Loading summary
Transcript54 lines
- [00:02]
Lowe's Advertisement
Kick off summer with Memorial Day savings at Lowe's. Right now. Get five Scott's Naturescapes, one and a half cubic foot mulch bags for just $10. Plus get up to 40% off select major appliances and save an extra $50 on every $500 you spend on select major appliances. $396 or more. Lowes we help you save. Valid through 528. Mold shopper. Excludes Alaska and Hawaii. Selection varies by location while supplies last. See Lowes.com for more details.
- [00:30]
Tim Miller
Hey, everybody, it's Tim Miller from the Bulwark here with managing editor Sam Stein. We are going to talk about Trump's disastrous meeting with House Republicans and the total shit show on the Hill when it comes to the big beautiful turd of a bill. But before we do that, we need to address something that's pretty important to the channel. I am hosting this right now because we've received overwhelming negative feedback about Sam's hosting, about how rude he is, about how he interrupts people, about how he's inconsiderate, about how he maybe had bad parenting. Not that he's a bad parent. We think he's probably good parent. But maybe it was your parents that turned you this way or was it bad teaching or what was it. What is it about you, Sam, that made you.
- [01:09]
Sam Stein
I, I saw the, I saw the comments and I was, I was, I was blown away, let's put it that way. Not, not that.
- [01:16]
Tim Miller
Excuse me, let me interrupt right now. What were you blown away about?
- [01:19]
Sam Stein
Not that people were upset that I keep interrupting the guest. How many people are upset that I keep into. It was an endless stream of anger and, and some.
- [01:31]
Tim Miller
And how rude you are. People kept talking about how rude you are. The way you interrupted.
- [01:34]
Sam Stein
And some truly outlandish suggestions that I might be on drugs or might be drinking too much. I was.
- [01:40]
Tim Miller
People called you MAGA about how your rhetoric is very MAGA esque. That's MAGA behavior. Interrupting because.
- [01:46]
Sam Stein
Yeah, I mean, it felt a little personal at times. And my only solution is to just interrupt more. I'm going to go even further.
- [01:54]
Tim Miller
No, Sam, that is wrong. That is the wrong feed. That is the wrong response to the feedback.
- [01:58]
Sam Stein
Okay.
- [01:59]
Tim Miller
Have you considered active listening? Have you considered active listening? Have you tried that at all?
- [02:03]
Sam Stein
I'll tell you the truth is this comes from a place of. It is. You are right to say it's about. Not about my parents, about my family. I'm a middle child and I've overcompensated for the neglect that I felt for decades by deciding that I need to be heard at all times and that I have thoughts that need to be shared and that people should finally listen to me.
- [02:25]
Tim Miller
It was hard to get a word in edgewise at the Stein family dinner table.
- [02:28]
Sam Stein
Oh, impossible. Impossible.
- [02:31]
Tim Miller
Lot of chatter. Does your older sibling have a lot more expertise than you do and so you had to kind of.
- [02:35]
Sam Stein
No, but she pretended like she did.
- [02:39]
Tim Miller
Let's get your sister on. No, that would be great. What is she. What could she talk about?
- [02:45]
Sam Stein
She's that Jenner and Block. So she could talk about a firm that's not capitulated to trust.
- [02:49]
Tim Miller
Okay, let's do that. All right, well, we're going to work on it. I also think everybody could just chill out a little bit. Something I do think.
- [02:57]
Sam Stein
What do you mean?
- [02:58]
Tim Miller
But I agree that Sam should stop interrupting. And it's rude that Sam interrupts. I also just think that, you know, we're humans, we're doing our best. It's nice to have a lively conversation back and forth. And I do think sometimes commenters now don't get. Don't get anybody's feelings hurt. Get a little. Sometimes project. Like, there was a person on Blue sky who is hate tweeting me about how I was being like. I was asking one of the individual co hosts, one of the people that found it indivisible, which is doing the hands off protest. I was asking about their marriage. I think it's so interesting that they're married and like they're running this organization together while being married and have young children. And I found that to be very interesting. There was one person who. Yeah. Who said that was sexist. I still don't understand why it was sexist. And they went at me so aggressively that Leah herself. Did you see?
- [03:44]
Sam Stein
Just one second. Did you see I just interrupted you.
- [03:47]
Tim Miller
Leah herself had to come on and reply to that person and be like, no, no, I like talking about marriage. It was fun. We all have a good time. So sometimes. Sometimes you're projecting your own issues. And I'm going to interrupt Sam a lot, I guess on this show is how we're going to combat it.
- [04:01]
Sam Stein
It's payback.
- [04:02]
Tim Miller
And hopefully Sam will learn his lesson and be a little bit better listener. Your poor children. It's important to listen, actively hear and reply. Something I've been working on. Okay, what are we talking about again? Besides Sam being terrible? Oh, right. Don Trump was a disastrous meeting on the hill today. So he has this meeting on the Hill. And among the things that he does after this Kind of this readout, this meeting with kind of House Republicans. There's some readouts. And there are two things that jumped out to me. One was the negative feedback from the Freedom Caucus from the conservative side, and the other was just the way that Trump totally pantsed the SALT caucus. Anyone that's been following us today over the past few days knows about my disdain for the SALT caucus. These supposed moderates who have gone along with every element of Trump's authoritarian agenda that are trying to draw a line at the level at which we deduct the state and local income tax. That's their red line. Other people have other red lines disappearing people to concentration camps. For example, the storming of the Capitol was Liz Cheney's red line. For Mike Lawler, his red line was get. It was a deduction for local income taxes. That's what he's gonna be telling his grandchildren about. That was what he fought for. It was his kind of Edmund Pettus Bridge was the SALT deduction. And Trump basically came out of the meeting and was like, eat a dick, Mike Lawler. And it just makes me like, I'm not going to bail out these blue state Republicans that have high taxes. And so it seems like bad, bad news for the SALT caucus. What do you make of it?
- [05:37]
Sam Stein
The admin Pittsburgh? I thought it was. Yeah, it was, it was, it was like one of those rare cases where I was like, way to go, Trump. You know, like, I mean, obviously the motivations are totally impure. You know, half a year ago he was saying he would solve the SALT issue and there and work with Democratic governors. And now he's saying, screw the Democratic governors. I'm not throwing them a bone. But, you know, if you're Mike Lawler, you know, what is, what are you going to do here? Right? You're probably going to bend once again because that's just what you do. But Trump's. Trump was like, look, bend.
- [06:12]
Tim Miller
That's just what Mike Lawler does. He just bends.
- [06:14]
Sam Stein
Just bends. I will say this. The Trump's kind of right in one sense. I, he, this was reported from the, from the meeting was he said, if you're losing because assault, then you're going to lose anyway. Like, you're just going to lose anyway.
- [06:29]
Tim Miller
There's nothing to do with your district better than you do.
- [06:32]
Sam Stein
Which may be true, actually. I don't know.
- [06:34]
Tim Miller
But Mike Lawler's district, New York, Trump's been around. He's built some buildings, I'm sure in the districts.
- [06:39]
Sam Stein
Oh, yeah, he did put him in a bad Spot, though, now, because, you know, once, once you basically say, no, you're going to do this for me. Now, Lawler either has to go and look like a lackey for Trump, which is not great in New York, or he what, holds out and takes the bill, which he'll never do. But let's say in theory, maybe he does. I don't know. They said they're not going to vote for the rules, which is supposed to happen at 1am so we'll see.
- [07:02]
Tim Miller
This is interesting. I'm pulling this up here. Mike Lawler has been on Fox Business since the meeting, it looks like he says New York has the highest tax burden of any state in the country. We need to raise the cap on salt. So he's, he's sticking with it. He's sticking with it for now. We'll see. I'm not, I wouldn't be holding if you're, if you're a New York resident making polymarker, don't interrupt me. Making $450,000 a year as a couple and you're concerned about your salt deduction. I'd be, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be too optimistic if I were you. Okay. What about the other side of the equation we had? Andy Harris from Maryland is a doctor who said essentially that he was not persuaded by the meeting today. His concerns are unusual. His concerns is that he doesn't think the bill does enough to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid. So I don't know exactly. That's kind of a weird one. But he went on to say the president, I don't think convinced enough people that the bill is adequate the way it is. You know, then there's some other guys, the Chip Roys of the world who are unhappy with the, with the debt number on this. And, and then you got Steve Bannon. Actually, why don't we just play a little clip from Steve Bannon.
- [08:28]
Steve Bannon
Andy Harris, Here's I got a problem with and folks, you know, I'm a kicking degree for this, but that's a, that's part of the business. I don't mind that Johnson should not put the president of the United States in this situation. Yeah, the President, United States should not have to come to Capitol Hill in an extraordinary for the president to come up and talk about budget and math. Unheard of, unheard of, unheard of. For him to come up today and have to, is he not whipping votes? He's not doing Tom Emmer's job. And because Johnson, these guys, Johnson in these Rooms tells everybody what they want to hear. That's why people can't stand him, because they don't know what's real and what's not real. He tells assault guys one thing. He tells the Medicaid guys another thing. He tells the fmap, we're going to get the fmap, then we're not going to do it. So nobody knows where they are. The president, people believe because the president coming out, throwing down. So the president comes up right now to basically give his say so and whip votes, and you're hearing guys saying, hey, we respect the President, but we're not there. That should not happen. If he does come up, it should be. He makes his point, people say, yeah, boom. And then it's a group hug.
- [09:34]
Tim Miller
Steve Bannon's blaming this. I know Steve Bannon's blaming this on Mike Johnson. Says that Little Mike put the President in this situation where he has to be the whip. And now Trump's in a bad spot where he's trying. He's got to twist the arms of Andy Harris and Mike Lawler, and that should be Mike Johnson's job. That's just not. Again, it's a sign of cats and dogs fighting mass hysteria over there. Not exactly a sign that they're. They're supposed to get this thing done before Memorial Day. Maybe it will, but not. Not a ton of progress today.
- [10:08]
Sam Stein
Can I speak? I'm watching.
- [10:11]
Tim Miller
We're going to do it. I want, like, a pregnant pause before you speak.
- [10:14]
Sam Stein
Okay, here's. Here's what I think about this, is this. This happens all the time. But it's kind of funny to see it really in action, which is like, Trump goes in there, he's like, don't with Medicaid. I think that's the actual quote. And then everyone is just sort of left to interpret what he means by that, because it could be, don't touch the program as is, don't touch what we're already doing to the program. Don't go further than the rich. And so everyone's leaving this meeting being like, I think he's on our side. Like, it's like strategic ambiguity, I suppose, but classic. Not strategic. It's classic Trump. So Andy Harris is just as like, no, we're going to touch. We're going to fuck with Medicaid and we want to do this. And then the moderates, whatever, they're like, no, we're not going to fuck with Medicaid because Trump said it. And so now we're in this place. I get where Steve Bannon's coming from. And to a degree, I suppose, because, like, in. In normal world, like, yeah, the House should whip its own members, but in this case, when you have a president who just doesn't actually put anything down in terms of actual clear markers for what he wants, that becomes harder to, you know, to whip support for. Now, I. I will also. 1. Just one thing about Mike Johnson, like, I. His whole method is just like, survive in advance, right? Just get through the vote, say whatever it takes, put on a happy face, and then, you know, eventually something. You either get across the finish line or not. So that's why I think they'll figure it out in the House. But it does. It does, you know, produce problems like the ones they're having right now.
- [11:44]
Tim Miller
Yeah, the strategic ambiguity works for Trump in this situation, you know, because it's like, on the one hand, it doesn't help Mike Johnson and try to figure out where to go, what changes to make in the bill. But in the end, like, when you come to the direct vote, if the voters are confused, right, like, was Trump for the Medicaid cuts or not, or just the way stronger abuse or they want the tax, you know what I mean? Then it makes it hard for the members to be like, no, I'm going against Trump. Like, if Trump came out, like, the salt is the one different example of this. Now Trump comes out clearly against the salt deduction. And so now that does make a little more challenging for my Lawler, as we mentioned, because he's gonna have to come out and say, I oppose you. The Medicaid stuff is just such a wash of just nonsense and smoking.
- [12:32]
Sam Stein
So ambiguous, right? Like, they can just basically put everything under the rubric of, oh, we're getting rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. Like, you can say, I'm adding work requirements to Medicaid. Well, that's to get rid of what abuse, Right? You can say, I'm, you know, we're making sure illegal immigrants aren't on Medicaid. Well, that's fraud. Like, you can just do all these things and it's just eventually. But, you know, you end up with 7.3 million people not getting access to Medicaid. And that's tougher to spin, right? I mean, you can. You can be strategically ambiguous about a lot of things and then run with it, but once people lose their coverage, then you're fucked. And. And so that. But that. They don't care about that. They just need the bill to pass.
- [13:11]
Tim Miller
Yeah, that's a way to pass.
- [13:12]
Sam Stein
Yeah.
- [13:13]
Tim Miller
A colleague Jonathan Cohen's article and that people have missed that. Go to the Bulwark and check out Jonathan Cohn's newsletter on this because it's very. He's been really good on the Medicaid side of this and what's actually happening and kind, you know, breaking through the fog for people.
- [13:27]
Sam Stein
So, Tim, do you think they pass this thing tonight or this week? I should say by this I mean the whole bill gets through the House by the end of the week.
- [13:36]
Tim Miller
I do. Well, maybe next week it's possible to have his next week. I don't, I don't know that. The timing of it, I think got a little more challenging today and you know, we're running out of time. But till the weekend, these guys like to have the Memorial Day weekend. So I just, I think I just keep falling back in my prior on this, which is. It's been more of a shit show than I thought it was going to be. And I think it's interesting that these guys are running into a lot of stepping on a lot of rakes and yet the reason they call it the Big Beautiful Pill is because they're sycophants and pathetic and also because it's the only thing they're going to do this year. It's the only thing. And there's potentially like, literally they've passed five bills since Lake and Riley. They've passed nothing except like post office namings. There's one other thing about crypto going on. I wanted to have a separate YouTube on that here later this week because I think that's interesting. There is a crypto bill. It's kind of moving through, but besides that, they're doing nothing. And so it's like if this is the only thing, meaningful thing you're doing this year is Lake and Riley and this. It becomes hard to go to your voters and say, I voted against the one thing that Trump wanted me to do. And so I think in the end these guys all fold because they're jealous. I agree.
- [14:52]
Sam Stein
I agree. And also the risk of inaction remains higher than the risk of action.
- [14:58]
Tim Miller
Certainly for the short term.
- [15:00]
Sam Stein
Yeah. I mean, it's not just that you can't go home empty handed, it's that taxes will go up if you don't do this. And they're gonna like that. They just will not stomach that.
- [15:09]
Steve Bannon
So.
- [15:09]
Sam Stein
And the debt ceiling minded little thing.
- [15:12]
Tim Miller
Sam Stein, interrupting cow, Sam Stein. Here's the thing, guys. Me and Sam love each other, okay? So. And all of us at the boy, we're very. It's a very communal. It's a joyous, you know, group that we have together.
- [15:26]
Sam Stein
I want to say I love you, but I love the commenters, too. I'm not offended. I take the constructive feedback.
- [15:31]
Tim Miller
Yeah, we can handle getting interrupting each other. He takes the constructive feedback. He's going to work on his active listening. But we don't want to take the Samness out of Sam. You know, we don't want to take the Samness out of Sam. Sometimes, you know, our flaws are what make us special. And so I do want you guys to think about that as well when you're being rude to them and. But, you know, creative insults are appreciated. Okay, everybody, subscribe to the feed. We'll see you later.