Beyond Politics

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.

In the last 20 years Florida has gone from balanced swing state to incubator of far-right Trump clones, and it's about to produce the leading non-Trump Republican candidate for President, Ron DeSantis. So why did Florida go so...nuts? And is Ron DeSantis going to wilt under the national spotlight as so many analysts seem to think? Kartik Krishnaiyer is a writer who focuses on Florida politics at his must-read website The Florida Squeeze and he joins us to wade us through the craziness of the Florida swamp.

And should he do that with the new abortion medicine ruling? Also, what about the astonishing revelations about Clarence Thomas' corruption. What is on the line for Donald Trump in his NEW deposition this week? And what is the big takeaway from the expulsions of two Black Tennessee legislators?

The Wall Street Journal says there’s a five-alarm warning for Republicans happening right now. But is it really a five alarm-warning for all of us? We wanted to ask that question of one of the top experts on American government after an historic and ominous week in America. Norman Ornstein is one of the most famous and respected scholars of American politics and government, he often appears on C-SPAN, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NPR, and “PBS NewsHour,” He served as an election analyst for CBS News for thirty years, and his most recent book was “One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported."

In Part One, former prosecutor and Congressman Paul Hodes walked us through the charges against Donald Trump in New York, and why they amount to such a strong case. In today's Part Two, our panel takes a closer look at the political impact and debates whether Trump can still win the Republican nomination and what it will do with his political prospects in general.

In a word: YES. Here's why this is potentially so devastating...with a read of the indictment itself hot off the presses from former prosecutor Paul Hodes and political operatives Alicia Preston and Matt Robison.