6/5/24: Biden outdoes Republicans on border, devastating Biden WSJ report

Speaker A
Welcome, everybody. We have a stunning turn of political events wherein Joe Biden, through an executive order on immigration and the border, has completely taken out one of the biggest and only remaining arguments that Donald Trump had for why you should elect him, which is that he will shut down the border when there are too many people coming over. There is both a brilliance and a cynicism to what President Joe Biden has done that I want to discuss.

And Biden, like me, acknowledges that whatever you do at the border is not actually going to deal with the reasons people are trying to come to the United States from other countries, and we are going to deal with that. But to a degree, it is a very astute political move. Trump is melting down. Republicans are melting down. So let me tell you what went on here. President Joe Biden has signed an executive order which says when the number of migrant encounters with Border Patrol and immigration enforcement agencies exceeds 2500 at any particular point, we will shut down the border at that point and say that you can no longer make asylum claims in this stretch of border. You have to do it from your country with a different process.

Until the number goes back down below 1500, it's relatively straightforward. It's not really going to deal with the immigration issue in a serious way. But at the end of the day, this is what Republicans have been asking for. This is what Republicans proposed in their own bill, which they torpedoed because Trump didn't want to solve it. Trump wanted to leave this problem as something to deal with when he becomes president. So here is President Joe Biden coming out swinging.

Speaker B
After weeks of intense negotiation between my staff and Democrats and Republicans, we came to a clear, clear bipartisan deal. It was the strongest border security agreement in decades.

But then Republicans in Congress, not all of them, walked away from it.

Speaker A
Right?

Speaker B
Why?

Because Donald Trump told them to.

He told the Republicans, it has been published widely by many of you, that he didn't want to fix the issue. He wanted to use it to attack me. That's what he wanted to do. It was a cynical and extremely cynical political move and a complete disservice to the american people who are looking for us to, not to weaponize the border, but to fix it. Today, I'm joined by a bipartisan group of governors, members of Congress, mayors, law enforcement officials, most of whom live and work along the southern border.

They know the border is not a political issue to be weaponized. The responsibility we have to share to do something about it, they don't have time for the games played in Washington.

Speaker A
This really throws Donald Trump's plan for a loop, which was Biden won't do this. And so you need me to come in and do it. Now? I think it's not really a great plan with regard to actually fixing the immigration problems that we have, but we'll get to that in a moment. Here is President Joe Biden explaining what this means for asylum seekers.

Speaker B
Republicans have left me with no choice.

Today I'm announcing actions to bar migrants who cross our southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum.

Migrants will be restricted from asylum at our southern border unless they seek it after entering through an established lawful process.

And those who seek to come to the United States illegally, for example, by making an appointment and coming to a port of entry, asylum will still be available to them.

Speaker A
All right, so listen, the point here is if you enter the US illegally, you can no longer make an asylum claim. If you find some other legal means to get into the United States, at that point you can say, hey, I'd like to request asylum. Is this going to endanger some migrants who are in dangerous situations in their home countries? Yes, it is. It would be the case whether Biden did it or Trump did it. I don't think this is a really tremendous idea, but it's what Republicans say they wanted. It's what Republicans said. Biden isn't willing to do it, and you have to hand it to him from a political strategy standpoint. Now, I'd prefer to deal with this, number one, by dealing with the conditions in the source countries that make people want to come to the United States and risk coming illegally in the first place. This doesn't do that. I'd like to see our capacity to adjudicate asylum claims ramped up dramatically. We need more immigration judges. We need to be able to process more of these claims and process them more quickly. That's not what this does. To his credit, Joe Biden agrees that that's actually what we need to do.

Speaker B
Today I'm joined by a bipartisan group of governors, members of Congress, mayors, law enforcement officials, most of whom live and work along the southern border.

They know the border is not a political issue to be weaponized, the responsibility we have to share to do something about it, they don't have time for the games played in Washington, and neither do the american people. So today I'm moving past republican obstruction and using the executive authorities available to me as president to do what I can on my own to address the border. Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through a bipartisan legislation because that's the, the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now that's broken fixed to hire more border patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges.

But Republicans left me no choice.

Speaker A
This is really a bungling for Republicans. They could have been up there with Biden saying he did this because of us. This is our bill.

But Trump told them, you got to torpedo the bill because I need something to say. You should vote for me so that I will do it when I am president. And now Joe Biden gets to go up there and tout this all by himself. Now, we had a discussion on the bonus show yesterday.

This, this is nominally something.

I don't know how many people you attract versus you repel with this and when the election will come down to half a million votes in three to five states, one of those three to five states maybe being Arizona, maybe there's a calculation here from Biden which is, hey, you know what? This might upset some people who are already planning to vote for me in California, but California, I'm going to win easily. But this will bring me some new votes in Arizona, which is a contested state. That is not going to necessarily be so easy for me. So there may be a political calculation here that's made looking at the electoral map, I can't really tell you. What I can tell you is that this is what Republicans wanted. They didn't do it. And now Biden is doing it and making the point, by the way, that he is not going to be demonizing immigrants.

Speaker B
I believe that immigration has always been a lifeblood of America. We're constantly renewed by an infusion of people and new talent. Statute of liberty is not some relic of american history.

It stands for who we are as a United States.

So I will never demonize immigrants. I'll never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country. And further, I'll never separate children from their families at the border.

Speaker A
Speaking of poisoning the blood of our country, in an interview responding to this statement, Trump melted down and said exactly that. We'll get to that in a moment. So is this a politically astute calculation from President Joe Biden or is it a mistake? Well, when it comes to the states that are in question, it certainly seems to again cross off another item from the list of why someone might vote for Donald Trump, because now Biden did the thing. Let's talk about how Trump reacted after President Joe Biden went right around Republicans and signed an executive order to do exactly what Trump says he would do. Stop the crossing at the border, make the asylum claims be made in Mexico or source countries rather than in the United States. After Biden did this, Donald Trump gave an interview to Newsmax and completely and totally suffered a meltdown. Trump doesn't know what to do. He's furious. He's angry. He says that what Biden is doing is a hit job. I don't even know what that means. It's an executive order. How is it a hit job? Well, I'll explain that. Here is Greg Kelly with a total Brown nosing softball interview of Trump, or just left in place, your executive orders. What do you think of what he did today?

Greg Kelly
Well, first of all, it's a nothing what that he did and allowing massive numbers of people still to come in. And it's just misinformation, disinformation and just another hit job.

Speaker A
It is a hit job. Disinformation, misinformation. Trump's furious. Ok?

Biden did what Trump said he would do. Biden did what Republicans were about to do until Trump said, no, pretty please, don't do it. Let me do it when I'm the president so I can get credit. And now Biden did the thing. And the reason Trump hates this is he wants a problem to solve. He wants to have the issue that will linger so he can say, vote for me and I will fix it. Because Biden won't. Only I can fix it. To the extent that you consider this a fix, I don't really. But to the extent that you consider this a fix, Biden did it. And so now what Trump is relegated to saying is it's a hit job in the sense that it's an attack on me and it's not really going to solve the problem. Okay? Biden did the thing I said I was going to do, but Biden did it in a way that won't really solve the problem. It's all he has left. It's all he has left here is Trump, uh, refreshing the line that migrants are poisoning the country, which is old school, xenophobic language.

Greg Kelly
Terrible, terrible thing that's happened to our country. And they're coming in from prisons and jails, they're coming in from mental institutions, and they're separate, above that, insane asylums. And you have a lot of terrorists coming into our country, and it's a terrible thing that he's doing. He's poisoning our country.

Speaker A
So, speaker one, there you go. By letting people in, Biden is poisoning the country.

Old xenophobic language used against so many different groups, migrants from different countries, whatever is fashionable at the time, sometimes it's the jews that are poisoning. Sometimes it's a migrants from the Middle east or maybe it's from Mexico or maybe it's further south in Latin America. Trump also rehabilitates speaker one.

Greg Kelly
They're not like they lived up. I used to check it every week.

Speaker A
Are they buying speaker one? I don't even know where that came from. That was very weird. Trump also reminding us he may imprison his political opponents if he becomes president.

Greg Kelly
But wouldn't it be terrible to throw the president's wife and the former secretary of state?

Think of it, the former secretary of state, but the president, the president's wife into jail. Wouldn't that be a terrible thing? But they want.

Speaker A
Speaker one. What on earth is this guy talking about?

Greg Kelly
So, you know, it's, it's a terrible, terrible path that they're leading us to. And it's very possible that it's going to have to happen to them.

Speaker A
It's possible I will have to imprison them if I become president. That's the point Trump is making. A, Trump just steamrolled Greg Kelly during this interview. Greg Kelly trying to wrap the interview and just not able to because Trump won't shut up.

Greg Kelly
$100 million.

It's wild with nothing. Mister President, he's the one that, and he's the one that's defraud because he said a house that's worth a billion dollars is worth $18 million.

You know, you buy it.

Speaker A
Speaker one so Greg Kelly desperately trying to wrap up the interview and he can really barely get a word in, in this continuum.

Greg Kelly
Nobody else other than me, they say, wow, what a job.

We won every primary in a record. We beat her in her state, South Carolina, where she was governor by record numbers. If you look at the kind of numbers we got, they're incredible. And you're right, some people would be very disappointed if I chose her and possibly some people would be, you know, fine, but I beat her by a lot. I mean, I think she was the last one in.

Speaker A
And as you can see, Greg Kelly desperate to try to talk, but he is unable to do it. And then finally, in case you were wondering, as the interview finally comes to a close, after insults and xenophobic statements and threats to political enemies, eventually Greg Kelly is able to wrap up the interview and he reminds us he just loves Trump. That was pretty cool, huh? Love talking to him. Hey, I love the guy. What can I tell you? And I'm upfront about it. I can't believe that so many people pretend they're neutral on this contest, on this race, yet lean one way or the other, you will always know with Greg Kelly where he stands. He loves Trump. And despite giving the guy a complete and total softball interview, Trump couldn't get away from the threats to his political enemies. Trump couldn't get away from saying migrants poison the country. And Trump certainly couldn't get away from saying that what Joe Biden is doing, despite being exactly what Trump planned to do, is bad and it won't work. And it's a hit job. If you think Trump reacted negatively to Joe Biden's order at the border, we'll take a quick break here from a sponsor or two. Just wait until you hear what other republicans had to say.

One of our sponsors today is better help. We all carry around different stressors, big and small. Therapy is a safe space to get things off your chest and figure out how to work through whatever is weighing you down. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give Betterhelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, suited to your schedule. Betterhelp lets you tap into a network of over 35,000 licensed, experienced therapists who can help you with a wide range of issues. Just fill out a brief questionnaire, get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. With Betterhelp, you get the same professionalism and quality you expect from in office therapy, but on your schedule and from wherever you are. Visit betterhelp.com Pacman show today to get 10% off your first month.

That's betterhelp help.com pacman show. The link is in the podcast notes.

Look no further for the perfect Father's Day gift. Our sponsor, Ridge Wallet, is giving you up to 40% off for Father's Day. It's a gift he can actually use. He'll actually appreciate it. I've had a ridge wallet for years now, long before they became a sponsor. I use it every day. I love the slim design ridges RFID blocking wallets help to protect your personal information from digital thieves. There's over 50 colors and styles to choose from, something for everyone. If you want to see what other people are saying about ridge, there are over 100,005 star reviews. And it's not just wallets. Ridge has key cases, rings, phone cases, backpacks, luggage, everything you need to keep your stuff safe. If you don't love your ridge product, you have up to 99 days to send it back. If you're like me, sort of rough with your things, don't worry, because Ridge has a lifetime warranty, and that is important for a wallet. Get up to 40% off all ridge products for father's Day. Go to ridge.com pacman. That's ridge.com pacman. The link is in the podcast. Notes the David Pakman show is primarily made possible by our audience who signs up for membership on my website. If you're hearing this message right now, you're not getting the full member experience, and I invite you to do so. You can sign up@joinpakman.com. you'll get the Daily show commercial free in audio or video format. If you prefer to watch, you get to watch commercial free. If you prefer to listen, you get a commercial free members audio podcast, which also contains the daily bonus show, an extra show every weekday for our members.

I invite you to sign up at Join Pacman.com. as I've said before, we estimate only about half of 1% of our audience supports us directly. And if we were able to go from just 0.5% to 1%, just that small change, we would be financially independent indefinitely, no matter what happens with the whims and vagaries of the algorithmic platforms like YouTube and others. So join the 1%, or let's make it 1%, sign up at Join pacman.com and that directly funds the Daily show. All right. Republicans more generally don't know how to react to Joe Biden doing what they wanted to do on the border until Trump said, no, don't do it. Leave it for me to do. When I become president, we are going to hear from Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna. We are going to hear from that creepy Republican Senator James Lankford. How will Republicans react to Joe Biden saying, well, you guys wanted to do something at the border. I'll do it by executive order and take it off the table as something Trump can campaign on. Well, you may or may not be surprised by the way it went. Here is Anna Paulina Luna on Fox Business yesterday and listen to what she had to say.

Anna Paulina Luna
Donald Trump wanted to let this wait until after the election, assuming that he would be elected and do it. I mean, is that what Republicans are doing? You don't want to let him, that is the president get any credit for doing anything?

Anna Paulina Luna
No. You know, I don't think that President Trump wanted to wait, in fact, whenever I've had conversations.

But what I will say is that he knows that they've been using this as a political tool moving forward. And I think that it really is unfortunate that the Democrat machines don't really care about what happens to Americans and that they try to. Wait a minute.

Anna Paulina Luna
Wait a minute, congressman. Each side uses, each side uses political tools, right?

Anna Paulina Luna
I mean, I mean, look, I can say there is definitely propaganda that exists in Washington. Both you and I know that. However, when we're talking about border security, this should have never been something that. They should have campaigned on this.

Speaker A
They should never, should have campaigned on it. Think of it. Trump starts campaigning on the border is broken, and I'm going to fix it. If you make me president, I will fix it. He's campaigning on the border, which Anna Paulina Luna says you shouldn't do. It's too serious. It's too serious an issue to campaign on it. So Republicans put together a bill, they go, hey, let's fix it. This is what we're saying we're going to do. Let's do it. No, no, no.

I want to campaign on it says Trump. I don't want to fix it right now. I just want to be able to talk about it and fix it later, maybe. So then Biden comes in and he goes, okay, if you guys think this is good, then I'll do it. We're just going to do it, and then nobody will campaign on it. No, no, no, no. That's also wrong because Joe Biden were mind reading.

He doesn't, he didn't do it in order to do it. He did it in order to be able to campaign on it and take it away from Trump, which is bad, because you shouldn't campaign on this. Well, but wasn't Trump campaigning on it and you support Trump? No, that doesn't matter. If that's a confusing circle to you, it's because it's a confusing circle. That's exactly what it is. It doesn't make any sense. James Langford then was also interviewed by Neil Cavuto yesterday. Senator James Langford. Creepy, weird, weird dude. And here's what he had to say about Joe Biden's executive order on the border, which contains exactly what James Lankford and his republican colleagues claim to want.

Anna Paulina Luna
Speaker one, I know you're not trying to zing your colleagues, but it's your colleagues in your party, sir, who torpedoed this, who didn't get the facts right on what you just outlined was in that measure. They killed it, ironically, not Democrats.

James Lankford
Right? It was, and it was painful to be able to watch. It got stirred up in all the presidential politics. And several of my colleagues started looking for ways after President Trump said, don't fix anything during the presidential election. It's the single biggest issue during the election. Don't resolve this. We'll resolve it next year. Quite a few of my colleagues backed up, look for a reason to be able to shoot against it and then walked away. I get that. That's a, that's a decision everybody makes in it. My issue is we can. If we're pursuing everything, we very often end up with nothing. If we're pursuing someone coming later to fix it, later seems to never come. When we have a moment to fix things, we should fix as many things as we can, then, then come back later and fix the rest.

Anna Paulina Luna
That's on Donald Trump, Senator.

James Lankford
Again, he's got an office that he's running for. He's got a campaign that he's running. I'm already in office. I've got a responsibility to be able to carry on this.

Speaker A
As creepy as James Langford continues to be, it's a little bit refreshing to hear him just be honest and say, yeah, there's really no reason to wait, waiting to fix things, then they never get fixed. If we believe we can improve something, we should have done it. So I appreciate the refreshing honesty, although I disagree with him. Big picture. So some Republicans kissing the ring and saying, no, no, no, this was all the right way to handle it. There were good reasons why we didn't pass it, and now Joe Biden's bad for doing it himself. James Langford at least saying, we lost the opportunity. We had an opportunity. You never know if you'll get a future opportunity. We didn't do it. And it's all related to Trump having a campaign to run. I'm in power. I could have done something. And Trump found enough of my colleagues to say, no, we're not going to do it right now, such that it didn't get done. Dramatically different reactions from Congresswoman Luna and Senator Langford. We will now see what happens with this issue as a campaign issue. We'll know in the next few weeks. And certainly leading up to the first presidential debate, uh, on June 27, there is an explosive Wall Street Journal report by Annie Linsky and Siobhan Hughes, which argues essentially that President Joe Biden's brain is turning to mush. Yes, this is what the article says. Now, I know some of you are going to be angry with me for covering this at all. David, why? Why are you buying into what they are saying? The Wall Street Journal is part of news Corporation and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You shouldn't even be talking about it. You should be ignoring it.

That has never been the way that I do this show, Annie Linsky is a serious enough reporter. She says she has 45 different sources on this story published in the Wall Street Journal. And whatever you think about the Wall Street Journal, it's not a tabloid, okay? It's owned by news Corporation. It certainly has a right wing lean. But I would be doing the disservice by ignoring this story. Okay? So if your plan is to email me and say, David, you shouldn't even be talking about this, we just disagree. This article that came out this morning, if true, if true is very problematic. It says behind closed doors, Biden shows signs of slipping. It explains that when Biden met with congressional leaders in January to negotiate a Ukraine funding deal, he was speaking so softly at times that participants struggled to hear him, according to five people familiar with the meeting. He read from notes to make obvious points, paused for extended periods, and sometimes closed his eyes for so long that some in the room wondered if he had completely tuned out.

In a February 1 on one in the Oval Office with Maga Mike Johnson, Biden said a recent policy change by his administration that jeopardizes some big energy projects was just a study. According to six people told at the time about what Johnson said happened. Johnson worried the president's memory had slipped about his own policy. In other words, there was a policy change which Biden supposedly didn't remember was a policy change and said, oh, that was just a study. Now, again, this is according to six people who heard it from Mike Johnson. Mike Johnson is a very biased character, but we're building, we've got five sources and now six more.

Another anecdote, last year, when Biden was negotiating with House Republicans to lift the debt ceiling, his demeanor and command of details seemed to shift from one day to the next, according to then Speaker Kevin McCarthy and two others. Some days he would have loose, spontaneous exchanges with Republicans. On other days, he would mumble and appear to rely on notes, McCarthy said. I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I'd go to his house. He's not the same person. The article continues in some detail here about these incidents. The White House commented by saying those accounts are not to be trusted. They are motivated only by partisan politics. At the end of the day, I encourage you to read the entire article and to judge for yourselves Annie Linsky's reporting, as well as the sources on the anecdotes, which include the perceptions of voters and so many other things. They talk about that Ukraine meeting in January. They talk about a February 27 meeting with Biden and Johnson, they talk about a debt ceiling meeting in May 2023. It is an extremely extensive article here, and I am not going to hide this from you. Okay? So on the one hand, it's a Wall Street Journal, which is part of News Corporation. And indeed, some of the sources here are people who were given details of Biden's behavior that came from highly partisan actors up to and including Maga Mike Johnson, the republican speaker of the House. On the other hand, I don't believe Annie Linsky would stake her reputation on 45 sources that don't exist or aren't trustworthy.

And I think that her reputation is good enough and the article is well sourced enough that it needs to be discussed. So we've been talking about what is the x factor? You know, the economy is pretty good. Biden's accomplishments are significant. Trump's now a convicted felon. He is up against even more criminal trials. He could theoretically end up in prison. There's no way that Trump will go from losing 2020 to taking states from Biden. Based on what's happened since 2020. He's just going to lose. But on the other hand, what about an X Factor? One X factor has been if either candidate really fails cognitively in the debates, it could spell disaster. And so we don't really expect that to happen because it hasn't happened yet. But what if that were to happen in the debates? If this report were to be true and you have competing decline between Trump and Biden? It is certainly the sort of x factor that if it becomes a mainstream story, if it becomes visible in something like a debate, it could 180 everything and really upend this race. So read the article. I want to hear from you. As all of you know, my reporting on both Trump and Biden's cognition has stuck as closely to what we can see publicly and what mental health experts say about it. This report about Biden is admittedly about things happening behind closed doors. We have to consider that here. Trump's decline and what our mental health experts we've spoken to say is Biden's normal, expected slowing down signs of aging for someone his age.

It's all happened publicly. We've been in the public sphere so far. There's behind the scenes stuff about Trump's incontinence. I don't talk about that on the show because it hasn't been well sourced in the way that this article says, hey, I'm a reputable reporter. I have 45 sources. We now have that with Biden. So let's all resist the urge to jump to conclusions and dismiss or assume every element is true. It could be the case that some of the stuff in the article we say okay, that I believe the stuff that comes from MagA Mike Johnson maybe we are more skeptical of, but I think we only do ourselves a disservice if we pretend that this truly bombshell article, explosive at minimum in terms of its allegations, wasn't published. So let me know your thoughts info at david pakman.com. make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel YouTube.com slash the David Pakman show where I will follow up on this story based on your thoughts and reactions.

It's the same dilemma every year for Father's Day. What do you get the man who already has everything and says I don't need any gift?

Put down the slippers, step away from the necktie, and get dad something that he will actually love. An aura digital photo frame our sponsor, Aura makes stunning Wi Fi connected digital frames that allow you to share and display unlimited photos. It's easy to upload and share photos via the Aura app. If you're giving aura as a gift, you can even personalize it with preloaded photos and memories. I gave one of these to my dad for last Father's Day, mentioned it on the show. I recently gave my mom one of these for Mother's Day and I put pictures of the baby up from wherever I am. They pop up on the digital picture frame. It's great. And my favorite part is that you can put pictures on without even unpacking the frame so it's still ready to be opened up, but with pictures already on it. Now both I and my dad can add and remove pictures remotely using the app. You also get unlimited storage on the cloud. And right now, Aura has an amazing deal for Father's Day. Go to auraframes.com Pacman and use the code Pacman for $30 off plus free shipping on their best selling frame. The link is in the description. That's aura frames.com pacman. Then use the code Pacman at checkout for $30 off and free shipping. The info is in the podcast notes, terms and conditions apply.

It's great to welcome back to the program democratic congressman Ro Khanna, representing California's 17th district.

It's great to have you on and there are so many things to talk about. I think. To start with, I'm curious to get your general thoughts about this election. You know, as a thought experiment with my audience, I took one day and I made the strongest, most obvious case I could for Donald Trump's inevitable reelection. And the next day, I made just as strong a case for the inevitable reelection of President Biden. And I think you can put yourself in either echo chamber and become very confident in either case, I think most likely it will be under 500,000 votes in three to five states that decide this election. What's your general feeling right now?

Speaker one?

Anna Paulina Luna
David, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, look, in the last 20 years, we've had very, very close elections in this country. Putting aside Obama 2008, I was hopeful this would be an Obama 2008 or even Obama 2012 like election. It's turned out not to be. It looks much more like Bush v. Gore or the way we beat Trump in 2020 or the 2016 election. It's going to be a very, very close election. I genuinely think it's a toss up race that could go either way. But I think if the Democrats do our job, which is to have an effective economic message and make the case why the president's policies have worked and what he's going to do in the next four years, and if we can get our youth turnout and base turnout out, we'll win. So it's a matter of whether we can do that.

Speaker A
Yeah. You know, with every point, there is seemingly a strong counterpoint. Presidents generally get reelected, especially when the economy is solid, which it is right now, except a new poll finds that half of Americans believe we're currently in a recession rather than in a positive economic situation. So that's a big caveat to when the economy is pretty good. Presidents tend to get reelected. With every single one of these conventional wisdoms, there seems to be a counterpoint to it.

Anna Paulina Luna
Yeah, my read on that polling is that overall, the american people feel that the american dream has been slipping away, that the jobs that they have aren't as secure, aren't as good paying, and that the costs of child care, of healthcare, of education are rising. And of course, course, the actual cost of goods, groceries and fuel has risen. So overall, even though the macro numbers are strong, it feels their kids are going to have a worse life or they've had a worse life than their parents. And this is where the president has to come in, in my view, and say, look, for 50 years, we've had the offshoring of jobs, the hollow gang of the working class. Here are the things I've done to reverse that trend. But you're not going to reverse 50 years and three years. Give me four more years, not to finish the job, but to continue to do the job. Of standing up for the working and middle class.

Speaker A
There was this article released today in the Washington, in the Wall Street Journal by Annie Linsky, who, generally speaking, is a pretty good reporter. And the article claims 45 sources that behind the scenes there's a problem with Joe Biden's cognition. Now, I reported the article to my audience. I made it clear that up until now, everything we've been evaluating and neurologists and mental health professionals on my show have evaluated what is publicly available from Trump and Biden. This article goes to things happening behind closed doors. Some of the sources are Mike Johnson through six other people. So this is different than what's visible to someone like me. What's your reaction to this piece in the Wall Street Journal?

Anna Paulina Luna
It hasn't been my experience. I was just, I just saw the president yesterday, not at any extended period, but on a rope line. It's a congressional picnic. The president was working the audience for over an hour.

His brief conversation with me and my family was very charming, as he usually is, and very thoughtful. He saw Rosa Delora, a congressperson from New Haven, in the audience.

He immediately went to the mic and he said, I just want to say a word about Rosa Delora. When my son, Hunter Biden was in, at Yale in New Haven, Rosa was his congressperson.

So I don't think someone like that is capable of that kind of recognition.

Remembering that she represents New Haven, remembering then that his son had gone to school while she was the representative, that seems to be pretty complex in terms of being able to do on the spot. And so I, I have not found.

Speaker A
That to be the case when it comes to the forthcoming debates, if they do happen, the role that expectations about Joe Biden may play and how that debate is perceived, the impact of the conviction on 34 criminal counts against Donald Trump, and whether ultimately that will or won't make a difference. Does, does the, do the next five months really hinge on anything tangible, or is it more about media narrative around these stories than anything else?

Anna Paulina Luna
Well, we need to make the case that Donald Trump being convicted of a felon by a jury of 34 people matters and that it matters if you violate and break the rule of law. And that, yeah, it's about the price of groceries and the price of gas, but it's also about the character of a nation.

And this is something that should be a factor in the election.

But I don't think it is a silver bullet. I think ultimately, the president's going to have to do well in the debates. We're going to have to have a good convention.

Trump's vice presidential pick will matter this time. I think the vice presidents in that debate may matter more because both of these people are folks who are older, and so the vice presidents are going to play a bigger role. So I think it's a, every factor is going to matter. I mean, I think you said the smartest thing in terms of punditry that I've heard, which is this is going to come down to 500,000 votes in a few battleground states. And anyone who claims that they can predict it, I don't think anyone in Biden or Trump's team could predict it. I just think that's the sense of the magic of democracy.

Indian democracy is on my mind these days because Modi was supposed to have this blowout victory and he didn't. He barely won, and no one saw that coming. And so I just think that when you have millions of people voting, the idea that we can predict it is a bit silly.

Speaker A
I'm very interested in your thoughts on this executive order from President Biden, which would allow him to temporarily shut down the southern border when daily migrant crossings exceed 2500. And part of what I find so interesting about it is that on the merits, this does nothing to really deal with immigration and the reasons people want to come here. It doesn't help us adjudicate asylum claims any more quickly. It is, however, a bone that is being thrown that happens to be something that Republicans wanted and, and, and sort of torpedoed in their own bill, seemingly because Donald Trump wanted to keep this as an election issue and something he could deal with in 2025 or whenever. So what do you make of the strategy of this executive order? And then what do you make of its effectiveness on the merits at accomplishing anything?

Anna Paulina Luna
Well, I disagree with it because I don't think we should be limiting the right to seek asylum in the United States arbitrarily and capping it arbitrarily. What we should be doing is have more border agents, more immigration judges, so that we can distinguish worthy claims from those that are not meritorious. And we should be having more ways for people who want to contribute economically to America to come here, work here, and then either have a path to citizenship or to leave. And we have that with farm workers and other programs that are not working.

But I will say from a politics perspective, I was talking to some, actually african american members of Congress today who said, you know, the crisis has been so severe in some of their communities that maybe this will help as a short term, give them some relief. So I disagree with it. I wish we had a comprehensive solution, but I'm not clear how the politics, if it plays out. I mean, I do think the president has been hammered on this. So I understand the political pressure he.

Speaker A
Was under when it comes to the House, where all 435 members of the house, of course, are up for reelection every two years, and then the Senate, you can find various different forecasts, some which are more favorable, I guess I would say, to the Democratic Party, some to the Republican Party. Do you see a situation right now where, I mean, your seat is very safe, but there are others that are less so. Do you see the fate of control of the House right now tied as closely to the presidential race as it sometimes is, or have they become decoupled?

Anna Paulina Luna
To a degree, I think they're decoupled. I mean, obviously, the presidency is the most existential. I often say electing Hakeem Jeffery speaker is the insurance policy against Donald Trump. And we have a great chance because in California, Trump is toxic, and the convictions of felonies is a huge blow, and same in parts of New York. And so when you're looking at the places we have to win back seats, we have a very, very good chance. And I would probably say right now that we've got a, we're favored to win the House. If we continue to execute. The presidency is a toss up, and the Senate is a bit uphill, just given the map. And so we need to do everything we can to win back the House.

Speaker A
One other thing I want to ask about. You're continuing this effort to ban congressional stock trading. I'm curious to hear from you the general vision of assuming we agree that just because you become a member of the House doesn't mean you have to forego sensible and basic investment opportunities. But what we want to prevent is the sort of trading on inside information or knowledge or possible even regulatory actions that the legislative body may take. What feels to you, like the most ironclad way to say, okay, here's all the things you're not allowed to do while you are a member of the House, but here's how you sort of get to say, all right, I'm turning over the keys to my investments, and here's what is allowed while I'm in the House of Representatives. What's the best way to kind of achieve this?

Anna Paulina Luna
Well, the good news is that we have this, the office of government ethics for the executive branch, and we should have this similar thing for the house. I mean, my wife had inherited some money because her father had done very well as an immigrant, had created an auto transmission business, and her funds are in a diversified trust, which is independently managed and broadly invested. And she doesn't trade. I don't trade. Now, the point is that that could be one solution, that under the office of government Ethics, many executive officials, they or their spouses are in diversified trusts or in investments that don't have a conflict. And then the office of Government Ethics may say, you know, even though you're in a diversified trust, or even though you have these investments, there may be a conflict, and their independent financial advisors adjust that. So create that body for Congress so that there's some oversight.

Right now, all that happens is you have to disclose everything, but there's no one saying what you can or cannot do. And unfortunately, some members aren't even disclosing it. And then you have members or their spouses engaged in day trading or actual trading, and not having an independent group do that. And that, to me, I don't think that the vast, vast majority are doing it to game the system, but it just creates an appearance of conflict and erodes trust.

Speaker A
Do you get the sense that your colleagues on both sides of the aisles genuinely want something like this, or are there plenty of your colleagues who are just kind of like, yeah, I'd rather not do that?

Anna Paulina Luna
I think there are a handful of loud reformers who want something, and we want it because we see that this is a road of trust, but they're probably a great deal who are indifferent. And then there's a group that says, you know, this is probably going to be too punitive.

And there's some philosophically who think that members of Congress should be invested in the stocks of a country. To understand what it's like to have equity in american enterprise, I mean, you look to some people on the right, they have a philosophical argument against it. They think that members of Congress should be like any other american. Of course, only 50% of Americans are actually invested in the markets, but you hear a gamut of views. I think, though, having some regulatory agency, at least an ethics agency, having to approve it and look at conflicts of interest, even if you don't have the ultimate ban, which I proposed and Abigail Spamberger and Chip Roy proposed, I think that would be a common sense thing because it would help all of us to say, look, we're being ethical, where my view is probably 95% of these things are ethic, are ethical, but they get cherry picked and make Congress look bad. Well, if you have the sign off of an ethics agency that actually would increase trust.

Speaker A
I think that that's absolutely the case. We've been speaking with democratic Congressman Ro Khanna from California. Always appreciate your time and insights.

Anna Paulina Luna
Always appreciate it, David. We'll have to see and be in touch as this election continues.

Speaker A
We will.

I love my Helix sleep mattress. I've been sleeping on Helix mattresses for years now, which is why I asked them to be a sponsor. You actually take their famous sleep quiz. Takes just a few minutes to answer questions about your sleep preferences, body type, sleep position, whether you have back pain. And Helix will match you with a mattress that's perfect for you, which is really unique and helpful because a lot of people don't know where to start when buying a mattress. I certainly didn't. Their newest collection of mattresses, called Helix Elite, come with a built in glacier text layer to keep you cool at night, an extra layer of foam for pressure relief, and thousands of extra micro coils for best in class, support and durability. All of their mattresses ship right to your door, totally free. They come with a ten or 15 year warranty and you get 100 nights to decide if you like it. Right now, for a limited time, Helix is offering up to 30% off all mattress orders and two free pillows. It's the biggest discount they've ever offered. Go to helix sleep.com pacman. That's helix sleep.com Pacman for up to 30% off and two free pillows. The link is in the podcast notes. We now have the next layer in the potential criminality upon criminality upon criminality, which is a report from ProPublica that Donald Trump paid off witnesses in his criminal cases, either through promotions or suspicious contracts or raises. It is really an extraordinary, extraordinary situation. We will link to the ProPublica investigation.

Multiple Trump witnesses have received significant financial benefits from his businesses and campaign.

This is a very serious investigation. Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump's media company. We were wondering, what is it that Trump is up to with this media company? Is it a way to funnel and launder money to himself for his legal cases, even though he's unable to sell his shares due to a lockup for a predetermined period of time? I don't know. I don't really know. Well, it appears as though one of the ways Trump's media company that recently went public is being used is as a way to funnel money to witnesses. The benefits have flowed from Trump's businesses and campaign committees, according to a ProPublica analysis of public disclosures, court records and securities filings. One campaign aide had his average monthly pay double, from $26 to $53,000 a month. There you go. Another employee got a $2 million severance package, which bars him from voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement. One of the campaign's top officials had her daughter hired onto the campaign staff. Isn't that nice? Where she is now the fourth highest paid employee. The ProPublica piece goes on to say these pay increases and other benefits came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump. One aide was given a plum position on the board of Trump's social media company, for example, got the seat after he was subpoenaed but before he testified.

Obviously, any normal person would say, the whole point here is give goodies for preferential behavior with regard to these trials. You can't voluntarily go and provide information, force them to subpoena you, or just remember who you work for when you answer the questions. And maybe you don't remember a lot more than you otherwise would. Tech dirt has a nice little analysis article which sort of looks at the importance of this, calls it quite a scoop, reminds us that ProPublica publishes things when they have the receipts. And, of course, is the reality that this is yet another way in which Donald Trump is potentially trying to influence the outcome of his criminal cases. Now, Trump's legal team has responded to this investigation by saying, we're going to sue. We're going to sue for defamation. I think it's critically important to remember that to be defamation, it needs to be false or untrue statements that cause reputational damage. We've looked.

It's wild how in reporting on american politics, you so often have to familiarize yourself with defamation statutes. There are enough, depending on whether it's federal or state. There's a number of different standards that have to be met. But one of them is that to be defamatory, statements have to be untrue if they are true statements, but, for example, violate an NDA. Now you're talking about a civil matter, and you can say, well, I'm suing you because you said something true, but you were supposed to keep it secret because you signed the NDA. That's not what's being alleged. Trump's lawyers are saying, we're going to file for defamation. And in order to do that, you would have to demonstrate that every single one of these statements that ProPublica makes is untrue. I assume ProPublica has the receipts. If the truth causes reputational damage, well, it just kind of sucks. But it should. If it is true that Donald Trump is giving sweetheart deals, raises, stock grants and whatever to people that are or potentially will be involved in testifying in his criminal trials, and that causes reputational damage to Trump, then that is Trump's wrongdoing. And that is not going to lead to a successful defamation lawsuit. Discovery for such a lawsuit, by the way, would be very fun. And a lot of this really relates to the same reason that Trump didn't get under oath. If you put Trump under oath, testifying in his defense in that first criminal trial that just wrapped up, the first question is, did you have an affair with Stormy Daniels?

Now, it would probably be 30 or 40 questions establishing a foundation and going forward, but you would immediately put Trump in the position to either have to admit that the affair did take place or to risk perjury. And that's a lot of why this defamation suit that Trump's lawyers are saying we'll go forward isn't going to happen. This is typical Trump.

Everybody is upon the voters, or the potential voters are pawns when Trump needs them. Donate to me, vote for me, come out and support me at the courthouse or riot for me or whatever. And then he doesn't care. He grew up trying to remain isolated from these folks. All of a sudden, it changes very quickly. And it's the same thing when it comes to these witnesses. Hey, can we give them some money just so they'll do what's best for me? Good. Oh, now there's a, now there's an investigation and this could be a problem. It's all defamation. It's all lies. Whatever Trump's prism through which every decision is made, is what's good for me. That informs the audio recording played at the trial where Trump was saying to Michael Cohen, cash, right? Cash. And Michael Cohen goes, no, it's all about what is best for Trump. And these are very serious allegations. An excellent, excellent piece of investigative reporting here. Uh, bright pope by ProPublica, and we will follow it up. Eric Trump, not known to be the smartest of the Trump children, on the verge of tears over the possibility of daddy going to prison. This was a wild appearance billed as an exclusive with Fox News. Is Trump Brown noser in chief Maria Bartiromo?

Eric Trump on the verge of tears? I don't know how else to say it. Everybody is treating us so unfairly. We're so good.

You've got to have stuff unlocked at cv's to buy it. I still don't know what that has to do with anything. Take a listen to Eric Trump speaking to Maria.

G
The problem is Americans are really, really smart and they get it. They get this system. There's only so many times you can cry wolf before, you know, people see right through Maria. And that's why my father had the reception he had last night where he had 40,000 people going out absolutely nuts, chanting USA. You know, they want their leader back. They want their patriot back. They want the person back who will actually fight for the United States of America. And that's why we're going to win. We're going to win.

Speaker A
On November 5, you can tell that the verdict was wrong because a crowd of UFC fans cheered when they saw it sounds so stupid when you put it this way. The UFC crowd cheered when they saw Trump enter with Dana White.

So obviously the verdict was completely and totally wrong.

Maria Bartiromo asked, what are you doing in terms of November with regard to securing the election?

And Eric Trump spits out one of these unintelligible word salads.

Anna Paulina Luna
It's all about who counts the votes, right?

Anna Paulina Luna
You mentioned your wife, Lara Trump.

Anna Paulina Luna
She's the co chair of the RNC right? Now. What has she said? What is she doing? What are you doing at the, in the campaign and for your father in terms of securing this election and ensuring that we have, in fact, a fair election and transparent in November?

G
Well, I have a beautiful wife, but behind that beautiful smile is somebody who is absolutely working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Speaker A
Speaker one, so far, no explanation, no.

G
Answer the vote and raise a lot of money. And what she's done at the RNC along with Mike Watley and everybody else, I mean, they've upended the whole organization. They've turned it into the greatest political fighting machine ever. And believe me, their eyes are on that problem every single day because it's a real problem. Anybody that doesn't say that voter fraud.

Speaker A
Is real is we have a problem. My wife is attractive and she is working. Okay, so what are you doing to secure the election, Eric?

G
It's either naive or foolish. It happens. It happened in 2020 and we will not allow it to happen again. And believe me, Laura Trump, Trump is, is all over that. And I'm very proud of the work that she's doing and I'm proud.

Speaker A
Speaker one, Eric's proud. Laura's handling it, and Maria Bartiromo is satisfied. She says, okay. Now then, the topic of the sentencing came up. As you know, sentencing for Donald Trump, scheduled for July 11. Eric Trump weighs in and says that the whole point of setting up sentencing for July 11 is to make his dad go crazy and do something nuts. The reality is it's very common that about five or so weeks after a verdict, sentencing happens in the state of New York. It's just totally standard. But Eric wants us to believe it's all to get him to do something crazy.

Anna Paulina Luna
Before you go, Judge Marshawn sent the sentencing date on July 11, four days before the RNC convention. What are your expectations for the sentencing?

G
Yeah, well, go figure. You never know with these people, Maria. Honestly, the amount of pressure that they're going to put on this guy to do something incredible, he's the victim, insane.

And that will backfire on them again, as it always does. You know, I don't even want to try and, you know, predict what's going to happen. I really don't. These people are corrupt. They're horrible. The system's corrupt. I was in that front row and I saw it every single day. And when you're sitting there, you just wouldn't believe it. If you weren't seeing it with your own eyes, you wouldn't believe that that was a legal system of the United States of America.

Speaker A
You'd think that we're the most poorly and unfairly treated people in the world.

G
The legal system is Venezuela or Iran or some third world country, not the United States of America, and certainly not the capital, the business capital of the entire globe, New York City. And I hope the appellate courts get this right and restore some confidence to the legal system in the US.

Speaker A
Yeah, because we and our billionaire family, nobody's ever been treated this unfairly. It's so sad. And we really need to do something about it. Okay. And then lastly, this is now a standard. In every Eric Trump interview, he complains that at CV's or wall or Walgreens or Dwayne Reid, some of the items are locked up. And every interview involves that at some point with Eric Trump, crime in cities.

G
And the fact that you can't go into a CV's and buy something because everything's locked behind plexiglass. And, I mean, how long do you want me to go on that subject? People are saying and tired of it.

Speaker A
It's funny, I'm sick and tired of Eric Trump at every interview saying that we need, when he needs hand lotion at Dwayne Reid or Advil at CV's, it's locked up. And by the way, I was recently there. They, I needed to beg, please unlock my hair product. I have a show to do my hair product, which is not a sponsor. It's locked up now because apparently it's the target of shoplifters. It's such a good product. To be perfectly frank, they know that they need the good stuff. So Eric Trump on the verge of tears July 11, not because they're trying to do something to Trump, but because it's totally standard. Between four and six weeks after the verdict, you would expect sentencing in New York state cases. We have a voicemail number. That number is 2192. David P. Here's a caller who makes a really good point.

If the economy is so bad, how can so many people afford to make these small dollar contributions to Trump? Seems contradictory. Take a listen.

Anna Paulina Luna
The Republicans keep saying how the economy is so bad, but if Trump is able to raise 100 some million dollars in a weekend from a small donor dollars, then the economy can't be that bad if they have that much extra money to spend.

Speaker A
Absolutely. When the Trump campaign touts all of these new donors who have never donated before, and these are not rich people, these are just small dollar donations from everyday Americans. When they tout that, they undercut their own claim that the economy is no good. Now, the other element is sometimes they'll admit the economy is okay, but it's only because of the expectation that Trump's coming back to the Oval Office. So depending on what day it is, depending on how the wind's blowing, depending on whether it's a sunny or a cloudy day, they will have a different argument. But it is absolutely the case that if all of these people who never donated before suddenly can afford to throw a few bucks to Trump, the economy must be doing okay, at least. Good luck confronting them with that. We have a fantastic bonus show for you today.

We have more charges for fake electors this time out of Wisconsin. It is a delight to see the justice system work. Number two, the House, House Republicans are proposing cuts to the IR's and defunding the free tax filing system. Why would you defund that? Well, we'll explain. And Michael Cohen's family has now been doxxed following the verdict against Donald Trump. Guilty on 34 criminal counts. We will discuss that. I also recorded an appearance today on the Piers Morgan show with right wing bomb thrower Benny Johnson, Alan Dershowitz, Trump's former lawyer and fellow left wing commentator. No, Mickey Kant. So it's, it was wild. It's not going to be published till tomorrow. I do want to talk a little bit about it. So we'll discuss that on the bonus show as well. Make sure to sign up for the bonus show at Join pacman.com. you can use the coupon code savedemocracy 24 for a discount. And at minimum, at minimum, make sure you're subscribed to my YouTube channel@YouTube.com.

the David Pakman show.

6/5/24: Biden outdoes Republicans on border, devastating Biden WSJ report

Primary Topic

Episode Summary

Main Takeaways

Episode Chapters

1. Introduction

2. Analysis of Biden's Border Policy

3. WSJ Report Discussion

Actionable Advice

About This Episode

People

Content Warnings:

Transcript