Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders face off again today in primary elections in six states, as the last two men standing in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Biden is trying to cement the delegate lead he established on Super Tuesday. Sanders needs to reverse what for him was a disappointing performance — winning a delegate majority in just three of 14 states — and show that h...

Since Super Tuesday, some things have changed. Former Democratic nomination hopefuls Sens. Kamala Harris and Corey Booker endorsed Joe Biden over the weekend. The Rev. Jesse Jackson endorsed Sanders, a coda back to the 1988 democratic primary, in which Sanders endorsed Jackson, who was at the time, largely seen as a spoiler against Mike Dukakis. With Biden picking up more mainstream Democratic end...

The day after Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race, we asked her supporters  to   share  what  her campaign, meant to them, how they feel now that it's over, and who gets their votes now.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On Today's Show:  Laura Barron-Lopez , national political reporter at Politico covering the 2020 election, and Marisa Franco, director and co-founder of Mijente a grass-roots organization that mobilizes Latinx and Chicanx voters, takes calls, talks about how the Democratic Socialist has attracted Latino voters, and what the nation's largest ethnic minority is looking for in a candidate.  Hosted by...

On today's show, we take a look at whether the U.S.'s healthcare system, which is often criticized for being too expensive, too complex, too disjointed and not patient-centric, is also hindering public health officials' efforts to track and contain the spread of Coronavirus.  Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at Community Service Society, and co-founder of Healthcare for All...

After Joe Biden's success on Super Tuesday, and the relatively poor showings from Bloomberg and Warren, the race looks like it will boil down to a face-off between Barack Obama's moderate Vice President and the progressive Senator from Vermont. Bloomberg, who showered Super Tuesday states with a $400 million ad-buy, walked away with a measly 9 delegates, causing him to re-consider whether further...

The Democratic primary field is now down to five. Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg, Warren and Gabbard. The two most recent dropouts, Klobuchar and Buttigieg, stepped back after South Carolina to throw their support behind Biden, who is now the establishment standard-bearer for the moderate lane of the party. Polls have long showed Sanders leading in most of the Super Tuesday states, but Biden's strong s...

After their less-than-stellar performances in Saturday's South Carolina primary, Tom Steyer and Pete Buttigieg have dropped out of the race as Joe Biden won the state, an crucial first for the former vice president, with nearly 50 percent support. Going into Super Tuesday, polls suggest that Bernie Sanders will win California, the state with the most delegates in play by far. But unlike other stat...

Super Tuesday will mark the beginning of the end for some candidates. For those who  do garner enough support, it will likely be the beginning of a new conversation: How, if it comes down to it, should the party navigate a brokered convention? In the wake of outrage over what his supporters considered the outsized power of superdelegates (elected Democrats and party elders) to decide the nominatio...

The President yesterday appointed Vice President Pence to oversee efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus. Democrats on the Hill bemoaned the selection of Pence, who as governor failed to bring an Indiana HIV outbreak under control, rather than a qualified public health expert. Ahead of Saturday's primary contest in South Carolina, a local South Carolina newspaper reports that various Republic...

Having emerged as the front-runner after his Nevada landslide last weekend, Bernie Sanders went into last night's Democratic primary debate in South Carolina with a target on his back. Far from a singular silver bullet, Sanders' opponents each took their own tack in coming for the Senator from Vermont, who seemed to deflect them all, earning him monikers from political analysts like " The Teflon M...

The democratic presidential candidates will debate for the last time before the South Carolina primary this Saturday, and Super Tuesday a week from today. After Sanders' broad win in Nevada, expect his fellow campaigners to take aim at him from the dais. Sanders has recently come under fire from House Democrats representing purple districts, concerned that a lack of moderation at the top of the pr...

On Saturday, Bernie Sanders won a landslide victory in the Nevada caucus, walking away with the support of nearly 47 percent of all participants. The Silver State caucus was a significant bellwether for the nomination contest, given that the state is a much more accurate demographic cross-section of the Democratic party than Iowa and New Hampshire, which precede it. Sanders' win in Nevada demonstr...

In the wake of an important Nevada union's decision not to endorse any candidate because of their concerns over the health care proposals across the board, a subset of Sanders voters reportedly took to social media to harass and harangue the union.  On today's show: Jane McAlevey , labor and environmental organizer, post doctoral fellow in the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School and t...

In a classified briefing, Members of Congress were warned that Russia is continuing its efforts to meddle in the 2020 election, and that their activities include attempts to tip the scales in the Democratic primary. Trump is reportedly angry that the briefing took place, concerned that the disclosure could be weaponized against him once his campaign to hold the White House shifts into high gear. T...

With just one more debate to go before Super Tuesday, when a third of all the delegates will be apportioned, Democratic hopefuls pulled out all the stops. Klobuchar and Buttigeig duked it out over the party's center. Biden, took aim at Sanders, the field's apparent front-runner. Warren, a policy heavyweight who has so far fallen short of the upper tier, took swings at everyone. And everyone took s...

Trump is boldly asserting his authority over the criminal justice system, demanding a new trial for his friend Roger Stone, and granting clemency to several white-collar criminals. While Attorney General Barr has been accused of working on behalf of the president's personal interests, Trump's latest plays with power may be enough to test their working relationship.     On today's show : Quinta Jur...

Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg just qualified for the Nevada debate, polling 19 percent among Democrats nationally.  So Amy Klobuchar gets her wish to meet him on stage, along with Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren.  The  NPR/PBS/Marist poll  of Democrats and Democratic leaning independents has Sanders in the lead with 31 percent support, followed by Bloomberg. On...

While most of the political media was focused on the results of the New Hampshire primary last Thursday (and the pivot to Nevada and South Carolina), former Vice President Joe Biden was in New York City attending two big donor fundraisers, despite the fact that the state won’t hold its primary until April. Meanwhile, Pete Buttigieg was in Indianapolis on Thursday and San Francisco on Friday for th...

Attorney General William Barr told ABC News that the President's tweets about cases in the Justice Department's docket "make it impossible for me to do my job". The question was apparently prompted by a presidential tweet celebrating the department's decision to recommend a more lenient sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone. Stone was found guilty in November of seven charges, including lying to Con...

As the Democratic primary candidates move out of the earlier, more homogeneously white nomination contest and into South Carolina and Nevada, some candidates —  particularly Buttigieg and Klobuchar   — are reportedly struggling to gain footing with voters of color. And all the candidates are struggling to win the support of the African American donor class. Joe Biden, who had long been the race's...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is facing renewed criticism for his support of stop and frisk—a position he held until entered the presidential race three months ago—after a 2015 audio clip surfaced in which he is accused of making racist comments.  Denis Walcott , President and CEO of the Queens Library, former deputy mayor and NYC schools chancellor under Bloomberg, defends the form...

Following the results of Democratic primary races in Iowa and New Hampshire, with Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg neck and neck for the frontrunner spot, the campaigns now head to Nevada and South Carolina, states that are far more racially representative of the Democratic party than the Hawkeye and Granite states. How will the campaigns play to audiences that are more Black and Brown, and how w...

New Hampshire votes today. Bloomberg's massive ad-buys appear to be working, at least in Dixville Notch, which started voting at midnight into early this morning and where five voters wrote in the former Mayor of New York, whose name does not appear on the New Hampshire ballot. But a new audio leak places him at odds with most liberals, and crucially with Black and Brown voters on the issue of sto...

Democrats in New Hampshire will vote tomorrow for the candidate they they want to nominate for president. We check in with a public radio journalist from the Granite State, Laura Knoy . Klobuchar gaining momentum. Biden throws in the towel. Sanders, from neighboring Vemont likes his numbers. Buttigeig resonating with those looking for an aspirational moderate. Brian and Laura will host a live, nat...