The David Pakman Show - They need to rethink this, for their own good

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

-- On the Show -- Senator Chris Murphy questions Donald Trump nominee Jeremy Carl under oath, exposing incoherent defenses of white identitarian ideology and prompting Republican backlash over his antisemitic remarks -- Donald Trump delivers rambling and false responses to questions about Jeffrey Epstein, windmills, and mail-in ballots, raising renewed concerns about his mental clarity -- Two public incidents in which Donald Trump struggles to speak and appears to fall asleep during Lee Zeldin's remarks intensify viral speculation about his cognitive stamina and physical durability -- Karoline Leavitt defends federal immigration raids in Minnesota that involved masked agents, arrests, and clashes with local authorities, while dismissing criticism -- Fox News personalities criticize Pam Bondi after her contentious House hearing performance, amplifying speculation about internal frustration and her standing within the Trump administration -- Joe Rogan publicly questions Donald Trump's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, signaling potential cracks within a key segment of the Trump coalition -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: DHS on track to shut down over ICE funding dispute, MAGA turns on MAGA in the race to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kim Jong Un names his teen daughter as his heir, and much more... 🛍️ Shopify: Sign up for $1/month trial and start selling today at https://shopify.com/pakman 📜 Trust & Will: Save 20% on your estate planning at https://trustandwill.com/pakman 🧠 Try Brain.fm totally free for a month at https://brain.fm/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN10 saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.com 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code DAVID for $30 off & free croissants FOR LIFE at https://wildgrain.com/david -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://davidpakman.substack.com -- Get David's Books: https://davidpakman.com/echo -- 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(01:19) Murphy Grills Jeremy Carl(09:04) Trump Rambling Epstein Answers(20:01) Trump Speech and Sleep Moments(28:40) Leavitt Defends Minnesota ICE Raids(37:17) Fox Turns on Pam Bondi(44:22) Rogan Questions Trump Epstein Handling(50:54) Friday Feedback Segment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Trump nominee tied to white nationalist ideology was asked some pretty basic questions under oath about his beliefs and it did not go well. In fact, it went so terribly that now there's a Republican senator saying, I can't support this guy. We're going to look at it and it does raise the bigger question. What happens when extremist rhetoric leaves the safe spaces and runs into reality? It's actually quite interesting. We've also got a new wave of viral clips fueling very serious questions about stamina and cognitive performance as it relates to Donald Trump, slurring, glitching, and then once again, struggling to stay awake during a public event. I'm not talking about sleepy Joe Biden. I'm talking about the president. And Fox World is starting

to turn on Pam Bondi after her disastrous cortisol spiking, triggery appearance before Congress. And we will dive even deeper into the growing opposition from Joe Rogan and other Manosphere influencers led by the perceived coverup of the Epstein files. All of that and more. Plus, I will react to some of the wildest comments of the last week. Great to have you here today. Jeremy Carl was nominated by Donald Trump. Jeremy Carl has a long record of, let's call it, charitably white identity. He's been nominated to a top State Department job.

This is not a random advisory role. This is really a position that can shape American policy with regard to the UN with regard to global institutions. This is a big deal position. We've got to take it seriously. And when you ask Jeremy Carl to explain his white nationalist or white identitarian beliefs about a loss of white culture and all this stuff, not on a podcast, not on Twitter, quitter, but by answering questions under oath in front of the Senate, it very quickly

falls apart. Here is Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, asking Jeremy Carl really basic questions. Like, what do you mean white culture is losing out and is being, is evaporating and like, what, what are you talking about? It did not go well. And in fact, it went so poorly that there's now a Republican senator who says, this is not someone that I can support. Check this out.

Tell me how you define white identity and what you think is being erased about white identity. Certain types of Anglo-derived culture that comes from our history. What? Let me think about this. You know, you might have wanted to think about it when you started writing about it. You know, Senator, I would say if you were to look at the book by one of your former Senate colleagues born fighting about the sort of Scotch Irish military culture and certain, you know, pride that went with that. That would be one example. Obviously, you can have sub-elements of that culture. You could have Italians. You could have Irish.

And those are in many ways more. You're worried about white culture. You're not worried about you're now retreating to ethnic identity. You don't speak about ethnic identity. You speak about white identity. So tell me the values that stitch together white identity and make it different than black identity. I would say that the white church is very different than the black church in terms of its tone and style on average. Food ways could often be different. And those are being erased. Music could be different.

And those are being erased. Music could be different. Well, if you look at the Super Bowl halftime show, which was not in English this year. So our ability to access white churches or white food or white music is being erased? I am concerned with the majority common American culture that we had for some time, that through particularly mass immigration, I think has become much more balkanized. And I think that weakens us. And again, I'm not running away from that comment.

I'm not apologizing for it. Well, I'm way over my time. I think you're struggling to answer this question, right? Because underlying your beliefs is a sentiment that white culture is just simply better. White foods. What is this guy talking about? Like, is he talking literally about white bread, white flour, white rice? Murphy asks a very basic question.

If you're warning us about the erasure of white culture, you should be able to explain what is white culture and how is it being erased. It seems very reasonable. And the answer was, well, white churches are different. Bad Bunny sang in Spanish during the Super Bowl. And what about white foods? And then he kind of really hints at what this is really about. He talks about mass immigration and that sort of stuff.

What is he even talking about? Like this is very important because once you put these ideas under real scrutiny, you see what's there or what's not there. And there's no real coherent definition of white culture. There never is because white is not really a cultural category in the first place. It's a political or power category. White includes depending on which of these white nationalists you talk to and depending on which point in history you look at.

Remember, because there were periods where Irish were not considered white by so. some whites. There were times when Italians were not considered white or there's this whole northern versus southern Italian thing where the northern Italians are considered white, but the southern Italians whose skin is more olivey. I mean, it sounds so stupid even talking about it, are not considered white or as white. He really just thinks that what he considers to be white culture is better. And that's why he couldn't answer.

Now there is another part here that is critical. A Republican senator, John Curtis, not a Democrat, came out after this hearing and said, I don't know that this is someone I can really support. And what wasn't part of the hearing but is part of Carl's background is that he has said really outrageous things about Jews, including sort of expressing grievance on a podcast about how long are Jews going to rest on the Holocaust and this sort of stuff. So the broader pattern is that extremist ideologies often sound confident in safe spaces. You know, you, you watch the monologues of Nick Fuentes and you're like, wow, sounds really, really confident here and strong in the beliefs or if you, you watch interviews on friendly podcasts. But when the moment hits reality, if they even have answers to the questions, they sound ridiculous. Things are being erased from white culture. Yeah, like what? Well, white and

black churches are very different and what about white foods and also bad bunny did the Super Bowl. That sounds really stupid. Even when you can come up with answers, it sounds idiotic. Now, there is a bigger historical point I think that's important to make, which is that white nationalist movements always rely on, I guess to use a word that's in now, they rely on vibes, that they're not relying on definitions. It's like sort of a mix of nostalgia, and fear-based phraseology more than it is about anything coherent. Things used to be better. Okay.

Well, how? Well, the culture is disappearing. Which parts of it? The traditional values are going away. Which ones and who is taking them away? And the answers are extraordinarily slippery because once you define clearly what we're talking about, it becomes clear that what they really want is a hierarchy. They want a hierarchy where who has power is determined by them. And they want to go back to a time when people like them had more power and other groups

didn't. Now, politically, here's where it goes. If even Republicans start blocking nominees over this stuff, it tells you two things. Number one, the administration is pushing people who are way outside the mainstream or trying to push them into positions of governance. And we suspected Trump would do that, but it would be proof if even Republicans go to these people are too crazy. And number two, some Republicans, some seem to still recognize that putting people with overt, uh, ethno-nationalist views into international diplomacy roles is a

very bad idea. Imagine sending this guy, Jeremy Carl, um, who believes that we've got a real problem here because white food is being erased and bad buddy sending that person in to do negotiations, with humanitarian organizations or the United Nations or global allies. It's absurd and pathetic. Really nice job there by Senator Chris Murphy. Just asking very basic questions. Donald Trump stunned reporters into silence with his incoherence just hours ago and started acting as if he has a very guilty conscience answering a question that wasn't actually

asked. Trump was asked, are you aware that you're. staffer, Howard Lutnik, went to Epstein's Island. And Trump goes, I never went. And of course, the question is, why are you talking about that? We didn't ask about you. We asked about Howard Lutnik. Check this out. I was aware that Commerce visited Epstein's Island. And do you continue to have to watch. No, I wasn't aware of it. No, I didn't. I actually haven't spoken about it. I wasn't. But from what I hear, he was there with his wife and children. And I guess in some cases, some people

were I wasn't. I was never there. Somebody will someday say that I was never there. Yeah, please. And of course, Trump wasn't asked, were you there? But I do think it's interesting. Now, I'm not suggesting that because Trump unprovoked starts saying, I never went to Epstein's island. I'm not suggesting he did go. I don't know if Trump went to Epstein's island. What I can tell you is that for a long time, Trump insisted I was never on Epstein's plane and I was never on Epstein's island. We now have the Epstein files and they've confirmed Trump was on Epstein's plane at least eight times. Trump no longer says, I was never on Epstein's plane. Now he has retreated to I was never on Epstein's island. Well, maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, but what I can

tell you is that his denial alone doesn't really tell us one thing or the other. Trump continuing to rage against windmills by which, of course, he means wind turbines that make up wind farms for generating wind power. Trump is. hopeful, waxing poetic, that not a single windmill will be built under his watch. Wow, what an incredible declaration. The people hate them. The energy is by far the most expensive. And we're fighting very hard to make sure that they don't get built. I hope we don't have one bill during my administration.

We inherited some contracts where they've gone down the line a little bit. We're trying to terminate them for a lot of different reasons. One of the reasons is you had mentioned, it's endangerment for the military. It's also endangerment for airliners. So we're trying to take care of those situations now. They should have never been allowed in the first place. And of course, other countries looking around and going, wait a second, we've got wind farms. They haven't endangered airlines.

They haven't endangered the military. What on earth is Donald Trump talking about? And all that this is about is that he has a personal vendetta against wind power. That's all it is. He wants to burn fossil fuels like there's no tomorrow and just pump and pump carcinogens into the atmosphere. That's what he wants. Donald Trump also really doesn't want mail-in ballots.

And he could just say, I don't like him. He could just say, I think they're bad for Republicans, but he can't do that. He has to lie. And the lie he comes up with here is that not a single other country. has mail-in ballots. And you have confirmation U.S. citizenship. That's about a 99% one with Republicans, about 86% with Democrats,

except Democrat politicians because they cheat on elections. And then you have no mail-in ballots, and it would be no mail-in ballots, very important. You know, we're the only country in the world that does a system like we do. We're the only country in the world that has mail-in ballots. The way we do this is unbelievable.

He guarantees chief. Now, of course, that's not true. You know, you could if you wanted, right? I mean, I wouldn't do it. But if you wanted, you could make the case that mail in voting is bad for a bunch of different reasons. And I would argue with you. And I would say, I don't think those reasons are very good.

You could say you just don't like it. You could say mail and ballots are bad for Republicans. But when you say no other country has it, you're implying that we're the only ones dumb enough to do it. Well, Australia has postal voting. Canada has postal voting. You know, the UK has on demand postal voting. States independently set mail by vote by mail laws and they differ a little bit from state to state. So it's not only inaccurate to say that the United States is the only country that does it. The United States also does it in a number of different ways because states administer our elections, not the federal government.

and more than 50 different countries have mail-in voting. Trump was asked, what do you say to Americans who are worried that repealing these endangerment findings as it comes to the environment and power generation is going to be bad for public health and bad for the environment? And Trump goes, it's all, don't worry about that. It's all a scam. Just it's all fake. What do you tell Americans who are concerned that the $1.3 trillion in savings does come at a cost to public health and the environment based on science?

Yeah, I tell them don't worry about it because it has nothing to do with public health. This was all a scam, a giant scam. This was a rip-off of the country by Obama and Biden. And let's say Obama started and didn't get a rolling. And a terrible rip-off. They'll have more money to spend. for health care if you look at it. Now they can go out and spend it or something that's meaningful and nobody's doing more for health care than the Republican Party. And that starts with the fact

that prescription drugs are going to be coming down at numbers that nobody's ever seen before. Really soon. Really soon. It was going to happen during his first year. Didn't quite happen. Now we're into year two of the second term really soon. Don't look away because before you know it, prescription drug prices are going to come down. Finally, Trump doubling down on this stuff saying, you know, know, the idea of all the stuff we're trying to do for really modest gas mileage improvements, it's a waste. We've got plenty of oil. Why are we worried?

Great again. This is a big, a big factor in making our country great. If you look at some of these cars, they didn't even work. They had computers all over the place trying to save a half an ounce of fuel. We have fuel for the next 500 to 1,000 years under our feet. and they're trying like hell to save a half an ounce of fuel. The whole thing is just crazy. Yeah.

And of course, Trump lacking both nuance and depth when it comes to this issue. But spoken like a true authoritarian concerned only about the next couple of years, Trump goes, why would we try to do anything to improve vehicle gas mileage or get off of gas powered vehicles all together? We've got plenty of fuel under our feet. Oh, so you don't want to be the guy who starts getting us off of this deadly, uh, polluting sort of stuff. And of course, missing from all of this is that 500 to a thousand years under our feet, Trump

is greatly, there's a significant conflict between where experts believe peak oil sits and what Donald Trump is saying about that. So he's just straight up saying, this is not something I care about because we have plenty of oil for the time being. And it ignores even if you would, if you like that, you go, we've got plenty of oil for now. We're not going to run out. It ignores the fact that it is terrible as a matter of public health and the number of illnesses and cases of cancer that come as a result of carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. Why wouldn't we want to do something about that? But Trump asked about the health impacts. He goes, don't worry about that. Don't worry about that.

It's all a scam. Everything's completely fine. orders are increasingly stunned by the incoherence and inability of Donald Trump to substantively answer questions. And you might already have seen this. Trump again was dozing during this very event and multiple health events over the last 24 hours have put that topic back into the headlines. We'll talk about it after the break. A lot of people have an idea for something they want to sell, a product, service, some kind

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Protect your loved ones today, tomorrow and beyond. Go to trust and will.com slash Pacman and get 20% off. The link is in the description. Both concerns around Donald Trump have exploded over the last 24 hours. We've had two significant incidents calling into question Donald Trump's cognitive abilities and indicative of the rapid deterioration that we've been watching for a while now. Now first, as I told you yesterday, Donald Trump had another one of these verbal glitches. Sometimes they're referred to as phonemic paraphasasias where he had a physical reaction to losing

his train of thought. He hits the abort button, which for him means he just says something. something to someone in the crowd. In the case from yesterday, it was Mr. Speaker. We'll get back to that. That's a classic Trump move. Also in the last 24 hours, the other incident is that Donald Trump once again seemed unable to stay awake during a public event during which Lee Zeldon was speaking.

Trump did complain immediately afterwards. Oh, Lee went on too long, sort of suggesting he was falling asleep because Lee is very boring. These are two high profile incidents that go really right to the the heart. of Trump's health status and stamina and cognitive abilities in a 24-hour period. Now, here is the first incident Trump struggling to speak, glitching and using the abort button, which is going up up, uh, and referring to somebody in the crowd. Then me and I'm proud to officially name the undisputed, just when did this come out, Mr. Speaker, the undisputed champion of beautiful clean call.

So that was issue number one. and Trump really was pretty, pretty slurry during the entire event. And then shortly after that, Donald Trump sleeping visibly struggling to stay awake as Lee Zeldon, the EPA administrator, spoke, Trump seemingly falling asleep standing up. And if this is one where if you're only listening, imagine that as what you're hearing is being said, Trump is asleep and trying to stay awake. Just a imagine the uproar if this were Joe Biden, sleepy Joe. Restoring the rule of law, a fundamental principle of our great republic. For years, unelected bureaucrats twisted the Clean Air Act into something it was never meant to be.

The Obama administration twisted itself into some kind of mental pretzel to invoke authority it didn't have and to sidestep Congress. They claimed that six greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, some of which, aren't even emitted from vehicles and trucks, contribute some amount above zero to global climate change, what they said, endangered public health. But their wild web of mental leaps isn't prescribed in federal statute. The Obama EPA's House of Cards upended the best reading of the- Okay, I added the lullaby. So Trump unable to stay awake during this event.

Now, this is, of course, particularly pathetic and ironic given Donald Trump's endless attacks on sleepy Joe Biden while Biden was president. You remember Trump arguing Biden doesn't have the stamina to stay awake or to be president. And Trump now regularly struggles to stay awake in public. This is making an impact on people. As I told you earlier this week, if you look at the betting markets, for example, Donald Trump out as president on Kalshi, 2019 percent almost. 1 in 5 believe that Donald Trump will not even make it to the end of this year, this year

in office. Now, what is important to me here is not any one clip in isolation. Okay, Trump glitched again, fine, or Trump fell asleep again in public. Politicians have bad speeches. People get tired. People have a bad day. That happens. The story is different when you start seeing clusters of incidents in a short period of time.

And they all point the same way. all point to Trump's cognitive degradation. They point to visible fatigue. They point to reduced stamina. Remember that the presidency is not a nine to five job, but reportedly, Trump is mostly only working 12 to 5. It's travel. It's late nights. It's crisis response. It's briefings with dense material or it's supposed to be. We know Trump's briefings have been reduced to a page with a couple bullet points and a picture. So when you start seeing the visible struggles during controlled public events, It does raise questions about performance under high pressure, especially in high-stakes situations that aren't scripted.

Now, another factor here is age. We've just got to say it. Trump is operating in a demographic range. In four months, he's going to be 80. He's already the oldest president ever. Statistically, cognitive decline risk accelerates. Trump also has hereditary family risk for cognitive decline, at least from his father. Now, none of that is proof that any particular individual is impaired, but a lot of factors are pointing

in that direction with Donald Trump, and it means that voters and the media should be scrutinizing such obvious visible signs in an almost 80-year-old with a family history of Alzheimer's and dementia as compared to, you know, a 50-year-old president who's not seen any vocabulary diminishment or exhibited these phonemic paraphasis. There's also, I don't know, Also, I think, importantly, the media ecosystem piece. In 2026, when this happens, it doesn't stay local or niche. It immediately goes viral. And then as a narrative starts to form, he's declining, he can't stay awake, he's losing words.

Every clip is going to be interpreted through that lens as it should be. And that can become politically self-enforcing in a way that is very bad for Donald Trump. The reason it matters politically, there's Trump's health objectively, and then there's the reason it matters politically. It matters politically because presidents don't just govern. They project stability and control. And when you're falling asleep in public and struggling to speak, you're not projecting stability and control.

And it is something that our allies see. It's not, oh, only the people in the room noticed it or only Americans noticed it. The whole world that's paying attention notices something is going on here with Donald Trump. Now, the other angle I want to mention because it's relevant, especially heading into the midterms, are the internal party dynamics. If donors, operatives, and power brokers and other elected officials in the Republican Party are worried about the durability of Trump, that can quietly reshape succession conversations and the relevance of the vice president and long-term planning, and how important it is for electeds to stay loyal to Trump versus to say, I'm going to do my own

thing, I think that this guy has definitely lost a step. Falling asleep one additional time doesn't change the entire calculus overnight. Another verbal glitch doesn't change the entire calculus overnight. But the point is that there's a trust question layered on top of this. And the reality of modern presidential politics is that if something serious did happen medically, we are right to be suspicious that we would find out in a timely manner. We have experienced the Trump administration. minimizing and hiding temporarily or as long as they can get away with it, Trump's health situation

for political instability reasons. We saw it when Trump had COVID. We were told, oh, it's just because he's the president out of an abundance of caution. We're just going to get him over to Walter Reed. The truth is Trump was deteriorating so quickly that he was advised. If you continue on this trajectory, you will have to be taken out of here on a stretcher. That is not something we're going to be able to hide for the cameras. It would be better for you to go now while you can do it under your own power.

We later found out that it wasn't revealed Trump was on oxygen while he was at Walter Reed. And when doctors were asked about it, they said, the president hasn't been on oxygen the last 24 hours. Well, the question was, was he on oxygen at all? We found out the answer was actually yes. So the point is we never get clear, detailed explanations about what's going on with Trump's health. For two months, they explained away an MRI that never happened. It was actually a CAT scan that Donald Trump had had.

So whether the suspicions that will be lied to about Trump's health are justified or not, they are justified sort of generically because of how dishonest and not forthcoming they have been in the past. 24 hours on additional two incidents involving Donald Trump. Caroline Levitt is the White House press secretary, at least for now, and she had to run away from Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis with her tail tucked between her legs. Now, let me kind of give you the summary of what took place. You might recall that the commander of the border patrol, Gregory Bovino, was taken out of that role because of the disastrous oversight or lack thereof

he provided in Minneapolis as multiple citizens were killed. It's been a disaster. And we were told Tom Homan, Trump's deportation czar, is being sent up to Minneapolis. Well, yesterday, Tom Homan announced that they are going to be drawing down the occupation of Minneapolis. Cool. We all acknowledge that it's because it has been a PR disaster. Trump's approval on immigration enforcement is in the toilet because of the Minneapolis fiasco. But of course, they can't admit it didn't go well.

So they are coming out and saying, we're leaving because we accomplished the mission. And that is exactly what Caroline Levitt tries to argue. It went so well that we can now leave. So Democrats, they were celebrating when Tom Homan announced that he was going to pull the, pull down the immigration operations in Minnesota. So what does this mean for immigration enforcement? I know a lot of people have been taken out that are here illegally, but there are thousands more. How many was it, Brian? 13. Yeah, 1600.

1,600. 1,600 more that are still there, according to Tom Homan. And Todd Lyons. Sure. Well, Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota has been a resounding success. It has resulted in the detention and deportation of more than 4,000 illegal alien criminals. Let me repeat, 4,000 illegal alien criminals just from Minnesota alone. And while the surge is coming to an end, immigration enforcement in Minnesota absolutely will not.

President Trump. There you go. It was so successful. Two innocent Americans were murdered by men. masked thugs, children were kidnapped and sent to Texas. It went so well that we are now going to step away from it. This was one of the most alienating operations that the Trump administration could have engaged in with regard to a huge swath of the country saying that that is not good. This is not something I approve of. Terrorizing residents and hurting local businesses and

killing some people. It's just so great what we've been able to do. We can now leave as champions. Continuing on this topic, Caroline Levitt saying, sending Homan worked so well, he was able to do so much great stuff. And the number two in his discussions, Mr. Homan was also able to achieve a level of cooperation with local police to arrest left-wing agitators when they are engaged in unlawful behavior, which has led to a commerce situation on the ground. You're no longer seeing videos of these agitators engaging in unlawful activity.

Yet, the reason you're no longer seeing those videos is because ICE is gone. To break up ICE's operations, which again are continuing. Nothing will ever stop President Trump in this administration from targeted immigration enforcement focusing on the worst of the worst criminals in American communities. And that could this possibly be landing with anybody? Like even the is even the Fox News audience hearing this and going, you know, Caroline is so right. It's been so successful in Minneapolis.

just an amazing job that that that has been done. I think even the Fox audience, I think even the average Trump voter as they hear ICE is leaving Minneapolis, Homan's pulling the surge, realizes that it's because it's been a disaster. I don't think anybody's falling for this. One final clip. Here's Caroline addressing reports that there's friction between the FBI and local authorities in Arizona in the case involving Nancy Guthrie, the mother of today's show anchor, Savannah Guthrie, Caroline Levitt goes, oh, no, we, it's all good. It's all good. Cash Patel is great. If the friction indeed exists between the FBI and locals, is there anything the president could do to try to get the FBI in front or is that just something out of his jurisdiction?

Well, look, the FBI in order to take over the investigation would, of course, need the local authorities to hand it over to them. And I spoke with Director Patel late last night, and he assured me the FBI has been on the ground. In fact, Director Patel himself was on the ground in Arizona this week and that we are offering the full resources and weight of the federal government to help local authorities bringing this case to an end to bring Nancy Guthrie home. President Trump immediately offered that when this case was first heard about when this news broke and our hearts break every day that this goes on. And again, the FBI is on the ground wanting to assist in any way that they can. And they have. You saw last night's director Patel and the

FBI released additional information in photo evidence. They have also upped the reward for anyone who comes forward with the suspect. All right. Listen, the underlying story here is if local authorities were confident that Cash Patel was able to competently lead the FBI, they wouldn't be as skittish about allowing the FBI to do more. That's fundamentally what is going on here. He has had such failure after failure, and he has screwed up so many investigations due to his posting and nonsense

that it's understandable that local authorities would be like, do we really want to get Cash Patel more involved here? Caroline Levitt is doing everything she can to defend the indefensible. She's trying to defend incompetent people. She's trying to defend backwards policies. I can't say she's doing a good job, but she's doing a good enough job for Trump not to fire her.

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code Pacman at Zippix toothpicks.com. The link is in the description. You must be 21 or older to order. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. You know things aren't going well when even on Fox News, they're saying, damn, that was a disaster. And that is exactly what is happening on Fox News with the testimony this week from the Secretary of Homeland Security, Pam. I'm sorry, from the Attorney General Pam Bondi, not Christy Nome, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the AG, Pam Bondi. When you turn on Fox News and it's not Democrats or independent media, it's Fox voices saying this was a disaster. It is a real problem for the administration. And there are now multiple signs of building pressure around the Attorney General role, not confirmed firing yet, but real speculation and frustration

about the future of Pam Bondi in this administration. Here is Fox trashing Pam Bondi after her House of Representatives testimony meltdown. They refer to her as a shrieking Karen and completely unpersuasive. All true, by the way. I think the yelling to me, Kennedy, I always find it so unversuasive for everybody. Yeah, so Scott Besson went before Congress and was very calm, was very measured, and he has become the king of laconic sick burns. Like, he can absolutely destroy you, and it won't raise his heart rate or his blood pressure.

And that is a lesson that Pam Bondi needs to internalize, because it's different. She comes off like a shrieking Karen. You know, it's like, I want this country to do well. I want to be convinced that the president, I don't care what administration it is, that we're on the right track. And the people who are in charge of every aspect of the federal government, they have their position locked up and they're doing the very best they can with an incredibly talented team. When she's this emotional, it looks like she's lost a little bit of the edge. And she seems very, very unpersuasive.

It feels like the job is consuming her. She needs to tone it down a little bit. And, you know, she apparently had a burn book of insults that she was doling out to everyone. And when she said to Jamie Raskin, who was a total hack, when she said, like, you're not even a lawyer. He should have said, you're not even a real blonde. That would have been funny. He doesn't have the wear with all he shouldn't be in Congress. That's way he's never in cut. And of course, Jeremy Raskin is very far from being a hack. He's in fact an extraordinarily knowledgeable constitutional law professor. And if anybody does, know the law, Jamie Raskin would be one of those people. But what's the bigger story here? Their own propaganda network is turning on them. The criticism isn't just coming from Democrats or media critics. It's across the ecosystem. So you turn on late night, they're ridiculing Pam Bondi. You look at political media. They're ridiculing Pam Bondi. You look at lawmakers. You look inside Trump-aligned spaces like Fox News. Everybody is ridiculing Pam Bondi because the performance was a humiliating disaster. Now you layer onto that.

something that is even more dangerous politically, which is the weakness of the internal narrative. There are reports that Trump is privately complaining to the people around him, that Pam Bondi this week came off as weak, that she's been ineffective at enforcing his agenda. And if you know Trump's management style, if you can call it that, you know that that is step one in somebody getting pushed out. It's usually not Trump fires you right away. First, the complaints start leaking. Then the press coverage will start to shift. Then allies will stop defending the person.

And then all of a sudden, you're gone. You've either been fired or you've decided that you're going to resign. Now, add one more piece to this. Prediction markets are also seeing Pam Bondi as the most likely Trump cabinet member to leave the administration next or the soonest. So take that for what you will. Just in a little, an additional little note doesn't mean she's getting fired tomorrow. But when you look at all of these different spaces, the political observers and the money traders and people watching internal signals, everybody believes that Pam Bondi's risk of being bounced out of here is going up.

There are even calls, not not universal, but there are some for a resignation from Pam Bondi that her performance was so bad that sort of like out of shame and embarrassment she should just resign. Now let's zoom out to the broader political fallout here. inside Trump world and inside the worlds of many of these authoritarian's loyalty is complete and total and absolute until it isn't. You're indispensable until suddenly you are very much expendable. And what often triggers the shift isn't a policy failure. It's just you look weak. You're looking weak and Trump hates that. And this is why the Fox criticism is important. When Fox starts going, ah, you come off like a shrieking Karen and very unpersuasive. Fox is part of the message. infrastructure. We've seen times when just minutes after something is set on Fox, Trump is posting

to truth social using the same language, for example. And when the ecosystem starts saying, you lost control, you melted down, you embarrassed yourself in the administration, it's the permission structure of sorts that now we can distance from Pam Bondi. Final thing, and this is very important, there's another theory floating around in Trump world, which is that Bondi isn't going to be forced out because she's actually sort of doing what Trump wants. Yes, she kind of embarrassed herself. Yes, she seemed wacky and unprepared. But there are voices who saw it and said, you know, you've got to think about it like Trump. And on the one hand, Trump doesn't like to be embarrassed. So if he turns on Fox and they're saying his AG looked like a shrieking Karen, that's going to influence Trump.

And that may be true, but there's a competing influence, which is she is going out there and defending every single thing Trump is doing. In a way, she did something Trump loves, which is when she was asked about Epstein or whatever, she starts going, oh, but the Dow is at records and you should be talking about that and Trump is the most successful president ever. Trump loves that shit. Trump sometimes will keep controversial people because they're willing to take the hit for them. They're willing to look unhinged, but never stop defending Donald Trump. So there's this weird political space where both of these things can be true. And it's a question of which out competes the other.

She could be in danger or she could be protected or she could be protected until in a week she suddenly isn't. And with Trump, those suddenly isn'ts can happen really in a matter of hours. But if Fox News is really starting to turn on her, this is potentially going to be a major problem for Pam Bondi. Bottom line, she was unqualified from the get go slightly less cartoonish than Matt Gates. remember Matt Gates was Trump's initial nominee for that position, but equally incompetent. And hopefully she goes down. The country would be better off if she were gone. There's always a

question of does she get replaced with someone even more dangerous. Let's talk about Joe Rogan. Podcaster Joe Rogan really helped legitimize Donald Trump to a lot of young male voters. And Rogan is now publicly torching Trump over the Epstein files. This is very politically risky for Donald Trump in a way that a cable news criticism isn't. You know, we just talked about Fox News now just referred to Pam Bondi's performance as that of a shrieking Karen. That is one thing, but it's still cable news. As I talked about earlier this week, the Manosphere podcasters, including Rogan, were instrumental in building this culture around it being cool if you're a young man to support Trump. That is very quickly changing.

Let's take a look at this question. So we know, Sultan Ahmed bin Suleiman, Suleim sent the torture video to Epstein. This is in 2009. So Epstein was saying that. Where are you? Are you okay? I love the torture video. I am in China.

I'll be in the U.S. second week of May. What the fuck, man. And why is his name redacted? why would your name be redacted if you're not a victim? Like this is what's crazy about all this. Like how come you redact some people and you don't redact other people? Like what is this? This is not good.

None of this is good for this administration. It looks fucking terrible. It looks terrible. It looks terrible for Trump when he was saying that none of this was real. This is all a hoax. This is not a hoax. Like did you not know? Maybe he didn't know if you want to be charitable.

But this is definitely not. a hoax. And if you got redacted people's names and these people aren't victims, you're not protecting the victim. So what are you doing? Right. And how come all this shit is not released? Obvious natural questions. But the source is what matters. Rogan's not MSNBC or MS now, as it's now called. Rogan's not CNN. Rogan's not the liberal media. He's the kind of voice that Trump world wanted to win over and that they did win over and who endorsed Trump and helped Trump win. And now Rogan's going, this Epstein situation looks terrible for Trump. Now, this is where it gets politically interesting. Rogan helped normalize Trump for a demographic that Democrats have struggled with,

young men who distrust institutions and who distrust traditional media. Trump can't afford doubt inside that coalition because once Trump's political model, uh, which is loyalty starts to be damaged, the loyalty cracks happen very, very quickly. Now, it might be nice. Call me. Call me. crazy. It might be nice if Rogan had said, I screwed up because now Rogan has made six, seven, eight criticisms of Trump. We didn't sign up for this. We didn't sign up for that list looks terrible. I would love to hear from Rogan. I screwed up. I fell for this guy's pitch. He came on my show. He charmed me and I never should have endorsed them. That would be powerful because that's how persuasion actually works, not pretending you're always right, but showing how someone like Trump

convinces people and going, I now understand how Trump convinced people. I fell for it and it was a mistake. And Trump does that. You know, he flatters. He mirrors. He tells people there's the smart ones. Joe Rogan who's great. Oh, this, that. The independent thinkers, the ones who see through the system and all of that stuff. Rogan is halfway there. He's he's basically saying maybe Trump didn't know about some of this stuff, but this looks terrible for Donald Trump. Now, I think this is even, even at the level that it currently stands, I think this is dangerous for Trump because a major influencer with tens of, with, I don't know about tens, millions, I guess tens of millions of listeners, either Trump knew this is bad or he didn't know and he's kind of not in control.

Neither option is great. And then there's the obvious question, which is why would there be coverups, Joe? He's going like, why would you redact this? Why would you cover it up? Why would there be delays? What can you think of as far as can you think of any reason that the, Trump administration might want to cover up this stuff, any at all, hard to put my finger on it. And of course, it's because either Trump himself is implicated or people very close to Trump

are implicated. And it's really the kind of story that conspiracy culture feeds on. And Rogan lives in that ecosystem, which means that if Rogan decides something stinks, the message spreads, and his whole audience starts to think that something stinks. And so Rogan's gone after Trump over ICE tactics. He's floated the idea of the chaos being used as a distraction. He's joked Trump might be losing it with age. No one of these things breaks Trump, but it starts to build a story, which is that Rogan is really skeptical of Trump. Now again, I would love to have the I screwed up Mayaculpa. Rogan helped sell Trump as strong and independent and anti-establishment. For him to start saying this stuff, even without the full Mea culpa, it's still incredibly important

because if the perception of Trump is the strong independent guy who won't be pushed around and does what's good for the average man, if that starts to crack and collapse under the weight of Rogan and Andrew Schultz and other criticism, things are going to get very interesting politically in the next eight and a half months as we get closer and closer to the midterms. A lot of people assume all seafood is just seafood until they taste something. that is on another level. Our sponsor, Wild Alaskan Company, is my go-to because their portions cook beautifully. The flavor stands out. I've been a fan for years. So we reached out to them about becoming a sponsor. What Wild Alaskan Company does is deliver wild-caught seafood right to your door,

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Get seafood you can trust. Go to wildalaskan.com slash Pacman for $35 off your first box of premium wild-caught seafood. The link is in the description. Let's get into Friday feedback for the week. Your emails can be sent to info at David Pakman.com and will feature feeds. from our various and different platforms. We start with a subreddit post from the user space penguin who posted a daily Pacman subreddit anti-democrat bingo talking about the following phrases as ones that I guess this individual

doesn't like and says are used by people on the subreddit just looking to oppose Democrats. Beckless, strongly worded letter. Opposition, A-PAC, centrists, milk toast, meeting the moment, black-pilled. Bonus points if you get told some variation of can't criticize Dems, Blue MAGA, vote Blue No Matter Who for calling out the obvious disinformation of constant crying about Chuck Schumer or some variation of moving the goalposts. Edit, more squares, you're a DNC bot. Everyone who disagrees with me is a bot.

Lesser evil. Earn my vote. Right wing Democrats. The point is it's all just engagement bait to create maximum division and anger. Anger is addicting. So you keep coming back for more anyway and waste your emotional energy here instead of organizing to fight back. All right.

Listen. You all know if you've been watching this show for any period of time that I do not get involved in just the circular firing squad of constantly going after and getting into arguments with other left-wing content creators. And I'm going to try to keep not doing that during this election cycle. What I do want to acknowledge because it is destructive and disastrous and it's going to lead to some horrible person winning in 2028 and becoming president, probably a Republican. Okay. One of the things I'm already seeing that's really worrying me is that there are content creators on the left. Just yes, the other day I was looking on threads and a bunch of content creators I know all of whom I'm

friendly with, you know, not friends, but friendly with all sniping each other. You took money from this one and you took money from that one and your interviews are propaganda and all this different stuff. And I'm sort of looking at this and I'm thinking to myself, guys, we've got a fascist here. We've got to want to be dictator in power. I'm not going to get distracted by these internal fights. This is why I think the chorus thing was so damaging months ago, which, oh, by the way, not to get derailed, but chorus, the cohort of chorus I was a part of has been over for months now. There's a whole new slate of chorus creators.

Nobody gives a damn like the fact it's just like all of a sudden it's I guess it really isn't that controversial anymore when the new slate of creators is sort of like less less prominent. It has smaller audiences. Anyway, um, I've seen some left wing creators already talking about staying home in 2028 voting third party in 28 if it's this candidate or that candidate. And I'm just thinking to myself like we're doing this again. And so one of my commitments that I'm making here. and I want you to hold me to it. Okay. Part of the reason I'm saying it is so you know I'm planning. If I failed to do this, you got to let me know. I am going to continue to stay out of these gossipy water cooler type internal fights within the left. Now, I also think it's important to acknowledge. There are content creators who maybe at some point started out on something that could be described,

described as the left, but they have either become right wing or they have gone so off the rails that they don't really represent any important portion of the left anymore. And it's completely fine to point out, hey, here's someone whose ideas actually don't really meet any version of how we might define being on the political left today. And we should be careful about what what their motives are. But that's sort of a different category. So listen, hold me to it. it. I'm not going to get involved in this stuff. I'm not going to start just doing making a show where it's just battling other people over personal insults and this sort of thing. All right. Next post is from Criptic Sunset who wrote on the subreddit. I found David's interview with a physical therapist

very distasteful. It's irresponsible for a medical professional to be diagnosing conditions and predicting the death of someone they have never examined outside their scope of practice and in a purely speculative media setting. This guy is making incredibly specific claims based on video clips and vibes and David didn't push back at all. Most people found the interview interesting. I think it's completely reasonable as a criticism to say there simply should be no such opinion piece is done. Like if that's your view, totally fine. We just disagree. It's a gentleman's disagreement. I think that in this media environment, you know, we've spoken before to medical professionals about the origins of the Goldwater rule and that the origins are actually kind of dark and they

don't really apply to Trump because a lot of what's being discussed with Trump is just visible. The way you, the way you evaluated is simply by looking at it. And none of these doctors or medical professionals are claiming to have a hard and fast specific or refutable diagnoses. I do a show where people give opinions and sometimes they give opinions that that people might find distasteful. So I think it's a completely fine thing not to like to skip those segments. Totally cool. But I the show is mostly what do I find interesting? What do I want to talk about? And I thought that the interview with Adam James was was very interesting. Disc Wrangler says what are the chances

MAGA goes back to not voting after Trump. David mentioned that once Trump is gone, the people, the people will then have time to organize and campaign instead of going to rallies. I feel we are talking about some lazy and dumb people who before Trump were not political and probably didn't vote much. As David said, they loved Trump. He did everything for them, activated racism, gave them an enemy to fight, had nifty slogans like America first. He's literally a cult of personality.

I believe when he's gone, they will be out of outbuilding statues of him and disengage from politics. Yeah. a lot of the people that only started voting even because they love Trump so much, they're going to scram from the political world unless there is someone to replace Trump that they find as compelling, which I find incredibly, incredibly unlikely. This actually was kind of discussed a couple of weeks ago in the segment where I said, I believe MAGA dies with Trump, whether that's literally with the death of Trump the person or just the end of Donald Trump's

political career because if you get pulled in by the charismatic cult leader and you're really only there because of the charismatic cult leader, I don't know that you stay engaged after Trump goes bye bye. So we will, we will see, but I think that that is a very reasonable prediction. Timmy Birch wrote in, Pacman, by the way, my name is misspelled in it, Pacman is nothing without Donald Trump. This is such a boring one. You've got to understand that Trump has been in the political world now for 11 years, four of which Biden was president for. Before Trump, when it was Obama as president, people would write in and they would go, if you didn't have Obama hate from Republicans to talk about, you wouldn't have anything to discuss. And before Obama was president, when we would criticize the administration of George W. Bush, people would write in and go, if it weren't for Bush being president, if Gore had won, you or if John Kerry had won, you would have no show. When this person goes away, the show will end or when that person, the show has grown now for two decades. So my prediction is that there will always be, because this is a really crazy country, I think there will always be.

people who are actively pushing policies that would be terrible for the United States and forces, anti-democratic forces that we need to fight against. And that has been the case since before Trump was president. And it will be the case after Trump has gone. So I think we'll be okay even after Donald Trump. Brats of war wrote in and said simply, prices are going down. I'm so sorry to have to break it to you, but if inflation is over zero, prices are going up. We just got news.

The latest inflation numbers, they came in just a few hours ago, prices up 2.4% in January 25 to January 26 period. So if prices are going down, why does the day? to say that prices went up 2.4%. As I've said before, if you're driving on the highway at 80 miles an hour towards your destination and you slow down to 60 miles an hour, the rate at which you're approaching your destination has slowed down, but you were still getting closer every day. Unless you put the car in reverse, you're still getting closer to your destination. And similarly, if inflation goes from 5 to 3 or 4 to 2 or 3 to 1. Prices are rising more slowly, but prices are still going up.

It's kind of surprising and disturbing that a lot of people don't seem to get very basic math. Sam wrote in on Instagram and said, I love this progressive gay boy 100. Well, listen, I appreciate all support. I happen to be heterosexual, but that doesn't change that I am an ally to the LGBT community, that everybody is welcome in the audience regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, eye color, hair, color, height, sports preferences, whether you do or don't like soy milk in your cappuccino. Everybody's welcome. Okay. Everybody's welcome and I appreciate all, uh, all, all support. Corey Powell wrote in on substack and said clarification about Donald

Trump's various truth social posts. Trump does not write these posts. He is too lazy and too stupid to do that. He has teams of people feeding the flock minute by minute, important distinction, as you don't want to give him an undue credit for either being stable enough to think a coherent sentence, let alone write one down with his tiny hands. Yeah, you know, the truth is that Trump's social media seems to be a combination. It does seem that sometimes Trump is writing the posts. It seems that Trump sometimes is dictating the posts and sometimes other people are writing stuff for Trump for approval.

I don't really think it matters. It's all still being published under the name of Trump, under the authority of the office of the presidency and we need to treat it all as the insane rantings of an extremely dangerous authoritarian, even if any particular post was or wasn't written by Donald Trump. Ivy Beth Eliza says on TikTok, I agree with everything you said, except your assertion that Stephen Miller does everything to please Trump. I think that evil dude does mean things for his own delight. Well, it's there's there's a why not both sort of scenario on the one hand stephen miller has personal goals horrible disgusting nasty stuff that he wants to see done and that is one goal but he also understands

that in trump world in order to stay around long enough to push for the things you want you have to also please trump and miller has figured out how you please trump and the answer is you sycophantically loudly and in the most unhinged possible manner, defend every single notion, every single statement and every single action that Donald Trump takes. He knows that that's the way the game is played. And boy, does he play it. We have a phenomenal bonus show for you today. The heir to the Kim family throne of North Korea has been chosen, Kim Jong-un choosing his teen daughter as heir. We will We will also talk about the MAGA versus MAGA situation in Georgia and the division in Trump's base and the Department of Homeland Security being on track to shut down with lawmakers leaving DC. It is crazy that this is now happening.

All of that and more on the bonus show. I implore you. Sign up at join packman.com. I'll see you then.