I Make Them Uncomfortable

And that's a good thing.

Hey guys, it’s Joe Perticone. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m The Bulwark’s Congressional reporter.

That means I spend my days following members of Congress around, asking them uncomfortable questions.

Recently, my colleague Sam Stein and I uncovered a bunch of letters from Congressional Republicans to their constituents. The letters showed that these members are very concerned about Elon Musk’s destruction of the government, and say they don’t support it. But publicly, many of these same members are praising Musk and his work with DOGE.

So I went ahead and asked a few simple follow-up questions: Why are you telling your constituents this? And if you are concerned about Musk’s burn-it-all-down approach, why aren’t you actually doing anything about it?

Rachel Maddow covered the scoop on her show, and I’d suspect these members are going to be hearing a lot more from their constituents now that this issue is out in the open.

And if Congress is ever going to act as a meaningful check on this White House, this is the kind of story that might just help push them in that direction.

So here’s my ask for you: Help us do more of this. It takes time, energy, and a whole lot of patience to do the reporting work that goes into a scoop like this. It doesn’t just happen.

That’s why, at a time when legacy media are making cuts, we’re fortunate that The Bulwark is growing. But the only way we can afford to do that is through our Bulwark+ subscribers, who underwrite all our work. This is how accountability journalism gets made.

So if you feel the same as we do—if you’re alarmed by the daily headlines and want to take a stand for Team Democracy—there’s only one thing to do: join us.

It’s the only way we can keep the scoops coming.

Thanks,
Joe Perticone