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- [00:00]
A
Hey, everyone, Sarah Longwell here, publisher of the Bulwark, with my buddy and good friend Tim Miller. We wanted to jump on because something caught my attention recently, Tim, as we have been going through this whole Graham Platner saga, Republicans like Kellyanne Conway and Kevin McCarthy have rushed out to say Republicans would never do such a thing as to defend a candidate. Or, you know, we would never do this. We throw the bad ones out. But Trump did this really funny thing where when he was asked about Graham Platner, this is what he said, Really
- [00:37]
B
a question of whether or not you believe the woman. A lot of people say big falsehoods. It's. He's in a bind. He's in a bind.
- [00:48]
A
So, Tim, it depends on whether you believe women, because a lot of people are just. A lot of these women are liars.
- [00:56]
C
It's just the weakness of their attacks on Platner are just so obvious and so funny. I mean, it's, I guess, funny in the dark, macabre way. But, yeah, I mean, Trump. The only time Trump ever shows empathy is for men who are accused of sexual assault. It's like, honestly, it's the only time he often we're about to see. He can get inside their head. He understands it could be unfair how they're treated. Usually he only cares if himself is unfairly treated. He doesn't even mind if his kids or staff are unfairly treated. It's he, himself or other powerful men accused of sexual assault. That's the one time his empathy gene comes in and. And because of what you're about, we're at the show and all this, like, in addition to Kellyanne and. And Kevin, I was watching a segment, I think it was Brad Todd on CNN as a Republican consultant or another Republican consultant, where, you know, it's the CNN fight show. And one of the Democrats is like, well, do you believe Eugene Carroll? And, you know, he's like, well, do you believe Lindsey Fifield? He's like, it seems like, yeah. He's like, do you believe Eugene Carroll? And it's like, well, you know, we're not talking about that. We're here to talk about Graham Platner. And it's like, okay, all right, sure, guys. So, you know, it is a very shallow pool that they're standing in as they're trying to make these arguments.
- [02:11]
A
Yeah, I mean, these are. This is a real glass house situation. A pot calling the kettle black.
- [02:19]
C
A lot of metaphors. I'm not really sure what mine was actually. Shallow pool. It's Friday afternoon. We're taping this so yours made more sense. But, you know, you know, you know where we're going with it.
- [02:27]
A
I do. And there is right now as many people as Republicans who have no moral authority on these issues because Donald Trump hasn't. People say Eugene Carroll, because that is the one where Donald Trump was adjudicated for sexual assault. He was also, you know, convicted for election crimes for paying off Stormy Daniels, with whom he was sleeping when Melania was, had just had Baron. And so, you know, there's all of these ways in which Donald Trump does feel, I think, a sense of real fidelity with men who are accused of sexual assault and rape because he has been accused 28 times, I believe is his tally. Lots of them came out during the time he was running for president in 2016. And Republicans ignored all of those. And they ignored it even after Donald Trump was caught on video by Access Hollywood, it was released, him saying, yeah, no, I, I, I just move on them, grab them, do whatever they want, because when they're a star, they let you do it. Okay, so we know that about Trump. And so all of the people going, all the Republicans going after Graham Platner, obviously just deep hidden hypocrisy.
- [03:38]
C
One of the other things that the Republicans will say is, well, I guess, you know, the Democrats only will throw their guys overboard when it like, politically benefits them in the end.
- [03:46]
B
Right.
- [03:46]
C
Like, Platner is going to lose anyway. So finally they got on board. So, like, it's worth just kind of taking that argument at face value. And, you know, like, that is also just not true.
- [04:00]
A
I mean, like, Swalwell was going to win.
- [04:03]
C
Right. We have the, all these cases right now as Republicans are up. Like, don't you think all of the Republicans feel the same way about Ken Paxton the Democrats did about Graham Platner? Don't you think they think that they would have a better chance winning the Texas Senate race if they threw him overboard? Of course, there are lesser cases I've been talking about. Max Miller and Corey Mills are in the House races right now. Corey Mills is in a primary. Like, these Republicans could circle the wagons around candidates that have not been accused of, in the case of Mills and Miller, domestic violence, in the case of Paxton, just myriad other, you know, crimes against moral, moral upstanding behavior. And like, they don't do it.
- [04:41]
A
But also actual crimes. I mean.
- [04:43]
C
Yeah, and also actual crimes.
- [04:44]
B
Yeah.
- [04:44]
A
Like Paxton actually isn't the marital infidelity so much as it is that he has been. He was impeached by his own party in Texas for a lot of ethical violations. Right. So Republicans are tolerating all of this stuff. None of us should ever take any of them seriously. There is no need to for one second feel like you owe, you know, these random right wingers any kind of a, like, real response. Like, you people should do it because it's the right thing to do. But, like, they have no moral authority. We should ignore them. But the thing that actually got my attention when Donald Trump was on the plane and his immediate thing, every other Republican right now is, at least from a message messaging standpoint, they're like, well, I'm going to be engaged in total hypocrisy, but I'm going right at Platner because it's bad for Democrats. Donald Trump, still with his killer instinct, still is like, wait a minute. No, I got to. We got to throw into doubt the idea that this woman is telling the truth. And I was like, you know, this is actually Donald Trump's, like, signature. This guy.
- [05:43]
C
Leave creepers. Leave all creepers.
- [05:46]
A
Has never met a single sexual assaulter or raper or whatever that he didn't want to defend. And so Brendan went and just, like, did a quick look, lots of examples of this. And like, let's roll some tape here. Just roll the roulette wheel, and let's see where we begin.
- [06:05]
B
I think it's a very ugly witch hunt, and I think it's very mean. You say, oh, hello, darling, how are you? And you get sued because you've destroyed somebody's life. It's ridiculous, and I think it's very unfair to him. They probably do love their name splashed across the front, and frankly, I think that's not a good situation, and I don't think it's a fair situation. And I think Herman should take very, very strong action, even if he has to bring a major lawsuit against the women.
- [06:31]
A
Okay. Do you remember, you were around for politics then. Do you remember the case against Herman Cain?
- [06:36]
C
I was on the Huntsman campaign. Yes. I have a lot of thoughts about that. Wow, that is great. Archival footage. Shout out to Brendan. My response to Trump on Herman Cain. Number one, how much more lucid does he sound?
- [06:48]
A
Oh, yeah.
- [06:49]
C
In 2011. Like, the difference between 2011 and 2026. Almost slurring. And his dentures.
- [06:54]
A
15 years.
- [06:55]
C
Yeah. His vocabulary is a few more words in the vocabulary. I mean, it's pretty notable there. Kind of striking to see that. Number two, he's not a politician then. So this shows Trump just, like, at his core in his private life. It's 2011. It's four years away from the escalator. And not only does he come to her again defense, he's basically like, the other woman's a whore who probably wants attention.
- [07:20]
A
Yeah, that's right. This is, he has a theory of this that is. And that is replete through these clips is that Trump is like, they get, they just want attention. They just want their name in the
- [07:27]
C
headlines because it turns out so well for all these women.
- [07:30]
A
It is actually an incredibly both illuminating and sick perspective to think. And I'm not saying it's never, it never happens. I am saying the thing that people generally don't want to be famous for is being like victimized by some famous person where, yes, everybody comes out of
- [07:48]
C
the woodwork to call them for their sex act. I mean, obviously some people are much more comfortable with that and happy to be. But like a lot of private people don't, don't want to be famous for, for some sort of sexual act. Certainly not one that was not consensual, that they didn't want to be part of. They don't want to think about it.
- [08:04]
A
Right.
- [08:05]
C
You know, so anyway, the last comment I have on the Herman Cain clip is it's worth also mentioning that Trump did come to Herman Cain's defense after he got some accusations of sexual assault eight years later. He was responsible for Herman Cain's death.
- [08:17]
A
He was.
- [08:18]
C
So RIP in Tulsa. Yeah, RIP Herman Cain, who got Covid at Trump's indoor maskless rally at the height of the COVID pandemic, after which Herman Cain contracted Covid and died.
- [08:32]
A
That's right. Okay, next one.
- [08:35]
B
Roy Moore denies it. That's all I can say. He denies it. And by the way, he totally denies it. So get out and vote for Roy Moore. Do it.
- [08:51]
A
So I'd forgotten about this, which is because right now Republicans are using Roy Moore as their big example of who they abandoned. And I was. And I keep thinking, no, they didn't. Like, yes, the voters in Alabama did vote for a Democrat, but Trump campaigned for the guy the whole time.
- [09:11]
C
And a handful of Republicans candidates decided that they were going to abstain. None of them were for Doug Jones and saying that Roy Moore should be defeated, but Trump himself campaigned for him the whole time. And the RNC said that they were going to stop supporting him. And then Trump called them like, what are you doing? And then RNC came back and was like, nevermind, we will support him. Actually, that was Ronna McRomney McDaniel. And so kudos to that.
- [09:34]
A
14 and 15 year olds.
- [09:36]
C
Yeah. That was disgusting what he was doing. I enroll more as a despicable character. Even outside of his pedophilia. Ephebophilia, that was a defense. This was a febophilia. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't children. He wasn't a pedo. He was just being very inappropriate sexually making sexual advances, sexual contact to 15 year olds when he was, I forget, 30, 40, something like that. So anyway, sick. I mean, totally sick stuff. Trump absolutely unapologetic in defending Roy Moore. And again, a pretty meaningful difference here with what you're saying. How Democrats read the partner, even partner's biggest supporters, even Bernie Zoran. Like, you should get out.
- [10:14]
A
All out, all out. And I will say we're going to go to some more video, but I also, Brendan found this one from Bill Clinton. Trump defended Bill Clinton in 1998.
- [10:24]
C
Many of our commenters defend Bill Clinton. Every time I bring up Bill Clinton's behavior. Okay, might like this.
- [10:30]
A
He was on Fox News, it was on with Neil Cavuto. And Trump said of Bill Clinton, I don't necessarily agree with his victims. His victims are terrible. He is really a victim himself. But he put himself in that position. The whole group, Paula Jones, Lewinsky, it's just a really unattractive group. I'm not just talking about physical. They've taken nothing and made it a big monster. I mean, they've made Watergate out of really what should have been nothing. Donald Trump would then utilize all of
- [11:03]
C
those people to attack Hillary.
- [11:05]
A
To attack Hillary, Right.
- [11:07]
C
In Donald Trump's mind, the person that really perpetrated the crimes in Bill Clinton's sexual peccadillo's was his wife. That Hillary was the one who should suffer for this.
- [11:18]
A
That's right.
- [11:18]
C
Because again, Donald Trump will always circle the wagons around the men, but he'd be happy to use the women's accusations to take down a woman.
- [11:26]
A
That's right. All right, who else? We got one more spin of the wheel.