The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1008: Michael Weiss, Ben Smith, and Annie Karni: Radioactively Stupid
26 Mar 2025
No matter how hard Republicans try to spin the sharing of top secret military attack plans on an insecure app, the colossal f***up of an administration that claimed it was rooting out incompetence is plain on its face. And while Jeffrey Goldberg told Tim Tuesday that he was mulling over releasing the Signal messages, he went ahead and did so after the administration accused him of lying and sneaking into the Signal group chat. Plus, Russia pretends to agree to a cease-fire, Breitbart kind of grows up, and a new book examines Capitol Hill's craziness—including Trump's control of the House GOP, Nancy Mace's delusions of grandeur, and Schumer's infinite faith in the Republican Party of old. Michael Weiss, Ben Smith, and Annie Karni join Tim Miller. show notes Annie's new book, "Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby, and a Man with Rats in His Walls Broke Congress" Ben's pod, "Mixed Signals" More on Tulsi's Vatican trip paid by a Belgian businessman with ties to the Kremlin Ben's interview with Megyn Kelly at Semafor Events Phillips O'Brien's Substack piece on the “Black Sea Ceasefire”
Full Episode
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Dann geh doch zu Netto!
Hallo und willkommen zu The Bulldog Podcast. Ich bin euer Host Tim Miller. Wir machen etwas anderes heute. Wir haben drei Gäste, ein Triple Rainbow von Gästen auf dem Podcast. Und erinnert euch, es ist Montag, also könnt ihr mich und JVL und Sam Stein für Sarah Longwell auf dem nächsten Niveau anschauen, wo... We go long on all the politics and news of the day.
But first up, it's our friend Michael Weiss, editor of the Insider, a Russia-focused media outlet, contributing editor to Newlines Magazine, formerly an investigative reporter for CNN, our unofficial... Crazy foreign policy correspondent. And we wanted to bring him in immediately because we've now officially seen the text. Michael Weiss, are these war plans?
The White House is saying this is a hoax. These are not war plans. What do you make of it?
I mean, you've got the timings of the strikes. You've got the platforms being used. There's no way that this was unclassified data, right? I'm talking to former CIA officers, including a former CIA lawyer, who says... This is all top secret. I mean, even more critical than the attack plans themselves is the policy discussion, right?
Like, if you're a foreign adversary, you absolutely want to know what the back and forth is amongst Trump's national security team. So the fact that J.D. Vance is a little squeamish about attacking the Houthis, because that gives a freebie to the Europeans, those freeloading welfare queen Europeans that he's always on about, that's useful information.
Mark Palmaropoulos hat mir gesagt, wenn du ein CIA-Kommissar bist und diese Daten auf einen Feind der Vereinigten Staaten bekommst, bekommst du einen Medal. Das ist, wie wertvoll diese Dinge sind. Es sieht mir sicherlich so aus, und ich habe gerade ein paar kurze Beratungen darüber gemacht, dank der Atlantik-Erklärung.
Es sieht mir sicherlich so aus, als ob einige Leute sich gestern an den Kongress vorgeschlagen hätten, indem sie sagten, dass alles unbeklasset war. Nun, es kann sein, dass Donald Trump sich entschieden hat, es nach dem Faktum zu deklassifizieren. Aber die Chronologie dieses, weißt du, What did you know and when kind of thing is going to be key here. So I don't think the story is going away, Tim.
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