talk about Brazil's former president facing charges over an alleged coup plot.

And we will talk about the death penalty situation involving Luigi Mangione. All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Sign up at join pacman.com and get instant access and help us get to help us get to 3 million YouTube subscribers. Yesterday we were about 155,000 away. Let me see where we are right now. Uh, so 3 million, this is going to be some, some very rough math, 3 million minus 2,851,509. We have gone from being one 55,000 away to 148,000 away. That's some progress. So help us breach that 3 million number. We've got some great stuff planned for when it happens. I'll see you on the bonus show. I'll see you on the bonus show.

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