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The Bulwark Podcast

Mark Leibovich: Democrats Are Too Afraid of Hurting People’s Feelings

The Bulwark Podcast

The Bulwark

Politics, News Commentary, News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 11.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Most Democratic politicians are scared to criticize each other. They also fear dinging former presidents, or the various groups that make up the party’s broad coalition. And too many Dem candidates are afraid to color outside the lines, even if voters want them to be less establishment and more like regular people. Can the party get it together before the midterms? Plus, Trump’s threat of war against Iran, and his reported intent to kill Netflix’s bid to takeover Warner Discovery—potentially giving him power over CBS, CNN, Fox, and TikTok.

The Atlantic’s Mark Leibovich joins Tim Miller.

show notes

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the Bullard podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller, Delight, welcome back to the show,

0:16.5

staff writer at the Atlantic author of Thank You for Your Servitude in this town. That first one is, that's not a, that's not an S&M book. Well, it kind of is, I guess. It's about the Donald Trump Republican Party. His name is Mark Leibovich. You can put it in whatever category you want, you know. You could adapt. Sure. I guess I put it on it didn't turn me on. It might be for some people. Some of the

0:38.4

senators. I can't imagine. Cotton seems to like it. It's good to see you, buddy, been too long.

0:42.8

You wrote an article that the headline was taken from my colleague, Sarah Longwell's quote

0:48.7

about how Democrats aren't built for this. So obviously I had to be you on, you know, there are a couple of

0:54.6

York mentions there as a matter of fact. But before we just, you know, kind of waft in

1:01.3

the Democratic malaise, can we talk about the Trump administration for a second? Sure.

1:05.8

What's been happening? You know, you're a keen observer of this stuff. It feels to me like

1:10.3

there's been, you know, a vibe shift keen observer of this stuff. It feels to me like there's been, you know,

1:12.8

a vibe shift out there from last year to this on Trump. We've been talking about a little bit.

1:17.7

But then other times I wonder if that's, I don't know, that's hopium, as they're saying.

1:22.4

And I'm just wondering what you're feeling around the corridors of Washington. Do you think is Trump losing his grip at all,

1:30.0

or are we all just doing Charlie Brown with football again?

1:33.4

I'm certainly wary.

1:34.4

I think a lot of us are wary of the second factor here.

1:38.1

But, I mean, I think Hopium might not be the right word in this context

1:42.3

because it's not really anything great

1:44.8

or sort of resolved that the opposition is doing. But yeah, I mean, I think there's a perception

1:50.8

that the administration is screwing up in a big way. It's reflected in the numbers. It's reflected

1:56.3

in the inflation numbers, the immigration numbers and what have you. But yeah, I mean, we've

2:02.6

been here before. I mean, there is a large group of people in this country that hates everything

2:08.0

that Trump is not. I mean, the original premise of Trump running against whatever it is that

...

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