Impolitic with John Heilemann

Latest Episodes:

Peter Baker & Susan Glasser: Where’s The Outrage? Oct 16, 2024

Show notes

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.

James Carville: Inside The War Room 2.0 & The Harris-Trump Endgame Oct 14, 2024

Show notes

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.

Susanne Craig: How Trump Became America’s Luckiest Loser Oct 11, 2024

Show notes

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.

Mark Cuban: Out Of One Shark Tank & Into Another Oct 09, 2024

Show notes

John is joined by Mark Cuban, the billionaire former owner of Dallas Mavericks and recently departed star of ABC's Shark Tank, to discuss his new role as Kamala Harris’s most voluble—and arguably most valuable—backer in the business world. Cuban explains why he likens Harris to a start-up CEO in “founder mode;” how her policies would benefit business (especially small business) more than those of Donald Trump; why Trump’s push for sweeping tariffs is “lunacy,” his answers to economic policy questions are “gibberish,” and his business practices are the most unethical Cuban has ever seen. Cuban also opines about Trump’s most powerful business backer, arguing that there are “two Elon Musks”: one a brilliant entrepreneur, the other a “shitty-ass troll.”

Lawrence O’Donnell: Trump’s Jan 6 Reckoning, Kamala’s WH Destiny, & The Senate’s Post-McConnell Future Oct 04, 2024

Show notes

John is joined by the host of MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss the emergence, just five weeks before Election Day, of damning new evidence of Donald Trump’s central role in the January 6 insurrection. O’Donnell assesses the legal and political significance of that evidence, contained in a newly unsealed court filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith, well as the insight it offers into Mike Pence’s role in thwarting Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election—just one day after JD Vance, during the VP debate with Tim Walz, refused to say that the former president had, in fact, lost that election. O’Donnell, an early fan of Kamala Harris and former top Senate staffer, also foretells a bright future for the former and a dismal one for the latter.

“Christ, Have Mercy”: Puck Superfriends Chop Up The VP Debate Oct 02, 2024

Show notes

John is joined by his colleagues Dylan Byers and Peter Hamby to discuss the vice-presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz. The Puck Superfriends analyze Walz’s wobbliness in the debate’s first half, his recovery in the second, and his late-stage landing of the night’s strongest and most sound-bite-friendly attack (on the topic of January 6); Vance’s undeniable forensic chops, apparent allergy to factual accuracy, and stubborn refusal to admit that Donald Trump lost the last election; how well Nora O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of CBS News acquitted themselves as moderators; how pleased (or not) the GOP nominee might be with Vance's performance—and whether it will affect the likelihood of Trump agreeing to debate Kamala Harris again.

Nate Silver: Harris v. Trump Is the Closest Election I’ve Ever Seen Sep 27, 2024

Show notes

John is joined by the world’s most celebrated data nerd, polling aggregator, and election forecaster, Nate Silver, to discuss the 2024 election. Nate offers unnervingly precise takes on just how close the race is (it won’t calm your nerves a bit); Kamala Harris’s likelihood of winning each of the battleground states; the thesis advanced in the New York Times that the GOP’s advantage in the Electoral College is shrinking; whether the polling industry has cured what ailed it in 2016 and 2020; the “contingency plans” you should be making ahead of November 5; having so many people displace their election-related anxieties directly on to him. He also talks about his new bestselling book, On The Edge: The Art of Risking Everything, his relationship with Peter Thiel, his poker addiction, and why the movies Rounders and Moneyball are, well, everything.

Andrew Ross Sorkin: Rate Cuts, Tax Cuts, & Jamie Dimon Dish Sep 25, 2024

Show notes

John is joined by Andrew Ross Sorkin of CNBC, The New York Times, and Too Big Too Fail fame to assess the state of the American economy and its political dimensions six weeks from Election Day, with Sorkin offering his takes on an array of related topics: how Jerome Powell stuck the landing and why that achievement isn't more widely heralded; the tax-cutting ardor of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump; why so much of the business world is backing Trump despite considering him a knucklehead, a loose cannon, and a threat to American democracy; and how Harris is making inroads with the financial class by not behaving like Joe Biden (or Barack Obama). Plus, Andrew’s theory that J.P. Morgan Chase poobah Jamie Dimon could wind up being Harris's treasury secretary.

Pete Buttigieg: Why Kamala Is Winning (It’s The Policies, Stupid) Sep 20, 2024

Show notes

John is joined by former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and once and future presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to discuss the state of the presidential race with 45 days to go before November 5: why Kamala Harris is playing a stronger homestretch hand than Donald Trump; what Trump and J.D. Vance’s incendiary lies about the Haitian immigrants of Springfield, Ohio, have in common with Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare; and how Harris-Walz can seal the deal in the Blue Wall states of PA, MI, and WI. Mayor Pete also explains why he’s a Slow Horses junkie, his husband Chasten is merely Slow Horses curious, and whether the chronic flatulence of Gary Oldman’s character Jackson Lamb is a feature or a bug.

Doug Emhoff: On Being 2nd Gentleman, Kamala’s Arm Candy & A Kurt Cobain/Eddie Vedder Feminist Sep 18, 2024

Show notes

John is joined by Doug Emhoff for a wide-ranging discussion of his role as Second Gentleman of the United States and Mr. Kamala Harris. The two Gen Xers talk through Emhoff’s shot-out-of-a-cannon introduction to the American electorate; his current role on the hustings stumping for his wife’s presidential campaign and his prospective one as the nation’s first-ever First Gent; his otherworldly capacity to maintain composure when Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and the likes of Laura Loomer cough up Kamala-directed calumnies; how the feminism of Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder shaped his attitudes towards women; and whether Tim Walz is really the superannuated indie rock boy that he’s cracked up to be.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected