Krystal Ball: The MAGA Neocon Tears Are So Sad
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What are the implications of Trump's Iran deal for Israel?
Hello and welcome to the Bulwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. Delighted to welcome to the show co-host of Breaking Points and Crystal Kyle and Friends, somebody that's been long overdue to have on the pod, to be honest. Someone whose, I think, career bio should mention a pretty important turn on The Cycle, one of my favorite afternoon MSNBC shows. It's Crystal Ball.
You were a Cycle watcher?
I loved The Cycle.
Okay.
We had fun.
It was a more innocent time. It was you. It was Trey. It was Ari Melber. My old girl, Abby Huntsman, was on for a little bit.
That's right. Who else was on there? So originally, the original crew was, instead of Abby and Ari, it was Steve Kornacki, who got pulled very quickly to replace Chris Hayes on his weekend show originally. And then Chris Hayes went to primetime. And Essie Kupp. All right. And then she moved to CNN. Abby came in.
That's why I was watching it originally. Well, I feel like you guys were ahead of your time. You know, that was some like a little heterodox arguing kind of show. I don't know. I feel like MSNBC should probably bring something like the cycle back. Rachel Cutler doesn't listen to me. MSNOW, it's called out. All right. We're going to do some news. We're going to do some victory laps. And then maybe we'll hash out a couple of disagreements. Maybe on some lefty stuff. All right. On the news front. This morning, Trump has canceled elections. nomination hearing for jay clayton who he had nominated to be the head of dni this is not traditional usually the senate majority leader gets to decide the scheduling on what happens on the hill for these sorts of nominations but trump is mad at john thune and the other senators for being mean to him about the iran war stuff they're mad because they were mean to him about the bill pulte nomination
And so he basically said, F you, I'm going to pull back the Jay Clayton nomination. We are going to make Bill Pulte the acting DNI and you guys can suck it, basically. So that's the state of affairs.
Yeah. Bill Pulte is a genuinely nefarious character who's been at the scene of many Trump era crimes, including murder. using supposed mortgage fraud allegations to go after Trump opponents. And he's also, of course, completely unqualified for the post of director of national intelligence. So it makes sense that Trump would want him there because he's first and foremost, a toady and a loyalist who would have no business anywhere in any administration other than this one, where basically sycophancy and your ass kissing abilities and ability to stir up trouble for Trump opponents is the top and primary qualification.
Yeah. I mean, I think that that is, you know, a particularly nefarious place to put him. Right. As director of national intelligence.
Oh, of course.
And like Trump's bleat was, you know, like the Magna Carta explaining this. And he's like giving all kinds of... I had a lot of trouble following it. Yeah, he's giving lots of cockamamie reasons. It's not worth going into. So you have to do some criminology. And I'm unsure whether Trump is just absolutely committed to having Bill Pulte in there for a little bit so he can cause trouble or... whether this is like Trump the toddler lashing out at Senate Republicans because they have been not showing a ton of spine, but bucking him somewhat, both on the Pulte nomination and with some commentary on the emerging Iran deal. The one thing that happened basically was that FISA had expired last week, and there was a bipartisan group of senators who was just like, basically, we're not going to reauthorize FISA.
With Bill Pulte running the DNI, you can't trust this person with these kinds of powers. There's some interesting subplots to that. So what Trump is now saying is like, no FISA without the SAVE Act, and I'm not going to give you a responsible DNI. And, you know, at some level, I kind of wonder if the crystal ball faction of the Democratic Party look at this and are kind of like, okay, bro, fine, no FISA. That's fine.
No FISA, no Save America Act.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What are the implications of Trump's Iran deal for Israel?
0:13–6:07
2
How is Trump's nomination of Bill Pulte affecting national security?
6:07–13:27
3
What controversies arise from the recent FISA discussions?
13:27–28:58
4
How is the reflecting pool incident a symbol of Trump's administration?
28:58–1:02:37
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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