The David Pakman Show - 8/20/24: DNC DAY 1, Biden crushes, Trump implodes, Santos sobs

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Steve Schmidt, renowned political strategist, commentator, and founder of The Warning, joins David to discuss the changing dynamics of the presidential race, the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Donald Trump's best strategy at this point, the selection of JD Vance as Trump's running mate, and much more... -- The first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago includes one of Joe Biden's best speeches as President, speeches from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Hillary Clinton, Jill Biden, and Donald Trump flipping out while sitting at home -- Donald Trump is absolutely terrified that Kamala Harris' DNC speech this Thursday will have a larger audience than Trump's recent RNC speech -- A disgusting George Santos sobs while wearing a Star of David after pleading guilty to multiple crimes, now facing 6-8 years in prison -- A sedated Trump glitches badly while supposedly speaking about the economy in Pennsylvania, causing Fox News to cut away -- Donald Trump is interviewed at his event nominally about "economic policy," and it does not go well -- On the Bonus Show: Republicans wrap up impeachment inquiry with no impeachment, Kamala Harris proposes raising corporate tax rate to 28%, Trump Media shares drop to new low as failure continues, much more... 💵 Sponsored by Ridge Wallet: Shop and enter their sweepstakes at https://ridge.com/pakman 📰 Subscribe to The Washington Post for just $0.25/week at https://washingtonpost.com/pakman ⚠️ Try Ground News and get 40% OFF the Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep: Get up to 20% OFF + 2 free pillows at https://helixsleep.com/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

Speaker 1 Welcome, everybody. Night one of the Democratic National Convention of 2024, unconventional in many ways. Normally, a first term president speaks on Thursday at the convention. Why? Because normally they are running for reelection and they are accepting their renomination on the final day of the convention. Not so this time. So sitting President Joe Biden, having stepped aside in lieu of Kamala Harris, spoke on the first night. It was fascinating to see the dynamic between President Biden and Kamala Harris, which we will get to truly a raucous, raucous crowd that you would typically not expect to see until nights three or four. But it was only day one. Couldn't possibly show you every speech,

but we will start with some of the primetime highlights and build up through to and including President Biden's speech. If I had to say what was the biggest problem last night, it would be that they fell dramatically behind in the scheduling. The whole point of scheduling these things is to wrap up sort of right before the 11 p.m. news on the East Coast so you can get clips of the big speeches onto the local news. President Biden didn't come out until close to 1130 p.m. Eastern Time, spoke about 50 minutes. It was well after midnight when Biden wrapped up. Other than that and the

fact that it dragged and dragged due to a number of different delays, it was very good in a lot of different ways. One of the interesting speakers, Steve Kerr, former Chicago Bulls basketball player, Golden State Warriors head coach, recent coach of the U.S. Olympic basketball team, which won gold. He said, basically, we need to replicate what the U.S. Olympic team did in the final, whichied that night, we can in the words of the great Steph Curry, we can tell Donald Trump night night. Thank you. A very good speech from just an all around good guy, Steve Kerr. Then we got into the sort of heavy hitters of the evening, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez really going after Trump with his anti union stances.

The crowd was very engaged for AOC and notable, of course, that at one point AOC was considered a party outsider and upstart, an insurrectionist, colloquially, of course, not in a little literal sense within the Democratic Party. And now her views have changed to some degree, but also very much welcomed as part of the mainstream of the Democratic Party. Because we know that Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends. And I, for one, am tired about hearing about how a two bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed,

trampling on our way of life. The truth is, Don, you cannot love this country if you only fight for the wealthy and big business. To love this country is to fight for its people. All people. Working people. Everyday Americans like bartenders and factory workers and fast food cashiers who punch a clock and are on their feet all day in some of the toughest jobs out there. One of the big themes of the night was support for workers, support for labor, support for unions and AOC even turning around the often used attack against her about being a bartender, turning it right around on those who have never had to actually work. Ever since I got elected, Republicans have attacked me by saying that I should go back

to bartending. But let me tell you, I'm happy to any day of the week because there is nothing wrong with working for a living. So a very good speech, very well received by AOC. She was followed by Hillary Clinton. Now, let me mention something about Hillary Clinton's speech. The speech was excellent. And Hillary Clinton is a very solid public speaker. There were some people on my live stream, and I hope you'll join me tonight for night two, by the way. There were people watching my live

stream who reacted by saying, oh, Hillary, can't she? I'm shocked she can even show her face again. Listen, Hillary was not my favorite candidate. Hillary was not even my preference in 2016 from all of the options that existed with regard to people who wanted to be the nominee, including Bernie Sanders and others. But a lot of this reflexive Hillary sucks stuff is what got us Trump in the first place. And it's why we don't currently have Roe v. Wade. So let's just consider the impact of what we say and do. But Hillary Clinton, you know, ironically, she talked about people being criminals and the DNC crowd chanting, lock him up about Donald Trump, which, as all of you know,

I'm for law and order. So we don't lock up Trump because we want to. We lock up Trump if a judge sentences him to that. But here there is, of course, the irony of Trump having said if it were up to him, Hillary would be in prison. As a prosecutor, Kamala locked up murderers and drug traffickers. She will never rest in defense of our freedom and safety. Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial. And when he woke up, he made his own kind of history. The first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions. As vice president, Kamala sat in the situation room.

The the irony and the knowing smile of Hillary Clinton, given how recently Trump was saying it is she who should be locked up. And Hillary Clinton wrapped up what was a very good speech by pointing out that there is a glass ceiling here. A woman is president of the United States that in 2016, Hillary herself was not able to break. But there's a real shot here for Kamala Harris to be the one who breaks it. Speaker 4 I see the freedom to look our children in the eye and say in America you can go as far as your hard work and talent will take you and mean it. And you know what? On the

other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president of the United States. Because, my friends, when a barrier falls for one of us, it falls. It falls and clears the way for all of us. So for the next 78 days, we need to work harder than we ever have. We need to beat back the dangers that Trump and his allies pose to the rule of law and our way of life. Don't get distracted or complacent. Talk to your friends and neighbors. Volunteer.

Be proud champions for the truth at this moment, that we were here and that we were with Kamala Harris every step of the way. This is our time, America. This is when we stand up. This is when we break through. The future is here. It's in our grasp. Let's go with it. All right. So are really arousing speech by Hillary Clinton showing seemingly no bitterness whatsoever that it will not be she who breaks that glass ceiling, but it very well may be Kamala Harris. And then we continued building towards Joe Biden, friend of the show. Jamie Raskin spoke and he said a lot of interesting things, including sort of comically a reminder to J.D. Vance of

why the running mate to Trump was an open position to begin with. J.D. Vance, do you understand why there was a sudden job opening for running mate on the GOP ticket. They tried to kill your predecessor. Jamie Raskin, very good at this. Also followed up by Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who did a really good job of drawing a palpable distinction between Trump and Harris. America, looking at the two choices before you, who would you hire? Donald Trump or Kamala Harris? Kamala Harris has a resume. Donald Trump has a rap sheet. And of course, those are only some of the differences between the two of them.

And then we got into President Biden's speech. Biden was introduced by his daughter, Ashley Biden, to a four minute standing ovation. And now I would like to introduce my father, your 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden. All right. And by the way, a father relating normally to his daughter, very much unlike any imagery we would see at the Republican National Convention. I won't play the full four minute standing ovation. It's people cheering for four minutes. And then Joe Biden spoke and Joe Biden addressed his age. Joe Biden made it clear that he made the decision he made because what's most important to him is what happens in this country. And it's not about him.

It's an incredible concept that is not present on the other side of the aisle at this stage of the game. And Biden's speech was quite good, I would argue, one of the best speeches of his presidency. And it felt it felt like a farewell speech in many sense. Brought us to this day. What shall our legacy, our legacy be? What will our children say? Let me know in my heart when my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you. For 50 years, like many of you, I've given my heart and soul to our nation. And I've been blessed a million times in return for the support of the American people.

I've really been too young to be in the Senate because I wasn't 30 yet and too old to stay as president. But I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you. I can honestly say and I mean this in the bottom, give me my word as a Biden. I can honestly say I'm more optimistic about the future than I was when I was elected as a 29 year old United States senator. I mean, the speech was criticized by some for being too much about Joe Biden and not enough about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I think it's a fair criticism, although it is only night one. The case for Harris and Walz is sort of being built night after night. But Joe Biden did a very good job of explaining his motivations for what he did as president and his motivations now for stepping aside.

And all this talk about how I'm angry, all those people said I should step down. That's not true. We need our democracy! We need our democracy! We need our democracy! We need our democracy! I love my country more, and we need to preserve our democracy. In 2024, we need you to vote. We need you to keep the Senate. We need you to win back the House of Representatives. And above all, we need you to beat Donald Trump. Come on, Tim. Tim making a very good case, a very good case for Harris and Walls.

Biden also alluding to his age a number of times in ways that were really pretty appropriate, given the totality of the situation. Donald Trump calls America a failing nation. I'm saying this, But think about this. Think about this. He publicly says to the whole world, I'm going to say something outrageous. I know more foreign leaders by their first names and know them well than anybody live just because I'm so damn old.

Well, I'm not. And then continuing as the speech went to talk about how the best decision he made as far as his presidency was selecting Kamala Harris as VP and that the country would do well to select her now as president. So like Kamala was the very first decision I made before I became when I became our nominee. And it was the best decision I made my whole career. We've not only gotten to know each other, we've become close friends. She's tough. She's experienced. And she has enormous integrity, enormous integrity. Her story represents the best American story. And like many of our best presidents, she was also vice president.

And then, of course, also alluding to the very, very real threat of electing someone like Trump, who will play coy and be pen pals with dictators and authoritarians and drawing a contrast there to Kamala Harris as well. But guess who doesn't get it and doesn't respect our veterans? We know from his own chief of staff the four-star general john kelly that trump when in europe would not go to the grave sites in one of the france the brave service members who gave their lives to this country he called them suckers and losers who in the hell does he think he is? Who does he think he is? There's no words

for a person. They're not the words of a person not worthy of being commander in chief. Period. Not then, not now, and not ever. I mean that. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Just as no commander in chief should ever bow down to a dictator the way Trump bows down to Putin. I never have. And I promise you, Kamala Harris will never do it. And then finally, a very, very different end to Joe Biden's speech than what we saw at every recent Trump event, not a dystopian, apocalyptic vision. And I was when I was elected as a 29 year old United States senator. I mean, we just have to remember who we are do when we do it together.

God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. All right. And a very interesting moment. On the one hand, Donald Trump and his supporters tried to have Trump's VP killed. Here is Kamala Harris embracing Joe Biden and some very amateur lip reading suggests that she says, I love you so much. A very, very different situation than what we see over on that depraved other side. Speaker 1 So one of the most interesting and probably impactful day ones of any convention. That's what happened at the DNC in Chicago. Meanwhile, as a story of contrasts, Trump's reaction was to go to Truth Social and post

the following as Biden was speaking, quote, Comrade Kamala Harris has just informed us that she will not do the Fox News debate on September 4. I am not surprised by this development because I feel that she knows it is very difficult at best for her to defend her record setting flip flopping on absolutely everything she once believed in, including her statements that there will be no fracking in Pennsylvania and her horrible performance on the border. Our borders are where millions of criminals and people from mental institutions and terrorists have been allowed to pour into our country, totally unchecked and unvetted. It's called and she loves it.

An open border. Rather than the debate on September four, I have agreed to do a teletown hall anchored by Sean Hannity for Fox in Pennsylvania. What a contrast. And then finally, the Democrats accidentally put forward the Biden platform. His name is mentioned 21 times, and yet they threw him out of office. It was a vicious coup, such a foolish thing to miss. But the fake news media refuses to cover it. If I had made such a mistake, it would be the biggest story in America. Screaming into the void is Trump as the country moves beyond him and sees the alternative vision

presented on day one at the DNC tonight. Michelle Obama, J.B. Pritzker, Doug Emhoff and others. I hope you'll join me live at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and Twitter. And make sure you are subscribed to the YouTube channel, YouTube dot com slash the David Pakman show. Quick break and more after this. I've been using a Ridge wallet for years, long before they became a sponsor. I just love the slim, unique design. Thank you, David. protect your personal information from digital thieves. There's over 50 colors and styles, something for everyone, really. But Ridge is not just wallets. Ridge offers key cases, rings, phone cases, backpacks, luggage and more. Ridge has over 100000 five star reviews from

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Donald Trump is rightly terrified about Kamala Harris is likely night for DNC ratings for her speech accepting the Democratic nomination. Rolling Stone reports Trump is worried about the TV ratings for Harris's DNC speech. The former president has been telling allies his convention's TV ratings were tremendous and won't be topped by Harris this week. I have a different opinion. I think that Kamala Harris's ratings will surpass Donald Trump's. Now I want to make it super clear there is no political analysis here.

I'm not suggesting that Kamala Harris's speech having higher ratings than Trump means that she's going to win. All this is about is a predictable outcome because of a deeply insecure Trump and general interest in what Kamala Harris is going to say. Two parts to this. First of all, if I were a betting man, I would bet that Kamala Harris's ratings absolutely crushed Trump's ratings when she accepts the nomination on Thursday, assuming that the DNC can keep the schedule on track and get her on stage before everybody goes to bed. The reason for this is not necessarily because Kamala Harris is going to win, although she might. And the polls are pointing in that direction. The reason I expect her ratings to be absolutely huge is that Trump has been a known entity for

years. He gave the same damn stupid speech at the RNC that he's been giving for a really long time. The dark dystopian vision. I'm a victim. I'm a martyr. Everybody else is treating me so unfairly. And there was very little about that that piqued any kind of curiosity. People like us watched it because we follow this stuff. The hardcore MAGA base watched it, I guess, because it's their cult leader. But when it comes to Kamala Harris, not only is enthusiasm from those who do plan to vote for her as high as it has ever been right now, we can see it through donations. We can see it through polling. We can see it through attendance at rallies. So everybody who plans to vote Kamala is going to be voting. There is a large swath of folks who are curious about Kamala and they will

be watching, not necessarily because they've decided they're going to vote for her. Some maybe aren't sure. Some maybe aren't going to vote for her, but they're still curious because they want to see, hey, are all these attacks coming from the right accurate? And so I do expect that as far as the ratings go, Kamala Harris will crush Trump on Thursday. We will see. But there's another aspect to this, which is the deeply insecure Trump, who is not a leader. When you watched day one of the DNC and you heard from AOC and Jamie Raskin and Jasmine Crockett and President Biden

himself and Jill Biden and everybody else. We're Hillary Clinton. We are seeing people who are leaders in different ways. They're not all the top leader of the country the way a president becomes, but they are leaders. And when you see these petty insecurities about, oh, how are my ratings going to do versus Kamala's? It's reasonable and and logical and probably common sense to say, aside from what I think Trump or Harris should do on tax policy, like, OK, there's policy. This is just not how a leader behaves. A leader is not this triggerable so easily the way Donald Trump is. So for a lot of different reasons, both because of what it would mean for the likely outcome in November, but also because we've really got to communicate to Trump that he's out. Something else is coming

in. You're being replaced. I do hope that Kamala Harris's speech on Thursday absolutely blows Trump's ratings out of the water. A completely disgusting George Santos was filmed sobbing after pleading guilty to multiple crimes, wearing for some reason that, of course, we continue to struggle to understand a pin with what appears to be a star of David. He has long lied about being Jewish. We have no evidence that he is Jewish, but he keeps playing this up. He did indeed plead guilty to a whole bunch of crimes related to his campaign and unrelated to his campaign. He is facing a six to eight year prison sentence. And here is I will. I'm not going to call him a regretful George Santos. I will let you decide what is he really sorry about here. I'm taking responsibility because I have to.

There's no other way around it. To my family, friends and supporters and the people of New York's third congressional district, I offer my deepest apologies. It has been the proudest achievement of my life to represent you. And I believe I did so to the best of my abilities. But you also trusted me to represent you with honor and to uphold the values that are essential to our democracy. Which he did. In that regard, I failed you.

Yes. I know that my actions have caused disappointment, frustration, and a loss of faith in me. And for that, I'm truly sorry. I also- I'm sorry you no longer like me. I want to acknowledge the many people who have stood by me during this difficult time. My family, friends, and legal team. Your support has been a source of strength, and I am determined to repay your faith in me by becoming a better person.

Moving forward, I am dedicated to making amends for the wrongs I have committed. I understand that there are legal consequences for my actions, and I accept them fully. This plea is not just an admission of guilt. It's an acknowledgment that i need to be held accountable like any other american that breaks the law i hope that by facing these consequences head on i can begin to demonstrate my commitment to change and to earning your forgiveness i do not ask for forgiveness forgiveness as i know that that must be earned through actions, not words.

I want to be a part of restoring the integrity that I helped diminish. And I will work tirelessly to regain the trust of those I have left. You can tell that George is really, really, really sorry that he got caught and that now there are that was the equivalent of I'm sorry if anyone was offended. It is the now we move on to sentencing. Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of the plea deal. The judge has said the plea deal may come with an estimated sentencing range between six and eight years in prison.

Sentencing is currently scheduled for February 7th. He will have to pay at least three hundred and seventy three thousand dollars and potentially face other fines and penalties. You know, when this entire thing started, there was this feeling that the right place for this guy is not the House of Representatives. It's some kind of correctional institution. It just everything about him wreaked that the scams dating back to his time in Brazil and so many other things. And we hopefully we don't know for sure, but we hopefully will see George Santos end up where he deserves to be, which is in a prison cell, not in an office on Capitol Hill.

We'll leave it there. Take a break and be back with so much more right after this. Being this close to the presidential election, noise from the right on things like who Tim Walz really is and how Kamala Harris handled immigration as the supposed borders are is only going to intensify. And that's why I've been using ground news as a solution. Our longtime sponsor, Ground News, gathers related news and adds important context that might influence how each outlet frames the facts. My vantage plan even gives me access to their election focused blind

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slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. It's great to welcome back to the program, Steve Schmidt, renowned American political strategist, commentator, founder of The Warning, a popular newsletter, podcast and YouTube channel. Steve, it's so great to have you on again. And it's really a perfect time for it now in the middle of the DNC. You know, there was so much of this demand, seemingly from some Trump supporters that Biden must drop out. He can't possibly do this and it's just not fair. And then he steps aside and it seems as though they were completely unprepared to actually run against Kamala Harris. Now, as most of the attack lines have been flailing personal attacks.

How do you see it? Were they actually prepared to run against someone other than Joe Biden? Speaker 2 Obviously not. There's an old saying in the Marine Corps, prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance. And the Trump campaign didn't get the memo. And part of the reason is a lack of imagination. There are lots of things that explain why we are where we are as a country, because people who should have been able to see what was coming down the railroad tracks weren't able to. Sometimes that's from a lack of imagination. So it never crossed the Trump mind. It's an impossibility that Trump would ever do what Biden did, which was to subordinate his ambition, which let's face it is substantial. You don't become the president of the United States without substantial ambition, ego, grit, determination,

all of these things in your character. And Joe Biden gave it up. He made an assessment. I think it could have happened sooner, less publicly, in a less ugly manner than it went down. But in the end, I think what you see last night is a genuine affection for the guy for the man and he is profoundly different than trump and when he did something not only that they weren't prepared for but they couldn't conceive of they were caught as flat-footed as you could be. And the other thing about it is people say, hey, we're surprised by this. No one should be surprised if you can read a poll, because what the polls said, all of them them is the american people don't want this they were screaming it you had high water marks of 80 of the country saying don't want

and so the second they got the thing that they wanted which was not what the two parties were offering and that the leadership of the two parties were offering. And they stepped off that spring. It shot Kamala Harris up like a rocket ship because the demand for change out of this era is so, so intense. And I'm curious, Steve, your thought on, you know, we spoke to Tim Miller last week and he had some a long list of criticisms of how Trump has been going after Kamala Harris. I'm curious, what do you think is the most effective approach for Kamala Kamala Harris to go after Trump in the sense of, you know, one of the most memorable lines last night at the DNC maybe was you a W's Sean Fain talking about Trump as a scab. Jasmine Crockett talked about how he has a rap sheet instead of a resume. And did

are what approach would you take in terms of the best ways to get new voters on your side for going after Trump at this stage of the campaign? Well, let's let's take that question apart into a couple of different couple of different components. There's a fundamental strategic construct in this race that that tells you who's winning and who's losing at any given moment. Whomever the race is about is losing, right? So the race was about Donald Trump all the way through 2016 until James Comey's intervention makes it about Secretary Clinton, and she loses very narrowly.

In 2020, the race was about Trump. It was about his incompetence. It was about his incapacity. It was about his chaos. And he lost. The race had become about Biden, who literally had to withdraw from it. Kamala Harris has made the race about Trump again. And the way you engage Trump is by laughter, by humiliation. You have to treat Trump and meet Trump really like you do with all people where they are. And Trump's a bully. And so that bully cannot be accommodated. That bully has to be constantly confronted. And the truth of the matter is, when you're talking about the people wearing the bandages on their ear, when you're talking about the people walking around with the J.D. Vance sperm cup, right, for family planning, it's weird. It's weird. And it's been weird for a long time. There is a Star Wars creature cantina of weirdos around Donald Trump on the Mar-a-Lago porch that are spectacularly unfit by every conceivable measurement that we use the society to weed out who should be in charge of life and death matters and situations until very recently that have a demand for

political power. And so what the Democrats with Harris have done is make a subtle change. Democracy doesn't mean a lot to 40% of the country that has $400 cash available for an emergency. The 27-year-old Black woman who is handcuffed, put into a police car and charged with desecration of a corpse because she had a miscarriage in Ohio. I'm not sure that democracy is something that she really appreciates, but freedom is. The American Revolution wasn't fought over democracy. It was fought over liberty. It was fought over freedom. It was fought over control. Hey, you can't cut down these pine trees because they belong to the king, and the king gets all the best trees, or a hundred and other different examples. And what you see the Harris Democratic Party doing is framing the race around an issue that everyone in the country gets at an intuitive level.

Because if there's any national character, it's deeply based in don't tell me what to fucking do. arrival in the country or upon emancipation within the country or at the end of the great migration from the apartheid states in the American South, as soon as Americans are able, all Americans who have come from somewhere, someplace, where someone imposed on them what they should think, what they should believe, what they should read, what they can't read, what they can see, what they can't see. The allure of America is freedom. And it's an easy concept to understand. And Kamala Harris Harris has made that switch on the tracks very, very seamlessly with great subtlety, but great impact. And I thought the framing of all of this, particularly Secretary Clinton, for the first time in a long time, offering a vision into the future of where we ought to be headed and going.

So her speech last night, with all respect to the president, is the one going to be remembered as the historic speech. When you look at the possibility of November as an inflection point with regard to Maga's role in the Republican Party, would you assess this as if Trump loses? That's definitely the end of Trump's political ambitions and maybe even of MAGA versus if Trump wins. We now be maybe looking at a MAGA mold candidate in twenty twenty eight. Like are the stakes that high? I think that we have several hurdles between election and inauguration that you can't take for granted. And the first thing that's going

to happen, unless it is a landslide election, we haven't had a legitimate landslide in the country since 96. It's been a long time. Any close election, Trump will dispute, and there will be tens and scores of tens of millions of Americans who will fall for the lie, and there will be scores of companies making billions in profit who will push it like they have in the past. And there will be foreign governments creating all sorts of social media chaos. So what happens? The first thing you appreciate about Trump, if you just assess this by the numbers, you take out all the emotion, all the nonsense. I mean, Trump has been a disaster electorally for Republicans. Yet, he's one of three people who are not FDR, who were nominated by their party three times. William Jennings Bryan, Henry, Henry Clay and Donald Trump. If they lose.

Who is the person that will challenge Donald Trump for the throne? Will there be anybody? You mean now for 2028, Steve? 2028. If Donald Trump says I want it, he controls the party. So I don't know that Donald Trump isn't the nominee in four years. Wow. Because there has to be an intercessory event, right?

There has to be an intercession. Is it Nikki Haley who steps forward and said, I tried to tell you so? Does Chris Christie have the possibility of affinity? Who is the Bill Clinton of the Republican Party at that moment who wasn't part of this, who isn't indicted by their cynicism, who doesn't have it stamped on their forehead. Right. Who can credibly say, hey. Let's move on. Who is that person and so. So are you saying, Steve, that you think it's Trump? It's a plausible scenario if Trump loses that he'll say at 82 or 83, I want to be the nominee again for a presidential term at the end of which he would be 87 or 88 or however old he would be. You think that's a possibility?

I think that one of the one of the realities of a political campaign, right, a political party, political parties exist in two states. They're expanding or they're retracting. Yes. And the MAGA party is a retracting, not an expanding party. I agree. There's a physics to this. And the physics is when a political party gets smaller, it gets hotter, it gets denser, and more extreme like a collapsing star until it collapses into itself in a black hole. There are markers for any party that has an authoritarian bent. And one of them is an intolerance for dissent expressed by the purge. So the MAGA party is very explicit. You're with us. The old Ronald Reagan formulation was somebody is with me 80% of the time and against me 20% of the time. It's not my political opponent. They're my strong ally. But the proposition with MAGA on the table is obedience. And the obedience

is a requirement that if Trump says that's an AI generated crowd, it must be an AI generated crowd. If I lost the election, I lost the election, right? And so the use of authority, power to define what is true and a requirement for membership, really, all you have to do, right, to be a MAGA in good standing is to submit your agency into sovereignty that if Trump asserts through Sean Spicer that the picture you're looking at that shows the bigger crowd, just like Winston in 1984, right, if they say it's smaller, even if your eyes assert it's bigger, it's smaller. And that's always been a hallmark of Trump is. Right. Yeah, well, it's a very cult like trait that you don't necessarily have to believe it, but you have to say you believe it. they're all authoritarian structures impose a gravity where, what am I allowed to think?

What can I say? What's the boundary? And so I grew up in New Jersey. Donald Trump has been ever present culturally around me in my life on the news, Art of the Deal, the book, since I was 11 or 12 years old. The fact that he became president and people think that he is a successful businessman has always astonished me. Yet, for nine years, you watch this after the insurrection, the rehabilitation by Kevin McCarthy, I'm skeptical that another loss, though it would seem obvious, would traverse that line, does it, if he still wants it, because he controls the party apparatus, lock, stock and barrel. He has the capacity to raise money. And there's nobody that I see within the party who's tough enough to go toe to toe with and to call him out as he deserves to be called out. Steve, last thing I want to ask you about in the 70 something days between now and the election, short of a candidate, you know, dying or becoming incapacitated, what are

the sorts of things that could really impact polling in the race? You know, we have one or more debates coming. Conventional wisdom is the debates don't matter. The June 27th debate certainly seemed to change the dynamics of the campaign. What sorts of events, what sorts of things could really shake the dynamics up of this campaign? You know, it's like one of the funny things, you know, having been involved in politics, you know, through a couple of presidential campaigns, won one at the, you know, lost one, you know, the years at NBC covering them. People say things, they repeat them, and conventional wisdom gets formed, including like really dumb things like, yes, they don't matter right even after the aftermath of a debate that historically changed the entire trajectory of the election so this debate um will be the most watched political

event bar none in american history fall debates have-sized audiences, and this is going to be up there and then some. This will be the most watched. And she is smarter than Donald Trump. She is tough. And he's going to have his hands full in that debate. When we look at the election and we look at the ballot initiatives where abortion is on the ballot, and you look at, and one of the blind spots of Democrats was, hey, young people are with us. We're with Biden. And I'm talking to my kids, and my kids are showing me what's on TikTok. And brutal. And it doesn't look like that anymore. It's brutal for Trump. So no one has a handle right now on what the electorate is going to be. We're in a kinetic moment, have been for a month. She's going to come out of this with a real head of steam, whatever the bounce may be,

right? Let's call it eight points. Let's say she comes out of this up nine. And you can see polls where she will have a lead that big. But that will fall back by half within two weeks. And there will be a deceleration that's a natural part of the rhythm right through this Labor Day weekend. And they have a stasis in the race until the debate. And within that debate, you have millions of people who have a first impression of Kamala Harris that is essentially, I like Kamala Harris. I like what I see. I didn't know her. Whatever my impression of her was, her performance is clearly different. If what you knew about Kamala Harris was that she wasn't very good at the political part of being vice president,

seems like really good at politics to me, right? And to most people that are out there. So what does she believe philosophically? How does she see life? How did she end up here? What is her vision to lead the world? So when you look at her speech, I've said for months that I've hoped that they've read many many times peggy noonan's great speech written for george herbert walker bush in 41 and peggy noonan just talked about this in wall street journal that's one of the best convention speeches ever written and kamala harris used a speech like that you had you had george bush who's 19 years old was the youngest fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy.

Time magazine puts him on the cover. It says the wimp factor. I mean, imagine that. You were literally, when you were 19, 19, right? You're a naval combat fighter pilot. The youngest in the Navy shot down in constant combat. You're to be lambasted as a wimp. And that's the perception of you. So she has a blank slate. You have this energy in the country that people desperately

want to move on from all of this. Can she handle a dangerous world? And this speech and the debate are all part of the testing grounds. And then there will be events that transpire in the fall that will shape the outcome of this election that have not yet happened. And so the idea that President Biden is off the stage, he's the commander in chief, he's not off the stage. There is a tremendous amount of swirling dynamics, and all of it is overshadowed by a guy after already doing it. So it's not speculative anymore. About, I can't lose the election. So once again, when he does it, tell me who's the group of people,

because Liz Cheney and Adam Kitzinger aren't around anymore, who are going to stand up and be like, not this time. Lindsey Graham's going to do that? Who's going to do that? And so his hold over the party, I don't think slips away on election night. I think there's a pain involved in this that is very, very deep. And it's going to take a long time for there really to be a reckoning around the cynicism. And the Democrats, and I should say this, Democrats, when they insisted, some Democrats in the weeks after the debate, there's a big difference between the parties that, hey, no issue here. That was the great danger of that argument. They become them. Because they have gaslit the country for nine years.

And when it all goes down and the ship's not there, so to speak, on the water and everyone's in it, trying to scramble into a lifeboat to harness their careers, we'll see. And remember, Kamala Harris gets elected, likely to be a solid Republican year in two years in that midterm election. So what does that look like? Is it a manifestation of extreme craziness, right? That just propels forward like a scene in Braveheart? Or is it something that starts to be more thoughtful,

more intellectualized again, and that resembles the hallmarks of the loyal opposition? I want to say one last thing. As much as people think and think correctly that this will be an ugly campaign, I don't think they have any idea. We're about to see 76 days of racial malice, innuendos, venom, and ugliness play out that worsens and gets cheaper and more disgusting and dirtier every day as MAGA continues to have downward pressure on it. And you see Donald Trump's disorientation around how to hit her manifesting itself in the severity and really the the obvious innuendos of the. Of the remarks, and it's going to be it will be a terrible fall in that regard. I think that that seems increasingly clear. Yeah. Steve Schmidt, American political strategist,

commentator, founder of The Warning. Steve, always great speaking to you. Thanks for your time. Thanks, Dave. If you've been thinking about getting a new mattress, Helix Sleep is where I would start. I've been sleeping on Helix mattresses for years now. I recommend Helix to everyone, which is why I wanted them as a sponsor. If you don't want to take my word for it, Helix has been awarded number one mattress by both GQ and Wired magazine. And one of the things that makes Helix unique is their sleep quiz. I didn't really know what kind of mattress would be best for me, but you do this short sleep quiz.

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All right. Not long before the primetime speeches started at the Democratic National Convention yesterday, failed former President Donald Trump, seemingly sedated, gave a speech about economic policy, which is just like it's already funny because it's like, of course he didn't. There's no possible way that that's actually what he did. Trump spoke in York, Pennsylvania, and it was supposed to be a speech about economic policy.

The people standing behind him seemed disturbed to even be there. They seemed bored out of their minds. Fox News eventually even cut away because this got so crazy. But listen to sedated Trump and how it's almost difficult to even parse what he's saying because of the delivery to a similar because they were getting just absolutely destroyed by the numbers. It was going up. And you can bet that if we don't win, she takes over, your energy numbers will be triple and quadruple and you won't be producing a drop of oil.

They ended the largest oil reserve anywhere in the world, probably as large as Saudi Arabia. Saudi. probably as large as Saudi Arabia, Saudi Saudi Arabia has this massive amount of oil. It's called Anwar in Alaska. They ended it on close to day one. They ended it. Yeah, he can barely stay awake. You know, forget about putting other people to sleep. He can basically even stay awake.

And of course, he's lying about all these things. We've had record oil and gas exports under Biden. We are, by Trump's own definition, more energy independent today than ever before. But the people behind him can barely stay awake. Now, at one point, Trump glitched so badly that he almost sounds like he eats a word. Now you might say, what is it? So what do you mean? He ate a word.

What does that even mean? I'm going to play it for you. It sounds like he eats a word. Kamala is also on a regulatory regulatory reggaetor. He just swallowed it. He swallows regulatory. It's a very strange moment. Kamala is also on a regulatory regulatory jihad. Yeah, a regulatory jihad. So anyway, that one he just swallowed and yep, he ate it. Trump then brings up electronics, but he literally says we're going to bring up electronics. I don't mean that he raises it as an issue and then explain some kind of important thing related to electronics. He just says we're going to be bringing up electronics.

Wow. We're going to bring up electronics to electronics. We buy everything away. When you see the sophistication of the product, I just saw at this place electronics is peanuts by comparison. We're going to bring up electronics to imagine if I did a show like this. Welcome to the show, everybody. We're going to bring up electronics to electronics. We buy everything away. When you see the sophistication of the product I just saw at this place, electronics is peanuts by comparison. I don't think I'd have an audience. And I think what's happening is the audience that Trump has behind him is trying to get away. It's unclear whether they're able to, but certainly some. What the hell am I doing here? Here's another moment

where Trump is just, you know, trying to read his speech off of the teleprompter. No inflection, no energy. The woman over Trump's right shoulder sort of seems like she may be looking for the exit. With your vote, we will unleash explosive economic growth and vast new prosperity for all of our citizens. We will put more money into your pockets and create millions and millions of new jobs. We're going to do it like nobody else has ever been able to do it. And you can tell that he really means it. And the people behind him really know he means it as well. Trump continued ranting.

And if you're watching, keep an eye on the folks standing behind him who just look increasingly uncomfortable. I'm announcing today that when I return to the White House, I will end the anti-American energy crusade and terminate Kamala's so-called power plant rule. It's a disaster for our country. Our country will have no jobs by the time these communists and Marxists get rid of. I mean, when they destroy the country, probably can never come back either. Just so you understand. Of course, there are no communists or Marxists that we've been able to

identify too much competition from other countries that are doing it right. We have a lot of competition out there, not only China. We have a lot of other competition. OK. And so the folks behind Trump sort of like, why is he here and what is the speech about Trump also adding now to if you say to him, there's sort of like this free association that happens. One of those associations is if you tell Trump you're supposed to talk about the economy, he will bring up cryptocurrency. The only problem is he doesn't know anything about cryptocurrency and he vaguely refers to it as a very big subject. Again, one of the ways, you know, he has no clue what he's talking about is he'll just

evaluate the size of it as a subject of discussion without saying anything meaningful. The electricity demands of A.I. and crypto currencies, which is a very big subject. It's coming up more and more. We have to stay at the top. We want to be right at the forefront. Otherwise, China and other countries will take it over. That's both of them, AI and crypto. There you go.

And really something that Trump's understanding of crypto is really going to strike fear into the Chinese that I can assure you. And Fox News ultimately cut away. This was just too boring, too depraved, too vapid for even Fox News to continue covering. Speaker 1 All of a sudden she comes out and she says the same thing, exactly the same words that I used. Speaker 4 OK, for President Trump in York, Pennsylvania, keeping an eye on that speech on the. Speaker 1

Yeah, I love how she's going to say it's a speech on the economy. It's just his normal grievances with no real economic policy laid out other than attacking other people and calling them communists and Marxists. So a sedated Trump on what was probably a pretty tough day for him, given all of the attention with the DNC that will build tonight into night two and nights three and ultimately night for a very sad seeming Trump. He did grant an interview at this event, which I want to briefly talk about. Trump gave, quote, a speech about, quote, the economy. And the reason I'm using quotes is

it wasn't a speech, but rather some low energy teleprompter confusion. And it wasn't about the economy beyond the fact that Trump mentioned the word crypto and the word oil. But beyond that, it's hard to say it was really about the economy. So CBS was at Trump's economic event that went haywire. Reporter asks a very good question. If you lose this election, will it have been legitimate? Or is it that by definition, if you lose, it was an illegitimate election. And Trump goes, I'm a very honorable person. If you lose this election, will it have been legitimate?

If I see that we had a fair and free election, which I hope to be able to say. But if I see that I will be you will never see anybody more honorable than me. I'm an honorable person. You see the report that came out on Biden today from Congress with all of the money that was stolen except the results of the last election. Well, that's right, because there were many problems with the last election. You know, so they had so many cases were dropped. No, no, they weren't brought because the judges wouldn't take them because they said it was after the election. Well, how else? That's a complete and total lie, by the way.

You're going to find out, Gina, until after the election. I think things have been done over the last four year period that will make this a free and fair election. And certainly if if for some reason I lose it, I think if I lose this country, we'll go into a tailspin the likes of which it's never seen before. The likes of 1929. Right. It'll be the same tailspin that Trump was anticipating if Biden won, which never happened. You know, when you have to clarify, no one is more honorable than me. You will never see anyone more honorable than me.

Trump said your honor is definitely a question mark. That's something that we have learned very much so. Trump still kind of confused, interestingly, as to how to play the overturning of Roe v. Wade, because on the one hand, it is something he achieved by selecting the three Supreme Court justices that he he selected. At the same time, Republicans have lost so much ever since that decision was made by the Supreme Court. So here's how Trump plays it by saying everybody wanted Roe v. Wade over to you were influential in picking three Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. Do you have any regrets about the overturning of Roe v.

Wade? Well, they've wanted to overturn it for 52 years. For 52 years, they've worked to overturn Roe v. Wade. They want to bring it back to the states. All legal scholars, all Democrats, all everybody wanted to bring it back. This is for years and decades and decades. Now it is very much untrue that everyone wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade. In fact, as is often the case with Trump, the truth is the exact opposite. There was more support for Roe v. Wade.

And when we say Roe v. Wade, what we mean is abortion being legal. In most cases, there was more support for Roe v. Wade at its time of being overturned than at any time in the Roe v. Wade era. And so unsure, I guess, how to manage the fact that there is there is national disgust from men and women alike about what happened with Roe v. Wade. Trump is resorting to everyone wanted it overturned. And I did it. That has not worked for Republicans so far. It has not worked in any abortion related referendum. And the hope is that it also will not work in November. We've got a great bonus show for you today. The Biden impeachment inquiry has ended with no impeachment forthcoming. Second, Kamala Harris

wants to raise the corporate corporate tax rate to 28. Republicans are saying it's crazy, yet it is still lower than other tax rates that they found acceptable. And thirdly, shares of the Trump media and technology group continue to dump into the toilet as the stock market is overall doing fine. Shares of Trump's company, absolutely disastrous. Many have lost their life savings after making a cult investment in a company with essentially no revenue. All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. I've been notified we are up to nine hundred and thirty one pre-orders for my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine, getting very close to a thousand. I put a lot of work into this book. I would love for you to read it and you can preorder it now

and secure a whole bunch of other preorder extras, including a signed book plate. You can do it at David Pakman dot com slash echo or on any e-book, physical book or audio book platform that you prefer. It is called the Echo Machine. If you search my name and the Echo Machine, it'll come up. Let me know about your preorders. Info at David Pakman dot com. I'll see you on the bonus show. And I hope you'll join me tonight for streaming night two of the Democratic National Convention.