Episodes
-
Rep. Jerry Nadler, who has represented a big piece of Manhattan since
1992, is one of the longest-serving Jewish members of the House.
He’s also a Columbia University alumnus: he was on campus in 1968 when
police cleared Hamilton Hall of anti-Vietnam war protesters.
Nadler is a close observer of the Middle East and the politics of Israel
in the U.S. And he’s the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary
Committee, where he’s long seen himself as a champion of civil
liberties.
All of this background helped put Nadler at the center of a swirl of
events this week as pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia were ejected
from Hamilton Hall, as President Biden made his first public remarks
about campus protests, as a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel
seemed tantalizingly close and as the House passed, by an overwhelming
majority of 320 to 91, the Antisemitism Awareness Act — a bill against
which Nadler led the opposition.
On this week’s episode of Playbook Deep Dive, host and Playbook
co-author Ryan Lizza talked talks with Nadler about all of this and
about Trump’s interview in Time Magazine, the potential for disruption
at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, the vote Nadler most regrets in
his long career and the nature of truth.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Jerry Nadler is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
The biggest movie in the country right now is about a civil war — in
America.
If you see the film “Civil War” at a theater in downtown Washington, the
scenes of the Lincoln Memorial exploding and the White House being
attacked are jarring when you exit into the D.C. air.
The movie is writer and director Alex Garland’s very in-your-face
attempt to imagine the unimaginable in America — an authoritarian leader
in the White House, intractable political differences being resolved
through violence and the very specific horrors of modern warfare — urban
fighting, refugee camps, mass atrocities, the collapse of the currency —
all the things that we associate with stuff that can happen over there
happening right here in the United States.
“Civil War” is also a movie about journalism.
It follows four reporters traveling from New York to Washington, D.C.,
via a circuitous route through Pennsylvania, West Virginia and
Virginia.
The movie takes on a lot of the weighty issues we talk about on shows
like this one: media ethics, political polarization, disinformation
polluting our media ecosystem and the potential threat from an
autocratic leader.
Wagner Moura plays a hardened war correspondent addicted to the
battlefield. He also provides some much needed levity in the movie.
Moura is best-known for his role as Pablo Escobar in “Narcos.” But he’s
also a former journalist, a political activist and a writer and director
himself. His 2019 movie “Marighella” about the coup and
counter-revolution in Brazil in the 1960s incurred the wrath of
then-president Jair Bolsonaro in Moura’s home country of Brazil.
Deep Dive host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza talked with Moura on
Thursday just as Washington’s annual White House Correspondents’
Association Dinner festivities were getting under way. It’s the time of
year when the relationship between journalists, politicians and
Hollywood is at its peak in this town.
They had a fascinating conversation about how making a movie about a new
civil war changed Moura’s own personal thinking about politics, how his
experience with Bolsonaro in Brazil is a warning for Americans and the
role of art in politics.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Wagner Moura is a star of A24's film "Civil War".
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Missing episodes?
-
After months of delay, this week House Speaker Mike Johnson advanced his
much awaited version of the Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan foreign aid
package.
Standing between that legislation and the House floor: two very powerful
committees.
First, the House Appropriations Committee, which controls about a third
of federal spending. And second, the Rules Committee, which controls
access to the House floor, and which has become a problem for GOP
leaders in this Congress.
Johnson needed to pick the lock on both of these committees. And there
is one Member of Congress who has chaired them both. Not just in the
past year — but in the past month: Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole.
Deep Dive host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza caught up with Cole on
Thursday afternoon after he’d just testified in support of the foreign
aid bill in front of his old committee.
They got deep into the weeds of why the Rules Committee has been such a
trouble spot for recent GOP speakers; and they discussed Johnson’s
tenure so far and whether Cole thinks the Speaker can hang on as members
threaten to oust him.
Cole also previewed how he will run the Appropriations Committee,
including how he’ll handle the controversial earmarks process. And Cole
answered some prying questions from some of his favorite historians on
the subject of Donald Trump.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Tom Cole is the chair of the House Appropriations committee.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Michael Cohen may be the only person standing between Donald Trump and
jail. Three of Trump’s four criminal trials — the ones in Washington,
Florida and Georgia — seem hopelessly stalled. But on this coming Monday
in New York, the hush money case is set to begin.
Deep Dive guest and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is the star
witness in the case. On this episode, he joins host and Playbook
co-author Ryan Lizza to discuss how he will defend the assault on his
credibility at the trial, why Alvin Bragg’s case is stronger than
analysts believe, the legal tactics he’s expecting from Trump’s team and
whether he ever regrets breaking with Trump.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Michael Cohen is Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
On April 1, the Florida Supreme Court issued a pair of decisions on
abortion that led the Biden campaign to declare that Florida, which
Democrats have lost twice to Donald Trump, was now “winnable.”
The only problem with that? Some of Florida’s abortion rights advocates
want the president to stay away. At issue is Amendment 4, a measure on
November’s ballot that would enshrine abortion in the state constitution
— and will also need Republican and independent votes to pass.
On this episode of Deep Dive, Anna Hochkammer, the executive director of
the Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition and one of the architects of
Florida’s abortion ballot initiative, joins host and Playbook co-author
Ryan Lizza to discuss the delicate politics of building a bipartisan
coalition around abortion rights in a red state like Florida.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Anna Hochkammer is the executive director of the Florida Women's Freedom
Coalition.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
A year ago today, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was
arrested in Russia and charged with espionage, an allegation he and the
Journal said was absurd. The State Department declared that Gershkovich
was “wrongfully detained,” an official status that commits the Biden
administration to work for his release.
Journal publisher Almar Latour has played a key role in the legal and
diplomatic effort to free Gershkovich. On this episode of Playbook Deep
Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza talks with Latour to learn
the inside story of this effort.
They discuss: how the shadow of basketball star Brittney Griner’s
detainment in Russia is influencing talks to bring Evan home; why a
Russian hitman serving a life sentence in Germany may be the key to
unlocking a deal with Putin; and how the 2024 election may affect
Gershkovich’s fate.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Almar Latour is CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street
Journal.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
The politics of the Israel-Hamas war have become one of the most
divisive issues in the Democratic Party. Mark Mellman, the president of
Democratic Majority for Israel – and a longtime pollster – joins host
and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza to get into the weeds on the new
politics of Israel within the Democratic Party.
Other subjects covered include the polling data behind Biden’s age,
Trump’s hold on the GOP, double doubters, abortion, the fate of Nikki
Haley voters, and whether you should bother paying attention to polls in
the first place.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Mark Mellman is the president of Democratic Majority for Israel.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
TikTok, abortion, and IVF: three of the biggest issues in American
politics right now and Kellyanne Conway is in the middle of all of
them.
Conway has been advising Donald Trump and Mike Pence for years and
lately she’s best known for urging the GOP to leave TikTok alone and
moderate the party’s message on reproductive rights.
On this episode of Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza has
a spirited conversation with Conway at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit,
where they recorded Deep Dive’s first-ever live show.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Kellyanne Conway is a GOP strategist and former Trump adviser.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
First ladies are among the most powerful advisers in any White House and
Jill Biden is no exception. On this episode of Deep Dive, host and
Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza is joined by NYT White House correspondent
Katie Rogers, who recently published “American Woman: The
Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill
Biden,” an authoritative account of how this century’s first ladies have
influenced the nation.
Ryan and Katie discuss Jill Biden and Melania Trump’s roles in staffing,
campaigning, and policy decisions; sensitive items from their times in
the White House, such as Melania and Donald’s prenup; and whether or not
Jill Biden has ever forgiven Kamala Harris for what she said about Joe
in 2020. Additionally, Katie opened up about the time her editors at the
New York Times sent her to Arkansas and forced her to report a story
about the Bidens that she didn’t want to cover — and how it ended up
forcing Jill and Joe to confront an uncomfortable truth about their
family.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent for The New York Times.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Carlos Lozada is a columnist for The New York Times, and before that,
the longtime nonfiction book critic for The Washington Post.
In 2019, Lozada won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism for a series of
pieces that judges described as “trenchant and searching reviews and
essays that joined warm emotion and careful analysis in examining a
broad range of books addressing government and the American experience.”
Well, he's now collected nearly a decade of such reviews in what he
calls “The Washington Book: How to Read Politics and Politicians,” which
was released this week.
“If the art of politics can be to subtract meaning from language to
produce more and more words that say less and less,” he writes, “then it
is my purpose as a journalist to try to find that meaning and put it
back.”
He reads a lot of books by politicians. As he likes to say, he reads all
those books so that you don't have to.
But he's found a way to use those books to say something interesting
about those same politicians.
So what does Carlos's close reading of the likes of Barack Obama, Donald
Trump, Joe Biden, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis and many others reveal about
our politics in 2024?
It turns out quite a lot. On this week’s episode of Deep Dive, host and
Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza sits down with Carlos in POLITICO's
offices to find out more.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Carlos Lozada is an opinion columnist and co-host of the weekly “Matter
of Opinion” podcast for The New York Times.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) has a way of being in the middle of things,
whether it’s standing up to Trump after Jan. 6 when many in her party
kept quiet, helping overthrow House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, or warning
Republicans about how they were wrong when it comes to the politics of
abortion.
But some of that drama is catching up with Mace back home in South
Carolina, which on Saturday will be the center of the political world as
voters head to the polls in the state’s presidential primary. Mace is
now back in Trump’s corner and facing a primary which features not one
but two candidates at least partly motivated by revenge: a candidate
backed by McCarthy and Mace’s own former chief of staff.
On this episode of Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza
talks to Rep. Mace about her on-again, off-again history with Trump; the
revenge plots playing out in her primary; her prediction about Trump’s
margin of victory on Saturday; and the backstory to that time she wore a
giant scarlet “A” on the House floor.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Nancy Mace is the representative for South Carolina's 1st district.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence
Committee, joins host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza to discuss
everything you might want to know about Russian space weapons, Section
702 reforms, and the behind-the-scenes action at the Intelligence
Committee during a week of extraordinary volatility.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Jim Himes is the representative for Connecticut's 4th district.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was the Democratic lead on the much
anticipated bipartisan border legislation that was supposed to sail
through the Senate and unlock funding for the war in Ukraine. But
everything went sideways this week when Republicans, at Donald Trump’s
insistence, abruptly turned against the bill. On this episode of Deep
Dive, Sen. Murphy tells host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza what
really happened behind the scenes in the negotiations that assembled the
bill and how things unraveled so fast.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Sen. Chris Murphy is the junior senator from Connecticut.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) discusses the unique role she
plays as one of President Joe Biden’s campaign co-chairs who is also
opposed to some of the key policies he is pursuing on immigration and in
the Middle East.
On this episode, she tells Deep Dive host and Playbook co-author Ryan
Lizza:
- Her views on Biden’s border policies and the senate bill
- Her own ideas of what a winning immigration policy looks like
- Her concerns about Biden’s policies in the Middle East — and what
she fears is the potential political fallout for his re-election
- What might be on the agenda at the next secret meeting of Biden’s
campaign co-chairs
- Whether she’d rather Biden run against Nikki Haley or Donald Trump
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Veronica Escobar is the representative for Texas's 16th district.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Mark Penn is best known for two things: his devotion to centrist
politics and his former role as the top pollster and strategist for Bill
and Hillary Clinton. Lately, he’s added a third: a barrage of polls that
show a large majority of Americans are crying out for an alternative to
Trump and Biden.
On this episode of Deep Dive, he talks with host and Playbook co-author
Ryan Lizza about his relationship (or lack thereof) with No Labels – a
group promoting a third-party candidacy – the recent GOP primary
results, his controversial polls, and why he thinks that Nikki Haley may
still have a big role to play in this year’s election.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Mark Penn is the CEO of Stagwell and former Clinton strategist.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Joe McQuaid, the longtime publisher of The New Hampshire Union Leader –
the 161-year old conservative paper that has operated like a Republican
party boss for many decades – joins Deep Dive to tell host and Playbook
co-author Ryan Lizza everything you need to know about Tuesday’s New
Hampshire primary, including whether or not Nikki Haley can win, if
she’ll get the Union Leader’s endorsement, and whether New Hampshire’s
primacy in American politics has come to an end.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Joe McQuaid is the former publisher of The New Hampshire Union Leader.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
David Axelrod, the former top Obama strategist, has been offering some
tough medicine to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. In November, he
suggested Biden think long and hard about running for reelection. He has
been withering about Biden’s skills as a candidate and communicator. He
is deeply concerned about the president’s age. And unlike other
Democrats in the anti-bedwetting set, Axe has been clear that the party
should be freaked out by the polls.
On this episode of Deep Dive, he joins host and Playbook co-author Ryan
Lizza to discuss his critiques of the Biden operation, the parallels
with 2012 when he led strategy for the Obama reelection, and what it’s
like to be a critic of your own party when most partisans these days are
expected to mouth the party line.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
David Axelrod is a Democratic political strategist and a CNN senior
political commentator.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
As the Iowa caucuses near, Playbook’s Ryan Lizza and POLITICO Politics
Bureau Chief Jonathan Martin go deep on what we know – and what we’ll
soon find out – about Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, and Ron
DeSantis’ campaigns.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Jonathan Martin is politics bureau chief for POLITICO.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
Arthur Brooks ran the American Enterprise Institute for more than a
decade. Now, he’s a fulltime happiness scientist. Here’s his guide to
making it in Washington without sacrificing your humanity.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
Arthur Brooks is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice
of Nonprofit and Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and the
author of "Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting
Happier".
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. -
A week of new developments in impeachment, Donald Trump’s D.C. case, and
Hunter Biden’s congressional inquiry showcased how the collision of law
and politics will determine much of Republicans’ and Democrats’
political fortunes in 2024. POLITICO legal editor James Romoser and
national correspondent Betsy Woodruff Swan join to discuss the
implications.
Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.
James Romoser is the legal editor for POLITICO.
Betsy Woodruff Swan is a national correspondent for POLITICO.
Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.
Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio. - Show more
