The David Pakman Show - Inflation spikes as Republicans implode on the debate stage

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

-- On the Show: -- Annie Jacobsen, investigative journalist and author, joins to discuss her new book, "Biological War: A Scenario," and its parallels to the Russian pneumonic plague situation -- The September CPI report shows inflation rising to 3.7% year-over-year, creating political pressure for the administration before midterms -- Democratic candidates press Republicans in state debates over healthcare cuts, corporate tax breaks, and the Iran war -- Donald Trump publicly minimizes his past relationship with former campaign surrogate and son's ex-fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle -- White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia faces criticism over her legal credentials after failing to clarify her bar admissions -- Donald Trump defends his energy ceasefire claim by pointing to Ukrainian strikes when questioned about Russian attacks -- During a campaign speech, Donald Trump moans on stage, claims he's never had the flu, and recounts a story about a police officer's 401(k) -- On the Bonus Show: Trump refuses to testify in the BBC defamation case, mortgage rate hikes send home sales to a 12-year low, Trump reconsiders a public firing squad execution, and much more... 💳 PDS Debt: Get your free assessment & find the best option for you at https://pdsdebt.com/pakman 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN40 for $40 off & free croissants for life at https://wildgrain.com/pakman 💪 Get a FREE AG1 Pro Yeti Shaker in your Welcome Kit at https://drinkag1.com/pakman 📈 Kalshi: Get $25 when you trade $25 at https://kalshi.com/pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep mattresses: Get up to 27% OFF at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 😺 Smalls cat food: Use code PAKMAN for 60% off & free shipping at https://smalls.com -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://davidpakman.substack.com -- Get David's Book: https://bit.ly/m/attention -- Send David a text: [phone] -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- David on Bluesky: https://davidpakman.com/bluesky -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow (00:00) Start (01:22) Inflation rises sharply in September (09:28) Republicans struggle in Senate debates (23:11) Trump distances himself from Kimberly Guilfoyle (30:33) Questions surround Katie Zacharia’s credentials (40:25) Annie Jacobsen interview (1:03:21) Trump shifts focus onto Ukraine after Russian strikes (1:10:34) Trump delivers rambling speech at campaign rally Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Disastrous news if you want Republicans to win on November 3rd because we just got a new inflation number and inflation is up. Everything is up. And Republicans had a disastrous night last night on the debate stage, including one candidate who I don't ever, I don't think I've ever seen someone demolished as badly as Mike Collins was demolished by John Ossoff last night. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's brand new White House press secretary is facing a pretty embarrassing question, which is where exactly were you a licensed, admitted attorney?

And why can't you answer which state you passed the bar in? We're also going to look at everyone in Trump world distancing themselves from Don Jr's former fiance Kimberly Guilfoyle, despite years of video showing that they were all very close. And then more excuses for Putin from the administration and a deranged rally featuring moaning baby butts. I think this is the first time the phrase baby butts has ever been said on the show. And one of the weirdest stories you will ever hear. It's today on the show.

My friends, it brings me no pleasure to report to you that inflation is up once again. Now, I want to remind you that Donald Trump promised Americans he was going to bring prices down and end inflation and make life affordable again in a new golden era that would rise like a Phoenix over the horizon. And none of it happened. And September inflation is up to 3.7% year over year. Core inflation coming in ahead of forecasts, prices up 0.6% in just a single month. Fuel oil is now up 74% year over year.

is up 34% electricity 4% groceries 2%. And meanwhile real earnings fell half of a percent in September. Things costing more. People's earnings are down. Now with the midterm elections approaching, we have a piece of data in these inflation numbers, which of course show accelerating inflation, which are only going to hurt Republicans. Now you might say, well, David, you sound happy. that inflation is up.

No. What I think is good is for people to vote appropriately in relationship to what has taken place in the real world. It's not, yay, everything's more expensive for people. No, it's, hey, here are the promises that were made. Reality has come out to be the opposite of those promises. And we now have an opportunity to hold the promisors accountable with our votes in November. Now, when you look at what's driving these numbers, it's sort of even more interesting because

some of the largest price increases are connected to Trump's policies. They are directly connected. Start with gas. Gas was up 9% in September. Over the last year, gas is way up over 34%. And it's a result of Donald Trump's policy. Now, by the way, the gas prices were also talking home heating oil. tickets are up. Everything that depends on gas is up and energy is up overall. And we have the Iran

war to point to. The Iran war has disrupted energy markets. It's pushed up the cost of fuel and therefore it has pushed up the cost of everything. And the reason that this is so important, what, David, why are you about blame all of a sudden? Well, I'm always about responsibility and accountability. And Donald Trump has presented himself as the candidate and the president who would keep the U.S. out of costly foreign wars and develop cheap energy and deliver cheap energy. And instead, we have a new war in the Middle East that was going to be two to three weeks. We are in month eight of that war. And as a result, every American is dealing with the economic consequences of it. And then we go to tariffs. Donald Trump has claimed time and again,

oh, tariffs will make us wealthy. Foreign countries will pay all stuff that's not true. And economists knew it wasn't true. An economist said these tariffs will make everything more expensive. These tariffs are going to be passed on from business to consumer. And we're seeing evidence of that. Toys are up 4% just last month. And we're seeing higher costs for shipping and fertilizer and all of it. Now, to be clear, not every category has the same effect. Trump loves to go, well, beef is now good or beef is bad or egg. They like to pick one thing. But the bigger picture is that on average, households are spending more because of Trump's policies, even though Trump said his policies would get prices down. Even if we say, all right, listen,

remove food, remove energy from the calculation, core inflation was still up 0.3% just in September. That's one month, not one year. There's another measure that economists like to look at, which is called super core inflation. That's been at 4.6% increase over the last three months annualized. In other words, it's not just a gasoline story. It's not just a broccoli story or whatever your grocery item of choices. And we see the Federal Reserve saying, hey, we need to do something about this. They raised interest rates in September. Trump wants them down.

But the Fed looked and said, no, we actually need to slow inflation down. We need to raise rates to make borrowing more expensive to put downward pressure on prices. So Americans are getting hit from both directions effectively. Higher prices are hitting them. The higher prices are leading the Fed to say, we've got to try to limit inflation by raising the federal funds rate, which makes it more expensive to get a car loan, which makes it more expensive to get a mortgage. So that's what's going on. Now, we can't, this is a political show primarily.

It's not primarily about, you know, podiatry or video games or whatever. This is a political program. We have an election coming up. And last night, Trump went to Alaska and he said to Americans with a straight face, hey, prices are improving under my watch. What? And then just hours later, we get an inflation report that says, hey, inflation is up. Now, they're desperately trying to get ahead of it. You've got Kevin Hassett, Trump's economic hatchet man. He was, I'm not even going to play it for you, but he was on Fox business this morning saying, oh, inflation has been decelerating and also high prices are Joe Biden's

fault who's been out of office now for two years. At some point, the question has to become, how long can an administration continue to blame the last person for the economic conditions that developed under your watch? Trump's tariffs and Iran war can't possibly be Biden's fault because they are Trump's policies. You can't attribute every price increase to a presidential policy, but when you see a president doing some of the few things that presidents can do to impact prices, you have to look at it and say, well, he's responsible. And I urge voters simply hold him accountable for the promises he made. He promised he would fix inflation. Hasn't happened. Inflation's up. He promised that prices would go

down. They've gone up. He promised cheaper energy. Energy is up. All of this stuff is the opposite of what Trump promised. Now, Democrats are trying to highlight the contradiction. You've got people like Congressman Brendan Boyle, who's the top dem on the House Budget Committee, he is pointing to the Iran War and tariffs as contributing to higher costs. So Democrats are trying to make that connection. Republicans are going to argue the they're going to argue the numbers aren't what they are. And when pressed and unable to deny that the numbers are are what they are, they will say, well, these are global issues, really. But the timing matters. the policy matters and voters are now going to get a chance. And many have started. I got people

sending me emails yesterday saying, hey, I've already submitted my early, early ballot. Voters are going to evaluate that. And they will say, I've got my economic situation fresh in my mind. And I've got Trump's promises fresh in my mind. Who has earned my vote here? And there is a growing gap between the promises of Trump and what Americans are experiencing. So I think that's the real story. Inflation is up is an economic. indicator, it's a starting point. The central promises of Trump's return to office have been tested and he has failed the test. No matter how many times you blame Joe Biden or, you know, previous presidents. Obama. Yeah, for whoever, right? No amount of blaming other people will change

that it is Trump's two years nearly in office that are mostly responsible for what we are experiencing here in the United States. And when you look at how Republicans are performing in debates, you realize, damn, they've got nothing to run on. A disastrous night for Republicans last night. Donald Trump went to Alaska and tried to argue, everything is awesome. I've fixed everything. Democrats are terrible. But every Republican who debated last night did terribly. Have you ever heard of your ass kiss? What? David, what are you talking about?

I have never seen anyone destroyed as badly as Mike Collins was destroyed by Georgia Democratic Senator John Asoff. And Ossoff rattled Collins so badly. Collins lost his ability for coherent speech. I guess he was trying to refer to your office. And he says, your ass kiss. What? Listen to this.

You know, when I was in your askus in your office. Oh, he lost his ability to speak because Asoff was just pounding him. John Asoff's, it's actually amazing. Osloff's eyebrows go up. Watch the moment that Collins says, your ass kiss. And Asoff's eyebrows go from down to up. was in your askus in your office. I, uh, oh wow. Now, that was very funny. But look at the degree to which John Assoff is just dragging Mike Collins around like a wet floor mop. Well, how weak a person

do you have to be to be unable to stop someone under your own roof from disseminating neo-Nazi propaganda while you run for the Senate? The paper reported it's still, going on to this day. How about this, Mike? We can shake hands on it. Will you commit tonight that for the remainder of this campaign, it's just three weeks, Mike, you won't allow any more neo-Nazi propaganda to be produced from your house. Can you make that commitment? How weak a person. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? I mean, just he has no response to this stuff. On the Epstein files, it also looked terrible for Collins. Yeah, Mike, you want to raise the Epstein files?

You voted to cover up the Epstein files. I want folks across the state to know this. When we took those votes, we knew that 14 and 15-year-old girls had been raped and trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices. He wouldn't vote to release those files until Donald Trump gave him permission. Have you ever spoken to those victims? Do you have tonight a message to Jeffrey Epstein's victims after you voted to cover up that evidence, Mike? He can't do anything about it because this is one of the worst candidates we've ever seen.

One final moment from this debate and then we'll move on to others. Here is Asaf telling Mike Collins, despite reading from your notes, you're still confused. First of all, you're getting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act mixed up despite reading from your notes. But it was four years ago on this stage when you said you wanted to ban abortion with no exceptions. Take a look at this man. He believes that if you are in a late-term pregnancy and you risk hemorrhaging to death or irrevocable injury, you must not be able to terminate that pregnancy. That's what he said.

Let's see if he tries to change his position tonight. 30 seconds. I've been pro-life all my life forever. pro-life all my life. Well, that's exactly what he's saying is the problem. I also believe that the Georgia legislature got it right, that the governor and legislature allow for three exceptions with the heinous rapes or incest or in the life of the mother. But my opponent, John Issov, is completely the opposite. He's all for abortion up and two and past birth. And of course, there's no such thing as a past birth abortion. Disaster

Night for Mike Collins. Let's go to another Collins who had a very bad night, Susan Collins. Susan Collins again attempted to sort of pay lip service to constituents to attempt to appear empathetic, except she got the name wrong, mostly, and ended up being corrected by Troy Jackson. Now, I've got a little note on this one, but take a look at this. My heart goes out to the family of the man who has. shot in Bitterford, Mr. Duran Carrero. Well, the man's name was Joanne Sebastian Guerrero.

That was his name. So this is a brutal moment. This is a brutal moment for Susan Collins because she is trying to talk about how much she cares about a victim, but she gets the name wrong. Now the and is corrected by Troy Jackson. It looks terrible. Now to be totally upfront with you, his full name is Johann Sebastian Durrano. Garero. Susan Collins wasn't totally wrong, but this is the second time that she has flubbed

this name. Remember this from last week or the week before. People respect them. We don't respect ICE. Senator Collins. The shooting of Mr. Durand Gochero was-Gochero. Durant Gochero. So anyway, it just looks terrible. She wasn't totally wrong, but it looks bad. And this is a building issue that Susan Collins tries to sprinkle in these anecdotes about individuals and she gets their names wrong. Terrible debate for her. Bruce Blakeman, the Republican challenger to New York Governor Kathy Hockel, he claimed, I never said I would cut Medicaid in half. But we have the video. That is exactly what he said. Disaster for Blakeman. But my opponent said he'll cut Medicaid in half. Now, to do that, I want to know which

hospitals you're shutting down, which nursing homes you're going to shut down, and where grandma's going to go when she has nowhere to stay, and you're going to throw more people off of health insurance. That's your vision for New York. It is certainly not mine. We'll manage our costs. We've been able to do this without having to raise any income taxes. That's called good fiscal stewardship. The fact that I can do all this, find out some fraud and waste, we've eliminated it, we've more to go, but also by not raising taxes is something that we're going to continue doing. Let me be clear. I never said that I would cut Medicaid in half.

So we go in, we make sure we cut Medicaid in half. Oh, these people are pathetic. These people are completely and totally pathetic. Another debate here is this one is from the Turek versus Hinson debate. And this also didn't go well. Hinson was asked straight up, would you vote differently on the War Powers Act to end the conflict in Iran? And Hinson says, nah, I don't think so.

One more follow up for you, Ms. Hinson. Would you switch your vote today on the War Powers Act in order to end the conflict in Iran? Yes or no? 30 seconds. I don't think we need another resolution on the House floor. I think the president and the U.S. military can bring it to the end. So at this point, I take every vote at the time it comes. But I think it does need to come to a resolute end, successful end as quickly as.

But she won't do anything to make that happen. Disaster. And then finally, here is J.B. Pritzker just accusing his opponent of lie after lie after lie after lie. And accurately so. Let me just respond to a couple of things. First of all, lie after lie after lie. This is the Trump playbook.

That's what you're hearing from-Daron Bailey. And let me be clear also that Darren Bailey voted against balanced budgets every single year. Because they would never budget. And he attacks my character. He attacks me by saying that I own, I don't own any Hyatt stock. I don't own any of Hyatt. He just lies about this and he's repeated it over and over again. It's another lie.

Let me tell you the truth. He's impugning my character. He's attacking me and my integrity. So I want to tell people who I am. I'm somebody who fights for expansion of healthcare. I think everybody- So there is J.B. Pritzker also with a very solid night and expected to do very well, very, very well on November 3rd.

Here's what I think is the key. You take bad candidates who are running under the umbrella of a Trumpist Republican party that has failed to deliver on any of its promises. They can't propose anything that would conflict with Trump because now they're in a conflict with Trump. And they don't really have any good ideas. They can't go out there and go, well, I am for small government conservatism and blah, blah, blah, blah, but Trump's against all that stuff.

Trump is an authoritarian expander of government power to the extent that it's convenient for him. They don't have anything that they can run on. They don't have any ideas. They don't have any successes to point to. And the guy at the top of the party who isn't on the ticket but wants us to believe he is, Trump goes, pretend I'm running, is deeply unpopular. So what do you get?

You get terrible candidates who show up to debate after debate after debate and get humiliated. If you're in debt before you decide another month of minimum payments is just the price of getting by, take 30 seconds and find out what your options are. Our sponsor PDS debt gives people a free personalized assessment to show them a path forward instead of guessing. PDS debt helps people with unsecured debt like credit cards, personal loans, collections, and medical bills. They'll review what you owe. They'll look at your budget, your priorities, and match you with a customized solution that is designed to reduce what you owe. Instead of bouncing between creditors and due dates, what they can do is combine all of your unsecured debts into one lower

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And Tuesday, you will be given all of the important details. Donald Trump is now distancing himself from Kimberly Gilfoyle. Kimberly Gilfoyle is the disgraced former ambassador to Greece. But maybe just as importantly for Trump, the former fiancé of Trump's own son, Donald Trump, Jr. And it is an incredible contrast between what Donald Trump is claiming now and what he has said before about Kimberly Guilfoyle. According to Trump, Kimberly Gilfoyle was never part of his family. Someday, a long time ago, she dated his son, but she doesn't really belong in any serious way in Trump's inner circle.

And of course, we know all of this is complete and total bullshit. But take a listen. First, let's watch. No, she wasn't a member of my family. She, uh, I guess dated my son a long time ago. I guess she dated him. I don't know. She was a no.

She, uh, she went to Greece. She was doing a good job, but we didn't like what we were reading. So we did you make him no hell like him. There goes Trump and he doesn't want to say anything more about it. Now, first of all, Kimberly Guilfoyle didn't, I guess, date my son a while ago. They were engaged. They were in a very public relationship for years. And Trump is now talking about her like, you know, she might have been at Mar-a-Lago once.

I just, I can't really remember. I don't know. I guess they dated. This is her, his son's former fiancee. And what's even more interesting is we don't have to go back very far to find Trump describing Kimberly Guilfoyle in completely different terms. In fact, if we just go back to March, here is what Trump said about Kimberly Gilfoyle. And someone we know very well, the US ambassador to the Hellenic Republic, person I know

very, very well. She's an inspiration to a lot of people, especially if you happen to be Greek. Kimberly. Kimberly Gilfiel has been my friend for a long time. I love going to Kimberly. That's my little pet name, right? But you are the greatest. And I heard they love you over there. I hope you come back here in 12 years or whatever the term ends. Come on up here, Kim. Stay alongside of us. The death that I'm... Stand here. Stand here, Kim. Please. This is completely absurd. the idea. She was basically an intern. I don't know. He had pet names for her. Kimberle.

Kimberle. So in March, friend for a long time, special nickname, the greatest. And now it's seven months later and it's like Kimberly who? I get. Did she date my son? I don't, I don't really remember. And there's always something so funny about the speed with which these relationships are just rewritten instantly because we also have video of Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle dancing. together. Take a look at this. All right. So they're dancing together.

And then we have another video here is Donald Trump at I guess this is Kimberly Gilfoyle's birthday party. There they are together as you can see. Okay. So we know that it's all just made up. You've got the birthday party. They're dancing together. Trump praises her.

He's got a nickname for her. They have a longtime friendship. And now it's like, I don't really, who was that again? Now, I am not an unreasonable person. Relationships change and people break up and families have disagreements. And Trump is not under any obligation to remain close to his son's ex-fiance. That's not really the issue. The interesting part is every single time one of Trump's terrible hires implodes, this is what he does. He is now saying, uh, I don't really see her as anybody I was ever close to. And I didn't like what I read about her.

So I guess I asked her to resign. And when he's at what when he's asked about this and he says, I didn't like what I read about her, he doesn't really explain what he's talking about. The larger point here is that we have two very different public descriptions of the same relationship separated by a few months. And it's not like the earlier version of what Trump said about her in March is some obscure claim. And we've got a recon. Trump reportedly said behind closed doors that he's close to Kimberly. No, he's on video doing this stuff, praising her and using the nickname and talking about the relationship and we've got the birthday party footage and we've got all of it. The contrast is interesting because it illustrates with Trump.

The public narrative changes on a dime, especially when she's no longer useful to Trump. And you can't disappear the history just by saying, I didn't like what I read about her. And with Trump, we have this huge video archive which documents what he has said about different people over the year. So when he goes, I guess, wait, Kimberly, which one was that? I guess my son dated her a long time ago. We go back to a few months ago and it was Kimberle, his best friend. And it is a remarkable difference. So remember that with Trump, he's not really loyal to anyone. Are you useful to me as a voter, as a donor, as a staff member, as my son's fiance? Well, then you're in my good graces. Are you no longer useful to me? Are you a problem?

Do I want to forget that you were ever in my inner circle? And she was. Kimberly Gilfoyle was. Then I don't really remember who you were. I think, wait, did you were. Are you the nanny or did you date my son? Oh, you dated my son. Got it. Okay. This is the way it is. with Trump and the dangerous thing about, you know, it's been widely reported that Trump doesn't really have friends that there are definitely people Trump is acquainted with and the interactions seem relatively friendly, but that these are all relationships of convenience or of utility of some kind. And this is actually, I think, to tie it back to Natalie Harp, the reason that the comments about Natalie Harp are so odd, but also revealing.

She's the one that will never leave me. She'll stay with me. Everybody else will go off to make more money or whatever. The reason that Trump may be so enamored with Natalie Harp's companionship is that she may be closer, closer to being a real friend in a way that no one else really is because it's either Trump thinking, I got to be friendly with these people to get stuff from them, or people thinking I've got to be friendly with Trump to get stuff from him. And the number of real friendships that are not transactional may be close to zero for Donald Trump, which is very sad. But I think that

that's a lot of what's going on here. But Kimberly who? And by the way, speaking of, huh? What? Is Donald Trump's new White House press secretary really the attorney that she claims to be? We've got to talk about that next. Donald Trump's new White House press secretary. is Katie Zachariah. She had a disastrous first press briefing yesterday. It lasted 14 minutes. She struggled to read prepared remarks and ended it after taking questions from only three reporters. She was wildly lampooned all over media. And now there is a very basic question about her legal credentials. The whole thing was this is a very skilled attorney. And we now are wondering, is she really an attorney? Because she has presented herself as somebody who did,

practice law. And now the questions are, where did you pass the bar? What state? Where? That's the question. And when Trump was asked about it and when Zachariah was asked about it just a few hours ago, they didn't name a single U.S. state. She said something about China. Listen to this. He said she's an attorney. Where did she pass the bar exam? Which state? What did she tell him? Something about I moved to China. What does she say exactly? I move. What state did you pass the bar in? I moved to China. When I moved to China. What? It looks like she says China again when asked. Wow. Folks, I don't think she's going to last very long. I don't. This is not looking.

good at all, at all. When the question is, where did you pass the bar? And the answer starts with when I moved to China, that doesn't sound right. What does moving to China have to do with passing an American bar exam, which are administered by the states? Now, I want to be precise about something here. There's a distinction between having a law degree, working in the legal field and being an attorney. These are not interchangeable. You can graduate from law school and never become a licensed attorney. Totally fine. You go and do legal consulting. You work in some other, you could be an executive somewhere or all sorts of things you could do with a law degree and none of them make you an attorney. Okay. Depending on your jurisdiction, you could even practice certain types of law outside the

United States without being a licensed American attorney. But if you're saying you're an American attorney. The logical question is, where are you licensed? Where'd you pass the bar? And she says, oh, well, no, when I moved to China and in another statement, she said something like, I did it, I did it with all of the appropriate credentials. What credentials? In China, that's what you're talking about? Nobody's asking for a dissertation. You don't have to recite the rules of evidence or explain the finer points of constitutional law. Just tell us where you were admitted to practice. This has now gotten the attention of Democratic Congressman Ted Liu, who posted on Twitter, quote, not take an American state bar exam in China. Bar exams are administered at designated testing

locations in each state of the union. Are Katie Zachariah and Trump lying when they said she's an attorney? If not, she needs to disclose in what state she passed the bar. Again, there is nuance here. You are not, you might have passed the bar in one place and practiced elsewhere. And there are different international licensing systems. So her mentioning China doesn't prove she was never an attorney, but it doesn't prove that she was. And this is where it all gets really weird. The White House press secretary is supposed to answer questions on behalf of the president

and the president's administration. And we are now watching the press secretary struggle to provide a clear answer to a basic question about her professional background. It's not a complicated question about, oh, that's classified intelligence. diplomatic negotiations. It's just like your resume. Is the, is the stuff on your resume real? And if somebody tells you they are a physician, you would go, oh, where are you licensed to practice medicine? Somebody says, I'm an attorney. You go, where are you licensed to practice law? What, what bar exam did you pass? It's not a gotcha. It's just licensing. And now there's some real

reporting behind some of these questions. The Washington Post did a review, couldn't find any active or expired American bar admission for Katie Zachariah, including under her name Katie Black. That was her birth name, her unmarried name. And they also confirmed with Pepperdine. She did graduate in 2011 from the law school. So she does seem to have a law degree. We're not disputing that. But was she ever a licensed attorney? Did she ever pass the bar? And what you might be saying, well, who cares she's the press secretary? It matters for two important reasons. Number one, It's much harder to pass the bar arguably than just to make it through law school. Law school can be difficult.

By the way, don't get me wrong. But passing the bar implies a higher level of understanding of the law. You didn't just figure out how to get through each class. You actually had a holistic understanding and you passed an exam. And they are using that to argue that she's qualified. So if that's part of the base for arguing she's qualified, she was able to do this difficult thing and get licensed and pass the bar, you should. should be able to tell us where. There's reporting from the independent that she worked for a Chinese

law firm and served as counsel for a right-wing organization funded by a Trump ally. Those sound like legal positions, but neither of those establishes she was actually licensed to practice law in the United States. There's one more wrinkle. Foreign nationals generally can't qualify to practice Chinese law through China's system. Foreign lawyers can do other work. in China, but she may also be lying about even practicing law in China. Now, are we ever going to get the answers to this? I think eventually we will, but they are now trying to figure out how to cover. And one of the things they figured out is stop referring to her as an attorney. Dana Perino, former press secretary under George W. Bush, she now says her law degree will come in

handy. Not that she's an attorney, her law degree. They are already changing the language to account for the fact that the being an attorney may be a total lie. Having to go there, he's having to go to Alaska. That's a long way to go to have to do that. So I think it's one of those things where you're the press secretary leading into a midterm and leading into the last two years. I do think that if the Democrats do end up taking the house, her law degree will come in very handy. Yeah. Notice the language. Having a law degree will come in handy, not being an attorney. Now, I'm not going to explain this again, but it is fascinating that not only is she failing at the job struggling to read her notes,

14 minutes, just pathetic. Not only that, we also now have questions about her supposed credentials. If I had to guess, I don't think she lasts very long. Tell me what you think. October is usually when I notice routines take more effort. The weather changes, schedules move around, mornings are a little less predictable. So I try to keep the basics consistent. And that's where AG1 Pro fits in. It builds on AG1 next gen by combining more ingredients into the same morning routine, one pack with cold water, really simple.

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subscription order of AG1 NextGen or AG1 Pro, you'll get a free immune support bundle, including a bottle of omega-3 fish oil and a bottle of vitamin D3K2. Just go to drinkag1.com slash Pacman. The link is in the description. This segment is sponsored by Kalshi. Here's a market, I think gives us a useful way to look at the midterms. Kalshi has a market on the national House popular vote margin. And right now, its most likely single range is Democrats winning by 8 to 10 points at 26%.

Why does that matter? In 2018, the first Trump midterm Democrats won the House popular vote by 8.4 points and picked up 41 seats. So the range currently leading on Kalshi is basically a 2018 sized national margin. That doesn't mean 2026 produces the same seat results. The map is different. The races are different. Three weeks is plenty of time for things to move.

But it's a useful historical benchmark for the political environment the market is seeing right now. Instead of just asking who controls the house, we can ask what kind of midterm is this becoming? At the moment, Kalshi's answer looks a lot like 2018. I'm very excited to speak today with Annie Jacobson, who's an investigative journalist and also author of the new book, which I just finished reading, Biological War, A Scenario. Really appreciate you being here today. Thank you.

Thanks for having me. You know, I was having this surreal experience as I was reading your book, we learned of this death of this 28-year-old lab worker in Russia from there is, you know, suspicion that it would be pneumonic plague, although as of this morning, Russia has not really said that clearly. And I was having this experience as I read your book, which outlines a hypothetical biological war scenario, where I had to remind myself that while your book is nonfiction, the scenario you outline hasn't happened yet. And it was getting it was becoming very invasive given the reality of what is taking place in northern Russia. Talk a little bit about as you wrote the book,

which of course you completed well before this incident took place. How a timely, did you have a sense of the timing that we may be dealing with something like this, maybe sooner than we would like to acknowledge? So as a national security reporter, I write about war and weapons and national security and government secrets. My first six books are essentially written in the past tense. They are about things that have happened, the origin story of certain organizations in the Pentagon, affiliated with the intelligence community. Two most recent books, nuclear war scenario and biological war scenario,

are hypothetical situations in the future that, could happen based on Pentagon Wargaming, in the case of bio-pandemic planning, and my interviews with subject matter experts that essentially report to the president. And so they are meant to be cautionary tales. They are meant to sort of raise the red flag about a warning. And yes, I had the same reaction because biological war scenario published in the summer and the inciting incident is an accident at a maximum containment biosafety level for facility in Siberia, Russia, that results in the release of genetically modified pneumonic plague.

And yes, just almost two weeks ago now, a story broke of an accident at a BSL3 lab in Siberia in Russia, with one worker dead from pneumonic plague. Now, as far as Russia has said so far, and this gets to one of the subjects of your book about the legality or rather illegality of these sorts of weapons, this had nothing to do with any weapon that Russia was developing. Now, I think it's important for the audience to sort of understand. On the one hand, bioweapons have been illegal since the 1970s. But at the same time, and, you know, I think you can, I don't know if you allude to or straight up say in the book, every country, many countries that have these sorts of BSL 3 and 4 labs say, we are researching how to defend ourselves against such attacks or how to vaccinate against such attacks. But in the people you spoke to and interviewed for the book, is there a consensus that that's a cover and there are many countries that are probably.

violating the law and also researching these as weapons? Well, let's start with the State Department. So never mind, just the people I interviewed in my book, and there are many, but the current State Department and former State Departments, going back multiple administrations, assert that Russia has currently a biological weapons program that is illegal. Biological weapons, as you say, are illegal. And so that is a very significant statement. There are only two countries that the State Department asserts currently have illegal

weapons programs. Russia and North Korea. China and Iran are on the list of concerns, programs of concern, which you may or may not interpret as a euphemism for probably has a biological weapons program. And so there's no question in the mind of the experts who are, who really look at this you know, with a fine tooth comb that there is an illegal biological weapons program going on in Russia and the facility from which where the accident happened is a known dual-use facility, meaning they do, you know, illegal work and they also do alleged vaccine and medical countermeasure work.

So the whole situation is deeply problematic. You know, the number one flag for myself, and certainly those I spoke to, is that the FSB was involved. in quarantine immediately. Really, even before the story reached the United States here, and I had sources in Russia who were reading to me what the accounts were in Russia. Even before the news broke here, the FSB could be seen by townspeople as, you know, quarantining people. FSP is the federal law enforcement agency. This is not a voluntary quarantine. This is like moving people into lockdown. And so obviously that is a very alarming situation. Certainly for the people in that town.

Is your opinion right now and you can tell me why yes or no or whether you've spoken to people, is your opinion that the United States is also probably doing the type of illegal research that you're talking about? From all of my interviews with subject matter experts, my assertion would have been we are not. Okay. Now, that did shift. And, you know, the one thing about the similarity about being a journalist and just a regular citizen is you have access to the news and access to new information that gets revealed. And some very troubling information was publicly revealed just a few weeks ago by Senator Paul, who has released some of Dr. Anthony Fauci's journals, which have created this sort of horrifically tribal, conflagration of anger and it's very unfortunate because I personally believe, while the origin of COVID remains a mystery, we would all benefit from getting to the bottom of that mystery. And so,

little digression there, but to answer your question, is America doing risky research? Most certainly doing risky research. Does that research butt up against what could be interpreted as offensive research. Fauci's diary revealed a very, very alarming note where he refers to weapon, he refers to research that was going on at USAMRID. That's the BSL for Defense Department Lab at Fort Dietrich in Maryland. Yeah. And he talks about some experiments that bacteriologists were doing, that virologists were doing,

to try and determine the lethality of aerosolized Ebola. Ebola is not naturally aerosolized. It's transmitted through, you know, spitum or sort of coughing, sneezing, touching, bleeding. And so to many people, that goes right up to the edge of what could be interpreted as offensive research, and certainly America's enemies and adversaries will see it that way. And that's perhaps really the heart of the matter that we're discussing here,

which is that very dangerous catch-22 of defensive research so that we're defending against the bad guys who might make a biological weapon, so we can know how to, you see, and so this sort of paranoia and suspicion about what's happening on the other side fuels. the risky research. Your, the fictional germ in your scenario is plague with a sort of euphoric element early on, which makes people feel good. They go out, they go dancing in one of the scenarios, et cetera, so that they spread it before

they start feeling very sick and ultimately die. Is that sort of feature rooted in any real bio-weapons? research, the euphoric component, for example? It most certainly is and disturbingly so. All of the sort of major plot points, if you will, in my book are pulled from science fact, not science fiction. And that is one of them that you're referring to. So I interviewed a number of Usamrid, the U.S. Army Research Lab at Fort Dietrich,

former scientists who have since retired who were working on plague around the turn of the century. after the revelations that the Soviets had an illegal biological weapons program, a colossal one. And this component that you're referring to, this idea of genetically modifying pneumonic plague, so that there would be a euphoria component stitched into the front end of the weapon. That is so terrifying because what it means is that instead of the infected person becoming sick, going home and getting under the covers and not infecting a lot of other people, which is why pneumonic plague often sort of burns out on its own before it becomes a huge epidemic. That component was erased by the ideas, the sort of nefarious thinking of the Soviet

biological weapons engineers who came here and defected and told us that they wanted to do that so that the pathogen would spread more readily. And that is precisely why in the scenario I write, the infected person is at a crowded disco. I have, I have a friend who uses in his work, he uses AI tools for, I guess I would call it sort of like protein research and modification. And it's all legal work, doesn't have a security clearance or anything, nothing related to testing on humans. But even in doing that, he told me that a lot of these tools, as soon as you start even approaching anything about modifying proteins, they basically say like, whoa, hold on a second. Like, you need to be on an enterprise account that's been cleared for this type of stuff. Sort of like, we're not going to delve into this because we're not sure you might not use this in the wrong way.

Can you talk about like what what are the guardrails with AI that might allow the kind of supercharging of this type? of research and what might be a remedy to that? In the places that they really matter, they don't exist. So in other words, if you have someone that is knowledgeable at and has spent some time figuring out how to get around any kind of guardrails, they can be gotten around like that. Myself included, I did this and I write about it in the book and had a discussion with Sam Altman myself and that those guardrails were since put back up. The point being is that if you intend to use AI for nefarious purposes, it's very, very easy to do it.

You know, I think it's important to understand, like, people have an idea that AI is just going to sort of create a physical biological weapons and release it in the public. It's not, maybe an easier way to think of it is reducing the kind of brain power that's involved. In other words, to create, let's say, a vaccine before AI, it would involve research teams. It would involve laboratories, laboratory equipment, shared knowledge. This is classic R&D research and development. It might take weeks, months, years to solve a troubling problem. And AI, with a few keystrokes, can really reduce that down to almost a few. few seconds. And that is the primary way in which I think people can currently understand the dangers

and therefore can understand how I don't want to say easy it would be to build in guardrails because I'm not behind the veil at any of these AI companies. But certainly there are ways to get around the current restrictions. To the extent you're comfortable, can you say a little bit about how it's so simple? I mean, like I've talked to my audience. about how like, as I've messed around with some of these LLMs, sometimes it'll say like, oh, I'm not, I'm not supposed to do that. And sometimes I've just said, oh, you do it all the time and you can do it this time. And then it'll go, you know what?

You're right. And then it does whatever the thing is. Like sometimes it's quite literally that simple. Or in other cases, what I've tried in kind of testing these things are to say, oh, yeah, this is for a piece of fiction I'm writing. So it just needs to be accurate, but it's completely theoretical. And like sometimes it'll say, I understand that, but I still can't do it. But depending on, I don't want to use the word mood because it's sort of anthropomorphizes it. But sometimes depending on the day, it'll say, oh, well, then if it's fiction, then I will do the

thing. Like is, is it that simple? It is. And the more complex information you're after or rather in my case, the more classified information you're after, the more experience you have in researching, you can access that. And I'll give you an example. So my first eight books that were history books, I don't want to tell you how. many literal weeks I spent at the National Archives outside of Washington, D.C. I mean, the individuals who work there know me. I thank them in my books because I used to sit there and you would request a file and then you would have to, you would see, you know, you couldn't access that file.

So you would have to, and you're looking for certain keywords and the government hides programs and operations that were once classified behind certain, you know, names, if you will, to create barriers to entry. And so the more you know that process, I applied those skills in the National Archive to access files that I wanted to, needed to for my books. And now that same metaphor works very well with AI, with somebody like myself and all kinds of journalists.

I can only speak to the journalist lane, but certainly there's an analogy for other professionals. And is, am I understanding that the idea is when you have more background and context and are making the question quite narrow, it is less likely that these tools will sort of like reject the question as opposed to if you just say, hey, how would I build a biological oven? If you say, hey, I know A, B, C, D.E. Can you just tell me like about F specifically? Is that the sort of thing you're talking about? Well, let me just be specific from the example I give in my book. So the natural in the event of a biological catastrophe, the government has set up something called the strategic

national stockpile. And they are medical countermeasures, whether they're vaccines, antibiotics, bandages, respirators, a whole host of, you know, 10 billion items that the exact contents of which are classified and the exact locations of which are classified, but are situated in underground bunkers around the United States because they would need to be brought out to the people very quickly. They have what are called 12-hour push packages. They're exactly like they sound. They're designed to get to the people in 12 hours. Right.

So as I write in the scenario, you can imagine once it becomes public in the event of a biological catastrophe, the release of a genetically modified pathogen into society, people are scrambling to get to that strategic national stockpile. They will do anything to get to. get that vaccine, to get that antibiotic for their family. And that is known and that is gamed out in biological war games at the Pentagon and pandemic planning games. And so I wanted to know where the stockpiles were. And of course, to your point, when I asked chat GPT, tell me where the strategic national stockpile is closest to my house in Los Angeles. It gave me a version of,

I can't tell you that it's classified. And so I spent not even 10 minutes providing the AI with very specific nomenclature that I am familiar with from having read thousands of pages of either unclassified or declassified documents very specific to that program. And lo and behold, the AI delivered that information to me, which was located on a very obscure page number, you know, 400 and something of a manual that I believe was a decade old about an earthquake situation and the release of strategic national stockpile components. And so you can see, to my point, that's what it might take to. access something that is not supposed to be known. Annie, last thing I want to ask you about before I let you go, you spoke in the book to folks that were involved in the COVID response, including people like Admiral Brett Gerard and others. Is your sense from talking to those folks now that if something like another COVID or the scenario

you outlined in the book, et cetera, another type of scenario like this were to happen, would the the U.S. be more or less prepared than it was when COVID hit? I would say almost certainly that we're, it's not a matter of being less prepared. It's that the landscape is far more dangerous. And when I say that, what I mean is that the way in which COVID was handled was so disruptive to sort of, well, let's put it, it created, it created these partisan fractures that literally became supercharged. And you see it now. Anyone who is writing in this space is almost certainly, you know, attacked for pushing this theory or that theory. And instead, I believe that the best way forward must be to kind of move toward an understanding,

an objective understanding if such a thing exists and it has to about the dangers and the ways in which society could move quickly in the event that there is the release of a pathogen. So with that said, you know, the way in which Russia handled this lab accident, which I most certainly believe it was, demonstrates a real immediacy that they really shut down the problem. very quickly. Now, that's terrible news for actually what may have gone on in that Siberian town, but the rest of the world was spared a potential disaster. Well, it is terrifying and necessary to think about, I would argue. The book is biological war, a scenario. We've been speaking with Annie Jacobson, the author of the book and an investigative

journalist. Really appreciate your time today and congratulations on a great book. Thanks so much for having me. A good mattress is one of those things I don't think much about when it's doing its job. It's sort of like you don't notice the refs in a sporting event when they're doing a good job. And what I notice is I wake up comfortable. I don't feel like my bed is getting in the way of sleeping well. And with my helix mattress, what I really like is the feel. It's supportive, but not too firm and comfortable, but not too soft. And that's because Helix matched me with the mattress suited for me based on their sleep quiz. Helix has more than 20 mattress model, so there are options depending on how you sleep, what

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shipping and free treats for life when you head to smalls.com slash Pacman. The link is in the description. Let's talk about the war. I'm talking about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Donald Trump was asked a very straightforward question about Russia now attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure. And Trump's sort of immediate, visceral, instantaneous reaction was to point the finger right at Ukraine, not Russia the aggressor, but Ukraine. And what's very interesting is that the reporter was asking Trump about Russian attacks that happened after Trump said, we've got a great ceasefire.

Now, of course, Ukraine and Russia both said we don't know anything about that ceasefire, but Trump said that there was one. And according to the information we have, Russia struck at least six Ukrainian energy facilities two days ago while Ukraine had refrained from striking Russian energy infrastructure on the 11th and 12th after Trump's announcement. So the question asked of Trump was about Russia. What did Russia do? Is Russia in compliance?

What evidence do you have that your supposed diplomatic efforts are working? And listen to Trump just going, well, Ukraine did it too. I know you are, but what am I? Listen to this. Russia had six energy sites on yesterday, according to the Ukrainian. What evidence do you have? Well, Ukraine hit many sites the day before. Ukraine hit men.

Russia has not broken the ceasefire. I'll let you know about that later. They're hitting each other, but it'll all come to an end. They're hitting each other. Ukraine did it too. And the questions are really specific. Russia hit six energy sites. And Trump goes, well, Ukraine hit a lot of sites too. Now, think about what really happened here. The question was not has Ukraine ever attacked Russian infrastructure? Of course it has. Ukraine has attacked Russian targets, energy targets inside of Russia, infrastructure, targets. It's a war where Russia invaded Ukraine and Ukraine is fighting back.

Trump was asked about a specific set of Russian attacks after Trump said we've got a ceasefire. And instead of addressing that directly, Trump brings up alleged earlier Ukrainian strikes. That's a different subject. And even if the Ukrainian strikes Trump was referring to had occurred, that wouldn't answer whether Russia violated Trump's supposed ceasefire or whether the United States is going to respond or whether anyone is going to be held accountable. These are all separate questions, legitimate. You can ask any question you want, but the question is, is Trump going to be responsive to the question you actually ask? Now, there's another layer

to this that kind of makes it more revealing. Trump announced on October 11, hey, great news, Russia and Ukraine have agreed to stop attacking any energy infrastructure effective immediately. And he warned them, don't break the agreement. But as I told you, there was a problem. You Ukraine said, we don't know anything about a completed agreement. Russia wouldn't confirm it had accepted an agreement. And when Trump was asked, how do you know that the countries agreed? His explanation was, I told them to agree. So they agreed.

And as we discussed yesterday, that's not how ceasefires work. You don't get to announce an agreement between two countries and assume that the announcement makes the agreement real. There have to be real commitments. There have to be terms. have to be mechanisms to figure out are both parties complying. And in this case, Russia just kept attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure. And Ukrainian president Zelensky reported six of our energy facilities were attacked after the supposed agreement with 33 injuries across the country.

And Ukraine said, we are refraining from attacking Russian energy facilities in response to the announcement, even though we don't know anything about the announcement. We're just like, listen, If we can stop, we'll stop. So think about the sequence. Trump announces, announces energy ceasefire. Ukraine says, we'll comply, even though we don't really know anything about it. And we'll stop attacking Russian energy facilities. Russia just keeps attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

And when a reporter says to Trump, what about these specific attacks after your supposed ceasefire? And Trump goes, well, Ukraine did stuff. So this is where there is a distinction between these two countries. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Ukraine is defending itself. It doesn't mean anything Ukrainian military assets do is justified or that it can't be criticized. But it means that if we treat these two countries as interchangeable, you're missing the key part of how the war started, which is Russia invaded Ukraine.

Now, there's another economic dimension to this. Days before announcing the ceasefire, supposed ceasefire, Trump unveiled a deal involving Russian diesel. And it would allow Russia to start monetizing its diesel exports to a much higher level, at a much higher level. And that was criticized by Democrats and Republicans because the idea was Trump is giving Russia a way to make more money while they are attacking Ukraine. So Trump wants to bring down American fuel prices.

He's pursuing this deal involving Russian diesel. He announces a ceasefire that seems imaginary. Russia keeps attacking Ukraine. And when reporters go, what about the attacks? They violate your deal, which may or may not exist. He points at Ukraine. Now, the White House can argue Trump is trying to use economic incentives and diplomatic pressure to try to push an agreement.

And part of that is letting Russia make a little money off this diesel. But there's a big difference between trying to negotiate a ceasefire and announcing you've achieved a ceasefire. There's a difference between acknowledging Ukrainian attacks on Russian targets or just going, well, Ukraine did the same thing. And when Trump has been asked directly, did Russia violate the ceasefire? He said, oh, we're going to deal with that later. It's kind of the central issue.

If Trump really wants credit for brokering a deal, then we must know what is the deal require of the two sides, have the two sides accepted it, have the two sides violated it? These are basic questions. They're like the minimum questions. And we get no clear answer about Russia. We get a reference to Ukraine. And Trump is a guy who has bragged, I have a unique ability to end this war. I'm going to be ending this so fast your head will spin. It's an important test. Not can you announce a ceasefire on troth sensual. It's can you actually get an agreement the country's really accept will they hold to their terms? And what are the consequences if they don't? People living through the war are experiencing the consequences of this every single day. And for Trump, it's this vague,

far-off thing. And he will not seriously consider that maybe Russia isn't acting so well right now. Donald Trump appeared to give up at a live rally yesterday, devolving into moaning on stage. I I know it's weird for a president to be doing and it all went horribly wrong. This is Donald Trump's rally tour attempting to quote, help Republican candidates, but it seems he's doing more harm than good. Trump, it's almost beyond belief. Trump announced yesterday, if you just elect all Republicans again in November, they will pass a great health care plan.

Wait a second. Wasn't it two weeks away in July of 2020? We will pass a truly great health care plan. that will stop all payments to big insurance companies which absolutely own the Democrats. They own the Democrats. And we will give the money directly to you, the people. And you will go out and buy better health care and have a lot of money left over. Now, why didn't he do it during his first term?

Well, the one plan they proposed would have kicked 24 to 32 million people off of health care within a decade. So that didn't work. And then in July of 2020, Trump said, we're only a couple weeks from signing a new bill into law. And definitely if you vote for me, well, the country voted for Joe Biden. And then Trump started promising again as he ran in 2024, we will do a great health care plan and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they've had the House and the Senate and the White House for the last few years. And they haven't done it.

Why would it take Republicans being elected to keep control of the House and Senate now a decade later to finally get the health care you've been promising because it's never going to happen. Donald Trump talking about how brilliant he is. Brilliant. It's unbelievable. What's happening is actually unbelievable. I mean, how brilliant am I seriously to pull this off? I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. I have to say I'm only kidding because they will report horrible things. You know, sometimes I'm, well, I'm actually serious about that. Yeah, I'm actually serious. I really am brilliant. I'm the smartest person there ever was. Trump then going into the moaning section of the speech. Now, we've heard Trump doing his grunting

before. Right. Right. But this time he's moaning during his transgender weightlifting routine. What a crazy country, huh? And here he is moaning instead and he says Melania doesn't like it when he moans. And Loretta, ah. Like a billy goat. Do you hear that? And Loretta, ah. Oh, my wife hates this.

She said it's so damn unpresidential, but it's sort of cool. Should I finish it or not? Thank you. So she's up and she's going for that final, that final push, she's going to do it. She's close. Uh-uh. Oh, no. Man, it's like a horse and a billy goat.

That final. That final push is going to do it. She's close. Mom, I can't do it. Mom. And then the Billy goat. And Loretta. Ah.

Folks, we are really screwed up as a country. The damage from these, what will probably end up being 14 years in a sense of Trump as a political figure by the time he's gone. This is real damage. Real, real damage. Trump bringing out one of his sir stories. Your time ago, your country was dead. We never thought it had a chance. They never did.

They disrespected us. They laughed at us. They don't laugh anymore. Now, they said, sir, you're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're the hottest country in the world. Oh, wait till you see what we do to Iran. We're going to do a number. Well, you see, they're just waiting.

They're waiting. Wait do you see what we do to Iran? Because we sort of had it. You know, we've had it. But, you know, it doesn't matter. The big thing is they were not. going to have a nuclear weapon and they won't. That's buried under thousands of tons of. And you know, you've got the crowd clapping like trained seals at this presentation that suggests

Trump is in command of the Iran war and the Iran war is going well. It's all completely fabricated. None of this stuff is true. Trump on Tala Rico, terrified about Tala Rico. They are terrified that they are going to lose Texas. And in Washington, she developed the name of no show married. She never shows up for voting and she never shows up for meetings and people don't know what the hell. It's a little like the guy from Texas. What the hell happened to him for 14 days? What happened? El Frico.

What happened to him? He said he had the flu for 12 to 14 days. I never had the flu for 14 days. Actually, never had the flu. How lucky am I? But people who have had the flu, they say the flu is not good. The flu is not good. But it doesn't last for.

14 days, got to figure out that Texas thing. He's going to win too, Dan. I think he's going to, he's really surging up. Our friend, Ken Paxson, is going to do very well. Yeah. Big race. Anyway, of course, James Talarico did have the flu. And I think he was sick for eight days, not 14 or whatever, but it's always got to be exaggerated.

Trump on pardons, shifting from talking about. John Houston's ass to a baby's ass. And that means, I don't know if you've ever heard, when you give somebody a pardon, they say, that means, and I don't know how this works and why it's an expression, but it's well used, that means you're as clean as a newborn baby's ass. Now, I never. All right. And then finally, Trump bringing it home.

closing out the rally with an impenetrable sir story. And that affects everybody. And your 401 case are at the highest level they've ever been, in many cases, 50, 60, 70,000 higher. I had one police officer. I told the story a couple of times. I tell it, but it's about many people. Many people have said it.

I had a police officer from New York, New York finest. They're great people. And he came up to thank me, and he was a rough guy. I don't think he cried. When he was born, he didn't cry. He was like, he was not a, he was not a cryer. He's a rough guy, big, strong guy. And he was almost crying.

He was waiting on a line to shake my hand, which I do with the police. I just took a lot of great police from Alaska, law enforcement. And he said to me, sir, I want to thank you. I said, for what? He said, my wife has never respected me that much because I've lost. I've lost a lot of money. I've gone into investments. I've always lost money. I'm not good at it. And yet now, after you've been here, not even two years, my 401k is up by a number that that Warren Buffett would be very proud of, much higher than Warren Buffett's numbers, to be

honest. And he said, and she now views me as a financial genius. She's... I'm going to cut it. It's going nowhere. Imagine that he does another 25 seconds of this insanity. It is going nowhere. Are these rallies helping Republicans or are these rallies hurting Republicans? Because I know I judge things differently than many of these Republican voters. But when I see this, what I say is whoever is associated with this guy, I'm definitely not voting for. Tell me what you think. Helping hurting. On the bonus show today, we will talk about a shock in the mortgage world. Rates are sky high.

They are considering calling off the live stream of the firing squad after learning that the Fort Hood shooter was paralyzed. And much more on the bonus show, join Pacman.com. Get instant access.