Podcast · thebulwark.com
Bulwark Takes
The Bulwark
The news cycle doesn’t slow down, and neither does The Bulwark. Bulwark Takes brings you bite-sized takes on the news of the day from the entire Bulwark team, including Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell, and Bill Kristol, and more.
138 claims
True85% confidence5 sourcesSep 15, 2026Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett voted against Donald Trump in the case regarding mail-in ballot restrictions.Said by BThe September 14, 2026 Supreme Court order refusing to let the Postal Service enforce Trump's mail-ballot rule had only Alito and Thomas dissenting, so Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett joined the majority against the administration's request. The claim departs from the passage in no material way, and the sources confirm it.True90% confidence6 sourcesSep 15, 2026Donald Trump's executive order required states to submit lists of eligible voters to the U.S. Postal Service.Said by BThe claim matches the post's passage and is supported by multiple reliable sources: the March 31, 2026 executive order required states to provide the U.S. Postal Service with lists of voters eligible for mail ballots, and the USPS would deliver ballots only to people on those lists. The order was later blocked by a court and then the injunctions were lifted, but the requirement itself is documented.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.True90% confidence7 sourcesSep 15, 2026Donald Trump's executive order required states to use tracking barcodes on ballot envelopes.Said by BMultiple primary and tier1 sources (the EO text, the White House fact sheet, Reuters, and CRS) confirm that Trump's March 31, 2026 executive order (EO 14399) directed the USPS to require secure ballot envelopes with unique tracking barcodes, and tier2 CNN reporting describes the same requirement. The claim's wording is a slight paraphrase of the post, which said the order 'required states' to use barcodes; the sources say the order directs USPS rulemaking that applies to states mailing ballots through USPS, which is a standard reading and not a contradiction.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.True90% confidence6 sourcesSep 15, 2026Donald Trump's executive order prioritized federal prosecution of state election officials who send or receive ballots to non-citizens or others ineligible to vote.Said by BThe executive order (EO 14399, signed March 2026) does direct the Attorney General to prioritize investigation and prosecution of state and local officials who issue federal ballots to ineligible voters, which matches the claim's core. The sources' wording is 'issue or distribute' rather than 'send or receive', a minor paraphrase that the post itself and CNN's report use interchangeably, so the claim is graded as accurate.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.True90% confidence6 sourcesSep 15, 2026Senator Richard Blumenthal received information from a whistleblower regarding rules for mail-in ballots.Said by CMultiple tier1 and primary sources (AP, Minnesota Secretary of State, Blumenthal's own letter) confirm that Senator Richard Blumenthal publicly released a whistleblower disclosure about the USPS rule implementing Trump's mail-in ballot executive order. The claim's wording is a faithful extraction of the passage's correction to Blumenthal, and the sources support the core assertion; the post's rejected attribution to Whitehouse was corrected by the speaker.True85% confidence8 sourcesSep 15, 2026The Trump administration proposed a USPS mail portal software system for states to log and cross-check voter files.Said by CThe sources consistently describe a Trump executive order that directed USPS to build a portal where states would upload voter lists, which USPS would use to verify ballots. The claim's core assertion is supported, and the extraction faithfully tracks the passage. The sources do not say whether the portal was formally 'proposed' in a rulemaking separate from the order, but this is a peripheral detail.True90% confidence7 sourcesSep 15, 2026The Lenox Spice Village collection was originally released in 1989.Said by AMultiple independent sources (Vogue, Country & Town House, Chowhound, Good Housekeeping, Tocuro, The Pioneer Woman) state the Lenox Spice Village was first released in 1989, and the Lenox Corporation's own page refers to its 'original 1989 collection.' The claim is a faithful extraction of the passage's 'calling back to the originals from 1989,' and no source contradicts the 1989 date.True75% confidence5 sourcesSep 15, 2026The Supreme Court granted a stay in a legal case regarding mail-in ballot restrictions.Said by BThe Supreme Court granted a stay on August 24, 2026 in Trump v. California (26A124), a case over the executive order on mail-in ballots, on standing and ripeness grounds, which matches the claim and the post's 'on grounds of standing' remark. A later September 14 order in Postal Service v. California (26A305) denied a different stay request, so the court did both within the same litigation, but that does not contradict the August stay.True92% confidence4 sourcesSep 15, 2026Judge Luttig wrote an article in The New Republic stating that January 3 is more important than November 3 regarding the election.Said by BThe New Republic's author page lists Michael Luttig's September 10, 2026 essay "The Final Battle for America's Democracy," which opens "Forget November 3. It's January 3," and several outlets describe it the same way. The passage's "Judge Ludding" is a garbled reference to Luttig, and the claim faithfully reflects the passage.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.True90% confidence6 sourcesSep 15, 2026Mike Pence did not overturn any actual votes on January 6.Said by CMultiple tier-1 and tier-2 sources report that Pence refused to reject or return electoral votes and certified the results on January 6, 2021, so he overturned no votes. The passage's core point is that objecting Republicans failed to overturn votes, and the extracted claim shifts the subject to Pence, though the passage itself implies Pence did not overturn votes either.True95% confidence8 sourcesSep 15, 2026Justices Alito and Thomas wrote that the government has a strong interest in enforcing a rule to enhance the visibility of federal ballot mail to better detect election fraud.Said by BThe Supreme Court's official dissent in No. 26A305 shows Justice Alito, joined by Justice Thomas, writing that the government has a strong interest in enforcing the rule and that implementing it will 'enhance the visibility of Federal Ballot Mail' to better detect election fraud. Multiple independent outlets quote the same passage, so the claim matches the record.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.True85% confidence4 sourcesSep 15, 2026The Supreme Court ruled in favor of states challenging the United States Postal Service's election rulemaking process.Said by COn September 14, 2026, the Supreme Court declined the Trump administration's request to lift a preliminary injunction blocking the USPS mail-ballot rule, saying the government was unlikely to succeed, as reported by AP and Reuters while state and voting-rights challenges proceed. The ruling was an emergency order on a stay request, not a final merits decision, but it still favored the states' side, and the claim matches the passage's wording.