The Bulwark Podcast - Mikie Sherrill and Michael Fanone: Full-Time Criming and Corruption
Episode Date: November 12, 2025New Jersey’s governor-elect credits her big win last week to an affordability message—and ignoring the pundits. But Sherrill also tied rising costs and declining economic opportunity to Trump’s ...laser-like focus on the worldwide extortion racket he’s running out of the Oval Office. Plus, former D.C. cop Michael Fanone says the current FBI won’t follow up on the threats against him and his family, the Justice Department doesn’t seem too concerned about pedophilia, and “snowflake” border patrol boss Greg Bovino has small-man complex. Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill and Michael Fanone join Tim Miller. show notes Tim's 'Bulwark Take' with Julie K. Brown Sarah and Andrew on the Epstein emails Tim and Dave Wasserman on Dems racking up redistricting wins Fanone's YouTube channel Will Sommer's reporting on The Blaze's pipe-bomb story Will on Kash's private jet problem Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to: https://www.wildalaskan.com/BULWARK.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hello and welcome to the Bullwark podcast.
I'm your host, Tim Miller.
We got so much out there for you today.
We've got a Mike and Mikey doubleheader,
which I'm going to talk to you about in a second.
But because of all the news, you should go and check out the Bullwark takes feed as well.
I interviewed Julie K. Brown, the best journalist on the Epstein case,
about what she's seeing out there, particularly with Maxwell,
Sarah Longwell, is out with rapid response video about the emails around Epstein.
We have the next level today.
I interviewed Dave Wasserman about redistricting.
So we have an unending sea of content for you and news.
So please make sure to check all that out.
And segment two of this show, I've got my friend Michael Fanon on the pod,
and we'll talk a little bit about Epstein and plus a bunch of other law enforcement news.
But first up, I am delighted to welcome the big winner of last week's off-year elections.
She is a four-term Congresswoman and former Navy helicopter pilot.
And now we get to call our Governor-elect of New Jersey.
It's Mikey Sherrill.
How you doing?
I'm good.
Thanks so much for having me.
Governor-elect?
How's that sounding?
Are you used to the ring yet?
No.
Are you making your children call you governor yet?
This is too much information, but one of my daughters keeps going,
Hello, Governor, which is probably annoying, joke after a while.
Good for her.
Yeah.
All right, Governor.
Well, we're going to do some podcast for accountability here.
You know, over the course of the campaign, I was expressing many of, I like many people out there, like, we're just so pissed about the state of affairs and the state of things.
And like, I have these emotional needs that I didn't feel like you were always fulfilling, which is.
maybe not the job that you were going for there as running for governor of New Jersey.
And I was like, I want the normie Democrats to punch him in the face.
I want him to fight harder.
And, you know, there was a lot of punditry out there about how people are nervous about your campaign.
Turns out you won by 14 points.
I don't even think the biggest Mikey Sherrill stands expected a 14 point win.
How do you explain the disconnect between the chattering class and what actually
happen? So I think people weigh the crisis in different ways, and there are a lot of people here in
New Jersey that are weighing costs as the crisis that they're facing. So it's really hard when you can't
pay for your prescription drugs and your groceries or you're looking at being kicked out of your
house. That is the central existential crisis for many people here. So while many of us are really concerned
about our democracy, I've served almost my entire life. I know what it means.
to live in places where you don't have freedom of speech, where you can be disappeared in
the middle of the night. And we're seeing that here, right? We're seeing secret police being
developed in the DHS, loyalty oaths, people being picked up, disappeared for 70 days at a time,
that kind of thing. To many of us, we're seeing all this. But when when you're talking to an entire
statewide electorate and they are facing a crisis in their family or how they're going to make
sure their kid gets a good education and access to a good future when they're housing insecure,
that kind of thing, you're suddenly not connecting. And so it was really important to lay out
the economic crisis. That's what people wanted to hear. And so it wasn't just saying,
oh, I'm going to take on electricity prices. It was, I'm going to declare a state of emergency
on your utility costs, like a connection with the urgency of the moment here. But then more broadly,
taking on Trump and reminding people in a very specific economic way that he is destroying your
ability to succeed. It really struck me, and this gets a little New Jersey weird-ish, but our state
motto is liberty and prosperity. And I always thought, you know, I've always been a little bit of
a liberty girlie, right? Like, oh, fight for your freedom and join the Navy and, you know,
protect the Constitution. But you need both. When you're shut out of school, when you're shut out of jobs,
When you have a president of the United States that's running a worldwide extortion racket where he's making billions and you're seeing your costs go up every single day, that's a really important fight in the whole realm of opportunity and what democracy means.
And I think sometimes, you know, we miss that a little bit in our loftier ideals.
I want to get into the specifics of the affordability part of the campaign, but just to politics nerd out for one second.
I mean, were you feeling it?
Like on the ground, were you feeling like there was this disconnect between, you know,
sort of the broader discussion that, oh, this is a really close race.
And, you know, there are some concerns about the Democratic candidates not lighten the world
or whatever.
Like, were you, like, that's not what you were seeing on the ground?
Or were you as surprised as everybody else as the numbers were coming in?
No, we were seeing great stuff on the ground.
And I kept trying to convey it.
And it was a hard race.
You know, you run different races.
This is my fifth race in New Jersey.
This was a picking people and puddles up off the ground from 24 and saying, no, we can do this and this is important and you got to stay engaged.
And really, it felt like the first half of my campaign was saying, yeah, I get that we all feel like Democrats suck, but we can fix this.
And this one, you know, we can really, you know, these things move very, very quickly.
Remember, 2018, Blue Wave, now we're here.
So I think we're building back the Democratic brand as this really strong brand.
And it was really important to start here.
And we in New Jersey had a responsibility as one of only two states with this statewide election.
And so we got to work.
And then we were feeling it.
And, you know, as you run different races, you can sense whether or not there's the momentum, people are engaged.
And one of the things that's always interesting to me is when young people get engaged.
And that is a sign of energy.
They don't, you know, we don't always see young people in my campaign.
Sometimes we do.
Sometimes we don't.
And this one more than ever, we had a huge.
number of young people get engaged to the point where, and by the way, as everyone's reporting,
there's no energy on the ground, we're having like 500,000 person rallies, and we're having about
five of them a day. We're seeing hundreds of people come out in Ruby Red Ocean County on a
Tuesday or something. You know, the disconnect felt real, but then I'm at one rally with a group of
teenage boys, and I have teenage boys. And so I thought they were- I thought all the teenage boys were
Maga Groyper's now. Is that not, is that not right? This is how quickly things shift, right? As people
understand economic opportunity and college kids are worried about jobs. So I see these teenage boys
and I thought they were sort of trolling me because like I said, I have teenage boys, but they're
like so excited. They're taking all these selfies in the audience. They're even doing like hearts like
this. And I'm going, what is what are those boys? You know, are they? And so this is a TikTok thing.
I was like, are they going to like put out some video like how much I suck? So I asked afterwards. I said,
I noticed those gentlemen, you know, kind of right, front left. What was that about? And I go,
oh, they have been knocking doors for you. They are so excited. I'm like, wow, okay. I'm like,
we're, you know, we're hitting it. And I was saying to somebody, this was kind of the campaign
nobody wanted except the voters, meaning it was exactly what voters wanted. They wanted me to show up.
They wanted me to express interest in what they needed. And then they wanted me to enact an agenda that was going to
actually make their lives better. And that, you know, it's sort of how I run and it always hits,
but it wasn't necessarily what, insiders in New Jersey, Democratic insiders here aren't used
to running in the suburbs, but they haven't been turning out the cities very well. So just
building out this huge turnout operation. I mean, Newark hasn't turned out numbers like this since
2005 for a governor's race. We saw Hudson swing 22 points. We saw Pseek swing 18 points. These are some of
our, this is like Patterson, Jersey City, Hoboken Union City, that kind of stuff. And a lot of that
was working closely with people who knew how to do this turnout. Some of our mayors are elected,
some of our county executives, that kind of stuff, our chairman, working closely, but then also
grassroots groups, young people. I mean, it was just this jugger nut of a campaign that, and people in
New Jersey love their politics and love good campaigns. So this was like an old school, everybody
to get the hell out knock on doors campaign and it worked back to kind of the like the substance of
the affordability message there's a subject liberty and power as a former staff of years is writing
with this i don't know if you've seen this and he's talking about the ways in which year and zoran
mom dynes campaigns were aligned in one sense and he wrote that you broke with the corporate friendly
mold of most democrats taking on corporate power and exploitation and making that front and center
does that resonate with you and do you think was going after
you know, concentration of power, a central part of your campaign or whether other elements
of the affordability message you think resonated?
You know, it's funny because I'm always leery of anything in the Democratic Party where people
don't seem to want jobs or people don't care about jobs. And I know you're kind of laughing,
but I think some of us feel that sometimes that when I'm talking about jobs, when I'm talking
about economic opportunity, there are people in the party that almost feel like that sounds
somehow, like, not aligned with our ideals. And yet, I couldn't think of anything more important.
You do need some companies for people to have jobs, right? I mean, going after, I'm all for going
after elites, but companies do need to exist. And need to employ people and need to get money there.
The way it was phrased was not something, I was a little surprised to read it, think,
I wonder that that's not how I express it, but the idea of going after concentrated power
is something that really resonated with me, because that seems to be the fight here.
Is the president trying to concentrate a lot of power in the hands of a very few
and the push to really grow a working class, a middle class, and have opportunity
for everyone?
You know, and I talked a lot about opportunity in my campaign because I see it in my
life. I talked about my grandpa's union job. I talked about my dad growing up poor and putting
himself through college. I talked about the changes and regulations in the military that allowed me to
graduate with the first class of women to have access to combat jobs on ships and aircraft
and how that changed my opportunity trajectory. So opportunity is really important and it feels as if
this is an administration that's trying to shut it down for so many people. I always think of it
trying to create this Argentinian economy with wealth concentrated in the hands of very few.
and then subsidize, I guess, the Argentinian economy with U.S. dollars.
But nevertheless, so that resonated because that's the fight.
It's why I think unions are so important for fighting for working people.
It's why I think it was so important to me to put together the traditional democratic
juggernaut of working people, both, you know, in the suburbs and in our cities,
having everyone come to the table about what it was going to take.
And look, I mean, the basic premise is access to great education.
access to a great job, making sure the state's driving innovation.
So I am very pro-business, in the sense that's how we drive access to jobs and opportunity.
I am not for the concentration that we've seen in this country of power in the hands of a very few.
And so were there any specific policies on that point?
And you mentioned the energy emergency.
Was there anything else that was top of the agenda list?
So really expanding access to that first-time homebuyers program, you know,
I've probably historically been a little bit like, you know, sometimes there's a lot better ways to invest your money than a home and blah, blah, blah.
But here's the thing.
I remember getting brief after brief after brief when I was, you know, at the Naval Academy about if you just put $20 away each month or $40, you know, you'll be a millionaire by the time you said.
I remember thinking, I don't even think I have $20 in my bank account right now.
There is no way that I'm putting $20 away and not, you know, going out with my friends this weekend.
So you can't convince people.
But the one thing people always pay into is their rent or their mortgage, right?
That's your home.
So it's almost like a forced way of developing wealth.
And I've seen in so many cases how that home when a loved one dies is the breadwinner
or something that, you know, got you your start when your grandparents died or something like that.
So really expanding the first time homebuyers program because right now housing costs are so high.
so helping people get in to that first home and start to develop that, things like making
sure there's more competition in the market.
When we see some of these food prices go up, some of its tariffs in a worldwide economy,
some of its people taking advantage.
I remember reading probably about four years ago or so that egg prices went up by like 700%.
That wasn't tariffs, right?
I mean, those are produced here in the U.S.
So really making sure we have competition, you know, if we push in some programs to help small
grocery stores and bodegas startup. That can address competition in the market.
Government run bodegas? No, independent grocers and stuff. You know, entrepreneurs.
Don't get me in trouble here.
It's okay to have some difference. I mean, obviously, look, if the connective tissue between
you and Zoran who run the mayor's race was a focus on affordability, there's obviously
going to be differences, right? I don't know. And do you look at that and see anything that you're
like, well, you know, I think maybe for folks that are running in other parts of the country,
you know, there is a way that Iran that was different from him? Or are you worried that you're
going to get exiles across the river, moving across to New Jersey?
Interestingly, to your point that you're raising, probably one of the biggest differences,
I'm not a Democratic socialist. I really do think capitalism as long as people have access
to opportunity. So, you know, I'm not talking capitalism like robber barons of the
1920s. I'm talking about... We're not doing Iran Rand. Right. Exactly. I'm not a fan. I was, you know,
when I was young and dumb, right? Who wasn't? When we like grow up and mature and care about others,
we take a different view of the world. So really focused on expanding access to opportunity,
but that is a key difference. I do think, you know, people want to build something. For example,
I think some of the reason I connected so well with the Latino vote was because there are our most
entrepreneurial group of citizens in New Jersey. So making sure they have access to small business
expertise and cut through red tape and permitting so they can not spend tons of time and money
trying to get that small business open was really compelling. Affordability was compelling to
everyone to grow their family. So all of that made sense. The black community, you know, they know
what the disparity study looks like.
So again, it's opportunity.
It's saying, look, you know, I'm just being shut out in too many cases,
and this is what it's going to take for me to grow my business.
All right, we are back, you know, that we don't choose between our favorite children
or nieces and nephews, and we don't choose our favorite and sponsors.
But if I were to, might be the wild Alaskan company.
It's the best way to get wild caught, perfectly portioned nutrient dense seafood delivered
directly to your door.
Trust me, you haven't tasted fish this good.
Every time we get a wild Alaskan delivery, man,
it's not just people in my house,
not just my husband and child that are happy.
It's the neighborhood because there's so much damn fish in there.
I'm just, you know, I'm like Jesus.
The fish and loaves are multiplying here in New Orleans.
And that's nice.
That makes you feel good.
It makes you feel especially good because it's so damn good.
I made some fish tacos recently with some of the Pacific cod.
We love both the Sokye and co-host salmon.
Pacific halibut.
You can't go wrong with the butt sandwich.
We're loving the Wild Alaskan here in the house.
And, ooh, I don't know.
As we get into chili season, I might make a fish stew.
We've got all this fish.
We'll talk about that.
I'll report back next time we do this ad on the fish stew,
assuming they're still supporting this show,
which you damn well should be, wild Alaskan.
You can try it with Fee if you want to be as happy as I am.
You get 100% money-back guarantee.
If you're not completely satisfied with your first box,
Wild Alaskan Company will give you a full refund, no questions asked, no risk, just high-quality
seafood.
Not all fish are the same.
Get seafood you can trust.
Go to wildalaskan.com slash bulwark for $35 off your first box of premium wild-cut seafood.
That's wild-alaskan.com slash bulwark for 35 bucks off your first order.
Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this episode.
Going back to the president and how you're going to be in a different role than you are in Congress,
and potentially, I mean, maybe at times working with them, I don't know,
but certainly combating some of the policies that are threatening people in the city.
It might be hard for some of the people to get across from New York to New Jersey if they want to
because of the gateway tunnel that he shut down, I guess, because he's mad at Chuck Schumer
or who the hell knows what it is.
So whether it's the gateway tunnel issue, whether it's the ICE and CBP agents,
going to communities.
Obviously, we've seen this in Newark and elsewhere.
How are you thinking about that and ways and,
and where to pick fights with them, you know, where to stand up for people of New Jersey,
where maybe there are opportunities to take the temperature down, if there are any.
Yeah, so I would say when I look at this race and what just happened, you know, I think
what I ran is sort of a different kind of democratic leadership, the willingness to be tough
and to take on fights when it comes for fighting for people, a willingness to fight, you know,
to fight for people, whether it's Trump or whether it's members of my own party.
to stand up. That's kind of a reputation. I have to take bold action. So that was the, you know,
emergency, state of merchant and utility costs and announced this is what I can do so people know
they can hold me accountable and know exactly where that line is. I think my bio as a Navy veteran and then
a mom of four both expressed that, yeah, I was willing to do the hard things. I was tough enough to do
the hard things. And because I'm a mom, I'm not going to, I'm going to be sort of unrelenting in fighting
for everybody. And that is, that is the, the mandate that I was given was to fight for the people
of New Jersey. And so when it comes to Trump, I think what people want as a fighter, but they don't
want somebody who's just going to pick battles to like up their, you know, profile or something.
I'll handle that for you. The Twitter trolling. I can do that part.
Thank you. Thank you. They want somebody who's going to stand up and say, all right,
it's illegal for you to cancel the Gateway Tunnel funding.
That's congressionally appropriated funding.
You know, this is the most important project of national significance in the nation.
We're 20% in the nation's GDP in the Northeast.
This is a key infrastructure project and is a key economic driver.
So they want me to stand up for that.
But if it just comes to, I don't know, like the east wing of the White House, it's offensive, it's gross, it's whatever.
But it's also not really going to, you know, have much to do with the cost.
of anything here in New Jersey. So I think there's like that key focus on when to stand up to the
president. And then we've also got a lot of federal money we need here. We've got the 250th anniversary
of our nation. New Jersey is the crossroads of the revolution, more battles here than anywhere
else. You know, we're really proud of our state. We want to make sure that we can show it off
and we have different opportunities to do so through historic funding. We also have the FIFA World Cup
final here. So we want to make sure that as we have people from across the world coming here,
that we have the security, that we have the federal funds to run that really, really well.
So there are ways in which, you know, I very much need to work with the federal government and
I need them to perform well. And then you come to things like the fact that New Jersey
sends $70 billion more to the federal government than we get back. And now the federal government's
failing at things like SNAP funding, failing at things like, you know, Affordable Care Act. So where is
the health care going to go? If they are taking down the whole health care system and they are taking
all of our money, what's the plan here? And so there's a fight in there, but there's also a, hey,
if you're going to send that money back to us, do that. We'll run it. Or if you have a better idea,
do that. But if you're just not going to give people health care, that's the fight side. If you're willing to
come up with new ideas, that's the let's figure this outside. So you got two months, is there a specific
thing when you look at January? You're like, man, I'm going to have to really go at the event.
on this because what they're doing right now is hurting people?
Well, there's snap funding.
I mean, even though part of that was related to the shutdown, not, you know, there's
significant cuts to it that the federal government is anticipating with the one big
beautiful bill.
We have significant cuts to Medicare with the one big beautiful bill, cuts to how we generate
power and electricity with the one big view.
I mean, all this stuff is a huge cost associated with some of the key things that impact
people's affordability, health care, utility costs, how we grow. And the idea that we're going to go
back, I would say people here in the state of New Jersey, including Republicans, understand that
all these costs are actually pushing us back into a more expensive way of doing business, just
driving everyone to emergency room care, having communities that are sicker, having kids that
aren't able to go to school and parents that aren't able to go to work. All of this stuff is pretty
well understood in our state. And I assume in a lot of red states as well. I don't know. There's
another point of view on how things are going with the economy. I do want to share with you. This was
the president on Fox News. And why are people saying they're anxious about the economy? Why are they
saying that? I don't know that they are saying. I think polls are fake. We have the greatest
economy we've ever had. You've been out there with the people of New Jersey? What do you think? Is he
in touch with what's happening out there? So when you run a campaign, like I just did, six-way primary,
tough fight to the finish. I spoke to thousands of people, sometimes a day, and they know what's
going on. And that's what the president's going to have a really hard time managing, because this
isn't just put some spin on it or just say some funny things and everybody forgets about it.
This is people who are seeing costs go up everywhere. They're about to gas prices go up because
of the president. The tariffs are putting small businesses out of business. We have big businesses
that are in hiring freezes.
We know nationwide, about 22 states are in a recession right now.
Many states in danger of being in a recession.
You know who gets it the most?
And we saw a big uptick in young voters in my campaign
and young people getting engaged.
They know what's going on.
When I go to colleges and universities,
they see the job market.
They are sort of in a panicky state.
I've spoken to some people who had job offers rescinded
because now a lot of big companies
because of the chaos and the economy are pulling back on expansion plans.
Just over a year ago, before Trump got into office, all of my businesses, my big businesses
here were saying, Mikey, you need to grow the workforce.
I need to see better higher ed.
I need to see output better.
We are hiring.
We're expanding.
And now I'm talking, you know, I was just talking to a mayor a couple of weeks ago who said
he had an employment fair and he had a really hard time getting businesses there.
and he had about 1,500 people coming for about five jobs.
They were just around the block.
He showed me the video of how many people came.
So it maybe hasn't permeated the media yet, but on the ground, there are really concerning
signs about this economy.
And so it's voters are, I mean, just look at New Jersey, right?
What just happened?
I mean, that's not voters being sort of, you know, feeling like the economy is good or
things are going the right direction from Trump.
I guess it hasn't permeated the bubble of, you know, the truffle parties that Donald Trump
is having in Mara Lago.
Doesn't seem to have permeated that yet.
All right.
What is your advice for those four Democrats?
You've run for the House for you won four times.
Obviously, I think congressional races, House and Senate races are different in some ways in
governors' races, but there's some similarities.
You've now done both successfully.
One, the only, well, I guess you and Abigail Spanvark are the other ones who have done so in now
the Trump's second term.
what is your advice for colleagues, people to call thinking about next year as far as how to, you know, campaign and obviously the obvious answer is focused on affordability.
But what are some specific things you think they could do as far as getting attention, contrasting to Trump and God willing, outperforming the polls by eight to ten points like you did?
Yeah, I don't want to say like totally go with your gut because that sounds like a weird idea.
But I would say speak to as many people on the ground from the communities you want to represent as possible.
And I'm not talking the groups.
You know, I'm not talking like just go to the grassroots leaders because they don't always represent people.
They often have a specific thing that they're working on.
And that thing, whatever it may be, is the thing that animates them and drives them in their advocacy.
And that's great for that, you know, group, but it doesn't necessarily represent even the people
they are purporting to serve. So you really have to get in with the people on the ground.
You can speak to any number of pastors or elected officials that are close to the ground,
how they win in tough places. So really just getting into communities and actually hearing what they're saying.
and then kind of going back and forth with them about what you're going to do.
Because, you know, we had a couple ideas on what we thought could be really helpful.
And people just were kind of like, no, that doesn't really, you know, float my boat.
So really finding those key issues that are keeping people up.
Was there an example of that?
So New Jersey housing prices have gone up by 50% in the last five years.
And I really see it as a supply and demand problem.
You know, and we tried to talk about how we thought more housing.
housing supply would be good, whether it was transit-oriented development or repurposing commercial
spaces and protecting open spaces because we're really densely populated. But no matter how we
communicated on it, wealthy people felt like we were coming after their neighborhoods. And
not wealthy people thought we were going to build a bunch of luxury apartment buildings because
they're saying that go up everywhere. So it just didn't connect. So I, and I said, you know,
look, I'm not building on open spaces. I'm doing transit-oriented and I'm repurposing. There's a ton of
like strip malls that could be repurposed. It just didn't connect. And
And so as much as I thought that was a key affordability issue, housing, and I'm still going to address it, if you're running to serve people and people don't like your ideas, you got to get the ideas that are going to connect with them, right?
And that's where sometimes, yeah, go figure, it's like rocket science here.
So that was one example.
And then you also, I think, if you're going to, you know, depending on your electorate and certainly in New Jersey with the affordability,
crisis, it was almost like everything we did, people had complaints about. And so running against
Trump, everybody kept being angry, like all you're doing is running against Trump. What they didn't
clock was that I wasn't running against him, like I said, on the east wing of the way. I was saying
he's driving up your cost. It was my message wasn't an anti-Trump message as much as it was an
affordability message. And he was driving up costs, which was very key. So,
That's, I think, important.
And then they were mad that all I was talking about was affordability.
But again, that right now, if you're serving working people and if you want to grow,
what I think of as Democrats at our best is when we are serving working people, when we're creating education,
access to opportunity jobs, that's where, you know, when we're like liberty and prosperity,
I think we're missing prosperity here.
And I think that's really key.
Well, Trump driving, you kind of said at the top, Trump driving up your cost while he's enriching himself.
with money from, you know, Middle East oil barons and crypto entrepreneurs is pretty good message.
I think that people understand. All right. Last thing. I've been invited to drumthrock at one time,
actually. It's the governor's mansion in New Jersey. And it was because after Chris Christie did
Bridgegate, he was trying to do damage control. He invited people up to like have a little
roundtable. But as it's Chris Christie, he didn't seem to, he didn't seem like he was really taking ownership
of his choices, let's say.
It was a lot of maybe he can charm people with, you know,
the Christy Bluster.
So it wasn't the best experience.
It was snowy day.
I barely made it up there.
Chris Christie kind of yelled at me.
And, you know, it wasn't the best memory.
So you never know.
I'm just saying if you're ever having people by drum floggett,
I'm open to come back to kind of change the vibe.
Okay.
Okay.
Maybe in sort of the spring or summer it sounds like.
Summer.
Are you going to be using that private beach he used?
the Chris Christie used, you know?
Well, when you have four children and you've just disappeared on them for like a year
to run a campaign, you keep luring them back by saying, if I win this one, guys, there's a
beach house involved.
It's a beach house.
So we, I assume, I haven't seen it, but I assume.
As long as the government's open.
As long as people are getting paid, then they can use it.
Of course.
excuse me, Govna elect Mikey Sheryl. Thank you for coming on. Congratulations on the win and
keep us posted. All right. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. All right. Thanks so
much to Governor-elect Mikey Cheryl. Up next, Michael Phineau.
All right, if you're ever worried about the safety of your home and you don't have Michael
Fanon to stand outside on guard like I wish I did, the need to hear about Simplysafe's
early access Black Friday sale. Traditional security systems respond after somebody breaks
in. That doesn't do you any good. SimplySafe is different because it can stop crimes before
they happen with its active guard outdoor protection. AI powered cameras detect threats while
they're still outside your home and alert real security agents. This is the game.
change or the agents take action while the intruder is still outside. They confront the intruder
letting them know they've been watched on camera and that the police are on their way. This is how you
stop a crime before it starts. There are no long-term contracts or hidden fees. You can cancel any time.
It's named the best home security system by U.S. News and World Report for five years running.
60-day money-back guarantee so you can try it and see the difference for yourself. I'm loving the
simply safe home security system and something that folks in my family were, you know, feeling like I should
focus on. I just wanted to move Phanone in. I'm just going to me. I pitched it to
Phenone. I was just like, look, man, we can do content together. You know, it can be kind of like
a content slash security guard roll. He wasn't into that. He wasn't into that. He doesn't
into that. He likes hanging out. I come down here and have some whiskeys, but wasn't into that pitch.
So next best option, our friends at SimplySafe. Don't miss out on SimplySave's biggest sale of the year,
60% off. Right now, our listeners can save 60% off on a simply save home security system at
simplysave.com slash the bulwark. That's simply save.
com slash the bulwark. There's no safe, like simply safe.
All right, delighted to welcome back, a former Metropolitan Police Officer known for
doing undercover investigations in gay bars at Apex, Washington, D.C., my old stomping grounds.
On January 6th, he was attacked by the mob that stormed the Capitol, probably more noteworthy.
Now he's the host of the Michael Fanon Show on YouTube and Substack.
It's Michael Fanon. What up, honey?
What's up, buddy? Good to see you.
Good to see you. Initially, we had talked about doing a pod on law enforcement's
lack of pushback to the administration's actions. And we need to get to that, but like,
we have an insane amount of news over the last 36 hours. I want to get your take on.
Starting with this morning, a bunch of outlets, initially CNN acquired a tranche of emails
from the House Oversight Democrats. House Oversight Democrats doing something. Shout out.
It included emails from Jeffrey Epstein to Glenn Maxwell and to Michael Wolfe.
One such email appears to be a conversation between Epstein and Maxwell about why.
the local police down in Palm Beach didn't look into Trump.
This email was in 2011.
He had been arrested in 2008.
Epstein writes,
I want you to realize that the dog that hasn't barked is Trump.
Victim, name redacted, spent hours at my house with him.
He has never once been mentioned, police chief, et cetera.
As a former cop doing investigations, I wonder what you'd make of that email.
Listen, I think that the cover up here for rich and power.
powerful people that did some incredibly heinous, disgusting things is long and that list is distinguished.
And it's not surprising to me at all.
I mean, we saw, you know, Alex Acosta, the prosecutor in that case, do some things and treat Epstein in a way that I've never seen a federal prosecutor, treat somebody who was accused.
of, again, doing some pretty despicable things with children.
Yeah, and go watch back and watch that documentary,
and the local cops down in Palm Beach were doing real work,
and they were the ones sort of confused.
And it's interesting.
My read on this, you know,
it's hard to kind of divine one email is that,
is like Epstein basically, like,
talking to Maxwell about whether Trump, like, worked with the police, right?
Because in a different email,
he talks about how Trump knew about the girl,
referencing the girls that they had recruited, groomed from Maralago for their sex trafficking of, of, you know, both minors, both sex trafficking, both girls and young women. There's an element of this like we knew, right, that Trump was involved in all this. It is something, I think, a little bit different. And it is advancing the story, so to speak, that that we have Epstein now in writing to Maxwell saying the victim, one of these victims spent hours at his house, at my house, not a Marlago.
spend hours at my house, Epstein's house, with Trump.
She's pretty cut and dry about what Donald Trump was up to.
Yeah, I mean, listen, I've sat across a table from a few criminals in my, you know,
illustrious career.
And, you know, everything that Donald Trump does in the denials, the denials of even, you know,
knowing Jeffrey Epstein, oh, I may have met him a few times.
He was, you know, blah, blah, blah.
There's so much evidence to show that, no, they not only were.
they not just acquaintances, but they were friends? And not only were they just friends,
but they were best friends. And not only were they best friends, but they seemed to spend
a tremendous amount of time together and have a lot of financial intertwinings between the two
of them. It shouldn't come as a surprise. It certainly doesn't come as a surprise to me that
these emails exist and that, you know, the likelihood that Donald Trump is in the Epstein
files probably mentioned as more than just an observer per se. And then that's also look at the
lengths that Republicans, Republican lawmakers are willing to twist themselves into pretzels and
go against their at least purported principles on a daily basis to try to cover this all up.
Obviously now that Gravalia is going to be finally after like the longest period of time ever
between a member of Congress
winning a special election and then being seated.
She's finally going to be seated.
And so they now have the votes
for a discharge possession with additional files.
I talked yesterday to Julie Brown about that.
People can listen to what her takes are.
She's been the top reporter on this
over on the board takes feed.
I want to talk to you about a couple of these other stories
that are related to your experience.
One is from our man Will Summer here at the Bullwark.
It's an amazing story early this week
about just the continued effort on the
right to come up with insane smears against you and the other cops that were protecting the
Capitol on January 6th. The latest example is from the Blaze, which was originally that Glenn Beck
outfit. The Blaze reported that a female former Capitol Police officer who has since joined the
CIA was a, quote, forensic match for the person that allegedly had placed those pipe bombs.
It's one of the great mysteries that we still have about January 6th. There were some pipe bombs
placed at the DNC and RNC.
The blaze had this supposed bombshell.
It was a former Capitol Police officer.
The forensic match was based on her gate.
And they decided based on, you know,
kind of looking at some video of her walking.
They brought an equine expert, like a horse expert in,
to determine whether her gate was the same
as the gate of the person on the video,
setting the pipe bombs.
You should not be surprised to learn that this woman
that they had randomly named had already been a target
of the MAGAR right.
She was photographed as one of the officers'
firing pepper balls at the rioters on January 6th.
She testified against January 6th participants.
So this seems like an obvious payback smear attempt.
And I don't know, maybe an opportunity for her to get some money in a lawsuit because it is absolutely insane.
The Blaze is now obviously backtracking hardcore on this story.
I hope she sues the Blaze and sues them into oblivion.
This is a total bullshit story.
I was a cop for 20 years.
I've never heard of anybody using the gate of an individual as indisputable evidence that they
were, in fact, the perpetrator.
That's insane to me.
Also, there were other facts that I have since learned by doing very little research on
my own.
Yes, she was a Capitol Police officer.
She did leave the Capitol Police, but not to join the CIA as some type of covert
operator.
She joined the CIA as a uniformed police officer that guarded their.
campus facility and so you know it's not deep state right yeah yeah not quite what the um
what the blaze i think was alluding to uh that that job was some type of you know that maybe
she had been with the CIA previously or she was a spook that had been planted there like the
whole premise of this conspiracy theory that it was a fedsurrection that day is so funny to me
because it like all you do just think about it for two seconds how stupid it is
That it's like this idea that there were like a handful of fed boys in hiding in the crowd,
egging people on.
And that's like a couple of the cops there tried to get people riled up by, you know,
shooting pepper bullets at them.
It's like, for starters, you guys used unbelievable restraint that day as compared to what we've seen from police in other situations.
Number one.
Number two, it's like imagine them putting a couple fed boys in the no king.
protests, like, walking around, being like, hey, you know what I think we should do today?
Storm the Capitol.
The No Kings, you know, NPR Topebag crowd wouldn't have been like, hell yeah, yeah, good.
Yeah, great idea.
Let's storm the capital.
It's just like, like the whole theory of the case is moronic.
Yeah, it's interesting, too.
I was just engaging with somebody on, I don't know, Facebook or some shit that likes to slide
into my DMs and spout this conspiratorial nonsense.
Every once in a while, I'll indulge them.
But it's the same thing.
It's, well, the cops open the gates that day.
You're literally ignoring, you know, a cornucopia of evidence that suggests that this was a violent
insurrection inspired by Donald Trump and his supporters and pointing to one singular image
of a cop seemingly opening a door to a mass of rioters who are trying to force it open
and then saying that that singular act is now, that is the narrative of the day.
And so, you know, you can't cure stupid.
Yeah, you can't cure stupid.
We're kind of like blaming like the bodega guy in Kenosha for, you know, his store getting attacked by the rioters because he unlocked the door.
You know what I mean?
It's just like, what are you even talking about?
Your other January 6th thing related to the pardons, earlier this week, Justice Department announced a mass pardon for 77.
named individuals who are not necessarily involved in the riot per se, but like we're involved
in the plot because they're either fake electors or organizing the fake electors and they
attempt to overturn the election. You did a video over on your channel on this guy, Andrew
Take. I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right. Who cares? Actually, this fucking dirtbag
that was also pardoned. Tell folks about Take and then if you have any other thoughts on
the latest spate of partons. Yeah, he's a insurrection.
pardoned by Donald Trump participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and has since
been, you know, re-arrested for some pretty heinous acts against minors. You know, the reason that I
highlighted this and highlight these other stories is there's this, at least on the right,
there's the kind of understanding or narrative that the individuals that went to the Capitol that
day were these good, wholesome, god-fearing people that just were so inspired by this atrocity
that was being committed by the Democrats in the stealing of this election and denying them,
you know, their liberty. That's not the case. And I had the experience of having six
individuals that pled guilty to assaulting me and knowing their criminal backgrounds. These were
people that were already predisposed to violence. Many of them had criminal
convictions for drug trafficking, drug possession, spousal abuse, sex crimes. And so, you know,
you really have to consider that as like what type of person attacks law enforcement
because Donald Trump told them that the election was stolen, despite all the evidence to the
contrary. And it's exactly what you would think, criminals. That is a, it's a dark irony, really,
that like this Trump movement was like undergirded by a Q&N conspiracy that was centered around like how there's this pedophile ring and all these elite liberals were involved in this great pedophile ring and now you know today we have a couple of stories like that the the guy that Trump pardoned that had attacked you all at the Capitol was sending dick pics to a girl that he thought was 15 was actually an undercover agent but saying dick picks to 15 year old.
And we've got Donald Trump, according to emails between like the two most notorious child sex traffickers and sex traffickers in the country talking about how Donald Trump was spending a lot of hours of time with the victims.
You know, I mean, it seems like the pedophilia was coming from inside of the house.
There might be a little bit of projection.
Yeah, no, I mean, you know, listen, I try not to, to, you know, go down these rabbit holes too often.
But there's a great content creator, right wing on Instagram.
that highlights each and every one of these cases in which, you know, somebody who's associated
with the Trump administration, the Republican Party, or was at the insurrection, has been
arrested for crimes, sex abuse crimes or crimes against children.
Long list, I assume. Short list. And if it's a whole account, it seems like there's enough
material there to, you know, keep it going. They average like 30 a month. So that's, um, they're moving.
Pretty significant.
Cold mornings, holiday plans.
That's when you want your wardrobe to be simple.
Stuff that looks sharp feels good and things I'll actually wear.
For me, it's Quince.
And the bonus,
Quince pieces make great gifts too.
This season's lineup is simple but smart and easy with Quince,
$50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like an everyday luxury
and wool coats.
They're equal parts stylish and durable.
By partnering with directly with ethical factories and top artisans,
Quince cuts out the middleman to deliver premium quality at half the cost of other high-end brands.
I just got myself a new Quinn's cable-knit sweater.
And boy, was it cozy.
We've little cold front came in down here in Louisiana last couple days.
I was in my cozy sweater at night.
It was feeling good.
It wasn't itchy.
Sometimes you got those sweaters that are itchy.
This one wasn't itchy.
And, you know, you'll probably be seeing it when I head up to New York and D.C.
I would put it on for you guys right now, but it's hot again because I live in Louisiana and not some dank health.
hole where it's dark eight months a year. And, you know, that's just nice for me. But when I come
to visit your cold tundress, I'm going to be in this new Quince sweater. Give and get time with
holiday staples that last this season with Quince. Go to quince.com slash the bulwark for free shipping
on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada too. What's up, Canada? That's QI-N-C-E.com
slash the bulwark. Free shipping and 365 day returns, quince.com slash the bulwark.
I'll talk to you also about Cash, our boy, Cash Patel, the head of the Bureau of Investigation.
Wall Street Journal's story on him yesterday, big, big profile on the drama and issues inside the Bureau.
One of the items in the story was in response to another Will Summer.
Shout out to Will Summer has doing the work over there.
He's got our false flag newsletter for us here at the Bullwark.
But Will had written about how the planes that Cash was taking were,
going to, there is a disproportionate about of times that the FBI plan is going to Nashville
to visit his girlfriend, who he said on Twitter is a country music sensation. It's not exactly
true. She does do country music radios on YouTube, which is true. It's in the interest of
accuracy. She's not a sensation. It's kind of sad for him to be posting that when, you know,
he should be investigating criminals. But he's been going to visit his country music sensation
girlfriend in Nashville, and she also sang the national anthem at a low-rent wrestling event.
Will wrote about that.
Cash got mad and fired, this is in the Walser Journal story, fired Stephen Palmer, a 27-year
agent who ran, not 27 years old, he's been in the Bureau for 27 years, an experienced agent
who ran the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group, a unit that responds to high-risk situations
like child abduction and hostages.
So again, like the administration said that they were supposed to be cracking down on this
and going after the petto rings, they fired the guy who was the leader of the unit that went after
people that abducted kids because I guess part of that unit, they also are responsible for the
plane movements. And he was like the fall guy for the fact that Cash got embarrassed that
he was flying his plane to see his little girlfriend so much. Yeah, I have a hot take on this.
Please.
All the criticism of Cash Patel, you know, I don't understand it.
You know, this is a guy that he's a conspiracy theorist and a podcaster who is now the head of the FBI.
What did we expect?
Oh, I expected worse than this, actually.
This has been better for me.
It's a little bit comical.
I was worried that he was going to get in there and be like, oh, man, I now have all this power.
I've all this investigative power.
And anybody that was ever mean to me once on the internet, we're going to, like, go after their phone records and shit.
I thought it was pretty ominous.
But instead, he's using the plane, the taxpayer plane, to go visit his girlfriend.
And he's giving out people challenge coins.
And he's, you know, popping off on social media.
I don't know.
It could be worse, I guess.
That's the biggest challenge coin I've ever seen in my entire life.
Could be worse.
No, yes, absolutely.
it could be worse, although I think, you know, considering the rate in which he's firing
career agents from the department, I don't think we have very much time left before the FBI
just becomes a useless agency as far as its effectiveness in both foreign and domestic
investigations. You've got friends in law enforcement world. Like, what is your sense? Like, it's hard
for me to judge from the outside, like, how much this is affecting, like, rank and file folks,
you know, in federal law enforcement? Or, like, what are you hearing? What do the text chains say about
that? So, for the most part, I think that, you know, there's individuals that are absolutely
embarrassed by leadership, but they've been embarrassed by leadership in the past. I tried to
point out the fact that this is something different. Yeah. You know, this is not, an FBI director,
making a policy decision that you disagree with, you know, this is somebody who is
exploiting the office who is grossly unqualified to hold the position. And it shows every single
day. And I think Cash Patel knows it. If you see the looks on his face, he's clearly
has imposter syndrome. He knows that he doesn't belong there. And he's trying to do everything
he can to present this tough guy persona. And he just looks like a clown. It's all in the eye.
His panic, the sheer panic that he has every day is right there in the eyes.
He can't hide it.
He can't help himself.
And I'm sympathetic to cash on this because I don't have a good poker face.
I get a little frustrated on a panel over the weekend.
And like the number of people who are there that were just like, your face when they were talking.
And so I get it.
I don't have a poker face either.
But, you know, I'm not trying to run the Bureau of Investigation.
I can't unsee him with the Viking helmet.
I don't know if you've seen that mean.
but now every time, yeah, there's a, when he was talking about Vahala in one of the
speeches, somebody made a meme about it wearing a Viking helmet.
And now every time I see Cash Patel, like in my mind, he's wearing a Viking helmet.
And I just, I can't take the guy seriously.
Just why we're doing clownishness with Cash, I do have to mention.
So this was a couple weeks ago now, Halloween, also in the journal story.
We had seen this.
He had posted early in the morning that the FBI has, you know, stopped a terror plot
in Michigan. And there was some news like at the time about how like that's strange because
nobody had actually been arrested yet. Like he got out over his skis just like he did in the
Charlie Kirk investigation. But the new item in the journal story, which is insane, is that it
was true that they were going after a terror plot because there's still some people at the
Bureau that are doing real work. I don't think Cash is included in that. But two of the friends
or accomplices maybe of the terrorists saw Cash's tweet. So saw that the
arrests were coming and tried to flee. Like, they had plans to leave the country. They'd changed
it. Like, they moved up their plans. Like, luckily, they're still intercepted. I don't know.
I think it was at the Newark airport. So you can correct me on that. But, like, Cash's desire
for attention and to make big boy announcements about how he's arresting terrorists, like nearly
allowed two friends of the people there investigating to get out of the country. I'm like,
that's the type of clownishness that we're dealing with.
None of this is normal. That's kind of like the mantra, I think, for this administration. But like, I always go back to like the Charlie Kirk investigation and the fact that, you know, the director of the FBI flew out there and was real time tweeting, you know, information that was coming in that had not been vetted or verified by the agencies themselves and put out all of this misinformation, all of this disinformation. And, you know, that unfortunately.
has become, you know, the thread when it comes to Cash Patel.
He's the first, wants to be, you know, the first on the scene.
He wants to be, you know, intimately involved in every press conference, which is just
not something that you traditionally would see the director of the FBI do, ever.
I saw you on, I guess it was on MS, MS now the other day.
And you were talking about how this politicization of the FBI,
like is affecting you and like how like you see it in other ways that we've seen like in the
news like beyond like the high profile firings and uh you said basically that you had I guess
reported threats to the FBI and like they'd done nothing or you'd not heard back what is your
sense for what like what is happening with that yeah so I mean this stems from obviously since by
congressional testimony I've received a pretty significant amount of death threats you know
some of them are just arbitrary, you know.
And shouted down at a South, at a South Beach bar, I heard.
Souted down at a South Beach bar.
Yeah.
Anyways, so do members of my family.
And members of my family reside in different jurisdictions.
And so rather than constantly reporting, you know, these individual crimes to the, you know,
individual jurisdictions themselves, I thought that it was important, you know, being somebody
who's been in law enforcement myself, I understand how these things work, that we had a point
contact within a federal agency. And so I sent, you know, a host of information, a compiling of
these threats to a friend of mine within the FBI. And despite, you know, attempts by me to follow up,
never heard anything. It's also, I mean, look at the relationship that I've had with the Department
of Justice, which, you know, was my local prosecutors for 20 years when I worked as a DC cop.
You know, I went from being considered a victim because of what happened to me on January 6th and the
assault cases. You know, after those pardons, not only am I no longer considered a victim by that
agency, but you have individuals in there like Ed Martin who are actively looking to bring
charges against me for God knows what. I mean, I've heard things thrown around like perjury and, you know,
a number of other charges stemming from either my congressional testimony or my actions on January 6th.
now I am actually being targeted by my former colleagues who through no actions of my own
previously considered me a hero and now consider me to be a villain only because there's a different
administration and we now, you know, they are politicizing the agency and politicizing prosecutions.
Going from being a victim to a target of the same agency over just because of the change,
and the political leadership.
I just want to say, to your point about the FBI thing, like, and, you know, people listening to this don't have, like, experience with this, you know, you might wonder, like, okay, well, FBI's got to be busy, like, they respond to everybody, you know, that makes these sorts of complaints.
But I, on the type of thing you're talking about, like, political threats, you know, myself and others, I know, have, you know, received some of those, not really recently for me.
I think that I think that the freaks have given up on me a little bit, you know, I've gone, I've been woke for,
so long that there's some new targets, yeah, don't say that out loud, but there's some more
recent targets like you. But I was kind of surprised actually about the opposite, like, about
the level of customer service from the FBI, if you will, back in the day. Like, like, I didn't
really feel seriously threatened, right? But it's like you report it anyway. And, you know,
you get a call back from an agent. They talk to you. They give you their number. You know,
they say, well, you know, if you need somebody to contact, you don't call the main line.
mine, right? Like, I've had that experience, and I know several of my colleagues have. So it is
noteworthy to like, they just ghosted you, right? Like, that's not nothing. That's not in your head.
Yeah, no, I mean, these were these were actual crimes. I mean, these were individuals that had docks
me on the dark web, that were calling for the rape and murder of my children, that were posting
addresses of my family members, my immediate family members, and also my ex-wife. And so,
So where my children reside.
And you got nothing.
I got nothing.
And I mean, you know, the same thing with local law enforcement.
You know, shout out to Fairfax County Police.
You know, we would report these things to them.
And they would say, well, it's on the dark web.
There's nothing we can do.
And so, you know, you're on your own.
And really no compassion, no empathy whatsoever from, you know, from those organizations,
despite the fact that I was a colleague for 20 years and, you know,
I actually worked with some of those agencies throughout my career.
Crazy.
So needless to say, Tim, we don't call them.
We don't call 911 when we need help anymore.
Yikes.
I'm starting to feel some 20-20 feelings right now.
So we're going to move on from that.
But that fucking sucks.
Okay.
So back to the original thing that we were texting about,
I wanted to have you on about it's just like there's so much news.
Like some of what like we're seeing in Chicago and other places has like come out of the
headlines a little bit.
for the last few days, but obviously this is still coming back, like with the crackdowns we've seen
from ICE and CBP, you know, and the way they're using local law enforcement in these various
jurisdictions. And I was just wondering, like, what you kind of made of that and, like, what you
made of, like, how people that are, I think a lot of folks are in tough positions, right?
Like, if you are on the lower rungs in federal law enforcement or if you're a local cop in one of these
cities, you know, like, what are you going to do? Do a sit-in, right? Like, and you're getting
these sort of requests. So I'm just kind of wondering, having been, you know, kind of in there,
like what you, what you think have always seen from that perspective. Yeah, I mean, first and
foremost, I mean, it's unfortunate that the rank and file officers bear the brunt of
the criticism for what's happening, you know, in these different jurisdictions, you know, as
far as local, state local law enforcement, because the bad actors are ICE and customs and border
patrol. I mean, I've seen some pretty egregious acts on behalf of some local police officers as
well, but, you know, the root cause here is coming from ICE and customs and border patrol
and the way that they conduct themselves, which is, you know, unlawful, overly aggressive,
abusive. You know, I would rise to call it state-sponsored violence. But the disappointment and the
anger for me stems from the lack of response from the leadership of these state, local, and
municipal agencies. I mean, take Washington, D.C. for example, I get the fact that it's a federal
city that Donald Trump can can do more and do it with more ease than he could in some of these
other places. But you take Pam Smith, the chief of police from the Metropolitan Police Department,
she just disappeared. She did nothing. She said nothing. And there's some very, you know,
I think, poignant things that she could bring up. And one of them is why we have had this
longstanding policy that state and local police departments do not participate in immigration
enforcement operations. And that's because, you know, in these jurisdictions, we have a
responsibility to provide police services to all the residents.
of the city, regardless of your immigration status. And for people that, you know, are saying,
well, they don't deserve, you know, access to police services. Well, yes, they do, first of all,
and that's an incredibly, you know, unempathetic thing to say. But let's just imagine, for instance,
that you, a critic of that policy is in Washington, D.C. and become the victim of a crime. And the
only witness to that crime is somebody who's here in an undocumented status. Well, they're not
going to come forward if they think that ice will be there waiting for them ice is going to be there
waiting for them and deporting them and so you're not going to get justice and so is that really
the type of world that we want to live in no it's not and so people in police leadership could
easily hold a press conference and simply explain why you know they could talk about the reasons
behind those policies they could talk about why this is bad for the community why that this is
sowing the seeds of distrust at a time where, I mean, let's be frank, law enforcement, you know,
has not been one of the most credible institutions in this country for a very, very long time
and has struggled to build relationships with the communities that's charged with keeping safe.
What is your sense for, I mean, and this is like something that's coming for everybody, right?
Like in the law enforcement world, I mean, like you're hearing from folks, just like the amount of people
that are like being reassigned to doing this kind of immigration work.
I mean, I hear things from my friends in law enforcement.
And it's like, I don't know that it's really sunk in for people, like just how significant
the amount of immigration work, like local and, you know, regional, federal law enforcement
is, is having to do.
Yeah, no, I mean, listen, as somebody who hated being retasked as a narcotics investigator,
because it's, you know, it's very hard to put an investigation that you're right in the middle
of on hold for, you know, a week, a month, multiple months, and then come back to it with
any degree of effectiveness. I have actually several friends in DHS who work child exploitation
cases, which, you know, I would say is probably one of the highest priority cases, at least in my humble
opinion in law enforcement. And these aren't just like small time cases. These are domestic and
international trafficking rings involving small children. And they've been retasked for months
at a time to put those cases on hold and go around and do jumpouts at Home Depot to try to grab
people who, you know, again, are only undocumented and have committed no crime. That's fucking nuts.
That's nuts.
I mean, it's clear to me that this administration has made this their, not just a priority,
but it seems like the only crime that they are concerned with pursuing.
And so absolutely all across this country, investigations are going unstaffed and unopened
simply because they just don't have the resources.
And that's not just the retasking and reassigning of federal agents.
It's also you have to take into account.
the amount of federal agents that are leaving the profession altogether because they don't want to
be a part of this. I do have to correct you there, Michael. I think that the administration is
focused on two types of crimes, immigration crime and also technicalities on your mortgage
if you're a Democrat. You got to make sure that your mortgage filings.
$19,000 is a lot of money. Yeah, you want to make sure that all the T's across and eyes are dotted
on your mortgage if you're a Democrat.
And that's something that they're investigating pretty closely.
Thankfully for me, Tim, under this administration and this economy,
I will never own a home in my entire life.
And so I don't.
Certainly not too.
Right.
I don't ever have to worry about applying for a mortgage and getting busted.
Last thing, just for kicks.
They're moving a little Greg Bevino.
Do you know that guy, the CBP guy, the little Nazi guy with the Nazi haircut that looks
like he's in in Gloria's Bastards, is doing.
like the salutes and stuff with his hand
where he stands on top
of like multiple booster seats
he's been pushed out of Chicago
he might be coming to New Orleans
hope not
Charlotte is the other name that's out there
according to the Washington
Examiner I should just say this really quick
quick aside that's a point of personal
privilege the Washington Examiner
suppose a news outlet on the
right has this headline
about this story
Greg Bevino leading border
patrol into new battle
in Charlotte. New battle in Charlotte. Sorry, guys, that's not like how things work, actually.
You know, federal law enforcement, border patrol agencies aren't battling American citizens
in American cities. But anyway, I'm sorry that they're like little fucking, like, you know,
mini-me, sadist porn, immigration porn is what they're going for there. But I don't think that's
how the government's supposed to work. Anywho, I want to play J.D. Pritzker talking about
little Greg leaving town. All I can say is,
that, you know, whether it was the loss in the elections a week ago that's led to Donald
Trump deciding to pull CBP out or the fact that Greg Bovino is a snowflake on a day when
you can see some snowflakes, whatever it is, the people of Chicago have deserved better than
having CBP and Greg Bovino in this city.
A little snowflake. I like the idea of making fun of them. I'm wondering what you think
about Pritzker there and if you can like maybe one up them with any thoughts.
that you have about Greg Bevino?
I wish we could clone Pritzker and replace every Democratic governor, maybe with the exception
of Gavin Newsom, but I'll be honest with you, Gavin's got some baggage.
I'll take, I don't know how many Democratic governors we have, but I'll just take a bunch of
J.B. Pritzker's.
You're on the Pritzker posse?
Yeah, I like that guy.
Because you like the name calling?
Yeah, I like the name calling.
I think that I come from the camp, but when they go low,
you fucking get in the gutter.
Yeah.
And I think that that's the only thing really that the MAGA world responds to.
I will say, you know, you talked about Greg Bevino's stature.
And I remember seeing this photograph of Bevino going into the federal courthouse, you know, when he was called in there to report about, you know, the many crimes that he and ICE agents had been committing throughout the city.
Did he use the doggie door?
No.
saw this picture. And it was him. And there was like four, he's surrounded by four CBP agents in full
tactical gear, masks, the whole nine yards. And they looked like they were 10 feet tall. And I was
like, damn, where did they get these giant motherfucking customs and border patrol officers? And I forget
who I was talking to, but they're like, no, dude, Bovino's like five foot two. And I was like,
they're just normal size guys
Bovino is like a legit
he's a little person
but I you know definitely he's got
you know he's got the
small man complex
and he's just of all the
I got to say of all the
Trump orbit Trump World
clown car
passengers
Bovino to me is
numro uno
like he is just the biggest
buffoon that I've
ever seen, you know, whether it's that weird, the hand gestures that he did when he was leaving
the courthouse, he's a clown, but he's also, you know, he's a very sadistic individual
that clearly revels and takes joy in the pain and suffering of others. And so I look forward
to some accountability when it comes to Bovino and seeing that guy on the other side of
jail cell bars.
We can only dream.
Michael Phanone,
I appreciate you so much, buddy.
Appreciate your service.
Thanks for doing the pod.
And we'll be talking again soon, all right?
Great.
Good to see you, 10.
All right.
Thanks so much to Michael Phanone
and to Governor-elect,
Mikey Sheryl, New Jersey.
Check us out over on the next level feed.
We've got so much more coming at you today.
And we'll be back with another edition of the podcast tomorrow.
Look forward to seeing you all then.
Peace.
New Jersey Shore
If I come to New York
Can I sleep on your floor
Been living out of a suitcase
On the motel floor
And running up tabs
At the corner store
At the corner store
So barely walking on the boardwalk anymore.
your hair gets too long
picking up the habit
too long before
for when July is gone
I'll be 24
then not anymore
and not anymore
The Cherokee short.
I'm sorry.
The charity shot.
The Chelsea Shard
And then you're not anymore.
And then not anymore.
The Bullwark podcast is produced by Katie Cooper with audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.
