Support The Bulwark and subscribe today.
  Join Now

Bonus: No B.S—Live From LA – Part 1 (PREVIEW)

January 21, 2023
Notes
Transcript

The gang hit the road this week with a live show from the Avalon Hollywood. To listen to the entire show go to The Next Level at https://thenextlevel.thebulwark.com/p/no-bs-live-la#details.

Part two of the show features our guest, Jon Favreau, host of the Pod Save America podcast. Listen here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors and omissions. Ironically, the transcription service has particular problems with the word “bulwark,” so you may see it mangled as “Bullard,” “Boulart,” or even “bull word.” Enjoy!
  • Speaker 1
    0:00:06

    Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Bulwark five. I’m JBL here with my best friends. Sarah Longwell. Timothy Miller, both of the Boulart, got some breaking news before we went and sat down.
  • Speaker 1
    0:00:25

    Fox News is reporting we have a Caravan of critical race theory teachers coming up across the southern border to confiscate everybody’s gas stoves. It’s really it’s their No. No. That’s not the real the real news is if Carrie Lake thinks she’s gonna run for senate now. That’s true.
  • Speaker 1
    0:00:45

    It’s true. And and we have more George Santos. So we would we have to start with George we have to start with the candy before we have the spinach. So George Santos is in the news again. I’ve I’ve been keeping this.
  • Speaker 1
    0:00:57

    George Santos, the Republican member of Congress. Then we have George DeValder, who is the businessman with the Ponzi scheme. Then we have Anthony De Baldwin, who is just like some dude, evidently. And finally, we have Kittara Brazilian drag queen.
  • Speaker 2
    0:01:14

    Kitara Raj. Kitara, do we have any Portuguese speakers out there? I couldn’t understand what the reference was. I know Obregon, though. But Quittaro Revash, it has a nice kind of Do
  • Speaker 1
    0:01:24

    you think she did any story hours? I
  • Speaker 2
    0:01:27

    think she did some
  • Speaker 1
    0:01:28

    No. That’s no problem.
  • Speaker 2
    0:01:29

    She did some death drops.
  • Speaker 1
    0:01:31

    Yeah. If she was if she was out there doing some brunches, you know, in the community, would that be alright? Anyway, So this is this is a problem, obviously, because this I don’t mean this. I’m I’m not laughing about this one. So Greg Stuebe, who is a a Florida representative.
  • Speaker 1
    0:01:47

    Thoughts
  • Speaker 2
    0:01:48

    and prayers? Thoughts
  • Speaker 1
    0:01:51

    and prayers. Thoughts and prayers. He fell off a twenty five foot ladder. Let this be a lesson to all of you. If you are a a man who fancies himself as being handy, never go up a ladder higher than ten feet.
  • Speaker 1
    0:02:03

    Ever. You’re asking for death. And so, anyway, so this guy’s in the ICU and the Republicans have just very ostentatiously passed the the role rule rescinding the ability to vote remotely. So you gotta, like, get yourself to the to the floor to vote. Which means that the majority is down to three.
  • Speaker 1
    0:02:23

    And with Santos where to go, to be down to two, And so what what’s gonna happen?
  • Speaker 3
    0:02:31

    Santos is gonna get committee assignments. Do you
  • Speaker 1
    0:02:33

    already He got his too. He got his too. His committee assignments are Small business.
  • Speaker 2
    0:02:38

    Before we get serious, can we just reflect on something about George, about Khichar Rivash or anything? The first time that George kind of came into our field division, we had a podcast the next level podcast people are listening, and Sarah’s observation was anyone saying so. Let me say that. I’m just kinda wondering if you’ve kinda reflected upon that at all or change your view.
  • Speaker 1
    0:03:01

    I’m just so annoying. Definitely
  • Speaker 3
    0:03:03

    in the can. I was like, you knew you were gonna throw throw that at me. I don’t remember saying it. It was weird. You
  • Speaker 2
    0:03:08

    don’t remember saying
  • Speaker 3
    0:03:09

    it. You know how much I like, like, a quarter zip sweater vest. He’s just like a boy. He and he looks like a like a priest. Like an off play.
  • Speaker 3
    0:03:21

    I
  • Speaker 1
    0:03:22

    mean, there are a lot of gay priests in fairness to shoe fits. Right? Yeah. I
  • Speaker 3
    0:03:28

    will just say, this is it is very unfortunate that the first gay, openly gay elected Republican, is him. I Not great for the movement. It’s not great for the movement. Yeah.
  • Speaker 1
    0:03:41

    No. No. Oh, your people, Tim. So So so, I mean, I’m not keeping score at home really, but no pulse nightclub deaths, no holocaust deaths in the family, not actually Jewish, mom did not die in nine eleven, not a wealthy businessman, didn’t go to Brook College, did not play volleyball, but
  • Speaker 3
    0:04:02

    a striker.
  • Speaker 2
    0:04:04

    Now he was a he was a striker at Baruque.
  • Speaker 1
    0:04:06

    He actually does. This
  • Speaker 3
    0:04:07

    is the most amazing one. Imagine being like, okay. I’m gonna make up a new identity out of whole cloth to make myself sound awesome. And my story’s gonna be I played volleyball. That’s striking.
  • Speaker 3
    0:04:18

    I mean, I don’t know what position that is at volleyball. Maybe it’s a cool position, but, like, Can
  • Speaker 2
    0:04:24

    he get can he jump at Striker? I think it has some verticals.
  • Speaker 3
    0:04:27

    I don’t know anything about volleyball.
  • Speaker 1
    0:04:29

    Anyway, it’s it’s a mess. But but here’s my question. So the the only thing which is gonna drag him out of congress, I assume is criminal wrongdoing. Right? So it’s it’s mostly about where did the seven hundred thousand dollars come from Do we think that Kevboe is gonna slow roll any attempts to actually find that out?
  • Speaker 1
    0:04:49

    Because he needs to have the vote? Oh,
  • Speaker 2
    0:04:52

    yeah. Of course. No. He’s gonna be there. Is there any difference between him and, like, Louis Gomez, really?
  • Speaker 2
    0:04:57

    I don’t I
  • Speaker 3
    0:04:57

    don’t know. Well, Gomez, I don’t have a lot
  • Speaker 2
    0:04:59

    of time on him. There’s a lot of there’s four hundred thirty five of them. A lot of jokers in there. And so no. He’s gonna continue to be there.
  • Speaker 2
    0:05:06

    He absolutely needs McCarthy needs the vote. And like, what is the what is the impetus for getting rid of them? I like his egg on this one. Santos, by the way, I mean, this is he’s got brass balls. K?
  • Speaker 2
    0:05:20

    Like, every time he walks down the hallway, every camera is following him everywhere. And everyone in his life knows that he’s full of shit and knows that he’s a liar. I mean, he stole a dead man’s check-in order to buy shoes. Like, he’s a he he hasn’t paid multiple people rent
  • Speaker 3
    0:05:37

    still. Money from a war dog. He
  • Speaker 2
    0:05:38

    took money from a war dog. He’s on TV every minute, and the dude is just the dude will not
  • Speaker 1
    0:05:43

    You know what? I think he likes it. Power
  • Speaker 2
    0:05:45

    of shame.
  • Speaker 1
    0:05:46

    Nothing. I think he likes it. I don’t think I think he gets off on it. I don’t think so. Like, you know, you’re like, oh, he’s really stealing himself.
  • Speaker 1
    0:05:54

    I don’t wanna think so. He’s like buffalo Bill in front of the mirror.
  • Speaker 3
    0:05:56

    Here’s the that means
  • Speaker 1
    0:06:01

    I
  • Speaker 2
    0:06:01

    don’t is that, like, a seventies or whatever? It’s, like, a dark digler. I don’t know what it
  • Speaker 1
    0:06:05

    is. You know what I mean?
  • Speaker 3
    0:06:07

    Weirdly, like, the whole audience got it.
  • Speaker 1
    0:06:11

    Alright. So let’s let’s get a little more serious. We have the committee assignments. Here’s
  • Speaker 3
    0:06:15

    the possibility. Think about Santos, I just wanna say, it’s like, nobody’s gonna be get rid of him. Like, he will do whatever McCarthy wants. Right? Because he is so he himself now is like, nobody will talk to him.
  • Speaker 3
    0:06:25

    He doesn’t have any friends. The best side story of the McCarthy speaker vote was all of the pictures of him. Like, a loan or, like, trying to hang out with Marjorie Taylor Green because she’s the other weirdo that people don’t like that much. And so he will he will be like a lapdog vote.
  • Speaker 2
    0:06:40

    You’ll be on the side. In that case, I think he might be his son.
  • Speaker 3
    0:06:43

    Yeah. That’s
  • Speaker 1
    0:06:44

    the first step. Thanks to each other. Well, this was he did so his his big media appearance was he went on the the Bannon show while it was being guest hosted. I’m a My magazine rev. It’s perfect.
  • Speaker 1
    0:06:55

    Nice. Alright. Well, we got the rest of the video.
  • Speaker 2
    0:06:58

    I’m just like, who the fuck cares. Honestly, who the fuck cares? He’s on the small business committee. It doesn’t matter. Like, he’s he’s one vote.
  • Speaker 2
    0:07:03

    The the the more concerning thing about the committees if we can move off the key. Also,
  • Speaker 1
    0:07:07

    on the science space and technology. They’re very important to that. Well, we’ve discovered time travel guys. He might
  • Speaker 2
    0:07:13

    have oversight over whether we moved to permanent daylight savings which is an important manner that I that I if he’s on my side, I’m a pro pro devolver after that. But Like, the other committee assignments are the are the meaningful ones. Right? Like, the the the I I feel like Santos in some ways has blacking up the sun of like the influence that the Marjorie Taylor Greens of the world in particular are, you know, are gonna have over some very some very consequential, you know, matters. I’d like you have MARCH who who thought nine eleven was fake on the homeland security committee.
  • Speaker 2
    0:07:46

    Like, that’s a little concerning. Right? You have you have Chip Roy and the Goatee and, like, grab ass Jim Jordan. Like, there are gonna be our two negotiators over whether the whether country defaults on the debt. Like the, you know, the fact that Paul goes are, you know, who is an active, you know, white nationalist collaborator is gonna be on these committees.
  • Speaker 2
    0:08:05

    Scott Perry Right. And
  • Speaker 1
    0:08:06

    you’re in oversight.
  • Speaker 2
    0:08:07

    Right. Yeah. They don’t like, So Scott Harry who engineered the coup at the DOJ. I know Scott Harry was the was a key member of the the DOJ coup of put it, what’s the guy’s name? The really nerdy guy that has an egghead.
  • Speaker 2
    0:08:20

    He was trying to make the thank you, Jeffrey Clark. I go, Scott Perry, that was trying to put Jeffrey Clark in, and that was actively advocating for that. He is gonna be the one that is doing the oversight of the sight of the January sixth thing. Like, all of that is way more important than George Santos, but I can’t even get his pants on in the morning. He doesn’t matter.
  • Speaker 2
    0:08:39

    I
  • Speaker 1
    0:08:39

    I would say this. You know, I mean, two weeks ago, our friend, Ross, Alpha, wrote that, you know, the You know, the
  • Speaker 2
    0:08:44

    pre You know, it’s gonna be an endorsement. The
  • Speaker 1
    0:08:46

    pre Trump Republican party was back. Then yesterday in the New York Times. We had bad line. Right wing Trump allies win seats on oversight, reflecting GOP priorities. I was like, ah, Ross, This fucking guy.
  • Speaker 1
    0:09:00

    Practically speaking, despite the fact that it’s outrageous to have somebody who wants to defund the FBI. Well, you know, I thought they were the law and order party. So, by the fact, you have people who wanna defund the FBI running like homeland security. Practically speaking, does any of it matter? Because nothing’s gonna pass.
  • Speaker 1
    0:09:14

    Right? Yes. Yes, why? Tell me what’s going to happen.
  • Speaker 2
    0:09:17

    I mean, the stuff that Kevin gave away, like the oversight elements that that it really does matter. And you can imagine a hypothetical other world where the Go SARs and the Perrys of the world are are, you know, given the Santos committee assignments, you know, they’re on the daylight savings time beat. Right? And you have responsible adults who are on the oversight beat, and you have responsible adults who are dealing with negotiating with with the Biden administration on, you know, we’re gonna deal with the debt ceiling, etcetera. So, I mean, I I I think that the fact that the terrorists are in charge of the full faith in credit of the United States is like pretty pretty meaningful.
  • Speaker 2
    0:09:53

    I mean, I guess it doesn’t matter in the sense of, oh, if you want, we’re hoping for, like, grand bipartisanship and great deals between John Vayner and Obama and Favreau and, like, they’re gonna come together and do Simpson Bowls. Like, you know, that’s not gonna that was never gonna happen. But, like, there still would have been a meaningful difference between Kevin putting, you know, Patrick McHenry in charge of oversight and, like, insane, insurrectionists and charge charge of oversight. But here’s
  • Speaker 3
    0:10:16

    the thing. Site. So Marjorie Taylor Green negotiated oversight. Right? Like, that was part of her demand — Yeah.
  • Speaker 3
    0:10:20

    — of Kennen. She wanted that committee and, like, I don’t know, let them have it. They are going to be front and center. Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bogart, and who’s the other weirdo on OversightNow? Is it GoStar No.
  • Speaker 3
    0:10:33

    Sorry.
  • Speaker 1
    0:10:33

    Go star Anne Perry.
  • Speaker 3
    0:10:35

    Go star Anne. Okay. So, like, let them be the face of the Republican Party while they’re leading here’s the thing. One of the things that listening to voters, voters have been the same with every impeachment, every investigation. They always think they’re a waste of time and they’re not focusing on, like, the real issues that people care about.
  • Speaker 3
    0:10:53

    But with a bunch of clowns in charge with the front of the cameras, I think that’s really bad for a public This is
  • Speaker 2
    0:10:58

    the this is the mindset that got you the Anthony Weiner laptop. Right. Like, these fuckers did Ben Gossey for years and years and years and, like, that’s how they found the fill or e mail, and that’s how you end up with, like, Anthony Weiner’s dick, like, giving us Donald Trump in twenty sixteen. Like, I you don’t really know, like, what could come out of these oversight things. You know, I don’t we don’t really know.
  • Speaker 2
    0:11:20

    Like, I sound like Hunter was exactly an up upright citizen. We don’t exactly know what him and Joe any
  • Speaker 3
    0:11:27

    Republican. That would have come out with any Republican. Yeah. Right? So any Republican that’s leading oversight was gonna find the same things.
  • Speaker 3
    0:11:32

    And in fact, serious people might find more serious things, clowns are gonna be clowns, and I think make the whole thing look less serious.
  • Speaker 1
    0:11:40

    Well, so this assumes I would say there would this push backs into a pushes into attention here. Right? Which is that most voters never hear about these things and don’t care about them. So I have a feeling six months from now, you’re gonna be doing a focus group. You’re gonna say, what do you think about this blah, blah committee and their investigation being run by Margaritailer Green.
  • Speaker 1
    0:12:00

    And the people in your focus group are gonna go, Uh-huh. Right? Not
  • Speaker 3
    0:12:05

    a nice imitation of the I’m sorry. The great people of the United States of America. Wow. Wow. What
  • Speaker 1
    0:12:11

    what sort of investigations are you talking about, miss Longwell? And and so I do worry, because this is I mean, again, this seems like the you know, what was that thing we had of an upmarket version of usual accent. It’s like kind of a country lawyer versus like a yoko. We used to you know, with the like like with the special counsels, the independent prosecutors. When it’s a Democrat being investigated, you have to have a Republican to prove that you’re you’re straight.
  • Speaker 1
    0:12:38

    When it’s a Republican being investigated, have to have a Republican to prove that you’re being straight. Like, why do we assume that these overreaches will will hurt Republicans? They seem to only hurt Democrats. Right? When Democrats overreach somehow in Congress, the, you know, Fox does, like, ninety eight hours of straight coverage on gas stoves And, you know, who’s to say that that this stuff is really gonna help?
  • Speaker 1
    0:13:04

    Or hurt hurt the dams. Swing us around this
  • Speaker 3
    0:13:08

    theory that I think we probably talk about because we talk all the time about how the Republic right? The voters a lot, especially swing voters, have an impression of the Republican party that I call the Reagan Hangover, which is that they still see. And this is why when you get poll questions where they ask things like who do you think would take better care of the economy? Who do you think is better on foreign policy? And Republicans really outperform, and that’s because they’re running on this image.
  • Speaker 3
    0:13:33

    Did you just drink my drink? Goddamn it. They’re running on this. Somebody brings him a drink. And someone
  • Speaker 2
    0:13:40

    can bring me a drink. THEY’RE
  • Speaker 3
    0:13:43

    RUNNING ON THIS IMAGES, RIGHT, THAT IS NO LONGER THE CASE. AND PART OF WHAT THE WORK THAT I DO POLITICALLY HAS BEEN ABOUT IS SHOWING PEOPLE THAT THIS IS NOT the pre Trump Republican Party. This is not Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party. These are not responsible people. And I think that, you know, I take Tim’s point that these are serious jobs and it’s not good to have, you know, ridiculous, terrible people in charge of them.
  • Speaker 3
    0:14:07

    That being said, there is something more honest about, you know, margarine keeping margarine Taylor Green sort of confined to Bannon’s war room is helpful to, you know, because swing voters don’t see that. Nobody nobody sees it. So I think having them front and center, letting people see what the Republican party has become is an important exercise. It’s important for people to understand where we are now. I’ll
  • Speaker 2
    0:14:28

    just say briefly that you’re this is the thing you’re the most wrong about JBL. Like, the the Republican outreach dinner Republicans, it’s the whole reason that Chuck Schumer is the center majority leader right now is that they’re Republicans dominated lunatics and insane people. And Republicans do get punished for their overreach. If Republicans weren’t punished for their overreach, like, Kemma McCarthy would have a big majority, and Anthony de Valder wouldn’t be in Congress. They wouldn’t have any committee assignments.
  • Speaker 2
    0:14:50

    They wouldn’t have any
  • Speaker 1
    0:14:50

    committee assignments — We’re in — — meetings for Benghazi. Right? I mean, they they might get punished for nominating extremist candidates, but for, like, governing overreach. Are they And they’re
  • Speaker 2
    0:15:02

    punished in eighteen and fourteen?
  • Speaker 1
    0:15:05

    Alright. Well, maybe we’ll see. I mean, I don’t know that we sell it. Tim is always right t shirt. So I was putting odds on it.
  • Speaker 1
    0:15:13

    I’d probably put the odds on me. Alright. So can we talk? I don’t
  • Speaker 2
    0:15:19

    see any of your t shirts out there.
  • Speaker 1
    0:15:21

    I thought
  • Speaker 2
    0:15:22

    they’re not selling like hotcakes.
  • Speaker 1
    0:15:27

    Oh, hello? There’s one.
  • Speaker 3
    0:15:29

    Hello. Who is it?
  • Speaker 2
    0:15:31

    There’s always the one. That is
  • Speaker 1
    0:15:34

    JZL. Yeah. And go home. Sir, I’m buying you a drink once this
  • Speaker 2
    0:15:38

    is over. You
  • Speaker 1
    0:15:39

    can even have a Xanax I get jealous.
  • Speaker 3
    0:15:41

    Oh, that’s a French village guy too. This is guy who watched all of the French village and listened to all of the podcast. Alright.
  • Speaker 1
    0:15:48

    So can we talk about twenty twenty four? I think that’s what the people the people want to hear. Right? Yeah. Hey there.
  • Speaker 1
    0:15:56

    This is JBL. To hear the rest of the show, come and join us and become a member of Bulwark Plus.
Want to listen without ads? Join Bulwark+ for an exclusive ad-free version of The Next Level Podcast! Learn more here. Already a Bulwark+ member? Access the premium version here.