The Conversation with Dasha Burns

One thing Donald Trump loves to say is that he knows how to make a deal. And even for our allies, sometimes the “Art of the Deal” can feel like a shakedown. Ask NATO about that, and you’ll get some nods. But lately, Canada is the ally that’s been caught in Trump’s line of sight. The president-elect has been trolling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on social media, calling him the “governor” of Ameri...

Donald Trump’s Washington is going to be packed with heavyweights from big business such as Elon Musk, Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents traditional business interests in D.C., has recently found itself estranged from its longtime allies in the Republican Party. On this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, the Chamber’s top lobbyist, former Rep. Rodney...

Generational change. It’s been a hot topic for Democrats ever since Joe Biden announced he’d run for a second term, and it's been picking up steam this past week as House Democrats pushed aside aging ranking members on key committees in order to make room for some younger leaders. In this episode, Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels speaks with Rep. Jared Huffman, who is challenging for the top Demo...

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) weighs in on President-elect Trump’s cabinet picks, the news of former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal from attorney general consideration and his takes on some of the incoming president's most controversial ideas. Rachael Bade is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO. Kevin Cramer is the junior senator from North Dakota. Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.  Alex Keene...

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) opens up for the first time about his recent defeat, and what he thinks his experiences holding a senate seat in reliably red Ohio since 2006 can teach fellow Democrats attempting to redefine the party’s brand. Eugene Daniels is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO. Sherrod Brown is the senior senator from Ohio. Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.  Alex Keeney is...

Donald Trump is coming back to the White House. On this episode of Deep Dive, POLITICO’s top Trump-ologist, Meridith McGraw, and Playbook editor Mike DeBonis join host Rachael Bade to discuss how the next Trump presidency will defy our expectations.  Included in this discussion:  Who will be in Trump’s cabinet; who will lead the GOP on the Hill and can Trump really be sure that they’ll cooperate w...

Top election forecasters Lakshya Jain (Split Ticket) and Logan Phillips (Race to the White House) join Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels to give their key insights and predictions for Tuesday. They discuss how to analyze early voting returns, who the remaining swing voters are, and why polls are more useful than most people give them credit for. Stay until the end, where they each share what one r...

Election Day is less than two weeks away. And Donald Trump has been employing an innovative strategy to keep Democrats’ — and an increasingly large number of Republicans’ — doubts about his fitness for office at bay. The former president has been burnishing his image on a nontraditional media spread of podcasts, golf outings, and shifts working at McDonald's.  To understand Trump’s own thinking ab...

Trump, Harris, and the vast network of campaigns, Super PACs, and down ballot candidates operating alongside them are now on pace to spend $1 billion before election day in Pennsylvania. For the time being, it is the center of the political universe. On this episode of Deep Dive, Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels is joined by two local experts on the race: Philadelphia City Councilmember Isaiah Th...

The 2024 election. It’s a contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. But increasingly, it also looks like it’s girls versus boys.  Playbook’s Rachael Bade caught up with Sarah Longwell, Executive Director of Republican Voters Against Trump, Publisher of The Bulwark, and Host of "The Focus Group" Podcast, to learn what is driving a record-setting gender gap this election cycle. Longwell has co...

Joining Playbook’s Eugene Daniels on this episode of Deep Dive are two pollsters who know how to find the signal in what has been a very noisy election. John Anzalone aka “Anzo,” was Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama’s pollster. And Greg Strimple is a veteran of John McCain, Chris Christie, Rick Perry, and John Cornyn’s campaigns. Together, they dissect why this election’s polling is so...

James Carville is one of the oldest and best known political strategists in America. He also is the subject of a new CNN documentary called “Winning is Everything, Stupid.” On this episode of Deep Dive, Carville talks with host Ryan Lizza about his outlook on the election, including why he’s not so sure that it’ll be a close race once the votes are counted; what he thinks Kamala Harris could learn...

Brian Fallon, senior communications adviser for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, joins Playbook’s Eugene Daniels to discuss the inner workings of the vice president’s campaign, including why her positions on the issues have shifted since 2019, when she’ll start opening up to the press and how her view of Trump differs from Biden’s. Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO. Brian Fallon...

Mike Murphy, the storied GOP strategist and co-host of the popular “Hacks On Tap” podcast, joins Deep Dive host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza to discuss Tuesday’s debate and why some very strong winds are still at Trump’s back; how Murphy would tweak Kamala Harris’s message; what might become of the Republican party after Trump and how he, Mike Murphy, almost killed JD Vance’s dream of being a...

Everyone knows the Latino vote will be decisive in this presidential election year. But our guest today says most of what you know about Latino voters and how to win them over is wrong.  Mike Madrid is a third-generation Mexican-American and one of the country’s leading political strategists when it comes to Latino voters. He was a senior operative for the California Republican Party who rubbed sh...

A special bonus episode from Deep Dive's POLITICO sister podcast, Power Play: With the U.S. presidential debate now confirmed, our Power Play guests explain the tips and tricks that could help Donald Trump or Kamala Harris win their first head-to-head encounter on Sept. 10 — and why there has been a pre-debate row over format and mics. POLITICO’s Anne McElvoy is joined by Brett O’Donnell, a vetera...

Democratic kingmaker Nancy Pelosi has come to be pegged as the chief force behind President Joe Biden’s decision to step down from his reelection campaign — a claim that she refuses to dignify much.  While Pelosi no longer wields the Speaker’s gavel, its absence hasn’t done much to stifle her power within the party. She’s not only the first female Speaker of the House, but also one of the most tal...

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders joins Playbook co-author and Deep Dive host Ryan Lizza to give his candid thoughts on Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, including whether he thinks Joe Biden should have stepped aside in the first place; how Democrats can win back young people, minorities, and progressives; as well as where he agrees with Harris’s policies, and where he thinks she needs to lean...

With the Democratic National Convention just days away, Doug Sosnik, a longtime Dem strategist best known for being a top adviser to Bill Clinton, joins the show to help unpack the new fundamentals of the 2024 presidential campaign.   Sosnik and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza discuss: Why the gender gap is getting larger — and how it could impact the election in ways that have not yet been fully ap...

Anita Dunn left her position as a senior advisor to president Joe Biden this week, marking the end of an era for the White House. She was a key architect of his 2020 presidential campaign and one of his closest advisors throughout her tenure.  On this episode of Deep Dive, Dunn joins host and Playbook co-author Ryan LIzza to talk about the extraordinary series of events that lead to Biden dropping...

When President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and the Democratic party rallied around Kamala Harris as his replacement, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper was widely considered to be a top choice to serve as Harris’s running mate. But Cooper did something unusual: he told the Harris team he didn’t want to be considered as her running mate. On this episode of Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-auth...

Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels and POLITICO politics bureau chief Jonathan Martin join host Ryan Lizza to tackle questions about Vice President Kamala Harris’s new role at the top of the Democratic ticket, including: What really caused Joe Biden to end his quest for a second term? How did Kamala Harris lock up the nomination so fast? And what is really going on inside her campaign right now? Ho...

Congressman Richard Hudson is chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee, which is to say, he’s in charge of delivering a majority in November for Speaker Mike Johnson and possibly President Donald Trump. In this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, Hudson discusses how the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump and the possibility of Joe Biden leaving the Democratic ticket are influen...

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp joins for a bonus episode of Playbook Deep Dive.  In a live interview from the Republican National Convention, Kemp — a swing state governor with a famously conflicted relationship with Trump — opines on how Saturday’s assassination attempt will change both Trump and Biden’s election strategy; his thoughts on J.D. Vance, Trump's running mate; what his advice to Trump is...

Elaine Kamarck is a longtime member of the DNC’s rules committee, a scholar at Brookings, a former advisor to top Democrats such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Walter Mondale; and author of “Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates.” On this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, Playbook co-author Eugene Daniels asks Kamarck all of your question...