Ready or not, tomorrow is debate day. And both President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 78, are under a lot of pressure to show they're fit for re-election. While Biden hunkers down at Camp David to prepare, Trump has been getting an assist from his supporters sharing selectively edited "cheap fake" videos that pray on voter concerns over Biden's age. Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins us to talk about why Republicans are resorting to spreading these easily debun...
Jun 26, 2024•20 min
In today’s New York primary elections, voters in the state’s 16th Congressional District will decide what’s become the most expensive House primary race in American history. It pits incumbent Rep. Jamaal Bowman against Westchester County Executive George Latimer, and it epitomizes the divisions within the Democratic Party between the progressive left and the centrist mainstream. Politico’s chief Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza breaks down that race and others worth keeping an eye on tonight....
Jun 25, 2024•17 min
Today marks two years since the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority overturned Roe vs. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that for decades guaranteed the right to an abortion. Since then, conservative lawmakers in roughly half the states have either banned or significantly restricted access to abortion, while the other half has expanded or protected access. The nexus of the debate over abortion is now our current presidential election, with both the Biden and Trump campaigns center...
Jun 24, 2024•19 min
Is there a way to send fewer people to prison while lowering crime rates? This week’s How We Got Here unpacks the progressive prosecutor movement—the left’s antidote to tough on crime policies. How have progressive prosecutors fared since the movement began a few years back? How are red states responding? How does the whole debate over progressive prosecutors misunderstand the fundamentals of crime? Max and Josie hold court to figure it all out.
Jun 22, 2024•27 min
Congress is weighing proposals to update mandatory military conscription policies — aka the draft — including whether to expand it to include women. It’s an idea that’s been debated for a while, especially since women started serving in combat roles nearly a decade ago. This month, a proposal to require women to register for the draft was included in a big Pentagon policy bill passed out of the Senate Armed Services Committee. However, it’s unlikely to win final approval. Katherine Kuzminski, a ...
Jun 21, 2024•16 min
Tens of millions of Americans in the Northeast and Midwest are sweating through their first major heatwave of the year. Heat is the deadliest of all natural disasters, according to the National Weather Service, killing more Americans on average each year than floods, tornados and hurricanes combined. This week, a coalition of environmental, labor, and healthcare groups filed a petition to push the Federal Emergency Management Agency to start recognizing both extreme heat and wildfire smoke as ma...
Jun 20, 2024•20 min
Speaking at a Juneteenth event at the White House this month, President Joe Biden warned about the “old ghosts in new garments” trying to erase the nation’s Black history by banning books and restricting diversity programs. But across the country, people are also working hard to preserve that history in the face of Republican opposition. So, on a special Juneteenth episode of “What A Day,” we speak to an organization doing just that: The Jack Hadley Black History Museum in Thomasville, Georgia. ...
Jun 19, 2024•18 min
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday dissolved his war cabinet that’s overseen the country’s fighting in Gaza. The move was expected, but it came after two centrist members of the cabinet resigned in frustration over Netanyahu’s handling of the war. Meanwhile, representatives from dozens of nations left a weekend conference in Switzerland aimed at ending the war in Ukraine with little to show for it. Ben Rhodes, former U.S. deputy national security advisor and co-host of ‘Pod Save...
Jun 18, 2024•18 min
Former President Donald Trump has vowed to appeal his criminal conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to sway the 2016 election. His sentencing is scheduled for July 11, just a few days before the Republican National Convention. Trump and his attorneys claim that the case was impermissibly flawed and that his constitutional rights were violated. Legal experts have raised possible issues for appeal, which run the gamut and include the charging scheme, the case venue, jury instruct...
Jun 17, 2024•13 min
We’ve been hearing that the far-right is on the rise in Europe for a decade now. And yet, with a few exceptions, these parties are nowhere near taking power. Even in the EU Parliament, where the far-right made gains for the third election in a row this week, nationalist parties are STILL expected to end up marginalized and powerless. What's driving them and what's stopping them? Max and guest host Josie Duffy Rice take a look at the rise of the German far-right AfD party to illustrate what’s goi...
Jun 15, 2024•33 min
In a unanimous decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court preserved broad access to the abortion drug mifepristone — at least for now. The justices dismissed the case on a technicality, ruling that the anti-abortion groups and doctors who brought it didn't have a legal right to sue. But the court's decision isn't a solid win for abortion access. The justices didn't weigh in on the substance of the case, meaning it could end up back in front of the court. Already, three Republican-led states are try...
Jun 14, 2024•21 min
House Democrats on Tuesday launched an official task force to take on the far-right agenda Republicans envision under a second Trump presidency. The group of Democrats aims to directly counter the plans outlined in “Project 2025,” a 1,000 page policy blueprint floated by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation that calls for eliminating federal agencies like the FBI and Justice Department, restricting access to contraception, and concentrating more power in the presidency. Maryland Democratic...
Jun 13, 2024•19 min
A Delaware jury on Tuesday convicted Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, on three federal felony gun charges. The verdict makes Biden the first member of a sitting president’s immediate family to be convicted of a crime. A sentencing date hasn’t been set yet, but the president’s son is facing up to 25 years in prison. Alex Thompson, national political correspondent for Axios, was in the courtroom during the trial. He breaks down the verdict and the reactions in Washington. And in headlines:...
Jun 12, 2024•20 min
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court asked the Justice Department to weigh in on two cases that deal with whether cities and states can hold fossil fuel companies responsible for the effects of climate change. While we wait to see what happens, one thing is abundantly clear: climate change is already affecting our health. Vox Media, Grist and The 19th News teamed up for a series on how our changing climate is reshaping the reproductive cycle from menstruation to menopause. Lead reporter Zoya Teirst...
Jun 11, 2024•16 min
Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s war cabinet, resigned from his post on Sunday. His announcement came one day after Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas in an operation that killed scores of Palestinians. Gantz, who’s also Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief political rival, said Netanyahu is “preventing us from reaching real victory” and called for new elections. President Joe Biden wrapped up a five-day visit to France on Sunday. While the trip was nominally ab...
Jun 10, 2024•22 min
Until recently, many people—and colleges—rejected the SAT as a racist and classist metric that perpetuated social divides. But now it’s being championed as a tool for closing some of those same gaps! This week on How We Got Here: why does public opinion on the SAT keep flip-flopping? Who does the test privilege? And is it really the best metric we’ve got for college admissions? With Erin on maternity leave, “What A Day” all-star Priyanka Aribindi joins Max to assess the racist roots of the SAT, ...
Jun 08, 2024•31 min
Thursday was a bit of a letdown for Supreme Court watchers. The justices issued opinions in three smaller cases, but we’re still waiting for decisions in more than two dozen others with just a few weeks left of the term. Some of those cases could be hugely consequential, touching on everything from reproductive rights and presidential immunity to social media and guns. Melissa Murray, co-host of Crooked’s legal podcast ‘Strict Scrutiny,’ says we should brace ourselves for a wild June. And in hea...
Jun 07, 2024•17 min
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign rode his felony conviction to a banner fundraising day last week, raking in more than 50 million dollars within 24 hours of the verdict, according to aides. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are in California this week to court big donors to grow their campaign war chests with the November election less than six months away. Meanwhile, both campaigns have reportedly seen a significant decline in small-dollar contributions during this election cycle. ...
Jun 06, 2024•18 min
President Joe Biden signed an executive order that will severely limit the number of migrants who can claim asylum at the border. Flanked by high-profile Democrats at a press conference Tuesday, Biden said he was forced to act to address “a worldwide migrant crisis” amid Republican stonewalling on a bipartisan border bill. “Doing nothing is not an option. We have to act,” Biden said. But the president also came under significant criticism from others in the party, including California Sen. Alex ...
Jun 05, 2024•18 min
President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order today that would severely limit the number of migrants who can claim asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The details still aren’t totally clear, but reports say Biden’s order would cap asylum requests at an average of 2,500 a day. In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum is set to become the nation’s first female president. She won Sunday’s election in a landslide with roughly 60 percent of the vote. She’s also the hand-picked successor of the current...
Jun 04, 2024•17 min
We’re about five months away from election day, meaning both campaigns will do whatever they can to boost their standing with voters. One of the ways campaigns traditionally try to do this is with celebrity endorsements. But do they actually convince people to vote? Jared Clemons, assistant professor of political science at Temple University, walks us through the data. And in headlines: Hunter Biden's federal gun charge trial begins this week, Israel has agreed to President Biden’s proposed ceas...
Jun 03, 2024•19 min
Guilty, guilty, guilty. A Manhattan jury on Thursday found former President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony charges in his criminal hush-money trial. Trump was accused of falsifying business records in a scheme to cover up payments he made to the adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. The verdict makes Trump the first U.S. president to be tried and convicted of felony crimes. Diana Florence, a former federal prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, explain...
May 31, 2024•20 min
The Manhattan jury in former President Donald Trump’s criminal defense trial began deliberations on Wednesday. The jury asked to rehear four pieces of testimony before breaking for the day. Outside the courtroom, Trump complained about how the case was “rigged” and how “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges.” Norm Eisen, author of the book “Trying Trump” and former special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, explains what happens now that the jury has the case. And in headlines: Supre...
May 30, 2024•20 min
The defense and prosecution delivered their closing arguments Tuesday in former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial. New York Justice Juan Merchan said jury instructions will begin early today, after which the jurors will begin deliberating Trump’s fate. He faces 34 charges of falsifying business documents in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. Harry Litman, senior legal affairs columnist for The Los Angeles Times and a former deputy assistant attorney general at ...
May 29, 2024•15 min
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has called a rare special legislative session starting today to ensure President Joe Biden’s name appears on the state’s November ballot. But Ohio Democrats say Republicans are using it as a pretext to pass legislation that would make it harder for people to fund local ballot initiatives, like the one that enshrined abortion protections in the state’s constitution last year. Ohio House Democratic Minority Leader Allison Russo explains what’s at stake. House and S...
May 28, 2024•24 min
The International Criminal Court is formally seeking warrants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. But what power does the ICC actually have? Does anything they do matter? This week on How We Got Here, Max and Erin take a look at the short history of the world’s paramount arbiter of war crimes and human rights—an impressive title for a court that seldom convicts. The hosts pick apart cases against the leaders of Kenya, Yugoslavia and Russia to determ...
May 25, 2024•28 min
The United States Supreme Court sided with Republicans in a decision over South Carolina’s disputed congressional map. Last year, a lower court ruled that the map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because it “exiled” thousands of Black voters from a district that was becoming increasingly competitive to make it safer for the Republican incumbent. On Thursday, The Supreme Court’s conservative majority reversed that decision in a ruling that will likely make it harder for Black voters to ...
May 24, 2024•18 min
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced plans on Wednesday to fast-track a vote on a bill to protect access to birth control and other contraceptives. It comes the day after former President Donald Trump suggested he would be open to new restrictions, only to backtrack hours later. Longtime Capitol Hill reporter Eugene Scott explains the strategy behind Schumer's fast vote.Kenyan President William Ruto arrived in Washington on Wednesday for a three-day state visit. The White Ho...
May 23, 2024•17 min
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was one of 11 people who pleaded not guilty in an Arizona court on Tuesday to charges they tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In all, a state grand jury indicted 18 people in the case last month, making Arizona the fourth state to indict fake electors, following Michigan, Georgia, and Nevada. Paul Charlton, former U.S. Attorney for Arizona, explains the state’s case and how cases in other states could build on each other. And in headlines...
May 22, 2024•21 min
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Monday announced plans to seek arrest warrants for the leaders of Hamas and Israel — including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — over their actions during the war in Gaza. Farther east in Iran, the country’s supreme leader looked to project stability after President Ebrahim Raisi and another top official died in a helicopter accident Sunday. Vox foreign affairs reporter Ellen Ioanes explains what’s at stake for both countries amid ...
May 21, 2024•14 min
