Off The Record With Paul Hodes

Neil Levesque of the St. Anselm's Institute of Politics returns to run through findings from their latest high quality poll, showing why Democrats have an edge in key races despite President Biden's low approval, whether Democratic meddling in Republican primaries worked, what role abortion is really playing in the election, and whether we're getting an early bead on the shape of the 2024 Republican presidential primary. 

The panel breaks down how Herschel Walker could have avoided a potentially campaign-sinking message catastrophe (besides not being an awful person in the first place) with some age-old political tactics. Also, Trump lawyers lying, huge issues on the Supreme Court docket, and is Mehmet Oz about to be eaten by Alicia's dogs?

Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland was a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years.  That’s part of the reason he was named the lead impeachment manager for the Senate trial during the second impeachment of then-President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection at the United States Capitol. For over a year, he has been serving as a member of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. He says that the Committee has now established beyond any doubt that Trump was culpable for the insurrection.  He reveals the big items that the Committee has uncovered that the media and the public may have missed, what missing pieces of the story he'd still like to fill in during the remainder of the Committee's work, and whether Ginni Thomas is in what amounts to a religious cult around Donald Trump.

It's been called risky, controversial, playing with fire...and that's just the Democrats talking.  But now that the tallies are in, it is clear that Democrats spending $53 million to wade into Republican primaries was the right move.  Matt joins The New England Take to explain why, based on his article published on The Editorial Board and Alternet.

Recently the Center for American Progress issued a report that said “Online service companies have produced substantial wealth, but these gains have failed to reach the American workforce more broadly. Pervasive, ubiquitous digital surveillance has eroded Americans’ civil liberties. Exploitation of people’s data has created novel consumer threats around privacy, manipulation of consumer behavior, and discrimination. Americans face these and other harms from online services, including but not limited to widespread fraud, abuse of small businesses, abuse of market power, faulty algorithms, racist and sexist technological development, cybersecurity challenges, threats to workers’ rights, curtailed innovation, and challenges with online radicalization and misinformation.”  But one of the authors of that reports says that despite this massive litany of destructive problems, big tech platforms can be fixed, and the Internet can be...good!  Erin Simpson of CAP joins to explain. Photo by Rahul Chakraborty o

The panel dives in to understand the key issues that are driving the midterm elections and where things stand on them: abortion, the economy and inflation, immigration, and Trump. Which party is driving the narrative onto their home turf, and how are voters reacting?  Also, are Dems kidding themselves with polling, again?  And did NASA just make one of Marjorie Taylor Greene's Jewish space lasers?!?

In the last few years, we’ve seen ideas that were once on the far fringes of American political thought become some of the most important and frightening factors in our politics. Overturning elections. QAnon. "Alternative Electors." Strict originalist views on abortion. And now, using an obscure section of the Constitution to create a right-wing rewrite of the Constitution itself. Former US Senator Russ Feingold served nearly two decades in the United States Senate, and is the co-author of “The Constitution in Jeopardy" with Peter Prindiville.  They both join us to explain this growing threat to the country.

Political scientist Dr. William Ewell and I just wrote an article for Newsweek breaking down the go-to Republican panic move every time they run into a rough patch politically.  Pull a stunt on immigration, no matter the human cost.  William joins me to run through the Groundhog Day history and likely future of their immigration ploy, and how it will probably be the ideal cover Republicans will look to in the unfolding Trump legal disaster.  Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Chris Hill of Motley Fool Money on why no one knows what to make of the confusing mess of economic data and business news...and that's making the market super jumpy.  Also, Amazon goes all in on the NFL. 

Just as Republican Senator Lindsay Graham scored a possible own-goal by proposing a national abortion ban, suddenly Ron DeSantis Diverted media attention onto his stunt to fly migrants from Texas to Massachusetts. Are Democrats at risk of letting the election focus change to Republicans' favorite territory.  Also, the country dodged a train last week when President Biden helped to avert a railroad strike--but it ain't over yet. 

Brookings Institution expert Jonathan Rauch breaks down his amazing viral article for The Atlantic, "Trump's Second Term Would Look Like This," detailing a nightmarish future with an unprecedented assault on the agencies, military, courts, and democracy. Rauch is the author of eight books and a contributing writer to The Atlantic.  He was the recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. For the video of this podcast, subscribe to The Takedown on YouTube.

Also, the tide turns in Ukraine. The big primaries today.  And should Democrats try to keep Trump off the ballot?

Several weeks ago, an NBC news poll found that the number one issue for Americans was not inflation, but the threat to democracy. Yet, despite American's clear concern, and despite Republican gaslighting about the supposed liberal bias of the media (hint, it's the opposite, as we cover in this episode), former Chicago Sun Times Editor Mark Jacob says that the stunning rise of fascist forces in America and the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party remains stunningly under-covered. "The media is scared of telling the truth when it comes to horrible things happening in politics. Nobody was set up for this rise of fascism...and it is fascism. And also the willingness of the Republican party to cheat in elections and and try to overturn legitimate elections. It's just astounding to me is how the biggest story of our lifetime is sitting right in front of us...yet they're afraid to cover it." Mark Jacob spent 41 years in daily newspapers, mostly in Chicago. He’s the former Sunday editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and

Time Magazine recently described Jesse Ferguson by saying that he "as been one of the quiet forces inside rooms where power has been negotiated, won, or ceded over the last two decades." He's one of the most sought-after messaging experts among Democrats, and he has a lot to say about the key thing that Democrats always seem to get wrong when talking to voters, and how to fix it (hint: there's an easy acronym to remember how...ABC-V). Matt and Jesse also cover how to make the Inflation Reduction Act resonate with voters, how the midterms are shaping up, and favorite stories from the campaign trail. 

The shape of what and how we view things on television is rapidly evolving, with the NFL moving to Amazon, NBC potentially dropping an hour of prime time, and sports looking to a streaming future.  Chris Hill, host of Motley Fool Money, explains the dizzying changes and what might be coming next.  Also, what will the homestretch of the business year look like?

By which we mean the homestretch toward the midterms, with 9 weeks until election day, and the outcome depending on voters' priorities between inflation and autocracy. But also, President Biden's big speech last week depicted a country on the brink of a total meltdown, with MAGA forces poised to upend 250 years of democracy. Are we actually that close to the brink, and if so, was his speech the right thing to do? Plus, if we're so close to a MAGA takeover of government, why are Democrats promoting MAGA candidates? 

Several years ago, Newt Gingrich created a bit of controversy when he said in an interview that feelings are facts, and that the way people perceive an issue has just as much to say about it’s reality as any set of statistics that you could gather. Many people scoffed or reacted with outrage...but the truth is, he was kind of right: for instance, the way people feel about the economy has a strong influence on the objective reality of the economy as seen in the kinds of statistics that we can measure. In fact, economists generally accept the idea that people's feelings and expectations about inflation -- the number one public issue in the country right now -- become self-fulfilling prophecies that manifest in actual inflation. That’s why if you listen closely to our nation's economic leaders like Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, you’ll hear them talk so much about consumer confidence. The leading institution that measures people's feelings about the economy in America is the Univers

We’ve been talking a lot about President Biden's decision to give holders of student loan debt substantial aid by canceling up to $10,000 in debt for those making less than $125,000. It seems like the decision has made no one happy, and that's definitely true of today's guest. Brian Riedl is a Senior Fellow with the Manhattan Institute who is an expert in economic policy, having worked for six years a chief economist senator Rob Portman and Director of Budget and Spending Policy for Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign. He has plenty of policy critiques of the Biden plan...but surprisingly, he has even more criticism for the Republican response and what it says about where the Republican Party has landed today, lacking any kind of coherent domestic policy agenda. He's written an article about it for The Dispatch (image from their article) and he joins us to explain.

Or will it amp it up even further? The panel dives into why Democrats are gaining ground, and whether President Biden's big move on student debt is the right thing to do both economically and politically. Plus, Lindsay Graham makes the MAGA hostage threat explicit: stay away from Trump, or the base will attack (again). Does that mean prosecutors should back off?

In the past week, Republican attacks on the Inflation Reduction Act around how it funds tax enforcement have gotten downright scary, claiming that the IRS will use the additional funding to hire thousands of armed agents and threaten Americans’ life and liberty. It's nonsense, but it's nothing new. Back in December, we did an episode of Great Ideas that ran through the myths, realities, and partisan lies that were emerging then about tax enforcement...and most of it applies just as much now as it did then.