LEAKED AUDIO: Ken Paxton Says D.C. Is Running His Campaign | MAGA Mondays

Bulwark Takes

The episode covers several political and cultural stories, starting with Kash Patel's engagement to Alexis Watkins, followed by Benny Johnson facing a defamation lawsuit from anti-ICE

Key takeaways

• Kash Patel announced his engagement to country singer Alexis Watkins, prompting speculation about her background and wedding plans.
• Benny Johnson is being sued by two Harvard-affiliated protesters who claim he falsely portrayed them as violent extremists during an ICE ride-along.

Main topics

• Kash Patel engagement
• Benny Johnson lawsuit

Notable quotes

"I don't control the message or what we're doing. And I don't have the ability to change anything."

Conclusion

The episode underscores the growing friction between conservative medi

Transcript preview

Speaker 8 (0:00) Look at him smiling, folks. Look at that. Speaker 7 (0:02) That's Will Summer. Big smile. I'm Sam Stein. Speaker 8 (0:05) It's Vagabond Days. I guess we're smiling because love is in the air. It's beautiful. Tweet, tweet. The leaves are changing. Foliage is everywhere. Get that little chill of fall. I don't know about you. I get into my little fall guy attire. Got the vests, a cup of coffee. It's just great. And for Kash Patel. It's love. Kash Patel's married, or he's engaged, I should say. Engaged. So I guess we should start there. I want to send my whole heart of congratulations to our FBI director. He announced his engagement to country music sensation Alexis Watkins over the weekend. Do we have the post, the shot of them? There it is. I love that they used the black and white filter. It's very good. It's nice. She's got that ring on. She looks happy and he looks happy too. So I have nothing snarky to say. She says, Speaker 6 (0:58) went and got the law involved. Oh, okay. Engagement Speaker 8 (1:01) ring. Speaker 6 (1:01) She's not gay. Went and got Speaker 8 (1:03) the law Speaker 6 (1:03) involved. Yeah, look, I mean, you know, we've obviously had a lot to say about this couple. And, you know, one thing that's interesting here is that, you know, cash conservative critics have sometimes said, like people like Kyle Serafin have said, you know. okay, you're going through all this trouble. She's riding on the jet, all this stuff, and they're not even married. And so obviously he's taking care of that. Congrats to all involved here. Speaker 8 (1:32) I'm excited for them. Obviously, Speaker 6 (1:35) some have said she's a Mossad honeypot. People have been sued for saying she's a Mossad honeypot. But it looks like it's real. Speaker 8 (1:43) Well, let's not. We can't still. We can't rule that out yet. I mean, there's, you know, Mossad's pretty, you know, they're pretty devious. They can play the long game. So it's possible that this is just part of it. But I'm going to choose to side on the side of love. Yes. And I think this is genuine. I'm excited to see the wedding, where it's going to be. Will they get the ballroom done in time for this? I'm curious. I have questions like what took so long? Why now? Was there something that happened? Is he worried about the midterms? And he wants to get this out of the way? Probably not. That has nothing to do here. But yeah. That was weighing Speaker 6 (2:21) on voters' minds. Yeah. Is cash going to settle down? Speaker 8 (2:25) This could change. This could flip Texas. We don't know. What do you think Trump's going to get them? Which Russian oligarch do you think is going to pay for the wedding? Speaker 6 (2:34) Well, I will say, you know, fuel up the jet, folks. Because, you know, if Cash has a honeymoon, he's required to travel by private jet. I mean, let's go to the Maldives. Let's go to the Seychelles. You know, we could take the jet anywhere. Speaker 8 (2:47) I mean, they've already snorkeled at the remains of Pearl Harbor, so we can't do that one. Got other spots you got to do. All the classic Speaker 6 (2:55) honeymoon destinations. You got to cross that one out. Speaker 8 (2:59) Can't go to Milan and party with the U.S. hockey team because they're not there anymore. So there's a few spots that they can't honeymoon in. But the wedding's going to be interesting. I'm very curious to see who attends. Speaker 8 (3:11) Well, famously, Speaker 6 (3:12) right, he was just at Alita Haba's wedding, partying with that guy who was a suspected Russian asset or foreign intelligence asset. So you can imagine who might be on this guest list. Speaker 8 (3:24) It would be interesting. You mentioned that people have been sued for alleging that she's a Mossad agent. The person who most notably was sued was Elijah Schaefer. Yes. He had to apologize. But didn't he have to, like, make some sort of disclaimer in his apology to you? He had Speaker 6 (3:41) to make a very long disclaimer as part of his settlement of the lawsuit. And among other things, he said it was sort of along the lines of, like, any FBI investigations of me that may or may not exist would be totally, like, you know, based on legitimate law enforcement interest. It would not be, you know, punishing me for saying the FBI director's girlfriend is a Mossad asset. Speaker 8 (4:05) Okay. Well. Well, I don't want to be sued. I was just joking about the Mossad thing. This seems genuine. I'm happy for them. I wonder how the rest is going to go. We're going to eagerly be following this. This is one of our favorite topics. But to Cash, who I'm pretty sure watches the show, right? Congrats. Anything else, Todd? Speaker 6 (4:26) No, I don't think so. I mean, when you say pretty sure he watches the show, it reminds me of those text messages that came out where he was texting his spokesman where he's like, you need to blast this account called I Find Retards. And the spokesman was like, sir, we can't do it. You know, this will identify ourselves. Oh, man. Speaker 8 (4:42) Well, look, as an invitation, as a gift to the engaged couple, we offer a chance to come on the show. You can't put a price on that. You can't put a price on that. Speaker 6 (4:53) MAGA Monday. Hooray. Speaker 8 (4:55) Yeah, exactly. Okay, let's get to the good stuff. There's so much to get to, folks. We want to get the cash thing out of the way because we believe in love here at MAGA Mondays. Benny Johnson had a weekend. Like, on multiple fronts, our guy Benny, he was sued. Speaker 6 (5:11) Yes. Yeah, this is interesting. I believe this is the first Benny lawsuit that exists. Now, look, we expected a defamation. We were hoping for a Benny defamation lawsuit, but one where he would be the plaintiff. He has long threatened to sue Milo Yiannopoulos for saying he's gay. Obviously, after Milo got deported, Benny said. Unfortunately, you can't sue a deported man, which is not true, by the way. But so instead, what we get is our two protesters who are suing Benny, I believe, anti-ICE protesters for basically alleging he was, you know, sort of portrayed them as, you know, violent Antifa. And they have understandably taken exception to that. And now they're suing him. Speaker 8 (5:54) Yeah, so basically what happened was Benny was in a ride-along during the Chicago area immigration detention enforcement days. He did falsely portray two violent, what he called violent extremists as assaulting federal officers. Those Illinois residents, one was Kyle Frankovich, a data scientist at Harvard University and Maureen Foody, a contract court reporter. Not unusual backgrounds for violent extremists. They filed a lawsuit. They said they were detained while protesting peacefully outside the Broadview Detention Center, that Johnson knowingly framed them as criminals and left-wing terrorists in videos he posted to his millions of viewers. This was back in October 2025 during the Kristi Noem days. A lot happened in Kristi Noem too, by the way. Has he addressed this at all or is he just laying low? Speaker 6 (6:47) No, he hasn't addressed this as far as I know. This is an interesting one. I think we're seeing, number one, it's... It's a clever idea. It's kind of obvious, but I don't think anyone's done it because, you know, you see these people who they'll post everyone who got arrested or they'll, you know, they'll show crowd shots of protesters and they'll say, you know, these are bloodthirsty, Antifa, murderous, whatever. And we know from, you know, general libel law that like if I show a video of someone where they're recognizable and I say this guy wants to murder people, you know, they could potentially sue. And so it's interesting that as far as I know, this is sort of the first time someone. had this idea. It's a pretty good one. And yeah, I mean, that's intriguing. The other thing I wanted to add is, this is actually not the first lawsuit in the past week that has kind of noted this nexus between DHS and the influencers. Rene Good's family is suing DHS over that shooting. And interestingly, they actually make a lot in the lawsuit. They're suing, they're not suing the influencers yet, but they make a lot of talk. I think they mentioned Benny, they mentioned Nick Sortor. They mentioned this guy named Ben Bergquam, who's like a Bannon crony. So there's kind of this like developing legal discussion about the role these influencers play. Speaker 8 (8:00) Yeah, well, it was always grotesque at the real in the moment watching it where they would just kind of hang out. And it was like treating it like, you know, ice porn, basically. And they were so excited to be with like detaining people. And they thought it was very cool. And then obviously it backfired spectacularly. It's been a year since the recording's happening, and I have to wonder if there's some sort of statute of limitations issue here. But I'd Speaker 7 (8:23) be Speaker 8 (8:23) curious to see what Benny says about this because, you know, I mean, even if he just gets a discovery, it would be lovely to see the sort of text messages that he was exchanging with the DHS officials at the real time. This was not the only Benny news, as we alluded to. Benny was on the Hill. What was he – I don't even know what he was covering on the Hill. Do you? Speaker 6 (8:44) No, this was a – yeah, I'm not sure. I believe his wife was there to speak to the Maha hearing. His wife is Nurse Kate. Are we Speaker 8 (8:55) obligated to call her just Nurse Kate? Is that like the thing? Speaker 6 (8:58) Yeah, that's under a legal agreement we have with Benny. Speaker 8 (9:02) Yeah, Nurse Kate Johnson. Dr. Jill Biden. And so she's kind of like Speaker 6 (9:06) a Maha mom influencer. Obviously, I follow her on Instagram. And so I get a lot of her workout stuff and what have you. Speaker 6 (9:15) And so in this case, we got this character named Patrick Howley. Patrick Howley is one of the, this is where we got to unscrew my head and get like the deep lore here. This guy, I believe, used to be at the Daily Caller. He kind of went nuts, I think it's fair to say, and has been more or less banished from the conservative movement. He played a role in a... false flag operation. I believe there were some protests at a Smithsonian. This was in the first Trump administration, and he was kind of caught riling up the crowd or something like that. But basically, he confronts Benny over, he accuses him of being gay. Do we have that video? Speaker 8 (9:52) Well, hold on. Before we play the video, I just need to make a disclaimer. Speaker 8 (9:56) This tortured me a little bit. I don't want to put any spotlight on Patrick Halle necessarily. Not a good guy. And it's like, you know, you sort of wonder editorially, do we have to play this video? Should we give him any acknowledgement that he did this? It's kind of grotesque. Also, frankly, who gives a fucking shit if Benny is gay normally? Except for the fact that Benny is a wildly influential figure on the right, and this has been shadowing him for years. And then on top of that, he has threatened to file suit again against Milo over allegations and hasn't done it. And of course, he postures that he's living this pristine lifestyle that everyone should emulate. And if that lifestyle is in fact a lie, I think it is. Speaker 8 (10:51) editorially significant to note that. I don't think there's anything particularly controversial about covering this issue. But as I mentioned to Will, this is like the Iran-Iraq war kind of of online influencers. I'm not sure, you know, you don't really like either side here. But for the sake of good journalism, let's play the Patrick Howley video of him confronting Benny about whether Benny is gay. Speaker 7 (11:14) Are you a homosexual? No. Were you a homosexual? No. Well then, why are there so many allegations against us? Because people lie. People lie. They're all lies. Saeed Jones was lying when he said he made out with you in the BuzzFeed dressing room. Alright, well we'll see what happens. How come you didn't sue Milo? You said you were going to sue him, right? I want to sue Milo. What? Speaker 5 (11:35) I want to sue Milo. Speaker 7 (11:36) You want to sue Milo? But you don't want Discovery, right? No, I'd be fine with Discovery. Alright, well let's see what happens. Okay. Speaker 2 (11:42) Why didn't nobody ask me, right? Wasn't that my Elizabeth Pink? Go ask her. Speaker 7 (11:47) Okay. Why Speaker 2 (11:48) didn't they ask me? Speaker 7 (11:49) Alright, so what was going on? What was going on with the boys? We just answered Speaker 2 (11:52) all your questions. Speaker 7 (11:53) Why did you plagiarize Lindsey Graham's lifestyle? Speaker 2 (11:56) Hold on. You're Speaker 7 (11:57) talking about plagiarism. What year is it? Speaker 6 (12:01) I have to say, Benny handled himself well. I do like the Patrick Cowley thing. He was like, are you gay? And he's like, no. And he's like, come on, come on. This guy says you made out with him. And he's like, I don't know, man. I will say Benny claims that Patrick cut out several minutes where Benny truly engaged in some witty repartee. Although, you know, we don't have that footage. We don't Speaker 8 (12:23) have that footage because it wasn't shot by Benny. And Patrick hasn't put out whatever else he has. I don't know. I'd seen Benny was trying to be calm, but he seemed a little defeated to me or a little bit worn down. It's Speaker 6 (12:35) like I Speaker 8 (12:35) want to sue Milo. Speaker 6 (12:37) Unfortunately, it is impossible. He's a Speaker 8 (12:39) phantom. We know where you live. Milo's Speaker 6 (12:42) staying Speaker 8 (12:42) in the QAnon castle in the UK. Can't possibly get there. It's impossible to get to it. Can't do it. Can't serve him. Speaker 6 (12:49) Actually, briefly, Sam, if I could just, as we move, but, you know, as we're on the topic of, like, gay allegations. I mean, we talked on the Bulwark Pod with Tim. We did a trio about the Candace stuff. Obviously, Candace has been facing some lesbian allegations. It's Speaker 7 (13:03) a Speaker 6 (13:03) lot. It's a lot. It's a lot. Now, this was propagated by a guy named Esoteric Shaggy. Yeah. Shaggy from the Scooby-Doo thing. Now, I want to point out, over the weekend. Candace's fans found another gentleman named Mormon Shaggy. And they were going after, obviously Mormons are very deep in the Candace mythos related to Charlie Kirk. And they were going after Mormon Shaggy. And Mormon Shaggy had to put out a video saying, I'm innocent. I'm another scuzzy internet character who takes, you know. Oh, they confused Speaker 8 (13:31) Mormon Shaggy and esoteric Shaggy? Speaker 6 (13:33) Yeah, they, it was a, you know, they went after the wrong Shaggy. Speaker 8 (13:38) Why would they confuse those two? Wildly different. Speaker 6 (13:42) Yeah, I mean, both scruffy fellows. So the hunt is on. Speaker 8 (13:47) What is going on with all the gay subculture stuff here surfacing right now? You Speaker 6 (13:52) know, it's Speaker 8 (13:52) a Speaker 6 (13:52) good question. I mean, I think obviously the Benny stuff has been around for a while. I mean, it is just the phrasing. Sometimes these accusation videos, just like the phrasing makes me laugh, like where he's just like. What about Saeed Jones? He said you made out with him at a BuzzFeed party. You know, it was like, okay. You know, the idea of being confronted in the halls of Congress over that. Yeah, what does Speaker 8 (14:11) Patrick think Benny's going to do? Be like, fine. You've got me. It happened. Speaker 6 (14:17) I want to point out that Patrick Howley is like my age, folks. He's in his late 30s, maybe early 40s. And he sounds like he's like 70, where he's like, why did you? I heard you're a gay guy. The other just like brief, you know, I get very few occasions to talk about Patrick Howley. Basically, the thing that always strikes me about him is when he worked for the Daily Caller, there was at the time, there was an awful... part of that operation called Fishbowl DC run by Betsy Rothstein or Betsy Rothstein had moved over there. And so she wrote a gossip column and she wrote one of the craziest things I'd ever seen where it was like a gossip column about Patrick or maybe she wasn't working for the Daily Car. Maybe it was just for Fishbowl. But basically it was like about him hooking up with a female conservative reporter. And clearly he had like leaked. to her and it was like it was like she was spotted leaving his apartment and Patrick like it was a whole article it's not even like one paragraph and it was just like will they see each other again and Patrick was sort of like yeah we locked lips or something it was it was one Speaker 8 (15:18) of Speaker 6 (15:18) the strangest strangest articles I've ever seen oh Speaker 8 (15:21) my god okay I don't need to spend too much more time on this Benny had a weekend Benny will be okay I'm sure but it is freaking Speaker 8 (15:31) I don't know. I just find it all weird that this is like constant. The Candice stuff. I forgot about the Candice stuff and the Benny stuff. The Nick Fuente stuff. Speaker 6 (15:40) I mean. Oh, Speaker 8 (15:41) yeah. Also, Patrick's question, why did you plagiarize Lindsey Graham's lifestyle with the double entendre was kind of. Speaker 6 (15:50) It's kind of a funny. It's a pretty funny way to put it. Speaker 8 (15:52) Yeah. For folks who don't know, Benny had multiple plagiarism. scandals that uh ended his career briefly obviously because he's now elevated to new heights but uh he was like multiple publications for plagiarizing and he's like that's so old he's like get over it get Speaker 7 (16:09) over it Speaker 8 (16:10) focus on the gay stuff the gay stuff's the new thing Speaker 8 (16:14) That was like 12 years ago. I'm totally reformed. Okay, moving on. Let's talk. Should we do Paxton or Daily Wire? What do you want to do? I Speaker 6 (16:24) kind of want to do Daily Wire. I love the Paxton story too. Folks, Livingston, Montana, the sleepy burg of Livingston, Montana, has been roiled by Ben Shapiro's new movie. Now, on Thursday, I wrote about this. We have a lot of hot new information. So, backstory here. Ben Shapiro. We may remember Run, Hide, Fight, Infidels, this movie kind of anti-Muslim action movie. We may remember. Speaker 8 (16:48) It's like three weeks old.