Cali Dems Need to Get Their Sh*t TogetherAt this point, Gov. Tom Steyer might be the least bad outcome.
This week, Donald Trump posted a picture that portrayed him as Jesus Christ, before deleting it among a furious backlash from Christian conservatives. But his quest to discover which forms of idolatry they will and won’t put up with continues. This morning, he posted a meme portraying him being embraced by a Jared Leto-looking Jesus, which included the caption: “I was never a very religious man .. but doesn’t it seem , with all these satanic , demonic , child sacrificing monsters being exposed … that God might be playing his Trump card !”¹ “The Radical Left Lunatics might not like this,” Trump wrote, “but I think it is quite nice!!!” Happy Wednesday.
Golden State Clown Carby Andrew Egger Last month, I wrote in this newsletter that billionaire Tom Steyer’s campaign to become California governor was “one of the funnier ongoing subplots of this young election season”—another vanity campaign like his 2020 presidential bid that would set unholy heaps of Steyer’s own money on fire en route to another doomed finish. I should have known I was tempting fate. Now, the sudden collapse of Rep. Eric Swalwell due to sexual misconduct accusations has left California Democrats in a deeply unpleasant spot. Swalwell wasn’t running away with the contest, but he had started to seem a little inevitable, which Democrats, on the whole, were basically fine with. With him gone, the field is suddenly looking astonishingly weak—and Steyer simply buying his way to victory is actually a genuine possibility. After all, who would stop him? The other known quantity in the Democratic contest, former Rep. Katie Porter, is a staunch progressive with fervent fans. But she’s also developed a reputation for—well—instability: She has had inexplicable meltdowns during respectful press interviews, gone viral for shouting at staffers during Zoom calls, and in 2022 barred a young short-term staffer from returning to her office after accusing her of giving her COVID. Some Democrats are trying to cobble together alternative possibilities. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a more centrist candidate and one with actual California executive experience, had been considered an afterthought in the race. But the Washington Post reports that wealthy donors have begun looking to him as their way out of the jam: a super PAC supporting him received $12 million in pledged donations just this past weekend. Meanwhile, somebody out there is running a poll testing a different proposition: How would Kamala Harris fare in this primary if she were to suddenly enter the race as a write-in candidate? It’s a measure of how bad the vibes are that the only really good piece of news on the contest for California Democrats lately came from Donald Trump. Two different candidates, former Fox host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, had been polling above ten percent—raising the age-old anxiety about a Republican lockout.² But then Trump endorsed Hilton, making the necessary near-even split between the two Republicans far less likely. Still, doesn’t this all feel a little horrifyingly familiar? How can it possibly be that Democrats have yet again sleepwalked into yet another high-profile race for which they seem to have basically zero highly qualified and popular candidates? Is it too much to expect this party to figure out one primary field that looks inviting enough that nobody feels compelled to do write-in candidate hopium long after the filing deadlines have passed? Am I the only one for whom this nonsense is starting to get old? Not to freak people out or anything, but the stakes are pretty high for the country right now. It’s not hard to imagine a world where the ongoing outrages of the Trump presidency galvanize Democrats to turf up more inspiring, more capable, more visionary candidates. Instead, Trump often has a flattening effect. As California Democratic strategist Brian Brokaw told the New York Times this week: “Trump himself occupies so much of the political conversation that the only way for anyone at the state or local level to break through that noise is to position themselves as an anti-Trump figure.” But positioning yourself as an anti-Trump figure is so easy pretty much anybody can do it. Which means that it’s even more of an advantage than usual to be able to purchase a much bigger megaphone than your competitors. Which is why California may, remarkably, implausibly, find itself saddled with a Governor Steyer. We can only hope Democrats will have these sorts of nominating kinks worked out by the time 2028 rolls around. That one’s going to be pretty important, too. The Lessons of Péter Magyarby William Kristol Yes, yes, I know. I can’t keep on writing about Hungary forever. I mean, this newsletter is called “Morning Shots,” not “Reggeli lövés.”³ And yes, I’m aware there are other things going on in the world: Trump’s ever-more unhinged behavior, the increased danger of his Justice Department now under leadership that’s still malevolent but probably more competent, the continued depredations of ICE, Trump’s desperate attempts to mask the fact that he’s heading for the exits in Iran with the mission not accomplished, and the still-unfolding Epstein scandal. But I do want to dwell at least one more day on Hungary, and on lessons to be learned from Viktor Orbán’s stunning defeat and Péter Magyar’s inspiring victory. And I want to do this by bringing you a couple of key points made by David Pressman, our excellent ambassador to Hungary during the Biden administration, in a Bulwark Take we recorded yesterday. Here are some lightly edited excerpts: The message: kleptocracy and corruption. Péter Magyar took his campaign directly to the rural heartland of Hungary . . . to Viktor Orbán’s, and Fidesz’s, strongholds. And Magyar went to those strongholds, and he delivered a message and opened a conversation with conservative Hungarians that was about kleptocracy and corruption. Magyar’s campaign framing was: Victor Orbán and Fidesz are a criminal organization, and we need to dismantle this criminal organization. And he connected the impact of the criminal organization to these Hungarians’ experiences. So when you go to the countryside in Hungary, you realize they can’t go to a hospital that’s up to twentieth-century standards, they can’t find public schools that can properly educate their children, and they’re watching their grandchildren moving out of Hungary and leaving to try to find opportunity. What Magyar did is he explained to them that the reason your hospitals and your schools are crumbling is because these guys are stealing from you. I think that was hugely impactful. And he connected the relationship between Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán as one vector of mass corruption in Hungary. You asked, am I surprised? I’m surprised that Magyar was able to penetrate this pervasive media control that Viktor Orbán has over Hungary. But I’m not surprised at all that the Hungarian people were prepared to choose a different path. Hungarians galvanized behind a candidate who wasn’t proposing policy change, but was proposing system change. One of the things that we have not transitioned to in the United States is we continue to see what’s happening as instances of corruption. I am concerned a little bit that as we look at the situation, we keep seeing some outrageous and unprecedented, in my view illegal, acts taking place. But we continue to view them as individual derogations from practice as opposed to a new system that has actually been put in place that needs to be challenged systemically. These are not aberrations. This is the new system of government. And in that respect, Péter Magyar wasn’t calling out individual abuses. He was calling out an entire platform that was designed to enrich a kleptocratic elite and the family of Viktor Orbán. The messenger: bold and unafraid. I’ve heard a lot of discussion in the Western press about the broad coalition that Péter Magyar brought together, which is absolutely true. But also, this is about leadership, right? It’s not just the ability to assemble a coalition. It was also not being afraid. And he was not afraid. It was his fearlessness—and the fearlessness manifested itself in the way he communicated. I remember when he emerged onto the scene and the Fidesz party started going after him. But remember, the Fidesz party controlled all of the instruments of state. So when the party goes after you, it’s a government going after you. And at one point, this was early on, they started making fun of him because he was wearing what they called women’s sunglasses. Just a small example. And his response to that was not to deliver some sort of a lecture on gender norms, or to say, how dare you do this. He started broadcasting and projecting as many images as he could of him in these sunglasses, smiling, having fun, more sunglasses. Then he auctioned the sunglasses off, did a public auction, which created a whole story, raised all this money to deliver to women’s charities. And through it all, he appeared to be having a good time, And so, you know, there was a brashness to his communications that felt strong. When we think about how you confront strongmen, it requires a kind of engagement that’s not something that we’re really accustomed to in politics. Magyar at his press conference yesterday said something that I thought was right. I want to say something to the foreign correspondents in the room, he said. The propaganda apparatus in Hungary, he said, was like North Korea. I don’t think you understand how bad it was. And I think he’s right. I think that most Americans and most Westerners don’t appreciate just the sheer power that having just all of these platforms of communication badmouth you, smear you, spy on you, what that does to individuals. But Magyar, to his credit, he didn’t shirk and plowed through it in a really impressive way. Really, the most important part is that he wasn’t afraid, and he demonstrated to people how not to be afraid. Watch or listen to the whole thing. AROUND THE BULWARK
Calling all West Coast Bulwark+ members: Tickets are now on sale for our Bulwark Live shows in San Diego on May 20 and Los Angeles on May 21. Click here to get the members-only presale code and links to the ticketing sites. Tickets go on sale for everyone else starting on Friday, April 17. Quick HitsJD AMOK: Do the hits keep coming for JD Vance or what? Fresh off his humiliating Hungary trip stumping for a two-bit authoritarian who lost in an enormous landslide days later, the vice president headed last night to Georgia for a Turning Point USA event. But the event fell far short of expectations, with videos going viral of Vance speaking to a basketball arena barely a quarter full. Nor were the vibes particularly good. Far from keeping fire focused on the left, Vance opened the event with a harangue against the right-wing conspiracy theorists who continue to harass TPUSA leader Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk. Erika Kirk had been supposed to participate in the event, Vance said, but had pulled out over death threats. (Apparently, the risk to the vice president’s own life is not as substantial.) “It’s one of the most disgusting things I have seen in public life,” Vance said. “To say Erika Kirk wasn’t grieving her husband—that she was somehow complicit in his death—is preposterous and disgusting. . . . If you’re going after Erika Kirk and not the people trying to destroy the United States of America, you’re part of the problem.” Will Vance be successful in his attempts to scold the world’s biggest lunatics into focusing their lunacy on more politically useful targets? We’ll keep you posted. MORE SHOES TO DROP: Congress’s ethics reckonings aren’t over yet. On the heels of the resignations of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), many in Congress are now raising the pressure on another pair of ethically challenged members: Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Republican Rep. Cory Mills, both of Florida. Cherfilus-McCormick is under federal indictment for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars of FEMA disaster funds, conduct for which a House ethics investigation last month found her guilty of twenty-five ethics violations. Yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he believed Cherfilus-McCormick would be expelled from Congress: “I think the facts are indisputable at this point. . . That certainly rises to the level that’s needed.” Mills isn’t there yet—his own ethics investigation, covering a host of accusations of campaign finance violations, sexual misconduct, misuse of federal funds, and more, remains ongoing. But many lawmakers, including some in his own party, seem to think it’s only a matter of time for him as well. “Two down,” Rep. Nancy Mace tweeted yesterday, “two to go.” FRIEND OF A PREDATOR: The fallout from Swalwell’s implosion hasn’t been confined to the house. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has been a longtime personal friend and political ally of Swalwell’s, and he came strongly to his defense when rumors about the congressman’s behavior started swirling last week.⁴ Now the senator, too, has been forced into damage-control mode. In a press conference in his office yesterday, a harried Gallego disclaimed all knowledge of the predations of his—he insisted—former friend. “I let this man into my family,” Gallego said. “Look, we socialized. We went out. But I never saw him engage in any of the predatory behavior, harassment, sexual assault, anything like that.” “I definitely look at the world a different way now,” Gallego added, pledging to “take, you know, personal steps and office steps to make sure that we don’t even get close to a gray line.” Cheap Shots
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All sic, obviously.
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In California’s jungle-primary system, all declared candidates participate in the same primary election, with the top two vote-getters advancing to a runoff. In theory, a fragmented enough Democratic field could lead to a situation where a strong majority of primary voters back a Democrat, but the top two single vote-getters are both Republicans.
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Editor’s note: We have no idea if this translation is anything close to right. If you speak Hungarian, please leave a comment.
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Here was Gallego on April 7: “When you are in first place, is when they target you. Eric is a fighter and he will win the Governors race.” (All sic.) You’re a free subscriber to The Bulwark—the largest pro-democracy news and analysis bundle on Substack. For unfettered access to all our newsletters and to access ad-free and member-only shows, become a paying subscriber.We’re going to send you a lot of content—newsletters and alerts for shows so you can read and watch on your schedule. Don’t care for so much email? You can update your personal email preferences as often as you like. To update the list of newsletters or alerts you received from The Bulwark, click here. Having trouble with something related to your account? Check out our constantly-updated FAQ, which likely has an answer for you.
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