The Politics Guys

This week, Mike and Kristin cover the latest news regarding the impeachment trial. In an effort to cover different items and fuel different discussions than those all over mainstream news , they both lay out their personal highlights of the week. Mike brings up Alan Dershowitz’s odd defense of the President and the backlash he faced, while Kristin discusses some of the procedural shortcomings of D...

In this episode, Mike & Jay respond to listener comments on: political purity tests fear of socialism supporting the troops fixing polarization grading public education problems with political parties Bernie debating Trump the power of the judiciary Today’s SponsorsEmpower. For more info about Empower, visit: empower.me/politicsguys SaneBox. Email management for any inbox. For a free two-week...

This week’s show opens with Mike & Jay discussing the Senate trial of President Trump. They both agree that the president did something, but while Mike thinks that something is criminal activity worthy of impeachment and removal, Jay doesn’t believe it rises to that level. Along the way, Mike suggests that President Trump is like a monkey in a museum and Mitch McConnell is the Senate’s Bill Be...

Mike talks with Bryan Caplan, a Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a blogger for EconLog. Professor Caplan is the author of multiple books, including two he and I have previously discussed on the show - The Myth of the Rational Voter, and The Case Against Education. On this episode, they discussing Bryan’s latest book, Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration. Topics...

This week Trey and Ken start by tackling the weeks biggest issue: the Senate trial of President Donald Trump. The biggest focus for the hosts is the ongoing question concerning witnesses. Ken is reluctant to make a prediction, but Trey suggests there will be witnesses. This leads the pair to Lev Parnas and the peculiar nature of Trump witnesses. It also leads to speculation on Ken's part about the...

Mike talks with Richard Robb, a professor of professional practice in international and public affairs at Columbia University and CEO of the investment firm Christofferson, Robb & Company, which he co-founded in 2001. They discuss his recent book Willful: How We Choose What We Do. After the interview, Kristin joins Mike for a conservative perspective. Topics Richard and Mike cover include: the...

This week, Mike and Kristin take on the confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, discuss what our clear policy goals should be regarding Iran, and whether those goals are feasible. Both agree that heading into a full-fledged war is a terrible idea, but while Mike argues that Trump’s pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal was disastrous, Kristin brings up that nothing before or since Trump has worked...

Mike talks with Binyamin Appelbaum, who writes about economics and business for the editorial page of the New York Times. From 2010 - 2019 he was a Washington correspondent for the Times, covering economic policy in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. They discuss his recently released book: The Economists' Hour. After the interview, Jay joins Mike to provide a conservative perspective. Topics Mike...

Mike & Jay open the show with a discussion of the escalating tensions between Iran, Iraq, and the United States in the aftermath of the U.S. killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Quasem Soleimani. Jay thinks that the Trump administration may have made the right move, but Mike is concerned that the blowback could be worse than any benefits from Soleimani’s death. Next is a look at the Democra...

President Trump has been impeached but the odds are strongly against him being removed from office. Mike & Jay open the show talking about the impeachment vote, what happens next, and the potential electoral consequences. After that, they discuss the aftermath of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s findings on the FBI’s conduct of the ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation, in...

Mike talks with Mila Atmos, host of the Future Hindsight podcast. They discuss rights and responsibilities in a democracy, cynicism, adopting a cause, the 2020 Democratic presidential field, Joe Biden as the DNC’s chosen candidate, the impeachment of President Trump, how to make a difference, why Mila is hopeful, and lots more. After the interview, Trey joins Mike to provide a conservative perspec...

This week Trey is joined by Ken and they begin the show by exploring the Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz's, report into the potentiality of a political bias by the FBI. Next the pair turn to the House Judiciary Committee's party-line vote to move forward two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the full house floor. Trey and Ken then discuss the United...

Mike talks with Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker about the newly revised version of his book The Great Risk Shift. After the discussion, Jay joins Mike for a discussion of Hacker’s key ideas. In this interview, we discuss the rise in economic insecurity, declining social mobility in the US, the ‘old contract’ versus the ‘new contract’ between employers and workers, technological change &...

This week Jay and Mike talk impeachment and the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches. For the fourth time in history the House is drafting articles of impeachment. But are the Democrats moving too quickly and does that make impeachment a tougher sell for the voting public?   Then the Guys talk about the state of the race for the Democratic nomination in the wake of Kamal...

On this special crossover show, Mike talks with Andrew Heaton, host of The Political Orphanage podcast. They cover a lot of ground in a conversation that (very) loosely revolves around presidential power. Along the way, they discuss Caddyshack, Edmund Burke, impeachment, anonymous Senate conviction votes, a constitutional convention, Thomas Paine, why a Stormy Daniels based case would have been th...

Mike and Kristin start off talking about President Trump’s Thanksgiving trip to Afghanistan. The President served surprised service men and women Thanksgiving dinner at Bagram Air Force Base and made a rousing speech where he said that the U.S. and the Taliban have been involved in peace talks, which prompted discussions about whether the U.S. should remain in the region.  Next, Mike and Kristin d...

Mike talks with Chris Beem and Michael Berkman from Penn State's McCourtney Institute for Democracy about their Democracy Works podcast and a whole bunch of other things including: the fact that two of our last four, and three of our last nine presidents have gone through impeachment the ‘best case’ outcome from this impeachment process the potential fallout from straight party line impeachment vo...

This week Trey and Ken start the show by jumping back into the ongoing topic of impeachment. Specifically the pair parse Fiona Hill and David Holmes’ testimony in light of President Trump’s Friday morning conversation on Fox & Friends. Ken thinks that, not only is impeachment the right thing to do, but that it will be an electoral winner for the Democratic Party. Trey argues that impeachment,...

In this episode, Mike and Jay respond to listener questions on the following topics: Social Security strategic voting in primary elections Hunter Biden, Michael Cohen, and ‘soft corruption’ expertise in cabinet positions Donald Trump and fiscal conservatives Jay’s nightmare scenario - ‘President Pelosi’ bipartisan blame for the financial crisis the value of Elizabeth Warren’s conservative past a d...

Mike, Jay, and Kristin open the show with a discussion of the first week of open hearings on the impeachment of President Trump. Mike argues that it’s clear that Trump ‘did it’ (or at least clear enough to require a vote for impeachment) but that it could be argued that what he did is not cause for removal. Jay and Kristin are less convinced by the evidence presented to this point. They all believ...

Mike talks with Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. Professor Lessig co-founded Creative Commons in 2001 and is the author of numerous books, including Republic, Lost: Version 2.0 which he and Mike talked about on the podcast a few years ago (here’s a link to that interview). In this episode, they discuss about his recent book America, Compromi...

Having heard from our listeners, this week we have a special three-person edition of The Politics Guys with Will Miller, Michael Baranowski, and Jay Carson. The Guys start off the show with a lengthy discussion around current developments in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Much of the discussion focuses on the application of process and differences between an investigation and an imp...

Mike talks with Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, one of the most popular comic strips of all time. In recent years, Adams has become an important part of the political conversation through his commentary on Donald Trump as well as the bestselling book Win Bigly. He's got a new book out called Loserthink: How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America, which he and Mike discuss on the show. Topics Mike &...

The show kicks off with Mike & Jay discussing the House resolution on the impeachment inquiry of President Trump. Jay says that it partly addresses procedural fairness issues many Republicans have been raising, but that it’s still not fair enough to the president. Mike disagrees, arguing that the president will get every procedural protection he should - and then some - during a Senate trial....

Mike talks with Lawrence Jackson, an official White House Photographer in the Obama administration. He's just released a beautiful book of photographs and stories about his time with the Obamas called Yes We Did: Photos and Behind-the-Scenes Stories Celebrating Our First African American President Topics Mike & Lawrence discuss include: what the Obamas are really like being behind the scenes i...