Tim Miller: It Was Dumber than You Might Have Imagined

Welcome to the Bulwark podcast. I’m Charlie Sykes. It is February tenth two thousand twenty three, and as we head into this desperately needed Super Bowl weekend. The good news is the Chinese balloon is still dead. There’s a new Monmouth rollout showing that Donald Trump trails Florida’s Rhonda Santos in a two way race.

Astra is there. Two way race. Fifty three to forty percent We haven’t talked about this much, but, I mean, the death toll in Turkey in Syria is just absolutely horrific. Big political story of the day, Mike Pence gets his a subpoena, you know, that that is a BFT. If you’ve been following it, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has been getting a hero’s welcome in Europe.

I love the picture of the king of the West, media guy named Charles. In London. Elon Musk is acknowledging that he has blocked Ukrainian troops from using his StarLink technology Meanwhile, the House’s weaponization committee turned out to be absolutely the goat rope that everybody expected. I mean, it’s almost I don’t know. Just bear with me here for a second.

It’s almost like Jim Jordan is just not very very good at this. And as I mentioned in my newsletter morning shots this morning, I tested positive for COVID last night. Mhmm. Right before I did the eleventh hour on television. So I gutted it out.

I did this. This should be fun. Tim Miller, you’ve had COVID. Right? You gutted that out.

Right?

Not really. No. You’re like the Patrick Mahomes out there on a hurt ankle, on COVID. Going to MSNBC and the big Friday podcast. I I’m just I’m proud of you.

You’re a warrior.

Well, you know, Yeah. Let me Not me. I’m a

baby. I’m a baby. I would have had out of out of taking my horse pills to Ivermactin. Yes. You know, would have taken all of my zinc.

Mhmm. I did zinc. I cuddled up I cuddled up in the bed for three days. That’s fine.

Well, I did that. I actually did cuddle up in the bed for about two hours, and then I got undressed up and went down to TV. But, hey, screwdriver, MEK tonight. I am loaded with packs loaded? Is that how you pronounce it?

Pac

No. You’re very fluid. And

Nyquil. I have to tell you that these are the wonder drugs. I have no idea why Ron Johnson is not out having, you know, congressional hearings about, you know, Nike will. As the answer to every day. So, hey, can we do a little bit of a promotional business before we get into

Let’s do it. Got a lot to promote. Well,

you know, I’ve talked about this before. Look, most of the stuff, I’ll be really Canada. Most of the stuff that we have at the bulwark is is free because we don’t think you can save democracy from behind payroll. But the bulwark plus community is I think unique. I’m and I I don’t think I’m I’m saying that just simply had a special pleading.

If you become part of this, you know, you can get this podcast, and by the way, there’s a big story in The New York Times about, you know, podcast disinformation. Steve Bannon is the greatest source of disinformation in America today, and I mentioned in my newsletter, you know, there are choices because Steve Madden has the number five political podcast in America today. Who is number six? Yes. Who is number six?

At his heels. No wonder.

I’ve a guess. I’ve a guess. This is a Candice Owens.

Bullwork podcast is the number six political podcast in America. Now we have been like, up to four, we’ve been down. So we’ve been consistently in the top ten. So if you could, you know, see it in your heart, to have us beat Steve Bannon. I think it would be a great moment for America.

But anyway, it’s a back to bulwark plus you can get an ad free version of this, the next level, the focus group with Sarah Longwell, beg to differ with Mona Sharon and her crew. There’s a the boar goes to Hollywood. And across the movie aisle. And actually behind the paywall, which means something that we we keep for the members, just between us, which is a podcast that I do every week with Mona Sharon, and the secret podcast that I can’t tell you about because it’s secret and also, of course, the Thursday night livestream. And, of course, we have a suite of newsletters I’m guessing, Timothy, if I asked you to name all the newsletters you probably can’t because there’s so many of them, there’s morning shots, there’s the triad, We have a new one, PressPass by Joe Perticone.

We have Over time, and Sunny Bunch has a newsletter. So So good. Again, I think that one of the special things about the Bulwark plus community, and I think one of the reasons why people join is they want to be part of this conversation that almost never is occurring anymore. I mean, everybody’s gone into their own bubble. And you you look at, say, the top ten political podcasts.

Then he’s sort of the good news, the bad news. I mean, the good news is we’re in the top ten. Bad news is, number three is Candice Owens. Four is NPR politics podcast, but then there’s Bannon’s war room. Number eight is the verdict with Ted Cruz.

I mean, so Is

he still in the Senate or is he just in the podcast business these days? That is an interesting question. Know whether

you agree, Tim. I think one of the real highlights of the bold is reading the comment sections that we have. And again, that’s a benefit for bolder plus members, but I am continually blown away. I don’t always agree, and sometimes I’m annoyed. I’m looking at this.

But, you know, how lucid and eloquent and thoughtful comments are in our community. Maybe I guess what I’m getting at it is it’s a club you want to be a member of.

I’m learning from the comment section. Like a lot of times, you know, you’ve got me and I’m just When you’re doing this podcast, as you know, many hours a week, you’re just popping off on a lot of topics. And sometimes you’re popping off on things you know really well and sometimes you know a little bit. And, you know, just this week, I was popping off about how I was a little bit annoyed by Joe Biden’s Buy America stuff. Yeah.

And, you know, the comments you’re getting these comments that are with all these details of all the reasons I’m right. I love that when the commenters come in with with details and facts about how about how these policies are deleterious. Everyone’s around, you know, the comment just also come in and tell me why I’m wrong, which I don’t like as much. Yeah. But but, you know, it’s it’s vibrant.

People are smart. The people here are smart. It’s really it’s really something.

They they they really are. They really are smart. And and this is something I’ve always thought about. Don’t wanna be part of that club. I don’t wanna be associated with that.

But if you if you read the comments, we get a sense of this is a good group to hang out with. So as I was pumping the tax law vet and and nightquell and various other drugs into me last night, I was thinking, you know, if I can’t get up in the morning to write my newsletter, that’s going to be okay. Because all I would want to do and I did other things too. But as I was going to bed in this drug induced state, I was thinking, I just want to resend out. Tim Miller’s absolutely outstanding piece about the soft DeSantis boys.

Spelled b o I s, which we’ll leave we’ll leave aside in Portland. And, you know, because I was sitting there and I was reading some of the commentary, you know, the horse race commentary about, well, you know, how is DeSantis responding to being, you know, called Epeddo? You know, is he being forced enough. How does this actually play? But you went to a really interesting place.

You know, how shocked, shocked and offended all of these folks are, these anti anti Trump folks or people in Mago World are just shocked that Donald Trump would actually smear and say shitty things about Rhonda Sandis. And, like, looking around, like, well, this goes too far. When did this start? This this crosses the line and I have to say that I set up in my chair. When your piece came through a new guest wrote the triad.

So people may have seen this in their mailbox. And you said, have you seen this movie before? Remember when Trump threatened to reveal Ted Cruz’s supposed affairs when he accused Ben Carson of being a child malaester when he falsely claimed, the Jeb like Mexican aid Legals because his wife was one who the alleged Mikael Brysinski was bleeding from her face after plastic surgery. When you retweeted someone who used a Peyto Biden hashtag, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Like, no shit, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

And by the way, here in Wisconsin, Wisconsin primary, I remember that whole Ted Cruz a fair thing. It was everywhere. And of course, Ted got over it. And then you point out an array of people who gleefully supported Trump for president twice despite this decades long pattern of behavior are now, all caps very concerned about his nastiness. Byron, New York.

I love this one. I’m sorry. I do. Byron, New York, the Washington examiner’s saddest Trump Licks Middle. Lamented that Trump is going lower and lower.

Former editor for Trump fan dialogue American greatness Pedro Gonzalez is now under the impression that his one time hero is unserious and acting based on his insecurities. You don’t say? Claire Monster and miniature tough boy, Dave River Boy, called it bottom feeder stuff, which she should know. Tim, I wanna say this to your face across several time zones here. This is a great point because, I mean, the lack of any sort of self awareness is chefs kiss here on the part of these people.

Thank

you. And the comment section fibrin as ever. So you just get in there. Bold plus everybody. You you meet a lot of friends when you make fun of the status Trump like Spitals, you know, you can find you find commonality across ideological divide.

That’s nice. I like watching these friendship blossom in the comments. But was fired up. I wrote this in a coffee shop in around forty five minutes. All the best stuff happens when you’re just getting your damn dropped.

Yeah. Because I was seeing these some of these tweets. It was the buyer in your tweet that made me the most math. I was just, like, lower and lower, really? Donald Trump?

Lower and lower. What is that? How

long has

this been going on? I started jambling in the casino. Like, what, you know, what was actually prompting all of this? Right? Like, that is the thing that was driving me in the audience.

The the thing that was prompting us is that they know that the person that they used for a little while who practiced this just absolute want and cruelty against anyone who possibly threatened him was now threatening the person that they want to replace because they see Trump as a loser. They’re ready to move on. They have their new precious. Rhonda Santos, John Chase has been really good over New York Magna just chronicling, just how wide and deep the DeSantis level of fandom is and and conservative media. And so now as I wrote a firsthand of the article that I flop it around on the ground like a French soccer player, you know, pretending that they got tripped and they need a red card.

They’re they’re mad at Trump about this. Yeah. Cheap shot on the French. Great World Cup match. They’re still French, and it’s still soccer.

So there’s the hypocrisy element of this. Which is maddening in itself. But it also is kind of what we’ve been seeing for the last eight years. The the thing that really, you know, got my dandro. Was just over the subject matter and how DeSantis himself responded to it.

Right? Because I think for we’ve been writing down this for a minute, but if you for whatever reason haven’t seen this, What prompted this article is is that Trump on his social media site, whatever it’s called, was posting some memes as these want to do. Of DeSantis appearing to be drinking and, you know, can’t see it as a cup with three girls who are, I guess, in college, maybe possibly underage. We don’t know that. Yeah.

Yeah. We don’t Like, this is all. From the context, it seems like he took a gap year where he was a teacher, and and I guess he’s he’s hanging out these girls, and that’s what these pictures that that surfaced. Okay. So Trump, you know, shares these memes.

Trump didn’t write this because he doesn’t use big words. But but other people, you know, one of them wrote that it was a fiebophili esque, which is, you know, the step above pedophile. Sleeping with older teens when it’s inappropriate. It’s a thing. Yeah.

Phoebeilia. Yeah. Yeah. Roy Moore was in a Phoebe fieldiac. That’s why I knew I knew that word from really was Why weren’t

we all at one point? I don’t

think it’s a female affiliate if it’s teen on teen. I don’t think that’s a female affiliate. I think it’s grown up on teen. It’s a female affiliate. Oh, okay.

Alright. Okay. Ice stanker. People who are pedophiles is an important distinction. Right?

It’s like, one battle, actually, I’m a I’m a fieva files. Anyway, terminology and lesson of the day. The other means suggested that Rhonda Sanchez was grooming, that’s keyword here, grooming these young women. And so Trump shares both of these. And then is what leads everyone to say, oh, this is so low.

Oh, you’re a bottom feeder to a accused Ron DeSantis of grooming. I said, you just have to take a moment sometimes and just say, Really? It’s unfair to call Ron DeSantis a groomer, the person who has mainstreamed to this accusation. Against anyone and everyone that that serves as political ends. Could do we not remember that it was Ron DeSantis spokesperson who was calling not just gay teachers and Florida groomers, but anyone who opposed that don’t say gay gay, Bill as a groom or sympathizer.

And, you know, we have Chris Ruffo, his friend that he put on the board of the college there. Accusing teachers big groomers. He had the lids of TikTok lady whose whole life is calling people groomers children’s hospital employees, drag queens, teachers. I guess her whole feed, this lives of TikTok feed, is about making accusations against mostly LGBT folks that they’re grooming others. And DeSantis invited her to the governor’s mansion.

He also accused the lieutenant governor who was running on Chris’s ticket. I’m I’m blanket under name of protecting pedophiles. Right? Like, this has been his go to move. Calling people groomers and pedophiles.

And now Donald Trump calls him a groomer, and it’s like, oh, we’re we’re supposed to be Cut you in the pearls? Really? Like, these fucking guys are just so soft and so weak and they’re just trying to protect that little dough boy. That they can go and smear any teacher, any public servant, any children’s hospital employee and get out of boys and plot it on Twitter because Ron’s you into the left, take you into those elites, the public school teachers, and yet Ron has to get we’ll take one meme target again from Donald Trump, and now Now

we’re smelling the papers. Fuck these guys. See, now this is where your piece was so value added because my first reaction was this is really kind of a dumb move by by Donald Trump a. Because he’s got all

of it. Well,

no. Wait. Wait. That he’s got all of these pictures with him and Jeffrey Epstein, you know, and the team USA. I mean, he’s got and the playboy, playmate, all of this stuff out there.

So perhaps not the wisest thing, not to mention the fact that there appears to be pushback from you know, some erstwhile magotypes were, you know, protecting their precious. But listening to you now, given how deeply Santos has become invested in pushing out his own boomer memes. Is this another one of those examples of unappreciated reptilian commitment from Donald Trump. Because he knows that that that Santos can’t really he can’t say, accusing someone of a groomer is a terrible thing. We can never do that.

That is just completely awful win, and it then comes to Miller with all the he’s showing all the time that he’s done this shit himself.

I love your little COVID brain mix up there. We have to keep it in, Katie. Don’t cut it. You’re calling to Santa Santos. There is something there.

There’s a parallel there. DeSantis

was called that really was. Nice cat.

Okay. I’m carrying this morning, Charlie. You’re doing great. So I’ve got two political observations on this. One is, I do think that it’s challenging and it has been for ten years to do normal political analysis on Donald Trump.

Right? And I think that that this example, well, I tried to zag here and cut through the clutter is, like, for starters, don’t think that enough people wrote about this. There was attention because it’s like Donald Trump, dog bites me, and Donald Trump does me. Yeah. Exactly.

But on the other day, it’s like former president of the United States accuses top rival of being and a FIFA file. Like, I don’t know. That feels like a news story before twenty fifteen. Pretty big news story. You know, if Barack Obama was not fair.

Like Colin Mitt Romney in a in a Veeva file. I think that would have made the front pages. So anyway, there’s that element to this. There’s element of how it’s hard to judge. It is Trump, you know, you get into figure skating judging.

Right? Now is this a good hit by Trump? Is this his reptilian cunning? Or is this another piece of evidence that he’s lost as fast? Call.

And the answer to that question is kind of like, it’s hard to really know. Right? And and and people that are particularly, I think, ill suited to judge that are, like, DC and New York dwellers for whom, like, this is who are very much not the target audience of Trump’s lashing out here. So I don’t know. I I think it is it’s possible, right, that Trump sees that he’s got this vulnerability here and is gonna go pick it up with DeSantis and and that that might work.

I think that it’s also possible that he is showing if you listen to Sarasoga script, that he is showing a little bit of bad judgment in that in sixteen, he was able to push back against this claim that he was doing Republican and Republican crime by always being like, I’m a counter puncher. I’m a counter puncher. He’s not counter punching here. Like, he’s going straight to it on the person that that a lot of his fans like for whatever reason. In DeSantis.

Mhmm. And so I I do think it’s possible that it’s a little bit evidence that, okay, well, maybe that rutillion cutting is still there that he knows that this is a scab to pick. But maybe his timing is off. He’s, like, old Norma Desmond, old man, you know, back to your Olivia Nuzzy podcast in that’s in Mar a Lago not realizing that the world has to buy. All of that stuff though, we don’t really know.

We’re not experts on, so maybe the thing that everybody should be focusing on. Is the hypocrisy and and just, you know, the absurdity of the DeSantis crowd crying foul.

I agree. So I actually when I wrote about this in my newsletter this morning, I cited a somebody from my past sort of, conservative talk show host in Wisconsin named Jay Weber. I’ve known Jay for years. He used to be the morning well, he still is the morning host on WISN radio. I was not on the same station.

I was on WTMJ. But I knew Jay I actually had worked at ISN for a while. I knew Jay very well. And what I really remember going back to well, let me just read this tweet. Okay?

Because he was a perfect example of the Byron York brain that you were describing before. He tweeted out yesterday. I didn’t defend Donald Trump against mirrors and shitty lies for seven years. In order to have him turned around and used the same techniques against DeSantis and Republicans who threatened him in twenty four, If he continues on this path, I’m flatly out on him, which is bullshit on several levels because I remember Jay very well back in two thousand fifteen and two thousand sixteen in Wisconsin where he was saying the same things about Donald Trump that I was. See, I was not alone as a conservative talk show host back in the day being anti Trump.

Almost everybody was. I remember

pitching Jay when I was again. Yeah. Principal’s pack, the anti Trump pack. I remember and I didn’t, like, you know, know him, but I remember him being, like, amenable

to anti Trump pitches back then in sixteen. Absolutely. And and he and I would exchange emails and and better whether DMs or whatever. You know, kind of like, hey, at a boy and, hey, you know, he keep up the good work and everything, and all all of that stuff. And I think he, you know, seven years ago today, he was on the air calling Donald Trump orange Julius.

So he he wasn’t defending Donald Trump. But then, of course, like so many others, he, you know, did the, you know, the flipping, and he became a reliable, as he acknowledges, he became a reliable turd publisher, you know, defending Trump against anything, defending Trump all this time. And now he has shocked and appalled and really, really hurt to find that Donald Trump is actually insulting. You know, seven years ago, Donald Trump was, you know, this massive campaign of, you know, lying Ted Cruz and all the women Ted Cruz and and look at the things that, you know, look at things everybody else is doing. It’s like it’s dropped into a memory hole, but also his point, if he continues on this path, which by the way of course, he will because he’s Donald Trump.

I’m flatly out on him. No, you’re not. You’ll come back. You will do that flip flop just like you did before. You will come crawling back and say, well, I still don’t like, you know, these, you know, accusations of pedophilia.

So on the other hand, he’s, you know, certainly superior to any of the evil Democrats who want to, blank blank blank blank blank. You know that he’s going to do that. So Did it Jay, you know, I this is the problem of of having too long a memory. Even when you have COVID brain, you remember all this stuff.

The j thing is remiss and not a schtick I had in twenty sixteen when I was trying to get people on board to for never Trump stuff which was, here’s the thing. You’re gonna be never Trump or at least anti Trump or against Trump eventually. Like, it might not be now. It might be when he embarrasses you in the White House. It might be when you try to beat him in twenty twenty.

It might be when he runs as a third party candidate, like, ten year olds about twenty twenty four. But, like, so you might as well just be against him now. Like, you might as well just be with us now and and just get the whole process overworked with, and and Jay is a prime example of that.

So, wait, you you pitched him on stuff. Oh, yeah. You never pitched me. Did you pitch me? It was you, Vicky — Yeah.

— Jay. But did I talk to you back then? Or was I just too easy? I was I was

we don’t need to worry about Sykes. Sykes? No. I yeah. Because you interviewed Trump — I know.

— I did. And so, boy, I’d have to go back and look at my emails. But, like, during that Wisconsin primary period, you know, we were sending Trump off out to radio folks. I definitely remember sending it to Vicki. I remember Jay.

I thought I said to send stuff to you. I don’t remember. I mean, you nailed them in that interview back in twenty sixteen. I that that’s the one thing I have to clear of memory up. Look at your monitor right now.

Yeah. Let’s see what I’m holding up. Tim

Tim Ocampo Anthony. Do you see this? Yeah. I just pulled this out of my drawer. It’s the front page of the Monday, May sixteenth two thousand sixteen New York Times.

Okay? Yeah. K. And there’s a story by Jeremy Peters, Once again, another flank of the GOP warms up to Trump, and it talks about how what is it? Evangelical Christians are lining up.

And one day, I got a FedEx envelope. From the Trump organization on Fifth Avenue to me, and written on the front page of the New York Times in Sherpe. Yeah, loser. Charlie. I hope you can change your mind with a line driven pointing at that story.

Charlie, I hope you can change your mind. Look forward to your show, Donald Trump, and then below it, In big all caps, I will win exclamation point. I’m gonna put this back in my special FedEx envelope.

That’s pretty good. But I’m a digital hoarder. I don’t know about you, Charlie. I’m a digital hoarder size, like, all my emails and text messages. This will come back to haunt me at some point.

But here it is. Yeah. Here’s me sending you an old clip of Trump attacking governor Walker for being too unyielding in his fights. March twenty third two thousand sixteen. Mhmm.

You reply all caps. Thank you. Gold. So we did we we change here. There are a couple other little exchanges here.

Me doing my job as a flack. You rip in Donald Trump?

God. So it it goes back. Yeah. Isn’t that something? It’s like Yeah.

Conspiracy theories, paranormal, UFO’s. During the entire nineteen seventy one debacle of this red die number two. Parents all around America were buying Frank and Berry so only a few days after the cereal was released, kids all across the country started being rushed to hospitals. All of them had one symptom in common.

Theories of the third kind on YouTube or wherever you listen.

Alright. So a couple of other things I I really wanna get to today. I wanna talk about the Anna Paulina Luna story for people going who? The new George Santos and the weaponization committee. Can we just start with the weaponization committee?

Because I understand that you, for your sin, spent time watching it I guess, I’m struck by a couple of things. Number one, how badly organized it was. What a sort of, you know, Star Wars bar scene of witness they have. I mean, when your whole deal is I mean, you you have your first big thing and it’s senator Ron Johnson, who hasn’t met a conspiracy theory, doesn’t like, you know, Putin fan girl, Tulsi Gabbard, Chuck Grassley. Twitter user, Jonathan Turley, retired FBI agent who didn’t know what a smartphone was?

You know, and the contrast with the January sixth committee was pretty amazing. I mean, that committee spent months putting together its evidence. Right? And it looks like Jim Jordan and his people just, like, putting out some old Fox News clips. So what do you think you

watched this thing? Yeah. I suffered through it. I I was thinking about writing about it, but I mostly just wanted to be able to comment on it, you know, with an informed manner rather than a Twitter matter, and it was so annoying but I just I didn’t get my dander up like I did on Ron DeSantis, and so I just decided to sort of save my takes for the podcast here. I know that this is hard to believe, but it’s even dumber than you probably think and expected.

And and I and I used that word particularly dumber because it wasn’t crazier than you expected. It was like about as crazy as you expected, maybe even slightly less. But it was just it serves no purpose. The arguments that they were making were all conjecture. And they had very little actual evidence to add to any of their arguments.

Any other silly arguments about the weaponization of the deep state and Big Tech. I still don’t really understand what I guess they’re they’re trying to claim that the Twitter censorship regime, which is the number one issue for Republicans all over America, despite Saturday on bus now on Twitter and apparently Clint does whatever catbird asks him to do. I I don’t understand why that’s a big issue, but that’s the number one issue. They connect that to the weaponization committee because the FBI, I guess, sent some emails to Twitter requesting that they take certain things down threats, violent speech, things in that nature. And so much of the committee is, like, old people complaints about the internet.

You know, Jonathan Darlie is, like, Oh, ranting on around about how Twitter is the marketplace of ideas, and this is a a free speech space. And, you know, Debbie Oscar and Schultz was never really my favorite. It’s like, Jonathan, dude, she was great. Yeah. Do you have any particular expertise in this matter?

He’s like, well, I read the Twitter files. And she’s like, that I mean, if you worked for Twitter or Do you know anything about the way their processes for for vetting and for deleting? Basically, just have a Twitter account. That’s it. Yeah.

I have an account. I have an account. I’m even a user of interest, and I’m a legal expert. And so that was classic. Yeah.

It was classic. Chazzy is going on and on. It’s like I feel like I’m in a in crazy world. Donald Trump has a social media account. His channelist spokesperson and Jason Miller has a social media or not account platform.

There’s truth, there’s jitter, there’s eight chan, there’s gab, and and Twitter itself was bought by a pro rondeus Troll. Elon Musk, are we really concerned about the threat to free speech seems to be thriving to me online? Like, who’s talk like, no one is targeting me anybody. If anything, it’s conservative. That are doing better than ever on the Internet.

So

here’s the problem they have that they are in effect like speaking in tongues in Fox News, speak that if you’re not deeply immersed in that Everyone’s in white going, what are they talking about? Because, I mean, they have they come from this world where this is what they have been regurgitating for months and months and months. So in their heads, it makes sense. And when they say it out loud, it’s like, okay, unless I had, like, like a scorecard to keep up with them. I wouldn’t understand what they’re talking about here.

Okay. So now very self consciously, you know, having escaped from tribal politics, I really believe very strongly in the adage, you know, that do not fall on upon the mighty, do not become a fanboy, do not put your hopes on any politician. And and this frustrates people because people wanna say, no, you should only say that the ex person is absolutely wonderful and fantastic and that they are always succeeding. And no, I’m I’m just not doing that, except that I gotta say, this new guy Dan Goldman The new congressman, you you may have, you know, seen him before he was on various other committee. I mean, he as a staffer, he was amazing yesterday.

And this is not the most important moment, but I have to admit last night as I was, you know, trying to keep myself awake until the eleventh hour last night, and I’ve pumped myself all full of COVID drugs. I have to give credit where credit is due. I’m listening to the Lawrence O’Donnell Show, and he played this extended clip of Dan Goldman cross examining this former FBI special agent named Thomas Baker who you know, the the geniuses of the Republicans figured, we’re going to get this expert on the FBI, a guy that retired more than twenty years ago, has a book to sell, has become, you know, a real fan of seb gorka. I mean, he’s appeared on podcast of Sub Goreka, former Trump adviser who has ties to all of these, you know, anti Semitic organizations. I mean, he’s he’s full maga.

And so and the guy is is allegedly gonna be talking about how the FBI has changed and it’s really changed and gone downhill you know, since nine eleven. And before nine eleven, we were okay. But after nine eleven, just listen. This runs about two minutes, but how Dan Goldman takes apart one of the Republican star witnesses, Thomas Baker, former FBI special agent, go.

What did you retire from the FBI? I retired from FBI employment in the about twenty years ago, in nineteen ninety nine. Right? It’s a year. Yeah.

And I’ve continued to be engaged with the FBI in a number of levels since then. Okay. So you retired two years before nine eleven. Right?

That’s

correct. Right. And are you aware that one of the reasons that nine eleven occurred was that the FBI and the intelligence community community did not coordinate sufficient me. Do

you

agree with that? That’s a conclusion of the September eleven Commission, and it’s very valid, I think. And so you read that like I did, and that’s all the information that you had because you were upset at the FBI. And and as a result of nine eleven that the Department of Homeland Security was created. Right?

A year or two after that? Yes. So you never worked in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security when you work for the FBI. Right? I was working as a consultant during

When you

were paid for the FBI, when you were paid by the FBI as a as a special agent, did you work with homeland security? No. It didn’t exist. Okay. And you never investigated foreign interference in our elections.

Did you? No. I personally did not And you have no experience investigating Russia’s efforts to interfere in our elections through cyberattacks and social media. Do you? Other than what I’ve studied and researched.

Okay. And in nineteen ninety nine when he left, did smartphones exist? Of a soul it? Really? Yes.

What? We had we had phones. We had phones. You know what? Smartphone dot dev?

Okay. Well, do you ever do any search warrants for emails? Search warrants for emails. No. I did not.

I’ve never investigate domestic extremism. Oh, good. I

started to feel

bad. I’ve got a lot of to

Klueck’s plan on many occasions. So Good. I could could you ever investigate any insurrections on the capital? No. There was none.

Okay. And I appreciate that your your servicer, but you would agree that a lot has changed in the FBI in the twenty three years since you left. Correct? Good and bad, and I have stayed engaged on a number of level. One last question.

I read tweets about

the album. Just just for context of why I started to feel bad. So this is this is a kind of commentary you only get for people who suffer through hours with the fucking committee. Just before this, in this port FBI guy, Baker, was just getting smoked Colin Allred, who is a who’s a rep out of Texas former football player. I I thought this might have been even better.

The Goldman side. And he is just he is just leasing into this guy about whether or not January six was domestic terrorism. And so, you know, I mean, he just was in for a pounding. Baker was not prepped. Unlike, you know, Liz Janie and our friends on the January sixth committee who made sure all those witnesses were prepped, it did not seem like a lot of work went into prepping, Thomas.

I still don’t even know having watched hours of it. I don’t even know what is what we want. I guess I’m saying. His the point of in there was I guess to have an FBI official to to validate that they are also concerned about politicization in the FBI. But he didn’t he he wasn’t bringing any receipts.

You would think if they wanna have insider whistleblower. They would

find someone who worked there in this millennium. If you don’t think so. Okay. Hey, we’re getting lots of special requests from our colleagues for you and I to talk about this amazing story about James O’Keefe from Project Veritas, the report yesterday was that you’re good buddy James O’Keefe from Project Veritas. One of the rock stars of the right is the guys that do the undercover stuff.

So often Sometimes they they get something in a lot of it sketchy though. But project Veritas and James O’Keefe have been, no. Is he dancing close to the line for a while and now he’s put on leave while they investigate things? So there are so many anecdotes on all of this, but one of our colleagues Amanda wants us to comment on something from the Daily Beast, this anecdote. Okay?

In December, Project Veritas acknowledged improperly giving James O’Keefe twenty thousand five hundred dollars in excess benefits to pay for project Veritas staff to accompany him to Virginia as he performed a lead role in a production of the musical Oklahoma. Oh, Oklahoma. In the memo, when employee worried that all the money spent on musicals, risked alienating donors. Mhmm. All the theater stuff and how it’s handled makes me very uneasy the moment or anything later.

In the end, we were in a deficit now. Our fans and potential fans beyond and not respond positively to all of that stuff. Now as I recall, you shared a video of him dancing a few months. So he’s he’s like, into musicals. He’s Oh, yeah.

He’s a theater kid. Are you ready for this, Charlie? I mean, I’m

just — Yeah.

— I am bringing the inside scoop on everything. I didn’t I didn’t know I was not prepped for this. Did not know that this question was coming, but yet I still have the inside scoop. Not only is he a big Theatre Kid, just this project very task, conservative, ratfucker, this is video. The other the other week of him, he was chasing this New York Times reporter down the street.

Just the some New York Times reporter is, like, videoing him back and James McPhee was just screaming at him and it’s like, oh, man, great great work here, James. He is a big theater kid. I guess, apparently, he spent twenty thousand dollars in Oklahoma. But not only that, he has on the Project Beritat staff, the choreography department. At least one, maybe several people who work for him, who just organize their dances and their plays, and at this these checkpoint USA campuses?

Who is that for us at the ballwork? Well,

I would think it should be Jim Swift, but I don’t know for sure. But I went to I got into the project Veritas afterparty when I was at the turning point USA Conference and that is where I took the video that people can put in the show notes or I’ll put in the comment section. So this way, let’s make sure Bora plus membership worthwhile. Put the video on the comment section if you haven’t seen it on this podcast. And, you know, he is doing that, you know, that’s like everyday.

I’m shuffling. Anyway, either now or you know. He’s doing he’s shuffling to that song, and no one’s watching, and I’m just there up close and personal with my smartphone monitoring these dance moves. And know, I started convincing with his staff, and he’s got this cudery of people that follow everywhere security and other people. I started talking to some of them.

And and I guess that, you know, for purposes like this, events like Trinity Point USA, they have a choreography department that plans their kind of dances that they do when they’re revealing their live owning videos. So that’s where the big donor money is going. And I I guess this Dailybee story indicates that some folks are happy with with that use of resources and that James is on gonna be on leaf, which is really unfortunate for him. And for us, really, to not to miss out on that kind of

art high art. It does seem that the grifters were at stayed out where the gifters are all, like, going after the spoils altogether. It’s kinda like, you know, the the hyenas, you know, decided that we know we better get our bit. Right now, do you see that story about Charlie Kirk’s turning point USA is about to lose students for Trump. They had apparently had that.

And so now the students for Trump which is one of the major growth organizations is breaking I mean, they’re all fighting with each other who gets control, who has the domain names and everything. Which is not that surprising because you have a certain kind of person who’s attracted to this world, and there’s a lot of money. The stakes are very, very big. Right? It is like the little foxes, speaking of the kind of people attracted to this.

So we’ve had the George Santos saga, which I am not bored with at all as you can tell I still have it on my mind. Story in the Washington Post about Anna Paulina Luna, who by the way was one of the congresspeople who was also supporting the AR fifteen pin earlier this week, George Santos and her headed on as a signal, guys, we’re up for anything you guys are up for. We will wear anything. So what’s the story with her apparently She’s a little bit of a fabulous. We’re a lot of a fabulous.

She’s kind of and again, why does this keep happening to republicans. I

have to get two points on this. So for Ana Plano Luna herself, she has become close to Matt Gates. Yeah. There’s some Whispeers about that, which I’ll I’ll leave at that, but I think that they’re close friends. And she’s a Florida Newport to Congresswoman.

The story about her by Jacquiello made me great report over the Washington Post one of my favorite parts of it is just right off the lead here. She’s been really pitching herself. I I think in Trump’s party. There have been obviously some concerns about the parties outreach to Latinos. So there’s there’s like a recruitment effort.

We want candidates for Latinos to show, you know, and to really help the party do better with that demographic. And so she pitched herself as Mexican American. Yes. She is the first Mexican American woman to represent Florida and Congress. We’re slicing these identity politics categories pretty thin here, but that’s the one where she pitched herself.

Turns out, she was serving in the Air Force Base in Missouri, as she described herself as Middle Eastern Jewish or Eastern European. Now, Mexico is not in any of those areas. And then she changed her last name to her mother’s last name as, I guess, an homage to her mother’s family. So I guess this would be, like, if I excited I wanted to run for Congress, changed my last name to Saffa, and said I was Lebanese, I think, would be the equivalent to this, which I I think my friends from the rest of my life would find pretty pretty odd. But I had identified lebanese now and my mother’s half lebanese and I’m I’m taking her family name and I don’t I don’t understand the problem with this.

It was actually my mother, a lot of mom mom on this podcast. She suggested when Jeb was doing that, that’s the e take on Calumba. His twice last day. He’s like, you know, maybe that’s how you get rid of a bush baggage. So this this kind of fun silly tongue and cheek suggestion was apparently taken by Anna Paulina Luna, who is also, you know, with Gates on going against McCarthy.

And so she’s now, you know, taken on this far right firebrand persona. In Congress, the anecdotal news used about this is related to our friend, Bill Crystal. Bill is the kind of guy, the old wise beard, you know, that gets called sorry, they’ll take that as compliment in which it’s intended. That gets called when somebody who let’s say they went to Harvard, and they they went to officer training school and they, you know, served in the military or they started a business. And they’re like, you know what?

I I think I might wanna run for Congress in Florida. I’m gonna move home to Tampa. And run for Congress, I’d like to get some advice from somebody. Bill’s the kind of person that people call. You know, when I first met Bill, you know, whatever that about a decade ago, he’d get those calls.

And sometimes if the person hit press advice, I’d get I’d talk to them. And, you know, these really talented people, a lot of them would want run as Republicans, like, you know, Senate Republicans. Now somebody that is talented that doesn’t wanna, like, shovel Trump shit college educated because of our education polarization. They’re not running as Republicans. Right?

They they don’t want to run as Republicans. So they called no. No. No. I run a democratic primary?

Is there a third party option? Right? Like, the types of income? Like, it’s a supply and demand issue. Everything’s Adam Smith.

The the kinds of candidates that wanna run, are calling Bill and they’re not they don’t wanna run their Republican primary. So if they do, they’re quickly dissuaded if once they realize what they’re gonna have to do to win a primate. And so Enter people like Annapolis, Luna, and George Santos. If you are a grifter who wants to get into Congress, it is much easier to just pretend like you’re a maga, particularly pretend like you’re a mega person of color where they’re gonna just vault you to the top of the line because they they feel like they need to help their brand. Position with minorities.

You know, you’re you’re gonna very easily win a primary. And if it’s in a safe district or in a in a Republican district, you’re gonna be a member of congress. Like, you can’t do that on the Democratic side. Right? Like, the the depth of people who are running in, like, in open.

Look at what’s happening in the California senate race. You know, there’s gonna be a hundred Democrats that that get into these open seats, everybody with various different impressive resumes. You know, you can’t just grip your way in by putting on a Joe Biden, like, you know, Scranton Joe Half and changing your last name and and calling it good. Right? Like, you’re gonna run into some other formidable challengers.

And so I think Matt can supply and demand question is why we’re saying more and more of the Santos and Luna’s and the Artic. And and, of

course, they fit right in there. Speaking of the cou cou couches, you know, Marjorie Taylor Green has had quite a a week. Apparently yesterday, they had a closed door briefing about the Chinese balloon and she disrupted it by by screaming apparently bullshit bullshit and she’s very, very proud about it. I’m I’m not gonna ask, like, what’s going on with her because I think it’s pretty obvious. I mean, she’s playing the card for all of it.

It’s worth. She’s loving the attention. You know, it it does feel it’s a little bit unchained and it’s like how far does she take this? We’re at the point now where a sitting member of Congress screaming bullshit becomes her, like, go to signature move.

Don’t

even know if I have a question there, like, you know?

Well, she’s matured. She’s learned She’s matured.

I’m impressed. Who’s it? Was it coma? Who did say that?

No. It was my call. Texas Scott Grishman. Again, one of the one of the supposed cause at normal, so we hear so much about.

Okay. It’s the Super Bowl you gotta pick?

Yeah. I’m I’m gonna I’m picking an achieves I’m pretty annoyed with the NFL as a, you know, as a long as a Bronco’s fan. There was this moment on Monday night football. Maybe about eight years ago now where this is famous throughout Elizabeth Holmes where it could have been six years ago where he, like, throws left handed and he’s, like, falling down. And it’s just this unbelievable Michael Jordan of Football esque play and it was against the Bronx Coast.

I remember watching and texting my brother and saying, we’re gonna be losing to this asshole for twenty years. Like, I’m gonna be Charlie Sykes’ age by the time the bronchos get out of this division.

That was just fucking cold. It was

and I sorry. And I saw it. And I just saw my future. And so I I had some years of bitterness and pettiness towards the homes over this, but now you just gotta appreciate it. And it’s just unbelievably on the high ankle spraying and and beat the bangles last week.

You

know, they got a little help from the reps. That’s my only concern. I agree with you, but that is that is my concern. In the shot on age. It was just it was, like, do better, Tim.

I’m sorry. As you know what, as soon as I mentioned, I had COVID, you you were online actually looking up actuarial tables

Why? Truly? No. I want you I want you to be I want you to be keep around for the the Donald Trump junior twenty thirty two, we’re gonna be Friday. It’s gonna be Friday.

We’re gonna be in Iowa caucuses covering that. You’re stuck here. Time is a flat circle.

Well, and and and, of course, you know, the the convention’s coming here to Milwaukee. You know that. Right? So I

guess I knew that, but I hadn’t registered the Charlie Sykes impact. I

wanna shock you here. I’m actually looking forward to Rihanna’s halftime show. Really? What are your favorite Rihanna songs? I actually have a new one.

Okay. From a Wakanda, lift me up — Okay. — which I’m hoping I’m hoping that she sings. So Okay. Alright.

You had some you had some other business as Yeah.

Okay. Two final items. One is just I I received a lot of negative emails and comments about my comment last week that the eggs prices were an evidence that inflation has not left us. And I just want to say to folks that I appreciate being held accountable, but you know, I was making a tongue in cheek comment. And, yes, the egg price increase is due to the avian flu, not to the broader inflation, but I sometimes get a little bit annoyed with our Democratic fan boyfriends.

I can get fanboyged to Charlie who want to be like, inflation is not a problem. Well, these people are crazy that they’re still complaining about everything the economy is great. Everything’s great. It’s like, the economy’s good. The jobs numbers are good.

We now have more people in the workforce than we did before COVID. I’m impressed with that. I think the recovery has been pretty good on balance, but you know, if inflation goes up by x percent in a given year and then stays static, like, people are The prices have still gone up. People’s groceries have still gone up. So yeah.

The eggs example was was maybe not the most precise. It was a passing. Comment, but I like to be held accountable and to be clear with our fans.

But you could have chosen many other items in which it is inflation. So Like like, okay. Avian flu for eggs, people. Inflation’s a real problem. Like

the grocery bill is still very high. I I grocery shop for my family. I’m aware. Finally, I just I don’t I don’t have any other vehicle to to express this. So here it is on the Vlog podcast, and I just I just wanna do it two minutes of hate on Kevin Durant.

If you don’t mind. And everyone can turn this off. Okay. About the NBA. But Kevin Fucking Durant was on the Oklahoma City thunder.

Ten years ago. It was it was like going to be the next big thing after LeBron James. He’s super talented. I get it. He’s on the Columbus City founder.

They lose to the Golden State Warriors in seven games. Great series. One of the best NBA playoff series of the millennium. And after he loses he’s a free agent, What does he do? He signs with the Golden State fucking Washers.

Like, they just beat him in this epic

series, and then he went and signed with the people that beat him. It just goes against the whole spirit of the crucible of sport. It’s like, why would you do

that? You you did not want another try. You did not want it kind of triumph over over this super team that that you that you almost were the one person that could crack. So I I didn’t like that about Kevin Durant, and that made me not like my hometown Golden State Warriors. I’ve held that against him.

Okay. So then he leaves the Golden State Warriors. He said, well, I’m not getting enough credit for winning on the Superteam. And so he’s like, I wanna start my own super team. So he he goes across the country and he starts a squad in Brooklyn.

He signs up with conspiracy theorist, Kyrie Erink, and the most may be the most annoying player in all the NBA James Harden and creates another Super Team. This team collapses. They want only seven playoff games over the course of the three or four years that they’ve been together. This year, they’re in fourth place. They’re right there.

They’re hardened is gone now, but it’s still Kyrie and KD. They’re right there competing in the east can see if

we could have made the final still. And KD and Kyrie decided they want to be traded from this team they created. They created this team. The people of Brooklyn were excited they bought in. And now there I go, we’re demanding trades.

So now Kyrie is sent to Dallas, Kevin Duran is sent to Phoenix, and my beloved Denver Nuggets My

long suffering Denver Nuggets who’ve done this the right way, who’ve built through internally, who have this beautiful generational player in Nikola Yolked, were winning the west this was gonna be

our year. And now Kevin Durant, as I’ve now said, oh, I wanna sign up with another Super Team. So now the nuggets are gonna have to defeat him in the

western conference, you know, in his little bald spot when he signed up with the Suns. And it’s just like, this is not I have just a level of hatred for this that is unlike anything since, like, my childhood for sports. And so I have, like, a a child’s purity of athletic hate right now. And so if you’re a Phoenix sun fan, I just wanna let you know that we are now persona non grata until you are defeated. Which you will be.

And if you win the championship this year, I hope you feel bad about it. So that’s my message to the Phoenix Suns fans and to Kevin Durant. Tim. Yeah.

Do you realize that most people watch sports and follow sports to relax? To step away from the stress. That’s not lives. I think this is a parent.

I need something to just really really focus me, you know, away from, you know, the rest of this bullshit. Can

we agree on this though? Can we have one final agreement. June,

did you not agree with me that Kevin Durant’s behavior has just been appalling? Of course,

it’s appalling.

Okay. Great.

I’ll humor you on this.

Okay. Thank you. What was our other agreement then?

Burt PACCARK.

Legend. Burt PACCARK. Is he

gonna be performing with Rihanna? Is he still around? Okay. That’s just cold. He died yesterday.

The age of ninety four. Damn.

I’m sorry to that correct family. Oh, come on.

The guy He’s responsible for fifty two top forty hits. Fifty two, Alfie, walk on by, promises, promises, raindrops, keep falling on my head. What the world need now is love

to go on. Do

you know the way to San Jose? All were big hits before you were born. Right? Is that what you’re gonna tell me now? No.

I I

think that what the world needs now is love, and that should be a nice message. And after we finish the podcast, I’m gonna just put that on. In my home. I’m gonna blare it. We’re gonna see what my five year old thinks about that, and I’m gonna try to calm down about Kevin Durant.

He and and Hal David, what are the rogers and heart of the nineteen 60s. And our absolutely brilliant executive producer Katie Cooper and Jason Brown are going to put together a little bit of a burp back rack — Should be it. Yeah. — for us. Just

really quick, though, really quick, what decade were the Rogers and Harta?

Believe it or not. That’s actually before. You

said mister Rogers? Will Rogers? Who are we who are we talking about?

Rogers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership between composer Richard Rogers and lyricist Lauren’s Heart. They worked on one t eight stage musicals and one in five hundred songs from nineteen nineteen until heart’s death in nineteen forty three. I

like learning. You learned about a memorabilia? I’m learning about pahronders in heart. I

actually have a full list of all of there, which I will I will I will actually spare you. Have a great weekend. Feel better,

Charlie. Feel better. I appreciate you cutting it out and hanging out with me today. And we’ll catch you next time. Max Lohid.

Night quilt. What else am I taking? Zenks,

I won’t even

blame them in the sea.

Zenks perhaps it, like, super doses of Pepcet, lots of vitamin c, including gummies. Love that. So we we are

a lot of gummy.

Alright. We will be back on Monday. Well, at least somebody will be. Have a great week. Main cops keep owning on my head.

That does mean my eyes will seem to be changing red. Guys, for me.

Friend, took a note of us to get out of the end. Have this raining more than ever. No that will do. Have each other.

Former Navy Seal Sean Ryan shares real stories from real people, from all walks of life on the Sean Ryan show. This

one’s about my friend, call signed ninja. So

there

was all these things that I wanted to do in army. I was like, this is it. In army, you do roads and airfields, and they say, well, they can test and see where you fall. I was like, yeah. But I could do that and all this stuff too.

Drive tanks, jump out of play. Do you guys have a sampler platter? The Sean Ryan Show. On YouTube or wherever you listen.