Casual invasion announcement drops as Vance defends the worst
The David Pakman Show - January 9, 2026
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Trump sits down with Sean Hannity for what was supposed to be a friendly interview, and it did not go well. He bragged about the Venezuela operation, claimed the U.S. has “taken over a whole country,” and talked about taking billions in oil like that was the entire point. Then he slid into the Nobel Peace Prize fantasy, saying he’d be “honored” to accept Maria Corina Machado’s prize if she wants to hand it to him, which is not how Nobels work, but it is how Trump’s ego works.
Trump also casually announced the U.S. is going to start bombing Mexico over cartels, without Congress, without legal authority, and without any coherent plan for what that even targets. Mexico is a major economic partner with deeply integrated supply chains, and cartels are not a standing army you can bomb into compliance. If Trump follows through, retaliation is predictable, immediate, and likely to put Americans in the crosshairs because criminal networks respond with kidnappings and killings, not press releases.
JD Vance went to the White House briefing room and tried to launder the Minneapolis killing by calling the ICE operation “legitimate,” as if that answers whether the shooting itself was justified. He framed the agent as the victim, floated claims the videos do not support, and defaulted to his usual move: blame the media, change the subject, and talk as though questioning state violence is the real offense. It was a master class in saying words that sound official while avoiding anything that resembles accountability.
On Fox News, Jessica Tarlov did what the network’s “just asking questions” crowd refuses to do: look at the footage and follow the facts. She pointed to multi-angle video that contradicts the administration’s narrative and raised the obvious issue that deadly force is not supposed to be used just to stop a fleeing suspect, especially when an officer can move out of the way. Her bigger point was the simplest one, and Fox still can’t say it: the responsible response is investigate first, not canonize the shooter on day one.
Tulsi Gabbard’s credibility cratered because she staked it on a claim that Trump himself is busy detonating. She had insisted Trump would never do regime change and now she’s stuck defending an administration openly flirting with it, while getting sidelined whenever her talking points collide with Trump’s impulses. The through-line is that she sells moral certainty, then adjusts her principles to whatever keeps her close to power.
Finally, Rand Paul went on Fox News and punctured the justifications for Venezuela in the calmest way possible, which made it worse for Trump. When the host tried the fentanyl script, Paul noted Venezuela is not exporting fentanyl at all, and the rationale fell apart on live TV. His larger point was that bombing a capital and removing a president is an act of war that should go through Congress, and the fact that a Republican senator had to explain that on right-wing media tells you how unmoored the whole project has become.
On today’s bonus show:
The FBI shuts down the Minnesota assassination investigation, CBS News chief Bari Weiss stalls another anti-Trump 60 Minutes report, and Jesse Ventura attacks Donald Trump while hinting at a run for governor.
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This is amazing, the incident happened near where George Floyd was killed. Since VP Vance says it was all well and good, no need for investigation. Since when does he become judge and jury? Did he get his law degree at Yale using Cliff Notes? So much for legal ethics.
Up next - Trump demands that Michael Phelps and Katy Ledecky hand over their gold medals and that the estate of Ernest Hemingway hand over his Pulitzer Prize.