The David Pakman Show - 8/26/24: Can JD Vance survive RFK Jr, shock poll stuns world

Starting point is 00:00:00 Speaker 1 Welcome, everyone. After months and months and months, it feels like years of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying, I'm in it to win it. I'm in it till the end. Both Biden and eventually Harris and Trump are not what I stand for. I would never endorse them. I would never run alongside them. No, no, no. My principles and my motivations are pristine and unimpeachable and perfect. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump in a complete and totally bonkers gong show rally. We'll get to that later. But the important thing is that this sets up a fascinating showdown with Donald Trump's beleaguered vice presidential pick J.D. Vance. J.D. Vance serves no purpose on this ticket right now that now that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has endorsed Trump in the

Starting point is 00:00:58 sense that RFK Jr. is a better speaker than J.D. Vance. He's more charismatic than J.D. Vance. It's at least theoretically conceivable that R.F.K. Junior would bring Trump some new votes, although it doesn't seem like it's that many. But remember that J.D. Vance brings Trump zero new votes and every interview Vance does, it almost seems like he's trying to sabotage Trump's campaign. So just to get caught up, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying last week that he is throwing his support to Donald Trump. Speaker 4 3K great causes drove me to answer this race in the first place, primarily. And these are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Democratic Party and run as an independent.

Starting point is 00:01:50 And now to throw my support to President Trump. Now, in throwing that support to the failed former President Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. did want to clarify he's not ending his campaign. He's only suspending it that there are 10 states he's identified where being there would hurt Trump. So he seems to be acknowledging that the vast majority of support is coming from otherwise MAGA people, which is crazy given the way this whole thing started. But he says he will be removing his name from some but not all ballots.

Starting point is 00:02:25 Oh, I want everyone to know that I am not terminating my campaign. No, I am simply suspending it and not not ending it. Right. I don't anyone believe for a moment that this campaign is over. My name will remain on the ballot in most states. If you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping President Trump or Vice President Harris. In red states, the same will apply. I encourage you to vote for me. And if enough of you do vote for me and neither of the major party candidates win 270 votes, which is quite possible, in fact, it's actually insanely unlikely that the Senate that the scenario he's talking about is what is it, point one percent? It's not

Starting point is 00:03:21 plausible. Our polling shows I'm tying it to sixty nine to sixty nine. Sure. Bet on it. And I could conceivably still end up in the White House in a contingent election. Yeah. Right. So anyway, I think you get the point. As if that wasn't delusional enough.

Starting point is 00:03:40 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also said while announcing that he's bailing, that in an honest system, he would be easily winning and becoming president. Labors now in an honest system, I believe that I would have won the election in a system that I kind of had my father and my uncles thrived in a system with open debates, with fair primaries, with regularly scheduled debates, with fair primaries, and with a truly independent media untainted by government propaganda and censorship. In a system of nonpartisan courts and election boards, everything would be different. After all, the polls consistently showed me beating each of the other candidates, both in favorability and also in head to head matchups.

Starting point is 00:04:32 Yeah. You know, there's so many ifs there. It's sort of like if my grandmother had wheels, she would be a bicycle. But that's not the reality that we live in. And as is often the case with RFK, he gets off into some pretty extreme stuff and felt, I guess, the need or the desire to talk about puberty while announcing that he's endorsing Trump. America's puberty rate is now occurring at age 10 to 13, which is six years earlier than girls were reaching puberty in nineteen hundred. Our country has the earliest puberty rates of any continent on the earth. And no, this isn't because of better nutrition.

Starting point is 00:05:20 Well, it actually it's partially because of better nutrition, but it's also not not unique to the US. So just because just because whenever RFK starts talking about medical stuff, things become completely radioactive and his supporters will write to me saying I didn't actually address the puberty thing. It is true that the US is seeing earlier puberty in some groups. But it's not only the United States that is seeing that. We've observed it in a lot of countries. Vaccines are something that have been looked at very closely for safety, including long term impact. And we have no scientific evidence linking vaccines to the early onset of puberty. That's one favorite of the folks that talk about early

Starting point is 00:06:05 puberty. Now, environmental exposure like exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, sometimes you find them in plastics or cosmetics. That's been suggested as a possible contributor and it's being studied. Maybe there is something there. I'm not at this point able to say, but there are studies from Europe and China and other regions that report a similar trend to puberty moving earlier. And that suggests it's a global phenomenon and lifestyle factors very well may be a factor. Nutrition is believed to play some role. It's just not unique to the United States. So why we ended up talking about puberty when you announced that you're supporting Trump, I don't know. But the takeaway question is, what's J.D. Vance's role in this

Starting point is 00:06:50 campaign now when there is a far more charismatic, knowledgeable and possibly electorally beneficial person that looked much more comfortable up on that stage with Trump than J.D. Vance ever has. So we'll get to that rally a little bit later. Shocking numbers for you. Kamala Harris, 58, Donald Trump, 41. Kamala Harris, 58, Donald Trump, 41. That is the latest from the 538 election forecast. This is not polling. I am not saying nor is five thirty eight saying I want to be clear that people don't write to me saying, David, what are you talking about? This is odds of winning the election. Doesn't mean Harris is going to win by 17. I would bet almost any money in the world that she is not going to win anything by 17 points. But right now, the 538 forecast says in 100 simulations with current polling, Kamala Harris wins 58. Donald Trump wins 41. And to go back to what Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Starting point is 00:07:58 said, seems likely now there is a less than one percent chance that nobody ends up getting to the 270 electoral votes that they need. You can look at the details. We will be linking to this. But 5841 is by far the most lopsided that these numbers have been at any point during this election. Now, as far as individual polls, we are starting to get some post-convention data, but a lot of it is still mixed, taken before, during and after the DNC. We are anecdotally getting polls where Kamala Harris is leading by as many as seven or even eight. In fact, there is a new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson released Friday. So this is not even a post convention poll yet. Sorry, that was not framed right. Kamala Harris leading by seven, 50 to 43, 50 to 43, 7 percent still saying they

Starting point is 00:08:50 will vote for someone else. If I were a betting man, which I am not, I would bet you that 7 percent do not vote for someone else and that a significant portion of that is going to consolidate either behind Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. And then finally, in the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls, it is now Harris plus one point five. But as you can see here, the newest poll in this average was completed August 21st, which means we have no post-convention polling yet. I told you at the start of the DNC that Kamala Harris was leading the average by one point four. It's basically

Starting point is 00:09:34 they're still one point five. But we do not yet have post-convention polling as part of the real clear politics polling average. This week, we're going to start to get that data. And again, I am not a betting man, but if I were, I would be betting that somewhere from that one point four where we started the DNC, Kamala Harris ends up with a larger lead by the end of this week. Will that lead hold? Will it reflect what ultimately happens in November? I have no idea whatsoever. But the prediction is there is going to be a bump here and then Trump is going to be the one who has to sort of fight and crawl his way back. So continued good polling numbers for Kamala Harris. What we're going to look at after

Starting point is 00:10:16 this break is what happened when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump got on a stage together. Pyrotechnics were part of it. And that's not a joke. Make sure you've preordered my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine. You can find it at David Pakman dot com slash echo or on any platform that sells physical books, e-books or audio books. We are beyond a thousand orders pushing towards 2000. And I'll give you an updated number sometime later this week. Very quick break and back right after this. that integrates wherever you sell online and streamlines your workflow so your business can just grow. Even if you're on a summer vacation, ShipStation makes it incredibly easy to automate shipping tasks and manage orders in one simple dashboard. You can save thousands on shipping with industry leading carrier discounts. You get up to eighty nine percent off on UPS, DHL and USPS Thank you, David. The David Pakman Show is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, dot com and use code Pacman to sign up for your free 60 day trial. That's ShipStation dot com.

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Starting point is 00:13:43 You'll get the daily bonus show, commercial free audio and video feeds of the show hours before it's publicly released and so many other great things. Check it out at join Pacman dot com and you can use the coupon code. Save democracy 24 to save about I think it's 50 50 50, 55 percent. A weakened and diminished Donald Trump with no stamina whatsoever told a police veteran, you've got to go when he went on just slightly too long at Trump's cult event in Glendale, Arizona, at which he introduced Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with pyrotechnics. Is that sentence I just stated something you would have expected to be part of the political world even just a few years ago?

Starting point is 00:14:31 I don't think so. I certainly didn't. We're going to get to the RFK part of this event. The president of the Arizona Police Association was speaking when Trump brings someone up to speak. You need to spend 30 seconds speaking, 22 of which you're praising Trump. This guy had notes and he wanted to talk about stuff. And Trump leans in after looking upset and says, you've got to go, at which point the guy packs it

Starting point is 00:14:59 up. The crowd increasingly hostile. This is how Trump treats a police veteran. Flowing into our countries, and that's the only ones we know about. Illegal drugs are flowing into this country at an alarming rate, with only five dissent being intercepted at the border. So Trump just said, you got to go. And the guy says, OK, got it. Oh, let me finish up here, please. So as you know, Trump greatly respects police and wants to hear what they had to say. But Trump does hate it when guests speak more than 30 seconds, especially when 90 percent

Starting point is 00:15:44 of it is not about Donald Trump himself. Donald Trump then introduces Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fresh off of the endorsement of Trump. The song playing is my hero by the Foo Fighters, a completely unauthorized use of Foo Fighters music who are completely opposed to everything Donald Trump stands for. So the lawsuits and the cease and desist are ongoing. Here is Trump introducing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. I don't think too many of you people have heard of him. And note the pyrotechnics as well.

Starting point is 00:16:14 He's very low key. He's a very low key person, but he's highly respected. He is a great person. I've known him for so long for the past 16 months. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. All right. And then there's fire on the stage. And we are in one of the absolute stupidest timelines that we have ever. I mean, listen, I I did the show under George W. Bush. We've seen some stupid stuff, but it has gotten really, really bad.

Starting point is 00:17:03 Donald Trump, as is often the case when he refers to former President Obama, mentions him as Barack Hussein Obama. And Trump obsessed now with how nasty people were to him at the DNC. They get bored like Barack Hussein. Obama got far fewer votes. He got far fewer votes. He got far fewer votes. And he won. He won.

Starting point is 00:17:28 Have you heard of him? Barack Hussein Obama. Remember Rush Rush Limbaugh? Barack Hussein Obama. He was nasty to me. You know, he was nasty. Michelle was nasty. They're all nasty. Nasty people. They were very nasty. I was surprised. I thought he was and I was sort of nice to him. I said, no, you know, I like him.

Starting point is 00:17:55 Good. It didn't matter. They were nasty to me. Yeah. Trump reminding us how nice he's been to Barack Obama. You'll recall that Donald Trump was one of the leaders of a movement that on the basis of Barack Obama's skin color, argued he wasn't really eligible to be president of the United States and was not actually an American when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got a chance to speak. And unfortunately, the feed from this event was glitching out on just about every platform. So I apologize that they basically look like blobs in this segment. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says Trump will make America healthy again. And don't you want a president that's going to make America healthy again?

Starting point is 00:18:40 Right. And of course, Trump, who is obese, mostly eats fast food, believes that exercising diminishes the amount of energy in the body suggested injecting bleach before Trump as the picture of health is going to make America healthy again. Very, very tough to believe. Trump going delusional later in the rally, at which point he said that he believes he has a shot at winning Minnesota. That's a bet I would take. Minnesota, we hope we're going to win Minnesota. You know, it hasn't been once in 1972. Richard

Starting point is 00:19:18 Nixon. Right. But we're doing well there, too. But the governor is horrible. You know what he did? He approved a bill to give tampons in every young man's bathroom. So Trump will not be winning Minnesota. And Tim Walz did not approve that. And finally, as this Castro like endless speech started wrapping up. Trump again tells his now favorite story about shoplifters bringing calculators into stores. So criminals are walking into stores, mean, nasty guys, rough guys, and they take calculators and they calculate, let's say I want to get up. They walk out, then they walk back in.

Starting point is 00:20:06 Speaker 1 Yep. I saw them using the graph function actually on a TI 83 while shoplifting. It really brought me back actually to my to my calculus days in undergrad. So couldn't be a stranger event. Trump kicking a police veteran offstage, introducing Robert F. Kennedy with unapproved music and pyrotechnics and telling some of his normal lies. But if you thought that the rally was weird, just wait until you see the press conference. Donald Trump glitching out during a very, very strange press conference shortly before heading out to Arizona for a rally.

Starting point is 00:20:46 Donald Trump attempting to mock Kamala Harris thanking people during her DNC speech. And it sounded like Trump was having a stroke. It was a really weird moment. And she mentioned thank you about 50 times. Did you see the beginning? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:21:05 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:21:13 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:21:21 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank he got that out of his system. He seems to think, I guess, that Kamala Harris being grateful to people. For over 500 million dollars raised, I mean, incredible numbers, a party united behind her, her gratitude and appreciation was something to laugh at and to demean. And that's so telling about who Donald Trump is. Now, Trump doubling down about black jobs

Starting point is 00:21:56 by talking about Hispanic jobs. They're losing their jobs because Biden and Harris are allowing millions of people to come into our country and they're taking black people's jobs, African-American jobs. They're taking those jobs. And a lot of those jobs are Hispanic jobs to this on the show. This is a Hispanic job because I'm from Argentina. I'm Hispanic. And I know that some people don't want to give me that, but it is what it is. OK, I'm a Hispanic immigrant from Argentina.

Starting point is 00:22:31 This we have four Hispanic jobs on the show, but three of them have been taken by non-Hispanic employees. And it's a wild, wild thing that's going on. No, of course, this is so stupid. I mean, it's it's just black jobs, Hispanic jobs. What's missing here, other than any kind of tether to reality, is that implicit in all of this is simultaneously the story that under Democrats, minority workers will lose their jobs through some unexplained mechanism. But also it's undocumented Hispanic immigrants who are taking jobs from people. So it's almost like if you believe both of their fake stories, they kind of cancel out. Right. There are people taking Hispanic jobs, but also Hispanic people coming and take sounds like we're basically at zero on that, not one way or the other. And then this, of course, was held. This press conference was before Trump's event with Robert F. Kennedy Jr..

Starting point is 00:23:35 So Trump said a little something about how nice he is to endorse. We just had a very nice endorsement from RFK, Jr. And I'll be talking about that. We're heading out right after this. We're going to be going to Arizona. We'll be talking about that and a lot of other things, too. But I just want to thank everybody. And I want to thank Bobby.

Starting point is 00:24:00 That was very nice. That was really, really nice. That's big. He's a great guy. Respected by everybody. Yeah. Trump has spent the last year attacking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent the last year attacking Trump.

Starting point is 00:24:13 And we'll look at some of those attacks in a moment. But now Trump pretending, no, this is great. Everybody respects him. It's just it's all absolutely fantastic. So a deranged weekend for Donald Trump. But what you really have to see, this will be in a little bit later, is J.D. Vance's attempt to completely torpedo Trump's candidacy. That'll be after we talk about concerns from some of you that the Democratic Party is no

Starting point is 00:24:38 longer going high when Republicans go low. That'll be after this break. I've been tracking my family tree for a long time now, and the service I've always relied when Republicans go low. That'll be after this break. your family tree with a range of powerful genealogy tools at your fingertips. One of my favorite features lets you quickly find new family members and add entire new branches to your tree. It's always a good time to sit down with my family, show them what I found. For example, the other day I found a scan of an immigration document from when my mother's uncle's aunt arrived at Ellis Island or this document from the U.S. Canada border for my relative who was born in 1895.

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Starting point is 00:27:13 Let's talk today about when they go low, we go high. You might remember that those were the words of Michelle Obama during the 2016 Democratic Convention, and it was drawing a sharp contrast between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Trump was going low, personal attacks, insults, ad hominems, making fun of a disabled reporter, all of that stuff. And the idea was, in comparison, we are going to take the high road. And that slogan quickly became sort of the unofficial

Starting point is 00:27:46 motto for the Clinton campaign. And it symbolized the commitment that we on the left will maintain dignity and integrity in the face of Trump's very low provocations. And throughout the Trump era, prominent Democrats would frequently reference the slogan. It would be sort of a rallying cry for civility in the political discourse. But if you've been paying attention to this year's DNC last week, for example, you've probably noticed a shift. Democrats aren't just playing defense anymore. That old slogan, when they go low, we go high, has been quietly retired in favor of something a little more direct. They are just plain weird, has been part of this change. Democrats are finally going on offense and it is about time, but not everybody is thrilled.

Starting point is 00:28:41 And I've been hearing from some of those people. So let's go through some examples. First of what I mean from last week's convention, Alexandria, Casio, Cortez calling Trump a two bit union buster. 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. Sean Fain from the United Auto Workers calling Trump a scab. And Donald Trump is a scab.

Starting point is 00:29:21 Jamie Raskin calling Trump a career criminal. And we're going to defeat Donald Trump, the career criminal and incorrigible recidivist con man and his pet chameleon, J.D. Vance. President Joe Biden calling Trump out for being a convicted felon. Crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett called Trump out for being a nepo baby. The other was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and helped his daddy in the family business. Housing discrimination that is Michelle Obama echoing the same sentiment referencing the affirmative action of generational

Starting point is 00:30:14 wealth that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. This is a welcome development. We need to take Donald Trump seriously. It's not an exaggeration to say he represents a major threat to democracy to the extent that we have a democracy. But here's the thing. While it's crucial to recognize Trump as a serious threat, there is some risk in framing

Starting point is 00:30:48 him as this all powerful villain and it can end up playing into his hands. So the speakers, many of the speakers at the DNC did something differently. They effectively disempowered Trump by portraying him as this whiny, small, petty, tired guy to be made fun of undercutting the strongman image that he tries to project. Criticizing Donald Trump and the MAGA movement is a political necessity, but not all criticisms of Trump have equal rhetorical force. We get to the one you're probably all wondering about. Wait, David, what about the Barack Obama thing? Yes. At one point during last week's convention, former President Barack Obama went below the belt,

Starting point is 00:31:36 insinuating both with what he said and with what he did with his hands, that Donald Trump has a small penis. Remember this moment? There's the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes. So this went viral and I'm sure that it got under Donald Trump's skin. It's important to realize that the humor isn't so much about Trump's body in and of itself, but Trump's obsession with it. And this is a critical thing, I believe, to understand for those who wrote to me and

Starting point is 00:32:20 said, David, isn't isn't this the thing we would criticize Republicans for if they did it? Didn't we criticize Trump, especially when he did this in 2016? Well, from the beginning, Trump has been obsessed, fixated on crowd size, an obsession that underscores his narcissism. Trump has a constant need to inflate his ego, much like his exaggerated claims about physical attributes and strength and power and masculinity. And all of it really just reveals Trump's insecurities more than anything about the

Starting point is 00:32:57 people that Trump is attacking. It's crude behavior. It's vindictive. It's frankly pathetic and childish. And because of that, it is long overdue to start mocking Trump's obsession. It's not about Trump's penis size. Let me explain. For years, Democrats tried to take the high road, often turning a blind eye when Trump would do these childish antics. But we get to a point where you have to push back. Voters want leaders who will stand up to bullies, not shy away from them, not calling them out

Starting point is 00:33:35 for their bizarre behavior. That's what we're seeing right now. Penis jokes left to your interpretation as to whether you like them specifically. We are seeing a willingness from the Democratic Party to call Trump and the Republicans out at their own game. Democrats should go high and low, substantiating their attacks against Trump by critiquing his position on issues that actually matter to people. This is why Tim Walz is there.

Starting point is 00:34:04 Just plain weird line works so well in a vacuum. You're weird. Might just sound like a playground taunt, another ad hominem. But the difference is that Tim Walls ties it back to policy and they continue to be obsessed with things. You know, there's something wrong with people when they talk about freedom, freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom, being your exam room, freedom to tell your kids what they can read. That stuff is weird. They come across weird. They seem obsessed with this. They continue to try and tell you. And look, the thing that I find the most weird about it is, is they never do the things they say when they talk about freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom to be in your exam room, freedom to tell your kids what they can read. That stuff is weird.

Starting point is 00:34:46 It's undeniably strange that Republicans are so fixated on the sex lives of LGBT Americans spending significant political capital on restricting the rights of that group of people. It's bizarre that Republicans are determined to regulate women's bodily autonomy, imposing restrictions on reproductive rights and health care. It's weird that Republicans are on a crusade to ban books in school libraries and trying to control the information and ideas that students are exposed to. And Tim Walz expanded on this theme during his speech at the convention, invoking Mr. Rogers by emphasizing Republicans are not neighborly

Starting point is 00:35:26 and they lack basic decency. But not everyone has that same sense of responsibility. Some folks just don't understand what it takes to be a good neighbor. On Project 2025, saying it's an agenda that serves nobody but the richest and most extreme amongst us. It's an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need. Is it weird? Absolutely. This has struck a nerve with Republicans. In response, Republicans have shot back by saying Waltz is tampon Tim for signing a law that requires schools to supply menstrual products in bathrooms regularly used by students. Now, as a side note, many Republicans have said walls is requiring tampons be in the boys bathrooms. It turns out that that's a lie. Not really the subject of this video, though. Trump has responded

Starting point is 00:36:17 to all of this by saying walls is heavy into transgender. He's going for things that nobody's ever even heard of. Heavy into the transgender world, heavy into lots of different worlds. So the debate over weirdness has really evolved into a proxy war on social issues, particularly focusing on trans rights, book bands. These are areas where Republicans are most vulnerable and unpopular. Unlike Barack Obama's comment about Trump's size, these are social issues with real consequences and they resonate very deeply with voters. And these themes are also present in Kamala Harris's regular stump speech.

Starting point is 00:36:59 Now, before I was elected as vice president, before I was elected as United States senator, I was the elected attorney general, as I've mentioned, of California. Before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. predators who abused women fraudsters who ripped off consumers cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain so hear me when i say I know Donald Trump's type. So this is the correct way to criticize Donald Trump while trying to appeal to a large cross section of voters and not making fun of the physical appearance. And Harris repeatedly calls Trump a predator, a fraudster, a cheater. These are personal attacks, sure, but they're

Starting point is 00:38:06 accurate and they really spotlight aspects of Donald Trump's character. And it matters to people. Trump is a predator. His serial sexual assaults matter to people. Trump is a fraudster. The fact that he has this history of not paying workers from dishwashers at hotels to his own lawyers, that matters to people. It's about character. Trump is a cheater. The fact that he tried to illegally remain in power after losing to Joe Biden very much matters to people. And when Tim Walz calls the MAGA movement weird, he backs it with real substantive policy

Starting point is 00:38:38 critiques that show how out of touch the Republican Party is. When Kamala Harris says she knows Donald Trump's type. She's not just talking about the orange skin or the weird hair or the size of whatever. She's exposing the toxic elements of his character that voters care about. So we have a mix of going high, going low. And the Barack Obama size joke is fine as a small piece of the total approach, which it is. It's a small piece of the total approach that I'm not even making a pun when

Starting point is 00:39:14 I say that. But it's contextualized with our understanding that it's about Trump's obsessions and his lies and his egomania and his narcissism and showing that, hey, you know what, you have vulnerabilities, too, you know what? You have vulnerabilities, too, of the kind that you try to plant only on other people. If the penis size jokes became 90 percent of the approach, it would be objectively a bad idea. As a reminder, as this small sliver in conjunction with the policy based, they are weird stuff. I think it's basically fine as a reminder that do you really want this fragile but at the same time egomaniacal narcissistic snowflake to be president for another four years? I certainly don't. And the criticisms have been

Starting point is 00:39:57 correct. I can't tell you whether the size criticism about Trump is right. We just don't know. Although we've heard reports from people like Stormy Daniels. I don't know. But the weirdness of their approach to social issues, very, very accurate. Many of us have bad habits. We want to kick finding motivation can be hard, especially when life gets heavy and the bad habit seems to be what's keeping you sane. Thankfully, fume is here to help you prioritize your health in a way that will not disrupt your daily life. Introducing fumes award winning flavored air device that is quickly becoming the leading alternative to smoking and to vaping. The point of fume is to satisfy the hand to mouth fixation of some of these bad habits, which makes healthy change feel even

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Starting point is 00:42:57 Get thirty five dollars off when you use code Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. If you said to yourself, what can J.D. Vance do aside from being horribly uncharismatic, aside from having no idea how to order donuts or talk to people, aside from bringing not a single voter to Donald Trump's base? If you said to yourself, what else could he do to hurt Donald Trump if he was really trying to torpedo his campaign? It would be to give interviews like he gave to Kristen Welker on NBC News yesterday, where

Starting point is 00:43:34 every single controversy he is asked to clarify, he either comes off as completely inauthentic and dishonest or just says horrible things that nobody would hear and say, that sounds really good to me. Kristen Welker, somehow, you know, this interview was meant to let's clear things up. Let's reposition J.D. Vance as a voice of reason and sanity. Let's defend the idea that he should stay on the ticket instead of being replaced by RFK Jr. Now that Jr. has endorsed Trump. Kristen Welker asks, why is Donald Trump casting doubt on the election even before it happened? Trump saying they can only win if they cheat.

Starting point is 00:44:13 And J.D. has nothing other than that's not what he's doing. Ah, that's not what he's doing. Oh, boy. And to something that Donald Trump said in North Carolina and yet again Friday night. Our primary focus is not to get out the vote, it's to make sure they don't cheat. Cuz we have all the votes you need, you can see it. Why is Donald Trump casting doubt on the election before it's even happened? I don't think that's what Donald Trump is doing.

Starting point is 00:44:41 Well, that's what he's doing, that's what he says here, we need to make sure they don't cheat. I think that what he's saying is that we wanna pursue a set of policies in the Republican Party that make it easier for every legal ballot to be cast. That is not at all what Trump is saying. Counted, but make it harder for illegally cast ballots to be counted. Now, we can disagree about how many of those there are, whether there are a few hundred, a few thousand, maybe more, but just in the last week. OK, so just in the last week, once in Arizona and once in Pennsylvania, there were major court wins that

Starting point is 00:45:12 make our ballot process more secure and more effective. I think that's great. Well, then there'd be no reason to say Democrats can only win if they cheat. Right. What Donald Trump is talking about is we have to pursue sometimes through litigation, sometimes through better policy at the state or national level. So you get it now. I think J.D. Vance is a complete and total disaster. I have one percent of me that actually feels bad that every single interview he has to try to clean up what Trump has said.

Starting point is 00:45:41 Now, often he's having to clean up what he himself has said, and we will get to that. But every single interview, Trump is saying such demented things that J.D. Vance is the position to have to clean it up now that what he is trying to clean up, he's cleaning it up with lies. Trump has said directly, totally clearly the only way that Democrats can win is if they cheat. So that is saying in advance that this is going to be yet another stolen election per Trump. Every election he loses is stolen per Trump. Kristen Welker brings up J.D. Vance's childless cat lady comment and says that was a gut punch to women. And he says that it is not high on the list of things he regrets, but he doesn't seem to deny that he regrets it to a degree, sort of like the worst of both worlds.

Starting point is 00:46:28 He doesn't take it back. And he also kind of acknowledges a little bit of regret, sort of like, OK, so you know it was a bad comment and yet you're not taking it back. Yeah, you're calling it a sarcastic comment. And yet some women and you got the feedback in real time felt like it was a gut punch to them personally. Do you regret making that comment? Look, I regret certainly that a lot of people took it the wrong way and I certainly. OK, did you see what he just did? I really regret all of the

Starting point is 00:46:56 people that took my comment the wrong way. It's their fault. This is I apologize if anyone was completely wrongly offended by what I say. The DNC and Kamala Harris lied about it. Do you regret what you said, Senator? Kristen, I'm going to say things from time to time that people disagree with. I'm a real person. I'm going to make jokes. I'm going to say things sarcastically.

Starting point is 00:47:17 By the way, his jokes are terrible. He has no sense of humor. And I think that what's important is that we focus on the policy. There are certainly going to be things that I say if I'm elected vice president, people are going to say, well, I wish she had said that differently. Kristen, you'd better be prepared that day in and day out. If the country is unlucky enough that I end up in this role, I am going to be saying things just like this.

Starting point is 00:47:39 I think it's most important to actually be the person I actually am and to say those sarcastic comments were made in the service of a real substantive point. This country has become too anti-family. It's too expensive to afford a house. It's too expensive to afford groceries. Donald Trump and I want to change that. And unless we get better leadership, we're not going to. But again, just very quickly, given that people have told you directly, have spoken out, have said that they were offended, they were hurt by those comments. Do you wish you never made those childless cat lady comment?

Starting point is 00:48:10 I think that it's much more important for me to just be a normal human being who sometimes says things that people disagree with. I have a lot of regrets, Kristen, but making a joke three years ago is not in the top ten of the list. It's not a top regret, but he's not denying it's a regret. But he's also saying he's going to continue saying stuff like that. I don't think I've seen a politician get worse and worse at being interviewed as he gets more and more high profile interviews and the stakes go higher, higher, higher.

Starting point is 00:48:36 Kristen Welker asked about Trump's tariffs, which left wing, right wing, centrist, independent economists, they all agree it will make the budget of the average family cost more whether we believe it's worth it. OK, but Trump's tariffs will make things more expensive. And J.D. just kind of goes, no, it won't do that. So when Kamala Harris says if we do the thing that Trump already did, it's going to be way worse than it was last time. I just don't think that makes a lot of sense. Well, let's talk about Trump's record during his first term. He did impose rounds of tariffs and it cost Americans nearly $80 billion in new taxes. Do you acknowledge that imposing

Starting point is 00:49:17 more tariffs will ultimately cost consumers? Well, what it really does is it penalizes importers from bringing goods outside the country into the country. And I think that's just a necessary thing. We know that China and a number of other countries are using effectively slave labor to undercut the wages of American workers. Donald Trump thinks that has to stop. And again, what Kamala Harris is saying, Kristen, is that if you do this, you're somehow going to cause skyrocketing inflation. In reality, Donald Trump already did it. He brought a lot of jobs back and it didn't cause inflation. But it caused consumers to pay more. They paid more in taxes, $80 billion. Do you acknowledge that consumers ultimately will pay

Starting point is 00:49:54 more if there are more tariffs? So economists. You just acknowledge that? No, I don't, Kristen, because I think economists really disagree about the effects of tariffs because there can be a dynamic effect. Right. So, yeah, that that it is absolutely true that the strongest argument for tariffs is a dynamic effect. Dynamic effect means we can measure what a change in a tax or a tariff would do, assuming we make the change and no one's behavior changes. That's not a dynamic analysis.

Starting point is 00:50:23 Dynamic would be, hey, what if you tax millionaires in this one state? You can't just calculate the amount of money you would get because some of them would move out of state. Now, if in most cases, when we actually run the numbers, you still collect more tax revenue. But it is true. You need to dynamically analyze it. The strongest argument against tariffs is you impose the tariffs on the imported goods. The American companies doing the importing would have to pay that tariff. What they would do by dynamic dynamically reacting is say, oh, you know what? In order to avoid the tariff, I'm going to get this product domestically. The reason that it doesn't work out that way is because our supply chains, as we found out during covid, can't make a 180.

Starting point is 00:51:07 You can't turn on a dime, right? Like my Pontiac Firebird that I got as my first car when I got a license, that car could turn on a dime and the economy doesn't do that. Supply chains don't do that. So there may be some longer term dynamic effect if we decide to bring the supply chains back home where you don't exactly see the effect that it can. But that's at the long term. In the immediate, economists right, left and center have said Trump's tax plan will lead to higher prices for the middle class

Starting point is 00:51:36 because a lot of these things that we would be tariffing, you can't really get conveniently anywhere else in the immediate. So he's just lying or he's incompetent. A great combination. Very common MAGA lying incompetent or both. You can't tell. Finally, Kristen Welker asks J.D. Vance about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s claims that vaccines cause autism and antidepressants cause school shootings and that he is just not sure about what happened on 9-11. And J.D. Vance goes, you know, we have disagreements. Move on. Robert F. Kennedy, the big news yesterday. He suspended his campaign, announced he's endorsing Donald Trump. J.D.'s like, yeah, it's so big I might be kicked off the ticket. He is also known as someone who has blamed vaccines for autism, antidepressants for school

Starting point is 00:52:18 shootings and recently said, quote, he won't take sides on what happened on 9-11. Do you have any hesitation about accepting his endorsement? No, Chris, I don't, because we're going to disagree on issues. Right. There are things that Robert Kennedy has said that I disagree with. I'm sure there are things that he said or that I've said, excuse me, that he's going to disagree with. But I think what his endorsement represents is that Donald J. Trump's Republican Party is a big tent party. I was raised not at all. What? Because he was just as willing to endorse Kamala Harris. Right. That might be that statement might fly if RFK was only willing to endorse Trump. But that's not the case. He was also willing to sell out an endorsement to

Starting point is 00:52:56 Kamala Harris in exchange for a role in her administration. So what the endorsement represents, given that it was available to whoever wanted it to the highest bidder, is that his motives are, of course, self-centered, not what's best for the country, and that he's willing to just go with whoever gives him the best deal. Now, all of this aside, all of this J.D. Vance interview aside, there was one other part that's so fascinating that we're going to deal with it separately. And that's what J.D. Vance said about an abortion ban. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance said about an abortion ban. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and MAGA and many Republicans recognize that abortion bans, limiting bodily autonomy, eliminating medical freedom is politically radioactive. It is a ticket to hell or some other place. I don't know. And all of a sudden, J.D. Vance is going, no, we wouldn't.

Starting point is 00:53:49 Trump would never do an abortion ban, even though Trump has signaled maybe he would. He's not bothered by abortion bans if states want to do them. He'd consider this that the other thing he's he's played extremely coy. They are now recognizing that this is such a politically disastrous position. They've lost every refer and whenever there's a referendum on the ballot about abortion, the anti choice movement loses. And if there are Republicans, Republicans on the ballot, they often lose the reframing of the Democratic Party as the party of freedom at the DNC has worked brilliantly

Starting point is 00:54:25 to terrify these people. So now when J.D. Vance was asked during this completely farcical interview with Kristen Welker on NBC News, can you tell me that Trump would not sign an abortion ban? J.D. Vance acts like it's obvious that he and Trump would never support an abortion ban, despite the fact that they've been playing coy with it for what's most politically advantageous for a long time now.

Starting point is 00:54:50 Democrats made the case this week and beyond this week that Donald Trump, if elected, will impose a federal ban on abortion if he wins. Now, Donald Trump says he won't. But can you commit, Senator, sitting right here with me today, that if you and Donald Trump are elected, that you will not impose a federal ban on abortion? I can absolutely commit that, Kristen. Donald Trump has been as clear about that as possible. I think it's important to step back and say, what has Donald Trump actually said on the abortion question? And how is it different from what he has said? I will sell whatever they want to the highest bidder,

Starting point is 00:55:24 ban it, make it legal, whatever Kamala Harris and Democrats have said. Donald Trump wants to end this culture war over this particular topic. If Kamala, excuse me, California wants to have a different abortion policy from Ohio, then Ohio has to respect California and California has to respect Ohio. Donald Trump's view is that we want the individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions because we don't want to have a nonstop federal conflict over this issue. The federal government ought to be focused on getting food prices down, getting housing

Starting point is 00:55:56 prices. So now he goes off to other things. But the real big news is he says we are absolutely not going to do a federal abortion ban. Now I believe that that may well be the position they are coming around to because they've realized that this anti freedom view on women's bodily autonomy and medical freedom has been a disaster for them. And I commend them if we can believe that this is their position, which I don't really know if we can, but maybe

Starting point is 00:56:25 this week it is. And next week it'll be something else. I commend them. But it's not because of any moral opposition that they have to an abortion ban federally. It's simply because they figured out that hasn't really been so good for us. And in reality, they're probably hoping that it never even comes before them. But the fact that J.D. Vance is will he lies all the time, he's probably lying now. But the fact that he's willing to say this publicly is a signal that they know they are in serious trouble and that taking back. Hey, on the left, we are actually about freedom, not you guys. It's us.

Starting point is 00:57:03 It has been extraordinarily effective. I don't want to spend a ton of time on this, but I do want to mention that CNN has been caught using a Trump plant in a supposedly undecided voter panel. This is pretty compelling stuff. You might remember Friday I played this clip for you. This is a clip of eight undecided Pennsylvania voters. They were supposedly undecided going into the DNC. Six of them came out saying, hey, we are now voting for Kamala Harris. There was one guy who said, I have decided thanks to the DNC that I'm

Starting point is 00:57:36 voting Trump. Let me remind you what this was about that. But what I want to ask all of you all together at this point, like I said, none of you were ready to make a commitment to any candidate in November. Please raise your hand right now if you're now ready to make a commitment after today wow i'm just kind of surprised by but we haven't rehearsed this i'm going to make that very clear seven of you are now ready scott yes i'm i'm going to vote for Kamala Harris. Andy. Yeah. Yes. I'm voting for her also. Sean. Sean. Yes. Kamala. Sabrina. Kamala. Patrick. Kamala. Brian. Trump. Trump. And finally, Lindsey. OK, Bryant Rosado. That's the guy who said I was undecided coming in and now I've decided I'm voting Trump. Notable if one out of eight says that. But six out of eight undecideds go Kamala. It's already fantastic. But it turns out that Bryant Rosado has a very

Starting point is 00:58:43 long social media history up to and including right up before this supposed undecided voter panel of posting pro Trump stuff online. He the the gentleman over at Midas Touch have a really great piece on this, which we are linking to. Bryant Rosado has expressed disappointment online that Mike Pence didn't overturn the election for Donald Trump. Not exactly a very neutral position, is it? And you can read the entire article. But the long and short of it is that CNN invited him to come on. He claims they knew about his views and still wanted him on as a supposedly undecided voter. He has a MAGA social media history shooting AK-47s,

Starting point is 00:59:29 as you can see here, posting about Trump's mugshot, reposting election interference, never surrender. So I think you get the point. CNN caught. Could you say they had no idea? Bryant Rosado says they absolutely knew what we make of this as far as what it means about CNN's undecided voter panels. I don't know, but it certainly calls into question the veracity of that undecided voter panel and how people's minds were supposedly changed. You know, you look and you lift up every rock and sometimes you find some pretty horrible stuff.

Starting point is 01:00:13 We have a fantastic bonus show for you today. Please remember to preorder my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine. A lot of work went into the book many early mornings. That's for sure. You can get it in hardcover e-book or audio book. They all count as an order. We are trying to push to 2000 preorders. We're at about a thousand right now. I'm going to tell you more about the freebies that everyone who preorders will get. But everyone who preorders the physical book will get a signed book plate and it will. I got email saying, will it be a stamp? No, I'm not going to send you a stamp. If I tell you I'm going to sign the thing, it will be me signing it with a huge Sharpie.

Starting point is 01:00:57 It'll really be me. And a bunch of other goodies are available. So you can go to David Pakman dot com slash echo or go to bookshop.org Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Audible, Apple Books, Apple, iTunes, music. I don't even know what it's called. It should be everywhere and more information about the book coming up. So we'll see you on the bonus show. I'll be back tomorrow with a brand new show.

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The David Pakman Show - 8/26/24: Can JD Vance survive RFK Jr, shock poll stuns world

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