Getting PETTY with Adam Kinzinger | Bulwark Podcast

What they don't love is when you minimize him. And you talk about the fact that he smells. I mean, the smell thing has done more to get into his head than anything else, right? The fact that he has small hands.

Is he doing new perfume? Is he perfuming?

He's got, I mean, he has to, right? That's the only way to cover it up.

A new signature scent for Donald Trump after you called him out?

Ode to ass or whatever.

♪♪ Hello and welcome to the Bulwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. I've had some feedback from listeners. They've been getting a little bit too much spinach from me lately on the pod. Now, I love spinach, okay?

I like collards, you know? I like kale. I'm a lib like that. But I also like to listen to feedback. And so I started to think we need some candy. We need some eye candy.

And so I asked today's guest to come on in a tank top. He did not do that, unfortunately. He's a former member of the US House of Representatives. He's a veteran, he's the founder of Country First. You can find him on Substack. It's my man, Adam Kinzinger.

Why do you have sleeves on? I know, I'm sorry about it, but I'll give you a little something.

Oh yeah, okay. There was an Instagram post that was going around. I think that's why you came to mind. There was an Instagram post. I was like, I don't know what he's up to in Croatia. Oh, it happens. It happens. Anyway, all right. We've got, at some level, scary.

We're going to talk about whether we should treat it like it's scary, though, in a little bit. But we have certainly outrageous news out of Washington, which is former podcast Jim Comey was indicted last night. It was a revenge indictment that comes after the firing of Comey's daughter from DOJ, and

then the firing of the U.S. attorney who refused to prosecute Comey. The grand jury approved two of the three counts. It's based on a 2020 congressional testimony about the Russia probe. Comey said that he did not authorize someone at FBI to be an anonymous source. Then I guess there's some other testimony that he had authorized somebody to be an anonymous source with the media. So that's it. That's the big

crime that we're going for there. That statute of limitations ran out on Monday. So they jammed that baby through with a new hack ish prosecutor. And this is the country we're in now. If you if Donald Trump doesn't like you, they're just going to try to jam indictments against you.

What do you make of all that?

Yeah.

I mean, so first off, let's take the actual thing he said. So let's say Comey had actually authorized him to be an anonymous source. Be clear. There's nothing illegal about that. This whole argument is that Comey did, but he told Ted Cruz, I think that he did. Okay. And by the way, if we, if we're going to stop Ted, I thought it was Trump

that called a lie in Ted. So I don't know that why you'd care that much that somebody would

tell a lie to lie in Ted, but especially a paragon of truth like Donald Trump.

Right.

And it's just this bastion of holiness and truth. And it's like, this is if we started prosecuting everybody that's told a white lie or a red lie to Congress, I mean, seriously, there'd be nothing else in the Justice Department. So, yeah, I mean, this is clearly, you know, meant to intimidate. I think there is a 0.1% chance that he actually gets, you know, criminally found guilty for this. Everything I understand from people that understand law stuff. They're like, proving perjury is damn near impossible because you have to prove intent.

And how do you prove intent? And so this is, but this is the point. The point is simply to try to intimidate. And, you know, I think James Comey put out a statement that was basically like, we're not going to be intimidated. I thought it was good.

And this is the posture that I think people that are targets of this administration need to take is instead of going away and being quiet and taking that legal advice, it's actually in public fighting back exactly what Donald Trump did, by the way. And, uh, and so we'll see, you know, look, it's just, this is purely to intimidate, I think Donald Trump's own tweets, not just the one he put out where he's like, dear Pam Bondi, right? There's been one since, where it's very clear this is done for political purposes. And,

you know, I, the, and again, the fact that they only got two out of three of the, of the charges agreed to by the grand jury, it is really, really hard to get a grand jury to not agree to some charge. I've testified in front of one before. It is you literally have a captive captive audience for the prosecutor. The defense has no voice. Even if you're testifying to the grand jury, you can't take your lawyer in there. It is completely set up

to benefit the prosecution. And only this administration's DOJ has failed to get a number of indictments, including one of them here. So this is a mess. It's a joke. It's a travesty. And I think there's two count twos, actually it's that much. It's that sloppy.

Yeah. They also failed to get a indictment for the sandwich man. So, you know, they have a lot of sales. I want to, you mentioned Comey's statement. Um, it was, uh, was so just resolute and bulwarkish, I feel like I'm obligated to play it in its entirety.

My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either. Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she's right. But I'm not afraid, and I hope you're

not either. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention, and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does. My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I'm innocent. So let's have a trial and keep the faith.

It's important that he said that. I was thinking about this yesterday, and we emailed and said, I don't expect him to want to come on the podcast, but he's been on before, more than welcome to come on, we'd love to hear him talk. And as I was thinking about pitching him,

I was like, I don't know, probably in this sort of situation, a lot of folks, their lawyers tell you to say nothing, right, and just kind of ride it out. And so I thought it showed some important backbone that he did deliver that 60-second statement that was just saying fears the tool of a tyrant I'm not afraid we're gonna fight it. You should fight it. I like that part of it, too. You should fight as well

Yeah, because I think what it shows is look and I get it I'm not gonna question anybody's legal advice because once you actually kind of enter the justice system You have to do what's best for you, your finances and your family. But when you become quiet, it appears to everybody else, to the other 300 million people living in this country, that Donald Trump or the justice department has won. They have silenced you and they can go on to the next victim.

Whereas if you stand firm and make a statement, that doesn't mean Comey has to go do every news thing he can.

But if you make a statement and say, I'm not backing down, I'm not intimidated.

I feel like more of that, more of those gives backbone to other people that are going to face this. It's, it's like the Jimmy Kimmel situation, right? The fact that everybody stood with him, the fact that he came out basically with the gloves off, uh, on his day of return. That is stiffening the spine of people to resist because we've seen for nine months, Tim, law firms and universities and corporations and everybody else absolutely bow and capitulate. It's nice to see somebody not do that.

Tim Draper Yeah, it is. I don't think there are going to be more coming. Trump wants more of these indictments. There's a lot of smoke around the fact that a Bolton indictment is coming soon. And so, they're gonna keep going after these guys. Luckily, the grand juries are actually

the first line of resistance here in a couple of cases, but we expect more. You mentioned that if we were going around prosecuting everybody for telling lies to Congress, that it'd be a very busy Justice Department. You gotta be kind of selective on which one of those

you want to pick. I think that's true, particularly this administration. They're all lying quite a bit to Congress. But I wanted to play just one particular case because it's so analogous to what they're alleging Comey did.

This is the current FBI director, Comey's old job, Kash Patel. This was him at his confirmation hearing. Cory Booker is asking him about firings at the FBI. Let's listen.

Are you aware of any plans or discussions to punish in any way, including termination, FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations? I'm not aware of that, Senator.

Thank you. I'm not aware of that. He didn't even say that he was not involved in it or not planning it. He said he's not aware of it. Kyle Serafin, Will Summers, my colleague, wrote a great profile disguise, pretty conservative. I called him MAGA on social media. He objected to that. So in the interest of candor, this is accuracy.

Kyle Serafin, quite conservative, based on social media posts, doesn't self identify as MAGA, former FBI guy, doesn't like cash, you know, personal reasons that he posted these text messages from 20 days before this, where a bunch of guys are talking about firing people from the Bureau who are anti Trump. One person does get fired. Cash replies.

I'm a man of my word during that discussion. There's a lawsuit out there from the DRIZ and others who also indicate that Cash was plotting to fire people. So I mean, I don't know. I mean, that's just, it's clear hypocrisy, that's clear perjury. And then I guess there's a sub question of what happens now I mean, you know if the Democrats ever get back in power does cash get and yes

I'm glad you bring that up because I have until very recently been you know I've been a kind of two minds and I let the one there's a squishy part of Kinzinger

Yeah, it's like we want to bring the norms back. I get it. I have got the two wolves inside me as well

You know, it's like the whole Abe Lincoln, like, you know, malice against none. But actually, as I look back on it, it's like, maybe they actually should have hung some of these Confederate generals.

Honestly, maybe malice for a few. How about malice for a few?

Yeah, maybe malice for a few. There should have been some accountability because the Confederacy lived on, right? And so this is where I'm kind of going to now, which is, look, I don't think that a Democratic administration should come in and be like, anybody that was ever associated with Donald Trump is going to jail. But if somebody violated the constitution, if somebody who is, you know, clearly perjured themselves and is advocating going after somebody else for perjuring themselves because of the

politics or if, you know, any number of things like that, let's say a country that, I don't know, you know, maybe donates a jumbo jet to the president. You know, there's some illegality there, whatever. All of that needs to be prosecuted because I think the Democrats have got to come in and make it very clear that this is not acceptable. Because what's going to happen is if they come in and say like, okay, we forgive again, you know, there's going to be another Trump where if MAGA

continues, they're going to come in and keep locking folks up. I think I'm worried about the cycle, right? Obviously you see that in the Central America, for instance, but I also realize this is so far egregious, a foul of the Constitution that there's got to be some accountability. Kash Patel would be number one. And by the way, if cash thinks he's going to have a job in the FBI longer than three years, he's

absolutely joking himself because he'll be the first guy fired, I think,

God willing. I got a message this morning. I mentioned some of the you know, not not enthusiastic feedback from some of the listeners lately. I got it, but I also get great messages from listeners. I love to hear from listeners. I got one this morning and the guy makes a good point. And he's like, next time Kinzinger's on,

maybe you should ask him about that. So I was like, great, Kinzinger's on today. What do you know? true. And I think maybe something that we should be elevating. If they're gonna go after Comey for a whatever, but the accusation here is that he wasn't fully truthful in his testimony on the about the Russia investigation. It's notable that they're not going after anybody for the biggest

crime of the century. Isn't it? I mean, the 2020 election for Oh, yeah. election. election, it was an election. And the election was stolen from Donald Trump. It was somebody perpetrated that fraud. We've not, we haven't figured out who it is yet. And, and you would think that attorney general Pam Bondi and the FBI would be investigating that Trump brings it up all the time that the election was stolen from them. And now that they have the full Department of Justice at their disposal, it's pretty noteworthy that they haven't done that. I'm wondering where Pambandi is on that.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm surprised. And I can mention Epstein, of course, they have an opportunity to do something about that. But look, I would at least investigate Nancy Pelosi, who launched an insurrection to keep Donald Trump as president or something. Right. That's so nuts. And then Donald Trump obviously was very angry because Pelosi and the mayor didn't accept his 10,000 national guard troops that somehow they have control over, but Oh wait,

actually obviously the president has control over him because he's just deployed them into DC. So actually Pelosi and the mayor have no control regard.

Yeah.

What about all the feds that were there on January 6th stoking the insurrection? It's the feds who ordered them. Who ordered the feds to do that? John Solomon should be on that I would think. Yes, yes. Molly Hemingway has Molly Hemingway. She's gotta be pretty upset that the administration hasn't addressed this.

Who's the little short goblin dude with shaved head that likes the general whatever his name is? So many goblin looking dudes, he's got a small dick short girl guys that are every it's hard to Need a little bit more of a description there. Yeah, okay, I even something right? Oh, yeah, I've been Ricklin Yeah, the Magga Marauder. He's the one that like tries to intimidate people He's five foot zero. And, uh, and like, he talks about the feds erection. So Ivan man, come on, dude, find the bad guys.

Like, I don't know what you guys are doing, but instead

you're doing a mega event. He was like a Smurf. I didn't realize it was the marauder until afterwards when someone told me, talking to Ivan Raiklin. I was like that wee little guy? Yeah, and he oozes just douchebaggery. I mean,

the guy is just like, you look at him, he was like a lieutenant colonel in the, you know, special forces. So I give him credit for that. And then he just became a complete little wiener clown. So, but they're all that were super bullied and held onto that. Steven Miller's like number one of that, right? Somebody, somebody with a tan must have done something to him because he's taken that out.

And, and that's what you see right now is just a bunch of people that are trying to get their, get, you know, get revenge. And they're men. These are adult men and women. But these are men who are just like, you know, I don't know, like the whole thing. It's just

crazy.

Delete me makes it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. It's easier than ever to find personal information about people online, having your addresses, phone numbers and family members' names hanging out on the internet

can have actual consequences in the real world and makes everyone vulnerable. With Delete.me you can protect your personal privacy or the privacy of your business from doxing attacks before sensitive information can be exploited. You know, look, we've had Delete Me for a sponsor

for a while now, so you guys know, this is something that is obviously on my mind with the potential for people out there wanting to target me or fuck with me or mess around with me because of my political views. I had a little email spam attack a couple months ago

that I had to deal with, so having Delete Me on my side to help protect my data online has been huge and we're going to keep using it because they keep updating it live with you. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for our listeners.

Get 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to joindeleteme.com slash bulwark and use promo code bulwark at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to joindeleteme.com slash bulwark and enter code bulwark at checkout.

That's joindeleteme.com slash bulwark, code bulwark. I want to go to Hexothinx. I just want to play really quick this audio. So Lindsey Halligan is this woman that has taken this job. And I mean, sometimes it's kind of like, we're going to do another Trump hip hop, MAGA hypocrisy story. I mean, this is like, doesn't, isn't even dog bites man.

It's like dog licks man type of story, but I think it's interesting we're showing it because she should have accountability for this. I mean, literally multiple people have quit over not filing this indictment. So one guy was pushed out, Comey's son-in-law worked in this in the Eastern District of Virginia. He resigned yesterday and she has been the one to do this.

So she was on Jesse Wander's show. Of course. Not exactly a dynamic speaker, I don't think. And I don't know, it was kind of a frozen face a little bit. For folks on YouTube, that can see this. I'm just trying to paint the picture for the audio crowd. On a list, this was her following one of the Trump indictments for crimes he actually committed a couple of years ago.

That means it's up to the sitting president to ensure that our criminal system does not unravel into retaliatory or political prosecutions of former former presidents and other government officials.

Pretty straightforward. She was pretty clear on that. Yeah! It's funny how that works. And it's funny how the whole MAGA thing was built on this idea that the DOJ is being politicized against their opponents, which by the way, I don't believe. Now there may have been some kind of, you know, obviously, people are looking at it going, you can't overthrow the government, so let's go after that. But, and they're so against it that they're the ones that are going to go and turn and do this. You know, it was interesting

because I had, I was on CNN the other day and we were talking about the DOJ and, you know, there's all this conversation about the Republican DOJ or the Democratic DOJ. And I made the point, I said, five or eight years ago, it was just the DOJ. Nobody gave a second thought to whether it was a Republican or a Democratic administration. And I said, now it is. And it's not because the Democrats and the Republicans share the blame on it. And same with the FBI.

The Republicans made the FBI the enemy. They made the DOJ the enemy, and then they've taken over the DOJ and FBI and have discredited both organizations among Democrats now. So now you went from 100% of the country trusting it to 50% to now 0%, and all of that is because of the Republican Party. They've convinced their own base they're untrustworthy, and then all of a sudden they take it over

and convince Democrats that what they're actually doing is using it for politics, which they are. And they're gonna do the same thing to the Pentagon. And this is the point is the party that I used to believe actually cared about norms and actually believed in this stuff is corrosive, is destructive,

and obviously is going to go down in history as an enemy of good governance for sure.

You know what this sparks? You said it went from 100% to 50% to 0%. Actually, in modern times, I'm sure you go back to Watergate and then other examples of corrupt justice departments in this country, of course. But modern times, like in our lifetime,

in the 90s, when the Clinton DOJ was going after the far right You know groups like at Ruby Ridge and like, you know These militia type groups that rhetoric was kind of common in like those militia ish circles I like you go I can watch documentaries about like from the Idaho Montana Militias or the Waco right like they did do that and say like that

Oh, this is the Clinton Justice Department targeting us for our, what our faith or our values. But like the elected Republicans weren being advanced by these like far right militia groups in the 90s is the rhetoric that is advanced by like the entire leadership

of the Republican.

Yeah.

And that's a pretty noteworthy development. And it's an important point, which is no matter how much like I always use the example of you have a little fire, like a little campfire and that campfire is very useful unless it goes out of control. And as politicians, you know, you can stoke a little anger and you sometimes use that, like we have to go after Al Qaeda, right? Or we have to go after X, Y, and Z. But the

president's job and leaders jobs are to make sure that it doesn't spread. And instead, now, you have leaders, you know, the president of the United States and the second tier leaders like the politicians that are Actively trying to spread this fire. This is the first time I ever remember this probably since the Civil War it's first time in our lifetime as you mentioned and That's why I get worried about where we come out of so you can have political assassinations like we had in the 60s

But you also had a president that was like, Hey, let's stop doing political assassinations right now. You have a president instead of saying, let's stop doing this. He's like, well, that's the less fault. And I don't know if he saw what he said the other day to him, where he's like, the left needs to be very careful because the right is basically far stronger than the left and they don't want to tick him off He was basically talking about a civil war like if we end up in a civil war the right will win which by the way I'm not sure I actually believe that but

That's what the president of the United States is saying and that's where it's like, okay Well, then the second tier leaders members of Congress and the Senate should be that kind of fire break

But instead they're actively like throwing embers too, it's crazy. Somebody, one of the olds that listens is gonna correct me and be like, Tim, Newt Gingrich said this really irresponsible thing in the 90s, I'm sure that happened. You guys can go through Newt's archives. But you know, Bob Dole, Bob Dole is being normal.

All right, Pete Hegseth, we're flying all the uniform officers from the whole world to Quantico. Unclear what's happening. I'm I, I suggested maybe it's a keg party. I liked a different suggestion I saw, which was maybe Pete is just giving them all a new Pete Heggs challenge coin. Maybe it comes with, it comes with a little bit of script. Oh, what do you think's happening?

Mark hurtling wrote about this a little bit and the book this morning folks want to read that.

Look, I mean, the people I I've talked to people that are very high up in that organization in the past that have no idea that Are worried former generals everything else look I here let me give you that 50,000 foot over you if I had to predict and we obviously don't Know what I think it is is Excel feels like people don't take him seriously and he wants to bring all these generals together and be the guy in charge Okay. Now, what is that?

What does that filter down as I don't know, but I think he feels very uncomfortable That's why he does pull-ups all the time and works out because he doesn't know what else to do for the cameras He's an entertainer. Here's my kind of worst-case scenario to best-case scenario the worst-case scenario is I Want a loyalty pledge to Donald Trump, right?

You take that now. If you don't take that, by the way, we are reducing the size of the General Corps. You can walk out. If you're willing to sign the pledge, stay. Who would stop that, honestly? I mean, there's nothing in place that would stop that. That's the worst case scenario. I kind of hate that you just put that out into the universe. Yeah, I know. I know. Yeah, I know. I'm not the first, though, so you can't blame me for it. But and I think there is look, I think the general core in the military got too big.

So I think there is a case to be made to shrink it. I just don't trust these guys to do it, to do it the right way. and it's not the best because it's a war, I'm just seeing a keg party, would be like, hey, we have indications that China's about to attack Taiwan, everybody get ready. Obviously, I don't mean best case, like that would be cool if China attacked Taiwan, but that would be like a serious reason to have a meeting.

Right, I think it's probably over towards the loyalty test and we'll have to see. There's no reason for it except that Pete Agseth wants to stand in front of them and be tough. And I think this is kind of his scenario.

He just wants to feel tough and they all have to do a pull-up competition. Yeah, except for the best place case scenario.

That's true. Except by doing that, I mean, ultimately, these generals are going to walk out and in essence acquiesce to Trump's leadership at all costs. I mean, they have to acquiesce to his leadership, but their loyalty is to him and not the Constitution. There's this idea that generals are the ones that are going to stand in the way of the violation of the Constitution. I've always thought it's going to be ranks lower than that.

Generals are very political. Nothing against generals. There's some good ones, Mark Hurling, Ben Hodges, et cetera, but a lot of them play politics and, uh, that's how you become a four star. So I don't know. It's not good either way.

I don't think.

The other alarming part of this kind of focused on going after these democratic groups, part of it's Department of Justice stuff, but there also is like the use of military to go after whatever, you know, they're sort of vague about it.

Like sometimes they'll say Antifa, sometimes they'll say George Soros, like all these left-wing groups that are organizing the street protests. And, you know, I mean, JD Vance was very vague about it, where he's talking about there are groups out there, they're funding and supporting this sort of violence. So they have a memorandum about countering that.

That's related also to the National Guard being sent to various places, maybe my city here soon. That, to me, is just sort of like we're bringing all these generals back, we're ramping up the use of the military against domestic foes. There's some ominous mood music there for me. What do you make of all that?

Yeah, no, I agree. I think it's, I think all of that comes into play. Look, this, it's inexplicable. This administration, you know, they're kind of like, supposedly we're back for Ukraine thing. I think was more about, hey, Europe, you take care of Europe.

We don't care what you do. We'll sell you weapons. We're going to leave. So I think it's possible that it could be an announcement of withdrawing from Europe, which is nonsense, but could. They've also pivoted away from China,

this whole administration that made their whole deal about, gosh, we just don't want to take on Russia because China's the big enemy and this clown Bridge Colby, who's just like stupid hair, stupid dumb ass. And he's the one that's been blocking all the help for Ukraine. He claims it's because he's a China hawk. Well,

the administration recently even said we're pivoting away from China now to focus on our hemisphere. So what that's building is this kind of eerie thing. We have a military that's way overfunded just for our hemisphere, by the way. If the point is just our hemisphere, we actually cut the military in half. And, uh, and it's like, well, what's going to happen here? And I don't think it's unlikely that they're going to use it

more against the American people. By the way, the memo about calling people like Antifa domestic enemies or domestic terrorists is no different than These same people that were complaining because they used to say there are these far-right extremist groups But I don't remember any administration ever declaring war on far-right extremist groups This is frightening and they're building a scenario there

And you could see it in the ice shooting and everything else, Charlie Kirk, they're building this scenario where it looks like there's this organized thing on the left to declare war against the American people. That's simply not it. It's actually, you know, it's other things that are leading to these shootings, not that and and so yeah, I'm worried about it, Tim, I really am.

It's also a step. It's like an advance from where they were in the first term. I just kind of bring some context here because I think it's important. So Elizabeth Newman, who was working at DHS on countering domestic terrorism in the real sense, fears about coordinated domestic terrorism, she ends up resigning, leaving the administration. And one of the reasons was that in the report, I'm going this from memory, so I apologize

if this isn't exactly right, but in the assessment that they put out every year about what the homeland security threats are, they included far-right, white nationalists, domestic terror threats. And the administration didn't want to acknowledge that. And that was a fight internally, and she ends up resigning.

And there are other people that got caught up and that other people resigned. So now we've gone from them just saying, oh, we're not going to think about any sort of white nationalist domestic terrorism. And that is the thing that we're going to do, stand that down.

We've advanced that from not only are we going to not focus on thing that we're gonna do, stand that down. We've advanced that from not only we're gonna not focus on that, we're going to actually create this other group of left wing domestic terrorists that we're gonna have a campaign against that will unite potentially the Department of Defense, Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. And that is an alarming advancement of their ideology

from where it was in this first term. Yeah, I agree. And this is why it's so important. First off, I think we need to kind of come to the realization we keep talking about, are we gonna become authoritarian?

Are we on the edge of authoritarianism? I think we actually are authoritarian right now. I mean, I think this is the very definition of it. Now, saying we're in an authoritarian situation doesn't mean we're not going to have an election, because I think we will. It doesn't mean Hungary has elections, right? But I think we are in that moment of this is actually authoritarianism.

And I think it's important to recognize that. I think it's important to point it out. And I think it's important for the opposition party, which I have so many criticisms of. It's funny, Tim, I'll criticize the Democrats and I'll always inevitably get the comment of like, how about you start criticizing Republicans? I'm like, dude, I can't even, I can't even take that seriously. Yeah. But the, you know, this is where the opposition party, I think has got to be putting markers down now every day, which is like, look, we may not be able to stop what's happening because

of our relative lack of power in government, but we're taking names, right? Like with Kash Patel. Hey, if you're going to go after James Comey, okay, but you've set something just so you know, Kash, you do have a five- year statute of limitations from when you testified, which means two years into a democratic administration. You know, by the way, Qatar, just so you know, when we take over, if you think

you're going to have a good deal, because you bribed the president, think again, it's like putting those markers down now, to anybody that would violate the law in the United States and any adversary that there will be price to pay, I think can be part of pushing back against this, as well as generally people rising up.

All right, let's be honest folks, traditional phone systems weren't built for how businesses work today. Shit, half of the Gen Z staffers don't even understand how the old phone systems work. My child was looking at a wall phone the other day

and thought that she had seen a stegosaurus. So what you need is a company that has a modern alternative. Quo, formerly Open Phone, is designed to help you work smarter, build stronger relationships, and never miss an opportunity. Quo is the number one business phone system

that streamlines customer communications. No more juggling two phones or being tied to a landline. Quo works through an app on your phone or computer so you can run your business from anywhere. Your team can share one number and collaborate on calls and texts like a shared inbox,

keeping response times fast and customers happy. Quo makes your phone system smarter with built-in AI, logging calls, creating summaries, and automating next steps. Its AI agent can even answer calls, qualify leads, and route customers to the right teammates.

So no customer is ever left hanging, even after hours. Whether you're a solo operator or leading a growing team, Quo keeps you connected and helps you deliver standout customer experiences. Get started free, plus 20% off your first six months at Quo.com slash the bulwark.

That's Q-U-O.com slash the bulwark. And if you have existing numbers with another service, Quo will port them over at no extra charge. Quo, no missed calls, no missed customers.

♪♪

Yeah, another thing you texted me about this morning, about this pushback, I want to get your take on, is thinking about the right tone for talking about authoritarianism. And I've been struggling with this as well, right, because it's like there are just limitations to the English language, right? And I always want to make sure I'm clear in how I'm speaking

to people, and I'm not unnecessarily riling them up and scaring them about things. I'm clear in how I'm speaking to people and I'm not unnecessarily like riling them up and scaring them about things. Right, like we can be in an authoritarian moment and also not be in a place where like you have to be afraid to post

or you're gonna get jailed or sent to a camp. Right, you know what I mean? And it's like, there's just such like a, like the gap between Hungary and Nazi Germany is like so wide, right? And so it's like, you have to kind of assess accurately, like kind of be clear-eyed about where you are in that space

and the right type of resistance is different in Hungary than it would be if you were in Pyongyang or whatever, right? Part of that is wanting people to feel like there's use, that there's hope in resisting. And part of it is thinking about like how to win other

people over so you don't sound like a crazy person, right? Like I was thinking about this, like about the bro, like podcast stuff, like we're starting to win over some of these guys slowly. You know, I was talking about Barstool guy earlier this week, you listen to Shane Gillis and Andrew Schultz, like starting to win these guys over. If you're going to talk to them and you're talking about this administration, like they're big, scary guys, and like, this is Nazi Germany. Like those bros are gonna be like, whoa, okay. Like you might be the crazy one, it turns out.

And so maybe there's a better way to do it. We've been seeing some of that from South Park this week, which is really good. Actually, let's play my favorite clip

from South Park this week.

If the toxoplasmosis parasite gets to his brain, I'm afraid he may lose his freedom of speech.

Adam, what like, where are you? Where are you at on this? Like how like the right tone for taking on these guys?

Yeah, and I'm going to tell you my opinion or not pretend like I actually follow it all the time. Right? Sure. But mine, you know, I get so many people I had it yesterday that text me like, watch your back. Be careful, we're concerned for you. I appreciate that, but I want everybody to know I'm not intimidated by this moment. I'm really not.

First off, there's nothing they can come after me on, even if they make it up, I'll win.

Right.

Here's the thing. And I think we have to look at it from the perspective, and I think Tim, you and I understand this having come from this this part of the political spectrum. Donald Trump, to a lot of people, they like him because he's a big troll. He's trolling the left, right? Everything he says is a joke. It's a troll. They watch the liberals who they hate get hair on fire and pissed off, and that's what they love. They don't take anything he says seriously. It's not all of them, but a lot of them. And so when we feed into this, oh my God, big scary Donald Trump is taking over America.

We're done as a democracy. We're never going to have elections again. You may think you're, and again, I've said this stuff, so I'm not wholly here, but you're not actually helping the cause, you're actually energizing the right. They love when you say that. They love the idea that you're afraid of Donald Trump. What they don't love is when you minimize him. And you talk about the fact

that he smells. I mean, the smell thing has done more to get into his head than anything else, right? The fact that he has small hands.

Is he doing new perfume? Is he perfuming? He's got, I mean, he has to, right?

That's the only way to cover it up.

A new signature scent for Donald Trump after you called him out?

Ode to ass or whatever. But yeah, I mean, when you minimize him and you make him small and you tell, you know, when South Park says all he does is sue people and I remind people that the Republican party used to be against frivolous lawsuits. Now we embrace it because this whiny snowflake, he bitch has to run around and he gets offended all the time. That actually does more to fight back against Donald Trump than like, I'm so

scared. He's so big. They're coming to take over. So this is what I struggle with is like, I want people to be aware of the danger because I think it's very real. At the same time, the tactics that actually work the best is minimizing this man because the whole reason

he tweets in all caps and yells and everything is because he thinks truly, psychologically, he's a six-year-old boy who's still trying to win his father's approval. I would feel bad for him if he wasn't president. And so that's how you push back.

It's kind of related also to the going after the corruption thing. It's like, why does the corruption thing work maybe more than like the democracy message, right? Because it like frames him up differently for people. Like if people are looking at him and they're like, He's not like this big powerful guy who's trying to make America great

and looking out for you and going after these liberal enemies. He's actually just lining his own pockets and giving his dumb ass kids generational wealth and he also is a little bitch that's scared of criticism. It's just how do you frame the critiques in a way

that take it out of his preferred Narrative, you know and in some ways those are like potentially I wouldn't really know but like seems potentially more fruitful and there's evidence this in other countries then then you know, some of the more

Principally a high-minded stuff. Why is it that dictators in the past when they crack down on his mockery, right? It's it's it's when you mock Kim Jong-un. I mean, he was pissed off at the movie about him that nobody in North Korea would even see because it mocked him. It made him small, right? And that's what he's trying to fight against is that being strong. So I think it's, again, I'm not minimizing the threat, it's real, but it's also minimizing him as a person, which I think is,

I think that's essential. I was going to say something else I forgot, but if it,

that's all right. We'll go to the show while we're talking about strategy. Where are you at on, on how the Democrats handled the shutdown stuff? You've like literally been in this boat, you know, back in, you don't need to remind people about your tea party days, but you know, we're on the tea party side of shutting down the government when Obama was in, right? You're in there.

No, I was always I keep I was always a keep the government

you're keeping. Okay, but you're in there when that was happening. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Ted Cruz and those guys trying to shut down the government when Obama was in. So you kind of had the perspective of, of being in the how do we navigate this stuff? Yes. You know, when you're out of power. So what advice do you have?

Listen, man, here's the thing. And I've been in a number of these, right? Like basically all of them. And the whole thing, government shutdowns themselves, they suck, but they're not the end of the world. A debt default is very different.

That's the end of the world. Government shutdown, whatever. I mean, all government shutdown is, is a political problem that you have to saddle on your enemy, okay? Your political enemy. I gotta be careful how I say that.

So what would my advice be? It would have been three months ago for the democratic leaders to have said only one thing and tell their members to say only one thing. That thing is, look, we don't have any control in government. We don't have the House.

We don't have the Senate. We don't have the presidency. The Republicans made it clear they wanted all three. They got all three. It is on them to fund the government. That's it.

We don't have any power. The Republicans have to find a way to fund this. Now, if they can't get enough votes, okay, we're willing to come to the table, but it's not going to be free because we don't trust you, we don't believe in anything you're doing, so we won't stand in the way if you guys want to do something on your own. We can't stand in the way. But if you need our help, it's going to cost. Instead, Tim, what's happened is Jeffries and Schumer have begged the president to meet. He power moved them by canceling the meeting. And now the American people who are just starting to pay

attention actually won't pay attention to the government shuts down. In their mind, the Democrats have a role to play in the governing of this country. And so every time we went into a government shutdown, the message in the party and the conference when we would meet went from, what can we get out of this? 100% to an obsession about how to put the blame

on the other person. That is the whole fight. And the Democrats have walked into a trap. And that trap is, yeah, we don't we, you know, we don't want to shut down the government.

No, you don't even say that Schumer. You simply say, I don't have a choice. It's up to the Republicans. I do. I want to shut it down.

I don't know.

I don't have any choice if they want to come to me. Because they wanted this and that's the thing and that's where we're at and they have failed and remember Schumer when he Capitulated in January. He said the real fight is September 30th. Well, here we are Now what they failed at the messaging? I still think they shouldn't capitulate to this But they're they're eight freaking endings behind right now on on where they need to be on. So what do they do right now?

We're here. We are we are

Yeah on where they need to be on. So what do they do right now? We're here. We are where we are. Yeah. I mean, I would I would say I would go to that message now, which is like, look, the Republicans have control. We're happy. We're happy to help. But, you know, obviously, we have demands.

And I would leave it at that. And when the government shuts down, if it does, they need to be on every mic, every TV, every podcast saying, I hate government shuts downs, this is stupid. And if Donald Trump is threatening to fire everybody and sabotage his own government, okay, I'm sorry, that sucks. Let him do it, it's his government.

If he wants to sabotage the government, he will own that. If he starts laying people off, the Democrats aren't gonna be to blame, Donald Trump is gonna be to blame. This is a political fight when the politics, so you can eventually win in 26 and 28.

My rant's over.

Okay.

One other really quick political story is out there. I just wanted your take on it. It's like a little hard for me to follow. It's like a, it's actually quite a bit more complicated than it seemed. But Mikey Sherrill, running for governor of New Jersey, the Democratic candidate, she's a veteran.

There was some story, I guess, about how there was some scandal when she was in college or at the military academy, like, who gives a fuck what happened then, is my opinion. But there's maybe a sub scandal about how the Trump administration provided more information to the opposing candidate than was legal or that they should have. What can you tell us about this?

So I don't know exactly what the Pentagon is allowed to provide publicly. I think you can request my military record or it'll probably show like where I've been, my years, stuff like that, right? Top line stuff.

What they released was basically the entire service record down to the nuts and bolts, including family members, I think, clearances, like she had to get clearance that they released that paperwork. That's the stuff that the Chinese stole, by the way, 11 years ago, and has been a huge deal that was released to the opposition. She has a

lawsuit on her hands, I think, and she should actually follow that she should file that lawsuit. This is garbage. There, the Pentagon is now claiming it was ineptitude. Um, and maybe it was, but it was ineptitude of course, always on the side of providing more information for the Republicans.

So the person that provided it certainly was probably a Republican. Listen, here's the deal. Here's the broader picture, Tim. I don't know why anybody who has ever served in the military would ever run for office. I mean, here's what's happening.

When I ran in 2010, I was a, I flew airplanes in the special operations in the air force. And I also, the first two years I flew a KC-135 air refueler. The rest of my time I flew an RC-26, which is a reconnaissance plane was part of the special operations. Anyway, I had mentioned that I flew for the special operations in my bio in 2010. And somebody saw that but

didn't realize I switched planes thought I flew a KC-135 for the special operations, which doesn't exist, and called BS and said I was lying about my service career. So my opponent, Debbie Halverson, then made an inquiry to the military, the military obviously confirmed my side. But that inquiry they even made cost her probably five points in the election. The

point is, I have not lied about my service, but it can be attacked because somebody can take something I've said out of context. If you if I said that I went to Iraq four times and it was three and I mistook it. Now all of a sudden I'm the worst American ever. Look at what they've done to everybody that served in the military. You have got to make sure that you were

100% accurate about your service. And by the way, military guys, the fish is always bigger We always make the fish bigger and I don't know why anybody in the military would ever whatever run and that's a problem That's a problem when the the bravest and the most honorable among us are worried about running for office And this is a problem really yes, it's Republicans and Democrats It's a problem in the veterans community Because you've probably seen online these fights where one veteran says another one didn't really serve because

he didn't go into the war and I hate the veteran fights it makes us look stupid anyway that rants over I also hate the veteran fights with one exception JD Vance his work as a journalist also say there's a dude that ran for Congress in Florida that like lied that he was a special forces guy and he was a loadmaster. That kind of stuff is fair game.

I feel like we glossed over Ukraine. Trump, just really quick, Trump has at least part of the reason why I glossed over it and haven't talked about that much this week is I'm kind of in like a let's believe I'll believe when I see it mode on Trump with Ukraine, but he does send out a bleat that is a dramatic change to sounding more like Adam Kinzinger really all of a sudden on Ukraine where he's talking about not only does Ukraine, he goes from saying Ukraine doesn't have the cards and I need to suck up to

Putin to now it's like Putin is weak, Ukraine could take back all of its territory going back to the territory in Crimea that was taken during the Obama administration. And that's, and, you know, we'll give the, we'll sell the weapons to NATO for them to do that. What do you make of that?

Yeah, it's weird. It's look, it's better than nothing. It's, it's what I kind of read out of this is Donald Trump is going to divorce himself from the Ukraine situation. And honestly, probably the best case scenario is if Donald Trump just quit dealing with it because he's creating more problems than not. And I also, it's weird,

because that tweet ended, or that bleat ended with good luck to all. Like, good luck to all, both sides. Like, what? So yeah, I think there's probably real frustration in his end because he probably thought his

like love affair with Vladimir Putin would help. Putin's only escalated his attacks. Now he's literally attacking European capitals. I mean, we are on the edge of a shooting bat. It won't be World War III, but like kind of some shots fired. And so that's what I'm going to take it.

It's look, the fact that we're selling NATO weapons for Ukraine is good. What NATO needs to do is there's $300 billion of Russian assets that are frozen, they need to just take those. We've talked about it for three years, take it and buy weapons with them. But as an American, I kind of feel sick because Terry Virch is running for Senate in Texas, he uses this example, he says, if a hurricane hits Texas, you know, I go over, I have wood, I help my neighbor rebuild. And there's

also a Home Depot. Now, what I'm doing is because I'm a good person, I'm helping my neighbor Home Depot, what they're doing is making money and selling wood. You know, they're not there for moral reasons. And that's what we are now. We're not there for moral reasons. We're basically a merchant. But Ukraine, look, Ukraine just did a counter offensive. They took back 200 square kilometers. This idea that Ukraine's going to die, we've been talking about this for three years, they're going to win this war. And the

president is right in what he said, and hopefully it stays that way. But I won't be surprised if

by the time in two hours when this episode publishes, he's already reversed. All right, man, I appreciate that. I need to do just a hard pivot here to some sad podcast news. I wanted to mention the producer from almost day one of this podcast, Katie Cooper, has been with us every morning, every day. And she lost her husband, Bill, earlier this week. They had met in college.

They'd been together forever. Bill, I had the pleasure of meeting a handful of times earlier this week. They had met in college. They'd been together forever. Bill, I had the pleasure of meeting a handful of times at our live events. Just a happy guy, funny, jovial. He did a couple bourbon runs for me when I was in a pinch.

And I just, I'm broken up for Katie. It was unexpected and tragic. And so I wanted to send my love to her and I hope that all of you can offer up a prayer or send your love or send positive vibes as well out to LA. And if the podcast is not as sharp,

if you're hearing more of my ums over the next few weeks, it's because we're not working with our strongest soldier. So much love to Katie and her family. And Adam, appreciate you sticking around with me for the show.

You bet.

Take care. All right, everybody else, we'll be back Monday for another edition of the podcast with Bill Kristol. And oh, by the way, we still have a couple of tickets left for tomorrow's matinee bonus event in Toronto. I'm taping from there right now. So if you can get to Toronto by

I'm taping from there right now. So if you can get to Toronto by noon on Saturday, we'll see you there. See you back here on Monday. Otherwise, bye.