The David Pakman Show - 3/17/23: 2024 polling a rollercoaster as CRT confusion grows

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

-- On the Show: -- Donald Trump is winning some, but losing other 2024 Republican primary polls, and we look at whether polling is accurate in March of the year before an election -- Republicans are endorsing Ron DeSantis, who is not actually a declared 2024 candidate at this time -- Donald Trump supporter, while speaking to Walter Masterson, says she is against critical race theory, instead preferring the teaching of black history in schools, a very confused claim to be making -- On the Bonus Show: David updates the audience on the latest goings-on at the David Pakman Show 🪒 Henson Shaving: Use code Pakman for FREE blades at https://hensonshaving.com/pakman ⚠️ Use Ground News for FREE, or sign up for unlimited access: https://ground.news/pakman 👍 Get 10% off the Füm Journey Pack with code PAKMAN at https://tryfum.com 💪 Athletic Greens is offering FREE year-supply of Vitamin D at https://athleticgreens.com/pakman 💻 Stay protected! Try Aura FREE for 2 weeks: https://aura.com/pakman ⚠️ Use code PAKMAN for a free supply of BlueChew at https://go.bluechew.com/david-pakman 🥄 Use code PAKMAN for $5 off Magic Spoon at https://magicspoon.com/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN10 saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.com -- 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 -- Subscribe to Pakman Finance: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanfinance -- 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

Speaker 1 I want to slightly more substantively address the Republican primary polling that's out there right now. I got a handful of emails from people in the audience, nice people like you who said, you know, David, I see that Trump's winning a bunch of polls and DeSantis is winning a couple. This is the primary polling, of course. Does this really matter at this point in time? And that's more or less exactly the right question that should be asked. In other words, the critical questions are how accurate are presidential primary polls in March of the year before the election? And secondly, is there something special this time around that might make polling more or less relevant, regardless of how

accurate polling tends to be at this point in an election cycle. So let's go through this step by step. First of all, it remains the case that Trump is ahead of DeSantis in most 2024 primary polling and the higher rated the pollster. Generally speaking, the more Trump seems to be winning by. We'll look at a couple of examples here. The latest poll is from Quinnipiac University. That's an A minus rated pollster, a very good pollster. They have Trump plus 11 against the Santas in a head to head matchup and Trump plus 14 against the Santas in a multiway matchup. That trend is holding in basically every poll, which is Trump does better against DeSantis when there are more options. Why? Well, because Nikki Haley takes a little more from DeSantis than she does from Trump

and Pence takes a little more from DeSantis than Trump. And so what you get is when you include more candidates, Trump is winning by more morning consult poll. A multi-way poll has Trump plus 24 over DeSantis. That's a B minus rated pollster. And then you have the CNN SSRS poll. That's a C plus rated pollster. That one does have DeSantis plus two against Trump in a multi-way race. It also gives Pence six, which is, you know, I don't know that I believe Mike Pence has 6 percent support right now, but that this is the whole point of looking at a variety of polls. And then you look at an A minus rated PPP poll from roughly a week ago, and that one has Trump plus eight in a head to head matchup and Trump plus 18 in a multi way matchup. Great.

So today's polling, Trump generally doing better than DeSantis. The more candidates there are, the better Trump does. Fine. The next question is how accurate. Accurate is not the right word. How reliably does the leader in these polls in March of the year before the primary end up actually winning the primary? Or to put it another way, is it normal that whoever is leading in March of the year before ends up being the nominee? And the answer is it's not that common or to put a different way. It's pretty common that whoever's winning at this point doesn't actually end up winning. I'll give you some examples. If you look at the polling from the Republican primary in 2016, meaning March of 2015, Trump was not winning in March of 2015. And he was ultimately the nominee in 2016. Barack Obama was not winning in March of 2007, but he was eventually the Democratic nominee in 2008. Rudy Giuliani

was leading in March of 2007. He was not the 2008 Republican nominee. It was, of course, the late John McCain. So there are many such examples like this. So the part two of our investigation is it's really common that winning in March of the year before doesn't really tell us who's eventually going to win. And then we get to the third part of the question. Is there something special or different this time around that might make all of this stuff very, very different or particularly irrelevant? And the answer is, yes, sort of. It is not typical that you have running in a contested primary, a candidate who was previously the president lost reelection and is then running again.

That's not normal. And so I'll tell you right up front, I have no idea what the impact of that would be on the accuracy of polling data in terms of being reflective of the eventual outcome in March of 2023 for a 2004 election. So that, in my mind, is the full story. We've considered all the factors. What is the polling? How much does polling at this point in time matter? And are there special circumstances affecting this election? The answer being yes, that's the totality of the polling story. And with that context, we can now evaluate future polls. Republicans are endorsing Ron DeSantis for president, even though he's not actually

running yet. This is a very interesting situation. Is it unique, though? We'll answer that question in a moment. First, here is a video from a couple of weeks ago from Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida, who says he likes DeSantis, even though DeSantis is not at this point in time, a candidate. It's pretty remarkable. And he hasn't declared yet. Many in the Republican Party hope he soon will. Is this Ron DeSantis his opportunity to run for higher office?

I think it is. He's been a really effective governor. He's young. I think we're on the verge of a generational change in our politics. I kind of hope so. I think it's time for a more forward-leaning, future-oriented conversation in our politics as well. Which has made him, should he choose to run for president, a serious contender in Republican politics. And who better to do it than someone who's been outside of Washington, who's governed effectively, who I think has shown that Florida could be a model for the future of our country. Yeah. Now, remember, Florida's rankings are very mediocre, ranked between 20th and 30th in most indicators, as I told you. But put that aside for a second. That sounded like a pretty full throated endorsement by Jeb

Bush of Ron DeSantis. He later said, I was praising not endorsing DeSantis, but he is clearly making public statements that he likes DeSantis for president, even though DeSantis is not actually a candidate yet. We have another example of this Republican Chip Roy has now endorsed Ron DeSantis for president, putting out a statement two days ago saying the next president of the U it's called Ron DeSantis for president. And he says the next president of the United States must be a vibrant and energetic leader with the faith, vision, and courage to chart a new course. America needs a leader who will truly defend her and empower the people against the destructive force of unrestrained government and corporate excess, profligate

spending and woke cultural indoctrination. That leader, says Chip Roy, is Ron Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a man of conviction, a man who puts his faith in God first as a dedicated husband and father. He grew up a blue collar kid who worked hard, got a great education and used it immediately to serve his country. He loves America unapologetically, but loves freedom and the rule of law even more with the courage to fight for both. Yeah, not the freedom for teachers to teach what they determine is best to teach, not the freedom for Disney to support the causes it wants to support without risking losing it. Yeah, you guys, it's a very short sighted version of freedom. So is it normal or common for non candidates to be endorsed? Is this something

we've seen in the history of the United States? We've seen it a few times. It's not the most common thing. In 1924, former President Teddy Roosevelt was endorsed for the presidency by the Progressive Party, despite the fact that he had not announced his candidacy and Roosevelt declined the nomination. But it certainly raised the profile of the Progressive Party. In 1960, Dwight D. Eisenhower endorsed Vice President Richard Nixon for the Republican nomination. Nixon at that point had not formally announced his candidacy. And then in 2020, former President Barack Obama endorsed Joe Biden, even though at that

point Biden had also not officially announced. But it was one of these situations where it was pretty clear and written on the wall that an announcement was forthcoming. So long story short, it is not super common to see someone who isn't running endorsed. And when we see them endorsed, it is often the case that they are close to an announcement. So do I believe DeSantis will announce or as some of you have written to me, do I believe DeSantis will announce? Or as some of you have written to me, do I think DeSantis will use this as a waiting game and end up sitting aside until 2028? I lean towards DeSantis will run 24, but I'm still

very much open to the idea that I'm wrong. Why? Because I'm wrong all the time in my predictions. And so I don't I have zero confidence in any of my own predictions. I want to look at a clip of our friend Walter Masterson. Walter Masterson went to CPAC and he did some really interesting interviews. And this is one that is uniquely stupid in a way. This is a Trump supporter that Walter interviewed. And one of the things Walter does at these events is he pretends to be on their side. Like I think here he's wearing an ultra MAGA shirt and, you know, he pretends to be on their side. And one of the things that happens

with these folks when you pretend to be on their side is you can get them to agree to almost anything because they don't really have any actual beliefs that they truly understand. They just want to feel correct. Here is a Trump supporter who says she is against critical race theory, but she wants more black history to be taught. Of course, ignoring the reality that what they call critical race theory often is just teaching black history. Take a look at this goldmine.

Well, and I get very aggravated because I noticed the folks who push CRT do not seem to take the time to teach about Frederick Douglas, who was a black founding father. They have erased the work of early black people in this country. Frederick Douglas. Well, you know what? When they want to teach that, they're accused of teaching critical race theory. Harriet Tubman, many of these things were not taught about them and their full capacity. So what we need to do is we need to get rid of the CRT nonsense and start teaching more about what Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, the person who stole the Confederate ship, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Farrakhan. I mean, you know, the list goes on.

Oh, that's great. She's nodding about Farrakhan. She has no clue who some of these people are. You all you all can tell, I'm sure. The list goes on. It's crazy. It is a robbery of both black and white children to not teach that history because black children should be knowing that there were great black leaders that they can identify with.

And it's like no one none of these kids know who Marcus Garvey is. Yeah, exactly. This this is this is really, really stunning stuff. And it's stunning for a number of different reasons. This is very similar to I hate Obamacare. Oh, OK. What about the Affordable Care Act? That's fine. Right. But they're the exact same thing. This is very similar to get the government the hell out of my Medicare. Don't touch it. Oh, but Medicare is a government health care program. This is

slightly different, but still similar to Sharia law is bad and we've got to keep it out of the United States when it's Muslim Sharia law. But a Christian version of that Sharia law would actually be fine because the founding fathers were Christian or whatever the case may be. This really is something else. And this is part of why there's no talking these people out of these beliefs. Really scary stuff. Very nice job by Walter Masterson there. I've had such trouble finding a great razor where I am not cutting myself or getting those

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And it is a beautiful day when people sign up. Let's hear from people in the audience. And by that, I mean, we take calls via discord. You can find our discord at David Pacman dot com slash discord. We start today with Bishop from Kentucky. Bishop from Kentucky. Welcome to the program. Let me know what's on your mind today. What's going on? Hello. Yeah, you're on the air. OK, today I was was wondering i have a little bit of like an ethical question or a moral question do you think it's ever justifiable and i guess the question will differ morally and ethically do you think it's ever justifiable for a nation to ever want an

ethno state because i know nations like israel exist nations like um japan exists they have different like policies obviously obviously, but they kind of advocate for the same thing. Like, do you think that's ever justified or not? I've never heard the question really asked that way. I mean, I don't know what the follow up would be, but if literally as asked, is it justifiable for a people to want an ethno state? Are there circumstances that would make wanting an ethno state justifiable? Sure. We may agree or disagree as to whether the the desire is based in reality. But sure, it's valid to want that. Yeah, I guess more so it's kind of like long term, it's just like a realistic. Is it realistic to like have one or maintain one?

I think is probably a better question. I think the future will because that's a lot of it. I mean, I don't I don't know. I mean, I think it's you know, when you consider all sorts of different factors like globalization, modernity, the decline of religion, all these different things. I think it's a predictive question. Is it possible for an ethno state to persist? I think the other thing that's important to include in this discussion is, you know, eventually Rome fell. So when we say about indefinitely, what do we really mean? Nothing's nothing has lasted indefinitely so

far and it's possible nothing will last indefinitely. Yeah, of course. That's true to consider. I was kind of just curious as to whether or not you thought just just ethically or morally or just like something I wanted to like bounce off of you to see if you had any thoughts on it. Sure. All right. Well, I appreciate the call. OK, thank you, David. All right. There goes Bishop from Kentucky. Let's go next to how about Chris from Texas? Chris from Texas. Welcome to the show. What's on your mind today?

All right. Can you hear me right now? Yes, I can. OK, I have two questions, I guess, regarding health care. OK. My first question is regarding the like like drug shortages that right now I'm just wondering why is it like Biden been like more restrictive on like controlled substances such like for Adderall right now, given that it's kind of hurting a lot of people right now?

I don't know that I have a specific answer as to why he hasn't. I mean, I just think it's clearly not a priority. He didn't campaign on it. He didn't pretend that that was going to be his big focus. So I don't I don't I know you may be looking for a different type of answer, but I just don't think that he's made it a priority. Yeah, because I mean, from what I've heard right now is he's actually restricting the levels of it, like Adderall production right now and other control, like other C2s for ADHD right now. And I'm not aware of what kind of led to a lot of like Biden restricting Adderall production. I haven't read about that for like from the from the D.A.

Let's see. He he's certainly working. What I'm reading is that the Biden through the D.A. are looking at limiting prescribing, but that the underlying reason may be more limited production. But I'm not seeing that Biden is the reason for the limited production. OK, so I guess in that case, I'm probably maybe overemphasizing Biden with the DEA in that regard. Yeah, could be. OK, my next question is, I remember watching a video a long time ago about healthcare in the United States. And like, there was a city,

I think in Montana called Libby that had like some kind of health crisis that ultimately led to Obama, like I think around 2008, leading to him giving us help, giving that city, you know, universal health care. So I believe it was it was asbestos, right?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Do you think it's possible? I mean, I mean, I mean, granted, the Supreme Court's pretty much stacked right now in conservatives favor. Do you think it's possible Biden would ever be able to Biden or another Democrat in the future would be able to do an executive order to try to mandate health care. That'd be a great overscope of the government to mandate it in what way?

I guess kind of like using the same logic that that Libby Libby Montana had to give its citizens their health care. I don't think so. So here's the thing here. This is a complicated issue because the president is the president and is connected to the federal government. And right now we have some federal health care programs like, for example, Medicare is federal, but administered at the state level. Medicaid is Medicaid. I'm sorry. Medicaid is a state level one. Medicare is the is the federal.

Yes, but it's still administered at the state level. So let me see if I can. Let's forget everything I was saying because we kind of got derailed. I think the point here is Joe Biden, I don't believe, would be able to mandate that states have to provide health care directly. Like I don't think Joe Biden would be able to say Vermont must have single payer health care, which Vermont was considering at one point in time. I believe that the most direct way for a president to expand health care nationally would be to lower the age at which you can get Medicare or to raise the income at which you can

get Medicaid, although states have to accept that those would be the most legally simple ways for a president to expand access to health care. Speaker 4 Yeah, I guess I guess you're right. So but I guess the other issue is that like for would be like with states, states trying to save states like Texas trying to establish a Medicaid expansion. Speaker 1 Right. That's that's the issue. You can't. There were states who, as part of Obamacare, just declined the Medicaid expansion.

And so the question then becomes, can the president mandate that states have to do a Medicaid expansion? I don't know. It's a legal question. I just don't have the answer. Yeah. All right. Thanks for the time, David.

All right. Chris from Texas. Great to hear from you. Why don't we go next to. Oh, the time, David. All right. Chris from Texas. Great to hear from you. Why don't we go next to, oh, I don't know. How about Seth from Nebraska? Seth, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Seth from Nebraska, please accept my invitation, sir, if you would like to talk to me. Seth, welcome. Seth, you're on, but I'm not hearing you. One opportunity, you got to change your audio device to one that works. All right. And there goes Seth from Nebraska. How about Jamie from South Dakota? Jamie from South Dakota. Welcome to the program. What is on your mind today, Jamie? Oh, David, can you hear me? Yes, I can. OK, I had a question

about the United States and NATO. OK, so I. So I believe that Joe Biden has done a good job with like not sending U.S. troops, but providing aid and keeping the U.S. and the EU cohesively together. sentiment like from like Tucker Carlson or some Republicans and how that could damage our relationship with the EU. Well, moving forward on a personal level, I find the soft Putin defenses pretty vile and I don't care who's doing them because as a progressive anti-authoritarian, I'm not big on authoritarian autocrats. So I'm not big on Putin and I'm not big on Duterte and I'm not big on Erdogan or Bolsonaro or Obama. So as a matter of principle, I disagree.

Now you're going to the next layer, which is important to do, which is if they got their way in terms of if American policy more closely mirrored Tucker's view rather than what we have, what would that do for our alliances and relationships? And I think it would be hugely damaging. I think it would it would affiliate us with the worst of the global authoritarian autocrats. It would alienate us from many of our historical allies where we share more values. We don't necessarily share all values, but we share more. So I think it would be disastrous politically in that way as well.

Yes, exactly. That's what I think as well. Yeah. Thank you for taking my question, David. What's it like in South Dakota? Tell me, do you live rurally or in a city? I live rurally in South Dakota. How how rural? Give me a sense.

Uh, we have about 2,500 people. Wow. Okay. 5,000 people, 25,000 people. Oh, 25,000. Oh, that's not that small. Yep. So we're about the third, uh, most populated city in the state. And it's, uh, it's pretty conservative. Um, a little, a little too much. Now, if you wanted, for example, to fly somewhere far away, let's say you wanted to fly to Europe. How close is the airport you would drive to, to start that trip? Um, well, we have a airport in, in town, but the biggest city that you go for, like a flight like that would be Sioux Falls and it's three hours away. OK, so you would. But I'm guessing, like, can you get to Chicago from where you live from that small airport? No, no. Oh, you can't. The only the only airport you our airport only goes to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Oh, OK. Well, but so then you could

fly to Minneapolis and then get like a Delta flight to Europe. So that's not that bad, actually. That's pretty well connected. Yep. OK. All right. Very good. Well, just curious. Jamie from South Dakota. Great to hear from you. Have a good day, David. All right. You too. Appreciate it. Just a reminder to everybody who wants to talk to me, if you have like an obvious nickname or just a name and no location in your nickname that I see, you're not going to get called on. The format is name and where you're calling from or where you're calling from and your name or whatever. Obviously, I don't know if it's your real name, but if it's like a vulgar joke rather than a plausible name, you're also not going to get called on just so people know.

Let's go next to Brian from Ireland, who is also a website member. Brian, thank you for being a member on the website. Hi, David, I come through. OK, you're coming through beautifully. Great. Yeah, thanks for having me on again. Pleasure. I've been enjoying some of your videos recently on the uh the c-pack you know it's kind of a a thing i've not been majorly aware of over the side atlantic for most of its existence so it's quite horrifying isn't it it is but i will say a couple of the videos you put up were some of the ones i've laughed the most at since joining the channel like the the ben carson one um where he was you know he was talking about pretty uh deep stuff he's talking about dead bodies on the beaches yes and the music plays

oh my oh my god it is it is quite incredible yeah it's hilarious and just one more example was the um the kimberly gilfoyle you know i i was only listening on the podcast so i didn't see the video you were talking about how the room only had 30 people or whatever. But when they started sharing, it was very clear that there was barely anyone. Yes, it was. It really I mean, they really are parodies of themselves. It's stunning stuff. don't know a huge amount about CPAC. So just could you give me an overview of how influential is it on modern American politics? Like, is it likely to move the needle in any way in Trump's favor, or will it have very little impact on the. I don't think it will impact. No, because here's the thing. CPAC has increasingly become a MAGA event where people like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and others, they just don't go. It's not that

they go, but the, the, the needle moves against them. They just don't even attend. So CPAC has become like a self-selected group of Republicans that are already part of the crazy MAGA movement. So quite frankly, I don't believe CPAC has the, the CPAC we had two weeks ago, I think has no impact on who is going to be the Republican nominee. Speaker 1 OK, yeah, I kind of got that vibe, especially especially with the small audiences that we're talking about. Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, it's quite the panic in a way.

Speaker 1 At the very least, did you get any new fun soundboard clips for your for your you know, I think we added I don't know that we got anything from. So we should we should look at the top clips and pull some clips for the soundboard. I think that would be a good idea. Yeah, and of course, it's a lovely new benefit for members as well. Absolutely. You get that. Now, do you what do you use the member soundboard for out of curiosity?

Well, I haven't really used it for anything functional. I've just been kind of enjoying going through it. And, you know, it's kind of surprising my fiance at times, just putting out the Trump sir compilation or whatever, you know, it's good fun. It's not exactly a productivity tool, we can say. No, I yeah, I agree. Very good. All right. Brian from Ireland. Appreciate hearing from you again. Thanks a lot. All right. There goes Brian from Ireland. Let's take just the quickest of breaks and get back and talk to more people on discord. If you're waiting to talk to me, don't go anywhere because we're coming right back to discord in a moment.

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I also like that you can sort things by factuality, location and bias. Check out ground news for free at ground dot news slash Pacman. If you find ground news as useful as I do subscribe for unlimited access. That's ground dot news slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. Let's hear from some more people via discord at David Pacman dot com slash discord. We have so many people who want to chat, but we have to pick someone to talk to. And we are next going to be going to Rick from Southeast Texas. Rick, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Rick, sir, please unmute. Hey, David, good good afternoon thank you sir sir i do appreciate it my pleasure um david my uh my question for you today is i i i have trouble with cognitive dissonance between

you know there's a i don't want to get into details and i don't want to kick you get you kicked off your your radio partners but there are certain groups of people that I watch that are display themselves as Republicans, but do very, very good things for society. I'll just say it's relating to children and anti-abuse. I'll keep it at that. But what? Rick, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, so let me let me rephrase. There's a group of people that investigate child child predators and they go out, they go after them online, kind of Chris

Hansen style. I'm sure you've heard of them. Oh, these are the videos I see on TikTok where like someone shows up at a Chick-fil-A and someone with a camera goes up to like a 38 year old who's there to meet a 14 year old girl and they confront them in public or whatever. Absolutely. I see. Dangerous to do. Certainly. I think law enforcement would say you probably shouldn't do it, but certainly I've seen it done. I've seen it done. Yes, of course, at their at their own risk. But my question is, they're doing good, clearly. So let me say this, they have good intention, right? And so my question is, when these kind of people come out later and say a very Republican, very pro-like, and how do you best deal with

wanting to support that, but also not wanting to follow along with their baggage. So what's a safe way to do that, in your opinion? Kind of like, listen, here's here's the thing, Rick. Here's the thing. It's not like the Republicans are against child predators and the Democrats are for them. I mean, I think what you're talking about is there is like a small subset of the vast majority of the population that's against child predators that creates a very particular video based on these things that are done. But that doesn't mean that it's representative of right wing views rather than left wing views.

I mean, it's sort of like saying like, hey, you know what? I don't know. We have such differences about what the tax rate should be. But I find that Republicans and Democrats all breathe air as well. Well, OK, but fine. But so that's not really a distinguishing characteristic. So the way I would see it is if you talk to just about any Republican or just about any Democrat, they're going to tell you, of course, I'm against 38 year olds being predators and finding 12 year old girls to meet up with. I just don't think that there's anything right wing about that perspective. No, no. And I absolutely agree with that. And that was not necessarily

my point, because, of course, everybody should be on the same side in that regard. But my question is, when these people that are clearly doing have good motives to do something to even bring attention to it, how do you and then they come out, hey, I'm trolling people on being a bigot, whatever it is, obviously they don't say that. But how do you kind of reconcile that? It's a big dissonance because they kind of talk about that. You don't want to support that. You don't want to give them money, but they're also doing good.

Well, but the police is also working on getting. I just don't know why you would feel compelled to give money. What are you even giving the money for? I just don't even get it. And maybe I just don't understand the whole movement. But in my mind, I would go, oh, these are people whose political views I find completely deplorable and it's a good thing to get child predators out of situations where they can be predators, period. I mean, I think

that's just it. I don't then go, how can I donate money? But they hate Jews. And what do I just I just wouldn't give them any money. There are other ways to deal with, you know, people being targeted by predators or trafficked or whatever the case may be. You don't have to give, you know, people being targeted by predators or trafficked or whatever the case may be. You don't have to give, you know, some right wing guy with a with a cell phone money to do it. I understand. OK, awesome. And thank you for that. And sorry, I wasn't very clear. No, that's OK. I mean, and have a wonderful day. All right. You too. There is Rick from Texas with a very powerful topic for sure. Why don't we go next to Dylan in Georgia? Is it do I have this right? It's a series of names.

Dylan in Georgia. Yes. Welcome, Dylan. Hey, David, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Oh, fantastic. It's my first time. Oh, boy.

And you're it's your first time on. But your audio is already going completely digital and clear. Speaker 2 Sounds about right. I'm in a real hard day right now. Speaker 1 OK. All right, Dylan, I'm going to let you go because you sound like a robot on a cartoon. So I'm going to have to let you go. That's just it's not working, unfortunately. And I know the audience will be very, very displeased with me. Let's go to Marcus from Sacramento. Marcus from Sacramento. Welcome to the program. What can I do for you today? Marcus from Sacramento, you're muted by your own doing. Please unmute yourself and then you'll be able to talk to me. Hello, David. Hi. Hey, so I'm I'm obviously from California and I'm a big fan of Gavin Newsom,

our governor. And he said a few months ago that it's time for us to kind of stop with the whole they go low, we go high routine. How do you feel about Democrats becoming more, I guess, ruthless, just like the Republicans are in order to get things done? I played the clip of Gavin Newsom saying that when he said it, I completely agree with it. Now, when I when I talked about this, I made a sort of a distinction, I guess I would say, Marcus, which is I don't think that what Democrats need to start doing is lying, deceiving, cheating, criminality. Like we shouldn't be stooping to what the right is doing. But when it comes to being ruthless with regard to using stronger language, adopting particular

tones, targeting with aggressive ads when when Republicans have done things, all these all the things that Newsom is suggesting, we absolutely should do it. I don't believe that that is, quote, stooping to their level. I think stooping to their level would be overtly lying to try to get policies passed that are terrible for the American people, but good for their friends. Right. Like that's what they do. We shouldn't do that. But when it comes to language, tone and strategy in the way that Newsom is suggesting ruthlessness, I'm with it a hundred percent. I also had one last question. We're noticing lately people like Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, they're trying to essentially downplay January

six. And my thoughts are that they that January 6th is working like our strategy of using January 6th is working. And they're starting to go, hey, we need to downplay it because it's just it's an effective strategy. Yeah. How do you feel about using that? I think to some degree that's true. But at the same time, the longer it is since the January 6th Trump riots, I think the more diminished the effectiveness will be. I don't for example, I don't know that in twenty twenty four talking about the Trump riots will be super effective for whoever is ultimately the Democratic nominee. I may be wrong about that, but I feel like its power will be will diminish over time. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me on. What's going on in the background, by the

way, Marcus, do you run a daycare or those your kids? Speaker 1 I'm a work from home, stay at home dad. So sorry about that. Speaker 2 No, no, no, no problem. It sounds sounds active, for lack of a better term. Speaker 1 Yeah, there are five and two right now. So it's it's it's really fun. Speaker 2 All right.

I take your word for it. Sounds hectic, but someday I might be there. All right, Marcus, thank you for the call. Speaker 2 Thank you, Dave. All right. I take your word for it. Sounds hectic, but someday I might be there. All right, Marcus, thank you for the call. Thank you, Dave. Take care. All right. There it goes. Marcus from Sacramento. Let's go next to. Oh, I don't know. How about Jason from Virginia, who's also a website member? Jason, thank you for being a member at Join Pacman dot com. I appreciate that. Yeah, Dave, I've been a member for a couple of years now, I always put your show on and go out for a run and, uh, you know, just like following along and man appreciate everything. I have kind of like a David Pakman conspiracy theory that I've

been formulating. So yeah, yeah. So, uh, Oh, maybe 21, you had gone to YouTube headquarters. Is that right? Um, yeah, 2021. Right. Yeah. That's when my girlfriend got COVID on that trip. Yep. You're absolutely correct. Okay. And then like during that, wasn't it on the flight home? He sat next to an Alex Jones lawyer of some sort. No, too. So that sitting next to Alex Jones, former lawyer, was on a different trip back from Vegas. OK, because I was trying to put that all together and then because shortly thereafter, then was the famous Alex Jones attack. So I had just kind of.

No. And you know what? The timing of it is Alex Jones went after me before I sat next to his former lawyer because I talked about that with his lawyer. So the timing you just have the timing a little bit off. Oh, OK. All right. Yeah, I was just sitting and reflecting on it. But what a priceless story. It's it really is quite a story. And there may be more stories coming. Let's put it that way. Oh, all right. Well, thank you so much. All right. Thanks, Jason. There's Jason. Just,

you know, it's sad when a good conspiracy theory gets sort of interrupted by the facts, particularly when it would be such an entertaining one. But what can I do? Let's go to Samir from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Samir, welcome to the program. Let's hope that the tech gods have given you a good connection today. Samir, welcome. Can you hear me? Yes. All right, David, I watched your your show with that guy, Patrick in Florida.

Patrick Bet David. Yes. Yeah. And in his during the interview, I don't think you notice, but he totally contradicted himself. Which of the hundred times are you referring to? Right, right. Specifically, he said, well, the United States should be run like a company and as a company the the united states would do much better because you know whatever bs excuse he came up with but then he said that um uh he specifically said that um that he mentioned something about millionaires being very powerful.

And then I'm thinking, like, does he not realize if the United States were run like million like a company, they would eliminate millionaires because that would be their competition. I don't know that I understand if the United States were run like a company, they would eliminate millionaires. Yeah, because he was saying about when you were working at Circuit City that the Circuit City came in and changed the policy and got rid of all the high paying people and kept all the low paying people. Yeah.

And he went socialism for that. I don't know how he blamed socialism, but he went socialism for that. I don't know how he blamed socialism, but he blamed socialism for that. And then he said, well, the United States should be run like a company like Circuit City. Well, if the United States were run like a company like Circuit City and Circuit City got rid of all of their high paying people. Right. Wouldn't the United States then get rid of all the millionaires and billionaires? But he said that it was wrong to do that. So no, I don't think I know. I don't.

Listen, here's the thing, Samir. Maybe I'm just having trouble following this. But but here's what I would say. You're doing something that's really difficult, which is you're trying to analogize, provide context and find the internal logic of things that make no sense whatsoever. And that can be really difficult to do because a lot of the stuff that Patrick said during the interview made no sense. And so while it's a it's a worthwhile attempt to make, it's really tough to make sense and even analogize

the things he said because they were so nonsensical. And I came away as confused by it as it sounds like you did. My next my last question is, if Trump were to run third party, do you think it would be helpful if Bernie ran third party or helpful to who? The Democrats or for Bernie? No. If Bernie ran third party, he would take votes from the Democratic nominee and might end up leading to the Democratic nominee losing. That's why I hope Trump does run third party. I see. I see. OK, well, thank you for taking my call. I love your show and

I watch it all the time. Thank you, Samir, from Pittsburgh. Very much appreciate it. Great to hear from you. Let's go next to. Oh, I don't know. How about there's a lot of people very, very anxious to get on. Let's go to David from Texas. David, welcome to the program. What's on your mind? David from Texas. Can you hear me?

Yes, I can. Okay, thanks, David. Man, I've been listening to you for a year and really have learned a lot. I like to listen to you and Brian and Tyler Cohen and Michael Cohen on me, a culpa and the Midas touch guys. Love it. My story is basically that I was conservative conservative for 60 years, and I retired from coaching and teaching calculus. And I decided I better learn all the history and things that I didn't know as a young person. And so I was married to a – or still am married to a Mexican-American woman, and we adopted four Mexican-American children.

So I've kind of come out of the bubble. My wife tells me that I was in a bubble for a long time. That's a super interesting graph. And do you, do you live in like, do you live in a city in Texas or do you live more rurally? I live west of Dallas about three hours and about two hours south of Lubbock. Okay. So it's not, it's not an, it's like a suburban environment, so to speak. And it's like 12,000 people. Oh, okay. Interesting. And there's a, there's a town about

close to Abilene, an hour from Abilene. Fascinating. And so you just came across at this stage in your life, a total revision of your political views. Definitely. Um, And my two, two of my four children have really helped me because they are very liberal and live in bigger cities and have, you know,

they work in tech and in city government. And so they have a lot of views that have, you know, helped me with my new views. And my 94-year-old mother and I have been able to spend time together

in the last few years, and she being very, very conservative, you know, is still holding out a lot of her conservative views, although I would say that she's a lot more liberal than she thinks she is. But, for example, in the last presidential election, as long as abortion was on top of the list up there, she was going to be and probably still always will vote conservative. But as we have our conversations, we have come to find out, I've come to find out that she's a lot more liberal than she would think. Here's just one example. I've got so many things I could talk to you about, but let me just tell you, since my four children are adopted, my mother would always say, how can you be for abortion? And so whenever people would ask me that, how can you be for abortion or want a woman to have the right to choose? Then my answer now is much like Jamie Lee Curtis, I think it was, said the other night on the Oscars,

is that Americans have been able to choose how and how many and when they want to raise children. And adoption is pretty much exactly tailored in that way. We were able to not only choose when we wanted to have children, how many we wanted. We were able to choose the sex of the, of the children. So we have two boys and two girls. And so that's kind of now my standard answer is it's a choice. It really is. You should be able to choose when you want to have children.

Well said. Well said. Well, David from Texas, very much appreciated. And thanks for sharing what is a very interesting story. Well, thanks a lot, Brian. All right. David from Texas. Very much appreciated. And thanks for sharing what is a very interesting story. Well, thanks a lot, Brian. All right. David from Texas. Appreciate it. Did he just call me Ryan? That was it. I think you may just call me or Brian. Did he think he was talking to Brian Tyler Cohen right there? What just happened? I went over it and now I'm realizing I think he called me Brian. All right. Let's clip that out. We got to look at that really closely. Listen to it like there's a Pruder film and figure out what happened.

Thank you, everybody who called in. We're going to take a break. I'll take calls again very soon. as an adult, check out our sponsor, Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon is the breakfast cereal with the crunchy, sweet goodness you love, but with zero grams of sugar, more protein, and only four to five net carbs. So it's perfect if you're doing low carb, if you're doing keto, if you're like me and you just don't want to eat a bunch of sugar. Magic Spoon has delicious flavors to choose from. Cocoa, fruity, frosted peanut butter, honey nut, cinnamon roll, birthday cake. My favorite is maple waffle. And right now they have limited edition spring flavors, strawberry milkshake and peaches and cream. Sometimes you just feel like sitting down with a bowl of cereal when the mood strikes. Go for something with plenty of protein without

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All right, let's do Friday feedback or the feedback Friday or, you know, you all know what it is. All right, let's get right into it. Steve wrote in. Steve had some unkind words to say about the show as if someone is forcing him to watch. Steve writes, you are one uninformed, uneducated POS, stupid mother effer. Trump will win because people know how effing corrupt and treasonous the left wing lunatics and the media like you F-t, really is. I think you mean really are, Steve. I think you mean really are. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. It's either they call you uneducated or they say, well, you're educated, but the education is a sissy liberal indoctrination, which is it, Steve? Please tell me exactly which one of the two it is now on Trump will win.

Remember, these are the same people who were insisting Trump will win in 2020 and then Trump lost. And now they go, well, he actually did win. So they're not exactly folks who will revise their claims or predictions if it were not to come to pass. Just an important thing to keep in mind. There's no way to have a good faith discussion with folks like that. Trist. Oh, there were people who came. So this this always happens during election season. I will live stream an event and the event might be a Donald Trump event, like I streamed the Trump CPAC speech and people are just looking for the speech. They don't know who I am. They find my stream and they watch and they see that some of my commentary is less than glowing about Donald Trump. And then they write to me. One such person is Tristan, who wrote to me

and said, oh, no, this is not an example of that. We'll get to that. This is actually a different type of email. OK, Tristan wrote to me and said, Dear David, watching your live stream of Donald Trump's rally, what is shocking to me is that I am excited by the entertainment value of Trump being back on center stage. I could not hate him more, but it's fascinating how the hatred of him is entertaining. Tristan, I heard from a bunch of people on the left about this saying to me, David, you know, I really couldn't think Trump was any worse for the world. It's a disaster. His ideas are terrible. His lack of decorum, the way he has debased politics, it's all horrible.

But it's so damn funny to watch him give these speeches where he glitches and gets confused and says insane things. And it's just it's like a disaster porn of sorts. Here's my take on that. I would say that as long as you're voting and you're working to improve the situation in the United States, I don't think that you're doing something wrong by being entertained by the insanity, assuming you never lose sight of the reality that left unchecked, meaning if Trump becomes president, it's really, really bad for the world and the country. As long as that context is there, there is an entertaining layer to the insanity of Trump. That's sort of where I would leave it from the sub Reddit user bug operator wrote, have

voter fraud conspiracy theorists ever offered a reason as to why voting machine companies wanted Trump to lose? I mean, motive is one of the three main elements of a crime. Yet I've never actually heard anyone accusing Dominion and Smartmatic of fraud. Explain why they would have wanted to rig the election for Biden. What could they possibly have had to gain by doing this? I highly doubt they're just anarchists who wanted to create chaos for the hell of it. So what's the actual reason behind the conspiracy? I know it's asking a lot to assume these people even have a reason, but I'm curious if anything even remotely resembling a motive has ever been put forth. So what I've it's a really good question, which is if you're smartmatic or your dominion voting

systems, why would you have a preference for one candidate over another? Your if profit is your motive, your preference would be that your machines are used more and more. And so doing something that risks exposing you in some way or what, none of it makes any sense. The best claim I've seen made from the people who believe this nonsense is that the voting machine companies are owned by or controlled by Democrats so that the companies themselves are a tool for Democrats to win elections. That's the best thing I've heard. And obviously, there's no evidence that that took place.

OK, I spoke last week about how it would be a good thing for us to have more non lawyers as presidents of the United States and in general in politics. And Houdini did it, commented on YouTube. The biggest issue with non-lawyers is that our government is about law from Obama to Raskin to Bernie to Jeffries, having depth and understanding of law makes all the difference on the floor and in debates. Just look at how Marjorie Taylor Greene and Bo Burt or Bo bear are constantly torn to shreds.

We don't need the Democratic equivalent. That is interesting. Now, I have to look something up. Is Bernie a lawyer? I think I actually don't know that about Bernie education, Brooklyn College, University of Chicago bachelor's degree. Yeah. So Bernie Bernie's not a lawyer that what's interesting about this is the argument that's being made here, which is these lawyers are better, is that this this person is listing Bernie, who is not a lawyer. So if anything, it seems to me to prove that it would be fine and a good thing to have

more non-lawyers. Now, I am not so naive that I believe every field, every career makes one well set up to be an elected official or president of the United States. I'm not arguing that. What I am arguing is that we don't have nearly enough of a broad representation of career types in government. And I would like to see that changed. S. Strange commented when I borrowed my brother in law's MAGA hat back in 2016, I pointed out the made in China tag and the irony. His response, and I'm not kidding, was that just means Trump is smart. He makes more money that way.

I shook my head in disbelief. Well, shaking one head in disbelief is a common and reasonable reaction to much of what these hypocritical right wingers do. And this little exchange that this person is recounting is emblematic of why I'm increasingly convinced that as a wholesale strategy for winning elections, convincing people like this simply isn't going to work. And the reason is, as as is pointed out here, they come up with some initial statement. Well, listen, we got to stop with the made in China stuff. We've got to bring back or make stuff domestically and bring back the supply chains and all of this. Oh, OK. Well, the guy who you follow is manufacturing stuff in China.

Oh, well, that he's smarter for doing that. I'm sure he pays less money. You are not going to be able to win these people over by exposing the double standard and hypocrisy of the failure to adhere to principles. You're not going to. And so as a personal thing, if you enjoy trying to change the minds of people like this, by all means, have at it. I have said before, and I will say again, I don't think that it will help us win elections because I don't know at the wholesale level how you deal with that. Dog Hollow weighed in about Mitt Romney and says we're at a point where Mitt Romney has

become a voice of reason in the Republican Party. I have to admit I've grown to respect him. I remember when he was in big trouble for putting his dog kennel on top of his car and just a bad choice. Now I would have given anything for him to be president instead of Trump. Everything is relative. Yeah, I think that the reason this is well said is oftentimes when I'll mention something about even George Bush wouldn't or Mitt Romney, this or that, I'll get some messages from people saying, oh, you're like glorifying these people. You're rehabilitating them. No, no, no, no, no. It's not that I'm rehabilitating them. I still see them as

I did before. It's just that compared to Trump ism, they aren't as bad. Right. And so when we think about Mitt Romney, yeah, Mitt Romney as a Mormon is a social conservative and has views I don't agree with. But the guy marched with Black Lives Matter. He has gone after a lot of these hate movements from the right. Would I disagree with Mitt Romney about tax policy? Of course. Would Mitt Romney likely try to cut social programs that I would like to expand rather than cut?

Yes. But they are differences of a different category to a great degree than much of what we are seeing with Trump ism, which is just unhinged insanity. A user from our subreddit asks, is David playing billiards on the new set? Last couple of days, there has been a noise in the background of the podcast that sounds like a pool, like a pool table. Is David running a pool hall out of his new studio? Are there dartboards? Is it possible someone is running a lathe? You have, you know, when you when you build a new

studio, which we did, there are often little things that don't go quite right. I'll give you an example with my chair. See, I'm in a chair. I'm not standing during the show with the chair that I use where I read. It has adjustable armrests where I really want the armrests. I just put it is a little bit higher than where I have them set. But the problem is there's a glitch with the left armrest button where if I put too much weight on it, OK, it goes down one click. And so honestly, I don't even know how it keeps getting up to that top top setting. But what sometimes will happen is that it will be set there and I'll shift my weight and then it'll make a gunk, OK, of sorts. The other issue is that as a result of the armrests not being where I want them,

there is an issue where they make contact with the desk and sometimes there will be another noise. We're working on every one of these things. Believe me, they bother me as much as or more than they bother you. But there are no billiards being played. We're not running any power tools here, nor are we nor are there dart boards or anything like that. But I do appreciate the concern. All right. You can email info at David Pakman dot com if you have something to say for Friday feedback.

Sometimes we'll take a YouTube comment. Sometimes we'll take a Twitter reply or a Facebook message or whatever the case may be. Just remember, if you interact with the show, what you say may become part of the show with identifying information of course, respectfully removed. We have a fantastic bonus show today. Pat's out this week, so you'll have me for the Friday bonus show much to the pleasure or dismay of different people in the audience.

Depending on your preference, sign up at join pacman.com. I'll see you then.