Hello and welcome to the Bullard podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. So pumped to welcome back, my old friend and colleague. She's now a writer and editor at Protect Democracy and a

contributor to their, if you can keep it substack. It's Amanda Carpenter. What's up, Amanda?

Hey, Tim. How are you? I am doing pretty good all things considered. It's a beautiful morning in

New York City. Got to walk around, get a little coffee. We haven't militarized the Big

Apple yet. So that's good, I guess. You know, you take small winds where you can get them. What's happening with you? Yeah. You know, I'm just sort of planning my next trip into D.C. wondering what checkpoints I might be driving through in my truck, if it would be better for me to actually take the metro so I don't have to deal with that. You know, it's pretty weird. Our offices are,

we have an office and my truck, if it would be better for me to actually take the metro, so I don't have to deal with

that. You know, it's pretty weird. Our offices are, we have an office in downtown D.C. The idea of

troops just kind of rolling around checking people out, it's not a great feeling. I saw some

pictures this morning. You want to think it's just for show, right?

Like they have these people sort of lumbering around the national mall alongside joggers,

but it's way more serious than that.

And so, you know, we'll get into it.

But it's just, I feel really uneasy.

And I'm going to see it with my own eyes very soon.

And I don't know

what to expect.

Yeah.

I saw there's some feds doing a checkpoint at Howard University, maybe just a coincidence or near Howard University. It doesn't seem like one to me, and then, you know, also pictures of them rolling into the DC Armory. I guess I have some questions for you about the threat of it. I will say, just before we do that, though, to assuades your concerns, the truck's got West Virginia license plates on it, right? That is correct. I don't think they're going to be shaking you down. Andrew Eggers and the Morning Shots Newslet this morning observed just kind of a little aside that Trump made at the press conference yesterday. It hasn't got much attention. And I thought it was pretty astute. He said this. Trump said, people come from Iowa. They come from Indiana. They come and then they get mugged. Not going to happen. You can keep coming now because by the time you get

your trip said, it's going to be safe again. A revealing aside, right? You know, it wasn't, well, A, it wasn't

obviously showing concern for the actual residents of the District of Columbia. Like this ostensible

military occupation is because D.C. is so unsafe. It also doesn't show concern for like,

I don't know, people coming from Detroit, maybe, or Oakland.

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