Episodes

  • Conway & Stevens: Kilmar’s Fate, Harvard’s Fight & America's Last Best Hope

    Conway & Stevens: Kilmar’s Fate, Harvard’s Fight & America's Last Best Hope
    Apr 21 2025
    John is joined by a pair of former GOP panjandrums turned NeverTrump stalwarts — attorney George Conway and political strategist Stuart Stevens — to discuss the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case and Donald Trump’s efforts to turn the U.S. into a police state. Conway and Stevens argue that the guardrails preventing that outcome are banged up but still holding; that the real test of them will come when (not if) the administration defies the Supreme Court even more flagrantly than it has already; and that Harvard is offering the kind of a master class in resistance to MAGA bullying that many of the nation’s top law firms have been too gutless and/or greedy to provide. They also explain why Trump’s economic illiteracy and its consequences may prove to be what saves American democracy. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Maya Wiley: The Rule of Lawlessness

    Maya Wiley: The Rule of Lawlessness
    Apr 18 2025
    John is joined by Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, to discuss the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and its implications for the rule of law in America. Wiley argues that the case -- and Donald Trump's open defiance of the Supreme Court's unanimous order that the administration facilitate Garcia's repatriation from a notorious penal colony in El Salvador -- is about more than Garcia's fate, immigration or foreign policy, the Trump administration's deportation agenda, or even the constitutional principle of due process. It's about Trump's yen for unchecked power, and how, if he gets it, the next Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be you. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Steve Rattner: No Way to Run a Railroad (Let Alone the World Economy)

    Steve Rattner: No Way to Run a Railroad (Let Alone the World Economy)
    Apr 14 2025
    John is joined by longtime Wall Street eminence and former “car czar” Steve Rattner to discuss the impact of Donald Trump’s tariff jihad on global financial markets and the American economy. Rattner explains why the theory of the case animating Trump’s protectionist agenda is “disjointed,” “illogical,” and “incoherent,” and its execution has been even worse; why the reputational damage the U.S. is suffering as a result among its allies around the world will be difficult to undo; why the claims by Trump’s advisers that last week’s abrupt policy shifts were all part of some master plan are ludicrous on their face; and why the endgame of the full-scale trade war now underway with China is impossible to foresee. Rattner also assesses the degree of fiscal irresponsibility Republican budget plan making its way through Congress—and whether the chickens may finally be about to come home to roost when it comes to America's unprecedented debt and deficits. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Chris Krebs: Cyberattacks, Cyberdefenses & Trump 2.0’s Cybersurrender

    Chris Krebs: Cyberattacks, Cyberdefenses & Trump 2.0’s Cybersurrender
    Apr 11 2025
    John is joined by former U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Chris Krebs to discuss the Trump 2.0 rollback of the nation’s cyberdefenses—an interview taped just an hour before Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate Krebs, who earned the president’s enmity four years ago by declaring the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.” Krebs details the rapidly escalating and dramatically expanding threats posed by Chinese and Russian hackers to America's corporations, public and private infrastructure, and voting systems; how and why the administration is dismantling the agencies and programs designed to stave off those threats; and the potential risks to the security of our elections as a result of gutting CISA, the organization Krebs once led … and Trump himself signed into law. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Marc Elias: Trump’s War on Big Law & Most Perilous Power Grab

    Marc Elias: Trump’s War on Big Law & Most Perilous Power Grab
    Apr 7 2025
    John is joined by Marc Elias, the attorney whom Donaled Trump has cast as his bete noire in the legal profession, to discuss the president’s war on the judiciary, the bar, and the rule of law itself. Elias explains why the executive order titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections” is designed to do just the opposite, making it the most dangerous of Trump's myriad power grabs; why we aren’t yet in a constitutional crisis but soon could be; and why Trump’s threats have caused so many prestigious law firms to bend the knee. Marc also tells John why he hasn’t done the same despite being plenty worried by Trump’s singling him out as a “very bad" person and a “thug". To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Ron Fournier & Ben Wikler: Appetite for Destruction

    Ron Fournier & Ben Wikler: Appetite for Destruction
    Apr 4 2025
    John is joined by former AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier and current Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler to discuss a week in which America’s de facto co-presidents seemed trying to outdo each other in terms of wreaking havoc and stoking panic. Fournier assesses the motives behind Donald Trump’s market-crashing tariffs and their potential political implications; explains why the results of Tuesday’s special elections in Florida and Wisconsin are so ominous for Republicans; and issues a partial mea culpa for being dismissive about Cory Booker’s 25-hour Senate filibuster. Then Wikler takes listeners inside the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, detailing the ways in which Musk was the gift that kept on giving and laying out how Badger State Democrats plan to build on their big win in the country’s swingiest swing state. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Peter Baker & Susan Glasser: Moscow on the Potomac

    Peter Baker & Susan Glasser: Moscow on the Potomac
    Mar 31 2025
    The Bogie and Bacall of Beltway journalistic power couples — Peter Baker of the New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker — return to the show to discuss the fallout from the first true crisis of Donald Trump’s second term and an array of ongoing controversies embroiling the new administration. Peter and Susan explain why, despite the serious national security implications of Signalgate and the long knives being out for both Pete Hegseth and Michael Waltz, there’s a decent chance that both will keep their jobs; Steve Witkoff is entirely out of his depth serving as Trump’s envoy to Russia in the effort to end the war in Ukraine; and the decision to nix Elise Stefanik’s bid to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nation is a clear sign that the GOP's political standing is increasingly imperiled. Peter and Susan also reflect on the myriad unnerving ways in which Trump’s Washington reminds them of Moscow 25 years ago, when both were based there covering the dawn of the Putin era. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • Mark Warner & Rick Wilson: You Cannot Be Serious (But Signalgate Surely Is)

    Mark Warner & Rick Wilson: You Cannot Be Serious (But Signalgate Surely Is)
    Mar 28 2025
    John is joined by Mark Warner, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson to discuss the story eclipsing all other political news this week: Signalgate. Although Warner is a consensus-seeking moderate Democrat and Wilson a bomb-throwing NeverTrump Republican, in their long careers both have come across their share of recklessness, sloppiness, and stupidity in the realm of national security. But neither has seen a more extravagant display of those defects than the Signal group chat in which Trump 2.0 officials shared sensitive details about the recent U.S. attack on Houthi rebels ahead of the attack. Warner and Wilson try to fathom the unfathomable while cataloging the vast risks involved and the deep lack of seriousness the episode suggests about Trump’s foreign policy team. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    1 hr and 23 mins
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