The Bulwark's Primary Election Coverage for Maine, South Carolina, and More

Summary

The Bulwark Takes — Primary Election Coverage: Maine, South Carolina, and More

Podcast: Bulwark Takes
Date: June 10, 2026
Hosts: Sam Stein (Managing Editor, The Bulwark) & Bill Kristol

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Overview

This episode dives deep into results and implications from major primary elections in Maine, South Carolina, and California, alongside incisive discussion of the turbulent Republican Party under Trump, loyalty fealty tests, government appointments, and the growing normalization of election denialism. The hosts also briefly explore escalating U.S.-Iran tensions and the implications of key political appointments. The tone is brisk, sharp, and at times darkly humorous, providing real-time analysis of election night returns and major headlines.

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Key Topics & Highlights

South Carolina: Nancy Mace’s Defeat and Trump’s Retribution

• Nancy Mace’s Campaign & Fallout
  • Once a national figure, Mace finished fifth in her bid for South Carolina governor and immediately conceded.
  • Her concession notably referenced her “Epstein files” vote and asserted she lost support over it. This points to Trump’s ongoing retribution-style politics.
    • (Quote, Sam Stein, 01:40):
      “I am literally willing to get on a plane to evacuate you for a war zone. I've done that too. I voted to release the Epstein files and lost some support for that.”
• Trump Throws His Weight Around
  • Trump overtly campaigned against Mace and other non-loyalists, reinforcing his dominance over the party and punishing dissenters.
  • Bill Kristol notes this marks a shift even beyond previous cycles, with Trump eager to “take credit” for purging non-loyalists.
    • (Bill Kristol, 03:10):
      “So he has thrown his weight around...these days we look at him and think, oh, down in the polls, falling asleep at Knicks games. But he is throwing his weight around in Republican politics certainly.”

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Maine's Democratic Senate Primary: Graham Platner’s Win

• Context & Results

  • Graham Platner the expected winner; Janet Mills has suspended her campaign.
  • The main drama centers on Platner’s margin—hitting benchmarks set by previous candidates like Sarah Gideon (71.5% in 2020).
    • (Sam Stein, 07:49):
      “Basically the benchmark is what, like, we're trying to see if he hits like 70, 75… That's sort of the manufactured benchmark that people are looking at tonight.”
  • Final partials: Platner at ~73%, Mills ~20%.
    • (Sam Stein, 38:29):
      “AP has called it for Graham Platner. So it's official. Official now. Not a surprise. We have about 19 in, I think is the latest, and Platner is at about 73.68. Very precise.”

• Platner’s Victory Speech (43:15–44:21)

  • Highlights working-class struggles, attacks the “ruling class” and “political establishment.”
  • Frames campaign as a populist movement—“not about me at all.”
    • (Graham Platner, 41:15):
      “Now, the national pundits... they failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us, about the far too many working far too hard and struggling far too much at the hands of the ruling class.”
  • Reaction from hosts:
    • Kristol calls the speech “repulsive” and “all about him,” skeptical about its general election appeal.
    • Stein sees it as effective populism, tapping into anti-establishment energy.

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California: GOP Election Denial and The Rise of Election Fraud Claims

• Gubernatorial Runoff:

  • Steve Hilton advances; Tom Steyer (big spender) finishes third after self-funding hundreds of millions.
  • Republican messaging turns to baseless fraud claims whenever results disappoint.
    • (Sam Stein, 11:37):
      “It has become a doctrine, a part of the doctrine at the Republican Party that if you lose an election, it's stolen.”
  • Kristol remarks on how normalized denialism has become—even among non-Trump party elites.

• Notable Segment: DOJ Official on Glenn Beck (14:45–16:19)

  • Alarm raised as a DOJ official in California promises “arrests for voter fraud,” then asks listeners for evidence.
  • Kristol calls it a chilling sign of how far government institutions are being weaponized for partisan purposes and potential future subversion.

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Trump’s Party Fealty & Administration Picks

• Lindsey Graham and the MAGA Movement (05:11)

  • Graham retains his seat easily, despite not being beloved by the MAGA wing. His public loyalty to Trump is what matters.
    • (Sam Stein, 05:11): “...He is obsequious to Trump and that's what matters. And Trump is fine and he endorsed Lindsay and he cut a video and all that stuff for him. And that's the currency in the realm right now...”

• Cabinet & Agency Appointments: Blanche & Pulte

  • Trump nominates Todd Blanche, viewed as having orchestrated the “Epstein cover-up,” for Attorney General—a clear act of retribution and insularity.
  • Bill Pulte, seen as wildly unqualified, will take over as acting DNI (Director of National Intelligence) while retaining housing authority roles.
    • (Sam Stein, 27:33):
      “Bill Pulte is a wildly unqualified political hack. ...When you have a guy like that who's so hackish, the only logical thing to do is to make him the head of the dni...”
  • Even congressional Republicans try to halt appointment, fearing political blowback and linkage to FISA renewal—Trump doubles down and speeds up Pulte’s start date.
    • (Sam Stein, 30:11): “This is Trump just sticking his middle finger to the, to the Republicans in Congress who were begging him to not do this so they can get the FISA renewal.”

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Ongoing U.S.-Iran Tension

• Apache Downed; Escalatory Cycles
  • Iranian drone shoots down U.S. Apache helicopter in the Gulf, family narrowly rescued, prompting proportional U.S. response.
  • Trump described as reluctant to escalate; staff had to talk him into a measured response.
    • (Bill Kristol, 24:51):
      “If you gave that statement... and said what administration was this statement? ...That’s kind of the way the Obama administration works... And that’s to me that says it all.”
  • Discussion of the tension between Trump’s early bellicosity and current reticence, and possible exit strategies.

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Senate & House: Authoritarian Drift, Lame-Fear Rebellions

• ICE and DHS Funding

  • Trump secures $70B more for ICE, with minor resistance from congressional Republicans.
    • (Bill Kristol, 32:05):
      “He just takes. That's a good way of putting...”
  • Legislative votes reflect the diminishing influence of institutionalists like Cornyn and Tillis; Trump’s grip is nearly total.

• Texas Senate: Ken Paxton’s Vulnerability

  • Mention of recent polling showing Democrat Talarico ahead of incumbent Republican Ken Paxton—raising the possibility of a competitive Texas Senate race.

• Supreme Court Vacancy Speculation

  • Some talk of an impending retirement (Alito) and the likelihood Trump would use the vacancy to rev up his base.

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Populism, Victimhood, and the Politics of Resentment

• Platner’s victory message and Trump’s methods reveal how anti-establishment, “us vs. them,” politics unite disparate voter groups, despite vast differences (e.g., progressive populists vs. MAGA).
  • Stein: “There is a little bit of a Trumpian element. ...It is a populist appeal that has worked for others in the past. We'll see if it works in Maine.” (47:55)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Trump’s Judicial Approach:

  • “He wants total control of the party because ...the things he wants [are] more important to have total control of 35% of the electorate— a slightly smaller Republican Party— than have a lot of, you know, anguished people to deal with.” (Kristol, 04:49)

• On DOJ Election Fraud Promises:

  • “You people have to understand how far outside acceptable behavior that is for the Department of Justice... to promise a[n] outcome in a case and then admit he doesn’t actually have the evidence for it.” (Stein, 14:45)

• On Loyalty Tests:

  • “The currency in the realm right now is you just have to be kind to the big boss and that gets you elected again... They all know it.” (Stein, 05:11)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:58 — Show intro, Nancy Mace’s defeat & Trump’s retribution
• 02:29–04:43 — Trump’s war on non-loyalists, Epstein files discussion
• 05:11 — Lindsey Graham’s primary win & MAGA loyalty
• 07:15–09:00 — Maine primary expectations & polling
• 11:37–14:45 — Election fraud claims in California, normalization of denial
• 14:45–16:19 — DOJ official’s chilling voter fraud promise on Glenn Beck
• 20:09–27:10 — Iran escalation: Apache incident, Trump’s reticence, proportionality
• 27:33–33:00 — Bill Pulte’s DNI appointment, ICE/DHS funding, FISA dynamics
• 34:26–36:52 — Texas polling, Senate map volatility, Supreme Court vacancy speculation
• 38:29–39:30 — Maine: Platner’s margin, populist victory speech
• 41:15–44:21 — Platner’s full speech, hosts’ reaction
• 47:13 — DSCC statement, implications for November

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Tone and Takeaways

The podcast is caustically candid, candidly caustic: refusing to romanticize personalities or minimize threats posed by political developments. Both hosts are wary of the deepening authoritarianism of Trumpism, the normalization of election subversion rhetoric, and the “loyalty at all costs” trend overtaking Republican institutions. Meanwhile, the populist wave on both sides is dissected as both instinctively powerful and potentially perilous, especially as it downs traditional gatekeepers and elevates figures like Platner and Pulte.

Stein and Kristol combine a deep well of institutional memory with real-time urgency and humor, making the episode valuable for anyone eager to understand not just who "won" the night, but what the mechanics and mood of American politics now mean for November and beyond.

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

N hey everyone, it's me, Sam Stein, managing at the Bulwark. I'm joined by Bill Kristol, the one, the only in the flesh. He's hanging in there off of the Knicks game last night. I know it was very disappointing, but this man just doesn't stop working. We're here to talk about the election results. Actually, only a few of them are in. We were waiting for the grand platinum election results, but Maine's count slower than California at this point and we need some more numbers before we start doing our hot takes. But what we do have is South Carolina election results. And the most interesting one, although expected, Bill, is Nancy Mace, congresswoman from the Charleston area, who has had an interesting journey around MAGA ism in the Trump era, decided to run for governor, had a bit of an episode at the Charleston airport. We could talk about that later. She finished fifth and has conceded. And I thought what was interesting about this is what she said in her concession statement. I don't know if we have it here. It is fairly lengthy statement. We're not going to read all of it. But she says serving South Carolina has been the greatest honor of my life. Every vote I cast, everything hearing I call blah, blah blah blah. I am literally willing to get on a plane to evacuate you for a war zone. I've done that too. I voted to release the Epstein files and lost some support for that. And then she goes on to explain why she did because she's a survivor and she had a stand on principle and so on and so forth. But that was to me the most Interesting line here. A recognition that the Epstein vials vote did cost her. Obviously Trump did not endorse her.

[C]

Yeah. And Trump I think went out of his way to attack her. Endorse the Lieutenant Governor who looks like she'll be in a runoff with Wilson, who's a son I believe of Congressman Joe Wilson and I guess Lieutenant Governor is a little Trumpier. Maybe didn't perform quite as well as you'd expect someone endorsed by the governor and by Trump to perform. I know she was running about 30% when I, when I last looked. It's a five way race though, right? Now the Mace, I mean, so now Trump, I mean Trump has now knocked

[B]

off or well, forced out.

[C]

Yeah. Or at least can take credit for forcing out even might have happened anyway was Mace is such a flake and all that. Mace. The, the four Republicans who voted for the discharge petition to brought Epstein to the floor and really one forgets launched the whole thing.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Because that forced the vote and then they had to. Then everyone decided we can't vote against it. So that it was suddenly 410 to 1 and then Trump said I have to sign it. So that was really a big thing. Those four Republicans were.

[B]

Well, one remains.

[C]

Right. So three are gone. Marjorie Jelly Greene resigned rather than take the assault. Mace got defeated and Massey, Massey was defeated. And we'll see what happens with Lauren Boebert. Trump was sort of looking for someone to take her on and also he's taken out Cassidy and Cornyn into Senate, two incumbent Republican senators. So he is throwing his weight around. I guess I'm really struck by that in general. Right. These these days we, we look at him and think, oh, down in the polls, falling asleep next games. But he is, he is throwing his, his weight around in Republican politics certainly.

[B]

Yeah. And it's like, you know what's interesting is that if you were Trump, why would you want to draw more attention to the fact that you're making retribution over the Epstein files? Right. It's like you were exonerated by the release. According to you, what retribution do you need for people releasing this stuff? So, but you know, obviously to him every slight is never going to go unanswered.

[C]

Yeah. Just on that. I mean to tie it in to get away off the election for a second. He didn't have to nominate Blanche to be Attorney General. He could have just left him as deputy for a long time. Almost like a year would have been actually. And then he could have done stuff or maybe anyway, he went out of his, you know, he did it what just this week. Right. Well, end of last week and this week. Yeah. To sort of again. And he's not worried. Apparently the Blanche literally was the person who orchestrated the Epstein cover up. So he is.

[B]

I mean not just that the Jelaine Maxwell prison went down there and stuff.

[C]

Yeah. So I mean it, it is. He is not. Trump is all in on a lot of things and not, not listening to people who say, oh, this could hurt some Republicans in November. I just think he does at this point. He almost doesn't care about that. He wants total control of the party because I think he the things he wants to more important to have total control of 35% of the electorate. A slightly smaller Republican Party than have a lot of, you know, anguish people to deal with.

[B]

Yeah. And I think everyone gets the message. Right. I mean like we, the other, the other race right now in South Carolina we were watching prior to coming on as Lindsey Graham whose primary was going to win. No one thought anything of it. It, you know, there's not even drama here. He's going to win handedly. And you know, Lindsey Graham's not like a popular guy in the MAGA movement. They kind of all mock him and think of him as a warmonger and laugh at him at how obsequious he is towards Trump and they think it's all fake and funny. But he is obsequious to Trump and that's what matters. And Trump is fine and he endorsed Lindsay and he cut a video and all that stuff for him. And that's the currency in the realm right now is you just have to be kind to the big boss and that gets you elected again. And they all know it.

[C]

No, it is very true. And yeah. And he's. Well, anyway, he's doing that across the board. I think really the doubling down on loyalty, fealty. I mean again that we should get to this later maybe but denomination of pick a Pulte for the. We discussed this at other. Many other things occasions in the last four or five days. But it is really astonishing.

[B]

Right. Well this is. So we're going to talk about Pulte at the latter half of this. But the flip side of this is that he now has to nominate. Well, he's not nominating Bill Pulte, but he's nominating Todd Blanche. But he does have to pass the SPISA authorization 702 authorization and then he's got to do it in a Senate where you do have Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn and Tom Tills. Now these Guys, we always wait and see if they do anything and they never do. But it does add another dynamic here where he does have to deal with

[C]

this stuff, but he prefers to have a loyal henchman at ODNI that he cares about. I believe the actual security program, you know, passing or being lapsed for a while. But I think that says a lot about what he thinks the next two and a half years is about. It's about super loyalists at every administration position and the key ones, and showing that loyalty is rewarded both on the elected officials and among his own people working for him in the administration. And that's it. He does. I mean, the rest of it is all secondary.

[B]

All right, just catching people up. We're going to be talking about Iran in a little bit. We're going to be talking about Bill Pulte, who Trump is now expediting the time frame by which he's going to install him at dni. We also are following the election results that are happening in real time. We're waiting for some sort of, you know, numbers out of Maine that could show us. I mean, I think. Let's just talk a little bit about Maine and what we're waiting for and what we're looking for, because obviously this is the big primary. Know if people have noticed Graham Platner's been in the news. Have you noticed that? A few. Few stories about Graham Plat.

[C]

I've heard about that. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Basically everyone expects him to win the Democratic primary there. Jana Mills is still on the ballot, but she hasn't been campaigning. She suspended her campaign. So some other candidates in the race. Basically the benchmark is what, like, we're trying to see if he hits like 70, 75. That's basically where Sarah Gideon was in the last. What are you looking for? Yeah, there it is. Sarah Gideon had 71.5% when she ran in the Democratic primary six years ago. Obviously, she went suffer a shocking defeat to Susan Collins. You cannot infer one thing from another, but that is sort of the manufacturer benchmark that people are looking at tonight.

[C]

I mean, in the polls of this race, of the Democratic primaries, when it was a real race, the last one that probably one of the one that drove Jenna Mills out of the race was something like 64 platters. At 64, Mills was like 28. Kind of humiliating for the incumbent governor. And she got out in a poll taken. There was one poll taken after everyone was out, after she was out. And Platinum was, I think 75 or 6 or something like that. So, you know, I'd say the 70ish range. I mean, if he's out in the 60s, it sort of suggests that there was some resistance. There is some resistance to him among people, among Bill supporters, among other Democrats. And maybe that'll stand up for the general. Maybe not, obviously.

[B]

I just, I don't know. I got a car maybe. I just want to caution, like we have the Steve Kornacki tweet up tonight. He's like a late May unh poll. That's University of New Hampshire poll taken after Mills dropped out and before the new round of contraries gave Platinum a 76 to 21 advantage over the others. Like, okay, fine, that's helpful data point. But that's one poll and it's from the University of New Hampshire, which is a notoriously bad pollster. And like, yeah, this is probably as bad as it gets for Platinum with respect to the main electorate. I mean, who knows? Actually, I shouldn't say that. There could always be more that comes up. I don't want people to overread. What happens to.

[C]

No, I agree.

[B]

Like, I, I just want to caution it. That said, you know, the real question is like, do the normies, do the Democrats who are like just not comfortable with this type of politics, do they just not show up really?

[C]

I think so much depends. This is obvious on what the world looks like in October of this year. I mean, what is Trump doing? Is Trump, you know, is ice in massive crackdowns. That is Trump trying to call the elections into question. It is authoritarianism on steroids. In that case. I think a lot of people say, you know what, we just need to have a Democratic Senate if possible. It's just check Trump. If Trump's being sort of the wars, you know, it's been wound up okay. And the economy's gas prices are coming down and the economy's coming back and Trump doesn't look too scary as president then people think I don't really want. So I think a lot depends on, you know, what world we're looking at. Yeah.

[B]

And if we know something about Trump, he's a shrinking violet. He never tries to steal a spotlight, hates controversy, would never, would never throw a grenade into election or make it all about himself. So we can assume that it's going to be in that type of low stakes election. I will just note we do not count this as a call because it's just one outlet. But decision desk HQ is projecting grand planner to win the primary. Again, not a surprise, folks. It is what it is. Other thing that happened tonight Is that in California officially? Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for governor, has made the runoff. That means he finished second. Javier Becerra finished first. They'll be on the bout together. Everyone assumes Bessera is going to win because California, again is a massively Democratic state. There's two sideshow components here. One is semi humorous and one is deeply serious. The first is Tom Steyer, who finished third. I saw a data point. Tom Starr has run for office twice, President, now governor, and in those two runs he spent 550 or so odd million of his own money to not win. I'm just like, blown away by that.

[C]

It's impressive. It's impressive, you know, Is it? Maybe you make the record books. I don't know.

[B]

You know, I looked it up. So I looked it up because I was like, that is a staggering amount of money. And I found something on Open Secrets, which monitors political spending over time. And that number is about 18 of every single dollar spent by every single candidate, political party, independent group and outside Democratic entity on all federal elections in 2022. That's how much money that is. It was like something like $4.4 billion. Anyways. It's a staggering money. The more serious point here, though, is what's happening with the election fraud conversation on the Republican side of the aisle. They've been spending a couple days now just assuming that Spencer Pratt couldn't possibly have lost or finished third in the LA mayor, always. And I'm a little bit blown away by how many people in the actual Republican firmament, not just Donald Trump, but people who know better, are just flirting this stuff or openly pushing it. And it has become a doctrine, a part of the doctrine at the Republican Party that if you lose an election, it's stolen.

[C]

Yeah. And then they're using the fact that California vote counts, vote slowly. And the Democrats voted later, which they did this time because they wanted to see which of the gubernatorial candidates would be, you know, most likely to make it to the final two. And because younger and more progressive voters tend to vote later also. And so, yeah, they. All these things were knowable. Pratt's running. It's almost exactly the vote Trump got in L. A. Right.

[B]

So it's like it's basically the same percentage. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

So, I mean, it's not like, oh, this is really a bizarre outcome. I mean, the city is very Democratic and it's voted for the two Democrats above Trump. And Karen Basser, I suppose, was magically, you know, fixing this election, rigging this election, though no one has any Literally any evidence or any. Any plausible suspicion of any rigging. She wanted to run against. Against Platt because she wanted a Trumpy Republican as her opponent, not a sort of interesting progressive Democrat. This sets up actually a tough race for Bass, I think. So it's really insane and I agree. Therefore it's very creepy. Not just the Trump. Well, it's creepy that Trump is doing it right. Which is itself important. Trump didn't do much of this in 18 or 22. Trump cares about Trump. Trump likes the rigged election argument for himself. Right. He wants to use himself. He's now using it for everyone. And what does it say about November 26th? And what is this? Is this. It's ludicrous in this case. So it's going nowhere. And even though. But a. You're very right to be a little freaked out that enough. So many Republicans, including the speaker of the House, are really freaked out. Literally no evidence.

[B]

I mean, what really freaked me out today or yester was I was watching. I was on. I was on X, the everything platform and I get like a video clip of Glenn Beck's show. And Glenn Beck is nuts, I think it's fair to say, but he was interviewing the Assistant U.S. attorney or unassistent us. I forget why they have to call this guy that of central California who went on the show and literally said there will be arrests in a matter of months for voter fraud and then in the next breath encourage the listeners to help them find the evidence.

[C]

No.

[B]

And I'm thinking to myself, what the. That you people have to understand how far outside acceptable behavior that is for the Department of Justice to announce that there would be. Oh, we have a clip. We have the clip. We can play it because I want people to understand how crazy this is for an official, the Department of Justice to promise a outcome in a case and then admit that he doesn't actually have the evidence for it. Let's play the clip. You expect people to be charged. Can you say with what and you feel confident enough, you have enough evidence?

[D]

I will just say it will be election fraud charges in the next. I hate to put timelines on things, but one to two months. I believe we need some of these results to be certified so we can, you know, prove some of the allegations. But we will be charging some people. I can't get in too much. And, and mostly, Glenn, I mean, it's not just DOJ rules, but we also want to protect innocent people if we get something wrong. We don't want someone to be tainted with this, with the Stain of an investigation until we're able to prove that in court. So I can't get into too much, but just know that this, at this point right now, we're wide open for investigations. If anyone knows anything direct, and then, please, direct evidence. I know people have theories and they have ideas and.

[C]

Right.

[D]

And what we need right now are witnesses. If you've witnessed anything, if someone voted in your name and you found out someone voted for you, we want to know about that. If you saw someone.

[B]

Okay, we can stop here. We get the gist.

[C]

I mean, it's, it's. You're right to be really freaked out because look, what does this do? I mean, this is some first assistant. This means down through the ranks of the Justice Department, they are all going after, going to manufacture as much as they can, election fraud, try to intimidate people, running elections, maybe prosecute people or at least threaten it again. It's not just Trump himself popping off on social media. It's not even Blanche sucking up to Trump. It's some guy we've never heard of in a race that they can't win and that the guy is nowhere close to where they're trying to get into a runoff with 28%. This is not like Pennsylvania where there's a senate race that's within 1% and it's extremely important. But what it does say, I'm thinking about what's going to happen in November. I think what they're going to do if, let's say there's the Senate race in one of these, several of these races could be very close. And what if in Texas, you know, it's within the percentage point and there they'll manufacture some charges of fraud and this and that and stuff. The degree to which the whole federal government under Trump looks like it's willing to go to bat for election fraud or for election subversion, I think is really astonishing. And this is a little dry run, but I say it's such an idiot. I mean, it's a trivial one. So what almost wants to dismiss it, except one thinks, what will they do when there's serious money at stake? Serious, right.

[B]

It's like, yeah, it's like that Pratt wasn't going to win no matter what. Right. Like, even if he did happen to finish second, he ain't gonna win. The stakes are so low, and yet they are. They are making them so high. We're going to go to a quick commercial break. I just want to. Before we go, I just want to get people updated for the latest as we talked about, Nancy Mace finished fifth in her primary for Republican governor of South Carolina. She's conceded. It looks like Graham Platner is on his way to a comfy primary win in the Senate Democratic primary in Maine. But we are waiting to see what the actual margins are. Lindsey Graham won his race. There's a whole host of others that are happening now, somewhat less national notoriety. But when we are after this break, we're going to be talking about foreign affairs because a lot's going on with Iran tonight, as well as Trump doubling down on Bill Pulte, the most unqualified man to ever be nominated to be dni. We'll see what happens with that. But first, a quick word from our sponsors. How far away you are OR Frames keeps you and your dad connected and it makes the perfect Father's Day gift. Plus super easy to get started. It only taking about two minutes to set up a frame using the old aura app. So we sent an aura frame to my mother in law. I was able to add all these photos of my kids playing baseball, playing the piano, doing the swimming meets. Just kind of being cute because my kids are kind of cute. I got to be honest with you. They look great on that aura frame. They're always on a loop in her house. And look, my sister in law got kind of jealous because her kids weren't on that loop. So if you have a little competition in the family OR Frames helps you in it. Plus OR frames come with free unlimited storage so you can add as many photos and and videos as you want. And you can add preloaded photos before it ships. Keep adding from anywhere, anytime. That reminds me, I gotta add some more frames to my mother in law's aura frames. It was named number one by Wirecutter. So you can save now by [e-mail] for a limited time. Listeners can get 35 off of select frames with code Bulwark Takes. That's a U R A frames.com promo code bulwark takes. And you can support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions do apply. Bill, I gotta be honest. I have an OR frames in my office and it's just pictures of you from over the years.

[C]

Didn't you give one to your sister? I feel like there's some, some, I don't know, a little bit of a subtext there with your sister and why sister in law. Sister in law. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, yeah. Okay. I won't even get. I won't even go there, you know. Right.

[B]

All I'M saying is I got no frames in my mother in law's house. I put all the pictures in there and I'm dominating on the, you know, the beloved son in law scale here. All right, Iran, we're at war again. What happened? I thought this was done. I thought there was no that we were done with this. What, what do we make of this?

[C]

Well, they've been tit for tats over the last week or so, but then an Apache helicopter was shot down apparently by an Iranian drone, which is a little worrisome. Right in the Gulf. These are Apache helicopters are pretty important weapons and they shouldn't. Well, who knows why. Anyway, shot down by drone. Luckily, the two soldiers aboard were rescued. Those family was kind of a dicey proposition. And so we had to retaliate and are retaliating. It's a little unclear. I mean, it's big, big. Ish. Bigger than one like little bombing, but a little unclear. How big are the Iranians are now saying they're going to retaliate against our retaliation? Could have spit out of control. I don't know. I mean, the Iranians willingness to kind of actually fight and not to simply sort of accept what would be a pretty good outcome for them, honestly and just sort of let Trump have a little bit of a fig leaf and walk away. That for me is still the big story.

[B]

What do you think that is?

[C]

I think they're confident that they can wring more out of Trump and really show the world that they will continue to control access to the strait. That helicopter shot down over the strait, and that they can, you know, get money, if not from us, from the UAE and from the, or from, you know, allies Gulf countries. They're throwing their weight around. Maybe they're miscalculating a little bit, but I don't know. And they still think they have the economic, you know, upper hand because of gas or gas prices here and oil prices around the world. So, I mean. I don't know.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, so the subtext here is, does Trump just want to get out? Right. And so all the report, the reporting that they did was kind of interesting. So yes, they, they hit an Apache helicopter last night. There's kind of a semi, daring, not daring, but kind of very interesting rescue in which it was apparently an unmanned drone that was like brought in to rescue these two soldiers. Kudos to our military. That's freaking awesome. But then the question was, okay, what do we do now? And Trump has been trying over the past couple days to get both the Israelis in the Iranians to chill out in Lebanon and kind of leaked that he had admonished Bibi Netanyahu for the strikes in Iran and then he had encouraged Bibi to not hit Beirut. And there was just like, clearly Trump wants to put a pot on this, a top on this thing. And that extended to today because what the Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight is that he initially was just sort of reluctant to even respond to this. Kind of had to be talked into it by Pete Hexith and General K. And then the sort of word out of the White House was this was going to be a proportional response. And then they even used the word that it was a self defense response which kind of struck me as interesting. Here you go. The US Central Command says this. At 5:18pm Eastern Time today, US Central Command forces began launching self defense strikes. Self defense strikes against Iran at 5pm Eastern today at the Commander in Chief's direction in response to yesterday's downing of a US Army Apache helicopter mission is proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression. So I don't know, I'm reading all this. I, I just get the sense that Trump is just absolutely done with this and the fact that he had to be talked into the responses is really notable to me.

[C]

Yeah, I think he's wanted to be done for about two months but he can't quite get himself done for two reasons. Why not? Well, two things I think the one I've been focused on most and I've written about a lot, he is, he wants some kind of face saving fig leaf and he can't quite make himself just accept that he's going to walk away into the world's going to say that was pretty screwed up. You know, Donald Trump.

[D]

Right.

[C]

But it may also be that the Iranians are just not giving him even enough to kind of get out there because they're so, they so much feel they have the upper hand. But look, that statement I had, I'd read it quickly but I mean if you gave it, that statement to one of us and said what administration was this statement? And we would have said, you know what, that's kind of the way the Obama administration works. You know, everything is very proportionate. We don't want to be too aggressive self defense events, you know, don't worry. I mean wasn't the rhetoric, correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't the rhetoric from Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth a little different? You know, at the, the first week or two or three of the war it didn't quite Sound like that did it, you know, and that's to me that says it all, doesn't, doesn't it? I mean that confirms your point. He wants it ended and it confirms where we have ended up after all that bellicosity and bravado in those first two, three weeks.

[B]

First of all, I just want to be clear. I like proportionality. I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm all for it. Let's not.

[C]

No, no, I'm not. I'm.

[B]

So it is very, it is, there is some Obama esque elements here. It also, but there's two things that, that are interesting here is one is, you know, they've been talking for months now that the, the, they control the skies in Iran. Right. I mean that has been the talking point. They don't, I mean obviously they don't. Right. Otherwise they wouldn't have downed an Apache helicopter. I guess the second thing is, you know, on the bellicosity, on, on the idea that we have to be like, you know, brave about it, I suppose it is a trap of their own making that they came out swinging so hard and you know, they remember those early briefings that he would give at the Pentagon. We haven't had one of those in ages. Yeah, it does make it a lot harder now to sort of tuck and run when you're doing it under duress like this. So it's, it's really hard to sort of fathom a way out in these conditions. And then of course we control, we control, but the Iranians can do whatever, you know, they're going to do what they want. And let's put the Trey Inks tweet here. This is the foreign minister after the strikes and I quote, our powerful armed forces will leave no attack or threat unanswered. Leave our region if you want to be safe. I mean that's obviously. But their domestic politics situation matters here. Right? Like they, they're not gonna not respond to this.

[C]

Yeah, let's see. And then maybe they'll respond sort of, you know, proportionately well, they'll attack some of the Gulf states and not us. So we don't feel we have to respond. Right. I mean, but look, I just don't want to make your point, which is a good point about the, you know, the early Belicoste is even much too understated. This kind of, yeah, it makes it a little harder. But Trump, I mean I would just say if you were a normal political advisor to Donald Trump, you know, your Fabrizio, maybe your Susie Wiles say Look, you know what? Bite the bullet and get out of this goddamn thing. People will, your, your, your opponents will chortle for 72 hours and then you'll be out of it. Iran probably has an interest in keeping the strait mostly open. It won't be like the old days with your freedom of the seas, but, you know, they got us. Get their oil out and people will cut deals with them, Japan, South Korea, everyone else, and pay them off and they'll open the strait. Gas prices will come down, people will get some of the troops home. People will kind of forget about it. You could do Cuba in two months. I mean, I'm serious.

[B]

Just one more.

[C]

Politically, that one's probably a little less difficult. I mean, politically, it's insane. I mean, that Trump is keeping this black cloud over his head by his own actions. And incidentally, it's not just a psychological thing or an image thing. He's literally got gas prices probably half a dollar or a buck higher than they would be because he's insisting on having this thing go on. Right.

[B]

I mean, I know that that's true. That's 100. And yet, of course, we've talked about this many times. It is remarkable the degree to which gas prices aren't even higher and that the markets are not freaking out about this or even responding in any sort of way that you would imagine, considering how open ended this whole thing is. So he is good at market manipulation. I'm going to give that guy some credit. He's very good at that. Okay, the other big news tonight is, is around Bill Pulte. And so for those uninitiated, Bill Pulte is a wildly unqualified political hack. He was basically thrown out, pushed out of his family business, which is real estate, and kind of took into. People should read the Will Summer piece about his rise. But he was a meme stock guy, did a bunch of stupid Stu stuff, kind of did this weird philanthropy thing on Twitter, got Trump's attention. Trump decides to make him basically the head of the Federal Housing Authority and Fanny and Freddy. And what does he do during that time? He launches spurious investigations about mortgage fraud into Trump's opponents. So that's Bill Pulte's resume. Now, when you have a guy like that who's so hackish, the only logical thing to do is to make him the head of the dni because that's, you know, you got to be promoted up from there. And this is causing a stir on the Hill because he's so patently unqualified for this post, and not just that he would use it in manifestly political ways that even Republicans are like, I don't know about this one. Like, we shouldn't do this. This is coinciding with the FISA authorization which Congress needs to do. It's going to expire on Friday. And there was some talk this week that the Republicans are going to make Trump pull the Pulte appointment. It's not a nomination, it's an appointment. He just served in an acting role, so there's no confirmation around it that they were going to make him pull that appointment in order to get FISA passed. Mike Johnson, Speaker House goes to the White House yesterday, or was it today? I forgot which one this morning. Maybe this morning to talk about, among other things, this. And instead of pulling the nomination or, sorry, the appointment, Donald Trump does the following. Let's put up his statement. William Pulte, not Bill, who is working closely with Tulsi Gabbard, will be taking over as acting Director of National Intelligence on Friday, June 19th. This is an expedited time frame because initially it was supposed to be the 30th. He will remain as director of Federal Housing Finance Agency and Chairman of Fannie and Freddie. Thank you for your attention. Matter. I love the fact that he's going to continue doing the other jobs, too, but this is Trump just sticking his middle finger to the, to the Republicans in Congress who were begging him to not do this so they can get the FISA renewal.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, I think he wants to set a signal in that way, but moving it up two weeks probably doesn't matter because what we've been showing is forget it. I can't be pleasured into this. And if you don't want to renew Pfizer, don't renew it. And I'll blame the Democrats and who would block it and whatever. Republicans might join the Democrats. I don't know if they really will be any. And then we'll just. And if anything happens, and meanwhile, I've got this guy there even more loyal, even more loyal. And then Tulsi Gabbard, who will do maybe even more than Tulsi was willing to do in terms of inventing foreign election interference as an excuse to go in and mess around in the elections and also go after my political opponents, as you said, which he did in spades at this housing job where he's taking up mortgage records, really stuff that's very questionable legally to go after a Fed governor. You know, think of it. I mean, so, I mean, I think again the degree to which Trump is weaker, but you and I were talking about this before, earlier today. Is weaker than he was. And there's, you know, little rebellions on the Hill and elsewhere and maybe. But on the other hand, the degree to which is all in on his loyalty to him and doing what he wants. And part of what he wants is, you know, tilting the elections. I think pretty clearly that's what this has got to be about.

[B]

So, yeah, I mean, the loyalty to him is such an interesting component because we literally just last week had a vote on this reconciliation bill for ICE funding. And the whole idea was that they're going to insist that the weaponization fund be outlawed in, in the script of it, in the, in the text. Didn't happen. Thom Tillis, big old whiff. Bill Cassidy, big old whiff. They just absolutely acquiesced. And then today, the House, same thing passed by the skin of its teeth. Just one House Republican voted against this thing. And lo and behold, $70 billion more for ice. I saw now we spent about $240 billion on ice and DHS in the first year and six months of the Trump administration. So there is no, I mean, Trump just takes. There's no give.

[C]

Yeah, he just takes. That's a good way of putting. Now, if you can have Mars in these sort of layer. Last two weeks, Pulte Blanche, 240, you know, another 70 billion for Trump's personal kind of militia out there, ICE and Border Patrol, run by a guy, Mullen, who has shown a little bit more diplomatic maybe, than Kristi Noem.

[B]

Sure.

[C]

But, but the. Basically the same stuff they now talk about going into New York, what's happening in New Jersey, it's, it's really striking. I mean, I think the degree to which there was a little lull, you might say, in Trump's kind of authoritarian and stuff for a while. A little rattled. A little rattled by what happened in Minneapolis, maybe. And, and then he had to fire Bondi and. No, I'm saying maybe it's a parrot fake kind of lull, but the firings gave people some sense of maybe get a little more normalcy. Not at all. Blanche has gone further than Bondi and literally these broadcasts, the bond these people didn't find. Well, we just wait. The thing you put up earlier from this assistant US First Assistant, whatever he

[B]

is, whatever the hell his title is

[C]

in California, Trump talking about this utterly ludicrous claim of election fraud in California to lay the predicate for doing that later this year, the purging of all these Senators Cornyn. Remember, it wasn't too long ago that people thought, yeah, maybe he'll endorse Cornyn in Texas. Cornyn's voted with him 99.5% of the time. Paxton's a little dubious. He wants to keep the Senate. He doesn't care about anything except total, total fealty.

[B]

Well, he gave me a good hook to go back to domestic politics. And we'll close soon, but I'm just having too much from a Bill Paxton. We had a poll out today, Talarico Sienna poll, which is actually a decent poster. Tellarico up three on Paxton in Texas. Now, I'm not. I'm not counting anything this far out. And we're not even remotely in the heat of the, you know, absolute mudslinging season that's about to come. There's a crazy fake AI ad I'm not even gonna, like, talk about because it's so batshit crazy about James Talarico. They're gonna throw everything they can. The guy. And yet I saw a data point that I think during the entirety of his race against Ted Cruz, Beto o' Rourke only led two public polls the entire time. Here we are. I think Telegram's led over that many so far against Ken Paxton. We'll see. We'll see. But it's, you know, it's like one of those things where it's like, should I be more intrigued is this is actually happening? Like, could it possibly be? I don't know.

[C]

Yeah, it could be. I think we're on the bubble in a lot of these states, obviously Iowa, Texas, Alaska, Ohio, to take the. In addition to the Maine, which in North Carolina. Which North Carolina should be. A pickup in Maine should be.

[B]

We'll see.

[C]

They could be on. They're really on the bubble. So much to pay. I guess it's one of these rare cases. I mean, often these elections get kind of baked in around now, maybe by July 4th. And I feel like this is a real case where, though the. What I said earlier, in a way, the. Where the country is in two or three months becomes so important. I mean, I was talking with someone today of Austin stuff closely, that he thinks Trump will come back a little. He'll end up at 42%, not 38% approval. That could possibly.

[B]

Usually the case right towards the election, people kind of rally.

[C]

On the other hand, I don't know, depending on what happens in the war and all kinds of other things, gas prices, it could be at 37. I mean, I just think the degree of volatility we're now in the middle of which Trump has created to a large degree. And maybe he's, he's pretty good sometimes at benefiting from this kind of craziness, I suppose with the Democrats get a little rattled, I don't know.

[B]

But, well, this is the thing. What does he run on is sort of more intriguing to me than like, will he try to, like, what will people rally around him? So, like, if you Remember back in 2018, I think it was the big caravan scare. Right. Maybe I'm misremembering that, but it was.

[C]

And then he had the Supreme Court fight the very last week, which probably helped him in some of those states.

[B]

The Republicans. Okay, yeah.

[C]

Republicans came home because it was like, okay, we need a Senate that will confirm Supreme Court justices. Okay, the week out.

[D]

Right.

[B]

Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't, I don't suspect that Thomas or Alito are going to retire. I mean, I think, I think one of the said before the election, I

[C]

think Alito goes this month because I think they, they'll get a pressure in because they want to put someone younger on it. And he's, he's a party loyalist too. I don't know if I were running Republican politics now, maybe they can't persuade a leader to do it. I don't know how much leverage they have on him. But I would say you want, generally, Republicans have done better in these Supreme Court fights, the Democrats, I'm not sure that happens this time. After Dobbs, it's a different dynamic maybe, but I think of that we'll have a blanche confirmation which will bring Epstein front and center in the next month or two. We could have a Supreme Court fight. Those things are always pretty big. We have gas prices elevated because of a war. We have uncertainty about the economy. I mean, all this, the immigrant mass, you know, the mass deportation stuff going on, it's pretty crazy.

[B]

And a government funding fight. Yeah. Because that, that lapses the end of September. I'm sort of torn around the Supreme Court thing because in theory I agree with you. Right. Like you want to just get it done with before you potentially lose the Senate. On the other hand, Trump knows that his two most loyal judges are Tom Thomason and Alita. Right. Like those are the guys that he never loses and he's been upset with some of the others. So I don't know, is a lean cannon just waiting in the wings maybe.

[C]

I bet he appoints someone who's a real right wing. Maybe not canon, but it will not Be a compromise. Ish. Pick. You know, it's not going to be someone.

[B]

You know.

[C]

You know, it's not going to be Amy Coney Barrett. You know, it's going to be much more.

[B]

Well, now, Now. Now it's starting to make sense. Now it's starting to make sense because Bill Pulte is only going to be acting dni, so he'll be only waiting for his next gig, and that's when he's gonna open up the court seat, and we'll get Supreme Court Justice Bill Pulte. The other news now we've been following is on the election front. AP has called it for Graham Platner. So it's official. Official now. Not a surprise. We have about 19 in, I think is the latest, and Platinum is at about 73.68. Very precise. Janet Mills is at 20.1. Do not read into this. He's just hitting his metrics that basically Democrats who win these elections do. I suppose, if you want to read into it, the bottom didn't fall out. Like, like. That's right. If he was, like, closer to, like, 55, 60, then that would have been problematic. All right, any last thoughts before we call it a night? I thought we were only gonna go 15 to 20 minutes.

[C]

I know, I know. You said. Come on, 15, 20 minutes.

[B]

There is.

[C]

You wanted to be out. You wanted to snap me out of my deep concerns about the Knicks. And I actually know this is nice to be distracted for 40 minutes to not worry about tomorrow night's game.

[B]

Wait, wait. No, no. I have legit breaking NBA news that I want to get your read on, and we can close in on this. So you saw the game last night? I was watching the game, too. I obviously saw what was a blatantly bad missed call where Victor Wembanyama literally tossed Jalen Brunson onto the floor. You saw that, right? So we've been waiting to see what's going to happen with this, because the refs were reviewing it, and it was textbook flagger and foul. Right? Like, they had to upgrade it. So Shams, who's like the great NBA insider, has tweeted at 9:24, no flagrant upgrade on uncalled Fallon Spurs Victor Wembanyama to Nick's Jalen Brunson on Monday night. A league spokesperson tells espn Wembanyama will stay at two flagrant points in the postseason. I guess if he had been upgraded, he might have had to miss a game. They weren't gonna. The league was not gonna do that. Not with Victor being the big draw. So that's some breaking NBA news for you, Bill. Are you nervous? Are you nervous about games?

[C]

Just reassure me that Trump is not going tomorrow.

[B]

He's not, they said he's not going.

[C]

He's, he, he's just poisoned the happiness there for one night. But I think, I think New York's going to regain, it's going to regain. It's, it's, it's Roger V. For, for tomorrow night.

[B]

He, he's not going. He's not going. I'm sorry, I'm going to just flag this for Matt. We have Platinum speaking and there's a clip of it. Maybe we can try to upload and get, he can just ring out two more minutes or three more minutes, but in the meantime, we going to talk about Trump at msg because it was unreal, like the amount of like bad karma that was inserted into the entire equation. Here you have the team. They haven't lost in like a month and a half and they're like two wins away from ending a 50 year, three year drought. And they're at home and it's like, don't mess with this. And this guy just did inserts himself, sits on the, in the, up in the boxes, gets booed relentlessly, eats fries and then falls asleep.

[C]

Yeah, I, I know. I'd heard he'd fall asleep, but I hadn't really watching then, so I didn't know. It's, we played it this morning on, on the podcast that Andrew Egger and I did. He sleeps for quite a while. I mean, it's like 10, 12 seconds. It's not like two seconds like this and then you snap up. It's like, you know, well, it's sleeping

[B]

for 10 to 12 seconds. That much I feel like I'm good

[C]

at like, or 15 seconds. Seconds. I don't know. I'm not bad at this kind of time.

[B]

No, I'm just saying. All right, we have Platner, who is speaking at a victory party. We'll play one clip, get your reaction to it. I have some thoughts on it. And then after that, we will cut this off. Unless you really want to go, But I'm not a sadist.

[E]

Maine, I love you. I love this state. Now, now, the national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by. But in trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us, About the far Too many working far too hard and struggling far too much at the hands of the ruling class. It is not a story of my hardship. It's of our hardship. A story of the hardship of every working Mainer. People that used to be able to stern in the summertime, plow in the winter, dig clams, and be able to send your kid off to college, but you can't anymore because that hard work, it isn't enough. Now, this story, the story of this campaign, it's not about how the political establishment counted me out. It's about for how far too long. The political establishment has counted out the voices of every single person without the money to buy influence. But they don't know Maine.

[C]

It.

[B]

Well, it doesn't sound like a guy who's gonna step aside.

[C]

Yeah, I found it kind of repulsive, I gotta say. I mean, it is all he's. It is all about him. If you weren't all about him, he would at least think about the fact that he is putting the Senate possibility of winning the Senate at risk. There are plenty of good. There are like four or five good candidates in the gubernatorial race. He could have. He won't announce he's stepping out today, but, I mean, the. This I find it actually, I don't know. I mean, we're supposed to pretend that there's no issues. He's never really apologized. I thought it's pretty. I think watching that, I would say his base loves that. I don't know. What do I know? I'm not in touch with the average main, swingish, reluctant photo for Janet Mills today, but I would say if I were a Janet Mills, I would have voted for Janet Mills. And if I were a Janet Mills, ish. Main voter, I would look at that and think, what the hell is he talking about? You know?

[B]

Yeah, I'm gonna take a little bit more sympathetic take on it. I agree with that. He. He would benefit so much if he. But this, obviously, this is not the form for him to do a mia culpa. Right. Like, he's not. It's a victory switch. But at some point in time, it would really behoove him to, like, I'm sorry. Like, I. I up. I shouldn't have gotten the tattoo, even if I didn't know what it was. I. In retrospect, it was dumb. All these posts, they were really inappropriate. I. I'm sorry. And like, I'm especially sorry to the women who I sexted. Like, I. I mean, just something like that to show contrition and remorse. And Sarah And I have talked about this. That speech, I think does serve him though. I think because ultimately what he's trying to do is to bake it. Not about him, he's trying to make it about an establishment crowd. And you could put. It's so nefarious and it's so, it's so like ill defined. Like anything could be in the establishment. Like you and I are in the establishment. Chuck Schumer's in the establishment. To him, APAC is in the establishment. And so he, he's able to turn this into a victimhood process for himself. And frankly, you might hate it. And I think it's not, I don't think it's like sincere necessarily, but it is effective. I think this is what happens all the time. Trump has perfected this. Right.

[C]

Like, although it reminded me.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Watching him. But I would just say it does not remind me of, let's say, Mom, Dondi, aoc, Some of the other people who you would associate with the populous Democratic, progressive, Democratic insurgency against the establishment. They do not sound like him. I, I think he's gonna. The belligerence. It is Trumpy. Maybe there's a market for that. Maine's a different state from other places and so forth. But it, I don't know. I'm not sure how it'll, how well it'll wear in a general election campaign. And I, believe me, I don't particularly care. I think Susan Collins is not a good senator at this point and she's gone along with Trump on everything. And I very much want to vote for a Democrat, but. Well, who knows? Who knows though? You know, they've got to get no several months to go. So let's, we'll see.

[D]

Right.

[B]

I think, I think you're right in your instinct that it probably doesn't play well with people who are just like, I want a normal human being who is not Susan Collins. And I think it may play better with people who are like this sort of horseshoe theory around that Trump perfected. Like people who have not been engaged in politics and think that they're getting screwed over by politicians. There's a statement from DSCC chair Kirsten Gillibrand who has this to say. Over the past year, we've created a path to win a Democratic Sen. Majority and put a stop to the chaos and damage of the Trump administration by defeating the Republicans who enabled his harmful agenda. Susan Collins has never been more vulnerable after she voted with Trump 96% of the time, confirmed his far right judicial nominees and took millions from special interests While voting to rip health care away from Mainers. In November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner and we will win a Senate majority. Kind of a back end way to support Grandpa.

[C]

I wondered if he was, she was going to mention his name anyway.

[B]

Comes at the last sentence. Well, no congratulations on your or anything. It's like we will elect them, but that's the state of the race and it, you know, frankly, we'll see. I mean, this is the, this is the path he has to go now, which is everyone's against me, who, who has money and who's got power. But I'm with you. And, and there is a little bit of a Trumpian element. I'm not saying, I'm obviously not saying those same people. Calm down. I'm just saying it is a populist appeal that has worked for others in the past. We'll see if it works in Maine. All right, Bill, I'm tired. We've done, we've gone, we've gone on long enough. But I appreciate you. More importantly, I appreciate you guys. I'm trying to do my platter impression. This is our movement.

[C]

This is not about Sam Stein. This is about you.

[B]

Thank you guys for joining the Bulwark Live on election night. Subscribe to our feed, become a paid subscriber to our substack or become a paid subscriber on our YouTube feed to get some ad free stuff. If you do that, remember to buy an aura frame. Father's Day is coming right around the gift. I'm right around the bend. Great gift, Bill. I'll talk to you tomorrow, man.