Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
A truly bizarre moment during congressional testimony where a Democratic lawmaker asked Kristi Noem a question I don't think anybody expected, which is, are you sleeping with Corey Lewandowski?
Chapter 2: What does Trump want regarding the Texas Republican Senate primary?
And the camera caught Kristi Noem's husband sitting right behind her looking furious. We're going to look at the entire hearing. Meanwhile, the White House is giving a very strange explanation for that rash that suddenly appeared on Donald Trump's neck. Reporters asked, what is the treatment for? And the answer from Caroline Leavitt was not exactly transparent.
We're also going to look at another hearing where Trump is struggling to speak, but maybe more importantly, makes a seemingly impossible claim about Iran's proximity to nuclear weapons after that capability was so supposedly obliterated just months ago.
Chapter 3: What question did Representative Kamlager-Dove ask Kristi Noem?
And we will start with the demand that a Republican Senate primary in Texas stop now. Why? Why won't we let the people be heard? Well, tells you a lot about how this administration thinks elections are supposed to work. We sadly have to start with how dictators behave and the sorts of demands that dictators make.
Sometimes it's just a tantrum, but sometimes it's a complete and total authoritarian meltdown. And that's what we have here. Donald Trump is furious about what's going on in the Republican primary for the Senate in Texas. This is the race that James Tallarico won on the Democratic primary earlier this week.
And on the Republican side, you may recall that we are going to a runoff because nobody got the required 50 percent. The incumbent senator running for reelection is John Cornyn. Texas official Ken Paxton is a candidate.
Chapter 4: How does Karoline Leavitt defend Trump's Iran policy?
Wesley Hunt got enough of the vote, about 13 percent, that the two candidates with the most votes will now have to go to a runoff. Trump went on Truth Social and posted a rant demanding that democracy be suspended and saying that he will make an endorsement and that the person he doesn't endorse should simply drop out. He wants the race stopped immediately. This is what authoritarians do.
They say stop an election that's not going the way I want it to go. Trump posting to Truth Social quote. The Republican primary race for the United States Senate in the great state of Texas, a state I love and won three times in record numbers, the highest vote ever recorded by far, cannot for the good of the party and our country itself. The David Pakman
Chapter 5: What was the White House's explanation for Trump's neck rash?
My endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable. By the way, that's only because he picks people who are obviously going to win. He could have endorsed in this race if he had known who was going to win. But he didn't. Back to Trump. I endorse wins and wins by a lot, especially in Texas.
Chapter 6: What are the implications of Chris Murphy's interview on Trump's military actions?
I will be making my endorsement soon and will be asking the candidate that I don't endorse to immediately drop out of the race. Folks, this is not democracy. Is that fair? Trump asks. We must win in November. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Donald J. Trump. Right. Think about the wording, OK? A primary election must stop.
Is there anything more anti-democratic and authoritarian and dictatorial than saying that an election that is in progress must be ended because the dear leader wants it ended?
Chapter 7: What confused remarks did Trump make about Iran?
It's not. I support one candidate. I hope voters choose the right person. The race itself should end because Donald Trump has decided it's a really inconvenient one for him. And then he goes, I'll make my endorsement. The person I don't endorse should quit the entire point of a primary election.
Chapter 8: What health risks are associated with Trump's ear crease?
is that voters decide the entire point of any election is that voters decide, but that the idea of a primary is allow multiple people to make the case that they are the best person most suited to represent the party. They debate, they argue, they lay out their plan, and then voters decide people vote. That is a democratic system. Trump does not see elections this way to Trump.
Politics is supposed to function like a loyalty test. He will decide who is supposed to win. And if everyone is loyal to him, including the person he doesn't endorse, they should step aside. And the voters, of course, should fall in line and allow that and go, oh, I guess we'll let Trump choose instead of the voters.
There's a hypothesis floating around that Donald Trump is going to fire Pam Bondi. make Ken Paxton his attorney general and endorse Cornyn. The idea being that if Ken Paxton says, hey, you can be my attorney general, gets him out of the race and it gives him something to do. Have no idea whether that's realistic, but a bunch of people wrote to me about it.
I don't think Trump would have any moral qualms with doing it, whether he's actually planning to do it. I don't know. Now, if we zoom out, this is the same mentality that shows up everywhere in Trump's politics. When a court rules against them, he says the judges aren't legitimate. When elections don't go his way, he says the results should be overturned.
When Republicans compete with each other, he says the competition should stop. And the underlying idea is the exact same one in all of these cases. Trump needs to approve every outcome. And if Trump hasn't approved an outcome, the process might be the problem. And historically, this is a mentality that you see in authoritarian leaders in a functioning democracy. Internal competition is normal.
It's healthy. It's encouraged in authoritarian systems. Competition within the ruling party is potentially dangerous and a sign of disloyalty. The the leader must decide And everybody else just goes, yes, yes, but I love it. Please, I'd like another. That is a lot closer to the model Trump prefers. And one additional layer to this meltdown is why is Trump so afraid of this race going bad?
Trump is terrified of losing control of the Republican Party. Trump's power comes from being the decider and the kingmaker. The guy whose endorsement should determine who wins. So when you see a race become competitive or maybe it's unpredictable, it starts to threaten the illusion that Trump controls everything. He wants to be seen as controlling everything.
And that's why he keeps repeating this line about how almost everyone he endorses wins. He wants you to believe that his endorsement is so powerful and that his political opinion is dominant. The truth is he mostly picks in primaries. He endorses someone who's already going to win. He doesn't ever go, well, I'm going to pick this underdog.
And that's why he didn't endorse anyone in the Texas race, because the polling was so close. He didn't want to endorse Cornyn and have Paxton win, which diminishes the perceived power of Donald Trump's endorsement. He didn't want to pick Paxton and have the incumbent John Cornyn win for the exact same reason. you should just endorse your candidate and let voters decide.
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