Talking Feds

Harry sits down with Steven Pinker, who wears many intellectual hats, all well: linguist, psychologist, political philosopher, historian, and social critic, for starters. After some brief discussion of his childhood and background, they dive into Pinker’s best-selling “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” (Bill Gates’s favorite book at the time), “Enlightenment Now,” and Rationality” (Bill Gates’s new favorite book). In those works, Pinker lay out an argument that by and large, in fits and starts, society is advancing incrementally in health, safety, knowledge, and other key benchmarks of Enlightenment values. The two also touch on Pinker’s strong if idiosyncratic views about writing (he rejects much of modern pedantry about correct usage); his original Promethean work in linguistics; and his views about certain human cognitive biases. A wide-ranging and provocative discussion with one of the great public intellectuals of our time. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A roundtable of 3 great commentators--Josh Marshall, Charlie Sykes, and Ali Vitali--assesses the state of play in politics and U.S. society after 2 months of hyper-aggressive moves by Donald Trump. Minority leader Charles Schumer opted to go along with Republican plans to find the government, to the consternation of many Dems. Trump is trying to exercise control in large parts of civil society, including law, media, and the academy. Popular opposition is expanding, but can it make a difference? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks to Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, whose extensive experience includes a long stint in the Navy as a helicopter pilot and Russian policy officer, a stretch in the US Attorney’s office, and a current candidacy for New Jersey governor. Sherrill’s cross-cutting resume position her to discuss a series of worrisome maneuvers by the new administration, beginning with the party line budget vote and its immediate and grave implications for New Jersey. The two also discuss the state of morale at the Department of Justice, the Administration’s abandonment of Ukraine and its global implications, and the role for state officials to play as counterweights to monolithic Republican federal power. Sherrill also addresses at length the performance of the democrats in Congress and what more they need to do. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our monthly all-contrarian episode with Norm Eisen, Jen Rubin, & Katie Phang first analyzes Trump’s address to Congress, which clocked in at about 2 hours and featured a series of lies and low blows. We then take up to the Supreme Court’s narrow affirmance of the district court order to walk back the USAID withdrawal before moving to the series of cases, many litigated personally by Norm, in which courts for the main part are calling the Administration out for ignoring the commands of Congress. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks with Max Boot about his latest article, “US soft power took decades to build. Trump is dismantling it in weeks.” Boot explains the critical source of U.S. influence in the world, more than military might, is “soft power,” foreign aid and other far-seeing acts of altruism for people around the world. Soft power is the key to the country’s diplomatic, commercial, and cultural success. It was built up painstakingly over decades with programs like the Marshall Plan and in 3 short weeks Trump has taken a battering ram to it, acutely harming our international standing. Allies such as Canada are perplexed at the U.S.’s bullying tactics, and people around the world dependent on U.S. aid have been gravely harmed. The chief beneficiary of this short-sighted abandonment of longstanding U.S. policy is China, which will aim to fill the void left by the end of U.S. aid programs. Boot concludes, “[i]t is staggering to see how much damage Trump has done to U.S. soft power in just two weeks and painful to imagine how much ore he could do in the next 206 weeks.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Administration and congressional republicans continued to wreak havoc with the federal workforce, international relations, limited executive power, and the constitution, not necessarily in that order. Tara Setmayer, Bob Shrum, and Jacob Weisberg join Harry to analyze the party-line House budget that seems DOA in the Senate; tension within the Executive Branch over Elon Musk; growing popular opposition to the Administration and especially to Musk’s untethered and unaccounted role; and more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks once again with constitutional patriot and House Oversight Committee member Jamie Raskin about the tight spot we are in after just one month of Trump rule. Harry presses the Congressman for thoughts about communicating to the country the perils to the rule of law and constitutional scheme themselves. Raskin sets out a short range, mid-range, and long-range agenda for clawing the country back and restoring the rule of law. They go over the most promising and the most worrisome of the 60+ lawsuits against the Administration. They focus at length on the mischief and illegality of the Elon Musk DOGE operation and how that seems to be hitting home with more people daily. And they end with detailed discussion about the terrible perversions at the Department of Justice and what it will take to return the Department to its full institutional footing in the future. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s time for our periodic episode on foreign policy, in fact the nick of time, b/c while we’ve been chiefly focused on the damage Trump has done to domestic constitutional rules, he’s been taking as big a sledgehammer to longstanding foreign policy relationships. A superb panel of Anne Applebaum, Michael McFaul, & Stephen Sestanovich breaks it all down and, with special focus on Ukraine, Russia, Europe, & China, details the enormous risks for the country and the world of Trump’s abrupt reversals. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks with Rich Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, about the Bureau’s achievements for American consumers and the concerns that its functions now may slow dramatically or even stop. Trump recently fired the Bureau’s director and appointed a new director who ordered a halt to all Bureau actions; a new acting Director later instructed all staff to cease work. Cordray sketches out the Bureau’s general achievements in the mortgage, credit card, and banking industries, in which individual consumers had so often been victimized with little recourse until the CFPB came online. Cordray explains the lawsuit now pending in the district court in Washington DC to prevent the Administration from mass firings and destruction of agency data. He ends by emphasizing the importance during this time of feverish activity within the Executive Branch to keep watch on enforcement of consumer laws and Administration action to weaken consumer protection. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s our regular mash-up with none other than Molly Jong-Fast, in which Molly fires legal question that have been occupying her at Harry, and Harry reciprocates with political questions for Molly. This mash-up is in the middle of the burgeoning Department of Justice scandal over the Eric Adams prosecution, and Harry presses Molly on whether the scandal will have political legs. Molly meanwhile seeks to understand whether some of Musk’s crazier antics are legal and how they could be challenged. And that’s just the beginning! Always a lively and informative back-and-forth when these two interrogate each other! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump continued to bend the political system to his will, but the courts and his own Dept of Justice pushed back. Alisyn Camerota, Norm Ornstein, & Jacob Weisberg join Harry to assess Trump’s checkered week. A series of federal courts temporarily froze some of Trump’s more brazen power grabs, and a cascade of DOJ prosecutors resigned rather than comply with a lawless order to dismiss well-supported charges. But Trump was able to push through cabinet nominees whose prospects had been in doubt. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks to Kristy Greenberg, former Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division in the Southern District of New York, about the burgeoning scandal involving the resignation of the acting United States Attorney and multiple other officials in her office and at Main Justice. The resignations all come in response to an improper command by the acting deputy Attorney General, Emile Bove, to dismiss charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, notwithstanding that there is no question about the righteousness – i.e. the solid facts and law –that undergird the prosecution. Through Greenberg’s experience in the Southern District and Harry’s at Main Justice, they are able to piece together what has happened behind the scenes to date and what may transpire in the future, and all of it pits Bove, Bondi and Trump on the wrong side of the rule of law and Sassoon and Company on the right side. This is not going away. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the latest conversation in the Talking San Diego series, Harry sits down with Chris Hayes before a live San Diego audience on the evening when Hayes’s new book, “The Sirens’ Call,” was named to the top position on the New York Times’s Bestseller List. Hayes’s focus is attention – how it has become our scarcest resource and the constant bombardment from different forces vying for it and leaving us all a little insane. Be sure to catch the “lightning round” towards the end of the discussion when Harry serves up a rapid-fire series of lighter-side personal questions See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry sits down with Jeff Toobin on the day of the publication of Toobin’s latest book, “The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy.” Toobin’s work spans the history of controversial pardons over the last 50 years, with a ground-setting, detailed focus on President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon. The conventional wisdom about that pardon has come to be that it was a salutary statesmanlike gesture to put the national turmoil of Watergate behind us. Toobin has a contrary take: he is harshly critical of the Ford pardon of Nixon, and his analysis leads to similar critiques of the recent Biden and Trump pardons, and endorsements of pardons by Carter and Obama. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An all-contrarian roundtable—Paul Krugman, Norm Eisen, and Jen Rubin—chronicles the first signs of pushback against Trump’s constitutional assaults and analyzes the vacuous tariffs initiatives. Norm provides some dispatches from the litigation front, which has secured multiple injunctions against Trump’s lawless, harmful policies. Paul proceeds to explain how tariffs work and why they are at best counter-productive before considering Elon Musk’s strange role through the prism of economics. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks with Andrea Pitzer, who has reported extensively on democratic decline in countries such as Chile, Russia, and Hungary, and has written extensively about historical examples especially Nazi Germany. She discusses signal developments in authoritarian democracy that degraded into authoritarian rule, bringing the illustrations back to compare and contrast with Trump’s first few days of rule and the landscape ahead. The two discuss the most important developments that signify dramatic social and political degradations, as well as the most important indications of decline so severe as to take countries to the other side of the democracy/authoritarian divide. Harry analyzes the particular assaults on the department of justice and the judiciary that Trump is pursuing, and how they dovetail with strong man moves in authoritarian regime. A fair bit of a discussion concerns the potential analogy between Hitler’s brownshirts, who played such a major role in destroying the rule of law in Germany, and the hundreds of pardoned January 6 rioters who now stand ready to resume their violent support of Trump’s agenda. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The worst assault by a president on constitutional norms of any week in history, save possibly only last week. A great panel stocked with political experience & law enforcement experience—Asha Rangappa, Stuart Stevens & Rick Wilson—join Harry to analyze the dregs of Trump’s nominees, whose prospects for confirmation cannot be counted out given Trump’s vice grip on Senate Rs. They then take up other of the weeks follies, including Trump’s blaming the terrible plane accident on Dems’ DEI policies. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump’s anticipated reprisal campaign against the DOJ began with a series of moves aimed at punishing professionals involved in his prosecutions while simultaneously destabilizing the department as a whole. In this special emergency episode, some of the most outstanding and experienced DOJ alumni—Paul Fishman, Amy Jeffress, Mimi Rocah—take stock of the damage inflicted and assess the department’s ability to recover after enduring the chaos of Trump’s rule. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks with federal courts and constitutional law expert Steve Vladeck about the hailstorm of Trump executive orders in the first week. Professor Vladeck explains in general terms what executive orders can accomplish and what they can’t. The two then zero in on the orders concerning birthright citizenship, TikTok, and immigration. They finish with some up-to-the-minute accounts of the harrowing goings-on in the Department of Justice, where new political appointees are issuing orders for DOJ litigators that are designed to implement some of the farthest reaching Trump edicts. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No need to mince words: it was the most damaging week for the constitution, and the Founders’ carefully calibrated system of checks & balances, since at least the Civil War. Trump put into place a series of executive orders & actions that if upheld will expand his power enormously and cut out the legs from most opposition. A great roundtable of Susan Glasser, David Jolly, and Bill Kristol joins Harry to assess the damage and what it portends for degradations of American law, politics, and life. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks with Mark Greenblatt, one of the Inspectors General fired suddenly in the “Friday night purge” of the vast majority of Senate-confirmed IG’s. They discuss the origin, function, and nature of Inspectors General, who have saved taxpayers nearly $700 billion. Greenblatt talks about his own 20-year + service in the IG community, during which he rotated through several agencies and was elected by his peers to lead the IGs’ council. Then they zero in on Friday night and exactly what happened before moving to Greenblatt’s current thoughts about how the IG community, Congress, and country should respond to the purge, and whether and how it is possible to safeguard the paramount goal of oversight with integrity and credibility. It’s the longest and most detailed and nuance discussion with any of the fired IGs, going well beyond quick sound bites to an in-depth examination of who IGs are and what the country has lost in the purge. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is understandable frustration at the failure to release volume 2 of the Smith Report dealing with the Mar-A-Lago documents case, but we are able to construct strong surmises about what is in that volume based on already available material. Harry checks in again with Marcy Wheeler, whose blog, emptywheel.net, consistently presents the most in-depth and comprehensive accounts of the public record. Through a methodical scrutiny of documents that have come to light in various ways – including a FOIA request from Donald Trump that produced 60 important emails and other documentary records – we can make a detailed sketch of much of the information that Smith likely passed along to Merrick Garland. Critically, some of the information bears on the qualifications for FBI director of Kash Patel, who asserted the 5th Amendment when called to testify about his claim that Trump had declassified the records he took away. Listeners’ alert: some of the discussion is fairly microscopic but that’s because some of the known information is quite detailed. Read Marcy's blog: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/01/19/found-dozens-of-damning-documents-about-trumps-hoarding-of-classified-documents/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Published on the day of Trump’s inauguration, this episode takes brief stock of Biden’s unusual farewell address before pivoting to the perilous future. A great roundtable of Talking Feds stalwarts--Jonathan Alter, Norm Eisen, & Jen Rubin--assesses the confirmation hearings & what they suggest about the nature of Trump rule, as well as the prospects for the most controversial nominees, especially Kash Patel. We end with a set of open-ended reflections about what to expect in the next few months. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry speaks again with Marc Elias, the nation’s most important election-law lawyer, about some of the sharpest challenges on the current landscape and that he anticipates will come our way once Trump takes office. There is a battle being waged in North Carolina, where the Democratic candidate won an election, verified by two recounts, but the Republican party is looking retroactively to invalidate some 60,000 votes. That contest should be receiving more attention than it has, both in its own right and as a possible harbinger of brass-knuckle tactics to come. The two then switch gears to talk about the continuing appeasement of Trump by traditional media, based on its larger corporate interest. Elias offers a number of thoughts about the dangers of the development and what we all can do about it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After six weeks of special episodes to prepare for Trump 2.0, Talking Feds returns to its normal format of 3 stellar commentators—Jason Kander, Charlie Sykes, & Ali Vitali—working through the big news. Trump was sentenced, becoming the first-felon President, though the Supreme Court nearly saved him. Trump fought publication of the Jack Smith report, but at least volume 1 probably will be made public. January 6 came and went. Trump gave a semi-incoherent press conference. It’s déjà vu all over again. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry sits down with Representative Ro Khanna, who from his perch in the heart of Silicon Valley has become a national leader on issues of artificial intelligence and economic innovation. Rep. Khanna is bullish on new technology but keenly aware of its risks. Harry and Rep. Khanna discuss the marketing of AI products; AI’s contribution to social misinformation and how to regulate it; and antitrust protections against undue aggregation of market power by one or two platforms. Along the way, they also touch on others of Khanna’s wide-ranging interests, including term limits for Supreme Court justices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Continuing with our series of subject-specific episodes to gear up for Trump 2.0, a great panel of healthcare policy experts—Dan Diamond, Ezekiel Emanuel, and Kavita Patel—sizes up the critical series of issues about to confront the country. RFK Jr’s potential confirmation to head HHS is an issue in itself, given the huge challenges of the $2 trillion agency. Then there are a serious of potential overhauls in different medical areas to consider, especially vaccines but also ACA, abortion, more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry sits down with Greg Casar, the youngest member of the Texas delegation in Congress and an unapologetic progressive in the some-time hostile landscape of Texas (albeit the famous enclave of Austin). A charismatic campaigner, Casar made his mark in Congress by leading a nine-hour thirst strike in 2023 to advocate for workers’ protections from extreme heat. Cesar discusses his against-the-tide electoral success and his work in Congress for immigrant rights, abortion rights, worker’s rights, voting rights, and other signature progressive issues. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Continuing with our series of subject-specific episodes to gear up for Trump 2.0, we take up a wild-card element in the upcoming battles: the prospective pushback from blue states advancing their own sovereign interests and those of their residents. A great roundtable of former state AG’s and senior federal officials—Rich Cordray, Heidi Heitkamp, and Phil Weiser—explain the formidable tools that the states can deploy to parry aggressive federal policies within their own borders. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The latest entry in the Harry-Molly mix-it-up—the first since the election—with Molly peppering Harry with legal questions while Harry parries with political ones for her. Molly picks Harry’s brain on executive orders, Kash Patel's enemies list, and Harry's exit from the LA Times. Harry returns fire with questions about sounding the alarm on Trump’s authoritarian moves, what’s in the future for the Musk-Trump bromance, and the American mood that gives rise to lionizing Luigi Mangione, who shot a healthcare CEO on the Manhattan streets. As always with these mash-ups, it’s rapid fire, fun, and chock full of information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No area represents a more stark and violent shift in U.S. policy in Trump 2.0 then immigration, where the country is bracing for the possibility of wholesale roundups of illegal aliens. Three experts in immigration policy and governmental oversight—Doris Meissner, Kristie De Pena, and Leon Rodriguez—join Harry for a preview of what’s coming and the mobilization of state governments and the private sector to push back. Core issues not just of law but of national identity hang in the balance. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks with law professor and former prosecutor, Kim Wehle, one of the country’s foremost experts on the pardon power. They begin with some historical precedent to situate the pardon power and its contours within the American justice system. From there, they move onto the controversy involving Hunter Biden’s pardon, which Professor Wehle and Harry see as an overall conventional use of the power given that no one has contradicted that Hunter Biden was singled out for harsher treatment based on his father. The two then dig deep into the the prospect of a numbrella, pardons by Biden of the targets for retribution that Trump and Patel have announced, and the particular way to frame such an action to insulate it from subsequent challenge. Finally, Professor Wehle and Harry discuss the prospect of pardons by Trump for the January 6 marauders; however vexing that may be politically, and however out of the mainstream of historic pardons, Trump likely has the raw power to do it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The next in our series of subject-specific episodes to prepare for Trump’s return. Our regular economics panel–the fantastic trio of Dean Baker, Paul Kruman, and Stephanie Ruhle–assesses the latest reports & the disconnect between people’s views of the economy & its actual robust state. The panel talks at length about Trump’s economic centerpiece of large tariffs on our biggest trade partners before moving onto the economic implications of other campaign promises, especially mass deportations. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a special 1-on-1 taped before a live audience as part of the Talking San Diego series (www.talkingsandiego.net) , Harry sits down with Congressman Jamie Raskin to discuss a theory of Second Amendment rights that has proliferated in recent years, including support by elected officials such as Matt Gaetz. That is an insurrectionary theory according to which the Constitution protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms in order to use them against their own government when they perceive the government has become tyrannical. Raskin completely shreds the theory as a matter of history, text, and constitutional structure. He concludes that “the real Constitution rejects the right wing fantasy that random banks of disgruntled armed citizens can claim the powers of the constitutional militia.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Continuing in our series of subject-specific topics leading up to Trump 2.0, we convene a great set of experts—Frank Figliuzzi, Juliette Kayyem, and Asha Rangappa—to assess the landscape in national security, beginning with the selection of Kash Patel to head the FBI. Patel has it all--inexperience, arch loyalty to Trump, and deep hostility to the FBI, and his selection would have grave consequences. The group then moves on to the choice of Tulsi Gabbard to lead DNI & sundry topics in the area. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks with Professor Tim Snyder, Levin Professor of History at Yale, who is both one of our leading political scientists and one of the most trenchant critics of Trump’s moves in the everyday. Snyder first discusses some of the organizing ideas in his scholarly work, especially the recent “On Freedom.” He explains his particular notion of freedom and how it differs from the common conception held by most people in the United States. They then talk about fascism and the degree to which the political program it employs depends on a radical devaluing of the idea of truth and fact. The two then move to the current American landscape, and the degree to which Trump’s return to power, viewed especially in the light of history, represents a genuine threat of an irreversible decline in democratic, constitutional rule. Professor Snyder closes with some bases for optimism and a constructive agenda moving forward. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The early indications from the first weeks since the election are gloomy. A roundtable of three of the podcast's all stars–Susan Glasser, Jen Rubin, and Charlie Sykes–joins Harry to break down the embryonic warnings of democratic backsliding ahead. Trump and his circle are flouting ethical requirements and trying to run an opaque shop, though reports of backbiting and at least one scandal have emerged. And Jack Smith closed up shop on the most serious allegations ever brought against a president. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks with Michael Tomasky, Editor of the New Republic, about his article, “Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won?” Tomasky digs beneath the demographic information about increased Hispanic voters or concerns about immigration to explain the pivotal fact that vast fractions of the electorate – roughly those who voted for Trump – had a false narrative fed to them by right-wing media, which has become more powerful than legacy media in this country (owing in part to the decline of legacy media), and, far more importantly, speaks in one voice and has a hammerlock on the attention of nearly half the country. Tomasky delineates the strategic genesis and rise of right-wing media, tracing it to huge contributions from right wing forces, whereas the left’s high rollers chiefly contribute to specific causes. Tomasky posits that the right-wing media will not be satisfied with its notable successes but will aim for full domination, and sounds a warning bell for the left to appreciate and respond to the immense political force. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks again w/ Marcy Wheeler, as tenacious a follower of the Trump cases as there is, about what Jack Smith might include in a report to Merrick Garland pursuant to the Special Counsel regulations that would supplement the historical record. The short answer is “plenty.” Marcy and Harry march through intriguing but incomplete details in the public record about uncharged conduct, declined federal crimes, and especially activity of still important members of the Trump circle such as Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, and Todd Blanche. This is a detailed guide to what we don’t know but need to in the interests of both democratic transparency and history. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are doing a series of special episodes leading up to Trump 2.0 in the areas that are most in the crosshairs of Trump and Project 2025, including immigration, health care, and foreign policy. This is the first one, and it focuses on the Department of Justice, with our regular great expert roundtable of Katie Benner, Paul Fishman, and Amy Jeffress. DOJ is not just the agency I and my compadres know best; it is also the one whose ravaging will most signal a backslide towards authoritarianism. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry talks with Sen. Chris Murphy about a range of subjects, including his recent reelection, his favorite book, and his annual walks across Connecticut. They focus mainly however on Murphy’s thoughts about the reasons for the Democrats 2024 defeat. Murphy had argued that the Democratic Party was ignoring a crisis staring it in the face, born of the inability to connect with Americans’ bleak view of the economy and their growing alienation. As flawed and vicious as Trump’s candidacy was, it had a certain spiritual element of connecting with voters’ deep-seated feelings about a society that is leaving them behind and increasingly isolated and lonely. Murphy talks about how the Democrats can and should advance their own message of meaning and purpose, and what they will need to do in the near future to counter Trump’s expected legal and policy outrages. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry speaks with Constitutional scholar and Supreme Court expert Steve Vladeck about the seeds of a fundamental crisis in American political life. The Supreme Court rebuffed Trump at least some in his first term. But now Trump is a lame duck and a lawless cynic, and it’s not hard to envision as ignoring even a mandate from the Supreme Court. Moreover, in part because of their bad steps in the last several years, including the Dobbs opinion, the court is at a low ebb of respect and credibility in the country, which is ultimately the capital it must call on to enforce its decisions. Harry and Steve also discuss the constitutional gambit. Trump is suggesting for recess appointments. If the Senate won’t cooperate, they can drive in lot of thinks is unlikely to succeed. Finally, the two talk about the embarrassing and non-judicious personal attack on Steve launched by Court of Appeals Judge Edith Jones at a recent conference of the Federalist Society. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An excellent roundtable of commentators—Heather Cox Richardson, Bill Kristol, and Mara Liasson—explains why based on the early evidence, Trump 2.0 poses grave risks to the rule of law & the national security. He has advanced a series of gonzo nominations for key administration positions that as much as dare the Senate to cross him. And he is making noises about using recess appointments to install those nominees, a maneuver that would warp the constitutional design of Senate advice and consent. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry sits down with Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and a former Republican political strategist who did as much as anyone to warn the country of the dangers of a Trump presidency, including creating and distributing a dazzling series of ads that brought home Trump’s essential know-nothingness, hypocrisy, and wickedness. The two begin with a discussion of whether in retrospect the election was winnable for Harris-Walz, or whether the forces that propelled Trump’s victory were in retrospect insuperable. Wilson analyzes the result in terms of the media ecosystem that the extreme right has constructed and made common cause with since 2008 and especially since Covid. Penetrating that ecosystem is the chief task going forward, but it is way easier said than done. Trump’s likely stumbles as President will provide some headway and perhaps provide openings for the Democrats to take back one of the Houses of Congress in 2026. But the immediate and pressing issue is whether Trump will use his virtually unchecked power to move the country towards autocracy along the model of say, Turkey, in a way that history demonstrates is very hard to reverse. That leaves little choice of patriots, who might well have been looking forward to a resumption of normal life and normal politics, than to continue to fight day to day and month to month against the coming waves of abuses of governmental power. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A welter of emotions—disappointment, anger, shellshock, bewilderment—jockey for attention in the wake of Donald Trump’s decisive victory. How did the American people select a constitutional villain they know so well, who has promised an even more lawless and destructive second term? A great group of thoughtful and trenchant commentators—Senator Barbara Boxer, Norm Ornstein, and Jacob Weisberg—join Harry to probe the deeper explanations for Trump’s victory and begin to consider what is to be done. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry unpacks Trump’s victory with Mike Podhorzer, founder of the Analyst Institute and the Defend Democracy Project and perhaps the nation’s #1 authority on polls and their foibles. Podhorzer resists the conventional wisdom that the election result is best explained by demographic shifts among certain voters such as Hispanic men or white women. If what's happened here happened in the Hungarian or Turkish elections, we wouldn't be looking at their exit polls to understand what happened. He rather analyzes the seeds of Trump’s victory in a series of developments since 2008, including Supreme Court decisions and an outpouring of money from third parties. Podhorzer avers that Trump’s policies have virtually no support in the electorate, pointing out how Trumpian candidates fared in down ballet races; however, Trump’s success traces to a persuasive embodiment of widely held attitudes, in particular anti-incumbency, which has been a potent force around the world since COVID. That suggests that when Trump begins to put policies into effect, for example the promised mass deportation, it will prompt an electoral backlash. Podhorzer’s core argument about the election is that while it was legal in the sense of not turning of quirky contingencies, it was not legitimate because it failed the fundamental test of expressing the true consent of the governed. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry sits down in a live conversation with Bill Kristol, one of the most influential voices in America political life for the last 35 years and a veteran of high official service in two Republican administrations. Kristol was an early and ardent opponent of Donald Trump and a founder of Republicans for the Rule of Law. Harry and he talk about his New York childhood in a conservative hothouse, his early academic success as a political philosophy professor, his transition to the practical hurly-burly world of politics, and his long stint editing the most influential magazine of conservative political thought, the Weekly Standard. They then go at length into why Trump is such a pernicious and divisive figure in America, the concrete threats he presents if elected again, and the role of the Republican Party in maintaining his influence, notwithstanding widespread contempt for him. Along the way, they explore the social and political explanations for Trump’s rise and what needs to happen to restore America to a healthy two-party democracy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the last episode of the 2024 presidential campaign, a stellar roundtable of David Frum, Jen Rubin and Stuart Stevens wrestles with Trump’s over-the-top vicious rhetoric and considers whether the country may be on the precipice of electing a fascist. We go on to consider the strange late-campaign factor of Elon Musk, and move to Harris’s closing argument, and its emphasis on civility, closing with some tentative observations about what lies ahead for the country over the next several weeks. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As part of the Talking San Diego series, Harry sits down with Nancy Pelosi for a wide-ranging conversation centering on her new book, “The Art of Power.” Pelosi takes us through her entry into Congress as a 46-year-old housewife through the great legislative triumphs of her tenure as speaker, clearly among the most successful in American history. She discusses her approach to leadership and the particular challenges posed by the conduct of Donald Trump and his allies, including their regular departure from the truth. A great conversation with the Speaker’s graciousness, savvy, poise, and judgment on full display. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Going into the campaign’s last week, there is a mile-wide chasm between the candidates in their messages & styles, but not a millimeter between them in the popular vote polls. Harris’s closing argument is emphasizing the grave dangers Trump presents to constitutional rule, but it’s not clear it’s getting through to any new voters. A fantastic roundtable—Beto O’Rourke, Tara Setmayer, & Ali Vitali—join Harry to analyze what’s happening in the final days of the tightest election in a generation. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices