8/8/24: Kamala SHUTS DOWN heckler, Trump's brain CRACKS again

This episode explores recent political events, focusing on Vice President Kamala Harris adeptly handling a heckler and former President Donald Trump's controversial statements.

1. Kamala Harris demonstrates strong leadership and quick thinking in handling a disruptive heckler.
2. Donald Trump's rhetoric continues to spark controversy and concern about his mental fitness.
3. The episode explores the media's influence in political perception and narrative shaping.
4. It highlights the strategic use of personal attacks in political campaigns.
5. Pakman critiques the ethical implications of denigrating political opponents.

1: Introduction

David Pakman sets the stage by discussing the political climate and the significance of the events covered in the episode. David Pakman: "Welcome, everybody. We're going to start with a little something different today."

2: Kamala Harris Shuts Down Heckler

The chapter covers Vice President Kamala Harris's response to a heckler at a rally, emphasizing her composure and the strategic implications of her actions. David Pakman: "Kamala Harris gets interrupted by a heckler and shutting it down absolutely perfectly."

3: Trump's Controversial Comments

Analysis of Donald Trump's public statements and the reaction they provoke, both politically and socially. David Pakman: "Trump is an unwell man because of how terribly this is going for him."

4: Media's Role

This section discusses how media coverage affects public perception of political events. David Pakman: "The media chooses to cover certain stories, if at all, can completely shape your perspective of those candidates."

• Stay Informed: Regularly update yourself on political events and media coverage to understand the full context of political statements.
• Critical Thinking: Analyze political rhetoric critically to identify biases and underlying strategies.
• Civic Engagement: Participate in political discussions and campaigns to influence the narrative.
• Media Literacy: Develop skills to discern between biased reporting and unbiased information.
• Vote: Engage in the democratic process by voting based on informed decisions.

-- On the Show:

-- A deep dive into Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' Vice Presidential running mate, including his background, controversies, and the early attack likes from Trump and MAGA

-- Jessica Tarlov, the lone liberal on Fox News' The Five, absolutely destroys her right wing co-hosts over the failed attacks on Tim Walz' military service record

-- Audio of then-President Donald Trump praising Tim Walz' handling of the George Floyd protests as Minnesota Governor leaks, undercutting recent claims that Walz improperly handled it

-- Kamala Harris shuts down a Gaza protester at a rally

-- Tim Walz shows the sort of decency that Donald Trump never could when a medical emergency takes place during a rally

-- Donald Trump cracks once again with a scary new mental health scare on Truth Social in response to the growing momentum of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

-- JD Vance is asked a series of basic questions during a press event and fails to answer a single one coherently

-- JD Vance is asked why a voter would want to have a beer with him, and his answer is pathetic and nonsensical

-- A shocking new Marist poll finds Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump among independent voters by nine points

-- On the Bonus Show: Nanci Pelosi says Republicans are privately hoping Trump loses, Nassau County bans wearing masks during protests, family of explorer who died in Titan submersible sues for more than $50 million, much more...

People

Kamala Harris, Donald Trump

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

Speaker A
Welcome, everybody. We're going to start with a little something different today. Some of you may be acquainted with Jessica Tarlov. Jessica Tarlov is often the lone left wing voice on Fox News is the five sometimes on other Fox News shows. And what we're going to look at today really serves dual purposes. On the one hand, I'm going to play some clips for you of Jessica Tarlov just taking down some of the recent attacks against Kamala Harris's vice presidential selection, Tim Walls. And they are relevant because it's important for us to know and understand what are the attacks, what's the truth of the matter and how should we be equipped to respond. But if we zoom out a little bit, this is useful not only when thinking about Tim walls and Kamala Harris and this particular campaign, but it's also useful because Jessica Tarlov brilliantly time and again, and we've looked at her appearances before, shows how you take on four of these non thinking MAGA potamians. At one time, you know, online I saw people saying, wow, she took down the troglodytes. That seems a little bit charged for me. It's a little too ad hominem e. But certainly megapitamians is a term, term that I'm comfortable with, with their antiquated and retrograde beliefs. So the first topic that Jessica takes on here is that one of the new attacks on Tim walls is okay. Even though he served in the military, he chickened out of going to Iraq or he didn't serve in the right way. And, you know, this is compared to cadet bone spurs Donald Trump, who got a letter from his private doctor saying his ankles hurt.

We're not, don't send them, don't send them to the war. So let's look at clip number one. And Jessica's just very good at this.

Speaker B
Me, I'm telling you so that people who had gotten captured, the suckers and losers, doesn't want to go and be seen next.

Oh, he's denied everything. He denied, he said stormy Daniels, but that obviously hasn't worked out for him.

Speaker A
Ok. So first and foremost, Jessica Tarlov is going right at the comparison. Hey, listen, Tim walls actually served to, on the other hand, Trump called people who serve suckers and losers. Oh, well, he denied that. He also still denies having had an affair with Stormy Daniels. And every single one of us knows that that's true. This continues and presses forward.

And Jessica Tarlov points out this is not a good tit for tat or point by point for JD Vance to be attacking Tim Walz, I don't think.

Speaker B
That you should ever say that anyone who served didn't do a good job in this. If JD Vance wants to get into that tit for tat, he was in the public affairs department.

It's just a fact of all of this. I don't think he should be going there with Tim Walls. I think that everyone who has in.

Speaker C
A war zone, he was in Iraq.

Speaker B
Walking around with a, he was in a rock.

Speaker A
He was in Iraq.

Speaker B
Okay. Now Marines, okay. And this guy, his units, listen, it.

Speaker A
Doesn'T matter what I think.

Speaker B
His unit does matter.

Speaker A
Thinks he's a coward.

Speaker B
And this has come up.

Speaker A
Now we're going to, you might be saying, what the hell is Jesse Waters talking about?

We're going to dig into this more deeply in our deep dive later in the show today about Tim walls. But the point that Jessica Tarlov is making is a good one, which is there's, this is a bad game to play. And also it's hypocritical. We used to always hear from Republicans, you never, ever, ever criticize anyone's service and you support the troops and all this. And of course, Trump, Trump changed that. Chump. Trump changed that when he said about the late senator John McCain, former prisoner of war. I prefer my war heroes who aren't captured. And that opened the floodgates to the principle of you don't criticize people who serve only when it's politically convenient. And Jessica Tarlov makes a good point, which is for all of his bragging about being in the Marines, JD Vance was in the public affairs department and she's even saying, I don't think this is a good road to go down regardless. And then Jesse Waters gets into the tit for tat. The whole point here is, if the principle is we don't denigrate the service of people who served, then why are they doing it with Tim Walls? And then one more segment on this. And again, Jeanine Pirro here tries pointing out that Tim Walls strategically timed leaving the military to avoid service. Okay, let's take a look.

Speaker B
I'm going to go stolen Valor first. So obviously this was going to come up because the Trump campaign manager was the one behind the John Kerry Swift vote attack, which was obviously very persuasive to people.

He served for 24 years honorably. Then he stopped to run for Congress on a platform of ending the war. And I don't think that anyone, especially with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, did he dodge the draft four or five times? Bone Spurs, Captain Bone spurs. What say you, Jack?

Speaker A
Bone spurs are a very serious issue.

Speaker B
Jessica, because however, bone spurs that you know that they send your letter.

Speaker A
All right, so you get the point here. This is not when you are dealing with people whose North Star is not the truth and reality, but is simply what can I come up with in a brazenly and nakedly political way to attack the people I've already decided I don't like and aren't worthy people? What can I come up with? And Jessica Tarlov does a really good job here of pointing out you're wrong on the facts. What you're doing is wrong morally and ethically, and it also violates the very principles you've outlined about not denigrating people's service. She's really good at this. But if we step back for a second, there's actually a bigger story here about Tim Walls, which is some of the criticisms that they're levying against him now are obviously fabricated because we have audio of Trump saying he was doing a good job. Let's talk about that next. An attack line attacked Tim walls. One of the attack lines is he let Minneapolis burn to the ground. He handled the George Floyd protests terribly. He incited or allowed or permitted violence and looting and burning and arson. There's a little problem with this, though, which is that we now have audio of failed former President Donald Trump praising Tim Walls, saying he's very happy with how Tim Walls handled the George Floyd protests. This is so critical because any time now they come up with this. He let crime run rampant in Minneapolis. Trump said he did a good job. Trump himself said, I'm happy with how he did it. The audio isn't perfect here, but you can hear what's being said.

Here's Trump confirming Tim Walls did a good job managing the George Floyd protest.

Speaker D
I know governor Walls is on the phone and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days. I asked him to do that.

Speaker A
I totally agree with how he handled it. I asked him to do it.

Speaker D
The world was laughing.

Two days, three days later, I spoke to the governor. The governor's, I think on the quality. He's an excellent guy.

Speaker A
You've got excellent guy, big National Guard.

Speaker D
Out there that's ready to come in and fight like hell. I tell you, the best. What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They, they went in and dominated.

Speaker A
Listen to this. Now, whether you like the idea of police dominating protesters, that's a different question.

But the point here is Trump is acknowledging Tim Walls did a good job. The police did a good job by his standards. And yet now one of the talking points they've come up with, because they don't really have anything to criticize Tim walls with. One of the talking points they've come up with is he did a terrible job handling the George Floyd protest in Minneapolis. Whatever your belief is about how it was handled and how it should have been handled, Trump said it was done perfectly and it happened immediately.

Speaker D
Again, I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim, you called up the big numbers, knocked them out so fast, it was like bowling.

Yeah. Our city is grieving and in pain. And I would just say as far as the potential, the peaceful protesters who are expressing an outrage that is real, they witnessed eight minutes of a man dying in front of them. At that point in time, I did something unprecedented. I mobilized the entire Minnesota National Guard. And that's what the president was alluding to with the size of the floor, was capable. But I think, again, mister president, I hope you asked on explaining this, I would just say it's gonna be very difficult. There are bad actors in this, but there is such a legitimate anger.

Speaker A
So look at that, look at that on this phone call. And by the way, the fact that these phone calls always happen with speakerphone, everyone's are on speakerphone. There's reverberation, there's echo. It's the, if everybody could just put, put on a proper headset mic for these phone calls, we would have such better audio recordings. But that's a story for a different day.

Tim walls both being praised by Trump for his handling and also saying, by the way, the protesters have reason to be upset. The protesters are grieving what happened to George Floyd at the hands of police. And also I am handling it in the best way I can and keeping Minneapolis safe and intact and Trump praising him for it. So you have to understand, with all of these attacks, it's because they have nothing. And we'll get to this later. But Tim Walls bailed on military service because he knew he was going to get deployed to Iraq.

People who served with Tim Walls said, we didn't know we were getting deployed months later that our unit would be deployed. There were rumors, as there always are, but that's it. That one's not true. Tim Walls allowed Minneapolis to burn to the ground. He did a terrible job. We have audio of Trump saying he did a great job and he did exactly what I wanted you to do. The reason this is happening is the criticisms don't actually align with reality. And they don't have substance with which to attack Kamala Harris's vice presidential pick, which is a sign that he's a pretty good pick. Item number three is the DUI arrest from 1995. And we're going to get to all of that. But remember this audio, every time they go with he did a terrible job with the protests. Trump certainly seemed to think he did a good job. Now let me prepare you for their defense because you know how it always works. We find something that seems irrefutable, they could this is game over, right? They bring up the protests and we go, Trump said he did a good job. Here is how they are going to rebut this. They will say the date of that phone call that I just played for you was before Tim Walls let Minneapolis get out of control and burn to the ground. That's how they're going to get out of it. They always have a way to get out of it. And it's going to be by saying, Tim Walls may well have been doing a good job up until the date of this call, but then he was no longer doing a good job. Of course then now we're in the weeds and we rebut it by saying the reaction in Minneapolis to the protests did not change before and after this phone call.

But by this point, you've lost them, right?

Be prepared for them to back up to that, to say Trump was right as of that date. But then it went downhill. It just happens not to be the truth. Let me know your thoughts about the attack lines we are seeing on Tim walls. And by the way, for someone in Trump and MAGA who believe that your vice presidential pick doesn't make a difference, they're expending a lot of effort, energy and resources in attacking Tim walls. So they must suspect that he does help. Kamala Harris, let me know your thoughts info at david pakman.com.

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Lest anyone forget, we do have a program that depends on your support to exist. The primary means of support is through the membership program@joinpackman.com. check it out. We have too much to discuss today for me to spend more time talking about it, but joinpakman.com is the place to do it. We got our first instance yesterday of presumptive democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris getting interrupted by a heckler and shutting it down absolutely perfectly. Now, I'm going to be very upfront with everybody. This was a heckler, nominally from the left, a sort of free Palestine Gaza type heckler who chose to go to the Kamala Harris rally and try to interrupt her speech. Lets take a look at how Kamala Harris handles it here.

Speaker E
He intends to surrender our fight against the climate crisis and he intends to end the Affordable Care act. You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, im speaking.

Speaker A
So listen, we're 90 days away, 90 something days away from a critical inflection point here in the United States. And I would argue it will have cascading effects around the world.

Why are you doing this? At the Kamala Harris rally, they never protest the Trump rallies with this stuff. Trump would allow Gaza to be destroyed flat out. And this is why it gets disappointing to me because we end up with, I, you know, fortunately, I'm not seeing that much of it this time. Six months ago, there was more. But you even see some progressive commentators, people in my position, kind of virtue signaling around how great it is that the protesters are taking it right to Kamala and this sort of thing. I really care about the effect that this election is going to have on people, people all over the world and in the United States. And Kamala Harris is the better candidate on every issue compared to Trump, including on Israel, Gaza, including on what would be best for the palestinian people, period.

If you can't see that now, just, I mean, we're talking about weeks before the election. It's not even really three months because it's, we're already almost halfway through August. We're talking about two plus months.

It is legitimate to ask these protests, protesters, what do you actually want? What are you actually trying to do? Because if Trump wins, Gaza becomes a parking lot. And then what are you going to be like, hey, listen, I protested Kamala. I did it for the people of Gaza. And Trump won. And now Gaza is a parking lot. So if you claim to be a progressive and if you really want to demonstrate that you're as progressive as you claim to be, and you go and you say, well, I'm going to protest Kamala Harris here because of her position on Israel, Gaza, or for whatever you perceive to be the faults of the Biden Harris administration in terms of the circumstances there, even though the situation has a 70 year history, I would argue you don't know how foreign policy works and that you are ultimately doing the bidding of the guy who would be the absolute worst for the palestinian people, the malignant narcissist egomaniac, Donald Trump. Now let me play a little more of this. Here's a little more context around this interruption.

Speaker E
And please do check out Project 2025.

Cause I'm telling you, it is a plan.

It is a plan to weaken America's middle class.

Project 2025.

Speaker A
Now, what's going on here is that the protester continues to try to interrupt.

Speaker E
You if he is elected.

I'm here because we believe in democracy. Everyone's voice matters. But I am speaking now.

I am speaking now.

Speaker A
So I think you get the gist of this. Let's not sabotage ourselves or even sabotage.

Kamala Harris met with the co founder of this Michigan uncommitted voter movement before this event.

She's doing all of the right things. She's better on this issue than Trump by a lot. And meanwhile, it's interesting to see that the right is saying Kamala Harris is actually anti semitic and anti jewish because she didn't select Josh Shapiro to be her running mate. So, folks, let's win this one. We have the opportunity, we have the possibility for a landslide victory that will reject the autocracy of Donald Trump.

Let's not screw it up. That's my request. Tim Walls showed the decency and empathy that Trump and Vance could never be even capable of showing during a medical emergency yesterday in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. This is such a small thing, but it's a reminder about how fundamentally different as people Kamala Harris and Tim Walls are compared to Donald Trump and JD Vance. Tim Walls paused his speech to help people in the audience who need water, which is quite a contrast to when Trump encourages, encourages violence against people in the audience. If they yell out a protest, for example. A small thing, but so emblematic of the difference between the two tickets here.

Speaker F
Speaker one, can we get somebody to help? Somebody's hot.

Somebody's hot. Can we get somebody to help you? Okay.

Drink some water, folks. It is hot out. It's somebody else.

Thank you.

We get water?

Speaker A
Yeah.

Speaker F
Thank you all for helping.

Speaker A
This is how someone behaves when they genuinely care about the people in the audience as people. And listen, I. If. If Harris Walls become president and vice president, we'll have policy disagreements. We'll have things we like, and we'll have things we don't like. But the contrast as a person, remember Donald Trump going to Puerto Rico after a hurricane and shooting paper towels like a game, like free throws, like basketball, free throws into the crowd. This is very, very different. Here's just a little bit more of this.

Speaker F
Yay.

Thank you all.

They do.

Thank you all.

Speaker A
We're okay.

Speaker F
He's gonna. We have someone down. They're treating him. They're getting him some water, and it's good.

Speaker A
All right, so you get it. Now let's get to a little bit of the substance from this very interesting rally. I want to give you an example of the repetition that Brian Tyler Cohen and I spoke about yesterday and how we actually should want Harris and walls to be sticking to the messaging that works because Republicans know to repeat all, to be repeating the same things, to get people to kind of internalize the messaging. And Tim walls doing it and doing it really well yesterday, we don't shy away from challenges.

Speaker F
But I'll tell you what, Donald Trump, he sees the world differently than we see it.

He has no understanding of service because he's too busy servicing himself again and again and again, again and again and again.

This guy weakens our country to strengthen his own hands.

He mocks our laws.

He sows chaos and division amongst the people.

And that's to say nothing of the job he did as president.

He froze in the face of COVID and it cost people's lives.

He drove the economy into the ground.

And make no mistake about it, violent crime was up when Donald Trump was president.

Those of you who are a little older know this.

Older Republicans used to talk about freedom.

These guys today, it turns out that freedom to them means government should be free to invade your exam room with your doctor.

Speaker A
So you'll recognize this material from previous rallies. I think it's good that he's going with this. This is a really good attack line against Republicans. They claim to be about freedom, but really it's the freedom to choose the same things they would choose and otherwise know. And then lastly, a really great moment, a really great moment where Vice President Kamala Harris, when the crowd starts chanting lock em up about Trump, she actually says, hold on, hold on, hold on. We have a legal system that will handle that. That's not what we chant. And this is just the cherry on top of what it really means to be for law and order.

Speaker E
I know Donald Trump's tight.

I know it's tight.

In fact, I've been dealing with people like him my whole career.

For example, as attorney general of California. Well, hold on. You know what? The courts are going to handle that part of it.

What we're going to do is beat him in November.

Speaker A
That's exactly right. That is law and order, okay? Not lock up Hillary, lock up Biden, lock up. My political opponents says, hey, you know what? We have a system to adjudicate these circumstances.

We're going to run an election year, an election here this year, and just absolutely, absolutely perfect. The crowd gets it. That's law and order. Trump is an unwell man because of how terribly this is going for him. New mental health scare about Donald Trump as his brain seems to be cracking. Once again. He is down in the polls. He is holed up at Mar a Lago with a single campaign event this week in a period where Harris Walls have seven, maybe eight campaign events and Trump just losing his mind, posting to truth, social quote, Kamala refuses to do interviews because her team realizes she is unable to answer questions, much like Biden was not able to answer questions, but for different reasons. He is just plain shot and she is just plain incompetent. Her policies of open borders, no fracking or drilling for oil in any way, shape or form, transgender anything anti Israel, but gross incompetence towards getting anything done for the Palestinians, no clue on inflation or the economy, unlimited money to fight foreign wars and so much more are catastrophic.

If she is elected, our county, I guess he means country. But maybe it'll only affect one county. Our county, and indeed the world, will suffer a 1929 style Great Depression. It will be the worst in history and America will be destroyed.

Saying that you're worried about democracy if Trump wins, they claim is an incitement to violence against Trump. And meanwhile, Trump says America will be destroyed if Kamala Harris becomes president.

Smells like a double standard. Trump continuing with this brain crack, saying, quote, I will expose Kamala during the debate the same way I expose crooked Joe, Hillary and everyone else during debates. Only I think Kamala will be easier. Trump continuing, we are living in a pro criminal atmosphere. It will end on November 5. And Trump continuing. Crazy Kamabla cast the tie breaking vote on massive spending bills that caused the inflation crisis. We know from polling that Americans are increasingly questioning the fitness of Trump to run for president. We know from public opinion that there are growing concerns that Trump may not even be able to be fit to campaign, never mind to be president. And he's holed up, sending out screed after screed. And it makes sense that his mental health and physical health are being questioned because this guy is very much unwell, and it's happening every single day.

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He worked as a high school geography teacher and football coach, and he also achieved the rank of command sergeant major in the Army National Guard with 24 years of service. Something that we hear from the right is to be lauded and applauded and valued. His two children were conceived through IVF, which inspired the name of their daughter, Hope. And IVF takes a sort of interesting place in this entire discussion, because in the aftermath of overturning Roe v. Wade, thanks to the three Supreme Court justices nominated by Donald Trump, the next sort of battle line has been drawn around IVF in the political discourse as well as with surrogacy, because Republicans are indeed moving on to try to roll back other reproductive rights. Michael Knowles, the vile guy from the Daily Wire, who I used to debate with until I would get too many death threats every time I appeared on his show, so I stopped doing it. Michael Knowles has come out recently against IVF and against surrogacy, or at least against it in many cases, saying elements of it are evil in terms of his career, I guess we would say, or background as an elected official. Walls was elected to Congress in 2006 in an upset and held the large, largely rural district an additional five times. And so this is a sign of his sort of crossover appeal, maybe not to the most conservative voters, but certainly to rural voters who lean conservative in other political contexts. And when he was in Congress, he really did develop a reputation for being bipartisan, for co sponsoring legislation with Republicans, and for getting things done.

Now, he left the House in 2019 to run for governor of Minnesota and won by over eleven points. And his record as governor is impressive, to say the least. Passed a universal school meals program, which in another world, we wouldn't even say, wow, what an accomplishment. But especially in the aftermath of COVID many Republicans have loudly said, stop the free school lunches for kids, okay? As governor, Tim Walls passed a universal school meals program, oversaw the legalization of recreational cannabis, expanded voting rights, protected access to gender affirming care, signed into law, paid family leave, and on a sort of more personal level, Tim Walls has a number of characteristics that make him appealing. He's obviously appealing to us, right? But we are often written off as progressive coastal elites or whatever. He also has appeal to middle America. He's an enthusiastic hunter. He likes working on cars. He likes farming related activities.

He's also just down to earth and likeable. And that apparently was a crucial aspect to Kamala Harris's decision to ultimately select Tim Walls over the other people that were being considered another, I guess, important element in terms of the context of this race, because it's such a race about rhetoric and framing and messaging, is that walls recently coined this attack line that has gone viral against Donald Trump and JD Vance and some other Republicans, that these guys are weird. They're just weird and they're creepy. And it's caught on like wildfire because it's, number one, really simple. And the left does not always have a penchant for simple messaging, but also because it's true. These are really weird, creepy people. They want to be in medical exam rooms with you. They want to be in classrooms with your kids. They want to be at home interfering with how you raise your kids. So there are a lot of different aspects, the legislative history, the personal charisma, the ability to speak in sort of pithy and useful terms about what the right is doing, many things about Tim walls that make him a really good vice presidential pick. Now, as far as balancing the ticket and identity, we talked about this on the award winning and world famous bonus show yesterday. To some degree, you may have noticed that Kamala Harris is a woman of color from California, and it's clear that the campaign wanted to go with a white presenting man. And we often talk about both sides attacking the other side's use of identity and so on and so forth.

And there's been a lot made of the fact that identity is at play here, and that's not, you know, we talk about when identity politics goes wrong and when it's used, as in the wrong way or to silence people or whatever. There was obviously an identity conversation where as Kamala Harris and her team sat down to say, all right, who are we considering? Obviously, there was a decision made that they're not going with another woman. And it was, I'm sure, a calculated decision. Hey, you know what? There's probably more to gain here by choosing a man rather than a woman and not having two women on the ticket for a whole bunch of different reasons. It probably helps us in the net that the vice president be a man. And it would be great to live in a world where these things didn't have to be considerations. And to some degree, we live in more of a world like that than we used to. But there are definitely people on the margins who might be less likely, who would be less likely to support a ticket with two women or two people of color. And this is probably why we saw the final handful or so candidates being white passing or white presenting men. Now, why do I say that instead of just saying white? Many of you, I'm sure know why I'm saying that. Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, reportedly the final candidate alongside Tim Walls, is jewish. And Judaism is a religion. It's also an ethnicity. This is the reason why sometimes infertility treatments, you have what's called an Ashkenazi carrier panel done.

There is something there that is beyond just your beliefs religiously. And white supremacists will be very quick to tell you that Jews are not white. But I use the term white presenting because Josh Shapiro, certainly in social terms, would be part of the group of white guys that's being considered. So walls, certainly a white guy, you know, a little bit.

He's got the male pattern baldness, and he's the whole package of your sort of generic middle aged white guy, but he's also midwestern. And while the conventional wisdom is you don't pick a vp to help you win, any particular state certainly didn't work there. There are times where this has not worked historically. Looking at elections when you have such a focus on Wisconsin, Michigan, maybe even Pennsylvania as important states of focus, it certainly won't hurt is my instinct to have Tim Walls from the Midwest. Now, the other aspect about walls that is important to consider is that he contrasts really well with JD Vance.

Walls is the midwestern, blue collar, car loving, meat and potatoes, farm loving American that JD Vance tries to pretend to be and doesn't do a good job of pretending and doesn't do a good job of trying either. And that's a really interesting thing. Now let's talk about maybe what we might call the downsides to Tim Walls or the likely attack lines or liabilities to those who want a vp pick who can deliver a state, if you believe that they can, which I think is questionable. Minnesota was going blue anyway. Joe Biden's lead in Minnesota was significant. Kamala Harris's lead in Minnesota is significant.

And so that is not an obvious advantage to Tim Walls, which is his home state, is one that Kamala Harris is going to win. And also, if in whatever circumstances present themselves, Kamala Harris doesn't win, Minnesota Democrats are losing in a landslide anyway. So you could say it might have been smarter to go with Josh Shapiro, who maybe could help deliver Pennsylvania, or Mark Kelly, who could help deliver Arizona. But the counterpoint is this is not really the reason or how you evaluate choosing a vice president. And that's really the counter. There is not conclusive evidence that your vp can deliver their home state. The next attack line is going to be about the 1995 DUI arrest that Tim Walls had he was arrested for drunk driving in 95. This led him to stop drinking alcohol. I don't know if Republicans are going to focus on that.

I saw rumblings of going after him, not for the DUI and the arrest per se, because Trump's been convicted on 34 felony counts. I don't know that that's the door they want to open, but they were, it looked like they were kind of floating the idea of he was dishonest about the DUI.

I don't know that they're really going to go with that line.

More over the last 48 hours, we are hearing Republicans criticize Tim Walls's departure from the military in 2005. He departed his unit, National Guard unit, shortly before it was deployed to Iraq, and he did so to run for Congress. And despite the track record of service, 24 years, there are people on the right arguing that he abandoned his fellow troops right when they needed him the most, and that they all knew they were about to get deployed to Iraq. And he was chicken and he was scared. And some are even going as far as to saying that this is stolen Valor, which is, he bailed to avoid going to Iraq, but still presents himself as brave or whatever deserving credit for, for his service. The truth of this attack is that Walls retired in May of 2005 and the alert for mobilization came months later. The official mobilization didn't happen until October. And what individuals who served with Tim Walls have said is there were, of course, rumors we were going to be mobilized, as there were rumors in just about every unit at the time, but we didn't know it was just rumor and that is it. So he didn't bail once he knew they were going to Iraq. Those orders came later. And he also, by the way, used his position as a member of Congress to try to end the war and bring troops home. It also may not be wise for Republicans to open up this line of attack because walls served in the military 24 years. Trump dodged the draft multiple times with these notes about bone spurs in his feet, so it doesn't seem super smart.

Next line of attack is that Walls was governor during the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests, and there are attacks coming against him that he didn't act quickly enough to stop looting, an arson, that he allowed the city to be overrun. He allowed the city to be destroyed. The reality, of course, is that this was years ago. At this point, I don't know that it's an attack that's going to land. It's feeling a little bit dated.

And very importantly, the audio we played at the top of the show reveals that at the time, Trump called walls and said, you're doing a great job. You're doing exactly what I asked you to do. You are managing this in exactly the way I wanted you to do it. So this nullifies a lot of that criticism. Now we get to sort of like the most generic attack line against Tim Walls. He's too liberal. He signed in far left laws as governor, like universal school meals or paid family leave. But those are really popular policies, including among Republicans in Minnesota. So I think that that's liable to backfire as well. So it's been days now since Tim Walls was selected. Republicans so far haven't found anything super effective and he's been really well received, which is very different than the case with JD Vance, who keeps having to answer for bizarre statements he's made about cat ladies. And there's a bunch of discussion now as to whether he's wearing ladies makeup and his backstory romantically with couches and all of these things. So was walls a strong pick? Hundred percent. Was he the best pick? That's really hard to say until you look back in the rearview mirror. You can make a strong case for Josh Shapiro. You can make a strong case for Mark Kelly, although I think Mark Kelly in adversarial situations is a little bit less strong. But if anything, this is indicative of the deep democratic bench that we have right now and the fact that the left is relatively well set up for the future.

I don't think that it's a sign that it was a mistake to pick walls, that there were other good options. It's a sign that there's a deep bench here. So bottom line, Kamala Harris and Tim Walls are an excellent team. Donald Trump and JD vans, are they weird? Yes. Are they creepy? Yes, of course. But Trump's increasing brain collapse combined with JD Vance is total lack of charisma and ability to answer any question in a straightforward way is making this increasingly a matchup that on the personality side, favors Harris walls. Let me know your thoughts. Let me know your thoughts about the pick info at david pakman.com. and make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel@YouTube.com, the David Pakman show. 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 Dot news, Pacman, or scan my QR code for 40% off the same unlimited access vantage plan that I use.

Let's pick up the campaign trail with JD Vance, also known as Shady Vance or JV Vance. Like he's the junior varsity version of. Of a real running mate. At the end of the day, he had a couple of very interesting events. And what is, what really stands out to me is that on a personality level, like, JD Vance and I are the same age, plus or minus a few months, I think. And I just try to think, you know, I know a lot of different people, people I grew up with, high school, et cetera. We're all basically this exact same age right now.

The only. How can I even say this?

The only people I know personally who are this uncharismatic seeming man. It's just so hard to say this without. Without sounding so offensive.

There's, like some explanation that sometimes is medical in nature. It just sounds so horrible to say. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's a personality that he seems to have that is really an edge case. It's a fringe personality of some way to be this unappealing as a person, some traits of which sometimes connect to medical explanations, I don't believe they do with JD Vance. I think he's just really a horrible person, is what I'm trying to say. I hope I'm being kind of, like, sensitive and not offending anybody.

He was asked in Shelby Township, Michigan, how exactly can you fake your race? As Trump said, that Kamala Harris, she used to be indian, and then she became black or whatever. And his answer is, it's just like, nothing. There's nothing, there's no substance here.

Speaker C
Donald Trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive, but frankly, obviously true. To me, which is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She's a fake. And the american people have to look at her record if we actually want to know how she stands on the issues, because her words simply can't be trusted. Sir, how can you fake your race if you're both indian and black? How can she fake her race? She fakes who she is, depending on the audience that she's in front of. And that's who she is and that's who she's always been.

Speaker A
The weird thing about this is by my count, JD Vance has had three or four names. And I know that you're probably saying, david, what are you talking about? He. He's had multiple names and even, like, look up how he ended up being called JD Vance. Like, look, start there and then see if he's the guy to be criticizing Kamala Harris for crafting some kind of a public Persona. And by the way, one other really funny thing, extraordinarily funny thing. You know, they. There were other Republicans who said Nikki Haley hides who she is. She hides her. Her ethnic origins or national origins because her real name is Nimroda and she goes by Nikki because it sounds white and all. And on the other hand, you have Kamala Harris, who's just like, I'm Kamala. She's not going by Cammy. She's not going by Kimmy or Kim.

And they're like, oh, she's. She's hiding. She's a chameleon. She's not showing us who she's really, who she really is. We see what she looks like and her name's Kamala, and yet we're supposed to believe she's the one who's being dishonest about her identity. Now, here's another really interesting. And again, every one of these questions, the answers are just disaster. Reporter asks JD, you've suggested Josh Shapiro wasn't picked because he's Jewish. Do you have any evidence to support that? I don't think you'll be shocked by JD's NBC News. You have repeatedly suggested that the only reason Kamala Harris didn't pick Josh Shapiro Piro to be a running mate is because of his jewish faith. Do you have any evidence to support that assertion? That a person who's married to a jewish man is somehow anti semitic or bowing to anti Semites?

Speaker C
Well, I reject the premise of the question. I did not say that that was the only reason that Kamala Harris didn't choose Joshapiro. So you should, you know, take a little less DNC talking points when you ask your questions and ask a real question.

Speaker A
So, of course, what JD Vance does is he says, I never, you are fake news because I didn't say it was the only reason. But the question still remains. Fine. Do you have any evidence to support that? One of many reasons why you claim Josh Shapiro wasn't picked, and of course he doesn't. You might recall that at the abortive NABJ interview where Donald Trump claimed Kamala Harris became black, he was also asked a very straightforward question, is JD Vance ready to be president on day one if something were to happen to you? And Trump responded by saying, vice presidents don't matter. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his running mate. JD Vance was asked, did you like that answer? Detroit Free Press thank you. When Trump was at the NAB NABJ conference, he was asked whether you'd be ready to assume the presidency on day one. And he responded by talking about how the vice president doesn't really impact the election outcome. Was that the response that you were hoping for from the former president?

Speaker C
Well, what the president has said, and I agree with him, is that most people are voting at the top of the ticket now, Tim.

Speaker A
All right. Hey, how did you feel when Trump said, you don't matter? He goes, well, he was basically right. I essentially don't matter. People are just voting for president. And then finally, these are just sometimes beyond belief. Trump, who notably has no sense of humorous, JD Vance, says Trump has the best sense of humor of anyone he has ever met.

Speaker C
And so, look, I think my message to the american people is very simple on this, that President Trump in particular has the best sense of humor of anybody I've ever seen in american politics.

He loves to joke. He loves to tell, he loves to make fun of everybody that's out there.

Speaker A
We know Trump likes to make fun of people, but it's malicious and it's nasty. I have never seen evidence that Trump has a sense of humor. I've never seen Trump understand a single joke or satire in a real deep, substantive way. And everything about what JD Vance said here in Shelby Township, completely and totally backwards. Now, if you think he was uncharismatic here, just wait until I show you this next clip.

Why would someone want to sit down and have a beer with you? JD, this is the question that JD Vance was asked at an event yesterday. It's a really simple question.

It's kind of alluding or hearkening back to this idea of who would you rather sit down and have a beer with? Which is this kind of folk litmus test for personality and charisma and gravitas in american politics? It's a really easy question, and JD Vance answers it by saying, I drink too much.

This guy is the, I, this is the worst vice presidential selection, certainly of my lifetime, certainly of my lifestyle. Let's listen to this. Why would people in Wisconsin want to have a beer with you?

Speaker C
Well, I guess, I guess they, they'd like, they'd want to have a beer with me because I actually do like to drink beer and I probably like to drink beer a little bit too much.

Speaker A
But that's okay.

Speaker C
I'm sure the media won't give me too much crap over that. But look, I mean, my, the reason I'm doing this and the reason I think Donald Trump is doing this, and I think the media often slanders him. But I've never met a guy who likes normal people more than Donald Trump.

Speaker A
Why would someone want to sit down and have a beer with you? Well, because I like beer and I drink too much, but Trump's great.

What?

It is hard to think of a less charismatic person and a worse answer. You know, if I'm just, I'm going to go off the top of my head, hey, David, now that you're running for whatever, why would someone want to sit and have a beer with you? And, you know, they're, they're in Wisconsin. Well, you know, I'm a good guy to have a beer with in general, and especially in Wisconsin because I really value hearing from people who work in the industries represented here. It's manufacturing, it's agriculture, it's, it's cheddar cheese or whatever. And I love learning about that stuff. And I would love to talk with Wisconsinites about their work and what they like, how almost any answer, almost any answer would have been better than I'm a good guy to have a beer with, I guess, because I like beer and I drink too much. But Trump gets slandered by the new, by the media.

What, did you hear the question?

So the, the contrast, if you look at Tim Walls and JD Vance, could not be more clear. And in a way, the contrast is kind of bigger because of the generational divide. Tim walls being about 60 and JD Vance being about 40 makes the contrast particularly more stark because one might expect in the way that Kamala Harris being 20 years younger than Trump translates to her being more energetic and didactic and erudite on the campaign trail, you might assume that the 20 year younger JD Vance, relative to Tim Walls would also exhibit the same thing, but he doesn't. It's Tim Walls who has the energy. It's Tim Walls who has the ability to connect with the crowd. And it's Tim Walls who has the ability or willingness to answer a simple question. And you know who's noticing independent voters. Take a look at these forthcoming numbers. We have a stunning new poll.

Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump by nine points among independent voters.

These are blockbuster, blockbuster numbers. And of course, the question is, what is the implication for the November election? Marist has a new poll. Out in the general poll, it is Harris, 51, Trump, 48, with 2% undecided. That's plus three. Plus three for Kamala Harris. Already a great position to be in given that you've just entered this race a couple of weeks ago. But take a look at one of these underlying numbers. Among independent voters, Harris receives 53% of the vote to 44% for Donald Trump, with 3% of independents undecided.

Now, nine is a big number and a natural question. And I know because my audience is extraordinarily smart, let me put it that way. I know you're asking yourselves, okay, Kamala's plus nine among independents right now.

Where were independents in 2020? And that's an absolutely perfect question. And let me actually find that number.

Hold on. I have it somewhere here.

Where. Here we go. If you look back at the exit polling from 2020, this is kind of hard to see, and I apologize. You find that among independent voters, it was Biden, 52, Trump, 43.

In 2020, Biden won independent voters by nine. The exact same margin. The exact same margin, albeit with a one point differential, that Kamala Harris is leading Trump among independents right now. So there's two ways to interpret this. One way to interpret it is, well, with that same margin, independence kind of becomes zeroed out. And what matters is turnout from the base. That's one interpretation. I don't think that's really the right interpretation right now. Think a better interpretation is she's already leading by nine, and she only just became a candidate. Biden won by nine after months of it being known that it's Biden versus Trump. The fact that Kamala Harris is already plus nine, to me, suggests at the end of the day, she is the potential to win independence by ten or even eleven. And, of course, we all know how 2020 turned out. Biden won electorally by a healthy margin, although the. The electoral victory hinged on only about 120,000 votes in three states. If Kamala Harris can win independence by ten or eleven rather than nine, then it certainly suggests that you would have a larger margin of victory compared to 2020. That's only if we vote. Importantly, this is, these are, it's not, there's no guarantee here. This is if we make it happen. The polls are reflective of an opportunity and the polls are increasingly looking less and less good for Donald Trump. Now, there's one other thing that I wanted to show you, and let me just pull it up here, because this is also every single day, this is shifting.

Kamala Harris, now in an average of national polls, is leading by half a point now. Half a point. Okay. But David, that's very little. That's right. It's very little. But it's a four point swing from when Joe Biden exited the race. So that is all looking good. And the way we interpret this is we behave as if the election might hinge on our vote alone, meaning we don't stay home. Obviously, I'm not going to be staying home in November. But we also analyze the race and recognize that the polling and the rally attendance and the political donations signal significant enthusiasm behind Harrison walls right now. Trump knows it. Maga knows it. That's why he's completely off the rails lately. We have a great bonus show for you today. We are going to talk about Nancy Pelosi's recent comments that some Republicans told her Democrats have to beat Trump in November. Nancy Pelosi is saying Republicans are scared of a Trump victory, but they won't say it publicly. Number two, a county in New York has banned wearing masks to protect or hide the identity of the Gaza war protesters. First Amendment issue, medical issue, overreach or law and order? We will discuss it. And number three, the family of the explorer who died in that submersible submarine, I guess we would call it, has sued Ocean Gate for more than $50 million. Do they have a case?

All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Sign up@joinpakman.com coupon code SaveDemocracy 24. I'll see you then or back tomorrow on the Friday show.