7/19/24: Trump RNC speed off the rails, Biden accepting it may be over

Speaker A
Welcome, everybody. The Republican National Convention concluding last night with failed former President Donald Trump, a civilly liable rapist and 34 time convicted felon, accepting the nomination of the Republican Party for president. And I have to tell you, it has been a very bad three weeks for democrats. The best thing that has happened for democrats in the last three weeks is Donald Trump's record duration, 93 minutes. Rambling, slurring, soaking wet, dishonest and disorganized republican convention speech from Trump last night. It was such a disaster, claiming it would be a new tone, getting away from the divisive rhetoric and all of that stuff. It was essentially Trump's standard speech, delivered with a flatter sort of affect to account for the serious and somber nature of the post assassination attempt environment, and riddled with the very same lies and grievances and distortions that we've become accustomed to. So we will review it and then I will give you my assessment. But it is essentially Trump reading the same nonsense he does at the cult rallies, but with a flatter affect, as is often the case, Donald Trump taking the stage like he is some kind of cult leader.

Speaker B
From the lakes of Minnesota to the.

Speaker A
Hills of Tennessee, it's hard not to laugh, but we should be crying.

Across the plains of Texas right from.

Speaker B
Sea to shiny sea, Detroit to Houston and New York to laden, there's pride in every american heart, and it's time to stand and sing.

Speaker A
All right, you get it? So Donald Trump modifying his generic grievance and lie riddled rally speeches with just a little bit about the failed assassination attempt. And Trump very early on, right from the beginning, going the, this was divine intervention that I survived sort of argument.

Speaker B
I'm not supposed to be here tonight. Not supposed to be here.

Thank you.

But I'm not.

And I'll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.

Speaker A
Trump is almost certainly not religious.

Speaker B
In watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment, probably was when I rose surrounded by secret Service.

The crowd was confused because they thought I was dead.

And there was great, great sorrow. I could see that on their face. Speaker one.

Speaker A
Yeah, so listen, going with this whole God saved me by, I guess, redirecting the bullet into an innocent firefighter standing behind me, which, of course, raises all the very same questions I talked about two days ago. I won't do it all again. But you must assume if God intervened to save Trump, that Trump is more valuable than the guy God directed the bullet into. And of course, it also raises the question of why God didn't just make the gun jam, or prevent the shooter from even being there, or prevent the shooter from having the idea of shooting Trump, or prevent the shooter from being born or making it so that the shooter gets into a car accident on the way to the rally. No, the way that God intervened was to allow the shooter to do everything up to and including firing the gun, having it only graze Trump's ear, but kill an innocent bystander behind Trump. Very tough. Very, very tough argument to believe, even by the very nature of the religious teaching teachings that Trump sort of claims to believe, which I don't think he does. Trump also completely rewriting his understanding of what took place at the assassination attempt. Remember that Donald Trump initially said, I kind of didn't even really know what was going on because it felt like a mosquito bite. Trump retelling the story yesterday with a completely different explanation, which is that he knew it was a bullet. He knew it could have only been a bullet, and he knew it right away.

Speaker B
When I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear, I said to myself, wow, what was that?

It can only be a bullet.

And moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down.

My hand was covered with blood.

Just absolutely blood all over the place.

Speaker A
Now, none of this is true. This doesn't change that he almost was killed. It doesn't change that I denounce assassination attempts, that I am completely and totally against violent. It doesn't change any of that. But this is a completely new story. Trump's hand wasn't covered in blood. Trump said, I didn't know what it was. It seemed almost like a mosquito at the time. But now the news story is drenched in blood. Blood everywhere. And I immediately knew that it was a bullet and I had survived an assassination attempt. Completely new story. Trump using the dead firefighters helmet as a prop during the speech, going over and kissing the uniformity of Corey comparatore, the man shot and killed at the Pennsylvania rally.

There it is. Trump kissing the gear of the guy that, according to their own understanding, was killed because God intervened so that the bullet wouldn't kill Trump. I mean, it's sick. It's downright sick. And then, after this brief aside about the assassination, Trump officially accepting the republican nomination for president.

Speaker B
So tonight, with faith and devotion, I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States. Thank you.

Speaker A
So from this point forward, with the acceptance out of the way, with the rehashing of the assassination attempt, out of the way, Trump goes into a record setting, 93 minutes long convention speech, longest convention speech in history with a lot of the normal hits. It was so bad, it was so boring getting to the stroke of midnight, east coast time that people started falling asleep. I'm not using that term figuratively. They were literally sleeping during the speech. We will get to that in a moment. Trump confusing artificial intelligence and electric vehicles.

Speaker B
So tonight with faith and, sorry, this.

Speaker A
Is, this is the wrong clip. Here is the correct clip.

Speaker B
And some of the things that we're going to do. But AI needs tremendous, literally twice the electricity that's available now in our country. Can you imagine?

But instead, we're spending places where they recharge electric cars. They.

Speaker A
Speaker one so this makes no sense. We are spending places where they recharge their electric cars and AI needs quite twice the electricity. None of it makes sense. And this was the way most of the speech was. And you could, you could almost sense the energy draining out of Trump as midnight got closer and closer, a very slurry and low energy Trump talking about how Kim Jong un wants him to be president, which isn't exactly something I'd be bragging about.

Speaker B
I got along very well. North Korea, Kim Jong un, I got along very well with him. The press hated when I said that. How could you get along with him? Well, you know, it's nice to get along with somebody that has a lot of nuclear weapons or otherwise, isn't it?

See, in the old days, they say that's a wonderful thing. Now they say, how could you possibly do that?

But now I got along with them. And we stopped the missile launchers from North Korea. Now North Korea's acting up again. But when we get back, I get along with them.

He'd like to see me back, too. I think he misses me, if you want to know the truth.

Speaker A
Speaker one it's not something I would be bragging about. And quite frankly, the fact that Trump claims the dictators love him and the fact that he's smitten and taken with the dictators, none of it to me says, this is the guy we want running things. Now, you may recall that there was a big deal made of the fact that the rhetoric would be toned down. This was going to be a buck a buttoned up Trump with not any of the old rhetoric. Well, he very quickly went back to the crazy Nancy Pelosi rhetoric.

Speaker B
Speaker three they get another subpoena from the Democrats. Crazy Nancy Pelosi. The whole thing is boom, boom, boom.

They've got to stop that because they're destroying our country.

Speaker A
Now, remember when Democrats said, Trump will destroy our democracy if he wins, and then a Republican shot Trump? Maga said, it's the fault of Democrats for saying Trump will destroy our democracy. But now supposedly toned down and buttoned up Trump, searching for unity, says the exact same thing. Democrats will destroy our country.

But we are supposed to believe that that is not equally an incitement to violence. In other words, if saying Trump's a threat to democracy is an incitement to violence, why wouldn't Trump saying Democrats will destroy the country equally be an incitement to violence? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. It's just, what can they get away with Trump doing? The our cities are flooded with illegal aliens.

Speaker B
Inflation we've ever had. But go back and see what's happened to those countries. We've had the worst inflation we've ever had under this person.

But in less than four years, our opponents have turned incredible success into unparalleled tragedy and failure. It's been a tremendous failure. Today, our cities are flooded with illegal aliens. Americans are being squeezed out of the labor force, and their jobs are taken.

Speaker A
Remember, the lazy illegal aliens who just want to suck on the teat of the government and welfare state are taking everyone's jobs. They're so lazy. They've taken all the jobs.

Speaker B
By the way, you know who's taking the jobs? The jobs that are created. 107% of those jobs are taken by illegal aliens.

Speaker A
Yes. And I took out my protractor and my old Ti 83 calculator to figure out the math of that. 107% of the jobs have been taken by so called illegal aliens. My Ti 83 exploded. I had to throw it in the trash can. Trump then going completely off script and going back to his favorite new obsession, silence of the lambs and Hannibal Lecter, which I still am unsure whether Trump knows is a fictional character rather than a historical figure.

Speaker B
They're coming from prisons, they're coming from jails, they're coming from mental institutions and insane asylums, which, you know, the press is always on me because I say this.

Has anyone seen silence of the lambs?

The late, great Hannibal Lecter?

Speaker A
Right.

Hannibal Lecta.

Speaker B
He'd love to have you for dinner.

Speaker A
All right. We still don't know whether Trump knows that it's just a movie with Anthony Hopkins or he thinks that Hannibal Lecter is a historical figure. Trump revitalizing the China virus phrase, which gave me a PTSD about those daily Covid press conferences Trump would give, including the one where he said, what about injecting bleak speaker one?

Speaker B
But I don't even talk about it because of COVID I don't even mention it, frankly, because of what happened with the China virus.

Speaker A
And that one really gets, isn't that just so clever? Oh, referring to it again as the China virus is just so clever. We should clap for that. And then ominously, and, and, of course, reminding us that Trump is very much into Project 2025 and all of the elements in it, Trump says that he will round up millions of Latinos in mass detention camps, and this is going to be, listen to this.

Speaker B
And bad things are going to happen. And you're seeing it happen all the time. That's why to keep our families safe, the republican platform promises to launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country, even larger than that of President Dwight D. Eisenhower from many years ago. You know, he was a moderate, but he believed very strongly in borders. He had the largest deportation operation we've ever had.

Speaker A
There you go. So Trump making it clear Project 2025 will be happening. And then I, as we started to approach midnight in the east and. 09:00 p.m. pacific time, Trump reading off of the teleprompter increasingly more and more low energy and just kind of getting the sense that he's fading away.

Speaker B
The biggest movement in the history of our country by far can't be stopped.

It can't be stopped. It has always been about the hardworking, patriotic citizens of America.

For too long, our nation has settled for too little. We settled for too little.

We've given everything to other nations, to other people.

You've been told to lower your expectations and to accept less for your families. I am here tonight with the opposite message.

Speaker A
All right, so just fading, fading, fading away. And eventually, Trump finally wrapping up this 93 minutes, record setting duration speech with Melania Trump going on stage and dodging multiple attempts from Trump to kiss her. It almost makes you sad, but it doesn't.

There's one another.

Okay, so maybe it was two dodged kiss attempt. So listen, here's my takeaway. This guy must be beatable. It must be possible to defeat this guy. Arguably the worst, most unhinged convention acceptance speech in american history does not even seem hyperbolic. The question is, who will be best positioned to defeat Donald Trump? There is breaking news about that. I will get to it in a moment. This was Trump's typical rally speech in a calmer tone, but really no different. Crazy Nancy Pelosi, mass deportation, Covid, china virus. Do not be fooled about the new unity, Trump or whatever. Only one mention of Joe Biden by name, I believe, riddled with false statements and all sorts of misleading claims. Trump saying, I built most of the border wall. He didn't. Trump saying that inflation was 50, 60, 70%. The truth is, of course, there has been inflation. It's been lower in the US than in other western developed countries. But we have about total inflation of 20% over the nearly four years since Joe Biden took office. And Trump repeating the baseless assertions that he actually won 20 twenty's election and it was stolen from him many times, many times during the speech. So the takeaway same Trump, no change, must be beatable. And we now get to who can beat Trump? Who can beat Trump? We will take a break and talk about that in a little bit of make sure that you have downloaded the free project 2025 white paper at david pakman.com project 2025 to learn all about the dangers of Trump winning and implementing that.

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And you can, of course, use the coupon code savedemocracy 24. I got a couple emails yesterday, David. I typed in the code 2024. It didn't work. David, I typed in the code Democracy 24. It didn't work. You must type the code correctly. The code is save democracy 24. No spaces, no extraneous characters at join pakman.com. check it out. All right, Trump sort of turning the tables on the Republican National Convention yesterday. You may remember that Donald Trump fell asleep multiple times during the convention when other people were speaking, including JD Vance, including his own son, Donald Trump junior. We now have multiple reports of Trump putting the crowd to sleep during his endless, meandering, disorienting 93 minutes acceptance speech last night.

And hilariously, multiple reports about that.

Here is one from CB's news and balloons.

Speaker C
Nora, there's energy down here now, but.

Speaker B
During that speech, there definitely were some folks dozing off.

Speaker C
A few lawmakers snuck out early.

Speaker A
And this corroborated by NBC News as well, pointing out it was a long speech and people were sleeping along.

Speaker C
They were sort of enthralled into what he was saying. It was a long speech, as you have said. It was the longest, I think, ever of any convention of modern history. And there were at times people had to sit back down. But for the most part, I started asking people, what'd you think of the speech? They said, they liked the speech. People acknowledged it was very long. Some people fell asleep that were around us. And again, people sat down.

Speaker A
There you go. Some people did fall asleep. And then we have a very, very funny shot here of a woman who is nodding and doing everything she can to stay away.

Speaker B
And this great iron dome will be built entirely in the USA.

Speaker A
Okay, so listen, it is not that we did the substance of the speech in the first segment. It is not the most substantive thing that people were sleeping, but it is a reminder of the fact that there is a lot of performance happening here in general. And there is the performance that Trump is so interesting. And we think he's so great and everything he says is so important and meaningful, and every word must be listened to because he's almost a deisthenne, deified type figure. He's almost a deity. And then it's just, like, so damn boring. And he's always going on for so long that people start falling asleep. And similarly, Trump's falling asleep is a reminder that while his story is this is the most electrifying and important and explosive republican party, the maga movement is the best, most titillating movement that we've ever seen. Just electrifying in every way. Trump also can't be bothered to stay awake, even when it's his vice presidential pick that's speaking, even when it's Donald Trump junior, his own son that is speaking. So the falling asleep indicative both ways when it's Trump sleeping or when it's the crowd sleeping through Trump speech. Just a reminder that there is so much posturing here. There is so much performance here at every level. Earlier in the week, we talked about how JD Vance almost certainly hates Trump. He has a record of years of saying things similar to Tucker Carlson, that they really don't like this guy.

But now we have the appearance of loyalty, the appearance of liking Trump, and it's all about appearances. At the end of the day, when it comes to I physically cannot actually stay awake during this nonsense, we start to see through the facade that's been created. But it is all about appearances, because the reality is Trump doesn't actually care about any of these people beyond the extent to which they are useful to him. That's the prism through which Trump sees all of these people, even his son's own speech. And similarly for the crowd. Yes. Yeah. And remember, this is not a rally crowd. These are delegates and republican party insiders. And the entire thing, they don't particularly like Trump. They don't particularly find his speeches actually compelling. And that led to people just falling asleep the entire time. All right, let's now talk about Eric Trump's speech yesterday. We talk about, uh, representative samples of the RNC's hours and hours and hours of speeches.

And this is an absolute classic microcosm, the RNC crowd. Remember, this is not a rally crowd. This is RNC. It's delegates and media and republican party insiders. Eric Trump having to clap for himself because the crowd was silenced by his nonsense speech that was going nowhere.

This is genuinely awkward. I don't feel bad for the guy because these are, this entire family is one of the most.

It's hard to imagine a family with a worse impact on american politics. So I don't feel bad for the guy. But it starts to get awkward as Eric Trump with clear applause lines and the crowd is just silent, and he ends up having to clap for himself.

Speaker C
Rather, his decision made out of love for this country and a deep concern for America's future.

Speaker A
Uh huh.

It's pretty damn awkward. And the crowd not reacting particularly well to Eric Trump. And then another moment where just, you know, the audacity of this family. Trump says that the Bidens are in politics as a grift.

The Bidens are in politics as a grip.

Speaker C
Unlike his predecessor, it was not a decision born out of necessity.

Unlike the current president, it was not a decision that would enrich his family.

Speaker A
And, of course, that is very much untrue. Ivanka and Jared Kushner making hundreds of millions of dollars while Trump was in office, while they were advising him and his presidency. Trump himself reportedly making $1.6 billion while he was president of the United States. Now, where. Where he is, in a sense, right? Is that the lawsuits, the criminal charges, all of these things, there would have been less attention on the rampant criminality and scams and frauds perpetrated by Trump had he not entered politics. I do believe that that is true.

At the same time, that was of his own choosing. And there were great benefits to jumping into politics as well. So Eric Trump, everything is opposite. It's the Biden's who are the grifting, self motivated by benefits to themselves, when it is really the Trump family. That is the epitome of that. The question after all of this was done, Eric Trump's speech, Donald Trump speech, et cetera, was how did the elusive, I don't know how anyone's undecided, but how did those elusive undecided voters react to the speech? Let's talk about that next. It is so early since Donald Trump's RNC speech finished around midnight eastern time last night, that it's going to take a little while, certainly a few days, and this may all be changed very quickly depending on what sort of decision Joe Biden makes over the next few days. But we have a little bit of an early signal about how some undecided voters received Donald Trump's speech last night. And the answer is not great. A CNN had a focus group in Waukesha, Wisconsin. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. At one point I said Waukesha, and that's very much wrong. I believe that it is Waukesha. Don't email me about it. If I haven't gotten it right by now, I may be unable constitutionally to get it right.

Undecided Wisconsin voters Wisconsin certainly has the potential to be a critical state in November, not reacting particularly well to the speech. Here is one voter saying Trump's rhetoric hasn't changed since 2020. I'm very concerned his rhetoric hasn't changed about the election 2020 election.

Speaker C
And I'm really concerned that we're going.

Speaker A
To have another issue depending on who wins.

Speaker C
So, you know, I'm just really praying that if Trump wins, the guardrails of democracy will hold.

Speaker A
You know, it's kind of weird. It's interesting to hear from her. It's weird at this point to say, I'm praying that if Trump wins, democracy will hold.

If you feel the need to pray to God that the framework of democracy that the country was built on holds if one of the two candidates wins, there's not much to be undecided about, is there? And that's why I continue to be perplexed by these supposedly undecided voters. The gentleman sitting to the right on the screen or to this woman's left also weighed in and said it was the same stupid, I'm editorializing, the same stupid rally speech we've been hearing for a long time. So I gave his speech a d. It started out great, but then he went into mistruths and grievances and attacks.

Speaker B
And it just totally controversialized, contradicted itself in terms of what he wanted to achieve with unity.

Speaker A
So there we go. At least that undecided voter recognizing, supposedly it was going to be unity and turning down the temperature and reuniting and all of these different things. It wasn't any of it. It was the same grievances. It was the same nonsense, how anyone can be undecided.

The reason, if I'm honest, can I be honest, can I be frank? Maybe is a better way to say it, because I'm always honest with you.

The reason I struggle with these supposedly undecided voter panels and sort of taking them seriously is how could you possibly be undecided right now unless you completely lack a moral compass and are extraordinarily confused about what's going on in the world around you? I'm not trying to insult these individuals as people, but how could you possibly be undecided given what is going on and given, given the circumstances with Donald Trump, even despite the challenges that are facing Joe Biden? So what I want to do now, and people are furious, you don't, you can't even imagine how furious people are with me right now about what I'm saying regarding Joe Biden. We are going to take a break. We'll let emotion simmer for a moment. And we have breaking news that President Biden is recognizing he's going to have to drop out. I am only the messenger. I am a mere pawn in this entire thing. I have no influence at all about it. But it's what's happening. So we will take a break, let's regain our composures respectively. And then we are going, we are going to have a heart to heart about this.

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All right, this is going to be a tough one. A New New New York Times report says, per five sources, that President Biden is increasingly accepting that he cannot win in November and is going to have to drop out of the race. Now, I want to again state, if I ignore this reality, I do no one a service. I do you a disservice. If you look at the comments on YouTube from my discussions yesterday of the fact that top democrats are now telling Joe Biden, you've got to step down and allow someone else to run, if you look at the comments, they are riddled with personal attacks against me, saying, I shouldn't even be bringing this up. The fact that I'm talking about it is a problem, folks. This is happening. It doesn't have anything to do with me. I am a mere bit player in this entire thing. And we, if it is happening, need to be prepared to defeat Donald Trump. So let me tell you what's going on.

First and foremost, check out the article from the New York Times. People close to Biden say he appears to accept he may have to leave the race. This account is based on interviews with five people close to the president, all of whom are describing the situation as delicate, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid offending the president. Now, what the sources say is that reality, that the reality that others already have come to believe is setting in for President Biden, there's the potential that President Biden will make an announcement over the next few days that he will not be running for reelection. There is expected to be no resignation, in other words, that Biden would say, I will not be a candidate for reelection, but I will remain president until the next presidential term. And the disagreement to some degree, is, it is leaning towards he would endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris.

But not everyone believes that that would necessarily be the case. And then there is the question of whether or not he endorses Kamala Harris, whether he would say there should be an open democratic convention in August. There has been a palpable shift in the last 48 hours, palpable shift. And I know that there are people in my audience who are refusing to accept it and saying, this is merely a story created by, I guess, me and some others. You all know, if you've been watching this show for a long time now, that I have said to you, I am always going to be frank about what I believe to be going on. And up until several weeks ago, I believed it was abundantly clear that Biden would be the nominee in the aftermath of the presidential debate on June 27. I told you, while there is now more shakiness, I am still leaning towards Biden will probably be the nominee because he seems to have most of the support of Democrats. That has changed over the last 48 hours. We have learned that top democratic senator Chuck Schumer has privately told the president, do not run for reelection, you will hurt the party. Nancy Pelosi, top Democrat in the House, has said the same thing. Hakeem Jeffries, top Democrat in the House, has said the same thing. Adam Schiff, a top Democrat in the House seeking to be senator, has said the same thing. Jamie Raskin has said the same thing. And now there are reports about President Barack Obama telling allies that the path to victory for President Biden in November has been greatly diminished.

It is really difficult to imagine.

Doesn't matter what I say, okay? It doesn't matter what I say. And I see all of you unsubscribing because I'm telling you what's going on. It doesn't matter what I say.

When you see six of the most prominent democrats in the country saying this doesn't seem good, polling in swing states shifting to Trump, winning every single state, major donations from democratic donors frozen, how can you ignore what seems to be right in front of our eyes as happening?

The White House is denying it. Obviously, it's meaningless. And let me explain why you have to deny it if you're the White House. Up until the moment at which this is happening, you have to deny it if you're the White House, because if you don't, if you accept he's thinking about it, it's over. The second the White House acknowledges he might run, he might not, it is over. So you have to deny in order to generate time for President Biden to do it on his own, if that's what he decides to do. Apparently this is being slowed down to some degree by President Biden currently having Covid, the New York Times story explains that there are people around Biden who, were it not for him isolating with COVID they would be much more forcefully saying, you've got to do it now, you've got to do it by Sunday. The reporting is that, that there's a bit of a delicate situation there because, you know, he's out sick and people aren't necessarily going to show up and go, you got to do it and you got to do it now.

The one interesting aspect to this is that if President Biden were to make this announcement Soonish Sunday, for example, it could really take the wind completely out of the Republican National Convention. Today is the peak in terms of you've got the full week of the RNC, Trump's speech last night, which I believe was a disaster. But whatever benefit Republicans and Trump will get from the RNC, it's going to peak now and over the next 24 hours in general, by Monday, some of that will have died down. If on Sunday or Monday President Biden makes this announcement, it completely defeats the RNC. They spent the entire RNC talking about Joe Biden. All of a sudden. If Joe Biden's not the guy that they're running against, that completely takes the wind out of their sails. Now, I am not pretending that there is an obvious easy path to victory if at this point President Biden were to be replaced, and also if the replacement were to take place through a convention process in several weeks. However. However, what is reassuring is that people who aren't even running, Democrats who aren't even running, are already polling in the forties against Trump in hypothetical polling, if they prominently become the replacements to Biden at the convention and then have the appearance of being much more fit with it and ready to go right up against Trump, it's completely conceivable to me that the low forties to mid forties polling that these non candidates have as their name recognition goes up and media coverage goes up, could lead to extraordinarily positive results for Democrats in November.

That's the optimistic perspective. So this is the latest reporting.

I know that there are people in my audience who are furious about this.

Look at the comments to my interview with Nicholas Kristoff yesterday. Biden, please. No, no, no. Don't even think about stepping down, David. You're despicable for even talking about this. This is sure disaster.

The consensus that is building among top Democrats is that, of course, having the incumbent president change plans and say, I'm not running for reelection in late July, early August, has huge risk associated with it. But the belief is that continuing on has risks that are just as significant, if not greater. That's the belief among top Democrats. Now, we can all argue about it. We can all talk about what we think is best and how it should be done and who the replacement should be. There are now concerns, including from people like AOC, that many of the people that want Biden to step aside would not accept Kamala Harris, even if she is the one who is selected. That could be a major problem. What is absolutely going to be disaster is if Biden does step aside the way so many people have been arguing for him to do, Kamala Harris is the replacement. And then all the very same people saying Biden should step aside, say, oh, I'm not supporting Kamala. I don't like her either. That will be a disaster. Okay, Trump wins if that happens. Let's not put the cart before the horse. Let's not count chickens before they hatch. Let's use whatever analogies and metaphors are relevant to you. But this is the discussion.

Increasingly, reporting is indicating Biden could be out as soon as come Monday morning.

We will follow it closely, and I will let you know if we hear anything on our end. One funny little moment from the RNC that I wanted to touch on before, uh, we move on.

There was a moment when Kevin McCarthy, the former speaker of the House, was being interviewed by CNN.

And a fellow Republican, Matt Gaetz, came over, clearly displeased that anyone was interviewing Kevin McCarthy, and said, if you gave a speech here, you would be booed off of the stage. So what we're going to see here is a little bit of that, and then you are going to hear Kevin McCarthy interviewed about that. And he does not hold back. He says that Matt Gaetz appears to be on drugs. And he says Matt Gaetz is a child sex abuser.

Speaker C
That's the biggest challenge we have.

Speaker B
He said you were to get booed off the stage. What's your response to him?

Speaker C
Well, you know, he looks very unhinged. I mean, a lot of people have concerns about him, and I'm not sure if he was on something, but I do hope he gets the help that he needs. But more importantly, I hope the young women get the justice they deserve when it comes to.

Speaker B
I mean, you're referring to the House.

Speaker A
Ethics committee investigation that is ongoing.

Speaker C
Yeah. With his partner in jail because they paid underage women for sex and drugs.

Speaker A
This is wild that McCarthy's doing this, but I love it.

Speaker C
That's what I'm referring to.

Speaker A
So he has denied all of that. I'm wondering, doesn't he deserve the presumption of innocence here?

Speaker C
Well, people are in jail. The women have confirmed it.

Speaker A
He came to me suddenly, Kevin McCarthy believes the women.

Speaker C
If I started, still want to be speaker, I could have done something illegal and stopped the ethics committee investigation that started four years before.

Speaker B
Told you to stop the other.

Speaker C
Yeah, that's what the, that's what the.

Speaker A
Whole motion, that's a huge allegation, by.

Speaker C
The way, Kate, was about.

He believed he wanted me to engage and thought somehow I started this investigation. It started long before I was ever speaker.

Speaker B
I.

Speaker C
And as you know, it's kinda Congress. I don't get involved in it.

Speaker A
So listen, I absolutely love the republican infighting. Matt Gaetz also widely panned because apparently he went cuckoo for cocoa puffs with Botox and looked bizarre before his RNC speech. Whatever. He's a lunatic, regardless of what his physical appearances Kevin McCarthy jumping in on this, a lot of other people jumping in on this. I love it. The division between Republicans is great. However. However, there is always selective outrage with these people. McCarthy has a problem, he says, with Matt Gaetz and underage girls, but not with civilly liable rapist Donald Trump, who apparently is his hero and will continue to be his hero no matter what he does. So listen, it's opportunism and it's selective outrage. I'll accept it because it's both entertaining and destructive to the republican party. But let's not pretend for a second that Kevin McCarthy is consistent in his moral outrage. Let's take a very quick break. We're going to hear some of your comments after this short break.

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Let's dive right into it. You can email info at david pakman.com. sometimes we'll feature things posted on the subreddit or as YouTube comments, or really could be anything. We start today with a post on the David Pakman show subreddit, which you can find@davidpakman.com.

reddit user ll TNT 342 weighs in about the this will only help Trump narrative and says, we've obviously seen some unprecedented and dramatic events unfold this election cycle. It seems every time something bad happens with Trump, the media runs with this narrative that it will energize people and help boost him. I have a hard time understanding the logic here. His base is with him regardless. That's obvious. Whether they're more excited to vote because of a criminal conviction or whatever seems irrelevant. We also know there are quite a few undecided folks, but the overwhelming majority are not undecided because they like both. It's because they dislike both candidates. And they usually dislike Trump because of chaos, divisive rhetoric, criminal charges, et cetera. So how are any of these recent events a boost to Trump? If anything, isn't it a reminder why they are turned off from Trump? What am I missing? Well, you're missing the texture of many of these sort of on the edge folks. It's true that a lot of undecided voters are undecided because they don't like either of the candidates. But a bunch of those under undecided voters don't like either of the candidates, but for different reasons. And many of the right leaning or hard right people who aren't sold on Trump aren't sold on him, not for reasons of policy, but for reasons that are sort of more personality driven. And what seems to be happening in the aftermath of the assassination attempt, anecdotally, and there's a counterpoint to this, what seems to be happening is that there are folks who are kind of like, you know, I like low taxes, I like low regulation, I like strength on immigration or whatever language they want to use.

But I don't know. I just don't know if Trump has my best interest in mind or he's kind of pompous or I don't know. And then now all of a sudden, Trump's a victim. They're trying to silence Trump. They are trying to kill Trump, the stuff that has been floated over the last week, and they go, you know what? At the end of the day, I usually vote for republicans. I was thinking of staying home, but I won't. Or I was thinking of voting third party, but I won't. I agree in general that for most people, I mean, listen, it's, I completely denounce all violence and find the attack on Trump's life deplorable.

And there's no way I'm voting for him in November unless the alternative is worse and Biden's a better alternative. Harris is a better alternative. Whitmer's a better alternative. Josh Shapiro, Gavin Newsom. They're, they're all better alternatives. So against the violence, but doesn't really affect my vote in any way. These elections are one on the fringes. It's who turns out. It's who turns out in the three to five states likely to make a difference. And I don't think it's crazy to think in general, Trump benefits again, you can say debates don't matter, but in general, I think Trump benefited from Joe Biden's poor debate performances and some poor performances since in public, I think overall Trump benefits from the failed assassination attempt. I don't think Trump benefits from selecting JD Vance as his vp. And I've said that earlier in the week. I think Vance hates Trump, but that's besides the point. It's not clear to me that that really helps him in any way.

Ok, Aplo says. I can't take it anymore.

The stress of this election was already killing me, and now this s happens. I've been in a consistent state of high grade anxiety for weeks. I am detached, politically obsessed, reading and consuming political media and punditry. Twenty four seven. I can't do it anymore. It's making me effing ill in body and mind. I have an addiction that's giving me the illusion I can control a single effing thing, and I can't. I'm done ditching my Reddit account, retooling my YouTube feed. I think they mean I'll be voting. Blew down ballot in November. Pray democracy prevails. See you guys then. This is not an unhealthy realization.

As many of you know, when I'm done producing the Friday show, I check out of politics. Until Monday, I only found out about the assassination attempt against Trump because one of my colleagues texted me and said there's been a shooting at a Trump rally. And then I looked and indeed, and then I decided to come and do a live stream because it was very important breaking news.

But what I would suggest at minimum, at minimum first, is the realization I actually can't control a lot of this stuff.

I can vote, I can phone bank, but I can't. I can't control a republican 20 year old going and shooting the republican candidate with a firearm that Democrats have been wanting to ban. I can't control. If that makes more people want to vote Trump. I can't, I can control my vote, that's for sure. So listen, I would recommend never engaging with this stuff. Twenty four seven. First of all, and even better, have days where you simply don't engage with it at all.

Environmental bus posted on Reddit I really hope the Biden campaign and Democrats don't change their messaging about Trump. I know the Biden campaign put a pause on attack ads in light of the assassination attempt, but once they turn him back on, they need to go full throttle. Trump is still a civilly liable rapist, convicted felon who tried at steal the last. I think they mean to steal the last.

Presumably they mean the election. Yeah. So there's two parts to this. There's the political advertising part with Biden. And I respect and sympathize with the decision from the Biden campaign to stop the attack ads in the aftermath of the assassination attempt.

There was the idea, we're going to have unity, everybody's going to come together, we're going to turn down the temperature.

And within 24, 48 hours, MAGA had gone back to its old bag of tricks. Biden caused this, left wing media caused this, Democrats caused this. David pakman, you caused it. I was getting emails saying, and of course, how Democrats caused a Republican to shoot a Republican with a gun, Democrats have been wanting to ban.

And in an environment where Republicans have been scaling up the violent rhetoric for eight years doesn't make any sense. They've fully gone back to that exact same rhetoric, fight, fight at the RNC and all of this stuff. So at some point, understanding that the greater good is preventing another Trump presidency, he survived. He should now be defeated with votes and watch as someone else gets to be president at some point, you've got to fight them as far as the campaign goes, with the same sort of advertising and tools that they are using, and they are going right back to the sleepy Biden, all that stuff. And at some point, the Biden campaign needs to run a campaign. That's absolutely true. They've already started to, by the way, President Biden doing some campaign events and so on. Let's go to Facebook now where Kathleen says, as a Canadian, I'm terrified about Trump becoming president again, but it seems like a done deal with the courts protecting him, Biden unable to use the legal system to extend democracy. My hope is that Republicans will take up the idea of building a wall on their north border to protect them from the horrors of Canada.

If you have any influence, please encourage the northern wall.

Yeah, I mean, listen, the fear is understandable and warranted to some degree.

I also think that there is a lot here that is beyond any individual's control. And it's really useful in these situations to focus on what we can control. It is terrifying, the prospect of Trump becoming president again.

And I don't know if it's a done deal. And my instinct is the failed assassination attempt does help the guy. And the immunity decision and the decision from Eileen Cannon about the documents case, a lot of it's like it's all falling off the wall, but we all can still vote. And with turnout in general in the United States, between 50 and 60, 62%, just a little more turnout from people who say, hey, a lot of this stuff that's going on is absolutely deplorable.

All these.

But we've got to prevent. We've got to prevent another Trump presidency.

Call it naive, but I am maintaining some cautious optimism here. A lot of conspiracies in the aftermath of the assassination attempt as well. Here is Jose, who says to me, the whole thing is a setup by Trump and his people. I don't know how no one sees that. And then Ronald says, I felt the same way, but since I learned a bullet really did graze his ear based on a photographer testimony and photo, now, I don't know.

I continue to be concerned about the amount of conspiratorial rhetoric here.

As we talk, talked about on Monday.

If you want to play the motive game, you can concoct motive from both Trump and Biden. To, quote, stage such an event.

You could say Trump wanted it in order to get sympathy and to invigorate people and to paint himself as the strong guy who survived it, or whatever the case may be. Okay. You could also say Biden would be incentivized to stage something like this in order to take the attention away from 72% of the country saying he's not cognitively fit, fit. Fit to be president or whatever.

All we have is these vague analogies or allusions to motive, and we don't have anything else. It really does seem like a 20 year old Republican who was angry or disturbed for one or another reason, got a firearm that many of us have been saying shouldn't even be legal for a long time, and shot the republican candidate, grazed his ear and killed someone else in the crowd. That's what I have evidence for right now. And I don't really know where the conspiracy theorizing gets us. If something changes about the facts that we know regarding this, I will absolutely, absolutely tell you a combo nickel says petition for David to not have Cenk Uygur back on anytime soon. Please comment if you agree and would prefer a break from Cenk on the show. I found the interview unlistenable. You know, I'll be very honest, the audience, my audience was very split, very split about the Cenk Uygur interview. There were people who wrote to me and said things like this, never have Cenk back on. Couldn't stand them.

Absolutely terrible. Disagree with everything he said. I also had people who wrote to me and said, you know, as I think about the situation in terms of the replace Biden or not stuff, does Biden have a shot or not question?

I think Cenk made good points. That was another perspective reflected in the audience. So, you know, I don't know how frequently, frequently we have any guests on. There's no plan to have Cenk back on in the immediate future just because we don't have guests on that frequently. But there was very, there was a complete lack of unanimity in the audience about Cenk's perspectives on replacing Joe Biden.

PvW on YouTube says Biden was losing before the debate. He needed a big win to turn things around. And now, in spite of massive expenditures on commercials and swing states and one win in one rally, he's still losing badly. How is he going to turn things around? I concede that being the incumbent is a big advantage, but that's all he's got, and there are plenty of times where that has failed to be enough. We need a real candidate with no major handicap, someone that can hammer Trump on his weaknesses, and there are many, and we're running out of time. That is another view that is strongly represented in my audience. And as I've said before, I don't think either view is crazy.

I don't think either of you is crazy. The idea that the risk of replacing a candidate this late in the game is worth it because it seems to be going so poorly for Biden.

It's not an insane conclusion to come to the other perspective, that nothing that has happened changes the fundamentals of this.

Incumbents tend to get reelected.

Nobody's really polling better than Biden on average, except for some anecdotal polls. That's not a crazy conclusion either. And I am of both minds on the issue for sure. Garrett says. Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, does not matter.

We need to come together as Americans and condemn this. No candidate deserves this.

Despite the dozens or hundreds of emails and comments I've received from people saying, David, you incited violence. You promote violence.

I have never promoted violence on this program. And I immediately condemned and denounced the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

We need to win with votes, not with bullets. And even winning with bullets would not only be illegitimate, obviously, but it also doesn't really solve the problems we're trying to solve, because violence of any kind emboldens authoritarians like Trump.

That's a critical issue that must be understood. So I agree. Garrett. I wish, by the way, I wish that Republicans, after calling for unity and turning down the temperature, hadn't immediately gone back on that and started to turn up the temperature. And by the way, it's not wrong to remind ourselves that when Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, was brutally attacked and beaten in his home, they, on the right, did not adhere to the very standard they are demanding from the left. Now they want to hold the left in the aftermath of the assassination attempt to a reasonable standard, which is, we all should denounce this.

But they didn't do it in the Paul Pelosi incident.

Uh, and it's just another instance of hypocrisy from the most hypocritical political movement that I can recall. Uh, we have a great bonus show for you today. Make sure you're signed up at join pacman.com. make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel for free@YouTube.com.

thedavidpackman show. We'll see you on the bonus show, and I'll be back here on Monday.

7/19/24: Trump RNC speed off the rails, Biden accepting it may be over

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1: Trump's RNC Speech

2: Biden Considering Withdrawal

3: Political Reactions and Strategies

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