THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

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Fox News twists itself into wild contortions on GOP “informant” fiasco Feb 23, 2024

Show notes

Fox News and other right wing media are currently engaged in absurdities that are as bad as anything they’ve attempted in recent memory. They are struggling to spin away everything from the collapse of an informant’s claims about President Biden to the GOP’s killing of a border security deal that Republicans themselves demanded. Yet in a darker sense, right wing media is also flourishing. We talked to Matt Gertz of Media Matters, who helped us unravel the tangled web those sources are weaving.

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David Axelrod: Here’s How Biden Can Fix the “Age” Issue—and Beat Trump Feb 22, 2024

Show notes

It’s the question that won’t die among D.C. elites: Should President Biden step aside so another Democrat can run instead? Democrats have engaged in some remarkably public handwringing about Biden’s age that just won’t let up. One Democrat who has insistently sounded the alarm is veteran strategist David Axelrod. So we invited him on the show, where he allowed that an alternative is unlikely—while explaining how Biden can address the issue and why he’s still the favorite against Donald Trump.

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Finally, Democrats have defeated one of the worst gerrymanders of all Feb 21, 2024

Show notes

This week, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers signed a new set of maps for legislative districts in the state—an important and overlooked victory that came after a long struggle dating back well over a decade. We talked to Greta Neubauer, the 32-year-old Minority Leader of Wisconsin Assembly Democrats, who explained what Democrats did to prevail, why this was such a significant achievement, and how it shows that reviving democracy is a grueling game of inches.

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Trump’s Devastating $355 Million Penalty Blows Up His Biggest Lie Feb 20, 2024

Show notes

The stunning news that Donald Trump has been hit by a $355 million penalty in his civil fraud case in New York deals a big blow to his mystique as master of “the deal.” But Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling also exposes a deeper undercurrent of scamming that Trump has been surfing on for decades and hopes to ride right back into the White House. We chatted with journalist David Cay Johnston, author of a new piece in The New Republic about the ruling, who helped us plumb the depths of the dark ethos of grift that has driven Trump throughout his career.

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How Trump Iced Ronna McDaniel, Signaling Big Trouble for the MAGA-GOP Feb 16, 2024

Show notes

This week, Donald Trump announced that he wants Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel replaced with a loyalist: Michael Whatley, the head of the North Carolina Republican Party. Behind the jockeying looms a very big story: The Trump-MAGA takeover of the GOP, and the challenges the party faces as it nominates someone facing multiple criminal indictments. We talked to Marc Caputo, a reporter for The Bulwark and author of a great new piece on McDaniel’s ouster, who helped us unravel the mysteries of GOP politics in the MAGA era.

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Shocker: A Big Win for Dems Flips the Script on Trump’s Favorite Issue Feb 15, 2024

Show notes

Earlier this week, Democrats executed a remarkable 8-point win in a special House election in suburban Long Island, a race that was all about immigration. Republicans ran millions of dollars in ads on the issue, yet Democrat Tom Suozzi prevailed, flipping the seat of disgraced Republican George Santos. What on earth really happened here? We talked to Mike Bocian, the chief Democratic pollster on this race, who offered a fascinating and detailed glimpse into how his party pulled it off.

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The Ugly Truth Behind Mike Johnson’s MAGA-fied Blockade on Ukraine Aid Feb 14, 2024

Show notes

On Tuesday, in a decisive 70 to 29 vote, the Senate passed a mammoth bill containing $60 billion for Ukraine’s self defense against Russian aggression, as well as $14 billion for Israel. Yet House Speaker Mike Johnson is vowing that the House won’t vote on the measure, in part because MAGA hard-liners are raging against it. We talked to Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado about what’s really driving the opposition, how Democrats can try to get around it with a “discharge petition,” and whether there’s a genuine pro-Putin faction in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Why Democratic Elites are “Shaken to their Core” about Trump and Biden Feb 13, 2024

Show notes

This week, the freakout among Democrats about President Biden reached its shrillest pitch yet, after a special counsel report exonerated Biden but included combustible claims about Biden’s mental capacities. While many Democrats redoubled calls for the party to entertain alternatives to nominating Biden, confusion and disagreement reigns among them about what precisely to take away from this moment. We talked to Brian Beutler, who regularly criticizes the Democratic Party’s approach to politics on his “Off Message” Substack, to sort through all the noise.

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Elon Musk’s Unhinged Pro-MAGA Tweets Expose Tech Oligarchy’s Dark Side Feb 12, 2024

Show notes

Elon Musk has unleashed numerous tweets lately boosting far right personalities and endorsing MAGA tropes holding that migration constitutes a deliberately engineered invasion. He even endorsed a version of “white genocide theory.” Along with his elevation of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin, it all amounts to a genuine ideology: Reactionary tech authoritarianism. We discussed this with Gil Duran, author of a New Republic piece called “The Tech Plutocrats Dreaming of a Right Wing San Francisco,” which offers a window into this ugly worldview.

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How Trump’s White Evangelical Army is Slowly Destroying Nikki Haley Feb 09, 2024

Show notes

With Nikki Haley set to make a last stand of sorts in the South Carolina primary later this month, there’s a hidden reason that Donald Trump has been so dominant throughout the GOP nomination process: White evangelicals. Their support for Trump has held through impeachments, scandals, revelations about sexual assault, multiple serious criminal prosecutions, and even an insurrection attempt. We talked to Sarah Posner, a scholar of the religious right, about Trump’s extraordinary hold on these voters—and why it’s changing the Republican Party in insidious, alarming ways.

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