← Bulwark Takes
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- [00:00]
Bretzky
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- [00:25]
JVL
play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.
- [00:30]
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- [01:00]
JVL
hello everyone, this is JVL and I am here to talk to you today about little Marco Rubio's white elephant gift exchange with Pope Leo xiv. It happened yesterday. The Bulwark Pope and the Secretary of State met. And to talk about this today, I am pleased as punch to be joined by my friend Katie McGrady. You may know her as the host of the Katie McGrady show on the Catholic Channel on SiriusXM. She is an IRL friend of mine. I'm friends with her whole family. Her family's friends with my family. We're buddies. And now we get to do a little thing together for Bulwark takes. Katie, thank you for coming on.
- [01:40]
Katie McGrady
I'm so excited to be here. I get to see the pinball machine in person. Yeah, we have matching Lego sets in our houses. I feel like that's like a friendship. And I pestered you. I was like, you've got to do a take on this. You've got to do a take on it.
- [01:53]
JVL
So. So I want to set the stage. The Secretary of State went to the Vatican and met the Holy Father yesterday. And as is typical, they exchanged pleasantries, they took a picture together, and then they exchanged gifts. Now, you. You yourself met the Bulwark Pope.
- [02:14]
Katie McGrady
I did. And I gave him a gift.
- [02:16]
JVL
And what gift did you give him?
- [02:18]
Katie McGrady
So I gave him three small things, keeping in mind I am not the Secretary of State of the United States of America. So I gave him a copy of Tommy and I's book. First copy, hot off the presses. And then I Gave him a picture of his home parish from Chicago, which is actually closed. But a photographer friend of mine on the day he was elected went and took pictures. And I was like, you know, if you ever feel homesick. And then I kind of choked up a little bit when I was giving it to him. And he was very kind. He was like, it's okay. You know, he's very fatherly. And then I gave him a pair of socks, but specific socks. Socks I, in fact, had designed. They're the white socks jersey as socks, and they say Leo. And the white socks font, which the deeper cut of this is. I then referenced that when I interviewed him at the National Catholic Youth Conference, and he said, famously, I only wear white socks. So we made a dad joke together in front of thousands of people.
- [03:10]
JVL
Wow.
- [03:11]
Katie McGrady
I love our bulwark Pope achievement.
- [03:14]
JVL
Unlocked.
- [03:15]
Katie McGrady
Unlocked. And to be fair, like, he made a comment at that youth conference that got an applause line where he said, be very careful to use political terms to describe the church. And that plays in my head constantly because the young people, teenagers, Gen Z, clapped Like, he was kind of startled that they started clapping when he said that. So I gave him those three things. I also gave Pope Francis a little Lego Pope, and he was utterly delighted by that. But again, I'm not the Secretary of State, so my gifts can be, like, charming little personal effects that ultimately get auctioned off to, like, Swiss Guard for charity. Heads of state, diplomats should put a little thought into it, I think.
- [03:55]
JVL
Well, we'll get into that in a minute. I would just like to say again, for anybody who's listening, who's Catholic, I mean, the greatest Catholic achievement of all would be having a personal inside joke with the Holy Father. That's true. Wow. How amazing is that?
- [04:08]
Katie McGrady
That's true.
- [04:09]
JVL
All right, we're gonna watch together the scene that unfolded when it was white elephant time at the Vatican.
- [04:16]
Unidentified Guest
Well, it's easier. This is a baseball guy. But. And it has the seal of the State Department, so.
- [04:21]
Public Service Announcer
Okay.
- [04:22]
Unidentified Guest
It. What to get someone who has everything. I thought olive being, of course, plant of peace. There's just the coat of arms here, of beautiful pontificate here. But. And this is what we in Chicago call the coffee tablets here. Different works of art, paintings by Rafael.
- [04:48]
JVL
You know, a totally normal thing.
- [04:51]
Katie McGrady
What? To get the man with everything.
- [04:54]
JVL
Katie. A totally normal thing where the Pope gives the Secretary of State a pen made with olive wood, possibly even from the Garden of Gethsemane or something. I don't know. Right. The papal seal on it. And, you know, A pen of peace. And here's a book for you to take home with all of the, you know, the beautiful arches surrounded by. And Ruby is like, I got you this football paperweight from the gift shop. It's got the State Department seal on
- [05:24]
Unidentified Guest
it, and it has the seal of the State Department. So. Okay,
- [05:29]
JVL
did you hear what Leo says?
- [05:31]
Katie McGrady
Wow. Okay. Like, here's. I just. Did he forget? Did he forget you're supposed to bring a present to the Pope? And, like, they had one of these on the plane. That's all I can figure. So my dad does this when he gives a gift to somebody, he immediately apologizes for it. Like, if you don't like it, you can take it back. And I've watched that clip a dozen times, and I keep thinking to myself, he apologizes for the gift before he gives it to him. I know you're a baseball guy, so here's a football. It's like he realizes this was a fumble. Pun totally intended.
- [06:07]
JVL
So I have a different read on this.
- [06:10]
Katie McGrady
Oh, okay.
- [06:10]
JVL
And my read is that Marco Rubio was caught in a very uncomfortable position because the backseat of a Volkswagen, that's. That's a deep cut for old, old Kevin Smith fans. He was caught in the position where he's going to see the Pope. You have to bring the Pope a gift because also, you know, the Pope's going to give you a gift. But also the Pope is now an enemy of the regime. Right? Trump doesn't like the Pope. MAGA people really don't like the Pope. I don't know. I did a focus group podcast.
- [06:45]
Katie McGrady
I know I couldn't listen to it.
- [06:47]
JVL
I had turned Trump Catholic voters and these Trump voter Catholics did not like this Pope. They said, I thought he was going to be okay, but I don't like that. And so Rubio has to give him something, but it can't be something too nice. And it's got it. Like, he's got a. He's really. This is like the Florsheim thing. He is cutting a very, very fine line because he's gotta give something to the Pope that's good enough that, like, he gets out of there without it being a total embarrassment. But not good enough that anybody could possibly notice and say, well, that was a nice, thoughtful thing he gave the Holy Father.
- [07:28]
Katie McGrady
That is a good thing.
- [07:29]
JVL
Settles on. I've. I've got this paperweight from the back of the plane. We give them to a bunch of the middle managers when they, like, make five months here.
- [07:42]
Katie McGrady
Does anybody make it five months working in The Trump administration. I. It. That is a good read on his awkward position. What I'm surprised by, though, is that nobody in or around him long serving diplomats, and especially at the Holy Sees outpost, would have said, look like that's going to get scrutinized in a way that you might just have to make the big boss mad for a second and be a little thoughtful, because it just. It was so. When Brian Birch presented his credentials, the. The ambassador, he literally brought a cake from Portillo's for the Holy Father's birthday, you know, and we didn't yet have. I don't like this Pope. I prefer his MAGA brother moments. But, like, there was actually, like, we do know some things about him. And so I can see that, like, Rubio has to twist himself into a few different pretzels in order to not make this an uncomfortable moment when he gets home. One person I saw on Twitter, I don't believe this to be the truth, but said, oh, it was a symbol of how Trump has the nuclear football. And so you'll never be. You'll never forget. And I was like, he's not keeping it on his desk. Like, he's not going to be thinking back to the nuclear football every time he sees this. But some people really were like, oh, it's 3D. It's 4D chess. It's like, have. Have you been paying attention for a year? They don't know how to play checkers. Like, they don't know they're not doing 3D chess.
- [09:06]
JVL
Marco Rubio is from an SEC state. Football is everything in the SEC. Right. And so when they were going to do we need to have a thing for the State Department, I really, you know, the football, it's America. It's America. The best part of this, though, in a weird way, this is so much more cringe than it would have been with Francis.
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Katie McGrady
Yeah.
- [09:29]
JVL
Because Bobby from the south side is actually American.
- [09:34]
Katie McGrady
Yeah.
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JVL
Actually likes American sports. Is real baseball. That's the funny thing of, like, here's this foot.
- [09:41]
Katie McGrady
Here's a football.
- [09:42]
JVL
Football. Right. If you had given that to. If you'd given the football to Francis, it would have meant nothing because Francis doesn't care about any American sports.
- [09:50]
Katie McGrady
No. Or he would have been like football
- [09:52]
JVL
to an American pope who's not actually especially into football because he's a baseball guy. It's levels.
- [09:58]
Katie McGrady
Yeah. It's. Well, advance gave him a Bears jersey. Like, not once had he ever mentioned the Bears and the White Sox thing. To be fair, Leo, like, never told everybody. I'm a White Sox fan. You know, my boss in New York introduced himself and let people know I'm a cubby because he's going to end up at a Mets game. He's going to end up at a Yankees game. Like, Leo was kind of pegged as a Cubs fan, and his brother corrected the record. And then now it's off to the races. Everybody brings him White Sox paraphernalia. So you could have just even like, jumped into that and given him. There was a reporter, I think, on the papal plane who literally gave him, like, a family heirloom of a bank bat signed by a famous White Sox player, like, on the plane. And this is the Secretary of State who can't tick off his boss. But it also happens to be year 250. It's America 250. You couldn't have, like, gone to the Smithsonian and found something thoughtful or like Ellis island records, maybe, like, traced his family's history. His dad stormed the beaches of Normandy. Go get some dirt on the way over to Rome. Like, it just the thoughtlessness of it actually made me kind of embarrassed to be an American Catholic who was like, people went to get pizza and brought you pizza. Holy Father and the peeps. And we give you a paperweight now. Can I deep cut for just a second, jvl, please? So inside the Vatican. So it's a huge plant. There's like a grocery store commissary for just employees of the Vatican. And the stories go, and the sources tell me that periodically things that have been given to the Holy Father, usually from, like, the populace and the crowds, not dignitary gifts, they end up in this commissary as auction items because Francis, who was given lots of stuff, decided to start food trucks to help the homeless. And so these auction items would get bid upon by everybody from Swiss Guard and their girlfriends and wives, all the way to, like, the pharmacist at the Vatican, which. There is a pharmacist at the Vatican. Because if you work for the Vatican, you can do everything there if you really wanted to. And they get bid upon and then they're purchased. And so people actually all the stuff that the Pope gets ends up in some Italian home and, like, probably makes its way into some thrift store eventually. So a friend of mine texted me late last night who would know to keep an eye out for it. She's like, I wonder if this one ever makes it over there. Like, yes, this was a dignitary gift. But, you know, Leo might re gift it to his brother at Christmas or he might throw it over towards the auction. I know some of the socks that I gave Pope Francis years ago, I gave him five pairs. Three pairs ended up in the auction house. So I still choose to believe that two pairs were in rotation inside the Holy Fathers when he was dressed down to his civvies. You know, the paperweight is not going to be kept. I can almost guess.
- [12:44]
JVL
That's the only. The only reasonable conclusion from having three of the five pairs show up on auction.
- [12:49]
Katie McGrady
He was buried in them. That's what I'm convinced of.
- [12:52]
JVL
These things are kind of like the generic thing that gets passed out. It's just the thing that Rubio gives to people. I gotta think that this is like a €5 item at the auction.
- [13:06]
Katie McGrady
If it's Waterford crystal, maybe it's a little. A little higher up the rank. I'm gonna keep my eye out. I'm gonna. I'm gonna work my work, my sources. Only because now it's becoming a meme. Like, it's becoming kind of a joke. It's like the challenge coin, though. I mean, Biden gave Francis, like, a command coin and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, so he gave him a good gift later on. Famously, Lyndon B. Johnson, you've heard this story, I'm sure, gave Paul the.
- [13:32]
JVL
I've seen the picture, a bust bust of himself.
- [13:34]
Katie McGrady
So, I mean, it wasn't worse. It wasn't that bad. But let me ask you this. Politically, right? So, like, Marco Rubio goes. He can't. He can't show too much love. He is Catholic. There are reports he was raised Catholic. His wife was raised Catholic. There are reports that his kids have gone to Catholic school, but that they also go to an evangelical church, which, hey, there are some Catholics who like to go. The praise and worship is nice. There's. I. I don't believe the reports that, like, he's a secret Mormon. There's, like a whole lot of conspiracy theories about his religion. He identifies as Catholic, like, publicly talks about being Catholic, but that's his truth. And that. That's. Look, if he accepts that way to the Heavenly Host banquet, whatever we want to call it. I just flubbed that line. But if he wants to fly, find the Lord in different ways, I'm not going to hold it against him. But he went because Vance didn't go, right? Like, can we talk about that for a second? Like, he was the chosen one. Because I do think Vance kind of stepped in it with his whole stay in your lane in theology line. And Rubio largely stayed out of that in fact, when he was even asked about it, like, kind of, you know, moved on. So was this. You tell me, do you think this was. We've got to send our diplomat. Or maybe he's got more riz than Vance, and the two guys can speak Spanish to each other, and they're a little more charming with one another.
- [14:51]
JVL
No, I think we got to send somebody we can't send. JD does not want to go over there and deal with this. Send Marco. And this is, again, I. I think this is a thankless job within the administration, having to go and meet with somebody who has been unpersoned, but you can't. You can't give him the Zelensky treatment because he is the Pope. And so I think this is, again, Trump is in the position of, like, constantly negging the two kids as he pits them against one another. And I think ultimately will decide that Don Jr. Is the one who must carry on the legacy.
- [15:25]
Katie McGrady
You keep saying this, and it makes me so nervous. I am, like, sick to my stomach over it.
- [15:30]
JVL
Here's my ask of you, okay? If your sources see this thing pop up in the commissary, I will pay anything for it.
- [15:44]
Katie McGrady
All right? I'll keep an ear to the ground.
- [15:46]
JVL
Whatever. €100. €500.
- [15:51]
Katie McGrady
We're gonna get the football.
- [15:52]
JVL
I want to have the glass football that little Marco gave to. And I'm gonna put it. If I could get this thing, I'm gonna create a little altar for it back there, and I'm just. I'm gonna have the Pope's face and just a little dialogue bubble. Oh, wow.
- [16:12]
Katie McGrady
Wow. Okay.
- [16:13]
Unidentified Guest
So, okay.
- [16:15]
Katie McGrady
And did you notice? Leo didn't, like, reach out to touch it. He didn't, like, hold it. And let's compare it to the gift he received from the Polish Prime Minister earlier in the day. Incredibly thoughtful. The Pentateuch, first five books of the Bible, translated into a regional Polish dialect, from which the Prime Minister's family hails. Thoughtful makes reference to Poland. Obama gave Francis seeds from the White House garden in an olive box. Bush Presidential Medal of freedom to JP2. Like, there have been thoughtful gifts given before. I think you're right. He couldn't. He couldn't. Free advice to the Pope.
- [16:54]
JVL
Free advice for the next member of the administration who is sent on hazard pay over to meet with Pope Leo. Bring Frank Thomas. Bring the Big Hurt with you and just, like, tag him along and be like, Pope Leo. I brought the Big Hurt. What do you think?
- [17:16]
Katie McGrady
He'd love it, right?
- [17:17]
JVL
Get pictures together.
- [17:19]
Katie McGrady
His little kid heart when it comes to some sports memorabilia, like tennis rackets. He plays tennis. We know he plays tennis. He rides a horse. Can't we like, I don't know, a saddle fashioned from leather from the American Revolution. Like, there's. I have endless ideas. If I had an unlimited budget and access to American memorabilia. And we have the first American pope, and you've brought him a Bears jersey and a crystal football. The Trump administration, ladies and gentlemen,
- [17:52]
JVL
Katie McGrady. God love you for coming on this show with me. It is so good to have you. Everybody else, hit, like, hit. Subscribe, follow the channel. We'll be back for more because there's always more. That's the one thing about this moment in American life. There's always more. Like it or not. Good luck, America.
- [18:12]
Bretzky
What's up, baby? It's Bretzky, and I'm here to tell you that spinquest.com is giving out free sweeps coins. All you got to do is is purchase a $10 coin pack. And guess what? They're going to give you the coins from a $30 coin pack that lets you play all your favorite games like blackjack, Wanted, Dead or Wild. And we're talking real cash prizes, baby. Spinquest.com Spinquest is a free to play
- [18:37]
JVL
social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.
- [18:42]
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