7/8/24: UK & France say NO to right wing, Trump MISSING as Biden does 18 events

This episode discusses the political landscape in the UK and France rejecting right-wing movements, potential implications for U.S. politics, and Trump's absence from the public eye as Biden maintains a busy schedule.

1. UK and France have recently rejected right-wing movements, which could forecast similar political shifts in the U.S.
2. Trump's absence from public engagements contrasts sharply with Biden's active campaign schedule.
3. Media coverage appears biased, focusing more on Biden's age and fitness rather than equivalent issues concerning Trump.
4. Pakman discusses the challenges of making accurate electoral predictions in such a polarized environment.
5. The episode calls for more balanced media coverage and public discourse regarding both presidential candidates.

1: Introduction to the Political Shifts

David Pakman introduces the episode's focus on political shifts in the UK and France and their implications for U.S. politics. He sets the stage for a detailed analysis of the current electoral landscape.

• David Pakman: "We saw in 2016 that after Donald Trump won in the United States, we saw this rightward swing."

2: Biden vs. Trump: Campaign Strategies

This chapter compares the campaign strategies and public visibility of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, emphasizing Biden's robust schedule versus Trump's relative absence.

• David Pakman: "President Biden has had 18 or 19 public events since the presidential debate."

3: Media Coverage and Public Perception

Pakman critiques the media's focus on Biden's age and fitness while largely ignoring similar concerns about Trump, arguing for a more equitable approach to political coverage.

• David Pakman: "The media, corporate media, has been fixated on questioning President Biden's fitness and age."

1. Scrutinize media sources for bias to ensure a balanced understanding of political news.
2. Engage in discussions that consider both candidates' policies and campaign behaviors critically.
3. Stay informed about each candidate's public engagements and statements to better understand their priorities and capabilities.
4. Participate in community and online forums to discuss the implications of international political trends on local elections.
5. Encourage local media outlets to provide balanced coverage of all political candidates.

-- On the Show:

-- Left wing parties overperform in the UK and France, defying expectations that right wing parties would surge, which is terrifying to Donald Trump's prospects in November

-- Donald Trump's lead over Joe Biden in national polling is up 120% since the presidential debate, but may still be within the margin of error

-- Despite the focus on President Biden's frailty and lack of energy, Biden has done nearly 20 public events since the debate, while Trump has done close to zero, and is missing, along with his believed-to-be wife Melania Trump

-- 90% of the commentary about Joe Biden's cognitive decline is rooted in personal grievance and hysteria

-- President Joe Biden announces that he has already ruled out exiting the 2024 presidential race

-- As awareness spreads about the horrors of Project 2025, Donald Trump wildly lies that he knows nothing about it

-- CNN guest Allan Lichtman tells CNN hosts that they are complicit in helping Donald Trump defeat Joe Biden in November

-- After he presented an honest and humble reaction to the presidential debate, everyone is finding something to be made at David about

-- Voicemail caller claims David is being paid by the White House

-- On the Bonus Show: Radio host who interviewed Biden loses job after admitting campaign provided the questions, RFK Jr says he won't "take sides" on 9/11, Greece launches 6-day work week, much more...

People

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Companies

None

Books

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Guest Name(s):

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Content Warnings:

None

A
Welcome to the show everybody. Hope you had a good log weekend if you got one, if you celebrated the 4 July holiday, even if it just meant not working, what a week and what a period of a few days it was, with global consequences in the political world and many Americans here looking at what happened in the UK, looking at what happened in France, and asking what predictive value, what stories, what might we be able to glean from what happened in Europe about what's going to happen here in November? And it's understandable. I mean, before we dig into this, I think it's understandable. And later in the show, let me back up, I've been getting crushed by my own audience either because I'm saying, hey, maybe there is something to the idea of replacing Biden. I. But I'm not sure. There are people writing in saying, David, it is obviously a necessity to replace Biden, and I don't like you because you're not saying that. And then there are people writing and saying, David, it is obvious that replacing Biden shouldn't even be discussed. And I'm canceling my membership because you are saying, hey, I don't know, maybe it's something Biden should consider. I've been upfront. I don't know what path makes sense. And we're going to have a debate here on the show, not today, uh, with Cenk, Uber and Rachel Bitticofer, who have very different perspectives on what should happen. And I'm going into that wanting to learn, because I think that there are strong fact based arguments to be made on both sides, but they are incomplete fact based arguments in that we have an unprecedented situation.

And so if you are finding yourself saying, I'm kind of confused by what should happen, I'm hearing good arguments from both sides. How can I figure it out? Well, part of the figuring out in an unprecedented scenario is you have to wait until the event, which is going to be the election in November. Given that we have an unprecedented scenario here, a convicted felon president on one side, oldest president in history on the other side, whose debate performance understandably raised questions about his fitness to continue despite the fact that we have a great economy and he has accomplished so much.

Given all of that, one of the places we might look is to western Europe. Western Europe, which often when we see rightward swings or leftward swings, they either mirror or are mirrored by what happens here in the United States. We saw in 2016 and the immediate years following it, that after Donald Trump Wondez in the United States, and we saw this rightward swing, this faux populist, authoritarian rightward swing. We saw something similar in Europe. We saw it in Hungary, we saw it in the UK, we saw it in France to a degree. We saw it in Poland, Belarus. Okay, so now there was the expectation that the UK and France were going right again. And those expectations completely failed to materialize. First Labor Party's keir starner becoming the prime minister of the United Kingdom. A definite leftward swing from Rishi Sunak.

And then, despite expectations in France that Marine Le Pen's right wing coalition with rising wonder boy Jordan Bardella were going to have an incredible result and France would go hard right.

French voters, as reported here by Reuters, deliver a win for the left, a blow for Le Pen and a hung parliament.

Emmanuel Macron's coalition, by the way, coming in second. But between the left coalition coming in first, Macron's coalition second, this relegates the far right of Marine Le Pen to third and significantly lower success than what was expected by so many voters in Britain. Said to the Tories, we're not interested. I think it's time for Rishi to move out of the prime minister's mansion.

And then the french people saying, yeah, we're. We're not big on Le Pen, who loves Trump and loves Putin, and we are saying no. And in fact, here is Marine Le Pen saying their policies are the policies of Trump.

There you go. There she's admitting what she represents, what her coalition would her party represent are the positions of Trump and the positions of Putin. So there are three at least important stories here to consider. One of them is that Trump is terrified by these results.

To the extent Trump understands what's going on, maybe better said the people around Trump are looking and they're saying, you know, if the UK has said, we want labor here and the French have said we want something even to the left of center left Macron, this doesn't bode particularly well for Donald Trump in November. At a systemic level, this is abstracted from Joe Biden's debate performance on June 27. This is abstracted from Donald Trump selecting three Supreme Court justices who participated in overturning Roe v. Wade at its point of most popularity in american history. This is. Aside from all of that, it's just Europe seems to be going left after a rightward swing in the United States after Trump won in 20. 1618 wasn't very good. 20 was no, no good. 22 was no good. The off year elections in 23 were no good. Every referendum related to abortion was no good. From the perspective of MAga, Trumpism.

If you look at Europe, you look at the United States last few elections, none of it looks good for Donald Trump. And the people around him are terrified. And there's a second story here that is an important one to consider, and that is about predictions, because you see right now all sorts of people breathlessly. We'll have it on this show. Cenk Uygur has been saying, Biden's done. He's dropping out. He absolutely will lose. The debate only reaffirms that. And then, on the other hand, Rachel Bitticofer says the only person who can win is Joe Biden.

It would be a disaster to remove and replace Joe Biden. Okay.

One of the factors that is interesting about what happened in the UK, and to a greater degree, France, is that there were predictions just as breathless and just as confident about an incoming right win victory, right wing victory in France.

They were wrong. They were very wrong. And so we should consider in the United States, as we look at polling, which we will do as we look at the analyses from the so called smartest people and best predictors, who they can't all be right because they're predicting opposite things. As we look at that, consider that even an analysis apparently based on publicly available information and facts, can very much be wrong. And what happened in France has proven that yet again. So with that entire context, with the understanding of what's happening in the UK and France, with the understanding that there is a growing part of my audience that is furious with me for conflicting and opposite reasons, I am going to continue giving you the facts, but also telling you the limits of the information and the predictive value of what those facts can provide us. The next question is, as I promised you before the debate, we will track the change in polling after the Trump Biden debate. Let's do that. Next, I'm going to give you the same information, but I'm going to present it to you in two different ways. They are both accurate. You tell me which you like, and this is what makes what's going on right now so complicated. Donald Trump's general election polling lead over Joe Biden is up 120% since the presidential debate of June 27.

That's absolutely correct. We started with a baseline of Trump plus 1.5 nationally. In the real clear politics average, that has grown to 3.3 percentage points. When you go from 1.5 to 3.31.5 to three would be 100% increase. We went to 3.3. It is an increase of 120%. Trump is beating Biden in the national polls by 120% more than he was on the day of the debate.

That's accurate and true and subject to interpretation in terms of its importance. Now, let me give you a different version of the same data and see how this one feels. Try this one on for size. And this is what a lot of people are increasingly furious about.

Despite Joe Biden having one of the worst debate performances in a very, very long time for a presidential candidate. And a week and a half going by, he's only down by about three points in the national polling, which is just about the margin of error in the individual constituent polls that make up that average.

That, all of a sudden, doesn't sound so bad. And, of course, this is where we get to the multiple interpretations. You will see analyses claiming to be from the smartest, brightest people who say, when Trump more than doubles his lead in ten days after a poll, you know it's over for Joe Biden. And then the counterpoint. Yeah, the performance wasn't good.

Yeah, Trump picked up 1.8 points. But you're telling me that the worst debate performance in the world only cost Joe Biden 1.8 points? And that seems to now be leveling out, and it's still months until the election. That only proves how terrible a candidate Donald Trump is. So what am I doing here? I'm giving you the reality as I see it, which is that there is no obvious prediction to make. The clicks are there? I see the people going on every show and doing the debates and staking out a position that either Joe Biden is the only one that can win, or that there is no way that Joe Biden can win. The real math of it doesn't make either case very clear. A couple of other important underlying metrics. I told you on the day of the debate that the 538 2024 election forecast had it 50 50. 50 going into the debate. 100 simulations that they did with the polling data of that day led to Trump winning 50 of those hundred scenarios and Biden winning 50 of those hundred scenarios. And I told you we would look at how that has changed. Well, it is now Trump 51, Biden 49.

The entire trajectory of coverage of the last ten or so days since the debate. Trump growing his national lead from 1.5 to 3.3. It has shifted the simulations by a single point. It's gone from 50 50 to Trump 5149. And for those who say, I prefer the Nate silver model, what you can see is that there has been this modest impact, uh, where at the time of the debate, it was something like Biden 40 and a half, and now it's Biden 39 and a half. Uh, and Trump went from, like, high 41 to high 42. It has barely shifted in terms of the totality wide outlook on what we are to expect just under four months from now. So if you're looking to just find a show that's going to tell you what you want to hear or what you already believe, that you know what, you were right. Biden couldn't win, or you were right, Biden's the only guy that could win. You can find those shows.

I think they're just selling you what you want to hear. And we're going to have a serious discussion, a serious debate about this later on this week on the program. I hope you'll join me for it. And the only, you know, I spent a bunch of time over the last ten days looking at this. And for every single, seemingly bulletproof case that can be made on one side, you can make at least as strong a case on the other side. And we may be in a situation, I know this is tough. We may be in a situation where we will only be able to get an accurate analysis of this, in retrospect after November 5, after we get the election results. So let's take a little break. I want to update you on what is happening in terms of the campaigns of Biden and Trump. We're going to look at some of the audience reaction to my commentary and a whole bunch of other things. Remember that the project 2025 white paper remains available for free at david pakman.com project 2025 if you live in the US, did you know that anyone can access your most private information using those people search sites? These sites are populated with information from data brokers, which have access to your Social Security number, login credentials, addresses, location, history, even your online activity. But our sponsor, incogni, is the service that will put your mind at ease. You just create an account, grant them the right to go to work for you, and then you sit back while Incogni has data broker sites remove your personal data from their databases, and Incogni keeps you updated on the status of everything, and they will handle any objections from those data brokers.

This is often the reason people get robocalls, because their info is on one of these sites that Incogni will take you off of. Scammers use that information to commit fraud against you. Go to incogni.com pacman and use the code Pacman to get 60% off an annual plan that's incogni.com pacman for 60% off. The link is in the podcast notes 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 lest anyone forget, this is a program that primarily depends on your support to do what we do, especially as we transition fully to online platforms.

We will be particularly dependent on those who listen to the podcast. Watch on YouTube, check out clips on tick tock, whatever it may be. You can get the full David Pakman show experience. Get rid of rid of the ads, get rid of the wait until later in the day and get the members only commercial free audio and video feeds as well as the bonus show by signing up at join pacman.com. you can also use the coupon code savedemocracy 24 for a I think it's a 50 or 55% discount, something like that. Not means tested available to anybody who wants it. Listen, we have to talk about a reality of this presidential campaign.

Donald Trump is missing. Melania Trump is completely missing, as if she doesn't exist. And President Biden has had 18 or 19 public events since the presidential debate. The media, corporate media, has been fixated on questioning President Biden's fitness and age. If you saw the George Stephanopoulos interview on ABC News, how many different ways of asking are you sick? And should you step down? Could there have been? And yet, these are not questions that are ever posed to Donald Trump. Despite the fact that we've been sounding the alarm along with neurology and mental health professionals, about Trump's cognitive state for years at this point in time. And we have to include in this that while we acknowledge Joe Biden had a terrible debate performance, he's clearly experiencing age related decline. We see that. But he's also holding a rigorous schedule. Oh, he's only good between ten and 04:00 p.m. okay, he's also made 18 appearances since the debate while managing the executive branch. We got another good jobs report. We got another stock market all time high. And yet corporate media is not asking obvious questions about Donald Trump.

And they have become, become obsessed with Biden's age and fitness, which is an important topic. I want to be clear and listen, I'll take the heat. Okay. I've told you, I'm going to call it the way I see it, and I see arguments on both sides of this thing. We'll get to the people that are furious with me a little bit later in the show.

There is obvious, obviously, a story with Biden, his brain, and his debate performance.

But the fact that corporate media, if Jill Biden suddenly went missing during a campaign, do you realize how much corporate media coverage of that there would be? And yet, there is no coverage of the fact that Melania is miatainous, by all reports, wants nothing to do with Trump, is sticking around only for the money. And that doesn't include going to campaign events with Trump. The fact that Trump is holding no events, he's doing a rally at his own house tomorrow or later this week. And so the way that corporate media has been covering this diverts attention from the achievements of Biden, which are even more remarkable if he has dementia. And obviously, the pressing issues that the administration is addressing. And so the narrative surrounding Biden's age ignores what is his level of direct engagement in high level diplomacy and domestic policy. Let's assume the report from Axios is true, that they try to keep Biden mostly scheduled within the 10:00 a.m. to 04:00 p.m. window. Fine. He's still maintaining relationships with our allies and participating in high level diplomacy throughout all of it. Does this prove he shouldn't be replaced? No, this isn't about that. It's a different conversation. Now, contrast this with the corporate media coverage of Trump. Trump is almost completely absent from public appearances since the debate. Other than these orchestrated rallies that have much more in common with Fidel Castro and Mussolini than they do with democratic countries, receives little to no media scrutiny, certainly not from anything even nominally on the right side of the political spectrum.

As far as media goes, corporate media has completely failed, and even after the debate continues to fail to question Donald Trump's not only limited visibility, but also his own share of cognitive issues. And it's a discrepancy that should raise questions about the consistency. You know, there's a lot of corporate media now that's saying, we're covering what's going on with Biden. To be fair.

What does that mean exactly? Because you've been ignoring Donald Trump's lack of fitness for years and you continue to. Now, I don't want to make this all about Melania, but I do want to make one other thing about this. There's almost no corporate media coverage of Melania Trump's prolonged absence from the public eye. And there has been significant scrutiny. You know, the, the entire news cycle about Doctor Jill Biden isn't a medical doctor. Jill Biden is Joe Biden's caretaker. Michelle Obama's really in charge. Michelle Obama setting up for a presidential run and the focus on spouses. And, of course, there's nothing, nothing about the complete and total absence by Melania Trump. And again, it's a completely uneven standard. So what we have here is an agenda driven media bias. People like to say, well, it's, it's politically oriented. It's because the media is left or right wing or it's based on advertising or the disparity in coverage here suggests that there's some underlying agenda, and it seems to be favoring the sensationalism aspects. It's sensational now to talk about Biden exclusively in the terms that he's being discussed since the debate, the chaos, the controversy that that generated is appealing to corporate media and similarly, Trump's actions, without going to the, what is going on with Trump's brain? Because there's also an issue there. Well, if we've got two brain stories, all of a sudden it becomes far less interesting for corporate media. Not as interesting, not going to drive ratings in the same way.

Now, as far as the question of Joe Biden's level of engagement, we all see that there's something going on. We saw it at the debate. Okay. We've been given some explanations as to the campaign to put Biden out in public only when he's going to be at his best, which is reportedly ten to four. Despite all that, this week Joe Biden is giving a speech at the NATO summit, meeting with the AFL CIO, participating in events with NATO leaders at that summit, hosting arrival ceremonies and dinners, conducting working sessions at NATO, holding Ukraine related meetings, holding a press conference, going to Detroit and doing a campaign rally and obviously all of the little things, calling constituents all these different things, that is a hands on approach and it is engagement. Now, is he at his best all day? Probably not.

Is he tired and going to talk in that really low voice during some of these? I'm sure he is. But in contrast, Trump's schedule this week is one rally at his own residence, Doral in Florida, where he doesn't even have to live, his house. And all of this goes completely undiscussed by corporate media. So we have a media cycle right now fixated on Biden's fitness. That's a real topic. I'm talking about it, too. Anybody serious should be talking about it after what we saw in the debate. But there's no discussion of the fact that, I mean, listen, in 2020, the whole thing was Biden's running from his basement. He doesn't leave his house. Trump's barely leaving his house now. He's doing no events. He's got a rally at his house this week. So the skewed coverage is prioritizing sensationalism. It's not actually informing people about what's going on and what the stakes are of this election. And that's another important piece that I'll mention before we move on.

Corporate media should hold all political figures to the same standards, be objective in that sense.

But in addition to this, in addition to this, we don't actually see the same stories that could be told about Trump that are being told about Biden represented. And we need to understand why that is. We need to be asking why that is. Now, this gets me to talk about the substance of the vast majority of the Biden fitness story, and that's what I want to talk about next. So listen, I don't know how else to say this other than to start with the, with the end. 90% of the commentary that I am seeing, reading, listening to and watching about Biden's brain and fitness is completely hysterical. And I don't use the term hysterical to mean it's funny as it is sometimes used. I mean, it's deranged, it's unhinged. Is the Biden brain story a real story? Of course it is. That's why within 20 minutes of the end of the debate on June 27, I had a 1012 minutes video talking about the disastrous debate performance, the implications and what comes next. It is a real story, but for what I estimate is 90% or even more percent of the commentary that we're getting about it, it's made up of the following.

You have the people talking about Biden's fitness as an exercise in self vindication. We were right. A bunch of the critics now of Biden's mental acuity are only focused on validating their preconceived notions and their criticisms of Biden that they've been spouting for a long time. It is coming overwhelmingly from people who oppose Biden from the start. And all this is about is confirming their original skepticism. I was right. And by focusing on that story, they want to reinforce the belief that they foresaw this, that it was, it was obvious beforehand, et cetera. And it is not actually about figuring out what is the best path forward. It's just. I was right. Pat on the back. That's one group. The next group is those who are trying to help Donald Trump overtly. Okay? They have decided, I am now going to persistently focus on Biden's mental state because I know it will play directly into the hands of Trump and his supporters. It will give them ammunition, and it will overtly help Donald Trump. It forget about diverting attention. It doesn't even consider the possibility of Trump's own lack of fitness controversies. The fact that he lied his way through the entire debate, it shifts the discourse away from Trump's legal issues, away from Trump's ethical issues, away from Trump's authoritarian wet dream that is project 2025, which Trump now says he knows nothing about. And it just lets Trump position himself as he's more capable and he's better on issues. And what, and it ignores the horrible reality of what is Trump.

So there's the people overtly trying to help Donald Trump.

Then you've got the folks who are helping Trump covertly, okay? Even those who don't openly support Trump can unwittingly help Trump by harping on Biden's cognitive state. And that's the type of criticism that sows doubt and disillusionment among potential democratic voters. It'll reduce turnout. It'll reduce enthusiasm. It's more, hey, you know what? This isn't about helping Trump. I'm not even a Trump guy, but I've got to tell you what's going on with Biden. And we just can't vote for the guy if that's who's on the, on the ballot. And it creates this narrative of equivalence saying, Biden has his problems, Trump has his problems. They're basically equal. They cancel each other out. There's no urgency in opposing Trump's return to power. And that's very, very dangerous. And then you've got the people who are harping on Biden's brain to indirectly push their personal views, commenting on Biden's mental fitness as a vehicle for promoting some broader policy agenda. There are some who are way further to the left, like actual communists and socialists, who are taking advantage opportunistically of Biden's debate performance and what's going on with his fitness, because they believe it'll help bring communism or socialism to the forefront. I don't think it will. I don't think it will. But that's their approach. And it's just kind of using Biden's condition as a springboard for a broader ideological push towards whatever they believe. It doesn't really have to do with Biden's performance and policies.

And in fact, when you hear that, they never talk about the state of the economy, student loan, debt forgiveness, capping prices of pharmaceuticals, or any of it. So where are we? The discourse on Biden's cognitive health is real, and it's important in many venues. It's exaggerated, and it involves the complexity and nuances of aging and cognitive function. Critics will often focus in on four debate moments without acknowledging that if you read the debate, Biden mostly stuck to reality while Trump lied his way through it. And so it is undeniable that Joe Biden, like anybody else, he's subject to the natural aging process.

He's having some cognitive lapses. That's absolutely the case, and we should acknowledge that. And you shouldn't be mad at me for acknowledging that, and we'll get to that a little bit later.

But it should also be considered in the context that whatever shape Biden's in, he's better than Trump. Despite any concerns I have about Biden's mental state, if he is the nominee, and I don't know that he will be, maybe he will, maybe he won't. He is the obvious better choice compared to Trump, where his term was chaotic and divisive and scandal ridden. His authoritarian fantasies may come true and the pillars of democracy may be destroyed, uh uh, by Trump. Whereas Biden has shown a commitment to democratic norms. I care about that. Biden has shown a commitment to international alliances. Was he confused at 09:20 p.m. on the night of the debate? Yeah.

Has he put forth a more logical, inclusive domestic policy and international alliances and foreign policy than Trump? Yes. So I don't know if he should be replaced. It's a complicated question. We're going to have debate on the program about this I want a comprehensive evaluation of his and Trump's performance, performance and health and the political landscape. But the progressive commentary, I believe, should focus on constructive criticism, realistic assessments that aren't self serving because you kind of really would rather Trump win. Or you think this will help RFK or I? You're a communist and think this is the way to bring forth communism. That's getting us to arguments that don't really base themselves, in fact. And let's not feed into the sensationalist narratives. We have a real serious issue to deal with here, and I don't know what the solution is, but I know the solution won't be served by the 90% opportunistic responses to what happened on June 27. So that's my context. A little bit later, I'll tell you how my audience has been reacting to it for years now. I have been using a ridge wallet. I've had a ridge wallet at this point, way before they became a sponsor. They are celebrating their 11th anniversary. A ridge wallet can hold up to twelve cards plus your cash, and it stays flat and comfortable in your pocket, so much slimmer than anything I've used. I don't want to throw my back off kilter like happened to George Costanza with one of those oversized wallets. So this is great.

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President Joe Biden has made a declaration about the 2024 race in the middle of swirling controversy, false reporting, that in private meetings, members of the democratic party are telling him, you must drop out, which are then retracted and debunked. And in the middle of all the chaos, in the middle of Trump saying, I knocked Biden out, he's quitting and will be replaced by the vice president, Kamala Harris. In the midst of all of that, President Biden said over the weekend, I've ruled it out. I have completely ruled it out. Now, whether we can believe it indefinitely, whether we believe it is one of those things that's true until it's not, well, that's a different question. But let's listen to what the president had to say in an extended interaction with a reporter.

B
Are you going to stop out of the race? Are you completely ruling that out?

C
Completely ruling that out of Mister president.

D
How can you.

B
Are the best candidate?

C
Because I've been here before and I've gotten more done than any president has.

You've been wrong about everything so far. You were wrong about 2020, you're wrong about 2022, and we're going to get wiped out. Remember the red wave? You're wrong about 2023. He said, all the tough race, we're gonna. We won them all but two. So look, we'll see.

B
Have you spoken to members of Congress?

C
I have spoken to at least 20.

B
What are they telling you? What are they telling you, sir?

C
They're telling me to stay in the race.

B
What about the people that all they're gathering together to all step aside? I think seven or mark orders.

C
Well, Mark, Warren said, is the only one considering that no one else has told me.

Do you value that?

B
Former president comes together.

C
I hope they'll debate me.

I wouldn't be surprised if he's in.

B
Will you commit to meeting?

C
I'm committing now. Absolutely. Whether he's in or not.

B
Do you value the thoughts of members of your own party when it comes to your decision to stay in the race?

C
Sure I do. That's why they've sold the governors, every one of them in that room. All those governors said, stay in the race.

B
Laura Healey.

C
Laura Healey didn't say anything when I was in the room.

Okay.

B
Sir, will you make changes to your campaign staff at all? That will be made.

C
We're adding, look, we've just added another 120 staffers.

We have the most extensive staff operation in the states.

Any mistake made in my fault. Thank you.

B
Are you covering speaker one?

A
I'll be frank. Okay.

This, despite all of Biden's problems, and there are problems, this is really what you want to hear from, from a president, right?

I blame only myself. It is only my fault. You firing people, you're replacing people. We're, we're hiring people, and it is only my fault. I am the only one to blame here.

But he is saying that what he has accomplished speaks for itself. I'll be frank. I think these questions are fine to ask him. I do. The problem I'm having, as I laid out earlier, is that the same questions aren't being asked of Trump. Why isn't Trump being asked at every interview? Sir, you're a convicted felon on 34 counts and you're going to be tied up in criminal cases for the foreseeable future. Will you consider dropping out?

Sir, your party has either underperformed or lost everything dating back to 2018. Isn't it time to drop out and not turn this into a fourth or fifth or whatever election cycle where your party loses and you destroy the Republican Party?

Sir, you've been found civilly liable of rape. Don't you think it's time to drop out, given that no self respecting woman or anyone who knows a woman should be voting for you? You get the point. I don't have a problem with what our obvious questions asked to Joe Biden after the debate performance that we all watched that Thursday night. Thursday, June 27, I don't. The problem is that corporate media should have been asking questions about Trump's fitness directly to Trump, dating back for years. When Trump gets up there and says Saudi Arabia and Russia will repeat and has a physical Br deep beat Duke. Oh, when he says Melania really wanted to be here today, and she's right next to him when he says, where's Rudy?

And Rudy's right across the table when he says that he defeated Barack Obama when he ran Obama.

Why isn't it that in the interviews that followed that for years he wasn't asked? Sir, you look increasingly disoriented and confused about the basic facts of the world around you. And also, there are dozens of people who worked for you who say you can't do it. And also you're a civilly liable rapist. Isn't it time to get out? Isn't it time to show the country you respected and respect the voters by not subjecting them to your candidacy? No. So now it's George Stephanopoulos. I'm here. I'm asking questions. Hey, hey, I, you sick? You have a disease. Can you do it? You have Alzheimer's, you got dementia. You're going to drop out. You're going to do it. Was it an episode? What was it?

And none of these people have been asking Trump a word about it. Now, what's the good, the good news about this? Well, for three weeks, I guess I've been covering it and telling you that the story of Trump's fitness is at least starting to get into corporate media a little bit more. A little bit more. It's still not great, but it is at least a little bit more. Let's now talk about Project 2025. Donald Trump caught lying wildly about Project 2025, saying he has no idea about it. He doesn't know who's behind it. He doesn't know anything about it. This is a flat out lie. I will prove it to you in a moment. But let's start first with what Donald Trump said, posting to truth, social quote, I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying, and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.

Well, what's going on here is that knowledge of Project 2025 has now started to go mainstream. We've been talking about it for two years. We have a free white paper on it which has been downloaded 25,000 times since we released it about a week ago because this is such a concern to people. And now that the questions are starting to Marco Rubio to, I forget who else was asked about Project 2025 over the last few days. Now they have to distance and Trump's solution always is just to lie. Now, the Biden campaign posted a video of Donald Trump shaking hands with Project 2025 mastermind Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage foundation that came up with it. So he clearly knows who's behind it. And Trump said during an event that Roberts is doing an unbelievable job.

D
Heritage Foundation President somebody else doing an unbelievable job. He's bringing it back to, to levels it's never seen. Doctor Kevin Roberts.

C
Kevin, thank.

A
Okay, so Trump knows who he is, approves of what he is doing. Trump's press secretary Caroline Levitt has been in ads for Project 2025. Here she is, as you see in a 93 2nd ad called Project 2025, presidential administration Academy. She is the campaign press secretary. Secretary Trump's former bag boy and top aide John McEntee is behind Project 2025. Close confidant of Trump's for a long time. Trump super PAC is running ads encouraging voters to learn about Trump's Project 2025. The Trump campaign chose the leader of Project 2025, Russ Vought, to co lead the RNC's platform committee. Trump's mentioned more than 270 times in Project 2025. Founding documents never complained about that, even though those documents have been out a very long time. So what's happening is that they are realizing they need to get out ahead of this. Because actual conservatives, real conservatives, I know there aren't that many, okay? At least not that are publicly there. Real conservatives and everyone on the left oppose the insanity of Project 2025. Only the committed MAGA extremist would favor it. So if you want to learn more about this, and I encourage you to learn more about it, I wrote a free white paper about this. Okay? Go to my website, David pakman.com project 2025.

And there it is. It's twelve pages. It'll tell you. I don't like to say everything you need to know about Project 2025 because there's so much. But it will tell you what it is, how it was conceived. It was, it was worth scrapping at the moment of conception, let me put it that way. The risks and some of what we can do to prevent it. So they are getting scared. They are being asked to defend it, and many of them know they cannot. So what Trump is doing, despite the completely incestuous relationship with those who created Project 2025, what he's doing is saying, I know nothing about it. No clue who's involved.

Get off my law. Never ask me about it. We know that he is lying.

And the first step in dealing with this is understanding what it is. So check it out David Pakman.com project 2025 we will take a very quick break, hear from a sponsor or two and then continue.

One of our sponsors today is Zipix nicotine toothpicks. Zipix brings you a convenient alternative to smoking and vaping, and the vape clouds the ashtrays, the thing in your lip that people can see. I've seen that around. This is an easier and less messy way to curb the cravings, and you can use zipix just about anywhere. Zipix is available in six flavors with two or three milligrams strength. The nicotine and the flavor are long lasting, and zipix has helped countless people kick the bad habits. And they are bad habits. Zipix toothpicks are FDA registered. Their customer service is second to none. It is one of the most cost effective alternatives. Also, check out their b twelve and caffeine toothpicks. See for yourself why so many people have switched to zipix toothpicks. You can only get zipix online. Go to zipixtoothpix.com today. Save 10% with the code Pacman ten at checkout. Just remember, you must be 21 or older to order. That's zip pix toothpicks.com. use promo code Pacman ten at checkout for 10% off. That's Pacman ten. The info is in the podcast, notes speaker one Professor Alan Lichtman, who has a very good record projecting and predicting presidential election results, went on CNN and he straight up told them, you guys are complicit in helping Donald Trump get reelected. This is super interesting. We are working on getting Professor Lichtman back on the program. He was on the program some years ago. He's fascinating to talk to. He's getting another round of attention because of his predictions where he is generally saying Biden's debate performance does not change any of the underlying structure of this election.

It doesn't change incumbency advantage. It doesn't change whether or not there's a major military conflict. It doesn't change whether or not the state of the economy is good. That doesn't change whether or not there's a strong third party challenger. So Lichtman has been going around saying, I don't know that this really matters, the debate performance. But more importantly, he takes issue with CNN hosts and CNN more generally for being complicit in crafting the story that is now being told. So let's listen to him and hopefully we'll have him on the show soon.

E
And you know, I love you guys in the media, but I have to say you are complicit in Donald Trump lying and conning his way to the presidency. You know, all the attention has been on Biden's faltering debate. But Donald Trump's debate was vastly worse. It was based entirely on lies, more than 30 significant lies. That's one lie for about every 1 minute and 20 and 30 seconds. He threatened our democracy by saying he wouldn't accept necessarily the results of a fair election. He said he would seek retribution. Why wasn't that the headlines? Why wasn't that the greatest concern from the debate, rather than all the focus on Joe Biden? You know, there's an old saying, it's not just the evil people who wreak havoc on the world, it's the good people who don't do enough to stop them. And the media right now is complicit in Donald Trump gaslighting his way to the presidency and threatening our democracy.

A
Can, can anyone say he's wrong? Now, the ironic thing is that this new, refreshed CNN is not exactly doing so hot in the ratings. Interestingly, more people watch the CNN debate on Fox News than on CNN. Of course, CNN allowed other networks, but not online platforms like the David Pakman show to carry the full debate, although I know some people did get away with it. So they don't even seem to be catching the right wing viewership. But they are still providing this environment in which the story is Biden debate performance disaster, but no commentary on Trump. Now, as I said before, I wouldn't be doing anybody in my audience any kind of service if I only talked about the Trump debate performance, and similarly, if I only talked about the Biden debate performance. Both were problematic performances for different reasons. But the CNN moderators did let Trump do whatever he wanted to do up there. Now, I'm not. Now, what I'm going to say next might sound like a defense of the moderators. This is a criticism of the moderators, but one of the reasons why the debate went the way it went came to do, to some degree, with how it all was negotiated. We had so many people write in and say, there should be fact checks on the screen, or the moderators should be instantly fact checking the lies that Donald Trump told during the debate. Well, part of the agreement was absolutely no fact checks on this. Fact checks on the screen. You just, we don't want it. They agreed as a condition of the debate that that wouldn't be done.

And presumably it was also a condition of the debate that the moderators would not assert factual information to contradict what the individual say would be up to the opposing candidate to contradict and say that wasn't true and or the audience to go and look stuff up for themselves. So to some degree, to some degree, this was a result of how the debate was structured. But what Alan Lichtman is really getting to is a similar, it's not the same, but it's a similar criticism to what I've been saying now, which is that for years, corporate media should have been talking about Trump's mental fitness. Biden has one debate performance now. It's 24/7 news everywhere. It's a real damn story.

And there are some real question marks around what happens next.

But they don't now get to do that and pretend there was never a Trump story, which is what they did for years. And even if you said, okay, well, let's just take it from the debate forward. They're talking about the Biden issue from the debate forward, fine.

They should be talking about the Trump lies and they should be talking about the Trump cognitive situation as well. The Biden performance was bad enough that it makes it so that Trump's performance has been 99% ignored. Criminally insane performance, borderline criminally insane performance from Trump and the horrible moderation of the debate, which was by design. And that's important to understand, getting 1% of the attention and Biden's performance getting 99%. It should be closer. It should be closer to 50 50.

At the top of the show, this could get ugly. Ok. At the top of the show, I talked about how much of my audience is furious with me right now. If you're hearing this and you're not furious, great. Okay. If you're hearing this and you are furious, well, even more important to listen to what I'm going to say, we have a unique situation right now in which it seems almost all of the left that I am hearing from, okay, important caveat is furious with me.

Some are furious with me because I'm not saying Biden absolutely must go.

Others are furious with me because I'm saying, you know, I don't know what's best.

Maybe Biden should step down. I'm not sure. Both sides are absolutely furious with me now. As I said last week, many programs are just picking a side and they believe they can ride that to clicks and to viewership. We have an extremely fortunate situation.

The last month has been like our top month ever on YouTube. Our podcast downloads are absolutely off the charts. Thanks. In part, I've been asking people leave a review for our podcast on Spotify. Leave a review for our podcast on iTunes. It costs nothing and many of you have been doing it. I really appreciate that. Please keep doing it.

I don't have to take any black and white position for clicks. I just tell you what I think. And what I think is that the truth isn't totally clear to me right now about what should happen. And this is angering everyone. Everyone. I'm going to give you a couple of examples here.

Hinda wrote to me and said, I wish to unsubscribe and cancel my membership to the David Pakman show. After seeing your recent podcast on Facebook claiming 78% of Americans want President Joe Biden to go, I can no longer support you or your podcasts. This is kill the messenger. Okay? This is, this is brain rot for the left. Hinda did cancel their membership. Okay. The claim was a poll. It's not, you know, people, people say, David, you claimed, I reported a poll. The poll said 72% of Americans want President Joe Biden to step down because they don't think he's Fitzhe. And 50% of Americans want Trump to step down because they don't think he's fit. And it was a discussion about what that means. That's called telling you what is going on in the world.

Hinda is gone. Furious. Canceled membership. Okay, then I heard from Ann. Mister Pakman, I have just removed you from my YouTube. This is because I believe your seeming encouragement that Joe Biden be replaced is opening a wide door for Donald Trump to become our president. And places you want to list with CNN and MSNBC as those dangerous to our democracy. In actuality, the pro democracy movement continues to support Joe Biden. He continues to have substantial donor support. I followed your site for years. I feel you are now in grave error, possibly dangerous to the pro democracy movement itself. Have you thought this out this close to the election that you have is dubious. Well, first of all, I have not encouraged once Joe Biden to drop out. I have been very clear.

We first of all need more information. We need more polling. We need to see how donations shift. And I have reported record donations for Biden after the debate. Maybe that's a sign he shouldn't step down. What I have made clear is this is an unprecedented situation and I'm not going to come to my audience and just tell you, here's the answer. It's the obvious answer. I'm the source of truth, as so many others will do because it's a wild, unprecedented situation. On, on the other hand, I got a bunch of emails like this one from Andy, who said Biden must drop out and hundreds, thousands of YouTube comments on one side, on the other side, furious with me. You must be getting paid by this person. You must be getting paid by that person. I am concerned that, again, there is a slice of the left whose instinct is to destroy itself from the inside. When I see this, these things, the main priority here must be to deny Trump four more years in office, to deny Trump the ability to install loyalists in formerly bureaucratic roles of government as outlined by Project 2025. The goal has to be to prevent Trump from again ruining our historical alliances with western democracies all over the world. That's the goal.

I've been honest with you.

Ten days after the debate, I am not seeing a clear signal about whether the best way to deny Trump the presidency is Biden staying or Biden going, because I am seeing compelling arguments being made on both sides. We will hold a debate on the program tomorrow to see if we can get more information and whether one versus the other option seems to make the most sense.

But nobody's paying me.

I have decided I am not going to. For drama and clicks, stake out some black and white position.

Complicated situation which we have to sift through. That's what I can offer.

If you want the one sided clickbait on this issue, I know there are other shows doing it. I would encourage you to check them out. We have a voicemail number. That number is two one nine to David P. And here's a caller who says he's got me. He knows I'm getting paid by the White House, because the White House famously pays bloggers. Okay, listen.

D
Hey, David, I was just wondering how much you get paid to do the White House's bidding.

A
What?

D
I heard you say on your show that you met Kamala Harris at the White House with other creators.

You pretty much gave yourself away.

That you're you and other creators, that the rumors are true, that you guys are getting paid to do the White House's bathing. I just want to know how much they pay you so that maybe I could do it, too, you know?

A
Okay, listen. As I've said before, the White House paid me nothing to go. I paid. The White House does not pay to bring us there.

I got an invite, said, we are the digital outreach team.

We would love for you to come and meet with the vice president. We can pay for nothing. We won't pay for your flight. We won't pay for your hotel. We can't give you anything. I think I had a teabag in hot water, which I guess the government paid to heat the water. Okay.

That's all.

And there were no, I mean, listen, my audience knows this anyway. You know, over the years. The DNC is paying you. Why would they?

The Biden campaign is paying you. Why would they? Especially given that, I'm saying I don't know if Biden should drop out. I'm not sure if they were paying me and I accepted money, don't you think I would be on message with them, which is Joe Biden absolutely should not even consider. No, this isn't the way that it works. And I'm not aware of anybody in the creator or influencer space who gets paid by the White House for doing or saying anything on the sorts of platforms I'm on. If you can find any proof that that is happening, let me know. I would want to know about it. I would report it to you. All right. On the bonus show today, we will talk about what summer saying was a scripted interview with President Biden that was done by a radio host, something we have never done and would never do.

Number two, Robert F. Kennedy junior says he will not take sides on 911. Oh, boy. What does that mean? And Greece is starting a six day workweek.

What is going on? Some countries saying, let's go to a four day workweek. Greece saying, how about six?

Could this solve their economic problems? And if so, how? All of those stories and more on the bonus show. Sign up@joinpakman.com. dot please remember, leave us a review on iTunes. Or is it now called Apple Music and Spotify?

Leave us a review. It costs nothing and it really helps us. And make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel@YouTube.com.

the David Pakman show.