Political Theater

Special elections to the House this year have offered more evidence that local and state contests have been nationalized, even down to the intra-party primary contests for safe seats. CQ Roll Call Politics Editor Herb Jackson and Inside Elections Reporter and Analyst Jacob Rubashkin join Political Theater to discuss what we can learn from special election results so far. Learn more about your ad c...

The HBO documentary series “Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union,” arrives at a tumultuous time in American politics. It explores the formative years and presidency of Barack Obama, an era that seems both faraway and contemporary, with race relations continuing to define the public sphere. The three-part series premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Aug. 3, just in time for Obama's 60th birthday thi...

This week, the White House celebrated the 31st anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, touted as a bipartisan success that has delivered for Americans, and hinted it could be used to help secure voting rights. CQ Roll Call Chief Correspondent Niels Lesniewski joins the Political Theater podcast to talk about the law, and the challenges remaining. Learn more about your ad...

Initially conceived as a temporary solution for vulnerable immigrants, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has become an intractable political battlefield as Congress continues to punt, year after year, a comprehensive overhaul of the country's immigration program. The latest chapter has underscored the fragility of even a government policy that has been around for almost 10 years:...

Midterm elections have patterns, but the political calculus we use sometimes needs a little adjusting. A delayed redistricting cycle, former President Donald Trump’s influence over key Senate and House races and changes to several states’ voter access laws make the 2022 campaign particularly hard to gauge. Nathan Gonzales, elections analyst for CQ Roll Call and the publisher of Inside Elections, j...

Supreme Court justices like to portray themselves as legal actors, not political ones, but the high court has never been able to stay out of the public arena. That was certainly the case for the term that just ended, and it will certainly be the case for the term to come. CQ Roll Call senior writer Todd Ruger discusses the court’s recent decisions, its upcoming ones and the effect that Congress an...

Just before the Independence Day recess, the House is moving anew to remove statues of people in the Capitol who were part of the Confederacy or were otherwise white supremacists. Host Jason Dick and CQ Roll Call staff writer Chris Marquette discuss the long debate over such figures, why they are so divisive and what happens next to replace them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...

Why does something that seems pretty common sense and has wide bipartisan support get stalled in the Senate? A case study is the current debate over how to address military sexual assault, an issue the Pentagon has grappled with for years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the House and Senate were both in session for the first time since before Memorial Day, and it feels like Spring Fever, with pandemic precautions mostly being cast aside. CQ Roll Call Staff Writer Jim Saksa has been there for the most moribund times of the pandemic, and now, a kind of Great Reopening. He gathered sound, wrote a couple of stories, caught up with folks from the Before Tim...

For a small state, West Virginia has outsize political influence. The Mountain State's two senators, Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito, are in the middle of the biggest debates on the congressional and White House agenda. Andrea Billups, news director at West Virginia Public Broadcasting, explains why these two politicians are so effective. Learn more about your ad choices....

The United States and Russia have a tense political relationship, which will be on display later this month when President Joe Biden has called Russian leader Vladimir Putin meet for a summit. But the two countries don't have to look to far in the past to see that when genuine relationships on both sides prevail, everyone wins. Director Dominic Cooke discusses this dynamic and how he portrays it i...

This week marked the one year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, a year defined by a subsequent international reckoning on racial justice, a debate about overhauling police departments and an election that brought social and cultural issues violently into the foreground. Mary C. Curtis, host of the Equal Time podcast and a Roll Call columnist discusses where...

Few political issues are as polarizing as abortion, and now abortion opponents are on the cusp of a potentially epic win after decades of incremental gains. History professor Jennifer L. Holland discusses the politics of abortion rights, which are in focus after the Supreme Court announced it will hear a challenge to a new Mississippi law that severely restricts the procedure, and will likely be d...

When we started this podcast in January 2018, we were not thinking about whether it would make it to 200 episodes. Then again, we didn’t think we get reprimanded by Werner Herzog, either. So, borrowing from the “How it Started, How it’s going” meme, here’s Episode 200! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heading into the 2022 midterm elections, history and redistricting favor House Republicans. But even with built-in advantages, there are some wild cards to consider, particularly former President Donald Trump’s effect and some internal party drama that threatens to spill into public view. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark McKinnon, long-time political adviser and current co-host of the Showtime political documentary series The Circus joins Political Theater to discuss President Joe Biden’s approach to the art of the possible, the president's move from transitional to transformational figure, the “Manch Cam” focus on West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III and how politics has “snorted a bag of methamphetamines.” Le...

Jaime Harrison gained national attention last year when he broke fundraising records running against South Carolina incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham. While Harrison didn't win the election, his candidacy gave notice that the Old South is now the New South. Curtis sits down with the DNC Chair and talks race, his grandfather's life lesson, and what 2022 -- yes 2022 -- may hold. Learn more about your...

It's no secret that in the corridors of power there is a struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party. While Joe Biden won the presidency, there certainly wasn't a blue wave. Moreover, House Democrats lost seats, and while they hold a slim-majority in the Senate, infighting in the party has presented challenges in President Biden's agenda. CQ Roll Call's Shawn Zeller speaks to Donna Shalala and B...

The United States is amid a period of self-reflection and contentious debate on race relations and President Joe Biden is leaning into it. Rashawn Ray, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and sociology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, discusses Biden’s practical and personal approach to race relations, from executive orders to listening, from promoting legislation to griev...

Rep. Mike Johnson is emblematic of the Republican Party of which he is now, in his third House term, and a leading member. He joined fellow Republicans in January in backing the former president's campaign to overturn state election results. More than 60 percent of voters in his northwest Louisiana district voted for Trump and Johnson views Trump as the party’s most important voice. He sits down t...

Unified control of the White House and Congress does not happen all that often. We are in one of those periods now, with President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats in the majority in the House and Senate. And they are pursuing policy like they know they know their time is limited. Political Theater host Jason Dick discusses why unified control is so rare and what are the political consequences w...

This week marks the 11th anniversary of Barack Obama’s signing of the Affordable Care Act, something Joe Biden, then the vice president, now the president, famously described as a “Big F-ing Deal.” He was right. It is one of the signature moments in American health care policy, along with the passage of Medicare and Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Medicare prescription dr...

Native Americans have long had a contentious relationship with the Interior Department. Now one of their own is at the helm of it, Deb Haaland, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna. It was only in 2018 that the New Mexico Democrat made history as one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. Now she is the first Native American to head a Cabinet department. Carla Fredericks...

One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Political Theater takes stock of the changes in Congress and how it operates, which of those will be lasting, which are fleeting, and what are some of the lingering uncertainties of political life as lawmakers figure out how to keep responding to the pandemic and its challenges while keeping safe and trying to get us to the next phase of our lives. Learn more a...

Look no further than Congress to hear gripes about gridlock and the lack of bipartisanship. But based on whom the voters are sending to Washington, it’s not a big shock: Barely a statistically significant number of members of Congress represent House districts or Senate seats that voted for someone in the other political party for president. CQ Roll Call Elections Analyst and Inside Elections Publ...