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Good afternoon, Press Pass readers. Tuesday editions of this newsletter are free, but Thursdays are exclusively for Bulwark+ members. Members also get to join the community in the comments to share their two cents on the latest happenings on Capitol Hill and in men’s fashion. You can also send me tips, feedback, or theories about what’s in store for season 4 of The Gilded Age. I’m all ears.
Today’s newsletter is something of a history lesson. If you’re new to politics, you might not remember Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann. In her words and actions, she served as a precursor to the modern MAGA movement. But as the Republican party evolved to be more like her—outwardly populist, unabashedly firebrandish, and combative for combativeness’s sake—she’s done the most atypical of political acts: she faded into the background. We’ll also look at the first official item on the schedule for when Congress returns in a few weeks, and how it will likely make Trump quite mad. (Even more than most things, that is.) Lastly, will Howard Stern’s slow evolution to centrism spell his doom? All that and more, below.
She Was MAGA’s Precursor. And Then She Kinda Disappeared.
Plus: The Epstein Files will be the House’s first agenda item.
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WHEN MICHELE BACHMANN FIRST ARRIVED in Washington eighteen years ago to represent Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, she immediately made a name for herself. The year was 2007, and the leaders at the top of the Republican party were people like President George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain, then-House Minority Leader John Boehner, and then-House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. Compared to them, Bachmann was an absolute radical. Her political stances were far right—back then categorized as “fringe”—while her demeanor was brash. She mixed embarrassing gaffes with a reflexive McCarthyism. More to the point, she was always camera-ready.
In 2014, during one of her final public appearances before retiring from Congress the following January, Bachmann outlined her vision in a succinct, three-point structure:
Number one: We are taxed enough already. Number two: Government should not spend more money than what it takes in. And number three: Government should live under the Constitution. Pretty extreme, right? Pretty radical, right?
Simple enough. But then, in the next breath, came the typical Bachmannian flourish. “Unfortunately,” she added, “[Barack Obama] has a failing grade every step of the way.”
Years before Donald Trump burst on the scene to perfect the art of political slander and weaponized innuendo, Bachmann was performing those acts with glee. While she regularly described Democratic policies as creeping authoritarianism, she also denounced “anti-American” sentiment among her own colleagues.
During an interview with MSNBC in 2008, she said she was “very worried” about Obama’s supposed anti-American views.
“What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating exposé and take a look,” Bachmann told host Chris Matthews. “I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would be—would love to see an exposé like that.”
Among those whom Bachmann specifically accused of anti-Americanism were Barack and Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi—all of whom have since become not just objects of hatred and scorn among the Republican base but the subjects of wild conspiracy theories. But that was a mere appetizer for Bachmann’s brand of crazy. She warned that the HPV vaccine could cause mental retardation. She suggested Hurricane Irene in 2011 was a warning from God that the government had grown too big. She insisted that the Founding Fathers had “worked tirelessly” to end slavery. She suggested that the wife’s role in a marriage was to be submissive.
Then there are the positions that ring familiar today. Bachmann questioned the conduct of the 2010 census, warned that the Obama administration was considering adopting a global currency, and railed against AmeriCorps.
It’s but a short step from there to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s chemtrails, Laura Loomer making personnel decisions for the White House, and Elon Musk’s selective targets while at DOGE.
In Bachmann’s day, her frequent media dustups, conspiracy theories, and inflammatory statements irked colleagues. After he retired, former House Speaker John Boehner wrote that Bachmann “made a name for herself as a lunatic” in the House.
Writing about a request from Bachmann to appoint her to the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, Boehner added that, “There were many members in line ahead of her for a post like this. People who had waited patiently for their turn and who also, by the way, weren’t wild-eyed crazies.” Boehner said the request was really a demand, and that she threatened to appeal Boehner’s decision to the real conservative powers: media personalities like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, who favored her over him.
“I wasn’t the one with the power, she was saying,” Boehner wrote. “I just thought I was. She had the power now.”
Bachmann had understood something about Republican politics that Trump did too. And that Boehner hadn’t yet grasped. Authority wasn’t derived from relationships or seniority. It arose from the attention one could generate and the following one could develop off of it.
Boehner ultimately put Bachmann on the House Intelligence Committee despite her lack of relevant experience. He did so at a time when the Intelligence Committee was still for workhorses rather than showhorses, as it conducts most of its business behind closed doors.