Kash Patel is making legal threats to try to silence his critics, and Tulsi Gabbard wouldn't even be able to get a security clearance in the regular job market: The parade of incompetence is so bad that Pete Hegseth is being described as the most unqualified Cabinet nominee in American history—and that's before the rape and alcoholism. Plus, Bluesky v Twitter, Russia is running out of military equipment, and are preemptive pardons a good idea? David French joins Tim Miller. show notes Steve Schale's Bulwark piece on the Democratic Party The Southern Baptist Convention's 1998 "Resolution on Moral Character of Public Officials" Longer version of Jake Tapper clip
Chapter 1: Who is David French and what is his background?
Hello and welcome to the Bullard Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. I'm delighted to have back, favorite of the pod, opinion columnist for the New York Times, co-host of the legal podcast Advisory Opinions. His most recent book is Divided We Fall, America's Secession Threat and How We Restore Our Nation, an uplifting topic. It's David French. How you doing, David? Hey, Tim.
It's always great to see you. It's good to see you too, man. You calm me for some reason. People know I've noticed that I don't cuss as much when you're on the podcast.
So that's a double victory for you as a guest. I'm glad to have that calming effect, Tim. I don't have it on everybody, I've found out. I've noticed that.
I want to start with Pete Hegg, Seth. There's this guy I follow on social media, Max Twain. I really like him because he's a rabid DeSantis supporter, way more conservative than me. But unlike like 99% of MAGA world, he does not go along with the Trump BS. It's like what you would expect from somebody living on Earth. Here's how he described the DOD nomination. I thought he put it quite well.
Chapter 2: Why is Pete Hegseth considered unqualified?
Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified cabinet nominee in American history, and that's before accounting for all the rape and alcoholism. And so I wanted to start with you as a veteran, as a conservative, somebody that cares about this. You must feel like you're in a simulation that people are taking this seriously.
Yeah, it's nuts, Tim. I mean, And look, I'm not going to denigrate Pete Hegseth's service. He served honorably by all accounts. That's not the issue here. I served with a bunch of guys in Iraq who served honorably as well with more distinguished records than Pete Hegseth. They're more qualified to be Secretary of Defense. Than he is.
Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of veterans are more qualified to be Secretary of Defense than he is. There might be, Tim, 10,000 people in the greater D.C. area more qualified to be Secretary of Defense. I'm not exaggerating. I mean, he's a TV host. For eight years, he's been a TV host. He's been a TV host and an activist, and his activism...
you know, according to the recent news reports was largely a failure because of his own failings. And so he ran small organizations that he's left. He hosts a TV show and his basic qualification is that he served, which good, good for him. Again, we honor that service. He served and he's super MAGA, super.
And he wrote a book. He wrote a book.
Yeah.
As two authors here, you know, we don't want to denigrate that work.
No, no, no. But no, it really is true. And I'm very glad you brought that up because the statement, aside from all of the alcoholism and the allegations and all of this. Yeah. One of the issues with Trump's, many of Trump's new appointees, putting aside all their scandals, if we can put those aside for the moment. Yeah, sure. A lot of them are just totally not qualified for the positions.
Matt Gaetz, before he left, was absolutely not qualified. And I'm sorry, being an anti-vaccine sort of fringe nutrition activist doesn't qualify a person to become the head of HHS. I mean, this is, you know, what are we doing here? And I think that one of the things he could be doing,
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Kash Patel's legal threats?
Well, you know, it's so absurd, Tim, that we've spent five times more time talking about him than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which is also unbelievably absurd, and haven't even raised the name Tulsi Gabbard. which is also ridiculous. And then let's think about this. We're actually, if we're in a world where I'm breathing a sigh of relief that Pam Bondi is the attorney general nominee now.
She would have been my worst case scenario a few years ago. And now I'm like, okay, Pam Bondi. Okay. At least it's not Matt Gaetz.
People are like, oh, turn to Pam Bondi. That's somebody responsible. I'm like, she was with Rudy. Like when he was at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, Pam Bondi was going around with him. And there are other people that we haven't mentioned yet that we're going to get to. RFK isn't even on my outline, and we're planning a Rogan-length podcast here. So you're correct, we are in a strange time.
But I want to pick your brain in particular, one more thing on the Hegsett thing. You wrote something, I think maybe over on Blue Sky, we're going to get into Blue Sky versus Twitter too, that's also coming, about how...
You know, as part of his defense of his personal behavior, he's talking about how he's found Jesus and how, like, obviously you have respect for that and somebody finding their faith and turning over a new leaf. It's relatively convenient timing, I would note. Great timing for finding Jesus.
Great timing. Spectacular timing.
There is the other side of that coin, which you've also written a lot about. I mean, he is at the megachurch in Tennessee, in your home state, that has ties to the Doug Wilson Church in Idaho. which we've covered here, that has kind of these deeply radical Christian nationalist beliefs.
And I do just wonder whether that gives you any pause thinking about maybe he has found Jesus, but maybe he's also found the political Jesus.
Yeah. It does give me pause, Tim. There's no question about it. And, you know, look, I've seen some of the defenses of the tattoos that he has. He has a Jerusalem cross tattoo. He has another one that says Deus Volt. God wills it, which is a slogan of the Crusaders. Yes.
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Chapter 4: How does the current administration handle preemptive pardons?
She's almost certainly legally safe, but that's not the question, Tim. The question is, is she going to be bullied? Is she going to be intimidated? Now we both know she's not the kind of person who's going to be bullied or intimidated. She has high quality legal counsel, unlike a lot of people who are in these circumstances.
So she's going to be fine, but there's no question in my mind this was a shot across the bow. It was a symbol that if you are going to come after him He will come after you in some way. And I think that that, you know, that symbol does really matter. That symbol is really important. And look, defamation law has a role to play in American life.
I mean, you know, it was a defamation lawsuit that held Fox News accountable, Rudy Giuliani accountable, Gateway Pundit. I mean, we can go down the line. But abuse of defamation law is one way that powerful people try to silence criticism. And so this looks like that textbook abuse, that effort to try to intimidate somebody and silence somebody with legal threats.
In addition to everything you said, the thing that really concerns me the most about this is that it is the person that's the incoming potential FBI director, right? And it was an action that, to me, I don't know how you can read it any other way than as personal vengeance or grievance, particularly when you consider that this claim against him has been made by lots of people.
Again, it was in the former defense secretary's book. So, to pick one person...
Right.
Target them. To me, that's a signal that I'm going to plan on targeting people. And the FBI has huge leeway to target people before you ever get to legal proceedings, right? Like they're checks eventually. Okay. Like eventually you have to prosecute somebody. They're going to be checks and you're gonna have to have grand juries or juries or other people. DOJ, you know, whatever to approve it.
There'll be other checks, but an incoming FBI director, like to me, this is signaling that I, yeah, I can go, I'm going to go after you. And there's not actually going to be a lot you can do about it. There's not an anti-slap lawsuit you can file against the FBI director for investigating it.
Yeah, I'm so glad you raised that point, Tim, because I've had a number of people ask me, OK, wait a minute. How much can the Trump administration really target you? After all, you've got juries, you've got judges, you've got a lot of checks. That's absolutely true when it comes to can the Trump administration prosecute and convict judges? with the emphasis on and convict. It's critics.
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Chapter 5: What are the risks of political nominations in the current climate?
Chapter 6: How does the podcast analyze the intersection of politics and personal behavior?
almost sort of unrivaled ability to dig into your life, unrivaled ability to turn your life inside out and to place you in profound legal jeopardy. Because, you know, one of the things that you've seen and one of the there were critics of the Russia investigation and critics of FBI investigations more broadly have a point about is that often the FBI will dive in
And they won't be able to prove the underlying crime that was the instigator for the investigation. But there are crimes that are then committed in the process of the investigation, among them things like lying to the FBI, etc. And so, you know, one of the things you'll see happen is they'll be investigating topic X.
but they get very angry at how the target of the investigation behaved during the investigation, and they'll charge what are called process crimes, crimes allegedly committed during the course of the investigation. And sometimes that's totally appropriate. Sometimes somebody does, in the middle of the investigation, try to obstruct it. They do lie, et cetera.
And then sometimes though, it's a reach, it's a stretch. And so it is just a very dangerous thing to get the FBI targeted on any given person's life. It is. And so that is very disturbing to me. I'm actually in a weird way, Tim. Hegseth is so unqualified, so profoundly unqualified.
that in a way he's less dangerous because he'll be surrounded by, if you've ever been in rooms full of generals, these are not people who are intimidated by a Pete Hegseth. Right.
So. Though, can you imagine having to, yes, sir, Pete Hegseth, if you are, you know, like the commanding general of Europe, you know, you're a West Point grad and, you know, I've been 40 years on the job going up the ranks. ridiculous. But yes, I concur with that, with your point.
Yeah. I mean, it's not that he's harmless. I just think the institution of the Pentagon is not easy to hijack. Let me put it that way. But I will say this. I mean, I do think there are real security risks here. I mean, Tulsi, for example, her past is a past that would, let me put it like this, Tim.
there are a number of things about her past that would make it difficult for her to get a security clearance. Just starting from scratch. Now, I know she's served in the military and all of this.
But if you're starting from scratch and you are filling out a security clearance form and you're talking and interviewing in that security clearance form and you're talking about your contacts with foreign powers and foreign leaders, there are elements here that Just raise concerns and raise alarms. And then when it comes to Hegseth, let's just presume for the sake of argument, Tim.
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Chapter 7: What concerns arise from the Biden administration's potential actions?
that is extremely powerful and extremely difficult to crack. I do think the Democrats can carve off people on the margins, but if you're saying like, here's our electoral strategy is we're gonna pry white evangelicals from the Republican party, that's really hard because they have become so culturally combined that especially in regions like where I live, that it is extremely difficult.
All right. Well, so if you could use your dark magic as a former person in good standing and help the Democrats, since that's what evangelicals think about you, use your nefarious powers to help the Democrats, what would you tell them to do? If there's just one thing, what would be the thing that you would say would be the most helpful?
Run your cities better.
I mean, I'll just be honest.
Now, there are things.
I agree with this, but it kind of annoys me living in Louisiana, which is run like shit. And nobody's like, well, we can't give Republicans power because because the Democrats.
No, no, I know. I know.
Republicans aren't exactly knocking it out of the park here running Louisiana.
But I hear you.
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