← The David Pakman Show
The David Pakman Show
7/25/25: MAGA clowns bowing down to Trump as Epstein fiasco grows
00:55:20
-- On the Show: --Trump's DOJ revives the Hillary Clinton email probe to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein fallout --Trump lawyer Alina Habba claims political retaliation in a Fox News interview --Speaker Mike Johnson falsely claims the Epstein...
Loading summary
Transcript30 lines
- [00:08]
David Pakman
Welcome to the show, everybody. I've got a question for you. Have you heard about Hillary Clinton's emails? Of course, I'm kidding. Apparently we are really fully back to Hillary's emails in terms of the priorities for the current justice department in 2025. And I'm sort of opening it this way, but this is really about something else. This is, this is really about Jeffrey Epstein. This is really about the smothering and the COVID up that we are now seeing carried out at Donald Trump's direction by the Department of Justice, by the FBI. We've got a country. And by a country, I don't just mean Democrats. In fact, it's almost more Republicans. We have a country that is as united as about wanting answers with regards to the Epstein's Epstein files. United as it has been in a long time about any issue. What really happened, who was involved, what's being hidden and Donald Trump's team, yes, they're sending Tulsi out there to say that Barack Obama committed seditious treason. Yes, they are doing all of these different things to try to point in a different direction. But, but they are also digging back into a scandal from nearly a decade ago and it is not because now it's time for accountability. Finally, about Hillary's emails. It's to distract you. It's to give you, and maybe even more so than you, the MAGA people that are saying we're not going to forget about the Epstein files. It's to give the MAGA people something different to think about and to talk about. We are now seeing Attorney General Pam Bondi release documents related to Hillary Clinton's private email server from when she was Secretary of State. This is a case that the FBI already investigated in 2016, starting earlier than 2016 and closed an investigation into in 2016. No charges. And there is nothing new going on. But we find ourselves with people asking tough questions about Epstein's death. And Trump goes, look over here, remember Hillary, look over there, remember Obama. And you're right to be infuriated because it's infuriating the same Justice Department that can't release Epstein's client list and or it doesn't exist. Take your pick. It's we can't release it or it doesn't exist or Obama made it up. Take your pick, whichever you like. They can't do it for a variety of reasons. Victim privacy, national security, legal constraints. They are fine dumping documents related to a closed investigation from at this point a decade plus ago. They did the MLK stuff. They had no problem releasing 230,000 pages about Martin Luther King's assassination from 1968. But with Epstein, it's too sensitive. And by the way, the MLK stuff, even MLK descendants, his family didn't want it released. So do they think people are stupid? Maybe. Do they think that Trump's cult followers are so culty that they won't care? Maybe, yeah, that's another possibility. But this is much bigger than Jeffrey Epstein. This is a story really about what happens when those in power treat the public like they're an obstacle instead of the people they are there to serve. If you see the public as the people you are there to serve, you behave one way. If you see the public as an obstacle, you have to get around to get what you actually want, what's good for you, what's good for your friends. Well, then you treat the public in a different way. Trump space came to believe that Trump was going to blow this wide open. He would name names, he would release the files, we would have prosecutions, we would have all of it. Cash Patel told us that would happen under Trump. Dan Bongino told us it would happen under Trump. Now they're in the administration, they go, nothing to see here. We have no list, we have nothing. And so Trump's ranting about he wants racist sports team names to come back. I'll talk about that later a little bit. He wants the commanders, the Washington commanders, to be renamed back to the Washington Redskins. He might even block a stadium deal over it. And you got the Obama stuff, the Hillary stuff. It's all a circus. It's this loud, chaotic, desperate circus meant to make you maga. Whoever made to make people forget the one thing that he doesn't want you focusing on, which is they are covering something up. 50% of Republicans, as of last week believed that the Trump administration was covering up Epstein stuff. 67% of all Americans believe that the government is hiding Epstein stuff. 79% of Americans say, release the documents. But instead, you've got Pam Bondi talking about Hillary's emails. You've got Pam Bondi, or Tulsi, rather, talking about Obama's treason. And so they're hoping you won't notice. They're hoping you'll give up. They're hoping you'll shrug and say, we may never know, but we are noticing. And so this is why we aren't really asking, have you heard about Hillary's emails? We're asking, what are you so afraid about us finding out if we get the truth about Epstein, will we ever get it? That's the question. Let me know what you think. Info@david pakman.com Alina harbor is not happy. Elena harbor was not confirmed to remain in her role as interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey. And devastated, she went on Fox News and she did the dog and pony show with Jesse Watters. And the reason she is saying they, meaning judges of all political stripes who said, we don't want her to stay in this role, her nomination is being rejected. She says it's because she went after a Democrat. Always the victim. Poor Elena.
- [06:09]
Jesse Watters
And she joins us now.
- [06:11]
David Pakman
So are they trying to take you.
- [06:12]
Jesse Watters
Out because you indicted a Democrat for assaulting an ICE officer?
- [06:19]
Alina Haba
This sure sounds like it, Jesse, doesn't it? I mean, would that be the first.
- [06:23]
David Pakman
Time that everybody has been attacked for.
- [06:25]
Alina Haba
Doing their job and doing it well?
- [06:27]
David Pakman
Look, I this is the theme for maga, and the Elena Haba story is a little bit sadder even. So, first, let's talk about the theme for maga. The theme for MAGA is always, we did everything right. Unfairly, we are being targeted. Do I even have my Trump indicted here? Oh, I don't have it. Wait, no, that's not it. Anyway, I did everything right and they indicted me. Right. So the theme from MAGA is we're never doing anything wrong, and yet they're coming after us. They're coming after us for helping the country, they're coming after us for dealing with criminals, they're coming after us for improving the economy. We do everything right, and they come after us. So Alina Haba has learned, in a sense, by being around Trump and being in Trump's orbit, that is a rhetorical crutch you can always lean on. But there's a bigger story here, which is it does seem as though Trump doesn't really take Elena harbor seriously. Trump doesn't see Elena harbor as quite as skilled, qualified, or robust as a member of his administration as other people. If you think back a year and a half ago or so, there were these rumors floating about, oh, we could have Attorney General Elena harbor. And instead, Trump nominated Matt Gates. When that imploded, he went with Pam Bondi. But the truth is Trump doesn't really respect Elena harbor in the way that he would have to if he was going to give her a more serious or important role. And so he sort of threw this interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey thing at her. And now it seems as though she's being removed as quickly as judges are actually able to do so. And to a degree, it seems part of this might be as a result of what happened with the case in which she represented him, the Eugene Carroll. You know, there was this massive verdict against Donald Trump. And you could argue in some sort of sense Alina Haba is maybe not responsible, but she allowed this huge verdict and against Donald Trump. And sometimes what happens is you might have someone who's a good TV lawyer, you like the way they advocate for you on tv, but they're not always the best legal lawyers, like lawyers actually representing you in court. And so it may be for other reasons that we don't know. It may be because she didn't represent Trump as effectively as Trump might have wanted. But Trump's lack of respect for Elena harbor is a big part of why he put her in a role where he can't really ensure that she stays in it. And now she is going on Fox News and whining about it couldn't happen to a nicer person. Right. I've got a stunning video to play for you of MAGA Mike Johnson, who is the speaker of the House of Representatives right now. Not only is this an elected member of the House, he is the speaker of the House, he is throwing out another little wrinkle that they are. They're throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks on the Epstein stuff. How can we protect Trump? That's the most important thing. And what MAGA Mike Johnson throws out there is, you know, Biden might have even doctored the Epstein files. Now, of course, there's a couple problems with that. And I'll tell you what they are in a moment.
- [09:45]
Alina Haba
Quickly weigh in on Epstein. Many are hoping to see more of those files released. There could be future court proceedings. Is there any reason that you have to believe that any documents were tampered with by so called deep state operatives?
- [10:00]
MAGA Mike Johnson
Look, it hasn't been my area that I've worked on, unfortunately. I wish I knew more about it. It's been in the Department of Justice. One of our concerns is, of course, that it was, you know, held in the hands of the DOJ leaders under the last administration, the Biden Harris administration. And we all know, know how crooked and corrupt so many of those top officials were, how they engaged in lawfare against President Trump. And, and he has a concern, and I do as well, that things could have been doctored in those, those records. So that's part of the concern.
- [10:28]
David Pakman
But we have a concern. Trump has the concern. MAGA Mike has the concern that the Epstein files could have been doctored by Biden because he and the people working for him were obviously so corrupt. There are two really important issues with this argument. Number one, if Biden had the Epstein files doctored, or if people working for Biden did, it would be because they would want to get some utility out of that. So why didn't Biden release the files? Now you could say, well, it's better if Biden doctors the files, but then waits to see if Trump will release them. But we all have known for years that Trump knows he might be in the Epstein files and he's unlikely to release them. So it's a very stupid strategy. If you or anyone associated with Biden to say, let's doctor the. The Epstein files to make Trump look bad and then wait for Trump to release them. He never would. Not to mention Joe Biden was planning on being reelected, or at least Kamala Harris being reelected. And so none of it really makes any sense whatsoever. But there's a big broader question. Remember that Jeffrey Epstein's arrest happened when Donald Trump was president? Remember that Jeffrey Epstein's death happened when Donald Trump was president? Why, if Trump really wanted to release the files, why wouldn't he have done it before Biden became president? Why was it that that wasn't an option? And now Trump's only option is to release possibly doctored files post Biden. If he wanted to release the files, he could have done it already. So none of this makes sense. And I know a lot of people are writing to me saying, can you. How does this make sense, David, what does he mean? It seems that there are logical problems with this. You are completely and totally correct. It doesn't make any sense. But Maga Mike has shown he, like Tulsi, they are willing to say anything, anything to help defend the position of this administration and to protect Donald Trump. Donald Trump this week did that thing where he has one of his aides explained to him the executive orders that he's about to sign. This was a big AI week at the White House. Artificial intelligence. You might remember that much like Donald Trump once said, everything is computer now. Trump said everything is AI now. And here is Trump sitting down and having it explained to him like he's a little kid. What am I about to sign?
- [12:49]
Jesse Watters
Mr. President, the first. The first executive order that we've prepared for your signature today relates to federal permitting for data center infrastructure. As you mentioned during your speech, this is a crucial issue affecting the entire AI industry. What this executive order will do is establish fast track permitting and ensure that the federal government is working to get data centers approved and through the permitting pipeline as quickly as possible.
- [13:19]
David Pakman
This is the real auto pen, folks. Okay? The real auto pen is not a physical device that Biden used. The real auto pen is Trump signing stuff with that stupid Sharpie that he doesn't understand. Does anyone think Trump understands data centers? I mean, come on, guys. And the fact that this happens again and again and nobody in the media questions whether Trump is even coherently able to understand what he's signing. Every time they talk about the auto pen, they should say, do you even understand the stuff you're signing? Like, we know you signed it, but you don't get it. Is that any better than a president saying, use the auto pen for these things? Another one of these, the same official explains to Trump they've got another one of these AI executive orders for him to sign. This one is, oh, God. They don't want woke AI models. They want non woke AI models.
- [14:18]
Jesse Watters
And lastly, sir, as you said in your speech, we don't want woke AI. We want AI models based on accurate information that give accurate information and accurate answers. This executive order will ensure that when the federal government procures or promotes different AI models, that those AI models are ideologically neutral, that they don't embrace wokeism and critical race theory and all of these terrible theories that have done so much damage to our country.
- [14:47]
David Pakman
Yeah, it's a breathing, living auto pen. The real auto pen is Donald Trump's executive orders that he has no clue whatsoever what is going on. All allegations seem to be confessions. Biden was signing stuff he didn't know. Trump signing executive orders, he doesn't understand every damn day. So after the break, we are going to dig more deeply into some of the dark turns of authoritarianism that we are seeing. We're going to hear from Jeffrey Epstein's brother. We're going to talk about the sort of historical context of presidents and medical records, and then we're going to hear from some of you as well. So make sure that you're subscribed to my YouTube channel, YouTube.com/the David Pakman Show. It's free. Make sure you subscribe to my substack substack.david pakman.com it's free. And make sure you are subscribed to my audio podcast on Spotify and or and Slash or Apple podcasts. It is also free, as is just about everything we produce. I'll see you back in a moment here. I've talked before about how I have allocated a portion of my assets to individual stocks. And when it comes to individual stocks, how do you get the information that is going to help you meaningfully decide what makes sense for you? And that's exactly why I've been testing out Investing Pro. This is the new flagship platform from Investing.com and the whole idea here is it's a tool to find stocks others may be missing. And the feature I've been using is called Warren AI and it's kind of like Chat GPT trained on up to the minute market data. So you can ask it what happened to Nvidia yesterday, what might be moving Tesla stock or if I have X to invest, how might I allocate it? And the answers are fast, precise and actually helpful, which is different than a lot of finance content. It's all powered by Investing Dotcom's data engine. It's designed to give retail investors tools more like the ones that the Price Pros use. Take advantage of their huge summer sale, giving you 50% off plus you'll get an additional 15% off when you sign up at David pakman.com/invest. The link is in the description the David Pakman show is an audience supported program as we see Stephen Colbert canceled Paramount Settle 16 million ABC News Settle. As we see these things happen, the impetus and the urgency for trying to prevent cancelability has never been more important. The only two places we own our data are website memberships and Substack newsletter subscribers. So the way to guarantee I can keep in touch with you no matter what happens is is become a member at join pacman.com or get on my free newsletter at substack. David pakman dotcom both great ways to support the work that we do. If you thought that Donald Trump's Epstein scandal couldn't get any darker, what Senator Ron Wyden just revealed might explain why the Trump administration is doing everything it can to change the subject. Wyden says that his investigators have uncovered $1.5 billion in suspicious money transfers tied to Jeffrey Epstein. These were flagged by major banks, they were reported to the Treasury Department, and most of it does seem to be connected to Epstein's global sex trafficking operation. Trump's DOJ as of this moment, is completely ignoring it widens, not speculating. They personally reviewed thousands of pages of treasury files in early 2024 when Democrats controlled the Senate, and what they found is over 4700 Epstein linked wire transfers, payments from Russian banks that are now under sanctions, transfers that coincided with the movement of women and girls across borders. And what is Trump doing? His Attorney General, Pam Bondi says there's no Epstein client list. The there's not going to be more charges. She's closing the door. The DOJ under Trump isn't even acknowledging we did or didn't review what Ron Wyden's team has found. The Treasury Department itself is blocking Congress from accessing these documents, even though Wyden already had access under Joe Biden, which completely contradicts Trump's claim that this is all political theater. And meanwhile, Trump ran on and the guy who is now the FBI director, the guy who is now the deputy FBI director, the woman who is now the attorney general, they all ran on and said, if Trump wins, we're going to see transparency. We're going to finally get to the bottom of Epstein's sex trafficking operation. But the only thing Trump has ordered released so far are pertinent elements of grand jury testimony, which is leaving a lot up to Pam Bondi. And why is it that that's what Trump wants released? Well, because that's the least likely thing to reveal anything incriminating about Donald Trump. Everything else is being completely and totally stonewalled. And as for maga, the very same crowd that spent years yelling about Epstein's client list and demanding heads roll now, as the files might show that Trump was more involved with Epstein than previously known, some of them have lost interest now. Not all of them. Not all of them. There are some influencers who are saying, no, no, no, we're not forgetting about this, but House Republicans just kill the vote to compel the release of the Epstein files and have shut down the House. These are the people who said we're going to expose the elite pedophiles. By the way, the use of the term pedophile seems wrong because there's no evidence that prepubescent girls were involved. I know it's one of these technicalities, but I do think it's important to be accurate here, but not that it even matters. It doesn't change the criminality of what we're talking about here. But all of a sudden, when they're going to expose pedophiles and the trail leads to their guy, they go, well, we got to shut the engine off, abandon the car and walk away. And Trump's doing all of the normal distraction to take attention away, ramping up threats to suspend habeas corpus and do more mass deportations, talking about fake protesters paid by George Soros, talking about the Deep State now saying Obama committed treason. Now all of this different stuff, and it's chaos by design if people start asking the right questions. Who Funded Epstein, who protected Epstein. Why, despite the treasury having all of these documents, is Trump's DOJ not looking into it? Where all paths lead is to the people in power right now. Not that the people in power right now are clients of Epstein or were clients of Epstein, but certainly that they're participating in covering it up. And so my hope is the scandal won't go away. I hope Ron Widens moved, which is this detailed letter saying this is what we know. We need subpoenas, we need bank records. The DOJ needs to do something. Hopefully it'll be a reminder that there are still people who just say wherever this leads, we need to expose it. The problem for Trump isn't just what Epstein did and what Trump might have been involved in, but it's who is doing the COVID up right now and why are they doing it. And Jeffrey Epstein's brother, by the way, had a lot to say about this. I want to talk about that next. CNN's Aaron Burnett interviewed the brother of the late Jeffrey Epstein. Mark Epstein and Mark Epstein. He was just super clear. Nothing he says is new, but it reinforces the idea that these two were way closer than Trump wants us to believe. And there's no question that there's a concerted effort to keep Trump and Epstein distant. It doesn't mean necessarily that Trump was a client of Epstein or was involved with these underage women. It might, but it doesn't necessarily mean that. But the first layer argument, which is they barely knew each other, seems very much not true. Listen to this, Mark. You know from what you know, from what you saw, how close was your.
- [23:26]
Alina Haba
Brother to Donald Trump?
- [23:28]
Mark Epstein
They were very close. They were good friends. Jeffrey used to sometimes tell me things that Donald said that were funny. I know Donald was in Jeff's office a lot back in the 90s. It's documented that Donald flew on Jeff's plane a number of times. I don't know if they ever checked, but I know Jeff full on Donald's plane also. I don't know if they've ever looked at his flight logs. And they were good friends. I flew on Jeff's plane. It's known. I was on a plane in 1999 flying up from Florida, and Donald was with us and we were all joking around. They were good friends.
- [24:05]
David Pakman
So tell me about that. I know there was something on that flight that you remember about your brother and Trump. What is it?
- [24:13]
Mark Epstein
Well, it was a funny thing when we were talking and. Well, stick a pin. A couple weeks or a week before that flight, I was talking to Jeffrey. And he told me that he was talking to Donald and he asked Donald, how can you sleep with so many married women? And Donald's answer was, because it's so wrong. But the answer is not the poignant part of the story here.
- [24:35]
David Pakman
That's right.
- [24:35]
Mark Epstein
Question is the poignant part, because for Jeffrey to ask him that question, number one, he would have to know that Donald slept with a lot of married women. So. And we probably got that information from Donald.
- [24:48]
David Pakman
But he would also have to have a close enough relationship to be willing to say that.
- [24:54]
Mark Epstein
That's not the kind of question you ask a casual acquaintance, you know, how come you slept with so many married women? That's a question you ask a good friend that you can get away with asking those kind of questions.
- [25:05]
David Pakman
That's right.
- [25:06]
Mark Epstein
So that gives you an idea of how friendly they were listening.
- [25:10]
David Pakman
Being friendly with Jeffrey Epstein is not proof of anything. I recently did a substack live with Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's personal attorney. And Michael Cohen has been very clear since leaving prison about allegations that have been made which he has knowledge of and allegations which don't have, which don't relate to anything that he experienced. And he said to me, and he has said elsewhere, in the time that he worked for Trump, in the time that he worked for Trump, he never saw Jeffrey Epstein. He had no awareness of Trump being with Epstein, no planes, no nothing. He admits that was after the time during which that stuff was alleged to have happened. The point is, simply having spoken to someone or been friends with someone 30 years ago doesn't prove you were committing crimes with them 15 or 18 or 20 years ago. The issue is that the panicked nature G. Lane might testify. No, try to stop that. They're going to try to put out this information. No, put out. Put out nothing. And when the pressure gets too big, well put out just pertinent parts of grand jury testimony, which, by the way, still haven't come out. And maybe they will, maybe they won't. But then they're preparing to throw Pam Bondi under the bus and saying, listen, Trump said, put it out. It's Pam Bondi who didn't publish it. You don't behave in this way if you are innocent. And so I don't even think that, certainly not in a legal setting. What we know so far, what we know for sure about Trump and Epstein, does not prove the worst theories about it. But the degree to which they are trying to cover it all up and smother it and change the subject and distract, that is not the behavior of innocent people. That's where my mind is at right now. Trying simply to follow the facts as far as we can. Let's take a quick break. Make sure that you are subscribed to the YouTube channel YouTube.com/the David Pakman Show. A pending Supreme Court case could strip our Fourth Amendment rights and allow immigration agents to come into our homes for any reason that no probable cause needed. All while Republicans try to twist things so that you think this is all great for America. This should be the biggest story in the US Right now. But it's almost impossible to keep up with the millions of moves that Trump is making every single day. That's why Ground News exists. Ground News is an app and website that exposes the blind spots and spin. But before it takes control of our opinions, Ground News is the smarter, more reliable way to stay informed when MAGA is banking on us getting distracted. I'm partnering up with Ground News to give you 40% off the same vantage plan that I use, so you'll pay only five bucks a month for all of their premium features. Just go to Ground News, slash Pacman or use the code Pacman in the app. When you sign up, the link is in the description or scan the QR code. The American public is increasingly demanding answers about Donald Trump's health. There have been weeks, really months of this viral speculation because Donald Trump's swollen ankles and bruised hands, and subsequently made up bruised hands to cover the bruising with makeup, have led to the White House saying, fine, something's going on with Donald Trump. And what it is is simply chronic venous insufficiency. It's common, it's harmless, it's benign, it's typical in a guy of Trump's age. But the problem is that that answer has now only fueled even more questions. And thousands of people have now signed a petition demanding that Donald Trump finally release the full damn medical record, include a full cognitive evaluation, include a neurological evaluation, something that has been done for a very long time with presidents. Trump's almost 80. He's obese. He doesn't look good. The stakes are high. He's got the nuclear codes. That's what should be done. Now, before we get into the sort of text and the details of the petition, listen, I am not an unreasonable man. I think that the idea of simply diagnosing stuff from pictures of Trump is not scientifically or medically rigorous. And there are medical influencers I know personally who have made videos over the last couple of weeks, and they've said, listen, Chronic venous insufficiency isn't very serious. It is benign. And we really can't diagnose Donald Trump just from pictures, all of which I agree with. The problem is that you can't abstract the details of this from the environment into which we are told months after very strange things started being noticed on Trump, that it's merely chronic venous insufficiency. Part of the reason that we struggle to accept that that's the, the truth is because there is a decade of dishonesty about Donald Trump's health. Okay? There's at least six years of dishonesty about Donald Trump's health. The propaganda documents about Trump being so healthy. The original propaganda letter from Trump's doctor who subsequently died, where Trump reportedly just had him sign something that Trump and his people had put together. Trump during COVID when we were told it's because he's the president, that he's going to Walter Reed in an air, in a helicopter, totally routine. But then later we learned actually doctors were worried his condition was deteriorating. If it got worse, he would have to be taken there on a stretcher and that would look bad. That was the real reason he went. But that's not what we were told. Trump appearing to have required oxygen during COVID But when doctors were asked about it, they said Trump is, is not on oxygen, present tense. Another way to avoid saying he was on oxygen. So that's, number one, there's a history of lack of transparency. Secondly, the chronic venous insufficiency story doesn't explain the bruised hands. And Caroline Levitt has explained away the bruised hands by saying he's just shaking hands with so many people because he's doing such great work for the American public. And it's not all sounding believable. So can we accurately diagnose Trump from pictures? We cannot. Is chronic venous insufficiency, if self limiting and not representative of any other issue, relatively benign? Absolutely. We just aren't sure if we can even believe that story. So the petition that now is being circulated reads really like a warning letter. You know, that Trump's totality of symptoms, combined with his diet and obesity, it can indicate a very serious heart condition. We don't have the records. We don't know. The petition goes on to say accurately, Trump has his finger on the nuclear button. If he is falling apart physically and mentally, we need to know. And it's coming. After years of evasive, cherry picked letters that say everything's awesome and Trump friendly, doctors go, there's never been a healthier person than this guy. Notably absent from all of the reporting from the White House, Trump's medical records, etc. Is actual data. No real cognitive testing. You know, the Montreal Cognitive assessment from who knows when, but that's not even really the right test for Trump. No specifics on cardiac status. And now we've got not particularly satisfying explanations for things that we are finding in pictures. So the reason this matters is, number one, the American people have been here before. We've been here before with Trump, but we've also been here before with Biden. Right. I, if, if I'm completely honest with you, which is always what I am, I've now, as you know, interviewed Jonathan Allen on his book Fight. I've interviewed Jake Tapper on his book Original Sin. And my belief right now is that there was an effort to cover up decline of Joe Biden that the people around him knew about. And the reason I say that, and that doesn't mean that Jake's. Tapper, Tapper, his book was ethically right or wrong or the timing with the cancer diagnosis. I'm simply saying I, at this point, believe that there was an effort to cover up the true nature of Biden's health. A lot of what's described in these books I saw with my own eyes when I was at the White House and Biden delivered just holiday remarks to a relatively small group. It was very short and he did it with a teleprompter and it didn't sound awesome. I thought, is this normal? Is it normal when you've just got some people at the White House, you pull out a prompter and the reporting is that it is not normal. And the reporting has been that Biden's meetings with people were sort of kept short and they were formulaic. And that's exactly how my meeting was with Biden. So, you know, of course, at the time I had no reference for comparison. Now I do. So we've been through this. We've been through it with Trump's lack of medical transparency. We now know what was happening during the Biden administration or, you know, even if 10% of what's been reported is true, it was still happening to a degree, and it seems to be happening again with Donald Trump. We were told Trump would be different. He was going to drain the swamp, but he filled it. We were told he was going to be transparent, but he's not being transparent. And he claimed that he's in perfect health and, you know, he's swelling up and stumbling through bizarre speeches about the Unabomber and his dead uncle and who knows what. So I do think a few other things that are relevant to mention in a sense, whether Trump's seriously ill or not, he shouldn't be running the country. His ideas are terrible. He doesn't respect democracy, he shouldn't be running the country either way. At the same time, do we need any possible path to getting him out? I would say sure. And would his doctors continue saying he's in perfect health even after he's dead? Maybe they would. So I don't know that we can really go by them. Maybe the most sort of biting irony here, even though it's tragic, is that after years of Trump saying Biden's unfit, Biden's out voluntarily, and Trump's not even doing the bare minimum as president. So the bigger picture, of course, the medical records, it's not really about Trump's ankles and hands. It's about truth, accountability and transparency that he promised. The fact that millions are watching this aging, erratic president crack daily under pressure while his administration gaslights the country with North Korea style press releases and press conferences, it's all a disaster. And the bottom line is when a president hides their health, lies about it, jokes about nuclear weapons in the same breath, it's terrifying. Terrifying. And now people are saying, even people on the right, we've got to see that full medical record. Donald Trump's White House press secretary, Caroline Levitt, confirmed it's not a joke. Trump really wants sports teams to bring back racist team names. It's really important to Trump that the Washington commanders go back to being the Washington Redskins. We should go back to the Cleveland Indians. Caroline Levitt was asked, is Trump serious about this shit? And she goes, yes, he is. He's passionate about sports.
- [37:13]
Alina Haba
Was the president serious or was he joking? This weekend he said he might block a Washington Commander Stadium deal if they don't change their name. The president was serious and as part of the art of the deal, part of his negotiating skills, as you know, sports is one of the many passions of this president and he wants, he.
- [37:30]
David Pakman
Has so many passions and this is just one of them, to see the.
- [37:34]
Alina Haba
Name of that team change. Why is he getting involved in that? Why does he see that as part of his. I think you've seen the president gets involved in a lot of things that most presidents have not. He's a non traditional president. He likes to see results on behalf of the American people. And if you actually poll this issue with sports fans across the country, and even in this city, people actually do support The President's position on this and.
- [37:55]
David Pakman
The name change they desperately want. The American people demand racist team names. So there's two parallel stories here. There's the distraction story, which is over the last week, Trump's made a big deal out of Coca Cola, is going to switch to cane sugar from high fructose corn. Sirup, we've got MLK files that are coming out. We've got JFK files that are coming out. Not Epstein files, but we've got these other files. We really need the Washington Commanders to become the Washington Redskins. So there is this bizarre thing where Trump would love to take attention away from his potential involvement with a child sex trafficker. And if it takes people believing he's racist, he would rather they believe he's racist than that he was involved with Jeffrey Epstein as a client. So that's number one. But there's a parallel story here that I think is more substantive and relevant given what Trump ran on, which is how are you the party of low regulation? How are you the party of non interference with business? How are you the party of letting others determine what's best for themselves when you come in and threaten a stadium deal made by a sports team unless they change their name back to the racist one? That is not small government. That is not staying away from intervention, that is not staying away from meddling. It's the exact opposite. And this brings me back once again to a chapter from my book, the Echo Machine, which is, why would we even bother engaging with these people on principle when the principles they claim to follow are thrown in the toilet and flushed 10 to 15 times as soon as they're inconvenient? And of course, we saw it with Twitter, we saw it with Facebook during COVID We, we need to force these companies, the Trump administration started to believe, to publish Covid disinformation. What happened to small government, what happened to not regulating businesses? Didn't matter because it wasn't convenient. And that's exactly the same thing that is happening here. So I don't know how much further this is going to go. This is a nearly $4 billion stadium deal that Trump is threatening. And at the end of the day, when Caroline says he's getting results for the American people, how do the American people benefit from the Washington Commanders going back to the racist name Washington Redskins? Or if it's. You don't say racist, it's racially insensitive or whatever. You know, we, I don't even care about the words that we apply. We all know that it's just sort of out of place, out of touch, not where we are. How does anybody benefit? How does the country benefit? Who does? Do potholes get filled? Does anyone get health care? Give me a break. And Caroline Levitt? There is nothing so low that she won't stoop to defend it. And that's where we are right now. Go Google your name right now and you'll probably be shocked by how many sketchy websites have your address, ph number, even details about your family. Our sponsor, Incogni, is the solution. It is a service that will force data brokers and people search sites to delete your personal information so scammers, spammers and snoops can't get their hand on it. It's also now part of their unlimited plan that you can do custom removals. You're no longer limited to just the 250 plus sites in their automated system. You can submit any link where your personal info is exposed and Incogni's privacy experts will get it taken down even if the site's not in their database. Whether it is whitepages.com, trellis.law, dNB or anybody else quietly publishing your information, Incogni will wipe the footprint clean. You paste the link and they do the rest. If you're tired of being tracked, profiled, targeted, this is how you push back. For instance, these sites are where scammers and spammers can get your information to then target you. Using Incogni can cut way down on the spam calls and the messages that you get. Try it Risk free for 30 days and get 60% off an annual plan when you go to incogni.com/pacman that's incogni.com/Pacman for 60% off. The link is in the podcast notes. All right, let's get into Friday Feedback where we hear from you on email, YouTube, Tik Tok, Spotify substack. We accept feedback on just about every platform, but you can always email info@david pakman.com if you have something to say. We start today over on Reddit where Reddit user Walter Yates SG has a question about calling into the show and says I apologize if this is posted somewhere, I didn't see it. Is it still possible to call in live on Wednesdays? If so, how are members prioritized in getting through? We eliminated the live call segment at this point. It feels like years ago, but it might have been about a year ago. And just to kind of refresh the why most of the calls were very low quality. We had Number one, a lot of regular callers who couldn't get a question out. And then even putting that aside, the people that were able to get a question out, they were often very low quality questions or sort of like droning on without even a question. Just something they wanted me to react to. And it was in the numbers, in terms of the topic on which we got the most negative emails was you got to cut the Collins. And the views were just extremely low. The content wasn't engaging and it was generating a lot of people who said, I'm tuning out from this. So we got rid of it. And so now, number one, we're able to include more stories on the Friday show. Number two, way fewer negative emails from people saying the segment is totally wasted. And number three, there are other ways still to talk to me. So I will just exclusively do streams where I just take questions. I'll go on Tik Tok, for example, and spend an hour just taking question after question from people. So there are, there are still opportunities to do that. But in retrospect, we are feeling good about the decision we made to pull that segment. I understand some people don't like it, some people don't like every decision. You know, when I, when I have a mustache, some people hate it. When I get rid of the mustache, some people hate it. So, you know, you can't please everybody. And we're not trying to, but we did feel very good about that decision and it's going well. So no more Wednesday calls on YouTube. Dan in Japan says the issue with politicians like Cory Booker is that the things they say sound nice on the surface, yet they simply are not genuine. They sound like actors in daytime dramas showing sincerity on camera. Sure, they're better than Republicans, but I think most people simply see through them. You know, a lot of what Dan is saying is completely true. And much of what we hear from Democratic elected officials feels contrived, calculated, fine tuned as best they can to sound good and appeal to the greatest number of people possible. And that's very similar to what we hear from Republicans. And so my concern is less about do they sound genuine then number one, what are their policies that they're advocating for? And number two, do they have a believable, credible way to affect those policies? And to a great degree, the answer is no. So I've said for a very long time, I'm not a Democrat. I see the Democratic Party as an institution, almost like a corporation that seeks primarily to justify its own existence. You all know I mostly vote for Democrats when It comes to an election and there's a choice to be made. I look and I say, what's the better option if they're both bad? I say, what's the least bad option? I think that I have a duty to do that. But if the question is, am I impressed with the Democratic Party right now? No. Do I come away from my conversations with Democratic elected officials thinking that guy or gal has the answers and a path to do it? No, I don't. And I sympathize with those who are hearing these elected officials on my show say things that sound good. But think to yourself, there's no plan here to actually get Republicans out of power and to do this stuff. So listen, I. I'm not here to defend Democrats. They're welcome to come on the show and attempt to defend themselves. And some of them have and have done better than others. But to a great degree, I agree with what Dan is saying. The only. The only thing I would add is when Cory Booker tells me what he believes should be policy, I think he's being completely genuine. I don't. My issue isn't. They are claiming to believe things they don't believe. Not at all. My issue is when it gets to, do you have any plan for actually taking power back and making these things a reality? I hear nothing. That's impressive, and that's the real problem I find myself having. All right, over on Reddit, Qui Shibe Kishibe says we should bring up Epstein in every conversation at least once. You know how MAGA just randomly brings up Trump or culture war issues in every conversation. People should do that with Epstein. Make it so you have to bring him up at least once in conversation. Daily food tastes bad. Probably something Epstein would have eaten. Lock yourself out of your house. Damn, I wish the door was made by the prison Epstein was in so we could easily get in. Lost something. Damn. There is lost as the Epstein client list. So this is. This is clever to a degree. There's two parts to this. Are these lines good? No, Kishibe, I'm sorry. These lines aren't very good. But is Kishibe's instinct that we shouldn't allow the Epstein story to die? That we should be reminding MAGA Trump's not releasing the stuff? Trump doesn't want you to see this stuff. Even what he's directed Pam Bondi to do is like, so limited and carefully worded. And yes, we absolutely should exploit arguably the biggest division we've seen within MAGA over any issue. We absolutely need to exploit it and I love that Kishibe is thinking along those lines. All right, Uncle Tio posted to the Reddit that I'm too amped. Okay? He wrote. Has anyone else noticed that David seems to be overly amped up lately? The way he talks, yelling into the mic popping peas and his rants both seem to be different. Not sure if he's increased his Adderall dosage or what. Kidding. But I can barely make it through an entire show. Now. Listen, I've got to tell you, I've been criticized over the last year because I'm not amped up enough. Because people write in and they go, david, you don't seem angry enough about what's going on. You don't seem fired up enough. Is it because you feel distant from it? Are you disconnected from the plight of people? And you don't seem wound up enough. And then here is an example of the opposite. I'm too amped. I'm speaking too loudly. I'm too wound up. Almost like I were on Adderall, which I've never even tried in my life. Just to be clear, this is a reminder that no matter what I do, people will be on opposite sides. I'm being too tough or not tough enough on a particular elected official. I'm speaking too loudly or too quietly. The show is too long or it's too short. So if I pop the pee, you know, I did move my mic back just a hair the other day because we thought maybe there was a little pee popping going on. But I always am reacting genuinely. I'm always reacting in the way that I think will best allow me to communicate what I believe. And if there are steps to be taken, what those steps are, should be. That's where I'm at. Eric Pugh on YouTube wrote Independent here. Some issues, I'm conservative, some liberal. But this Epstein blackmail operation is beyond disgusting. We really, we need all Americans to unite on this. I agree. As I've said many times before, when there is an issue that has an air of being post partizan, that could be the thing that finally, finally unites America against maga. We have a responsibility to exploit it. And in a sense, that's what is potentially happening right now. We are hearing, if you look at the polling, Democrats and independents essentially united on should the files come out, is Trump covering it up? Is Trump probably in the files? But interestingly, Republicans are almost there. We looked at a poll last week. Half of Republicans, half believe that Trump is covering up the Epstein stuff. So Eric Pugh is completely correct. His view does reflect the view of the country and we've got to exploit it. Ellen Lefler wrote on Spotify, Love the preview. Good to know beforehand what's going to be discussed. Thank you. Much appreciated. So we are now doing a daily preview podcast. We've got this hour to hour and 20 minute show that we do each day. In the morning we do a three minute preview which is just the news. So it won't be like my analysis of Tulsi says Obama committed treason but it will be Tulsi says Obama committed treason for this reason. So it's it previews the show but it's also a sort of non political. It's not politicized, it's just. Just the facts. Three minute podcast which maybe is more salient to send to people in the middle or on the political right. It's on our substack. You can have it emailed to you every day or not and you can just see it on the website@substack.david pakman.com but I love the positive feedback. People are liking it which is great. Caleb wrote in and says love the podcast. I'm a member with a discount code but still not a hater. Why does the audio of the substack interviews for David have lower quality? Love the content but the robot voice. Robot kind of voice was shocking. Yeah. So right now Substack Live happens on your phone and I just have been using my built in phone microphone. Now here's what I'm going to tell you. We're always looking to make the show as good as possible because we've been getting complaints about the quality of my audio on the substack lives. I now have a better microphone that does work with my phone which I will be debuting very soon. All in the effort of making it sound better and be more engaging. I know that bad audio makes content not engaging so we are working to fix that. I appreciate the feedback on YouTube, Josh Lepley wrote, I love seeing David's views going way down. It's glorious how people realize this channel is garbage. Well, reports of the death of the show have been greatly exaggerated for over a decade. Every month people go, you're circling the drain, your views are collapsing, no one's watching and every year we do better than the previous year. Is there a seasonality to what we do? Sure. Are years after elections usually less busy? Yes. Are we still on track for the best year ever? Yes, we are. And so I'm so sorry Josh that that's upsetting to you but everything is fine. And maybe next year. Maybe next year. But it seems this year we're going to be okay. We've got a phenomenal bonus show for you today. Sign up@join pacman.com you can get yourself a membership or you can gift a membership to the now more than 4,000 people who have asked for a free membership. If you would like to request a free membership, do it at David pakman.com/free membership. We'll see you on the bonus show. We'll be back next week.