What are the key takeaways from this The Bulwark Podcast episode?

Key insights include: **Cross-partisan coalition building:** The Massey-Khanna Epstein bill succeeded by deliberately obscuring its Democratic origins, branding it as the "Massey-Khanna bill" to attract Republican votes. The strategy yielded near-unanimous House passage, making a presidential veto mathematically impossible. Finding issues where MAGA voters already distrust elite institutions is the replicable template for future bipartisan accountability efforts.; **Epstein accountability gap:** Despite file releases, zero investigations have been opened against named associates including Les Wexner and Leon Black. Khanna argues due process requires investigation, not just prosecution. Three witness interview transcripts mentioning Trump by name remain suppressed, and an FBI share file cataloguing all Trump references in the Epstein documents has not been released to Congress.; **Iran war cost calculus:** The U.S. has spent approximately $2 billion daily over roughly 20 days in Iran strikes, totaling around $40 billion. Thirteen American service members have died. The 400 kilograms of 60%-enriched uranium remains underground and likely undestroyed, meaning the stated military objective of eliminating Iran's nuclear capability requires diplomacy, not continued airstrikes.

What did Ro Khanna discuss on The Bulwark Podcast?

California Congressman Ro Khanna joins Tim Miller to discuss the Epstein files investigation, the unauthorized Iran war, AI's economic disruption, and how unlikely cross-partisan coalitions between progressive Democrats and MAGA Republicans are forming around government accountability and anti-interventionism in 2025. Key topics include: **Cross-partisan coalition building:** The Massey-Khanna Epstein bill succeeded by deliberately obscuring its Democratic origins, branding it as the "Massey-Khanna bill" to attract Republican votes. The strategy yielded near-unanimous House passage, making a presidential veto mathematically impossible. Finding issues where MAGA voters already distrust elite institutions is the replicable template for future bipartisan accountability efforts.; **Epstein accountability gap:** Despite file releases, zero investigations have been opened against named associates including Les Wexner and Leon Black. Khanna argues due process requires investigation, not just prosecution. Three witness interview transcripts mentioning Trump by name remain suppressed, and an FBI share file cataloguing all Trump references in the Epstein documents has not been released to Congress..

How long is this episode of The Bulwark Podcast?

This episode is 49 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

The Bulwark Podcast

Ro Khanna: Trump Is in Denial

March 18, 2026

49 min episode · 2 min read

Ro Khanna

Episode

49 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Career Growth, Productivity, Fundraising & VC

AI-Generated Summary

Published Mar 19, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Cross-partisan coalition building: The Massey-Khanna Epstein bill succeeded by deliberately obscuring its Democratic origins, branding it as the "Massey-Khanna bill" to attract Republican votes. The strategy yielded near-unanimous House passage, making a presidential veto mathematically impossible. Finding issues where MAGA voters already distrust elite institutions is the replicable template for future bipartisan accountability efforts.
✓Epstein accountability gap: Despite file releases, zero investigations have been opened against named associates including Les Wexner and Leon Black. Khanna argues due process requires investigation, not just prosecution. Three witness interview transcripts mentioning Trump by name remain suppressed, and an FBI share file cataloguing all Trump references in the Epstein documents has not been released to Congress.
✓Iran war cost calculus: The U.S. has spent approximately $2 billion daily over roughly 20 days in Iran strikes, totaling around $40 billion. Thirteen American service members have died. The 400 kilograms of 60%-enriched uranium remains underground and likely undestroyed, meaning the stated military objective of eliminating Iran's nuclear capability requires diplomacy, not continued airstrikes.
✓AI displacement response framework: Khanna proposes three concrete policy responses to AI-driven job losses: a Work for America program hiring young people for infrastructure, teaching, and government moonshot projects; restructuring tax incentives to penalize replacing workers with agentic AI; and mandating worker ownership stakes in companies benefiting from AI productivity gains, modeled on KKR's Peter Stavros ownership approach.
✓Democratic messaging recalibration: Khanna argues Democrats lose by narrowing focus to "kitchen table affordability" while ignoring Epstein, Iran, and AI displacement — the actual topics voters discuss. Refusing platforms like Hasan Piker or Theo Vonn over host controversies repeats the Joe Rogan mistake from 2024, ceding direct voter communication to Republicans across non-traditional media channels.

What It Covers

California Congressman Ro Khanna joins Tim Miller to discuss the Epstein files investigation, the unauthorized Iran war, AI's economic disruption, and how unlikely cross-partisan coalitions between progressive Democrats and MAGA Republicans are forming around government accountability and anti-interventionism in 2025.

Key Questions Answered

•Cross-partisan coalition building: The Massey-Khanna Epstein bill succeeded by deliberately obscuring its Democratic origins, branding it as the "Massey-Khanna bill" to attract Republican votes. The strategy yielded near-unanimous House passage, making a presidential veto mathematically impossible. Finding issues where MAGA voters already distrust elite institutions is the replicable template for future bipartisan accountability efforts.
•Epstein accountability gap: Despite file releases, zero investigations have been opened against named associates including Les Wexner and Leon Black. Khanna argues due process requires investigation, not just prosecution. Three witness interview transcripts mentioning Trump by name remain suppressed, and an FBI share file cataloguing all Trump references in the Epstein documents has not been released to Congress.
•Iran war cost calculus: The U.S. has spent approximately $2 billion daily over roughly 20 days in Iran strikes, totaling around $40 billion. Thirteen American service members have died. The 400 kilograms of 60%-enriched uranium remains underground and likely undestroyed, meaning the stated military objective of eliminating Iran's nuclear capability requires diplomacy, not continued airstrikes.
•AI displacement response framework: Khanna proposes three concrete policy responses to AI-driven job losses: a Work for America program hiring young people for infrastructure, teaching, and government moonshot projects; restructuring tax incentives to penalize replacing workers with agentic AI; and mandating worker ownership stakes in companies benefiting from AI productivity gains, modeled on KKR's Peter Stavros ownership approach.
•Democratic messaging recalibration: Khanna argues Democrats lose by narrowing focus to "kitchen table affordability" while ignoring Epstein, Iran, and AI displacement — the actual topics voters discuss. Refusing platforms like Hasan Piker or Theo Vonn over host controversies repeats the Joe Rogan mistake from 2024, ceding direct voter communication to Republicans across non-traditional media channels.

Notable Moment

Khanna revealed that Trump likely signed the Epstein disclosure bill without realizing it was Khanna's legislation, because the Democratic congressman deliberately kept his name secondary and avoided framing the bill as a challenge to the president — a deliberate misdirection strategy that proved decisive in securing the signature.

Know someone who'd find this useful?

Episode Transcript

Tax season has arrived and doing taxes without the right help can feel overwhelming. Intuit TurboTax is here now to guide you through it with confidence. Match with a TurboTax full service expert who handles everything for you from start to finish, Your dedicated expert checks every single deduction and credit to help you get the best possible outcome so you can feel confident you're getting every dollar you deserve. And the best part? You'll see real time updates on your expert's progress right on your phone while you live your life. Plus, you get unlimited expert help at no extra cost, even on nights and weekends during tax season. Visit turbotax.com. Only available with TurboTax full service experts. Real time updates only on iOS mobile app. Having MG can make cooking difficult. But over the years, I found some really helpful tools and tips that I'm excited to share. Hi. I'm Alicia. I think cooking should always be fun, creative, and of course, delicious. These black bean burgers are hearty, full of flavor, and MG friendly. You're gonna love them. Check out Alicia's black bean burger cooking video and other recipes full of tips and tricks for managing common MG symptoms while cooking only at mg-united.com. Ready? Let's cook. Hello, and welcome to the Bullard Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. Delighted to welcome to the show a California congressman representing much of Silicon Valley. He serves on the House Armed Services Committee and on the Oversight and Accountability Committee. It's Ro Khanna. Welcome to the show. Great to be back. Man, good to have you. I guess my first question for you, is there anybody else in congress besides you and Thomas Massie? Are you the only people actually in congress? You know, that's not fair at all. I like colleagues, but we have been, coincidentally on the at the center of the two most consequential issues, the, Epstein files, and the, war in Iran. And I think what we show, with our work is that the coalitions that are scrambling in American politics and that it's actually possible, to find issues, with this affected MAGA voters. I mean, I would argue that the Epstein files is the first time, since Donald Trump came down the escalator that we actually said, hey, Trump voters. What do you think, and can we work with you on an issue? And it turns out a lot of them thought that, our government had been corrupted, that powerful people were using connections to evade the law, in this case, in the most horrific way, trafficking underage girls and, raping underage girls, and we built the coalition on that. Similarly, a lot of them don't want us getting into war in The Middle East, don't want gas prices going up, don't want service members dying, for another Middle East war. The boats on that one haven't quite materialized like the boats have on Epstein. But Epstein was a uphill fight as well, and …

Get the full transcript (10,438 words) + summary by email — free

One-time email with the complete transcript and AI summary of this episode. No account needed.

One email, no spam. We’ll also show you what SignalCast does.

Browse all The Bulwark Podcast transcripts →