Talking Feds

Harry gathers Emily Bazelon, Jonathan Lemire, and Mike Murphy to pick through the political wreckage left after a historic Democratic deluge. The panel tackle the causes and implications of the country's momentous swing against Donald Trump. Together, they break down the Tuesday's biggest surprises, how long Trump will continue to accept the results, and what Democrats’ top priorities should be as...

The midterms are finally here. Harry sits down with top pollster Lakshya Jain for a data-rich conversation about the voters, candidates, and trends that will shape tomorrow's results. Jain explains why he—and nearly all of his peers—are so bullish on Democrats, what it would take for polls to be wrong this time, and how movements among crucial demographics this year remind him of Obama’s 2008 run....

With less than a week until the midterms, Democrats are poised to retake the House, with the Senate also in play. But as a blue wave builds, Trump and his allies are launching dubious lawsuits that challenge states’ authority over elections. The cases may fail in court, but could serve a larger purpose: fueling Trump’s familiar claims that any Republican defeat was the result of a rigged election....

Nearly every pundit says the midterms will be about the economy. So how, exactly, is the economy doing? Harry turns to economist Justin Wolfers for answers. Slicing deep into some elaborate pie metaphors, the two explore how President Trump’s policies have let down the Americans they were supposed to help, what commentators are missing in the conversation about gas prices, and how a new Congress c...

What if ICE raids polling places on election day? What if MAGA sheriffs seize ballot boxes? What if a red-state official refuses to certify a Democrat’s narrow victory? These are the nightmare scenarios that could dam an anti-Trump midterm wave and plunge our democracy into crisis. That’s why champions of voting rights have spent years preparing for them. In this special episode Harry speaks with...

Reporter Glenn Thrush joins Harry to shine a klieg light into the recesses of a Department of Justice running itself into the ground to please Donald Trump. Armed with previously unreported details, Glenn shares the inside story of why Trump loyalists departed the vaunted “grand conspiracy” investigation, which he calls “essentially dead.” Glenn also explains Todd Blanche's precarious positio...

Michelle Cottle, David Gura, and Charlie Sykes join Harry to discuss Republicans’ closing moves ahead of the midterms, new politicization at DOJ, and Pete Hegseth’s bid to livestream a firing squad. Will Trump’s battleground tour staunch Republican bleeding, or worsen it? Can administration lawyers keep getting away with casually disobeying judges? And will Trump pull the plug on the Pentagon’s ef...

Ambassador Susan Rice led President Obama’s national security team and helped secure the Iran nuclear deal. As she looks around the world now, the threat she can’t stop thinking about isn’t Russia or China, but AI. She joins Harry to break down the dangers the technology poses to Americans and what she thinks the Trump administration needs to do to guard against them. Then Harry draws on Ambassado...

Guest host Jonathan Alter convenes David Graham and Molly Jong-Fast for a wide-ranging preview of the midterm elections now less than a month away. The trio dig into Republicans’ tactical retreat from previously competitive races, potential stumbling blocks for Democrats, a string of presidential gaffes, and the coming campaign trail confrontation between Trump and Obama. Mentioned in this episode...

Veteran political operative and former Republican strategist Rick Wilson takes Harry on a tour of a midterms map that just keeps looking better for Democrats. Rick breaks down why he thinks much of the MAGA coalition will stay on the sidelines, why Republicans' eleventh-hour attempts to break from Trump won't help them, and the Democratic campaigns that stand out in a swelling blue wave. It's...

What were Republicans thinking going after Jack Smith again? Kyle Cheney, Conor Lamb, and Mimi Rocah join Harry to discuss that and the week’s cascade of big legal news. Will the Department of Justice actually pursue perjury charges against Smith? Will Judge Williams and Judge Boasberg get to push ahead toward contempt proceedings against Trump and the administration? And will Trump come to regret...

Governor Andy Beshear discusses his three-part approach to governing as a Democrat in deeply red Kentucky—and what he’s learned along the way. He talks with Harry about how his faith shapes his policies, his vision for fixing a broken government, and why a post-Trump government can’t just restore the past but needs to become more efficient and effective. Plus, the stakes of the 2026 gubernatorial...

Asha Rangappa, Stuart Stevens, and Jasmine Wright join Harry to break down cratering Republican poll numbers, Trump’s quixotic media ban, Susan Collin’s quid-pro-quo scandal, and the news out of the UN General Assembly. Are polls showing a lopsided Democratic advantage to be believed? How is the allegation of a pay-to-play donation scheme changing the Maine Senate race? And hasn’t Trump’s move to...

When Donald Trump retook the White House, many of the most powerful Americans—including many who resisted him in his first term—hurried to bend a knee. Jacob Weisberg wanted to understand why. He joins Harry for a conversation about his study of that capitulation: Profiles in Cowardice. Jacob breaks down the often confounding reasons these people knowingly betrayed their principles. After digging...

For the latest Contrarian episode, Norm Eisen, Rep. Tom Malinowski, and Jen Rubin join Harry to stake out their cautious optimism about Trump’s declining strength. The panel takes stock of the administration’s vital Supreme Court defeat in the mail-in ballots case before looking at the ways the wheels are falling off the DOJ's opaque "grand conspiracy" investigation. Finally, with rising gas price...

The Michigan Senate race may make or break Democrats' hopes of wresting control of the Senate from Donald Trump. It also produced one of the party’s hardest primary fights, with three candidates representing different camps within it. State Senator Mallory McMorrow had better than a front-row seat. Having withdrawn late in the race, she’s now thrown her full support behind nominee Abdul El-Sayed....

Emily Bazelon, Erin Burnett, and Susan Glasser join Harry to try to decipher whether Trump would rather win the midterms or steal them. Time and again, the president has bewildered Republicans with politically damaging moves and comments. But if the Supreme Court lets Trump have his way with mail-in ballots, a stacked deck might more than compensate for his self-sabotage. Could Trump's postal voti...

In their newest mashup, Harry and Molly Jong-Fast trade questions about corruption, accountability, and Trump’s legal schemes. Molly asks how Trump officials and members of his family might ever face justice, even if Trump pardons them, and what the heck is going on with Trump’s Supreme Court fight over mail-in ballots. Harry wants to know what the Dems need to do to unite around a cohesive messag...

Harry's special roundtable this week focuses on the fortunes of the Democratic Party. Three top political thinkers—Micah Lasher, Amanda Litman, and Michael Steele—assess Democrats' prospects in the midterms and 2028. They break down what the party needs to do—beyond opposing Trump—and how it can harness the energy and message of recent progressive successes without falling victim to intra-party di...

Harry talks with Judge Mark Wolf about what the abuses by President Trump and Todd Blanche look like through the eyes of a veteran judge. Judge Wolf—who left the federal bench last year after a decades long career that began with a stint in the post-Watergate Justice Department—explains the overlooked crime he believes Trump committed with the creation of the slush fund, why he feels judges need t...

The start of the Todd Blanche era at the Department of Justice also marks the start of the video era at Talking Feds. Ken Dilanian, Frank Figliuzzi, and Katie Phang join Harry in technicolor (on YouTube, at least) to break down Blanche’s first moves as Attorney General, Katie’s lawsuit to force him to release Epstein material, Jeanine Pirro’s unsettling failures in a serious criminal case, and the...

David Graham, former Senator Heidi Heitkamp, and Norm Ornstein join Harry to break down another strange week in Trumpland. Alex Vindman’s shocking defeat in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary intensified debates about how much appetite the party has for the all-out “Resistance” tactics of Trump 1.0, including impeachment. Meanwhile, the story of the beleaguered USS Abraham Lincoln prompted new cr...

The midterms are just around the corner and there's already a shadow war raging over their outcome. Election law guru Marc Elias spends his days battling the Trump administration’s attempts to stack the deck. With November looming, Harry asks Marc for a tour of worst-case scenarios of election theft or interference. For each, Marc lays out the dangers, the stakes, and the potential...

Faced with a worsening midterm map and spiraling conflict with Iran, Donald Trump is focusing on what really matters: his crusade to reshape Washington. Kristen Holmes, Adam Klasfeld, and Tara Setmayer join Harry to break down the monument mania. The panel digs in to the new Kennedy Center scheme, the ballroom appeal, and Jeanine Pirro’s mysterious special grand jury. The group then turns to an ug...

After an ICE agent shot Renee Good, observers looked to the elite squad of federal prosecutors tasked with investigating such shootings: the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The Division did nothing. It marked a sad chapter for an institution that, as historian Kevin M. Kruse explains, spent decades fighting for justice against long odds. Together, Kruse and Harry discuss the Divisio...