The David Pakman Show - Texas election red alert as Trump collapses to 29%

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

-- On the Show: -- The Texas Department of Public Safety has failed to process tens of thousands of voter registration applications before the midterms -- Wall Street Journal analysis reveals conservative podcasts dropped mentions of Donald Trump by 70% as his approval number collapsed -- Donald Trump greets Chinese President Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews with full military honors and a red carpet ceremony -- Donald Trump replaces mainstream news organizations with friendly media outlets after banning outlets and subsequent network protests -- Senator Mitch McConnell non-verbally waves to a reporter without answering questions after a series of health incidents -- White House counselor Peter Navarro suggests administration figures should stop appearing on Fox News after recent network decisions -- Public opinion polls show Donald Trump's approval dropping to 29%t as voters voice concerns about inflation and gas prices -- Melania Trump praises Donald Trump's relentless work ethic during an interview with Fox Business host Taylor Riggs -- On the Bonus Show: The RNC chair struggles to explain why people should vote Republican, an update on the Michigan Senate race, and much more... 🩳 Quince: Get free shipping & 365-day returns at https://quince.com/pakman ✉️ ProtonMail: Sign up today for FREE at https://proton.me/pakman 🐶 Sundays for Dogs: Get 30% OFF with code PAKMAN at https://sundaysfordogs.com/pakman 📖 Bullies, Parasites & Slaves: Text PAKMAN to 511511 or go to https://bps.online 🧠 Try Brain.fm totally free for a month at https://brain.fm/pakman -- 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 (01:40) Unprocessed Texas voter applications (08:26) Conservative podcasts drop Trump mentions (17:59) Trump hosts Xi Jinping (26:40) Press access restricted following bans (36:14) McConnell stays silent on health concerns (44:36) White House attacks Fox News (53:54) Falling approval ratings threaten the GOP (01:01:20) Melania Trump praises her husband's schedule Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coming up today, Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen all the way into the 20s in a new poll. And now Republicans are distancing from the president because they're desperate not to get destroyed in the midterms. But we have a potentially massive problem in Texas, where I am right now, where tens of thousands of voter registration applications were caught in a backlog weeks before the election. Is this what they will use to put down James Talariko? Meanwhile, Donald Trump finally gets something he's wanted for years, which is that major news organizations are being kept far away from him. And he's surrounded by friendly MAGA media going, do you have an update about the ballroom, sir? We're also going to look at the literal red carpet treatment for Chinese authoritarian

president Xi Jinping, the Trump administration turning on Fox. and a very weird new interview with Melania Trump. We have all of that and more today. And I should tell you, my book has 36 hours left to try to make the New York Times bestseller list. Jessica Tarlov's book out last week didn't make it. We've got to do this, folks. They are trying to suppress the book they want it off Amazon. Hardcover copies are what matter.

If you haven't gotten it yet, David Pakman. dot com slash attention, signed hardcovers, not signed hard covers. Let's see if we can do this thing and show the power of independent media. We'll see. We have to start today talking about a potentially huge election problem in Texas. I'm in Texas for a signing tomorrow at Texas Tribune Festival. Hope to see you there. I'll sign my book for you. I want to tell you what we know about what's going on here with voter registration. And then there's also some aspects of this that we don't know. Now, I don't have evidence today that Republicans are intentionally trying to manipulate this election, but they usually do. And what we know that's happening is that

tens of thousands of voter registration applications have been sitting unprocessed because of what's being called an error, an error by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Some of these go back a year. And what happened is that when eligible Texans use the DPS website to renew their driver's license or to replace an ID or change their address, they can also submit a voter registration app. Except some of those applications were never actually sent to the underlying counties where those voters were trying to register. State officials say, well, the records were incomplete, so they weren't transmitted. But nobody has said what information was missing. What's the problem? Why would you collect a missing application?

And initially they said, we don't even know how many people are affected by this. Now, the Texas Association of County Election Officials says it is tens of thousands of applications and updates to applications. There are counties getting tens of thousands individually in some cases. And it is happening days before the midterms in an election where Democrats could for the first time in decades take a Senate seat. if James Tala Rico defeats Ken Paxton. Now, the voter registration deadline in Texas is October 5th. Early voting starts October 19th and, of course, election day is November 3rd. So county officials

are suddenly being handed massive numbers of old registrations and being told, hey, go ahead and process this. And this is already one of the busiest periods of the entire cycle. Now, there's another complication. Some of these people may have subsequently updated their registration info. So officials need to make sure that an old record that suddenly appears in the system doesn't overwrite the newer correct information. Now, there is some good news. The Texas Secretary of State says, listen, if you submitted your registration before the deadline and you're not on the voter rolls, you can still cast a provisional ballot.

And then officials can check the transaction. And if you were registered on time, the ballot should be counted. But if you're going, David, give me it. Come on, give me a break. I know because the whole, as soon as the word provisional ballot is mentioned, you are right to be concerned. Now, why do we even have this hurdle? The voter did what they were supposed to do.

The state screwed up. And now the voter may show up believing they're registered, having done everything they were supposed to do, not understanding the provisional ballot process may be. And they just have to trust everything is resolved. And this is after we have been covering issue after issue. after issue of election access controversy in Texas. We've got Terrant or Tarant County, which is the third largest county. They approved 92 fewer election day polling locations than they had four years ago. They said, oh, it's expensive. And obviously voting rights groups are very worried. So I am not here

to tell you definitively, this is Republicans trying to steal Texas. I don't have all the evidence to say that. And I think it's important not to become the people we criticize. who go, you know, every single problem is immediately fraud. But what I will say is there's one party that focuses more on manipulating or controlling how people vote rather than simply convincing them that they have the best candidates and the best ideas. And that's Republicans and Republicans run Texas. And registering voters correctly is about as fundamental as this gets. Election systems have to work. And when you have what is being called an error potentially affecting high tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people right before a major election, a major election

where the results may be humiliating for Republicans, don't worry. You can fill out a provisional ballot and, you know, we'll look at it and count it if everything's good. It's not good enough. It's not good enough. So we need to know how many people were affected. We need to know how this happened. We need to know why applications from the DPS were being either collected or transmitted without all of the required fields filled out? I mean, come on, guys. And there are applications dating back 11 months to October of 2025, which weren't even caught earlier. They're figuring this out now. Every single registration needs to be processed. And the way you prevent legitimate election administration failures from turning into allegations of a stolen election is transparency. So we've got to figure out

what is the problem? Explain the problem, fix the problem and make certain every eligible Texan who followed the rules gets to vote because otherwise it's certainly going to look like, I mean, listen, if you zoom out and you just go, okay, forget about the technicality of what's happening with these. We haven't had a Democratic senator from Texas for decades. Republicans have gleefully fought against every element of the Voting Rights Act that they can fight. And we have polling that suggests it is a disaster for Ken Paxton. Tala Rico at this point really winning in every poll. Now it's small margins.

It's Texas. I get it. But Tala Rico polling better than Beto. Tala Rico polling better than all of these Democrats who over the summer we go, oh, you know, they might have a chance and then they don't. And all of a sudden we're supposed to believe tens of thousands, 100,000, 120,000, we don't even know of these registrations. There's a missing field that people weren't registered.

Oh, no, we don't know what happened. We're going to go. It's very hard to believe. So if you vote in Texas and I know I'm going to be seeing many of you tomorrow here in Texas, make sure at least to the extent that you're able confirm your registration status. And if you see that you're not registered, you can still go directly to your county. You can go directly to your to your municipality. The deadline hasn't hit yet.

It's an early October. You still have time. It's just that you need to know. if the belief that you're registered is not actually reflected in the voter registration role. So that's what's going on. Are they trying to steal it? I think they'd love to steal it. But we've got to stop short and just say, here's what we know.

And what we know is already bad enough. All right. There's another problem. There's a fascinating new piece of data about Donald Trump and the conservative media ecosystem that tells us something so important about where these midterm elections are headed. The Wall Street Journal did something interesting. They analyzed about 70,000 hours of audio from nearly 150 political podcasts and take a look at the chart that we are putting up on the screen.

Really take a look and look at the two lines that the chart has. One line is liberal podcasts talking about Donald Trump, left-wing podcast, progressive podcasts. And then the other line, the one that has declined precipitously is right-wing podcasts talking about Trump. podcast reactionary, call them what you will. Around the 2024 election, they were basically in the same place. Conservative podcasts were mentioning Trump about 39 times per hour. Today, conservative podcasts are only mentioning Trump about 11 times per hour of programming. That is a decline of roughly 70%. Now, on the other hand, the left wing liberal progressive podcasts are still talking about Trump at

roughly the same rate that they that we were before. And look at what happens right around the beginning of the war with Iran. The right wing podcast line falls even further. Since the war began, Trump mentions on right wing podcasts have dropped another 30%. Now, let's think about what this proves. I don't think that every right wing host sat down and said, Trump is potentially toxic. Let's stop talking about him. There are other explanations. Audiences could be getting tired of the topic of Trump. Podcast hosts could be chasing different stories or, you know, there are some right-wing media

figures that disagree with Trump over Iran. But when you look at the direction of these lines, Trump is president. He dominates American politics. His administration starts a war with Iran. We've got record diesel prices. Approval ratings are terrible. Midterms are weeks away. and the conservative media ecosystem that spent years making Trump the center of the universe

all of a sudden is talking about him 70% less. I think that's very interesting. Now, there's another aspect to this that I want to mention. Sometimes I hear from people in my audience and they go, David, I am so sick and tired of Trump. Why does everything have to be about Trump? And I understand that. Like, I get Trump fatigue.

I have Trump fatigue. I've been covering this guy for more than a decade. There will come a day, one day in the future, when Trump is no longer the president. And he will be gone from American politics. And when that happens, we will rejoice and we will move on. And I am enthusiastically looking forward to moving on. We aren't there right now. Trump is president.

Republicans control the House. Republicans control the Senate. And we're weeks away from an election in which voters can actually impose a check on Trump's presidency. And the evidence suggests that keeping attention on Trump as we approach the midterms is creating a real problem for Republicans. We should be doing it thus. The Wall Street Journal has also reported that Republican candidates in competitive races are distancing from Trump.

They're distancing on tariffs. They're distancing on Iran. We saw the video from Marie-Lvier-Salazar in Florida on immigration distancing from Trump. And they're a Republican strategist very worried that Donald Trump is hurt. the candidates that they work for. And Trump seems to understand the stakes because at the Republican midterm convention, he said to supporters treat the election as though I'm on the ballot.

So I go, okay, well, let's do that. Let's have the election be about Trump. It's about Trump's economy. It's about Trump's war. It's about Trump's tariffs and his immigration policies and his record and his administration. And voters can decide what they think of it. And what's so revealing is that some of the people who spent years telling the people who spent years telling their audiences. Trump is the most important person in America. He's the savior. He's the only one who can do.

They are now no longer interested in talking about Trump. They want to talk about Democrats and lurid crime stories and finding anything else they can to put at the center of their shows. And the Wall Street Journal's analysis found, for example, that Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Tolariko is extraordinarily prominent on right-wing podcast as a subject of conversation. Why? We don't know the motivation for every single host, but it is an incentive that is easy to understand. If your guy is unpopular, meaning about when we're talking about Trump or even Ken Paxton, you talk about other people. If it were useful to talk about Trump and Paxton, they would be talking about Trump and Paxton, but their guys are liabilities. And suddenly it's about Talafico and is he vegan and does he have a real girlfriend and all of this stuff.

And so this is why I just don't buy the argument that Democrats or left-wing media should respond to Trump fatigue by not talking about Trump. I think there's a difference between obsessing over everything Trump is doing compared to covering the consequential actions of the sitting president. And we don't have to make every story about Trump forever. We are weeks from a midterm in which Trump is hurting Republicans. Trump wants voters to treat him as though he's on the ballot. Right-wing media seem to realize that's a bad idea. That's an important contrast. So let's get through these midterms.

Trump will be gone one way or another. We will move on. But right now the goal is get Democrats in power at least somewhere. Can it be the House? Can it be the Senate? Could it be both? And Trump's record is creating serious political problems for the people who enabled the record. There is no reason to help them change the subject.

And meanwhile, they are just going authoritarian. Trump kicking out members of the press and media outlets so that he'll get easy questions. I'll show you later in the show. How's the ballroom going? They're trying to suppress this show so that my book fails. By the way, 36 hours left before the cutoff for the bestseller lists, we're very worried. We believe that due to a couple of right wing books, we might miss the best seller list with my new book pay attention out two days ago by as little as 50 books, okay?

I don't want to miss the bestseller list by 50 books. Hardcover is what they count. So I want to be clear. I love people getting Kindle. I love people getting audiobook. It's a nasty audio book that I read over painstaking hours. Hardcover really matters. And if we don't want to be beat off or beat back by like 50 books by Ted Cruz or something like that, please consider grabbing a copy of the hardcover. David Pakman.com slash attention. We have. 36 hours left to do this thing. A lot of men's clothing forces the same bad tradeoff. If the material feels good and the fit is decent, the price is ridiculous.

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feature. You can import all your emails and contacts from Gmail, Outlook, or other providers with a few clicks. You can even send and receive mail from your existing Gmail address inside proton during the transition. So you have a practical way to move from a big tech email without having to change everything overnight. Proton mail is free to get started. Go to proton.m.e. slash Pacman. The link is in the description. Chinese president Xi Jinping arrives in the United States and Trump literally rolls out the red carpet forum. Rolling out a red carpet. And then you've got after the plainlands Chinese officials looking on as workers are smoothing out the red carpet. carpet for President Xi. Now, some of this is just protocol. You know, countries receive foreign

leaders. There's diplomacy and ceremony. But this whole spectacle is insane when you remember how Trump treats America's democratic allies. If you're the leader of Canada, Spain, France, the UK, you know, any number of democratic countries, Trump might insult you, threaten you, humiliate you, attack your country, question the alliance. You're Xi Jinping. Ping, not only does Trump wax poetic about, oh, you know, they have a nearly 100% conviction raid and they kill drug dealers very quickly after convicting them and all this stuff, he gets down there and he's like, make sure every wrinkle is out of the red carpet. Look at this crap.

It is utterly, utterly humiliating. So then she arrives. And this was also unusual. You know, Trump goes to joint base Andrews to greet she at his plane. Very often Trump just waits at the White House and then the leader shows up and Trump comes out and shakes their hand. And then we get this. Now, to be clear about what we're seeing here, oh, God. This was a ceremonial military flyover and Trump is, Trump is saluting.

There's nothing inherently scandalous about a military ceremony for a visiting head of state. But look at the image. Trump standing next to Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, giving him this extraordinary welcome with American military aircraft roaring overhead. We are talking about a government in Xi's government that has been accused by the U.S. and by international human rights orgs of massive repression, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong. We've been following the U.S. story. And Trump is putting on a show going to the airport, the runway, 21 gun salute, military honor,

fly over red carpet and then not like not irrelevant but I think it's just part of the whole pomp and circumstance that Trump is enamored with when it's a dictator there was Trump's outfit what Trump was wearing take a look it was in the mid 60s at joint base Andrews and Trump's wearing an overcoat and gloves and he was reportedly one of the very few people that was dressed that way and it seems to again be the optics very Very often these authoritarian show up in the long overcoats with the gloves. Trump just seems enamored with the way that authoritarian do stuff with the way they look, with the way they talk, with the way they ban the press, and we'll get back to that.

And then you've got Trump, you know, walking very strongly with President Xi. And eventually it is time to say goodbye to his friend. Take a look at this video. So here's what I think is really important about all of this. I don't think the problem is diplomacy. You know, every time that we on the left go, hey, we're not authoritarian, so we have a problem when Trump is dealing with Putin in this way or when Trump is dealing with Xi and it's, they go, why can't we just all get along?

Isn't it better to get along with Putin and with Xi? Of course, I want American presidents talking to Russian presidents and Chinese presidents. These are powerful countries. There are issues trade in Taiwan, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, Iran. Diplomacy is good. I'm in favor of diplomacy. By the way, we had diplomacy with the JCPOA with Iran. Then Trump said we're getting out of that and we're going to do a war.

So I'm for diplomacy. The question is, why does Trump reserve this reverence for authoritarian leaders while he treats Democratic allies with contempt? We've seen the red carpet treatment with Vladimir Putin. And now we are seeing extraordinarily pomp, big pomp, thick pomp for Xi Jinping. And meanwhile, Trump picks fights with leaders and governments from allied democracies. And I think it's the contrast that's most important. Trump's the ultimate tough guy.

America first. Nobody pushes us around. Nobody pushes me around. Everybody respects us. But over and over, the performance is totally different depending on who's standing across from Trump. And it's a democratic ally that ends up berated by Trump and threatened. And Trump goes, what are we really getting out of this?

relationship. And then you bring an authoritarian strongman. Trump goes to the airport instead of waiting at the White House, puts out the red carpet, military band, bombers fly over. And apparently they make certain there better not even be a single wrinkle on that red carpet. So it's not, oh, an American president is engaging diplomatically with China. He should. He should. It's this contrast between the warmth and spectacle that Trump offers some of the world's most powerful authoritarian leaders. And on the other hand, the hostility he directs towards America's democratic friends. And for somebody who talks endlessly about strength, it's a very different picture.

It's a strange picture of what Trump has come to believe that strength looks like. And it is an interesting thing because this is sort of uniting left and right in some weird way. Every time I talk about this, sometimes people go, David, the whole horseshoe theory thing is kind of bogus. It's really been debunked. Left and right don't end up looking the same. Well, what I can tell you is that there is a contingent on the right that has become favorable

to authoritarian leaders that they would historically oppose because they see that if Trump could get away with the same sort of stuff, their movement would be much stronger. So they go, no, actually, we are impressed with Putin. We are impressed with Xi. That's on the right. And then on the left, you also have a wing, and it is not the majority, but there is a wing, a fringe of the left that also has fallen for authoritarianism on the basis that it's better for the people of the country to be governed in that way.

And so I'm not saying left and right come around the way horseshoe theory describes in some kind of perfect way, but you are seeing that in his authoritarianism, Trump is finding supporters and allies both on the right and the left. in ways that are pretty significant departures from the sort of M.O. of the last several decades prior to Trump. One of the things that authoritarian's love the most is when all the media that's out there loves you and just publishes great things about you and asks easy questions. And Trump is slowly but surely achieving that as well. Let's discuss. Donald Trump wanted to get rid of journalists who ask him questions he doesn't like. He wants to get rid of journalists who

are critical in their coverage of Trump. And Trump is getting a version of exactly that. Now, remember what happened. Donald Trump last weekend banned CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House because he objected to their coverage. And in response, ABC, CBS, NBC, even Fox News, stop participating in that press pool covering presidential events. So I'm going to show you what presidential press access looks like right now. Trump's walking around and he's surrounded mostly by friendly outlets and MAGA media personalities. So what are the tough questions they're asking the president of the United States? Take a look. Wallroom update. Can you give us a ballroom update?

The first column today, take a look and we're very much ahead of schedule. The entire left portion. The north portion has been built structurally and it will start to be covered up now with very powerful blast. something and I wish we had it for tomorrow night because we have a packed out tomorrow night for President Xi and who are some of the biggest and who are some of the attendees that will be at the dinner tomorrow if you can share with us. Let me give a list but sort of everybody everybody wanted to be there. I would say you have the entire tech world, the entire banking world and a lot more.

know you have a I think it's sort of the other if you go by points I think it's the ultimate I wish we had more seats. That's the only problem. Mr. President, will you know. Do you have an update on the ballroom? That's where we are right now. You've removed major news organizations that might ask you about Iran, the economy, gas prices, midterms, the fact that you're falling asleep in public two to three times a week, although

they don't really ask about that. And the television networks say, we're not going to participate in that arrangement. If you ban one of us, we are all opting out. And suddenly what's left is something much closer to the media environment that Trump has always wanted, which is they're following him around and asking about the ballroom. Now, this is something I, I've really written about this in my book in that I say, you know, these digital platforms that I publish content to, they favor the right because the right naturally communicates in epithier, more fear and anger-inducing way that lends itself to going viral.

And we kind of have two options. We can leave. We can go, I'm disgusted with these platforms. We're getting out of here. But then what happens? We leave the worst people. We give away the field to the worst people. So I think we have to stay and learn how to play the game. And we see the effect here of what happens. When they all leave because Trump banned a few of them, which by the way, I don't I don't think they're doing the wrong thing. I think standing in solidarity is good, but we see the effect of what happens. You're left with, can you give us an update on the ballroom, sir? Now, there's this other story concurrent with this, parallel to this, where Timothy Kelly is a federal judge that Trump appointed.

He has now ordered the White House to restore access to CNN and to MS now and to Politico for 14 days while the lawsuit continues. Kelly looked at it and he said, you know, it seems as though on due process grounds, the lawsuit against the White House is going to succeed. Therefore, on a temporary basis, you've got to restore their access. So what happened this morning? Just hours ago, reporters from CNN and Politico and MS now showed up at the White House with that court order in hand, and they were denied entry. So the president removes news organizations whose coverage he dislikes, other networks protest, a federal judge goes, you got to let them back in, and they're still standing outside. Now, the administration can certainly challenge Timothy Kelly's ruling in court.

We have a system that allows for that. But if you keep excluding journalists after a court has ordered, restore their access, we get back to who really can actually dictate that the administration must follow the law. Remember the deportation flights where court said, do not do it. And they took off anyway. And then they go, well, we're already in the air. Who can enforce? force that. And so this is another reason that the press fight really matters. Authoritarian governments don't necessarily eliminate the media. They often will create two categories of media. You've got friendly outlets who get access and they get interviews and the opportunities to ask questions. And eventually the leader is surrounded by people telling him what he wants to hear. Tell us about your

great ballroom. Tell us about your great drone port and whatever else. And then you've got critical outlets by which by the way criticism criticism we're not passing moral judgment on criticism criticism is part of the democratic process if you're at all critical you're excluded punished or delegitimized and sometimes sued and the timing is incredible because as this is going on as we talked about earlier Trump welcomes president Xi Jinping from china with pageantry military personnel and a B2 F-22 flyover state dinner and a little literal red carpet that they were smoothing out for for she, and she is someone that Trump admires. And the U.S. isn't China. Trump banning three outlets doesn't mean we have a one party totalitarian state. We have distinctions. We can think in shades of

gray. But one of the defining features of liberal democracy is the president doesn't get to decide that journalists are legitimate only when he likes their coverage. The free press isn't there to make the president feel good. It's there because power needs scrutiny and it needs to be held to account. And there is something almost darkly funny about the result where Trump is, he spent years raging about reporters asking questions he doesn't like. You're fake news. Why don't you smile more? You're the worst. And he starts throwing them out. The real TV pool walks away in protest. And what replaces it is, Mr. President, can you give us a ballroom update, please? So he got what he wanted. And what he wanted was a press corps that isn't doing journalism. It's more like, you know,

an entourage to follow me around with cameras that make me look good and asking questions that make it sound like everything I'm doing is just awesome and great. That's what these people want and that is what Trump is getting and it is terrifying. And if they really get what they want, there would be no left wing podcast ecosystem. There would be no book by someone like me that people are reading. would be no interviews where he is actually held accountable for failed promises. It would be that how did you tell us your motivation for choosing black onyx over Brazilian marble for your new driveway. Sir, that's what they want. And he is slowly turning it into that. What you feed your dog every day should be something you can feel good about, not a mystery hidden behind a long ingredient list. Sunday.

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The link is in the description. What kind of author lets you have his books for free? He's either a bad writer, nuts, or maybe just really believes in what he's trying to communicate and wants it out there. Today, that's George Koch, one of our sponsors, the author of Bullies, Parasites and Slaves, replacing exploitation with mutual care. This is really a book about how together we can make the world a better place and it has powerful insights into who and what prevents that from happening. So we're talking unjust laws, bullies, in power, parasites who hide in executive suites and take from your work by manipulation

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the story is way bigger than his condition. The total lack of transparency around what is going on with one of the most senior senators in the country is not getting nearly the attention that it deserves. Now, I've covered this a bunch of times. Mitch McConnell disappeared from the Senate for three months after a fall at his Washington home in June. He was briefly unconscious. He spent weeks hospitalized. He had mild pneumonia.

He went to rehab. His recovery was going swimmingly. And finally, he returned to the United States Senate in a wheelchair and apparently with significant difficulty speaking. And in fact, since he... came back recovered supposedly, we have heard him utter only one word, which was an extremely weak and confused, I, after he almost voted no and had to be told even by Democratic senators like Amy Klobuchar, you're trying to vote eye on this, sir. You're trying to vote yes. So we showed

you that bizarre scene last week where he was helped out during the Senate Agriculture Committee meeting on a vote related to the farm bill. We now have another video. And again, we've been looking at these all week. These are really difficult to watch and the belief is growing that Mitch McConnell may now be effectively nonverbal other than being able to make very minor monosyllabic noises. Okay? This is difficult to watch. How is your weekend, Senator McConnell?

Did you have a good weekend, sir? Are you ready for a new work week? Hi, Senator. Good to see you, sir. Welcome back. Terry, is it safe bringing him back to the Senate like this? Senator McConnell, do you want to go to work? Do you want to be at work, sir? Would you rather be home? You'd rather be home? I'm sorry this is happening to you, sir. So that's a, that's right-wing journalist. I mean, I think it's the right word, right-wing journalist. Desiree Townsend asking really basic questions. You know, how was your weekend? Are you ready to be back at work? Do you want to be at work? Would you rather be at home? Actually, sort of interestingly, I mean,

like, she's kind of being provocative and sort of trolley, but she is getting to an issue of, does McConnell even really know what he's doing? Does he want to be a sort of weekend at Berniesed into the Senate? And we get nothing from him. He's sort of like kind of waves and eventually gives a peace sign. But he's not verbally answering the question. Now, I want to be careful here. I'm not a doctor. Even if I were, I haven't examined Mitch McConnell. I can't diagnose neurological conditions, cognitive conditions from videos.

But we also don't have to pretend that we're not seeing what we're seeing. And one of the things we are seeing are the videos. And one of the other things we're seeing are other doctors. Not other doctors. I'm not a doctor. Other people who are doctors weigh in. And we also have to consider the history here. In 2023, Mitch McConnell had those extraordinary episodes where he froze and he suddenly

stopped speaking during press conferences for longer than that, by the way. And he's had false. And he fell at home and he lost consciousness and he was hospitalized for months and did rehab and has been gone from public view. And so when he comes back and he's in a wheelchair and they are acknowledging he's not at 100%. We go, all right, well, listen, wheelchair is a mobility issue. But then we see the confusion during the Senate vote.

And now we see that he is effectively nonverbal in all of the growing seconds and minutes of video in which he's in public. His wife Elaine Chow reportedly just appeared in his place at an event at the McConnell Center. So when do we get an explanation? is Senator Mitch McConnell nonverbal at this point in time? Now, I've said throughout the story, there are some important distinctions here. You can be 84 and be able to serve in the Senate. Or let me put it a different way. You can simultaneously hold the view that on average senators should be younger than they

are in order to be more representative of the general population while saying here's a particular senator who's 84 or Bernie, I think is close to 90 years old. And they're fine, completely fine. And just because you're in a wheelchair doesn't mean you can't serve in the Senate. Mitch McConnell had polio as a child and a physical limitation doesn't tell us whether you can or can't do the job. We're going way beyond that. We don't know at this point whether Mitch McConnell can understand legislation, forget about it.

We don't know at this point whether Mitch McConnell is able to even communicate what he is thinking about. We don't know whether Mitch McConnell can independently cast a. vote and at that point it is not a private health matter now I know people keep going these Republicans write to me and they go David I thought you supported HIPAA and now you're asking for HIPAA to be violated no HIPAA applies to medical providers there is nothing to stop Mitch McConnell or his office if they want to from being transparent about what's going on can he speak can he process language this is a sitting US senator former majority leader one of the most

senior senators is he the most senior senator one of certainly and whether he can think and understand language or not, he still gets one vote and that vote counts as much as every other senator's vote. I don't like watching this. I've disagreed with Mitch McConnell on almost everything. His political legacy obviously is transformation of the federal judiciary, how he held up Merrick Garland's nomination. All of this stuff will affect the country negatively for years, decades maybe.

But we're watching a guy struggle potentially. to even process basic language. I don't find it entertaining. I find it sad. And even for the people who are going, you're taking away his dignity by talking like this. I think his dignity is being taken away by what is potentially being done to him. If Mitch McConnell is completely lucid privately and he just doesn't want to talk to reporters, tell us that.

He can go, oh, I'm not speaking to reporters right now. And if he's recovering physically for real and doctors believe he's capable of doing the job, tell us that. But we don't even know that he can speak or think at a basic level. You can't perform the duties of a senator if that's the situation you're in. And therefore, if that's the case, what the people around him are effectively doing are keeping him propped up physically and figuratively because his vote is useful to them. Now, he's already retiring when the term ends. This is not about you know, I know that people, but David, if he leaves, then he gets replaced. We're beyond the point at which he would be replaced. But this has nothing to do with political calculation. It has nothing

to do with that. It is about dignity and transparency and absurdity at the end of the day. After the freezing episodes and the falls and the loss of consciousness and the hospitalization and the three-month absence, we now don't know whether he can talk or think. And so it's not cruelty. It's just transparency. He's been through a lot. The public deserves a real answer. I don't know that we will ever get it. Now, if he next week shows up to the Senate and he goes, I want to thank all of you for bearing with me during this difficult time. I wanted to provide an update about my health and my view on the midterm. If he can start processing some language and turning brain signals into speech, I will go,

okay, well, that's, I'm reassured that it is not being covered up, that he is nonverbal and is unable to process language. I will go, we speculated and we were wrong. It turns out that he was okay. But it's time to at least say a few words here, Mitch, in a way that we can hear and determine whether this guy is even semi-coherent. Something genuinely interesting is happening between the Trump administration and Fox News. And it is escalating very quickly.

Days ago, we talked about Fox News doing something that probably would have been unthinkable at other points in the Trump era, which is that Fox News joined CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC in suspending White House television pool coverage after Trump banned CNNMS now in Politico from the White House. Fox essentially sided with the other networks against Trump. And now a senior Trump White House official is suggesting, you know what? I think maybe all Trump administration officials should boycott Fox News. They should stop going on Fox News altogether. Take a look at this.

What I say in the Fox article, uh, is, is that why are we feeding them talent anymore? Why do we let anybody in this administration go on their network? I think that question at least needs to be asked. Because you're not doing us any solitaire. Hang on. Hang on. I know you've got to bounce. We're putting this article out everywhere.

You're on the live feed right now as an example of what is possible and what's actual. But I want to go back to the article. Are you calling for, like, Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent and the Secretary of War, are you saying that the Trump administration should not make members of this administration available? And this is after firing of Maria Bartramo over, by the way, trying to cover the president's address to the nation. Is that what you're calling for? I'm calling for that question to be seriously asked inside the perimeter and among the people who watch Fox News. I mean, think about it.

it, Steve. It's like we know now Fox has revealed itself to be essentially undermining the Trump administration. The Carl Rove, kind of Paul Ryan Kana, Suzanne Scott, Wing. The disrespect they showed J.D. Vance just recently cutting away in Megan Snide remarks about that. I mean, they are unchained right now. So I maintain, and I say this in the Washington Times piece, that Fox News is. much more dangerous to Maga, much more dangerous to a Republican Party, because they wear our colors when they're, in fact, helping the other side undermine the president. I mean, we know CNN is going to do what it does. And MS. Now, they do it well. Okay, they know how to spin with the best of

them. Okay? It's the most good thing I'll ever say. But Fox, that's another cat. That's another cat. And thank you, Fox, for not being part of the pool because that's going to be the pool. I'm looking at the pool camera in the press room of the White House, real America's voice, go rev. That's Peter. That's Peter Navarro. That's Trump's senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. And he's openly asking, why would anyone in the Trump administration keep going on Fox News? It's not, you know, a third-rate MAGA influencer saying boycott Fox.

It's a senior White House official saying we should be considering whether we all stop going on Fox News. Now, Navarro says Fox is undermining the administration. And he says Fox may actually be more dangerous to MAGA than other networks because they wear our colors but help the other side. They're almost like a wolf and sheep's clothing. this is insane. This is a remarkable set of allegations for someone in MAGA to be making about Fox News. Now, remember the context. The context is the firing of Maria Bartaromo. And Fox announced earlier this month that after 12 years at the network, Bartaromo is gone. And there are conflicting accounts about what happened. Fox said it was a business decision. Barteromo's attorney disputes that she was

fired, but it seems to relate to Maria Bartaromo sharing an internal Fox memo with the Trump administration, specifically about the network saying, we're not going to amplify Trump's claims about interference by China in the 2020 election. Maria Barteromo was not an anti-Trump liberal lurking inside Fox News. This was one of the friendliest interviewers of Trump. And her programs amplified Trump's 2020 claims. And part of that became litigation, which ended up with Fox paying Dominion voting systems almost $800 million in damages. So when even Maria Bardoomo is not sufficiently protected by her relationship with Trump, MAGA goes, maybe these are not our friends. Now, I think that there's a much bigger story here to a degree, which is we've seen the evolution

of the relationship between MAGA and Fox. Trump loves Fox when Foxx. gives him what he wants. And then he goes and golfs with Brett Bayer and whatever. Then Fox calls Arizona for Biden in 2020 and Trump rages. And Fox gets rid of Tucker Carlson and MAGA erupts and now Bartaromo is gone. And now Fox joins other major TV networks and saying we're going to stand up or at least we're going to stand with the networks standing up to Trump's attempt to exclude news organizations from the White House. And suddenly you've got Peter Navarro going. Why are we giving these people are guests, the expectation isn't Fox must be conservative. It's Fox and it's not even Fox should be friendly to Republicans. It's Fox should be all the way loyal to MAGA. And if Fox dares

make an independent editorial decision that the administration doesn't like they betrayed us. We're going to boycott them. If Fox defends the press, the press pool, that's betrayal. We got to get them. And of course, if they get rid of a Trump friendly host, that's betrayal. And when you betray Trump, maybe the White House starts boycotting your network. Now, this is the same philosophy we're seeing in Trump's treatment of the rest of the media. If CNN runs a critical piece about Trump, kick him out and say Caitlin Collins is nasty and all this stuff. Politico reports things Trump doesn't like, kick him out. MS now, kick him out. And now Fox News may not be loyal enough to Donald Trump. Now, there's also a fascinating.

practical problem for Trump. Fox is very important to the Republican media ecosystem. Fox is important to Republicans getting or not getting reelected in a few weeks. And no matter what Navarro says, the administration is still sending officials onto Fox News because it's the best they've got. And even as Navarro was making this argument, the administration was continuing to send people on to Fox News. So I don't know that Trump really wants to break with Fox or the point is just to threaten because when you threaten to cut off action, You're kind of saying, hey, if you don't behave differently, there are going to be consequences. And that's what makes this worth watching.

For years, people have described Fox News as Trump TV. And the last few weeks are reminding us that Fox is a corporation with its own interest, lawyers, executives, and financial exposure. And every once in a while, the interests will diverge from Trump's. And when that happens, we kind of get a real test of the relationship. It is not an unconditional friendship. It is not we are ideological. logically in solidarity with you. It's transactional. And Trump and his people seem to believe

if we're not getting good enough coverage, if we're not getting the loyalty we want, we might stop sending people there. And apparently Fox News is able to fail the loyalty test because now Navarro is going, maybe it's time to break. The problem is they have nothing else. Newsmax simply doesn't have the ratings of Fox. They don't have the agenda setting power of Fox. So it's fine to go maybe we need to reevaluate the relationship. In fact, I welcome it because it seems like it'll be terrible for Fox and Trump, which is great. But they need something else to go to. And they don't really have anything with the power of Fox News.

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and also improve performance on attention-based tasks. You can choose modes for, for Deep work, learning, creativity, motivation. They have an ADHD mode for people who benefit from additional stimulation. So even if you've always thought, I work better without music, Brain FM is worth testing against silence. Try it yourself. Anyone in my audience can try Brain FM totally free for a whole month at brain.fm slash Pacman. The link is in the description. Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen into the 20s in a national point.

29%. Now, when we spoke about this earlier, my usual warning applies. One poll is one poll. There's a few polls that have Trump in the low 30s. Fox News has him at 39. Fine. What I think is remarkable here is that there are so many different indicators pointing in the same direction. You've got American research group with Trump at 29% approval, 68 disapproval. Fox says 63% of registered voters believe Trump is making the economy worse. 62% say grocery prices are a huge problem. Sixty one percent say gas prices are a huge problem. And Democrats now have a 15 point advantage over Republicans on which party voters trust more to handle inflation. Now listen to what Republican Senator John Kennedy recently said about prices. Quote, these prices are gutting the middle class like a fish. That is not a Democratic Kennedy. That's

Republican Senator John Kennedy. And then he said, you know, Republicans controlling Congress could try to do something with reconciliation to try to deal with affordability. Now will they know? And even Republican Senator Kennedy said based on our record of the last five or six months, it's not likely. That is an insane message. We control the government.

We know people are struggling. We know it's going to hurt us in the election. We could try to do something and we probably aren't going to do it. which gets me to have Republicans given up? Or are some Republicans increasingly relying on structural advantages rather than persuading more voters? Or as we opened the show with what's going on with voter registrations in Texas, are they trying to win not by winning the will of the voters but by messing with the elections? Remember that I spoke about this an hour ago at the start of the show.

In Texas, tens of thousands of voter registration applications and updates were just discovered sitting in a backlog because of a Department of Public Safety error. some date back nearly a year. In Collin County, there are 40,000 records to look at. So DPS says the system, the problem has been fixed, but you've got to go back and now deal with the tens of thousands or maybe 100, 120,000 registrations that have been affected. And we still don't know why it has happened. So again, I'm not here to tell you Republicans are stealing the election. We don't have evidence of that. But you have to see Trump's approval is as low as it has ever been. You've got Republicans like John Kennedy saying there are things we could do and I don't think that they're

going to be done. And instead of electioneering in the sense of look at all of the reasons you should vote for us, they've really abandoned that and they've shifted to figuring out how to try to mess with the systems. Now, I think the Democratic accountability is an aspect of this. If your president is deeply unpopular and voters blame your administration for their problems and your own senators are acknowledging you're failing to address those problems. This is Republicans we're talking about now. Democrats have two fundamentally different ways that they can deal with this. You can try to win those voters back or you can become increasingly comfortable with a system in which fewer people participate or encounter more obstacles to participating. And those possibilities are why every election administration

failure needs to be scrutinized more than going to conspiracy theories. Let me explain what I mean by that. Trump has another problem that is significant. For years, everybody has been talking about the Trump floor. And other people have said it's 35%, maybe it's 40%. That portion is never going to leave Trump. I've always said I believe Trump's real floor is in the high 20s. There's probably between 26 and 28% of the country or of the electorate.

that will never abandon Trump. We're now down to 29. And we also talked earlier about how right-wing podcasts are talking about Trump about 70% less because they know it's not so good to remind people about Trump. And some Republicans are distancing from him, usually limited to one or two specific issues. And you've got some Republican senators criticizing the Iran war. We've now learned that allegedly J.D. Vance was the leak, the anonymous source, the anti-Iran war anonymous source that led to Trump banning CNN Politico, et cetera. So voters and

Republicans and even J.D. Vance to a degree are increasingly associating Trump with the economic pain that Americans have. Now, these might sound like five separate stories. I think this is really one story. They're different pieces of the same political environment. We are now going to get to a moment where it all will matter, which is the midterms. And the question is, do Republicans respond to an unpopular president by changing course and persuading people and going, hey, we did what we could. We're going to change course and we're going to do really well over the next two years. Or do they just insist they've already fixed everything, which isn't working for them. Or option three, do they just start trying to mess with the rules and access to voting and the administration

of the election itself? I think increasingly they are going with option number three. And that's what the Texas story is about. And I think they realize that they are running out of options. Now what Democrats need to remember is watch all of these areas. As Republicans try to mess with voting systems, we have to fight them. Mark Elias and his firm are watching closely and they're fighting there. We're trying to figure out what's going on in Texas with these tens of thousands of registrations.

And so they're fighting there, but we're fighting them back. Meanwhile, they're going on another series of tangents where they go, everything's awesome. economy ever. Okay. Well, I don't think we need to do much about that one because voters know that that's not true. When Biden Harris said the economy's great and a lot of Americans didn't feel it, those Americans simply didn't feel it. They weren't going to be convinced by it. And Americans in polling are already saying, no, the economy's not good and the economy's going in the wrong direction. So to the extent that the argument from Republicans is everything is better than ever, I don't think we have to worry too much about that because they've lost on that already. The next part

is, well, we're going to do all of this stuff if you give us power again. We're going to end the Iran war. We're going to give you $5,000 checks. By the way, it's been like eight days since Trump mentioned that. He's stopped talking about there's five grand in it for you if Democrats don't take control of anything. And that, I think, is where we need to engage. That is the critical area. The lawyers are going to deal with the election suppression. They've lost the battle for arguing the economy is perfect. Voters don't believe it. We need to keep. keep focused on why if you can end the Iran war now do you need to get past the election? That doesn't make sense.

In February, when the war started in February 28th, you said you needed two to three weeks. Why all of a sudden do we need the election to be over? We need to be hitting them there. What about the promise of 50% reduction in gas prices? What about so there's these three fronts. Democrats need to be fighting on all three of them at the same time, but different people are are doing the fighting. All right, Melania has a problem.

Melania Trump I'm talking about. She gave an extraordinary description of Donald Trump, her husband, technically. And apparently there is another Donald Trump somewhere out there that none of us has ever seen. Listen to her described Trump and see if this rings at all a bell for the Trump that we have come to know. How is the president doing in Trump two as compared to Trump one? How do you see him handling the job differently?

He's very focused. He has a lot on his plate. It's very different what's going on around the world now. But I think he's doing the best that he can. He works nonstop. He has the most energy than anybody. He's from morning till evening nonstop working. That's what we see. Absolutely. Thank you so much for me. Thank you, Madam President. And so are you working nonstop?

And we really appreciate you stopping by here. Thank you so much. I hope in the next movie, you take us into your closet. You're dressed so beautifully always. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. He works nonstop.

He has more energy than anybody. Morning until evening. What are you talking about? We have a lot of information about Donald Trump's schedule. He's not a mysterious private citizen where we don't know. Is he spending each day reading 500 pages like Bill Gates or what is? He's the president. They publish a public schedule.

This month, we have seen days where he starts with executive time, meaning hanging out. He has one or two events, sometimes not even in public, between 12 and 5. And then that's it. September 15th to pick a recent day. Trump had his first event at 11 a.m. September 14th, Trump's first meeting was at 11. September 3rd, Trump had an intelligence briefing at 11, which we know he doesn't pay attention to.

for lunch at noon and he had a meeting at 1230. Now, of course, presidents work when there aren't cameras there. And in fact, I would argue the most important work presidents do is when there is no camera there. Public schedules don't document every phone call briefing and conversation. But this idea of Trump as a human perpetual motion device, morning till evening, nonstop, we've covered the golfing. We've covered that he's mostly working a 12 to 5 schedule. And during that 12 to 5 schedule. He's often falling asleep in public. So it's not even like he's up and at him during that time. We've covered all of the time Trump spends watching TV. And we've also covered the increased frequency with which Donald Trump is falling asleep. So Melania Trump's description is incredible.

Trump is so relentlessly working that I guess he has to catch up on sleep during work. Maybe that's what's going on. Now, remember the hypocrisy. Sleepy Joe Biden, Obama's golfing. and then Trump became president, golfed constantly, and fell asleep in public regularly. And this is the brand. Everyone else is lazy, low energy, and incompetent. I'm energetic and high energy and super competent and working harder than anybody else. And now Melania is in repeating the mythology. Now, Axios notes that this interview seems to be a desperate attempt to save Trump from

historically weak approval ratings, dissatisfaction on the economy, Iran, a bunch of other issues. And suddenly we're hearing he's doing the best. He works nonstop. There's no one like him so energetic and all of that stuff. I think the funniest question is something that is unsaid. How would Melania know that Trump is working from morning until evening? I'm going to explain what I mean by that. Melania is very independent of Trump compared to other first ladies.

And in fact, we have reason to believe she's completely estranged from Donald Trump. It seems as though they are mostly living separately. They have separate bedrooms when they're even sleeping in the same building. She could have detailed knowledge of his schedule and maybe she's looking at his calendar and all this stuff. But she's basically estranged from Trump. So how would she even know how hard and how many hours Trump is working? Okay.

Then we get to something maybe even more absurd. Take a look at this. You are so busy and such an inspiration to young moms out there as well who are trying to do it all. run businesses, charities, organized state dinners, run a family. Do you still try to get your family together for Sunday night dinners or try to see barren when you can? What are pieces of advice for moms who feel like they're so stretched thin, trying to do

it all, but at the end of the day, just want maybe a dinner at night with their family? It's good to schedule, right? It's always good because everybody. He's so busy. You know, my husband is working. Sometimes he's in the overall office still 9.30 at night, right? So do you wait that you will have dinner? You don't because he's busy. I'm busy too, yes. But we try to find time. It's less and less, you know, the family time. It's suffering because of it. But that's okay. We are here to work, to do a good job, and that's what matters.

And Barron, it's already a young man. So sometimes he's maybe even happy that, you know, I just want to do my stuff. And that's okay. Get away from... What are we doing? What are we doing? Fox business host Taylor Riggs tells Melania,

she's an inspiration to young mothers seeking balance in their lives. What are you talking about? And what Melania is doing that is so inspirational to young, young mothers is she's organizing state dinners. How relatable. Trump's relatable stories about his friends, Bombardier Jets, are probably more relatable than the idea of, you know, the way you organize these state dinners, Madam First Lady, is really an inspiration to just average people. We're finally speaking to an everyday American mom who wakes up, gets the kids dress, packs their lunches, and then organizes state dinners with a full, state.

staff and you know what? They forgot to consider the favorite appetizers of the wife of Xi Jinping. We've all been there. It's really tough. And Melania tells us that she's partially so busy and family time is suffering and there's less and less family time. Come on, guys. I'm sure being first lady creates obligations.

If you take the job seriously, it is an issue. important job diplomatically. I know state dinners require a lot of planning, but she's not doing most of the planning. And I'm sure she has projects that are filling her days, I guess. But Fox is trying anything they can, even though on the one hand, they're increasingly estranged from Trump as well to create something relatable, some working mom's story out of Melania. And there are parents watching this crap going, can I leave work early enough to get? to daycare and then get to the grocery store to buy the groceries I increasingly can't afford. Or my kid is sick, which one of us misses work now if you're in a two-parent household?

And how do we do laundry and get everybody to bed so I can catch up on email? And Fox says, Malania, young mothers are looking to you. It's so inspirational what you're doing. Organizing state dinners with a full staff as part of a multi-billionaire family. And it's really an incredible glimpse into the bubble that these people live in. Trump is working nonstop from morning to evening and Melania is struggling to balance motherhood with organizing state dinners. By the way, her only kid is an adult.

Baron's outfit call it. And I don't want to get back into Baron, but at least in theory, Barron is an independent adult, although there are questions about that. And Fox business is like, finally, somebody understands the challenges facing the American family. Thank you, Melania. Thank you. Just detached from reality. And I guess they're trying to help.

But this is exactly the sort of stuff that people see and they go, they don't understand my pain. Now on the bonus show today, we will talk about why the chair of the RNC is struggling to explain. Why should people vote Republican? We'll have an update on the Michigan Senate race and much more. Folks, they are trying to keep me off of the New York Times bestseller list. We may be 50 books away from the best. seller list and we could miss it. So please consider getting a hardcover copy of my book. You can get

them signed or not signed at David Pakman.com slash attention. We are really close. We might miss it. We might make it. I appreciate your support. We are almost there. All sales up until Saturday night at midnight count. Let's do it. Bonus show. Show tomorrow. All of it.