7/25/24: Biden addresses nation, Trump addresses sycophants at rally

David Pakman
We heard from Kamala Harris yesterday.

We heard from Donald Trump, but we also heard from outgoing President Joe Biden. And I want to focus in first on the Oval Office address that he delivered at 08:00 p.m. last night. I was live on YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook streaming this. And the reaction of many of you, many in the audience, was very similar to the reaction that I had.

This is a display in humility, the likes of which forget about. We would never see from Donald Trump. We would never expect nor even consider remotely possible for someone like Trump to do what President Biden has done, which is to say, I think I'm a good person for this job. I think I've done well, but I am not the best positioned person to carry it forward, and therefore I am going to step aside. We knew that the content of the speech was going to be a reinforcement of Joe Biden's decision not to run for reelection and to endorse Kamala Harris. What I didn't necessarily expect, and it, maybe I was just wrong not to expect it, because the truth is, I know Biden is a humble guy as far as politicians who believe they should be running the free world go right, which implicit in that there is, of course, some ego. I know of Biden as a humble guy, but the humility that he expressed was refreshing in a context where you have egomaniacal narcissists like Trump insisting that they should be in power and the sole decision makers on every issue. So let's get to what I think were kind of like the core or critical couple minutes of President Biden's speech last night.

Joe Biden
My fellow Americans, I'm speaking to you tonight from behind the resolutes in the Oval Office.

In this sacred space, I'm surrounded by portraits of extraordinary american presidents.

Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the immortal words that guide this nation.

George Washington, who showed US presidents are not kings.

Abraham Lincoln, who implored us to reject malice.

Franklin Roosevelt, who inspired us to reject fear.

I revere this office, but I love my country more.

It's been the honor of my life to serve as your president.

But in the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it's more important than any title.

I draw strength and I find joy in working for the american people.

But this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me. It's about you, your families, your futures. It's about we, the people, and we can never forget that, and I never have.

I've made it clear that I believe America is at an inflection .1 of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now will determine our fate of our nation and the world for decades to come. Yes, America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division.

We have to decide, do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice, and democracy?

In this moment, we can see those we disagree with not as enemies, but as fellow Americans. Can we do that?

Does character and public life still matter?

I believe I know the answer to these questions because I know you, the american people, and I know this.

We are a great nation because we are a good people.

David Pakman
One of the most remarkable things about this entire situation, which at this point, to some degree, there's a feeling of inevitability, that this is the direction the democratic nomination is going to go. By saying, I will not run for reelection. By showing this level of humility, by putting the country first, by putting the country ahead of. If I stay in for my own reasons, it seems more likely Trump wins. And that's a really bad thing. He's reminding us Trump is constitutionally unable to even consider thinking about the world in this way. But Joe Biden sets himself up to be remembered in history as one of the most successful one term presidents. One term. To a degree, by choice. Although some would say, no, no, it's not by choice.

It's. It's lose to Trump or get out. But put that aside for a moment.

Getting the country out of the COVID pandemic with better economic standing than any of our wealthy western, uh, allies, and reorienting course, which matters much more if it doesn't go right back to Trump in January, and President Biden closing this address to the american people by saying, it's now up to you. At the end of the day, I've.

Joe Biden
Given my heart and my soul to our nation.

Like so many others, I've been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the american people.

I hope you have some idea how grateful I am to all of you.

The great thing about America is here.

Kings and dictators do not rule. The people do.

History is in your hands.

The power is in your hands.

The idea of America lies in your hands.

You just have to keep faith. Keep the faith and remember who we are. We're the United States of America, and there's simply nothing, nothing beyond our capacity. And we do it together.

So let's act together, preserve our democracy.

God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.

David Pakman
This is the sort of speech that while in a way, it's kind of unremarkable. Listen, you realize you can't win, and now you're coming up with a way to put the most positive spin on it. It takes something to be able to do this that many elected officials simply don't have in them. And Trump is certainly at the top of that list. So a very clear, decisive Joe Biden last night. And now let's contrast it with Donald Trump's confused ramblings in North Carolina.

Donald Trump's age and brain coming into stark relief over the last 96 hours. Last night at a speech in North Carolina, Charlotte, North Carolina, Donald Trump's brain collapsed multiple times on stage. And although it started as a joke, Republicans now are running the oldest presidential nominee in american history. This guy is declining and declining quickly. Donald Trump confusing Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley. Listen to this.

Donald Trump
And, you know, they're talking about, he was talking about, she's talking about lifting the retirement age she's going to have.

David Pakman
So a totally confused. He's talking about, she's talking about. Kamala Harris is not talking about raising the retirement age. Nikki Haley was talking about raising the retirement age. And Trump regularly gets confused, was it Pelosi or Nikki Haley? Was it Kamala or Nikki Haley? Trump doesn't know what's going on. Trump also struggling to speak instead of abortion, using the word in boat.

In boat and glitching and trying to recover.

Donald Trump
Speaker one, Kamala is also a total.

David Pakman
And by the way, of course, referring to her as kamala rather than kamala lion.

Donald Trump
Kamala is also a total radical on a word called in. But do you know this, right?

A word.

David Pakman
Speaker one. In button. At. You know this, right? You in button. At. You know this, right?

Donald Trump
A word called embo. Do you know this right?

A word called what? Abortion. She's a radical crazy.

David Pakman
The entire speech was a struggle for the failed former President Trump, again, rehashing these stories of Hannibal Lecter.

We actually may have gotten an explanation as to why Trump is obsessed with Hannibal Lecter. I'm going to tell you in a moment.

Donald Trump
Jails, mental institutions and insane asylums, you know, they go crazy when I say the late, great Hannibal Lecter. Okay? They say, why would he mention Hannibal Lecter?

He must be cognitively in trouble.

No, no, these are real stories. Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lamb. He's a lovely man.

He wants to have you for dinner. He'd like to have you for speaker one.

David Pakman
Okay, so here's the possible explanation we've been trying to figure out why is Trump obsessed with Hannibal Lecter? Why does Trump seem to think Hannibal Lecter is a historical figure rather than a character from a movie? Here's the best we've been able to come up with so far. Trump seems to be confusing migrants seeking asylum and insane asylums.

This may be what's going on in Trump's head.

Trump is aware of the, I guess, the character Hannibal Lecter, who he might think is a historical figure. Hannibal Lecter in an insane asylum, which we might call a psychiatric institution. And then Trump hears about how there are people coming from south of the border seeking asylum, and Trump believes that they are coming from so called insane asylums, which connects back to Hannibal Lecter. I know that what I'm saying is crazy. How could anyone believe that? It's the best explanation that we have so far, and it's not a great one, but at least it's something, and it shows you the deranged mind of this orange man. Trump also, when referring to Kamala Harris, saying that Kamala Harris is against the jewish people.

Donald Trump
What she's doing is she's running away from Israel. She refuses to go to Bibi net. Yahoo is in Washington.

David Pakman
Netanyahu.

Donald Trump
Even if you're against Israel or you're against the jewish people, show up and listen to the concept. But she's totally against jewish people. And it amazes me how jewish people will vote for the Democrats when they're being treated so disrespectfully and bad.

David Pakman
Now, I will mention that not only did Kamala Harris not go to Bibi Netanyahu or Netanyahu, as he said speech, neither did JD Vance because they were both out on the campaign trail. Isn't it disrespectful for JD? JD Vance is running away from the jewish people because he's a senator and he really should have been there for Bibi Netanyahu speech. This is idiotic. And of course, Kamala Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, happens to be jewish. Happens to be jewish.

Beyond satire and beyond parody, Donald Trump says that Kamala Harris shouldn't even be allowed to run because she has committed crimes.

Donald Trump
She shouldn't even be allowed to run for president. What she's done, she's committing crimes.

David Pakman
Now, of course, Trump is a convicted felonite. If Kamala Harris shouldn't be allowed to run for the supposed crimes that she's allegedly committing, none of which he's enumerated, none of which she's been indicted for, nevermind convicted, if that's the case, certainly applying even any reasonable standard, Trump should not be allowed to run because he was convicted on 34 felony counts. Oh, no, that's different.

One of the funniest things Trump does is pretend that he reads, and he's been pretending that he's read JD Vance's book, hillbilly Elegy, which I did read, by the way. It's an okay book. It's not bad. Of course, JD Vance has abandoned everything he espouses in the book, but that's a different story. It's so funny because every time Trump talks about JD's book, it's obvious he hasn't read it. And nobody seems to be correcting speaker.

Donald Trump
One under Trump Vance administration. And he's terrific, by the way. He's been incredible.

You know, he wrote the great book on workers about how workers were being horribly taken advantage of, became a movie, big, best selling book, became a great movie, actually. And he's a great guy.

David Pakman
Yeah, the Hillbilly Elegy is not really about how workers were being taken advantage of at all. It's about JD Vance's family upbringing, his education, going to the marines, meeting his wife, his mama, and being raised mostly by his grandmother. And, yeah, I mean, I guess generically, to some degree, the fact that there aren't a lot of great jobs in certain parts of the country as part of the book. But you can really tell every time Trump opens his mouth about this, he has no idea what is in JD Vance's book. And then finally, as the confusion continues to be visible on Trump's face, Trump gets the timing of his RNC speech completely wrong.

Donald Trump
People like it.

Joe Biden
People like it.

Donald Trump
She looked good two weeks ago coming into that arena, right, Melania?

David Pakman
Yeah. That was six days ago that Trump delivered the RNC speech. Six days ago. As of last night, not two weeks ago. And Trump's just completely disoriented. So the, the real question we land on the, and I think it's a question there is no answer to. And at the same time, the answer to is obvious.

How did the concern about age all of a sudden go away with Joe Biden exiting the race?

Given Donald Trump's obvious age related decline and the fact that he doesn't know how much time is passing, he doesn't seem to know who he's running against. He's regularly confusing Nikki Haley with all sorts of other people. And yet we are supposed to believe that there are no concerns anymore. Well, the problem for Trump is that no matter whether the topic of age and cognition is an overt topic of discussion, the contrast with the very high energy, didactic and high energy Kamala Harris couldn't possibly be more stark. And if they debate, it will be very, very obvious. So my question to you, will Trump debate Kamala Harris? I know he said he would. I know he said he would. Will Trump ultimately debate Kamala Harris, or is it too big a risk? Let me know. Info at David Pakman.com make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel. Make sure you're signed up for a membership at Join pacman.com in today's insane media landscape. To stay informed and prepare for the show, I turn to trustworthy publications of record like the Washington Post. No one can beat the Washington Post track record of investigative journalism and speaking truth to power. And now the Washington Post is a sponsor of the David Pakman show. Did you know? The Post offers a cool feature for audio lovers like you. You can actually listen to articles in addition to reading them, so you can tackle your to do list and catch up on the news at the same time. And if you thought the Washington Post only covered politics, think again.

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Today we welcome to the program doctor Jorge Valdes, a founding member of the group that went on to become the Medellin drug cartel, known, of course, with Pablo Escobar. Let's get into the conversation. So you immigrated to the United States from Cuba, which may not be the obvious path for someone that ultimately gets involved with the colombian drug cartel. So tell us, tell us a little bit about that and immigrating and then your kind of initial contact getting involved in this.

Jorge Valdes
So in 1966. So I was raised among a very, very wealthy family in Cuba. My father did not want to come to the US. My mom did. My mom, very, very religious, didn't want kids growing up in a communist country, so she wanted us to come. And so we applied. And in 1966, when I was ten, we ended up getting our visa to come to the US. So. But at that moment, my mother stays behind. So my father, who's 40 years old, does not speak English. My mother did. My father did not speak English. Come to United States with three locates, ten, nine, and five.

And at that moment, it was something that's really important because it was the moment that I actually became a diehard atheist. You know, I was like, hey, you mean we're leaving Cuba because we're going to go to the United States to be with goddess. And now eleven of us are sleeping in a one bedroom apartment, writing down what time we're going to take a piss because there's only one bathroom and we have no food. All that we have is black beans and rice on Monday, red beans on Tuesday, white beans on Wednesday. So anyway, with all that.

But still, my father was a mental high principle. So I studied hard and I was really focused, David. I mean, I was laser focused. I never did drugs that was 21 years old. You know, a lot of times when I speak, I talk about like, man, I didn't even have sex till I joined the drug cartel. Now, that's probably not a good reason to join a drug cartel. But anyway, I was the youngest employee in the Federal Reserve bank at the age of 17, you know, straight a student, University of Miami. And when I'm about to graduate, my accounting professor comes to me and says, look, I come from Michigan, I don't speak Spanish. If you do my spanish clients, I'll give you secretary office, you know, all the things a kid dreams of having right now I'm going to show Miami. I mean, I'm working at the federal Reserve bank full time in the morning, you know, from seven to 330, and I'm going to University of Miami full time at night. And that's my whole life. I had no social life. I mean, I looked like a nerd, really. I had braces and anyway, didn't go to parties, didn't do drugs, didn't drink any alcohol. And just the first client that I ended up having was a little grocery store. And, you know, I go in there on Mondays and every Monday, and the first Monday go in there and I see 200, some $1,000 and, I mean, I never seen anything like that in my life, you know, and I'm looking at the little, you know, typical shopping center, strip joint type of stores, and I'm like, where the hell these people getting all this money?

Then I come back the next Monday, you know, and there's like 100,000. Anyway, over three weeks there was $300,000 I deposit. Now we need to go back. We're going back to 1976 when there was no stigma about cocaine. You know, it was something for the rich and famous, you know, all the Hollywood celebrities did it. Anyway, long story. When I finally asked them, I said, look, man, let's talk about a little accounting formula. You buy something for a dollar, you sell it for $2, you have a dollar profit. We've had $300 worth of deposit, but we've only bought a $1200 worth of groceries. What gives, you know? Anyway, they just looked at me and said, hey, we just drug dealers. I mean, just nonchalant.

Now imagine this kid, 17 year old kid who had never done nothing wrong in his life. I mean, 20 year old this time, never done anything wrong in his life. All of a sudden, to find out I'm, you know, working for drug dealers. Well, first thing I said to him was, hey, you're an accountant. You know how we justify things. You're an accountant. You were trained to count money as long as you don't break the law. There was no money laundering loss at that time, so I ended up working for them. They asked me, one thing led to another. They asked me to open a shipping company, a banana company, and I thought I had it made. But all of a sudden, they come up to me and they're like, hey, you work for the government, right? I said, yeah. He said, okay, you know how to open foreign bank accounts? I'm like, yeah, I know. I knew from the Federal Reserve bank, being part of an audit team, that it cost you about 750 grand Cayman in the seventies, right?

So they're like, how much? I said, $10,000. Now I'm like, look, I'm going to do my accounting. They pay me $1,000 a month, which to me was like heaven. I'm making 350 an hour, the first bank, and I'm like, $10,000. And they're like, all right, open three.

And I did, and one thing led to another, and then they introduced me to the guy that you will see in my documentary, Emmanuel Garcett, who's never, ever spoken. See, here's the funny thing. When you look at all narco, look at all the story, they're all made up, right? Because who's there to talk about how it really began? There was no Medellin drug cartel. The group that I was part of that began was what eventually became the Medjin drug Hotel.

David Pakman
Okay, so let me ask a couple of questions, because there's a lot there. I want to make sure we don't skip over important things here. So the mechanisms you started with were you created this banana company, which was meant to actually be the infrastructure for transporting cocaine. Is that. That was the point of that corporation?

Jorge Valdes
Well, at that time, that was their intention.

I was so naive that my intention was, it was a great business.

David Pakman
I got you.

Jorge Valdes
But that was their intention. The thing about it, that all the facade literally just went away within six months. Within six months, one thing led to another that I detailed my book coming clean, and they came up to me, my godfather, Emmanuel Garces, who started this, Pablo, work for him. Think about it. Now, Pablo started in 82. We started in 76.

David Pakman
And just so the audience knows, you're referring to Pablo Escobar. Cause we haven't named him fully yet. You're referring to Pablo Escobar. This. This operation you started predates the bulk of the Escobar era.

Jorge Valdes
Oh, totally. Escobar was a runner for my godfather in this in the early eighties, right? And he would literally what? How Pablo started was going to, like, Peru and places like that and getting base, because Colombia did not produce cocaine and getting base. And then Colombia would crystallize it. And that's how he got started. He ended up getting a little bit of power. But I mentioned him only in the essence that everybody thinks that the million drug was Pablo Escobar. You know, truth be told, he was not. There was a lot of. There was two, three guys much more powerful than him, much, much wealthier than him.

He was the guy with the big mouth, right? He's the guy that wanted to take all the credit. And those guys said, hey, let him take the credit. You know, as long as we make the money, let him take all the credit. He wants to take a.

David Pakman
Were there any loyalty test type things that you were subjected to as you were given more responsibility?

Jorge Valdes
You know, it was David, it was really something. It was so surreal back then. You know, it's like within six months when my godfather starts to tell me, hey, you're going to start handling all our operations in the US. And I'm like, what the hell does that mean? He says, you're just going to start handling, receiving the cocaine, distributing, collecting the money, bringing it back. I didn't even know what the hell cocaine looked like to me. It could have been sand, it could have been sugar and.

But, you know, the things in life, you just figure it out. I'm like, look, you really don't want me to do that, because now I'm opening foreign bank accounts all over the world for them. I'm with ministers of finance in Liechtenstein, Grand Cayman, Tortola, you know, Switzerland. And they're. And I'm like, you really don't want to mix this up. He said, don't worry, it'll be fine. It was such a different world back then, right? Again, because there was no violence, there was no eyes. If you look at the clips I sent you in my video, the first undercover DEA agent in my case who ended up becoming a good friend of mine, he tells you, he said, look, the first targets were you, Emmanuel. When we found out the amount of cocaine you were bringing in, he blew our mind. Only because my attorney was ratting on me. I had no clue about it.

David Pakman
So let me ask you about that. You say you were involved in trafficking 95% of the cocaine that ended up in the US market in the eighties. What does that look like day to day? Like, how much is that?

Jorge Valdes
Okay, so in the seventies, because I went to prison in 1980, so in the seventies, we were bringing in, let's say, 600 kilos a month.

David Pakman
A month?

Jorge Valdes
Okay, a month, minimum. That the least month was 600 kilos. And we're selling it at at 70,000. In California, that's $42 million a month. Now, there's 1977 money. Right. And from there on, we have months where we brought in 1200 kilos, you know, and so we were doing anywhere between $40 to $70 million every month. They said that the Federal Reserve bank had more cash in Miami than all the Federal Reserve banks combined.

David Pakman
Sorry. That. That the cartel had the money. Right. I think you misspoke there. Or the federal. Oh, you're saying the Federal Reserve bank in Miami, because of the money being handled for cocaine, exceeded all of the other federal reserve deposits combined to the federal government, yeah.

Jorge Valdes
It was probably the only era what trickled down economics really worked. Right.

We built Miami because the thing with us, as opposed to trickle down economic with anybody else, we spread all the money. It all went back into the community. We were buying houses, building buildings, buying cars. You know, Miami became. Miami went from a town where all people would go to retire and die to a booming city out of the ashes.

David Pakman
Can you talk a little bit about.

There's a portrayal, whether you read the book killing Pablo or you look at, you know, the recent miniseries with Sofia Vergara about Griselda Blanco, or whatever portrayal, the blow, et cetera, one of the characteristics that comes through is that eventually life gets very cheap on a whim, because of a look someone doesn't like. People get killed, and that's it. Can you talk about whether that's an accurate representation of what went on, or whether that's a fictionalization that is an.

Jorge Valdes
Accurate description of what eventually went on? Come the eighties, come Pablo. See, that was the whole downfall when Pablo started killing ministers of finance. It really did. It became down to just think about it. At one time, we were the most powerful criminal organization on earth, bar none.

Pablo is the only man to ever bring a government to his knees, to surrender a government.

But yet now, today, there's two of us alive.

Everybody was dead. There's nobody around. And the thing about it is what they fictionalize in those stories. And that's one of the reasons why I've always fought. You know, when my book came out in 98, I got offers left and right. When cocaine cowboys in Netflix came out, I got offered left and right, and I've always turned them down because, you know, look, I'll be honest. I watch narcos, and I enjoy watching. I hated Sofia Vergara, Griselda. I tell you, that's the biggest voice ever in history. The biggest lie, the biggest con. At least the other ones have elements of truth, because I always sit back and I said, like, well, how would you know that? That's true. Were you there? Or did you read this in some newspaper article? You know? But Griselda, she was a nobody anyway. That's another story. But the thing about it is that at the end of the day is, like I've always said, look, media entertains or educates. Have no interest in entertaining anybody. You know, people write to me, man, if you tell more cartel stories, you have a million followers. David, I don't care. Damn, I couldn't care, because I don't care about followers. I built a multi million dollar company. I retired. I have no debt. I live a heck of a life. So my mission in life is to tell people, listen, you can screw your life up, but you know what? It doesn't have to end the way it began. There's faith. There's a God who forgives. There's redemption. You can become better. You can become productive, you know, and that's.

That's the message that we're going to get out in shadow the wolf, because I'm just not. I mean, even cooking cowboys, Netflix will tell you, I told them no, three years in a row. I will not be part of that because of what you just said. They sense channelized our life. And sure, it was exciting. Look, I was 21 years old, making one to $3 million a month in 1977. You want to talk about fun? Of course it was fun. But I'm always sensitive to the fact that there's a mother there watching that's going to say, I buried a child because of you guys. Or child saying, hey, I never met my father. Because of what you began, you know? Well, we began. We thought we used to tell ourselves, hey, we're the Kennedys of the 20th century, you know, we're not harming anybody. There's no violence with us. All of our clients at the beginning were in Hollywood, where all the movie stars, all the rich and famous people that you can imagine, everybody. I mean, I remember movie stars buying two kilos a month, 140,000 for. Just for parties.

David Pakman
Wow.

Jorge Valdes
It's crazy.

David Pakman
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Can you tell us about the issue you had with Pablo Escobar that led to him ordering your murder?

Jorge Valdes
So, and I'll predate to this because it's something that's really important. Pablo so I ended up in 1985 86. I ended up bringing, I don't know, 20, 30, 40 loads with Pablo.

I knew one thing. I knew that there was people that were losing their loads, and there was one common thread. Pablo was not involved in that load. In other words, he did not have any cocaine in it. And my assumption was, he's probably telling on him or getting him killed. So I went and I told my guy, look, if we're beginning 600 kilos, let's divide it, give 200 to Pablo and let Gotcha. The other guy, who's much more powerful than Pablo. 200. And we're bringing 200. So we were charging him $7,000. It was costing me about $4,000 a kilo. So I'm still making money on his. So he comes up to me, says, I want to offer insurance. I'm like, insurance? What are you talking about? And he's like, I'm going to tell people that I'm going to charge him $10,000. If the load gets lost, I will return the cocaine to him. In Colombia, I'm like, pablo, we've never lost a load. Why would you want to do that? He says, every three loads, I'm going to tell him I lost one, and I'm going to give him the cocaine back in Colombia at, you know, five, $6,000 sometimes, whatever it was at that time. And yet I'm going to have 2300 kilos that somebody else paid for in the US.

So, great business deal for him. But, you know, I looked at him, and this is what I tell people. I try to always live my life never walking the line, because if you walk the line, sooner or later you go step off, you step out of bounds. So therefore, I said to him, look, Pablo, I'm not interested in it. You can offer all the insurance you want. Nobody knows me. They're all your clients. But it's a lie. And I don't participate in a lie.

A year and a half goes by, and he. He did God knows how much, how many a year and a half goes by and, well, predate that. So one of my writing, one of my really great contacts in Colombia that was part of the original group, gets drunk, one party, and tells everybody, Pablo's got a lot more fame, but I got more money. And he did. Pablo had him killed. I mean, they did not. It. They did not end up killing him coming out of a fruit stand, but Paulo went into the hospital and killed it himself.

One thing that Paulo did, if he killed you, he killed every male in your family.

So he ended up killing his brothers. And there was one son who was eleven years old. The guy that was the person I dealt with in the US.

Frank's contact in the US came to me to Miami with this kid and said, hey, the only place is gonna be safe is in your house.

So I called Pablo and I told him, and he just hung up the phone. But everything was fine.

Two years go by, the kids mother, and I'll show you why. This relative, the kid's mother goes in, calls me a year and a half later, says, hey, I want my son back. It's Christmas. I said, you sure? He's doing really good? I got him in private school. All the story. Anyway, long story is she sends for him. Paulo hasn't killed at the airport. 13 year old kid.

The guy that brought him to me ends up becoming one of Pablo's hitmen.

We're bringing in the first load that ever left Colombia to Mexico. We brought him in. We brought him. So one of those loads, there was a big. It was going to go to Juarez, Mexico, and there was a big federal operation going on. So the plane got deviated outside of Houston in the mexican side, right? And everything was fine. Everybody got their load and all that.

Two weeks later, this guy that brought me, the kid who I took care for a year and a half, victor, says, I need to talk to you now. I knew something was up because he would have come to my office, but yet I'm like, where do you want to talk? He says, I'll meet you at Dalen mall. I'm like, all right, so everybody don't go, you know, this sounds weird. So I'm like, look, I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna go without nobody, because at the other day, I'm not gonna start a fight with anybody. You know, it's crazy. So I meet him and I'm like, what's up? He said, pablo put a hit on you and gave it to me. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He said, well, this happened. You know that airstrip you guys landed used outside of Houston? It was Pablo's. When he found out the guy running the strip told him that you said that it was okay.

So I'm like, hold on. So we got a whole. We call Colombia and got a hold of Pablo. And I said, first and foremost, I did not know that it was your strip. Had I known, I would have asked you. You would have to give it to me the way I give you mine.

And second of all, and most important of all, I don't lie.

And you know that. And he just hung up the phone and done.

David Pakman
And at that point, the hit was off.

Jorge Valdes
It was off.

And my godfather mentions in the documentary, he's like, you know, you had a lot of guts, man, because he kills people in a whim. But, you know, I know somehow in the back of his mind when I said, you know, I don't lie, must have clicked that transaction that we had, which I could have made $2 million for doing, you know, lying with him, right? But I didn't, you know, as the.

David Pakman
As, as the federal government took more of an interest in cocaine smuggling, what sorts of everyday practices did you adopt with regard to communication, counter surveillance, et cetera?

Jorge Valdes
You know, we had such a sophisticated operation. Like, I'll give you one of the things that was really, I look at it now, it's funny. The first fax machine that came out, they were canon, right? It was $10,000.

We would transmit through the fax machine, like, okay, 100 kilos to such and such. Or we sold that. Whatever, all our transactions, if the line was bugged, the transaction would not go through. It would be gargled up. So we would know, even though that we had, every day we have people checking our telephone line, you know, we're paying, you know, I talk about, I tell my kids, listen, quit the bigger about politicians, because I promise you one thing, David, we're spending a million dollars a month in the late seventies paying off politicians.

David Pakman
There was the belief, in other words, that anybody could be bought, if necessary.

Jorge Valdes
Anybody could be bought, and everybody was bought. I'll tell you what, we were never able to buy an FBI agent or a DEA agent. We were able to buy customs. We bought customs left and right. We brought loads, literally 600 kilos right through Miami International Airport every Thursday of the month for three years.

So. And politicians left and right. So at the end of the day, they care about one thing themselves. So, like I told my, you're gonna make it. It's gonna be up to you to make it, not up to anybody else to make it, you know, so because we had that amount of influence, we just knew everything that was going on. Because at the end of the day, like, with law enforcement, we're paying people to simply say, look, there's an operation, or they're looking at you here, or they're looking at you there. I mean, it doesn't compromise them because we didn't want to. In my documentary now, I do have one police officer from you, from Miami police department who recently came out, and then it ended up saying how he ended up working for me, all that. But we knew everything that was going on before it was ever happened. We knew what Janet Reno was doing before she even stepped out of her office.

So, you know, it's the amount of money that. Okay, two things. The amount of money that we're doing, and at the same time, the fact that cocaine was something that was not a stigma, made it very easy to buy people, you know, and it was. And we did it all day long.

David Pakman
How does it feel now that you're out of this, to know that you were involved in a business that led to people dying that didn't have to die, innocent people in the cases of the family members, et cetera. How does it feel?

Jorge Valdes
You know, it's funny. It's not funny. Sad, because that's the reason why I've always restrained. Look, when I was being offered a million dollars for the rights to my story, they had no money to eat. I came out of prison dead broke, and I did not give in. And it's been now 28 years before I decided to really tell the story. Exactly. Because of that, you know, we can justify. Well, you know, I wasn't part of that violence, but I was part of the beginning. I was part of something that led to the violence.

That's. And that's what happens in life. We substantiate, you know, it's like, hey, look, it's. You're just as guilty for stabbing someone as someone that holds that person, you know, that type of a thing. So. Yeah, and I live with that. And what I do, which now I sent, we've sent over 180,000 books to 800 persons across the US. You know, book to give people hope. And the letters that we get are immense. And people say, well, is that what you do? And I said, look, there's nothing I can do. Nothing to make up for what I did. Nothing. You know, I tell my kids this, listen, anyone that breaks the law, selfish. It's selfish because the thing about it is, the only victims, the only non victims are you, the law breaker, the criminal, because you chose to do that. But you got children, you got wives, you got parents. I destroyed my parents. Spent ten years in jail.

The first ten years of my children's life, I was in prison.

So you do all that. How do you ever get that back? You just.

So what I do, I can't make up for the wrong that I did. Yeah, you repent and you live with it for the rest of your life. And then at least you try to do something not to make up for the wrong, but something to try to make some good out of that bad, you know?

David Pakman
And how, um. How'd you ultimately get caught?

Jorge Valdes
Well, first of all, in 1979, I made a deal with the president of Bolivia. And at that time, I had never gotten an airplane, but. So when I went to Bolivia, as the airplane went to Bolivia to load up, I had a d. I had to go and meet with Somosa in Nicaragua. And there was, at that time, there was not that many flights from south and Latin America to the US, as they are now, as you know. So anyway, I ended up getting on the airplane, and we landed in Colombia. We fueled up, everything was fine. Then on our way to Nicaragua, we crash landed in Panama. Both alternatives went out. We couldn't get the fuel out.

Long story. I got caught, the two pilots broke, and I was tortured for 29 days, where I bled for the next five years every time I took a pee.

But. And the reason that. And this is what I tell my children. This is why truth to me matters so much. You know, if there's no truth in the world, then what really matters, right? And we look at. Look at the world where people just accept people that lie, and they don't give a damn. I said, look, I said, I did not lay in that jail, in the panamanian prison, because I wanted people to look good at me. I didn't want him, because I didn't want ever anyone to have to make my children lower their head because their father was not a man. I knew what I was doing. I made the choices that I made. Nobody made me do what I did. I went to prison for ten years. I got torture. I did all that on my own volition is the consequences, you know, I didn't live in a lululand. You make choices, you got consequences. And that's what happened in my life. I got out of prison the first time, and I went back to the same thing that I did before, only out of anger, you know, because I felt like I was kidnapped in Panama, brought to Macon, Georgia, which I never been in my entire life, charged, given 15 years sentence. That time, I had the highest bond in the history of America. I was 23 years old.

And then I came out, and I want to get even. But then the world changed. That's when Pablo started. And all the violence, and it wasn't me. And through a series of encounter, one with my daughter, was, I gotta walk. And knowing that walk, I might even end up getting killed.

But, uh, I ended up going back to prison. I mean, I walked. I was retired for four years. And then Jeff session come and got me, and they're like, we're not gonna let you get away with all the drug money. And I'm like, well, do you know how much money I got. And he's like, I don't, but I'll show. But I know who does. He got out of his office, opened the door, and four agents came out. DEA, FBI, Ir's, and custom.

They knew how much toilet paper I consumed. And they're like, $65 million. We want it all.

So at the age of 36, I went back to prison for another five years, ten years sentence, because, really, all they could give me was on a violation of my parole, right? I have been smoking drugs because all they wanted was the money. Was a time when all the federal, you know, the district attorney's office were getting rated by how much money that they, you know, confiscated. So anyway, 65 million, mobile, Alabama, was more than they would ever dream of getting. So I went back to prison and I just decided, I gotta change my life. I gotta become better. Taught myself Greek, came out, earned a master's degree, then a PhD.

I was one of five Hispanics in the country with a PhD in theology, Bible and ethics from Loyola University of Chicago. And when I figured out that I could not feed six children on a professional, I started a company with my wife on the basement of our house, doing disaster restoration. And in ten years, I built into a multi million dollar company.

David Pakman
Last thing I want to ask you, what went through your head when you found out that Pablo Escobar had been killed?

Jorge Valdes
I knew he was going to get killed. He and I had talked many, many times, and he always told me this. They're never going to drag me to the US walking.

If they wanted to get me, take me to the US. Gonna be laying down. So Pablo ended up not getting killed. Honestly, I'm gonna tell you in my opinion, and I think the only one that has said the same thing is his son. And I agree. Pablo killed himself.

And he killed himself for the simple reason he knew that they were about to kill. Look, when Pablo killed those two brothers in the prison, and they put a hit, and the rest of the cartel formed what was called Pepe people against Pablo Escobar.

He knew that.

They killed all his attorneys, they killed his accountants, they bombed all his houses. He tried to get his family to leave the US. I mean, to leave Colombia and come to the US. They won't take him. Germany won't take him. And they were hiding in a hotel. Pablo will get into taxicab with 20 cell phones and talk for two, two and a half minutes.

They could never track him.

This day, David, he's standing by a window with the curtain open, talking on the cell phone with his son. And his wife for 20 some odd minutes. He's. The kids are telling the, why. Hang up, Daddy. Hang it. Hang up. And he did. He's got one bodyguard, so. And if you look where the bullet entered, the bullet entered through that earlobe, at this earlobe. I mean, so I would say. I would bet on it that he ended up committing suicide. Speaker one.

David Pakman
I see. So in other words, it wasn't. You're not saying he took his own life at his own hands, but he stayed on a phone call, which allowed him to be tracked for long enough that authorities ultimately killed him.

Jorge Valdes
Yeah. I mean, think about it. When the guy that saw him, and they got voice recognition tracking him, right? All this technology from the US, the guy's looking at him in the window and he's, like, calling the office. Like, it sounds like Pablo, but it can be, you know, the guy's, like, impossible. He's not that stupid. But, you know, I think it was. I knew that it would come to an end shortly, and that's how he would end it.

David Pakman
We have been speaking with doctor Jorge Valdez, founding member of the group that went on to become the Medellin drug cartel. Really appreciate your time and your insights today, David.

Jorge Valdes
I really enjoy your show. Keep it up.

David Pakman
Right now, we are seeing candidates do whatever it takes to win your vote. And how the media chooses to cover certain stories, if at all, can completely shape your perspective of those candidates. But our sponsor, ground news, is an awesome resource at a time like this. With their vantage plan, I get access to what's called their blind spot feed that shows me stories that can be easily missed. For instance, I'm looking here at Ground News Summary about Trump distancing himself from Project 2025 amid its rising controversy. Something we've been talking about. Ground News provides a great summary of the situation based on over 100 articles that ground news found reporting on it. And ground news shows me that almost no conservative news outlets are covering the story. Not a surprise, ground news shows us that the right wing outlets only report on how Trump is denying involvement with the project, while the center and left outlets are actually giving context on Trump's connections to the movement of project 2025. Every story comes with this visual breakdown of the political biases and ownership of the reporting news outlets, which is really important to know as well. Go to Ground DotNews slash Pacman, or scan my QR code for 40% off the same unlimited access vantage plan that I use.

FBI director Christopher Ray, selected by Donald Trump, of course, testified yesterday and said he is not yet sure whether Donald Trump's ear was struck by a bullet or some kind of shrapnel. Now we're going to listen to the video. What's very interesting about this is that early on, there were, I don't want to call it a rumor, but there was just lack of clarity. Did Trump get hit by a bullet or was it some kind of shrapnel? Maybe glass, maybe metal, maybe something else. And a lot of people were angry with me, saying, david, you're speculating. You're not. You don't know that. You don't know this. Trump said it was a bullet. And I pointed out, yeah, we, we really only have Trump's word. We have no report from the hospital. We have the picture where there is a bullet going behind Trump, but that bullet may have missed him altogether. We don't know that that's the bullet that hit Trump. We just don't know. I have no stake in this either way. Someone tried to kill Trump. It doesn't make a difference. It's still deplorable what happened. It's a security failure. It's disgusting. It's not how we decide elections in the United States, or at least not how we should. I just don't know. Was it a bullet or was it shrapnel? I have no stake in this. Beyond that, we now have Christopher Wray saying, there is a question at the FBI as to what did strike Donald Trump.

Christopher Wray
I think with, with respect to former President Trump, there's some question about whether or not it's a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear. So it's conceivable. Although as I sit here right now, I don't know whether that bullet, in addition to, you know, causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else.

But I believe we've accounted for all of the shots in the cartridges. So let speaker one.

David Pakman
So listen, it's, it's just a question. And Christopher Wray is saying he doesn't know. Now the political relevance would be Trump playing up while he initially said it felt like a mosquito.

Later he said, I knew it could only be a bullet. And we still kind of don't really know in the sense that the FBI says we're not sure and we don't have a medical report from the hospital to look at. I know Ronnie Jackson wrote a note about fixing up Trump's ear, but that doesn't really tell us anything about what happened at the hospital. So that's, that. That's as far as the information has gotten. Now, one other interesting moment from Christopher Ray's hearing is Congressman Matt Gaetz tried to go after Christopher Wray, suggesting he's part of some kind of COVID up to hide. President Biden's cognitive decline didn't go particularly well for Matt Gates.

Matt Gaetz
So when did you notice his decline?

Christopher Wray
In my interactions, in my role, all my interactions with the current president have been completely professional.

Matt Gaetz
Right. But I mean, his cognitive decline, I don't think he treated you unprofessionally, just maybe not picking things up as quickly as he used to.

Christopher Wray
Again, I don't meet with him very often, but what you're describing is not something that I've observed during my interactions with him.

Matt Gaetz
I mean, we've had it observed so often that the ranking member and Mister Schiff on this committee have said that he could no longer continue as a candidate. And so since you're the FBI director, I was just sort of wondering, like, who's running the country?

If something. Yes, if something bad happened, you have to go brief President Biden about it right now, God forbid.

Christopher Wray
And I, on any number of occasions, I have briefed the president. And as I said, those briefings have all been undead, uneventful and unremarkable.

Matt Gaetz
I can imagine them being uneventful.

But in the work where the vice president is also present, you say there's, like, more than half the time there's these briefings. She's there, too.

Christopher Wray
I don't know if I said more than half the time. Certainly there have been times where she's been present. There have been other times where she hasn't.

Matt Gaetz
I take you at your word when you say this is the most complicated threat environment you've ever observed over a long career in law enforcement. And I'm just kind of wondering, with this assassination attempt, with the invasion at our border, with all the hamas that have been let in, that you've talked about and briefed about, like, is Biden up to it?

And if he's not up to it, and you're a guy who's been regularly briefing him, like, who's been in on this conspiracy to hide the real Joe Biden from all of us for years, it never occurred to you that this guy wasn't up to it in all these briefings, you did?

Christopher Wray
As I said, my briefings with the president have all been completely fine.

Matt Gaetz
Were they between 10:00 a.m. at the.

Christopher Wray
Time he's asked questions? There hasn't been anything of note in the area that you're talking about.

Matt Gaetz
Did you ever have to brief him before 10:00 a.m. or after 04:00 p.m. we hear those are as good hours.

Christopher Wray
I can't, certainly times that I have briefed have included outside those hours.

Matt Gaetz
Right.

Joe Biden
Okay.

Matt Gaetz
I just, you know, I think the american people want to know how we got to this point with speaker one.

Jorge Valdes
Yeah.

David Pakman
So that line of questioning really not getting too far. And Trump saw this and did not like it. After watching this, Trump took to troth Central, where he said, quote, I watched the congressional hearing today as Christopher Wray was asked the question whether or not he noticed any cognitive degeneration in his many conversations with crooked Joe Biden. And despite the fact that special counsel Robert her said effectively that Joe Biden is incompetent with little memory. Remember that that's not what Robert her said. Ray said that it is not something I observed during my interactions with him, which were uneventful and unremarkable, essentially stating he found nothing wrong mentally or physically with Joe. If that's the case, Director Ray should resign immediately from the FBI. Yeah. You know, the FBI director is not there to make mental or physical health assessments of the president. He's just saying, I briefed the guy and I didn't notice anything, which, of course, is not super remarkable since we have observed that much of the time Biden is fine and sometimes he's not. And certainly there's some, there seems to be something about the time of day that relates to that. So this all seems like a fishing expedition for Matt Gaetz that went really nowhere, but all in service to covering up the statement from Raydhe that he's not even sure Trump was shot with a bullet. And that is really the part of this that needs to be explored. So I want to update you on Kamala Harris's campaign and public speeches.

You know, on Monday, as we covered, Kamala Harris gave a speech in which she focused in on Trump's a sexual predator. Trump's a con man. Trump's a criminal. He has run scams. He's been convicted of crimes. On Tuesday, Kamala Harris had a speech focused in on project 2025, both extremely important areas to go after Trump on. She already is doing more than Biden has been doing with regard to that. Yesterday, Kamala Harris focused in on a different aspect of Trump, which is he selected the Supreme Court justices that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Critical. Critical, because we know that the american public is not happy with what happened with Roe v. Wade.

Kamala Harris
We who believe that every person in our nation should be free from bigotry, discrimination and hate. We'll continue to fight for equality and justice for all. And we who believe in reproductive freedom will fight for a woman's right to choose because one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree. The government should not be telling her what to do.

You know, when he was president, Donald Trump, former president, handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to overturn Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court, previously the court of Thurgood and RBG.

And as he intended, they did.

Well, let me tell you something. When I am president of the United.

Jorge Valdes
States.

Kamala Harris
And when Congress passes a law to restore those freedoms, I will sign it into law.

David Pakman
It is of critical importance to focus in on what activates voters, and we have seen very little activate voters more than this issue of Roe v. Wade, women's medical and bodily autom autonomy, and the attempt from people like Trump, Supreme Court justices and Republicans to curtail and restrict that. So it really seems like Kamala Harris is hitting all of the right notes here, going after Trump for his personal failings, going after Trump for his connection to project 2025 and the seeming inevitability of its implementation if Trump were to win. And now going after one of the biggest areas where the country is not with Republicans, and that is the issue of Roe v. Wade, abortion and women's bodily autonomy. She's doing a lot of things right. It is not a guarantee that she wins. It is so early. It's a hundred day campaign, which is both short and long in different ways. But so far, you have to like the tone that Kamala Harris is striking here. Now on the bonus show today, we are going to talk about the insane tick tock surge of Kamala Harris. What's driving it? Why is it happening? How is it helping her? We will talk about Michigan becoming the next state to outlaw the gay panic defense. Yes, they only just outlawed it. What is the gay panic defense? It's also now more broadly called the gay and trans panic defense. And we will also discuss Salt Lake City being awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics. Is this even good for cities and states anymore? That's the question we will ask and seek to answer on today's bonus show.

Sign up@joinpakman.com get instant access and I'll be back here with you tomorrow.

7/25/24: Biden addresses nation, Trump addresses sycophants at rally

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1: Opening Remarks

2: Biden's Speech

3: Trump's Rally

4: Analysis

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