Pathetic 2nd Stimulus on the Horizon

The David Pakman Show - December 17, 2020

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Trump Tells Advisers He Will REFUSE TO LEAVE White House

CNN is reporting that Donald Trump has told advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day. Aides report being alarmed by Trump saying this, knowing that Secret Service escorting a president out of the White House would not be such a good look. If Trump is still in the White House at noon on January 20th, he will be escorted out in humiliating fashion. While Trump as a former president will have some Secret Service protection, the agency will be operating under the Biden administration at that point and can order Trump’s security detail to stand down.

It’s also quite likely Trump disappears at Christmas time or takes Air Force One down to Florida for an Inauguration Day campaign rally. Refusing to leave altogether would be the most dramatic option. His supporters would love the defiance and there would be nothing better for ratings and shock value. For a president driven by his own self-interest, it’s clearly an option he’s been considering. While it would provide great entertainment, a move like this would be horrible for democracy and further tarnish America’s image in the world.

Trump Darling Newsmax Floats INSANE Conspiracy Theory

Newsmax has been crushing it in the ratings ever since Election Day. While right-wing media giant Fox News has mostly accepted that Biden legitimately won the election, Newsmax is one of the fringe networks maintaining that Trump was the victim of nationwide voter fraud. Once an obscure network, Newsmax is now competing with Fox and even beat them in the ratings recently for the 7 pm time slot. As the network grows, Newsmax appears committed to the same crazy nonsense that propelled them into the national spotlight in the first place.

While the channel is now reluctantly calling Biden the president-elect, they still argue Trump has a solid chance at pulling off the coup. One Newsmax host named Grant Stinchfield said this week that even Kamala Harris suspects that she won’t be sworn in as America’s first female vice president on January 20th. Stinchfield pointed out that Harris hasn’t resigned from the Senate yet, even though Barack Obama resigned from the Senate before Thanksgiving when he was elected president in 2008. The simple explanation is that Harris is needed by Democrats to vote on appointments and legislation during the lame duck period. If this is supposed to be “evidence” for voter fraud in the 2020 election, it’s clear they don’t have any good arguments at all.

From yesterday’s show:

COVID PEAK DATE: Biden Inauguration Day?

Coronavirus in the United States continues to get worse and worse. Yesterday, there were a record 248,000 new cases and a record 3,500 deaths. If there’s any hope at all, it’s that the case numbers for the third wave finally appear to be flattening. The numbers we are seeing now are likely to extend for the next two or three months. Infectious disease experts predict that the worst day of the pandemic will be around January 20th, which happens to be the day Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States. Hopefully, with vaccines around the corner, the decline in cases and deaths will be steeper than the climb up to this point. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but the fact remains that it’s going to be a very dark winter.

--More on the show:

--Lee Drutman, author of "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America" and co-host of the podcast Politics in Question, joins David to discuss the two party system in the US, its failings, and how it could be broken. Get the book: https://amzn.to/2KAouRi

--A second coronavirus stimulus/relief package takes shape and is likely to include only $600 stimulus payments to Americans, a pathetic pittance given the economic situation and the wealth level of the United States

--Notable discussions from the David Pakman Show subreddit, including about Joe Biden being impeached by Republicans and whether it's actually truly over now that the electors voted

--Former Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie finally comes out for mask-wearing, but only after he caught serious COVID-19 and ended up in a hospital ICU

--Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson quickly reverts back to classic anti-Semitic right-wing tropes, blaming George Soros, the old rich Jewish guy, for America's problems

--The Eggman explains that coronavirus vaccination stickers are a terrible idea because they will get people assaulted in very red parts of the country

--On the Bonus Show: Swedish king says Sweden failed on coronavirus, Iran's Rouhani says no conditions or negotiation on nuclear deal, major SCOTUS sports decision upcoming, much more...

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