JD Vance's Late Night Tweet Was Just God Awful

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bulwark Takes – "JD Vance's Late Night Tweet Was Just God Awful"

Release Date: April 1, 2025

In this compelling episode of Bulwark Takes, hosts Sam Stein and Andrew Egger delve into a controversial incident involving Vice President JD Vance’s late-night Twitter activity concerning the deportation of Kilmer Abrego Garcia. Leveraging an in-depth transcript of their discussion, the hosts dissect the implications of this event, the administration's deportation policies, and the broader political reactions surrounding these actions.

---

1. Incident Overview: Deportation of Kilmer Abrego Garcia

The episode opens with Sam Stein introducing the case of Kilmer Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador despite a judge ruling against it due to credible threats of persecution and torture (00:01). Andrew Egger elaborates, highlighting the irregularities in the deportation process:

"He was sent to the prison there. The judge was just saying, don't send him there because there's credible threat that he would be subjected to persecution and torture." (00:01)

Stein emphasizes the violation of due process, underscoring the administration's bypassing of judicial safeguards in favor of swift deportations to El Salvador.

---

2. JD Vance’s Controversial Tweet

The core of the discussion revolves around Vice President JD Vance’s late-night tweet condemning the administration’s handling of Garcia’s deportation. Stein prompts Egger to analyze Vance’s stance:

"JD Was this morning or late last night tweeting at anyone or people who were critical of the administration for abducting Abrego Garcia and sending him to El Salvador." (00:28)

Egger describes Vance as the "most online member of the administration," often leading the narrative on social media. He criticizes Vance’s misrepresentation of Garcia’s background:

"JD says according to the court document you apparently didn't read, he, the man who was deported against the judge's order was a convicted MS.13 gang member with no legal right to be here." (02:10)

Stein and Egger point out the inaccuracies in Vance’s tweet, noting that Garcia was never convicted of gang membership, merely accused based on unsubstantiated claims by a local officer.

---

3. Administration’s Deportation Policies Under Scrutiny

The hosts shift focus to the broader deportation policies, critiquing the administration’s approach of bypassing immigration courts and due process:

"You're scooping people off at the street that you think are gang members and sending them off." (05:05)

Egger draws parallels to post-9/11 policies, where the Bush administration faced backlash for detaining individuals without adequate evidence, likening the current actions to those controversial measures. Stein adds:

"To me, this is a lot of echoes here to what happened in the aftermath of 9 11..." (05:45)

The discussion highlights the dangers of mass deportations without proper judicial oversight, emphasizing the potential for innocent individuals to be wrongfully detained and deported.

---

4. Republican Responses and Attempts to Deflect Criticism

Egger examines the Republican response to critiques of deportation practices, particularly focusing on Senator Ted Cruz’s reaction to their reporting:

"Look, if you want to be a shill for violent gang members... You ought to be ashamed of yourself." (06:50)

Cruz's defense of the administration’s actions mirrors the administration’s deflection tactics, shifting the focus from due process concerns to attacking critics. Stein characterizes this as a "sophomoric response":

"It's a sophomoric response. It's, it's so simple." (07:05)

This rhetorical strategy effectively sidelines substantive debates about policy flaws by equating critiques with supporting violent gang activities.

---

5. Public Perception and Potential for Change

The conversation transitions to the potential for public pressure to influence deportation policies. Egger observes a shift in public sentiment, noting that prominent figures like Joe Rogan are beginning to question the administration’s actions:

"I think Rogan is really striking... this is not the fight they wanted to pick." (11:04)

Stein acknowledges that while a significant portion of the population may support deportations of gang members, edge cases and wrongful deportations are gaining attention:

"Are we at a place culturally where you can sense the tides shifting here?" (10:08)

Egger contends that the administration's broad and often erroneous deportation efforts are generating public backlash, particularly as media coverage brings attention to cases of wrongful deportations.

---

6. The Call for Due Process and Guardrails

In their concluding remarks, Stein and Egger emphasize the necessity for due process and safeguards in deportation policies. Stein raises the concern:

"What we are arguing for is some sort of, you know, guardrails against putting innocent people into prison camps..." (07:27)

Egger echoes this sentiment, arguing that the administration’s misplaced focus on mass deportations without adequate verification undermines the integrity of immigration proceedings:

"The whole question is, are these human beings...?" (09:20)

Both hosts advocate for a balanced approach that ensures the safety of communities while protecting individuals’ rights, urging lawmakers and the public to demand accountability and due process in deportation practices.

---

7. Conclusion: Navigating the Future of Deportation Policies

The episode wraps up with a call to action for listeners to support rigorous immigration processes and resist oversimplified narratives that dismiss valid concerns about wrongful deportations. Stein highlights the importance of continued scrutiny and advocacy:

"Have the courage of your convictions, people." (13:04)

Egger concludes by noting the administration’s precarious position, suggesting that ongoing public and political pressure may compel the government to implement necessary reforms:

"They're comfortable with people who are gang members... But I think that what I'm, what I'm talking about is these edge cases..." (12:12)

Bulwark Takes thus provides a thorough examination of the complexities surrounding JD Vance’s tweet, the administration’s deportation policies, and the evolving political landscape. The hosts effectively intertwine factual analysis with critical perspectives, offering listeners a nuanced understanding of the issues at hand.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Egger [03:56]: "On the merits, it's wrong... he was in a Home Depot parking lot waiting to get day labor or work."
• Sam Stein [05:05]: "This is just becoming the administration's stock response."
• Andrew Egger [07:05]: "You're scooping people off at the street that you think are gang members and sending them off."

---

This episode serves as a vital resource for those seeking clarity on the contentious topic of immigration deportations and the internal dynamics of Republican responses to administrative oversteps.

Transcript

[Sam Stein]

Hey, guys.

[Andrew Egger]

Me.

[Sam Stein]

Sam Stein, managing editor at the Bulwark. I'm here with Andrew Egger, author of Morning Shots. We're here to talk about the latest indignity in the Trump deportation regime. Andrew wrote about it this morning. It involves a story that broke last night that you probably read or saw Tim talk about it. The stories in Atlantic. I want to make sure I'm getting this right. Man named Kilmer Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador despite a judge's ruling that he should not be deported there. He was sent to the prison there. The judge was just saying, don't send him there because there's credible threat that he would be subjected to persecution and torture. We're not going to rehash necessarily everything that Tim talked about in this video from last night. I just encourage you to go watch the video. It's really good. What we're going to talk about is something Andrew observed up close, which is how Republicans have been reacting to any time that you point out that maybe, just maybe, they should, you know, dot their eyes, cross their T's and go through the due process, process and make sure that everything's okay before sending people to these deportation camps, whatever you want to call them, prisons in El Salvador. Before we get into it. Subscribe to our feed. Critical content like this. All right, Andrew, two things I want to talk about. First is J.D. vance. We have a vice president who is chronically online. I should not talk because I'm chronically online, too, but I'm also not the vice president. And here JD Was this morning or late last night tweeting at anyone or people who were critical of the administration for abducting Abrego Garcia and sending him to El Salvador. And can you summarize what Vance is doing here, the argument he's making, and just the validity of it?

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah, this is sort of a bewildering thing where because he's the most online member of the administration, he is often the first to react to some of the. Okay. I mean, like, of the principles of the principals. Yeah, sure, sure. Elon is more. Elon's more online than anybody, JD But Elon has his own little idiosyncratic things, right? A lot of times, like the first kind of like, institutional response, like how the White House is gonna spin a certain thing. A lot of times that's coming from Vance. First. Cause he's on Twitter. He's mixing it up. This story broke late last night. He's on Twitter at 1am and he posts this. You know, he's chirping at Pod Save America's Jon Favreau, who's like, hey, you just deported this guy. A judge said you couldn't. You have admitted in court that. That it was an error to deport him. And yet you're. You're saying that you know, the say so of dhs and you can't get him back, and the court can't make you get him back. And still, DHS should be like, the. The sole, you know, authority on who gets deported these places and who doesn't. But, but, but JD says according to the court document you apparently didn't read, he, the man who was deported against the judge's order was a convicted MS.13 gang member with no legal right to be here. My further comment is that it's gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimized. So two things about this. One is, on the merits, it's wrong. Back in 2019, what happened to this guy was, you know, some of the details vary according to whether you're listening to his lawyer or, you know, DHS lawyers. But. But what. What seems like factually happened is he was in a Home Depot parking lot waiting to get day labor or work. He got scooped up by local cops with a couple of other people. One of those people told that local cop, hey, this guy, he's an Ms. 13. He's a gang member. That was never additionally substantiated in any way. There was never anything to prove that, and they never backed that up. But when it came time to look at this guy for federal deportation proceedings, he was handed over to dhs. DHS then files with the judge. Well, we have a confidential source. This local cop who tells us this Guy is an MS.13 gang member. It's the only piece of information that's ever been tldr.

[Sam Stein]

He was never convicted of being a.

[Andrew Egger]

Judge said he could in theory be deported, but that. That they were blocking him from being deported. Anyone, anyone could.

[Sam Stein]

Anyone here illegally could in theory be deported. Right, Right, Exactly. You know, an exceptional conclusion.

[Andrew Egger]

And two, JD specific thing, never convicted of anything. So he calls him a convicted ms.13 gang member. Just not true. But the other interesting thing is the pivot, right? My further comment is that it's gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize. And this is just becoming the administration's stock response. Obviously, this guy's story just broke overnight, but there have been lots of reports in recent days of people getting swept up in this. In this trend. Aragua Dragnet and just shipped down to El Salvador, a lot of whom seem to have no real connections with Trenda Aragua. And people are saying, well, okay, first of all, you're doing a really sloppy job. And second of all, you know, sloppy job or not, isn't this a crazy process that there is, that you are bypassing the immigration courts, you're not talking to these people's lawyers, you're not doing any of that stuff. You're just scooping people off at the street that you think are gang members and sending them off. And isn't that kind of crazy, even if you were, you know, dotting your I's and crossing your t's?

[Sam Stein]

To me, this is a lot of echoes here to what happened in the aftermath of 9 11, honestly, which was, you know, people were very anxious about the actions the Bush administration was taking with respect to people would capture on the battlefield, obviously, a huge scan of Labu Grape bringing prisoners to Guantanamo Bay. And then if you were to raise those concerns, the stock response administration was, you know, you're sympathizing with, you know, alleged terrorists. In this case, they would drop alleged. And I, I, I see that not just in J.D. vance's treat, but what happened to you on the Hill yesterday, where you were just going around and talking to different Republican lawmakers and you were getting basically the same stock response from them.

[Andrew Egger]

The lawmakers kind of went one of two directions. They would either say, look, you know, this is gonna be up to the courts to decide whether the Supreme Court has this power. And they would just kind of like, try to be quiet and leave it at that. One guy I talked to who went a different direction, much more in line with the rhetoric we've been hearing from the administration was Senator Ted Cruz. And we can play the audio of that. You know, it's not surprising that the Bulwarks Focus is defending alleged Venezuelan gang members. Yeah. Isn't that actually kind of the question, though? I mean, like, shouldn't this, shouldn't there be some adversarial. Let me ask you something. How many stories did you write on the Venezuelan gang members that Joe Biden and the Democrats released that were murdering and raping Americans? I wrote on immigration quite a bit, but I'm. You didn't answer my question. Look, if you want to be a shill for violent gang members, listen, I've talked to too many Americans whose children were raped and murdered by these animals that you ought to be ashamed of yourself. Yeah. So, I mean, essentially what he's doing is exactly the same thing. Right. He's taking any question about this due process and he's obviously specifically also going after the bulwark, but he's really, he's flipping it around on its, on its head. Right? I mean he's, he's saying, look, like, like the question is, should we be able to be assured that the administration is only scooping up gang members? Should, shouldn't there be some kind of process for determining whether these people are who you say they are? And the response to that is just, well, I can't believe you'd stick up for gang members like that. But no, I mean it's like everyone wants to see violent gang members deported, imprisoned, whatever.

[Sam Stein]

It's a sophomoric response. It's, it's so simple. Obviously people don't want to have gang members roaming around our country. Right. Like that. No one is arguing that. What we are arguing for is some sort of, you know, guardrails against putting innocent people into prison camps, which doesn't seem like that strong an ask.

[Andrew Egger]

And, and, and it's not. We should be really clear. This is not a one off response. Like this is the administration bedrock argument. I mean, the press secretary was out yesterday. There was a clip that went a little bit viral of a reporter, Andrew Feinberg of the Independent. He was, he had DHS documents in his hand. Here's the reporter brandishing the document in her face and here's how she responds.

[Sam Stein]

To that same guy that DHS is.

[Andrew Egger]

Using to determine who is Antennae Alien in a trend Member Deportable and Good Enemy Aliens Act. It has criteria here that require eight points to be classified as a TDA member.

[Sam Stein]

You can get classified by simply having certain symbols in your tattoos and wearing certain streetwear brands.

[Andrew Egger]

That alone is enough to get someone.

[Sam Stein]

Classified as TDA and sent to El Salvador.

[DHS Representative]

That's not true, actually, Andrew, according to.

[Andrew Egger]

This document, it is.

[DHS Representative]

No, according to Department of Homeland Security. And the agents. Have you talked to the agents who have been putting their lives on the line to detain these foreign terrorists who have been terrorizing our communities? TVA is a vicious gang that has taken the lives of American women. And our agents on the front lines take up deporting these people with the utmost seriousness. And there is a litany of criteria that they use to ensure that these individuals qualify as foreign terrorists and to ensure that, to ensure that they qualify for deportation. And the President made it incredibly clear to the American public that there would be a mass deportation campaign of not just foreign terrorists but also illegal criminal Aliens who have been wreaking havoc on American communities. And shame on you and shame on the mainstream media for trying to cover for these individuals who have. This is a vicious gang, Andrew. This is a vicious gang that has taken the lives of American women.

[Andrew Egger]

The government filed in court, court which.

[DHS Representative]

Says, and you said yourself there are more. There are eight criteria on that document.

[Sam Stein]

They need eight points.

[DHS Representative]

And you are questioning the credibility of these agents who are putting their life on the line to protect your life and the life of everybody in this group and everybody across the country. And their credibility should be questioned. They finally have a president who is allowing them to do their jobs and God bless them for doing it.

[Andrew Egger]

And so just like to put a fine point on it, like, yes, this is a vicious gang that has taken the lives of American women. Yes. But the whole question is, the whole like, point of the whole thing is, are these human beings, the ones that you are scooping up and sending to El Salvador, are they in that gang? Have they done these things? Right, that's the question. Because if they're not, then it's a big problem, right? I mean, and so it's just, it's, it's this whole, it goes around and around and around and that's the way they're going to respond to these stories.

[Sam Stein]

The last thing I want to talk about is like, is there, is there a breaking point here where, you know, I'm not saying it has to be a sympathetic case that the administration finally concedes that they've overstep, but where frankly, pressure, you know, rises to a significant level for them to at least put in some guardrails or acknowledge that they, you know, there are a need for guardrails. And you know, when you went to the Hill, we were kind of curious. You and I just talked about it like, well, maybe some of the more civil, civil libertarian minded lawmakers will be queasy about this. And we also talked a little bit about how among conservative commentators and, and non political minded commentators, people like Joe Rogan, for instance, there were some, there was some queasiness about this, if not outright a recognition that this is wrong. Are we at a place culturally where you can sense the tides shifting here?

[Andrew Egger]

So there definitely has been a shift. I think Rogan is really striking. I mean, you mentioned like some of the guys at National Review or whatever are kind of knitting their brows over this and like, yeah, I'm good. Good for them. I'm glad they're doing that. But somebody like Joe Rogan who's in that Sort of populist v. Very popular, broad space is more significant. I think the way that the White House miscalculated on this is they picked this fight, right? They were saying we're going to make this thing, these Venezuelan migrants, the tip of the spear here in the, in the due process thing. And it's going to be an 80, 20 issue for us because we're going after these gang members. But I think, but I think that the, that the way they miscalculated is they've just gone about it so buffoonishly and swept up so many people in this dragnet who are obviously, you know, wrong. That like, that is what's creating the public pressure.

[Sam Stein]

I don't know if they've miscalculated. I honestly, I mean, I obviously believe they've miscalculated. But yeah, it might not be 80, 20 anymore, but it, I, well I, I just mean 50, you know, I think the country by and large at this point is very much comfortable with this.

[Andrew Egger]

They're comfortable with certain, I mean they're comfortable with people who are gang members. But I think that what I'm, what I'm talking about is these edge cases that have made, made.

[Sam Stein]

But I don't know, are the edge cases breaking through? I don't know, Joe.

[Andrew Egger]

I mean, where would they be breaking through if not on Joe Rogan? I mean he's the, like, he's exactly.

[Sam Stein]

A one off from Rogan is one thing.

[Andrew Egger]

Yeah, no, and we'll see and we'll see how this plays out. But, but, but like, look, look, you know, it's, nobody ever lost their shirt betting against like, or betting on the Trump administration to double down, betting on things like ultimately working out okay for them. But like the only point I'm, I'm making here is that this is not the fight they wanted to pick. They did not want to be in the trenches having to defend, having to like, I mean they, they admitted in court that they deported this error. Right. I mean that's not a place that they wanted to be in. That's a huge black eye for them and that's the reason why they are diverting and trying to, trying to dodge back to this thing.

[Sam Stein]

The only thing I would add is that, you know, it's very evident, and we've reported on this, Adrian reported on this, that Democrats are like not really eager to pick up this fight because they view it as a loser. But that's a self fulfilling prophecy.

[Andrew Egger]

They view everything as a loser.

[Sam Stein]

They're just, they're scared of it, almost everything.

[Andrew Egger]

They want to talk about the price of eggs, but guess what? The price of eggs are actually going down. So you can't do that one anymore. Democrats maybe talk about some of this other stuff that' real. I don't know.

[Sam Stein]

I don't know. My point is it's self fulfilling. If you don't talk about it, it doesn't turn into an issue because you've conceded it already.

[Andrew Egger]

So have the courage of your convictions, people.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, exactly. All right, Andrew, thank you for your service and your reporting. I really appreciate it. And thank you guys for watching the video. We appreciate it as well. As a reminder, do subscribe to the feed. It is one of the best out there, if I must say so. We will be in touch. Talk to you soon.