Bulwark Takes - Rubio Regret Sets In After Insane Trump-Zelensky Meeting

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

Sam Stein and Lauren Egan break down Democratic senators' regrets over confirming Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. They explore Trump’s influence, Rubio’s stance on Ukraine, and the growing divide within the Democratic Party. Plus, Bernie Sanders’ push for a tougher fight and Elon Musk’s latest political bombshell.

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Hey guys, me Sam Stein, back again. All I do, just YouTube all day. It's unbelievable. I'm here with Lauren Egan. Sunday, we're going to be talking about Democratic regrets. They have more than a few, I suppose. Before we do that, you know the routine. Subscribe to the feed. We're well over a million folks. This is a great feed. It should be on your to-do list if you haven't done it already. Lauren, how's your Sunday going? Hey, great.

Yeah, it's good. This is exactly what I wanted to be doing. Yeah, same. Nothing beats YouTubing with Lauren Egan on a Sunday. All right, so we were talking about Sunday shows Nothing beats YouTubing with Lauren Egan on a Sunday. All right. So we were talking about Sunday shows and notably not one, but two democratic senators were asked this morning if they have regrets about voting for Marco Rubio. Now I guess the context here is what happened with Zelensky in the office on Friday, Marco Rubio.

I don't know if I can do the proper impression. He sat there like this. Just like pull up the meme. The dude looks so unhappy. He's not happy. And yet he put on a brave face and did the whole spin thing where he said Trump was incredible and rightfully standing you know, standing up for America's interests. And so Chris Murphy and Chris Van Hollen both were asked about

their support for Marco Rubio, his confirmation for Secretary of State. And we'll play it back to back. Here's what they said. I did vote for Senator Rubio to be Secretary of State. I regret that vote because as a member of the Senate, Secretary Rubio was somebody who stood up for American values, American principles. He acknowledged that Russia was the aggressor against Ukraine. He realized that it wasn't Zelensky who was the dictator. And now he's simply taking his directions to the State Department from Elon Musk and essentially parroting the president's position. You voted to approve his nomination to be secretary of state. You still think you made the right choice? Nope. It was a mistake.

It was a mistake. I think a lot of us thought that Marco Rubio was going to stand up to Donald Trump on an issue like this, that when Donald Trump decided to align America with dictatorships, again, in order to make it easier for him to steal from the American people, to turn America into an illiberal democracy in which, just like Russia, the oligarchs, the economically powerful people in America rule and the rest of us just feed the powerful. Two senators both expressing regret. What do you make of it?

Is this, I don't know, are they naive to assume that this would come to this? Well, like when Murphy was like, we thought he would stand up to Trump. It's like, why? Like, what would make you think that? Like, we've seen enough now. Like, no one is going to do that. That was my thinking. Was there anything in history?

I just don't believe that. Like, I just don't believe that he actually thought that. You know what I mean? So what do you think they thought when they were voting for the nominees? I think it was like, all right, we know Rubio. We've been in Congress with rubio it could be worse than rubio so we're gonna we're gonna say yes to rubio you know there's also this thing it's also this thing where democrats feel like they have to show uh that they are bipartisan

in nature and like this was sort of right relatively low stakes yeah yeah right and like there's a point to that like it could have been worse than rubio from their perspective so you know is that like the hill you die on probably not but still like none of them actually thought that he was going to get in there and act as like a serious check on trump at least i don't buy that well i guess and then the question is like were they naive because the first term didn't show that? There were points in the first term, Trump's first term, where there were some pushback on the foreign policy stuff, but it wasn't, like, substantial. So I guess maybe. I don't know.

I just feel like the amount of, like, ass kissing behind the scenes that, like, Rubio probably had to do to get this nomination. It's like, you seriously think that he's going to turn around and five weeks in, uh, like act as some sort of like, what did they expect him to do in this specific moment? Was he going to say, how dare you Donald? And like, yeah, I don't understand like what they thought was going to happen, but whatever they got to do their thing on the Sunday show. Like I get it, but right. So you've been, but you've been reporting a lot on Democrats and the kind of divide that's existing between the party's base and the lawmakers. And obviously, there's a lot of frustration out there that the party hasn't done enough to fight Trump. And I

suppose there's some frustration that they did give saw enough to some of these nominees, not that they could have held them up. It only takes 50 votes. But talk a little bit about your reporting and how how that pertains to this specific situation. Yeah, I think there's like, you know, a sense, especially among base Democratic voters, that the party could be doing a lot more to be pushing back against Trump. And, you know, I think like Democrats have a role to play in shaping public opinion. And it seems like, you know, these first five weeks they've kind of just like given in or just like let Republicans kind of like, you know, control the narrative and run with things instead of like trying to pick fights or trying to sort of shape public opinion. Yeah, but let me play devil's advocate. Like what could they do?

Like even if they hadn't voted for Rubio, he was going to get confirmed, right hadn't voted for ruby he was going to get confirmed right totally fair yeah he was going to get confirmed but let's like do you want to win on that do you want to win on public opinion like i don't know if you just let like trump kind of i think that there's you know and like james carville obviously like made this argument in a new york times op-ed what was it, last week, that Democrats should roll over and play dead. Right. So there is one school of thought. Is that like a real school of thought? I feel like that's kind of country.

Well, there's a James Carville school of thought that I guess they should just like- I mean, there's something to it. I just want to explain to the viewer what he means, right? Yeah, go for it. Yeah, yeah. He basically is saying Trump and Elon are going to dig their own graves and you shouldn't get in the way of it. And only when Trump's down to like high 30s, low 40s approval rating is when you should – Democrats should start going after him. I don't know if I buy it, honestly.

I feel like it also sort of – don't you want to expedite him getting into the high 30s? We don't know what that timeline is. Right. Like that could – sure, it could happen in a few months. It could also happen in like, I don't know, like 2027. Like we don't know when that's going to happen. So like sure, if you just want to roll the dice and see what happens. It's premised on this idea that Trump will just fuck up i mean i mean sure there's a lot of history yeah and it's premised on this idea that

again that democrats don't have a role to play in shaping public opinion they do that's why i that argument from carville i'm just like okay like i don't know so bernie sanders was out today um and he basically was like i I don't agree with that. He's like, I think we have to fight all the fights more or less. And there's this new sort of burgeoning school of thought among Democrats that they just have to go at it. Like they have to take more and more swings that they were almost too passive early on. And I guess that's where this Chris Murphy, Chris Van Hollen stuff is from is that, you know, there's just no reason to give to Trump, especially if he's going to do stuff like what he did with Zelensky in the Oval Office, or if he's just going to hand over the keys of the car to Elon Musk when it comes to government spending. So that's like the new

school of thought. Yeah. And I mean, I think like, if they're actually like trying to sort of you know ramp that up a bit obviously like they're gonna have to get a bit more creative than just going on the sunday shows and saying something um right but yeah you're starting to see it like crack a little bit well that was my so that was the other thing is that happened and i guess this gets to like the whole can you be more creative and can be more hyperactive. Like, Elon, did you listen to all three hours of Joe Rogan with Elon or no? No. I know you told me to, but no. I saw I couldn't make it.

It was like 5 p.m. on Friday and I was like, I got halfway through. You were at two times speed then. Okay. I had to. Two times speed is too intense. I felt like my mind was going to break. Like, it hurt. It i i i will just say i had to do that everyone during the campaign hours during the campaign yeah i listened two times a week you know some people that one wasn't three hours though it was three hours him

and trump yes it absolutely was it was long anyways on the on the Joe Rogan experience, Elon Musk did call social security a Ponzi scheme. And I'm old enough to remember when that shit would get you in real trouble. And this is where the Carville thing, I'm like, what? They're handing Democrats cards for them to play. Fucking play it if you're trying to win here you know like what are you doing but I totally agree and they all the thing that like I think the only thing from Schumer was some written statement being like how dare you get a tweet or something yeah it's a Sunday I get it but no wait no I don It dropped on Friday. Okay. It's been a full 48 hours.

They've had plenty of time to like – I don't even know. Yeah. Like what? What on earth? So Bernie was out there and he was talking about it. And I know a few others were talking about it. But like I just got to be honest. You've got to be more – if you want to – it just feels to me like Republicans are at a different pace.

It's like watching a power Walker and a sprint. No, it's like, like sometimes the sprinter is going to fall on his face and they just feel like so JV right now. It's just like, they're playing in different leagues, like entirely.

Well, we'll see if they pick it up, but it's not going well so far. All right. Next time when there's a joe rogan experience and it's three or four hours you just gotta gotta grin and bear it i'm sorry i'm in i'll do it right you're a liar you're just lying all right lauren thanks so much the first hour that's fine it gets a little crazy after that all right lauren thank you so much thank you

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