Politico's Off Message

The billionaire California activist says Democratic leaders who don’t take up the cause aren't just writing off millions of potential voters, they are like those who told civil rights activists to be patient in the 1960s. 

Former President Jimmy Carter joins us to talk about the lack of moral leadership in the White House, faith, and what it would take for Donald Trump to win the Nobel Peace Prize. We spoke to Carter at Liberty University shortly ahead of his delivery of the keynote speech at the school's commencement ceremonies. Though he and Jerry Falwell make an unlikely pair due to their very different politics (Falwell is a conservative Republican, Carter is a proud Democrat), Carter's deep and abiding Christian faith — and the lifetime of humanitarian work it led him to — is the reason he was invited to Falwell's school. Read more at https://politico.com/podcasts/off-message

Trump has lived his whole life in the city. So why does he have such an adversarial relationship with mayors? Mayor Steve Benjamin, the head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, joins us to discuss what cities are doing next in their battles with the Trump administration.

The “Late Night” host talks about President Trump, the White House Correspondents Dinner, and the time Trump sent Michael Cohen to negotiate a mea culpa from the comedian.

The host of MSNBC's "Hardball" and sharp observer of politics talks about 2020, what Trump understands about white ethnic politics and what you don't understand about cable news.

Michael Tubbs is the 27-year-old leader of one of California’s biggest cities. And he’s using that position to try out some truly radical policy ideas.

Jennifer Rubin has become a leading voice for conservative intellectuals who don’t fit comfortably in either political party—and sees the party she left behind as ‘immoral’ and ‘anti-American.’ “Republicans have permanently eliminated themselves from credibility to govern,” says Rubin, who writes the Washington Post's "Right Turn" blog. “You can’t be willing to sacrifice core American values for the sake of a tax cut and be deemed to be worthy of trust going forward.”

Frustrated by Congress’s response to Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló is preparing to drop a ‘hammer’ in targeted states in 2018.

Rep. Matt Gaetz has emerged as Trump’s apprentice in Congress, receiving late-night phone calls from the president after his TV appearances defending him. He thinks the time has come for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to unrecuse himself, call up special counsel Bob Mueller and maybe even shut down Mueller's investigation.

The 36-year-old South Bend mayor is an Afghanistan veteran, Rhodes Scholar, out gay man and plain-spoken Midwesterner. He also has a PAC spending money in Iowa, is staffing up with presidential campaign vets and quietly building key relationships ahead of 2020. Could he be the next president?

The Texas congressman talks about his campaign to oust Ted Cruz, the lyrics he wrote in his old punk band, and the ways he wishes he was more like his dad.

Live from SXSW, Arnold Schwarzenegger joins Isaac Dovere for a wide-ranging conversation on politics, the environment — and even the upcoming "Terminator" movie. 

Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington and head of the Democratic Governors Association, wants gubernatorial races to become a battlefield for the anti-Trump resistance.

Retired General and former CIA Director Michael Hayden sees a "convergence" between the Trump campaign and Russia. He's ‘very concerned’ about it—and thinks you should be, too.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert explains why he doesn't mind Romney's flip-flop on taking Trump's endorsement, the gun law changes he'd like to see, and why Utah is chasing another shot at hosting the Olympics.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy talks about gun violence, what he has in common with Donald Trump, and his time working as a textbook salesman.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on the political rise of black women, what it would take for Democrats to win Georgia in 2020, and how it feels to visit your father in prison while you're just a child.

Rep. Joe Kennedy III sits down to talk about why Democrats need a big, messy primary in 2020, the reason he thinks Joe Biden would've defeated Trump, his time as Elizabeth Warren's student at Harvard Law, and what it's like to learn about your family members in history class. Last week, Kennedy gave the Democratic response to President Trump's State of the Union speech. The rebuttal heralded Kennedy's arrival in the national conversation at a time when Democrats are desperate to find the right messenger to lead the part into the future. Could that messenger be Kennedy himself? He’s a 37-year-old congressman at a time when the best-known figures in the party have wrinkles and gray hair; he’s started to make a name for himself as a leading liberal voice on health care and other issues; he chairs Congress’s Transgender Equality Task Force; he speaks fluent Spanish from his service with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic; he met his wife in Elizabeth Warren’s class at Harvard Law. He has the most revered f

Congressman Steve Stivers heads up the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP's campaign arm. And that means that, among other things, he's faced with figuring out where—and how—President Trump can be helpful to Republican candidates. Here, he sits down with Isaac to talk about whether he'd send the president to campaign in a swing seat, how he convinces incumbents to run for reelection, and whether President Trump makes him proud to be a Republican.

Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, says that evangelical conservatives are willing to overlook Trump’s past behavior—even his alleged affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels—so long as he delivers for them on policy. “I think they are finally glad that there’s somebody on the playground that is willing to punch the bully,” Perkins tells us. What happened to turning the other cheek? “You know, you only have two cheeks,” Perkins says. “Christianity is not all about being a welcome mat which people can just stomp their feet on.”