The Stakes

American cities have been in turmoil for a week after protests erupted nationwide over the horrific killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, protests turned violent in dozens of cities. Trump's response has been despicable, fanning the flames and relishing in the use of brute force. Many warned that a Trump presidency would be a disaster. Did we ever think i...

Trump is at again. To distract from the increasing coronavirus death toll and the mounting evidence of his failed response, Trump has created a new shiny object. Obamagate. But what is it? And why now? Former federal prosecutor, LA Times legal columnist, constitutional law professor and Host of The Talking Feds Podcast, Harry Litman joins Tara to discuss the latest on the damage Bill Barr is doing...

This week's episode includes two fantastic interviews. Despite increasing infection rates and a COVID-19 death toll on pace to hit 100,000 in a few weeks, Trump has pivoted to reopening the economy in hopes of saving his re-election. Former DHS official, CNN National Security Analyst and Harvard Professor Juliette Kayyem discusses the alarming failures of the Trump administration's response and wh...

As the US surpasses a million COVID-19 cases, including over 56,000 deaths, Trump insists his administration's coronavirus response has been fantastic. It hasn't. Starting with the country's insufficient testing capacity. Former Chief of Staff to Vice President Biden and Ebola Czar under President Obama, Ron Klain is this week's guest. Klain explains the importance of wide scale testing, what step...

The Honestly Speaking with Tara podcast returns after a COVID 19 hiatus. CNN Senior Political Analyst and The Atlantic Senior Editor, Ron Brownstein is this week's guest. He discusses the pros and cons of mail-in balloting for the upcoming presidential election, which party does it help or hurt and insight into how absentee balloting could impact the six most important Electoral College states. Br...

The Coronavirus has officially gone global with confirmed cases on every continent except Antartica. CDC officials have warned about potential community cluster outbreaks in the U.S. As the world is facing a pandemic, unsurprisingly, President Trump is downplaying the virus and claims his administration has it all under control. Does it? Can we trust this administration to handle a looming health...

Another extraordinary week in political news as the Senate Impeachment trial drama of Donald Trump ensued as new revelations from John Bolton's book manuscript claim Trump told him directly that Ukraine aid was tied to a Biden investigation. Despite the bombshell revelations, the GOP led Senate voted down new witness testimony. Joe Lockhart, Former Press Secretary during the Clinton impeachment, j...

The historic Senate Impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump is officially underway. CNN Legal Analyst and former federal & state prosecutor Elie Honig joins the podcast to talk impeachment trial thus far. Is this an actual trial? What about witnesses? What role does the Chief Justice play? What's going on with Lev Parnas and the SDNY? Honig breaks it all down in a spirited conversation with Tara....

History was made this week when Donald Trump became only the third U.S. president in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. This week's podcast guests include visiting Harvard Law professor Jennifer Taub to discuss the impeachment and Philip Bump, National Correspondent for the Washington Post, to discuss what the hell is Rudy Giuliani up to? Tara gives her take on impeachment an...

Presidential historian and former Director of the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Tim Naftali joins the podcast to discuss the historical context and comparisons of the Trump impeachment process thus far. Is this worse than Watergate? Should the Mueller findings be included? How are Democrats handling impeachment proceedings? Naftali offers his take on these questions and much more. Naftali...

Lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee wrapped up a marathon of public testimony, hearing from a dozen witnesses over the last two weeks in the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Several witnesses provided explosive details that seemingly outline a criminal conspiracy to extort Ukraine at the direction of the president. Have the Democrats made the case? Ryan Goodman, N...

For only the fourth time in American history, impeachment hearings have begun. On this week's episode, congressional trailblazer Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY) joins Tara to discuss her experience as a Judiciary Committee member during Watergate and the comparisons to Trump's impeachment hearings. Holtzman brings a candid, first hand, perspective to how Democrats and the Republicans should be handling...

Impeachment inquiry transcripts aren't the only damning documents being released this week. Buzzfeed News Investigative Reporter Jason Leopold, joins Tara to discuss his successful efforts to use Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to obtain primary source documents and evidence used to create the Mueller Report and how he earned the nickname, the "FOIA Terrorist." The first cache is a treasure tr...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently said, "All roads with you lead to Putin" when confronting President Trump over his erratic foreign policy decisions. How right she is. This week, information warfare and Eurasian policy expert Molly McKew joins Tara to discuss the extent of Putin's disinformation tactics against the United States and how Trump is playing right into Russia's hands. The level of infiltr...

The impeachment walls are closing in on Donald Trump. More credible witnesses have testified that a quid pro quo was in fact in place regarding Ukraine security aid and investigations into Trump's political rivals. Coupled with Trump's erratic, irresponsible behavior surrounding recent Middle East foreign policy debacles of his own creation, some Republicans have begun to speak out against Trump's...

Honestly Speaking was on the road this week for the CNN/NY Times Democratic debate in Westerville, OH. Politico 2020 campaign reporter, Marc Caputo joins Tara for a discussion on his debate takeaways and the state of the democratic race so far. He's on the Biden beat and is based in Florida, so Marc has valuable insight into the upcoming election. He also talks about his infamous confrontation wit...

Donald Trump is talking an awful lot about rooting out corruption as his excuse for soliciting foreign countries like Ukraine and China to investigate his political rivals. Really? On this week's episode, CNN Senior Reporter and author of Kushner Inc., Vicky Ward joins Tara on the podcast to discuss the conflicts, corruption and greed of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in the White House. Also on t...

Now that the whistleblower's complaint has been made public, along with the Ukraine call transcript, the details spell trouble for President Trump. Democrats have now opened up an official impeachment inquiry into Trump's abuse of power. His solicitation of foreign interference from Ukraine to hurt a political rival and the actions taken to that end has set the political world on fire. This week,...

This week, former FBI Special Agent Josh Campbell joins Tara to discuss his new book, "Crossfire Hurricane, Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI." But first, another week, another major scandal threatens Trump's presidency. As more information comes out about the intelligence community whistleblower's complaint against him, Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are waging an all out disinf...

After a hiatus, Honestly Speaking with Tara kicks off Season 2 with Politico's Chief Washington Correspondent Ryan Lizza. He discusses the Biden campaign's frustration with their media coverage, the role of "woke" twitter and the democratic field, and what it's like in the "spin room" after the latest democratic debate. Lizza also offers previously unknown details about his infamous 2017 late nigh...

This week, Tara talks all things Russian interference with Michael Weiss, Senior Fellow, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, NY Times best selling author and Daily Beast Columnist. In a robust conversation, Weiss explains the grave threat the Russians active measures operations pose to not only American democracy, but Europe as well. He breaks down the newly released Senate Intelligence Committee re...

The feud between Trump and "The Squad" has escalated. From nativist chants of "Send her back!" to racist rationalizations, the saga continues. This week David Swerdlick, an assistant editor at the Washington Post and CNN Political Analyst, joins Tara to discuss the impact of the Trump's latest display of racism toward the four freshman congresswomen of color, his continued ignorance of complex for...

On this week's episode, Tara engages in a spirited discussion with special guest Joe Walsh (R-IL) former Illinois Congressman and host of the syndicated Joe Walsh Radio Show, about his thoughts on Trump's presidency and why he would never vote for him again. What made him finally dump Trump? Walsh calls out several Republicans by name for their acquiescence to Trump and gives his opinion on the be...

Back in 2007, billionaire financier, acquaintance of both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton and child sexual predator, Jeffrey Epstein received one of the most unorthodox plea deals after an investigation found he was running a sex ring with teenage girls, some as young as 14, out of his Palm Beach, FL mansion. He served only 13 months in a county jail, which amounted to a slap on the wrist after fede...

Trump was recently overseas for the G-20 and a surprise summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. What did he actually accomplish, if anything? Are we safer now than when Trump first took office? What the hell was Ivanka doing over there? On this week's episode, Washington Post columnist, CNN Global Affairs Analyst and author of "The Road Not Taken, The American Tragedy in Vietnam" and "The C...