Off The Record With Paul Hodes

We've known Trevor Chandler for a long time: as a congressional staffer, LGBT rights activist, and political organizer. So when decided to jump into a local San Francisco race, it didn't surprise us. What did surprise us was the message he decided to run on. Could it be the key to pushing back on the Fox News attacks and unifying the Democratic Party?

Former Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper is out today with Saving Democracy, a how-to guide on how individuals and small groups can actually tilt the balance of power away from right-wing extremists and back to sanity and democracy. David joins us to explain why state governments have become engines of Republican extremism, and how effective it can be for grassroots Democrats to fight back and win by focusing much more heavily on the state and local level and leveraging the advantages they have.

Republican Senator Tim Scott has everything his party should want in a Presidential contender...except a clear path to being the nominee. The panel looks at whether he, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Asa Hutichinson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis or anyone else has any chance of wresting the nomination away from Donald Trump, and whether retail politics-heavy states like New Hampshire can actually help.

Are Black Voters Actually Going…MAGA? In 2020, 12% of Black men voted for Donald Trump. By 2022, headlines were proclaiming an historic shift in Black America to the Republican Party, with CNN declaring “Voters of color are backing the GOP at historic levels” and the NY Post saying “Young, Black Americans are turning to the GOP.” If this is true, it would represent a crisis for Democrats, since Black voters, particularly Black women, have long been the backbone of the Party. So what’s actually happening? We welcome back two friends of the show, Mario Broussard and Alex Ivey, who are Senior Vice President and Vice President of Research respectively at Global Strategy Group, one of the premier polling, research, and public affairs companies in America.

A brief review of the ham-fisted attempted cover operation for Trump that was the Durham special counsel investigation, how it fell apart, and why it still seemed to be a political success for Republicans. Also what is a "nothingburger" anyway? Will President Biden actually agree to put more work requirements on Food Stamps? And should we raise the voting age to 25?

After last week's disaster, can the media prevent Trump from serving us poison again? That was basically the question that was posed to me this morning by Howard Monroe, legendary West Virginia radio broadcaster. It's a question that we're all continuing to grapple with in the wake of the CNN town hall with Donald Trump last week. Is there any way for the media to cover Donald Trump, do their job in our democracy, and yet not allow him to spew lies and undermine that democracy?

Philadelphia Inquirer National Columnist and Pulitzer Prize Winner Will Bunch joins to lay out why everything we saw from Donald Trump in the catastrophic town hall last night was terrible...but unsurprising. The real shock wasn't even the way CNN was complicit in setting up the disaster. Rather, it was another group that really brought a low point to the entire night.

As the debt ceiling standoff begins to dominate political discussion, serious legal scholars are beginning to debate whether the Constitution offers a simple way out. Also, Alicia makes a moving plea to her own Republican Party on immigration. And could the writer's strike be good for America?

On Sundays, we post shows from Financial Life Planning with financial advisor Mike Morton and man-in-need-of-advice Matt Robison. This week: we have interest rates now, so what does that mean, in a nutshell, for our daily lives. And is there anything we need to, you know, DO about it? The answer is: YES! We cover: Mortgage Rates - How the increase affects your payments (not in a good way!) Home Equity / Construction Loans - You might want to think twice about borrowing for renovation projects and why I paid off my HELOC. Savings - You will finally earn some interest on your cash CD’s - Some brokerage products are offering 3%-4% interest, something we haven’t seen in almost 20 years Stocks - It’s like Black Friday: with the 20% market decline now is a (better) time to buy stocks.  Stay invested for the long run.

Justin Elliott is one of the team of reporters at ProPublica who conducted the blockbuster investigation that uncovered the Clarence Thomas corruption scandal. Elliot takes us inside the story and how he reported it. His reporting uncovered the financial ties between Harlan Crow and Justice Thomas: millions of dollars in gifts, benefits, and luxury trips. His newest article revealed strange details: a secret real estate deal where Crow bought Clarence Thomas' mother's house, and let her live in it rent free, and also paid years of tuition for Thomas's adoptive son at a swanky private school.

Matt walks into the belly of the beast, joining Alicia Preston guest-hosting on the Jack Heath show, one of the top conservative radio programs out there. They cover the question of when are politicians too old, and the controversial idea that we spend too much money on senior citizens anyway.

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse joins us to expose a "toxic cocktail of creepy billionaires and phony front groups and dark money" ruling the Supreme Court in this interview coming fresh off a blockbuster Senate hearing. Corrupt right wing Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife have raked in millions from people with cases before the court. It's all part of a broken system that funnels hundreds of millions in dark money to put these people on the court and then tells them what to do.

Republican insiders think so, and they see an emerging strategy to try to take DeSantis down in one particular early primary state. Also, what is up with the big new messaging plan from Democrats on the Republicans debt ceiling plan, and will it work? And how worries should we be that three of the four biggest banking failures in US history happened in the last couple months?

Financial advisor Mike Morton and Matt Robison dive into when it makes sense to borrow money to pay for stuff (like cars) vs. digging deep into your savings. And does it make sense to use a HELOC? And what the #$%^ IS a HELOC anyway?

President Biden is running for re-election, but are his chances of beating Trump uncomfortably...even? Also, what does a new rule say about whether Democrats are swinging too far to the left? And is there a simple deal to be had on the debt that could save America from economic catastrophe?

Tucker Carlson has been a disaster for America, and he is an embarrassment that Fox News is trying to put behind them. But the big question is, will Fox get any better without him? And what about the rest of the media, which seems perpetually locked in both-sides-ism and unwilling to provide the context to help Americans understand what has been happening in our country in the age of Trump. Mark Jacob is a former editor for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times and co-author of six books about history and photography.

Ron DeSantis was the Fox News "Great White Cope" (cope with their soured love affair with Trump, that is)...until things started going south. Now questions are swirling about whether he's been a paper tiger all along. Columnist Jason Sattler and host Matt Robison debate the top five flaws that are most likely to complete DeSantis' flameout, and try to figure out whether he can ultimately turn things around and defeat Trump.

One of the strangest political ads ever and it's strangely...dirty?!? Also what's underneath the move to get Senator Feinstein to resign? Does Kevin MCCarthy actually have a plan to save America from his own insane Republican Congress? And what should we hope for int he Fox-Dominion lawsuit?

How does a forgotten 2016 ruling from the Supreme Court impact the Clarence Thomas corruption scandal and make it so darn obnoxious? Matt joins legendary West Virginia radio host Howard Monroe to talk about the Fox News-Dominion defamation lawsuit and the rapidly growing Clarence Thomas corruption questions.

Fred Wellman, former Executive Director of the Lincoln Project, talks about his provocative substack article connecting the dots between Donald Trump's criminal behavior, Clarence Thomas' corrupt behavior, and Ron DeSantis' authoritarian behavior. They all believe that the rules don't apply to them, and that they are somehow royal.