5/14/24: Michael Cohen testimony triggers Trump, Biden winning war on crime

David Pakman
Let's start today with sort of a general assessment of where the 2024 election cycle is. More broadly, this is not about individual battleground state polling or who's likely to win Pennsylvania or what's likely to happen with Tammy Baldwin Senate seat. This is the bigger picture question of what is the trajectory of the democratic party if they are indeed able to hold slash sweep in November. What is the future of MAGA in that scenario? And then also, what is the responsibility for Democrats that comes with the possibility of controlling the White House, House and Senate versus what are we potentially up against if there is a Trump win and MAGA is able to maintain itself? And this gets to what I consider to be the most important potential inflection point in November of 2024, is this effectively the beginning of the end for MAGA? Some would say the beginning of the end was 2018, after Trump won in 2016 and things started going not so well for Republicans and not so well in 2020 or 2022 or 2023. But could this be the official beginning of the end for MAGA, or could this be the reinforcement of MAGA as a political force? Now, there's a very interesting op ed that I'll call your attention to, uh, and that we will link to in the YouTube description for this video. It's an op ed in the Washington Post by Ramesh Panuru, and it says Democrats could sweep the 2024 elections and make major policy changes. This time, mansion and cinema Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema won't be in the Senate to constrain them.

And the article, the, the op ed points out in not particularly, particularly controversial terms, that what Democrats want to do is November, in November is keep the Oval Office, keep the Senate, and take the House. This would give Democrats complete and total control at the federal level of both houses of Congress and of the Oval Office. This is sometimes called the trifecta. And if you have an ambitious legislative agenda that is at least somewhat popular with the american people, you have the opportunity to achieve significant legislative accomplishments. When you have that conviction, control doesn't always happen. If we think back to periods, for example, when Barack Obama had that, we saw some major accomplishments like Obamacare, and we also saw the inability to even pass something like a universal background check bill. And of course, that has everything to do with moneyed interests, special interests, republican obstructionism, and many other things. So if indeed Democrats could hold, slash, take full control in November, it would be seen as an opportunity to push through significant policy changes and initiatives that would hopefully reflect the reality that the american electorate has moved to the left on just about every issue over the last 40 years, whether it's, hey, we should, generally speaking, use taxes on the very wealthy to fund social programs and ensure some basic standard of living that's more popular than ever among the american electorate. Doesn't mean we all want 90% marginal tax rate, but it means that as a general concept, that's something that the country is in favor of.

We've talked about on abortion, we've talked about on gay marriage. We've talked about so many things in general, the country has moved to the left. If Democrats do take the House, keep the Senate, get Joe Biden reelected, it's going to be crucial for them to actually capitalize on that opportunity. And what is the other side of this? The other side of this is maybe this really will be, what was it that desantimonious used to say, the. The dustbin of history. Okay, we've got to push MAGA into the dustbin of history and say, hopefully, if Democrats sweep, they will be rewarded with the ability to make some achievements. The counterpoint to this is that if Democrats do sweep and have the opportunity to enact legislation and have the opportunity to push MAGA into the toilet, but they don't accomplish anything major in the next two years of Joe Biden's presidency, it will hurt in 2026, and it could potentially hurt big in 2028. Now you have a bunch of different strategic and tactical approaches that can be taken with regard to what to do electorally and how to divide up what is a limited amount of campaign funding. There are high profile folks, like, for example, Ted Cruz and other republican senators facing pretty strong democratic challenges. We've talked about the Ted Cruz one in Texas, for example. But if you put too much money and resources into trying to flip those longer shot seats, do you potentially lose seats that you currently hold? You do want to target prominent Republicans.

There's symbolism that's important there. There's the potential to make a big dent in the Republican Party if you do that. But at the same time, you don't want to lose seats you hold or more winnable seats because of these shiny objects you might focus on. So these are sort of tactical questions that the DNC is going to have to figure out. There are also some internal divisions in the Democratic Party. Now, I don't want to pretend that the divisions within the democratic party are as significant as the divisions within MAGA. Nearly 40% with, within the Republican Party, rather nearly 40% of republican primary voters voted for someone other than Donald Trump. That is major division now within the Democratic Party. Yes, there are factions that aren't thrilled with Joe Biden. They don't think he's done enough when it comes to tax reform, for example. Although could he really get that done without controlling the House? I don't think so. But okay, there are those within the democratic party that aren't pleased with Biden when it comes to Israel, Gaza. But big picture, the internal divisions among democratic voters right now, I believe, are far smaller than what the Republican Party is experiencing. So where we end up is with a potential referendum in 2024. It's a referendum on, hey, on paper, Biden's been one of the most progressive and effective presidents, certainly of my life, lifetime. Are we going to reelect them on that basis or not? And on the other hand, is this the end for MAGA?

Because, I mean, listen, Marjorie Taylor Green's not going to be defeated by all the polling that I'm looking at. She will almost certainly remain in the House of Representatives. But if Trump loses again, and if Republicans riding on this MAGA train don't do well again, especially if they lose the House, even if Marjorie Taylor Green gets reelected, if Republicans lose the House, this really could be the beginning of the end for MAGA. Such that in 2028, with Trump in his eighties and presumably completely out of politics, I'm thinking optimistically here, you really see Republicans go in a completely different direction, and we can maybe get back to more reasonable disagreements about policy rather than arguing about the fundamental tenets of democracy and whether the person that wins should actually get to be president. So there's a lot of important aspects to this campaign tactics and strategy for Democrats, articulating a clear progressive vision that will mobilize, mobilize voters versus just getting them to say, well, I don't like Trump, but I don't really know what Biden's for. All of those things are important. I do believe this is the most important election in a long time, let's put it that way, without being hyperbolic, and we will be covering every aspect of it. A Joe Biden is slowly winning the war on crime after Donald Trump lost that war badly, while Republicans insisted that it is Democrats who want to defund the police, something Democrats have not actually done, and corporate media is barely talking about it.

There's an interesting new Republic article which says Biden is quietly winning the war on crime after Trump epically lost it. The reason that Joe Biden's victory in the war on crime is so quiet is because corporate media is mostly not reporting on it. Most reporting on crime is from right wing media outlets lying that crime is up. Crime is not up. And it's really important to go through some of the common talking points that we're hearing from the right so that we can all be equipped to push back against them. Republicans and Trump on the campaign trail frequently assert crimes out of control. It is a lawless dystopia under Biden's America. Now, the reality check here is that under Joe Biden, I'm not saying because of Joe Biden. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. We'll talk about that. But certainly under Joe Biden, crime has decreased significantly. Murder, violent crime, property crime. And it was indeed up during the pandemic. I'm not saying it was up because of Trump, but it was up under Donald Trump. Now, one of the common refrains is Democrats want to defund the police. Democrats want to end the police. The reality is that there is a very loud, extreme minority of those on the left. I don't even think they're Democrats. They're just on the left. But I don't even think that they are Democrats at the end of the day who might be saying defund the police. But for the most part, you don't have elected Democrats arguing for that. I've never argued for it. I've said, yes, we need reform.

I've laid out a ten to twelve point plan of exactly how I would do it. But the truth is that you have Democrats very much in favor of funding public safety. That can include law enforcement, and it includes many other things as well. Congressional Democrats have secured funding for public safety projects, far more money than Republicans, except supposedly they want to defund the police. There's a very good study by third way which highlights the achievements under Biden when it comes to crime reduction. And if you just zoom out, whether you praise Biden for it or not, we have seen increasingly effective crime management while Joe Biden has been president. Now, you might be hearing this if you've been brainwashed by Fox News and saying that there's no way that's true, David, crime is up. It's up everywhere. Lawlessness, it's all crazy. Let's go through some of the most common kind of retorts or talking points that we hear from MAGA and from right wingers. One is they simply say, I don't care what you say, crime is up. Whatever statistics, and I get emails like this, whatever statistics you're putting forward, it's all lies. Crime is actually up. Well, you've got to bring the evidence. Then if you have evidence that crime is up, please bring it. Which gets us to talking point number two. There's no way crime is down. Didn't you see all the break ins in Oakland? That's a classic. Didn't you see ex crime in y city? And of course, that's what we call an anecdote. In a country of 340 million people, of course there will be crime.

But the fact that you can find individual anecdotes to throw in my face doesn't negate the broader crime statistics that point very clearly downwards. Another one? Well, I found a specific city during which crime, in which crime is up. Or I found a particular period, a two month period where crime is up. In a country of 340 million. With the number of states and metro areas that we have, it's not always a straight line that crime will be down everywhere over every period of time. But the big picture is that all types of crime, generally speaking, are down nationally. Then you get to, you know, crime is actually so bad and police have been so neutered by Democrats that people don't even call the police anymore. So if it's true that the crime statistics point down, it's because people aren't reporting crime to the police because the police have been neutered. Well, of course our response would be the police have not been neutered. And in fact, public safety funding is up under Democrats overall. But we don't only depend on people calling the police to know what level of crime we have because there are numerous respectable victimization surveys which include unreported crimes, and we just can't find evidence to suggest that crime is up. We have plenty of evidence that crime is down. Okay, so then they go to fine.

That's true. People do report crime to police departments, but the police departments are so sick and tired of Biden and the FBI that the local police are no longer reporting crime numbers to the FBI. So when you look at the FBI crime statistics and it looks like crime is down, it's not really down because police departments are no longer reporting crime to the FBI. This is another talking point that they come up with. The truth is it has always been the case that not all police departments report crime to the FBI. The percentage of police departments not reporting crime statistics to the FBI hasn't really changed very much over the years. It's not a new thing. When Trump was president, there were some police departments not reporting statistics to the FBI. Biden is president. There are some police departments not reporting crime statistics to the FBI. This isn't new. It doesn't disprove absolutely anything. So every single one of these tired talking points are either conjecture, not backed up by any statistical data, or the mere rantings of individuals desperate to connect Joe Biden to things that are going terribly because they know that by all of the statistical measures, economic, criminal, et cetera, things are going pretty okay. Things aren't perfect, but things are going pretty okay. So it is a quiet victory in the war on crime for Biden. Mostly quiet, because corporate media isn't talking about it. So many people in our audience have become fans of our sponsor, ounce of hope.

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But people are doing crazy things. So I appreciate your support. Join pacman.com is the place to sign up. An explosive day yesterday in failed former President Donald Trump's criminal trial. His first of four, Michael Cohen testified. Friend of the show Michael Cohen. He's been on the show. I've been on his show. And he testified disastrously for Donald Trump. And quite frankly, Michael Cohen's testimony could be, it could be what sends Donald Trump to prison. Let's talk about a couple of different elements of what's going on here. The Associated Press reports what to know about Trump Fixer turned foe Michael Cohen's pivotal testimony in the hush money trial. And there is so much here. Michael Cohen yesterday claimed that Donald Trump directed him to make the payments that were made to silence stormy Daniels specifically so she wouldn't mess up his election, which very directly makes these campaign contributions and expenditures of a sort. You'll recall that Hope Hicks, Trump's one time. Now I'm getting all of the positions mixed up. Hope Hicks was Trump's one time White House communications director. I believe she described Trump's initial attempts to hide the affair with Stormy Daniels altogether from Melania. And so that was a focus at one point, but also the campaign aspect of it.

Michael Cohen also, as the article says, provided jurors with an insider's account of payments to silence women's plural claims of sexual encounters with Trump. There was this testimony that when this was all getting going, Donald Trump said to Michael Cohen, expect a bunch of women to come forward. Now, there's no question that as the cross examination starts, Donald Trump's defense attorneys are going to try to paint Michael Cohen as an unreliable witness. They will say, listen, he lied previously and he pleaded guilty based on that lying, and he went to prison based on that lying. And whether it's campaign finance violations or tax evasion, lying to Congress, whatever, they are going to try to make him, uh, appear to be untrustworthy. Now, Michael Cohen's response, not to put words in him out in his mouth, but will be some form of, yeah, listen, I lied to protect Trump at Trump's direction. He was the boss. He was paying me. Now, the counterpoint would be, well, do you always lie when your clients ask you to? But that's a risky direction because it could plant in the jury's mind. Yes, Donald Trump did ask him to do those things, but it is no longer cohen that's on trial. So trying to push on whether this lying for clients is something Cohen always does, only it risks affirming that indeed, Donald Trump did ask him to do these things. So certainly Michael Cohen's credibility is going to be made an issue by Donald Trump's defense attorneys. But what we do know is that it is the version of events told by Michael Cohen that, broadly speaking, is, has, and will be corroborated by other witnesses.

And Cohen has provided a very damaging testimony against Donald Trump in other cases, the civil fraud trial, for example, where Trump was found liable of inflating the value of his assets. Michael Cohen really knows how the sausage was made, for lack of a better term. And Axios also has a good piece about yesterday's testimony. Quote, just do it. Michael Cohen says Trump told him on the stormy Daniels payment why it matters. Cohen's claim that Trump approved the plan and was aware the payments would be marked as legal costs is at the heart of prosecutors charges against Trump. In this case, Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with the hush money payment. I want to address also, before we move on to some of the color and flavor of what took place in court yesterday, I want to mention one other thing that's, that's being floated as a talking point from the right.

And the talking point is as follows.

Turning a misdemeanor into a felony in the way that these prosecutors have done for this particular trial isn't normally done, and it's just something they're doing for political bias. Reasons to go after Donald Trump. It's untrue. It's untrue when misdemeanors are committed in service of some broader or other crime. It is regularly charged and indicted in exactly the felonious manner in which this is being done. So that talking point is nonsense. You can even look at the track record of the prosecutor and see that that is something they have previously done. So the Michael Cohen testimony, so far, very damaging to Trump. We will see under cross examination what happens. Let's now look at the very bad day that Donald Trump had as a result of what took place yesterday.

It got very very ugly as far as Donald Trump is concerned. And so we're going to talk about that next. Donald Trump really, really struggling yesterday both before and after the testimony of his former fixer henchmen lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump showed up, I would say in rare form, but increasingly, this is the form in which we expect Trump to show up with a bunch of printouts. They, they hand him papers now, kind of like a toy to distract him. And there are, there's swing state polling. And he gave a two minute rant about polling before Michael Cohen's testimony. He had senators JD Vance and Tommy Tuberville also show up in New York yesterday as his attack lap dogs, which we will get to later, but you might see them in the background. Let's listen to Trump's declarations here.

Donald Trump
So thank you very much. Greatly appreciate you being here.

The New York Times just came out with a poll that shows us leading everywhere by a lot.

This is the COVID story and I.

David Pakman
Think you'll, and just as for visual, if you're only listening today, Trump has a stack of papers that he holds up as he discusses these things while Eric Trump stands in the far background almost like an ostrich popping its head up. And Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, looks pained. Pained is the way I would describe it.

Donald Trump
Speaker two is very interesting, but I'm sure you've all read it. Leading in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and Nevada.

Nevada, we are leading actually by twelve points, which is generally a Democrat state.

I think we're probably leading in New Jersey. We had a rally over 100,000 people this weekend. A lot of the mainstream media.

David Pakman
That number is disputed, by the way.

Donald Trump
They didn't want to say how many people they didn't want to cover, but in fact, I don't think anybody did. I hear the, the crowd was not shown by the mainstream media, which is what they tell me. But that's par for the course.

A couple of quotes that just came out. Fareed Zakari had no friend of mine.

The Trump trial is politically motivated. I doubt the New York indictment would have been brought against a defendant whose name was not Donald Trump.

Mark Levin.

Great guy.

David Pakman
This is where Trump starts reading the comments of his friends about their opinions on the trial.

Donald Trump
Brilliant man. Our judicial system has blown up. It's broken.

Andrew McCarthy.

Trump should be acquitted in Manhattan, wholly independent of the plethora of constitutional infirmities in the prosecution.

It should be thrown out for the most basic of reasons. Bragg cannot prove his case. Got no evidence and I'm innocent. This is a political witch hunt, and nobody's ever seen anything like it. And it's, I tell you what, the appellate division on the judges should step in because what.

David Pakman
All right, so you get it. Trump is innocent. He wants the trial ended and all of that sort of stuff. The delusional nature, the delusional nature of Trump in these pre court events continues to stun and surprise many. Here is Trump asserting wildly that he thinks they're going to win in New Jersey.

Take a listen to this.

Donald Trump
Generally a Democrat state, I think we're probably leading in New Jersey. We had a rally over 100,000 people this weekend. A lot of the mainstream media didn't want to say how many people they didn't want to cover.

David Pakman
Now, most people who have eyes that function could see that there were probably ten to 15,000 people there, which, by the way, it's not terrible for a rally. I mean, listen to ten to 15,000 is nothing to sneeze at. But anybody with eyes could tell there were not more than 100,000 people there. And by the way, the idea that Trump is going to win New Jersey, he's not going to win New Jersey. He said he's going to win New York, he's not going to win New York. Trump also continuing to complain about the temperature in the courtroom.

Donald Trump
This trial is rigged.

It's dishonest, it's a disgrace to New York, it's a disgrace to the country. I should be out campaigning now instead of sitting in a very cold courthouse.

David Pakman
That cold is really, really not working well for Donald Trump. He would prefer a courtroom that is a different temperature. And then lastly, as far as Trump's pre trial, this is before pre testimony, I guess we would say it's not before the trial, it's during the trial, but before yesterday's testimony, suggesting that there is some conspiracy to cordon off the courthouse so masses of his supporters can't get there, which is, of course, not true. There's just nobody showing up to protest in defense of Trump.

Donald Trump
Step in, because what this judge is getting away with is disgraceful, including the fact that we have thousands of people. We had 100,000 people in New Jersey. They would like to show their support.

It's like an armed camp outside. You can't get one person within three blocks of this courthouse.

David Pakman
And of course, that's not true. They did get two Trump supporters within three blocks of the courthouse. They were interviewed by our friends, the good liars. It's just people aren't showing up in support of Donald Trump. So we've gone over Michael Cohen's testimony. We've gone over Donald Trump's statements before for the testimony.

Unhinged enough.

But just wait till you see the after Michael Cohen's testimony videos. It was a very tough day in court yesterday for failed former President Donald Trump.

As wacky as his behavior was before Michael Cohen testified, just wait until you see what happened afterwards with Trump lashing out. He's sick of it. He listened to the things Michael Cohen said. They are if the jury believes it, and reports are that the jury was riveted by Michael Cohen's testimony. If the jury believes it, yesterday's testimony from Michael Cohen quite literally could be responsible for locking up Trump if he's convicted and imprisoned. And Trump lashed out at the corrupt judge. He says even all the networks agree there's no case here. And it actually led to Jake Tapper from CNN saying, I don't know why he's saying CNN says there's no case. We certainly have not made that claim. Listen to this. This is now triggered Trump after the testimony. You'll notice, by the way, JD Vance and Tommy Tuberville, they're gone now. They're gone.

Donald Trump
Speaker two that's all they're trying to do. Keep them off the campaign trail. Here's the New York Times. That just came out a little while ago where we're leading in every state.

David Pakman
In every now, I know this might sound like what he said before. It's similar, but it's not the same. This is video from after and then you will hear Jake Tapper cut in.

Donald Trump
Iraqi states were leading very substantially, I might add. So it's all, it's really a very sad day for the country. It's sad for New York. I mean, New York, that a judge who's highly conflicted at a level that nobody's seen before can possibly just think of it and you should go out and check it out.

But we have a corrupt judge and we have a judge who's highly confused and he's keeping me from campaigning. He's an appointment.

David Pakman
Remember, Trump regularly has days off and usually doesn't use them to campaign. That's Trump's call. Trump's choice, New York judge he's appointed.

Donald Trump
You know who appointed him? Democrat politicians he's appointed. He's a corrupt judge and he's a conflicted judge and he ought to let us go out and campaign and get rid of this.

Every single legal atlas, even CNN, even MSDNC, they're saying there's no case here.

Thank you very much.

David Pakman
When's the next time you'll be on.

Donald Trump
The campaign show instead of mingling with wealthy donors?

Jake Tapper
All right.

David Pakman
A rather angry defendant saying there's no case here. And for the record, although we certainly have people such as Mister Brennan on our panel here who are arguing that this is not a strong case, it's certainly not the view of CNN per se that there is no case here. We're discussing the qualities of the case.

Eric Trump
Speaker one.

David Pakman
Yeah. Do you know anybody who whines this much? Like at this. I know a lot of toddlers now.

They don't even whine as much as Donald Trump is whining and just totally unhinged, ranting, uh, constantly after, before, during the testimony, complaining to his lawyers. Here is a little more from Trump's post Michael Cohen testimony declaration brought six.

Donald Trump
Years ago, seven years ago, almost eight years ago. They bring it right in the middle of my presidential campaign brain. He said we had, okay, so, you know, if you go back, take a look at your earlier records, when he came into office, he turned his head down and he was angry because of what took place when he saw that they were going to use this scam, speaker one.

David Pakman
Anyway, I don't think I need to subject you to too much more of this. You get it? He's unhinged, he's ranting, he's furious. There is one thing I want to show you. This, this is just, I've, sometimes I'll talk, talk to you about the architecture of propaganda. And I have an interesting clip for you. We already know that a lot of times the stacks of paper that Trump has, you know, these stacks of paper that he holds, they often are Fox News articles. So it's Fox legal analysts who write about how Trump is totally innocent. And then someone hands those articles to Trump, and Trump says, hey, look, my friends on Fox News say that I'm totally innocent. So the cycle of propaganda continues in that Fox then mentions Trump is reading our articles about how he's totally innocent. And the cycle continues.

Take a look.

Eric Trump
President Trump stood in the hallway. They're saying that all of these legal experts keep saying there's no crime there. And I've been going through all of the reports, all of the editorials, all of the left leaning news sources. I can't find a legal analyst out there who's actually explaining how a crime was committed here, how they're, you know, right.

David Pakman
So the guy on Fox says, listen, every time I read all of the legal analyses written by our own contributors cited by Trump, none of them understand how there's a crime here. So we've talked about this before. Before Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News, there was, was regularly, because, remember, Tucker Carlson was on the opinion side. And then in the morning, it would be the hard news side. Very, very hard news. Harder than anything.

And so often, Tucker Carlson would float some crazy conspiracy theory because it's an opinion show at night. And then the next morning, Fox Hard News would report on the fact that Tucker Carlson gave this opinion. And it's just self generating, these propaganda pieces. So a little bit of an insight there into the architecture of Fox News propaganda. Trump is wildly triggered. What we are going to look at later in the show is the use of Trump's lap dogs to effectively circumvent gag orders. But first, we're going to talk about a lot of other things after this very short break.

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In some senses, we might say for the better. In many senses, we would say for the worse. Just about every conservative principle that right wingers used to champion has been completely violated or abandoned to make room for Donald Trump and for MAGA Trumpism. And this really demonstrates that their only true first principle is supporting the dear leader, even when he goes against everything they used to be about. So let's go through some examples, because there are so many. Starting with law and order. Republicans have long backed the blue and supported tough on crime policies, wanting to enhance penalties for certain offenses and provide more funding to police departments. And similarly, Trump claims to value law and order. He says it at his rallies, but he actually blatantly disrespects the rule of law all the time.

Donald Trump
If you care about law and order, look, law and order.

David Pakman
For all of his talk, Trump is facing 88 felony counts in four separate criminal cases. He has no respect for the judges presiding over those cases. He's perfectly willing to violate gag order after gag order meant to protect witnesses and jurors. In the classified documents case, he was given multiple opportunities to hand over the top secret materials he had. Instead, he had no respect for the demands of law enforcement officials, and his supporters attacked Capitol police officers on January 6, while Trump sat at the White House watching it play out on tv, doing nothing to stop it until so much damage had been done. Now, to top it all off, Trump is arguing presidents have immunity as a way to quite literally say that he is above the law.

Respect for institutions Republicans have long claimed to respect american institutions, including the Constitution that the country was founded on. This deference has been very much notable when it comes to the military, to law enforcement, to the Bill of Rights. Now, on the other hand, Trump has launched frequent attacks on the credibility and independence of institutions such as the judiciary, law enforcement agencies, the intelligence community, calling the FBI corrupt, labeling federal judges as bias based on their ethnic backgrounds. He's flirted with martial law and being dictator for a day in a clear violation of the constitutional principles they claim to worship.

Donald Trump
You are promising America tonight you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody except for day one.

David Pakman
There is no greater example of Trump's disrespect for institutions than when he ended the 200 plus year president of losing presidential candidates, conceding to the winner and fostering a peaceful transfer of power. Instead, he tried to steal the election by pressuring public officials, implementing fake elector schemes, and rallying his supporters, leading to the attacks at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Also, by, by the way, a violation of the law and order principles, debt and deficit Republicans have long claimed to be the party of fiscal responsibility. This never really made sense. Republican presidents Reagan, George W. Bush ballooned the deficit to pay for tax cuts and for wars, whereas presidents Clinton and Obama lowered it significantly. Now, of course, the debt continued to grow just at a slower rate. Nevertheless, getting the national debt under control was this major calling card for Republicans. And some Republicans, like former speaker of the House Paul Ryan, pushed for entitlement reform to lower the deficit. Trump himself promised to eliminate the national debt, not just the deficit. The debt in eight years didn't make any progress in those first four, though.

Donald Trump
The $35 trillion in debt, we're going to pay it off. We're going to get it done fast, too.

David Pakman
Instead, Trump's significant increase in government spending, even pre COVID, coupled with tax cuts without corresponding revenue increases, led to a substantial increase in the national debt during his presidency, adding $8.4 trillion to it during four years. Personal responsibility. Republicans have long championed personal responsibility, typically as a way to advocate against welfare policies and to encourage so called self sufficiency and work. They are typically opposed to universal health care and free college tuition, saying people need to take that responsibility upon themselves rather than the government playing a role in it. Now compare this with Trump, who never takes personal responsibility for anything, never apologizes, routinely blames the media, Democrats. He's quick to throw former employees and allies under the bus. And now he's blaming Biden, the media, judges, and the court system for the criminal trouble he's in, rather than accepting that his actions got him to this point.

Donald Trump
Very bad thing. The whole world is watching this hoax.

You got a DA that's out of control.

You have a judge that's highly conflicted.

David Pakman
The whole thing is a mess on Russia. Republicans historically have been tough on Russia, especially during the Soviet Union era. Well after the collapse of the USSR, Republicans viewed Putin as a threat. Mitt Romney famously called Russia the US is greatest geopolitical threat back in 2012. Trump has been very deferential to Vladimir Putin, even took Putin's side over that of the US intelligence agencies in Helsinki and praised Putin's leadership style.

Donald Trump
They said they think it's Russia.

I have President Putin.

He just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be.

David Pakman
Trump has been more critical of NATO over the years than of Russia. Now many on the right oppose military aid to Ukraine, realizing this could result in Russia taking over the country and expanding its reach in eastern Europe. On trade, most Republicans historically supported free trade practices. This was the favored policy of just about every right winger from Milton Friedman to Ronald Reagan, to the Koch brothers. Trump's imposition of tariffs on allies and adversaries alike led to trade conflicts and disruptions to global markets and supply chains, and it really diverged from the traditional republican support of free trade. Of course, Trump still doesn't seem to realize that placing a tariff on a country hurts the american businesses and consumers that buy stuff from that country.

Donald Trump
I'm unpopular in China. I'm unpopular in some other places where we've taking in hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes and tariffs.

David Pakman
Entitlements Republicans have advocated for entitlement reform to address long term fiscal challenges and ensure the sustainability of these programs. They've tried to privatize Social Security, got benefits, raised the retirement age. Contrast this with Donald Trump, who recognizes it's politically unpopular to go after Social Security and Medicare and demonstrates no interest in changing the entitlement programs.

Donald Trump
Guys like DeSantis and to a lesser extent, Nikki Haley, they want to play around with your Social Security. You don't have to touch Social Security.

David Pakman
We have money. Respecting military service, you know, Republicans historically held the troops in high regard. They showed a deep respect for military service and veterans such as Senator John McCain, who served in the Navy and endured years of torture and imprisonment during the Vietnam War. Trump said about McCain during the 2016 presidential campaign, he's a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured.

Donald Trump
He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured. Okay? I hate to tell you.

David Pakman
According to his longest serving chief of staff, John Kelly, Trump didn't want to visit a cemetery near Paris for Americans who fought and died in World War one because it was filled with suckers and losers on religiosity and family values. Republicans have long emphasized religious values and morality and public life, and this has influenced their positions on issues like abortion, same sex marriage. Examples include former Vice President Mike Pence's and House Speaker Mike Johnson's vocal christian faith and advocacy for conservative social policies. Trump's personal behavior and rhetoric includes multiple divorces, extramarital affairs. Coarse language contradicts the traditional republican values of family and religious morality. He has been unable to cite even a single favorite Bible verse as it's a personal issue.

Eric Trump
I'm wondering what one or two of your most favored Bible verses are.

Donald Trump
I wouldn't want to get into it because to me, that's very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible, it's very personal.

David Pakman
He referred to two corinthians instead of second corinthians and now is selling his own Trump bibles, combined with America's founding documents and what some religious leaders are calling blasphemous. We have a number of other examples. The idea that you don't attack your fellow Republicans, where he went after Reagan's 11th commandment and totally violated it, regularly attacks other Republicans, not attacking the country itself. Trump regularly says America is not good anymore. It's terrible here. We need me back in order to fix it. Health care Trump supported universal health care kind of in the 2016 cycle, which is a departure from what Republicans have historically supported. But of course, he didn't implement it, and when it came down to it, he didn't really want to do it. Trump has said the Iraq war was a mistake sometimes, but sometimes it was good. Depends when you ask them the idea of limited executive power spoused by the right. Trump has mostly abandoned it as long as he's the one with all the power. So at this point, the only thing holding republicans together is fealty to the dear leader, Donald Trump. Republicans didn't even write a party platform in 2020, opting instead to reassert support for Trump's agenda, whatever that may be. It is no wonder why there are countless examples of traditional Republicans expressing disdain for the direction of their party. Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, Paul Ryan. Trump has made it clear Republicans don't actually care about the rule of law or personal responsibility or fiscal conservatism or any of their supposed policies.

If they did, they couldn't support Trump.

Instead, they value being subservient to this narcissistic, megalomaniac wannabe dictator because they want to be close to power. And if Trump will be in power, they want to be near him. Trump's priorities, Trump's guiding principle.

There's only one of them. It's what's good for me right now, and what do I have to do to retain power?

Scary stuff.

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So he kind of is allowed to do it, but at least in theory, he's not allowed to do it. And in theory, he's been threatened with jail if he does it again. He now regularly brings different lap dogs to his trial in order to do the attacking for him. The lapdogs are not particularly effective. For example, JD Vance was one of those lapdogs yesterday. A republican senator, Senator Tommy Tuberville was another one of them. So they are just showing up and saying the things Trump would like to be saying. I don't know how specifically Trump is coordinating it or just kind of saying, hey, give him. Give him hell, JD. Here is JD Vance attacking the judge's daughter.

What is wrong with these people? And prosecutors as well? And there's an argument to be made that this is effectively a circumvention of the gag order. Judge inside his daughter is making millions of dollars running against Donald Trump, raising money for Donald Trump. Trump's political opponents, the number three person in the Department of Justice, Biden's Department of Justice, left to become a local prosecutor to go after Donald Trump. And of course, there's Alvin Bragg, a Soros funded prosecutor who promised to go after Donald Trump and now is doing exactly that now. So these are the things Trump would like to be saying. This stuff almost seems verbatim like the sort of things that Donald Trump would say he's not supposed to because of the gag order. And this is his latest way of getting around it. The first way was just to say it anyway and start getting dinged. A $1,000 each time. The judges now threatened him multiple times with jail. To the extent Trump is taking it seriously, now he's getting JD Vance to do it. Similarly, he brought Republican Senator Tommy to Berville, and Tommy to Berville says that what's being done to Trump is just completely unfair. It's depressing. It's just terrible. None of it should be allowed. Again, it just really sounds like Trump.

Jake Tapper
Here's what I'm seeing, too. It is depressing. That courtroom is depressing. This is New York City, the icon of our country, and we got a courtroom. That's the most depressing thing I've ever been in.

David Pakman
Yeah.

Jake Tapper
Mental anguish is trying to be pushed on the republican candidate for the president of the United States issue.

David Pakman
What is a courtroom supposed to be like now? I'm the first to admit, when I've had jury duty, some of these courtrooms, there are these old buildings. Who the hell knows if they're still asbestos everywhere? I mean, these, the, the lighting is not exactly thought out by a lighting expert that works with architects. It's. It is, in a sense, depressing. That's not untrue, but since when are we. It's. It's the, the very same people that when you say, hey, we're a little concerned about the state of some of our prisons, they're like, really not good. Well, these are criminals. What do you want them to be in a five star hotel?

Were our courts also supposed to be like five star hotels? I mean, the things that they whine about and the temperature and the lighting, and it's depressing. And Trump has to sit there and then maybe. Funniest of all, so far, as far as statements from lapdogs, Tommy Tuberville says he's upset that in the, in the courtroom, rather than referring to him as former President Trump, they're saying Mister Trump, which is completely standard in courts of law. But Tommy, to Berville, doesn't like it. Trump's not getting the deference that he deserves.

Jake Tapper
First of all, I'm disappointed in the courtroom. I'm hearing Mister Trump, Mister Trump. He is former President Trump.

Give him some respect.

I mean, that's what that place is in there. It's no respect.

Here's what I'm seeing, too. It is depressing. That courtroom is depressing. This is New York City.

David Pakman
All right, so this is the part we heard, and then we'll skip forward a little bit.

Jake Tapper
And then there's more supposedly american citizens in that courtroom that the DA comes in and he acts like it is his Super bowl. And I guess it is to be noticed.

But that's what's happening in this country.

Republican candidate for president, United States, is going through mental anguish in a courtroom. That's very depressing. Very.

David Pakman
Yeah, Trump is anguished. Maybe he should have considered that when engaging in the activities that are allegedly crimes. And of course, the whole point of a courtroom is that you are a human being judged by a jury of your peers. You are mister this or miss that or whatever. And the big gripe from Tommy Tuberville that they're not respecting Trump. He's former President Trump. Well, now he is there to be judged by a jury of his peers. We are all just mister. And I don't know, is it misses or miss or miss. I'm not sure in courtrooms what the designation is for women, but this actually makes perfect sense. And they just whine about everything. So is this strategy going to work? The strategy of Trump bringing the attack dogs?

They treated him like a dog bringing the attack dogs to say the things he's not allowed to say, thanks to the gag order. Will a judge allow it? I have no idea. But to be honest, I'm getting sick of this trial. And it's trial number one, thanks to all the hijinks. It's going to be a long next year or two or however long it takes to adjudicate all this stuff. But reports from inside the court rumor that after Tommy Tuberville and JD Vance did their dog and pony show outside, inside, they were very bored. JD Vance reportedly on his phone essentially the entire time, Tuberville sitting completely motionless and seeming completely disengaged from the subject matter. So it's all performative in this sense. And maybe the worst performance of the day trying to respond to Michael Cohen's testimony was that of Eric Trump. And I want to talk about that next. After Michael Cohen's very damaging testimony in Donald Trump's criminal trial. Yesterday, Donald Trump's son, Eric Trump appeared on Fox News, I believe, with Laura Ingraham. It was a very, very, very disastrous appearance. And the reason it was so bad is that in attempting to do damage control, Eric Trump contradicted either the facts of the case, the legal situation, or the legal argument that Trump's defense attorneys are making. So I'm going to give you an example here in this segment. Eric Trump says they are talking about this entire. Eric Trump claims the entire trial is about $130,000 payment that Trump made in an intel in an individual capacity and booked on his personal ledger as a legal expense.

But that doesn't match up with what Trump previously said. So let's hear from Eric Trump. You do have to listen carefully to understand the full scope of the dishonesty of these people. This is actually a disastrous interview, but let's listen.

Eric Trump
And yet they're, they're going back to a $130,000 payment that a man made in his individual capacity, that he booked on his personal ledger as a legal expense because it was paid to his longtime attorney.

And he gets 34 felonies. Remember, Al Capone got one felony, my father gets 34.

David Pakman
This simply doesn't match up with what Donald Trump has previously said. Eric Trump's apologia here conflicts with what Trump previously said. Trump said that these payments were being made for legal services that Michael Cohen was performing each month in 2017.

Now they have a problem. The invoices involved in the hush money have Allen Weisselberg's handwriting. He was the CFO of the Trump organization. So they are now changing the story to it was 130, $30,000 payment made personally to Michael Cohen. But they structured this as monthly payments to hide the fact that these were campaign funds. And so Eric Trump's defense of his dad contradicts Donald Trump's own defense of himself. Eric Trump then says, you know, if these NDAs were such a problem, then every organization would have a problem with these NDAs. The problem there is, the defense is saying Trump didn't have anything to do with the NDAs anyway. Eric Trump is saying the NDA is fine. There's no problem that my dad was involved with it. The defense is saying Trump had nothing to do with the NDA. Wait a second. That's another problem. I'd say crimes anyway. Even if he did say, okay, worst.

Eric Trump
Or not, NDAs are completely, that's the point. I would say are done every single day by every single organization. By the way, every organization, including this one, would go down in flames if it NDA was, was illegal because every single organization, every single person has NDAs in that, in that world.

David Pakman
The defenses, Trump had nothing to do with any of the three NDAs that are related to this entire fiasco. So then why does it matter if they are okay? Why does it matter if other companies use NDAs? And every defense of Trump in total has the same sort of trajectory. He definitely didn't do it, he was set up.

It wasn't illegal when he did it. It also isn't true that he did it. It's also done by everybody else. You're misunderstanding what he actually, it's always the same endless cycle of lies to try to defend this guy. And then lastly, and this is maybe the most telling part of the entire interview with Laura Ingraham. Laura Ingraham asks multiple times, did Trump personally sign off on everything? Because Michael Cohen testified that Trump personally signed off on everything.

And Eric Trump doesn't want to answer that question. Why stop at 34? Cohen says that he called your dad to make sure that he approved of what he was doing and that he would be reimbursed for everything he required. Mister Trump sign off basically on everything. That's what he repeated throughout the day.

Eric Trump
Isn't that really interesting? Because he kept on getting delayed and delayed and delayed. And Michael Cohen kept on making excuses. He couldn't get the pay. Then he finally comes out one of the emails and says that, well, I can't get in touch with everything your dad, you know what, I can't get in touch with the president. You know why? Because he's in Iowa and he's campaigning in every swing state.

David Pakman
I hope you're noticing that Eric is just ignoring the question. He's just stepping right over.

Eric Trump
He couldn't get him. You know, it's really amazing how he comes out. And I mean, the email chains clearly show this. But Laura, that's not what this is about. They want to take my father down in New York. They want to do it civilly. They want to do it. They want to do it in Georgia. They want to try and do it in Washington DC. They go to the farthest left areas of this country. They have radical prosecutors, all with one thing in common. They're all funded by Soros, every single one. And they have a damn mission to go after Donald Trump because he's winning speaker one.

David Pakman
There it is. So he's not going to answer the question. Did your dad approve everything the way Michael Cohen said under testimony, under a oath, during his testimony, but instead he's going to blame George Soros. Classic. I think Eric Trump needs to stop doing these interviews. We have a voicemail number. That number is 2192. David P. I'm going to warn you, I don't fully understand what this is about. I don't know if this is a pro trans voicemail or anti trans pro choice or anti choice.

This is a wild voicemail. Take a listen to this. Hey, David, I've been watching your show.

Eric Trump
For a long time.

David Pakman
I definitely Democrat. But what I want to know is why is nobody talking about males getting their cut off or their nuts cut off for abortions that they caused because they're making children that are not being taken care of? Nobody is talking about that. Why is nobody talking about this? That is the worst thing.

Donald Trump
If a woman has to pay, then.

David Pakman
A man should have to pay.

Jake Tapper
It takes.

David Pakman
I know what she's talking about. Is she saying that men who impregnate women who subsequently get an abortion should be castrated or. I don't know what she's talking about.

I don't know what she's talking about. If anyone can explain it to me, please do. We've got a great bonus show for you today. We will talk about a Republican using the same precedent of the Trump administration to file impeachment articles. Democrats are urging Joe Biden to immediately investigate grocery store price fixing. And GameStop is surging again. I know it's 2024.

GameStop is surging again. The reason why is wild. We will discuss it and more when producer Pat joins me on the bonus show. Don't miss the bonus show. Sign up@joinpackman.com to get instant access. See you later, everybody.

5/14/24: Michael Cohen testimony triggers Trump, Biden winning war on crime

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1. The 2024 Election Cycle and MAGA's Future

2. Biden's War on Crime

3. The Impact of Michael Cohen's Testimony

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