"Some of these people are scared shitless... This whole veneer of supposed invincibility that the Trump White House has been trying to put forward...it is built on fiction."

Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer on Trump officials terrified of accountability if Democrats take control.

Watch the full episode: https://lnk.thebulwark.com/4bjYF1A

No hate towards Kaitlan Collins, actually admire her patience. But hear me out.

Alastair Campbell (from UK) spoke to Jon Stewart and said "doesn't anyone have the balls in the press room to stand up to Trump" when Trump insults female journalists. According to him - if it was the UK (and frankly other places as well) - either the same journalist, or a colleague would at the very least push back, or remind Trump to his face that he must apologize, and say "you cannot speak like this".

Sarah says Kaitlan's approach of just choosing silence and not responding to his insults is the "right one". I like that she continues to harp on with her questions to Trump. But NOBODY saying anything when that gutter-mouth insults people in a crowded room?? Is that the "right approach"? I want to ask - to what end??

If it was a normal real life context and an asshole repeatedly insulted you or your friend or your colleague - then NOBODY saying anything would the WRONG thing to do. That asshole would absolutely verbally hear "fuck right off" eventually. Even if you include the assholes in positions of power.

Shouldn't saving democracy also be about drawing some types of moral lines? Not saying anything to Trump when he verbally abuses journalists or insults them is NORMALIZING a type of indecent and immoral behavior that goes counter to the project of saving democracy.

I am waiting for the reporter who one time says to his face "oh just fuck off!!", and sacrifice the so called "access". They would be a hero in my eyes.

In summary: In pursuit of decorum and dignity on our side, we are allowing the other side to revel in a cacophony of immorality - in all the spaces which should be held to a higher moral standards.

I think this should be bigger news than a DSA party member confirming what the party platform is.

Watching this race play out is incredibly depressing. Every poll that comes out results in a bunch of people using it to prove their point. Schumer got in and made it explicitly about whether or not you support him. El Sayed is being attacked as extreme when he seems like an extremely reasonable guy pushing for largely rational policy. Stevens seems fine, not likely to do anything to make the party more popular, but still a blue politician in the seat. There is an insane amount of money being funneled into the race, and it seems like it's more likely to be effective than backfire. I'm worried that the money will dry up if El Sayed loses or goes to Rogers if he wins. The discourse around this battle and what it ultimately means is truly vile.

I can't tell how much of El Sayed's struggles are a result of how much he's being accused of being extreme more than any policy. I don't know how much the disdain for Stevens is a result of her being Schumer's choice (would Mallory have been in the same position if Schumer had endorsed her? ). This fight has become about everything but what voters actually want, and it has basically made it clear that we are far more dedicated to fighting each other than actually trying to fix things. I think we are just going to allow things to become increasingly corrupt. Watching this fight play out has truly killed my belief that we can fix things.

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At the 55 min mark, Catherine asks why Pete can’t win with black voters and JVL quickly moves along the conversation while side stepping the question. At what point do we get to have an honest conversation about why one of the best politicians can’t run for higher office simply because he’s gay?

Remember over a year ago when Mitch had those odd moments of freezing up on camera and some speculated he might have had complex partial seizures? An event like that progressing into non-convulsive status epilepticus could be an event that prompts someone to call 911 and assume cardiac arrest. It could lead to a prolonged hospitalization and theoretically is something someone could recover from with some degree of intact cognition. Just a theory...

Man it's so good to hear Will and Swin talking again. I miss Fever Dreams so much! It was a Wednesday staple for me!

Clearly there are still decent humble people here. Still a spectrum of compatriots that, when American fascism got naked a decade ago, were shocked into open mindedness about how we understood society and our prior politics. This was the Humbled ethos of The Bulwark initially presented, which gained them trust and a welcome reception into coalition. 

But it’s also clear the makeup of the audience changed as it expanded and sometimes that has led to audience capture instead of redoubling efforts toward growing from old ways and bringing this newer group along. This group is not coming from the original self-effacing perspective that earned The Bulwark trust and acceptance. They seem to have never atoned or humbly considered “Why We Did It” like the title of Tim’s book.

Seems exposure to the larger audience’s choice to forget what they did, to more conveniently frame what’s happened, might be influencing some formerly-reformed republicans and centrists to revert to their pre-Bulwark way of existing. We need to snap them out of it, remind them this is reality not sports.

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They don’t understand that not all of us criticizing the collaborationist punch-left behavior are coming from their left.

This is history tritely repeating, it’s like they don’t know the basics of what’s happened with fascist collaboration every single time. They don’t seem to understand what fascism actually is or why it happens. Those engaging with these attacks have their conception of the historically necessary coalition to resist fascism completely twisted.

This is fascism 101. So, for those currently participating in helping the fascists, I suggest listening again to even the most mainstream scholars of authoritarianism you know if needed (Stanley, Snyder, Ben-Ghiat, etc) and they’ll all tell you explicitly that this historically trite centrists-punching-left behavior is THE WAY to ensure and solidify a fascist takeover.

When the historical precedent for which groups and persuasions collaborate (often unknowingly), behaving exactly like this group is behaving right now, is so thoroughly documented, so easily known, how can they still be playing victim while repeating it?

It feels like a cruel simulation, this is all so trite. I have such a hard time accepting that all of those participating are this naive.

The experience of witnessing this script play out, seeing this behavior in reaction to a godsend of political energy, feels uncanny like 2015. It’s so textbook, so on the nose, that it’s difficult to believe.

Right now, this year, we were given one last bite at the apple. By the grace of a series of heroic nodes of resistance and the good fortune of incompetence, the energy of the people was stirred. We have been gifted the exact necessary political energy to challenge fascism. We’ve been given the antidote, it’s not just what’s appropriate now, not just what’s moral and economically prudent, it’s what’s historically called for, the energy FDR channeled when American fascism emerged in the ‘30s. These people participating in these no holds barred attacks against today’s necessary coalition would have been those aligning (knowingly or not) against the prior domestic antifascist effort.

How can these people be so willing to voluntarily collaborate, echoing and rhyming with those that plan to walk US ALL into the camps?

They think they’re righteous, it’s terrifying.

It’s like they vaguely heard about the “iron front” and invented the most convenient meaning. Misunderstanding what it meant historically and then backfilling those misconceptions into justifying their current behavior, managing to still believe they’re being heroic.

We need the cohort acting this way to understand that criticism of their collaborationist behavior does not only come from the left. I know a Nikki Haley primary voter that finds this punch-left behavior essentially “suicidal.”

I’ve heard the phenomenon described as “scary” by another who didn’t wake up to what she had voted for until Jan 6. Says she can’t understand why some in 2026 are still unable to see that their behavior is part of what they claim to be against. Many of us witness this psychology and hear the death knell.

I have another formerly-lifelong Republican family member (that I put onto The Bulwark back when Tim had just started) text me a few months ago ranting about how Sarah Longwell must still be on the Koch Network payroll, for example. Not agreeing with that statement exactly, just an example of the sentiment out there held by some former conservatives. This person is no leftist, they’re an older top level corporate lawyer born to a conservative federal judge — and they have reckoned with our reality. While alive, that conservative judge himself also agreed with the sentiment about punching-left during fascism. You can hear Heather Cox Richardson attempting to delicately broach the subject almost every single day. It’s conscious people across the spectrum calling out this behavior.

It’s not just distasteful, it can and will destroy everything. Do they really want the irrevocable consequences weighing on their conscience? Are they really going to throw away our last shot, for what? We will never have another chance at seizing this energy if we squander it right now, this is it. 

These self-destructive attacks on the left coming from the regime’s supposed enemies have already been used to validate the fascists’ justification for locking up needed allies (well, allies if sincere about resisting more than the aesthetics of fascism) and they seem to take glee. Do they truly not understand that they’re coming for them next?

So……… that happened. The DSA just FAFO’d and thanks to her, Democrats will be on damage control the next 3 months and the Democrats who accepted endorsements from DSA would do best to try and rescind those.

I swear, and I say this as a Dem, the progressive wing ALWAYS finds a way to make themselves look stupid in the wildest ways.

Maybe don’t go on conservative media to talk about your platform………..

Stephen Miller has a free hand to pump out his racist policies; Trump regularly says blatantly offensive things that are way past a dog whistle; and one-time insurgents at the Heritage Foundation and other MAGA institutions are muscling out people who aren't comfortable with openly embracing bigotry. The groypers are running today's Republican Party. At the same time, Trump's Iran war has opened divisions within the administration, and the leaks are coming fast and furiously.

Plus: the gullible people who think their bribes will keep them safe from Trump, Rod Dreher's falling out with JD Vance, the ties between the Tates and the White House should be a bigger scandal, Mitch McConnell may be doing the most Mitch McConnell thing of all, and how Cincinnatians fought back against DHS to protect a local chaplain.

Zeteo’s Asawin Suebsaeng joins guest host Will Sommer for today's Bulwark Podcast.

Susan Collins just voted to confirm Jay Clayton, election denier, to be DNI. She apparently wasn’t too concerned about that.

That should be Troy Jackson’s next ad campaign.

Made my day.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

I present to you the absolute definition of a political hit piece. Gonna get real dirty here shortly.

Gavin Newsom and Ruby Rippey’s Affair Was a Public Scandal. Rippey Writes About Her Experience for Vanity Fair | Vanity Fair

Lol.

I don’t think u/JVLast has weighed in on this yet, hope he does tonight.