Michael Steele (2:54)

It's Friday.

Tim Miller (2:55)

Yeah.

Michael Steele (2:56)

So, you know, we always talk about living for the weekend. It never meant more than it does right now. Look, all of that's bad. All of that's bad. Arresting Don Lemon for what? Look, the Fed chair and all of that stuff, a lot of this has been in play for a while. The extra stuff, you know, suing the government for $10 billion, going after a celebrity host, all of that bullshit is the distraction. And the fact of the matter is, it is proving to me that Susie Wiles, who was lauded coming in as the adult in the room, that she was his muse and she was in his ear and could that shit don't mean nothing. Cuz Donald Trump is a thing unto himself. Always has been, always will be. And this idea that somehow we're going to magically control the dragon, you know, I mean, hell, even in Game of Thrones, there were moments when that dragon looked at, you know, looked at, it was sitting on his back. Okay, bitch, you screw up one more time. You know, the reality is we now, I mean, it's more. More than ever, recognize they're trying to steal the elections for this November. They're trying to, and have in many ways put in place an authoritarian state with Donald Trump sitting on the toilet. And you've got around him the Lindsey Grahams and others who are willing to shill because they think they're somehow going to be protected. And so that's our Friday. But that has been our everyday since 2016. And I think that in many respects, particularly in certain parts of Magaverse, and I've heard you speak on this, you know, light bulbs may be coming on, but they still are dim.

Tim Miller (4:51)

They are. You know, that's a good thesis statement as we go through all of these things because I think we might as well start with Don Lemon in Minnesota because, you know, I mean, we weren't fooled, but we did go through this BS here in the midweek where Tom Homan comes into Minneapolis. They got a New boss in charge. They're gonna tone things down. Donald Trump's been a little spooked. And, you know, they don't. They don't like seeing the dead white people in the streets, and they might change their policies a little bit. That was nothing like, Donald Trump just lives the news cycle. The dragon, you know, sitting on the throne, to mix your metaphors, like, sitting on his golden toilet. Like, he's a survivor, right? And he wants more power. And it's like, oh, that thing didn't work. People are mad at me. We're gonna do this other thing tomorrow, you know, and, like, that's what's happening right now. So. So let's just start with Lemon. For people who've not been following this. He's independent now. He's on YouTube over on his show a few times. He was arrested in relation to this incident where there were a group of anti ICE protesters. They disrupted a service at City's Church in St. Paul. I guess one of the pastors there was also an acting field director for ice. And so that is. Was the reason for disrupting the church and protesting. I'm not a huge fan of protesting churches. I'll just say this up at the front, but Don Lemon was a journalist covering this. You know, like, he was an independent journalist following the protesters into the church. He was videotaping. He did then go and interview this pastor and, like, ask him questions, ask him some tough questions. But, like, I don't know, I had some asshole on the Internet messaging me today. He's like, what if the. What would you say if the proud boys had stormed a mosque? And I'd say, well, if they were breaking the law, they should be held to account. But if Fox News sent a journalist to cover it, I wouldn't want the Democrats to go and arrest Peter Doocy for being there and documenting the fact that it happened. So, anyway, just one more thing for context here before we get your take on it. Multiple judges have already smacked this down. They tried to bring it in Minneapolis to the judge who got rid of it with prejudice, dismissed it. Our colleagues at Ms. Now are reporting that multiple career DOJ prosecutors in Minnesota and Los Angeles refused to be involved in this. Pam Bondi, when it was announced, said that this indictment was, quote, at my direction. So that's where we are right now. The Attorney General is demanding that an independent journalist get arrested over the objections of prosecutors and judges, and that has.

Michael Steele (7:20)

Been the will of Donald Trump. And Pam Bondi is the worst kind of hack there is in the job. She is useless in that role except to the extent that she services Donald Trump. And you can take that however you want. And the reality of it is that at the end of the day, he is a firebrand and he is a damn good journalist, and he was in a position to document the excesses across the board. I mean, whatever you want to say. Like you said, I'm not a fan. And do not advocate going into a church service and protesting. Wait till the service is over. Grab the pastor, have a conversation. They wanted the bling and they wanted the firecracker moment. They got it. And here's what happens when you play with stupid fire. It will not only burn you, but it will burn everyone else in the vicinity. And so making an example of Don Lemon is what this game is. Instilling fear in the American press corps is what this is to getting folks like you and me to suddenly. But more importantly, you know, the corporate entities that we work for to go soft to. Oh, well, I don't know if we should. We've got to be careful. We don't need Trump mad at us. It's just two words that sum up what I feel about this administration and particularly this president in this moment. And I think a lot more Americans are coming to those feelings. And I think actions like this further those feelings in a way that, that I think. Look, I looked at the 2026 elections in 2025 and in late 2024 and said the Democrats are in a position then to pick up 35 to 40 seats in the House. And I thought the Senate was marginally in play. By the time I got to the end of 2025, it was at least 40 seats in the House. And the Senate is in play as we turn the corner into this cycle, my friend. If I'm a Republican on a ballot, 2006 will look like a kiddie party compared to what's going to happen potentially if voters take the attitudes that are beginning to form and stew within them about how this administration is behaving. It is not addressing their core concerns about the economy, is not addressing their core concerns about jobs, because a lot of folks have lost their jobs. Particularly if you were a federal employee and are still unemployed and you were the only person who was bringing money into that household. These are the realities that are happening across the country at kitchen tables every day. And this administration is more sucked up on building a damn monstrosity of a frigging ballroom or having the president go to some bitch ass premiere, all right, On a black carpet Whatever the hell that shit is. Right? Instead of governing the country, Republicans stopped governing a long time ago. And they've allowed someone at the helm sitting behind the Resolute desk who has zero interest in it except for how much he can grift from the system, enrich his kids and his own personal coffers. Tell me how the President makes a billion dollars in a year, people.

Tim Miller (10:45)

Well, the government might give it to him in a second. We're going to get back to that. I got to sit on this downline and think there's a couple other elements of it that are pissing me off that I think that we need to talk about. Last night I was on your show, you were talking about the 10th amendment. I want to focus on two amendments right now. The 1st and the 10th. And these fuckers, okay, these fuckers. I spent the last six years or longer talking about how, oh, the Democrats are trying to cancel us. They're trying to silence us. Like the assault on free speech is too much. That's what supposedly radicalized Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to get on board. That's what supposedly radicalized these comedian guys to get on board. And it's like, are any of them going to stand up for Don Lemon today? I'm not holding my breath because I drive down past the Smoothie King center here in New Orleans and I've seen several times people on the, on the marquee there with my uncanceled tour. You can't cancel me. I'm speaking the truth on all these fucking contrarians who are out there saying that the woke left and Joe Biden was trying to cancel us. And I want to. And it's important that we get Donald Trump in there to protect free speech. Cuz I want to say the R word and I want to call people pussies. Like, this was across society that there were a ton of influential rich men who were saying that they couldn't say what they wanted and so they had to get on board with Donald Trump. Here we have today, like, legal punishment. The Department of Justice, directed by Donald Trump, the President and the Attorney General have arrested somebody for exercising his First Amendment right as a journalist. And like, whether or not you like what he did or thought it was appropriate, it's like that's the whole fucking point of the First Amendment. People can say dumb shit, people can do dumb shit, people can report, people can comment. And that's what we get to do in a free country. And they arrested him for his speech. This is state Tyranny. Going after Don Lemon.

Michael Steele (12:43)

What was the crime? He went into the church with a video camera or his phone and just documented what was happening. Where was the crime?

Tim Miller (12:52)

They're gonna say it's the Face act, whatever. It was. Like, there's some protection of church and these religious freedom places of worship.

Michael Steele (13:00)

Don Lemon did not disrupt the service.

Tim Miller (13:03)

Right, exactly.

Michael Steele (13:03)

Don Lemon did nothing to inject himself into that moment. And that. America, please take your head out of your asses. I know some of y' all sitting around you, around you, whatever, you're sitting around thinking, oh, okay, they got Don Lemon. They coming for you, motherfucker. They coming for you next. Trust me. Because when you take out. When you take out the pinnacle example of free speech in this country, which is oppressed folks, they're the only industry, the only business, the only career, the only job that is written into the damn Constitution. Not coal miners, right? Not electricians, not waitresses and waiters, not tech CEOs, right? Not tech CEOs, Elon Musk, data center management.

Tim Miller (13:53)

Right?

Michael Steele (13:54)

None of that. The press. And so this idea that you're going to sit by and just watch this happen is crazy because you are next. You are. You are the menu. It's not being on it, you are it. And that's the reality of this moment. And I think you're exactly right about raising up those two pieces, because why the 1st and 10th go together, because the 1st speaks to the very thing that Don Lemon represents in this moment. And the 10th represents the very thing that the states have always represented since the founding and the. And that is the independence to act and perform and to do whatever they want to do. If you.

Tim Miller (14:37)

Whatever their people want them to do. By the way. By the way. Thank you.

Michael Steele (14:40)

Their people want them to do.

Tim Miller (14:42)

Yeah.

Michael Steele (14:43)

If the. If the people of Minnesota want their city or their state to be a sanctuary city or sanctuary state, that's their business. Texas done some fucked up shit. Ain't nobody running into Texas telling them, I'm sorry, you can't do that. We're shutting you down. We're going to send in the army.

Tim Miller (15:02)

Did Joe Biden send in the troops when they. They passed the Bounty act, you know, that let people sue women if they were having an abortion? Did Joe Biden send in the troops to Florida when they said teachers had to hide the picture of them and their gay spouse? Like, no, they don't send in the fucking troops.

Michael Steele (15:17)

Can we just stop with the both sideism? Oh, and to your first point about the Elon Musk and the Bezos and all these bro culture bastards, right, who somehow fell victim to the idea of the weaponization, that they're coming after us. You're a fucking billionaire. Ain't nobody coming after your ass. Stop it. If you lined yourself with Donald Trump and you did it for two reasons. One, you liked the shit he was doing and you believed in it, or two, you felt or realized you could make some money off of it, Likely both of those things are true. So don't come in and act all of a sudden like, oh, geez, you know, I watched Joe Biden weaponize the Department of Justice, and it just made me realize, bitch, please, you stop it. You're a grown ass man. If you're a billionaire, presumably you had the brains to build a business. You hadn't had the brains to figure out that you were getting punked by Donald Trump. No, you wanted to be punked because you saw the money in it. You got seating behind him at the inauguration, and that's the shit that lit you up. And now you go sit back and what, Enjoy the benefits of it? Of course you are. They're not going to come out here and defend Don Lemon. They're not gonna sit there and say to Donald TRUMP, hey, hey, Mr. Trump, you've gone too far. Just like we've seen him do with other personalities on tv, what we've seen him do with black women in the press. Where were their voices then?

Tim Miller (16:44)

Yeah, another thing, just my final thought on the First Amendment. Part of it is they arrested Ramesa Osterk for signing an op ed. I've arrested Don Lemon for committing an act of journalism. Like, this is as clear as day. Like this is. This is government tyranny. Going after people for either their opinions or for the type of journalism they're doing. And like, that is a straight assault on freedom of speech. And if you were a free speech warrior who was upset because the Biden administration was, like, working with YouTube to flag stories that did misinformation, I kind of didn't love that either. But. But that was like middle management making some requests of tech companies that the tech companies could have said no to. Don Lemon didn't get to say no to the guys that showed up with the guns today and say, sorry, no, thank you. I'm gonna keep doing my job. They handcuffed him, I assume, and jailed him, took him in. So we'll learn more as the day goes on. Raise your hand if you've been putting off a dental cleaning, annual checkup, or honestly, any type of doctor's appointment. Not only is my hand up, I literally have a text right now from my doctor telling me I need to come back. Nothing big, don't get worried about me. But I didn't want to deal with it, all right? So I didn't know the sound was coming and already my hand is up. And so if that's you, you need to make getting that doctor appointment easy. Start doing things differently. We're finding doctors we love and booking appointments with ZocDoc. ZocDoc is a free app and website that helps you find and book high quality in network doctors so you can find someone you love. Whether you're looking for dermatology, dentistry, primary care, eye care, or one of the other 200 plus specialties offered on Zocdoc, you can easily search by specialty or symptom to build the care team that is right for you. I gotta tell you, I checked this out and as aforementioned, I need this to be easy as possible. And luckily I haven't needed to use Zocdoc yet, but looks very simple. And you know what, now that I mentioned it here live in the ad read, I'm just realizing I do need to need this for the dentist because my dentist is out of network now and I need an in network dentist. All right, it's time. So I'll report back, but it looked very easy. Stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to Zocdoc.com thebullwork to find and instantly book a doctor you love today. That's Zocdoc.com thebullwork zocdoc.com thebullwork thanks to Zocdoc for sponsoring this message. It was on that 10th. One more thing back to these states and I wanna talk a little bit more about what's happened in Minnesota. Here's where we are right now. Based on reports from people on the ground, folks I've been following, they're doing journalism in Minneapolis and we appreciate them. Doesn't seem like the number of agents in the streets has dissipated. You know, the Minneapolis Star Tribune was saying they saw about the same amount of cars go out from the Whipple building they always do. And we still don't know. And I just, I have to obsess over this. I talked to Tim Walls on Tuesday and I asked him, who killed your citizen? Who killed Alex Preddy? Do you know? And he said, I don't know because the feds know, because they first sent those, the people, the perps to another city and state. They Told us that. Greg Bevino told us that. And then subsequently yesterday, they told us now that they've put them on administrative leave. I don't want them on administrative leave. I want them back in Minnesota testifying about what they did. And to me, it is crazy that the feds can go into a state, they can kill a citizen of Minneapolis, and then they can hide from the local officials, like who perpetrated it. They can hide evidence from them, they can cover it up. It is totally insane that that continues to happen as we're taping this right now.

Michael Steele (20:27)

Well, it continues to happen because no one's stopping it. Outside of the Democratic members of Congress and the Democratic officials in the state, where are the Republican members? Where are the Republic?

Tim Miller (20:41)

Well, Susan Collins got him out of her state. She got ice out of her state. That's the most they can do.

Michael Steele (20:45)

I mean, but at the end of the day, they probably got full on the lobster and they had to go anyway. I don't care if you are Republican or whatever you consider yourself, if you're serving in the United States Congress, you should be concerned about what the government is doing. For all of these Republicans for eons who lived in this space where they talked about government overreach and they talked about, again, weaponization, because it was Democratic administrations, all the things that they said was happening then, that never happened, is happening now under a Republican president. And you're silent and you've got the class clown and various senators running around, you know, standing on the plane. Yeah, we're going to do yo, right, instead of leading and instead of trying to get this president to back up. Because this, folks, does not end well for anybody. None of this ends well. It just doesn't. We've seen this. History is continuity, as my friend Simone likes to say. And with respect to Minnesota and Mr. Preddy's gun, again, as my colleague Simone says, where's the phone? Right, because the phone will tell you exactly. Because he was filming. He was filming the officer, and it was probably more than likely still running when they were beating the crap out of them before they shot him 10 times. Where is that? The individuals who were involved, Literally, literally, where is it?

Tim Miller (22:19)

Why don't Tim Walls and Jacob Fry know where it is? It's their fucking city.

Michael Steele (22:23)

Because the government won't tell them, won't tell. They don't want them a part of the investigation. So you have to ask yourself, why? Why would something that happened in a state not involve state officials who have the jurisdiction? They were on a public street. They weren't on federal property when this happened. They were on a public street. And so this is the jurisdiction of the state and the city. And yet this government has said, screw you, we get to control here. And that's not how the 10th Amendment works. That's not how the process within the administration of government and the administration of justice works. Yet here we are. I guess the only thing other I can say is I want the names of the individuals who killed Mr. Preddy. I want the names, I want the faces, I want to see their faces, I want to be able to look them in the eye. And I think the American people are owed that. I think the Preddy family is owed that. And I think the government has a responsibility here that it is shirking because the men in control, the Republican leaders in the House and the Senate, don't want to do anything because they're more afraid of Donald Trump than they are the family of Mr. Preddy. The people who live in the state of Minnesota or the American people.

Tim Miller (23:54)

Yeah, we pay them. The killers, by the way we pay them. They work for us. Trump's posted like 2,000 bleats in the past 48 hours, so it's hard to kind of go through all of them. But there's one I should mention. He writes this. Agitator and possibly insurrectionist Alex Preddy's stock has gone way down. It was quite a display of abuse and anger for all to see. He's referencing a video of Preddy from 11 days prior to when he was killed where he's kicking a cop car. Agitator and possibly insurrectionist. Alex Preddy's stock has gone way down. Like how fucking deranged do you have to be to post that about a guy that got murdered? His stock is down. He's dead. Your goons killed him.

Michael Steele (24:38)

Yeah, yeah, with no insult intended to 10 year olds. But that's basically. That is the most childish thinking in the world. It is immature. He's a 79 year old man with obvious health issues, obvious mental concerns, and he is in a position where he says stuff like that and people just go, oh, that's Trump. But it's an indication of just how bad it is. I mean, that's how he values the life of an American citizen. His stock has gone down after we killed him. Hey, Array for outside. What the fuck?

Tim Miller (25:16)

I noticed he didn't post about how his stock went up when they showed videos of him, like serving veterans at the VA or when the son of a veteran, you know, played a video of him giving a tribute to his dad. You know, like there's no stock. Doesn't go up, no stock.

Michael Steele (25:33)

Only goes down.

Tim Miller (25:33)

Just goes down. You kill him and then you spit on him when he's dead.

Michael Steele (25:37)

That's what's happening this movie before, and this is what Trump does. And I'm just telling people there will be more of this. As we move out of this very harsh winter into what will likely be a very hot summer, there's more of this to come. Remember the end game here. The end game is the Insurrection Act. That's the end game. Because the moment he can see a situation in which he feels justified in invoking starts a domino effect of other things that will lead to martial law and the suspension of the 2026 elections. That's the end game. They're doing what they can to corrupt the system. On the ground, I give you Georgia, right? What the fuck are we doing in Georgia?

Tim Miller (26:22)

Let's talk about that. Tulsi Gabbard was there. She's the Director of National Intelligence.

Michael Steele (26:27)

Thank you.

Tim Miller (26:29)

Why was she on the ground at Georgia? For an alleged supposed fake law enforcement observation where they seized ballots. They went to an election center. Seized ballots. Tulsi's on the ground for that. That's pretty alarming, especially when you tie it to the fact that earlier this year, I guess it would be last year now, Tulsi cut a group within the intelligence operations. Its job, it was to look at foreign interference in elections.

Michael Steele (26:54)

Right?

Tim Miller (26:55)

She fired those people. The element that she has of control over elections, the only purview she has is making sure that foreign countries don't fuck with our elections. She cut the group that was doing that. And now she's on the ground following up insane Trump conspiracy theories.

Michael Steele (27:10)

She's doing the Kristi Noem thing, put the cap on, do the cosplay. I'm important. I'm serious. No, you're not. You are a tool like everybody else for Donald Trump. And what makes matter worse, you're an incompetent tool in the process. You have no business there. And the fact of the matter is, you've made it very clear you don't care if the Russians or other foreign governments find ways to interfere in our elections. What you're concerned about is going and grabbing ballots, taking them from a secured location and putting them in someplace we don't know. We don't know what's happening to those ballots. There's no accounting for those ballots. There was no receipt given to the Board of Elections when the ballots was taken. Which was the typical thing to do. Here's a receipt, a documentation of exactly what we're taking here, the number, et cetera. None of that. Right? So she's cosplaying. She's a tool. She's doing exactly what Donald Trump wants her to do. Donald Trump wants a couple of things. One, he wants to ram down our throats to the point where he forces us to believe the bullshit in his head that he actually won the 2020 election. That will be the litigation for him until he can definitively prove that case. Right. It'll never be proven because it didn't happen. He lost. The second thing, though, is again showing how they can get control of boards of elections, what they can do. I want to know the judge. I want to see that warrant. I want to know what was written on the paper, because I firmly believe my opinion only that they lied. Now, we have evidence that Department of Justice has lied on warrants before. Right? They lied to this judge about what it was they were getting and what they were. What the crime was. I want to see that because that will tell you everything you need to know about how the judge signed off on this thing. Unless the judge is another one like the one we got in Florida, who's holding up all.

Tim Miller (29:18)

Yeah, I mentioned this to Edgar yesterday. Andrea, who writes our morning newsletter, like, who's reviewing all these ballots now? So you bring them back in. What we're using FBI agents, like, mid level, like, federal law enforcement agents are not gonna be using their time that should be used looking after bad guys, trying to do what a bunch of election officials have already done in a state that was run by Republicans, by the way. It's totally insane. I mean, they've already lost civil losses. Rudy Giuliani had to pay out, you know, Ruby Freeman and Shane Moss. Like, these accusations have already been adjudicated multiple times, and it's Republicans overrunning the state when it happened.

Rocket Money Advertiser (29:56)

The number one resolution for people last year was to save more money, but nearly half gave up by February. Don't let that be you. Download Rocket Money to reach your financial goals this year, track your spending, cut waste, and automate savings in one simple app. Rocket Money shows you all your expenses and categorizes them so you know exactly where your money's going and where you're overspending. From there, the app cuts waste by canceling your unused subscriptions and lowering your bills. No customer service needed. With that money freed up, the app will automatically set some cash aside for your goals, whether it's an Emergency fund, paying off debt or saving for vacation. Rocket Money's got you covered. Users love the app with over 186,000 five star ratings. And on average, users can save up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. Make saving money a priority this year. Go to RocketMoney.com Cancel to get started. That's RocketMoney.com Cancel RocketMoney.com Cancel I want.

Tim Miller (30:57)

To talk to go back to Graham at this House funding negotiation that's going on. This is ongoing. You know, like I said, we're taping this in the morning, so there could be some developments in the afternoon. But it's just, even if he backs down, this is like so fucking gross that we just have to address. Cannot go. It cannot be ignored. So the Senate had struck a. The Republicans and the Democrats had struck a deal last night. The deal was essentially that the appropriations bills, the funding bills for everything else besides DHS would be agreed upon. Right. And pushed forward. And there'd be a two week extension of the DHS funding to buy both sides some time to negotiate on creating some new rules around what the DHS enforcement agents are allowed to do in the wake of the two killings. Graham, like before this came to a vote, said that he refused to go along with it and was putting a hold on it unless they put back in the provision that would allow senators to receive cash payouts if they had phone records seized by Jack Smith. You remember, the senators put that into the last budget bill where they were gonna be able to get payouts. They were gonna be able to get cold hard cash because they felt like their privacy was attacked because they were involved in the insurrection and Jack Smith was looking into their phone records. The House stripped that out after there was a bunch of outrage among a bunch of House Democrats who flagged this, including Suhas Submarine shout out to him. Graham now is saying he will shut down the government basically unless he can get a cash payout. That's Lindsey Graham's stated position during the negotiations as we tape this right now. What is that? I mean, I guess it's in line with Trump. Should we just lump them together? Here's the other story. Trump has a lawsuit right now of $10 billion. Trump suing the IRS. Trump and his kids and his organization suing the IRS because his tax record's leaked. He's suing them for $10 billion. So Trump wants a. So Graham is small potatoes compared to Trump. Graham's just trying to shut down the government to Get a few milli for himself. Trump wants 10, Billy. This is what's happening.

Michael Steele (33:04)

I don't know how America tolerates this bullshit. I honest to God don't know at this stage how South Carolinians, of which my family originates on my mama's side, tolerate this very petty, insignificant little man who is the imp at Donald Trump's heels and has been told to go out and they found something. Now, if you weren't making phone calls on January 6th, you weren't getting text messages on January 6th, then there was no need to be concerned about anything. That was it. I mean, if people who were involved in the insurrection had your phone number and were texting you, I'm sorry, that may be of some national interest.

Tim Miller (33:52)

And by the way, we weren't even reading the text. We were just seeing if they were texting you. That's all it was. Were you texting with the people trying to overthrow the government? Right, Right.

Michael Steele (34:01)

So now this bitch wants to get paid millions of dollars for what? What are we paying you for again? So can I. Can I talk about the brothers that the government spied on their phones and took their text messages? Should they be lining up and getting a little piece of something, Something, too? I mean, when do we start paying criminals for crime? And, I mean, that's. I'm sorry, that's crazy to me. If you're a part of an investigation, you're part of the investigation. I don't care if you're a not. You shouldn't have been doing the shit. It just shouldn't happen that way. But it has, and here we are. And so now Lindsey is saying, I'm willing to shut down the government unless I've been able to put a provision back in that's going to pay me millions of dollars. They wanted to look at my cell phone.

Tim Miller (34:48)

I'm going to shut the government down. So you won't be able, you know, you won't be able to get your services till I get my cash.

Michael Steele (34:53)

So, South Carolina, take note, because this is your senator.

Rocket Money Advertiser (34:56)

I didn't even realize I was wasting $415 a month until I downloaded Rocket Money. I thought I had my finances under control until the app laid out all my spending and categorized it for me. Takeout shopping and unused subscriptions were quietly draining my account, and as a result, my savings took a backseat. But Rocket Money doesn't just tell you what you're wasting money on. It takes action to save you money. First, the app looks at your income and monthly expenses and calculates how much you can safely spend each day to stay under budget. Rocket Money also finds and cancels unwanted subscriptions for you and even negotiates better rates on your bills so you have more money in your pocket. On average, Rocket Money members can save up to $740 a year when using all the app's premium features. Users love the app. With over 186,000 five star ratings. It's time to simplify your finances and take control of your Money. Go to RocketMoney.com Cancel to get started. That's RocketMoney.com Cancel RocketMoney.com Cancel at this.

Tim Miller (35:58)

Point, having two former Republicans talk about how fiscal responsibility is dead is like the biggest dog bites man story in the world. But sometimes I just can't help myself. And we're together. I just wanna combine these stories. So Trump wants 10 billion of my money. Trump wants the Trump Corporation and his kids to get $10 billion of our money, our taxpayer money. And he wants to do some inside deal where his people in the administration negotiate with his people at his company. And one side writes, uses our money to give the other side a payout. That's what Trump wants to do, 10 billion. Lindsey Graham wants a payout because he doesn't like that the Justice Department was doing his job. Meanwhile, here's this other cbo. CBO has been gutted, but every once in a while there's still a couple of people working in there. And here's what they estimate on the national guard deployments. 500 million last year cost us half a billion for these guys to go and be Disney characters in the city. Like that was the result of this. They antagonized the citizens, they did some selfies. One of them got killed. We had a casualty, right? And they achieved no goals. Like there was nothing accomplished. So they spent 500 million of our money to invade our cities. And it results in one tragic casualty and there's nothing to show for it. Like, you'd think that there'd be somebody over there that would, that would be like, what are we doing with everybody's money?

Michael Steele (37:22)

It's op, baby. What are you talking about?

Tim Miller (37:28)

It's op Other people's money.

Michael Steele (37:31)

Come on now.

Tim Miller (37:35)

I mean, what though? Nothing.

Michael Steele (37:39)

It's so stupid. But here we are. Look, Donald Trump is estimated to already, including the 1 billion doll that we know of, estimated to have already made 3 billion. So you've gotten 3 of the 10 already. So we really only talked about $7 billion, Mr. Trump. So we'll have your people negotiate with our people. Over our money and we'll give you $7 billion. That's basically what he's saying. Lindsey, I know you feel put upon and I feel bad for you, brother. So let's just give you several million dollars to make you feel good. Because your phone got caught up in something that shouldn't have been caught up in because you were texting with people you shouldn't have been texting with. But that's irrelevant. Let's just give you a million dollars and then the half a billion dollars that we spent to send our National Guard into harm's way and to make a mockery of them, that too is money that, you know, we just write that off. That's just the cost of doing business. And so we have an administration led by a man who failed at running a casino. So what the hell do you think he's gonna do with your money? He had no regards for his own money. Who loses money running a casino? Donald Trump.

Tim Miller (38:59)

We're 40 minutes in. I haven't even gotten to the fact that we have a new Fed chair. Kevin Warsh is one. Did you ever deal with Kevin Warsh? This guy, he was a D.C. creature. He's one of these old style traditional Republicans that's like a little bit, was like just greasy enough to keep playing the game, you know. And so it's interesting because he's got a lot of statements on the record that are contrary to what Trump wants.

Michael Steele (39:19)

Can I just stop you there? I just thought that's wholly irrelevant.

Tim Miller (39:24)

Well, it's wholly irrelevant in any situation, cuz we know anyone signing up for Trump is going to do what he wants. But it's particularly irrelevant in this situation because let me tell you a little fun fact about Kevin Warsh. His father in law is Ron Louder. Ron Louder is Trump's friend from college. Ron Lauder was the guy that put the idea in Trump's head that we should take Greenland because they have rare earth minerals. Ron Lauder is currently doing a lithium deal with a government backed company. One of these companies that the government invested in because we're China now and they're doing a lithium deal together in Ukraine. So they're essentially stealing from our alleged allies in Ukraine. And he also, just as a little icing on the cake, he also is in the Epstein emails. Epstein talks about how they hung out. And that's Ken Wash, his father in law. It's not Kevin, speak later. But his father in law is Trump's oldest friend behind the Greenland scam, stealing from Ukraine. In the Epstein files. Seems like some, some conflicts, you know, the Fed, it's important that the Fed is independent. So if I was one of the senators, I'd be like, you know what, Kevin, even if you are on the up and up, like the appearance of corruption here seems pretty high given that Trump is saying that you are going to do what he wants and that your father in law is his bestie.

Michael Steele (40:41)

Well, I just stop at the first point because remember back in the conceit of Senate hearings over many, many years, you have the nominee of fill in the blank and they sit down and they tell you how righteous and how upstanding and how independent and how this and that they would be. And then they would just go on and they would rule to overturn Roe versus Wade and they would rule to strip civil rights and they would go on and run agencies into the ground and make it more expensive for us to deal in our own personal economies. Well, Trump said to hell with that shit. I'm just telling you straight up. I told him the only way he gets this job is when he gets in there, he lowers interest rates. So when you ask him in a Senate hearing, did Donald Trump tell you to do X and X, he's going to lie and say no. But he already has his marching orders because trust me, within the first three months of the job, if not the first four weeks, that's what he's going to do. He's in the job because he's already agreed to do what Trump wants him to do. He's not an independent actor. He has no respect for the. I don't give a fuck who his father in law is at this point, because at the end of the day, he's the guy who's going to ruin the economy because he's going to do what Donald Trump once personally done. There is no more independence if this man is put in the job again. I think every Republican in office right now is accountable for every piece of shit that's happened since January of this year. Every last one of you. It happened in your name, it happened on your watch, it happened with your approval. This will be no different from that.

Tim Miller (42:33)

This is such a good point, and I agree with you that it kind of doesn't matter who his father in law is. But I'm obsessed with it. I'm gonna bring it up every time I mention him anyway. But you're right, even if his father in law wasn't Trump's college best friend, your point would still be valid. But I'm gonna keep bringing it up. But on these Republicans owning it, there's something that bugged me this week. And the ones that have a little bit of shame still, you know, your Dave McCormick types, your John Curtis is out of Utah. They put out some of these Susan Collins s. Statements of concern. You know, this is. These guys are going a little too far, et cetera, et cetera. And on the one hand, it's like, okay, you kind of appreciate that. They're like, wow, at least there's some signs that people that, like, maybe eventually things will be too much. Eventually there might reach enough dead people in the street that they'll find a backbone. On the other hand, it pisses me off because it was so predictable, man. Like, we all did all that. Like, they funded it. Like, when you gave this, like, Kristi Noem, you know, carte blanche and a budget that's bigger than the US Marine Corps, a budget that's bigger than US Marine Corps, and you gave it to her, and you're like, hey, go hire a bunch of people. Go into the interior of the country and start roughing people up and getting out immigrants. Like, what did you think was gonna happen? And we all said it, we warned it. And by the way, it wasn't just us. JD Vance, back in 2015, when. And he was using his brain, did a big, long post about this, about how stupid, you know, the deportation plan was. Because, you know, conservatives who recognize that government makes mistakes, like, also can recognize that the government can't execute a mass deportation within the interior of the country without making mistakes. Like, it was obvious, and it happened. And now these senators want to be like, well, you know, if only we had just had a different figurehead at the top of it. You know, if only our rhetoric, our tone was a little better. And it's like, no, man, you funded it. And this is where we're at now.

Michael Steele (44:29)

This is where we at, because this is where Republicans have led us. And the very chilling and telling part is there were many exits along the way that they could have taken, many exit ramps they could have taken. Mitch McConnell could have ended all of this shit if he just corralled the Senate around his speech that he gave on January 6th and 7th and voted to not just to impeach, which the House did, but to convict all of this. We could have avoided all of this. There's so many moments along the way where folks like you and me and many of our friends were throwing up the flares, putting up the warning signs, screaming, no, no, no, don't go down this road. No danger, Will Robinson, danger, Danger. Right. And they plowed us right through to this moment. That's why I say they own every inch of this shit. And this November it is time to account. And if I'm a Democrat, if I'm an Independent, if I'm a like minded Republican in every race, I'm holding up the list of things that they wrought. And I'm reminding those voters, this congressman, this senator, stood by silently when this happened, voted for these things to happen, looked the other way, gave soft platitudes in the face of horrific moments, didn't say shit when a horrific moment happened. Right? Why should we send them back to Washington? What value do they have to us, our communities? We are struggling. We've lost employment. Our kitchen table is cracked because of the weight of the economics that we're now dealing with. Our kids are undereducated because the Department of Education is doing crazy shit. We're burning books. The cultural and social fabric of the country has been tornadoes. And it's all because these guys follow one man. And so we'd like a leader to follow us.

Tim Miller (46:43)

I didn't realize I was wasting $415 a month until I downloaded Rocket Money. I thought I had my finances under control until the app laid out all my spending and categorized it for me. Takeout shopping and unused subscriptions were quietly draining my account, and as a result, my savings took a backseat. But Rocket Money doesn't just tell you what you're wasting money on. It takes action to save you money. First, the app looks at your income and monthly expenses and calculates how much you can safely spend each day to stay under budget. Rocket Money also finds and cancels unwanted subscriptions for you and even negotiates better rates on your bills so you have more money in your pocket. On average, Rocket Money members can save up to $740 a year when using all the app's premium features. Users love the app with over 186,000 five star ratings. It's time to simplify your finances and take control of your Money. Go to RocketMoney.com Cancel to get started. That's RocketMoney.com Cancel RocketMoney.com Cancel. What about just the more acute crisis right now, which is a lot of people in a lot of parts of the country are dealing with major weather issues and electricity issues, right? People are out of their homes. I got friends who are not in their apartments across red states, Mississippi, Tennessee, because this cold front that came in, you know, and the ice storm, people aren't ready for it. And do you know who has accountability for that in the federal government? The dhs. FEMA is under dhs. So while these guys are spinning about a murder when they should be helping people, they're real people, red state people that need help right now. And they're distracted doing all this shit in Minnesota and Maine and everywhere else.

Michael Steele (48:26)

Tim, FEMA hasn't even done what it's supposed to do for North Carolina from the weather storms that they had over a year ago. Fema. I mean, the fact of the matter is Donald Trump has distracted the government in such a way that it is doing everything but what it's supposed to do. And so FEMA isn't FEMA ing Right. It is not taking care of and helping cities that are ravaged by the winter weather, let alone those that are still recovering from fire. I mean, in certain states, Donald Trump has told them not to do anything. They're lifting a finger to help California.

Tim Miller (49:06)

On the heels of Colorado. Yeah, he told them not to go into Colorado because he's mad about Tina Peters, who is his little minion who got jailed for messing with the voting machine.

Michael Steele (49:16)

So you got a punk, punk ass, punk, petty president who's sitting there telling, well, I'm sorry, we're just not. Your city got burnt out too bad. Your city got flooded too bad. Because I don't like your politics. I mean, that should tell you something, that he's concentrating his ire against his political opponents. And that has real life consequences in how people are recovering from natural devastations like floods and fires. And it has real consequences of how people are going to move forward when they look out their window and they have to keep their kids in Dorms because they're ICE agents prowling the neighborhood to grab up U.S. citizens.

Tim Miller (50:06)

I'm done yelling for the podcast. It's been a lot of yelling. I have one more thing I've just been dying to ask you about though, that we have us here just to get your take on because you're closer to it. You're a lieutenant governor of Maryland. One of the names gets thrown around for 2028 is Wes Moore. He's the governor of Maryland right now. What do you make of that guy?

Michael Steele (50:23)

I like Wes. He's a good guy. You know, he's got some challenges here in the state of Maryland. He's got some holes he's gotta figure out how to fill in the state's budget. His own party, to some extent, is not happy with some of the decisions he's made. But you know, that's not saying much since the Democrats control the state government two to one. So it's all on them. But this goes to what I was saying before about the realities of our economies have direct impact at the state level. And it goes to our conversation about the power of the states to make certain decisions that are left to it under the 10th amendment. But I think, look, he's going to be a name and a voice that's going to be mentioned. I remember when he got into office, we had a conversation. I told him, I said, ignore the conversations about the presidency. Just do your damn job. You are the governor. Do the governing thing, and if the opportunity affords itself later, you consider it. But I think the country's in a very different place, and we'll be looking at a candidate like Westmore very differently in 2028.

Tim Miller (51:25)

What do you mean, differently? Why?

Michael Steele (51:28)

Because he's an African American, and I don't see a whole lot of love for people. I mean, look, we had a black woman. They said, no, the black man who made it, they said he was from Africa and a Muslim, and a lot of people bought that shit. So I think we need to see an attitude change.

Tim Miller (51:43)

Can I be shallow for a second, please? He's got a great smile and muscles, though. Sometimes I look back at all this and I'm like, you know, maybe the Democrats just need to elect a hot guy. And Gavin also is handsome, but, like, Wes has a little less baggage. Has a little less baggage, you know, than Gavin. I don't know. Maybe a handsome guy with muscles is just it. I don't know. Have you seen the clavicular thing where he talks about J.D. vance and his recessed side profile and how he's obese and subhuman? Maybe it's as simple as that. Man, I wish it was heavier. I wish it was serious. I wish we were in a serious country.

Michael Steele (52:17)

Maybe we're not. Well, I. Look, in some respects, I think we've proven we're not because we've elected Donald Trump twice.

Tim Miller (52:23)

So that's kind of like damning with faint praise. And it's like, you know what, Wes? You can win in a country that's elected Donald Trump twice. I didn't mean it like that.

Michael Steele (52:36)

No, I think, Wes, if he's looking at it, and I hear that there are folks in his orbit who are for him, whether he is or not. Look, he's gonna be a name on the table. The Democrats have, I think, a very good box to look into to level up candidates. I think that there is something to your point, though, about how people will ultimately look at the next president. And I think they're gonna be judging along some very, very different lines than we may have seen in the past. And so the muscles may prevail in the end.

Tim Miller (53:13)

All right, Michael Steele, the chairman. This was a sandwich week for the podcast. Me and Bill Kristol on Monday just screamed like. Just ranted. It was like. And another thing. And fuck these guys. And another thing. And then we had three very serious people Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for very serious conversations. And then me and Michael Steele on Friday just ran F these guys and F these guys. So it's nice. We give you. It's a little balance for everybody for the week. I appreciate you very much coming on the show. We'll see you soon. All right.

Michael Steele (53:41)

I appreciate you, man. Love you, brother. All right, everybody.

Tim Miller (53:44)

We'll be back here on Monday. See you all then. Peace.

Michael Steele (53:59)

Best believe it's gonna be outrageous hey, hey can't believe my race Bouncing around, bouncing around, bouncing.