ShamWow Guy Has America’s Dumbest Campaign Ad

Summary

Bulwark Takes – “ShamWow Guy Has America’s Dumbest Campaign Ad”

Date: February 7, 2026
Host: Tim Miller
Guests: Will Sommer, Kathryn Rampel
Main Theme:
A hilarious and sobering look at the new breed of Republican candidates—infomercial stars, hucksters, and side-hustle grifters—who are turning American politics into “As Seen on TV." The panel dissects the viral campaign ad from “ShamWow Guy” Vince Shlomi, highlights other prominent “grifter” candidates, and explores the broader overlap between Trump-era Republicanism and the world of late-night salesmanship.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Viral “ShamWow Guy” Campaign Ad

• [02:55] Tim Miller introduces Vince Shlomi, known as the “ShamWow Guy,” who is running for Congress and has released an outrageous campaign ad full of infomercial tropes.
• Ad content highlights:
  • “I’m gonna soak up the swamp, clean the house, and pick up those liberal tears at the same time. I’m gonna slap chop the nuts out of the woke, making less blue-haired commies and more red-blooded Americans.” (Shlomi, [03:19])
• Hosts react with a mix of disbelief and amusement, noting how surreal and unserious the messaging is.

2. Analysis of Vince Shlomi’s Platform

• Kathryn Rampel highlights the ad and Shlomi’s website ([04:03]):
  • Ends porn on X
  • No tax on Social Security
  • Mandatory ring cameras in classrooms
  • Mandate for human customer service
  • Make “thoughtism” a hate crime (“hating someone on the basis of the color of their thoughts or views”)
  • Mandatory “cowboy codes” for kids
  • Weekly school prayer
• Quote: “Not a lot of affordability on this agenda, but a lot of like, thought policing and God policing too.” – Kathryn Rampel ([05:26])
• Hosts question the seriousness of the agenda and riff on the implications of “thoughtism” and “cowboy codes.”

3. ShamWow Guy’s Notorious Past

• Will Sommer (unidentified male commentator) recounts Shlomi’s infamous past, including a 2009 incident where a sex worker nearly bit off his tongue (leading to criminal charges). ([05:50])
• Tim Miller lampoons the hypocrisy:
  • “It’s always the people who want to come in with the strong ‘No porn on X’, ‘We’re going to crunch the wokes balls and we’re going to go after the gay’—all these people are all getting electric dildos up their butt by sex workers on the side.” ([06:52])

4. The Infomercial Crossover: Other Candidates

• Mike Lindell (MyPillow Guy) Running for Governor of Minnesota
  • Lindell cites his crack addiction as part of his turnaround story; he’s funded his campaign by buying his own books to distribute at events.
  • “He does have the benefit of having his own network, Lindell TV.” – Tim Miller ([10:27])
• Mike Huckabee, Current Ambassador to Israel, as Supplement Pitchman
  • Huckabee is shown in an ad for Vinia (a “red grapes circulation superfood”), referencing biblical teachings to sell blood flow supplements. ([11:47])
  • Formerly promoted Relaxium sleep aid, suggesting a “day and night” supplement hustle ([12:19]).
  • “Do they not pay ambassadors enough for him to be able to just do his job and not shill on the side?” – Kathryn Rampel ([13:04])

5. The Culture of Grift in Republican Politics

• Panelists note the intensive overlap between late-night hucksters and Trump-world politics.
  • Tom Homan sold EMP shields against supposed Chinese threats.
  • Religious grifters like Paula White asking for “$1,000 supernatural blessings.” ([13:31])
• Memorable quote:
  • “There is like a true overlap between the Trump administration and the world of infomercials and hucksterism.” – Unidentified male commentator ([14:16])
• Kathryn Rampel sums up:
  • “They're snake oil salesmen. It’s like if a carnival barker could become president, why can’t all the people on the president’s... payroll also be selling crap to the masses? I mean, this is what Trump does himself.” ([14:24])
• Discussion of Trump’s own ventures—digital trading cards, Trump cologne, “Trump Bibles” ([14:59]).

6. Dr. Oz and the Political-Grifter Pipeline

• Rampel points to Dr. Oz as a prototype of this phenomenon:
  • “This was his whole shtick... Going on TV and telling people what kinds of crazy supplements or lifestyle changes... they should buy.” ([15:58])

7. Closing Thoughts

• Panel expresses both amusement and concern at the rise of candidates “more infomercial than policymaker.”
• They invite listeners to submit more “weird Republican ads” they encounter. ([16:16])
• “Hopefully the commercials are better for you and we’ll see y’all soon.” – Tim Miller ([16:16])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I’m gonna slap chop the nuts out of the woke, making less blue-haired commies and more red-blooded Americans.” – Vince Shlomi (ShamWow Guy), campaign ad ([03:19])

• “There is like a true overlap between the Trump administration and the world of infomercials and hucksterism.” – Unidentified male commentator ([14:16])

• “They're snake oil salesmen. It's like if a carnival barker could become president, why can't all the people on the president's... payroll also be selling crap to the masses?” – Kathryn Rampel ([14:24])

• “It’s always the people who want to come in with the strong... all getting electric dildos up their butt by sex workers on the side.” – Tim Miller ([06:52])

• “Do they not pay ambassadors enough for him to be able to just do his job and not shill on the side...?” – Kathryn Rampel ([13:04])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:55] – Viewing and analysis of the ShamWow Guy campaign ad
• [04:25] – Rundown of Shlomi’s bizarre policy platform
• [05:50] – Shlomi’s scandalous past resurface
• [08:40] – Mike Lindell (MyPillow Guy) gubernatorial run
• [11:17] – Mike Huckabee, supplement pitchman, while serving as ambassador
• [13:31] – Surge of grifter/salesman-style political figures
• [14:59] – Trump as the “grifting lantern” for assorted hucksters
• [15:58] – The Dr. Oz archetype for politics as hustling
• [16:16] – Call for tips on future oddball campaign ads & episode close

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Summary Takeaway

This Bulwark episode skewers the absurd spectacle of modern right-wing politics, where celebrity pitchmen, tabloid scandals, and infomercial rhetoric are increasingly the norm among candidates. The ShamWow Guy leads a parade of aspiring politicians whose platforms and campaigns seem more ripped from late-night cable than civic debate, signaling profound shifts in political culture since the Trump era—and occasioning both laughter and deep worry among the panel.

Transcript

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[Tim Miller]

Hey everybody, it's Tim Miller from the Bulwark here with my pals Will Sommer and Kathryn Rampel. They are the authors of the False Flag and Receipts newsletter respectively. Receipts. It's Friday afternoon when we're taping this. I'm sorry, it's been a long read. Receipts.

[Kathryn Rampel]

It's been a long day.

[Tim Miller]

You can sign [e-mail] Super bowl weekend's a big commercial weekend. You know the gays we often watch just for the commercials. I'm going to miss Super Bowl. I booked a flight during Super Bowl. I didn't even realize it until about two minutes ago. It's like, oh, well, I don't know, we'll see. Hopefully the airline has it on. But you know, there's some high level commercials you get to see during the super bowl. Some funny ones. Celebs. You know, the Republicans have a series of candidates who are more in the infomercial space than the commercial space. And Catherine was flagging this for us and we thought maybe it'd be valuable just to go through it because it's, it's quite a notable trend I want to start with. We're old enough to remember the ShamWow. Everybody remember ShamWow.

[Kathryn Rampel]

Oh yeah, I certainly do love ShamWows.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, you own knockoff Shamwows?

[Will Sommer]

Really?

[Kathryn Rampel]

Yeah, I don't think they're like brand name, but they're, you know, explain to.

[Tim Miller]

The youth that are watching what a ShamWow is.

[Kathryn Rampel]

It's like this very absorbent fabric. It's kind of like a felt material that you use to sop up water. And there were these crazy infomercials about all of the wonderful things that it did back in the day.

[Tim Miller]

Well, Mr. Shamwow is running for office. Vince. Shlomo. Shlomy. Shlomy, Shlomo. We'll figure it out. Shlomo. He's running and he's got an ad. Let's watch it together.

[VRBoCare Advertiser]

Hey, it's Vince. I'm running for congress against this guy. Stop having a politician that's worse than.

[Will Sommer]

Biden for discretionary funding.

[VRBoCare Advertiser]

Instead vote for me, a guy who's not half dead. I'm gonna soak up the swamp, clean the house and pick up those liberal tears. At the same time, I'm gonna slap chop the nuts out of the woke, making less blue haired commies and more red blooded Americans. Vote for me so I can represent you. And the ones that can't stand up for themselves, vote for Shaman.

[Tim Miller]

Oh boy, you got me with that one right at the end. Tom was going in blind there at the beginning. I was intrigued because, you know, John Carter is no, you know, nothing to be excited about. He does seem too elderly to be in office. He's been a rubber stamp for Trump. So maybe some fresh blood in there. But then as he made his case for why him, I started. He started to lose me a little bit. Katherine, talk to us about, what was it that caught your eye about Mr. Shlomi?

[Kathryn Rampel]

Well, besides the fact that it feels like the Republican party's slate of candidates is increasingly like MLM hawkers and snake oil salesmen all the way down. Like I just found that kind of amusing. His platform, this guy Shlomi's platform is also pretty striking.

[Tim Miller]

Tell me about it.

[Kathryn Rampel]

Yeah, so this is the stuff that's on his website. His platform is ending porn on X. Okay. No tax on Social Security ring, cameras in classrooms, human customer service. You know why this is something that.

[Tim Miller]

I like, that you don't want human customer service.

[Kathryn Rampel]

I mean, I would prefer human customer service. I don't know why that's the province of Congress to deal with that. But sure. Then we get to some more interesting ones, including making thoughtism a hate crime. Thoughtism, he says, is a word I coined that means hating someone on the basis of the color of their thoughts or views.

[Tim Miller]

I'm thoughtest towards Mr. Shlomo, so I hope he doesn't get in because that could be concerning to me. Okay, what else?

[Kathryn Rampel]

Cowboy codes for kids. Maybe it's like scout code, Scout's honor. I'm not really sure.

[Tim Miller]

Is that mandatory cowboy codes or just mandatory cowboy codes?

[Kathryn Rampel]

Yeehaw. Giddy up. And then, of course, children must pray in school each week. So it's quite the collection. Not a lot of affordability on this agenda, but a lot of like, thought policing and God policing too.

[Tim Miller]

Well, did you know, had you been monitoring Mr. Shamwell? Does he have a presence in social media or did he just kind of like emerge?

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

I've been keeping an eye on Mr. Shamwell for decades. I mean, back. Back in 2009, folks may remember, his tongue was almost bitten off by a sex worker, and in exchange, he assaulted her. This is a guy with an unsavory past, needless to say. And the key thing.

[Tim Miller]

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[Kathryn Rampel]

I have no memory of this.

[Tim Miller]

His tongue was almost bitten off by a sex worker.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

Yeah. He apparently arranged this in Miami. This. In anticipation of this episode. I looked up all the greatest hits of Mr. Shamwow here, and in fact, there was this. He had this confrontation. I think they both face criminal charges over it. But the important thing about the tongue, right, is that Mr. Shamwow, and people may remember he was such a vibrant infomercial spokesman, and he would stick his tongue out and go, ah, you know, this is so crazy. And so the tongue was kind of his money maker. And so that's why it stuck with me.

[Tim Miller]

Oh boy.

[Kathryn Rampel]

That's why it stuck with you. As opposed to if it were any other politician running for congress, you'd be like, totally forgettable to find this is one of my sex worker.

[Tim Miller]

Where it's just like this happens time again. We talked about this yesterday with the trio, Will. It's like, you know, just because you can't control your urges, you know, doesn't mean now that you get to use the power of the state to control some of ours. Right? I mean, if, you know, I'm not into sex, working and tongue biting, but for people who are, I'm fine with that. Like, it's always the people who want to come in with the strong. No porn on x We're going to crunch the wokes balls and we're going to go after the gay. Like all these people are all getting electric dildos up their butt by sex workers on the side. It feels like to me, you know, none of them are. It's like I could almost accept it if they were, but, you know, genuine.

[Kathryn Rampel]

If he had a cowboy code, maybe it would keep him from this deviant behavior. Praying for him in school. Yes.

[Tim Miller]

I thought that the cowboy code would maybe be cutting off the tongue.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

Yes.

[Kathryn Rampel]

I mean, I have not done deep research on.

[Tim Miller]

So he's running against John Carter. Okay, so that's a primary. Do we know if there are any other candidates? We're going to do a little more research on this race. I'm going to look into that. But Mr. Shamwell, look at his. Can we just pull up his website for a second here? Let's just put that on the screen. That sounded trustworthy. Face.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

Very unsettling affect, I would say. I feel like he has not reformed himself.

[Tim Miller]

I don't think he's reformed himself either. And I don't want him telling me what is happening in my thoughts. I'm concerned about that. So we've got the shamwow guy. We've also got our friend who we've been covering for a while now and close friend of Will's. They're texting buddies, I do believe. This is Mike Lindell of MyPillow fame. He's running to be the Republican nominee for governor of Minnesota.

[Will Sommer]

Many of you already know me. You know that I was a crack cocaine addict along with many other addictions. You know that I founded the amazing, successful company MyPillow. If you will stand with me as the next governor of Minnesota, our future will be amazing.

[Tim Miller]

Amy Klobuchar is just sitting alone in her home praying to her gay prom date or to whatever lord she believes in. Please let it be Michael and Dell. Please let it be Michael Lindell that he's also running. Have you been monitoring Will? What's happened? What's the state of the race up there?

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

Yeah, so, I mean, look, this is the MyPillow guy, the former drug addict who remade himself with his pillows and his cotton sheets and all this stuff. And obviously he's embroiled in a lot of lawsuits over his claims about 2020 election fraud.

[Will Sommer]

How dare him come and sue my pillow. He's a scumbag for doing that. Put that in there. Scumbag. S Q U M bag.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

You're an.

[Will Sommer]

You got that? You're an is what you are. No, he's now ambulance chasing. That's what you are. Lumpy pillows. Kiss my. How do you guys sleep at night? You obviously don't have a my pillow. That's a fact.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

So he figures, look, my plate's pretty clean. You know, I got some time on my hands. I should run for governor. And I have to say, you know, he's doing a little better than you might expect. There have been some straw polls, I think, at various Republican events that some put him in first place, some put him in third place. It's worth noting the Republican speaker of the House is also running and she's kind of the favorite. But. But, you know, I wouldn't rule it out. I wouldn't say he can't win this primary. I mean, Minnesota is kind of unsettled by ice and by these Nick Shirley, you know, fraud videos. And I feel like that might whip Republicans into kind of like a more intensive pro Mike Lindell stance.

[Tim Miller]

He does have the benefit of having his own network, Lindell tv. I don't know what kind of the reaches of that, but, you know, they're.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

At the White House. I mean, maybe they could ask, you know, wouldn't you say, you know, Mike Lindell's the best candidate all the time. You know, I mean, the other sort of perhaps conflict of interest here is his campaign has spent big on Mike Lindell's own memoir. They spent more than half of what they've Fundraised so far, $185,000 buying copies of his book and handing them out.

[Tim Miller]

What is that? What's the title of that memoir? What are the Odds? Yeah, what are the odds? I guess it's true. How did we find ourselves here? What are the Odds? That's not a bad title. All right, so we've got two infomercial candidates. Is that it? Were there any other infomercial candidates on your microphone?

[Kathryn Rampel]

Yeah, there were.

[Tim Miller]

Okay, tell me more. Who else?

[Kathryn Rampel]

One is. He's actually not a candidate. He's serving at the President's pleasure as the ambassador to Israel. So, Mike Huckabee. According to a TV tracking ad site, Mike Huckabee, who's again the current ambassador to Israel, is the brand ambassador right now for Vinia, a blood flow vitamin. Can we play that Mike Huckabee on.

[Rocket Money Advertiser]

Why he takes Vinia the red grapes? Circulation superfood for better blood flow.

[Tim Miller]

18 hour days are pretty normal, so.

[VRBoCare Advertiser]

You know, I need all the help I can get.

[Tim Miller]

The Bible teaches that the life is in the blood. Whatever Helps blood flow, helps life. It's not complicated. It's our plumbing system.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

The Bible teaches you need blood. Is that a peptide?

[Tim Miller]

I'm not sure if that's a peptide.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

I mean, I guess it's red grape.

[Kathryn Rampel]

I don't know. I mean, I don't know what like blood flow medication is necessary for a man of his age. I'm not gonna assume anything about what the use case is here.

[Tim Miller]

I would not like to think about it. This is the second company he's worked with. It's interesting. He's kind of working both sides of the street. In the infomercial, the blood flow vitamin, he's talking about how he needs the energy, you know, for, for whatever purposes. Settlements, I think. And on the other side, last year he was removed from a different infomercial for relaxium, which was a sleeping pill. I'm Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, part time musician, but longtime customer of Relaxium Sleep. So he's kind of doing the uppers and downers together now. It's kind of like you need, you need, you need the blood flow vitamin to get you going during the day, and then you need some landing gear with the relaxium at night.

[Kathryn Rampel]

Do they not pay ambassadors enough for him to be able to like, just do his job and not shill on the side for a bunch of scammy supplement companies?

[Tim Miller]

Is that what you think? The issue here is that we don't, we don't have enough high enough salary.

[Kathryn Rampel]

Items for ambassadors for bicuccabe. That's what this, this video is actually about.

[Tim Miller]

We also, at the prayer breakfast yesterday, we had Paula Kane, and we should mention that she's also selling some stuff. She's, she's slanging supernatural blessings for the Easter season. We're coming up on the Easter season. Only a thousand bucks or more for a little supernatural blessing. Well, that might be something for you to look into.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

That sounds reasonable. That's a good rate, I think, for a supernatural blessing. You know, it is funny. I mean, just the, the amount of kind of like just there. There's so many schemes. I mean, Tom Homan, before he ra, he, he endorsed like an EMP shield that would protect you from the inevitable Chinese EMP attack.

[Will Sommer]

You can protect yourself at the same.

[Tim Miller]

Time protect this great nation.

[Will Sommer]

The threat of electromagnetic pulse is real emp.

[Tim Miller]

If you don't know what it is, look it up.

[Unidentified Male Commentator]

That would like, knock out all of our electrical systems. There is like a true overlap between the Trump administration and the, the world of infomercials. And hucksterism.

[Kathryn Rampel]

They're snake oil salesmen. It's like if a carnival barker and become president, why can't all the people on the president's, or I would say the president's payroll, the executive branch payroll, also be selling crap to the masses? I mean, this is what Trump does himself. Yeah.

[Tim Miller]

This is the key insight. It's kind of like the light, the lantern, you know, Trump is like the grifting lantern.

[Will Sommer]

By popular demand, I'm doing a new series of Trump digital trading cards. These cards show me dancing and even me holding some bitcoins. I knew Trump fragrances are here. They make a great Christmas present.

[Tim Miller]

That's the real deal.

[VRBoCare Advertiser]

That's the real deal.

[Will Sommer]

All Americans need a Bible in their home. And I have many. It's my favorite book.

[Tim Miller]

And all the grifting, you know, flies are flying around him, you know, sort of orbiting him like their little grifty sun. And I don't think it's that surprising that he would attract that type of candidate. And so, you know, or that he selects.

[Kathryn Rampel]

I mean, Dr. Oz, this was his thing, right? Some of these other people, this is clearly a side hustle. Like Mike Huckabee was governor of Arkansas before. This is a side hustle for him to be selling bogus drugs on late night TV. But Dr. Oz, this was his whole shtick.

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[Kathryn Rampel]

Going on TV and telling people what kinds of crazy supplements or lifestyle changes or whatever. Mostly things that he could make money off of or other people could make money off of, what they should buy. And he got selected to his current job for that purpose, so. So it's not incidental, I guess, is my point.

[Tim Miller]

All right, well, everybody out there, you know, you all live out in the country, out in real America, so sometimes it's hard for us to monitor for all these ads. If you see weird Republican ads, do send it to us theborg.com tips and we'll keep going. I'm interested to see what the next material that Shamwell Shalomi puts forward. We'll watch that. If it's interesting, we'll share it with you guys. Have a good super bowl weekend. Hopefully the commercials are better for you and we'll see y' all soon. Subscribe to the feedback.