How much did Trump’s efforts effect vaccine development? Has Operation Warp Speed done more to help than our government’s pre-existing pandemic response system? Dr. Nicole Lurie of The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations answers questions. Related reading and episodes What you need to know about the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines Virus cases are surging in the U.S. Is our government better prepared now? A president’s push for an unproven cure...
Dec 10, 2020•21 min
President Trump is reportedly considering pardoning himself and his family for potential future Justice Department charges. Can he do that? And where does recent news of a“bribery-for-pardon” scheme fit into a president's limitations on pardon power? Related reading and episodes The problems with pardon power Trump’s view of a unilaterally powerful president goes unchallenged Giuliani? Manafort? Himself? Here’s whom a lame-duck Trump could pardon....
Dec 04, 2020•29 min
Are Trump's major moves during a lame-duck period unprecedented? Professor Jeremi Suri offers an example from history with lessons for today. Plus, reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb on the implications of Trump's approach to the virus for Biden's incoming team. Related reading and episodes What do Trump’s legal threats actually accomplish? Does Trump’s refusal to concede put national security at risk?...
Nov 19, 2020•24 min
Experts are concerned that the president's unwillingness to start a transition threatens our country’s safety by denying President-elect Joe Biden resources and intelligence. Shane Harris explains the risks when a president blocks a smooth transition. Related reading and episodes What do Trump’s legal threats actually accomplish? Amid Pentagon upheaval, military officers face a fraught few months Pressure mounts on state Republicans as lawsuits challenging election results flop...
Nov 13, 2020•32 min
Election Day 2020 is behind us, but the presidential election is far from over. Because of increased vote-by-mail and early voting, vote counts are taking longer than usual this year. The race is very tight. The winner of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency is coming down to vote counts with very thin margins in a handful of battleground states. While counts are still trickling in, President Trump has repeatedly made false claims of election fraud, declared victory in states whe...
Nov 05, 2020•31 min
As a businessman, candidate Donald Trump said that he was the only person who could deliver major gains for U.S. workers. The stock market and the wealthiest Americans have seen gains during his administration, but at a cost — ever-growing wealth inequalities. Related reading and listening: Will Trump get Americans off of welfare? Jobless claims increase to 898,000, a sign the recovery could be stalling Trump’s Carrier deal fades as economic reality intervenes Subscribe to The Washington Post: w...
Oct 29, 2020•27 min
Through his administration’s efforts to weaken agencies, control the flow of information coming out of government and shutter scientific programs, we explore how President Trump has increased divisions in our willingness to accept science-based guidance. Related reading and listening: Does the president have much power to control a viral outbreak? CDC feels pressure from Trump as rift grows over coronavirus response Science ranks grow thin in Trump administration Subscribe to The Washington Post...
Oct 28, 2020•24 min
President Trump has been surrounded by controversies over his rhetoric when it comes to race. Some hoped he would moderate his tone in office, but four years later, the president has inflamed racial tensions more — through both rhetoric and policy. Related reading and listening Will courts let the Trump administration put a citizenship question on the Census? All four living ex-presidents draw a sharp contrast with Trump on systemic racism Allegations of racism have marked Trump’s presidency and...
Oct 27, 2020•23 min
In the upcoming 2020 election, 35 U.S. Senate seats and 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for grabs. Plus, 44 states with seats in their state legislative chambers are also on the ballot. Many of these races have an impact on the agenda of the next president and the future of the American political landscape. Yes, the makeup of Congress will, of course, affect the way the next president can govern. Parties in control of each house of Congress can help a president carry out hi...
Oct 22, 2020•17 min
The 2020 election and its lead-up have not exactly been your run-of-the-mill election season. American elections often face various challenges, but this year that list of challenges is quite long. First, the world is still in the middle of a pandemic. That’s meant that many states have ramped up mail-in voting, added ballot drop boxes or laid out plans for safety measures around in-person voting. But those pivots and new plans have meant some errors and mix-ups. And some of these voting changes ...
Oct 15, 2020•22 min
For months, President Trump avoided the novel coronavirus. He did this even without taking basic steps to prevent the virus’s spread, like wearing masks and staying away from large indoor crowds. But, last week, that changed. Trump told the American people via tweet very early Friday morning, that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Later that day, he was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. On Monday, after he’d been administered a cocktail of steroids and thera...
Oct 08, 2020•28 min
President Trump is not exactly known for his adherence to Washington norms. And his ongoing rhetoric around perhaps the most significant norm of American democracy — the peaceful transition of power — brushes against centuries-old precedent. Though we’ve faced several electoral challenges in our country’s short history, presidential power has always passed peacefully from one commander in chief to the next. This year, though, Trump has declined to agree to accept the results of the 2020 election...
Oct 02, 2020•21 min
The passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week, has created a vacancy on the bench. President Trump and the Republicans have since taken steps toward quickly confirming a conservative replacement for Ginsburg, who was a liberal icon. Trump is expected to announce a nominee late this week, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has suggested confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee could begin mid-October. Republicans hope the Supreme Court fight wil...
Sep 24, 2020•33 min
Reporter Seung Min Kim on how Trump’s refusal to acknowledge human-caused climate change affects the country’s wildfire management and response plans. Plus, environmental analysis professor Char Miller on who's really responsible for fire mitigation.
Sep 17, 2020•25 min
The Justice Department on Tuesday intervened in the defamation lawsuit brought by a woman who says President Trump raped her years ago, moving the matter to federal court and signaling it wants to make the U.S. government — rather than Trump himself — the defendant in the case. In this segment from "Post Reports," Matt Zapatosky talks about the unusual move, and where it fits into the larger story of Trump's Justice Department.
Sep 10, 2020•10 min
Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha, Wis., police officer in late August. Since that shooting, Kenosha has been the site of unrest, protests, vandalism and violence. Days after the protests and unrest began, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse traveled a short trip from his home to Kenosha where self-declared militia members and armed counterprotesters had been appearing. Rittenhouse was armed with a rifle. Later, authorities say Rittenhouse shot three protesters, killing two of t...
Sep 03, 2020•19 min
Faith in the U.S. electoral system is one of the most important fundamentals of this country’s democracy. And this year, it’s being tested in unprecedented ways. Some of those challenges are emerging from the rhetoric of the president himself. President Trump has discredited mail-in voting, suggested rampant voter fraud and said he might not accept the results of the election. Most recently, Trump has threatened to use law enforcement officers to patrol polling places.In an interview last week w...
Aug 27, 2020•22 min
President Trump’s rhetoric about the Postal Service has grown bolder. He’s said that if he stops the Democrats from providing emergency funding to the Postal Service, it’s harder for them to process a surge in mail-in ballots. And according to Trump himself, he wants less mail-in voting, because he thinks too much vote by mail may cost him the election. Meanwhile, a new postmaster general has taken over the agency. Louis DeJoy, previously a logistics executive, was named to head the Postal Servi...
Aug 20, 2020•24 min
Usually, in presidential election years of the past, August marks a new phase in election season. Conventions wrap up, rallies and events pick up on the campaign trail and candidates debate in front of large audiences, all leading up to the moment voters go to the polls. But this year, pretty much none of those things will happen in the way that we’re used to. The novel coronavirus fundamentally changed this election year . Many of the traditional events still populate the calendar between now a...
Aug 13, 2020•27 min
If you’d never heard of TikTok before the coronavirus pandemic sent us all into our homes for months, you’ve probably heard of it now. With little to do at home, millions of Americans turned to TikTok to create and watch short, fun videos of mostly teenagers mostly dancing, lip syncing or pranking their parents. While this social video app may seem harmless when you’re somehow mindlessly scrolling through hours of 30-second antics, the Trump administration insists it might not be so harmless aft...
Aug 06, 2020•25 min
In the run-up to any modern presidential election, assessing a candidate’s successes and failures has served as fodder for political pundits, analysts and campaign advisers. And in part, those assessments of who is winning and which messages are working are drawn from a whole sprawling effort designed to take the pulse of the American voter: political polling. These days, there are public polls, private polls and polling shops out of news organizations, universities and research centers. There’s...
Jul 30, 2020•30 min
The United States is in search of leadership on many significant challenges we face at this difficult moment in our country. And on two major issues — the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and protests against racism and police brutality — most Americans are dissatisfied with the leadership they’ve seen thus far.As cases rise across the country and fears persist, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 60 percent of Americans disapprove of President Trump’s handling of the virus. Meanwhile...
Jul 23, 2020•36 min
The 2020 presidential nominating conventions will look little like the political mega-events we’ve seen in this country for the past few decades. The novel coronavirus pandemic has made the notion of huge stadiums full of cheering supporters plus countless meetings, rallies and after parties, unadvisable under U.S. public health guidelines. Now, for both parties, rejiggering their conventions has been a significant challenge.Democrats have decided to take a largely virtual approach to their part...
Jul 16, 2020•26 min
Much of American democracy runs on precedent. How things have worked in the past helps us understand how they ought to work now. Many parts of our democracy function because years of established norms guide them. But sometimes that precedent and those standards face the courts — a chance to take long-standing norms and codify them into law. We saw one of those moments at the Supreme Court this week with a vote on the role of electors in our presidential elections. Presidential electors cast a vo...
Jul 09, 2020•20 min
Over the past few years making the“Can He Do That?” podcast, a few episodes have stuck with us. In particular, the episodes that keenly capture the role of the U.S. president that offer particular insight into the ways the presidency was designed to work in our country and how that design is incredible and also flawed. Now, we are bringing back one of those episodes. This show, which originally aired on July 4 last year, is a deep look at what the Founding Fathers wanted the American presidency ...
Jul 02, 2020•28 min
In the United States, novel coronavirus infections set a single-day national record Wednesday. For now it seems like deaths are not growing at the same pace as cases, but it’s clear that this virus is not contained and this pandemic is far from over. Yet momentum behind a federal response seems to be fading. The task force is convening less often, federal funding to some test sites has been depleted, and President Trump has said that the country will not shut down again, even as some states have...
Jun 25, 2020•27 min
John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Trump, wrote a book,“The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.” The book offers a portrait of President Trump as an erratic and ignorant leader who often places his own personal whims above the national interest. But whether Americans will get to read the book is the subject of an escalating legal battle between Bolton and the Justice Department. The White House says the book contains classified material. Bolton’s attorney says t...
Jun 18, 2020•15 min
Public outcry and calls for police reform have erupted across the country, with movements taking aim at not just policing tactics, but also broader racial inequities embedded in American life. Many of our nation’s leaders are responding to those calls for reform. House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday united behind federal legislation, the Justice in Policing of 2020 Act. The act bans certain tactics such as like chokeholds and would make it easier to hold officers accountable for misconduct. Jus...
Jun 11, 2020•32 min
Earlier this week, the country watched as the U.S. president walked across Lafayette Square outside the White House to stand in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, hold a Bible and take a photo. In a speech from the Rose Garden moments earlier, President Trump threatened to deploy troops to control protests if state and local authorities did not immediately regain control of their streets. For Trump to make that trek to the church, flanked by the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Jo...
Jun 04, 2020•18 min
Protests across the United States have intensified since last week over the death of George Floyd, a black man whose final gasps of“I can’t breathe” while in police custody, were caught on video in Minneapolis. Many protests have been peaceful, but in several cities, tensions have escalated and violence has erupted. With unrest growing, President Trump decided to address the nation from the White House’s Rose Garden on Monday in a televised speech. Moments before he spoke, though, police started...
Jun 02, 2020•17 min
