The Bulwark

Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow joins Sam Stein for her take on how a fabricated poll had real consequences for her Senate campaign, drying up donations, rattling volunteers, and prompting reporters to ask when she would drop out. They examine how fake polling can distort media coverage, influence donors, and shape the narratives surrounding elections, even when the numbers are completely made up. McMorrow also discusses the broader problems plaguing American politics, from scam PACs to

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock)EARLY ON MONDAY MORNING, federal agents pounded on the door of 72-year-old Omar Muñoz’s home in Commerce, California. Armed officers had surrounded his house before dawn and were threatening to break down the front door unless he came out. When he answered, the agents handcuffed and dragged the lawful permanent resident from Belize out of his home, still in his pajamas, parading him in front of their own gov

Vivek Ramaswamy has dragged Amy Acton’s estranged mother into the Ohio governor’s race to smear her daughter — even though the mother’s husband was charged with raping Acton when she was just 12. Now Trump and JD Vance are backing the attack, with Trump calling Acton “defective” and demanding Republicans fall in line. Will Sommer and Andrew Egger give their takes on the ad’s horrifying backstory and the shameless decision to turn Acton’s childhood

Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Bulwark | Photos Getty, ShutterstockEuro trippingRepublicans are attempting to rally their dispirited political base with a bit of imported esprit. Widely broadcast scenes of rioting in France have given Republicans a new stockpile of violent imagery that they are attempting to associate with the Democratic slate of candidates for the House and Senate this election cycle. Read more

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are already divvying up how to investigate Musk, the one-time shadow president who's still making foreign policy decisions about the war in Ukraine. Also on tap for hearings is the impeachable Hegseth, who ironically broke the iconic globe used by Eisenhower—a man who actually knew how to fight a war. And of course there's self-enriching Jared Kushner, who pretends to do diplomacy with his Putin-worshipping sidekick, Steve Witkoff. Plus: Vance's s

(Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Bulwark | Photos Getty, Shutterstock)1. FJD. Again.America’s vice president is an Elizabeth Holmes–level sociopath. Today I want to take you through four statements from JD Vance that illustrate what a terrible human being he is.Statement #1: In 2024, JD Vance advanced a blood libel about Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio. He was open about not caring whether or not his blood libel was true. On September 10, 2024, he told CNN:Wheth

Ben Parker and Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) give their takes on Pete Hegseth’s surprise visit to Israel days before Benjamin Netanyahu’s election and amid the possibility of new strikes against Iran. They also discuss the strain of sending a third aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East and the damage Hegseth’s office caused to a historic globe once used by Dwight Eisenhower.Plus, Trump threatens to withhold compensation for victims of contaminated water at Camp Lejeu

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty)CONSERVATIVE PODCASTING MOGUL Ben Shapiro can sometimes seem like the last decent person left in right-wing media. When he isn’t writing movies for James Franco, Shapiro has been a rare voice standing up to the MAGA movement’s slide into absolute madness: outright racism, antisemitism, and Charlie Kirk assassination conspiracy theories.But when it comes to Vivek Ramaswamy’s new ad attacking Democrat Amy Acton in th

What’s driving the coming blue wave? More than anything else, the latest New York Times/Siena poll finds, it’s a sharp reversal among young voters, who got Trump-curious in 2024 but have snapped back hard ever since. Voters 65 and older have crept back toward Democrats by two points, voters 45 to 64 have stayed put, and voters 30 to 44 have slid five points left. But voters aged 18 to 29 have jumped back toward Democrats by fifteen points—55 percent to 70 percent. Happy Thursda

Tim Miller welcomes David Mauricio, the newly minted Jubilee Surrounded star, to break down his viral clashes with MAGA debaters. Mauricio explains why he came out swinging, how Trump’s defenders struggled to answer questions about the president’s corruption, and why one debater’s attempt to question his citizenship backfired.Plus, Mauricio confronts woman who casually admits she was at the Capitol on January 6 while defending a pardoned insurrectionist who later sexually abuse

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Shutterstock)WITH THE ARRIVAL OF MID-OCTOBER in even-numbered years come the telltale signs of campaign season entering the final stretch. The ads get more vicious. The rallies get more crowded. Michael Bloomberg cuts a big fat check. And political junkies binge incremental data points that either confirm their priors or leave them in a pool of despair.Admit it. Over the past week or so, you too have begun obsessively doomscrolling social

This week’s Next Level starts out as a Secret Pod episode, before Tim and Sam crash the stage. They discuss Sarah’s interview with Pete Buttigieg, why Jon Ossoff might be history’s choice for 2028 whether he likes it or not. Plus: some hopium on some key races across the South. Then the crew turns to Vivek Ramaswamy’s despicable ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother, and whether JD Vance might be (shudder) underrated in 2028. who they most want to see hauled be

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Truth Social, X.com)POLLS BEING WHAT THEY ARE, Republicans and their supporters must be feeling a bit like the condemned Frenchmen who rode to the guillotine during the Reign of Terror. It’s fitting, then, that they are seizing on unrest in France as a desperate campaign gambit. “The Riots in France Are a Warning for America,” declared the Federalist. And what is the lesson? “Mass immigration will split your

Could there be a bigger sign of Ramaswamy's depravity and desperation than using a mother from hell to sell your message? His campaign for governor of Ohio against Amy Acton has been a nightmare from the beginning. Meanwhile, Murphy senses kryptonite in the water around Trump as well, particularly with the farm belt in revolt over tariffs and the price of diesel. But in Michigan, El-Sayed has got to cool it on the cocky bro stuff in the final days of his campaign. Plus: From our live show in Atl

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Shutterstock, Getty)THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS MADE California the central target of its efforts to intimidate voters. The Department of Justice has launched efforts to coerce California into investigating alleged illegal voters in L.A. County. And the Department of Homeland Security has begun dispatching agents to the homes of voters who they allege are casting ballots illegally.But the efforts have gone beyond just trying to scare peo

Ben Parker and Michael Weiss dissect Steve Witkoff’s praise of Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian” and JD Vance’s defense of the Trump envoy, exposing the weakness and incompetence behind the administration’s Russia diplomacy. They examine how Trump’s desperation for a deal with Putin is leading to concessions on sanctions, undermining Ukraine, and rewarding Russian aggression. Plus, Michael explains how Russia’s growing cooperation with Iran threatens U.

(Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Bulwark | Photos: JVL, Shutterstock)1. Ball Is LifeI took Flash to the ballpark for the first time when he was about 16 months old. We had a minor league team down the road from our house. One Saturday afternoon, he woke up from his nap and we caught two innings in the middle of a day game. We left as soon as he got bored.For several years, that was his experience of baseball. We would show up in the middle of the game and stay for ten minutes, or an hour,

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock)Along I-75 in Southeastern MichiganABDUL EL-SAYED REMEMBERS EXACTLY where he was the first time he saw Barack Obama. It was July 2004 and El-Sayed was 19, standing at the kitchen sink of his parents’ house outside Detroit while the Democratic National Convention in Boston was playing on the television.Obama, then a Senate candidate, was giving the primetime keynote address—an ode to hope, unity, and America

Trump and his cronies keep using slurs like they’re going out of style—which, to be fair, they are. On Monday in Kansas, Trump denounced news reports that he said portrayed Sen. Roger Marshall as “a Shylock-type guy.” And yesterday, after Trump tussled in the Oval Office with reporter Andrew Feinberg of the Independent—calling him a “sick person” and saying “I actually think there’s something wrong with you”—a White House communic

Sebastian Stan in Fjord. (Courtesy Neon)FJORD IS A PROVOCATION in the best sense of the word, a probing examination into self-conceptions of tolerance and the limits therein, brought to life with a keen naturalism that pulls the neat trick of both obfuscating the facts and clarifying the reality on the ground.Writer-director Cristian Mungiu opens with the obfuscation. We see Elia Gheorghiu (Vanessa Ceban), a teenage girl, wiping away a tear. Her mother, Lisbet (Renate Reinsve), tells her to give