Jessica Tarlov: POTUS Needs Some Moral Support

The Bulwark Daily

Tim Miller opens the episode with a passionate critique of the U.S. government's internment of Iranian-American family members due to familial ties to historical

Key takeaways

• The U.S. is detaining Iranian-American families based solely on bloodline ties to historical figures from 1979, raising serious civil rights concerns.
• Despite the severity of the situation, mainstream media coverage has been minimal, with only a few outlets like The Nation and CBS News reporting on it.

Main topics

• U.S. internment of Iranian-American families based on ancestry
• Lack of media coverage on human rights violations in immigration detention

Notable quotes

"We're doing it again, and it's like nobody's even covering it." – Tim Miller

Conclusion

The episode underscores a growing concern over the erosion of civil liberties and media silence on systemic

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) Hey everybody, it's Tim. I got a few items and something to get off my chest before I get to Jesse Tarloff, who I'm very excited to have on the show today. Big news, we are going to do another fundraiser live show, this time in Dayton, which is really close to Springfield, Ohio. You know, the proceeds are going to go to the Haitian community in Springfield. It's been something we've been wanting to do. It's in two weeks. So if you're bored on September 25th, if you don't have anything on your calendar, come on, fly to Dayton. Come hang out with us. You can see, I don't know, some airplane museums. There's got to be other stuff to do in Dayton or you can just hang out with me. It's going to be a really good time. You can go to the bulwark.com slash events to get tickets, proceeds to charity for people who can't come. We'll obviously give you an opportunity as well to support the community after. Just the horrifying suicide of Pierre and just all these other stories in the videos of Mark Wayne Mullen shackling the Haitians who did nothing and putting them on these deportation flights back to the hell. We got too upset about it and we felt like we had to do something. We'll be in Dayton September 25th. It also has the details for Colombia, which is close to selling out, and then Charlotte and Atlanta in October. Also, you should be buying Sarah's book. Have I mentioned that? Sarah has a book out. You should probably be buying that as well if you haven't. Here's what I want to rant about. I wrote an article yesterday for The Bulwark. It's something I've talked about a couple times on the podcast. And it is a woman, Miriam Tamasebi, and her husband, Isa, and her son, who have been in internment camps in Texas for over five months now. Separate ones. Husband is in a literal prison camp. And Miriam and her son... are in Dili, the Dili detention center, which we've been covering here, in horrible conditions. The family has done nothing. It's literally Japanese internment, but for Iranians. They're in this detention center because they are Iranian, because Issa's mother was one of the hostage takers in 1979, which is awful and horrible and condemnable and everything, but none of these people were even born in 1979. Like we are imprisoning them just because of their bloodline. They've been in there with no accusations of crimes, no jury, no due process, poor medical treatment for months. And Mariam gets email one hour a day and she's been emailing with me. I included some of the emails in the article. And so please check it out. The headline of it is Marco Rubio is punishing a teenage boy for his grandmother's sins. The first email Mariam wrote me was about how she wanted, she just wanted her son to celebrate his birthday and freedom. And this is a boy that got shackled and surrounded by vans at school drop-off where his friends could watch. Speaker 5 (3:02) Because his grandmother did something in 1979 and it's fucking unimaginable. So I wrote about it yesterday and, you know, Miriam first wrote for The Nation, which is what drew my attention to it and much credit to The Nation for covering it. But last night I just I was like, I don't understand why this isn't getting more attention. Like I like I feel like if I went back in a time machine and we're chatting and it was whatever, 15 years ago, and we said, hey, in 2026, we're going to be doing internment camps for Iranians and Venezuelans. I think we would have just assumed. That would have been a pretty major news story. This is something that we are talking about in history books, like one of the horrors of what our country has done, like one of the darkest chapters in our country's history. I was learning about Japanese internment and the way we treated the Japanese in high school, probably when I was about Miriam's son's age. And so it's like we're doing it again, and it's like nobody's even covering it. I searched Google News this morning. for Mariam's name and looked back through. And when it first happened in April, Marco put out a press release where he tried to brag about how, you know, screaming Mary or whatever the grandmother's name is, her family, you know, he's taken away their green cards. And so at that time, like there were a few articles about this. The Hill wrote about it, some local places in LA. The New York Post wrote a lot, kind of waving the bloody shirt about how happy the people at the New York Post are. that we are keeping this child in a prison camp. New York Post was very excited about that. So they've written about it several times, talking about how great it is. Besides that, Newsweek probably has the best other article about this. They wrote something back in April. April is what, four months ago now? Five? Here's a CBS article. And it's like, oh, there was one mainstream media outlet article from our friends at Barry Weiss's CBS. This is April 11th, 2026. It was written by Mark Osborne. Mark writes this, the United States has revoked the green card to detain the family of Iranian regime propagandist. Issa, Mariam, and their son have been detained by ICE ahead of their deportation, the department said in the statement. Hashemi and his wife both worked as professors. She goes on to talk about Issa's mother. And then they quote Marco. And they talk about how they came on a visa issued in 2014, how they're lawful permanent residents. And then they go on to talk about other. people related to terrorists that we've captured. I'm unclear how that's relevant. That was April. So like, according to this article on CBS News in April, we were deporting them, which I would have been against. But at this point, Miriam, they want to be deported to not to Iran, but like they offered to self-deport to Turkey. But we've captured them and we're trapping them. So we can't do that. So I don't know if I was Mark Osborne of CBS News. who wrote about this on April 11th, about how we're deporting these legal American residents. I don't know. I might be interested in doing a follow-up story on September 9th. Like, why are they still in an internment camp? The State Department told them that we were deporting this person because they were a danger to the country. You would think that CBS News would have some follow-up questions. What is the danger? Why are taxpayers paying thousands of dollars a day to keep them in these kind of dusty hellscapes in Texas? When do they get access to due process? What is the rationale for this? Why are we punishing these people because of their bloodline? You would think that that would be something that would get more attention. And yet nothing, like there's nothing else. You just go through and like all summer, there's been nothing. She wrote in The Nation, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. So I don't know. I know we have some journalists to listen to the show and we have some Democratic politicians to listen to the show and others. And I would think that there would be other people that would care about the fact that like the United States government is. currently holding a teenage boy in a prison camp because his grandmother was bad. Speaker 5 (7:23) Because I don't know. I think a lot of us probably have some bad family members, including Marco Rubio, whose grandfather was an illegal immigrant and his brother-in-law was a cocaine dealer. So anyway, that's where we're at on this. I have a very slow boiling, simmering rage about like the lack of interest. I hate to be venting to all of you because all of you have been so good. And many of you wrote to your. Members of Congress, the last time I raised an issue, the pregnant Venezuelan woman that we had in the internment camp who was trying to self-deport, luckily, finally, after much hassling and much outrage, they've been allowed to go back to Venezuela. And so that's my honest good news. And so we know these people fold. We know they folded on Ozturk and on Sakat. But the Remesa Ostrich story, for good reason, was a major national news story. And I don't see how this is anything but even more outrageous than that, given the length of their detention. So that's where I'm at on that. Go read the story. You know, call your local member of Congress or send a letter to the editor, I guess. And we'll see if anybody in this country can be awakened to care about the fact that we're doing internment camps again. Up next, Jessica Tarlow of The Five. Speaker 5 (8:42) This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Here's a thought experiment for you. If you could wake up tomorrow and be better at one thing, what would that be? Today, maybe for me, it's keeping calm, you know, because I don't want to stroke out while my child is still in elementary school. So that's something that I'm working on. What would it be for you? I'm not talking about like learn Chinese. I'm talking about like self-improvement on the inside. What can you do to become the best you? One way to kind of start to explore that once you've decided on what it is, is through therapy and with our friends at BetterHelp. Better is a feeling defined by you. And for BetterHelp, it's a BetterHelp therapist who really gets you to focus on global emotional well-being with thousands of therapists and millions of members in over 100 countries. It's about progress. So I'm trying to make progress. Have I made any progress today on being calm and avoiding a middle-aged stroke? I don't know that I have yet. But luckily, I'm doing a little therapy. And we're making some good progress. And that's life improvement. That's what it's all about. It's like home improvement, the Tim Allen Show, but for your life. Sign up and get 10 % off at BetterHelp.com slash TheBullwork. That's BetterHelp.com slash TheBullwork. Speaker 5 (10:13) Hello and welcome to the Bullwark Daily. I'm your host, Tim Miller. Could not be more excited to welcome back to the show, co-host of Fox News The Five and the Raging Moderates podcast, whose branding I've long been jealous of. Author of a new book coming out this week, I Disagree, Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends. Another thing I could really use some work on. Jessica Tarlop. I'm here for you. Speaker 3 (10:37) I am great. I feel like it's a little bit of the calm before the big book storm. Sarah is in the midst of it on the high seas, and I am watching with bated breath for how intense it is. But she's nailing it. Sarah's in the heat. Speaker 5 (10:55) She's nailing Speaker 3 (10:56) it. Speaker 5 (10:56) It's Speaker 3 (10:56) so Speaker 5 (10:56) good. Go buy it. I've got it right here. How to Eat an Elephant. You know, I've got to support my guy. Speaker 3 (11:00) I know. I don't have my copy here, but I do have my copy. I'm going to take a picture eating it or something to make it. feel fun for social. I disagree with that Speaker 5 (11:09) next week. And just like I said about Jemelson yesterday, listeners can purchase I Disagree and not feel any betrayal of Sarah because it's out next week. So you guys aren't competitors on the charts, you know? It's only Sarah versus Ted Cruz. We're Speaker 3 (11:23) friends. And then Speaker 5 (11:24) Jessica and Sarah are friends. Okay. Well, maybe I want to lose some friends. We'll get to that. We'll get to the book stuff at the end. Maybe it's okay to lose a friend or two. I get it. Speaker 3 (11:35) I just... I want you to feel equipped to talk to these people if you do want to keep them in your life or invite them back in. That's what I disagree is about. I'm not trying to force you to do anything. I just want you to be better when you get there. Speaker 5 (11:51) Yeah. All right. Well, we'll explore the ways to do that here in a second. We got to do the news first. Tonight, we're having a midterm. I'm editing myself. Some people are calling it the Trumpapalooza, which I like because it has lose right in the name. But they're trying to brand it as the midterm convention. It's not a convention, actually. This is an important distinction. A convention is an actual thing, you know, where you have delegates, you nominate people. It's a political process by which, you know, back in the old days before unfettered democracy, it's how we used to pick the candidates. Some of us in the pro-democracy movement have the contrarian view that there was some benefit to that. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. I can't possibly see how this is useful for him. But I don't know. You're kind of in the belly of the beast where I was watching Fox this morning. We'll get to that where they're going to try to spin it. There are going to be some people on the network that will try to spin it as a positive. What is even the possible positive outcome here? Steel man for me. What could work, if anything? Speaker 3 (12:52) You're like preview the five for me. What are you guys going to be talking about? Speaker 5 (12:57) What will Dana say? How will Dana argue that this is going to work? I don't think it's a Dana. This is Speaker 3 (13:02) not Speaker 5 (13:02) a Speaker 3 (13:02) Dana one. This is a Jesse one, I think, for how it's going to work. The Ayatollah is dead. Speaker 3 (13:10) That's always a good one. Now we only have Ayatollah Jr. Maybe he's gay. We hear about that a lot. That their military has been decimated. What was Speaker 5 (13:19) Biden's line? Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive. What would be alive in their spinning? Ayatollah is dead. I Speaker 3 (13:28) don't know. Speaker 5 (13:29) Trade war with Canada is alive. Very much alive. Speaker 3 (13:32) I wanted to figure out something with the Strait of Hormuz. Anyway, there will be some talk of the accomplishments. of Trump's second term and how the groundwork is being laid for an economic boom that will hit. I don't know, November 1st. So it comes just in time for you to go out and vote a couple of days later. I don't know. We're going to hear about how there is a lot to talk about and how dire it will be if Democrats take control. I think it is going to be much more about the negative messaging than it is going to be about the positive messaging. And Donald Trump has been leaning into this as he's been, you know, out on the campaign trail. He's going to. go to, what is it, like 35 swing districts he's taunting people with. And you see the various degrees of abject terror coming across the faces of these Republicans who think, I just stripped you off my website and now you're actually going to come to hang out with me. But I think it's going to be a lot of the greatest hits that are not resonating with people right now. And it is very telling that so many Republicans are opting. not to go, that obviously the tickets are not selling. I can't believe how much they wanted to charge members to come. Like that money would clearly be better spent actually campaigning. And I think if you went out and asked voters, even the biggest MAGA folks, like, should you spend tens of thousands of dollars on going to this or like be here for a town hall? They'd probably say, maybe you should be here for a town hall. So. I don't expect fireworks. I think it's going to be a very insular. Speaker 3 (15:20) convention. And for me, it's about Trump's ego. And then I think it's also about the one year anniversary of Charlie Kirk's assassination, which is tomorrow and which will be very, it's a very heavy thing. So I imagine because Vance is the headliner tomorrow night and Trump will do the closing remarks that that that'll be a big focal point. Speaker 5 (15:41) I try to be fair and balanced here. I will, I'll give Trump this one thing, listening to what you just said. I thought he was too old to kind of go out and do the campaign. He seemed pretty, like he kind of was walking with that hilt and he's dozing and falling asleep and maybe sharting in these meetings, depending on what you look at. And it just felt like, God, 35 states feels like a lot. It's hard to travel. And it's hard to travel in your 40s. It's hard to travel in your 80s. You know, it wears on you. But so he is doing that. But like the interesting thing is, it's funny, like the contrast, you said that like some of the frontline people won't be there. But Trump's message is the opposite. He put out a bleep that was like, we don't need people who are up 45 points as much as we love them. Like, we are trying to save the stage for the candidates who are in tight races. The candidates Speaker 4 (16:30) who are in tight races are like, no, Speaker 5 (16:32) no, opposite, opposite. But Speaker 3 (16:35) even this midterms, and I'm not sure how comfortable you are. forecasting or what you're thinking about in terms of how the night will end up going. But candidates who should be in safe position feel concerned. And there's widespread reporting about that. People winning by double digits that are saying, we are not equipped to handle this. We don't have enough money. Our voters are deeply upset and distrustful of our agenda. and how we've been governing. And I do think on the flip side, you know, the Democrats have some real badass candidates running in these districts. And I don't think that they expected for it to be quite that uphill of a battle to save some of these seats. I Speaker 5 (17:26) just, I saw this this morning. It's just one example. This was last week. I had, um, or Erica Applewhite, who is over at, uh, majority Democrats on the show. And she had highlighted a strict, that wasn't even on. On my radar, which is this Florida 22, Trump had won it, I think, double digits. This poll I'm looking at right now, the Trump recall vote was plus 10. Some people lie. So maybe it's a little bit more than that. There are some people that are looking around right now and they're like, no, I didn't do it. It wasn't me that voted for Trump. So I think that maybe the actual number is a little higher than 10. And Pia Dandia, that she was highlighting, she's this really strong kind of surprising challenger. She's up too. in that district that trump won by that and so you're seeing that in a lot of places and to me like that the only case for this you know midterm rally that they're having is can you try to generate some excitement even if you fuck even if it's a do it for charlie like to try to shore up these plus 10, 12, 14 places, you know, to try to get people that are in the Republican vote that like aren't really necessarily liable midterm voters to turn out. Like that's honestly the only thing I could think of that's even marginally useful. Speaker 3 (18:35) Yeah, I mean, the enthusiasm gap is enormous and it has been consistently through the Trump era. You know, Democrats have been overperforming if they're losing their seats even by. historic margins. And I kind of hate that comp, you know, when you're like, oh, you know, we got real close. Like, I just want to win. But, you know, some battles you can't win. Speaker 2 (18:57) But, Speaker 3 (18:57) you know, the timing of it, that it's 9-11 on Friday, that, like you said, if I do it for Charlie, there is a way to cast this as... Speaker 3 (19:10) These are people who don't love our country. Right. They're not patriots like we are. And I'm sure there will be a lot of fear mongering about Mom Donnie. There will be talk of the, you know, the 9-11 families who don't want him there at Ground Zero on Friday morning. He is going to go, which I do think is the right thing to do. We're Speaker