Trump’s latest money funneling scheme

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Late night bites with friends?
Already hard to beat. That first too hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for, followed by ice cold Pepsi. Now that hits different. Suddenly, the energy kicks back in, the night goes longer, and the laughs don't stop. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment.
Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today.

**David Pakman** (0:34)
Could it actually be Donald Trump who stole an election?
Bear with me here.
Donald Trump has spent six years now insisting he really won in 2020 Joe Biden didn't win. Joe Biden stole it. Trump is actually the rightful winner in 2020
We are now in 2026 and increasingly people are asking are asking the opposite question. Was it actually Donald Trump who stole an election back in 2016? Now you may be saying that's ten years ago, David. Wake up. Why is this coming up again? Let me explain why this is coming up again. The Trump White House recently released secret FBI documents about an investigation called Oxford, comma. The documents show that after Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in 2017, the FBI investigated whether Trump was working for Russia, either knowingly the least likely scenario or without realizing it, the more likely scenario. That sounds maybe crazy, but it also sounds like there might be proof of something. Buried in all of it. Let me slow down and explain this. What the documents that were released by Trump show is that the FBI looked at the possibility that Trump was acting on the behalf of Russia, acting for Russia's benefit. Now before people go Russia gate, what we're talking about here is a guy who unknowingly is advocating for that which would benefit Russia. And there are a dozen or more reasons why he might end up doing that. It doesn't prove Trump is an overt Russian agent. It doesn't prove that Donald Trump personally stole the 2016 election. Let's talk about what we know.
We know that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump. Russian intelligence appears to have hacked Democratic organizations and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The stolen emails were released through Wikileaks. Russian operatives also pretended to be Americans online. They bought political ads. They pushed propaganda that was designed to divide the country and to hurt Hillary Clinton. Doesn't require any proactive involvement by Donald Trump personally.
But we do know that the Trump campaign expected to benefit. How do we know that? Because Donald Trump Jr. agreed to a meeting after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. And Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared internal polling information with Constantine Kilimnik, who the Senate Intelligence Committee has identified as a Russian intelligence officer. And Trump repeatedly praised Wikileaks while it was releasing the stolen information that was believed to be damaging to Hillary Clinton. And it was damaging to Hillary Clinton. Everything I've said so far happened. None of it is speculation. Interpretations may differ, but every single thing I just told you took place. Fact check me. Trust but verify you will find that I am telling you what took place. Here's the part that's not been proven, but is a growing topic of discussion. Robert Mueller's investigation did not establish that Trump's campaign had a criminal agreement with the Russian government. There is no evidence that Russia changed votes, hacked voting machines. The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee said it found no evidence that vote totals were altered. So if the claim that Trump and Russia secretly changed the count and manufactured the victory is the one we're evaluating, there is no evidence for that. And I hope every MAGA person who's hearing this segment is not going to come out of and say, well, David Pakman's pushing that Russia... Oh my God, my lights turn. How embarrassing. My lights turned off while I'm talking to you about something so important. That's a lack of professionalism here.
They love to straw man and go, what you think Russia changed votes? That's not what we're talking about.
What we're talking about here is whether Russia's influence operation changed enough minds to put Donald Trump over the top.
Trump won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by fewer than 78,000 votes combined, combined.
Russia's operation was designed to hurt Hillary Clinton and to help Trump. The WikiLeaks releases hurt Hillary Clinton. Comey's late announcement about Hillary's emails hurt Hillary Clinton. Could that have moved 78,000 votes? Of course it could have. Can anyone prove that they did? No.
And again, importantly, we are not saying that Hillary that Trump rigged it against Hillary the way that Trump is saying Biden rigged it against him in 2020 We're talking about something totally different. It doesn't involve shadowy manipulation of votes or ham sandwiches being brought in on a van on the election day.