← Bulwark Takes
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- [00:00]
Narrator/Advertiser
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- [01:52]
Tim Miller
Hey everybody, it is Tim Miller here with my buddies, Andrew Egger, author of our morning shots newsletter, jbl, author of the Triad newsletter and editor extraordinaire. We're here to discuss Kristi Noem's defenestration. Kristi Noem is out as the head of the Department of Homeland Security. The announcement has come as is his want from Donald Trump on social media. He's bleed at this and he's bleeding it while Christy know is on stage in Nashville at some conference right now. Yeah, we have that here. Let's go to pull it up and watch that. So you know that Christy knows and fired. She doesn't know we would presume that she's been fired. Maybe she's just keeping a straight face. There's no other way for
- [02:40]
JBL
how would you know the difference?
- [02:41]
Tim Miller
Tim, gonna read the post from Donald Trump. I'm pleased to announce that highly respected United States senator from the great state of Oklahoma, Mark Wayne Mullen, will become United States Secretary of Homeland Security effective March 31st. The current Secretary, Kristi Noem, who served us well and has had numerous and spectacular affairs, I'm sorry results especially on the border will be moving to special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, blah blah, blah. They're going to be announcing at Saturday in Doral. She thanks Christie. He thanks Christie for her service at Homeland. So there we go. We've seen this coming for a bit now. Why don't we give us our initial thoughts. Andrew, I noticed in the Slack me and JBL being negative and always looking for ways things could get worse. I think are not overwhelmed. I guess I don't want to speak for JBL speak next. I speak for myself not overwhelmed that things are going to get much better with this. But you had posted that you think that it is certain that her successor will be better than her. So let's hear.
- [03:43]
Andrew Egger
Yes, that's what I that's exactly what I said. It is an absolute guarantee. Please write me letters when the when the eventual successor, Mark Wayne Mullen, the senator from from Oklahoma, turns out to be a nightmare. You know, you can hold me personally accountable. No, I did not say this. I did say that that I do think that she has been uniquely bad in some respects. I mean she is she is a force multiplier for obviously what Trump has wanted all along at the border. But she has added a lot of her own personal spin in ways that have been particularly embarrassing for the country and particularly hard on the people who are getting the brunt of all of this stuff. The way that she and Corey Lewandowski have run ICE operations have been always with one eye on sort of throwing a lot of red meat content to the MAGA base in terms of, you know, slick sizzle reel video of people marching onto deportation planes in chains and ICE agents scuffling with protesters in the street and pepper spraying. All these sorts of things have been not out of character with the way that Trump has wanted all this to go. But a lot of it has flown just as a practical matter out of Noem and Lewandowski. And the specific strategy that they have wanted to implement in a and honestly like to bolster her personal brand, which is part of what's so funny about this is like that is ultimately the thing not any of ICE's horrible outrages that we've seen in recent months. But the thing that finally reporting suggests got Trump to finally say, this is not the person for us, is the fact that she was in the Senate this week. And a Senator John Kennedy, a Republican senator, asked, what's the deal with all those, you know, the millions and millions and millions of dollars DHS is spending running these ads that, like, make you look like the architect of this deportation regime? And she said, well, you know, you know, the president thinks those ads are great. He signed off on them. Donald Trump hears about this. He says, I absolutely did not sign off on those ads. What's going on here? And that appears to have been ultimately the thing that broke it for.
- [05:46]
Tim Miller
Yeah. So not. Not the murder of two American citizens. That wasn't what broke it for Christy Noem. But testifying that Donald Trump was involved with something that he doesn't want to be associated with, that makes, that makes sense.
- [05:57]
Andrew Egger
Correct.
- [05:57]
Tim Miller
Jbl, point to you for people, because folks are just kind of gathering in here. The breaking news that Kristi no has been fired as Secretary of Homeland Security. And it happened either right before, right as she began speaking, that's her speaking to the Sergeant Benevolent Association Major Cities Conference in Nashville. And, you know, Trump loves to humiliate. He loves to humiliate. And whether or not she's in the dark right now, as we point and laugh, or whether or not she heard right before she came on, it is a humiliation ritual either way for Kristi Noem. And we have to at least enjoy that element of it. Jbl, what's your top takeaway?
- [06:38]
JBL
It's delicious. And it is unlikely. Here's my top takeaway, honestly, because I think Homeland Security is unlikely to get better. And we can talk about that a little more because that's substance. It, to me, is fitting, and I think it's important for people to look at Kristi Noem so they understand what it is they're signing up for. This woman has dedicated her entire, like, the last decade plus of her life to climbing into Donald Trump's shadow. She's done everything he asked for. She may have broken the law for him in addition to humility, even before
- [07:15]
Tim Miller
she had the stuff, she ran those ads about how great he was doing this, like South Dakota was running ads.
- [07:20]
JBL
I'm gonna put him on the, you know, Mount Rushmore and that stuff. And her thanks for that is that he absolutely humiliates her. There are, there are ways to do this perfectly normally.
- [07:36]
Tim Miller
Right.
- [07:36]
JBL
Do it on a Friday afternoon with her, you let her announce that she, she's, you know, talked with the President and she's stepping back because she wants to spend more time with her, with her special advisors. And. But he doesn't do that. He waits till she's on stage to announce this. And I did have a question because he, he announces that she's moving into this other role. I do wonder if he got her buy in beforehand.
- [08:04]
Tim Miller
Yeah, maybe.
- [08:05]
JBL
Or, or if he just is saying she's doing this and now she can't even say no to it. Right. So she can't even, like she actually has to do this other job now that he said.
- [08:15]
Tim Miller
Special envoy for the Shield of the Americas.
- [08:18]
JBL
Yeah, it's a. So, you know, like, if you're signing up for Trump, like, you, you should understand that this is what you're signing up for.
- [08:28]
Tim Miller
Yeah. This is reminiscent for me of the tarmac firing of my former boss, Reince Priebus.
- [08:32]
Andrew Egger
Yes.
- [08:34]
Tim Miller
And you know, in that case that showed like the cowardly nature of Trump, who has this you're fired element. But he doesn't like to actually fire people. You know, it's, it was kind of reminiscent of in the debates, like you had insult Jub's wife on stage and then off stage. How you doing, buddy? Like, that's just Trump's just non confrontational nature when actually faced with a threat. Kind of like when the bird, when the eagle is next to him and he gets scared, the little birds coming for him. And on the Reince situation, Reince told me this, that he was like, he had called Trump, they're on the phone together and they're like planning something at like 20 minutes before, you know, like while he's in the car waiting to get on the plane and they finish the call, there's like another call and he gets off to get on the plane and it's like, no, sorry, you don't need to get on the plane. Trump just fired you by tweet. And it's like they were literally just talking his chief of staff and he wouldn't do it. So I don't think you can put it past him how embarrassing it is. Andrew referenced the video that put the exchange from the hearing that put the final nail in the coffin for, for Christina. Why don't we watch that? We've got the video of John Kennedy, my senator, questioning her about, about how they're spending their money on ads the
- [09:56]
JBL
President approved ahead of time. You spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently, sir.
- [10:07]
Tim Miller
We went through the legal processes.
- [10:08]
Andrew Egger
Did it correct the president?
- [10:11]
JBL
Yes, he did.
- [10:13]
Tim Miller
Yes.
- [10:13]
JBL
Okay.
- [10:15]
Tim Miller
And one thing, Senator, I think would be helpful to know is how effective that communications has been that overwhelming effective
- [10:23]
JBL
in your name recognition. I mean, I personally just. I mean, to me, it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot. And it. And I just. I'm not saying you're not telling the truth. It's just hard for me to believe, knowing the president as I do, that you said, Mr. President, here's some ads I've cut and I'm going to spend $220 million running them. That he would have agreed to that.
- [10:55]
Tim Miller
It's crazy. Like this is always how this jvl. You're always on this. That it's like, you know, the. It can never be the gang. The head of the gang. That was. That was wrong. You know, he's always like wrong is always done by him. He's never done wrong. And I just want to read Comrade Stalin only knew. Yeah, exactly.
- [11:13]
JBL
He would never have allowed this. He would never have put me in the gulag. But this, I mean, this is the cardinal sin from Trump's perspective. We have seen this over and over and over again. He doesn't care if you kill people. He doesn't care if you steal or attempt to have a coup. The one unforgivable thing is making money off of him.
- [11:36]
Tim Miller
Yeah.
- [11:36]
JBL
And the way he views this, the federal budget is his money that belongs to Donald Trump and Donald Trump's family. If you are spending that money to get something over for yourself, you know, to get your beak wet, then you're stealing from him. And he doesn't countenance that.
- [11:56]
Tim Miller
That's right, Andrew. And because it isn't really the spending. And maybe that matters to Kennedy, but I just want to pull this up. I mean, her spending was profligated insane. And it's not. And I think that this is more about the affront to Trump, as JBL says, not like any sort of fiscal responsibility. But I just want to read through some of these line items. 220 million for the ad campaign, including some subcontract to. That was. Maybe a sub. Subcontract was to a firm that was. Our old spokesperson. Trisha McLaughlin's husband was involved in 172 million for the private jets.
- [12:27]
Andrew Egger
If you're a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility and your machinery isn't working
- [12:31]
Tim Miller
right, Grainger knows you need to understand what's wrong as soon as possible. So when a conveyor motor falters Grainger
- [12:37]
Andrew Egger
offers diagnostic tools like calibration kits and
- [12:40]
Tim Miller
multimeters to help you identify and fix the problem. With Grainger, you can be confident you
- [12:45]
Andrew Egger
have everything you need to keep your facility running smoothly.
- [12:49]
Tim Miller
Call 1-800-GRAINGER click granger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Two and a half million for gold detailed ICE vehicles. She thought Trump would like that there'd be gold on it. Another, you know, six figures for Mustangs and for some tricked out ice trucks, you know, not exactly a Doge type operation over there.
- [13:12]
Andrew Egger
Can I, can I say one more thing on the Kennedy element of this? Because this has been a fascinating thing to me. One of the, one of the, like, big, like through line Trump critiques of Joe Biden was like this idea that, you know, his staff was really running the show and, you know, he was, he didn't know what was going on. He wasn't calling the shots. This looks to me very much like a Trump world version of that exact same thing. Kristi Noem has had so many enemies that she has made all throughout this administration. There are constantly leaks coming out of dhs, you know, especially in the wake of Minneapolis, basically trying to scapegoat her as like the, the, the, the prime mover of everything bad that's ever happened at DHS in this first year of Trump too. And then in addition to that, she made a real enemy of Stephen Miller as this was all coming out, because she tried to foist it all off on him and you know, had had reporting in Axios basically saying, I was only ever doing anything Stephen Miller told me to do here. And so when you see a line like this from Kennedy, Kennedy is not some loose cannon. Kennedy is not some like heterodox Republican in there. He is an administration ally. He is doing this in some respect to lay the predicate for this in the administration. But it does not appear as though he was doing this as a predicate. Like put, put that Trump himself had put him up to it. Right? Because, because he is creating the video content that Trump is going to see. Trump is going to react to with this kind of hostility and then Trump is going to pull the plug. So it's like, it's like this, this bizarre thing where the White House is planning this with Kennedy in order to like trick Donald Trump. Okay, can I, can I ask you guys, Secretary?
- [14:46]
JBL
Because I looked at this and I couldn't tell you why, but to me I thought, oh, Stephen Miller did this. This whole thing was Choreographed from Steven Miller's office. They went to Kennedy, they set Kennedy up for the, you know, you do this. This is how you phrase it. This is the question. Then we'll get it in front of the big guy and then we'll drop the hammer. This just felt like a Steven Miller operation to me. Is that crazy?
- [15:12]
Tim Miller
No, I don't think so. And Steven Miller's always operated this way. You know, I mean, say what you want about Stephen Miller, and I've said all the worst things in the world. He is behind the scenes of an excellent operator, you know, and he works Javanka, you know, like, Ivanka was like this, you know, person. I was trying to put the softer face on Trump 1.0. And Stephen Miller was the hammer. And yet he still, like, stayed in her good graces. Right? Like, he, he does this. He works both sides of the street. A couple of The Q&As we've had from our, from our commenters. On subsequent super chat, Kevin Harrington asked if, does this mean perjury for her? Can we go after her for perjury if Trump didn't approve the ounce? I don't think that's very likely.
- [15:48]
JBL
I bet Pam Bonnie's going to look seriously into that.
- [15:50]
Tim Miller
I bet she will as well. Are we going to have. Here's another question. Are we going to have a special election in Oklahoma? That's from Andrew Hartley. Yes, is obviously the answer to that. I think that it's not as if that really adds another seat to the table for Democrats. Oklahoma, still Oklahoma. But the timing, it's notable that Trump picked a senator in this sense. Right? He has very narrow majority. He doesn't fucking care about Congress. The Congress people to him are just like other characters in his show that he can just move around the set. Because if you are a traditional president and you were trying to think about how you're going to get your agenda passed in year two, coming into the midterms, you wouldn't want another vacancy in the narrow Senate where you're giving more power to Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. I just think that goes to show just how far away we are from that kind of traditional type of politics, like Trump. Just like Congress is really just an ornament over there that can be used or abused for his own means.
- [16:56]
JBL
What are they going to have to vote on? Well, his agenda.
- [17:00]
Tim Miller
Funding for the Iran war and funding for Mark Lane Mullins, dhs.
- [17:05]
JBL
Are we going to have to vote on either of those things?
- [17:08]
Tim Miller
I don't know.
- [17:09]
Andrew Egger
This. This was another Interesting thing, by the way, that was coming out of, you know, the Kennedy hearing is this is some reporting Sam Stein had that there was some chatter among Democrats that Republicans were floating this as, like, the trade. Like, well, what if we got Kristi Noem? Would that shake you guys loose on DHS funding? And as we have discussed, that would be an insane trade for Democrats to take. Democrats have given no indication that they want to or that they find that plausible at all. They're sticking to their guns on DHS funding. But it does kind of add another interesting layer to this. Like, maybe some of these Republicans were hearing that something like this was coming, and they're like, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. Maybe we can shake some Democrats loose on this, you know, while Donald Trump ships. No, but I guess that moment has kind of.
- [17:48]
Tim Miller
Yeah, and I guess actually I'm. I'm correct. We're doing this live. I guess Kevin Stick could appoint a temporary person also. That's also interesting politically because he's been like the one governor, Republican Governor Trump has butted heads with because Stitt has spoken out against Trump. So it's, you know, again, you're kind of leaving this in his hands. He could appoint somebody, at least temporarily, that is. That is not with Trump on dhs because Stitt isn't with Trump on dhs. So one weird.
- [18:15]
Andrew Egger
Can I give you one weird quirk of that?
- [18:17]
Tim Miller
Yeah, sure.
- [18:17]
Andrew Egger
In Oklahoma, the governor will appoint a replacement, and then the replacement can't be the one who runs this fall. Whoever gets replaced is barred from being the actual candidate in November.
- [18:28]
Tim Miller
Bulwark Republican David Holt, the only good Republican mayor in the country. Mayor of Oklahoma City. Put him in there. Put him in there. Okay, let's do a little more schadenfreude. The only reason Kristi Noam is on the screen for new viewers coming to live stream is for schadenfreude. So we should all point and laugh and smile and enjoy. She either was told right before she walked out that she was being fired or. Or, you know, and she doesn't. Either way. Very delicious.
- [18:55]
JBL
She's gonna be so mad tonight, isn't she? Like, she'll privately, you know, keep the smile plastered on because she can't move her face, but by the time she
- [19:03]
Tim Miller
gets home with Corey Battles coming out,
- [19:06]
JBL
I mean, they're going to. She'll look like this, and she might even, I don't know, shoot another dog.
- [19:11]
Tim Miller
Watch out, Corey. Protect the crown jewels tonight.
- [19:16]
JBL
Pegging happening tonight.
- [19:17]
Tim Miller
You don't know where she's going. I want to play another video in the spirit of Schadenfreude. Then we'll do more real political analysis. And this was some of you guys have seen it, but we all enjoy it so much. Let's just watch it one more time. It's the Democratic congresswoman from can't tell.
- [19:32]
JBL
Tim, is that feed of her frozen?
- [19:35]
Tim Miller
Great question.
- [19:36]
JBL
Another joke.
- [19:37]
Tim Miller
Literally, but literally, I had to stop and look at it for a second. I saw a head move down here. No, that's just her face. Congresswoman from south from Los Angeles questioning Christie about her relationship with her special boy. Corey Lewandowski had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski. Mr. Chairman, I am shocked that we're going down and peddling tabloid garbage in the committee today.
- [20:04]
Andrew Egger
Reclaiming and ma', am, one thing that
- [20:05]
Tim Miller
I would tell you is that he
- [20:07]
Andrew Egger
is a special government employee who works
- [20:09]
Tim Miller
for the White House. There are thousands of them in the federal government. It is okay for you to be
- [20:16]
Andrew Egger
no authority any decision.
- [20:19]
Tim Miller
I was a little upset we couldn't show the full screen. That's Jared Moskowitz over her life shoulder, left shoulder. And he has a Justice for Cricket pin on which is very, very cute. For Jared Mosskrat's. Kudos to. Kudos to him. So it's a tough week for her. Her husband was in the audience there as she's getting quizzed about her special employee and then she's fired the next day. That's a bad week, Andrew. Have you had a week that bad?
- [20:45]
Andrew Egger
I have only had a week that bad because all the stuff I want to write about gets keeps getting pushed back by having to write repeatedly about Kristi Noem. But that's okay. You know, it's important stuff that's happening in the news.
- [20:54]
JBL
Let's talk about anthropic.
- [20:57]
Andrew Egger
It is amazing. I mean like the Democrats in this House hearing, they went around and around on this yesterday with her and it was, it was really, really good because of course, you know, she has denied this affair in the past. She can't deny it up there or she'll perjure herself. Right. So I mean, I guess that didn't really matter so much with the Trump approval business. But, but, but, you know, so she has to talk around. I can't believe that you would peddle you traffic in this disgusting tabloid garbage. I can't believe how badly you think of conservative women. I mean, it really was kind of a masterclass in putting her on the spot up there.
- [21:28]
Tim Miller
Quick walk off there. That was the defenestrated Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem leaving the stage to find out that she's been fired. Let's do a little real business here at the top. Andrew made the case for why Mark William Mullen must be an improvement over Christine Ohm because she was so awful. Let's hear the counter case. Jvl, do you want to give that or you like me to, I mean, up to you. I, I, you go first.
- [21:54]
JBL
You're the host.
- [21:55]
Tim Miller
You're just gonna be.
- [21:56]
JBL
I would say this. If I had asked you, Andrew, to find a United States senator with the exact same IQ as Christine, would Mark Wayne McMullen. Mark Wayne Mullen, would he have been your first choice? Because I think it'd be close. Like he would be in your top three picks because he is not a smart man. No, he's just not a smart man. So we're gonna get somebody who is not smart, who is utterly unprincipled and lies constantly, who has said terrible things about recently deceased American citizens who died at the hand of their government, who is fully and wholly committed to the Trump regime, who himself has threatened violence against witnesses testifying before the United States Senate as he was sitting there and challenged people to a fist fight. And this guy, who, by the way, John Fetterman already said he's going to vote for, to confirm this guy is going to be running dhs. I, I was a little concerned that they would put somebody who is highly competent but quiet in the job and that it would be like what has happened in Minneapolis where Holman came in and changed tactics and basically the same sort of stuff is happening. But they've, they've tried to smooth it over and pretend that they, they retreated. I think that's not.
- [23:35]
Tim Miller
Yeah, I, I mean, he is kind of the man, Christie, in some ways, if Corey Lendowski was bisexual, he could just because they have a lot of similarities. I want to put a little more meat on your bone.
- [23:46]
Andrew Egger
Jbl, can I protest to one quick thing there?
- [23:48]
Narrator/Advertiser
Sure.
- [23:49]
Andrew Egger
About the man Christie. I just think that he does not have this psycho belief that he's going to be able to run for president. Which is unlike Kristi Noem. Kristi Noem has thought she'd be a 2028 contender.
- [23:57]
Tim Miller
Fair enough.
- [23:57]
Andrew Egger
And that has driven a lot of this stuff.
- [23:59]
Tim Miller
I sort of put a little more meat on the bone of JBL's point. Just like let's look at the record of what Mullen has said after the killing of Alex Preddy. It was on Fox. He called Preddy not The killer, but the dead, the deceased, a deranged individual who joined the protest to, quote, cause massive damage with a loaded pistol and an extra mag that was completely loaded. He blamed the Democrats for that. After Renee Goode died, he said, the fact is that Renee Goode was interfering with police activity. There's no question about that right now. They had the right to defend themselves. On the DHS funding shutdown, he said it was all political theater. He's for it. He's for the masks. So, you know, he there, he hasn't shown an inch of daylight. Like, at least John Kennedy. We don't know if it was Stephen Miller, you know, with his hand going up John Kennedy's butt, like, moving him like a puppet there. And whether he was doing Stephen Miller's dirty work or whether he really just doesn't like Christine Noem. Evidence on the latter is that a couple of times, John Kennedy has been like, the administration's way out over their skis on this, right? So if he named John Kennedy, who's boobish in his own way, to run dhs, you'd be like, okay, like, that's a sign that, like, you know, they're not going to. Tim Miller's preferred immigration enforcement policy, but at least they're going to put somebody in who understands there are excesses. There's no evidence that Mullen believes that there are excesses. And on top of that, here's my other thing that I'd be interested in. Your pushback to this, Andrew, is Mullen's gonna have more money to work with than Gnome did. Like, even if they don't pass this budget, like, you know, it takes a while for them to, you know, kind of get a. Get all the funding, disperse all the funding, you know, recruit the individuals, assuming he won't be spending as much money as Kristi Noem was on her makeup kit and all the other stuff that she was doing. So, like, it's not as if I, you know, some of this is, like, kind of happening on its own. Like, there's. There's a inertia to this that, like, the agents of the DHS are going to be all out there in the streets. And Mark Mullen. Mullen doesn't seem like the kind of person that's going to want to dial that back at all. That would be my argument for it not giving much.
- [26:11]
JBL
And let me. Let me add one more thing. At least Kristi Noem had Corey Lewandowski, who had a private relationship with Trump on his own, which Papa Dickey which could have possibly given her a smidgen of independence from Stephen Miller. Mark Wayne McMullen. I keep saying McMullen. I don't know why. Mark Wayne Mullen.
- [26:35]
Tim Miller
It's funny, actually. I kind of want to keep doing it.
- [26:38]
JBL
Mark Wayne has no independent standing, and so he enters in the totally subservient position to Miller. And so he will not have the ability to, like, go behind Miller's back and say, like, Mr. President, I really think this is not a great idea for you or anything. Like, he's just going to have to do literally everything that Miller tells him to do.
- [27:03]
Andrew Egger
I think that's true. I think that's true. And I also think that every piece of reporting that we have seen about the way DHS has been run under Kristi Noem is that Corey Lewandowski did not need permission from Stephen Miller or Donald Trump to be like a tyrant and a psycho and to go on constant purges of people who he thought were, you know, like, not sufficiently loyal to Trump. I think that there genuinely is a faction in DHS that thinks they are out over their skis, that thinks that there is, you know, the Minneapolis was a humongous blunder. There was so much reporting going to conservative outlets, you know, from. From people close to, you know, the top echelons of even ice, you know, like, like Administrator Todd Lyons, you know, guys around him who are like, this is crazy. We can't do this anymore, and it's going to be a disaster. It's been a disaster. And Kristi Noem is like, kind of behind it all. Now. Don't get me wrong, I do not think that anybody should look at this news and be like, oh, thank God that's over, you know, mission accomplished. I especially do not think that, you know, Senate Democrats should feel that way when it comes to this fight over DHS funding. But I do think that you can look at the way that things have gone in the past year and just like, look at the way that the Labor Department has been run. I don't know. Or look at just any sort of median, even like Pete Hegseth's Defense Department, where he is constantly imposing lunatic stuff, but at least the sort of operation has been allowed to run in sort of a professional way further down and imagine a future where maybe DHS looks a little bit more like that outside of the personal ambitions of Kristi Noem and the true tyranny of Corey Lewandowski. Ye. I could totally be wrong, but that's what.
- [28:38]
Tim Miller
That's the way I Agree with you. There is a faction at the top of it. I worry at, like, the middle and lower level of the people implementing them, this stuff, that they're insane, too. So I think that's different than the military in that. In that sense. The point that you make that's most compelling to me is I do think that Christie felt like performative sadism kind of benefited her politically, and maybe Mark Wayne Mullen won't feel as passionately about that. You mentioned Democrats in the confirmation. I think this is kind of obvious, so we don't spend that much time on it. But there's like, there's no reason to think that. That he will have trouble being confirmed. Right. And I think all of the Republicans will support him and John Fetterman. And so I. I think we'll fetter. Oh, look at that. John Fetterman's already said he's going to confirm him.
- [29:22]
JBL
Yeah. Can I ask a question for you guys? Just as for meta politics, should any Democrat vote to confirm this guy? No, because, I mean, maybe I'm just a crazy person, but as a purely as a matter of politics, I think that any Democrat who votes to confirm this guy owns everything that happens under HHS for the next year or whatever. And, like, you would be an insane person. This is John Fetterman basically saying, I'm not running for reelection.
- [29:57]
Tim Miller
It is. And this is the thing. It goes back to the period during the Trump 1 transition where there were some Democrats. I think a lot of people were, like, so shook by what happened. It's just like, Jesus, people are going to vote in fascism because our border policies are so bad. We need to make some changes and show that we're going to meet them in the middle on stuff. And the result of that was a. The Lake and Riley act, which got passed with some Democratic votes and a Kristi Noem confirmation. Let me pull this up. Where there were seven Democrats, four, five abstentions. Fetterman, Maggie Hassan, Tim Kaine. Poor Tim Kaine. What are you doing? Tim Kaine, Andy Kim, Gary Peters, Jean Shaheen, Alyssa Slotkin. So I don't. I think that's down to one this time. Seven. Down to one. And I think that the Lake and Riley Act, I didn't pull that up. But whatever the number of senators that voted for that was, that would be down to one or two as well. And I think that there was a theory of the case that was not totally irrational, but that was just kind of wrong. Right. That was like, we need to meet them in the middle on immigration, because immigration has been so bad for us. I think people that made that bet did not contemplate how bad the Trump immigration regime would be and how much people wouldn't like that either. And so, like, they were kind of moderating on the wrong things, sort of like the instinct was not wrong, but, like, the execution was very wrong. I think it seems to be like the Democrats have mostly learned from that. Besides Fetterman. I don't know, Andrew, what do you
- [31:26]
Andrew Egger
think to say about that the next time a Democrat is elected president, they should absolutely have in the back of their mind the ways that, you know, Joe Biden's specific executive failures sort of set the table on immigration for all this stuff. Fine. They should not think that they have, like, carte blanche to. To, you know, replicate his immigration policy.
- [31:43]
Tim Miller
Sure.
- [31:44]
Andrew Egger
But that has nothing to do with this moment. That has nothing to do with the fights that are going on right now in the Senate over whether they're going to give money to this agency as it has been sort of operationalized by this president. As you mentioned, Tim, like all of the sort of meatheads that they have swollen the ranks of ICE and a border Patrol with in the last six months with minimal training and then put them out on the streets. I mean, like they should. And to their credit, everything we're seeing right now is that they are being very sanguine about what they need to do here. They're holding the line and they have not shown any weakness. And, you know, even all the people, even all the Democrats who eventually voted and the last shutdown are totally in a block here about these demands. And that is as it should be.
- [32:28]
Tim Miller
All right, I want to show a couple other of Mark Wayne Mullen clips for people to just get a sense of who's coming in. Then we'll go to your questions, your super chats, your comments on Substack, and then I've got a little treat for everybody at the end. So let's pull up whatever we got of Mark Wayne, the highlight reel, the tough guy act in these Senate hearings. You know where to find me. Any place. Anytime, cowboy. Sir, this is a time.
- [32:58]
JBL
This is a place if you want
- [33:00]
Tim Miller
to run your mouth.
- [33:01]
JBL
We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.
- [33:03]
Tim Miller
Okay, that's fine.
- [33:04]
JBL
Perfect.
- [33:05]
Tim Miller
You want to do it now? I'd love to do it right now. Well, stand your butt up then. You stand your butt up. Oh, hold on. Stop it. Is that your solution? Every problem? No, no. Sit down. Okay. You know, you're a United States Senator. Okay, sit down, please. All right, can I respond? Hold it, hold it.
- [33:23]
JBL
Never love Bernie Moore.
- [33:26]
Andrew Egger
Honestly,
- [33:30]
Tim Miller
you know, not exactly demonstrating the kind of judgment that you'd look for in, in a position of the importance of Department of Homeland Security, but I don't know any other Mark Wayne thoughts. It's not the only time, by the way.
- [33:45]
JBL
He.
- [33:47]
Tim Miller
He put up a video where he kind of implied that if journalists and Senate and Congress people could have duels, maybe there'd be less fake news. He did that. I think there was another fight threat. So I don't know. You know, he is. Sorry.
- [34:03]
Andrew Egger
Go ahead, go ahead, jbl.
- [34:04]
JBL
Well, I'm just. So, I was very interested in the Mark Wayne as MMA champ idea. And so I went looking, I was like, I'd like to go see. And I, I know a little bit about mma. I like the sweet science. And I could not find any video of him. So I went digging, like, so, okay, what did he do? So he fought three times in something called the Extreme Fighting League. This is in 2006 and 2007. He fought the same guy, Clinton Bonds, in two of them and, and another guy named Bobby Kelly, and that, that. So he. I mean, this is not even like a D level ufc. This is a. I. This is a very, very, very semi pro, junior grade semi pro. It's like a guy who likes to scrap and like, did it three times for grand total of. I'm just looking at the time. A grand total of under five minutes. He spent under five minutes total in the cage anyway.
- [35:11]
Tim Miller
I mean, I'm kind of an MMA fighter at that level. I've. I've had less than five minutes fighting.
- [35:16]
JBL
Well, like, never has so much been made of so little.
- [35:19]
Tim Miller
Yeah. Good Lord, Andrew, do you have something on that? I've got a. I've got another interesting wrinkle about his confirmation.
- [35:28]
Andrew Egger
Now the only other interesting Mark Wayne Mullen fact that I know is he's one of only a few, a very small handful of people with some Native American ancestry in Congress. So, you know, the only senator, he will bring an interesting perspective on heritage Americans to the Department of Homeland Security.
- [35:44]
Tim Miller
No bachelor's degree?
- [35:45]
JBL
No bachelor's degree.
- [35:46]
Tim Miller
No failed out of college. Appreciate that, though. That's kind of the median American. That's what we're looking for. Mark Wayne Mullen is hearing will happen at the Senate Homeland Security Committee. This is kind of interesting. Do you know who the chair is of that committee, Andrew? Quick quiz. Rand Paul. Now, Rand Paul and Arquain have a little history. Mullen called him a freaking snake and also expressed sympathies for the neighbor who had attacked, physically attacked, rand Paul in 2017. Let me read the full quote. I got the full quote here, actually. Bernie once again makes a cameo. This is the new, the nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullen. I respect Bernie Sanders because he's an open socialist and you know that he's a communist. So you know what you're getting? Rand Paul's a freaking snake. And I completely understand why his neighbor did what he did. And I told him that to his face. It stirred up people like Cheryl who don't know the backstory. And then that night, Rand sends out a fundraising letter on it. It's a gimmick. So that. That's an interesting subplot of the confirmation. I can see a little trick. He still gets confirmed anyway. But you could see a trade where Rand is a no and Fetterman is a yes.
- [37:11]
Andrew Egger
Is the implication there. Is the implication there that Rand Paul, like, famously the most libertarian member of like the entire U.S. senate, is a secret Communist? Is that what I'm.
- [37:22]
JBL
No, I think it's that he pretends to support Trump, but he doesn't really support Trump.
- [37:26]
Tim Miller
I think that's right. All right, let's go to your questions and comments and chats.
- [37:32]
JBL
And may I have the privilege of asking the first question of you guys for sure. What does it do to Christie 2028 and or Corey Lewandowski? Because Corey Lewandowski, whenever he's been exiled before, has always been a good soldier.
- [37:49]
Tim Miller
Yeah. Christie 2028 was never happening. That was happening only in her own head. Corey is a survivor. I mean, Corey was fired from the first campaign, came back. He was exiled after he hit on one of Trump's top donors wives at an addiction awareness fundraiser at a Benihana.
- [38:08]
JBL
While drunk.
- [38:10]
Tim Miller
While drunk. He was exiled for a while. Trump. He got back into Trump's good graces. He ended up inside not only the Department of Homeland Security, but inside the bedroom of the secretary.
- [38:25]
JBL
So I glad you said bedroom.
- [38:27]
Tim Miller
Corey will find a way. Corey will find a way. Andrew, anything to add to that or should go to the viewer?
- [38:35]
Andrew Egger
No, it's just going to depend on how good of a job she does as special envoy to the Shield of the Americans.
- [38:42]
Tim Miller
Erica's Dave says nice to our boy Andrew Haslet, who's commented. Shield of the Americas is a new competitor podcast, actually, to Shield of the Republic. Christy will be host. Christy and Corey will be hosting it versus Elliot and Eric. It's kind of like how Dan Crenshaw is going to be my new competitor in the podcast space. Anybody that gets out of the administration, they try to come for us. I don't think it's going to work. Bradley, ask is Pam next?
- [39:08]
Andrew Egger
No, she's fine. She's doing what they want. Sorry.
- [39:14]
JBL
Hard agree.
- [39:15]
Tim Miller
Who do you have as a next. There's a lot of controversy in the Secretary of Labor. Have you been watching the story? Yes, it's a very sub story. She is having, I think, a lesbian affair with her bodyguard. And there's like, this is all allegedly, I don't want to get sued. And then there's some random expenses. She has some random content.
- [39:35]
Andrew Egger
Her husband has also been banned from the premises because of supposed allegations of sexual harassment against different Labor Department staff. So all it's a whole thing.
- [39:44]
Tim Miller
Yeah, it is. Lot, lot happening at the Department of
- [39:49]
JBL
Labor transparent administration in America.
- [39:53]
Tim Miller
I just put as a sleeper for getting kicked out. Next is Heg Seth. I don't. I think he's fine, but I. This war, man, you can imagine a situation where he ends up being a fall guy where Marco and JD both kind of position themselves to be like, hey, Mr. Trump, I was with you. Yeah, I was with you. And then we were going to be nice and clean, but him over there a clown.
- [40:18]
JBL
So Marco wanted to do it. J.D. didn't want to do it. And so the compromise position for the two of them if it goes wrong is, well, it was Hegseth's fault.
- [40:28]
Tim Miller
It was Hegseth's fault.
- [40:29]
JBL
Right.
- [40:29]
Andrew Egger
And Hegseth has been happy to be the face of the operation. Like he has put himself forward into that role where the others have not. And that will, if it goes badly, multiply.
- [40:38]
Tim Miller
We never close the loop. Or Iago wanted to close the loop. On how many Dems we think will vote to confirm Mullen.
- [40:43]
Andrew Egger
One.
- [40:43]
Tim Miller
I really think it's one. I'd put the over under at one and a half. I could see one other person. Maybe I'd put the over under one and a half, though. Let's see. Grace G. Says she'd love to see Christie go to Sound, but all this means is the same brutal ice with better optics. This is what JBL said is concern. I share that. But like, I don't know. Mark Wade Mullen out in the streets threatening to fight some protesters. I'm not sure the optics will be better. I don't understand this reference Jason or jbl, so I think it's for you. Jason says Jack Swagger for DHS Secretary Theory.
- [41:15]
JBL
I could see that Jack Swagger, former very mid WWE guy, kind of has a Mark Wayne feel about him.
- [41:22]
Tim Miller
But blonde Vicki is happy to give the people of Minnesota credit for tossing gnome out. We'll take it. We'll give it to him deserved. Adam asked if Lindsay is going to seduce Mullen. Now we're on the same page. Hey, mama lawyer does. No, we already did that one. And there we go. One more. Stephen, how does Susan Collins vote?
- [41:45]
JBL
Oh, she votes to confirm.
- [41:48]
Andrew Egger
She'll confirm.
- [41:50]
Tim Miller
She'll vote to confirm. Yeah. She might express a little concern before she does so. Okay, I think that's the live stream I do have. As mentioned, I do have the treat for everybody and it's hard. It's kind of a Happy trails to Corey Lewandowski's brought us a lot of joy over the years. And frequent viewers of the channel know that I have particularly a favorite moment with Corey. Not the time that he hip checked me with his horrible breath in a debate spin room. That did happen. But the time that when he was out in the wilderness, was trying to make some scratch, was on cameo, was trying to help the MAGA youth with a little problem they had. Let's watch Corey Lewandowski offering some fatherly advice to America's young. Hey, this message is from Mickey. Mickey, your daddy, Papa Dicky, reached out to me and told me that you're toilet training. You must be a very special little boy. But I hear that you're starting to use the big boy toilet, so congratulations. And you're doing a great job with your poopies. Congratulations. I know your mom is going to be so happy for you and I want to thank you in advance for being a Donald Trump supporter when you get older. All the best from your daddy, Papa Dicky. Well, Kristi Noem wasn't doing a great job with her poopies in the end and she's been asked to hit the road. Any final thoughts from you guys?
- [43:14]
JBL
Not that I can share this family podcast.
- [43:18]
Tim Miller
We've already made Andrew blush thrice, so any more would be too much. Thank you, everybody. Subscribe to the feed. Tell your friends you aren't getting coverage of this defenestration like this on CNN in I'll tell you that, you know, you are not okay, so come. Come where you're getting it straight. Comment like we'll see you later.