THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

According to a new report, many allies of Donald Trump and other Republicans are now sharply second guessing his choice of J.D. Vance as running mate—and Vance’s bizarre public moments are driving the panic. Will Vance enable Democrats to make a strong case against MAGA-style culture-warring – one built on demonstrating just how deranged and offputting to most Americans it has truly become? We chatted with veteran reporter Jill Lawrence, who has a new piece for The Bulwark on Vance’s terrible rollout, about how the sheer, unchecked weirdness of the Trump-Vance ticket has suddenly become a big campaign issue—and how Democrats can exploit it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump took his authoritarian threats in a dark new direction during two new public appearances. He suggested our next election might be our last, reiterated in advance that the election will be rigged against him, and admitted all the post-assassination “unity” talk was nonsense, openly declaring: “Maybe I’ve gotten worse.” We talked to Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of the “Lucid” newsletter and the book “Strongmen,” who helps illuminate how Trump’s form of politics requires keeping his followers in a frenzy of excitement about what the authoritarian leader plans to inflict on their imagined enemies. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent days, Donald Trump and MAGA media figures have ramped up the attacks on Kamala Harris’s laugh, her personality, and her temperament. That’s vile stuff, but MAGA’s strategy also suggests an inability to entertain a remarkable possibility: What if Harris’s laugh and energy are actually well suited to this moment in American politics? Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, co-founder of the progressive strategy group Way to Win, has been advising Democrats to respond aggressively to racist and sexist attacks on Harris. We talked to Ancona about whether Harris’s temperament might prove to be kryptonite to MAGA’s negativity and hate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A vile quote from J.D. Vance just surfaced in which he described Kamala Harris and other Democratic leaders as “childless cat ladies,” and spun out a whole theory based on this absurdity. Then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sharply dressed down Vance for poking his nose into other people’s family decisions. With this response, Buttigieg showed that Vance has invited a much larger national conversation—one that won’t help Vance and Donald Trump. We talked to Melissa Gira Grant, a staff writer at The New Republic who closely tracks Vance’s ideas, for help in illuminating what this saga tells us about the New Right’s tortured views on gender, natalism and nationalism. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we learned that Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance repeatedly suggested in 2016 that he believed Trump committed sexual assault. Vance has since softened his views, but this saga captures the essential Vance: He knows exactly what he has now attached himself to, but sees Trump as a vehicle to accomplish some truly radical societal transformations. We talked to tech writer Gil Duran, author of a good piece in The New Republic tracing the “techno-authoritarian” worldview driving Vance, about what his evolution from clear-eyed Trump critic to full MAGA devotee says about today’s red-pilled right—and about our politics more broadly. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever since President Biden suspended his campaign, Fox News and right wing media have been scrambling madly for an effective attack on Vice President Kamala Harris. They’ve ridiculed her laugh. They’ve mocked her as a product of DEI. They’ve attacked her as too soft on crime and too tough on crime. All of which gets at a larger story: Kamala Harris is very hard for the right to pigeonhole. We talked to Elaina Plott Calabro, a staff writer for The Atlantic who reports trenchantly on Harris’ political career, about why the right’s contortions could prove a major dynamic in the presidential race, and how Harris’s own struggle to find her political identity could now loom large. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At a rally in Michigan over the weekend, Donald Trump uncorked one of his longest rants ever in praise of the world’s autocrats, strongmen and dictators. He hailed Xi Jinping of China as “brilliant” for controlling 1.4 billion people “with an iron fist,” and described Xi, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban as “tough” and “smart.” We talked to Rick Wilson, the prominent Never Trumper and Substacker, about Trump’s explicit campaign promise of authoritarian rule, the GOP’s enthusiastic embrace of it, and the media’s utter failure to alert voters to what’s coming. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s pod tackles a subject of profound importance: The sheer, inexplicable weirdness of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. There’s Representative Matt Gaetz’s bizarre speech, in which his face was so taut that one Republican derided him as an “AI sex doll.” There are all the ugly “Mass Deportations Now!” signs, the cultish rituals in which attendees treated Trump as their MAGA God King, and much, much more. We talked to Ron Filipkowski, who closely tracks the right wing as the head of Meidas Touch News. He helped us find meaning underneath all the ugliness and insanity. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Surprise, surprise: The Republican convention is turning into a festival of media bashing. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene did something that deserves special attention: After fielding a question about J.D. Vance that displeased her, Greene erupted, repeatedly dressing down the reporter in strikingly vicious terms. Arizona senate candidate Kari Lake, meanwhile, used her convention speech to similarly smear the press. All this is a bad omen: If Donald Trump wins the election, the assault on the press is going to shift into authoritarian overdrive. We talked to Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz, who explains why a Trump crackdown on the press could get alarmingly far. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that Ohio Senator J.D. Vance is Donald Trump’s running mate, everyone is combing through his old quotes, and a striking one has surfaced: in 2016, Vance warned that Trump threatened to take the white working class to a “very dark place.” In short, Vance once understood that MAGA ideology, at its core, is really, really toxic. And that’s a big political vulnerability. We talked to Sarah Longwell, the pollster and prominent Never Trumper, about how the Vance pick will showcase the worst aspects of MAGA throughout this race and how Democrats can try to use that to win swing voters. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the days after the horrific effort to assassinate Donald Trump, MAGA figures have widely sought to exploit this moment of national crisis, by arguing that Democrats invited or even encouraged the shooting. The leading proponent of this absurd claim is Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, and on Tuesday, Trump announced that Vance will be his running mate. We talked to Alex Shephard, a senior editor at The New Republic and author of a great new piece on this new MAGA agitprop, about why the Vance pick—and other assorted signs—suggest that the politics around the shooting are going to get a lot more poisonous. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the time of this recording, we know little about the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. He was hit in the ear, but thankfully doesn’t appear seriously injured. The 20-year-old gunman has been identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was registered as a Republican but donated $15 to a progressive group in January 2021, and we know nothing of his motive. Political violence is absolutely unacceptable no matter who is targeted. So for now we will focus on the bigger picture: We talked to Zack Beauchamp, author of a new book called The Reactionary Spirit and a piece for Vox called: “America is not ready for what comes next,” about whether this horror will lead to an escalation and what it says that American society is again at this point. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent days, Donald Trump has angrily claimed he knows nothing about Project 2025, the blueprint his allies are drawing up for an authoritarian second term presidency. But CNN is now reporting that at least 140 people from the Trump administration have a hand in the Project 2025 plan. And NBC News has unearthed video showing that Trump expressly praised the plan’s creators for their work in 2022. We talked to Amanda Becker—a reporter for The 19th News and author of a forthcoming piece on Project 2025’s minutiae—who explains why Trump keeps running from Project 2025 and what its darker designs really have in store for us. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With President Biden forcefully declaring that he isn’t leaving the presidential race, the latest polling looks frightening. The Cook Political Report just released new polling averages showing Donald Trump leading Biden nationally by three points. FiveThirtyEight’s averages also look grim. New swing state polls show Trump dominating. But Ron Klain, the former White House chief of staff to Biden, nonetheless maintains that Biden is still the Democrat with the best shot against Trump. We invited Klain on the show, and he fielded some hard questions while making an expansive case that Biden still has a path. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Although the Democratic Party remains mired in infighting over President Biden’s disastrous debate performance, congressional Democrats now appear increasingly convinced that he will survive as the nominee. They seem resigned to this even as many appear convinced he will lose to Donald Trump in November. What happened here, exactly? We talked to The American Prospect’s David Dayen, who has a good new piece called “Why the Bid to Push Out Biden is Losing,” about how Biden seems to have shut down the opposition, what it says about the Democratic Party, and why there’s still grounds for deep anxiety about what comes next. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, we learned that the committee for the 2024 Republican convention is debating a new platform, proposed by Donald Trump, that purports to soften the party’s positions on abortion and same sex marriage. This will be widely interpreted as a savvy effort to woo swing voters and suburban women. But what if it’s really an expression of fear that the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the horrors it has unleashed will remain a major problem for Trump and the GOP this fall? We talked to Jess McIntosh, a Democratic strategist and longtime defender of reproductive rights, about what’s driving this shift, why it’s a scam, and how Democrats can make sure voters know it. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Sunday, Donald Trump erupted at The New York Times, slamming it in crazed and bizarre terms for its supposed unfair treatment of him. Yet if anything, in recent days the Times has crusaded relentlessly against his opponent, President Biden. Which is why this moment helps explain how Trump games the media—and how the media lets Trump game them. We talked with Will Stancil, an active social media presence who has prominently skewered the press for an immense double standard toward Trump and Biden. He explains why the Times and the media often seem to crusade more aggressively against Biden’s age than against Trump’s obvious mental unfitness for the presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Donald Trump shared some deranged images on social media that called for the jailing of Liz Cheney. Taking his rage in a new direction, one image even called for her to face a military tribunal. Meanwhile, new reports suggest Trump is preparing an unexpectedly vicious wave of persecution if he wins. So what can Trump actually do to his political opponents if he unleashes all the powers of the presidency on them? We talked to Kristy Parker, former federal prosecutor and counsel at Protect Democracy, who explained why Trump’s coming crackdown on his enemies could be more disturbing than we expect—and how to fight back against it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yesterday the Supreme Court released its shocking new ruling in the case involving Donald Trump’s demand for absolute immunity from prosecution for insurrection-related crimes. The court gave Trump much of what he wanted, notably ensuring that his trial for the insurrection will be delayed indefinitely. But what’s really worrying is what this ruling could allow Trump to get away with if he wins back the White House. We talked to legal expert Richard Hasen, who just published A Real Right to Vote and regularly writes about Trump’s attacks on democracy, about why the case for alarmism is real and serious. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At last week’s debate, Donald Trump ranted that the January 6 defendants are “so innocent,” raging that President Biden is “destroying their lives.” Then at a rally, Trump called for their immediate release, while proclaiming victory over a big Supreme Court ruling that seemingly weakens the cases against the attackers. Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann just co-authored a good new piece explaining that the ruling will only impact a small percentage of those cases. Still, if Trump wins, he’ll pardon untold numbers of those convicted. So we talked to Weissmann, who went deep on on that ruling and on why Trump’s pardon threats endanger the rule of law at its foundations. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MAGA personalities raged at CNN when it refused to allow a Donald Trump propagandist to smear journalists on air. They exploded again when CNN announced that the debate would be fact checked. We think this provides an unexpected glimpse into what Project 2025’s implementation might look like. This thought was driven home by a must-read thread from writer David Roberts about Project 2025’s true aims. So we talked to Roberts about what MAGA’s hostility to neutral journalism portends for a second Trump term—one that wrecks the professional, fact-based civil service and transforms government into a tool for manufacturing propaganda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden and Donald Trump are set to hold their first debate, after Trump and his allies spent weeks mocking Biden’s age with doctored videos and dumb jokes about Biden’s supposed plan to rely on performance-enhancing drugs. Is all that agitprop just chum for the MAGA masses, or does it reflect a genuine belief that Biden actually is so deep into his dotage that he can’t possibly be a worthy debate adversary? We talked to veteran reporter Marc Caputo of The Bulwark, who has a good new report on Trump’s debate prep. Caputo is highly illuminating on what the Trump brain trust is really thinking as we head into the first showdown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Judge Aileen Cannon gave Donald Trump two more big assists. She agreed to hold a multi-day hearing on the constitutionality of the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith. And she appeared skeptical of Smith’s demand for a gag order on one of Trump’s most deranged attacks on law enforcement yet. We talked to law professor Corey Brettschneider, author of a new book called The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It. He vividly explains how Cannon is enabling Trump to attack the rule of law itself— and the dark antecedents this has in U.S. history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent days, Donald Trump’s spinners have worked hard to build up images of his supposed political invincibility. But what if it’s all smoke and mirrors? In an important new piece, Politico reports that behind the scenes, many Republicans are suddenly feeling quite uncertain about Trump’s chances. We talked to Never Trump conservative Mona Charen, an editor and columnist at The Bulwark who has written shrewdly about the GOP tendency to overestimate Biden’s weaknesses, about what’s really driving these sudden new doubts—and whether the race is really turning in Biden’s favor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At two speeches over the weekend, Donald Trump ramped up the dangerous language about migrants, floating the idea of Ultimate Fighting Championship matches between migrants and native born Americans. This comes as Trump and MAGA are escalating their propaganda tactic of highlighting isolated murders to smear migrants as dangerous criminals. We talked to Brian Beutler, who argues regularly on his Substack that this sort of shameless, degenerate politics is itself a big story, about how the press should cover the Trump-MAGA demonization of migrants as a major scandal in its own right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Donald Trump raged at a Fox News poll finding behind, and lashed out at Fox for featuring a guest who dared criticize him. Trump regularly unloads on Fox when it doesn’t follow his script, which is remarkable, given that Fox is usually committed to deceiving its viewers on his behalf. Both Trump and Fox draw on a long history, in which grift and scams have been deeply intertwined with the American right for over a half century. We talked to journalist Joe Conason, author of a new book called: “The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism,” about the place of the tortured Trump-Fox relationship in that long, ugly story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Any day now, the Supreme Court will rule on Donald Trump’s demand for immunity from prosecution for alleged insurrection-related crimes. Depending on how the court rules, it’s still possible Trump’s trial will begin before the election. But what if the damage is already done? Veteran labor strategist Michael Podhorzer has an important new piece on his Substack arguing that the MAGA-friendy justices and the court have already interfered in the election by delaying the trial to the degree it has—and that this is about to get worse. We talked to Podhorzer about why he thinks the court is pushing our country into a deep crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MAGA deception seems to have gone nuclear. Fox News’s Sean Hannity is floating strange new theories about President Biden’s upcoming debate with Donald Trump. Republicans dishonestly doctored numerous videos to make Biden look befuddled and senile. And we learned that the Sinclair media apparatus is blaring out all that deception to huge audiences. We talked to well-known writer and podcaster Thom Hartmann, author of a New Republic piece, “From the Border to Bump Stocks, the MAGA Lie Machine Is Heating Up,” about whether we’re approaching a point of no return that will make this election like no other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Politico released a new poll with some pretty big surprises: A larger-than-expected percentage of Americans say Donald Trump’s criminal conviction in Manhattan makes them less likely to vote for him. The finding is even more striking among independents. The poll also took the innovative step of trying to gauge how important Trump’s conviction is to voters. And the answer is: Pretty important! We talked to Ankush Khardori, a senior writer for Politico Magazine who oversaw this poll, who walked us through its findings, what they mean, and whether Trump’s pressure on Republicans to protect him from the law will backfire on the GOP in November. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s new book comes out, and it contains a disturbing chapter about Donald Trump’s ignorance, explosive rage and megalomania during the coronavirus pandemic. We think this should be covered as a loud, clanging alarm bell about the dangers of a second Trump term. So we talked to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who has written a series of columns on voter amnesia about Trump’s 2020 performance, about the horrors unleashed on the country by his unfitness for the presidency—and why recent events suggest he’s gotten much worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New reports are emerging about Donald Trump’s tightening grip on the GOP, and the upshot is this: It’s crazier and more dangerous than you thought. First we learned that Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson privately schemed over how to sabotage ongoing prosecutions of Trump. Then Trump met with Republicans and reportedly unleashed numerous strange rants, calling the Justice Department “dirty no good bastards” and spinning out a wild tale about Nancy Pelosi’s daughter. We talked with A.B. Stoddard, a columnist at The Bulwark and shrewd observer of GOP politics, and she trenchantly explained why this moment is very much not a drill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An influential group called the True Texas Project is hosting a conference in July that will actively promote Christian Nationalism and the racist great replacement theory, the Texas Tribune reports. The group, which subscribes to the idea of a “war on white America,” has ties to many Texas GOP officials, the report says, including Senator Ted Cruz and Attorney General Ken Paxton, a major supporter of Donald Trump. We talked to Sarah Posner, author of several books on the religious right, who sheds much-needed light on this ugly tangle far right ideologies—and how they’re being mainstreamed at the highest levels of Republican power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump is now leveling his authoritarian threats right out in the open. He appears supremely confident that none of it will alienate swing voters. Now NBC News reports that the Biden campaign hopes to draw out this side of Trump at their upcoming debate—but if Trump doesn’t see these things as liabilities, he may advertise them all over again when voters are paying attention. We talked to Slate legal writer Dahlia Lithwick, author of an excellent new piece outlining how Trump is running on an overt promise of authoritarianism, about whether voters will awaken to the threat he poses—and how this could cause his confidence to blow up in his face. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of Donald Trump’s criminal conviction, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans are ramping up with sordid new efforts to use their congressional powers to protect Trump from other ongoing prosecutions. This gives Democrats an opening to hammer Republicans for aiding and abetting Trump’s nonstop quest to place himself above the law. Yet some Democrats seem reluctant to engage this fight. We talked to California Representative Eric Swalwell, who breaks down the absurdity of the GOP’s various tactics—and how Democrats can go on offense against them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some Republicans are reportedly worried that Donald Trump’s ongoing public attacks on his criminal conviction show that he’s overly focused on lathering up his base, and refuses to grasp that the verdict will likely alienate swing voters. We think this highlights a deeper truth about Trump and the MAGA movement itself: They cannot acknowledge that such Trump-centrict obsessions might be unpopular with the broader electorate, as this would constitute showing weakness. We talked to Washington Post reporter Isaac Arnsdorf, author of an excellent new book called Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy, who helped us unravel this tangle of MAGA pathologies. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A judge just ordered longtime Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon to surrender to prison on July 1st after his conviction for defying the Jan. 6th committee’s subpoena. Not surprisingly, Trump and MAGA have already exploded in rage. Making this worse, Bannon is one of the leading pro-Trump figures calling on Trump to jail Democrats without cause if he wins the White House—and Bannon’s jail time will only fuel that mania. We talked to Eric Columbus, a lawyer who represented the Jan. 6th committee, about the alarming signals this sends about the perils of a second Trump presidency. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal published a dodgy hit piece about President Biden’s age. Then something unusual happened: Democratic lawmakers went nuclear on the piece, going on record to forcefully undermine its core assertions. This deserves some discussion: Could Dems better “work the refs” the way Republicans do? When liberals do criticize coverage, why do newsroom leaders shrug it off? Why do editors insult our intelligence with phony justifications for the overemphasis on Biden’s age? We chatted with Aaron Rupar, a shrewd media observer and author of the “Public Notice" Substack, about the deeper problems with the press this episode reveals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MAGA loyalists have been relentlessly pushing a silly talking point: The American people are in full scale revolt against the criminal conviction of Donald Trump. Guess what? The polls are telling a different story, finding majority support for the verdict. One of these, from the progressive firm Data for Progress, finds that this is also true among swing voters. We chatted with Data for Progress’s executive director, Danielle Deiseroth, about what all these numbers are really telling us, most (though not all) of it good news. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Republican anger at the verdict is getting darker, with GOP leaders talking about holding hearings and even defunding other prosecutions of Trump. But Democrats are not engaging this debate nearly as intensively, and appear divided over how to proceed. This is puzzling: The furious GOP defense of Trump is deranged and reckless, and would almost certainly be deeply unpopular—if voters are made to understand it. We talked to veteran Democratic strategist Celinda Lake, who suggested ways the party might find a stronger and more unified posture in this battle going forward. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The other day on CNN, prominent Never Trump lawyer George Conway did something you rarely see in Washington. He dressed down a GOP commentator for lying his ass off about Donald Trump—and then, right on the air, he asked why CNN was paying this Republican to spread lies on Trump’s behalf. We think this episode illustrates a deep problem with the media’s handling of pro-Trump propaganda. So we chatted with Conway about why he unloaded—and in the process, he revealed some interesting things about the network. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this week, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito refused to recuse himself from hearing Jan. 6-related cases amid controversy over an upside-down U.S. flag outside Alito’s home that’s associated with Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” effort. Then, on Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts denied Democrats’ demand for a meeting, adding to the imperiousness around the conservative justices and making the Alito scandal look worse. We talked to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, about what he called the “omerta” code for right wing justices—and whether it’s time for hearings into the Alito mess. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump recently said he’s “looking at” imposing restrictions on contraception if he is elected president, and even promised a concrete policy. Then he quickly walked it back. But certain constituencies on the right have not given up—far from it. We chatted with Politico reporter Alice Miranda Ollstein, co-author of a great new piece detailing the blueprint that Trump’s MAGA allies are developing for him to restrict birth control through executive action, about how far this could get if he regains the White House. It isn’t pretty. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Tuesday, Judge Aileen Cannon temporarily denied special counsel Jack Smith’s latest request for a gag order on Donald Trump’s lie that the FBI was set to use lethal force on Trump at Mar-a-Lago. In keeping with a shady pattern of favoritism to Trump, Cannon said No, but she may feel pressure to grant the gag order later, lest Smith seek her removal. We talked to legal scholar Matthew Seligman, who has done great work road-mapping Trump’s legal travails, about why Cannon’s move may not help Trump in the long run—and why it’s premature to assume he won’t face a federal criminal trial before the election. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump and his media propagandists have been preposterously suggesting the FBI under President Biden was set to use “lethal force” against Trump when it searched Mar-a-Lago. This fabrication was summoned into existence by Fox News and the right wing media. We talked with media reporter Brian Stelter, author of a great new piece on Trump in The New Republic’s “American Fascism” issue, who put all this in its larger context, explaining what the right wing media has become under Trump, and how he will bully non-compliant media outlets if reelected president. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Thursday, Donald Trump tweeted that Vladimir Putin will release Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia, after the election—“for me,” meaning for Trump. In other words, elect Trump president, and Putin will release him. We think this saga gets at a larger story about Trump’s approach to politics and foreign policy. So we talked to Nicholas Grossman, a professor of international relations who writes about Trump’s Putinist inclinations. He explains how Trump may be sabotaging U.S foreign policy to help himself politically, while aligning himself with the world’s autocrats and dictators. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump and MAGA Republicans are floating the crackpot idea that President Biden’s FBI was ready to target Trump with lethal force when it searched Mar-a-Lago. This is based on a wildly absurd reading of FBI policy, but beyond this, we think this saga says something larger about the fascistic politics of Trump and his MAGA allies. We talked to Federico Finchelstein, an expert on fascist movements and author of a new piece in The New Republic’s issue on “American Fascism,” who explains why Trump is best seen as a “wannabe fascist.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, the prosecution rested its case in Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan. This comes after Trump’s defense team concluded their efforts to destroy former Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s credibility as one of the chief witnesses against Trump. So has the prosecution proven its case? We talked to New York Law School professor Rebecca Roiphe, who has prosecuted cases like these in New York, about why she thinks a conviction is now likely—even as it still remains very possible that Trump could beat the rap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The GOP’s embrace of Donald Trump’s authoritarianism is growing more blatant. Republicans have joined him in attacking his criminal trials as illegitimate. Those angling to be his running mate say they wouldn’t have certified his 2020 loss. And many Republicans are echoing his refusal to say he’ll respect the 2024 outcome. We talked to Tom Nichols, a leading Never Trump conservative and staff writer at The Atlantic about why he is now arguing that his former party’s support for Trump has driven it into the abyss. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, dropped a bomb: She announced a donation of another $8 million to his campaign. That’s substantially more than her initial $2 million, and suggests much more is coming. Which is a reminder: It’s still very plausible that RFK Jr. will get on the ballot in many of the swing states that will decide the election. We talked to veteran Democratic strategist Stephanie Schriock, who explains why Shanahan’s wealth suggests it’s time to take the RFK Jr. spoiler threat very, very seriously. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this month, Donald Trump refused to commit to accepting the outcome of the 2024 election, shamelessly declaring he’d only do so “if everything’s honest.” Translation: He’ll only treat the outcome as valid if he wins. Infuriatingly, Trump has crucial backing for this project: Fox News and other MAGA propaganda outlets are already laying the groundwork to treat the outcome as illegitimate, should he lose. We talked to Matt Gertz of Media Matters, author of a new piece detailing how these right wing media figures are “warning” that Democrats intend to steal the election, and why that could produce another Jan. 6th or worse. Listen to this episode here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices