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- [00:00]
A
Hey, everyone, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at the bulk. I'm joined by Bill Kristol, author of Morning Shots, who is pulling a double shift here on Sunday morning. We're recording this prior to him going live later in the day. Who is your guest, Bill?
- [00:14]
B
Jay Nordlinger, who's been traveling in Italy. He's going to talk about what it looks like from what the US at 250 looks like from Europe.
- [00:20]
A
I'm going to compare my numbers to Jay's and it's going to be a real sort of. I'm going to derive my own sense of worth based off those numbers. So folks, hit the. Like, it's a little Trump.
- [00:30]
B
Like I'm gonna just say. I mean, that's kind of, you know, you're gonna watch it two. You're gonna watch yourself two or three times. Probably cut me out of it. Just watch you talking to the camera and analyzing and then enjoy your big numbers. That's fine. That's fine. Did you. But you're gonna have to carry this one, Sam, because I was ignoring it all last night, but you were paying attention, so.
- [00:49]
A
Oh, too bad.
- [00:50]
C
Okay.
- [00:50]
A
Yeah, we're gonna go through the day yesterday. So July 4th, obviously. Great American State Fair fireworks extravaganza. It's gonna be of our country's birth. 250. And things did not go to plan. Now I'm not going to be one of those people who's like, oh, it was a complete and utter disaster. It was like a 85 to 90% disaster. There were like 10% good parts to it. And I'm going to credit. The fireworks at certain vantage points look pretty awesome, but there was a lot of them. And the air quality in D.C. is absolutely abysmal this morning because of it. We'll get into that later. But it started off on a really bad note. Everyone's coming into the mall, Bill. Lots of people. The people did show up. I'm going to give them credit for that. People did show up this time, but so did the Patriot Front, which is a white nationalist group. And they came marching right through Union Station early in the morning with their stupid little khakis. Those dumb, stupid khakis and little face masks because they're too scared to show their stupid faces. And they're sweating. You can see the sweat stains through their khakis. How freaking patriotic, Bill. I was repulsed by it when I saw it. I think a lot of people were repulsed by it when they saw it. There's some iconic photos going around. We can't show the Reuters one, unfortunately, because we don't have a license. But we're going to show a few others of them. Riding the metro through D.C. with onlookers just being like, what the hell is going on here? I was repulsed. I thought it was about as grotesque as you can get. And I'm assuming you felt the same way.
- [02:21]
B
I did. I did. And you know Union Station? God knows how many times you and I have been there to catch the train to New York or to Boston or the Metro. Actually, it's also a Metro stop. Our son and daughter in law were married there 12 years ago or something. Very lovely. So for us, it has a little bit of special significance. A wonderful station, a wonderful gem of Washington architecture and seeing these neo Nazis. Yeah. Parading through it. And I mean, they, I guess you can't stop them, but everyone else has to suffer watching them. It's a depressing behavior getting it to July 4th.
- [02:54]
A
Sure. Well, you can't stop them. They have the right and that is our country. But you can condemn them and you can be honest about them. And yet there were multiple times when I was just kind of going online through the course of the afternoon after this happened where people were just kind of like making excuses for it. So here's the Daily Wire CEO. He says ignore these losers. It's probably 75% SPLC employees at Southern Poverty Law center employees and 25% feds. Well, Dum Dum, if it's 25% feds, those are Donald Trump's feds. Okay, like who? Who do you think controls the government at this point? Eric Erickson wonders a lot. If they're just Hill staffers. Hill staffers. Why would Hill staffers do okay. Laura Ingram. I call fake looks more like antifa in costume. No one should be allowed to cover their faces. The logic does not extend to ice. Apparently Laura Lovin thinks it's SPLC as well. Mike Lee, Unbelievable stuff here. So Mike Lee a year ago predicted that the Patriot Front would disappear, as he said, immediately after we confirmed Cash Patel. The assumption was that these were all feds and that Cash Patel cracked down on it. Mike Lee, yesterday as the Patriot Fund's marching through Union Station in the plaza right outside of it. Patriot Fund brought to you by leftists who don't know that patriots don't wear masks. I can't. I can't take this. I can't take this.
- [04:22]
B
You know, it's striking. Mike Lee didn't have to say anything. I mean, the courageous thing, the right thing, to do is to denounce people who were, you know, sort of on your side. I mean, I don't want to overstate it, but they are really in some sense, and certainly others at other times in the conservative movement have denounced the extremists and tried to say that's not us. And decent people on the left have to obviously denounce communists and people who claim that they were also allies of them. So the right thing to do would be to denounce them. The second best thing to do would at least be to keep a dignified silence about them. But Mike Lee and some of these other people, some people were asked about it, I suppose, but most of the people you've quoted were volunteering this, right? I mean, they were sort of, they, they wanted to get out ahead, so to speak, and blame the left with, I mean, to say no evidence is like already an overstatement almost. Right? So that, that's very telling, isn't it? They, they steep down. They kind of know these are their people and they need to deflect and say, oh, no, they're not our people. Right. Why do you, why do you say they're not our people unless you sort of know that you. They are your people?
- [05:18]
A
Exactly. Well, and the head of the group was there unmasked and did you interview. So it clearly was Patriot Front. But this extended to this morning where Doug Burgum, the Interior Secretary, was asked about this on cnn, and it kind of gave me, like, quasi Charlottesville vibes. Not quite as bad because it's not the president and he's not calling them good people. But the whataboutism is very apparent in his answer. Let's play it.
- [05:44]
D
Do you, as interior secretary, will you recommend to the president that he condemn the. This group and what they were trying to message, what they did try to message here in Washington?
- [05:55]
C
Well, there have been. Dan, a part of my response to that is that there are protests on the Mall, that people say things that I think are irrepressible about President Trump, and yet they're allowed to go on because of free speech in our country. And so this is a. Something. But you've seen President Trump. I was with him in North Dakota. I was with them in Mount Rushmore. I was with him.
- [06:18]
D
White nationalism. It's, it's, as you said, a part of America's history that still has pockets. But the fact that they were here in Washington on such an important day, I do want to move on.
- [06:34]
C
But I do think again, I mean, there are people that are Saying, death to Israel and death to America. I mean, this is part of free speech in America. They can say it, we can object to it, but it is something that comes with free speech in America.
- [06:47]
B
I mean, it's really pathetic. Burgum was uncomfortable. I mean, he was once a Normie Republican who wouldn't have thought twice before denouncing this? And certainly. But he wouldn't denounce it, and he wouldn't just say himself. Right. Well, it's unfortunate he wouldn't just say, this is terrible, and these are terrible people, and this is not what America is about. We have free speech, and there are people saying bad things about Trump also. So I guess we can't really pester judgment on all these things, you know. What did you think?
- [07:16]
A
Well, I just, I'm like, you, I, you know, I, I, I, I was waiting for something far harsher from Doug Burgum. It doesn't take much to just be like, these people are dopes, and I condemn everything they say, and they shouldn't have showed up, and it's gross that they did. I mean, it doesn't take much. I, you know, the sort of Occam's Razor here is that, actually, I'm not really sure what the Occam's Razor is here. Like, Trump obviously thinks that this is his people and he doesn't want to offend them. But, like, Doug Burgum, is he, like, worried that Trump's gonna get mad at him from the Patriot Fund? Like, what, what, why is, what are the mental gymnastics he's going through during that interview?
- [07:53]
B
I don't know. Steve Miller on line one yelling at him, if not Trump himself? I, I, it's a good question.
- [07:58]
A
Yeah. Is that it? It's like, how could you do that? You know, these are our people. I don't really get it. I guess you have to perpetuate the, the idea that these aren't actually real neo Nazis, that it's all like a leftist front. Like, is that really it? So I don't know. I, I had to, like, had a very, a very unfortunate and uncomfortable conversation with my son, who's people with Confederate flags showing up on Union in Union Station, which he goes through every now and then, and, you know, just sort of talking about, like, well, you know, they have the right to, you know, wave the flag, as gross as it is. But it was, you know, it's uncomfortable. And I wish that people in our highest office would just be more comfortable not absolving them or trying to make excuses for them or Making up myths that this is some sort of leftist front group. We have a lot to get to though, unfortunately, because that was just the start of the afternoon. Where were you yesterday? You didn't watch any of this? You didn't follow this online?
- [08:50]
B
I occasionally dipped into online just to say I couldn't resist. But I tried not to let July 4th be defined by either the national front, obviously, or honestly Donald Trump. So I watched some World cup games and Susan and I watched a movie last night. And in our air conditioned house it was kind of hot here in Washington. We did one other thing, I will say we went to our little neighborhood. They have a little parade through the neighborhood we live in in Northern Virginia every July 4th. It was actually abbreviated this year for sensible reasons. They didn't want people to suffer from heat stroke. But there was, it was still a kind of more like a gathering in a shady little bit of a shady part of the, of the neighborhood. And they had, you know, red, white and blue popsicles and little kids still riding their tricycles and it was charming. And actually we talked about various neighborhood, various things. Just, you know, got to meet some new neighbors and reconnected with some old ones and you know, people from a few blocks away, we don't see that often. And it was charming. And I don't think anyone mentioned the word sonnetrum.
- [09:47]
A
That's really nice. That feels lovely.
- [09:50]
B
People said they liked the Bulwark. The closest they came. You glad to know is there several people were sort of, oh, I admire what you guys are doing at the Bulwark. Say hello to all your colleagues. So I'm saying hello to you for them and so forth. But we avoided Donald J. Trump.
- [10:04]
A
All right, well, that lived experience was not shared by hundreds of thousands of people who apparently descended on the Mall. I don't really know what the actual number was. I saw 150,000. So let's go with that. They got there, they were hanging out. There's a lot going on down there. Credit to them for showing up after days of just absolutely vacant plots of land. Down on the Mall, people did show up. But like lo and behold, Washington D.C. in the summer, in the afternoon, lots of thunderstorms rolling and out and one rolled in like around 6pm or so roughly, give or take maybe 6:30. And everyone had to vacate because there was concerns about lightning and thunder and the safety of the people on the Mall. So imagine chaos that ensued with people literally having to get out of the secured perimeter to vacate. They went to all these different locations. The IRS building housed a couple of the Agriculture Department of Agriculture housed a bunch of people. And then in the irony of all ironies, the African American History Museum ends up housing a ton of people. Like a bunch of Trump people coming in and then having to take shelter among the African American History Museum. Let's put the video up. Do you think, Bill, that it counts as DEI for the museum to let all these Trumpers in for shelter? Is that a DEI policy?
- [11:28]
B
All these white people in? I thought you were going to say.