The Bulwark

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Tim Miller takes a closer look at Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, whose record as a doctor is under new scrutiny after a New York Times investigation found that he sued more than 700 patients over medical debt, with 81 ultimately arrested after missing court dates. Plus: Marshall’s views on healthcare and vaccines, his su...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sam Stein and Sonny Bunch unpack Sonny’s experience covering the Republican Party’s bizarre midterm convention in Dallas where they almost didn’t let him in the arena. Sonny walks through the convention’s strange credentialing saga, the overwhelming focus on Donald Trump, and an event that seemed less like a tradition...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Against all odds, Democrats still have a chance in the Texas Senate race. So, is it because Ken Paxton is bad, or because of James Talarico's Nice Young Man energy? Turns out, both. Veteran Texas journalist Christopher Hooks of Texas Monthly joins Sarah to talk about Ken Paxton's sordid history in Texas Republican pol...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Ben Parker and Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) break down the latest escalation across the Middle East, including an attack on Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, a critical alternative route designed to move oil around the Strait of Hormuz. With the pipeline damaged and the Houthis taking control of key positions along...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Rudy Giuliani and others who purport to represent the families of 9/11 victims ginned up the idea that it would be wrong for the Muslim mayor of NYC to attend Friday's memorial at ground zero. Republican politicians and Laura Loomer keep pushing their trash Islamification conspiracy. And a law-abiding Muslim family ha...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Bill Kristol sat in for Sarah today and JVL wore a little treat for everyone to mark the occasion. In case you’re not watching the video, the surprise is here . It’s amazing and you’re going to want one. After that unveiling, JVL and Bill talked about JD Vance’s speech, Iran’s devastating attacks on a Saudi pipeline a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Catherine Rampell and JVL break down the latest inflation numbers and why the Trump administration is desperately trying to convince Americans that rising prices are actually good news. Inflation hit 3.4% in August, real wages are falling behind, consumer confidence is sinking, and diesel prices have crossed $6 a gall...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Will Sommer and Andrew Egger dig into Katie Miller’s previously undisclosed financial stake in Elon Musk’s xAI and why it may shed new light on her relentless promotion of Grok. Miller has posted hundreds of times repeatedly attacked OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies while boosting Grok as the AI for “true pat...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Join Tim Miller, Sonny Bunch, Lauren Egan and Andrew Egger as they cover JD Vance's midterm convention speech live.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com As Sarah explains in her new book, Trump has been so successful teaching a new generation of Republicans about the political value of vice signaling that Nazi talk and racism has become the norm among young MAGA edgelords. Disdain for women is also a key element. One former true believer, Pedro, says the right sees al...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Catherine Rampell and Andrew Egger take on the increasingly hard-to-dismiss warnings about superintelligent AI, after an Anthropic researcher quit over fears that the technology could eventually threaten humanity. They ask whether anyone can actually control increasingly powerful AI, whether the Trump administration i...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Will Sommer and Sam Stein went live for a special Thursday edition of MAGA Mondays. They give their takes on the fallout from Trump’s marathon RNC midterm convention speech, including his bizarre promise to give every American adult a $5,000 “dividend” if Republicans win the midterms. The proposed payout could cost mo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Andrew Weissmann turns the tables on Sarah Longwell for a conversation about her new book, How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time —and what a post-Trump political future could look like. They get into Trump’s unusual hold on his voters, the right-wing media ecosystem, why Democrats too often let polls dictate wha...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com This is a long one, folks! If you’re not strong enough to endure Trump’s speech, skip to 2:07:00 for post-ordeal commentary. Join Sam Stein, Catherine Rampell, Will Sommer and Sonny Bunch for live coverage of Donald Trump's keynote address to the RNC's midterm convention. If you think Sam, Sonny, Catherine and Will de...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sam Stein and Michael Weiss take on Steve Witkoff’s groveling meeting with Vladimir Putin, the growing power struggle inside Trump’s administration over Russia, and why CIA Director John Ratcliffe is emerging as a counterweight to Witkoff’s approach. Plus, Weiss explains why the reality on the battlefield may be consi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com With Republicans in tight races stripping Trump’s name off their campaign websites, the president is in need of some love from Republicans he has summoned to Dallas to celebrate him. The fake convention also conveniently serves as a distraction from the surging price of oil. Plus: Vance may be the source who’s leaking...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Ben Parker and Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) look back at 9/11, Trump’s bizarre remarks at a commemoration, and the lessons Hertling wishes America had learned over the last 25 years. Then they turn to the escalating Iran war, attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, Pete Hegseth’s sidelining of Gen. Christopher Donahue,...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sam Stein and Will Sommer preview Trump’s strangely low-energy midterm convention, where Republicans are skipping town, lawmakers are being asked to cough up $25,000, and even the convention website has become an embarrassment. Plus, they discuss the increasingly bizarre campaign attacks coming from Elon Musk’s PAC an...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Tim, Sarah, and JVL discuss Trump's Labor Day Weekend with his favorite person, Corey Lewandowski's possible ‘light extortion,’ and whether Trumpworld will circle the wagons around him. Plus: why the GOP's midterm convention shows Trump losing his fastball, ABC News's bizarre framing of Rudy Giuliani's Islamophobic co...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com From politics to sports, business, and tech, the rich are breaking the rules, looking out for their friends, and still getting rewarded in the end—maybe with the help of a little trip to the White House with a POTUS gift in hand. For the midterms and beyond, Adam is bullish in his new book about the Dems' prospects to...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Andrew Egger and Bill Kristol discuss Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic social media posts, his proposed triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery, and the GOP’s Trump-centered midterm convention in Dallas as the elections draw closer. They also consider the expanding Senate battlefield, looming Supreme Court...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com With just under two months until Election Day, Tim and Bill revisit the run-up to the midterms in 2006 and 1994, two major wave election cycles where the bottom just fell out from under the party in power. The 1994 blowout was more about the end of an era, while 2006 was about an unpopular war in the Middle East, a sc...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com A quick note: Joe’s reporting from Capitol Hill adds something you won’t get from the headlines—what vulnerable Republicans are actually saying and doing when Trump isn’t nearly as useful to them as he used to be. If you value that kind of reporting, become a Bulwark member and help us keep making more of it. Catherin...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Tim Miller sits down with New York Magazine’s Ben Terris to discuss his extraordinary reporting on Donald Trump’s obsession with the new White House ballroom. Ben spent 90 minutes with Trump, toured the ballroom construction site, and got a firsthand look at the massive project, which is already employing hundreds of...

Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell discuss Longwell’s new book, How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time , tracing the origins of The Bulwark and their efforts to oppose Trump while drawing lessons from years of voter focus groups. They consider how the media environment has changed, what Democrats can learn from Republican political infrastructure, how a broad pro-democracy coalition can manage i...