Josh Marshall and David Taintor discuss the Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un summit in Vietnam, what might come out of it, what their relationship has already achieved, and their unusual letters to one another. Then: We consider the prospect of a pardon for Paul Manafort, who will soon be sentenced.
Josh, David Taintor, and investigative reporters Tierney Sneed and Josh Kovensky explore a report from CNN that the Russia probe will wrap up as early as next week and what will likely happen to its many loose ends. They also talk about Roger Stone and Paul Manafort’s latest legal proceedings, and Andrew McCabe’s press tour.
Tierney Sneed joins Josh and David from TPM’s Washington, D.C., bureau to discuss the path forward for Congress’ newly announced plan to avert a government shutdown and to debrief on last week’s contentious hearing with Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. Then, David and Josh dig into that series of allegations made against the National Enquirer’s publisher, AMI, by Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.
Reporter Josh Kovensky briefs us on the potential scandals surrounding the Trump inaugural committee, an organization he’s been looking into for weeks but that was subpoenaed last night. And TPM’s executive publisher, Joe Ragazzo, joins us to discuss a rough two weeks for the news media, in which thousands of journalists were laid off or offered buyouts.
Josh and David discuss Trump’s resplendent capitulation to Nancy Pelosi on the State of the Union and, later, on the shutdown fight. Then, investigative reporter Josh Kovensky sits in to chat about Roger Stone’s indictment and House Democrats’ many questions for Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, which they’ll get to ask at an oversight hearing next week.
Show Notes
These articles by Josh Kovensky were mentioned on the show.
Josh, David and TPM’s editor for special projects and prime, John Light, run through the winners of TPM’s annual Golden Duke awards, named for the scandal-plagued former member of Congress Randy “Duke” Cunningham. From Michael Cohen to Rudy Giuliani to Jacob Wohl to Scott Pruitt, we look back at the political disasters that were. Our judges ended up with a lot of ties this year, and Josh casts the tie-breaking vote.
TPM investigative reporter Tierney Sneed describes the scene in the courtroom where Michael Flynn was set to be sentenced Tuesday. The judge had harsh words for the former national security advisor before coming to an agreement with Flynn’s lawyers to delay Flynn’s sentencing.
The New Republic’s Jeet Heer talks about how the late Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was a precursor to President Trump. As a native Canadian, he also talks about his “continental” view of politics and his thoughts on the Russia probe.
Preeminent civil war historian James McPherson, the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University, joins Josh Marshall to discuss the fraut politics of 1850s and 1860s — and where we see their echoes today.
Seth Hettena, author of “Trump/Russia,” talks about Donald Trump’s pursuit of a real estate deal in Moscow dating back decades. Now that Michael Cohen has admitted that he pursued the Moscow real estate project deep into the 2016 campaign, we revisit Seth’s reporting on why Trump wanted the deal so badly.