6/26/24: Stiff win for Lauren Boebert, Trump's debate prep is really weird

This episode explores significant primary election results, focusing on Lauren Boebert's victory and the implications of Donald Trump's debate preparations.

1. Lauren Boebert won her primary in Colorado, benefiting from high name recognition among numerous candidates.
2. Trump’s endorsees generally had a poor performance, suggesting a diminishing influence of his endorsements.
3. Accusations flew regarding Biden using performance-enhancing substances for debates, reflecting a common tactic in political narratives.
4. The episode includes expert analysis on the cognitive conditions of political figures, hinting at potential impacts on their public responsibilities.
5. Discussion on media's role and its influence on public perception during the election cycle.

1. Election Analysis

David discusses the outcomes of key primary elections, emphasizing the dynamics within the Republican party and Trump's influence. David Pakman: "Lauren Boebert’s win in Colorado shows how a divided opposition can inadvertently aid a controversial candidate."

2. Trump’s Debate Prep

Insights into Trump's unconventional debate preparation methods, suggesting a lack of formal strategy. David Pakman: "Trump’s debate prep is more about relying on his past experiences rather than formal preparation."

3. Media and Manipulation

Analysis of how narratives are shaped in the media, particularly concerning Biden's debate performance and public perception. David Pakman: "The repetition of unfounded claims about Biden's performance enhancers shows how powerful and misleading narratives can become entrenched."

• Stay Informed: Keep up with multiple news sources to get a well-rounded view of political events.
• Critical Thinking: Analyze the motives behind political endorsements and their impact on election outcomes.
• Media Literacy: Understand how media can shape public opinion, and look for unbiased reporting.
• Community Engagement: Discuss these political developments in community forums or groups to gauge broader opinions and share insights.
• Voting Participation: Engage in the electoral process by voting and encouraging others to do the same, emphasizing the importance of informed decisions.

-- On the Show:

-- Psychologist Dr. John Gartner, founder of Duty to Warn and co-host of Shrinking Trump, joins David to discuss how much, if anything, can be gleaned about Donald Trump or Joe Biden's cognitive states from watching the forthcoming 90 minute presidential debate

-- A review of primary results from last night, including Lauren Boebert's win, a number of Trump/MAGA losses, and the first loss by "The Squad" with Jamaal Bowman losing his primary to George Latimer

-- Donald Trump's primary endorsements lose badly, including Mark Burns, Dave Williams, and Trent Staggs

-- A deranged Fox News propagandist Sean Hannity says that President Joe Biden is "experimenting with the right dose" of substances in advance of tomorrow night's presidential debate against Donald Trump

-- Donald Trump is interviewed on Newsmax by Corey Lewandowski about his debate prep and other topics, and none of his answers make any sense

-- Republican Congressman Eric Burlison suggests that President Joe Biden might be using the soft drink Mountain Dew as a performance-enhancing drug for the presidential debate with Donald Trump

-- Notes from Donald Trump's former attorney Evan Corcoran reveal that, contrary to what Trump said publicly, he feared that he knew his possession of classified documents might be criminal

-- The All-In podcast interviews Donald Trump and it goes so poorly, Trump's suggestion about permanent residency for college graduates stuns his own supporters

-- On the Bonus Show: President Joe Biden will pardon US servicemembers previously convicted for being gay, US Surgeon General declares gun violence a public health emergency, conservative lawmakers pushing to end no-fault divorce, much more...

People

Lauren Boebert, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Jamal Bowman, George Latimer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Dan Goldman, John Gartner

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

Dr. John Gartner

Content Warnings:

None

David Pakman
Welcome to the show. We have primary results to discuss, and they are very interesting. A radical and repugnant reactionary republican congresswoman from Colorado, Lauren Boebert, was able to grab a hard win against very stiff competition. Actually, it wasn't that hard of a win, to be totally honest. She won pretty easily. Jamal Bowman lost. A bunch of maga tools also lost. So really quite a mixed bag yesterday. So let's discuss a couple of the highest profile races we will start with. Lauren Boebert indeed did win in Colorado's fourth district. This was a heavily contested primary with some very interesting and contentious and confrontational debates, clips of which went viral and we discussed. But at the end of the day, Lauren Boebert winning quite easily. She had about 43% of the vote, all of the other candidates sharing about 57% of the vote. And a perfect example of how the large number of contenders likely helped Lauren Boebert, the only candidate with serious name recognition there, at least as far as national fundraising is concerned. If everybody else had gotten out of the way of, for example, Jerry Sonnenberg or Deborah Flora or maybe even Richard Holtorff or Mike lynch, they could have consolidated the 57% non beau bear support and maybe taken her out. But it was not to be. And Lauren Boebert is going to now move on to the general election in the fourth district of Colorado in November, and we will see what happens there. A democratic challenger to Congressman Jamal Bowman, also a Democrat.

This is a primary, of course. George Latimer has defeated Jamal Bowman. That race got ugly. It was also a high profile race and it really wasn't close. 55 to 44, Latimer knocking out Bowman.

And this is one where the propaganda is thick and it is heavy. The story you are hearing from some about this race is that Bowman is great. He's a true progressive, an excellent member of Congress, a fantastic candidate, and he lost because he had the testicular fortitude to come out against israeli atrocities and the israeli lobby went after him and blah, blah, blah.

He is an anti israeli candidate, but he's a terrible candidate. He's a conspiracy nut. And the truth is that the israeli lobby has supported challenges against Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and they have lost. And the incumbents, Omar Tlaib and AOC, have won easily. And in fact, Jamal Bowman originally won his house seat against a heavily AIPAC funded candidate. So that's not really what it's about.

Sometimes we on the left have to accept, I think we should accept difficult realities and the difficult reality in the case of Bowman is that he became extremely unpopular within his own district.

AIPAC didn't create that. They certainly took advantage of it. Bowman has said a lot of wacky stuff. He once said, we're going to, we're all going to show effing AIPAC the power of the mother effing South Bronx. The south Bronx isn't even in his district. He wrongly stated that Riverdale was in Westchester. It's actually in the South Bronx. I mean, it's. He's just a terrible candidate. Ok? Trump's a terrible candidate. He was terrible in 2020. He lost. He deserved to lose. Whatever opinion you have about Trump, and this guy is not a good candidate. He accused the jews of segregating Westchester. He was plagiarizing his dissertation, and he's a bad candidate. I would consider his election an anomaly, or even an anomaly to begin with. Both pronunciations acceptable according to most american english dictionaries. And just a bad candidate. Okay? So he's going to have to move on and do something else. Also, not a great night for MAGA, and we're going to talk about that in a bit. But great news.

Remember last week that Pastor Mark Burns, who bailed on interviewing me at the last second and tried to send his cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Communications director, and they were very confident going in. Very confident. And to be honest, I thought that Pastor Mark Burns was going to win. He lost. And even though the winner, Sherry Biggs, is still a bonkers Republican, generically speaking, it's a great thing that it is another Trump endorsee who has lost. And we will talk about that in the next segment in a little bit more detail. Uh, democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez did face a primary challenge. It did not go well for Martin Dolan. Uh, AOC amassing 82% of the vote at the point at which 90% of the vote had been counted. And so an easy win for AOC.

And then Dan Goldman, sort of an interesting race. He had challengers in the 10th district in New York, but he has really made a name for himself with some very good congressional hearing performances, and he's good in interviews and in media. So Dan Goldman, a freshman member of Congress, and he easily, easily won his primary and will go on to stay in Congress and be reelected in November in what is a reliably blue district. So an interesting night, a mixed bag. But I want to now talk a little bit about the Trump endorsees.

Uh, that had a very, very bad night last night is an endorsement from convicted felon, civilly liable rapist, failed former President Donald Trump. Useful if you are a Republican running for office in 2024. Well, Donald Trump was crushed by some humiliating primary disasters last night, and it's certainly plausible, and it seems to be pointing in the direction of that Trump endorsement. Not really having the turns to gold touch that maybe it had at some point, although maybe it never really did, because Donald Trump has been overstating his endorsement record for year after year after year. Some examples. In South Carolina, as I mentioned, Trump endorsed candidate pastor Mark Burns lost to sherry biggs. I will admit this brings me personal happiness.

We had an interview. Is, is this, is it petty for me to be thrilled that this lunatic lost? We were interview, scheduled to interview Pastor Mark Burns last week, and we connect for the interview and he's not there. Some other dude is there and I'm like, oh, this must be some tech guy. But it's actually his communications director who says, I'm going to be doing the interview. To, to which I said, why? We're scheduled to interview the pastor, the actual candidate. He said, nope, we decided I'm going to do it. To which I said, no, you're not. So anyway, they were very confident about how they were speaking to all the right people in South Carolina's third district. Appearing on this show was not important to them, which, by the way, they were right. I mean, the interview would have been a disaster and it would not have helped them to do the interview. Mark Burns lost, and I am thrilled. And it is another loss for Donald Trump's endorsement record. Trump endorsed Republican Dave Williams, lost his republican primary in Colorado's fifth congressional district to a guy named Jeff Crank.

And Congressman John Curtis will be the republican candidate to succeed Senator Mitt Romney in Utah, defeating Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, who was also endorsed by Trump and also lost. So there's a few different things here. Number one, Trump could not care less. None of these people are him. Trump primarily cares about himself. They're all out of sight, out of mind for Donald Trump. But this is a pretty terrible night for Trump's endorsements, considering that he has a sort of dream of becoming president and controlling the House with a MAGa slate of members of Congress. And even his handpicked candidates can't get across, forget about general elections. They can't even get across the primary finish line. So I think that this is an opportunity for President Biden to exploit the division that's taking place within the right wing Republican, former outgoing republican congressman Adam Kinzinger has formally endorsed President Joe Biden, not because Biden's conservative, but because Adam Kinzinger sort of believes in some of the bedrock principles of democracy, including that we should have a democracy rather than a dictatorship. So a lot of chips are starting to fall here against Donald Trump. And Joe Biden should have a plan. I don't know that he does, but Joe Biden should have a plan to exploit this division. And Trump losing, having endorsees lose a bunch of these primaries is a very bad sign for him. Now, of course, if Trump is confronted with this information, he will blame the candidates.

He will say, you know, I endorse them, but they ran a bad campaign.

I endorsed them, but they were not really MAGA enough. They shied away from MAGA, and that's ultimately why they lost. But it's important not to lose sight of the reality here, which is this all points to the diminished power of the Trump endorsement. And that's a very good thing, because anything that gets in the way of Trump being able to implement Project 2025 is a very, very good thing. Now, speaking of Project 2025, we have released our white paper. Some people prefer to call it a guide. This is free. We spent the last month writing and fine tuning and massaging and preparing a white paper explaining what is Project 2025?

Why does it present such a risk, and how do we stop it? I am inviting you to download this white paper for free at david pakman.com project 2025. I'm not selling you anything. This is completely free because it's so critical that we defeat the mere possibility of Project 2025. So if you're still not sure about why this is so critical, if you know people who don't yet understand the issues and dangers of Project 2025, get this white paper. I haven't even mentioned it on the show yet. We published it yesterday. 1500 people have already downloaded the guide, which is fantastic. Fantastic. Okay, so we're talking about it. It's available. David Pakman.com, project 2025. Let's hope that the diminished power of Trump's endorsement signals the diminished power of Trump, which will lead to a Trump loss in November, which will stop Project 2025 in its tracks. Let's take a very quick break. Hear from a sponsor or two. I'll give you the latest on debate prep. I'll give you the latest on performance enhancements.

And then we'll be joined by doctor John Gartner.

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project 2025. The conspiracy theorizing about Joe Biden being on something at tomorrow night's increasingly critical presidential debate is now a constant in right wing radio on right wing media. And today we are going to take a break from cable news and digital video to go to old fashioned AM radio, where Sean Hannity, a Fox News propagandist by night and an AM radio propagandist by day, again says with absolutely no evidence that Joe Biden is experimenting with the right dose of whatever. Now I'm going to play it for you. But the important sort of takeaway that I want you to think about is how the repetition of this story has now led to the wholesale acceptance of it as true by Trump supporters. It started after the State of the union in any real sense. Oh, he probably was on something because it went so well. It wasn't the normal Joe Biden we would expect.

And of course, there was no evidence. And there's still no evidence. But it has been repeated so much. It's been repeated by Congressman Ronnie Jackson and Sean Hannity and people on Fox News and people on Newsmax and everywhere, that if you talk to Trump supporters now at rallies, they go, oh, yeah, well, by Biden's on stuff, we know that he will be on something. He's been on stuff before. There's still no evidence. But the repetition makes it true in the minds of MAGA here.

Dr. John Gartner
Is Hannity, is it going to be.

Sean Hannity
Jacked up, hyper caffeinated Joe? Or is it going to be, you know, the cognitive dysfunction that we see every day? And I would say it's probably the latter.

I think the odds are pretty high that that Doctor Ronnie Jackson is correct, is they're probably experimenting with just the right dose, knowing that they probably overdid it at the State of the union when he screamed his speech. I mean, he literally just didn't even let the speaker introduce him. And he's screaming his speech and he's reading the teleprompter. He's not going to have a teleprompter here. I know many of you, many theories out there that it's, it's Joe Biden is going to have special things put in his. There's no evidence of any of that. And I imagine that there's probably checks for that.

Certainly there are no notes. There's no teleprompter. And Joe still, whether he's on Red Bull or caffeine pills or whatever, still has to perform and he still has to remember and he still has to not mumble, bumble, stumble and he still has to stand for 90 minutes. I mean, think about what's going on here. I mean, hiding out a camp David for days on end, what, seven, eight, nine days, whatever it is, not doing his job as president, just dedicating the entire time to debate prep and maybe the proper dosage of caffeine.

David Pakman
So listen, there is so much nonsense in there now. This entire going to Camp David for ten days thing is wrong. I believe Biden went to Camp David on Friday, so he's ultimately going to be there at the most, five, five days you can be president at Camp David. Presidents regularly did it. Just because Trump didn't go to Camp David, because he had, like, five houses to go to doesn't mean that presidents have not historically gone to Camp David to prepare for big things or for whatever reason. That's really not a big deal when it comes to the caffeine story. You know, we're going to talk a little more about caffeine later, but when, when we talk, if, if they are being honest, that at this point they can really only assume it's caffeine and nothing else. Trump reportedly drinks a dozen Diet Cokes a day, which is a crazy amount of caffeine. So if honestly, it's just caffeine, there's kind of no story, because the story would be just as much about Trump as it is about Biden. But the truth here is that it's not really about any particular dosage or any particular substance. This is just about repeating it enough and repeating it with confidence. Where it goes from speculation in their minds understand it goes from speculation to something they see as likely, to something they see as obvious and definitive, when we still have no evidence whatsoever. And as you probably remember from earlier this week, there are actual doctors who believe that Trump is the one that has regularly been using stimulants.

So we'll get back to caffeine in a moment.

But briefly, I want to talk a little bit about the way that Donald Trump has been preparing for this debate. Donald Trump appeared yesterday in an interview with his own former campaign manager, Corey Leon Lewandowski on Newsmax. Corey Lewandowski now hosts a show on Newsmax. Apparently it's all very weird. It's all this sort of incestuous revolving door of working on campaigns and working in administrations and working in media. It's not just on the right, but it's particularly notable when it comes to MAGA. And Corey Lewandowski asks what to a normal person would be a pretty interesting question if they were able to answer it in an honest way, which is how have you been preparing for the debate? And Trump basically says he's not preparing, and that is his entire life has been a preparation for this debate.

Corey Lewandowski
And the real question is, what have you been doing to prepare for the debate?

Donald Trump
I think I've been preparing for it for my whole life. If you want to know the truth, and I'm not sure you can lock yourself into a room for two weeks or one week or two days and really learn what you have to know.

David Pakman
Certainly not if you don't plan to know anything through it.

Donald Trump
I've been, you know, a popular president.

We had some great elections and some amazing, you know, number of votes. Nobody got more than we got.

David Pakman
And Trump is preparing by having received votes in a previous, in a previous election. Great. And great strategy.

Donald Trump
I know the subject now. You know, they make it cute because it's obviously at CNN, and I call it fake news for a long time. We'll see how they do it. I think they have a lot at stake. To be fair. I think they have to be fair. But we'll see how we do.

David Pakman
I think, I do find it funny that, that Trump says that having been a popular president is part of the way that he prepared. But there's actually a lot in there because what he's essentially saying is he's riding on reputation and it's true. He doesn't need to prepare on the substance because the substance doesn't matter. He'll just lie or not know or insult his opponent. So I do not expect any deep policy knowledge from Donald Trump. Tomorrow night I will be watching with great interest, but not because I'm curious about Donald Trump's latest tax plan, but that is his preparation. Notably and hilariously, during portions of this interview on Newsmax, a hilarious disclaimer appeared at the bottom of the screen that read, quote, please note, Newsmax accepts the 2020 election results as legal and final. When you can't even put Trump on tv without a legal disclaimer so you don't get sued, it's a sign. This may not be the truth telling candidate that is good for your party. But we will see Trump at another point of the interview, he got confused and referred to governors.

I actually really like this one speaker.

Donald Trump
One, not allow these people to stay in our, as our governors because they have done such a bad job.

David Pakman
Allow the governors have really done a terrible job.

Donald Trump
Saudi Arabia and Russia will reap, beat.

David Pakman
Duke, will reap beat dupe. Ah. At another point in the interview, Trump strangely going silent. And it wasn't clear whether he expected Corey Lewandowski to play a clip or whether Trump walked away from the phone. I don't know. But a very awkward moment on Newsmax.

Corey Lewandowski
Made some recommendations that maybe Joe Biden has to have a drug test before this debate. You've made some great remarks. And let me just remind our viewers kind of what you've said and you know what your take is on it.

David Pakman
Yeah.

Corey Lewandowski
Oh, sir, I think you said that Joe might need a shot to stay up for the debate.

I hear that he's practicing standing for 90 minutes. Is his debate prep a little different, I think, than what you're used to at some of the rallies you've participated in recently?

Donald Trump
Well, if I have to practice standing, we have ourselves a big problem. Now, I had heard that, too. He's practicing how to stand or something standing.

David Pakman
So I do, I do think that Corey Lewandowski was unclear when he said, we will remind the audience what it is you previously said. And then maybe the most statistically jarring moment of the interview came when Corey Lewandowski brought up the topic of immigration, I think, or Trump just brought it up himself and used some very surprising numbers about the number of migrants who died trying to cross the border.

Donald Trump
We lose hundreds of, think of it, hundreds of thousands of people are dying at our border, coming through our border every year because of our border.

David Pakman
They're coming through the border because of our border. But Trump said that we are losing hundreds of thousands of people at the border. And that is very much not true. Since 1994. Okay, so 30 years, since 19, 94, 10,000 people have died trying to cross. It's still terrible. It's tragic. It's a horrifying, senseless loss of life. But it is not hundreds of thousands of people dying at our border per year. It's more like 333 per year. Still terrible, right? I mean, no, no doubt about it. We still care about those 333, but not hundreds of thousands. So Trump explaining his debate prep on Newsmax, and then we really got, by the end of the day yesterday, 48 hours before tomorrow night's debate, we got to the fever pitch. Epitome of the Biden is on something and it has to do with soft drinks. Let's talk about that absolutely pathetic weasel nonsense on Maria Bartiromo's Fox Business show, where Republican Congressman Eric Burleson brought up the possibility that Joe Biden is using Mountain Dew as a performance enhancing substance and will be on the door during the debate. Now, I used to like Mountain Dew when I was 14.

And apropos of not, I don't even know how that's related to the story, but I just figured I should, I used to like Mountain Dew when I was 14.

To think that the entire dementia hiding, carefully calibrated pharmaceutical intervention depends on Mountain Dew is a little difficult. Listen to this.

Sean Hannity
That Ronnie Jackson says Biden will be.

David Pakman
Will have been at Camp David for.

Sean Hannity
A full week before the debate and that they're probably experimenting with getting doses, right? Giving him medicine ahead of the debate.

David Pakman
Is that what you think?

Eric Burlison
Yeah, I think that, you know, any, any patient that truly, or, you know, elderly individual or someone that has dementia, they can find some moments of clarity, right? They can find moments throughout the day that they have energy. And I, look, I think that we should, Trump's team should not underestimate Joe Biden and his team's ability to, you know, whether they're going to jack him up on Mountain Dew or whatever it is that, look, the State of the union this year, he had a lot of energy for about an hour.

David Pakman
The families of dementia and Alzheimer's sufferers all over the country, newly inspired by the possibility that Mountain Dew may help their loved ones diminish their symptoms, reduce their symptoms. Now, Trump, let's be very, very honest about the numbers here. Trump reportedly drinks twelve Diet Cokes a day. Okay? Each one has 45 milligrams of caffeine.

So twelve of them is like 4540 milligrams of caffeine. This is way more than what the medical science recommends in an entire day. Absolutely no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine is typically the recommendation. Trump is constantly having Diet Cokes. And if he does have the twelve a day that he is reported to have, that's way more than the absolute maximum of caffeine that anybody should be having. Mountain Dew has a very similar amount of caffeine, 55 milligrams. It's almost the same. I can assure you Biden is not drinking twelve mountain dews a day and certainly isn't going to be chugging twelve mountain dews, or six or even three before a debate. It's just ridiculous. And if we are reduced after he's on drugs, he's on stimulants, it's Adderall, it's provigil, it's this is that, it's that. And then those claims slowly fall apart as we learn more about how those substances work. If all we have left is he's on caffeine from soda, we have nothing more than what Donald Trump is doing by having twelve diet Cokes a day. I also, dementia aside, have seen no evidence that Mountain Dew turns people into good debaters, that's for sure. And if it did, if it did, some of my coworkers when I worked at a laser tag facility would have been much more cogent in their political arguments than they were when I was 15 years old. So I think I have personal experience that Mountain Dew does not have that effect on people. So we're getting to the end. Ok? After the break, doctor John Gartner will tell us what should we be watching for tomorrow night if our goal is to figure out what is the cognitive status of either of these men?

So we'll take a very quick break. Make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel@YouTube.com the David Pakman show. And we'll be right back.

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It's great to welcome back to the program doctor John Gartner, founder of Duty to Warn, co host of shrinking Trump and former assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School. It's always great to have you on. I appreciate it.

Dr. John Gartner
Yeah, it's always great to be here.

David Pakman
So, listen, the first of what we believe will be two presidential debates is happening this week. It has become effectively a referendum not on tax policy, not on foreign policy, not on educational policy, not on the border. It's become effectively a referendum on cognitive decline. And the stakes feel very high. Not on the policy basis, but because audiences will be watching. Is either or are both of these candidates suffering from some kind of cognitive issue here?

What we saw first as years of saying Biden is so demented he doesn't know what day it is, has been supplanted in the last 96 hours with a raising of expectations. Oh, Biden will do well, but because he's going to be on something, Biden will do well because the moderators will be on his side. So the Trump side clearly seems to be changing their tune because setting expectations so low has backfired. Let's start with a very basic question.

How much through the television in a 90 minutes event, the likes of which we are going to see, can we glean about the cognitive state of either candidate?

Dr. John Gartner
Well, that's a great question. And some of it depends on whether Trump is having a good day or a bad day, because he really varies immensely in his cognitive capacities. Sometimes he's relatively normal, and other times he's literally babbling incomprehensibly, incoherently.

My partner, Harry Sig, my co host on our podcast shrinking Trump, what he's observed and keeps bringing up is Trump is most disorganized at night. He really does seem to sort of sundown in a way. And so he thinks that it's, and once Harry said that on our show after that, every single event that Trump was scheduled for was a daytime event. You know, his little softball interview with the Fox and Friends B team, you know, where the, the toughest question they asked him about his prosecution was, you've been through a lot.

How are you doing?

David Pakman
Yeah.

Dr. John Gartner
And then you see the little golf carts going by in the daytime because Harry thinks they figured out that he's only compass mentus in the daytime. So in terms of how likely are we to see Trump's cognitive decline on camera? It's good news that it's late at night. That's good news in terms of the chances of it sort of really evidencing itself more glaringly.

Also, it's unstructured. It's not. What he does is very carefully curated events, unlike the Biden campaign, which are very chaotic in the events. And he's wandering around somewhere because they made him look like he wandering around a field in Italy because he was saying hello to someone who had parachuted down. Yes. So they have these very sketchy kind of organized events, but everything he does is orchestrated. He comes to the music, to a very friendly crowd. He feeds off the energy of the crowd. There's no crowd here. There's no crowd for him to pander to, to feed off of their energy. That's a big factor. And then finally, the fact that it's not scripted that he doesn't have a teleprompter. So I actually predict that we're more likely to see him garble and ramble and make no sense. What I hope is that Biden will take advantage of it. What I hope is that Biden will point it out in real time.

I think that he would say, man, I don't even know what you're talking about. You're not even making any sense. I mean, this has been happening a lot with you. You just talk and it's incomprehensible. You say that I can't put two sentences together. You know, recently Aaron Sorkin on CNBC said that a bunch of CEO's who were your supporters left the room. Not your supporters.

David Pakman
Andrew Ross Orkin. I think you mean Andrew Ross Orkin.

Dr. John Gartner
I'm sorry, whatever I said was wrong. Andrew Ross, or can forget. Strike that.

Maybe we can edit that.

David Pakman
I mean, to talk about Biden for a second. Biden does sometimes lose his train of thought, and he has dealt with a stutter, and that can play in a particular way in a one on one debate.

How would you suggest Biden prepare for the debate given that tendency?

Speaker one?

Dr. John Gartner
Well, you know, I probably don't have any advice for him on how to manage his stutter. I think he's probably more of a professional than that than I am sure.

I think the general advice that I have.

I do have several pieces of advice that I'm hoping to share on this show. Hoping then maybe it'll travel through the airwaves, just maybe, and reach somebody.

One is that he has to not let Trump dominate him.

These debates are very primitive, alpha male contests between, if you saw Planet of the apes, this is Koba against Caesar, you know what I mean? And it's a mano a mano kind of battle.

And really, people judge it with the primitive parts of their brain that are very simian, you know what I mean? They make a very, a lot of the Haley voters, people who have voted against Trump, who don't like Trump, right? Half of them have said they're going to vote for Trump. And the most common reason they give is Biden is cognitively demented, or they just say, he's a strong leader, he seems strong. And so that hypomanic aggression, that he has that dominance. Right. I thought the best line that Biden had in the last debate was, will you shut up, man?

He's setting a limit with the bully. He's standing up to him. Now, of course, Frank Luntz, who is a republican pollster, said that was his worst line from the debate. He said that in the newspaper today and basically advised him to be presidential and I guess go high like Michelle Obama said. Well, of course, Frank Luntz wants him to lose.

The fact that Frank Luntz went to the trouble of specifically saying, don't say that. And I'm telling you, that was his best line. My point is that he needs to interrupt the interrupter. He can't just count on them, on them cutting off the mics. He's got to go head to head, and he's got to have one liners. And Singer is ready to use when he interrupts. It can't just be shut up, man, over and over again.

So that's one thing. And then I think he needs to use those moments to spotlight how bad Trump is. So once he's talking, he can say, you know, you can't follow the rules of the debate, just like you can't follow any laws. That's why you're a convicted felon. That's why you're indicted for trying to overthrow the government. That's why you're indicted for stealing documents. That's why you've been sued by a thousand people. That's why you've been adjudicated a sexual predator. It's like you break every rule, you violate every boundary. In other words, take that moment and magnify it to be a window into his psychopathology.

David Pakman
Allegations have surfaced of Trump and Biden being on drugs before and during performances of different kinds. I was recently on Fox News, and this guy, Will Cain, started talking about it, and I said, well, will, tell me, which drug do you think Biden would be on? And he tried to shift the burden of proof. But long story short, the idea of Adderall, now, you're not a psychiatrist, you're a psychologist, and, you know, we're not, we're not hiding that, but the idea of Adderall has been thrown around, which, as I understand, for someone of Biden's age who does not have ADHD, could actually make him seem jittery, frustrated, and actually kind of be like a counterproductive drug for a debate performance.

Provigial has been mentioned. The half life of proviso doesn't really make sense. I guess, generically promoting wakefulness, maybe something that's useful. But then eventually you sometimes get to like, well, he probably took a bunch of coffee, which is interesting because Trump drinks I don't know how many Diet Cokes a day.

Dr. John Gartner
Oh, no. If you haven't drink coffee to perform, then there must be something.

David Pakman
There must be a problem with you. But, but the caffeine one is interesting because the number of Diet Cokes Trump is drinking every single day, it's probably a crazy amount of caffeine. So I don't know that caffeine is really where we end up. So that's on the Biden side. On the Trump side, we recently interviewed a psychiatrist who said he has observed signs that Trump does take a stimulant and likely does have ADHD involving pupil dilation and sort of different things. So what's your sense right now of the drug story generally on both of these guys?

Dr. John Gartner
It's actually very simple. Okay, first of all, just remember your Rosetta stone, right? Your Trump to English dictionary, everything is projection.

It's very simple.

David Pakman
Yes.

Dr. John Gartner
He's accusing Biden of being on, you know, performance enhancing stimulants because he's on performance enhancing stimulants, you know, I mean, period. We, you can go through all the evidence and the doctors who have said it and the pupils that have been, you know, shown to be dilated and the, the white powder shown coming out of his nose after major addresses and, you know, Candyman Jackson, you know, that his, one of his main, you know, other than lying about Trump's health is other big job was to, you know, drug up everybody in the White House, mostly with stimulants. That's, that was the drug of choice of that gang. And obviously, it's just obvious that Don Junior is a cokehead. I'm just not even gonna, I'm not even gonna. I just don't think you deny it. He just looks like someone who's playing a part in a movie, you know, trying to be the cokehead.

David Pakman
So as far as like.

Dr. John Gartner
But let me get to. Okay, go ahead.

David Pakman
No, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead.

Dr. John Gartner
Because it's a double lie. So first there's the projection, right, that Biden is on the performance enhancing drug. But then you see how the republican lie machine really works.

Because, and we discussed this at length on shrinking Trump. Because one of the things we do on shrinking Trump is look at how the press is covering the cognitive issues of Biden and Trump. That's what's really interesting and how slanted it is. And so we have a section we call good news bad news, but bad news meaning bad newspaper men and good newspaper men who are basically reporting honestly or dishonestly. And shoot. Why was I talking about this?

Oh, which piece were we just talking about?

David Pakman
The, just your general view on the plausibility of such a drug.

Dr. John Gartner
Well, first of all, there is no such drug. That's the punchline. Okay. But the head of the doctor's caucus, the republican doctors caucus, said on Fox that in his medical opinion, he had proof. He said he had medical proof that Biden was on a, what was it, like a dementia reversing drug. See, wasn't. Now they've had to speculate, well, what's the drug? So now they go, well, maybe it's Adderall. Maybe. But originally they were making up a drug that didn't exist. Okay?

Like Harry said, in other words, Biden.

David Pakman
As president may have access to something that no one else does.

Right?

Dr. John Gartner
It's a magic drug, a magic potion. It's a magic potion that's making him be able to talk.

David Pakman
That's the ticket.

Dr. John Gartner
And we have, and the medical doctors caucus, they have medical proof that it's a magic potion. So there. And then actually, Maria Bartiromo actually said. Well, she said actually like a journalist. She said, well, you have proof. What is it? Well, I'll talk to you about it off camera.

David Pakman
Right, right. So you just don't buy, I mean, it's like they're probably all on coffee or cokes that have caffeine. But beyond that, it's really only with Trump that we would have a reason to believe there's a stimulant in play?

Dr. John Gartner
Absolutely. The whole thing is a big lie. But the fact that we're even talking about it shows how effective their, their propaganda is.

David Pakman
It has been incredibly effective. It has. Even at rallies, you have random Trump supporters who have sort of, sort of accepted this as it must be true, because I'm hearing it, Doctor Gartner, when it comes to the average person watching this debate, what is it that aside from the policy that they may or may not learn about, I don't know how much policy discussion there's going to be. We will see. How would you recommend to folks looking to assess these individuals in the way that you do? What should they be paying attention to and looking for?

Dr. John Gartner
Well, whether they make sense, whether they tell the truth, whether you can, they can form an english sentence, whether all the words they use are actually words and not just random sounds, they're done.

I think when he goes off the rails, we need again to point it out. To point it out.

But I think the other part of his strategy is, as I said, to be dominant, to interrupt. But once he interrupts, then to go with what I call the diarrhea of lies that just absolutely flood the zone with toxic, crazy lies, one after the other after the other. So you wouldn't even know where to begin to address the toxic sludge. And this is where I think Biden needs to say things like, you know, the only thing that comes out of your mouth are lies. It's like a diarrhea of lies coming out of your mouth.

David Pakman
In other words, say, oh, you're the liar.

Dr. John Gartner
Oh, you're the liar. But now what does he say? Oh, you're the diarrhea. Like, no, we got to slap him down. Like we're in the schoolyard, right? In such a way that it's such a good rank, you know what I mean, that actually it's hard for him to come back from it because the.

David Pakman
Format itself does limit your ability to rebut a handful of lies in a minute. And, and that can be a difficult thing to deal with. One of the things I've thought is there are likely twelve to 15 general issues that are likely to come up. And one way to approach this would be Biden should have a sort of canned way to address if it gets anywhere near abortion and bodily autonomy and Roe v. Wade and women's rights and traveling for abortions between states. Here's the three points that he needs to hit when it comes to immigration is, do you think that also from a, from a memory standpoint, that is an effective tool for debates in which the response times will be relatively short.

Dr. John Gartner
Well, I think there has to be two tracks. One is to show what a dastardly fellow he is over and over and over again, and the other is to present two visions of America.

I think that Biden cannot be too apocalyptic.

I think he really has to say, folks, Donald Trump has said he'll be a dictator from day one.

And you know what? I think he's telling the truth.

We escaped a king. We escaped a mad king, and he's running to be another one. And I think he's telling the truth.

I want you to think about the kind of America your children grow up in a dictatorship, and think about the soul of America.

This country will be more like Russia. Do you think we'll have another free and fair election? Donald Trump has control of all of the organs of government. Do you think that you'll be able to speak freely when he's throwing people who say bad things about him in jail?

He's not going to make America great again. He's going to permanently destroy America and make us Russia, which is, of course, Vladimir Putin is the evil master that he serves. Vladimir Putin is the one who helped get him elected in 2016.

Vladimir Putin is the one who, he kissed his ring in Helsinki, brought them into the Oval Office, and now is doing their bidding and trying to talk down the ukrainian war and get them to give up, because he is Putin's tool.

Oh, you're the tool.

But the thing is to really paint a dark, dark picture of what Trump's. And then say, I remember America. That was a city on a hill.

Ronald Reagan talked about that city on a hill, welcoming all of the immigrants to freedom. And he was speaking about John Winthrop's image. The Puritans that founded New England, they wanted America to be a city on a hill. People, the light in the temple is in danger of going out. Their work may be snuffed out. This election isn't really about just whether you vote for Joe Biden or Donald Trump. It's what kind of world do you want to leave to your children? What kind of society do you want them to live in? I think you have to make it so dark and so dire and keep making the vision dark and the person who's pushing the vision dark and just keep hammering it and hammering it and hammering it.

David Pakman
All right, doctor John Gartner. We're going to be watching. Always appreciate your insights. Thanks so much for talking to us today.

Dr. John Gartner
Oh, thank you for having me. Always love being on your show.

David Pakman
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There's a very interesting article in the New Republic about it damning new evidence against Trump uncovered in lawyers secret notes. So let me explain to you what is going on here. Here there are notes written by Trump's former lead attorney, Evan Corcoran, which reveal that Trump was very much aware he took sensitive documents.

If they are found, it could be criminal, and so he should hide the documents. Now, what any normal person who has been following the story would say, of course. Yeah, that's obviously, that's exactly what Trump did and that's exactly what Trump thought. The reason that these revelations are so important is that it is very different from the public argument that Trump has been making, which is I had an absolute right to have these things. Why would I try to hide them? Why would I try to occult anything? They were my documents. I either declass declassified them telepathically or whatever the case may be, and it runs completely and totally counter to what has been said publicly. These revelations came up in a court hearing where the strength of the prosecution's reliance on these notes was evaluated. And when you include all of the historical context, Trump was asked to, but failed to comply with the National Archives request to give it all back. He failed to comply with the DOJ subpoena to return the classified document. Happens. It led to the FBI visit to Mar a Lago. Some call it a raid, some call it executing a search warrant. Many say it's effectively the same thing here.

There are now reports that Trump had a particular staffer move the documents, even after saying, we returned everything and after being asked to turn everything over. So Trump has admitted in public he took the documents. He said he did it legally. He said he wasn't hiding them. He said he absolutely had the absolute right to have them, and there was nothing wrong with it at all. Except the private notes of Evan Corcoran confirm that Donald Trump very much knew exactly what the repercussions might be and acted deliberately in order to hide those. And this goes directly to Trump's state of mind in terms of the commission of these crimes. Now Trump is facing 42 felony charges related to the retention and concealment of these classified documents, as well as obstruction of justice. This bolsters that obstruction case and to the surprise of absolutely no one Trump friendly Trump suck up Trump brown nosing Judge Eileen Cannon is considering throwing out a bunch of the sealed notes on Donald Trump's behavior, which essentially prove he knowingly stole, hid, withheld and didn't return classified documents. The notes make it clear what Trump's intent was. And if Judge Eileen Cannon can do Trump's bidding and get those notes excluded from the forthcoming trial, it will certainly weaken the prosecution's case. She wants to throw them out. Exactly, because they are so mind blowingly incriminating, and you really can't make that up. What's the upside to this? Because there's a lot of downside.

You throw out good evidence against Trump, it helps Trump. You have a Trump appointed suck up judge and Eileen Cannon delaying and running the trial, that helps Trump. What's the upside? What's the counterpoint to look at? The counterpoint is that this case seems to be as big of a slam dunk as the one where Trump was convicted on 34 felonies. That even if you exclude these notes, it is quite difficult to imagine that prosecutors will have a particularly difficult time proving their case. So what is Trump's best bet? Delay the trial indefinitely, which is more or less where this trial is right now. It's, it's not actually delayed indefinitely. It's not been put aside by the judge. But the judge has made it very clear that it is going to be a while before this is really set to start. And the possibility of this trial starting, never mind concluding before the election, is essentially zero. This was the goal all along. This was the goal for Donald Trump, pushing for delays of various kinds, and it seems like he got it. Stunning stuff, not totally unexpected. Donald Trump gave an interview to the tech bros on all in. Now, I'm sort of being pejorative by calling them tech bros, but to be honest, it's not a terrible podcast. Depending on who they are interviewing and depending on what the subject matter is as a sort of sociological experiment, that's not necessarily who I'd go to for, for, you know, political advice, but it's not a terrible podcast. The all in guys interviewed Donald Trump, and Donald Trump made an absolutely brutal mistake that even angered his own supporters.

What did Trump promise? Trump promised to give legal status in the United States to any foreign graduate of an american college. This is not only a big departure from Trump's anti immigration rhetoric before his campaign backtracked on it. It also seemed to run counter to the idea that people are coming in from so many countries to do us harm in so many different ways. I'll explain in a moment. Take a listen to this.

Eric Burlison
Can you please promise us you will.

David Pakman
Give us more ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America?

Donald Trump
I do promise, but I happen to agree. That's why I promise. Otherwise, I wouldn't promise. Let me just tell you that it's so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools and lesser schools that are phenomenal schools also. And what I wanted to do, and I would have done this, but then we had to solve the COVID problem because that came in and, you know, sort of dominated for a little while, as you perhaps know. But what I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country. And that includes junior colleges, too. Anybody graduates from a college, you go in there for two years or four years. If you graduate or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country. And you know, more stories than I do, but I know of stories where people graduated from a top college or from a college, and they desperately wanted to stay here. They had a plan for a company, a concept, and they can't. They go back to India, they go back to China. They do the same basic company in those places, and they become multi billionaires employing thousands and thousands of people.

David Pakman
So, listen, this backfired brutally on Trump. Just brutal, brutal backfire. Why did it backfire? Because when Trump says, listen, you graduate from college, you should get a green card, you should be allowed to stay. You're getting permanent residency. The very people who support Trump are the ones who are afraid of all of the different crafty ways that foreigners who want to do us harm will figure out a way to get here. Is it crossing the border? Is it overstaying a visa? What is it? And so when you look and you say, hey, you know what, all of these rich people that pay the sticker price, right? When you say, when Harvard says, oh, I don't know what percentage it is, some huge percentage of our students are paying a fraction of our, of our tuition and room and board because of scholarships. Well, often the ones that are paying the sticker price are the children of dignitaries from pick your country, including american adversaries. All of a sudden, the MAGA people go, wait a second. The way they'll get all of their evil wrongdoers into the United States legally is they'll just pay to have them come to college. And then Trump hands them a green card. This is terrible by their own standards. And of course, within hours, the Trump campaign had to backtrack, putting out a clarification where they said, well, now, hold on a second. Trump didn't really mean it. What he meant was we would have a path to residency for the most skilled graduates who are the most thoroughly vetted through a process so strict it hasn't even been developed yet.

That is a big difference from, you graduate from college, you get a green card. And this is very similar to what happened to Trump back in 2016 when he said, oh, yeah, you've got to punish the woman who gets an abortion.

Donald Trump
Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no? As a principle, the answer is that there has to be some form of.

David Pakman
Punishment for the woman.

Donald Trump
Yeah.

David Pakman
And of course, Trump's saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, punish the woman. And then, of course, within hours, within hours, they backtracked, walked it back and said, no, no, no, we don't punish the woman. That's not at all what we meant that we wanted to do. So very, very quickly backfiring on Donald Trump and stunning even his own supporters with that, with, with that one. Also, it came up during this interview with the guys over on all in that Trump believes the CIA was probably behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He again, is saying, oh, I'll declassify stuff if I come back to the White House. Despite the fact that Trump could have already declassified a bunch of it and opted not to, FK says the CIA killed his, his uncle. Do you believe that?

Donald Trump
Well, this wasn't CIA that asked me, but I think CIA was probably behind it. But they didn't. They would have preferred that I not release the rest of it. So we did give quite a bit.

It's going to be done early on. A lot of people want to see that. And whatever it may say, I won't say I sort of have an idea, but whatever it is, it'll be very interesting for people to see.

David Pakman
Whatever it says, which I know but won't tell you, it'll be very, very interesting for people to see. And of course, this is the long string of supposed day one promises. All the things that Trump is going to do, he was going to do them in his first term. He didn't do them. He's going to do them later. My guess is he doesn't do a damn thing about it. I don't think he does any of it. And by the way, there is a very interesting little video clip where Trump was asked by the Fox and Friends crew. I wish I had pulled it. I don't have it available. Trump was asked by the Fox and Friends people, will you declassify this? Will you declassify that? It was all yeses until they got to the Epstein files, the Jeffrey Epstein files, in which Trump, of course, is believed to be named numerous times. And Trump goes wide eyed and goes, yeah, yeah, I probably would, except, you know, there's people's names in there who, like, they didn't really do anything and then you ruined them and whatever. So he, he seemed a little bit triggered by the possibility of the Epstein stuff being, being released, but the JFK stuff he says he will definitely do the next time he's president. He wasn't able to do it the first time he was president. Believe it if you want. I am very, very skeptical. We have a fantastic bonus show for you today. President Biden has announced that he will be pardoning us service members convicted for being gay. Now, you might say, what does that even mean? Yes, I will explain it on the bonus show and we will discuss.

The us surgeon general has declared gun violence a public health emergency.

Obviously it is. But what does this actually do? Well, it does a number of different important things and we will talk about them. And also, I told you they were coming for it. Conservative lawmakers in the United States, authoritarian lawmakers is maybe a better description, are pushing for an end to no fault divorce. I told you a year ago they were coming for it. And they are. All of those stories and more on the bonus show. And remember that the project 2025 white paper is now available for free. Learn about project 2025, the risks it poses and how to stop it. Get the free guide@davidpakman.com.

project 2025 I'll see you on the bonus show, and I'll be back tomorrow.