Bill Kristol: Where Is the $50,000?

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Hey, everybody, a couple of notes here at the top.

Just a reminder, once again, tickets still on sale for the Bulwark Live, Bulwark.com slash events.

We added a Saturday matinee for you in Canada.

So if you're Canadian or in Detroit or want to make a last-second trip this weekend, come to Toronto.

It's going to be beautiful.

We're going to have fun.

Saturday afternoon, tickets are still on sale for the matinee event.

That's the plan for the next weekend.

This weekend, my choices maybe weren't quite as nutritious and wholesome.

I got into a social media war with Megan Kelly.

And, you know, probably don't want to hear me do a full blow-by-blow of the back and forth, you know, where I'm scoring on the boxing cards 10-9, who won each round.

But I did a separate monologue on this over in the Bulwark Takes feed feed and on YouTube.

And I did so because

the manner in which Megan was arguing with me is extremely alarming, frankly.

And Megan Kelly, who I never really held in high regard as a person of particularly stalwart integrity, has like really descended to a dark place.

And the manner in which she was lashing out at me and trying to lump me in with the Charlie Kirk killer and lump everybody that is not MAGA in with the Charlie Kirk killer and try to stoke the flames of division in the country and doing so unapologetically and shamelessly.

I think it sends a pretty scary message about where kind of we're headed as a country.

And so anyway, I have an extremely long rumination on that that I shared over the weekend that you can go check out in the Bulwark Takes feed.

We'll put the link in here.

And also, we're doing rapid response stuff over there as well.

So, you know, if you're feeling lonely on the weekend and you want to hear a quick reaction to something that's happened in the news, it's always good to subscribe to that Bulwark takes takes feed.

All right, for this episode, it's Monday.

So you know who we got.

Stick around.

Hello and welcome to the Bulwark Podcast.

I'm your host, Tim Miller.

It is Monday, so we're here with editor-at-large Bill Crystal on Rosh Hashanah.

So thanks for working on the holiday.

Well, the holiday doesn't begin until tonight.

So I'm strictly, I'm acting in accord with Jewish law.

My rabbi is going to be fine.

As long as he can watch this before sundown, he'll be happy.

So that's good.

You'd think having gone to George Washington University, I would have been familiar with exactly how the holiday works, but apparently not.

I was just happy to get bonus holidays off when I went to school.

All right.

I want to start with the biggest news of the weekend, which comes from Carol Lennig, one of my favorite podcast guests and one of my favorite co-panelists on the Nicole Wallace show.

Hopefully we'll be talking to her later this week.

And she reports about an undercover operation last year in which the FBI recorded Tom Homan, the White House border czar, accepting 50 grand in cash after indicating that he could help the agents win government contracts if Trump were to win again.

The investigation was launched after a subject in a separate investigation said that Homan was soliciting payments.

So maybe not a one-time thing.

The Trump administration has shut down the case, Bill.

I mean, Dom Homan is going to work this morning, I guess, is the biggest top-line news here, which is just absolutely crazy and unprecedented in any type of administration.

That this, not only would they shut it down, but that this man is going to continue to be a top law enforcement official for the country.

Yeah, it is pretty amazing.

I'm glad you're having Carol Lennick on later this week.

That's great.

Hopefully.

Hopefully, she's been pressured now that I've said it live.

You know,

tripped into it.

No, we love her.

I praised her and went to the business.

She's busy.

She's busy.

She's out there making, you know,

breaking news.

Interesting backstory.

I mean, this tiny footnote article.

so she was at the washington post for i think 25 years you know won four pulitzer prizes really an excellent investigative reporter really wonderful work on this secret service people might remember some of those stories that came out those were that was entirely her i think she turned it into a book right and uh part of the washington post collapse under bezos she took a buyout like almost almost so many of them did and then but luckily she's at msnbc where they let her write these long pretty long this was a long investigated piece done with ken delane who's also a good reporter so just to say, very well sourced.

They're working the system to get information in an effective way, which is heartening.

And they got documents.

So, she actually quotes documents.

It's in a way very simple, right?

There isn't actually, I mean, there was an FBI sting.

Homan actually gets kind of drawn in, it sounds like by accident, it's a counterintelligence thing.

So, it's not even true that the Biden Justice Department was going after a critic, Tom Homan.

He kind of comes into it by accident.

Once they discover that he's interested from this other person they're going after, I guess, that he's interested in this.

They set up this sting.

He's happy to take his $50,000 in a Kava bag.

Kava, I believe we're pronouncing it.

Kava.

Did I say what I said?

Kava.

Yes, Kava.

I'm confused.

You know, I've been to Kava many times.

There's one right near us in McLean.

The grandchildren are big Kava fans.

Oh, yeah.

Do you like the sug?

All kind of sauce that you pronounce.

Yeah, I like the lamb meatballs with avocado or something like that, kind of spicy lamb meatballs.

I haven't tried that.

But I say in Morning Shots that this, if you go to their website, which I did for eight seconds, they're advertising some new dish, which I haven't tried.

So, people should feel free to give us a judgment of that, some spicy chicken swarm or something.

Anyway, coffee.

What's interesting is they put out a statement, and you know, these are good reporters, and the Trump administration felt required to respond to the speech, which is sort of interesting.

And a statement from Patel and Blanche, the number two guy at Justice.

They don't challenge a single fact.

I mean, this is interesting, but some of these other things they say, oh, it's lies, it's false.

I mean, literally, no one has denied that Tom Holman took $50,000 in cash in a paper bag in September, almost exactly a year ago, September 20th, 2024, thinking that this was, well, what he was thinking.

The person who gave him the money said that basically this was to get him to make good decisions once he's in the Trump administration.

If Trump were to win, that would benefit presumably their

businesses.

Yeah, they're opposing as business leaders that wanted government contracts.

So it's very explicit.

There's no other reason.

It's not a tip for, you know, it's not a tip for having been a good guy in the past.

not something else.

And it's also $50,000 in a bag in cash.

That's kind of a little suspicious, I'm just going to say.

But they haven't challenged those facts.

They didn't challenge the fact that it was an ongoing investigation.

The Biden Justice Department seems to have behaved very responsibly.

They didn't leak it before the election.

They wanted to wait to see what would happen if he came into government and followed through.

This is ongoing.

The people in the Public Integrity Division of Justice think it's a real case, and they have pretty good standards for this.

And then it gets shut down by the Trump people.

None of that is denied in the statement by Patel and Blanche.

They just say, well, there was no credible evidence of a crime, so we just shut it down.

So we have the crime.

We have the bribe, I would call it.

We have the cover-up.

And I hope a lot more investigating gets done, including by, I mean, it would be nice if the Republican Congress took a look.

I'm not holding my breath about that, but Democrats can cause some trouble, I think, at least.

Well, I mean, they're still open-ended questions, like just for starters at the most basic, where is the 50 grand?

Like, what did he do with it?

Did he pay taxes on it?

Is it under his bed?

You know, did he use it to buy strippers?

Like, I mean, I don't know.

I can't remember from when I was

in the White House.

I don't know if you have to make your tax returns public or just you make a statement, I think, public of your holdings.

But anyway, it's just perfectly the least one could ask, and I hope people are going crazy asking this today, both the media and Democrats and everyone else, is, well, yeah, what happened to the money?

What did you do?

Did you pay taxes on it?

Did you declare it?

Do you still have it?

I mean, what's the story there?

And then, of course, well, there are many, many other questions to be asked as well, obviously.

Yeah, I mean, and there's precedent for this.

I mean, Jim Trafficant went to jail for this, like for taking bribes, but like not paying taxes on it, right?

So there's a tax angle to everything.

You mentioned it in passing, but I just think it was worth sitting on again that the supposedly weaponized Biden Justice Department didn't say anything about this and didn't say anything about it before the election, but also didn't say anything about it in the interim, right?

Like these are people in the Department of Justice and the FBI that were doing their job, that were acting according to just normal processes.

And the result of it is the actual folks politicizing the Justice Department now come in and shut this thing down.

And

as Megan Kelly said to me on Twitter, they don't care about it.

They haven't just shut down this case.

They've essentially shut down the public integrity division.

Yes.

That is a straightforward story.

And while the 50 grand is kind of small potatoes compared to the billions that Trump is getting in his stablecoin and other crypto coins and all these other corrupt acts that we've seen around the Trump family and the Witcoff family and others close to the president.

This to me, I talked to Sarah about this a little bit over the weekend, is like, it's so easy to understand.

You know, any person has watched a movie and understands 50 grand and a fast food bag, right?

Like it is, it's not cryptocurrency.

It's not international.

It's not, you know, making a deal about AI chips.

Like it's just like dude is taking cash to hand out contracts and the Trump administration doesn't care about it because they don't care about corruption if it's one of their guys.

I don't know.

I feel like that's something that can have some staying power.

What do you think?

And it'd be good if some people who are Trump supporters, more or less, did say they cared about it.

National Review had a fairly strong little piece by Andy McCarthy, at least acknowledging this kind of a problem.

And we need to have ⁇ Congress should look into it, they said.

So we'll see if ⁇ I'd like for somebody that's in good standing with MAGA to be able to write that.

I mean, kudos to Andy McCarthy, I guess.

Yeah, no, I I agree.

It'll be interesting if any Republican even thinks like I should actually call for Warfax or something like that or ask the questions you just asked.

And it is crazy, like that, you know, we always go on some of this.

Like, there hasn't been a single Republican elect official at the time of this taping that's like, that has even done the Susan Collins.

Like, I am concerned.

You're not concerned about the top law.

And this person is a law enforcement official.

It's not like some random staffer in the EPA or like a deputy press secretary or whatever.

Like, that would be any better.

Like, this this is supposed to be the Law and Order Administration.

Tom Homan is deporting people based on their legal status.

Like, Tom Homan has like people's freedoms and their lives in his hand.

And he's just being openly corrupt, accepting bribes, and everybody's okay with that.

And it's that is everybody in the Republican Party is totally okay with that.

I mean, that is crazy.

And I do think, I don't know if you agree with this, that one reason I might have a little more political salience is some of these business guys, you know, it's like, what a surprise that they're doing sleazy deals and whatever payoffs, in effect, payoffs at all.

Homan, I mean, he's reprehensible in so many ways, in my opinion, but one thought maybe I kind of even thought maybe he's just a

nativist

bigot, but I mean, he's a bulldog and this is what he's done for his life and this is what he truly believes.

And he is, as you say, spent life and learning.

But he looks more like an ideologue, right?

Yeah.

And so taking the money, taking the $50,000 of cash in a paper bag, I mean,

amazing.

I enjoyed AOC's tweet about this.

Something to the effect of like, who's the illegal now, Tom Homan?

Like, Homan being an illegal, I think also

puts into a different light and context, like what they're doing with ICE and like what their plans are and what their messaging is around it and the credibility around it for regular folks.

I had a friend in Denver that messaged me and asked if I'd been seeing the ads that ICE is running in apparently sanctuary cities across the country.

I don't watch a ton of network TV in New Orleans, so maybe they're running them here, but I have not seen it.

And we grabbed this one, which was running in Sacramento, but it seems like it's run a bunch of places.

I saw one, I saw people talking about it running in Seattle and elsewhere.

And I just want to play this ad, which is it's fucking horrifying.

Let's just listen to it.

Attention, Sacramento law enforcement.

You took an oath to protect and serve to keep your family, your city, safe.

But in sanctuary cities, you're ordered to stand down while dangerous illegals walk free.

Join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst.

Drug traffickers, gang members, creditors.

Join the mission to protect America with bonuses up to $50,000 and generous benefits.

Apply now.

Join.ice.gov.

Our tax dollars are paying for that.

That is like out of a spoof.

That's out of a Mike Judge movie or something.

That is horrific.

It's just like, hey, if you're a cop and you're upset that you're not able to hassle brown people more aggressively, join ICE.

We'll give you 50 grand grand of your neighbor's taxpayer dollars so that you can bully them more on behalf of Tom Homer.

The corrupt racist borders are.

And I like the fact that they're offering $50,000 as the inducement.

Maybe that number was stuck in Tom Homan's mind for some reason, right?

That's the appropriate, that's what it costs

to get someone.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tom Homan's like, you can win me over with 50 grand.

Maybe I can win over these corrupt cops and get them to come work for ICE for 50 grand, too.

That is what, that is a, that's a good astute observation, Bill Crystal.

And it could be a South Park.

If it was a South Park ad this week, like, would they, what would they even change?

I mean, I like, really,

it's just, it's truly astonishing that that's like where we are and that those ads are like running on TV in this country, that we're paying for them.

The kind of people who are joining ICE are presumably, to some degree, the people who are responding to that commercial.

The kind of people who are not joining ICE are probably the cops who think that's bad.

You know, Who's going to be staffing these new, how many are there?

30, 40,000 positions at ICE by two or three years from now?

It's just part of

what's really scary about the fact that this is not an eight-month administration, but a four-year administration.

Maybe getting rid of Homan, if he could be shamed,

they don't do shame, but if he could be somehow driven out of office, or Trump could decide is too much of a burden.

I'm not sure that would change anything with Steve Miller there, but maybe it would do a little good.

But again, it does bring home, I mean, how that reconciliation bill, all that money for ICE.

And these are the kind of people they're recruiting into ICE.

I'm still chuckling at that.

The 50 grand bribe was good enough for Holman.

So now it's going to be good enough for the cops.

It's going to give them the same amount.

Boy,

we got to go get a strategic reserve of kava bags to pay off all of the all the new ICE officials.

Y'all, you know, I still love a good night out.

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Speaking of corruption at the heart of our justice system, the president pushed out the U.S.

Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Eric Siebert, at the end of last week.

The stated claim was that he had ties to Democrats with a rhino.

The kind of on background claim was that he had been taxed with going after Tish James for alleged mortgage fraud.

That investigation stalled because the prosecutors and agents didn't feel like they had any evidence to obtain a conviction.

So, you know, how the justice system is supposed to work, they look into tips.

They don't feel like they have the evidence.

They decide not to charge the person.

Donald Trump was upset about that since the person he wanted to charge was his political foe that he wanted vengeance against.

And so he fired the person that did not prosecute.

And then he started going off on Pam Bondi on this on social media over the weekend.

But before we get to the Pam Bondi part, do you have any thoughts just on the Virginia firing?

I mean, that's my district right here.

It's Eastern District of Virginia.

And it's a very well important district, sort of maybe after the two New York, Southern District of New York kind of thing.

Considered one of the most prestigious, most important U.S.

attorney positions.

They do a lot of national security cases here because it's it's obviously the D.C.

area, CIA's in the district and so forth.

So, yeah, I mean, he's very well respected, a tough guy, though, kind of, I think, was thought to be as good a fit as you could be for the Trump administration and still be a reputable, respectable, sincere, honest lawyer.

Turns out you can be a pretty conservative, pretty hard-charging, respectable, and sincere lawyer, but you're still not a fit for the Trump administration if you're not willing to.

prosecute people who shouldn't be prosecuted because Trump wants you to.

And I suppose also if you're not willing to drop charges against other people who should be prosecuted.

So, I mean, yeah, the degree of corruption, the depth of it, and the shamelessness of it, that Trump just talks about it now, I mean, is pretty astounding.

And to what I referenced there about kind of the pressure going on to Pam Bandi now for these prosecutions not happening, Trump sent out two bleats on his social media feed over the weekend about this.

The first one, I just, for people who are very online on the internet, this one that I'm about to read, there's a lot of folks out there saying that this was like a direct message that accidentally posted.

I'm pretty certain that's not the case.

This is in the tone of all of his other posts.

I think that he was trying to publicly pressure her.

Whatever the case is,

there's some discussion about that.

I don't, I don't think that's right.

But here we go.

Here's the first one.

It's addressed to Pam.

Pam.

I've reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying essentially the same old story as last time: all talk, no action, nothing is being done.

What about Comey, Shifty Shiff, Letitia?

They're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.

He goes on and talks about how he fired the Virginia prosecutor, and then he suggests a new prosecutor for her to hire and says we can't delay any longer.

It's killing our reputation and credibility.

And then he goes on and posts again after the backlash, after people are like, whoa, Trump's really going after Pam Bondi there.

And he posts again and says, Pam Bondi is doing a great job.

She's careful, very smart, and loves our country, but she needs a tough prosecutor.

Like my recommendation, Lindsey Halligan, to get things moving.

Like there's no way to read this as any other way besides the President of the United States is pressuring his attorney general to prosecute his foes.

And like he's doing it just in plain Trumpian, plain language, at least in the Trumpian version of plain language.

Right.

And he's decided, revealing a little thing you were reading in the first bleed, as you call it, that I've read more than 30 statements and posts.

I guess some one of his staffers who has it in for Bondi or has it in for attorneys, Siebert, gave Trump, I mean, God knows who these were from, right?

I mean, they could have been from real MAGA influencers.

They could be from ninth-rate MAGA influencers, if that's a meaningful difference.

He didn't actually talk to anyone who knows anything, I suppose, about the law.

I mean, what if you're, I was thinking about this, what if you're the White House counsel?

You're just cheerfully going about your job.

You're like a respectable lawyer, sort of, and you think it's fine that this is all happening.

Does no one resign from the White House when this kind of thing happens?

I

would like to come back to this.

No one, of course, no one does.

Why am I even asking this question?

But, you know, it is kind of astonishing, I think, right?

This is noteworthy.

Let's just do a little pop quiz for you and the audience.

Who is the White House Counsel?

Do you know?

No.

I just know.

I had to Google it.

I'm not trying to embarrass you.

I didn't know.

The White House Council now is a guy named David Warrington.

I know absolutely nothing about that person.

It's worth just remembering that we heard a lot about Don McGahn.

Now, Don McGahn,

I'm not ready to put him on Mount Rushmore or do a bust of him in the Library of Congress or anything.

But, like, you know, he went along with a lot of bad stuff, but he was in there oftentimes challenging what was happening within the administration, raising to rights previously.

And we all remember all these stories where they would have like, you know, heated meetings in the Oval Office where Don McGahn would be there and say, we can't do this, we can't do that.

There was some of that.

Obviously, Pat Cipollone, again, was maybe less even bold than McGahn, but there were times that he was objecting to things, particularly during the Stop the Steal stuff after the 2020 election.

I'd never even heard of this guy's name.

This is the first time I've seen his picture.

And so to your point, there is not, they don't care.

They don't give a fuck.

Like there's Borders Ar can take 50 grand in a bag of cash.

The president can pressure the attorney general to prosecute political foes.

What I'm going to get to next, the FBI director can post insane, false things.

They can target people inside the administration illegally who haven't done anything wrong just because they're friends with never Trumpers or whatever.

And there's nobody there to even offer, it seems like a word of caution.

There's not, I don't know, there's not like any Maggie Haberman stories about how like, ooh, some of the lawyers are worried about this internally.

Lawyers do have some obligation, I think, to kind of object when illegal things are happening in organizations they're part of.

I can vaguely remember reading about that in other circumstances and corporations and so forth.

But anyway, I guess not in this case.

You might as well just have Macon Kelly as White House counsel.

You know, I mean, she's, you know,

got to go after your enemies and ignore illegalities by your friends.

You know, I think she might have her sights set a little higher than that.

Hey, everybody.

You've probably heard me mention that the bulwark is headed back on the road this fall, but we've got some big updates that I want you to hear.

First, most importantly, we are adding a show in Toronto.

I told you, Canadians, I was doing my best to make it happen.

I'm so thrilled by the response we've had from our Canadian friends and wanted to make sure if you wanted to be able to come, you could.

So we added a matinee, a brunch show, whatever you want to call it.

Maybe a drag brunch.

Don't tell J.D.

Vance the next day.

No promises on drag queens there, but maybe the spirit of a drag brunch.

And so that will be Saturday the 27th.

Go to thebulwark.com slash events to get all the details and to get your tickets for that.

encore show in Toronto.

Also, New York, that's going to sell out here any minute.

So, if you want to see us in New York on October 11th, get your tickets ASAP.

There's still a bunch of tickets left for DC on October 8th, but we've got some exciting guest announcements coming soon.

So, if you're interested in coming to DC, get on that as well.

All of the information available at thebulwork.com/slash events.

It's me, Sarah, and Sam up in Toronto.

Me, Sarah, and JVL, and some of our other Bulwark friends, and a special guest in Washington, D.C.

Look forward to seeing you all out on the road.

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As reference with Cash, I want to get to a little bit on the Charlie Kirk Memorial from yesterday.

But like related to that, Cash Patel, the FBI director, sent this tweet.

It's still weird to say, sometimes I just need to say that out loud to just like kind of accept that it's my reality.

Cash Patel, the FBI director.

Okay.

His tweet was also extremely long.

This is also a new trend among the MAGA types that I don't understand, but like they do these

book, like basically novella-length tweets.

So I'm not going to read all of it to you, but I want to read a key paragraph.

The context here is, in addition to there being some conspiracy theories on the left about this assassination, which I've addressed and tried to debunk on this very podcast, there are also a bunch of conspiracy theories on the right about it.

They think it's a little too pat, you know,

for some of them, they think the Jews are involved.

For some of them, they think it's even more the transgender roommate was involved.

There are a lot of different conspiracy theories.

Some of them are hard to even kind of follow.

But Cash posts this.

We are meticulously investigating theories and questions.

Including the location from where the shot was taken, the possibility of accomplices, the text message confession and related conversations, Discord chats, the angle of the shot and bullet impact, how the weapon was transported, hand gestures observed as potential signals near Charlie at the time of his assassination, and visitors to the alleged shooter's residence.

Regarding specific details, they also are looking into questions about the plane that allegedly turned off its transponder after departing from an airport near the assassination site.

And this is lunacy.

This is Cash just basically saying that the FBI is taking assignments from the most crazed people on TikTok.

And he is going to have his agents look into the weirdest theories that are out there about what appears to me to be a pretty up and open and shut case.

It's like a pretty short episode of a Law and Order SVU for me.

It's like, guy has a motive, guy confessed on Discord text message and to his family, guy got caught.

Anyway, he's going to have his agents looking into all this.

And rather than even just saying, we've heard your feedback, we're going to be looking into additional any other theories about this, he lists them all and he's giving oxygen to all of the craziest people out there.

I don't know how we live as a society if this is the way that we're going to be, where the social media account algorithms push the craziest fake theories forward and the people who are supposed to be in charge advance it.

Do you share my just

total, total, I just, I'm apoplectic about it, I guess.

Yeah, there's always been a lot of craziness.

It's obviously amplified and much kind of goes much faster on social media.

But I mean, part of being a serious person is ignoring the craziness.

And I also feel, what about these FBI agents?

I mean, some of them might be think they should be investigating an actual crime like Tom Homan.

And instead, go look at whether the transponder was turned off on some plane, which it wasn't turned off, I don't believe anyway, you know, that flew out of, I don't know what the alleged conspiracy even was, what they were transporting some secret assassin.

Yeah, one of the guys with the hand gestures, this was posted in our Slack and our guy Will Summer, who if you haven't signed up for Will Summer's newsletter, following all these crazies, it's the best, but he's like, the guy with the hand gestures is like a famous character and like MAGA.

So like they're saying one of their own evangelical guys is like in on it.

Like none of them make any sense.

You're an FBI agent.

You gotta...

What you gotta track that down and then write a report for Mr.

Cash so that he doesn't get yelled at by QAnon people that, you know, in his audience that he cultivated over the years.

I guess that's where we're at.

I think it is where we're at.

I mean, I hope it, honestly, it leads FBI agents without breaking any laws and violating actually important restrictions and what they can talk about.

I hope more stuff comes out, honestly, about what is going on at the Justice Department of the FBI because it must really be.

It is appalling.

And it must be.

It is obviously appalling.

And they should be appearing.

We see part of it, but we just, God knows there must be a lot we don't see.

And it'd be good to see a lot of people.

Yeah, they should be.

Cash in his open testimony in the Senate last week was talking about how they fired all these people like the Drizz, et cetera, you know, for cause, that they weren't living up to the standard.

If you're an FBI agent, you got to be like, fuck you.

The Drizz wasn't living up to the standard.

He was doing his job.

He's been in the building for 20 years.

Like, you're not living up to the standard.

You're tweeting, live tweeting the investigations and getting things wrong.

I agree with you.

Hopefully the agents are, you know, they're continuing to do good work.

Help us get a full picture of what's happening inside the Bureau on the Kirk Memorial.

We both said this in the green room.

We'll just say it to the audience here.

I couldn't watch it.

I just couldn't.

No disrespect or any intended.

I just don't.

I just didn't.

I didn't have it in me yesterday.

I needed to spend the Sunday with my daughter.

Luckily, some of our colleagues did.

Andrew Eger watched.

And if you want to hear his review of the Erica Kirk eulogy, apparently it was extremely dignified and respectful and unifying.

And I appreciate that she did that.

In contrast to that, the speaker right after her was the president of the United States.

And

I've only watched, I think, three clips.

I've seen three clips from the whole thing.

And this is one of them.

And I weighed back and forth whether or not to play it on the pod this morning.

And I just, I feel like we have to play it because I was going to read it and it just doesn't quite do it justice.

After Erica Kirk advocating for people to turn the cheek and follow Jesus' teaching, here was Donald Trump.

He was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose.

He did not hate his opponents.

He wanted

the best for them.

That's where I disagreed with Charlie.

I hate my opponent

and I don't want the best for them.

I'm sorry.

I am sorry, Erica.

But now Erica can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent.

I mean, that's just so fucking noxious to do during a funeral, essentially, funeral service, memorial service.

And

you see what happens.

He's reading a teleprompter, some words somebody else wrote for him, and he pauses.

He could hear the pause in that clip, which allowed him to play it.

Like somebody told him to say Charlie Kirk did not hate his opponent, and he paused because that notion, that sentiment was so anathema to him that he could not even keep reading his teleprompter.

And then he has to go off on a side about no, how he hates his opponents and that we should.

And that is the value that he wants to put forth

very fraught time for the country.

Pretty sick and alarming stuff.

It sounded like I didn't see it, watch it either.

It gets a certain amount of applause or kind of a roar when he says that from this crowd at a memorial service.

I mean, terrible.

Terrible.

The only other thing, I'm not going to play this audio from the service, just worth mentioning.

Tucker Carlson,

during his eulogy, I guess, said that he wanted to reflect on his favorite story, which was an apocryphal story about

Jesus in a room full of hummus eaters that wanted him killed, tying Kirk's murder to Jesus' murder and feeling like the Jews are responsible for that.

It is worth noting that the first recorded recipe for hummus was in a 13th century cookbook in Cairo, Egypt.

But I don't think accuracy was what Tucker was focused on in that.

So I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, but just wanted to mention.

I saw the clip on social media.

I felt I didn't really want to watch it, but I watched, you know, it takes 45 seconds.

And there's this maniacal laugh of Tucker's that you've seen elsewhere that he

does this again in the middle of this memorial service.

And this is just such a fantastic story that he's come up with or heard about,

which is not literally, I guess, in the Gospels, but is, you know, a sort of a, you could see where he's getting it, I guess, getting it.

I mean, it's, well, it's just beyond in so many ways.

So grotesque.

Tucker's a very sick, as we really, I do say this honestly, I think, think is become a very sick person yeah you know some of these people are just

yeah some of these people are just not just are distasteful and bad and bigoted and you know terrible and opportunistic and corrupt and all but tucker is is yeah

there's something wrong with her

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All right.

You said another thing you were riled up about, which I've not talked about anywhere, so I just want to let you cook for a second, is a change in the Pentagon press rules.

The Pentagon said Friday it would impose new restrictions on reporters covering the Department of Defense, requiring them to pledge not to gather or use any information that had not been formally authorized for release or risk losing their credentials to cover the military.

Not to gather or use, incidentally, is, I mean, it's bad enough that you can't pull.

You discover that there's a fight going on.

I'm making this up between the Marine Corps and the

Air Force about some helicopter or jet and whatever, kind of standard Pentagon reporting, or about any million of other things.

You don't get to report that because it's not authorized for release.

We're not talking about classification.

None of this applies to classified material.

This is all about unclassified material that reporters could get.

They can't even gather it, let alone report it apparently.

I guess you try to make a phone call and you're going to under this, you'll lose your Pentagon credential.

It's really, well, it just shows.

I mean, this is of a piece with their general desire to curb various freedoms, including freedom of the press.

And the Kimmel thing is so much more dramatic, of course, First Amendment, but, you know, it's kind of important that we have decent reporting about what's going on in this massive military enterprise we have and a little bit of exposing of things when they're what people deserve to know about them.

It's amazingly shameless too.

It's one thing informally, they're doing all these other things, of course, to cook the books, so to speak, or to slant the playing field on reporting and all that.

But this is pretty extraordinary, I think.

You know, there's something that's related to this.

It's kind of a softer type of, I wouldn't even call it a challenge to free speech, but

it is an assault on what has been traditionally thought to be the role of the press corps in a free country, would maybe be a more accurate way to say it.

Yes.

Which is the way that they have stacked the press corps all across the administration.

And this is just kind of an expansion of that in the Department of Defense.

But if if you watch, I forget what it was, there was a press conference.

It was, you know, one of the more in the actual in the briefing room.

And, you know, these days I'm so busy, I'm like, usually, like, you know, we've got, we have folks working hard, suffering through all this for us, which I appreciate, like sending me the best stuff.

And it's like, I'm not usually like sitting down to watch 50 minutes of a press briefing, right?

And I was watching it and I just was struck by just how many sycophants are in the room, right?

Like they have really stacked the press room with people that are just pure propagandists, like no different from having Sputnik in the press room for the, for the, you know, for Putin.

And, you know, they kind of mask this assault on the press by all the access Trump gives.

Like Trump does give out access, so it doesn't like really feel like they're shutting down the press, but they are like shutting down people that are doing legitimate reporting and pushing them out and not giving them access and replacing it with people that are doing a lot of buttering up of him.

And it hasn't been complete and total, right?

And they kind of like having

a couple of regular press people in there that Trump can like berate or whatever to use as foes.

But even still, it makes it hard to get information, right?

In a press room.

If any time like there's one, because usually traditionally, you know, a reporter asks a question, the politician responds.

If a politician isn't fully forthcoming, the next reporter has a follow-up.

That's like, that's not happening, right?

Because half to three quarters of the questions are from people like buttering them up.

So I think that's a very good point about the broader, what's going on throughout the administration, administration, including maybe especially in the White House.

But the Pentagon thing also think about the context.

We've had these three strikes, apparently, on fishing boats that may or may not contain people, civilians, I mean, who may or may not be smuggling drugs and do not propose an imminent threat to the United States and can be turned away by the Coast Guard.

But leaving all that stuff aside, there's been some reporting that's been pretty helpful in helping us understand the fragility, maybe that's not quite doing the right word, the whatever, the dubiousness of some of the administration's claims about whether they really knew what they said they knew about who was in these boats.

Very good piece in the Wall Street Journal.

It was the middle of last week, as I recall, that lawyers in the Pentagon, both military lawyers and civilian, apparently very worried about the legality of what had happened.

Obviously, there was reporting about the Iranian strikes, and maybe they didn't do quite as much damage as Trump said, and other things like that.

Hexeth doesn't want any of that.

So, I mean, military, it's kind of important to actually have good, and they have been good reporters in the Pentagon.

And the Pentagon traditions and the State Department, too, for that matter, are a little more, I don't know, a little Esme to be a little less political.

And because people of all parties have understood it's kind of necessary to have serious reporting and not food movements, nothing that's going to endanger people's well-being, but after-the-fact reporting of this kind.

And I don't think it's an accident that this just came out Friday, right?

After these three boat strikes and the reporting of how little support there is for this up and down the Chandragraham.

Maybe more stuff's about to come incidentally and uh maybe the hexa's trying to sort of you know chill uh further reporting on that just to your point on that about how the kind of traditions have been different in the pentagon and just this one example it's like worth noting that even fox like has had a pretty straightforward really strong reporter in that pentagon seat for for as long as i can remember jennifer griffin's been doing it for recently but even before her and uh she's like

Hexaf hates her, right?

Like, and you can see that when he's up there and he gets very kind of, he's lashed out at her a few times.

And so, anyway, I just, to your point, like, you know, like even like pretty partisan folks in the past have like recognized like the importance of this, that space having a different type of credibility and standard.

And like everything else with this administration, that is being attacked, that tradition.

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Final topic.

I'm not going to get deeper into this this week on the shutdown fight and what the Dems are going to do, but I just wanted to give you one chance to

offer your wise, stately advice to the Democrats as they look ahead to

the coming potential shutdown and the need to pass a budget.

I mean, I think they should not vote to provide funds to this government in the way it's now functioning.

And now, ultimately, if there were certain concessions were made, could they either vote to provide those funds or, I guess, release a few people,

vote to proceed on the filibuster.

They shouldn't vote for the funds, period.

Should they insist on a filibuster?

Maybe not under certain circumstances, but I'm right now pretty hard-lined on this.

I see no case for being particularly conciliatory or for asking too little or getting in some negotiation, even for now, with Trump.

There's so much one would have to ask for, including what about Tom Holman?

What about the Pentagon press rules?

I just feel like how can you vote to authorize, you vote, you're authorizing a government which is doing all these things?

And I feel like

the right stance going in is we are not, we do not feel it is right to vote for this.

Now, whether it's two weeks from now or even conceivably the day after the shutdown begins,

circumstances could change and they could accept some deal or, as I say, release some people to vote for cloture or not to oppose cloture, I suppose.

But even if they wouldn't vote for final passage, which they certainly shouldn't, I suppose that's another question.

Yeah.

And I don't like the fact, I've got to say, if I could just criticize our friendly, our friends, the Democratic leaders here, I mean, Schumer and Jeffrey sent this letter to the president Saturday.

It was ludicrous.

I mean, instead of listing all all the horrible things they're doing and saying, stop doing these things, and then we can have a government that we could actually, you know, support, though governed by the opposition party, obviously.

Many, many, many members of Congress have voted

for government funding when the other party controlled the executive branch.

Instead of that, they write, we'd like to, we really feel like we need to talk to you.

Thun is being kind of mean and he's not talking to Schumer.

And so we need to go right to you.

You've read the letter, right?

That's the tone of it.

Really, not the tone, the substance of it.

And so we really want a meeting with you.

I mean, how, but really, really, This is what Schumer and Jeffries think is an effective.

I mean, maybe they don't believe it, I guess.

I don't know if they believe it or not, but maybe they really do want that White House meeting.

I don't know what's going to happen there.

But again, the tone of it is so much of a supplicant and not of, I don't know if it's really damaging to them, but it was annoying to me.

I'm just going to say that.

I was annoyed reading that letter.

I was also annoyed.

Phil Crystal,

well, I was going to wish you a Seanatova and let you go, but I just received this text.

The BBC is reporting that Brigitte Macron has presented photographic evidence in court confirming she is not a biological male.

So you can have a happy new year and sleep deeply, you know,

rest easy knowing that Brigitte Macrone

has,

you know, demonstrated her womanness to the what is a woman crowd.

What a world.

What a world.

Thank you for the good for the happy new year

salutations and happy new year to you.

Even for those, I think we're allowed to wish Janetawa to those who themselves may not be part of the tribe.

And I'll be off for a couple of days.

I'm going to, I really try not to tweet at all during Russia Sean.

I think it might be easier to observe that for the first day, but maybe I might have.

The second day is a sort of a question mark as in terms of observance.

You know, only the Orthodox really observe that.

So

I might bend a little bit on

Wednesday.

But tomorrow I'll try to stay silent.

I'll keep an eye on your feed.

All right, Bill.

Thanks a bunch.

Shanatova to you, to everybody else.

We'll be back here for another edition of the Bulwark Podcast.

We'll see you all then.

Peace.

Make it all

You can win.

Make your own money with a power fly.

Make your own money with a pie of your

as long as you're being it.

I'm not

keeping company.

Please feel

the squeeze.

Make your money with this plantation.

Make good home

in your nation.

Say I pray

every

station.

Don't forget to ask for your mercy.

Make your money with a pretty face.

Make it easy in quite a placement.

Make it charge for contract.

I'm a straight up queen by

me.

I'm not your brain seen.

I'm not your destination.

The Bullard Podcast is produced by Katie Cooper with audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.

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