LIVE: Peeling Paint and Green Water at Trump's "Renovated" Reflecting Pool

Summary

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Bulwark Takes – LIVE: Peeling Paint and Green Water at Trump’s “Renovated” Reflecting Pool

Date: June 18, 2026
Host: Sam Stein
Guests: Sarah Matthews, Brendan Hartnett

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Episode Overview

This lively, on-the-scene episode features Bulwark’s Sam Stein, Sarah Matthews, and Brendan Hartnett reporting live from the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool—a few weeks after its much-touted $14 million “renovation” under the Trump administration. What was promised as a flagship project has quickly become a spectacle: the water has turned a vivid, unnatural green, and large chunks of the new blue pool coating are peeling away. The hosts dissect the situation, explore why it matters, and riff on Trump’s own boasts about the project, all while doing some hands-on (and slightly irreverent) poolside investigative journalism.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. On-Site Observations: Peeling Paint and Green Water

• Brendan Hartnett and Sarah Matthews rove around the pool, observing “the biggest slice of blue paint coming off the pool” and prepping to retrieve it using tongs. (01:10)
• The color is a garish green—“Green is the Chicago river on St. Patrick’s Day.” (01:32, Sarah)
• Workers have been scrambling to remove loose paint and battle rampant algae, with some “scraping the pool and seemingly sucking up the debris coming off of it.” (03:42, Brendan)
• The coating feels “like on a cheaper pool, how the floor kind of cuts your feet after a while. That’s what it feels like.” (03:16, Brendan)
• Large chunks (up to 2–3 feet long) peel off with little effort: “I kept, like, just pulling and it keep coming up.” (07:38, Brendan)

2. Hydrogen Peroxide: Quick Fix or Further Disaster?

• The team discusses the use of hydrogen peroxide to kill algae—an approach that may be stripping the paint:
  • “I did look up that hydrogen peroxide can be used as a stripping formula, so you can get paint removed and coatings removed like this.” (02:33, Sam)
  • Noted that hydrogen peroxide-based strippers are “non-toxic, eco-friendly … but they probably should have thought this one through.” (17:50, Sam)
• The effort to eliminate algae ends up worsening the paint problem—“What is the plan here long term? Are we just going to keep pouring gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the pool?” (19:35, Sarah)

3. Media, Public, and Government Response

• Dozens of workers, heavy press coverage, a “little bit of a turf war happening” as media compete for footage. (01:32, Sarah)
• The U.S. Interior Department issued press releases lauding the “nano blubber technology” and showing “the water crystal clear with the American flag blue coating shining brightly.” (14:52, Sam)
  • The hosts are skeptical: “They’re basically asking you, Brendan, to just kind of not believe what your own eyes are seeing.” (15:14, Sam)
• Real-time commentary on workers’ efforts: “I think they saw the media reports. ... And then it seems like some of the other workers are focused on the algae part of it as well and removing that.” (04:26, Sarah)

4. Trump’s Role, No-Bid Contract, and Political Cynicism

• The panel emphasizes Trump’s own boasting—using the pool as evidence of his supposed executive prowess:
  • “Trump himself held this up as emblematic of leadership failures by every other president who could have resolved this issue, but lacked the fortitude...He did a no bid contract. $14 million is not nothing…It’s the gall, it’s the arrogance, and it’s the fact that he made it a big deal, which means we should cover it.” (12:55, Sam)
• Sarah highlights the sketchiness: “He basically gave this contract to one of his pool guys. And that’s why I think we’re having so many issues. … There needs to be some sort of investigation into this, maybe when the House switches and Dems take control.” (13:18, Sarah)
• The real issue, they argue, was ignoring the filtration system, which remains broken:
  • “What this kind of goes back to is that they didn’t fix the initial problem with the system, which is the filtration system. And it seems like Trump just wanted to slap this blue paint on before actually fixing the underlying problem.” (04:26, Sarah)

5. Why This Story Matters

• Some listeners might dismiss the pool as trivial, but the hosts frame it as a parable of leadership and accountability:
  • “There is something important to [the story] ... it’s the gall, it’s the arrogance, and it’s the fact that he made it a big deal, which means that we should cover it.” (12:55, Sam)
  • “Trump is the one who made this into this wedge issue. … He was holding up these silly posters at the Oval Office during press conferences, comparing the size of the Reflecting Pool to skyscrapers.” (13:18, Sarah)
  • “It looks a lot worse than it did before at the start of this. And he wasted $14 million in taxpayer money.” (13:18, Sarah)

6. “Hard-Hitting” Fieldwork

• Brendan collects water samples and tests water quality live:
  • “I was down here on Monday. ... We didn’t find many chemicals in the water at that point, but we did find that the PH was off the charts, which is typical for algae.” (10:46, Brendan)
  • “We brought that shirt...This is going to be a little tie dye experiment,” as they dip a garment in the water to test for staining. (09:15, Sarah)
• “This is the hard hitting journalism you get at The Bulwark. … Brennan’s collecting water constantly. He’s got two main stories. He’s following the tarps over the Kennedy center and the reflecting pool.” (20:05, Sam)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Trump admin’s bungling:
  • “Trump just wanted to slap this blue paint on before actually fixing the underlying problem, and now it’s just getting worse and compounding.” (04:26, Sarah)
• On the use of hydrogen peroxide:
  • “AI tells me that hydrogen peroxide paint removers are non toxic, eco friendly ... They probably should have thought this one through.” (17:50, Sam)
• On the peeling paint and waste:
  • “I could have saved you $14 million by telling you it was going to accumulate algae.” (11:19, Brendan)
  • “That’s the bottom of the pool that is now coming off. Okay, you can draw. You can hold there. Okay, that. Okay, let’s take that. Take that. Put in your trash bag. Okay. That looks like clearly like part of the reflecting pool coating, and it seems to be flapping like a dead bird’s wing in the water.” (06:43, Sam)
• On the absurdity and accountability:
  • “They’re basically asking you ... to just kind of not believe what your own eyes are seeing. And frankly, I find myself sometimes wondering if this is real.” (15:14, Sam)
• On next steps and ongoing coverage:
  • “What is the plan here long term? Are we just going to keep pouring gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the pool?” (19:35, Sarah)
  • “They keep mentioning nano blubber technology, and I’m like, that sounds… Doesn’t sound real, but maybe it is real. It’s not my forte.” (20:02, Sam)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [00:45] – Live at the Pool: On-the-ground intro; describing the peeling paint and green water
• [01:32] – Media and workers scramble; Sarah describes the surreal color and turf wars
• [02:33] – Sam discusses the hydrogen peroxide’s role as a paint stripper
• [03:14] – Brendan describes the paint's poor quality/texture
• [04:26] – Sarah on the workers’ efforts and the underlying filtration issue
• [06:43] – Team retrieves a huge piece of peeling paint
• [09:15] – The “Bulwark wet t-shirt contest”/tie-dye shirt test for water quality
• [10:46] – Brendan reports on water sample findings from earlier in the week
• [12:55] – Sam and Sarah explain why the story matters, tying it to Trump’s self-congratulatory rhetoric
• [14:52] – Sam reads the Interior Department's crowing press release
• [15:14] – Hosts question the official message, highlight the disconnect with visual reality
• [16:18] – Even more peeling paint observed live, confirming the problem
• [17:50] – Sam explains the irony of using eco-friendly paint remover to “clean” the pool
• [19:35] – Sarah poses long-term concerns; quest for an actual solution
• [20:05] – Wrap-up; team pledges ongoing coverage of the Reflecting Pool saga

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Tone and Atmosphere

• Wry, skeptical, and irreverently investigative—the hosts use humor (“first ever Bulwark wet t-shirt contest”), pop culture references, and a sense of civic outrage to connect the fiasco to broader concerns about governance and accountability.
• Highly visual and conversational—the team delivers a running commentary, providing a real sense of being on-site amidst the spectacle, mixing exasperation with banter.

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For listeners:

This episode is both a snapshot of a uniquely embarrassing moment for official Washington and a commentary on how PR, public money, and political egos can create a literal and figurative mess—a mess The Bulwark is happy to wade through (often literally) for its audience.

Transcript

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[Brendan Hartnett]

All right.

[Sam Stein]

Hey, everybody. We are live. This is Sam Stein. I'm with Sarah Matthews and Brendan Hartnett. We are live at the Reflecting Pool. I know this seems a little bit weird to be live at the Reflecting pool, but there is actual weird breaking news from the Reflecting Pool. And since we're all obsessed with the story, at least I am. Looks like there's pieces of paint. The coating that we put on the pool seems to be coming apart. Brendan, what can you tell us?

[Brendan Hartnett]

Yeah, so we just did a little lap around here and we found what is the biggest slice of blue paint coming off the pool. Fortunately, we have some tongs courtesy of Bulwark hq, and we're going to rip it out and see what happens.

[Sam Stein]

All right, go rip it out. Sarah, you hold this while he rips it out. Brendan, go to the pool. Let's get a camera on Brendan as he goes. And. And if we can get an image of him pulling it out of the pool, I would love to see it. Okay.

[Sarah Matthews]

Yep, sounds good. I was like, he is walking over. We've got some competing. Everyone's here covering it. People are coming and getting footage of the paint peeling. And so, yeah, a little bit of a turf war happening, but lots of media coverage of this because, I mean, it is kind of Insane to think $14 million, no bid contract and what, in a week or two, the paint is already peeling. The. The color is green. I mean, it's just. Green is the Chicago river on St. Patrick's Day. And it just keeps getting worse, it seems like. But, yeah, there's pretty big chunks of paint that are peeling off that Brendan's going to try to Get. And so that way we can take a look at it. But, yeah, the American flag, blue, I guess it wasn't that blue because the. It's still pretty green. But I guess if you think about it, we saw the images of them in the videos of them pouring hydrogen peroxide into the water this week.

[Sam Stein]

Right.

[Sarah Matthews]

Trying to counteract the algae. And, you know, one would think that maybe that has something to do with why the paint is now peeling.

[Sam Stein]

We'll get into that. I'm not a scientist or anything like that, but I did look up that hydrogen peroxide can be used as a stripping formula, so you can get paint removed and coatings removed like this. You can hear Jonathan Carl in the background right now from ABC doing this thing. Brendan, take the mic for a second, because you actually saw the chunk of paint that was removed. So just to beat the Walker suit, is it clear that it's actually the paint, the blue paint from the coating that they applied?

[Brendan Hartnett]

Oh, yeah. I started pulling on it, and half of it started coming up. I think as soon as we grab it and give it a good yank, the whole thing is going to come out and hopefully not ruin this white shirt, but we'll see.

[Sam Stein]

But it's definitely. It's definitely the coating, right?

[Brendan Hartnett]

Oh, it's. It's like the paint. There's texture to it. It feels like, you know, like on a cheaper pool, how, like the floor, like, kind of cuts your feet after a while. That's what it feels like.

[Sam Stein]

And how many pieces of floating paint do you see? Or is it just loose now?

[Brendan Hartnett]

You know, it seems like they keep getting taken out as soon as they're up, but we've seen maybe two or three much smaller.

[Sam Stein]

What do you mean they get. What do you mean they get taken out? There's workers there who are removing it.

[Brendan Hartnett]

So, yeah, we have down there. And also closer to the Lincoln National Parks employees who are currently scraping the pool and seemingly sucking up the debris coming off of it. And so it seems like once it comes up and starts floating to the surface, they get it removed. So we haven't seen as many as there were reported to be earlier this morning, but there's been a few, just not nearly as big as this giant one.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, how many were reported this morning?

[Brendan Hartnett]

There are tons of pictures everywhere of just, like, loose paint coming up all across the reflecting pool, especially puddling up in the corners.

[Sam Stein]

And, Sarah, give us a sense of how many workers are there and what kind of work they're actually doing to make sure it doesn't look Totally ridiculous.

[Sarah Matthews]

Yeah. There are dozens of workers both in the water and surrounding the pool. Lots of little carts. And yet people, just as we see. As we see they're trying to just peel up, I think the chunks of paint. I think they saw, if I had to guess, they saw the media reports. And then it seems like some of the other workers are focused on the algae part of it as well and removing that. And I just have to laugh at it because, I mean, $14 million already spent, and how much more are they spending in resources now to try to get the algae out, to try to get peeling paint chunks out? And what this kind of, I think, goes back to is that they didn't fix the initial problem with the system, which is the filtration system. And it seems like Trump just wanted to slap this blue paint on before actually fixing the underlying problem, and now it's just getting worse and compounding.

[Sam Stein]

And maybe people in the comments section can help me out here, because, you know, was pouring hydrogen peroxide to kill the algae responsible for, in fact, destroying the blue coating on the bottom. And is there any way to fix that if you don't just drain the reflecting pool once again to try and recode it? And if you record it, don't you just end up in the same exact problem that we're dealing with? It does seem like a mess in terms of the algae. Sarah, you said it was green. We had seen images where the green had been contained into the middle. Is that still the case, or is it more spread out now?

[Sarah Matthews]

Yeah, no, that's still the case. We saw some overhead images in the last couple after they poured the hydrogen peroxide, that it was killing all the algae on the perimeter, but then the green was still in the middle. And that still kind of seems to be the case. It's definitely not as green as it was the last few days. And it does seem like the hydrogen peroxide is working a little bit, but I think that they're going to have to keep pouring gallons and gallons and

[Sam Stein]

gallons, but they can't, because it's. Because it's stripping the paint that's the problem.

[Sarah Matthews]

Exactly. And this is why they shouldn't have painted it, I think, before actually fixing the underlying issue. But, you know, let's get Brendan.

[Sam Stein]

Let's get Brendan. You can do it now. Okay. Follow the camera, Brendan. Yeah, well, don't dip your mic in the water, buddy. Hold on. Sir, can get that. Sir out of the way? Get this guy out of the way. Thank you. Okay, here we go.

[Sarah Matthews]

Yeah, just one Second.

[Sam Stein]

All right, Brandon, go ahead, man.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Ready?

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. Let's see. All right, we're just taking a look at what's in here. So that is part of the whole thing up, guys. He's not ripping the whole thing up. Don't worry. We're trying to get a visual. Okay, so that. That's good. So that's the bottom of the pool that is now coming off. Okay, you can draw. You can hold there. Okay, that. Okay, let's take that. Take that. Put in your trash bag. Okay. That looks like clearly like part of the reflecting pool coating, and it seems to be flapping like a dead bird's wing in the water. Speaking of dead animals. Oh, there it is. Look at that. That's definitely coating.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, my God. What a mess. What a mess. How big, Brendan, how big was that piece? If you had to. If you had to guess, it's gotta be.

[Brendan Hartnett]

I mean, I kept, like, just pulling and it keep coming up. It's gotta be at least 2 or 3ft long and maybe like 2ft wide.

[Nature's Bounty Narrator]

Jesus.

[Sam Stein]

Are you gonna get in trouble for ripping up federal property? Do we need to wire up for this, man?

[Brendan Hartnett]

But also, I think we're probably more in trouble with legacy media. So there, you know, but yeah.

[Sam Stein]

Okay. Now, we also brought a shirt. Is that right?

[Brendan Hartnett]

We did bring a shirt. And why don't we move a little down there for this?

[Sam Stein]

Okay.

[Brendan Hartnett]

So we can get out of everybody's shot.

[Sam Stein]

All right, let's get out people's shot. Let's take a look. So here we have. I don't know what that is. A light, something like that. So we're like, what, halfway down the reflecting pool here?

[Brendan Hartnett]

Yeah, at about the midpoint.

[Sam Stein]

Where is the algae mostly congregating is that one end in the middle?

[Brendan Hartnett]

So down towards the Lincoln Memorial. The pool does seem a little bit bluer, especially today compared to past days. I don't know. You walked on the other side. How was the other side?

[Sarah Matthews]

The other side looked a little bit more blue. Yeah, I. I met them over here, but I was originally over on that side and walked all the way around the perimeter, and it definitely looked a little bit more blue than it does over here. Over here we can really see the algae up rising to the top, and it looks.

[Sam Stein]

Can we get a little close up here? Can we get that camera a little close? I can start.

[Sarah Matthews]

Can we get a little closer?

[Sam Stein]

Let's see. Oh, man. Yeah.

[Sarah Matthews]

Yeah, you can really see it.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Wow. Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, that's real.

[Sarah Matthews]

So we want to look at the water quality though, and that's why we brought that. The shirt.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, we're going to do this. Okay, let's dip the shirt. Just go halfway down.

[Sarah Matthews]

This is going to be a little tie dye experiment.

[Sam Stein]

You can get, you can get in the store. You can get in the store if you want. We're not going to sell the algae drained one. Okay.

[Brendan Hartnett]

So let's see. It's a little windy, it's a little hard to get it underneath, but yeah,

[Sarah Matthews]

we're gonna dip it halfway so we can compare the results.

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[Sam Stein]

All right, this is great tv, guys.

[Brendan Hartnett]

First ever Bulwark Wet Teacher contest.

[Sam Stein]

Now, okay, so we're, let's, let's make sure that we don't harm that. Maybe we should put that in the bag too, so the wind and the elements don't affect it.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

And then we're going to check in. We're going to check in a couple days to see just how stained the shirt is. Now, Brandon, I don't want to reveal too much, but you've been collecting water samples for a couple days now. Talk a little bit about how many days you've been there and how much you've collected.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Yes, I was down here on Monday. We collected our first batch. That was when the story had first been breaking about just how algae covered the pool was. It was pretty bad. We didn't find any. We didn't find many chemicals in the water at that point, but we did find that the PH was off the charts, which is typical for algae, and came back yesterday, took another sample. I will say it was a little clearer, actually. You could even see just from the water bottle itself. But we'll probably do another one while we're here today if you want. I can actually do that right now. But yeah, maybe it's getting better. Who knows? But I mean, at the same time, it's like a foot of stagnant water in the middle of a swamp in the heat of summer. I feel like, you know, I could have saved you $14 million by telling you it was going to accumulate algae.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah.

[Brendan Hartnett]

No matter.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. There's a Washington Post piece up today. I'm just going to read from it because, you know, it's. We'll talk a little bit about why people care about the poll in a second because I don't want people to think we're, like, hyperventilating about something that's relatively minor. There is something important to. And I'll make my. But let me first read from the Washington Post piece. The title is Reflecting Pool. Algae bloom is one of the biggest recorded in years after $14 million renovation. And the lead is this. Days after the completion this month of a $14 million renovation, the shallow water in the Lincoln Memorials Reflecting Pool has a. Has had more algae in it than at any recorded point in the month of June for at least five years, according to specialized analysis of satellite data. So according to the Post, this has been. We've made it worse than at any point in five years. All right, so now why do we care about this? And, Sarah, you can tell me if I'm crazy or you can make your own point, but I don't care that much. And I don't really think it's that big a deal. If not for the fact that Trump himself held this up as emblematic of leadership failures by every other president who could have resolved this issue, but lacked the fortitude and the insight and the creativity and the business, know how to get it done for much less money and much quicker amount of time. And then he went and did it without any of the usual procedures or followings. He did a no big contract. $14 million is not nothing, but it's not a lot. But it's the. It's the gall, it's the arrogance, and it's the fact that he made it a big deal, which means that we should cover it. That at least is my case.

[Sarah Matthews]

No, I'm right there with you. I really don't give a shit about the Reflecting Pool. And I think people can agree that it needed some sort of renovation and repairing. But the thing is, is that Trump is the one who made this into this wedge issue. And he was holding up these silly posters at the Oval Office during press conferences, comparing the size of the Reflecting Pool to skyscrapers. I mean, what are we doing here? He's trying to act like this is some great national achievement, that because he's the one to fix it, but in fact, like, I'm right here looking at it, it looks a lot worse than it did before at the start of this. And he wasted $14 million in taxpayer money. But I think my issue with it is this no bid contract, because at the end of the day we can agree, sure, it needed to be fixed, but then why are we giving it to one of his business partners? He basically gave this contract to one of his pool guys. And that's why I think we're having so many issues. And I think that there needs to be some sort of investigation into this, maybe when the House switches and Dems take control, you know, if that happens in November. But I think that there needs to be some sort of investigation why this was a no bid contract. Trump tried to claim it was some urgent issue that needed addressing. But this seems like something that maybe could have waited until after the summer, considering the heat in D.C. i mean, anyone has ever been to D.C. during the summertime. It gets hot and humid here. And so it's no surprise that the algae is the level it is. And it seems like this could have been a project that waited until they fixed the filtration system, because that's the real underlying issue here.

[Sam Stein]

Well, okay. And just to that point, the U.S. interior Department put out a bleak the other day. It was actually yesterday. Here we have it. The photos below show how the nano blubber technology and vacuuming have been incredibly effective, making the water crystal clear with the American flag blue coating shining brightly on the bottom of the pool. There's another treat where they put out the advanced nanobladder technology very effectively killed the algae and has plagued every Lincoln reflecting pool reopening, most infamously, Obama's reopening since 1922. The reflecting pool water is crystal clear. International Park Service team is now vacuuming up the dead algae resting on the bottom of some parts of the reflecting pool, just like the destroyed Iranian Navy resting on the bottom of the Persian Gulf. I guess in this metaphor analogy, the blue paint coating is now the Iranian Navy, where bits and pieces of it are resting at the bottom waiting to float up. But it's just kind of arrogance and hubris, right? That sort of is the reason why we cover this stuff. Because they're basically asking you, Brendan, to just kind of not believe what your own eyes are seeing. And frankly, I find myself sometimes wondering if this is real. So for instance, this morning when we first started seeing pictures of that blue paint coating coming undone, I just assumed that was. I honestly, I couldn't believe it. And so that's why we sent Brendan down there to check it out. And it's true. He just pulled a chunk out himself.

[Brendan Hartnett]

You can actually, if you want to turn around the camera, it is blowing out of the wall, out of the water right now. The chunk of pain.

[Sam Stein]

We get to it.

[Brendan Hartnett]

There we go.

[Sarah Matthews]

It's popping up.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Monster move.

[Sam Stein]

Get closer. I can't see it, right? Oh, yeah, I see it popping up like a little. Yeah. Oh, my God.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

Can we get a little closer maybe? I don't know if it's possible. We got that guy doing some real photography work right there.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Yeah, we've created.

[Sam Stein]

Brendan, you move. Brendan, you move out of the way. Get the camera closer to there. Oh, look at it, like a wing, just kind of coming out like a fin. Oh, my God. Wow. There it is, folks. That's the underbelly of the. Of the reflecting pool that's now popped up.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Now.

[Sam Stein]

I will say there, you know, Brendan said, like, this is not an isolated incident. So you can imagine the administration is going to come and say, I don't know, someone like ripped it up and was vandalizing this. And this is just one part. And we gotta like, you know, deal with vandals. And that's unfortunate. But this seems to be more, I don't know, epidemic or it's happening other places. So this does seem like the beginning of the problem too. It definitely. I'll give them credit, it is American flag blue. Yeah, right.

[Brendan Hartnett]

No, I think, you know, you got to call balls and strikes, and I do think it's fair to say that, that that is a little American flag blue. Yeah, I'll give them that.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, good for them. One note again, I'm not an expert on this stuff, but AI tells me that hydrogen peroxide paint removers are non toxic, eco friendly stripping formulas that utilize highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide to break down tough coatings like polyurethane and epoxy. They're highly favored for being biodegradable, low odor, and free of harsh chemicals. So they did apply what appears to be a paint remover. But to their credit, they did it in potentially some eco friendly ways, but they probably should have thought this one through. All right, guys, is there any other final thoughts before the. I let you go because I don't want like Jeanine Pirro and the cops to come down and arrest you for ripping up that paint.

[Brendan Hartnett]

I mean, I feel like Judge Box of Wine would be fun to hang out with, even if I'm.

[Sam Stein]

No, don't, Don't. Do not.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Quick Water one more time.

[Sam Stein]

Okay. Are you going to take us Are you going to take a swig of it or.

[Brendan Hartnett]

No, no, not this time. No.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, let's not. There's. There's like chunks of paint in there, so let's not do that.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Yeah, let's just say.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, here we go. Let's do a little washampa.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Little asmr.

[Sam Stein]

All right, here we go.

[Brendan Hartnett]

That is the clearest it has looked this week. I got a hand atone. It was way worse earlier.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, so they're doing a good job. I'm gonna give them credit. They are cleaning it up. And the hydrogen peroxide seems to have had an effect. And whatever the nano blubber technology is that they're using, it seems like it's helping. But then again, we did just take a shot of the insane algae there. And unfortunately, one of the side effects of this hydrogen peroxide has been the paint coming off. So maybe, maybe not too much credit. Sierra, any final thoughts?

[Sarah Matthews]

I think yes. Can give credit where credit's due that it does look less green and the water does look a little bit more clear than the previous test that Brendan did. But at the same time, what is the plan here long term, Are we just going to keep pouring gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the pool?

[Sam Stein]

No, we can't. We can't because the paint's coming up. We got to figure out another system here. What is nano blubber technology?

[Sarah Matthews]

Sarah, you know, I couldn't tell you. You got to tell me. You have me stumped on that one.

[Brendan Hartnett]

Let us know in the comments. Okay.

[Sam Stein]

They keep mentioning nano blubber technology, and I'm like, that sounds. Doesn't sound real, but maybe it is real. It's not my forte. All right, guys, stay safe down there. Don't get caught stealing little pits of paint. Come back. We'll get it tested and look for the folks in the comments. We're still on this storyline. We're gonna keep following it. Brennan's collecting water constantly. He's got two main stories. He's following the tarps over the Kennedy center in the reflecting pool. This is the hard hitting journalism you get at the Bulwark. Sarah, Brendan, thanks so much, guys. For those who watched and commented, thanks so much for this breaking news segment. Talk to you soon.