4/29/24: Fertility hits rock bottom, Barr admits Trump assassination plans

This episode delves into the US's record-low fertility rates and controversial remarks by former Attorney General William Barr regarding Donald Trump's casual mentions of assassination.

1. The US fertility rate has declined to its lowest in a century, influenced by economic and societal changes.
2. Urbanization and higher living standards globally correlate with lower fertility rates.
3. Former AG William Barr revealed that Trump often spoke of killing political opponents, highlighting severe ethical and legal concerns within Trump's administration.
4. The episode underscores the complex relationship between population dynamics and economic policies.
5. It also casts a light on the ongoing political repercussions of Trump's presidency, including his influence on democratic norms and legal structures.

1: US Fertility Trends

Discusses the historic decline in US fertility rates, attributing it to economic advancements and changing societal roles. David Pakman: "As countries develop, the economic incentives for having more kids go down."

2: Trump's Rhetoric on Assassination

Covers Barr's admissions about Trump’s casual assassination talks, exposing the dangerous rhetoric and practices within the White House. William Barr: "It wasn't uncommon... Trump said a lot of things."

1. Stay Informed: Keep abreast of demographic trends to understand societal shifts.
2. Engage in Political Discourse: Discuss and challenge political narratives that impact democratic values.
3. Support Responsible Media: Encourage journalism that probes and elucidates significant political revelations.
4. Participate in Civic Activities: Engagement in local and national politics can help safeguard democratic processes.
5. Educational Investment: Promote and support education, particularly in human rights and civic responsibilities.

-- On the Show:

-- The US fertility rate drops to its lowest in a century, and we discuss the implications of the declining birth rate on the environment, economy, and foreign policy

-- William Barr, Donald Trump's former Attorney General, appears to accidentally admit that Donald Trump regularly floated the idea of assassinating people he didn't like

-- Howard Stern interviews President Joe Biden

-- A new CNN poll shows Donald Trump leading Joe Biden by 9 points, and despite being an outlier, the poll is still a concern for Democrats

-- A desperate Donald Trump is now begging Ron DeSantis for help wooing some of DeSantis' donors

-- Christina Bobb, Donald Trump's former "election integrity" lawyer, has been indicted for alleged election crimes

-- Increasingly panicking about Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump explodes in a late-night rant about him being a "Democratic plant"

-- A haggard-looking Donald Trump says he's missing Melania Trump's birthday because of a "rigged trial" against him

-- Amid rampant allegations of sexual assault, Russell Brand is becoming religious, promoting a prayer app, and getting baptized

-- Voicemail caller says David is a libtard and is wrong about many things

-- On the Bonus Show: Trump trial is testing his campaign strategy of embracing bad publicity, ByteDance prefers shutting down TikTok rather than selling it, Trump VP contender Kristie Noem under fire for killing her dog, much more...

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William Barr, Donald Trump

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David Pakman

Let's start today with population and fertility. I hope everybody had a good weekend. We woke up this morning to news that the US fertility rate dropped to its lowest in a century, with a lower number of births in 2023, the CNN reports. The fertility rate in the US has been trending down for decades. A new report shows another drop in births in 2023 brings the rate down to its lowest in more than a century.

There were 3.6 million babies born in 2023, or 54.4 live births for every thousand females age 15 to 44, according to provisional data. One little note is that there are increasingly births to women older than 44. But that should not affect this rate because it is still encompassing the totality of babies born. I believe I'm understanding that correctly, but it would be a small difference in terms of this rate. Now, there have been so many politicizations of the birth rate and fertility over recent years.

Elon Musk has famously said, we need to have more babies, a population decline is coming, and so on and so forth. On the other hand, there have been those who, for environmental reasons, have insisted, we already have too many people. Overpopulation. We need to stop having babies. Antinatalists.

Let's cut the entire thing. There's too many people now. The reality is that there are lots of people who are very, very wrong, or at least missing half or more of the picture when it comes to this issue. The first critical part to understand about declining fertility rates is that worldwide, when you see economic development and wealth increase, you see a decline in the fertility rates. As countries develop, the economic incentives for having more kids go down.

Kids are less useful in an information society than they were in an agricultural society, where the more kids you have, they grow up and they work on the farm. For example, higher standard of living and higher income leads to lower fertility rates. And this is not just in the United States, it's not just in the US and Europe. For people who love to say, oh, soon, Africa, this, that or the other thing. When you look at the countries in Africa that are developing more quickly and where standard of living is rising and infant mortality is declining, they are also having fewer kids.

This seems to be a phenomena that crosses geography, it crosses culture, it crosses religion and race and ethnicity in the entire thing. When you increase education and lower unemployment, meaning there is more demand for people to work, you also, especially for women, delay having kids. And when you delay having kids, you end up having fewer kids because you have fewer reproductive years during which you want to have children. Urbanization, when people move from rural to urban areas. It lowers fertility rates for many of the reasons I mentioned, plus higher cost of living, reduced need for children to contribute to household labor.

We are seeing people move from rural to urban globally. And so it's really important to understand that this is not unique to the United States. And so far, efforts to increase the fertility rate in other countries have not gone particularly well. On the bonus show, probably tomorrow or maybe on Wednesday, we'll talk about what's going on with the fertility rate in South Korea. So this doesn't seem to be something that is special or unique to the United States.

Now, if you believe, and this is the part where the right starts to kind of go haywire, if you believe in the traditional model, I would call it, or framework of economic growth, which is the way economies grow, is by more people working and more people consuming. In other words, growth to some degree comes from increasing the number of people buying stuff and selling their labor in a country. The US is going to need more people. It's not unique to the US. We're based in the US, so we're talking about it in these terms.

But to the extent that economic growth is based on the continued population growth and productivity growth and consumption, at a certain point the population in the US is going to start to decline. The expectations are, you know, somewhere between 2050 and 2100, depending on the model you look at. And the problem the US is going to have is not too many people, which, by the way, there is so much more than enough space for so many more people in the United States. We can talk about the environmental implications. That's not the conversation right now.

There is plenty of room for more people here. The problem the US will face under the traditional economic model is not enough people. And so it is very interesting as we hear anti immigration right wingers. Too many people coming in, too many people coming in legally, too many people coming in illegally stay home in wherever your other, your home country is when they say that. And they also express concern about the future of the american economy, soon the problem is going to be, we've got to get more people here.

I've read a number of books which suggest that the US needs to very quickly double or triple the amount of legal immigration coming to the United States in order to deal with the declining fertility rate. Now, of course, bringing people here from other countries that also are experiencing declining fertility won't solve the problem in a different country. Okay, now, to get outside of this model, we need to think of a different economic model. And there are pros and cons to all of this, but to a great degree, the right wing panic over immigrants. The real panic should be, we are going to need to dramatically increase immigration if, under the current economic model, we want to maintain economic growth and our current standard of living.

Now, there's the entire environmental approach to this, some elements of which they get right, some elements of which they, they actually get wrong. A topic for a different day, but a lot of people in different ways have this issue wrong, or at least very incomplete. If this topic is interesting, maybe we'll bring on an expert or two to talk about it. Let me know. William Barr is the former attorney general of the failed former President Donald Trump.

And he accidentally admitted during a recent interview with CNN's Caitlin Collins that it was not the most uncommon occurrence in the White House for Trump to float the idea of having a political adversary or opponent or just someone he didn't like killed. Now, William Barr is going to contextualize this as, listen, Trump said a lot of things. He said a lot of things. That's all it is. But this is really wild in a segment during which William Barr was trying to minimize the dangers of Trump because, remember, despite William Barr saying Trump is a danger to democracy and has no business being president, William Barr is also saying, I'm going to vote for Trump over Biden because Biden somehow is even more dangerous, although I invite you to point to the danger from Joe Biden.

Very hard to look at this administration and say a lot of danger here. But regardless, in trying to minimize the danger of Trump, William Barr admitted that it actually wasn't that rare that Trump would offhandedly say, can we have this person killed? Can we have that person killed? Take a listen. I hear from a lot of Republicans who defend Trump saying, well, that's a hypothetical and that's ridiculous.

Caitlin Collins

But Alyssa Farrah Griffin, who was Trump's communications director, posted yesterday and said that you were present at a moment when Trump suggested executing the person who leaked information that he went to the White House bunker when those George Floyd protests were happening outside the White House. Do you remember that? I remember him being very mad about that. I actually don't remember him saying executing, but I wouldn't dispute it. I mean, it doesn't sound the president would lose his temper and say things like that.

William Barr

I doubt he would. So the president would lose his temper and say things like that. So the critical part now, Barr in a second is going to say, I doubt he would do it, and I'll back it up for us. But here, William Barr is casually saying, yeah, I mean, it's like he would say that at other times, the idea. Of killing people, temper and say things like that.

I doubt he would have actually carried it out. I don't, you know, but he would. Say that on other occasions. You said he was, you know, the president had, I think people sometimes took him too literally, and, you know, he would say things like, similar to that in occasions to blow off steam. But I wouldn't take him literally every time he did it.

Caitlin Collins

Why not? Because at the end of the day, it wouldn't be carried out. And you could talk sense, but just. Because it's not carried out and you could talk sense into him, doesn't that still mean that the threat is there? Understand that what William Barr is saying here is Trump would regularly talk about killing people and that he could be talked out of it, and he didn't really end up following through.

David Pakman

Particularly terrifying. Particularly terrifying given Trump's obsession with arguing that he should have complete and total immunity as president of the United States. Regular William Barr is saying it regularly happened, but he didn't really mean it and we were able to talk him out of it. Well, that makes me feel really good about the idea of four more years of this dangerous, authoritarian, ego narcissist in office. A bonus clip from this same interview.

Caitlin CoLlins confirming despite all of these things you've told us about, Trump tried to subvert the peaceful transfer of power, regularly talked about having political opponents or adversaries killed. Despite the indictments, you're still voting for him. And William Barr says, yeah, I am. So just to be clear, you're voting for someone who you believe tried to subvert the peaceful transfer of power that can't even achieve his own policies, that lied about the election, even after his attorney general told him that the election wasn't stolen. And as the former chief law enforcement in this country, you're gonna vote for someone who is facing 88 criminal counts.

William Barr

Oh, look, the 88 criminal counts, a lot of those are, and I've said. Even if ten of them are accurate. The answer to the question is yes, I'm supporting, I'm supporting the republican ticket. But can you say that you're voting for Donald Trump because you're not saying his name, you just say you're supporting the republican ticket. I've said as between Biden and Trump, I will vote for Trump because I.

David Pakman

Barr does this thing that always, it doesn't creep me out, but it really, for me is a red flag. He often, during interviews, doesn't look at the interviewer. He kind of looks off into the middle distance. And as you see a lot of times during this interview, he's not really looking at the camera. He sometimes is, and he'll sometimes glance over at Caitlin Collins.

But there's a lot of this just kind of looking into the middle distance and it doesn't tell us anything one way or the other. But combined with the things that he's saying, this is a guy, I wouldn't trust him as any further than I could throw him, let me put it that way. And that's not a fat joke, by the way, just might sound that way. Despite years now of telling us all of the existential risks that Trump represents to the country, he says, Biden's worse, and I'm going to support the republican ticket and it happens to be Trump. I would ask him, even though he vaguely, generically says, oh, the greatest danger is progressivism.

What has Joe Biden done that's been so dangerous? Point specifically to the dangerous things Biden has done, because a lot of the low information people would say, well, socialism china, right? But they don't know what's going on. William Barr is not a dumb guy. I would love for someone to press him and say, what are the dangerous things Biden's done that put him at the level of what you've identified Trump to be?

Maybe Caitlin Collins during her next opportunity. Let's take a very quick break, hear from a sponsor or two, and then let's get to the job. Joe Biden Howard Stern interview, which I don't think is getting the attention it deserves. After this short break. We've talked on the show about the various problems in the supplement industry, a major one being how the quality and freshness of what you're getting can vary.

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Of course, remember that you can also take a discount, not means tested. If you want the discount, just take it by using the coupon code. Save Democracy 24 Save Democracy 24 all right, Howard Stern interviewed Joe Biden this was very, very interesting. Howard Stern has interviewed Hillary Clinton long after she lost the 2016 election. Howard Stern used to interview Donald Trump regularly before he was ever president, the first interview Howard Stern has ever done with a sitting president.

Now, there are all sorts of praises and criticisms of this interview that we're going to look at. The praises have mostly been that in an longer than our interview, which Joe Biden rarely does, he was empathetic, he was thoughtful. Yes, he stuttered. Sometimes he has a stutter. But it was abundantly clear that his memory is fine, that he knows what day it is, that he knows where he is and that this is not a guy with whom we'd be concerned, helm being at the helm of the United States of America.

As far as some of the criticisms, many criticisms that it was a softball interview, criticisms that the questions sounded prearranged to some degree. Now, one thing it's really important to understand, White Houses want restrictions. Publicists and handlers justify their existence by attempting to impose restrictions. We have dealt with this at a smaller level many times before. People come to us, they say, hey, we want the questions ahead of time.

We say, no. People come to us, they say, hey, listen, we'd really like you to ask about a, b, or c. And sometimes we'll say, a and b are interesting. C is not. Or people will come and say, do not ask about x, and we'll make a call.

If there is some controversy that is not central to our interview and we are asked to avoid it because of ongoing litigation, we might say, yeah, that's not going to be a topic on the show. If it's sort of an impossibility, because this is really the full scope of the conversation about someone, and we're being told, don't mention this, then we say, we really can't do the interview in that case. So my point here is, especially at this level, I can only assume the White House and the likely dozens of people that were involved in setting up this interview had all sorts of requests. And when we get to an example question in a moment, I will point out this is not a question that Howard would ask unless it was part of. We want you to talk about this sort of discussion.

That's my instinct. So let's start with the beginning. And it is a discussion of the seemingly disdain that Trump has for members of the military, suckers and losers. And Joe Biden, who happens to have a very different perspective, especially as his late son Beau served in the military. He's promised if he doesn't win, there's going to be a bloodbath, things like that.

Joe Biden

Here's what bothers me most.

We have a fundamentally different value set. For example, when he was in Paris, he wouldn't go to that grave site and said, there are losers, these men and women who were killed in battle defending America, losers. And I just, I'm glad I wasn't there because I think I would have. My son's in one of those graves, in one of the graves back here, not there. And the idea that they're losers and.

Howard Stern

Suckers and McCain's losers. He said, mcCain's a loser. Well, McCain's a loser. Can you imagine when John McCain got out of prison and was released? He came work for me.

Joe Biden

He was a senate liaison officer. We traveled over 100,000 miles together, and he was like an assistant because he worked for the. He was a fabulous man. I got to meet him before he died. He was a straight up guy, man, tough as hell.

And. But I just. I find I can't fathom a president of the United States of America saying that the folks who died defending this country were suckers and losers. The topic of January 6, of course, came up, and the discussion of. Wait, now the rioters are patriots is what we're talking about.

David Pakman

And the topic of the real change of the republican party over the last however many years was a topic of discussion. Take a listen. What are we debating? A man picked up the phone and wanted to say, fake the election. Give me 11,000 votes.

Howard Stern

I don't know how any American who loves this country, that's the end of the debate. You don't get to run if you're going to fix an election. On January 6, when they were storming. The Capitol and a police officer died. Yeah.

Joe Biden

And he would say nothing. He was sitting in that office off the dining area, off the oval office for 3 hours and said nothing. I was supposed to make a speech on the economy that day. Instead, I made a speech from Del. I was in Delaware on that issue because I was elected president, but I wasn't sworn in yet.

It was derelict. It was almost criminal. He did nothing. He just sat there and watched what was happening. Not a single.

And now he wants to call. He calls them patriots and victims, and I mean, and says he's going to pardon them all if he's reelected. How do some of the guys that you served in the Senate with. I'm talking about Republicans. How do they not.

Howard Stern

How are they going along with this? Well, I don't think. Look, this is not your father's republican party. That is for damn sure. It is not Mitt Romney's republican party.

David Pakman

It's not John McCain's republican party. And you could go further from there. So I thought that this was a very interesting interview overall. Now I'll be with you in, in saying this was not a difficult interview from the standpoint of the questions and the degree to which that is, because Howard recognizes the critical moment where we now find ourselves six months before an election that is as impactful and significant as any I can remember. There is no question that there are issues where Howard Stern disagrees with Biden, and they could have been the source of the interview exclusively.

And there is no question that Howard Stern has also made it clear we've got to wake up to this danger that is Trump. This guy could win. And it is really important that we make sure that the competing visions are sort of enumerated and the picture is painted in big, bold relief of what is at stake here. And if you want to see an example of the sort of thing that was probably suggested by the White House, here's what we want you to ask Joe Biden about. Here's an example.

The new requirements on airlines for canceled flights. This is not an unimportant issue. I struggle to believe that, having listened to Howard for decades, this is an example of a question Howard would be eager to ask if it weren't part of the terms of doing the interview. Yesterday. He did something so great, and I don't know how many people are aware of it, but you got this thing with the airline passed that.

Howard Stern

Now, when an airline for some reason screws you up and doesn't let you, you know whether you can't make the flight, they used to give you credit, but now they are forced to refund you. And like, I think that's a huge deal. Well, you know, there's a lot of those, Howard. You know, the fact is that when you're raised and you come up in a middle class family, all this stuff matters to you. It matters.

Joe Biden

Those little items that they say, well, it only costs. This only cost that it matters. And so there's a lot of junk fees, too. Like, for example, banks can't charge you $35 for overdrafts anymore, though. All right.

David Pakman

I think you get it. So listen, my critique of the interview, if there is one, is that some of this stuff is not the most interesting stuff. Not that the refunds on automatic refunds on canceled flights aren't important. They absolutely are important. But having listened to Howard for decades, it doesn't strike me as the sort of question Howard would choose to include in a 75 Minutes interview with the sitting president of the United States unless it's part of the terms that were agreed to.

I think this was absolutely smart for the White House to do. It is only upside. Lots of Howard's audience, from what I saw online, doesn't like Biden. Most of them still don't like Biden. But some said, hey, you know what?

He clearly isn't demented. He clearly knows what's going on. And maybe it is a better vision than what Trump presents. So I think it was smart for the White House to do it. There is panic in some circles as Trump is leading Joe Biden by nine in a new CNN poll.

If this poll were to accurately represent the totality of polling, it would be extremely disturbing. It doesn't represent the totality of polling, but it's still an important data point. Let's take a look. CNN reports CNN poll Trump maintains lead over Biden in 2024 matchup as views on their presidencies diverge, Donald Trump continues to hold an advantage over President Joe Biden as the campaign and President Trump's trials move forward, move forward. Trump support among registered voters is at 49 in a head to head matchup against Biden, the same as in CNN's last national poll, while Biden's is at 43, not significantly different from January's 45.

The problem when we look at this poll is that when you include Robert F. Kennedy junior, Cornel west and Jill Stein, all of a sudden Trump pulls a nine point lead. Now, there's a couple of important things to mention here, and let me say this right up front so people don't flip out. It's possible that Trump is going to win in November and it's possible that Kennedy will get 16 points the way it says here, and west will get four and Stein will get three. All of that is possible.

I don't think it's likely. And the poll is very much out of step with every single other poll. Quinnipiac has it tied head to head and tied when it's a three way race. Morning consult has it Biden plus one. University of North Florida has it, Trump plus two.

Morning consult previous week has it at Biden plus two. So the point here is this is really an outlier poll. But what I want you to really think hard about is the following. Kennedy 16, west, four, Stein, three. Does anyone in my audience believe that 23%, nearly one out of four voters, are going to vote for a third party candidate in November?

I don't think Kennedy breaks 5% by the time it's all said and done. So a lot of this polling is predicated on the notion that 23% of voters will be not voting for Biden and will be not voting for Trump, but they will be voting and for someone else. I just don't believe that. Now, that doesn't mean I am convinced Biden will win. Biden may indeed lose.

I don't see Cornel west getting 4%. I don't see Jill Stein getting 3%. And I don't see Kennedy getting more than 5%, and all of a sudden, if Kennedy gets five and west gets two and Stein gets one, and honestly, I don't even know that they'll get that. Uh, that's eight total. That's eight total.

And then the picture looks very, very different. So the takeaway as far as strategy goes, even if we doubt this one poll, even if it doesn't pass the sniff test that 23% of voters will vote for someone third party this November, we have to act as if every single one of these polls is true. And if you believe these polls and you're horrified, because if it's true, Trump wins, right? The way Trump gets plus nine is by 23 going to the third party candidates. Don't, don't get confused about that.

All we can do is make sure that we go out and vote. That's the critical part. Well, he's kissing the ring. Ron DeSantimonious is kissing the ring. Trump meets DeSantis seeking to tap ex rivals donor connections.

DeSantis wants access to power. Trump wants money. And he's desperate because despite the CNN poll, that looks very good for Trump, does lots of polling that doesn't look good. And Trump is only in the first of four criminal trials. And Trump needs money for legal fees and for campaigning and for so many things.

So now Trump and DeSantis met because Trump wants DeSantis to grease the wheels with his donors so Trump can ask them for money. Bloomberg reports Trump and DeSantis met yesterday Sunday to discuss the possibility of tapping DeSantis donor network, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Miami meeting is a sign of a rapprochement between the former president and his one time opponent. After a period of rocky relations heightened by Trump's attacks on DeSantis during the primaries, reaching into DeSantis donor pipeline could shore up funds for Trump as he's facing a cash drain from the legal costs of his array of court cases. At the same time, Biden's widened his fundraising lead, raising more than $90 million in March.

As of April 21, Trump had under $7 million in those accounts. Biden has a lot of money, I want to remind you. Here is Ron DeSantis bemoaning those who, who go and kiss the ring. Almost like with Donald Trump, if you. Don'T kiss the ring, you could be the best governor ever and he'll trash you.

You could be a terrible, corrupt politician. But if you kiss his ring, then all of a sudden, he'll praise you. Now, the way that DeSantis is going to argue that he's not kissing the ring here. Is he going to argue, no, no, no, no. I didn't go asking for anything.

Trump came to me. I'm the one with the upper hand. I have hand, right? Because he wants me to help him with my donors. And so DeSantis has the face saving out of being the one who is being, who hits his ring, that is being kissed DeSantis rather than the other way around.

And the reality is that we knew eventually, because DeSantis is not like Mitt Romney, DeSantis is not like the other Republicans who first of all, have no more races left to run, and secondly, are comfortable not being in the in group. DeSantis wants a political future, and DeSantis is very much the type of guy who wants to be liked and he wants to be in and the entire thing. So it was a matter of time. It's happening. The question at this point is, can DeSantis, his friend's money, save Donald Trump?

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Then enter Pacman as both the code and password for six bottles for $29.99 with shipping included. The info is in the podcast notes sometimes you truly can't write this stuff. It would seem unbelievable if it was the plot line in a novel or in a movie. Donald Trump's former election integrity lawyer has been criminally charged, not just with any crimes, but with election related crimes. I mentioned her name to you on the Friday show in the context of the fake elector indictment in Arizona.

Take a look at this. We're talking, of course, of Christina Bob. Christina Bob was not only a fixture in Trump's election integrity scam, but she was also a fixture on one american news and sometimes on right side broadcasting network, as she would show up at rallies and cheerlead President Trump while trying to prosecute completely bogus claims of voter fraud, all in the name of so called voter integrity. She has been indicted. Nevada current reports top lawyer in RNC's 2024 election integrity operation charged in Arizona fake elector scheme couldn't happen to the nicest person you know less, the article reads.

Less than a week after the RNC unveiled a historic new program to monitor the polls for fraud in Nevada and other battleground states, a top lawyer with the committee was among those indicted for an alleged scheme to use false fraud claims to overturn the results of Arizona's presidential election. Indeed, the lawyer, RNC senior counsel for election integrity Christina Bob, was scheduled to appear April 25 at an online meeting to recruit activists for this republican vote watching effort. She didn't show up. Arizona General Chris Mays announced the indictments April 24 against 18 people, seven of whose names are redacted. Multiple news organizations have used details to identify Bob, and the other six, Mays on Friday confirmed Bob's indictment.

Understand that there are, there are so many layers to this. There's the layer of incompetent people being placed in circumstances to carry out things for which they are completely unqualified and not qualified. There's the brazen and obvious nature of how vapid their claims were. And even this entire election integrity thing that they're now doing, it is a voter intimidation plan. That's what it is.

We still have no evidence whatsoever that the elections are anything but secure. The guy, we interviewed him, Ken Block, he was hired by the Trump campaign to find the evidence of the sorts of fraud that they were looking for. He found across multiple states a couple dozens of examples, most of which seem to be accidents, nothing even remotely material. Despite all of their claims about ballot dumps and ballots being moved around, ballot harvesting, messing with machines, stealing boxes of ballots, we don't have a single text message of the people on the left who supposedly organize this stuff. We don't have a single email.

We don't have evidence of a single meeting that took place. We don't have video surveillance footage. We don't have audio surveillance footage. We don't have anything. And yet, on their side, with all of the things that they said they were supposedly doing on the up and up, they've left breadcrumbs of criminality everywhere.

And so, yeah, it's wild that Christina Bob, who's supposed to be working to preserve election integrity, is actually the one who's now been indicted on election related crimes. It's wild, but it's not altogether surprising if you've been paying attention. And at a certain point, we're almost four years into this thing. They don't have any evidence that Democrats, Biden PAcs, the DNC, state level democratic parties, activist groups, criminals, they don't have anything. They don't have anything.

And yet we have all the evidence of their meetings with the fake electors. We have recorded phone calls where they're asking for 11,789 votes, votes or whatever the number is. We have all of it pointing to their criminality, and they still have found nothing. So it's not a surprise. And by the way, even Rudy Giuliani now throwing Christina Bob under the bus, the rats are trying to abandon the ship.

Remember that Rudy has also been indicted in this Arizona indictment. Here's Rudy saying, I was in the hospital recovering and Christina Bob was doing all this stuff. She went there because I was still recovering and she gathered all the original evidence. Right. And it is, I mean, I've tried many, many cases as a prosecutor.

Rudy Giuliani

I've never lost a case and I've never seen more evidence. And then she stayed with it for two years afterwards and about it. So she's very dangerous to them. She's very dangerous to them because she's also very competent and they're very afraid. She went, so she's dangerous, she's competent, they're afraid.

David Pakman

But she did all this stuff. I was in the hospital recovering. Don't even think about looking at me. We'll see what happens. We don't do lock them up, lock her up on this show.

But I hope that if indeed Christina Bob is guilty of the things for which she's accused, that she will have to face a consequence in line with sentencing guidelines. Is that fair to say? How about due process for you? Donald Trump is panicking over Robert F. Kennedy junior.

Last week, we looked at Trump increasingly worried, does RFK help me or does RFK hurt me? At the beginning, the assumption was RFK is bad for Biden. Then it looked like maybe RFK is bad for Trump then. Now it looks like he's probably a little worse for Biden. It's increasingly looking like Robert F.

Kennedy junior s candidacy is bad for Trump. Trump is realizing it. People are coming to him, maybe with tears in their eyes and saying, sir, this guy is hurting you. It is your voters that are thinking of going to RFK. So Trump is panicking.

We know exactly why. And the more that people know about Robert F. Kennedy Junior, the more he should appeal to Trump voters. That actually makes sense. There is nothing in common in terms of their public facing statements between RFK and Biden.

RFK is buying into this faux populist rhetoric. Biden doesn't do it. And he's sticking with the sort of rhetoric of social democracy, RFK and the anti vax stuff, much more in common with Trump than with Joe Biden. RFK with the sort of deep state alluding to the deep state and the powers, the shadowy powers. That's much more trumpian than it is Biden esque.

So we know why it's happening. It's a, it's a policy package. It's really more of a rhetoric package that is far more appealing to Trump voters than the Biden voters. So Trump takes to truth, social, and what does he say? Essential.

He says, quote, RFK junior is a Democrat. Plant a radical left liberal who's been put in place to or in order to help crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of the United States, get reelected. A vote for junior would essentially be a wasted protest vote. That's true, but except that the issue is if you do that, you're actually helping Trump. That could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him.

Junior is totally anti gun, an extreme environmentalist who makes the green new scammers look conservative, a big time taxer and an open border advocate and anti military slash anti vet. Trump continuing on troth Central. Quote, I actually watched first time in a long time, ratings challenged Bill Maher's really boring interview with RFK Junior last night, only to find that junior is far more liberal than Maher and in fact, far more liberal than anyone running as a Democrat, including west and Stein. This is very much not true. I hope people in my audience know Trump continuing.

Yet despite this, he has no hope as a Democrat because they were able to use their typically fascist tactics of repression and throw him out of the party like a dog because he was taking primary votes away from the worst president in the history of our country, crooked Joe. Joe Biden. So now Junior is a so called independent, but he's not. He's a radical left lunatic, but trying to have it always. He said, no vaccine is safe and effective, and then said, I would never say that I'm not anti vaccine.

Where did that come from? Marr defended the vaccine, which junior actually seemed to agree with. Wow. And then told him that his poll numbers have crashed. No Republican can vote for this guy.

Maga 2024. You know, it's sort of mind boggling that Trump is at a place where he's so scared of RFK junior that he's going after RFK over vaccines, which is an issue that has caused some of Trump's own supporters to abandon him and are making them think of, maybe I'll vote for RFK. In other words, there is a contingent of Trump supporters who, when they hear Trump go, I did the vaccine record time, Operation Warp Speed. They don't like it, so they go, you know, if it weren't for Trump saying that, I'd vote for Trump, instead, I'm going to go RFK. And Trump is reminding them of that.

It seems very short sighted, but in, in some strange way, Trump is sort of trying to run to the left and to the right of RFK junior. Now, is Trump right to be scared? The answer is yes. Again, if you look at the polling that we have in a three way race, according to YouGov, it's tied. The CNN SSRS poll is better for Trump when it comes to adding RFK, but that is very much an outlier.

The Quinnipiac University poll, it is identical with or without third party candidates. The Marist college poll is better for Biden when you include Kennedy. When you add Kennedy in the Marist poll, Biden goes from plus three to plus five. And we could keep going down the list, which we've done. The takeaway is this has shifted over time.

When Kennedy first announced that he was running as a Democrat against Joe Biden, it seemed this would be bad for Biden. Fox News loved it. They welcomed him with open arms. He was regularly being interviewed on Fox News. When RFK said, I'm actually going to go independent, it started to look like this could be bad for Trump.

He was barely again interviewed on Fox. His number of appearances declined precipitously. And all of a sudden it was like, wait a second, maybe this is bad for Trump. The polling has come back and forth, but we are already seeing, and I believe we will see it to a greater degree. The more people know about RFK, the less he will appeal to otherwise Biden voters and the more he will appeal to otherwise Trump voters.

We're seeing it in the numbers. It makes sense based on how he's running. That's my prediction. And again, I'm not a betting man, but if I had to make a bet, I don't think RFK breaks 5%. There's, I mean, look, here's a poll.

Kennedy 14, I don't think he breaks 5%. A lot of people don't understand that. He doesn't have ballot access. Barely anywhere they're going to show up that day. They're not going to see his name on the ballot.

Some will think to write it in, most won't. That's my prediction. Now, if you disagree with me, if you're in the audience and you believe nationally RFK will get more than 5%, I want to hear from you. Info at david pakman.com. Let me know.

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Slash Pacman. That's malwarebytes.com Slash Pacman to get half off your subscription. The link is in. The podcast notes, a very haggard looking Donald Trump said that he has to miss Melania Trump's birthday because of his rigged trial. When exiting the courtroom, or entering the courtroom, as it were, on Friday, the most recent day of court before today.

This guy is not looking good. The pressure is getting to him. There are, as you all know, there are reports of absolutely irrepressible flatulence from Trump throughout the trial. He's sleeping every single day. He's posting to truth social screeds in the middle of the night.

I mean, it's, this is not a man who is, well, and here is a haggard looking Trump talking about how he would love to be with Melania for her birthday. By the way, Melania is missing. She's like, it's fine that he's in court. I don't need him to be with me for my birthday. Here are the big, the big complaints.

Donald Trump

Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it. I want to start by wishing my wife Melania, a very happy birthday. Be nice to be with her. But I'm in a courthouse for a rig trial.

It's a rig trial. Terrible. But we're doing very well in this rig trial. Everybody knows it. Yeah, they're, he's acting almost like he's inconvenienced by having to be on jury duty.

David Pakman

He's the defendant in a criminal trial where, at least conceivably, because of his age, he could end up with what is effectively a life sentence. And he's whining about how he'd like to be with his wife for her birthday. I don't know that she wants him to be with him for her birthday. And by the way, think of the context. I would love to be with my wife for her birthday, but I'm here defending myself because of the allegedly illegal way in which I paid off a porn star that I had an affair with because I didn't want it to interfere with my presidential campaign at the time.

And I gave her six figures to shut her mouth. But I'm sure my wife wants me to be with her as well. Right? I mean, just like none of this makes any sense whatsoever. Now the topic of debating president Joe Biden came up.

This is particularly interesting because in Howard Stern's interview with Joe Biden last week, Biden said, I think we should debate. I'm ready to debate. Trump also is saying he wants to debate. So they're both saying they want to debate, except it's Trump who says, well, the presidential commission on debates is biased and anybody who would moderate it is biased and so on. So they're both saying they would debate.

But it's Trump who's putting up all the obstacles. Except here he says, I'll debate him tonight. I just want to say that I've invited Biden to debate. He can do it anytime he wants, including tonight. I'm ready.

Donald Trump

Here we are. I invited him to the courthouse that he has us tied up in administration. This is all being done through Washington. There's an idea. I would debate Biden tonight if he came to the courthouse in New York at which I'm a criminal defendant.

David Pakman

But, you know, that's up to Biden to do. It's a well coordinated attack on a political opponent. But I'm here. I'm ready, willing and able. And if he wants, I'll do it on Monday night, Tuesday night, or Wednesday night, we'll be in Michigan state that he's destroyed because of the auto industry.

Donald Trump

We're not going to have any jobs left in Michigan. No auto jobs left in Michigan. They're all going to China and other places with this ridiculous EV mandate, electric vehicle mandate. But we're willing to do it Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, or Friday night on national television. We're ready.

Just tell me where. We'll do it in the White House. That would be very comfortable. Actually, you know, something makes me think right now Trump wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the White House. But you tell me where.

But we're ready. He's obviously not showing up now, we heard nothing. But he said today that, oh, I'd love to debate, but he won't debate. I don't think he'll debate. Maybe he will.

David Pakman

You know, if I'm honest, I think Trump is the impediment to the debates. And I know that people will write in, they'll say, no, the White House and Biden know that he can't do it. He doesn't know what day it is. He'll fall down. He'll poop his pants.

It'll be crazy. This is exactly what they said last time around. And like, it was fine. And so I do see Trump really as the impediment. You know, he's saying, where is Biden?

I'll debate him tonight in this courtroom. Yeah, it's kind of not the way it really works. You know, so really, really strange stuff from Trump. And then, of course, ranting and raving that the country is going to hell. Eight days that we've all been sitting in this courthouse, this is all a Biden indictment.

Donald Trump

It's in order to try and win an election, political opponent. And nothing like this has ever happened. Eight days. As you know, the, the economy is falling apart. Now you're seeing it.

Very little growth. It's going to get worse. Oil prices are going up. You have the college campuses all over closed down. Our country is going to hell.

And we sit here day after day after day, which is their plan. They think they might be able to eke out an election, but I doubt it because the poll numbers are very good for us. Yeah, I mean, listen, the poll numbers are worsening for Trump and the economy is basically doing fine. And all of these are the normal lies. So a haggard Trump looking to, looking for some purchase, something that he can get traction with.

David Pakman

And I just don't know that it's going to be, the economy sucks. It's not striking me as the most compelling narrative right now. Trump back in court today, as far as I know. We'll see what happens. In the midst of various sexual assault allegations, the last true leftist, Russell Brand is becoming religious and getting baptized and praying.

I've been interested in Russell Brand as one of these kind of post left figures. And the reason that we're going to look at a couple of clips in a moment, the reason I find brand interesting is there is a tool C Gabbard type vibe to him where he has done a really good job of suckering in the sorts of folks that get pulled in by, by people like Tulsi. And next thing. You know, some of them snap out of it and they go, this is another one of these kind of anarcho libertarian populist clowns that isn't really offering me anything of substance other than alluding to the deep state and other conspiracy sort of stuff. Oh, but David, conspiracy theorist is, is, that's a pejorative now.

Save it. Okay? Russell brand has become exactly, exactly what we predicted when we did our. What the hell happened to Russell Brand video some time ago. It's a, it's the, the Dave Rubin type route.

It's the tool C gabbard type route. And now accused of rape multiple times, Russell Brand is pivoting to religiosity. He's pivoting, I guess, to Catholicism. He is now being paid to promote a catholic prayer app called Hallow. Take a listen to this.

Russell Brand

Hey, we got a lovely partner today. It's our friends at hallo, by the way. Hallo. Like hala. Somehow I don't think it's that sort of h Russell, but I don't know.

David Pakman

That is funny. Hallow. Hey, we got a lovely partner today. It's our friends at hallow. Hallow is the number one prayer app in the world.

Russell Brand

I use it. You can explore Christianity with over 10,000 prayers, meditations and music. And as lent continues, what better way to deepen your connection to the loving Lord Christ? It's been downloaded 4 million times in 150 countries. Be like calm or headspace.

But for christians, hallow helps you pray and meditate and sleep. It's helped. It actually seems like satire, but it's not me. Build a daily routine of habit and prayer. I do the rosary.

I know it off by heart. Except the end bit. I've got to learn that. You can pray alongside Mark Wahlberg. Jim Caviezel.

David Pakman

He was Jesus. Jonathan Rumi. He was Jesus in the chosen, you can choose your own Jesus. What version of Christianity do you want? Can you imagine praying alongside Jim Caviezel?

That's really an eye opening experience. I can only imagine. And you know, Jonathan Rumi was my body double in ballers. Jesus was my body double. Download it today.

Russell Brand

Reclaim your right peace and grow closer to God. Go to hello.com brand to try the hello prayer app. Hey. Yeah, so anyway, he's pivoting to religiosity in the midst of these really serious allegations against him. He also tweeted a picture of himself where he says, baptism this Sunday.

David Pakman

I'm taking the plunge. How was it for you? And he even talks a little bit, I guess, about his planned baptism. There are people who are falling for this guy as the truth teller of the day. It's really scary.

Russell Brand

Die and be reborn. This Sunday, I'm taking the plunge. I'm getting baptized at the moment. I'm very curious as to what you who have been baptized feel about it, what your expectations are of the event prior and what it's actually like. What's been explained to me is it's an opportunity to die and be reborn.

An opportunity to leave the past behind and be reborn in Christ's name. Like it says in Galatians, right, that you can live as an enlightened and awakened person. Sometimes I think of non christian perspectives on it, like Marcus Aurelius saying, you are already dead, now live the rest of your life properly. Or the Buddhist saying, put down the corpse. All of these things seem so inviting and beautiful.

I know a lot of people are so cynical about the increasing interest in Christianity. I didn't think there was increasing interest in the west. We see decreasing interest every single year. And the return to God. But to me it's obvious.

As meaning deteriorates in the modern world, as our value systems and institutions crumble, all of us become increasingly aware that there of is this eerily familiar awakening and beckoning figure that we've all known all of our lives within us and around us. And for me, it's very exciting. One of my concerns is I'm thinking about doing it in the River Thames so I could be getting sort of baptized in toxoplasmosis and E. Coli based on what I've learned. So I may be leaving behind the sins, but I might be picking up some pretty serious viruses.

Let me know what you guys. Hey, at least he believes in viruses. That's definitely the upside. So listen, I don't know if this is a whole calculated thing now as he's facing all of these allegations of sexual assault, I don't know if this is just the natural turn that we are seeing. We've seen even listen, even like a.

David Pakman

Dave Rubin did the thing where when he became conservative and right wing and maga, he will pay lip service to religiosity, even though I guess he still says he's not religious. But this is something that a bunch of them seem to seem to do. So it's. It's a no for me dog. Okay, to quote Randy Jackson, but if other people are still getting sucked in by this stuff, I'd love to hear what you find interesting about Russell Brand.

We have a voicemail number. That number is 2192 David P. And you can call absolutely any time of day. Here is a guy who is pulling out the l word, l for libtard, which anytime I hear that, I know we're going to get insightful political analysis. Yeah.

Rudy Giuliani

Since you are a libtard, right, your mind is already seared, your spirit as well. So do us a favor, please, shut the hell up. You're that goddamn stupid. Really, man, give me a shout if you want to go over some particulars. I actually would love to go over the particulars.

David Pakman

You know, we get so many messages where you're David's wrong about everything. Please tell him. How could he be so stupid? Well, can you maybe start with like one thing? If I'm wrong about everything, you must be able to find one thing to really.

So please call in. If you're in the audience and you are one of these folks who believes I'm wrong about everything, call in. When we take live calls, we post to our twitter. When we do it, we post to YouTube. When we're going to take live calls, you can call in.

You can confront me about that, which I am so wrong about. I look forward to it. We've got a great bonus show for you today. Bytedance says they would rather shut down tick tock in the United States rather than sell it. Very interesting.

Number two, we are testing the idea that all publicity, including bad publicity, is actually good for Trump. We're figuring it out now as it comes to his criminal trial. And we will also talk about this incredible controversy involving Donald Trump's vp contender, Christy Nome, the governor of South Dakota, and a story she told about killing her dog and what she's now saying she's equivocating. What's the reaction to it? It's a wild situation.

So we will discuss all of those stories and more on today's bonus show. And please remember that all three of my children's books, including most recently, think like a voter. A perfect book for an election year to teach kids about what is voting, what are we doing when we vote and why it's so important. A non political book. You can grab this@davidpakman.com book.

If you already bought one, please leave a review. We'll see you on the bonus show. And I'll be back tomorrow with a new program.