1047: JD Vance Picked the Ugliest Fight on Purpose
The Next Level
The Bulwark
4.8 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sarah, Tim and JVL discuss the ICE killing in Minneapolis and the escalation that followed, including DOJ prosecutors resigning rather than smearing the victim’s family. They also talk about JD Vance’s eagerness to defend state violence, Trump’s pressure campaign against Jerome Powell, the broader pattern of unchecked power, and why Democratic candidates like Mary Peltola fit their states while others don’t.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Is it fish first? |
| 0:01.6 | Fish family freedom. |
| 0:03.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:03.3 | So not America first, not family first. |
| 0:06.3 | Fish first. |
| 0:07.3 | Fish first. |
| 0:07.7 | Yeah, which in Alaska, that plays. |
| 0:11.9 | Hello, everyone. |
| 0:13.0 | Welcome to the next level. |
| 0:14.1 | I'm JVL here with my best friends, Sarah Longwell and Tim Miller of the ballwork. |
| 0:19.1 | And it has been another terrible stretch of a week or two. |
| 0:23.4 | I was thinking about that Halcyon moment right between like December 22nd and January 3rd, where some people, |
| 0:34.9 | I don't want to name name. |
| 0:36.7 | We're like, oh, we got him. He's on the ropes. |
| 0:40.2 | The end of Trumpism is coming. I have been getting this feedback from people. And for just let me |
| 0:47.2 | say for starters, like, are we allowed? Am I allowed to have one happy podcast? Am I allowed to |
| 0:52.6 | have one happy podcast in this fucking God forsaken world or it doesn't get held over my |
| 0:57.5 | so that's number one. |
| 0:58.7 | And number two is all the things that were true in December about Trump's political problems |
| 1:06.9 | remain true today, January 13th. |
| 1:10.7 | There's been a new, there's been a second, you know, there's been now a refocus on his |
| 1:16.9 | authoritarian aspirations, which are related to, but separate from his political prospects, you know, |
... |
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