Political Theater

As the holiday season is upon us, so too is a time honored tradition. Congress working at the last minute to shore up must-pass bills. CQ Roll Call's Jim Saksa talks with budget tracker David Lerman on the latest on appropriations and a COVID relief package. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Bendat has literally written the book on our Inauguration Day traditions and history. And one thing he is pretty confident of predicting: between Donald Trump's propensity for antics and the ongoing pandemic, the Jan. 20 inauguration of Joe Biden is going to be one we'll remember. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress is very good at putting off its most important business until the end of the year. The current spending measure funding the government expires on December 11. And with the economy starting to show signs of strain, lawmakers are offering their own proposals for a COVID relief package that they hope to pass in the coming weeks. The two big ticket items might end up in one big year end measu...

The first full official day of the transition from the Trump administration to the Biden administration featured President-elect Joe Biden introducing several of his Cabinet picks in Wilmington, Del., a group of veteran hands that epitomizes what could be called his Dare to be Dull approach to governing. Plus, Todd Ruger discusses changes atop the always-in-the-spotlight Senate Judiciary Committee...

We're delving into President Donald Trump's latest moves to block President-elect Biden from moving forward, why foreign policy towards Europe may be thorny, and how a big infrastructure bill could be on the table. CQ Roll Call's Jim Saksa hosts with contributions from Niels Lesniewski, Rachel Oswald and Jessica Wehrman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a COVID-19 vaccine in sight, it's more important than ever the Trump administration and the team of President-elect Joe Biden coordinate on the pandemic. But that's not happening. Sen. Chris Murphy discusses how the Trump team is briefing senators, but refuses to bring Biden into the discussion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Marchick, director of Center for Presidential Transition, has a traffic report for us: If the Trump administration doesn’t start doing its part in the transition, the backups could soon threaten the public's well being. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President-elect Joe Biden has poached the first member of Congress for his administration — Louisiana Democrat Cedric Richmond. The lawmaker will become a senior adviser to the president and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. CQ Roll Call's Jason Dick reports on why Richmond could be among the most influential staffers for Biden. Plus, Katherine Tully-McManus walks us through...

President-elect Joe Biden says that "more people may die" if President Donald Trump doesn't soon share what the current plans are to combat COVID-19 and distribute vaccines. Also, a first look at who may be named to be Director of National Intelligence. CQ Roll Call's Katherine Tully-McManus speaks with Niels Lesniewski on the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a little over a week, President Donald Trump has launched legal action to try to counter election results, fired the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and other top tier civilians at the Pentagon. CQ Roll Call's Jason Dick talks with Todd Ruger and John Donnelly to examine these latest moves and what they mean for the nation's stability. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi...

President Donald Trump might be holding off on his participation in the transition process, but Congress is not. New members report to Capitol Hill this week for orientation, and Katherine Tully-McManus and Mark Satter talk to us about some of the demographic shifts in the freshman class. Jim Saksa also reports on how the incoming Biden administration might have to wait until next year to find out...

We're looking at the fallout from the Trump administration fueling the myth that the president didn't lose the election. President-elect Joe Biden and his team can't get national security briefings, or funds usually associated with setting up shop to become president. There are also more than a dozen congressional seats still waiting to be called. Host Jim Saksa speaks with CQ Roll Call's chief co...

President-elect Joe Biden launches his transition with a marquee roster to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. We also look at what is likely to happen to immigration policy and the fate of the Senate's majority. CQ Roll Call's Katherine Tully-McManus hosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the time of this recording, five states have still not been called in the presidential election, with former Vice President Joe Biden leading in three of them. Then there is the Senate. With two runoff elections set in Georgia in January, chamber majority will be uncertain until then. CQ Roll Call's Jason Dick, Niels Lesniewski and Stephanie Akin report in this special edition of Political Thea...

The country is on edge as battleground states continue their vote count in the race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden for the presidency. But that has not stopped Trump’s campaign from filing several lawsuits in hopes of gaining an edge in the final results. But what about all these lawsuits? How likely are they to affect the outcome? CQ Roll Call senior writer Todd Ruger discusses them and what...

If you like tidy stories, then 2020 is not for you. As election officials continue counting votes for the presidency and Senate and House races, it's tough to get a handle on just what happened: Why were polls off? Who will win? Will each party need to do some soul searching or will they pretend it's all good? Rodell Mollineu of ROKK Solutions and Liesl Hickey, of Ascent Media join the podcast to...

With only days to go before Election Day, my colleague Shawn Zeller was thinking about the last 4 years and whether the way President Trump has governed will have a lasting impact on the presidency. Here is his podcast where Shawn speaks with presidential historian David Greenburg on what the future holds for the presidency.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2020 Election is “rounding the corner” — sorry, I could not resist — but here we are, just a few days out from Nov. 3, which means that it’s almost Halloween. And what better way to recognize the spooky nature of All’s Hallows Eve than to discuss the scary worst-case scenarios for the elections! Disputed counts! Lawsuits! Candidates refusing to concede! States sending multiple sets of electors...

Brent Roske is a political animal, but it wasn’t supposed to be that way. A veteran Hollywood creative type, his series “Chasing the Hill,” about a fictional congressional campaign, was supposed to get it out of his system. It just lit the fire though, and he went on to run for Congress himself, move to Iowa, start a political talk show, Roske on Politics, and get involved in political strategy. A...

Technology increasingly defines modern life, and that is especially so in political campaigns. But for all the sophisticated polling models and ways of raising money in politics, a new organization is betting that a very old school way of doing things will help boost turnout. Senior staff writer Bridget Bowman joins Political Theater to talk about Vote Tripling, a group that's using behavior scien...

The vice presidency is a strange office, a hybrid of both the executive branch and the legislative branch, someone who breaks ties on Senate votes and can preside over the counting of his own electoral votes in a joint session of Congress. So Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris carried with it more significance as we brace for a possibly disputed electio...

As if the 2020 presidential campaign wasn’t already tense enough, we now have a high-profile Supreme Court confirmation fight playing out in the Senate. But things will look and play out differently for the nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett. CQ Roll Call senior writer Todd Ruger and staff writer Katherine Tully McManus walk us through what we can expect in the weeks ahead. Learn more about your ad...

We thought we were in the home stretch of the 2020 campaign season, with the primaries over and early voting beginning, and then on Sept. 18, another political earthquake shook us when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. Niels Lesniewski and Bridget Bowman discuss what we know, what we don’t know and what we’ll be watching in the coming days and weeks about the latest Supreme Court new...

If you’ve been anywhere near cable news or social media in the last few months, you have probably seen an ad by the Lincoln Project. The group of Republicans who have aggressively gone after President Donald Trump on cable news and social media. Lincoln Project Senior Advisor Kurt Bardella, explains what motivates the group, what they hope to accomplish and the pushback they've gotten from their G...

If you ran for Congress in 2018, there was a pretty good chance you are part of a political documentary. First came “Knock Down the House,” which featured a (then) little known candidate, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and now comes “Surge,” which follows women who ran against veteran Republican incumbents. Political Reporters Bridget Bowman and Kate Ackley spoke to Rep. Lauren Underwood, a star of “Sur...