Pardon Me – Another Damn Impeachment Show
22 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago -Does the Trump impeachment drama feel like drinking from a fire hose? If so, join host Colin McEnroe, public radio personality and columnist, for an energetic weekly round-up that brings you the latest developments and perspectives from guests like Dave Eggers, Adam Gopnik, Emily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick among other journalists, novelists, ethicists, essayists and podiatrists.*
"Pardon Me" also airs on Connecticut Public Radio Saturdays at noon.
Not to be confused with a podcast of a similar name, Colin may do occasional kettlebell workouts, but they won’t be a big part of the show. And make sure you are not actually drinking from a fire hose, because that’s very dangerous.
*Only if Gordon Sondland develops specific foot ailments.
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Episodes
Acquitted! Or: Dorothy, We're Not In Phillydelphia Anymore
February 20, 2021 00:24 - 51 minutes - 47.2 MBWe had trouble mustering enthusiasm to wrap up our final episode of this second season of Pardon Me. Last week's roller coaster of a trial culminated in 43 senators choosing to acquit on a weak and deceptive defense -- despite a factual and painstaking accounting of how bad the breach was, how bad it might have been, and how Donald Trump incited it. We talk to a former CIA analyst about how bad it could have been and a TV critic on the power of the visual. We also bring you factoids with C...
There Is No January Exception.
February 13, 2021 00:19 - 51 minutes - 47.1 MBDonald Trump's legal team delivered their defense of the former president Friday. They followed a tightly argued and visceral presentation delivered by House managers that, some say, has made it easy for Republican senators to convict Trump. They likely won't. We wondered if our show, recorded in part on Thursday, would omit important events that occurred thereafter. Given that many Republican senators have already decided to acquit, why would the defense feel the need to address the 144 c...
It's Been A Good Week.
January 23, 2021 14:34 - 47 minutes - 43.2 MBWe took a chance that House Democrats were going to send the Article of Impeachment to the Senate this week. We were wrong. Instead, the House will transmit its Article of Impeachment charging former President Trump with "incitement of insurrection" to the Senate on Monday. Why should the House wait any longer when more than a dozen Republican senators are trying to dismiss the impeachment trial before it begins, based on the disputed claim that it's unconstitutional to try an ex-president...
Impeached! Or: We Love You. You're Very Special. Go Home.
January 15, 2021 15:17 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBPreviously on Pardon Me (Another Damn Impeachment Show?): House Democrats voted to impeach President Trump on two Articles of Impeachment: "abuse of power" and "obstruction of Congress." He was later acquitted promptly after Senate Republicans voted against calling witnesses or admitting new evidence. Now (less than 48 weeks later), on Season Two of Pardon Me: House Democrats, along with 10 Republicans, voted to impeach President Trump Wednesday on one Article of Impeachment: "incitement o...
Hang On A Minute, Lads. I've Got A Great Idea.
February 15, 2020 01:24 - 51 minutes - 47.3 MBFour Department of Justice prosecutors working on the case of Roger Stone, a close friend of President Trump, withdrew from legal proceedings Tuesday after Attorney General William Barr overruled their sentencing recommendations. The president had complained about the long sentence. Barr denied that President Trump asked him to intervene and claimed he wouldn't be "bullied or influenced by anybody." He said Thursday that the president should stop tweeting about DOJ criminal cases. The pres...
Acquitted! Or: Heading Down A Very, Very Dark Corridor
February 08, 2020 00:03 - 52 minutes - 47.7 MBNote: This episode contains strong language. The Senate acquitted President Trump on both articles of the impeachment. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the only Republican who voted to convict the president on one charge, for "egregious" behavior he believed rose to the level of a "high crime and misdemeanor." President Trump responded with anger. He fumed at his perceived enemies at Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast. They include members of Congress, people on his staff, FBI agents, and...
Motion To Call Witnesses Defeated, Or: Poo Pooing On The Pu Pu Platter On Mount Boredom
February 01, 2020 00:52 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MBThe Senate has voted, 51 to 49, not to subpoena witnesses or documents in its impeachment trial of President Trump. Closing arguments are expected on Monday, and a verdict could come next Wednesday afternoon. This week, Colin and The Gist's Mike Pesca puzzle over the Republican strategy and Alan Dershowitz. He's the Trump attorney who argued that the president could engage in a quid pro quo that benefited him personally as long as he believes his reelection is in the public interest. Dersh...
John Bolton's Head On A Pike
January 27, 2020 23:13 - 24 minutes - 22.4 MBThe New York Times reported Sunday night that former National Security Adviser John Bolton claims in the draft of his new book that President Trump told him in August that he wanted to withhold military aid from Ukraine unless Ukrainian officials helped with investigations into Democrats, including former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Bolton went on to implicate Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney in the co...
The World's Greatest Deliberative Body Or A Bunch Of Bored White Guys Playing With Fidget Spinners?
January 24, 2020 20:38 - 53 minutes - 48.7 MBChief Justice John Roberts scolded House managers and the President's counsel early Wednesday for using language beneath the dignity of the world's "greatest deliberative body." This, after Senator Susan Collins complained about "unsettling comments" she felt went against Senate rules of decorum. Speaking of decorum, senators played with fidget spinners and did crossword puzzles while House managers made their case for impeachment. Enough of this pettifoggery! This week, Slate's Dahlia...
Stephen Metcalf: Washing Up On The Shoals Of A Semi-Apocalypse
January 21, 2020 18:44 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBSlate's Stephen Metcalf thinks President Trump is a hostage to 1979. Why else would he overreact by killing Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani for inciting protesters to storm the U.S. Embassy in Iraq? In President Trump's mind, it was the right response. How else could he avoid the fate of Jimmy Carter, a once popular president deemed weak after failing to bring home 52 hostages captured during the Iranian Revolution? Why else would the President threaten 52 cultural sites, one for ...
Benjamin Wittes and Susan Hennessey: Ratification Or Rejection
January 20, 2020 15:42 - 38 minutes - 35 MBBenjamin Wittes and Susan Hennessey argue that President Trump has changed the function of the presidency from one of public service to one that serves his personal interests. The President was impeached for withholding aid to Ukraine in exchange for a political investigation into his political rival and obstructing the House investigation into his behavior. The President will likely be acquitted in the Senate. It may be up to voters in November to decide whether to ratify or reject Trum...
The Senate Trial Begins, Or: Impeachment Apprentice
January 17, 2020 23:18 - 54 minutes - 49.8 MBPresident Trump fretted this week that White House lawyer Pat Cippolone and personal lawyer Jay Sekulow lacked experience on television. So he added a few TV-ready lawyers to the mix, each with scripted roles to play. This week, Lawfare's Benjamin Wittes and Susan Hennessey argue that President Trump has changed the presidency from one of public service to one that serves his personal interests. Will we ratify his vision or reject it? It may be up to voters to decide. Also this hour: Sla...
One Nation, Under Insomnia
January 10, 2020 23:19 - 52 minutes - 47.6 MBLaw professor Bruce Ackerman argues that President Trump's order to kill Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani is a far graver offense than his efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden. Think about it: He's bragging about his decision to kill a high-ranking official of another country. Will Chief Justice John Roberts save us? And that's the positive view on our show this week. Sarah Kendzior studies autocratic governments. She thinks we'd be fo...
Jim Jordan: The Vice Principal Who Haunts Your Nightmares
January 03, 2020 22:38 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBProfessor Michael Gerhardt argues that the impeachment process is legitimate, despite efforts by President Trump and his defenders to deny it. It is the president's conduct that is not normal. Gerhardt was one of four law professors summoned by the House Judiciary Committee in December, to share their legal expertise on whether President Trump's conduct met the legal threshold for impeachment. Three out of four of them believe it did. Also this hour: State Department witness George Kent'...
Peter Sokolowski: We're Living In A Crisis Of Meaning
December 31, 2019 17:28 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBPeter Sokolowski, lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, fears we're currently having a crisis of meaning in our cultural understanding and use of words. How do we understand phrases like "fake news?" Does it mean news that has no relationship to reality or is it how President Trump refers to truth-based news he doesn't like? What is an "alternative fact?" How can the phrase "drug deal" be used to refer to an illegal business transaction -- or in its use by former National Security Advisor Jo...
God May Forgive You (But I Won't)
December 27, 2019 19:28 - 51 minutes - 47.2 MBThere's a good chance that President Trump knows that the stain of impeachment will be part of his legacy. And as damning details about the president's behavior trickle out, we're realizing how much we still don't know. This may explain why impeachment may be more popular than we realize. President Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper in 2016 that he had a "great relationship with God," and that he "doesn't do a lot of things that are bad." Yet, a basic Christian confession is that all of us have ...
Impeached! Or: 55 White Guys Day Drinking
December 20, 2019 20:25 - 51 minutes - 47.2 MBThere's actually some question whether President Trump has officially been impeached, it turns out. In any case, on Wednesday, December 18, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two Articles of Impeachment charging the president with abuse of power and obstruction of congress. On our third full episode, we talk to the founder of Politico about the huge difference a tiny bit of self-control would make to the Trump presidency and a Yale historian about what those crazy founders were thi...
Articles Of Impeachment And The Toxic Water Yo-yo
December 13, 2019 20:53 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MBOn Friday, December 13, the House Committee on the Judiciary voted 23 to 17 to send two Articles of Impeachment to the full House of Representatives for consideration. On Episode 2 of Pardon Me, Yale Law School's Emily Bazelon joins us to look at the legal ins and outs of the articles, the House vote, and a future Senate trial; The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik tells us to "Stop Saying That Impeachment Is Political"; and our friends from Sea Tea Improv in Hartford stop by to perform a holiday-t...
Adam Gopnik: Stop Saying Impeachment Is Political
December 11, 2019 21:00 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MBAdam Gopnik is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism. We talked to Gopnik late last week about his New Yorker piece "Stop Saying That Impeachment Is Political." This interview will run, likely in a form very similar to this one, in this week's Episode 2 of Pardon Me. But we're making it available to you now because... well, because why not, really. GUEST: Adam Gopnik - Staff writer for The New Yorker and the aut...
Dave Eggers: The Full, Uncut Interview
December 09, 2019 20:52 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MBDave Eggers is the author of six books for young readers, including The Wild Things; three works of nonfiction, including Zeitoun; twelve novels, including What Is the What, A Hologram for the King, and The Circle; and the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. He has written three screenplays, including Where the Wild Things Are with Spike Jonze. And he is the founder of McSweeney’s. Eggers’s latest is The Cap...
A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Impeachment With Dave Eggers And More
December 06, 2019 22:53 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MBAre you having trouble keeping up with the nonstop impeachment information coming your way? If you're starting to confuse Gordon Sondland with Rudy Giuliani, then you should start listening to Pardon Me (Another Damn Impeachment Show?), our weekly answer to your confusion. Every week, Colin brings you impeachment news and analysis with journalists and legal scholars, including Emily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick. We don't stop there. We also talk to ethicists, political theologians, artists...
Listen to Our Show and You’ll Be More Popular at Parties
December 04, 2019 22:19 - 8 minutes - 7.36 MBPolitics and culture overlap in some strange and fascinating ways. This limited-run impeachment podcast is created in that spirit. You’ll get some solid information, but it won’t be as dry as some pure politics podcasts – we’re going to wrap a little fun into it. There will be some surprises and smart guests. We may do some improv, take some audience questions and enlist a roving reporter to get the man-and-woman-on-the-street voices. And be assured, no real alpacas or bunnies have been harm...