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Will Saletan: What Are You Grooming These Kids to Be?

April 17, 2023
Notes
Transcript

At the annual NRA meeting, Kristi Noem bragged about her 2-year-old granddaughter’s rifle, while other young kids handled guns. Plus, the GOP is challenged on abortion from inside, DeSantis gets punchy, and Dianne Feinstein digs in. Will Saletan is back for Charlie and Will Monday

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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
    0:00:08

    Welcome
  • Speaker 2
    0:00:09

    to the Bulwark podcast on Charlie Sykes. It’s hard to believe that it is another Monday. It is April seventeenth two thousand twenty three, which happens to be the day before tax day. I don’t know how do they decide tax day. They just kinda move it around Will Saletan, it’s kinda arbitrary now, so he throws a dart
  • Speaker 3
    0:00:25

    at a board or something. Well, it was the fifteenth, but the fifteenth would have been a weekend. Maybe if it’s
  • Speaker 2
    0:00:30

    a weekend,
  • Speaker 3
    0:00:30

    they shove it to why do they
  • Speaker 2
    0:00:31

    shove it to two stands that I’m I don’t know. It’s crazy. Exactly. So there was once a time when I would have had a whole monologue about tax day, but no. Because there’s just so many other things that you’re gonna have to talk about will, including another mass shooting.
  • Speaker 2
    0:00:46

    I don’t even know whether we should set aside separate time for it because, like, any given Monday, we could say, okay, let’s talk about this weekend’s mass shooting. There’s another mass shooting. Big news this morning or actually broke late last night, the Murdoch media trial of the century delayed by one day. Lots of speculation, lots of rumors that it’s been delayed by the judge because there are settlement negotiations going on. The Fox News has finally decided to hate maybe this trial would be a freaking nightmare and we ought to try to settle it.
  • Speaker 2
    0:01:19

    Of course, it’s not up to Fox, whether or not it gets settled, it’s up to Dominion, whether they want to accept all of that. So don’t know Will. You you wanna engage in any speculation about all of this? I mean, well, I think we’ll know within twenty four, forty eight hours whether
  • Speaker 3
    0:01:33

    something’s happening. Yeah. So, of course, the media is in a total panic. Charlie Sykes the with never mind the money going on between Fox and Dominion. All these media outlets have sent reporters in there, and they’re counting on weeks and weeks of this trial in getting the watch Tucker Carlson — Yes.
  • Speaker 3
    0:01:48

    — week, interrogated and all that stuff. And so if the trial settles, if the case settles, that’s gonna be a huge disappointment to the press. But what as you say, we’ll know very shortly. And my guess is the media need not worry because what I read is that the judge basically asked the parties to look at this and for twenty four hours, which does not tell me that there’s some great incentive going on that suddenly Fox has decided to come to Jesus and tell the truth and all that. Well, there’s tremendous incentive for
  • Speaker 2
    0:02:14

    them to come to Jesus and settle it, but it’s not clear that there’s any formula that Dominion would accept. If you’re Rupert Murdoch at some point, you write the check. You do not want to sit and testify. You do not want to go through that trial. But I have to say I share the bias that I would be somewhat disappointed if we didn’t have the trial of the century.
  • Speaker 2
    0:02:34

    I’m looking for the the media version of the Scopes Monkey trial, as I said, on Friday’s podcast. This is gonna be, like, me, big. Because it’s everything It’s all of the issues. It’s the whole era, the age — Yeah. — all boiled down to this one amazing trial.
  • Speaker 2
    0:02:51

    I mean,
  • Speaker 3
    0:02:51

    forget the Gwyneth Paltrow trial. This this is gonna be a big deal. Charlie, can I accuse you of optimism? This is a rare chance for me to accuse you of optimism. So — Yeah.
  • Speaker 3
    0:02:59

    — so it would be extremely optimistic on the part of Fox to even think that they could write a check of any magnitude and get out of this because What Dominion wants is not just the money. Right? They want Fox to be issuing statements for a month or whatever it is on air, have Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingram and anybody else say, we were wrong. We said something that was not true. Bravo.
  • Speaker 3
    0:03:24

    Bravo. Exactly. That’s what they want. Well, we’ll find out. We’ll we’ll come
  • Speaker 2
    0:03:27

    back to this as I promised we will do. In fact, I was gonna spend some of the weekend thinking, like, what is our coverage plan going to be, how are we gonna handle that? And I have some ideas, but maybe they’ll have to put them on hold. Okay. So what else do we have?
  • Speaker 2
    0:03:39

    We actually have Ron DeSantis showing signs that he understands that he cannot just simply sit down there in Tallahassee and run out the clock, that his rather pine reaction to all of the attacks from Trump world are are not actually working for him. So he is hitting back whether or not it’s it’s on point or whether it will be effective. We’ll have to talk about that a little bit later. But I wanna start with a couple of other just interesting developments over the weekend. You have been working on a long in-depth dive on Lindsay Graham.
  • Speaker 2
    0:04:09

    Lindsay Graham really went off on Marjorie Taylor Green over the weekend in case anyone missed it. Margery Taylor Green rushed to the defense of this traitorous twenty one year old Air National Guard Trader Leaker because, you know, he’s a victim because he’s a white male Christian. So she actually defended him. Lindsey Graham just wasn’t having it. So let me just play a little sound his Lindsey Graham on Marjorie Taylor Graham.
  • Speaker 4
    0:04:35

    What they’re suggesting will destroy America’s ability to defend itself that it’s okay to release classified information based on your political views that the ends justify the means. It is not okay. If you’re a member of the military intelligence community and you disagree with American policy and you think you’re going to be okay when it comes to leaking classified information, you’re gonna go to jail. And
  • Speaker 2
    0:05:02

    this is Lindsey responding directly to murder Taylor Green.
  • Speaker 4
    0:05:07

    There is no justification for this. And for any member of Congress to suggest, it’s okay to legalize classified information because you agree with the cause is terribly irresponsible and puts America in serious danger.
  • Speaker 3
    0:05:22

    Okay. So, Will, this feels like the old Lindsay Graham. Yeah. I mean, this is what, you know, we used to call patriotism. The idea that you this is the idea that you owed allegiance to the government that you elected and that we’re all in this together and that you don’t leak national security secrets that endanger our troops and our allies and our spies.
  • Speaker 3
    0:05:42

    And I have a kind of a weird take on this, Charlie Sykes Republican Party has been infected with, obviously, with election denialism. Right? We didn’t really lose the election. We have Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Green and others. Pedaling that.
  • Speaker 3
    0:05:54

    But there’s this other stage that we’re now into, which is even after you sort of grudgingly acknowledge that you lost the election or you would deny that you lost the you’re gonna Now we have this kind of government denialism, which is Alright. We have what Marjorie Taylor Green calls the Biden regime. Which having been illegitimately elected, we don’t really owe any allegiance to. And in the Marjorie Taylor Greendenier world, the idea is that we Americans use she describes this leaker Jack Deshara as white male Christian. So that’s the real white male Christians — Right.
  • Speaker 3
    0:06:28

    — the real And this government that didn’t really get elected, we don’t really owe any allegiance to that. That’s not really America. So you can leak national security secrets. What Lindsey Graham is trying to do here, and I applaud him for it, is just to reestablish the idea that this is the government that got elected, even if you didn’t vote for it, even if you disagree with some of its policies, even strongly. We still, as Americans, do not betray that government, that country, and the people who work for it.
  • Speaker 2
    0:06:55

    So over the weekend, we also had some interesting comments from congresswoman Nancy Mace. I’m still trying to figure her out. She’s been sucking up to Trump. Trump broke with her. Right?
  • Speaker 2
    0:07:06

    He endorsed her primary opponent, then she went up to New York to sort of grovel in front of Trump Tower. But clearly, there there’s a certain amount of independence here. She’s another one of these publicant members of Congress that has no time for Marjorie Taylor Green. She was on Fox News talking about the Dobbs’ ruling and how it’s been at this tectonic shift in politics. And she’s responding to criticism of her from this pro life group, the Susan B anthony group.
  • Speaker 2
    0:07:36

    Let’s play Nancy Mace number one.
  • Speaker 5
    0:07:39

    I find it ironic that Susan B anthony would attack me. I’m a to my rape, I advocate for women who’ve been raped, and that organization will no longer talk to my office about pro life legislation because I’m talking about birth control. I MEAN, SOME OF THESE GROUPS HAVE GOTTEN, SO OVER THE TOP AND EXTREME, WE NEED TO FIND A MIDDLE GROUND ON THIS issue, and I have a great pro life voting record. But some of the stances we’ve taken, especially when it comes to rape and incest protecting the life of the mother, It’s so extreme, the middle of the independent voters, right of center, left of center, they cannot support us.
  • Speaker 2
    0:08:14

    Yeah. No kidding. So here’s Nancy Mayes talking about how politics have changed since dobs.
  • Speaker 5
    0:08:20

    I represent a pro choice district, and I saw the tide change after Roe was overturned. We went mildly pro choice to being vast majority of voters being pro choice after pro v wait. It changed the entire electoral environment in twenty twenty two. And I will tell you, based on Sudhiran’s comments and some of the positions I’ve taken, we have not learned our lesson from the mid term elect
  • Speaker 2
    0:08:44

    Okay, Will. This is also in your wheelhouse. What’s going on here?
  • Speaker 3
    0:08:48

    Well, Nancy Mace is absolutely right. I mean, she’s right that there has been a post dobs back clash. And that was to be expected. Right? Because it was very easy to talk about how abortion should be illegal when everyone knew that Green Court was not gonna let you do that.
  • Speaker 3
    0:09:01

    So when this Supreme Court said, you know what? We’re gonna stand back and let you guys do what you want. Now it gets real. You know, now it’s very real. And so for People on the pro choice side who just didn’t vote this issue.
  • Speaker 3
    0:09:10

    There’s lots of evidence, Charlie. I wrote a piece about this. Others did in the midterms that this issue hurt Republicans, and that’s what Nancy Mace is trying to convey a political message. And it’s not just that she’s right on the political analysis. What she’s doing there is she’s standing up.
  • Speaker 3
    0:09:25

    She’s representing the middle. She’s talking about middlebound, and she’s standing up to the people on the right. She’s calling out the Susan B anthony Ellis. She’s calling out pro life groups. That will not accept moderation on issues like as she talks there about birth control, about rape cases.
  • Speaker 3
    0:09:39

    And that tells me that there are some people at least in the political environment who understand that there is some political juice now to speak for the middle and that there’s enough of a base there that you can stand up to the right even in the Republican party and gain some traction. Well,
  • Speaker 2
    0:09:57

    we’ll see whether she gains any traction. We will see this because again, we’re talking about a conservative pro life Republican who is basically saying, hey, these are the pro lifers. They’re way too extreme and they’re killing us here. So this is another reminder that and I think this is true on the gun issue as well. That we’re not just talking about, you know, appealing to the base.
  • Speaker 2
    0:10:16

    We’re talking about a portion of the base. Maybe it’s not even a plurality of the base. It’s a faction of a faction. And the dynamic that we’ve seen so far though is on one issue after another, guns and abortion, the Republican Party has ceded basically the podium and all of the the agenda to What may actually be a minority of its own base? Mhmm.
  • Speaker 2
    0:10:42

    I mean, there’s a real split among Republicans here. Which is which is worth thinking about. So who is really calling the shots? What is the actual sentiment of the quote unquote Republican Magba base. Right?
  • Speaker 2
    0:10:57

    And for someone like Nancy Mace, let’s look at it from her
  • Speaker 3
    0:11:01

    point of view. She’s a member of congress. She represents a district. She has to get reelected every two years. And she’s talking in that clip about her district.
  • Speaker 3
    0:11:08

    Right? There’s polling in her district. And one of the things she’s saying there is, look, if I don’t represent these people, my voters, in my district, who are telling me that they don’t support this right wing extremism on abortion, I’m going to lose my job. So what we’re seeing is an assertion of voter power. People showing up in the election.
  • Speaker 3
    0:11:28

    People showing up in polls. Saying we’re not gonna stand for that. And so, Nancy Mace, it’s not even politically rational for her to do whatever Susan B. Anthony wants. If that’s gonna cost her, her seat.
  • Speaker 3
    0:11:41

    Now again, Charlie, this depends on the existence of swing districts. So it is possible that if we have fewer and fewer districts where the voters in the middle can make a difference that you will end up with a congress full of Republicans who are representing the right wing of the Republican party on abortion and many other issues, but hopefully voters can reassert their power through elections and in a house that’s every two years. Okay. So we had a couple of interesting developments on on
  • Speaker 2
    0:12:06

    this issue over, you know, since you and I spoke last, you had Ron DeSantis signing a six week ban into law, but he did it. At, like, eleven o’clock at night, and he sort of tweeted it out, we’re not saying what it was. And then he goes and he speaks at Liberty University, which is this big, you know, pro life campus does not mention the bill at all. K? That’s number one.
  • Speaker 2
    0:12:26

    Number two, Tim Scott launches his presidential campaign and completely fumbles the issue of abortion. Give me, he stumbles over. He cannot figure out how to answer it. You would have thought that he would have given some consideration since was completely predictable, he would be asked about it. And so it occurred to me.
  • Speaker 2
    0:12:43

    I was thinking about this. And I know you’ve written about it as well, but the pro life movement slash GOP has had fifty years to prepare for this moment. They’ve had fifty years to prepare for okay. So what if you actually catch the bus? What do you do?
  • Speaker 2
    0:13:00

    What do you say about rape and incest? How do you create a culture of life? Should it be state or should it be national? What about abortion pills? And what I think is increasingly apparent is that even though they had fifty freaking years to think about this, that they never really came up with an answer all of this because it was never real until
  • Speaker 1
    0:13:23

    now.
  • Speaker 6
    0:13:24

    Do you
  • Speaker 2
    0:13:24

    disagree with that take?
  • Speaker 3
    0:13:25

    No, I I think that’s exactly right. I think we’ve been functioning in a politically artificial environment of Roe v Wade. You could tell yourself, hey, we’re gonna point justices, we’re gonna overturn Roe and then we’re gonna do but until you’re actually living in that world, you’re not seeing it So for example, we have all this data from years and years of elections under Roe that says pro life voters care more about this issue than pro choice voters. Why? Because Roe was there.
  • Speaker 3
    0:13:51

    Right? All that data becomes kind of defunct the minute that Dobbs comes down. And suddenly all these pro choice voters who took this issue for granted can’t anymore. So now you’re gonna see an elevation. And we did in the midterms.
  • Speaker 3
    0:14:03

    We saw all the data show a dramatic elevation of interest on the ProJoy side on this issue. I’m gonna vote this issue even though I didn’t, or people who didn’t even show up at the polls. Showing up. There were market turnout effects. Charlie, one of the differences we may be seeing in the youth turnout in Wisconsin and other states we’ve seen significant increases in youth It may be this issue that is a significant driver of that increase.
  • Speaker 3
    0:14:26

    And that increase, as you know, has been decisive in a bunch of elections that was not expected. So we’re in this unprecedented world where turnout is up, youth turnout is up, and it may be this issue that’s doing it.
  • Speaker 2
    0:14:38

    Well, and also the gun issue seems to be, you know, having some traction. Of course, when you think about this generation, they have grown up in the post column buying era. They have grown up in the world where school shootings are a thing where they have to go through these active shooter drills, which by the way, continues to blow my mind to think that we’re doing that in schools and we think this all makes sense. And of course, we have more shootings over the weekend, more tragic shootings. And then you have the split screen of all the republican candidates at the NRA convention.
  • Speaker 2
    0:15:09

    And I think it was political playbook that said the twenty twenty four gun debate has already settled. Because there was not a single Republican that went in front of the NRA and suggested an openness to any sort of compromise. Any sort of middle ground, any sort of accommodation or recognition that we have a real serious problem. This is not really about guns, but Interesting that Mike Pence showed up at the convention which was in his home state of Indiana and he was booed — Mhmm. — Donald Trump gets a standard innovation.
  • Speaker 2
    0:15:41

    Kinda tells you who
  • Speaker 3
    0:15:42

    the NRA folk are these days that they would boo my pants. And I don’t know, Charlie, if you saw the Christie known speech, so the governor of South Dakota is there, and she she brags about how she has already provided, I believe, a rifle and a shotgun to her granddaughter. Her granddaughter is less than two years old. Okay? So and this is an applause line because there can’t be too many guns.
  • Speaker 3
    0:16:05

    And again, back to Arnold Swartznager. It is in your nature to destroy yourself. So and this goes to your question about abortion, Charlie. The party would just keep going until it encounters a backlash. So it got some of backlash on abortion in the midterms.
  • Speaker 3
    0:16:19

    And Nancy Mesa is saying, apparently, they didn’t get the message, and they’re gonna keep going on guns. And I don’t know exactly when the backlash becomes too great on guns, but we have in this country. So, you know, obviously, there’s mass shooting and we’re almost you and I are almost numb to it at this point.
  • Speaker 2
    0:16:35

    Yeah. There
  • Speaker 3
    0:16:36

    are a couple of cases I just wanted to mention about the guns though. In the last couple of days, there have been a couple of shootings, not mass shootings. So one was in, I think, New Mexico, the police go on a domestic violence call. They accidentally go to the wrong house. Right?
  • Speaker 3
    0:16:51

    Yeah. And they know it’s the wrong house. And the homeowner is there and he’s freaked out. And he came out with a gun or he raised a gun anyway. He gets shot.
  • Speaker 3
    0:16:59

    Right? They killed him. Yeah. In his own home. I don’t know what he thought, but like he sees people out there.
  • Speaker 3
    0:17:04

    So he gets shot because he has a gun and they have guns and there’s an accident that’s terrible. Right? Another one was in Kansas City, a black teenager, the cops. Don’t at this point think it was racially motivated, but he goes to pick up his siblings and he accidentally goes to the wrong address. Right?
  • Speaker 3
    0:17:19

    It’s the right number on the wrong street. And the homeowner has a gun and shoots him. Okay? And so this is increasingly what we are seeing and we’re going to see. Never mind the crazy people with the gun.
  • Speaker 3
    0:17:31

    When everybody has a gun, there’s just gonna be more and more accidents where somebody’s like, oh my god, you’re trying to attack me. Who are you and their guns start getting fired and somebody shoots back and you have dead people which wouldn’t be
  • Speaker 2
    0:17:44

    happening if we didn’t have all the guns. That brings up the Greg Abbott. Pardon case? You have the case of a guy just convicted of murder for shooting a BLM protester in Austin. He had a gun.
  • Speaker 2
    0:17:55

    The BLM protester apparently had an AK forty seven across his chest, which he’s legally able to do with open carry. So The guy shoots him because he thinks, well, the guy has a gun. He’s gonna do something about it. And so what we are exactly to your point here is that in standard ground, open carry. You have two guys come up.
  • Speaker 2
    0:18:16

    It’s a matter of who’s shoot to first, and they will all claim justification. And in Greg Abbott’s world, if you see somebody and they have a gun which you’ve defended the right to have and you don’t like that person and you shoot him because you think he’s gonna shoot you first, you could say, well, hey, it’s it’s injustice to charge that person, the homicide when he was just simply standing his ground and exercising his second amendment right. I mean, this is almost beyond parody. Now, by the way, that case, since, you know, I wrote about it, the Greg Abbott, pardon being even worse than the looks. Now the court has released a lot of the social media posts from the shooter guy named Perry.
  • Speaker 2
    0:18:53

    He’s talking about you know, calling Bulwark people monkeys and the zoo and how he’s gonna go shoot some protesters. And this is the case that Greg Abbott has chosen to to take his stand in favor of gun rights. I mean, you wanna get an idea of how dystopian this is going to be, just pay attention to that story.
  • Speaker 3
    0:19:12

    Yeah. Although that’s more of, like, the it’s not just that Abbott is sort of taking a stand for guns. He’s taking a stand against BLM, but white guys can shoot black guys. That’s gonna be okay. You know?
  • Speaker 3
    0:19:21

    Yeah. That’s exactly. Exactly. But let me come back to what you said about OpenCarrie. That’s a really good point.
  • Speaker 3
    0:19:26

    So I was talking about a couple of cases that happened at homes, right, where somebody’s literally in their home with a gun and this tragedy results, you’re pointing out that the open carry stuff takes this outside the home. So now we have this mobile crisis of people being armed in because you have a gun, I’m allowed to shoot at you. You know, you and I have talked about this, but you can argue the second amendment text the right of individuals to carry guns everywhere. You can make that legal argument if you want. But just to be clear, this is the world that we increasingly live in.
  • Speaker 3
    0:19:55

    Where everybody can have a gun. Everybody does have a gun because you have a gun. I can shoot at you and vice versa. And, you know, we’re gonna have to decide at what point the violence that results from just everybody having a gun, setting aside bad intentions. Just everybody having a gun becomes so great that we decide we need to change the gun laws in this country.
  • Speaker 2
    0:20:14

    Well, that assumes that they’ll become a moment of rationality. So you you mentioned, I mean, Christy Noam talking about her, you know, one or two year old granddaughter already having a shotgun and a rifle I put that in my morning shots newsletter under cheap shots right at the bottom of that story, but also these pictures and I’m with you of them coming out of the NRA convention hosted by Reuters of these very small children handling the guns. Little girls, you know, holding the pistols. And in one picture, you have this little boy, you know, with glasses, couldn’t be more than seven years old. He’s got the baseball cap turned around the back way.
  • Speaker 2
    0:20:50

    And he’s holding a hand gun and he’s aiming it straight at the photographer. And you go, why are you people thinking? You know, photos of children handling guns at the NRA Annual Meeting? It is kind of breathtaking. You just deposed with the fact that children are being killed by these guns, but it’s a chasm in this country right now on this issue.
  • Speaker 2
    0:21:10

    I look at that picture. I’m thinking this is madness. And you wanna talk about groomers. What are you grooming these kids to be? That is such a
  • Speaker 3
    0:21:17

    good point. The the gut is way more dangerous than anything else that you’re introducing the child to. There is not an epidemic of grooming going There is an epidemic now of violence and deaths of children and killed. And Charlie Sykes really sad is you reminded me of a story that I once wrote It was in Florida. And it was exactly what you’re talking about, but it was kids with guns.
  • Speaker 3
    0:21:38

    Many, many accidents of kids. They’re playing with guns because that’s what kids do. They play with toy guns except these are real guns. And the kids were dying and getting killed. Charlie, this was like twenty five years ago.
  • Speaker 3
    0:21:48

    So that’s what depresses me is that this has been going on for a really long time. And still we haven’t done
  • Speaker 2
    0:21:53

    anything. This is Charlie Sykes, host of the Bulwark podcast. Thanks so much for listening to this show where every day we try to help you make sense of the political world we live in and remind you that you are not the crazy one. If you enjoy this podcast, I’m sure you’re going to find my free morning shots newsletter, a great companion for understanding what is happening to us. And every morning as I prepare for this show, I share with my readers what’s trending and what to pay attention to, including my latest writing and essays on the events of the day.
  • Speaker 2
    0:22:24

    To sign up for my free morning shots newsletter, go to the Bulwark dot com slash morning shots. That’s the bulwark dot com slash morning shots. And I look forward to seeing you in your inbox soon.
  • Speaker 7
    0:22:38

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    0:23:02

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    0:23:20

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    0:23:27

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    0:23:46

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    0:23:58

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  • Speaker 2
    0:24:10

    Wanna get to what’s going on with Rhonda Sanderson, Donald Trump, including about guns in just a moment. But just a brief comment on this growing country see about Diane Feinstein, you know, California senator who clearly is going through some things. She’s eighty seven years old. There’ve been lots of her. I’m I’m not trying to make fun of her here.
  • Speaker 2
    0:24:27

    I mean, they just She’s gone now from the Senate has been gone, has missed, you know, dozens and dozens of votes. She’s hospitalized with shingles. But even before that, there was It was a lot of speculation that she was not all there. And more and more Democrats sort of quietly were pushing her to retire. Now they’re being less quiet about it.
  • Speaker 2
    0:24:49

    You have, you know, congressman Rocana saying she’s got to resign. She hasn’t been showing up. She has no intention. We don’t know if she’s ever going to show up. She has no return date.
  • Speaker 2
    0:24:58

    And he says it’s one thing to take medical leave and come back. It’s another thing when you’re just not doing the job. And the reality here there’s the sense, well, you need to have a deference to these senators who’ve served so long. And he said, well, how about deference to the American people? And this is having real world consequences because as long as she’s gone, it may be impossible for Joe Biden and the Democrats to get judges confirmed.
  • Speaker 2
    0:25:22

    I mean, so this actually has real world consequences and you could just see from the Sunday shows how many of the Democrats are that they’re dealing with this with kid gloves. You and I don’t have to have the kid gloves, but it feels like the sort of raw narcissism of power or Jonathan Last calls it an an act of almost sociopathic indifference to the people she’s supposed to be serving. What do you think about this? Yeah. I mostly agree with that.
  • Speaker 2
    0:25:47

    One of the things that strikes me about this, Charlie, is there is
  • Speaker 3
    0:25:50

    so much attention on the right to the fake dementia of Joe Biden who has some trouble talking, but does not have any there’s no evidence that he has trouble thinking. Yeah. And, of course, the right focus is on that because they wanna hurt by it. They’re seeking political advantage. In the case of Diane Feinstein, we have real dementia.
  • Speaker 3
    0:26:06

    I mean, there’s lots of firsthand evidence of her just not being able to think clearly remember things. Just to function as a representative of the people and make Nana to vote intelligently. And there’s not so much focus on the right about this because it’s not to their advantage that it’s to the advantage of the right for her to be incapacitated and stay on her job and not provide the votes Democrats’ need on the judiciary committee. So it hasn’t been such an issue, but Rocon is basic point is instead of focusing on what we owe you know, this esteemed senator we should focus as you put it Charlie on on what we owe the people. She’s elected to represent the people.
  • Speaker 3
    0:26:42

    She’s not voting. She’s not doing the job. And, Charlie, I think what this speaks to is that these senators have very large staffs. Yeah. And they have committee staff who depend on them.
  • Speaker 3
    0:26:52

    And the minute that Diane Feinstain is out of that job and somebody else’s in it, all those staffers lose their power. They’re still exercising power, not in votes. But in the committee and in the legislation. But unfortunately, she really just can’t do the job anymore. And then this has created a real dilemma for Democrats California
  • Speaker 2
    0:27:09

    because she’s not running for real action, so you already have a primary shaping up. There were some pretty high profile candidates. But if she resigns or leaves in some other way, the governor has to appoint somebody and Gavin Newsom has pledged that he would name a black woman. Right? I mean, do I have that correct?
  • Speaker 2
    0:27:27

    Right. So that’s gonna be a real dilemma for him. So they’re trying to finance this or at least Diane Feinstein is trying to finance this or whoever is calling the shots here. Saying, okay, I will step down from the judiciary committee. I will resign it so that they can move these judicial appointments ahead.
  • Speaker 2
    0:27:44

    The problem is, weirdly enough in the senate. You need unanimous consent to change somebody’s committee assignment. And the Republicans have already signaled, you know what, we’re not doing it. We’re not gonna let her off the hook. So we’re gonna object to this.
  • Speaker 2
    0:27:57

    So balls back in her court, maybe she thought she was going to be able to finance it by just getting off the committee. Republicans are going to go, no, we’re gonna go full asshole on this. We’re not gonna let you get off the committee and put somebody in there. So we’ll find out what she does. The the only way to solve this is for her to resign from the Senate
  • Speaker 3
    0:28:15

    apparently. Yeah. And and I gotta say the Republicans. I mean, they they don’t owe it to cooperate here. Given that it’s kind of fake pretending that she can step down from the committee but still do her job.
  • Speaker 3
    0:28:24

    They got a point, you know. She should just,
  • Speaker 2
    0:28:25

    like, mess up and say, I can’t do this job anymore Ron DeSantis step down. Okay. So my newsletter today, morning shots, is GOP shots fired sort of. And the sort of being that we finally have. And I’m willing to make some concessions and stipulations right at the top of the bat, you know, that the criticisms of of Trump still fall short.
  • Speaker 2
    0:28:46

    Because, you know, they’re skirting the main issue, which is that the man is fundamentally unfit to hold any position of public honor or trust ever again. And I’m also willing to concede that given Trump’s lead in the polls and the proclivities of the Magdebas that these attacks on him are unlikely to be effective. I mean, all granted, but still
  • Speaker 3
    0:29:06

    I
  • Speaker 2
    0:29:06

    thought it was interesting that Ron DeSantis has finally realized he needs to punch back. Okay? So for people who’ve missed it, Trump’s, you know, political action committee fired pretty harsh attack Ron DeSantis last week, the putting fingers attack where, you know, Ron DeSantis loves sticking his fingers where they don’t belong. DeSantis has dirty fingers all over senior entitlement like cutting Medicare slashing social security even raising our retirement age. Tell Rhonda send us to keep his putting fingers off our money.
  • Speaker 2
    0:29:34

    It’s actually kind of funny. Also kind of weird for a Republican candidate to be running this ad because the Democrats can just use this, you know, just cut and paste this. So Axius broke the story last night. DeSantis’ Super PAC is launching its own ad. What happened to Donald Trump?
  • Speaker 2
    0:29:51

    Think they heard this on Fox News. This is a group called Never BackDown Pro DeSantis Group launches an ad fight Democrats, not Republicans, and they they ran this on Fox News Sunday. Donald Trump is being attacked by a Democrat prosecutor in New York. So why
  • Speaker 8
    0:30:06

    is he spending millions attacking the Republican governor of Florida, Trump stealing pages from the Biden Pelosi playbook, repeating lies about social security. Here’s the truth from governor Rhonda sense. No.
  • Speaker 1
    0:30:17

    We’re not gonna mess with Social Security as Republican. What did Trump say? Entitlements ever been on your plane.
  • Speaker 6
    0:30:23

    At some point, they will be. We will take a look at
  • Speaker 8
    0:30:25

    this. Trump should fight Democratic prants lie about governor DeSantis. What happens to Donald Trump? I never backed out. He gets responsible for the contents because
  • Speaker 2
    0:30:33

    Okay. So shots fired. I mean, that’s a pushback. And by the way, that was the second shot at Trump from this Ron DeSantis Super PAC the other one, which was I think it was a online buy, and it was geo targeted to Indianapolis for the NRA convention. And it goes under the title, gun grabbing Trump.
  • Speaker 2
    0:30:56

    Let me just play the the beginning of this. I don’t have the whole thing because there’s a scene where he’s Donald Trump is in a room with Diane Feinstein saying, you have these great ideas. Let’s put your idea to ban these guns, you know, in legislation. But the headline of this is Trump, the gun grabber, doesn’t deserve a second chance. This is from the DeSantis folks play at the beginning of
  • Speaker 8
    0:31:18

    Trump promised NRA members he’d have their back. When second amendment rights came under attack, Trump abandoned us. And stood with liberal democrats.
  • Speaker 6
    0:31:27

    You guys have for yourself, Fred, of the NRA. We have to fight them every once in a while. That’s okay. Some of you people have better fight of the NRA. You can’t be petrified.
  • Speaker 6
    0:31:35

    Oh. They have great power over you people. Mhmm. They have less power over me. I don’t need I don’t what do I need?
  • Speaker 6
    0:31:41

    That is why I have called for a red flag laws. Before I take the firearms first and then go to court. I like taking the guns here. We’ll take the guns first.
  • Speaker 2
    0:31:53

    Oh, okay. Will. I’d forgotten about some of those sound bites. So I don’t know. We’ve been asking when are other Republicans like Ron DeSantis is going to punch back?
  • Speaker 2
    0:32:02

    Will they punch back? Look, this may not work. This may not be sufficient, but this seems like, I mean, a recognition that this thing is on. What do you think? So
  • Speaker 3
    0:32:13

    I keep waiting for one of these Republican packs to call itself the eleventh commandment pack because there was famously the Reagan’s eleventh commandment. You’re you’re not supposed to attack your fellow Republican, but apparently your pack can so you have the Trump pack attacking DeSantis. I mean, actually, Trump’s right out there doing it. But DeSantis notably won’t do this in his own Ron DeSantis could get a lot more traction if he went on TV and said, you know, I’m tired of Donald Trump coming after me. And he said, make the same points.
  • Speaker 3
    0:32:39

    We’re supposed to stand against the democrats. It’s fratricide. He’s going
  • Speaker 2
    0:32:42

    to — Yeah. —
  • Speaker 3
    0:32:42

    but Ron DeSantis won’t do that. So we have this weird spectacle of my pack is doing this ad. You have a little little code words, Biden plates, the Biden Pelosi playbook. Can I just say, on the gun ad, that attack on Trump? That’s the first thing, and I don’t know how long Charlie Sykes that’s made me like Donald Trump.
  • Speaker 3
    0:33:00

    I mean, that that ad sorry. The attacks on Trump in that ad. That’s not for grabbing guns. That’s Trump saying he kinda likes red flag laws. He’s for some background checks.
  • Speaker 3
    0:33:11

    He’s against bump stocks. I mean, this is extremely basic stuff. Right? This is just extremely marginal. Right?
  • Speaker 3
    0:33:18

    So the message is that Trump is too reasonable on guns, even being a supporter of the second amendment. So but to the Fox
  • Speaker 2
    0:33:25

    audience, I guess that’s a winner. We’ll find out whether it is, but it was also a reminder watching that that Donald Trump is a man of actual no deep values and principles. He hasn’t thought about this. You know, all of his positions are transactional. And this was one of the rare lapses, one of the moments where he he clearly was feeling that, you know, I don’t need to go along with the most extreme part of my base.
  • Speaker 2
    0:33:47

    But ninety nine percent of the time, that’s what he does. And it’s the same thing on abortion, where here’s a guy who was pro choice his whole life probably paid for abortions. You know. Mhmm. And now suddenly becomes, you know, the pro life hero.
  • Speaker 2
    0:34:01

    Whatever he actually personally thinks is kind of irrelevant here. Same thing on guns. You know, New York guy. He’s not one you know, you know, your redneck mark and saw type thing, and yet he’s willing to go along with him. So if anything, it’s the this guy is a shape shifter and you have to keep him on a short leash, Trump’s gonna turn around and basically say, doesn’t matter what I actually say, look at what I do, and I’m gonna suck up to you.
  • Speaker 2
    0:34:25

    So, I mean, it is interesting on the abortion issue where, you know, it sounds like he is trying to distance himself from the extreme pro lifers that he personally thinks that this issue hurt Republicans, but if he actually continues to break with the hard line pro life segment, he’ll do something that he really hasn’t done which is to allow
  • Speaker 3
    0:34:47

    daylight between himself and and those folks. What do you think? This transactional stuff, you’ve really got me thinking with this because this is you know, you and I, we ridicule Trump for being transnational and having no values, but there are places where this is why Democrats thought when Trump got elected president that they could work with him. Because he was transactional. You can hear him in those clips talking about, you know, I’m for gun rights, but come on, you know, I’m here and there.
  • Speaker 3
    0:35:09

    I get you gotta stand up the owner right now and then. Naming some sort of practical restrictions that he could support. There are places where being transactional is helpful as a politician. This may be one of them. On the abortion stuff, it’s really kinda weird to me that DeSantis would think that he could sort of run to the right of Trump.
  • Speaker 3
    0:35:29

    That he’s gonna be the reliable pro life guy and you can’t trust Donald Trump. I mean, maybe that helps him in the primary and maybe that’s the whole ballgame. But I just think that is so lethal in a general election. I mean, can I pause on that for just a moment? I don’t wanna pull us off the topic of the ads completely, but Sure.
  • Speaker 3
    0:35:46

    Ron DeSantis has set up this very nice schtick that he had for himself in a general election and that he’s the guy who when the Democrats were locking down your state. Right? And, you know, wax mandates, mask mandates, shutting down your schools, He kept Florida open, and that message has a lot of appeal to people because COVID has faded. We’re not thinking about it so much anymore. They resent that their kids were held back.
  • Speaker 3
    0:36:12

    And he’s kinda pissing that all away because if DeSantis is the guy who’s going to ban abortion at six weeks, you are basically making abortion functionally illegal because so many women don’t even know they’re pregnant until that point. That just makes it so easy for Joe Biden to say, whatever disagreement you may have with Democrats on other issues, we’re not going to take away your basic rights over your body.
  • Speaker 2
    0:36:37

    And there are a whole lot of women who will vote on that issue. This is kind of the dilemmas. How do you win a Republican primary without making yourself unelectable? On the other hand, you know, for people who think that this is a magic bullet, I just would caution people to understand how closely divided this country is, you know, the structural imbalance and also the fact that Joe Biden has some real problems out there. He’s got some real polling problems.
  • Speaker 2
    0:37:00

    It might not matter if if it’s Donald Trump
  • Speaker 1
    0:37:03

    again.
  • Speaker 2
    0:37:05

    Speaking of Donald Trump, I keep coming back to this, and I apologize in advance, but I Did you see his true social bleed at two thirty nine AM today? Sorry
  • Speaker 3
    0:37:16

    I was asleep.
  • Speaker 2
    0:37:17

    Yeah. Well, I I only saw it after I I woke up and wanted to figure out what was going on with the Fox News, Dominion lawsuit. So he put out an all caps Can I do a reading of it? Oh, I would love it. This is the former president of the United States’ advice to Fox News.
  • Speaker 2
    0:37:33

    Okay. Today, their trial was supposed to begin. So at two thirty nine AM. So he wakes up in the middle of the night, and he types this out all in caps. If Fox would finally admit that there was large scale cheating in irregularities in the twenty twenty presidential election, which would be a good thing for them and for America, the case against them, which should not have existed at all, would be greatly weakened.
  • Speaker 2
    0:37:55

    Back up those patriots at Fox instead of throwing them under the bus and they are right at clamation point. There is so, there’s three o’s. So much proof like mass balance stuff being caught on government cameras, FBI, colluding with Twitter and Facebook state legislatures not used etcetera. So his advice to Fox is you should double down on the lies. If you just said, yeah, absolutely darn right.
  • Speaker 2
    0:38:20

    We believe all of that stuff that Court, by the way, has already found as a matter of law to be completely false. So here he is, in the middle of the night, bleeding out this stuff all in caps and I just look at this going, what rational human being would look at this and go, yeah, that’s the man we want to put back in the overall office, yeah, let’s put him back in charge of the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, and given the nuclear codes. That, you know, what could go wrong there? Charlie, you made the
  • Speaker 3
    0:38:50

    main point here, which is the judge has already ruled in this case that Fox live that it knew that this was all bullshit about the election fraud. I mean, not that any election fraud, but that there was enough election fraud to overturn any of these states. Yeah. Right? It’s already been factually and legally examined.
  • Speaker 3
    0:39:09

    So Trump is going out against all of this. And, Charlie, this is the kind of thing that makes me think. Again, is Trump lying or is he diluted? This to me feels like part of the delusion that in the face of all of that, he’s telling them to defy all of the evidence that’s been presented the court ruling and to stand for the myth of the stolen election. But as you point out, this goes to the question of, can you believe can you believe that this party is about to renominate this guy who not only is completely unfit but is choosing to focus on issues and disputes that are factually bullshit.
  • Speaker 3
    0:39:46

    Right? And everyone knows it. And it’s just not rational and yet that’s
  • Speaker 2
    0:39:51

    what they seem on the cusp of doing. Speaking of not rational, I tweeted about this over the weekend This is a story out of Louisiana. Tim Miller’s new home state. Republican state official in Louisiana are asking lawmakers to ban the study of racism at universities saying that this is one of those divisive, inglorious aspects of US history. Know, and and in many ways, this is the logical culmination of the demigodgery of people like Christopher Ruffo who said, I want people to pick up a newspaper.
  • Speaker 2
    0:40:24

    And if they see anything that makes them uncomfortable about race that they immediately blame it on CRT. Right? Mhmm. That they immediately go to all of this. So now you actually have these Republican officials wanting to ban teaching of racism in state universities.
  • Speaker 2
    0:40:42

    I I don’t know how they’re gonna cover reconstruction. I and you’d be interested to know how they cover the civil war, whether or not it will be illegal to talk about Jim Crow. Kind of interesting to know how they’ll cover the civil rights movement. Any of those things, if you’re not allowed to talk about out all of that, but we’re not talking about deep thinkers here are away. But here we are.
  • Speaker 2
    0:41:03

    Yeah. GOP resolution claimed the inglorious aspects
  • Speaker 3
    0:41:06

    of American history were just too divisive and make us uncomfortable. So I kinda wanna reserve judgment on this particular case because I haven’t read about it. And I I’m always wary that sometimes we say they’re trying to ban the teaching of history when in fact did some theory about history, but let me just back up and agree with the larger point, which is I’m sorry to say this, but in the Republican Party, for as long as I can remember, there has always been a version of white resentment. And sometimes it was more overt before. It’s gotten subtler.
  • Speaker 3
    0:41:36

    It’s gotten clever or craftier. So now we have the attack on so called critical race theory. And the problem is that because it’s always about white resentment, there is this animus under it. There’s this resentment under it. And it’s creepy.
  • Speaker 3
    0:41:50

    And they’re going to keep going with this stuff. They’re gonna keep pushing on critical race theory and restricting this and that curriculum. Until they get to the point where if it’s not this case, it’ll be the next one. Where they’re outright banning the teaching of history. And maybe it is this case, I just haven’t read enough about it, but it will happen or it has happened.
  • Speaker 2
    0:42:07

    Yeah. I think it’s
  • Speaker 3
    0:42:08

    inevitable. Yeah. And it’s a form of madness and you just have to pull back and recognize that you’re in it. And I keep waiting Charlie for the backlash to happen. It not gonna be enough if it’s black and brown people, it’s gonna have to be enough white people who get pissed off about it.
  • Speaker 3
    0:42:22

    And I I have not yet seen evidence that enough white people care about this to make it an voting issue against the right.
  • Speaker 2
    0:42:28

    Okay. So speaking of backlashes, I drew you into some controversy last night. I apologize for that. I tweeted about this story of the hundreds of teenagers flooding into downtown Chicago, smashing car windows, just, you know, full scale kind of, you know, disorder. The newly elected progressive mayor said, you know, of course, when we condemn any kinds of violence, but then he went on.
  • Speaker 2
    0:42:51

    However, it is not constructive to demonize use. Who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities. And I thought, wow, you know, with all of these images, these teenagers running a muck and terrorizing your city that you have to do that. But let’s talk about the root causes of what are these young people trying to tell us? So I did a WTF.
  • Speaker 2
    0:43:15

    And and I thought you made a great point, and I know you got ratioed on it. If Democrats won’t offer voters a firm response to mayhem in the streets, there’s another party that will. Yeah. Yeah. I’m sorry.
  • Speaker 2
    0:43:28

    It’s like when you have your downtown area being terrorized, maybe save the sociology one hundred and one lecture for tomorrow? First of all, these cases always
  • Speaker 3
    0:43:39

    piss me off because for every one of those kids that was running around, you know, breaking windows, there’s some a guy got beaten in his car. I don’t know how many people got physically assaulted in this, but it’s a total rampage. For every one of these, you know, disadvantage use. You can talk all you want. There’s another disadvantage use.
  • Speaker 3
    0:43:56

    There are ten. There are a hundred other disadvantage use who are not going out and committing violence. Right? So don’t tell me that this is just a natural byproduct that that’s insulting. Right?
  • Speaker 3
    0:44:06

    People make immoral criminal decisions and they should be treated accordingly. And if this is not some right wing idea, this is basic human intuition. We have rules in society. You don’t go around attacking people in their property. And it’s perfectly legitimate to say we want these people locked up.
  • Speaker 3
    0:44:25

    We want them at least to face enough punishment that they stopped doing it because this has happened. How many times before Charlie Sykes Chicago? I don’t know. There was at least one prior episode that was like this. Right?
  • Speaker 3
    0:44:34

    And if the mayor does sends a message, and remember, in this democratic primary, this this mayor election in Chicago, this was the progressive guy who won the election. Right? So he’s talking like a progressive. Mhmm. And I had people saying on Twitter, you know, they just had the election, so there won’t be another election for a while.
  • Speaker 3
    0:44:51

    There are recalls people. And there’s another election that will come down the pike. And if the Democratic Party will not represent the natural response of voters to want some law and order in their community. The Republican Party will win, right wing candidates will win, and you will not like their solutions. They will not have midnight basketball.
  • Speaker 3
    0:45:11

    They will only
  • Speaker 2
    0:45:12

    have incarceration. This is Chicago Merrill Like Brandon Johnson who said, no, this city needs a comprehensive approach to improve public safety. And so his first sentence was, in no way do I condone the destructive activity we saw in the loop and lakefront this weekend, but then he went on to say, It is unacceptable as no place in the city. However, it is not constructive to demonize the youth which got all the attention. Instantly enough, the outgoing Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot who was overwhelmingly defeated for reelection in large part because of the crime issue, she issued a statement, making the point that parents need to instill proper values in their children.
  • Speaker 2
    0:45:49

    She said parents and guardians must know where their children are. And be responsible for their actions, instilling the important values of respect for people and property must begin at home. Which is kind of interesting that that came from Laurie Lightfoot who has apparently decided that we need to talk about those things when you’re talking about this as opposed to, can we have another seminar on root causes?
  • Speaker 1
    0:46:12

    Now
  • Speaker 3
    0:46:13

    yeah. I mean, this is kind of a weird segue. But in the case of Donald Trump’s indictment, here are all these Liberals. Here are all these progress. Assets saying, let’s stand for law and order.
  • Speaker 3
    0:46:21

    A guy broke the law. Let’s have him punished. I agree. Right? It’s a white collar crime.
  • Speaker 3
    0:46:25

    Punished white collar crime. What about blue collar crime? That two should be punished. Right? We don’t wanna double standard on the right where we punish blue collar crime and that white collar crime, but we also don’t wanna double standard on the left.
  • Speaker 3
    0:46:37

    Where, you know, somebody like Donald Trump who commits financial crimes should face the music, should go to jail if that’s the appropriate penalty. But people who break into cars and attack other people physically should
  • Speaker 2
    0:46:47

    not. Alright. Anything you’re particularly keeping your eye on this week I must admit that I was planning on strapping in for the Fox Dominion trial, which may still take place. What are you watching this week. I’m watching the supreme court in this the ruling they’re gonna issue on the
  • Speaker 3
    0:47:03

    abortion pill. They’re gonna just have to decide how much of the lower courts stay — Yeah. — that will be cute.
  • Speaker 2
    0:47:07

    And I’m
  • Speaker 3
    0:47:08

    really interested in this to see what kind of supreme court we have because we know at the district court level the judge who issued this initial ruling against the abortion pill is kind of a right wing fanatic, went out of his way to try to justify overturning twenty years of FDA rulings, then this went to an appeals court, and then the Supreme Court, they’re gonna have to decide whether they are conservatives or radicals. Right? Yeah. The radical approach would be, you know what? We don’t like abortion.
  • Speaker 3
    0:47:32

    We already made that clear, so this ruling makes it harder to get an abortion, so we’re gonna support it. I don’t think they’re gonna do that, Charlie. My prediction is this is a conservative supreme court. And they won’t like the idea of overturning two decades of FDA policy. They won’t like the idea of judges interfering in scientific decisions and that they will strike down all of the lower
  • Speaker 2
    0:47:53

    court ratings. Well, we we will see it. It was certainly a strange moment when it was just as Alito who put a hold on the the lower court rulings in allowing the abortion pill to be sold for a few more days. But I think you’ve stated it correctly. There is a difference between being a an actually conservative court and a radical court.
  • Speaker 2
    0:48:12

    This is a court though that if it is conservative, it may be conservative only, like, on a five four vote. But you’re right, this will be the most consequential ruling on this issue since dobs itself. And it will have massive implications patients were constitutional law, but also for the regulatory framework, which is freaking people out about what this means, about the the regulation of of drugs and will obviously have tremendous political fallout as well. Very interesting the way that Republicans have distanced themselves. From this ruling.
  • Speaker 2
    0:48:42

    They have not been enthusiastic rushing out to say, yeah, this is this is what we promised. This is what we’re going to do. We’re gonna make sure that you can’t take this pill or order this pill in the privacy of your own home. It is interesting that with all the radicalism that we’ve seen at the state and local level that this seems to be too much for a lot of conservative Republicans. That’s kind of a tell, isn’t it?
  • Speaker 2
    0:49:04

    Yeah. You know, this is of a peace with the
  • Speaker 3
    0:49:06

    whole Ron DeSantis using the government to mess with Disney and other companies. There is a species of conservatism that is, you know, the government should not be getting involved in a lot of these private decisions. And the pharma industry has when working with FDA for decades about here’s how we get our drugs approved, breaking out. And so there’s this larger conservative point that if you decide just you don’t like abortion that you’re going to uphold this lower court ruling and suddenly all of the FDA drug approvals are in question. Now you’re attacking industry.
  • Speaker 3
    0:49:35

    You’re attacking the whole free market system that’s, I mean, it’s regulated, but it’s based on sort of an orderly relationship between these companies and the government. So the Republican Party would be attacking its donor base. It would be attacking all the business groups that supported in the name of fighting abortion and I don’t think
  • Speaker 2
    0:49:52

    they’re up for that. Yeah. Speaking of which, I haven’t paid too much attention to the whole, you know, woke beer controversy because I think it’s just too stupid. I feel like I could stupid or the more I, you know, want the various videos of the people who are upset with Anheuser Busch, you know, Bud Light because they hadn’t, you know, at trans influence or whatever. But what was interesting is that the Republican Party at Southview Republican establishment was tiptoeing toward this Bud Light boycott but they’ve deleted all of this.
  • Speaker 2
    0:50:19

    It’s like somebody, you know, picked up the phone and said, hey, you know what? You really don’t wanna be pushing this particular boycott. And they backed up, which has created a real rift on the right people saying, well, established Republican isn’t going along with our obsession about woke beer. It shows that there are a bunch of cuts some rhinos and things like that. But this seems to be one of those again, those decisions about you you understand these are big corporate donors to us, and we probably shouldn’t be pissing in our own beer type thing?
  • Speaker 2
    0:50:46

    The pissing on the
  • Speaker 3
    0:50:48

    beer. What a metaphor? Perfect.
  • Speaker 2
    0:50:49

    Yeah. Sure. Yeah. If you’re gonna be drinking beer, do not be pissing in the beer. It’s just not a good idea.
  • Speaker 2
    0:50:56

    Alright. Well, good talking with you. We will do this again next Monday. Alright,
  • Speaker 3
    0:51:00

    Charlie. Thanks.
  • Speaker 2
    0:51:01

    And thank you all for listening to today’s Bulwark podcast. I’m Charlie Sykes. We will be back tomorrow and we’ll do this all over again. Bulwark podcast is produced by Katie Cooper. And engineered and edited by Jason Brown.
  • Speaker 7
    0:51:27

    Dissecting politics with exclusive interviews, commentary, and humor, useful idiots. With Katy How upper and Aaron Mate.
  • Speaker 1
    0:51:34

    Check out this story that comes via wedding planner, Georgia Mitchell. I’d say that’s a deal breaker if you were to catch your partner being breastfed by their mother. The thing is that she’s here in the second hand so — Right. — really
  • Speaker 5
    0:51:44

    — did responsible journalist in you, Erin. It’s it’s an allegation. Yeah.
  • Speaker 1
    0:51:47

    None of my sources have confirmed this story. Right. So
  • Speaker 5
    0:51:50

    Terrible if true. And definitely the outbreak
  • Speaker 1
    0:51:52

    Useful
  • Speaker 7
    0:51:53

    idiots wherever you listen.
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