Politix

After weeks of internal recriminations over the Democratic Party’s crisis of confidence in Joe Biden’s ability to mount a winning campaign against Donald Trump Biden announced that he will not accept the Democratic nomination for president. In short order, he announced his endorsement of Kamala Harris, making her the runaway favorite to top the Democratic ticket. In this emergency episode, Brian a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian assess a shocking week in politics. * Are we really going to move on from the Trump shooting attempt if it turns out, as seems possible, that the shooter was an accelerationist right-wing fanatic? * Will Democratic leaders use the attempted shooting as an offramp from their efforts to find a stro...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian assess the downward spiral of the Biden campaign and look for signs that Democrats won’t just give up on the race. * Has Biden really ruled out suspending his campaign, or is he just being pragmatic: 100 percent in until he’s 100 percent out? * Are the influential Democrats who’ve rallied to Bide...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Just days after the first presidential debate, which has plunged Democrats into a crisis of confidence, the Supreme Court has intervened to declare that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecutions for any actions they take with their exclusive and plenary powers, and even presumptive immunity for their ot...

Folks, it did not go well. Joe Biden definitively lost the first of two scheduled presidential debates against Donald Trump. Worse, he did so in a way that will inevitably rekindle questions about his candidacy, and not just from bloggers and columnists, but likely from some of the most influential Democrats in America. In this free post-debate episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * Who swapped out Bi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Special announcement from Matt and Brian: We will be hosting a live chat during Thursday night’s debate for paid Politix subscribers. If you’d like to ride shotgun with us, or need moral support to get through the event, be on the lookout for an email invitation to joint the chat just as the debate begins at 9 p.m. ET Thu...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take a wide-angle view of new data showing inflation and violent crime way down: * Why is good economic news so tricky for Joe Biden to capitalize on? * How can Biden remind voters that Trump handed him a depressed economy with broken supply chains, and that Biden fixed both unemployment and infl...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the flood of support Donald Trump has seen from shady rich guys since his felony convictions two weeks ago: * Why do the owners and executives of big firms feel insulated from consequences for supporting a convicted white-collar felon who tried to overthrow the government? * Do they actua...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian discuss the solidifying Democratic response to Donald Trump’s felony convictions, and scratch their heads a bit: * Why are Democrats demurring when the facts are the ground are so advantageous to them? * How consistent is this with the party’s past practice of shrugging off Trump-accountability m...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm SPECIAL EDITION: A New York jury declared Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts he faced, finding that he forged business records to cover up his illegal conduct in the 2016 election. Matt and Brian: * Review the case and the law and the controversy around it; * Discuss the relevance of the news—particularly to new voters...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, with so many American liberals and leaders abroad worrying about what a second Trump term will mean for them, Matt and Brian examine the many political differences between fear and fearlessness. For instance: * If Trump’s threats have become more literal and less figurative, how can liberals most effectively op...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian explore the revelation that Justice Samuel Alito flew a Stop the Steal flag over his house in the days after January 6 as a window into broader differences between the right and left. For instance: * Why are Republican-appointed judges so often former Republican operatives, while Democratic-appoi...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian take a granular look at the latest New York Times /Siena data, which finds Joe Biden losing most swing states, and well behind in the sunbelt states of Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia, which he won in 2020. They discuss whether: * Biden’s post-State of the Union poll bounce was illusory, or a hint a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian break down the growing tension between Joe Biden and the New York Times and try to assess what impact it will have on the 2024 election and the deteriorating relationship between Democrats and mainstream media generally. * Is Biden right to be frustrated with the way the national political media...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week, Matt and Brian look ahead to looming questions that, under normal circumstances, would be paint-by-numbers developments in a presidential election year: running-mate selection and debates. * President Biden recently confirmed that he intends to debate Donald Trump. Is this a wise decision, and how should he app...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm With Matt back from vacation, he and Brian discuss a bunch of important developments in the news, and zoom out to assess whether it’s really changed race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump: * Has polling data improved enough to make Biden the favorite to win? * Have developments like Biden’s patient victory in the fight o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm With Matt on vacation this week, Brian hosts a conversation with Rebecca Roiphe, a New York Law School professor and former Manhattan prosecutor who enforced the very laws Donald Trump is charged with breaking in his first criminal trial. They discuss: * Why legal commentators who criticized District Attorney Alvin Bragg’...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week on Politix , Matt and Brian step back from the news cycle to examine Donald Trump’s policy agenda, and the weird extent to which he’s getting a pass on toxic ideas: * His plan for an across the board 10 percent tariff would make Americans pay more for virtually everything, including groceries; * A big immigratio...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week on Politix , Brian returns from a long weekend in real America (western Mexico) with some fresh insight on how Trump-stalgia works. He and Matt discuss: * Why fewer people disapprove of Trump lately and why more people seemingly think his sharpest critics have overstated their case; * How lag effects (the persis...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week on Politix , Julian Sanchez joins Matt and Brian to discuss: * Donald Trump’s uncanny ability to evade justice; * Why a panel of New York appeals court judges let him mostly off the hook by staving off the seizure of his assets in his civil-fraud case; * What liberals and Democrats can do to make these civil ver...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week on Politix , Matt and Brian discuss: * Donald Trump’s warning of “a bloodbath for the whole country” if he loses; * The relative political value of exploiting Trump’s authoritarian appeals vs. his agenda of tax breaks for rich people and big entitlement cuts; * The potential risk of attacking Trump in scattersho...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week on Politix , Matt and Brian discuss: * The biggest political takeaways from Joe Biden’s State of the Union address; * Whether the press corps will do any soul searching after getting bamboozled by Republican special counsel Robert Hur; * Can Politix convince Merrick Garland to resign? Then, paid subscribers get...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week on Politix , Matt and Brian discuss: * How Donald Trump wriggled away from his disastrous pandemic response and the horribleness of 2020; * Whether Joe Biden’s pandemic response made voters more inclined to forgive Trump; * The extent to which the switcheroo was the product of rational thinking vs. the political...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm In this special crossover episode, The Bulwark 's Tim Miller joins Matt and Brian to answer burning questions like: * Why have most Never Trumpers have embraced liberalism and the Democratic Party to some degree or another, rather than remain conservative critics within the GOP? * If Republicans sincerely believe life beg...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm This week on Politix , Matt and Brian discuss: * The nearly half-billion dollar judgment Trump owes New York for engaging in fraudulent business practices; * Why MAGA spin that this his fraudulent practices were “victimless” is both bullshit, and irrelevant; * Similarities and differences between this scam and Trump’s oth...