The Bulwark Podcast - Sam Stein and Adam Hamilton: Trump’s Fabricated World Is Crashing

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

POTUS has always used lies to great advantage, but his fakery can’t disguise the dangerous reality that the United States is running out of missiles. What a time for Trump to don an SNL-grade wig. Meanwhile, AIPAC may be evolving into a Trump super PAC, Max Miller keeps showing everyone he’s a sociopath, the GOP Islamophobia is looking very 2002, and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo accidentally admits Trump is looking out for the billionaires. Plus: The new Democratic Senate nominee from Kansas, pastor Adam Hamilton, joins Tim to discuss that sleeper race and how incumbent Roger Marshall is all about championing Trump and not the people of Kansas.Sam Stein and Kansas Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Adam Hamilton join Tim Miller.show notes: Inc.'s profile of The Bulwark Adam Hamilton's website Brian Poindexter's website (Dem running against Max Miller.) Trump's new wig

Welcome to the Bullwark Daily. I'm your host, Tim Miller. We got a double header for you today in segment two. We've got the Democratic candidate for Senate in Kansas, Adam Hamilton. And we all have two wolves inside of us. Adam was really tingling my good wolf today. He's hitting all of the notes that my good wolf likes to hear. So stick around for that in segment two. But first, we got to feed the bad wolf. It's the managing editor of the Bullwark, Sam Stein. What's up? What's up, man? I'm glad I'm the bad wolf for today. Yeah, JVL isn't available, so we're going to have to stick with you. I was asking which of the stories in the outline feed your bad wolf the most, and you offers an interesting choice. You know, there's any bigger news out there in the world today, and we'll get to all of it. No. But Corey Lewandowski, stank-breath, Corey Lewandowski, and I think newly divorced or soon to be, Christy Nome, because she wasn't willing to bimbro her fie herself enough for her husband.

They're still together. This is the great American love story. Corey and Christy don't spotted vacationing maybe or doing business deal or something in Minnesota. Yes. Do we want to play the video of it first? Sure. Let's play the video of it. Here they are for the audio listeners.

They're at a restaurant. They're eating alfresca. Christy's in a hat. Corey is in the Joe Biden sunglasses They're laughing They're laughing I think Corey sees the camera Looks away

Corey starts walking away They walk away kind of a couple of paces apart from each other Is if that's going to matter They have soft serving there They have soft serving there apparently And they're spotted where what is this? They're biking Oh now they're biking

That's cute Yeah exercise I'm glad. You told me you wanted to surprise me with your take on that, so I'm already. I'm angry for a couple reasons, okay? The bad wolf is coming out for two reasons. One is, this just seems like a real dereliction of duty to the shield of the Americans. Doesn't she have an important job here that she has to do?

Why is she vacationing the Shield of America's needs to? And the Shield, we're about to do a coup in Cuba. So you would think that the Shield would be really kind of. kind of activating right now. For people who don't know, the Shield of America's is a counter-cartel coalition. It's multinational military and security. And here we have the head of it, Christine Um, just noodling with Corey at a very nice vacation spot, apparently, in Minnesota. And I just feel like we're not prepared for what's to come because she's not on the job. So that really angered me. I'm sorry, the Minnesota people don't get mad at me, but is there such a thing as a very

nice vacation spot. It looked nice. It did look nice. But that brings me to my second anger point, which is of all the states. There's 50 states in this country. They chose Minnesota. That's like rubbing salt in the wound, what they did to that poor state. And then to go and bike around and get a soft serve, apparently, at this nice little restaurant in Minnesota. How could you choose a different state? Just go across the border. Michigan's fine. I don't know. One of the Dakotas, just anything other than Minnesota. It seems wrong. I thought you were going to be upset on behalf of Brian.

No. I'm not. Brian's living his best life. He's got his big boobs and he's hanging out and he's rid of this nonsense. I'm not upset for him. I think he's doing just fine. Okay. I hope Corey's wife is able to also take a lot of time.

What is she thinking? I mean, why are we going with the charade that they're not together? Can't they just be together? Yeah. Or maybe they're Polly. Polly's in these days. I guess. But even so, just announce that you're a Polly. No one's going to care. I don't care. Just get rid of this facade, this ridiculousness.

You're biking with each other while the Shield of America's Withers, like, at least own it. You know, Corey is under investigation. Yes. We should also say. Is that not sort of obvious? At some point, he's always under some investigation. Investigators find this is from July. So right before I went on holiday, investigators find Corey Lewandowski may have been involved in improper DHS contracts. No. Sottle headline from the Wall Street Journal there.

That's interesting. I mean, we'll see. I don't know if we can trust the Todd Blanche, DOJ, to really get to the bottom of it. Although in this case, they might have such animus towards Corey that they're like, you know what? Screw it. We're investigating this guy. But Corey always finds his way back in. I know.

This is the thing. Corey's been kicked out of Trump world like three, Timesdale he was kicked out after he flirted with the married lady at the Addiction Awareness Fundraiser at the Benicana. Flirted is a very generous way to describe what he was doing with that married lady. He like kind of assaulted her. Yes. Yeah.

At a Benihana and her husband. She was a big donor to Trump. And so Trump got bad at him. And he got kicked out. And he got fired from the first campaign. Well, we're to continue to monitor the saga. And that's the real bad wolf, Sam. You thought that the bad wolf was about some of your feet.

feelings about this, but the real bad wolf is how much you care about this. This is Sam's Bravo. This is Sam's Watch What Happens Live for Watch What Happens Now or whatever Andy Cohen show is called. I just deeply care about the Shield of the Americas and its ability to execute on its mission. While we're here, we're going to stay in Sorted MAGA drama place. We're going to stay in the Bravo place. And I do promise we'll eventually get to news. The Max Miller story, which we've been covering a lot.

so I think people are pretty familiar with what's happening there. He's continuing to stick it out. He's got, yesterday was the day for him to drop out if they wanted to have a special election. Monday is the deadline for him to drop out if they want to have an appointed replacement. So we're watching this closely. He doesn't feel like a ton of pressure is building on him to drop out. Mike Johnson hasn't said anything as we covered Donald Trump said he feels bad for Max. I think the person to feel bad for is the child.

There have been some interesting developments for anyone who missed it. Senator Bernie Moreno, Republican Ohio, said that Max Miller, his former son-in-law, was holding his granddaughter's Blue Bunny hostage. She slept every night with the same bunny. She's two and a half. Max denied that. And he put out an interesting tweet late last night. It said this, please stop the lies.

As everyone can see in the below screenshots, mine and your daughter's parenting coordinator, reached about the bunny, typo, asking if you can come pick it up from me after she forgot it at my house. I said, sure. Then a man who is not on our approved list reaches out to me, offering to come to my house to get the bunny, to which I said it was inappropriate of him to insert himself in family business and that I was waiting for you at Bernie Moreno, like we agreed upon. My daughter got her bunny back in 14 hours. So that's, before we get to, to the truth of the story. That is the Max Miller's stated defense that he only held his daughter's bunny hostage for just 14 hours and that he refused to give it back in a more reasonable time because he did not want an intermediary that was not approved by the divorce mediator to be

handling the bunny transaction. What do you think about that defense, Sam? I think it sucks. And I just am left wondering, is there anyone around this guy who can say, hey Max, your live streams, your TV interviews with Jake Tapper, your tweets make you look totally psychotic and you probably should not do this stuff. Because every time he posts or open his mouth, I'm left more and more with this kind of bad taste in my mouth about this guy. I know it seems trivial, but it did sort of tip me off was when he was defending himself for the needles that were discovered. He's like, it was only testosterone replacement.

Like, come on, give me a break. And I was like, wait a second. Why is this dude taking testosterone replacement at like, what, 35, 34? Like, what do you need that for? Shouldn't you have a gender affirming care, Sam? It is. I'm not sure that's why he was. I don't know why he was taking it.

I don't think he was worried about, well, maybe he was. Who knows? But that to me screams. To me, that screams that you have. both, you know, you have some deep psychological issues that you got to deal with and probably should not have to handle this stuff while also simultaneously serving as an elected official. I think that's almost as big an understatement as the Wall Street Journal's headline about Cory Lewandowski's contracts.

But the interesting part of the story is just as a recipient of everything that's happening, this is a consumer. So last night, I'm, you know, I'm watching silo and also monitoring my phone. you know, watch monitoring the news. I'm back on the clock, and I see the Max Miller tweet come across. And I'm like, this is the most insane self-defense that I've ever heard.

It's like your father-in-law says that you held your daughter, who you allegedly assaulted, beloved bunny, that she sleeps with every night hostage. And your defense of yourself is like, well, I only kept an hostage for 14 hours. And the reason I did was because you wouldn't come get it yourself. You're going to send a staffer. And we can't allow that.

We can't allow a non-approved mediator to touch. the bunny. And I was like, I mean, how could you possibly think this could make you look good? And then the lawyer for Emily Moreno responded to that tweet by leaking additional emails related to the bunny. And when you hear about what I'm about to read, then it makes you wonder even more. Why is Max Miller engaging in this at all? And this makes him look like a total sociopath. It makes you wonder what else.

It makes you wonder if you might be a serial killer or something. Yeah. To even engage in the bunny discourse when you read about these additional emails. Screenshots from Emily Moreno's lawyer that goes like this. Earlier tonight, Representative Max Miller made social media posts, alleging he had proof. Senator Marino was lying about the bunny being withheld. He included screenshots. The screenshots I have add context and also suggest a pattern of bunny withholding. In a screenshot from an unknown date, the parenting coordinator of Miller and Moreno says Miller adamantly refuses to give the bunny back. That says, I've suggested you keep the bunny at your house to avoid these situations because unfortunately in a high conflict divorce, these situations blow up.

So there you go. That was from an unknown date. In a screenshot of an email from March 2025, Emily Moreno begged Miller for the blue bunny. in a screenshot of an email from August 2025. Months later, Emily Marano's lawyer is seen as reaching out to Max Miller's attorneys asking them to persuade Miller to give the bunny back. That email ends with this sentence. Please have Max return the bunny forthwith. March, April, May, June, July, August.

That's a six-month period of bunny hostage taking that he was engaged in. he clearly couldn't get enough this poor bunny just absolutely collateral in this awful awful family drama just give the girl her bunny just let her hold the bunny and don't take it like she can travel with the bunny i don't understand this man away from his child i think is probably for a period of time i mean i want to read from this screenshot it says for no apparent reason max is not returning they black out okay they back at the daughter's name blue bunny to emily dr corrick tried to get the blue bunny Dr. Kay made clear that despite a recommendation that the blue bunny stay with Emily, Max refuses to return it.

Why must this be a controversy? This is totally ridiculous. To which I say yes. Yes. This is totally ridiculous. This man has issues. Why is he holding the bunny hostage? Back in the old days, like this man would be in a padded room.

Like that's what would be happening with Max Miller. Padded room now for Max Miller. Get him out of Congress. Brian Point Dexter. We spent too much time when this. As Brian Poindexter's running against Max Miller, we'll put a link to his website. You know what to do in the show notes. I've been talking a bunch about how my vacation was a great time to relax and recharge

and, you know, have some deep thinking, get off of my phone. But there was one kind of limitation to that rest. And it was the beds and the pillows. You know, I was in what, four cities, four different hotel rooms, variable quality on the mattresses. It was one good pillow over the entire two-week vacation. A couple of okay mattresses were fine. One that wasn't that great. Had a little old man back in the morning.

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slash the bulwark for 20% offsite wide. Make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you. Helixleep.com slash the bulwark. All right. Donald Trump went to Nevada to have a rally about the no tax on tips program. It's one of the only

programs. He's actually passed besides the mass deportations. And so I guess he wants to run on it in the midterms. At the event was the governor of Nevada, Joe Lombardo. And I got to tell you, if you are going to a rally with Donald Trump and over the course of the rally, there are two moments that really stand out as crazy gaffs. And you make both of them. Neither of them were Trump. Boy, Governor Lombardo was really struggling. And I just want to play a couple of clips from the rally. Again, before I put this first clip, this one to reinforce. This is a messaging event about no tax on tips.

So this is Trump's populist policy, right? This is like the idea that, like, Trump obviously doesn't care all about working people, but he actually pretend to. And like, here's one policy that he can point to it where it's like, I'm trying to help the working man, not my family and my corporate buddies and, you know, the oligarchs in Silicon Valley. And so I want to focus on how DoTax on Tips is helping the forgotten man, real working men. Here's Joe Lombardo with Donald Trump standing over his shoulder introducing that event. Quite often when the press and the media runs them down, they think about, you know, he's taking care of his billionaire friends.

But those billionaire friends provide jobs. And unless you take care of them, those jobs are absent. My billionaire friends provide jobs. Got to look out for the billionaires, man. That's the best. You know what? Don't hate on the billionaires. It's good that he's protecting them.

And don't hate on Governor Olimbardo, actually. That's the classic Kinsley Gaff. He's just like, he's just speaking truth. Joe Lombardo's like, Donald Trump might be here having a no tax on tips events because he wants to give you guys some extra pennies. You're making $11 bucks an hour and he doesn't want you to pay the 20%

that you're paying on that. So, you know, you're going to get, whoof, think about those crisp linkans that you're going to get thanks to the no tax on tips. But, you know, the people we really got to take care of. Billionaires. Not the small business job creators. Not the medium-sized business job creators.

It's the billionaires. It's the billionaires. They're his billionaire buddies. Yeah. He's got their back. I don't know, man. It's just like what you say to that. Pretty obviously a dumb, dumb gaff.

Trump's face is also good. Trump's like, even Trump died. He's browning a little bit. He kind of looks away. What was that? No backslap. I love it.

Okay. Lombardo had another mistake. This one wasn't his fault. Actually, Joe Lombardo. Well, I guess it's his fault for misunderstanding the Republican base to vote for him. No, this one's not his fault. This one's the fault of the crowd. It is because he doesn't understand the ground.

Okay. Yeah. Let's watch. Joe Lombardo. Well, actually, I think it's better if you just go in blind. All right. Let's listen. So I know Pastor Tice spoke about Officer Abbotton.

Abdel Nabi a few moments ago. No, no, we're not booing. We're not booing him. He's the officer that passed away here recently. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm going to be one more time. It's so bad.

So I know Pastor Tyce spoke about officer Abdel Nabi a few moments ago. No, no, we're not booing. We're not booing here. He's the officer that passed away here. recently. The pastor. Oh, my God. First of all, obviously what happened here is that they heard a Muslim name.

And they're like primally, you know. Oh, boo. Wait. And then the governor Lombardo, what do you think is going through his head when he hears the boo? He's like, oh, shit. Shit. Like, that's not good. I got to correct these folks.

The officer that died. I thought you guys liked to back the blue. Yeah. I thought you back to the blue. Oh, no, no, no, no. You just back some blues. You don't back the blues defending the Capitol. You don't back the Muslim blues.

None the Muslim blues. Yeah, there's been kind of a series of unfortunate, depending on how you look at it, events for the Republicans, have brought back to the fore just the intensity of their Islamophobia. Yeah. And there was that moment, the booing of the dead Muslim officer, police officer. And then there was, as we discussed yesterday, Amir Hassan, Trump endorsed him to be the candidate for Michigan 8. He was defeated handily, like a landslide defeat against Thomas J. Smith, who had dropped out of the race, and who had handwritten his resignation from the race to the county clerk.

He couldn't log into the portal. the letter is so hilarious it's like the the script of it that is like it's just like he tried so little to get out of the race just like please consider this my resignation but that name it's just the most generic white dude he was bound to win that guy seems like he cares about american values and here's son and then as you pointed out i think first um after uh abdul al-sad's victory on Tuesday night in the Michigan primary, the National Republican Senatorial Committee went from calling him Abdul al-Sayad to Abdul Rahman Muhammad al-Sahad.

Settled stuff. There was another one where I think one of the Allied packs like put up some graphic where they're like, he supports terror and it's like terror in all camps and, you know, I mean, Mike Rogers said that like after 9-11, we sort of going after terrorists. He'd never think that he'd run against a terrorist. somebody that was a terrorist supporter.

So I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but that's the gist of it. Yeah. So, you know, they're not going to hide that ball on that. No, it's given me some like 2002, 2003 flashbacks, to be honest with you. I guess it's my obligation here to be like in that moment. At least W. was trying to tamp it down. It's honest, like we're back to that time without the precipitating event and with all gas, no breaks. Completely.

Completely. All gas, no breaks. I think the folks of Dearborn Michigan feel about this one. Not great. I think the results will be a little different than 2024. I do think probably should cause some internal reflection from the people of Dearborn Michigan about who they chose to vote for in 2024, but I don't know what I told you says is going to get us at this point.

APEC related, I said this on Monday. The thing I think I hate the most about the Michigan race is that it's getting us a little too close to like having our politics be a proxy for a middle. least religious war. And like, that's not going that great over there. And we're a pluralistic society where we welcome Jews and Muslims and Catholics and evangelical Protestants and atheists and whatever else people want to be. And I don't like this very much. But APEC and I was yesterday, they're going all in for Mike Rogers. Honestly, they could end up spending close to 100 million on this race. It's hard to kind of track exactly how much money is being spent because they use kind of

cut out packs and stuff. Because I've seen 30 million. million for the primary, but some estimates higher than that, and now going to put tens of millions more into the general. Do you have any thoughts on kind of implications for that? Well, I just think it's important for people understand how abnormal this is, because APAC, up until pretty recently, did not do this stuff. They didn't spend in general elections, and they also tried to make sure that they had a strong foothold in each party. They were very committed to making sure that there was bipartisan support for their mission and then by extension for Israel. And what they've basically decided at this juncture is they don't care. And they're just

going to cast their lot strictly with Republicans more or less. And so them getting involved in the general and this looks like it's going to happen would basically be a big middle finger to every Democrat, not that any Democrats really that tied to APEC all that much anymore. You wouldn't know that hearing from the DSA streamers, but yeah. Right, I guess. I look at APEC and I'm just befollowed at what their strategic objectives are here. Like, what are they trying to do? I've had a couple of messages about this, so I can answer what they're trying to do.

I think that they see El Saad is like an existential threat, like the idea that having somebody that doesn't believe that the Jewish state should exist at the top levels of political power is something that calls for massive response and pushback. And so I think that is part of it. I don't think that explains kind of the broader

like alienation of Democrats in other places, like the Malinowski decision in New Jersey to go after somebody who's like very modest in their criticism of this. Like who's honestly whose positions about Israeli policy were not that different than the

stated positions of Ben Shapiro. about like how much funding we should be providing for Israel and no killing that candidacy. But I do think there's a vicious cycle happening where like the APAC crowd feels like El-Said, I'm just going to use him as a stand-up, but several other Democratic candidates. You kind of, you know, what was the old line about Rudy Giuliani, how he would say down-verb in 9-11? I think that they feel like it's like a noun-verb-verb Zionism,

now a verb APEC, down a verb Israel. And they have to push back against that. Okay? And so, you know, because it's like, it's not just that they're opposing Israel, it's that they're so committed to that as like the top issue. And then just this is a vicious cycle and they'll get your kind of reaction to this. So then they go all in opposing that person. And so then the person defends themselves against this.

And, you know, I was like emailing the listener this morning. And I just said, you know, I think if Qatar pack. even if it was American Qataris spent 30 million going after a Jewish candidate in a district. I think that the Jewish candidate would be talking a lot about the ills of Qatar's influence on our politics, right? And so you can see how that kind of vicious cycle kind of continues. I think that's what's happening. Oh, yeah. And El Saeed will absolutely use this story to his benefit and Jinnah donations and support and all that stuff.

So the cycle will continue. Let me paint the picture of an alternative route for APEC and tell me if this is crazy. Occasionally offer a criticism of the Netanyahu government and what they're doing. You don't have to be lockstep in support of the Netanyahu government. Your job is to have American support for Israel. So make a little bit of distance between what Netanyahu is doing. Maybe say every now and then, you know, he went too far a little bit in Gaza. or these West Bank settlements are wrong, something like that.

And then instead of going all into defeat candidates in the Democratic Party, go all in to build coalitions within the Democratic Party that are largely 90% supportive of what you want, and maybe 10% not supportive of what you want. Maybe a candidate is overly critical of what's happening in the settlements, but you're okay with that because they do support firm U.S.-Israel relations. And you say that's what we're going to do. We're going to build a bench.

We're not going to tear people down. We're going to build a bench. Now you actually have people in the Democratic Party who are willing to align with you and who aren't embarrassed by an association with you. And you don't end up in that vicious cycle that you articulated so well. So that would be my suggestion. I think it's kind of too far gone for that as part of the problem. But, yeah, I hear you.

We're not going to make the whole podcast or the settlements. But I think it's hard to have them to do that. I think one, my eye alternates. You don't think we can solve Middle East peace in the next 15-year-no. My alternative approach would be, okay, fine. I'd like to see the same energy going after the Republican isolationist. Maybe try to take out. I feel a little bit better if you tried to take out one of the Republicans, too.

But it seems like you're basically a Trump super PAC at this point. And I don't really know how you think that's going to play for people in the anti-Trump coalition who are maybe not fully obviously not fully on board with your policies, but at least open to them. I think you've made a lot of people less open to them. Did he put out a statement when J.D. Vance talked about Jewish influences trying to steer the debate around the Iran MOU? I don't recall. We can effort that to be sure, but I don't believe so. Okay.

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Meet your match on zipper recruiter. Let's do munitions while we're talking about the MOU. Sure. The post reported Wednesday that Trump and Hegseth clashed over our missile depletions at Camp David last week. Hegseth defended himself in this meeting and blamed his deputy. Classic. Stephen Feinberg. That guy.

Yeah. Jewish guy. A back should look out of this. Spineberg. It wasn't me. For the shortages. And for not keeping Trump a prize of the issue, flashback, thanks to producer Katie. Dan Kane himself warned Trump before the war that a major operation against Iran would face challenges because the munition stockpile had already been significantly depleted by our defense of Israel.

In addition to support for Ukraine. Just some facts. We've burned through 80% of our pre-war Thad interceptors, 50% of our Patriot interceptors. According to CNN, Royers reported that the Army has used virtually all of its highly accurate long-range missiles. That doesn't seem great. Trump today is pushing back on these stories with the following bleat. The U.S. has massive amounts of munitions, munitions, especially of certain types.

Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shaped to the U.S. as needed. Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country's history. The leakers of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long-term jail sentences will be sought. Sam. Well, it doesn't take a genius to spot the inconsistency here, which is that they are simultaneously saying that this story is pure fiction and also that they're going to prosecute the leakers. How do you prosecute a made-up story? I'm not totally sure. This is just like every other story, like the reflecting pool, right? It's like we live in this world where

you and I can see things are happening. Reports can document that they're happening. Everyone is aware of the truth. I mean, there's nothing in these reports that are, you know, shocking to the core. Of course, we've used tons of munitions. And the Post has the goods, and so do a lot of other outlets. And yet, we have to deal with this president who insists that this fabricated world that he wants to project on us is, in fact, where we live. And it's just, it's dizzying.

You know, I don't even know what to say at this juncture, but, you know, he's created this unreality for himself. And I don't, does he believe it? Or is he, you know, like, that's sort of existential question. I think that he believes he can create it, the power of positive thinking, I think is what? I don't know that I think that he's at least been told and he seems like he was mad about the current situation. But I do think that he can, thinks he can wish things into reality and he kind of has at

times and that's reinforced that belief. Do you think he really believes, I'm not to digress here, but do you think he really believes there's a vandal that went for 300 feet around the reflecting pool and just cut a big slit in it? No. Okay. No. The Trump origin story, if we're going to digress, is him lying about being on Forbes's billionaires list or whatever. And like this is before the apprentice. It's before everything. You know, it's like he pretended like he was richer than he was. And he like berated and bullied Forbes magazine to like include him on the list, even if they didn't have the documentation like they did for the other people. But it worked kind of. You know, this. I guess my point. He was in rap songs as like the avatar of a rich person. And he was rich

but he wasn't anywhere near as rich as all these other people but he kind of became the avatar of that by creating this fake world and it has worked for him at times. I don't think that it's going to unfortunately work for him or the country in case of like missile count. Right.

At some point you can't fire what you don't have. Right. I guess there's going to be a repeat of Treaty of Versailles two, Electric Bugaloo here. We're going to have a third treaty coming up, who knows, potentially the next couple days. And it's just like the degree of the failure, again, can't be understated. And like we're going to end up in this place where the military is less prepared. We are in more danger than we were before the war started because of this lack of preparedness.

The cost of the country are significant, lives lost, economic calamity. And he's going to have to go surrender again. It's just an across-the-board humiliating defeat. I mean, it's going to be worse than that, though, right? It's going to be so humiliating. I mean, he'll obviously spin it as a big win, but whatever. But they're going to charge for ships going through the straight. I mean, that's the early reporting is that they're going to put a charge.

And there's like ample video out there of him and everyone else being like, the straight will be open. That is non-negotiable. And that's clearly what we're going to negotiate. You know, it's just so embarrassing. And yet, like, I don't know, I feel like I'm back where I was when the MOU was signed, which is what are the alternatives, right? Get us out.

I was going to close with some burrito discourse to make fun of Dan Crenshaw, but instead of that, we'll save it for a minute this. You don't want to talk about the burritos? You don't save it for another day. You didn't talk about Trump's wig. We're going to end with Trump's leg. But I don't want to miss the opportunity to make fun of Dan Crenshaw, since we're talking about this.

Dan Crenter just sent a stupid tweet about $20 burritos. You people don't have to care about that. He's out of Congress now. He's pathetic. But when I went to go to his feed to try to make fun of him, because we have old beef, I know, you see it a pin tweet. And the pin tweet is so hilarious. It's from May. What is it?

Okay. It starts with this. There's a narrative out there that the actions against Iran, quote, lack strategy. I debunk that notion. That's May? It's like a 10-paragraph tweet about how all of us media cucks are panicking and how we don't see the big picture and how this has only gone on for a month. But Trump is methodically wiping foreign policy problems off the map so that America can invest in future competition with China. Breathe.

Think long-term. See the whole picture. Maybe see half the picture in Dan's case. Dan, you got to impin that tweet. That's right. Get a new pin tweet. Pin the burrito tweets better than that one. Final topic, Trump's hair.

Just for the YouTube, I know this is an audio medium. So for the YouTube viewers, we'll pull up this kind of before and after picture. And I'm going to do my best to describe it for the listeners. Last week, Trump's hair in the Oval Office was extremely wispy. Yeah. It was looking kind of Biden-esque. And to Biden's credit, Biden has some personal dignity. I guess he had some work done too, but he had some dignity enough dignity.

But it was his thinning old man hair. It was like you could see a lot. of skull. Like if you look at this picture on the screen, you can see just a lot of kind of kind of red skull. It doesn't look like his orange skin because he doesn't put makeup on it. It's kind of like the gray with red splotches on his skull. And then yesterday, and at the at the previously mentioned Joe Lombardo speech, he looks like Callistic Inchrist. It's amazing. It does look like Callisita. Yeah. It's flowing. It's clothed. It's beautifully blonde. What do you think happened? Did he just do a lot of hymns?

What do you think? I don't know if he, I think, I think it's, I think it's a weave. I think she got a weave up there. Yeah, I think he puts something on his head. I don't know. Did he think he wouldn't get away with that yet again? An unreality. Yeah.

Is it glued on? I don't know. If anybody has had dramatic hair. Well, really, what really kill me was the sides around the ears. I don't know if you can't see this. Oh, yeah. Okay, hold on. This, I'm pulling up a different angle right now.

You got to describe it. computer. Look at those ears. Describe it. Describe it for the people who are just listening, please. Because it deserves your details. All right. So on the top, the hair is white, yellow.

Okay. And then on the side, it's a little darker. It's little brown. And it's kind of like a raccoon, kind of eyebrow, like a very thick raccoon fur eyebrow that folds over the top of the earlobe. Yeah.

It's right around the ears where it's so wavy and thick and lush. It's very weird. All right. We're going to do some repenting now with Pastor Adam Hamilton. No, in segment two. I like this guy, Sam. I got to say, you know, I feel biased because he's just hitting all of my former Republican pleasure centers. And I don't know.

I think Kansas is a little sleeper. I explain why in segment two. So we don't have to do it. I think Kansas, some of these states that people mention, I don't want to yuck at anyone's yum. I'm glad anyone, you know, run for something, get in the field. You never know what happens. Kansas, I think it's a little bit of a sleeper. So there we go. That's my tea. Stick around for that. Sam, anything else you want to leave us with? Yeah, I just want to mention that we're in this is a little bit of self-promotion, but we do this here every now and then in the bulwark. We got a big write-up in Inc. Magazine this morning about the state of the business. We are profitable. We are growing. We got a great bundle package. Ink really captured the zeitgeist here at the mothership. And if people want to check out what we're doing,

I would definitely go to ink and read about it. But more importantly, I would join the community in the movement by subscribing here. So please do that. The guy even came to see what's happening, the magic right here. All you guys get to see is the plant and the pinto bean poster. You get to see everything happening around. So you'll get a sense for what's going on back there. There's the slate article about the person who asked for advice

because their son was spending too much time in the library doing something disgusting. And that disgusting thing was reading the board. I have the same exact article right there. You know, there's the picture that my godson drew that was a stick figure man where there were two legs and there was something in between the leg that looked like a third leg. I've got that framed over there. Lots of good stuff. Okay, we got to go to the pastor.

That's Sam Stein up next, Adam Hamilton. Peace. Peace. All right, we are back. As of Tuesday night, he is the Democratic nominee for Senate from Kansas. He's also the founder and pastor of resurrection, a United Methodist Church. It's Adam Hamilton. Hey, sir, thanks for coming on the show.

Tim, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me. I've been watching your primary. I've been watching that race. I think Kansas is a little bit of a sleeper, but I bet a lot of our listeners haven't been watching it, you know. It's not exactly like the Tala Rico-Rexton race in the national political news. So why you introduce yourself to the audience? Tell us a little bit about Adam Hamilton. Absolutely. So I'm a fifth generation, Kansan. I'm a United Methodist pastor. I pastor the largest

United Methodist Church in the country. And I never had a, I never dreamt of being in politics. This was not my, not my ambition. But watching over the last year, oh, by the way, I have two daughters. They're in their 30s. And one's a cheap public defender in Kansas. Another one runs a plant shop, owns her own plant shop. And my wife and I've been married for 44 years. We got married the week after high school graduation. I was 17 and she was 18. And somehow it worked out. Yeah, truly, truly, right after high school graduation. So it was crazy. And I thought of a good path. No hiccups. No, no, didn't get rocky? Oh, there are moments, you know, in every marriage, there are times where you find things are tough or difficult. But, you know, somehow we survived that.

We, you know, we remembered our purpose was to try to care for each other, bless each other, love each other well. And she's been very gracious and very kind and very patient when the church seemed like it took over my life. And we, and it's interesting, we're closer together today than we ever have been. And in this race, you know, it was because she said last year, earlier this year in January, she said, because all last year I was saying, something's got to change, somebody's got to do something. And she said, yes, but not you. And she said, you know, you've devoted too much of yourself to the church. And now you're getting close to retirement and I'm excited about that. But then in January, she looked at me one day and she said, okay, I think I was wrong.

I think we need to listen and see if maybe we might be the right person, you might be the right person, to be able to beat Roger Marshall and to change what's happening, at least on behalf of Kansas and Washington, in Washington, D.C. So anyway, we're very close. She goes to all my campaign events, and I just love her like crazy. She's my best friend. So we've been married for 44 years. I felt called the ministry when I was 16 and went off to college right out of high school, then the seminary in Dallas at Southern Methodist University, and then came back to Kansas City and was invited to start a church by my bishop to start a new United Methodist Church. We started with four people in a dream, and our aim was to reach critical thinkers.

We wanted people to know you don't have to check your brain at the door when you come to church. And over the last 36 years, the church grew from four people to 24,000 people. And our focus is on serving the community, I mean, bringing people to faith, and then turning them inside out and saying, okay, we look around in our community and see where does the community not look the way it's supposed to look and how do we close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it's supposed to be. And so for us, that's been serving the community, especially working with children. We've had partnerships with 13 schools in Kansas City in the lowest income communities. We have thousands of people who volunteer in those schools. We have, you know, we've provided books for

kids. We provide food for communities that don't, there are food deserts. But the largest source of blood in Kansas City, the largest source of beds. for kids who don't have beds. So anyway, that's the kind of church that we are. And I love these people. And I never imagined leaving before I retired four years from now. But I watched over the last year and thought, this is just not okay. What's happening in Washington is not okay.

It's hurting people. And somebody's got to do something. What was it in particular? I mean, you know, there's a parade of horribles in D.C. And there have been a lot of bad things happened in D.C. for a long time. I was about to cuss. Can I cuss? Do we cuss?

You can cuss. That's all right. Okay. You can cuss if you want to. There's a lot of bullshit in D.C. for a long time. What prompted it? Sure. So I was watching things. First of all, it started on on inauguration day, and there were three of the executive orders. I don't even remember which they were. But I remember thinking, that is not okay. That's not consistent with our values. I was watching things like USAID being dismantled. I was watching the concern when the one big beautiful bill was passed and it was going to cut people off of Medicaid who were low-income people or children, 10,000 kids in Kansas lost their

SNAP benefits thanks to, you know, the work in Washington, D.C., which my Republican opponent supported. You know, he approved those things. He went along with it. So I think about 36,000 people today in Kansas who had health insurance in January of 2025, they don't have it today. That's just not right. There are a lot of those people, whether the subsidies were rolled back and like a woman in Hutchinson, Kansas, who told me her health insurance was now $3,000 a month, more than her house payment. She couldn't afford it, and so she was going to go without health insurance. And she's my age. And I'm thinking, what happens at 62 when you cancel health insurance about the time that you most need it? And, you know, again, so that has a ripple effect. It leads to

closing of rural hospitals. Kansas has 28 rural hospitals that are in danger of closing, the most in any state in the union. And all of these are things that, you know, it's one decision after another. It's the tariffs. It's the war Iran. You know, again and again, things that you think, this is not normal. This is not how Washington has operated before. Even with all the BS that's happened to Washington, this is not okay. And again, I kept waiting for Roger Marshall to speak up and say, hey, Mr. President, this is not okay. I'd have these arguments with him while I'm in the shower. He wasn't in the shower with me, but I'm having these arguments and I'm like, dude, I'm like, dude, you have got to speak up. These, you were not hired by the, by the Trump administration to be his

spokesperson. You were hired by the people of Kansas to be their champion. And you seem very close to him. I'd watch his social media. And, you know, a lot of pictures, he and the president. And I'm like, you have an opportunity to say to him, Mr. President, this policy, these tariffs, these things, they're hurting people in my state. But he never seemed to say that. He just made, you know, made the case for the president on, you know, Sunday talk shows. And I thought again. And Trump we trust. In Trump we trust. Yeah. He's big on that. Here's one of the reasons I'm going to do a little bit of politics and we'll kind of weave that back into kind of the issues that animate you. But one of the reasons I want to have you on why I'm

intrigued by Kansas is that Kansas actually, unlike some of these other red states, I'm in Louisiana, unlike us, like there have been some notable victories for Democrats in Kansas. There have been some Democratic governors recently. The ballot initiatives on several issues, there's ballot initiative yesterday on the judges. Actually, there's a lot of judges who are appointed by Democrats, the Republicans in the state. We're trying to change the way that the Kansas Supreme Court is made up so they could put more judges to the direct ballot, I think they would presume in the hopes that there'd be more conservative judges that would go to the court. So I look at that and I think, you know, I mean, Kansas voters recently have not been totally uniform in voting for Republicans. And then

you look at particularly what's happening in the farm economy and rural America. I think it's getting hit the hardest right now by the way that Trump has managed the economy. And so for those, those reasons, kind of look at Kansas and I think that's potential opportunity. Why? What do you see as a path? Well, first of all, you're exactly right. In 2022, there was a ballot initiative that was aimed at, ultimately it was aimed at taking away a woman's right to choose and giving that right to make decisions to the Kansas legislature. Kansas voters rejected at 6040. I mean, it was a surprise to the entire nation that Kansas voters did this.

And so you think, well, Kansas is a deeply red state. There's a lot of blue in Kansas too, but there's a lot of reasonable people who are in the center. I mean, we're the heartland of America. We are, you know, we're the center of our country. But in so many ways, there are thoughtful people, Republicans and Democrats, who say this is just not okay. And that happened again with the ballot initiative to elect Supreme Court justices as opposed to them being appointed through a real rigorous process. And Kansas rejected it again. And despite the way that it was pitched by the side that wanted to see change, our Kansas governor, Laura Kelly, a Democrat, elected to two terms.

But in Kansas, the kind of Democrat you have to be if you're going to get elected, and it just happens to line up with who I am, is the ability to work across the aisle. It's somebody who's going to say, look, I care about Republicans too. And we need really good thoughtful Republicans and Democrats working together. You know, that's what I've done at the church. I serve 24,000 members, 35% of Republicans, 35% of Democrats, 30% are independents. And, you know, they work together and they serve together in the community. We don't ask the question when we go visit somebody in the hospital. Are you a Republican or a Democrat?

We just show up. And so Kansas are those kind of people. Do you have any church members who have had to say, sorry, pastor. I'm going to have to be for Roger Marshall. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I haven't people come up to me and say, hey, you know, Pastor, I love you as my pastor, but I'm a Roger Marshall fan or I'm a, I'm a supporter. And I'm like, that's okay. You know, I'm his friend. I'm glad he has friends. That's no problem. You know, it's okay for me. And so that's the kind of church we are. You know, it's like, it's okay to disagree. And I think Kansasans also are there where they think it's okay to disagree, but what they want is thoughtful people and not people on the extremes. Kansas is not a state that values the people are on the far edges that are kind of pulling us apart as a country. They're folks who are saying, they're want to be reasonable. You know, they're willing to engage with people on the other side. So you asked about the path forward. So I've traveled across the state of Kansas three times now as a part of my

listening sessions and then moving into the campaign. And what I've heard from folks is, you know, even those who supported Trump and voted for him three times, they said, look, we voted for him three times, but the decisions being made in Washington are hurting our ag economy. The tariffs, you know, with a tweet and a tariff, a trade agreement that took years to negotiate is undone. Or, you know, small business owners who say, I talked to a guy and he said, you know, we lost. $80,000 on a contract for a part we're making for the F-35 because we had to import aluminum ingot from Canada. And, you know, the tariffs sent the price that up and we couldn't recoup that in the contract. So we lost 80,000. He has 61 employees. He's like, how long can you

lose $80,000 on a contract and not start laying people off? He said, this has been a disaster. Or one of our largest companies in Kansas who told me the same thing. Many of these are, you know, business people who typically would align, their interests would align with the Republican Party. But they're saying this is not the Republican Party we know and this is not good for us. And so everywhere I go, I have people come up to me and go. And sometimes they whisper it. Sometimes they're loud about it. They're like, I'm a Republican, but I'm for you. We need you. And some of them switch their party affiliation to say, hey, you know, I want to be able to vote for you. In the primary. You mean you had to switch affiliation? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And in the primary,

20% of Republicans voted for Roger Marshall's opponent, who is really his really, he has no name recognition. It did nothing really to campaign. But that was a statement of Republicans saying, this is not okay. What's happening is not okay. It's heard in Kansas. and Roger Marshall is not speaking up for them. Your church is in suburban Kansas City, right, basically? Yeah, we're right. It's on the Kansas side. Yeah.

So you said you've been traveling to Western Kansas to kind of have these conversations. I've done that drive a bunch down I-70. I grew up in Denver. My family is all from St. Louis. So that's a long drive. You know, there's the time changes there. There's the Eisenhower Museum. I remember with my younger brother on that drive one time.

and we are counting cows. And he was like, what else should we count? And I was like, nothing else to count on this drive besides cows. And when he was a toddler. And so, you know, there's a cultural gap between Hayes and Colby and Salina and what's happening in suburban Kansas City. And I'm just kind of wondering how you're bridging that, if there are any issues where you think that you're aligned with them more maybe than the National Democratic Party or if there's

other ways you're trying to connect with that part of the state. Yep. What the people in Kansas, and by the way, Kansas is a beautiful state, I agree with you that it can be a long drive across I-70, but you've got the Flint Hills you drive through first. They're like awesome. And then you get the sunflower fields and you got the wheat fields and you see, for me, as somebody who's grown up here, I just love the state. I think it's beautiful. I'm happy for you. Everybody's got a lobster.

Exactly. Exactly. So across the state of Kansas, part of what people are looking for is they want to know, are you going to represent us and are you going to be our champion or are you going to be a champion for? for the party or for some particular person in the party. And, you know, people ask me this way, they'll say, you know, well, so if Chuck Schumer tells you to do something, what are you going to do? And my answer is, if it's good for Kansas, I'm all in. But if it's not good for Kansas, my answer is no.

We're going to do what's best for the people of Kansas. I'm going to fight for them. And that includes, you know, and a lot of those things are things that are good for everybody. So ending the tariffs, having a real policy around tariffs and the president not deciding in the middle of the night that he wants to change a tariff because he felt insulted by somebody. but instead Congress playing a role

and making sure that we know what are the cost of those tariffs and what's the benefits and why are we doing it or I think about alternative energy and across Kansas today we are the fourth largest producer of wind energy in the United States

if you drive across Kansas you're not just counting cows anymore you're counting wind turbines Oh, you're losers Exactly Trump said this week anybody that has turbines as a loser can't so I don't know

if that might put Roger Marshall Crossways with him a little bit Well it might or Roger might just go along with that but we've got huge solar fields you know, massive, you know, solar fields. That's good for the farmers. That's good for Kansas in terms of our clean energy. It's good all the way around.

But again, there's where interests of Kansans in rural areas align with interest for clean energy. And anyway, it's been, there's so many things and so many places where I'm talking to people and they're saying we have to do better. And part of it. So I want to share the story with you. I had a guy in Holton, Kansas. And he came up to me and he said, hey, I just want you to know I'm a single issue voter. And usually when you hear that, what do you?

you think? Abortion or Trump? Typically it's abortion. Yeah. Yeah. Here's what he said. I'm a single-ish voter. I won't vote for anybody who doesn't believe that we're supposed to love our neighbors. We love ourselves. And I thought, that's just so good. My only

response was amen to that. That is exactly how I feel and what I'm running on is for us too. So yes, there are serious things we've got to do in Washington. It's not okay for 36,000 people to have their health care cut off. Rural hospitals to close as a result. Children not receiving their SNAP benefits. Now, because they don't get Medicaid or SNAP benefits, they don't

qualify for free and reduced lunch program. Nobody in Kansas thinks it's okay to do that. But it's also not okay to impose tariffs that end up harming Kansas agriculture. So we lose trade agreements that are really important for Kansas. Or USAID, which was purchasing 3 to 5 percent of Kansas grain and sharing it with other countries. That was not good for Kansas when we did that. And it wasn't good for those other countries. So there's so many places where decisions in Washington are hurting the rural areas that people are saying, look, I don't want some extremist. I don't want somebody on the far end in the Democratic Party. But if there's somebody who's reasonable who cares about us, who genuinely cares and wants to work with Republicans and treats us as though, you know, treats us with respect,

we're interested in work with that kind of Democrat. I don't know if there's anything that you said there that Joe Biden might not have said, though. And so I do wonder if you have any, and he obviously did not win Kansas. So I wonder if you, when you look at like the National Democratic Party, if you have disagreements with them, whether they be policy. or strategic failures that disconnected them from the state? Sure. Well, Joe Biden lost Kansas in part because for three years, it felt like to people, there were open borders.

There were so many people streaming across. And Kansas was a little nervous about that. You know, we have immigrant labor. You go to the southwestern part of the state and the meatpacking industry and the livestock industry needs immigrant labor. But what they're nervous about is people, you know, massive numbers of people coming over.

And it felt like to them that Biden had just sort of opened up the borders. That may not have been accurate, but that's how it felt for people in Kansas. And so I would say things like that. You know, when the perceptions of Democrats in Kansas, which I don't think are accurate, but it's how people feel, open borders. So I'm not in favor of open borders. The Democrats I know are not in favor of open borders.

They're in favor of safe and strong borders, but we're also in favor of allowing a legal pathway for people to come into our country. And so, you know, I think of things like that, when I first told my dad that was running for office, he said, and I was a Democrat. He said, were you a communist or a socialist? I'm like, Dad, I'm not either one of those things. I am an independent-minded, moderate Democrat who really cares about people. And that's part of why I'm a Democrat, is I care about people and social safety nets and being concerned for vulnerable people and the poor.

And so anyway, those perceptions of what Democrats are. And sometimes we see a reality behind that. That's not who we are in Kansas. And so I would say those are places where I would disagree with the Democratic Party. And I would say, you know, a lot of Republicans will say to me and Democrats too, hey, I'm concerned about all the things you're concerned. concerned about, but I'm also concerned about the deficit. I'm concerned about leaving a deficit for my children or my grandchildren. What are you going to do about that? And so that idea of fiscal responsibility, which feels like the Republicans have forgotten, even though they claim that

they're the party of that. So you'd be the one that wants to balance the budget in the Senate. That's nice. We'd have to start with one. Yeah, exactly. There you go. That'd be good. I do think a lot of voters feel like the Democrats are godless. You know, whether that's fair or unfair, I think that there was a period of time where they thought the Democrats were liberal, but they were church-going liberals, and now a lot of the Democratic Party is not. And so just by nature of being a pastor, I think that you're a little bit different

for what some people's perception of the party's brand is. I just wonder how important you think that is, faith and God to your brand. Well, it's very important to my brand because it's who I am. I mean, from the time I was 14 years old when I first decided I wanted to follow Jesus, this has been an important, not an important. It's like a central defining story.

of my life. I wake up every morning. I get on my knees and I just say, here I am, God. Please use me, guide me, lead me, help me to be a decent human being, how me to love people, and to be salt and light in our world. And so that's just essential to who I am. But it's also, I think, I think there's a lot of Democrats out there. I don't remember the numbers, but it was something like 60% claim to have faith. But Democrats are, I think they got turned off by Republicans who are using their faith as a way of justifying some of their politics that were not very Christian. And so I think there are a lot of Democrats who are people of faith who are like, I don't want to be that. And so I don't want to be pushy.

I don't want to. So they're kind of quiet about their faith. And then there's others who, you know, who kind of reject the Christian nationalism. And in the process, they kind of paint a broad, you know, with a broad brush, all of Christian faith. But you're finding a lot more of the Democrats who are people of faith deciding to run for office. So I think there's five or six pastors who were running for either the House or the Senate. Tala Rico is one of those. Obviously, I'm another.

But there are many others. some running for the house. And I think they're saying, look, when I read the Gospels, what I'm seeing in Washington doesn't look like the things that matter to me. And I'll give you an example. This was a story from a few weeks ago. I was visiting with a woman who was in the grain industry here in Kansas. And after we were done, she said, can I ask you a personal question? And she said, I don't mean any offense by it. I just, she said, just I'm trying to understand, how can you be a Democrat and a Christian pastor? And I said, okay, well, that's a good question. So I said, if you think about what Republicans stand for. What do they stand for? Fiscal responsibility, limited government,

you know, a strong defense, civil liberties, and a conservative sort of spirit. So you're in a time machine? Well, I know, exactly. That was maybe 2011. Exactly. A long time ago. But I'm just saying that was, that was kind of what, you know, what they had claimed that they were. And I said, now, Democrats, what do they stand for? They stand for social safety nets. Concern for the poor and vulnerable. They stand for education. They stand for, you know, helping people have a chance to, you know, And they stand for justice and fairness. And I said, which of those two sounds more like the Jesus of the Gospels? And she was quiet.

And I said, because to me, the Democratic platform sounds like the Jesus of the Gospels. So I said, you know, I value a lot of things about Republicans. And I know a lot of Republicans, you know, who have a deep faith. But I just want to say that when you ask me the question, how could you be a Democrat and a Christian? I'm going to tell you, when I read the Gospels and I read Jesus, I see a lot of the things that the Democrats care about are things that Jesus cared about. and that's how I can be a Democrat and a Christian. I mean, the pushback to you is obviously about abortion there. Yep, yeah, and that's what she said.

And, you know, my response to abortion, I told her, I said, I have two things I'd say. First of all, as a pastor, I've been with women who were in crisis situations or women who were coming to talk about, you know, they're a place where they were needing abortion care. And it was empathy and compassion that led me to say, I think there needs to be safe and legal access to abortion. And I also believe there's a moral tension when it comes to abortion. and that moral tension comes out of my own story. My mom was 17. My dad was 16 when my mom got pregnant. They dropped out of high school.

My grandfather told her that he would fly her. My grandpa was a pilot with TWA. He was going to fly her to Switzerland to have an abortion. And my mom said, I can't do it. I don't want to do that. And my grandpa said, then you can't live here anymore. And her mother had died a year before, so it was a very chaotic time for her. And so she was kicked out of her house by her dad.

And she went to live with my dad, who was 16 at the time in his house with his parents. They got married six months later and had the child three or four months after that. And I was visiting with my mom at the assisted living center the other day. And we were talking about this. She said, I just want to remind you my story. I know you'd have it forgotten. And then she started to cry. And she said, Adam, I can't imagine how much different the world would be.

If I had gotten on that airplane, you'd never been born. And so for me, you know, she had a choice. and she chose to bring me into this world and I'm here and she got to vote for me the other day, you know, and see her son's name on the ballot. And that was because of a choice that she made. And so for me, there's these two things that I hold together. And this is what I shared with this woman and I share with other people. I understand the moral tension. And I also understand the tension when it comes to empathy and compassion for people. And I don't want the Kansas State Legislature making a decision for women about what they can or cannot do, nor do I want the United States Senate making that decision. I like hearing you talk about the moral valence of it, though, because I do think that a lot of Democrats have stopped talking about that, and just because it makes it feel like an easier conversation, but it isn't. It's a challenging one. One of the other Christian traits, mercy, forgiveness, you know, in office, people in office have opportunity to provide mercy, and you look at what this president is doing with that and the pardon process. I just kind of wanted to pick your brain on that, the way that, the way that, they are using that power right now. Yeah. So presidents and not just this current president, but other presidents in the past have at times pardoned people that either were people whose families made major contributions to their campaigns

or in otherwise had some influence with them. And I think, you know, if you're going to use presidential pardon, make sure it's not because you've been benefiting from somebody who's in that family of the person. There are times that that presidential pardon would be very important. But I think it so often smacks of corruption. It smacks wants more of undue influence or conflict of interest. And that's happening in a lot of ways in Washington, D.C. right now. We've got to get beyond that.

And so many things I look at, I think, that's such, like, no, if this was a Democrat doing what the president just did, the Republicans would be up in arms. They'd be like, this is horrible. This is awful. Well, there was. I mean, again, like the Hunter Biden pardon, for example. I'm being criticized here. And some Democrats said that was wrong.

Exactly. But they look at the scale. Yeah, exactly. And so I'll share the story with you. I've shared it on every campaign trail stop. But liberal Kansas, I don't know if you've ever been there or not, but it's in the southwest corner of the state. A great town, and I had a chance to go there. And when I was done with my stump, I said, okay, I want to see something unique and liberal.

And they said, well, go to the Wizard of Oz Museum. So go to the Wizard of Oz Museum. And there's a, you know, Dorothy's house is there with all kinds of props from the movie. And then there's a museum. And then there's a yellow brick road, and Dorothy is standing there a bronze statue. And if you push the button, it'll start playing, you know, we're off to see the wizard. I went inside the museum, and there's a TV, and it's showing that clip of Dorothy and Toto. and her three trusty sidekicks, the scarecrow, the tin man, and the lion, the cowardly lion.

And they're singing as they're going to see the Wizard of Oz. And I was thinking to myself, what did the scarecrow need? He needed a brain. What did the 10 men need? He needed a heart. What did the cowardly lion need? He needed courage. And all of a sudden, I thought, that's what's missing in Washington, D.C.

Right now. That's what's missing in the United States Senate. We have people who've lost their minds. You know, they're no longer thinking for themselves. They're doing whatever the president of the party tells them to do as opposed to saying, hey, these are big problems. We've got to work on these things. And we need to use our powers of reason. People have lost their heart. Because I don't know how you vote on a bill that cancels 10,000 children off of SNAP benefits or 36,000 people from health insurance and not realize, hey,

this is hurting people in the state where they elected me. And then finally, I think we've got, and I'm going to blame the Republicans here, a lot of cowardly lines up there right now. And these are people, I think there's a lot of them who know what they're voting for or what the president's doing is wrong, but they lack the moral courage and the political courage to say this is not okay. They're afraid they're going to be primaried or picked on or bullied by their president. And so they go along as quiet little lambs and they don't say anything until they get primaried. And then on their way out, they suddenly find a backbone and say, hey, this is not okay. And it's like it's not moral courage when you already got voted out and you finally say something.

It's moral and political courage when you know, I may not get reelected, but I have to say this because this is not okay. And today we need more moral courage. We need senators with a heart, and we need senators who haven't lost their minds. And that's part of why I'm running. 0 for 3 for Roger Marshall. Let's do a two-minute hate on him before we close. I told you we were going to do some sending. He was a big supporter of the insurrection, Trump's effort around it.

It was his first vote. Yeah, his first vote as a senator was to vote not to certify the election after the insurrection. Like there's only six people who did that. How in those six people? How in the world do you decide? that that's going to be your first vote in the Senate is to make that choice. To do a lie. I mean, if we're going to do, 10 commandments, we're going to do the Bible. He knew it was a lie. He didn't think that the election was stolen. It wasn't particularly close election in 2020.

It was just that. It was four states would have needed. And so he does that after they're threatening to kill Mike Pence. That's a crazy vote. More importantly, it's like a mendacious vote. He was a lie. It was a lie. And he knew it. I agree 100%. He's a doctor who thinks Fauci should be in jail. He says, who didn't have a friend who took this vaccine and had a complication? Me, I guess. I have a lot of friends who took the cancer. I didn't have any complications. I don't know people who did.

Well, actually, I know one person who might have struggled a little bit. But, yeah, I mean, it's interesting to see, you know, working to reduce the National Institutes of Health, choosing not to emphasize vaccination on diseases that we know these vaccinations are important. I mean, there's so many places where you just go, as a doctor, how are you saying that? I can't imagine that you, that's what you believe. Maybe it is. And I think most pressing right now, who knows what is in Roger Marshall's heart or his brain. But he's been having to defend the Iran war and like the impact of on people's of oil in the world.

We're exporting more importing and we're importing and not standing in lines. And I went through a series of interviews. It's kind of funny to go back and look through that. It's like from March. It's going to be tax day. few weeks. Very soon. And Americans are going to get the next $1,500 rebate as well.

I just want to play for you because there were a couple of quotes that were pretty striking. This was used on Newsmax in April. Let's listen to that. How long do you think Americans will be willing to pay the higher energy costs while we are confronting Iran? I mean, obviously we know why we're paying it, but how long do you think we're going to be willing to keep paying it? That's an interesting question.

I think back to my grandparents and their generations. that served in World War II. Could you imagine trying to tell the president, look, you only got so many days to defeat Hitler or defeat Japan? We have to do it until we get the outcome that we want. I hope it's weeks and not months. So I'm sorry the gas prices are going up, but help is on his way. And your national security, yes, is even more important than your pocketbook.

So farmers paid a billion and a half dollars more for diesel fuel last year. their fertilizer went up 400% because of the war in Iraq and Iran. The continued cost to people in Kansas, so a buck 40 a gallon for gasoline, that's $100 a month for a family who's struggling to make ends meet. And his answer was to Kansas, you know, just got to tighten your belt. You know, this is really important. But it's really interesting to ask, why was this so important? You know, so this was a war that we launched. We launched the war.

It wasn't like there was Adolf Hitler over there who had, you know, was murdering millions of Jews and taking over the, you know, the entire European continent. It's not that I love the Ayatollahs. It's just that what we did, and especially after he bombed once last year and said, oh, we've taken care of their nuclear capability. We were very effective in that. And then we had to launch another war and an offensive war. So these are self-inflicted wounds. And I don't, I, you know, I don't know how Roger Marshall goes and defends this. You know, he def- whatever the, when the president shifts, shifts gears, Roger Marshall's there to defend him once more. And I think, again, people in Kansas are asking and have been asking, did we really need to do that?

Was that really important? And the answer is, no, there were better ways. And are we going to come out better as a result of this? It doesn't look like it. It looks like we're in worse shape, even if the war winds down tomorrow. Yeah. He also said no one has done more for American ag and rural America than Trump and Rollins. It's like in Trump we trust.

I think people have to be laughing about that. That is just, yeah, you go out and look at Kansas farmers and that is simply not the case. And I think, and they know it. That's why when they hear it, this is why I'm saying this is a winnable race. people haven't looked at Kansas yet. They were looking at other places, Michigan or Maine or wherever. Kempla, Kansas, this is a very winnable race because we have a Democrat or a Republican incumbent who is not popular. People are questioning.

People who voted for him last time are saying, not again. Some of the ag industries are not supporting him. I mean, it's just, and I think I'm a candidate who can win. So it's not just because Roger Marshall is a terrible candidate. But I'm somebody who will work to bring Republicans and Democrats together in Kansas. we are going to fight for the people of Kansas. I'm going to be a champion for them. I care deeply about them.

And I live in Kansas. Roger Marshall, you know, when he's out of Washington, he's in Florida. So, you know, when you don't come to your home state, you don't listen to the people. When he was having listening sessions last year. Is that one of the tan? Is that why he's got that tan? I don't know. But I will say this, you know, his last listening session in Oakley, Kansas.

And people started raising questions. And he just said, well, I'm done. And he walked out. And people across Kansas know that. Like, this is a guy who's not. here and he's not listening to the people of Kansas. Because if he was, he'd be singing a different tune in Washington, D.C. I've made my livelihood being a listener, caring about people, trying to solve problems. And I'm going to be a fighter for the people of Kansas, Republicans and Democrats,

and work to bring them together instead of dividing them. You said your church is a place where people don't check their brain on the way in. So I'm going to come to you for some brain advice. I've got an eight-year-old. I've been getting a lot of God questions lately. You know, grandma took her to church. I'm a cradle Catholic. the old brain and the heart never really meshed up for me on it. You know, I have fondness for it. You know, I like the hymns. I like some of the lessons, but I just, I can't get there.

And so my daughter's kind of asking me, well, okay, what do you believe? What do you think? How do you talk about that with people? How do you talk about people that have doubts about faith when they come to you? Thanks for asking that. So I wrote a book last year based upon one. What I've done across the years is called wrestling with doubt, finding faith. And I took the seven most frequently asked questions people have that cause them doubt.

You know, why is suffering happen? How do we reconcile that with God? What about prayer? You know, what about people of other religions? How do we think about them? And a whole host of other questions. I don't come in and go, well, let me tell you all the answers, Tim. Here's the answers and they'll finally solve all your problems.

I'm going to say, look, everybody has doubts. You read the Bible, you're going to find people of faith had doubts. There are Psalms that describe, you know, where are you, oh, God? How come you're not here right now? Jesus is, he's hanging on the cross, cries out. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so doubts, okay, it's not the enemy of faith. Wrestling with those doubts and asking questions, if you really want to dig into the questions,

there are some pretty good answers out there for some of those questions. And that's what I tried to articulate in the book. It's just here are some good answers. They help me make sense of things. They don't solve all the problems, but they solve some. And when I talk with people and share with them, you know, look, I've had those doubts too. Here's how I see this. And when I look at the world around me, you know, I see beauty and I see patterns.

I see so much goodness and grace. I understand how somebody can say, that's just all, you know, we're fortunate to have this kind of world that we live in. I look at it and I think, you know, the cosmos points to me to the beauty of a creator who actually created all things. He doesn't micromanage everything on this planet,

but he cares about us and I believe, you know, when I look at creation, I find I'm drawn to God. I understand why people aren't, but I find when I pray, when I'm singing, when I'm reflecting upon scripture, I find something that drives my life, my values, my hopes, my dreams. I feel a peace at times. I feel God's presence in my life. And the church that I serve, so we started as a church for non-religious people. And about two-thirds of the people who joined are people who didn't go to church before. They dropped out of church, kind of like you,

dropped out of church somewhere along the way, and found that there was something that they were yearning for, or they had a sense or maybe a hope that there might be something more. And so we interview scientists. We interview, you know, we do a lot to try to help people. think to see that you can be a thoughtful person. You can be a smart person in an intellectual and also a person of faith. And they're not, they don't counsel each other out. You can be both of those things. But, you know, I understand why people struggle with faith. I have myself over the years. I noticed that God wasn't non-binary in that story. Don't, don't answer that. That was just a joke I had to do. It seems like J.D. Vance could learn some lessons from you

about his recent faith journey. Adam Hamilton, it's been so pleasant. I appreciate it. I could do it. I could do a whole podcast on the doubts, but I think you're going to going to be busy the next few months. And then in the Senate. Well, sometime we should do that. Maybe after I'm in the Senate, let's do that. They don't work about much over there. No, exactly.

During one of the long recesses, we can do that. Exactly. Appreciate the time. Have you won over your dad? Not yet. Not yet. No, I don't think so yet. Yeah, I'm working on it.

Hey, I do want to mention, if your folks want to find out more about me, have them go to Hamilton for Kansas.com. I'd love for them. I've got some policies on there. There's a little video that just two-minute video tells them a little bit more about me. But I'd love for people to realize that we have a real race in Kansas. And I believe on November 3rd, the anchors across the country are going, look what happened in Kansas. For the first time in 94 years, they elected a Democrat.

Wow, what does that mean for our country? That the heartland of America, what they thought was a deeply red state is a place that elected a Democrat. And we're going to make changes in Washington, D.C. And I need people's help for that. So I hope they'll check on my website and decide to be a part of volunteering or helping in some other way. But we need their help. I appreciate that. We'll send folks that way.

Adam Hamilton. Thanks, Tim. Good luck on the campaign trail. Thanks for the time, all right. It was great to be with you today. Have a great day. All right. Much appreciation to the big bad wolf, Sam Stein,

for letting us get into the more prurient side of politics. And Adam Hamilton for spending so much time with me on the day after he won the Big Kansas Center primary. I appreciate you guys so much. We'll be back tomorrow with a great Friday show. See you all then. Peace. The Borg podcast is brought to you. thanks to the work of lead producer Katie Cooper,

Associate producer Ansela Skipper, and with video editing by Katie Lutz, and audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.