Impolitic with John Heilemann

John is joined by Julian Castro, former mayor of San Antonio and secretary of Housing & Urban Development, and Paola Ramos, award-winning journalist and author of Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America, to discuss Donald Trump’s gains with Latino voters in 2024. Castro and Ramos argue that, given the inroads Trump made with Hispanics between 2016 and 2020, his improved performance with them this year is less surprising than it seems; that his appeal to the Latino community wasn’t simply about high prices or economic anxiety but culture, crime, and even immigration and race; that the jury is out on whether we’re witnessing a lasting realignment or a Trump-specific phenomenon; but that, either way, it should serve as a wake-up call to a Democratic Party that for years has taken brown-skinned voters for granted. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by Tom Nichols, professor emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and staff writer for The Atlantic, to discuss Donald Trump’s foreign policy appointments and the challenges he will face upon his return to the Oval Office. Nichols offers a tour d’horizon of global hotspots, from Ukraine to the Middle East, that will test Trump’s mettle immediately and with huge implications for U.S. vital interests; his assessment of how America’s foreign adversaries, from Vladimir Putin to Xi Jinping, view his return to power (spoiler alert: not unhappily); and his argument as to why, amid a raft of objectionable Trump appointments, the selection of Pete Hegseth to run the Department of Defense is the most irresponsible and dangerous, both abroad and at home. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by America’s best-known presidential historians, Michael Beschloss and Jon Meacham, to discuss the first two weeks of the transition to Donald Trump’s second term. Beschloss and Meacham assess the most head-spinning of Trump’s initial appointments and their prospects for confirmation; why the sense of shock these picks have elicited, even among Republicans, is ludicrous on its face; the role of Steve Bannon as the intellectual architect of Trump’s radical governing agenda and its central goal of what Bannon calls the “deconstruction of the administrative state;” and why it’s safe to assume that what we’re seeing now is what the next four years will look like. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by two up-and-coming Democratic congressmen—Seth Moulton, of the North Shore of Massachusetts, and Ritchie Torres, of the Bronx—to discuss what went wrong for Democrats in 2024. Moulton and Torres have little in common besides their relative youth; Moulton, 46, is white, straight, and holds multiple degrees from Harvard, while Torres, 36, is Afro Latino, openly gay, and never graduated from college. But their diagnoses of what ails their party (and, in particular, what allowed Donald Trump to make dramatic inroads with non-white working class voters) and their prescriptions for how to cure it are in sync: preach less and listen more; stop pandering to the left, especially on cultural issues; embrace pragmatism, competency, and open debate over purity tests, identity politics, and Ivory Tower condescension. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by Claire McCaskill, former Democratic U.S. senator from Missouri, to discuss the fallout from the election and transition to Donald Trump’s second White House term. McCaskill assesses Trump's first batch of cabinet and White House staff appointments, calling it a “mixed bag," with some picks mildly reassuring and others decidedly not; the practical and political challenges of mass deportation; the potential for (or inevitability of) friction between Trump and Elon Musk; and the internal debates and internecine finger-pointing now consuming the Democratic Party as it seeks to apportion blame for, interpret the meaning of, and find a way forward from the shellacking it suffered on Election Day. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by political and cultural historian—and literary executor for Hunter S. Thompson—Douglas Brinkley to discuss the end of the 2024 election and Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Brinkley explains the harsh impact of Kamala Harris’s defeat on Joe Biden’s legacy, and how Biden only has himself to blame; how Trump managed, despite his clear political liabilities, to increase his share of the vote all over the country; why Harris’s extreme caution was her greatest weakness and Trump’s extreme incaution his greatest strength; and how much we should fear Steve Bannon and his pledge to deliver “rough, Roman justice” to MAGA’s foes. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by his Puck partners Dylan Byers and Peter Hamby to discuss Donald Trump’s reelection: the remarkable scale of his victory and the unexpected breadth of the coalition he assembled to achieve it; whether anyone paying attention to the campaign—or the Trump era in our politics and culture more broadly—should have been surprised; the Democratic finger-pointing that’s already begun in the wake of Kamala Harris's loss; whether VP Harris or President Biden bears more responsibility for the failure to dispatch Trump; and what might happen within the two parties, as well as the mainstream and upstart media, when Trump and his allies reassert themselves in the capital. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace for an Election Day special episode on the final hours of the presidential race. The two close friends examine Kamala Harris’s decision to close out her campaign by dropping all references to Donald Trump and returning to the themes of unity, change, and joy that animated her early days as the Democratic nominee; the contrast presented by Trump’s off-message, off-kilter, at times off-color turns on the stump, as he toggled between anger and exhaustion before dwindling crowds; the bolt-from-the-blue Iowa poll that stunned the political world by showing Harris with a 3-point lead in a state that Trump won easily in 2016 and 2020; whether the combination of Dobbs, Liz Cheney, John Kelly, and Trump’s Madison Square fiasco would put Harris over the top; and, if not, what Trump’s reelection will say about America. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by radio host and burgeoning media mogul Charlamagne tha God—whose nationally syndicated morning show, The Breakfast Club, has emerged as a key conduit to Black America for political figures from Kamala Harris to Lara Trump—to dig into the interplay of politics, media, and culture that led to a photo finish in the 2024 election. Charlemagne discusses his staunch support for Harris and his reaction to seeing Donald Trump’s team weaponize his words against her in an anti-Harris (and anti-trans) TV ad; his on-air clash with Anderson Cooper over the failure of CNN and others in the press to hold Trump accountable for his authoritarianism; his disdain for Joe Biden and respect for younger Democrats such as Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, and Wes Moore; and what he makes of Tucker Carlson’s claim to have been mauled in his bed by a demon (yes, an actual demon). To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by Robert Costa of CBS News and Jonathan Martin of Politico to discuss the state of the presidential race as it enters the final weekend before Election Day. Costa and Martin weigh in on Kamala Harris’s speech on the Washington Mall, her closing argument writ large, and the factors boosting her prospects and those weighing her down; Joe Biden’s garbled Zoom comments about Trump supporters (or one specific Trump supporter, depending on whom you believe), the kerfuffle they caused, and the Republican efforts to capitalize on them; the degree of confidence Trump and his campaign are projecting about winning; and the state of play in the Blue Wall states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where the outcome is most likely to be decided. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by George Conway, Bill Kristol, Sarah Longwell, and Tim Miller from The Bulwark—the #NeverTrump startup that emerged as one of the 2024 election cycle’s breakout media success stories—to discuss the presidential campaign's final sprint to the finish line. The Bulwark Fab Four discuss Donald Trump’s and Kamala Harris’s closing arguments; the tightness of the race in the battleground states and what might sway the tiny cadre of remaining undecided voters; Michelle Obama’s return to the hustings and Steve Bannon’s release from prison; and the political fallout from the profusion of provocations, out-front racism, and full-boil rage on display at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by actor and director Jason Bateman to discuss the runaway success of SmartLess, his podcast with Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, which was recently snapped up by SiriusXm for $100 million. Bateman—whose Emmy and Golden Globe-winning career spans four-plus decades, carrying him from “Little House on the Prairie” and “Teen Wolf Too” to “Arrested Development” and “Ozark”—reveals the recipe for SmartLess’s secret sauce; why A-list Democrats (Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, and Tim Walz) find the show a low-key, high-impact place to visit; why the surreal reality show that is Donald Trump’s public life has finally jumped the shark; and how the hair required for his role in “Black Rabbit,” his forthcoming Netflix limited series with Jude Law, launched a thousand Jason/Jesus memes. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by two celebrated scholars and best-selling authors on authoritarianism, autocracy, and tyranny—Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer at The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum, and Yale University history professor, Timothy Snyder—to discuss this week’s headline-making reporting on the dark assessments of Donald Trump by former White House chief of staff John Kelly and other top military brass. Applebaum and Snyder argue that Trump’s fascism is beyond dispute; his use of language echoing Stalin, Mussolini, and other dictators is no accident; and his repeated expressions of admiration for Adolph Hitler is unsurprising given the degree to which his policy proposals, approach to politics, and yen for personal loyalty from the military resembled the Fuhrer’s. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gone South, the Edward R. Murrow award-winning podcast, is back. Unlike previous seasons, writer and host Jed Lipinski brings listeners new episodes every week with no end in sight. Each episode of Gone South Season 4 tells a different story about one of the South's most interesting crimes. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by Maryland’s Democratic Governor, Wes Moore, to discuss the state of the presidential race. Currently America’s second-youngest governor, only the third African American ever to hold that office, and a 16-year U.S. Army veteran, Moore discusses the challenge Kamala Harris faced in being elevated so recently to the top of the Democratic ticket; how serious a mistake it was for her to say she wouldn’t have done much differently from Joe Biden; and why Donald Trump’s attitude toward the military is so “heartbreaking and terrifying" that senior military officers should speak out about his unfitness for office—as it was reported just after Moore and Heilemann talked that General John Kelly has done. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by Obama 2008 and 2012 campaign guru and Harris 2024 senior strategist David Plouffe to assess the state of the presidential race two weeks out from Election Day. Plouffe explains why he believes his candidate has a higher ceiling and more appeal to the remaining pool of persuadable voters than Donald Trump; how most of the public polling you're obsessed with is so worthless that he doesn’t even look at it; what he’s seeing in the early vote data that buoys his optimism; why reports of Trump's exhaustion and last-minute scheduling disruptions suggests that “something really funky” is going on with him; and yet why Democrats should be ready for an extremely, nail-bitingly, uncomfortably close election outcome. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by Michigan Democratic congresswoman Debbie Dingell to discuss the razor's edge race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump for the Great Lake State’s 15 electoral votes. Although national Democrats have recently begun to fret about Harris's standing in Michigan, Dingell—who was the among the first in 2016 to call out Hillary Clinton’s fatal weaknesses there—explains that she’s believed that the VP's position in the state has always been precarious; how Harris finally found her voice on the manufacturing economy; how her jousting with Brett Baier on Fox News revealed a key part of “the real Kamala;” and how, to close the sale in Michigan, Harris needs to set caution aside and “talk turkey” to blue-collar voters about a Trump agenda certain to sell them out and ship even more of their jobs to China. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by Beltway journalistic power couple Peter Baker, the New York Times's chief White House correspondent, and Susan Glasser, a staff writer for The New Yorker, to discuss the state of the presidential race three weeks out from Election Day. Baker and Glasser assess Kamala Harris’s shift to harder-edged attacks on Donald Trump; Trump’s threat to use the National Guard or U.S. military against American citizens, to terminate the Constitution, and to seek "retribution" against his political opponents; why non-MAGA Republicans such as Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin continue to stick with him; and the ongoing Democratic freakout over whether Harris and Team K are “doing enough” to win. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by legendary campaign guru James Carville to discuss the new documentary about his life, “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid,” alongside the film’s director, Matt Tyrnauer. James and Matt explain how they came together to make a kind of sequel to “The War Room,” the iconic 1993 documentary that helped turn James into a celebrity; how his boisterous campaign to convince his party to replace Joe Biden caused many allies to see him less as Cassandra than Brutus, until Biden’s debate with Trump turned him into Nostradamus; and how James’s wife and longtime TV sparring partner, Republican strategist and former Bush White House aide Mary Matalin, became the film’s essential ingredient. Plus, James and John take stock of Harris v Trump as we enter the final, three-week sprint to Election Day. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John is joined by Susanne Craig, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times investigative reporter and co-author of “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created The Illusion of Success,” to discuss the divergent myth and reality of Trump’s career in business. Craig recounts the nine years she has spent delving into the former president’s finances and the revelations that work unearthed—from the staggering $1 billion in accumulated losses Trump once reported to the IRS to the hundreds of millions of dollars he inherited from his father, a bequeathment starkly at odds with his image as a self-made man; the story of how small-screen Svengali Mark Burnett made Trump a reality-tv star, a development that would change the course of political history; and how Trump’s unscrupulous, all-sizzle-no-steak approach to business carried over to his mode of campaigning and governance, only more so. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices