The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The Washington Roundtable digs into the stunning collapse of Graham Platner’s Senate campaign in Maine, and what it means for the Democratic Party’s performance in the upcoming midterms. The hosts are joined by Neera Tanden, the president and C.E.O. of the Center for American Progress and a former adviser to President Joe Biden. The panel grapples with the pressing question of how the Party might...

The New Yorker contributing writer Ruth Marcus joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the Supreme Court’s now concluded term and what some of the recent decisions indicate about the bench’s willingness to check President Trump’s use of executive power. They talk about the Court’s rulings on immigration, transgender athletes, the President’s authority to fire heads of independent federal agencies, and what...

The Washington Roundtable will return next Friday. To commemorate two hundred and fifty years of the American experiment, the hosts of The New Yorker’s Critics at Large podcast, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz, present an American playlist. On this special episode, the hosts hear from listeners regarding the songs that best encapsulate their feelings about the U.S. today—and o...

Americans tend to see the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War as milestones in world history that inaugurated the era of modern democracy. But the British, unsurprisingly, see these events quite differently. David Remnick talks with the historians who host the popular podcast “The Rest Is History,” Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. Growing up in Britain, Sandbrook explains, the...

The Washington Roundtable is joined by Jeff Stein, the veteran political reporter and founding editor of the newsletter “Spytalk,” to examine Donald Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as the new acting Director of National Intelligence, a position that, in theory, oversees the C.I.A., N.S.A., F.B.I., and fifteen other agencies. Pulte has no intelligence background and no national-security experienc...

The comedian and actor Robby Hoffman, known for her role on the HBO show “Hacks” and her début Netflix comedy special, “Wake Up,” joins Tyler Foggatt at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, in Seattle, for a conversation about social class and politics. Growing up as one of ten kids, Hoffman developed a world view that has never fit neatly into the left-vs.-right political dichotomy, and instead focuss...

The former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down with David Remnick at the 92nd Street Y, in New York, on Monday evening, after the Trump Administration announced a memorandum of understanding to end its war in Iran. Remnick asked whether the United States lost this war. “Yes,” Clinton replied. “The United States has come out weaker. Iran has come out stronger.” According to Clinton, Israel...

The New Yorker staff writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Louisa Thomas join Tyler Foggatt to discuss three recent collisions of sports and politics. Cunningham and Foggatt talk about President Donald Trump’s appearance at a Knicks game during the team’s championship run, which evoked a mixed reception from New Yorkers and complicated an otherwise celebratory week in the city. Then Fry and Fo...

When Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s son, Hersh, was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, she became a prominent spokesperson for the families of Israeli hostages. Throughout Hersh’s captivity, and then after his murder, Goldberg-Polin, who was born in Chicago and emigrated to Israel in 2008, argued that Israel’s priority should be to bring the hostages home, and that the killing of all innocents, I...

The Washington Roundtable discusses Donald Trump’s eightieth birthday, on Sunday, with a look at the pageantry and spectacle surrounding the planned U.F.C. fight on the South Lawn of the White House. The panel contrasts Trump’s desire to project power and masculinity with his recent pattern of disinhibition: from allegedly falling asleep at important meetings and the N.B.A. Finals to angry outburs...

The New Yorker investigative reporter Heidi Blake joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss her reporting on Andrew Tate, the British American influencer and figurehead of the manosphere. They talk about Tate’s rise to prominence, the media empire he built by glorifying ideas about male dominance and female subjugation, and the allegations of rape, assault, coercion, and sex trafficking that have followed hi...

Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, was one of a number of Kennedy family members who spoke out against the policies and the character of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Schlossberg became a public figure on social media, often trolling the right, doing his imitation of Vladimir Putin, or claiming that Usha Vance was carrying his baby. But, when Schlossberg decided to run for an open seat in...

The Washington Roundtable discusses the 2026 midterm elections and the prospects of a comeback for the Democratic Party with The New Yorker’s editor, David Remnick. Recorded during a live show at the 92nd Street Y, in Manhattan, the group explores the President’s abysmal approval ratings, key Senate races in Maine and Texas, fights over redistricting, and how public anger over corruption and wealt...

The New Yorker staff writer David D. Kirkpatrick joins Tyler Foggatt and Andrew Marantz to discuss his investigation—published in August, 2025—into the many ways President Donald Trump has profited during his second term, which include a reported private jet (a gift from Qatar), soaring valuations of Trump Media, and a flood of crypto ventures. They discuss whether these attempts at self-enrichmen...

As control of the Senate hangs in the balance, many eyes are on Dan Osborn, of Nebraska. He’s a dream candidate for the Democrats: a mechanic in the food-processing industry, a former president of his local union, and a veteran of the Navy and the Army National Guard. But Osborn isn’t a Democrat; he’s running as an independent. Polls show a close or tied race with the Republican incumbent, Pete Ri...

The New Yorker contributing writer Robin Wright joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the state of peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. They talk about the evolving terms—and major sticking points—of a potential agreement between the two countries, including the future of Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. They also explore whether the war has ultimately weakened or embol...

There will be a variety of celebrations to honor America’s two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary this year. Much of it is to be expected: fireworks, red, white, and blue lights, even a military parade. But something else is happening, something that probably wouldn’t occur if anyone other than Donald Trump were President. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, the premier league for mixed martial arts...

The Washington Roundtable discusses the growing political backlash to artificial intelligence, especially among young Americans, and asks whether Washington, D.C., is capable of regulating A.I. companies. They’re joined by Nate Soares, the executive director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and co-author of the book “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.” The group explores what was be...

The New Yorker staff writer Jason Zengerle joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss his Profile of Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader. They talk about how Jeffries has balanced resisting Donald Trump’s agenda with holding together an increasingly fractious Democratic caucus, and whether Jeffries’ measured persona and “light touch” as a leader are an asset or a weakness in the current climate. They a...

The two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence arrives during intense disputes about American history, as the Trump Administration demands a more glorifying view of the nation’s past at federally run historical sites and in federally funded projects. The staff writer Jill Lepore (who won the Pulitzer Prize in History this month for her book “We the People: A History of...

The Washington Roundtable is joined by Representative Jason Crow, of Colorado, an Army Ranger veteran, member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, and one of the so-called Seditious Six, members of Congress whom Donald Trump threatened to have arrested for recording a video which reminded servicemembers that they are not required to follow illegal orders. Crow is also co-leadin...

The New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Péter Magyar, the new Prime Minister of Hungary, whom Marantz recently interviewed for the magazine. Marantz tells Foggatt about how Magyar defeated the longtime incumbent, Viktor Orbán—despite intervention by Donald Trump and his allies, and Orbán’s extensive influence over the Hungarian media—and why many Hungarians, after...

The contributing writer Peter Slevin met with Barack Obama at the new Obama Presidential Center, which opens next month, in Chicago, and asked him the question on a lot of Democrats’ minds: Where is he, and why isn’t he doing more to help the country in a moment of crisis? Slevin shares excerpts from his interview, during which Obama explains the limits of his role, and why he should no longer be...

The über-rich have enjoyed a remarkable degree of sway in Donald Trump’s Washington—but they may now be facing a backlash. The Washington Roundtable traces the signs of invigorated “pitchfork politics,” such as Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax in New York, a wealth tax on the ballot in California, and recent protests against the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s involvement in the Met Gala—and what the...

The New Yorker’s general counsel, Fabio Bertoni, joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Kash Patel’s two-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar lawsuit against The Atlantic, on claims that the magazine defamed the F.B.I. director in an article that alleges on-duty inebriation and other misconduct by Patel. Bertoni and Foggatt examine the legal rationale behind Patel’s accusations, and the questions that the cas...