The United States has by far the world’s largest military budget, accounting for 15% of all federal spending, and nearly half of all discretionary spending. Presidents of both parties have repeatedly failed to bring the Pentagon budget under control. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has been one of the loudest voices in congress arguing for substantial cuts; his senior foreign policy adviser, Matt Duss, joins Mehdi Hasan to make the case for defunding the Pentagon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...
Jun 18, 2020•34 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast In the wake of global protests over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, a movement to redirect public resources away from traditional policing and towards community-oriented systems of public safety has taken hold around the country. What are advocates of “defunding the police” really arguing for, and could it work? Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss the future of policing in the United States. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...
Jun 11, 2020•30 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast President Trump has seized on the nationwide protest movement that followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer to advance his most authoritarian political instincts. This week he threatened to deploy the military to cities whose leaders were unable to contain the violence themselves. Could this be an inflection point in his presidency? And is it time to finally use the F-word in discussing Trump? Fascism scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss. Hos...
Jun 04, 2020•33 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast The U.S. passed a tragic milestone this week, becoming the first country in the world to record 100,000 deaths from Covid-19. Is there an end in sight? Is this the new normal? Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss where we go from here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 28, 2020•38 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast Attorney General William Barr has emerged as the shrewdest and most effective member of the Trump administration, weaponizing the Department of Justice to protect the president and his allies while threatening his enemies with legal retribution. He has made it clear that in sharp contrast to the traditionally independent role of the AG, he is willing to serve as Trump’s enforcer, providing a facade of legal propriety to the president’s election-year political maneuverings. What does this mean fo...
May 21, 2020•35 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast Over the weekend, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to voice his frustrations about the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown in Alameda County, California. The billionaire entrepreneur threatened that he would take his auto factory to another state if it was not allowed to reopen immediately. On Monday he announced that he would be resuming production at the facility in contravention of the lockdown. By Wednesday morning, the county had caved to Musk, announcing that his factory would be allowed to resum...
May 14, 2020•36 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Protests have broken out in and around several state capitols, with demonstrators, among them armed right-wing militia members, attempting to pressure their state governments to end the Covid-19 lockdowns. Could this end in violence, and what does it portend for the presidential election? Scholar of right-wing extremism Nicole Hemmer joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss the protests. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
May 07, 2020•34 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast In March, former Joe Biden staffer Tara Reade went public with the explosive allegation that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had sexually assaulted her in 1993. Since then, Democrats, in particular surrogates of the Biden campaign, have struggled to deal with the allegation. The Biden camp has categorically denied that any wrongdoing took place, but in the first presidential election of the #MeToo era, can he really afford to dismiss Tara Reade? The Intercept’s Ryan Grim, w...
Apr 30, 2020•39 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed gaping holes in the United States’ medical system, and the lack of access to tests and treatment has many wondering if fundamental reforms to the system might be necessary after all. CNN commentator and medical doctor Abdul El-Sayed joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss whether universal healthcare — Medicare for All — could be the cure for the ills of our ailing system. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 23, 2020•39 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast The president’s nightly Coronavirus Task Force briefings are increasingly coming to resemble campaign rallies without the crowds: excuses for Trump to showboat in front of TV cameras, praise his own managerial brilliance, and gratuitously insult reporters. So why are they still being taken seriously by cable news? Veteran broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss whether the media are repeating the mistakes of 2016. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...
Apr 16, 2020•41 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast Deaths from Covid-19 continued to mount this week as the U.S. surpassed 200,000 confirmed cases, more than any other country in the world. Experts increasingly point to President Trump’s willful negligence as a primary cause of the pandemic’s intensity, but MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner takes things a step further, arguing controversially that Trump could be legally liable for coronavirus deaths after he leaves office. He makes the case to Mehdi Hasan on this week’s podcast. Hosted on Acas...
Apr 02, 2020•36 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Reporter Alison Flowers attempts to discover the truth about the shooting death of a young man on Chicago’s south side in 2016, teaming up with the young man’s mother, Shapearl Wells, who launched her own investigation into her son’s murder after doubting the official police narrative. Coming March 31st. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 30, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week President Trump began asserting that the United States would once again be “open for business” by Easter, on April 12th. He provided no scientific or medical justification for that timeline, which Dr. Anthony Fauci of the White House Coronavirus Task Force has emphasized is “flexible”. The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss the President’s continuing refusal to take the Covid-19 pandemic seriously. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 25, 2020•39 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Border Closures. Economic meltdown. Skyrocketing unemployment claims. Every day brings new news of the COVID-19 pandemic’s unprecedented impact on American life. Will the federal government find the political will to enact the kinds of radical measures necessary to help Americans keep their heads above water during this crisis? New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and economist Stephanie Kelton join Mehdi Hasan to discuss what needs to be done. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...
Mar 20, 2020•33 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast The 11th Democratic primary debate on Sunday was an unusual one. It was a one-on-one encounter between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, held without an audience in Washington D.C. due to mounting fears surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. The two sparred over healthcare, social security, the Iraq War, and the 2005 bankruptcy bill. Intercept D.C. bureau chief Ryan Grim joins Mehdi Hasan to break down the debate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 16, 2020•35 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast From just a handful of cases a few weeks ago, the COVID-19 outbreak in the US has ballooned to over a thousand cases nationwide. The Trump administration’s public response has ranged from incoherent to incomprehensible: denialism about the scale of the problem, failure to test in sufficient numbers, a reluctance to take coordinated, large-scale government action. It’s also raised questions about the US healthcare system’s capacity to respond effectively to a health crisis on this scale. Columbia...
Mar 12, 2020•32 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast It’s being described as one of the biggest turnarounds in presidential primary history. After disappointing results in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, Joe Biden appeared to be fading in Bernie Sanders’ rearview mirror. Then came his crushing win in South Carolina, after which Tom Steyer, Amy Klobuchar, and Pete Buttigieg all dropped out of the race. Klobuchar and Buttigieg, along with former candidate Beto O’Rourke, then endorsed Biden, cementing the growing consensus among establishment Democr...
Mar 04, 2020•33 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast With victories in New Hampshire and Nevada and a firm lead in the national polls, Bernie Sanders is now unquestionably the frontrunner in the Democratic race. On Tuesday night the top contenders met for their final debate before the South Carolina and Super Tuesday primaries, and all of his opponents had their sights set firmly on the senator from Vermont. Mehdi Hasan talks to writer, activist, and Sanders surrogate Shaun King about Bernie’s performance and his groundbreaking answers to question...
Feb 26, 2020•34 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast On Wednesday night, 6 of the remaining Democratic candidates faced off in Las Vegas ahead of the Nevada caucuses. All eyes were on former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who, despite sitting out the early contests and appearing in none of the previous debates, has surged in many polls thanks to a relentless self-funded ad campaign. Would he live up to his own hype? In a word, no. Bloomberg was unprepared for the barrage of attacks he faced from all sides, and suffered especially from a set of ...
Feb 20, 2020•28 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast The United States has the biggest prison population of any country on the planet. The crime rate is down, but the incarceration rate continues to soar. With the 2020 presidential election around the corner, what hope is there for fixing the system? Mehdi Hasan sits down with John Legend and Patrisse Cullors in Los Angeles for a live conversation about criminal justice. Deconstructed interviews a variety of guests who share their views in order to educate and inform our listeners on the most pres...
Feb 13, 2020•50 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast As predicted, the Republican-controlled Senate voted on Wednesday to find President Donald J. Trump not guilty on both articles of impeachment brought by the House of Representatives. It was a party-line vote, with one notable exception: Utah Senator Mitt Romney became the first Senator in U.S. history to vote to remove a president of his own party. Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who both voted to remove the President, joined Mehdi Hasan by phone shortly a...
Feb 06, 2020•40 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast On January 20th, The Guardian published an op-ed by New York attorney and law professor Zephyr Teachout entitled “‘Middle Class’ Joe Biden has a corruption problem – it makes him a weak candidate” . In it, Teachout argues that Biden’s history of taking big donations from the credit card, healthcare, and fossil fuel industries and then voting on their behalf makes him a poor choice against Trump in the Fall: “a lot of the voters we need,” wrote Teachout, “independents and people who might stay ho...
Jan 30, 2020•33 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast With the Iowa caucuses less than two weeks away, the Democratic primary increasingly seems like a two-way contest between former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. The latest polls show Biden leading in Iowa and Sanders leading nationally, and calls are getting louder for the lower-tier candidates to drop out and allow support to coalesce around the leaders. Despite failing to poll above 4% nationally, California billionaire and philanthropist Tom Steyer insists he stil...
Jan 23, 2020•27 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Six of the remaining Democratic candidates met in Des Moines, Iowa on Tuesday night for their final debate before the state holds its first-in-the-nation caucuses on February 3rd. With the state of the race still fluid, the top contenders were all looking for a moment that might help them to distinguish themselves from the field. In the runup to the debate, much of the media focus was on the apparent breakdown of the de facto non-aggression pact between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, with ...
Jan 15, 2020•33 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast It’s been described as the worst human rights crisis in the world — the arbitrary detention in sprawling camps of a million or more Uighur Muslims in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province. The Chinese government has claimed that the camps are merely vocational training centers, but in November a trove of leaked documents, dubbed the China Cables, confirmed what the world had long suspected: the camps are Communist Party re-education centers in which Uighurs are forced to abandon their tradition...
Dec 29, 2019•38 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast The House Judiciary Committee held its first impeachment hearing on Wednesday, with testimony from a quartet of legal scholars from major Universities. Republicans on the committee repeatedly attempted to slow down the proceedings using parliamentary stall tactics, and continued to focus on the perceived partisan motivations of the impeachment process rather than the facts of the case against the President — while Democrats used the hearing to build up the constitutional case for removing him fr...
Dec 05, 2019•33 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast If you're one of the many listeners who enjoys Deconstructed every week, we have a special favor to ask you. Today is Giving Tuesday - a day to celebrate and support the causes and organizations you believe in. The Intercept relies on readers and listeners like you to support the journalism we do here every day. Right now, you can head to theintercept.com/give and do just that. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 03, 2019•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the days leading up to the November Democratic debate in Atlanta, everyone seemed to agree that attacks on Pete Buttigieg would be the order of the night. The South Bend Mayor had lept to the top of the pack in the latest Iowa polls, and the conventional wisdom was that other candidates hoping for a caucus victory there — Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden — would be directing their fire his way. But the rest of field was surprisingly cordial to Mayor Pete, with the real fireworks coming courtesy of...
Nov 21, 2019•35 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Liberals across the West often imagine Canada as a progressive paradise — a tolerant land, welcoming to immigrants, where marijuana is legal and everyone gets free healthcare. But how accurate is that picture? In the wake of last month’s federal elections, in which Justin Trudeau held onto the Prime Minister's post but lost his majority in parliament, Deconstructed headed to Toronto for the HotDocs Podcast Festival. There, Mehdi Hasan talked to two of Canada’s leading politicians. Ahmed Hussen i...
Nov 14, 2019•54 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast With three months to go until the Iowa caucuses, Bernie Sanders finds himself fighting to make headway against the other frontrunners in the Democratic primary. While he appears to have bounced back from his recent heart attack—putting in a convincing performance in the last debate and picking up a coveted endorsement from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—the democratic socialist from Vermont has struggled to recapture the old 2016 magic in a more crowded 2020 field. Mehdi Hasan talks to Bernie about hi...
Nov 07, 2019•33 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast 
