The Next Level

The full episode of Secret Podcast is available to paid members of the Bulwark on YouTube, Substack and Apple Podcasts.
It’s a special show this week where JVL gives Sarah a series of impossible choices. Will she choose institutionalism, or Secretary Mayor Pete? Will she endorse the political analysis of [REDACTED]? What will she do when Cletus says that he doesn’t like democracy and wants minority rule?
Come find out!
Also: There are more tickets to see Sarah and JVL on September 8 in NYC. We’ve moved to a bigger room at the 92nd Y and we need to sell it out. So come hang with us. Tickets are here: https://www.92ny.org/event/sarah-longwell-how-to-eat-an-elephant
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show notes
Catherine Rampell: The Americans Trump Would Rather Not See: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/the-americans-trump-would-rather
JVL’s Traid: What Was Cletus Thinks About Democracy: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/what-cletus-thinks-about-democracy
Jim Swift: Haitians Prepare for Disaster: https://www.thebulwark.com/i/203693183/forward-together-backward-by-order
This was recorded before Pete's Substack post: https://petebuttigieg.substack.com/p/a-terrible-thing-happened-to-my-family

Tim is sick, but he's strapping on his football helmet. Tim, Sarah, and JVL cover:
-The mysterious 79 year-old receiving non-public weight loss drugs (and if not Trump, who?)
-The latest revelations from Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman's new book.
-Tucker Carlson supposedly leaving the Republican Party...or is it all a long game to help JD Vance?
-The Trump administration's ongoing capitulation to Iran...and even JD Vance used to think it was stupid!
-The latest National Mall reflecting pool drama.
-How Pete Buttigieg got 'radicalized' by his time in the Biden administration...and Tim's warning for Democrats.
-FINALLY: The Washington Post's monster feature on the cult leader who's been coaching Tulsi Gabbard through her political career.
Get your tickets to Sarah's How to Eat an Elephant book tour in September at https://TheBulwark.com/EVENTS.
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The Iran war deal is falling apart (already). Israel is turning on Trump. And the two most insipid trad-Cath poasters in America are podcasting together again.
Plus: JVL (finally) explains his disdain for the NYT’s DEI Trump apologist.
Read JVL's Triad newsletter: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-iran-hawks-found-a-way-to-love-surrender

JVL, Sarah Longwell, and Tim Miller discuss the Iran "deal" that isn't really a deal—a memorandum of understanding that lifts sanctions immediately and hands Iran $300 billion while punting everything else down the road. Then: the war hawks who drummed up the Iran war—Thiessen, Graham, Levin, the WSJ editorial board — are repositioning and refusing to say they were wrong. Plus: Trump's accelerating  decline, the corruption behind the White House UFC fight, and why Trump's DOJ will open a federal investigation on every 2028 Democratic nominee regardless of who it is.
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A super-sized Secret this week:

Sarah and JVL are coming to the legendary 92nd Street Y in New York on September 8. Come and hang out with them in JVL’s back yard! It’s possible he’ll have the championship belt! (Tickets on sale here.)

JVL actually thinks the Iran deal might be real this time. He’s got a theory.

Sarah has a theory of her own about who leaked to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about the Trump administration’s big Situation Room summit on how to handle the Epstein files?

JVL makes progress on his continuing quest to bring Sarah around on “the free market” and court expansion. Is this the week the dam breaks?

It’s a good show, long show.