The David Pakman Show - 6/8/23: Pence launches campaign as Trump arrest looms, CNN CEO fired

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

-- On the Show: -- Steve Schmidt, American political strategist, commentator, and founder of The Warning, joins David to discuss the Biden presidency, the state of the 2024 Republican primary, the future of the MAGA movement, and much more... -- CNN is truly in shambles as it fires its relatively new CEO Chris Licht after only one year after ratings declines and a disastrous Donald Trump town hall -- Former Vice President Mike Pence launches his 2024 Republican presidential primary campaign with a disastrous and pathetic speech -- During his CNN town hall, newly-announced 2024 Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence fails badly -- Pat Robertson, the televangelist demagogue from The 700 Club, has passed away at age 93 -- A report claims that failed former President Donald Trump will be imminently indicted federally, and Trump immediately denies the report -- Donald Trump flips out at midnight over his allegedly forthcoming federal indictment -- Voicemail caller attacks David for not talking about the recent UFO/UAP "whistleblower" regarding alien spacecraft -- On the Bonus Show: North Dakota Republican Governor Doug Burgum announces 2024 presidential campaign, Moms for Liberty designated an extremist group, Apple's new Vision Pro, much more... 👂 MDHearing: Just $149.99 each + free charging case. Use code PAKMAN at https://mdhearing.com 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 🧠 Mindbloom: Use code PAKMAN for $100 off at https://mindbloom.com/pakman 📖 Shortform: Try it for free and get 25% off at https://shortform.com/pakman -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

. CNN is in shambles and has fired its much celebrated new CEO, Licht after only a year attempting to fix CNN, but dramatically damaging it in the process. This is a major media story in the United States. Whatever your media diet consists of, this actually is a story that will have sort of cascading impact all across the media ecosystem. So let's discuss it. It was indeed a short reign for Chris Licht. We were told he's going to come in. He's going to fix CNN, which has become apparently too left wing and make it more appealing to all sides of the political spectrum. The Associated Press reporting CNN ousts CEO Chris Licht after a brief, tumultuous tenure. The chief executive pushed out of a job Wednesday, faced mounting problems in his

first year leading the struggling network. Viewership and profits were declining. Very important aspect to evaluating his job by CNN. Programming blunders were growing and the network's journalists were losing confidence by the day. Chris Licht's very bad year culminated in a damning magazine profile last week. It's in The Atlantic. I recommend you check it out. It's quite interesting.

And just a few days later, his tumultuous 13 month tenure is over. 51 year old Licht was informed of his ouster Wednesday morning and it was announced to the staff at the daily editorial meeting. The same place where Licht two days earlier said he would, quote, fight like hell to earn the trust of those around him. The executive who hired and fired Licht, that's David Soslov, the CEO of CNN parent company Warner Brothers Discovery, accepted some of the blame for the turmoil over the last year and has appointed a four person interim leadership team. Soslov promised CNN staff a thorough search for Licht's replacement. Here's the announcement happening on CNN. We have news now to report involving our own network. News to us here at CNN and you at home.

CNN's chairman and CEO, Chris Licht, is leaving the network. Licht took over the network a little over a year ago. David Zaslav, the chairman of CNN's parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery, he just made the announcement at the network editorial meeting. For now, a leadership team will take Licht's place, led by Amy Antel tell us who's the executive vice president of talent and content development, along with Virginia Mosley, the EVP of editorial Eric Scherling, our programming EVP and David Levy, our new chief operating officer.

Right, Sarah. Very, very exciting stuff. So here's the story. A number of reasons for this firing. And they all make sense. Plum's the story. A number of reasons for this firing. And they all make sense. Plummeting ratings. I mean, OK, at the end of the day, this is a for profit media outlet. Ratings were a disaster. Journalistic blunders, internal strife, all of it. But one of the most important aspects of this is that the staff at CNN obviously lost confidence in this guy.

The audience has been increasingly confused about what on earth is happening at CNN. And the brand has been embarrassed. And it is a brand that for a very long time. I mean, listen, I don't take pleasure in this. I'm going to give you my analysis in a moment. But I remember being a kid and seeing on CNN important moments. You know, when I think back to the early 90s and the mid 90s, I remember the first Iraq war. I remember the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Rabin. I remember the Clinton impeachment and Monica Lewinsky situation in the mid 90s.

All of it was brought by CNN. This is pre Fox News even existing. And there was a certain gravitas when it comes to what CNN did and maybe still does best. I don't know, which is those types of events. Licht's biggest mistake was that he misread the mood of the country and the media landscape. And instead of saying, oh, we need to bring CNN back to primarily being that thing, which I remember from when I was a kid, it was the assumption from Licht that CNN lost viewers because it had become too liberal and anti-Trump. And the solution, I guess, that Chris Licht thought was appropriate was let's show both sides. Let's court Republicans. Let's bring on more Republican strategists and former Trump staffers and others and do this Trump town hall, which was I mean, arguably there was no way that was going to go well. And Lick did that.

Ignoring that CNN's core audience wasn't aching for right wing nuttery, it just that there was not actually a demand for right wing nuttery from the audience. Lick also underestimated the competition from Fox and MSNBC in the sense of the more ideologically based cable news networks, Fox News carving out a right wing editorial position, MSNBC carving out a center left sort of Democratic Party establishment position. And so the idea that CNN is just going to bring in some Trump people and then all of a sudden we're going to have an ideological platform that will attract viewers. It simply wasn't happening.

And this led to a whole bunch of different fiascos that damaged CNN's credibility and its integrity. Yes, the Trump town hall widely criticized as a softball platform for Trump, even though in her defense, anchor Caitlin Collins did do some of what was possible to do. But it's such a fire hose of misinformation from Trump and the environment was not right with a crowd full of Trump sycophants titillated in the audience. It just didn't go well. And in one sense, it was a ratings flop. In another sense, it was journalistically problematic. And immediately people started calling for Licht's resignation. So I do think this was necessary and it was obvious only to stop the bleeding. There is no guarantee.

It's not enough. CNN still has to figure out how do we deal with the challenges and the uncertainties, the post Trump era, although it might again become a Trump era. What's the vision that CNN might articulate? I don't know what the answer is. If I were CNN and I know nothing about cable news programing or any of it, I would invest in quality journalism, diverse voices. And I don't mean diversity in the sense of make sure you've got an Asian woman and a black guy. I'm not talking about that type of diversity. I mean, diversity in terms of types

of journalism and innovative formats. One of the best things CNN ever did, quite frankly, and this is very much a departure from what CNN used to be known for, was bring Anthony Bourdain's program to CNN and Anthony Bourdain's life tragically ending, of course. But figure out what's the unique value proposition. Just being like, well, we we've become known as an anti-Trump voice. Let's bring on some right wingers. It's it's just it's vapid. It's not going to work.

No desire to see CNN fail. And in fact, although I'm critical of the entire apparatus of for profit, 24 hour cable news for all the reasons many of you know, when you have to fill 24 hours, you do low effort stuff and then the quality degrades. I've talked about all of these things, but I don't want there to only be two major cable news networks. I think more is better as a general rule.

So shambles at CNN. Let's now talk about Mike Pence. Former Vice President Mike Pence has officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign. We're going to look at two events that he did yesterday, the announcement speech, as well as a CNN town hall. I don't know which went worse. They both went very poorly. Let's start with the speech in Iowa at which Mike Pence announced he is indeed running for president. He is now trying to frame himself as the patriot when it comes to the January 6th Trump riots. Will the Republican electorate go for this?

I don't know. January six was a tragic day in the life of our nation. Wow. I don't know. Wow. Okay. That on that day, President Trump also demanded. That I choose between him. And the Constitution. And he chose the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution.

And I always. All right. So not exactly riveting stuff from Mike Pence, but he has very little. It's sort of like, why are you running again? If people want a pro Trump, Trump affiliated voice, they'll go with Trump. And if they want something else, they'll go with someone who wasn't Trump's VP. The idea that anyone is going to go for Pence is completely and totally laughable. We'll get to the polling in a moment. Here is Mike Pence comparing

President Biden and Donald Trump, which was an interesting moment for sure. Most Americans treat each other with kindness and respect. Even when we disagree. We know how to be good neighbors. That's not too much to ask our leaders to do the same. But sadly, it's clear that either Joe Biden or Donald Trump share this belief. I don't think that's true even remotely. In fact, if there's a stronger criticism of Biden is he's treating too respectfully a Republican opposition that operates exclusively in bad faith and he shouldn't even bother with them.

That's the real criticism of Biden. And neither of them intend to even try to bring our country together. I believe it's not just about civility. To craft real solutions to the. All right, you get it anyway, saying neither Biden or Trump have the respect that Pence would bring to the race, although it's hard to really believe that Mike Pence, like other Republicans have tried, including Trump, taking credit for the end of Roe v. Wade, which I don't know if is a great strategy, given that Roe v. Wade was

quite popular with the American people. And maybe and maybe most important of all, it was our administration that appointed three of the justices that sent Roe versus Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs. Right. We gave America a new beginning for life. You know, when Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative. Together, we did just that. So then why not vote for Trump? So anyway, I don't know how popular bragging about being responsible for the elimination of Roe v. Wade. I don't know how good of a strategy that is. It's not clear how popular that even is among Republican primary voters, never mind Republican

voters overall. But this is the approach Pence is taking and understand that he has very little else to go on or to run on. He was later interviewed on Fox News after his big announcement speech and just almost two minutes of complete and total nonsense. Just it's hard to imagine how this would inspire even a single Republican vote. Today, Sandra here. Most people want to know if they're considering voting, voting for you in the primary if they think that you can win. And you've jumped into a field with your former boss, Donald Trump.

Right. And they are likely wondering how you plan to run against Donald Trump. Not well. Well, you know, we really laid out that choice today, but honestly— By the way, who's this we the reason we started here in iowa is because uh karen and i are going to spend an awful lot of time in iowa this fall and in new hampshire and in south carolina you know one of the things that i've come to realize the last few years is that i'm i'm i'm well known but i'm not known well i think people know me more as

a uh as a as a quiet vice president standing off the president's shoulder, loyally supporting him all the way until a day when my oath to the Constitution required me to do otherwise. But now we have an opportunity with all the great people in this state to travel to the cities and the farms and and the byways and the highways and let people really get to know the pens is not just my. So the question was, how are you going to defeat Trump? I'm not hearing an answer.

This is vice president. But when I led the state of Indiana through tax cuts, expanded educational choice, stood for the right to life. And of course, as you all know me from years ago, when I I was a leader of House conservatives, I bucked the big spenders in in my own party. Imagine thinking that lines like I bucked the big spenders are going to get you ahead of Donald Trump in a completely delusional Republican primary. So a quick look at the polls where they stand right now.

Mike Pence currently polling three point eight percent. And you've got to give him credit. He's already ahead of Vivek Ramaswamy. He's more than doubling the polling support of Tim Scott. He's well ahead of Chris Christie, polling one percent at last check. But I do not see any path towards the nomination for Pence. After the break, we'll look at Pence's CNN town hall. If you thought his speech lacked energy, just wait until you see this delusional CNN town

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The info is in the podcast notes. If you thought Mike Pence's campaign announcement in Iowa yesterday was bad, just wait until you get a look at a CNN town hall, which was hosted by Dana Bash. You know, one of the things that is very interesting to see with these modern right wingers is how quickly their talking points fall apart, not when presented with opposition, per se, from the other side, but simply when there is any follow up. And Dana Bash, as you will see during some of these clips, provides just really simple questions that Mike Pence at some point doesn't even know how to respond

to now. To his credit, I will say Pence is starting to draw some distinction with Donald Trump. And you've got to do that if you're going to justify people voting for you instead of Trump when you served under Trump. Why would they go for the number two if they like the number one when number one is running? OK, you understand that here is Pence saying Trump thinks Putin's a genius. I think Putin is a war criminal. All right.

At least it's a distinction. Donald Trump said in his CNN town hall he was asked whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war and he would not say what message does that send to Vladimir Putin? Well, and frankly, when Vladimir Putin rolled into Ukraine, the former president called him a genius. I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal. Right. And I know who needs to win in the war in Ukraine,

and it's the people fighting for their freedom and fighting to restore their national sovereignty in Ukraine and America. It's not our war, but freedom is our fight. And we need to give the people of Ukraine the ability to fight and defend their freedom. Even the applause is milquetoast. Like, it's not just the answers. Nobody seems in any way inspired by this. But listen to Pence's credit. There are other people running in this Republican primary who aren't even willing to say that. So credit where credit is due, even if it's for pathetically small things.

Now here was a really interesting moment. Dana Bash seemed to visibly stump Mike Pence when she pointed out, you know, deterrence claiming that the death penalty for shootings will be a deterrent doesn't make sense when many of the mass shooters want to be killed. And Pence was visibly stumped by this. A very interesting moment. I quickly go back to something you said about expediting the processing of people who engage in mass shootings. A lot of people who are mass shooters, they go in with the intention to die. Right. So how would the threat of execution be a deterrent? Well, I follow these stories just as closely as you do.

And of course, our years in the White House, we saw one tragedy after another. And I know we hear that and we see evidence oftentimes in the aftermath that they went in without regard to whether they would survive. Right. But I just believe in the deterrent of the law. Ah. And I believe perhaps if we made it clear, I mean, think about this. The Parkland shooter is going to spend the rest of his life in jail. True. In Florida. And that's not justice. OK. He believes in the deterrent of law. But that passing stricter gun laws wouldn't make a difference. How is that possible? The death penalty would be a deterrent, even though, as Dana Bash correctly points out, many of these shooters plan to die.

They want to die. Sometimes they take their own lives if they aren't taken by by first responders. So that's going to be a deterrent. But stricter gun laws won't be a deterrent. That doesn't really make any sense. It's as incoherent as many of these modern Republican positions. Mike Pence talked falsely about how Democrats want abortion on demand until the moment of birth, which, of course, isn't true.

And Dana Bash points that out. The Democrat Party's position is abortion on demand with taxpayer dollars all the way up to the moment of birth, says who. And as we talk about the possibility of national standards, say a 15-week standard, which would put America more in line with most of the European Union, most of the European countries have either a 12- to 15-week rule on abortion. Our laws today are more in line with China, Iran, and North Korea.

And for my part, if I have the great privilege to serve as president of the United States, I'll support the cause of life at every level, the state level, the local level, with taxpayer dollars, and at the national level. And just the person you're running against or you want to run against if you get the nomination is President Biden. He says that codifying Roe versus Wade is his position. That means a right to an abortion until the point of viability, not up until until birth. But and Mike Pence smirking at being told the truth about the widespread position from

Joe Biden on that issue on the question of Trump's crimes, Pence seems to be going with, yes, Trump committed crimes and attempted to violate the Constitution. But we kind of should just move on with no consequences. Now, more than ever, we ought to be fine in ways we could actually come together. We're going to get this kind of this kind of action by the Department of Justice, I think would only fuel further division in the country. And let me also say, I think it would also send a terrible message to the wider world. I mean, we're the emblem of democracy. We're the symbol of justice in the world. Are we? Really?

The serious matter, which has already happened once in New York, of indicting a former president of the United States, sends a terrible message to the world. I hope the DOJ thinks better of it and resolves these issues without an indictment. I just want to clarify what you're saying is that if they believe he committed a crime, they should not go forward with an indictment. Do you just talk before about, by the way, anybody else noticing how Pence does this weird thing where while Dana Bash is talking to him, he doesn't look at her. He just looks out into the middle distance.

It's a very strange thing. And Pence does this to a lot of people getting to the rule of law. Let me be clear that no one's above the law. OK. But with regard to the unique circumstances here, no one's above the law. But but but OK, just a couple more of these. Pence says that he has no interest in pardoning the individuals convicted for rioting on January 6th.

The Constitution states are on that. Donald Trump says he is, quote, inclined to pardon many members of the mob who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. Those people were, of course, part of the same mob who built gallows and chanted about wanting to hang you. Right. Would you consider pardoning any of them? You know, on the day of January 6th, I issued a tweet

demanding that people leave the Capitol. Folks, he tweeted. And end the violence. And I said that those that fail to do that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Right. And I continue to believe that today. We cannot ever allow what happened on January 6th

to happen again in the heart of our democracy. What about the... And I'll stand by the decisions and the due process of court in our laws. And I have no interest or no intention of pardoning those that assaulted police officers or vandalized our capital. All right. Now, understand that even there, he's saying he has no interest in pardoning those who

assaulted police officers or vandalize the Capitol. But if there are people who were charged for other things, he doesn't seem to be ruling that out. Although with Pence, you never really know what he means with his slippery language. And then lastly, Pence refusing to rule out pardoning Donald Trump if he were to be elected president, if Donald Trump is convicted of a crime. And you're elected president, would you pardon him? Well, I don't want to speak about hypotheticals. I'm not sure I'm going to be elected president of the United States.

I'm sure that you're not, but OK, Dana, I'm going to decline to answer that on the basis that I have absolutely no path to the nomination whatsoever. And I don't even know why I'm really here. So on that basis, I'm going to decline to answer that question. But I believe we have a fighting chance. I really believe we do. And if you are and I would hope again, then you're you're as persistent as ever. CNN is living up to its reputation. But look, there are real issues the American people are

facing. And rather than talking about that, I want to talk about what. So he doesn't want to answer that question. So a disastrous campaign launch for Mike Pence. No path to the nomination. But could he end up helping Trump in Trump's path to the Republican nomination? We'll talk about that maybe tomorrow, maybe on Monday. Televangelist Christian demagogue Pat Robertson has passed away at the age of 93. The Associated Press reporting Pat Robertson, broadcaster who helped make religion central to Republican politics, dies at 93. A man we have covered for a very, very long time, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, the 700 Club for more than half a century. He was known for his 700 club television show. Now, as I said,

when Rush Limbaugh passed away and as I said, when we've seen the deaths of many different figures, I don't wish death upon anyone. These individuals, to the extent that they have family and friends and loved ones, they are loved. They are missed. People are grieving. And that is their absolute right and privilege. And also, I can recognize that in their public life, they were extraordinarily damaging to the country and to the world. And Pat Robertson was one of the most damaging religious influences in America of the last 50 years. Part of the movement that stuffed and stuffed and stuffed religiosity into civil government and the Republican Party wanted a Christian version of Sharia law. This is the reality. One little

highlight for you here is Pat Robertson at the in the earlier phases of when the country was going in the direction of saying, hey, listen, like gay marriage, not a big deal, etc. Apocalyptically stating that it will bring the judgment of God on the nation and we will be vomited out by the land if the Equality Act passes. Let them know that you are opposed to what is called the religious, well, the Equality Act. It's just, of course, it's got a name and all. They always give the good names to these things. This is a devastating blow to religious freedom and to the sanctity of America. If you want to bring the judgment of God on this nation, you just keep this stuff up.

You know, I was reading in Leviticus where it said, because of these things, the land will vomit you out, right? Vomit you out. I think God will say, I've had it with America. If you do this kind of stuff, I'm going to get rid of you as a nation. And, you know, there's plenty of stuff that's going on when you look at the super scary stuff, you will get vomited out. I do want to remind everybody there is a very long list of things that Pat Robertson during

his storied career said are demonic or potentially demonic. Remember that demons can attach themselves. This is from Pat Robertson. I can't play all of these clips, but you can find them in our archives. Secondhand sweaters can have demonic attachment. Ouija boards, yoga, Harry Potter, Feng Shui, karate, horoscopes, the Twilight series, paintings of Buddha. TV shows about ghosts can be demonic. Halloween, absolutely demonic. Psychics can be demonic. When young girls levitate their friends at sleepovers, that can be demonic. And sometimes adopted children from other countries can be demonic. According to Pat Robertson, we also had this absolutely classic, classic moment

where Pat Robertson said even little babies just out of the womb could conceivably be demonic as well. Remember this? Amen. All right. Here's the caller, Lisa from Fallen, Nevada. My question is regarding demon possession. Can babies be possessed?

And if so, does the age of accountability come into play for salvation? Right. You asked about the age of accountability. Can babies be possessed? And if so, does the age of accountability come into play for salvation? Well, the age of accountability has to do with the point you know right from wrong. And that normally doesn't take place until you're old enough to understand something's wrong. So the age of accountability can be five, it can be six, it can be four, it can be three.

But can a baby be demon-possessed? I just believe if that child is born to a family of devil worshippers, there's a real possibility that the devil will think that he has a claim over that child. I mean, it's horrible to contemplate, but we you know, I don't think that he doesn't take pleasure in giving us this news. But yeah, babies can come out of the womb demon possessed. So 93 year old Pat Robertson passing away an incredible legacy, which I think is a negative one. And we will leave it there. We will take a quick break and be back right after this. If you deal with anxiety or depression, you may have tried meditation, exercise, diet changes, therapy, all of which are important things to try.

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O O M dot com slash Pacman. Use code Pacman for one hundred dollars off. The info is in the podcast notes. Today, we're going to be speaking with Steve Schmidt, who's a renowned American political strategist, formerly of the 2008 McCain campaign and many other campaigns, founder of The Warning, a newsletter podcast and YouTube channel as well. Steve, great to have you on. I appreciate your time. Good to be with you. My pleasure. So where are you on the Republican Party at this point in time? I'm curious because your views have certainly evolved over time. I mean, our audience may or may not know about them? Well, I founded the Lincoln Project in 2020 to oppose Donald Trump. I was Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign manager. I was a top strategist for George W. Bush. I

served in the Bush White House. But I have always recognized that Donald Trump was a profound threat to the republic, along with every other person in the Republican Party. The difference is, a few of us, when we said never, meant it. And overwhelmingly, as in 99.99% of every person involved in the institutional Republican Party allowed themselves to capitulate, appease what I regard as the most dangerous threat that the country has faced internally since the Civil War. And what I view the Republican Party as in a two-party system in this country is a profound threat that has been hijacked by a faction that has turned against fundamental American concepts such as democracy and pluralism. And all of it is deeply ground in walking away from the results of an election. And I just, last thing I'll say about that,

I'm the person who placed the phone call for John McCain to Barack Obama. And, you know, I was the first Republican in America to say the words, congratulations, Mr. President-elect, before I handed the phone to him. And so this is elemental in a free society. And that's what the parties walked away from. So as far as policy goes, I mean, are you still like a low tax guy? You want to reduce abortion or have your views also changed over time. I was a moderate Republican from New Jersey, right? So the Northeastern tradition of Republicanism was not ideological. It wasn't Southern. It wasn't evangelical. The Republican Party in the Northeastern states was a reform party, and it typically took power after the excesses of the machine-run, party-controlled Democrats of those states.

So you always had non-ideological Republicans, Jacob Javits, Christy Whitman, Tom Kane in New choose, and I was one of the very earliest people with any profile in the country to come out in favor of gay marriage in the Republican Party. I worked for the ACLU leading the marriage equality campaigns. I don't think that you can look seriously into a camera as a Republican and say, hey, this is a fiscally conservative party. There is no fiscally conservative party in America. You have two wildly spending political parties that have accumulated $32 trillion in national debt. If you look at the baby boomer presidencies, Bill Clinton was the most fiscally responsible. Barack Obama was number two. George Bush was number three.

And Donald Trump was the wildest spender of them all. When it cut, you mentioned New Jersey. You know, when I look at the Republican primary field now as a guy from the progressive left, it seems so obvious to me that Chris Christie is by far the most competent and qualified person running in that primary. And if you said to me, David, the next president will be someone currently running in the Republican primary. It would be so obvious to me that Chris Christie would be my choice.

He's polling one percent. OK, we don't yet have polling from after his announcement. What is your sense of whether there is any desire among the current Republican Party for someone like a Chris Christie? Well, I look, I think it is a mistake for people to look at Chris Christie and just to blithely say he has no chance. The reality is. In order to win the Republican nomination, you have to win somewhere first. So when you look at this right now, could Tim Scott win in Iowa? Tim Scott can win in Iowa.

I think he's the only person who can beat Trump in Iowa who's in the field right now. Can Chris Christie win in New Hampshire? Is it possible? If you look at Chris Christie's town hall from the other night, and you look, for example, at Tim Ryan's town hall that he did on Fox News, and he basically said many of the same things that Chris Christie did, you watch that Fox audience and people's faces are contorted and twisted in anger as he's telling them, right, that Trump lost the election. You had the guy with the MAGA hat. No, we saw the Trump town hall on CNN when people are cheering because Trump had just been found

guilty of sexual abuse and defamation. You didn't see any of that in that audience in New Hampshire, right? Of people who turned out to Chris Christie, right? You, if you watch that closely on a body language perspective, um, those people are not rejecting what he's saying. So now, however it is that, that Chris got there right over seven long years. And I'm going to I'm going to step I'm going to I'm just going to skip that whole part of it, because I think it's tedious. We all we all know his record, his Stepford wife appearance. But he's the only person in the race such as it is who's just telling the truth right now. Now, he hasn't always been truthful on these issues, to say the

least. But in the race right now, he's our guy. He's your guy. He's my guy, because he's the only guy who's saying things that heretofore no one has said to these audiences. any person who's running have lived in a delusion sphere. And good for Chris Christie, better late than never is a saying for a reason, you know, that he's bringing up the manifest corruption and all the other issues. Is he flawed? Of course he is flawed. But, you know, he's the best that they got right now. And there is a truth teller in the race. And that hasn't been the case.

The only group that that has ever confronted him effectively is the group that I started. It indisputably drew blood in the in the sixth year of Trump's presence on the national stage. So in terms I hope Chris Christie can do that in terms of the other non Trump people that are running. We've seen pretty significant hesitation to really go after Trump. Christie and his town hall was direct. And he said the path to the nomination is through Trump and Trump's going to try to go through me. I'm going to try to go through him with everybody else. You know, Nikki Haley early on would basically just chalk it up to I'm a woman and I'm younger and I'm a person of color.

And Tim Scott, when he was given the opportunity to really draw distinctions with Trump, sort of said the contrast is going to be clear. And what exactly he meant by that, I don't know what he meant. DeSantis is starting to criticize Trump a little. But it seems that there's this idea that if they are there and then Trump gets arrested three more times and maybe it pulls them off the campaign trail, they will be able to swoop in and somehow pick up Trump supporters by virtue of not having really attacked Trump at this early stage.

Is that viable? And number two, if it is, it can't be viable for all of them. It seems maybe for one of them that would work. It's it's not viable for any of them. It seems maybe for one of them that would work. It's it's not viable for any of them. Look, at the end of the day, it's a position that's rooted in a fundamental delusional dishonesty. And if you look at what a presidential contest is, the race for the presidency in the United States is the greatest nonlethal competition in the world. There is nothing like it. There is no game. There is no sport. There is nothing that is as intense, as focused as this.

And so what this is, as David Axelrod once said, is an MRI for the soul, right? This is a character test. And so each of these people, right, put aside their beliefs, their ideology, their political label, they're weak and they're afraid. They're terrified of being tweeted about by Donald Trump. Mike Pence's race has no rationale whatsoever. His former boss, the president, tried to have him hung. And he just now will only say, well, he endangered me and others and my family. The American people in our full range of our vast menagerie, right, of beliefs and everything else, from left to right, the American people will not vote for weaklings, will not vote for spinelessness, right? So every one of these people and exclusively, right, they're all the

people that played a previous role as Trump sycophants who won't tell the truth about him now. What they prove is their softness, and it's disqualifying. So all of these people, whether it's the North Dakota governor, who could, let's say, right, I've never seen the guy. I couldn't pick him out of a lineup. I don't know if he's good or not. He can talk or not. But could there be a reform-minded governor from a small state in the tradition of a Jimmy Carter in 1976? Is there space for that in the Republican Party? There is. But you ask the North Dakota governor, right? Well, what about his claims. But you ask the North Dakota governor, right? Well, what about his claims about the stolen election? Right. What about him saying this?

You won't say a word. It's like he's in the witness protection program. Right. You know, he's like facing down Pablo Escobar at trial. He won't nada. Right. And it's disqualifying when it comes to the economy. There's been this idea for a long time in American politics that when you look at a reelection of a sitting president, so much of it is guided by the state of the economy. However, there's this strange thing happening right now where on Monday I looked at every indicator that's usually used. How is the stock market been doing? What's the unemployment rate, job creation numbers, GDP, inflation, trade balance? Right. We look at all of it.

It all looks pretty OK, unremarkable or like pretty good. And yet all the time on my YouTube channel, I see comments from people saying you're you're worried because the economy is a disaster. Biden has failed on the economy. And when I say, well, show me a metric that proves that people will write to me, they'll say, well, if you compare wages to housing costs, we're looking pretty deep here to find something that would point to an economy that's not at minimum OK, if not cruising along pretty, pretty well. What's your view on this issue?

Maybe not so much about the state of the economy, but the disconnect about even if the metrics look fine, the story is still that the economy is terrible. What I would say, what I would say about that is what you're talking about is the difference between emotion and rationality, right? And so the question you're asking is a question about a feeling, right? Not a question about the weather, right? So you go outside, it's 85 degrees and sunny, and someone says, this is a terrible day. You look at them and you say, it's obviously not. It's a beautiful day, right? But this is a terrible day, you look at them and you say it's obviously not. It's a beautiful day, right? But this is much more subjective, right? So first off,

you look at some of the ratings decline on cable, for example, cable news. It makes perfect sense. I mean, 80% of the people that appear on CNN, for example, on any given day are appearing from Washington, D.C. And almost none of those people make under a couple of million dollars a year. So they are in a place that is detached from reality. They live in a rarefied air, and there is a lack of appreciation across the board for the fact that 40% of the country doesn't have $400 cash available. That enormous percentages of the E1, E2, E3, E4 ranks in the military deal with food insecurity issues. Go look at the payday lending outside of a military base. Does any normal person have access to a return on the stock market in the sense of, here's a stock, this company has a value, it's going to grow?

This is all computer trading against algorithms at the edge of a moment of profound disruption caused by technology, globalization, and there's a lack of an animating vision that communicates to people what's going to happen next. I think that all of Biden's deficiencies in a political sense are rooted in an awful failure of communications. And that is very, very worrying, right? If you're a football team, you have to throw the ball. If you're the president of the United States running for reelection in a fraught time against a massive, massive, massive, massive misinformation, propaganda network, all of it put together, you have to communicate like Tom Brady throws that football. And even the most generous, generous fan of the president has to understand, has to appreciate that there is a massive communication deficit. And the evidence of that is that this radical extremist anti-American movement has not been crushed politically. It's still alive and it's still in a position to take power.

And this next election has to be the place where it's put away for good. We've been speaking with political strategist Steve Schmidt. He is the founder of The Warning, and we will link to the newsletter, podcast and YouTube channel. Steve, really appreciate your time and insights today. My pleasure to be with you. And I think the answer short form is the platform that goes way beyond what other book summary platforms do, because short form provides a clear and concise overview of the book that you can read or listen to in one sitting. But you also get a ton of other crucial context about how the book fits into the broader topic. Like, for example, I went through the short form guide for an American sickness.

It's a book by Elizabeth Rosenthal about the financial incentives that plague the US health care system, many of which we've talked about short form perfectly sums up the book's key points. But then it goes further. It looks at the background on how Rosenthal's perspective fits into the larger debate on American health care. And this just gives you a more complete and balanced understanding of the book. And that's what I love about short form. Short form has every nonfiction genre imaginable, and they publish new book guides every single week. My audience can try short form totally free and get 25 percent off a subscription if you'd like at short form dot com slash Pacman. That's S.H.O.R.T. F.O.R.M. Dot com slash Pacman for a free trial and 25 percent off.

The link is in the podcast notes. The last 24 hours have seen both reports that Trump is imminently going to get indicted and subsequently arrested by the Justice Department federal charges. And the last 24 hours saw denials from Donald Trump. Even when some of these reports came from Trump's own social media site, Truth Social Central. Let's discuss a an article on just the news, which is sort of a wacky right wing website.

Feds inform Trump he is target likely to be indicted as DOJ rebuffs prosecutorial misconduct claim. Trump defense has submitted secret evidence alleging a prosecutor tried to sway witness testimony by discussing federal judgeship. Also published to Truth Social, this message breaking feds informed Trump of imminent indictment by special counsel Jack Smith. However, Trump denying the report from his own website, posting, quote, No one has told me I'm being indicted and I shouldn't be because I've done nothing wrong. But I have assumed for years that I am a capital T target of the weaponized DOJ and FBI, starting with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, the no collusion Mueller report,

impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax number two, the perfect Ukraine phone call and various other scams and witch hunts, a travesty of justice and election interference at a level never seen before. Republicans in Congress must make this their number one issue. So is it true that Trump is imminently going to be indicted and arrested federally and charged? These would be the second charges against Trump. We may then see additional federal charges. We may then see charges at the state level out of Georgia sometime between July and September.

Or is it all wrong? My bottom line on this is that it does increasingly seem like, yes, Donald Trump is going to be indicted federally. However, he may not have been informed of it over the last 24 to 48 hours the way that just the news reported other reports claim that maybe by the end of tomorrow, the DOJ will be requesting those indictments from the grand jury that is reconvened. It's just important to remember when the indictments are asked for to the grand jury and then when the grand jury votes potentially, yes, to do the indictments. And then when the indictment actually happens, yes, to do the indictments and then when the indictment actually happens, these are three different things. And so, like with many of these news

events that are quickly taking shape and changing and whatever the case may be, you have to remember that sometimes people are just confused about which step of the process they're referring to. But at this point, my guess, my prediction and I'm not in the prediction game, but my prediction, if you don't make me bet on it, is that, yes, Donald Trump is going to be indicted federally and it seemed to send him into an absolute and total panic. Let's talk about that next. At midnight last night, failed former president, twice impeached and once arrested, Donald Trump seemed to have a textual panic attack on truth central over what appears to be at this time an inevitable forthcoming indictment and arrest federally, federally.

These are the all capital letters posts of a panicked madman who is scared and maybe realizing that his time is running out. Trump posting at midnight last night, quote, Shocking. One of the top prosecutors at the Department of Injustice was reportedly so obsessed with getting Trump that he tried to bribe and intimidate a lawyer representing someone being targeted and harassed to falsely accuse and fabricate a story about President Donald J. Trump, a crime that doesn't exist. This criminal and salacious act from within the DOJ has brought criminal and salacious

answer, has brought shame and embarrassment to this once great and respected institution. I struggle so badly to read these Trump rants because of this. There is now extreme turmoil inside the DOJ. Unclear that that's true. Trump continuing on post to and labeling it page to a top overzealous and dishonest DOJ prosecutor offered a witness's lawyer and important judgeship in the Biden administration. if his client flips on President Trump, who has done nothing wrong. The highly respected lawyer was incensed and disgusted at the corrupt and illegal offer. The fake case against me must be immediately dropped and the inspector general should launch

an investigation into this and the many other all too obvious wrongdoings and crimes taking place at the DOJ and FBI. It's very difficult to find anything that is true here. We do not have any evidence of alleged crimes committed by the DOJ and FBI. We have no evidence at this time that there is overzealous prosecution of Donald Trump. In fact, the truth is the opposite. The concern has been and the rumblings have pointed to even with evidence against Trump of Trump criminality.

It doesn't seem clear that there's a willingness by the Department of Justice to actually indict a former president. We now are starting to believe that that's not true and that the DOJ is going to go forward and indict Trump. But there is essentially nothing real here. But you have to understand that this is the court of public opinion and the MAGA, the MAGA or the MAGA Donians or whatever they're being called at this point in time. they accept this stuff like it's being spoon fed to them. They they uncritically accept it. Period.

End of story. And so much of this could be working to activate voters either for the Republican primary or the eventual general election in November of 24. There are all sorts of other reasons why Trump would be doing this, including that the guy is just panicking and scared because he's already been indicted and arrested once and it could happen three more times. We're going to follow it all very closely. By the time this show is out, we may already know more or we may not until tomorrow or maybe next week. We have a voicemail number that you can call and leave me a voicemail.

That number is two one nine two. David P. Here is a caller furious that I'm not talking about alien spaceships. Take a listen to this. Hey, Dave, Steve in San Diego. Yes, sir. You're vexing cosmic conscience calling in once again to challenge you on your utter failure to address the most important story in the history of the planet, which is UFOs are real.

We have now totally accredited all the justification and backing in the world type guy who has just come out an official whistleblower saying, look, this is real you have to deal with it stop playing games okay you might you my friend are playing games still you ignore the story you don't want to cover it you've minimized it you've dismissed it instead let's go yet another segment on why donald trump is bad and how you can look all superior and smarmy pointing that out whether or or not Donald Trump is bad is not the point.

Point is, you would rather cover nonsense than the most important story ever. And the answer must be you're afraid you're afraid, Dave, I'm calling you out. Why? Because if UFOs are real and they are, they call them the question undermines everything that you're touting as being so important to cover. That is quite a conspiracy theory. Now, I think it's really important to mention when you say UFOs are real, all you're saying

is there have been flying objects that were unidentified. What this caller means and what this caller is referring to is that intelligent aliens with spaceships are real. I've acknowledged UFOs are real in the sense that there have been flying objects that we did not at least immediately identify. That is very different than what is now being said. Now, what is this individual referring to? Two days ago, two alleged whistleblowers have come forward and have said the U.S. has in

its possession intact alien vehicles. They are not from China or Russia. We know that these are from aliens from other planets. We have intact vehicles and it is being covered up. Now, when you say I'm scared to cover it, what exactly would I say? Because these are claims from two people. They've not been verified by any independent source and no evidence has been presented. So given that there is no evidence, what exactly could I say now?

The conspiracy theorists will say, right. But David, they're hiding the evidence. The fact remains we have no evidence. The claims of these two people in the last couple of days have been contradicted by the official report on unidentified aerial phenomena that the Pentagon released in twenty twenty one. Now, folks like this caller will say, but that report is part of the effort to deceive people and to hide the truth. I don't have evidence of that. And that sort of depends on

whether you trust these two people or whether you trust the report that was published. What do you prefer to rely upon? Either way, I don't have evidence to support what this caller is telling me. So it's tough when people say you're not covering it, you should be covering it. You're afraid to cover it. What exactly could I add to the story? There are unproven claims from one or maybe two people for which no evidence has been presented, which some people see and say, that's the cover up. That's the conspiracy.

I don't know what you want me to say about it, because not only do I not have evidence for the claims being made, I also don't have evidence that there is any cover up taking place. And I know that conspiracy minded people say that's the evidence of the conspiracy. Absence of evidence is evidence. But that's not really the type of show this is. We have to deal in empiricism and reality and evidence. So I'm open to hearing from the audience.

Is this a story I should be aggressively covering? Should I be all over the claims of one or maybe two people that the US has intact alien spacecraft absent any evidence suggesting that that's the case? Or is there not very much for me to say about it? Let me know what you think and I will be guided by the audience. We are going to have such a great bonus show for you today. Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Yes. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. Assisting us in making money on today's bonus show. We are going to talk about another explosive Republican campaign launch for

president. The governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, is running. I know. I know you've never heard of him, but he's running. OK, we'll talk about it. Number two, the group Moms for Liberty has been designated an extremist group and Trump's a big fan of the group. We will talk about that. And number three, by popular demand, we will talk about the Apple Vision Pro. This has been revealed by Apple. I have many thoughts. We will discuss them on the bonus show. Sign up at join Pacman dot com. Don't miss today's bonus show produced every single weekday for our members. And you can use the coupon code indicted. Very relevant coupon code today to get a discount at join Pacman dot com.

I'll see you then. We'll be back here tomorrow for the Friday.