The Handy Seen Round the World

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the next level. I’m J. V. L here with my best friends.

Sarah Longwell and Tim Miller of the Bulwark. Quick reminder, this channel is going away. If If you are a YouTube watcher, if you’re listening to it on a podcast machine on Stitcher, perhaps. That’s an inside joke. Then you don’t have to do anything.

It’s gonna be fine. If you’re a YouTube watcher, you gotta go and subscribe to the main bulwark channel. Just mash mashed up. It’s right there.

If you’re not a YouTube watcher, really, you should be subscribed to the main Bulwark YouTube channel.

Yeah. And also a heads up The focus group is coming back this Saturday. Best friend, Sarah Longwell.

Focus Secret Podcast, drop in Saturday.

Do you have any people who sound like Klitus? I will say no. Oh, good. Good.

But I will say it is a a big mash up of the summer focus groups because we never stopped doing the groups, just doing the show. With wet on hays. Yeah. Can’t stop one stop. So The first one, our guest is Jake Tapper for our inaugural guest, which was great because it really it’s about the indictment.

It’s all the sound from the various indictments in people’s reactions. And so we get into sort of how does the media deal with this because the amplification has obviously helped Trump. And so it’s a really interesting great start to the new season. I guess.

The second guest more or less handsome than Jake Tapper.

The second guest, to talk about all the, also Rands is my pearl wearing friend Tim Miller.

Oh. Oh. How interesting. Okay. Right.

We’ll be on the show, guys. You’ll almost you’ll all be on the show, JBL. JBL, do you know how many requests I get for just, like, so people, like, offer me money to just let you sit and moderate a focus group and talk to real people?

That is gonna be the the the champagne room tier for the Bulwark. Gonna be rolling it out very soon. And what it is, it’s actually it’s it’s gonna be a little expensive, a little pricey, but did you see the movie saw Because what we’ll do is we’ll put the focus group people into a saw room and I am Jigsaw. And as they tell me their thoughts about politics and the world around them and whether or not inflation is way up and whether or not they can afford eggs, then I will devise some horrible way of of murdering them.

Is why no matter how much money people offer me, my answer is always no.

Okay. Tim, you got a surprise for us. I don’t know what it is. Let me hear. Yeah.

I’d like to start out with a couple personal items. Personal privilege. That they’re related to politics, and I just want I just there are surprises for both of you and for the audience. And, they’re kinda related to your newsletter actually JBL, which is why I thought it’d be good to start here. The first one, I was in New York this week.

You didn’t stop by.

I didn’t. Staying in a hotel. I don’t know about you. Do you guys do you guys get weird dreams when you stay in hotels? We, like, are are more vivid dreams than when you’re in your own bed?

Maybe that’s just me. I get very vivid dreams on the road. And, I woke up in a cold sweat on Tuesday morning in the middle of the night and I helped him garden in in New York, because the UN was in town and everything was very expensive. And, I realized that I’d been dreaming like a resistance porn dream about the fact that Donald Trump was about to become the president again and I was like on a bus and we’re like on a mission and I was with bulwark people and other journalists and we’re starting. And so, like, the dream is kind of corny and it’s kind of weird.

But but as I laid there in bed, I was like, my subconscious has really been kind of processing the fact that Donald Trump might be president again, and now it’s like showing up in my like, you know, I’ve been sort of denying this reality as possible and I’ve been showing up my subconscious. And I’ve been I was thinking about What can I do to kind of help myself process this? Okay. This relates to item too. And that is, when I decided to move to Northern, The first thing we did before we found Talissa School, before we did anything, we identified when the Beyonce tour was stopping in New Orleans.

And that is next Wednesday. That is next Wednesday evening, September the twenty seventh. We purchased tickets before we purchased a home. We’re very excited about this. We love Beyonce.

Uh-uh big Frida who is on her record is from New Orleans. It’s the tour closer. It’s gonna be so exciting. And then a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been keeping this inside. I noticed that the second Republican debate was scheduled for that same evening.

And I was I was mourning this I was mourning it. I was saying, I can’t believe I’m gonna miss this for this fucking second debate. And after I had that dream, I was like, You know? I need to do something for me. And so friends, I’m not gonna be watching the second Republican debate.

The first one did not matter. The second one does not matter. It is on Fox Business, and I’m gonna go to Beyonce, and I’m gonna wear a very slutty outfit, and I’m gonna wear face things. I’m gonna get in costume. And, I guess maybe I’ll come home and watch a replay of it.

I don’t know. But I’m just I’m doing this for me. And it’s just one small step. I know that I know that I owe the the listeners and our Bulwark Plus subscribers. Like, they wanna hear what I think about things.

I get that. But, you know, we all need to process, like, the horribleness of the next thirteen months in our own way. And I’m just I’m not taking this joy away. Myself. If Donald Trump won’t be the fucking president again.

I’m not taking this joy away for myself to watch Vivek and Nikki Haley fight over who’s at six percent. Like, I’m just I’m not gonna do that.

For the champagne room tier of of Bulwark Plus membership, you are gonna from your phone zoom in for literally three minutes from wherever you are, from the arena, from the street outside with the face stuff, whatever that means. I don’t even know what that means with your study costume. I don’t know what that means either.

Don’t wear face jewels.

And you’re just gonna, you know, as lit up as you are, you’re gonna just give us a two minutes on how the concert was.

I I will do that. I’m glad I will be happy to I’ll be happy to do that. And And so that part is is more it’s it is funny but it’s also and it’s also schtick, but it is true. The second debate doesn’t matter. So I just I don’t know why I would I would change this, but it is really to the first part which serious, which is your newsletter JVL, which is like this is like really happening.

Sarah Longwell you read it?

This is really happening. It’s not even out yet.

I was just I was just taking hacks on tap right before this. I haven’t heard anything.

Don’t let him bully you. It’s not even out yet. He sent it to me for my thoughts. And I was like, oh my god, this newsletter is right in line with what I was laying in bed in the middle of the night thinking about. It’s like, we have to accept this.

Like, this is really this is really happening. And and I think that it will, to move to a more serious note from Beyonce. I think that it explains a little bit of the increased angst that I’m seeing among the pro democracy coalition. You know, there’s a little bit of infighting happening right now. People are mad.

Like, they’re certain people that wanna raise red flags about Joe Biden. Certain people are mad that people wanna raise red flags about Joe Biden. Certain people want them to do this. I wanna do that and then argue about strategy and and maybe we should do this maybe we should do that. And I think part of that angst is really the fact that, like, everyone is is at the same time processing the fact that, like, This is fucking really could happen.

Like this lunatic could really be the president again. And so I think that we should have a little bit of grace with each other as everyone kind of figures out the right approach. Sarah obviously is gonna have the best approach because she has the most data to figure it out. But, you know, that is gonna include what the right approach is for defeating him, politically, but also what the right approach is for all of us not losing our fucking minds. Between now and next November.

So that that’s where I wanted to start.

Sarah, what do you think the odds are that he’s president?

Forty five percent?

Yeah. Yeah.

And so how are you doing with that mentally? Let’s talk about this. Like, I’m your therapist.

I mean, look, I deal with this stuff the way I’ve always dealt with it, which is to try to figure out what can I control in this situation? Right? And I am spending my time. And I’m not no judgment. I think Beyonce concerts are great.

But I am getting in front of every person that I can get in front of to say Donald Trump can legitimately win. You’ve gotta start reckoning with this. I’m spreading. Anxiety, actually. Because I’m like, you gotta start reckoning with this.

We need a strategy. It’s gonna be harder this time because you are not people can’t project their hopes and dreams onto Joe Biden. He’s got a record to contend with that despite JBL’s protestations is not as popular as you’d want. Considering the danger that Donald Trump represents. And, there’s a bunch of exogenous events that could happen around health.

I’ve become very queasy, not because I think one way or another about Kamala Harris. I just listened to voters, swing voters, especially when you say Trump or Biden, and they say Biden, you say Biden Ron DeSantis, and they say Biden, you say Kamler or Trump, and they go, that is just a reality. That I hear from swing voters. Okay. So I just there’s nothing to do, but I can’t do anything but listen to the voters and and hear what they’re saying.

And then, yeah. So That’s how I manage my anxiety. I manage my anxiety by I’m gonna build I shut down Republican voters against Trump because I thought we weren’t gonna need it again. You know, we will we will build an army of Republicans and Republican voices talking about why Trump is unfit to be president, we will do everything we can to persuade people. I’m gonna talk to everybody about why no labels should not be part of the equation in twenty twenty four because they are deeply dangerous and will reeelect Donald Trump.

And so, like, I’m gonna do what I can to control the situation and then I what I can’t control

Your dreams.

You know, it’s like my dreams. It’s like, what it’s literally, it’s the AA prayer. God can’t grant me the serenity. To change the things I can and not the ones I can’t

and the wisdom

to know the difference. I don’t know. I I’m not actually an alcoholic, so I don’t know. But Okay.

That’s good. I’m for all that by the way and Beyonce. I just I’m just saying that for people that it it’s a long slog and, you know, some of us might process things differently and and and want do the things we can to change while also, you know, not waking up in a cold sweat every night.

Alright. So I wanna talk a little bit about the Kristen Welker interview on meet the press, I wanna table the entire, like, was it a good or a bad interview? Because I think I’ve already curb stomped will on that, and I don’t have ago anymore.

You’re just moving on. Like, you’re just steamrolling over your feelings in this, like, this newsletter where you’re talking about how you’re gonna find peace in your heart with the fact that Donald Trump is gonna turn our our great American experiment on its head. You’re just gonna steamroll right past that. You’re like, we’re gonna talk about this another week, and I’m just gonna focus on my domination of Will. The Kristen Welker debate.

Alright. I I’ll give you this. I’ll give you thirty seconds. I have come possibly through my practice

you can practice.

To a place of peace and acceptance on this because I can see a world in which there were a number of exogenous events that impacted Donald Trump becoming elected president again. Right? In which Joe Biden was the second coming of Jimmy Carter in which unemployment was at seven percent. Or he just bumbled away his entire presidency or or even in which during the first trump term, The grown ups had all basically kept him under control, and he just there were some mean tweets and a lot of norm breaking, but things were Nobody really got a peek as to how it was.

Still running on time.

Right. Nobody saw what it would have looked like if the car, you know, the wheels had come off the car. And, Instead, what we’ve had is, again, just objectively a very successful first presidential administration, just objectively an economy which is an economy which is pretty good. Maybe you won’t go all the way to like, hey, things are actually quite good as Noah Smith would, but, but But again, you know, things are pretty good. Can you find some problems?

Yes. Can you find problems in every economy? Absolutely. Joe Biden has not been Jimmy Carter. And we are in a world where unemployment is quite low.

Inflation is coming down. Real wages are up. Jobs are being created. Americans at peace, our alliances are strong, and our enemies are feeling it. Right?

Russia is not a great place to be right now. China got a lot of concerns. And if facing all of this and seeing unemployment was at thirteen percent, when Donald Trump left office. Thirteen percent. He attempted a coup.

He committed a number of alleged felonies in in broad daylight, in front of us all. And if seeing all of this stuff, you know, again, an extra, like, three hundred thousand Americans died because of his just inject yourself with bleach. I refuse to be photographed wearing a mask stuff. If Americans are gonna look at this and say, Yeah. I think I’d like that guy again.

Then, honestly, is there anything that any of us could have done? Here’s here’s how I liken it. If you go to somebody and you say, would you like a watermelon or an apple? And they say, you know, I think I’d prefer the watermelon.

Smart.

It would not be unreasonable to say. How about an orange? Right? What if I offer you an orange or a watermelon? Well, maybe they would take the orange.

Right? I mean, these are both foods. And maybe you could say, like, woah, if we had given them a different choice or a better choice, they would if you offer somebody a grenade or an apple, and they pick the grenade, changing that to an orange isn’t gonna do anything. They just want the grenade.

So you’re finding peace. Okay. Great.

Finding peace in all of this. This

was important. This is why I wanted you to say that just because we don’t need to rehash our our fight about the economy like we did last week. We can we’ll have another opt opportunity to do that. But just in summary, I am dealing with the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency by avoidance and attending Beyonce concerts and, you know, trying to maintain work life balance. You JBL, you are dealing with it by just accepting that there’s nothing that you could possibly do to change it and that great and good American people might just want a grenade.

Well, no, hearing that an asteroid is coming for for planet Earth. Right? What are you gonna do? It’ll hit us or it won’t.

And Sarah Longwell processing this by trying to do everything you possibly can in your soul to move things one inch the right direction. I think those are all reasonable. Sarah’s probably the best of us as usual, but I just I just wanted to kinda stay that. And so if the listeners, all of them, if you all are processing this different ways, you kind of choose your choose your own adventure.

So I wanna talk about Trump’s abortion comments on meet the press with Kristen Welker. He says we’re going to agree to a number of weeks or months or however you want to define it. However, you, the people want to define it.

Fortnights

and both sides are going to come together and both sides both sides, and this is a big statement, both sides will come together. And for the first time in fifty two years, you’ll have an issue that we can put behind us. That sounds amazing. I wanna live there. Asked about whether DeSantis’s six week abortion ban is too far.

Mister Trump replied, I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. This is highly interesting. Sarah Longwell you think?

I think that this is where Trump is gonna be. Frankly, JBL, you said this is exactly how he would spot. I’m not sure. Somebody should go back and pull JBL’s imitation of Trump on abortion because Trump got so like, it’ll be perfect. It’ll be the best compromise.

Like exactly where he landed.

So happy because that’s how abortion politics have traditionally worked in America.

People are happy at the end. And

I do think he’ll get his way on this. This is a better issue for Donald Trump than it. Well, there’s a few things going on here. One, he’s already running for the general election. Like, that’s clear.

Right? He is he is trying to stake out a position that is not. He’s willing to like roll the dice for a little bit, maybe of of shaving off of base voters, evangelicals, whatever, because he’s making a he’s making a general election play. That said, I also don’t think he’s gonna see a big shave off. Of orders.

I mean, this is, like, the freak out from the anti anti’s, like, Eric Erickson was, like, this is really gonna hurt him or, like, AG Hamilton or this is Wow. He just doesn’t even know what he’s stepped in here. Are you guys insane? Where have you been for eight years? The only surprising thing about what he just said is that you are surprised by it.

And with voters, this is to go back to an oldie but goodie for me, his relationship with the voters is deep. Other people’s relationship with the voters Santis River. It’s shallow. Right? They don’t care.

These guys have been in the tank for Trump. They have fought for him over Thanksgiving dinners. They’ve lost friends over him. These are sunk costs. And if you think that him saying frankly, the most popular position, on abortion is going to cost him this primary.

Give me some of what you’re smoking.

It’s a cult, and it’s also like cult. Right? It’s religious in nature. Right? It’s what it’s like the Catholic church thing.

When, you know, the priests were dittling boys and the news came out about that. And, like, you, what, you expected people not to show back up in church on Sunday? You expected people to think that their priest was a was a boy didler? No. Like, it was part of their identity.

It’s it’s part of their relationship. It was hard. Some people in the church processed it. Some people got mad. Some people ignored it, pretend like it didn’t happen.

Many people ignored it, pretend like it didn’t happen. Many will send the medias out to get us. Because of our faith. Like, people aren’t gonna get mad at Donald Trump. Like Donald Trump is their Jesus.

He’s the orange Jesus. They’re not gonna get mad at him over an of the nine week thing. Unfortunately, for Ron de sanctimonious and Nick Haley and the rest of them, they can’t make these kinds of mistakes. Like, the deep shallow point that you’re making, Sarah Longwell, like, it’s even greater than that. Right?

It’s like, Donald Trump doesn’t they don’t just have a deep relationship with him. Like, he is part of them. They are one. You know, they have his crucifix above their dinner table. Okay.

They’re not they’re not gonna blame him. This sort of thing. And and this could tie you back to my night sweats. The other thing about this that’s frustrating is that he’s not just in the right place about this. Like, he’s he’s showing correct political instincts where all the other Republicans are wrong.

It’s the same as the UAW thing. Right? Like, Tim Scott is out there. It’s fire the workers for striking. And Trump’s like, I’m gonna speak to the workers.

And people are like, Tim Scott is the normie. It’s like, well, really? I mean, Trump is closer to the median viewpoint about Like, Tim Scott might be more normal in his person. Oh, Tim Scott’s maybe a bad example. He’s been acting very weird lately, but Nikki Haley might be might be more closer to the normal per in her personal behavior.

But Donald Trump’s is closer to the median voter on this. And so I I think this is why that, like, there’s good reason we can concerned about like that once again, like, he is showing better aptitude than the rest of the party, you know, when it comes to the controversial issues.

It’s the Mike Pence stuff. Right. I mean, the so the Susan b Anthony list, all the pro life inc people, or they you know, one of them told Sema four, this is a great thing that, you know, you know, trump in this cycle is just he’s acting like he’s done with pro lifers that we had somewhat of a transactional relationship, and that transaction is now over, you know, this this anonymous person who is anonymous. Like, her rumps. Woah, we’re gonna show him.

You don’t say you made a transaction relationship with Donald Trump. Oh, Really?

You are to to pro life voters as Mike Pence was to evangelical voters. He doesn’t need you anymore. And you know what? When he wins the nomination, you’re gonna come rolling back to him. Just as eager, you’re gonna endorse him no matter what, you’re gonna spend a bunch of money supporting him and he knows it.

Yeah. But also he gets to say correctly to them, who gave you? The rosy weight overturning of your dreams, who gave you your three justices, and then they go, yeah, that’s true. Like, he can have it both ways on this one.

Yeah. Great.

The Biden team, this is a a funny response to this. Like, the Biden team’s correct. He he can kinda have you can have it both ways in the primary. Right?

Yeah.

I think the buying team will be able to correctly, you know, kind of point out that, oh, okay. Well, Donald Trump, you might think it’s terrible that Ron DeSantis went to six weeks but but he only was able to do that because you. Right? Like, like, that’s the only reason that it happened. Because, like, you so you did that.

Like, so you can try to back off it. You know, so I think they can prosecute that case against him in a way that might be workable. A funny side about that is the Biden has started to do that this week, and and Eric Ericsson some of these guys are like, The bind team is helping Trump with pro lifers. And it’s like, no. Like, you guys just don’t understand the dynamics here.

Like, Trump is fine with pro lifers. He he doesn’t need them anymore. JBL said he can try to now attack back and appeal and now Biden and him can fight over that turf. We’re we’re obviously I I think Biden’s in a stronger position.

Here’s a real question though for you guys. Why couldn’t Trump say Yes. I appointed those three perfect justices and they overturned Roe v Wade, which was a terrible law. Everybody knows that it was a terrible law and wanted it overturned And so now we can finally have a compromise. That’s what this is, the art of the deal.

You gotta find a compromise where everybody likes it and is happening. And you know what? Those laws down in Texas where they’re trying to women driving through their counties, that’s terrible. I don’t support that. And when you put me in office, because the Republicans will do whatever I tell them to.

Believe me. They’ll do what I tell them to. We’re gonna sign a great compromise that’s gonna make everybody happy. Why won’t that work?

I I agree with you, I just I think running on abortion against Trump is gonna be much harder than Democrats think.

I

think it would be it would be much more effective against DeSantis or any other candidate that it will be against Trump,

which is another thing. Remember dims have been telling themselves like dobs will save us no one.

I agree that it’ll be harder than running us to Santus on that issue. But that’s still I don’t know that it’s not. It I I think roe v wade was still very pop I I roe v wade still is very popular. And I think that the that this argument that you’re making you know, from Trump, you know, I I think he’ll be able to get over on people for whom abortion is not the motivating issue. You know, like, right?

For people who, like, you know, your barstool bros, your your men, you know, your non college Bulwark and Hispanic men who might are really more with Biden on this, but like it’s not their strong issue. I do think it will continue to hurt him with, you know, some of the groups that it that it hurt Republicans with in the midterm.

I do think Democrats, you know, Republicans have been very good at making the Supreme Court a dominant issue for their sort of low or not low propensity, but people who maybe weren’t enthusiastic about Donald Trump. Like, that was the big rationalization was the courts. And I think that that is where Joe Biden can make a real pit to sort of progressives and people who are down on him or just not feeling, you know, super strongly that, like, we have to protect the Supreme Court because look at what done. And I think litigating it that way can be effective.

A good line for Joe Biden might be Clarence Thomas is gonna die sometime, guys. You guys think I’m old, but that guy’s old too.

I don’t know, Sarah. Isn’t that hard, though, because Biden has not done anything that the progressives wanted him to do with the court? A lot of people, I think, very sensibly say, Biden should be tacking more to the center.

He nominated Quintanji Brown Jackson?

No. I I know.

But he hasn’t packed the courts or

Doesn’t packed the court. Like, he hasn’t delegitimize the court. Yeah. Right. And it’s I I do worry that In the same way that a lot of people say, oh, Biden needs to be tacking more to the center, do more for working class voters and more poppas.

That’s true, but he does have to worry about I mean, you know, politics is the art of the possible. He does have a a liberal chunk of his coalition that he has to keep minimally onboard. And I worry that maybe he wouldn’t be able to keep them minimally on board over the Supreme Court stuff. Maybe not.

I don’t think that’s right. And here’s why, like, I don’t think anybody could have beaten Trump other than Joe Biden. Right? But I also think that I think that’s not true in twenty twenty four.

Also true in twenty twenty. I mean, it’s I don’t

think that’s true in twenty twenty four, but regardless, because this is where we are and people should stop living in a fantasy land. Like, be somebody else. I think that what Joe Biden is doing is not forming a pro Joe Biden coalition. Joe Biden needs to form an anti trump coalition. This is why the the no labels thing is so scary because it fractures the anti trump coalition.

And so I do think that voters, like progressive voters, this is this is gonna be one of those things where Donald Trump will be a big both get out the vote and also get people over the hump. Like once they are confronted, with a Donald Trump, Joe Biden rematch, people are going to want to stave off disaster, and Joe Biden is the only tool to do that. Not calling him a tulip. I’m saying a.

Oh, yeah. No. I got it. Other pea eventually normies will start to have the same night tremors that I’m having. Yeah.

Right. And, and help spray that all.

Yeah. Fingers crossed. Okay. So we got some actual governing stuff. Happening.

We’ve got, Vladimir Zelensky, at the UN Biden at the UN, then Zelensky coming to the White House. We’ve got guess we’re gonna shut down the government because Lauren Bobert likes giving handies or are those two things related at all? No?

They’re slightly relate in the sense that Republicans in the house are complete lunatics as congressman Waller, the Republican congressman noted.

Do you have to be a lunatic to wanna give a handy during beetlejuice the musical? I don’t know if that’s necessary. Like, she is a lunatic. I just don’t know if I don’t know if her lunacy is necessarily related. To the beetlejuice to be I disagree with that.

I disagree with that. Okay.

Yeah. I think there’s anybody with their head on straight that would also be interested in giving a handjob during be all just a musical.

Maybe I do think that they were, like, in a very public place, and that wasn’t, like, the most discreet thing. And then she was also vaping on top of it. Like, This was like calling a lot of attention to oneself.

And also I kinda wish it had been at a really serious play. That it would have been like the seinfeld making out in the back of Schindler’s list. Like, if they if if she had been like doing this heavy petting during lay miz or something. Right? They’ll be like, come on.

What do you? What do you do? How can you do that during lay miz? The beetlejuice.

I think beetlejuice is musical is high brow for Lauren Bo I think she thought she was at a high brow platform.

I did not know they had made a musical out of beetlejuice, which I gotta say is a lover of musicals, and has somebody who watched Beetle juice quite a bit as a child. Never did I think to myself. You know what they should do? Make this into a broadway musical.

I’m so upset. I’ve derailed us, but my mother And my father have season passes to the Bule Theatre. And as soon as I saw this clip, I immediately texted them. And I was like, tell me you were there. Tell me you are there.

And they had tickets, but my mother has a friend who unlike Sarah Longwell much more up to date apparently on the more recent musical fare and and my mother’s friend was very loved at the beetlejuice musical. Oh, but just maybe that it’s because it’s good. I have no idea. So no judgment based on that, but, so they’ve given them away. And I was like, so close.

You’re so close having having been there for the handy seen around the world on the round the world.

Can I just say though? There’s this part of me. I’m not rushing to Lauren Bobert’s defense. And I’m certainly not taking the position that Tim is, which is that this is just a thing sometimes people do in theaters. But the the amount of, like, when I opened Twitter after that happened, that video, it was just one wall of that video.

Like, I just had to I scrolled and just kept seeing Lauren Bulwark get felt up and grabbing this guy, you know, and and a lot of people were making this joke about how one time she talked about being driven to her knees or whatever. And I I’m gonna sound like the girl on the podcast right now. Donald Trump paid off a prostitute, and he has been accused of sexual assault all of these times, and he is the trashiest vialist, most disgusting person, and people are like, right on. Yeah. Like, and people, even even people who hate him, don’t really hang around the, like, his trash bagginess around him.

Like, that’s not where they go. But for Lauren Bobert and Marjorie Taylor Green, that is and and and Christie Nome, Right? They’ve like all had these sort of real sexual and I think that they are all related. Like, I think Donald Trump’s complete absence or whatever the negative version is of sexual immorality, is now, like, the standard fare in the Republican Party. But I do think these Republican women, especially by Democrats are being treated, differently than the way Donald Trump gets treated.

Not especially by Democrats, which is kinda like everybody, like normies.

I agree with that.

Maybe. I mean, isn’t it sort of a hope that for some reason, because, like, Lauren Bobert doesn’t have her own cult that maybe this will stick against her. I mean, maybe this isn’t any club at hand. And the reason people have stopped trying it with Trump is because it’s clear that it just doesn’t work. Right?

Maybe. But, like, Madison Cawthorn, it was like, while he’s gay. It was like the gay stuff and like the the women. And they’re they’re all trashy and disgusting. Like they they so it’s not it’s not the absence of it.

It’s that I think it’s being celebrated. And trumpet has been a positive for him as this. It just it doesn’t hurt him at all.

Let me defend Lauren Bobert a little bit further as somebody who is near the great white way, who is a lover of the theater, weird shit happens in theater audiences all the time. We had a thing happening on Broadway not long ago where somebody was pooping in the aisles. During shows. And nobody knew how

It’s choked on

my feet. Nobody knew how this was happening that there were just, like, it was you know, it happened dozens of times. And, you know, like, the intermission, they’d like to come up, and there’d be a pile of poop right in the middle of the aisle. There was a serial

secret black in your theater. Like, this is it’s not like in a theater you can’t

physically I was not there. I’m just telling you Okay. That maybe we should view representative, Bobert’s actions in a wider context if it’s not so bad. And if she wants to vape a little and have a little bit of, heavy petting time, Like, that is not outside of the norms that we do see in the theater there.

I think the problem with the vaping was really that she was she was super trying to shut it down and she fought with them over it. Listen, I’m not saying this is not a

trash line.

I’m not saying she’s not really trashy. And she should resign. Like, she should resign over this lots of peep but, like, my point is is that it is a broader problem in the Republican Party of nobody caring about, reality, decency, decorum, any of those things, and like having no shame. Tim Miller also though, somebody who has no decorum who thinks that people in the Senate should be able to wear whatever bag you wear shorts that they want. Yeah.

Let’s do it.

We’ll do government shut down on later. Let’s fucking do right now. Yeah. By the really quick, people should people should,

Bobber, confederman.

People should donate to Adam Fresh, but let’s do this. Let’s do

this.

I’m gonna I’m gonna state my position. So for people who have not followed my ex as closely as you have, I’m gonna state my position and then

you can

then you can judge me. People should wear whatever they goddamn please in the Senate and not only should people wear whatever they goddamn please. We shouldn’t have dress codes for the Senate. It’s it’s ridiculous to have dress codes for the Senate. The whole point of the American experiment

President Camacho agrees.

The whole point of the American experiment is that we overthrew the royalty, the kings and queens, and all their bullshit. Our representatives are just people. Their plumbers, their farmers, their policemen, their firemen, their whatever, their bankers, They are representatives of the people. Aspirationally, our offices, our elected officials are representatives of the people. They’re not special They’re not lords and ladies.

They do not get on a knee, and we do not put a sword on top of them. We overthrew the fuckers that thought about that. And this is a long held rant of mine way before and that we should stop with this fake with with all, you know, there’s there’s a reason that George Washington said he wanted to be called mister president John Adams wanted to call him his excellency or something. And and George Washington was like, no, I wanna be mister president. I’m a representative of the people, and then when I leave, I go back to being one of the people.

That is that is how our system should be. And if and if if the people wanna wear fucking sweat pants on the house floor, they should. And they should stop for stoplights, and they should, they should be treated just like all, like, all of the rest of us. Okay? They, some of them might need security because we’ve a lot of insane people out there right now.

But besides that, They should be treated with like all of the rest of us and and we should stop with this faux, haughty, you know, this digital aristocratic bullshit. So that’s my take.

Sarah, tear this dude apart.

Yeah. So, Tim, if you owned a business of some kind, I don’t know what business

is on.

Could literally be any kind of business. And you had employees and those employees. Let’s say the job wasn’t like cleaning up trash cans. But it was, you know, a thing that that you had customers that you wanted them to sort of take you seriously as a professional, and they showed up in gym shorts. And t shirts.

Now I think that if you say right now that you would have no problem with that, you’re lying. Because we people who do jobs like grown up people. Right? I’m talking about like adult people. What adults do, is that they put on clothes to reflect the seriousness of whatever it is they’re doing in their endeavors.

And,

don’t do any more.

The people who are in the senate and the house of representatives should operate as though they are doing an important job, an important job for the people, and they should dress like the job that they have impacts people’s lives. Not like they’re on their way to a pickup basketball game. Now listen, I am not. Not asking to them to wear powdered wigs, and I myself am a dress down enthusiast. I wear a right now, I’m wearing a blazer, a shirt, jeans, and, in little kicky shoes, but nothing with heels,

and

I don’t like that. Okay. And so I don’t expect that they have to show up. Every day in dinner attire, right? Like a three piece suit or a tux, all I’m asking for is that they don’t dress like they’re on their way to coach a little league game while they are holding votes on whether or not we fund Ukraine to support other democracies in the world so that they can be taken seriously by their colleagues and their constituents.

I have two points and then we can move on. I just wanna defend my honor it’s worth. It’s this was different than than working at a there’s no customer facing thing, but I I do just wanna say this.

We are customer

I I have been the boss before. I was a boss at a PR firm. I had a young woman who came into my office all nervous one day, and and she will vouch for me on this, and she said Tim. I would like to dye my hair purple. And she was like, do you have a problem with that?

Is that gonna be an issue? And I was like, No, it’s no fucking issue. I was like, it’s it’s I can’t believe that you felt like she had to come in here and she was so relieved and she was so excited because I was like, who cares? We’re a PR firm. If you wanna if you wanna dye your hair purple, you should dye your hair purple.

That seems fine. That seems fine to me. And so I it’s just me. I don’t I don’t think it matters. I think everybody should be their authentic as far as your point about the house floor, again, we have a democratic system.

If the people are that upset about it, they can vote them out. Somebody can run against him and they can make their whole campaign about the fact that they wear suits Ron DeSantis, and like they think that he’s disrespectful. But, like, he was the mayor, and he was lieutenant governor, and he dressed like a slob then, and then they put him in the Senate. So I For me, it’s like, I don’t doesn’t seem to be like the people. It matters that much to people.

If Fedderman was sort of, you know, doing this, whatever. The question is is about whether they change the rules for everybody. So the entire institution now dresses like a gym teacher. The rules are stupid.

The rules were stupid.

So some of the rules are stupid. Right? The idea that, like, women have to, like, cover their arms. Don’t. That was stupid.

But you know what, this is kind of like This is not an incremental shift. This is going from women must wear pantyhose to, hey, guys, no need for pants. No need for pants at all.

No shoes.

Senator John No shirt.

So just like to say, the team is defending here is not wearing pants in the Senate and giving handjobs in, theaters, both of which I think is behavior that is not that is unwelcome, though not equivalent. I would I’m not saying I’m

four giving hand jobs in the theater. I was just saying, I think that there are people who give hand jobs in theaters who do are not necessarily lunatics. That’s all I was saying. Alright.

Was there gotta keep moving? Quote from Senator John Federman. This is actually a beautiful transition. If those Jagoffs in the house trying to shut our government down and fully support Ukraine, then I will save democracy by wearing a suit on the Senate floor next week. God bless you, big, John.

So that brings us to the shutdown. Finally, we’ve talked about the shutdown. It’s going to happen, and I just assume it’s gonna be bad for buying in the Democrats. Sarah Longwell me I’m wrong.

So I don’t think you’re exactly wrong. I look, Hey, I think that it is dangerous because what happens is is people are not reading punchful. They are not reading, politico. They’re gonna look up and say, oh, the government shutting down, and I’m not gonna get my check. Who do I blame?

And their first reach might be for Joe Biden. I will say the one difference this time is that Republicans have done an unbelievable job of making sure to hang around their own necks. No, we did this. In a way that I’m not sure they ever have before. In fact, there’s a bunch of people who are gonna be very proud of it on their public side.

They’re gonna own it So I I worry about things like this because I worry about the general perception of chaos, because I think the general perception of chaos is sort of bad for Biden. Well, like I said, I think Republicans though are taking some of the bite out of that by just making it real clear they’re doing this.

This is Mike Lawler. One of the moderate ish Republicans, who’s in who’s in a Biden district. Here’s what he says about this. This is stupidity. The idea that we’re gonna shut the government down when we don’t control the Senate, we don’t control the White House.

These people can’t define a win. They don’t know how to take yes for an answer. It’s a clown show. You keep running lunatics. You’re gonna be in this position.

So I think that that is going to help to Sarah’s point you know as the crazy Republicans hang a lantern around themselves and they say we did this and then the Mike Lawer Republicans go out there and say yeah they did this I do think that’s gonna challenge, you know, the the more traditional kind of shutdown fightability of of both parties to blame it on the other side. I don’t think people have, like, really come to terms with the fact that, like, it’s, like, it’s gonna happen. McCarthy doesn’t have a path out besides getting democratic votes. Which he refuses to do. And Matt Gates, I guess I think strategically left in the bathroom, you know, his motion to vacate McCarthy, which it was possible that Matt Gates was just pulling a bobert in the bathroom or doing something and forgot his forgot his motion to vacate.

I think it’s probably likely that he did that as like a threat kind of thing.

It’s not a baby changing table, which is like a little on the nose. Like, it’s time to, like, changed the shit.

You think he was jerking it to his own motion to vacate?

Maybe he was jerking it to his own motion vacate. I think more like

he wanted

he figured people

would see it. With his motion to right in front of him. Home and fame

seems like a Matt Gates move to be like, I think your people will see this. And and headed as a threat. But, you know, with September twentieth, so we’re eleven days away and they’re not even they they don’t have. They’re they have nothing. Right?

So at the partial shutdown is is certainly gonna happen and and and I think that like McCarthy’s only way out of it is I I guess in theory they could they could pass something that the crazies want. And then try to belatedly put the pressure on the Democrats and the Senate till I come to the table and all that, but I the damage might be already done by then.

Well, counterpoint to, to the normie, are you just positive? What if maybe they can just listen to the crazies and keep winning anyway? I just think that that’s possible. Okay. Bob corker.

We had a Bob corker

in You don’t wanna do Zelensky before you just corker? I thought

he chews the You gotta go, man.

We’re on

the clock. We have a heart out here. You gotta go teach young impressionable children.

I do. But it was pretty great. Can we just have a moment though? Like Okay. Like, it’s nice.

To when we have a moment of moral clarity from the president of the United States at the UN, a president’s not a total embarrassment. I was with Chris Matthews in the green room, name drop. He’s talking about how one of Biden’s problems is that is that you need this is such a Chris Matthews take. You need a strong voice to be a president. And Biden sometimes voices to limp.

And I I thought that was interesting. He said that to me in the morning. And then a couple hours later, I was watching Biden like yelling speech at the UN. So I don’t know. Maybe Chris has an in at the White House, but, but it seems strong literally and figuratively.

At the UN, which was good.

He’s gonna get a lot of credit from voters about that too. I’m sure.

Zelensky was there, and he’s gonna be at the in Congress. I know he will be in a t shirt. And he’s, you know, the great hero of our time, and he seemed to manage to, you know, lead a nation, in a t shirt and do so do so, inspirationally. Not shorts.

He’s not wearing basketball shorts.

But, any I think that’s great. That’s all. That’s all I wanted to say. I just UTs did, and I felt like since nobody’s gonna mention it, it would stay it’s nice. That we had a moment of moral clarity from the president.

You know, I’m depressed by it because again, this is a thing that that is a very important. B. Very salient. C, Biden is doing a very good job of, and d Republicans and particularly Trump are insane about. And it registers precisely nothing.

I think.

Alright. Sarah, you look. You’re giving me death stares.

No. I’m not. I actually thinking about the way Zelensky dressed and how people freaked out last time of that that he wasn’t wearing a suit, but I gotta say He looks good when he he’s dressing like like the commander, like a warrior, and it’s projecting something important. It’s projecting something important. Tim Miller because your clothes project something important.

Thank you.

And you got a good job to do.

John Federman’s close project that he’s a yinsser.

Right.

Right? He’s one of yins. Come on, Sarah. I’m trying here. Getting nothing.

Alright. Last try. Bob Corker, get an interview with politico, where he talks about how great his life is after the Senate, and he’s just out there wheeling and dealing and making tons of money and playing golf with famous people and it’s great.

I wanna kill about Corker after eating this article. Here here’s the headline. The headline is a moderate anti trump republican who got fed up with the senate has retirement advice from Mitt Romney. I was like, oh, that that was an intriguing headline for me. It’s like, maybe there’s some advice about how Mitt Romney can make a difference from the outside.

And and help nudge the party towards sanity or maybe help support the current president of the United States who’s the last man standing between us and the end of the longest continuously running democracy in the world. No. That was not his advice, actually. Here’s Bob Corker in an interview with Ian Ward. Ward asked you and senator Romney, you were seen to some of the last remaining moderate Republican critics of Trump and the Senate.

Does his retirement mark the end of the air and era? That’s Ward. Corker. Oh, I don’t know. I don’t pay a lot of attention to what each senator is doing or not these days, but he obviously oh, wait.

Hold on. Let me just do one thing. Inaudible yelling. Hey. Hey.

Sorry about that, Ian. That’s Kicks Brooks. He’s a country singer down here in Tennessee, and I’m over at Nashville on business. I’m going to play golf with him. So that’s part of the transcript here.

And then

Sarah, I’m glad you’re you’re keeping yourself up at night trying to save democracy. You keep doing that. Senator corker is gonna be out on the links.

And then, and then we get down here, finally final question. So do you have any nuggets of wisdom share with Senator Romney as he plans for his post senate life. Take this time before committing to something to make sure it’s something you really wanna do. He’ll be hit with lots of opportunities. I know I was.

But wait a year. Cause if you make a decision that takes you down a road, takes time to unravel that. And then you burn up a lot of your productive life. Pursuing something that is not the right thing. So close to getting it.

He’s so close to getting it. It’s right.

It’s like the worst commencement address ever.

You could burn up a lot of your productive life pursuing something that is not the right thing. Couldn’t you Bob corker? You piece of shit? Who’s spending time golfing with c list country singers and lobbying instead of actually trying to do something to save the country from this deranged lunatic that ran you out of the Senate? Maybe you could do something productive.

Fuck. I just God, my I there’s art. It’s the bulwark Reddit people posted this thing. I don’t think I would have seen it because nobody cares what Bob Corker thinks. So I don’t think I would have seen this interview otherwise.

And my blood pressure is skyrocketing again.

Maybe, Sarah Longwell can you can tell me whether I’m off base or not. Maybe Senator corker has just been deepening his practice and has come to accept the things he cannot change. And he, like me, has come to understand look. The citizens of this country are gonna do what they’re gonna do. Why shouldn’t he just make a lot of money and play golf so that if they do something bad, it can’t affect him?

What’s the Martin Luther King quotation? It’s like it won’t be the hostility of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. That will do us in. And I think that, look, Corker joins the ranks. I mean, I haven’t heard anything from our friend down in Arizona, Jeff flake?

Jeff flake.

Many is the ambassador to Turkey. Just hanging out in Turkey and Cara.

Okay. Great.

That’s an important job.

George w Bush, condoleezza Rice. I think one of the deepest failures. Like, it’s not even the anti antis. Although they are very deep failure. But the the lack the way that people decided just to let somebody else have the fight and to go live the good life and stick stay in their tribe and on their team and hang out at the club.

And that’s just what’s crazy to me too. It’s like, at least if that’s gonna be your life, and I shouldn’t throw lunch, Jeff Lake in because he did go out in a blaze of glory. Right? And at least he said the right thing on the way out. And the whole bunch of them didn’t.

Right? A whole bunch of them didn’t. And I’ll throw

some other names out there. Yeah. About the committee to save America? I was talking about this on TV. Like like Nicole Wallace had this thing on Friday where she’s like there’s a red flashing light blinking right now.

This is maybe what caused my nightmares. And and like I I feel like no one is too speaking out about it right. And where’s John Kelly? But Jim Mattis Where are, like, none of these, like, everybody, HR McMaster, or Dina Powell helping her husband run first Senate again, I guess, on the same ticket as Donald Trump, like, like, nothing. Like nothing.

They’re all just doing their own version of the Bob corker thing.

And, like, maybe maybe we’ll be wrong and they’ll all come out and endorse Biden. Well, Dina Powell won’t. But maybe some of them I mean, like, if I were George w Bush, you’re not gonna say anything, but, like, the fact that they’re not saying anything during the Republican primary

Right.

And is, like, I don’t understand. I’ll never understand this part.

Rex tillerson? Where’s Rex? He doesn’t have a political career.

And they could all jump together. They could all do this together.

Do a letter? Sarah Longwell partners are all organized it. Write a letter? Do a joint interview?

I really would organize it. I would really like to do this. Send them out there to say it to everybody all the time.

Yeah. It’s fucking people. Bob Corker can eat a dick.

Good show. Long show. More dick content than we’ve ever had on this show between Lauren Lopez and Matt Gorker. Sorry about that, Sarah. We should have saved this for an episode where Sunny was sitting in for you.

Yeah.

Seriously. Hey, did you guys see Matt Gates is gonna run for governor of Florida?

Hans Byron Donald’s we’re really sending our best to the Florida governorship.

On real.

He’ll win. Right?

I’m Byron will be a tough com competitor.

You know what happens after your governor in Florida, you get to run for president. America, get your head around this. At some point in the next eight years, Matt Gates is going to run for president.

I think by I got I’m I’m taking Byron in that head to head. We can mark the Really?

Sir, what would you

I don’t know. Somebody will offer you a sweet accent here.

I

don’t know if I’d go head to head with him.

Give give me your, you know, if you had to put you had to put five bucks on this, who who would you take byron or Gates?

I might take byron too. I’m not I don’t know enough about him yet. Here’s the thing though. Guess what? Matt Gates is one of the worst most despicable people out there, but like Both of them are big Donald Trump supporters.

And both of them, I mean, like, it’s not like there’s, like, so much daylight. Like, there’s,

the easiest could be in there too. Casey could do it. We could have a little really quite a showdown.

Oh, please god. Yes. Please let Casey DeSantis run for for governor of Florida. That would be amazing. You know, part of me would almost like to see Casey elected president just for the humiliation of Ron that that would create Like, I might die from Shodden Freud.

Okay. Guys, good show, long show. Remember, focus group coming on Saturday, before you get out of here,

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I will do the soft focus group murder room if enough of you payment. Bye. Bye.