The David Pakman Show - 4/4/24: Republican finances destroyed by Trump, why replacing Kamala would be disastrous

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Failed former President Donald Trump is destroying the Republican Party financially and there seem to be no Republicans willing to stop him -- Osama bin Laden's niece, Noor bin Ladin, is a Trump-supporting Q-Anon believer, in a case of strange political bedfellows -- Caller talks about Senator Katie Britt's bizarre State of the Union response -- Caller predicts Trump will pick a woman as his running mate -- Caller discusses the prospect of Kamala Harris replacing Joe Biden -- Caller explains why he's no longer a Trump supporter -- Caller asks about voting in person versus voting by mail -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: Republicans try to change Nebraska's electoral vote system, Amazon scaling back Just Walk Out technology, and much more... 🌱 Ounce of Hope: Get a THC Seltzer for just $5 at https://ounceofhope.com 💵 Ridge Wallet: Get 10% OFF with code PAKMAN at https://ridge.com/pakman (Sponsored by Ridge) 🍷 Naked Wines: Use code PAKMAN to get 6 bottles for $39.99 at https://nakedwines.com/pakman ✉️ StartMail: Get 50% OFF a year subscription at https://startmail.com/pakman 👍 Use code PAKMAN for 10% off the Füm Journey Pack at https://tryfum.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

Donald Trump is financially destroying the Republican Party. That's where we start today. You know, Michelle Cottle wrote a very interesting op ed in The New York Times called Trump is financially ruining the Republican Party, to which I say yes, and that that's probably great news, actually. So this is something we've been talking about for a while. And I will link to the piece because I think Michelle does a very good job in sort of outlining it.

The Republican Party should really think very carefully about the financial risks of associating and aligning too closely with Donald Trump because his involvement in the party so far has been a disaster electorally. But it's also led to a really difficult financial situation for the Republican Party, particularly as Trump has now taken over the Republican National Committee. And there are campaign finance issues. There are issues relating to the allocation of donations, issues related to the ethics and honesty of people donating to the RNC, presumably to help elect Republicans around

the country and ultimately to have that money funneled in to Donald Trump's legal fees. And Trump does have a history at the end of the day of financially ruining businesses of different kinds. If you look at Trump, the businessman, we've said before, there's the allure of Trump, the reputation of Trump, the idea of Trump. And then there's the reality, which is that he may have done better financially simply by investing all the money he got from his family and his dad in the S&P 500 50 years ago and letting it ride or however many years ago it was.

And there are all of the failed ventures. There's the vodka, there's the steaks, there's the casinos that went bankrupt. There's the university, which ended up being a total scam, leading corporate bankruptcies of all kinds associated and attached to Trump. And so when you take that background and connect it to political fundraising and campaigning, you start to see that it is a very risky business venture for the Republican Party and the RNC to align itself with a guy who often leaves financial devastation all around him. He always comes out somehow.

OK. And we can talk about the different ways in which that's the case. But we are now starting to see this directly affect the Republican Party in a bunch of different ways. We've already talked about the fundraising numbers. Biden is dramatically out fundraising. Trump doubled his fundraising, had double the cash on hand, raised more in one event. Biden did than Trump raised in all of February at one point had one hundred million dollars more on hand than the Donald Trump. So the fundraising, the money in isn't going very well.

And this is already starting to affect Trump's ability to campaign. And Trump's reliance on big money donors who are increasingly hesitant to support him may also end up being a pretty significant problem. Now, Michelle Cottle in the op ed is sort of telling Republicans, hey, this is going on. She says, hey, Republican Party, pay attention. You're being herded toward potential financial ruin. The red flags are smacking you in the face. Wake up and smell the grift. The problem is there isn't really anyone left in charge to actually tell about the fact that this is what's happening financially, because the RNC has now been taken over by

Lara Trump and another Trump loyalist. They have said the money that comes in is for Trump. We're going to pay his legal fees. Trump's legal bills are already reportedly exceeding 100 million dollars, and it may get even crazier as the criminal trials start. There's a fundraising agreement which allows for the prioritization of legal bill payments over party committee allocations, which is something that we've never seen before. And this is also part of the problematic Republican strategy.

There are financial problems facing a bunch of Republican state parties where Republicans in some of the less crazy red states are saying, look, they clearly are going to they're going with Trump again. He's already clinched the nomination. He just has to be crowned at the convention. But he's already clinched the nomination at the state level. There's a lot of Maga type people that are involved. What am I donating for?

So I'm not going to donate. And that's causing problems not only for Trump's national fundraising and the RNC, but also for state level Republican parties. There are leadership disputes in many states. Do they want a MAGA or a non MAGA state party? This is happening in Arizona. This is happening in Michigan. This is happening in Georgia states that could be. They were crucial states in 2020 and could be crucial again. And then look at what's happening even when with national leadership, where you've got they they ousted Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy brought in MAGA Mike Johnson. But you already have Marjorie Taylor Greene and some other Republicans saying, I don't

know that I want this guy to be speaker of the House either, which further depresses and hurts fundraising. Now on the other side, you look at what's happening on the Democratic side and on the Democratic Party, even though there are claims that there's no energy whatsoever behind Joe Biden, you see insane fundraising numbers for Joe Biden, doubling Trump, sometimes tripling Trump, way more cash on hand. You see, while Trump and the Republicans are firing staffers, as I previously told you, and closing down election offices, you see Biden opening election offices and hiring people in different parts of the country.

There are no leadership challenges happening right now on the Democratic side. There is quite a wide tent, even though I know that there are many who say, no, the Democratic Party is divided. Look at what's happening on Israel. Gaza, for example. Yeah, there are disagreements. But for the most part, the party is really united compared to what you're seeing on the Republican side, which is that a full nearly 40 percent of primary voters voted for someone

other than Donald Trump. And yet Trump is still the nominee. And now a lot of those 40 percent are saying, I might stay home. I might go from Haley to Biden. I don't know what I'm going to do. So this is a reminder that the now eight eight years, the roughly eight year Trumpian takeover of the Republican Party has lost the many elections, is now putting them in potential financial ruin, and they don't seem to have even the most minor ability

to get out of this. So there's a couple of outcomes here. The first is very unlikely. Somehow the Republican Party realizes Trump's a disaster. They get rid of Trump as a candidate. They get rid of Trump ists from the RNC. But it seems both too late for that and that there really isn't a majority of Republicans that actually want to do that. So then we get to the most ideal outcome for us on the left,

which is they run the party into the ground. They lose the House in twenty twenty four. They continue not having the Senate. Joe Biden gets reelected in 2024. It's the end of Trump's political career. And hopefully, hopefully, MAGA Trump ism is just destroyed. The last vestiges of which maybe just become normal Republicans or maybe they go away altogether. And then we start 2028 in a situation where the Democrats will be putting up a new candidate because Biden will be term limited and Republicans will have to come up with something other than MAGA Trump ism. And maybe we have a new awakening in America. That's the most optimistic perspective. The alternative is unfortunately very ugly,

which is that this insane fundraising scheme and selection of Trump once again leads to four more years of Trump in the Oval Office. And then in twenty twenty eight, whoever is the heir apparent to MAGA Trump ism. Maybe it's Don Jr. Maybe it's Eric Trump. Maybe it's Marjorie Taylor Greene. I don't know. These are all very scary names. Try to take over. And MAGA Trump ism continues. So for me, the stakes are clear. And part of it is I welcome the financial disaster that is the Republican Party. It's thanks to Trump, but it's potentially a good thing for the left. Let's make sure we don't squander this opportunity in twenty twenty four because it really is feeling like an inflection point. And that's a point I'm going to continue to make as we get closer to November. Hey, it turns

out that Osama bin Laden's niece is a Trump supporting QAnon believer. And there's actually a lot of interesting stuff here now. Yes, politics can make strange bedfellows. And I saw a funny comment on Reddit about this saying I can already see her at the Republican Convention. Obama killed my uncle, which would not be totally untrue. But I think that we actually have to go a little deeper with this story. Business Insider has a report about Nour bin Laden and it says Nour bin Laden, the niece

of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, revealed that she's a big fan of President Donald Trump in an interview with The New York Post. Quote, I have been a supporter of President Trump since he announced he was running in 2015. I've watched from afar and I admire this man's resolve, said the Switzerland resident. So she does watch from afar. Trump has been accused of spreading anti-Muslim hate, but Norbin Laden claims the U.S. would be better protected from a second 9-11 under Donald Trump. So here's the really interesting thing about this. First of all, I don't blame people for their relatives. It's very clear, at least from everything public facing, that Nour bin Laden does

not share any of the terrorist sensibilities of Osama bin Laden. She's denounced it very clearly from everything I've read. So I don't I don't blame her for her relatives. She can be horrible on her own terms. And the fact that she has bought into a bunch of this QAnon stuff is certainly a part of why she's horrible. Here is a post on Twitter where she used the W.W.G. one W.G.A. where we go one, we go all, I think is what it means. It's a sort of QAnon slogan with the hashtag QAnon and QAnon worldwide. So I think the most important takeaway for me is that these wealthy elites actually have a lot more in common than you might think if you just look at the divisions among religious

or ethnic lines. And even though many on the right very loudly talk about how, oh, you know, these rich, these rich Qataris and these rich Middle Easterns and these rich bin Laden families and others, and they wrap all these things together. The truth is that wealthy elites of any religious background often have more in common with each other than you might think. And this is yet another example of that. And so does politics make strange bedfellows? Yeah, it does to a degree.

But at the end of the day, Norbin Laden, as a comfortable, wealthy elite of a different religious persuasion than Trump and many of those that, you know, she's very different than Mike Lindell in a lot of ways. But at the end of the day, she believes a lot of the same things. And much of it has to do with personal financial interests. So when we see the division lines that the right likes to put down the Muslim ban or their bring, they're coming in over the US Mexico border from the Middle East and this and that.

Remember that there's actually a lot more that they share in common. Wealthy elites across geographical lines, across religious lines, ethnic, ethnic lines, etc. So I don't know whether Nour bin Laden is going to be speaking at the RNC. That would be pretty funny. She's horrible on her own terms. And she really, really likes Trump. Make of that what you will. door anywhere in the US. This is federally legal. THC, a THC Delta eight and nine. They have

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And if you don't love your Ridge product, you can send it back for a full refund up to a full year after you buy it. Comes, of course, with a lifetime warranty because of the extra durable material. You'll get up to 30 percent off until April 1st at Ridge dot com slash Pacman. That's R.I.D.G.E. dot com slash Pacman for up to 30 percent off until April 1st. The link is in the podcast notes. Let's go to the phone lines. Well, we call them the phone lines, but it's really discord. You can find our discord at David Pakman dot com slash discord. We're doing this a day early this week because of some travel and different things going on. And I look forward to hearing from some folks. We will pray to the gods of discord for no technical problems. Join me in prayer. We'll

start with Chris from Massachusetts. Chris from Massachusetts. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Hey, David, I have a really serious bone to pick with you. OK, so in the past few weeks, you've had. Multiple segments about the reading habits of Americans. And in each one of those segments, you have failed to mention the book club that is operated in your name in this discord server. Right. Yes. On discord, there is a book club. How many members would you say are in the club? I mean, members. I mean, there's a lot of people that have like added the role, but I would say there's six or seven of us that regularly participate in the

book club Monday evenings. We should definitely be upping that. That that I think is something that's the goal to know about. Yeah. So listen, there is a David Pakman show book club on the discord at David Pakman dot com slash discord. Can you tell us what the current book is that's being read? Right now, we're reading A Thousand Splendid Sons by Khalid Hussaini. It's a mother daughter story about women in the Middle East. He was the author of The Kite Runner, a really great book that was published in 2003, kind of post-invasion. Other books that we've had in the book club, we just recently read Friend of the Show,

Steve Inskeep's book, Differ We Must. Nice. We also read Friend of the Show, Matthew Desmond's book, Evicted. We do like to keep a good balance of nonfiction and fiction just to address that feedback you got a couple weeks ago from another user in their comments about fiction. I've always thought that if you want to know what has happened, you can read nonfiction. But if you want to know how people are feeling in a particular point in history, you got to read. You got to read fiction. All right. Very good. Well, I encourage people to check out the book club on this. Join us Monday evenings, 9 p.m. Monday evenings at nine. Anything else, Chris?

No, not right now. Thanks for the time, David. All right. Very good. There is Chris from Massachusetts with a very powerful invitation. Let's go to let's go. Oh, I don't know. How about miles from Denver? Miles from Denver. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind today?

Hey, David, good to talk to you again. Likewise. All right. So I actually had a question and it kind of refers to what I've been thinking about ever since the Katie Britt response to the State of the Union. And it's, I mean, just flat out, like, that was the most crazy thing I think I've ever seen in a long time. It was nuts. Yeah, and so I'm thinking about the disconnect between, like, right-wing policy, you know, people in government who actually have the power to implement things, and the actual right-wing voters. And I'm thinking, well, I know for a fact there's certain personal interests of those

right-wing voters, such as like, for example, I believe polls said that they actually did not agree with the Roe v. Wade overturn. Right. If I'm correct about that. But on the other end, they're also like, you know, they're spouting off the trans rhetoric, the anti-immigration rhetoric, because they've been tricked into thinking these are actual issues that are going to affect their personal lives when of course they're not so i'm thinking you know there's states like alabama which katie britt i actually believe does come from they're

passing things like you know the ivf bans and acquiring like id to use pornography sites which is again totally bad badass crazy so of course if they cared about children they may have opted to pass legislation to mitigate the cause of the highest death rate, a.k.a. gun violence. Right. So what do you think is disconnect is coming from? Like, we know that right wing voters because of polls, they do want things to be implemented to help them and their actual right wing constituents aren't getting those things. So what do you think the disconnect is really coming from?

There's two layers of disconnect here. Number one is that even though, as you point out, a lot of individual voters have a set of priorities, they are electing officials that are to their right. And what I mean by this is if you look at the corpus of elected officials that represent the United States nationally. Right. So House and Senate, it is to the right of where the American people are. And there's a lot of different reasons for this. Part of it is where funding comes from

and that there's a lot of right wing organizations that are funneling money towards elected officials who are to the right of the electorate overall. So that's one thing, which is the electorate is to the left of our elected officials. And there's a number of reasons why why that is. The other part of it is that some of the things that people say they want, they don't really want when when the rubber meets the road and very quickly they change their mind. And so, for example, the abortion thing is an interesting one, because the best thing for the anti-abortion movement was Roe v. Wade. And as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned, two things happened. One, a lot of Republicans said, wait a second, we actually didn't want that.

The idea of raising money to stop abortion, that was interesting. But now that Roe v. Wade's been overturned, we actually think abortion should be legal in most cases. So that was one problem. And then problem number two is obviously once you once you do it, then you can no longer raise money on it. And then that also forces a further change in the dynamics of what elected officials present. So I think there's a bunch of different dynamics at play here. It's not just one thing, but the biggest

issue that could be solved is if we had closer to 100 percent participation in elections, that would solve a lot of this. It wouldn't make it perfect. But if we had more people voting such that their desires were actually better represented in our elected officials, that would be a partial solution to what we're talking about. I absolutely I agree with that wholeheartedly. I mean, it's unfortunate, but I mean, I am I'm a little idealistic when it comes to voting. I know that it's not realistic to think, you know, because the last time we talked, it was talking about how I'd like to see right to living wage, you know, a fix to the homelessness problem, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. And obviously that's not going to happen anytime soon, even if we get the voting people out there as much as you're talking about.

But it will go in the right direction. And, you know, I'm just I'm still thinking about this because like that Katie Britt thing really had me just brewing in my mind. I'm like, this is insane. Like, how can right wing voters, they put this person into the Senate, which isn't just Congress. It's the Senate. I mean, you know, the House, the Senate. And I'm thinking and I'm thinking, you know, like, is it just that the senators are that out of touch or are they just getting very comfortable with their kind of fascistic tendencies here? Like, are they just they know that they're kind of, you know, full of it, but they're just doing it anyway because they just know that it'll get them to vote because, you know, they manufactured outrage and such. I think Katie Britt did what she did in the State of the Union response because she really thought it would be impactful and people would be like, wow, that was that was an amazing thing. That was great. I think she was completely disconnected from how it would be like, wow, that was that was an amazing thing. That was great. I think she was completely disconnected from how it would be perceived, to be totally frank.

Yeah, I mean, she came off of that way because you obviously even get that far, you know, at least pretty well learned and intelligent to a certain aspect. Not every person in the Senate can match that. We got Marjorie Taylor Greene in the Congress. We got, you know, Lauren Boebert, who thankfully will be voted out soon in my state. Yeah, I mean, that's just what I want to know your opinion on, like what you think is going on there, because there's just this crazy disconnect. There always has been between what they actually want at the end of the day when we used to

the rubber meets the road. Yeah, absolutely. Miles from Denver. Appreciate the call. We're going to continue monitoring all of it. Let's go next to Taylor from Utah. Taylor, welcome back to the program. What's on your mind today? Hi, David. Nice to talk to you again. Likewise, with RFK selecting Nicole Shanahan

to be his running mate. Do you think Trump is more likely to go with the female candidate over the likes of Vivek Ramaswamy? You know, I have to tell you, I think I've thought all along that Trump was going to go with a female candidate. So I don't know that it makes it any more likely because I think it was already very, very likely. Now, I know that there's the idea that he's considering Vivek Ramaswamy. I don't know that he really is. I know that he's talked about, oh, Vivek, maybe Tim Scott.

All of these people are in the running, but I don't I don't know that they really are. My instinct has been for a while, and this is from a year and a half ago or longer, that Trump was leaning towards selecting a woman. But maybe there is some way in which RFK selecting Nicole Shanahan could could influence him even further. But I've expected it to be a woman all along. I actually do remember you talking about it in past videos. So, yeah, I was just curious

because others were speculating he might go with Aaron Rodgers, but that just wasn't realistic. It seems completely unrealistic even for Trump, although so many times, you know, if you had said a president will change a hurricane map with a sharpie to be more politically convenient, I would have said that's never going to happen, Taylor. And then he did it, you know. So I don't know. I whenever I assume Trump could definitely not do X, then he does it. And then I'm confused, you know?

Yeah. Well, thanks, David. All right. No problem. Taylor from Utah. Great to hear from you. Let's go next to Brendan from New York. Brendan, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today?

Hey, David, I had a question, I guess, regarding the FTC. You mentioned your program before your interest in, I guess, access to food and food quality. And I was wondering if you had an opinion on the Kroger Albertsons merger and the FTC's action against. Sorry, which merger? Kroger and Albertsons. I am not even aware of that, to be honest. I have not been following the supermarket news. So I don't there. I just don't even know anything about it. OK, the FTC sued to block the merger between Kroger and Albertsons, which I think is mostly in Arizona, but a few states. Is it on antitrust basis?

Yeah, that's I think that's the basis on which they're they're following the suit. Yeah. Interesting. Well, I'm interested to see who prevails, but I wouldn't have anything to say about it. I haven't been following it. A little more broadly, do you have any thoughts on Lena Khan and the FTC and like development over the past? I don't know. No, I really don't. I've not been closely

following the FTC's regulatory actions as one of the prime things during the Biden administration. So I would not really be able to weigh in substantively. I mean, what do you think? Is there anything you like or dislike that's been done? I thought it was interesting. There is a an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal some time ago that was kind of it was making the comparison between Lena Khan and Trump and the idea of their clearing out of like middle management of the bureaucracy of the departments that they're the head of. Yeah. And then recently there was a political news article, I think it was like it's called Unlikely

Fans, conservative Republicans. It was sort of like making the the picture is Khan shaking hands with Matt Gaetz. So, you know, put together with the articles about. Yeah. I mean, listen, I don't have any problem trying to get if you are a legislative agency or a regulatory agency and you want to advance your goals and you would benefit in advancing your goals from having some friends from the other side, as long as you're not selling out, if you know the right ways to to strategically leverage those who might normally be your

political adversaries. I don't have any problem with that per se. Just what matters is what is it exactly that they're working with Gates on? What's Gates view? But the devil is really in the details. And I just haven't been following it closely enough to say more. Speaker 4 That's fair. You just ever thought one one thing and especially the opinion article, they were highlighting some of the mixed successes of the FTC and the actions they've taken so far. So I agree with what you're saying in principle, but in the outcomes, I don't know. All right.

Brendan from New York, I will look into it. Let's go next to Rob from Kansas City. Rob from Kansas City, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Rob from Kansas City, please come on in. Did we lose Rob or is Rob actually here? Rob, I'm here. Yes, good. Thank you so much for choosing me, David. I appreciate it. My pleasure. So I had a question. Obviously, when we're talking about independent voters, if there is such a thing anymore and we're talking about Democrats, it might be in the middle. The the point of President Biden could select

a different VP that would make an impact on those people and maybe offset that fear? Speaker 1 I don't think so. I think that at this stage of the game, I mean, listen, we're talking about seven months left until the election. At this point, if you come out and say, oh, by the way, the vice president won't be joining me on the twenty twenty four ticket. Here's someone else. I struggle. I mean, the only thing that could help because it's it's chaotic and it signals a problem

when you kick out your VP this late in the game. So the only way it could possibly be worth it would be if you could come up with someone so popular, like imagine that Dwayne The Rock Johnson was like the most popular person in America. I'm not saying he is, but imagine that like Republicans love him. Democrats love him. If if you found someone that was just so well liked and well known and you or Taylor Swift, right?

I mean, I don't know what would happen. What would happen if Biden said my running mates, Taylor Swift, my running mates, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, although some would question the seriousness of those individuals as candidates. That's the only way I think that replacing Kamala Harris at this point helps you. I think the biggest outcome is it makes the administration seem chaotic. It creates a new line of attack. And I'll be honest, from having recently been in D.C. and sat down with with Vice President Harris, I see zero indication that Biden and Harris aren't working extremely well together, are on the same page, are increasingly of the same mind in terms

of the sort of messaging they need to get out there. I would be shocked and I don't think it would be to Biden's benefit to replace Harris, even if she is admittedly not the most popular or well-liked vice president. But I ask a follow up to that. Yeah, of course. How can this party and and this campaign then move her into a better position so that people can see her as, you know, an asset? That is a really good question that I don't know the answer to. I mean, I think her speech in Selma was very interesting.

It was a little bit of a different Kamala Harris. I've said this already behind the scenes. She's so likable and brilliant, able to speak extemporaneously about anything you ask her about. And it doesn't always come across as the same Kamala Harris publicly. So I don't know the answer to that. I think it's a matter of optics, media training and maybe some some consultants that can help with it.

But I don't have the answer. Thank you, David. Appreciate it. Rob from Kansas City. Let's take a very quick break. We'll go right back to discord and hear from more people in a moment. As many of you have heard me say before, when I go to a wine shop, I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm Argentinian and I still know almost nothing about wine.

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What's on your mind today? What can I do for you? Speaker 4 I can hear you. OK, cool. So my question first, I voted for Trump in 2020. So I'm a I'm a conservative and I've changed my mind. I'm kind of like in the never Trump camp. You'd like to say, yeah, you like to say the word deprogramming often. Yeah. How did you get deprogrammed? What turned you off from Trump? Mainly, I think it was Sam Harris who was primarily responsible for, quote unquote,

like deprogramming me because and I'm trying to find a way to put this on speaker. No, no, please. No speaker. Speaker is terrible. We don't want to be OK. What's the biggest issue on which you think you abandoned Trump? Was it the riots? Was it like what? What was it?

I think Sam Harris on one of his podcasts, he posed the question, what would have happened had Mike Pence not certified the election results like what would have transpired? Yeah. And that kind of stumped me. I was like, you know what? I don't really know. It could have been bad. So I think it was mainly the election where Sam Harris was kind of, you know, I always thought like, oh, maybe the election was rigged.

Maybe it wasn't. But when Sam posed that question, I'm like, OK, this issue is super important. And then when I dove into it, I mean, there's just no it was 100 percent like, you know, Joe Biden won the election 100 percent. So once I gathered that, I'm like, regardless of his policy, this makes him unelectable. You know, that was the thing that did it for you. Yeah, but I guess part of my question is something I'd like to emphasize here. So after my quote unquote deprogramming, I tried to find a home with the Democratic Party. You know, naturally, once you say, OK, the Republicans are spineless, you look to the alternative. And I've been kind of disappointed.

And so one thing I want to I guess I guess it's kind of a recommendation for your channel. But it of course course you can do with it as you please i kind of want you just to react to it and see if this is kind of a valid criticism of your channel okay um so what made sam harris uh the person that could deprogram me is because he routinely calls out um like the far left and so it's kind of like a litmus test. So when he calls out the far left, then I can listen to him because I'm like, OK, this guy isn't. You know, he's not like just a he's not politically biased such that he can. You see what I'm saying?

So when he when he calls out the left and he let me see if I understand what you're saying, Gabriel, one of the things you like about Sam Harris and that it's a criticism of my channel is he calls out the left when the left goes wrong. But you don't feel that I do or that I do enough. Is that right? Oh, this is correct. Yeah. So because I try to recommend my conservative friends to listen to your channel because

I make my arguments and I say you should try to diversify your news rather than watching Fox. Check out David Pakman. And they they don't really stick around, but they will for Sam Harris because Sam Harris seems to. Well, I appreciate that. I mean, listen, here's what I'll tell you. I call out the the left when it goes wrong to the degree that I think it's relevant to

the current political situation. And I'll explain to you what I mean by that. There are what things on the far left do I have a problem with oppressive uses of identity politics, attempts to silence certain voices because they aren't intersectional enough. I'm not a Marxist or a communist. So to the extent that people are advocating for Marxism or communism, I'm against that. I'm against when D.I. goes too far, even though the reasons for D.I. are well-intentioned. In some individual cases, it can go too far. I call out the far left for not being aware enough or take seat, taking seriously enough anti-Semitism and often writing off anti-Semitism as Jews are just privileged white people and we don't have to worry about them. I call out the left when it goes too far in demanding cancellations when I don't think

they are appropriate. So I call all those things out. But most of that wing of the left has very little power right now. There's no Marxists in the House or Senate. There's no communists in the House or Senate. D.I. as a matter of a federal law in the way that we cover government here is barely an issue. So what we're really up against right now is that more than half of the Republican Party is fine, abandoning democracy. And MAGA has some of the most dangerous anti-democratic instincts we've seen in generations. So do I have a problem with both of those things I just mentioned? Absolutely.

One has way more power. One one in 2016, almost one in 2020, almost stole it after losing in 2020. So I'm going to focus my energy in proportion to how much power and influence I believe these groups have. Is that is that fair? I really do appreciate that response because that checklist you made of when the left goes too far, like you satisfied a lot of my gripes. So that was that was wonderful. But that that was wonderful. But

that is fair. But what I'll say that I don't think you're realizing is that when so if you're if you're starting with I'm not going to focus so much on when the left goes too far because the right is a bigger problem. I, I think a lot of that is kind of wasted energy because when you're when you're focusing only on the right is a problem. Like what's the point? Because you know, the point is the following. Here's the I know where you're going with this, Gabriel. Here's the reason. OK, if I focus, I want to try to improve the country. OK, and part of the way we're going to improve the country is by more people who are sympathetic

to my perspective voting. We only have 50, 60 percent voter turnout in this country. So if the show becomes about all of the ways the left is bad, I'm not really moving the needle in that it's it might as well be a right wing show if I'm just criticizing the left, because then I have to explain, well, you only criticize the left, but you're saying we should vote for Biden. That doesn't make sense. So the reason I would say, well, hold on. The reason that I think this is the reason it matters, even though you're saying, well, listen, you're not going to convince the right wingers. Number one, I would say wrong. I hear from right wingers all the time who are convinced by my show. But more importantly, more importantly, the point is that there are tens of millions of Americans

who already agree with me on the facts, but they're not aware how dire the situation is and then hearing from me how bad the situation is. If these mega people get in power can motivate them not to change their mind, but just to choose to vote rather than to stay home. And that's where I believe the bulk of the people I'm trying to reach are. OK, that's no, that's a great I now understand. So you're kind of saying within the people that agree with me, I'm going to try to invigorate

them to vote, like have them go vote. Yes, that's going to have the best effect. No, that's actually that's a really good answer. I haven't considered that. But but I would say rather than my suggestion wasn't to make it all about bashing the left, but it was like even 15 percent coverage of where the left goes too far. I think he would bring in a giant. I don't know how big, but a substantial amount of right wing voters. I really do think that you would, because that's kind of how Sam Harris operates. He's it's only about 15 percent anti left and the

rest is, I would say, kind of anti Trump, anti right. And to be clear, Gabriel, some of the instances that you're describing as the left going too far, I would even argue it's the left failing to actually be left. They're becoming authoritarian. They're becoming what I criticize about the right as well. But here's what I'm going to say. I think this is a perfectly fair critique. And to the extent that I that people can suggest to me and you can do this, Gabriel, suggest

to me the sorts of stories. Now, here's what I want to say. A story about, you know, here's some small business in Kansas that put up some stupid left wing sign. There's no power behind that. So it's not like worthy of my coverage. Right. So I think the stories really need to be worthy of coverage and have some bigger picture or goal. They can't be, you know, a single dumb thing that happens on some campus in California

isn't necessarily representative of a problem within the left that I feel inclined to speak out about. But send me the stories, Gabriel, and I'll make an effort to cover them if I think necessarily representative of a problem within the left that I feel inclined to speak out about. But send me the stories, Gabriel, and I'll make an effort to cover them if I think they're worthy of coverage. OK, no, that's that's excellent. So when you say send you the stories with info at David Pakman dot com info at David Pakman dot com.

OK, and if I send you a story and it just doesn't get covered, will I? I know I'm asking for a lot of what I get, like an explanation as to why it's insignificant. Speaker 1 Only if you call in again and talk to me, we don't have the ability to respond to everybody who writes in. Speaker 2 OK. OK, wonderful. Well, thank you so much. Yeah, this was great. Speaker 1 All right. Gabriel from Louisiana. Good conversation, I must say. Let's go to Amy from Delaware. Amy, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today?

I'm so curious to hear what you've been thinking about. Amy from Delaware, Welcome to the program. Amy, you're we're connected. If your mike's working, you can talk now. And there goes Amy from Delaware. What a sad state of affairs. Let's go to Ellie from Seattle. Ellie from Seattle, welcome to the program. Let's go to Ellie from Seattle. Ellie from Seattle. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Hi, David, thanks for taking my call. I actually had a more fun question for you today. I hope that's OK. Sure. I know that you you like to travel a lot. So I was just curious, what are some of your favorite places to travel either?

Well, both domestically and abroad. What's your favorite place in the States and then in another country? Oh, I really couldn't have a single favorite anywhere. I mean, this depends what you're looking for. You know, are you looking to escape the cold and go to the beach? In which case it would be one answer. Or is the idea a cultural experience? Or what about a place I've never been before? I mean, there's really no one or even couple of answers. But you know, in terms of regular spots, I would say that I'm a semi regular in, of course, Argentina because that's my birth country.

Love visiting Spain, which is, you know, you get the European experience, but they speak Spanish. So it's great. UK is a place I've been to a number of times. And then I'd say France and Italy really have been the sort of like go back to multiple times places. And then in the United States, I'm, you know, usually escape the winter and go to Florida or L.A. sort of guy. I don't know that they're my favorite places necessarily, but it's usually for a particular purpose and time of year. So that's where I regularly end up, it seems. Yeah. And then I guess kind of a follow up, what what are some of the top couple places on your bucket list that you haven't been to yet? I, you know, I was both when the

pandemic hit. I was about to go to both Japan and Austria. I've never been to either. And both both remain high on my list. So, you know, Baruch Hashem, I will make it there soon. Ellie from Seattle, thank you so much for the call. I appreciate it. And why don't we check in with Brian from Nashville, Tennessee? Brian from Nashville. Welcome, sir. Please. What's on your mind today? Hey, David.

Hey. Yes, I can. Hey, so I, as you mentioned, I'm in Nashville, Tennessee, which is a very small blue blip in a sea of red. I guess my question was, you know, looking back at the 2020 election with Republican efforts to shut down polls and stop counting votes. Do you sort of encourage, you know, listeners of the show to vote in person as opposed to by mail if they have the ability to? No, I don't. Listen, no, no, no. Any I am not going to I can't imagine everybody's personal situation.

OK, so if I were to come here and say I recommend voting this way or that way, I'm potentially restricting the number of people that will vote or I'm dissuading some people from voting. I don't want to take any risk of doing those things. So here's what I would say. Our elections are secure and absent some specific information you have about your specific location. Do you know something about your polling place? Is it not accessible and you need a wheelchair in order to get in? Or is the timing such that it conflicts with your work schedule? I want you to vote in whatever way makes sense for you with the

understanding that our elections function very well. they've been investigated ad nauseum. No significant amount of fraud or of any kind of irregularities are affecting the outcomes of presidential elections that anybody has been able to find. So whatever method is best for you is the one that I would like you to avail yourself of. And I would not suggest to anybody only vote this way and not that way. Absolutely not. Speaker 4 OK, I appreciate your perspective. I do think, you know, in my case, just being in a conservative

state, that's sort of been my approach is if I have the ability to, you know, I prefer to vote in person for that reason. But when what I understand the reason what you like to vote in person, why? Specifically, everyone saying for this election in particular, just because given in 2020, you know, in Arizona, for instance, you had, you know, people basically trying to stop vote counts for mail in ballots. I'm not saying that, you know, a lot of that was happening. basically trying to stop vote counts for mail in ballots. I'm not saying that, you know, a lot of that was happening. Yeah, no, I understand.

I think, listen, do whatever feels right to you, but just make sure you vote. That's my message. Oh, absolutely. I'll be there. Yeah. All right. Brian, thank you so much. Very much appreciated. Let's go to a break. And there is much more coming up after this. Breaking a deeply ingrained habit is one

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And it provides that perfectly satisfying hand to mouth mechanic that many people love. Don't judge fume until you've tried it. They have helped countless people make positive changes and you could be next. Head over to try fume dot com and use code Pacman to save 10 percent when you get the journey pack, which comes with the device and several flavors to try. That's try FUM dot com slash Pacman. Use the code Pacman for 10 percent off the journey pack. The info is in the podcast notes. Let's get into Friday feedback, email info at David Pakman dot com. If you have anything you'd like to communicate, we will sometimes look at tick tock comments or

messages or a YouTube reply messages we get on Twitch or responses on Twitter. Who knows what will end up here? Here's one from Tick Tock. This is from Justin Glasspool. And this one is a hell of a mess. I will warn you, you're selling wrong. You're you're selling your country out, I'm sure, for money. We were striped from our democracy. Tell the truth. I don't know what this means. We were striped from our democracy. Tell the truth. I don't know what this means. We were striped from our democracy. Tell the truth. You know, let me address only one aspect of this. I'm selling the country out for money. It's been everybody from the DNC. George Soros. Israel, the deep state, the CIA, one of the networks secretly paying me, even though I'm not on them in order to get their message out on independent platforms.

Every single conspiracy about who is actually funding the show has floated by year after year after year. And I make no secret of how the show is funded. It's primarily funded by people like Justin, probably not Justin personally, but just people who consume the content and say, I'll pay a few bucks to support it. We have some advertisers. We get YouTube ad revenue. We never have contact with those advertisers. We have Facebook ad revenue, Snapchat ad revenue. That's it. You know it. And to be perfectly frank, it's not even really in the interests. Like, what is the DNC? You have to really think about it.

Our show is totally financially stable with the with the funding sources we have. And I say whatever the hell I want. Does it really make sense that the DNC comes to you and they say, David, we would like you to say Biden's good. But and as everybody knows, I don't care about politicians from the point of view of joining the cults of idol worship. I just look and I say, here's some good things they did. Here's some bad things they did. Here's things I wish they had done. Here's who our options are in the next election. Here's who I'm voting for. What really is there that they would pay for? And also, do you think it would really be worth it to anybody like the DNC to pay enough

that it would even be something I would consider doing? Like, really, how much money do you think they have to dump on us for me to consider saying something I don't really believe? I don't even know what the number would be, but I can assure you it's never been offered. So this whole sold the country out. It's wild and wacky stuff. I'm sick of it. Sick of it. All right. Here's

something interesting. Here's a poll from our YouTube channel on the YouTube channel. We ask the question if Donald Trump wins in 2024, will there be an election in 2028? Hundred and twenty nine thousand of you voted. Thirty eight percent believe there will be a twenty twenty twenty eight election if Trump wins. Sixty two percent of you believe there will not be a twenty twenty eight election if Trump wins. I get it. OK, Trump has said he wants to be dictator. Everything he's outlined that he wants to do with regard to immigrants, media outlets he doesn't like upholding treaties and all the it's all dictatorial. OK, but I would be in the yes camp. I believe if Trump wins in 24, he will do terrible things as president. We will all regret the fact that he won. I hope anyway

that we do. But I believe even if he somehow tried to stay in office past 2028, I don't believe that he would succeed. Call me naive, but I believe that Trump would leave office because he would have no choice, just like he had no choice last time. And even though they tried it, they didn't do it. They're going to try it again. I think the risk is that Trump loses 24 but tries to become president anyway. But if Trump becomes president and then he'll be 80, whatever, in 20, 28, 20, 29, I think

we have a 20, 28 election. I don't. One of the things I won't do on this program is hyperbolic fear monger. And I think that almost certainly, even if Trump is president for more years, there will be a 2028 election. If you disagree with me, I want to hear from you exactly by what mechanism will there not be a 2028 election? OK, that's the question I'll leave you with. Jackie says, when I was a bit younger, I thought term limits were a great idea. However, now I think that the best thing would be competency tests.

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Grassley, et cetera, are still very with it and keep up with modern technology. However, Dianne Feinstein and Mitch McConnell need to get out sooner. Right now, Trump needs a cognitive test by someone who's bipartisan. I don't think it's one or the other. I think that there are three different things that are often discussed. Term limits, age limits, competency tests. I don't know that competency tests and age limits are going to be constitutionally viable. Term limits, I think, are probably simpler because

presidents are already term limited. So adding term limits for members of the House and Senate seems like the most straightforward. However, I don't disagree with Jackie. I mean, when you look at Trump and you look at Bernie Sanders, you see dramatically different cognitive states, cognitive statuses, I guess we would call them. So on a personal level, I am not against competency tests. I don't even know that I'm necessarily against the maximum age. But what I would really like to see are term limits and competency tests, the legal implications, whether it can be done constitutional. I'm not weighing in on that, but I certainly would like to see it from the subreddit.

Gullible Eagle wrote in. Why doesn't either side criticize defense spending anymore? Writing I consider myself to be someone who follows politics, news and current events. I can't recall hearing either party put forward proposals to decrease defense spending. It seems to be the only thing that Washington agrees on. I hear an occasional reference to cutting waste, but that's about it. Has defense spending replaced Social Security as the new third rail of politics, or do we all agree to the massive amount of money we spend? Well, this is not new. Republicans and Democrats, for the most part, have signed their names to continuing the defense spending that we have. You will hear some Democrats say it's a bad thing. We've got to cut it.

But oftentimes the way our budgets are done and the way appropriations are done and the way that things that they like are connected to defense spending, most Democrats end up just kind of going along with it. Now, part of the reason I don't think we're hearing a lot about it right now is defense spending generally has been supplanted with the argument over whether we should be funding Ukraine specifically. That has abstracted from the broader defense spending conversation. And also, when a country is not in an active war of the Iraq war style, it's less common to argue

about defense spending. So I think circumstantially there's some reasons why we've heard less about it recently. Also from Reddit, Ricard 58 says, Are you better off than you were four years ago? Asking Do Republicans not remember the year 2020 Trump's last year as president? It was the worst year of my life, and I'm sure many others would agree. Four years ago, the U.S. economy tanked. Twenty two million jobs were lost. GDP contracted 30 percent.

Thirteen percent of small businesses closed. Unemployment was at its highest since the Great Depression. The deficit ballooned. Real wage growth tanked for half of Americans. Forty three million people faced eviction. Supply shortages were widespread. The murder rates soared. Child hunger increased.

And on top of that, the nation's mental health was in shambles. Hundreds of thousands were dying to a newly emerged virus. People were constantly stuck in hours long lines at gas stations and food banks. We were locked down in our homes and we couldn't even find toilet paper. So, yes, I'm far better off today than I was four years ago. That's that's a good one. That's a presented without comment one, I think. OK, interview has a suggestion for my forthcoming adult book. It's weird to call them adult books because it sounds like something different than it is. People just mean not my children's books like this one that I'm holding up a book for adults, but kids could read it, too, if they want. OK, the suggestion is I've watched

a few of David's videos where he gives sound advice to people asking how to talk to family or friends about helping them understand the truth about Trump and the GOP descent into fascism. The Socratic method is what he mentioned. I've heard experts in cultist deprogramming say pretty much the same thing. Ask questions. So they start questioning why they believe what they believe. How did they come to the conclusions they have? I know David is working on a book for adults.

I hope he tackles this at some point. The sooner the better. So the cult deprogramming topic is really a big topic by itself. So it does not play a prominent role in my forthcoming book, but it it's not totally absent. There are some ways in which I do touch the issue. So there will be a little bit of it for folks looking for that. Lisa Wolf says on Facebook, I will never forgive any of these people for the damage their votes did to this country. I think meaning MAGA voters, they could spend the rest of their lives fighting for social justice and it wouldn't make a dent in the lives of those they've harmed between his

mishandling of covid, tearing children away from their parents at the border and the Dobbs decision alone. Trump and every single person who voted for him has the blood and tears of thousands on their hands, probably more than thousands. Listen, I agree with Lisa insofar as we can never forget the atrocity that was Trump and hopefully prevent four more years of it. At the same time, because I know a little bit about how deprogramming people can go, we need to make sure that for the Trump is to start questioning and who say it was a bad idea, I regret it.

I'm out. We give them a place to come to that they feel comfortable because if we reject them when they try to leave the cult, we're keeping them in the cult and I can't feel good about that. So that's the one part where I would differ with Lisa. Max wrote in on Facebook. I can't tell if this is satire. OK, so help me. Max says Biden is not really in charge. Obama whispers into his earpiece and Obama writes notes in the teleprompter for Biden to read. Obama runs Biden.

And this is a fact. I can't tell whether that is real or fake. I can't tell whether that is a joke or not. And judging from the profile picture where this individual is wearing a shirt, a suit and tie that looks sort of Trumpian and from some of the other things they've posted. I am scared to admit this, but I think this might be serious. And it is just a reminder of how horrifying and disturbing things have gotten in this country politically. Very sad.

We grieve and we mourn that people like that exist and believe this nonsense. Info at David Pakman dot com. If you'd like to get a message to me, remember that you can sign up at join Pakman dot com for all of the great member benefits, including the award winning bonus show. And also, remember, you can get the trilogy. Oh, boy. Some of these are upside down every day. I'm struggling to hold these now ones backwards. Oh, dear God. The trilogy of children's books. Think like a detective. Think like a scientist. Think like a voter at David Pakman dot com slash book. Look at the reviews, folks.

They tell me we have the best reviews. Check it out. We'll see you on the bonus show and back tomorrow with more.