Talking Feds

Liz Oyer, Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon, and Charlie Sykes join Harry to break down a week of embarrassments for Donald Trump, offset partly by Todd Blanche’s confirmation as Attorney General. The panel weighs the iniquity of the Senate’s vote, then digs into a court’s forceful rejection of Trump’s ballroom and the fallout from the shambolic Reflecting Pool prosecution. Finally, the group focuses...

“Sometimes the smaller power has advantages that you don't expect.” That’s the lesson Anne Applebaum says Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are learning as their weaker foes keep handing them setbacks. Applebaum explains to Harry how Ukraine's drone campaign is bringing the war home to Russians and why Iran looks poised to gain unprecedented control over the Strait of Hormuz. And, as Trump amasses w...

Donald Trump seems determined to make things hard for everyone: Americans, Republican senators, and even himself. Glenn Kirschner, Josh Marshall, and Ali Vitali join Harry to talk through a week packed with unforced errors by the administration that are derailing Trump's presidency in the run-up to the midterms. The panel discusses Trump’s no-holds-barred effort to save the slush fund, the embarra...

Like the prophets he quotes at the pulpit, Senator Raphael Warnock feels he’s watching his country descend into greed, injustice, and tyranny. He sees a MAGA movement “corrupting” his Christian faith and a president who seems to think charity begins (and mostly ends) at home. With his new book—The Crooked Places Made Straight—Senator Warnock lays out what Democrats must do to meet this moral momen...

As casualties mount and gas prices rise, the White House knows it may be losing its chance to resolve its war with Iran in time to prevent a midterms wipe-out for Republicans. To plumb the depth of the political damage and assess the decisive races, Harry talks with Susan Glasser, Astead Herndon, and Juliette Kayyem. The group breaks down Trump’s decision to go back to war, Hegseth’s worrying obfu...

Maggie Haberman has been on the Trump beat for decades. Now she has written—with co-author Jonathan Swan—a tour de force on how the president is remaking our government in his image. Haberman gives Harry an inside look at a White House in thrall to a president who’s never been so uninhibited. She shares a swath of insights about Trump’s health, his reluctance to help Republicans in the midter...

Aaron Blake, Conor Lamb, and Mimi Rocah join Harry to break down Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing, two new ICE killings, and a primetime election rant. Did Todd Blanche manage to persuade senators that he's a traditional do-the-right-thing prosecutor? Why is Trump suddenly embracing ICE’s abuses again, and could that cost him the midterms? Finally: was Trump’s big speech a prelude to a declarat...

Over the next two days, would-be Attorney General Todd Blanche will get a grilling from the Senate about how he and the Department of Justice handled transparency regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. Julie K. Brown—the reporter who has done the most to expose and explain the Epstein saga—knows what senators need to ask. She joins Harry to lay out how the DOJ continues to fail Epstein’s victims, why...

Stellar economic analysts Dean Baker, Paul Krugman, and Stephanie Ruhle join Harry for his periodic deep dive into the ways Trump is reshaping the U.S. economy. The panel weighs the immediate and long-term economic effects of Trump’s on-again, off-again war with Iran. Next, they take stock of Trump's record-breaking self-enrichment, and of how the Supreme Court has opened the door to more chaos an...

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...