Speaker 1: I told you earlier this week that former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell has
pleaded guilty. She now has come out and pushed the claims that she pleaded guilty
because prosecutors extorted her and that the election really was stolen from Donald
Trump. My analysis of this complete layperson analysis that I don't know her personally,
just from the things she said and done publicly is that she is very much unwell. This does not
seem like a well woman. Let's look at what's going on. Businessinsider reports Sidney Powell
pushes claims that 2020 election was rigged. Prosecutors extorted her after her guilty plea.
And it reminds us Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to election interference in Georgia's criminal case.
Last week. She's still pushing claims that the 2020 election was rigged and prosecutors target
conservatives. Her organization's newsletter promoted an article saying the D.A., quote,
extorted a guilty plea from Powell. She continues, I guess to believe that Joe Biden didn't really
win in 2020. I know it's been almost three years. It's been 60 court cases. It's been a total lack
of evidence everywhere. On her social media accounts, Powell has continued to push claims
that it was rigged and that prosecutors in Georgia who brought a criminal case against
her were politically motivated. She says that she was extorted in her guilty plea. I'm going to just
be super honest. This, to me, seems like someone who does believe what she is saying. You know,
we talk about the Steve Bannon really believe the election was stolen. I don't think so. I
just don't. I just don't I don't I don't buy it. I don't think he's being genuine. Steve Bannon
says and does so many things for posturing to activate the right people, to send messages
and to to to get certain political constituencies into action. I don't think Steve Bannon believes
it for a second. I think Bannon knows that Biden won. On the other hand, you've got someone like
a mike Pillow who I've kind of gone back and forth. Does he believe it? Does he not believe
it? I have moments where I think he does. I have moments where I think he doesn't. I think Sidney
Powell is a classic example of someone who really does believe it. And she seems mentally ill. Now,
I'm not issuing a diagnosis. I'm just saying if we look at the interviews, we look at her behavior,
we look at her walking out of interviews, furious, We look at these things that she's saying, her
seemingly complete inability to just accept things as they are. She seems like a true believer. She
seems unwell. I don't know what the diagnosis is. It would be for someone who is qualified to to
explore that, to figure it out. But she does seem like a true believer. And then this gets us to
the broader conversation, which is I've talked to you before about how when we hear a poll number,
like 57% of Republicans believe that Trump won in 2020. Okay. Some portion of that 57% really
believes it. And some portion of the 57% believes that in order to signal their allegiance to their
tribe, they're supposed to answer in a poll that they believe it when in reality they do
not. You've got the people who don't believe in and are willing to say, I don't believe it. The
people who do believe it and say, I believe it. But then you've got the people who don't
believe it but say they do because they see this as fighting some kind of war. The ends justify the
means. The means justify the ends whichever way you want to do it. I know both are popular now,
if you listen to Republicans, and that is really the question when we think about what portion of
this country actually continues to believe this stuff at this point in time. The 2024 election,
in a way, is going to be a referendum on that. It will be the first opportunity where everybody
who feels that they were wronged in 2020 and it was stolen. What action are they going to
take? Some who believe it was stolen are going to come back, rip roaring and say, we're going
to get it back. This time we're going to vote again. Others, I mean, listen, in some sense,
if you believe they stole your vote in 2020 and you have no reason to think that problem has
been fixed. Aren't they going to just steal your vote again in 2024? Why would you even bother? Why
wouldn't you just stay home? And of course, this is the risk we've been talking about for a while,
from continuing to push on. It was stolen and nobody cares. It's that if you really convince
enough voters that their vote is going to be stolen again, you're effectively convincing those
people to stay home. You're telling them your vote is not going to matter. And then usually when you
confront them with this, they come back and they say, well, they're going to steal some votes. We
need so many people to vote that they're not able to steal it. It's a silly argument because if
indeed those doing the theft are as sophisticated as they must be to leave absolutely no trace,
a few million more people voting is not a problem that they can't overcome. So none of it
makes sense. It's all incoherent. But there are people who plan to vote who are in the category
of Sidney Powell. True believers probably unwell to some degree. All we can do is make sure we're
registered to vote and that we're there on Election Day voting against them. We'll take
a very quick break. Make sure you're signed up on YouTube packed program today. So I'll try to do as
little time wasting as possible. The David Paxman Show, of course, is a community funded program. I
invite you to match what you might be paying Fox News, which by the way, if you have cable TV,
you are paying Fox News. Fox News gets a subscriber fee from every single cable customer.
Just match it by signing up it. Join Pacman dot com. You can use the coupon code for years for
indictments. You'll save. Everybody wins. And it's just such a great thing.