The DSR Network

While the outcome of the Senate trial seems a foregone conclusion, even an acquittal might not be good news for President Trump. There are a whole range of long-term consequences of the current drama on the Hill, some with positive implications, some that would be very troubling. On this special impeachment trial episode Ryan Goodman of Just Security, Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations a...

We're at one of the most fraught moments in American political history. The country is polarized. The president is going to trial. That president is one of the most polarizing figures the world has ever seen. And headlines scream of momentous events in the weeks ahead. Everybody's running a fever and maybe it's time to take two aspirin and call Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University, Kori Schake of...

As the Senate impeachment trial looms, Republicans seem not to understand what a trial is. They don't want witnesses. They don't want evidence. They especially don't want witnesses or facts that might further implicate the president in crimes. But if they seek no evidence do they also then accept the House's view of the facts as the final truth? Is their stirring defense of the president that they...

The president has no foreign policy expertise, no advisors, no morals, no scruples and he is in deep political hot water at home. So naturally, he wags the dog with an attack on Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. He does it in spite of international law. He lies about it. He doesn't think through the consequences. And he survives politically. So, now you know that as this year of ever-increasing pr...

If and when Nancy Pelosi decides to sends the articles of impeachment to the Senate, the odds of a fair trial are slim to none. (Aw, who are we kidding? They're zero.) Trump will be acquitted. He will have a celebratory press conference and declare he has been exonerated, an end to the hoaxy witch hunt. But will his legal troubles stop there? What about as more details of his crimes are revealed? ...

In the days since President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the presidents's spokespeople have taken to the airwaves to claim that we are safer with the Iranian who had the death of hundreds of Americans on his hands gone. But so far, things don't feel safer. The Iranian government--which has a global network of proxies at its disposal--promised revenge. It vo...

For Two Years, Rosa Brooks had remained optimistic that despite all that was happening in the Trump administration over the past three years, a full-on constitutional crisis could be avoided. That changed with our episode on October 11, 2019. In this Best of Deep State Radio episode, we’ve pieced together several of these discussions including what led Rosa to declare a constitutional crisis. Tune...

In the last episode of not just 2019 but of the entire decade for Deep State Radio, we gather Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law, Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kennedy School, David Sanger of the New York Times and Ed Luce of the Financial Times to reflect on the ten years just past. We identify the big geopolitical trends from the rise of China (and Russia) to the spread of ethno-nationalism and the boom...

During this special 20 minute conversation with one of the standout stars of the impeachment process, California Congressman Eric Swalwell, he parries the latest jibes from the White House against Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Majority in the House by noting that 70 percent of the American people want a fair trial in the Senate. For this reason, he argues, Americans should not jump to the conclu...

In the wake of impeachment, all eyes turn to the Senate. Will delaying handing over the articles of impeachment buy the Democrats any leverage? Will buying time be enough with new bad news for Trump breaking daily--such as the report it was Putin who told him about Ukraine interference in 2016 or the magazine Christianity Today coming out for the president's removal from office? Or will the Senate...

The US and the UK were the Batman and Robin of the Atlantic Alliance. Or was it the Holmes and Watson? The Lucy and Ethel? Well, whatever we were, we aren't that any more. It looks like Great Britain may be heading for a crack app and a future as only Meh Britain. And the US has been in retreat since the fiasco in Iraq. What comes next? Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law, Kori Schake of IISS, Ed Luce o...

What if the history books record that Donald Trump was third American president to be impeached, but the first of those to be re-elected? It's not far-fetched. In fact, many folks think it's likely. And it's what happens after that that has them scared. We discuss in a great roundtable with the Washington Post's Greg Sargent, Georgetown Law's Rosa Brooks and NYU Law School's Ryan Goodman. You won'...

Remember national security? Remember defending the country against foreign attacks? Remember principles? Remember truth? Well, there sure are some people in our government who don't. Saudis attack Americans and the American president flacks for the Saudi Crown Prince. Russia attacks America and GOP Congressman and Senators help them by spreading Russian disinformation. An investigation confirms th...

On this special episode of Deep State Radio, coinciding with the official beginning of the House Judiciary Committee's Impeachment Hearings, we discuss the case against Trump in the context of history. Our guests are impeachment historian Frank Bowman of the University of Missouri and Ryan Goodman, NYU Law School professor and co-editor at "Just Security." Are the Democrats making a mistake by foc...

With every flashing headline, every bright chyron claiming "breaking news" we expect our worlds are changing. In the current political atmosphere in the US those come fast and furious and leads pundits everywhere to regularly exclaim that we have reached a turning point. Well, we offer a different kind of pundit on Deep State Radio, people who speak their minds and don't march to the beat of every...

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...