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- [00:00]
David Pakman
We have a Republican Party that is trying to essentially build an alternate reality for Americans. Unfortunately for them, the reality of America keeps breaking through the propaganda. Mitch McConnell appears to be gone from the Senate for good, despite now multiple proof of life photographs. Trump's reflecting pool vandalism story has collapsed and. And it has now exposed this botched $14 million renovation and then his Supreme Court crusade to appeal the birthright citizenship ruling. That's over because they just forgot they missed the deadline. Meanwhile, Trump glitches his way through a bewildering Oval Office gaggle before inventing secret polling numbers that exist nowhere other than his own mind. And meanwhile, a leading MAGA figure is warning, hey, all you people ignoring grocery prices and not slamming Trump's foreign war. You're destroying the Republican Party. And speaking of destroying the Republican Party, Laura Ingraham sort of accidentally explains why Trump officials should fear losing power. But it's reversed from reality. That, plus Trump's explosive diarrhea parasite problem has, has now turned deadly. On today's show. Well, I think it is now relatively obvious that Senator Mitch McConnell is never coming back to the United States Senate. Now, of course, his name might stay attached to the seat until January. Formally or strictly speaking, he will be one of the two senators from Kentucky. His staff may keep putting out written statements supposedly dictated by Mitch McConnell or whatever. We may even get another carefully staged picture. But in every meaningful sense, like in the sense of, is he going to be acting as senator in his capacity to represent the Kentucky people? Of course not. Mitch McConnell, Senate career appears to be completely over. The very widely discussed August 3rd, 3rd special election deadline has passed yesterday. It's now August 4th. And that was supposedly the final practical opportunity for him to resign, to declare the seat vacant, and to organize a special election which might happen alongside the November election, maybe before there would be some discretion for the Governor Andy Beshear. But that date has come and gone now. Now, Governor Andy beshear says that August 3rd was never a binding legal deadline and that it doesn't have any legal impact on his options. And in a sense, that's true. Before August, August 3 and earlier, he cannot declare a special election. August 4 and later, he must declare a special election. But the law doesn't say when the special election must be. In any case, that's come and gone. Now, here's one really interesting thing. There is an argument to be made, and more and more Democrats are making it, that even though in Kentucky, you hear this thing, Kentucky changed the law. The governor cannot appoint anyone to fill vacant Senate seats. There must be a special election. And it is true that that took place. But I've spoken to legal experts who say, listen, this has never really been tested. And if the governor were simply to say, especially because Mitch McConnell is absent, if the governor were simply to say, I'm appointing someone to fill the seat, the seat is effectively vacant. Here's who I'm appointing. It's a Democrat. You and I might go, well, no, Kentucky changed. What some legal experts are saying is there's a conflict. The conflict is based around whether U.S. senator is considered a statewide office or not. This is very technical. The technicalities don't even really matter to us. The point is there are a lot of people now saying, you know, Andy Beshear should appoint someone. Let the courts fight it out. And in fact, we have a petition@petition.david pakman.com with something like 70,000 signatures saying that is exactly what Andy Beshear should do. So if that's interesting, consider signing that petition.David Pakman.com so the point is, there is no magic solution here. But politically, Republicans kind of got through the most sensitive moment without seeing the seat become formally vacant. McConnell is completely absent. He's not been seen or heard from in terms of publicly speaking since he was hospitalized in mid June after he supposedly fell briefly, lost consciousness at some point, developed mild pneumonia. And, and he's been in rehab, and he's not medically cleared to go back to the Senate. He has missed dozens of Senate votes. Now, as a reminder, his office released two pictures. No video, no audio, no interview, no direct demonstration that he is even cognitively capable of performing the job. The first Picture showed Mitch McConnell appearing to hold that day's newspaper, sort of like when a hostage has to prove when a picture is taken, they have him hold a newspaper. And so he did that sitting alongside his wife, Elaine Chao. And then later in July, we had a second picture. And Internet sleuths, as we talked about last week, have looked at Elaine Chao's clothes, Elaine Chao's hair, and they've said, you know, it's kind of interesting that she wore the same shirt on different dates in July. Of course, that proves nothing. People wear shirts more than once. But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to notice that something is wrong here. Something is wrong. The medical Update says Mitch McConnell continues to rebuild his strength. OK, it's kind of an unusual thing to say in the absence of any actual proof that he is still even aware of his surroundings. And that refrain conspicuously Avoids what is really the central question here. Can Mitch McConnell currently speak? Does Mitch McConnell have the cognitive capacity to reason right now? Could he even remotely carry out his duties of representing the Kentucky people in the U.S. senate? Now Kentucky is entitled to two functioning senators. We don't need nor arguably are we entitled to every intimate medical detail. But I do think that proof that you can even remotely do the job is an appropriate request. Now Salon's theory, they have an article. Salon's theory is there is no brilliant Republican plot. There's no subterfuge here. The explanation is McConnell can't really communicate or explain or talk much about what's going on and nobody else can just kind of say, well we got to let this go and say that he can't do the job and get a resignation tender. And you know, powerful politicians come to believe they own the office, their families, their staffs, become accustomed to the status that sometimes surrounds being a high ranking senator. And if you admit that the end has arrived, you surrender all of that so they don't do it. And Mitch McConnell is retiring in January. The Senate is going into August recess. There's only best case scenario, a few working months left. Maybe Mitch McConnell can make a final ceremonial appearance. This is another one that people have been emailing me, emailing me about saying the plan here is to do whatever is possible to wheel him into the Senate so he can, because remember, you don't have to speak to vote. You can just give a thumbs up. He could give a thumbs up or thumbs down on some vote and it'll be his final appearance. Maybe that's the plan. But the IDEA that Mitch McConnell is going to return as a functioning senator, attending hearings, navigating the Capitol, giving speeches, asking questions that he understands, I don't believe that it's going to happen. His office is occupied, his staff has a job, his name is on the door. But I do not believe that Mitch McConnell in any serious way is coming back to the Senate. Agree, disagree. What do you think is going on? Leave a comment. Send me an email info@david pakman.com and if you believe that it is time for Andy Bashir to screw what the law says, appoint a Democrat, argue that what, what Republicans did in Kentucky does not apply to Senate seats and let the courts fight it out. Sign the petition@petition.david pakman.com do you realize what's happening with the reflecting pool fiasco? You might be saying, oh, you know David, it's been a little while since you mentioned the reflecting pool. There was Supposedly a slit in Trump's rubber in the reflecting pool, 350ft long or 300 yards or 300 miles, whatever. It seemed to change every day. So let me catch you up on what's going on. The overarching narrative for weeks now has been that Donald Trump and right wing media insist deranged left wing vandals, communists, anarchists, antrifa, whoever, they took a box cutter and destroyed the liner of Donald Trump's new Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. That was the story. People got arrested. There was one guy indicted on a felony with the possibility of going to prison for years. Jeanine Pirro held a news conference. Jesse Watters devoted an entire segment to the sabotage. But now we finally have an admission of what really happened. And what really happened is that the $14 million renovation handed out with a no bid contract was botched. It was botched worse than Trump's orange makeup job. The coating was improperly installed. The work was rushed to be done before Trump's July 4th party. And the Trump administration's own Interior Department withheld information from prosecutors leading them to believe that the damage was from a vandal rather than from shoddy work. Fox viewers who saw all the breathless coverage, left wing vandals armed with box cutters and Mark's books, they are probably, that's my ad lib, the Marx books, they are probably never going to get the correction that is appropriate. The most prominent defendant Here is a 67 year old named David Hearn who said he was at the reflecting pool, he noticed a loose piece of the coating and he touched it. He gave it a little touch and apparently it was a bad touch because the government says he caused a thousand dollars worth of damage and he is indicted on felony destruction of property. But when prosecutors finally got the documents that the Interior Department, meaning Doug Burgum, should have given them from the beginning, the documents showed, oh, you know what, the coding just started falling apart right away. It had nothing to do with David Hearn. And according to the government's own filing, the damage was because of, and I quote here, flawed installation by the contractor who got 14 million in a no bid situation and rushed to do it before America 250. And what prosecutors wrote was that if the Interior Department had just been honest and said, oh, actually pieces were falling off right away long before this guy got close and touched it, they never would have even tried to get an indictment. Think about that. Think about the degree to which one Trump tool is pushing for their loyalty prize while another Trump tool is doing the same thing, but they conflict. Doug Burgum and his department withholds information that the liner started falling apart right away. So, out of wanting to be loyal to Trump and make it seem like it was the vandal, Jeanine Pirro then goes and says, let's indict this guy because we don't have that information from the Department of the Interior. And then it all implodes. Now, Donald Trump may have fired Jeanine Pirro. We don't really know. She was seen yesterday leaving the White House dragging what looks to be a couple boxes of files behind her, maybe some of her personal belongings. There is speculation that she has been fired as of this exact moment. It hasn't been announced, but maybe it will be soon. So the federal government knew that they did a $14 million renovation that was failing. They initially gave prosecutors bare bones reports that didn't include key facts, like, it started falling away right away. So prosecutors go and indict a private citizen. They potentially place that private citizen's freedom at risk because of an explanation that Trump's own government records contradict. Now, the charges have been dropped. Prosecutors have moved to dismiss them, not only against David Hearn, but to dismiss charges against three other people accused of damaging the pool. And this was basically just crappy renovation work. Now, I think that there is one important factual correction to the framing of this story. Fox News website reported the charges were dismissed because of contractor failures. And they even put out an opinion piece saying Pirro was right to drop the case. So it's not accurate that Fox provided no coverage of the truth. But Fox spent weeks saying the vandals, the left wingers with knives and scissors and box cutters, and then they put out an article where they go, charges dropped because the person didn't really do anything. So in a sane world, Jesse Watters would deliver a correction, and he would deliver the correction with the same prominence and the same energy as the accusations we would hear from Jeanine Pirro explaining the terrible mistake that they made and caused hours and hours of primetime outrage on news channels because of a rushed, no bid, $14 million renovation that immediately started to fail. Lot of dramatic TV coverage. And then the correction is an article on the website Trump, by the way, making it all worse. We're going to get to this later. When Trump was confronted with what Jeanine Pirro did, meaning dropping the charges because that's the right thing to do. Trump said she folded. She folded like an umbrella. She choked. And of course, we still have no video evidence suggesting Trump's story is the correct one. So the facts ultimately submit to the story Trump prefers. If you hire a bad contractor, you don't make them a player in your story. You make political saboteurs, antifa and communists with box cutters. If the surface is peeling because your contractor sucks, you have to instead frame it as an attack on America and you make a felon out of a 67 year old former Olympian. It is pathetic stuff. That's the scandal. And if we want to go even further, the real scandal is a government project was rushed botched. Evidence that was relevant to what happened was concealed from prosecutors and the entire Trump propaganda operation has cracked right along with it. Now, Trump could never admit that, and that's why we'll look at the video later. Just hours ago, when confronted with the reality of the situation, instead of going, oh, we got the wrong guy, oh, I guess it wasn't anybody's vandalism, Trump goes, jeanine Pirro folded like an umbrella. And we'll get to that video a little bit later. One of our sponsors today is the new book by George Koch called Bullies, Parasites and Slaves. Bullies take from others to benefit themselves and they pretend to be our only defenders as a ploy to get our support. And the instant a bully doesn't need us, we become their next victims. We need to wise up and see this. Parasites are the people hiding behind titles and offices, subsidizing their wealth by ruthlessly underpaying everybody below them, like the CEO who makes more before lunch than you make in a year. 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I got A great single breasted blazer and pant combo. Perfect for a summer wedding. I'm going to. The ordering is really straightforward. The shipping was super fast. Go to s-gents.com and use the code PACMAN for 10% off your entire order. The link is in the description. You know, sometimes incompetence defeats maliciousness. And I want to explain what I mean by this. You might remember that when the Supreme Court ruled against Donald Trump on ending birthright citizenship, Donald Trump immediately said, we're going to go right back at them. This was a very important defeat for Donald Trump. And Trump said, we need a rehearing right away. And then you know what happened. You know why you haven't heard more about that? Because he missed the deadline. His administration never filed the paperwork. And so now the Supreme Court has issued its judgment and this effectively closes the case. And this is another legal humiliation for Donald Trump on his way eventually out the door and off of this entire birthright citizenship. So remember that at the end of June, the court ruled 6 to 3, Trump can't earn end birthright citizenship through an executive order. You can't do it. If you were born in the United States to parents who are undocumented or parents who are here temporarily, you remain a citizen because of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. That's what it says now. This was very embarrassing for the administration. This was one of Trump's biggest second term priorities. He said on day one, we're going to end birthright citizenship. He did sign the executive order right away. When he got back into office, he became the first sitting president to go to the Supreme Court for oral arguments. He, I guess, came to believe that his physical presence there would maybe intimidate or influence the justices. And instead he sat there as many of the justices, including some of the ones he appointed, completely tore apart his administration's arguments. So then came the 6, 3 defeat. Chief Justice John Roberts. Trump appointed Justices Amy Coni Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh. They rejected the administration's position, some completely and some in part. And then you had Thomas Alito and Gorsuch dissenting. Now, Trump responded exactly as you would have expected, which is that he posted way back when, at the time, quote, signs and billboards are being put up all over our southern border in Mexico advertising birthright citizenship with deliveries starting at $4,000. Likewise, similar signs going up all over our country. Billions of dollars will be illegally made by this scam. With citizenship going to anyone willing to pay it will be by far the number one way of Becoming a citizen, and then the entire family will be allowed to follow. Not sustainable. Nobody saw this coming. American citizenship is not for sale. In fact, that is a crime. And therefore, this is the key part. The Supreme Court's ruling is wrong. I will be asking for a rehearing by the United States Supreme Court immediately. Blah, blah, blah, etc. Etc. Well, the Supreme Court rules give you 25 days to request rehearing after a decision has been made on the merits. If they say, oh, you have no standing or jurisdiction, we have no jurisdiction, that's different. Supreme Court rarely says no jurisdiction but you, that would be different. But this is on merit. The deadline came and went, and they didn't file a damn thing. And then yesterday, the Supreme Court issued its formal judgment affirming the ruling, and the docket now says, judgment issued, and that is it. The Trump administration was talking as though this was an existential emergency. If we don't rehear this, it is going to destroy America. But apparently even the destruction of America wasn't urgent enough for somebody to just fill out the damn paperwork, put the filing deadline in your calendar, and now we have the. This completely embarrassing situation. Now, if I'm always honest with you, the rehearing was a long shot to begin with. Trump would have needed at least one justice in the majority to reconsider, followed by a majority of the court agreeing to revisit the case. This almost never happens after the court decides a case, but Trump said, we're going to try. We're going to file for it. I'm going to post with all capital letters about how important this is. And then the 25 days went by, and it is over. And I find it to be a fitting conclusion to the effort because it was all absurd from the beginning. As I discussed with you back at the time, the 14th amendment is very clear that people born or naturalized in the US and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens. Now, Trump insisted he could change the meaning of that just by signing an executive order. And the Supreme Court said, no, you can't. And the majority on the court held that children born here to parents, no matter the status of the parents, parents are here unlawfully or they're temporarily here. You're subject to American jurisdiction. You're subject to the jurisdiction of American law enforcement, for example. And. And you could be sued if you do something here, here in those circumstances. And so that argument came and went. Trump said Congress could easily end birthright citizenship through legislation with no constitutional amendment. That was also wrong because the Supreme Court said based on the Constitution, you can't just pass a law deleting the citizenship clause and ending that would require a constitutional amendment. And the obstacles for that are massive. So Trump lost on every single level. The executive order was blocked. The constitutional theory was rejected. Three of his own Supreme Court appointees said, no, we're not going to do that. And so Trump wasn't able to do it. The final thing he had was, this is so important to us. We're going to file the paperwork for a rehearing. And then they just never filed it. The only caveat. The only caveat. And this is like super theoretical. Supreme Court litigation is never completely absolute in that lawyers can go and seek extraordinary relief. And in theory, the Constitution could be amended. But this case is at the end of procedure. And it's very funny how what we end up realizing is Trump doesn't give a damn about most of this stuff. Trump had made birthright citizenship his signature crusade. He went to the Supreme Court. This was the most important thing. He lost. He goes, all right, well, we're going to do a rehearing. And then they just don't file it. Why? They've moved on to other stuff. It's once again another loss based on a promise that failed, and they just move on. Trump doesn't really care that much. And what Trump really cares about is all of his construction nonsense that he's doing. And in fact, I want to talk about that a little bit. Donald Trump's brain shut down during an Oval Office gaggle. Staffers panicked. And really, the continued soiling of the Oval Office. Donald TRUMP Reacting to U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro saying, oh, you know what? The guy we charged with vandalizing the reflecting pool, turns out he didn't do a damn thing. Trump does. He say, well, you know, we've got to get the right people. If we had no evidence this guy did it, we shouldn't go after him. No, he doesn't say that. Instead, he attacks Jeanine Pirro.
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Donald Trump
Graffiti all over it. I won't say what was on the sidewalk, but horror. Horrible, horrible, horrible, disgusting stuff. And not only did we fix it, we have military standing there watching it. And if anybody touches it, we. That was the one mistake with the reflecting pond. They hadn't put up the cameras yet. They had enough up because you see what's happening. But if they would have had them up, we would have had a lot of. It would have been a lot easier. But. And I was disappointed with Jeanine Piero. Really disappointed, pointed with Jeanine Bureau. She she folded like an umbrella. And people get away with things, and it's a disgrace.
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David Pakman
Trump is really disappointed that Jeanine Pirro didn't continue with the prosecution of a guy who didn't do a damn thing. He didn't do anything. And the evidence clearly points to that at this point in time, he did nothing. And it's not, oh, well, we don't want to lock up people that are innocent. We don't want to lock up people that didn't do anything. No, it's, I'm really disappointed in Jeanine Pirro, Trump. Then you'll notice he just said the cameras weren't up in time. We just, we didn't have him in time. But then Trump goes, we have, we have photographs or tapes like moving cameras, right. Trump is struggling to find the word video here. Okay. Last week we spoke to speech language pathologist Hilary Shea, and she explained when this happens to Trump, he goes, he's looking for the word video, but he calls them moving cameras. Moving cameras. This is part of the cognitive struggles that Donald Trump is having.
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Donald Trump
Beautiful. Now we have photographs or tapes like moving cameras, right?
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David Pakman
He's point, look at what Trump does. He's completely lost his ability to access vocabulary. He's pointing to the camera that's filming him and he's like one of those thing imma doos like moving cameras, right?
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Donald Trump
We have them where people are on the side cutting it with a box knife.
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David Pakman
Show us those videos, sir, please.
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Donald Trump
So now, I'm not saying I was 100% thrilled with the contractor, but the contractor was rushing. We wanted to get it open for July 4th, and we got it done. But in addition, there was vandalism.
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David Pakman
Right. We still have no evidence whatsoever of that vandalism. But it doesn't matter. The truth doesn't matter in this administration. It is simply, are you willing to repeat the lies that prove you're part of the team? And a lot of people are out there willing to repeat those lies. The topic of the anti weaponization fund came up, and one of the things that producer Pat and I have been talking about on the award winning bonus show is that even with Todd Blanche saying we're not doing the weaponization fund, they can reconstitute the same amount of money under some different legal structure in the future and try to give the Trump loyalists the money they want to give them, a reporter says, is, is there another path to getting that money to people? And Trump just goes, who you with? What a terrible, terrible show you're with.
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Donald Trump
Todd Blanche is great. He's going to do. Everybody knows it. And I understand there's been a sign off, but I did. I don't know what they agreed. I think Todd Blanchard agreed to reconfirm things that he's already said. And what he said was, okay, please go ahead.
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David Pakman
Are there other avenues? You have supporters get paid potentially. If it's not the anti weaponization fund.
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Laura Ingraham
Is there another?
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Donald Trump
Who are you with?
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David Pakman
I'm with Ms. Now, sir.
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Donald Trump
You who? Mississippi Miss Now. What a terrible show. They have the worst people on that.
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David Pakman
Are there other avenues?
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Donald Trump
No, there's no other avenues that I know about. Go ahead, Mississippi. That's the failed msdnc, right? The failed. They failed. They gave it a new name. You know why? Because nobody watched it. Go ahead. And fewer people are watching it now.
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David Pakman
Trump's instincts, when he doesn't like a question, attack the media. I'm hearing that Trump doesn't really want to address this issue. That's what I'm seeing. Trump then struggling to find other phrases. Remember 8647, which James Comey was indicted for because it was such a violent threat to the president. Anyway, Trump can't remember that. He's like, what was it? 87 Something on it. 8.
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Donald Trump
87 but then somebody went in and cut it just like they did the grass. You know, nobody talks about the grass. The grass have help.
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David Pakman
Grass has a life. I met a blade of grass once that was so smart.
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Donald Trump
Copter pictures of what they did. Was it 87 right. Do you know what they did? Right?
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David Pakman
87 right.
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Donald Trump
87 did you see what they did? Is hear what they wrote? What did they write?
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David Pakman
87 sorry. 86.
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Donald Trump
47 that's right. 86. 47 they. 86 so it's 86. 47 they didn't do 45. At least they left 45 but they. And massive letters on the grass.
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David Pakman
8647 they used the San Serif font
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Donald Trump
and Helvetica nobody talked about. That was vandalism too. We had to replace all that grass. It was a tremendous amount of grass.
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David Pakman
It's very rude to the grass. Grass is like humans is when you
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Donald Trump
hit, hit it with this poison. It's acid. It kills the grass no matter how. You can't even clean it even if you got there right after. It's very powerful. So I know it well.
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David Pakman
So I once had an affair with three blades of grass. Okay. So just really, really cognitively struggling now. Then the topic of Jeanine Pirro comes back up and a reporter rightly says, do you Think she can still do her job? She may have been fired. She was seen leaving the White House yesterday with, with various boxes of files. We don't know at this point, actually. Let's see if even during the last 20 minutes I've been filming Jeanine Pirro fired. Let's see if she's been fired. No, apparently she has not been fired. She was just taking all of her things for some other reason. Anyway, a reporter asks, is her job safe? And Trump goes, don't ever speak to
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Donald Trump
me again to Janine. And frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department and I guess she choked. I don't know what the hell happened.
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David Pakman
Reconsidering her role.
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Donald Trump
I don't know what you don't. You fake news. Don't. Don't ever talk again. You're fake news. One of the, one of the worst of the business. Fortunately, nobody watches you.
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David Pakman
Don't you ever ask a question again, sir. All right, then. Now this is like you're going to see a 180 shift in Trump here. And this is so illuminating. Then Trump starts talking about his construction projects and he goes, we have a really big decision to make here. Is it about negotiations with Iran? No. Is it about how to finally get prices down? No. Is it about tariffs? No. Trump is getting animated now. He has to decide, do we change the red pavers to granite? This is what Trump cares about. Maggie Haberman recently said about 70% of Trump's time is working on this sort of stuff. This is what Trump really cares about. And not a single American gives a damn about this crap.
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Donald Trump
But we're very proud of Lafayette Park. Now we have a big decision to make. Do we take the pavers that are wrenched, you know, the red brick pavers, and do we change them into a granite to gray granite? They're beautiful, but they're not the original. So we're going to have to make that decision.
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David Pakman
You have a. I think actually Trump needs to do a primetime address where he levels with the American people from the Oval Office. And he goes, listen, you know what? I prefer black onyx. But out of a sense of patriotism, we are going to be using American granite. And I think it would be a very, very powerful moment. Donald Trump confronted about the fact that he constantly announces airstrikes against Iran and then cancel airstrikes against Iran. And he is asked to address, why are you doing this? And here is what Donald Trump says Now, I'm warning you, we don't get a particularly clear answer.
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Donald Trump
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.
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David Pakman
This is at least a fifth time you turned off airstrikes against Iran since April to negotiate. What is your message to the American people who are wondering what has changed this time?
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Laura Ingraham
Why should it be?
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Donald Trump
Well, you don't know. I don't know. I think we're going to maybe get something, but I want to give them every last chance before decapitation. Very tough to do what we have planned. Still planned. We'll see what happens. But it's very, very tough thing to do. Do I think. I'm very proud of the fact that I will give people. I'll give a chance. This is a big move to do an attack that big on a country. I'd rather not do it now.
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David Pakman
We've already through you guys understanding this explanation, that this is a foreign policy genius. We were meant to be, meant to
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Donald Trump
believe lots of large attacks, but they were normal large. Hopefully they'll come to their senses because what happened can cannot have a nuclear weapon. But hopefully they'll come to their senses. So they called me and they said, please don't attack. We'll make a deal. That's the real truth and everyone knows it.
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David Pakman
And Iran has denied that. I don't know who to believe, honestly. They both lie all the time, wouldn't call.
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Donald Trump
And they found out through leaks and sleaze bags, you know, a lot of sleaze bags like leakers. Leakers should be put in jail. They should. They have to strengthen up the laws for leakers. But in this case, leakers helped because they said the severity of the attack, jail people. And Iran knew it. They knew what was coming. It was going to.
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David Pakman
All right, so anyway, making very, very little sense. And finally, just a reminder, again, this is what Trump cares about. Did you see the horses by the bridge with the gold? It's not a game of clue. It's Donald Trump as President of the United States.
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Donald Trump
Biden was a disaster. I said, I'm going to get that fixed along with Doug Burgum and Department of Interior. And we worked hard on that. Now we worked hard on all 70. It's actually, I think, 81 now. You saw the new horses that just opened by the bridge with the gold. That was the way they were many years ago. Now they look better, better than they did many years ago. But these monuments look better than they did when they were originally built.
- [36:10]
David Pakman
All right, so this is what Donald Trump cares about. I ask you, as an American, do You believe when you hear Donald Trump talk about foreign policy, his construction projects, hating the media, attacking reporters, what does he really care about? And does he care about anything that is going to materially improve your life? The answer seems to very clearly be no. I don't have a cat myself, but I have spent enough time around friends cats to know that there are picky cats when it comes to food. They don't like it, they won't eat it. But one of my friends has had a ton of success switching to Smalls cat food. Before Smalls mealtime was very hit or miss. The cat gets excited. Now our sponsor Smalls is fresh and human grade cat food. Made with real ingredients, no fillers or artificial stuff. High protein, gently cooked, promotes digestion, delivered right to your door. My friend did a side by side with the old food and Smalls. The cat went for Smalls. Your cat deserves more than a bowl of processed shortcuts. Try Smalls. If your cat doesn't love Smalls, you get a full refund for for a limited time my audience gets 60% off your first order plus free shipping and free treats for life. When you go to smalls.com/pacman the link is in the description. Donald Trump is stroking out again, raising new questions about his neuro psychiatric state. Responding to some of the worst polling of his political career by insisting that there are secret unseen polls which showed that he is more popular than ever. Do all of the public polls show that the country doesn't like this guy? Fear not, there are shadowy secret private polls never to be released which prove that he's really, really popular. An explanation that reads sort of like a panicked man desperately constructing an alternate reality where every single real world failure is a victory in this imaginary world. Now I think I don't know that I need to do a disclaimer, but I'll do it anyway. It's not clear that Trump literally suffered a stroke while writing this, and it's tough to diagnose neurological or psychiatric conditions from a truth social post. But what we see is that Trump's behavior lends itself to seeing an inability to process information. And that is very concerning. Here is Donald Trump's truth social post. Ok, my real polling numbers, not those made up by the fake news media, are the best they have ever been. And why wouldn't they be? With the biggest tax cuts and unemployment and employment and unemployment and employment numbers ever, the biggest outside investment in American in America, in world history, a totally secure border, a giant victory in Venezuela, the denuclearization of Iran, unparalleled respect and success throughout the world and much more. Don't believe the radical left's fake poll numbers. They are crooked and corrupt, just like the country destroying Democrats are crooked and corrupt. Vote Republican for greatness in America. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So what's the message here? The message is, if a number looks bad for me, don't believe it because the Democrats did it or it's fake news media or whatever. That's that. Now, what are the real polling numbers? Well, he gives us no pollster, no sample, no methodology, no dates, no results. He just goes, the secret numbers exist and they're really good. Now, as I talked about yesterday with Rick Wilson, the other thing that Trump will sometimes do, although he didn't do it this time, is he'll go 98% approval among MAGA Republicans. It's like if I go, I have 98% approval among people who love this show. Like, yeah, but what about the people who don't? They're out there too. 98% approval among MAGA Republicans doesn't really tell you very much, but the actual numbers are a disaster. Reuters Ipsos poll, 35% approval. Insane. Democrats lead by seven on the generic congressional ballot. For the first time in nearly a decade of Reuters Ipsos doing this poll, Democrats now have an advantage over Republicans on management of the economy. Reuters. One Reuters poll has Trump at 36% approval. That's insanely low. And so Trump's response is not. Well, you know, I looked at the method would Trump ever do? I looked at the methodology of the Reuters poll and I found that the way they identified likely voters, of course not. Trump goes, I have secret hidden polls. The whole system is crooked and numbers that exist in my imagination alone or maybe in some presentation created by Natalie Harp, I don't know, to try to keep Trump emotionally regulated. Those are really good numbers. It is a self ceiling belief system. Any information flattering Trump is real because it flatters Trump. Any information contradicting what he says is fake because it contradicts him. That's it. And the absence of evidence, just like for conspiracy theorists, the absence of evidence becomes proof that there are these corrupt forces concealing how popular and successful Trump really is. And then comes the delusional list. Biggest what was on their biggest tax cuts, biggest investments in world history. Secure border giant victory, more respected than ever. Everything is absolute and historic. And it is all made up, just completely made up. Now, have border crossings fallen? Border crossings have ebbed and flowed and there are points at which they have been lower for a bunch of different reasons? Yes. That true? That's true. Are there companies and foreign governments that have said we would be open to investing over the next 10 years if the right projects are. Yeah, that's happened. But did Trump bring $17 trillion home in the belly of Air Force One from the Middle East? Of course not. Announced investments are not completed investments, and all of this other stuff that I've talked about a million times. So I think the most revealing phrase here is, why wouldn't they be? Why wouldn't his polls be at record highs? And Trump starts with the conclusion, my approval must be high because I regularly say this is the best presidency that there has ever been. Therefore any polling that says something different can't be accurate. It is psychologically disturbing. But this is a very dangerous governance platform. If you have a president who can't absorb unfavorable information, you can't correct failing policies. If voters hate the war and the polls are fake because you want them to believe, you want to believe that they actually love the war, then you're not going to consider reality. If families say, we can't afford food, but you go, oh, the economy is secretly perfect, then you're not going to be able to deal with what people are actually experiencing. If Republicans are headed towards this apparent midterm disaster, advisers need to show Trump that that's what's going on, or he will just insist everything is awesome. This is how authoritarian leaders get trapped in information bubbles. We've seen it over the last 150 years. Everyone around them starts to be trained. And Natalie Herp, Natalie Harp, has been trained on this. If you deliver bad news, you get punished, the messenger gets punished. And if you give them lies that they like, you get a promotion, you get access to Trump, you become his best friend. And so the danger here is the most powerful person, arguably in the world sees reality as an insult to him. Collapsed polling, no economic advantage, unpopular war party in danger. And he goes, you should see the secret polls I have. They are absolutely phenomenal. The only upside for us, who are more concerned with reality than nonsense, is that fake polls won't change what voters actually do in November. And this is why we've got a phone bank we've got to activate, we've got to vote. We need to make sure that we are doing what needs to be done to make the real polls be reflected in November's ballots rather than these imaginary fake polls. One of maga's most influential media personalities is telling his own AUDIENCE Trump and Republicans are failing on the issues that most matter to voters. I'm talking about Matt Walsh. Matt Walsh posted about this and then his followers tried to deny it and he turned on them. This is fascinating. This. This is how political coalitions start to crack. So here's the first tweet from Matt Walsh. Quote, grocery prices are insane. They're still rising. Addressing this problem should be the number one priority of every elected leader. And the stupid foreign wars and focus on this issue. It's one of the main reasons socialists are gaining power. Now, Walsh doesn't mention Trump by name in that post, so it's not a complete break from Trump. He's doing the thing where he's criticizing circumstances, not the president. But who's the president who started the foreign war? It was Trump who promised over and over, prices are going to fall. Right when I'm sworn in, it's Trump. So Walsh is describing Trump's failure, but he's not naming Donald Trump. But Matt Walsh is correct here. Grocery prices up another 2.7% over the last year, ending in June 4. Fruits and vegetables up more than 5%. Meat, poultry, fish and eggs up 2.6%. Now prices are increasing more slowly than at the worst inflationary periods. But the promise was prices down. And instead we have prices that started high when Trump took over, according to Trump, and then have only gone up since then. Now, there is a distinction between inflation and prices. This confuses a lot of people. Lower inflation means prices are going up more slowly. It doesn't mean grocery prices have come down to their 2020 levels, to their 2021 levels. So you can have inflation down while you're still paying more. And that is the situation that is going on now. Walsh says grocery prices have increased roughly 30%. Depends where you start from. But he's right overall, which is there's a cumulative increase here. It's been huge. People notice it whenever they shop. His own followers, mostly right wingers, didn't like this. And after seeing a bunch of the comments, Matt Walsh responded to his own tweet saying, quote, read the comments here to see a number of conservatives angrily insisting that rising, rising grocery prices aren't actually a problem, just stunning levels of suicidal idiocy. What are you guys doing here? Who do you think you're fooling? I think the phrase suicidal idiocy is very accurate politically. Republicans spent four years saying to Americans, we've got a referendum here. It's the price of eggs. It's a referendum on Joe Biden. And they couldn't walk by a grocery store without going in and filming the price of eggs and going, biden, Biden, Biden. Trump comes back, but prices keep going up. And now if you simply acknowledge groceries have continued to get more expensive, you're a doomer. How dare you. People do not become less angry about an expensive grocery bill because a Republican on the Internet calls them whiny. Walsh then went after establishment Republicans who were defending the situation, saying, quote, the establishment Republicans have arrived to inform you that, that if you're worried about grocery prices, you're just a whiny doomer. And it's fine that prices have gone up by 30% because at least you're better off than someone who lived 125 years ago. This is the winning message. I'm sure the voters will respond very well to it. He then says, good stuff, David, you're doing great. He's not responding to me. He was arguing with someone named David on Twitter. So we have a deeper conflict here and I think this is kind of what he's getting at. MAGA sold itself as economic populism. Trump said, elites are betraying you and promising cheaper food that they're not going to do. I will really give you cheaper food, I will really get you cheaper energy and everybody will be prosperous and winning. Once MAGA gained power and we're closing in on two years and they haven't delivered, their defenders went back to the same establishment message that they were supposedly replacing, which is, oh, the statistics are fine. Stop complaining, you're fortunate. Just appreciate it. That message destroyed Democrats in 2024. We have to make sure it destroys Republicans in 2026. Now, one final thought. I think Matt Walsh understands something that Trump doesn't, which is that voters connect. Not even voters connect. The reason foreign policy really matters is household finances. Foreign policy in and of itself ranks so low on the list of what people care about for voting, but how it impacts your finances are a big deal. The war sent gas prices up and increased costs throughout the economy. And so the America first voters who signed up for economic relief did not sign up for another open ended Middle Eastern war. And Walsh is right. This is creating an opening, maybe for socialists, maybe for candidates that just are offering more aggressive economic change and the analysis stops. This is the part that's missing. He hasn't addressed the why. When mainstream Republicans respond to people having hardship with denying it, voters start to get interested in politicians who maybe are proposing price controls, maybe are proposing stronger unions, maybe you're proposing antitrust enforcement or public health care or some kind of intervention with housing. You can say, I don't agree with those solutions. But hearing your groceries aren't really expensive, that doesn't compete. You might hear the other side offering solutions you don't love. Or maybe you do, but, but even if you don't, if you're a moderate Republican, for example. But if your options are solutions I don't love, but which might do something, and being told everything's fine, I don't think being told everything fine is going to win that out. And so the political numbers now reflect that. Polling shows that Democrats are more trusted on the economy than Republicans. That almost never is the case. And this is a real problem for Republicans heading into the election. Now, this is not a full MAGA mutiny. Walsh is still being careful not to blame Trump directly, but he's warning, you know, the Emperor's groceries are very expensive. And when the MAGA people go shut up, Matt says that they are suicidal idiots. It's a cracked coalition, some of whom are realizing when these cultural grievances get thrown into the refrigerator and there's no food in the refrigerator, only cultural grievances, all of a sudden people go, man, I can't feed my family with the culture war stuff. So Republicans can keep pretending otherwise. We've got to make sure they understand why that's a mistake. Come November, the David Pakman show is an audience supported program. And the best, most direct way to support the show is by becoming a member. @join pacman.com you'll get the daily bonus show, the daily commercial free show, and plenty of other great membership perks. Get the full experience by signing up@join pacman.com oh, a fox News host is suddenly worried about an authoritarian government. All of a sudden she understands forced scarcity and cronyism and political prosecutions and attacks on constitutional structures. And I got to tell you, Laura Ingraham describes the entire danger really clearly. The only problem is she says, hey, this is what Democrats might do someday. But Laura, this is what Donald Trump and his administration are doing right now. Listen to this. Just, we know she's talking about Democrats, but just think about what she's saying in the context of the Trump administration right now. She almost gets it.
- [52:50]
Laura Ingraham
So Democrats, you got to nip this in the bud now because if the socialists get a foothold in November, they could end up being the dominant force in the party for the next 40 years. And the end goal, it's clear, forced scarcity for all. Oh, except their friends and their cronies. And then Taking a wrecking ball to the constitutional structures that gave them a chance to sell their noxious views.
- [53:14]
David Pakman
Right, Laura, you almost have it. An economy structured to benefit the President's friends and allies. We might have that. We have that right now. Using government power to punish your perceived enemies. We have that right now. Going after institutions and courts and universities and media outlets and that. That you don't like. We have that right now. Turning access to the federal government into a loyalty test. We've got that right now. She's sort of assembled the puzzle and she's got the box in front of her and the picture on the box is of Donald Trump, but she's insisting, no, no, this puzzle would come together and it would be Democrats, not Donald Trump. Now, this is a very, it's a remarkable feature of Trump propaganda. They often do correctly identify the dangers of authoritarian government, but they identify it as something that the opposition is planning for the future. Trump talks about prosecuting his political enemies all the time, and they're trying to do it. And his administration attacks media orgs and they pressure private companies and they target universities and they treat institutions as illegitimate when they won't submit to him. But Laura Ingraham looks at all of that and goes, just imagine what Democrats could do. And then she arguably gets even more revealing. She goes, they're going to promise prosecutions of Trump and ICE and all of this stuff. Trump's doing that sort of prosecution right now and not because anybody committed crimes, only for political disagreement.
- [54:48]
Laura Ingraham
So as much as Carville and Maher may dislike or distrust Trump, remember the promised prosecutions that they are advocating for piker over the weekend. They're going to promise prosecutions of Trump and his family, then ICE officials, anyone who worked for ice, then the entire system will be put on trial before it's ultimately dismantled. So Democrats, you got to nip this in the bud now, because if the socialists get a foothold in November, they could end up being the dominant force in the party for the next 40 years.
- [55:23]
David Pakman
Imagine, imagine if someone took power who then started going after people from the previous administration. Now, this sort of reveals the real concern. The concern isn't people in power in general going after political adversaries in general, because if it were, she would be calling out that Donald Trump is doing it right now. Laura Ingraham is worried about what happens to her. She's imagining, man, if Republicans lose power and the people running the administration currently are held to account for everything they've done, that could hit ice, that could hit Trump, that could Hit me in some world now, I actually don't think it will. I don't think there's any interest among Democrats to go after Laura Ingraham for the things that she has said. That's the sort of thing that Donald Trump does. And to be clear, you know, working for ICE doesn't make it so that you're going to get prosecuted. Political prosecutions would be wrong. Guilt by association would be wrong. If Democrats ever proposed prosecuting every ICE employee simply for working there, I would go, that doesn't make any sense. I would be opposed to that. But investigating specific officials for things they've allegedly done, that's not authoritarianism. You're supposed to do that. That's what a justice system does. Going after people simply because they weren't loyal enough to you, which is what Trump is doing. That's not ok. Now, Ingram is sort of like collapsing two different things. Any investigation of Trump is unfair political persecution. But any accountability of the Trump administration is, oh, they're dismantling the system. It's anarchy. The standard is that Republicans have to be allowed to do whatever they want. And if it is later examined, was that legal? What they did, Was that okay? That is the abuse of power. The abuses of power are not abuses of power. Holding them accountable for their abuses of power, that's what they don't want. And notice the assumption beneath the warning, if Democrats win, Trump and his allies may lose the protection that comes from controlling the government. That's what really scares them, because for years, these are the people who have cheered Trump. He calls for investigations. They go, yeah. He calls for prosecution and punishment of enemies. And you know, he goes, lock her up. They loved lock her up. They supported the weaponization of government as long as Trump is the one doing the weaponizing. And their targets are the people that they don't like. All of a sudden, Laura Ingraham gets why we have neutral institutions, why we have constitutional limits, why we have protection against politicized prosecution. She gets it because now she's going, damn, could they come after me? Could they come after my friends? Could they come after my allies? That is something she can't bring herself to notice when her side is doing it right now. So instead she goes, if they get power, they're going to do this stuff, which is bad. So isn't it bad when your friends and allies are doing it right now, Laura? This is. A lot of these people are having these kind of realizations. Maga, Mike Johnson has been having it. Some of the media people have been having it. And now it's Laura Ingraham. We, I speak for myself and the people I hear from who agree with me. We are not into go lock people up absent, absent evidence, prosecute people simply to suck them dry of money through lawyer fees or. No, no, no, no. What I say is let's have neutral institutions that are able to evaluate and bring forward accountability when appropriate. If you've got evidence to charge people, you charge them. If you get a guilty verdict or you get a plea deal, make sure that they are punished in accordance with what the law says. Don't give them a special deal because of who they are. That's the rule of law. That's what I support. That's what I know many in my audience support. Laura, on the other hand, supports one thing when she is on the side that is doing the persecution and something very different when she is on the side that is potentially going to be held accountable. Donald Trump's explosive diarrhea problem is getting worse and worse. The massive parasitic outbreak spreading across the United States has now turned deadly. Michigan officials have identified the first two deaths connected to cyclospariasis. This is the intestinal illness where the kind of signature symptom is prolonged, sometimes explosive diarrhea. Now, to be clear, we do not have reason to believe right now that Donald Trump has explosive diarrhea due to cyclospariasis. I think that that is the most sort of complete way I can say it. And as far as we know, neither does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. But Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As his secretary of Health and Human Services, are associated with this outbreak Now. Now let me tell you about the death so far. Both people who died had significant underlying conditions. They were probably worsened by cyclospirisis and dehydration. And officials are saying this is generally not a life threatening illness. Deaths are really, really rare. But two deaths are two deaths. Now, as of July 28, the CDC had almost 7,000 confirmed cases since May, a bunch of unconfirmed and about 11,000 more that are being investigated. The real number could be much higher because a lot of people with mild symptoms just kind of stay home and wait for it to go away. They never get a test, they never seek treatment. This is a microscopic parasite. It spreads through food or water that's been contaminated with human feces. The symptoms can also include cramping, nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite, loss of weight. And dehydration is where it can get dangerous. Now, there is a subset of cases linked to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms. Taco Bell has received lettuce from that supplier. Taylor Farms recalled their central Mexico iceberg lettuce. They've included, included in that recall certain marketside products that are sold at Walmart. And of course, Taco Bell has stopped serving it. Not every infection seems to have come from this. Now let's talk about the government response. Trump doesn't give a damn about this. Thousands of Americans infected. 200 hospitalizations just in Michigan. 2 people dead. Parasitic disease. Surveillance doesn't flatter Trump. It doesn't punish an enemy. It doesn't put Trump's name on a building. He doesn't give a damn about it. Trump does one thing really well. He finds people less qualified than he is or less qualified than what they should be and puts them in positions of importance. And that is what is happening here with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. And Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Has spent years undermining trust in public health institutions. And Trump puts him in charge of those institutions while Elon, Musk and Doge got the federal workforce. For example, the CDC lab specializer specializing in cyclospora shrank from 11 people to three because of funding and hiring freezes and people who quit. The administration says the response team was not directly hit by formal layoffs, but they have still seen a decline in capacity. So you have Elon and Doge to thank for that. And the cuts did not contaminate the lettuce. We cannot say that they caused the deaths. But what we are seeing is government's ability to identify the sources of outbreaks and to track cases to protect the public. All of that is being diminished. Trump wanted responsibility for American public health. He hired unqualified people to dismantle the capacity to do that. So if nothing else motivates you about November, we've got to sweep both houses in November. I don't know that it will happen. The Senate's not looking awesome, but it's possible. Elections determine who should be overseeing the functions of government. Should Trump, Kennedy and Doge get to keep breaking government? Or is it time for some accountability and some oversight? And I hope that we are able to at least improve this situation with the November election. Limited preorder, signed copies of my forthcoming book Pay Attention are available. We are going to have to cut it soon because I need time to sign all the things. Get your signed copy at David pakman.com/attention. You will also find on that page links to the audiobook and the Kindle book. It's all there. And then if you want this specific copy of the book that's on my shelf, send in your preorder receipt to infoavidpakman.com and say, David, get me in that raffle. We've got a great bonus show coming up for you today. I'll be back tomorrow. Let's do it.