The David Pakman Show - Trump puts himself on the ballot as election alarms grow

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

-- On the Show: -- Josh Turek, Democratic nominee for US Senate from Iowa, joins us to discuss the race and how Trump's tariff policies are crushing Iowa farmers -- Security expert Peter Van Praagh warns Donald Trump plans to challenge the midterm results while deploying federal election monitors -- Donald Trump has a dangerous combination of cognitive decline and narcissism, leading to errors going uncorrected by aides -- Republican organizers offer free text-message tickets for Donald Trump's midterm rally after key candidates decline invitations -- Senator Rick Scott pledges that Republicans will follow Donald Trump's lead despite the president's 33% approval rating -- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin struggles during a Fox News interview regarding September 11th anniversary comments -- David urges viewers to pre-order his book "Pay Attention" to beat Senator Ted Cruz on the bestseller lists -- On the Bonus Show: Canada places tariffs on American products, some Republicans are open to raising the Social Security cap, Trump teases renaming New Mexico to "New America" 📜 Trust & Will: Save 20% on your estate planning at https://trustandwill.com/pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep mattresses: Get up to 27% OFF at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 💻 Sponsored by Private Internet Access: 83% OFF + 4 months free at https://www.piavpn.com/Pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/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 -- 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 (01:18) How Trump plans to steal the midterms (09:54) Trump has a combo of narcissism and cognitive decline (19:27) Republicans are giving away midterm convention tickets (26:40) Rick Scott says Republicans will follow Trump (34:50) Josh Turek interview (49:57) Markwayne Mullin makes strange 9/11 comments (57:35) David is competing with Ted Cruz on bestseller lists Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Today, an extraordinary warning about the midterm elections. There's a major international security expert who says that Americans must start connecting the dots now about what Trump could do if Republicans lose. And we are going to look carefully at what's actually happening, what's speculation, and why this concern is even being raised. Then there may be a much bigger issue with Trump than any individual glitch or confused moment. What happens when questions about judgment collide with someone who just can't tolerate being told

that he is wrong? Now, meanwhile, the Republican midterm convention is about to start. Republicans are making Trump the center of everything and organizers have been working to get people into the building while some Republican candidates would rather be nowhere near it. Plus, I have listened to Trump's Homeland Security Secretary talk about 9-11, 10 times, and I can't figure out what he's trying to say. Plus, I just discovered who I am competing against on the New York Times bestseller list. It is disgusting, dilapidated and depraved Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

We've got to beat them. All of that and more today. I want everybody to pay very close attention to this story. This is so important and potentially so impactful on what the next two years are going to look like. We now have the president of a major international security organization who put out an insane warning about the November midterm elections. His name is Peter Van Pragg.

He's president of the Halifax International Security Forum. And he says he is convinced that Donald Trump is preparing to try to steal the midterms if Republicans lose. Now this is his assessment. This is not proof that Trump has a secret operational plan to overturn the election. But what makes the warning worth examining is that we already suspected Trump had a plan and the evidence that Van Pragg is pointing to because a lot of this is happening right out in the open. You know a lot.

There's situations where we put out a hypothesis and it requires accepting subterfusion conspiracy because it's hidden and it's behind the scenes. That is not the case here. You just need to look at what's happening publicly. Now, what Van Pragh writes about and essentially is that Americans must connect the dots before election day instead of waiting until afterwards to figure out what happened. And his basic prediction is like this. If Republicans lose, Trump will claim the election was illegitimate.

All right, yeah, he's done that before. That's not really the surprise. He's going to repeat the claim endlessly. He's going to create confusion about what actually happened. And the point and where it might go differently than in 2020 is that Trump will try to convince enough Americans that these are results that can't be trusted. Now, the results will be completely legitimate. We've seen this movie before.

Trump lost the 2020 election. He falsely claimed he won. Courts rejected dozens of challenges to the results. officials were pressured to change legitimate results. Remember, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. And Mike Pence refused Trump's demand that he attempt to use his role on January 6th to interfere with the certification. That's 2020. The difference for 2026 that Van Pragg is pointing to is that Trump is, again, president of the United States. And he has spent this second term. expanding federal power over elections. Trump hadn't done that in advance of the 2020 election.

In February of this year, Trump said Republicans should nationalize the voting and take over the voting. And that's important because presidents and the federal government don't run American elections. As we've talked about before, the constitution gives states authority over the mechanics of these elections. And of course, it is subject to congressional power. to alter regulations, but that's not the executive branch controls elections. And then there's the following. The New York Post, the Washington Post reported that pro-Trump activists claiming coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order, which proposes that Trump declare a national emergency over alleged foreign interference.

And what that proposal would do is use the emergency. declaration to justify extraordinary federal intervention in elections. And that would include the restrictions on mail-in voting that Trump already said he wants to do, as well as on voting machines. Now, the White House has not said, we've adopted that draft and we are going to have Trump sign it. But what we know is that Trump himself was promising executive action on elections if Congress didn't make the changes that he wanted them to make. And Congress has not made the changes that Trump wants them to make. this has gone beyond theory and it has become practice because Trump has issued an executive order

to create a federal citizenship list and to restrict the postal service to delivering mail-in ballots only to the people on Trump's government's approved list. Now, as we talked about two weeks ago, federal courts blocked a lot of parts of that. Challenger say Trump is assuming powers that simply don't belong to the president. They belong to states as potentially modulated by Congress. But Congress, again, is not modulated them. The Trump administration then went to the Supreme Court and they said, hey, we want to revive parts of this before November. And meanwhile, Donald Trump's Justice Department says it plans to deploy about a thousand federal election monitors this fall.

Now, federal election monitoring in and of itself is not sinister. The Justice Department has done it for decades. They've done it under Democratic administrations. They've done it to enforce federal voting rights laws. It's not sinister in and of itself. What's unusual is the scale and the motivation of this administration to do it. And a senior DOJ official described it as probably a historic number for a Republican administration. So we have a preview here of why people are concerned.

You look at Republican-controlled Wyoming. Republican Governor Mark Gordon complained about what he called a grand. and irregular behavior by federal election monitors during their primary. And the Republican county clerks said monitors were asking to examine voting equipment. They don't have the right to do that. That's not part of what a civil rights division doing election monitoring has the authority to do. And the Justice Department has defended its broader monitoring as saying, we're just enforcing

federal election law. That is all of the context for this warning from Van Prague. And he predicts that if Democrats do win control of Congress, Trump could try to use federal authority against ballots or against election equipment. Now, these are predictions. These things haven't happened yet. We don't know if they're going to happen. There should be major legal obstacles to a president seizing control of an election when

the elections belong to the states. But the important thing here is, if we dismiss this whole thing is, oh, it's a crazy conspiratorial hypothetical, we would have to ignore what Trump himself has been saying. He wants Republicans to take over the voting. He has tried to impose new voting rules. He has waxed poetic about declaring an emergency and how emergencies have been declared in other countries in the past. And he's fighting for these restrictions on mail and voting. and people allied with them are developing proposals for how do you invoke emergency powers. So if we pretend that this isn't going on, we're not ignoring some shadowy conspiracy. We're ignoring what they've been saying for almost two years out in the open.

Now, there's one other thing I believe that matters here. Trump has spent years insisting that elections he loses are fraudulent while elections he wins are, of course, legitimate. And in July, he delivered a primetime presidential address, which was meant to just bring back to life his claims about the vulnerabilities of our elections. And after all of the buildup, all of it, we have widespread reporting that Trump has still presented no evidence to anybody that a single vote in 2020 was altered or that a single voting machine was compromised in the way that he claims. So when someone says, oh, don't worry, Trump would surely accept a Republican defeat. in November if the election is legitimate. Why would we assume that the responsible position isn't to declare today Trump will definitely

steal the midterms? We don't know that. But the responsible position, if we follow the facts, is to recognize and acknowledge Trump openly is challenging the boundaries between the power of the president and election administration before votes have even been cast. And what that means is we need to know what the boundaries are. States administer elections. Congress has constitutional authority.

over federal election rules. Courts can review executive actions that are believed to be unlawful. Election officials count lawful votes. And most importantly, the president doesn't get to decide that an election is only valid when he likes the results or his party wins. And that is why we need to deal with this now, not November 4th the day after the election. We need to deal with it now. And fortunately, we do have people.

like Mark Elias from the Elias Law Group that are dealing with exactly this. There is something about the discussion of Donald Trump's cognitive condition that is missing, and it is really important to bring up. We tend to talk about a couple of different things separately. We will show you Trump glitching and twitching and losing his train of thought and struggling to find words and being confused and falling asleep and walking gingerly and having ankle swollen like tree trunks and bruised hands in a swollen face and whatever it happens to be. We do all that stuff. And then separately, we talk about Trump's extraordinary narcissism and egotamia and how he must

be praised. He can never admit that he's wrong. He insists that he knows more than the doctors and the pilots and the scientists and the engineers and the nurses and the medical workers. Okay. Put these things together. The cognitive elements and the narcissism egotomania. in a president of the United States and you have a much bigger problem. Now, I always want to be

precise. I am not diagnosing Donald Trump. The White House says Trump is cognitively perfect. Trump has repeatedly said, I'm absolutely perfect on the cognitive tests. And he claims that his doctors say he's super healthy and all of that stuff. However, Trump says he's really smart because he aces the Montreal cognitive assessment. That's not what it proves. The Montreal cognitive assessment is a screening tool for whether you're cognitively impaired. And a perfect score just means you're not cognitively impaired. It doesn't mean you're smart. It doesn't establish that you're extremely intelligent or any of it. But even Donald Trump framing a dementia screening as an IQ test is the dynamic that I am talking about here. Trump doesn't merely say, look, I took this test

and my doctor says I'm fine. It becomes I got a perfect score. I'm extraordinarily intelligent. You couldn't get a perfect score and you couldn't get a perfect score and you definitely couldn't get a perfect score. Now imagine a person with that psychological disposition actually experiencing age-related cognitive problems. Who tells him? Who says, Mr. President, sir, you're remembering this incorrectly. Who says, sir, you misunderstood what they told you? You're confused. You're not remembering accurately. You aren't processing. information correctly. You're falling asleep two to three times a week in public in the middle of the day. The presidency is one of the worst possible jobs for someone who cannot tolerate being

told that he is wrong. And part of this is what do presidents do when they actually want to be president and take the job seriously? They receive conflicting intelligence. They have generals who disagree with non-military staffers or economic advisors who don't have. agree with each other or diplomats who tell you, eh, you know, this other country isn't going to do what you think they're going to do. And sometimes the most impactful or important information that a president can receive is, sir, you're wrong about this. And if confusion produces a mistake, narcissism makes acknowledging that mistake intolerable psychologically. And that creates this insanely dangerous feedback loop. Now, I don't want to minimize any job, but if you're a narcissistic

egomaniac and you have a lower stakes job, right? And I don't want to start going, well, if you're like a bus driver or an HVAC tech, I don't want to diminish any jobs. But the point is, the stakes for narcissistic egotomania by itself are lower in jobs other than president of the United States. When you combine the cognitive decline with that psychological predisposition, you, you You end up in a situation when mistakes are made, you deny, you blame other people, you preempt it by surrounding yourself with sycophants who agree with you, you always double down, you never apologize, and presidential mistakes aren't, oh, I made a right turn, but I meant to take a left.

Trump just announced, Bombardier, the aircraft company, will no longer be allowed to sell aircraft in the US unless it manufactures them here. And we look at this and we go, wow, that's a company with a, it's a Canadian company really intertwined with the American economy. They employ thousands in the United States. They buy billions of dollars of goods from American suppliers. Reuters reports, it's not even clear how you implement that. But Trump has presidential power to do that because he's angry with Canada and because he's a narcissistic egomaniac. So you've got trade policy and markets and diplomacy and war and ultimately nuclear weapons,

under the control of an individual with these very dangerous combinations of cognitive decline of some sort and narcissistic egotamia. Now, there's another feature to all of this. Everything has to revolve around Trump. Trump is now telling voters in the midterms, pretend I'm on the ballot. He's putting himself at the center of this unprecedented Republican midterm convention, which will cover after the break. He's going to be speaking both nights.

But there are Republican candidates who are saying, I'm not going to be anywhere near that. Being near Trump is a problem. So the point isn't that saying pretend I'm on the ballot is proof of cognitive decline. It's not. It's that the combination we're observing a president experiencing deterioration in judgment and cognition combined with never having people around him who correct him. People around him who just say yes, sir, absolutely right away, sir. What we should seek is humility. And someone who can at some point go, you know what? what, maybe I misunderstood. Explain that to me again. Maybe the experts do know something that I don't know. And the nightmare scenario is the one we have. A president that is increasingly less able to process

information, but he is still just as confident that he's the smartest person in the room. And then everybody around him starts to learn that the safest thing to, yes, Mr. President, that's the safe thing. You're absolutely right. Right away, sir. And so this is why the cognitive question is more than does Trump sometimes say bizarre things. What we're dealing with is what happens when questionable judgment meets extraordinary confidence, a complete inability to ever admit that you made a mistake, and an environment you've built for yourself that punishes any kind of dissenter corrections and rewards total agreement and total loyalty. One of these things would be a problem for a president. We have them all together.

And this is what you happen. This is what you expect to see happen when you put together deterioration of this kind in an increasingly unhealthy individual with narcissistic egomania and access to the nuclear codes. Terrifying, terrifying stuff. Let's be honest. Estate planning is one of those things people know they should do, but keep putting off. I was one of those people. I have finally done it. Yes, it took a little bit of time. Yes, I had to think through who do I want taking care of my kids if the worst should

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57% off site wide exclusive for my audience. The link is in the description. Republicans are now struggling to give away tickets to this very ill-advised and ridiculous midterm convention that Donald Trump is doing. They're giving the tickets away and Republicans are still running away from this thing. You know, we've been talking about the gamble that Trump is taking with the midterm elections. And it's getting almost comical because Republicans are not. not just dealing with candidates who don't want to show up to Trump's big midterm convention.

They are now blasting out unsolicited text messages offering free tickets to try to get people into the building. And you've got to appreciate what is happening here. Donald Trump's entire theory of these midterms essentially is there isn't enough Trump and that's a problem. Republicans have never held a convention like this before a midterm. Trump pushed for it. He said it has to be built around himself. He's going to be speaking both nights of the convention. His allies are mostly going to be there. His administration is going to be there.

And the idea is turn the congressional elections, turn the midterms into a giant national referendum on Donald Trump. I am not projecting this onto them. This is what they are saying. RNC chair Joe Gruders has said, we need the president front and center. has been telling his supporters pretend that I'm on the ballot. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House says Trump is going to look directly into the camera and say, I am on the ballot.

I told you when they announced this that this was a gamble. The theory maybe makes some sense. And it's the following theory. This is the theory if you abstract yourself from the reality. There are Trump voters who turn out when Trump is running. But they're not that reliable in midterms because Trump's not on the ballot. And Republican strategists openly say, we need those people to vote. Okay.

So let me like that theory is logical insofar as it's true. The problem is that when you make the election about Trump, you make the election about a really unpopular guy. And there are Republican candidates in competitive races who do not think that Donald Trump is helpful to them. USA Today reports that Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins, who's in a tough reelection battle that she is plausibly going to lose isn't going to go. Tom Barrett in Michigan isn't going. Marianette Miller Meeks says she is going to be better off spending time in her district.

And so Politico surveyed 70 Republican candidates and members of Congress and found that most either said, I'm not going or said I haven't decided yet, hoping to stay under the radar. Okay. So we knew all of that. Now we get to the next development. The Daily Beast. is reporting that organizers are scrambling to give away free tickets to this thing. Now, there was already a public lottery for free seats and that included the possibility of VIP treatment, the possibility of being in the front row and local reporting has confirmed that in August they opened that lottery. But people in the Dallas area where the convention is being held have now started getting unsolicited text message messages. And the text messages basically just say, free tickets, come to this thing. Please show up a

this thing. And it looked so much like a scam that local news in Dallas was saying, if you're getting texts offering you free tickets to the convention, these are real. This is how unpopular this event is. The Daily Beast also reports Republican operatives were told on a briefing call. Tickets are still available. Distribute them through your networks. Find people that you can give these things away to. Now, of course, this doesn't mean nobody is going. There is no doubt. that hardcore magas and others associated with Donald Trump are going to be there. But Republicans have been saying this is going to be a massive crowd. Tens of thousands of people are going to come out to show how strongly and passionately they

support Republicans and all that stuff. And they are now worried that the place is going to be half empty or even worse. So this is about optics. Remember what it was supposed to be. Trump has demonstrated my superpower is I can fill a room with people. people who were desperate to see me and to just be near me. And the convention is supposed to demonstrate Trump's presence will transfer all of this enthusiasm to races where he's not on the ballot.

And days before it begins, they're sending people unsolicited text messages that say, please, come see Donald Trump. Please, it's free. And the contrast is just nuts because some forms of access to this thing, we're going to were originally really expensive. They were doing these ticket packages for thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. They're doing separate fundraising events. There's a Trump roundtable for $250,000.

You can get a picture with Trump for 88 grand. So depending on which door you were interested in walking through, it either is I'm paying 250 grand to go to this dinner with Trump or please show up. Please, for the love of God. And that's what makes this so fascinating. The enthusiasm problem they were facing was going to be solved by the convention. And instead, the convention hasn't even started. And it's proving, oh, damn, we do have an enthusiasm problem.

Trump wants the midterms to be about Trump. Some Republican candidates want to sort of put Trump on the sidelines and make it about themselves and their district and the issues of their district. And organizers are trying to figure out how do we make this look like a really exciting event that people want to be at. Now, the convention, I guess, could still accomplish what Republicans want, which is it might energize Trump voters. And that is explicitly the strategy.

But how many people is it going to turn off? Trump says he can bring people out. Republicans should pretend he's on the ballot. He wanted the convention. He wanted himself front and center. Fine. So it's his show. If the strategy is Trump can generate enthusiasm that nobody else can generate, having to text

people, it's now free to come to this thing doesn't make it sound like the hottest event going to say the least. The broader question is going to be, what is the aftermath? Once the convention is over, regular election conventions aren't believed to have more than one or two points of effect in general, unless something really weird or unexpected happens. After that's done and you have nearly two months before the election, are people going to forget about Trump's stupid speech and instead go, wait a second, what was I promised on gas prices? What was I promised on energy? What was I promised about foreign wars and go, yeah, I haven't gotten anything I've been promised.

I don't think I'm going to vote for these people. That's going to be the difficult thing for them. Donald Trump has now convinced some in the Republican party that they have to go out there and say, we need Trump in order to do well in the midterms. And this is the extraordinary message that Republican Senator Rick Scott is taking into so-called Trumpapalooza, which is the midterm convention in Dallas that we've been talking about. Rick Scott was asked, what is your message going to be? And he said the message is going to be whatever Trump is doing, that's what we are doing. Take a listen to this. They're still showing that Democrats leave the GOP, if you have a generic ballot senator.

And the president has asked you, again, he's asked you personally to speak, you're going to do it. So what is that message going to be from you when you get down to Dallas? And what do you hope will be the outcome of this convention? Well, the outcome should be, we'll show that we care about the American public. We're going to deal with their issues. We're going to do what Trump is doing. We're going to build more jobs in this country.

We're going to do what Trump is already doing. That's the plan. Now, I love this. I love this because it just destroys any ambiguity about what Republicans are offering voters in November. If you're unhappy with what's happening right now, Republicans have heard you loud and clear. And the answer is, we're going to do more of it. It's not going to be a course correction.

It's not here's what we got wrong. It's not the sort of Obama 2012 messaging of we've made progress, but we have a lot more to do. It's not even like a fake, phony pivot to kitchen table issues because they've discovered seven weeks before an election, groceries cost money. It's we're going to do what Trump is doing. And remember the context in which they're saying this. Trump's approval rating is down to 33% in the last Reuters ipsoz poll.

Republicans have a very difficult environment in general. Americans are concerned about inflation. They're concerned about the economy, the Iran war, which most people despise. Democrats are a lot more enthusiastic about voting. And Republicans are defending these really small minorities, especially in the House. Now, we look at the betting markets on Kalshi, which party will win the US House. It is 85% who believe that it is going to be the Democratic Party. Only 15% who believe that it is going to be the Republican Party.

And their big idea in this context is to spend $40 million throwing a two-day Trump festival, which is effectively what this is. 30,000 people is what they want in Dallas. They're giving away tickets for free because so many people are kind of like, yeah, I don't want to go to that. Trump's speaking both days. J.D. Vance will be there. Cabinet officials will be there.

They're going to parade candidates across the stage. And there's not even any formal party business that needs to happen. Like understand that at a regular convention, they, it's a. nominating convention. They officially nominate the president or the presidential candidate, rather. This is just a campaign rally for a guy who's not only not running in the election, but maybe a drag on Republicans. Trump has convinced enough Republicans that even though he's on the ballot, he's not on the ballot, they should pretend that he is. And people like Rick Scott are going along with it. Now, is Rick Scott going along with it because he feels he has to?

Or is Rick Scott going along with it because he genuinely believes in it? I don't know. But the entire theory seems to be they can recreate Trump's presidential electorate even though Trump isn't running. And that's been a problem for MAGA. Even if you go back to Trump's first midterm in 2018, there are many voters who turn out for Donald Trump because of the cult of personality around him, who just don't show up with the same consistency for Republican candidates when Trump's.

not on the ballot. So Trump's solution is make me the ballot. Make every House race about me. Make every Senate race about me. Do a whole convention about me and say to voters, we're going to keep doing the same stuff we've been doing. The problem is the other side of that equation. You remind voters, Trump hasn't done any of the stuff he promised. And you tell every Democrat and every independent who's exhausted by this administration, every voter who's like, what happened to gas prices? the war and general chaos. Hey, don't worry. If Republicans win, it's going to stay exactly the same. That is a very compelling closing argument for Democrats to be making. And apparently some Republicans understand that because dozens of candidates and electeds are saying we're skipping the whole

thing. They know what Rick Scott at minimum doesn't want to say out loud and maybe doesn't believe, which is Trump can be effective at turning out people for Trump. But that's the same. doesn't mean he's effective at turning out people for some Republican House candidate or anybody else. If you ask voters who disapprove of what's happening, you want two more years of this, they are going to say, no, we don't. So Trump apalooza starts tomorrow, get everybody on stage, put Trump in the middle, spend the next two days and then the next two months saying to the American people, a vote for Republicans

is a vote for more of what you've gotten right now. If you like it, great. If you don't, you don't have to vote for these clowns. This is a really useful message for Democrats and I hope that they take advantage of it. Global weekly cyber attacks are at or near record highs. A major part of protecting your data is minimizing how much of your data is exposed and how easily can that data be tied to you. Our sponsor, private internet access, hides your IP address.

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for the U.S. Senate from Iowa, a very interesting race, a tight race, an important race. I really appreciate your time today. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me. Listen, what in your race, what are the dynamics in your race economically that you think are most affecting Iowans as they think about who they want to vote for in this race? Because as we, We look at blanket tariffs, the effect of the Iran war, energy prices, fertilizer prices, these are issues that really affect a lot of people in Iowa. Yes, they do. I think that Iowans are actually hurting more than any other state.

We're basically dead last for every economic metric. We're one of three states already seeing our economy contract. We're 48th for income growth, 48th for personal income growth, essentially dead last for every health care metric. OBGYN's mental health providers, mental health supports. 49th for Medicaid reimbursement, nearly dead last for Medicare reimbursement. The Medicaid cuts disproportionately hurt a state like Iowa because we're an older state, we're a poor state because of the votes of the Big Beautiful Bill.

And my opponent, Ashley Hinson, 110,000 Iowans losing their health care, 119,000 Iowans seeing their health care premiums double or triple. Just since Hinson has gone up to D.C., 842 health care entities have, closed here in Iowa. We've got a water quality crisis. We've got a cancer crisis. We've got public education that has gone from the gold standard down to the bottom half. And because of the tariffs and the war in Iran, we lead the nation in farm foreclosures looking

at a second farm crisis. So Iowans are hurting in a very unique way. What's breaking through when you talk to Republicans? Because one of the things that I've suspected and I think is backed up by some studies is that focusing on corruption and an anti-corruption narrative where a lot of people, regardless of political ideology, sort of recognize, hey, you know, I'm working, I'm paying all this tax money, look at what the money's being used for, look at the no-bid contract, look at how people are enriching themselves, et cetera. To what extent do you think that that anti-corruption narrative may be a good

bridge to some more moderate and Republican voters in Iowa? Certainly is. I think it's, I think it's, it maybe is the issue that is resonating the most. Oh, is that right? Yeah, especially in Iowa. I mean, the woman that I'm running against 10 times more wealthy just in six years going up there to D.C. Said she was going to sell all of her stock, still owns up to $5 million of insurance stock. I've taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the insurance lobby, from the pharmaceutical

lobby, and even has had her husband operating as a shadow lobbyist. I mean, taking $50,000 of taxpayer dollars. to build herself a luxury DC apartment. Meanwhile, she's cutting for cuts to health care and food assistance just to give tax breaks to billionaires. I don't think that Iowans want a multimillionaire that's going up there and just looking out for the billionaires and large corporations. They want somebody that's going to go up there and actually fight for them.

And I'm a common sense, prey populists. I've gone through a lot of economic adversity, a lot of health care adversity. And I think that that's what's missing in DC. I think one, oh, sorry, go ahead. No, no, go ahead. I was going to say on that note, One of the things we are sometimes told about real America. And I think I think Iowa, whatever vision Republicans have of real America when they use that phrase, I think Iowa is part of it, right?

I don't know exactly what the lines are that the I know it's not Connecticut, but Iowa probably probably counts when they use that phrase. One of the things we hear is, hey, you know, a lot of these Republican voters in places like Iowa, they actually think Trump's doing a good job on the economy. What they're really worried about is stuff like transports, cultural, issues, et cetera. Is it your experience that those are the issues that are top of mind for Iowans as you speak to them? I think especially right now, given the dire straight of what the average I was going through,

I can tell you that I've been doing this for more than a year now. I've been to all 99 counties, every mid-sized community, small-sized community. The thing that I hear the most by far, urban areas, rural areas, Republican, independent Democrat is Josh, I am struggling. I am struggling to keep food on the table, a roof above my head, pay my electric bill. And now with this war in Iran that my opponent, Ashley Henson, has voted in favor of continuing six times. I'm struggling just to keep gas in my tank. And the war in Iran disproportionately hurts our farmers, too.

I mean, our farmers already upside down on their commodities prices because of the tariffs, which Ashley Henson voted in favor of continuing five times. But this war in Iran, I mean, gas prices have gone up more in Iowa than any other state. Diesel has hit an all-time high. That disproportionately affects the farmers. And it also affects the input prices, the fertilizer prices. the fertilizer prices. And so as I'm going around, I'm hearing from Farmer, I'm saying, Josh, I'm looking at my margins

for next planting season. This is not going to work. And so this is what Iowans are concerned about, cost corruption, kitchen table issues. And if we stay on those issues and stay away from the culture war issues, we're going to be able to win in places like I win in the prairie states once again. Do you, we've spoken to some farmers who farmers as a constituency in the United States, lean right overall doesn't mean there aren't democratic or left-leaning farmers, but overall they lean right and they disproportionately supported Donald Trump. We've interviewed some of them.

They are very big on the idea of Trump helping them and Trump bailing them out. But kind of missing from the analysis sometimes is an understanding that Trump's first term and Trump's second term are sort of what has made circumstances worse for farmers to begin with. In other words, Trump wants credit for putting out of fire that he started to a degree. Are the farmers you're speaking to understanding the dynamics of how things got to be the way they are. Yes, without a doubt. The word that we hear the most when we're in rural communities and we're talking to farmers is that this is betrayal. I mean, when I'm going around talking to farmers, what I'm hearing stories is like this is just one gut punch after another.

First is the tariffs, which has led to commodities prices going upside down. Then you had the Trump administration giving $20 billion to Argentina so that the Chinese can buy their soybeans. Meanwhile, Iowa, we produce more soybeans in any other state, you know, uh, the, Then you've got the tariffs, you've got the war in Iran, still hasn't passed a farm bill, the importing of the beef, just hurting and undercutting beef producers. It's just one gut punch after another to farms, but I can tell you this, the signs and the flags, they are coming down, and you're seeing a whole lot of Josh Turrick signs out there in rural communities and farmers because I'm out there saying, look, I want to go to D.C.

I understand what you guys are going through. I want to go up there to pass a farm bill to make sure we've got year-round E-15, a right to repair so you guys can repair your equipment, mandatory country of origin labeling on your beef. I want to go up there to actually look out for rural communities and our small family farmers. And I think that that message is breaking through to them. On the on the farm bill, I don't know if you have a position on this. I didn't find it on your website, but maybe you do, maybe you don't. In the previous farm bill, there's this provision that essentially federally legalized hemp derived low THC product. I forget if it's below

0.3% or 0.9% THC. And so what this has created is an infrastructure where there are some low THC products if they are certified derived from hemp, which I'm told is sort of like agriculturally ambiguous what that means. They're basically federally legal and there's companies selling these nationally. A lot of people like this. There's a bunch of Republicans that don't like this. They want to undo it in a next farm bill. Do you have a position on that specific provision? I would just say as a whole, I think that it's ridiculous that we're looking at you know, T.HC and marijuana, Schedule 1, I would like to see it legalized. I'd like to see it regulated. I'd like to see it taxed. But on the Farm Bill, I've been really clear. I mean, we're three years

overdue on passing a Farm Bill. I said that I would have supported this most recent Farm Bill because I don't think that we should let perfection stand in the way of progress. And everywhere I'm going, I'm seeing farmers that are hurting. And we are really legitimately headed towards a second farm crisis here, what I've been calling a Farmaged. And we need people up in D.C., that are looking out for the rural communities in the small family farms. You go through these rule communities in Iowa, and I'm telling you, it looks like a vacuum cleaner's gone through there. These small businesses, they're gone. And, you know, I say you've got four pillars in the rural communities that you need for them to thrive. You need to have a grocery store. The snap cuts

disproportionately hurt them. So those are closing. We've closed 160 pharmacies, largely in rural communities because we've done nothing on PBM reform. We've closed 842 health care clinics. You need a healthcare clinic and you need to have a functioning public school. And we've closed 18 rule schools in Iowa, even though we were the gold standard in public education because we're now giving private, private schools public money. The rural communities are hurting. I want to go up to D.C. to work for them. One point of clarification, cannabis was moved from schedule one to three in April, which

is one of the few things I can point to that the Trump administration has done that actually, that actually agree with. But to your point, it doesn't sound like you are in favor of. undoing the legalization of this hemp-derived federally legal stuff. That's not something you would favor. No. Got it. I was looking at the polls for your race.

It's a tight race. It's a difficult race. This is not a gimmee. Do you consider that what you're doing is trying to flip a red state to blue or do you believe that Iowa really is a purple state that has been voting red for a while, but is not really a red state at its core? Yeah. I've been saying for a year that Iowa.

we are a common sense state that has masqueraded more red than what we actually are. People forget that for 30 years, we elected Senator Tom Harkin, my political hero, the father of the American with Disabilities Act to the U.S. Senate. You look at this was a state that twice voted for Obama, three times for Trump. In Trump's last midterm, we won three of the four congressional races, almost one all four. And in our last midterm, which was not a particularly good year for Democrats, We were only 1.5% away from having three of our six statewide officials being dims. That means your average Iowa voter went to the polls, voted for three R's and three Ds.

This is a common sense state at its essence, and I think they're ready for a common sense populace that's going to go out there and vote for their interests, not just to make themselves more rich or go out there and just do the bidding for the billionaires in the large corporations. Iowa is uniquely hurting, and they're ready for someone that's going to go out there and fight for them. Let's zoom out a little bit and look at the Senate more broadly. The House in general is looking pretty good for Democrats right now in terms of the likelihood that Democrats take control from Republicans in November. The Senate, depending on when you look, is sort of 50-50, it's going to come down to just a few races and your race is one of those races. What is your big picture sense right now of where the Democratic Party is politically on the

left-right spectrum? There are people who think that it has gone too far to the center, others who are worried that there are influences pulling it more to the left. Where are you on that right now? Don't think about it. I think I've got a race to win. I've got to win over as many of the 3.2 million Iowans and I've got to be Ashley Henson. I can tell you that what is resonating is common sense prairie populism. If we're going to win in prairie states and look, we used to be able to win in prairie states. We we 30 years, we had harkin here. We had carryover in Nebraska, dashed up in South Dakota. The Senate map is not going to work for us anymore. If we can't win,

these prairie states. And I can tell you, if we are going to win in prairie states, it's going to be with common sense prairie populism. And it's got to be once again that we, the Democratic Party are once again, the party of the people, the party of the middle class, the party of the workers. That is what is going to get us back to being able to win elections. Do you think Chuck Schumer is the right leader in the Senate for Democrats on that, be it as a minority or majority leader? I don't know. Again, it's something I'm not at the measuring the drape stage. what I've said to people, and I mean it genuinely, is when I get up there, I'm going to meet with whoever is deciding to run for leadership. And I'm going to sit down. I'm going to have a one-on-one meeting, and I'm going to ask them several questions.

And I'm going to say, what are you going to do for Iowa? What are you going to do for Iowaans? What are you going to do for the middle class as being hollowed out? What are you going to do for workers? I mean, I'm running on a common sense per populist agenda, a livable wage, affordable housing, driving private equity out of housing, out of health care, out of nursing homes. I believe that we that health care is a human right. I want to arrive at a public option. I believe that we need to negotiate drug costs on pharmaceuticals. What are we going to do to address this cancer crisis that we have in Iowa, this water quality crisis, protect our public school and education.

Whoever most closely agrees with that political ideology and philosophy, that's who I will support for leadership. Most of my audience, of course, are not Iowa voters. What can people not in Iowa do if they're not. they say, hey, this is one of the Senate races I want to get involved in and help Josh. Yeah, please go to. It's right behind me. Turrick for Iowa, Turik, the number four, which is my basketball number, Turc for Iowa.

com. And help us out. We really do. I believe that we've got an amazing opportunity here to win this race. If we can win here in Iowa, we will not just make a generational change to the state of Iowa. We will be able to change this country. And that should be exciting. We've got just under two months now to the finish line.

We're at the home stretch, working hard each and every day, going all over the state, getting in front of the many as a 3.2 million Iowans as we possibly can, meeting people in areas that politicians don't normally go. NASCAR, ragbri, tailgating. I mean, we're getting all over the state, but people are excited. And I think we're going to be able to do something really special here in Iowa. If we can do that, we'll once again have somebody in the Senate from Iowa that's fighting for the people, not the billionaires in the large corporations and fighting for social safety. It's like Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. We are watching this one really closely. We've been speaking with Josh Turek, who is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Iowa. Josh, thanks for your time. I really appreciate it.

Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Hey, if you're hearing this, that means you're listening to our podcast on one of the many podcast networks that we stream to. And first, I just want to say, thank you for being a listener of this show. It really means a lot that you're tuning in here. I would love to ask you for a quick favor.

We are so close to reaching 4 million subscribers on YouTube. YouTube is where we post everything you get through the audio podcast and a lot more stuff. It would mean a lot to me if you took a quick second to pop over to YouTube, search up the David Packman Show and hit subscribe. Every bit helps. I would love to have you as a subscriber there. I have a clip here from Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen. I've listened to it enough times that I'm starting to wonder whether I'm understanding

it less the more I watch it. Mullen was on Fox News this morning. Of course, they are in a very somber and professional way, preparing for the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. And he attempted to explain his feelings about the day and attempted is really the right word to quote Howard Stern. What is he saying, Robin? What is this guy saying?

Take a listen to this. This is, I'm not a big anniversary person, Brian. And to be honest with you, 9-11 isn't a day that I just love to celebrate. Who's talking about celebrating? Because some people do celebrate the success that American has. For me, it puts kind of a bad taste of my mouth and I think it does to a lot of other people. But to be in this position today, Brian, as the secretary of Homeland, it does hit home. even harder because back then when I was wanting to get in the fight, because of President Trump

today, he's put me in the fight. And that's what I say, that's why I say every single day, I'd love this mission. I couldn't have a greater mission than be able to be the Secretary of Homeland and work with so many patriots that are solely focused on one thing and is protecting our homeland every single day. And I feel very, very honored that President Trump put me in this position. What is he talking about? Like what, what is the thought, 9-11 isn't a day that I love to celebrate? All right. I mean, it's not a festive occasion.

When we mark an anniversary, we're not celebrating. You don't wake up on September 11th and go, kids get dressed. We're celebrating 9-11 today. It's a day of remembrance. Nearly 3,000 people were killed. People visit a memorial. There's a ceremony honoring the victims and first response. And this year marks a quarter century since the attacks.

And presumably Mullen means something other than the words that are coming out of his mouth. But then he goes, because some people do celebrate success that American has. What is he talking about? What on earth is he, is he talking about the response to the 9-11 attacks? Is he talking about counterterrorism operations that the country? continued functioning or is he talking about, I don't know, the Patriot Act? And what does any of it have to do with celebrating September 11th? Now, maybe there is a coherent thought buried somewhere in there, but I can't find it. Now, if I want to be super charitable, maybe what Mark Wayne Mullen was trying to say

is that some people use the anniversary of 9-11 to focus on the resilience of the United States and everything the country accomplished since then, which included, you know, 11 years of Trump as a political figure out of the 25, whereas he is personally remaining focused on the horror of the attack and the loss of the attacks. That would make sense, but he didn't say any of that stuff. Instead, he goes, for me, it puts a bad taste in my mouth. What does September 11th, celebrating September 11th, which no one is doing it, other people talking about American success. like he starts four different sentences and hopes two of them will collide and birth some kind of coherent thought. Now, this is not really about screwed up sentences. I screw up sentences

every day on the show. When you talk for a living, your brain might be on word seven and your mouth is, I don't know, still on word three or something like that. But we can usually figure out what people mean. I don't know what this guy is talking about. And this is not the first time that Mark Wayne Mullen has used unusual phrasing to talk about 9-11. There was another appearance recently where he was talking about coordination among Homeland Security agencies. And he said, 9-11 was created to make sure that we had interagencies working. So no one is siloed. 9-11 was created. What? Now, presumably, being charitable, he meant. the post-9-11 Homeland Security structure was created for that purpose.

Not 9-11 was created. This is not a random senator that Trump likes having on TV anymore. Trump chose this guy to run the Department of Homeland Security. And the Senate confirmed him in March. This is a massive federal department responsible for border security and counterterrorism and cybersecurity, disaster response, the TSA. when we talk about the low quality of the people that Trump chooses to put in these hugely consequential jobs, it really matters. Now, you can decide for yourself, I guess, if you can understand

it any better than I can, what Mark Wayne Mullen was trying to say there. I have no idea. But Trump looked at the available talent pool when Christy Nome was fired into outer space as Secretary of Homeland Security. And he said, this guy is going to be my Homeland Security. secretary. That is not the I'm the best at hiring people motif that Donald Trump used to play up back when he was just running for president in 2015 and 2016. And it's of course fallen completely and totally flat. Now, as far as what what should we be doing at this point to remember and commemorate 9-11? On the show, we used to do stuff on September 11th. And I used to, tell the story I always tell of where was I on 9-11. I was a junior in high school in North Hampton,

Massachusetts. I was in Mr. Palmesano's, rest in peace, Mr. Palmesano's psychology class. And there was like a habitual troublemaker who went on one of his numerous bathroom breaks. And when he came back into the room, he interrupted and he said, we're under attack right now. They just hit us. And Mr. Palmesano, very, was a very nice guy, said, you've caused enough disruptions today. Please sit down. I'm sure everything is fine. Of course, within a half hour, everybody knew what had gone on.

I skipped the rest of the day, walked home from school and watched on TV what was going on. And then the next day, I remember Mr. Palmazano said, I have to apologize to you all. Yesterday, I think the guy's name was Eric. When Eric came in, I dismissed what he was saying. And I said, sit down. We've got to get back to class. And he was right. And I think we will all remember that that's what happened and where we were when this event took place. And I do still remember it. So that's the story. We would do some kind of thing on 9-11. And I would tell that story. I don't know what, if anything, is appropriate to be doing on the show on the 11th of September

at this point in time. I want to hear from you. Should there be something on the show about it? The unfortunate legacy to a degree of 9-11 is the blown-up security state that was created through the Patriot Act in NDAA. Maybe that's the big takeaway from 9-11. I don't know. Let me know what should a show like this one be doing on such a day like this Friday. I have a new mission for us. My book Pay Attention comes out in two weeks.

I just looked at the New York Times bestseller list. And number one right now is Ted Cruz, a repugnant, radical, repulsive figure. And I saw that and I thought, this bastard thinks he's going to stand in my way. So now we got to beat Ted Cruz. I want my forthcoming book, pay attention to debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Wherever Ted Cruz is on that list two weeks from now, I want us above him. And there's a much bigger point here than just Ted Cruz being a disgusting sycophon.

One of the things I have spent the last 20 years doing is building something genuinely independent. There is no TV network behind this show. There's no billionaire funding it. There is no political party financing it. There's no giant media corporation that can decide, oh, what stories does David do today? We built this audience a single person at a time. The book is an extension of that. It's a book about how all of our collective attention spans have become a valuable commodity

in the world and how political movements and media companies are trying to manipulate and capture our attention and what that's doing to our politics. I spent a long time working on this book. And now we're going to find out what can an independent audience actually do. Ted Cruz with his book has access to an entire ecosystem that I don't have. He has the profile of being a United States Senator. He's got the wealthy political networks, conservative media, donors, organizations, infrastructure, all of that stuff.

All I have is you folks. That that's quite literally all I have. And I am completely serious when I say that could be enough to knock Ted Cruz down. in a slot when buy book comes out. So if you have been planning to get the book or thinking about getting the book or I am asking you to pre-order it today. Don't wait three weeks. Don't do it when you see it in October at a Barnes & Noble hopefully. If you're going to buy the book anyway, please pre-order it now because the timing matters. All of the pre-orders count the first week the book is out. And it is the only way that we can slap Ted Cruz.

down a slot. So I want us to show up demonstrating that an independent media audience can actually compete with people like Ted Cruz. I don't need people buying 10 copies or 50 copies or doing anything ridiculous. Just pre-order one person, one pre-order. If enough people do it, I think we've got to run at this. Now, I want to also remind you, you can call any local library and say, please get David Packman's book. Pay attention. Those also count. Okay. call even if you've preordered or not. Call all your local libraries and say, please get a copy of this book. I know some libraries already have it back.

There's like 40 people waiting to rent one copy of the book. Let's keep it going. Now, obviously, I also want the book to succeed because I think that the messaging in it is really important for the time that we are in. But there is something else that would mean a lot about seeing pay attention on these lists. It would be proof of concept. The show started with nothing.

No connections, no pile of money, no institutional backing. And over years, millions of people decided, hey, I'm going to support independent media. That's why we're here and let's do it with the book. We've got 14 days. Ted Cruz is number one. We don't know where he will be when pay attention comes out. Wherever he is, let's put this book one slot ahead. Go to David Pakman.com slash attention.

You can get a signed copy of the book. You can get an unsigned copy, audio book, Kindle, et cetera. I also would love for you to come out to one of the events that I'm going to be doing. On Monday, September 21st, I will be at the Upper West Side Barnes and Noble in Manhattan at 7 p.m. And then on October 3rd at 6 p.m. I will be at the Springfield Book Forum at Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts, with Jessica Tarlov. So both of those available.

Pre-order at David Pakman.com slash attention. And remember, if you want this specific copy that's on my shelf, this is the first ever printed copy of the book, send your pre-order receipt to info at David Pakman.com and say, David, put me in that raffle. We've got a great bonus show for you today. We'll talk Canadian tariffs, Social Security, the latest thing Trump wants to rename, all of that and more. sign up at join packman.com and i will see you then