Ben Wittes: Talk About America in Decline
7/9/202659 min
Trump had to take two Air Force ones to the NATO summit in Turkey: his new bling hand-me-down from Qatar that he wanted to show off and the old baby blue one which he had to use to fly safely home—given the war in neighboring Iran. And at the FBI, Kash Patel’s thievery of taxpayer resources has gotten so out of hand, even Chuck Grassley wants answers. Plus: Ukraine has created panic in Russia (which has Trump rethinking which side he wants to root for), Dems should be highlighting the massive military waste in Iran, and Ben invites the public to test-run his new giant database of government records. Oh, and baby elephants are the best.
Ben Wittes joins Tim Miller.
Show notes:
- Lawfare on the military's potential deployment at the polls
- Ben’s email: benjamin.wittes@lawfaremedia.org
- Ben's Substack, "Dog Shirt Daily"
- Get 20% off when you go to trustandwill.com/BULWARK
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTim Miller· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to The Bulwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller, delighted to welcome back to the show editor-in-chief of Lawfare, senior fellow in governance studies at Brookings. That's very serious work. His Substack is Dog Shirt Daily. He is in- It's a little less serious ... he is in a what? What shirt are you in, Ben Wittes? Is that a dog? What animal?
Ben Wittes· Guest0:30
It is. It's a, it's a kind of cubist dog shirt.
Tim Miller· Host0:33
A cubist dog shirt. Where does one acquire a- Yeah, it's kind of like Picasso- Okay ...
Ben Wittes· Guest0:39
dog shirt.
Tim Miller· Host0:40
Where does one acquire a shirt like that?
Ben Wittes· Guest0:42
Well, the thing is, if you, uh, buy enough dog shirts, then you get advertised to on the, on Instagram whenever somebody releases a dog shirt in the world.
Tim Miller· Host0:53
Got it.
Ben Wittes· Guest0:54
The speed with which I- I get notified is really impressive.
Tim Miller· Host0:58
There is a single lady in Bangladesh who just has your number, you know?
Ben Wittes· Guest1:05
That's right.
Tim Miller· Host1:05
It's like, if I just, if I just print a new dog shirt, this one gentleman in America is sure to buy it, you know?
Ben Wittes· Guest1:12
That's correct. And, and she's right.
Tim Miller· Host1:14
I'm happy about that for you. Uh- And for her [laughs] We have a lot to discuss. [laughs] I'm gonna start with this, because this is a real news story that I think very much enc- encapsulates where we are at, and, and I think that many people wouldn't have believed, would've