Grounded with Jon Tester & Maritsa Georgiou

After a wild political week that included a 25+ hour speech on the Senate floor and sweeping new tariffs, former VA Sec. Denis McDonough joins JT & MG to explain the importance of the programs he helped implement, and what's at stake for our veterans with proposed cuts to staff and those very programs. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

Former Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta unpacks SignalGate with JT and MG, including the questions he would ask if he were leading the investigation. The three also discuss foreign policy related to Iran and Greenland, and how Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts compare to the balanced budget Sec. Panetta helped craft when he was the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Bill Clinton. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

JT and MG weigh in on the Signal scandal and take up the Trump executive order to dismantle the Department of Education (which officially takes an act of Congress). So now what? Randi Weingarten, the President of the American Teachers Federation, joins Jon and Maritsa to break down what it means for you. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

Legendary political journalist Sam Donaldson joins Jon and Maritsa to discuss what’s changed since he covered the White House, what he would do if he were still in the briefing room, and the moment in history he says the United States has never fully recovered from. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

Jon and Maritsa discuss news headlines including a new legal fight over the Trump administration's use of a centuries-old war time law to deport hundreds of Venezuelans alleged to be gang members. The pair also chat about a deal to cut 10,000 USPS employees, cuts to Voice of America, and the Autopen signature you're likely to hear a lot more about. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia (and native Montanan) Michael McFaul joins Jon and Maritsa on a special edition of Grounded. The trio discuss what McFaul calls similarities between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s ideologies, the history lessons he wants Americans to pay attention to, and what keeps him optimistic about the future. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

In this week’s episode of Grounded, we hear from former Republican political strategist Steve Schmidt, who now hosts The Warning with Steve Schmidt on Substack. Hear his warning to Americans across all political ideologies, his criticisms of Democrats AND Republicans in Congress, and what he says you should do if your elected representatives aren’t being responsive. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

Veteran political journalist Jim Acosta joins Jon and Maritsa to reflect on what’s happening with the White House press corps, the fiery Trump/Vance/Zelenskyy exchange in the Oval Office, and what Jim says to people who give him the middle finger at Trump rallies. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

"When you're not going to follow the law, the first thing you want to do is get rid of the lawyers." Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Army paratrooper, joins JT & MG to discuss in simple terms the Pentagon’s Friday night massacre as the Trump administration purged multiple military leaders including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. CQ Brown Jr. and multiple JAGs. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joins Jon Tester and Maritsa Georgiou to discuss her time in Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion along with concerns over what comes next in the war in light of recent comments made by President Donald Trump about Ukraine and the country’s president. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

Former U.S. Senator Jon Tester and political journalist Maritsa Georgiou speak with former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson about confusion over recent firings within the federal government, tariffs, how some legal decisions could backfire on red states, and the outcasting of Republicans who go against President Trump. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

Former U.S. Senator Jon Tester and political journalist Maritsa Georgiou talk with former White House ethics counsel Richard Painter about the legal pushback against executive actions issued by the Trump administration, what could transpire if the White House ignores the judicial branch, and what history teaches us about the system of checks and balances. This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack!

A Super Bowl Sunday preview of our new venture: Grounded with Jon Tester and Maritsa Georgiou. We hope you'll join us for our inaugural episode this week when we talk to Richard Painter, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. If you have questions for us or Richard, you can send them to [email protected].