The David Pakman Show - 7/25/24: Biden addresses nation, Trump addresses sycophants at rally

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Jorge Valdes, founding member of the group that went on to become the Medellin Drug Cartel, joins David to discuss his relationship with Pablo Escobar, his time in prison, and his work trafficking 95% of America's cocaine -- President Joe Biden addresses the nation and explains why he has chosen to step aside, not run for re-election, and endorse Kamala Harris -- Donald Trump holds an outrageous and deranged rally where he glitches badly, confuses Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley, and struggles to speak -- FBI Director Christopher Wray says during a hearing that he is not yet sure whether Donald Trump was struck by a bullet or some kind of shrapnel at his assassination attempt -- Kamala Harris goes after Donald Trump on the topic of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights at her latest rally -- On the Bonus Show: Exploring Kamala Harris' TikTok surge, Michigan outlaws the "gay panic" defense in criminal trials, Salt Lake City confirmed as host of 2034 Winter Olympics, much more... 📰 Subscribe to The Washington Post for just $0.25/week at https://washingtonpost.com/pakman 🧦 Strideline: Use code PAKMAN for 20% off at https://strideline.com 🪒 Henson Shaving: Use code PAKMAN for FREE blades at https://hensonshaving.com/pakman 🥦 Lumen lets you master your metabolism. GET 15% OFF at https://lumen.me/pakman ⚠️ Try Ground News and get 40% OFF the Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman -- Become a Member: https://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- Pakman Discord: https://www.davidpakman.com/discord -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave a Voicemail: (219)-2DAVIDP

. We heard from Kamala Harris yesterday. We heard from Donald Trump, but we also heard from outgoing President Joe Biden. And I want to focus in first on the Oval Office address that he delivered at 8 p.m. last night. I was live on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook streaming this. And the reaction of many of you, many in the audience was very similar to the reaction that I had. This is a display in humility, the likes of which forget about. We would never see from Donald Trump. We would never expect nor even consider remotely possible for someone like Trump to do what President Biden has done, which is to say, I think I'm a good person for this job.

I think I've done well, but I am not the best positioned person to carry it forward and therefore I am going to step aside. We knew that the content of the speech was going to be a reinforcement of Joe Biden's decision not to run for reelection and to endorse Kamala Harris. What I didn't necessarily expect. And maybe I was just wrong not to expect it, because the truth is, I know Biden is a humble guy. As far as politicians who believe they should be running the free world go right, which implicit in that there is, of course, some ego. I know of Biden as a humble guy, but the humility that he expressed was refreshing in a context where you have egomaniacal narcissists like Trump insisting that they should be in power

and the sole decision makers on every issue. So let's get to what I think were kind of like the core or critical couple minutes of President Biden's speech last night. My fellow Americans, I'm speaking to you tonight from behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office. In this sacred space, I'm surrounded by portraits of extraordinary American presidents. Thomas Jefferson wrote the immortal words that guide this nation. George Washington showed us presidents are not kings. Abraham Lincoln, who implored us to reject malice. Franklin Roosevelt, who inspired us to reject fear. I revere this office, but I love my country more.

It's been the honor of my life to serve as your president. But in the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it's more important than any title. I draw strength and I find joy in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our union, it's not about me. It's about you, your families, your futures. It's about we, the people.

We can never forget that. And I never have. I've made it clear that I believe America is at an inflection point. One of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now will determine our fate of our nation and the world for decades to come. Yes. America's going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division. We have to decide, do we still believe in honesty decency respect freedom justice and democracy

in this moment we can see those we disagree with not as enemies but as as fellow americans can we do that does character and public life still matter i believe I know the answer to these questions because I know you, the American people, and I know this. We are a great nation because we are good people. One of the most remarkable things about this entire situation, which at this point, to some degree, there's a feeling of inevitability that this is the direction the Democratic nomination is going to go by saying I will not run for reelection by showing this level of humility, by putting the country first, by putting the country ahead of if I stay in for my own reasons, it seems more likely Trump wins. And that's a really bad thing. He's reminding us Trump is constitutionally

unable to even consider thinking about the world in this way. But Joe Biden sets himself up to be remembered in history as one of the most successful one term presidents, one term to a degree by choice, although some would say, no, no, no, it's not by choice. It's it's lose to Trump or get out. But put that aside for a moment. Getting the country out of the covid pandemic with better economic standing than any of our wealthy Western allies and reorienting course, which matters much more if it doesn't go right back to Trump in January. And President Biden closing this address to the American people by saying it's now up to you at the end of the day.

I give my heart and my soul to our nation, like so many others. I've been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people. I hope you have some idea how grateful I am to all of you. The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule, the people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The power is in your hands.

The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith. Keep the faith. And remember who we are. We're the United States of America. And there's simply nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.

So let's act together. Preserve our democracy. We do it together. So let's act together, preserve our democracy. God bless you all. May God protect our troops. This is the sort of speech that while in a way it's kind of unremarkable. Listen, you realize you can't win and now you're coming up with the way to put the most positive spin on it. It takes something to be able to do this that many elected officials simply don't have in them. And Trump is certainly at the top of that list. So a very clear, decisive Joe Biden last night. And now let's contrast it with Donald Trump's confused ramblings in North Carolina. Donald Trump's age and brain

coming into stark relief over the last 96 hours. Last night at a speech in North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina, Donald Trump's brain collapsed multiple times on stage. And although it started as a joke, Republicans now are running the oldest presidential nominee in American history. This guy is declining and declining quickly. Donald Trump confusing Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley. Listen to this. And, you know, they're talking about he was talking about she's talking about lifting the retirement and she's going to. So a totally confused he's talking about lifting the retirement. She's going to. So a totally confused. He's talking about she's talking about Kamala Harris is not talking about raising the retirement

age. Nikki Haley was talking about raising the retirement age. And Trump regularly gets confused. Was it Pelosi or Nikki Haley? Was it Kamala or Nikki Haley? Trump doesn't know what's going on. Trump also struggling to speak instead of abortion, using the word in boat in boat and glitching and trying to recover. Lion Kamala is also a total. And by the way, of course, referring to her as Kamala rather than Kamala.

Lion Kamala is also a total radical on a word called in. Do you know this? Right. Oh, we're in button at you know this, right? In button at you know this, right? A word called in. But do you know this, right? A word called what abortion? She's a radical. The entire speech was a struggle for the failed former president, Trump, again, rehashing these stories of Hannibal Lecter. We actually may have gotten an explanation as to why Trump is obsessed with Hannibal Lecter.

I'm going to tell you in a moment, in jails, mental institutions and insane asylums. You know, they go crazy when I say the late great Hannibal Lecter. Okay. They say, why would he mention Hannibal Lecter? He must be cognitively in trouble. No, no, no. These are real stories. Hannibal Lecter from silence of the lamb. No, no, no. These are real stories.

Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lamb is a lovely man. He wants to have you for dinner. He'd like to have you. OK, so here's the possible explanation. We've been trying to figure out why is Trump obsessed with Hannibal Lecter? Why does Trump seem to think Hannibal Lecter is a historical figure rather than a character from a movie? Here's the best we've been able to come up with so far. Trump seems to be confusing migrants seeking asylum and insane asylums.

This may be what's going on in Trump's head. Trump is aware of the I guess the character Hannibal Lecter, who he might think is a historical figure, Hannibal Lecter in an insane asylum, which we might call a psychiatric institution. And then Trump hears about how there are people coming from south of the border seeking asylum. And Trump believes that they are coming from so-called insane asylums, which connects back to Hannibal Lecter. I know that what I'm saying is crazy. How could anyone believe that? It's the best explanation that we have so far. And it's not a great one, but at least it's something. And it shows you the deranged mind of this

orange man. Trump also, when referring to Kamala Harris, saying that Kamala Harris is against the Jewish people. What she's doing is she's running away from Israel. She refuses to go to Bibi Netanyahu. Yahoo is in Washington. Netanyahu refuses to be even if you're against Israel or you're against the Jewish people, show up and listen to the concept. But she's totally against the Jewish people. And it amazes me how Jewish people

will vote for the Democrats when they're being treated so disrespectfully and bad. Now, I will mention that not only did Kamala Harris not go to Bibi Netanyahu or Netanyahu, as he said, speech, neither did J.D. Vance, because they were both out on the campaign trail. Isn't it disrespectful for J.D.? J.D. Vance is running away from the Jewish people because he's a senator and he really should have been there for Bibi Netanyahu speech. This is idiotic. And of course, Kamala Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, happens to be Jewish, happens to be Jewish beyond satire and beyond parody. Donald Trump says that Kamala Harris shouldn't even be allowed to run because she has committed crimes.

And she shouldn't even be allowed to run for president. What she's done, she's committing crimes. Now of course, Trump is a convicted felon. If Kamala Harris shouldn't be allowed to run for the supposed crimes that she is allegedly committing, none of which he's enumerated, none of which he's been indicted for, nevermind convicted. If that's the case, certainly applying even any reasonable standard, Trump should not be allowed to run because he was convicted on 34 felony counts. Oh, no, that's different. One of the funniest things Trump does is pretend that he reads and he's been pretending that he's

read J.D. Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy, which I did read, by the way. It's an OK book. It's not that, of course, J.D. Vance has abandoned everything he espouses in the book. But that's a different story. It's so funny because every time Trump talks about J.D.'s book, it's obvious he hasn't read it and nobody seems to be correcting their Trump Vance administration. And he's terrific, by the way.

He's been incredible. You know, he wrote the great book on workers about how workers were being horribly taken advantage of, became a movie, big bestselling book, became a great movie, actually. And he's a great guy. Yeah, the hillbilly elegy is not really about how workers were being taken advantage of at all. It's about J.D. Vance's family upbringing, his education, going to the Marines, meeting his wife, his mama and being raised mostly by his grandmother. And yeah, I mean, I guess generically, to some degree, the fact that there aren't a lot of great jobs in certain parts of the country is part of the book. But you can really tell every time Trump opens his mouth about this, he has no idea what

is in J.D. Vance's book. And then finally, as the confusion continues to be visible on Trump's face, Trump gets the timing of his RNC speech completely wrong. People like it. She looked good two weeks ago coming into that arena. Right. Melania. Yeah, that was six days ago that Trump delivered the RNC speech six days ago as of last night,

not two weeks ago. And Trump's just completely disoriented. So the real question we land on and I think it's a question there is no answer to. And at the same time, the answer to is obvious. How did the concern about age all of a sudden go away with Joe Biden exiting the race, given Donald Trump's obvious age related decline and the fact that he doesn't know how much time is passing, he doesn't seem to know who he's running against. He's regularly confusing Nikki Haley with all sorts of other people.

And yet we are supposed to believe that there are no concerns anymore. Well, the problem for Trump is that no matter whether the topic of age and cognition is an overt topic of discussion, the contrast with the very high energy didactic and high energy Kamala Harris couldn't possibly be more stark. And if they debate, it will be very, very obvious. So my question to you, will Trump debate Kamala Harris? I know he said he would. I know he said he would. Will Trump ultimately debate Kamala Harris or is it too big a risk? Let me know. Info at David Pakman dot com. Make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel. Make sure you're signed up for a membership at join Pacman dot com.

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went on to become the Medellin drug cartel known, of course, with Pablo Escobar. Let's get into the conversation. So you immigrated to the United States from Cuba, which may not be the obvious path for someone that ultimately gets involved with the Colombian drug cartel. So tell us tell us a little bit about that and and immigrating and then your kind of initial contact getting involved in this. So in 1966, so I was raised among a very, very wealthy family in Cuba. My father did not want to come to the U.S. My mom did. My mom, very, very religious. Then one kid's growing up in a communist country, so she wanted us to come. And so we

applied and in 1966 when I was 10, we ended up getting our visa to come to the U.S. So, but at that moment my mother stays behind. So my father, who's 40 years old, does not speak English, my mother did. My father did not speak English, comes to the United States with three little kids, 10, 9, and 5. And at that moment, it was something that was really important because it was the moment that I actually became a diehard atheist. You know, I was like, hey, you mean we're leaving Cuba because we're going to go to the United States to be with God? And now 11 of us are sleeping in a one-bedroom apartment, writing down what time we're going to take a piss because there's only one bathroom and we have no food. All that we have is black beans and rice on Monday,

red beans on Tuesday, white beans on Wednesday. So anyway, with all that, but still, my father was a man of high principle. So I studied hard and I was really focused, David. I mean, I was laser focused. I never did drugs until I was 21 years old. You know, a lot of times when I speak, I talk about like, man, I didn't even have sex until I joined the drug cartel. Now, that's probably not a good reason to join a drug cartel.

But anyway, I was the youngest employee in the Federal Reserve Bank at the age of 17. You know, straight A student at the University of Miami. And when I'm about to graduate, my accounting professor comes to me and says, look, I come from Michigan. I don't speak Spanish. If you do my Spanish clients, I'll give you secretary, office, you know, all the things a kid dreams of having, right? Now I'm going to University of Miami. I mean, I'm working at the Federal Reserve Bank full-time in the morning, you know, from 7 to 3.30. And I'm going to University of Miami full time at night. And that's my whole life. I had no social life. I mean, I looked like a nerd, really had braces. And anyway, didn't go to parties, didn't do drugs, didn't drink any alcohol. And just the first client that I ended

up having was a little grocery store. And, and you know I go in there on Mondays and every Monday and the first Monday I go in there and I see two hundred some thousand dollars and I mean I never seen anything like that in my life you know and I'm looking at the little you know typical shopping center strip joint type of stores and I'm like where the hell these people getting all this money then I come back the next Monday you know and there'm like, where the hell are these people getting all this money? Then I come back the next Monday, you know, and there's like $100,000. Anyway, over three weeks, there was $300,000 I deposited. Now we need to go back. We're going back to 1976 when there was no stigma about cocaine.

You know, it was something for the rich and famous. You know, all the Hollywood celebrities did it. Anyway, long story, when I finally asked famous. You know, all the Hollywood celebrities did it. Anyway, long story. When I finally asked them, I said, look, man, let's talk about a little accounting formula. You buy something for a dollar. You sell it for $2. You have a dollar profit. We've had $300 worth of deposit, but we've only bought $1,200 worth of groceries.

What gives? You know, anyway, they just looked at me and said, hey, we're just drug dealers. I mean, just nonchalant. Now, imagine this kid, 17-year-old kid, who had never done nothing wrong in his life. I mean, 20-year-old this time, never done anything wrong in his life. All of a sudden, to find out, I'm, you know, working for drug dealers. Well, first thing I said to him was, hey, you're an accountant. You know how we justify things.

You're an accountant. You were trained to count money as long as you don't break the law there was no money laundering laws at that time so I ended up working for them they asked me one thing led to another they asked me to open a shipping company a banana company and I thought I had it made but all of a sudden they come up to me, and they're like, hey, you work for the government, right? I said, yeah. They said, okay. You know how to open foreign bank accounts? I'm like, yeah, I know.

I knew from the Federal Reserve Bank being part of an audit team that it costs you about $750,000 in the 70s, right? So they're like, how much? I said $10,000. Now, I'm like, look, I'm going to do my accounting. They pay me $1,000 a month, which to me was like heaven. I'm making $3.50 an hour to finish their bank. And I'm like, $10,000. And they're like, all right, open three.

And I did. And one thing led to another. And then they introduced me to the guy that you will see in my documentary, Manuel Garcet, who's never, ever spoken. See, here's the funny thing. When you look at all the story, they're all made up. Right. Because who's there to talk about how it really began? There was no Medellin drug cartel. The group that I was part of that began was what eventually became the Medellin drug cartel. OK, so let me ask a couple of questions because there's a lot there. I want to make sure we don't skip over important things here.

So the mechanisms you started with were you created this banana company, which was meant to actually be the infrastructure for transporting cocaine. Is that that was the point of that corporation? Well, at that time, that was their intention. I was so naive that my intention was it was a great business. I got you. But that was their intention. The thing about that, all the facade literally just went away within six months, within six months. One thing led to another that I did on my book, Coming Clean. And they came up to me, my godfather, Manuel Garces, who started this.

Pablo worked for think about now Pablo starting in 82. We started in 76. And just so the audience knows, you're referring to Pablo Escobar because we haven't named him fully yet. You're referring to Pablo Escobar. You're this this operation you started predates the bulk of the Escobar era. Oh, totally. Escobar was a runner from my godfather in this in the early eighties. Right. And he would literally what Pablo started was going to like Peru and places like that and getting base because Colombia did not produce

cocaine and getting base. And then Colombia will crystallize it. And that's how he got started. He ended up getting a little bit of power. But I mentioned him only in the essence that everybody thinks that the million drug that was Pablo Escobar. You know, truth be told, he was not. There was a lot of people. There was two, three guys much more powerful than him,

much, much wealthier than him. He was the guy with the big mouth, right? He's the guy that wanted to take all the credit. And those guys said, hey, let him take the credit. You know, as long as we make the money, then take all the credit he wants to take. Were there any loyalty test type things that you were subjected to as you were given more responsibility? You know, it was David.

It was really something. It was so surreal back then. You know, it's like within six months when when my godfather starts to tell me, hey, you're going to start handling all our operations in the US. And I'm like, what the hell does that mean? He says, you're just going to start handling receiving the cocaine, distributing, collecting the money, bringing it back. I didn't even know what the hell cocaine looked like. To me, it could have been sand.

It could have been sugar. And, but you know, the things in life, you just figure it out. I'm like, look, you really don't want me to do that because now I'm opening foreign bank accounts all over the world for them. I'm meeting with ministers of finance in Liechtenstein, Grand Cayman, Tortola, you know, Switzerland. And I'm like, you really don't want to mix this up. He said, don't worry, it'll be fine. It was such a different world back then, right? Again, because there was no violence.

There was no ice. If you look at the clips I sent you in my video, the first undercover DEA agent in my case, you know, who ended up becoming a good friend of mine, he tells you, he said, look ended up becoming a good friend of mine. He he tells you, he said, look, the first targets were you, Emmanuel. When we found out the amount of cocaine you were bringing in, he blew our mind only because my attorney was ratting on me.

I had no clue about it. So let me ask you about that. You say you were involved in trafficking. Ninety five percent of the cocaine that ended up in the U.S. market in the 80s. What does that look like day to day? Like how much is that? Speaker 4 Okay. So in the 70s, because I went to prison in 1980.

So in the 70s, we were bringing in, let's say, 600 kilos a month. Speaker 1 Okay. Speaker 4 A month minimum that the least month was 600 kilos. And we're selling it at 70,000 in California. That's $42 dollars a month. Now, this is 1977 money. Right. Oh, and from there on, we have months where we brought in 1200 kilos, you know, and so we were doing anywhere between 40 to 70 million dollars

every month. They said that the Federal Reserve Bank had more cash in Miami than all the Federal Reserve Banks combined. Sorry that that the cartel had the money, in Miami than all the federal banks combined. Sorry that that the cartel had the money, right? I think you misspoke there or the federal. Oh, you're saying the Federal Reserve Bank in Miami, because of the money being handled for cocaine, exceeded all of the other Federal Reserve deposits combined. Wow. OK. The federal government. Yeah. It was probably the only era where trickle-down economics really worked. Right? Right.

We built Miami. Because the thing with us, as opposed to trickle-down economics with anybody else, we spread all the money. It all went back into the community. We were buying houses, building buildings, buying cars. You know, Miami became, Miami went from a town where all people would go to retire and die to a booming city out of the ashes. Can you talk a little bit about there's a portrayal, whether you read the book Killing Pablo or you look at, you know, the recent miniseries

with Sofia Vergara about Griselda Blanco or whatever portrayal the blow, etc.. One of the characteristics that comes through is that eventually life gets very cheap on a whim because of a look someone doesn't like. People get killed and that's it. Can you talk about whether that's an accurate representation of what went on or whether that's a fictionalization? That is an accurate description of what eventually went on. Come the 80s, come Pablo. See, that was the whole downfall. When

Pablo started killing ministers of finance, it really did. It became down to just think about it. At one time, we were the most powerful criminal organization on Earth. Bar none. Pablo is the only man to ever bring a government to his knees to surrender a government. But yet now today, there's two of us alive. Everybody else dead. There's nobody around. And the thing about it is what they fictionalize in those stories.

And that's one of the reasons why I've always fought. You know, when my book came out in 98, I got offers left and right. When Cooking Cowboys and Netflix came out, I got offers left and right. And I've always turned them down because, you know, look, I'll be honest. I watch knuckles and I enjoy watching. I hated Sofia Vergara, Griselda. That's the biggest voice ever in history. The biggest lie, the biggest con. At least the other ones have elements of truth. Because I always sit there back and I said, like, well, how would you know that that's true? Were you there? Or did you read this in some newspaper article? You know, but Griselda, she was a nobody. Anyway, that's another story. But the thing about it is that at the end of the day is like I've always said, look, media entertains or educates. I have no interest in entertaining anybody. You know, people write to me, man, if you tell more cartel stories, you'll have a million followers. David, I don't give a damn.

I couldn't care less. I don't care about followers. I a multi-million dollar company I retired I have no debt I live a heck of a life so my mission in life is to tell people listen you can screw your life up but you know what it doesn't have to end the way it began there's faith there's a God who forgives there's redemption you can become better you can become productive you know and that's that's the message that we're going to get out in shadow of the wolf but because i'm just not i mean even cooking cowboys netflix will tell you i told them no three years in a row i will not be part of that because of what you just said they sensationalized our life and sure it was exciting look i was 21 years old making one to three million dollars a month in 1977 you want to talk about fun of course course it was fun. But I'm always sensitive to the fact that there's a mother there watching

that's going to say, I buried a child because of you guys. Or a child saying, hey, I never met my father because of what you began. You know, well, we began, we thought, we used to tell ourselves, hey, we're the Kennedys of the 20th century. We're not harming anybody.

There's no violence with us. All of our clients at the beginning were in Hollywood. We're not harming anybody. There's no violence with us. All of our clients at the beginning were in Hollywood. We're all the movie stars, all the rich and famous people that you can imagine. Everybody. I mean, I remember a movie star buying two kilos a month, 140,000 just for parties. Wow. It's crazy. I've had such trouble finding a great razor where I am not cutting myself for getting

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Can you tell us about the issue you had with Pablo Escobar that led to him ordering your murder? So and I'll predate to this because it's something that's that's really important. Pablo. So I ended up in 1985, 86. I ended't know, 20, 30, 40 loads with Pablo. I knew one thing. I knew that there was people that were losing their loads and there was one common thread. Pablo was not involved in that load. In other words, he did not have any cocaine in it. And my assumption was, you know, he's probably telling on him or getting him killed. So I went and I told my godfather look if we're

bringing 600 kilos let's divide it give 200 to Pablo and let gotcha the other guy who's much more powerful than Pablo 200 and we're bringing 200 so we're charging him seven thousand dollars it was costing me about four thousand dollars a kilo so I'm still making money on his so he comes up to me says I want to offer insurance. I'm like, insurance? What are you talking about? And he's like, I'm going to tell people that I'm going to charge him $10,000. If the load gets lost, I will return the cocaine to him in Colombia. I'm like, Pablo, we've never lost a load. Why would you want to do that? He said, every three loads, I'm going to tell him I lost one. And I'm going to give him the cocaine back in Colombia at, you know, five, six thousand dollars, whatever it was at that time. And yet I'm going to

have two, three hundred kilos that somebody else paid for in the U.S. So great business deal for him. But, you know, I looked at him and this is what I tell people. I try to always live my life never walking the line, because if you walk the line sooner or later, you're going to step off. You're going to step out of bounds. So therefore, I said to him, look, Pablo, I'm not interested in it. You can offer all the insurance you want. Nobody knows me. They're all your clients.

But it's a lie. And I don't participate in a lie. A year and a half goes by. And he did God knows how many. A year and a half goes by. And he did God knows how many. A year and a half goes by. And, well, predate that. So one of my really great contacts in Colombia that was part of the original group gets drunk one party and tells everybody, Pablo's got a lot more fame, but I got a lot more money. He did. Pablo had him killed.

I mean, they did not end up killing him coming out of a fruit stand, but Pablo went into the hospital and killed himself. One thing that Pablo did, if he killed you, he killed every male in your family. So he ended up killing his brothers. And there was one son who was 11 years old. The guy that was the person I dealt with in the U.S., Frank's contact in the U.S., came to me to Miami with this kid and said, hey, the only place you're going to be safe is in your house. So I called Pablo and I told him. And he just hung up the phone. But everything was fine. Two years go by the kid's mother and I'll show you why this relevant the kid's mother goes and calls me a year and a half

later says hey I want my son back it's Christmas I said you sure he's doing really good I got him in private school all the story anyway long story is she sends for him Pablo hasn't killed at the airport 13 year old kid the guy that brought him to me ends up becoming one of Pablo's hitmen. We're bringing in the first load that ever left Colombia to Mexico. We brought him in. We brought him. So one of those loads, there was a big, it was going to go to Juarez, Mexico. And there was a big federal operation going on. So the plane got deviated outside of Houston in the Mexican side right and everything was fine everybody got the load and all that two weeks later this guy that brought me the kid who I took care for a year and a half Victor says I need to talk to you now I knew something was up because he would have come to my office but yet yet, I'm like, where do you want to talk? He says, I'll meet you at Dalen Mall. I'm like, all right.

So everybody, hey, don't go. You know, this sounds weird. So I'm like, look, I'm going to go and I'm going to go without nobody. Because at the end of the day, I'm not going to start a fight with anybody. You know, it's crazy. So I meet him and I'm like, what's up? He said, Pablo put a hit on you. And give it to me. And I'm like, what are you? He said, Pablo put a hit on you and give it to me.

And I'm like, what are you talking about? He said, well, this happened. You know that airstrip you guys landed outside of Houston? It was Pablo's. When he found out, the guy running the strip told him that you said that it was okay. So I'm like, hold on. So we called Columbia and got a hold of Pablo. And I said, first and foremost, I did not know that it was your strip.

Had I known, I would have asked you and you would have to give it to me the way I give you mine. And second of all, and most important of all, I don't lie. And you know that. And then he just hung up the phone and done. And at that point, the hit was off. It was off. And my godfather mentions in the documentary, he's like, you know, you had a lot of guts, man, because he kills people in a whim. But you know, I know somehow in the back of his mind when I said, you know, I don't lie.

Most of click that transaction that we had, which I could have made two million dollars for doing your line with him. Right. But I didn't, you know, as the as as the federal government took more of an interest in cocaine smuggling, what sorts of everyday practices did you adopt with regard to communication, counter surveillance, et cetera? You know, we had such a sophisticated operation like one of the things that was really I look at it now, it's funny. The first fax machine that came out they were canon right it was ten thousand dollars we would transmit

through the fax machine like okay a hundred kilos to such and such or we sold that whatever all our transactions if the line was bugged the transaction would not go through it would be gargled up so we would know even though that we had every day, we have people checking our telephone line. You know, we're paying. You know, I talk about I tell my kids, listen, quit the bickering about politicians because I promise you one thing. David, we're spending a million dollars a month in the late seventies paying off politicians. There was the belief, in other words, that anybody could be bought if necessary. Anybody could be bought and everybody was bought. I'll tell you what, we were never able to buy

an FBI agent or a DEA agent. We were able to buy customs. We bought customs left and right. We brought loads, literally 600 kilos right through Miami International Airport every Thursday of the month for three years. So, and politicians left and right. So, at the end of the day, they care about one thing, themselves. So, like I told you, you're going to make it. It's going to be up to you to make it, not up to anybody else to make it, you know. So, because we had that amount of influence, we just knew everything that was going on. Because at the end of the day, like with law enforcement, we're paying people to simply say, look, there's an operation or they're looking at you here or they're looking at you there.

I mean, it doesn't compromise them because we didn't want to. In my documentary now, I do have one police officer from Miami Police Department who recently came out and then ended up saying how he ended up working for me. But we knew everything that was going on before it was ever happened. We knew what Janet Reno was doing before she even stepped out of her office, before she even left home. So, you know, it's the amount of money that, OK, two things, the amount of money that we're doing. And at the same time, the fact that cocaine was something that was not a stigma made it very easy to buy people, you know, and it was and we did it all day long. How does it feel now that you're out of this to know that you were involved in a business that led to people dying that

didn't have to die. Innocent people in the cases of the family members, etc. How does it feel? Speaker 4 You know, it's funny. It's not funny. It's sad because that's the reason why I've always restrained. Look, when I was being offered a million dollars for the rights to my story, they had no money. I came out of prison dead broke, and I did not give in. And it's been now 28 years before I decided to really tell the story, exactly because of that. You know, we can justify, well, you know, I wasn't part of that violence,

but I was part of the beginning. I was part of something that led to the violence. And that's what happens in life with substantia. You know, it's like, hey, look, it's you're just as guilty for stabbing someone as someone that holds that person, you know, that type of a thing. So, yeah, and I live with that. And what I do, which now I sent, we've sent over 180,000 books to 800 persons across the US, you know, a book to give people hope. And the letters that we get are immense.

And people say, well, is that what you're doing? I said, look, there's nothing I can do, nothing to make up for what I did. Nothing. You know, I tell my kids this. Listen, anyone that breaks the law, selfish. It's selfish. Because the thing about it is the only victim, the only non-victims are you the lawbreaker the criminal because you chose to do that but you got children you got wives you got parents i destroyed my parents

spent 10 years in jail the first 10 years of my children's life i was in prison so you do all that how do you ever get that back you just can't so what So what I do, I can't make up for the wrong that I did. Yeah, you repent and you live with it for the rest of your life. And then at least you try to do something not to make up for the wrong, but something to try to make some good out of that bad. You know, and how how do you ultimately get caught? Well, in first of all, in 1979, I made a deal with the president of Bolivia. And at that time, I had never gotten in an airplane. But so when I went to Bolivia, as the airplane went to Bolivia to load up, I had to go and meet with Somoza in Nicaragua. And there was at that time, there was not that many flights from South and Latin America to the U.S. as they are now, as you know.

So anyway, I ended up getting on the airplane and we landed in Colombia. We fueled up. Everything was fine. Then on our way to Nicaragua, we crash landed in Panama. Both alternators went out. We couldn't get the fuel out. Long story, I got caught. The two pilots broke and I was tortured for 29 days where I bled for the next five years every time I took a pee. And, you know, but in the recent that and this is what I tell my children, this is why truth to me matters so much. You know, if there's no truth in the world, then what really matters? Right.

And we look and look at the world where people just accept people that lie and they don't give a damn. I said, look, I said, I did not lay in that jail in the Panamanian prison because I wanted people to look good at me. I didn't want it because I didn't want ever anyone to have to make my children lower their head because their father was not a man. I knew what I was doing. I made the choices that I made. Nobody made me do what I did. I went to prison for 10 years. I got tortured. I did all that on my own volition. It's the consequences. I didn't live in a lululand. You make choices, you got consequences.

And that's what happened in my life. I got out of prison the first time. And I went back to the same thing that I did before, only out of anger, you know, because I felt like I was kidnapped in Panama, brought to Macon, Georgia, which I'd never been in my entire life, charged, given 15 years sentence. At that time, I had the highest bond in the history of America. I was 23 years old. And then I came out and I want to get even but then the world changed that's when Pablo started and all the violence and it wasn't me

and through a series of encounters one with my daughter was I got to walk and knowing that walk I might even end up getting killed but I ended up going back to prison I mean I walked I was retired for four years.

And then Jeff Sessions come and got me. And they're like, we're not going to let you get away with all the drug money. And I'm like, well, do you know how much money I got? And he's like, I don't. But I know who does. He got out of his office, opened the door, and four agents came out, DEA, FBI, IRS, and Custom. They knew how much toilet paper I consumed. And they're like, $65 million, we want it all. So at the age of 36, I went back to prison for another five years, 10 years sentence, because really all

they could give me was on a violation of my parole, right? I had been smoking drugs, because all they wanted was the money. It was a time when all the federal, you know, the district attorney's office were getting raided by how much money that they confiscated. So anyway, $65 million in Mobile, Alabama was more than they would ever dream of getting. So I went back to prison and I just decided I got to change my life. I got to become better. Taught myself Greek, came out, earned a master's degree and a PhD. I was one of five Hispanics in the country

with a PhD in theology, Bible, and ethics from Loyola University in Chicago. And when I figured out that I could not feed six children on a professor's house, I started a company with my wife on the basement of our house doing disaster restoration. And in 10 years, I built into a multimillion dollar company. Last thing I want to ask you, what went through your head when you found out that Pablo Escobar

had been killed? I knew he was going to get killed. He and I had talked many, many times and he always told me this. They're never going to drag me to the u.s walking if they wanted to get me take me to the u.s it's going to be laying down so pablo ended up not getting killed honestly i'm going to tell you in my opinion and i think the only one that has said the same thing is his son and i agree pablo killed himself and he killed himself for the simple reason he knew that they were about to kill look when pablo killed those two brothers in the prison and they put a hit and the rest of the cartel formed what was called PEPES, people against Pablo Escobar. He knew that they killed all his attorneys, they killed his accountants, they bombed all his houses. He tried to get his family to leave the U.S.

I mean, to leave Colombia and come to the U.S. They wouldn't take him. Germany wouldn't take him. And they were hiding in a hotel. Pablo would get into a taxi cab with 20 cell phones and talk for two, two and a half minutes. They could never track him. This day, David, he's standing by a window with the curtain open, talking on the cell phone with his son and his wife for 20 some odd minutes. The kids are telling him, hang up up that he hang up and he did.

He's got one bodyguard. So if you look with the bullet into the bullet into to that earlobe, this earlobe, I mean, so I would say I would bet on it that he ended up committing suicide. I see. So in other words, it wasn't it. You're not saying he took his own life at his own hands, but he stayed on a phone call which allowed him to be tracked for long enough that authorities ultimately killed him. Speaker 4 Yeah. I mean, think about it. When the guy that saw him and they got voice recognition tracking

him, right. All this technology from the US, the guy's looking at him in the window and is like calling the office like it sounds like Pablo, but it can be, you know, like I think impossible. He's not that stupid. But, you know, I think it was I know that it will come to an end shortly. And that's how he would end it. We have been speaking with Dr. Jorge Valdez, founding member of the group that went on to become the Medellin drug cartel.

Really appreciate your time and your insights today. David, I really enjoy your show. Keep it up. Right now, we are seeing candidates do whatever it takes to win your vote and how the media chooses to cover certain stories, if at all, can completely shape your perspective of those candidates. But our sponsor, Ground News, is an awesome resource at a time like this with their vantage plan. I get access to what's called their blind spot feed that shows me stories that can be easily missed.

For instance, I'm looking here at Ground News, a summary about Trump distancing himself from Project 2025 amid its rising controversy, something we've been talking about. Ground News provides a great summary of the situation based on over 100 articles that Ground News found reporting on it. And Ground News shows me that almost no conservative news outlets are covering the story. Not a surprise. Ground News shows us that the right wing outlets only report on how Trump is denying involvement with the project, while the center and left outlets are actually giving context on Trump's

connections to the movement of Project 2025. Every story comes with this visual breakdown of the political biases and ownership of the reporting news outlets, which is really important to know as well. Go to ground dot news slash Pacman or scan my QR code for 40 percent off the same unlimited access vantage plan that I use. FBI Director Christopher Wray, selected by Donald Trump, of course, testified yesterday and said he is not yet sure whether Donald Trump's ear was struck by a bullet or some kind of shrapnel. Now we're going to listen to the video. What's very interesting about this is that early on there were I don't want to call it

a rumor, but there was just lack of clarity. Did Trump get hit by a bullet or was it some kind of shrapnel, maybe glass, maybe metal, maybe something else? And a lot of people were angry with me saying, David, you're speculating. You're not you don't know that you don't know this. Trump said it was a bullet. And I pointed out, yeah, we we really only have Trump's word. We have no report from the hospital.

We have the picture where there is a bullet going behind Trump. But that bullet may have missed him altogether. We don't know that that is a bullet going behind Trump, but that bullet may have missed him altogether. We don't know that that's the bullet that hit Trump. We just don't know. I have no stake in this. Either way, someone tried to kill Trump. It doesn't make a difference.

It's still deplorable what happened. It's a security failure. It's disgusting. It's not how we decide elections in the United States, or at least not how we should. I just don't know. Was it a bullet or was it shrapnel? I have no stake in this. Beyond that, We now have Christopher Wray saying there is a question at the FBI as to what did strike Donald Trump. I think with with respect to former President Trump,

there's some question about whether or not it's a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that his ear. So it's conceivable, although, as I say right now, I don't know whether that bullet, in addition to, you know, causing the grazing could have also landed somewhere else. But I believe we've accounted for all of the shots in the cartridges. So let us. So listen, it's it's just a question. And Christopher Wray is saying he doesn't know. Now, the political relevance would be Trump playing up while he initially said it felt like a mosquito. Later, he said, I knew it could only be a bullet. And we still kind of don't really know in the

sense that the FBI says we're not sure and we don't have a medical report from the hospital to look at. I know Ronny Jackson wrote a note about fixing up Trump's ear, but that doesn't really tell us anything about what happened at the hospital. So that's that. That's as far as the information has gotten. Now, one other interesting moment from Christopher Ray's hearing is Congressman Matt Gaetz tried to go after Christopher Ray, suggesting he's part of some kind of cover up to hide President Biden's cognitive decline.

Didn't go particularly well for Matt Gaetz. So when did you notice his decline? In my interactions, in my role, all my interactions with the current president have been completely professional. Right. But I mean, his the cognitive decline. I'm saying he treated you unprofessionally, just maybe not picking things up as quickly as he used to. Again, I I don't meet with him very often, but what you're describing is not something that I've observed during my interactions with him. I mean, we've had it observed so often that the ranking member and Mr. Schiff on this committee

have said that he could no longer continue as a candidate. And so since you're the FBI director, I was just sort of wondering, like, who's running the country? If something bad happened, you have to go brief President Biden about it right now? God forbid? And I, on any number of occasions, I have briefed the president. And as I said, those briefings have all been uneventful and unremarkable. Oh, I could imagine them being uneventful. But in the work where the vice president's also present, like you say there's like more than half the time there's these briefings, she's there too? I don't know if I'd said more than half the time.

Certainly there have been times where she's been present. There have been other times where she hasn't. I take you at your word when you say this is the most complicated threat environment you've ever observed over a long career in law enforcement. And I'm just kind of wondering, with this assassination attempt, with the invasion at our border, with all the Hamas that have been let in, you've talked about and briefed about, like, biden up to it and if he's not up to it and you're a guy who's been regularly briefing him like who who's been in on this conspiracy to hide the real joe biden from all of us for years it never occurred to you that this guy wasn't up to it in all these briefings you did as i said my briefings with the president have all been completely fine. Were they between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.? He's asked questions. There hasn't been anything of note in the area that you're talking about. Did you ever have to brief him before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m.?

We hear those are his good hours. I can't, I've certainly times that I have briefed have included outside those hours. Right. Okay. I just, you know I have briefed have included outside those hours. Right. OK. I just you know, I think the American people want to know how we got to this point. Yeah. So that line of questioning really not getting too far. And Trump saw this and did not like it. After watching this, Trump took to Truth Central where he said, quote, I watched the congressional hearing today as Christopher Wray was asked the question whether or not he noticed any cognitive degeneration in his many conversations with crooked Joe Biden. And despite the fact that special counsel Robert Herr said effectively that Joe Biden is incompetent with little memory.

Remember that that's not what Robert Herr said. Wray said that it is not something I observed during my interactions with him, which were uneventful and unremarkable, essentially stating he found nothing wrong mentally or physically with Joe. If that's the case, Director Ray should resign immediately from the FBI. Yeah. You know, the FBI director is not there to make mental or physical health assessments of the president.

He's just saying, I briefed the guy and I didn't notice anything, which, of course, is not super remarkable since we have observed that much of the time Biden is fine and sometimes he's not. And certainly there's some there seems to be something about the time of day that relates to that. So this all seems like a fishing expedition for Matt Gates that went really nowhere, but all in service to covering up the statement from Ray that he's not even sure Trump was shot with a bullet. And that is really the part of this that needs to be explored. So I want to update you on Kamala Harris's campaign and public speeches. You know, on Monday, as we covered, Kamala Harris gave a speech in which she focused in on Trump's a sexual predator. Trump's a con man. Trump's a criminal.

He has run scams. He's been convicted of crimes. On Tuesday, Kamala Harris had a speech focused in on Project 2025, both extremely important areas to go after Trump on. She already is doing more than Biden has been doing with regard to that. Yesterday, Kamala Harris focused in on a different aspect of Trump, which is he selected the Supreme Court justices that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Critical, critical, because we know that the American public is not happy with what happened

with Roe v. Wade. We who believe that every person in our nation should be free from bigotry, discrimination, and hate, will continue to fight for equality and justice for all. because one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do. You know, when he was president, Donald Trump, former president, handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to overturn Roe v. Wade. The United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to overturn Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court, previously the court of Thurgood and RBG. And as he intended, they did.

Well let me tell you something, when I am president of the United States and when Congress passes a law to restore those freedoms, I will sign it into law. It is of critical importance to focus in on what activates voters. And we have seen very little activate voters more than this issue of Roe v. Wade, women's medical and bodily autonomy, autonomy and the attempt from people like Trump, Supreme Court justices and Republicans to curtail and restrict that. So it really seems like Kamala Harris is hitting all of the right notes here, going after Trump for his personal failings, going after Trump for his connection to Project 2025 and the

seeming inevitability of its implementation if Trump were to win and now going after one of the biggest areas where the country is not with Republicans. And that is the issue of Roe v. Wade abortion and women's bodily autonomy. She's doing a lot of things right. It is not a guarantee that she wins. It is so early. It's 100 day campaign, which is both short and long in different ways. But so far, you have to like the tone that Kamala Harris is striking here. Now, on the bonus show today, we are going to talk about the insane

tick tock surge of Kamala Harris. What's driving it? Why is it happening? How is it helping her? We will talk about Michigan becoming the next state to outlaw the gay panic defense. Yes, they only just outlawed it. What is the gay panic defense? It's also now more broadly called the gay and trans panic defense. And we will also discuss Salt Lake City being awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics. Is this even good for cities and states anymore? That's the question we will ask and seek to answer on today's bonus We'll be right back.