The Commentary Magazine Podcast

In John’s absence today, New York Sun columnist and host of “The Reeducation” podcast, Eli Lake, joins the show to talk about how nuclear deterrence works and why. Also, an update on the Durham probe, the state of play ahead of the midterm elections, and a nascent revolution in the streets of Iran. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast debates Trump’s role on January 6 and whether, to borrow 9/11 conspiracy theory lingo, he LIHOP (let it happen on purpose) or MIHOP (made it happen on purpose). And what was the January 6 commission’s goal? To establish Trump's culpability or to create the conditions for accountability down the road. Also, John Fetterman is one of a handful of Democrats in America who wants to be seen...

Today's podcast takes up the latest hit on Donald Trump—someone's moving boxes around? Really? And the latest on the FBI's behavior toward Trump. And the latest on the January 6th hearings. And the latest on inflation. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast breaks down Joe Biden’s interview with CNN host Jake Tapper and Democrats circling the wagons around John Fetterman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The possible indictment of Hunter Biden. Hints of polling momentum for Republicans. Democrats bringing up ancillary issues in hopes they can distract. It's four weeks until the midterms. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast examines the news from the Ukraine War—the bridge attack followed by terrorist strikes on cities—and weird things politicians and intellectuals are saying about it. And the crime issue really comes home, literally, in the case of New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with a recitation of 18—count 'em, 18—different news stories all from yesterday and all deserving of attention, beginning with Joe Biden musing about "armageddon," which is maybe not what you want a president to be doing? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the news that OPEC+ plans to pare back oil production, the Biden administration has to worry about gas prices again at the worst possible moment. Also, the Georgia GOP’s process of rationalizing themselves into voting for Herschel Walker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast picks up a conversation from yesterday about Ukraine, nuclear weapons, Putin, and the United States's response, and more fireworks explode! Plus, Herschel Walker and the long dark night of the pro-life voter's soul. We're off tomorrow for Yom Kippur. Back Thursday. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins calmly with a conversation about whether people and voters take issues seriously or are now primarily motivated by negativity toward the other side. Then we start talking about Ukraine and Russia—and all hell breaks loose. If you dare, give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast begins with a horror story from Chicago—a criminal run amok just a day or so after a judge released him on his own recognizance—and broadens it out to wonder whether the seeming halt in the Democratic polling surge is due to Republicans hitting them hard on crime. Then we get pretty dark about the possibility of bad stuff happening with nukes in Ukraine. It's crushing morosity! Giv...

Matthew Continetti joins the podcast to discuss the alarming behavior of President Biden, who called out to a member of Congress who died in a car crash this summer. Not to mention the alarming behavior of Vladimir Putin, whose flailing in the course of his world-historic mistake may have a nuclear component. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast notes the $400 billion cost of Joe Biden's student debt "forgiveness" program and notes the irony of a supposedly progressive party favoring the well-to-do at the expense of the poor. Then there's the comic denouement of Joe Manchin's career and the approaching hurricane horror in Florida. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast takes up White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain's shocking attempt to claim Joe Biden came into office with an unemployment rate 40 percent higher than it was in point of fact—more evidence they're looking to retrofit the truth to help them in the midterms. And what's this about "long COVID"? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast goes through the bad news the ex-president received yesterday and whether the focus on Trump in the news is forestalling and covering up a shift back toward Republicans in the 2022 elections. And: Will Putin use a nuke? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Adam White joins the podcast to take on the courts. Did Joe Biden step on a legal landmine when he declared the pandemic “over?” Did Donald Trump err in pushing for a special master to review the classified documents he kept at Mar-a-Lago? And how can the Supreme Court preserve its legitimacy? Adam makes the case in his cover article in the October issue...

Commentary contributor and former deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Tevi Troy, joins the podcast today for a wide-ranging conversation on his latest for the magazine, “ The CDC’s Inadequate ‘Reform Plan.’” Did Joe Biden step in it when he declared the pandemic “over,” and can the CDC reform itself to avoid the failures it stumbled at the onset of the Covid outbreak?...

The Commentary podcast reviews Joe Biden’s first one-on-one interview in a long while with CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Our verdict: meh. He didn’t set himself on fire, but nor did he defuse the issues that may cost Democrats control of Congress in November. Is “just fine” good enough for Joe Biden? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at a New York Times poll suggesting Democrats increasingly think the country is on the "right track." If so, what does the phrase "right track" actually mean, if anything? And more on illegals being treated so horribly they get to spend their first days in America on Martha's Vineyard. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast looks at the breakthrough that will apparently prevent a nationwide rail strike and what it means for the upcoming elections. And we discuss the transport of illegal immigrants from red Texas to blue Martha's Vineyard. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast wonders at Joe Biden's decision to celebrate the "Inflation Reduction Act," complete with James Taylor warbling a 50-year-old ditty about drug abuse and suicide, on the day a terrible inflation number is released. The question: Will the media succeed in turning attention away from that and toward Republican extremism and abortion rights? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choi...

Today’s podcast looks at the worse-than-expected inflation numbers and the determination of the media and Democrats to frame them as some kind of new normal and wonders what kind of strategy this might be for November. Best way to play a bad hand, or handing an opportunity to their Republican rivals to beat them about the face and neck? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Liel Leibovitz joins the podcast today to discuss the New York Times’s hit piece on Hasidic schools in New York state and why it is so egregious. But we begin with the startling news out of Ukraine and what it portends. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The passing of Queen Elizabeth provides us with an opportunity to consider the question: Is there any figure left on the world stage who is known and admired for restraint rather than oversharing? And we express amazement at the current state of play in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s podcast takes up Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to expose the hypocrisy of “sanctuary city” mayors like Lori Lightfoot of Chicago by sending illegal immigrants northward to live where they are supposedly more “welcome”—which has caused Lightfoot to sputter in outrage. Also, issue polling: Does it tell us anything? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm...