Bill Kristol and Ro Khanna: Two Governments Acting with Impunity

**Tim Miller** (0:00)
All right, hey everybody, a lot happened in this week. I'm at a hotel in Des Moines, so we got a big guest for you on tomorrow's show. Today, we have a double header. In segment two, I added in Congressman Ro Khanna, who did a trip to the West Bank last week with my former FY pod colleague, Kim Cassie, colleague, co-host, buddy, friend, mini me. What they went through is pretty remarkable. We kind of dig right into it in the conversation. Just for a little bit of context, Ro and Cameron went, when Congress was on recess, to visit various parts of the West Bank. It was in front of these fact-finding, understanding missions to see what's happening there. There is increasing concern about settler violence in the West Bank. There's been a particular uptick on this since the Iran War, where there's a sense that settlers, Israeli settlers, can act with impunity in the West Bank.
I asked Ro a question from one of his critics that he blanches out, but even that critic in the question, a very pro Zionist person I follow on social media, is like, man, I'm even not really thrilled about everything that's happening in the West Bank. Then he goes on to obviously criticizes Ro.
That is the context of their trip, and then we get into a lot of details on what they saw, and hopefully, that's valuable for folks. That is segment two. First, I got Bill Kristol.
Obviously, we talked a bunch about the passing of Lindsey Graham. Since we recorded Governor Henry McMaster, who is just such a good old boy, South Carolina good old boy. He's what John Kennedy wishes he was, just really authentic foghorn, leghorn. Believe it or not, he endorsed John Huntsman in the 2012 primary. I got to know Henry really well back then. He then went with Trump. Everybody ended up going with Trump. Everybody abandoned me. It's just what happens. Life of an ever Trumper. So me and Henry don't talk anymore. But Henry is announcing Lindsey's temporary replacement this afternoon. So by the time this pod is out, you'll probably see who that is and then there'll be a primary for potentially a permanent replacement though, that person will have to go up against Annie Andrews in the general election in November. So Bill and I kind of handicapped that a little bit during the pod. But by the time this is out, you guys will know who the interim senator is. So there you go. Big show today. Up next, Bill Kristol. Stick around.
Hello, and welcome to The Bulwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. It is Monday, so I'm of course here with editor-at-large Bill Kristol.

**Bill Kristol** (2:55)
Hey, Tim.

**Tim Miller** (2:55)
A bunch of news to get to.
Obviously, the biggest shocking news over the weekend was the death of Senator Lindsey Graham, which many of us woke up to Sunday morning. And I know, Bill, you talked about this with Sarah yesterday on your conversation, but I know folks are gonna be interested in hearing your thoughts on this, and there's a lot to be said about Lindsey Graham. But I don't know, maybe you can just kick us off.

**Bill Kristol** (3:20)
Obviously, I was saddened by his death. But to be honest, I was saddened by the last, what, eight years of his life, eight, nine years of his life.

**Tim Miller** (3:28)
Yeah, 10 maybe.

**Bill Kristol** (3:29)
10 maybe. Yeah, well, he voted for McMuller. I forgot about this. He had voted for Evan McMuller in 2016 So he was hanging in there, you know, as an anti-Trump-er, but it changed, I guess, in early 2017, he met with Trump. And I knew Lindsey pretty well about 20 years ago. We were Neocon, McCain, Acolytes, both of us, I would say.
Supporters of the war in Iraq, but I would say...

**Tim Miller** (3:49)
You met, you had those secret meetings that you all met with...

**Bill Kristol** (3:51)
Yes, a lot of secret meetings. But that wasn't such a small group at the time, 75 senators, something you wrote for the war in Iraq. What was small, the small group was those who had supported the war and they were willing to criticize Bush's conduct to the war and Rumsfeld and General Casey. And McCain, of course, was on the lead on that in early September 2003, the weekly standard was with him. We were the only conservative magazine or journal who was with him on that. Everyone else was still in, you know, Bush and Rumsfeld, a great mode. And so really, it was honestly McCain and Lindsey and then, I'm not at the same level, but, you know, me and sort of weekly standard guys, people. So I got to know Lindsey pretty well in those next three, four years. And I'd say he was a very smart man who could study policy very quickly.