Tim Miller (2:52)

This is where I'm at. Audit. Some of the discourse around this, I feel like, makes me wanna roll my eyes, particularly among the kind of high minded, non. I'm just like, yeah, it's unfair. The map that you're voting on in Virginia tomorrow is unfair. And that's the fucking point for it to be unfair. Right? Like the only way to get back to a place where we have, you know, fair districts and a democracy that is representative of everybody is for, you know, both sides to play hardball on this. You know, like there is a national anti gerrymandering bill in the House. Only Democrats are for it. There are no Republicans that are for that. There were a couple of Republicans, we should shout them out in Indiana and a couple other states where they said, hey, we're not gonna go along with this system. We're not gonna go rig the system anymore. And good on them. But a bunch of other states, they tried to rig the system to keep down Trump in power, to prevent Donald Trump from having accountability. And so good on Abigail Spamberger and Luis Lucas. And like you said, in 2030 it will revert, as my understanding, to the constitutional amendment system where there'll be a nonpartisan redistrict. And, and you know, God willing, that will be in a place in 2030 where that can happen in Virginia and elsewhere because there are a bunch of red states that need that too. And there are a couple of blue states, Illinois. It's a dumb system, we should fix it. But it doesn't do any good to live in disreality and let one side try to rig the system while the other side doesn't. So go out and vote for the Louise Lucas bill tomorrow, everybody, if you're in Virginia, do an update on the Iran war. So since we last got together with Ben Rhodes on Friday, things are looking a little dicier than maybe the President had portrayed. I don't know if you'll be surprised by that. President Trump trying to sell a deal that wasn't actually done. And we've seen that movie a million times before. And I think that Ben and I pointed out on Friday, even like in the early moments of this. Like, there's a bunch of reasons why this deal might be unstable, not the least of which what the interests are of our partner in this war in Israel, and they're misaligned from the US and who knows in Iran if the negotiators actually are in charge and can negotiate? And who knows if Downtown's telling the truth for a million reasons. There are reasons to be skeptical. Those reasons were right. Since we last talked. Iran was unhappy with the United States blockade and with the ways in which Donald Trump was misrepresenting the deal that was coming together. So they fired on at least two, maybe three ships in the Strait, merchant ships, which caused a bunch of other ships to turn around. Reclosed the Strait of Hormuz. Despite Donald Trump saying on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was open forever and that Iran had agreed to keep it open forever, they would never use it again. That lasted less than 24 hours. The US responded by seizing an Iranian ship. It was trying to bypass the US Naval blockade in the Gulf of Oman. So we boarded and seized that ship. Iran right now is saying that they don't trust Trump. We're getting kind of mixed reports on whether they'll even participate in the talks. I think the most recent report is that they are gonna participate in the talks. And Trump is escalating his threats once again. He posted this yesterday. If Iran doesn't accept a deal, the United States is gonna knock out every single power plant and every single bridge in no more Mr. Nice Guy. So there you go. No more Mr. Nice Guy is the new position from Trump.

Bill Kristol (6:20)

Trump. I mean, Andrew has a good piece in Morning Trust this morning. I should have thought of this when Andrew was writing it. I think literary critics call this an unreliable narrator. It's like the narrator of the story is not telling the truth. And of course, there are times when you shade the truth in diplomacy. But that's not what Trump's doing. He's just making up things. I think the Iranians wanted to make the point that you think over the weekend that they have the ability to close the straight when they want to, and they want people to remember that going forward. I assume they're going to ultimately agree to something and we're going to agree to something, since we're in full fledged desperate desperation for an agreement mode. Or Trump is. That will basically open the straits with both sides. But I think Iran wants everyone to remember that if Israel attacks again or if we do something they don't like, or if the UAE does something they don't like, or if they just don't like, they want to make a point in general. They're, they're there and they can do it. I mean, that was sort of interesting. I thought that was what's behind probably what they were trying to do. Otherwise they're getting a ton out of this deal. Looks like they're getting total sanctions relief. I mean, I'm old enough to remember when people, hawks on Iran, including me, screamed and yelled about Obama giving some sanction relief and a little bit of money that they had over here back. You know, Trump's like trumping that many fold. And of course they're not going to get looks like the nuclear material is going to sit over there and allegedly be inspected by us. So. And it turns out there's a very good, this very interesting report from our own Defense Intelligence Agency, the report to Congress, or at least the Congress has a copy of saying that Iran has a ton of ballistic missiles and drones left. We haven't degraded them as much as Trump has been claiming. So it's not a good outcome for the United States.

Tim Miller (7:56)

Yeah. To your point on these Trump threats and how kind of hollow they are and it's such a. I guess it's not Boy who Cried Wolf because the boy who cried wolf, the wolf is like boy who's pretending to be the wolf over and over again. It's like, I'm going to end your civilization. And then you did nothing. It's like we're going to obliterate you, then you do nothing and we're going to take out all the leadership and then you do nothing. And now it's like, no more Mr. Nice Guy for real this time. It's like, okay, buddy. Dan Shapiro, the former ambassador to Israel from Biden, is I think, a real kind of middle of the road guy on all of this and no fan of the Iranian regime. I was interested in his take on this over the weekend. He wrote Trump spent all day posting on truth social things that had not been agreed to, trying to will them to be true by saying them. This is a crazy way to do diplomacy on something this consequential. And it has to be telling the Iranians that he's desperate for an off ramp, which only increases their leverage. And that goes, I think, to what you're saying. Iran is trying to continue to increase their leverage and they want more money out of this deal. Like you're going to give us full sanctions relief. Okay, maybe we also want a toll on the straigh or maybe we also want this, that or the other thing. And I think that is what's happening in the moment. And the argument for a deal coming together is that both sides kind of want it to, right? Both sides do want an off ramp, but just from the outside analysis perspective, it looks like our side wants it more. It looks like our side wants it more. And Iranians obviously can sense that as well. So. And you get us into a situation where you started this war of choice, making all of these grand pronouncements about complete surrender, and then you get into it five weeks and you're kind of like begging for a face saving off ramp. It's pretty humiliating, really.

Bill Kristol (9:43)

Seven weeks now. I think Trump said four to six weeks, but now it's running a little long. He wants to get onto other things, I guess. Maybe I can just mention here that I wrote a little thing for morning shots of just noticing what was in the Wall Street Journal piece over the weekend that other people have commented on too, that they purposely excluded Trump on the Friday that the airmen were shot down, the plane was shot down, and they were, you know, scrambling and devising and thankfully devising a successful plan to extricate them. And, and this was, you know, major military effort and beating in the White House. They managed to keep Trump out of the meeting, basically. Occasionally they gave him updates because senior officials, it doesn't say who, but I assume these are senior military officials, maybe a couple of his own, maybe the civilian ones are intelligent enough to know this too. Thought that Trump's presence there would make it impossible to have reasonable and sound decision making because he's so impatient and impetuous and reckless and so forth. Now, elaborating a tiny bit on what the Journal said, but that's the point of what they're saying. Kind of unbelievable, right?

Tim Miller (10:39)

Yeah. Keeping the president stories, Two Journal stories over the weekend about all the drama happening here. And there's the one story where he's screaming at people and becoming very impatient. You know, during this period where there are, you know, two airmen in Iran, it was interesting. The other interesting part of that story is the Trump is an unfrozen caveman from the tabloid era of the 80s, like, thing. You keep being reminded about that. Like in this case he, like, I guess he was just really remembering, you know, Carter and the hostage crisis and how bad that was for him politically. It's like, you know, they're like these, these in the pop culture references, in the history lessons of political lessons. Trump is always like, rec recalling how things were in the 1980s. So you have that kind of drama behind the scenes. Commander in chief basically kicked out because he's agitating people too much during this recovery. And then we have the other Wall Street Journal story on Hagseth and Driscoll feuding. Secretary of army and Secretary of War in a pretty kind of a hot feud right now in the middle of this conflict.

Bill Kristol (11:47)

Driscoll went out of his way when he was testifying on the Hill Thursday to praise former Army Chiefs of Staff General George, whom Hegseth had unceremoniously fired. You know, he drove up with his family to see him and they hugged and there's no finer man. I think Driscoll may be quite well being sincere here. Everything else I've heard about General George is very flattering. And Driscoll seems like a reasonably sane person by Trump administration standards. But I mean, to go out of your way to praise the person that you're sort of your boss, I mean, your superior, the Secretary of defense just fired two weeks before is pretty striking. So there's just out and out war between Hegseth and Driscoll. Driscoll is a very close friend of Vance was put there. That's basically. One presumes Hegseth's a little bit on thin ice. Trump must be self aware enough to know that this whole Iran thing was a mistake and that Hegseth was one of those who sold him on it and pumped it up in those early days and weeks. And I don't know, is Trump self aware enough to realize that he should want to get rid of Hegseth? I don't know.

Tim Miller (12:42)

I don't think so. Maybe you're right.

Bill Kristol (12:45)

Maybe I'm wrong about. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

Tim Miller (12:47)

It depends who he's talking to. Right. And it depends how many people are telling him that Hegseth is a boob because he is very susceptible to peer pressure. The other types of reporting that you're getting out of this is that Trump is really doing a kind of classic politician world leader mistake throughout all of history, which is only listening to yes Men. And the one thing that has always been true about Trump is he kind of likes the drama. He comes from reality TV show world where he wants the two sides to be feuding and wants to hear from both sides and in the most unhealthy way imaginable, he's at least getting different perspectives, like through that process. And I just. It's hard to tell if that's still happening, you know, and like, there was some so the one report of somebody who's like, you would be shocked at how much time he's spending, like watching the AI videos of himself on Truth Social, I don't know. I mean, you know, so I just don't know exactly if he's getting enough negative information about Hagset. And Hegseth has been the biggest yes man of all, it sounds like with regards to the war. So I don't know, maybe if things start going worse that blows back on him. The other thing that he is seeing that is creating some hedge on his decision making is what's happened with the economy. It did get a big boost Friday when people thought that this thing might be over. We're back down a little bit this morning. Let me just pull this up. All this stuff is very fluid. I mean the Dow and S and P are only down a little bit. I think that there's a. What was JVL call it? The madman theory of the economy. JVL had a great newsletter letter over the weekend. People should go read just about how the investors are just basically like, any sign of normalcy means we should buy. And so there's that. But oil prices are up another 5% this morning. They went down slightly below the Landman line, that I like to say, where Billy Bob Thornton's character says we want to keep it between 60 and 90. It went slightly down below 90 over the weekend, now it's back up. So I think the economic impact of this is real. We also have the UAE over the weekend asking us for a bailout. They want the Argentinean deal on the dollar swap. All of that stuff is pretty shaky right now. And I think that if tips a little bit worse than this, that will even create less leverage for us in these negotiations.

Bill Kristol (15:10)

Seems like to me, and that is, I mean the Iranians know that's the pressure they have on Trump. And this is just mathematics in a way. It's not psychology. I mean the longer this trades, the more, the less oil there is available to use and the less for other products. And there are now shortages in some countries of what's used to make plastic bags and a million other things. Drugs, I guess, pharmaceuticals. So no, I think it's getting real. I mean everyone said, I had, we've discussed this once or twice. I mean everyone said beforehand, you know, 10 day closure of the straight, not great. But you survive 30 days getting a little problematic. You get into 45 day range and I guess we're getting pretty close to there. I can't remember how far Quickly, Iran closed the straight, but it was a couple of weeks into the war. You're getting serious supply chain issues now. That should pressure Trump to come to a deal this week or maybe next. Maybe it pressures him, though. Does he tie one more spasmodic use of force, Kind of go out with a Nixon kind of 72 Christmas bombing, showing he's a tough guy? I wouldn't put it past him. But then if he does that, then of course you're into a situation where you don't know how Iran reacts, et cetera. So I don't know. I don't know.

Tim Miller (16:17)

The one last spasm feels Trumpy to me. Yeah, I think there's something to it. A lot of people, I think everybody feels like they're a little bit better at predicting him than people are. There's some trends that you do see. You can kind of predict him pretty good in the medium term, but what crazy stuff he'll do in the short term to get there. I was pretty struck when I had Alistair Campbell from the Rest of His Politics last week. His co host, Rory. I was listening to their shows to kind of prep for it, and Rory had gone on a vacation. Rory Stewart. And he was like, I just wanted to test myself. Where I didn't. I forget where he went, but he went somewhere where he didn't have good WI fi. And it's like for a week, he just didn't read the news. And then he came back and read the newspaper one day at a time to see if he could predict what was coming. He's like, I was kind of surprised by how bad I was at it. I felt like it was better than I would be. And it is like Trump's. You can notice trends. Like, in the short, he's just so erratic. Right. That it is a little bit in the short term, hard to say. But that said, the one more spasm kind of feels Trumpy.

Bill Kristol (17:18)

Yeah. Just one point on that. I mean, he's erratic, but it's erratic in the two extremes. The one thing he doesn't do is really go down the middle of the road. It's either I'm doubling down, then I'm backing off. I'm doing one, two hours after the other.

Tim Miller (17:31)

Exactly. All right, everybody, I've told you my origin story with the old Ridge Wallet. They're going to come sponsor the podcast. They're going to send me a sample wallet. I was a little concerned. It was too butch for me, you know, thought that something as sleek and powerful as the Ridge Wallet would be more appropriate for Sarah. There's a little lesbian gay joke there, but. And then literally that day was out with the other gay dads at school. One takes out the wallet to pay the bill. There it is, Ridge Wallet talking about how great it is. I'm over here just stereotyping myself when turns out that the Ridge wallet is right. For people of all sexualities and gender identities, losing your wallet is the worst. But with the Ridge Tracker card, this is another reason I like the Ridge Wallet because I lose everything. And the Ridge Tracker card makes sure you'll always know where your wallet is even before panic mode kicks in. They also create premium everyday carry essentials like power banks always be charging key cases, suitcases and rings all built with a sleek and durable design. No matter what you pick, Ridge has a free shipping, 99 day risk free trial and a limited warranty on all of their products. So for a limited time, our listeners get 10% off at Ridge by using code the Bulwark at checkout. Just head to ridge.com and use code the Bulwark and you're all set. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. I want to talk about a couple of the geopolitics impacts and kind of how things are changing already as a result of the last seven weeks. Literally as we're talking, Trump posted this, which is a little bit of a she doth protest too much possibly. But here's a bleep this morning. Israel never talked me into the war with Iran. The results of October 7th added to my lifelong opinion that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon did. It's not a great sentence structure, but I watched read the fake news. Da da da da da. Then he goes down to this. Just like the results in Venezuela, which the media doesn't like talking about. The results in Iran will be amazing. And if Iran's new leaders parentheses regime change exclamation point are smart, Iran can have a great and prosperous future. Trump obviously feeling the heat on this question following the news that Bibi was in the Situation Room and feeling like he has to come up with a post hoc rationalization for why he wanted to do this, even if it wasn't for Israel's coaxing. And it's just like he was already president once. This idea that he's had this lifelong opinion, it's just really, it's hard to buy. And I do think it's interesting that he's still contra what Rubio will say or even Hegseth or anybody else in the administration when you ask them what the goals and objectives are. He's still kind of on the Venezuela beat.

Bill Kristol (20:24)

He's totally on the Venezuela beat. The degree to which I think historians will decide that Venezuela gave him this insane megalomaniacal sense of what he could do and some degree what the US military could do. And he sort of forgot the difference between Venezuela and Iran, which is kind of a big difference in so many ways. Venezuela is right near us and it's a reasonably small country and other big powers don't have a huge interest. Israel's not involved. And a million other things. Right. And even China, Russia will vaguely like Venezuela weren't going to do anything over here. Whereas, you know, Iran is a whole different kettle of fish. But he desperately wants a world in which he can do Venezuela is every six months and that's it. And no one asks too many questions after. And it's not real regime change, but it's not. Not nothing. Exactly. Because he got rid of a guy who's particularly distasteful and, and, and, and it makes him beat his chest. Makes me think he really wants. Well, don't you think he will want to do Cuba and Greenland after this? I mean, this is, this is a big question. Getting into our maximalist thing is his got to stay away from that stuff. Back to, you know, back to ice and domestic stuff. Or is this lesson for Iran got to do Cuba or Greenland.

Tim Miller (21:26)

Yeah. Drug addict needs another hit. Yeah, you know, I need another hit. Or a gambling addict that. I was like, I was on the hot craps table. I was almost there and then the table went cold. Like now I got to go back to the ATM and pull out a couple hundred more dollars to get that high back. It's not something that ever happened to me. I can't relate to that at all. Yeah, no, I think that's what's coming. The China element of this is also kind of interesting. For the first time today, China said like, publicly, like, the strait needs to be opened and kind of engaged in this in a formal way. They were talking to their pal MBS about that. Who knows how that shakes out. Like with the Gulf states that had tried to bribe us. And now it seems like they're starting to reassess some of their investments. At least Saudi is and UAE asking for a bailout. Now they're looking back to China and wondering, you know, who they should make a deal with. Maybe both sides, maybe not pick a side. And then I saw this poll as a Politico poll, which is pretty remarkable, asking the citizens of these four countries what you would maybe say is our four biggest allies, at least in the post World War II era, Canada, Germany, France and the UK maybe throw Aussie in there. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. Or Mexico. But four pretty of our top allies asking them whether it's better to depend on China or the US Under Donald Trump. This is specifically about Trump, not necessarily about the broader US Canada 57 to 23 in favor of China. Germany 40 to 24 in favor of China. France 34 to 25 in favor of China. Britain 42, 34 in favor of China. I just think that there are some who knows about how long lasting but some calculations are being made in the Gulf states and among our allies. That feels like it's emboldening China. And ostensibly some in the administration were like China hawks and talking about how that was the real threat when Trump went in.

Bill Kristol (23:21)

Yeah, totally. And Pakistan, incidentally, which is getting all the statures. They're the middleman, the host of these talks. They're very close to China. So I mean, they're not doing this without consulting with China. They said that, I think at times. And now China, I think wants to say publicly they want the straight reopen because they think it'll all be reopened and they want to position themselves. We weighed in when it was all kind of a bit of a chaos and we're the big guy and we're not irrational and erratic like Trump. We weighed in, we said we want it opened. And you know what? A week later when it opens, China's gonna say, see, we can be helpful in these crises. You know, everyone should listen to us.

Tim Miller (23:56)

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Financial stress can affect us more than we know. Financial stress affects far more than our bank accounts. It takes a serious toll on our mental health and relationships. With 88% of Americans feeling some form of financial stress at the start of this year, money worries often bring anxiety, sleep disruption, and even depression. They're one of the leading sources of conflict for couples this month. We want to normalize the emotional weight of financial stress to remind people that struggling with money doesn't mean they failed. Sometimes it's just about accessing the right kind of support. You know, I think I mentioned this last time we've been there. I was like, in a mid period, we're trying to move, selling one house, buying another house. Saw the house we liked, we bought it figuring the other house was going to sell. Didn't sell for one week, didn't sell for two weeks. It's kind of like the Iran war and starts to drag out and you're looking at your bank account, you're like, oh, and you know, there were some, there was some tension in the household around this. It was definitely leading to mental health problems and stress. And I think probably rather than making passive aggressive comments seeking professional help would have benefited us at this time, I should have turned to my friends at Better Help. Better Help therapists work according to a strict code of conduct. They're fully licensed in the US Of A. They do the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. Short questionnaire helps you identify your needs and preferences and their 12 years of experience and industry leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first time. But if you're not happy with your match, you can switch to a different therapist at any time. From the tailored Rex when life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Sign up and get 10% off@betterhelp.com the Bulwark the betterhelp.com thebullwerk let's move on to drunk Kash Patel in the middle of all this. Our FBI director is not just somebody that enjoys a few libations. I think in the past we've had FBI directors at the end of the day, had a couple of bourbons to take the edge off. It's understandable. High pressure job doesn't seem to be what we're talking about with this guy. Before I read through the reporting here from the Atlantic, we should say that Kash Patel is challenging it. It's going to challenge it in court. I'll be interested to see that discovery if he goes through with it. Count me on the side of believing the many, many sources the Atlantic has. But we should acknowledge that Cash is disputing it. And you would imagine that he would dispute it, given the details. Let me read from the piece. This is from Sarah Fitzpatrick. Several officials told me that Patel's drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government. They said that he's known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication at the private club Ned's in Washington, D.C. he's also known to drink to excess at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas, where he frequently spends part of his weekends. Just the fact that the FBI Director is spending his weekends at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas is itself somewhat concerning. Even if he wasn't drinking to excess early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later in the day as a result of his alcohol fueled nights. Six current or former officials and others familiar with Patel's schedule told me on multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was intoxicated. A request for quote, breaching equipment normally used by SQUAT and hostage rescue teams was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors. They had to send the SWAT team in because dude hadn't taken his zbiotics and was so hungover that he was not listening to his phone vibrate. Like that is insane. I mean, I enjoy a good time. Okay. I've never had to have producer Katie send in the cops to make sure I was okay for our 9am Taping. Always made it every time I've been here. That is wild. The FBI director needed the SWAT team to wake him up. Are you concerned, what's your level of concern about this? I mean, combined with we're firing the Iranian experts, there's nobody in charge. And it's kind of similar, I guess, what you said. Yeah, two things with Trump about how that there are still good, responsible people in the bureau and maybe they're just not including the director in meetings and we'll see how long that lasts.

Bill Kristol (28:16)

Well, except we know that he's actually getting the FBI to do things that it shouldn't be doing at Fulton county in Georgia and elsewhere now Michigan, with 2026 related stuff. And obviously he's saying we're gonna charge people criminally for the great conspiracy of 2020. He said that on Sunday on TV. Me, I'm alarmed that on the one hand they're so alarmed by him, all the people who talk to the Atlantic. And on the other hand, it seems like he should be weaker than he is as director. I mean, I'm worried that he's. They're going along. Their culture is to go along. Or maybe there's some people who like having him there. I don't know. Maybe I'm being unfair. Maybe they are curbing him more than I realize. I hope they are. This is something serious though. People in the government, some of them will have quit and some should quit, obviously, if they being asked to do things they can't do in good conscience. Others really need to, to do what they can to mitigate the damage that's being done from Trump on down through Patel and Hegseth and others. I assume people are intelligent, they're acting this way and you know, within the bounds of the law. But there are plenty of things you can do to make things less bad. Not tell them certain things and have some meetings that he's not, you know, whatever invited to and slow walk some things and fast walk some other things and so forth. But I'm pretty worried. The doj, FBI, DOD situation. Yeah, totally irresponsible and reckless leaders getting some pushback, but also doing a lot. I mean, and they can do it in a ham handed and heavy handed way. Can still do an unbelievable amount of damage.

Tim Miller (29:41)

Yeah, I mean, I'd love to hear from folks inside the bureau and how they're navigating all of it because I do think it's tough and I know for a fact there are some responsible people in there still via mutuals. But it's really tough. On the one hand, I'm kind of, I'm of two minds about it. Like on the one hand, as somebody who's like pretty far down the enemy's list, but on it somewhere on page 40 or whatever, it's nice to have a drunkard trying to go after the enemies. Right. He's been totally ineffective. Certainly does not seem like a coincidence that after this Atlantic story came out, he was out there this weekend saying they're going to be arrest soon in the 2020 election. Fraud, theft, it's like, okay, buddy, we'll see. Good luck with that. On the other hand, for the broader public safety, given we're at potentially, you would think, a time of heightened terror risk on the homeland, you'd rather have somebody actually who knows what they're doing running the FBI.

Bill Kristol (30:35)

Yeah. On the third hand, I mean, Todd Blanche replaced Pam Bondi. Who Blanche is more, let's just say I probably more qualified for the job than Bondi and stuff. And he's ruthlessly going up, going about DOJ's, you know, business of persecuting Trump's enemies and politicizing everything. And they just. The career person who was trying to actually be responsible in Miami has now quit or been fired. So I don't quite know which, I guess at least removed from the case. Right. And they brought in Joe Digenova an 81 year old guy who's gotten kind of crazy in my.

Tim Miller (31:07)

Oh my God, is that right? Is that who they brought in? I missed this.

Bill Kristol (31:10)

Joe digenova is now the special assistant to Blanche for the Miami prosecution of Clapper, of former dni, James Clapper. So on the one hand it's like idiocy and kind of comedy. On the other hand, Blanche is pretty resolute and he Kind of knows what he's doing. And now poor. They're going to go after Clapper and they're going to intimidate a lot of other people and run up his legal bills. And Patel says he's going to sue the Atlantic for defamation. I was in some quarrel with some of my liberal lawyer friends. Oh, that lawsuit's going nowhere. Well, is it going to have an intimidating effect on others? Is it going to force the Atlantic to spend a lot of money? Are anonymous sources in the future going to worry that if they talk to a reporter and then the magazine that the reporter works for gets sued, that they might have to reveal the names as part of their defense? I mean, I just think the whole intimidation stuff that's going on with the FBI and DOJ remains very obviously very bad. But I remember having this argument. Bondi was still around. Maybe it's better to have Bondi there. She's unpopular and doesn't seem terribly competent. On the other hand, I don't know. As you say, it's a tough. It's on the one hand. On the other hand, either way is bad. Either way is bad because Trump is very bad. He's a bad man.

Tim Miller (32:20)

Either way, it's very bad.

Bill Kristol (32:21)

Maybe you should make that point. Maybe you should make that point. Some force.

Tim Miller (32:23)

Okay, so Joe digenova, who got brought in, you try your best to see everything these days, but sometimes things squeeze by you. I'm happy you mentioned it because I have some history with him. There's a little lore, really. I did an article in the period between Biden beating Trump and January 6th. So January 6th hasn't happened yet. And the Stop the Steal campaign is gaining momentum and et cetera. And Newsmax was the main home of this because, remember, Fox was losing ratings ground to Newsmax, and I was like, I need to watch Newsmax. And so I sat in my bed. This was during COVID so I didn't have to leave anyway. And watched 24 Hours of Newsmax with sleep in the middle. So whatever. 16 hours of Newsmax. But from. I wanted to watch every hour of the day. And at 4 I'm going to just read this. I pulled up the article At 4:34pm, Joe diGenova comes on. The host says that he was brought on to talk about Obamagate, but this week that they're going to change things up and talk about Trump's attempt to overturn the election. Stick with me because I wrote this whole thing deadpan because everything was so crazy. It was the only way to do it. But it goes like this. Digenova says that the Durham report should come out to help give state legislators more incentive to stop Biden since he was involved in Obamagate. So they start talking about that, and then he gets asked about Chris Krebs. And DeGeneva calls for the execution of Chris Krebs, which then we clipped and published since I was watching it. And then eventually digenova, after that, had to apologize and back off. So. So that's the kind of mind you're dealing with. Like somebody who is on the cable news show between the 2020 election and Biden's inauguration saying that the person in charge of CISA who was protecting our elections needs to be executed for treason because they were involved in some imaginary scheme. So now he's still on the beat, 81 years old, five years later now, still trying to put somebody into jail for this imaginary crime. Totally insane.

Bill Kristol (34:25)

Yeah. And so the lawyers I know are all like, he can't prosecute the case and they don't have a case and it's not going to go anywhere. It's not going to work. But I mean, hey, you never know. You get some jury, the wrong judge or jury in Florida, but probably won't work. But. But yeah, the legal defense, the cost and the intimidation factor, I think, again, they're. They're just all in. It's not an accident. I've forgotten your piece. That was an excellent piece from November or December 2020, actually. Yeah, you're. I felt bad for you. Watching Newsmax was 16 hours.

Tim Miller (34:52)

Well, no, it was good. It helped me. It helped cover because there was a period of time where you, and you were on this and like a lot of other, even anti Trump people are like, you guys are being a little too alarmist and whatever. And it was like, no, actually, if you watch the types of stuff that they're talking about, you could feel the bloodlust. Like, you could feel it grow. And so it was kind of just, even for my analysis, like, it was important to not watch the, you know, sane, washed, watered down depictions, but to, like, watch what the audience was getting. And it's not surprising that people watching a show like that would then turn up to the Capitol. Right. It was much easier to predict anyway,

Bill Kristol (35:27)

and that Trump was really going to try to do. And I think now, again, let's just apply this to today. People need to be, you know, you have Michigan and Fulton County, Georgia, and you have degenerative and people need to be serious. Yeah, we need to worry about 20, 26 and 2028.

Janet Freeman Daly (35:42)

When I first heard the words you have lung cancer, I was in shock. This week on a special episode of Health discovered we're taking a closer look at a common form of lung cancer that accounts for 85% of all cases. I'm Janet Freeman Daly and I've been living with non small cell lung cancer since 2011. Non small cell lung cancer, it's a diagnosis that changes everything and yet the conversation around it too often stops and at the biology and misses what patients are actually living through every single day. There are some things you used to be able to do that you can't do anymore. It's easy to become depressed when you're dealing with all those losses. So mental health plays a really big role. So what does it really mean to advocate for yourself when you're living with non small cell lung cancer? Listen to Health discovered on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Allergy season always has a way of sneaking up on you. One minute you're listening to your favorite podcast, the next it's non stop sneezing and a runny nose. That's why it's essential to keep Kleenex Ultra Soft tissues on hand. They're silky soft for up to 100% irritation, free skin and allergist approved so when allergies hit and they will be ready with Kleenex Ultra soft tissues for whatever happens next, grab Kleenex.

Tim Miller (37:10)

Speaking of things to be worried about, you had Ryan Goodman on the Sunday interview yesterday just talking about this fight that's happening on the hill over section 702 and the spy powers that the government has for people who want the full sermon, they can go check that out. But do you want to just give a little bit of a TL?

Bill Kristol (37:27)

Dr. 702 is the authority that allows our intelligence agencies to listen in on and read communications among foreign nationals, but also from foreign nationals to American nationals. Now Americans are protected fourth Amendment, first Amendment. So it's complicated way in which they can't or can't look at what Americans have been doing. It was abused a little bit, honestly, but not too much. They did there and they to be fair, the FBI kind of corrected its abuse, it seems like with an internal report. But Ryan and I were both basically, I don't want to speak for him, but I think this is true. National security professionals think this is an important part of our anti terror counterterrorism efforts and so we've mostly been defending it. Some civil libertarians don't like it. And it has to be reauthorized every two years. It was passed after 9, 11. And Congress to its credit, said you got to take a fresh look every two years. We're not going to give this a permanent kind of authority. So it's, you know, it's a tricky authority. And Ryan and I are both against a clean reauthorization, as they say they should be now. Make them get a warrant if Americans are involved and put in a few other safeguards. Perhaps some people on the Hill have been leading this fight, but it's very much similar, weirdly, I think analogous to the Virginia thing we were talking about, which is people say, well, you were for clean reauthorization in the past. Why aren't you now? Well, because Cash Patel is head of the FBI now. And whatever you think of Chris Wright and Jim Comey and all these other characters, I'm sure they weren't perfect. God knows they were not going to use the FBI the way Cash Patel could try to use the FBI and use this authority. The same with the Justice Department and same with the intelligence community under Tulsi Gabbard. So it's now bottled up on the Hill. The House had a kind of meltdown Thursday night. Johnson couldn't get it through the Freedom Caucus. People actually did the right thing and voted against it. Some of and people like Massie, the kind of libertarian types. We'll see what happens. It's got a 10 day extension, so it's actually a live issue this week on the Hill. There's a totally obvious compromise to be done if you care about national security and want to add some reasonable civil liberties provisions. Trump right now is for, of course, the clean extension. He doesn't want the civil liberties provisions. We'll see if they end up with a reasonable agreement or not.

Tim Miller (39:28)

All right, Want to move on to a couple politics items before I lose you. I guess we should do the SCOTUS reports first. Alito and Thomas. There's some reporting from Jan Crawford over at cbs, who's very well sourced in the kind of conservative side of the court, no doubt, and saying that neither of them want to retire. This has been kind of the assumption about Thomas because he's not so far away from being the longest ever serving member of the Supreme Court. And I think that he wants that distinction because I'm sure that the folks at Holy Cross will be excited to honor him for that when he achieves that. The three most famous Holy Cross grads, Jon Favreau, Bill Simmons and Clarence Thomas. But people had been thinking that Alito was going to do it because he wanted to make sure that he could be replaced by a fellow hack. And there's concerns if Democrats take the Senate next year, et cetera, that who knows what might happen. But the Crawford Report is saying that he's going to stay. Lauren Egan has a good newsletter for us last night talking about how the Democrats aren't really buying this and are still really preparing for a big Supreme Court showdown this year. Who knows, maybe it'll come next year. I just want to hear your thoughts on that. And it's pretty interesting. Again, kind of similar to the redistricting question. I think that the Democrats, if Alito waits till after the midterms and the Democrats take the Senate, for all of people's complaints about Chuck Schumer, I'd have happy to beg on my face if I'm wrong about this. I think that the Democratic senators are going to create a new Merrick Garland rule, say, sorry, we'll wait till the next election, not bringing up a new justice for nominations, but you guys did. And we'll hold it as long as we need to hold it, and we'll see what happens to the 2028 election. I think that's what would happen. So it'd be pretty significant if Alito decides to stay on past this midterm.

Bill Kristol (41:22)

Yeah, it's much more fraught now that it looks like Democrats could either win the Senate or get very close. And then he just said he'd want defection, perhaps to stop someone. No. So I think Janet Crawford's an excellent reporter. I've known her a long time. I'm sure she's accurately reporting what Alito and Thomas are saying to people. What I think Lauren has captured well, though, is that they've been saying it now just to keep their whatever, not look like a lame duck, I guess you could call it that. Or just to look like they're making their own decision. But they could change their mind and also Trump could pressure them. I mean, this is not, I think this is pretty important to Trump and to Trumpists and especially in the case of Alito. I don't know, Alito may sort of think, I'd like to stay. I'm having a good time ripping out people's rights and so forth. But what if Trump calls him, says, you gotta go, Sam well, the other

Tim Miller (42:07)

thing is they could look at what happens in the midterms and there could be the lame duck period. And this is what they did with Garland. Right. So you look at, let's say the Democrats take the Senate in November. This shows the stakes.

Bill Kristol (42:20)

Totally.

Tim Miller (42:21)

Really, the whole election, as far as I'm concerned about the midterms, is Iowa, Texas, Ohio, maybe Kansas, maybe Nebraska, maybe Montana, may, Florida, whatever. These red states. For the Democrats, that's the whole ball game is like, can the Democrats get to 51 in the Senate for the Supreme Court reason, but for others, for other nominations, for replacing Todd Blanche after his, you know, if he's no longer the acting ag, if they try to keep him in his acting to next year, who knows? Other confirmations, like, that's the ball. And so if the Democrats succeed in winning in enough of those red states, two of those red states, to get to 51, then it's like, okay, well, could Alito retire really quick in November and have John Thune jam it through before the new Senate sets? I mean, it would be tight, but it's possible. I think that would be tough.

Bill Kristol (43:04)

I think. Or certainly in September, if it does become obvious that there really is a massive wave and they have a better than 50, 50 chance of losing the Senate. Yeah, I agree. And certainly if Alito does retire, on the other hand, we have a huge confirmation fight. Presumably the Republicans are in good shape for that fight, but Trump will nominate a right wing justice. Everyone I know who's plugged into that world at all, whether on the opposition side or a few people who talk to people who are on the Republican side, think that this is not gonna be a kind of respectable ish. Amy Cody. We're talking right all the way. One of those Judge Hoag types down in Texas or Eileen Cannon or what's his name, the guy they put on the court, Bove or Blanche himself or God knows what. Right. Trump wants loyalists on this. So if he has a chance to put people on, so that's become a huge fight. Even they can't stop that person. The politics of that fight are very important because it highlights how important the Senate is. Right. And there's not, no one's guaranteeing, even if people don't choose to retire, people get sick and so forth. So there could be another opening. And there are other district court and circuit court openings in 27, 28, which means Democrats have to do a better job than they've done in the past in explaining why the courts should be important to voters who might want to vote Democratic. Republicans have done a very good job on the courts as a motivating issue for their voters. Now maybe post Roe, post jobs, that's different. It's easier for the Democrats, and I know Democrats, Lauren reports on this or who are sort of ginning up on this. But the Republicans have had an advantage, don't you think, on the politics of court fights?

Tim Miller (44:31)

I think that's changing though, but I think that they have for the last generation, but I think that's changing.

Janet Freeman Daly (44:36)

When I first heard the words you have lung cancer, I was in shock. This week on a special episode of Health Discussion discovered we're taking a closer look at a common form of lung cancer that accounts for 85% of all cases. I'm Janet Freeman Daly and I've been living with non small cell lung cancer since 2011. Non small cell lung cancer. It's a diagnosis that changes everything and yet the conversation around it too often stops at the biology and misses what patients are asking actually living through every single day. There are some things you used to be able to do that you can't do anymore. It's easy to become depressed when you're dealing with all those losses. So mental health plays a really big role. So what does it really mean to advocate for yourself when you're living with non small cell lung cancer? Listen to health discovered on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Allergy season always has a way of sneaking up on you. One minute you're listening to your favorite podcast, the next it's non stop sneezing and a runny nose. That's why it's essential to keep Kleenex Ultra Soft tissues on hand. They're silky soft for up to 100% irritation. Free skin and allergist approved so when allergies hit and they will be ready with Kleenex Ultra Soft tissues for whatever happens next. Next grab Kleenex.

Tim Miller (46:05)

So important for the Democrats politically to identify messages that allow them to succeed in red states. So I'd like to point out good examples of that when I can. Jon Ossoff had a big speech in Georgia over the weekend. I want to play for folks and I keep coming back to this. The Kamala conundrum question, which is in part was not her fault. But I think that she got into the sour spot where like moderate voters thought that she was a California progressive and some progressive voters who cared a lot about Gaza thought she was a corporate shill and independent voters didn't really trust her. The challenge is how do you come up with a message and a messenger where progressive voters look at them and are like, that works enough. I'll get excited for that person and the moderate and independent voters look at them and say, yeah, okay, this person could appeal. John also has demonstrated an interesting model for that potentially in Georgia. And I thought it was interesting to hear how he was talking about the Iran war and the corruption issues in the economy at his campaign stop over the weekend. Let's listen to that.

Bill Kristol (47:11)

While he and his family rake in billions from foreign princes while he plunders our health care to cut taxes for

Tim Miller (47:21)

the rich,

Bill Kristol (47:26)

Meanwhile rent, power, groceries and health care have all hit all time highs this year.

Tim Miller (47:34)

This year ground beef's up 20% since Trump took office.

Bill Kristol (47:42)

Coffee 40%.

Tim Miller (47:45)

Health premiums through the roof. And remember, remember while you pay more

Bill Kristol (47:50)

for everything, the First Family's wealth is

Tim Miller (47:54)

growing by billions of dollars

Bill Kristol (47:59)

because they're

Tim Miller (48:00)

crooks

Bill Kristol (48:03)

and everybody knows it.

Tim Miller (48:08)

I mean that feels right. It is a way to speak to the anti Trump side of that and do a lot of never Trumper friendly messaging but also tie it into kind of the populist economic case.

Bill Kristol (48:22)

Totally. I mean it indicates the point you've made over and over and I've made occasionally which is you can be somewhat moderate or centrist or big tent ish in your issues and in your policies, but vehemently against Trump and especially and the corruption is the sweet spot here. Right. And the kleptocracy and incidentally the Hungarian election, that's what Magyar who is too right wing for a lot of people of lefties, not lefties even just normal progressives honestly in Hungary. But he was so strong on and he has been in the week since he won too. And I'm going to rip up this rip out the corruption, the kleptocracy, the whole system. It's all they're all crooks. That line is excellent of Ossaf incidentally. I don't know why I guess maybe others have said it but somehow the way and he's sort of a mob asso's not actually a natural stem winder type, I wouldn't say. And so it's impressive to see him do it. I mean no, I very much think that. And tying the kleptocracy and corruption of Trump and his family and the oligarchs, pairing that with the bad economic facts facing the middle class, I mean seems to be the way to go.

Tim Miller (49:26)

Absolutely. All right, I want to close with JD and the Pope. You commented on social media something about that Pope Leo posted that you liked. I like that you self identify as elderly because Leo posted this. Let us remember that the elderly first and foremost need to be listened to because they preserve the wisdom of a people. It's nice. A lot of humility. And you're thinking that I should be listening to you more based on the Pope's advice. And I'll take that note. JD doesn't really share that humility about listening to the wisdom of other people. He likes to listen to the wisdom of himself. And I just want to play one more time JD Talking about this at his event with Erica Kirk late last week.

Bill Kristol (50:06)

When the Pope says that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword, there is the thousand year old a more than a thousand year tradition of just war theory. Okay. Now we can of course have disagreements about whether this or that conflict is just. But I think that it's important in the same way that it's important for the Vice President, United States to be careful when I talk about matters of public policy. I think it's very, very important for the Pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology. And I think that one of these issues here is that there has been is again. Hey, random dude screaming, I told you I'd respond to your point. I just want to respond to this question first.

Tim Miller (50:45)

So there you go, Vance splaining some Vance splaining there. I just like, I love that he's being condescending to the Pope that, like, it's the Pope that needs to be careful with his rhetoric. Has he ever talked about Donald Trump and he didn't be careful with his rhetoric? No, it's just the Pope. J.D. vance becomes a Catholic two minutes ago, and then he's like, you know what? The Pope needs to be a little bit more cautious with how he talks about the just war theory. Okay. Do you know about the just war theory? Because we just started a war of choice and started bombing a girl and that might be just war. So shut up, Pope. And then he tells the kid asking the question and you shut up too. And it's like J.D. vance and Zelensky, you shut up too. He just likes telling people to shut up.

Bill Kristol (51:21)

Trump should nonetheless be removed from office. I guess we'll have to put up with JD in 20, 27, 28, because he's less crazy and less likely to get us into some total reckless, insane debacle than Trump. But Vance is really bad too. I gotta say, what a pair Trump advance guys.

Tim Miller (51:37)

Really bad. Okay, I love that you're just gonna take the Capital I impeachment ground. You're there. You're just like, fuck it. Like, J.D. vance is awful and Trump is so bad that we need to be lectured and patronized to for two years in exchange for getting rid of Trump. I like that. That is what you would call the wisdom of the elderly.

Bill Kristol (51:57)

Yes. Thank you. Well, you know the reason I did that cute little, if I could say, thing on X, because Susan right away said Tim calls you elderly every. Every week. So that's just. You're just trying. I'm embracing. Embracing. I'm embracing my inner elder.

Tim Miller (52:07)

I don't think I call you elder's.

Bill Kristol (52:09)

Abused by our exchanges where you pretend that, Bill, you remember this from 48 years ago, before everyone else in the Bull was born. And then, of course, I play along. I play along by remembering that when I was in grad school, Nixon was, you know, impeached for Watergate or something. So I, I embrace my inner elderliness and I'm glad the Pope respects it. And he's the Bulwark Pope. And he's. I thought he was thinking of me, frankly. He presumably watches us. He watches this, right? He's got some extra time there. And, you know, he thinks that, you know, Tim is being a little. A little unfair to Bill sometimes.

Tim Miller (52:36)

I think he's a committed watcher. That's my understanding from reports inside the Vatican. All right, that's Bill Kristol. We'll be back tomorrow on Tuesdays, go to the next level. So if you just need to be politics junkie, you can tune into the next level tomorrow. I'm going to go a little bit off news on this podcast, bringing one of my buddies. Got a new book out, so I'm looking forward to that. And I'm be live streaming tonight before The Nuggets game, 8 o' clock in the East. Come hang out with me. I'll take your questions. I've got a lot of fun stuff to talk about. We'll see Bill Crystal next Monday. See you all tomorrow. Peace.

Bill Kristol (53:08)

I was gonna go to class before I got high. Come on, y', all, check it out. I could have cheated and I could

Tim Miller (53:15)

have passed, but I got high.

Bill Kristol (53:19)

I'm taking it next semester, and I know why.

Tim Miller (53:29)

The Bork podcast is brought to you thanks to the work of lead producer Katie Cooper, associate producer Ansley Skipper, and with video editing by Katie Lutz and audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.

Bill Kristol (53:40)

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. You don't want to miss the annual beauty event for big savings on all your favorite beauty products. Now through April 28, spend $25 on participating products and save $5. Shop in store or online for items like Billie Women's Razors, Billie Body Buffer or Body Wash Native Hand Soap, Neutrogena Makeup Remover Tablets and Q Tips. And save $5 when you spend $25. Offer ends April 28. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details. Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious, like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away, all through text, phone, email or the LifeLock app. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com iHeart Terms Apply here's the truth. You could literally be adored by everyone and then come home and still get completely ignored by your own cat. It's classic cat behavior, but new Sheba

Tim Miller (54:51)

Premium Puree is a lickable treat that changes all that.

Bill Kristol (54:54)

They're protein rich, made with bone broth, and have the smooth, creamy texture cats go crazy for, especially when it's hand fed.

Tim Miller (55:01)

Yeah, it's more than a treat.

Bill Kristol (55:02)

It's a fast pass to favorite human status. So feed your cat Sheba and go from totally ignored to truly adored in just 12 days, guaranteed or your money back. Learn more@shiba.com.