Bulwark+ Takes

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com A quick note: This is exactly why we want Bulwark reporters out in the field: not just watching the Senate map change from Washington, but talking to the candidates and voters who are changing it. If you value that kind of on-the-ground reporting, you’re in luck: Bulwark+ memberships are 30% for a limited time! Lauren...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) and Ben Parker discuss the U.S. decision to pull B-1 bombers out of the United Kingdom over concerns about Iranian drone attacks, and what the move reveals about the changing nature of modern warfare. They examine the growing vulnerability of U.S. military bases, the risks to American for...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Reporter Michael Weiss and former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos break down a staggering spy scandal involving the former head of German intelligence, an alleged Iranian plot targeting U.S. bombers in Britain, and the increasingly strange questions surrounding Kimberly Guilfoyle in Greece. Plus: why Russian intellige...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Ben Parker and Bill Kristol discuss Donald Trump’s increasingly frantic attacks as Republicans face a surprisingly competitive Senate race in South Carolina, including Trump’s use of an anti-trans slur against Democratic candidate Annie Andrews. They examine what the race says about the Republican Party’s standing hea...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Tim Miller gives his take on the Democrats who are already arguing against investigating Donald Trump’s corporate allies, warning that accountability cannot be sacrificed in the name of avoiding political “retribution.” He argues that companies and executives who participated in or benefited from Trump’s corruption sh...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Catherine Rampell and Jonathan Cohn give their takes on Donald Trump’s latest checks to Americans, including $500 payments to some ACA marketplace enrollees and $90 payments to certain Medicare recipients. They explain where the money is coming from, why the ACA payments may lack clear legal authority, and how diverti...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sam Stein and Will Sommer give their takes on Kash Patel’s engagement, Benny Johnson facing a lawsuit from two anti-ICE protesters, and The Daily Wire’s new pro-ICE movie being filmed in Livingston, Montana. The film reportedly recreates the shooting of Renee Good before turning it into a fictionalized action story in...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Tim Miller takes on Vivek Ramaswamy’s attempt to show off his strength at a campaign event, then turns to Jon Ossoff’s message to young voters about why they can’t afford to give in to despair and the case for turning frustration and rage into political action. Plus: Tim’s thoughts about James Baldwin and the long his...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Will Saletan lays out the case against Donald Trump that Jack Smith never got to present at trial. Drawing from Smith’s testimony before Congress, Will looks at the evidence that Trump was repeatedly told the truth about the 2020 election by his own advisers, Republican officials, and Justice Department officials and...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Andrew Egger joins Bill Kristol after an extraordinary 24 hours in Ohio: attending the funeral of 20-year-old Haitian immigrant Pierre Bel, then heading straight to a Trump rally, where he found surprising cracks among Trump supporters even as the MAGA faithful rallied around a visibly lower-energy president. They dis...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com A bombshell New York Times/Siena poll shows Democrats running surprisingly strong across traditionally red states, including Texas, Alaska, Ohio, Iowa, and Kansas. Catherine Rampell and Bill Kristol explain what the numbers actually tell us, why Trump’s erosion with his own voters matters, and whether this is what a r...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Donald Trump posted Tom Cotton’s private phone number because the Arkansas senator is blocking his push for permanent daylight saving time. Will Saletan and Joe Perticone take on the strange fight, the golf-industry interests behind it, and why Trump is picking on one of his own loyal allies with Republicans already s...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah Longwell went live with her cohost Ben Parker for an AMA about her new book, How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time .

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sam Stein and Will Sommer break down the leaked script for the Daily Wire’s upcoming fictional movie Pawn Shop, a pro-ICE thriller set amid an imagined Antifa siege of a Minneapolis pawn shop. They discuss the film’s fictionalized version of the Renee Good shooting, its portrayal of ICE agents, Antifa and MS-13, the “...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Catherine Rampell and Andrew Egger break down Donald Trump’s bizarre new interview with Time Magazine, from his claims about having the “highest” IQ to his ever-changing story about how long the war in Iran was supposed to last. They also discuss Trump’s claim that annihilating Iran would create peace, his latest atte...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) joins Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) and Ben Parker to share her takes on what she learned from her recent trips to Hungary and Poland and what those lessons could mean for America after the Trump era. Slotkin explains how countries can recover from authoritarianism, why she believes the U.S....

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos and national security reporter Michael Weiss take on the attempted hijacking of a flight bound for Tel Aviv, a suspected plot targeting an air base in Britain, and the troubling signs that Iran may be taking its fight abroad. They also ask whether America is prepared for a renewe...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com If sitting through 16 minutes of Hegseth talking about “fatties,” testosterone, and the wisdom of Newt Gingrich sounds like a lot, become a Bulwark member. We watch this stuff so you don’t have to! Sam Stein and Ben Parker give their takes on Pete Hegseth’s bizarre State of the Force address, from his “no fatties, no...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Ken Paxton is caught on tape blaming Donald Trump for hurting his Senate campaign, telling a small group of donors that Trump’s Texas convention actually hurt his numbers. The New York Times first reported on the leaked recording, which came from a small Paxton fundraiser where an attendee recorded the conversation. J...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Ben Parker and Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) give their takes on Pete Hegseth’s reported plan to cut twenty percent of the military’s general and flag officers, and what that could mean for military leadership, congressional oversight, and civilian-military relations. They also discuss Hegseth’s push to remake Departm...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sam Stein and Andrew Egger give their takes on Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt’s disastrous attempt to catch former special counsel Jack Smith in a perjury trap during a Senate Judiciary hearing. Schmitt thought he had a smoking gun showing Smith was in Atlanta for a Hawks game on the same day as a controversy involving...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Andrew Egger and Bill Kristol give their takes on Jack Smith’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Smith defended his decision to prosecute Donald Trump and said he would make the same decision regardless of whether Trump were a Republican or Democrat. They also discuss Republicans’ focus on the for...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Michael Weiss and Marc Polymeropoulos are back to give their takes on the latest allegations of corruption and counterintelligence concerns surrounding the Trump administration, including Alina Habba’s star-studded wedding and the appearance of FBI Director Kash Patel alongside a former informant who was suspected of...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sam Stein and Will Sommer break down the latest drama on the online right, from a bizarre AI video posted by Trump aide Dan Scavino to the growing influence of QAnon conspiracy theories inside Trump world. Will explains why QAnon followers believe Scavino was sending them a coded signal and what the reaction reveals a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Trump says he’s banning news organizations over negative coverage. Then his own officials go on TV and insist that’s not what’s happening. Will Saletan meticulously breaks down Todd Blanche’s defense of Trump’s press crackdown, Mike Waltz getting confronted with the president’s own words, and the shifting story about...