JD Vance Sucks. So How Did He Get This Far? | The Trio

Summary

Bulwark Takes – "JD Vance Sucks. So How Did He Get This Far?" | The Trio

Episode Date: July 9, 2026
Hosts: Tim Miller & Sam Stein

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Overview

This episode of Bulwark Takes, hosted by Tim Miller and Sam Stein, tackles the curious political ascent of Vice President JD Vance. With characteristic snark and candid critique, the hosts dissect Vance's Wisconsin speech, his charisma deficit, and his reliance on old-school dog whistle politics. The discussion expands to political memes (like "welfare queens"), Maine Senate drama, and the derisive spectacle of American political communications. The hosts also riff on viral oddities, including conspiracy theorist takes and Texas political antics.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. JD Vance’s Diminishing Role as Vice President

(00:20–02:21)

• Lack of Leadership During Crisis:
  Vance is sent to Wisconsin for a minor fraud event, despite formerly being a key negotiator in high-stakes Iran talks, which are now collapsing.

  “The deal is spiraling out of control. The war is accelerating... JD was the point man on the deal. And, like, he's in Wisconsin.” — Tim Miller (01:32)

• Perceived Irrelevance:
  The hosts mock Vance watching his phone, seemingly hoping for a presidential call about the foreign crisis that never comes.

  "It's kind of sad. It's like, oh, maybe it's the president calling to text me or call me about the deal." — Tim Miller (01:56)

2. JD Vance and the Charisma Gap

(02:21–03:14)

• Speech Analysis:
  Vance’s storytelling “lands with a thud,” lacking humor or relatable punch.

  “You’re kind of waiting for the real kicker or the laugh line... at best, you get a chuckle. And then the point doesn’t really make sense.” — Sam Stein (02:33)

3. Dissecting Vance’s “Cookie Story” Metaphor

(03:17–04:48)

• Clip Recap:
  Vance tells a story comparing his son’s cookie theft to claims of election fraud; intended as a rebuke but muddled in delivery.

• Misplaced Metaphors and Hypocrisy:
  The hosts point out that, if the metaphor makes sense at all, it implicates Trump, who championed “stop the steal.”

  “For the story to make sense, they would be the boy that had stolen the cookies. That was Trump.” — Tim Miller (04:18)

4. The “Charisma Vampire” and the Two Sides of JD

(04:51–05:30)

• Sad Outsider vs. Nasty Bully:
  Miller characterizes Vance as an anxious outsider desperate for acceptance, but also capable of mean-spirited attacks.

5. The Welfare Queen Playbook – Vance’s Racial Dog Whistles

(05:30–08:46)

• Vance Targets Black Woman in Speech:
  Uses an image of a Black woman with a luxury bag to symbolize “fraud,” evoking Reagan-era “welfare queen” tropes.

• Hosts’ Reaction:

  • They call out the racial overtones and unoriginal political messaging.
  • Draw direct comparisons to historic welfare queen attacks, referencing journalist Josh Levin’s reporting.

  “That’s the playbook. Find a black woman with something luxurious... paint a broad brush. The argument he’s making is: black people are on welfare, committing fraud, and using it to buy Louis Vuitton bags.” — Sam Stein (07:21)

  • Critique the hypocrisy and smugness:

  “JD calling anyone else smug—come on. The picture of you is next to ‘smug’ in the encyclopedia.” — Tim Miller (08:46)

6. Maine Senate Drama – Can Patrick Dempsey Save the Day?

(11:05–16:48)

• Graham Platner in Trouble:
  Facing pressure to resign after scandal; talk turns to possible replacements.

• Patrick Dempsey Rumors (Ultimately Refuted):

  • Internet abuzz over the possibility of “McDreamy” running.
  • Dempsey releases an op-ed declining; hosts riff on his celebrity and potential appeal.

  “He looks better than ever right now... I thought it was a troll... he looks great.” — Sam Stein (13:57)

  • Miller jokes:

  “Rugged and Handsome Dempsey 2028. I was plotting out the path to Dempsey as the outsider candidate of my dreams.” — Tim Miller (14:01)

7. Other Maine Political Musings

(16:48–18:18)

• Valley Geiger Speculation:
  A local state rep reportedly being encouraged by Platner; hosts view this as unserious and disconnected from voter desires for youth and charisma.

8. Texas GOP Attacks: “Guns for Dildos”

(18:40–21:41)

• NRCC Attacks on James Tallarico:
  • Republican press release claims Dems want to “replace guns with dildos” (alluding to the Cox not Glocks campus protest).
  • Hosts lampoon the absurdity:

    “Not since cash for clunkers have we had a government exchange like this.” — Sam Stein (20:33) “Is anybody against that? People are upset about more dildos and fewer guns?” — Tim Miller (20:00)

  • Suggest that right-wing attacks have grown so surreal as to be ineffective.

9. Riley Gaines, Helen Keller, and the Art of Conspiratorial Stupidity

(21:41–26:28)

• Riley Gaines’ Helen Keller Conspiracy:
  Gaines, on a podcast, questions if Helen Keller ever existed, sparking ridicule.

  “You're telling me there's a woman who can't see, she can't hear, but she wrote a book. I don't know... it doesn't sit right with me.” — Riley Gaines (23:20)

• Hosts’ Bafflement:
  Tim and Sam try to parse Gaines’ logic, ultimately throw up their hands at the depth of her ignorance. Miller suggests visiting Keller’s home in Alabama for proof.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On JD Vance’s Sad Phone Check:

  "Maybe it's the president calling or texting to ask me about the deal that I struck with Iran... and then he looked and he's like, nope, not the president." — Tim Miller (01:56)

• On JD Vance’s Charisma:

  “Someone who lacks that type of je ne sais quoi... how did he get so far in politics?” — Sam Stein (03:02)

• On Welfare Queen Tropes:

  “It's both unoriginal and... misleading because, yeah, there's fraud... but the manner is just so nasty and honestly, a little bit racist.” — Sam Stein (08:23)

• On the Guns for Dildos Story:

  “Not since cash for clunkers have we had a government exchange like this.” — Sam Stein (20:33)

• On Riley Gaines’ Helen Keller Conspiracy:

  “‘You're telling me there's a woman who can't see, she can't hear, but she wrote a book. I don't know...’ That's going to be the part that's clipped, by the way.” — Riley Gaines (23:20)

• Host’s Parody:

  “I'd recommend her that she visit Tuscumbia, Alabama, where you can visit Helen Keller's birthplace... Not a lot of great stops in Alabama, but Tuscumbia.” — Tim Miller (25:50)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00–02:21 – JD Vance in Wisconsin, foreign policy flop
• 03:17–04:48 – Vance’s “cookie story” and failed metaphor
• 05:30–08:46 – Welfare queen photo moment and critique
• 11:05–16:48 – Maine Senate drama, Patrick Dempsey speculation
• 18:40–21:41 – Texas NRCC attacks, "guns for dildos"
• 21:41–26:28 – Riley Gaines, Helen Keller conspiracy; host mockery

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Episode Tone & Style

Biting, irreverent, and deeply skeptical, with hosts riffing off each other in rapid-fire asides, mixing earnest policy critique with deadpan insults and meta-commentary on the absurdity of modern politics.

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Conclusion

This episode serves both as a sharp takedown of JD Vance’s political inadequacies and a run-down of the week’s most absurd political theater. Miller and Stein’s banter lays bare the emotional desperation behind charisma-free politicians, the persistence of ugly tropes in conservative rhetoric, and the memeification of even the most basic historical facts in our cultural discourse.

“JD shouldn’t be calling everybody smug, because he’s a smug son of a bitch.” — Tim Miller (09:27)

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Transcript

[A]

Hey, everybody, it's Tim Miller from the Bulwark. I've got a duo for you. Just the two of us, me and managing editor Sam Stein. We had a delicious trio planned for you where we're giving you a update on what's happening with Masturbating Manny on the mall and many of the other characters from Trio videos past. But Will Sommer had some technical difficulties, so that's just a teaser. All right, press the little alarm bell, subscribe to Feed. And me and Salmon will be back, you know, sometime in the next 24 hours or so. In the meantime, our vice president, The Charisma vampire, J.D. vance, was in Wisconsin as part of his news role as Frauds are. He's Fraud are in Charisma Vampire, and you're discussing the fraud that they're uncovering. It's interesting. They used to fly all the way to Wisconsin since there's so much fraud happening like it in his office. But, okay, he gave a speech there. And I guess we're going to go to a couple of the clips. But, you know, thoughts about the vice president's performance today is.

[B]

Well, two thoughts. One is it wasn't all that long ago that he was in Islamabad or Vienna or whatever, like, trying to make this deal and talking about how the. All those cool Iranians that he met along the way. And like, this thing's imploding right now, and JD's not, you know, they're not like, hey, JD, go fix it.

[A]

It's just, you know, you're in Wisconsin, he's in Wisconsin.

[B]

Go to. Why don't you take. Go to. Go to Wisconsin this week. Take this one off.

[A]

Yeah. The deal is spiraling out of control. The war is accelerating. We're both literally, we might have made Carg Island, Trump said today. And JD was the point man on the deal. And, like, he's in Wisconsin. So that's a very.

[B]

Literally, as he's speaking, Satcom is tweeting out. We're launching more strikes. I mean, I'm laughing, but I want to cry inside because that MOU lasted a couple days and that's it. So great job on this point.

[A]

One of the moments in the speech, like, jd, like, weirdly kind of like looks down at his phone and is like, hey, I might get a text. And it's kind of, it's almost. It's pretty melancholy. It's kind of sad. It's like, oh, man, maybe it's the president calling to text me or calling or texting to ask me about the deal that I struck with Iran and maybe he wants my input on the strikes. And they looked and he's like, nope, not the president.

[B]

Not the President. Go on, local reporter, ask your question. Yeah, that is a good point. It does seem a diminishment of sorts. But then the other thing is what you talked about is just like this, just sort of devoid of charisma element to him where he kind of winds up these stories and, you know, he's kind of workshopped them a little bit, or maybe he hasn't wound them up and that's the problem. And you're kind of waiting for the real kicker or the laugh line. And then you get more, at best, you get a chuckle out of it. And then there's some point that he's making into it, but the point doesn't really make sense. And you're like, I don't get the metaphor. And then, then he's like, okay, moving on. And you're like, man, someone who lacks that type of je ne sais quoi, that charisma. How did he get so far in

[A]

politics sucking up to people is the answer to that. Let's play one of those stories he tells. A cookie story?

[B]

Yeah, a cookie story. It's weird.

[A]

It's not. Ooky cookie. Thank goodness. Let's watch.

[C]

That is. You know what it kind of reminds me of? Like a couple weeks ago, I get home to the Naval Observatory, the nicest public housing anywhere in the United States of America, and my 6 year old greets me and I love my little boy, but he's a little mischievous. And he gives me a big hug. He says, daddy, I'm glad you're home. I didn't steal any of the cookies. I said, huh, that's interesting that you volunteered that when I wasn't even talking about that. Well, of course he stole the cookies. So when I hear a guy protesting out of nowhere, I did not do any election fraud. I did not do any election fraud, it makes me wonder, why is that guy protesting so aggressively? It's a little odd.

[A]

I just, I mean, does cookies have

[B]

to do with anything?

[A]

What?

[B]

I mean, guilty conscious, I guess. Yeah.

[A]

What is the election? It's Donald Trump is the one that. It's them that are always talking about election fraud.

[B]

Right.

[A]

For the story to make Sen. They would be the boy that had stolen the cookies. That was Trump. He did a whole stop the steal thing.

[B]

Now he's saying I didn't do election fraud. No, he's saying I didn't do election fraud, therefore I don't know the whole thing. I don't know. It's just also, he looks down at his notes. It's like, tell the cookie story is probably written there somewhere. I don't know why he's always putting down his head.

[A]

Go home to the Naval Observatory. The observatory.

[B]

The public housing line in there.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, Dick Cheney didn't talk like that. I don't know. The whole thing is just. It's a really trying hard. So with JD there's always kind of the two sides of him. There's just like the charisma Less kid that has that in high school was kind of wearing the eyeliner and wasn't very cool. And you've seen the pictures of him from high school. He was just the outsider. There's that boy, like his inner child that wants to be loved and is trying to kind of be Josh with the cool kids. That side of J.D. that's kind of sad. Then there's the dark, mean side of JD and we get to see a little bit of that as well during the speech. Let's watch.

[C]

You need it. And I want to. I want to point to this woman. Now. I want to be clear that the woman in the back did nothing wrong. But look at this woman in the front with the smug look in the Louis Vuitton bag. A woman who quotes, quite literally stole from young mothers who needed prenatal care. And the state of Wisconsin, ladies and gentlemen, had to scale down that program because of insufficient funds.

[A]

So a couple of things there. It's hard to see. You can pull it up because of the glare. Not really good stage work. But you can see the picture. It's kind of a black woman who's apparently holding Louis Vuitton bag. I'm not as familiar with bags as J.D. vance's handbags. And then there's another black woman behind our. And it's just like, now this other black woman I just happened to put up here, she did nothing wrong. I want to make that clear. And it's like, well, why didn't you crop it? I mean, we have very. We have advanced photo editing tools now that we can use right here on our cellular devices. And so it's pretty strange you included that up there. And then he's like this other woman with her smug look. And it's just like, I don't know, this woman might have done something bad with the fraud and people that defraud the public should feel should face consequences for that. Just like Donald Trump and his family and the Wyckoff Family and others that are doing that should also face consequences. But, like, just the manner in which he does it is just so nasty.

[B]

Oh, yeah, it's like classically nasty, bullish behavior. And the other thing is, like, so unoriginal. Right? Like, everyone who's been through these types of political arguments can tell right away what this is. This is the attempt to revive welfare queens like Reagan did. And there's plenty of literature on welfare queens and the attack he made. And I would encourage people, sort of a seminal story by Josh Levin and Slate, who actually found the actual welfare queen, a woman named Linda Jackson who was from Chicago. She was like, you know, built welfare and was riding around on a convertible. And it was a real story. Like, she did commit welfare fraud in addition to a lot of other fraudulent behavior back in the 70s. And Reagan capitalized on this and did so quite effectively. But that's the playbook, right? Like, that's the playbook. It's find a black woman who has something luxurious and say, and who committed an act, and then paint a broad brush. In this case, the, the argument he's implicitly and explicitly making is black people are on welfare who are committing fraud and using it to buy Louis Vuitton bags. And you know that it's both unoriginal and it's, it's misleading because, yeah, there's fraud. There's going to be fraud in government programs, but like, you know, in whiskey in Minnesota, they're going after these, these agencies that were already being targeted by prosecutors, and then the prosecutor there left because of the ICE crackdown, and then they're pardoning all these fraudsters. Like they are literally pardoning all these people who are committing fraud in Medicare and so on and so forth. So this thing kind of enrages me because it is so, you know, nasty and honestly, a little bit racist and also just frankly, unoriginal.

[A]

Yeah. Also, JD Calling anybody else smug, it's like, come on, you know, it's like me calling somebody a smart ass or you calling somebody interrupts too much. You know, it's like, okay, J.D. like you are. Like the picture of you is next to smug in the encyclopedia. We don't have encyclopedias anymore, Claude. When you ask Claude, show me the photo of a smug man. The photo looks mysteriously like J.D. vance.

[B]

Am I allowed to talk now? I don't want to interrupt while you say that I interrupt too much.

[A]

If you want.

[B]

You call me a smart ass all the time. You do.

[A]

You are a smart ass.

[B]

Okay, there you go.

[A]

Moving on. Okay, maybe I was just doing One of the J.D. vance cookie stories right there, you know, where I was like, I had a concept with spitballing on it. Point being, JD shouldn't be calling everybody smug because he's a smug son of a bitch.

[B]

Fair enough. And I am going to continue to interrupt. I don't give a.

[A]

Great. And the people love it.

[B]

This segment is sponsored by the New York Times. Can't believe I'm saying it. Love the New York Times. Glad they're a sponsor. Now look, as the entire country was celebrating the 4th of July this past weekend, the White House was bashing the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, accusing the institution of what it called, quote, extreme political activism. And we found that out from reporting by the New York Times. The Times broke down what was in the White House's report and explained the Trump administration's repeated attacks on the Smithsonian Institution. The reporting you depend on, that this show depends on. It started long before that headline. And it's not just the Times that's doing that reporting. The Journal, ProPublica, your local newspapers, anywhere reporters are still working on a beat. They are producing essential reporting that informs podcasts just like this. Now, after that report on the Smithsonian, the Times reporter Derek Bryson Taylor went further, giving readers a detailed timeline of how this new report by the White House was not in a vacuum, but part of a years long campaign against the Smithsonian. That stuff, that reporting, it shows how it could take weeks, months, even years to put a story together. It also shows that reporting is essential, especially for podcasts like this. So wherever you seek it out nationally, locally, support fact based reporting.

[A]

Let's move on to the other big story of the afternoon in politics circles, the who might replace Graham Platner?

[B]

Are you in an emotionally level place to do this story? Do you need me to take it out?

[A]

I'm just. It's just one disappointment after another following politics the last few years, Sam. So to be honest, I've grown some pretty thick rhinoceros skin dealing with setbacks like the one I'm about to share. But Graham Platner is at the time of this taping. Maybe this will change by the time we publish it. Still huddled in his home with advisors trying to decide what to do. Everyone has told him to resign. Maybe he thinks he can gut it out. I think in Maine, I don't see how this works. In the Democratic side and the Republican side, many people have gutted out controversies like this. Democratic electorate has, has different standards and also in mainly ranked choice voting. So the Democrats could actually Run a write in third alternative that could conceivably win, I would think in a. In a ranked choice voting depending on on how things shake out. So anyway, things aren't great for him, but he's still deciding what to do. TikTok in the meantime, a little parlor game has kind of sprouted up. Who might the Democrats replace him with? Who else is out there? A name that I. I have joked about several times on the YouTube page that for some reason kept being mentioned was Patrick Dempsey McDreamy who looks better than ever right now. Let's put up this picture of him from today's Portland Press Herald announcing that he's not gonna run. Literally when you sent this to me, I thought it was a troll. Like I thought you'd had somebody in the office mock up an AI thing, but it's real.

[B]

Can we step back a second? Because Tim's just so people know we're in Slack in this channel and Tim's sort of like Tim's been salivating over these. I don't know where this polling data has been coming from that shows that he's got great favorabilities and also Tim's trying to manifest this into existence. And Tim finds some random ass Twitter account. I honestly don't know where this. Your algorithm has got to be so fucked right now. Someone named at NCT Democrat underscore. Who is this person? I don't know. But Tim finds this tweet with a siren emoji saying new Patrick Dempsey weighing options on center race over the next two days. Considering jumping in. It links to a Spotify. I don't. How is hex on taps? Okay, I don't know how Tim found this but like within two hours Dempsey has put out a op ed in the Portland Press Herald saying why I'm not running for the U.S. senate. And I too thought it was like fake. I was like is this from like 6 years ago or something? Because the picture looks great. He looks great.

[A]

Really.

[B]

You know, like a guy who could win a main senate race.

[A]

Rugged and Handsome Dempsey 2028. So he starts writing. Honestly reading about this. I've been kind of doing it as a little troll talking about it. I mean I also obviously kind of handsome. But yeah, people are really asking him. He has. I should mention this just before I joke a little bit that he has started the Dempsey Center. I made a joke which I thought was pretty clever. Okay. I was pretty happy with this joke and it was, you know how the libs are always talking on people's lived Experience. And I made a joke about how Patrick Dempsey could run for Senate with a plan to fix health care based on his acted experience. It's a really bad joke. I tickled myself with that dad joke.

[B]

You're closer to J.D. vance than you, possibly.

[A]

And then I got some emails from people that are like, no, it's actually his lived experience because he has the Dempsey Dempsey center, which helps people with cancer in the community, which is great. And so maybe that's part of the reason why people are taking this seriously. He wrote this. Here's the op ed. Over the past several days, I've been asked a question more than once, including on this here bulwark YouTube channel. Maybe he's a viewer. What's up, Mick Dramy? Come on. You're welcome anytime. Would you ever run to the United States Senate? It's flattering, and I don't take it lightly. I love my home state of Maine. I care deeply about the people who live there. And like so many Americans, I'm concerned about the direction our country is heading. I gave it real thought. And then he goes on. I kept coming back to one question. Do I truly want to serve in Congress? I realize the answer is no, not because public service isn't honorable. It absolutely is, because I believe I could contribute more effectively. I think most notably, there was a pretty extensive section on how he wants integrity and his candidates. And I think that is a not subtle reference to Graham. So I'm disappointed, man. And I was already plotting out the path to Dempsey as the outsider candidate of my dreams for 2028. I think he would have wiped the floor with Susan Collins. I get to. I do get excitable in these sets of things. So, you know, maybe. Maybe Patrick knows himself better than I know.

[B]

Well, just. Just to give people. Because we've already talked about your obsession about it, but it actually is deeper than I even, you know, revealed. Because I'm now looking back at another Slack channel that you, me and Jonathan Cohn are in, where you're assigning Jonathan Cohn stories about ACA enrollment. But then suddenly at the end, you're like, you know what? You need to wr Patrick Dempsey.

[A]

Anyway, I am. I'm assigning Jonathan Cohen, whose newsletter the Breakdown is excellent. You can go to theborg.com I was assigning him a Patrick Dempsey item, which unfortunately won't get written, so I'm upset about it. The other news item this afternoon, which is, I think even more weird, is a state rep named Valley Geiger. Let's pull up her photo Maybe a nice woman here, but she's a 70ish year old woman in the state legislature who I guess was an early Graham Platner endorser. She's saying that Graham is encouraging her to be the Senate nominee.

[B]

Yeah, well, the Plattner campaign's already kind of, or what remains of it is putting a bit of cold water on that one, saying he just called her to say thanks for your support. And I think she may be interpreted as saying, calling her offering his support. But no, I don't think that's happening.

[C]

Happening.

[A]

Okay. The whole thing is strange. I talked to this Alex Wagner for a while today on the pod, but it's like I don't really understand why they think. I mean, look, I think that there are some people who are excited about Graham Platner because his ideology and that's great. And people should be excited about candidates based on their views. Obviously there was another group of people that were excited about Graham Platner because he was charismatic and he was younger and they saw him as a fighter and something different and an outsider. And so I think that there's a lot of people who are kind of in the left wing of the party who are like, no, like we should replace and we should replace Graham with somebody who has his views. But then they keep suggesting like state, the state Senate president and like the 70 year old state rep. And it's like, okay, well that's fine, that's just. But that was one part of Graham's appeal. But it was one part of his appeal.

[B]

Well, there's one pretty clear way to just settle this. Well, I mean it's in and it's not going to be, it's not going to be satisfactory. Everyone but like hold a convention, vote, just.

[A]

That's interesting. Let people vote. And then if Graham Platner wants to endorse somebody, he's welcome to do that.

[B]

He can do it. Graham can say, that's my guy.

[A]

Would people want his support?

[B]

I threw this in slack while we're recording, but do you want to do the James Tallarico thing from the. Have you seen this one from the National Republican Congressional Committee?

[A]

It's the second time that Sam's been slacking me mid podcast recently. It's just he is a multitasker. I'm also multitasker.

[B]

You think I'm not paying attention and giving him my all these on these records?

[A]

I do. I think that sometimes you're not really, you're not really marinating in my wisdom and like really hearing all of My bon mots, you know. But okay, here we go. There is. We have two other stories in. Because I had one I wanted to end with as well, the nrcc.

[B]

Why is the NRCC doing this? That's the other thing.

[A]

This came from Richard Hudson. Nope. He's nrcc.

[B]

Yeah, that's it.

[A]

Because he's trying to tie James Talrico to Johnny Garcia who we've had on this very YouTube page. Johnny Garcia. That's a good candidate to look at and support who is trying to pick up a seat in Texas, try to undermine their efforts to gerrymander the state. The press release says this Texas damage hired brains behind Cox not Glocks protest trying to argue that the James Rico is trying to replace guns with dildos.

[D]

Great.

[A]

I mean against that. Is anybody against that? People. People are upset about more dildos and fewer guns. I mean they're not saying, they're not saying that James Tico is trying to like eliminate your guns or take your guns. It's just kind of like a guns for dildos trade. And if you want to be the type of person who like is, you know, I don't know, in middle age, has some children in the home, no longer wants to have a dangerous weapon around and you're trying to spice up your sex life, you know, it's a win, win.

[B]

Not since cash for collectors have we had a government exchange like this.

[A]

Guns for dildos. I think it's great. I guess they're trying. I guess they're thinking that like the right wingers in Texas will be offended by this. I think they'd be surprised at how dildo is.

[B]

Take him up on the.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I mean I think it's a. Probably an attempt to try to better tell Rico. You know, they really went hard at Beto over wanting to take people's guns. Telo has been more prudent on that question. And don't you think at some points kind of an abundance agenda thing.

[B]

Why can't you have both? Why don't you think, sorry, I'm dying. Don't you think that some at some point these attacks get so ridiculous. It's like you read this and you're like, wait a second, come on this. This guy wants to give us a whole bunch of dildos for our guns. Like that doesn't make sense. It doesn't compute. Like just stick with he's trying to take away your guns. That's probably cleaner. This whole thing's so stupid.

[A]

When it close at this Riley Gaines Mentioned this several times. She finished in fifth place in the swim meet. And I had a reader send me an email ask me to stop making fun of Riley Gaines for finishing in fifth place in the swim meet because it is a big accomplishment to be fifth in a college national college swim meet. I don't want to take that away from her. What I'm mocking Riley Gaines about is that her whole life now, following that swim meet has been dedicated to how unfair it was that she finished fifth when. Because there was a trans swimmer that was competing, but they tied. So even if the tran. So even if you got the trans swimmer out of the race, she would have still been fifth. And so that is the part that's so stupid and mockable about Riley Gaines. Advocacy is like, the whole thing is based on unfairness towards women. I mean, maybe if she was the 10th place finisher or the 11th, and. And that then she could have said, well, I could have made the top 10 if it wasn't. Anyway, fifth and fifth. She was on Stephen Miller's wife's podcast, Katie Miller. Katie Miller. It's the Fascist Mommy Hour, and they were discussing conspiracy theories. Let's just watch.

[D]

What's a conspiracy theory that you believe in? Okay, I'm a pretty horrible conspiracy theorist, to be honest with you. I would say a conspiracy theory I believe in. Or what about the ones that I don't? How about that? Like Helen Keller, if I'm being honest with you, did she really exist? Like, did she really exist? I can't wrap my mind around it. Like, you're telling me there's a woman who can't see, she can't hear, but she wrote a book. I don't know. Like, I'm the worst conspiracy theorist ever. Like, I'm, like, way too naive to believe that actually happened. That's gonna be the part that's clipped, by the way. It's gonna be like Riley is so stupid and doesn't actually think Helen Keller is real. Okay, fine, maybe. But I don't know. I think it doesn't sit right with me. No, I don't disagree with you, but I also think there's a lot of conspiracy theories out there, and every single one's proven true.

[A]

So, like, I don't disagree. Every conspiracy theory is proven true. I'm stuck on this one, and there's a lot to unpack there. I'm stuck on this, where she says, okay, to be honest with you, I would say a conspiracy theory I believe in. Or, what about the one that I don't? How about that? Like Helen Keller, if I'm being honest with you, did she really exist? It's hard to diagram that paragraph, but it seems to me like she believes Helen Keller existing is the conspiracy. Conspiracy theory. And she does not believe in that conspiracy theory, which is.

[B]

Yeah, let's work. I want to work through that again. That's a good point. Or what about the ones that I don't? So what about the conspiracy theories? I don't believe about that. So she doesn't believe in a conspiracy theory, and that conspiracy theory is that Helen Keller existed. So she does believe Helen Keller existed.

[A]

No, she doesn't. She's saying that the conspiracy theory is that Helen Keller existed. That's a conspiracy theory, and she doesn't believe in it.

[B]

So she believes Helen Keller never existed.

[A]

Correct.

[B]

Wait, the conspiracy theory is Helen Keller existed?

[A]

According to Riley.

[B]

Well, I'll give Riley credit on one thing. She's right that that shit was going to get clipped because it's so dumb. Does she not again, I'm having trouble here. She thinks Helen Keller didn't exist, or she thinks Helen Keller didn't write the book.

[A]

Didn't exist. I think.

[B]

Yeah, but then she gets very specific. How could she write a book? She says, I like, you're telling me there's a woman who can't see, she can hear, but she wrote a book?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Wait, so does she not believe that the book was written or that she just doesn't believe Helen Keller ever existed?

[A]

Yeah, I'd recommend her that she visit Tuscumbia, Alabama, where you can visit Helen Keller's birthplace. It's a nice stop. Not a lot of great stops in Alabama, but Tuscumbia.

[B]

Does she know there's photos of Helen Keller?

[A]

No. No, she doesn't know anything. Let's just be honest.

[B]

I'm on Getty Images right now. Again, there's photos of Helen Keller. It's there. You can look them up. There's at least 12, 27 photos on the Getty Images library of Helen Keller. Yeah.

[A]

Her whole life. Young old

[B]

house that she was in. Yeah.

[A]

Graduation.

[B]

I mean, this is a. This is a great story.

[A]

Yeah, It's a good trip. I mean, I was just imputing Alabama. The Alabamans get mad at me. I have to, you know, do that as a New Orleanian, but, you know, I mean, if you're going to visit Alabama, that's a good part of the state to go to Muscle Shoals. You can go see where a lot of great music was recorded. You can go to Tuscumbia. There's some cute little shopping and you can see Helen Color's home. I would recommend that to Riley or anyone looking for a little summer road trip. Gas prices are going up again, so it's going to cost you a little bit more to go to Tuscumbia. But it'll be cheaper in Tuscumbia than they. It is other places in the country, probably. So that's something to do. All right, Sam, Anything else? Anything else out there catching your eye? I know you're. You're reading Slack and editing and reading Twitter while posting this video, so. Anything? We got some.

[B]

We got some good stories coming tomorrow. I gotta be honest. Yeah. Will Summer's got. He's been working. Speaking of multitasking, his Internet is shit, which is why we couldn't record the trio. But he has got enough connectivity to write this great story on the guy who's maybe gonna bankrupt Candace Owens inadvertently. So that's coming tomorrow.

[A]

Prayers up. Prayers up. Subscribe at the bullet.com to watch that story. That's Sam Stanley, and I'm Tim Miller. We'll see you guys soon. By.