The David Pakman Show - 2/7/24: GOP humiliated, impeachment fails, border bill in shambles

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

-- On the Show: -- President Joe Biden gets a blowout primary win in Nevada, while Nikki Haley comes in second place to "no one" -- The Republican Party falls into further shambles with the news that RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel will resign -- President Joe Biden shreds Donald Trump in brutal speech about the failed border bill -- Republicans are once again humiliated by the failure to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas -- Radical Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene blames a "hidden" Democrat for the Republican failure to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas -- Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert fly off the rails at an off-the-wall press conference -- Tucker Carlson gives an absolutely absurd explanation for why he is in Russia to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin -- Podcaster Joe Rogan says that tons of people "died suddenly" after "promoting" the COVID vaccine -- Patrick Bet-David's appearance on Bill Maher's podcast comes unglued when the topic of Trump vs Biden comes up -- Voicemail caller claims President Joe Biden has stage 2 dementia and Democrats won't talk about it, and also that the economy is bad -- On the Bonus Show: Credit card delinquencies surge in 2023, Mike Lindell says he's ready to take over for Ronna McDaniel as RNC Chair, the Kremlin contradicts Tucker Carlson's claims about interviewing Vladimir Putin, much more... 🥄 Use code PAKMAN for $5 off Magic Spoon at https://magicspoon.com/pakman 🌳 MyHeritage: Try it free for 14 days at https://davidpakman.com/myheritage 👂 MDHearing: Use code PAKMAN to get XS hearing aids pair for $397 at https://shopmdhearing.com/ 😮 DealDash: Use code PAKMAN for 100 free bids at https://dealdash.com/pakman ☕ Trade Coffee: Code PAKMAN10 saves you $10 at https://drinktrade.com/pakman -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

We start today with the Nevada primary where Joe Biden won easily and Nikki Haley lost to no one. What does that mean? Well, I will show you in a moment. We continue to head towards what seems like an inevitable conclusion to this primary season. Joe Biden, the nominee for the Democrats and Donald Trump, the nominee for the Republicans. Now, whether and how and to what degree Donald Trump will be able to carry out his duties and responsibilities as the Republican candidate in the context of his forthcoming criminal trials, potentially losing all his cash,

a whole bunch of other problems remains to be seen. But at least at this stage of the game, it doesn't really matter because Republicans seem determined. So let's start with the results of the Republican primary in Nevada. The winner was none of these. Sixty three percent of those who voted showed up and said, I don't want any of these candidates. I want none of the people on the ballot. Now it's important to understand that to some degree this was a proxy for Donald Trump because Donald Trump was not on the ballot.

We talked about the reasons why some time ago, paperwork issue, et cetera. So Nikki Haley came in second with 31 percent. But the none of these in great part was Republican voters in Nevada expressing that they are displeased with Trump not being on the ballot. When you look, you'll see names you may not recognize. Mike Pence and Tim Scott coming in third and fourth. Then you have John Castro, Hirsch Singh, Donald Korns and Heath Fulkerson. Who the hell knows who these people are? So on the Republican side, kind of a win for Nikki Haley, but not really. And she still doesn't get delegates now on the Democratic side, just an absolute and total blowout win for Joe Biden. Eighty nine percent of the vote. Second place was none of these at six percent. And then in

a distant third with quite literally thirty one hundred votes and two point nine percent of the vote was Marianne Williamson. And then a whole bunch of people who I haven't heard of, including a candidate named Super Pasha City, Crystal Rock, Jesus, and a whole bunch of other people. Right. Stephen Leon and Brent Foots and Mark Prasik. I have no clue. But the important message here, Joe Biden overwhelmingly winning. Well, but David, the Democrats aren't running a real primary. That's right. The Democrats and the Republicans never run a real primary when they have an incumbent. The conventional wisdom is that the incumbent president represents the best shot at remaining in the Oval Office. It's probably more than just conventional wisdom is that the incumbent president represents the best shot at remaining

in the Oval Office. It's probably more than just conventional wisdom. It's probably just true. Now we are going to have continuing coverage of primaries, including primaries expected to be more competitive. South Carolina for Republicans is going to be an interesting one. And I had the date here and I just lost it. I believe it is. What is the date

of that South Carolina primary for Republicans? The 24th of February. So a few weeks from now, the 24th of February, we will see Republicans vote in South Carolina. By all realistic expectations, Nikki Haley is going to lose that. That's her home state. She should get out at that point. But because of the maybe Trump dies or is in prison caveat, she may try to stay in whether Republican donors will continue to support that. We don't yet know. Let's now move on to the absolute and utter chaos that has exploded within the Republican Party. Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, is stepping down. This is the latest. What would we call it?

Touchpoint, the latest example of complete and total chaos within the Republican Party. This is a party in shambles in a lot of different ways, which we will talk about. New York Times reports Donald Trump is likely to back an election denier, Michael Watley, the head of the North Carolina Republican Party, to replace her. The chairwoman of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, has told Trump she is planning to step down shortly after the South Carolina primary. Trump is then likely to promote the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. Michael Watley is her replacement under the arcana of the committee's rules.

Trump cannot simply install someone. A new election must take place and what we could face dissent. McDaniel has faced months of pressure, a campaign from Trump ballot for allied force, Trump allied forces to unseat her and growing dissatisfaction and anxiety in the Trump camp about the strained finances of the RNC as the general election cycle begins early. Well, it's really more than that. You know, in a sense, they got her Vivek Ramaswamy when he was a candidate for the Republican nomination, attacking Ronna McDaniel on stage.

We have a situation where Republicans are furious that they've lost everything really since Trump won in 2016 to a greater degree acutely since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Many of them blame Ronna McDaniel. But I have to tell you, this is one situation where Republicans are quick to blame whatever is most convenient for their faction when the reality is actually much simpler. The reality here is that the Republican Party is not actually offering anything. They have pushed unpopular stuff like the repeal of Roe v. Wade, and now they are suffering

the consequences. It really is that simple. And I know that there are many Republicans and some people on the left, Democrats and others seeking complex and convoluted explanations for Maga versus non MAGA and these things. All of that has a place in the analysis. But you've got to understand that for years now, the Republican Party has become a party where they don't even put out policies for us to oppose in the sense that, oh, we're against woke. We're against men and women's sports. We're against parents losing control of their kids education. These aren't really policies. You know,

if they came forward as the older Republican Party did and proposed policies that I thought were bad, right? Hey, let's do a 25 percent flat tax. OK, I'm against that. I'll explain to you why. I'll explain to you why it's not good for the that. I'll explain to you why. I'll explain to you why it's not good for the economy. I'll explain to you why it's a handout to the very rich. Hey, what if we officially make the United States the world's police and we go into countries A, B, C, D? Let me tell you why I'm against that. We don't have a Republican Party that is doing that sort of thing at this point. They are against problems that don't really exist. We want a border bill and then they get it and then they're against the border bill because

Donald Trump is saying, no, I don't want them to achieve anything when I'm not in power because it makes me look weak. And what the reason that the Republican Party is in chaos is there's really two reasons. Number one, Trump is a disaster for them and it's just like a drug they can't get off of. That's problem number one. And problem number two is they're not actually offering Americans solutions to real problems. Oh, Biden inflation. Well, what's your solution? I don't know. We don't really have one. Oh, but the the wokeness has taken over all of our institutions, including education, media, entertainment, government. OK, what's your solution? I don't know, like ban pronouns or something. Really? You know, we kind of need pronouns for for speech, right? For English.

Now just ban them. They offer nothing. And that is the crux of this chaos. And what we can now hope it's not a guarantee. It's not a foregone conclusion. But what we now have an opportunity to do is to really set that destructive party back even more. It's been so long since they won anything. Republicans haven't won a popular vote for the presidency since. Man, when is it right?

I mean, Bush did Bush win the popular vote in the second one. I don't even remember if he did. I think he lost. I don't remember the last time Republicans even won the popular vote for president. This is a party that is increasingly unpopular and they are offering nothing. The opportunity is really crush him in November. I mean, really crush him. Biden sailing to reelection, Republicans failing in the House and Senate, hopefully, and make them rethink and put something together that is policy oriented.

Get off of the drug that is Trump and come back to the table. In the meantime, Joe Biden shredding MAGA and Trumpists in a brutal speech on the border bill. Remember, this is the border bill for years now. If you believe Republicans the day that Joe Biden became president, immigrants came flooding in over the border, welcomed with gift cards and Starbucks lattes and the whole thing. The reality is quite different. The reality is that you are relatively more likely to be sent back under Biden than you were under Trump. The reality is that a higher percentage of those who cross the border illegally are apprehended under Biden

than under Trump. And I'm not bragging about this stuff. I don't think we're approaching this issue even remotely sensibly. But we have to start with what the facts are. Doesn't matter to Republicans. We want a border bill. OK, they come to the table with Democrats. They negotiate. It looks like we have a bill. We're blocking the bill. What? This is the bill you wanted. Trump doesn't like it. MAGA doesn't want to see it happen. And now it's all because it is in service to what is best for Trump. They need the supposed problems at the border in order to say, vote Trump. If they fix it now, well, it got fixed under Biden. Why do we need Trump? It hurts Trump. Trump wants problems to try to be able to solve if and when he becomes president again. So here's Joe Biden making it clear that he knows who the

Republicans now serve. Republicans have to decide. For years. They said they want to secure the border. Right now they have the strongest border bill this country has ever seen. True. We're seeing statements strong by the standards of the right to be clear about how many oppose the bill now. Look, I understand the former president is desperately trying to stop this bill because it's not he's not interested in solving the border problem. He wants a political issue to run against me. Correct. I've all but said that across the board. No one really denies that, and I'm aware of.

The American people want a solution that puts an end to the empty political rhetoric which has failed to do anything for so long. We have to get the resources to the border to get the job done. So Republicans have to decide decide who do they serve? Donald Trump and the American people. Are they here to solve problems or just weaponize those problems for the second thing? Right.

I know my answer. I serve the American people. I'm here to solve problems. We know the answer. They, Republicans serve MAGA and Trump. They do not actually want to solve problems because if they solve problems, they now lose cudgels, which with they can beat their voters into submission, saying I will solve these problems, which they obviously will not solve. Joe Biden also talking about what happens if this bill fails. Folks, we've got to move past this toxic politics. It's time to stop

playing games with the world, waiting and watching. And by the way, the world is waiting. The world is watching. They are waiting and watching what we're going to do. We can't continue that petty partisan politics getting in the way of our responsibility. We're a great nation. It's not acting like a great nation. So I'm calling on Congress to pass this bill. It gets to my desk immediately. But if the bill fails, I want to be absolutely clear about something. The American people are going to know why it failed. I'll be taking this issue to the country, and the voters are going to know why it failed. I'll be taking this issue to the country and the voters are going to know that it's not just a moment. Just at the moment, we're going to secure the border and fund these other programs.

Now, one of the areas from this speech that I don't know that Joe Biden is right about is as he starts to allude to there and we'll look at in one last clip in a moment, Joe Biden is arguing that if the bill fails, the Republican people, the American people, the American voters will know there was an opportunity to solve the problem Republicans identified for political reasons. Republicans turned it down. They now deserve to be punished in November at the ballot box. I don't know necessarily that that is the way it will go down. Let's listen to what Joe Biden said. So I'm calling on Congress to pass this bill against my desk immediately. OK, and I'm actually realizing we saw part of this already.

Let's move forward as many Republican friends. It's time for Republicans in the Congress to show a little courage, to show a little spine, to make it clear to the American people that you work for them, not for anyone else. I know who I work for. I work for the American people. It's almost like this. We have to remember who in God's name we are. We're the United States of America. You've heard me say it many times. There's nothing

beyond our capacity if we do it together. We're right on the verge of doing it together. I hope, I hope and pray they find reason to reconsider blowing this up. And God bless you all. May God protect our troops. All right. So the exact line I was looking for, there is something getting mixed up with the clips. But as we heard, the point here is Biden says voters will blame Republicans if this doesn't go down. That would be correct. I hope that that's the case. But one thing we've learned and I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I have to say this one thing we've learned dating back to 2016 even further is that when you overstate. I don't know if I have to say this one thing we've learned dating back to 2016 even further is that when you overstate.

I don't know if I want to say the intelligence, but it sort of comes down to intelligence or awareness of the American voter. When you over assume the intelligence of the American voter, you end up disappointed. You end up seeing people like Trump. Trump become president of the United States. So let's hope that voters clearly see who is to blame here. We will. I mean, listen, it looks like the bill is not going forward, but maybe that will change. Biden making it clear who he believes is to blame. He happens to be right. Whether the American people will know that and vote on that basis

remains to be seen. Let's take a very quick break. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash The David Pakman Show. And we'll be right back. One of the longest running David Pakman show sponsors is Magic Spoon Cereal. They have been with us for years, and it's only because my audience loves Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon has really reinvented your favorite childhood cereals. Each serving has zero grams of sugar, 13 to 14 grams of protein and only four to five net carbs per serving. It is keto friendly. It is grain free. And you can relive the moments of watching your favorite cartoons without the guilt and the sugar.

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The perks are copious, including the daily bonus show, commercial free audio and video feeds of the show, a soundboard that matches mine. Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Right. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. And so many other great benefits. You can sign up at join Pacman dot com. Well, Republicans have really done it. They have humiliated themselves again, this time failing on the the vote they brought forward to impeach the secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. This is not only a humiliation, it's also bad political calculation. You should only bring votes forward that, you know, you have the votes to actually win. The Hill reports in Stunner House Republican bid to

impeach Mayorkas fails. Now, you might be asking a very sensible question, which is, David, why did they want to impeach him? They wanted to impeach him, I guess, because of what's going on at the border. And then you might say, David, what's going on at the border? We're apprehending a larger number of those who attempt to cross illegally than we were under Trump. And we are sending back more people than we did under Trump. What is it? I am with you. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but this is what they do. Let's impeach. I don't know. The Hill reports

the House effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas failed in embarrassing fashion Tuesday as three Republicans joined Democrats in voting against what would have been the second ever impeachment of a cabinet official. The 214 to 216 vote is a stunning loss for a Republican Party that has faced continual pressure from its right flank to impeach a Biden official, even as the party has waffled over which one to focus on. They don't even know who to impeach. Definitely Biden, right?

Well, I don't know that he do anything worthy of impeachment. Who cares? How about my orcas? He has something to do with the border, right? I don't know the failure. And this is fascinating. The failure came about because of the surprise appearance in the chamber of Congressman Al Green, a Democrat who showed up unexpectedly, having recently had surgery and wearing hospital scrubs and no socks.

The imagery here is just amazing. Republicans entered the vote with two expected no votes from Ken Buck and Tom McClintock. But then Mike Gallagher voted against impeachment. Then they needed to. This led to Republicans gathering around Gallagher for a conversation. Democrats at several moments erupted in howls of order. A fourth Republican, Blake Moore, flipped his vote to no seconds before the vote closed. And that's a procedural move that allows the conference to bring the legislation back later. So a bunch of different important stories here. Number one, this is technically bipartisan opposition to what is a brazen act of political and partisan extremism.

That's a good thing. So when you see something like this not go down on party lines, meaning, I mean, it's only a few, but a few Republicans joined Democrats and said, no, this doesn't make any sense. You could say that they are rejecting partisan extremism. At the same time, it could simply be Republican division. It's not so much that they're opposed in principle to the impeachment of Majorcas if it would be politically beneficial. It's they are divided within the Republican Party, and it is more a representation of their strife than anything else. Secondly, it is another reminder that most Republicans have no problem whatsoever using

impeachment for political gain. And this should trouble every American. They say Trump was impeached for only political reasons. Now, when they say that, what they mean is for bad political reasons. These are politicians. OK, so, of course, the nature of impeachment is a political process. It's for political run wrongdoing. It doesn't matter whether they did something criminal.

It's for political wrongdoing. And so when they say, oh, this is all political, these are politicians engaging in political actions. The important thing to understand is whether these impeachments are warranted based on actions. And of course, we know that for Mayorkas, it is not for Joe Biden. It is not so far. While most Republicans are willing to ignore that and say, I don't care if there's no cause we're going to impeach anyway, they don't have the votes, at least for now, to get this done. It's also important to point out that critics of this move, including some Republicans, have admitted we don't really have a solid basis. Some admit there's no solid basis for impeachment and say we need to do it anyway to find the

evidence. That's the fishing expedition that so many want to go on. A few, you know, Mitt Romney has said it. I just don't think we should do it unless we have the evidence. And that's actually the way that it's supposed to go. And then I think it's also important to say there are real issues at the border or with immigration. We've got DACA overstayed visas, companies that hire undocumented immigrants but don't get punished. There's a whole

bunch of stuff that's real that we should be attempting to solve and dealing with in a real way. The backlash here needs to be against the Republican Party for focusing on things that aren't actually the issue, lying about what the Biden administration is or is not doing at the border, saying we want a bill. And then when they negotiate the bill saying we no longer want it and then trying to put forward this impeachment of Mayorkas over what's going on at the border. And lastly, once again, big mistake. Do not bring bills forward that you aren't sure you've got the votes for. I want to go to a couple of clips of Marjorie Taylor Greene weighing in on this next.

Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed a hidden Democrat for the failure to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas yesterday. Now, as we already discussed, you shouldn't bring a bill to the floor when you aren't absolutely sure what's going to go on with the votes. A Democratic congressman, Al Green, when they say that he was hidden, makes it sound like he was hiding in a box somewhere. He brought he was brought out in a, you know, a gaffer's cart like Taylor Swift at a concert when in reality he just showed up after surgery and voted. So here is Marjorie Taylor Greene saying Democrats hid someone.

They hid them. The Democrats hid one of these votes that they had. So was it something that people would see? Is that something that I'm glad I'm glad you asked that because, well, we can basically look like look at this as a game, unfortunately. The game being played, of course, by Republicans and their strategy. And they had one of their members waiting to the last minute watching to see our votes, trying to throw us off on the numbers that we had versus the numbers they had.

So, yeah, that was a strategy at play tonight. You know. There's a very simple way to win this, which is you have a majority. Make sure you can get everyone there on your side and make sure everyone is on your side. In other words, have them on your side and in the chamber and able to vote when you have the majority. If you do that, it doesn't matter if you hide Al Green in a box or in the cloak room or wherever they failed to do that. Matt Gaetz weighing in on this on Newsmax after the failed vote, saying I have never

missed George Santos more. George Santos could have been one more vote for them. But of course, they rightly kicked him out. Trust me, Blake Moore wants Mayorkas impeached. But I got to tell you, Bowling, as I'm watching that board and it's 215 to 215, I have never missed George Santos more. Like in what irony that the New York Republicans who drove Santos out of Congress, who are watching the children in their state being driven out of schools so that those schools can become migrant housing centers that now we don't get to execute on an impeachment trial of my orcas because.

Yeah. So he says, hey, what about kicking out Santos? That was a bad idea. Well, no, kicking out Santos was a good idea. It was the right thing and they were right to do it. But this is yet another example of the internal division within the Republican Party. We see them so often blame different elements and aspects of the Democratic Party, the left wokeness, social justice, whatever it is, that is the phrase of the day.

And then you look at this and you see Republicans are divided over the prudence of overturning Roe v. Wade because some of them recognize it's been disastrous for their party. You see Republicans divided over the removal of George Santos from Congress. You see Republicans divided over. Well, we wanted this bill, but then now for political reasons, we're against it. That doesn't really make sense. You see Republicans divided over. We want to impeach Mayorkas or do we do we have the votes? No, we don't. Is this a good idea anyway? Well, we should have done it, but we should have had

the votes or it was a hidden Democrat. This is a party that is in complete and total shambles. The real question now and it will be a sad and stunning failure if the answer is no. The real question is, can Democrats really take advantage of it in November of twenty twenty four? It is not a typical opportunity where so much is riding on a single election both ways. The disaster that it would be if MagGA and Trump come back to power. But on the other hand, the extraordinary opportunity that Democrats have to really relegate Republicans to decade long losers, nearly decade long losers. And that is what is at stake in November.

So Gates says we shouldn't shouldn't have kicked out George Santos. Marjorie Taylor Greene says it's Democrats who hid a congressman, a hidden congressman. You know, it's like elf on the shelf, congressman in a closet, similar sort of thing. They are blaming each other. They are blaming Democrats. They failed. And that's a good thing. But what will they succeed at next? I don't have the answer. And that's why these people need to be taken out of power. I ran into a family friend the other day who is a big fan of our sponsor, MD Hearing. She's tried several hearing aids, but has settled on MD Hearing. MD Hearing specializes in FDA

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and get your bids back and use them on something else. Right now on Deal Dash, I'm bidding on this nice wintertime beanie that I'm planning to give my girlfriend as a gift. I think she'll love it. Am I right? Deal Dash has so much different, excellent stuff. You'll find something you need there for sure. And when you go to deal dash dot com slash Pacman, you will get 100 free bids with your first bid pack purchase. Just use my promo code Pacman. That's deal dash dot com slash Pacman for 100 free bids. The info is in the podcast notes. Not long before the failure to successfully vote to impeach Joe Biden, secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas,

Republicans held a press conference and two of the folks that spoke at that press conference and took questions are radical and repugnant reactionary congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. I want to play a couple of clips for you because it really is a reminder of what it is that we are up against and what is at stake in November of 2024. The topic of insurrection, election integrity, it's almost vomitous to call it that because it's really a manufactured term by by the right that goes along with many of their false claims about election so-called election integrity.

It's about who is patriotic and who isn't. It's about who supports law and order and who doesn't. Here is Marjorie Taylor Greene admonishing, I guess, the media. It's never really clear who she's so furious at, but she's furious. And here is what she had to say in the midst of. And remember, the context here is they're about to try to impeach Mayorkas for what they claim is happening at the border. They are about to reject the border bill that they wanted and negotiated. And income Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. And here's what what Marjorie says.

Democrats and dishonest people in the media every single day accused President Trump of waging an insurrection and accused many of us of waging an insurrection, certainly of supporting it, inciting it and abetting those who want to do it, who tried to do it. And you're doing nothing but lying and selling the lies of the Democrats all for campaigns and elections. Shame on every single person that has done that. Shame on you. You need to tell the truth. You have the freedom of press, one of the greatest rights in this entire world.

A right that Trump would want to take away, indicating that he would try to get certain unfriendly news outlets off the air, talk about taking away licenses from media outlets he doesn't like. If she really values freedom of the press, as she claims to, why does she support the guy who said he would try to take it away? Anyone that puts the word insurrectionists calls President Trump an insurrectionist and calls any of us an insurrectionist is a liar. And you do not deserve the power that you possess. Shame on you. I guess she's also saying whoever uses those terms deserves to be kicked off the

air, have their voice silenced by the government. I think that violates the First Amendment. I don't know. Call me crazy. Here is Marjorie Taylor Greene defending the rioters. And I know it's like, David, it's wait a second. It's February of twenty twenty four and she's still defending the rioters. Yes. Yes, that's exactly what she's doing. And then the American people who pay for elections with their tax dollars actually own the elections and have the right, the right to care about their elections, election integrity, and the results of their elections. When they came to Washington and protested, all of you called it an insurrection. And then when Joe Biden was inaugurated and this entire Capitol complex was surrounded with 30,000 National Guard troops, none of you stood there and called that an insurrection. Oh, no, you all stayed silent.

A very confused Marjorie Taylor Greene in the MAGA Republican narrative in MAGA world. They are always the poor little victims who also are here to save us and save everybody. They're the heroes in their stories and they are the victims in their stories. And it's the fake victim hood. Everybody else is the aggressor. They are just defending themselves. Lauren Bober says it's all out of fear. It's just it's all out of fear. That's what this is all about. Take a look at this. The left is afraid and now they are trying again to rig another election by interfering in this political witch hunt. Right. They're afraid the left knows they will lose. It's weird because if you are part of this so-called left, I don't know why you would

expect to lose. They really haven't won anything major, certainly not as often expected since 2016. It's been almost a decade. And when's the last time they won a popular vote for president? No, I think if anything, the left would be welcoming opportunities to have voters go out and express their voices by voting because it's going really well. Here's one more from Bo bear. This is a witch hunt against President Trump.

It's absolutely unprecedented. And the woke mob, the fake news and the leftist government officials who are engaging in this extortion should be downright ashamed of themselves. All of the this. Speaker 1 It's not really clear why Marjorie and Lauren did this on this particular day in the middle of all of these other chaotic and bizarre things that are going on. But they did it. They did it yesterday. They are showing that they are going down with the ship. They're not fleeing. Let's make sure that they do go down with the ship in November. That's the important takeaway here. Tucker Carlson, right wing propagandist, former Fox News host, is in Moscow and he is in

Moscow to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now, if you're wondering, is Tucker Carlson going to ask Putin about the murders of Russian journalists, the assassination of Litvinenko, the poisoning of Skripalas, the destruction of Grozny, the abduction of Ukrainian children? The I think the answer to all of those questions is no. But I am going to play for you Tucker's own explanation as to why he is doing this. He put out an excretion on X where he said, why I'm interviewing Vladimir Putin, why I'm interviewing Vladimir Putin. Here is what he had to say.

And I am going to preview for you. He tells many lies here. We're in Moscow tonight. We're here to interview the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. We'll be doing that soon. There are risks to conducting an interview like this, obviously. So we thought about it carefully over many months. Here's why we're doing it first, because it's our job.

We're in journalism. Our duty. Who's why we're doing it first, because it's our job. We're in journalism. Our duty. Who's this? We, by the way, this royal we is to inform people two years into a war that's reshaping the entire world. Most Americans are not informed. They have no real idea what's happening in this region. By the way, the idea that if it's true that Americans aren't informed about what's happening with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin is going to be the one who informs them to give them an idea of what's really going on. Laughable and pathetic at its face here in Russia or 600 miles away in Ukraine.

But they should know they're paying for much of it in ways they might not fully yet perceive. Remember the whatever your opinion is about what level of involvement the U.S. should have. The use of one percent of the military budget to help Ukraine defend itself with no American boots on the ground is an insanely good deal. Now, you could say, I don't think we should be doing it because I think Russia's right and Ukraine's wrong or we shouldn't help anyone. But the idea that gobs of American money, I mean, guys, it's one percent of the military budget and it's no boots on the ground. It's a damn good deal. The war in Ukraine is a human disaster. It's left hundreds of thousands of people dead, an entire generation of young Ukrainians, and it's depopulated the largest country in Europe. But the long-term effects are even more

profound. This war has utterly reshaped the global military and trade alliances, and the sanctions that followed have as well. And in total, they have upended the world economy. The post-World War II economic order, the system that guaranteed prosperity in the West for more than 80 years, is coming apart very fast. And along with it, the dominance of the U.S. dollar. These are not small changes. They are history altering developments. So let's pause here for a moment.

Would Tucker Carlson be making this exact same analysis if everything was the same, but there was a Republican in the Oval Office? I don't think so. And I think it's very clear that this extremely negative view of the dollar and all these different things, which, by the way, the dollar was very much in question as the long term and sustaining reserve currency of the of the world under Trump. But Tucker wouldn't talk about it. Then a lot of this is a proxy attack on Joe Biden. They will define the lives of our grandchildren.

Most of the world understands this perfectly well. They will define the lives of our grandchildren. Most of the world understands this perfectly well. They can see it. Ask anyone in Asia or the Middle East what the future looks like. And yet the populations of the English speaking countries seem mostly unaware. They think that is nothing has really changed. And they think that because no one has told them the truth. Their media outlets are corrupt. They lie to their readers and viewers, and they do that mostly by omission. For example, since the day the war in Ukraine began, American media outlets have spoken to scores of people from Ukraine and they have done scores of interviews with Ukrainian President Zelensky.

All right, this is a critical part. Okay, so let's really focus in on this section. We ourselves have put in a request for an interview with Zelensky. We hope he accepts. But the interviews he's already done in the United States are not traditional interviews. They are fawning pep sessions specifically designed to amplify Zelensky's demand that the U.S. enter more deeply into a war in Eastern Europe and pay for it. That is not journalism. It is government propaganda, propaganda of the ugliest kind, the kind that kills people.

At the same time, our politicians and media outlets have been doing this, promoting a foreign leader like he's a new consumer brand, not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin. Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now. This is a critically important thing. The reason that other American journalists haven't interviewed

Putin is not because they don't want to. It's not because they haven't tried. It's because Putin has not accepted. And numerous journalists, including Christiane Amanpour and others, have said we've made numerous requests to interview Putin. It is Putin who doesn't want to do the interviews with us. But for some reason, he wants to do the interview with Tucker Carlson. I wonder why. Now, I also think it's important to mention in this context that you can come at this from Tucker's angle, which is we hear one sort of thing from Zelensky. Now I'm going to give you a similar sort of thing for Putin and then we'll kind of be even and people can decide. There are objective factual differences between the two parties here. Russia invaded

Ukraine. Russia is trying to take territory that is not theirs, that is Ukrainian under international law. And so even if you grant we should hear from Putin and I want to hear from Putin. Right. And many journalists have tried to interview Putin. The idea that you just need to be given their views and then, you know, they're sort of equivalent in some way. There is an invading force here. And again, that's missing from Tucker story. Never heard his voice. That's wrong.

Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they're implicated in. And we have the right to tell them about it because we are Americans to freedom of speech is our birthright. We were born with the right to say what we believe that right cannot be taken away no matter who is in the White House. I wonder if that the fact that in Russia journalists don't have that right and many have been killed for the things they said. I wonder if that will come up with Putin. And if it does, I will praise Tucker for bringing that up.

Speaker 2 But they're trying anyway. Almost three years ago, the Biden administration illegally spied on our text messages and then leaked the contents to their servants in the news media. They did this in order to stop a Putin interview that we were planning last month. We're pretty certain they did exactly the same thing once again. But this time we came to Moscow anyway. We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin. We are here because we love the United States. We want to remain prosperous and free.

All right. So you get it. I don't think we need to listen to the rest of it. So first of all, obviously, journalists have been trying to interview Putin. It's Putin who's turned it down. The story here isn't that Tucker is the only one who wants to interview Vladimir Putin. It's that Putin has rejected every other interview request from serious Western journalists since he invaded Ukraine. And the one guy he's choosing to speak to is a favorite of right wing American propagandists. It is Tucker Carlson.

Will Tucker demand that Putin release Americans being held in Russian prisons unfairly after kangaroo court convictions? Will Tucker talk about all of the people who have accidentally fallen out of a window multiple times or, you know, whatever the stories are that they tell? If he does, I will praise him. But I think it's really important to understand that, you know, when RT was operating in the United States, you would often hear people are on RT say, no, no, no, it's not propaganda. No one's ever told me what to say. That's not the way it works. You're on RT because they already know what you're going to say serves the narrative they want

to put out there. And that's the reason that Tucker has been chosen by Putin for this interview. Now I want to be proven wrong. I want to see a serious, hard hitting interview. We will absolutely cover it when it is published. I maintain an open mind, but the fact that Tucker starts with so many lies already doesn't make me super optimistic. I'm very particular about my coffee and our sponsor, Trade Coffee, helps you do more in

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Right now, through February 14th. Trade is offering ten dollars off gift subscriptions. Go to drink trade dot com slash Pacman and use the code Pacman 10 at checkout. That's drink trade dot com slash Pacman. Then use code Pacman 10 at checkout. That's Pacman one zero to get ten dollars off for Valentine's Day until February 14th. The info is in the podcast notes. This is really painful to watch on the bonus show today. We are going to talk about the continued influence of the Joe Rogan podcast. We are going to talk about how I mean, listen, influential is the most accurate word about the Joe Rogan podcast. And that's part of why this is so painful to see.

On a recent episode, Joe Rogan, on whose show I've appeared twice, just casually said, you know, it's crazy how many young people got vaccinated and then died suddenly. This is one of the most what's the word? Is it destructive? Is it pernicious? Is it just dishonest? Is it inaccurate? Is it depressing? What misstatements and inaccuracies about the covid vaccine? I'm going to play it for you. Then we're going to talk about it. Listen to this. What misstatements and inaccuracies about the COVID vaccine. I'm going to play it for you. Then we're going to talk about it. Listen to this. Hilarious is how many people were promoters of the vaccine and died suddenly.

It's crazy how many young people just died in their sleep after they took it. And everybody's like, nothing to see here. Sudden adult death syndrome. Yeah. Just died suddenly suddenly you ever go to the died suddenly instagram page like holy there's so many and so many people like talking about people who are you know anti-darwin anti-vaxxers and then then you're dead sorry you bought you bought into the wrong bullshit but that's you know if you really want to get cruel, that's Darwinism. Do you not know they lie by now? Are you not aware of the opioid crisis? Are you not aware of Vioxx?

Are you not aware of the various, like, 25% of all FDA-approved drugs that get pulled? It's one out of four. And you're like, really, you're an anti-vaxxer? What are you, a conspiracy theorist? You fool. Darwin's going to do its work with you. You're modifying your genes, you idiot. Like what are you doing?

What are you doing? You're just going to trust Pfizer. Well, they do support Anderson Cooper brought to you by Pfizer. Oh, boy. Oh, my goodness. Where do you even start with this? Where do you even start with the amount of damage that is being done here? You know, every single one of these claims is wrong.

First of all, the idea that the vaccine modifies your genes, it's not true. It's been said so many times. It's been explained no matter what sort of medical expert you have. Explain it. Some of these folks just don't want to accept it or believe it. He talks about the movie died suddenly and the Facebook page died suddenly. That is a propaganda film widely debunked and completely non empirically based, which features a bunch of headlines that you can find on Google about people that died and then suggests this never used to happen. Healthy young adults never used to die. And it's happening now at a greater rate than it used to. And it's because of the vaccine. And the film has gotten

at one point it was more than 20 million views. It's so hard to know because it's on different platforms and tens of millions of views is fair to say. And when you look into the film, you find that, number one, the rate of these deaths hasn't increased other than by the degree to which we know people have died from covid. We also have investigated some of the specific people that died suddenly. They weren't even vaccinated. So some of the people featured in the film were not actually vaccinated with the covid vaccine. So total

propaganda film that is leading people dangerously astray. And then, you know, there's always some, as Sam Harris said to me last week in our interview or the week last week. Yeah. Sometimes these conspiracy theories have some grain of truth. And the grain of truth here is pharmaceutical companies have lied and pharmaceutical companies have done bad things. Joe Rogan mentions Vioxx and he mentions opioids. It's really important to understand that these are dramatically different sorts of medications. Vioxx was an NSAID designed to treat pain and inflammation marketed for osteoarthritis and for some acute pain conditions. And it was withdrawn from the market because there were concerns it would increase heart

attack and stroke if you used it for a long period of time. OK, the opioid crisis opioids are an entire class of prescription pain relievers. You've got your oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine and others. The illegal drug heroin is also an opioid. They are known for pain relieving effects, but huge addiction potential overdose. We know about the Sackler family and their deliberate deception when it comes to clinical trials, side effects and risk for addiction, et cetera. Vaccines are meant to help the body generate immunity without getting the disease. That's the idea. And vaccines are one of the most effective ways to prevent diseases, including diseases that can

cause death, as well as diseases that are that are less likely to cause death. So when you look at the risk profiles with Vioxx, the risk was related to cardiovascular events, and it was significant enough to say we've got to withdraw this from the market. With opioids, you've got addiction risk, dependency, overdose, death risk. These are significant and it has generated a public health crisis. Vaccines are low risk. Most side effects are extremely mild and temporary. Even the more rare, serious side effects almost always resolve on their own. When we've talked about the myocarditis, pericarditis. And do you sometimes get a serious adverse event? Are there a few people that have died from serious

vaccine side effects from just about any vaccine? Yes. But the point is, you don't suspend an incredibly successful and effective public health campaign because any intervention can have these extremely rare side effects. You look at opioids and Vioxx, it's a completely different situation. So anyway, the Vioxx opioid comparisons are just absurd. It's really sad to see Rogan go in this direction. And, you know, I don't know who people write to me. They go, David, you know, if only he would allow you back on, you could set him straight. First of all, it's not about setting people straight. I don't know if he would ever have me back on. I would appear any time. That's what I've said. And that that's where where I will leave it. Bill Maher hosted Patrick Bet-David

on his show. I've been on with Patrick Bet- David. I thought the conversation was good. And also Patrick David has some not really slick, but ways he thinks are slick of pretending to be principles over partisanship, which kind of fail. This happened on the Bill Maher program when the topic of Trump versus Biden came up. We're going to listen to that right now. It's very interesting. Let's take a listen. Reason on the left. Oh, sweetheart, you are preaching to the converted here. This is I'm always bitching about this. I do know you're supporting Biden, though. Of course, because we only get two choices. I mean, what is so hard to understand about about bad and worse? They forced America to take the vaccine bill.

70% Americans took the vaccine and they didn't want to take it. A lot of them didn't want to take it. Wait a second. When did the vaccine come about? Under Biden? No, under Trump. No, no, it didn't.

It came two days after election was over with. Two days after election was over with, Pfizer announced it was not under Trump. They intentionally kept the vaccine after the election, so they gave the victory to Biden. Trump was like, I created the vaccine. I don't disagree with you. I agree with you.

Take it as a victory. I'm on the same page with you. But there's a difference. This is the one difference, Bill. May I say this? May I say this? And then push back. Here's the difference. You know what the difference is? How many times have you heard Trump get on stage and brag about warp speed? We saved 100 million people's lives. Right. Just ask you a simple yes or no question. Yeah. We're not exactly yes or no, but who are you voting for? I'm voting for whoever allows me to make decisions more and not somebody that decides what's good for me or not.

OK, this is the game. He's responding to a very simple question, Trump or Biden, with a principle leaving the audience to figure out, well, based on your principles, clearly you must be voting for or is it obvious? And Bill Maher does a pretty good job of actually picking apart how silly this all is. Not a debate here. No, no. The left.

I asked you a yes or vaccine. Wait a second. The state of California and the industry you're in force you to take the vaccine. So you don't know who you're voting for. I'm voting for whoever allows me to have more freedom with the choices I make. And you don't know that yet. It's definitely not going to be Biden. Well, then it would be Trump, wouldn't it? If it's between the two choices. What? But look at you, are you kidding me? It's not even a close call by the way. But the fact that you just can't own it is very weird, man. This like, who are you voting for? Well, the Constitution says, it's two words, Trump, Biden. I'm voting for Biden. I'm owning that.

Do I think he's perfect? No. But I don't think it's like that. I think it's not even. I don't think it's like that. I don't think it's like that. Well, just say you're for Trump. If a person watches my.

I don't dislike you for your. I don't dislike. If somebody watches my podcast, they're going to know who I'm voting for. Well. If somebody watches a podcast, they're going to sit there. But how odd that you can't just say it then. Because to me, I'm voting based on values. I'm not voting based on. But we know what the values are of Biden and Trump and their and their policies. We know everything about them is about force. The right is about choice. I don't want to be forced again to have to do something I don't want to do. And there it is.

That's not actually the truth. Right. When you look at so many examples, the right is about choice and the left is about force. It's the left that says, hey, let's let people, women in consultation with their doctors decide is an abortion right for them. And for anybody who says an abortion is not right for me, give them that choice. Don't force anybody one way or the other. The right is no. We must by legal force ban this procedure. So many examples. And even when they go to these supposed values games, they often have them backwards.

I would have loved to have seen Bill Maher push back more on the fact that it's not just reductionist to do that. It's also inaccurate. Let's see how it follows up. That I'm you seem to think that that is the sunum bonum of all political issues. It is a very important one to me. There are other ones. Such as what?

What's above force versus freedom? Crazy person in the White House. According to who? Again, well, it's my opinion. That's right. I vote. It's just like it is yours. Set that aside.

Set that aside. It's hardly the only point. I love that. They love doing this. Okay, listen, listen. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Set aside Trump's crazy. They love doing this. OK, listen, listen. Hold on. Set aside. Trump's crazy. Trump's an embarrassment. Trump's unqualified. He's an alleged criminal. He's a civilly liable rapist. He humiliated the country on the world stage. He failed to solve any of the problems

he said he would solve. He doesn't know anything. He's threatening to take media outlets he doesn't like off the air. Put it all aside. Bill, when it comes down to it, are you for force or freedom? That's the reductionist game that they play. Candidacy, then it's not going to be Trump or Biden. Forget about the name. And we don't even see a faceless candidate. Put a faceless candidate bill. So we don't have a name, right? That's faceless. What values are important to you? Force or freedom? I we're not talking 24. We're going 28. I mean, it's all good to be a reductionist, but I'm sorry. I don't. It's hard to take it seriously. It becomes hard to take it seriously because not only is it reductionist, it's inaccurate and it's deceptive and it's hard to take it seriously. It becomes hard to take it seriously because not only is it

reductionist, it's inaccurate and it's deceptive and it's not a serious way of determining who actually has the best interests of the country in mind. Trump has only his own interest in mind. Biden genuinely seems to care about people. Does he always get everything right? Obviously not. But at least his motivations do seem to make more sense. Good enough job, I would say, by Bill Maher. And I'd love to talk to Patrick about David again. Maybe next time I'm in Florida, we will make it happen. We have a voicemail number. That number is two one nine two. David P. Here's a caller who I guess is saying the economy is terrible and Biden's demented and I just won't talk about it or something. David P. Here's a caller who I guess is saying the economy is terrible and Biden's demented and I just won't talk about it or something. All right. Well, I just had this

question, but it's just it really bothers me and I come with all respect. But by Joe Biden is obviously showing levels of stage two dementia. And what pisses me off is you people on the other side of the spectrum politically, people who are on the left, most Democrats are not even noticing it. I mean, you sit and you look at this guy and the dudes just, you know, rambling on and on. Can't he cannot articulate for himself? And it's I can see this with my own eyes. To me, it's you guys are ignoring it. It's just ridiculous.

And you know, you can try and say, oh, well, you know, the economy is doing better. Would you like to do? Why are you trying to make it's not that I like it's I report to my audience what's going on. The economy seemed great in the first place. If you look at, you know, polling six out of 10 Americans say the economy is is bad, is in bad condition. Listen, it is true that polling on how the economy is doing is lagging, but it sounds

like what this person's view is, is that Biden has dementia and the economy is terrible and I simply won't tell anybody about it, which is a really difficult perspective to imagine getting behind. Now, on the bonus show, we will talk about credit card delinquencies as a metric that doesn't look good. I'm not hiding these from you. We're going to tell you. I'm going to contextualize it and then we'll see where we land. Get access to the bonus show.

Sign up at join Pacman dot com. I'll see you then or I'll be back tomorrow.