Talking Feds

For his latest Talking San Diego conversation, Harry sits down with California Senator Adam Schiff. The two start with a close look at the upcoming confirmation battle over would-be Attorney General Todd Blanche. Drawing on their shared background as federal prosecutors, the two discuss what makes Blanche a singularly troubling nominee. The senator then shares his analysis of Blanche's prospects,...

It’s our annual Supreme Court term wrap-up. To break down a term marked by juggernaut victories for the conservative legal movement—as well as a few key losses for Trump—Harry is joined by Amy Howe, Dahlia Lithwick, and Steve Vladeck. They break down the biggest cases and spotlight several overlooked decisions with enormous long-term consequences for executive power, immigration, and the structure...

Harry talks with David Brooks about how we can redeem the society that produced an epidemic of loneliness, a shallow public life, and of course, Donald Trump. The two discuss Brooks’s stubborn optimism and the solutions he thinks could turn the tide toward a stronger, more communal America. Brooks lays out his hopes and fears for AI, warning of a society riven not just by income inequality but “co...

Our latest Contrarian episode comes with the end of the SCOTUS term looming, primaries shaking the Democratic party, and a key court ruling threatening Trump’s slush fund. A pair of Contrarian stalwarts—Maria Cardona and Norm Eisen—join Harry to break it all down. Has the Supreme Court just further broken our immigration system? And what will its final rulings of the term bring? Have mainstream De...

“The fight,” Senator Chris Murphy tells Harry, “shouldn’t just be to get rid of Trump. The fight should be to create a different economy and a different culture.” That’s the message of the senator’s new book—Crisis of the Common Good—which offers a host of provocative ideas for fixing the cracks in our society through which Trump crawled his way to power. After the two look at some of the latest T...

Three veterans of the FBI—Michael Feinberg, Andrew McCabe, and Asha Rangappa—join Harry for a special deep-dive on the Bureau. The panel explores the dangerous, erratic leadership of Kash Patel, whose blunders keep embarrassing his agents and harming their mission. They dig into the costs of Patel’s relentless purge of old personnel, of which Michael was an early victim. Finally, the trio zeroes i...

In their newest mashup, Harry and Molly Jong-Fast trade questions about the president's weak deal with Iran and latest failures in federal courts. Molly wants to know where the slush fund stands and whether the Kennedy Center fiasco is the beginning of the end for Trump’s makeover of D.C. Harry asks about the political price the president will pay for the Iran deal, and if Trump can get away with...

Talking Feds stalwarts Norm Ornstein, Tara Setmayer, and Jacob Weisberg join Harry to break down a week where Congress and the courts put Trump on his heels. The group explains the growing legal headwinds for the president’s slush fund and tax amnesty. Next, they dig into how an apparent classic Trump u-turn was a sneakier maneuver than it seemed. Finally, they turn to the new revelations about ho...

Veteran reporter Devlin Barrett takes Harry inside the secret negotiations that created the $1.8 billion slush fund and the transformation within the Department of Justice that made Trump's self-dealing possible. Drawing from his new book—The Department of Revenge: How Trump Took Control of American Justice—Devlin tells the inside story of how the president’s cronies remade the DOJ.  Devlin's book...

Harry talks with former Senator Barbara Boxer, Charlie Sykes, and Glenn Thrush to make sense of the sudden Republican restiveness, Graham Platner's latest scandal, and Trump's "scariest” appointment yet. Is California’s slow vote counting giving the DOJ an opening to claim election abuses? Will Platner doom Democrats’ hopes of what Charlie says should’ve been a “layup” win over Susan Collins? Can...

The U.S. war with Iran is not—despite promises from the White House—over. Nonetheless, premier national commentator David Frum is ready to declare a loser: Donald Trump. Together Harry and David piece through the interlocking personal failings of the president that foretold a winnable war against a far weaker enemy would become a debacle. And the two tackle how those traits shape Trump’s more succ...

As Trump puts a blue Texas in reach, Harry talks with Jonathan Alter, David A. Graham, and Senator Heidi Heitkamp to discuss the fall’s premier Senate race and the latest outrages from the DOJ. Should Democrats go all out to beat scandal-plagued Ken Paxton? Or does an obsession with Texas distract from other, less flashy pickup chances elsewhere? Can Trump’s “self-deal steal” survive sudden gusts...

A teenager hurtles from the balcony of a luxury apartment complex into the Thames. That unexplained death animates the newest book from one of America’s great nonfiction writers, Patrick Radden Keefe. Patrick joins Harry to unspool the story's web of shady characters, complacent police, and desperate parents. The two delve into the transformation of London into a playground for the extremely and u...

For Talking Feds' latest special episode on the Department of Justice, Harry bears down on the DOJ's sinister creation of $1.8 billion slush fund for Trump's nastiest allies. Expert observers of the Department—Ken Dilanian, Glenn Kirschner, and Mimi Rocah—join Harry to dive into the nefarious details and the avenues for pushing back. The panel then surveys the sorry state of field offices, includi...

Harry talks with Rick Hasen, one of the country’s leading experts in election law and a prophet of Chief Justice John Roberts’s decades-long project to tear down voting rights. Hasen explains why Roberts—after taking a slow and steady approach for so long—is suddenly masterminding an aggressive “two minute offense.” Hasen lays out the damage dealt to American democracy by the decision, the prospec...

With gas prices surging and inflation on the rise once more, Harry turns to economist Justin Wolfers to get a handle on what Trump is doing to the U.S. economy. Wolfers explains why the real cost of the war with Iran is vastly higher than the figures quoted so far by the Pentagon, how long exorbitant fuel costs could last, and the deeper, unremarked ways that Trump is challenging the foundations o...

As Republicans falter on their gerrymandering plans and Trump looks for a creative new way to pocket taxpayer dollars, Harry talks with Alisyn Camerota, Adam Klasfeld, and Elliot Williams. The tri-state trio dig into the stark racial politics of the post-Callais south and Republicans' sudden hesitation in their redistricting crusade. Next, the group turns to reports that the DOJ may be planning a...

After a bombshell redistricting ruling in Virginia shakes the midterms map, Harry talks with three top political minds—David French, Mara Liasson, and Mike Murphy—to try to get a sense of the outlook for November. Will two seismic court verdicts end Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House? Or will a strong anti-Trump tide power them to a win anyway? Can Trump keep Republicans in line, even as his a...

Leading SCOTUS scholar Melissa Murray joins Harry to discuss her new book on the constitution and her concerns about the Justices now tasked with interpreting it. Melissa guides Harry through key points from her book—"The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader"—from the fears of slave rebellion that shaped the 2nd amendment to the expansive promise of liberty...

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s seismic redistricting decision, Harry talks with David Gura, Juliette Kayyem, and Tara Setmayer to take stock of the ruling’s impact, the aftershocks of the White House Correspondents' Dinner attack, and Jerome Powell’s stand against Trump. How will the Callais ruling reshape the political map and Black representation in the South? Will Powell’s successor prove a...

Jake Sullivan helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Now, as he watches Trump try to superglue some version of that deal back together, Sullivan tells Harry the president “has no idea what he is doing because he has no idea quite why he's doing it.” Drawing on his four years of experience as Biden’s national security advisor, Sullivan plumbs the depth of Trump’s strategic catastrophe in...

In their newest mashup, Harry and Molly Jong-Fast swap questions about the scandals swamping Trump’s administration and the chances for real accountability for the culprits. Molly asks Harry what it’ll take to prosecute people like Kristy Noem and how far the Supreme Court might go to rescue Trump in the midterms. Harry fires back with questions about J.D. Vance’s political implosion and what the...

As scandals shake Trump’s cabinet, Harry sits down with Emily Bazelon, Conor Lamb, and Charlie Sykes to discuss the revelations about Kash Patel, a Democratic redistricting win in Virginia, and the administration’s latest retaliations. Along the way, the trio discuss what it will take to revive the rule of law and whether there’s a path away from endless gerrymandering. They close by digging into...

Nearly 100 days into her tenure, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill thinks she’s cracked the code for handling Trump. She tells Harry how she’s used the president’s negotiating tactics against him, why she’s putting in place some of the nation’s most ambitious bulwarks against ICE abuses, and how she ended up in a high-stakes battle with another venal, unpopular entity: FIFA. Plus, Governor Sherri...

In our latest Contrarian episode, Norm Eisen, Norm Ornstein, and Jen Rubin join Harry to assess new flashpoints in Trump's nonstop quest to escape accountability and his hasty efforts to claw free of his war in the Middle East. The group takes stock of Trump's stumbling attempts to find a deal with Iran, which seem likely to leave the U.S. weakened and isolated. The panel also weighs the bombshell...