Politics with Amy Walter

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The Kafkaesque Situation in Virginia Feb 15, 2019

Show notes

When do we give politicians and public figures the benefit of the doubt? When do we forgive them for their past transgressions? And when do force them to step down? These are questions we’re asking today and they are the questions the people of Virginia are wrestling with right now.

The governor of the state, Ralph Northam, has been embroiled in a scandal since earlier this month when photos of his medical school yearbook surfaced, showing one person in blackface, another in a Klu Klux Klan robe.

There were calls for him to resign, and for Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, a black politician who was next in line, to take over. But now he’s involved in his own scandal.

On February 6, Dr. Vanessa Tyson released a statement accusing the lieutenant governor of sexual assault. Her allegation dates back to the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

“After the assault, I suffered from both deep humiliation and shame,” Tyson wrote. “I did not speak about it for years.” Soon after, another woman, Meredith Watson, has also accused Fairfax of sexual assault.

Fairfax has denied any wrongdoing and called for an FBI investigation into the allegations.

And third in line for Governor, Attorney General Mark Herring, who after the Northam and Fairfax revelations, admitted that he wore blackface at a college party in the 1980s.

How do we decide when and how to hold politicians accountable?

Here to help us work through these questions are Jamelle Bouie, an opinion columnist for The New York Times and Joan Walsh, the National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation.

Are Americans Ready for Medicare For All? Feb 08, 2019

Show notes

As the 2020 campaign season kicks off many of the declared and likely Democratic candidates seem to be throwing their support behind "Medicare for all."

But what does "Medicare for all" actually mean? And is it achievable?

Sarah Kliff, a health policy journalist for Vox, defines the term.

Julian E. Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton, gives us a historical look at how healthcare reform has worked in the U.S in the past.

Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, explains what she views as the best path forward, while Avik Roy, the president of The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, offers a different opinion.

And Mollyann Brodie, the executive director of public opinion and survey research at the Kaiser Family Foundation, explains how Americans feel about "Medicare for all" based on polling data.

Plus, we remember former Representative John Dingell from Michigan, the longest serving member of Congress and champion of health care reform.

Candidate Talk: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Feb 02, 2019

Show notes

We are still one year away from the 2020 Iowa Caucus, and already we have ten Democrats who have officially announced their candidacies, plus another dozen or so who are seriously thinking about it.

The latest to announce: Cory Booker, the Senator from New Jersey.

This week’s episode of Politics with Amy Walter begins with an interview with Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who’s running for President.

Amy speaks with Sen. Gillibrand about her views on Medicare for All and comprehensive immigration reform. They discuss the Senator’s former views on immigration and gun control, where she took a more conservative stance — she’s since apologized for those policy positions. This is the first interview with a presidential hopeful, and we plan to do as many as possible in the lead up to the Iowa Caucus.

Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this segment. Don't have time to listen right now? Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts to take this segment with you on the go.

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The United States and China, the Best of Frenemies Feb 01, 2019

Show notes

This week, top U.S. and Chinese officials met again for another round of trade talks, aimed at ending the trade war. The deadline for a reaching a final deal is March 1st.

Just two days before the trade talks began this week, the US Department of Justice unveiled criminal charges against the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei. The DOJ accused the company of stealing trade secrets, committing wire fraud, breaking confidentiality agreements, and violating sanctions against Iran.

Jiayang Fan, a staff writer at The New Yorker, says that the U.S. and China view this case very differently.

Reaching an agreement on the trade war might be less about coming up with new rules and regulations and more about coming to some sort of a mutual understanding.

Weijian Shan grew up during the Cultural Revolution and spent his childhood in a hard labor camp. Today, he is chairman and CEO of PAG, a private equity firm and author of, “Out of the Gobi: My Story from China and America.” He reflects on the current tension between two schools of thought: One which seeks to move forward and abandon the system of party control over economic activity and the other that wants to hold onto the previous system of an active government presence in the economy.

Amy's Final Take:

We only just scratched the surface of China’s long, complicated and often confusing relationship with the West. If we want to understand the prospects for the short term like will there be a trade deal or more tariffs — we need to understand how China views itself — with both hubris and deep seated memory of past humiliations at the hand of the west.

Plus, the trade war is masking the bigger, more challenging dilemma for the U.S. and the rest of the world for the long term. What I found most fascinating in my discussion with Jiyang Fang of the New Yorker as well as my conversations with people in Beijing and Shanghai last December, is the degree to which China sees itself as a more passive — rather than active — Superpower. In other words, China wants to be successful and prosperous and powerful, but doesn’t want to play the role of enforcer of political world order. The question isn’t what happens if China fills the vacuum left by the U.S.’s diminishing role in policing the world’s political, social, moral world order. Instead, it’s what happens if China doesn't fill it. And, we are left with — a vacuum?

The Art of the Political Apology Jan 26, 2019

Show notes

Like it or not, the race for 2020 has begun. Day by day the democratic field grows, with more and more presidential hopefuls throwing their hats into the ring. It’s a well-worn script. But there’s something else noticeably different this time around, the candidates are apologizing for past policy positions. This week on Politics with Amy Walter, the art of the political apology, who offers them, what makes them work and what happens when they fall flat.

We start with James Hohmann of The Washington Post who was one of the first to notice that many of the Democratic presidential candidates are starting out their races with apologies.

Stephanie Cutter is a Democratic strategist who worked on President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. She too has noticed all the apologies coming from the Democratic presidential candidates this election cycle.

Ron Bonjean is a Republican strategist. He has been a spokesperson for former Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, and for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. His take is more critical of these apologies.

Marjorie Ingall is a writer and one of the founders of Sorry Watch, a site that analyzes public apologies.

Of course, the other big story is the government shutdown. At this point, it’s hard to know if voters will care about it in 2020, or if anyone will take the blame and offer an apology. Amy spoke to two freshmen Democrats - from districts that flipped red to blue - about what they’ve been hearing.

Congressman Antonio Delgado represents New York’s 19th congressional district and Congressman Jared Golden, represents Maine's 2nd congressional district. Both Golden and Delgado spoke of the need for Democrats and Republicans to find common ground.

Amy's Final Take: Here’s my take on the raft of political apologies we’ve been hearing from 2020 Democrats. Democratic candidates running to catch up with where they think their base is.

The most important question, of course, is how voters will respond. Do they punish those who strayed and reward the candidate who has been the most ideologically consistent? Or are they willing to forgive and move on? Trump was all over the map on policies and positions. That obviously didn’t prevent him from winning the nomination. As one Democratic strategist told me: Americans don’t care if you flip as long as you flip in their direction.

Here’s the other thing. Voters are smart. And, perceptive. They don’t have the time to build elaborate spreadsheets that track candidate voting records and changes in policy positions. They mostly go with their gut. And, their heart. They can smell insincerity and calculation.

Trump Confidant Roger Stone Indicted in Mueller Investigation Jan 25, 2019

Show notes

Roger Stone, a political operator and longtime adviser to President Trump was arrested after being indicted in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Stone is charged with seven counts, including one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements and one count of witness tampering, according to Mueller’s office.

These are all connected to the 2016 election interference.

Aaron Blake is a senior political reporter at The Washington Post.

Immigration Impasse: Is Comprehensive Immigration Reform Impossible? Jan 19, 2019

Show notes

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history was triggered by an impasse over border security.

In this hour, Politics host Amy Walter asks, is comprehensive immigration reform impossible? From the summer of 2001 when a bipartisan agreement looked hopeful through today, a look at why compromise remains out of reach.

Shari Robertson is a documentary filmmaker. Back in the early 2000s, she and her filmmaking partner Michael Camerini embedded themselves within this reform effort, driven by President George W. Bush.

But how did we end up here, where we are now, where an immigration bill with bipartisan support seems almost unimaginable? To make sense of this Amy checked in with Chuck Hagel. He’s a former Republican senator from Nebraska and was one of the co-sponsors of the 2006 immigration bill.

Cecilia Muñoz was considered President Obama’s conscience on immigration. She was deeply involved in the reform effort that took place during his administration and gives us the insider view on why that failed.

In 2011, Jose Antonio Vargas officially came out of the closet as an undocumented immigrant. This was years before millions of others would join him. And he did it in the most public way a person could - he wrote a cover story in The New York Times Magazine called, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” He is now the founder of Define American, and is the author of “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen.” He joins the program to share his analysis of the current impasse over immigration.

Amy's Final Take: We had an ambitious idea this week. Try to explain - in an hour - why Congress has failed in its last two attempts to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The goal was not to leave you with the answer - but for you to appreciate all the cross-currents and challenges that face policymakers.

But, I was struck by two things over the course of putting this show together. First, it is actually not that hard to pass an immigration reform bill. The biggest impediment to success is the lack of political will and the lack of willingness to sacrifice and compromise. That includes lots of people - activists, organizations, people on the frontlines of the issue - not just the politicians.

The second is that whenever we talk about immigration reform we hear a lot from the political figures involved, but not as much from real people. I want to leave with the voices from the people we heard at the top of the show.

And a special thanks to our friends at The Marshall Project for sharing the testimonial tape in this episode. It was all collected as part of a project called We Are Witnesses, in partnership with Newsy.

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Impeachable Offense? Jan 18, 2019

Show notes

A BuzzFeed report claims that President Donald Trump instructed his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen to lie to Congress in 2017 about talks to build a trump tower in Moscow.

If true, this may be the strongest indication yet that President Trump criminally tried to obstruct justice in connection with the Russia investigation.

The report cites "two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.”

Politics host Amy Walter talked to Anthony Cormier, a Buzzfeed investigative reporter who co-authored that report.

And for the congressional reaction, she spoke with Joaquin Castro, a Democratic congressman from Texas.

Congressman Castro took to Twitter after the story published to say:

If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached.

— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) January 18, 2019

Amy Walter asked Congressman Castro, how he will know if the Buzzfeed story is true?

Amy's Final Take: This story has set D.C. on fire.

But, it’s not the first time that Washington thought that this was the story to end all stories. We’ve still got a long way to go. First, as Buzzfeed’s Anthony Cormier told us, Michael Cohen’s Feb. 7th hearing in front of the House Oversight Committee may not provide the kind of bombshells or corroboration that many are expecting. In other words, there may be more questions than answers.

Democrats in Congress aren’t quite ready yet to pull the trigger on impeachment. Yet, at least one Democratic Rep. thinks it may not be necessary to wait until the Mueller report comes out. House investigations - and investigative reporting - can fill in the blanks. And provide enough evidence for impeachment proceedings to begin.

Thanks for hitting up our extra podcast today on Politics with Amy Walter….we’ll keep watching this story and we know you will also.

UPDATE: The Washington Post reports: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s office on Friday denied an explosive report by BuzzFeed News that his investigators had gathered evidence showing President Trump directed his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about a prospective business deal in Moscow.

Playing Dirty or Just Plain Playing — The Game of Political Hardball Jan 11, 2019

Show notes

Since the midterm elections, we’ve seen a number of examples of hardball tactics. In Wisconsin, Republicans stripped power from the newly elected Governor Democrat Tony Evers. Republicans in Michigan tried a similar maneuver, but the bills were vetoed by the outgoing governor, also a Republican.

But it’s not just Republicans using aggressive political tactics. Democrats in New Jersey proposed a constitutional amendment for redistricting that would essentially solidify their party’s control of the state legislature for the next decade. The idea prompted a mass backlash, notably from folks from within the same party, like the state’s Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.

In Alabama, a group of Democratic tech experts used deceptive social media tactics similar to the Russians in the 2016 presidential elections to influence the Special Senate race last year on behalf of now Senator Doug Jones, according to a report from The New York Times.

So, is all this wheeling and dealing just politics as usual or has something fundamentally changed? This hour on Politics with Amy Walter from The Takeaway, we take a look at constitutional hardball, who's playing clean, who's playing dirty, and whether or not they out to be playing at all.

Guests:

David Pozen is a professor of Law at Columbia Law School.

Clare Malone is a senior political writer at FiveThirtyEight.

Doug Heye has held communications positions in the House, Senate, RNC, as well as serving in the George W. Bush administration.

Karine Jean-Pierre is a senior adviser at Move On.

Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Myrna Pérez is the Deputy Director of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program and leader of the Center's Voting Rights and Elections project.

Amy's Final Take: Over the last few years, I’ve been thinking a lot about institutions and why and how they fail. And, I grapple with the question of whether the dismantling and disruption of our political norms and structures are just a normal, healthy but painful process of democracy. Kind of like a forest fire is good because of the way it clears dead brush and encourages new growth. Or, is what is happening today the beginning of a descent into a dark and dangerous place where rules and guardrails no longer guide us.

In talking with the guests for this show - and others who are thinking a lot about these things - I am cautiously optimistic. The most dangerous threat to our political system is that people disengage from it; that it becomes so discredited that no one believes their voice or vote matters. The 2018 election showed us that voters aren’t walking away. Turnout was higher than any previous midterm election in over 100 years. And, as the Brennan Center’s Myrna Pérez noted, the path to progress isn’t always linear. And, in an era of Instagram, insta-pots and insta-news, it’s hard to remain patient when we see things moving in the wrong direction. Most fundamentally, our system is built on faith. If we lose it, we will lose everything.

House Majority Leader on Border Wall Funding, and Freshman Rep.'s Call to 'Impeach the Motherf---er' Jan 05, 2019

Show notes

Congressman Steny Hoyer from Maryland takes over as Majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives in the midst of a government shutdown.

Congressman Hoyer spoke with Amy Walter to discuss the new Congress, President's Trump's demand for border wall funding and the comments of Freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib who said she wanted to "impeach the motherf----r," referring to the president at an event Thursday night.

You can connect with The Takeaway on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or on our show page at TheTakeaway.org.