¶ Intro / Opening
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¶ Thomas Massie Loses Primary
Hey everyone, it's me, Sam Steinman Jared the Bulwark. I'm here with JVL and we are breaking in uh live coverage for this news. Tom Massey, the uh conservative Kentucky candidate, has a special. reportedly, not apparently, reportedly has lost his primary against Ed Galrine. His challenger is Trump back challenger. Uh NBC made the call, decision desk has made the call. It's it's it's It's done. And uh, I mean, there's a bunch of takeaways here, but JVL, what's your top line one?
So the I mean, th there's a lot of this is Trump's party, as Lindsey Graham said, but the most interesting thing here is that so Cassidy Cassidy voted to impeach Donald Trump, which was an attack on Donald Trump. And so his voters, you know, Republican voters could see that as, well, he he went after Trump.
¶ Massie's 'Sins' Versus Trump
Right. Massey's big sin was that he was in favor of releasing the Epstein files and that he's against the war in Iran. Now these are two things which Trump supporters ostensibly are on Massey's side of right and not Trump's side. Right. If you if you just wind the clock back and ask Epstein files, all these Republicans are, you know, in in his Kentucky four would be like
Oh, gotta release the Epstein files. He said, Oh, do you think we should uh be holding hands with Israel and attacking Iran? They was said, What are you talking about? No way, right? Yeah. And so the there's this transubstantiation here where the same people who insist Donald Trump had nothing to do with Epstein are now punishing Thomas Massey. Because they see his call for the releases of the Epstein files as the attack on Donald Trump.
It's such a solid.
That to me is the difference.
Yeah, I hadn't even thought about it in those dimensions, but now that you're talking about it, like transport yourself back two years. You're a congressional candidate on the Republican side and you're running on a platform that is Release the Epstein Files. No foreign interventions. Deficits out of control and we need to doge the hell out of government. That's Tom Massey. That's Tom Massey. There it is. And that's Donald Trump.
The transgression is that Trump has changed on all those fronts, and Tom Massey hasn't. So
And the voters did what Trump wanted. Right. I mean that's the other thing and the other thing to I mean it is important to see like I don't know how close this is gonna be. We don't know what the the final we know that it's enough that they were able to call it by like fifty percent of the returns in. Right. But Massey is running against a tomato cam. I mean
He's nice.
Has never won elected office before. He's he lost like a state senate race. Yeah. Uh he's like 62. He didn't show up at any of the debate. No. I mean I mean he is a non-entity. So it isn't like there was this top-tier challenger that they came in as wildly charismatic guy and knocked him off. It was this is a pure proxy for Trump tells you to do a thing for him. And the voters just clapped like seals and and did what Trump demanded.
Just to emphasize that point, like in the past couple days and weeks, you have Pete Heggseth going campaign for Galrine. I mean, kind of unheard of for the I mean, think about it actually. The defense secretary in the middle of a war. Like without the
Yes, the war must be going really great. No, sorry. In the middle of an excursion.
Skir skirmish or excursion. Yeah. He got uh he he left the Pentagon to go to this Kentucky district and campaign. It's it's like kind of a remarkable indictment of Peg Pete Eggseth, frankly. And then you had all the other people, you know, Stephen Miller wasn't weighing in on this. Trump himself put out a tweet. I'm not we can actually put the tweet up.
if we have it. Um he never goes on Twitter. Trump went on Twitter today to just say this because Tom Massey had been taught touting a 2022 endorsement. Uh this was the most expensive
¶ The Expensive Kentucky Primary
House primary, I believe, in the history of house primaries. I'm just reading some data from Ad Impact, which tracks the stuff. The amount of money spent in supporting Ed Galrine on ads was ten point nine million dollars. This is a house re primary election. The amount of In Kentucky. Yeah. There's the T V the T V rates are nothing. The amount of money spent supporting Tom Massey is just support.
is 7.6 million. The amount of money spent attacking Tamassey was 7.9 million and the amount of money spent attacking Gay Al Ryan was 6.2 million again in Kentucky. People you have to understand that's like basically buying literally every ad slot and then some. in this district. They must have been inundated with that.
Yeah, I mean you you I'm sure you could not get through a single puzzle on Wheel of Fortune without 15 of these ads, right? The all gal line's on the wheel again. Yeah, right. I mean
¶ Campaign Ads and AI Legality
Well some of the ads were wild too, right? Like we were talking about. This one.
Top yeah, so I want to talk about this because I we should roll the ads in. I would I would like to talk about the God knows if we can get exit polls on something like this. Probably not. Um, but I am interested in there was some polling showing that. that Massey was doing very, very well with voters under the age of, I forget what it was, right? It was young voters. I want to say it was like eighteen to forty or something.
And that uh Gaulrein was was killing it, Saddam Hussein numbers with voters over sixty, right? Yeah. And Bill Crystal wrote about this either today or or the day before, suggesting that this this may show that young Republicans are tiring of Trump and looking to move away. I have a different
Read on that?
But I don't want to share it until we've looked at the the video.
Which ad do you want to play? So there's the ad there's the Ed Galrine attack ad on Massey, and then there's the Massey attack ad on Ed Galrine. Which one do you want to play first?
I don't know. Why don't we do the I mean if it's okay with you boys, I don't want you to be driving. You're you're driving the show. I would say start with the ad against Massey.
Okay, so let's play the Galrine Attack Ed against Tom Massey. There's a lot I just say before we get to this. By the end of the campaign, it was so centered around sex. Like it was all about sex. It was wild shit. Let's play the ad and then we'll get Javel's take on the other side.
Massy caught in a thropple in Washington. cheating with the squad on the amer- Massey voted with the squad against Trump's tax cuts. Massey voted with the squad against finishing Trump's war. He voted with them against higher.
🎵 Music
How is that legal?
It shouldn't be. It's all AI and it's insinuating it.
They are.
Yeah.
Right. I mean there aren't there I I I'm asking this. Maybe I should know this, but I don't. But in the same way that you can't run an ad saying the New York Times says that you you can't make up a faked headline. Right. Like with the New York Times logo on it says the New York Times says that Thomas Massey is actually a lizard person. Right. Right. Because that's not true. The New York Times has never printed that. You couldn't pretend.
But why how is that any different from showing AI generated video purporting to be security camera footage of Things which never happened.
You know, I don't know. I wish I actually knew the answer to that. I mean, if I had to guess,'cause one is uh implying that a secondary entity, in this case the New York Times, printed something illegal so the Times would have a case that you I don't know. slandered them or some sort some of that. And this is just pure fiction. I will note, like this is this is our future, basically. If you've been following the Spencer Pratt Mayoral race, it's literally all AI generated ads, like fake
moms at a yoga studio talking about Spencer and Pratt. And this is just people there used to be a little bit of sort of um anxiety and and and and and s you know skepticism around doing this type of thing. Like why would you do that? You can't do that. And now they've just ripped off the band aid. But we're we're going afield. So your point about this is that the
Hold on before before we go field. Oh, you want to do the other one? I want to do small no small digression in answer. Sure.
Yeah.
Should this be illegal? Because our friend Andrew Weisman has a book out this week, ding, ding, ding. And I mean his his big idea is that in the same way that We have all sorts of restrictions on speech around the idea of fraud, right? The the guys from Enron were not allowed to just say whatever they want about the company and have it be protected speech.
Right. They were they were committing fraud. And uh there are plenty of other realms in which you can't say just anything. It's not protected speech to to
Right.
Doesn't this feel a little bit like fraud to you?
It does, but let me paint a...
Video of things which didn't happen?
Let me let me let me do the sort of like um the lawyerly thing where I give you the counterexample. Okay. Let's say that uh Eb Galrine hired a Tom Silver. Like someone who literally just resembled the game. And did an ad featuring him walking around and doing crazy shit around Kentucky and and never had some disclaimer, but like kind of insinuated that that was massine, never said it wasn't. Would that be a legal?
أميلا
I don't think I'm not sure.
I wish we have a lawyer here honestly.
Because it has something like, you know, actor portrayal, right? Or you know, like in the way that when you're watching a history channel and they're showing you video of Yeah you're like, wait a minute, actually, how did they have cameras back then? Right. Yeah. This is I mean, it just looks like security camera footage. I know. Right? Of a thing.
Something very fraudulent about it, and I do wonder, God, we should have had Weissman on this. He would put he would know. Like All right, let's get back to the actual meat of it though. Okay. Beyond the legality of it. So do you want to play let's play the massy attack ed, because I want to just go through that. Let's this is the massy attack ed, which was not AI so much as just pure anti-Semitism and uh anti
¶ Massey's Offensive Attack Ad
Thank you.
Yeah, anti gay homophobia and anti Semitism. Let's play.
Al Ryan is bought and paid for by the LGBTQ Mafia. Far left trans activist billionaire Paul Singer is bringing his trans madness to Kentucky. Singer is spending millions to remove Massey. The gay mafia will own woke Eddie.
Rainbow star David, right?
Yeah, I caught that I caught it when it happened. I was like, that's not subtle. I don't think I just want to be clear, I'm not totally sure that was a massive campaign edit, but it was by a group who was campaigned. Yeah, okay. Alright. So like what's your what do you divide?
Paul Singer is a right wing billionaire.
Yeah.
Not a not a left-wing billionaire. Again, for for people who are not plugged into this stuff. Paul Singer is not a left winger. He is a right winger who supports Republican candidates and right wing candidates. He is super pro Israel. Like that's true.
And he did find the
Yeah.
Well he did also he was also big funder of the um LGBT of uh of of gay rights causes from the Republican perspective. And that obviously was referenced.
¶ Generational Divide & Anti-Israel Stance
All right, so like you you you wanted to set these up because you had some larger point about the issues and the in and the generational divides here, but what was it?
Yeah. I mean, my so what Bill said said uh said, hey, you know, if this split is real and if younger Republicans are going with Massey, then maybe this is a sign that like, hey, they're not sold on Trump and foreign wars and all this. I'm sorry. I think it's actually just anti Semitism. So I think what it what it is is that. The position of Israel in the mind of the American public Especially over the last few months.
has shifted so radically right that you may get old boomers who are watching Fox News, who are Republican voters, who are still cool with Israel and don't care and are gonna, you know, they'll they'll vote with whoever. I think that that is a huge danger sign. And one of the things that I would be, if I was a young Republican on the make.
Mm-hmm.
who who is looking at the post-Trump future. I think the future of the Republican Party is coming at the America First Movement and the Trump people. Basically from like the anti-APAC right. Because I think that's where all the energy is.
I don't think you're wrong. Like you see it when Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks out now at any point. Lauren Boebert to a degree too, obviously Tucker and Candace, but that's like more overtly anti Semitic. Um, and you do see a lot of it when you actually dive into some of the replies to JD Vance whenever he does a public speech. It's like, hey, you sold out, right? Like, and you're you're not a shilling for APAC.
I'd be very curious and I don't I'm not sure if I am totally bought into the idea that this was the main driver for their votes. Although if it's generational, you might be right about it.
¶ Trump's Proxy War & Republican Future
Ultimately, I'm my Occam's razor explanation is it's just like this is a proxy on Trump, and uh if you like Trump. You're gonna vote against Tom Massey and that's it. Let's take a quick break, uh,'cause on the other side I do want to talk about what this means for the future.
of elected Republicans currently because we do have seven months left until these guys are actually thrown out of office. So there's some interesting things that could happen in those seven months. But first we need to take a break and get a word in from a sponsor. You've been listening to this show for a while, you already know how much I love And their sparkling beverages. Now they've launched something new, just in time for the summer.
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Gets all folks. Gotta get those gummies. Uh I will note the other there's another election happening tonight, uh in Georgia. A bunch of elections in Georgia, and uh one of the uh races that I was watching is uh the GOP primary for the uh governor's nomination. And people might remember the name Brad Raffensberger, who was the secretary of state who stood up to Donald Trump in two thousand and two or sorry, twenty. Not looking well. He is like way behind. So to that point.
He ran on the Republican side, right?
He didn't. Jeff Duncan did go to Democrats. He's not doing well either.
Not too much, yeah.
¶ Lame Duck Republicans' Liberation
All right, so um something happened so you mentioned Cassidy uh at the top and and for the folks who forgot this weekend'cause a shit ton of news has happened since then, Bill Cassidy lost his primary, uh he finished third in this jungle primary in in Louisiana, so he is A lame duck incumbent.
And he came back to the Senate today and he got an applause from his caucus. And then he went out and he voted for the uh the Iran War Powers Resolution. He had not voted for that this go run. He had voted for it, I think, in like 2020 or something like that. But he had been uh against doing it up until today. Now that he is liberated and doesn't have to worry about Donald Trump. He also said he's against the ballroom.
Funding. Country first.
Yeah, exactly. He's against the one billion dollar ballroom funding he announced today. He didn't announce that before he lost. So we got a bit of a live wire. I'm not expecting much, but there's clear evidence already that he's kind of done with it. And for seven months he doesn't really give a shit, and frankly, we'll see. We'll see.
Maybe you can explain this to me.
¶ The Lack of Republican Retaliation
Sure.
But I have been continually shocked. by the lack of vindictiveness in the Republican caucus over the last ten years. Okay. I mean you you have people whose entire careers are ended. by Donald Trump, who Donald Trump just like beats the living crap out of them. And at the end. They're like, Well, I'm still Republican. Still still Republican. And I I just think about like if this was a gang, right? If if if this was Sons of Anarchy or
West Side story, right? And you're you're a sh you're a jet, right? You're the best you can get. I'm One day a a new guy comes in and he takes over the jets and he looks and he's like, You You're out. Hate you. You're the worst. And the guys go and they just curb stomp you and they beat you, right? And you're tossed out of the gang.
Nobody is spiteful and says, well fuck, I'm going over to the sharks and we're gonna kick your ass, right? Instead they're just like they just lie there and say, guys we take me back. No, they won't be taken back, right?
Well let's play it out. Let's play it out.'Cause it's an interesting proposition. It's it it actually is a really fascinating proposition. John Cornyn who lost Trump's endorsement day and will be basically beated by uh Ken Paxton, a total crook. And everyone realizes Ken Paxton is a
Lunatic crook and should not be in the Senate. But most of them are just gonna go along it. But you got John Cornyn, you got Tom Tillis, who also was knocked undone by Donald Trump. You have Bill Cassidy who lost because of Donald Trump. That's three right there. Okay? Yeah. Is there fourth that has, I mean, Collins is still up, Murkowski's still holding on. There's McConnell. There's four right there that, if they really wanted to band together, could in theory just kind of create this pattern.
And basically use it as a leverage point. And it's not an insignificant leverage point either, right? Like you need four to get to 51 for Democrats. They're there. And they could stick it to Trump. They have nothing to hold on to. They're all be basically done in elected office. So but what would you do? So let's say you have four. What what do you do with that four?
I mean
Fuck, I would switch control of the Xenic. But that's because I'm a vindictive motherfucker, right? I mean, I look at this and I'm like, you know, fuck me, no, fuck you, right? In these c
They are with conditions. With conditions. They're gonna need conditions, right? They're gonna ha you have to you can't just do liberal policy. They they would need something.
Well, like you can't get any liberal policy through anyway, right? It was just well, you know what, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna fuck all your shit up. You think you're gonna confirm a bunch of judges? No, you're not confirming anybody for the next few months, right? Uh you think you're gonna pass your stupid ballroom, you're not passing anything. Uh we're gonna we're gonna start holding hearings in the Senate on Iran.
Tomorrow, right? Right. Uh this this your slush fund, we're gonna call witnesses tomorrow because we are there's a new majority in control of the Senate judiciary or whoever, right?
Pick a committee.
You have subpoena power, right? You can start investing, you could start investing, call witnesses on Epstein. Sure. And I just look at this and I Sarah's theory is That they just don't want the trouble when they go back home because they're gonna be at Kroger or they're gonna be at the country club. And they don't want their old Republican friends to look at them be like, why'd you make so much trouble? Why'd you make trouble? Why'd you gotta rock the boat?
I just look at that and I think to myself, You people want to be liked too much. Who cares? Right. I mean the the the world, I don't know. Like I just where's where's the House of Cards mentality? Where's the like you know, I'm a I'm a US senator. Right. You know, I I'm not gonna take guff from no one and instead these guys are all cowards. They're really cowards.
I wonder if it's the country club that the country club conversations they're worried about versus like the legitimate fear factor of crazy MAGA folks coming at them. I mean, I don't think that's insignificant, right?
I don't know, maybe. But yeah, I I never lived in Kentucky. Maybe down in the holler. I you know, I I watched Justified. I never I never lived in the holler, but I did watch Justified. Uh maybe Walton Goggins gonna come out. I
¶ Massey's Principled Stand
I don't know. Do you have any sympathy for Massey on this stuff? Because here's my question. Because I my question for you is I get torn a lot between the oh yeah. See, we were right all along, right? Your career is torched now too, motherfucker. And I get torn between that and well, he did the right thing and he did stand up to Trump on the Epstein stuff. And uh Welcome to the coalition. Welcome to the resistance. join the resistance, you know.
But I I don't expect him to join the dishes. I guess my my uh my line.
What should be good enough? What should be good enough?
Right.
What is the enough of the half a loaf for us, Sam? Tell me. Talk me off the ledger.
So I I I was I think I think it was Tim I was talking about this with, but like my line really comes down to Did you go down? trying to appease Trump in face planning and looking like a uh you know a Chud or whatever. Uh or did you do what Massey did and you know just basically principle it out and you know You lost. Like, there's more Liz Cheney and Massey, I suppose, than there is in like Bill Bill Cassidy to me. Like, that is about the worst.
I mean what Bill Cassidy to me what he did was unforgivable, right? Like he went and he a doctor voted for RFK Jr., concocted all these fake promises that RFK Jr. had made to him that he sure was gonna happen. And then lost anyway in a humiliating fashion. I have like no sympathy for that. I don't. I I just
Not nothing about that was a profile and courage. At least with Massey, he was, you know, he knew what he was gonna do, he was gonna get him in trouble. He did it anyway. And then he said, you know, fuck it, I'm just gonna keep doing it. And I do have I do I find that m way more admirable. And yeah, he's not gonna be a resistance person, but Tom Massey's never was never gonna be a resistance person. He's gonna do, you know, Tom Massey things after
Or he'll just disappear, like a lot of these people do, right? A lot of these people just go off in the distance and we never hear from them again. So
Yeah.
Just like Justin Amash. Where's Justin Amash these days, right?
Where's Justin Hamash? Yeah. Do you think he'll apply to the compensation fund?
Yeah.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
He was I feel like he he might deserve he might be more deserved than some of these guys definitely has gotten his fair share of uh weaponized administration against him. Um all right. Before we we we close this out, uh a couple of things. One is the commenters are wondering, can Tom Massey run as an independent? Um, our boy Matt Marshall, our producer of the show, he says the candidate filing deadline ends on June second.
I'm no expert on Kentucky law, but if that's the case, I guess he could. We'll see if he does. Um
¶ The Next Seven Months for Republicans
What's the next but my question for you to close it out is what's the next seven months look like here? Like, you know, obviously I think we're at a place where anyone who wants a future in Republican politics. At this point knows you can't cross Trump ever because you're more likely than not to lose. And yet we're also at a place where a s a semi-reasonable number of Republicans have lost because of Trump but are still holding office. So what is the next seven months?
So my I mean, my theory on this is largely shaped by twenty eighteen. And the m you know, twenty eighteen was the moment where In any other circumstance, the Republican Party would have started cutting loose from Donald Trump. Right. I mean, th those losses were enormous. Yeah. And instead they went the other direction. Right. And and so I, you know, I had thought
My theory going in twenty eighteen was uh, oh well this will be the tipping point, at which point Republicans hop off board. But it turns out the tipping point actually come much earlier and and it had tipped the other direction. You know, Republicans were just all the way bought in. And I I think it's gonna be very
What was the tipping point that came earlier?
Yeah, I think it was the the actual November of twenty sixteen. Right. I mean a after Trump was elected, they all just decided we're in for a penny, in for a pound.
¶ Thomas Massie's Concession Speech
Tom Massey's speaking, maybe let's take a listen to him quickly, if we can.
USA! USA! USA! USA!
You are you are patriots and you will inherit this country and you will make it better. And I am hopeful because of that. Thank you. We accidentally, I think, I I accidentally I meant didn't mean to do this. It started out as an election and it turned into a movement. We
Sim, dá, sim, dá se
I mean I think I think people if you're not if you're not tired of politics, if you're not jaded, if you're not cynical, and so many people are. You know, the people that uh you know want somebody that'll go along to get along. I've never heard of that strategy, but that seems to be what the voters want. That's what's been promised to them, but not the young voters. I mean we stirred up something. There is a yearning in this country for somebody who will vote for principles over principles.
Thank you.
You all you all don't like bullies and you don't tolerate them and I love you for it. You also Yeah.
Cinco Cinco Cinco.
If I'd known if if I'd known this speech if I'd known this speech was gonna be this fun to give, I would have come out fifteen minutes sooner. Look for 14 for 14 years those SOBs in Washington tried to buy my vote. Yeah, they couldn't buy.
All right.
Why did this why did the race get so expensive? Because they decided to buy the seat. And it And it got real expensive. Look, um They used they used a lot of dirty tricks, but we stayed the course. We did not we didn't bend a knee. We didn't throw a foul ball. We didn't do any of those things. We didn't kneecap anybody. There were we had lots of opportunities to try a lot of stuff like that and we never did it. We ran a clean race.
Hey. And they're By the way, after eighteen months of blacking of of a blackout of not letting me on Fox, they finally let me on Fox today, four hours into the election. Hey, they're their slop their slop is selling, so they'll keep selling it. But but listen, I got to watch Fox also for the first time in eighteen months.
And there was the president and talking about by the way, while gas is almost five dollars and diesel's almost six, they're talking about this big ballroom they're gonna build and it looks It looks like the Roman Empire, architecture from the Roman Empire. I see a few analogies there, and people are just trying to make ends meet. But we were promised. That um Miriam Adelson would pay for that ballroom, but she's
There you go, JPL.
Yeah.
They she spent so much money in this race, they're gonna have to reduce the footprint of that thing.
Yeah.
But here's one thing I saw in five. They were saying, oh my goodness, you know, we're ready for war. There's about this, we're about to restart this war. We were supposed to restart this war today, but we can't restart this war today. The war can't start today. They said we got away today. And I then it it it like it occurred to me, where was the Secretary at War yesterday? He was here. Listen. No, look on your
What?
Look on the bright side. No more wars! No more warts! No more warts! Okay. Uh knock that off, you're gonna make me feel good about losing. What I wanted to do was give you all credit. When they saw the influencers here, they panicked. They sent the secretary of war here. And you stopped the war for a day.
Yeah.
All right. We know we don't want a war and we know why young people are and you know, middle aged people are against the next war. We'd be the ones fighting it. They're trying to bring back the draft. Screw that.
Thank you.
We're not We're not gonna fight we're not gonna fight some other country's wars, are we? No. Damn. What else what else do we stand for? We don't want to send our money over. OK,I'll go for that I've got a bill to do that. I've also got a bill to end the ed in the Department of Education. Rand Paul says he wants to pass a law that you need
One day to read ten pages of every bill, I asked Rand, what are you gonna do about my bill that's one sentence long to end the Department of Education? That'd be like five minutes to read that bill.
By the way
Do you know how many pages the Epstein Files Transparency Act was? Two pages. We don't want we know we're tired of meddling overseas. We can't afford it. Our empire will collapse if we keep sending our money to other countries. I never picked a fight with the country that's tried to take me out here. Because I've never but I've never voted for foreign aid to any country. We gotta take care of America first. America first. America first. America first. America first. America first.
KERRY DOCTORS! KERRY DOCTORS!
By the way, there was you remember that organization that Klaus Schwab started called the World Economic Forum? He said they said you should eat bugs. Do you want to eat bugs?
🔊 Screaming
🔊 Rapping
Thank you.
What else what else are we for? Look, I For years I've been standing up for the Second Amendment, the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, the Tenth Amendment. I just realized the Seventh Amendment is under attack. is because I serve on the Judiciary Committee. The the Seventh Amendment is your right to a jury trial. They've taken it away for vaccines. If you get hurt, you can't sue for vaccines. They're trying to take it away for pesticides.
They're trying to take it away for these data centers. No. We've been we've been fighting that back. So that's part of that's an amendment. That frankly, I didn't think I was gonna have to fight for, but I've been fighting for it in DC and we need to keep fighting for the Seventh Amendment too. They want these corporations want get out of court free cards. We're not gonna give'em one. What else is part of our coalition? Cutting doge, cutting spending. They they ran they ran doge out of town.
🔊 Screaming
Than it was to cut a hundred dollars of spending in Washington, DC. It's a tough problem, but we're not gonna give up on that either. Is anybody here for Maha?
🔊 Crowd
Does anybody want to eat poison? Do you want the government telling you what to eat? You want the government telling you to put a needle in your arm? I don't need
Either.
That's why I've been fighting all of that stuff. We need food freedom, we need medical freedom, we need all of those freedoms.
Thank you.
All right. We can keep monitoring this for a little bit. Um but let's just if something happens of note, we'll go back to there, but I think we get the gist. Um you were pressure, man. Lot of lot of Israel references there.
¶ Coherent America First Platform
So here's the thing. There is a coherent platform here. Right. And it is it is a melding of the Maha stuff. The anti vax stuff. anti-Israel stuff, uh, anti-corporate stuff.
And
I mean there, you know, you've got Marjorie Taylor Green, you've got Massey, you've got Tucker. If somebody were to really try to project that forward, because right now it's all just sort of flopping around on the ground, right? It's it's like uh, you know, three fish out of water. But if somebody were to say, like, no, we're gonna make a run directly at Trump. in the magas with this. That's interesting.
Yeah, but what does it what does it get you? That and a nickel, man. What
What is it getting? So you start that on, you know, in twenty January of twenty twenty seven. Right. And the the idea is Look at this. The socialists are in control of the House and the John Thune's just as bad. And look what Trump did. Look what gas is. We need to reform the reform, right? I mean Now, I don't think there's enough juice there because I don't think any of the stuff is principled. I think all of the MAGA stuff is really about is he hurting the people I hate? Yeah.
Doesn't it but doesn't it come down to sure, but doesn't it come down to like I think the sort of elephant in the room, the kind of big unknown here is Is Trump gonna be how long is Trump gonna be vindictive for? Right? Like in theory he's done in 2028. Okay. So like what does that look like when he's not in office, assuming he's not in office?
A, I don't assume it. Okay. Yeah, and B, I I'm I know I'm insane here. I cannot foresee a universe in which Trump does not see himself as the big boss of the whole world so long as he draws breath.
He's proven and his successor is mid yet.
His right. Uh or his successor is Don Jr., right. I mean, this is the the the clearest way for that to be is for it to be Don Jr., which is why again, I'm sorry. I just I still think that there will be a lot of I think the most likely person to be the Republican nominee in twenty twenty eight will have the last name Trump.
I don't disag I I I don't I think Don Jr.'s prospects are wildly underrated as the next nominee. Wildly underrated. I mean barely gets talked about. And it's very hard to see Trump suddenly being like, you know what, I really like J D. I know you've been writing about it, don't worry, you're giving me your kudos to it.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, you deserve it. Pat me pat me on the head Sam.
OK, there you go It's very hard to see him being like, Oh yeah, I like J D, I'm fine with G D or Rubio. Like, no, it it just doesn't really compete with his character. It's it's wild to think that he can as a lame duck at thirty seven percent approval say over everyone's behavior.
But he does.
I know.
This is the thing, right? This is this is why again, I ultimately don't think that an America first challenger can win, but I'd be interested in it because part of me does wonder Well, is there any principle in any of this?
¶ Trumpism's Lack of Principle
No, that's the lesson from this.
I really think there isn't.
That's the entire lesson from this, right? It's like it doesn't mat print if if there were principle in it, as we discussed at the top, Massey would have been totally fine here. Tri everything every transgression Massey made was something Trump himself had stated he publicly wanted.
It's all it's so it's principle less. There's nothing about it that involves principle. It is literally does he perceive you as his foreign enemy? I wish I've i it's like gone underappreciated, but the idea that he went out of his way, Trump To say let's let's get rid of Lauren Boebert, whose primary had passed. That I mean it's just wild to me. There, these people are not like. moderates at all, that their transgression is the Epstein Files. That's it. It's
And but the other lesson of this, and and I know we want to wrap up. Um I don't know if you remember, Lauren Bobert was pushed out of her district in Colorado because there were a bunch of very very respectable conservative Republicans who thought that, well, she's a joke. And so they went and got Jeff Hurd, I think, to run.
And so Boebert switched districts and Jeff Hurd, the good Republican guy was gonna push back against Trump because he was a normie Republican a lot. And it turns out actually Lauren Boebert was much more independent. than Jeff Hurd was. Jeff Hurd has just rubber stamped everything that that Trump has asked because he's in normie. And there is a lesson in all this and my my belief
Is that the true believers, like the few people who are not in on the joke, but who believed all of this stuff, they'll be the ones that get off the boat. And the supposedly respectable Republicans. who who are absolutely in on the joke and who don't believe in any of this stuff and who regard Trump as a boar and of a clown and all this stuff, those guys will not get off until the the Titanic is six feet underwater.
Well it g it makes me back to it brings me back to your great M T G piece whenever it was that she was r resigning from office about, you know, she needed something to believe in and throughout her life and CrossFit was one of those things. And then Trumpism was one of those things. And then, you know, when you wake up and you're like, oh my God, it's all sort of a joke.
It it it it has to be very jarring emotionally for you. And so, like the true believers are the ones who are gonna be like, eh, what is what's going on here? Yeah. And yeah. It sucks. This fucking shit sucks. All right, buddy, I'm gonna wrap it up there. Thank you for doing this. For those folks watching, thank you for watching us. Tom Massey, as we noted, has lost his primary. Just another day in Trumplin where retribution is
Currency of the day. Subscribe to Bulwark Takes, subscribe to the Bulwark. We got a show coming up if you're in San Diego tomorrow night. Bulwark Takes, Bulwark.com slash events if you want last-minute tickets. Till then, JVL. Take care, bud.