Tim Miller: DeSantis Whiffs on Disney

[0] Welcome to the Bold Work podcast.

[1] I'm Charlie Sykes.

[2] It is Thursday.

[3] It's not Friday.

[4] I don't want people to be confused because I'm joined by Tim Miller, who's usually with me on Friday.

[5] So happy Thursday, Tim.

[6] Yeah, it's good to be with you.

[7] I have to say, I wonder if, is this like a short man privilege thing that you're giving Adam Kinsinger the Friday slot or, you know, what is it?

[8] Oh, cheap shot.

[9] I don't know.

[10] I mean, you know, Kinziger's pretty good.

[11] I mean, he's not even in Congress anymore.

[12] I thought maybe he'd be more of a Thursday man. No, no, no. He's definitely the Friday slot this week.

[13] But, you know, I think that there was pent up demand.

[14] People want more Tim, particularly after Ruita Sharra.

[15] They won more Tim.

[16] They really do.

[17] So there was a lot of demand.

[18] So there's so much to talk about today.

[19] So can I just tell you my favorite story?

[20] Because it's so weird.

[21] I love that.

[22] Before we get into everything else, I mean, we're going to talk about guns.

[23] We're going to talk about Chris Christie.

[24] We're going to talk about the grand jury.

[25] We'll get to all that, I promise.

[26] I want to talk about the burrito, the DNA on the burrito.

[27] This is an amazing story.

[28] I thought it was going to be the in eight years we get to be immortal story.

[29] I don't even know the burrito story, so I'm ready for this.

[30] The immortality story was as a malignant narcissist like I am.

[31] The immortality story was the one that grabbed me. But go ahead with the burrito.

[32] Yeah, by the way, I do have mixed feelings about that.

[33] talk about that some other time.

[34] That might get us into some weird existential philosophical territory here.

[35] So I'm not quite ready this early in the morning.

[36] So I want to talk about the half -eaten burrito.

[37] Okay, so here's the headline.

[38] DNA pulled from half -eaten burrito used to charge man with firebombing anti -abortion office in Wisconsin.

[39] After nearly a year of searching, investigators used DNA pulled from a half -eaten burrito to capture a man they believe firebombed a prominent Wisconsin anti -abortion lobbying group's office.

[40] Okay, so the guy firebomb, nine -year -old guy, whose name I'm not going to try to pronounce, tries to firebomb this office in Madison.

[41] They've been looking for him.

[42] Apparently, they fish out this burrito from a trash can, and they're able to identify him.

[43] Is it Chipotle?

[44] I don't know.

[45] It doesn't say.

[46] Taco Bell.

[47] I don't know how anyone gets away with anything anymore when you think about it.

[48] So, just, you know, they half -eaten burrito.

[49] I have to say, I would not have seen that coming.

[50] And how did they know?

[51] So they had a somebody had an eye.

[52] on him and all we know is that the burrito is to keep his evidence.

[53] It's the burrito.

[54] We don't have any more details.

[55] It's in like the beans.

[56] I'm waiting for the series.

[57] CSI burrito.

[58] Okay, just going in there.

[59] Well, I'm glad that we have some accountability in law and order for this.

[60] You shouldn't be firebombing offices no matter what your position is on abortion or any other issue.

[61] That is not part of a pluralistic society.

[62] So I'm glad he's found.

[63] I will say this is it's pretty odd to me that I don't have you been watching the Gwyneth Paltrow case at all.

[64] Only tangentially.

[65] Okay.

[66] Now that's is a witch hunt.

[67] So here we are, though, this guy's getting nabbed over the half -eaten burrito, and yet Gwyneth is being forced to testify by some litigious asshole over, you know, her mid -mountain skiing encounter when she did nothing.

[68] I mean, poor Gwyneth, you know, did nothing right.

[69] I think she's going to be vindicated.

[70] The gentleman's lawyer seems pretty bad.

[71] It seems kind of like when I was interviewing Adam Brody, is when he's, and is when this lawyer is cross -examining Gwyneth.

[72] She's like, I love you.

[73] I love your work.

[74] But I thought that was weird.

[75] You're so tall.

[76] Yeah, but it is a witch hunt against Gwyneth.

[77] Gwyneth is innocent.

[78] So I hope the other guy had like a mid -mountain chili that we can dig up to prove his guilt.

[79] Let me confess, I just don't have enough bandwidth to deal with the witch hunt against Gwyneth.

[80] But now that you mention it, I mean, you're talking about pretty much a B -List terrorist if you're about to firebomb somebody and you have a burrito first.

[81] But you're so anxious to firebomb the place that you can't finish the burrito.

[82] You know, this is never in the movies.

[83] You know, you need the energy, you know.

[84] I don't know.

[85] You kind of, the sustenance.

[86] It's never occurred to me to try to fire bomb something.

[87] No, no, no, no. It seems like a mentally unstable person.

[88] But I got to thinking about burritos already.

[89] I know this.

[90] Hey, can I mention what's about to happen to you?

[91] Sure.

[92] Yeah, let's do it.

[93] The moment we wrap up this podcast, your doorbell is going to ring and there will be movers.

[94] You are moving from the left coast.

[95] This is a big thing.

[96] I mean, you're moving across the whole freaking country.

[97] Yeah.

[98] I know.

[99] I'm leaving Blue America.

[100] I know.

[101] My California dream is over.

[102] You know, the little California magic I've been experiencing the last half decade.

[103] California's been nice to me. You know, there's some things to really love about it.

[104] It gets a bad rap.

[105] The Little Bay Area in the news, there's some issues, you know, that need to be told.

[106] The homelessness issue is real.

[107] The lack of housing is real, cost of living.

[108] But, man, it's so lovely out here.

[109] But no, we're making the move to New Orleans.

[110] We've been teasing it for a while.

[111] And it's happening.

[112] We've purchased a home.

[113] We've got a lot of close friends and there with kids that are my kids' age and it's closer to D .C. at New York.

[114] Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to do this whole media.

[115] I mean, you kind of are in your bunker in Wisconsin, which is nice.

[116] But even then, you know, you can pop into D .C. if you need to.

[117] Post -COVID, people keep being like, hey, Tim, when you come to D .C. for this, we come to New York for that.

[118] And I don't want to live in D .C. or New York.

[119] But it'd be nice to be able to just fly there, you know, and not have it be a red eye, or spend my entire life on planes when I've got a little baby, a little girl at home, not a baby anymore, a little girl at home that I want to get back to.

[120] So we're moving to New Orleans.

[121] It's happening.

[122] A lot of people are going to come through and visit, I think.

[123] It's the best city in America, in my opinion.

[124] And so I'm thrilled to move there.

[125] You get to do Mardi Gras.

[126] Marty Gras.

[127] I'm a little worried.

[128] I mean, if people feel like my content product is going down in 10 or 20%, I am a little bit worried about the alcohol consumption that will be surrounding me in New Orleans and that that might that might be going into my gullet hurricanes you know the hurricanes yeah sure but uh but you know we can we have fires here I don't know you have snow I'm not should snow fire and hurricanes are really in the same category you don't think so not here in the fires I'd hear from pretty bad so yeah the hurricanes are on the negative side of the ledger no doubt about that no I meant the snow is not as bad as you know fire and fire or pest hurricanes, snow.

[129] But I mean, this is why you're so grumpy, though.

[130] I mean, you just have, and the hurricane season is like three weeks.

[131] You've got, you've got months upon months of just dreariness, you know, and you get vitamin D deficient, you know.

[132] That's true.

[133] And so sometimes if you're a little prickly on the podcast in the morning, people are that texted me, they're like, why is Charlie a little prickly today?

[134] And I'm like, well, it's just he hasn't seen the sun.

[135] He hasn't seen the sun in five months.

[136] Hey, do you know, though, that I was born in Seattle, speaking of not seeing the sun?

[137] I didn't know.

[138] I always think of, you know, Wisconsin as being kind of, you know, the sun capital of the world, having grown up a little bit in Seattle where, where what?

[139] I mean, there's a reason why they hang out in coffee shops all the time, right?

[140] Because they're just too depressed.

[141] I mean, they need the caffeine just to get through the day.

[142] So, I mean, I mean, there's got to be that mixture of excitement and sort of, I mean, you know, picking up your whole life, packing it in boxes and moving away from from your home.

[143] That's a stressful thing.

[144] But then looking forward to a completely new life, that's got to be kind of exciting.

[145] It is.

[146] It's been emotional.

[147] Is it kind of like a cycle of emotions?

[148] I mean, you must go through all of that.

[149] I mean, when you, later today, all of your stuff is going to be in a truck, and you're going to be standing there in your house, and it's going to be empty.

[150] And you've got to feel a little twinge there.

[151] Yeah.

[152] I mean, I feel a twinge for you.

[153] Oh, thank you.

[154] I do feel a twinge.

[155] You know, there's some people, especially humans that were leaving here in California that makes me sad to leave.

[156] I was getting emotionally wound a little taint about two weeks ago.

[157] I hadn't actually gone to see the house.

[158] My husband would go in a house hunting, and he was like, just fly down there for the day.

[159] And so I did that about, I don't know, like a week and a half ago.

[160] I flew down to see the house, walk around the neighborhood, and it was really booing.

[161] You know, I was like, oh, right, I love this city.

[162] You know, the cost of living is less.

[163] We're going to have more space, you know, for podcasting and for child play and for adult play.

[164] That's cool.

[165] And I walk into the coffee shop in my neighborhood, did I tell you this?

[166] And the guy walks in behind me, he's like, hey, I'm a big Borg podcast fan.

[167] Oh, man. Tell Charlie, I bought my lady friend those.

[168] never trump sheets.

[169] So, you know, we have a sheet purchaser, you know, saw some of my buddies that live down there.

[170] And it was spiritually uplifting.

[171] And I've just made me feel like excited to be there.

[172] And we land there and it's like jazz fest in a week.

[173] So I do have mixed emotions.

[174] You know, and this is like the house that my kid grew up in.

[175] But, you know, she's only five.

[176] We moved a lot as kids, so I don't have quite this.

[177] Some people get wrapped up in the nostalgia of a home.

[178] That's a little bit less of the case for me. I don't know.

[179] I have good moves as a kid.

[180] We moved from St. Louis to Denver, and it was awesome, and I loved that.

[181] I was so happy about that move.

[182] And so I don't know.

[183] Maybe I don't have the same kind of twinge as someone that I grew up in the same house and has little notches in the wall.

[184] And it's like, that's how big I was when I was seven when I was 11.

[185] I get that.

[186] I understand that.

[187] But I don't quite have that same instinct as I see in others.

[188] I think it was about five when we moved from Seattle to New York.

[189] We had to cross the entire country.

[190] So do you even remember Seattle?

[191] I've been thinking about that.

[192] Like, was she even remember Oakland?

[193] Actually, I grew up in Edmonds, and you're right on Puget Sound.

[194] I do kind of have memories of the incredibly long road trip with animals in the back of the car who occasionally got sick and everything.

[195] But not turtle being nostalgic because I was young.

[196] It was much more traumatic when we moved from New York to Wisconsin when I was in about third grade, because that was like, what do you mean, Wisconsin?

[197] I mean, are there wolves there?

[198] What was the impetus for that move from New York to Wisconsin?

[199] My dad got a job at the old Milwaukee Sentinel.

[200] In fact, the Milwaukee Sentinel had just been purchased by the Milwaukee Journal and he was writing for a newspaper out on Staten Island and he got hired to be a reporter slash editorial writer at the newspaper.

[201] So we moved for the job and had been here ever since.

[202] So speaking of Wisconsin in Wisconsin politics, there's an analysis out today that spending on Wisconsin's high -stakes Supreme Court election, this is one justice, that the spending has now reached.

[203] Is ready for the this $45 million for judicial seat in Wisconsin.

[204] And, of course, you know, the stakes are so high because it's sort of like everything's on the table.

[205] We've talked about this before.

[206] It's not overhyped.

[207] I mean, whether you're talking about the election, voting rights, abortion, anything, it's going to be decided by this one election.

[208] And it's become really contentious, really, acrimonious, really, really ugly.

[209] But to give you a sense of how over the top it is, Wisconsin's Republicans are already considering a nuclear option if they lose this election, which would really, you know, challenge their hold on power.

[210] There's a Republican state Senate candidate in this special election, which happens to be in the district I live in, who's saying that if he wins, if his Republican wins, it will give Republicans in the state Senate a two -thirds super majority.

[211] And now they're openly talking about launching impeachment proceedings against Janet Pertesawitz, who is the liberal candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

[212] they're talking about impeaching and removing her before the election is even held.

[213] And you know what?

[214] I think it's completely plausible.

[215] It is completely plausible.

[216] These guys, if you know, these guys might actually pull that.

[217] So, boy, it's ugly, the most expensive elections, and they might pull that shit, yes.

[218] I know you've written about this.

[219] It's like my two reactions are one.

[220] It just, it feels like we have a broken system that a judicial race.

[221] has this level of stakes.

[222] You know, this is not the way that our, you know, balance of power supposed to break out here.

[223] We should have the legislature and the executive should be maybe a little bit more responsible rather than us having to, you know, completely politicize the third branch.

[224] But anyway, my other thought is, I thought about this, you know, with some of the responses to the shooting, too.

[225] I think that there are a lot of people that are out that don't punish themselves with the goings -on of, you know, the median Republican.

[226] elected official that I don't really appreciate just how insane that person has gotten over the past 10 years.

[227] Like, we know the big names.

[228] You know, you know that the Marjorie Taylor Greens are out there and that the party, you know, the Trump won over Romney and that the party's changed a little bit.

[229] Like Joe Republican state senator right now is like a total lunatic.

[230] And we've never been sending our best to the state legislature for anybody who knows who follows state legislative politics closely or spends time meeting state legislators.

[231] But man, you know, I just like the radicalization and, you know, how wrapped up they are in in crazy conservative media, you know, nonsense.

[232] I don't know.

[233] I feel like there's some negative long tail effects of the Trump era that in the form of like these random state senators who are like, I'm going straight to impeach, you know, anyway.

[234] Well, then they'll be around for 30 years.

[235] Okay, so I'm going to get a lot of pushback on this because I do have friends in the legislature still.

[236] And what they will say is, is, look, Charlie, you know, 60 percent, you know, two -thirds of the Republican legislature are normies.

[237] They're not the crazies.

[238] The problem is, though, that they continue to empower and enable the crazy.

[239] So the question is, would they stand up?

[240] I'm just trying to imagine this scenario.

[241] So Judge Janet gets elected and she, you know, rules to throw out the 1849 abortion law.

[242] She throws out the legislative redistricting map.

[243] She's part of a majority that says that that Act 10 was unconstitutional.

[244] It, you know, changes voting rights, laws, etc. All of those things.

[245] And then the grassroots demands, you have to do something about this.

[246] This is terrible.

[247] The radical left is taken over the court.

[248] They've taken over the state.

[249] What are you going to do about it?

[250] Will they be able and willing to stand up and say, we are not going to misuse the impeachment power of the state legislature?

[251] And I don't know what the answer to that is.

[252] Okay.

[253] Just a really quick one sentence on the Colorado thing, because I did this deep time a couple of weeks ago, folks hadn't had a chance to read it on what happened the Colorado Republican Party.

[254] What you're describing is just like it happened to Colorado on steroids, right?

[255] Because Democrats ended up winning a lot of seats so that, you know, group of people in the legislature got smaller, right?

[256] Wisconsin has more Republicans in the legislature still.

[257] But, you know, it was basically, you know, 80 % Normies and 20 % you know, Tea Party wackos for a while.

[258] But even, you know, I told the story of the normie speaker at the time, a guy named Frank McNulty that I knew who like opposed this very popular civil union's bill to shut up the 20 % of the base, right?

[259] Then, you know, all the suburban voters in Colorado are like, wait a minute, you're against civil unions.

[260] This is a crazy.

[261] They threw out the normies.

[262] And so then it ends up flipping, right?

[263] And you end up in this situation where it's like, oh, okay, well, now it used to be 80, but it's 60, and now it's 55.

[264] And, you know, this is where you're friends in the legislature, you can just give them a little picture of their future.

[265] It's in Colorado.

[266] Then they're 45%, then they're 40, then they're 30%.

[267] And it's like, oh, wait, I'm the only Normie left.

[268] Now we've totally flipped.

[269] And that is the trajectory, you know, and some of the normies are leaving.

[270] Okay, so I want to get to the gun issue.

[271] I want to get to Disney.

[272] But the latest Fox News story out of the Dominion lawsuit, I just have to mention this.

[273] I continue to be absolutely gobsmacked and all the stuff they put in writing.

[274] It's just one of those things.

[275] So here's the latest.

[276] And you can tell why Fox had wanted to redact this in the past.

[277] The Fox News CEO said the correspondence fact check of Trump's election lies was bad for business.

[278] I mean, she just wrote this out.

[279] This is Suzanne Scott.

[280] I mean, it's not subtle.

[281] So subject line is Fox News, Eric Sean fact checks Trump dump claims.

[282] This has to stop.

[283] I'm going to address this with you and Jay and Lowell tomorrow.

[284] This is bad business.

[285] And there's clearly a lack of understanding what is happening in these shows.

[286] The audience is furious and we are just feeding the material, bad for business.

[287] Okay.

[288] Not a lot of subtlety.

[289] I mean, it's right there.

[290] You cannot even subtly fact -checking.

[291] Bad for this.

[292] Stop doing fact -checking.

[293] So it is hard to win a libel suit in America, and I think that's a good thing.

[294] What you have to prove is actual malice or reckless disregard of the truth.

[295] So here you have in freaking writing, the CEO of Fox News, saying we have to stop this fact -checking, this pointing out that these things are lies because it is bad for business.

[296] So you have the smoking gun.

[297] You have the motive.

[298] If you have the opportunity, it's just like, but they wrote this out.

[299] Was there any gene in their heads to go, you know, as they're typing this, going, maybe I should make a phone call.

[300] Maybe I shouldn't actually write this.

[301] Yeah, or I don't know.

[302] Maybe we shouldn't put fact check pad for business right next to each other in two sentences.

[303] Maybe I could use a little bit more roundabout language to make that point.

[304] And it's the second one.

[305] And this is the second one.

[306] And this is the CEO.

[307] The other one was the host, but it was Jackie Heinrich.

[308] That, to me, was the most alarming thing about all of the first batch.

[309] of texts, right?

[310] Was Tucker and Hannity, you know, and did get fired Jackie Heinrich for, in that case, it wasn't even on Fox.

[311] It was a tweet.

[312] She tweeted a fact check.

[313] So this is the second fact check that they'd go after, you know, the correspondent over it.

[314] The legal side of this is the one thing.

[315] I just, I have to admit, I don't understand.

[316] I can't wrap my head around why they didn't figure out a way to settle this.

[317] I guess maybe the number was just too big.

[318] Maybe the I haven't got a good answer.

[319] I've asked several lawyers about this.

[320] I haven't got a good answer.

[321] Some lawyers say that they're definitely going to lose.

[322] Some lawyers say, oh, because of the high libel standard here, Fox might still prevail, even though it seems really, really bad.

[323] I've had a couple of lawyers tell me that.

[324] So I don't understand the truth, but this has just been so damaging.

[325] Well, just imagine the trial.

[326] Yeah, so damn.

[327] But maybe they just have decided they don't care.

[328] I guess maybe they just don't care.

[329] Maybe they're just in like they're fucked you rich at this point, you know, that phrase.

[330] like we're just fuck you rich people are going to watch us no matter what we don't care we're not going to pay you a penny or maybe rupert's an old 92 year old man and he's too stubborn and doesn't someone has to explain that to me because this has just been can you think of any other example of a business that has like just totally had the mask ripped off and revealed in such a plain way as has happened to fox it's such a cartoonish way yeah it's a if you and i sat down we had like a boiler room we came let's february The worst possible, the most egregious type of emails, we'd have so -and -so saying this, like, well, this is a terrible lie, and, you know, why are we doing this?

[331] Well, we're doing this because it's good for business.

[332] I mean, and yet it's all there.

[333] Here's my, and I'm going to be proved wrong very, very quickly, if I'm wrong, that generally, you know, you have kind of a game of legal chicken here.

[334] And, you know, Fox's lawyers are, you know, trying to, you know, test all the doorknobs, which ones are, you know, have been left unlocked and everything.

[335] What can they get away with?

[336] What can they do?

[337] What can they suppress?

[338] And then once that, you know, all of those motions have been taken care of, that's the go -no -go moment where they have to decide, do we want to go to a full -blown trial where America is going to be riveted by Rupert Murdoch on the stand being eviscerated by the lawyers here, or are we going to settle?

[339] And I think that they probably have held off on that specific decision until they know exactly what the trial is going to be, what is going to be allowed to be admitted in evidence, who is going to be required to testify.

[340] It's hard for me to imagine that they want to put themselves through that.

[341] Because whatever reputational damage has occurred so far, it's nothing compared to day after day of having these guys on the stand.

[342] Imagine Tucker Carlson on the stand.

[343] Imagine, you know, Sean Hannity on the stand.

[344] Imagine Lou Dobbs on the stand or Maria Bartaromo.

[345] And then you have this other producer.

[346] Is it Abby Grossman?

[347] Who is blowing the whistle on this.

[348] And I mean, this is just like, this is ugly with fur on it.

[349] I guess maybe Maria would be the one person you wouldn't want to get on the stand because I just I don't know how you can prove actual malice with her because she seems to have gone so cuckoo for cocoa puffs that she like I don't know if I'm a jury or I'm looking at this and I'm like this insane lady actually believes this I mean she thinks that hamburgers eat people I don't like I can't believe that this was intentional malice judge Janine sitting there with her box of wine I mean oh that'll be like you can't handle the truth it would be like that hey folks this is Charlie Sykes host of the Bullwork podcast we created the bulwark to provide a platform for pro -democracy voices on the center right and the center left for people who are tired of tribalism and who value truth and vigorous yet civil debate about politics and a lot more.

[350] And every day, we remind you, folks, you are not the crazy ones.

[351] So why not head over to theboolwork .com and take a look around.

[352] Every day, we produce newsletters and podcasts that will help you make sense of our politics and keep your sanity intact.

[353] to get a daily dose of sanity in your inbox, why not try a bulwark plus membership free for the next 30 days?

[354] To claim this offer, go to thebullwork .com slash Charlie.

[355] That's thebullwork .com forward slash Charlie.

[356] I'm going to get through this together, I promise.

[357] Okay, so let's engage in some rank speculation.

[358] Love that.

[359] Love to do that.

[360] That's why I described in my newsletter this morning.

[361] Bottom lines, we really don't know anything about what's going on in Manhattan.

[362] so I want to just do that caveat.

[363] The latest story is the Manhattan Trump grand jury is set to break for a month.

[364] I mean, we have been in the indictment holding pattern now for a couple of weeks now, and now it turns out that the grand jury examining the alleged role in the hush money payments to a porn star is not expected to hear evidence in the case for the next month, which means that there won't be any indictment until late April at the very earliest, maybe May. And, of course, they're saying, well, these Politico is reporting that this hiatus is largely due to a previously scheduled hiatus, which I just think that's, okay, that's bullshit, right?

[365] I mean, that's kind of eyewash.

[366] That's pretty flimsy.

[367] So you want to speculate what's going on here?

[368] I mean, it was like, it's imminent, it's going to be Tuesday.

[369] It's going to be Tuesday.

[370] It's probably going to be Wednesday.

[371] Nah, maybe not next month of the month after that.

[372] What do you think's going on?

[373] I don't want to speculate.

[374] I'll let you speculate.

[375] I do have a lot of thoughts, so it is reminiscent of one in Pennsylvania, there was that county after the 2016 election.

[376] And they're like, we're taking the weekend off.

[377] What?

[378] And it was from counting.

[379] And it was like, we need a president, okay?

[380] Like, I know it's government work, but you got to finish counting before you take a vacation.

[381] Like a month long spring break here.

[382] It continues to reveal the reality of this, you know, of the supposed elite cabal, you know, deep state going after Donald Trump.

[383] If you sort of were to live and put yourself in the worldview of the, you know, put upon the MAGA voter who thinks that the judicial system's coming for them.

[384] Once again, kind of proves to be, if there is only cabal, it's a pretty toothless, it's a toothless cabal.

[385] So you're thinking that, that juror eight, Karen has, has reservations at Disney World.

[386] We're not doing Karen anymore.

[387] We've had too many complaints.

[388] We're doing Todd now.

[389] Okay, Todd's.

[390] Okay.

[391] So you have juror Todd, married to Karen.

[392] And they have reservations down at Epcot and they're, by God, they're going to go.

[393] Yeah.

[394] So they're only going to do the grand jury if they could have their month -long spring break.

[395] Yeah, I don't know.

[396] I have a completely different take than you on this.

[397] Okay, please.

[398] Okay, okay.

[399] Worst case scenario is, of course, the Trump's campaign of intimidation is taking this toll and Alvin Bragg is getting the willies.

[400] Okay, and I don't think that's what happening, but that's the worst case.

[401] Okay, I can't.

[402] Okay.

[403] Better case scenario?

[404] Okay, now here we get to the deep state cabal thing, all right?

[405] that better case scenario is, and this is rank speculation, just want to put the asterisk there.

[406] Everything's still on track.

[407] They're going to indict Trump, but Elvin Bragg has listened to the critics who have been saying that it's not a good thing for the Porn Star case to go first.

[408] Even people in the never -trump world are going, it's unfortunate that that case because that's the most minor case, that's the weakest case.

[409] It allows Trump to, you know, frame it in such a way that they're going after me for trivial things.

[410] So what's actually going on is he's, he's, he's.

[411] He's locked and loaded, but he's stepping back, because of the timing, to let Georgia and the Department of Justice prosecutors give them a chance to go first.

[412] Okay, by delaying it, there's a real chance that there may be other indictments that come first and that he'll be, you know, number two, number three, number four, who knows?

[413] I mean, look, we don't really know anything.

[414] But I think that's not completely implausible that he's decided that, okay, I'm going to do this, but do I really want to be hanging out there?

[415] Do I really want to go first?

[416] Is that really in my interest?

[417] Is that really smart?

[418] And, you know, he can do whatever the hell he wants.

[419] That's based on Jack or Fonnie or getting some intel from Jack or Fonnie.

[420] I just don't really see that, like then wanting to show any cards to him.

[421] Or he's just hoping.

[422] He's just like, let's take a month off and hope that someone else.

[423] Looking at the calendar.

[424] Okay, so if I go now, I'm definitely first.

[425] If I wait until May, I don't have any, you know, inside information, but there's a chance that I won't be the first guy.

[426] Now, of course, best case scenario is that he's come up with new evidence, new material, and that he's expanding the indictment to include some of Trump's more recent threats and everything.

[427] As I wrote in a footnote in my newsletter today, you put things in footnotes that you don't really want to emphasize it.

[428] I would not count on this at all.

[429] I don't think that's what's going on.

[430] I'm just thinking that he's going, all right, this is my invitation to you guys.

[431] You know, I'm getting all this bitching and moaning about me going first with this weaker case.

[432] All right, fine.

[433] I'm going to go with the case, but let me give you a little bit of an opening unless you guys are, you know, have reservations down in Disney World too.

[434] I don't know.

[435] I hope that's right.

[436] It would explain the other thing, the frustrating part about this to me from as a, you know, as a former PR man, what has been puzzling me. that I've been thinking about is just why if they knew that they were not finished with the grand jury work and they knew that there was this planned month -long vacation coming, like why he didn't shut this all down?

[437] You know, over the last week, right?

[438] Like, you could, it would be not that hard for Alvin, you know, to be a person close to the investigation, to call up Maggie Haberman and just say, hey, can we throw some ice water on this?

[439] You know, and say like, this is not coming.

[440] imminently.

[441] And it wouldn't have been hard to do that, right?

[442] Like, I know that they say, oh, we don't discuss open cases, but these kind of things happen all the time, right, where something's getting out of hand in the news, and you just got to tamp it down, source close to.

[443] And the fact that he didn't do that, I mean, I had kind of settled on just incompetence, you know, when in doubt, incompetence, but maybe it is just a reconsideration.

[444] Maybe, maybe.

[445] I'm going with my rank speculation.

[446] I'm, I like it.

[447] We'll see.

[448] I'm rooting for it, Charlie.

[449] I'm happy.

[450] We're moving, we're moving south, the sun's going to shine.

[451] You know, I'm like, I'm staying optimistic today.

[452] So, since we mentioned Todd and Karen going down to Disney, let's talk about this late Disney thing with Florida.

[453] Reed Wilson.

[454] Nice transition.

[455] You're an old radio pro.

[456] That was smooth.

[457] How about that?

[458] And after the break, the mouse comes for Ron.

[459] That's right.

[460] But Ron needs to call his office because the day before Floral lawmakers voted to create a new board overseeing Disney, the Disney -aligned Old Board, passed an agreement basically neutering the new one to be in effect I like this, until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of King Charles III.

[461] I like the whimsy of that.

[462] I do too.

[463] I love it.

[464] Points for style.

[465] So is Rhonda Sandus really committed to taking over and punishing Isn't it?

[466] Or is that just sort of, you know, he's waving his hand.

[467] This is the kind of bully that I can be.

[468] I can fight my enemies.

[469] This is how tough I am.

[470] And he's satisfied with all of this.

[471] So how is this going to play out?

[472] Yeah.

[473] I think that there's a lot going on.

[474] Peter Shores, who is a friend and a, I think, a listener.

[475] So we'll see if he listens to this.

[476] But he's a Florida politics reporter, a long -time Florida politics reporter.

[477] And it says that there's some internal personnel.

[478] You always have to, you know, consider that in these sort of local politics, political, you know, slap fights, that sometimes there's some personal happening, you know, and DeSantis has some people on his team that were actually, you know, trying to specifically target Disney over whatever, past flights.

[479] So I think that there's an element of that.

[480] I think there's an element of DeSantis, you know, feeling like this was a way for him to look tough, you know, Tiny D, wanted to puff up his chest, you know, go after, you know, the mouse, Disney has this reputation as, and, you know, he could say it's this woke business.

[481] And, and, and, you know, All these other Republicans and even Trump maybe have been, you know, talked to big game, but nobody's actually got anything done.

[482] And here I am.

[483] And I took him on and I got it done.

[484] I think that in his head, he like sees that narrative.

[485] I was a narrative he was pushing when I went to see him in the villages a couple of weeks ago.

[486] So I think that has taken on, you know, some mythic elements to him, I think, in his own mind.

[487] And he sort of sees this as the contrast, right?

[488] Like my contrast with Trump is, I'm effective.

[489] I get stuff done.

[490] And so that's why to me, like, there's a real threat here.

[491] You know, the particulars of who runs the Reedy Creek board, you know, I don't think are going to determine who wins the Republican primary.

[492] But this sense that DeSantis is an effective governor and Trump is this kind of whatever incompetent chaos magnet is a little bit undermined if the Stopwoke Act gets overturned by the courts, the don't say gay act gets overturned by the courts, the Disney thing, he gets out flanked by some board members.

[493] And it's like, all of his things don't actually turn into anything.

[494] And it's like, oh, you're just a bunch of, it's just hot air.

[495] Like, how are you different than Trump exactly?

[496] I want kind of the red meat steak instead of the, like, medium well stake over here.

[497] If you both are just going to be hot air, I want the hottest air, you know.

[498] So I don't know.

[499] I think that there's potential threat there.

[500] And somebody's going to bring that up.

[501] Yeah.

[502] Yeah.

[503] No, I mean, you could certainly, you know, imagine certain people bringing this up.

[504] So, speaking of Disney and the Mousketeers, the most famous Mousketeer, as listeners know, is...

[505] You have no idea how many people have tweeted me about fucking...

[506] I do.

[507] I do.

[508] Annette Furnichel.

[509] You have no idea how many people have tweeted me about her.

[510] The reason I'm mentioning this is clearly you're a bit of a snowflake on this because you tweeted out.

[511] Attention followers.

[512] Please stop tagging me in Annette Limoncello gifts.

[513] Thank you, management.

[514] I mean, I swear, over the last 48 hours, my mention seed is all gifts of this Mousketeer lady from 1937.

[515] I just, I'd really, please stop.

[516] I get it.

[517] I'm sorry.

[518] I didn't know she was.

[519] It's okay.

[520] Okay, just so people know that this is still a sore spot for Mr. Miller, that Annette Funicello, who was one of the people, I think, really responsible for launching Disney is the cultural icon that it is.

[521] So I'm just putting this in a little bit of.

[522] I mean, I would say Mickey and Pluto.

[523] Okay, yeah, Mickey, Pluto, Annette Funicello, probably in that order.

[524] That's the metal stand?

[525] Okay.

[526] All right.

[527] So, deep breath here.

[528] You wrote a very powerful piece about the school shooting earlier this week.

[529] I have made it clear for more than the last decade that there is no subject that I find more painful to talk about than this.

[530] I do think that the shooting up in Newtown kind of really did.

[531] I can just remember.

[532] It kind of broke me, but also the frustration and the disgust with the doom loop of talking points that takes place afterwards, and that hasn't changed.

[533] But I do want to talk about this because I keep looking at this and going, if this doesn't break us, what would?

[534] You and I both remember, you know, what happened to the country after 9 -11, you know, when we watched those planes go into the building and, you know, how shocked America was, we launched two wars as a result of this.

[535] And yet we have hundreds of children now.

[536] taken off my shoes at the airport.

[537] Well, exactly.

[538] You know, if this was Al -Qaeda, who was coming in and committing these crimes, this country would be on fire, and there would be no real question about whether or not Congress would take an action.

[539] If we had airplanes falling from the sky and killing this many children, we would have, you know, a national emergency.

[540] And there'd be no question about whether or not we would pass the regulations necessary.

[541] But we have people walking into schools and murdering babies.

[542] And you pointed this out on the next level podcast.

[543] And we have Republican congressman is basically saying, there's nothing we can do about that.

[544] We can't do anything about it.

[545] And you put this in the context of everything else that, you know, politicians are talking about how we need to protect the children.

[546] We need to protect the children against that book.

[547] We need to protect those children from the drag queen story hour.

[548] We must protect our children from having to read certain things about race.

[549] But when it comes to actually protecting the children from the things that are killing them, you know, there's nothing we can do.

[550] Okay.

[551] So John Stewart had this.

[552] just amazing exchange.

[553] And I know many people have seen it.

[554] This is with an Oklahoma state senator who apparently thought that he could handle John Stewart.

[555] He was completely wrong.

[556] Here's just about one minute near the end of one of their exchanges where they're talking about the priorities and what they're willing to do to protect children.

[557] Here's John Stewart with this.

[558] I don't even remember what his name is, this Republican State Senator from Oklahoma.

[559] Let's play this.

[560] You want to ban drag show readings to children.

[561] To minus, yes.

[562] Why?

[563] What are you protecting?

[564] Why can we prohibit children from voting, those under 18 from voting, but also that?

[565] Is that free speech?

[566] Are you infringing on that performer's free speech?

[567] They can continue to exercise their free speech, just not in front of a child.

[568] Why?

[569] Because the government does have a responsibility to protect...

[570] I'm sorry?

[571] The government does have a responsibility in certain...

[572] What's the leading cause of death amongst children in this country?

[573] And I'm going to give you a hint.

[574] It's not drag show readings to children.

[575] Correct, yes.

[576] So what is it?

[577] I'm presuming you're going to say it's firearms.

[578] No, I'm not going to say it like it's an opinion.

[579] That's what it is.

[580] It's firearms, more than cancer, more than car accidents.

[581] And what you're telling me is, you don't mind infringing free speech to protect children from this amorphous thing that you think of.

[582] But when it comes to children that have died, you don't give a flying fuck to stop that because that shall not be infringed.

[583] That is hypocrisy at its highest order.

[584] Oh, my God, Tim.

[585] That is just brutal.

[586] That is just brutal and brilliant at the same time.

[587] Think about how much of the culture war is just designed to protect children against these injuries and how we're willing to pass these laws and have these restrictions and step on the First Amendment, et cetera.

[588] And yet when it comes to this, can't do it.

[589] And this was, you know, my one friendly disagreement with Ruey and your discussion yesterday.

[590] It's just that I do think that what John Stewart just laid out is a winner for people that are on the pro -action -on -gun side of things.

[591] So for the people that aren't supportive of these so -called reforms in Florida and other places where they want to ban Antango makes three and, you know, not have, you know, make sure that libraries can't do drag queen story hour.

[592] I think it makes them look preposterous.

[593] I think that there is a big majority of the country that is on the John Stewart side of that debate and doesn't care about whether the government gets involved in Drag Queen Story Hour and does care about these extremely traumatic mass shootings.

[594] You know, and I think that the gun issue, we talk about it's like a half hour and next level.

[595] I could talk about this forever because I hear that people get frustrated and people don't want to talk about it and are already pressing the plus 30 on this conversation right now to get to the Chris Christie part.

[596] I get that.

[597] But I'm not going to start talking about it.

[598] You know, I was formed by this issue, I think, having lived a mile from Columbine when I was in high school.

[599] And it's the thing that I've changed my views the most on.

[600] I know a lot of people in my generation who have changed their views on this, you know, who have come around, people who are more conservative temperamentally or who are W voters, who are parents now, who are fucking sick of this, who are sick of their kids having to do active shooter drills, who are fed up.

[601] And I think that it's a winning issue now for Democrats.

[602] And I think that that what Republicans are doing is wrong on the merits.

[603] It's immoral.

[604] And it's also a political loser if the fight is fought.

[605] And if people are not willing to just say, oh, okay, well, I'm moving on from this one today.

[606] You know, you can always see this with Yuvaldi.

[607] Uvaldi's not really being talked about that much anymore.

[608] I know it's painful, but like it needs to be continued to talk about.

[609] The one other thing on this is I did see Liz Cheney weigh in on this yesterday.

[610] Who?

[611] Yeah, exactly.

[612] Kind of remember her.

[613] Yeah.

[614] Yeah, she was in Congress.

[615] Yeah.

[616] It's been a while.

[617] It has.

[618] Where's she been?

[619] I guess she's teaching.

[620] She's working on a book, I guess.

[621] I don't know.

[622] I'd like to see more from her, too.

[623] I thought it was interesting that she sent this suite, and here's why.

[624] Because it matches my prior opinion and what I think is correct and my experience, which is that, you know, when she was in Congress, she's this hard line, down the line, conservative, right?

[625] And she was not a moderate in any way.

[626] Her Ted Cruz's voting record was probably identical.

[627] And she now gets this freedom to kind of be true to herself because of what happened on January 6 and her brave stand on January 6th.

[628] She gets his freedom.

[629] And she votes with Biden on the gun reform bill, you know, which was a good first step.

[630] And she votes with the Democrats on that one of just 14 Republicans.

[631] And now she's speaking out on this on Twitter.

[632] It's not that Liz Cheney has become a liberal, right?

[633] It's not that Liz Cheney is now for government regulation and wants to raise taxes and, you know, wants to be an isolationist, right?

[634] She hasn't changed her view of all this stuff.

[635] She's just now, I think, free as a mom and another person who's lived through this to speak out about this because the fucking facts have changed.

[636] You know, like in 1999, it was maybe reasonable to be like, hey, maybe we should arm more teachers.

[637] And that's the answer.

[638] Maybe if the gym coach at Columbine had a gun, this wouldn't have been solved.

[639] That was crazy then in retrospect, but maybe you could understand it's reasonable.

[640] Now, 25 years later, it's not reasonable anymore.

[641] And I think that the fact that that is the issue that she is changing on and speaking out on, I think shows that there's a lot of people like that.

[642] if you just free them from the political, you know, manacles.

[643] I agree with everything you said in terms of how ridiculous Republicans look when they're put in this position.

[644] But having said that, okay?

[645] Okay.

[646] Now here's my deep breath.

[647] I don't give a shit whether it's a winner or not.

[648] This is a life or death issue.

[649] And whether it's a winner or not, essentially saying that we can't be a country that sacrifices our children in this particular way.

[650] And I have to say that I know you feel probably the same way.

[651] One of the reasons why I think this is so powerful, but also so, scary and difficult to talk about, is if you are a parent or a grandparent, you are absolutely terrified about this.

[652] You know, the worst nightmare you can imagine is to have one of your children go off to school and something like this happen.

[653] And I think that we're getting the sense that no place is immune.

[654] There's no place that you can go where this might not happen.

[655] And you can imagine, you know, sending your baby off to school and having this happen.

[656] I can imagine one of my three granddaughters going off to school.

[657] And if this happened, right now, this is a greater fear for than I think almost anything you can think about.

[658] Everything else is kind of abstract.

[659] This feels very urgent.

[660] And the callousness and the complete paralysis that we've seen since 2012 on all of this is highlighted every time it happens.

[661] You know, that congressman who said, well, there's nothing we can do about it.

[662] Basically what he's saying is, given the nature of politics, given the fact that if I want to not be primary and defeated in a Republican primary, I have to go along with all this.

[663] You know, I have to continue to sacrifice children on this altar.

[664] So this is not something that I've changed my mind on since Trump.

[665] I want to make this very clear.

[666] You know, 2012 was one of the moments that broke me, watching the NRA, watching the right decide that they are not going to change direction or acknowledge the horror of what happened up in Newtown.

[667] And I just, since then, I just cannot take those people seriously.

[668] I don't want to listen to them.

[669] And I think that many of them are just out of their fucking minds when they talk about this particular issue.

[670] If Newtown did not change.

[671] the dynamic of this issue, the nothing would.

[672] And I think we've seen that over and over and over and over again.

[673] Also, I want to make a point that JVL made on the next level podcast that I don't agree with it at all.

[674] But, you know, there are Second Amendment purists out there who take intellectual positions.

[675] But there's no defense whatsoever for the people who, you know, post these dickpicks of themselves and their families holding these weapons of mass destruction of mass murder.

[676] The people who sent out the Christmas cards where they're holding the AR -15 and their daughters are, you know, holding some, you know, weapon of mass destruction like that.

[677] I mean, that's just freaking obscene, turning it into a fetish.

[678] Even in a society where we can't legislate this, you would think that there would be a modicum of decency in an environment where children are being blown apart by these fucking things, that you don't wear it as a lapel pin, that you don't make a joke out of it, that you don't pose in hot pants with it.

[679] Is that really too much to ask?

[680] Well, apparently it is for these motherfuckers.

[681] There's the explicit rating.

[682] Yeah, okay.

[683] Well, that's good.

[684] I'm with you.

[685] And the 2012 thing, just really quick, I mean, this got cut from my book because it was just kind of not really relevant and it was all gratuitous.

[686] After Newtown, so I'm at the RNC during Newtown.

[687] And I was walking around, and at the time, my boss is Sean Spicer.

[688] And I'm in his office.

[689] I'm saying to him, like, we can't just come out for, like, magazine limits, right?

[690] I'm not saying we should go do confiscation, right?

[691] But it's like we can't come up with something, you know, so that at least if some deranged lunatic walks into the school, they have to like pull the trigger, you know, like they have to reload their fucking weapon after they fire it off, you know, a few times.

[692] And he was like, no, no, we can't.

[693] And it was a very dispiriting day for me. It probably should have been more enough of a dispiriting day to like wake me up.

[694] It shouldn't have taken four years later to wake me up.

[695] But I can't even get myself into that mindset, right, that we can't do anything about this.

[696] Because it's for the dead kids that have been blown apart, which you had the, had just amazing newsletter about about just what happens their bodies.

[697] That's part of it.

[698] But this trauma goes, it's the whole generation.

[699] It's that kid in Michigan, in college, who's been in two school shootings now.

[700] Remember that?

[701] There have been so many.

[702] I can't even remember what the high school was.

[703] It was like He went to high school in Ohio and went to college in Michigan and was at a school shooting both times.

[704] Like, what does that do to you?

[705] We were watching the video listening to these haunting sirens, being the parent waiting for, oh, wait, is it my kid?

[706] You know, so there are all these communities.

[707] The impact of it expands a lot farther than even then, yeah.

[708] On the politics of this, I mean, I want to stress that I just think this is just a fundamentally moral cultural issue that we have here.

[709] But just on the politics of this, I think the vast majority of gun owners don't disagree.

[710] agree with us.

[711] You know, the NRA, you know, portrays itself as speaking for them.

[712] But I remember when I was, you know, conservative talk show host, and I would open up the phone line and ask people, what do you think about, you know, people who, you know, bring AR -15s open carry, you know, into a farmer's market up in Appleton?

[713] The vast majority of people said that's crazy.

[714] And I ask people, what do you think of these proposals to allow people to carry concealed weapons without a background check, without permits, without any sort of training whatsoever?

[715] And it was the gun owners who are the ones to call up to say, we think that's crazy.

[716] And you ask people, what do you think about expanding background checks?

[717] A lot of these things.

[718] And it's 80 percent of people going, yes, absolutely.

[719] And yet this is one of those issues where Republicans are completely held hostage by the most extreme, most reckless players on their team.

[720] Okay.

[721] You want to talk about Chris Christie?

[722] I know you got the movers coming any minute now.

[723] Chris Christie.

[724] Yeah, I think we've had a healthy debate over Chris Christie.

[725] I am just going to drop a couple more F -bombs here if we keep on it.

[726] Yeah, fuck it.

[727] Yeah, let's do it.

[728] I have some F -bombs for Chris Christie.

[729] Okay, so in my newsletter today, and I do have a language warning on this, I do, you know, replay some of, you know, what my imaginary conversation with Chris Christie would be because I don't...

[730] I think he should do the podcast, by the way.

[731] I'm for it.

[732] I think you were joking at the end of the newsletter, but I don't know if you were joking or serious, but I think I'm for it.

[733] If he's such a tough guy, if he's so strong...

[734] wrong and he's such a good debater.

[735] What's he afraid of?

[736] That's my thing.

[737] He should be talking to outlets like this, like ours, never Trump outlets.

[738] I have mixed feelings about him as I laid up because I can remember, you know, when he decided that he was going to be the shine box and he's standing behind Donald Trump, the role he played in legitimizing Donald Trump, you know, cannot be minimized.

[739] And so I would have some strong words for him about that.

[740] But then the question is, all right, is it possible that he could be the guy on that debate stage who is punching Donald Trump in the face?

[741] It's not going to be Ronda Sanders.

[742] It's not going to be Nikki Haley.

[743] If you want somebody to take the fight to Donald Trump, as Nick Cotagio wrote, Chris Christie is probably the only game in town right now.

[744] So despite all of the things we'd like to say to him, you know, is it better or worse that Chris Christie is up there willing to punch Donald Trump in the face?

[745] rhetorically speaking, peacefully, of course.

[746] Oh, no, I wouldn't mind of hitting him.

[747] Nick Katagio's article, and I love Allah, is like porn.

[748] I mean, honestly, it's fantasy porn.

[749] And, you know, every once in a while, somebody's porn fantasy comes to life.

[750] And they just get that lucky day for them, and I'm supportive of that.

[751] And maybe that'll be for us.

[752] Maybe it'll happen.

[753] I just, to me, Chris Christie is Cartman from South Park.

[754] He talks a big game when he's made.

[755] fucking fun of the, you know, weak little, you know, kid with the blanket.

[756] But, like, when he actually has to stand up to somebody, he runs away.

[757] But it's all affront.

[758] Well, we'll see.

[759] And he can yell at a teacher.

[760] He can yell at some, like, local News at Seven reporter.

[761] But he's going to do this.

[762] He's going to stand up on, maybe, hey, if he does it, I'll come on this podcast.

[763] And for the first time in eight years, I'll say, Chris Christie, good on you, bud.

[764] Yeah.

[765] Thank you for doing this.

[766] I'm happy you did it.

[767] If he's going to do it.

[768] I'm just saying, yeah, I'm not join us.

[769] in the Chris Christie fan club until I see something.

[770] And him going out there at this town hall, again, he's supposed to be this great debater.

[771] He gets out debated by the 67 year old guy who's like, what are you talking about?

[772] I knew Trump was bad.

[773] And Silas in the crowd out debated him.

[774] And then he's attacking Meg Pence and DeSantis.

[775] I'm having some PTSD.

[776] I'm having some PTSD.

[777] Okay, I thought you were going to get in the race to get after Trump, but now you're making fun of DeSantis and Pence.

[778] I thought the point of this was a, this was a sumo kamikaze mission after Trump.

[779] It doesn't seem like it to me. So I don't know.

[780] I mean, I think it's much more likely that he's going to sit on his couch and pour the small M &M box into the big Eminem box and try to get attention from John Carl and people don't want to give him free press.

[781] And until then, if he does it, great.

[782] But I lived this.

[783] Chris Christie, in my opinion, is more responsible for Donald Trump than any politician.

[784] Oh, I agree.

[785] He took out Marco when Marco had a chance to beat him and then he endorsed Trump first.

[786] He was the, like, Trump's only main endorsement was like Jeff sessions when Chris Christie endorsed him.

[787] You know, he was the cover.

[788] It was big.

[789] It was really big.

[790] And so, again, if he does it, great.

[791] I will give him an out -a -boy.

[792] But until then, I'm not going to engage in the porn fantasy.

[793] We'll see.

[794] I think that skepticism is justifiable.

[795] And by the way, you know, Nick Hattagio, who, you know, pundit, formerly known as all a pundit, does write about how maybe Christy's the only guy in town.

[796] But in fairness to him, he also lays out the alternative scenario, which is that that Christi could once again helped Trump by blowing up his rivals like he did with Marco Rubio back in 2016.

[797] So he could get up on that stage, and he could be the one to deliver the roundhouse punch that takes out Ron DeSantis.

[798] When you were going through the various things that Ron DeSantis had done that were being thrown out by the courts, I could really, almost here in my head, Chris Christie just pounding the crap out of him.

[799] Where's the beef, Ron?

[800] Where actually you did these things, but you got out maneuvered by the Disney board, you got thrown out by federal judge.

[801] I could see him taking out DeSantis and clearing the way for Trump like he did back in 2016.

[802] So that is a possibility.

[803] And Nick Katajio does recognize that.

[804] So you think I should invite him on the podcast?

[805] I don't know if he's going to come.

[806] I mean, I don't think Chris Guizantz did an interview with me. His staff doesn't really like me very much after some of my, they didn't like my jokes on Twitter over the years, which I get, which is fair.

[807] Well, the Cartman thing, yeah.

[808] Yeah, it's not that nice.

[809] But look, here's what I would say to Christy or Nikki Haley or any of these folks in that lane is, and I felt the same way about cinema.

[810] I do think that they should do your podcast.

[811] It's like, if you can't...

[812] If you can't handle Charlie Sykes, you're not going to be able to handle Donald Trump.

[813] That's pretty clear, right?

[814] If you can't handle this guy in his basement in Mechuan, Wisconsin, how are you going to take on Donald freaking Trump?

[815] I was not going to talk you down.

[816] I was saying the opposite.

[817] I was saying, if you can't win over the percentage of this audience, now some of the...

[818] some of your audience, obviously, are people that would never vote in a Republican primary.

[819] But of the people that were never Trumpers used to be Republicans, people that are open to the idea of supporting a Republican in a primary, if you can't win over those people who listen to this podcast and answer these questions, then how the fuck are you going to win a primary?

[820] Who are you going to win?

[821] The dispatch, I guess, should be your base or the National Review or something.

[822] But like, these should be part of your coalition.

[823] If you can't win over a single person that listens to this podcast, then what the fuck are you doing?

[824] What's the point to being in this race?

[825] So, yeah, I do think you should do it.

[826] All right, well, you've talked me into it.

[827] We'll make the ask.

[828] I'll report back, okay.

[829] Oh, I won't be on.

[830] That might help your cause.

[831] I don't even know, Tim.

[832] We had this thing about Annette Funicello, and after that, we just had to make an agreement to take a break from one another.

[833] So, you know, please do not blame me for...

[834] You can take the Friday slot, Chris.

[835] Do not blame me for Tim Miller.

[836] Tim, good luck with the move.

[837] Pretty exciting.

[838] Coming up in about a minute.

[839] I'm pumped.

[840] So I appreciate you.

[841] joining me, and we'll talk next Friday on Good Friday, and then you're going to be on the road, right?

[842] On the road with Tim.

[843] Then we're hitting the road.

[844] I'm doing the Southern Road trip.

[845] I've never done this.

[846] I'm doing a hipster desert road trip.

[847] Are you ready for this?

[848] Joshua Tree, Bisbee, Arizona, Marfa.

[849] Wow.

[850] So that's it.

[851] So we're going to do the Southern Road trip.

[852] You did the Northern one as a kid, and so maybe I'm hoping Toulouse has a memory of cactuses in the desert, and we're going to do a desert five -day road trip to New Orleans.

[853] I'm looking forward to.

[854] Five days.

[855] We're going to take our time, you know, lay by the pool.

[856] I am jealous.

[857] Taking your time.

[858] I'm not going to do the old man. Oh, you got to pee in a cup, you know, kind of road trip.

[859] No, we're going to do, you know, a reasonable eight or so hours a day, sit by the pool for a couple hours and make a little vacation out of it.

[860] Have some family time.

[861] I'm looking forward to it.

[862] I want to hear all the reports.

[863] And thank you all for listening to today's Bowork podcast.

[864] We'll be back tomorrow.

[865] and do this all over again.

[866] The Bullwark podcast is produced by Katie Cooper and engineered and edited by Jason Brown.