The Bulwark Podcast

Podbit · The Bulwark Podcast

Bill Kristol: Trump Wants All-out Kleptocracy

Explore episode Jul 6, 2026
News
McMorrow Out: Tim Was Right About Factional Fighting

Bill Kristol: Trump Wants All-out Kleptocracy · Jul 6, 2026 News

Mallory McMorrow dropped out of the Michigan Senate race after centrist groups pressured candidates to condemn far-left figures — a fight Tim Miller warned was strategically disastrous from the start. Democratic voters right now want candidates focused on Trump and economic concerns, not intraparty purity tests. The McConnell lesson: pick your fights carefully, not on your weakest ground.

7m 30s

Where this was said

Tim Is Sometimes Right #1: The Michigan Senate Race Debacle

At 25:30 · chapter starts 24:40

This chapter is a full post-mortem on the Michigan Senate race. Miller recounts how the Third Way pressured candidates to condemn far-left figures like Hassan Piker who had visited Abdul El-Sayed's campaign, triggering a McMorrow-El-Sayed skirmish that left the more establishment candidate Angela Stevens largely unscathed while the two progressives bloodied each other. His verdict: even if the principle was correct, the strategy was catastrophic — Democratic voters right now are not interested in intraparty purity fights. They want candidates focused on Trump and their economic concerns. Miller invokes Mitch McConnell as the unlikely strategic model: McConnell sometimes accommodated the Tea Party, sometimes fought it, but always picked his battles carefully — crushing Chris McDaniel in Mississippi with a sophisticated primary strategy while accommodating Rand Paul in Kentucky when he couldn't beat him. The lesson for Democrats: know what year it is, know the terrain, and don't fight from your weakest possible position. Miller closes in sorrow rather than anger about McMorrow specifically, believing her personal brand is intact and she'll run again.

News
Michael Cohen: Always Had the For-Sale Sign Up

Bill Kristol: Trump Wants All-out Kleptocracy · Jul 6, 2026 News

Michael Cohen is back in Trump's good graces, with a WABC radio show blessed by the White House — and Tim Miller is not surprised. Cohen was never a genuine Never-Trumper; he was Trump's bag man who did corrupt things on his behalf for decades. The 'resistance star' framing was always wrong, and the reunion proves it.

3m 20s

Similar podbits

News
The ActBlue-Funded Campaign to Pin Charlie Kirk's Death on TPUSA

#2535 - Andrew Wilson · Aug 5, 2026 News

A progressive organization with a stated mission to destroy Turning Point USA received millions from ActBlue and is now publicly pushing the narrative that TPUSA insiders and Israel murdered Charlie Kirk. Andrew Wilson traced the network of accounts all amplifying the same conspiracy in perfect unison.

4m 9s
News
Why the Israel-Killed-Kirk Theory Doesn't Hold Up

#2535 - Andrew Wilson · Aug 5, 2026 News

The microphone-bomb theory fails on every physical front: no smoke, no ignition, mic on the wrong side of the wound. And the .30-06 rifle round used is extensively documented by the US Army — it does not always produce a through-and-through wound. Wilson argues this is a well-studied projectile with well-understood behavior.

10m 45s
News
The Erika Kirk Situation: Grief Under an Impossible Public Microscope

#2535 - Andrew Wilson · Aug 5, 2026 News

Erika Kirk became the CEO of TPUSA while grieving her husband's murder in public, and now faces tens of thousands accusing her of conspiring to kill him. Andrew Wilson calls it mind-boggling psychological torture. The sparklers at the memorial weren't suspicious — they were a grieving widow doing her best in an impossible situation.

3m 20s
News
The Corey Ruiz Shooting: Hot Takes vs. Waiting for Facts

#2535 - Andrew Wilson · Aug 5, 2026 News

Joe Rogan and Andrew Wilson watch a bystander video of the Corey Ruiz police shooting in Madison, Wisconsin live on air. The video is so blurry they initially think a female officer fired the fatal shots. They later learn a male officer did, after Ruiz allegedly pulled a knife and stabbed officers. Their conclusion: you cannot have a hot take on a story you don't understand yet.

6m 10s