Bill Kristol: Where Is the $50,000?

Big transfer news today. Who's moving? Me. To the couch with Domino's best deal ever since they just added stuffed crust. Any pizza, any toppings now with stuffed crust for 999. It's a long-term contract with no release clause. Only 999? Yeah, that sounds like the move. I'm heading straight to Domino. Price is higher for some locations. Excludes Excel and specialty pizzas. Select this offer from 615 through 7.26. Online owner. Size availability varies by crest type, max seven topics, six, and in New York style crust. Minimum purchase required for delivery. Prices, participation, delivery area, and charges may vary. A colossal monster, a city and ruins. No way out. Except inside of the all-electric Toyota C-C-HR. John Choos stars in, Escape. Test drive Toyota's new all-electric family today. Toyota, let's go places. Hey, everybody. A couple of notes here at the top. Just a reminder, once again, tickets still on sale for the Bullwark Live, borg.com slash events. We added a Saturday matinee for you in Canada. So if you're a Canadian or in Detroit or want to make a last second trip this weekend, come to Toronto. It's going to be beautiful. We're going to have fun. Saturday afternoon, tickets are still on sale for the matinee event. That's the plan for the next weekend. This weekend, my choices maybe weren't quite as nutritious and wholesome. I got into a social media war with Megyn Kelly. And, you know, probably don't want to hear me do a full blow-by-blow of the back and forth. you know, where I'm scoring on the boxing cards 10-9 who won each round. But I did a separate monologue on this over in the Bullwark takes feed and on YouTube. And I did so because the manner in which Megan was arguing with me is extremely alarming. Frankly. And Megyn Kelly, who, you know, I never really held in high regard as a person of particularly stalwart integrity, has like really descended to a dark place. And the manner when she was lashing out at me and trying to like lump me in with the Charlie Kirk Killer and lump everybody. that is not MAGA in with the Charlie Kirk Killer and try to stoke the flames of division in the country and doing so unapologetically and shamelessly. I think it sends a pretty scary message about where kind of we're headed as a country. And so anyway, I have an extremely long rumination on that that I shared over the weekend that you can go check out in the Borg Takes Feed. We'll put the link in here. And also, we're doing rapid response stuff over there as well. So, you know, if you're feeling lonely on the weekend and you want to hear a quick reaction to something that's happened in the news, it's always good to subscribe to that Bulwark takes feed. All right, for this episode, it's Monday. So you know who we got. Stick around.

Hello and welcome to the Bullwark podcast. I'm your host Tim Miller. It is Monday. So we're here with editor at large Bill Crystal on Rush Ashana. So thanks for working on a holiday. Well, the holiday doesn't begin until tonight. So I'm strictly acting in accord with Jewish law. My rabbi is going to be fine. As long as he can watch this before sundown, he'll be happy. So that's good. You think having gone to George Washington University, I would have been familiar with exactly how the holiday works, but apparently not. I was just happy to get bonus holidays off when I went to school. All right. I want to start with the biggest news of the weekend, which comes from Carol Lennox. One of my favorite podcast guests and one of my favorite. co-panelists on the Nicole Wallachoke. Hopefully we'll be talking to her later this week. And she reports about an undercover operation last year in which the FBI recorded Tom Homan, the White House borders are, accepting 50 grand in cash after indicating that he could help the agents win government contracts if Trump were to win again. The investigation was launched after a subject in a separate investigation said that Tom Homan was soliciting payments. So maybe not a one-time thing. The Trump administration has shut down the case bill. I mean, Tom Homan is going to work this morning, I guess is the biggest top line news here, which is just absolutely crazy and unprecedented in any type of administration that this, not only would they shut it down, but that this man is going to continue to be a top law enforcement official for the country. Yeah, it is pretty amazing. You're having Carol Lennox on later this week? That's great. Hopefully. She's been pressured now that I've said it live. Totally. She'll be guilt-tripped into it now. We love to. I phrased her in morning shots. She's busy. She's out there making, you know, breaking news. Interesting backstory. I mean, this tiny footnote out of it. So she was at the Washington Post for, I think, 25 years. You know, won four Pulitzer prizes. Really an excellent investigative reporter. Really wonderful work on this secret service. People I remember some of those stories that came out. Those were. That was entirely her. I think she turned it into a book, right? And part of the Washington Post collapsed under Jeff Bezos. She took a buyout like almost so many of them did. But luckily, she's at MSNBC where they let her write these look pretty long. And this was a long investigative piece done with Ken Delaney. And he's also a good reporter. So just to say, very well-sourced, they're working the system to get information in an effective way, which is heartening. And they got documents. So she actually quotes documents. It's in a way very simple, right? I mean, there was an FBI sting. Holman actually gets kind of drawn in. It sounds like by accident. It's a counterintelligence thing. So it's not even true that the Biden Justice Department was going after a critic, Tom Homan. He kind of comes into it by accident. Once they discover that he's interested from this other person, they're going after, I guess, that he's interested in this. They set up this sting. He's happy to take his $50,000 in Akeva. bag and um kava i believe we're pronouncing kava did i say what i said kava yeah i'm i'm confused you know i've been to kava medes there's one right near us in mclean the the grandchildren are big kava fans oh yeah they like the shug all kind of sauce you put on there i like the um lamb meatballs with avocado or something like that kind of spicy lamb meatballs i haven't tried that but i say in the

processes. And the result of it is the actual folks politicizing the Justice Department now come in and shut this thing down. And, you know, as Megyn Kelly said to me on Twitter, they don't care about it. They haven't just shut down this case. They essentially shut down the public integrity division. Yes. That is a straightforward story. And while the 50 grand is kind of small potatoes compared to the billions that Trump is getting in his stable coin and other crypto coins and all these other corrupt acts that we've seen around the Trump family and the Steve Witkoff family and others close to the president, this to me, I talked about this a little bit over the weekend. It's like it's so easy to understand. You know, any person has watched a movie and understands 50 grand. and a fast food bag, right? Like, it is, it's not cryptocurrency. It's not international. It's not, you know, making a deal about AI chips. Like, it's just like, dude is taking cash to hand out contracts. And the Trump administration doesn't care about it because they don't care about corruption if it's one of their guys. I don't know. I feel like that's something that can have some staying power. What do you think? And are we good of some people who are Trump supporters, more or less? Did say they cared about it. Nashville, had a fairly strong little piece by Andy McCarthy, at least acknowledging this kind of a problem. And we need to have, Congress should look into it, they said. So we'll see if. I'd like for somebody that's in good standing with MAGA to be able to write that. I mean, kudos to Andy McCarthy, I guess. Yeah, no, I agree. And it would be interesting if any Republican even thinks, like, I should actually call for more facts or something like that or ask the questions you just ask. And it is crazy. Like that, you know, we always go on stuff with this. Like, there's a bit a single. Republican elect official at the time of this taping that's like that he has even done to Susan Collins. Like I am concerned. You're not concerned about the top long. And this person. is a law enforcement official. It's not like some random staffer in the EPA or like a deputy press secretary or whatever. Like that would be any better. This is supposed to be the law and order administration. Tom Homan is deporting people based on their legal status. Like Tom Homan has like people's freedoms in their lives in his hand. And he's just being openly corrupt, accepting bribes, and everybody's okay with that. And that is everybody in the Republican Party is totally okay with that. And that is crazy. And I do think, I don't know if you agree with this, that one reason I might have a little more political salience is some of these business guys, you know, it's like what a surprise that they're doing sleazy deals and whatever, payoffs, it effect, payoffs at all. Holman, I mean, he's reprehensible in so many ways in my opinion, but one thought maybe, I kind of even thought, maybe he's just a, you know, nativist, you know, bigot, but I mean, he's a bulldog and this is what he's done for his life, and this is what he truly believes. And he is, as you say, spent... He looks more like an ideologue, right? Yes. And so it changes the money. Taking the $50,000 of cash and a paper bag, I mean, amazing. I enjoyed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's tweet about this. Something in the fact of like, who's the illegal now, Tom Homan. Tom Homan being an illegal, I think also.

puts into a different light and context like what they're doing with ICE and like what their plans are and what their messaging is around it and the credibility around it for regular folks. I had a friend in Denver that messaged me and asked if I'd been seeing the ads that ICE is running in apparently sanctuary cities across the country. I don't watch a ton of network TV in New Orleans so maybe they're running them here, but I had not seen it. And we grabbed this one which was running in Sacramento. It seems like it's run a bunch of places. I saw people talking about it running in Seattle and elsewhere. And I just want to play this ad, which is it's fucking horrifying. Let's just listen to it. Attention sacramental law enforcement. You took an oath to protect and serve. To keep your family, your city, safe. But in sanctuary cities, your order to stand down while dangerous illegals walk free. Join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst. Drug traffickers, gang members, creditors, join the mission to protect America with bonuses up to $50,000 and generous benefits. Apply now. Join.ice.gov. Our tax dollars are paying for that. That is like out of a spoof. It's out of a Mike Judge movie or something. That is horrific. It's just like, hey, if you're a cop and you're upset that you're not able to hassle brown people more aggressively, join ICE. We'll give you 50 grand of your neighbor's taxpayer dollars so that you can bully them more. on behalf of Tom Homan, the corrupt racist borders are. And I like the fact that they're offering $50,000 as the inducement that maybe that number was stuck in Tom Homan's mind for some reason, right? That's the appropriate. That's what it costs to get someone. Yeah. Yeah, Tomo is like, you can win me over with 50 grand. Maybe I can win over these corrupt cops and get them to come work for ice for 50 grand too. That is what? That's a good, astute observation, Bill Crystal. And it could be a South Park. I give it was a South Park ad this week. Like, would they, what would they even change? And I like, really, it's just, it's truly astonishing. That that's like where we are and that those ads are like running on TV in this country that we're paying for them. The kind of people who are joining ICE are presumably to some degree the people who are responding to that commercial. The kind of people who are not joining ICE are probably the cops who think that's bad, you know? Who's going to be staffing these new, how many are there, 30, 40,000 positions at ICE by two or three years from now? It's just part of the what's really scary about the fact that this is not an eight-month administration, but a three, but a four-year administration. maybe getting rid of home, and if he could be shamed, they don't do shame, but if he could be somehow driven out of office, or Trump could decide he's too much of a burden, I'm not sure that would change anything with Steve Miller there, but maybe we'd do a little good. But again, it does bring home, I mean, how that reconciliation bill, all that money for ICE, and these are the kind of people they're recruiting into ICE.

Still chucking at that. The 50 grand bribe was good enough for Holman. So now it's going to be good enough for the cops. They're getting the same amount. Boy, you've got to go get a strategic reserve of Kava bags to pay off all the new ice officials. It's called soccer. It's called football. Soccer. Football. Domino's best deal ever lets you get any pizza, including stuffed crust, with any toppings for $9.99. Like, we can agree on that. Yeah, fully. So, pineapple? Don't ruin it. Get any pizza, including stuffed crust, with any topics for $9.99. Finally something everyone can get behind. And if the rest disagree, that's between them and Domino's. Which means the only thing left to fight over is who's ordering. Domino. Price is higher for some locations. Excludes Excel and specialty pizzas. Select this offer from 615 to 726. Online only. Size availability varies by crust. Max seven topics. Six per pan and New York style crust. Minimum purchase required for delivery. Prices participation delivery area and charges may vary. Want to pull off the season's freshest trends? You just need the right shoes. That's where designer shoe warehouse comes in. Loving wide-leg jeans, pair them with sleek, low-profile sneakers. Obsessed with the sheer trend, try it with mesh flats. Feeling boho. Comfy sandals nail the whole free-spirited thing. Find on-trend shoes from the brands you love, like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas, and more at DSW.

Speaking of corruption at the heart of our justice system, the president pushed out to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Eric Siebert, at the end of last week. The stated claim was that he had ties to Democrats, was a rhino. A kind of on background claim was that he had been taxed with going after Letitia James. for alleged mortgage fraud. That investigation stalled because the prosecutors and agents didn't feel like they had any evidence to obtain a conviction. So, you know, how the justice system is supposed to work. They look into tips. They don't feel like they have the evidence. They decide not to charge the person. Donald Trump was upset about that since the person he wanted charge was his political foe that he wanted vengeance against. So he fired the person that did not prosecute. And then he started going off on Pampondi on this on social media over the weekend. Before we get to the Pambani part, do you have any thoughts just on the Virginia firing? I mean, that's my district right here, Eastern District of Virginia, and it's a very well important issue, sort of maybe after the two New York, Southern District, New York kind of thing, what considered one of the most prestigious, most important U.S. attorney positions, they do a lot of national security cases here because it's obviously the D.C. area, CIA's in the district and so forth. So, yeah, I mean, he's very well respected. A tough guy, though, kind of, I think was thought to be as good as fit as you could be for the Trump administration as still be a reputable, respectable. sincere, honest lawyer. It turns out you can be a pretty conservative, pretty hard charging, respectable and sincere lawyer, but you're still not a fit for the Trump administration if you're not willing to prosecute people who shouldn't be prosecuted because Trump wants you to, and I suppose also if you're not willing to drop charges against other people who should be prosecuted. So, I mean, yeah, the degree of corruption, the depth of it and the shamelessness of it that Trump just talks about it now, I mean, is pretty astounding. And two, what I reference there, about kind of the pressure going on to Pam Bondi now for these prosecution's not happening. Trump sent out two bleats on his social media feed over the weekend about this. The first one, I just, for people who are very online on the internet, this one that I'm about to read, there's a lot of folks out there saying that this was like a... a direct message he had accidentally posted. I'm pretty certain that's not the case. This is in the tone of all of his other posts. I think that he's trying to publicly pressure her, whatever the case is. There's some discussion about that. I don't think that's right. But here we go. Here's the first one. It's addressed to Pam. Pam. I've reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying, essentially, same old story as last time, all talk, no action, nothing is being done. What about James Comey? Adam Schiff, Letitia James. They're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. He goes on and talks about how he fired the Virginia prosecutor. And then he suggests a new prosecutor for her to hire and says we can't delay any longer. It's killing our reputation and credibility. And then he goes on and posts again after the backlash, after people are like, whoa, Trump's really going after Pam Bondi there. And he posts again and says, Pan Boni's doing a great job. She's careful, very smart and loves our country, but she needs a tough prosecutor. Like my recommendation, Lindsey Halligan, to get things moving.

Like, there's no way to read this as any other way besides the President of the United States is pressuring his attorney general to prosecute his foes. And like he's doing it just in plain Trumpian, plain language, at least in the Trumpian version of plain language. Right. He's decided revealing a little thing you were reading in the first bleed, as you call it, that I've read more than 30 statements and posts. I guess some one of his staffers who has it in for Pam Bondi or has it in for attorneys, Siebert, gave Trump. I mean, God knows who these were from, right? I mean, they could have been from real MAGA influencers. They could be from ninth-rate MAG influencers, if that's a meaningful difference. He didn't actually talk to anyone knows anything, I suppose, about the law. I was thinking about this. What if you're the White House counsel? you're just cheerfully going about your job. You're like a respectable lawyer, sort of, and you think it's fine that this is all happening. Does no one resign from the White House when this kind of thing happens? I would like to come back to this. It's just no one, of course, no one does. Why am I've been asking this question. But, you know, it is kind of astonishing, I think, right? This is noteworthy. Let's just do a little pop quiz for you in the audience. Who is the White House Council? Do you know? No. I didn't know. I had to Google it. I'm not trying to embarrass you. I didn't know. The White House counsel now is a guy named David Warrington. I know absolutely nothing about that person. It's worth like just remembering that like we heard a lot about Don McGahn. Now, Don McGahn, I'm not ready to put him on Mount Rushmore or do a bust of him in the Library of Congress or anything. But like, you know, he went along with a lot of bad stuff. But he was in there oftentimes challenging what was happening within the administration, raising to rights previous. And we all remember all these stories where they would have like, you know, heated meetings in the Oval Office where Don McGahn would be there and say, we can't do this. We can't do that. There was some of that. Obviously, Pat Cipollone, again, was maybe less even bold than McGahn. But there were times that he was objecting to things, particularly during the Stop the Steel stuff after the 2020 election. I'd never even heard of this guy's name. This is the first time I've seen his picture. And so to your point, there is not. They don't care. They don't give a fuck. Like, there's borders are can take 50 grand in a bag of cash. The president can pressure the attorney general to prosecute political foes. What I'm going to get to next, the FBI director can, like, post insane, false things. They can target people inside the administration illegally who haven't done anything wrong just because they're friends with never Trumpers or whatever. And there's nobody there to even offer. It seems like a word of caution. There's not, I don't know. There's not like any Maggie Haberman stories about how, like, ooh, some of the lawyers are worried about this internally.

And lawyers do have some obligation, I think, to kind of object when illegal things are happening in organizations they're part of. I vaguely remember reading about that and other circumstances and corporations and so forth. But anyway, I guess not in this case. You might as well just have Bacon Kelly as White House counsel, you know. I mean, she's, you know, got to go after your enemies and ignore illegalities by your friends, you know. I think she might have her sights said a little higher than that. Big transfer news today. Who's moving? Me, to the couch, with Domino's best deal ever since they just added stuffed crust. Any pizza, any toppings now with stuffed crust for $9.99? It's a long-term contract with no release clause. Only $9.99? Yeah, that sounds like the move. I'm heading straight to Domino's. Price is higher for some locations. Excludes Excel and specialty pizzas. Select this offer from 615 through 726. Online over. Size availability varies by crest type, max seven topics, six for hand in New York style crust. Minimum purchase required for delivery. Prices, participation, delivery area, and charges may vary. As reference with Cash, I want to get to a little bit on the Charlie Kirk Memorial from yesterday. But related to that, Kash Patel, the FBI director, sent this tweet. It's still weird to say. Sometimes I just need to say that out loud to just like accept that it's my reality, Kash Patel. The FBI director. Okay. His tweet was also extremely long. This is also a new trend among the magnet types that I don't understand, but like they do these book like basically novella length tweets. So I'm not going to read all of it to you, but I want to read a key paragraph. The context here is, in addition to there being some conspiracy theories on the left about this assassination, which I've addressed and tried to debunk on this very podcast. There are also a bunch of conspiracy theories on the right about it. They think it's a little too pat, you know. For some of them, they think the Jews are involved. For some of them, they think it's even more. The transgender roommate was involved. There are a lot of different conspiracy theories. Some of them are hard to even kind of follow. But Cash posts this. We are meticulously investigating theories and questions. including the location from where the shot was taken, the possibility of accomplices, the text message, confession, and related conversations, discord chats, the angle of the shot and bullet impact, how the weapon was transported, hand gestures observed as potential signals near Charlie at the time of his assassination. And visitors to the lead shooters residents. Regarding specific details, they also are looking into questions about the plane that allegedly turned off its transponder after departing from an airport near the assassination site. And this is lunacy. This is cash just basically saying that the FBI...

is taking assignments from the most crazed people on TikTok. And he is going to have his agents look into the weirdest theories that are out there about what appears to me to be a pretty open and shut case. It's like a pretty short episode of a long order SVU for me. It's like guy has a motive, guy confessed on Discord text message and to his family. Guy got caught. Anyway, he's going to have his agents looking into all this. And rather than even just saying, we've heard your feedback, we're going to be looking into additional any other theories about this. He lists them all. And he's giving oxygen to all the craziest people out there. I don't know how we live as a society if this is the way that we're going to be, where the social media account algorithms push the craziest fake theories forward and the people who are supposed to be in charge, advance it. Do you share my just total, total, I just, I'm apoplectic about it, I guess. Yeah, there's always been a lot of craziness. It's obviously amplified and much, kind of goes much faster on social media. But, I mean, part of being a serious person is ignoring the craziness. And I mean, I also feel, what about these FBI agents? I mean, some of them might think they should be investigating an actual crime like Tom Homan. And instead, go look at whether the transponder was turned off on something plane, which it wasn't turned off. I don't believe anyway, you know, that flew out of, I don't know what the alleged conspiracy even was, what they were transporting some secret assassin. Yeah, one of the guys of the hand gestures, this was posted in our Slack and our guy, Will Summer, who have you even signed up for Will Summers' newsletter following all these crazies? it's the best but he's like the guy with the hand gestures is like a famous character and like magus like they're saying one of their own evangelical guys is like in on it i don't of them make any sense you're an fbi agent you gotta what you got to track that down and then write a report for mr cash so that he doesn't get yelled at on by Q&N people that, you know, in his audience that he cultivated over the years, I guess that's where we're at. I think it is where we're at. I mean, I hope it, honestly, it leads FBI agents without faking any laws and violating, you know, actually important restrictions on what they can talk about. I hope more stuff comes out, honestly, about what is going on at the Justice Department of the FBI. It must really be, it is appalling. It must be. It is obviously appalling. And they should be impuriating. We see part of it, but we just. God knows there must be a lot we don't see, and it'll be good to see. Yeah, Cash in his open testimony in the Senate last week was talking about how they fired all these people like the DRIZ, et cetera, you know, for cause that they weren't living up to the standard. If you're an FBI agent, you got to be like, fuck you. The Dries wasn't living up to the standard. He was doing his job. He's been in the building for 20 years. Like, you're not living up to the standard. You're tweeting, live tweeting the investigations and getting things wrong. I agree with you. Hopefully the agents are, you know, they're continuing to do good work. Help us get a full picture of what's happening inside the Bureau on the Kirk Memorial. We both said this in the green room. We'll just say it to the audience here. I couldn't watch it. I just couldn't.

No disrespect or any intended. I just didn't have it in me yesterday. I needed to spend the Sunday with my daughter. Luckily, some of our colleagues did. Andrew Eger watched. And if you want to hear his review of the Erika Kirk eulogy, apparently it was extremely dignified and respectful and unifying. And I appreciate that she did that. In contrast to that, the speaker right after her was the president of the United States. I've only watched, I think, three clips. I've seen three clips from the whole thing. And this is one of them. And I weighed back and forth whether or not to play it on the pod this morning. And I just, I feel like we have to play it because I was going to read it. And it just doesn't quite do it justice. After Erika Kirk advocating for people to turn the cheek and follow Jesus' teaching, here was Donald Trump. He was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose. He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent. And I don't want the best for them. I'm sorry. I am sorry, Erica. But now Erica can talk to me and the whole group, and maybe they can convince me that that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent. I mean, that's just so fucking noxious to do during a funeral, essentially, funeral service, memorial service. And, um... You see what happens. He's reading a teleprompter. Some words somebody else wrote for him. And he pauses. You could hear the pause in that clip, which allowed him to play it. Like somebody told him to say, Charlie Kirk did not hate his opponent. And he paused because that notion, that sentiment was so anathema to him that he could not even keep reading his teleprompter. And then he has to go off and aside about know how he hates his opponents. And that we should. And that is. the value that he wants to put forth at a very fraught time for the country. Pretty sick and alarming stuff. It sounded like I didn't see it, watch it either. It gets a certain amount of applause or kind of roar when he says that from this crowd at a memorial service. I mean, terrible. Terrible. The only other thing, I'm not going to play this audio from the service, just worth mentioning Tucker Carlson. During his eulogy, I guess, said that he wanted to reflect on his favorite story, which was an apocryphal story about Jesus in a room full of hummus eaters that wanted him killed. tying Kirk's murder to Jesus' murder and feeling like the Jews are responsible for that is worth noting that the first recorded recipe for hummus was in a 13th century cookbook in Cairo, Egypt. But I don't think accuracy was what Tucker Carlson was focused on in that. So I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, but just wanted to mention. I saw the clip on social media. I felt that I didn't really want to watch it, but it takes 45 seconds. And there's this maniacal laugh.

of Tucker Carlson's that you've seen elsewhere. He does this again in the middle of this memorial service, and this is just such a fantastic story that he's come up with or heard about, which is not literally, I guess, in the Gospels, but as, you know, a sort of a, you could see where he's getting it, I guess, getting it. I mean, it's, well, it's just beyond in so many ways. So grotesque. Tucker Carlson's a very sick, as we, really, I do say this honestly, I think, has become a very sick person, you know? Some of these people are just, yeah, some of these people are just not just tasteful and bad and bigoted and, you know, terrible and opportunistic and corrupt at all. But Tucker Carlson is, yeah, there's something wrong there. I agree. Big transfer news today. Who's moving? Me, to the couch, with Domino's best deal ever since they just added stuffed crust. Any pizza, any toppings now with stuffed crust for $9.99? It's a long-term contract with no release clause. Only $9.99? Yeah, that sounds like the move. I'm heading straight to Domino. Price is higher for some locations. Excludes Excel and specialty pizzas. Select this offer from 615 through 726. Online over. Size availability varies by crest type, max seven topics, six for hand in New York style crust. Minimum purchase required for delivery. Prices, participation, delivery area, and charges may vary. All right, you said another thing you were riled up about, which I've not talked about anywhere. So I just want to let you cook for a second is a change in the Pentagon press rules. The Pentagon said Friday it would impose new restrictions on reporters covering the Department of Defense requiring them to pledge not to gather or use any information that had not been formally authorized for release or risk losing their credentials to cover the military. Not to gather or use incidentally. I mean, it's bad enough. You discover that there's a fight going on. I'm making this up between the Marine Corps and the Air Force about some helicopter or jet and whatever, kind of standard Pentagon reporting or about any million of other things. You don't get to report that because it's not authorized for release. I was not talking about classification. None of this applies to classified material. This is all about unclassified material that reporters could get. They can't even gather it, let alone reported apparently. I guess you try to make a phone call and you're going to, under this, you'll lose your Pentagon credential. It's really, well, it just shows. I mean, this is of a piece with their general desire to curb various freedoms, including freedom of the press. And the Kimball thing is so much more dramatic, of course, First Amendment. But, you know, it's kind of important that we have decent reporting about what's going on in this massive military enterprise we have and a little bit of exposing of things when they're... People deserve to know about them. It's amazingly shameless, too. It's one thing informally, they're doing all these other things, of course, to cook the books that were to slant the playing field on reporting and all that. But this is pretty...

extraordinary, I think, you know. There's something that's related to this. It's kind of a softer type of, I wouldn't even call it a challenge to free speech, but it is an assault on, you know, what has been traditionally thought to be the role of the press corps in a free country. It would maybe be a more accurate way to say it. Yes, that's well said. Which is the way that they have stacked the press corps. all across the administration. This is just kind of an expansion of that in the Department of Defense. But if you watch, I forgot what it was. There was a press conference. It was one of the more in the actual in the briefing room. And these days I'm so busy on like usually like, you know, we've got. You have folks working hard suffering through all this for us, which I appreciate, like sending me the best stuff. And it's like, I'm not usually like sitting down to watch 50 minutes of a press briefing, right? And I was watching it. And I just was struck by just how many sycophants are in the room, right? Like they have really stacked the press room with people that are just pure propagandists, like no different from having Sputnik in the press room for the further of, you know, for Vladimir Putin. And. You know, they kind of mask this assault on the press by all of the access Trump gives. Like, Trump does give out access, so it doesn't, like, really feel like they're shutting down the press. But they are, like, shutting down people that are doing legitimate reporting and pushing them out and not giving them access and replacing it with people that are doing a lot of buttering up of him. And it hasn't been complete in total, right? They kind of like having, you know, a couple of regular press people in there that Trump can, like, be rates or whatever to use as foes. But even still, it makes it hard to get information, right, in a press room. If any time, like, there's one, because usually traditionally, you know, a reporter asks a question, the politician responds. If a politician is it fully forthcoming, the next reporter has a follow-up, that's like, that's not happening, right? Because half to three-quarters of the questions are from people, like, buttering them up. So I think that's very good point about, you know, the broader what's going on throughout the administration, including in maybe especially in the White House. The Pentagon thing also, think about the context. We've had these three strikes, apparently, on fishing boats that... may or may not, well, contain people, civilians, I mean, who may or may not be smuggling drugs and do not propose an imminent threat to the United States and can be turned away by the coast grab. But leaving all that stuff aside, there's been some reporting that's been pretty helpful in helping us understand the fragility, maybe that's not quite even the right word, the whatever, the dubiousness of some of the administration's claims about whether they really knew what they said they knew about who was in these boats. Very good piece in the Wall Street Journal. It was the middle last week, as I recall, that lawyers in the Pentagon, both military lawyers and civilian, apparently, very worried about the legality of what had happened. Obviously, there was reporting about the Iranian strikes, and maybe they didn't.

do quite as much damage, as Trump said, and other things like that. And HECDeth doesn't want any of that. So, I mean, military is kind of important to actually have good, and they have been good reporters in the Pentagon. And the Pentagon traditions in the State Department, too, for that matter, are a little more, I don't know, as been to be a little less political. Because people of all parties have understood it's kind of necessary to have serious reporting and not. foot movements, nothing that's going to danger people's well-being, but after the fact reporting of this kind, and I do, I don't think it's an accident that this just came out Friday, right, after these three boat strikes and the reporting of how little support there is for this up and down the chandel. Maybe more stuff's about to come, incidentally, and maybe the heckst us trying to sort of, you know, chill further reporting on that. Just your point on that about how the kind of traditions have been different in the Pentagon. Just as one example, it's worth noting that even Fox has had a pretty straightforward, really strong reporter in that Pentagon seat for as long as I can remember, Jennifer Griffin's been doing it for recently, but even before her. And she's like... I guess up hates her, right? Like, and you can see that when he's out there. And he gets very kind of, he's lashed out at her a few times. And so anyway, I just, to your point, like, you know, like even like pretty partisan folks in the past have, like, recognize like the importance of this, that space having a different type of credibility and standard. And like everything else with this administration, that is being attacked, that tradition. It's called soccer. It's called football. Uh, soccer. Football. Domino's best deal ever lets you get any pizza, including stuffed crust, with any toppings for $9.99. We can agree on that. Yeah, fully. So, pineapple? Don't ruin it. Get any pizza, including stuffed crust, with any topics for $999. Finally something everyone can get behind. And if the rest disagree, that's between them and Domino's. Which means the only thing left to fight over is who's ordering. Domino. Price is higher for some locations. Excludes Excel and specialty pizzas. Select this offer from 615 to 726. Online only. Size availability varies by crust. Max, seven topics. Six for pan and New York style crust. Minimum purchase required for delivery. Price is participation delivery area and charges may vary. Final topic, I'm going to get deeper into this this week on the shutdown fight and what the Dems are going to do. But I just wanted to give you one chance to... offer your wise, stately advice to the Democrats as they look ahead to becoming potential shutdown and the need to, you know, pass a budget.

I mean, I think they should just should not vote to provide funds to this government in the way it's now functioning. And now, ultimately, if there were certain concessions were made, could they either vote to provide those funds or, I guess, release a few people, vote to proceed on the filibum. They shouldn't vote for the funds, period. Should they insist on a filibuster? Maybe not under certain circumstances. But I'm right now. Pretty hard line on this. I see no case for being particularly a conciliatory or for asking too little or getting in some negotiation even for now with Trump. There's so much one would have to ask for, including what about Tom Homan? What about the Pentagon press rules? I just feel like how can you vote to authorize your vote, you're authorizing a government, which is doing all these things. And I feel like the right stance going in is we are not, we do not feel it is right to vote for this. Now, whether it's two weeks ago from now or. even conceivably, you know, the day after the shutdown begins, they could, circumstances could change and they could accept some deal or, as I say, release some people to vote for cloture or not to oppose cloture, I suppose, even if they wouldn't vote for final passage, which they certainly shouldn't. I suppose that's another question. Yeah, and I don't like the fact, I've got to say, if I could just criticize our friends, the Democratic leaders here. I mean, Chuck Schumer and Jeffrey sent this letter to the president Saturday. It was ludicrous. I mean, instead of... listing all the horrible things they're doing and saying, stop doing these things. And then we can have a government that we could actually support, though, governed by the opposition party. Obviously, many, many, many members of Congress have voted for government funding when the other party controlled the executive branch. Instead of that, They write, we really feel like we need to talk to you. John Thune is being kind of mean and he's not talking to Chuck Schumer. And so we need to go right to you. That's the tone. You've read the letter, right? That's the tone of it. We're really not the tone, the substance of it. And so we really want a meeting with you. I mean, help us. Really? Really, this is what Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries think. Is it effective? I mean, maybe they don't believe it, I guess. I don't know if they believe it or not, but maybe they really do want that White House meeting. I don't know what's going to happen there. But again, the tone of it is so much of a supplicant and not of, I don't know if it's really damaging to them, but it was annoying to me. I'm just going to say that. I was annoyed reading that letter. I was also annoyed, Bill Crystal. Well, I was going to wish you to Shana Tova and let you go, but I just received this text. The BBC is reporting that Brigitte McCrone has presented photographic evidence in court confirming she is not a biological male. So you can have a happy new year and sleep deeply, you know, rest easy knowing that Brigitte McCrone has, you know, demonstrated her womanness to the what is a woman crowd. What a world. What a world. Thank you. Thank you for the good, for the happy New Year salutations and happy New Year to you, even for those, I think we're allowed to wish, Janatoa, to those who themselves might not be part of the tribe. And I'll be off for a couple of a day. I'm going to.

I really try not to tweet at all during Russia's shot. I think it might be easier to observe that for the first day, but maybe I might have, the second day is a sort of a question mark as in terms of observance. You know, only the Orthodox really observe that. So I might bend a little bit on Wednesday, but tomorrow I'll try to stay silent. I'll keep an eye on your feet. All right, Bill. Thanks a bunch. Shana Tova to you. To everybody else, we'll be back here for another edition of the Bullwark podcast. We'll see you all then. Peace. Make your money with a student time. kick you on The Borg podcast is produced by Katie Cooper with audio engineering and editing by Jason Brough. Hey there, it's Ryan Seacrest for Safe Way. Earn four times. Points on your favorite brands now through July 28th on eligible items like pantine moisturizing shampoo, Gillette razors and refills. Secret clinical strength deodorant, herbal essences hair care, old spice deodorant, tamper swadlers, diapers, and crest clean breath toothpaste. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy pickup or delivery. Restrictions apply. See the website for full terms. Big transfer news today. Who's moving? Me. To the couch with Domino's best deal ever since they just added stuffed crust. Any pizza, any toppings now with stuffed crust for $9.99? It's a long-term contract with no release clause. Only $9.99? Yeah, that sounds like the move. I'm heading straight to Dom. Mm-mm. Price is higher for some locations. Excludes Excel and specialty pizzas. Select this offer from 615 through 726. Online owner. Size availability varies by crest type, max seven topic, six from and in New York style crust. Minimum purchase required for delivery. Prices, participation, delivery area, and charges may vary.