Alex Wagner: An Unlawful Administration

The Bulwark Daily

Hosts Tim Miller and Alex Wagner discuss the recent political landscape, focusing on the implications of Senate votes regarding war powers and

Key takeaways

• Mitch McConnell cast a decisive vote to maintain war powers regarding the Iran conflict.
• Alex Wagner's new book, 'The Steal,' details the conservative strategy to reshape the Supreme Court.

Main topics

• Senate War Powers Resolution
• Trump-Xi Jinping State Dinner

Notable quotes

His soul is slowly escaping to the green hereafter.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a critical warning about the erosion of democrat

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:12) Hello and welcome to the Bullwark Daily. I'm your host, Tim Miller. Excited to welcome back to the show, host of the podcast, Runaway Country, Crooked Media. She writes on Substack at How the Hell dot dot dot with Alex Wagner. And she's the author of a brand new book, The Steel, Four Right-Wing Hardliners, One Republican Presidency, and The Raid on America's Courts. It's Alex Wagner. Speaker 1 (0:32) Oh, buddy. It's great to see you. Welcome Speaker 4 (0:35) back. Thank you for doing this. We're doing this on Thursday evening, which I appreciate Alex doing because... I'm flying very early tomorrow to Ohio for our benefit fundraise for the Haitian community. Speaker 1 (0:47) Amazing. If Speaker 4 (0:48) you guys cannot go and you want to support them, we'll put a link in the show notes, Haitian Community Help and Support Center. And I saw a number today on how much we've raised. It kind of blew me away, actually. So we appreciate the Bollard community very much. That's Speaker 1 (0:59) so awesome. You guys are an awesome community. You have awesome hosts. And that is the right thing to be doing right now. Speaker 4 (1:05) So we'll have a number for you all next week. But I think we'll be proud of us. Important work. And I've got a lot of rants to do. I've been building up on my rants for the show on Friday night. So you've got to carry me on this show, on the rants. Speaker 1 (1:16) I love it. I'm ready to. He ain't heavy. He's my Speaker 4 (1:19) full work. I got it. I got a couple of rants, just to be clear, but just not as many as I would have. I want to start with the war vote. And kind of like a niche, a thing that maybe I'm only interested in when it comes to the war vote, or maybe it's you. No. Because it was 50 to 49. Definitely. Speaker 1 (1:36) So Speaker 4 (1:36) in a situation where the war vote is 50 to 49, every vote is really the deciding vote. Obviously, it was 50 against the War Powers Resolution that would have taken the war powers back to Congress where they exist. It's kind of unclear why that's needed, but whatever. It's neither here nor there. Almost all the Republicans voted against it. Still fully in solidarity with Trump. But one of the deciding votes was. former majority leader Mitch McConnell, and I want to show a real video of him going to vote to keep the war going today. A Speaker 1 (2:04) real video. A real Speaker 4 (2:05) video, not AI. Speaker 2 (2:07) Senator McConnell, can you say anything to us? Senator, Speaker 5 (2:10) any Speaker 2 (2:10) word, any comment for the press? Even just the hello, sir? Senator, why did Speaker 5 (2:14) President Trump spend millions of dollars to remove Thomas Massie from Congress while he's been silent about you? Senator, Speaker 2 (2:20) any word for us? Have a good day, Senator. Can Speaker 1 (2:23) you say something, Speaker 2 (2:23) Senator, Speaker 5 (2:24) about a news conference? Will you have one? Peace, Senator. Peace, Senator Speaker 4 (2:32) McConnell. Speaker 4 (2:34) For the listeners there, he does not move. His mouth stays open the whole time. Speaker 1 (2:40) Yeah. Speaker 4 (2:40) But no words come out. His soul is Speaker 1 (2:44) slowly escaping to Speaker 4 (2:46) the green hereafter. That weekend at Mitch McConnell, he cast today, whatever that is, human, quasi-human figure, cast a deciding vote to keep us in the Iran war today. Speaker 1 (2:55) Okay, so I have thoughts on this. Speaker 4 (2:58) Okay, great. Speaker 1 (2:59) I mean, I think everybody in Kentucky should be super outraged. Thomas Massey should be. most outraged of all. This person is a hollow vessel. But here's the thing, Tim, they all are. Like, does it matter if Mitch McConnell is a zucchini? Like, they're all zucchinis. They're all squash, as far as I'm concerned. The idea that Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn... And for that matter, Dan Sullivan and John Husted. But really the YOLO Speaker 2 (3:29) caucus Speaker 1 (3:29) of the Republican conference that has nothing left to lose here is still voting in support of a disastrous war that is likely to cost their party control of Congress. It's like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you are functionally brain dead or not. Like nobody's using whatever they got in their noggins at this point. Like what's the point? Who cares? Speaker 4 (3:51) Yeah, what we're doing, Veggables, Bill Cassidy, I guess, is a husk of a man. Yeah. Because he was the last one to vote, because he stalled, because he hemmed Speaker 3 (3:59) and Speaker 4 (3:59) hawed, as he's been doing. People have been saying Bill Cassidy's a deciding vote. Like I said, everyone was a deciding vote, really, so that includes Mitch. And there didn't need to be kind of a stall for deliberation with Mitch, because whoever is doing the voting for him just kind of... Just went up there and did it. I take it. I mean, he couldn't say anything Speaker 1 (4:14) to the reporter. So could he say aye? Unclear. Speaker 4 (4:16) Yeah, I guess the bell. I keep coming back to the bell, like Breaking Bad. You know, he does the bell for when he wants a yes or two bells for no. I don't know. Anyway, back to Cassidy, my senator. It's the same fucking thing as like several times this year where they've needed him, where he kind of went back and forth. And then in the end, at the last second, John Barrasso talks to him. John Barrasso must be a very compelling figure from Wyoming. And Bill Cassidy votes to give the president. you know, continued, you know, unending powers for the stupid pointless war. They don't have a plan to get out of. And then, you know, that doesn't take questions after it doesn't do anything. When he's asked, he's like, I got to go catch a plane. It's like, what do you do? What are you doing? John Speaker 1 (5:00) Cornyn was literally castrated by this president. Speaker 2 (5:04) Yeah. Speaker 1 (5:04) Doesn't John Cornyn back in Texas is having fundraisers for everybody except Ken Paxton, the man who replaced him on the ticket. Cause he's still so angry about it. And yet the architect of that be cucking. Donald Trump, he cannot bring himself to curtail his power in leading the party off the cliff. It like, there is, I really do think there's a special place in hell for people who know better and in this situation have the power to do something about it with almost no blowback. Like, this is an issue that these guys, once they have their like lucrative lobbying gigs after they leave the Senate, are not going to be punished for. Like, this is- That's why Speaker 4 (5:41) they're doing it, for rewards, right? Like, Cassidy wants to be able to call John Thune and John Barrasso again next year when he's, you know, Pfizer is hired or whatever. I Speaker 1 (5:49) think if they did a favor to the party in Congress and helped. show that Republicans have a backbone, they wouldn't be punished for it on the back end after they leave. Just the fear is so powerful, I guess. That's the only thing that you can imagine. Can I also just say, I know every vote is a tie-breaking vote or whatever, but the fact that John Fetterman is the only Democrat to vote with the Republicans on this makes me extraordinarily worried about a very narrow Senate majority that keeps John Fetterman in the catbird seat. Speaking of someone who is, I do not think, all there. Speaker 4 (6:21) Why Democrats got to win five. We're going to get down to the Senate map in a second. Oh, well, that's kind of related. We'll do this. Right. The Michigan Senate race is one of the key ones. And I was struck by an ad that Mike Rogers did this week about the war. And I did a whole other video on the takes because this thing outraged me so much. If they want the long version, people can go do that. Where I went through all of these guys who are running now and coming up with different ways to try to tiptoe away from the war. But the Rogers ad, I found the most interesting. for a couple of reasons, which we'll talk about. Let's watch together. Speaker 3 (6:52) Michigan families are struggling with the price of everyday life. Groceries cost too much. We have to bring prices down. The war with Iran needs to end and end quickly. When it does, energy costs will plummet. But Michigan families can't afford to wait for that to happen. We need to do something now. Speaker 4 (7:11) We need to do something now. What? Speaker 1 (7:15) You know what that is? What is that thing that Mike, are you doing a big reveal or do we get to say that? We don't know. Nobody knows. That ends. Speaker 4 (7:23) We have to do something. Well, yeah. Speaker 1 (7:25) Suspend diesel exports. Speaker 4 (7:27) What is this something? Mike Rogers, he is the one, and he's like, we got to do it kind of quickly. Mike Rogers is the biggest cheerleader for this war. You know, I mean, Rogers was a huge he's a huge around hawk. He was he was on Trump's side and all of this. And back in May, he was talking about how, oh, boy, they might keep the straight of her moves and that would be a disaster. And so we've got he wanted to escalate in May. This is the time to take him out. Now the ad is it needs to end and end quickly when it does. Energy costs will plummet. Was that true? Even do we know? No. In fact, first of Speaker 1 (8:02) all, first of all, like the oil infrastructure has been so badly damaged. We won't go into the Saudi Arabian East West pipeline, which was like the only like alternative to the Strait of Hormuz. I'm not a petrochemical engineer, but the destruction of that pipeline could be seen from space. Speaker 2 (8:17) It's Speaker 1 (8:18) going to take a minute. The refineries have been offline. I mean, we're just talking about elevated gas prices through 2027. If the war is even over by then, I mean, we're now at the point where this may be a 2028 presidential election issue. Like that's how bad it's going. We Speaker 4 (8:33) need to do something now. Mike Rogers, Colin. Standing in, Speaker 1 (8:36) first of all, you can almost see me like, well, how does this work? I walk in here and the food is available for free or do I pay for it? They put him in like a brand new vest because that, I guess, speaks grocery store chic. He's never gone grocery shopping in his life. Speaker 4 (8:51) He's like, how do I decide how firm the produce is? Speaker 1 (8:56) What is a tomato? Speaker 4 (8:57) He looks very uncomfortable. And I love it though. I think they should put it on a bumper sticker. It's just so Veep. It's so Jonah. It's kind of like Jonah's campaign slogan. We need to do something now. What? TBD. TBD. Does Mike Rogers want us to end the blockade? Speaker 1 (9:13) He wants us to suspend diesel exports. I have no, nobody has a solution. Like nobody has a solution because the only solution is one. I mean, whatever. I don't want to bigfoot you on geopolitics, but like Xi Jinping is the key to maybe winding down the Iran war. And Donald Trump says that's off the table. We're not talking to him Speaker 4 (9:33) about that. Speaker 1 (9:34) No, no. Speaker 4 (9:34) Well, no, we're too busy. We have some other things to talk to Xi about. Speaker 4 (9:38) So they're walking around. As I mentioned, we're taping this early evening. So they have the state dinner tonight, not in the ballroom. Ballroom isn't ready yet. That's sad. So we'll see how that goes. I mean, and if something really crazy happens, like Trump takes out his little penis or something, I don't know. Like my flight's early, but I will get up early enough to do like a little five-minute topper on this if something really crazy happens. But what's happened so far at the time of this taping, Trump showed Xi the auto pen picture of Biden that he has in the Hall of Presidents or whatever they created. And he was really kind of giving a little jocular punch on the shoulder. And Xi kind of pretended to laugh at that. And then this was a big one. This is from Eric Doherty, who's one of the big Trump propagandists right now out there. He writes this, kind of a pool report of his own from today. Just in, President Trump reveals President Xi is a huge fan. of his new helipad because it's made of granite. Yep. He has a great interest in granite. He likes granite. He's an expert on stones, Trump said, and he loves a good granite. This might be Trump's favorite part of the entire visit as he loves nothing more than presenting his construction projects to important people. It's beautiful. The White House needed this. The White House needed the big granite win. in this debate. I mean, not, you know, access for soybean farmers, not new rules around AI, SI, excuse me, not tariff relief, not going after Xi by the fact that he helped Iran kill three American soldiers. None of that. The big win was the granite. Speaker 1 (11:07) It really does feel like maybe calculated sabotage at this point, right? Like to literally have the Chinese premier there at a moment when the essential issue is addressing what's happening in Iran. China. is literally helping Iran target Americans and kill them. It's the major buyer of Iranian oil. They are helping the Iranians launder money from their oil sales. They are helping build chemical precursors for ballistic missiles that Iran is using. They're giving them drone parts. I mean, Iran is a client state of China at this point. Not only is the president not addressing that, but he's going back to the fucking helipad. Speaker 2 (11:44) Yeah. Speaker 1 (11:44) Like, what an embarrassment. Also, they're wearing weirdly matching outfits in that whole. Yeah. little moment, which makes the whole thing even more sort of Twin Peaks. Like, how could this surreality actually be playing out at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Speaker 4 (11:59) And it's really just mind boggling that this is happening. There's this old tweet from 2012 that Trump sent. Obviously, there's always a tweet about Obama. And, you know, they had bugles, I guess, or something for she. And it's like this is Trump was complaining about the bugles. But it's like the troops are on their knees as he comes down the plane again. Chairman Xi has been responsible for the deaths of our troops. They're prostrate in front of the red carpet. Trump's just showing off the making fun of Biden, showing off the granite and like saying that AI stuff's cool. Don't worry about end of the world. I mean, it's just full prostrate giving in to Xi and all Trump wants is like to feel like a fancy boy. I Speaker 1 (12:40) mean, I think it's almost treasonous, right? He Speaker 4 (12:43) accused the media of treason during the trip. Speaker 1 (12:45) Right. Speaker 4 (12:46) So the media, you and me, we're treasonous. The commie leader, great, actually. Good bro. I love the commie dictator that's helping kill our troops. The media covering what's happening, treason. I don't know