If Republican senators had any shred of dignity left, they'd demand that Kash Patel answer why he brazenly lied under oath to them about the purge of agents at the FBI. Credible sources have come forward to say he was directing the whole thing. Meanwhile, Trump has leveled the playing field so companies doing business overseas can do all the bribing they want. Plus, our modern "boy problem," our genetic wiring to not be loners, and finding a way out of our polarization by seeing we have an obligation to respect and care for other people. Carol Leonnig and Bob Putnam join Tim Miller show notes Bob's "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" The documentary about Bob, "Join or Die" Bob's co-written book, "The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again"
Chapter 1: Who are the guests on this episode and what topics will be covered?
Hey guys, it's Tim. It's Wednesday. So we got this two-part episode to focus on specific issues. First, we got Carol Lennig, maybe my favorite investigative reporter over at The Post. Don't tell everybody else. She specializes in Justice Department and FBI issues. So we are going to drill down on this whistleblower report regarding...
what Kash Patel knew about the firings of the FBI and whether he perjured himself during his confirmation hearing. So this is a massive story, and she's working on a bunch of other issues as well.
So we're talking to Carol first, and then we're continuing kind of our series on the loneliness epidemic, and we're going to the OG to Bob Putnam in segment two, talk about that and kind of what his Bowling Alone book is. how that reverberates in our politics today. It's a super interesting convo.
On the other stuff, a bunch of other stuff in the news, the Elon presser yesterday, the news that's out this morning about how there was an uptick in inflation last month and a bunch of other issues, the elimination of the penny, all the fun stuff. I get into that on the next level with Sarah and JVL For newbies, that's always out on Wednesday afternoons. It's a little more politics focused.
And so people can go either catch that on YouTube or download the next level feed on your podcast app of choice. So that will be up on Wednesday. So there's that. That's the agenda. Hope you enjoy as much as you can. Hold on to your hats. Up next, Carol Lennig. Hello and welcome to the Bulldog Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller.
I'm delighted to be here today with one of my faves, an investigative reporter at the Washington Post. She writes about government misconduct, presidential power, the Justice Department, and the FBI. A four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, her books include A Very Stable Genius, Donald Trump's Testing of America. It's Carol Lennig and her cat. How are you doing, Carol? Hey, Tim.
It's great to be with you as usual.
Good to have you. That beat is kind of not really relevant right now. Government misconduct, Justice Department and FBI, nothing happening for you, right?
No, just, you know, working on my self-care, my nails, nothing going on.
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Chapter 2: What are the allegations against Kash Patel regarding FBI firings?
Well, all right, Carolina, do come back. A lot's going to be happening inside the DOJ. We look forward to having your reporting on that and Secret Service. I wanted to get to your reporting on the plane crash. There's so much. So come back soon and appreciate you very much.
Thank you, Tim, for shining a light.
Thanks so much, Carol. We really appreciate her. Before we get to the next guest, I just wanted to put a finer point on what we were talking about there with the Republicans in the Senate. Because, you know, Carol's doing the Lord's work out there. Got to do her reporting. And so haranguing her about the cowardly Republicans doesn't do us a lot of good.
But I have to say, it is absolute madness that the Republicans would confirm this person. This is not really even in the line of what we were talking about with Hegseth. Hegseth, totally unqualified, an insane appointment, a preposterous appointment. But that is a value judgment, right?
We were asking Republican senators to make a value judgment on that person's character and preparedness and bio, and obviously that was too much to ask for all but three of them. But in the situation of Patel, for him to be brazenly lying to their face multiple times, lying about his involvement in the January 6th choir, lying about the way that he associated with cop beaters who were jailed.
All right. He's supposed to be the person that is in charge of the federal law enforcement in charge of federal police. He lied to Senator's faces about, About how he was working with cop beaters on a fucking song, right? Like he lied to them about that. He just like looked at their face was like, oh no, when I said we, it wasn't me. It was them.
And, and like we just, we, the insurrection is broadly. So he lies to them about that. I think that it's certainly possible we need more research into this, but it's certainly possible he lied to them about not knowing about the pardons.
Again, I find it pretty hard to believe that it didn't get to him, that Trump decided to pardon all of these insurrectionists that Kash Patel had been working with and producing songs for, and he was the nominee for FBI director, and he caught no wind of the fact that Trump planned to pardon all of the cop beaters. I find that hard to believe. Maybe that happened. Maybe there was a wall.
Maybe Donald Trump was Uncharacteristically private in his communications. But I find it hard to believe. And then we have this. The firing of these FBI officials. The firing of agents. Just because they were doing their job investigating people who were involved in the attack on the Capitol. Cash says blankly. You just heard it twice. Cash says point blank. He was not aware of that.
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