The DSR Network

Psssst. Put down that drumstick. Push back from the Thanksgiving table. You don't need any more of that pumpkin pie. (And we say that as your friend.) We have something better for you to do, in keeping with the spirit of the day and much less likely to drive you crazy than your relatives. Join us for Deep State Radio's special Thanksgiving feast featuring Ed Luce of the Financial Times, Kori Schak...

The president of the United States, always searching for lower lows, has done profound damage to the military, our system of justice and America's standing in the world by pardoning war criminals from our own military. The risk at which this puts soldiers and civilians in the future is only matched by that which it poses to our entire nation as leaders without values or standards seek to instituti...

Adam Schiff masterfully conducted impeachment hearings that made the case that Donald Trump sought to bribe and extort the president of Ukraine, using his official office to advance personal interests. The case is a lock. Except if facts don't matter. Or if you don't care. And that's the GOP position. And guess what comes next? Distractions and circuses and Bill Barr investigations into the origin...

This week promises to be a dramatic on the impeachment front. Is Gordon Sondland going to tell the truth (for the first time) or lie (again)? What about Lt. Col Vindman, Fiona Hill and the others to come? Will there be a game changer? And how will the president throw himself into the mix? More Tweets? More distractions? And speaking of distractions...is impeachment drawing our attention away from...

In Ohio today, one house of the legislature passed a law saying that if a student gets a science question wrong at school because it does not conform with his religious beliefs it can't be held against him. We have officially entered the post-fact world. That matters in the impeachment case because as the Democrats lay out a careful factual case, the GOP response is a tsunami of conspiracy theorie...

With all eyes on the impeachment hearings this week, we take a step back to reframe the discussion about Trump shake-down of the Ukrainian government in terms of the damage that was done to U.S. national security interests and those of our allies.  Congress voted money to Ukraine not as a gift, but to enable them to defend against an active invasion by Russia.  Withholding that money put lives and...

Next week public hearings on impeachment will begin. Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Schiff, will make the case that Donald Trump sought to bribe a foreign official, one of the few high crimes and misdemeanors specified in the Constitution's article on impeachment. Republicans will argue he did not and will seek to derail the hearings or attack the witnesses. At stake is the future of the rule of law...

Look around. Count the good and great political leaders in the world today. That didn't take long did it? Why not? What has happened? Where have all the leaders gone? Is that a sign of progress or decline? And where does it lead? To messy, ineffective governments--mere cattywampusness--or to something much, much worse? Kori Schake of IISS, Ed Luce of the FT and Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law discus...

Once, when presented with an argument that the Pope would appreciate it if he laid off persecuting Russian Catholics, Stalin responded, "The Pope? How many divisions does he have?" It may be that Trump-Barr-McConnell soulless brain's trust have muttered something similar about Democratic efforts to stop the lawless president. So long as Barr is unwilling to prosecute and views the Department of Ju...

Donald Trump has promoted a foreign policy that seeks to reverse or undermine many of the lasting tenets of post WWII U.S. foreign policy. He wants to retreat into a gated community nationalism that eschews international institutions, alliances, engagement, diplomacy and even the basics of sound coordinated foreign and national security policy at home. The risks are becoming clearer every day: in...

The not-so-secret secret of Trump foreign policy is that there is no policy. But the better kept secret is that we have one seeming policy from the President himself and then another, which is the effort of professionals in the government to keep the President from getting us all killed. It's not really the Deep State conspiracy whack jobs would have you believe in. It's the hidden check of our sy...

This was the week the cracks began to show in Republican defenses of the indefensible. Oh sure, there were more distractions, shenanigans and lies. But between the abortive attempt to hold the G7 Meeting at Trump's not-so-nice, faltering Doral golf resort, new testimony in House impeachment inquiry that made the president's crimes clearer than ever before and the shocking case made by the presiden...

From describing Trump's violations of the Constitution's foreign and domestic emoluments clauses as the Trump Administration's "original sin" to grappling with a Manhattan phone book-length list of presidential crimes, Representative Jamie Raskin of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees presents us with the current state of the impeachment efforts in the U.S. Congress. Raskin is one of Trum...

What if the problem is not Trump. Or Boris Johnson. Or the rest of the current occupants of the global leadership clown car? What if the problem runs deeper? What if something about our societies is fundamentally broken? What if that is democracy? What if each election to come takes us further from old ideals and toward deeper dysfunction? Ok, so maybe it's not what you want to hear about when you...

It has been a few days of staggering incompetence, ignorance, corruption and betrayal from the Trump Administration. The Kurds were betrayed not once but twice, most recently by a sham deal that facilitates Turkish ethnic cleansing. The White House Chief of Staff admitting a quid pro quo in the Ukraine scandal while, at the same time, announcing that the US would host the next G7 meeting at a Trum...

As every day brings new testimony from former members of the Trump Administration that confirms there was widespread acknowledgment that what the President and his agents were doing in Ukraine was wrong, new questions emerge. How much more testimony will be required before an impeachment vote will take place? What will be the scope of the charges brought? How will the Congress deal with the refusa...

Donald Trump gave the greenlight to a Turkish invasion of Syria that has already led to manifold calamities. We betrayed our Kurdish allies. They are already suffering atrocities and worse is likely ahead. We have thrown a lifeline to ISIS. We have strengthened Assad, Iran and Russia. And we are just a few days into this fiasco of failed foreign policy. Huge questions are raised by these events an...

You've been waiting for it. You've been talking about it. You've been listening to our Rosa Brooks say we weren't there yet for a year now. But, finally, thanks to the really extraordinary rejection of basic Constitutional principles like separation of powers and the idea that Congress and the Executive are co-equal branches of government, we're there! We know because Rosa Brooks, of Georgetown La...

Donald Trump has given the blessing of the U.S. to a Turkish invasion of Northern Syria that could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe for the Kurds, the alienation of an important ally, greater distrust among our other allies, and benefits for the Assad Regime, Iran and Russia. It has triggered a rare, bi-partisan chorus of condemnation of the president...and, within hours, military action on the...

With new scandals and controversies emerging every hour on the hour, it is hard to know which are serious, which are distractions and which are just hallucinations in the mind of a punch drunk nation. What does it mean? Where will it lead? We offer the expert and incisive perspectives of an extraordinary discussion between former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman, former FBI agent Asha Rangappa and our r...

The die is cast. Impeachment hearings are underway. The Trump presidency is in great (and well-deserved) peril. But, getting from where we are to an impeachment vote in the House and a conviction in the Senate will require a completely different tone and conduct from the Democratic leadership. And forestalling the end of the Trump presidency will require a change of pace from the White House. Edwa...

A week ago a substantial majority of Americans opposed even an impeachment inquiry. Today, a majority of all Americans support such an inquiry and fully half support impeaching Trump outright. That's a massive swing that makes the support for impeaching Trump vastly greater than what it was at comparable moments for either Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton. How did we get here? Ed Luce of the Financia...

It's not just you. We're all lying beneath the rubble of substantial portions of American democracy trying to figure out what hit us. Fortunately, you have us. So, climb on the treadmill or save this for the drive home or a long walk tonight...and join former U.S. Attorney Mimi Rocah and Ryan Goodman of Just Security and NYU Law School as we explore the revelations from the Ukraine Whistleblower c...

The answer of course to the question posed in the title of this podcast is Greta Thunberg, the extraordinary young Scandinavian leader who has delivered the message that the climate crisis is real and urgent better than any world leader. America's president is a source of particular contempt for her as their recent passing encounter at the UN revealed. We discuss her impact, his impact, and the ot...

Few Americans in our history have had such wide-ranging and distinguished careers as Leon Panetta. A former Secretary of Defense, Director of Central Intelligence and White House Chief of Staff as well as a long-time Congressman from California, Panetta is one of the most respected, thoughtful and experienced observers of U.S. national security and foreign policy. Panetta presents his views on the...