The Bulwark Podcast
Neera Tanden and John Fetterman: They're Playing With People's Lives
06 Mar 2025
Donald Trump is hurting the American people. The DOGE cuts are not only waging war on jobs, they're also harming the American public and undermining the safety, health, and economic well-being of everyday Americans. And by cowering to his favorite bully in Moscow, Trump is prepping the US to be a subservient partner of Russia. Plus, John Fetterman joins Tim to share his opposition to the campaigns against both transgender athletes and soldiers, and to chastise Dems for the way they received the POTUS in Congress. Sen. John Fetterman and Neera Tanden join Tim Miller. show notes Fetterman's tweet after the Senate blocked a ban on transgender athletes Fetterman's video on Trump's trans military ban Fetterman's tweet after Trump's address to Congress Neera's Center for American Progress
Full Episode
Hello and welcome to the Bullard Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. We've got a doubleheader today, Senator John Fetterman up in segment two. But first, I'm delighted to be here with the former Domestic Policy Council Director in the Biden administration. She's now back as CEO for Center for American Progress. It is the great Neera Tanden. What's up, Neera?
Well, we got a lot of problems. That's what's up. That's what's up.
We have a lot of problems. We're going to get into the problems. We're going to spend most of the time on the problems. I first have two backward-looking things for people. Number one, for newbies, for new listeners who haven't heard this before, my full origin story. I just want to remind people that Neera being denied a cabinet position for mean tweets was the beginning of my radicalization.
And now... We have Gropi McHairspluray leading the Department of Defense, but yet people couldn't confirm Neera to the cabinet because, I don't know, she said a couple deservedly mean things about Lindsey Graham. It was outrageous. And I just have to wonder how you controlled your rage watching these dopes be confirmed without any issue.
Well, if I had actually known that the cabinet nomination problem, that whole fiasco was actually contributing to your radicalization, I would have actually thought it was worth it maybe.
It was. I was ready to go into battle. I was going to put on a sword and shield with your face on it.
I mean, you kind of did. So I really appreciate it. My actual take on all of this when it actually happened was that it was kind of bullshit. Right. So what was really happening at that time is a bunch of Republicans who had just voted against Trump by voting for impeachment were scared shitless of the Republican base and
And so they used my nomination as a way to show that they were still Republicans. And the rationale, the rationalization was obviously ridiculous since each one of them just voted for some insane lunatic. Their mean tweets were like the nicest things about them, right? They were just... Wrong, scoundrels, corrupt, ridiculous people who don't care about policy.
In fact, really just want to use the government to hurt people. So, I mean, I think it just caused a charade, you know, but I knew it was a charade at the time. Like, it was ridiculous that people who were defending Trump and all of his tweets for the last four years before that somehow were able to read all of my tweets when they could never have read. Right, it is.
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