7/16/24: RNC goes haywire, Trump chooses a VP who hates him

Primary Topic

This episode focuses on the internal conflicts within the Republican Party during the RNC and Trump's controversial VP selection.

Episode Summary

David Pakman delves into the dramatic events of the Republican National Convention (RNC), highlighting the paradox of its mundane proceedings against a backdrop of internal strife and discord. The episode notably discusses Donald Trump's unexpected choice of JD Vance as his vice-presidential running mate—a decision that stirs controversy due to Vance's previous criticisms of Trump. Pakman critically examines the implications of this choice, suggesting it reflects deeper issues of performative loyalty and opportunism within the party. The analysis extends to broader discussions on the party's dynamics, emphasizing the lack of genuine support for Trump and the performative nature of political alignments within the GOP.

Main Takeaways

  1. JD Vance was chosen as Trump's VP despite a history of public opposition to Trump, highlighting a shift towards opportunism in politics.
  2. The episode casts the Republican Party as deeply fractured, with loyalty being more performative than genuine.
  3. Trump's selection of Vance is seen not as a strategic move to win votes but as a cynical maneuver to ensure compliance and superficial loyalty.
  4. The RNC showcased a stark continuation of divisive politics, overshadowed by recent violent events and Trump's personal controversies.
  5. Pakman questions the long-term impact of Trump's VP pick on the party's electoral prospects and internal cohesion.

Episode Chapters

1: Opening Remarks

Pakman introduces the episode's theme of discord at the RNC and the surprising VP announcement. David Pakman: "Welcome to the show, everybody."

2: VP Selection Analysis

A deep dive into Trump's choice of JD Vance for VP, including Vance's past criticisms of Trump. JD Vance: "I'm going to vote third party because I can't stomach Trump."

3: RNC Atmosphere

Discussion on the performative loyalty within the GOP at the RNC, highlighting the lack of genuine support. David Pakman: "Performative loyalty accurately describes much of what's going on."

4: Political Dynamics

Exploration of the broader political implications of the RNC and Trump's VP choice. David Pakman: "It just underscores the total lack of genuine support for Trump today."

5: Closing Thoughts

Pakman concludes with reflections on the future of the Republican Party and the potential consequences of the RNC events. David Pakman: "I don't think JD Vance gets Trump any additional net votes."

Actionable Advice

  1. Evaluate political claims critically, especially in the context of past behavior.
  2. Recognize the role of media in shaping political narratives and remain informed from multiple sources.
  3. Understand the impact of performative actions in politics and strive for genuine political engagement.
  4. Stay aware of the implications of political alignments and their influence on policy and governance.
  5. Encourage open discussions about political loyalty and its implications for democratic processes.

About This Episode

-- On the Show:

-- Donald Trump selects Republican Senator JD Vance as his running mate, a guy who clearly does not like Trump

-- Fox News host Brit Hume admits the truth about Donald Trump's choice of JD Vance as his VP

-- An emboldened Donald Trump, Jr openly attacks a reporter attempting to interview him at the Republican National Convention

-- MAGA Mike Johnson aborts his RNC introduction when his teleprompter fails, just weeks after criticizing Joe Biden for using a teleprompter

-- Eric Trump now claims that "they" tried to kill Donald Trump in a delusional and conspiratorial rant

-- President Joe Biden overtly refers to Trump as a rapist during a recent pre-shooting campaign event

--- The person who shot Trump reportedly had Trump lawn signs in his yard in the last few years

-- The MAGA right is now calling for war and violence after the failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump

-- Donald Trump Jr casually and subtly floats the idea of some kind of "inside job" at play in the failed assassination attempt against his father

-- Voicemail caller says David incited violence against Trump, is high on coke, and is a scumbag junkie weirdo

-- On the Bonus Show: Elon Musk will give $45 million per month to support Trump, Biden campaign pulls advertising describing Trump as dictator, Alec Baldwin's manslaughter trial abruptly ends, much more...

People

Donald Trump, JD Vance

Companies

None

Books

"Hillbilly Elegy" by JD Vance

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

Transcript

David Pakman
Welcome to the show, everybody. We have day one of the Republican National Convention. In the books. It was sort of interesting in how uninteresting it was, simultaneously mind numbingly boring and uninspiring with short speech after short speech. That really did nothing to inspire anything other than more of the divisiveness that we've seen the Republican Party under Trump for years inspire. Some notable moments. Trump showing up with a bandage over his ear after being shot on a Saturday at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Also, the big announcement, really coming from day one of the RNC, is Donald Trump's election of his vice presidential running mate. It is indeed one of the final contenders that we believed were on the shortlist from weeks or even longer ago. It is JD Vance, the republican senator, who has become a de facto doormat for Donald Trump. And that really goes to why he was selected. Remember Donald Trump previously getting confused about who JD Vance even was?

Speaker B
We've endorsed JP, right? JD Mandel.

David Pakman
JD Mandel. Trump making the announcement, of course, on truth social, wherein he wrote, quote, after lengthy deliberation and thought and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of vice president of the United States is Senator JD Vance of the great state of Ohio. JD honorably served our capital c country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, summa cum laude, and is a Yale Law School graduate where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal and president of the Yale Law Veterans Association. JD's book, hillbilly Elegy, became a major bestseller. That's a Capital M major bestseller and Capital M movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our country. JD has had a very successful business career in capital T technology and Capital F finance, and now, during the Capital C campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought for so brilliantly. The american capital W workers and capital f farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond.

The most interesting aspect of this is that all of Trump's shortlist doesn't really seem to like him, and JD Vance acutely seems to hate Donald Trump. I do want to remind you, here is JD Vance, previously explaining why Trump is not a good candidate and showing that JD actually perfectly understands what it is Trump does and he doesn't like it.

JD Vance
So my fear is, you know, I think Donald Trump is not the right candidate for this group of voters.

I think that this election is really having a negative effect, especially on the white working class. Right? Because I think a lot of these grievances are legitimate, but what it's doing is it's giving people an excuse to point the finger at someone else. It's point the finger at mexican immigrants or chinese trade or.

David Pakman
This is a 100% accurate analysis of.

JD Vance
What Trump does, the democratic elites or whatever else. And sometimes these villains are legitimate. I think it's totally fair to say that the policy elites of the Democratic Party haven't been totally concerned about the white working class, but at the same time, fundamentally, what's going on and what Donald Trump has done is change the focus of the white working class from a sort of engaged in constructive politics to a politics of pointing the finger.

David Pakman
Completely accurate. He now no longer stands by that formally. I think he still believes it. More ugly stuff about how he can't stomach Trump and Trump is noxious.

JD Vance
I'm going to vote third party because I can't stomach Trump. I think that he's noxious and is leading the white working class.

David Pakman
A very dark place, he told Charlie Rose in an interview. I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him. Vance tweeted in 2016. My God, what an idiot. Referring to Trump. There are many of these since deleted tweets where he expressed he would even consider supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 over Donald Trump. Noxious, reprehensible. Suggested Trump is guilty of sexual assault, which of course he is, but he is a total doormat loyalist. So on the question of what is JD Vance really believe now, I continue to be extraordinarily skeptical of these political one eighties. I don't really buy that Dave Rubin, around 40 years of age, did a complete and total political 180. I think that he was driven to what seemed like the most direct path to money and notoriety, and it happened to 180 him towards MAGA. But I don't believe for a second that those political views really changed in that way over time. You sort of get hit by audience capture and you probably do start to tell yourself, I really do believe stuff, but I don't think it's genuine. And in the same way, I just don't believe that JD Vance. There's a lot of criticisms of JD Vance, but he's not a stupid guy. He's not going to mistakenly believe everything he said about Trump in 2016. And then how all of a sudden, Trump's a hero and Trump's a savior and Trump. Trump's fantastic. What this is, is opportunism on both sides. Vance pivots from Trump could be America's Hitler to yes, sir. Yes, sir. Of course, yes, sir. That's Vance's cynical move, calling him an idiot, calling him noxious, all of it.

It just underscores the total lack of genuine, the lack of genuine support for Trump today. It also relates to the internal Republican Party's dynamics, which is fractured, where loyalty is performative rather than genuine. And if you look around the republican party right now, performative loyalty accurately describes much of what's going on. You just have to appear to be loyal. And quite frankly, if you're Trump, I don't even think Trump cares about real, genuine loyalty. He also just cares about the appearance of loyalty. We all know Vance hates Trump. We all know Vance thinks Trump's an idiot. But this is opportunism. It's also opportunism from the standpoint of Trump. But here's where that may fail.

I don't know that in the net calculation, JD Vance is Trump's vp, secures him a single additional net vote. As far as the policy package that Vance publicly supports now, it's just the kind of irrational MAGA ism rhetoric mixed with vague and confusing, often counterproductive policy. Trump was already going to win Ohio anyway, so he doesn't need Vance's help there. And it's really not obvious to me that Vance actually helps Trump in any way. So from a voting standpoint, you know, the project 2025 people, Heritage foundation, they said they are thrilled with the selection of JD Vance.

Party insiders, to some degree thrilled with the selection of JD Vance because he's just not going to get much attention and he's not going to get in the way. But as far as the vote count, I really don't know that this does anything for Donald Trump. And it certainly sets up JD Vance to opportunistically align himself to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. So the real reason is that Trump sees Vance as a guy who will lay down, yes, sir. You know, Trump often lies when he says, they came to me and they said, sir, JD Vance really will go to Trump and say, sir, walk all over me. I'd like another. There is one Fox host who figured this out. I want to talk about that next. Fox News is Britt Hume weighed in about Donald Trump's selection of JD Vance, the republican senator, as his running mate. And lo and behold, Brit Hume has come to the same conclusion I've come to. The reason that JD Vance was selected isn't because he has the experience.

It's certainly not because he has the knowledge. I don't believe it's because he's charismatic. I don't really think he is, although some people say he sort of is charismatic. Vance got selected because he sucked up the right way, denounced and distanced himself from everything that he previously said and is now. Yes, sir, Mister Trump. Yes, sir, President Trump. Yes, absolutely. Here's Brit Hume calling it the right way.

Brit Hume
Some people may look at this and remember what JD Vance used to say about Donald Trump, but he was a hardcore never Trumper not very many years ago, and he reversed himself completely not that long ago.

And, you know, one of the things you worry about is when somebody's making a pick for a potential president, potential president. If something happens to him, then you think, well, is this person, did he, how did he get the job? Did he get it because he was really the best qualified to be, to be president? Or did he get it because he sucked up effectively to the nominee?

People will have questions about that.

David Pakman
Oh, well, there are questions and there are answers. The answer is yes. JD Vance got this because he sucked up effectively to the nominee, 1000%. He also has the profile that Trump wants. Vance is not bombastic in the way that people like Marjorie Taylor Green are. Vance appears more sane than somebody like a Carrie Lake. Vance seems as though he will meet the description and requirements of loyalty as seen by Trump. What those are, include, never contradict Trump in public. Do whatever Trump wants. Don't take attention away, don't be too loud, and get the media attention that Trump wants for himself. So that's the basis of this pick.

Will it matter in the end? Well, as I said five minutes ago, I don't think JD Vance gets Trump any additional net votes. The counterpoint to that is it's not clear Trump needs anybody to get him any additional net votes because Trump maybe Trump maybe on the way to an unstoppable victory. Unstoppable victory here. Now, he may not be. And part of this, we can see through polling that we need to wait on to get post shooting polling, or it's what a country where first we had to say, well, let's wait for post conviction polling and then let's wait for post debate polling after Biden's terrible performance. And now we have to say, let's wait for post assassination attempt polling and post bogus RNC polling. So the mood at the RNC, very much an environment of emboldened calls for retribution, chance of fight, fight, fight, which we will discuss a little bit later. And the very clear, everybody's laying down, everybody has become a doormat. JD Vance, at the top of that list is Trump's vp, but the entire ambience at the RNC of we are laying down for Trump.

Yes, sir, I will have another, please. So let's take a very quick break. We'll hear from a sponsor or two. Make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel@YouTube.com the David Pakman show. And if by any chance you haven't yet read or heard about Project 2025, I wrote a white paper, which I'm giving away for free.

You can find it at david pakman.com project 2025. See what it is all about, and we'll be back right after this short break.

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Save Democracy 24. We do a daily extra show called the bonus show, as well as offering commercial free video and audio streams of the show every day, hours before the show is made public to everybody else. So if that sounds even remotely appealing, check it out at join pacman.com. there is a short clip from an interview at yesterday's first day of the Republican National Convention with Donald Trump Junior that I want to play for you. The interview with was with MSNBC's Jacob Saborough. And what's notable about this is that the entire environment at the RNC yesterday, post Trump assassination attempt, is one of emboldened hostility. That's the way I would describe it. And in fact, that may even be too light for what it is. It might be more borderline violent contempt, not only for Democrats, but also for the media, despite the fact that it's a Republican who tried to kill Trump, who we now have learned had Trump signs on his front lawn. But we'll get to that a little bit later. Listen to the hostility and the contempt in Don Junior s voice here as he has asked very reasonable questions by reporter Jacob Saborough. And he says, oh, get out of here, you clown.

This is the new attitude. They feel untouchable. They feel that their victory is inevitable in November, and they may not be wrong. We have to make them wrong. Take a listen to this.

Jacob Soboroff
What does that change going to look like, Don? What practically your father as president, I think you would even say was a divisive figure. What's it going to look like in the second term.

Donald Trump Jr.
I don't think he was a divisive figure at all. I think the media created divisiveness around him. They lied about Russia, Russia collusion. They said he was a traitor. They went after him in every which way as possible. If the media actually starts being an honest broker, talking about the things that he did, the prosperity he brought, the peace deals that he signed around the world, rather than the disaster that we're living right now, I think you do everyone in the country a big favor.

Jacob Soboroff
I know immigration is important to him. I covered the family separation crisis closely. Will we continue to see policies like separating 5000 children deliberately from their parents?

Donald Trump Jr.
You mean the Obama administration?

Jacob Soboroff
You know they didn't do that, sir.

David Pakman
Sure.

Jacob Soboroff
Will there be a second family separation policy now?

David Pakman
At this point, Eric Trump sort of says off Mike to Don. Something about it might be time to go or MSDNC. And then the hostility gets ramped up.

Jacob Soboroff
You know they didn't do that, sir.

David Pakman
Sure.

Jacob Soboroff
Will there be a second family separation policy?

Donald Trump Jr.
It's MSD and C, so I expect nothing less from you clowns. Even, even today, even 48 hours later, you couldn't wait. You couldn't wait with your lies and with your nonsense. So just get out of here.

David Pakman
Get out of here. They do not want to be subjected to any serious policy questions. They do not want to be accountable for anything that they did or plan to do. They, and they have a license now or they feel that they do. And this is exactly what we talked about after the attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday.

They now feel as though they are politically untouchable. But just as importantly or more, they now believe they are beyond even scrutiny. And unfortunately, and it's so tragic and it's so sad. We talked about this yesterday with the news that Judge Eileen Cannon has dismissed the documents case against Donald Trump.

They are getting signals from the world all the time that they are untouchable and they are beyond scrutiny. Guy tries to shoot and kill Trump and it grazes Trump's ear and he's fine and he's playing golf. The next day, despite the fact that someone else was killed there, feels untouchable.

We get asked questions by reporters at the RNC. This is our party. Get out of here, you clowndeze. None of that happened, even though there are serious policy questions to answer. So this is exactly what we feared. This is exactly what we've been worried about. It is happening. It is happening. And my suggestion, you know, they don't want to answer questions from Jacob Saborough. You can't make them answer questions that there's only so much we can do.

We can still defeat Trump in the ballot box, at the ballot box in November by voting. It may happen, it may not happen. We don't know. I'm curious to see what the polling will look like next week or in another week, once both the shooting and the RNC have kind of come and gone.

But while you can denounce and condemn any attempt to kill a political candidate the way I and 99.9% of my audience have done, but also recognize Trump's stupid ideas about tariffs don't deserve to be voted for just because someone shot at him, right? I mean, that it doesn't make any sense. And this is why it's so frustrating to hear, as we did yesterday and as I've continued to hear overnight from people who go, you know, I wasn't going to before, but now that they shot Trump, and we'll talk about they in a moment, now that they shot Trump, I'm voting for the guy. Really? If you didn't like his tax policy before, why would you vote for him? Because someone shot at him. If you didn't like his foreign policy before, why would you vote for him? Because someone shot at him. It's not rational, clear thinking. We can remain rational and clear. We denounce and abhor any violence.

And when we look at Biden versus Trump, we can still make the right choice in November. So a wild, emboldening taking place at the RNC. Hey, here's something pretty funny. Two weeks ago, Maga Mike Johnson, the republican speaker of the House, was ridiculing Joe Biden for needing and using a teleprompter. Yesterday, just minutes into the start of the Republican National Convention, Maga Mike Johnson literally aborted his speech and walked offstage because the teleprompter went down. You will hear Mike Johnson in the middle of an introduction. Teleprompter fails. He flees the stage and the music starts. It is now my honor to introduce the attorney general.

And there goes the teleprompter.

And he just leaves. He just walks off stage, not even attempting to finish what he was doing and the introduction of whoever the hell it was that he was introducing. Now, there's a broader point here. This isn't really about teleprompters, but I do want to remind you, here is Maga Mike Johnson just a couple weeks ago, pointing to the fact that Joe Biden uses a teleprompter as a real problem. Speaker one, unless the president is reading off a teleprompter.

I don't think he's capable of making these big decisions. And that is something that should alarm all of us and it's something that we need to be talking about.

Brit Hume
I think people are.

David Pakman
Speaker one, ladies. Speaker one. All right. And then it cuts back to yesterday's failure with the teleprompter. So listen, this is not really about teleprompters, but teleprompters are really kind of a microcosm of the. The principle matters only when it's convenient to us. For years, Trump and other Republicans would say Obama only seems like a good speaker because of that teleprompter he used. Speaker one. Obama.

Right. Joe Biden can't think and he can barely speak. And it is only because of the teleprompter, which he shouldn't need. And Trump doesn't need a, because Trump's with it and knows what to say. And of course, we have years of experience now of seeing Trump when a teleprompter fails, or seeing Trump in a less formal setting, and it is a brain rot, for lack of a better term. And then now even more so, they continue to talk about how the evidence that Biden can't do anything is that he uses a teleprompter, despite the fact that Trump's been using teleprompters for years for all of his speeches. And then all of a sudden, the hangers on and the clingers and the sycophants and the brown nosers and the doormats, like Mike Johnson, who continue to go after Biden for the teleprompter, the teleprompter fails during something as simple as just an introduction at RNC, and he walks off the stage and they have to start playing music. The rock music starts to try to cover up for the fact that without the teleprompter, he completely failed. So the principle, of course, is that their stated values, their stated barometers, their stated principles, they are only valid for as long as they are convenient. And all of a sudden, when it's Trump that needs the teleprompter, when it's mega Mike Johnson that needs the teleprompter, teleprompters, as a sign of cognitive weakness, completely disappears. All right, I want to talk about they.

What do I mean by that? Many of you I know know exactly what I'm talking about. They tried to kill Trump.

They who? It was a single 20 year old Republican who tried to kill Trump. This is the new one. And Eric Trump was interviewed yesterday at the RNC on day one, and he weaves together what is becoming the prevailing narrative on the assassination attempt against Trump being the latest outcropping of the broader plan by, I guess, democratic elites to get rid of Donald Trump. And he casually uses the word they. And I try to be skeptical of they in general and always say, who they, who? When people call me and they talk about how they are doing this or they are doing that, I say, who is the they in this particular case surrounding the Trump assassination attempt? Being very careful about they is of particular importance. So let's listen to the little story that Eric Trump weaves together, and then we'll talk about that.

Jacob Soboroff
They have done everything to try and strip him of his wealth and of his fame. They've tried to break up our family. They've done everything possible to try and get him and kill him. And they literally tried to kill him this week. And despite that, he's undeterred. He's unrelenting. He loves this country. He's the one billionaire who does not need to be doing this. His life would be exponentially better if he wasn't. But he wants to make America great again. And I'm so proud of him. I've never had more respect for a person in my life. And, you know, it's funny, we were. I was there with Don and Tiffany and everybody else. We were in that exact same position in 2016. And we continue to fight on that stage with him every single day.

David Pakman
All right, they're fighting. So he talks about they. They try. The narrative that Eric Trump and others have been pushing is they tried to silence him by stealing the election. I'm so. This is an amalgamation of all of the day. They tried to silence him by stealing the election.

They tried to silence him by suing him. They tried to silence him by indicting him. They tried to silence him by convicting him. And now they are trying to silence him by killing him.

120 year old Republican tried to kill Trump. It's deplorable.

I've denounced it. I'm against all political violence. Unfortunately, someone was killed at the rally. It happened not to have been Trump by chance, but it was an individual in the crowd, another injured. But the, the narrative of they that they are weaving together is ridiculous, because the they, in every case other than the shooting, is, of course, the Biden Justice Department, the DNC, and their henchmen who tried to steal the election, or who, they might argue, did steal the election in 2020 from Donald Trump, the weaponized local das and prosecutors under the thumb of Biden, who decided to indict and decided to prosecute and whatever else the case may be. And into that they go, and they tried to kill him now, too, suggesting, as some members of Congress did, that Biden was involved in the assassination attempt, that Democrats were involved, that it was left wing rhetoric, like, for example, saying Trump is a threat to democracy counts as inciting violence. And I'll tell you something, I've been getting emails, voicemails and horrible excretions on x or tweets on Twitter where people are saying, David, you've been calling Trump a threat to democracy, so you incited this. You incited this. You've been calling Trump a convicted felon, so you incited this. Trump's literally a convicted felon.

Unless and until that's overturned, Trump is a convicted felon.

Stating a fact is now considered an incitement to violence. But there's more to the hypocrisy. There's more to the hypocrisy because in the context of saying, we've got to turn down the volume and the rhetoric from the left about Trump being a threat to democracy is responsible for the shooting. Here is Eric Trump in the same interview yesterday, using the exact same rhetoric about Joe Biden.

Jacob Soboroff
Yet they're going back to January 6, less than 48 hours later, and they.

David Pakman
Don'T say Ashley Babbitt's name.

Jacob Soboroff
It's, it's really, it's really horrible. Biden is a threat to democracy.

David Pakman
Biden is a threat to democracy. On the one hand, they say claiming Trump is a threat to democracy is what got him shot.

I don't really know why, because it was a Republican who shot him. Ok, but put that aside for a second. They say when Democrats warn that Trump is a threat to democracy, they are inspiring assassination attempts. And then 48 hours after that assassination attempt, supposedly based on people saying, hey, Trump's a threat to democracy. Eric, Trump says Biden's a threat to democracy. Now, if you confront them, what will they say?

They'll of course say, well, no, Biden really is a threat to democracy. Trump isn't. That's the difference. But the whole point is we need unity. We need to turn down the temperature. Though the unity went out the window the second, the second that it was determined that Trump was okay and that we are now moving back to politics as usual. So when they talk about they tried to kill him, a 20 year old Republican described as a right winger by his classmates, reportedly who had Trump signs on his lawn tried to kill Trump. What that has to do with they, I don't know. Let's take a super quick break and we'll continue the show right after this.

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I want to go back chronologically in the timeline, just a little bit, to a speech that President Biden gave before the attempted shooting of Donald Trump. Now, I want to be really clear about that. President Biden has, for the time being, suspended campaign activity, or at least did in the aftermath of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. My guess is, especially with the Republican National Convention now underway, which is an overtly political event, that President Biden will be back to campaigning soon as well. But I do, this is the first opportunity I've had to discuss it. President Biden giving a speech in Detroit before the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. And many of you sent me this particular clip that I'm going to play because you felt that this was a different Biden. Biden going directly at Trump, saying Trump raped her with regard to Eugene Carroll and the civilly liable sexual assault with a new, which a New York judge said met the definition of rape. Many of you overwhelmingly like this Biden, the more aggressive Biden going directly at these aspects of Trump. While a few of you said, David, you know, I'm just not sure about this. I'm not sure if this is really to President Biden's benefit to talk in these terms. So let's listen to it. Definitely more energy here. But is this sort of discussion, is Trump raped her?

What we want to see Joe Biden say and what the campaign will benefit from, it's certainly accurate, that's for sure. Let's listen here.

Speaker B
He is what he intends to do, folks.

Donald Trump is a convicted criminal.

He's convicted.

He was convicted by, he was convicted by a jury of his peers of 34 felonies for paying hush money, a porn star, and hiding from voters. In 2016, Donald Trump was found liable for sexual assault by a judge who told us not to be fooled by Trump's brushing it off. Here's what the judge wrote, quote, the judge in that case wrote, mister Trump attempt to minimize sexual abuse, finding it frivolous. Mister Trump raped her.

Mister judge is like, not mine.

He raped her.

As many people understand the word rape, folks.

Donald Trump is a business fraud.

He lost his license to do business in New York state, been fined over $400 million to give false information to banks, and he's still facing charge for mishandling classified information, which is a criminal offense. He's still facing charges for his role in January 6 trying to overthrow the outcome of 2020 election.

He's still facing charges in Georgia for election interference.

Remember his phone call?

I just need 11,780 votes.

Name another president donated that.

Look, if you want to know how bad a businessman Trump really is, just think about this.

He inherited millions of dollars only to squander it. He's filed bankruptcy six times, even when he went bankrupt. Even went bankrupt running a casino.

David Pakman
All right, so I think you get the point. Just the long laundry list of attacks on Donald Trump. Really, the new part there, though, is Mister Trump raped her, according to a judge. Um, you know, in a different political environment. In a different political environment. This is the caveat.

My instinct might be, I don't know if this is a good idea. I don't know if this is good campaign strategy in this political environment, where it's almost as though a large part of the country is completely blind to the fact that the republican candidate is a civilly liable rapist, 34 time convicted felon. Now, when you tell them that and they learn about it, they say, I don't care it was rigged or whatever. But regardless, when so many people don't even realize that this is the situation as it stands today, I actually do think that this makes sense, especially since what's left. What's left at this late stage, where we are just three and a half months from the election, President Biden had a poor debate performance.

Trump suffered an assassination attempt that we don't yet know how it will affect polling. What else is there but to simply identify your opponent as what they are, which in Trump's case, is a convicted felon and civilly liable rapist. So I'm fine with this. I don't know that this is going to be the. The secret sauce that rockets and propels President Biden to reelection. I don't know what. Even if you said more generally, what could do that at this point in time, I have no idea, but I don't have a problem with this. And of course, this was before the assassination attempt. President Biden has, for now, suspended campaign activity, although I expect that it will resume very soon. The search for a motive that inspired the assassination attempt against Donald Trump is ongoing, and we don't have such a motive at this time. We may never report so far are that there is no belief that any kind of manifesto or note was left behind. Of course, the shooter, Thomas Crooks, was neutralized, killed just moments after firing at Donald Trump. But we have some new information about the political background, if nothing else. We've learned that the dad is a big pro gun libertarian type. We've learned from former classmates that the shooter was conservative. And now there is reporting from local Pittsburgh news affiliate WPXI that the home regularly had Trump signs on its lawn, remembering, of course, that the shooter did live with his parents.

G
Investigators dressed in plain clothes as well as FBI agents approach this house. That's where the family of Thomas Crooks lives, which is right here on Milford Drive. Then we started to see those agents going door to door, canvassing the neighborhood and speaking with people who live here. They're trying to get answers to the many questions that still remain crooks. His motive is still unclear. Records show he is a registered Republican. And neighbors today told us that they've actually seen Trump signs outside of the home over the course of the last few years. Investigators.

David Pakman
Okay, so I am now going to go sort of into just what's my sense of the situation mode. And there's three aspects to this that I want to mention. The first aspect is that the MAGA right has immediately gone not into unity mode, not until let's do something about gun violence mode, which they never go into. They have immediately gone into this is the fault of liberals mode. Now, consider what we know.

Individual shooter, a registered republican father, a libertarian gun nut type, died wearing a shirt associated with a gun enthusiast YouTube channel. Classmates confirmed he was a right winger.

Trump signs all over their lawn, although he lived with his parents. So whether those were his signs or his parents signs. Okay.

Explosives in his car, nearly a dozen firearms taken out of the home to give us an idea of the environment.

There is nothing there that points to the political left. Now, if there were, I would be telling you. I wouldn't be hiding it. The reality is that in the United States, the vast majority of political violence is committed by those with right wing ideologies. But let me present another aspect to this.

I can't tell, we don't know the motive. Okay? And so if, if you just want someone to tell you, here's what it was, find some other channel. We don't know what it was, but I think there's a couple of possibilities here. It is possible that this was not politically motivated in the strictest sense. This is one possibility, one hypothesis. The idea being this is, as we see so many times with these young white male shooters, there was an emotional distress situation, wanted attention, bullied school shooter slash, incel slash, whatever kind of situation the demographics are generically consistent with. That in some way wasn't necessarily about Trump himself. He felt small. He felt insignificant. He thought, maybe this is how I can get attention and meaning. That's one hypothesis, this is just me talking here. We're having a conversation. This is not any kind of declaration. We don't know. He did not leave a manifesto or anything. So one possibility is that people saying, how do we combine the fact that he grew up in clearly a right wing household, registered Republican, guns, the whole thing, and yet tried to kill the republican candidate? Well, one thing would be it's not overtly political in that way.

Second possibility is something we explored recently, which is that there is a movement, and it includes people like Alex Jones who has said it. It includes people like Nick Fuentes and others who believe that while Trump is a Republican, he is not functioning in a way that is particularly useful to their cause. There was fury among Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes and others when Trump said, I don't know anything about Project 2025. Much of it's no good. It was all a lie, right? The real explanation is it's all a lie. Trump loves project 2025, but for the moment, that it was plausible that maybe Trump doesn't love Project 2025. Factions like Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes were furious with Trump, alleging that he was failing to live up to what standard they believe he should. It's also possible that as a registered Republican who grew up in what appears to have been a clearly right wing, pro gun household, the shooter became enamored or became sucked in by these Trump isn't right wing enough sort of things that we've seen and remember. I played a clip for you yesterday of Alex Jones from five months ago, where Jones said Trump would actually, if Trump were killed, it would usher in the assassinations of all of the deep state targets we have in mind. So this is Alex Jones's words. Trump getting killed would actually be the ideal scenario, because then we can go and kill all these other people that are really the problem. So that's another possibility.

But what we don't know for sure is the motive, because the shooter did not leave anything behind. The investigation goes on, and maybe we will find out more. More. But remember, when people like Eric Trump at the RNC, in the interview we looked at earlier, or others online say, this is the violence incited by the left. This was an assassination attempt based on a left wing political perspective. We have no evidence of that whatsoever. And we have growing evidence of very much the opposite of important. To keep that in mind as the conversations go further and further off the rails about this, what do you think I want to hear from you? Write to me info at david pakman.com. curious what the perspective of the majority or plurality of my audience is on this health is never one size fits all, which is why I'm so glad to tell you about our sponsor, wild Health, which takes a proactive and preventative approach to health care called precision medicine. They use your genetics, biometrics and lifestyle data to help you figure out what is your specific body need for nutrition, exercise, sleep, supplements, and more, with the goal being just function at your best now and in the long run. And if you're struggling with stress or your cortisol level, which is the primary stress hormone, maybe that's elevated. 50% of all wild health patients have seen cortisol levels improve.

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That's wild health.com pacman. The link is in. The podcast notes one of the most disturbing follow ups that we're seeing to the failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Trump, which did kill someone in the crowd, is that far right extremists are increasingly openly calling for violence, war, retribution, and feel as though they have carte blanche now to do whatever they wrongly and deludedly believe they need or are being asked to do as a result of the failed assassination attempt. This was one of the obvious concerns that I talked about just hours after the shooting during a live stream on Saturday, and I want to explore it a little bit with you. Article far right extremists call for violence and war after Trump shooting by David Gilbert one person wrote of Democrats, the media and others, they should all be hung in the streets. War now. Another wrote. A member of the pro Trump message board wrote, known as the Donald wrote, I guess they really do want war.

Many people agreed with that. Let's give it to them. One person wrote. Another, I'm ready. This is my last damn straw. Another user civil effing war. I'm ready to be done with this. Effing s from democrats.

We have seen it on x and Facebook.

They've been trying to take this guy out since he's been in office. Too bad for them. They missed. They're about to see what happens when you poke the bear for too long. That is true. American patriots, f the DNC, f the rhinos, f the feds, f the msm. They should all be hugging in the streets. Msm, of course, being mainstream media, there are not just reports, but there are videos of in, in the immediate seconds after the shots rang out in Butler, Pennsylvania, and everybody ducked, if I recall correctly, before or as they are getting trump off of the stage, people in the crowd turning to the area where the presses and starting to yell and insult and scream and the entire thing and what people there told us, and we might hear about this from Luke Beasley tomorrow. Luke Beasley was at the shooting and he's going to talk to us tomorrow on the show, was that they were saying to the media, you caused this. You caused this. As many of you know, I've been getting accused of inciting violence against Trump merely by, by saying he's a convicted felon. In fact, today's voicemail, you will see, contains exactly that sort of content. There were chilling moments yesterday at the first day of the Republican National Convention. Here is the crowd chanting, fight, fight, fight. Which, of course, is what Trump said before he was pulled off stage at the shooting. These are truly scary, scary images that, to me, incites violence.

That is legitimizing fight in what way? They couldn't possibly just mean voting because they already supposedly were voting. So it must be something new. Here's another moment. When Donald Trump came out with an ear patch yesterday, joined his recently minted vice presidential running mate, JD Vance. And you will hear the crowd chanting USA.

And then going to fight. And then you will see Don Junior in the background chanting it. You will see JD Vance chanting.

The reason that this has the potential to be an absolute and total disaster in terms of real world violence, which I am against and denounce, no matter who's doing it, and for what reason, as you all know, is that they really do seem to feel like it is open season now. They're not even hiding it. And part of the problem is this has always been the violent political movement. And I know people get mad at me, they'll go, David, what about when Steve Scalise was shot? Yes, that's true. That happened. Okay. But if you look statistically, which is what I care about, not anecdotes, when you look, statistically, the vast majority of political violence in the United States is carried out by the political right. I know that some people say that's divisive. It's divisive. It's considered divisive. Now to just state facts. Trump's a convicted felon. You're inciting violence. What? What do you mean? He's a convicted felonite? He's a civilly liable sexual assaulter, which met the definition of rape per a New York judge. That's inciting violence against him. Hold on a second. No, that's just a. It's just a characteristic of Trump which we can use to decide if we want to vote for the guy or not. And the people who are the primary purveyors and inciters of violence now have a tiny bit of COVID even though the shooter was a Republican, to say, oh, the violent left, we now need to fight back against them, sort of revitalizing their believed justification for violence. So I don't want to be hyperbolic, I don't want to generate any more fear than what is appropriate based on the circumstances, but this is a scary situation to me.

And then this is without even accounting for the conspiracy theories about the shooting, which I briefly want to talk about here. There was a moment that was sort of missed yesterday in some of these whacked out interviews that Donald Trump Junior gave on the floor of the Republican National Convention. There was a moment where Don Junior mentioned, you know, I'm not going to be conspiratorial, but something went wrong, uh, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday with regard to someone being able to get onto a roof about a hundred yards from his dad. Now, you really have to look at the totality of this clip, including the expression on Don Junior s face. But what he's alluding to here is some kind of inside job. Now, by whom, isn't clear. We'll talk about that in a moment. But here's Don Junior, having had it.

Donald Trump Jr.
Having been in it, having been both my father, as a president, as a candidate, you know, my own details, someone to get out on an open roof within 130 yards.

You know, I'm not gonna be the guy to be conspiratorial, but something went wrong.

David Pakman
Now, my view is that what went wrong is a security failure. There was a security failure in a number of different ways. I won't rehash all of it, but it involves individuals seeing the shooter climbing onto that roof, trying to alert law enforcement.

Reportedly one officer coming over, climbing up, seeing the shooter with the rifle, and going back down. And then before anybody else is able to do anything about it, the shots ring out. There are reports that the snipers on the roof closer to Trump saw the shooter, but there was some kind of radio confusion or a hesitation to allow the shooter to be taken out.

I'm not even speculating whether that should have been approved or not. I'm just telling you that's another aspect of this. The real story here does not imply involvement by Joe Biden as one member of Congress suggested. It doesn't imply an inside job by the FBI, DOJ, Democrats, uh, whoever else you want to fit into here. What this looks like is a single shooter that we now know to be a registered Republican. No, to have been a registered Republican with unclear personal motives, whether they were political or personal, we just do not know.

And some very specific security failures. And so is it irresponsible for junior to imply something like this? Yeah, it's probably irresponsible to some degree, I would say. So is it something that we know is on the minds of many? Yes, we do know. But what is particularly interesting about the kind of conspiracy ideas here is that they very much conflict, because you have what, and there's no evidence for any of what I'm about to say. But again, I streamed the RNC last night and I see these comments flowing. Bye. On the one hand, you have the contingent that says, this might have been staged by Trump. Sir, we're going to set up a shooter, they're going to graze your ear, and then everybody will say, what a hero, Trump, make sure to pump your fist and then we'll take you out and all these things. It's going to be great that that's one set of conspiracy theory about what this is staged by Trump to help him.

There's no evidence of that. Constitutionally, I struggle to believe Trump would, would go with something that includes buzzing his ear, because as we all saw, if we're one inch off, Trump's dead. So there's no evidence of that. I struggle to believe that that would go on. On the other hand, there are those who say Biden would have staged this in order to get attention off of the debate performance.

Now, again, no evidence for that either. The problem with the Biden motive to stage would be if you were, are you arguing Biden staged it to graze Trump's ear, or are you arguing that Biden staged it to kill Trump and it went wrong? And of course, there's rarely an answer there and there's no evidence for it. One way or the other. So what Don Junior is doing is probably irresponsible. Yes. But more importantly, as I talked about yesterday, if you want to play the motive game, you can find motive on both sides. And motive alone does not a conspiracy make, as we have talked about many times before when taking apart conspiracy theories. We have a voicemail number. That number is 2192. David P. I've been telling you that I'm getting the calls from people to say I'm inciting violence. I've never incited violence, ever on this show. This caller also says I'm on drugs. This is a wild one, but it's representative of what we've been getting.

H
Speaker one, you're a scumbag. You incited violence and you got somebody killed. You got somebody killed and you have blood on your hands, man. You did that. You knew better and you kept inciting violence. You kept saying, let's go attack Trump. Oh, we can kill Trump. Now, the Supreme Court said that, even though that's not true.

David Pakman
Okay, so let's address that. Let's address that. First of all, first of all, the decision about immunity from Trump and the idea that now Joe Biden can get away with whatever is a legal discussion.

Only someone who is completely depraved and deliberately misunderstanding would think that saying, if Trump's immune, no matter what he does, what stops Biden from being immune? By saying, we must imprison Trump or I'm just going to remain in power, or Trump can be assassinated as an official act. To suggest that that's an incitement to violence or that I believe by violence is okay, is one of the most disgusting, false interpretations of anything I've ever said. But let's continue because you'll actually see what this is about. This gets very personal for this call.

H
All this crazy, weird.

I'm a liberal and you've been taking my things in my heart and profiting on them for years. You're just a scumbag. You're a liar. You're just an ass, man. You're a junkie. I can look in your eyes and see you're a junkie. I can see you're a coke addict, some kind of speed addict, and you're already hyper lying to people. Hyper lying, masculine junkie weirdo. You're just a cultist weirdo. Go away. Stop ruining liberalism, you stupid prick. Stop profiting off it and ruining it, you stupid motherf.

David Pakman
Okay, so a very, very, very disturbed individual backwards about just about everything. Do I believe that that's a leftist who is angry with me. I struggle to believe that. But we're getting a lot of messages like that. I've been speaking to other hosts. They are similarly getting a lot of messages like that. So this is part of the problem now that everything is backwards. And despite the fact that the shooter was a Republican, most political violence is carried out by the right. We've had a uniquely anti violence message on this program for as long as it has existed.

They don't know what to do, and they can't seem to make sense of the fact that a Republican shot a Republican. And this is where we find ourselves on the bonus show today, producer Pat makes his principled and defiant return to the bonus show. We have learned that Elon Musk is reportedly going to be giving tens of millions of dollars a month to try to get Donald Trump elected. The Biden campaign has pulled all political advertising that describes Trump as a dictator. What about that? If he says he's going to be a dictator, why would you pull the ads while the shooting? We will discuss it. And we will also talk about the abrupt, truly abrupt end to Alec Baldwin's manslaughter trial. What happened? What happened? We will discuss all of it and more on the bonus show. Get instant access by signing up at join pacman.com coupon code savedemocracy 24.

And remember that you can get any or all of my children's books on critical thinking, the scientific method, the importance of voting at david pakman.com book. And you can also early, early pre order my forthcoming nonfiction book, the Echo Machine by searching Amazon, Barnes and Noble, bookshop.org, audible, Apple Books, anywhere for the Echo machine. David Pakman appreciate about three or 400 folks so far have pre ordered the book. All right, we'll see you on the bonus show. And I'll be back tomorrow with coverage of day two of the Republican National Convention.