The Bulwark Podcast

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Jane Coaston: POTUS's Racism Notches Another Win

Explore episode Jun 26, 2026
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Abe Hamaday: The Aaron Schock of Our Time

Jane Coaston: POTUS's Racism Notches Another Win · Jun 26, 2026 News

First-term Arizona Republican Congressman Abe Hamaday has been living with a senior male former-realtor staffer in a relationship described as 'closer than a typical member-staffer dynamic.' Tim Miller declines to speculate, invoking the Downton Abbey precedent set by Aaron Schock's career-ending interior decorator.

Where this was said

Congressman Abe Hamaday and the Aaron Schock Comparison

At 1:00:38 · chapter starts 59:50

Tim Miller reads from reporting on Abe Hamaday, the first-term Arizona Republican, who has been living with a senior male staffer described by sources as occupying a role 'closer than a typical member-staffer dynamic.' The staffer was previously a realtor. Hamaday missed floor votes in May 2025 while on a California vacation with the staffer, which he documented on private Instagram. Tim Miller, who covered Arizona extensively during the 2022 cycle and met Hamaday several times, declines to speculate beyond the reported facts, invoking the rule that he is not an outer and that everyone should live their truth — while not taking further questions. Jane Coaston uses the Aaron Schock parallel to do more rhetorical work: Schock's entire political career was brought down by an interior decorator who gave a Washington Post reporter a tour of his Downton Abbey–themed congressional office, leading eventually to his coming out as gay years later. The looksmaxing aesthetic shared between Schock and Hamaday, Coaston notes with deliberate restraint, is worth observing.

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