The David Pakman Show - 2/5/24: Trump confronted on Fox, Newsom slams Republicans

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Luke Beasley, host of The Luke Beasley Show, fills in for David -- House Speaker Mike Johsnon is confronted on Meet the Press over his hypocrisy -- Fox Business host Maria Baritoromo confronts Donald Trump on a few issues during an interview -- Fox Business host Larry Kudlow admits he's wrong about Joe Biden's economy -- Gavin Newsom lampoons Republicans during an MSNBC interview -- JD Vance has his mic cut and gets brutally confronted during an ABC News interview -- Donald Trump spent $20,000 on his staged pro-union event -- Republican Senator James Lankford calls out his party over torpedoing a border deal -- On the Bonus Show: Biden wins South Carolina primary, Nikki Haley on Trump's border deal opposition, Biden speaks in Delaware, and much more... 🧦 Strideline: Use code DAVID for 15% off at https://strideline.com 🔊 Babbel: Get 50% OFF a lifetime subscription at https://babbel.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 🛌 Use code HELIXPARTNER20 for 20% off + free bedroom set at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 💻 Stay protected! Try our sponsor Aura FREE for 2 weeks at https://aura.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

Welcome back everybody to the David Pakman show. Luke Beasley here filling in for David. While he is away, he'll be back tomorrow, but it's great to be back with the Pakman community once again. I've missed you guys. What a show ahead. Let's dive right into it. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson appeared on Meet the Press yesterday with Kristen Welker and was confronted about a couple of things. The first is his hypocrisy, brutal hypocrisy on impeachment, the flip-flop on a subject related to that. The second is his opposition to the bipartisan border deal. That's essentially everything Republicans have been asking for, but now they oppose it because they don't want to give Biden a political win.

But starting with this moment, Welker plays a past clip of Johnson denouncing single party impeachments, given that he's now pursuing and leading on single party impeachments with both President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Take a look. You were, as you just said, a part of President Trump's defense team at his first impeachment. Here's what you had to say about impeachment back then. The founders of this country warned against single party impeachments. The founders of this country warned us against a single party impeachment.

The founders of this country warned against a single party impeachment. You know why? You guys know why? Because they feared it would bitterly and perhaps irreparably divide our nation. What changed, Mr. Speaker? Nothing. Nothing's changed. I would repeat the same refrain over and over because facts are stubborn things and they do not change. The Constitution does not change. Impeachment power is probably the heaviest power that the House of Representatives has given in the Constitution. Next to the declaration of war, you can argue it's the most serious power we have.

And it's not to be used for partisan political purposes. That is exactly what they did for Donald Trump. How is this different, Mr. Speaker? How is this moment different? Before he even took his oath of office. If that's the case then, how is this moment different now? Kristen, in many ways, let me explain the many ways. For one, the House has methodically, slowly, deliberately gone through the impeachment process, impeachment inquiry, impeachment investigation on Mayorkas and President Biden himself. We've involved three different committees of jurisdiction,

judiciary, oversight, ways and means. We have followed the facts where they have led, not for political purposes, not because we take pleasure in this. It's, again, a heavy thing. Oh, please, Mike. Kristen, that's not hypocrisy. We're involving like a bunch of committees. Think about how much time and resources has been wasted on all these impeachment hearings and investigations for what? What's been accomplished, I ask. And I talk about this constantly on my show, but if you compare and contrast the records of Democrats and Republicans in the House, the first two years of Biden's presidency, Democrats had the majority. This last year, Republicans have had it. And in those two short years under Democrats,

we quite literally saw countless historic pieces of legislation. American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, Chips and Science Act, PACT Act, the infrastructure law, which is the largest investment infrastructure since Eisenhower. The Republicans get into office, and all that progress just comes to a screeching halt and when asked to show their work i guess their best imagined response is we're still working on impeaching biden and mallorca's for what exactly uh something about bribery and the border i don't really. Now, what are they trying to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Marcos over? I mentioned it there. It's the border. They don't

have any evidence of an impeachable offense per se, but they're just vaguely gesturing towards issues at the southern border, which is really interesting given that at this very moment, they're working to kill a border deal that was crafted on a bipartisan basis in the Senate. That's one of the most strict, strong, and aggressive proposals on the border we've seen in decades. But again, Trump has been calling up Republicans saying, don't let it pass because he wants to run on the border. And it really is the worst of politics, choosing political gain over actually addressing problems. And here's Mike Johnson trying to talk himself out of that. Now, Mr. Speaker, you know as well as I do that an executive order would only be met by legal

challenges. You have a chance to do something right now. The details we laid out are not rumors. That is based on negotiators who were in the room. Were you offered a briefing on this compromise bill? And will you put it on the floor? Well, when they began to do the negotiation, I suggested immediately after taking the gavel, I suggested to Senate leadership that the House should be involved. We should be in the room. I wanted to send the chairman of our committees of jurisdiction to be a part of that negotiation.

And they said, no, no, let the Senate take care of it. We'll send you something that is palatable. Were you offered a briefing, Mr. Speaker? What we're hearing right now is not. Were you offered a briefing? But were you offered a briefing? No, I have not been. No, I've had individual senators call and give me tips and offered things that are going on in the room. But we've not been a part of that negotiation. And I have been absolutely clear from day one, since literally the next morning

after having handed the gavel in late October, what the functional equivalents of HR2, what those are and why that was necessary to solve the problem. I took 64 House Republicans to the border in January. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We know. Y'all go down there constantly pretending like you care about the problem until the moment arises where you actually have an opportunity to do something about it. And now you're MIA. And this exemplifies what's so wrong with the modern Republican Party. Its priority is power and politics over people. And that's playing out here so clearly. Instead of engaging on this proposal, one that again, Republican senators are screaming that it would be stronger than anything they could get even if Trump were president. But House Republicans refuse to engage because they think

that obstruction will hurt Biden politically. Tom Emers came out and said that explicitly, saying he doesn't want to help a Democrat's poll numbers. And how Republican voters could look at that and not be enraged is beyond me. And on that, here is Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman calling out his Republican colleagues during an interview with Jen Psaki on MSNBC. I wanted to ask you, because you wrote an op-ed about this, and this really stuck out to me, the hypocr here meanwhile simultaneously they're doing this all simultaneously trying to impeach the secretary of homeland security for saying in their words is not doing enough about the border but they're blocking legislation that would help do something about the border

uh... you have an op ed but give me your take on that well you did the cynicism and hypocrisy is startling. The House Republicans are trying to impeach Secretary Mayorkas for failing to address the problems at the border. While he is negotiating with the Senate legislation that is necessary because executive action is insufficient in this situation, he is negotiating legislation that would address the border. So the House Republicans, rather than engage in those negotiations to try to find bipartisan solutions in divided government, instead are using this sham impeachment that

is absolutely baseless, that demeans and debases the impeachment clause of the Constitution, turns it into a pure political weapon. And they're doing that while President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas are trying to solve the problems at the border. They are doing this purely for political reasons and political gain. And what it is showing right now is that Republicans, especially in the House, do not want to solve the problems that the American people care about. They just want power and they just want to help Donald Trump. Again, while there is something shocking about the whole situation, it shouldn't surprise us because this is really the purest form, the most unfiltered form of this MAGA Republican Party. It's all about politics. It's all about obstruction. Any political pain that can be inflicted on the other side is a win.

That's sort of where the own the libs phrase came from. If we can make them angry, do harm to them politically, then that's a win by itself. And as long as their voters continue to cheer that on, they'll continue to do it. And that's a really sad element of this too. It does work. The American people, when polled, do think that Biden is worse on the border than Republicans. So they can exacerbate a problem and then effectively brand it as the fault of Democrats and get away with it. Pretty remarkably horrible. And that's why the phrase facts speak for themselves is ridiculous. They don't. We have to speak on behalf of facts loudly, proudly, and aggressively so that people understand what's going on. We move now to an interview Donald

Trump did on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo. That was quite the interview. Now, you're all aware, I'm sure, of the fact that Maria Bartiromo is extremely pro- the interview. Now, you're all aware, I'm sure, of the fact that Maria Bartiromo is extremely pro-Trump. She's willing to go along with all the Biden conspiracy theories and is one of the loudest advocates on behalf of those. And she was big on the election conspiracy theories. So this is not a rational reporter or something that we're talking about. But to give her credit in this interview, she actually confronted Trump a couple times. And it was hilarious to watch how off-put Trump would get because he's so used to just pure softballs on Fox News and he kind of falls apart. The slightest pushback and Trump immediately crumbles and can't effectively answer. You'll see what I mean as we

go through these clips. Starting off with this, on the subject of all the people who Trump hired, and back then he would call them incredible, and then they'd leave his administration, he'd call them rhinos and stupid and horrible and everything you can imagine. Take a look. York person. I was a New York builder. Well, you were an outsider, and that's why I think they had it in for you. But the one problem with that, and I love the outsider thing, but you don't know people, so you're relying on other people to give you names to be the head of this, head of that. And by the way, we had unbelievable people.

We had to look. I rebuilt the military. Yeah, but your critics say you had plenty of personnel mistakes. No, of course, but everybody does. Obama had. What about Biden? Look at the people running this Biden thing. The difference is I fire people.

I fired Comey. I got rid of him. You didn't fire Christopher Wray. Well, you know what? At the time, I don't know. Let's see how, let's see what the final judgment is. But I didn't fire Christopher Wray. I didn't fire people I would have, but I fired a lot of people. You know, I had turnover. They have no turnover right now. How do you know? So frazzled there trump i have fired people i would have i mean i should have i i didn't but i i fired a lot of people okay which what does that say about your hiring if you're having to fire so many people at such a rapid pace and really think about all

these people bill barr james mattis mark esper mark milley rex tillerson hr mcmaster john bolton john kelly m Mick Mulvaney, Anthony Scaramucci, Stephanie Grisham, Michael Cohen, Ty Cobb, Alyssa Farrah Griffin, Sarah Matthews, Cassidy Hutchinson, and just goes on and on and on. And many of those people are not just now being insulted by Trump. They are. But not just that. They identify Trump as a massive threat to democracy. After working super closely with him, that's many of those individuals take away, which is frightening. Then in this next clip, Trump's going on and on as he does praising Xi Jinping because he has an actual obsession with authoritarian leaders

around the world. And Maria Portobolo seems rather uncomfortable. I would say maybe it's going to be more than that because we're going to have, look, I want China to do great. I do. And I like President Xi a lot. He was a very good friend of mine during my term. Well, look, COVID, COVID cover-up, intellectual property theft. The list is long from our number

one adversary. So I don't know if he's a friend. No, but I got along with him great. I'm not sure he loved what I was doing because I was, you know, getting along with him. I don't think he wants you in the White House, Mr. President. No, no, he doesn't. The market almost crashed when I won Iowa and New Hampshire. The market went down tremendously.

Maria's like, stop it, Don. Stop praising brutal authoritarian. It's not a good look. And really quickly before moving on, I just want to quickly mention, I meant to mention it earlier. You can find my show at Luke Beasley on YouTube, by the way. And then also this part. I'm not sure he loved what I was doing because I was, you know, getting along with him. I don't think he wants you in the White House.

He has such a limited brain capacity. It's pretty stunning. He keeps repeating, I got along with him. Great. I got along with him. Great. Then tries to make a point about how Xi Jinping didn't love what he was doing, but then just snaps back to that one sentence. He knows how to repeat. We got along. So he said, I'm not sure he loved what I was doing because I got along with him great. Huh? Then this next moment, he says that Biden is a Manchurian candidate because he gets a lot of money from China, which is, of course, a lie. But he's incompetent. Everybody knows it. He doesn't even know. Somebody's making decisions in there. It's not him. He is very, look, when it comes to a lot

of countries, I think he's a Manchurian candidate because he receives money from China. He gets a lot of money from China. People say, I wonder why he's so weak on China. He gets a lot of money from China. The other thing that's notable about the allegation is that Trump is the one who received millions while he was president from foreign governments, including the government of China through his businesses. Every allegation is a confession. It really does seem to play out like that quite often.

Then in this next moment, super interesting, the RNC currently is dealing with some major financial troubles right now, which is delightful. They just had their worst fundraising years since 2013. But if you adjust for inflation, it would be their worst since 1993. That does not bode well for them going into this election, given that the DNC is in an incredibly strong situation financially. So, Bartiromo asked Trump about that, and he once again just sort of flounders. The Republicans have to be tougher. You talk about this optimism ahead that we could see some relief, but the RNC doesn't seem to be so strong. I mean, the Democrats have all the money.

Look at what we see. We've got the Democrats actually with the money and spending it. The RNC seeking credit lines. The RNC reported its lowest bank balance at the point in any year in 2016. Comerica says Michigan GOP defaulted on a loan of half a million dollars. So I have a lot of money and the money that they get, people are not looking at the RNC. They want they want changes. You have to understand I have nothing to do with the RNC. They want changes. You have to understand, I have nothing to do with the RNC. I don't. So given that the 2024 election is expected to be closed and money, unfortunately, plays such a big role in the outcomes of elections, I think this is really good news. And I know David has talked about how even though for a while the polling has looked iffy, of course, we did get that good Quinnipiac poll, but a lot of the polls have looked concerning for sure. Even though that is

the case, this next nine months before the election is going to change a lot. And that's something that I'm increasingly pretty confident about. Once the American elector really starts paying attention, as the election becomes closer and more relevant, as Trump is going from one courtroom to another, maybe some convictions in there. Democrats are actually starting to get out there and campaign with a strong message. Plus, they have a lot more resources, as was just mentioned, going into this final sprint. A lot's going to change before November, and I think that's going to be in Biden's direction and favor. Then here, Trump seems to think he can win New York, the state of New York, in the general election, along with a bunch of other blue states.

I think they're going to vote for me. So I think we're going to give New York a heavy shot. They're very unhappy in New York, what's happening. And they're unhappy with the crime. You take a look at the crime in New York, it's at record levels. The other thing is, and very importantly, New Jersey. I think New Jersey can be flipped. I think that Virginia can be flipped. I think that New Mexico can be flipped. And I think Minnesota can be flipped. And I'm not even sure that everything can't be flipped. And you're focused on Pennsylvania, too. I did great in Pennsylvania twice. Will you pursue it? So at one point, he says he's not sure he couldn't win every state. What is wrong with him? I mean, how do I respond to that?

It's a pretty powerful declaration. And I think this sort of talk from Trump should be encouraged. The left should say, yeah, maybe we're real worried you're going to win New York. Because then he could go waste time and energy trying to win the state of New York. And Joe Biden can use that time getting ahead in the swing states that are actually going to decide the election. And speaking of Trump's narcissism, take a look at this doozy of a moment where Trump wanders his way through a ramble about how Tim Scott is actually better for Trump than for Tim Scott. Oh, no.

You know, I called Tim Scott this, because a lot of than for Tim Scott. Oh, no. You know, I called Tim Scott this because a lot of people like Tim Scott. I called him and I said, you're a much better candidate that for me than you are for yourself. When I watched him, he was fine. He was good, but he was very low key, et cetera, et cetera. I watched him in the last week defending me and sticking up for me and fighting for me. I said, man, I said, you're a much better person for me than you are for yourself, because for himself, he was low key. For me, he's been he's been a real tiger. He's been incredible. And others have, too. So maybe it's Tim Scott. Well, it could be it could be a lot of people. But it was interesting. I was watching Tim. I've been watching, you know, for a while.

I watched him campaign as a candidate. But I watched him over the last two weeks. As you know, he endorsed me, fully endorsed me, gave me a beautiful endorsement. And he has been really strong in terms of that. No, but that has nothing to do. I don't want anybody to take even any inference. No statement more accurately portrays the person that Donald Trump is than him saying, quote, he's a better person for me than he is for himself. Yeah.

That's Donald Trump right there. If you're enjoying the show so far today, make sure to subscribe to my channel at Luke Beasley on YouTube. And of course, make sure you're subscribed to this channel back with much more after this. One of today's sponsors is Stride Line, the creator of the most comfortable sock on earth established in 2009 by childhood friends in Seattle. Stride Line has dedicated years to researching the most comfortable socks, and they really are. They present you with socks that are Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 of the House. We'll be right back. sustainability. Their eco socks are made from recycled plastic bottles that are taken out of the ocean. You can make your feet and the earth more comfortable. I grabbed a pair of fantastic New England Patriots socks, even though it's not going so well for the Pats right now. They are still my go to when I'm watching the games. Go explore their extensive sock collection. Enhance your comfort with an exclusive 15 percent discount using the code David at Stride Line dot com. That's S.T.R.I.D.E.

Line dot com. Use code David at checkout for 15 percent off. The info is in the podcast notes. I love exploring new countries. If you follow me on Instagram, you see me in Italy or France or to the can help you start speaking a new language in as little as three weeks. I'm busy running a business. My daughter is running around. So Babel's bite sized 10 minute lessons are just perfect for me. I can do it on the go, do it during a lunch break. It's only a little bit of a time commitment each time. And you end up with a surprising level of comfort with the language after just a few weeks, which was perfect before my recent trip to Italy. Studies from Yale, Michigan State University and others continue to prove Babel is better and Babel is faster.

One study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a semester at college in a language class. Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get 50 percent off a one time payment for a lifetime Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at Babbel dot com slash Pacman. You get access for life for half off. Get 50 percent off at Babbel dot com slash Pacman spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash Pacman. Rules and restrictions may apply. The link is in the podcast notes. Welcome back to the show. Luke Beasley here filling in. You can find me at Luke Beasley on YouTube. There's an absolutely wonderful clip from late last week of Fox business host Larry

Kudlow providing what he called a mea culpa to the Fox audience about his predictions about the economy. And this is really satisfying because as fact-driven observers, I think we've been going a little insane watching Fox try desperately to ignore any positive economic developments, ignore the fact that Biden's overseen a stunning economic recovery that's outpaced comparable economies, and they just keep pushing an economic narrative that's as disadvantageous for Biden as possible. And so to finally see a Fox host admit, hey, I've spent the last couple of years, I'll admit, pushing doomsday predictions about Biden's economy and been proven wrong at every turn is really good. And in this clip, you'll see some of his past statements and then his admission that he's been wrong.

I'd say Mr. Biden inherited a boom and turned it into a bust. That's Bidenomics. So almost surely the economy is headed for a significant slump. Now, it suffered inflationary recession in the first half of 2022, maybe headed for a deflationary recession next year, 2024. Look, it was a good quarter. Don't get me wrong. 3.3 percent beat estimates. And the last quarter was a good quarter. 4.9 percent. Absolutely. So he gets his due. If I were he, I'd be out slinging that quarter, 4.9 percent. Absolutely. So he gets his due. If I were he, I'd be out slinging that hash, too. No problem. I mean, my mea culpa, I was wrong about the slowdown in the recession.

So was the entire forecasting for Trinity. Well, the Fed, everyone was wrong. OK, so good to see. And I'll show you a couple other clips from Fox News that are similar in just a moment. But increasingly, it's looking like even many on the right are realizing the economy is not something Republicans should run on. They're still trying here and there, of course, but it just doesn't land like it used to. Unemployment has been below 4% for two years, which is the longest sub 4% unemployment streak we've experienced in 50 years.

Black unemployment specifically at record lows. Inflation for the last six months has been at 2%, which is that sweet spot economically, as Pacman has explained. Wage growth right now, inflation adjusted, is stronger than it was pre-pandemic. The stock market's breaking records. So you would understand why Republicans are starting to talk a little less about binomics destroying America. Now, it's important to keep in mind that often

the economic situation is not necessarily tied to the president. That's, of course, the case. There's this strange pattern, though, I should note, that over the last 100 years, Democratic presidents just so happen to oversee much better economic situations than Republican presidents. Try to figure that one out. But what you have to look at is the policy of a president and a Congress and see how that's affecting the economy. And under Biden, we're defying economic expectations in part because of the actual policy record that you can dive into American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, Chips and Science Act, the infrastructure law,

and those four in particular are absolutely contributing to the situation we're currently experiencing economically. In just three short years, we've gone from in the middle of a crisis to a really strong place dominating the global economic stage, I should add. And this realization that Republicans shouldn't run on the economy in this election was articulated by a Fox News host here. Take a look. Or 2016, rather. The Republicans should be very careful about the messaging on the economy. Immigration, number one issue in Iowa and New Hampshire. I argue because the economy is receding in importance among the voters because it's good.

Stock market at a record high. University of Michigan gauge of consumer sentiment up in two months, the most in more than three decades. And home ownership. If you own your home at a low fixed rate mortgage, 3 percent, and the value of your home is going up, that is wealth accumulation. And you have a fixed rate mortgage, you have a fixed payment every month, and your wages are increasing. This in the monthly jobs report, four and a half percent annual wage increases, fixed monthly payment on your home. Your wages are going up at four and a half percent. That is extra spending money. That's how you benefit from inflation. And people are outspending. And the messaging from the RNC has been way off base.

Yeah. Interesting. All right. Lots to watch. And of course, it's always important for me to point out when I cover stories like this, none of what I'm saying means that you and millions of Americans don't have real economic pain. Of course, those pains are real and absolutely present. So it's not to invalidate those. And that's why it's important actually to factually assess the policies of the two parties and then vote accordingly to address those economic issues that exist. To get that done, we have to have elected leaders serious about governing and getting things done to address problems. And Republicans have proven they have no interest in doing that. It's all about political stunts and nonsense culture war debates. Democrats, though, have

shown in recent years a willingness and motivation to actually accomplish things that benefit Americans. And so things are looking a lot better now. That's exciting than they were a couple years ago and compared to other countries as well. And I do think Biden Democrats should get a lot of credit for that. We can celebrate it, but then we're looking forward as well. What else needs to get done? are the people with a record to show not just the disaster that republicans have been in the house here's another example of the economic truth is finally being accepted on fox news one thing though eric i think to keep a really close eye on is in polling of voters now who have said for a couple of years now that the economy is top on their list of concerns. And they feel that inflation was Biden's fault. It was really the fault of the pandemic. But they blame President Biden. And they are concerned about the economy and the direction of the country and of the

economy. How that vote, how that concern is going to change now that you have a robust economy. 3.3 percent GDP growth in the fourth quarter, an incredible gangbusters employment number this past Friday. Inflation has been slashed. And that message, you know, you and I follow it because we're in the news business, but it takes several months for the electorate, which is busy with its jobs and other responsibilities to get the word that the economy is actually quite robust. Yeah. So. I mean, I'm just going to say quickly and we're out of time now, but that's some of the Democrats are saying that message has not yet gotten across largely to the American people. The success of the economy, the record unemployment rate, as well as the bills that the president has been able to pass. Yeah, that's right. And let's see in the next couple of months, you know,

people make their decisions, you know, four to six months out from an election. They kind of hone in on who they want. But you still have a few months before that to get your message across, both former President Trump and President Biden. And the economy is now for President Biden a good story to tell. So many great points there. It does seem people are starting to feel, actually finally feeling the reality that we've been discussing on the data for some time. Because you can rattle off all the facts and figures in the world. That doesn't really matter until people are feeling those metrics in a meaningful and material way in their lives.

And David has been making the point on the show that it's natural that this could take some time to reach people. It's reasonable that even though there have been some strong economic numbers for some time now, the reality of that will impact people on a delay. And we're sort of seeing that finally that's starting to set in. People are feeling the good news in their lives and in their material conditions, which is really, really exciting, both for people and for Biden's political prospects. The next thing I want to talk about is Democratic Governor of California,

Gavin Newsom. He appeared on MSNBC and in Gavin Newsom fashion made some really important points that I want to review. One of the things he's become known for is his willingness to get a little bit more aggressive with his messaging against Republicans than many of his Democratic counterparts, which is necessary in this moment, given the magnitude of it. And we'll also get to him addressing the bizarre right-wing freakout over Taylor Swift. But let's start with this first clip, him saying the Democrats need to go on the offense in response to the constant culture war nonsense from Republicans. Policies are great, But as you well know,

as someone who's run for office multiple times, including in this one term, one term as governor, I've had three elections in four years. Thank you to the recall. Right. But as you know, elections are sometimes decided on emotion rather than concrete policies. And right now, it seems like culture war stuff, so-called culture wars, are driving people to extremes. So you mentioned it earlier, you know, rolling back the teaching of history, putting targets on the backs of LGBTQ kids with don't-say-gay bills. What is the effective message to push back against? How about have a message that's offensive, not just defensive?

We've been on the defense too long. CRT, ESG, DEI. I joke it's everything with three letters. DOJ, FBI, IRS. And we're constantly on the receiving end of that. Look, one thing I've learned from the propaganda networks out there, don't matter illusion rules it's who dominates the narrative what's trump's success in this primary it's about dominating the narrative flood the zone when the courtroom is a campaign stop you're flooding the zone the senate said it himself says i can't

it's hard to get any attention out here so what Democrats need to do is we need to flood the zone. See the benefit we have? We have the facts. They don't. We have the policies. They don't. We have the record. They don't. They have rhetoric. They're obstructionists. The reason you're on a cultural purge, Republican Party, is you don't have an agenda for unifying this nation. The Democratic Party should be dominating right now. It's time to get back on the offensive and start to feel good again, but a little joy. And I just think more of us should get out and feel proud to make the case and not feel defensive and timid about making the case when we have a great case to make. I think it's so important that as those on the left, we really consciously make that a goal, going on the offense. For too long on so many of these political subjects, we've been

on the defense, on our heels, and then spend so much time responding to the right-wing framed talking points. But as Newsom was saying, we have to get out there and we do have facts on our side. Now let's go out and advocate on behalf of those facts as aggressively as so many others advocate on behalf of lies. And this is something in my personal life, in political conversations I've been trying to do when I have a friend or acquaintance, for example, who brings up all these different issues that are framed, again, and crafted to benefit the right-wing sort of narratives on a lot of subjects. And I just yank the conversation immediately over to my turf. For example, I refuse to talk about nearly any policy issue within these conversations until we come to some agreement about the issue of democracy.

Meaning, if a functioning democratic process is the foundation of our entire political system as it is, and every policy discussion happens with the assumption that we can battle it out over those policies in our democratic system, then I have to put democracy at the top of the list. That has to be number one. And when someone like Donald Trump and the MAGA movement holds as much political relevance and power as they currently do, and Trump could win in this next election, then that has to be the discussion up front in any political conversation, at least with me. Trump tried to block the peaceful transfer of power last time he was president, the fake elector scheme, pressuring

officials to engage in fraud, etc. And now he's saying he's going to lock up his political opponents in the second term. The government should, quote, come down hard, end quote, on media outlets he doesn't like. He plans to uproot the bureaucracy and staff it with only loyalists so nobody pushes back against him. He plans to defy Supreme Court rulings, has called for the termination of the constitution. If we can't agree that that poses an existential threat to democracy and we need a functioning democracy to work out all those other policy issues, then I'm not really interested in your stance on taxes or energy policy or whatever it might be. And then remind people people as well, alongside that argument, that Joe Biden and Democrats have the policy record in recent years, while Republicans have a record of screaming about

culture war things, trying to impeach everybody, as we talked about in a previous segment, and not much else. So you can have a functioning, stable democracy and some actual policy achievements, or you can have mayhem and no policy achievements and an unstable democratic process. Next moment from this Newsom interview, he addresses the Republican meltdown over Taylor Swift. The Republicans that are looking down and past Taylor Swift do so at their own peril. What is her sin? What is her sin? She wants more people to vote. She wants to help people register to vote and remind them the importance of expressing their democratic rights

and responsibilities. Wow. And that says everything you need to know about the Republican Party. They don't want people to vote. They want to make it harder because they can't win if you vote. How sad and pathetic the Republican Party have become that Taylor Swift literally is a threat to them for one reason. She wants folks to turn out and vote. I mean, that's it. It's pretty stunning. I think it's time for some serious self-reflection when you are terrified by the prospect of people getting registered to vote and you're a political party. Time to do a little introspection, Republicans. The GOP understands, though, that they are so unlikely to have a message that resonates with Tara Swift's disproportionately

young audience. So instead of changing their message and changing their policies, God forbid, they would rather rage that they're observing people getting registered to vote. And even though Swift, I hope, will endorse Biden, and I expect it sort of, and she did last time, she hasn't yet. So at this point in time, all this panic is just over, as Newsom said, her encouraging people to exercise the right that has been fought for and people have died for, countless people throughout our history. And this anti-Taylor Swift sentiment has continued throughout the week. And I know David covered it last week, but here's more from over the weekend from a contributor on Fox News. I got 20 seconds for you. You waited on the Taylor Mania a few weeks ago when you said she was partially responsible for the Kansas City Chiefs losing a couple of games. Do you stand by that comment?

I hope that she's the Yoko Ono of the Kansas City Chiefs and she destroys their dynasty and puts them down in flames. That's why I am proudly supporting the San Francisco 49ers, America's team, on Sunday against Kansas City Patrick Mahomes Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey you got you got Niners all right so he was saying Taylor Swift was causing the Chiefs to lose that was his previous analysis and now they're in the Super Bowl doesn't seem like he's the most wise on the subject and now apparently just to spite swift he's a 49ers fan get a life go outside that's crazy imagine being that petty i don't get it here's more relationships have been over the past decade of course it's overplayed she's like the most popular singer on the planet right but every relationship she has fails. So the her whole calendar is about people she dated that she now hates. All right. That's always hard. So I want

to get to come out. I want to get to Kelsey is going to get ripped. Yes. So now this Fox's contributor is reduced to roasting the relationship history of one of those most popular people in America. It really is amazing what the right wing media echo chamber can do to you. By the way, the idea that it's a Taylor Swift unique phenomenon that all of her past relationships, quote unquote, failed as he said, meaning they didn't end in marriage, I guess.

That's literally the history of everyone ever. You date people, then it doesn't work out until you find the right person. It's called life. Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel and I'm on YouTube at Luke Beasley. Subscribe there. Plus podcast listeners, you can listen to my show by searching the Luke Beasley show on any platform back after this. If you're like me, and I know so many of you are just like me. You hate the sticking and the rubbing that comes with traditional underwear. I'm sure most gentlemen in my audience know what I'm talking about. Our sponsor, Sheath Underwear, solves the problem. They have a patented ergonomic

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of course, was very critical of Trump until he wanted to run for Senate. Then he realized, oh, the GOP is owned and operated by MAGA, so now he's a Trump guy. Take a look. I can't stomach Trump. I think that he's noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place. He's leading our political discourse to a very negative place. If Trump is elected president, he has to be a much different president than he was a candidate. As a candidate, he was fundamentally divisive, arrogant.

I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him. That was JD Vance back in 2016. Now he's a Republican senator from Ohio supporting Donald Trump and he joins us this morning. Senator, thank you for joining us this morning. Back in 2016, you also wrote that Trump is unfit for office. Why have you reversed yourself? Well, I think in office actually, George, you did a great job and he proved me wrong.

He also proved a lot of other people wrong, which is why I think he's doing so well in the polls these days. We have to remember, George, that Joe Biden promised to return to normalcy. And then he goes on to say all of the normal Republican takes on Biden's presidency. So I won't subject you to that. You've heard so many times. But listen, do people change their opinion on leaders genuinely sometimes? Absolutely. And just because you've been critical of someone doesn't mean you don't think that they would be better than the alternative that's all fine but this is a part of a larger picture that we've been observing since trump got into politics he's forced the majority of elected republicans to fall in line when they've previously

acknowledged the person that trump is and reportedly are constantly articulating how much they despise trump in private it It's like Tucker Carlson putting out propaganda for Trump for years and then texts are revealing or they reveal that he thinks Trump is terrible. He said he hates Trump with a passion or something. And I saw Cassidy Hutchinson recently who worked in the Trump White House say on X. Essentially, keep in mind that nine out of ten of the Republicans you see defending Trump the most adamantly privately express their disdain for him. And that sort of two-faced nature of a lot of these individuals is very aggravating. And they do acknowledge how disastrous he is, but they're

just too petrified to speak out against him. Then in this next moment, Vance is asked about his absurd stance on January 6th and eventually admits if he were vice president, he wouldn't have certified Joe Biden's win. So you're not troubled by the sexual assault and defamation. Let me ask you about January 6th. You've been mentioned as a possible vice president for Donald Trump. Had you been vice president on January 6th, would you have certified the election results? Oh, George, this is such a ridiculous question, in part because the law has changed here. We, of course, had a- Well, I didn't ask you about going forward.

I asked you what you would have done. I asked you what you would have done. George, here's what I think happened in 2020. And I know you guys are obsessed with talking about this. I have to make a point here. You constantly say to people like me, why do you talk about January the 6th? Why do you talk about the election of 2020? And then you ask about us multiple times during a six-minute interview. But look, you ask the question and I'll answer it. Do I think there were problems in 2020?

Yes, I do. The political solution to the problems that existed in 2020, it's a reasonable debate to have. And I find it weird, George, that people like you obsessed with what I call what happened in 2020. You're so incurious about what actually happened in 2020, which is why so many people mistrust our elections in this country. We've got to do better, George. I'm not the least bit incurious. In fact, you laid out a litany there, but you didn't answer the question I asked. Would you have certified the election results had you been vice president? If I had been vice president, I would have told the states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and so many others that we needed to

have multiple slates of electors. And I think the US Congress should have fought over it from there. That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020. I think that's what we should have done. So it's very clear you would have done what Donald Trump asked you to do there, not what Mike Pence did. I covered this story on my show. You can find that at Luke Beasley on YouTube and every podcast platform. But I talked about how insane that response is.

Really think about that. He's saying after the states had already certified and sent their electors, their electors cast their vote for the proper candidate. he's saying he would have as vice president called them up and been like no we need another keep on sending slates until you have ones that will vote the way i want them to do you think as vice president you just control everything with the elect what would be the point of having elections if one person could go and send more? I don't care how your state voted. I want two slates and I'll pick the ones I like.

And spoiler alert, it's going to be Trump or Congress is going to fight it out is what he said. Totally ridiculous. This is not a democratic movement. He's willing to admit. Yeah, that thing that every sane person thinks is crazy that Trump tried to get Vice President Mike Pence at the time to do, but Pence wasn't willing to do. I would have done that. He's willing to say that publicly. Not a democratic movement, my goodness. Then here's the grand finale when Stephanopoulos has to end the interview. J.D. Vance keeps talking and the tech guys just

mute his mic. It's just wonderful. And by the way, the context is that Vance is encouraging Trump to get rid of the entire bureaucracy so no one can push back against him if he gets a second term and defy Supreme Court rulings. Because you will get taken to court and then when the courts stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it. Fire everyone in the government, then defy the Supreme Court. You think it's OK for the president to defy the Supreme Court? No, no, George, I did not say fire everyone in the government. I said replace the mid-level bureaucrats with people who are responsive

to the administration. Every civil servant in the administrative. No, George, I said the mid-level bureaucrats. And one of the problems that we have in this government. You said every civil servant in the administrative state. Who don't, who, let me finish the answer, George. You asked the question. We have a major problem here with administrators and bureaucrats in the government who don't respond to the elected branches that whoever is in charge, agree or disagree with them,

you have to follow the rules. If those people aren't following the rules, then of course you've got to fire them. And of course the president has to be able to run the government as he thinks he should. That's the way the constitution works. It has been thwarted too much by the way our bureaucracy has worked over the past 15 years. The constitution also says the president must abide by legitimate Supreme Court rulings, doesn't it? The Constitution says that the Supreme Court can make rulings, but if the Supreme Court, and look, I hope that they would not do this, but if the Supreme Court said the president of the United States can't fire a general, that would be an illegitimate ruling, and the president has to have Article II prerogative under the Constitution to actually run the military as he sees fit. This is just basic constitutional legitimacy.

You're talking about a hypothetical where the Supreme Court tries to run the military. I don't think that's going to happen, George. But of course, if it did, the president would have to respond to it. There are multiple examples throughout American history of the president doing just that. You didn't say military in your answer, and you've made it very clear you believe the president can defy the Supreme Court. Senator, thanks for your time this morning. No, no, no, no, George. Round table's up next. We'll be right back. Again, as I said when I covered this story on my show, that's how it's done, George Stephanopoulos. Absolutely wonderful. So often, interviewers, and I know they're coming from a good place. The interviews are really difficult, but a lot of interviewers just ask their questions.

Then the politician gives the rehearsed non-answer. Then the interview moves on and the next question's asked and it just sort of goes through that and nothing's achieved or revealed. But here, every sane viewer was able to walk away from the interview with the understanding that J.D. Vance was being really dishonest and has been saying some wild things. Hey, do you remember when Trump held that bizarre event where he went to a non-union factory during the UAW strike and had people holding unions for Trump signs? It was quite literally staged, fake, just really strange speech and event. Well, now we're getting more information about this, and I want to break that down for you. Midas Touch reports, when Joe Biden became the first president to join a picket line this past

September for the UAW, the Trump campaign scrambled to do something to counter the move. Michigan is a critical state for both campaigns, and when autoworkers went on strike last fall, Biden made it clear that he was on the side of the workers, and for that, he was recently rewarded with the UAW endorsement. What did Trump do? He did what he always does, used money and stagecraft to create the illusion of substance while doing absolutely nothing to help anyone. We saw the same production with the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, where Trump flew in for a photo op, passed out expired waters for one of his resorts or from one of his resorts, I should say, and had a few pallets of Goya beans from his friend flown in. Now we learn from recent FEC filings from his PAC that he did the same thing during the auto

workers strike. The Trump campaign paid Drake Enterprises, a non-union auto parts shop in Clinton Township, $20,000 to stage a fake event with people holding up union members for Trump signs behind him to make it look like he was holding a rally with union autoworkers on strike. During the rally, he rambled nonsense that if he was elected, the entire American auto industry was going to move to China. So because he couldn't get the sort of union support that Biden was able to get, because he wasn't willing to go join the picket line as Joe Biden did to show his support for the striking workers, he spent 20 grand on a fake event to make it look like he has union support in Michigan. That's as Trumpian as it

gets. And I remember David originally covering that event and pointing out just how, before we even knew the details, 20 grand, the non-union factory, just it was all strange, you could tell. Trump's giving this speech, you know it's a non-union crowd, but they're holding up union members for Trump signs as he's insulting union leadership. And essentially his entire message boiled down to endorse me. And then something about electric cars, just so little substance. And then by contrast, Biden became the only president in memory in American history that we know of to join the picket line. He delivered remarks that roused the crowd and spoke to the issues that workers care about. So it's no wonder he ended up being endorsed by the UAW.

And now, as David discussed last week, Sean Fain, the UAW president, has been powerfully campaigning for Joe Biden. And while we're on that subject, let me show you a couple incredible clips from a recent UAW event. First, here is Sean Fain. There's one plan we have going forward, and that's to keep Joe Biden as our president. And you guys know I don't have to spell this out for you because all of you know this. This is our message going forward. We know who's been there for labor, and we sure as hell know who wasn't.

It's a very clear choice in this election. It's a very simple choice for all of us in this election. You know what the hell's going to happen if this man's not president because we've seen what happened. Labor went backwards. Working class people went backwards. The poor went backwards. Everybody suffered. So this is our shot.

This is our time. This is our mission from this day forward. We're going to fight like hell and we're going to ensure that Joe Biden's the next president so that the working class keeps moving forward. So with that... That is how politics should work. Joe Biden promised American workers he was going to be pro-labor, pro-union, and he's followed through. There's more to be done, of course. Sean Fain didn't unconditionally support Biden.

He waited to see if Biden would follow through. And now that Biden has been the most pro-union president in decades, Fain's proud to help get Joe Biden elected. That's politics at its best. Promises made, promises kept, more to be done. Then here's Biden at the same event. I cried. Any of you ever watch Jay Leno's Garage? Watch me race on my 67 Corvette? It's only a 327. I'll tell you what, man. I got up to 130 miles an hour, though.

Secret Service doesn't like riding with me very much anymore. Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And you're not only helping autoworkers, you're helping every worker in the world. Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel. You can find my channel at Luke Beasley on YouTube and podcast listeners by searching my name wherever you listen. You've heard me talk before about the show's financial accounts being hacked. It is a horrible experience. It can happen to anyone. Look

at the stats and our sponsor aura gives you peace of mind. Aura is the all in one solution to keep your accounts safe or scans the dark web for your personal info, emails, passwords, social security numbers, and alerts you if anything is found and helps you fix the problem Thank you so much, David. easy to use parental controls. You can try Aura for free for two weeks at Aura.com slash Pacman. Your usernames and passwords could already be floating around. It takes just seconds to find out using Aura's free trial. So you can change your passwords if you need to. That's A-U-R-A.com slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. Welcome back to the show. Luke Beasley here filling in for David. Let's return to the subject of the border we talked about earlier in today's The link is in the podcast notes. and they want the problem to be as bad as possible so they can justify attacking Biden over it as loud as possible. It's vile, it's enraging, and a Republican senator is out going after his own

party for that very reason. This is Republican Senator James Langford. He's essentially been out saying to his Republican colleagues, guys, this is everything we've ever wanted. This is the deal of the century for us. Let's take it. And he appeared on Fox News to speak about this. Super interesting. Here's the first clip. Senator Mike Lee said not only does he say he needs three weeks to read through it, he said no self-respecting senator should agree to vote on a 370 page bill this week. Any 41 senators can prevent the bill from proceeding. If you agree that senators should have this bill for at least a few weeks and certainly more than a few days before voting on it, say so.

You understand where he's coming from, right? Don't you guys have a procedural vote this week? Are you going to vote on the bill by the end of the week? So we actually have this bill came out yesterday, Sunday. The first procedural vote is Wednesday. And that procedural vote is literally just open it up to be able to go through it and to be able to say, are we going to debate it this week? That's what Senator Lee is actually talking about. It's interesting that he said he's already opposed to it. He needs three weeks to be able to read it, but he's already opposed to it. So again, people have got to be able to read it, go through it themselves. Don't

just go off a Facebook post somewhere what the bill says. This dramatically changes asylum. It dramatically changes deportations. We no longer have a 10-year backlog. It builds more wall. Those are the key things that it actually does. But read it for yourselves. Don't just believe what's online. Yeah, it's an interesting point. You have someone like Mike Lee making two seemingly contradictory points. The first being I'm opposed to it. The second being how can we vote on it if we haven't had time to read it? If you need time to read it, why are you already opposed to it? And the reason is because they don't need to know what's in it. They already have their marching orders from Trump, which is to say they will oppose any deal so Trump can run on the border in this next election. And I think Democrats genuinely want to address the issue. I do, it

seems clear, but they also may be playing an interesting game. Because if you dive into this proposal, it's pretty intense. This is genuinely a Republican's dream. So Democrats have now offered to Republicans everything they could ever want. And if they indeed prevent it from getting through, Democrats then have a really good case to make in the election that Republicans are to blame for issues at the southern border because they wouldn't even work with Biden on addressing issues even when he offered them everything. And I know that's sort of an icky political side of this, but I'm sure it's running through their minds and maybe that's why it's so jam-packed with Republican wishlist items. Next clip. Here's what Speaker Johnson said. I have seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected. It won't come close to any of the border catastrophe the president has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator proclaimed, under this legislation,

the border never closes. If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival. Your thoughts? Yeah, unfortunately, he would step out and be able to say that right away before, obviously, he had had a chance to be able to read it as well and to be able to go through it. The key aspect of this, again, is are we as Republicans going to have press conferences and complain the border's bad and then intentionally leave it open after the worst month in American history in December? Now we've got to actually determine, are we going to just complain about things or are we going to actually address and change as many things as we can? If we have the shot, and it's amazing to me, if I go back two months ago and say we had the shot under a Democrat president to dramatically increase detention beds, deportation flights, lock down

the border to be able to change the asylum laws, to be able to accelerate the process. No one would have believed it. And now no one actually wants to be able to fix it and says, I don't want to even debate it. I don't want to discuss it. We have to decide as Republicans, what are we going to actually do about the border? Leave it open or actually leave it closed? So what are they going to do now? That's the question. I think we know the answer. Now that Trump has weighed in, we talked about previously in the show, the utter fear most Republicans have of Trump. So they'll come up with some excuse to kill the deal. But I do hope Democrats effectively slam Republicans on this issue and make sure every American's aware of who's really getting in the way of solutions as it relates to the

southern border. It's been wonderful being with you all on this Monday. Again, you can find me at Luke Beasley on YouTube. Podcast listeners, just search my name wherever you get your podcast. David will be back tomorrow, and I hope you all have a wonderful week.