The Internet is Bullying Sam Stein!

Summary

Bulwark Takes: "The Internet is Bullying Sam Stein!" (January 8, 2026) – Episode Summary

Main Theme / Purpose

In this energetic, freewheeling episode, Tim Miller reunites with Bulwark crew members Sam Stein and Will to dissect the past week’s zanier moments in media and politics. The trio covers internet “bullying” over an Amy Klobuchar joke, the rise of MAGA influencer reality TV, right-wing infighting, Democrats’ embrace of spicy social media tactics, and controversies ranging from OnlyFans visas to Nicki Minaj’s MAGA pivot. As always, it’s delivered with the group's signature irreverence, sharp banter, and cultural snark.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sam Stein Gets “Fileted” Over an Amy Klobuchar Tweet

• [02:43] The episode kicks off with Tim ribbing Sam for making a joking tweet about Amy Klobuchar (“a comb in every salad, a chicken in every pot”) referencing an infamous staffer incident involving a salad comb.
• Tim describes the online backlash: “Sam's being so mean to Amy Klobuchar. Sam's a misogynist. ...Shut the fuck up. Everybody, shut the fuck up. It's a funny joke.”
• Sam defends himself and notes Klobuchar herself has joked about it, saying: “If the Senator were on here, she would probably come on with the comb and be eating out of a salad with it to make good light of it. And people just need to relax.” [05:19]

Memorable Moment:

"Also, as I've said a million times ...I kind of enjoy Internet hate, and I'm a little upset that I missed it." — Sam Stein [05:19]

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2. MAGA Influencer Reality Show

• [06:03] Will introduces a forthcoming "political influencer" reality show, allegedly distributed via Amazon but possibly self-published, starring a cast of right-wing internet personalities (Xavier de Rousseau, “Emily Saves America,” Destiny, Clarkson, etc.).
• The group listens to the trailer together, mocking the cast’s antics and their apparent MAGA rivals and alliances.
• Will notes: “They are like fame balls. They're personalities who are out there ...in terms of their actual influence, I think it's unclear.”

Notable Quote:

“Twitter is a mental hospital. My entire brain. That's enough. You do have to have—” — Tim Miller [10:01]

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3. Benny Johnson, Grindr, and the New Rudeness In Democratic Messaging

• [14:57] The trio dissects a recent spat where Gavin Newsom’s press office zinged right-wing provocateur Benny Johnson with a joke about preparing Grindr servers for his visit.
• Sam delights in the sharp-tongued tweet, reflecting on the evolving tone in Democratic communications and the online debate over whether the quip was homophobic.
• Will provides context: Benny Johnson has been subject to allegations about his sexuality, and Newsom’s tweet plays off that ongoing right-wing drama.
• Tim evaluates: “I think it's borderline. I think that how giddy you are about the joke is maybe a little homophobic, Sam, but, like, joking, I. I think it's fine. ...I'm allowing it.” [16:41]

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4. Right-Wing Internicine Warfare: Bongino, Matt Gaetz, Milo Yiannopoulos

• [18:08] The show covers ex-FBI agent Dan Bongino’s messy Twitter feuds, particularly with Matt Gaetz and Milo Yiannopoulos.
• Tim reads aloud Milo’s “colorful” description mocking Bongino:

“There is a place beyond constipation, beyond being merely backed up... scrape it out with a spoon after five days on Percocet. Welcome to the Bongino rift.” [19:37] — Milo Yiannopoulos

• Will explains Bongino’s new self-assigned role as “in-fighting” enforcer targeting “grifters, life losers, con artists, and black pillars” within MAGA ranks.
• Will breaks down black-pilled nihilism for the audience: “In the Matrix, you take the red pill... [but if you] think there's no point ...you take the black pill.”

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5. Candace Owens, Conspiracy Pipeline, and Right-Wing True Crime

• [23:34] Live on-screen podcast charts reveal Candace Owens’ new branding and status among right-wing media.
• Will narrates the Charlie Kirk assassination conspiracy and Candace’s connections to shady witnesses—reporting a left-to-right fan movement:
  • “[My barber said,] ‘I don't like Trump... but what do you think about that Candace Owens? I kind of think she's onto something there with her Charlie Kirk stuff.’” [24:25]
• Tim expresses concern about the left-to-Candace-to-conspiracy pipeline, especially for “normie moms” and points out Candace’s savvy crossover tactics.

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6. OnlyFans Models and Artist Visas

• [27:33] The crew reviews a Financial Times / New York Post scoop: OnlyFans influencers are securing U.S. O1B “artist visas,” once reserved for top-tier musicians and actors.
• Will explains Gen Z/Bop house slang and the ideological conflict for conservative “trad” types who abhor porn.
• Tim’s take: “As somebody who's pro immigration... in this case, I think I would say I feel like we have a fill of OnlyFans models here and ...potential willingness to participate in that work. ...Americans would pick fruit... [or] be OnlyFans models if you paid them enough.” [29:47]

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7. Tim Miller’s “Plan” to Deport Nicki Minaj

• [31:27] Tim launches a facetious screed arguing Nicki Minaj, after recent MAGA-friendly comments, should be deported under the immigration rules she now champions:
  • “I want to deport Nicki Minaj. ...She can go home to Trinidad and Tobago and get in line and come back to the country ...because Nicki Minaj said a couple years ago that she was brought here when she was five.” [32:43]
• Will speculates: “Perhaps there is some, you know, she just sees it as perhaps advantageous to buddy up with the Trump administration... they were really excited to have her at the Turning Point convention.”
• Tim: “The Barbs are, I think, the stupidest of the pop culture, you know, pop music, early fans. ...when Gavin Newsom gets in there and President Newsom kicks Nicki Minaj out of our fucking country.” [34:44]

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Sam's being so mean to Amy Klobuchar. ...Shut the fuck up. Everybody, shut the fuck up. It's a funny joke.” — Tim Miller [03:16]
• “If the Senator were on here, she would probably come on with the comb and be eating out of a salad with it to make good light of it. And people just need to relax.” — Sam Stein [05:19]
• “Twitter is a mental hospital.” — Tim Miller [10:01]
• “There is a place beyond constipation, beyond being merely backed up... Welcome to the Bongino rift.” — Milo Yiannopoulos (read by Tim Miller) [19:37]
• “I think it's borderline. I think that how giddy you are about the joke is maybe a little homophobic, Sam, but, like, joking, I. I think it's fine. ...I'm allowing it.” — Tim Miller [16:41]
• “I'm not really a true crime girly, but maybe we could find something like... boy coded for me to care about.” — Tim Miller [25:57]
• “As somebody who's pro immigration... in this case... I feel like we have a fill of OnlyFans models here ...Americans would... be OnlyFans models if you paid them enough.” — Tim Miller [29:47]
• “I want to deport Nicki Minaj... Under the new rules ...someone that was brought here... must go back... and get in line.” — Tim Miller [32:43]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Amy Klobuchar Tweet Controversy: [02:43]–[05:46]
• MAGA Influencer Reality Show: [06:03]–[13:23]
• Newsom vs. Benny Johnson/Grindr: [14:57]–[17:56]
• Right-wing Infighting: Bongino, Gaetz, Milo: [18:08]–[22:26]
• Candace Owens and Conspiracy Pipeline: [23:34]–[25:46]
• OnlyFans Artist Visas: [27:33]–[31:17]
• Nicki Minaj Deportation Rant: [31:27]–[34:44]

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Final Tone & Takeaways

The episode pulses with a quick-witted, “inside politics” tone—irreverent, self-aware, and playfully combative. The team mocks internet outrage, right-wing influencer drama, and the unseriousness permeating political media. At heart, it’s a podcast for news junkies who appreciate gallows humor and informed shade, with the Bulwark trio poking fun at themselves as much as their favorite targets. No sacred cows—and no one, from Amy Klobuchar to Nicki Minaj, is safe from a roast.

Closing lines:

“I've got little alerts. I set up this kind of AI thing. Like, anytime the heat at Sam reaches a certain level, Claude sends me a note so I can enjoy it.” — Tim Miller [35:02]

“Thanks so much, buddy. Appreciate it, everyone. Thanks for watch and subscribe to the Bulwark, where you can get great bulwark takes like this...” — Sam Stein [35:18]

Transcript

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[Sam Stein]

Just sold my car online.

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[Tim Miller]

Yep. On Carvana. Just put in the license plate, answered.

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[Tim Miller]

Easier than setting up that new digital picture frame.

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[Tim Miller]

Talk about fast.

[Will]

Wow.

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[Tim Miller]

Ah, forget about it. Until Carvana makes one, I'm not interested. Car selling made easy on Carvana.

[Sam Stein]

Pick up these man.

[Tim Miller]

Hey, everybody, it's Tim Miller here, the leader of the fingering trio. We are back together, and it's 2026, and I just. There's so much out there with so many topics that I've summoned the trio together on a variety of things. We're going to let Sam run the show, but among them, I absolutely want to talk about Sam being fileted on the Internet for a very mean tweet about Amy Klobuchar. I want to talk about Dan Bogino fighting Matt G. Bates and Milo. I want to talk about an influencer reaction. I want to talk about. I want to deport Nicki Minaj. I want to deport Nicki Minaj. I'm very excited about this. I want to talk about that. And Will wrote an article about how maga's reacting to Venezuela. And so I just. I'm thrilled. I have trigidity. I'm so excited to be here.

[Sam Stein]

I'm supposed to pick up. You want to talk About. You want me to emcee a part of this show?

[Tim Miller]

Oh, you know, we're taking over the rest of the show. I just wanted to tell everybody why we're together. I'm just. I was so excited, and I wanted to lay out the topics I wanted to talk about, and then. And then hand it over.

[Sam Stein]

Sure. Let's just start with me being, in your words, filleted on the Internet. I had no idea I was being fileted for the Klobuchar tweet. That seems.

[Tim Miller]

Oh, yeah, you're getting crushed. Sam Stein sent a tweet that said, amy Klobuchar for governor. A. Was that a fork?

[Sam Stein]

A comb in. A comb in every salad, a chicken in every pot.

[Tim Miller]

A comb in every salad, chicken in every pot. Reference to when Amy Klobuchar threw a comb at a staffer.

[Sam Stein]

She ate.

[Tim Miller]

She.

[Sam Stein]

She got mad at a staffer because she couldn't find a fork for her salad, and so she ate the salad with her comb.

[Tim Miller]

With her comb. It seems like it's really funny. Yeah. No, there are a lot of. You can tell the Blue sky people have moved back to Twitter. They met. They're like, sam's being so mean to Amy Klobuchar. Sam's a misogynist. Sam. It's like, oh, you can see the bias showing in your thing, Sam. It's like, shut the fuck up. Everybody, shut the fuck up. It's a funny joke. It was a little joke. It was a throwback to the comb salad incident of Amy Klobuchar. They put themselves into public life. They can be teased a little bit. We laugh very. We're going to laugh a lot at Benny Johnson's grinder habit here in a second. We can also laugh at Amy Klobuchar's salad fork eating. So if you are one of those people unhappy with Sam, I'm so disappointed in you. Sam, do better. Shut up.

[Sam Stein]

Hasn't Amy Klobuchar, like, made light of it, too? I feel like she leaned into this one. Maybe I'm misremembering it, but I don't know.

[Tim Miller]

Of course Amy loves it. Amy loves being mean. Can I tell your name? Klobuchar story. Will hasn't even got to talk yet. Will's going to talk eventually, I promise. I was at a party. I hate the DC parties. I'm not a DC party circuit person like Sam. I moved for a reason.

[Sam Stein]

I haven't been to a D.C. party in years.

[Tim Miller]

I went to one. It was like a brunch, and I was hungover And I was kind of hungover at brunch, and it was with Liz Smith, who was Pete Buttigieg's comms person.

[Sam Stein]

We all know this.

[Tim Miller]

And Amy Klobuchar walks over, and I like, drunkenly. Not drunkenly. I wasn't really drunk yet, but I was like, at a hungover phase. It was kind of awkward between her and Liz because of the Pete, Amy tensions. And so I tried to break the ice, and I was just like, senator, it's okay. Don't worry. Pete's kind of a grower. I didn't like him at first either. He grew on me, that type of a grower. And she was like, what? And then Liz is like, you just called Pete a grower in front of Amy Klobuchar. And then Amy laughed a lot. And then. And then she, they, she. There was a good exchange where she was very self. She was like, me and Pete are fine. That's all Internet stuff. It makes me laugh. She has a sense of humor. You should, too. That's all. Okay.

[Sam Stein]

I mean, I'll just say I don't apologize for my tweet. And I think if the Senator were on here, she would probably come on with the comb and be eating out of a salad with it to make good light of it. And people just need to relax. Also, as I've said a million times, probably on some of these takes, I, I kind of enjoy Internet hate, and I'm a little upset that I, I missed it. So I'm gonna go sign up.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, go look at your replies. It's not good.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, I'll do that after we're done recording. All right, can, can we move on? Because this is. I want to get Will in here. So let me just pick up by saying Will tweeted something. I hadn't seen any. I hadn't seen it before. Will tweeted it. And there's this show that's coming up.

[Tim Miller]

I get the new stuff.

[Will]

You know, I get it right when it comes out.

[Tim Miller]

So.

[Sam Stein]

Okay, so I just want. I, I, I, I have no idea who basically 90 of these people are. Maybe 95. But there apparently is a political influencer reality show apparently coming to Amazon. I'm throwing a lot of apparently there because it's not clear to me if it's coming to Amazon. Will, can you just talk a bit about what we're going to watch here? Because we're going to play part of the, the trailer for this insanely dumb show that we're all going to probably binge watch.

[Will]

So this is a show from a guy named Xavier de Rousseau who is sort of a like C Tier.

[Tim Miller]

Is that his real name?

[Will]

It's unclear to me. A lot of these characters are, you know, not a lot. Basically these are people who I would say are very much kind of MAGA influencers. I would, I hate to say for sale, but they are people who are very involved in getting junkets. Xavier went to Qatar recently, they go to Israel. They're kind of like, they have big Instagram platforms, big Twitter platforms and they're. But, but in terms of like their actual influence, I think it's unclear, but they are, they're like fame balls. They're, they're personalities who are out there. And I will say it's unclear to me whether this is like an Amazon prime show, like an Amazon original, or what I think is more likely that this is like being put on demand on Amazon.

[Sam Stein]

What does it mean?

[Tim Miller]

Like the up. Like it's like how you could upload a self published book to Amazon.

[Will]

Yes, exactly.

[Tim Miller]

Upload a self published show to Amazon.com.

[Will]

And I actually, I did a little reporting here.

[Tim Miller]

Maybe it's Amazon.org yeah, tell us your reporting.

[Sam Stein]

Because it looks to me like the production value is not insignificant and they're all renting a house. I mean, there's got to be some real money behind this. So where is this coming from?

[Will]

So I mean it, Cutter. My reporting is that I asked Xavier when it's coming out and he said it's coming out probably in February. And then he had some kind of snippy remarks to me because I had said, you know, the show looked cursed, all this stuff. And he said, yet you'll be watching us day one, aren't you? And I said, well, yeah, I mean, of course, that's kind of my thing. But the, I mean, we'll see. There's a lot of characters in here.

[Tim Miller]

Should we watch it coming in February? That's very exciting. We should watch.

[Sam Stein]

Wait, does he mean February in like a month or February in like a year and a month?

[Will]

Okay, here are the influencers.

[Sam Stein]

Who are these people?

[Tim Miller]

I don't know that lady.

[Will]

Well, that's destiny, that Xavier, a literal socialist to run the global center of capitalism.

[Tim Miller]

We're talking about giving the Nobel Peace Prize to a guy who is declaring war on his own cities. You're joking.

[Will]

That's Emily Saves America, lady.

[Tim Miller]

That's not even. You just support your gay husband.

[Will]

It's Xavier Day.

[Tim Miller]

It's Xavier Week.

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[Sam Stein]

Is cuz you weren't in the shift.

[Tim Miller]

I noticed Xavier himself. That's Clarkson. Swimming Clarkson.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, that's your.

[Tim Miller]

Now I run your shelf. I miss Charlie. This is America. We're the counter organizations of Turning Point usa. We slide, we slid. I try to be the gateway drug.

[Sam Stein]

Thirst trap them in a little bit.

[Tim Miller]

He's a liar and he lied to everyone.

[Sam Stein]

I do not want to crawl back.

[Tim Miller]

To being a corporate.

[Will]

I don't want this to be.

[Tim Miller]

This.

[Will]

Stressful out here being black and Republican.

[Tim Miller]

You accidentally said slavery was okay.

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[Tim Miller]

People change. You stay the same because you just.

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[Tim Miller]

Hear I'm as real as my hair. Thank you.

[Will]

If I were Israel, I wouldn't even.

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[Tim Miller]

Walk with me. With all due respect, I'm not going to call a grown man Destiny. His name is Steven. Get serious though. I know.

[Will]

Big plastic surgery. Big in that world.

[Tim Miller]

Twitter is a mental hospital. My entire brain. That's enough. You do have to have.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, wait, why did we stop? It was so good.

[Tim Miller]

My entire brand just fell apart after I got this plastic surgery. And Xavier puts himself in the trailer quite a bit, I noticed.

[Will]

Yes.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah.

[Will]

Yes. Well, look, it's. It's an exciting bunch, right? I mean, you've got Destiny, who's obviously this kind of center left commentator, I think with some, you know, an unsavory background, shall we say? We've got Emily Saves America, who is a Republican commentator. You know, she's the one who they're saying you said slavery was okay. And she goes, ugh, what are you gonna do?

[Tim Miller]

Were any of those people involved in the fingering incident?

[Will]

I believe Emily was involved in the kind of larger fight around that.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

So people may remember the fight you wrote about her. Yeah. And then there was that guy who you interviewed who goes to the ice facilities. But it doesn't seem like he's actually part of the. The house. What's his name? Robbie.

[Tim Miller]

Robbie Roadsteamer.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's not part of this show is. He's just an addendum.

[Tim Miller]

We don't know.

[Will]

There's a lot of mystery surrounding the release of this show. You know, I should say Xavier. I, you know, I said Xavier went to Qatar. In fact, he was offered a chance to go to Qatar and declined, so. Because he said he. He wanted to ask critical questions about Qatar. But. But that's kind of the world. Thank you for that.

[Tim Miller]

But he was there. He was there in Israel. He was there on that Israel junket, looks like.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. Hey, Tim, were you asked to participate in this chef by any chance?

[Tim Miller]

I was not, and I thank you for bringing that up because I would have said yes, obviously. And I don't understand why I wasn't considered when they were doing a, you know, doing a whiteboard for this. Like, why not, Tim? Okay, Everyone else in there seems to be gay except Destiny. There are no male other. So I, you know, we need a little drama, some cat, some cattiness.

[Sam Stein]

Who was the guy who was getting his face reconfigured?

[Tim Miller]

Clarkson. Yeah. I met Clarkson at. He was, for the first time probably three or four years ago now, at the America Fest. Tbusa America Fest. And he was. He was either in the gaze against groomer's booth or he was wearing a gaze against groomer's swag. I don't. It's hard to remember. I have to go back and look at my notes, but there was like a little gaggle of gays with gays against groomers regalia. And I kind of introduced myself and so I'm trying to understand what's happening here. And had kind of maintained, you know, just checking in with various members of them over the years as things went on. And Clarkson, I believe what he's referencing there, where he's like, where he says, like, you know, you don't. You're fake. You're so fake, and blah, blah. It's like he. He has actually, to his credit, pretty gotten a little soft on Trump. His support is softened and he has. He's a little more independent minded and. And I think it's hurting his personal brand, as he mentioned there at the end of the show. I think it's. That's kind of the problem with the influencers. You rise and fall, you know, based on the audience whimsical, you know, you can't.

[Sam Stein]

So tell me. Not. Not a grower with respect to Trump.

[Tim Miller]

I know nothing about that. I did not just use it. I did not have it. I did not.

[Will]

I.

[Tim Miller]

It was nothing but professionalism with the gays against groomers. Like, I mean, you know, you never know. You get involved with the gay against groomer and then all of a sudden, next thing you know, jumping out of the closet is this project.

[Sam Stein]

Very well, I have a good transition here because the other topic we wanted to talk about was this tweet that Gavin Newsom's office put up today. Topically here.

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[Sam Stein]

So Benny Johnson apparently is going to California as part of a fraud investigation. I guess this is the new thing on the right, where you just bring your. Your video crew and you just walk around to daycare centers and ask to be let in and confront them if they're.

[Tim Miller]

Let me see your three year olds.

[Sam Stein]

Hey, let me in.

[Tim Miller]

I have all these cameras. I'm a closeted homosexual, and I would like to see year olds.

[Sam Stein]

So Governor Newsom's press office responds because Benny says, our next. Our team's traveling to the fraud capital of the world, California, blah, blah, blah, blah. Newsom's press office. We'll make sure Grindr servers are ready. Doc, that's.

[Tim Miller]

That really tickled you.

[Sam Stein]

Well, it's just, it's. It's so rare to see a Democratic pressure just not give a. And it was interesting the reaction to this one, because we've written about this actually, at the Bullwork, is like, there are occasions where Democrats are now just sort of more openly comfortable with what would be described in other times as homophobia. And so there was, like, questions about whether this was over the line on. On. On Twitter. And I'm stealing from Aaron Ryan here, who is like, no, he's not making fun of gays or calling Benny Johnson, like, you know, trying to be homophobic about Benny. He's gratefully providing out. This is generosity from Newsom's offices.

[Tim Miller]

We love Aaron Ryan. We should note. I should note, as a woman, I would go to her for Questions of whether to judge whether something is misogynist or not. Is she the authority? Does Erin Glory Orion get to decide what's homophobic?

[Sam Stein]

I'm just reading the tweets.

[Tim Miller]

I'm gonna allow it. I think it's borderline. I think that how giddy you are about the joke is maybe a little homophobic. Sam, but, like, joking, I. I think it's fine. I will. I. Benny John. I think I'm gonna allow it. I'm allowing.

[Sam Stein]

All right. Oh, well, since Tim's the referee of I am Gay jokes. That's great to hear.

[Tim Miller]

Get too excited about.

[Will]

I mean, the background here, right, is that. That just a few weeks ago, and we did a trio video about this, Milo Yopoulos had really been on a rampage about Benny being closeted. Benny has made. He denies it. He threatened to sue Milo. As far as I know, that lawsuit hasn't been filed. I'm sure he would have heard about it. And then he also checked in yet.

[Tim Miller]

Maybe you should. Maybe you should check in as a journalist.

[Sam Stein]

That would be important to follow up. Well, what the fuck?

[Will]

Well, I mean, that's a great idea. I'll take care of that. I mean, that would be a great lawsuit.

[Sam Stein]

Put it on the list of stories to pursue.

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[Will]

But, you know, it's also. Benny makes such a big deal about how he's a straight family man. His wife, Nurse Kate is kind of her nom de plume. She's a very, you know, very, you know, she's like a fitness mom type. And, you know, they put out statements basically that are like, benny straight, we're going to sue you if you keep talking about it. So that's. That's where this all lands in for Newsom to pick it up.

[Sam Stein]

Has he. I haven't checked, but has Benny responded to the Newsom tweet?

[Will]

He is not. He's not. I mean, I think he's focused on finding fraud in California or whatever he's calling it.

[Tim Miller]

You mentioned Milo. Have we. Have you? Have we do. Can we. Can we pivot from Milo and Matt Gates versus Dan Bongino? Because that's some good material.

[Sam Stein]

Why don't you do the pivot? You do the pivot.

[Tim Miller]

Have you seen that yet? So Dan Bongino is out and he's letting loose. He's had all these. He's been jealous of the trio. Let's just be honest. Dan Bongino wants to have a right wing version of the Trio. That's what he wants. Okay? He just wants to be out there shit talking that's what he likes to do. He did not like being the deputy director of the FBI. That comes with responsibilities, obligations. You have to tell the truth. It's a lot of things that Bongino is not really keen on. We tell the truth here, but in his version, in the Bizarro Trio, they don't have to. They don't have to to do the truth. So he's out, and he's just kind of firing at everybody. He's a little. Will maybe can explain this a little bit better than me, but I got my understanding is that he's upset at some of the MAGA world who had critiques of him, particularly Candace and others were upset that the FBI was not finding the real killer of Charlie Kirk and, you know, not figuring out who. Who stole the 2020 election and all this. So Bungino's mad. He's out there. He's firing off tweets. Milo tweeted this beautiful piece back at him, which we should put up on the screen where he writes, there is a place beyond constipation, beyond being merely backed up, beyond post surgery. Scrape it out with a spoon after five days on Percocet. Welcome to the Bongino rift. And then it's a picture of Dan Bongino looking very constipated.

[Sam Stein]

Can I just say, Milo is very colorful with his writing.

[Tim Miller]

He is. Matt Gaetz was jumping in on it. Bongino is also colorful. He goes back at Gates with this. You've always been a dick, by the way. Grifting off your daddy like a suckling little doggie. When I first met you, I knew you were a piece of shit. It's written all over that phony face of yours. He went on, he called him a suckling little doggie a second time as well and said that he was gonna blame everything on the Jews. Well, what am I missing here? It feels like it's getting pretty loose out there with the former deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Investigation. Yeah.

[Will]

I mean, look, he's a classic right wing in fighter. He's been held back, as you said, the vein, the famous Bongino vein was popping, and now he's. He's out. And it's sort of like he wasn't really immediately involved in a feud. Clearly he has a long list of enemies from the past few months, from the Epstein stuff, from people saying, as you said, that he messed up the Charlie Kirk investigation, and now he's just like picking fights left and right. I mean, it's kind of Crazy. I mean, he quit, I think, like, two or three days ago. Was that his last day at the FBI? And now he's just like, matt Gates, you sack of. You know, it's like, whoa, where's this coming? So, I mean, he put out a thing saying he has kind of like an infighting manifesto where he said, I'm going after the grifters, the life losers was his term. The con artists, the black pillars. So he's going to make everyone feel good about MAGA again.

[Sam Stein]

Can you define for the audience what a black pillar is? Sure.

[Will]

So in the Matrix, you take the red pill to see the world as it really is. But for people who become nihilists, who think it's all over, who think there's no point in even being a Trump supporter, that's when you take the black pill. And so he's saying, don't. Don't fall out of society. Trump still has hope for us.

[Tim Miller]

All.

[Sam Stein]

Right. And he thinks Matt Gaetz took the black pillar, Is he?

[Will]

Yeah, I mean, Matt Gates is kind of his One America news show. He's gotten more into, like, anti Israel stuff, more into conspiracy theories. He's. He's part of that. More like Marjorie Taylor Greene faction.

[Tim Miller]

Now, did you. Have you been following the story where Matt Gates claims that Israel tried to blackmail his father?

[Will]

Have you followed that at all? Yes, I have. Yeah. So the. Basically, the. The angle there is that there were guys people may remember, there were guys who were, I believe, indicted for basically having some scheme related to the. Matt Gaetz. The underage sex allegations, that there was this idea that they could, like, somehow get some money out of Matt Gaetz's father to, I think, raise money to rescue a guy who was held in Venezuela. Sorry, I'm kind of like, over my skis here. But basically, there was a scheme that was charged.

[Sam Stein]

I was gonna say, it's so funny and it's gotta be coincidental, but it always is the Jews. And it's like, you just think, Israel's got all these schemes going on. They're leveraging so much. Do they have time to even run a country? Yeah, it's unreal.

[Tim Miller]

Well, every once in a while, it's the French, you know, it's mostly the Jews. Everyone's a while, it's the French. So I was just noticing because I. I did. I do think that I'm a little worri on Gino coming back, because I don't want to be displaced in the podcast rankings. And I think there's, like, the podcast rankings right now are very heavy with kind of anti Trump, right? Or not Trump critic right wingers, the Tuckers, the Candaces, the more America Firsters types. Right. And. And Charlie Kirk's demise kind of has left a void, I think, for that. And so I pulled it up. And while we're just doing this live, I just. If you guys could just look at your slack. When I was looking at the rankings, I noticed Candace is rebranded. You put this up on the screen for everybody. It's pretty noteworthy, I think.

[Will]

Sorry. That's her actual podcast.

[Sam Stein]

Which one's the old brand?

[Tim Miller]

The new one is the white and black. Yeah, here we go. We have it on the screen. And before, she was kind of like. She was kind of like, fresh and flirty. Candace. We got the cursive, we get the purple. And now it's very stark. Very stark. We're in our mom era. We're doing our own research.

[Sam Stein]

A little bit of a Brigitte Macron look there.

[Tim Miller]

A little bit of a Brigitte Mack. A little severe.

[Sam Stein]

All right, good for her. She's doing very well in the rankings. Although, will you say things are maybe coming apart at the seams for her?

[Will]

Yeah. So this is the upcoming false flag. But the short of it is basically, Candace, some of her claims about the Charlie Kirk assassination. I think she brought out this witness, this guy named Mitch Snow, who has a very, I would say, unsavory past involving a lot of criminal allegations, a lot of questions about his honesty. He most recently said his dad was the Zodiac Killer. And so, you know, even some of Candace's sort of conspiracy theory underlings are saying, I don't know about this one, Candace. His big claim is that he saw Erica Kirk at a military base before the assassination, having a conversation, you know, with some military intelligence guys.

[Sam Stein]

US Military is real.

[Will]

Well, the French Foreign Legion actually related to this. I. So I got a haircut today, and my barber said. She said, oh, you know, I don't. Well, thank you. She said. She said, I don't like Trump. You know, you work at the Bulwark, whatever. And then she goes, but what do you think about that, Candace Owens? I kind of think she's onto something there with her Charlie Kirk stuff. And so that's. That's. That's sort of a field report for you. And I said, oh, yeah.

[Tim Miller]

I tell you, this happens all the time. People are telling me that. I'm like, this is. This happens all the time. It's a real problem out there. The left wing to can. This pipeline is a real problem. And when I was at Crooked Con, I was saying to this to Hasan Piker in the back, and I was like, you have to, like, this is your obligation to go. To go after her harder than you go after the Neolibs. Okay. Because, like, your fans are jumping the horseshoe and it's very common. I'm here. I hear it a lot.

[Sam Stein]

Anecdotally, Wasn't the big inside Candace made or. One of the smart things she did was that she started doing all that commentary on the case involving the, like, Boston area policeman who was killed and the wife was. I forget what it was, but, like. And it just got her a lot of crossover appeal to normie moms who were super into that case, and then suddenly they were hooked.

[Will]

Yeah, Candace has gotten into. It's a lot of, like, entertainment stuff, like the Blake Lively Justin Baldoni lawsuit. She's done a lot of these kind of, like, hot button true crime cases as well.

[Sam Stein]

Oh, that was the one. It was the lively Justin Baldoni one where she just got. Everyone sort of gravitated towards her coverage of that. We got to find something like that for you, Tim. Like, we need a true crime story that you just obsess over.

[Tim Miller]

I'm not really a true crime girly, but maybe we could find something like. Yeah, it's just not really my cup of tea.

[Sam Stein]

All right, fair enough.

[Tim Miller]

But I. But I. But I agree with you, though. It's not about some crossover appeal.

[Sam Stein]

Watching this. If you. If you have ideas for Tim, put them in the comments. We'll see.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. Some cultural crossover ideas. Like, for example, our producer Matt asked us to talk about Trisha Paytas. I don't know who that person is, and I don't want to know. Okay. So I'm trying, like, we need to find something a little more boy coded for me to care about, like, culturally boycoded. So hopefully that could work.

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[Tim Miller]

All right, can we talk about it?

[Sam Stein]

What do you want to do next? Only fans. Can we do that?

[Tim Miller]

I don't know what that is.

[Sam Stein]

So you don't know what only fans are. Okay, great. I'm going to introduce it to the world of OnlyFans.

[Tim Miller]

And I'm aware of what OnlyFans is, but I don't know why it's relevant to our, to our trio.

[Sam Stein]

Well, because what's in the potpourri? Basically, there's a new article out from the Financial Times. I'm not going to read their version. I'm going to read the New York Post's aggregated version of their reporting because their lead sentence is much better than the Financial Times. It goes like this. It's a story about how only fan models and social media influencers are claiming half of these coveted US Visas that are meant for artists and movie stars. The lead is this. They came here with nothing but the clothes off their backs.

[Tim Miller]

That's good.

[Sam Stein]

I give that an A, maybe an A plus. I think that's pretty good. So basically a bunch of only fans models are getting these visas that like John Lennon got. They're the O1B visas. And I don't know what to make of this. I guess this is the new form of art. But it's, it's apparently a thing where if you like are willing to get engage in softcore porn, you can get some citizenship in this country.

[Tim Miller]

Do we have pictures of them? Are they all white with regressed. Is that the deal?

[Sam Stein]

No, because first of all, they're not. There's a Mexican. The one in the Post picture in the Post article is a Mexican born only fans model, Yanette Garcia. So interesting I suppose from the Trump perspective. And then there's another one, Canadian born, Aisha Sophie, who is part of the Florida Bop House. I had to look.

[Will]

Oh yeah.

[Sam Stein]

Not been aware of the Florida Bop House.

[Will]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That, that's like Jen. Gen Z slang for like a bop is like Gen Z slang for like a. Like a hoe Sam, if you didn't know. So.

[Tim Miller]

Why are we important? Why what? What is the reason? Why are they getting the visas, the only fans models.

[Will]

Well, they're unique talents. I mean, I do think it's worth noting here that I mean, like, obviously a big part of the Trump base is like the trad people, you know, I listen to. When I listen to right wing podcasts, there's a lot of talk about like they have ad reads for, for apps that help you quit watching porn, stuff like that. And so I, you know, I do think there's a little ideological clash here.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. I guess I'll just say this, you know, in trying to formulate an opinion about this on the fly, but as somebody who's pro immigration, what I hear a lot from the anti immigrant types on the right is that like that it's offensive to say that, you know, we need to import people to do jobs that Americans don't want to do because if you paid Americans a fair wage, they'd be willing to do these jobs. Americans would pick fruit, you know, if it wasn't for the low wage immigrants that we bring in. And, and you know, so we, that is part of the America first thing, right? That we don't. There's no need for economic immigrants because we us in America here we have enough homegrown talent. And I reject that across most examples. There's certainly only some examples, but most of the time really do. It is valuable to import foreign labor in this case, I think I would say I feel like we have a fill of OnlyFans models here and a potential talent there, potential willingness to participate in that work. It doesn't feel like that we have a shortage of only fans aspiring individuals in our country.

[Sam Stein]

So you're against the, you're against the issuance of these visas is what you're saying.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, I want homegrown American OnlyFans models to be able to maximize their wages. Okay. I don't. They don't need them to be competing against, you know, onlyfans models from Mauritania.

[Will]

They're taking spots in the BAP house that could go to Americans.

[Sam Stein]

That's a really good point. We have this glut of affordable housing and here we are importing people to.

[Tim Miller]

The BOP house while I'm finding my inner immigration restrictionist. I'd like to take us to the other topic though, bring up, which is that we have to deport Nicki Minaj. I don't accept anymore. If the Democrats get back in charge, JVL wants to take down the east wing. I want to deport Nicki Minaj. On day one, she can go home to Trinidad and Tobago and get in line and come back to the country after people that have been coming the right way. Because Nicki Minaj said a couple years ago that she was brought here when she was five. That's a story that's very common that I'm very sympathetic to, but I become less sympathetic to it when you get up on stage with Erica Kirk and start making fun of gays and trans people. Start talking about the importance of building the wall and talk about how Great Donald Trump 2.0 is and how, you know, what do we call the Nicki Minaj fans? Oh, man, I'm the gay. I should know this. They are the Barbs. Yeah, thank you. Trying to. She's out there trying to get the Barbs to become MAGA Republicans. I don't like it, I don't appreciate it, and I'm sorry. Under the new rules that her new love, Donald Trump has put in place, someone that was brought here, in there, five from Trinidad and Tobago must go back to that country and get in line. That's why she.

[Sam Stein]

Why is she doing this? What are the theories? I've seen some sort of, I don't know, conspiracies around her.

[Tim Miller]

Well, her husband, her husband does have some legal issues.

[Will]

So, yeah, you know, she has.

[Sam Stein]

Trying to get some sort of preemptive party.

[Will]

So she has two relatives who, as Tim mentioned, have, I believe, sort of sex. Sex related issues in terms of convictions or charges, but those are both state charges. And so I'm not exactly sure what she's. What she's up to here. I mean, perhaps there is some, you know, she just sees it as perhaps advantageous to buddy up with the Trump administration. I mean, felt like they were really excited to have her at the Turning Point convention. I thought it was a bit of a disaster when she praised J.D. vance for being a real assassin to Erica Kirk and then goes, oh, geez. Oops.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah.

[Will]

So, I mean, but they're obviously very excited. They see her as like the, you know, the future of, of like being a cool Republican.

[Sam Stein]

Is this hurting her with her fans? I have no idea. The barbs.

[Tim Miller]

The Barbs are, I think, the stupidest of the pop culture, you know, pop music, early fans. So it's unclear to me whether they're gonna have strong feelings about this. I mean, like, yeah, you have higher tastes, you know, like the little monsters, you know, are out there. Like, they've got a little, they have a little more refined palette, you know, the beyhive, they've got a little bit more of a refined palette. The Barb's not as good. And the Barbs are really gonna be bad when Gavin Newsom gets in there and President Newsom kicks Nicki Minaj out of our fucking country. Okay, get out. Go back to Trinidad and Tobago, fill out the forms, get in line, and maybe we'll let you back in for a tour. I don't know, maybe a travel visa, A limited travel visa for a Florida tour.

[Sam Stein]

Maybe she gets one of those. Yeah, O1B visas. Okay, I think we've covered a lot. That's. That's about my fill of, you know, bullshit. Okay for today?

[Tim Miller]

That's fine.

[Sam Stein]

Love you guys, though. Thank you so much. I appreciate you opening my eyes to the ridicule I'm getting online.

[Tim Miller]

Tim, anytime. I'm monitoring your mentions. I've got. I've got little alerts. I set up this kind of AI thing. Like, anytime, like the heat at Sam reaches a certain level, Claude sends me a note so I can enjoy it.

[Sam Stein]

I was wondering why you called this meeting of the trio, but now I understand what the reason was. All right, well, thanks so much, buddy. Appreciate it, everyone. Thanks for watch and subscribe to the Bulwark, where you can get great bulwark takes like this. Hopefully we can do this soon again with the two of us. Three of us, I should say. Take care, guys.