The David Pakman Show - 6/2/23: Fox Host tries facts while Trump attacks former staffers

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

-- On the Show: -- Steve Doocy inserts facts into a Fox & Friends discussion about the 2024 Republican primary, upsetting his cohosts -- Brian Kilmeade calls Donald Trump's attack against Kayleigh McEnany "insane" -- Caller talks about the Trump CNN town hall -- Caller wonders why the other Republican candidates aren't attacking Trump -- Caller points out the dangers of another Trump presidency -- Caller is progressive in a red state and doesn't know what to do -- Caller talks about the right's use of the word "woke" -- The Friday Feedback segment 🌳 Use code PAKMAN for 20% off HoldOn plant-based bags at https://holdonbags.com/pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep: Get 20% OFF a mattress + 2 free pillows. Go to https://helixsleep.com/pakman 👍 Use code PAKMAN for 10% off the Füm Journey Pack at https://tryfum.com/PAKMAN -- On the Bonus Show: Twitter censors Daily Wire documentary, Ron DeSantis can't decide how to pronounce his name, and 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

. I want to start with something kind of funny today. Steve Doocy is one of the three hosts of the Fox News morning show Fox and Friends. And over the last six to 12 months, occasionally, Steve Doocy has had these strange moments of clarity where he will interject a fact or an actually sort of interesting analysis about a political situation. Usually his hosts look kind of confused about the fact that he's rather than propagandizing, just saying something that's uncontroversially true. And of course, we're left to speculate about what's going on. Is it Ducey's sort of private little way of rebelling against the

disinformation spread on Fox and Friends? Or is it just that he stumbled across a fact which happens sometimes very sporadically on Fox News? Who knows? These clips are from the decoding Fox News Twitter account who does a really good job in this clip talking about most of these clips are related to the twenty twenty four Republican primary, which is increasingly an interesting topic on Fox News because Fox News is sort of trying to figure out what is our position going to be? Are we going to be overtly pro Trump or are we going to be subtly pro Trump or are we going to be subtly anti Trump in the sense that we will not talk about Trump the most? Or will we choose a particular candidate other than Trump like DeSantis or others to attach

ourselves to and try to really promote that candidate? It's not clear the direction Fox News will go yet. But here is Steve Doocy stating something I talked about on The Wednesday Show, which is when you look at polling in May or June of the year before the primary, it's very often not representative of who ultimately wins. And Steve Doocy actually doing that analysis, which is a smart analysis and it's an appropriate one that we should be doing, which has not been done on Fox News. Take a look. And his his co-hosts look visibly confused. And the first votes in the caucuses aren't going to be until July or rather January.

She said in May of twenty two thousand seven, Romney, McCain and Rudy were all in the top three. And Mike Huckabee was at 0%, but Mike Huckabee went on to win the Iowa caucuses. And then in May 2015, the top three were Walker, Rubio, and Huckabee. And Cruz and Trump, who finished one and two, were not even at 10%. This is all true.

So, so much can happen in Iowa. And one of the great things that. OK, so this is absolutely correct. And the message here is a very simple message. The fact that Trump is so far ahead today doesn't guarantee that Trump will be the eventual Republican nominee. Now, it's great that Steve Doocy is introducing some evidence into this historical evidence that I also introduced. His data was specifically from Iowa where I was talking more generally. At the same time, it just so happens that this time around, the circumstances are particularly unprecedented in the sense that, yes, the leader at this point in time isn't always the eventual nominee,

but the leader at this point in time also isn't usually a former president. And that is what we have right now. So great for Steve Ducey to bring these things up. The two people who sit alongside him don't seem to know one way or the other what's going on. Here's another example. Steve Ducey points out correctly that DeSantis is argument that he could serve eight years if he wins in 2024, whereas Trump would immediately be a lame duck is absolutely true. And Steve Ducey mentions that as well as a reason that maybe Republicans do want to consider someone other than Trump who would on day one be a lame duck.

Interesting. I'm not avoiding the punch. I'll address it, but it's not gonna be my focus. And by the way, he's big into eight years. I'm gonna need more than four years to fix this. Donald Trump can only do four. I need eight, I'll get you eight. If you get me four, I'll get another four.

If you elect Donald Trump, he can't give you another four. So that's a legitimate tactic without alienating the base. The famous thing is whoever beats Donald Trump, you have to beat him and get his voters. If you beat him and lose his voters, you can't win. But Brian, you make the point that we were talking about last week. If Ron DeSantis wins, he can serve for two terms. But by the Constitution, Donald Trump, who's already served one term, can only do another. So on his first day, he would be a lame duck.

And that is one of the considerations big donors have. And the worry from a lot of big donors is not only does if Donald Trump won the primary through a good chance he would lose the White House, but also lose the House. And that's one of the problems. But listen, I mean, it's a pretty good analysis from Steve Doocy. I have to say it's actually kind of like grounded in reality. I have absolutely no idea whether this is the sort of thing that the Fox News audience even pays attention to when they watch Fox and Friends. Fox and Friends is very much the type of show that you kind of have on

in the background while you're, I don't know, making breakfast or whatever, whatever Fox News watchers do in the morning. I don't know that it's really getting through to anyone. And I don't even know that Ducey is doing this specifically to push people away from Trump and towards Ron DeSantis. But it is certainly a very, very interesting thing that we are seeing. Also interesting is that some of the Fox hosts aren't thrilled with Trump's attacks on his own former press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. Let's talk about that next. On the Wednesday show, I showed you a truth social post. So yeah, of Donald Trump attacking his own former press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, saying that she was wrong about some of the polling numbers and she's milk toast and Trump misspelled milk toast and just attacking his own former staffers. And I told you about all of the reasons that making it a regular thing when he's trying

to build the staff and campaign for president, attacking former staffers may not be a good idea. Brian Kilmeade, who is another of the hosts on Fox and Friends, says that it was insane for Donald Trump to go after Kayleigh McEnany. Remember that Kayleigh McEnany is now a coworker of Brian Kilmeade. She is a Fox News employee. Kill me doesn't think this is a good idea for Trump. Take a look. He flies off the handle for exact, for example, talking. Kayleigh McEnany is insane. She's one of the best press secretaries ever. Dana Prino, as Ari Fleischer are watching to

just say she was fantastic. But she's she's an analyst now. She doesn't work for any campaign. Yeah. So Brian Kilmeade, the most important thing is Kayleigh McEnany was not the best press secretary ever. Maybe she was like the most dishonest, maybe the one who told the most lies per minute during press briefings. She was not the best press secretary ever. But he is accurately pointing out that it is insane for Trump to go after Kayleigh McEnany. And by the way, if you believe if Trump does believe that his final press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, was the best one and did a good job, I don't know why you would want to alienate her this early on in a Republican primary campaign when not only might it be

useful to you to have her on your side, if maybe she decides, hey, I want to talk about how great Trump is or whatever the case may be, and maybe you would try to call on her again for some kind of help in the campaign or staffer. It just seems so short sighted and the typical narcissism of Trump to be attacking her because she read poll numbers that Trump didn't like. One other really, really, really funny thing from this episode of Fox and Friends, a Fox News correspondent referred to Ron DeSantis as Ron DeSantis on air, which is Trump's nickname for him.

I don't know why I found this so funny, but something about it is Tuesday in New Hampshire. And of course, Iowa is where everybody starts. That's why the scientists and Trump are there this week. We'll see if Christie doubles back to go there soon. My guess is he will. That is that that is just pure comedy. The reporter referring to him as the saying next thing you know, they'll be saying Ron de sanctimonious or even Rob de sanctimonious. So I'm very interested in this. I guess we would call it like the Fox News factor in the Republican primary, because as we've said before, it's not that millions and millions and millions of people are watching

Fox News all the time, such that Fox instantly shifts public opinion and something like a Republican primary. But we have to admit that Fox News has certainly set itself up to be an agenda setter when it comes to the campaigns of Republican candidates and political campaigns in general. And so whatever approach starts on Fox first thing in the morning with Fox and friends, it is more influential than the audience numbers would suggest, is, I think, the way I would put it. And as a frame of reference, we have right now a situation where it's Trump, 53 in the

primary disanxious, 22 Nikki Haley in third place at about four and a half. Mike Pence, who's officially launching next week, just under four Vivek Ramaswamy at three or under three. Tim Scott's got one point six. You know, it kind of goes down from there. Chris Christie, who will also be announcing on Tuesday, polling a very anemic one percent. He's a one percenter right now, not in the way that I think he wants to be. And so this is going to be a weird primary for sure. I think it will get significantly more compelling with the entrance of Christie and Pence. And we will be watching all of it. We have

a fantastic Friday show for you today. I'm glad you're with us. Make sure you're signed up on our website at join Pacman dot com. We'll take a quick break. Then we'll hear from some of you via discord and then the program will continue. Plastic, it's everywhere we look and not enough is being done about it. One hundred billion plastic bags are used and thrown away every year. Here's something super simple you can do to reduce plastic and help the planet a little bit. Our sponsor, Hold On Bags, is the company making plastic free trash bags and zip seal kitchen bags. They're just as strong and high quality as the plastic bags you're used to. Hold On Bags are 100 percent plant based and home compostable, meaning they break down in just weeks, not decades.

There is zip seal kitchen bags come in sandwich or gallon size to fit all of your needs, whether it's carrots or crayons at home. I put all of my food waste in a hold on trash bag, throw it in the compost pile. Thank you so much, David. the David Pakman Show at David Pakman show continues to depend on the support of our viewers and our listeners to do what we do. We're not the Daily Wire. We don't have millionaire and potentially billionaire supporters just throwing money at us. We do depend on folks who listen to the podcast or watch clips on YouTube or tick tocks or whatever the case may be. You can sign up at join pacman dot com. You can use the coupon code 24 starts now and you, of course, get access not only to the bonus show every weekday, but also commercial free audio and video streams of the

show. Let's go to the discord phone lines and hear from some of the folks in our audience. We do this on the Friday show. You can find our discord at David Pakman dot com slash discord. That is the place for it. Let's start today with Burt from New Jersey. Burt, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Hey, David, hear me, OK? Yes, I can. OK, two questions comes from the Trump town hall a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, CNN.

What? Curious about your opinion. My opinion is there's been a lot of pushback from the CNN people. How dare you give this guy a platform? Basically empowering him. Most of the time you hear a Trump interview, he's talking to Sean Hannity, he's talking to Tucker Carlson.

It's like Kim Jong-un being interviewed by North Korean state media. You're not getting any real substance. The way I look at it, we were able to see him actually push for once, right? And he had to actually like respond to saying election was stolen and saying he can wave his hand

and declassify documents, right? So like for me, there was value in seeing him having to actually be confronted with this stuff and like talk about it. Left me feeling like to see it again, you know? Like curious if you felt like here's if you thought the same or if you got the same reaction out of that. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. In principle, I agree with you. And there was some pushback. The problem is and, you know, Caitlin Collins,

who hosted it, has gotten a lot of the criticism. I don't know that any single person. Trump lies so much that it's a bigger task than any one person can handle to actually do justice to what should be the amount of pushback that he should be getting. It's it's it's an impossible position to be in. And so while on the one hand, you're right, he was, quote, confronted with the reality that nobody, nobody in any kind of position of authority has found any wrongdoing with 2020 or whatever the case may be. It really wasn't enough. And his supporters saw it and they were emboldened by how he wasn't going to submit to CNN and

whatever. So I don't know if it really did any more good than it did harm. That being said, CNN has every right to do town halls with, you know, they're doing one with Nikki Haley. They're doing one with Pence, even though Pence hasn't announced like it's not that CNN shouldn't be doing these events. It's just really hard to do it justice and do it responsibly. Right. Yeah, no, that's totally fair. Totally fair. And the other thing i was gonna ask you too is uh for yourself as you're sitting there watching this right you ever feel like kind of conflicted because on one side you know you the man's uh policy is to you repulsive everything about him

is terrible but at the same time he gives you Right. And it's like it's exciting to talk about. And it's it's gives you so much spark. Right. So do you ever fear yourself? Not like I say rooting for him, but like as much as you hate him, part of it is like, well, you know, this is great. He's back. We can talk about these things. Do you ever get that feeling?

I don't get the great he's back thing. I mean, here's the thing. I have no control or say over whether Trump's a candidate. I don't. And I have no control or say whether corporate media gives the guy attention. I do a show. There are always things happening in this country. There will always be things to talk about. And so is Trump entertaining in a very kind of disturbing way where you laugh to avoid crying. Absolutely. Do I I don't feel conflicted because I have absolutely no involvement in the fact that this guy is running again and he has tens of millions of supporters. So I 100 percent agree with what you're saying. But I don't I don't have any kind

of internal conflict now. Awesome. Awesome. All right. From Jersey. Thank you very much. Great to hear from you. Why don't we go next to Nicole from Utah? Nicole from Utah. Welcome to the program.

What's on your mind today? Hi, David. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. OK, I want your thoughts on just how many people are entering the Republican primary race and how they are all saying the same things about former President Trump. I know. And they're not really saying much.

Right. I mean, is that sort of part of your point? Yes. Yeah. I think that there are a couple different things going on. It's not a crazy idea to think to yourself, Trump's been arrested once. He may get arrested again. He may get arrested a third time at least. And that's just by this September. He may legitimately struggle

to stay in this race because he will be so tied up in court. And so I want to be there as an alternative if indeed Trump, who has a commanding lead, is unable to run in a way that makes sense. The problem is and so part of this is if I want to be there to pick up Trump's supporters, I can't be the one Republican who's running who is going to do the biggest criticisms of Trump. So this is why Tim Scott and Nikki Haley and whoever else will talk about a time for a change or a different generation or whatever, but they won't really go after him. The unfortunate reality for them is that if you're polling one, two, three, four, five, and DeSantis is at 20 something, if indeed Trump has that issue that pushes him out of the

race, a lot of that support will almost certainly go to DeSantis, who is the most viable in the context of the general election and also already has the most support and is using the exact same strategy so far. Yes, DeSantis has sort of gone after Trump a little bit, but he said he would pardon him. And he's talking more about Joe Biden than he is about Trump. So I think it's a deliberate strategy from all of them saying, listen, let me let me be around in case Trump collapses. But they're not generating any path to the nomination for themselves. They're sort of waiting around for one to be handed to them. I don't think it's going to work. I agree with you. All right. Nicole from Utah. Thank you.

Thanks for having me. All right. There goes Nicole. Let's go next to Ty from Iowa. Ty from Iowa. Hello, David. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. OK, so I just wanted to bring this up because there's just something I kind of noticed that and I feel like it's it's usually with either figures that have passed away, like people that have passed away or it's like a famous movie or something like that or a book. But I've I've noticed a bunch of people. So, for instance, you know how George Orwell is someone that that people on the right seem to really, really love. I guess I mean, do they they they really just talk about things being Orwellian in the sense of 1984 Big Brother government surveillance, government overreach. But I don't know that they love Orwell.

Many of them don't even really know what Orwell wrote, to be honest. Yeah, I know. But I just I mean, I guess I just kind of like I just remember seeing someone on the Twitter bio that was like a Trump page and said Orwell was right. Oh, well, no. I mean, I think what we can say is they like referencing things being Orwellian, even if they don't really understand them. That I would agree with.

Yeah, but it's just weird because Orwell was a socialist. Yes. And he was an anti-fascist and all this other stuff. He wouldn't like if if they think Biden's a socialist, they would think they would they would just like blush if they saw someone like Orwell as president. No, that's absolutely true. And I think that comes through much more in Animal Farm, which is another Orwell book more than it does in 1984.

The sort of socialist ideas. I mean, listen, you have to understand this right wing movement is a movement that has been anti intellectual, pseudo intellectual, skeptical of or even hostile to deep thinking and higher education for a long time now. And so the fact that they even mention Orwell is sort of remarkable, but they know very, very little. If you say, hey, you know, can you kind of compare and contrast Orwell's vision in 84 versus Aldous Huxley's vision in Brave New World? And which do you think applies more? These aren't folks who are able to engage in on that.

They've just they heard Orwellian and now they've started using the term. But I don't really think these are serious people. Yeah. And then like another one is the Matrix is another one. So I put the red pill and all this other stuff. And there's even a QAnon thing for follow the white rabbit. And the people that made the the Matrix are two transgender sisters. Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, I know. The identity thing is funny. But listen, they don't care. It's just the like. Like I said, I wouldn't read that much into it because these truly aren't serious people.

We need to get around them to make progress. That's the unfortunate reality. Yeah, that makes sense. All right. Ty from Iowa. Thank you for the call. Thank you for taking my call. All right.

There goes Ty. Just a reminder that if you want to get on your nickname should be name and location or location and name some combination of that. For example, Evan from Las Vegas, Evan from Las Vegas. Welcome to the program. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes, I can.

Thanks for taking my call. I had a question. Just I feel like when Trump first kind of rose to power in 2015, it felt like it was going to be like a crazy moment in history that we would look back on. I kind of laugh. And now that's really become the base of the Republican Party, this misinformation and kind of willful ignorance. Do you see that like changing or like how will we look back on this time in history?

Listen, the question of how will we look back on this time in history is one of those that you ask 100 people, you'll get 100 different answers. Nobody has any clue. You know, imagining how the future will retrospectively. I could give you some gas, but I really have no idea. My hope is my hope is that MAGA Trump ism will die with Trump. And by that, I don't mean Trump's literal death necessarily, but the death of Trump's political career, because the truth is, if Trump doesn't get the nomination next year and certainly if Trump loses the election next year,

I think it's completely over for Trump. That will be the end of Trump. And then we will have to see what happens to MAGA Trump ism. Does it get rejected by the Republican Party? Does it take over the Republican Party or does it get integrated into the Republican Party? Sort of like the way Tea Party ideology was integrated? My hope is that MAGA Trump ism dies with the death of Trump's political career, be it in 20 in November of 24 or in January of 29 when the next president would be inaugurated and that at that point we get back to something being a marginally more sane Republican Party and that history will look at it as an aberration.

That's my hope. I don't know that the way it's going to go. Yeah, I definitely, definitely share my hope. I don't know that the way it's going to go. Yeah, I definitely, definitely share that hope. I had one other brief question. I heard you mention recently that you're going to be in Santa Cruz, California, which is my alma mater. Can I ask what you're up to there? Oh, yeah.

I'm going out there for a wedding and it's the Santa Cruz area. It's not it's not actually Santa Cruz, but it's the Santa Cruz area. OK, I see. I wasn't sure if you were maybe doing a speaking engagement at the university or something like that. No, no, no. But so what's the is downtown Santa Cruz worth checking out? I was doing some street view sort of. It's it's sort of unclear to me what's going on down there. Yeah, you know, I haven't been I've been like in the last probably year or two, and I love it. It's just kind of like a chill beach town. You know, there's some, some cool record stores, you know, breweries.

And, uh, if you want to get a bagel, there's this place called the bagel re that has pretty good bagel and locks. I know you're a fan. Yeah. Yeah. And is the, is the salmon cold smoked? Do you know? Uh, you know, I, I don't, I don't know that, but I'll see if I can find out. Speaker 2 Yeah. You know, I'm of I'm of Jewish ethnicity, so I like to think I have decent standards for my noble locks. And I think it's decent. Speaker 1 Are you for scallions or chives in cream cheese?

Speaker 2 I could go either way. I guess if I had to pick, I'd probably go chives. Speaker 1 Oh, dear God. OK. All right. I'm going to let you go. All right. Oh, no. I'm scallying all the way. All right. All right. Thank you for your time. Thank you. No, I'll report back about Santa Cruz. Cool. All right. Take care. There we go, folks. Big time, big time stuff. Let's take a very quick break. Don't hang up because we're going right back to the phones in a moment. If you've been thinking about getting a new mattress, Helix Sleep is where I would start.

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you're actually getting something tailored to your needs instead of going in blind like most people do. I got my Helix mattress designed to stay cool at night since I hate getting hot while I sleep. Shipping is always free. You get 100 nights to decide whether you like it. My audience gets a huge 20 percent discount off of all orders, plus two free pillows. Go to Helix Sleep dot com slash Pacman. That's H.E.L.I.X. Sleep dot com slash Pacman for 20 percent off and two free pillows. The link is in the podcast notes. Let's hear from a few more people, folks who are waiting to chat. You can use our discord, David Pakman dot com slash discord. Why don't we go next to Seth from Nebraska? Seth from Nebraska. Welcome to the David Pakman show. What's on your mind today?

Hi, David. First time caller, if you can hear me. I can hear you fine. Awesome. So I had a question. My wife and I were having a discussion actually last night. She is fearful of the future when it comes to, you know, like Republicans and these policies that they're passing is, you know, they're just not popular, but they keep getting through. And I'm a little bit more optimistic, like boomers are essentially dying off and we're zennials. And I think millennials and Gen Z are like the largest voting bloc now. Yeah, I just wanted to know kind of your opinion on if I don't see that this is sustainable for the Republicans to just, you know, push through all these unpopular ideas.

But you know, like I said, my wife is fearful that it's just going to keep happening and, you know, our rights are going to get diminished and democracy is failing and all that. I just kind of wanted to know your thoughts. Speaker 1 Well, so here's the thing. Let's deal with the the fear part first. OK, one of the. One of the realities is that in the United States, if you live in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Colorado. The standard of living is measured by the HDI. Human Development Index is very similar to being in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Hong

Kong, you know, the places with the highest overall standards of living with that metric human development index in those states, regardless of what Republicans do in Louisiana and regardless of what a president does to some degree. Right. At the federal level, you can start to impact states. Life, on average, is going to remain very good in the blue states with very high standard of living. And again, in order by HDI, it's Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Jersey, Colorado, Washington, D.C., Hawaii. OK.

In other states, it's not going to be so good. Like so I see that you're calling, for example, from Nebraska, Nebraska in terms of HDI, I think is kind of like right in the middle. I'm looking at it right now. It's like it's not terrible. It's not actually Nebraska's OK. Nebraska's 13th in the country. So unfortunately, what happens is when you have Democratic presidents and Democratic houses and senates, things get a little bit better for everyone. And then when you have Republican presidents and Republican governors, et cetera, things get a little worse for everyone, but they get particularly worse for a lot of these red states that don't have their own protections

already built in. And so sadly, listen, things can get bad everywhere. There's no question about it. But sadly, the first people to be damaged by Republicans succeeding, as you point out, are going to disproportionately be Republican voters. Now what we do with this information, what you and your wife personally do, I don't really know. Speaker 4 Yeah, we just recently had, I forget what the bill was, is the abortion ban at 12 weeks, which lumped into there was transgender affirming care for anyone under, I think, 19. But then they also voted on the same day for permitless concealed carry. And none of those were popular bills at all.

We were protesting inside the Capitol so loudly that they had to stop the debating inside the chambers. But they still passed it. I have a few friends that have trans kids and, you know, it's kind of heavy right now in Nebraska. So everybody's just a little bit worried. Thank you for your thoughts, though. I appreciate that. All right. Different perspective.

We haven't considered. Appreciate the call. Thank you so much. Yeah. All right. There he goes. Why don't we go next to how about Tristan from Los Angeles? Tristan, welcome to the program.

Oh, hello. Hello. I have a pretty open ended question for you. I just finished watching Succession and I was wondering if you had any takeaways from it, if you've watched it at all. No, I don't even think I have. What is that like a Showtime show or HBO? Yes. Nice to you. It's sort of similar to, I guess, like a Murdoch sort of rain. And the patriarch is ending and then handing his crown and sort of the machinations of a large media conglomerate. But I don't have HBO and I haven't seen a single episode. I my my TV show consumption is really low these days just because I'm so, so busy. But a lot of people have said that it is a great program. But unfortunately, I've not seen it.

Yeah, so good with a little baby and everything. Exactly. Now, where are you from? Australia? Yeah. OK. And you live in the US. Yeah, yeah.

What's that like? What's the what's the biggest cultural difference you find in the US. Yeah. Yeah. What's that like? What's the what's the biggest cultural difference you find in the US from Australia? Positive or negative? Either. I don't know. I think. Well, how about positive first? If there is. There's less of a tall poppy syndrome here but to me in australia sometimes it can feel like if you try and do something different people will try and bring you back into the fold keep every keep that field of copies the same height um but i think it's guns it's just it's so normalized here and i could be talking with very liberal people and next thing you know, like, oh, yeah, we're going to go shoot shotguns, which is not negative or positive. It's just

incredibly different. Yeah. And in Australia, is that extremely, extremely rare since the laws have been changed around owning weapons? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I knew a kid who grew up on a farm who shot guns, but that's literally the only person I knew. You knew one person with guns. Yeah, no, that's definitely very different. That is definitely different. Yeah, I'll have a think about it if I call back. I'll maybe have a more rounded answer for you. All right. Tristan from Los Angeles, I appreciate the call. Yeah, thanks for having me. All right. There he goes. Very powerful stuff. Let's go to Kenny from Long Island. Kenny, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? What can I do for you?

Kenny from Long Island, don't be the first to drop. You've got to accept my invitation, sir. Oh, boy. All right, well, that's too bad. Kenny from Long Island, we are not going to hear from today. Let's go to Gerald from Miami. Now, is that Miami, Florida or Miami, Ohio? Gerald, please unmute so you can answer my trivia questions. Oh, boy, Gerald, you're muting yourself, you've got to unmute yourself to be able to talk to me. Can you hear me? Yes, now I can. Oh, hi. Yeah. That's true. Gerald's from Miami, Florida. Great. What's on your mind today? Yeah, I was just curious you had thought about any other potential like Democratic nominees that, you know, would have a shot if they were to jump in the race. Speaker 1 I don't think any would have a shot.

Speaker 4 Really? Yeah. I mean, listen, if this were an open primary, here's the thing people need to understand. I I support people challenging Joe Biden. I would like there to be debates on the Democratic side if people credibly challenged Joe Biden and are polling at least, you know, some number, 8 percent or something, which right now I think means at minimum you would have debates between Biden and Bobby Kennedy Jr.. I don't know where Marianne Williamson is polling, but I'm I'm in favor of debates. I'm in favor of a contested primary. I want people to run. But if you're asking me, given what is going on and the fact that the DNC is not incentivized to have someone challenge the incumbent president and that there's

not going to be a real primary, I don't think there's anyone who would have a shot. I mean, if if we pick someone with with mass public appeal, like I don't know if Dwayne The Rock Johnson announced, would he be able to generate enough interest because he's charismatic and whatever, that maybe he could actually defeat Biden somehow? I just think that when you have an incumbent president, the the odds that have to be overcome, because when you're an incumbent, the DNC is going to grease the wheels for you to remain the nominee. I don't know that anybody could defeat Joe Biden given the way that this primary is going to happen.

Speaker 4 I see. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know, I've just been thinking I just I just feel like, you know, with Joe Biden's approval, just kind of sinking. I just didn't know if he would. Honestly, I didn't I don't really think he could actually win again, to be honest with you. Well, listen, Biden's approval, it's not really sinking. Biden's approval has been steady since August of last year. OK, so that now is nine months where it's just been in the low

40s. When you and I look at that, we say, oh, that's pretty low. That means like high 50s disapproves of the job Biden is doing. Yeah, that's the way it is with presidents in the United States right now. The reality is that you can absolutely get yourself reelected with a 43 percent approval rating. We saw George W. Bush do it. You know, it's not Biden's approval is not the sign to me that he's in trouble. OK, I appreciate it. Thank you. All right.

Gerald from Miami. Great. Great question. Good to hear from you. Why don't we go next to. Oh, I don't know. How about how about Ryan from Dallas, Texas? Ryan, welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Hello, David. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Thank you for taking me. So I was just wondering, like, you know, you have a lot of these extreme ideologies being pushed by the right to stir up the group of people on the left who don't follow the news as much. The like the Dylan Mulvaney saying they were saying that he came out or she came out, you know, saying that she was a spokesperson for tamp for tampons or something like that.

And it was just like that wasn't even what happened. Apparently, she has said that she kept one on her sometimes or whatever, you know, for a friend or whoever may need it or whatever. And so I just, sometimes it's difficult because I have friends who, you know, are on the left, but they, they, they don't actually follow the news. Like I had a friend who mentioned that, oh, Kamala Harris hasn't been, you know, in the public since she came into office. And so, like she hasn't been seen in public at all. Yes. And even though you can follow her on YouTube weekly. And so I just I don't know. I just kind of want to hear your thoughts on that. Yeah, it's a I have a lot of conversations with people where they they'll say things like,

listen, you know, I grew up in a Democratic family, but like this woke stuff, it's really got to end. And I'll go, oh, OK, like, what do you mean? And they go, no, it's just, you know, it's crazy what's happening with with with Antifa. And it's just crazy. It's like everything's so woke. You can't do anything anymore. I go, oh, like what? What can't you do? They go, no, it's just it's like it's just the it's the environment. It's the feeling of like you just can't everything you say you're going to get in trouble for nobody. Oh, like what is it you're trying to say that you think you'll get in trouble for? Well, no, it's not me. But like, you know, and you'll spend 10 minutes like this and it goes nowhere. It goes nowhere. And it's still, I guess, someone who's voting for Biden or whatever. But

it is kind of disappointing. Yes. And and I'm actually kind of worried because although I think that Biden has done, I would say, a decent job as president, I think that him being 80 and running for president again, I think he's only doing it just so that he can defeat Trump because maybe, you know, the Democratic Party are afraid of Trump winning. But I don't think that Biden running at this age, at his age, is actually going to be good for the Democratic Party as far as interest. No, I don't think it's going to it's it's not inspiring. It doesn't generate it doesn't generate interest in the way that you're sort of talking about. I agree with you completely.

And, you know, there are people who write to me and go, David, I don't know that Biden can defeat Trump. the way that you're sort of talking about. I agree with you completely. And you know, there are people who write to me and go, David, I don't know that Biden can defeat Trump. If you look at polling, if Biden can't, I don't know that anyone else in particular can either. I mean, Trump has a significant level of support in this country, as shocking as that may be. I don't know who can beat Trump. Yes.

And I have one last quick question. I know previously you had mentioned that you weren't a Democrat, but I saw in your video the other day you mentioned you were a progressive social Democrat. So I was just trying to confirm which which it was so social Democrat. The D is lowercase. It's not a party affiliation. So I'm not a capital D Democrat. I'm not a member of the Democratic Party. I don't I'm not I'm an independent voter from a party affiliation standpoint. Progressive social democracy is an ideology, not a party. So the D is lowercase. Do you know what I'm saying? Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, that's that's I think that is basically the clearest explanation

that will help me for my next conversation with my friends. Speaker 2 All right, Ryan, thanks for the call. All right. There goes Ryan. Let's go. I mean, against my better judgment, let's go to Donald from Palm Beach, Florida. I'm a little worried about this. Donald from Palm Beach, Florida. You're on the air. OK, Donald from Palm Beach, Florida. Clearly're on the air. OK, Donald from Palm Beach, Florida. Clearly, it was a joke. They bailed. Very, very funny joke. Let's go next to. Actually, let's try once more. Donald from Palm Beach. Are you actually trying to get on? What's going on? You're not getting afraid now. whatever joke you were going to do.

Yeah, they are. All right. Well. They're gone. How about let's go to Louis from New Brunswick, Louis from New Brunswick. Welcome to the program. Thank you, David. So good to be on your program. Pleasure. I just want to chime in on something that the uh the last guy was saying ryan sure i was i i noticed as well that people were throwing around the word woke quite a bit uh at work and just just around and i realized that it meant vastly different things to different people so i started asking people can you just help me understand what that word means right and i was being a little facetious and like i noticed like the older generation talked about like being hyper uh hypersensitive take you know taking offense and it was like you know pejorative like oh i don't like woke like it's going woke all over the place i asked young people uh especially people especially like um people who might identify as being a minority um and they were like, no, it actually has a lot to do

with just understanding the historical context of of, you know, of historical wrongs. And so I think there's a huge problem. I think that the right really weaponized the word. So it's almost, you know, it's like a bad word in a sense. I go further. I mean, so first of all, Louis, I have a YouTube clip called something along the lines of they don't even know what woke means, where I talk about a lot of this stuff in detail. I would go further than to say that they have weaponized the word woke. The right has actually perverted the word woke because really what woke originally meant when the left used it seriously. Now it's pretty facetiously used. But when the left used the word woke, what was meant was I'm aware of problems in society,

some of which are more structural than about the individual. And I would like to find solutions to those problems like that. That was really the meaning of woke when it was a sincere term. And it's been weaponized and perverted from the right by the right. I don't really know anyone seriously using it. Like sometimes I'll joke around like friends will say to me, someone will recommend the TV show, for example, or a movie. And then someone else in the conversation will describe the plot and someone will say sort of tongue in cheek who sounds like it might be a little

too woke for me. And it's a joke. You know, everybody, the term has now become one that I don't know of people on the left actually using in a serious way. Interesting. Yeah, because the right definitely uses it in a serious way. I got another question for you. A couple of months ago, you had one of my favorite authors, Jefferson Morley, on the

program, wondering if you'd be able to bring him back anytime soon. Well, you know, we don't tend to have authors on more than like once a year, but I'm glad to have him on again in the future for sure. He does a great subsect where he talks primarily about investigating the JFK assassination. He's really up to date on date on disclosure coming from the government. Okay, so I got a question. Today, NASA actually held a public forum on their investigations of UAP. So I guess that's like the modern word for UFOs. Yeah. So here's my question to you. Jefferson morally would posit, I think a lot of people agree that there's still a lot of disclosure that hasn't happened in terms of the JFK assassination case.

Now there's a lot of stuff going on in mainstream media, like from NASA today, about UFO disclosure. So here's my question. Do you feel like this is, is this like an endemic issue in our modern society where there's a lot of information that's being withheld from the public? I don't know that it's a particularly modern issue. There's a long history of the classification of documents. There are entire books written about whether there is over classification. I did an interview about it.

I don't believe it's specific or conspiratorial to you. APS and Kennedy is what I would say. But there are other people who have far more to say about that issue than I do. Speaker 3 So, David, during the lockdown period, my wife and I really enjoyed watching your show on YouTube live. It was it was almost therapeutic. So I just want to say thank you. You're doing a great job. Thanks for taking my call. Speaker 1 Louie, thank you so much. Very much great job. Thanks for taking my call. One of our sponsors today is fume. Not everything in a bad habit is wrong. So instead of a drastic, uncomfortable change, why not just remove the bad part from your habit? Fume is an innovative, award winning device that does exactly that. Fume is not electronic. There's no vapor or

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the journey pack, which comes with the device and three flavors. That's try FUM dot com code Pacman saves you 10 percent on the journey pack. The info is in the podcast notes. All right, let's hear from you. It's time for the Friday feedback of the week or the Friday feed bag. Someone said it should be called the Apple bags, but that seems a little risque for our particular setting and audience. So it is what it is. But

let's start with a very important message from John McCullough, who said on YouTube, David Pakman drinks Bud Light and it shows. I'm going to tell you the funniest thing about this whole Bud Light thing now for some of you who don't know, Bud Light is now being subjected to a boycott attempt by the very people who say you shouldn't do boycotts because it's a form of cancellation. Bud Light did a partnership with Dylan Mulvaney. Dylan Mulvaney is a trans woman who I had never heard of until conservatives got all angry about her. I don't even know whether we would know who Dylan Mulvaney is, were it not for right wingers who are furious. So after Bud Light did this partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, many on the right said we now have to

boycott Bud Light. Now, here's the funny thing. I've been boycotting Bud Light since I started drinking alcohol because I think Bud Light is terrible. I think it's just disgusting, completely disgusting. Give me an Allagash white. Give me a Belgian wheat. Give me. Come on, guys, please. But I think Bud Light's disgusting. So when this entire thing happened, I was able to take the position that I will continue not having Bud Light for no reason other than I think it's absolutely disgusting and terrible beer. The funny thing is the following. Before the Dylan Mulvaney thing, when someone like me would say Bud Light is terrible, get me a micro brew, get me whatever the right wingers would go, oh, you sissy, drink an American beer, drink, but drink Coors, drink whatever. Now those very same people say Bud Light is the one that's for the sissies who support

the trans people or whatever the case may be. I have not had a Bud Light in decades. I continue not to drink Bud Light, but it is laughable that that now counts as an insult. But it just reminds you about the strange bedfellows and enemies that politics makes when your brain can be so easily broken. All right. Another comment from KBJ about the economy. KBJ says to me, how's Biden working out for you, bud? I'm sure prices of everything are down and the economy is perfect, right? Well, I mean, let's talk it through. Biden's working out fine for me, but I don't really need anything at this point from the

government. The question is, what is the economy look like? Prices. When you look at inflation, inflation numbers are down, down dramatically from where they were a year ago. So inflation is slowing down significantly. The economy is never perfect. We still have inequality. We have people who have to work multiple jobs, just like we did under Trump and just like we did under, you know, it's not unique under Obama.

We had that Obama under George W. Bush, etc. But it's hard to find indicators that look particularly bad. The stock market is like pretty OK. Unemployment is at record lows. Job creation is doing well. Inflation's coming down. Consumer confidence is doing well. GDP has been on the

upswing. You tell me. I mean, like point to the indicators. Tell me the metrics that show us that everything is terrible. Flawless P wrote in about book bands and says so when told not to teach from the Bible as though it were fact, it's not teacher being censored unfairly. Are you banning books? LMAO, your argument is cringe and useless. Of course, some topics and framing of some topics topics aren't appropriate for public schools. That's not controversial. I have to admit, I have no idea whether this person is in favor or against the book banning that we're seeing in Florida. I can't tell. They say something about the Bible when told not to teach from the Bible as though it were fact is a teacher being censored unfairly. Is that banning a book? No. Oh, I see the point. Listen,

there's two different things here saying that religious texts have no place in science class is not banning books. It's saying this is a science class and religious texts of any kind have no place here. It could be the Koran. It could be the Bible. It could be whatever Scientologists read or believe in or, you know, the golden tablets of Joseph Smith. That's not banning books. It's saying those books should be in courses about comparative religion or history of religion. This is a very confused person who, as often is the case, is taking really strong positions about things they don't understand even remotely. And that's really the tragedy.

Good looking man wrote in, commented on YouTube. And I guess is trying to make a point about the the tendency towards violence of people based on whether they're left wing or right wing. Good looking man says, wear a MAGA hat through New York City and see how far you get before you get canceled. Now, where it's the wrong where where and I love Biden hat through Florida and you'll find that you'll be perfectly safe. You know, I have been places in New York City where some clown comes through with a MAGA hat. No one pays attention to them, to him, I should say. I've only ever seen guys do it.

It the funny thing about this is this person wants us to believe that in Florida with an I love Biden hat, you're fine, you're safe. But if you wear a MAGA hat in New York City, you'll get, quote, canceled. But he's using that in quotes to suggest almost like it's going to be violence. You won't be safe. I've been at bars. I've been at outdoor terraces. I've been in different places where there is a dude usually between 22 and 28 years old wearing a MAGA hat and looking super pleased with himself like he's doing something extraordinarily clever. No one pays attention to him. I was at a bar. The bartender looked at the hat, said nothing. Guy ordered a drink. The drink was made.

It was almost like the people I see with the MAGA hats in New York City. They almost seem underwhelmed that nobody is reacting to them. Now, can you find instances of someone with a MAGA hat or someone with a Biden hat being aggrieved? I'm sure you can. But the idea that you're particularly unsafe in New York City with a MAGA hat, give me a break. These people live in a fantasy world. It's just pathetic. Echo icon says, bless your heart. you look like you've been vaccinated. How can you tell? Is it that I'm functioning? This is the sort of bottom of the barrel stuff. But I look like I've been vaccinated. That's the new, by the way, the new sort of like alpha male sort of thing. Getting vaccinated

means you're afraid to deal with the illness yourself and you're it's sort of like calling for your mommy. This is the dumbest analogy to vaccination that I've maybe maybe ever heard. But there's a lot of dumb people here. Hey, this is cool. Rosie O'Donnell. Yes, that Rosie O'Donnell, who has actually been a follower of The David Pakman Show for a long time, friend of the show, Rosie O'Donnell would love to appear on her podcast if she's interested, commenting about Dianne Feinstein and says about Dianne Feinstein, sad. Someone tell her it's time to bow out with gratitude, with gratitude. So there is Rosie O'Donnell with a very powerful declaration. We hear from her often.

Actually, it's a beautiful thing. All right. A couple of comments from Facebook. Hubert Wisniewski says even if Republicans do choose to Santa's as their candidate, Donald will still run for president. He still has to. He has no choice because he's hoping that saves him from going to jail. My hope I am not a praying person, but after my prayers were

recently answered for there to be tech glitches during Ron DeSantis campaign launch, I now I'm like, wow, maybe prayer does work. So I think now I have to shift my prayer to hoping that somehow DeSanctimonious Ron DeSanctimonious that hopefully he does win the Republican primary and that Trump runs third party because it will be the end of Republican chances in 2024 as we know them. I hope Hubert is correct about that. And then Eric Johnson, Eric Johnson commented on Facebook's says, I think these fines slash penalties need to immediately be put in some escrow or whatever kind of account. So Trump can't hide it, spend it, whatever, while all appeals are exhausted until the money is actually taken away from Trump.

It won't be real to him. I agree with this. This is in reference to the five million dollars that failed. Former President Trump has been ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll because he was found liable for both sexual assault and defamation against her. And Trump was ordered to pay five million dollars. He's appealing it. And so what Eric is correctly pointing out, and it's something many of us have discussed. Sure, Trump's been ordered to pay. But until he pays, we shouldn't assume that

E. Jean Carroll is going to see even a dollar of that money. I believe it would be great to sequester that money, escrow it immediately. I have no belief that that is actually what's happening. And at this point, I certainly can't tell you that I'm confident that Donald Trump is actually going to pay out. I hope he does. I hope Eugene Carroll's lawyers are ready to do what needs to be done to get that money. But I am until I see the money, I am going to be skeptical that it is coming. All right. You can email info at David Pakman dot com. You can make a comment on YouTube, Facebook. Who knows what's going to show up in the Friday feedback segment? And of course, remember that everything we do

is supported so strongly, so directly by people like you who go to join Pacman dot com and they get themselves a beautiful membership. Thank your lucky stars every day. You're not Dave Pacman. You don't have to be me to get a membership and get access to the bonus show. Sign up at join Pacman dot com. Bonus show is coming up right after this. Otherwise, I'll see you back here on Monday.