The Takeout with Major Garrett

Major is in Nashville, TN, to interview independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The hourlong chat covers Kennedy’s assessment of the race now that President Biden is out, parallels to the 1968 campaign, his history of childhood vaccine skepticism, his view of January 6th rioters, 9/11, his health, cryptocurrency and much, much more. Join us in Music City.

This week, Major visits Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to cover the Republican National Convention. His guests include former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Milwaukee County Executive and Joe Biden surrogate David Crowley and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Join us!

With President Joe Biden’s health in question, Representative Adam Smith (D-WA) is one of at least 13 House Democrats to publicly call for Mr. Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. Smith joined Major to explain why there needs to be a new candidate, emphasizing that Mr. Biden can no longer carry the message of the party. The congressman, who called Mr. Biden one of the best first term p...

From the AIDS crisis in the 1980s to advising on the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci has seen the country through the toughest of times. His new memoir 'On Call' covers his accomplished career, while providing insight into the high-pressure demands of his job and the minds of the presidents he has worked with. In his fifth (editorial note: actually, it's his sixth!) appearance on the show, Ma...

Over the course of the past decade, an endless stream of mis- and disinformation has made it increasingly difficult to parse fact from fiction. We sat down this week with a man who has a plan to restore trust in institutions and hold social media platforms accountable for divisive content that's often pushed for profit. Author and journalist Steven Brill, who cofounded the misinformation tracking...

Gene Sperling has served multiple presidents - real and ficticious. He was an economic advisor to Presidents Clinton and Obama and currently serves as a senior advisor to President Biden and coordinator of the American Rescue Plan. In between White House stints, Sperling served President Jed Bartlet as a consultant on the hit TV show "The West Wing." In this episode, Major presses Sperling on the...

What can the lead up to the war in Iraq teach us about America's foreign policy today? Journalist and author Steve Coll joins Major to discuss his new book "The Achilles Trap," which chronicles the rise and reign of Saddam Hussein and the miscalculations that led to war in the Middle East. Join us.

Turn on certain cable news channels and you’ll hear how immigrants pose a threat to the nation. Listen to this episode (or read our guest Zeke Hernandez’s book, “The Truth About Immigration”), and you’ll hear just the opposite. Hernandez, a UPenn business school professor and immigrant himself, lays out a data-driven argument that immigrants are essential to economic prosperity in the U.S. Join us...

The presidential debates, as currently contemplated, will look and feel different in 2024. President Biden and former President Trump are scheduled to meet twice at events sponsored by CNN and ABC. That leaves the Commission on Presidential Debates, the organization that has produced presidential and vice presidential debates for 35+ years, out in the wilderness. Major sits down with Frank Fahrenk...

Major sits down with authors Brody and Luke Mullins to talk about Washington’s favorite pastime - and it’s not baseball. Their new book, “The Wolves of K Street,” argues that the last few decades of lobbying members of congress and policymakers has only benefited corporations and the lobbyists themselves, leaving behind the general public. Join us at The Dubliner on Capitol Hill (where lawmakers a...

When the U.S. Navy needed something in the South Pacific or Asia, Leonard Francis seemed to be able to provide just about anything. Nicknamed "Fat Leonard," Francis showered senior officers with bribes - lavish dinners, prostitutes and gifts. In exchange, the officers kept lucrative contracts flowing to Francis's companies, which often overcharged the government for services and supplies. Francis...

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, a freshman Democrat from the Dallas area, joins Major in the Longworth House Office Building for a lively chat about the speakership, Democrats' congressional prospects in 2024, Israel and Gaza and much more. Crockett weighs in on Donald Trump's appeal to voters, how abortion will play as an issue this cycle and President Biden's re-election chances. Join us!

Bestselling author and New York Times reporter David Sanger joins Major at Macintyre's Pub in D.C.'s Woodley Park neighborhood. Sanger's new book, "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West," looks at some of the knottiest foreign policy challenges facing the Biden White House and how previous administrations have dealt with them. Join us for a trip...

We’re at Daru, a bustling Indian restaurant in D.C.’s H St. corridor, with Ali Zaidi, the National climate advisor to President Biden. How does the government decide where to build electric vehicle charging stations? Why has this administration approved more oil and gas drilling permits on federal land than President Trump’s administration? Will the president declare a national climate emergency?...

Join us at Carmine's in Washington D.C.'s Penn Quarter for epic quantities of rigatoni, calamari and garlic bread - and an equally delicious conversation with California Congressman Ro Khanna. Khanna, a progressive Democrat and ally of President Biden, says it's time for the U.S. to halt offensive weapons transfers to Israel. He weighs in on Mr. Biden's electoral prospects in key states and explai...

After an extraordinary junior golf career and a battle with personal demons, Lisa Cornwell got what should have been a dream job: on-air reporter for The Golf Channel. Cornwell spent seven years covering professional and collegiate golf but she writes few things about the job were all that dreamy. Cornwell describes a toxic, misogynistic workplace culture that punished women for speaking up. Her n...

CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti joins Major to discuss his new book, Before It's Gone: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America , out this week from Simon & Schuster. Vigliotti, who is frequently called upon by CBS to cover natural disasters and their impact on American communities, shares stories of survivors with, "lessons to teach us all of wha...

This week, we focus our attention on the new nine-part Netflix documentary series Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War , which offers viewers a comprehensive look at the Cold War and its aftermath. Major chats with Turning Point director Brian Knappenberger, an accomplished documentary filmmaker whose team conducted over 100 interviews with a variety of subjects: survivors of the atomic blasts...

This week's guest wears several hats: he's an author, a data analyst, a tech businessman and a former gubernatorial candidate in his home state of Rhode Island. Ken Block, who joined Major for breakfast at Any Day Now in D.C.'s Navy Yard neighborhood, was also briefly employed by the Trump campaign to hunt for voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Block's new book, Disproven , details his...

Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su joins Major this week for dinner at Anju in Dupont Circle to discuss President Biden’s State of the Union promise of an economic soft landing. Su, who has been serving as Biden's acting Labor secretary since her nomination stalled in the Senate, also addresses her confirmation prospects and the criticism she's endured from her opponents. Plus: the “moment” u...

The man with one of the most coveted jobs in journalism, Anthony Mason, joins Major for breakfast at Carnegie Diner & Cafe in New York City's Times Square District. The veteran CBS News man currently serves as the network's senior culture correspondent, which means he's frequently profiling some of the biggest names in music. According to Anthony, carving out this unique lane was "entirely an...

Political analysts and hosts of the "Night Owls" podcast Joe Klein and John Ellis are our guests on this week's episode of "The Takeout." They join Major Garrett ahead of next week's Super Tuesday primaries to discuss all things politics and campaign 2024 – from President Biden's age and the importance of his State of the Union address next week, to the impact of the 100,000 "uncommitted" votes in...

Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is disappointed with the state of Congress. "It's been a rough couple of months," McHenry told Major on this week's episode. McHenry is frustrated that his fellow House Republicans "played politics" and didn't pass the national security supplemental. He believes a majority of House members will support aid for Ukraine if it's allowed to come to the floor. McHenry...

Anne Neuberger, the White House's Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, joins Major this week to discuss the threat of attacks from cyber criminals, mostly based in Russia, who target vulnerable systems like hospitals and schools and hold data hostage for ransom. She details actions that the U.S. government is taking, often in coordination with international partners,...

This week, Major sits down with Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab to discuss former President Trump’s 14th Amendment case and whether a criminal conviction is needed to keep him off the ballot. “He hasn’t been tried," argues Schwab, a Republican who is against an “arbitrary authority” making the call. “I don't think you need a criminal conviction a...