Chris Riback's Conversations
139 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 months ago - ★★★★★ - 175 ratingsEngaging smart thinkers on issues of the day. Subscribe for newsletter & show notes at chrisriback.com (podcast formerly "Political Wire Conversations")
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Episodes
Dan Perry: Israel, Hamas, and The Big Picture
October 08, 2023 19:46 - 24 minutes - 34.3 MBI first met Dan Perry in Romania 1990. He was the AP Bureau Chief, and I was freelancing for the summer. There’s no one I’ve met who better understands collectively Israel, the Middle East, and the U.S. So after the Hamas attack and Israel’s declaration of war, I knew whom to call. Dan was awoken on Oct. 7 “by rocket fire over central Tel Aviv, with the Iron Dome system zapping the incoming missiles out of the sky, leaving debris to rain down on nearby streets. It is now evening, and air r...
Ben Rhodes: After the Fall
June 04, 2021 17:16 - 41 minutes - 57 MBFor eight years, Ben Rhodes served as Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. Now Rhodes has written a book — After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made — about his personal post-Obama journey that sought to answer a simple question: What happened to the world, America, and himself as the undertow of history pulled us into the currents of nationalism and authoritarianism – and what we should do about it? As he learned and you’ll hear, there may be simple questions...
We're Back: New Season... and Some News
June 04, 2021 17:05 - 2 minutes - 3.07 MBWe’re back for a new season! I also launched my new daily email, Chris Riback’s Newsletter. 6 days a week, I compile and publish the meaningful ideas, trends and events into a daily briefing of what you need to know, and not a word more. I add engaging videos, tweets, graphs, and more. My goal is to help readers save time and stay smarter. Sign up for a free 30-day trial: chrisriback.substack.com/CRC
Jonathan Karl: Front Row at the Trump Show (Live Event)
May 04, 2020 15:29 - 58 minutes - 20 MBThis is a special live Zoom edition of Chris Riback’s Conversations, the first in our new series of political book conversations sponsored by Cornell’s Institute of Politics & Global Affairs. What does it mean for democracy when the President attacks the free press as fake news? How should journalists balance the need to avoid becoming the “opposition party,” as Steve Bannon described them, while also standing up when individual reporters – frequently women, frequently minorities – are publ...
Mayor Noam Bramson: From Patient Zero to New York as Epicenter
March 25, 2020 16:29 - 30 minutes - 10.5 MBChances are, you may not have heard of New Rochelle, NY before about a month ago. It’s New York’s 7th largest city, located just 30 minutes north of Manhattan. It was founded by refugee Huguenots – French Protestants – who were fleeing religious persecution in France in 1688. During the 1930s, New Rochelle was the wealthiest city per capita in New York state and the third wealthiest in the country. For listeners of a certain age — or any of you who watch the classic TV shows on YouTube — y...
Rep. Steve Israel: Running for President in Time of Coronavirus
March 20, 2020 20:03 - 29 minutes - 40.9 MBWhen I first scheduled an election analysis discussion with former U.S. Representative Steve Israel, it’s fair to say that my initial set of questions had nothing to do with how to run for President in a time of Coronavirus. That’s where this conversation begins, but not where it ends. Because while we all navigate this new reality, we’re also still trying to understand the Democratic primary: What in the world just happened? How did Joe Biden get blown out in the first three caucuses – and...
Rick Hasen: Can America Run a Fair Election?
February 28, 2020 19:12 - 35 minutes - 48.5 MBToday we continue with our check on the state of American democracy. We began with Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt to get an update on “How Democracies Die” and the question: How much more can our institutions take? Today we’ll look at the cornerstone of our democracy and a question that’s as shocking to ask as it sounds: Can America run a fair election? I told you – crazy. But whether that’s Putin’s great accomplishment, the post Iowa Caucus fiasco reality, or simply...
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt: Revisiting “How Democracies Die”
February 17, 2020 05:39 - 37 minutes - 51.8 MBIt’s time for a democracy check. With the Trump Impeachment Trial over and the 2020 presidential primaries in full bloom, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I imagine many other people are wondering, too: How’s our democracy doing? Are America’s democratic norms still valid? How much more can our institutions take? And this was even before the Roger Stone sentencing reduction news broke. So I decided to dedicate the next two conversations to the topic. The first one looks at democracy i...
Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig: A Very Stable Genius
February 07, 2020 18:25 - 30 minutes - 42.3 MBThe first time he said it – or rather tweeted it – was in January 2018. In describing his business, television, and political accomplishments, President Trump typed: “I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius… and a very stable genius at that!” He said it again at a NATO meeting that July. Again the following July 2019. And again in September. And October. It’s become one of this era’s defining lines of bravado and self-image that infuriates Trump detractors and fuels his supporte...
Rick Wilson: Running Against the Devil
January 17, 2020 19:17 - 1 hour - 98.6 MBRick Wilson – the sharp-witted, wise-cracking Republican political strategist, ad-maker, analyst, columnist, and crazy-good tweeter – joined me in Westchester County, NY for a live conversation about the 2020 election, impeachment, and his new book, “Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump – and Democrats from Themselves.” It was a terrific event, and we discussed everything: How Democrats can beat Trump? What has happened to his fellow Republicans, the ones he calls ...
Chief Justice John G. Roberts: 2019 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary
January 11, 2020 14:26 - 14 minutes - 19.5 MB(Note: This is a DocuPod – audio reads of important public documents. No conversation; no interview. Just the document itself.) You may have noticed: Especially with the impeachment, there’s been a lot of news, coverage and discussion – tweets, speeches, rallies, angry letters, hearings, cable panels – around two branches of government: The Executive and Legislative. But assuming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indeed sends the two Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, and assuming Majority Le...
Matt Stoller: The American Battle Between Monopoly and Democracy
January 02, 2020 18:08 - 40 minutes - 74.2 MBAs our 2020 Presidential campaign becomes more intense and pointed, it’s clear there is a battle going on for, among other things, America’s economic soul. Politically, the debate has exploded a revival of -isms… Populism, authoritarianism, socialism. But through the issues – from Trump’s tax cuts to Elizabeth Warren’s Health Care Plan – the complicated arguments largely can be simplified to this: For our democracy to survive, do we need massive economic restructuring? If you think this ba...
Peter Bergen: Trump and His Generals
December 20, 2019 18:50 - 37 minutes - 68.8 MBIt started with the generals. Mattis. Kelley. McMaster. Along with Rex Tillerson, they were part of the “Axis of Adults,” the ones, as the story of this presidency has been told, who stood between President Trump and chaos – between President Trump and his own, unchecked impulses, particularly in foreign affairs. As we know now, only Trump is left standing. And he stands impeached, because, the U.S. House of Representatives found, he couldn’t withstand his unchecked impulses and withheld U....
Fintan O'Toole: Think It’s Crazy Here? Time to Look at Brexit
November 12, 2019 07:00 - 39 minutes - 72.7 MBIf you’re feeling lousy about the state of politics in America, now might be the time to surround yourself with some Brits. As they surely must ask about us: What in the world is going on over there? The UK is now more than three years into Brexit, the unexpected, unplanned and so far unfinished move to pull out of the European Union. The latest delayed exit was delayed again when Boris Johnson – UK’s permanently disheveled Prime Minister – couldn’t, as we like to say, get the bloody ball o...
LTC Alexander S. Vindman: Opening Statement to US House Impeachment Investigators
October 31, 2019 06:00 - 13 minutes - 25.1 MBThis is a special episode of Chris Riback's Conversations. For this podcast, I read the opening statement of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander S. Vindman to the US House Impeachment Investigators on October 29. As you surely know, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman is the decorated Iraq war veteran and top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, who listened in on that July 25 telephone call between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky. That’s it. No conversation; no interview. Jus...
Amb. William B. Taylor: Opening Statement to US House Impeachment Investigators
October 29, 2019 16:35 - 37 minutes - 68.4 MBThis is a special episode of Chris Riback's Conversations. For this podcast, I read the opening statement of Amb. William B. Taylor, the senior U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, who testified behind closed doors before the U.S. House Impeachment Investigators on Oct. 22. His extraordinary testimony has been called “the smoking gun” of President Trump’s attempt to hold up Ukraine financial aid in exchange for political help from a foreign country. That’s it. No conversation; no interview. Just the ...
Julie Hirschfeld Davis & Michael D. Shear: Inside Trump's Assault on Immigration
October 18, 2019 17:11 - 45 minutes - 83.3 MBBetween the alligator moat revelation and horrendous, inhumane taking of children from their parents, when considering Donald Trump’s immigration policy, it can be hard to get past the headlines. But it turns out, the immigration story serves as an incredibly useful way to consider the entire Trump presidency: Obsession, chaos, fear, depravity, and yet – meaningful, important, and potentially-lasting change that has shifted not only how the world views America, but how we view ourselves. T...
Andrew McAfee: Why Capitalism & Technology Will Save the Planet
October 11, 2019 06:00 - 34 minutes - 11.7 MBIf one question has driven mankind’s quest for innovation, it very well might be this: How can we get more from less? For most of our time on this planet, the answer was simple: We couldn’t. As my guest Andrew McAfee points out, for just about all of human history – particularly the Industrial Era – our prosperity has been tightly coupled to our ability to take resources from the earth. We got more from more. That tradeoff yielded incredible positive contributions in nearly every field: Te...
Isaac Stone Fish: Why China is America’s Biggest Threat
October 04, 2019 19:22 - 30 minutes - 10.3 MBOctober 1st marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China – the name given by Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1949. To understate the reality, a lot has happened in China over the last 70 years. The fact is, a lot has happened in China over the last 70 days – much of it unexpected, confusing, and on-going – politically and economically. Politically, of course, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong capture global attention and concern. So, too, d...
James Poniewozik: How the Trump Show Happened
September 27, 2019 06:00 - 34 minutes - 11.9 MBAs regular listeners of this podcast know, I read a lot of books. Most of them, frankly, are excellent – smart people making thoughtful arguments in engaging ways. Every once in a while, though, I read one that’s not just excellent, but delivers something more: It shifts your lens on the world. Alters your focus. New York Times Chief Television Critic James Poniewozik has written that kind of book: “Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America.” He’s written tha...
Philip Mudd: Trump & the Attack on U.S. Intelligence
August 02, 2019 20:12 - 41 minutes - 14.2 MBIt was a perfect week to have Philip Mudd, CNN counterterrorism analyst, on the podcast. Phil spent some 25 years at the highest levels of the CIA – reaching Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center – and FBI, where he was hired to be its first National Security Branch Deputy Director by Robert Mueller. So when you have Mueller’s Congressional Hearings nine days ago followed by President Trump’s tweets five days later announcing his intention to replace our top intelligence ...
Tim Alberta: How Trump Filled the GOP Leadership Vacuum
July 26, 2019 13:41 - 43 minutes - 15.1 MBWhat happened to the Republican Party? You’ve heard of it: One of the two major political collectives in America… the one that counts Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan among its heroes? The modern GOP branded itself on ideals of fiscal responsibility, fighting dictators from the Soviet Union to Saddam Hussein, and personal morality. Today, of course, the U.S. deficit is more than $1 trillion. New age dictators are our friends. And personal morality? Well, not so much. The GOP change has b...
Robert Tsai: Is Justice Possible? Your Supreme Court Questions Answered
July 19, 2019 06:00 - 56 minutes - 19.4 MBYou may have heard last week’s conversation on the Supreme Court. Well, there’s something about the Supreme Court that gets listeners’ attention. I received a lot of follow-up questions – so many, that I wished I had immediate access to another constitutional scholar. Turns out, I did. I already had recorded the second half of the conversation you’ll hear today with Robert Tsai. Tsai is Professor of Law at American University and a prize-winning essayist in constitutional law and history....
Adam Liptak: How Far Did Trump Tip the Supreme Court Balance?
July 12, 2019 06:00 - 31 minutes - 11 MBIt was the Supreme Court session Democrats feared and Republicans had waited a generation for – a solidly conservative 5-4 majority. It took the Merrick Garland block and Brett Kavanaugh hearings to get here, and now that first session is complete. So how’d it go? Were the fears and hopes realized? That’s what I asked Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times. As you’ll hear, for all of this session’s surprise alliances and shifting balance, it may turn out to ...
Angela Stent: Explaining Putin’s World
July 05, 2019 06:00 - 32 minutes - 11.2 MBHere’s a parlor game: Outside of President Trump, who’s the most curious figure on the world stage today? China’s Xi? North Korea’s Kim? MBS of Saudi Arabia? As Trump’s interactions with global leaders raise never-ending questions, few are as perplexing – or, if we only could understand it, might explain so much – as the one with Vladimir Putin. When the Cold War ended, it all seemed so clear: History was over, and liberal democracy would deliver a new Russia. But as the so-called liberal m...
Jared Cohen: Accidental Presidents
June 28, 2019 06:00 - 32 minutes - 11 MBWith 20 candidates and 2 Democratic debates spread over 48 hours this week, the 2020 Presidential campaign season is officially underway. We know the process: For the next 16 months, candidates will debate, boast, fundraise, debate, and fundraise some more. Then on Nov. 3, 2020, we’ll have the decision – the President will be chosen. But what about when we get a new President not over two years, but in a heart beat? When we don’t elect our President following an intense, 500-day process, b...
Joseph Stiglitz: Saving Capitalism From Itself
June 21, 2019 06:00 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBIt’s already one of the major issues of the 2020 presidential campaign: Does American capitalism still work? In the face of ever widening income disparity – not just exponential upward movement at the top, but also, at best, stagnation near the bottom — economic inequality is a key social and political topic. Which is why Joseph Stiglitz’ 55th high school reunion was so telling. It was about four years ago, the Nobel Prize winning economist was reminiscing with old friends in Gary, IN, w...
We're Back: New Season, New Name
June 19, 2019 06:00 - 3 minutes - 3.47 MBA few updates: First, we’re back. I’ve been doing a lot of prep for this new podcast season. I think you’re going to like it. Second – and maybe this should be first – you may have noticed the name change from Political Wire Conversations to Chris Riback’s Conversations. Why the change? I love politics and public policy. In these podcasts, I’ve talked with Senators, Governors, Mayors, and candidates; Generals, historians, journalists, and professors; Strategists, pollsters, and more – th...
Sen. Maggie Hassan: 'No More Medical Surprises'
December 06, 2018 13:17 - 18 minutes - 6.37 MBSo you’re in a restaurant. Great meal. The bill comes, and it’s got a surprise – an unexpected $10 charge because, well it turns out your entrée required a special ingredient the server forgot to mention. Would you pay it? Would you expect to have to pay it? Now look at our health care. You go to the Emergency Room. They take your insurance. Only it turns out, your in-network ER is being staffed by out-of-network providers. Suddenly, in addition to the surprise of having landed in the ER i...
Live from Harvard's Kennedy School
October 29, 2018 16:39 - 1 hour - 26.6 MBThis is a special live edition of Political Wire Conversations. On Friday, I hosted an outstanding live event and discussion at Harvard’s Kennedy School: Midterm Elections Preview: Blue Wave or Red Save? I was joined onstage by an All Star cast of panelists: Rick Wilson, Republican Political Strategist Asha Rangappa, CNN Legal & National Affairs Analyst Clare Malone, 538 Political Reporter Taegan Goddard, Political Wire Publisher
Richard Clarke: Democracy Is On the Ballot
October 19, 2018 16:30 - 30 minutes - 10.4 MBThe countdown to Midterms is on. With less than three weeks to go, many questions remain and the stakes couldn’t be higher. How high? According to my guest today, “the nature of our democracy is on the ballot.” I’m not sure I disagree.You may remember Richard Clarke for his 30 years in the U.S government, including 10 continuous years as a White House official, serving three consecutive presidents as Special Assistant to the President for Global Affairs, Special Adviser to the President for ...
Michael Lewis: Who’s Actually Running Our Government?
October 12, 2018 17:23 - 30 minutes - 10.4 MBHow do you make the most arcane, overlooked, eyes-glaze-over – and most critical – aspect of the U.S. government – interesting? How do you help folks understand that the so-called deep state – the parts of the bureaucracy that some people ignore and belittle – is actually vital to our safety, well-being and, frankly, our future?Simple: Have Michael Lewis write about.And now he has. In his new book, The Fifth Risk, goes inside several government departments – Energy, Agriculture, Interior, EP...
Rebecca Traister: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger
October 02, 2018 13:31 - 34 minutes - 11.8 MBOne thing is sure about the extraordinary, once-in-a-generation Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing last week: There was a lot of anger in the room.Judge Brett Kavanaugh: Angry. Senator Lindsay Graham: Angry.But it might have been the anger outside the room that changed everything. You’ve seen the video – two women somehow got hold of Senator Jeff Flake in an elevator, and they unleashed: “Look at me when I’m talking to you,” one shouted. “Don’t look away from me!”For many, watching that sc...
Major Garrett: What’s It Like to Cover the Trump White House
September 25, 2018 22:15 - 32 minutes - 11.2 MBThink your life is crazy? How’d you like to be a White House correspondent with Donald Trump in the Oval Office?After all, if your daily schedule doesn’t get turned around multiple times, you always could get cursed or threatened at a campaign rally. In fact, just 60 minutes before my conversation with CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett began, news broke that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had resigned. Or was fired. Either way, he was gone. Then, 20 minutes after...
Doris Kearns Goodwin: Trolling Trump on Leadership
September 18, 2018 04:30 - 29 minutes - 10.2 MBDoris Kearns Goodwin. Do I need to say more?Seven books; multiple New York Times’ best sellers; Pulitzer Prize. She is simply one of our nation’s great presidential historians.And Doris has spent much of her career studying four of the best – Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ. Now she takes a new look at all of them through a lens that – as you’ll hear – feels as much a commentary about today as it does on history. It’s titled “Leadership in Turbulent Times.”Doris explores the early sig...
David Kaplan: The Most Dangerous Branch of Government
September 07, 2018 13:45 - 36 minutes - 12.7 MBHow important has the Supreme Court become in American life? From gun rights to personal relationships, from money in politics to healthcare, whether it’s access to abortion, the voting booth or even our borders, the Supreme Court increasingly dominates how we work, live, and play – it defines, quite often, what kind of country we are. You could argue that it was the deciding factor for millions of voters in the last Presidential election – potentially the deciding factor in the election it...
Michael D’Antonio and Peter Eisner: Who Is Mike Pence?
August 30, 2018 12:31 - 34 minutes - 11.7 MBWho is Mike Pence? It seems strange, but more than two years after he entered our national stage, how much do you feel you know about the Vice President? He’s a man of faith – we know that… but what exactly does it mean? He has acted as something of an economic libertarian – he’s a favorite of the Koch Brothers. But again, what does that mean – and how does it connect with his religious beliefs? And then there’s his treatment of Donald Trump – George Will notably called Pence a “sycophant...
Jason Kander: Lessons In Everyday Courage
August 20, 2018 22:36 - 29 minutes - 10.1 MBJason Kander has a lot going on.To begin, he’s running for mayor of Kansas City. For most of us, that would be a full-time job. But as you’ll hear, Jason Kander is most definitely not the rest of us. It’s not just that he can rebuild a combat weapon while blindfolded, as he proved in a 2016 political ad.It’s also not simply that in reaction to 9/11, he did what only a few other brave and patriotic people did – volunteered for US military service and got himself sent to Afghanistan.It’s not e...
Rick Wilson: A GOP Strategist on the 'Worst President Ever'
August 10, 2018 15:28 - 21 minutes - 7.23 MBRick Wilson doesn’t expect you to like him. For the last 30 years, Rick has been part of the underbelly of American politics: A self-described “Republican political strategist and infamous negative ad-maker.” And he’s done it for Republicans at all levels – state, local, & national, ranging from George H.W. Bush to Rudy Giuliani. As he says, he’s the one you called when you needed an attack. Not that feels his Democratic competitors were any better. But among them all, they helped make our...
Catherine Rampell: What, Exactly, is Trumponomics?
July 28, 2018 11:38 - 32 minutes - 11.2 MBThe latest economic numbers are out, and by the time you hear this podcast, Donald Trump surely will have told us all why they are great, why tariffs work, and why this economy is the best ever.But you know better. Or at least Washington Post opinion columnist Catherine Rampell does. While we may have one or multiple months of strong GDP, the key question remains: Is that growth sustainable? And as she wrote, “Right now, under Trump’s policies, the answer looks like a big fat no.”So today my...
Nicholas Burns: 'I Don’t Think He’s Fit for Office'
July 20, 2018 20:22 - 25 minutes - 8.68 MBWell, that was quite a week. And no doubt, in the few hours between my recording this intro and when the podcast drops, another extraordinary week will have passed.How to make sense of it? To fashionably employ the double negative – it’s so good to see grammar finally get its due on the world stage – I don’t think it’s unfair to ask: Where are we as a nation?For guidance, I turned to former U.S. Ambassador and current professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Nicholas Burns. Witho...
Brian Abrams: Understanding Obama
July 13, 2018 15:35 - 33 minutes - 11.7 MBIt feels like a lifetime ago, I know. But so much of what’s happening today – the divides, anger, insults, policy realities – have emerged as a reaction to the Obama years. To understand today, it helps to understand what came before. Brian Abrams makes an important contribution to the process. Abrams specializes in oral histories – talking with key players and letting their words, almost exclusively, tell the story. Done well, this approachthoughtful narrative. That’s exactly what Abrams d...
Dan Pfeiffer: What Comes Next for Democrats
June 29, 2018 13:59 - 31 minutes - 10.7 MBSo here’s the timeline: Two days ago, I spoke with Dan Pfeiffer. As you surely know, he’s President Obama's former communications director and senior advisor and co-host of a podcast you might have heard of: Pod Save America. Then yesterday, Dan’s new book -- Yes We (Still) Can: Politics in the Age of Obama, Twitter, and Trump – debuts at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list. Co-incidence? I’ll let you decide. All I can do is accurately portray the facts.The other thing I can do: Tel...
Steven Brill: The Fifty-Year Fall of America
June 22, 2018 16:16 - 26 minutes - 9.12 MBIn the face of jailing immigrant children, questions about capitalism amid tariffs and possible trade wars, and concerns about democracy as we reject western allies and warmly welcome authoritarians and dictators, a lot of us are wondering not just who are we, but also, how in the world did we get here?Steven Brill feels he has an answer.You likely know: Brill is a serial ideas entrepreneur. He founded, among other ventures, American Lawyer and Court TV. He has taken on some of our biggest i...
Scott Jennings: What's Happening to the Republican Party?
June 15, 2018 14:52 - 34 minutes - 11.7 MBFor many on the right and left, the question has been “what’s happening to the GOP?” Free Trade? Gone. Budget deficits? No problem Free movement of labor? Not so much. Military war exercises? Who needs’em? Russia as outlaw state? How about Russia in the G8? I think a more fair – and probably more relevant question: What is the GOP?And frankly, the question comes more from the right than the left. Bob Corker basically asked it this week on the Senate floor. Conservative writers ask it i...
Harry Litman: Does President Trump Think He's a King?
June 12, 2018 15:50 - 34 minutes - 11.8 MBDoes President Trump think he’s a king?That was the provocative headline to a recent piece by Harry Litman, a former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney General. Litman made his argument after reviewing the legal arguments made in that confidential 20-page memo sent by President Trump’s lawyers to the special counsel, Robert Mueller.I wanted to talk with Litman for many reasons, not least of which: He’s a Constitutional Law expert. We discussed other major legal questions, inclu...
Bill Browder: Vladimir Putin's Public Enemy No. 1
June 01, 2018 17:27 - 36 minutes - 12.5 MBIf you know Bill Browder's story already, you surely won’t mind hearing it again. It’s extraordinary. If you haven’t heard it before, get ready. Bill Browder very well may be Vladimir Putin’s public enemy No. 1. Why? Remember that “Hillary dirt” Russia meeting that Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort had with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016 – the one the White House said was about Russian adoptions?As you’ll hear, “Russian adoptions” is code for the Magnitsky Act – le...
Gen. Michael Hayden: Trump's Assault on Intelligence
May 25, 2018 00:38 - 33 minutes - 11.6 MBOf the many institutions that Donald Trump has attacked – Courts, Congress, media, political parties, diplomats, former Presidents – perhaps the most surprising and unnerving has been the relentless attacks on our intelligence community. Even before that second day in office – the one where he stood before the 117 stars honoring the CIA’s fallen and said we should’ve kept Iraq’s oil, claimed almost everyone in the room voted for him, and, of course, raved about the inauguration crowd size – ...
Amy Walter: Six Months Until Midterms… What Do We Know?
May 20, 2018 14:15 - 37 minutes - 12.9 MBCan we talk politics? In the last weeks on this podcast, we’ve talked about racism, our shrinking diplomacy, the Mueller investigation, how democracies die, and more. But we ought not forget: it’s the political elections that deliver the policies that define our democracy. Not happy with how things are going? You might want to vote. Thrilled? Well, you may want to, also. So where’s our Midterm vote headed? Who’s up, who’s down, where’s the Blue Wave – and how much do particular candidates ...
Mitch Landrieu: A White Southerner Confronts History
May 07, 2018 04:30 - 22 minutes - 7.85 MBUsually we drop these conversations on Friday mornings – you know, something to look forward to since the workweek excitement is about to end. But we’re posting this on Monday, May 7 because of my guest: It’s his last day as Mayor of New Orleans. Did you see the speech? It was about a year ago and New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu stood up and explained to his city and the nation, really, why he removed four statues that honored the Confederacy: Robert E. Lee; Jefferson Davis; P.G.T. Beaureg...