Bulwark Takes - Hannity Bombs Interview with Co-Presidents Trump and Elon

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Tim Miller and Sam Stein talk Sean Hannity's soft ball interview with Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Hey guys, Tim Miller from the Bulwark here with my buddy, Managing Editor Sam Stein. And there's an interview tonight. Sean Hannity did an interview with the President, Donald Trump, the Co-President Elon Musk. They were all together in the room. I didn't actually watch it. I was prepping for tomorrow's pod. We have a deep dive on cryptocurrency tomorrow. So I'm trying to learn about what's going on. You're going to talk about what's going on in Argentina? Yeah. We're going to do Malay. You're going to talk about what's going on in Argentina? Yeah. We're going to do Malay.

We're going to do the ICOs. I have to learn about that. We're also doing a deep dive on Liv Golf. I've got so much for you guys on our creeping fascism and the corruption around Donald Trump that I couldn't watch what I assume was a really hardball interview with a lot of breaking news. So I'm here to kind of react live as Sam tells me what I missed it's very generous to call this an interview oh really it was it was a tongue bath it was a classic hannity uh tongue bath handy handy handy it was pretty good tim uh i wouldn't go there there. I didn't watch the interview, so I've got to bring something to this analysis. Yeah, good handjob jokes.

No, it was horrible. I don't want to say horrible. There's plenty of horrible things. I actually admire Hannity because it does take its unique ability to sit down with the world's richest dude who's creating utter chaos all over this planet and the president of the United States who is facilitating it to have them there in front of you for an hour and make absolutely no news from your interview with them. It takes a special talent and he possesses that. He's, he is the ultimate at softball news because he loves these guys and he wants to be part of their administration as sort of informally part of the administration. All right. So let me, so I guess,

plenty of topics they could have gone over. Did they cover the firing of the disabled army veteran who was working at the va hospital did that get did that get covered no no what about what about the firing of the nuclear uh safety staff uh firing the faa officials that could cover that how about the firing of the food safety people they're supposed to be overseeing the bird flu firing and unfiring of them no no covered no you want to keep going i think yeah what about what about donald trump saying that it was that zelensky was wearing too short of a skirt and so it was his no i didn't get invaded no there was to give you a sense of what it was like there was like a three minute section i was just trying

to follow because it's so confusing and where hannity kept going on to elon about he's like you've done all these great things. You started all these great companies. You're sending people to Mars. You're putting chips in people's brains to make paralyzed people walk and think again. And you did all this, you helped us, you know, launch Tesla and all these great cars. And you're so incredible. And then the question was, you'd think liberals would love you. I would think liberals would love the fact that you have the biggest electric vehicle company in the world.

Yeah, I mean, I used to be adored by the left. Not anymore. Less so these days. He killed that, huh? I mean, less so. I really didn't. Why are they there? You wouldn't think liberals would love him if you, you know, read what he says about liberals, right? Like, again, it's like, why don't liberals like the 2017 version of you, Elon Musk?

I think what Elon's response was, he's like, yeah, it's weird. Why don't they love me? And I was like, yeah, you know, I don't know. There's maybe like five years of evidence in between. But yeah, I think the most interesting thing, honestly, was kind of the dynamic between Trump and Musk, because for a while, Trump kind of just sat there as Musk was speaking. You don't normally see that with Donald Trump. I'm not saying he was like this, like perturbed by it or anything.

He didn't come off that way. But it was just sort of a weird dynamic where like who seems like they're in charge who seems that's the thing it's like if you watched it you would say well trump's in charge but like elon's got like a little bit more pizzazz and energy and authority and he and elon was sitting there trying to figure out when to jump in and and he obviously was aware that he doesn't want to be seen i mean they did spend the first portion of the interview was spent going henry was like you know people are trying to pitch you two against each other and uh you know say that he's the shadow president they're like we're on to them we're so much smarter than they are we know that they're trying to do that so like

it would but that just only reinforced the fact that there is this weird tension going on like you don't need to say it if it if it's not a problem um but that was sort of the tenor of the interviews like here are these two guys where's jd vance where was it even i did see one clip on social media where trump is like talking about how he wanted to find somebody smarter than elon couldn't do it couldn. You're the richest man in the world. You may not like that part. You're pretty competitive. I've known you a long time. But he's on your team.

Well, that's true. He can't top that. You know, I wanted to find somebody smarter than him. I searched all over. I just couldn't do it. I couldn't. Well, that was because the preface of the question was Sean Hannity pointed out that Elon was richer than Trump.

And then Hannity clearly sensing that he might have stepped in it was like, I know that, you know, that doesn't make you happy. But, you know, he's just sort of stumbling. And then and then Trump kind of came back and was like, well, you know, I tried to find someone smarter than I couldn't. I was like, well, what are you guys talking about? We just wasted like an hour now. I wasted like a minute and a half just doing this weird dance you know uh so did they cover anything of substance uh it looked like there was some discussion of of social security right so that if you want to pull yeah if you had to pull some news threads out of it and trust me me, it was hard.

I mean, I was talking with another reporter, and they compared it to, like, I think, like, you know, having conversations with your dog, basically. Yeah, it was like, you know, you're not really. Who is the dog? Hannity? Hannity interviewed him like a dog. Pretty much. There was two, okay, there was two things that were of interest. One was on the interview, and during the commercial uh for for news value

purposes the first was um trump was they you know hannity's like setting up again classic sean hannity thing where he basically tries to lead trump to water he's like you know they're saying you're gonna cut all this stuff you're not really gonna cut like social security right like they're gonna accuse you that but you're not gonna do it just tell them you're not to cut all this stuff you're not really going to cut like social security right like they're going to accuse you that but you're not going to do it just tell them you're not going to do it and trump's like no of course no we're not going to touch social security medicare and then he added medicaid which um they are he did yeah social security won't be touched other than fraud or something we're going to find it's going to be strengthened but won't be touched medicare medicaid none of that stuff is going to be touched.

Nothing. You don't have to. Yeah. And they are going to touch it. I mean, that is the House Republican blueprint. I mean, a lot of their money is through Medicaid cuts. So, you know, these guys tend to get away with these lies. So I'm not like going to, you know, think too much about it. But that is – I think that the Medicaid debate is actually going to be pretty challenging. You've even seen Steve Bannon out there saying – Oh, Bannon is amazing about it.

There are a lot of Trump voters on Medicaid. Yeah, people don't get it. People don't really appreciate Medicaid. The perception of Medicaid is for poor black and Hispanic people. That's just not true. There's tons, tons of rural white, poor white people, including in very red States who are Medicaid. And Steve Bannon is not wrong about that. Let's just put it there. All right.

The Medicaid numbers right here in Louisiana is like towards the top of the list. We're in like the top two or three. Oh yeah. You know, you've got the worst governor in the country and you know, Trump won here by like 40 points. So you know it's the whole what's the matter with kansas adage but whatever um the second newsy thing again nothing to do with hannity who who really couldn't you know care less about news uh cam during one of the commercial breaks where suddenly the the government of ontario uh had put up an ad about how great ontario is and what a remarkable ally ontario is to the united states ontario is your

third largest trading partner and the number one export destination for 17 states and i was watching i was like that's that's an interesting ad. And Ontario seems really lovely. But why are they running it? And then it occurred to me, they're banking on the fact that Donald Trump is watching his own interview with Elon Musk and Sean Hannity. And he's going to see that ad and be like, oh, man, Ontario maybe isn't that bad. And maybe I should rethink these tariffs because Ontario seems pretty nice and that's where we're at so I thought that was kind of newsy

I don't know about that there was one element of it our colleague Andrew Edgar pointed this out on Slack I did watch one he's back from paternity leave I did watch one clip I lied earlier when I said I didn't watch any

and it was Elon talking let's just all watch it together He's back from paternity leave. I did watch one clip. I lied earlier when I said I didn't watch any. And it was Elon talking. Let's just all watch it together. Why are they reacting like this? Well, first of all, do you give a flying rip, number one? Well, I guess we must be over the target of doing something right. They wouldn't be complaining so much if we weren't doing something useful, I think. But all we're really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president.

And what we're finding is that there's an unelected bureaucracy, speaking of unelected, there's a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president and the cabinet. Now, I don't think this is a news flash probably to you sam but it doesn't seem like elon really understands how the american constitutional democracy works i thought about that too i was like he doesn't really quite get it he doesn't quite get it this is not a direct democracy situation where you vote for one single man and then their will and their whims reflect the wills of the

entire people there are a lot of checks and balances a lot of different we have governors various states there's there are two actually bodies in congress i heard some rumors he didn't know that until recently there's a house and a senate they all get elected uh they all have their interests and so yeah it's not just like a soft dictator gets to say this gets to say call it the gulf of america and then that is the law now that's not not actually how democracy or at least our democratic republic works now yeah and and uh if hannity had a pulse at that moment he could have pointed out it out. He might have even said, like, look, well, that's interesting. Like, what happens in, like, a situation like 2016 where Trump wins but he doesn't get the most votes?

Like, does he have to implement Hillary's agenda? Like, what's the deal in that one? But Hannity just was like, yeah. Edgar pointed out, for those of us like me and Andrew who suffered our whole lives through going to Republican rubber chicken dinners, having to listen to these fuckers talk about how it's a republic. We are a republic, not a democracy. And if I had a nickel for every time I heard that, I could buy a few Trump coins, let me tell you something. But you're not hearing a lot of that from the Hill.

No, I wouldn't get the Trump coins, not the Malay coins. The whole thing was pointless. You're not hearing a lot of that from the Hill. I wouldn't get the Trump coins, not the Malay coins. You know, the Libra or whatever the call it. I don't want those. No, the whole thing was pointless. You didn't really miss anything. But it does go to show you that, you know, it's just these guys who have all this access to Trump. I mean, the reason they got the access is because they're just sycophants. And they don't actually. I mean, he doesn't even pretend to be a news guy, so I shouldn't criticize him too much, but you have that type of platform.

You have that type of access. You should do something with it. And he didn't. And that sucks. Your expectations for Sean. I know, right? I don't even know what to say to you. Speechless.

Sam, Mr. Hannity, sir. If you're watching, Sam Stein is very disappointed in you as a journalist. He had bigger expectations. And, sir, do better. Can I just say to you, do better, Mr. Hannity. Next time he says it's a direct democracy. I don't think it was shit.

Thank you, Sam Stein. Everybody else, subscribe to the feed. I already told you, we've got so much good shit coming tomorrow. So stick around, tell your friends friends we'll see you soon peace