← Bulwark Takes
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- [00:00]
Tim Miller
Hey, y'all, it's Tim Miller from the Bulwark on Fox and Friends this morning, host Brian Kilmeade said that Trump is getting embarrassed by Vladimir Putin. That's right. That's how humiliating the situation is right now for Donald Trump in these Russia negotiations that it is supposed to resolve in 24 hours. That even on Fox, the hosts are starting to observe the fact that things are not going very well at all. And it's interesting to watch this clip because what you'll see here is kind of the truth slipping out by Kilmeade saying that Trump is getting embarrassed by Vladimir Putin. But he's doing so not in a point and laugh way like I am right now in this podcast. He is doing it in a, oh, maybe I can nudge him. Maybe I can nudge Donald to do the right thing. Like Donald, you don't want to get embarrassed. You don't want to get embarrassed, do you? And it's funny to watch the nationalist Charlie Hurt, who's the co host there. I want you to watch him and how uncomfortable he's getting watching Brian Kilmeade try to encourage Trump to do more. Because Charlie Hurt, if you don't know him, would be happy for us to just totally abandon Ukraine. And so the different strategies at play there from a couple of hosts that know that they, that the president could very well be watching as, as they try to nudge towards their preferred policy outcome, is a pretty funny subtext, but it's worth giving the whole thing a watch. So here we go. Let's listen to Brian Kilmeade.
- [01:41]
Brian Kilmeade
No, yesterday he blasted him. It's going to get worse and there are sanctions queued up. He says it doesn't help me and doesn't help the situation if I tell you what's going to happen to Russia if they continue to undermine these peace talks.
- [01:53]
Tim Miller
It's something. It's something. I mean, you would think that eventually the manhood would intervene here. But here's the thing. We all know this. We know this. Fox doesn't know it. Apparently Trump is the schoolyard bully. Trump is Cartman. You know, Trump is not actually a tough person. Okay? We all know, we all love Tim's favorite video of him being scared by the eagle. And so he does not. He just has the bluster, right? And when the bluster doesn't work, there's no second play. You know, the idea that Trump's going to use hard power, what's he going to do? You think that Trump is going to completely turn on all of his messaging where he's convinced the entire mega base that we shouldn't waste a dime in Ukraine. The Ukraine's stealing from us. Now you think he's going to all of a sudden act tough and push back on Putin? No, let's use the cards metaphor. Putin knows he has all the cards. Trump's not gonna start sending more fucking missiles to Ukraine. You think that that's possible? Brian Kilmeade thinks it's possible. I don't. I don't see it. And so what you have is like the one, you know, Fox host who still believes that America should use their power, our power, begging and pleading Trump to not get embarrassed, like, trying to play on his emotions. And, you know, the results is not going to be what Brian Kilmeade wants. And sadly, it's not going to be what the people of Ukraine need. But it's interesting. It is the second time this week I've seen a video of one of the, you know, kind of maga. You know, maybe not Maga in the case of Brian Kilnade, one of the, you know, Trump allies, you know, somebody that is a Trump media ally, a reliable one, you know, showing a little bit of a crack. I want to play one other clip for you. This was Charlie Kirk talking about his concerns about the arrest of the tough student Ozturk. Let's watch that, too.
- [03:47]
Charlie Kirk
Deporting somebody because they wrote an op ed critical of Israel. I think that's probably in the gray area. So would you say that there's some things that the administration's done on immigration where you think they haven't been sufficiently respectful of First Amendment rights? Is that fair to say? No, I wouldn't even say that. I would say that we run a little bit of a problem if we are going to say that the criteria to get your visa revoked is writing an op ed. Now, that might be an exaggeration by somebody. Yeah, right. And the op ed was not even critical of America, which it was critical of a foreign country.
- [04:28]
Tim Miller
Right.
- [04:29]
Charlie Kirk
And again, I'm very pro Israel as I say this. And let me tell you why. I actually think it creates more anti Israel hostility and anti Semitism when it looks as if such a strong hand to the government is going to come in.
- [04:42]
Tim Miller
So there you go. I mean, again, this is not. Charlie Kirk's not switching sides. He's not going bulwark. And, you know, you hate to even give Charlie Kirk any fucking credit for anything. But the way I look at this is, look, if there's a Fox host saying Trump's getting embarrassed by Putin. If the head of Turning Point USA is saying, whoa, maybe we're going a little bit too far on some of these green card detentions, that, to me, signals that you got real problems. Because none of that was happening back in January when there was this, oh, Trump vibe shift. Oh, the vibe shift. Everybody's getting behind Trump. You weren't seeing these sort of cracks. And I think that as these policies come into play, we're obviously seeing it on the tariffs, but maybe even on immigration and foreign policy. Cracks are starting to emerge all around the various sides of the coalition because, like, eventually reality intervenes. You know, eventually reality intervenes. And if you're going to go out there and hand over Ukraine to Putin and then send pathetic bleeds about begging, vlad, please stop. Please stop. You know, the remaining pro American military conservatives are going to notice that. The remaining Reaganite conservatives are going to notice that if you start pulling people off the street from writing op eds, the pro free speech on campus folks, a lot of them are going to be hypocrites, but a couple of them are going to notice it and be like, hey, wait a minute, do we want this? Do we want the government pulling people off the street for pulling students off the street because of op EDS that they wrote? Because that might not turn out too great for Charlie Kirk in an AOC administration. So people start to notice. And. And anyway, it's just something worth monitoring. It's something that. It's something that's worth monitoring. And it's also funny, you know, because, you know, Trump doesn't love being told he's getting embarrassed on Vox. And friends, you know, that wasn't great for him with his morning breakfast. So we'll take our little pleasures where we can get them. Everybody else, subscribe to the feed. We'll be back soon. Thanks to Brian Kilmeade. Even though it's kind of sad the way you're trying to nudge him, but I'm glad you injected just a little hint of truth under the Fox show this morning. We appreciate that. We'll see you all soon.