Bulwark Takes - Tim Miller: People Don't Like This Insanity

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Tim Miller joined Nicolle Wallace on Deadline: White House to discuss why the killing of Renee Good—and the administration’s decision to release the video—may be a political turning point. What was supposed to project strength instead exposes a strategy that alienates swing voters, activates non-activists, and turns immigration from a GOP advantage into a liability.Watch Deadline: White House on MSNOW: https://www.ms.now/deadline-white-house

Hey, Brad, I just got off with Nicole Wallace. And one thing I like about talking to my friend Nicole is that she does try to focus on who is acting in response to this administration, right? And not ignore the people that are out there in the streets volunteering, right? And not ignore who's not acting. She was focused on in this moment, people that didn't talk at the Golden Globes last night. Nobody talked to the Golden Globes. You know, I think that she's a good antenna for that and for the value of the. the positive and negative reinforcement of getting people to act and getting people off their

houses. And so we had a great convo about that, about people in the streets responding to ICE, had a little bit of a friendly disagreement with Mark Elias about how optimistic to be about that. I think he's rightfully concerned about the midterm elections and chicanery related to that. And, you know, my main takeaway from all this is the insanity and the craziness of the last week, is really traumatizing and a lot of people are down

because of it I've heard about it in my life. What's the old drama manual line? Every crisis is an opportunity. I always kind of hated that line because it felt

so, I don't know, Machiavellian and all this. But there's a hint of truth in it, right? Which is that people do not want this insanity. Regular people don't.

Okay. Fox drones do. Fucking people at the Magoralize, people that just hate lesbians do. Like there's some people in this country.

that we've got a big fucking country. There's going to be some people that like all this. But eventually there comes a breaking point. And I don't think that this was it. I don't think the killing of Renee Good was it. But I think that by continuing to bang the drum, by continuing to be out in the streets, by continuing to talk passionately about this,

to talk to your friends, to share clips with them, to make sure people are awake to the fact that, like, they just killed a woman in the street and brought daylight and lied about it. And now they're continuing their campaign. their campaign of terror. That can have an effect.

And it's worthwhile to keep pressing forward on that. So if that makes me an optimist, I don't think any of the launch of this page thinks I'm that much of an optimist. But if that makes me an optimist, I'll say guilty is charged. So stick around, me, Nicole, Mark Elias, and Ruth Bancow was on with us as well. I don't know if we'll be playing any of her bits, but she's always great. And appreciate you all. Subscribe to the feed here.

And we'll be talking to you soon. Tim Miller, you've been an unbelievable voice against the gaslighting. And I just want to hear where your thoughts are this morning, this afternoon. Yeah. Well, look, those are powerful images. And I do want to say, I think it's good and important that there are folks out there protesting. There are a lot of folks who have been doing this for a while, whether they be through indivisible or activist groups or, you know, people who are kind of lifelong, comfortable with protesters.

comfortable protesters, and that's needed and appreciated. I think what's significant about this moment is that those images, from what happened to Renee Good, resonate, I think, beyond that with a lot of people who were activated by this and who wanted to come out and speak about it. I can just say anecdotally from, you know, I was at the basketball court for some tryouts yesterday, for some kids, and this is what the dads are on the court wanted to talk about.

And this is not people that are the protesting. type. And they're just saying to me, look, this is crazy. This is wrong. And I think that people in this country do not want to see masked thugs in fatigues, menacing 37-year-old women in their car with stuffed animals in the passenger seat with a dog in the back. They don't want to see people chasing down DoorDash drivers and pushing. I saw a video earlier today of a woman in a in a gas station who got pushed down to the ground because they were chasing after some other person. This is not America.

People do not want it. And the administration trying to justify and rationalize that it was necessary to shoot this woman three times in the head in broad daylight. When we all have seen the video now, we've all seen how pleasantly she greeted him 20 seconds before he executed her. Regular people are not for it.

And they're not buying it. And so I think folks that are brainwashed and folks that are fully in MAGA and folks that are partisans are going to buy, you know, it's not 100% of the country. But there's a big portion in the big middle of the country that this is not what they're for. And they might have been for closed border. They might even been for Trump. But they're not for masked thugs harassing women who are nonviolent and non-threatening in the street. And certainly they're not for executing women who are non-violent and non-threatening in the street. Tim, I don't think he'd mind that I said this.

but Chris Hayes said to me on Friday, it's sort of amazing and newsworthy in and of itself that they viewed it as exculpatory to release the video. When I think others have made the point that the agent is filming, depending on whether he's right-hand or left-handed, he's filming with his right-hand and shooting her with his left. I mean, what sort of window do you see into, like to me it seems like ICE has transferred onto itself

the Supreme Court's immunity ruling? I mean, they're all functioning as though there will be no consequences. Yeah, I thought it was extremely telling that they released it. Because it meant that at least someone within that world, they sent it to a center-right outlet or right-wing mag outlet. I don't know much about it, a local outlet in Minnesota. But so someone, it was on his phone. And so either the shooter sent it to this reporter or someone else,

or he sent it to someone else with an ICE and CBB and Nate. So it was either the shooter himself or the regime, the Trump regime sent this to the reporter thinking would make them look good. And I totally agree with Chris on this. I think it creates an insight into their worldview that they thought that video would be... Maybe they didn't think it would be exculpatory, I guess.

Maybe they thought that, you know, by putting this out, it rationalizes their actions because they're in this bubble where they think, as Donald Trump said yesterday on the plane, that anybody who disturbs the police or anybody that that objects to them or speaks out, like, deserves what's coming to them. And if that is their worldview,

that is extremely scary on the one hand, that they could look at that video and think this woman deserved to be shot in the head three times. But I do think it also, the positive political side is that it shows them deeply out of touch where the country is. If they looked at that video and thought, yeah, we want to put this out,

this video that shows him, her greeting him, and then him shooting her three times, and then either him or one of the other agents close to him, cussing her out after they killed her. Right. With the word, I promise, my executive producer, I won't say again, but the first one starts with F and the second one starts with B.

The first one ends in I-N-G. Tim, before anyone slanders you by calling you optimistic, I want to give you a chance to describe you. I think you've been really clear-eyed about the moment, and so I just want to give you a chance to contextualize what we're talking about. I actually love it. I love being on with Mark. I love when someone says they're more pessimistic than me.

It's like when your spouse gets really mad about something with the knowing you and to calm you down. Like all of a sudden, you get kind of calm. Say, look, I, yeah, I don't want to be overly, you know, sanguine. This doesn't mean that we can't fight, that we shouldn't fight it or that nothing is inevitable in this world. And like Mark's, look, Mark's out there doing the work on the election stuff. And I think that there's a lot to be concerned about and a lot that we need to be vigilant about with regarding the midterm election. The point is, I think, the point I'm trying to make, is that their policies related to immigration are extremely unpopular. And, you know, if they had just focused on the border and shutting down the border, that would be a bad issue for Democrats.

But right now, what they're doing, menacing people in the streets, menacing citizens, menacing women and children, throwing them to the ground, shooting them and killing them, wearing masks, dressed like they're invading Fallujah. This is not popular broadly. And I think that it's a political opportunity for Democrats to go on offense on this, to make them own the most extreme parts of their movement, of their ideology, and to use it to try to push back and win elections in November. And they're going to do their best to try to cheat. They tried to do that in redistricting. They failed. We'll see how it goes over the next few months. But I think that's kind of the point that I'm trying to make, is I do think it presents.

a political opportunity. It's not a political victory by any means. And there's a lot of ugliness ahead of us between here and there.