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- [00:00]
A
Welcome back to MAGA Monday, folks. It's me, Sam Stein, managing out of the Bulwark. I'm with Will Summer. Can't believe we're doing this again. Just felt like a couple days ago that we were doing this and yet here we are.
- [00:12]
B
There's so much to discuss.
- [00:14]
A
Yeah, I know. I was just gonna say it's for the people. We do it for you guys. We don't like doing this. It's just a burden, but we do it. Lots to discuss this week. We're going to be talking. Good Lord. Oh, my God. We have so many things. We're going to be talking about Spencer Pratt and people are losing their goddamn minds about what's happening in la and they shouldn't be. It's just ridiculous. Here we are again. It makes no sense. And yet here we are again and people are losing their minds, including. We're going to get to this. The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York was on TV this morning and one of the more irresponsible interviews I've seen in a long time. Either he's an idiot or he's just playing one to be in the good graces of Donald Trump. It is ridiculous. We're going to get to that in a little bit. What else are we going to talk about? Oh, Judicial Watch versus Cash Patel. Some things happening there. There was a. A question about emails exchange with the near assassin for Donald Trump, Thomas Cooks, who now they've erased the emails that they put out. Will's going to be on top of this. And then what? What else do we have on our list, Will?
- [01:19]
B
You know, we've got drama at the Turning Point convention. A lot, a lot of. They just had the ladies convention there.
- [01:25]
A
I missed that.
- [01:26]
B
We've got the latest update on Albania and the cushion to build a perfect resort. We've got Lauren Boebert going off on a Fox News reporter. I mean, we've got a lot.
- [01:36]
A
Okay, we might hit an hour today. My long sock goal to actually go full hour. Let's start with Pratt. All right, so, God, where to begin? There was an election for mayor in California. In Los Angeles, the top two, as is the law in California, the top two vote recipients head to a runoff after the first round of election results. Basically, California, everyone knows this. California has this kind of quirky, dumb process, but it is their process that results in them counting ballots for days and weeks after the actual election day. The reason is that you have same day registration and if you mail in a ballot and it is postmarked on election day. As in you mailed it in on election day. It gets counted, even if it arrives multiple days after election day. So if you have a lot of people sending in ballots on election day, they have to go through the process, inspect the ballots, make sure they are not fraudulent, but it takes a little while. And that's why you have these drops, these drops in results that happen at the end of days, over time, and they tend to be more democratic because you know something. Well, I'm going to. This is going to blow your brains. California is pretty Democratic and LA is a pretty democratic city. Okay? So just to set this up on election night, the actual election night, Karen Bass, the current mayor of la, was ahead in first place. Spencer Pratt, reality TV star turned viral candidate, turned AI Slop candidate, was in second place. And everyone was like, look at this. The future of politics is upon us. He used AI Slop and got attention. He was r. He was, you know, using rage politics and he. In he second. And Nithia Ramon was the third. She's a le. A more progressive candidate for mayor. And that looked like it was going to be the case. And then what happened was over the course of several days, more ballots came in and Pratt fell to third. People are losing their minds. What have you seen on the Internet about the. Just the extent that people think this is just Democrats doing dirty?
- [03:47]
B
Yeah, I mean, it. I don't know, it just seems like most conservatives have settled on this idea that this election is being stolen from Spencer. I mean, it plays into a lot of the stuff we saw in 2020, the idea that mail in ballots are illegitimate or, you know, that, you know, whatever the count is the night of the election, that's what it should stand as. So really it's kind of becoming like an article of faith. And also, like, I think there's this sense that, you know, this guy had the memes, like, we liked his videos. He had to win. You know, he had. He had said he was going to win by. He was going to win outright, and obviously that didn't happen. But we're.
- [04:20]
A
He said he was going. He said he was going to get over 50%, right?
- [04:23]
B
Yeah, that's what he claimed. I mean, there's just this sense that like, you know, this is obviously being robbed. I mean, you know, Matty Glaciers took a look at what sites like the Free Press were writing in advance. They were like, you know, Spencer's wife is going to be the first lady of Montag. You know. Yes, this is the. This is the revolution you know, I mean, this is, it goes without saying that he's just going to blow him out of the water, but as people are pointing out, we'll see what the final vote total is. But it looks like he actually underperformed Trump in la. So, you know, we're going to get into it. I mean, this is not that big of a surprise if you live in the real world, but for conservatives, I mean, this is. They're shocked, okay.
- [04:58]
A
And then the other thing, they're coming up with a bunch of erroneous, factually incorrect accusations about these votes. So there's a claim that's been circulating a lot, I've seen it all over the Internet that all these updates include zero votes for Spencer Pratt. Like they're just finding these post election Day updates with the mail in ballots and lo and behold, there are zero votes in the, in any of these batches for Spencer Pratt, which is statistically impossible. Surely these mail in ballots have to have some votes for Spencer Pratt, but they're not registering any votes. The problem is it's bullshit. Every single update has included votes for Spencer Pratt. Now they're not as many votes as Spencer Pratt needs to retain his second place lead, but this is something that's happening all over the place. It got to the point where the US Attorney in la, a Trumpy guy, had to take to Twitter. I don't know if we can put that up. Here he is. This is attorney Bill Asalia, or Aseli. He says there was a claim circulating on social media about election a ballot update at the Los Angeles Registrar of Voters where one candidate received zero votes. He didn't. That'd be Spencer Pratt. We reviewed official county records. Claim is false. Each candidate received votes in every update. My office will continue monitoring the election counting process and we'll follow the evidence wherever it leads. If anyone has credible information concerning election fraud, please send it to. And he includes his email address. I love the last line because he has to like show that he's on top of it. But this is the Trump guy being like, no, this is a dubious claim. And then Spencer Pratt himself. We might not have uploaded this one, but Spencer Pratt put on a treat. There it goes. A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday. 43,000, huh? Where have I seen that number before? Now this is different conspiracy theory than he's getting no votes at all. This one is that all the homeless people in LA voted for someone else other than Spencer Pratt because he includes an article where it says 43,699 people experience homelessness on any given night in the city of Los Angeles. So Spencer Pratt is implying that literally everyone, every single person experiencing homelessness, minus 699 people were given a chance to vote and they voted for Nithya.
- [07:14]
B
Well, the rest supported Spencer Pratt. That 699, I assume.
- [07:18]
A
Oh, yeah, okay, it was. They had to make it seem clean. Look, this is silly for a variety of reasons. One is there's no, there's no actual evidence of corruption here. Everyone bemoans the slow pace of how California councilor ballots, including California Democrats. It's just ridiculous. The other thing, though, is that Karen Bass would love nothing more than to face Spencer Pratt. I mean, Karen Bass is the current mayor of Los Angeles in this cockamamie world in which the state or the city is controlling the balloting and making sure that Spencer Pratt is locked out like this makes no sense. They would want Spencer Pratt to be the second candidate because LA has a 4 to 1 Democratic registration and she would love nothing more than not having to worry about a challenger from her left in the runoff. It doesn't make sense.
- [08:09]
B
Absolutely. I mean, you know, look, Spencer Pratt is running as a Republican in a heavily Democratic city. He's also running as like, to be frank, like a very ugly kind of politics. I mean, particularly with his embrace, sort of in the last few months of the campaign of these AI videos. You know, Republicans in my life are showing me these videos and like, oh, don't you love this? And it's like, not really. I don't love seeing, you know, it's like, are LA voters gonna love seeing, like a black woman mayor getting like brutalized by Batman? You know, like, it was like kind of violent stuff. I mean, I, I, you know, I think typically when Republicans at all are at all successful in cities, it's running as like an almost like apolitical populist or, excuse me, a technocrat. Someone who's like, look, I'm just going to clean up the permitting so we can rebuild these houses. We're going to clean up the streets. I'm not like a MAGA guy, you know, And Spencer Pratt clearly leaned into the opposite of that. And so, you know, I don't think it's. And like, Republicans are just really unpopular nationally, so I don't think it's a big surprise that he lost.
- [09:03]
A
Well, this is the thing that, you know, there's a lot of commentary about this and I get it because he was so provocative and those ads are so ridiculous, but also like legitimate rage over what happened in the Palisades and frankly with homelessness in L. A and just whether the city was not being governed correctly. So I get it. But the commentary was so over talked around this stuff. Like you mentioned the Free Press, how many articles they wrote about how he was the future and all that stuff. Politico ran a piece being like JD Vance's biggest threat in 2028. Spencer Pratt not, not the person but the politics that he has personified. And I'm looking at them like I get it, it's sort of a clever piece. You know, that itself is kind of clickbaity in a way. But like we tend to just be absolutely over. You know, we over interpret these things. People just want like kind of sensible governance, right? And like had Spencer Pratt run a. More like I'm gonna actually fix the city as opposed to, you know, just go off and do these AI slops and I'm going to break with Trump notably and I'm going to be like a sensible Republican. I, I would guess that he would have done better than had he done the thing he did now. He got a lot of attention. He was in New York City like a couple days before the vote because he was getting on all the media and that's what he's good at. But this is not the formula for actually winning in la. I'm not sure there is a great formula for any Republican running in la, but I think the media needs to kind of re examine how it gets played by these viral candidates.
- [10:28]
B
I think that's right. Do we have the CNBC clip to.
- [10:31]
A
Yeah, let's I this one. I'm gonna take a little bit of editorial a bit here because I was. This is, this is ridiculous. The setup here is that Jay Clayton, who is the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, like the most powerful U.S. attorney in the country, is going on squawk box. And somehow the conversation turns to what's happening in LA and Joe Kernan is the host and then Becky Quicks the others. You're going to hear two clips. The first is Joe Kernan asking about what's going on in la. Now this is why it's so outrageous. Jay Clayton is not a dumb guy. I don't think he's a dumb guy. Certainly achieved a lot of professional success, but he's playing a dumb guy. Or maybe he is a dumb guy and Joe Kernan is just like either like you know, the most gullible person ever to be a host on a major TV network or he's just trying to get like, I don't know, some kudos from the big boss. Watch this clip. We're going to play the first clip and then we'll play, we'll take a break. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll talk about it, and then I'm going to play the second clip. So let's play the first clip. Idea of what's happening in California right now. No, I actually can't. Which I think is the problem. You know, you raised this about election integrity, which I think is the point. That's what I'm watching it.
- [11:52]
C
And are any of the things we're
- [11:53]
A
hearing about, like thousands of votes, all for the same. Is any of that true or is
- [12:00]
C
that just this sort of conspiracy, like
- [12:04]
A
100% for, for the social candidate versus the others? Is any of that true? All right, so just two things here. One is you have Kernan saying, buying into that theory that 100% of the votes went to Nithya, which is not true. Like 2, 2 seconds of research would have shown him that. Why he didn't do that, why his producer didn't do that. Lazy. I don't know. Pernicious. Who knows? Jay Clayton was asked specifically, do you have any explanation for what's going on in California? And his answer is explicitly, no, I do not. Okay. Jake Clayton says he does not know what's going on in California. Okay. This is the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York says he does not know what's going on in California. Now here's Becky Quick, literally two minutes later in the same program, California's election law allows ballots by election day to be counted and permit same day registration. That means tabulation typically continues for weeks after. I think you go 30 days. But why, why, why is that law? I get your, I mean, that doesn't sound like fraud, that you can argue whether the law makes sense, but that doesn't sound like a fraudulent situation. No, there's a great, there's a great phrase opportunity for fraud. Okay, so now Jay Klain says he does understand that the law is there. So he does have an explanation. He just thinks there's an opportunity for fraud. I mean, this is, this is like JV level stuff. It was shocking to me that the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York would go on TV and do this song and dance. Unless he's just trying to impress Donald Trump.
- [13:41]
B
Yeah, I mean, I, I think that's exactly what he's trying to do. I think he has to toe this line, you know, this is kind of a classic maneuver for more respectable figures who have to, like, nod to voter fraud conspiracy theories, is they say, yeah, I kind of think it's being stolen. And you say, well, how do you mean? And they go, well, I don't like how the laws were changed in 2020 about ballots. You know, I mean, there's like. Well, that's not really what people mean when they say stolen. Right, right. So I think that there's. I mean, you know, this is obviously, I think, going to become kind of an article of faith. I would just say. I also find it funny who gets to claim their election was stolen. Like, you have to be a really charismatic Republican who everyone loves on the right.
- [14:17]
A
Yeah.
- [14:18]
B
You know, when Carrie Lake lost her election in 2020, people are like, you know, we don't really feel like going to the math for you, Carrie. You know, it's. This isn't sort of a key election for us in the way that Spencer Pratt or Trump in 2020 was.
- [14:29]
A
But why Spencer Pratt? Why do they care?
- [14:32]
B
He. He's a more. He's a very unpleasant person. No, I mean, I think they. And they love that. No, I think he. He plays into these storylines of, like, you know, we got to clean up these cities and, like, Democrats are running amok. And this idea of kind of this, like, populist revolt against, like, liberals and cities, I think is very appealing, I guess.
- [14:54]
A
I don't know, it. It just seemed odd to me that they would latch onto this dude. Like, he. Who is he? Like, what does he represent? Is he actually maga? Yeah. He threw together a bunch of, like, viral videos about LA and the fires and kind of misled about the status of his own home and. But he was also staying at, like, fancy hotels. He clearly wasn't, like, campaigning in the traditional sense. You're just being opportunistic with this stuff and being viral. Like, do they. Is that. I guess that's what they. They latch on to, and they kind of want to see succeed. My guess is that they just wanted to, like, prove that they could hack it in LA and. And they wanted to embarrass Karen Bass. Right.
- [15:31]
B
Yeah. And I think it's also. It's a. It's a race that I think appeals to, like, kind of wealthier Republican media personalities. Like, you know, we can talk about all the coverage from the Free Press, like, as we mentioned, that, like, these things that I think, like, if this was for the mayor of, like, Des Moines, I don't think they would care as much, I think it's like a lot of these kind of like heterodox Barry Weiss type liberals who are now like, kind of leaning Republican who are just like, we gotta clean up these streets.
- [15:56]
A
Yeah. There's one last clip we're gonna play in this. I'll. Well, hold on. I'm just gonna read a couple tweets. Clay Travis. Five days after the LA election, Spencer Pratt falls to third place in a woman who hardly anyone voted for in person. Nithya Raman totally dominated mail in voting to come in second. No one with a functional brain believes these results. Okay, and here is. Here's Randy Fine producer. Matt has Randy Fine doing some Randy Fine stuff. Let's listen. So people can just dig through garbage
- [16:26]
B
cans, find ballots and send them in,
- [16:29]
A
apparently forever after an election is over, it's not okay.
- [16:33]
B
It's got to come to an end
- [16:34]
C
and people need to go to jail.
- [16:36]
A
Yeah, okay. Just send people to jail.
- [16:40]
B
Yeah. Well. And, you know, finally, I think this is also just. It's useful for the administration because this is. Provides more grist for some kind of federal intervention in the midterms. So you can see people being like, well, yes, technically it's legal, but it's annoying to me. And I liked the memes.
- [16:54]
A
Yeah. Well, okay, we gotta take a quick break. I'm gonna do. We've got an ad read from Quince. That's my. That's my clothing store of choice these days. Been loving it. We gotta pay the bills, people. Buy some stuff at Quints. It's great quality. Quick ad break. And then on the flip side, we're going to talk about Judicial Watch and Cash Patel. Absolutely at war with each other. It's a sight to behold. This ad is brought to you by Quints. Summers pretty much always change how I get dressed. I want pieces, obviously, that feel a little bit lighter, that are more breathable, things that I could put together easily. Ideally, things that make me look a little bit buffer than I am. That's why I keep coming back to Quints. They focus on high quality essentials that feel and look amazing. And folks, I think I feel amazing. I definitely look amazing. Quince's well made basics, but without the luxury markup. It's that rare balance where everything feels elevated but still effortless. And if you know anything about me, my aesthetic is elevated but effortless. My favorite part about Quints is that everything is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and they cut out the middlemen. So you're just paying for quality, not brand markup. I just bought Quince's relaxed short sleeve shirts that were made with European linen. They're perfect for the DC heat. You can't see them. It's underneath here right now. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com bulwarktakes for free shipping on your order and a 365 day return policy. It's now available in Canada too. That's Q U I n c e.com bulwarktakes for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com bulwarktix I feel elevated.
- [18:38]
B
You know, another great Sam Stein ad read there. And I, I agree. I think in that video, I think your pecs were really popping in that quince, which I guess was kind of the suggestion.
- [18:46]
A
That's a quincer. And look, before we go on to Judicial Watch versus Cash Patel. I, I, I'm sorry, I do have to actually apologize to Randy. Fine. I, I found my trash and I found these ballots. Mithy Arama, Nithya Bass. Nithya. Oh my God.
- [19:07]
B
Spencer.
- [19:08]
A
No Spencer in there. Randy, I apologize. That was wrong of me. I take it all back. All right, I, I was following this
- [19:14]
B
one a little bit, but I'm gonna
- [19:15]
A
let you take the lead on this one. What Judicial Watch, which people should understand is the, is the like thorn in the side of every Democratic president because they launch a million FOIAs and they get a ton of emails and then they present them in some misleading context. Usually they just pulled one over on, on the Trump administration and this one has to do with the Butler assassination. So give us the backstory, Bill.
- [19:37]
B
Yeah. So as you said, Judicial Watch run by Tom Fitton. You know, speaking of buff, I mean, this is a guy, he digs up the emails, he launches the many lawsuits he goes on. Sean Hannity, whatever. So over the weekend they said, we got this news cache of documents about Thomas Crooks, the would be Trump assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania. And it reveals that he was emailing a sheriff's deputy in his town where he right before the assassination. You might think, huh, Were they saying, okay, go do the assassination or hey, don't do the assassination. Okay, so this was a big story on the right. And then suddenly Cash Patel says, you're messing it all up. He says on Twitter like, this is not true. Oh, do we have Cash's post there? Maybe not. So basically Cash says, you know, this is, they're really going in on Judicial Watch, essentially. And here's what appears to have happened. I, you know, I read these emails. It's heavily redacted, incredibly redacted. Basically, the page before, it's kind of crazy to me. Judicial Watch really messed this one up. The page before, there's like some talk about sheriff's deputies. And then in a following email, there's someone saying, yeah, I, you know, this. This witness said she had exchanged some emails with Thomas Crooks before the assassination. So basically, Judicial Watch looks at that first email and goes, oh, this must also be about sheriffs. But in fact, that email doesn't say anything about the sheriff's deputy, it turns out. And the FBI does a little ruse here, maybe not a ruse, whatever. They then do a new unredacted version or less redactions. They go, oh, my gosh, we kind of. We redacted too much. And then they give it to a reporter, I think, at the Washington examiner that makes clear this was one of Thomas Crooks, his teachers, who was emailing him about an assignment. And so they left, like, the part that said, I emailed him about his math homework. And then they put that out. And so for one, it's kind of funny that the FBI was like, this stuff absolutely has to be redacted, you know. But then when Judicial Watch, their allies misinterpret it, they go, oh, my gosh, you know, actually, we don't have to redact the part about the math homework. So it's a big mess for all involved.
- [21:35]
A
Totally. Let's put up the FBI direct response Twitter account which went after them for this. This is a clickbait lie by Judicial Watch, which is now nothing more than fake news media. Unbelievable. The unredacted documents are interviews of Thomas Crooks by college instructors, not cops. Wherein those instructors referenced, Referenced having emailed Thomas Crooks about coursework. That's in all caps. They make no reference to the contact between Thomas Crooks in any police department. Maybe if you spend more time on facts instead of clicks, you wouldn't be a laughingstock. And they tag Tom Fitton. I. I just didn't hear. For the absolute hilarity of them going after Judicial Watch. And this is the Judicial Watch website now that they've been. Oh, there it is.
- [22:18]
B
Page deleted it. I know. I went to check the emails again this morning, and it's all gone.
- [22:24]
A
So what. I mean, how embarrassing is this for Judicial Watch?
- [22:27]
B
There's a lot of egg on their faces. I mean, it's striking to me that the FBI, like, even with a group, again, that's allied with them I think. I'm sure Cash Patel had some kind of collaboration with them before becoming FBI director. And now, like, there's just that. That Trumpian tone they can't turn off. They can't be like, actually, you're misreading the files, and, like, please contact us. We'll sort it out. They're just like, you are laughing stock. Judicial Watch. I mean, they really go in on them.
- [22:50]
A
Yeah, it's. I'm trying to think of, like, a. Like an analogy on the left here, because it's not really a Judicial Watch on the left, is there?
- [22:57]
B
I mean, someone that, I guess, like the CREW or.
- [23:01]
A
Yeah.
- [23:02]
B
People for Government Oversight or something like that project.
- [23:04]
A
Yeah. It'd be like if CREW got a bunch of records on Obama and, like, went to town and, like, got them all wrong. And then the Obama and, like, Eric Holder was, like, yelling at them online and telling them that they're hacks. It just as you wouldn't ever imagine something like that happening. I did see a lot of people, though, jump at this on the right when, before it was all redacted and taken down, and they're like, holy. Our absolute biggest fears and conspiracies are confirmed here. And I'm just sort of blown away. Maybe you could speak to this a little bit before we move on about how. How firm now it is treated that on the right. Not on the left, on the right, that something odd happened in Butler and that there's something unexplained about what happened in Butler, as if the Secret Service was trying to get Trump assassinated, but he hasn't punished them for. I just, like, something doesn't compute to me about the logic about it, but it does seem to be increasingly an article of faith.
- [24:07]
B
Well, you know, it's kind of like the Charlie Kirk assassination in that, you know, you would think the actual story as it's been laid out, you kind of get a lot of political capital if you're the right from it. And yet there's still this effort in the case of Butler to. It's like, no, we have to prove there was this deep state plot to assassinate Trump. It's also striking to me how much it's kind of being walked down where it's like, oh, was it the FBI who was in contact with them? No, it was the Butler Sheriff's Department.
- [24:32]
A
Yeah, like, the Sheriff's department's in on it.
- [24:34]
B
The sinister. That's a CIA front, as we all know. But, like, the. It's just crazy. And even that's not true. Right. So who knows, Maybe, maybe now they'll make it about this, this math homework or what have you.
- [24:45]
A
And I have talked about this before, but if you just sort of step back and think about it, it makes no sense whatsoever. Right. Like, okay, let's just assume there was a deep state plot to try to take out Trump. The Biden Secret Service led. Secret Service or FBI, entrusted this kid, Thomas Crooks, who was like a really poor marksman to shoot from whatever, a couple hundred yards away. And they were gonna let him just go for it, regardless of, you know, whether or not he could shoot. And they were comfortable with him killing people also there, and they couldn't figure out a better plan. And then they somehow like, covered it up. I just, you think about. It just doesn't actually make any sense.
- [25:37]
B
No, it doesn't. And, you know, I, but there's just, I, I just feel like after the 2020 elections, I mean, all these decades of, you know, years of conspiracy theories, like, there's just this, this feeling that, like, things can't be as they appear to be. There has to be some kind of sinister plot behind everything in the news.
- [25:54]
A
Yeah, this one is, is baffling to me, but it continues to gain steam. Although big egg on the face moment for Judicial Watch, the fact that they are sort of involved in trying to push this stuff really does actually give you a sense of, like, where the energy is on the right. They really want to just expose some sort of deep state plot. The other big story over the weekend, which I was not paying attention to as much. Well, there's two big stories. We're going to start with the Mormons first. Yes, you were really hot on this, but what, what actually happened here? Because I, I look up and suddenly everyone is, everyone who's a Mormon and elective in elected office is just furious.
- [26:26]
B
The Mormons are in revolt. Yes. So this is, this is a real sort of what they call the, the leopards eating the faces moment. Right. So on Friday, I believe the Defense Department announced that they would be consolidating the religious categories for, for service members, religions. And essentially what they were doing here is this seems to have started out as like an owning the libs moment. And so they aren't going to recognize Wiccans as a, as a religion you can sign up for or atheists. And so the theory is, I think there were some other.
- [26:59]
A
Why not Wiccans?
- [27:01]
B
Well, Christine o'.
- [27:01]
A
Donnell.
- [27:02]
B
So I think the, the theory is that like, you know, you look at these categories, you're saying, well, how many chaplains of each type do I need for my battalion? And then you can say, all right, well, I need X number of Christians, and I don't have to worry about, like, having a Wiccan chaplain or whatever. And not that I really think that the army was like that too concerned about it in the first place, but also what happened here is.
- [27:21]
A
So I know how many Wiccans are joining the Army?
- [27:24]
B
Well, you know, I don't know. Are there a lot of, you know, it's a. Sometimes a warlike people, you know, kind of the Norse gods. The.
- [27:31]
A
The.
- [27:32]
B
Can we put up the. The new. The new religion list? Yeah. Okay. So you can see here. So you. You have, like, these are.
- [27:39]
A
These are the acceptable religions according to the.
- [27:42]
B
And so there's like a long list. You know, under the Christian category, we got Catholics, Baptists, Quakers, you know, Seventh Day Adventists, whatever. Then there's kind of these other ones that are sort of seen as outside of the Christian umbrella. So Hindus, Islam, Judaism. Makes sense. But what's interesting is you'll notice that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, are not under the Christian umbrella. And this is where the trouble starts. So Mike Lee, the senator from Utah, also a Mormon, he says, well, wait a minute. Why are Mormons not considered Christians anymore? And obviously the Mormon Church has tried for a long time to say, hey, we're Christians, just like you guys. We love Jesus. Nothing weird going on here. We're just Mormons, just like we're Baptist, Presbyterians, whatever. Normal denomination and evangelic in particular, take a lot of exception to this. And so Hegseth, it's kind of unclear what the motivation was here, but it has enraged the Mormons.
- [28:37]
A
Yeah, they're all out in. In real anger. I don't know if we have the Mike Lee video ready to go, but he, like, put up multiple videos, getting really upset about this. Jason Chaffetz as well. Let's play the Mike Lee video.
- [28:51]
C
The faith of the American people has always been one of its greatest strengths, as is the fact that the Constitution prohibits the United States government from treating people differently based on their religious beliefs, regardless of what denomination they might be drawn toward, they might belong to, or whether they have any faith at all. It's one of the many things that has strengthened, and it's especially important in this circumstance, that the government recognize the faith of the men and women who serve in uniform and stand ready, willing, and able to die at any moment as they serve our country in times of war. For that Very reason. I think it's very unfortunate that the Pentagon has chosen to identify basically. Basically every faith group in America that professes faith in Jesus Christ is Christian, with one exception, that is those belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I find this offensive not just because that happens to be my faith, but not just because it happens to be the faith of tens of thousands of US Military personnel. But it's also just repugnant to any sense of decency, any. Any sense of our common heritage and our common belief that the government needs to not weigh in on doctrinal disputes between various religious denominations. And so.
- [30:23]
A
Okay, I think we hit the point.
- [30:24]
B
Yeah.
- [30:25]
A
So.
- [30:25]
B
So let's talk about this. So the. The, I think favorable view of this is that the Pentagon is sort of grouping these chaplain groups under, like, okay, we'll have a priest, and then we can kind of take the Protestant groups and. And like, you know, is it that big a deal if you're. The chaplain you can't get to. Is a Methodist and you're a Presbyterian or a Baptist. Maybe we can kind of group these together for practical purposes. But they're recognizing that Mormons are kind of like. And this is what, setting off my glee, are a different enough thing that they kind of need their own. Their own pastors. And so, you know, what's interesting here is I'm curious about the Pentagon's logic because, like, you know, people are saying, well, they don't profess the Nicene Creed or they're not trinitarian or. But. Or they're like a new. New religious movement. But you also have, like, Christian Scientists are under the Christian umbrella here, so. Or Quakers. And so you have these ones that are like, kind of like, significantly different from kind of what we might think of mainline or as evangelical Christian, but they're still counted as Christian. Not the Mormons, though.
- [31:24]
A
Yeah. I'm in out of my league here. I have no idea what.
- [31:26]
B
Well, I did a lot of research on this because I was curious.
- [31:29]
A
Yeah.
- [31:29]
B
And so. So this is.
- [31:30]
A
I'm just happy. I'm happy the Jews are even recognized. Honestly. Honestly, I'm just grateful for that.
- [31:34]
B
We're just.
- [31:35]
A
Thank you.
- [31:35]
B
Happy to hear.
- [31:36]
A
Yes, exactly.
- [31:39]
B
So this is.
- [31:39]
A
How do you know so much about this stuff?
- [31:41]
B
Well, I'm actually listening to a book about the history of Mormonism at the moment. But. But I'm also. I also spent some time. So the. The Mormons. Be honest.
- [31:49]
A
Be honest. You watch the Secret Wives. Lots of Mormon wives.
- [31:53]
B
I certainly.
- [31:54]
A
You. Absolutely.
- [31:54]
B
Yeah. I do and this is. This is part of the. We're kind of in this Mormon moment, right? And Mormons are obviously very prominent online on Instagram on the secret lives of Mormon w. And this is a setback for them. And so. But they. They have tried, like, you know, there was this effort, I think, about a decade ago to say, okay, we're gonna, like, kind of back off the Mormon term. We're gonna try. We're gonna emphasize Jesus in the name and, like, you know, we're gonna. Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints. Like, we are Christians, just like you. And. And so this is really, like, you know, set a lot of people off. Mike Lee was also tweeting. He's like, oh, that's funny. When I go to the Mormon Church. What are all these crucifixes doing here? What are all these pictures of Jesus? So they're bad.
- [32:33]
A
Can we get back to the Secret lives of Mormon Wives for a second? What is your take on that show?
- [32:38]
B
Well, you know, I think it started off slow, but I think it's gotten pretty good. You know, I.
- [32:43]
A
Season.
- [32:43]
B
Are we on four? I think they turn them out really quick. I think it was the right decision to pull Taylor from the Bachelorette. You know, I think the allegations were getting too crazy, but. But I do think that, you know, overall, it's pretty entertaining. I think it's a whole new world, like, Mormon. Mormon culture. And so it's an interesting thing for me to watch.
- [33:02]
A
People don't know this about Will, but in addition to, like, spending a lot of time on the Internet covering this stuff, he's a. He has the absolute worst taste in tv. So he likes that. You like Vanderpump rules.
- [33:13]
B
A very Vanderpump. All the Bravo stuff. Obviously, I'm catching up on the summer house reunion. I would. I. The stuff I was actually. And this is going to be offensive to some people, but, like, I initially thought the Western Amanda stuff are gonna get canceled right here. Western Amanda Dating, I didn't think was that big a deal initially, but having watched a couple more episodes and having seen the reunion, I now renounce my support for west and Amanda a lot. This was not a popular take in the Bulwark Office. A lot of people were mad at me about it, and now I have seen the error of my ways.
- [33:46]
A
Well, I have no. I have no clue who you are talking about. Literally no clue. I did watch one or two episodes of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and I thought, these people are nuts. Like, why would you invite TV cameras into your home and do all this stuff. But that's the allure of reality tv
- [34:03]
B
just to, just to cap our Mormon discussion here.
- [34:05]
A
Yeah.
- [34:06]
B
This is also set off the evangelicals on like, you know, there's kind of this, like, uneasy alliance because both of these groups are conservative and often support Trump. But this is really set off, like, the evangelicals to be like, to be clear, Mormons are not Christian. And the Mormons, you know, I kind of feel bad for them. Right. I mean, they kind of thought they were part of the club in some ways. People like based Mike Lee, they sort of made their bed here. I mean, they'd signed up with this group that, like, loves hating the other. And, you know, we'll take any opportunity to exclude people, but, you know, I think they're, they're just like, we're just doing our thing. You know, Mormons obviously do contribute a lot to American government. And, you know, you know, they're big in the deep state. I mean, the. Obviously, famously, Howard Hughes would only trust Mormons. So, you know, I, they're, they're, there's American as. As anyone else.
- [34:51]
A
And they just want to be categorized the way they want to be categorized. Mike Lee had an update from last night. I guess he's making some headway on it. Let's play that. I just got off the phone with President Trump. We discussed the Pentagon's Christian list. Won't speak for him, but I'm thrilled about where this is heading. We're most fortunate that President Trump, one, loves Latter Day Saints and two, is our commander in Chief. Stay tuned. I don't know, man. I guess just to close this up, I'm going to read a couple of the comments because I think people are interested in your choice of tv and it's very divisive. I can't even pronounce this. Sam is so right. That is crap tv. The Karen White says will and I watch the same trashy shows. Sawyer77 says I haven't watched Summer House in years. And even I watched that reunion. Who else Will? A Bravo lover says Michael Brockman, 5742. This is the best one, Mike. WB9PB. Will, I'm worried about you.
- [35:52]
B
Well, this is, I mean, look, it's all, it all comes down to cooking for my kids at night. And it's. I, it's switching between.
- [35:58]
A
Are they watching. Watching it with you?
- [35:59]
B
Oh, no, they're asleep. This is, this is when the kids are asleep. And it's like when I'm watching Candace, I'm watching Tim Pool and Then I'm like, how about something a little more edifying? And that's when I click on Vanderpump.
- [36:10]
A
I tried Vanderpump too. I made it two episodes in. All right, updates from around the world. Albania. Yeah, this one was my favorite story last week. So if people don't remember this, Ivanka Trump went on some podcast. I don't even know what it was. It was the most ridiculous podcast. And they started talking about how she was on some yacht, like Matt Rothschild's yacht or something like that, and they just happened to upon this island in the middle of the Mediterranean. Although I'm not sure it was the Mediterranean. It's an island off of Albania. And they just jumped into the water and was pristine and they made it to the beautiful shores and they were barefoot and they just walked up top to the top of the island and they looked down at this unbelievable paradise and they knew they had to have it. And she and Jared are now investing $1.4 billion and they're going to make it into this incredible eco tourist destination for the global elite. And of course they're going to make sure that everything is taken care of. They would never trample on the pristine nature of this paradise. It's unclear why they have to take a paradise and make it into an eco friendly resort. If it is paradise, probably you wouldn't want to touch it, but she wants to make it even more like paradise, I suppose. Anyways, this didn't go over very well with Albania. They didn't like it. There was mass protests in the streets. The government may be top, but look at these pictures. If you can't, I mean, honestly, you can't see it if you're listening, but these are like thousands upon thousands of people in the streets of Albania waving flags, absolutely enraged over what is happening. It's like if sometimes you kind of step back on these stories. I had one of those moments. Oh my God, even more pictures. You step back and you're like, wait a second, the, the President's daughter went on a podcast and revealed that she's trying to just take over some island in the Mediterranean. And now one of the country's governments might be like toppled by popular protests. It's wild stuff. Like, you couldn't script this. It would be, you'd be dismissed. It's like really deep level. It's the Adriatic Sea. Sorry, I, I was blanking on the name. It's not actually the Mediterranean. Anyways, Will, what's the latest on this?
- [38:20]
B
Yeah, so as you said, I Mean, there are calls for the government to resign to bring down the Prime Minister. He gave a, you know, okay, so this is like beautiful wetlands. There's two islands here, one of which is. Is a submarine base. So I'm sure they let, they let Ivanka and Jared, I'm sure, go barefoot at the submarine base. Number two is the wetlands. And so, and it's a big flamingo destination. The flamingos like to go there. So the prime minister gave an interview.
- [38:45]
A
How do the flamingos go there? I'm just kind of like, they fly,
- [38:48]
B
you know, it's a.
- [38:49]
A
Flamingos can fly that far?
- [38:51]
B
Yes, yes.
- [38:52]
A
Are you sure?
- [38:53]
B
Yeah. Well, I think they're, they're going around, you know, I mean, they're birds, right? So they're not flightless. So, so the. Basically, like, you know, it is funny, obviously we talked about this on the Trio last week. Ivanka portrays this as like, you know, it's going to be this beautiful eco tourism. I think they're looking at like 6,000 units. So I mean, we're talking about like a lot a big thing here. So the prime minister gave an interview and he said, look, it's going to be very exclusive. And the, the interviewer was like, yeah, I know, that's the problem. You're giving up like Albania, Albanian, Yellowstone to Ivanka Trump to build this thing. So the latest, as you said, the protests continue and the eu, so Albania really wants to be in the eu. The EU told Politico. They said, well, of course, you know, if you're going to be in the eu, you have to follow the EU rules. And to be clear, one of the key EU rules is respect for migratory birds. All of your. Yeah, they were like, all of your rules about birds are in order. Right. And they're sort of like, you know, certainly you're respecting your flamingos.
- [40:00]
A
Okay. With some data points. Will is absolutely right about flamingos. I was too dismissive of their, of their abilities. Apparently they can fly average speeds of 35 mph, can reach over 40 mph. During long distance or migratory flights. They often travel hundreds of miles. And some species are known to fly over 300 to 600 miles in a single night. So absolutely they can make it to this island, this paradise island in the Adriatic. I apologize to the flamingos out there. I had no idea about your skills. So is this thing on ice or.
- [40:34]
B
No, not yet. Supposedly, I think the bulldozer, bulldozers have been pulled back from the site. Also last week we found out that there's a corruption Investigation. There's a lot of Persian Gulf money involved here. That is Some of the accounts are being frozen by Albanian prosecutors. It's a shame because Albanians, I believe, are traditionally very pro American because of our involvement in the Kosovo war. They think America is cool. And I feel like we're kind of souring our relationship here.
- [41:03]
A
Yeah, it just seems so unnecessary. Like, I know the shoe's like, oh, it's 1400 hectares or whatever.
- [41:10]
B
Couldn't just.
- [41:11]
A
Still can't get over that. Just use some other, you know, measuring stick, whatever. And we just don't need to do this. We don't need this. We don't need to start an international incident over some stupid resort on an island. And Jared's involvement is the craziest part. Like, Ivanka's gonna do her thing, but Jared's, like, out there kind of like our chief diplomat in the world, and he's. He's. He's creating a. What's your word? A row. A row. A row. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You love that word. A diplomatic row. It's like, just. Why don't we just not do this? There's other things we can do with our time we don't need to have. Aren't they supposed to be reconstructing Gaza into some sort of, like, you know,
- [41:54]
B
it is kind of like they're gonna have their own, like, Club Med network or something, where it's like, well, first I. You know, first I summer at Flamingo Aisle, and then I go down to, you know, Jared's slice of Gaza.
- [42:06]
A
Yeah, the Gaza thing's not going well, by the way. There's no money in the Gaza board, and it doesn't seem like they've done anything shockingly. Okay. I don't know if you have any last thoughts in Albania.
- [42:16]
B
No, I don't. We'll keep monitoring it. It is a.
- [42:19]
A
Do we have any readers in. If you're a listener and you're watching and you're in Albania, hit us up. Like, I want to know what's going on down there. Like, give us. Drop us a line. We want some on the ground reporting in Albania, but we are not going to spend the money to send Will to Albania. So if you. What? You want to go to Albania?
- [42:39]
B
Yeah. Well, you know, famously, they beat up one of the guys who. Who went to the. The site. So maybe I don't actually.
- [42:46]
A
Should we fundraise for you to send you to the island? You know what?
- [42:49]
B
Maybe we should actually.
- [42:50]
A
Yeah, let's send Will to Ivanka's island where he can do some on the ground reporting and get some pictures with the flamingos. Well, the flamingos would be great. Someone make a. A ma. Like a little art of will and flamingos, and we can just put it up when we get the show done. All right, let's. Let's move on. There's. You said there's something on. Happening with tpusa Again, you're following this stuff. I have not followed this. So I'm literally hearing about this for the first time. I did no research on this. At least I did some research on the other things. Yeah.
- [43:19]
B
So. Yeah. So this is one of the annual TPUSA conferences, typically called the Young Women's Leadership Summit. They've rebranded as the Women's Leadership Summit. So this basically, you know, is prompting Candace, who obviously hates tpusa, to say this. They had to say this because they lost all the young women. You know, maybe there's some truth to that. But basically, Erica Kirk gets up there and she gives a speech, and she puts up a video that it's been a big deal. They claim that there was a video of Charlie Kirk anointing Erica as his successor. And this is where they unveil the video where he says, by the way, if anything ever happens to me, I want Erica to be my successor. So, you know, that was a big moment. Someone got up and called Erica a pedophile protector. Seemingly, it's not clear if that protester was a liberal or if they were kind of from the Candace wing, but basically, that person was dragged out. There was just a lot of drama.
- [44:15]
A
Damn. Well, so is the video not legit? Like, I know you flagged it first, but did he actually say, this is my successor?
- [44:23]
B
I think it's legit. They played it in kind of a weird way. It was kind of like part of this montage, probably because they didn't want to be like, and here's the famous video. But, you know, it looked a little stilted to me, but. But I think it's legit. But a lot of the. Again, the Candace types were saying, you know, this is AI Whatever. You know, seemed pretty believable to me.
- [44:44]
A
Is this Candace Owen tweet we have in the doc? Is that related to this?
- [44:47]
B
Yes. Yeah. Can we throw that up?
- [44:49]
A
Let's throw that up. Can you explain what's going on here?
- [44:51]
B
So she says, notice it's no longer called the Young Women's Leadership Summit because they dropped the young, because they've completely lost the youth since Charlie's passing. This is RNC Light. It's now the Hags Nagging Summit, with donors occupying speaking slots to lecture women about how it's biblical not to question anything. And so she says, you know, it's stale. And then Alex Clark, who is. If. I don't know if we have the Alex Clark. Yes. So Alex Clark, who's kind of like, along with Erica Kirk, kind of like the female face of tpusa, she's like a maha influencer. She says, actually, it's because my podcast is. Is bringing in massive numbers of young women and young moms for years. And so she says, Charlie wanted this. And then, intriguingly, she says, by the way, how did Putin taste? Because Candace was just in Russia. She's implying that Candace blew Vladimir Putin. I know. And you know what, though? Alex Clark, kind of one of the saner voices on the right at the moment. Alex Clark, also, to give you an idea of what happens at this thing, Alex Clark, famously, this is crazy, has not been married. And as a trad influencer, people were like, why aren't you married? So she gave a speech. I don't think I'm unfair to say it was sort of about being an old maid. And then she then announces, and I'm engaged now. And then, of course, all the Candace wing starts saying her husband's or her fiance's gay. So, you know, this is. This is. There's kind of this trope that whenever one of these influencers gets married, like, their, Their. Their fiance has kind of like a youth pastor, what we might call a soy face. Look, I wish the happy couple the best, but they're really going into this guy's background.
- [46:27]
A
Is he gay?
- [46:29]
B
No, I don't think so. I think he, you know, he looks like an upstanding, you know, straight young man, but he has that kind of youth pastor look to him. He's a little. Little reedy. But, you know, I, I think, you know, going back to how big is the size of your engagement ring? All of these feuds in the past, you know, it often boils down to this.
- [46:46]
A
Yeah. And then, well, that's made me think of James Fishback and his marriage and whether, you know, it's like, ah, these marriages are not real. The Fishback one may not. Although you saw the certificate. So it is real.
- [46:55]
B
It's just real. It's real. You know, as much as these things can be.
- [46:59]
A
Yeah. It's like legally real. But, you know, how is the Fishback marriage going? Do we know?
- [47:05]
B
You know, I feel like I can't
- [47:08]
A
go an episode without talking about that.
- [47:10]
B
Well, the. The ex girlfriend who promised to spill the beans. Frankie Rain. She said, I'm burying the hatchet with James. I'm getting too much attention. People like will are DMing me for the tea, and instead I'm gonna.
- [47:22]
A
Did she reference you?
- [47:23]
B
Yeah, kind of obliquely. She didn't say my name. She said, you know, people want the tea. And then she said, excuse me.
- [47:28]
A
Well, that is a little presumptuous of you to assume that she was referencing you.
- [47:32]
B
You know.
- [47:33]
A
You know, she must have been talking about me.
- [47:36]
B
Yeah, you know, that's true. That's true. This. This young, gray pet, you know, I must have been on her mind. And then. And then she said, and now I'm gonna launch, like, kind of like a groiper cooking show. And at that point, I was like, click. You know? Come on.
- [47:53]
A
What do you think a griper cooking show is? I kind of want to watch.
- [47:56]
B
Well, she said she's gonna have Chad Champion, the famous shirtless griper. She's gonna have him on and teach him how to cook. So.
- [48:02]
A
Didn't try Champion tweet at Tim Miller?
- [48:05]
B
Yeah, he. He tweeted. Oh, I love Tim Miller, so.
- [48:07]
A
Oh, God, Tim, watch out. Not good. Some endorsement.
- [48:12]
B
This is not the audience we're trying to attract.
- [48:15]
A
Geez, Tim's gonna have to do something about that. What's the status of Erica Kirk? I saw a funny one where this obviously wasn't gonna happen, but that she was going to be performing the. The. The national anthem at the Freedom250. Did you see that?
- [48:31]
B
I do think Erica Kirk. This was a more, you know, sedate presentation than we might be used to seeing. There were no pyrotechnics as far as I saw. You know, the. What. This event sort of typically has kind of a. If folks know what the Junior League is like, a little more kind of like a Southern, you know, having the ladies over for tea kind of presentation.
- [48:52]
A
All right, there's one more video we're gonna play of Dana Loesch, apparently. Yes. Okay.
- [48:58]
B
So just. Yeah, so she does. She basically reads a lot of Bible quotes. This is aimed at Candace, but she reads a lot of Bible quotes about respecting widows and children whose fathers have died. So, you know, we know where this is going.
- [49:12]
A
Okay, let's play the lush video that widows be included so they are not isolated to protect widows, to care for widows, to not persecute a widow in the most ungodly of ways. Because you're jealous that you are not the one controlling an organization that. That widow's husband built.
- [49:34]
C
Yeah.
- [49:35]
B
So there you go. I mean, you know, clearly aimed at Candace. I thought she was going to say, you're jealous that you didn't marry Charlie Kirk. Which is obviously the big rap on Candace, that people that her detractors will
- [49:46]
A
say, I want to step back for one second about TP usa, because obviously this is the almost the same fault lines that we saw in the first conference after Kirk's assassination. Right. It's like, who is the rightful heir to this organization? Are there people who are trying to rip it away from the people who are currently running it? Candace being just an absolutely divisive figure, the invitation of Tucker, so on and so forth. And look, this is not like an insignificant matter because arguably it was the most important outside group in the 2024 election. It did an incredible amount of messaging, voter registration, inroads on college campuses, things like that. And it seems to me that it's in just an utter state of disrepair. But they still put on these, these conferences. But when you put on these conferences, and that's the main speech, that's. That's not a good state.
- [50:43]
B
No, it's not. And, you know, you get sort of into these. You're focusing on these kind of internecine feuds rather than being like, and let's beat the Democrats in November.
- [50:53]
A
Right? Well, we'll see. I mean, we'll keep monitoring it. But this is a real story talking about these feuds within the ranks. So we've had to recap Cash Patel versus Judicial Watch, which is one feud we've had. There have been, I will say, some conservatives who've gone against the conspiracists around Spencer Pratt being like, this is kind of crazy. Joe Kernan. And aside. But there have been some people who have been speaking up. So that's kind of a feud. We have Mike Lee, the Utah College Republicans, Jason Chaffetz feuding with Pete Hegseth over the lists of recognized Christian churches. So that's another feud. We have this TP USA feud again, all around Candace and Erica Kirk. So that's another feud. And then we had this other feud, Lauren Boebert. Now, the backstory here is prior to Tom Massie's election, or I should say his primary loss, rumor circulated online that he had been having an affair with Lauren Boebert, his colleague in the House. There's nothing to support it, but it is a rumor that was circulating briefly online. And then, of course, when he lost, people stopped talking about it, but not everybody, because FOX News decided that they Wanted to ask Lauren Bobert about it outside of the Capitol building. And this ensued. You. First of all, if you're gonna bring me into this, like, this sexist stuff is, like, out of control.
- [52:31]
B
So there's your clickbait that you were looking for.
- [52:34]
A
A lot of people. I don't want to talk about anybody's
- [52:36]
B
exes and their crazy that they do.
- [52:40]
A
You know, I think that clip actually didn't sync right, because I think she said you. Unless I missed it. But that was the first part that jumped out to me. She was just like, you what? Why is this happening?
- [52:55]
B
Yeah, so as you said before Massey's election, he had this excur, you know, failed election campaign. He had this ex girlfriend, Cynthia west, and we've written about her antics with meme stocks, but basically she came out, and among her sexual allegations or disclosures was that she said Massie had slept with Lauren Boebert relatively soon after his wife died, like, a few weeks now. I don't think she's necessarily lying. It's possible that he had claimed that, and it was. And maybe he was. It was kind of tall talk, but. But. But essentially, that's the. The backstory there. It's very weird, though, as you said.
- [53:30]
A
I mean, she's not married. Hold on. She's not married. Right. She's divorced. He's widowed at the time. Consenting adults. I mean, like, who gives a.
- [53:42]
B
Well, apparent. Well, this is a bit odd, right? I mean, it is, like, almost a month later, and Fox News is like, hey, hey, did you sleep with Thomas Massie?
- [53:50]
A
It's beyond odd. And she was righteously angry about it. She, you know, she's kind of occupying this weird place now where it's like, Massey's gonna be on the outs. Marjorie Shell Green, who we haven't talked about, is like, what country did she go to for medical treatment? Do we know? She left the country?
- [54:06]
B
I think Costa Rica.
- [54:08]
A
Yeah, she went to Costa Rica because she doesn't have health insurance. I don't think we have the treat, but she's like, I'm going for, you know, health care reasons. I guess she wants to. I forget what it was, but she, like, wants to, like, rejuvenate or get, like, healthier. I don't know. She was very vague about it, but she's like, I don't have health care in America, and so I'm going to Costa Rica to pay for it. The whole thing's odd. Anyway, she's gone. She's literally out of the country. Massey's about to be out of Congress. Nancy Mace is like, in fourth place in the South Carolina Republican primary poll for governor, which leaves Boebert as the one of the four who voted for the Epstein files disclosures as the lone person still in Congress. And Trump's been talking about primaring her. So she's in some weird ass position right now in the Republican Party. And I don't, I don't think it's coincidental that Fox News is asking her these questions when Trump's targeting her.
- [55:02]
B
I agree. I mean, I think if this was about sort of a loyal Republican who was always, you know, supporting Trump, I don't think they'd be saying, hey, you sleeping with Thomas Massie? It's really weird. Fox News just doesn't normally act like that. So it's an odd one.
- [55:14]
A
Okay, just to be clear, I, I, she went to Mexico. MTG went to Mexico for stem cell treatment. Let's put up the tweet. Boy's been provocative about my health by eating healthy, exercising, prioritizing sleep, not getting Covid vaccines. Oh, God. Or flu vaccines and other traditional medicine recommendations. Folks, don't listen to MTG for health advice. Here's an easy Internet search about some of the stem cell treatments that we had to go to Dream Body Clinic in Mexico to get because they're not available in the U.S. it's a shame that so many Americans have to travel abroad to get all types of medical treatments that they can't get in the United States because our FDA doesn't allow it. Medical tourism is a huge industry and America should be ashamed of itself. So many Americans leave our country seeking all types of treatments, medications, and surgeries that cost them 40 to 80% less than it does in the U.S. her health insurance is already absolutely ridiculously expensive and healthcare costs way too high. She's right about healthcare costs being too high. She's not right about the COVID vaccine. And the flu vaccine reads kind of
- [56:13]
B
like sponsored content, doesn't it? Like she says the name of the clinic.
- [56:16]
A
Oh, good point.
- [56:18]
B
And it's very like talking pointy, you know?
- [56:22]
A
Yeah, no, I mean, medical tourism is a thing, folks. People go up to Canada all the time because it's cheaper. But that's not because, you know, we have Covid vaccines and flu vaccines. It's because our prescription drug prices are out of control. All right, well, well, we're almost at an hour, but I don't think we're going to quite make it. We have like three minutes left. Unless filibuster.
- [56:44]
B
You know, I Think it's good to leave people wanting more, you know, and someday we'll hit that hour. But it was packed. It was a busy weekend. You know, there was lots to discuss, stem cell treatments, Mormons, all kinds of stuff.
- [56:55]
A
And. And we're going to part with. With something that I want people to just sort of envision as they think about whether to be a bulwark subscriber. You know, when you're a bulwark subscriber, you can subscribe on YouTube and you can subscribe on Substack. You not only get incredible analysis, reporting, insights, commentary from a host of experts, right? Like you had Jonathan Cohn, Lauren Egan, got Adrian Carrasquillo, you got Catherine Rampel, you got Joe Perdicon, you got Andrew Agar, you got all these people, got jvl, Tim, Sarah. Like, you get it all. But by subscribing, you support the mission, and the mission is important, which is great reporting, great commentary. We're not beholden to any interest. And by subscribing, you can help us travel to the most important stories out there, the most important series that really matter, we can do on the ground reporting that other people cannot do. And so when you think about subscribing, I want you to have this vision in mind about the type of reporting that you can support, including sending Will to the island of Albania to report on flamingos. Let's put up that image, folks. Look at that. This could be your. This could be what your dollars go for.
- [58:08]
B
I'm standing in front of the bulldozer in this picture. I'm like, don't leave my. Leave my. My feathered, but leave the flamingos alone.
- [58:15]
A
Ivanka, go find other hectares of land.
- [58:19]
B
There's plenty of hectares elsewhere.
- [58:21]
A
These flamingos, it's important for our EU membership that they just persist. All right, so, folks, subscribe to the book where you get great content like this. We'll come to you next Monday for another edition of Maga Mondays. Well, take care, buddy. Everyone else, thanks for the comments. Appreciate it. Love you guys. Peace.