The David Pakman Show - 7/10/23: Newsom brutal, Clarence Thomas corrupt, Trump malfunctions, Biden economy keeps going

Episode Date: July 10, 2023

-- On the Show: -- Rosie O'Donnell, television icon, actress, comedian, and host of the podcast Onward with Rosie O'Donnell, joins David to discuss American politics, Trump, Biden, Gavin Newsom, and much more -- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is accused of even more corruption through receiving gifts -- California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom says that Fox News contributes to the mental health crisis in the United States -- Fox News host Steve Doocy goes off script again, admitting that the Biden economy is quite strong -- Donald Trump faces a nightmare scenario as top Republicans are cooperating with special prosecutor Jack Smith -- Donald Trump delivers a ridiculous and pathetic speech in Iowa, glitching badly numerous times -- The first attempt at banning David's children's book on critical thinking has arrived -- Voicemail caller says that David is smug and full of himself, and Brian Tyler Cohen is "way hotter" -- On the Bonus Show: Biden defends decision to give Ukraine cluster bombs, Florida bans driver's licenses of immigrants living in US illegally, FDA asked to look into Logan Paul's energy drink, much more... 👂 MDHearing: Just $149.99 each + free charging case. Use code PAKMAN at https://mdhearing.com 🩺 Sign up for Wild Health Premium at https://wildhealth.com/premium 🛡️ The first 100 people to use code PAKMAN will get 60% off of Incogni at http://incogni.com/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN10 saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.com 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

We're going to start today with the Supreme Court and more news of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's undisclosed freebies from wealthy pals, as Rolling Stone is calling them. There's really three stories here, and we're going to talk about all three. There's the specifics about what's happening with Clarence Thomas. There are the broader questions of what should be done, if anything, with the Supreme Court. And then there is the question of more broadly, what about 2024? Now that we know the havoc that 2016 presidential election has had on the Supreme Court and as a result on the country.

Let's start with the specifics of Clarence Thomas. Rolling Stone reports investigation uncovers more of Clarence Thomas's undisclosed freebies from wealthy pals. The Supreme Court justices, rich friends at the Horatio Alger Association, have showered him with benefits, including lavish vacations and funds for a fawning documentary about his life. This is no longer the exception to what's going on. We now have so many examples of this, including, of course, Harlan Crowe and what we learned some months ago, I believe it was. But now we have even more. Look at some of the details. Clarence Thomas's connections to wealthy and expensive

vacations run deeper than billionaire businessman and Nazi enthusiast Harlan Crowe. The New York Times reports that Thomas has milked relationships with the rich. He made through the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans because of their Horatio Alger connections. Thomas and his spouse, Virginia, have been invited to join luxurious vacations and parties in addition to getting VIP access to sports events. Thomas also rubbed elbows with the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Ed McMahon during a lavish three day Montana birthday party for billionaire industrialist

Dennis Washington. Both the connections Thomas made through Horatio, but the connections Thomas made through Horatio Alger have benefited him beyond just lavish trips. His contacts, including Washington investor David Sokol, formerly of Berkshire Hathaway, helped fund a documentary that paints Thomas in a heroic light. And it totally rewrites history on the Anita Hill confirmation hearings. And there are all sorts of other examples. The gifts include flights on private planes, cigars, clothing, et cetera, et cetera. After 2004, when the L.A. Times reported on his disclosures, Thomas ceased reporting to the court gifts and benefits that he received.

A ProPublica investigation this year uncovered his relationship with Crow, including private jet flights, yacht trips, all of it. Crow paying tuition for Thomas's nephew, who the Thomas's were raising. And it goes on and on and on. And the list is exactly what you would imagine. If you're really interested in the specific details, you can certainly read the entire reporting. But I think you sort of get the picture. So then we get to the implications and the meaning of all of this. First and foremost, we have a particular situation where between his wife, Virginia, and her involvement in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results, Thomas's lack of recusal on related matters, the ethical questions that

come, but all of these different things at a basic core level, we can see that the Supreme Court doesn't actually have the checks, balances and accountability methods that it should have. This is very similar to what we saw during Trump's presidency. We learned that the checks and balances put in place by the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, etc. They never accounted for someone like Trump willing to flout all of those conventions. They just didn't. And so what we saw was that we don't have a firm or rigid enough set of checks and balances to control a president like Donald Trump. We just don't have it. Similarly, we are finding that the same applies

to the Supreme Court. And so do we need some kind of transparency and ethics reform on the Supreme Court? Of course we do. Ethics rules need to be strengthened. Transparency requirements need to be strengthened. There need to be clearer guidelines for recusal, stricter guidelines for disclosure of financial interests and gifts, actual limitations on the gifts and favors that you're allowed to accept, which could create a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest. We need all of those things. And this gets us into the reform part. I know that there are some in my audience who say Joe Biden should pack the court by packing the

court. We mean adding seats to the Supreme Court such that if you expand the court, say from nine to 13 seats by adding four and then immediately select those four Supreme Court justices, you could take control of the court in the sense that by adding four liberal justices, you then take control back. I love the idea of taking control back. The problem I see is that it really is opening the door to Republicans doing the same the next time they have a president in the White House and then Democrats doing the same. And next thing you know, we've got 17, 19, 21, 23 seats. It doesn't seem to me like really the path forward just because Biden can get away with it right now. Now, if Biden did it and we got a more liberal

Supreme Court and we got some good decisions, would I complain? Of course I wouldn't complain, but I question its viability as a long term strategy. What I would like to see in addition to the transparency and ethics reform I just mentioned includes term limits on the Supreme Court. I believe we should have term limits for Supreme Court justices. We have nine justices. You figure out the math of it, figure out the term limits, figure out the cadence, and then, you know, in advance, instead of wondering, OK, if Trump beats Hillary, he might get one, two or three justices. We would know exactly the number that the next president would get. It might make it more concrete when we talk about the importance of voting for the right president based on Supreme Court selections, which I will get to in a moment.

So I believe term limits would be a great thing to do. Balanced representation is also an interesting idea. I'm not talking about you need a black woman and an Asian dude and then a person in a wheelchair. I'm not talking about you need a black woman and an Asian dude and then a person in a wheelchair. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about ensuring or requiring that you need a certain number of justices from different legal backgrounds. So you could say, well, you you must have a justice whose background is civil rights, public defense, public interest law or whatever the case may be. This would widen the perspective on the court. I think that that's a useful reform and there

are others. Would I be glad for Joe Biden to add four justices and take control of the court? Sure. Do I think it's the long term solution? I don't. Lastly, let us again remember we would not be in this mess. I mean, Clarence Thomas would be on the court. But what I mean is we would not have one of the most right wing courts in decades overturning Roe v. Wade, making the decisions they've made with regard to voting rights and so many other things. If Hillary Clinton had defeated Donald Trump in 2016, I don't say that to lay blame. I don't say that for any reason other than there's another

election coming up in 16 months, 11 and 12 to 16 months, 15 and a half months. This is happening again. It is quite plausible that there will be two Supreme Court nominations for whoever wins in November of 2024 to make during the following four years plausible, maybe even likely. Let's not make that mistake from 2016 again. Gavin Newsom continues to be brutal and ruthless in what I believe are all the right ways. He had that extraordinary interview with Fox News propagandist Sean Hannity, which we covered. He was interviewed again, this time by former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki on her MSNBC show. And I want to play a particular clip from that interview that a number of you sent me

regarding mental illness and mental health crisis. Gavin Newsom blames Fox News in this clip for making the mental health crisis worse. Listen to what he says. I want to know your thoughts and I'll give you mine. Take a listen. Speaker 5 Entertainment wing, particularly of the Republican Party, the surround sound on Fox with these. I don't even like say his name, Tucker Carlson or that other. I don't even have the guy from. And it's just like they're all the same in what American news and Newsmax and what they're doing to divide this country to where illusion rules, not facts. Do you occasionally turn on Fox front time and see what happens?

No. Just to see? Not occasionally. Every night. Every night. And do you think Democrats should still be appearing on Fox, or should they not be appearing on Fox? It contributes to the mental health crisis in the state. So on the basis of one's own personal conditions, I would not recommend it. My staff is quite literally tried to have interventions with me about it. They say I'm too obsessed with it,

but I need to understand it. You want to know what the other side thinks? So he says Gavin Newsom says Fox News and other right wing trash media contribute to the mental health crisis potentially causing mental illness. Is that just a funny line or is it actually a real possibility? Well, there's a number of ways in which he may actually be on to something. There is an argument that by exposing viewers to misinformation and fear mongering and fomenting polarization based on lies and being scared of scapegoats that they establish, that they are actually changing the perception of reality that their viewers have and that this thus affects their emotional well-being and social relationships and makes Fox viewers more prone to anxiety, depression, paranoia,

potentially activating a latent mental health issue like schizophrenia or whatever the case may be. I'm not saying that's the case, but I'm saying, is there an argument to be made here that Gavin Newsom might be right? Like, for example, there are studies that have found Fox News viewers are more likely to believe false or unsupported claims about covid, about climate change, about immigration and dangerous brown people that are coming here or election fraud or whatever. Once they believe those false things, it can cause confusion, distrust, fear and denial of scientific realities, distrust of expert advice, for example. All of those things can impact the health, including the mental health of an individual.

Another example, Fox News will often portray certain groups of people on the opinion shows in particular, but on the news shows as well. Immigrants, Muslims, liberals, protesters, Marxists, anarchists, as Donald Trump used to say, as threats, enemies and criminals. And this induces fear and anger or even hatred. This increases stress levels, cortisol, et cetera, impacts empathy, fuels aggression. This can lead to a mental health crisis, et cetera. So I don't have to belabor it. But is there something to what Gavin Newsom is saying there? Ultimately, obviously, the impact of Fox News on mental health depends on a number of factors and contextual realities and the preexisting mental state of those who are watching Fox News in the first place.

I'm not pretending Fox News is giving everybody mental illness, but by any means. But is there something to what Gavin Newsom said? Let me know in a comment. Let me know in an email. Let me know on threads where you can find me at David Pakman. Forty eight million Americans have some hearing loss, so if you or a loved one is struggling with hearing loss, you are certainly not alone. Only one in five people who would benefit from a hearing aid actually get a hearing aid. Our sponsor, MD Hearing, specializes in FDA registered rechargeable

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Well, Fox News host Steve Doocy is off script again. I have to tell you, I really do enjoy these clips. These are clips were on the Fox News morning show Fox and Friends. Steve Doocy, not because he's a hero, not because he's now the arbiter of truth, not because he's anything other than a Fox News propagandist who sometimes just interjects a little reality into the brains of his co-hosts. For whatever reason, Steve Doocy is making some what in most of the real world are uncontroversial admissions, but he's making them on Fox News. And it's fascinating to watch. The latest one here is Steve Doocy saying, hey, you know, the Biden economy actually is good. I mean, OK, the White

House maybe is having a messaging issue, but the Biden economy really seems to actually be functioning quite well. Take a listen to this. And again, he's touting the numbers that we all see. This is not extraordinarily obscure stuff. And you have just touched on the problem for the White House, and that is they've got some pretty good numbers going on. Right. The jobs number is expected to come out a little later on today.

It's expected to be about 250, 225,000. Unemployment is expected to drop down to 3.6%. Yesterday, there was a blowout number. ADP said that about a half a million jobs were added in June. The construction sector itself added 97,000 jobs. This is not Steve Doocy making stuff up. It's just not the place you would normally hear it in June. That's the biggest increase month over month in a decade.

So they've got these pretty good numbers. But the White House is stuck with a couple of people who are having a problem selling it because people don't feel like things are very good now. And the clip, of course, from our friend decoding Fox News, who does great work typically on Twitter now also on threads. You can find her decoding Fox News on on threads as well. Steve Doocy is doing this a lot, and I don't want to attribute agency to what might be randomness. This is, you know, forget about right wing media, but there is so much scholarship and I've read so much books that there's Nassim Taleb's fooled by randomness and Daniel Kahneman has written about this in general as humans. We like to find patterns

and and attribute agency to phenomena in the world a really long time ago. But when when pre-modern humans started to see things move around in the sky and the sun come up and go down or whatever, it would sometimes be attributed to a man in the sky or some particular force with agency rather than sort of the way that the laws of physics are impacting celestial bodies. So we like as humans to put agency and meaning and whatever. I can't do that with Steve Doocy. I don't know that what's happening here is that Steve Doocy has said, you know, my network is spreading a lot of disinformation. I'm going to go out there and be the voice that tells a little bit of the truth or something.

I have no reason to think that that is what is going on. But Steve Doocy has this habit of saying things that go against the talking points of Fox News. Here's one other really good example. This one's from about a week and a half ago. This was related to the supposed. There was like a 72 hour period, you might remember, where the Republicans became obsessed with supposed evidence of Biden bribery. It turned out that it's based on tapes they don't

have from a whistleblower who might not be a whistleblower who they hadn't spoken to in three years, who more recently we've uncovered has never actually spoken to Joe Biden. So this one evaporated quickly. But here was Steve Doocy sort of saying, yet there really isn't evidence here. It is unclear what the joint venture is or was. And if it was just for Biden corruption, then why did they have other entities like they had? They mentioned Hudson and some other partners as well. If it was just to influence a former vice president, which I don't know if that's illegal. Why exactly were there so many other moving parts? And what the Republicans don't do here yet is they don't say if any laws were broken and if anything was illegal.

Well, they are saying. Right. It's quite simple. They've not actually said what are the laws that were broken and what is it that Joe Biden did that is illegal? Make of it what you will. Let me know in the comments what you do think. What is going on with Steve Doocy? The failed former president, twice impeached, twice indicted, twice arrested, is facing a nightmare scenario related to Arizona because top Republicans are now cooperating with special prosecutor Jack Smith. This is if you were Trump and you were hoping that the indictments and the arrests would stop it, too.

But then you saw, OK, so like there's the riot thing from Jack Smith. OK, I might face federal charges. OK, there's also the Georgia thing from Fault Fonny Willis. I might face state charges. There is now another scenario out of Arizona Newsweek reports. Trump faces nightmare scenario as top Republicans cooperate with Jack Smith. Former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers has become the latest Republican to confirm they were interviewed as part of the federal investigation into attempts to overturn

the 2020 election. Bowers previously testified to the January 6th committee that Trump and Rudy Giuliani called him to discuss a plan to appoint fake electoral officials to falsely declare that Joe Biden was defeated in several states. This is per CNN, according to what this what Rusty Bowers told the FBI. This is a major deal. This would confirm if the testimony is trustworthy. And of course, it was it was under oath. This would confirm. That this was not random people in Arizona and Wisconsin and Georgia and Michigan saying, ah, maybe we'll send some fake electors and just say, oh, actually, it was it was Trump who won. It was Trump, not not Joe Biden. If indeed Trump and Rudy Giuliani were on the phone with Rusty Bowers, the former Arizona

House speaker, saying, let's let's do this, let's find different electors and send them and have them say, I won. This is rising to a level of conspiracy specifically in Arizona that we did not previously know. Christine Adams, a former federal prosecutor and current partner with Adams, Durek and Kaminstein, told Newsweek that Bauer speaking with the FBI shows federal prosecutors are conducting a thorough and careful investigation across several states. Could this lead to another series of federal charges against Donald Trump and potentially Rudy Giuliani?

Sure. Could this, as we suggested last week, be opening up another wing of investigation related to state charges against Trump in Arizona? The answer is yes, of course. This news suggests to us that it's not just three potential indictments. It's not just for potential indictments that Trump could be facing. You are actually talking about five or even potentially six indictments, state and federal against Donald Trump.

This guy, Rusty Bowers, is no hero. He is doing what most normal people would do, which is tell the truth as you see it. When authorities say you have things we want to know and we don't hold them up as a hero for doing it, but we say at least he's doing his basic duty, which is these are very serious allegations. These are extraordinarily serious, unprecedented actions, alleged actions by a former president. You show up and you tell the truth. You don't do the ban and thing. You don't try to get out of it. You show up and you tell the truth. We'll see what happens. But this could be getting very, very bad for Donald Trump. We're going to take a super quick break. Rosie O'Donnell joins me next.

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But in 1990, you know, so. So listen, to start with, where were you when in the 2016 primaries Trump starts insulting you? Did you see that live or did someone tell you Trump's talking about you right now? Well, it really started in 2007 when I was on The View and he, you know, went on like a 10 year or an eight year tirade and went on all the shows. I think he was very shocked that someone said the truth about him on mainstream media. And he was determined to try to destroy, you know, my credibility

or my, you know, my who I am as a person by doing these barrage of insults. But I think the one you're talking about was with Megyn Kelly when she was. Yes. And he said, you call women cows and pigs and slobs. And he says, no, only Rosie O'Donnell. Right. I was watching it live. You were watching it live. And my kids were in the room with me. And they said, Mom, what did he just say you? I go, yes, he did. And he's not only insulting me, he's insulting any woman that he doesn't think lives up to his standards of what a woman is. And that's the kind of person that this man is and why he's a danger to the world. And I knew that innately from when

I was, you know, if you grew up on Long Island, you knew the story of Donald Trump, he was not some man that Mark Burnett made him out to be. He was given to America in a way that was a fallacy. And I think that that really stuck and that was the beginning of the cultish-like dedication that people have to the fantasy fiction of The Apprentice. And but if you grow up on Long Island, you knew his story from when you were a little kid. You remembered his planes getting repossessed off the LaGuardia runways. You know, you remembered every time he had an embarrassing failure or pretended to be his own publicist. He was known as this kind of joke of

a person. And when I took on telling the truth about him, he became obsessed. So even though it seemed completely out of the blue when he brought you up in that situation with Megyn Kelly, you weren't shocked because you you were aware of the backstory. Speaker 4 Yes, but it had been a few years before I was the since I was the target, he, you know, chooses targets and keeps them for a while and and when he no longer has use for them or, you know, so he hadn't done it in a while, but it was something that he had done for almost a decade. On Tick Tock, if people have been following you on Tick Tock, they know that you are very

much following what is going on politically, but also specifically with Donald Trump. And there's been this sense maybe over the last three months that maybe there will be some consequences at some point. We have two indictments. There may be a third one. There may be a third one. There may be a fourth one. Are you optimistic or are you worried that it's going to be again? He uses donor money to somehow slip out of this one and that one and that this will all be for nothing. In order to keep my faith in the nation and

the world, I have to believe that we'll have to pay for what he's done, inciting an insurrection against our own government. He is the most horrific president we've ever had, the most dangerous, the most damaging to our country. And he's he's an embarrassment. And he always has been. And I didn't really understand that people didn't get that. And I really do blame Mark Burnett. I really do. I know a lot of people don't and think, oh, he was just making. No, he knew who the man was. He asked those tapes that he never showed of the outtakes of The Apprentice, where there were many people there who have all told their story of what language he uses, of what an innate racist he is, misogynist, homophobic, how he's like the worst part of humanity. And, you know, I have been on to him from the beginning and so have millions of people

across the world, but especially New Yorkers. New Yorkers. See him for who he is. When you consider now what's going on with this whole anti woke crusade that some politicians are basically basing their campaigns on Ron DeSantis, for example, but then you actually talk to people around the country and you say, hey, do you actually think we're doing too much to, for example, protect trans people? The majority of the country says, no, actually, I think we're actually not doing enough. We're doing the right amount. The anti woke message doesn't seem to be panning out nationally. And one of the big targets for that group is Hollywood, Hollywood, generally.

Hollywood generically is propping up all of this woke ideology. If you're conservative in Hollywood, you're either blacklisted or you get no work or whatever the case may be. Can you talk a little bit about that? Like, is that assertion true or are there plenty of conservatives in Hollywood? Speaker 4 I don't really know that many to tell you the God's honest truth. But, you know, Jewish liberals, you know, throughout the history of Hollywood were the foundation of Hollywood in many ways. And I don't know that there's there are a lot of, let's say, right wing conservative artists in general. Right. I don't think that when you look for the pool of where is are the artists coming from and it's not going to be the Harvard Business School. Right. So it's a different type of human. It's a different type of

way of looking at the world. It's leading with compassion or leading with judgment, thinking people are expendable or that all people are equal. There's a big, harsh divide in that way. So, you know, I mean, Tom Selleck, pretty conservative, Charlton Heston, pretty conservative. But off the top of my head, I can't really think of very many people that I know in Hollywood that are conservative. The anti-woke message, I think, is a ridiculous way to go. And I hope DeSantis keeps it up because he's like the worst version of Trump. Yeah, it doesn't seem as though it's going to play well nationally.

Like maybe it would win him a Republican primary, although it certainly doesn't look like it if you look at the polls. But I just don't see how that message resonates if he if he somehow were the nominee. I agree. And you know, what does it mean to be woke? It means to be educated, to be humanely centered and focused people first, equality first. And those are wonderful things and qualities of being an American. Those are not negative things that prove that you're not a Patriot, you know, liberals,

they, they, they put a Hollywood liberals, you know, Hollywood liberals love their country too. Hollywood liberals grew up here and not in a affluent homes. And, you know, the people that I meet from Hollywood grew up like I did regular lower middle-class or middle-class America where, you know, blue collar workers or engineers, my dad worked at Grumman, you know, and my mom was a school secretary. And, um, that's kind of the truth of we're American people. I mean, we're people who grew up believing in the American dream and somehow got there. And then to say everything that you feel and think is invalid because you're a celebrity. You lose your voice.

You lose your speaking standard as a citizen. You become almost invalid because you are known. And I think the most important thing right now is everyone with access to a microphone to speak out against fascism. That really has still a strong foothold here in the United States. And this election is going to be so very important. And I want to talk to you about the nitty gritty of the election. You know, the patriotism thing is interesting, though. The right has tried to monopolize patriotism. So when it was George W. Bush in 2003,

patriotism meant you say it's great to go to Iraq, even though they didn't attack us on 9 11 and this makes no sense whatsoever and they don't have WMDs. That was patriotism then under Trump. It became a different thing. But the truth is that it seems to me it's patriotic to say, hey, we're a wealthy enough country that we can make sure everybody has health care. That's a form of patriotism to me that makes a lot of sense. And I wish the left would take back the term to in a more forceful way. I do, too. I feel that there the left sometimes buckles under the flag waving rhetoric of of the right. And I think we have just as much love for our country as anyone on their their side. And at some point, if we are to survive as a nation, we're going to have to bridge the gap. We're going to have to find a way through that chasm,

you know, over to each other. And I don't know what it's going to take to do that. We're a different country. Everyone has niche news. You know, there was when I was a kid and Walter Cronkite said this war should end. You know what happened? The war ended. People believed in him. He wasn't owned by corporate interests. He wasn't trying to make a profit. News was not a profit making business when we were growing when I was growing up. mass media, especially the American media news, let Trump get away with so much because as Moonves said, not good for America, but great for CBS. Right.

Our whole thing to think. But yeah, it's it's a very difficult time to remain steadfast in your belief that the ideals of this country are worth fighting for. And we need to come together as a culture and as a community. And that starts with holding Donald Trump responsible for what he did and for all of these charges against him. I don't know how you can look away and ignore 71 charges. I don't indictments. I don't know how you can look away. Speaker 1 I agree with you. I mean, so let's talk a little bit about 2024. We'll get to Biden. And I've seen a little bit in preparing for this conversation about the things you've said about Joe Biden. There is sort of a Democratic primary in the sense that Bobby Kennedy Jr. is running.

He's polling about 15 percent, which is not zero. I mean, that's already something for people who may or may not know your back story. You were on Curb Your Enthusiasm, I know, in 2011, although I don't remember if you were on other years. Cheryl Hines, an actress on that show, is married to Bobby Kennedy Jr. During the pandemic, there was this crazy thing where he was talking negatively about vaccines. They had a holiday party and she said, you got to be vaccinated to go to the party. There was this kind of interesting thing that was going on. Now she supports his candidacy. What is your sense maybe having been around her a little bit and seeing the dynamics of what's going

on. What is your sense of this challenge to Joe Biden that Bobby Kennedy Jr. has mounted? You know, I wish he didn't do it because I think that any kind of third party that's going to take away from the much needed Democratic votes in order to save the country from a fascist ideology that we're already on the slope downward towards. We all have to stick together. And I hope that Bobby Kennedy would not do what he's done. Now, he has some pretty controversial opinions. He has some conspiracy theories. And, you know, I think he's a danger in many ways to the outcome that I and millions of others want, which is the Democrats to win. And I don't think he has any chance of really winning. Therefore, why? Why do this at this

time in our history? When it comes to Biden, I hope I'm correctly summarizing your view, which is that you respect Joe Biden, but would rather he not run for reelection at this time. Is that accurate? If I were a party, a Democratic Party, you know, if I was connected to the Democratic Party, which I'm not, I know people might think, oh, you must know, I don't just be talking. And I think that his age is a problem. I think that there should be age limits for how old you have to be to you have to be 35. There should be an age limit at the top as well. And, you know,

many of us at Thanksgiving don't let our grandparents carve the turkey. So I would have gotten together with all the head honchos in the Democratic Party and said, what is the best way that we can win as a nation and continue the amazing work that Joe Biden has done. And I'm thankful for him for saving us from a second term of the worst president ever. I'm thankful for what he's done. And he's had really many more accomplishments than most first term presidents. So I have nothing but respect and admiration for the work that he's done in his life and career, given his entire career to public service. But I do inside of my soul wish that we had a younger candidate that could take the baton and keep running the race for us. With that said, I'm riding with Biden.

If that's the nominee, I'm 100 percent going to back him. But I do think as a Democratic Party. They should really be sure that this is the choice that that will work best for the long run. Is there somebody right now that you actually find exciting within the Democratic ranks? Someone that I keep talking about is Gavin Newsom, not because he's perfect. So I think, too, not because he has no skeletons in his closet, not because he's the most progressive, but he seems to understand the sort of ruthless attitude that is required at this point to face off against what the Republican Party has become. Speaker 5 Yes, I agree.

I love when he gives impromptu speeches to a reporter in the street and he speaks from his heart and he's not on script. This man has a charming continence and he is very intelligent, although he did marry that Trump wife. That's weird. You know, when I think about that, it's like, yeah, he did the French laundry dinner during covid and that looked really bad. But the Kimberly Guilfoyle marriage is just very strange to me. Me too. Like, you know, you you don't want to judge people. God knows I've been divorced twice. I'm not saying that. But it makes me wonder. It gives me pause. One of the things that gives me pause about about him is that and I think is that even fair that that's what I, but you know, his wife now is like unbelievable and so, uh, intelligent and articulate and working for the right causes and as an

abuse survivor. And I mean, she's, she's had, she's had some very impressive speeches. I've listened to her and, um, I believe in Gavin Newsom. I believe when he came out and said, no, this is not right, that gay people cannot get married. I'm going to marry gay people. And thanks to Gavin Newsom's courage, you know, I went and got married right then on the steps and there. And we'll never forget what that meant to me and my family and to so many others and why I thought it was very important at that time to do it. I felt like if you're going to line people up, line me up.

I want my equal rights too. So I would go with Gavin Newsom. If it were me, I would push to sort of – but who's going to say, you know, Gavin – nobody should challenge Joe Biden if Joe Biden isn't ready to say that he's ready to go. But I often don't know when we get older, if we realize how different we are in terms of our capacities, because, you know, it's I'm 61. And the other day I couldn't think of Robert Downey Jr.'s name. I'm going, come on. He played Chaplin. Come on. And I'm 61. Right.

So there are real things about aging that, you know, are concerning, although I'm very grateful for Joe Biden. Last thing I want to ask you about, you mentioned marriage equality over the last couple of years, obviously, with the overt transphobia and the focus at every right wing event and Trump speech about so-called men and women's sports and all of these things that are going on. Certainly, we've seen that there has been this shift of scapegoating towards the trans community. But even more broadly than that, do you think that some of the progress that has been made culturally, not legally, but culturally when it comes to equality and respect and LGBT

rights, do you think we've lost a little bit of it in so far as when you see these right wing events lately, they really seem energized when the speakers say something transphobic or homophobic at CPAC. The biggest applause lines for Cruz and Trump and others were when they touched those topics, standing ovations, people just loving it. Do you feel like after a bunch of progress, the last few years has seen a little bit of a loss of ground? Not a little bit a loss. And we have become the targets. And when I say we, I mean all gay trans people or, you know, the whole alphabet of it, all of us together. Right. And if we don't stand together while they attack the most vulnerable of our people, one percent of the population and less than 1% is trans. And those are the people that they're

going after. It's very dangerous. It's very depressing. And it's a very Nazi-esque tactic. And it should terrify everyone. We have made progress, very much so in my lifetime, the concept as a little girl who was 10 and knew she was gay, thinking that she could become a famous entertainer and be gay. There were none that were out. Maybe when I was 13, Elton John came out, and it was a big thing, and who was going to still buy his records. And, you know, but I was raised on a strong foundation of feminism and I am an ardent feminist. And I believe that women's equality, gay equality, minority equality across the board, all of us need to get band together and, and protect, define, and declare ourselves. Again, the concept that as a woman we are fighting again for bodily autonomy is enough to make you want to just, you know, I can't even believe that it's occurring. And I can't.

This illegal SCOTUS, this horrible, ridiculous SCOTUS. I don't know why Joe Biden is against expanding the court. I have always felt like, well, you know, that's what you got to do when when they're passing decisions like they have been lately. Yeah, but yet it's gay people. We are definitely in the target. And and it's it's gone backwards in a way that our whole country seems to be lately. And and now the time is the time to stand strong and arm in arm and know that we are better than their ideals and their misogyny and their bigotry. Yeah. And I can assure you that if Trump or DeSantis win in 24, we're not going in the right direction. That's for sure.

For damn sure. Yeah, for damn sure. But the Republican Party doesn't exist anymore as it used to. It's now nothing but, you know, a criminal enterprise which is is wreaking havoc on on the nation. Absolute last thing I've said that even though I'm not a Republican and I'm not voting in the Republican primary, there's very clearly one sane guy there, and that's Chris Christie, and that I would disagree with him, I'm sure, on policy in so many different ways. But he's at least operating in the real world. What's your view of the Republican primary right now?

You know, he is operating in the real world, but he was a Trump kiss ass at the Trump time. And, you know, that whole Brooklyn, the George Washington Bridge escapade, you know, I remember that, too. It's picky and petty and ridiculous. And you don't want somebody who thinks and acts that way in any kind of role of power. But of all the Republicans, he is the one who is speaking closest to the truth. You know, and I don't even I kind of find it, David, so shocking when even on with with your podcast, they talk to Republicans and what they say they think is the truth. It's almost like a delusional cult. D programmer is needed for nation with him for the nation.

And I don't know how we're ever going to get to that point. But the mountains and mountains of proof don't move them. And I wonder what will. Yeah, I don't have the answer, but we haven't found it yet. That that I can tell you, Rosie, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and I'm just so glad we were able to do this. Well, me too. Thank you. I am an ardent follower of yours. Thank you. You do very well, David. And likewise. And I follow Rosie on all platforms. Please

follow her as well. Thank you so much. Speaker 2 Thank you. Take care. Speaker 1 The weather is about to start warming up, and that often means sweating and chafing and sticking. Sheath is the men's underwear that once and for all puts an end to all of that nonsense. Our sponsor, Sheath Underwear, has designed unique boxer briefs with an ergonomic compartment built to keep everything separate and dry and cool and comfortable by allowing air to circulate everywhere it needs to be. No more readjusting all day.

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That's S.H.E.A.T.H. Underwear dot com slash Pacman code Pacman for 20 percent off. The info is in the podcast notes. Donald Trump gave two speeches over the weekend. One was in Nevada to some volunteers. It was ridiculous. I'm not even going to cover that. But I do want to play a couple of clips for you from Trump's speech in Council Bluffs,

Iowa. This one was particularly glitchy. And as you know, Donald Trump's brain malfunctions often during these events. But it actually seems to be getting even worse. In this clip, you are going to say Donald Trump, you're going to hear Donald Trump say that he will deny entry to the United States to communists, which he's said before. And I obviously can't possibly do it. Makes no sense.

Almost certainly illegal and impractical. But he says, I'm going to deny entry to communists and to markers markers. I think he means Marxists. And he says they won't be allowed into our CUNY. I didn't misspeak what I what I mean. I did misspeak. But what I mean is Trump says they won't be allowed into our CUNY. And if you're watching, you will see Trump do that glitch. He does when his brain malfunctions.

It's very weird and it's getting worse. I will also order our government to deny entry to all communists and markets. We have Marxists, fascists, communists. They're pouring into our country. We are going to deny them access to our country. Now, the one they will not be allowed into our country, we are going to deny them access to our country. Now, the one they will not be allowed into our county. It's just not going to happen. Not if Trump takes our county back.

That's for damn sure. So that was the most visually ridiculous moment. But there were also some other I don't want to say I felt bad, but I almost started thinking about maybe considering the possibility of feeling bad. Trump's asked a question here. He did this thing where he takes questions from the audience and it's always funny and sad. He's asked a question about something he has no idea about.

It's related to farmland and pipelines. Trump very obviously has no clue what this woman is talking about. And he just kind of says it's terrible, isn't it? Well, I have a plan. I have a plan. No connection to the subject matter whatsoever. I'd like to know how you can help us in Iowa save our farmland from the CO2 pipeline. Speaker 1 Well, you know, we're working on that and you know, we had a plan to totally it's such a ridiculous situation, isn't it?

We had a plan to totally to do what? It's ridiculous. Speaker 2 But we had a plan and we would have instituted that plan and it was already. But we will get it back with we win. That's going to be taken care of. That will be one of the easy things we do. Yep. Hey, how will you fix this thing? Oh, well, it's terrible what's going on. We had a plan. If we win, we're going to do it very quickly. And it's just horrible what's going on with that. But we have a plan. You know that, don't you? This is what you say when you quite literally have no idea what the subject

matter is that you're being asked about. Trump then made the false claim that in blue states you can murder children. OK, listen to this. They are the radicals, not the pro-lifers, they tried to make the pro-lifers a red. No, no. When they're willing to go into eight, nine, 10 months after birth, after birth, they have laws that pass actually saying it's OK after birth. They are the radical ones. And this is an issue, if properly spoken about. It's because nobody wants to see that it's not happening. It's not true that states blue states have legalized killing children after a period of time. Many people right from the beginning. But nobody, nobody wants to see after four months, five months, six months. Death termination. Nobody wants to see it. OK, so Trump, of course, just lying about the

situation with abortion rights and in fact, abortion rights have been curtailed dramatically as a result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. We're already seeing it in a number of different states and it's disgusting and horrifying. Lastly, Trump, with a little bit of projection, he's talking about Joe Biden. But you'd think that this is actually about Trump, a man. We have a president of the United States who's a stone cold, corrupt thief. Oh, and who's willing to arrest his opponent. OK, of course, Biden, no involvement that we know of with the arrest or indictment of Donald Trump. And if we want to talk about corruption and criminality, Trump's the guy who now has,

what, 70 charges against him in total across two indictments. So the typical sort of greatest hits from Donald Trump struggling to speak very low energy speeches in front of small crowds. The campaign is getting going. And as bad as this is, the question, of course, is can anybody beat this guy in the Republican Party? Is there any appetite at all for something different than this? Polling suggests the answer is no. We have new polling. We'll look at it tomorrow. All right. I have incredibly good news and incredibly bad news about the children's book I wrote about critical thinking. You know, I joked last week, if someone tries to ban this book,

it might actually be a great thing. We now are up against the first attempt to ban the book, and it's from a school library. I'll tell you about it in a moment. So here's the good of the book. And of course, here's the copy of the book. And it's fantastic. You can find it at David Pakman dot com slash book. A lot of really good things. Number one, forty two hundred copies have been ordered so far. That's thirty eight hundred paperbacks and about four hundred Kindle copies. It seems with this book, about 90 percent of people want the physical book for the kids. Forty two hundred copies to 12 different countries. When we did this, I thought it would be a success if the book ever sold. Five hundred copies were five days in and

we've sold forty two hundred copies. Incredible. Number one Amazon bestseller in multiple categories, including children's school and education books. This is the number one book on Amazon for children's school and education books. I don't even know what I'm doing to quote the failed former president. That's all great. We're working on getting the book on Barnes and Noble. It's not up to us.

Barnes and Noble is announcing a major delay in approving any new authors for self publishing. I can't control it. As soon as Barnes and Noble lets us on, it will be available there. We're constantly releasing because we can tweak the manuscript at any time. We're constantly making little tweaks and finding small things to correct or improve. It's the same book. It'll just get a little more sophisticated over time. But here's the bad. We are now seeing the first attempt to ban it. I heard from a I can't tell if it's I guess it is a librarian or a library employee at a school in North Carolina. OK, she's asking to be identified only as bookie. I like that. She says the following. Hey, David, I work in the

school library in North Carolina in a part of the state that's more liberal, but we have lots of conservative parents from the surrounding rural areas who bring their kids to school. I regularly buy new books for the library. And for the first week, we put them in a new book section near the front door. I got a copy of your book and regularly see kids looking at it. I saw the I guess this means mothers. It's a there's a typo here, but I believe it means the mothers of two kids page through it, whisper to each other and then tell me they want to file a complaint about the book. Our school, thankfully, hasn't been overrun by the MAGA crazies. So there really isn't even a complaint process for books. So I told them to talk to the principal or superintendent. They were indignant, saying you can just get whatever books you want as the

librarian. I explained that as the librarian, that is part of my job ordering books. I haven't heard anything since, but I will let you know what happens. Please keep my name private and don't mention the school, but you can call me bookie in North Carolina. Keep up the great work. Okay. She actually didn't even mention her real name nor, um, nor what school this is going on at. So listen, somebody didn't like something. And again, you know, I got a couple of complaints from people saying, David, the kid that looks like Trump in the book, it's it politicizes the book. And now this is this is the picture of the kid that looks like Trump. You shouldn't have done that, folks. You all know who I am. You all know my show. This is it's just it's just a picture of a kid that looks like Trump.

It's part of the thing. If it angers conservatives, then so be it. Trump lies about crowd sizes all the time. That's the kind of joke that's told in the book. It's really not a big deal. Let's all relax so you can get the book at David Pakman dot com slash book. Very important. Please leave a review. We've sold forty two hundred copies and there's only 80 reviews.

If we could get three, four, five hundred reviews, it would just blow the book up because so much of the recommendations algorithm is based on reviews. So forget about if you've already bought the book. That's great. Thank you. Please make sure if you bought the book that you review the book. Really important. David Pakman dot com slash book. We have a voicemail number. That number is two one nine two. David P. Here is a voicemail from someone who says Brian Tyler Cohen is way hotter than me. All right. Hey, I think I have the right number. Hey, baby, just wanted to say that you're really smug and full of yourself and, uh, Brian Tyler, come on.

We had her. Thanks. Bye. All right. Thank you. Yep. All right. So the news there is I'm smug and full of myself and Brian Tyler Cohen is way hotter.

Well, listen, call Brian and tell him that I don't need you to call me. All right. Just leave me alone. Call all the people who are hotter than me and tell them I don't need you bringing me this bad news. We have a fantastic bonus show today. Joe Biden is defending the decision to give cluster bombs to Ukraine. Not everybody likes that decision. Florida is banning driver's licenses for immigrants living

in the United States illegally, even if they have a driver's license. And the FDA is being asked to look at this Logan Paul energy drink that has the caffeine of six Coke cans. This stuff is dangerous. And we've interviewed emergency room doctors about it. We'll talk about it on the bonus show. Sign up for the bonus show at join Pacman dot com. Help us make a little money on the bonus show. Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. Yeah. Help us out. You can use the coupon code indicted again. Join Pacman dot com bonus show commercial free audio and video feeds of the show. It is all happening at join Pacman dot com. We'll see you then. We'll be back tomorrow.