Transcript
A (0:00)
Hey, everybody. Tim Miller from the Bulwark here. I had another hour with my friend Nicole Wallace. I was a little kind of feisty today. I was a little spunky. Maybe feisty is the wrong word. I was a little spunky, a little bit of a troublemaker. I made reference to what might happen if Nicole broke bad and went with Donald Trump. So you can get to watch our reaction to that counterfactual. But we covered a lot of super important stuff, including this Lisa Cook attempted firing from the Fed Board of Governors. And I really leaned in on something I talked about in the podcast too, but I wanted to get into more of which is this Bill Pulte character inside the government who is doing a Laura Loomer, but from inside the government, trying to target foes of Donald Trump to get inside his good graces and how that was the origin of Lisa Cook getting pushed out, essentially, or attempted to be pushed out based on some alleged issue with our mortgages. I just, I think it's very telling and I think that it is an important indication of where things are going with this administration and what the incentives are and what we can expect to see more of. So I think learning about Bill Pulte is important. We also hit on the redistricting stuff. I give a little love for Mike Pence. We talked about Alex Acosta and the Epstein files because we're not distracted. We're going to talk about that. It's a great combo. There are some other folks around too, who are pretty good, so stick around for that. Nicole Wallace, me, cadre of other panelists and subscribe to this feed because I got a bunch of other shit coming for you. We'll see you soon.
B (1:37)
Well, he says a lot of things, Tim, so I don't know that he. I mean, I think he says things with confidence that have no more to reality. He confidently talks about windmills and bleach inside one's lungs. So I, I understand that what he says, he says with confidence, but I think he said some pretty stupid and insane things with the same degree of confidence that I heard today. So I guess what I want to press you on is how much these fights fuel are sort of drafted off the fight that came before and then motivated by the fight ahead. I think Tyler makes an important point about this as part of a sweep of retribution that includes the law firms, the universities, and John Bolton. I think it's interesting that the capitulators wince and cringe when they become part of a democracy and autocracy story, but to Tyler Pager's reporting every person that doesn't go to court and fight the illegality of his conduct makes it easier for him to take more illegal retributive action. And I wonder how you see this move against Lisa Cook.
A (2:49)
And it's definitely an autocracy story. Look. And I think it's important to kind of step back and go through the process of how this came to be. As mentioned by my co panelists, obviously a lot of this stems from Trump's frustration with the Fed. The fact that he wants interest rates lower. Whether or not that's in his interests, I think that some economists would dispute. But that's what he wants. And so that is what's at the core of this. But then how do you get to Lisa Cook? What happens here? How is she the Fed board governor? It's I guess important to note that as a black woman, she can be sort of pinned as a DEI target or something. And so I think that's one reason. But then you look at the process and there's this guy, Bill Pulte. Bill Pulte is the head of the Federal Housing and Finance Agency. Sorry, I had to look down and look at that. Because this is not somebody that's usually a public figure. The head of the Federal Housing and Finance Agency. Well within this little random agency in the government, he's running his own cash Patel enemies list. And he's referred now Adam Schiff, Tish James and Lisa Cook to the DOJ with essentially paperwork accusations of paperwork crimes related to their mortgages. It's important to say that none of them have been charged with anything. And so that is how this comes to pass. This is death of Stalin stuff. You have some random apart chick, some random part of the government that wants to get in the autocrats good graces. And so he starts going after the witches and the dissidents inside the administration to get a pat on the head from Trump. And who knows, maybe he'll be at one of these fawning cabinet meetings in two or three years. And that's what happens. And so the people who speak the truth, or who at least give their view, their honest view, like Lisa Cook doesn't want what the rate should be or people that speak the truth, like the Air Force chief of staff who got pushed out because he had said that he thought that the administration was too focused on China versus other threats, kind of an anodyne thing, or the intelligence officials and pushed out because they just said the truth, that Venezuela wasn't invading. You know, if you're in government. If you're a government service, you know, if you're in public service and you're just doing your job, you can be targeted by, like, these random hacks who see, like, getting scalps as a way to advance in maga. And, like, that incentive structure is awful. And it is a hallmark of, not a democracy or a federal system, but of, you know, what you see in banana republics.