The Bulwark

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) and Ben Parker went live to cover Trump threatening to bomb Oman, an ally, as a deal to end the war in Iran remains elusive. Plus, Trump praised North Korea over the weekend and cancelled our military drills with South Korea. Read more from Mark: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/canceling-mil...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Eric and Eliot discuss the week’s jackassery, including the administration’s stripping former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall of his security clearance for innocuous comments about Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One. They then discuss the irresponsibility of Trump’s using that aircraft to travel to a NATO summ...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Will Saletan takes on Kristen Welker’s Meet the Press interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, arguing that Blanche’s evasions on Justice Department independence, Trump’s influence over prosecutions, January 6 pardons, and a proposed compensation fund expose him as a loyalist ready to do the president’s bi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Andrew Egger and Catherine Rampell discuss Sen. Bill Cassidy’s criticism of vaccine policy after his vote to confirm RFK Jr., questions surrounding Mitch McConnell’s prolonged absence, growing support for price controls in the GOP, the political fallout from Trump’s tariffs, and the Navy’s potential multibillion-dolla...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Will Saletan gives his take on how Republicans accused of serious misconduct have learned to survive scandal. All they have do is follow Donald Trump’s example: never resign, deny everything, attack the accusers, call the investigation “political,” and invoke Trump’s own history as proof that they can stay in the figh...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com The battle lines of the next Republican primary are being drawn in Florida’s Republican primary for governor. There’s a ‘MAGA establishment’ frontrunner running with Donald Trump’s endorsement (but who a lot of Republicans aren’t that excited about). There’s a flamboyantly racist groyper with a wild personal life. And...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Tim Miller joins Alicia Menendez to discuss widespread calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign, Trump’s continued support for him, Democrats’ affordability message, and efforts to recruit stronger young candidates for down-ballot races nationwide. Watch One the Line with Alicia Menendez on MS NOW: https://w...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com When Graham Platner’s campaign was imploding, Republicans made sure to hang him around every Democrat's neck. Now, Democrats need to make Republicans own Rep. Max Miller, the alleged violent domestic abuser. That definitely includes Neverland Ranch fan Mike Lawler. Plus: Tim reads from the mailbag, more and more focus...

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 the growing crisis aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, where sailors have endured months at sea with poor food and living conditions, disrupted communications, and little clarity about when they will finally come home. Now, there's been several reports that...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Lots of stuff this week. (1) There are still balcony seats left for the Best Friends Show in NYC on September 8. Come sell out the 92nd Street Y with us! You can get tickets here. If we sell this show out, JVL will do something nuts. (2) Sarah, Tim, Sam and I are coming to South Carolina, North Carolina, and Atlanta i...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Join Catherine Rampell and JVL at 12:30pm ET as they go live to discuss the biggest political, financial and economic stories of the week. Read more from Catherine: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-gift-to-the-money-launderers-database-treasury

This week, I’m joined by Robert Corn-Revere. Currently the chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Corn-Revere also served as the chief counsel to the Federal Communications Commission chair in 1993 and as a counsel on important First Amendment cases that have made their way all the way to the Supreme Court. (Seriously, check out his Wiki , it’s crazy.) We had a prett...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Brandon Herrera is running for Congress in Texas and we’ve discovered a very strange side of his public persona. Sam Stein, Tim Miller, and Will Sommer dig into Herrera’s podcast, where he discusses “Lock & Load,” a supplement he says helps men with...something. The trio goes down the bizarre rabbit hole of male-enhan...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Andrew Egger and Sonny Bunch take on Trump’s latest attempt to get his name back on the Kennedy Center, his refusal to let go of fights he’s already lost, and what his obsession with credit, legacy, and scapegoats says about a president who increasingly seems stuck doing the same thing over and over and over and over...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com What a way to run a country: ICE thugs will soon have special gloves that deliver an electric shock to people they’re trying to detain; D.C. residents have to contend with National Guard troops on their streets because the president likes fascist theater; and sailors who’ve been at sea for more than 250 days—for a war...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Tim Miller takes on Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins, from his support for taxpayer-funded payouts to January 6 rioters to his ties to white nationalists, racist social media posts, election conspiracies, and bizarre campaign stunts. And when Collins is confronted with questions about the extremists in his orbit,...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sam Stein and Will Sommer look back at the wildest moments from Mike Lindell’s career after the Trump-backed election denier lost the Republican primary for Minnesota governor. From refusing to accept election results and offering a $5 million challenge, to arguing with a kid at the Democratic National Convention, get...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Sarah Longwell and Andrew Weissmann discuss the escalating campaign against Anthony Fauci, why his lawyers may see the congressional investigation as a perjury trap, and what happens now that his contempt referral is headed to Trump’s DOJ. They also take on Bill Cassidy’s vote to confirm Todd Blanche, Trump and RFK Jr...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Join Sam Stein and Lauren Egan for this exclusive, members-only look at the state of primary races ahead of the 2026 midterm election.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Democratic primary voters in Wisconsin didn’t care much for how hard Republicans were working to try to make democratic socialist Francesca Hong the Dems' nominee for governor. That whole strategy helped draw last night’s primary winner, David Crowley, back into the race three weeks ago. Maybe there is not a secret so...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Mona Charen is joined by Bill Kristol to discuss Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson for the August edition of The Bulwark Book Club with viewers. Published in 1894, the novel tells the story of two boys—one born into slavery, the other the master’s son—who were switched in the cradle. They’ll discuss how the book relates...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Ben Parker and Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) discuss an alleged Russian explosive drone at a German airport and the potential implications for NATO, President Trump’s use of a decoy Air Force One amid an Iranian threat, and George W. Bush’s secret 2003 Thanksgiving trip to Iraq. They also answer viewer questions about...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Tim, Sarah, and JVL are BACK TOGETHER after a month apart. They discuss:-Bill Cassidy’s pathetic, weepy floor speech before casting the deciding vote to confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General.-What Tucker Carlson is up to these days…from interviewing Hunter Biden, to a monologue that sounds a LOT like the prelude to...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Donald Trump was secretly smuggled out of Turkey last month after U.S. intelligence reportedly warned of a possible Iranian assassination plot, but the journalists and White House staff traveling on Air Force One were left in the dark. Michael Weiss and former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos give their takes on the ex...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.thebulwark.com Trump may have the pardon power, but all those people making bank off of shady contracts from the administration or doing pay-to-play can lose all that money through forfeiture and seizure laws already on the books. Taxpayers are going to want their money back. And why are Chinese nationals continuing to bribe the pre...