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Harry sits down with Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project and a former Republican political strategist who did as much as anyone to warn the country of the dangers of a Trump presidency, including creating and distributing a dazzling series of ads that brought home Trumpâs essential know-nothingness, hypocrisy, and wickedness. The two begin with a discussion of whether in retrospect the election was winnable for Harris-Walz, or whether the forces that propelled Trumpâs victory were in retrospect insuperable. Wilson analyzes the result in terms of the media ecosystem that the extreme right has constructed and made common cause with since 2008 and especially since Covid. Penetrating that ecosystem is the chief task going forward, but it is way easier said than done. Trumpâs likely stumbles as President will provide some headway and perhaps provide openings for the Democrats to take back one of the Houses of Congress in 2026. But the immediate and pressing issue is whether Trump will use his virtually unchecked power to move the country towards autocracy along the model of say, Turkey, in a way that history demonstrates is very hard to reverse. That leaves little choice of patriots, who might well have been looking forward to a resumption of normal life and normal politics, than to continue to fight day to day and month to month against the coming waves of abuses of governmental power.
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A welter of emotionsâdisappointment, anger, shellshock, bewildermentâjockey for attention in the wake of Donald Trumpâs decisive victory. How did the American people select a constitutional villain they know so well, who has promised an even more lawless and destructive second term? A great group of thoughtful and trenchant commentatorsâSenator Barbara Boxer, Norm Ornstein, and Jacob Weisbergâjoin Harry to probe the deeper explanations for Trumpâs victory and begin to consider what is to be done.
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Harry unpacks Trumpâs victory with Mike Podhorzer, founder of the Analyst Institute and the Defend Democracy Project and perhaps the nationâs #1 authority on polls and their foibles. Podhorzer resists the conventional wisdom that the election result is best explained by demographic shifts among certain voters such as Hispanic men or white women. If what's happened here happened in the Hungarian or Turkish elections, we wouldn't be looking at their exit polls to understand what happened. He rather analyzes the seeds of Trumpâs victory in a series of developments since 2008, including Supreme Court decisions and an outpouring of money from third parties. Podhorzer avers that Trumpâs policies have virtually no support in the electorate, pointing out how Trumpian candidates fared in down ballet races; however, Trumpâs success traces to a persuasive embodiment of widely held attitudes, in particular anti-incumbency, which has been a potent force around the world since COVID. That suggests that when Trump begins to put policies into effect, for example the promised mass deportation, it will prompt an electoral backlash. Podhorzerâs core argument about the election is that while it was legal in the sense of not turning of quirky contingencies, it was not legitimate because it failed the fundamental test of expressing the true consent of the governed.
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Harry sits down in a live conversation with Bill Kristol, one of the most influential voices in America political life for the last 35 years and a veteran of high official service in two Republican administrations. Kristol was an early and ardent opponent of Donald Trump and a founder of Republicans for the Rule of Law. Harry and he talk about his New York childhood in a conservative hothouse, his early academic success as a political philosophy professor, his transition to the practical hurly-burly world of politics, and his long stint editing the most influential magazine of conservative political thought, the Weekly Standard. They then go at length into why Trump is such a pernicious and divisive figure in America, the concrete threats he presents if elected again, and the role of the Republican Party in maintaining his influence, notwithstanding widespread contempt for him. Along the way, they explore the social and political explanations for Trumpâs rise and what needs to happen to restore America to a healthy two-party democracy.
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For the last episode of the 2024 presidential campaign, a stellar roundtable of David Frum, Jen Rubin and Stuart Stevens wrestles with Trumpâs over-the-top vicious rhetoric and considers whether the country may be on the precipice of electing a fascist. We go on to consider the strange late-campaign factor of Elon Musk, and move to Harrisâs closing argument, and its emphasis on civility, closing with some tentative observations about what lies ahead for the country over the next several weeks.
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As part of the Talking San Diego series, Harry sits down with Nancy Pelosi for a wide-ranging conversation centering on her new book, âThe Art of Power.â Pelosi takes us through her entry into Congress as a 46-year-old housewife through the great legislative triumphs of her tenure as speaker, clearly among the most successful in American history. She discusses her approach to leadership and the particular challenges posed by the conduct of Donald Trump and his allies, including their regular departure from the truth. A great conversation with the Speakerâs graciousness, savvy, poise, and judgment on full display.
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Going into the campaignâs last week, there is a mile-wide chasm between the candidates in their messages & styles, but not a millimeter between them in the popular vote polls. Harrisâs closing argument is emphasizing the grave dangers Trump presents to constitutional rule, but itâs not clear itâs getting through to any new voters. A fantastic roundtableâBeto OâRourke, Tara Setmayer, & Ali Vitaliâjoin Harry to analyze whatâs happening in the final days of the tightest election in a generation.
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Harry talks with Bob Bauer, the most prominent Democratic political lawyer of the last generation, about his new book, âThe Unraveling.â The book, analyzes the contributions of lawyers to the politics-as-blood-sport that is our inheritance from the last 40 years of national campaigns. Looking back on a lifetime of representation of candidates, officials, and political institutions like the White House, Bauer analyzes the warriorâs role, including pushing on the truth and demonizing the enemy. Many of these excesses helped pave the for the far greater and more vicious dishonesty of the Trump era. Bauer ends with an extended prescription for restoring ethics and a sense of institutional values to political lawyering.
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As one of our guests this week puts it, we know the dartboard but we donât know what area to pinpoint. There has been little concrete indication of movement in the basic dynamic of the election, which means that we need to stare head on at the grim possibility of a Trump victory, and ask why the sense of panic isnât greater, including among Republican officials who know Trump best. Susan Glasser, Charlie Sykes, & Jacob Weisberg contrast Harrisâs vigor w/ Trumpâs continued decline & read the sparse tea leaves.
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Harry and Molly trade off political and legal questions in their latest mashup. As usual, they cover lots of territory on both the legal and political terrains, including Trumpâs insistence that he is better for Israel, the status of the various Trump cases, including if Trump wins, the Supreme Courtâs reaction to public discontent, whether the justice system is biased towards white men, whether Vance represents âTrumpism Without Trump,â FEMA lies, and a whole lot more.
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T minus 22 and the two campaigns are a study in contrasts. Harris is prospecting for new voters w/ a broad media strategy, inc niche podcasts, while Trump digs deeper into the dark recesses of MAGA voters searching for supporters who sat the last two elections out. The hurricane is a vivid reminder of all that canât be predicted, & an illustration of the damage wrought by Trumpâs lies. A great trio of political expertsâJon Alter, Mara Liasson, & Bob Shrumâjoins Harry to piece it all together.
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When Judge Tanya Chutkan abruptly unsealed Jack Smithâs 165 page brief describing the evidence he proposes to use to convict Donald Trump of trying to steal the 2020 election, there was a mad dash of activity as we all scrambled to mine the best nuggets of information; and there were many of them. Read of the brief reveals a whole other series of insights that have been overlooked or under reported to date. Harry talks with the ever-tenacious and insightful Marcy Wheeler, a.k.a. the empty wheel, and in a detailed 45-minute conversation, the two exchange and analyze the most important outstanding revelations in the brief and bear down on what the additional key points reveal about Smithâs case and the likely course of litigation ahead.
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If there was a fundamental shift in the election dynamics this week, it wasn't perceptible at the surface level. A great returning panel of Alisyn Camerota, David French, and Norm Ornstein joins Harry to discuss whether Trump's increasingly brazen lies move any voters into his column. They then take up the VP debate & Vance's inability to concede that Trump lost in 2020; Harris's week, highlighted by a joint appearance w/ Liz Cheney; & finally the impact of the Jack Smith brief in the 1/6 case.
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Harry talks with Michael Podhorzer, founder of the Analyst Institute and perhaps the foremost student in the country of the true utility and disutility of political polls. Podhorzer explains the critical difference between two types of âundecidedâ voters the polls lump together â those (very very rare) votes still uncertain whom to vote for and those (much more common) voters who may or may not vote but know whom they would vote for. The difference has key implications for the state of the race, the best strategies for the campaign, and the right and wrong ways to interpret polls. The distinction also helps explain Trumpâs steadfast refusal to expand or soften his autocratic extreme MAGA message. Podhorzer also explains the modeling he has done of the 2024 electorate based on vote history and behavior. A rich discussion and an effective antidote to the âMad Poll Diseaseâ that so many of us have as the election approaches.
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With five weeks to go before the election, Donald Trump seems content to double and redouble down on his appeal to the extreme elements of his base, including conspicuous racist and xenophobic undertones. Kamala Harris spent the week laying out detailed economic policy proposals, facing the press, wooing rural and blue-collar voters, and burnishing her credentials as a potential Commander in Chief. A stellar roundtable of Jen Rubin, Stuart Stevens, & Ali Vitali joins Harry to break it all down.
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Harry sits down with Preet Bharara, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and an encyclopedic source about tradition, culture, and current state of play at the Department of Justice. The two have a wide-ranging conversation touching on the threat of Project 2025 to DOJ in particular; the current state of morale, which suffered in the Trump years; fine points of strategy in the DOJ prosecutions of Trump; the Supreme Courtâs impact on DOJ practice; and a lot more.
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A superb panel of Jason Kander, Josh Marshall, and Tara Setmayer joins Harry to take stock of a wild & weird week and consider where it leaves us w/ 6 weeks to go. Harris logged two effective interviews, continued to headline boisterous rallies, and swamped Trump in fundraising. Trump continued to stir the pot about pet-eating in Springfield then at weekâs end had to deal with fallout from news of ultra-gross online chatter by NC gov candidate Mark Robinson, whom Trump has praised extravagantly.
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Harry sits down with Judge J. Michael Luttig, a leading conservative jurist and fierce critic of Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and the Supreme Court. Judge Luttig explains why Trump is the very menace to the Constitution that the Framers feared, and excoriates Republicans in Congress for enabling his authoritarian ambitions. The two move on to 3 pro-Trump Supreme Court decisions that Luttig disparages, singling out for special reproach the Courtâs immunity decision, which Judge Luttig characterizes as an "abomination". Itâs a hard-hitting, essential discussion with one of Trumpâs most formidable conservative critics.
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The debate behind us, we are in the official 50-day homestretch of the presidential campaign. And although Kamala Harris dominated the debate, itâs not clear that it translates into a political edge in the election. A fantastic roundtable of Susan Glasser, Molly Jong-Fast, and Jacob Weisberg join Harry to assess the debate and its aftermath; analyze each sideâs subsequent moves and what they reveal, including Trumpâs going full-out nasty; and discuss what each side needs to do going forward.
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Talking Feds is excited to introduce a new conversation series: 1-on-1s with Harry Litman. This series will drop in your feed every Thursday â in addition to our Monday roundtables â and feature conversations that go in-depth with one special guest. Host Harry Litman will be engaging with all sorts of topics, from law and politics to art and science to sports, history, movies, and more. With the Talking Feds calling card of great guests -- eg Judge Michael Luttig, Scott Galloway, Gina Raimondo, Bill Kristol, Robert Sapolsky, Preet Bharara, and Swati Sharma -- each conversation is sure to be interesting. The first episode will air next Thursday, September 19th. Stay tuned!
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