Primary Topic
This episode delves into the controversial Supreme Court decision granting former President Donald Trump broad immunity from prosecution, impacting his legal challenges and future political landscape.
Episode Summary
Main Takeaways
- The Supreme Court's decision significantly impacts the legal landscape, potentially delaying Trump's prosecution.
- Critical voices like Justice Sotomayor and President Biden suggest the ruling could position a president above the law.
- The episode discusses the potential for this ruling to influence the outcome of the upcoming election.
- Trump's reaction to the ruling is highlighted as celebratory and dismissive of ongoing legal challenges.
- The ruling might set a precedent that extends beyond Trump, affecting future presidential conduct and accountability.
Episode Chapters
1: Supreme Court Ruling
Discusses the Supreme Court's decision granting Donald Trump broad immunity from prosecution and its implications. David Pakman: "The Supreme Court, with justices previously appointed by Trump, has ruled he is immune from prosecution for actions taken as president."
2: Political Reactions
Covers reactions from political figures and the public to the Supreme Court decision. President Joe Biden: "For all practical purposes, today's decision means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do."
3: Broader Implications
Analyzes how this ruling could affect the political landscape and future presidential actions. David Pakman: "What can Biden legally do now, given that presidents are immune? It opens a door to potential abuses of power."
Actionable Advice
- Stay Informed: Understand the implications of judicial decisions on your rights and governance.
- Engage Politically: Participate in elections and discussions, especially concerning judicial appointments.
- Critical Analysis: Question and critique legal and political developments critically.
- Support Checks and Balances: Advocate for maintaining strong checks and balances within government.
- Educational Outreach: Educate others about the importance of judicial decisions in shaping political reality.
About This Episode
-- On the Show:
-- Former Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, now running against incumbent Republican Senator Rick Scott, joins David to discuss her campaign, the presidential race, President Biden's debate performance, and much more
-- The Supreme Court declares that former President Donald Trump does indeed have broad immunity, although not 100%, with regard to crimes committed while in office
-- President Joe Biden declares that, despite the Supreme Court's latest ruling, Presidents are not meant to be above the law
-- Can the Supreme Court's ruling on immunity be interpreted to mean that a President could legally assassinate his political opponent, as long as it is an official act?
-- As predicted, Donald Trump's lawyer Will Scharf argues that Trump's fake slate of electors was an official act
-- Opportunist Robert F. Kennedy Jr says he'd be willing to consider replacing President Biden as Democratic presidential nominee
-- It turns out that the black barbershop involved in a cheap Trump publicity stunt was scammed
-- Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon has reported to prison
-- Voicemail caller politely tells David there have been audio issues on the show
-- On the Bonus Show: Hurricane Beryl is the first Category 5 storm ever to form in June, noise pollution scientists are calling for more regulations, Louisiana's new surgical castration law, much more...
People
Donald Trump, Sonia Sotomayor, Joe Biden
Companies
None
Books
None
Guest Name(s):
None
Content Warnings:
None
Transcript
David Pakman
Major breaking news from the political and legal world. Together, the Supreme Court, with three justices previously selected by former President Donald Trump, has declared that Donald Trump is indeed immune from prosecution, certainly for all core political actions, up to lower courts when it comes to borderline official actions, and does not have immunity from actions that clearly have nothing to do with his role as president. And if your question is, well, who determines whether sending a slate of fake electors to say Trump won Arizona when he lost, that can't possibly count as an official act, can it? Donald Trump's lawyers are arguing that indeed it can. This is an extraordinary situation.
So called constitutional conservatives are mostly thrilled with this decision, despite the fact that it seems to run completely counter to their law and order perspective, or whatever you would call it. And we have to now go into the details. The Supreme Court has determined former presidents do have broad immunity from prosecution, and it has to do with three categories of acts, core official acts that are part of being president, generally official acts as president and not official.
Now, as we sort that out, the biggest and most immediate news is that this will extend the delay in Donald Trump's Washington, DC criminal case. Trump will not be tried before the election. This was a six to three ruling in the Supreme Court by the conservative majority.
There are some, like Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who says that this ruling makes Trump a king. She wrote, in every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law.
Samuel Alito, whose wife flew flags related to the January 6 riots and the 2020 election, ruled that Trump mostly has immunity. Clarence Thomas, whose wife was involved in supporting the movement that wanted to overturn the election, has ruled that Trump mostly has immunity. So now the question is, what counts as an official act? Inciting a riot certainly can't be an official act, right? Well, that's going to be the next battle, and Donald Trump's lawyers will certainly and absolutely argue that everything Trump did was indeed an official act. They're already doing it on tv. We'll get to that a little bit later in the show. Donald Trump celebrating yesterday on truth, social, saying in all capital letters, quote, big win for our constitution and democracy. Proud to be an American. Trump, continuing today's historic decision by the Supreme Court should end all of crooked Joe Biden's witch hunts against me, including the New York hoaxes, the Manhattan scam cooked up by Soros, back DA Alvin Bragg, racist New York attorney General Tisch James's shameless attack on the amazing business that I have built, and the fake Bergdorf's case.
Proud to be an American Trump continuing relentless on troth Central, quote, the Supreme Court totally dismantled most of the charges against me. Joe Biden should now call off his, quote, dogs. Our country should now be focused on greatness again.
And then finally, quote, in all caps, the Supreme Court decision is a much more powerful one than some had expected it to be. It is brilliantly written and wise, as if Trump knows anything about brilliant writing and clears the stench from the Biden trials and hoaxes, all of them that have been used as an unfair attack on crooked Joe Biden's political opponent, me.
Many of these fake cases will now disappear or wither into obscurity.
Speaker one
Speaker one, I did everything right and they indicted me.
David Pakman
God bless America. So what's the takeaway? Well, one takeaway is if this is the way it works, what can Biden get away with now legally because he's immune? We will discuss that later. Takeaway number two is that the November election just became even more important.
And so anybody who is thinking of staying home, anybody who's thinking of a protest vote or whatever, I'm not here to shame you out of it. I'm not here to talk you out of it. What I am here to say is that you had better be really, really, really sure that you are comfortable taking any action that would allow emboldened immune Trump to get four more years, that would allow the instatement of Project 2025, that would allow all of Donald Trump's worst instincts, but also the people around him, because he will be unrestrained with complete suck up, brown nosing sycophants around him to do whatever they please with the newfound confidence that the Supreme Court decision has given them. If you're going to take an action that will help push that closer to a reality, you've got to be really comfortable ethically and morally when we have a MAGA Supreme Court until 2048 or 2050. You've got to be comfortable with your role in that. So listen, the point here is it's not about shame. It's about what we're comfortable with. I'm not comfortable with that. So is it Biden, whose debate was terrible, but who has good people around him? I'll vote for him. Is he replaced with Gavin Newsom? Is he replaced with anybody that's better than Trump?
If he is, I'm voting for whoever is better than Trump. Now, if you put up, come up with someone worse than Trump, well, then I would apply harm reduction and vote Trump instead of whoever is worse. But for right now, Biden, Trump, 72% of the country thinks Biden's unfit to serve. 54% of the country thinks Trump is unfit to serve. All right, well, they're both unfit to serve. On voting Biden, that's where we are. President Joe Biden did give a speech yesterday reacting to the Supreme Court decision, which, according to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, puts Trump above the law as a king. Biden had a lot to say about it, including, most importantly, that no one is above the law, even the president. Even if the president happens to be Joe Biden, or if it's Trump or whoever. Take a listen.
President Joe Biden
The presidency is the most powerful office in the world.
It's an office that not only tests your judgment, perhaps even more importantly, it's an office that can test your character, because you not only face moments when you need the courage to exercise the full power of the presidency, you also face moments where you need the wisdom to respect the limits of the power of the office of the presidency.
This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America.
Each. Each of us is equal before the law.
No one. No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States.
With today's Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed.
For all, for all practical purposes, today's decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do.
This is a fundamentally new principle, and it's a dangerous precedent, because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States.
The only limits will be self imposed by the president alone.
This decision today has continued the court's attack in recent years on a wide range of long established legal principles in our nation.
David Pakman
And if you think that a supreme Court with three Trump picks on it is bad, just wait until you get a Supreme Court with five Trump picks on it. Joe Biden continuing in what was a pretty good speech as far as Biden's speeches go, you know, 07:48 p.m. sort of outside the time that, that people around Biden have said are his best times of day, but really a pretty good speech. And Biden making it clear that he respects the limits of presidential power.
President Joe Biden
You know, at the outset of our nation, it was the character of George Washington, our first president to find the presidency.
He believed power was limited, not absolute, and that power always resides with the people.
Always.
Now, over 200 years later, todays Supreme Court decision.
Once again, it will depend on the character of the men and women who hold that presidency that are going to define the limits of the power of the presidency because the law will no longer do it.
I know I will respect the limits of the presidential powers I have for three and a half years, but any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law.
I concur with Justice Sotomayor's dissent today.
She hears what she said. She said in every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law with fear for our democracy. I dissent, end of quote.
Associate the american people dissent.
I dissent.
David Pakman
Now, there are people who said, oh, it's Biden dementia. He said, end of quote. I. That's how you say, that's the end of the quote. I'm reading. Biden was supposed to read, end of quote. He said, and I quote, he read the quote and then he said, end of quote. It's not really a big deal. But the really big deal here, and I know there's people who are going to be upset.
The really big deal here is Hillary Clinton not winning in 2016.
We're certainly feeling the consequences of that now, aren't we? And so this is not about going back, although we could go back. The reason this happened to a great degree is because Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016.
So we now are on the brink of MAGA Supreme Court 2050, dating all the way back to Hillary losing in 2016. If Hillary wins in 2016, we don't have a criminal president who is about to get himself back in the Oval Office. We still have Roe v. Wade. We don't have three of nine Supreme Court justices selected by Trump and potentially five of nine Supreme Court justices selected by Trump. So Joe Biden saying all the right things, he rejects this view of presidential power. But any normal person would react to this ruling and would say, well, if that's what Trump can do, what can Biden legally do now?
And it is arguably a very long list of things Biden says he won't do. But after the break, we will discuss that. I can think of no more timely moment to review what is in Project 2025 than right now.
We have a free white paper available@davidpakman.com.
project 2025.
Download it, read about it, and understand what, what we saw yesterday from the court, what we are now dealing with as far as Trump goes related to immunity.
It is inextricably connected to what Project 2025 would do and what its adherents and supporters would want to put in place. So check out the free white paper. David pakman.com project 2025. We'll take a quick break. Hear from a sponsor or two. It's seeming like our audio problem has been corrected. I'll talk about it more on the bonus show today after the break.
What can Biden now do, given that presidents are immune?
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Yes, about 50% off using the coupon code save democracy 24. The natural question now that the Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump has total immunity when it comes to official presidential acts, and may have immunity depending on what lower courts decide with regard to what we might call pseudo official acts, what could Joe Biden do legally?
The obvious supposition, the natural question is, if Biden determines officially as president of the United States that Donald Trump represents a threat to the national security of this country, can't Joe Biden have Trump assassinated and be immune? Now, I know that right wingers are going to try to gaslight you into thinking you are being gaslit by those who say, what about Biden assassinating Trump? What about Biden imprisoning Trump?
But if you can argue that it is an official act, then by definition it would be an act for which the president is immune. All of a sudden, it'll quickly become immunity if you are a Republican, right? Because we know that that's what fundamentally this is really about. But let's stop short.
If it's too cartoonish to go to Biden assassinating Trump officially as his role defending the United States, or Biden imprisoning Trump by fiat, by declaration, because he is a threat to the United States. Ok, let's stop short of that. What about Biden simply saying, I am going to manipulate the election results. This is what Trump tried to do, but he failed. But certainly the election, and whether one remains president, relates directly to your official role as president. So what would stop, legally speaking, President Biden from going to the voting machine companies and saying, you need to make me the winner. I order you under threat of imprisonment, make me the winner. According to what your machines say, certainly you could get lawyers that would argue that that is an official act. And in the next segment, we will actually see that Donald Trump's lawyers are now making the case that when Trump tried to get involved in sending those slates of fake electors in Arizona and Wisconsin to go, hey, you know, even though Biden won the popular vote in these states, we're here to cast our electoral votes for Donald Trump. Trump's lawyers are going to argue that was an official act, that it related to Trump's role as president having information about who was the true and rightful winner of those states. And therefore, Trump obviously acted as president based on his true belief that he won those states to send those fake electors forward to cast their ballots for Donald Trump. So we have a real situation on our hands here.
And you are going to see the small government conservatives, the conservatives who have been spending the last 510, 1520 years arguing against executive power and presidents should have less power, who not only defended everything Trump didn't try to do while he was president, but will now defend this extraordinary decision by the Supreme Court. So question two becomes, will Trump argue that everything he's been indicted for was an official act? I believe the answer is yes. Last night, as predicted, Donald Trump's attorney, Will Sharf went on CNN and started to argue in light of the Supreme Court decision about Donald Trump having brought immunity from prosecution for anything approximating an official act as determined by a lower court. Will Sharf said, we believe the alternate slates of electors were something Trump, Trump did as an official act of the presidency. I'm going to play the clip for you. Understand what he is saying here. Wil Sharf is saying when the president acts to stay in power with fraudulent electors, that is an official act, and thus the president is completely immune.
If you don't believe that starts to approximate a king, then what? Would. Take a listen to this.
Will Sharf
You have conceded here the last time that we, that you and I spoke in April, and John Sauer, who was arguing this before the Supreme Court, that some of what's alleged would be considered a private act. So that would mean that at least part of this case from Jack Smith would go to court based on what, what you have said before, right?
Caitlin Collins
We've admitted consistently that there are acts alleged in the indictment that would constitute private conduct. But we believe that if the official conduct, the immune acts, and the indictment are stripped away, that Jack Smith doesn't have a case, that this case should be dismissed on that basis. I don't think there's sufficient private conduct here to support the indictment, to support the ongoing prosecution. And that's what we're going to be litigating in front of the district court.
Will Sharf
Now, even just the false slates of electors, you don't think that would constitute enough for a trial?
Caitlin Collins
Well, we would say alternate slates of electors. And as we argued before the Supreme Court, alternate slates of electors have been a method used by previous presidents, most notably Ulysses S. Grant, to ensure the integrity of prior elections. So we believe the assembly, we'll come.
David Pakman
Back to that Ulysses S. Grant thing. So let's put, let's remember that those.
Caitlin Collins
Alternate slates of electors was an official act of the presidency. That's what we argued before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has reserved that issue for determination by the district court, and we'll see how arguments fall in front of the district court.
Will Sharf
Yeah, we've walked through those historical references here before. None of them compare to what we saw in 2020 with the fake slates of electors. But wil sharp, great to have your reaction to this. Thank you for joining us tonight.
David Pakman
Now, Caitlin Collins is absolutely correct that what Ulysses S. Grant, or as Donald Trump refers to him, Ulysses S. Grant did is very different than the pro proactive, deliberate attempt to crowbar in different electors. To say, we declare that Trump actually won the electoral votes here, very, very different than having a standby alternate slate of electors. Whether that was right or wrong when Ulysses, when Ulysses or Ulysses S. Grant did it is a different question. But it is very different than what happened in 2020.
Now, here's the important takeaway.
All along, we knew what the point of the immunity hearing before the Supreme Court was. It was.
We don't really expect the Supreme Court to say that Trump is immune for everything, period. No matter what, forever, no matter what it is he thought of doing or tried to do.
It's that there will be immunity confirmed, not just for core official acts. The classic one is when presidents send troops to war. Okay, I don't like where most of our troops are sent. This is not a pro war argument I'm about to make. But reasonable people, including progressives, can understand that even though we want presidents to be restrained with regard to use of the military, and we believe that many of the uses of the military are not called for, and they're a bad idea. If you can go after and charge a president with murder or manslaughter if they send troops somewhere and troops die, if you could do that, it would functionally disable a president from being able to be president of the United States, that's very clearly a core function. It's abundantly clear. It's the prototypical example. I would lobby for presidents not to put troops in harm's way in situations where they shouldn't be.
But if you can go after a president for murder, for deploying troops, you disable the ability of a president to be president. I get that. But the idea that inciting a riot or whatever went on with the documents, which we still don't really haven't gotten to the bottom of, or the fake slates of electors, if you can argue that those are official acts, that opens up the door to absolute and total chaos, and it is correctly leading people to say so can Biden as an official act to preserve the integrity of the nation, have Trump assassinated? And it is in a sense, cartoonish. But at the same time, it's not based on the Supreme Court saying lower courts can decide what's an official act, and it's up to the lawyers representing the president to make that argument. So there is going to be much more discussion of this.
But this is the argument that they are going to make. An opportunistic. Robert F. Kennedy junior was interviewed by Chris Cuomo after Joe Biden's very bad debate performance, and he said he would have a conversation about replacing President Biden on the democratic ballot. Now, I know many of you are saying, why on earth would democrats do that? That's a terrible idea. He'd never win. We'll get to that. But let's listen to this exchange with Robert F. Kennedy junior after Biden's debate performance with Trump, interviewed by Chris Cuomo.
Robert F. Kennedy Junior
I hear you, but Bobby, you don't know if you don't ask and you know, you have to know that they're in scramble mode. They're going to pray for something else to happen in the world. You'll see who's friendly to the administration in terms of what people cover the next two, three days. Because if all of a sudden something suddenly happens in Ukraine or the Middle east and we stop talking about our election, you'll know why.
But strategically, you know, you're learning firsthand with your organization how hard it is to break into the system from the outside.
The Democrats are looking for somebody. I mean, I don't know why it wouldn't be worth the energy for you to make yourself an option.
David Pakman
Who do you have that phone conversation with, Chris? You know who that guy is?
Robert F. Kennedy Junior
I could give you a couple people that I think I would have a conversation with that I'll call you I'm just saying, bob, look, you're a known quantity.
Everybody knows that. You have your own mind, but people know your family. They know what your background is.
Nobody's got better democratic bona fides than you do. And they just pushed you out because of how toxic the party system has become. But now the guy they pushed you out for is in free fall. So, you know, I'm just throwing it out there because it would really save, really solve their problems and yours at the same time.
President Joe Biden
Yeah.
David Pakman
I cannot predict what they're going to do. I mean, I'm going to.
Robert F. Kennedy Junior
Would you be open to reach out to you, Bobby? Would you be talking to.
David Pakman
Of course I would talk to them. It would put me on the ballot with nobody trying to get me off.
Speaker one
I'm going to be on the ballot.
David Pakman
At this point in every state by mid July. But it would be. But I'm going to have the Democrat, the DNC suing me in every state. So listen, Robert F. Kennedy junior is wrong that he's going to be on all 50 ballots by July. It does not appear that that's going to happen. But the real question here is, does anyone think that it's even remotely possible that if democratic delegates get together, if Joe Biden agrees to release his delegates? Because remember, Joe Biden has secured enough delegates to be the nominee. There is no legal process that I was able to find through which the DNC could strip President Biden of those delegates. Biden would have to give it up.
There's no planet on which they say, let's go with Robert F. Kennedy Junior. And I don't really think the math favors it either. Just looking at some of the recent multi way polls, you see that Kennedy is polling between four and 13, depending on how the poll is structured and whether it's likely or registered voters and so on and so forth. His argument would be that if he were to become the democratic nominee, he gets his, for example, nine plus Biden's 39. That gets him to 48. And Trump only has 42, as an example from, from the data we're looking at. But of course, that's not the way that it would go because replacing Biden is a sort of chaos bomb. And as I said yesterday, I'm not saying it's the right or wrong decision. I've been honest with the audience. I genuinely don't know. On the one hand, it's hard to imagine a performance like last Tuesday's and that helping Biden get to where he needs to be. On the other hand, the early polling after the debate doesn't look dramatically different. Hypothetical polling about what if Biden were replaced with person 123456? All those people do slightly worse than Biden, so it's unclear to me. But without a doubt, if you say, hey Democrats, Biden's out, we're putting in Bobby Kennedy Junior, you lose a bunch of the support that Biden already has. Now, maybe you gained some from people planning to vote for Trump, but the point here is, anyone telling you that the math of such a move is clear is just acting black and white when it comes to something that is completely and totally gray area.
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The link is in the podcast notes. It's great to welcome back to the program former democratic congresswoman now challenging Rick Scott for the US Senate seat in Florida. Debbie McCarsel Powell, always great to speak to you.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Yeah, thank you for having me, David. Good to see you.
David Pakman
So, listen, Florida, before last week, Florida increasingly has been sort of like seeded to republicans, at least as far as the presidential elections go, even though there have been very hard fought battles for Senate, Governor, et cetera.
We then had the debate last week, which the, you know, supposed experts argue is going to hurt down ballot democrats like you up against an incumbent Republican. I'm sure you saw the debate last week, or at least heard about it. What's your campaign's sense of if and how President Biden's performance helps or hurts what you're trying to do in Florida?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
So, David, it's really interesting because I think one of the messages that I've been sending and actually hearing back is now more than ever, these Senate races are incredibly important because regardless of what happens at the top of the ticket, we have to hold the Senate. Look at what just happened with the Supreme Court with that decision that they released this week on that opinion that a president holds presidential immunity, which is extremely dangerous, and it's up to the Senate to appoint Supreme Court justices. And so I think America's forgetting that we have three branches of government and Congress. The House and the Senate are article one of the Constitution. And that's why one of the things that really is frustrating for me and I'm sure for so many of us that are trying to get reelected in November to make sure that we do what's right for not just Floridians but the american people is the lack of focus on the importance of holding the Senate, of getting back the House of Representatives. We need to pass laws that will strengthen democratic institutions. We need to make sure that we do what we need to do to protect democracy but at the same time continue to work on economic prosperity. You know, a lot of people are hurting here in the state of Florida. Families are struggling. They can't afford to pay for their rent. And so they're, they're so done with this, the politics of the top of the ticket. They truly are. And I think that this could actually in some interesting way, help my candidacy.
David Pakman
Okay. So that makes a lot of sense, but I think I only sort of got an answer, and I have to press you for one. What did you think of President Biden's debate performance? Do you think you are better off if he stays or if he goes?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Well, David, look, I think we all saw what we saw on Thursday. I'm not, I'm extremely honest and direct. I'm not someone that, that's what makes me different from so many politicians. I'm not going to tell you something that you, that people want to hear. It was, it was a really hard debate to watch.
I think that, you know, the president is going to have to make the case for the american people. It's a decision that I can't control. It's a decision that's going to have to be made by him, his allies, his friends, and I'm assuming the party. And, you know, I think it's, it's a momentous that Democrats need to really come together and think what's going to be best for the future of this country. And so it was tough to watch. It was difficult. I've been having a lot of tough conversations with people here in Florida and across the country, and we'll see what happens. I can't control that decision. I can't control who's going to be at the top of the ticket. And I've said that since last August when I launched the campaign for Senate. I need to control who gets elected to the Senate here in the state of Florida. Rick Scott is one of the most extreme politicians in DC, and he's also one of the most dangerous men. I mean, the man committed Medicare fraud. I mean, he wants to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. He voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election and now he wants to be Senate majority leader. We can't allow that to happen. I need everyone watching right now to support my candidacy. Debbie for Florida.com. i need to win the seat not only for Florida, but for the entire country.
David Pakman
Speaker one yeah, it's a very important seed. And like you said, I actually don't even really know what's best. I've said, here are the pros and cons at this point of the game of President Biden stepping down or not, it's going to be his decision to make because he has those delegates and those are the DNC rules. He would have to release those delegates if anything were to change. Now, as far as Florida goes, we remember what happened in Florida, Bush v. Gore in the year 2000 and the number of votes that separated them. We saw that President Biden lost Florida by only a few points in 2020, but I think it was about 400,000 votes because Florida's population is so large. The governor, Ron DeSantis, won it by 19 in the 2022 midterms, which is a very, very different story.
What is the explanation for why Florida has seemingly moved to the right over the last 20 years?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Well, let's start with the fact that the Republican Party here in the state of Florida has been purging voters off the rolls. When you look at the republican voter registration between 2020 and 2024, they haven't really gained a whole lot at all. But what they've done very well is purge voters who were registered to vote by mail off the rolls. Voters that didn't respond to a mail piece saying, you know, verify that this is your address. They were purged off the rolls. That doesn't mean that they're not allowed to vote in this election. And that's the work of the party here in the state of Florida. They're going to have to make sure that those people that have been purged off the rolls know that they can still come out and vote, that that they have all the information for the elections, and we have to have a very strong ground game. Florida has always been a swing state. And like you said, in 2020, Trump won the state only by three points. And there, and there were no investments in 2020. There were zero investments from the Democratic Party here in 2022. And there was a lot of voter suppression tactics. If you remember, DeSantis not only read gerrymandered maps, which shows that big red spot in Florida, it's not because we're not purple, it's because they did. They drew maps, the most extreme gerrymandered maps that we've seen in this country and what happened in October of 2022, right before the election, there were several people that were arrested for voting. And of course, there were people of color.
There were felons who had restored their rights to vote. They arrested them. Of course, later they were released.
They didn't find any evidence of any guilt there. And those efforts to suppress a vote have been real, and they've been very strong.
This is a different cycle. It's a different election. I've been traveling all over the state, and there are a lot of people that are just so tired of this extremism coming from DeSantis and the Republicans here in the state, also from Rick Scott. People are, this is one of the states where I, people can't afford to live. I mean, people, seniors have been forced to go back to work because they can't pay for their property insurance rates. And that mess started under Rick Scott when he was governor. So I think this is a different cycle. It's a different election. I'm a different candidate running against a man who committed fraud. I'll make sure to remind Floridians of who I'm running against and why this election is so important.
David Pakman
So let's talk a little bit about some of those demographic shifts that you kind of alluded to. There are those right now in the republican party predicting a mass abandonment of the democratic party in November by black voters and latino voters. Now, I've talked to people who conduct some of this polling, and their view is there seems to be a little bit of a shift, but this mass realignment, racial and ethnic realignment, that some are predicting isn't happening. But in Florida, what we do know is that Cuban Americans and venezuelan Americans, for reasons you and I previously discussed on my spanish show a couple of years ago, have started to take more fondly to reactionary ideas and to what, in certain states, MAGA is offering them. Now, as an argentinian American myself, I can tell you most argentinian Americans lean quite left. As an ecuadorian American, you can tell us where ecuadorian Americans tend to lean. But Cubans and Venezuelans, particularly in Florida, they seem to find an appeal in what Republicans are offering today. Is, am I being accurate or am I getting something wrong?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
No. I mean, I think that there has been a mild shift from latino voters here in South Florida, particularly because of the disinformation, the targeting disinformation. They've only been hearing mostly from extreme right wing Republicans like Rick Scott. Right. Like Marco Rubio, who are lying to them. I mean, they literally are voting against our allies that are trying to stop Russia. Meanwhile, Russia's propping Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua.
Having come from Latin America, I can tell you that most Latinos that I talk to, regardless of where they're from, whether they're cuban Latinos, venezuelan Latinos, Nicaraguans, they are seeing what's happening with Trump and his loyalists. They are seeing a man who's trying to take over power and become a dictator, violating freedoms, violating civil rights. They know that January 6 was an attempted coup. They know that it was an insurrection. Just yesterday, I met a cuban american republican woman in her early seventies at a doctor's office. And she. When we started talking, I said, you know, I'm a Democrat. And she. And I told her I was running against Rick Scott. She's like, I'm going to support you 100%. I can't believe what's happening to our party. I can't believe what's happening at the top of the ticket today. Cuban American Republican, also in his seventies, sent me a text that he wants to help my campaign, and he wants to do everything in his power to stop Trump from being reelected. These are conversations that I'm having down here. Yes, it is a diverse population. Latinos. You have Latinos who will support the right, other Latinos that support the left. But there are a lot of Latinos that are right in the middle. And when they hear my story of someone that came here, uh, my mom brought me here for economic opportunities, for freedom, someone that, because of my hard work and the community behind me, I was elected to become the first ecuadorian American to ever serve in the US House of Representatives.
They relate to that story, and they know. Rick Scott has no idea, right, what it's like to leave a country, like, under a military dictatorship. My family grew up in a military dictatorship. I have family in Venezuela. He has no idea. He's just using this for political points.
No one like myself is going to raise our voices and fight authoritarianism and fight dictatorships the way that we have in Latin America. No one like myself will do that, except somebody that has lived that reality. And so I think that Latinos, when they hear my story, they connect very quickly. And let's put this to rest right now.
I have spoken very, very clearly against dictatorships, socialist dictatorships in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. I stopped them from participating in the summit of the America. So these lies that somehow, because I'm from the democratic party, I represent anything else except freedom and democracy is just crazy, and it has to stop. And I really think it's important now for the country to pay attention to my candidacy, because this conversation of Latinos going to the right, well, who's going to be able to reach out to Latinos but none other like someone like me who speaks their language and communicates with them directly. And so let's support Latinos running for federal office, not just speaker one.
David Pakman
I want to talk, if we can, a little about the role of abortion in all of this, because nationally we've seen that since Roe v. Wade was overturned, it's been pretty disastrous for Republicans. Every ballot referendum that I'm aware of has gone against them, even districts that are historically red when it came to some local elections after that issue, it hasn't gone well. On the other hand, it is also true that central and south american countries are more conservative on the issue of abortion than much of the United States. Argentina only recently actually moving to legalization, if you can imagine, where you could still access abortions if you had money. But it was all done privately. And, you know, these private clinics. Is there some degree to which the national backlash against the overturning of Roe v. Wade is not necessarily happening with some of the latino voters in Florida because they aren't too big on abortion? At the end of the day?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
No. I've had a lot of conversations. This is not a political issue for many people living in the state, including Latinos.
They understand that when government interferes in their freedoms and they start taking one freedom away, it doesn't have stop there. And we also understand that having access to reproductive health care, to abortion care is crucial not only to the health care of a woman, but also to the safety of women and families. We've seen a rise in violence against women when there's no access to abortion care. It's also linked to higher rates of maternal mortality. And Latinas understand that. And that's why in Argentina, they legalized abortion care. They also did it in Colombia, in Mexico, like you said, more conservative countries because of the links to higher rates of maternal mortality. And just here in Miami just this week, we heard of a woman, Anya, who had a miscarriage at 16 weeks. Her doctors told her it was a high risk pregnancy, that she would have to terminate a pregnancy. She was denied that care here in Miami because of this extreme abortion ban that Rick Scott supports. And what happened? She almost died. She had a miscarriage, lost almost half of her blood, and almost lost her life. This is the United States of America. This is a country where we should be striving for better quality health care for everyone, including women. Reproductive health care is health care for women. And now we are living in a state where women have less rights than we did last year because of extremists like Rick Scott. And they're not going to stop there. They want to ban access to contraception.
They want to ban access to IVF. This is real. When I was in Congress, there were bills, life a conception, bills that would stop any sort of access for women to have access to contraception. And so it's extremely dangerous. I think it's going to backfire on Republicans, including Rick Scott. And that's another reason why my race is not only winnable, but also races up and down the ballot here in Florida.
David Pakman
Critically important race also in terms of preventing the implementation of project 2025, which is a topic, another topic altogether. We've been speaking with, with former democratic congresswoman Debbie McCarsel Powell, now running to unseat republican Senator Rick Scott. I really appreciate your time today, and best of luck on the race.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Thank you so much.
David Pakman
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Let's say you want to figure out if Trump did use a nazi slogan in a campaign video or if it's just a misunderstanding. Ground News is an app and website that gathers news stories from across the world and political spectrum, so you can decide for yourself. It's a great tool. I'm happy to be partnering with them for this video. Yes, Trump did, in fact, use a nazi slogan in a campaign video he posted, and then he deleted it on ground news. I can access almost 200 articles covering the story and see that only 17% of those are right leaning. No surprise there. Comparing coverage is interesting. Some sources on the left references language comparing him to Hitler, while on the right, RT highlights his explanation of the video, and Israel's Arut Sheva highlights that he deleted it. The ground news blind spots feature will highlight stories like this that are disproportionately covered by either political side, so you are guaranteed to see the full picture. Sign up through my link for 40% off their vantage subscription, which gives you access to all of their features. Go to ground Dot news Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes remember how last week there was this very strange event where Republican Congressman Byron Donald's went to a black barber shop and Trump called in and he was on speakerphone and it seemed weird? And I told you that the guys hanging out at the barbershop didn't seem too thrilled with the entire thing? Well, it has now completely imploded in perfectly predictable fashion where the owner of the barbershop says he was used by the Trump campaign.
He was asked to hold the private roundtable to help black owned small businesses and he was not told. This is a de facto Trump campaign event. That's why the guys didn't look thrilled. So check this out. This is the bottom of the barrel stuff from the Trump campaign and from Byron Donald's, who's a disgusting person. The owner of Rocky's barbershop in Atlanta says he feels he was misled by a campaign event for former President Trump the day before the debate. Rocky Jones tells our terrorist bells he thought his bucket shop was just hosting a forum for black businesses. But he said he never expected to fade into the realm of politics.
Rocky Jones
To me, cutting here is like an.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Art, and smooth waves are not the only thing Rocky Jones wants his shop to be known for.
Rocky Jones
We try to specialize in just giving good service to the community. As you can see, I've been here since 17 years and it's been good.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Which is why he jumped at the chance to help other black business owners get ahead.
Rocky Jones
Started with a text, then they went to a call because I was actually out the country, and just me agreeing to do a black small business, you know, roundtable, I thought it was like something real private.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
It was anything but. Rocky, along with black business owners from across metro Atlanta, crammed into his shop along with Trump surrogates like Ben Carson. But it wasn't all shop.
Rocky Jones
Talking about black business in Atlanta, small black businesses in Atlanta. And I'm like, okay, so when are we gonna start talking about this?
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
He says a call from former President Trump during the event. Cut deep.
Rocky Jones
Why is the president, ex president, calling somebody in my barbershop? This has nothing to do with small black businesses.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
And he.
David Pakman
So listen, it was another one of these scams. Okay, here's one of the clips from last week that I played for you, and knowing nothing about the scam nature of this, I said, these guys don't seem too thrilled with what Trump is telling them. Remember this?
Speaker one
Well, as you know, I cut taxes and regulations more than any other president. We had the biggest tax cut and bigger even than the Reagan tax cuts. And I also cut regulations far more than any other president.
David Pakman
So as you can see, not a crowd that seems thrilled with Trump's talk of tax cuts. There was also the totally Kafka esque moment where Trump said, black folks really love that. I was arrested and given a mug shot. And we now learn that it was all a scam. Trump recently did a speech at a black church, and we looked around and it was 92% white people shipped in to the black church for Trump to get his photo ops, bizarre photo ops, because everybody was mostly white. And then now we find out this. Let's do a panel on black small businesses. Great. Here's Trump on the phone, sleepy Ben Carson coming in to. Absolutely disgusting. But what's the prism through which we have to understand this? The prism is Trump only cares about what is good for him.
That's it. Debasing himself, disrespecting people.
They do not care as long as it's what they think is good for them in the moment. And that's what he did. And another completely farcical, farcical campaign event. Great news. Steve Bannon is now in prison. This isn't lock him up fantasies. This is law and order. Steve Bannon was convicted. He appealed. A judge ultimately said, this is it. You've got to report to prison. This is former Trump propagandist, former Breitbart propagandist Steve Bannon. He hosted his show before driving up to prison yesterday. Take a listen to this.
Speaker one
It's Monday 1st July in the year of our Lord 2024. This is federal prisoner 0563-5509 we are live from just down the road from Danbury prison. We're going to go live outside the prison with Marjorie Taylor Greene and real America's voice, Brian Glenn in a moment. As soon as we.
David Pakman
And remember that all he had to do was show up and plead the fifth. Then he wouldn't have gone to prison.
Speaker one
Some sounds set up. We got Mike Davis on the steps of the Supreme Court as the immunity opinion should be coming out any second. And we've got Dave brat in the studio, Ben Harnwell.
David Pakman
All right. So anyway, Bannon hosting his show before showing up, then going to Danbury, will he, where he is now serving his four months. And he says, what they're doing to me is nothing. What they're going to do to Trump on July 11 when they sentence him. That's really what we need to talk about.
Speaker one
Speaker one, I think you see on.
David Pakman
His true social, and by the way, the reason it's total chaos is Bannon is surrounded by protesters who are doing everything they can to disrupt this.
Speaker one
He's very supportive. Remember, the most important thing, that was Sarah Murray of the great CNN reporter. Sarah the most important thing to remember, the most important thing to remember is President Trump. Trump is going to be sentenced to prison on July 11. Me going here for four months is nothing. They're going to, they're going in a very sham trial, totally illegal. They are going to sentence Donald J. Trump, the greatest, the greatest president of the 20th.
David Pakman
As you can see, Bannon getting a little disoriented there as the protests ensue. I actually think that over, over Bannon's left shoulder, if you look here, I think that's Bernie Kerik, also a convicted felon himself, if I recall correctly. They then brought forward a priest to bless Steve Bannon. You'll also notice that to Bannon's right are Marjorie Taylor Greene, the radical republican congresswoman, and her boyfriend Brian Glenn. It's a real party. And here is a priest blessing Bannon. Okay, father, I give you a blessing.
Speaker one
I want to give you a blessing.
David Pakman
Before you go, bow your head and.
Speaker one
Pray for God's blessing. Pax ad benedictio deo omnipotentis patri sed filier spiritu santi decento supervos. Her mania semper.
President Joe Biden
Amen.
Speaker one
Amen.
David Pakman
He's also blessing Marjorie Taylor Greene, which is great news because she's gonna need it.
Speaker one
I'm at your service. Thank you, father.
Victory, death. We'll turn it back over to real Marshall voice it's time. It's time for me to surrender up at Danbury.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Yeah.
Speaker one
Thank you, guys. I, guys, I hope you don't go next in the prison.
David Pakman
All right. And then finally, here's a bonus clip from this completely abortive event. When Marjorie trader Green attempted to rant about Nancy Pelosi, she was drowned out by cowbells and chants of traitor, which I absolutely love.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
The fact that Steve did not obey that. Cambridge, she broke her house rules when she created that committee.
David Pakman
All right, you get the point. So listen, Bannon's gonna now have to do his time. It is what it is. He may suffer in there, he may not. But understand that it is we on the left who are for law and order when they say law and order, except when it's the January 6 riot. Officers who were trying to defend the Capitol when they say law and order, except for voting for a convicted felon, when they say law and order, when they actually want to make it more difficult for police to do their jobs in the way that it should be done. They're not for law and order. They're for talking about being for law and order until it's politically inconvenient. So Bannon will do his time.
He'll be okay. He'll come out, he'll get right back to propagandizing, and things will continue. We will be live with the Trump sentencing on July 11. Though Bannon is not wrong that the sentencing of a former president on 34 felony counts is a bigger deal than him going to prison for four months, I take no issue with Bannon explaining that we have a voicemail number. That number is two one nine. To David P. Tragically, here is a voicemail, one of many, one of many about yesterday's audio issues. Take a listen to this.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Hey, David, it's Angie in Wisconsin. I was just curious if anybody else has commented on your audio having some static in it lately.
I noticed it last week, thought maybe it was just I was listening to it in my car, and sometimes when my phone's plugged into my car, it causes issues.
But listening to it at home today, it's still happening.
David Pakman
So listen. We feel terribly about the audio static, but I got some nasty, nasty emails and about eight people, I think it was canceled their paid memberships because we had some interference on the show on Friday and Monday. Let me tell you what happened.
We recently switched cameras.
The new camera is way better.
The old camera, my mic plugged into the camera. The new camera doesn't have that ability, so the mic goes directly to the computer. In order to get the sound from my microphone into the computer, I got a USB audio hub. It's a device. You plug in a mic and then you plug the device into your computer.
We started hearing the interference.
I looked at, is it what we call clipping? Is the mic level too loud? I changed voice processors. I got all new cables. I even tested a different microphone and it all continued. And because these things took a little while to do this, the interference continued for several days.
Ultimately the problem was very obscure. Settings in our computer, USB devices like our USB audio hub have different power management settings. And by default when you plug in a new USB device, the computer will assess, does this device need full power right now or can I put it into a sort of reduced power state? When you are actively speaking into a microphone, you need the device on full power all the time. So after running all around, new voice processor, different microphone, different cables, chaos. Thousands of emails pouring in. Okay, all I needed to do was change the power settings on the USB card and change the power settings on the USB audio hub and all is now good. So we fixed it.
We apologize. It was an extremely stressful couple of days trying to figure this out. Believe me, we know you can't have that if you're doing a professional show. We know that, which is why we immediately bought replacements for everything.
But it was just a two click solution. So Baruch Hashem, we have solved it.
Thank you for everyone's understanding and for the nasty emails that came in. Very nasty. I don't appreciate them. We have a great bonus show for you today. We will talk about the first category four storm ever in June.
What does that say? Number two, scientists who study noise pollution say we need regulation. I actually have a lot to say about this. And thirdly, we will discuss Louisiana's new surgical castration law.
Wow. Bonkers, bonkers stuff. All of that and more on the bonus show. Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. I will see you then and I will be back here tomorrow.