MAGA always finds a way back

追加: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Holy crap, it has been a wild year on “Standing Room Only.”

[00:00:04]This week I'm wrapping up the first season of the show,.

[00:00:06]I have a lot of thoughts I want to share on MAGA idiocy from the past year, but first, I want to start with a warning: Republicans always find fresh ways to be the worst.

[00:00:19]I'm Amanda Marcotte, welcome to “Standing Room Only.”

[00:00:27]Let's face it, the MAGA movement is at a low point right now.

[00:00:31]Donald Trump's approval ratings are in the toilet.

[00:00:34]Right wing leaders keep fighting each other.

[00:00:37]Erika Kirk can't even fake cry anymore.

[00:00:40]I have comedians dressing up in white face.

[00:00:45]I have people saying I'm not fit to be CEO, and I have Candace Owens claiming I murdered my husband.

[00:00:52]And the list goes on and on and on.

[00:00:56]But I've been covering the right for a long time now, and they really are the villains in a horror movie.

[00:01:03]They always find a way to come back.

[00:01:05]While normal people are on their summer vacations, MAGA will be back at the drawing board.

[00:01:09]Their goal?

[00:01:11]Manufacturing outrageous new lies and hoaxes to get the rubes all riled up, just in time for the midterms.

[00:01:17]Mark thinks I have old fashioned language, and I feel like “the rubes” is kind of one of those.

[00:01:22]Am I just a boomer?

[00:01:24]We were having a drink, and I said something, “went over like a lead balloon.”

[00:01:29]He's like, “You speak like an old timey person from the 30s.”

[00:01:32]There's always another bullshit story, like Haitians eating pets or kids using litter boxes.

[00:01:40]I'll be watching.

[00:01:41]We'll be back in September with full episodes, and all summer long there will be shorts and special episodes.

[00:01:47]And stick around for Pass the Mic. I'll be talking to Brad Onishi of Straight White America Jesus, about why MAGA is failing and what they might do to get back.

[00:01:56]He's a former evangelical, and he really knows how ruthless these people are.

[00:02:01]But yes, Republicans are really demoralized right now.

[00:02:05]Do do do do do do do!

[00:02:06]Hard as it may be to believe, but when we started this show last year, MAGA was riding high.

[00:02:12]They had DOGE.

[00:02:13]Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi had jobs, Marco Rubio and JD Vance wore shoes that fit.

[00:02:20]And then we watched as they all fell apart.

[00:02:22]You take sauerkraut with you out to parties? I do.

[00:02:27]I want to honestly challenge AOC to a debate.

[00:02:30]She can defend child sacrifice, I will defend the sanctity of life.

[00:02:34]Man, this guy's got game.

[00:02:35]I mean, six foot seven and he's got a whole floor at Trump Tower for a freaking date.

[00:02:40]I hope something good came out of that date.

[00:02:42]Maximum lethality, not tepid legality.

[00:02:47]Violent effect, not politically correct.

[00:02:51]I don't think they're aliens, I think they're demons anyway, but that's a longer discussion.

[00:02:55]I don't think we landed on the moon.

[00:02:58]You don't?

[00:02:59]No.

[00:03:07]Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?

[00:03:10]I've spoken about- That's okay, you can just say yes.

[00:03:14]Okay.

[00:03:15]It's easier than explaining it at all.

[00:03:18]Man, Mamdani, that's a pro right there.

[00:03:21]Donald Trump touched him, and he didn't even flinch.

[00:03:24]And to honor everyone and everything that self-destructed in MAGA this year.... Would you do DOGE again, knowing what you know now?

[00:03:37]I mean, the thing is, like, I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have worked on my companies, essentially.

[00:03:43]And the cars, they wouldn't have been burning the cars.

[00:03:49]We'll continue to do the right thing, continue to work and protect Americans no matter what radical judge comes out and tries to stop us.

[00:04:02]None of them asked Merrick Garland over the last four years one word about Jeffrey Epstein.

[00:04:11]How ironic is that? You know why?

[00:04:14]Because Donald Trump, the Dow.

[00:04:17]The Dow right now is over, the Dow is over 50,000.

[00:04:23]I don't know why you're laughing.

[00:04:38]No one will ever replace my husband, but I do see some similarities of my husband Okay.

[00:04:43]Stop, stop.

[00:04:48]I've had enough of these people.

[00:04:50]Let's just hope that JD and Erika never hug again.

[00:04:53]That bit is tired.

[00:04:55]New material.

[00:04:56]I never want to watch a video of these people again, unless it's Donald Trump falling asleep.

[00:05:02]And then I take a moment and I think, “the big sleep is coming.”

[00:05:07]Trump, sadly, is still with us.

[00:05:10]But hey, his lap time on a single set of stairs gets slower every day.

[00:05:15]I'm very careful when I walk down stairs or I'm on stairs.

[00:05:19]These stairs are very.... I walk very slowly.

[00:05:24]Nobody has to set a record.

[00:05:26]Just try not to fall.

[00:05:28]After my talk with Brad Onishi we’ll be digging further into these failures with Salon's TikTok star, Russell Root.

[00:05:35]He's got some awards for me to react to.

[00:05:37]But Brad and I will chat about the right's most recent disaster.

[00:05:41]TPUSA tried to start a religious revival, and folks, it's not working.

[00:05:47]But before we get into mocking our enemies, I want to circle back to a warning.

[00:05:51]I started this episode with: it's not over.

[00:05:54]That's why “One Battle After Another” won Best Picture this year. Tt's never really over.

[00:06:00]The right will regroup and start again.

[00:06:03]We only win by staying vigilant Oh yeah, and keep laughing while we do it.

[00:06:13]I'd like to welcome Dr. Brad Onishi to the program.

[00:06:16]Brad is an ex-evangelical who now has a podcast and a robust publishing history, speaking out about the threat of Christian nationalism.

[00:06:25]He's also the author of an upcoming book called “American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy.”

[00:06:33]Welcome to “Standing Room Only,” Brad.

[00:06:34]Really grateful to be here.

[00:06:36]Thanks for having me.

[00:06:37]I want to start by talking about how after Charlie Kirk, his memorial in September, it was pretty well attended, MAGA decided that this was the moment for a national religious revival.

[00:06:50]They've had all these events that were trying to capitalize on this notion in the past year, but the attendance has been really underwhelming.

[00:07:00]And my first question to you, as somebody who came from this world and has left is, why do you think MAGA has failed to capitalize on the Kirk situation?

[00:07:10]I had an an interesting conversation with somebody who is an evangelical who is in their 20s and who told me something I have not really been able to get out of my head since then.

[00:07:20]This is about a month ago, and I said, “Hey, look, when Charlie Kirk died, how did you feel?”

[00:07:25]He is this as a young, straight man, he's married, he's in his 20s.

[00:07:29]He has kids.

[00:07:30]Kind of fits that like, young dad demographic, no college education.

[00:07:36]And he said, “You know, when Charlie Kirk died, it felt like it was time for us all to get our stuff together.

[00:07:43]We needed to get back to church.

[00:07:45]We need to rededicate ourselves.

[00:07:46]We needed to lock in because the country needed it.

[00:07:51]It was a reminder that some things are more important in life than whatever you might get distracted by.”

[00:07:57]And then, and this is the really fascinating part for me, he says, “and then Erica Kirk rushed to the front, and she looks like a complete fraud to me and my wife, who's also 28 years old, used to love TPUSA, and now she basically follows the Erica Kirk/Candace Owens feud as a Real Housewives of evangelical, Christian nationalist, Catholic America, rather than seeing either of them as spiritual exemplars.” Whether or not that anecdote can tell us something about the larger sentiment or feeling of of younger MAGA folks, I don't know, but it did stick with me because it seemed to be a moment where somebody in Gen-Z was telling me, “I see through what they're doing.”

[00:08:46]And when I saw folks at Rededicate 2050 this past weekend, the audience seemed to skew way older to me.

[00:08:53]That seemed to be Boomer-ville.

[00:08:54]It seems every like two weeks we get a bombshell legacy media, feature that's like, “Look at all these young men becoming Catholic, Who and every sociologist in my life texts me as soon as that happens and is like, this is not true.

[00:09:08]There's no data for this.

[00:09:09]This is ridiculous, completely erroneous.

[00:09:12]There is no revival among Gen Z.

[00:09:13]I can show you by the numbers.

[00:09:15]It's not true.

[00:09:15]And so I do think the data driven folks will also back us up here and say the younger generations are just not buying in post-Kirk.

[00:09:24]It's not the galvanizing moment that MAGA thought it would be, or Trump thought it would be or whoever.

[00:09:30]Yeah.

[00:09:30]We've done a couple videos here just being like, the numbers aren't there, guys. Exactly.

[00:09:36]So the first clip I want to show you, and I'm really curious about your reaction about this, is Lucas Miles.

[00:09:42]He is a pastor from Indiana.

[00:09:45]He also runs TPUSA Faith, and he's been headlining the Make Heaven Crowded Tour, preaching to these half full churches about how they're on the verge of a revival.

[00:09:56]And he has a stump sermon he does, I guess I'd call it, at these events, and I want to show you a clip from it.

[00:10:04]After Charlie's memorial where we had just well over 100,000 people gather, I think the final number was something like 170,000 people plus.

[00:10:14]Almost a billion people have watched Charlie's memorial.

[00:10:19]Now, from a sheer numbers standpoint, as far as I know, it is the most, significant gospel presentation in the history of Christendom is Charlie's memorial.

[00:10:33]So I checked those numbers and the high end of the estimate of people that showed up at the memorial was 90,000.

[00:10:42]And the biggest, most generous number I could find online for views was 20 million, which is significant.

[00:10:48]You can see why they were excited, but he still then has to exaggerate it wildly.

[00:10:55]You come from this world and you've talked to me about this before.

[00:10:58]What is it with evangelicals and exaggerating their numbers?

[00:11:03]It's a thing with them.

[00:11:07]I know that guy.

[00:11:08]He's doing the first rule of evangelical youth group culture, and that is, you set out eight chairs, and when 20 people show up, you got to put out more chairs as the singing's going on, and everyone's like, “Oh, a lot of people at church today.”

[00:11:23]And matter what happens, when you have a church service, you can add 20%.

[00:11:28]if 100 people are there, like, “Oh, I think about 127 today,” and with with the Charlie Kirk Memorial, of course it's a little exaggerated.

[00:11:35]20 million or 1 billion, yeah that's a lot to do.

[00:11:40]One of the things that really gets under my skin about Make Heaven Crowded is there's a classic evangelical trope here, which is this consumerist numbers model.

[00:11:48]How many people can we reach?

[00:11:49]How many people will hear the message?

[00:11:51]How many people will accept that the the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into their heart?

[00:11:56]That gets a numbers game.

[00:11:57]How many sales did we make?

[00:11:59]This is what part of led me out of evangelicalism.

[00:12:01]I would go to my elder pastors and be like, “Isn't our faith about more than like a transaction or a sale?

[00:12:08]I think we we need to be disciples, right?

[00:12:10]And go deeper than this and really cultivate a faith.”

[00:12:12]No matter what they told me, it seemed that way, so he's doing that part.

[00:12:16]So that's one, there's a classic evangelical inflationary, “How many sales can we make?”

[00:12:21]On the other hand, it's “Make Heaven Crowded.”

[00:12:24]And another thing that led me out of evangelicalism two decades ago, was the kingdom of heaven has no borders, and yet on earth, the entire schtick, from Charlie Kirk to every other person across the cross-section of American Christian nationalists, is this country's too crowded.

[00:12:44]Get rid of all these people leeching off our system, these people who are inferior to us, who don't know how to live in Western civilization, who somehow are taking our jobs, taking all the welfare, buying all the houses because they somehow have all the money and are making everything worse in every fashion.

[00:12:59]But we'd love to make heaven crowded.

[00:13:01]So I don't want to see you here, and I don't want to see your face, I don't want to see your inferior immigrant, life force in front of me, but in heaven, I hope you have your own section and you get there.

[00:13:12]That's what we're after.

[00:13:14]It’s just unbearable.

[00:13:17]The dissonance and the hypocrisy.

[00:13:20]Yeah.

[00:13:20]I sometimes get the feeling when I watch some of the videos of these folks talking that they've unloaded their humanity, their need to be a human being, to have compassion, to have empathy, onto Jesus and God so that they don't have to do it.

[00:13:36]It's like God has this infinite love, but you have none.

[00:13:44]The next clip I want to show you is from Rededicate 250.

[00:13:48]It was supposed to be this big revival event.

[00:13:50]Again, a lot of empty seats.

[00:13:52]And Trump didn't show, he was golfing instead.

[00:13:56]That was funny enough to me, but they they had a prerecorded video of him speaking to the crowd.

[00:14:02]Well, it didn't take very long for us to figure out that this wasn't even recorded for the event, that it was actually recorded for something else, weeks before.

[00:14:09]So I have the evidence for you.

[00:14:13]But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods and worship, then, then will I pluck them up from the roots out of my land, which I have given them.

[00:14:32]Thoughts?

[00:14:33]I was going to say par for the course to make a golf reference, but it's really bogey for the course.

[00:14:38]There's a couple things here.

[00:14:38]Number one, the man that all of the Boomers in the crowd, Rededicate 250, revere and say is the most crucial president they have, let's just be clear, folks: he didn't go to church on Easter.

[00:14:49]And where I'm from, look, You might get to skip a few Sundays, football season and your team's in the playoffs, Todd stayed home.

[00:14:57]All right, Todd, well, we see you.

[00:14:59]Vacationing in summertime.

[00:15:01]You need to be at church on Easter.

[00:15:03]He never goes to church, period, and then when it came to this rededication of God, this baptism of America in MAGA Christianity on the National Mall.

[00:15:12]It's not that he didn't show up.

[00:15:14]It's not even that he just recorded a video.

[00:15:16]They just recycled a video from a month ago.

[00:15:19]When he did that, that video is from a reading of the Bible.

[00:15:23]They had a reading of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in April, and so what I commented on at the time, was the passage they gave Trump to read is super dangerous because it's King Saul talking directly to God and God's like, “If you do this, I'll reward your land,” which is what evangelicals love.

[00:15:41]They love that passage because it's like if the Americans return to Jesus, everything will be better.

[00:15:47]The second part of the passage, though, is “And Saul, if you listen to me, we have a direct relationship, I speak right to you, I will bless you and your throne, and I will give you an everlasting heir in the land like you.

[00:15:58]Your lineage will carry on ruling forever”.

[00:16:02]And I just always love when these passages come up where the first part has this very clear, salient evangelical message revival, return to Jesus, but if you just keep reading and actually listen, you're like, “What does that mean?”

[00:16:15]Trump talks directly to God?

[00:16:16]Is he playing the part of the king in this play?

[00:16:20]And is there a promise that he'll rule forever?

[00:16:22]Because some of us are really sensitive to those motifs, and I don't really think the president of United States should be reading this Bible passage in that role from the Oval Office for, I think, very obvious reasons.

[00:16:35]It's really insightful because all I could think while I was listening to him read, is if you asked him 30 seconds after he read that, he couldn't even have told you what he read.

[00:16:46]That was obviously handed to him.

[00:16:48]Yeah, I think he would like to be a king, anointed by God.

[00:16:53]That seems obvious to me.

[00:16:54]But, obviously somebody gave that to him and they did that on purpose then.

[00:17:00]It's been the dream of Christian nationalists, Catholic and evangelical for a long time to have a president recite those verses like they love those verses and have the president recite them from the Oval.

[00:17:13]And then to have a government sponsored Rededicate 250 on the National Mall a month later is this apex set of events for evangelicals and Catholics and other Christian nationalists.

[00:17:25]And yet, as you've been talking about all day today, it's not like attendance was out of the world.

[00:17:31]One hopes that this is actually a true end for this, that they are actually petering out.

[00:17:39]And they are obviously having a low moment.

[00:17:42]Trump's approvals are in the toilet, but you and I both know these people find their way.

[00:17:49]They find a way to regroup and come back and find new scapegoats.

[00:17:54]They find new narratives.

[00:17:56]They find something to latch on to that will get them back on the road to power and cultural prominence.

[00:18:02]So my question to you is, as someone who watches this very closely, what do you see on the on the horizon?

[00:18:10]Is there anything that's concerning you, that you're worried about that we should be watching for?

[00:18:14]So I think there's a couple of layers to this question.

[00:18:17]We have this loose alignment, loose alliance among Protestant Reconstructionists, that means Doug Wilson and Pete Hegseth, traditional Catholics like Kevin Roberts, who's the head of the Heritage Foundation, JD Vance, vice president and crown prince, and technocrats like Peter Thiel, who's also, of course, JD Vance’s patron.

[00:18:39]The rhetoric that those groups share to me is the rhetoric of Western civilization, civilizational populism, civilizational decline, and they're always able to pin those things on the familiar foes and scapegoats: women who want reproductive freedom, women who want to vote, any kind of immigrant, any person who is not a white Christian and this is to me, is where we're headed next, which is Western civilization is superior than any other civilization.

[00:19:10]It's not just that we wish you would convert to Christianity and be a real American so we can make heaven crowded.

[00:19:15]It's more you're unable to assimilate here just by dint of the fact that you come from an inferior civilization.

[00:19:23]There's a tripartite alliance to me that is openly saying democracy is the enemy and we need a monarchy.

[00:19:31]Whether it's King Jesus, whether it's a tech lord who owns the people and the land, that would make for a better civilization and a better world, and so that's what we're fighting for.

[00:19:40]That is, to me, where we're headed.

[00:19:42]It's not Christian nationalism anymore is as much Western Christian supremacy.

[00:19:47]Well, that's a sad note, but at least we get to laugh at Make Heaven Crowded.

[00:19:52]I'm moderately fun at parties.

[00:19:54]I'm not going to say I'm super fun at parties, but I'm moderately fun at parties, which this interview would make it seem I'm not at all.

[00:20:00]Anyway, I'm so excited for your book, so please tell people about it, where they can order it, preorder it, all that stuff.

[00:20:08]American Caesar?

[00:20:09]a very cheerful book, a beach read, take it on vacation his summer.

[00:20:14]Well, it's coming out in September.

[00:20:17]Yeah, it's going to get cold, people.

[00:20:18]You're going to get some tea and sit by the window and it's raining, and this is the time to read the book.

[00:20:23]Yes.

[00:20:24]Thank you so much for being on, Brad.

[00:20:26]I really appreciate it.

[00:20:27]Usually Encore would be next, and we do have an Encore coming, but before then, we have a treat for you.

[00:20:33]Salon's TikTok star Russell Root will be joining me.

[00:20:35]We'll be talking about the past year in review and handing out “best of” or really “worst of” to some of our favorite villains that we've talked about on “Standing Room Only.”

[00:20:47]So stick around, you won't want to miss it.

[00:20:48]Lots of laughs, lots of cringe.

[00:20:55]Russell Root, so good to see you.

[00:20:59]Our TikTok star for Salon.

[00:21:01]Hi Amanda, I'm such a huge fan of the show.

[00:21:04]I love every episode and just like you, I spend a lot of time deep in the MAGA underworld over on TikTok.

[00:21:12]So I hear that you have arranged a program for me to celebrate a year of this show.

[00:21:19]I wanted to treat you with some awards of all the different characters and topics that you've covered on your show.

[00:21:26]We're calling them the “Roomies.”

[00:21:36]Well done.

[00:21:37]Our first category is “Worst MAGA Partner.”

[00:21:40]We're talking about husbands, wives, girlfriends that you fly around on government jets.

[00:21:46]It's a stacked category.

[00:21:48]This is the official envelope for the worst MAGA partner, and the roomie goes to... JD Vance.

[00:21:56]Give it up for JD Vance, everyone, for his incredibly awkward statements about his wife.

[00:22:04]It wasn't even competitive this year.

[00:22:05]Despite, like you said, that being a thick field, everyone hates JD.

[00:22:10]Although, I will say RFK Jr was an incredible dark horse candidate in the final stretch, after all but abandoning his wife during the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting.

[00:22:19]We do have a wonderful compilation of JD Vance, right here.

[00:22:24]The cameras are all on, anything that I say, no matter how crazy, Usha has to smile and laugh and celebrate it.

[00:22:31]Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved in by church?

[00:22:37]Yeah, honestly, I do wish that.

[00:22:40]And I remember when we decided to run for vice president, I said, “Honey, I really want to have a fourth kid.”

[00:22:44]And she said, “Well, you can become vice president or you can have a fourth baby.”

[00:22:47]But ladies and gentlemen, I am persuasive because I got both.

[00:22:51]Yeah.

[00:22:52]It's one thing to have a crappy spouse who even cheats on you or otherwise treats you poorly.

[00:23:01]It's another thing entirely to have a spouse who just runs you down in public constantly.

[00:23:08]It's going to be hard for J.D.

[00:23:09]Vance to be beat next year, but I agree, I think RFK Jr might be able to do it.

[00:23:14]I mean, he dangle snakes at his wife and then laughs while she's like, “They're biting you.

[00:23:20]They're biting you.” He's sweeping the precursors here.

[00:23:23]All right. What else do you got for me?

[00:23:25]Okay.

[00:23:26]Our next category is, Worst Conservative Podcast.

[00:23:31]Again, a tight race.

[00:23:33]“Worst conservative podcast” is basically a repetitive statement at this point, but, the Roomie goes to... The Katie Miller podcast, or alternatively as it's called, Stephen Miller's Wife's podcast.

[00:23:50]It's very good at laundering the current fascist regime by asking just the stupidest questions.

[00:23:56]I'm pretty convinced at this point that the only viewers of the Katie Miller podcast are people like you and me and other left leaning journalists who are only watching it both to gawk at how terrible it is, and also to get some quotes from the worst people in the country.

[00:24:18]It's stunning to see, the first few episodes got like 100,000 views.

[00:24:23]I think the Elon episode got a million views, but all the other ones are just like 4000 views.

[00:24:29]And that's the biggest confirmation that the free market exists, is that nobody's watching the Katie Miller Podcast, and she has all of the institutional help on her side, and still nobody cares what she has to say.

[00:24:43]Here is her asking the hard hitting questions.

[00:24:46]Who can do more pull ups, you or Pete Hegseth?

[00:24:50]Is a hot dog sandwich?

[00:24:51]No. Is that a question?

[00:24:54]Yes, a question.

[00:24:55]What's your favorite conspiracy theory?

[00:24:58]I am not a conspiracy theorist.

[00:25:01]I think the biggest value, though, of the Katie Miller Podcast is just her letting us know the condiment preferences of each of the administration officials, as we can see here.

[00:25:13]If you could only eat one condiment for the rest of your life, what would it be?

[00:25:16]One condiment, does barbecue sauce count?

[00:25:18]Yeah. Okay. barbecue sauce.

[00:25:19]I went to dinner at the Met last night, and I brought my sauerkraut.

[00:25:25]Do you buy it at Whole Foods or do you make it yourself?

[00:25:28]I do not make it myself.

[00:25:31]I had a buddy who used to eat French fries with mayonnaise, I thought that was disgusting.

[00:25:34]It's the only thing my husband eats.

[00:25:35]With French fries or, like, period?

[00:25:37]Period. Okay. Wow.

[00:25:39]He's only a mayonnaise guy. Okay.

[00:25:42]I will always, always, at least be grateful for her confirmation to America that Stephen Miller subsists on a diet of mayonnaise.

[00:25:51]Because yes, I had my suspicions and I suspect he only eats food that is white, like his diet is milk, mayonnaise and white bread.

[00:26:02]I think either that or he, sometimes, like once a month, unhinges his jaw and eats a large baby pig in his cage.

[00:26:12]Just like any snake.

[00:26:14]It's one of those two options for me.

[00:26:16]I will say an honorable mention of Worst Conservative Podcast and potentially a runner up for next year, “Story Time with the Second Lady,” which features Usha Vance awkwardly staring at her guests while they read a children's book.

[00:26:33]I hate what J.D.

[00:26:34]Vance does to her, but she also can't get up to that mic on her own because she has no personality whatsoever.

[00:26:40]This is one more way that J.D.

[00:26:43]Vance is torturing her and humiliating her in public.

[00:26:46]He's making her do this stupid show.

[00:26:48]You can tell she knows it's stupid.

[00:26:50]She's been frog marched to set and it's got a real hostage video quality.

[00:26:56]It's terrible.

[00:26:56]Imagine a hostage video, but you're reading “Winnie the Pooh,” and that's the energy there.

[00:27:01]Yeah, complete Stockholm syndrome reading Peter Rabbit.

[00:27:06]Our next category is Best Congressional Crash Out.

[00:27:09]My favorite part of the last year and a half of the Trump administration has been watching the various Trump administration officials crash out in front of Congress.

[00:27:18]This is a stacked category, and the Roomie goes to... Pam Bondi for her performance in Ignoring the Epstein Files.

[00:27:30]Let's see a little compilation of her.

[00:27:33]I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.

[00:27:36]And currently the National Guard are on the way to Chicago.

[00:27:39]Have you apologized to President Trump, all of you who participated in those impeachment hearings against Donald Trump?

[00:27:46]You all should be apologizing.

[00:27:48]The Dow, the Dow right now is over, the Dow is over 50,000.

[00:27:55]I don't know why you're laughing.

[00:27:57]It never stops being funny.

[00:28:01]It's so clear what happened in that moment was that she forgot what she was saying.

[00:28:05]She had the Dow talking point to fall back on, and she just sort of brain farted and went to it because it's just a non-sequitur.

[00:28:14]Yeah, no quote has been memed as much as that one, because it's just so encapsulating of how little they care about anything but random numbers going up.

[00:28:24]But Pam Bondi, she kills it when it comes to launching the stupidest attacks against congresspeople.

[00:28:30]It comes from a place of deep insecurity and knowing that you're in the wrong about this issue, but she nails it.

[00:28:37]She was on a generational run there.

[00:28:40]She was like Michael Jordan in the 90s, whatever that was.

[00:28:44]She is the greatest of all time at it.

[00:28:46]I mean, my theory has always been don't underestimate sorority training.

[00:28:51]She was a tri-delt.

[00:28:53]I do believe that is how you really sharpen those mean girl skills.

[00:28:57]That's how you you really get your reps in, being the worst Karen.

[00:29:02]I think that's how she got there.

[00:29:04]Next year man, Kash Patel’s bug-eyed weirdness has its own charm, but I don't think that it's ever going to really get the same villain levels.

[00:29:15]He's too pathetic.

[00:29:17]He is.

[00:29:17]Todd Blanch doesn't have the same juice when it comes to crashing out in front of Congress.

[00:29:21]He's incredibly boring.

[00:29:23]The only way that we're going to see that performance beat is if Pete Hegseth just goes with his gut instinct and drinks a fifth before going in front of Congress, and then maybe we will see something interesting happen, that would beat Pam Bondi.

[00:29:38]Fingers crossed.

[00:29:41]Up next, our final one.

[00:29:43]This has been a horrific year in terms of public health.

[00:29:46]This is the Weirdest MAHA Health Trend.

[00:29:50]There's so many of them.

[00:29:51]My personal favorite is beef tallow, but I assume raw milk, right?

[00:30:00]The Roomie goes to, oh, it's raw milk.

[00:30:01]You're so right.

[00:30:02]Beef Tallow was a runner up.

[00:30:05]I really love the beef tallow debate, honestly, but, raw milk.

[00:30:09]We have a compilation of some of the weirder takes on raw milk.

[00:30:12]Here's raw milk and honey for us.

[00:30:15]Here you go, boys.

[00:30:16]Join.

[00:30:17]Cheers, cheers.

[00:30:20]You're labeled if you like raw milk.

[00:30:21]Right?

[00:30:22]So it's a little bit weird of a discussion to even have at first.

[00:30:26]I want to be able to form a relationship with a local farmer, understand his integrity, look him in the eyes, pet his cow, and then understand if I can drink his milk.

[00:30:38]So at the risk of getting canceled forever, my hot take is adults should not drink milk.

[00:30:44]Interesting.

[00:30:48]It's obviously better if it's pasteurized, at least you're not going to get some weird poop-borne illness from it.

[00:30:54]But I'mvisibly grossed out, unfortunately, every time I see an adult get a glass of milk and drink it.

[00:31:02]Why? What are you doing? Stop!

[00:31:05]You would hate the, I think it's now in the double digits, the number of videos on our TikTok where I just have subjected myself to chugging milk.

[00:31:13]So avoid those.

[00:31:16]Nobody's gut biome is made for that.

[00:31:18]I hope that the next MAHA trend is something a little more esthetically pleasing, like Clavicular banging himself in the face with a hammer.

[00:31:27]I think they should embrace that.

[00:31:28]That would be awesome.

[00:31:29]They should all just pound, pound, pound.

[00:31:33]It's the new health trend.

[00:31:34]Gotta Looksmaxx, that's the new thing in 2026.

[00:31:38]That's pretty spectacular.

[00:31:39]We've had quite a year here.

[00:31:41]I really appreciate you coming back to help us look over it and think about what horrors await us next year.

[00:31:49]Yeah.

[00:31:50]It's been a pleasure watching the show grow. It's fantastic.

[00:31:54]Thank you again, Russell.

[00:31:56]And thank you guys for watching, and if you like this show, you will love Russell's short videos.

[00:32:01]You can find them on TikTok or right here on Salon's YouTube.

[00:32:04]And stick around for an Encore.

[00:32:06]We have one last one for the season for you based on fan recommendations.

[00:32:15]Hey, folks, I'm coming to you not from Philadelphia, but from New York City.

[00:32:19]We looked over your recommendations for Encore. So many great ones.

[00:32:25]I really loved the way that people were thinking about songs that spoke to this moment, that spoke to the stress that we're all under.

[00:32:32]That spoke to some of the mental health challenges I think some of us are enduring in this political moment.

[00:32:39]Anyway, this is my friend Mave, and she has been picked for the recommendation giver this week.

[00:32:46]Mave, “Earth to Eve” is the singer songwriter.

[00:32:49]Can you tell me about Eve and what song you picked for her?

[00:32:52]Yeah., “Earth to Eve” is a young, mid-20 something singer songwriter who produces really beautiful, moving and various music, various kinds of music.

[00:33:05]The song that I picked is “Threat Level Orange,” which I think is one of her most danceable, singable, super catchy tunes that really reflects the variety of music that she produces.

[00:33:18]It's got some hip hop, it's got some pop.

[00:33:20]It's gritty, but it's also somehow playful and fun.

[00:33:25]It's a protest song.

[00:33:26]And I think it's a protest song that really captures a lot of what we're trying to muddle through right now.

[00:33:31]We hear all the time that, every day is a new horror, that’s a distraction from the horrors of the day before.

[00:33:36]And that song has everything in it.

[00:33:39]Violations of the Constitution, violations of civil rights, the malfeasance of the current administration.

[00:33:45]Everything's in there.

[00:33:47]And we can fight back.

[00:33:49]It makes that really playful and fun.

[00:33:52]Yeah.

[00:33:53]I think that a lot of protest music can feel dreary or scolding, but I found her music to be very joyful and hope-giving and affirming, even as it was very often very moving.

[00:34:06]Some in the audience were moved to tears, but laughing and having a good time anyway.

[00:34:10]“Threat Level Orange,” Earth to Eve.

[00:34:13]Check it out.

[00:34:18]Thanks for watching, everyone.

[00:34:20]Please like and subscribe.

[00:34:22]The full show will be back in September and you will not want to miss it.

[00:34:26]Also all summer long we're going to have special episodes and shorter videos.

[00:34:31]As for me, you can follow my Standing Room Only playlist on Spotify.

[00:34:34]You can subscribe to my weekly newsletter, also called “Standing Room Only.”

[00:34:39]And don't forget to follow me on Bluesky.

[00:34:41]I'm Amanda Marcotte.

[00:34:43]Real creative there.

[00:34:45]And as always, you can read my writing three times a week at Salon.com.

[00:34:49]Thank you again for watching.

[00:34:51]Please stick around for our summer content and we'll see you with full episodes in September.

[00:34:57]Bye!

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