"I Gave Her My Debit Card and PIN for $1,000"

The Bulwark Daily's Tim Miller sat down with veteran political strategist Maria Comella — former chief of staff to both Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo — for a wide-ranging conversation that moved from the Trump administration's self-inflicted oversight hearing wounds to the shifting nature of Republican primary politics, before the show's second segment (the "Trio") pivoted to the latest MAGA-world scandals involving Byron Donalds, Candace Owens, and the online right's internal battles over race and respectability.

The Schmidt Hearing: A Bombshell That Wasn't

The episode opened with the Eric Schmidt questioning of Jack Smith, which Comella described as a "farce." Schmidt, a Republican congressman and rumored VP contender, tried to catch Smith in a lie about attending an NBA game in Atlanta — only to have Smith clarify he was at a University of Maryland women's basketball game featuring Caitlin Clark. The "gotcha" moment collapsed when it became clear Schmidt's team had confused the Atlanta Hawks with the Iowa Hawkeyes.

"What are we actually doing here?" Comella asked, noting the performative anger from Republicans who called Smith a "dirt bag" with no evidence of wrongdoing. The same morning, Axios reported Schmidt was a leading VP contender for JD Vance — a rollout that "blew up at the launch pad," as Miller put it.