The David Pakman Show - 3/8/23: Fox text leaks go nuclear, FL Republicans want 6-week abortion ban

Episode Date: March 8, 2023

-- On the Show: -- Florida Republicans have now proposed a 6-week abortion ban which is almost an impossible standard -- Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis' absolutely unhinged "State of the State" address -- Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson's texts are leaked as part of the Dominion lawsuit, and he admits to "passionately" hating Donald Trump -- Even more Tucker Carlson lies are brutally exposed by the recently leaked text messages -- Leaked Fox News texts reveal that Fox Host Maria Bartiromo and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon are genuinely out of their minds -- A new report reveals that Donald Trump is seriously considering Kari Lake to be his Vice President -- Kari Lake's latest story about being offered a bribe to leave politics is fleshed out during an interview with Charlie Kirk -- Donald Trump easily wins the 2023 CPAC straw poll, putting him ahead of Ron DeSantis by 42 points -- Donald Trump reportedly is spending much of the day coming up with nicknames for Ron DeSantis -- Republican voicemail caller says he likes the David Pakman Show and has changed his mind about some things as a result of listening daily -- On the Bonus Show: Oklahoma voters reject legalizing recreational marijuana, White House endorses Senate TikTok bill, NYC Mayor Eric Adams says customers should remove masks, much more... 🌳 Use code PAKMAN for 20% off HoldOn plant-based bags at https://holdonbags.com 💪 Athletic Greens is offering FREE year-supply of Vitamin D at https://athleticgreens.com/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN10 saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.com 🛌 Helix Sleep: Get 20% OFF a mattress + 2 free pillows. Go to https://helixsleep.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 -- 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 Speaker 3 Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Florida Republicans are now looking to push the state's 15 week abortion ban to a six week abortion ban. And a few of you wrote to me and said, David, this bill doesn't make any sense. Women often don't know that they're pregnant before the six week mark. But that is exactly why it makes perfect sense to the people who are trying to completely ban abortion. It is a feature of this proposal that many women don't know they're pregnant before the six month mark, not a bug. And we are going to discuss that in more detail. The New York New York Times reports Florida Republicans proposed six week abortion ban. The bills would tighten the current 15 week limit and offer narrow exceptions.

Governor Ron DeSantis said he welcomed, quote, pro-life legislation. There is very little that is pro-life about this bill. If a ban passes, write David Chen and Patricia Mazzei for The New York Times. If a ban passes and is signed into law by DeSantis, Florida would prohibit abortion before many women even realize they are pregnant. The bills had been telegraphed for weeks. Republican leaders who control Tallahassee sought to build on the anti-abortion momentum generated by the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade. DeSantis, expected to run for president, said he supports additional restrictions, but the bills offer a reminder of the political complexities that he must navigate. Abortion restrictions appeal to Republicans, but 64 percent of Florida residents believe

abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Now, that's actually you know, this is a bigger trend with abortion in general, which is that if you go back to the start of the Roe v. Wade era, you find that today, rather than a month ago, rather than a year ago today, support for abortion being legal in most cases is higher than it has been at any time during that Roe v. Wade era. And so, although the anti-abortion stuff is useful for raising money from certain pieces of the electorate, it's useful for playing red meat games and throwing red meat out to supporters. In practice, when you talk to Americans, although there are still many Americans,

of course, tens of millions who are just against any abortion at any time period, for the most part, Americans believe abortion should be legal in most cases. And so there is a political complexity. But let's talk about the six week thing. This is the critical aspect to this as a de facto way to just ban abortion completely. Why? Well, pregnant women are considered to be four weeks pregnant by the time they miss their period. Often that's the first sign of pregnancy. Now, another thing that's important to remember is how closely any particular woman would be tracking. This does depend on whether she's trying to be pregnant or not. And we'll sort of get to that. But the first day of your last period

is technically day one of the pregnancy. If you have a 28 day cycle, which is sort of like the average. So you're already four weeks pregnant at the point at which you suspect you might be missing your period. If you're not actively trying to conceive, you may not realize you're pregnant within the two weeks that are left after the missed period. And missed periods can mean nothing, right? There could be a plus or minus seven days or something like that. So now you're at five weeks, but the limit is six weeks. I know people who did IVF in vitro fertilization. They were tracking. They were monitoring everything. They didn't know they were pregnant until what would have been five weeks into the pregnancy. Most obese won't even see a patient

for a new pregnancy until the eight week mark, unless you're having fertility issues and they say, come in, we're going to do an HCG. I believe it is blood tests to figure out what's going on and check the level. So by this point, you are you would no longer legally be able to get an abortion in the state of Florida. That's the point. And so normal people would say, oh, that makes it really difficult to get an abortion at all. That doesn't make sense. The people who want the bill are saying, oh, that'll make it really difficult to get an abortion at all. That's exactly what we want without outright banning abortion. So this is something that Florida Republicans are pushing.

We're going to continue seeing this in other states. Some states have really old laws that were that are still in place, but that weren't relevant because of Roe v. Wade's existence with the removal of Roe v. Wade. Now, those laws are once again being revived and evaluated from a state Supreme Court standpoint in some states. So this is all going to get worse and worse and worse. Now, quite frankly, I don't think Republicans at the federal level are really going to be running on this because they know the numbers. And in fact, I may be wrong, but in in this nascent stage of his candidacy, I don't think I've heard Trump talk about abortion almost ever. And much of the focus when it comes to the social and cultural issues has been on transgender

issues. And we've been talking about that and covering it. So we'll see where this goes in Florida. We'll zoom out. And in a year, we will see where the abortion landscape is. But it is absolutely scary and horrifying stuff. I want to stick with Florida for a moment because Florida Republican governor recently widely reelected Ron DeSantis, who is considered the best challenger to Donald

Trump's 2024 Republican presidential candidacy, even though he has not announced at this point that he is running DeSantis or DeSantis, as he is known to some now, delivered his state of the state address yesterday, his wife showing up almost as delusionally as him acting like she's, you know, Jackie Onassis at a State of the Union. It all just bizarre, the optics bizarre. But what was really wild was the content of DeSantis his speech as delusional and off the rails of we as we have seen him. And there's definitely the feeling here that when he's talking about the second term as governor, he's really laying out an agenda for a possible presidential run. Let's start to look at a couple of these clips here. He is sort of cheerleading himself,

I guess we would say. November's election results represent a vindication of our joint efforts over these past four years. The results also vest in us the responsibility to lead and provide us the opportunity to shoot for the stars. Right. Boldness. Be our friend in this endeavor. We have a lot we need to accomplish. Really electric and inspiring, as you can tell. Our two billion dollar tax cut package is the largest tax cut package in Florida history. Huge package. Will help many who need relief from inflation, especially our Florida families. By permanently eliminating sales tax on all baby supplies, diapers, wipes, clothes, cribs, strollers, we will be able to say that in Florida,

having a child will be tax free. We are proud to be pro family. And it damn better, whether it damn better well be because if that new anti abortion bill passes six week abortion ban, you're essentially going to be forced to have those babies. So it so so he's making it really affordable for when you are forced to have a baby in the state of Florida. Speaker 2 And we are proud to be pro life in the state of Florida. Speaker 1 The charisma, as you can see, the electricity just dripping, dumping out of Ron DeSantis. And again, I'm kidding. That to me seems like one of his biggest liabilities in thinking about a

presidential run, a national run against Donald Trump. Trump is terrible at many things. Trump isn't good on foreign policy. He doesn't understand economics. Right. They're disaster. Trump is good at nicknaming, stigmatizing and making fun of people. And if you have the total lack of charisma that Ron DeSantis has and seemingly a complete lack of sense of humor as well, I don't know how you run a national campaign against Trump, but we will get to that later. At this point, almost a requirement if you were a Republican speaking to your constituents to throw in something that is anti-transgender. And indeed, Ron DeSantis did. It's sad that we have to say this, but our children are not guinea pigs for science experimentation and we cannot allow people to make money off mutilating them.

Chloe Cole is now a young adult, but she was receiving puberty blockers at age 13 and she underwent a double mastectomy at age 16. Mastectomy. Dear God, no clue what he's talking about. She's now an advocate against allowing these procedures for our children. Chloe, thank you for your bravery. And the people of Florida and the legislature should heed your advice and provide protections. And Chloe is standing and had been sitting next to DeSantis's wife against these procedures. Think of it standing. And by the way,

just everything about this, the optics are completely whacked. A standing ovation for, I guess, what they call detransitioning. There's even a little kid clapping. I presume that that's the sanctus's kid. So listen, I mean, we know why they're doing this. This stuff gets applause. It gets the biggest applause at CPAC. It gets the biggest applause no matter where it is that we should be diligent. We should be careful. We should have a process for all sorts of gender affirming care. The reality is you look at 27 studies which were reviewed with 8000 different transgender individuals who had the gender affirming surgery under one percent, under one percent, less than one percent express regret over their choice to transition. So it's

not a big story. In addition, there was a 2022 study in the Netherlands which found that of 720 different adolescent patients. So now looking specifically at adolescents doesn't mean an eight year old, right? They say, oh, they're chopping off the breasts of an eight year old. Eight year olds don't have breasts. So that doesn't really make any sense. But study of Dutch adolescents, 98 percent who were given the puberty blockers properly prescribed, continue with that and do not express any regrets. So we we should research all of these things. As I've mentioned before, there are questions about puberty blockers and whether all effects are, quote, reversible. There are questions about bone density. I mean, listen, study all of it. Study all of it. We don't want to let science get in the way of us knowing. We don't want to let politics get in the way of the science of us learning everything we

can learn about anything that would be made available to people. But DeSantis is doing it because he knows that it's a way to virtue signal at this point in time. Lastly, and this is about as excited as you'll ever see DeSantis, he's promising Floridians you ain't seen nothing yet. Now's not the time to rest on our laurels. Right. We have the opportunity and indeed the responsibility to swing for the fences so that we can ensure Florida remains number one.

Don't worry about the chattering class. Ignore all the background noise. Remember, Florida is I love Florida parts of it, but it's not number one in anything. It's not number one in business, infrastructure, health, education, crime. I mean, it's just it's a very it's a it's a fine state. It's a mediocre state ranked between 20 and 30 in just about every category. Keep the compass set to true north. Right. We will stand strong. We will hold the line. We won't back down. And I can promise you this. You ain't seen nothing yet. Thank you all. Beautifully delivered. Bless you. God bless you. Yeah. Just so this is a preview of what a DeSantis presidential campaign would be like, lacking completely just a complete and total lack of charisma and electricity.

And I, quite frankly, am very interested to see how it goes. The math of it, the data does not suggest to me right now that this guy is capable of defeating Trump in a national and particularly a protracted national campaign. I think it's a good question for someone like a bill share. Let's see if maybe we can get him on soon. We're going to take a very quick break. Make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel, YouTube dot com slash the David Pakman show. Make sure if you prefer the show in Spanish that you have found the Spanish channel at David Pakman dot com slash Spanish. Plastic, it's everywhere we look and not enough is being done about it. One hundred billion plastic bags are used and thrown away every year. Here's something super simple you can do to reduce plastic and help the planet a little bit.

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which I use during the winter. That's athleticgreens.com slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. We are a viewer and listener supported program. Grab yourself a membership at join Pacman dot com. We do a show every day after this show is over for our members. So if you like the show and that prompts you to support the show, you get more show, which is an incredible thing. Sign up at join Pacman dot com and you can use the coupon code. Twenty four starts now. Twenty four starts now to get yourself a sizable discount. The Fox News text message leaks have gone nuclear and the latest tranche reveals that Tucker Carlson hates Trump passionately, despite acting on his show like he thinks Trump is a reasonable person and hanging out with Trump

outside of work and pretending to like him as well. This exposes so many different layers of the insanity that is right wing media, the right wing movement and the MAGA movement in the United States. And we're going to look at all of it. But let's start with what we learned. Huffington Post reports Tucker Carlson exposed, says he hates Trump, quote, passionately in private texts. The Fox News host said he deplored the former president in private and wished for the day he could ignore him. These are text messages from right before the Trump riots, text messages from January 4th, 2021. We are going to look at a number of the different messages. These, again, have been revealed in connection with

the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit for defamation against Fox News. Take a look at this. Tucker texting with an unknown person. We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can't wait. The person that Tucker is texting with says, I want nothing more. It does feel very, very close. I imagine things will get nice starting around mid-February, to which Tucker Carlson responds. I hate him passionately. I blew up at Peter Navarro today in frustration. I actually like Peter, but I can't handle much more of this. Tucker hates Trump and we will get to the hypocrisy and interest of this very, very soon. Tucker and Laura Ingram also texting. And it is fascinating. Laura Ingram saying to Tucker Friday numbers aren't that surprising with Trump and pending loss. But

how much of the bleed is due to anger at the news channel? This is Laura texting Tucker about the decline in ratings right around that time, right after the election in November of 2020. Tucker says, oh, a lot, meaning a lot of the ratings decline is because of people angry that the news side of Fox called the election for Biden and rightly so. Laura says my anger at the news channel is pronounced. And Tucker says it should be. We devote our lives to building an audience. And they let Chris Wallace and Leland effing vidder wreck it too much. Tucker mad at Chris Wallace because Chris Wallace actually said some uncontroversial truths. And then in a third one here, Tucker Carlson saying the downside of the business of the news

business is that a lot of the time you don't get to choose the news, but you're required to react to it. So we actually do earn our salaries now then. Oh, sorry. This is from a from unknown person. They pitch a podcast to Tucker saying one thought I had today is a joint venture of sorts between Tucker Carlson, LLC and Fox News. Podcasts generally are free and ad supported. We could have a Fox backed podcast promoted on channel, et cetera, that has one free episode a week. And we can repurpose Tucker Carlson dot com to host the podcast and create a Tucker Carlson podcast app. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We get people to subscribe, et cetera, et cetera. And basically pitching a business to Tucker Carlson while all of this insane discussion

is going on and he's furious with Trump and he hates him passionately and on and on and on. These are merely actors and entertainers. OK, now, as a reminder, of course, here is Tucker a few months ago hanging out with Trump at a golf tournament. And Tucker and Marjorie Taylor Greene also they look like they're having a grand old time with Trump. So we this is not a trivial thing to understand.

Sometimes people think, you know, David, it's like there's what you do and there's the Young Turks and there's Fox News and there's all this different stuff. It's all the same. It is not all the same. Tucker is more like a character in a movie on his show, someone who will pretend whatever to maintain the show and the salary that comes with it to maintain ratings and to maintain access to power. In this case, access to power means being able to hang around Trump, have Trump on whatever the case may be. I believe the things I say. I'm not playing a character on this show. And I think that you will find that this is the case with just about everybody that, you know, I would consider a

colleague that is sort of in the field and the business that I'm in of online left wing political commentary and analysis. When I tell you something on the show, I'm not playing a character. And sometimes people in my audience don't like it. For example, last week and the week before, I did clips telling you I'm not super interested in this Marianne Williamson candidacy. I find her new age spiritual stuff to be nonsense. I don't think she's going to do anything to push Biden left. I'm not really entertained or interested or think that the entire thing is a super valuable thing. It would be easier for me to do the thing some other shows do, which is to say this is incredibly important. Marianne Williams at Williamson is an important voice and she is a valuable participant in the Democratic primary. And once she gets on the debate stage with Joe

Biden, she's going to show people how valuable that would be mean lying to you and playing a character. And I would get praise for doing that. If you look online, you know, Jesse Dollimore has been critical of Marianne Williamson and he's getting attacked on Twitter. It would be easier for me to play the character. OK, but I don't do that. I just tell you what I think. And sometimes there are repercussions and sometimes people get mad and sometimes people tune out. Fox News, we've now learned Tucker hates Trump, but was still playing up all of the election lies and he hangs out with Trump, et cetera. Sean Hannity didn't believe any of the nonsense he was spouting. Laura Ingraham didn't believe the nonsense she was spouting, drowning his own country to make a buck. Now, will this affect Tucker's audience in the sense that now

they know the guy I'm a Trump fan and I watch Tucker to get the news about him now that they know Tucker actually hates Trump? Are they going to tune out or will they even know that Tucker hates Trump? Maybe not. Let's do one more element of the Tucker Carlson revelations from the text messages, and then we'll move on to other text message revelations. In a private text reports, media matters. Tucker Carlson called Trump skipping the Biden inauguration destructive on his show. He didn't mention that and pretended that coverage of Trump skipping the inauguration was unhinged. This is another way in which Tucker Carlson was playing a character, wherein the things he said to his audience were completely different from the things he said privately. Media Matters reports new revelations from a recent court

filing in the Dominion Voting System's defamation suit revealed Tucker Carlson's true opinion about Trump not going to the Biden inauguration. So destructive. And we have the text messages here. Tucker is told by an unknown person. Maybe you already knew, but Gates told me Trump isn't going to the inauguration. And Tucker says, I'd heard that about the inauguration. Hard to believe. So destructive. That's the right analysis. This tells us this is worse than Tucker being delusional. I believe this is Tucker having the same opinion I have and you have, which is, wow, part of the peaceful transition of power in the United States is that the outgoing president goes to the inauguration of the incoming president. It's the totally standard, uncontroversial view.

Tucker doesn't actually think it's a good thing for Trump to skip the inauguration. He shares my view. He shares what I'm sure is your view. But that's not what he said on the air. And if we actually go to the types of things that Tucker did say on the air about the inauguration, they included making fun of Jim Acosta for wearing a mask and not mentioning ever. By the way, it's not good that Trump is skipping this. It's bad for the country. Here's just one example of Tucker's coverage of that inauguration.

You're losing their job. Jim Acosta and CNN lost his job. You may not have read that. He's no longer going to be their chief White House correspondent. He's still oppressed, though. Today, Jim Acosta celebrate the ouster of a dictator, a fascist so bad that Jim Acosta got a book deal out of criticizing him. Those horrors are behind us now, thank God. Jim Acosta is celebrating. The dictator is gone. So Anderson, this is looking

like, you know, a president or a foreign head of state leaving Washington. And, you know, in a way, because the president is defying these traditions of not being a part of the inauguration of President Joe Biden. He's almost leaving town like an autocrat ousted from power, heading off into exile. It's just hilarious that someone who is literally wearing a black mask on camera is calling someone else a fascist. Why are you wearing a mask? You're not going to get covid outside at a live shot. Speaker 1 OK, so Tucker's actual belief we now know was, you know what? Jim Acosta is right. It is a really bad thing that Trump isn't going to this inauguration. But what he said instead was, why is Jim Acosta wearing a mask outdoors? He is playing a character and it's a disgusting character and it's a profitable character. But privately, he thought Trump should go to the inauguration and he hates Trump

passionately. These are the people that MAGA listens to. Will they keep listening now that these revelations have come out? I don't know. Let me know. Depends on whether they even hear about it. I'm not going to spend the entire show on the Fox News text message revelations have come out. I don't know. Let me know. Depends on whether they even hear about it. I'm not going to spend the entire show on the Fox News text message revelations, but there is one more set of revelations that I want to talk about with you. Some of these newly revealed texts expose that Fox News propagandist Maria Bartiromo and former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon are true believers. OK, with Tucker Carlson, we learned he was pretending he hates Trump, doesn't like him at all, thinks he's a moron, hates him passionately, looked forward to when he could stop talking

about Trump. Maria Bartiromo and Steve Bannon seem to be actual true believers. This is completely insane. Steve Bannon and Maria Bartiromo reports media matters plotted to discredit Biden and get Bartiromo elected to the Senate. Bannon texted 71 million voters will never accept Biden. This process is to destroy his presidency before it starts, if it even starts. This is so insane. OK, let's look at a couple of the text messages. Maria text Steve Bannon. Oh, my God, I'm so depressed. I can't take this. Can you join me Thursday? Sorry about the delay. Bannon writes back. Yes, we've got this.

Maria Bartiromo says, I am watching the world move forward. And it's so upsetting, Steve. Maria is upset that the world is moving forward with Joe Biden as the president. Why? Well, because Joe Biden won. Maria adds, I want to see massive fraud exposed. Will he be able to turn this around? I told my team we are not allowed to say president elect at all, not in scripts or in banners on air until this moves through the courts. Bannon then responded as Media Matters writes, 71 million voters will never accept Biden. This process is to destroy his presidency before it starts, if it even starts. And Bartiromo replied, but I'm scared and sad. And Bannon says, you are our fighter. Enough with the sad. We need you. We need we want you to run against Schumer. This is your moment.

Bannon then texted Bartiromo what he called the plan. Listen to this. Number one, we either close on Trump's victory or delegitimize Biden to win both seats in Georgia. That didn't happen. Three win back the House in 2022. OK, that did happen for elect you to the Senate. Five, if we don't close on Trump victory now, have Trump declare for twenty twenty four the day after taking back the House and your win in November of twenty twenty two. Now, of course, Maria Bartiromo did not end up running for Senate. Trump did end up announcing that he was running. But instead of right after the twenty twenty two midterms, it was right before the twenty

twenty two midterms. They seem to be true believers. Now, I want to add one caveat here. Steve Bannon may be pretending for the benefit of Maria Bartiromo. OK, Steve Bannon is devious and smart enough that even these text messages to me leave open the possibility that Bannon doesn't believe any of this crap, but he recognizes that Maria Bartiromo does. And so he's playing it up to her. I don't know, but there are definitely some true believers out there. My question to you, what's worse, the true believers who are completely disconnected from reality like Maria Bartiromo

or the people that are just lying like Tucker Carlson, who knows Trump didn't win, who doesn't like Trump, who hates Trump passionately, but they go on air and they pretend reality is different. Which is worse? Let me know what you think. Leave it in a comment. And you can find all of these clips and text messages on our Instagram by searching Instagram for David Pakman show. a go to financial partner to guide you through a continuous and ever changing life journey. Our sponsor facet can help you not only start that conversation about money, but support you every step of the way. Facet memberships give you unbiased, personalized, affordable financial advice for any financial decision you may be facing. Real estate tax benefits and equity, whatever the case may be. And they are fee only, as I have always

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It was just a joke. A new report finds that Donald Trump is considering Carrie Lake to be his vice president in his 2024 presidential campaign. I don't know where to start. Axios reports scoop Carrie Lake among four women Trump is considering for VP pick. Former President Trump is strongly considering picking a female running mate and sees Carrie Lake as a model for his vice presidential pick, according to people who have discussed it with him. Lake, of course, is the former TV anchor. She lost her race for governor in November. Trump believes one of his weaknesses is white suburban women, that he's going to need white suburban women to defeat President Biden. And so the thought is, what about Lake? Now,

what are her qualifications? Well, Axios, I mean, this isn't this isn't satire from Axios, but it is a joke in the in the sense that it's wild that this is what's going on. Lake has shown she's willing to defend Trump vociferously, no matter the issue or controversy. That's true. She's a true believing sycophant. That's absolutely true. Trump's friends, to the extent he has any, say that Kerry Lake has a big downside. He wants no risk that is running. Running mate could outshine him. And Lake would be assumed to be angling for president from the day she enters the White House. She even went to Iowa last month. And of course, losing her winnable governor's race

hurts her mojo. Wow. Now, Trump is considering four women. Who else is there? There's Nikki Haley, who is running against him. And Trump apparently believes she won't take any votes from him. So she's not really a danger. Another idea is Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was Trump's White House press secretary. That's pretty wild. And then fourth is South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who's often mentioned by Trump confidants, although I don't know that she carries the faux gravitas of of of Carrie Lake. I can't believe this is real life, but it is true. And of course, when you step back, you say she has

an unblemished record of never winning anything. She's a complete Trump suck up. She lies uncontrollably and constantly. That seems like it would make her a bad candidate, but that actually is seen as making her a good candidate. Now, that being said, I think it's important to be bearing in mind that Trump could win, could win with anyone as VP and Carrie Lake being that close to the presidency is truly horrific stuff. So there's two perspectives on this. And this is the same sort of question that came up during my interview yesterday with Adam Schiff, which is on the one hand, you and I look at Carrie Lake and we say, oh, my goodness, that's more of a joke than Sarah

Palin. It would be terrible for Trump at the national level. We should hope that he picks someone as crazy as Carrie Lake. The counterpoint is Trump could win. And there is going to be no guarantee if Trump is the nominee that Trump will be defeated in November of 2024. Do we really want to risk Carrie Lake becoming the vice president and then being a heartbeat away from the presidency because we think it would hurt Trump's chances? Or is it simply too much risk? Now, of course, at the end of the day, it's not up to us. It's up to Republican primary voters.

But what started as a joke, it really was just, oh, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Carrie Lake are angling to be Trump's VP. But it's just a joke. That's all it is. The insider scoop is that Carrie Lake is not only being considered, she's only one of four being considered. And quite frankly, seems to be more of a front runner based on her level of sycophancy than a bunch of these other people. Truly horrifying stuff. But this seems to be the direction that Trump is going. Let's talk just briefly a few more minutes about Carrie Lake. Carrie Lake came up with a story that no one in my audience seems to believe. And I don't know that I believe either. Carrie Lake recently came out and said someone came to my house the other day and they offered

me a ton of money and a cushy job if I leave politics and just get out of politics. And she says it was someone known to her. Now, of course, as soon as I heard this story, I thought to myself, she's a loser so far. Why would anyone pay her to get out of politics when she just loses? She went on The Charlie Kirk Show yesterday using this very, very intense camera filter, very, very soft focus filter that she loves. And she elaborated on the story. It won't surprise you that she isn't naming the people or person that allegedly did this.

Let's take a listen and see if any of it sounds believable. Here we go. You were offered money, almost a bribe from powerful people to leave politics. Tell us about that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I was on your show, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago. You asked me about a run for Senate.

Rumors were swirling. And I told you, look, you know, dozens of people at this point, but thousands of people have reached out saying you've got to run for Senate. If things don't work in the courts, you've got to run for Senate. And I said, look, my priority is the governor's office, the race that we won, and our case. But if things don't go right and well, then I'm not going to get out of politics because I'm not going to let the same people who stole this election take our movement away and silence us. So I would consider that. I told you that on your show, and that made some headlines, and that worried a lot of people. And on Tuesday of last week, as I was kind of getting myself ready to go to CPAC,

I had a visitor at my door, somebody I know, invited the person in. And they started with an offer for a fancy job title, a nice salary, a position on a board. If I would just agree to not run for Senate, to not be on the ballot, to just stay out of politics, kind of park it for two years. To which I laughed. I said, are you kidding me? I think you do know that I walked away from a prestigious job and a big paycheck. I'm not motivated by that. And conversation went on. And as I finally moved this person kind of out of my house and said, I've got things to do. No, thank you. It moved into, well, what do you want to make this happen? We want you out. There's some powerful people back east who really want you out back east. They they know that I will

win in a primary and I'll frankly win in the general election as well. Now, a lot of the I mean, listen, there's a lot here that doesn't make any sense. First of all, why would someone who lost be seen as such a threat that they need to pay her to get out? Well, you could make the argument. The strongest argument would be that Republicans. So she says this is someone known to her. She doesn't say whether it's a left winger or a right winger. You could argue Republicans want her out because they wrongly think she will hurt them. And of course, she's like, no, I don't hurt. I mean, I won and I won the governor's race even though they stole it. And I would win the Senate race if I do that.

So Republicans are just wrong for wanting me out. The other argument would be Republicans want me out because they are rhinos. They they I they don't want my type of Republican Republican to run. They want someone who is, you know, like a Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan or whatever. Democrats would want her out because they see her as such a threat to them. You know, we Democrats need to pay Carrie Lake to get her out of the race because she would defeat whoever is the eventual Democratic nominee. None of it seems very plausible. I have to tell you, very concerned. I have to tell you. Very concerned. They want to put out their typical candidates. And so the conversation turned to what

would it be? What would your price be? What's your price? Well, my price is I want our elections to be run smoothly and I want to be in the governor's office. Now, of course, this is idiotic, not only because it's really hard to believe, but the truth is, you know, that deep down, Carrie Lake, although she wants to pretend you can't buy her out, if the money was right, of course she would do it. Right. I mean, it's like, listen, Carrie, you lost. You can run for Senate. You can run around and do the campaign and the entire thing. You might lose again. Or here's some meaningful amount of money for you. If the money was right, she would, of course, accept it.

So it's possible the story is completely made up. It's possible that it wasn't enough money or it's possible that really what Carrie Lake wants is to be Trump's VP. We know that on some level that's something she wants to do. But the story, as she is telling it, has so many holes in it. It's like a Swiss cheese where I belong. And I said, as she is telling it, has so many holes in it. It's like a Swiss cheese where I belong. And I said, there is no price. There's no price that you could pay, which is, of course, a lie to make me go away or the people of Arizona go away.

We're going to continue to fight. So I wouldn't take 100. I wouldn't take a million. I wouldn't take 10 million. I wouldn't take 100 million. She would take 10 million. That's how important this fight is that we're in right now, Charlie. Yeah. So listen, I'm curious whether people in my audience believe this story. Obviously, she's you know, the weird thing about not saying who it was is if you're truly disgusted with someone making this offer, why wouldn't you name them? In other words, why are you trying to protect someone that you see as a deplorable person making you a disgusting offer that you would never accept? Why wouldn't you expose that they offered this to you? The second part of it

is these stories do have an air of the Trump sir routines. You know, they came to me, they said, sir. And like the stories are very often made up or at least extraordinarily distorted. Three, as I as I'm saying, it doesn't seem plausible based on the facts. And then the other part of it is the emphasis on a run for Senate from Carrie Lake. She seems to be continuing to say I'm eventually going to be the governor because they're going to reinstate me or end state me, I guess it would be. So then why would she be talking about the Senate anyway as the focus from these other people if she's really going to be reinstated?

Like I know you're saying, but David, she's not going to be instated governor. I know that. But if we're supposed to believe she believes it, then why is she even talking about running for the Senate? She'd be too busy being governor. It's all insane. And my question to you is, do you believe this story? Do you think this happened or any version of this happened? Or is it being invented and contrived completely from the ground up by Carrie Lake? Let me know in the comments, email and send a tweet, however you want to get in touch. Curious to see what folks in the audience think. One of our sponsors is Helix Sleep. I have been sleeping on a Helix mattress at home for years

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it. And it comes with a 10 or 15 year warranty. Unlike many mattress companies, all Helix like is going to give you 20% off. Go to helixsleep.com slash Pacman. That's H-E-L-I-X sleep.com slash Pacman for up to 20% off and two free pillows. The link is in the podcast notes. Okay. I mentioned we would talk about this. We haven't had time this week. We have time today and I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it. But the C-PAC straw poll, every C-PAC, which is sometimes more frequently than we might assume at every C-PAC, there's something called a straw poll. A straw poll is a vote of those at C-PAC. Who do we want to see be the Republican nominee or vice presidential nominee? Now, on the bonus show, we already talked about how Carrie Lake came easily in first place in terms of who the CPAC attendees wanted to have as the vice presidential nominee. The other bit of this is that in the regular straw poll, Donald Trump easily

won very, very easily won. And in fact, DeSantis lost by 42 points. There is an article from The Hill. Trump easily wins CPAC poll. Former President Trump easily, easily won the straw poll. Trump won with 62 percent. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, likely his closest rival, came in at 20 percent, 62, 20. That's plus 42 for Trump. Businessman Perry Johnson, who announced his candidacy this week got 5%. I have to be honest. I don't even know who that is. I didn't even know about that. I have no clue what the deal is with Perry Johnson. Trump won last year's straw poll and CPAC with 59 percent and DeSantis 28. So last year, Trump was plus 31 over DeSantis. And now Trump is plus 42. Now, a few important things to talk about. First and foremost, do CPAC straw polls reflect

Republican primary voters? Not really, in the sense that there's a lot of people like, listen, if you're a Mitt Romney Republican in Utah or maybe Massachusetts where Romney was previously governor and you kind of want lower taxes and less business regulation, but you're sort of like pretty reasonable when it comes to social issues, you're not going to see PAC at all. So your vote, you're not even part of this entire thing. And when we look at actual polling, what we find is that it's definitely closer. A new morning consult poll that includes a whole bunch of different candidates has Trump plus twenty five, still a very big lead, but it is not 42. There is a Emerson College poll which does have Trump plus 41. But other than that, it's much smaller leads, everything from Trump plus eight all the way down to actually DeSantis even being ahead in some polling. So is Trump winning the Republican

primary right now? Absolutely. There's no there's no doubt. I don't think there is any. If you look at the only way you can make the case that Trump isn't winning is by saying we are only going to pay attention to like the Susquehanna poll. And that's not a good methodology. We're either looking at an average of polls or we're looking at all a rated pollsters or whatever. But to just say based on this one poll, that's a mediocre poll. Trump is not winning. Doesn't seem accurate. So Trump is absolutely winning right now. Can it change? Sure. The other aspect to the primary to the rather CPAC poll that I think is very,

very interesting is that Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is getting very little support, he said to Stuart Varney on Fox Business that you can just pay to rig the sea pack straw poll. Very interesting claim. Take a listen to this. Is this Trump's GOP? I think that the America first agenda, the people who are behind America first are really committed to putting America first, not Trump first, not Vivek first. It's America first. And what I saw there, I mean, I gave a speech. We got five standing ovations in the

middle of the speech. There's also a little funny little secret I learned, Stuart. Well, you're not going to get five standing ovations at the end. You would only get one at the end. So it makes sense they were in the middle. I'm new to this as an outsider. One of the things you see as an outsider is how corrupt this system is. You know something funny about this? I've attended CPAC before. I didn't know it works this way. A consultant calls my campaign shortly after I declare and says, hey, we can get you up to number two on there if you pay a few hundred thousand dollars. Really?

I was shocked. You know what? There's a lot of people who are making money, not only off of me, but off of every presidential campaign. This will probably be not only the most expensive presidential campaign, the one that people in the industry, politics's politics and industry. People make so much money off of this that one of the things I'm going to be doing throughout this campaign is exposing it. Because you know what? I didn't get to where I am by actually just getting

exploited. And I think the American people actually deserve to see the sausage getting made. Did you pay? Absolutely not. I mean, that is fake. So why would I? If he paid, he got ripped off. He got like zero or something. You get bumped up to number two. I said I would take my speaking. I said I would take my speaking slot instead. And actually, you can people can see that speech on my website, the vague twenty twenty four dot com. See the speech and see the crowd's reaction. And I think people should be the judge of what's really going on. Now, earlier we talked about the Carrie Lake story. Carrie Lake says someone came to her house and said, ma'am, I'll give you a bunch of money and a job to get out of politics. I tend not to believe that that happened. Do I

believe what Vivek Ramaswamy is claiming actually took place, that he was offered the opportunity to pay to get himself the second slot? I kind of do. I at least I'm open to it. Why? Because there is already a sort of pay to play scandal involving the American Conservative Union, which is the organizer of CPAC involving a guy named Brian Kelsey. This guy, Matt Schlapp, who runs the run CPAC is is a shady guy, to say the least. So I am much if you say to me, David, do you think that Carrie Lake story is the most likely story to be true or Vivek Ramaswamy story is the most likely to be true? I think the Ramaswamy story is much, much, much more likely to be true. Where will the polling be in three months, in six months?

Absolutely no idea. We're going to follow it. We're going to follow it. We're going to watch it. There is a new report that Donald Trump is spending days workshopping nicknames for Ron DeSantis. Now, I have to tell you, this is not a story about, oh, it's another Trump rumor. This is genuinely a smart thing to do. This is with where the Republican Party is. Coming up with the best possible nickname with which to brand and stigmatize Ron DeSantis is a good use of time for Trump. A lot of the things Trump spends time on are completely useless. But this makes sense. There's an article in The Hill. Trump spends days workshopping nicknames for DeSantis.

Former President Trump has made developing nicknames for his Republican rival and potential presidential opponent Ron DeSantis a priority as his team works on his 2024 campaign, according to a new Bloomberg report. Trump has floated Ron DeSanest, Ron Deestablishment and Tiny D as monikers for the Florida governor, but appears to favor Ron DeSanctimonious. Trump coined DeSanctimonious ahead of the midterm elections and shortly before launching his own presidential bid. So let's talk about this. Trump is terrible at a ton of things, as I said earlier. He is good at making fun of people. That's said earlier, he is good at making fun of people.

That's the reality. He's good at nicknaming people. He's good at stigmatizing people. And when you are potentially going to be fighting someone as uncharismatic and seemingly unable to handle your style of attack as Ron DeSantis, one of the best things you can do is nickname him with something that will really titillate and scintillate and hope that he is unable to respond in kind. Now, the problem with the sanctimonious is I don't think a lot of Republican voters necessarily know what it means. And of course, it is actually accurate, which is when you're sanctimonious, you make a show out of being or appearing morally superior to others. Ron DeSantis does do that. You need only look at his state of the state address from yesterday

that he gave in Florida to confirm that. But I don't know that a lot of Republican voters necessarily know what sanctimonious means. So Tiny D is pretty interesting. And there's also this high heels story. I don't know. This is so insane that this is where the Republican Party is. But Ron DeSantis for a while has been wearing it's I it's it's I laugh because it's crazy that this is where we are in American politics. DeSantis has been wearing high heeled cowboy boots for a while, but now there is a new suspicion that he's also wearing lifts inside the boot, which, by the way, Trump is also suspected of wearing. Don't don't think the sanctimonious is the only guy doing this. So Ron DeSantis

officially is only five nine. But there are images of him looking as tall as people who are known to be over six feet tall. So, of course, the idea would be DeSantis puts a lift inside the boot and then wears a high heel and that he looks six one and people think he's taller than he actually is. All of this stuff really matters. Tall candidates tend to do better. Now, do they tend to do better because they're tall? Well, that's a different question. We'd have to look at that in a different way. But it wouldn't surprise me if Trump focused in on some kind of nickname that related to DeSantis actually being short or I mean, listen, I'm five nine also five seven five five nine five nine. At least that's what my license says. Let's put it that way. And then,

you know, sort of being desperate to be six feet tall and wearing high heels. I don't know where it's going, but it wouldn't surprise me that it goes in that in that direction. Again, I believe that DeSantis is 100 percent worse than Trump. Adam Schiff had a different feeling yesterday, which was that Trump really is the danger. I think Trump's incompetence actually makes him less dangerous and that he's less able to accomplish things. DeSantis is completely uncharismatic, completely uninspiring as a speaker, but he would pose a real threat of getting some really dangerous stuff done. So if I had to pick, I actually do think the Democratic candidate is better off facing Trump

and the risk of a Trump presidency is lower than that of a DeSantis presidency. Continuing to take opinions from you in the audience about that question. We have a voicemail number that if you have a message for me, you can call that number is two one nine two. David P. Here is an interesting voicemail from a Republican who says they are a Republican. I didn't convert them out of being Republicans, but they have changed their mind about at least some issues and they like the show. Interesting message from a Republican. Hey, how you doing, David? John from Massachusetts. I just want to say I'm actually a registered Republican, but I do enjoy your show. You definitely actually start listening to it. We're driving home from work. Beautiful. You know, I was like, wow, this guy, you know, talking out of his ass.

I mean, pardon my language, but. That's the reaction from even people that like the show. So no, no concerns there, sir. You know, honestly, you definitely grew on me and you definitely changed my mind about some things. There you go. I'd be curious what things those are, by the way. I really do enjoy when you're making fun of Donald Trump.

That's very funny. Just got to say, you should keep that up. You do a pretty good. I probably I should come on your show as a guest. So when a person in, you know what I'm saying? It would just be so great. So thank you so much, David. And have a wonderful day.

All right. The Trump impression is so so I don't know that that's the best moment of the voicemail. But listen, we have a ton of right wingers in the audience who I never hear from, who don't insult me, who don't say anti-Semitic things, who don't make threats, who just listen to get a different opinion. And sometimes we find points of agreement. And that's a really great thing. I welcome that. I think that that's fantastic. If I'm only speaking to left wingers, what the hell am I doing at the end of the day? So a beautiful voicemail. Great to hear from you. We have a fantastic bonus show for you today. Oklahoma voters have rejected legalizing recreational cannabis.

What is this? The first such failure we will discuss. The White House has endorsed a new Senate tick tock bill and is urging Congress to pass it quickly. Does that make sense? Should tick tock be banned or should it be regulated or should it be controlled or whatever the case may be? We will discuss. And lastly, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is now telling stores to have customers remove their masks when they come in in order to try to cut down on shoplifting and thefts and burglary and robbery or whatever the term is that is appropriate. Stick ups, I guess, is what we're calling them. I don't know. You all understand what I'm saying. Remove the mask, Eric Adams says, so that they would be

identified on your security cameras and maybe be less likely to do it. Interesting. All of those stories and more when I am joined by producer Pat on the bonus show, you can sign up at join Pacman dot com. You can use the coupon code 24 starts now to get yourself a discount and save big off of the cost of a membership. I welcome you all to the bonus show. If you are not a member, we will be back with a new show tomorrow. But why wait? We can be together again in just a few minutes on the show.