Politically Georgia

In the is edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, Patricia Murphy, Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell and Bill Nigut discuss the school safety proposal Lt. Governor Burt is backing that would offer teachers a $10,000 stipend to carry guns in the classroom.   Plus, after three weeks of chaos, Republicans in the U.S. House finally elected a speaker – Louisiana congressma...

In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, a report from ABC News says Mark Meadows has cut an immunity deal to testify in Jack Smith’s federal case against Donald Trump.   Plus, how the Georgia Supreme Court ruling upholding the state’s abortion law could put the issue front and center in the 2024 elections.  And, House Republicans shoot down yet another ca...

In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy, Tia Mitchell and Bill Nigut discuss the Georgia Supreme Court’s ruling that the state’s current restrictions on abortion will remain in effect. Plus, a fourth defendant in Fani Willis’ election conspiracy case entered a guilty plea. Attorney Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty to one co...

Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis joins Greg Bluestein, Bill Nigut, Tia Mitchell and Patricia Murphy to discuss how far the guilty pleas of Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro can go in proving Fani Willis’ election conspiracy case against the remaining defendants, especially Donald Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, John Eastman and the Georgia fake electors. Then: It’s another da...

The trial of Kenneth Chesebro, one of the 19 defendants indicted for efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election began with jury selection on this Friday, October 20. His trial comes almost 18 months after Fulton County DA Fani Willis began her special grand jury investigation of possible criminal wrongdoing by Donald Trump and other allies. Shortly following the recording of this pod...

One day before jury selection was set to begin in the Fulton County trial of Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, two defendants in the sprawling Trump election interference case, Sidney Powell made the stunning decision to accept a plea deal. She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties.   In this episode of The A...

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has always been portrayed as tough as nails, willing to take on the most daunting individuals she thinks have committed crimes. She’s doing just that in prosecuting former President Donald Trump and a number of his allies, now indicted for attempting to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. But at a closed-door fundraiser, Willis...

Late this week jury selection will begin in the trial of Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, two of the 19 defendants – including former President Donald Trump – charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis with conspiring to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Powell and Chesebro exercised their right under Georgia law for a speedy trial, and so will be tried s...

Rep. Austin Scott, the senior member of Georgia’s GOP House delegation spent much of last week fuming over the GOP conference’s inability to elect a new candidate for Speaker of the House. And so on Friday, with Jim Jordan poised to be the only declared candidate in the race, Scott surprised his colleagues, the Capitol Hill press corps, and almost his own wife, and declared himself a candidate for...

The AJC’s Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy, Greg Bluestein and Bill Nigut talk with Homerville State Senator Russ Goodman, who was on a personal trip with his mother to Israel when the Hamas terrorist attacks broke out. He describes being surrounded by small arms fire and explosions and eventually made a harrowing journey to Jordan to get a plane back to the United States. And as Georgia political le...

The House has adjourned without electing a new Speaker because while Majority Leader Steve Scalise won the GOP nomination for the job, he doesn’t have enough votes to win the gavel outright. In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, the AJC’s Patricia Murphy, Bill Nigut and Tia Mitchell report on the continuing split among Georgia Republican members over wh...

The Republican battle is underway to elect a new speaker of the house. In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Bill Nigut, Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy and Tia Mitchell discuss the apparent split in the Georgia delegation between casting their ballots for either Majority Leader Steve Scalise or Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan. But is Kevin McCarthy in...

Georgia elected officials say they stand in solidarity with Israel after the most devastating attack on Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. On this episode of the Politically Georgia podcast from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, hosts Greg Bluestein, Bill Nigut and Tia Mitchell are joined by American Jewish Committee Southern director Dov Wilker to look at how political leaders and members of t...

The AJC’s Patricia Murphy, Tia Mitchell, and Bill Nigut look at news stories that are in the headlines right now:   Ten people – so far – have died this year while in custody in Fulton County in just the past nine months alone. The jail is drastically overcrowded and many areas of the building are actually crumbling. This week, Lt. Governor Burt Jones and state Senator John Albers announced that a...

After a revolt in the U.S. House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy loses the gavel. On today’s Politically Georgia podcast from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, hosts Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Bill Nigut and Patricia Murphy explain why McCarthy’s ouster leaves Georgia leaders in flux. Plus, one of the defendants in the Fulton County election interference case has accepted a deal to plead guilty. Learn...

While many court observers believed that Donald Trump would file a motion to have his Georgia election conspiracy case moved to federal court, his lawyers have announced they want the case argued in Fulton County Superior Court. In this episode of Politically Georgia, Patricia Murphy, Bill Nigut, Tia Mitchell and Greg Bluestein look at why Trump has decided to accept the Fulton County venue. A maj...

The U.S. Senate reached an agreement on a bipartisan stopgap spending bill to keep the government open, but hard-line Republicans are unlikely to support the compromise. In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Bill Nigut, Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy, and Tia Mitchell break down the impasse in Washington and the impact a government shutdown could...

In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Bill Nigut look at how Marjorie Taylor Greene – one of Speaker McCarthy’s strongest allies in the House – turned against him and joined hardliners in refusing to pass the rule to allow the Department of Defense budget bill to come to the floor for an official vote. Greene’s surprisi...

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is facing questions from some key Democrats about how the city will count signatures collected by those supporting a referendum on the city’s planned police training center. In this episode of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia, Patricia Murphy, Tia Mitchell, Greg Bluestein, and Bill Nigut ask whether Dickens is losing support from allies in his comm...

Atlanta leaders said they were willing to go into ‘war mode’ against dangerous apartments. More than a year later, residents feel they’re on their own.   In this special edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, host Bill Nigut sits down with AJC investigative reporter Willoughby Mariano, who follows up on the AJC’s 2022 special investigation Dangerous Dwellings.  ...

In this special edition of the Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy, Bill Nigut and Riley Bunch sit down with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens to discuss the continued controversy over the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. Hear why Mayor Dickens opposes an effort by a city council member to bypass an ongoing petition effort and place the public safety trainin...

What is the Georgia Republicans’ message as Congress careens toward a possible government shutdown? Plus, you’ll hear how a federal redistricting trial ending today could open the door for Democrats to win an additional seat in the U.S. House. We’ll look at the stakes in the trial. And you’ll hear our hosts discuss how new indictments of Hunter Biden could complicate Democrats’ re-election strateg...

In this episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy, Bill Nigut, and Tia Mitchell discuss the demands from Georgia Republicans that helped trigger an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. Plus, you’ll hear why former Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue were in the crosshairs of the Fulton County probe into Donald Trump. And wh...

What's next in Fulton County's case against Donald Trump? The trial of the former president and 18 co-defendants enters a new, more unpredictable phase now that each of them have pleaded not guilty.   In a live episode of the Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy and Bill Nigut head to Athens to explore what to expect over the next few months -- and the legal challenge...

Just two years ago, state lawmakers convened at the Capitol to redraw Georgia’s political boundaries. Now they could be poised to revisit the map if a federal judge rules the Republican-backed Legislature illegally weakened Black voters’ electoral power. In this episode of the Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy, Bill Nigut, and Tia Mitchell discuss the two-week fede...