Bulwark Takes - 13: Tim Miller: We're Still Stuck In 2020!

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

We’re stuck in a political time warp. Tim Miller breaks down two stories that show how we’re still reliving the madness of 2020: Donald Trump cozying up to a propagandist from Mike Lindell’s pillow “news” network, and Gavin Newsom suing Fox News for the exact amount they paid Dominion.

Tired of losing weight only to gain it all back? The weight loss experts at SlimRank.com have done the research. SlimRank.com ranks the safest, most effective GLP-1 programs that get and keep the weight off for good. Stop watching the scale go up and down. Go to SlimRank.com and pick America's number one weight loss program today. Slimrank.com. That's S-L-I-M-R-A-N-K.com. Your dream body is just a few months away. Slimrank.com. Hey, everybody. Tim Miller from The Bullwork here. We're in a time warp. We are in a time warp, I think. Time is a flat circle. We are never going to get out of 2020. We are going to be doomed to relive it and to deal with the consequences of 2020, I think for the rest of my days, at least in the political world. We saw that today.

There are two stories I wanted to point to, to leave you with here on a Friday afternoon, kick off your weekend. Gavin Newsom suing Fox News for the exact amount of money that Fox News had to pay Dominion. And Donald Trump at his press conference this morning, having a flirtatious exchange with a reporter, reporter, works for pillow crackhead Mike Lindell's News Network, if you want to call it that. And I'll explain why these two things are combined here after we go through each of them. And I'll explain why these two things are combined here. Um, after we go through each of them, uh, but short of it is.

You leave this asymmetric warfare happening where the Trump world and the Fox world is all in on lies. All in on absurd lies. They don't care whether it's true or not. They don't care if they get sued, they're paddled with the metal. And then the other side is figuring out how to punch back. And Gavin is offering a model that I have some issues with. We'll explain that at the end. Continuing to try to deal with the fucking lunacy that is coming from MAGA, from Fox, from Trump himself. So it all makes sense in the end. Let's start by watching the exchange

of Trump in the press briefing room this morning. Is there any more information on the special prosecutor? So many Americans still have questions about the 2020 election. And speaking of rogue judges, would you consider appointing somebody at DOJ maybe to investigate the judges that allowed for the political persecution of you, your family and your supporters during the Biden administration? I love you. Who are you? Tom Power from Lindell TV.

Well, that's just a very nice question. And it's not a setup. I have no idea who you are, but I appreciate that question. All I can say is we're not here for that. I hope so. I hope they're doing a thing because that election was rigged and stolen, and we can't allow that to happen. Reporter's still asking about the 2020 2020 election and the guy wins again. They're still obsessed with this reporter again. But the interesting question here is what he's putting out, the judges, the rogue, the judges that adjudicated accurately the fact that the election was normal, the fact that the election did not have any tampering, that there was nothing

to see here with the election, the judges who did their job, who spoke the truth, who upheld their oath. This fucking hack, this embarrassing hack, who is a front woman for Mike Lindell, who is a liar, who is an admitted liar in court, when it comes to his advocacy for the big lie around 2020, she wants to punish the people who did the right thing. Why might that be? Well, maybe because Mike Lindell was in court recently getting humiliated by a judge who was dealing in facts and dealing in reality. So that's one element to this. And the other element you have is Trump just like with the, oh, I love this question.

I love you. Who are you? Oh, it's a nice question. It's not a setup. Well, it's just a very nice question. And it's not a setup. That this person gets this platform to do just blatant shameless propaganda, not even like soft propaganda like you see on Fox, but like shameless. I am going to not only advance lies for you, sir, Mr. President,

but I'm going to ask you if you can act on those lies in a way to punish people who were just acting appropriately, doing their job, upholding their oath, which, you know, Trump likes that. Trump likes having somebody out there on the edge pushing even further than him. You know, there might be some other things that somebody who has been credibly accused of dozens of instances of sexual harassment and assault might like about this woman as well. Now we go to Gavin. Uh, and Gavin is, uh, has filed a $787 million lawsuit against Fox News.

The lawsuit is related to a segment where Donald Trump said that he and Gavin, you know, Gavin had claimed that Trump did not call him before sending the military in. Trump said he did. Gavin Newsom tweeted the following. He said, quote, there was no call, not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying Marines on our streets doesn't even know who he's talking to. Well, President Trump contacted me from Air Force One

on his way to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he'll be in just a little while. He said, the first call to Gavin Newsom was not picked up. The second call, Gavin picked up. We spoke for 16 minutes. I told him to essentially, quote, and this is quoting the president, get his ass in gear and stop the riots, which were out of control more than anything else.

This shows what a liar he is, said I never called. So here is the evidence. And here is the call log that the president sent me from his phone. This was June the 7th. Now granted, this was on Saturday. Trump got the dates wrong. He's an old man, forgetful. Fox News ran Trump's spin for him and basically called Gavin a liar and said that Trump had been calling him when all the evidence shows that he hadn't, or at least he hadn't within

the time period that he claimed. And so Gavin's suing. It's a cute Little press release. It just filed a lawsuit against Fox News for lies, for deceit, for misrepresentation. Enough of their lies. We'll see them in court. He's going to sue for the exact same number of Fox already had to pay Dominion about those 2020 lies that are being still spread in the White House briefing room. Because that election was rigged and stolen. I guess it's unbelievable. Fox almost had to pay a billion dollars over there, uh, over the

advancement of these lies back in 2020. And still now five years later, we have Lindell TV and the president himself pushing those same lines. So Gavin in his cheeky effort, uh, if it's not the press, this is going to sit down to press a law, a a lawsuit a formal legal document saying he's gonna sue them for seven hundred eight seven million It says that he will pull that back if Jesse waters will apologize As he wanders who by the way just today on the five else watching a clip of him do some racist joke about

Jasmine Crockett, I was to set her up with a white man and how she might not do that like He's just so gross. So I mean, I'd like to see Jesse Waters apologize too. I do wonder, this is, this is really more of a question. I'd like to get feedback from everybody. Cause like there is a visceral element to the Gavin thing that you like, you know, I like to see, you know, it's like, you know, good, good for the goose, good for the gander type

thing, right? You're going to file these provolous lawsuits at ABC and CBS and pressure them and fight. I'll start throwing some bullets, you know, I'll start firing off some, some lawsuits about your lies. Like in this case, Fox actually did a, said a lie, you know, as opposed to, you know, George Stephanopoulos, like not being exactly legally precise in his description of what Donald Trump did to E.G. and Carol, which was colloquially, you know, a sexual assault. The other side of me though is like, we're going to the bad place. as a media, as a commentator, do I want now even the Democrats, like giving, putting a rubber stamp on like the idea, endorsing the idea, the journalists, like get things wrong,

who, you know, make a comment that isn't, you know, exactly accurate. Their opinion commentators that are popping off all the time, you know, they can be sued. They can be taken to court if they're commenting on what's happening to public figures. Like, there's always this very, very, very high bar for public figures because they know that there's going to be discussion about them and there's good reason, right? It's different. Like you, as whatever, Jane Doe, you have a lot lower bar for a lawsuit where you talk about how you've been smeared and liable because it could really impact your reputation. A politician is like putting themselves out there in a way that they're making a choice

to understand that they'll be in the public discourse, that people will make accusations about them. So anyway, like in this country, in England, the rule is very different and other countries rules are very different. In this country, there's been kind of a laissez-faire attitude towards rhetoric about public figures. And I think that's a good thing. I like the first amendment element of this. I am horrified by the ways that CBS and ABC and these folks have been folding to

Donald Trump's threats to the first amendment. And I think it's disgusting the fact that these supposed free speech warriors are doing a direct assault on the first amendment by targeting media institutions to challenge them. And so given that context, it's like, do I really want Democrats playing in this sandbox too? Like what is the good that's going to end up Gavin Newsom's not going to win this lawsuit. You wouldn't think even if he did, we've already seen that Fox soldiers on like losing a lawsuit does not done anything to temper their behavior. So I don't know, I'm torn about it. I understand, I essentially, I have like an emotional response.

It's like, yeah, Gavin, get them. And I also, and I have a, my judgment, my sort of ethical judgment says, no, I don't think this is right. Like I'm opposed to this in principle. And then from the strategic standpoint, I'm kind of torn. Cause I don't even know if it's really good strategy or not. So yeah, so let me know in the comments. And the main takeaway is the fact that the big lie persists is so fucking horrific. It's so awful.

These guys, speaking of trump mike guindell fuck that's jesse waters i should all be ashamed of themselves but that's the world of reliveness we got to figure out what the right way to combat it is um appreciate everybody