Talking Feds

Harry and Molly trade off political and legal questions in their latest mashup. As usual, they cover lots of territory on both the legal and political terrains, including Trump’s insistence that he is better for Israel, the status of the various Trump cases, including if Trump wins, the Supreme Court’s reaction to public discontent, whether the justice system is biased towards white men, whether V...

T minus 22 and the two campaigns are a study in contrasts. Harris is prospecting for new voters w/ a broad media strategy, inc niche podcasts, while Trump digs deeper into the dark recesses of MAGA voters searching for supporters who sat the last two elections out. The hurricane is a vivid reminder of all that can’t be predicted, & an illustration of the damage wrought by Trump’s lies. A great tri...

When Judge Tanya Chutkan abruptly unsealed Jack Smith’s 165 page brief describing the evidence he proposes to use to convict Donald Trump of trying to steal the 2020 election, there was a mad dash of activity as we all scrambled to mine the best nuggets of information; and there were many of them. Read of the brief reveals a whole other series of insights that have been overlooked or under reporte...

If there was a fundamental shift in the election dynamics this week, it wasn't perceptible at the surface level. A great returning panel of Alisyn Camerota, David French, and Norm Ornstein joins Harry to discuss whether Trump's increasingly brazen lies move any voters into his column. They then take up the VP debate & Vance's inability to concede that Trump lost in 2020; Harris's week, highlighted...

Harry talks with Michael Podhorzer, founder of the Analyst Institute and perhaps the foremost student in the country of the true utility and disutility of political polls. Podhorzer explains the critical difference between two types of “undecided” voters the polls lump together – those (very very rare) votes still uncertain whom to vote for and those (much more common) voters who may or may not vo...

With five weeks to go before the election, Donald Trump seems content to double and redouble down on his appeal to the extreme elements of his base, including conspicuous racist and xenophobic undertones. Kamala Harris spent the week laying out detailed economic policy proposals, facing the press, wooing rural and blue-collar voters, and burnishing her credentials as a potential Commander in Chief...

Harry sits down with Preet Bharara, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and an encyclopedic source about tradition, culture, and current state of play at the Department of Justice. The two have a wide-ranging conversation touching on the threat of Project 2025 to DOJ in particular; the current state of morale, which suffered in the Trump years; fine points of strate...

A superb panel of Jason Kander, Josh Marshall, and Tara Setmayer joins Harry to take stock of a wild & weird week and consider where it leaves us w/ 6 weeks to go. Harris logged two effective interviews, continued to headline boisterous rallies, and swamped Trump in fundraising. Trump continued to stir the pot about pet-eating in Springfield then at week’s end had to deal with fallout from news of...

Harry sits down with Judge J. Michael Luttig, a leading conservative jurist and fierce critic of Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and the Supreme Court. Judge Luttig explains why Trump is the very menace to the Constitution that the Framers feared, and excoriates Republicans in Congress for enabling his authoritarian ambitions. The two move on to 3 pro-Trump Supreme Court decisions that Luttig...

The debate behind us, we are in the official 50-day homestretch of the presidential campaign. And although Kamala Harris dominated the debate, it’s not clear that it translates into a political edge in the election. A fantastic roundtable of Susan Glasser, Molly Jong-Fast, and Jacob Weisberg join Harry to assess the debate and its aftermath; analyze each side’s subsequent moves and what they revea...

Talking Feds is excited to introduce a new conversation series: 1-on-1s with Harry Litman. This series will drop in your feed every Thursday — in addition to our Monday roundtables — and feature conversations that go in-depth with one special guest. Host Harry Litman will be engaging with all sorts of topics, from law and politics to art and science to sports, history, movies, and more. With the T...

Recorded live at the Texas Tribune Festival Harry, Keith Ellison, Katie Phang, and Ellen Rosenblum examine Kamala Harris’s work as district attorney and attorney general, the potential points of attack it provides to Donald Trump, and what it tells us about what kind of president she'd be. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do...

An episode focusing entirely on the dynamic, exquisitely close presidential campaign in the wake of the DNC convention. Josh Marshall, Heather Cox Richardson, and Charlie Sykes join Harry to assess whether the convention gave Harris/Walz a lasting bump or just a temporary high; the ticket’s week on the campaign trail, including the CNN interview; more unwelcome headlines for the Trump team over Ar...

Welcome to the 300th episode of Talking Feds, coming to you live from the heart of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago! Today’s show celebrates this milestone with an incredible roster of guests who will help us dissect the electric atmosphere and pivotal moments of this historic week. We’ve lined up exclusive interviews with some of the foremost figures in law and politics, providing yo...

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz breeze into the Windy City for the Democratic convention with a strong tailwind from 3-plus weeks of a pitch perfect campaign, abetted by a lackluster at best performance from Donald Trump and JD Vance. Bill Kristol, Bob Shrum, and Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill join Harry to analyze what the ticket and party need to accomplish this week. The roundtable then broadens focus...

Things could be going better for Kamala Harris, but it is hard to see how; and a great roundtable of Jen Rubin, Tara Setmayer, and Charlie Sykes join Harry to analyze the week and what lies ahead. Harris’s VP choice of MN gov Tim Walz drew high marks, and the 2 embarked on a series of exuberant initial campaign stops. Trump, meanwhile, convened a largely incoherent press conference, and the R atta...

Another week in which the fledgling Kamala Harris campaign seemed to click on all cylinders while Donald Trump and JD Vance had trouble finding their footing. The Trump campaign tried out different themes for attacking the Vice President, but none landed squarely and drew some broad rebuke. Mara Liasson, Zerlina Maxwell, and Jacob Weisberg join Harry to consider whether Harris is riding a false cr...

For a third successive week, we had a great and unanticipated shifting of the tides. In a juggernaut of adroit maneuvering in the immediate wake of Biden’s withdrawal, Kamala Harris all but secured the presidential nomination and launched a campaign against Donald Trump. A terrific bipartisan roundtable of Jonah Goldberg, Ali Vitali and Rick Wilson analyzes how Harris ascended so quickly and wheth...

We are in the midst of a political maelstrom as intense, consequential, and unpredictable as very few in the nation’s history. A terrific clear-eyed roundtable of Alisyn Camerota, David French, and Norm Ornstein joins Harry to discuss the shifting landscape in both major political parties. The national convention marked Republicans’ total emergence as the party of Trump; while the teeth-gnashing a...

The tectonic shifts in the legal and political landscapes of the last 3 weeks have upended all prospect for legal accountability for Trump before the election, and the country is paying far less attention. But all of the 4 criminal cases remain in play in some fashion. In this special episode of Talking Feds, 3 of the country’s most prominent analysts–Norm Eisen, Kristy Greenberg, and Joyce Vance–...

Three weeks now into a political crisis of the highest stakes and volatility, as Biden attempts to bypass political elites & fundraisers, many of whom seem implacably set against him, and take his case directly to the American people. Susan Glasser, Jason Kander and Mike Podhorzer join Harry to bear down hard on Biden’s prospects for survival and the likely alternative if Biden steps aside. Adding...

Our annual end-of-term Supreme Court episode comes to grips with a momentous Court year that upended the national political and legal landscapes, in the process augmenting the Court’s own powers and giving a leg up to Donald Trump and the horrifying prospect of his return to power. A great roundtable of Emily Bazelon, Melissa Murray, & Steve Vladeck join Harry to come to grips with the cataclysmic...

The week had a tsunami like intensity that left abundant wreckage in its wake, both in the political and legal landscapes; and a fantastic roundtable of Andrea Mitchell, Charlie Sykes, and Jacob Weisberg bears down on what went awry and the unavoidable question—unthinkable one week ago—whether Biden needs to step aside. We then turn to the momentous week in the Supreme Court, which advanced the ub...

The hot-button issues in US society are getting hotter as the political season commences in earnest. A long blueprint for operations in a 2nd Trump administration sets out volcanic changes in abortion, religion, the administrative state, immigration, & more. In this episode, a great roundtable of Gloria Borger, Dahlia Lithwick, and Jen Rubin joins Harry to stare down the barrel of the most content...

The world feels more upside down than ever, as Donald Trump staged a victory tour in the wake of his convictions and Republicans on the Hill fell completely and obsequiously in line. A great Talking Feds panel of Susan Glasser, Jacob Weisberg, & Rick Wilson analyze Trump’s total capture of the party & what it portends for November. We then move to the Hunter Biden conviction & why it ties Rs in kn...