Political Rewind

In this morning's headlines, four mass vaccination sites are now open across the state. They’re being run by the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency.

Monday on Political Rewind: Voting rights groups are expressing outrage over a newly introduced 48-page bill that consolidates the dramatic changes Republican legislators want to make in how Georgians now vote. Opponents say the bills are clear efforts at voter suppression, but advocates say they are needed to restore public faith in the integrity of the state’s elections. Plus, former U.S. Sen. K...

Thursday on Political Rewind: While partisanship continues to drive almost every aspect of how Congress operates today, at the local level, political leaders are more likely to be practical problem solvers dealing with issues their neighborhoods are experiencing every day. Today, we talk with mayors of three Georgia cities to get an up-close look at how their communities are coping with the proble...

Friday on Political Rewind: A return to a previous conversation with author Jerald Walker, writer of How to Make a Slave and Other Essays. Last December, we spoke with Walker about his recently published collection of essays and his own personal journey as a writer. Walker's How to Make a Slave and Other Essays is a finalist for a National Book award. It illuminates an intimate account of the writ...

Wednesday on Political Rewind, a bipartisan coalition of legislators has come together to support Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposal to replace Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law, which became the center of public outrage in the aftermath of the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. "I am really glad the governor is pushing for this. This is an outdated law that has allowed a lot of racists to take the law into th...

Tuesday on Political Rewind: Reform to Georgia's citizen's arrest law sees new movement. Support from a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Gov. Brian Kemp could mean the swift passage of legislation to change the controversial law. Meanwhile, the Biden administration pauses Kemp’s plan for a partial expansion of Medicaid. President Donald Trump had approved Kemp’s plan, which ties expanding Medicai...

Monday on Political Rewind: the fallout from the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Few were surprised when Trump was acquitted over the weekend. But the trial did come with some last-minute drama. The Senate took an unexpected vote to allow witnesses on Saturday morning, only for Democrats to abandon that path hours later in the interest of a speedy conclusion to the trial...

Friday on Political Rewind: There's new movement on legislation in the Georgia General Assembly. Bills regarding sports wagering and human trafficking were considered. Top Republican representatives pushed a bill to curtail absentee voting. But one of the more emotional debates in the legislature concerns visitation policies at nursing homes and hospitals. If passed, House Bill 290 would punish ho...

Thursday on Political Rewind: Gov. Brian Kemp is preparing to unveil his proposal for reforming Georgia’s citizens’ arrest law. The current law stirred controversy in the aftermath of the shooting of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger, by white men who claim they were detaining him in response to a series of break-ins in a residential neighborhood outside of Brunswick. Our panel discussed t...

Wednesday on Political Rewind: While the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump continues, leaders in Georgia attempt to respond to the ongoing pandemic and its resulting economic burden. In DeKalb County, local leaders announce plans to protect renters and landlords hit hard by the pandemic. They seek to use a $21 million federal grant to secure housing for thousands of residents at r...

Tuesday on Political Rewind: The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump gets underway today. Meanwhile, Georgia election officials announced they have opened an investigation into the now-infamous phone call between Trump and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In that call, Trump urged Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn President Joe Biden’s Georgia victory. The...

Monday on Political Rewind, a sobering anniversary was reached over the weekend. One year ago, the first coronavirus-related death was reported in the United States. Now, the death toll stands at an even more sobering 450,000 people, with almost 14,000 here in Georgia. There are signs things are getting better. The spread of the virus appears to be slowing and vaccinations are slowly rolling out a...

Today on Political Rewind: The U.S. House approved a measure to strip freshman Georgia 14th District Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. The action was a response to Greene’s bigoted and often-threatening remarks and social media activity that have come to light since she became a candidate for public office. All eight Georgia Republican members of the House voted against the...

Thursday on Political Rewind: In his early days in office, President Biden has put coping with climate change near the top of his agenda. But New York Times best-selling author David Pogue doesn’t want us to wait for government fixes. In his new book How To Prepare For Climate Change, Pogue tells us it’s time we learn to adapt to forces of nature that will continue to dramatically alter life as we...

Wednesday on Political Rewind: After an election cycle in which millions of Georgians chose to vote by mail, Republicans in the state Senate introduced a package of bills that will create new barriers to absentee voting. The measures end no-excuse mail in voting and eliminate ballot drop boxes. In addition, the package calls for an end to automatic voter registration, a tool which has dramatically...

Tuesday on Political Rewind: a special look at domestic extremism. The storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 revealed the broad scope of violent extremist groups to many Americans. A web of overlapping organizations online concealed dark intentions in plain sight, even as their numbers and commitment to acts of terror grew. The warning signs were there. As recently as September, FBI Director Chri...

Monday on Political Rewind: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has published new polling gauging voter attitudes in Georgia in the aftermath of January's major political headlines, including the Senate runoffs, the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump's second impeachment, and more.  The survey results show that state Republicans are in a much weaker position than they hav...

Friday on Political Rewind: Just one month after being seated in the U.S. House, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing increased scrutiny and a growing national backlash over questionable social media posts that she has either liked or posted. The outrage is further being fueled by other online posts, including a video showing Greene taunting a student survivor of the deadly shoot...

Thursday on Political Rewind: In his first days in office, President Joe Biden has declared a commitment to addressing systemic racism. On Tuesday, Biden signed a series of executive orders signaling that his administration will attempt to tackle inequities in housing, criminal justice, economic mobility, health care and more. Our panel today weighs in on the president’s first steps toward this lo...

Wednesday on Political Rewind: A member of the Georgia House of Representatives was removed from the floor by a state trooper after refusing to comply with rules requiring legislators to be tested regularly for the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the state budget — including funding for the Department of Public Health amid the pandemic — is being considered by the legislature.  Also, the General Assembly...

Tuesday on Political Rewind: Nancy Pelosi was first elected to the U.S. House in 1987. Two decades later, she was the first woman to be elected Speaker of the House. And in the past few years, she became both a liberal icon and an increasingly polarizing figure as she battled President Donald Trump over a number of issues during his time in office. Molly Ball, national political correspondent for...

Monday on Political Rewind: A flurry of executive orders marks President Joe Biden’s first days in office. One of his priorities has been to introduce a major immigration reform bill, which includes plans to roll back a number of immigration orders from the previous administration. Also: The New York Times revealed a previously unknown effort by former President Donald Trump to overturn the result...

Friday on Political Rewind: As Georgians eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations scramble to get them, Gov. Brian Kemp acknowledged demand is far outstripping supply. Kemp told reporters at a news conference Georgia has already received most of the doses the state was initially set to receive. The new Biden administration will certainly play a role in vaccine distribution in Georgia and across the nati...

Thursday on Political Rewind: Georgia once again finds itself among the worst states in the nation for new COVID-19 cases and deaths, according to state data and a recent report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force. While the task force numbers indicate a slight improvement in recent weeks, 821 Georgians died from the virus in just the seven-day period ending last Friday. The staggering tol...

Wednesday afternoon on Political Rewind: A new presidential term begins and with it, a new political landscape in Georgia and across the United States. Following the inauguration of President Joe Biden, senators-elect Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock are scheduled to be sworn in later today. The pair of Democrats from Georgia will shift the balance of the U.S. Senate from Republican control...