What the Hell Is Going On (AEI Podcasts)

After being lauded for refusing to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results, Gov. Brian Kemp is facing criticism from the same quarters over the state’s new voting law. Democrats claim that the legislation makes it more difficult for minorities to vote, while Republicans argue it ensures election integrity.

Gov. Kemp joined the podcast to discuss the contents of the controversial legislation, the Democratic outcry, and the media coverage. He also talks about the Major League Baseball decision to move the All-Star Game out of Georgia and corporate reactions to the new law.

Gov. Kemp is the 83rd Governor of Georgia. Prior to serving as Governor, Kemp was a member of the State Senate and Georgia’s Secretary of State. Before entering elected office, Kemp was a small business owner, managing Kemp Properties.

Download the transcript here.

Since the United States recorded its first Covid-19 related fatality in February 2020, over half a million Americans have died from the virus, and an estimated 43 million total cases have been reported in the country. How was America so unprepared for this pandemic? And how can we ensure that we are prepared for the next public health disaster?

Dr. Scott Gottlieb once again joined Marc and Dany to discuss his new book “Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic.” He also talks about the current reality of the Delta variant and what a future with endemic COVID may look like.

Dr. Gottlieb is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He returned to AEI in 2019 after serving as the 23rd Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. He has a medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and did his residency in internal medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Download the transcript here.

In this week's Virginia governor's race, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated former Governor Terry McAuliffe in a state that President Biden won by 10 points in 2020. In New Jersey, a state Biden won by 16 points, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy only defeated his Republican challenger by a razor-thin margin. What do these elections tell us about the current state of our politics and the upcoming 2022 midterm elections?

Political expert Amy Walter joined Marc and Dany for WTH's first live podcast episode to discuss Virginia's recent gubernatorial election, voter sentiment one year into Biden's presidency, the forces driving American politics, and the upcoming 2022 congressional midterms.

Amy Walter is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. A contributor to the PBS NewsHour, she provides weekly political analysis for the popular "Politics Monday" segment and is a featured contributor for their Election and Convention special coverage events. Previously, Walter was the host of the weekly nationally syndicated program Politics with Amy Walter and the former political director of ABC News.

Download the transcript here.

This is America - how can we have a shortage of baby formula? That’s the question many parents are asking as they face bare Soviet-style store shelves. In a country with ample means, how did America arrive at what is essentially a food shortage? How did three main domestic baby formula companies come to control 98% of their market? Parent or not, this issue has implications for everyone—it is a case study that involves government regulations, supply chain, monopolies under the guise of capitalism, and barriers to free trade. Or, as one of the podcast’s guests notes, “a perfect storm.”

Marc and Dany explore this puzzling situation with guests Annie Gasparro and Jesse Newman, Wall Street Journal reporters covering the scandal. Gasparro is a food reporter with the WSJ Chicago bureau and writes about packaged food companies and consumer tastes. Newman is also a food reporter with the WSJ corporate bureau, covering farmers, ranchers, and food companies. 

Download the transcript here.

House Democrats introduced articles of impeachment against Donald Trump this week, making him — probably — the first president in US history to be impeached twice. The Speaker threatened to move forward with impeachment if Vice President Pence does not remove Trump under the 25th Amendment.

Will Trump’s final days in office be cut short? National Review’s Andy McCarthy joined Dany and Marc to discuss the case for impeachment, the 25th Amendment and the legality of Trump pardoning himself. They also talk about the future of the Republican Party and Trump’s political career.

Andy McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency. He served as an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Download the transcript here.

As the Olympics continue in Communist China alongside Beijing’s continued genocide against the Uighurs, all too few have been willing to call out the tyrants and abusers. Democratic freedoms are under assault from Xinjiang to Ankara to Tehran to Moscow. But the powerful have been strangely reticent. Enes Kanter Freedom, a human rights advocate and center for the Boston Celtics, has committed himself to being a voice for freedom and human rights around the world, calling out injustices despite threats against him and his family.

Enes Kanter Freedom joined Marc and Dany to discuss his human rights activism, using his platform to call out injustice, those trying to keep him silent, and why so many people choose their money over their morals.

Enes Kanter Freedom, originally from Turkey, is an American professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics and a human rights advocate. A center, Freedom has played for five NBA teams since entering the league in 2011. In 2021, Freedom officially became a US citizen and legally changed his name to Enes Kanter Freedom at the same time to mark the occasion.

Download the transcript here.

We’re familiar with the story: the storming of the Capitol nearly two years ago, Donald J. Trump’s attempt to “stop the steal,” the legal mess that ensued. But our institutions held. And Vice President Mike Pence followed through with his Constitutional duty, and certified the Biden victory in 2020. The former VP joins us on the podcast today to speak about what happened that day, and the difficulty of navigating an unconstitutional and disqualifying end to four years of solid conservative policy. He reminds us that America must honor its commitments to its people, and that in foreign policy, simply, America stands for freedom.

Mike Pence was the 48th Vice President of the United States. He has a new memoir out, So Help Me God. He was the 50th governor of Indiana, and served for 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Download the transcript here.

Is a major war with China inevitable? How can the United States prepare for the changing nature of conflict? In their new book, Admiral James Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman warn of a cataclysmic war between the US and China in the South China Sea. “2034: A Novel of the Next World War” also explores America’s weaknesses and the growing role of technology in future armed conflict.

Adm. Stavridis and Ackerman joined Dany and Marc to discuss their book, future foreign policy threats, and the need to reassess America’s technological capabilities. They also talk about policymakers’ failure of imagination, which left the country unprepared for tragedies such as 9/11 and Covid-19.  

Admiral James Stavridis is a retired four-star naval officer. He also served as Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and previously commanded US Southern Command. Elliot Ackerman is the author of four novels. He is both a former White House Fellow and Marine, and served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Download the transcript here.

It has been over 20 days since the House of Representatives ousted, and then successively failed to re-elect, a speaker of the House. The dysfunction could not be coming at a worse time: war in Europe, war in the Middle East, rising danger in the Pacific. Budgets are not getting passed, much less additional aid packages for Ukraine and Israel. The House cannot even convene to condemn the Hamas terrorists – what the hell is wrong with our country? One infuriating piece of information from our podcast today: a large portion of representatives voting against aid to Ukraine are “voting no, hoping yes,” an indication that partisanship has truly eroded the very fabric and efficacy of government. America desperately needs intellectual consistency, good-faith politics, and honesty. How can we right this sinking ship?

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick represents Pennsylvania’s first district. In the 118th Congress, Congressman Fitzpatrick sits on the Ways and Means Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In addition, he co-chairs the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and Congressional Ukraine Caucus, while also serving on the Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force and NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Prior to serving Congress, he was an FBI Special Agent and a Federal Prosecutor.

Download the transcript here.

Prominent politicians and the media have long stated that the science behind climate change is settled. However, in his new book “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters,” Obama administration scientist Dr. Steve Koonin dispels a number of misleading claims surrounding the climate change debate.

On this episode, Dr. Koonin joins Dany and Marc to give his politics-free take. He reviews US government and UN climate assessments, explaining that the facts do not support climate change hysteria. While Dr. Koonin agrees that the climate is changing, he points out that the why and how are not as clear as you’ve likely been led to believe. And that the solutions being mooted won’t work.

Dr. Koonin is a Professor at New York University, with appointments in the Stern School of Business, the Tandon School of Engineering, and the Department of Physics. Dr. Koonin served as Undersecretary for Science in the US Department of Energy under President Obama, where his portfolio included the climate research program and energy technology strategy.

Download the transcript here.

According to the US Department of Labor, there were a near-record 10.4 million job openings in August. Costs are spiking, supply chains are broken, and Congress wants to spend more money to fix the problem.

AEI scholar Michael Strain joined the show to discuss what is keeping people out of the workforce, the effects of enhanced unemployment benefits on the economy’s supply and demand, and the future of the American economy.

Michael Strain is the Director of Economic Policy Studies and the Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at AEI. Before joining AEI, he worked in the Center for Economic Studies at the US Census Bureau.

Download the transcript here.

The Democratic National Convention is full steam ahead in Chicago as the Democrats enthusiastically rally around their new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. However, amidst celebrity performances and impassioned speeches by former presidents, it can be easy to forget that Harris’s approval rating trailed even Biden’s dismal record up until recently. Moreover, Harris’s sole policy speech of her candidacy baffled even those in her own party. Will Harris be forced to define her policy platform before November? Or will she continue to climb in polls by running off of “vibes and joy”?

Jessica Tarlov joined FOX News Channel as a contributor in 2017 and serves as a rotating co-host of The Five. She also offers political analysis across FNC and FOX Business Network’s programming. In addition to her role on FNC, Tarlov serves as the Vice President of Research and Consumer Insight for Bustle Digital Group. Previously, she served as a senior strategist with Schoen Consulting and worked as a Democratic pollster.

Find the transcript here.

Amid the death and destruction from Russia’s invasion of his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky surprised many when he pronounced last month that his “life today is wonderful.” How can Zelensky—whose war-torn homeland is experiencing increasingly intense fighting and growing civilian casualties—be so optimistic despite the dire circumstances? Is it possible for everyday people to realize the same sense of happiness, courage, and purpose? Is there a secret to happiness and purpose that we can use in our everyday lives to achieve true success?

Arthur C. Brooks joined Marc and Dany to discuss the roadmap for finding purpose, meaning, and success in life, his journey to form new life practices and transform his future, the folly of being addicted to achievement, and his latest #1 bestseller “From Strength to Strength: Finding Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life.”

Arthur Brooks is the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School. Before joining the Harvard faculty in 2019, he served for ten years as president of the American Enterprise Institute. Brooks is the author of 12 books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller From Strength to Strength,” and national bestsellers “Love Your Enemies” (2019) and “The Conservative Heart” (2015). He is also a columnist for The Atlantic, host of the podcast “How to Build a Happy Life with Arthur Brooks,” and subject of the 2019 documentary film “The Pursuit,” which Variety named as one of the “Best Documentaries on Netflix” in August 2019. He gives more than 100 speeches per year around the US, Europe, and Asia.

Download the transcript here.

As Congress prepared to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory, a mob of pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol, demanding justice in pursuit of President Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. The breach followed Trump’s “Save America” rally, in which he encouraged protesters to march to the Capitol to “take back our country.”

On this episode of the podcast, Dany and Marc reflect on the day’s events and the future of the Republican Party. They also discuss Trump’s failure to accept the election results, the GOP Senate losses in Georgia and what the president’s actions today will mean for his legacy.

Download the transcript here.

Construction of the Nord Stream 2, a pipeline that runs gas from Russia to Germany while bypassing Ukraine, halted on the threat of sanctions from the Trump administration, but resumed almost immediately upon President Biden’s arrival at the White House. While Biden has called the pipeline a “bad deal,” his administration has thus far refused to impose new sanctions on companies involved.

With Nord Stream 2 more than 90 percent complete, Axios’ Jonathan Swan joined Dany and Marc to discuss his recent visit to Ukraine, the threat to Eastern Europe, why the Biden administration hasn’t stood up to Putin, and the Germans’ hypocritical stance on Russia. They also touch on President Trump’s recent appearance at CPAC...

Jonathan Swan is a national political correspondent at Axios, covering the White House and leaders on Capitol Hill. He previously served as a national political reporter for The Hill. Before moving to the United States, Swan was a national political reporter based in Canberra for Fairfax Media.

Download the transcript here.

President Biden's sudden withdrawal from the 2024 election may have come as a surprise, but his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party's coalescing around the VP to be at the top of their ticket is not. The party of identity politics is now taking a huge gamble with an untested and unpopular likely nominee for president. Not only has Harris been less popular than Biden throughout his presidency, but she's entering the general election with a dismal electoral track record and will be forced to defend the current administration's unpopular policies. How will candidate Harris perform against Trump on the national stage? And how might a President Harris continue or change Biden's policy agenda?

Ruy Teixeira is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on the transformation of party coalitions and the future of American electoral politics. Before joining AEI, he was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Teixeira is co-author of the books The Emerging Democratic Majority (Scribner, 2002) and Where Have All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes (Henry Holt & Company, 2023).

Read the transcript here.

The debate over whether it is constitutional to impeach a president after he leaves office continues to rage in legal circles. With the second Trump impeachment trial set to begin today, lawmakers find themselves contending with the legality, precedent, and practicality of the case.

What are the arguments for and against trying a former president? John Yoo joined Dany and Marc to make the originalist argument against impeachment. He also discusses the potential far-reaching consequences of the case, the history of impeachment as a political tool, and the gaps in the US Constitution to deal with this particular case.

John Yoo is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and a visiting scholar at AEI. He served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice, where he worked on constitutional and national security matters, as General Counsel of the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.

Download the transcript here.

This is the third incident of document-gate in as many election cycles: Hillary Clinton with her “home brew” internet server, Trump with Mar-a-Lago, and now Biden with classified documents stored in his Washington D.C. think tank and his (locked!) garage. It is, to use Biden’s own characterization of Trump’s document scandal, “irresponsible,” to an almost ridiculous degree. And Biden’s claim that he did not know how the national secrets ended up in his home are the very opposite of comforting. Like probes of presidencies past, Biden’s scandal raises a slew of suspicions: why did the public only learn about this now, when the documents were discovered before the midterm elections? Is the newly appointed Special Counsel a piece of political fiction to slake public thirst for justice, when in reality the Attorney General answers to the president all along? Will Congress step up and provide the oversight as the Constitution intended?

These questions and more with Andy McCarthy. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and led the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. He is also the author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

Download the transcript here.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine exactly two years ago, Yaroslav Trofimov has been covering the war on the ground. His newest book, Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence, is a stunning account of the lead-up to the war and how Ukraine has consistently upended the conventional wisdom about its prospects for victory. But in recent weeks, the Ukrainians have faltered, with support from the United States hung up in a divided Congress. What is the lesson of history? That our enemies will vanish – as long as America is resolute.

Yaroslav Trofimov is the chief foreign affairs correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. He has covered the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 and has been working out of Ukraine since January 2022. He joined the Journal in 1999 and previously served as Rome, Middle East and Singapore-based Asia correspondent, as bureau chief in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as Dubai-based columnist on the greater Middle East. He is the author of three books, Our Enemies Will Vanish (2024), Faith at War (2005) and Siege of Mecca (2007).

Download the transcript here.

Read the WTH Substack here.

Check out Yaro's new book here.

The American Right is at a crossroads. Donald Trump’s presidency continues to divide and challenge the conservative movement both intellectually and politically. What is the future of a principles-first movement in the era of America-First populism? Issues like immigration, the international rules-based order, partisan media, and rising military threats place countervailing pressures on a conservative movement struggling to define its future.

Matt Continetti joined Dany and Marc to discuss his new book, “The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism” (Basic Books, 2022). The book examines a century of the history of the American Right, Warren Harding to Donald Trump. Matt, Dany and Marc analyze historic ties between the conservative movement and populism and the tension between grassroots conservatives and elites. They also talk about implications for foreign policy and the isolationist streak among conservatives.

Matt Continetti is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where his work is focused on American political thought and history, with a particular focus on the development of the Republican Party and the American conservative movement in the 20th century. He is also a contributing editor at National Review and a columnist for Commentary Magazine. He has been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. He also appears frequently on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” with Bret Baier and MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily” with Chuck Todd.

You can learn more about his book here.

Read the transcript here.

Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown last week when it passed a continuing resolution – a stop-gap spending bill that finances the government for a little over a month. What does this really mean? It means that we are spending at previous levels of government while important investment bills for the future are frozen, hamstringing the federal government in carrying out its number one job: to provide for the common defense. But the problem is bigger, and goes back further, than this week. Our Defense Department is underfunded and spending priorities are misaligned; multi-year appropriations are wildly out of touch with real inflation numbers; Congress treats weapons contractor behemoths like they are a de facto member of the bureaucracy. And the proverbial icing on the cake? The Pentagon is not only lagging in relation to prior output, it is lagging behind China. The investment in military and defense preparedness with our number one threat should never be inverse, but China is steadily investing, while the US is stagnating and slipping.

Mackenzie Eaglen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where she works on defense strategy, defense budgets, and military readiness. She is a member of the board of advisers of the Alexander Hamilton Society, a member of the steering committee of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security, one of the 12-member US Army War College Board of Visitors, and a member of the Commission on the Future of the Navy.

Download the transcript here.

This summer, several articles aired in mainstream media outlets citing unnamed individuals from the Pentagon, and criticizing the speed and tactics of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. These critiques appear to at once reflect a poor understanding of the military goals and capabilities of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and also bolster the growing anti-Ukraine, pro-isolationism cohort in America. The lack of humility is even more remarkable: the US has not fought a war against a protracted Russian offense like Ukraine’s, since General Patton and the Metz campaign, in 1944...in France. What’s more, no Western military would ever conduct a counteroffensive without air power or long-range artillery; but by slow-rolling and limiting aid, the Biden administration is expecting Ukraine to do just that. It is also worth noting that since the articles aired, Ukraine successfully punctured Russia’s first line of defense. Why are we not celebrating that, and ensuring a decisive win against our shared enemy, Putin?

General Jack Keane is a retired 4-star general, the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst. General Keane is a member of the Secretary of Defense Policy Board and has advised four Defense Secretaries and is a member of the 2018 and 2022 Congressional Commission on the National Defense Strategy.

Download the transcript here.

With rising speculation that former President Donald Trump will seek the 2024 GOP nomination and make a run for the White House, many on the left and in the media see another Trump presidency as a harbinger of a constitutional crisis on a scale unmatched since the Civil War. However, if the past five years have taught us anything, it is that Trump and his supporters are not the sole authors of our political mess.

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. joined Marc and Dany to discuss Trump, the Russian collusion hoax, the abdication of the press, and the real threats to our political system and institutions.

Holman Jenkins is a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and the author of its biweekly “Business World” column. Mr. Jenkins won a 1997 Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished business and financial coverage, and in 2013 he became the inaugural winner of the Calvin Coolidge Prize for Journalism.

Download the transcript here.

Today we discuss the passing of one of modern history's most beloved and well-known leaders: Queen Elizabeth II. With her departure comes the end of the second Elizabethan era, one that weathered world war and domestic tumult with a brand of political neutrality rarely seen on the world stage today. Much is to be discussed in the coming years regarding the state of the Commonwealth, with several countries already hinting at their departure. But today, we take a moment with seriousness — and yes, some humor — to remember the powerful impact of Queen Elizabeth II, her life, her legacy, and her unique unifying force. 

Download the transcript here.

One year later, a WTH throwback to an outstanding pod recorded in the wake of the disastrous withdrawal…

Almost 20 years after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban are back in control of the country. After President Biden’s decision to depart Afghanistan regardless of conditions on the ground, and the withdrawal of U.S. intelligence and air support to the Afghan army, the Taliban rapidly advanced, culminating in the collapse of the Afghan government.

Dr. Frederick W. Kagan joined Marc and Dany to discuss the Taliban takeover, President Biden’s decision, the role of the Afghan army, and the impact on al Qaeda.

Kagan is the director of AEI’s Critical Threats Project and a former professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He served on the ground in Afghanistan, providing civilian support to the U.S. military mission.

Download the transcript here.

Joe Biden and the Democratic Party love labeling Donald Trump and his MAGA followers as the greatest threat to American democracy. So why are Democratic-aligned Super PACs funding self-declared MAGA candidates in GOP primaries? In a recent article for the Wall Street Journal, Barton Swaim explains that there are two reasons: The strategy has (so far) helped Democrats win in general elections; more importantly, Democrats long for a time when they were part of the heroic resistance against Trump. But this strategy could backfire: Democratic lawfare against Trump is helping him win over voters who think “the system” is rigged against them. And the moment a Democrat-funded MAGA candidate wins a general election, their warnings about MAGA’s threat to democracy will fall flat on its face.

Barton Swaim joined the Wall Street Journal as an editorial page writer in 2018. He writes a regular column on political books. Before joining the Journal, he was an opinion editor at the Weekly Standard. He is the author of The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics (Simon and Schuster, 2016).

Read the transcript here.

Read Barton's article Why Democrats Can’t Quit Trump here.

Demographers have sounded the alarm on global depopulation, predicting that in the latter half of the 21st century, global population will enter sustained decline for the first time in history. American fertility rates are dropping and China’s population is predicted to fall from 1.4 billion to 730 million by the end of the century.

Demographer and AEI scholar Nick Eberstadt joined Dany and Marc to discuss whether we should be concerned about long-term depopulation forecasts. He also talks about the graying of China under the Chinese Communist Party, and the changing values of American society. 

Nick Eberstadt is the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at AEI, where he researches and writes extensively on demographics and economic development generally, and more specifically on international security in the Korean peninsula and Asia. He is also a senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research.

Download the transcript here.

Georgia’s parliament in Tbilisi recently overrode a presidential veto on a “foreign agents” law that sparked an uproar domestically and from the country’s Western allies. Critics decried the legislation—which requires any organization receiving more than 20% of its funding from foreign sources to register as an “agent of foreign influence”—as yet another element in the Russian takeover of the small South Caucasian nation. Russia still occupies 20% of Georgia’s territory. Why should Americans care about Russian games in a country of 3 million people? Because for Vladimir Putin, Georgia is just the beginning of his ambitions in Europe. And the Georgian people are among the most pro-American in the region, at one point the second largest troop contributor to our war on al Qaeda. Standing up for Georgia now means avoiding conflict later.

David Kramer serves as the Executive Director of the George W. Bush Institute. Prior to joining the Bush Institute, he taught at Florida International University’s Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, and served as an Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs. David chairs the board of the Free Russia Foundation and serves on the board of the International Republican Institute.

Read the transcript here.

This past August, we learned that China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that circled the globe before streaking towards its target. This advanced weapons capability surprised many in the US intelligence community and has sparked both questions and concerns surrounding the true extent of China’s military modernization.

Thomas Karako joined Marc and Dany to discuss the science behind China’s recent hypersonic missile test, the strategic and security implications of such a weapon in the hands of the Chinese, and what the United States needs to do to safeguard our national security from this threat.

Karako is a senior fellow with the International Security Program and the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In 2010–2011, he was an American Political Science Association congressional fellow, working with the professional staff of the House Armed Services Committee and the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces on US strategic forces policy, nonproliferation, and NATO. Dr. Karako is also currently a fellow with the Institute for Politics and Strategy of Carnegie Mellon University.

Download the transcript here.

Former president Donald Trump is on trial in New York over hush money payments made before the 2016 election. The only problem? Hush money payments as part of non-disclosure agreements are not illegal. New York state prosecutor Alvin Bragg alleges that by improperly filing the payments in Trump’s business records he was trying to conceal “another crime” – campaign finance law violations. Here’s the problem: Bragg not only lacks authority to prosecute campaign finance violations, but even the Biden administration’s Justice Department did not pursue campaign finance violation charges against Trump. Is Bragg’s case against Trump constitutional? And how will such politically motivated cases eat away at America’s rule of law?

John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Stanford University. Yoo was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the general council of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department. His most recent book is The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court (Regnery, 2023) with Robert Delahunty.

Read the transcript here.

The International Olympic Committee awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to Beijing, providing the Chinese Communist Party both an economic and diplomatic platform to further the party line while ignoring its abuses against the Uighurs, Covid cover-up, and brutal crackdown on Hong Kong protesters.

With the Games just eleven months away, there is a growing debate in Congress about whether the US should send its athletes to Beijing. On this episode, Rep. Mike Waltz joined Dany and Marc to explain why he believes America should boycott the 2022 Olympic Games. 

Congressman Waltz represents Florida’s 6th congressional district. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and served over twenty years in the US Army. Rep. Waltz is a combat-decorated Green Beret and former White House and Pentagon policy advisor.

Download the transcript here.

The 2022 midterms came as a shock to Ds and Rs alike: the Democrats did better than expected, and the Republicans did worse. Much worse. Last week, covered the reasons behind the Red Fail. But what about Democrats? The left ran a shrewd, if cynical, anti-MAGA campaign, and capitalized on weak GOP candidates. But it the aftermath, President Biden and his party seem to be learning the wrong lessons. Despite losing ground with women and minorities, the Democrats’ short-term vindication has encouraged Biden to announce he would make no changes. None at all. What he and his party don’t get is that the Democrats didn’t win, the Republicans lost.

Our guest this week is Ruy Teixeira. Teixeria is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where he focuses on the transformation of party coalitions and future of American electoral politics. He is the co-editor of the Substack The Liberal Patriot, and he previously was a scholar at the Center for American Progress and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Download the transcript here.

In this episode of What the Hell’s summer book series, the WSJ’s Meghan Cox Gurdon discusses the wonders of audiobooks, reading aloud, and her book The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction (Harper, 2019). The idea of the “talking book” has been with us for almost a century, so why do so many consider audiobooks or books read aloud to us to be cheating? Not only does reading aloud to children and adults bring people closer together, but hearing a book out loud makes it come to life in a special way for the listener. Reading aloud also has incredible benefits for young children and audiobooks have allowed literature to become more accessible to us all.

Meghan Cox Gurdon is a weekly columnist for the books pages of The Wall Street Journal, covering children’s literature as well as a range of titles for adults. A former foreign correspondent and a magna cum laude graduate of Bowdoin College, Meghan has five children with her husband, the English journalist Hugo Gurdon. She is the author of The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction (Harper 2019).

Find The Enchanted Hour here.

Find the transcript here.

On Tuesday, the United States ended its evacuation mission in Kabul, marking the conclusion of two decades of the American military mission in Afghanistan. Since mass evacuations began on August 14, both Americans and NATO allies have criticized President Biden for what they view as a catastrophic execution of an already flawed decision to withdraw. Following last Thursday’s suicide bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport that resulted in the death of 13 US service members and more than 200 Afghan civilians, it is has become ever more clear that Biden’s withdrawal was little short of a disaster.

Amb. Ryan Crocker joined Marc and Dany to discuss the execution of Biden’s Afghanistan evacuation, America’s betrayal of Afghanistan, and the national security ramifications of the American withdrawal.

Amb. Crocker is an American retired diplomat, a career ambassador within the United States Foreign Service, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was a United States ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon, serving both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Download the transcript here.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the private military company Wagner Group, staged a rebellion against Putin’s regime in Russia on June 24th. For a brief moment, the Wagner forces took over Rostov-on-Don, and came within 125 miles of Moscow before coming under heavy fire by the Russian military, and turning back. Putin struck a deal with Belarus president Lukashenko wherein Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus in exchange for amnesty. But who is Prigozhin? None other than Putin’s former caterer. If it sounds ludicrous, that’s because it is – and the media is still abuzz with theories as to what happened. Are there cracks in Putin’s regime? What were Prigozhin’s motives? Why the hell did Putin meet with Prigozhin a week after the purported coup attempt? Most troubling of all, US intelligence appears as perplexed as it was on day one.

Yaroslav Trofimov is the Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent of the Wall Street Journal. He covered the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 and has been working out of Ukraine since January 2022. He previously served as Rome, Middle East, and Singapore-based Asia correspondent, as bureau chief in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as a Dubai-based columnist on the greater Middle East. He is the author of two books: Faith at War (2005) and Siege of Mecca (2007).

Download the transcript here.

Despite President Biden’s vow to leave no man behind, when the last American plane departed Kabul in August, hundreds of American citizens and thousands of our Afghan allies were left stranded and at the mercy of the Taliban. In the face of government inaction, a group of US veterans formed Project Exodus Relief, a non-partisan volunteer effort dedicated to bringing Afghan special forces out.

Mike Edwards joined Marc and Dany to discuss the volunteer effort of Project Exodus Relief, the mess of the Afghanistan withdrawal, and what Americans need to know about those we left behind.

Mike is the Founder of Project Exodus Relief. He served 22 years and 18 combat deployments in the Army, primarily in special operations with the Regimental Reconnaissance Company.

Download the transcript here.

Xi Jinping's long-lasting, draconian zero-Covid policy has resulted in the largest protests in China in more than 30 years. Tens of thousands of demonstrators are testing the government’s “perfect” police state by actively calling for an end to Xi’s regime, breaking through China’s firewall to spread protest messaging, and calling into question the very legitimacy of the empire Xi has built. This instability comes in the face of Xi Jinping’s tightening grip on state power; the recent Chinese Military Power Report showcases a military capable of taking Taiwan, and Xi’s ideological push shows that he is willing. In just a few years, the U.S. may very well be wishing that it had taken more risks in its approach to defending Taiwan, to increasing democratic messaging in China, and to hardline policy on Xi’s regime… how will we ensure today that these future mistakes are not made?

Our guest this week is Dan Blumenthal, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Previously, Blumenthal served as senior director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the US Department of Defense. He also served as a commissioner on the congressionally mandated US-China Economic and Security Review Commission from 2006-2007, and was vice chairman of the commission in 2007. He also served on the Academic Advisory board of the congressional US-China Working Group. He is the author of The China Nightmare: The Grand Ambitions of a Decaying State.

Download the transcript here.

This week, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan, K.C., announced on CNN that he will seek arrest warrants for Israel’s democratically elected Prime Minister and Defense Minister, as well as three members of Hamas leadership because of “crimes against humanity” related to October 7 and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war. Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute that underpins the ICC, which therefore has no legal jurisdiction in Israel. The ICC has admitted a “State of Palestine,” which theoretically grants jurisdiction over actions in “Palestine” and over Hamas figures. How should Washington respond to the ICC’s extrajudicial investigation? And how will the ICC’s announcement affect its global standing?

Tom Cotton is a United States Senator from Arkansas. Senator Cotton’s committees include the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as the Ranking Member for the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism, the Intelligence Committee, and the Armed Services Committee, where he serves as the Ranking Member of the Air Land Power Subcommittee. Before joining the Senate, Senator Cotton was a member of the House of Representatives and served on active duty in the United States Army as an Infantry Officer.

Read the transcript here.

Sign up for the Substack here.

The priorities that have traditionally shaped American national character – patriotism, religious faith, family, community involvement – are no longer as important to most Americans. The Wall Street Journal reported this trend in a viral poll, but the sentiment is believable even without the stark statistics. This poll was conducted in 1989, 2019, and now in 2023, and the only value to go up in importance? Money. Our guest explains that there is necessary context for the reported numbers due to methodology, but the overall trend is undeniable: we are becoming an increasingly selfish country. And what is to blame? Perhaps it is the echo chamber of social media, the decline of serious education, or anti-Western propaganda from our adversaries beginning to define our own national message. In any case, the country is unhealthy. But entirely fixable, and worth fixing.

Patrick Ruffini is a pollster and co-founder of Echelon Insights, a polling and analytics firm. Ruffini began his career working for President George W. Bush, including roles at the Republican National Committee, his re-election campaign, and in his Administration. From 2005 to 2006, he was the lead digital strategist for the RNC. He is the Author of Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP (coming November 2023).

Download the transcript here.

The Ukrainians are running out of munitions and the war is predicted to endure past 2023; China is debuting new missiles that have the ability to penetrate US defenses; Egypt Is toying with supporting Russia in attacking Ukraine; ISIS is evolving. These are just a handful of the revelations from the viral Discord leaks, a set of US intelligence documents leaked on the gaming platform Discord and other sites by 21-year-old Jack Teixeira of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. Ways to interpret the fallout are manifold, but lessons learned all point back to US responsibility: that Ukraine will face empty bins is a self-fulfilling prophecy that the US can remedy through a revitalization of its defense industrial base. That Taiwan is at enhanced risk of invasion by China every day is only tempered by US willingness to build up Taiwan’s defense and develop a strategic counter-aggression framework. Content aside, that a 21-year-old kid was able to photograph and share US top secret information, and continue sharing it for 8 months – well, it is not a leap to underscore the importance of tightening US intelligence security measures to prevent this from ever happening again.

Marc Polymeropoulos is a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Polymeropoulos worked for twenty-six years at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) before retiring in July 2019 at the Senior Intelligence Service level. He was one of the CIA’s most highly decorated operations officers. He is the author of Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA.

Download the transcript here.

For the past two years, American children have had their lives upended as schools across the country transitioned to remote learning and introduced harsh measures to help curb the spread of COVID-19. As a result, most students have fallen far behind in school, and many children and teenagers are experiencing grave mental health problems. With districts across the country now navigating the Omicron surge, students and parents are worried that educators will again shut their doors and return online.

The New York Times’ David Leonhardt joined Marc and Dany to discuss the damage school closures have on America’s students, why lockdowns disproportionally affect minorities and the poor, how teachers unions are exacerbating the problem, and the pandemics’ long-term impact on our children’s lives.

David Leonhardt is a senior writer for the New York Times, where he writes The Morning newsletter every weekday and also contributes to the Sunday Review section. Leonhardt has worked at The Times since 1999, in a variety of reporting and editing roles. In 2011, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his columns.

Download the transcript here.

Since our episode on inflation with Glenn Hubbard last month, his dire predictions about a likely recession have gathered steam. And though we’re not yet officially in a recession, Americans’ economic pain is only growing: New record average high gas prices in June, likely rolling blackouts, shocking inflation at the supermarket and now the cost of money has skyrocketed too. Meanwhile, here in Washington, the President continues to go on vacation every weekend, deny that inflation is his fault, and push a mindless spending agenda. How did the Fed, White House economists, and mainstream professional forecasters get it so wrong? And perhaps more importantly, what should be done going forward?

These questions and more on today’s episode with Michael Strain. Strain is the Director of Economic Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

Download the transcript here.

Twenty years after 9/11, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is moving faster than expected, and so is the Taliban’s takeover. The Taliban have already taken more than 50 of the country’s 400 districts since May, with the US intelligence community predicting that the Afghan government could fall within six months of Biden’s withdrawal.

General Jack Keane joined Dany and Marc to discuss America’s strategic goals in Afghanistan, why the Taliban are making such strong gains, and the danger that a Taliban takeover would pose to US national security.

General Keane is a retired 4 star general, former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army, the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst.

Download the transcript here.

In a post-Dobbs political landscape, abortion policy has become the great divider. But disagreements over abortion cannot stifle much-needed conversations about what can be done to support American women, mothers, fathers, and children. To nobody’s surprise, WTH co-host Marc is a conservative. His colleague at the Washington Post Alyssa Rosenberg, is liberal. Together, they undertook the critical task that one might expect from our lawmakers, and put their differences aside to write a productive, respectful, and intelligent guideline for family policies that have been proposed by lawmakers, yet to be passed. They selected policies that did not require them to compromise on their respective positions on abortion, and those that have a serious chance of becoming law if the work is done by Congress. It is a model of good-faith hard work, and the kind that is rare among those who actually make policy – we commend you to read it here.

Alyssa Rosenberg writes about mass culture, parenting, and gender for The Washington Post's Opinions section. Before coming to The Post in 2014, Alyssa was the culture editor at ThinkProgress, the television columnist at Women and Hollywood, a columnist for the XX Factor at Slate and a correspondent for The Atlantic.com.

Marc Thiessen writes a column for The Post on foreign and domestic policy. He is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He is a Fox News contributor.

Download the transcript here.

 Many Americans celebrated the end of Roe vs Wade. Others are deeply angered and worried. The question of abortion is not a simple one, and merits thoughtful discourse and kindness rather than hysteria or trimphalism. Any discussion also requires a real look at the facts; what is the legal basis of this ruling? Where does the pro-life movement stand? What does pro-choice Americans really want? In this episode we try to provide a model for how to approach the conversations ahead with Robby George, one of our nation’s most respected political philosophers. 

Robert George is the sixth McCormick professor of jurisprudence and the director of the James Madison program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is a past winner of the American Enterprise Institute's Irving Kristol Award.

Download the transcript here.

Pfizer and Moderna recently announced that their coronavirus vaccines are both safe and highly effective, shattering the previous record for developing a vaccine for a novel virus. While this news is promising, Americans are also approaching the worst phase of the pandemic as we enter the winter with a record number of cases.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb once again joined the show to explain everything you need to know about the forthcoming vaccines. He discusses vaccine distribution, when things will finally get back to normal, and whether US adversaries might weaponize viruses to target Americans in the future.

Dr. Gottlieb is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He returned to AEI in 2019 after serving as the 23rd commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. He has a medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and did his residency in internal medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Download the transcript here.

This week, the United States will mark one year since the disgraceful and violent Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2020. The culmination of Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ surrounding the 2020 presidential election, last year’s Capitol riots marked a focal point in America’s political polarization and may have brought the country closer to a constitutional crisis than we previously believed.

Jonathan Karl joined Marc and Dany to reflect on the first anniversary of the Capitol riot and discuss the final year of the Trump presidency, the 2020 presidential election, and his recent book “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.”

Jonathan Karl is the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Karl has covered every major beat in Washington, D.C., including the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the State Department. He has reported from the White House under four presidents and fourteen press secretaries. He is a former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association and the author of “Front Row at the Trump Show” and “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.”

Download the transcript here.

Biden administration officials and European diplomats have been negotiating an American reentry into Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in Vienna in recent weeks. As talks continue, some American allies and experts have expressed concern at the pace of the president’s attempts to revive the deal.

Nuclear weapons expert David Albright joined Dany and Marc to discuss his new book with Sarah Burkhard, Iran’s Perilous Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons, based on Iran’s own nuclear archives spirited from a secret warehouse in Tehran. They also talk about the amount of time it would take for Iran to produce a nuclear weapon, how it will be delivered, and the administration’s eagerness to reenter the deal.

David Albright, a physicist, is founder and President of the non-profit Institute for Science and International Security. He is a former weapons inspector and has written numerous assessments on secret nuclear weapons programs throughout the world.

Download the transcript here.

Summer is over and the election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is right around the corner, with early voting starting this month in some states. Today, the election is in effect a tossup with highly possible paths to victory for both candidates. But this election is either’s to lose, with Trump struggling to stay on message and Harris unwilling or unable to speak alone and off script with the American people. What are Harris and Trump’s chances come November? Will the GOP keep the House and re-take Senate? What would a Harris administration mean for America?

Karl Rove is a Wall Street Journal columnist and a Fox News contributor. He is the former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush and is known as “The Architect” of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns. Rove is the author of The Triumph of William McKinley (Simon & Schuster, 2016) and Courage and Consequence (Threshold Editions, 2010).

Read the transcript here.

Canada’s euthanasia protocol – not merely doctor assisted suicide, but specifically euthanasia – is among the most expansive in the world. The euthanasia program, called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) was enacted in 2016 and was, at its inception, already broad: in 2021 it accounted for 3.3% of all deaths in Canada, which is over 27 people per day, and eligibility included not just those with foreseeable death but also those with disabilities – like hearing loss. Now, Parliament is gearing up to expand the eligibility further, to include those with mental illness and even minors. For context, this makes Canada more accepting to euthanasia than the German public in 1933 under the Nazi regime. Not to mention, the deeper insidious motivation for an increasing number of MAiD cases in Canada: a social welfare network so threadbare that Canadian citizens would rather die than face abject poverty on top of a shambolic healthcare system. To coin a phrase, what the hell is going on?

Alexander Raikin is a freelance writer. He writes about medical ethics, and specifically about the Canadian medical system. He's written on Canada's euthanasia laws for National Review, New Atlantis, the Free Beacon, and others.

Download the transcript here.

President Biden recently announced that he plans to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. The decision has sparked accusations of “surrender,” and fears that Biden is repeating the Iraq withdrawal mistake again -- a decision that led to the establishment of ISIS’s caliphate in Iraq.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger joined Dany and Marc to talk about the implications of the US troop withdrawal. He also discusses his service in Afghanistan and Iraq, the timing of Biden’s decision, and what it will mean for American national security.

Rep. Kinzinger is currently serving his sixth term in the House of Representatives, representing Illinois’ Sixteenth Congressional District. Prior to being elected to Congress, Kinzinger served in the Air Force in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Download the transcript here.

If you thought the Trump indictment capped the pattern of White House prosecutions, well, you’d be wrong (though see the WTH joint op-ed on how to end the prosecutorial death loop). Now, Hunter Biden has been indicted on misdemeanor charges of tax evasion – news that was decried as a “sweetheart deal.” But a former IRS investigator and FBI officials who came forward to Congress present a government cover-up, from the DOJ disallowing a 2018 investigation into Hunter Biden, to limitations on actually collecting information. And of course, this story has deep roots in 2009, when Joe Biden became Vice President of the United States. At that moment, Hunter set up his “international financial business.”The facts are muddled (no thanks to US institutions charged with un-muddling them) but there remain clear questions that must be answered: from whom did the Bidens receive money, and what was it for?

Peter Schweizer is the president of the Government Accountability Institute and senior editor at Breitbart News. He is the former William J. Casey Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His most recent book is Red Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win.

Download the transcript here.

In today’s WTH Extra! episode, Dany and Marc discuss Marc’s latest Washington Post column, Harris is a gaffe-prone leftist. Why didn’t anyone challenge her? Vice President Kamala Harris is sure to be at the top of the Democratic ticket come November. But Democrats may end up with buyers’ remorse as voters get to know her over the course of the next hundred days. Harris was the most liberal senator during her time in Congress and is prone to public slip-ups, yet does not have the excuse of age. When the honeymoon phase is over, Democrats might wish they had had a real primary after all.

Read Marc’s column in the Washington Post here.

Subscribe to our substack here.

The Department of Justice released a report that Joe Biden willfully retained classified documents – but can’t be tried because - long story short - he is non compos mentis. The Dems are outraged. Is it justified? On the other side of the aisle, Trump is facing 14th Amendment charges to keep him off the ballot. Is that legal? And finally, the House is mired in debates ongoing about passing a border bill. What was wrong with the Senate bill? As usual, there is a lot going on this week – but we have the guest to help us understand it all.

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

Download the transcript here.

In what is arguably the most serious crisis in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War, Russia has positioned more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s border and has sparked fears of an invasion. With tensions at a high, the US and its allies have warned the Kremlin that any invasion will be met with “massive consequences” and “severe economic costs.” A new round of talks is set to begin in Paris this week, but Russia and the West have yet to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Chris Miller joined Marc and Dany to discuss the Russian military mobilization at the Ukrainian border, a potential Russian invasion, Putin’s intentions in Ukraine, and how the US and its allies should respond.

Chris Miller is a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on Russian foreign policy, politics, and economics; Russia and Ukraine; Russian-European relations; and Eurasia. He also focuses on semiconductors and the geopolitics of technology. Concurrently, Dr. Miller is assistant professor of international history at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and codirector of the school’s Russia and Eurasia Program. He is also the director of the Eurasia Program and a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI).

Download the transcript here.

Nearly three months into the Israel-Hamas war, we’re back with Elliott Abrams for an update on what the hell is going on, and more importantly, where to go from here. The military objectives – what Israel must do in order to secure its people – are one level, but as the conflict continues, there are deeper issues that will take time and clarity to address. How do we deradicalize both the Palestinian population in support of Hamas? What about Hezbollah? Iran? And how can we help Israeli security when we are struggling Hamas supporters here at home? Why is the United States so loath to defend itself in the Red Sea? And why are there hundreds – hundreds—of Biden administration employees virtue-signaling their personal disagreement with the policy of the President of the United States?

Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, DC. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in the administration of Donald Trump.

Download the transcript here.

Check out Elliott Abrams' recent piece here.

Subscribe to the WTH substack here.

President-elect Joe Biden will enter office today during one of the most chaotic periods of American history. With a raging pandemic, record unemployment numbers, and a recent assault against lawmakers in the Capitol, his administration will face a number of challenges in its first days in office.

Obama and Clinton White House alum John Podesta joined Dany and Marc to talk about Democratic priorities and Biden’s first 100 days as president. He also discusses foreign policy concerns, Biden’s promise to unify the country, and the likelihood of bipartisan policy in a split Senate.

John Podesta served as counselor to President Obama, where he was responsible for coordinating the administration’s climate policy and initiatives. In 2008, he served as co-chair of President Obama’s transition team. Podesta previously served as White House chief of staff to President William J. Clinton. 

Download the transcript here.

The wheel, the printing press, the steam engine, and… ChatGPT? A Luddite you may be, but there is no escaping the world’s newest technological revolution: personal artificial intelligence. It is easy to list the net-negatives of another tech medium designed to further decrease the already dwindling human-to-human interactions in our life – the atomization of society is bad, children growing up on screens is bad, the erosion of individual judgment and critical thinking is bad. Not to mention the evanescence of jobs and the mechanization of learning. But is it all bad? Like any technological advance, there are both beneficial and dangerous applications. And as our guest notes, the danger of misuse does not reside in 1’s and 0’s, but in the user, the human. Are the forces of good more productive and innovative than evil? Or will we fall prey to our own innovation?

These questions and more with Tyler Cowen. Dr. Cowen is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. He hosts the economics blog Marginal Revolution, and maintains the website Marginal Revolution University, a venture in online education. He is the co-author of Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Winners, and Creatives Around the World.

Download the transcript here.

This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially recognized the independence of the Moscow-backed breakaway Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and ordered Russian troops to enter the Donbas. After what President Biden (ultimately) called the “beginning of a Russian invasion,” Russia’s blatant violation of Ukrainian national sovereignty has triggered a wave of sanctions from both the US and our European partners. With tensions rising and no sign of Putin being deterred, hopes for a diplomatic resolution continue to fade while the likelihood of more serious confrontation in Ukraine grows by the hour.

General Jack Keane joined Dany and Marc to discuss Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s recognition of two breakaway regions in the Donbas, and the ramifications for US national security if President Biden fails to act.

General Jack Keane is a retired 4 star general, the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst.

Download the transcript here.

The 2024 Iowa caucuses have come and gone, with the key takeaways some freezing temperatures, low turnout, and a Trump slam dunk. 15 percent of eligible Iowans gave 51% of the vote to the former president. Of course, that also means that about half voted for somebody other than Trump. Most disappointed was Nikki Haley, who surprised us all with a lagging third place, while Ron DeSantis pulled ahead to second. So, is the 2024 GOP nomination a done deal for Trump? Maybe. But the year has just begun, and some more challenging ground is ahead for the Donald and his would-be replacements.

Sean Trende is a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on elections, American political trends, voting patterns, and demographics. He is also the senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics. Before becoming a full-time political analyst, Mr. Trende practiced law for eight years, during which time he represented clients before a variety of settings ranging from state trial courts to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Download the transcript here.

Subscribe to the WTH substack here.

Read Marc's GOP vs. Biden analysis here.

Putin is incurring major losses on the battlefield. The strategic and symbolic Kerch Bridge connecting mainland Russia to Crimea was hit a few hours after Putin turned 70; Russian citizens are increasingly unhappy with their leadership; the Ukrainian counter-offensive is resilient and capitalizing on Russia's many military vulnerabilities. Putin has ramped up threats of nuclear escalation, prompting Joe Biden to warn of impending Armageddon at a recent Democratic fundraiser. Is nuclear escalation a legitimate fear? If so, how do we deter Russia from escalating without offering Putin a compromise or offramp? 

Fred Kagan on these questions and more in today's episode. Kagan is the director of AEI's Critical Threats Project. He, together with the Institute for the Study of War, release a live Ukraine-Russia war tracker. 

Download the transcript here.

One year ago this week, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic. The spread of the virus and its impact on Americans’ lives has alerted the country, Democrats and Republicans alike, to the danger of the Chinese Communist Party and the importance of America’s China policy.

How will President Biden’s approach toward China differ from that of President Trump? What went wrong in the Trump-Xi Jinping relationship? And how did Xi mask Beijing’s Covid mishandlings? Josh Rogin joins the show to discuss his new book, the China threat, and the implications for US policy.

Josh Rogin is the author of “Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century.” He is also a foreign policy and national security columnist for the Global Opinions section of the Washington Post and a political analyst with CNN.

Download the transcript here.

This past weekend, Israeli special forces rescued four hostages Hamas kidnapped on October 7 and held in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp. Israelis were ecstatic about the news. Meanwhile, Israel’s usual detractors in the West accused Israel of war crimes for harming “civilians” during the operation, apparently forgetting that Hamas chose to embed hostages within Gaza’s civilian population. What does the hostage rescue mean for the prospects of saving the remaining 120 hostages? Will turmoil and resignations at the senior levels of Israel’s national security government derail efforts to destroy Hamas? What does the future hold for this war amid growing threats from Hezbollah in Lebanon?

Haviv Rettig Gur is The Times of Israel’s senior analyst. Before joining the Times of Israel, he was a reporter for the Jerusalem Post. Haviv has reported from over 20 countries and served as director of communications for the Jewish Agency for Israel, Israel’s largest NGO. He lectures on Israeli politics, the US-Israel relationship, the peace process, modern Jewish history and identity, and Israel-diaspora relations. Haviv lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two sons.

Read the transcript here.

Today’s episode is an exploration of the core question gripping our country in the weeks following the Uvalde shooting: how can we prevent such attacks in the future? A terrible pattern repeats again in the recent Uvalde case: a teenager exhibits disturbing behavior before he commits a gun-related crime. With no criminal record, what should have been “tell-tale” signs the shooter was a danger? Jim Geraghty suggests that tougher background checks are not the answer, or at least not the whole answer. In addition, with straw buyers (think grandmothers) purchasing firearms for their teenage grandsons—not to mention the fact that the Pentagon puts more guns in the hands of young adults than anyone else in this country— raising the age restriction may not cut it. It may not even pass legal muster. The challenge isn’t simple, but there are solutions. Marc and Dany explore creative options that could move us forward, and learn why efforts to ban certain kinds of weapons might not with National Review’s Jim Geraghty.

Jim Geraghty is the Senior Political Correspondent of National Review. He writes their Morning Jolt newsletter, and hosts the Three Martini Lunch podcast. 

Download the transcript here.

Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in Tehran last week, eliminating the country’s leading nuclear expert and the head of its program. Iranian officials have blamed Israel for Fakhrizadeh’s killing, vowing retaliation for the targeted attack.

Nuclear weapons expert David Albright joined Dany and Marc to explain what Fakhrizadeh’s death means for the country’s effort to obtain nuclear weapons. He also discusses what to expect from Iran in the coming days and how the Biden administration’s Iran policy will differ from that of the Trump administration.

David Albright, a physicist, is founder and President of the non-profit Institute for Science and International Security. He is a former weapons inspector and has written numerous assessments on secret nuclear weapons programs throughout the world.

Download the transcript here.

As we near the one year anniversary of Covid school closures, many continue to advocate for remote learning, ignoring the science that says in-person learning is safe and the adverse impact it is having on students’ education, mental health, and the achievement gap. 

Gov. Kim Reynolds joined Dany and Marc to explain why she’s letting Iowan parents decide when to send their kids back to the classroom. She also talks about the impact of remote learning, the power of teachers unions, and how this debate will play out nationally.

Gov. Reynolds is the 43rd Governor of Iowa. She previously served as the 46th Lieutenant Governor of Iowa from 2011 to 2017, as Clarke County Treasurer, and in the Iowa Senate. 

Download the transcript here.

Kanye West, Nick Fuentes, and Donald Trump meet for dinner… and discuss what, exactly? Indeed, what does a white supremacist have in common with Kanye?? Yep, hatred for the Jewish people. The spike in antisemitism seen today can be explained away – bad economy, covid, whatever – but the sad truth is that Jew-hatred has been a perennial in American life for centuries. The truth, of course, is that America’s tiny percentage of Jews have been singularly unable to move the needle in favor of their own well-being or the well-being of the State of Israel. The reality and the tropes of antisemitism do not line up in any way. But when have facts ever gotten in the way of bigotry?

The rise in antisemitism, relations with the State of Israel and much more on today’s episode with Walter Russell Mead. Mead is the author of the new book, The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People. He is the Global View Columnist at the Wall Street Journal, a Distinguished Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and a Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities and Bard College. He is also a member of the Aspen Institute.

Download the transcript here.

Since the events of October 7, the Chinese Communist Party has been spreading virulent antisemitic memes in the U.S. via its favorite information warfare tool: Tik Tok. We have had episodes on Tik Tok before, but the urgency of this issue has reached a fever pitch, culminating with the celebration of Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” on the app last week. Tik Tok is pervasive – around a third of young adults use it for news – and it is incredibly effective. It is not just the propaganda that is convincing young Americans to hate America and ally themselves with bin Laden, Iran, and antisemites everywhere. And it is not even the losses on Xi Jinping’s “smokeless battlefield.” It is the question of the easy control of young American hearts and minds – which apparently march to the TikTok algorithm’s orders – and the consequent control the Chinese Communist Party has over American opinions and American politics. Bonus: There are also transgenic mice.

Congressman Mike Gallagher has represented Wisconsin’s 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017. In the 118th Congress, Representative Gallagher serves as Chairman of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, as Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation, and on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Download the transcript here.

Will the Biden administration hold the tough Trump line on Beijing? Will the world hold China responsible for the Covid pandemic? And how does this all factor into Xi Jinping’s global ambitions?

AEI’s Dan Blumenthal, author of the newly released “The China Nightmare: The Grand Ambitions of a Decaying State” joined the show to explain the threat posed by a decaying but aggressive China. He discusses the Chinese Communist Party’s long-term goals, conflict with the US, the country’s authoritarian use of technology, and more.

Dan Blumenthal is a resident fellow and the director of Asian studies at AEI, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. He has served in and advised the US government on China issues for more than a decade.

Download the transcript here.

In late January, a group of truckers calling themselves the “Freedom Convoy” traveled to the Canadian capital of Ottawa to protest Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cross-border vaccine mandates. However, what started as a modest protest has since mushroomed into a broader movement opposed to Trudeau, vaccine mandates, and draconian Covid restrictions. With over $7.8 million in donations from supporters, the “Freedom Convoy” has inspired similar demonstrations not only across Canada—where protesters blockaded North America’s busiest land border crossing for almost a week— but also in New Zealand, France, Netherlands, and most recently, the United States. In an effort to end the ongoing protests, this week, Trudeau invoked the never-used-before Emergencies Act, giving the Canadian government the broad powers and the authority to take steps to “restore order.”

Canadian columnist Anthony Furey joined Marc and Dany to discuss Canada’s trucker protests, Prime Minister Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, Canada’s draconian COVID restrictions, and how the Canadian government is progressively taking away its own citizens freedoms.

Anthony Furey is a national columnist for the Sun newspapers chain in Canada and the host of the Postmedia podcast “Full Comment with Anthony Furey.” He’s also written for TIME, NY Daily News, Literary Review of Canada and other publications. He regularly appears on talk radio and has been featured on BBC, Fox News Channel and other channels. Furey's new book “Pulse Attack: The Real Story Behind The Secret Weapon That Can Destroy North America,” about electromagnetic pulse warfare, is now out and available.

Download the transcript here.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a landmark case centered on a 2018 Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The legal battle is the most consequential test of abortion rights in decades, and the outcome will have direct implications on the fate of the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion, and its 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that reaffirmed and amended Roe.

John Yoo joined Marc and Dany to discuss the Mississippi law, its effects on the future of abortion rights in the United States, and how the justices might rule on the case next year.

John Yoo is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and a visiting scholar at AEI. He served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice, where he worked on constitutional and national security matters, as General Counsel of the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.

Download the transcript here.

Despite predictions of a swift victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian forces continue to inspire the world as they hold their ground and thwart Russian invasion forces. Since the launch of its attack on Ukraine in February, the Russian military has faced heavy resistance and a growing number of casualties—NATO estimates that up to 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, injured, captured, or gone missing during the first month of the conflict. With its strategic position weakening, Moscow announced this week that it would “dramatically” scale back its military activities around Kyiv. However, Russian forces still pose a significant threat to the capital, and despite continued pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the West has been reluctant to increase its support or provide Ukraine with the fighter aircraft it needs to defend its skies.

Ambassador Kurt Volker joined Marc and Dany to discuss the ramifications of Russia’s inevitable defeat in Ukraine, the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis, and the future of Ukraine.

Ambassador Volker is a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and is currently Managing Director, International, and Co-Chair of the Advisory Board at BGR Group. He served as US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations from 2017 to 2019 and as US Ambassador to NATO from 2008 to 2009. He is also President and Founder of Alliance Strategic Advisors, LLC, and from 2012 to 2019, he was the founding Executive Director of The McCain Institute for International Leadership.

Download the transcript here.

At the start of 2021, four prominent voices on the political left created the popular Substack ‘The Liberal Patriot.’ Motivated by what they saw as a gap in analyses on US politics and foreign policy, John Halpin, Ruy Teixeira, Peter Juul, and Brian Katulis seek to use their publication to promote a new liberal nationalism on the center-left and a more open-minded and inclusive approach to thinking about political and social issues.

Two of The Liberal Patriot’s co-editors, Brian Katulis and Ruy Teixeira, joined Marc and Dany to discuss their writing, the foundations of liberal and inclusive nationalism, the political conversation on the American center-left, and the current state of modern political discourse.

The Liberal Patriot was created by co-editors John Halpin, Ruy Teixeira, Peter Juul, and Brian Katulis. Together, all four have decades of experience in the fields of political ideology; electoral analysis; public opinion; demography; and national security and international policy.

Download the transcript here.

When the Founders conceived the U.S. Constitution, they were under the assumption that the head of state in America would be guided by honor – that an impeachment would virtually never be necessary, that the shame of the prospect would force the accused to step down from office. That model of leadership with integrity is absent in today’s political climate. In former president Donald Trump’s second, and more serious indictment, he has been charged with 37 counts relating to his retention of classified documents. Yes, Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden should also be prosecuted – but that does not exonerate Trump. But it is also true that we have never prosecuted Presidents before: not Clinton, not Nixon, not LBJ, not even Jefferson Davis. The DOJ is crossing a line - not a constitutional line, but a “bright line” of institutional practice, as our guest calls it, and that is enormously significant. Where did statesmanship go? Just where will this Trump indictment lead the nation?

John Yoo is a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department. He is the Emmanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. He is also a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution. His most recent book is Defender in Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power.

Download the transcript here.

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas has grown increasingly violent in recent days, with Iranian-backed Hamas firing thousands of rockets at Israel, and Israel responding in turn. How will the conflict play out? And should the United States be taking a more proactive role?

Jonathan Schanzer joined Dany and Marc to discuss what’s fueling the latest round of violence. They also talk about the Biden administration’s response, the role of the Iran nuclear deal, and what it all means for the future of Arab-Israeli peace.

Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is also on the leadership team of FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power. Schanzer previously worked as a terrorism finance analyst at the US Department of the Treasury and has held think tank positions at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Middle East Forum.  

Download the transcript here.

With the incessant politicization of real foreign policy issues, sometimes it is helpful to go back to the numbers. And in this case, the numbers are detached from the reality that anti-Ukraine Republicans are trying to sell. In fact, a new summer survey from the Reagan Institute finds that a 76% supermajority of Americans, including 71% of Republicans, agree that it is important to the US that Ukraine wins the war. This is not the “Ukraine fatigue” story we have been told. Moreover, support for aid increases substantially when respondents are given more information – where aid to Ukraine is going, how Ukraine has performed on the field. Knowing this, why are our leaders failing to give the America First case for aid to Ukraine?

Roger Zakheim serves as the Washington Director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. He previously practiced law at Covington & Burling LLP where he led the firm’s Public Policy and Government Affairs practice group. Before joining Covington he was General Counsel and Deputy Staff Director of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee where he managed the passage of the annual National Defense Authorization Act. He was also the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense.

Download the transcript here.

The best-kept secret about aid to Ukraine? 90% of the money the US allocates for military aid is spent here at home. The money goes right to American defense companies that employ American workers to produce the weapons systems that Ukraine is using to fight Russia. Not only that: the money is revitalizing decayed production lines, bringing back institutional knowledge about weapons manufacturing to the fore, and pushing the American defense sector to innovate and modernize old weapons systems. But this is all being done begrudgingly by the Pentagon and painfully slowly by the Biden admin, and with zero support from several loud voices in the GOP. At a time when the US is facing three major threat environments – Russia-Ukraine, Hamas-Israel, and a future China-Taiwan – why is Congress so confused about the need to rebuild America’s defenses? Why aren’t Congressmen pushing harder for more jobs in their own districts for their own constituents, instead of prioritizing their own isolationist agenda? Bonus: read Marc’s piece in the Washington Post laying out the argument, and the data, for Ukraine aid benefiting the American worker.

John Ferrari is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where his work focuses on the defense budget, defense reform and acquisition, and the US military. Over his 32-year US Army career, Major General Ferrari, who is now retired, served as the director of program analysis and evaluation, the commanding general of the White Sands Missile Range, a deputy commander for programs at the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan, and a strategic planner for the Combined Joint Task Force Seven in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Major General Ferrari has also worked as a branch chief for contingency operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the US Department of Defense and as a program examiner at the Office of Management and Budget at the White House.

Download the transcript here.

The last four months have been, by any measure, incredibly tumultuous for UK leadership. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was ousted and replaced by Liz Truss, a new monarch took the throne, then Truss resigned from leadership in record time after plunging the UK economy into disarray... and this week Rishi Sunak was sworn in as the new Prime Minister. Americans, looking at their closest political and economic ally across the pond, have every reason to be nervous. What happened to the Tory Party in Great Britain, and how long can it survive this turmoil? Is Sunak up to the task? And, importantly, what parallels can we draw between the challenges facing conservatism abroad, and those facing conservatives at home?

These questions and more with our guest, Gerry Baker. Baker is the editor at large of the Wall Street Journal. He has a weekly column, Free Expression, that appears every Tuesday; he also hosts “WSJ at Large with Gerry Baker,” a weekly news and current affairs interview show on the Fox Business Network, and the weekly WSJ Opinion podcast "Free Expression". A former editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, he began his career working at the Financial Times, the Times of London and the BBC.

Download the transcript here.

In the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Joe Biden stood by America’s closest Middle Eastern partner, providing diplomatic cover and military aid. Recently, however, the Biden administration has become increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli operations in Gaza. In March, Biden refused to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire without conditioning it on the release of Israeli hostages or acknowledging the atrocities of October 7. Why the sudden shift in tone from the Biden administration? Will the growing rift between Biden and Netanyahu affect Israel’s war aims in Gaza? And how will Biden’s failure to stand by Israel affect American partnerships in the region?

Dan Senor is the host of the podcast Call Me Back and co-author of New York Times bestselling books The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation and Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle. He is a former Defense Department official, was a senior advisor to former Speaker Paul Ryan’s campaign for vice president, and was a foreign policy advisor to Senator Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns. Dan was educated at the University of Western Ontario, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Harvard Business School. He is currently a partner at Elliott Investment Management.

Read the transcript here.

Find Dan Senor's podcast here.

The “abolish the filibuster” movement among Democrats has been set back by opposition from two key senators. As a result, opponents of minority rights in the US Senate have turned their attention to the Byrd Rule, an arcane, but vitally important pillar of Senate procedure that prevents non-tax, non-spending provisions from being tacked onto must pass budget reconciliation. Too complicated? Well, without the Byrd Rule, the filibuster won’t be needed, and passing into law D.C. statehood, a $15 dollar minimum wage, and Supreme Court packing will require only 50 votes.

What is the Byrd Rule? How has it become the filibuster work-around? Martin Gold joins Dany and Marc to discuss budget reconciliation, the Byrd Rule, and its significance in Senate procedure. They also dive into legislative history to better understand how we got here.

Martin B. Gold is a partner with Capitol Counsel, LLC. With over 40 years of legislative and private practice experience, he is a recognized authority and author on matters of congressional rules and parliamentary strategies, and US policy in Asia. 

Download the transcript here.

More guns, less butter? Today, average Americans are looking at historic levels of inflation, economic contraction, and rising gas prices, soon to merit the term stagflation—and that's not all. People are leaving their jobs en masse, the average consumer is cutting costs to keep up with personal budget deficits, and meanwhile, the Biden administration has added $1.9 trillion to the $300 billion economic hole. To top it all off, there's trouble abroad with tightening sanctions on Russia and the persistent trade competition with China. Glenn Hubbard joins Dany and Marc to discuss the state of economic affairs, the role of the Fed, Build Back Better, and more.

Glenn Hubbard is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the former Dean of the Columbia Business School. He is the current Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics there. He is also the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors.

Download the transcript here.

The conflict in Ukraine has revealed what conventional war looks like in this day and age. It has also made clear just how extensively the US defense industrial base has atrophied in the post-Cold War era. We are struggling to keep pace with arming Ukraine, even when drawing from stockpiles that have not been replenished since Reagan’s buildup in the 1980s. We are failing to put in place today contracts that will produce critical munitions by 2026 and beyond, but the reality is that the entire system is so broken (from the supply chain, to research vs. procurement imbalances, to budget hurdles) that American leadership in future great power conflict is a question mark, not a given. What does this mean looking ahead? Our guest ran over a half dozen war games to simulate what a US conflict with China over Taiwan would look like; he discovered that we will run out of some of our most advanced precision weapons in less than a week. This should be a wake-up call – why are we seeing sobering lessons from Ukraine but failing to learn them?

Seth G. Jones is senior vice president, Harold Brown Chair, director of the International Security Program, and director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS, Dr. Jones was the director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation. He also served as representative for the commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, to the assistant secretary of defense for special operations. Before that, he was a plans officer and adviser to the commanding general, U.S. Special Operations Forces, in Afghanistan (Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command–Afghanistan).

Download the transcript here.

One of America's greatest engines of growth is fossil fuels – cheap, reliable energy that jumpstarted the industrial revolution and paved the way for the security and prosperity we enjoy today. Others will not be so lucky. Many African countries lack energy security and are reliant upon foreign aid and international organizations that impose environmentally correct conditions on assistance. Indeed, rather than affording African nations the same pathway to prosperity that Western countries used, the left has decided that ‘what is for me is no longer acceptable for thee’ and is pushing green energy on the African continent. Africans like clean energy as much as the next guy (Kenya has geothermal, Ethiopia has hydro) but others (Mozambique, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria…) are forced to rely on natural gas. But the future of Africa and engines of growth are uninteresting to climate crusaders, who embrace neocolonialist conditions for aid to Africa, all the while jetting about in private planes. Instead of forcing climate terms on critical Africa assistance programs, as John Kerry is intent upon doing, or degrading the efficacy of the Power Africa initiative, perhaps the US and Europe should focus on alleviating poverty, truthfully.

Todd Moss, formerly Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, is the Executive Director of the Energy for Growth Hub, a fellow at the Center for Global Development, and a nonresident scholar at Rice University’s Baker Institute and the Colorado School of Mines. He has a substack called Eat More Electrons.

Download the transcript here.

We return from our hiatus to discuss Biden’s trillion-dollar student loan forgiveness plan. Even for those with little background in economics, this is clearly a case of the inverse Robin Hood: a regressive act that takes from the poor and gives to the much less poor. Not to mention, the plan is an assault on the Congressional power of the purse, and legally murky with the justification of the post-9/11 Heroes Act. And let us not forget that this act paradoxically comes on the heels of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, though it is an incredibly costly plan that will only exacerbate current inflation levels.

As the Democratic Party consolidates its role as the party of college-educated coastal elites, AEI’s Michael Strain joins us to unpack the student loan handout. Strain is the Director of Economic Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

Download the transcript here.

While an estimated 120,000 Americans, NATO allied citizens, and Afghan allies were evacuated from Afghanistan during the US military withdrawal, many Afghans who worked directly with the US were left behind as the last American planes departed Kabul on August 31. According to a State Department official, a majority of special immigrant visa applicants were not evacuated and still remain in Afghanistan, putting them at additional risk for Taliban retribution. In the absence of the US government, ad hoc groups of veterans, journalists and activists have taken it upon themselves to help rescue both US citizens and our Afghan partners from Afghanistan.

Elliot Ackerman joined Marc and Dany to discuss Biden’s botched withdrawal, American private citizens working to evacuate the Taliban’s hostages still trapped in Afghanistan, and how we can all do our part to help our Afghan partners.

Elliot Ackerman is the author of four novels. He is both a former White House Fellow and Marine, and served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Download the transcript here.

Back to the Iran Deal... ICYMI our podcast with David Albright on what Iran is really up to...

Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in Tehran last week, eliminating the country’s leading nuclear expert and the head of its program. Iranian officials have blamed Israel for Fakhrizadeh’s killing, vowing retaliation for the targeted attack.

Nuclear weapons expert David Albright joined Dany and Marc to explain what Fakhrizadeh’s death means for the country’s effort to obtain nuclear weapons. He also discusses what to expect from Iran in the coming days and how the Biden administration’s Iran policy will differ from that of the Trump administration.

David Albright, a physicist, is founder and President of the non-profit Institute for Science and International Security. He is a former weapons inspector and has written numerous assessments on secret nuclear weapons programs throughout the world.

Download the transcript here.

Two weeks after the election, President Trump has still not conceded victory to former Vice President Joe Biden. While the media has called the election for Biden, Trump has mounted several legal challenges, requesting recounts or hoping to toss votes in a number of key states.

Gov. Scott Walker joined Dany and Marc to discuss Trump’s refusal to concede, voter fraud, and the likelihood of a Trump victory. They also talk about whether Trump will run in 2024, and necessary changes to the mail-in and absentee voting systems moving forward.

Gov. Walker served as the 45th Governor of Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019. He is currently CEO of Young America’s Foundation and will become president in early 2021.

Download the transcript here.

In 2020, the United States marked a grim milestone as it experienced its largest-ever single-year homicide spike on record. As murders continued to climb in 2021, 12 major US cities broke their annual homicide records, with many other urban areas suffering near-record high violence.

Rafael Mangual joined Marc and Dany to discuss the impact and driving factors behind America’s crime wave, the failure of our elected leaders and the criminal justice system to hold criminals accountable, and why the criminal justice reform movement is not only misguided but also dangerous.

Rafael Mangual is a senior fellow and head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He has authored and coauthored a number of reports and op-eds on issues ranging from urban crime and jail violence to broader matters of criminal and civil justice reform. His work has been featured and mentioned in a wide array of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, New York Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and City Journal. His first book, "Criminal (In)Justice," will be available in July 2022.

Download the transcript here.

Who’s going to be the next President of the United States? What went wrong with the 2020 polls? How should we interpret the election results? And what might a Biden presidency, or second Trump term look like?

With the presidential race still undecided, Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee joined Dany and Marc to discuss his reaction to the election and what the results mean for the Democratic Party moving forward. They talk about polling errors, how a President Biden might govern, who really controls the Democratic Party and whether Trump might run again in 2024.

Mo Elleithee is the founding Executive Director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service. He spent two decades as one of the top communications strategists in the Democratic Party, was Senior Spokesman and Traveling Press Secretary on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, and is a Fox News contributor.

Download the transcript here.

Trump won the New Hampshire primaries, but Nikki Haley is staying in the race. We had a lot of questions for our guest on what this might mean for the next few weeks of primary voting, what this might mean for a potential third party candidate down the line, and yes, what this might mean for a Biden-Trump rematch. But there are some known quantities, too. Team Biden can't imagine anything better than to challenge Trump -- he might be the one Republican they can beat. And vice versa for Team Trump… Joe Biden is their ideal opponent.

Josh Kraushaar is the editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider, and is a political analyst for Fox News Radio.

Download the transcript here.

Subscribe to the WTH substack here.

As America approaches herd immunity, many public health experts continue to support pessimistic guidelines about life after the vaccine. Consistent with his officials’ messaging, President Biden said in his address to the nation that there is a “good chance” that “small groups will be able to get together” by July 4th. 

Are public health experts being too cautious about reopening? Dr. Marty Makary joined Dany and Marc to talk about herd immunity and what Americans can safely do after being vaccinated. He also compares the Covid outcomes of states with different pandemic restrictions and mask mandates. 

Dr. Makary is a surgical oncologist and chief of the Johns Hopkins Islet Transplant Center. He is also a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, chief medical adviser to Sesame Care, and author of “The Price We Pay.”

Download the transcript here.

After four years of work, the Durham Report the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation was released last week. And notwithstanding the objections of the New York Times and other partisans, the report was revelatory: the probable cause for opening the Russia collusion investigation was so flimsy that internal investigators had serious doubts and the Brits refused to even touch the case; the primary source for the famous Steele dossier was Igor Danchenko, previously suspected of working with Russian intelligence; the dossier itself was funded by none other than Hillary Clinton and the DNC. The case is convoluted and so over-saturated with petty politics that even legal experts have a hard time summarizing, but the most important takeaway remains crystal clear: the FBI acted negligently and with extreme political bias in their handling of what came to be called Crossfire Hurricane. How did we end up with institutions charged with fidelity to the law that Americans can no longer trust? Perhaps more importantly: how can we do better?

Andrew McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and the author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Download the transcript here.

There are Charlottesvilles happening every day in America. This time, they’re everywhere, driven by an explosion of antisemitism. And these Charlottesvilles are happening at Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford among other elite havens of academe. This is not the alt-right, fringe antisemitism of years past. The modern version has taken on the flavor of the leftist elite: it equates Zionism with racism; it coalesces the extreme aspects of BLM, feminism, and other groups against a common enemy; it is pro-nothing and entirely anti. The Nazi movement had its roots in professors, Nobel Prize winners – this too, is finding roots in elitist bodies who can intellectualize their way around the pernicious evil of the Hamas attacks. The only way to stand up to a culture of hate? Intolerance of it, and imposing consequences on those who profess it.

Ruth Wisse is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature Emerita at Harvard University. She immigrated to Canada from Romania in 1940 and is a preeminent scholar of Yiddish and American culture, literature, and politics. She is the author of several books, including her memoir Free as a Jew.

Download the transcript here.

This Thursday, the COVID-era immigration policy Title 42 will expire. Initiated by the Trump administration, it allowed for the expulsion of migrants at the border under a public health directive. It lifts as numbers of encounters at the border continue to skyrocket – instances grew from 646,822 in 2020 to 2,766 in 2022, and have already surpassed 1.544 million this year. These are staggering and historic numbers. Border Patrol cannot handle the sheer quantity, processing centers are overrun and inefficient, legitimate asylum seekers and migrants are being delayed access for years while the US government attempts to handle the illegal entries. Title 42 was not meant to be a sustained solution, but its expiration – without a replacement policy in place – means that this summer will see a humanitarian tragedy at the US southern border. Notably, polls show that the American public is not very divided on this question; by and large, Americans support and encourage legal immigration, and condemn the chaos – the humanitarian disaster, financial confusion, and resource misallocation – that is the result of loose and unserious border policy. And yet, Administration after Administration, Congress after Congress, drags its feet and leaves policy stopgaps to the courts.

Andrew Selee is the President of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a global nonpartisan institution that seeks to improve immigration and integration policies. He also chairs MPI Europe's Administrative Council. Prior to MPI, Dr. Selee spent 17 years at the Woodrow Wilson Center where he founded the Center’s Mexico Institute, and served as the Center’s VP for Programs and Executive VP. He has also worked on staff in the US Congress, served on the Board of Directors of the YMCA, and is a columnist for Mexico’s largest newspaper El Universal. His most recent book is Vanishing Frontiers: The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together.

Download the transcript here.

According to President Biden, his stewardship of the economy – which he has dubbed “Bidenomics” – should be praised as the best America has ever seen. Unemployment is down and jobs are up. So why exactly are Americans giving such poor ratings to Bidenomics? Perhaps it’s because Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package unleashed the worst inflation in 40 years. And while inflation may be lower today than it was three years ago, its compounding effects mean that prices are still sky-high. On top of that, Americans recently hit a record high of over a trillion dollars in credit card debt. In short, it doesn’t take a PhD to understand that Americans are hurting.

Gary D. Cohn is the Vice Chairman of IBM and served as chief economic advisor and the 11th Director of the National Economic Council to President Donald Trump. Before serving in the White House, Mr. Cohn was President and Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs, a member of the firm’s Board of Directors, and Chairman of the Firmwide Client and Business Standards Committee. Mr. Cohn began his career at U.S. Steel before moving to New York to trade on the New York Commodities Exchange.

Read the transcript here.

Despite the Biden administration heralding the pull-out from Afghanistan as a "success," America's tumultuous retreat has sparked outrage and shame both in the United States as well as abroad. Following the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 US service members and close to 170 Afghan civilians, Five For Fighting's John Ondrasik decided to turn his frustration into a song to protest the American withdrawal.

John joined Marc and Dany to discuss his latest track, "Blood on My Hands," his horror after the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and perform two of his songs, "Tuesday" and "Blood On My Hands."

John Ondrasik, better known by his stage name Five for Fighting, is a platinum-selling, Grammy nominated American singer-songwriter. His songs include "100 Years," "Superman (It's Not Easy)," "Chances," "The Riddle," "Freedom Never Cries," "What If," and his latest single, "Blood On My Hands."

Download the transcript here.

Not only is DEI hiring creating bureaucracy bloat in higher education country-wide, it is beginning to fundamentally alter our institutions. One place where the erosion of excellence is already apparent? Our legal institutions – just last year, 12 Federal Judges boycotted hiring clerks from Yale Law School (some of the crème de la crème of legal education) due to the aspiring lawyers’ inability to practice good faith, unbiased law. And no wonder: The Federalist Society at Stanford Law School hosted Judge Kyle Duncan of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals – he was shouted down by a group of students. Our guest Ilya Shapiro was nearly fired for tweeting about Biden’s Supreme Court nominations. We are, as a nation, beginning to forget… this is a representative democracy. We are not governed by a mob. Free speech is a foundational tenet of the Constitution that defines this country and its institutions. College sophomoric groupthink on social issues is one thing; but the next generation of Supreme Court prosecutors already radicalized enough that they are being barred by current sitting judges? That’s quite another problem.

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute, director of Cato’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, and publisher of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Shapiro is the author of Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court.

Download the transcript here.

What the hell happened in 2022? Joe Biden is midway through his presidency, and he has delivered both good and bad policy. The bad may outweigh the good … record inflation, growing divisions among Americans, skyrocketing gas prices, an unconstitutional grab for trillions to forgive student loans, and the list continues. But his presidency has not been without accomplishments either, from the invitation of Finland and Sweden to join NATO, to declaring U.S. policy to defend Taiwan, to handling China’s semiconductor industry. What made both lists? Ukraine: his rallying of allies to save Ukraine, but often too little, too late.

In this week’s New Year’s episode, Marc and Dany discuss Marc’s Washington Post lists on the top ten best and worst things the president did this year.

Download the transcript here.

President Trump recently announced that he plans to pull 2,500 US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan before he leaves office. While he has faced backlash for the scale of the drawdown, reports suggest Trump was originally hoping to withdraw all American forces by mid-January. What does this mean for US national security and for the region?

General Jack Keane joined the show to talk about how Trump’s drawdowns help Iran and endanger Americans at home. He also discusses the importance of remaining in the region, the incoming Biden administration’s foreign policy platform, and America’s changing position in the Middle East.

Gen. Jack Keane is a foreign policy and national security expert, a retired 4 star general, former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army and currently serves as the chairman of The Institute for the Study of War as well as being Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst.

Download the transcript here.

President Joe Biden is one of the least popular presidents in the history of presidential polling. Former President Donald Trump faces 91 charges across four criminal cases. Despite their woes and the overwhelming desire of the American people to vote “none of the above,” President Biden and former President Trump will still face off for the second time this November. How will these two senior citizens make the sale? What will most likely hurt them on November 4? Does a third-party candidate have a real shot at the presidency?

Amy Walter is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Amy is also a contributor to the PBS NewsHour, a regular Sunday panelist on NBC’s Meet the Press, and appears frequently on CNN and Fox News. Previously, Amy was the political director of ABC News and an inaugural fellow at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago.

Matthew Continetti is the director of Domestic Policy Studies and the inaugural Patrick and Charlene Neal Chair in American Prosperity at the American Enterprise Institute. His work has a particular focus on the development of the Republican Party in the 20th century. Matt was also the founding editor and the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon.

Read the transcript here.