Bulwark Takes - Sam & Sarah Read Their Own Hate Mail

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

Sam Stein and Sarah Longwell made a mistake. They decided to take on their haters and read mean comments from the internet about each other. What followed was a mix of roasting, self-reflection, interruptions, hair discourse, Seinfeld heresy, and the comment section doing what it does best.

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please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hey, everybody. It's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at The Bullwork. And I'm joined by our publisher, Sarah Longwell. And I'm not going to enjoy this video because Sarah and I, for some reason, have decided that we're going to read mean comments that people have said online about each of us to each of us. Nobody decided this. Okay. Somebody handed me a sheet of paper with digs on Sam. And they were like, you guys are going to do a take on this. And I was like, okay, I guess I'll just read mean comments. I mean, there's something really perverse about this because we both effectively, to a degree, steer the company. And yet we've decided someone's going to make us do this to each other. I don't know why we're doing this. It's just like us making fun of ourselves for the enjoyment of our listeners. So here you go, guys.

Merry Christmas. We're going to roast each other right now, like a couple of yule logs. All right. How do you want to do this? Like tip for tat, you read one, I read one, and then we just sort of react. Should you that? Let me just level set with people, though. And I haven't seen a single thing that Sarah's going to read to me about me. Sarah hasn't seen a single comment that people said about her that I'm going to read to her. But we have talked to the people who gathered these comments. And it was very clear that I'm about to take it on the chin relative to Sarah. That it's much worse for me than it is for her. You don't believe that. That's the case. I don't believe that because I also read the comments, and if you don't have six of them that are like, Sarah, why don't you apologize every time for being a Republican for so long that you don't have an accurate reflection or go over to Reddit where they, you know, that's JVL's world over there. And they do not care for the voters that I show, you know, that I believe are humans.

And let me just one last one last disclaimer before we get into it. We love our commenters. We love our fans. our haters. I actually, I revel in the hatred. I find it invigorating. As long as it's not too violent and personal, I'll take it. And so hopefully this is done in good spirit. All right. You go first. This is from Mr. Penn XX. I'd be disappointed as a sponsor if Sam was reading my ad. Are you bad at the ads? You seem okay. which ad uh was it the sole gummy ad or was it the sole gummies or he takes one before he before he does the ad so he's always a little giggly i don't know so sole gummy they keep asking me to read the ads i think they're happy with my content um maybe i think we should do three

i think we should do three in a row well i don't even have i have like three for you total but go go ahead. Lolly, 387 says, how many bad takes can say I'm having one video? Good Lord. I wish I knew what videos. Yeah, I need the context for that one. Lolly, thank you. But I don't know.

What was the video? What was the take I had? To be fair, we all have some bad takes, guys. They can't all be good. Yeah. I'm like, I'm hitting like 50% I'm happy. Yeah, those are good numbers. Juden Peterson.

Oh, no, not Judin. I don't know who Judith is. This one, oh, this is, this is anti-Semitic. Read it. Read it, read it, it's okay. Judin Peterson said, oh, no, sorry, at Judin Peter Stein. Oh, yeah. Sam Stein in all caps, L-O-L.

Oh, God. Who, I don't want to read this to you, Sam. who knows, spelled N-O-S-E. Oh, my God. Who put this in the fucking dog? Who did put this in here? This is not. Who knows why he has a platform?

Garbage can emoji. Okay. Why did we read that one? What was the point of that? I don't know. Am I supposed to, what am I supposed to do here? I told you it's anti-Semitic. It's bad.

I will just say, the context is I'm a Jew. Ha! All right. I let that one go. I get a lot of those. It's unfortunate. Do you want to keep that in here? We should maybe cut. I don't want to have read that. I'm fine with full transparency. People need to know what's out there on the internet. A lot of anti-Semitism. I'm happy with my religion. I'm happy with my nose. I'll live with that. You have a great nose. Thank you, Sarah. All right. Let's move on. I'm going to read this. Again, I just want to be clear. Yours are like half of the ones I got were like people being complimentary. So it's like this is not a. This is not a. a fair fight, but I'm going to read one. And this is so, this is out of context because people love what, this is, I'm just going to read it, Susan Winters dash K6X. Sarah, your hairstylist hates you.

You had gorgeous hair, not so much anymore. That's not even, that doesn't represent the, and I'm being sincere, the vast majority of the commenters have been incredibly complimentary of the haircuts. They've been pro haircut, but, um, Susan Winchers, apparently not. Okay. You know, the context of this is that I'm a girl and therefore get lots of comments about my hair when my hairstyle changes, which has been a new experience for me. That's good.

I like the hair. I'm going to do a couple. I'm going to read these two in succession because they're about the same thing. Barry says first, how could Sarah not have watched Seinfeld? And Charles says, Sarah needs to keep an open mind and watch. Seinfeld? Why didn't you watch Seinfeld? Is this like a thing? It is. This is a form of anti-Semitism. It is a form of anti-Semitism. Me not watching Seinfeld. I almost made that joke, too. JVL was making a Seinfeld reference in a recent podcast. No, I get all the references.

And also, I did never, I never sat down to watch Seinfeld, but like the suit Nazi. He was doing in a lane bit that one I didn't know but I've seen enough of Seinfeld like I get Seinfeld it's just not it's not my favorite okay fair enough all right while we were speaking they've been adding some stuff I believe from Reddit maybe yeah it looks like from Reddit so I have more in the arsenal but you go you're up I don't like these try to keep them try to keep them on the right side of the anti-Semitic line if you can is it my job because I just thought I was reading these but if you need me to edit them for reasons I will because I'm not seen any of these. I do not like that I had to read that anti-Semitic one. I know you didn't believe it personally. If you have one there

that's mean about lesbians, you have full range to do it. There you can go. Thank you. I'm looking for it. This one's just, this one's just mean. But nice to Andrew at at fiery picnic. Sam is so bad. Can't you get someone good to interview Andrew? I spent half my time just cringing at Sam's inflated ego. It's really not fair to Andrew, who is actually good. I rarely click when it's Sam pick on the, Sam's pick on the thumbnail, and I regret it every time. I think people need to have the proper context for this one, too.

Andrew and I have a very great relationship that's built on a little bit of sort of like false adversariness, I guess, adversarialness. But I love Andrew. I just pick on him a little bit. There's a genre of the, of the Andrew tweets. Sam is so patronizing to Andrew, let him cook or cut him loose to a colleague that respects him. Okay. I'm getting a, I'm picking up on the theme here, and I'm going to make a resolution for this year to be more kind to Andrew.

Okay. All right. You go, do you do two now because now there's like a new genre I have, but her just one mind. Okay. Here's some of the new material. Yeah, see, okay, before I get to new material, like, the stuff I had was like, you know, it wasn't even remotely bad. Patricia Riley writes, I'm not lesbian. I'm not a lesbian. But like Sarah, I find those men repellent. Like, that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing.

All right, here we go from what appears to be the Reddits. CCBG 77 writes, please stop wasting time on focus groups, Sarah. That's why Dems lose all the time. They have to have focus groups, polls, run every statement by legal, et cetera, et cetera. Then C-D-N-S-A-N-D-I-E-F-T-4 says, why does Sarah keep presenting the both sides in every situation, just like MSM? Please stop. There's no both sides with this.

And then another one says, I hate Sarah. I hate Sarah. I hate Sarah. Please stop putting her on this show. That's her show. Yeah, I got tough news for that guy, which is my, I'm sorry to this company, man. Yeah, I'm not going to get rid of her. Sorry.

There's no one to fire me. There's just no one to do it. Okay. Well, you know, I'm saving a few for later. I have a couple more for you, but go ahead. Well, these are just, this is, Sam, you can be a jerk, which is right in line with at James Crawford, 671, Sam Stein is full of. crap. And then at John Starrett, 3397, Sam, you're a bit silly. Where's Sarah?

That's fine. I'll take that. Hey, Sam, wait until the full sentence gets out, bro. I'm sensing a theme. Yeah, there's a lot of these. Stop interrupting, you dick. All right. Here we go. some people just don't get the focus group concept let's just put it that way okay count brass this is from four days ago i'd love it if sarah could explain what the point is of asking these questions of the stupidest people in the electorate do you want to address that one just as a quick Just wait, that person votes, the stupid people vote to. They all get to vote.

And so knowing where they are is good for politicians to know because just so you guys know, in a democracy, the voters, no matter how stupid, they get to decide who governs them. So that's why I listen. Makes sense to me. All right. Complex Mind, Simple Man, 6-642. Simple Man with a complex mind. when it comes to democratic strategy whatever sarah is against i am four she's always wrong

and then kowloon tong says can we get sarah is always wrong t question mark i'm sure you could make that yourself i think that's pretty easy print it i think i think you could do us sometimes wrong uh but you know i've had a lot of ws on the on that but it's whatever that's cool do you keep a tab in your head like like what you think is like the score between you and jvl do you have I do. I do. And I would like to tell you some of my big ones since I've got this opening. The first one is I was the one saying Joe Biden shouldn't run again. Joe Biden shouldn't run again. The voters think he's too old because, you know, I listened to the voters and they were real clear on this. They did not want Joe Biden to run again.

Yeah. One. Two, my big fight with JVL was over the economics during Joe Biden. I was like, people don't feel it. They are so frustrated with the inflation. And that turns out in retrospect to have been the main reason why Trump won. Hey, you got those two right. What's the one you got the most wrong? Well, I definitely, I thought that there was, I used to quote this a lot, that there was just enough virtue in this republic to save it. Sometimes, none to spare, but still enough to meet the emergency. You would say that? Yeah, it's a state, William Seward during the Civil War would say that. Oh, yeah, of course.

Yeah, absolutely. I remember that one. You got that one wrong. All right. Hit me. Hey, Sam. Oh, wait, I already did this one. Sam, what happened? Well, they're all like this. I should just read all of these. Sam, what happened to let her cook? You finish her sentences for her.

That must have been with me. I don't know who else you're talking to. Is every single comment just, Sam, shut up. You interrupt too much, basically. It is. For, from lucky man, indeed. Does Sam's died ever, all caps, let a person finish a sentence or thought without interruption question mark at gino rosetti 7-722 i agree with sam the interruptor stein i'm not comfortable

with all sports betting advertised during and possibly at sporting events oh that's a nice one she agreed with you she just you've got a nickname in the comments what am i supposed to do i got to stop i got to like literally bite my tongue l for sam the interrupter utah underscore john good lord sam interrupts a lot That's all I got. Okay. I got one more for you. I clearly I have stuff to work on. Oh.

Oh. Oh. This is good because it turns a critique of me on you. William Foots says Sarah talks a lot, given it's supposed to be George explains it all to Sarah. Please stop interrupting George. Whoa. You would think, has he watched a show? That's not how it goes.

If you did like a thing where you just took minutes of talking time, I guarantee you it is 10% for me and 90% for him. That seems totally extraordinary to me. I don't feel like you interrupt George at all. Okay, I have one more for you. Louise Bolton, 1800. Please have Sarah Longwell pronounced Galane Maxwell's first name correctly. Apparently you can't do it. Can't do it.

What did you? Galane. I say Gislane or Glein. I can't. it's a tough one that's a tough name if you've run a pedophile ring i do not feel obligated to say your name properly i'll just i can i can put you your name all day long you know what my favorite comment was recently i've been listening for years and i've never heard sarah long will finish a distinct thought and this is a real thing about me i interrupt my own line of thinking all the time to backtrack and

stuff and i think that was a clean hit on me wait so you you have a an interruption problem, too. I interrupt my own self, yes. Yeah, that's better than interrupting other people. In your defense, I do think that Sam has a real TV and reporter's knack for he is trying to get out the next thing and keep the conversation moving quickly. I do think, though, for our audience, they would listen to us. The number of people who after our 90-minute TNL the other day were just like more TNL.

People don't mind, Sam. Yeah. No, I will say. Just in my defense, that is true. It's like, and especially with Eger, guys got so many thoughts in his brain. I just want him to, like, synthesize a little bit and focus. He's getting his reps in.

Yeah, that's true. And I should just shut up because that guy's cooking. He's smart. And no one cares for an interrupting Sam. So there's that. All right. I don't have anything really more here in my arsenal. I mean, some of them are just like straight up stupid and mean.

And I'm not going to read them. Oh, you have some. Wait, you have stupid and mean ones for me? Yeah, but I don't feel comfortable reading this. Like, like, besmirch is dead people. All right. Of course, Sarah was at war criminal Dick Cheney's funeral, LMFAO. It's like, do we mean?

Is that even that mean? It's like mean to Dick Cheney. Yeah, I was there with Tim. Did you yell it, Tim? Or just the girl? Yeah, there's a couple more Cheney ones. I think we get the gist. Yeah, I'm ready to, I'm ready to call it quits on this one.

This was humbling and important, but I don't want to do it again. You didn't hurt me, guys. You didn't hurt me. Try harder. Exactly. The comments aren't mean enough. Please, let's do better. Sarah, thank you so much.

I appreciate it. Guys, thank you for, you know, commenting most of you. You do need to step up your hate game. I feel like this was too easy to get by. Not really. We are people with feelings. Exactly. That's a thing.

It does hurt a little. little bit inside. I'm asking it. We'll talk to you later. Subscribe to the feed where you get to watch us humiliate ourselves on your behalf. Take care, Sarah. You're the best, Sam. Love you. Bye.