Bulwark Takes - This Is How the GOP Starts to Crack

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Tim Miller was on Deadline: White House to take on the political fallout from Trump’s Iran war, warning that the real backlash hasn’t shown up in polling yet as rising costs start to hit voters. He also looks at growing cracks inside the GOP, where even MAGA voices are struggling to defend a war with no clear objective.Plus: chaos at U.S. airports after ICE agents are deployed to “help,” a Supreme Court case that could reshape mail-in voting ahead of the midterms, and Trump’s reaction to Robert Mueller’s death.Watch Deadline: White House on MS NOW: https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house

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and even offers you emergency assistance at the tap of a button. Okay, but what if I don't have an accident? Well, just keep on, keeping on. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply. Hey, everybody, Tim, over from the bulwark. I just got off with Alicia Menendez, who was in for Nicole. And, you know, we covered a lot over the course of the hour.

We talked about how I think that Trump should expect his polls to get even significantly worse on the Iran War than they are right now. I'll explain why. In that episode, we also talk about the Supreme Court's potential ruling on mail-in-votings and possible chicanery associated with that that might impact the midterm elections. It is something that I just, I think it's going to be very important to monitor to see if, you know, that ruling impacts this election or if it gets kicked back. Anytime this comes up, I do use the opportunity to rant about California and how it takes them way too long to count their mail-in ballots, and they're just begging for trouble.

We should be able to know who won and lost an election on election night in this country. But putting that aside does not excuse the troublemaking from, you know, the Republicans who have put this lawsuit forward and, you know, their effort on the hill to kill mail-in voting and all other stuff that they're doing that is premised on just nonsense and lies. We also talk about some Epstein stuff and Bob Mueller. But one thing we did not get to was the chaos at the airports. and just the whole notion that sending ice to the airports is going to be something that is helpful or useful.

We're seeing initial videos and hearing stories and reporting from the airports right now. What we've learned so far is that per CNN, agents have been sent to 14 different airports, including here in New Orleans. TSA Union, Vice President Joe Schuker told Huffington Post that there's no way this actually helps. I think we all know this intuitively. but to put a finer point on it, let's watch what Tom Holman said when he was asked on CNN

what exactly they would be doing. You know, certainly a highly trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit makes people don't go through those exits entering the airport through the exits and stuff like that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines. A highly trained ICE officer can cover an exit.

A highly trained ice officer can cover an exit. trained ice officer can make sure that a person doesn't walk out an exit they're not supposed to walk out of. I mean, wow. Wow. I'm glad our taxpayer dollars have been spent so wisely to create this kind of training system for our ICE agents. We're menacing people in the streets. And now what we can be sure to know that they do is that people, you know, people don't walk in through. an exit. Okay. The airport, you have to go through security. But at some airports are also some exit doors next to security. You want to make sure that there aren't people going into the exit door. So, we have a highly trained ice officer standing there at the door. Ma'am,

sir, do you have a ticket? Have you been through security yet? So that's what they're going to be doing. The other pictures and video we've seen have shown just kind of a lot of standing around, is ice agent kind of looking over the shoulder of the TSA person doing their actual job without any pay? I'm just being like, how's it going over here? So that's what we've got so far. That is the do nothing side. Simultaneous to that, we have another story of ICE agents menacing people at the San Francisco airport, which has been like kind of partially privatized and is not really TSA.

This is a little bit of a different story, but I think it shows why many people, myself included, don't want to I want ice agents at the airport, don't want to have to look at them while they are waiting in three-hour TSA lines and watch them stand around to pretend like they're being helpful on my dime. Another reason why people don't want it is because the ice agents have shown time and again that they don't respect the individual rights of free people and that they want to act like bullies and thugs harassing people based on like the color of their skin in a lot of cases, based on other profiling. And the situation in San Francisco was pretty jarring and harrowing and I think shows clearly why folks don't want ice in the airport.

Let's watch. What's your name? Can show the badge? Where's a badge? Where's your badge? Can someone call 911? Where's your badge? Can I see?

Let me see your badge. Okay. Can I see your badge? I don't know if that's legitimate. Can I see your badge number, sir? What is your name? What is your name? Where is your badge number?

So you had there's a U.S. citizen traveling with her young daughter. She had not proven her citizenship to the satisfaction of the agents. And according to a witness who filmed the video said, you know, basically that there was an And that's, you know, the woman was not wanting to be detained, obviously. And you end up saying the agents tackle her to the ground. This is not the worst of the worst. This is not a violent criminal. It's against somebody in the airport with their young daughter, who is a Simpson that just hadn't,

hadn't demonstrated it to the satisfaction of our overlords. So that is where things stand at the airports right now. it's pretty gross. I guess it's better that there are ICE agents guarding the exit doors than having ICE agents tackling people by baggage claim. But unfortunately, we have both right now. So we'll continue to monitor that. Up next me as Lisa Menendez and some of our other friends, Claire McCaskill and others on Deadline White House. Stick around for that.

Trump's UN Ambassador Mike Walls presented with those polling numbers. Tim here is how he responded. I could quote a whole slew of polls that show, for example, self-described Maga Republicans give the president a 100% approval rating. A majority say the number one job of the commander-in-chief is to keep Americans safe. I can point here to an NBC poll 90% of Republicans, broader Republicans, support Trump's effort to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities. And I have to point out, no one should be surprised here. President Trump has said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, 2016 campaign, 2020 campaign. Since 2024, he's said it 74 times out in the public space.

But if he is going to commit any kind of ground troops or boots on the ground, don't you think he needs to persuade the majority of American people, not just his base? I think the president will keep all options on the table to secure these. objectives. Right. Tim, two things I want to pull apart there. One, the polling. You're not the president of MAGA. You're the president of the United States. It should be relevant to you how the American populace feels about the fact that you have taken us to war. And then this idea that no one should be surprised that a president who ran as though he was going to be America first, that he wasn't going to get involved in anyone else's business is suddenly well involved in

other people's business. The fact that there are 50,000 U.S. troops already, you know, stationed in the region, Tim, the answer is nonsensical. It is. I think that's why Mike Waltz, who had already been fired from one job, was out there delivering it and not the vice president who has been very happy to go and defend Trump up until today or up until this war or Marco Rubio even, you know, who started to fade a little bit more to the background. I don't think they want to have to be out there spinning nonsense and spinning when you know that the president might pulled a rug out from under you at any minute of what you say. You know, it was just 48 hours ago that he was going to obliterate all of Iran and

obliterate their nuclear program or excuse me and obliterate their power plants and their energy infrastructure. And then now they have five days to figure it out. He's all over the place. He's changed his messaging minute by minute. So it puts a guy like Mike Walts there in a very challenging situation and he didn't handle it very well. And the polling look, like I think it's better than it's.

going to get. You know, it usually takes a little while for things to seep into the polling. You know, people that have seen gas prices go up, for example, for one week, you know, if they're MAGA and, you know, it's maybe a little annoying at the pump for one week, you get called and you're still kind of wearing your team jersey and saying you're supportive of the president. A month later, two months later, when you're really feeling the crunch on your family budget over this, when Trump hasn't explained what the objectives are. He hasn't really explained what a win would be. I mean, when we started this, we were going to get complete surrender from Iran,

and the regime was going to be toppled. And now they talk about their objectives as if it's like, well, if we degrade their naval capabilities, then it's really a win. And it's like, I don't think that most Americans, even MAGA Americans, are on board with degrading the number of ships Iran has in exchange for paying more in gasoline, paying more in groceries, as Claire laid out, having their tax dollars be spent on that rather than on things that they need. So I think at some level here, the polling is the lagging indicator. And, you know, if I were the Democrats, I'd be

putting my pedal to the medal on this and just really being, be screaming from the rooftops about how Trump should end this war now. And they should be opposing the war on every front. And I think it is interesting to Miller that the people, who are calling out the absurdity, the recklessness of what they are hearing are people like Representative Annapolina, who in many other ways is in lockstep with this administration. The fact that it is Nancy Mace, I wonder what you make as a sort of student of the MAGA movement and who chooses when to be in alignment and when about the specific fractures we are seeing in this moment. Yeah, a couple thoughts, Lisa.

I mean, one, just going back to the last question you asked about, where they're kind of bragging out the poll of MAGA Americans and what they think about Trump's war. I think the actions of the MAGA politicians betray that they know what the reality is with the voters, which is that, you know, I think that there are a lot of people out there who self-identify as MAGA, who want to support Trump, who want to say that they're on the team, and if a stranger calls them on the phone and they're going to say that they back Trump because they don't want to feel like they've betrayed their team or whatever. This is not healthy behavior.

It's cultish behavior. But I think that that is what happens when these people are getting pulled. I think that a lot of them are saying other things when they're talking to their members of Congress, when they are commenting on their members of Congress of social media posts, when they're watching MAGA media. And just look at the, and if you look at the podcasting charts, it's like anti-Trump mega folks, like, or excuse me, anti-war mega folks like Tucker and Joe. Rogan and others are Dominic and Kelly are dominating right so those people there's somewhere it's not it's not all Democrats listening to that right like the people are tuning into that because they are that message is resonating so I do think that Maga Voters are souring over this and just one more

thing if I may a point of privilege on Tom Tillis I just watching that video you guys you and Amy covered a lot of the craziness but just like the notion that he said that I'm generally supportive of what the president is doing in Iran in one sentence, and then the next sentence is I don't know what the strategic objectives is. I mean, that is insane. That's the position of a madman. They're just like, you know, I do like bombing the Ayatollah.

Like, that's good. I'm for that. I don't know why we're doing it, what we're going to get out of it, how we're going to get out of it, what's going to come after it, what the plan is, but I'm still kind of okay with it. That's basically the position of the nation. non-Maga Republicans in Congress and the people like Roger Wicker that Claire mentioned there.

And to me, that's that's even crazier than the MAGA position. The conservative majority Supreme Court appears ready to overturn a mail-in voting law in Mississippi. And if they do, it could end up upend voting in time for this year's midterm elections. The conservative justices expressed skepticism over the existing state law that validates ballots postmarked by Election Day and received up to five business days later. That law is being challenged by the Republican National Committee, and a ruling in its favor in this case would make voting harder in this year's elections, and all future elections in 14 states, three territories, as well as our nation's capital. The justices did raise concerns today about the practical implications

of changing the law so close to the midterms and how it would hurt overseas and military voting. Justice Katanji Brown-Jackson also pushed back on the suggestion by the RNC's lawyer that we should worry about a loser not accepting the results if late ballots decide an election or that post-election day deadlines are a new thing. Listen. There's just no way the loser is going, whoever it is, is going to accept that outcome and the supporters aren't going to accept the outcome. And so that's something I just don't think is implicated by early voting.

Thank you. Justice Jackson. Except people accepted the possibility. of that outcome for 100 plus years now because this idea of the votes being cast by election day and counted after election day has been around, right? I mean, it's not like we're talking about a brand new thing from Mississippi from the standpoint of no one ever had a post-election day ballot deadline before. The exchange between the RNC attorney and Justice Kachshanji Brown-Jackson that we played before we came into the segment was pretty wild and worth a mention, right?

The attorney saying, well, anyone, anyone in their right mind would question these results. And then Justice Katanjy Brown Jackson saying, well, this is how it's been for the past hundred years. What might make this moment Tim Miller fundamentally different? Yeah, a couple of things of this. The thing that makes this moment different, obviously, is Donald Trump's attempt to steal the election in 2020 and his commitment to advancing a bunch of laws. about our voting system that he fabricated and friends of his fabricated in order to rationalize his temper tantrum and his effort to overturn the election.

And so this is all just an outgrowth of that. We would not be talking about this had, you know, whatever. Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton been presidents for the last decade. We're only talking about it because Donald Trump did. And what is undergirding their attacks on mail and balloting is also a lie. Like there is no fraud at any scale or any meaningful amount of fraud in mail and in-balloting. I'm in Colorado where I grew up. It's almost all mail-in balloting now. The elections have been perfectly free and fair for quite some time. I will say this is a point of personal

privilege on this particular issue of the counting the ballots days after. I think it would be wise, like for blue states in particular like California, not this time, because from the middle of the election season. And they should not try to mess with this in the middle of the election season. But going forward, looking at the 2028 and beyond, to try not to have a system where it takes seven days to count the vote. I do think that in an advanced democracy in the year 2025, 2026, we should be able to count votes on election day. And I think that they are creating an opportunity for troublemaking on the right. And this is one of those pieces of troublemaking that they're engaging in. And I were doing some back of the envelope math here. So

Maria Farmer is 1996. Villafonnier is having these conversations in 2007. And so, you know, So when Acosta is saying to her, well, it's a long time ago at that point, it's 11 years. You fast forward, it is now 18 years later. This sense of a crime that happened a long time ago, the timeline just keeps growing because there was not action taken at any of these inflection points. How different of a conversation would we have been having if Alex Acosta had taken what his subordinate had to say to? to heart. Yeah, it's a tragedy really, because I thought the back of the envelope map you're going to, Matthew, you're going to do with the scale of the, you know, that could have been stopped,

about the number of victims that could have been stopped, right? I mean, Jeffrey Epstein continued to have underage girls as victims for years after this conversation happened in 2007. And so, you know, the crimes continued and you end up, what, 12 years later, this one ends up dead in custody during the Trump 1.0 administration. So, look, it was obviously a huge oversight back cost to maybe worse than that. I mean, this is something that Julie Brown at the Miami Herald and others have been covering for a long time is just, it's not as if this was something in the moment that. you know, whatever, there wasn't enough information and it slipped to the cracks. Like, there's just another data point upon a bunch of other data points where people

at the time, when he got the sweetheart deal for Acosta, were saying, why? Like, why, what was, you know, why didn't they go in for more? And I think there continued to be a lot of questions about this. And I think that if the Democrats take back Congress next year, it's going to be incumbent upon the oversight committees to take a close look at it. Former FBI director and special counsel, Robert Mueller, a true, dedicated public servant, died on Friday at the age of 81. Mueller was the second longest serving FBI director, transforming the Bureau in the wake of 9-11. He was also a war hero.

Mueller received both a bronze star and a purple heart after serving in the Marines in the Vietnam War. He is, of course, known more recently for his work investigating Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016 election in Trump's favor. Never won to pass up an opportunity, disparage his perceived enemies. Here is what Donald Trump posted just minutes after Mueller's passing was announced. Quote, Robert Mueller just died, good, I'm glad he's dead, he can no longer hurt innocent people. Now, in normal times, celebrating the death of an American citizen would be far beneath the sitting president of the United States. So very few Republican lawmakers have criticized Trump's post celebrating Mueller's death. J.P. Congressman Don Bacon telling Politico, quote, it is clearly wrong, an unchristian behavior,

the vast majority of Americans want better. It's a huge loss for the country, and certainly he deserves better than what the president had to say about him. Well, Tim Miller, I've got about 60 seconds left, but that would be because that type of service is anathema to this president. It is, and because he's a depraved human.

I wish to just say it. It's good that he's dead. I'm glad that he's dead, and it's the kind of thing you would never say about even your enemy if you're a person that has any honor and dignity. So look, I think in addition to everything, the Mary lied out, their patriotism was contrasted nicely by Bob Mueller's service. And he served in Vietnam voluntarily.

He had an actual injury, a real injury, and he had to delay a year. He could have gotten out of Vietnam, but he went back and served again while Donald Trump made up a fake injury to avoid service. And I think that tells you about all you need to know. The Bell Air Direct app includes crash assist, which detects an accident the moment it happens, and even offers you emergency assistance at the tap of a button. Okay, but what if I don't have an accident? Well, just keep on keeping on. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply.