The David Pakman Show - 4/30/24: Hunter sues Fox News, Kristi Noem VP chances plummet

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Fox News host Sean Hannity admits that Donald Trump's tax plan punished residents of blue states, and he ended up paying more taxes as a result -- Republican Congressman James Comer says that President Joe Biden's impeachment and indictment are taking a long time because there is so much evidence against him -- Hunter Biden will reportedly sue Fox News -- Charlie Kirk, a Donald Trump operative, admits that the Trump campaign is not well organized and potentially collapsing -- Rachel Powell, prison-bound convicted Trump rioter, gives an interview to CNN -- Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says he will vote for Donald Trump even if Trump is convicted of felonies -- Eric Trump says that his father's stamina is unparalleled, despite Donald Trump falling asleep in court daily -- Republican Governor Kristie Noem, under fire for previously killing her dog, may have ruined her chance at being Donald Trump's Vice Presidential running mate -- Donald Trump will reportedly hold an event at Mar-a-Lago with donors and potential VP picks reminiscent of his old reality show The Apprentice -- Voicemail caller asks what it says about voters that they will vote based on the price of eggs rather than the state of democracy -- On the Bonus Show: Poll says Biden and Trump supporters divided by media they consume, South Korea sees more deaths than births for 52nd consecutive month, appeals court rules transgender healthcare must be paid for by state insurance, much more... 🌱 Ounce of Hope: Get a THC Seltzer for just $5 at https://ounceofhope.com 🔥 Kasual App: Get 35% OFF at https://davidpakman.com/kasual 🌳 MyHeritage: Try it free for 14 days at https://davidpakman.com/myheritage 🥦 Lumen: Get $50 OFF with code PAKMAN at https://go.lumen.me/pakman 🖼️ Aura Frames: Use code PAKMAN for $30 OFF & free shipping at https://auraframes.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 3 Speaker 1 Speaker 4 Speaker 5 All right, let's start today with a little bit of a deeper dive into taxes. Some of the elements of the Trump tax plan that some folks still don't understand, but have very much changed the way that some of us pay taxes. I'm going to play a clip for you from last night's Sean Hannity program. Sean Hannity, the Fox News propagandist, friend of Donald Trump, to the extent that Trump has friends, was interviewing Larry Kudlow. Larry Kudlow is a former Trump economic adviser. The topic of the salt deduction limit was brought up. If you don't yet know what that is, don't worry. I'm going to explain everything to you here. And

I hope this will be instructive. Hannity brings up that his taxes as a New York resident went up with the Trump tax plan, acknowledging that one of the major changes made by the Trump tax plan was nothing more than vengeance against blue states, specifically making it so that the residents of blue states like New York and California would pay more while either not affecting or providing new goodies for business owners in red states without income tax. So if if this is all confusing right now, bear with me. Let's listen to what Hannity said and then we will explain it all. When I was a resident in New York and the Trump tax cuts passed and he eliminated the state and local tax deduction, I ended up paying more.

But I didn't deserve that because you're rewarding states that that elect, you know, high tax and spend liberals. All right. OK, so Hannity acknowledges when I lived in New York, I paid more thanks to the Trump tax cuts because of the limit placed on SALT deductions. SALT stands for state and local taxes. That includes state income tax, city income tax if there is one like in New York City and property taxes and some other local taxes.

Hannity says I was wrongly targeted. Essentially, I was one of the good guys because I happen to live in New York. Trump's tax cuts and increases, depending on where you live. They targeted blue states and I was caught up even though I wasn't deserving of it. So Hannity admits that that was the point of limiting salt deductions. Now here's what this means. Before Trump's tax plan, taxpayers could deduct an unlimited amount of state and local property taxes and either state and local income taxes or sales taxes. So for example, if you paid a bunch of income tax to the state of New York, you could deduct it from your federal taxes. You paid 30 grand in state

income taxes to New York on your federal return. You deduct that 30000 and you don't pay tax on it. It's a nice tax deduction. You could also include in that your property tax and altogether it could be 15, 20, 30, 40, 50000,000 or much more, depending on how much money you make. What the Trump tax plan did is say, even if you have $20,000 in state and local taxes that you paid, even if you have $30,000, even if you have $40,000, you can only deduct the first 10,000 of that. Beyond that, it's not deductible.

So if you were previously deducting 15, 20, $30,000 in state and local taxes because you live in New York or California, which has a robust state tax to pay for stuff at the end of the day. You lose that benefit. Now, one of the things that was done sort of in exchange for this, it wasn't really an exchange, but it was like we're taking something away, but we're adding something is that they instated something called the qualified business income deduction. It's called QBID, and it only applies to self-employed people who have certain types of businesses, not C corporations, which are often the biggest, biggest, biggest businesses, but S corporations and other pass through type entities. And it was a new deduction for them. I qualified for that. For example,

the QBID deduction. OK, so what's happening here is that there was a very specific change made so that if you are a small business owner in a no income tax state like Florida or Texas, you are affected by the salt limit because you're already not paying state income tax. You're paying property tax if you own property, but not state income tax. So you're not really hurt very much by the salt limit. But here's a handout where you can deduct 20 percent of your qualified business income right off the top and not pay tax on it. It was presented as they were taking one thing but giving another. But if you were in a state like Florida, it was just a handout to business owners.

So now we'll get to the Hannity example. Hannity reportedly makes twenty five million bucks a year. I don't know if that's true, but he makes a lot of money now. He I believe he's now moved his residency to Florida, but he used to have residency in New York. So before the Trump tax cuts put in place this salt limit on Hannity's twenty five million dollar income, we would expect that his total state and local taxes would be about 10 percent, 2.5 million, because there is the New York state income tax and New York state income tax and New York city income tax. And then you figure out, OK, so he pays federal taxes, but he can take off

the deduction for what he pays to the city of New York and to the state of New York, plus some property or whatever. So before the tax reform, before the tax reform, you have a different amount of tax that would be due versus after the tax reform. Long story short, long story short, that change probably cost Hannity somewhere between three hundred and five hundred thousand dollars a year on on just zooming out. The change probably made it so that his taxes went up by three, four or five hundred thousand dollars a year because of what Trump did, because he lived in New York by saying you can no longer deduct all the stuff you used to be able to deduct. Now, when Hannity moves to Florida, which he did do eventually, where there's no state

income tax, you didn's no state income tax, you didn't have state income tax before to deduct in Florida. So the impact of that salt limit is much smaller. Now, if you want to say, OK, that's how it affects Hannity, but the average person probably wasn't affected. Not really. You can pretty quickly hit that ten thousand dollar limit. It's not just something that affected the ultra rich. For example, if you own a home with a five thousand dollar a year property tax and you make seventy five K a year living in New York City, you'd pay twenty two hundred bucks in city tax, about five thousand bucks in New York state tax. So you've got your five grand on your property, five grand in state tax, twenty two hundred in city tax. That's twelve thousand dollars. You're not making a crazy amount of money, but thanks to Trump limiting salt deductions,

you now are no longer able to deduct all of that. And if you make one hundred and fifty thousand a year instead of seventy five thousand bucks, it affects you even more. So the idea that this was something that was targeted towards the rich thousand bucks, it affects you even more. So the idea that this was something that was targeted towards the rich or whatever, it is really not the case. And even though the notion is Trump cut taxes, there are lots of folks in New York, in California, in Massachusetts who, thanks to the limit on those state and local tax deductions, ended up paying way more in taxes. And if they aren't business owners, they don't get to participate in the QBID deduction.

So I hope that this is sort of clear and that at least the gist of it comes through Hannity admitting he had to pay more because of that vengeful and punitive thing that Donald Trump did specifically targeting the blue states. Hey, you're going to love this. Republican James Comer is now saying it's taking a long time to impeach Joe Biden. It's taking a long time to indict Joe Biden because there's too much evidence. We have so much evidence against Biden and his family that we're moving slowly because we have to go through and make sure that we're fully aware of all the crimes he committed. Now, I want to remind you that Comer is lying. We know Comer is lying about this. I'll remind you why after the clip. Take a listen to this. There's a sixty four thousand dollar question, chairman. When do we hold them accountable for perjury or or evading taxes? A lot, a lot, evading taxes,

many financial crimes. The reason that this has taken so long, in addition to the obstruction for the White House, is there's more evidence that comes in every day. We knew there is more evidence that comes in every day. The evidence is coming in faster than they can handle it. Now, I could tell you a lot of different things about the so-called evidence. I could remind you that Biden's been under investigation for years and they still have nothing. There's no smoking gun. They say we have bank records and text messages, but none of them are indicative of wrongdoing. Never mind criminality. Joe Biden has been in the public eye for decades and they have nothing on the guy.

I could remind you of all of those things, but I don't need to because James Comer is lying on TV because privately it's not even really privately in fundraising emails to his supporters. He's already admitted there's no impeachment coming. He's already admitted it. He has been sending out fundraising emails that say, hey, you know what? Impeachment's not going to work. He says it won't work because Democrats control the Senate and won't vote to convict. But he's acknowledging they're not going to impeach Joe Biden.

But publicly, he goes on Newsmax and he goes on wherever we'll have him, Fox News, although increasingly he's not being invited on Fox News. And he still says, oh, we have evidence we're going towards impeachment. We just need time. It's taking a little while because this that or the other thing. There is no evidence. He knows it. He knows they won't be impeaching Biden. And now he's hanging his hat on. If you reelect all of us, then we'll do criminal referrals. They still have no evidence. They still have no crime.

But that's where he is now shifting the goalposts. He insists in another moment during this interview, lots of evidence, evidence of it's coming out of his ears. There's so much of it. Speaker 1 Tell us what you found. You got some new news here that may really implicate Jim Biden and Hunter. Tell us about it. Right. Speaker 4 Yeah, well, this is more evidence of influence peddling. This is what we've been saying for the past year. Speaker 1

And I want to remind you, whether they do or don't have evidence of influence peddling involving Jim or Hunter Biden. That's not a crime. And it's not Joe Biden. I don't believe they have that evidence. They certainly haven't shown it to us yet. But remember the number of steps that are missing. If it is true, you have evidence of influence peddling. By Hunter Biden or Jim Biden. It's not a crime and it does not implicate President Joe Biden.

Would it potentially be something we would look at and say, that's terrible, that's disgusting? Maybe we would. But it does not implicate Biden, Joe Biden, and it is still not evidence of a crime unless they can find one and demonstrate one. And remember, when they're asked, what is the crime? Potentially, we know you're not charging anyone right now. Not that the House can charge anyone, but referring criminal criminal referrals. What would the crime be?

They go, we we're still investigating. These are not honest people. They say one thing on TV. If they think that's what their constituents who watch TV want to hear, they say a different thing in fundraising emails. They say other things behind closed doors. At some point, we have to let what would we call it? You know, Occam's razor tends to apply to scientific phenomena. But if we apply a sort of

colloquial Occam's razor, is it more likely that the evidence is just so hard to find because the crimes have been so expertly committed over such a long period of time and there's no record of all of them. And despite years of investigation, they just are just out of reach. Is that more likely or is it more likely that they can't find any evidence because Biden didn't do anything wrong? At some point, we all have to decide what the answer is and hopefully vote in November in accordance with that. Let's take a very quick break. We'll hear from a sponsor or two. Speaking of the Bidens, just wait till you hear about what Hunter Biden is cooking up right now. So many people in our audience have become fans of our sponsor, Ounce of Hope. Ounce of Hope is a cannabis farm that ships CBD and psychoactive THC products to your door anywhere in the US. This is federally legal. THC, a THC

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We have a report from NBC News. Lawyers for Hunter Biden plan to sue Fox News imminently. A letter obtained by NBC News says action is pending because of Fox's alleged conspiracy and subsequent actions to defame Mr. Biden and paint him in a false light. Fox News already has a bunch of problems on its hands. We've talked about the Dominion lawsuit, which did not go well in the early 800 million dollar settlement. There are other ongoing lawsuits, Smartmatic and others. And what we have here is potentially another major, major headache for Fox News.

ABC News reports Hunter Biden threatens to sue Fox News for airing revenge porn, revenge porn. Attorneys representing Hunter are threatening to sue Fox for violating revenge porn laws and publishing since discredited bribery allegations as part of a scheme to, quote, paint him in a false light, according to a letter obtained by ABC News. The letter, which was transmitted to attorneys at Fox, includes a request for the conservative news outlet to preserve all documents potentially relevant to the allegations in this letter, which is commonly something included in these letters before the lawsuit is filed.

We anticipate that litigation against Fox is imminent. Wow. There's a number of different aspects to this. Let's first listen to CNN's report that this lawsuit is forthcoming. Lawyers for Hunter Biden are telling Fox News to correct the record on bribery allegations made by a discredited FBI informant or face a defamation lawsuit. CNN obtained a cease and desist letter sent to Fox last week. In it, Biden's legal team points to Fox hosts like Maria Bartiromo continuing to push claims that Hunter Biden and his father

took bribes from Alexander Smirnoff, even after Smirnoff was indicted for lying to the FBI. Cheryl, you know, the issue around this charge against Smirnoff is that it may very well stop other whistleblowers from coming forward. This is an intimidation tactic. Threaten this guy with 25 years in prison because he told the he told the oversight committee that Burisma paid Biden and Hunter Joe Biden and Hunter Biden five million apiece. Biden's team also accuses Fox News of illegally profiting off a fictionalized show streaming on Fox Nation called, quote, the trial of Hunter Biden and a violating revenge porn laws.

So listen, there may be some real consequences coming here. Media Matters has an interesting study and the level of obsession that Fox News has had over the years with Hunter Biden is almost beyond the belief of the numbers. The piece from Media Matters points out Hannity's show aired at least one hundred and fifteen segments. That's one one five in twenty twenty three, promoting the falsehood that then Vice President Joe Biden corrupt corruptly pressured the Ukrainian government. This relates to the Victor Shokin stuff. The Fox host and House Republican allies treated the claims as the heart of a Biden impeachment push. You read down further. Eighty nine segments in 2003

where the suggestion of Hunter Biden's use of shell companies for shady and nefarious purposes were made. They have a number of different examples. The Burisma bribe Hannity's show aired at least eighty five Hunter Biden segments in segments in 2023, promoting the dubiously sourced and wholly unproven notion that Mikolas Leshefsky, the Ukrainian oligarch who controlled Burisma, paid a five million dollar bribe to Joe Biden. You can keep reading down all of these. At least 52 segments on Hannity alluded to a 2019 text message. Hunter Biden sent his daughter to suggest he admitted handing over a portion of profits to his dad. Don't worry. Unlike pop, I won't make you give me half your salary. And it goes on and on and on and on. So there's an

interesting aspect to this. Hunter Biden is arguably a public figure. He has a published memoir. Now, he's not a public figure to the same degree that Trump or Joe Biden are. But Hunter Biden is a public figure to a degree. This makes it more difficult to win a defamation suit. Ruby Freeman, the election worker who won that defamation suit against Rudy Giuliani had an easier case because Ruby was not a public person in the same way that Hunter Biden is a public person. Now you could argue you could argue that there are extenuating circumstances and that there is harassment here. You could argue that this is a totally different sort of animal because it's eighty five segments here and one hundred and thirteen segments there and on and on and on. And importantly,

the informant for some of those stories has now themselves been indicted by the feds and the feds say that the story was completely fabricated. So that may change the potential of this to be a ticking time bomb for Fox News. And maybe it would give the Hunter legal team a better opportunity. Now, it is probably going to come down to the language of how Fox hosts and guests spoke about this. Did they say Hunter received a bribe or Hunter has been accused of receiving bribes when it comes to a pseudo public or public person like Hunter Biden and allegations like this?

It actually may depend on the on the language that was used. So at minimum, this has the potential to be a major headache for Fox News. In the worst case scenario, we could be talking again. I mean, imagine if Hunter became inordinately wealthy because of Fox News going after him with false and fabricated story after story after after story. It would really be something. So we will wait to see what the official filing is seems to be coming imminently. Charlie Kirk is again admitting the Trump campaign, in a sense, is collapsing. I don't believe that this is something that Charlie Kirk is saying and doing in order to make people think it's happening

when really it's not to help Trump. I don't think that that's what this is. Charlie Kirk, I believe, is accurately sounding the alarm that Biden's opening election field offices and Trump is closing them or doesn't even have them. Biden is hiring staffers and Trump is firing staffers. The Biden campaign is organized, whereas the Trump campaign is a mess. This is not the first time that Trump operative Charlie Kirk is acknowledging this. He has said it before. I believe he means it and I believe he's right now. Whether it will make a difference is a subsequent conversation that we'll have in a moment. But listen to what Charlie Kirk had to say on his program yesterday about really the nitty gritty organization of

these campaigns. Speaker 1 and Joe Scarborough this morning, they had a whole segment on Joe Biden's superior ground game. And they're right. They're right. Joe Biden has over 600 full-time staff on the ground within the main states. He has 44 offices in Wisconsin alone, 44. The bad news is I do not know if we have the infrastructure, if we have the troops, the plumbing to translate the public sentiment into election success. I'm not sure of that yet. Public sentiment can only get you so far. What did that get us in 22 midterms? Not the Senate. And we lost a lot more House races than we should have with a very slim House majority. Paul said red wave and currently they want it more than us. Our side hopes that we are going to win.

Their side wills themselves to victory. Now, I don't believe he is saying this as a performance. I don't think he's saying it without really meaning it to get people scared. So they'll go and volunteer for Trump or anything like that. I think he's calling it like he sees it in this particular case. What's missing from this analysis is that much of the MAGA Trump plan is just to say it was rigged and try to steal it. And why do I say that? Oh, David, that's a conspiracy theory.

No, it's just what they did last time. So we'll try to do it again. Now I remain cautiously optimistic that they won't be able to. I fully expect that Joe Biden will win the popular vote again by a significant margin. But I am less confident that Joe Biden is going to win the electoral victory, which will almost certainly come down to a quarter to a half million votes in three to five states. It was even closer than that in 2020. So Charlie Kirk is right. The organization isn't there. Trump says he's too busy in his criminal trials to campaign.

And yet his last three days off, he played golf. So it's not really even clear how busy or concerned Trump is with the lack of ground game that's going on. They don't have the infrastructure to win the traditional way. But the question is, will they win by strategically suppressing the dramatic Democratic ballot and then pulling off whatever failed attempt they didn't pull off in 2020 by successfully pulling it off in 2024. Those are the questions.

We don't have the answers yet, but Charlie Kirk is correctly identifying a major problem that the campaign has. We have a growing number of Trump rioters reporting to prison for their prison sentences. One such individual is Rachel Powell. Rachel Powell will soon be reporting to prison for their prison sentences. One such individual is Rachel Powell. Rachel Powell will soon be reporting to prison. She was interviewed by Donio Sullivan, and it is pretty stunning stuff. Donio Sullivan. I know I always get his name wrong. It looks like it would be pronounced Donnie, but I believe it's Donnie. I think that's the thing. I normally say Donnie, but it's actually pronounced Donnie, even though it looks like Doni. Donio Sullivan went to the

home of Rachel Powell, Trump rioter, and interviewed her. And it is wild, wild stuff. Take a look at this and then we'll discuss elements of it. Do you remember where you were when you heard this? Biden had won the election. I do. I was at my house and I got a phone call saying that Biden won. And I was like, what? You couldn't believe it? No, absolutely. And people around me couldn't believe it either. You still can't believe it? I still can't believe it. Right. Why did you decide to go to D.C. on January 6?

Well, how often does a president ask you to come to a rally? So first point of interest, as far as Rachel Powell is concerned, Trump did ask them to go and she did go, which is the first part of this entire story. Why were these people even there? Because as far as they understood, Trump told them to be there. Doesn't happen. At some point, this goes from peaceful protest to you having an ice axe in your hand. Like somebody give you the ice. Yeah. Who? I don't know. You don't remember. Now, part of this is alluding to this idea that these folks love, which is it was a setup. There were

provocateurs. There were inside jobbers or something. Suddenly she's got a nice act. I don't know who gave it to me. Mysterious. Speaker 1 You'd admit this is a bad look, obviously. Oh, totally. Yeah. You know how dumb I feel when I look at this picture? Like, oh, my goodness. Like... You had an axe in your hand. You broke a window. You were shouting over a bullhorn to tell people to take the building.

Yep. Why should people believe that you weren't trying to overturn the election and do something illegal and commit insurrection? It's ridiculous. If we wanted, if we went there with a plan to take that building with as many people as were there, we were coordinated. We'd have been in there in like 30 seconds. She's essentially saying the reason, you know, they weren't really trying to do it is they didn't do it, that they could have done it, but they didn't do it because they just weren't actually coordinated enough to do it. You ever had a moment where you're like, you know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Biden actually won the election. Maybe I'm the conspiracy theorist. No. Never.

Not at all. Never. Nope. So in a few days, you're going to be reporting to federal prison. Right. How have you talked about that to your children? Yeah. I'm sorry. It's like my last weekend before I go in. But, like, I love my children so much. And so it's like the last thing that they can take from me. And that'll be the hard part. And I don't deserve this and my kids don't deserve it. Like, have we not been through enough? Like, that's the last thing that we have to lose is each other. Doesn't exactly sound like an attitude of personal responsibility, does it?

It had been just three years since the Capitol attack. A day that cost lives. And ruined lives. But the truth of what happened that day has been so twisted. Lies about January 6th have been relentless. Almost like it was a coordinated operation. So warped. 20 confirmed incidents. The dozens of Feds, FBI agents, and state operatives

who infiltrated the Trump crowds on January 6th at the US Capitol. We have total on top of all the other proof, more proof. That those who took part in the attack are being lauded in churches. We talk about all the corruption that happened surrounding January 6th, the Fed's erection, because we know that the federal government was involved. And the man who incited it all,

he's still the hero. So this hat says, Rachel, we love you, Trump. Are you hoping Trump will pardon you? I know he'll pardon me. There you go. It's not a hope. I know that Trump will pardon me. So she is now operating on the hope that after all of this, after all the wrongdoing, after

all of the criminality, after the sentence and the conviction and everything, what she's counting on is when not if when Trump wins in November, he will then pardon her, seeing her as a hostage, as Trump has increasingly been saying at rallies rather than as a writer or criminal. If you as if we needed enough reasons to prevent Trump from getting another four years, if you actually believe in the rule of law, if you actually believe in due process, if you actually believe in personal responsibility for your actions, if you actually believe in those things, then preventing Trump from getting into the Oval Office and pardoning all of these people is yet another one of the

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things that Republicans say. These are not actual principles that the right wing abides by when it's inconvenient. It's something they like to say when convenient in a vacuum to make a to draw an apparent distinction with Democrats. But it's not really something that they stand by. And I'm going to play as proof of this, an interview that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham did on CNN over the weekend. And what we are increasingly hearing from Republicans is law and order, due process, orderly, everything all buttoned up. We respect the rule of law, except if Trump gets convicted, it'll be bogus. And I'm still going to vote for the guy and support the guy.

And that's exactly what Lindsey Graham says. It is endless equivocation. It's endless lies. It's more what about ISM and Lindsey Graham completely ignoring the fact that Trump stole classified documents, refused to return them, and is calling this selective prosecution of Trump, saying they didn't go after Bill Clinton and they or Hillary Clinton. They didn't go after Joe Biden.

They didn't do any of that. It's just selective and starting to set himself up to be able to say what he eventually says. Even if he's convicted, the conviction will be bogus. It won't be a meaningful conviction. So I would still vote Trump. Take a listen. American people won't know how this is going to sort of end before they go to the polls. Does that worry you?

They know. They know. Yeah. No, not at all. No. You know, once you ask me, would any if he's convicted in any of these trials, would it change my view? No.

I think all these trials are political. I think it's selective prosecution. I think what's going on in New York is an outrage. The case is eight years ago. They created a crime just for Trump. I think it's selective prosecution for political purposes. I think the Jack Smith trial is selective prosecution. They didn't go after Clinton. They didn't go after Biden on classified information breaches. So I think most Americans are not going to decide how to vote based on Trump's legal troubles, but the troubles

they American people. So he's dismissing all of it. He's saying at the end of the day, the outcomes don't matter because he believes other people have also done, I guess, morally equivalent, legally equivalent, criminally equivalent things. And he's saying it doesn't really matter to me what Trump disseminated and to whom or any of it. And he confirms, yes, even if Trump is convicted of felonies between now and November, he has my support. Or go ahead. No, no, it just and just to underscore something you said earlier, if he is convicted, you

will still support him and vote for him. Absolutely. I think what's going on with Donald Trump is weaponization of the law. He's being prosecuted in Manhattan, one of the deepest blue state cities in the country. Remember, he's being prosecuted in Manhattan because that's where the alleged crimes took place. Nothing special or secretive or subterfuge about it. Georgia and Fulton County.

Jack Smith is going after Trump. But Clinton and Biden. Anyway, I think most people have written this off. They're going to focus on their problems, not a bunch of cases brought by liberals against Trump. Now, one of the important things is it doesn't really seem like voters have written this off because the polling says if Trump is convicted, 80 percent would not vote for him. Is that really representative of the situation nationally?

I don't know, but at least that's what voters are saying in polls. If Trump were convicted, they would not support him. The polling doesn't suggest most Americans have written this off. So we will see. Now, Dana Bash brings up the testimony of David Pecker about the broader catch and kill scheme where Packers publications, including the National Enquirer, would signal boost positive stories about Trump back in 2016 and also publish negative stories about Trump's opponents.

And Lindsey Graham's explanation there is lots of people do this. Lots of people do this. A lot of what about ism here, as you can see, mentioned the the case in New York. Of course, that is something that is ongoing. And I just do want to ask you one specific question about what we heard this past week, and that is David Pecker, who ran the National Enquirer's parent company, testified that he paid to catch and kill stories about Trump, specifically to help his presidential campaign. You don't have any concerns about that? You know, apparently a lot of people do this. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods. No, I think the whole thing is a crock. The statute of limitations has long shut out the

misdemeanor cases. So this liberal prosecutor in Manhattan came up with a federal campaign violation that the state of New York, Southern District. So then he's telling the misdemeanor felony lie. So a lot of people also do. This is not a defense in a court of law. And again, the idea that they couldn't get a misdemeanor. So they made up a felony. These some of these actions Trump is accused of are misdemeanors in a vacuum, but felonies if committed in the service of another crime. And it's that latter scenario that Trump meets the bill for and under which he's been charged. So, Lindsey, not exactly a profile in courage here, that's for sure. And I can assure you that while there are

many elected Republicans who certainly will be voting for Trump, no matter what happens, there certainly are voters who claim if Trump were convicted, I wouldn't vote for the guy. Let's see what they actually end up doing. Eric Trump was interviewed by Fox News's Maria Bartiromo in a Kafka esque moment. It's been a while since I pulled that word out. OK, so please don't come after me in a Kafkaesque moment. Eric Trump says that his dad has such stamina and is just so tough. I want to remind you, Trump's falling asleep in court every day. And Eric Trump is on national television bragging about his dad's stamina.

He's going all over the place in his stamina. Maria, I've never seen anything like it in my life. I mean, I've just never seen it. He'll be in trial all day long, relentlessly being attacked by sleeping. He's in trial sleeping. A corrupt judge, you know, who's literally family is apparently profiting off of this whole thing, only to step out and go to events at bodegas and wake up and speak to union workers and go to Michigan and go to Pennsylvania and go to Ohio and go to all the other swing states. The guy is really a remarkable human being. And I love him to death and I'm proud of him.

And I think the whole world knows his backbone and his toughness. And it's exactly who we need behind the resolute desk in Washington, D.C. exact person. We need the Oval Office. The stamina of Trump, who is napping every single day in court while referring to Joe Biden as Sleepy Joe, is just a level of vigor and energy to contend with. Do you think Eric resents his dad for destroying his entire family's reputation and legacy to the extent that they ever had one before this political fiasco started. You think his kids overall look at him and say, why? Why did you do this?

We did have a nice life before you did this. Eric Trump says his dad is drawing huge crowds at his criminal trial. I mean, you can't write this stuff. The obsession with crowds, even at criminal trials. And by the way, by the way, nobody's showing up to these criminal trials. Trump wanted protesters to show up outside the courthouse. I think six people showed up. Speaker 4 President Trump sitting in that courtroom all day. Speaker 5 You know, Maria, it's a law of unintended consequences and the Democrats,

for whatever reason, haven't figured this out and they mess it up every single time. No different than Russia. No different than everything else. It's a law of unintended consequences. Biden goes to Pennsylvania and zero people show up. Literally, I go to any rally and I have 100 times more people than Biden had two weeks ago in Pennsylvania. He has 100 times more than zero. You tell me what happens when you multiply, multiply by zero. Yeah, my father at 630 in the morning goes out and he has every union worker on the biggest

job in New York chanting USA, USA, USA before they're even opening their eyes. That's how early it is. Right. He goes to Harlem and he has massive crowds around a bodega. And this is literally a pop up event. Remember that it was staged and planned in advance. So with all the power of Air Force One and with all the power of the executive branch, Biden can't have anybody show up. My father is drawing these massive crowds fundraising, the likes of which no one has ever seen. President Trump, it's all the likes of which no one has ever seen before. So continuing the cult of personality, Trump's own kids push it.

Nobody's showing up outside the trial. And Trump desperately saying people have to show up here. People need to show up here in order to be able to show their support. Otherwise, we're not going to have a country. And then lastly, almost a staple now of any interview that Eric Trump does. He previously complained about Dwayne Reid or previously complained about CBS. And now he's saying he's having trouble because of skin lotion being behind locked plexiglass at pharmacies. Really a very specific issue that Eric Trump is having.

And they're going after a guy for one hundred and thirty thousand dollar payment. Every day they close the courtroom, you know, they close the streets around the court. It costs 20 times that every time they shut down the FDR drive, it costs 50 times that no one believes it. All while in New York, you can't go into Duane Reade, you can't go into CBS and buy skin lotion because it has to be locked behind plexiglass because theft is so high. And the D.A.'s entire focus is Donald Trump.

You know, it's funny because I don't know what the plexiglass in front of the skin lotion has to do with the prosecution of Trump after an investigation that has nothing to do with plexiglass at CVS. But I will admit, I went in to buy my hair product the other day and it was behind glass. And I had to go up there with my hat in my hands and say to the CVS employee, please, I need it. I can't do my show without it. Give me that sweet, sweet hair, hair stuff. And they unlocked it for me and I bought it. So that absolutely is a process that I had to go through. And this is a regular for Eric Trump. I do want to remind you that he previously bemoaned that when it was Advil that this

was a problem in New York City. Homelessness is through the roof. I went to Duane Reade the other day and literally you can't buy Advil and Duane Reade without having somebody come up with a key and unlock, you know, those little plastic things that you pick up because there's so much looting in the city. I mean, the city is going to hell. Yeah, he the Advil and the skin lotion. He's just really, really busy with a lot of this stuff.

So listen, I don't think I've never thought that Eric Trump was necessarily the smart one. But these failed apologetics for his father really aren't convincing anyone. There is a devoted cult that no matter what happens, no matter what anyone says, will vote for the guy. But my hope is my serious hope is that enough of those who choose to vote in enough states see the reality of Trump. And we put Trump ism in the dustbin of history. OK, the way

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free shipping. The info is in the podcast notes. Terms and conditions apply. It's getting warmer out there, so make sure you're prepared. Unfortunately for some of the gentlemen, the weather warming up does have a downside and it's the sticking and the readjusting and the chafing when the humidity kicks in. But our sponsor, Sheath Underwear, will keep you comfortable. We'll be right back. in five star reviews, fast shipping and world class customer service. Go to sheathunderwear.com slash Pacman and get 20 percent off with the code Pacman. That's S.H.E.A.T.H. underwear.com slash Pacman. Use code Pacman to save 20 percent. The info is in the podcast notes. Let's talk about the race or the contest or the reality show to be Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate in twenty twenty four.

We do have news about an event he plans to hold that will have a sort of reality show flavor to it. But I'll get to that in a moment. One of the big stories over the last few days has been South Dakota governor, Republican Governor Kristi Noem, and the story she tells in her forthcoming memoir about when she killed a dog, a 14 month old dog. This was years ago. And she presented this story, the killing of this puppy, essentially. She presented the story as she's willing to make the tough decisions. She presented the story as evidence that she has what it takes to be a VP and be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

It has completely and totally backfired, with even many Republicans saying this is really weird and this is not you. Listen, sometimes on farms you have to euthanize animals and sometimes you do use a gun. But I don't know about including the story in a memoir, that's for sure. So we have a new Rolling Stone article which is titled Trump allies hope Kristi Noem's puppy killing also kills her vice presidential chances. The South Dakota governor's story about executing a 14 month old dog is a gift to her political rivals. And there is a lot here about several Republicans close to Trump who are using the story of shooting and killing the puppy to try to nuke

Trump's personal opinion of her. Now, I think it's really important to remind you of the reality about Trump and dogs. And producer Pat mentioned this yesterday on the bonus show. Trump doesn't like dogs. And many have raised the question of what do we think about Trump, given the fact that he seems completely unable or uninterested in having a relationship with a dog and sometimes the inability to kind of bond with a dog can be indicative of other personality traits that may not be particularly pro social. But the point here is Trump doesn't care about dogs. Trump cares about optics. And if Trump can be convinced that Kristi Noem's inclusion of the dog killing story in her memoir hurts her as a vice presidential pick and thus it

would hurt Trump to pick her, then it is liable. It is likely that Trump would not select her as his vice presidential running mate. The article goes on to say in the days since the story from Noam's memoir went viral, multiple Trump allies and confidants flagged the dog killing and press coverage of it directly to Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. And another source briefed on it, hoping it would cause him to view her as an out of touch buffoon. Again, he cares about public opinion. It is totally plausible that when people come to Trump and go, sir,

with tears in my eyes, this is very bad. Look at all this terrible coverage Kristi Noem is getting. She was boneheaded to include that in the story. Forget about whether you care about dogs, sir. This would be a very bad choice for you. That is completely plausibly going to dissuade Donald Trump from selecting her. Now, there are, as we talked about on the bonus show yesterday, sometimes when dogs bite, people put the dogs down. You can argue that a 14 month old dog is able to be rehabilitated and it was premature and shouldn't have been done.

The point here is not only is it bad judgment to include it in your memoir at all, it's also bad judgment to include it as evidence that you can make the tough but correct decisions if you are to be in a position of power. She did not prove her point by including the dog killing story that she's likely to make good, responsible, respectful decisions as vice president of the United States. Now, in full disclosure, the sources in the Rolling Stone article admit they are lobby. They already didn't like Christina.

They were already lobbying Trump to select other people. I am increasingly leaning towards Trump must be seriously considering Tulsi Gabbard as his running mate. We'll find out soon enough. But in the meantime, very interesting things going on at Mar-a-Lago. Politico reports that the Trump campaign is hosting a Florida donor retreat with potential vice presidential picks. This is feeling like the VP stakes slash The Apprentice episode in Trump's home for 400 donors. As Politico reports, the May event in Palm Beach is expected to attract around 400 donors.

A copy of the invitation obtained by Politico lists 16 special guests for the event that will be held May three to five in Palm Beach. Among them are names being mentioned as Trump's possible VP running mate, Senators Marco Rubio and Tim Scott and J.D. Vance, governors Doug Burgum and Kristi Noem, Congress folks, Elise Stefanik and Byron Donalds. Apparently, Tulsi Gabbard will not be here, but it does list additional special guests. So that's also possible. It's an invitation only event.

It is going to be a big fundraiser. It's also going to be an opportunity, I guess, in some sense for the vice presidential contenders to schmooze donors and presumably to go to Trump and say, listen, if you go with Tim Scott rather than Burgum, I'm in for X amount of money through the super PAC or whatever the case may be. There's a couple factors here. Trump has lied so many times about the VP pick that it's impossible to know what's really going on. There was a moment some months ago where he said during a town hall with Brett Baier and Martha McCallum on Fox News, I've already selected the person. It's already a done deal. Months after that or a few weeks after that, he said there's a lot of contenders.

Tim Scott is a possibility. Tucker Carlson is a possibility, seemingly negating the claim that he had already selected the person. So Trump lies all the time. We don't know the truth about what's going on here. We don't know if Trump has selected someone or has at least mentally selected, but it's going through this entire routine to get attention or to raise money or for whatever reason.

We simply do not know. There are a couple of things that I think we can be sure of. Number one, vice presidential choices rarely make a big difference. They get a lot of attention in the lead up. There's a sort of will they won't they who will they pick sort of thing. It generates media coverage, but it rarely really makes a material difference on the Biden side. There are those who say you should jettison Kamala Harris because she's not likable. I think the sort of safest thing that attracts the least attention is you stick with Kamala Harris. And it would be very awkward to

announce, by the way, Kamala is going to remain my VP until January, but she's off the ticket. That sounds chaotic. It generates an environment of chaos. I don't think it makes any sense with Trump. What is the goal for a VP? It seems it would be to focus on is there someone who can bring me a slice of the lack of the electorate that I'm unlikely to otherwise get in that sense. Tim Scott playing up his evangelical credentials. I don't think it really helps Trump in the sense that the evangelicals, despite the absurdity of it, have already essentially been committed to Donald Trump for multiple election cycles.

So I don't know that Tim Scott really helps. Tim Scott is black. Does Tim Scott help Trump with the black vote? I don't know that he does, because I think most of the black voters that would vote for Trump are already voting for Trump. I don't know that he really expands the electorate. And this is where you sort of end up with. Well, what about Tulsi Gabbard? The sort of I left the left and came to the right to the extent that she's continued to bamboozle some of the left wingers into thinking that she represents something fresh and interesting and valuable. Maybe Tulsi Gabbard does expand Trump's electorate, even if by a very small amount. And so that's why I continually

think of her as an interesting choice. I don't know that Trump is leaning that way, but she's done events at Mar-a-Lago. She's speaking at CPAC. She's certainly checking off all the right boxes remains to be seen. We have a voicemail number and that number is 2192 David P. And the caller brings up a very interesting question or contrast when democracy is at stake. How can you vote based on the price of eggs? This is their analogy. Let's listen. Hi, Dave. This is Stan from Chicago. Yes, sir. What does it say about the average voter who is going to vote on the basis of what the price of eggs are? Right. I'm not what the state of democracy is. Thank you. So let's go through this in two parts, because the question points to a really significant and very human aspect of voting behavior. And it's the tendency for immediate, tangible concerns

to overshadow broader abstract issues like the state of democracy. Now, by the way, this is part of why foreign policy in Israel, Gaza ranks so low, 10th, 15th in some polls in terms of priorities for voters. And it's because when voters prioritize the price of eggs and it's a shorthand for, you know, the price of groceries or inflation in general, cost of living when voters do that, it reflects the day to day experience and struggle in a way that foreign policy stuff simply does not.

And arguably the broader state of democracy doesn't either, even though I would argue that the state of democracy ultimately will very much affect our day to day lives. And so your life day to day is affected by the price of eggs and milk and vegetables and whatever else it is that you buy. And so there's like a palpability. There's an urgency that is understandable compared to some of these more theoretical or conceptual or broader issues. So on the one hand, it's arguably pragmatic.

Hey, look at what's happened to the cost of groceries. Voters want that addressed right now. The degree to which the president can address it is a real question. That is another aspect of this. Now, let's look at the other hand. On the on the other hand, it is a challenge for democracies where these foundational principles are so important generally to our way of life to communicate why it's more important than the price of eggs in the immediate or why it is at least as important freedom. The rule of law, fair elections. Do we have authoritarianism or do we have democracy? What is it that we have?

It's really easy to see those undervalued or overlooked when people say, look at the price of eggs. And we don't want to dismiss the day to day financial issues that people are dealing with all the time. So what I think this at the end of the day points to is we need political education. We need engagement that will connect, hey, the foundational principles that are jeopardized. If Trump gets his way with dictator for a day, authoritarian authoritarianism, steal an election, you didn't win, shut down media outlets. You don't like all of these different things. What comes from that is ultimately how it will affect everyday economic issues. And I can assure you, if we don't even uphold the basic pillars of democracy on which the country was based, the ability to keep inflation under control or keep cost of living in check

is going to go completely out the window. It's going to evaporate. These things do relate and they influence each other. So it's not crazy. It's not stupid to say, hey, look, I see the price of eggs and I want to make a vote based on that. Whether presidents can or can't deal with that, I understand it. But we need to connect the broader issues to those pragmatic day to day issues as well. We have such a great bonus show

for you today. We will talk about how Biden and Trump supporters are divided very much by the media that they consume. South Korea has seen more deaths than births for the 52nd consecutive month. What does this mean for the population and more broadly for the South Korean economy? And an appeals court has ruled transgender health care must be paid for by state insurance. Why is this a big deal other than the obvious? We will discuss all of these stories and more when I'm joined by producer Pat on the bonus show. Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money.

Yes. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. Let's make some money on the bonus show. Sign up at join Pacman dot com. I'll see you then. And we'll be back tomorrow. Brian Kaplan joining me tomorrow or no, the next day, I believe this week, Brian Kaplan will be back on the show.