Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump is an AWFUL & CRUEL Human Being For This

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

It's time for another episode of Speechcenter! Jon Lovett and The Bulwark's Tim Miller react to Donald Trump's weird rant on snakes in Peru, JD Vance's response to Susie Wiles, Mike Johnson on healthcare and Trump's gross comments about Rob Reiner. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code LOVETT at https://www.oneskin.co/LOVETT #oneskinpod CHAPTERS 0:00 - Intro 1:13 - JD Vance 5:10 - Chuck Schumer 10:23 - Trump on snakes 13:12 - Ad break 14:43 - Mike Johnson 18:42 - Trump on Rob Reiner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I did a quick Google here because that number didn't seem right to me. Trump claimed 28,000 die yearly from Purdue's snake bites. The real number is about six. That feels more correct. Hey everybody, welcome back to Speech Center. Tim, happy holidays. Back at you. We're saying Merry Christmas over at the bulwark, but you know, to eat your own.

Sure, I guess you want to take us back to those traditions. Santa came early this year in the form of a Vanity Fair profile for the fucking ages. I thought you're talking about Lane Kiffin. Santa came early for me. Oh. And that wasn't, and that's an athlete to some kind. Well, it's a coach.

There's been some sort of coaching thing going on involving the government. There's been sort of government coaching issue that I don't, I truly, the levels of irony and anger and frustration, I have truly no idea what it's about. And that's how I feel when I'm watching the clips from your Bravo spin-off show that you're working on, which is totally not a desperate attempt to get onto the Bravo network yourself. You're right, Tim. It's not that. On today's show, Tim, we've got Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talking about whether or not there will be a Republican health care plan and more Trump delusion. But first, let's go to J.D. Vance, who reacts to Vanity Fair's White House.

I don't like, I don't care for him very much. Right. We're not, and we're not fans. By the way, it doesn't sound like Susie Wiles was that big of a fan based on some of her quotes. This is JD Vance responding to the Vanity Fair piece about White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles. Sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theory. that are true. Ha-ha.

Ha-ha. I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask three-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills. You know, I believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job. And I believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw it. Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument against his political opponents.

So at least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it. And that's my understanding. Tim, I think that that was the exact smartest thing he could have done in response to that article, honestly. The line about him being conspiracy theorist is, I think it's said it. My reading of it is that it reads like she was saying it in a rye jocular way. what she was talking about in that part of the conversation with Vanity Fair is that J.D. Vance

understood the salience of Epstein because he's been a conspiracy theorist for a long time. And it's actually not the worst thing that she says about J.D. Vance in that piece, because in that piece, she says that Marco Rubio genuinely became somebody who believed Donald Trump was the right person for the job. It took him a while to get there. Take that what you will. J.D. Vance was more political because he was in a Senate race. That is the part where I don't. think he has as fun a riff in response. One of my biggest weaknesses as a political analyst and commentator for the foreseeable future, I just don't think that I can judge J.D. Vance fairly. He's like the inverse Timothy Chalomey for me. Like if Timothy Chalemay gave a horrific performance, I would not be

able to tell. I would still think he deserved an Oscar. And I'm kind of like the inverse with that on JD. So I hear you. He's doing the rift that you would do if a liberal called you a conspiracy theorist. He's kind of pretending like it was a liberal that did it, not the White House chief of staff that works for Donald Trump. Regardless of how wry she was being when calling J.D. Vance a conspiracy theorist, it was very clear that she does not care for him. Like that he's not a particularly pleasant colleague and that my instincts about how an appealing he is might be correct even as it extends to his own co-workers in the White House. The piece is getting put through the filter of,

wow, I can't believe she said all this crazy shit about Trump and Vance and these quotes are terrible. How could she do this? blah, blah, blah. But on the whole, the piece is a really useful, like, piece of journalism. Maybe you're not coming away shocked by what's inside of there. But there is, I think, a clarity in that what we see is what we're getting, whether it was the chaotic roll out of the tariffs.

Yeah, he decided to do it and the team wasn't on board. or what was happening around immigration. Yeah, it was chaotic. And mistakes were happening because they were bumbling through a draconian policy without having thought through the consequences. To me, the big political takeaway from all this is if Susie, who seems savvy about politics, if nothing else,

and J.D., who cares about his 2028 future, more than anything, both think that the energy, the group that they need to focus on is, like conspiratorial podcast types, then that's probably right. You know, I mean, like, I think they're probably accurately assessing their own coalition

and saying that that is a group that they need to appeal to. Up next, we have just a small dose of LibCringe. Here's how Chuck Schumer opened his press conference on Instacart price gouging. Is Instacart still a thing? I don't use it. I don't use it.

Okay, so first I'm going of course talk about Instacart. and they're ripping off the consumer. And then, of course, I'm going to say a few words about the terrible shooting in Sydney, Australia. Okay? So, and first, of course, as I always say, no matter what, go bills.

They beat the Patriots today. It's a big deal. Okay, so look, we're here today to shed light on a really shady practice. Sorry. We're here today to shed light on a really shady price shakedown happening at grocery store,

checkouts throughout New York, Long Island, and the nation. I'm talking about Instacart. Is that a so bad it's good type thing, though? Is it possibly a so bad it's good? Why does it not have the same feeling of when Bush said some version of these terrorists, they're monsters who must be stopped, now watch this drive? Do you remember that? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Sure. Do you remember that? First of all, where is he? What, what, where is he? Why is he in front of a black curtain with a dark sweater? Can't wear a dark sweater in front of a dark curtain. You can't do that. You disappear into the curtain. Also, there's something about like, he's AI. So it's AI Instacart price gouging. And I trust that that's a

problem. I assume that there's something going on there where they're algorithmically kind of figuring out ways to squeeze people, right? I don't know. I don't use Instagram, but I'm feeling gouged sometimes on the apps that I use. Yeah, they get you. They get you. Things do feel expensive with that trumpflation. Yeah, I don't know. No, it doesn't have any of the charm of like kind of the mangled Bushisms, and I can never quite remember which ones were him, which ones were Will Farrell. But, you know, it doesn't like have that really. You know, it's not really the job for him anymore. I, you know, I think that we sort of have at the presidential level for worse, I would say, certainly as it goes to Trump, just kind of accepted the reality in the new

media environment. It's not really a country for Poppy Bush anymore. You know, you're not really looking for a president anymore that has no charm that is more of a management person behind the scenes. And I do wonder if that now extends also to our leaders in Congress in the Senate. And it's something that Democrats need to think about because you want a little bit more performance. What I kind of worry about what I see happening. The reason why it's worth making fun of Chuck Schumer here is that, you know, part of the reason why we're here, I love it, on this horrible timeline, is that in what year would it have been? In 2022, you might remember this. There was a moment where it was like, there's going to be a red wave. And then the Republicans

nominated a bunch of absolute lunatics like Carrie Lake and Herschel Walker. And so like the red wave was like more of like a red ripple. Like it was like a little victory. And so I think a lot of Democrats start to see, you know what? Look, it turns out like Biden and Schumer, the Biden Schumer team are doing better than the experts think. There wasn't a red wave. So let's just stay the course. And now we're here, you know. And so I do think it's important that just because things are looking good for the Democrats right now, looking better, Trump is struggling.

The poll numbers are up. There's still some things that need to be addressed like Chuck Schumer. First of all, AI price gouging Instacart. They're coming after New York's families. That's local. That's him doing his sort of local politics. And it's the way he always did his local politics. Go in front of a gas station, do a press conference, talk about how expensive gas is.

People are waiting online to go to the bathroom at the theater. Let's introduce a bill that says there has to be more toilets in the women's rooms on Broadway. Like kind of message bills, message conferences that are about making sure people back home see you caring about the things that are bothering them. Right? But it's all from another era, including an era where, like, I guess he thinks he needs to do in one story, he's going to say go bills. The other story is going to have his quotes about Australia. The third story is going to have his quotes about Instacartan. Maybe that's happening.

Maybe that matters. But the reality is what matters is the video. The video now matters, not the bite. The whole thing is just not from this moment. And if he is the right person behind the scenes, maybe that's true. Maybe it's not. I would love for there to be a spokesperson for the party that, felt more like a droid at modern communication.

And it'd be in his interest, too. Yeah. Nominate a point man or woman. That's allowed. Yeah. It's allowed. We don't, there's no rules here. Doesn't have to be the Senate majority leader.

You can be behind the scenes person and have a front senator. Yeah. That's totally fine. It's kind of cool, actually. Susie Walls had some mystique until last week. Jenks. Mystique.

Mystique. Don't you want mystique, Chuck. Schumer, it's not too late. You can have mystique, but it wasn't just the readers of Vanity Fair, who found that Christmas had come early. Donald Trump was at the White House Christmas reception, and he was on one. Dr. James went on a trip to Peru. It's known for being a rather rough place. 28,000 people die a year from a snake by to a certain snake. It's a viper, right? The viper missed him. It hit his jacket. The viper hit him a second time, and this time it got him on the arm. And because,

Because of Doc Ronnie Jackson. He was at the White House, and he knew from the description and the location what kind of a snake it was. The black mamba, the brown mumba, and the viper from Peru. You do not want to play games, okay? Dr. Jones wrote a book. The cover is unbelievable. You'll see it on truth social. It's on truth social.

I put out a statement that this book is great. The story is incredible. He's pushing the book. He said the good Lord saved him. I can maybe say that too. Every once in a while I get that throbbing feeling. I say, thank you very much. I don't want to hear about his throbbing feeling.

I hadn't seen that clip. Jesus Christ. So he's pushing this guy's Venom and Valor book? He's doing book sales? What the fuck? I did a quick Google here because that number didn't seem right to me. Too many people? 28,000?

Too many people? Yeah. What did you learn? Trump claimed 28,000 die yearly from produce snake bites. The real number is about six. That feels more correct. It's just shocking to find out that 26,000 people are being killed by this one kind of snake

or even a few kinds of snakes. It would be a leading cause of death in the country, presumably. You know, there's something inside of us that is much prefers to be afraid of snakes than mosquitoes, you know? Yeah. We much, there's something, I think, that makes us feel more validated by that. to face the fact that the enemy is actually tiny and all around you,

as opposed to scary and of Halloween. Like, mosquitoes aren't a Halloween bug. You know what I mean? Spiders are. But mosquitoes are the scary bug. They're the ones that will get you every time, you know? And humans, of course. Got to watch out for humans and mosquitoes.

And hippos not sharks, you know? The hippos are lumbering and goofy, and so they're not seen as terrifying as the live and athletic shark. Dogs would be towards the top of the list as well. It's a popular take. Yeah, no, it's true. It's true.

Freshwater snails, maybe. Well, the snails, you gotta be careful. Hey, if you're going on to some kind of fancy trip to a tropical place and you look in that water and you see a cone-shaped, beautiful shell, you leave that fucking there. If you're on a tropicalification, you leave that cone snail in the ground.

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using code speech at oneskin.com slash speech. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. That's oneskin.com slash speech. Use code speech for 15% off. Up next, here's Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, getting impressed about why it's taken so long to deal with health care when so many Americans' plans are about to go up starting in the new year.

You guys were out for two months at the shutdown. Why has it taken until the end of the year to start addressing putting to the floor these health care bills? And what is your message to those who are going to see their premium rise next year anyway? Because it seems unlikely that Congress is going to be able to get something together by then. Since the Unaffordable Care Act became law 15 years ago, So we have been working steadily, producing ideas, trying to address this. We tried to repeal and replace it, as you all know, in our ultimately failed attempt back in the first Trump administration, in the end of 2017, the famous John McCain comes down, tanked the effort. The roots of Obamacare, the Unaffordable Care Act, have gotten so deep in the system that it's no longer possible to just pull it out at the root and chop it off and start over. It's too deeply ingrained.

And so now we have to take it step by step to reduce and repair, reduce cost and repair the ideas that we have. Interesting. It's an interesting story about how they've steadily worked at replacing Obamacare, which is a sort of a cat's a hair and tortoise, tortoise, tortoise, it's a hair and tortoise sort of thing, Tim. Hair and tortoise. The tortoise? Hair and the tortoise. What? I'm not sure that they're even the tortellist. Here's a strange thing for me. And I know that it's usually you asking me why Republicans act the way they act.

like this is a confusing one for me because why don't they just do it like why don't they just extend the subsidies like why i go through this rigamarole at all it's not as if don't trump has a deep abiding ideological commitment to market-based health care reforms nor does mike johnson seem to have an abiding commitment to any political to anything i just i don't understand what like what is the point of this like that is not a compelling message for anyone it's not making Anyone feel any better? It feels like it's a message just for the other people in the room, other Republican people in the room.

Yeah. What I can't totally understand is even if this is Mike Johnson's position, I understand why this would be his stated position, because if he were to say, let's extend the subsidies, he would be able to pass something through the House, but I think within a matter of minutes, he would stop being the Speaker of the House? So I think that's what's on...

Would he? Yeah, I do. What if Trump told him to do it? I think there's a reason Trump's not telling him to do it. And I think that there are enough, House members with genuine ideological commitments, maybe not as strongly felt as Thomas Massey, but who are truly ideologically opposed to the deficit increase and the cost. It's because Obama's in the name. But they genuinely do not believe in this Obamacare system.

They don't think these subsidies should exist. They don't want to spend the money. They don't want to see the increase in deficit. I think there's enough people with that genuine conviction who are not in districts in which they can lose their seat. What doesn't make sense, is it seems to me Johnson's best bet here is a discharged position that does the extension with Democratic votes and a few House Republican votes that then goes over to the Senate and is passed. That to me is what I can't make sense. Like I'm surprised that they weren't even able to bring the Cassidy bill or there's two bills over in the Senate, one of which was nothing, you know, whatever was a thousand.

Hey, you want to help here? Here's a thousand bucks. Do with it what you will. Get some, I don't know, balms, maybe some posies or something. but there was a compromise bill. And I just, I'm a little bit baffled, too, as to why one of those isn't against the wishes of leadership on its way to Trump's desk.

I think it's because Trump is sleepy. I think it's sleepy Trump. Sorry to do resistance porn for you on Speech Center. Yeah. But I just, I think that a more adept and adroit and awake and younger aspiring autocrat would just give people their health care subsidies and just figure out a way to let that happen rather than be pushed around.

by a couple dweebbs in the Freedom Caucus. Lastly, Trump is asked about his vile post about Rob Reiner and whether or not he is going to stand by it and wouldn't you know it, he doesn't walk it back. A number of Republicans have denounced your statement on true social after the murder of Rob Reiner. Do you stand by that post? Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all.

He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. He said he knew it was false. In fact, it's the exact opposite that I was a friend of Russia controlled by Russia. You know, the Russia hooks. He was one of the people behind it. I think he heard himself in career-wise. He became like a deranged person, Trump derangement syndrome. So I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all in any way, shape, or form. I thought it was very bad for our country. Yeah. It's kind of nice that Trump doesn't fake it actually.

I mean, he's an awful, cruel, deeply dark human being, and so it's just, it's nice just to see it clearly. Reiner, just two of the things I'd mention is, like, at the beginning of his career, he's all in the family, which is like modeling discussion across political differences. Like, is like essentially the whole seat of the show, which is a great show. And, you know, since it's the two gayes talking, we should say that after California voted for Prop 8, making gay marriage illegal, it was Rob and Michelle, Reiner's wife, who was also murdered. I got with a couple political operatives, recruited Ted Olson, who had argued on the Bush side of. Bush v. Gore to challenge that and take it to the Supreme Court. And here we are. And Rob Reiner was, you know, somebody that really was stalwart and like working for that and organizing it, not just like posting on Instagram that love is love, which is nice, which we appreciate when

actors do that. But yeah, he did actual political organizing and work. He was on, he was on love or leave it and he really roasted the fuck out of me right when he came on stage about the monologue. He said, what percentage of those jokes do you think actually landed? which was very funny and absolutely devastating. And I was like, what do you know, Rob Reiner about comedy? Yeah, and it's funny you brought up all in the family. Carol O'Connor, who played Archie Bunker, gave an interview once. He was asked about it.

And he said, I get why people love Archie Bunker and I get why people find Archie lovable and funny. But it's worth keeping in mind that Archie Bunker was miserable because his politics, that he didn't choose, that a lot of what he had learned about women and people of other races, that he was trained to believe from a young age, had made it harder for him to be happy and harder for him to accept change, and that the character may have brought a lot of people joy and entertainment.

But he himself, like the character, was lost because he couldn't see to the other side of the biases that were given to him or that he had taken on early in his life, and he couldn't move past it, and it actually made his life much harder and much worse, which is a funny way for Carol O'Connor to refer to this character. And I think one of the reasons the show works. And we all recognize that person and have affinity for that person on some level that we see that person in our own lives. But I was just thinking about Trump in the way he's behaving and how it kind of reflects the same thing. This is a person that could not grow out of their own flaws and egotism and biases of youth.

And so a person that is largely beloved is murdered, his wife is murdered. And you can't find one good word to say about him, which is very uncommon amongst real people. I think real people do not find it so difficult to pass this empathy test. But Trump and a lot of hyper online people and the kind of people that are drawn to being hyper online politically engaged people, I think struggle with it. And it does tell you something about the poison that hyper online people are putting into their brains every day, Trump included. Obviously, that's a dark story. I will say there's some hope or at least I think there's something to be said for here we are at the end of this year. And a lot of Republicans, I think themselves are exhausted by Trump and are willing to say like, hey, this is shitty.

And we're going to call it shitty. So I think that, I think, points to the ways in which he's been weakened. I'm surprised by how I think it turned into an inflection point. But Thomas Massey, during the Epstein vote, him saying in a way that I am sure every member of Congress saw, there will be a day after Trump. You will have always voted to protect pedophiles. There is something about that as like a signal moment in this era that I do think matters. And having a few of those people, the Nancy Mace's, the Marjorie Taylor Greens, the Massey's. had me with you until you said to Nancy Macy.

I know, but she did it. Let's just stand on a high note with Thomas Massey. It just tells you, these are not, look, these are fine, sure. These are, but there are people who see, who saying, where are my people going so that I might lead them? And I do think that that matters. And so I do, I, after a long year, I do enter 2026 with, I think, I think it is an, I think it is a rational position, Tim, yes or no, to enter 2026 a little bit more hopeful. then we entered 2025.

Yes or no. Yes. That's right. That's right. Not that much more. A little bit more. Yeah. Let the resistance flow through you.

Do you feel that in your bones? Do you feel the cringe rising up? It's still chilly. And yet we persisted. And yet we persisted. Tim Miller. And thank you all for persisting and supporting Crooked Media. Do me a favor.

hit like, hit subscribe. It's be part of your New Year's resolution to help build an alternative to right-wing media and corporate media. Tim, from the illustrious halls of the independent bulwark. I am sitting here in the illustrious studio, small studio of crooked media, building out independent media, try to get people good information, try to get those people that are maybe curious about politics, not to follow the Primrose path, the road to perdition and the conspiracy theories.

That's what Tim's doing every day. That's what I'm doing, a couple days a week, you know? I appreciate it, brother. I appreciate the work you're doing a couple days a week. And Merry fucking Christmas. Hey, and happy Hanukkah. All right. Back at you.