The David Pakman Show - 6/19/23: Tucker finally speaks out, Disney sues DeSantis (CLASSIC EPISODE FROM 4/27/23)

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

JUNETEENTH / CLASSIC EPISODE FROM APRIL 27, 2023 -- On the Show: -- Max Burns, Democratic strategist and Founder of Third Degree Strategies, joins David to discuss his article which argues that we have reached a "tipping point" on guns and gun violence -- Disney sues Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for his politically motivated crusade to destroy them -- Fired Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson breaks his silence in a cringeworthy video filmed with Carlson dressed as if he still has a job -- E. Jean Carroll, accuser of Donald Trump, holds back tears under oath while testifying that Trump raped her during the ongoing trial -- Radical Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene believes that Tucker Carlson's firing from Fox News violates the First Amendment, which would make it illegal -- Failed former President Donald Trump publishes a completely unhinged conspiratorial campaign ad which attacks Dylan Mulvaney and raises multiple conspiracy theories -- Donald Trump gives a completely outrageous speech to a sycophant Florida crowd -- Voicemail caller is worried about David on the basis of his strange "cowlick" during yesterday's show -- On the Bonus Show: Steven Crowder Candace Owens feud explodes, transgender lawmaker censured by Montana House Republicans, founder of We Build the Wall group sentenced to 4 years in prison, much more... -- 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

The David Pakman show is off today for the Juneteenth federal holiday. Enjoy this classic episode and we'll be back tomorrow. There is more bad news for Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis, as he is on his Asia tour while there is a flooding recovery happening in Florida that includes long gas lines. DeSantis is in Asia like a bobblehead, as we saw earlier this week. And he is now getting sued by Disney World. I have been saying for weeks Ron DeSantis is overplaying his hand with the anti woke stuff. And Ron DeSantis is really overplaying his hand with the anti Disney stuff. And if you think Dominion voting systems had good attorneys representing them against Fox News. Just wait until you see how good Disney's attorneys are.

CNBC reports Disney sues Florida Governor Ron DeSantis alleges political effort to hurt its business. Walt Disney Company sued Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, alleging that the Republican governor has waged a, quote, relentless campaign to weaponize government power over the company. You know, Republicans love to use the word weaponize. And in fact, they are holding they have been holding hearings since taking over the House of Representatives about the weaponization of government and the weaponization of big

tech. And of course, the terms are completely and wholly inappropriate in those instances. If we are to accurately and correctly use the term weaponization, it's hard to think of a better example than what Ron DeSantis has done with government power against Walt Disney World as a retaliatory action for Walt Disney World saying we're against the don't say gay bill. The article continues. The suit dramatically escalates the feud between DeSantis, who's expected to become a top Republican contender in the twenty twenty four presidential race and Disney. The lawsuit was

filed the same day that a DeSantis backed board moved to undo a development deal that it says Disney struck to thwart its power. This is going to be. A wild ride. And we've been talking about how Trump's existing indictment and possible future indictments might interfere with his presidential primary campaign. DeSantis hasn't even announced that he's running yet. We don't know if he will. Increasingly, the polling is shaky, shakier and shakier. But if he did, is it possible that the chaos in Florida will become a distraction and an impediment? Disney's attorneys, in all likelihood, have had drafts of this lawsuit ready to go

since quite early on in this entire fiasco. And as Ron DeSantis kept finding new ways to, yes, weaponize Florida government against Disney, they continue to add to those lawsuit drafts. They were waiting for the board to vote. And now that the board has voted, they are suing. Now, I want to be really clear because I know some of you are going to write to me and say, David, it's weird to see a progressive gleeful about the uber capitalist corporation, Walt Disney World. Folks, this this is not about that. I don't like Disney. I mean, I've said before, I hate theme parks. When I went to Disney World, it was just horrifying, overpriced, ridiculously overpriced, terrible food, long lines. And I hate all of it. OK, Walt Disney was an anti-Semite. Just this guy. I don't like anything about Disney.

But if I step back and look at the facts, DeSantis is in the wrong here from everything that has been publicly reported. Obviously, at some point when we say, well, is he in the wrong here from everything that has been publicly reported. Obviously, at some point when we say, well, is he in the wrong? There has to be an adjudication. We have a lawsuit here and we may have a version of that adjudication. And this is a crusade that I have been telling you for a while really may backfire. And even though I don't like so there's the sociocultural part and then there's the legal part on the sociocultural part. I recognize that just because I can't stand Disney World doesn't mean that tens of millions,

hundreds of millions of people absolutely love it. And picking a fight with Disney is potentially a losing battle just at its face. That's number one. And then number two, as we've said before, aside from Disney specifically, the country, for the most part, is on the woke side, not the anti woke side. And, you know, the don't say gay bill was a big part of the Disney controversy with Ron DeSantis. We had a recent poll which asked Americans on the whole, do you think that society has done too much, not enough or about the right amount when

it comes to protecting whatever LGBT folks? And the balance was on we've done the right amount or not enough. In other words, the majority of the country doesn't think that woke is going too far or whatever phraseology the right wants to apply to it. So we'll see about the legal aspect of it. Certainly when it comes to the sociocultural in all sorts of different ways, Ron DeSantis seems to have dramatically overstepped here. We will watch it. But this is a crusade that may well backfire. Tucker Carlson, the fired Fox News propagandist, has resurfaced for the first time and made the first statement since his firing. We're going to look at it. It's only a couple of minutes long. The funniest part of it is Tucker dressed himself

up like he still has a job. I don't know why I find that hilarious. He's probably wearing shorts, which is fine, but he at least at the top half of his body shirt and tie suit jacket and the entire thing. It's almost like he's doing a monologue at the top of his show, except there's no show because he's been fired. So let's listen to what he had to say. He doesn't really mention much about the firing itself. It's also funny knowing that he's doing this from the multimillion dollar studio that he put in his house in order to be able to do Fox News shows from home. It's all just endlessly funny. But let's listen. Really a profile in courage. Tucker Carlson's first statement since the firing. Here we go. Good evening. It's Tucker Carlson.

One of the first things he he even starts as if he's still on Fox News. It's so good. You realize when you step outside the noise for a few days is how many genuinely nice people there are in this country, kind and decent people, people who really care about what's true, and a bunch of hilarious people also, a lot of those. It's gotta be the majority of the population. Right, the majority of the population is really, really funny. Hilarious people also, a lot of those.

It's gotta be the majority of the population, even now. So that's heartening. The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. Yes, but that this is so funny. He's been fired for three days and he wants to act like the biggest critic of the way that television is produced.

His network and his the programs he's been on for for decades at this point, quite frankly, are the reason why we don't get substantive debates on for profit television. We don't get substantive discussions is because you've got to cram in a four minute interview in between commercials and Lindsey Graham crying about something like he's the it's it's not an incorrect diagnosis, but he's the one who caused the illness in the first place to a great degree. They're completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. True. In five years, we won't even remember that we had them. Trust me, as someone who's participated. And yet at the same time, and this is the amazing thing, the undeniably big topics,

the ones that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all. That's true. But that applies to his own program. Now, I guess now he's saying with the benefit of hindsight, you know, I had no choice. They had me over a barrel or whatever the case may be. It's all you've got to read between the lines. But it's a guy who is responsible for the status quo, pretending to take the moral high ground like he's a victim of it. Speaker 1 More civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power. Speaker 1 By the way, demographic change means you remember when he said brown people come in and make us dirtier and poorer?

That's what he's talking about and trying to whitewash here. political parties and their donors have reached consensus on what benefits them, and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it. Suddenly, the United States looks very much like a one-party state. That's a depressing realization, but it's not permanent. Our current orthodoxies won't last. They're brain dead. Nobody actually believes them. Hardly anyone's life is improved by them. This moment is too inherently ridiculous to continue. And so it won't. The people in charge know this. That's why they're hysterical and aggressive.

They're afraid they've given up persuasion. They're resorting to force. Now I want to make another point here and then we'll listen to the last 30 seconds without another interruption. You as a an informed consumer of media, you know, people who listen to my show, it's obviously a self-selected group. It's not random people. I know many of you because you wrote to me and you responded to my tweets about this

video. Many of you are confused about what the hell Tucker Carlson is talking about now. In short, he's basically without directly saying it, he's saying that the deep state uniparty that controls Democrats and Republicans has silenced him because he wanted to talk about the big issues of our time and nobody would let him talk about it or whatever. But understand that if you who follow all of these different conspiracies and ideas, if you're confused by what the hell Tucker Carlson is talking about, imagine his audience. They don't have a clue what this is about. They it's it's the exact type of thing Trump does where he talks about things no

one really understands because he's deliberately either he's either deliberately obfuscating or confused, but it doesn't matter because it's a cult that follows him. But it won't work when honest people say what's true calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. Whoa. At the same time, the liars who've been trying to silence them shrink and they become weaker. That's the iron law of the universe.

True things prevail. Doesn't Doesn't seem like Speaker 2 where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren't many places left, but there are some and that's enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon. Speaker 1 There you go. So now if you're saying what is that a statement about the firing? It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with the firing. You have to read between the lines. And so when you read between the lines and he talks about the uniparty that's really in power, it's not Democrats or Republicans. When he talks about there are great forces that don't want us to have the serious conversations we need

to have. A lot of what's in the media is stupid and all these different things. He's essentially saying Fox News is part of the problem. It's not about left right. There's like some kind of greater elite that is in charge and controlling everything. And they want to silence me and they want to silence you and all of these sort of things. So on the practical matters, what is Tucker Carlson's most likely next stop? I think the most profitable thing would be his own venture. And hilariously, because of the text messages that were released as a result of the Dominion voting systems lawsuit, we know that one of his former producers was actually engaged in texting with him. I believe it was a producer

about, hey, you know, what if we like start our own thing and we could make this much from the podcast and we could make this this much from the website and so on and so forth, particularly at this point in time. It seems to me that Tucker's most profitable move long term would be to start his own thing and control all of the revenue. The easier thing and I can tell you this is someone who I you know, I'm running the entire thing here and so on and so forth. The easier thing, although maybe less profitable, would be just to get hired by someone

like would Newsmax hire Tucker? They probably would. Would it be as profitable as if he built up his own entity? No, but he wouldn't have to worry about any of that logistical stuff and he could just talk to the camera and get a paycheck. So I don't know where he will end up, but it does seem the most lucrative option would be to launch his own thing. He's got a lot of followers and people who would just send, you know, people send a billionaire Trump money because he says, I need money and they don't think twice about it. They will obviously send Tucker money as well. So that's it. Tucker, Tucker Carlson, you know, respectfully getting dressed up as if he still has a show and delivering a two minute monologue about how I guess everybody else is bad and he's good and he'll tell you the truth.

We will continue to follow the Tucker saga. We will take a quick break and be back right after this. Don't forget that the best way to support the David Pakman show is by becoming a member, which gives you access to the daily bonus show, the regular show with no commercials. All right. This is very serious stuff. The Donald Trump rape trial is underway in New York and it is not getting nearly the attention that it likely deserves. We're going to go over a few of the headlines, a few of the articles. But this this is very serious stuff and very graphic stuff is happening in this trial. The Guardian has an article. Donald Trump raped me. Writer E. Jean Carroll testifies in New York court. This is now under

oath in court. Advice columnist says former president, quote, shattered my reputation and says alleged attack left her unable to enjoy romantic life. Carroll testified in her civil lawsuit seeking damages for battery after Trump allegedly sexually assaulted her in a New York department store changing room in 1996 and for defamation after he accused her of lying and perpetrating a hoax when she went public with her accusations in a book, quote, under oath to the jury from E. Jean Carroll. And there are no cameras in the courtroom. So while we have these reports, quote, I'm here because Donald Trump raped me. And when I wrote about it, he said it didn't happen. He lied and shattered my reputation.

I'm here to try and get my life back. Before Carroll testified, Judge Lewis Kaplan warned Trump may have crossed the line into jury tampering after the former president posted an attack on a social media site, Truth Social, calling Carroll's accusations a made up scam and a witch hunt. We're going to look at those posts in a moment. A Politico article also explains the details of the alleged event. Carol, a magazine columnist, has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room of luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in the mid 90s. And then indeed, there is a Yahoo News article from Yahoo News Canada which goes into the graphic detail that E. Jean Carroll revealed under oath, talking about the sixth floor lingerie department, a lacy bodysuit that Trump jokingly suggested she try on.

And it includes all sorts of graphic details that I don't know that I necessarily need to go into, but they are they are quite violent. Now, Donald Trump's reaction to this, he went on Truth Social and he posted the following. These are the posts that could be considered tampering. Quote, The E. Jean Carroll case, Ms. Bergdorf Goodman is a made up scam. Her lawyer is a political operative financed by a big political donor that they said didn't exist only to get caught lying about that. Just look at her CNN interview before and after the commercial break like a different person.

She said there was a dress using the old Monica Lewinsky stuff. Then she didn't want to produce it. The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent and false story. Witch hunt then continuing in a second post to Troth, quote, they got caught lying. The Miss Berg going from Miz to Miss Bergdorf Goodman case is financed by a big political donor that they tried to hide. Does anybody believe that I would take a then almost 60 year old woman that I didn't know from the front door of a very crowded department store with me being very well known, to put it mildly, into a tiny dressing room and her.

She didn't scream. There are no witnesses. Nobody saw this. She never made a police complaint. If I was seen there with a woman, big press scam. Now, aside from the facts of this case, which are slowly being asserted in court, this is not even close to the only sexual assault allegation against Donald Trump. Not by a long shot. We're talking about dozens of such allegations, including from one of Donald Trump's own ex wives.

Now, we could mention many of them, but one particular allegation of note relates to a lawsuit filed in 2016 by a woman under the name Jane Doe against Donald Trump, which accused Trump of raping her when she was 13 years old in 1994. This lawsuit, which I've mentioned to you before, was filed in New York. It was dismissed in 2017 by a judge who said the allegations aren't specific enough. And the accuser later withdrew the lawsuit reportedly because of the threats to her and her family's safety. Trump, of course, has repeatedly denied those allegations and has said that they are, quote, false and ridiculous. So where is the E. Jean Carroll case going? Remember, there are two parts to this. There's

the defamation allegation against Trump. There is also the actual assault allegation, which can be brought despite traditional statutes of limitations because of a particular New York law that says if you didn't we which opens up a window for filing such cases, even if the statute of limitations has expired. If you didn't previously bring the allegation forward, I have no idea in the world what is going to happen with this case. There were questions about whether Trump would even be in the courtroom. So far, he has not been. He has an event in New Hampshire later today, which we will cover live, which certainly puts him closer to New York than Florida does. But at this point, no indication that he plans to be there.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, radical Republican congresswoman, said yesterday that Tucker Carlson's filing of firing by Fox News was illegal. Now she doesn't use the word illegal, but it's really important to understand when these people on the right say that was a violation of the First Amendment. They are saying that it is against the law what took place. We're going to look at a video clip of Marjorie Taylor Greene explaining, I guess, her perspective, if you can call it that. What is really important to understand is that when she says Tucker's First Amendment rights were violated by Fox News, she's saying it was an illegal firing. These are the people

who hold as one of their most important stated values, low business regulation. Let let businesses do what they want to do. Law and order. We need to unburden businesses from government limitations. They should be allowed to do what is best and most profitable for them. And here she says a firing by a private company was unconstitutional and therefore against the law. We're going to break it all down. Let's take a listen. Big news of the week. Fox fired Tucker Carlson. Fox has gone left. They've gone woke. We're clearly calling them out for it. Tucker is a great voice for conservatives across the country. He doesn't have the platform anymore. Will you weigh in on Fox's decision to fire probably one of the more conservative voices, most important voices in America. Absolutely. I think it was devastating to our First Amendment, Eric. I see it as a very serious

problem. Our First Amendment is free speech, but it's also freedom of press. And when a gigantic media company like Fox News fires their number one, Tucker Carlson, not for him doing anything wrong, not because his ratings were bad, but they literally fired him because they came to the woke mob. Now that's completely untrue. Tucker Carlson caused a multi hundred million, if not multibillion dollar problem for Fox News. Fox News made this decision based on money. Not only was Tucker's program partially responsible for the news coverage that got

them sued by Dominion and Smartmatic and so far led to a nearly 800 million dollar lawsuit settlement rather in favor of Dominion. He also is being sued by a former staffer for alleged discrimination and sexism and so on and so forth behind the scenes. He potentially will have caused another lawsuit by Ray Epps that may be forthcoming. This was a financial thing, but that's not the focus of this segment. It's Marjorie's misunderstanding of the First Amendment. Speaker 1 Speaker 4 What we're seeing is we're seeing the end of the First Amendment. That's how I see it. I can't see it any other way. We've seen censorship out of control. We saw the federal government, Department of Homeland Security, aligned with big tech to censor Americans for several years now on political issues because

they weren't speaking the speech that was the chosen speech to say, well, neither was Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson was pushing the limit every single night on his show, and he was telling the news stories that the American people wanted to hear. I also want to point out that many Democrats even watch Tucker Carlson. OK, sure. So the question here is, is there any way in which a company company firing an employee could violate the First Amendment the way Marjorie Taylor Greene says the First Amendment

of the Constitution to the Constitution protects individuals and in theory, companies as well from government actions that interfere with freedom of speech, religion, press assembly and petition. Private companies, private companies are not bound by the First Amendment in the same way. And on the other hand, they also generally have the right to set their own rules and policies. This is something that people like Marjorie Taylor Greene on the right claim to revere as one of the highest goals and virtues of the United States legal system. And this applies to employment as well. Now, could firings be illegal?

Sure. There's all sorts of wrongful termination that that can and often is argued by by employees. If Tucker were to be fired because he's white or because he's Christian, certainly he would have a very good case for wrongful termination. I don't believe it would have anything to do with the First Amendment. It would violate employer nondiscrimination law. But the idea that because they fired Tucker, the First Amendment isn't violated merely because Tucker spoke on TV is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it shouldn't even be. The sad thing is that we have to explain it in this way. Now, is there any way is there any way where a company could be violating the First Amendment rights of an

employee? Imagine that an employee speaks out about a matter of public concern as a citizen and their speech isn't related to their job duties in any way. You can try to argue that your First Amendment rights were violated. It's very tough to do. If it's a government job, it's slightly easier to do. But it's a tough it's a tough standard to reach. Some states have laws that protect employees above and beyond the First Amendment. Like, for example, some states have laws that prohibit employers from retaliating against employees for political activity outside of work. So that would be a situation where there is an additional protection and the employee would be able to hold their employer to account. Do any of these circumstances even remotely apply to Fox News firing Tucker Carlson?

Not absolutely not. Absolutely not. And so we are faced once again with this question. Do right wingers not actually know what the First Amendment does and what it is, or do they know but they realize their followers don't? And so they blatantly lie to them on TV. I don't know. You be the judge. But what we do know is Marjorie Taylor Greene is humiliatingly wrong here. discounts on merch, including hats, hoodies, mugs and T-shirts. You can support the show for as little as two dollars a month. Check it out at Patreon dot com slash David Pakman show. Today, I'm going to be speaking with Max Burns, who's an award winning Democratic strategist and also founder of Third Degree Strategies. Max recently wrote an article asserting that

we may we may finally be at a tipping point when it comes to gun violence and gun safety in the United States. We're going to talk about that. Max, great to have you on. I appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me. So, I mean, listen, my audience knows we've heard this so many times before this. this is definitely a tipping point. You know, Sandy Hook was a tipping point or Pulse nightclub or whatever else the case may be. Even popular reforms like a background check as a requirement for any gun transaction, including private person to person sales.

Very popular with the American public after Sandy Hook can't get it done. So I think people would be right to be skeptical that we are now at a tipping point. So late laid out for us. Why now? What has changed? Speaker 1 Well, you're absolutely right. I think the gun violence conversation has been one that's been littered with disappointments from the beginning. But what we're seeing now is a really interesting confluence of factors. One is that even though Congress is essentially useless on gun policy right now, we're seeing a real golden age of Democratic lawmakers in states passing. That would have ended her career back in 2008. Now they're talking about her as a potential candidate for president. The other side of this is the NRA. They are in freefall. And what was once the biggest

gun rights group in America can now barely afford to keep the lights on in its office, much less fund the candidates that have distorted this conversation for decades. So there's this this unique window of weakness on the right and strength on the left that's really creating a unique space for a gun conversation that leads to actual legislation. Speaker 1 I think a couple of the difficulties are and part of this relates to what is or could be done at the federal level and what is or could be done at the state level. A lot of this right now, for example, when you talk about the Gretchen Whitmer package, we're talking about the state level.

And here there's a sort of like moral hazard situation where the state's most willing to deal with this stuff often are the ones that already are kind of ahead on the stricter side when it comes to gun safety as it is. So then when we think about, well, how do we deal with this issue in South Carolina or Texas? We start to think federally. And one of the difficulties about federal gun safety legislation is that running on it for national candidates often isn't a great idea from a strategy perspective, which I

would be glad to let you speak to as well. But we there's this idea and maybe it's true, maybe it's not that when you run national campaigns, including for like Senate, right, because you're in D.C., but your constituents are in your state, that when you talk about gun safety regulations, you rarely bring new voters to support you, but you often activate people who disagree with you. And so there's that difficulty of saying, well, the way to get Texas and West Virginia and South Carolina to do something is to go federal.

But campaigning on this stuff federally often backfires. So how do you do that? Yeah, I think that's a great point. And one of the interesting challenges here is that for years, Democrats were sort of bought into this Republican message that it was political suicide to talk about guns in a campaign. Right. I remember following the Virginia Tech shooting, Democrats came out the day after to publicly reassure America that they wouldn't dream of passing any gun control legislation. And now those same people are leading major campaigns in states and federally on gun reform. And that's in large part due to the rise of groups like

Everytown, Moms Demand Action, these new groups that have sort of adopted the rights organizing approach for this. And we see that now that the majority of Americans have in some way been touched by gun violence, numbers in support of gun reform are at record highs. And we're seeing that really start to break down the old coalition. In Tennessee, the Republican governor, Lee, is supporting red flag legislation. In Utah, the Republican governor alongside every town passed a bunch of gun reforms that make it tougher to get a gun and require background checks. That's a coalition that was unimaginable even a few years ago, that Republicans are seeing the pressure mount and actually realizing it's safer to take incremental gun safety steps.

This is a completely different landscape than I think Republicans are used to playing in. And it's one where Democrats can actually talk about guns and find that people are agreeing with them for the first time since 1994. What is the timeline on which you think we could see action on some of these areas? I think it's much quicker than we think. If we're looking at states, the more that we've organized, and this is a really key part of every town, is they are funding state races. They're cheaper. They have a bigger impact on actual legislation. And we're seeing that start to create a momentum for national change. Once red states, which are disproportionately affected by gun

violence, have seen that these things work, they're actually pretty excited to talk about them. And that's something that we're seeing distorted by the gun lobby. But when voters go to the polls, they are voting on this issue. It's a big reason why you see Joe Biden has gone from saying he won't talk about social issues at all in 2024 to opening with an ad that talks heavily about gun violence. Democrats can see it's a winning issue and they're for once really finding their voice here. We have in the United States sort of three separate gun issues.

You have mass shootings, you have individual homicides affecting one or two individuals per incident. And then you have suicides using firearms in thinking about and the prescriptions would be different for these three different categories. If we think about mass shootings for a moment, I've put out a list of 10 or 12 different ideas that would never eliminate every mass shooting, but would certainly do something to reduce the number. And there are some trends that we see when it comes to the mass shootings, age of the shooter, typically under 25 type of firearm used often an assault style rifle. You know, there's these trends that we start to see. What's the lowest hanging fruit in your mind that would blend the most effective changes that could be made with ones that are most likely to actually be politically viable?

Well, I think there's this unique moment here that we see with Tennessee, with Utah, with North Dakota that's talking about raising the age for gun ownership, that you combine background checks, which we've seen even in Michigan, was a hugely popular thing. Universal background check used to be a consensus Republican position in the Bush administration. They have gone so far off on that, that it doesn't resemble anything Americans want. But you combine that background check legislation and red flag legislation, and you have immediately handled two of the most vulnerable populations, people who are going to use their guns for violence against others knowingly

at the time they buy the gun, and people who are going to use it for self-harm, disproportionately young people. And in rural communities, in agricultural communities, huge rates of gun suicide. And it all has to do with gun access. And we can talk about making sure guns aren't in the hands of kids without talking about these Republican conspiracies of stealing everyone's guns away. And we're finding that the space for that conversation is getting bigger every year. When it comes to the next, what's remaining, I guess I would say of the Biden first term and, you know, we'll see if whether there's a second term and sort of what framing he uses for the 2024 campaign,

given the circumstances in the House and Senate, Republicans controlling the House, Democrats controlling the Senate at this point. What's your sense of at the federal level, what might be possible? You know, I understand you're saying that Senate Republicans I'm sorry, that state Republicans, to some degree, seem more willing to take action. What about things that would have to go through the House and Senate? So that's the really big sticking point here is that Republicans have already said that the bipartisan gun bill that they gave Joe Biden is it for them. They do not want any more. So it's going to be basically a status quo situation until voters in 2024 can be heard.

And one of the reassuring things we're seeing is that just in the same way that Beltway consultants said, don't talk about abortion in 2022, it'll be polarizing. But that turned out to be one of the leading issues for voters. We're seeing the same thing now with guns. And it's one reason why Joe Biden, who is, as I'm sure you would agree, very risk averse, is comfortable opening his reelection campaign talking about gun violence. Do you have any insights? And this is getting very specific now. You know, there's something we can look at the gun safety issue, mental health, video games, all the stuff that is always thrown around.

But there is something intangible maybe about American gun culture that doesn't exist in some of the other countries with relatively high rates of gun ownership, wherein I don't know, it's just sort of like it's more common in the US that someone would see firearms as a way to solve a personal problem, an interpersonal problem, a societal problem that doesn't seem to be the case in many other countries. Is there anything that can be done to restructure that relationship between Americans and guns, which seems to be sort of like a layer that's above all the policy that could be put in place? There is I mean, it's fundamentally a constitutional issue. I'm old enough to

remember when people were blaming video games for violence. But the problem has always been that guns in this country often have more rights than the people they're killing. And the fact is, the position has moved to such a maximalist one on the right that doesn't reflect anything even a few years ago that the court held on guns. There's now essentially Republicans arguing for an unlimited right to own any gun that you want. And they're saying that anyone, even Republicans who propose common sense limits, are against democracy and against the Constitution. And it's polarizing people to violence. Because when you're told

your fundamental rights are being taken by a tyrannical government, that justifies almost anything in order to protect your rights. And we're seeing that happen. I mean, we're seeing former MAGA voters in Nevada who shot at elected officials they thought were stealing an election. Until the Supreme Court or Congress gets some constitutional momentum to rethink the madness of our current interpretation of the Second Amendment. It's tough to get anything long term accomplished.

Last thing I want to ask you about. I have heard from many progressives, including friends of mine, but also people who just call into my show who express views very similar to mine on the issue of gun safety and what they would like to see, but also don't like the idea of the right wingers being the only ones with the guns. And so they have armed themselves, particularly in the last few years. They have become progressive gun owners, gladly willing to subject themselves to background check mental health, eval, liability insurance, all the things we would want to put in.

But they don't like the idea of the right wingers being the ones who disproportionately have the guns. Have you seen this? Have you heard it? Is it a race to the bottom or a logical reaction to what we're seeing out in the world? Oh, I've absolutely heard it. In fact, I believe the fastest growing group of gun owners is black women. And they're doing this in response

to the increasing racial polarization and race baiting on the right. And I'll tell you, one thing that is sure to get us into the courts is the idea of Black people owning guns is not something Republicans consider to be the Second Amendment. We saw that with Philando Castile, who was an NRA member that they did not stand up for at all. The quickest way that we can get to a meaningful gun reform conversation is for Republicans to get scared at all of the non-Republicans who are buying guns. But it's, to me, a completely rational response, and it's a sign of government policy failure that people feel the need to have multiple

guns to protect themselves from their own government's inability to act to protect them. And we should be ashamed of that. We are going to link to Max's piece about this issue. We've been speaking with Max Burns, who's a Democratic strategist and also founder of third degree strategies. Max, really appreciate your time and insights today. Thank you so much. Find us on Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Discord and TikTok. One of the other ways you can tell that the 2024 election is really getting going in earnest is the frequency with which attack ads are being released.

We looked at a Ron DeSantis ad. We looked at a Trump ad. We looked at a PAC ad, all sorts of different ads lately. A failed former President Donald Trump has now released such a ridiculously dangerous ad that it's hard to believe anyone would even fall for this. But it's being released for a reason. And it's because Trump knows his audience. This ad that Trump put out yesterday, it's about 90 seconds, 100 seconds long. It invokes multiple conspiracy theories. It attacks a trans woman. It's really, really insane stuff. Let's take a look at it. It's an invasion of America. Streets flooded with poison, killing millions, enemies and tyrants on opposite sides of the globe. Laugh at us. Wars threaten us. The Okay, so you have to understand that the visual components here are a big part of this. The great reset just appeared on the screen.

That's that's the these what deep state folks love to talk about the great reset. They love to demonize the World Economic Forum. They had statistics on screen about fentanyl seized at the border. Now, of course, you might say to yourself, well, if they're seizing the fentanyl seized at the border. Now, of course, you might say to yourself, well, if they're seizing the fentanyl, then it's not getting into the country, right? Like, isn't that a good sign that that our border patrol is doing a good job? They don't care. It's all conjecture. It's all propaganda. It's all performative. Send your kids to war who tell you a woman is a man and a man is a woman. OK. And at this point, they put trans woman Dylan Mulvaney. At least I think that's who this is up on the screen. They tell you a man is a woman and a woman is a man. This is

completely ridiculous when it comes to policy. As we've talked about before, they are dramatically overplaying their hand nationally on this issue. But within the MAGA right, just being anti-trans for the hell of it is playing really well. These are big applause lines when they do events in public. Teach your children their country, their faith, their beliefs are a lie. They have corrupted every facet of American government, weaponized it against you while they watch our cities burn and violent crime is down. Violent crime is down. The murder rate is down long term. There have been shorter term spikes, some of which happened under Trump. And as we will talk about

on the program tomorrow, the red states of the United States are dramatically more violent than the blue states. Out of control, inflation and economy wrecked. Now, remember, the unemployment rate is extraordinarily low. Job creation is high. Inflation has been high. It has now declined consecutively for many, many months under Joe Biden. Every it's hard to go five seconds without finding lies, which is sort of the way it is with a Trump speech as well. A nation in decline. This is Joe Biden's America failing weak. But one man, one movement can change all that for us. Put America, the middle class first and put the globalists, the elitist, and the corrupt in their place. Bring back pride and the American dream.

To let the world know, don't mess with us. One man focused on the true owners of this great land. One movement focused on the true priorities. Make America great for us again. OK, that's a Trump ad. You might think, is that a trailer to some dystopian movie? Is that a satire? Is that an SNL skit? No, that's actually a Trump ad, including three times in the 100 seconds, the same video of when Joe Biden tripped walking up to Air Force One three times. That's included and then riddled with corrosive and destructive lies. I guess if there's any praise that we could give, there's any silver lining here. It's the ad doesn't include lies

about who won in 2020. Would that is that is that something that we could find as a redeeming quality here? If you knew someone who said this stuff to you in person, right, the arguments, if you can even call them that, that this ad makes, if you went to a dinner party and someone rattled off what this ad says to you, you might say, do you need it? Need a psyche? Val, is this someone who has become completely delusional and is experiencing a paranoid, delusional event or state to the point that they need to be evaluated because it is so disconnected from reality? But this is all they have. They've abandoned policy. Notice that there's no policy proposals there. It's trans people are bad and Biden's bad and

World War Three. But there's no actual policy proposals there. So this is all they have. This is my expectation. Maybe not so much about what the primary will be like, because remember, Trump hasn't won the primary yet. He probably will. He hasn't won it yet, but he's already campaigning against Joe Biden in the primary. Maybe they'll have to pretend to talk about policy, although maybe not. But we can already see that it's going to be a general election once again, where whoever is the Republican nominee will not utter a word about policy.

And it's because they have lost on policy. All right. I meant to get this earlier in the week. Didn't have time. But it is very interesting. Over the weekend, Donald Trump spoke to a sycophant crowd in Fort Myers, Florida. This was the Lee County Republican Party event, and it was completely bonkers. Now, maybe the one moment where we questioned whether the crowd was as sycophantic as we believe them to be was when Trump insulted, I guess we would say, or went after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. There was muted applause at this moment, but Trump pulling out the standard grievances about DeSantis during this event. And again, it's a Florida Republican crowd friendlier to DeSantis. And there was only a smattering of

applause. I got one point two million more votes than your successful governor's campaign. You know that we got one point two million. So I'd love to have your support, sir. I'd love to have your support. I'm down at about three. I'd love to have your support, sir. Let's think about it. And it was like a rocket ship after I gave it. Otherwise, right now you'd have a lawyer someplace looking for business. If that. There you go. Now, of course, it's not really the truth, as you might suspect. We've looked at the polling track record for DeSantis election. And in fact, it was months after Trump's endorsement that DeSantis started gaining in the polls. So it wasn't exactly the explosive rocket ship that Trump wants you to believe it to be extraordinarily disturbingly.

Donald Trump said that he would appoint if he became president and had the opportunity, he would appoint more Supreme Court justices like Clarence Thomas. He says Clarence Thomas is under siege for for no good reason. Of course, it's very scary to think that you look at the Supreme Court and you say, oh, we need more people like Clarence Thomas. Thank you. I will appoint rock solid constitutional conservative judges in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia and the great Justice Clarence Thomas, who is under siege right now. Right. He's under siege right now. They're doing nothing. He is really they're going after him right now. He's right about Thomas is doing nothing. He hasn't spoken on the court for

how long everybody else talked about appointing conservatives to court. I am the only one who actually did it. I appointed almost 300 federal judges all told it was pretty substantially more than that, a record and three great Supreme Court justices. So that was a big that was a big thing. Speaker 1 that was big. So, of course, horrifying to hear as we learn that Clarence Thomas is likely the most corrupt and unethical Supreme Court justice in 100 years that Trump says we need more people like Clarence Thomas. And this is, of course, the weaponized contrarianism, contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism that has become a hallmark of the modern MAGA movement. Donald Trump also doing this routine where he says

he will try to get D.A.'s and attorneys general fired based on essentially their political orientation. To stop the local Marxist prosecutors who release rapists and murderers while persecuting conservatives on day one of my new administration, I will direct the DOJ to investigate every radical D.A. and attorney general in America for their radical, according to whom illegal, racist and reverse enforcement of the law, a genuinely deranged and dangerous idea. And understand that Trump wants if Trump had his way, he would get rid of any federal government employee that simply didn't vote for him, even if they are nonpolitical. Trump that this is one of Trump's big, big crusades. He wants to be able to fire everyone and replace them with loyalists, even in bureaucratic positions where politics really

shouldn't make a difference. And he wants to do the same thing with DAs and attorneys general. Not going to happen, by the way, just completely absurd. But it's not going to happen. Trump also going after his own former attorney general, William Barr, criticizing him. And if Bill Barr had any courage instead of worrying about being impeached by the Democrats, these people would have all been taken care of. But we have to do it a different way. If he had courage, we need people with courage. He had no courage.

He didn't want to be impeached. I don't want to be a page. I said, what's wrong with being impeached? I got impeached twice and my numbers went up. He wasn't he wasn't a brave person. He wasn't a brave person. Now he sits back and pontificates. It's all Trump do some Trump that the man didn't have courage.

He didn't have courage to go out and do what you had to do with respect to the election. Yeah. And of course, who hired him? It was Trump. Trump ran on. I will hire the best people. And he ended up hiring some of the worst people, even by his own admission. Trump's delusions of grandeur certainly didn't slow down at all, claiming that when he won

in 2016, not only did he save the country, he says he also saved the Republican Party. To put it simply, on Election Day 2016, we didn't just save America, we saved the Republican Party. We did. Uh huh. Hard to believe, really, given the shambles that the Republican Party finds itself in today. Trump continuing the delusions by saying he's probably the most honest person who has ever

been president, even more honest than honest Abe. There's no crime. I got indicted for no crime. They're all saying even the Democrats. Well, we don't see this as a crime. There is no crime. You know, a friend of mine said, you're probably the most honest person to ever be president. And then capping off a completely insane evening, Donald Trump then stopping at a pizza place

and taking a bite out of a slice and asking whether anyone wants the slice that Trump took a bite out of. And of course, they cheer. It is indeed a cult, many of them wanting a slice that Donald Trump took a bite out of. So this is going to be the next year. I hate to inform people that that this is what American politics will be like. Meanwhile, hopefully President Joe Biden will keep

accomplishing things. And I think for that, we should really encourage that. Donald Trump speaking this afternoon in New Hampshire at what I'm certain will be a very unhinged campaign event. We will cover it live on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. But do not be confused. This is indeed a cult. We have a voicemail number. That number is two one nine two. David P. You know, a lot of people were concerned about my hair yesterday saying, David, you know, are you are you having an alcohol problem? Are you having something going on in your life where you're grooming is really falling apart because sometimes when people are struggling, they're grooming suffers. And indeed, here is someone who called in about the cowlick. Pacman, how you doing?

James from Boston. Way back, way back from the Northampton days. Please watch the show as usual. It's great as usual. And as usual, you've got some giant cowlick jutting up from the back of the right side of your head. Yes. You know, it is what it is. I'm just wondering, like, what what is going on with your hair? It's just it's just watch it. I'm trying to watch the show. It's just vaguely distracted. Speaker 1 Yeah.

So a lot of people wrote to me concerned. Here's what's going on. Okay. It's getting nice out and it's late. The light is out. There's light until late in the day. And so very often I'm not getting the opportunity to shower until 9 p.m. and it's forcing me to go to bed with wet hair. And then I wake up and it's

a complete and total mess. And I understand that it seems as though something really bad must be going on for this to be happening. My grooming just suffering so much. But it's basically like with my baby daughter's schedule. And then, you know, sometimes we'll go out for a drink and then it becomes 730. And then, you know, we go through we'll go out for a drink and then it becomes 730. And then, you know, we go through bedtime routine and then dinner. And by the time I'm able to shower, it's nine. And I'm trying to get in bed by 1015 these days and get an earlier start. So I'm going to bed with wet hair.

Now, I know you could say, well, David, you could just use a blow dryer. I don't know how to use a blow dryer. So that's the problem with that. But everything is fine. It's not an alcohol related issue. It's is fine. It's not an alcohol related issue. It's not anything. It's not an emotional issue. I'm just going to bed with wet hair because of my schedule now that it's nice out.

And that is what it is. But I'll try to keep things under better control on the bonus show today. We'll talk about what's going on with Steven Crowder. So many of you writing to me, we will discuss it. We will talk about the trans lawmaker censured by the Montana House Republicans. We will talk about what's going on with the founder of the We Build the Wall scam group. He got four years in prison and so much more. Make sure you have access to the bonus show by signing up at join Pacman dot com.