[MUSIC]
>> Hello and welcome to the Bullard Podcast. I'm your host Tim Miller.
“I'd like to welcome back to the show for the 37th time.”
The most decorated guest in the history of the Bullard podcast. You're discussing as a large prostate with me in the pain room. It's a staff writer at the Atlantic and professor at Narretis at the U.S. They've a work college at Tom Nichols. How you doing, sir?
>> Where's my 37 timers jacket? >> I know, 30, 50. I feel like at 50 we've got to give you a lecture, so I was just curious the other day. I was like, who's been on the most?
Did I put in some names? You've got it. >> You're a little eater talk about that.
>> I am honored and I also, as I say with genuine way that I always love doing this
because it's fun because we always have a good time. >> Well, we're going to have some fun. I have for you. I know it'll be good the whole time, but I have the final topic category on my outline is silly stuff.
So we've got plenty of-- and there's plenty of that. And I guess the first topic is silly stuff, too. So that's just the nature of where we are in our idiocracy. The Great American State Fair. You stayed up for this last night because you're a glutton for punishment.
>> And Jeffrey calls her and says you and my act like, as you in some rains and he's got a whip is good, I guess. Nichols, you're staying up for the Great American State Fair speech. >> So I think it was more like, yeah, I'm going to need you to be staying up. >> I'm going to be great.
>> Yeah, I am going to take cover, she took care of you. >> Yeah, if you could just file that, that'd be great. No, I mean, I'm kind of the designated night owl for a lot of stuff because I am a night owl. And I said, sure, I'm happy to do it. And also, you know, I have this long history, I kind of pride myself on being a Trump watcher.
You know, this, I used to live tweet all of his press conferences. So I stayed up and watch it and it was, I mean, it was trashy. >> The whole business was trashy and I know that sounds, oh, that's snooty and a lead is. But no, it was, it was just trashy and his speech was small.
“That's what I wrote about last night, he took this thing that could have been grandiose.”
You know, I started with a quote from George Washington, actually, it wasn't a quote. It was from George Washington's last well-intestimate. And I think it's really important as the fourth approach is for people to know this. That George Washington, in his last he said, I George Washington, and he didn't say, you know, father of our country, great guy, he said, a citizen of the United States and lately president of the same.
For him, that was the most important thing to be this, to be a citizen, you know.
And he understood, like, that we were all poshers in this great adventure, this great experiment. And Trump just doesn't understand any of that. He made it all about me, me, me, me, and I got, I got no tax on tips. And everybody was laughing at us two years ago, and now we're hot. And I totally trashed the Iranians, even though that yesterday, the Iranians told us to go
suck an egg about nuclear inspections. I'm going to get the vandals who hurt the reflecting pool. I mean, it just went on and on, Tim, as little as I think of Stephen Miller. I don't want to tag him with this speech if it wasn't him because whoever wrote this, it was a real achievement in crap. But, you know, the few times that Trump tried to be elevated, or that he tried to, you know, be presidential.
He said things like, from the storied alleys of Boston to the streets of Philadelphia.
Okay, first of all, anybody who's living in Boston, but there's no such thing as the storied alleys of Boston.
They have some stories, and we won't tell them, but to the streets of Philadelphia. I'm sorry, wasn't that a Bruce Springsteen song about a movie, but a guy with AIDS? You know, I mean, it just went on and on, you know, skyscrapers and railroads and Normandy and Saratoga. But then he would go right back to the really petty small, you know, look at me and look what I did. And I'll finish with one series coming, which is that it shows that Trump and his people,
they don't understand the difference between patriotism and nationalism. That patriotism is love of one's country for itself, for what it is, for its eternal characteristics. Nationalism is my tribe is better than all other tribes.
“And that's the only way Trump can conceive of this.”
He kept saying, we're better than everybody else, we're the hottest, we're the biggest, we're the best. You can't just say, America is worth our loyalty and our love because of the great thing that it is.
That makes you so proud to simply say, I'm a citizen of the United States, th...
I'm a sucker for that, I'll be calling for a second.
I, one of the first things I, after I finished being a political hack and started, you know, doing journalism writing. One of the first things I wrote about, I wish I, I'm going for memory now. But it was about how there's like a disagreement between Washington and Adams, Adams wanted him to be called something like his excellency. You're something ridiculous.
“I remember it, but it was something I, it started with his highness, you know, the protector of the Americans, people and their rights,”
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Correct. And Washington's like, no, Mr. President, Mr. President will be fine. And yeah, and there, there is something really moving about that about what the country is supposed to be. And what we should be aspiring to and what the office is supposed to be. That, I mean, it goes without saying our president has literally no respect for interest in or at the opposite.
It's kind of surprising to me that he hasn't tried to rename it, frankly. That might, I hate to give them that out loud. It's not, it's not, it's not speak that one into reality. And, you know, just to put in a nice word for Adams. And when Adams was beaten by his worst enemy who got people to publish stuff about him, like,
maybe he's a hermaphrodite, you know, just in case you think our elections were always
nasty. I'm going to be, yes, I also think might be a hermaphrodite. I don't know. I just said something that I've heard. Well, okay. I'm going to, I'm going to leave that one right where it fell. Say, you know, what did he do? He like all good presidents. He packed up his stuff.
And he moved out of the White House and he went back to his farm and said, okay, I'm done being president. Thank you very much. I'm going to, you know, Trump does not understand it. Trump thinks that America is great because he is great and he made it great. You know, there's a metaphor that I didn't want to use in the piece, but it's sort of like, um,
it's like marriage. You look at your spouse and you say, I love this person because of who
he or she is, just because that's the only one for me. This is because this is a wonderful person that I know deeply in love. Trump's like the guy who says, you know, my wife's prettier than all those dogs. Yeah. You know, while that, that lasts right up until, you know, you put out a few pounds or you get a few wrinkles. It's this very superficial love of country that says as long as I'm making it great, then it's worth loving. And when it's not, you know,
two years ago did you love your country and, you know, they're laughing at us. They're a joke. You know, one thing that Patriots really understand is, you don't care if they're, one of their countries think of you. That's, you know, you don't, you don't spend your day,
“you know, chewing your nails and saying, what did, you know, what does Russia think about us?”
We'll do a plug for you right now. On this point, you, I guess, are making an appearance, so you're contributed to a new Netflix series called the American Experiment, honoring the 250. I'm just going to be candid with people. I'm a little bit better about it. You know, you keep getting into all these shows, like you're in succession, you're in a Netflix series honoring the country's 250. My phone's not ringing. I don't really know what it is. Is it something about
your, the way you carry yourself? I've got 20 years on you, though, 10. So, you know, you got time. I guess your hair is too dark. You got to get some gray. I don't know. I feel like I could be, I could bring some wisdom to a documentary about 250. All right. I could play a bit part and a show. I'm available for bit parts. It's a very cool documentary because your, you know, it has a lot of, there's a lot of folks like me, right? Like, you know, Lindsey Chervinsky,
the head of the George Washington presidential library and, you know, he's doing a freeman, a professor, and, you know, others professors and authors, like, but there's also like Ted Cruz. What? Ted Cruz and then Hillary Clinton and Kamal Harris and Mike Pence and Jamie Raskin. And so they really run out of their way to say, "Listen, we are going to have everybody across this by even people you hate." And they're all going to be talking about the same thing,
which is the greatness of the American experiment. And it works. To look Ted Cruz says some
“stuff in this documentary that you lean back and you go, "Oh, yeah. I remember when Ted Cruz”
wasn't that awful. You're going to look awful." You know, there's Hollywood on me. You know, Mike Pence of all people, you know, I mean, Mike Pence says these very kind of measured and thoughtful things. Hillary Clinton does not drive it the wall. You know, Kamal Harris has the al Gore. Again, Jamie Raskin. That's the friend of the pod now, al Gore. So there are all these politicians, you know, as well as a lot of civil rights leaders, you know, talking about the early founding.
It's a remarkable group of people. And I was proud to be able to tag along. If anybody's curious by the way, we shot my scenes. It's because the sets are gorgeous. We shot my scenes in a house in Boston, in historical landmark, the Prescott House. And it's,
You know, it's only five episodes long.
with. So thank you for plugging it. But I'm just so proud to be part of it.
“Seems like the spirit is a bit contrast to the other things that we're hearing last night.”
At the great American state fairs, our Secretary of Transportation took the stage last night. On a plate, a two different clips from the same remarks, you might notice a contrast. You might just, you might notice some tension between the arguments that he's making, former reality show star Sean Duffy last night. Let's, let's listen. A big round of applause for our military band in singers way better than those
lip-tarks that canceled on us. So much better. Thank you guys.
Brilliant American spirit there. President Trump will make you famous. Our young people
have been lied to. They've been told that they would be fulfilled with hookup culture or some get rich quick scheme or they could find fame and social media. Now fulfill them. But I'll tell you, they found that that's a false promise. That's a lie. And they've sought truth. And in seeking truth, they have gone to church. They've found the Holy Gospel. They've prayed and they have found God. I'm finding Jesus right now after that one, man.
I actually said at the time of all the people to deliver this message. The guy who gets his start on the real world, get rich quick schemes and shortcuts and social media. I'm like, do you people have no sense of self-awareness, no concept of irony, none? President Trump will make you famous. What, what? Didn't you just tell the fans of a filling? Yeah, also a family isn't fulfilling. Half the country that didn't vote for us. You guys are lib-tards. But also a nice thing to do is
define God. And find God. Go to church so that you're not like those lib-tards. It's just. That's a famous passage in the Bible to all the publicans prayer. Dear God, please don't let me be like the lib-tards. What a deep thing. It's all show. This is what I meant about trashy. Instead of getting up and just saying, it's wonderful to be a citizen in the United States. And we are blessed in my younger days. I spent a lot of time going back
forth to the soviet union. And I don't mean Russia. I mean, you know, the evil empire. The men, you crossed over a couple of times I went in through Leningrad and a few times Moscow. The minute you disembark, man, you held onto that blue passport with love. You just said, you know, I have something, everybody in this country wants. And it's one of these. And it, and it's because of this that I can walk freely and go home when I want to and do all these other
things. And you know, really meant something. And instead, you get up and say, "Oh,
“stupid lib-tards, you canceled on us." It's like, yeah, that's what being an American's about.”
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“Wouldn't we want to some news I haven't got to this week from the Department of War?”
It's interesting. We've changed the name to the Department of War. Started one war lost it. It's what happened. There's some purges, more purges, there's been a bunch of purges happening. The one this week, your colleagues at the Atlantic broke the story, P-Dexeth, fired General Chris CD, Donna Hugh, widely seen as one of the army's rising stars. He's expelled
From the Pentagon.
This is the latest at a long list of purges. He kind of started with the DEI purges. If you're
black or a woman, you're going to be on the chopping block. Unless you would play an homage to Donald Trump. He'd now, I guess, he's trying to get rid of anybody that is threatening his theory. It's the health. Yes. Somebody's here. There was some talk that this actually came from the new chief of staff of the army. Nobody knows. There's no explanation. Some of the people that are twisting themselves into pretzels here, they tried to say, "Hey, nobody complained
when Obama fired Mackristo." Yeah. Because Mackristo gave an interview to Rolling Stone, right, crapped all over the Commander and Chief. You know, even Mackristo kind of knew that he'd stepped on a landmine there. I mean, that happens. You go on, you're going to magazine and
“you dump on the Commander and Chief. You're probably not going to have a long career, how do you?”
Much love to the late Michael Hastings, you wrote that great thing. Yeah, right. That's, yes. I was at the work college at the time. And you know, what was the lesson that we were all discussing? You know, don't haul off on the Commander and Chief in front of a reporter. If you're a uniformed officer, probably not smart. But no one's explaining this other than, well, you know, he was an Afghanistan. Yes, but he wasn't in charge of it. He wasn't the things that he's been
accused of by some of the people online, turns out not to be true. As you said, they're just getting rid of people that make Pete Heggseth and his circle on your either in Pete's clubhouse or you're not. And I think, you know, guys like Donahue probably intimidate him, just by existing. There are a lot of good people who've got serving the military and, you know, the country has
“survived worse than this. But I think it kind of an underrated challenge. You know, if we get through”
this period is the degree in the scale of a purge is across the various security and military elements of the government is pretty severe. I mean, like we've talked about a bunch on the pot of at the FBI. Obviously, DOJ has had a lot of purges happening at the apartment of war. It's a little challenging to cover because they are not being transparent about it. You know, people that people have gotten purged, and not every case, but most cases don't want to talk
about it, right? Because they've got legal challenges to the administration. And so it's like a little bit hard to wrap your head around it. But when you talk, like when I've kept learning on, he's like really is deeply reported inside DOJ. I mean, when you talk to people who are who know these institutions, it's pretty bad the scale of the purging. And the military, just to add to that the military obviously, there's a cultural norm which says, look, if the
president of the sector doesn't want me to be a force tharning warrant, I don't talk about that because there's nothing illegal or improper about that, right? I mean, so I'm not going to do that.
“I think people getting fired at DOJ and FBI and, you know, Odie and I in places like that,”
they have court cases because there are, you know, speaking as a former federal employee, they do have rights and protections. They can't, most of them can't just be, you know, fired the snap of the fingers. You know, it's funny when you talk about purges, but I think that
the problem is going to have to go in the other direction, you know, when these folks finally leave
government, if the Democrats have the discipline and the wherewithal, they're going to have to say, now, how many of the people that are embedded in the justice system have to go, right? You know, that there's going to have to be this kind of thorough review of chronicism of people who were put there by, you know, you name a cash petal, or Pete Nexeth, or wherever it was, and it's going to take a long time to recover from this because the one thing we had,
the Trump people don't want to admit this, but that the system actually worked pretty well as a nonpartisan meritocratic system. Yes, of course it made mistakes. Every, every personnel system does. There are people who've made it to the heads of corporations that are morons who have run companies into the ground, but by and large, you know, the nonpartisan one,
they never really did anything. Now, he's running the most important company in the world.
He had the failed four-squared competitor. He can happen. You know, but I would say this is the worst politicization of the U.S. military. I mean, I don't want to say since the days when we elected our officers in this Civil War, but certainly in the modern era, in the, since the emergence of a modern American military, this is the worst attack on civil military relations that I think has ever occurred. And the damage is going to be significant. How did the election of officers
work for a professor? Well, because remember a lot of these were state militias. It was a kind of
A patchwork, right?
your captain? Jed over there. By the way, this is one of the things just to go back to George Washington,
Washington really didn't like the militias when he, he gets the Cambridge in July of 1775. And he looks around at the New Englanders who are like, right, they bunch of, yeah, that's our captain. You know, Bob's our captain over there. And Washington looks, of course, Washington is a lifetime British officer, you know, he's very proper guy. And he looks around and he says, these new Englanders are trash. They're roughy. It's their, I can't, yeah, can't make an army out of this. And a year later,
after he fights with them side by side, he says, give me New England men any day. That's where it
“comes from. I mean, you know, Lincoln was, you know, chosen by the men to lead them. I think in the”
drawing a black, I think the black footballers admit, but if my history is drawing here, I apologize.
And that changes over time as the, you know, United States after the Civil War becomes a country of a single army, a single navy. But even that, where, and you see the movie glory, remember the movie. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's like, well, my father spoke to the governor. So I'm going to get command of the 54th Massachusetts because Governor Andrews, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, that, that's how it was done. One of the things that's made the American military great is that we overcame
that, right? That we were promoting officers because of talent, not because of family ties or nobility or royalty or titles or whatever. And now we're going back to it. Now we're appointed people because they make Pete Hegseff comfortable. The only disappointing thing of for to me about the
“manner in which Pete Hegseff has changed how the Department of War is run is just saying that way too, right?”
And the Department of War, you do. Is that he did not get the flu himself because they're scared of vaccines now because of COVID nonsense. They did not require flu shots for the military. Do you want to guess what happened to Tom? Do you know, have you heard what happened after they didn't require flu shots this year? Well, sir, bed of ear, I am not wise in your ways of science. I assume that many of them weighed less than a duck and that they were suddenly had small dwarves
living in the pits of their stomach. Of course there was an outbreak. Of course they, and you know, look, it's not funny. I mean, flu is a nasty business even for young healthy people. There's a reason you get shots for it, but let's point out the bigger problem that when you get 220 people
“on a military unit, a military community getting sick, you've just taken a hit to readiness.”
You have a problem. You have 220 people and their families that are now, you know, this,
this is why they get vaccinated in the first place. I thought it was because Fauci made them do it
and it was the, the woke scientists. It was, it was Fauci. It was the Fauci mind trick. Oh, you know, ready. These are the vaccines you're looking for. The real infuriating part of this Pdexeth knows this. Pdexeth is a grown man. Went to Princeton University. This was sucking up to the president to mag a world. This is part of, look, I'm as crazy as all of you. Don't fire me. Look at what a brave thing I'm going to do and look at all the cool feedback. I'm going to get
on line and from the podcasters and the influencers that I canceled this jab, this, this poison this vaccine. Well, okay, then couple hundred people get sick. Next thing you know, very quietly we're all going to start getting the vaccine again. And it only took one outbreak. Somebody died. I don't want to say, I'm not a doctor. I don't know if they died from something else or because they got the flu, but we know that well over 200 people got sick. So we ran a science experiment
on a bunch of volunteers, on a bunch of Air Force volunteers. This sounds like a lot of who we fully from a professor. Kind of this, you and your expertise. I don't know. I mean, I could have been random. Right. Or maybe maybe Bill Gates put the virus in the water at the Air Force base in order to create this narrative to try to turn them all into gay frogs. Have you thought about that? I have. Well, I have. Usually it about 3 a.m. after a bottle of scotch. Yes.
Maybe they had an imbalance of bodily humors and we just ran out of leeches. Could it be? I mean, you know, the strategic leech supply has been very low. Well, we get it through
The Persian Gulf.
into Soviet and Russian pharmacies in the '90s and the '80s and '80s and they would have jars of
live leeches? Really? I could do not. So that's scary. That gives me the Hibi J. Well, no, actually, I'll say one thing again because I'm learning in the ways of science. There are certain things that leeches actually do, like for a certain kinds of cuts and abrasions where they sort of kill off dead skin and all that stuff. I'd rather have the dead skin. Yeah, personally I'll take a pass on the leeches, but I will tell you that I have seen in a pharmacy jars of live leeches.
“Leeches, I've remacked them. Should we talk about Mark L or do you want to talk about the war first?”
I guess we'll talk about the war then we'll come back to Mark L Oman. We've had two war powers,
what's Congress is so stupid. You used to work in the Senate. This is why I never worked in Congress.
It's just exhausting. It's exhausting. Once they have a war powers vote two days ago now. And it passes 50 to 48 in the Senate, limiting Donald Trump's war powers. Something they should have done at the beginning of the stupid war in Iran, but they finally let the votes to do it. Thanks to Louisiana Senator Bill Castley who will get two in a second. But that for some technical, you know, Robert's rule of order reason that I don't care to understand was not the real
vote. There was another vote that had to happen the next day for the war powers resolution to actually get to the president's desk and on that vote, Rand Paul flipped. Principal libertarian Rand Paul, who had voted for the war powers resolution every time, up until the one time that economists now flipped his vote because he takes down Trump at his word that he doesn't want to do any more war. So I'm going to do a totally uncharacteristic thing and I'm going to give Rand Paul the minute for
the doubt. What he said was, now the president's negotiating. I'm going to get out of his way and not know, not saddle him with this vote. Now that combat operations review over and that he is in the middle negotiation. And you know, there's an argument to me, mate, look, you're talking out of your hands against the war. What do you want to saddle? What in the point was the point because doesn't the point is that I'm telling me because what you're sadowing them from doing is bombing
Iran again and getting and extending the stupid fucking war that Rand Paul says he's not for, okay, but if you're trying to negotiate and get a better deal, you don't want to do things over the president's shoulder that tells the enemy by the way we're going to yankish his leash at any moment. I think this is one of these things kind of like we are helping the president and I'm going to tell you that you know, by putting some sometimes the president needs some bumpers put on his impulses, you know.
But Tim, I can't be a hypocrite about this in 1990. Well, you can't talk with the president Donald Trump and I didn't do anything with this. Who was the president 1990? It's been a minute,
“George H. W. Bush. He's a guy. See, I can I can do the impressions. That's why I get on Netflix.”
Except that I always end up selling like Dana Carvey. Yeah, bread with the man. Not a hit.
That was a point to my boss. John Hines wanted to. He said, wouldn't it help Bush if we just invoked the law of the land, the war powers act so that everything's kind of legally, you know, above board. And I said, the war powers act a really bad piece of legislation. And you don't want to go into this war telling, said, I'm who's saying ahead of time, we're only coming in for at best 16 and 90 days. Now, if it had been so many other than George Bush, I might have said, well,
if you really want to restrain the president, you fix a bad idea. But I said, don't don't do it. It's probably not constitutional. I still think the war powers that probably isn't constitutional. So I'm willing to say that Rand Paul actually thought this one over and said, okay, there's no fall. I thought this. He's been he is not Tom Nichols. He's Rand Paul. You know, he's voted for this thing every time up until now. Would not that same argument that you're making now that you don't want to limit
Trump's optionality have been true a couple weeks ago. The last time they voted on this, you know, that's a good question, Tim. Thank you, Tom. I appreciate the you're trying to be fair-minded. This is why we want to have you on. But I'm sorry, Rand Paul doing Donald Trump a solid
“because he doesn't want Donald Trump to bleed about him. I think or whatever. I don't know,”
he's got a staffer that wants to get invited to the fucking club that John Junior started. See, this is why I shouldn't do this show. This is because I just walk right. But you know, it's the late Paul song because you say that's an excellent question. I'll let me evade you. I think there is an argument to be made that the War Powers Act, you know, that if you thought Trump was out of control and you wanted to stop him from putting American lives in danger,
You triggered the War Powers Act.
and Trump's going into negotiation. I can see where a libertarian, you know, small L libertarian kind of guy goes says, you know what? I'm not going to get the president's soup while he's trying to
“get out of this. I think that's a shaky argument, especially considering the Donald Trump”
never operates in good faith with the other members of the American government, as Bill Cassidy
learned the hard way. So, you know, I mean, do I think it was kind of craving? Yeah, but intellectually I kind of buy it. But like I said, I'm not a huge fan. I think the War Powers Act ought to be repealed and replaced to begin with. So, that's part of my problem. Also, the Senate is stupid. Well, we maybe should just eliminate the Senate. Thoughts on eliminating the Senate? What's it doing? I maybe we should just eliminate the Senate. Well, the whole article, one branch seems to have,
you know, gone to Disney World. You know, Mike Johnson wasn't just like yesterday, Mike Johnson said, well, he does what he does. I have other things I did. No, I'm sorry. That's that is not how the constitution was written. Like, oh, the president could do it every once and over here in Congress
“will, you know, will make origami ducks. You know, that's not how it goes. And the whole Congress is”
just a wall under these guys. And I hope that the Democrats actually fulfilled something like an oversight capacity. You know, if and when, although given, you know, with the Democrats have been up too lately, I have my doubts there. But the House oversight committee will do great. We love Robert Garcia and Suha's. They got their head on straight. Everybody else. I don't know, I don't know, but everybody else. Where was I going to, where was I to go with the arena? I'm going to start
to build Cassidy. Thank you. You can host the show for a second. So cast 37 times. I'm practically
there. So Cassidy, a bucked Trump in the original war powers vote, which didn't count because we had to have a follow-up war powers vote because of parliamentary procedure and the parliamentarian and Robert's rules of order. But dialed Trump was still mad. The Bill Cassidy bucked him in the vote that didn't count. And dialed Trump went to the Senate lunch yesterday. He and Bill Cassidy had a confrontation, apparently. It was pretty funny. Let's just listen to how Bill Cassidy describes
the competition. You have not told American people what's going on. There's a post the last four weeks. It's last four months. Our original objective has not been achieved. And I want to know what's going on. He did not particularly care for my comments. Great to his voice. I lost my temper. He goes on to talk about how he's Irish. And I won't be bullied. He lost his temper. Because of the president. Right. I mean, I don't know. I mean, if he has this Irish temper, it's kind of
weird that it didn't show up between 2021 and June 24th, 2026, you know, Irish temper. You would think would have flared one other time against Donald Trump in the intervening five years. But happy to see it. I know about the Irish temper. If I wish myself been there. Same. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, as do we have to hand it to Cassidy? It's good. I guess that they're yelling at each other. Apparently Donald Trump told him to sit down and he will sit down. Cut the balloon
to take kind of projection. The president called the U.S. Senator, a lunatic. Now, on the one hand, if you look at the, you know, the life of Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon, presidents have called senators a lot worse than lunatic. And I mean, I'm sure there are senators of called presidents, things a lot worse than brother to do it in the Senate. You know, this is not a couple of guys after hours, you know, arguing over some bourbon and branch water. This is,
“this is bad. Do you have to hand it to Cassidy? You know, no. No, I don't think so. I mean,”
I just, he's on us throughout the door. Well, I regret my vote for Pete Hegseth and Bobby Kennedy. Well, thanks. Yeah. Well, no shit. By the way, Pete Hegseth was a weekend talk show co-host. It's like, I can't, you can't tell me that this was unforeseeable. The Pete Hegseth would be hiding the ball to you with you on matters of war and peace. It's just like, advises the word and advising consent. Advises there on the front end. It's not, it's not consent and
regret. It's advice and consent. You got to be honest, that you got to be fair. Nobody could possibly know in the Robert F. Kennedy was going to have some problematic views about raccoon penises.
I think it's the first time in public I've ever said the words raccoon penis. Pete This.
I don't think I've ever said it privately either. I'm not sure what other contacts you had said it in. This is what happens. And you put somebody like, Bobby, can't, Bobby, can you do Bobby impression? Can you do it? No, you know, the man has a, that's a health problem. So I'm not, I'm not going to make fun of that. So you also, there's someone just to say, I, is that also something you don't make fun of? Well, you're better man. Yeah, I have lazy. I too. So this is going to
Worse than that.
eye problem. And I said, we're all, we're all looking like Columbo now. We're all doing the Columbo.
One good, my cartel is on the men, though. We would love general hurt like, you're right. So that was it happening. Bell Cassidy voted against Trump. And a meaning was vote and then yelled at them too little too late. But we appreciate it. The thing that gives me hope is does that mean he might lose like the fact that matter is okay, fine. Does it really matter? And you don't have to give it to build Cassidy and all that stuff we just said, right? On the other hand, Trump's not going to get
to save America. No, no, of course he's not. And that's, you know, every little bit of tiny, you know,
“nanogram of spine that then cascades out to other issues. I think it's important. Totally great.”
So let him yell at each other. What's on it doesn't matter. Totally great. Totally great. That's not going to get the save America act. But in a weird way, I'm going to talk about this tomorrow is also impacting this housing bill. We're Trump is having a temper tantrum over that as well. I've had some feedback that like, and, you know, I hate to be wrong about this about how I should have a little more alarm on the save America act. My alarm bells are ringing everywhere. This thing
and fucking fast. It's just not, it's not happening. Now, I think considering that we're in the summer, not in time to really do anything that even if it passed. I'm potentially in some of these threats. The thing I do come back to is I worry in the Senate, I think the house is a different animal. In the Senate, a lot of the key elections are in place where Republicans control everything, aforementioned taxes, and the can tax and race Iowa, Ohio, the other Republicans that are in the
state are like relatively pre kind of Trump Republicans, so maybe not Alaska. So anyway, there's some
“key Senate states where the Republicans, I think, are going to do monkey business, but I agree.”
Other than I agree with you. Just on the war in general, I mean, we've just flogged this horse at Nazium, but you wrote about the whiplash of Trump's Iran capitulation. The other kind of news item come from the Hill related to the war is the Trump's
now asking for 88 billion to cover the war cost. Do you think we got 88 billion worth of value out of
the war? I think I think the value are the friends we made along the way. Well, JD said this. Yeah, that's nice. Good people, JD was like, what do you believe how cool it is? You know, believe how cool it is. It is so cool. I got to meet the people that were murdering their own prochesters in the streets, it's just like five months ago. And nice guys, I mean, you can have a beer, we can't have a beer with them, but like you didn't do that, but you can have a tea. You can't have a
tea with them. And they're like, oh, holy cow, we both had fathers that abandoned us. We could kind of find overseas. We've all changed our name three times. Just got to go there. I think, you know, that was the first thing I mentioned in this piece about with Lash. It's like, I'm sorry, this was, this is existentially the worst regime of the terrible tyrants. Their presence must be scoured from the earth with bombs and guns and missiles. But now they're pretty good guys. And Trump
tried to have it both ways as he always does. He said, I never cared about regime change,
but I actually did accomplish regime change. He always reminds me of white goodman and dodgeball, right? I'm just kidding, but I totally have it. But I'm not, but I am kidding, but I'm not kidding. And now he's saying, you know, these are rational, these are reasonable people. They care about the country. It's the same people. The IRGC has it gone anywhere. The IRTOLA is the son of the IRTOLA. There is no risk. He's basically decided. And this was the point of writing. Because, you know,
I got kind of halfway through that piece. And I was like, you know, I could sit here all day talking about all of the ways that Trump has reversed himself. You know, we must destroy these missiles. Iran's missiles are the, and you know, Marco, he's the guy who keeps saying this, right? He and Kane and others, they've said the very rational thing of the real concern here is that the Iranians build a conventional missile fortress on top of their nuclear program, that they,
that they become this conventionally armed porcupine. Okay. So we're going to get rid of all those missiles. Can't threaten Israel anymore. Can't threaten the Gulf States anymore. And then Trump, out of nowhere, says, well, you know, you got it. They got to have them. Everybody has them. Can't say that Iran can have Saudi Arabia, as I'm, what am I going to say? The Iranians can't have them?
“Yes, that's what you said two weeks ago. You can say it. We know you can say it because you've said it already.”
I got through all that. And I realized this is the ultimate expression of everything that Trump is in terms of his shallow empty transactionality. This war was a good idea because it would have been good for me. Now it's not good for me. Right. So I want out and I'm going to do a fire sale.
I'm going to sell my Iran stock at pennies on the dollar to my creditors and ...
treated the Iran war like a failed casino. You know, sell the, sell the furniture, fire all these
“people, get us out, demolish it. And then we will never speak of it again. And that's what he's doing.”
That's what I'm talking to John Gans about the other day. And you know, he's like, there's Trump is impulsive. And he's an actual thinker writer who has ideological priors and he wants like project ideology under their opponents and critiqu the ideology. And he's like, well, it's hard to do with Trump and stressoring because he's so impulsive. It's like, yeah, he's impulsive kind of, but he also is just, he's just a megalomaniac. It's like the truth. Like all he just cares about himself.
His brain doesn't even process how things affect other people besides himself. I'm color blind. It's like, it's like, one, my daughter used to tease me by holding up socks and
saying, what colors are these? I'm like, I can try really hard. But I, I can't, I can't see it.
And, you know, there are people who when it comes to morality or the ability to see other human beings as human being, he doesn't have that gene. It doesn't, he doesn't have that part of the human brain that processes that the world around him is not a big movie set. He's not the gym care. And so he's just saying, you know what? This is a good idea.
“I think that's one of the reasons that he's really sourd on Netanyahu. Right.”
Again, it's not hard to process. Netanyahu is like, you're going to be this great man. Right, you're going to rotate statues to you across the Middle East. You're also, you know, you're not only going to have statues, but you'll probably have golf course in casinos and as well, you know, rich. And it's like, oh, wait, that's not happening anymore. What, what, you know, you're not useful to me. I'm going to throw you over what your Michael Cohen.
He's just, he's just we're a leader of Michael Cohen. Well, you made me look bad. Yeah.
You can always see Trump with every bad idea. It looks around the room and he says,
which one of you would he? It's told me to do this. Yeah. You know, wow, wow, wow, wow, you know, suddenly it's a whole room full of Jackie Gleesons. Ha, ma-ha, ma-ha, ma-ha, ma-ha, ma-ha. But I mean, for people to understand why is he doing this? Why would he? Because you get these Republicans, especially. And some of them, I'm sure. I still genuinely believe that Trump is some sort of patriot who cares a lot about why, you know, who knows why they say to say,
why would he make such a deal? For the same reason that he didn't pay all his debts in New Jersey and closed all his casinos and sold everything for Beton just said, I'm out. I'm done. It didn't work. I'm going on to something now. I've built another skyscraper. What my name on it? That'll work. And now we're just waiting to see what the next skyscraper is. It's frustrating that we're the elements to not understand this time. I'm going to go. Ruby has
doing a cleanup tour through the Gulf States. And there's so many clips I could play from it because I just I love watching Marcus Squirm. And you guys, he's wearing uncomfortable shoes because of the wrong size. Extreme and a couple of shoes. He was there in Bahrain, he's meeting with the Elmani. He's like, there's this one clip where he's like, you know, things are going great with Elman. We have good relationship and then the quarter follows up. And it's like, didn't Trump threaten to
bum them a couple weeks ago and he's like, well, I can only speak about today. I can't speak about two weeks ago. Let's not argue about who killed you. And then there was this one. I had to play this audio because it just caught me blindsided. Ruby, I get shouted at coming out of a working lunch, working lunch in the Gulf States. And he's asked about one of the other attendees of the lunch. Let's play that. It was a working lunch, right? So there was, but he wasn't, but the conversations
around him had to do with he was just here because his brother looks here and I'm a good friend of mine. So we had a chance to catch up. Mike, you're talking about Mike. That guy Mike from down the block. He just had to end up there at this bilateral meeting with Mike. Yeah, Michael, we don't know. It's Tiffany Trump's husband, business man. Racking tour. And he just happens to be that. It's just like, you know, hey, if you want,
if you're a friend of Marco, if your brother lives in Bahrain, you can just get on the plane with the Secretary of State. If I over there, you sit there. It's a working lunch. Maybe make a couple deals. Maybe get a little bag from the Qataris or the Kuwaitis or the Bahrainis. Like the scale
“of the corruption of these fucking guys, we barely even scratched the surface. And that's why I”
just liked that clip. It's just like this random shit. It's like, wait a minute. Tiffany's husband was at the bilateral. Just happened to be there. You know, Tim, last time I went through Abu Dhabi, you went to miss each other by about five minutes, right? I mean, it was just, you know, Tim Miller on that course he was. I mean, like, you remember when Marvin Bush was there at
All of George W's bilateral.
Don't listen. It's a deal. It's a deal. We bump into each other. I think when this is over,
“as I think it will be sooner rather than later, this is going to be an answer for forensic”
accountants. Oh, God. Because there's going to be a lot of stuff that they could feel back. And I think I'm less astonished at the corruption than I am at the casual way that we have all, all of us. You know, I mean, this is a watergate a day. This is watergate on steroids once a day. And we've all learned to just say, well, I mean, you know, in a way, Tim, we're sitting here laughing about it. And we shouldn't be a minute. 20 years ago, we'd been shocked. It's all
right. We've been outraged. And now it's about right still. I know, but we've just been so far-hosed about it that, you know, is it worse than hiring some Batman villain to redo the reflecting pool? You know, is it worse than, you know, the president accepting amoluments from foreign countries, practically as a condition of doing business? I mean, you know, it becomes exhausting. And then
I think it's always the danger with this administration. It's an Americans, even the ones who
care a lot, even people like you and me fall in the news every day, that, you know, it just wears a sound to the point of saying, there's almost nothing you can do about it. And I don't want to get that way. I agree with that. If you want me to be outraged, I want to flag one more thing. We don't know what Michael Boulas is getting. He's on the take. I don't, I don't think he was just visiting his brother. But we'll see. We'll learn. Here's something we do now. This was an here-time story.
It was a couple of months ago, but it kind of was recirculated on social media. And I got my dandruff about it again. And I think in the context of what I mentioned earlier, I, you put it this way. Trump's asking for 88 billion to cover work costs. Okay, that's our money. But the stupid
fucking war that had no purpose that in the end, we're going to be worse off than we were always
started at 13 Americans died. 88 billion is coming from us. Signal tangiously to that, the lead negotiator, managing this war, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is pulling in an extra five billion from Gulf States for his investment fund. So the Trump thing Emily is pulling in five billion at least from the same region, while they're taking 88 billion from us. I don't know, I feel like we can can pull out our old, you can have Republican green eye shade outrage over this. And it is,
it's insane the use of our money. It's appalling. And what's appalling is first of all, I think they count on that the average, that this is too complicated for the average citizen to follow.
“That's why I said it like that, that's pretty easy though. 88 billion from us, five million from us,”
five million. Yeah, right. But again, I think the average person is going to say, wait a minute,
Jared Kushner's, what now, how, where is it? Yeah, sure. I'll tell you where all this should have stopped was the minute Trump said, I'm sending a real estate guy and my son-in-law to handle matters of war and peace is where everybody should have stopped, where there should have been the big needle scratch right there, and saying, what, not only is this improper, not only does this up in the door to all kinds of potential corruption, but I'm sorry, these are not people that are
qualified to do this, the security of the United States is at stake here. And you're sending two guys, you know, that don't know which way is up to Russia to Iran to go up against some of, you know, the, looks, you don't have to hand it to the Russians or the Iranians, but their negotiators, their experience at this, their professionals. This is like sending in little link coaches, you know, against against the Yankees or the angels or something. I mean, this is, I'm using a
sports ball for me, which is weird for me, but I mean, you really are sending in complete amateurs against complete professionals. They're saying, yeah, boss wants to get out of this, boss is mad at you about Ukraine, do what you can, and in the meantime, what's for lunch, and what kind of deals can we make for ourselves? Silly stuff rapid fire, you have one minute on each topic. Number one, tell us the,
any thoughts on our national intelligence being subject to the mind control of a Hawaiian cult leader named Guru Krith. You know, I retweeted that story on social media, and Tulsi has all these defenders,
“and like, oh my god, no, she's a patriot. She would, I'm sorry. The only thing the Washington Post”
did was nail down all the rumors that had been circulated around her for years. Yeah, I said when Trump first mentioned her, she's a very weird person, I think, at least in her public perception, public presentation, totally unqualified to be DNI, I think the good part of her being in that job was that she didn't know what she was doing, because you have to have some knowledge of the organization to do real damage to the organization, and that's why I'm not that worried
About Bill Polty.
on a stumble and, you know, break pottery, and then he'll, he'll have to go away. But I always think
of something someone said about Ben Carson when he was at, you know, Trump's first term and he was at home. Someone said, it's actually good that the secretary doesn't know a single thing
“about the department because I've limits of damage. So, yes, but I think, I think, you know,”
the Tulsi story was inevitable, and, you know, the fact that again, we're just kind of shrugging and saying, oh, that's, that's cool. I mean, it also tells me that when it comes to the Trump Administration, security clearances are a quaint thing of the past. No, darn it. Do you have an alibi from the night that there was a 350 foot gash cut into the great American flag, blue, reflecting pool? I am not here to answer your question, Senator.
350 foot gash, no cameras on the most the name of that was the name of my college dead Kennedy's tribute band. Topic 3. Does George Conway's loss in New York 12 stamp out of any remaining hope that you have the Ud Spender Golden Years in Congress? No, and I'm glad George did it.
I'm glad he got out there and, you know, carried that flag. I don't think I never thought George
had much of a chance and, you know, very blue district where, you know, there was going to be this
“residual kind of, you know, you were a former Republican can't vote for you. I mean, I think it's”
I think it's unfortunate that Democrats still think that the never Trumpers, like you and me and George and others are part of some secret cabal to restore Republican greatness when, in fact, the person that would have been in this person who would have been the biggest pain in Trump's ass would have been George Conway because he knows where all the, you know, again, he knows where all the levers are, he knows where all the bodies are buried. On the other hand, George didn't
make it, but neither did Jack Schlossburg. So, yeah, I feel like he could have done it in Northern Virginia. There are certain districts where it might have worked. It would have had nice, I'm the reason I wanted George to be there is that I feel like we, we deserve a congressperson and now someone else has to carry this mantle who will file 100 articles of impeachment, 104. I want one for every week of the next of the next Congress, 100. Well, they can't go to impeachment.
You used to be just in that would have been George. And so now someone else has to raise their hand and do it. They'll get attention from the board podcast. Tim, you're talking about New York City, where they're going to send two no kidding, you know, whack and do it on socialists at least one. I mean, yeah, to, yeah, at least I don't say that, you know, but I don't know, but the other did, but at least one socialist who has some pretty out there. Yeah, well, I mean, I mean,
“thank you. I wasn't going to be George, you should have done anything about Ukraine.”
I mean, I mean, I, I, I, I get a whole list of Ukraine. It's just for that. I didn't even rush. And, you know, let's tell the cave on his hands. It's like that. Everybody, she thought COVID, she said COVID came from France. Don't want to blend the Chinese. This is getting in. Um, final topic. I hear that you keep the air conditioning in that house. You're sitting right now at 6767. Yeah, it didn't sometimes lower lower. Yeah, sure.
Sometimes I don't like the, sometimes at night in the middle of July, they'll throw blank it on Tim. That is, are you concerned at all about you doing carbon offsets? Are you, what's happening on your extreme, what's happening on your, what's happening on your food, on your food, and offsets? I'll kind of question. What is happening on your fingers and toes? My strategies would be so silly. But now, I will say this, um, that I do have to kind of
manage a lung in my air conditioner right now. I have what's called, um, sometimes called air, European air conditioning. I have to use those mini splits. Okay. Because my house is not, I have, um, duct. So I don't have central air. I have units. So I have to kind of, sometimes keep some of those colder in the others, because I'm air conditioning, a bigger space. I like my house cold. I, I, I like a nippy. You know, and, and maybe part of that is,
well, okay, first of all, I love that scene in dogma, where, you know, Jason Lee stands there
under the, you know, the greatest sin ever, the greatest thing ever made. Um, totally. I do what? In the 60s without air conditioning, begged my dad for it. He thought air conditioning was for the week and the rich. Um, and he wouldn't do it. I soft handed boy. Yeah. Um, well, the father was also Greek to him. Anything, you know, below 95 was winter, but also I spent 25 years working in a deep, very poorly ventilated government building,
where I had to wear a tie in a jacket most days and sweat through, um, the Admiral, one of the admiral's, I worked for him. So what's the greatest thing we could do for the naval work. I raised my hand, and I said, fix the air conditioning. And he just looked at me like,
If I could throw you off this boat, I would.
environments, both growing up and working. And now my house, you can, I can chill a soda on my desk,
and if I need a carbon offset for that, you know, I, I'm just going to say, I'm 65 climate change is not my problem. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. Oh, my god. It all does go back to our coming of age.
“You know, because I think I'm the opposite. I like things hot. And I think for me,”
I had a job, but I don't think I was allowed to have a law, um, for a campaign manager's friend,
owned a liquor store, and so I was paid through the liquor store, and they would have me work in the fridge. Like, or stock the beer in the fridge. And I don't, I don't think my core temperature ever recovered.
“Got a so chilly. I think the core tap has remained the low, like equilibrium ever since. And my students”
would ask me my younger, my undergraduate students would say, you're having the 60s man. That must have been cool. That must have been awesome. More of the 60s, like, and I said, warm. You know, there was no, there was no air conditioning and people smoked in hospitals. And so now that I can have
“clean pure crystal cold air blowing into my house at will, I'm going to do it. I'm very sorry”
about climate change. And I'm sorry if Miami is going to slide into the ocean because of something,
you know, 60 years from now, when when Charles didn't, you know, finally falls into the sea,
you're going to blow, but I won't be around to hear it. That's Tom Nichols currently the leader in the clubhouse for most visits to the board podcast on tomorrow's show. I told you where to get to the housing. I don't get to this fucking outrageous situation in Texas. And a bunch of other stuff with the person that is currently the leader in the clubhouse for most audio downloads of a single board podcast episode, dominating Tom Nichols on that front. And you'll have to see what it is tomorrow.
Thank you, Tom. Wow. That I challenge accepted. We'll see you all the next. The board podcast is brought to you. Thanks to the work of lead producer Katie Cooper, associate producer Ansley Skipper, and with video editing by Katie Lutz and audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.
