Category: Briefings

After Pressure From Republicans and the Press, Will Tonight’s CNN Interview With Harris and Walz Answer Policy Questions?

We begin ahead of tonight’s CNN interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and her Vice Presidential running mate Tim Walz and discuss how much Republicans and the press, who have been pressuring Harris for sit-down interviews to elaborate on policy, will be satisfied. Joining us to assess what might happen tonight and in the forthcoming debate between Harris and Trump is Paul Waldman, a journalist and opinion writer whose work has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and digital outlets. He is a former columnist at The Washington Post and his books include Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success, The Press Effect: Politicians, Journalists, and the Stories that Shape the Political World, and most recently, White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy. He runs The Cross Section on Substack where his latest articles which we discuss include “Why Republicans Don’t Think Working for the Government is a “Real Job” and “Media and Republicans Join in Pretending They Care About ‘Policy.”

Could Another Historical Breakthrough be the Election of a Black and Asian Woman Married to a Jew?

Then we look into the historical breakthroughs of electing a black man Obama, almost electing a woman, Hillary Clinton, and now possibly electing a black and Asian woman married to a Jew. Joining us is Andra Gillespie, a Professor of Political Science and Director of the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University who teaches courses on American politics, race and qualitative methodology. She is the editor of Whose Black Politics? Cases in Post-Racial Black Leadership and her latest book is Race and The Obama Administration: Symbols, Substance and Hope.

The Ties Between JD Vance and His New Press Secretary and the Shadowy Christian Nationalist Mens-Only Society for American Civic Renewal

Then finally we investigate the ties between JD Vance and his new press secretary, and the shadowy Christian nationalist mens-only Society for American Civic Renewal and their opinions on womens’ role in society and whether government should be democratic at all. Joining us is Beth Daviess, a graduate research assistant at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey where she researches conspiracy theories, soft radicalization pathways, and the intersection of law, policy, and extremism.