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You must be enrolled to earn rewards. Points can only be redeemed at PayPal Online Checkout. Eligible purchases only. TSNC Supply. Hey, y'all. Tim Miller from the Bull Work Here. I woke up on the West Coast to just... You love it when you take out your phone and there's something that brings you joy in the morning. That's so rare these days. That's so often that you're doom-scrolling and I like to joy-scroll. And that happened for me because Slayer Pete Buttigieg was on CNBC's Squawk Box. If you don't know that, a show, it's a morning financial show. It's kind of like the Fox and Friends of CNBC. And it's not like Fox and Friends in the sense that it's all right-wingers. There is a single person that kind of reflects the doozy view on Squawk Box. His name is Joe Kernan. He and Pete got into it on the state of the economy, the war in Iran, and it was delicious. I've already on social media offered to welcome both of them to the Bull Work YouTube page where hopefully they could do a longer version. I want to see a Joe Rogan podcast-length engagement between Kernan and Buttigieg. Give me three hours. I can host it. I'll just kind of just fade into the background and let them go. Just kind of direct the conversation. We'll see if they take me up on that. But if you have not had this joy yet, or even if you had already and just want a second helping, I figured we should go through some of the highlights of Pete showing how you do it when you're arguing with somebody that's trying their best to rationalize their support of Donald Trump and MAGA. Just really quick before we go into it, please subscribe to the feed. Help us out here. We're trying to get up to two million subscribers. And also, what I'm showing this as, I've been on this, like the Democrats in this moment, Donald Trump is vulnerable. The arguments of people on his side are as weak as they've ever been. Democrats need to be going into more challenging spaces. It's something that I'm trying to do myself, but that I need actual democratic politicians doing. So I want to give out candy to the ones who are doing it right. And Pete is obviously like the prime example of us. So let's watch this together. We'll play some of the highlights from Pete and Joe Kernan. I understand that. And look, I'm saying this as somebody who knows what it's like to be sent to war by a US president. And when a president sends you to war, when you and your buddies are on that great tail plane going into a war zone, you do it with some level of confidence, some level of assurance that you're chain of command. All the way up to the president, I just wouldn't do this if they didn't have a choice. Now that we're there, do you hope this has a successful outcome? There were 40,000 Iranians that were slaughtered by the same regime. 47 years of killing Americans, stirring trouble all around the world with proxies. And how do you feel about that regime being left intact by this president? I thought we were gonna get rid of him. I don't know if that's gonna be the case and I don't know what might happen. All right, so like right before this clip, just to give you guys the context, like Pete is making a case against the war and why it's stupid. And Kernan is trying to interject and do the thing that these guys do, which is like, oh, you're rooting against the country. Like you want us to, like our soldiers are so good. Why don't you respect the troops and the soldiers? And Pete's like, fuck you, I was a soldier. I was a troop. I know what it's like to go over there. And I wouldn't have wanted to be sent to a war zone for something where the leadership in charge didn't have a plan for success or didn't have a clear rationale for doing it or hadn't thought through some of the obvious contingencies, like the closing of the straight-up form of it. Like this is obvious. And so I think Pete, like having credibility there is very important. I think it's pretty telling that Kernan falls back on this. Like, don't you want us to succeed? Don't you want America to succeed? You know, like Pete's counter that is pretty good. It was just like, well, like we haven't succeeded. The regime is still intact. I would kind of add on top of that, like yeah, America succeeding means not starting dumb ass wars that make us weaker economically and geopolitically and alienate our foes. Like, you know, this is not the path to success. Like this is the path to fucking ruin. Like yeah, I want America to succeed. Don't you want America to succeed? You want America to succeed? Why are you on board with this stupid fucking war? All right, anyway, let's, the conversation pivots then more to what you expect them to be talking about on a morning finance show, which is the state of the economy. So let's watch some of that. Is that an argument? So you don't want this to work and it was just a bad move. You want us to pull out now. Look, there's no obvious way out now, but I want to make sure that this ends in a way that, first of all, our economy can recover, that we're not paying so much for gas. I mean, right now, oil's a hundred bucks, jet fuel's 200 bucks, gas is over four bucks, diesel's like five to three. You ever 380 under Biden for four years. And when we left, inflation was lower than it is today. You accounted for 21.5% pricing. This president took the inflation rate up. This president took the inflation rate up. It's 2.7%. It's more than 3% of your on-ear. You saw the numbers just come out. It's more than 3% of your on-ear. Okay. Isn't that the PCE? Isn't that the score on-ear? It is. It's 3.3%. The math is direct. Yeah. Okay. It's way from two seven to 3%. It's higher than when he got here, Joe. It's not 9%. So he begins by talking about the impact of the war on gas prices and the impact on people domestically. And that is significant. I mean, gas prices are getting expensive in Louisiana, but damn, I'm here in California. And it's like, I don't even know how people who are on out, like, I don't know how working people afford this. I don't know how you afford this. If you have a kind of hourly pay job, or if you're on a fixed income as a senior, like how do you go places? The gas is already that expensive and it's only gonna get worse. Like how like Catherine Rampell pointed out today, that gas prices rose 20% in March from the higher price of the month. This is the single largest monthly increase in gas prices since we began measuring it. The biggest gas price increase since we've been measuring it last month, March, and it's getting worse. And, you know, Kernan's response is, well, gas was also expensive under Biden. It's like, okay, bro. All right, like what about now? What about what we're doing now? You know, Pete and then go kind of back and forth and they have this kind of crosstalk fight over the inflation numbers. And, you know, at the end, Andrew Ross Sorkin, who if you don't know him, is totally really down the middle, smart economics reporter, is just like, dude, this is just the math. Like the math is the math, inflation is up. This piece of it is basic. The president did say that he was, he wanted to be in office to bring inflation down and he has not brought inflation down. That's all. Is that just like Trump hasn't brought prices down? It's like the rate of increase now is up from where it was when Biden left. So I don't know. I mean, some of the stuff you get into dorky econ talk and it feels like they could have been on an AEI panel hashing this out. Like I'm not sure this is the most resident thing with voters, most resident part of the exchange, but like it's pretty funny that that is, like the position of Kernan is so weak, the position of the Trump defenders and the economy is so weak now, that like they really are forced to resort to, but what about 2022? It's like, well, we'll see how that works. And his central campaign promise was he was going to take inflation and drive it down and instead he took inflation and it's up. I thought the, in the Fed office. It was three when he got here and now it's more. It could not be simpler than that. It's around three and we're involved in a war with the street. He said on day one it would go down, he came in on day one and now it's up. It's up to 3%. It was 21.5% price increase. He promised it would go down in years. Over four years it was 21.5%. He promised it would go down. Democrats own the affordability crisis. Listen to me. Period. Why did the president fail? You're laughing. You don't think Democrats own the affordability crisis? Why did the president fail to keep his promise to lower prices, in your opinion? I'm laughing because this piece of it is basic. The president did say that he wanted to be in office to bring inflation down and he has not brought inflation down. That's all. He drove it up. He not only failed, he drove it up. Mr. Secretary, let's talk about it. Terrence had a minimal effect on it. You tell a family where I lived that $1,000 per household is minimal. From the 21.5% increase that you're the Democrats. We can argue all day about just how bad COVID was and how bad it got and what it took to come back from that. You call it. Where I live, $1,000 per household isn't minimal. Now Democrats found religion on inflation. After presiding over the worst inflation in 40 years, now you found religion. It's 2026. They're in charge. You guys have been in charge. I'm aware of that. What are you going to do differently? All right. Pete does the job here. But the funniest part is, the funniest part is just the desperate, angry, current and with kinked on makeup on his face, being like, Democrats own the affordability crisis. Democrats own it. It's just like, man, a year ago, I would have been annoyed by that. Six months ago, I'm kind of mad about it and probably we have to fight on this. We got to argue. And she's like, nobody believes this. Who believes this anymore? Only people that are full in the cult and that the Democrats have no chance of ever winning over. There's some percentage of Americans that Democrats will never win over. And so those people might be able to soothe themselves and suck on their thumb by being like, the Democrats own this because of what happened after COVID four years ago. But that just isn't how politics works. Like in order to win over people who aren't in your cult, you have to have a explanation for them or a message or a plan. And so just like, the Democrats did this all in 2022. It's like, sorry, bro, that's not gonna work. Bullard takes a sponsor by Soul. Now, if you've been listening to our show for a while, you already know how much I love Soul's out of office THC gummies as well as their sparkling beverages, perfect for the summertime. Now they're launching something new, Mood Gummies. Now lately I've been more mindful about how I want to feel when socializing, winding down or just living my life. Instead of defaulting to a drink and hoping for the best, I've chosen Soul's new Mood Gummies. Whether I need a little spark to go out or something has settled down tonight, they've got the perfect options to make me feel just right. Soul's a wellness brand that makes delicious hemp derived CBD and THC products designed to make feeling good simple. 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We gotta get through this war and you've heard people- We gotta get through this war. We didn't have to be fighting this war. What are we doing? That's a matter of opinion. You can't say that. It's a matter of opinion that I share with most Americans and a large number of Republicans and a whole bunch of MAGA people who bought into this president because they actually believed in what he said he would get into the war. He's got 75% Republican approval for the war. You don't start with the approval you have within your own party, but the point is the MAGA coalition- And the tracts aren't gonna approve of anything. I'm talking about Americans. Americans disapprove of the president and their right to do so. He's got the same approval rating other presidents have had at this point in the term. A little bit above, 42%. This president right now is unpopular for very good reasons, one of which is- He's made life more successful. No more unpopular than Obama was or Biden was at the same point of his presidency. That depends on which poll you're looking at, but by and large, no. I'm sorry, but like, I've been out on the trail. I was in Marjorie Taylor Greene's district. Marjorie Taylor Greene. This is a Trump plus 38 district, or it was. I've seen, I've got a number- We have 500 people. You'll get a chance to prove that in November this year. We had a chance to prove it last week. The Senate might go. I understand that. Yeah, because people are- My favorite part about that clip is Pete just going back at him with, we didn't have to be fighting this war. And Joe's like, we got to get through this war. He's like, we didn't have to be fighting it. You can't do that. I thought, like this, what doesn't work now? Like this, this shit worked in the first Bush term with the Iraq war. I could stopped working in the second Bush term. This idea that like, we've got to stand with our men and women in uniform and we got to get through the war and win. It's like, nobody knows what we're fighting the war. There was no 9-11. There was no imminent threat. There was no case made by the president. It's like, you started a war that nobody knows why. It was a stupid war. It hasn't been a success. And everybody's feeling pain now. And your message is, well, we got to get through the war. You got to deal with the pain. You got to suck it up. I just, the body language between Pete and Curtin in this section is just so telling. Like Pete is a little bit exacerbated, but he's also laughing and like always, just very sharp on his points. And Curtin is just huffing and puffing and getting redder and his body can feel it. See him tensing. He's tensing. And it's just because they don't have it. Like the points are weak. They got no case to make. So long story short, this isn't your moment to go pick a fight with your mega friend that's never gonna come around. Okay, I'm not saying that, but it is a point for Democrats, for commentators like myself and for you in your life. If you have people that you think are gettable, you think are reasonable, kindly, softly beginning to engage them in these conversations, maybe useful. It might be a transition period we're in. You know, I went on a barstool podcast this week and there's one Republican guy on there and then one like really left guy and then another guy. I don't know if he actually says those politics, but it seems like pretty Democrat. And the Republican guy, I was just kind of, I didn't go at him like I'm on the Piers Morgan show, like screaming at these fucking moron, like moron hack pundits. Like, you know, he's a sports guy and he's just Republican. And so this is like softly like asking some questions. Like, what do you like about what's happening? Like, what do you think would have been worse from Kamala? Like, isn't the impact, is an economic impact, like not worth what we're getting out of the actions of the Middle East? Just that kind of stuff. It's a good time to engage with people because they're running out of AMO. And that's a delicious treat. All right, one more last one. Pete ends with a really strong message on affordability and corruption. That is something that I've been desperate for Democrats to really pound. So let's watch that. Presidents make difficult decisions, obviously. Yeah, but usually they make difficult decisions to try to make other people better off. This president's made decisions to make himself better off. That's definitely happened. If you're the kind of person who can pay a million bucks for the entry fee to Mar-a-Lago, then you're doing great. But everybody else is hurting right now. And that's it. Like on top of the fact that people's lives are worse, you know, who's still making money? Trump, his family, you know? People that can pay the Mar-a-Lago dues, they're making bank. Well, everybody else is fucking paying $6 gas for us now. All right, so that is compelling. It's something that people understand. And as usual, Slayer Pete is nailing it. So I hope you enjoyed it. My colleagues are gonna be all around this weekend. We've got that big election in Hungary coming up on Sunday, which we will be covering. I'm on a brief vacation. I'll be back on the feed on Tuesday. So we'll see you all then. Like I said, subscribe. Heck of a job, Mayor Pete. See ya, bye. The world moves fast. You work day, even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work. Built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create, and summarize. So you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn more at microsoft.com slash n365 Copilot.
