Politics Weekly America

In April this year, Robert F Kennedy Jr, nephew of former President Kennedy, announced his own bid for the presidency running as a Democrat. Recently, supporters of Joe Biden couldn’t ignore RFK Jr’s headline-grabbing appearances on two controversial podcasts - and the news that among Democrats he has an approval rating of 20%. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks with author and presenter Mehdi Hasan about RFK Jr’s popularity among Republicans and whether Joe Biden should engage with his main rival in the presidential race.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, becoming the first former US president to face federal criminal charges. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to a former Department of Justice prosecutor, Ankush Khardori, about the potential for further political violence in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election as Trump spouts baseless claims against Joe Biden

Mike Pence, Chris Christie and Doug Burgum all entered the already large pool of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination this week. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Charlie Sykes of the Bulwark about the new entrants to the Republican presidential contest - and how a new Trump indictment could affect the race.

On Wednesday night the House debated legislation to increase the US debt limit until January 2025, before passing the bill by a vote of 314 to 117, in a rare showing of bipartisan action. It then narrowly passed the Senate late on Thursday night, heading straight to Biden’s desk to sign just days before the 5 June deadline. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the congressional reporter for the Washington Post, Marianna Sotomayor. They discuss whether Biden and McCarthy are right to see this as a win, or have they failed by simply giving into the demands of the other side

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina formally launched his presidential campaign on Monday, throwing his hat into the Republican ring. Scott leans heavily into his Christian identity and has vowed to sign legislation if he becomes president that would endear himself to conservatives, but his chances of success appear slim. Yet he’s decided to present a more optimistic view of the US in his campaign – an opposing tactic to most Republicans, including his main challenger … Donald Trump. This week Jonathan Freedland speaks to political historian Leah Wright Rigueur and politics reporter for The State Joseph Bustos about Scott’s chances of rallying the Republican base

This week, Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill that would exempt him from Florida’s ‘resign-to-run’ law, so he won’t have to give up his office in order to run for president. He also continued his attack on teachers, signing into law a ban on the state’s public colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Democratic state senator Shevrin Jones, the first LGBTQ+ black person to serve in the Florida legislature about the likelihood of a DeSantis run in 2024. Plus, teacher Don Falls explains why he’s suing the governor over the Stop-Woke Act

On Tuesday, a jury in New York found that the former president Donald Trump sexually abused magazine writer E Jean Carroll in the 1990s and then defamed her by branding her a liar. On Wednesday, Trump made the same baseless claims about Carroll that led to him losing the case – this time, live on CNN to millions of viewers. This week, Jonathan Freedland talks to Guardian US columnist Margaret Sullivan about the fallout from the E Jean Carroll case. The pair discuss how the media should cover a 2024 presidential candidate who has been impeached twice, indicted by a federal court, and who is now legally defined as a sexual predator

At the end of March, Russian authorities arrested Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, on espionage charges. He is still in a Moscow prison more than a month later, and at the weekend President Biden promised he was ‘working like hell’ to bring Gershkovich, and others detained in Russia, home. This week Jonathan Freedland speaks to Polina Ivanova, a reporter for the Financial Times and friend of Gershkovich’s, who breaks down the politics behind his detention

Joe Biden finally launched his much anticipated re-election bid for 2024 this week. For the next year, news networks will cover extensively his campaign, and those of candidates running against him, but there will be an interesting shift in who exactly will be leading that coverage. In surprise news anchor exits, Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News and Don Lemon from CNN, and there are rumours that Carlson might even run for president himself. Jonathan Freedland is joined by the political analyst and pollster Cornell Belcher to discuss the headlines from a big week in US politics

Kathleen McLaughlin has a rare chronic illness and needs regular treatments using people’s blood plasma. She started researching the US blood plasma industry a decade ago and has written a book, Blood Money, about what it says about class, race and inequality. This week, she speaks to Joan E Greve about what she’s learned about the for-profit blood plasma industry • How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Lauren Gambino is joined by Becca Andrews in Nashville to discuss why the ousting of two Democratic lawmakers from the state Capitol in Nashville last week sparked outrage across the US

Next week, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton will arrive in Northern Ireland to join commemorations of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement. Clinton is now celebrated as one of the key players behind the agreement, but he didn’t do it alone. It took years of background efforts – of secret meetings, discreet lobbying and high-risk shadow diplomacy, by people whose names we’ve never known – to convince the United States to get involved. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to one of those people, Niall O’Dowd, who tells the extraordinary story of how he built a secret channel between Clinton and the Irish republican movement

On Tuesday, Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records for alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential election. Joan E Greve speaks to the New York editor for Politico, Julia Marsh, amid a busy week for Manhattan

Voters in the swing state Wisconsin will head to the polls on 4 April to determine who will replace Justice Patience Roggensack on the state supreme court. It is down to the final two – a liberal and a conservative – and the outcome will determine majority control of the court for at least the next two years, including during the presidential election in 2024. It is expected to be the most expensive election of its kind in history. Joan E Greve speaks to Alice Herman and Sam Levine about what is at stake

Last weekend, Donald Trump predicted he would be arrested. This has yet to happen. So why did he bring attention to a hush money case that could put him in handcuffs soon? Jonathan Freedland and Hugo Lowell discuss why Donald Trump might still face criminal charges next week, and why it might actually benefit his campaign

Twenty years ago, as George Bush and Tony Blair advocated the need to invade Iraq, Jonathan Freedland and Peter Beinart were on opposite sides of the argument. This week, Peter tells Jonathan why he now regrets supporting the war

Reports suggest Joe Biden will announce his intention to run for a second term in the White House in 2024. Jonathan Freedland and Robert Reich discuss whether or not he is the best candidate the Democrats can put forward

Jonathan Freedland and Tara Setmayer discuss why some high profile Republicans – and even Fox News – are avoiding this year’s gathering at the Conservative Political Action Conference

This week marks one year since Russian troops invaded Ukraine, and for the first time since the war began, Joe Biden landed in Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, in what some are calling one of the most important trips by a US president since the end of the cold war. This week, Joan E Greve speaks to Susan Glasser of the New Yorker about the significance of Biden’s trip to Europe and why Republicans at home are criticising him for it

This week, Jonathan Freedland and Julian Borger look into why a story about spy balloons launched by China quickly led to the White House having to deny the existence of aliens, and how communication on this could further deepen the wedge between the US and China

Last weekend, members of the Democratic National Committee voted through a plan to reshuffle the party’s presidential primary calendar, meaning voters in South Carolina will pick their candidate first, bumping Iowa and New Hampshire off top spot. This was done at the behest of Joe Biden. So why did he want to shake things up? Jonathan Freedland is joined by Adam Gabbatt, Holly Ramer in New Hampshire and Joseph Bustos in South Carolina to discuss the ramifications of messing with political tradition

While attending the funeral of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old man beaten to death by police in Memphis, Tennessee, this week, Kamala Harris called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed in the House in 2021 but failed in the Senate. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Dr David Thomas, of Florida Gulf Coast University, about why lawmakers find police reform a difficult issue to legislate on

Two weeks ago, the congresswoman Katie Porter announced she was running to be one of California’s two senators, despite the fact that the incumbent, Dianne Feinstein, has yet to say she is retiring. After the presidential primary, California is expected to be the most interesting race in 2024. Jonathan Freedland and Tal Kopan of the Boston Globe discuss which way the largely blue state could vote

Last week, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed a special counsel to investigate how several batches of classified documents were reportedly found at locations linked to President Biden. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Ankush Khardori, who worked in the US Department of Justice from 2016 to 2020, about what the outcome to this investigation may be

Last week, the much-talked-about George Santos, of Long Island, New York, was sworn into office. The Democrats and even some Republicans think he should have resigned after he admitted to lying about a lot of things during his campaign. So who is the real George Santos? How likely is it that he’ll see out his full term in office? And does his success tell us more about the state of US politics than it does an individual’s misgivings? Jonathan Freedland and Will Bredderman of the Daily Beast discuss the man behind the lies

Everyone knew that this week was going to be tough for Kevin McCarthy, but not even Democrats could have hoped for such a humiliating few days for the Republican nominee to be speaker of the House of Representatives. Jonathan Freedland and Lauren Gambino discuss what unfolded on Capitol Hill

Politics Weekly America is taking a break. So this week, Jonathan Freedland revisits the conversation he had in July, with writer for The Atlantic, Jennifer Senior, about the former White House chief strategist under Donald Trump, Steve Bannon

Politics Weekly America is taking a break. So this week, Jonathan Freedland revisits the conversation he had in April with the journalist and film-maker Jon Ronson about the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones

On Monday, the House January 6 select committee held its final meeting, voting to formally adopt the report it had been working on for the last 18 months, referring the former president and some of his top advisers to the justice department for efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Hugo Lowell about what the committee found and what is likely to happen next

As 2022 draws to a close, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Simon Rosenberg and Sarah Longwell about their predictions for how US politics will shake out in 2023. Can the Democrats capitalise on a weary electorate, can the Republicans finally get rid of the spectre of Donald Trump, and who will announce their intention to run in 2024?

Raphael Warnock was re-elected to represent Georgia in the US Senate for the next six years. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution about the significance for Democrats of having an absolute majority in the upper chamber of Congress, rather than a 50/50 split

On 14 December it will be 10 years since the Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting, when a 20-year-old killed 20 children aged six and seven, as well as six adults. The Guardian’s Joan E Greve travelled to Newtown, Connecticut to speak with Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden of Sandy Hook Promise, the parents of Dylan and Daniel, who were killed that day. She meets teenagers from the Junior Newtown Action Alliance, who now go through terrifying lockdown drills as preparation for another shooting, who want to see more change in gun legislation. She also speaks with Senator Chris Murphy, who helped draft the first significant gun control policy in the US in 30 years this year. Together they discuss what more could and should be done to stop such tragedies

There was no red wave, but come January next year, the Republicans will officially be in control of the House of Representatives. What will they do? Who will be in charge? Will they hold together or fall apart? Jonathan Freedland puts these questions and more to Marianna Sotomayor of The Washington Post. The pair also discuss the legacy of the outgoing Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi

Donald Trump has announced his third run for president, and not all Republicans are happy about it. Not only have there been a string of midterm losses by candidates he handpicked and supported – but in the background, federal and state authorities are investigating Trump’s personal, political and financial conduct. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the political columnist Jonathan Martin of Politico and unpacks how the Republican party can finally break away from Trump’s legacy

Republicans will be wondering how polling got it so wrong. As John Fetterman wins that all-important Pennsylvania seat and Democrats keeps more seats in the House than expected, it is clear the former president doesn’t have the pull analysts once thought. Donald Trump faces another problem, a party rival in Florida king, Ron DeSantis. Jonathan Freedland is joined by Lauren Gambino, Tara Setmayer and David Shor to discuss the ramifications for Washington and beyond of what the votes are telling us

As the votes continue to be counted, Jonathan Freedland is joined by Joan E Greve, columnist Richard Wolffe, and Chris Scott of Democracy for America, to look at what we know so far.

It’s a tale of two cities for Jonathan Freedland, as he attends a Donald Trump rally in Pittsburgh, where he speaks to voters who want the former president to run again, and then heads to Philadelphia to talk to young voters who turn out for an unlikely icon, the 81-year-old Bernie Sanders

In the second episode of our special series, Jonathan Freedland travels to Youngstown, Ohio, to see who voters are more excited by in the state’s crucial Senate race - the Trump-backed Republican, JD Vance, or the Democrat Tim Ryan, who analysts say is running one of the best campaigns in the country. He heads to Cleveland to talk to a union leader about who workers want to win, and then to a Vance event with other prominent Republicans.

Jonathan Freedland travels around the state of Georgia, a state that gave Democrats the Senate at the start of 2021. He follows Stacey Abrams and Herschel Walker, talking to their voters along the way. He also sits down with the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, LaTosha Brown, about why this election is about more than any one candidate

With less than two weeks to go before the November midterm elections, analysts are working overtime to try to predict the outcome. Will Republicans manage to take both the House and the Senate from the Democrats? Will the overturning of Roe v Wade be the catalyst that brings new Democrats to the polls? Is Donald Trump really as influential in the GOP as he thinks he is? This week, Jonathan Freedland and Joan E Greve bring us the latest on the races to watch, the candidates to pay attention to and the issues dominating the campaigns

This week, Jonathan Freedland and Anya van Wagtendonk look at how misinformation could affect the outcome of the midterm elections in November and how tech platforms and lawmakers should be doing more to help stem the erosion of voter confidence in American democracy

There is a source of worry for the Democrats coming from the west of the country – Nevada. A state previously considered pretty blue is showing some signs of turning red, and Republicans are hoping to pounce. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Jon Ralston of the Nevada Independent about why Nevada could prove fatal to the Democrats if it flips red in November

With just over a month to go until the midterm elections, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg about why he has been confident for a lot longer than others that a red wave isn’t about to happen, and that a blue wave might well be

Ana Ceballos, a political reporter for the Miami Herald, tells Jonathan Freedland about the Republican party’s attempts to dramatise the question of migration ahead of November’s midterm elections

Poppy Noor has been looking into how the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade back in June might influence midterm elections this November. She tells Jonathan Freedland that after Kansas voters chose to keep abortion legal in their state in a surprise result last month, she spoke to three people in Michigan about why they’re canvassing to get more voters registered before a similar ballot on reproductive rights.

After Joe Biden delivered a landmark speech a couple of weeks ago warning that the extremism of Donald Trump’s Republican supporters now threatened the country’s democratic foundations, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the journalist Luke Mogelson, who has written a book chronicling the transformation of America in the run-up to January 6

Jonathan Freedland speaks to the former senior adviser to both Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sidney Blumenthal, about some of Queen Elizabeth II’s most poignant encounters with the 13 US presidents she met during her reign, and why King Charles III needs to keep that ‘special relationship’ intact Death of the Queen and King Charles’s accession - latest updates

The Queen has died aged 96 at her Scottish home of Balmoral. The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland introduces this special episode of Today in Focus, with Nosheen Iqbal speaking to Polly Toynbee about the Queen’s life

A year ago, American troops withdrew from Afghanistan after a 20-year war. The Taliban quickly returned to power and the country has since experienced famine, economic collapse and a widespread erosion of women’s rights. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the former US defense secretary Leon Panetta, who was at the heart of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy, about what he thinks of the Afghan withdrawal and what the future holds for Joe Biden and the Democrats

At the end of July, it was reported that Fox News and other publications owned by Rupert Murdoch were starting to abandon their extensive coverage of Donald Trump. However, after the FBI launched an unprecedented raid on his Mar-a-Lago home as part of an investigation into Trump’s potentially unlawful removal of White House records when he left office, the former president was back to getting some favourable coverage, at least on Fox News. This week, Joan E Greve speaks to former Republican congressional communications director Tara Setmayer about how in the long term, this ongoing scandal could be beneficial to Trump