Republicans losing their grip as Trump loses his

Summary

Podcast Summary: The David Pakman Show

Episode: Republicans losing their grip as Trump loses his

Date: August 10, 2026
Host: David Pakman

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Overview

In this incisive episode, David Pakman delivers a sweeping analysis of the current unraveling of the Republican Party amid Donald Trump's failing presidency and policy debacles, both foreign and domestic. Pakman explores Trump's reported surrender in the Iran conflict, the economic backslide that belies Trump's promises, the GOP’s loyalty dilemma, and shifting winds ahead of the 2026 and 2028 elections. The show features a major interview segment with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), discussion of the Democratic “farm team,” crossover endorsements in Georgia, and a pointed critique of the chilling effect of Trump administration attacks on independent media.

Pakman maintains his trademark blend of sharp critique, wry humor, and analytical rigor throughout, urging listeners to scrutinize political claims, fact check assertions, and resist authoritarian tactics.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s “Surrender” in Iran (01:06 – 06:49)

• Trump’s Shift from “Unconditional Surrender” to Face-Saving Exit
  • Trump initially demanded Iran’s unconditional surrender to end the conflict; now, per the Wall Street Journal, he’s considering simply declaring victory if Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz and withdrawing without concrete achievements.
  • Quote:
    "He’s going to walk away seemingly with no nuclear deal... This is effectively a total surrender."
    — David Pakman (01:57)
  • Trump’s goals—stopping Iran’s nuclear program, regime change, destroying missiles—either failed or became moving targets.
  • Co-host asks:
    "We don’t really know [if the reported strikes destroyed nuclear sites]." (03:35)
  • Even objective shifts (blockade, economic leverage) failed to accrue advantages; Iran demands additional concessions, including sanctions relief and reparations, while publicly denying negotiations.
• Critique of Republican Complicity & Call for Voter Accountability
  • Pakman warns that Republicans in Congress have "rubber-stamped" Trump’s endeavors and must be held accountable electorally.
  • Quote:
    "By voting to reelect that member of the House or member of the Senate, [moderate Republicans] are voting to reelect someone who has rubber stamped just about everything Donald Trump has done."
    — David Pakman (08:18)
  • Urges even moderate Republican listeners not to comfort themselves with the notion their local representative is dissociated from national shame.

2. Trump’s Health and Public Image vs. Biden (09:29 – 14:13)

• Physical Decline and Republican Double Standard
  • New images of Trump golfing suggest "serious difficulty getting around," labored gait, and visible physical decline.
  • Quote:
    "He seems barely able to comfortably move from the golf cart... is something wrong with Trump's legs? Is it Trump's weight? Is it something else? We can't diagnose Trump from photographs."
    — David Pakman (09:29)
  • Pakman contrasts the Republican reaction to Biden’s health (every stumble as a crisis) with requests for silence regarding Trump’s decline.
• Economic Data Contradicts Political Promises
  • US lost 23,000 jobs in July (economists predicted a gain of 80,000), with previous months revised sharply downward.
  • Inflation and unaffordability have worsened under Trump, with promised improvements undelivered—a point Pakman hammers repeatedly.
  • Quote:
    "Consumer prices up 3.5% from a year earlier. Food up 3%. Energy up almost 16%. Trump said energy would be down 50%."
    — David Pakman (12:05)

3. Scrutiny, Fact-Checking, and the Right’s Propaganda Problem (16:58 – 18:00)

• Pakman draws a contrast between his encouragement of fact-checking and Trump’s “don’t believe what you see or hear” approach.
  • Quote:
    "If you’re confident you’re communicating the truth to people, you encourage people to go and fact check you."
    — David Pakman (17:24)
  • The show reaffirms Pakman's core ethic: rigorous, transparent analysis against MAGA’s propagandism.

4. AOC Interview & Generational Politics (20:15 – 27:56)

• Millennials as a Decisive Force
  • AOC (interviewed by Jonathan Karl) discusses Millennials’ maturation into decisive voters with “financial responsibilities” and deep frustration at being “sidelined.”
  • Notable moment:
    Jonathan Karl: "You see it in the polling. It is significant."
    AOC: "We're grown adults with mortgages and kids. That generation is starting to be decisive at the polls." (22:07)
  • Pakman contextualizes: Millennials’ economic hardships are symptoms of institutional policies favoring existing wealth.
• Personalization and Reproductive Rights
  • AOC publicly shares her decision to freeze her eggs as a response to the Trump administration’s clampdown on reproductive rights.
  • Quote:
    "I have decided to start the process of freezing my eggs... especially in this political environment where this administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country."
    — AOC (24:48)
  • Pakman applauds the de-stigmatization and links the issue to broader access, not just normalization.
• 2028 Presidential Hints
  • AOC deliberately refuses to rule out a 2028 presidential run.
  • Quote:
    "I haven’t ruled out the possibility and I’m very humbled by the tremendous amount of support out there."
    — AOC (27:38)
  • Pakman praises her political savvy, noting “leaving the door open... lets her have options.”

5. GOP Fracturing & Cross-Party Endorsements in Key States (31:32 – 38:09)

• Georgia’s GOP Defections
  • Several key Georgia Republicans (Jeff Flake, Julie Smith, Scott James Matheson) endorse Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff over Trump-backed Mike Collins.
  • Quote:
    "This is how you know that even your own party is running away from you."
    — David Pakman (32:24)
  • These endorsements signal broader unease within mainstream GOP ranks regarding MAGA extremism and Trump’s taint.
• Ossoff as Future National Figure
  • Pakman touts Ossoff’s coalition-building skills, cross-partisan appeal, and 9-point AARP poll lead.
  • Expresses optimism for Democratic Senate prospects and highlights a deep Democratic "farm team" for 2028.

6. The Democratic Wave in Red and Purple States (41:46 – 49:49)

• Center-Left Pragmatists Outperforming MAGA Extremists
  • Ossoff leads by 13 (Georgia), Roy Cooper up 9 (North Carolina), Sherrod Brown up 8 (Ohio), Josh Turek leads by 4 (Iowa), James Talarico up 5 (Texas).
  • These “mainstream, pragmatic” Democrats win by sticking to jobs, affordability, and health care—contrasted with Republican candidates’ focus on loyalty to Trump and election denialism.
  • Quotes:
    "Mainstream pragmatic Democratic candidates are putting up huge numbers against MAGA Republicans."
    — David Pakman (40:53)
    "They communicate like normal people about affordability, health care, jobs and corruption."
    — (58:43)
  • Pakman cautions listeners not to be lulled by summer polling, but optimism is warranted if the trends hold.

7. Biden’s Failing Health and Trump’s Character (49:49 – 57:47)

• Hunter Biden Confirms Joe Biden’s Decline
  • Biden suffers from stage four cancer; Pakman contrasts Biden’s dignity in adversity with Trump’s callousness, crudeness, and inability to act with presidential decorum.
  • Quote:
    "The President of the United States is a terminally malignant narcissist who would almost certainly use the death of Joe Biden as a final opportunity to humiliate him."
    — David Pakman (54:19)
  • Pakman reiterates that tone and basic decency have real, trickle-down effects, and Trump’s “behavioral rot” will remain his legacy.

8. Trump’s Economic “Shrinkage” & Republican Excuses (58:48 – 65:31)

• Job Creation: Trump’s Numbers are a Fraction of Biden’s
  • Trump promised "the biggest and strongest and most masculine economy," but Pakman notes:
    "Job growth has shriveled to roughly 1/10 the size of Joe Biden’s. Flaccid, you might call it.”
    — David Pakman (59:06)
  • Only 34,000 new jobs per month under Trump vs. 336,000 under Biden. Manufacturing jobs lag badly.
  • Blunt metaphor:
    "You need a microscope to see Donald Trump's [economy]."
  • Pakman ridicules the years-long GOP excuse that good Democratic numbers are GOP lag effects, demolishing it as baseless.

9. White House Attacks on Critics & Chilling Effects (65:31 – 74:24)

• Personal Account of Government-Led Smearing
  • Pakman appears on a Trump-era WhiteHouse.gov “media offenders” list; the page ranks above his own website in search and deters media/advertisers.
  • Quote:
    "The page… is actually doing some real damage. Someone… told me, I’m a little hesitant to interview you, David, because of you being on that list."
    — (66:32)
  • Explains how even without formal censorship, government smears suppress dissent by weaponizing self-censorship.
• Call to Action
  • Urges listeners to support independent media, subscribe, and push back:
    "We can't let them get away with this…The intimidation has to fail. The intimidation has to create blowback."
    — David Pakman (71:47, 72:52)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Trump’s Iran “Victory” (01:06–06:49)

"Ending a war responsibly and pretending you won but actually just surrendering are two completely different things."
— David Pakman (02:45)

On Republican Complicity (08:18)

"...You are voting to reelect someone who has rubber stamped just about everything Donald Trump has done."
— David Pakman

On Economic Contrasts & Presidential Promises (12:05)

"Consumer prices up 3.5% from a year earlier. Food up 3%. Energy up almost 16%. Trump said energy would be down 50%."
— David Pakman

On Millennial Political Power (22:07)

"Millennials are not, you know, punk kids anymore. We're grown adults with mortgages and kids... that generation is starting to be decisive at the polls."
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)

On Media Suppression (66:32)

"The page… is actually doing some real damage. Someone… told me, I’m a little hesitant to interview you, David, because of you being on that list."
— David Pakman

On Mainstream Democrats vs. MAGA (40:53)

"Mainstream pragmatic Democratic candidates are putting up huge numbers against MAGA Republicans."
— David Pakman

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Important Timestamps

• 01:06 – Trump’s Iran “surrender”; origins and implications
• 08:18 – GOP complicity and call for accountability
• 09:29 – Trump’s physical decline and media hypocrisy
• 12:00 – Economic woes under Trump
• 17:24 – Fact-checking versus MAGA information control
• 22:07 – AOC on generational power
• 24:48 – AOC on freezing her eggs / reproductive rights
• 27:38 – AOC hedges on 2028 presidential run
• 32:24 – Georgia GOP defectors endorse Ossoff
• 36:01 – Ossoff as potential national Democratic figure
• 40:53 – Mainstream Democrats outperforming MAGA extremists
• 54:19 – Pakman on Trump’s probable disrespect if Biden dies
• 59:03 – Trump’s “flaccid” job creation
• 66:32 – Pakman on Trump WhiteHouse.gov “offenders” list and chilling effects
• 71:47 / 72:52 – Support for independent media

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Concluding Themes

• GOP Disarray: The Republican coalition is fracturing, with moderates fleeing Trumpism and Democrats seizing the opportunity in even red states.
• Fact vs. Propaganda: Pakman doubles down on calls for honest analysis, distinguishing his method from Trump’s “believe me, not your eyes/ears” doctrine.
• Generational & Gender Politics: Millennial political power, reproductive rights, and AOC’s national ambitions are center stage.
• Democratic Momentum: Despite concerns, the breadth of Democratic candidates in key Senate races signals a robust "farm team" ready for 2028.
• Vigilance on Free Speech: Pakman closes by warning of growing authoritarian pressures and the importance of supporting independent dissenting voices.

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For listeners and non-listeners alike, this episode gives a textured, unvarnished look at American politics mid-2026: the cracks in the GOP, the real economic story, generational change, the stakes for democracy, and why scrutiny and solidarity matter.

Transcript

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[David Pakman]

Donald Trump is About to Surrender to Iran I know that if you believe that Donald Trump is just the most alpha strong guy ever and he would never do that, that might be tough to accept. But there is now reporting that Trump is getting set an unconditional surrender to Iran. Now remember that Donald Trump at the beginning of all this said that the only way that this war would end was with Iran's unconditional surrender. But according to the Wall Street Journal, what Trump is considering doing is just declaring victory, saying to Iran, open the Strait of Hormuz and getting the hell out. Even without having accomplished a single objective, this is effectively a total surrender. The groundwork that Trump is laying is

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

coming from the reality that he probably

[David Pakman]

can't win this war by any real definition. He's going to walk away seemingly with no nuclear deal. So in plain English, the message is, listen, reopen the strait, let the oil start moving again. I will just say we won and we're going to get the hell out of there. And of course, if we think about society and humanity, avoiding more war is good. I have opposed the blockade, I've opposed the threats of escalation. I've been against this war. The possibility of a ground war has been terrifying. It's great, right? Like less war, that's awesome. But ending a war responsibly and pretending you won but actually just surrendering are two completely different things. Trump went into this thing never defining victory. It was, well, we're going to stop their nuclear weapons program. I thought you did. Well, we did. What about the uranium?

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

I don't know.

[David Pakman]

They can keep it. We're going to destroy their ballistic missiles capabilities. Yeah, well that didn't happen. We're going to do regime change. Well, it did and it didn't happen, right? I mean, like, literally, the leader is different because you killed the previous one, but it's the same family, it's the same regime. We're going to bring Iran back and get a deal done. Well, what kind of a deal? Obama had a deal.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

You got out of the deal because

[David Pakman]

you said it was no good. So whenever a goal became unattainable, the goals would just shift. And Trump's administration now says the strikes have destroyed the three main nuclear sites. Is that true?

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

We don't really know.

[David Pakman]

And they are saying Tehran is not going to be able to restart their program without us knowing, and that's good enough.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

But what happened to the agreement?

[David Pakman]

What about Iran will never get a nuclear weapon and they're at the table and there's 60 days to negotiate and he's going to walk away is what the Wall Street Journal report says. A real diplomatic victory would have some terms, a timeline, the ability to verify consequences if anything is violated from the deal. Trump is reportedly getting set to just tuck his tail between his legs, go home and go, yeah, but I won, didn't I? And everybody's going to go one.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

What?

[David Pakman]

What are you talking about? Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That's, by the way, the central piece of leverage that it gained during the war.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

We.

[David Pakman]

Iran didn't even have that leverage before this war started. And Trump would go, mission accomplished. Oil traffic is happening again. It's flowing. I'm just going to go home. Even if that outcome remains uncertain, Iran is also reportedly demanding sanctions relief, the return of frozen assets, American military withdrawal, an end to the naval blockade, compensation for war damage. And Iran says there's no negotiations happening right now.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Think about that.

[David Pakman]

Trump started with, they are. They're going to cry uncle. Unconditional surrender. That's how it will end. There were going to be negotiations. The negotiations failed. Trump insists they are negotiating while Iran goes. We're not negotiating. What is. What is he talking about? And Iran has been able to avoid surrendering, and they are negotiating.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

And I don't mean it's not a

[David Pakman]

literal negotiation, but they're negotiating in the sort of public domain in a way where everyone knows they can wreak havoc on Trump's presidency with what they can do in the Strait of Hormuz. So this is going to be an embarrassment.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

And I want to hear from every

[David Pakman]

single one of these magazines who goes, trump is so strong. If Trump just turns around and goes, I won. Imagine if you're in a chess game and you're losing and the other player has a better position and you go, I won. And you shake hands, you've surrendered the game. You, you've lost. You can say, when you stop playing and say, I've actually won. Other people can evaluate that and see if that is true. Now then we get to the bigger issue, and this is now the 30,000 foot level. TRUMP told us he was the guy who would end the forever wars. He would never start forever wars. He's not so stupid as George W. Bush and Killery and Biden and Kamala Harris, all of whom did or were going to start stupid wars. And now Trump started a war and he can't get out of it, seemingly without losing. And the proposed escape route is, forget about the nuclear issue, give Iran concessions for reopening the waterway that was open to begin with before he started this thing, declare victory and just hope everybody moves on. If that ends the killing, take it.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Right?

[David Pakman]

I mean, like, I am an anti war person at my nature, but we got to call it what it is, which is Trump started the, this optional war, achieved nothing, damaged the American economy, damaged his reputation, damaged so much, and now he's realizing he has no way out and he may just exit. Now, there's a lot of reasons to be feeling a sense of urgency to do this. It seems as though Republicans are going to be destroyed in November, the economy being as it is with inflation, jobs, but all the things we've talked about today in the last couple of days, that is not going to set up Republicans for any kind of victory. And so there is an urgency because Trump knows Republicans lose. I get investigated for two years. This destroys whatever legacy I have, which, which isn't much. Trump increasingly is in this urgent situation and we shouldn't feel bad for him. But here's the really important part. We have to punish the Republicans for it. I know I've said this before, but I, I have to remind people of it. There are people in my audience, moderate

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Republicans, they write to me, they go,

[David Pakman]

david, sir, usually they're a little nastier than that, but they might say, david, sir, I don't like Trump, but I live in Kentucky. Well, Kentucky is not a great example. I live in Florida, I live in South Carolina, whatever. My member of Congress is cool. I like him.

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Or her.

[David Pakman]

My senator, I like my.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

You by voting to reelect that member

[David Pakman]

of the House or member of the Senate, are voting to reelect someone who has rubber stamped just about Everything Donald Trump has done. And so we've got to forget about this whole false notion of, yes, Trump's, Trump's a lunatic, he's not a good president, but I'm a moderate Republican and I like, you know, who, whoever John Thune or whoever's up for real life doesn't even matter. They are part of rubber stamping everything. If from the beginning Republicans had made it clear, we're not going to let you get away with this stuff. You can threaten some of us, but if we all stop you, you can't

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

threaten all of us.

[David Pakman]

You're not going to get all of us kicked out of office. If they had had the audacity to do that, or just the self respect, quite frankly, we wouldn't be in this position to begin with. But that is the reality. So if you are going to try to comfort yourself by saying, oh, you know, I, I wish Trump was different, but I'm going to vote to reelect every single one of the Republicans representing me. They are the reason Trump gets away with what he gets away with because they do nothing to try to get in his way. And you, by reelecting them, are rubber stamping that. Don't do that to my moderate Republican friends in the audience. Don't do that because it's pathetic and we don't want to see that happen again. Incredibly disturbing images of Donald Trump have surfaced from this weekend. I am going to argue that as disgusting and dilapidated as these images are, and they're very disgusting, I'm just, I'm warning you, if you're eating right now, this is not going to be the segment for you. These images are nothing compared to what they represent about Trump's presidency. So let's take a look. It is true. Donald Trump was photographed at one of his many golf clubs playing golf this weekend. And people notice from the images that Donald Trump appears to be having serious difficulty getting around. His posture is awkward, his gait is labored. He seems barely able to comfortably move from the golf cart when he is trying to get to the ball or even going back and talking to people. Now, of course, we can speculate and, and we've been having to speculate for years, but we don't really need to. Is something wrong with Trump's legs? Is it Trump's weight? Is it something else? We can't diagnose Trump from photographs. And the White House is never honest or forthcoming about what's going on with Donald Trump's health.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Fine. I am going to argue here that

[David Pakman]

the physical spectacle of it all is really the smaller story. We've we know Trump's age. He was born in 1946. He's 80 years old. He has this strange gait. His hands are bruised, his ankles are swollen like tree trunks. He's increasingly confused at every single public appearance. He is deserving of scrutiny. And Republicans treated every stumble and every verbal mistake from Joe Biden as a national emergency. So they established a standard and they want everybody else to look away from Trump.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

We've dealt with all of that.

[David Pakman]

The more consequential image is Trump spending another weekend golfing while we have red alert warning signs in this economy. The US lost 23,000 jobs in July and economists expected to gain 80,000. So you expect plus 80, you get minus 23. That's 103,000 jobs short of what economists expected. May and June quietly revised down by another roughly 100,000 jobs. So we are hemorrhaging jobs. A lot of people left the labor force, which made the unemployment rate tick, down very slightly despite the loss of jobs. But the point is, hiring has stalled. Trump said we're going to be hiring like never before. Hiring is completely stalled. Previous reports were worse than reported, which remember when Biden was president, if there was a slight downward revision the month after, Republicans would go, they were deliberately lying about jobs numbers and later revised. Well, that's what's happening right now. And meanwhile, the affordability crisis that Trump was going to solve is getting worse because prices keep going up. Consumer prices up 3.5% from a year earlier. Food up 3%. Energy up almost 16%. Trump said energy would be down 50%. So this is a major problem. These are real numbers. They affect people's budgets. It is the shopper who goes to the grocery store and spends 110 bucks and goes, I didn't get anything. Or a family that says I had to carry a credit card. Balance from last month. Couldn't pay it off entirely. Paid interest on that this month. I've got the interest on last month. Plus I also can't pay off the credit card this month. So now I'm paying interest on multiple months and I've got to stay in a job I hate because there might

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

not be another good job available or

[David Pakman]

I'll lose health care if I leave. And Trump is golfing. Trump is golfing. Trump will go, well, the stock market's doing well. A rising market. I prefer it to a falling one. I own stocks.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

That's true.

[David Pakman]

I'd rather that there are millions of people with retirement accounts tied to the stock market. So that's good nominally. But the wealthiest 1% own more than half of all the stocks. 1% owners owns half the stocks in the United States. So when you see market records for most people, that doesn't make it any easier to buy groceries. And Trump said he would be the affordability president for everyone and it doesn't help people afford their day to day. Now David, are you saying presidents can't ever take a day off?

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

No, presidents can take time off. Also, being president is not a job

[David Pakman]

you take because you want vacation. Presidents don't control every economic variable. That's true. We one week jobs report doesn't prove that the president is doing everything wrong. But I'm just asking for us to hold Trump.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Let me take that back.

[David Pakman]

I'm asking elected officials to be held to the promises they made. No one made Trump promise prices were going to come down dramatically and prices have gone up. And I can't believe I'm still talking about this. What does it mean that I still have to explain that when inflation goes from four to three and a half, the rate at which prices are increases has gone down but prices are still increasing and the promise was prices would straight up decline. So we just need to be doing the level of scrutiny that is appropriate to evaluate whether the president is keeping the promises that he made. So when you see Trump playing golf again, yes, it's shocking how unhealthy he looks. It's shocking how he can barely walk, his swollen ankles. And all of that is true and we can analyze that. But he's playing golf again. And he said, I'm not going to play a lot of golf because I'm going to be so busy dealing with all these problems. And he is just playing golf and not dealing with any problems. Now if Trump had, I don't really care about golf per se. You know, Biden was not a golfer. Obama did play some golf. George W. Bush played some golf. Trump played a ton of golf in his first term. I don't have a problem with the golf per se. I have a problem with jobs are disappearing, bills are rising, families are stretched. You promised you would fix it. And the president is standing next to a golf cart surrounded by wealthy people who never have to worry about what groceries cost, never have to worry about what health care is going to cost. Telling him, sir, it's all going so great because my portfolio looks really good. Once again, no, come on, guys, come on. I would really respect a MAGA middle class MAGA who fell for this Crap. If they wrote in and said, david, I consider myself a right winger. I like the idea of what Trump's doing on immigration. I even like the Iran war, who the hell knows? Although I don't think many people like the Iran war. But objectively, Trump has not made any of those promises that he made economically a reality. And I don't even really think he's trying. He doesn't really care about middle class people. I would respect such a MAGA if they reached out to me and they said that now the right is going full speed ahead trying to suppress dissenting voices on social media and on digital platforms because they know that the numbers are no good. They see what's happening and I, I just hit my microphone and I apologize for that. Especially if you're wearing headphones. I'm getting agitated. They see that the promises aren't happening. It's not working.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Rather than try to argue that it

[David Pakman]

is because they can't. They're trying to suppress those of us who are simply saying, evaluate for yourselves. This is a key difference between the MAGA people and us. I simply say to you, fact check everything I'm saying. Don't take my word that prices are up. Look up the inflation rate. You don't have to believe me.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

That's the key difference.

[David Pakman]

Trump goes, don't believe what you're seeing and hearing. I will tell you what the truth is. If you're confident that you're communicating the truth to people, you encourage people to go and fact check you. Everything I said here, the jobs numbers, the unemployment rate, what's going on with, you know, there's half a million manufacturing jobs just available. Nobody wants them. Fact check me. You'll see that I'm telling you the truth. It's up to you to figure out what to do with that truth they are telling you. Ignore all of reality and just listen to us. Makes you wonder, why doesn't it?

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

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[David Pakman]

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[David Pakman]

for a limited time. Maryland hearing is giving my audience a pair of hearing AIDS for just two $247. Plus you'll get a free extra charging case, a $100 value. Go to shop MD hearing dotcom. Use my promo code Pacman. The link is in the description AOC Congresswoman Alexandria Cassio Cortez has given what I think is one of the clearest indications so far that she is thinking of running in 2028. We're going to get to that in a moment. She did not announce a campaign, but when she was asked directly about it, she very deliberately refused to rule out that yes, indeed, she might run for president in 2028. We're going to get back to that, but this was a very interesting conversation with Jonathan Karl about generational power in the United States. And this is a major topic as we think about what are future generations or even younger generations today, thinking about their relationship to power and how they vote.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Let's take a look at a couple

[David Pakman]

of other clips and here is AOC explaining Millennials, a generation of which I am a part. And she says, you know, the Millennials are no longer punk kids. We have financial responsibilities. Some of us have children. Which, by the way, she talks about in a moment, let's take a listen to what she had to say that

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

we have a responsibility to attend to and be responsive to. And even right now, when we look at this insurgent wave of what is happening oftentimes when people are doing that Monday morning quarterbacking and what demographics voted where the big one that's being ignored is the generational tidal wave.

[Jonathan Karl]

You see it in the polling. It is significant.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

And millennials are not, you know, punk kids anymore. Yeah, we're grown adults with mortgages and kids. And we that generation is starting to be decisive at the polls. And there is anger at being ignored, sidelined, having our economic futures mortgaged by the generations that came before us on everything from the economy to climate, and we're taking the reins.

[David Pakman]

So I like this. AOC says millennials are no longer the punk kids, but a lot of institutions still see Millennials in that way to some degree. Maybe it's because a lot of millennials are waiting longer than other generations to have kids for financial reasons. Maybe it's because a lot of millennials are not buying houses at the same rate as previous generations because they can't afford to. But she still makes the point. There are still many Millennials with careers, children and mortgages, but also with voting power. And they lived through, we lived through the Great Recession, student debt, a brutal housing market, the pandemic, another huge surge in the cost of living. Now, simply saying it's the fault of older Americans that Millennials have struggled, I think oversimplifies it. The real problem is an institutional problem. Washington has spent decades protecting those who have already accumulated wealth much more effectively than helping younger people build wealth. And you can see this in policy of all types. A generation that feels economically abandoned is now becoming decisive at the pulse. And this is the issue with ignoring a group of people from a policy standpoint, as they gain electoral power, politicians can say, well, we're going to respond to that anger and we're going to deal with what it is Millennials need and want. Or at some point they're going to get screwed because millennials are going to say, you don't have my best interests in mind. Very interesting. AOC then makes the conversation personal and talks about how she is starting the process of freezing eggs, not ready or wanting to have kids now, but that this is something she is planning for. Take a look.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

Juncture.

[Jonathan Karl]

All right. And then before you go, you did have a personal announcement that you made. It was interesting to see you kind of open up in, you know, Instagram Live.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

I believe it Was.

[Jonathan Karl]

So tell me, tell me what it was and why you see it.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

Yeah, you know, I think it's important for us to normalize these conversations, especially in this political environment. The Trump administration has.

[Jonathan Karl]

Remind us what the announcement was.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

Yeah, sure. So I have decided to start the process of freezing my eggs. And in this political environment where this administration is denying reproductive care to women across the country, from abortion rights to the ability to carry out a healthy pregnancy, I think it's important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes, especially for working women across the country, and normalize them.

[Jonathan Karl]

Okay. All right. Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez, thank you very much for being here. We hope to talk to you again soon.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

Thank you.

[Jonathan Karl]

And when you're ready to make that decision about 2028, I'll let you come back and talk to us about it.

[David Pakman]

I am sure that hearing AOC talk about freezing eggs will provoke a completely normal and rational, very well adjusted response from the right wing, by which I mean there are people about to get very preoccupied with the reproductive decisions of a woman that they have never met. That is what is going to happen here. I think AOC makes a serious point. Freezing eggs is often talked about privately and it can be expensive, physically demanding as well, and it's straight up not accessible to so many women. Talking openly about it removes the stigma, which I think is great. But if we're going to have genuine reproductive freedom, you need to do more than just normalize it. You have to have access. If you say we want to destigmatize reproductive freedom, but people don't have access to contraception, abortion, fertility treatment, maternal care, paid leave, affordable childcare. What does it really mean that you have the freedom to make your own reproductive choices? Now, Republicans love to say we support families, but they restrict policies that. Or rather they use policy to restrict access to reproductive care or make it more expensive to raise kids, have kids, etc. That's a contradiction that you can't hide. When someone explains, here are what the choices look like for me, and that's what AOC has done. I think it's great. She's going to get hit very hard on this. I know she knows that. I'm sure she doesn't care. Then the question of 2028, Jonathan Karl says, are you going to run for president? Here's her answer, and it's not a no.

[Jonathan Karl]

So I want to. We're almost out of time to get to your future. I'm sure you saw the poll in New Hampshire that Had you as the leading candidate, leading choice for Democrats. First of all, are you going to run for president?

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

I mean, I'm focused on winning the midterms. I'm running for Congress right now.

[Jonathan Karl]

But I mean, do you see this as something. I know you said you're open to it. Is it a realistic possibility for you?

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC)]

I haven't. Well, I haven't ruled out the possibility and I'm very humbled to the tremendous amount of support out there. I think that we have a responsibility to remain focused on the midterms and not on our individual aspirations or plans.

[David Pakman]

And running for Senate, again, not a presidential announcement, but politicians who want to end speculation simply say, I'm not running. Wes Moore said that about 2028. I don't even know that I believe Wes Moore. I think if Wes Moore gets a sense that he might be able to win a primary, he would run. Marco Rubio told JD Vance, I'm not going to challenge you if you run, I won't run. A lot of Republican strategists, including Rick Wilson, said to me last week, if, if Marco comes to believe that he might win, he'll just come up with a speech explaining why he's running anyway. So she is not saying no. And even when you say no, sometimes you mean yes. I think that this is the politically intelligent answer. And there are a lot of people who used to like AOC who have soured on her, saying she's become. She sold out, essentially. She's no longer as progressive and I see her as far more sophisticated and savvy at this point. She knows that saying, I'm actively thinking about running in 2028, that will generate years of scrutiny. It will turn every appearance she does into a potential campaign event. And just leaving the door open in this way just lets her have options. And she would have. Listen, there's a lot of people thinking about running who would have real obstacles. Gavin Newsom, who I was recently with, he is considered too centrist by many who would consider voting for Democrats. I don't want to say by Democrats because I think a lot of the people aren't necessarily Democrats.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

They're.

[David Pakman]

They're independents who are on the left. Newsom is disliked by a lot of those people further to his left. That's an obstacle for him. I think AOC would have obstacles as well, including resistance from Democratic donors and from the more center left wing of the Democratic Party. But AOC has something most members of Congress don't have, which is national recognition. She's got a big fundraising network and she has a disproportionate level of support from young voters, which is very important right now. It's a careful answer from aoc, but I think the meaning is very clear, which is I am going to evaluate evaluate what my chances look like and based on that I will decide what to do. Which is actually the answer from a lot of people. A lot of the governors I've spoken to have said or implied I'm thinking about it, but it's going to be a calculation of whether I believe that I have a viable shot. I actually like that calculus more than those who say every objective measure tells me I have no shot, but I might do it anyway just to try to get some recognition and interfere in some sense with the primary.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

I don't love that.

[David Pakman]

I like the analysis of where is my platform? And maybe if your platform isn't big enough, you just wait. And that's what maybe some of the other folks I haven't mentioned today are thinking about doing so. Super interesting from aoc and I want

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

to hear from my audience.

[David Pakman]

Are you leaning any particular way? I know there's people in my audience who really like Pete Buttigieg and others who go, he's basically a consultant. That's the consultant class. We don't like him. There's people in my audience who like J.B. pritzker or Josh Shapiro and others who say I don't believe that in this environment a Jewish candidate can win the primary, never mind win the election. There's others I hear from who say, I don't find Newsom to be progressive enough, but I think he's the most aggressive and the tone is what we need. And then I have people in my audience who also say, the only person even in the ballpark is aoc. It's AOC and Mamdani, but Mamdani can't run because he wasn't born in the United States. So it's aoc. Where are you?

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

I want to hear from you.

[David Pakman]

Send me an email info@david pakman.com Leave a Comment on this video Donald Trump has become so toxic that we're starting to see Republicans in Georgia say, hey, we're going to endorse the Democrat rather than the Republican in one of the most important Senate races that there is. This is how you know you're failing. This is how you know that even your own party is running away from you. So let me tell you what's going on in just a three day period. Former Republican Senator Jeff Flake Tifton Mayor Julie Smith and Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson endorsed the Democratic senator in Georgia, Jon Ossoff, over the Trump backed Republican, Mike Collins.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Think about that now.

[David Pakman]

These Republicans have not suddenly become liberals. You know, whenever a Republican endorses a Democrat, you'll see antagonists go, this proves that that Democrat is secretly a right winger. That's why they're supporting him. That is absurd. An endorsement doesn't mean two people agree on every policy. It means that given our choices, we have two. One candidate has earned some support across party lines or one candidate is just so nuts that even the people in their own party are running away from him. Now, Flake specifically said, when you look at Jon Ossoff, you see not a guy who I agree with on every policy. I see a man of character, a man who does constituent work and a man who respects the institution of the Senate. And Flake also criticized Collins, the MAGA endorsed Republican for refusing to even say, listen, Joe Biden won in 2020.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

I wish that he hadn't, but Joe

[David Pakman]

Biden won in 2020. Smith said. As a Republican, Smith said Ossoff, the Democrat has delivered for South Georgia. Matheson said, I'm going to take heat for crossing party lines, but I have built a relationship with this senator and this senator has done well for my constituents in Georgia. This is not evidence that Jon Ossoff is a Republican. It's evidence that at a certain point,

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

when MAGA nominates and has these whacked

[David Pakman]

out lunatics, if you have a Democrat that you agree with on a lot of policy, but they're competent, they have character, they respect democracy, at the end of the day, it can matter more than party loyalty. And it also shows just how repellent Donald Trump's version of the Republican Party has become to some Republicans. Now, Collins is facing a lot of questions that go directly to character. Questions about connections between his campaign and anti Semitic and white nationalist figures. Really just ugly, nasty stuff. His campaign says, no, no, no, it's all made up. But when the choice is Ossoff, the incumbent, and this MAGA candidate who won't even say yes, Trump really lost in 2020. There are Republicans who are saying, this is just too much.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

I'm going to go with the Democrat.

[David Pakman]

Now there is another reason that Republicans are right to fear Jon Ossoff. Ossoff has what it takes to become a national figure. I've been watching Ossoff very closely. And when people talk about 2028, they, they naturally are gravitating to the governors and there's very interesting Democratic gubernatorial candidates who are potential candidates for 2028. But Ossoff is a little different. First of all, he's from the Senate rather than being a governor. He's younger than all of them. He's disciplined. He's really good on camera. His fundraising is excellent. He's willing to confront Trump directly and importantly. Remember, the whole thing of what we really need is a Democrat from the South. Ossoff represents Georgia in the Senate, and that's a state that Donald Trump has previously carried. Not Biden wanted in 2020, but Trump

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

got it in 2024.

[David Pakman]

And Ossoff, of course, has support from Democrats and he's got support from independents. But there are even some Republicans, other than these that are endorsing him. I mean, Republican voters that also like Ossoff. And so when you think about 2028, Ossoff is potentially a very strong contender. Now, he said he is not interested in running in 28. He's up for reelection now. It's a six year term. That term would go through 2032.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Fine.

[David Pakman]

But it's clear that Republicans understand the threat. They know that Ossoff could come from this reelection campaign where he's doing really well right now, by the way, and he could come out of it with a national profile, and he will have proven that he can win multiple times in Georgia, not.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Not once.

[David Pakman]

And it's a fluke multiple times. And this is a very strong argument that Democrats can compete in the south without watering down values. The latest numbers are fascinating. There's an AARP poll which finds Ossoff is up 9 in Georgia. That is a state Trump just won in 2024. One poll doesn't tell you everything. Georgia's competitive.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

You've got to get the votes.

[David Pakman]

You've got to run the race. But this is an extraordinary situation. What is proven by seeing three Republicans cross party lines and go, I'm with the Democrat, Ossoff is that he's formidable. He can build a coalition that I believe Democrats need. You got to have strong support from the base. You need credibility with independents. And then you also need some crossover appeal so that Republicans go, damn, this guy might actually have what it takes here. Trump, on the other hand, just goes, I need total loyalty. The party must be completely and totally loyal to me. Ossoff is showing. Those sorts of demands can backfire and backfire very quickly. So I'm very interested in this Georgia race. If Ossoff wins, the first step is

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

he's got to win.

[David Pakman]

If he wins decisively. I believe that the conversation on Ossoff is going to be also about 2028. And you know, for all the talk about Democrats have such huge problems and they do. I mean, listen, I'm in, I'm in a gag. If I hear about more Democrats writing an op ed or a strongly worded letter, I mean, it is just vomited. So there, there are real problems here for Democrats, but I think there's a very deep farm team for Democrats for 28. And we're going to talk about AOC, who has now said she's not ruling

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

out running for president.

[David Pakman]

We have a situation where in the Democratic Party you have everything from strong centrists to more progressives, all of whom have the ability, the charisma, the gravitas, the policy chops to be really good candidates. If anything, the problem could be too many candidates and fragmenting the vote, then not enough. Although I actually think the more robust the primary, the better. So Ossoff with the crossover appeal. Ossoff leading by nine in Georgia. Excellent candidate. And I think another important thing about Ossoff is a reminder that it's okay if the right Democrat is very different ideologically in different races. Troy Jackson in Maine facing off against Susan Collins in front of Maine voters doesn't need to check all the same boxes that Jon Ossoff has to check in a state like Georgia compared to Talarico in Texas. That's okay. That's a good thing. Let voters decide what it is that they want. So I'm very optimistic, quite frankly.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Even if Democrats don't get the Senate

[David Pakman]

in 2026, there are a lot of things that are pointing in the right direction. The Ossoff crossover appeal is one of those and we're going to keep a very close eye on it. A lot of people put on music while they work, assuming it helps them concentrate. But in practice, familiar songs, lyrics or constantly changing tracks often will take attention away from what you're working on rather than supporting attention. And that's where Brain FM comes in. Our sponsor, Brain fm, is a music app designed to support focus, relaxation or sleep with music created by human musicians working alongside neuroscientists. Instead of generic playlists, Brain FM offers task specific modes like deep work, creative

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

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[David Pakman]

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[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

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[David Pakman]

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[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

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[David Pakman]

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[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

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Plus they've got award winning croissants which I love. Go to wild grain.com/pacman to get $30 off your first box and free croissants for life. The link is in the description Republicans won't tell you this, Trump won't tell you this. But completely normal run of the mill uncontroversial Democrats, including in some red states, are destroying lunatic Republicans right now. It's sort of like an anti headline. It's like milquetoast uncontroversial. People are doing better than lunatics. And yet it is something extraordinary that is happening because in states that Democrats supposedly can't win, we have like just I don't say this as praise or as as an insult. This is not pejorative nor the opposite. Mainstream pragmatic Democratic candidates are putting up huge numbers against MAGA Republicans. And if even part of these polling numbers survive until November, Republicans may be driving straight into an electoral disaster. Let's take a look at this starting in Georgia. Democratic incumbent Senator Jon Ossoff leads the Trump endorsed Mike Collins by 13 points, folks. Trump won Georgia in 2024 and the Democrat is defeating Trump's boy by 13. Now you might say, well maybe Ossoff always wins by a lot. But no, Ossoff's first Senate election was decided by roughly like a point, if I remember correctly. He's winning by 13. He's winning 68% of independents, he's winning 66% of moderates. Even a quarter of non MAGA Republicans support Jon Ossoff. Look at that. North Carolina maybe even more consequential because this could flip an open seat. Former Democratic governor Roy Cooper is leading Michael Whatley. That's not Tim Whatley, the dentist from Seinfeld played by Bryan Cranston. This is Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman. The Democrat. Cooper is up by nine in North Carolina and Cooper is not, you know, running. You might, you might not even know about this race because Cooper is not trying to do like the main character on social media thing that, that Whatley kind of is trying to do. He was a popular two term governor. He won by focusing on the economy, on health care, on being competent. He has a nine point lead in a state that hasn't elected a Democratic Senator in nearly 20 years. We then go to Ohio, Ohio, where Sherrod Brown, who lost his Senate Senate seat back in 2024, he's ahead of the incumbent by eight points. Folks, this is Ohio which voted by Trump for Trump by double digits in 2024. And the incumbent Republican is losing by eight to Sherrod Brown. Sherrod Brown is sort of like a labor Democrat. He talks about wages, he talks about unions, manufacturing, the just the stuff normal working people care about. And it is a, he has no skeletons in his closet. He's just like the nor. I say this in the best way. He's a boring pro worker Democrat. Iowa, another interesting race which we are going to be talking about a lot more. We have Democrat Josh Turek leading Republican Ashley Hinson 50 to 46. That's a four point lead. This one's tighter but it's a, this is Iowa, ladies and gentlemen. And then we look at Texas where okay, so this week there's a lot of undecideds. Here we have Democratic candidate James Tallarico leading Ken Paxton 45 to 40, 45 to 40. There are still 15% undecided in there, but that is a remarkable, remarkable number. Talarico is leading independence 68 to 29. He's attracting also about a quarter of self described non MAGA Republicans. And what's Talarico talking about? Affordability, education, health care, how his opponent is corrupt and he's talking about it in just kind of like normal, everyday language. Now, what are the caveats here? A lot of caveats. There's a history of Democrats leading Republicans in Senate races over the summer in red states, and then they lose. That's one caveat. Another caveat is these are polls, not election results. Another caveat is these are all from Fox News polling. Now, FOX News polling is actually good, but it would be expected that these races could tighten. Everybody should behave as though every single one of these races is tied. Now, let's talk about the broader pattern. These are all very different candidates. Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Texas. These are different places. They have different concerns. What is the common thread between these candidates? They communicate like normal people. They just, you hear them talk and it's like, oh, that sounds like a somewhat normal person. Compared to what? Lee Paxton, especially. And they communicate like normal people about affordability, health care, jobs and corruption. They aren't looking for the most provocative positions to generate applause in online bubbles. They aren't Republican light. They're defending Democratic values. They're running as Democrats and they know who they are running against. And then meanwhile, you see Republicans, Mike Collins, Michael Whatley, Ken Paxton. These are people defined by I deny election results. I'm loyal to Trump, I have scandals in some cases, and I am part of a movement called MAGA that is completely detached from the everyday concerns of Americans. So I think there's an important lesson here. Obviously, we need to see how these races shake out, but the correct candidates for so Georgia, Ossoff and Talarico are very different, is the point I'm trying to make. And they're both doing a good job, as are these other candidates, Democrats of meeting voters where they are. And Republicans want this to be an abstract debate about cultural panic that Fox News has ginned up or about socialism and communism or whatever. These Democrats are talking about kitchen table issues. And to the extent that the Republican candidates are Trump loyalists, they're also sort of making this a referendum on Donald Trump. This is why Republicans are losing these races. They assumed a lot of these were safe despite Ossoff being an incumbent. A lot of Republicans thought that they were going to take out Ossoff. North Carolina, they thought was winnable. Ohio and Iowa they assumed was winnable. Texas, they still believe they're going to win it. Maybe they will, but maybe they won't. If these numbers hold, what will hit them in November is going to be devastating. Devastating. Now, these are not all opportunities to to flip the state. Ossoff is the incumbent already for Example, but the message that it would send to win some of these races and to take the House. And listen, maybe they can take the Senate. It's not looking awesome, but maybe they can. We don't give up, but take the House and at least flip some of these seats. It's going to be a real message to Republicans considering their post Trump future. You love to see it and some really great campaigns to get involved in this.

[David Pakman]

This seriously pisses me off. Joe Biden, as we know, has stage four cancer. It has spread beyond his bones. His son, Hunter Biden, says he's in terrible pain. And somehow one of the genuinely horrifying questions we now have to ask is, what happens if Joe Biden dies while Trump is president? Trump has made the question unavoidable. Now, let me address that in a moment. Here is Hunter Biden just recently revealing that his dad is doing worse. He says it's sad to watch. He says he's in pain. This is a grim situation. Okay, take a look at this hard, Patty.

[Hunter Biden]

And it's really sad to watch. And it's really the only thing that I say about my dad, about his health right now is I wish he would complain more because it's not good. The cancer has spread, is metastasized into his bones. And further, it's very painful and it's very debilitating in many respects. But he's still out there. He's still doing this thing that is he so believes in this country.

[David Pakman]

Now, normally in a situation like this, the identity of the sitting president is irrelevant. You know, if a former president were to die, you have a White House, you know, is going to respond with dignity. They're going to lower flags. A respectful statement will be issued. The sitting president will attend the funeral, will represent the country. It'll be respectful. It'll be something that Americans can look at and go, that is a normal way to behave. But we are talking about Donald Trump. We're talking about a guy who called Biden crooked Joe, sleepy Joe, dumb as a rock. The worst president in the history of the United States suggested that there were lies being told, even about Joe Biden's metastatic prostate cancer. And when Biden left the race in 2024, Trump said, oh, Biden had never been fit to serve, and he came to be president only through lies and fake news and all of this stuff. Biden's diagnosed with stage four cancer. Trump briefly sort of wishes him well, but then turns the diagnosis into this disgusting and completely absurd attack and suggested

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

that Biden and His doctors were hiding the illness.

[David Pakman]

He confused the Gleason score of nine, which is a score that's related to how aggressive prostate cancer is, saying Biden has stage nine cancer, which is not a thing. And then he said, I feel sorry for it. If you feel sorry for him, don't feel sorry. He's vicious. And I really don't feel sorry for Joe Biden. This is a sick person. Now, if you're saying, well, David, this is like sort of, you know, it's not policy related. It's very superficial about tone. I think you're missing the point if that's your interpretation. Now, just as a contrast. Just as a contrast, when Trump got Covid during his first term, Biden pulled all negative campaign ads, wished him well, and waited. That was it. When Trump was shot, Biden called him and condemned the attack and addressed the nation. Now, imagine Biden's funeral with Trump as president. Would he even lower the flags without whining? Would he attend if he were invited and allowed, which I don't think he will be, would Trump even attend without making it about himself? Could he go a day without talking about how he actually won in 2020 and Biden lost and it was rigged and Biden's incompetent and corrupt and all this stuff.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

There would be if.

[David Pakman]

If we were talking about, oh, a president might die while Obama is president. These would be insane questions. Of course Obama would not behave in the way we expect Trump would behave. What if George W. Bush were president? Of course George W. Bush isn't going to behave that.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

What about Mitt Romney?

[David Pakman]

Just about any normal Republican or Democrat with Trump. These are reasonable questions, and that is what makes this so disgustingly revolting. Biden and his family are dealing with fear, the possibility of the end of Biden's life.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Biden's not doing well. Okay? That's the point. That's what we learned over the weekend.

[David Pakman]

And the President of the United States is a terminally malignant narcissist who would almost certainly use the death of Joe Biden as a final opportunity to humiliate him. So there's this grotesque, you know, the way life works out is just. It's a grotesque set of circumstances. And Trump's behavior is always completely beneath the presidency. And it is really an indictment of every person who knew exactly who Trump was and decided to vote for him anyway. Now, there is a practical reality here. The same way that Donald Trump was not involved in the funeral of George H.W. bush, because the Bush family didn't want Trump anywhere near it. I'm guessing that it'll be the same thing if, if, and we hope it doesn't happen, if Joe Biden were to pass away while Donald Trump is president. Now, I know so many people hear this kind of stuff and they go, David, I care about affordability, I care about the Iran war, I care about health care, education, foreign policy. This is not about that.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

I get that.

[David Pakman]

What we are talking about here is the trickle down effect of having such a disgusting person as President of the United States.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

And we have an example that reminds

[David Pakman]

us how this tangential behavioral stuff is highly relevant to our politics. Back when Donald Trump was first becoming the nominee and ultimately the President in 2016 into 2017, one of the things I said is when the President of the United States talks about grab him by the pussy and it has no effect and he becomes president, the nominee and president and all this stuff, it is of course reasonable that it becomes harder to explain to kids why that sort of behavior isn't okay. But the President did it and he became president anyway. And case in point, last week we had this disgusting clip of Republican Congressman Max Miller who's been very accused of very serious abuse of his ex wife. And there were even implications that he abused their kid, although he has denied, he's denied all of it, quite frankly. One of the things that he said, Max Miller said to Jake Tapper was, of course I'm not going to drop out. Donald Trump faced similar allegations. He stayed in and became President of the United States. That is exactly what I am talking about. And so the sort of behavior that Donald Trump would almost certainly exhibit if he presided or if he was president at the time of Joe Biden's passing, which I hope Joe Biden that, you know, as we, as we say, may he live to 120, right. As we say in the sort of Jewish, non religious tradition and religious. I hope that doesn't happen. But the reason it matters is if we are trying to model appropriate, reasonable, normal behavior. You're not going to get normal behavior from Trump if Joe Biden were to pass away while he is president. So, you know, our thoughts go out

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

to the Biden family.

[David Pakman]

Joe Biden clearly not doing well. There are people writing to me with medical people writing to me with prognoses based on what Hunter Biden said. I don't even want to get into that. Trump as the person who is in charge at the time of such a passing disgusts me. The mere premise disgusts me. Shopping for a mattress is one of

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Those things that most people put off. Once you finally decide we're going to do it, you just start guessing. Which is why our sponsor Helix Sleep,

[David Pakman]

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[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

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[David Pakman]

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[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

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[David Pakman]

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[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

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[David Pakman]

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[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

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[David Pakman]

Well, Donald Trump's has shriveled to 1/10 the size of Biden's. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? You need a microscope to see Donald Trump's. I'm obviously talking about job creation.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

I don't know what you guys were thinking of.

[Hunter Biden]

Please.

[David Pakman]

You may remember that Donald Trump promised the biggest and strongest and most masculine economy that anyone has ever seen. And what has happened instead is that job growth has shriveled to roughly 1:10 the size of Joe Biden's. Flaccid, you might call it. We have this new jobs report that I mentioned. Just a disaster. I mean, there's no way. Even Fox News is like, yeah, this isn't great. The United States lost 23,000 jobs in July. Economists expected about 80,000 jobs to be added, meaning there was a miss of expectations by about 1 0,000 jobs.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Not good.

[David Pakman]

We then get to the previous numbers.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

There were downward revisions.

[David Pakman]

May and June were revised down by about another hundred thousand jobs. May was roughly cut in half. The report was 129,000. It was really 63,000 jobs created in May. June was reported as 57k. It was only 20,000, almost a 2/3 downward reduction. This is terrible. This is, you know, no matter who you are, this really should go beyond politics.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Oh, David, you're on the left.

[David Pakman]

Don't you want Trump to fail?

[Stamps.com Advertiser]

No.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

First of all, I care about people

[David Pakman]

other than myself, so I care about other people that are having jobs. And even if you want to go, even if I'm Selfish about it. I want the show to do well. And if a ton of people don't have jobs, that's people who can't buy the stuff our advertisers want to sell. So our advertisers won't renew. They won't be able to afford memberships. So whether it's just I actually care about other people, I would want the jobs numbers to be good. If it's a. I want the best thing for the show, and me personally, I would want the jobs numbers to be good. It's good for everybody for jobs numbers to be good. Over the last 12 months, the United States economy has averaged only 34,000 new jobs a month. Once you take into consideration these downward revisions, 34,000 under Trump, 336,000 under Biden. Now, remember, this is not a show

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

where I'm the cult leader.

[David Pakman]

In fact, this is. So we're kind of getting off track here. But I think.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

I think I would be much more

[David Pakman]

successful and this show would be much bigger if I organized this show around me as a cult leader with unique knowledge that only I can give you and encourage people not to fact check me. But the truth is, it's Trump who goes, don't believe what you're seeing. Don't believe what you're hearing. Don't believe what you're being, what you're being told by the fake news media. Just believe me.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

But I encourage you.

[David Pakman]

One of the themes of the last 80, 80 years of sort of the modern political era, the Post World War II era, we could say, is that there are way more jobs created under Democratic than Republican presidents. Don't believe me?

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Good.

[David Pakman]

You should be skeptical.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Go and verify it.

[David Pakman]

Or maybe you're like, trust but verify, David, you're probably trying to tell us the truth, but maybe you got it wrong.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Go verify it now.

[David Pakman]

When Republicans have no choice but to acknowledge, okay, yeah, there are way more jobs created.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

It's not close.

[David Pakman]

Way more jobs created when a Democrat is president than when a Republican is president. They will go, yeah, but it's. It's usually the policies of the Republican from before that are starting to take a. There is no justification of that.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

That.

[David Pakman]

That has been studied by economists. And that does not appear well, you know, jobs are measured differently when. No, jobs are measured the exact same way when Republic. Okay, so fact check that Trump's number is about 1/10 the size of Biden's number. But where is the rhetoric been? Trump has spent years saying, every good economic number is my personal achievement. Every good economic Number when a Democrat is president, the numbers are fake. Any bad economic number when I'm president is either a fake number or, or it's someone else's fault. And when I'm president, everything will come roaring back while Trump is president.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

He came back and you need a

[David Pakman]

microscope to see the size of Trump's boom. It's such a tiny boom that it's almost micro boom. Medical doctors are like, wow, this thing's tiny. Let me briefly just divert to manufacturing jobs. Only 5,000 new manufacturing jobs in July. Retail lost 19,000. Local government education lost, lost 50,000. Private sector added 30. So this is a very concerning set of circumstances with jobs. Manufacturing specifically was supposed to be the centerpiece of Donald Trump's economic miracle that he would bestow upon us. And the tariffs were going to be so good, so good. And instead, prices are up, manufacturing jobs are down, and there are 500,000 open manufacturing jobs right now. The tariffs have cost Americans hundreds of billions. We have serious shrinkage, serious shrinkage. The familiar Trump routine. He erects gigantic expectations, produces a completely flaccid result, and then goes, everybody see how huge my thing is? It's just such a huge economy. If Joe Biden lost 23,000 jobs or had been averaging only 34,000 for his entire presidency, Fox would have a countdown clock. Republicans would be holding congressional hearings. And under Trump, they look for some, well, you know, retail that is only on the third floor of malls and open on weekends is doing pretty okay. And this sort of stuff, it's pathetic. The promise was total virility for the economy. And we're getting this exhausted labor market. We're losing jobs. Some, some months downward revisions. We have the numbers, we have the promises. I'm not asking anybody to do anything special when you vote in November. Just evaluate the promises and see if they came true. That's all I'm saying. And you don't have to take my

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

word for whether they did or didn't.

[David Pakman]

Just remind yourself, what were the promises? The tariffs would be a huge boom for the US we wouldn't start any new wars. We were going to move forward on growing manufacturing employment. Just evaluate, evaluate whether any of the promises have come true. And I can only imagine that you will say to yourself, if you're honest with yourself, which can be tough to do when you fell for it, whatever boom Donald Trump promised has gone soft and the softness is pretty embarrassing. But most importantly, it's really bad for this country. And vote based on that. All right, I'm going to come clean with you guys, in a sense, it's always sort of like, expected that. You always act like everything is perfect and everything's going well. But I'm having a real problem right now, and I want to tell you what it is that the Trump White House has done to me. When you Google my name now, one of the first results is AN Official White House.gov TRUMP White House page that calls me a media offender and a liberal lunatic. And that search result to the whitehouse.gov page about me appears above my official website. It's above my Instagram account. And that by itself is disturbing enough, but I recently learned that the page is actually doing some real damage. Someone who I was talking to about interviewing me regarding my forthcoming book told me, I'm a little hesitant to interview you, David, because of you being on that list. And this person I was talking to, relatively prominent podcaster, not on the White House list, was worried if I interview you, it might get me added to the list, and then that might cause a problem for them. And that is a very chilling effect. We've talked before theoretically, and it's crazy, because things I've discussed theoretically are now becoming real and practical. I've talked theoretically with you about how the government doesn't need to arrest anyone or formally ban any speech or punish any speech in order to intimidate people. And sometimes the possibility of retaliation is enough to get people to change their behavior. It's called self censorship. An interviewer avoids a particular guest, in this case me, or an outlet, decides not to cover a particular story, or a journalist decides that asking a particular question of a public official just isn't worth the risk of the blowback that they might receive. The First Amendment protects speech, and it protects freedom of the press. The page on whitehouse.gov based on the lawyers I've spoken to, including Marc Elias, when he was recently on the show, that page doesn't seem to violate my First Amendment rights in any official way. I've not been legally sanctioned. I've not been prevented from producing my show. I've not been prevented from publishing my work or from promoting my book. But it gets very close to the line because the federal government is identifying certain people, myself included, that it doesn't like. It doesn't like what I'm saying. It has labeled me an offender. It has labeled me a liberal lunatic. And it is using WhiteHouse.gov and the power that WhiteHouse.gov has as an institution, as a thing to attack me and some other content creators. Now, at least one person has Said,

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

David, I'm not going to interview you

[David Pakman]

about your book because I'm worried I will become the next target if I do that. This is exactly how free expression is weakened without any official acts of censorship. This is how you see a page with a high Google rating, right? I mean, high Google ranking. That's the reason that for most people when they search data, David Pakman. The WhiteHouse.gov page is coming up above even things as established as Instagram. That is creating a situation where the authority carried by WhiteHouse.gov is because of the reach of the federal government and search engines therefore treat it as more important than my own page. And that helps this attack to follow me, even though I've now been on that page for months now. Of course, I know some of you will Google my name and you'll go, oh, actually, when I see it, your Instagram is ahead of thewhitehouse.gov we know that search results vary by person, by location, by device, by time of day, all of this stuff. Not everybody's going to see the exact same thing. But the screenshot we put up shows the danger very clearly, which is that a government smear can rank higher than the target's own website and social media accounts. And so then when we try to get a guest on the show or we talk to a potential advertiser or a business partner, they go, let's see who this David Pakman is. Let's see what David is all about. And one of the first things they see above my own page, above my own Wikipedia page, above my Instagram, is this White House WhiteHouse.gov page making it clear that the government, the Trump government, we should be clear. The Trump administration doesn't think too highly of me. Now, of course, the White House may respond to criticism.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

They're allowed to do that.

[David Pakman]

They're allowed to dispute reporting that they find to be inaccurate. They can defend their policies as better

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

than what I'm arguing for.

[David Pakman]

But when you create these enemy style lists, you are crossing the line because there's no neutral standard or evidence or hearing or appeal. It's the government declaring our critics are offenders. And then they let fear effectively do the rest. Now, I don't care what your politics are. You should be concerned about this. If you care about the Constitution, if you care about free speech, if you care about the First Amendment. Today, the target is me. It's Brian Tyler Cohen. It's Brian Tyler. It's Tyler Bryanson and, and Cohen Tyler. It's all of them, right?

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

It's all of us.

[Amazon Health AI Announcer]

Them.

[David Pakman]

All of.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

All of them.

[David Pakman]

But you could have a future administration that uses the same tactic against conservatives, activists, academics and private citizens. And I would be against it because this is not about politics. The best response to this, there is only one best possible outcome. The intimidation has to fail. The intimidation has to create blowback where people say, that's really messed up. That's not what the government is supposed to be doing. I'm going to support this creator. So support.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

Go look at the list.

[David Pakman]

You know, maybe you see me on there and go, david, I don't really

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

like you that much.

[David Pakman]

I don't like that purple shirt. I don't like your hairstyle. That's fine. Whatever independent media you see on that list that you do think is worth supporting, and hopefully I am one of those people, go out and support them. Preorder my new book, which by the way, it's very clear they're going to try to suppress. David pakman.com/attention. Subscribe to the YouTube channel this costs nothing. Follow me on on Spotify or Apple podcasts. The podcast get on my free substack newsletter. All of this stuff costs nothing. And we are going to push back and fight them because we can't let them get away with this. They can put my name on a list.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

They absolutely they did.

[David Pakman]

Should not be able to frighten people into looking the other way when we see the bully pulpit of whitehouse.gov used to attack critics. This is what we see in authoritarian countries. This is what we see in dictatorships. This is what we see in this world of if we don't find what they are saying flattering, then we would like it to be against the law. And that's the administration that we have right now. It's not the American way. And whether it's a Republican, a Democrat, a progressive commentator, a right wing commentator, let's criticize their ideas. Let's say, I don't believe that you're right about what you're saying. But these lists harken back to some of the darkest periods of media suppression and worse in authoritarian dictatorships over the last 150 years around the world. We can't let them win with it. If you're not subscribed to the YouTube channel, please do we estimate there's 4 million people who are watching videos every month and not subscribed. Just imagine what we could do if even a fraction of those 4 million did subscribe. And thank you to everyone who has reached out. I've heard from so many people in the audience who say, david, we agree on some things, we disagree on others. I don't like your take on gmo.

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

I don't like.

[David Pakman]

But what is being done is wrong and we need to support the ability

[David Pakman (Co-host or secondary voice)]

to debate these ideas.

[David Pakman]

And saying these people shouldn't have a voice is wrong. Thanks to all of those. Let's do it. We're not going to let them get away with this.