Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast

A lot of issues on the table for Congress, from vaccine distribution to impeachment. We asked a first-term Congressman from the poorest district in the country about his agenda in the House. On Today's Show:U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY15), talks about his first weeks in Congress and his priorities. Plus the new Biden administration's priorities, Senate filibuster reform, anti-poverty and housing initiatives and impeachment.

This month in politics, we've had an attempted coup, an impeachment, and an inauguration. What's it like to step onto the national political stage for the first time amid all this? On Today's Show:U.S. Representative Mondaire Jones (D-NY17, Rockland County, part of Westchester), talks about his first weeks in Congress in the wake of the attack and amid the pandemic, as the Biden administration gets underway. Where do his progressive politics fit in with the Democratic-controlled Congress?

After reports that some of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol had ties to the military, we take a look at far-right ideologies, and why they might thrive in a military environment. On Today's Show:Leo Shane III, deputy editor for Military Times and former Stars and Stripes reporter, joins us to discuss this alarming trend.

What's the best response to white supremacy? Our guests today have found that one of the best ways to delegitimize racists is to laugh them off the national stage. On Today's Show:Comedians and co-hosts of the podcast "Politically Re-Active," Hari Kondabolu and W. Kamau Bell talk about the latest political headlines and the newest episodes of their podcast.

Biden has been in office for one day, and while he's already undone a lot of Trump's executive orders, the new administration basically has to build a pandemic plan from the bottom up. On Today's Show:Marc Fisher, senior editor at The Washington Post, talks about President Biden's calls for unity, and the many executive actions he took on his first day in office, including rolling back some of Trump's immigration restrictions, and building a pandemic response, basically from scratch. 

Today was President Trump's last full day in office. We look back on four tumultuous years of "unprecedented" moments and the tense political atmosphere we're left with. On Today's Show:Susan Glasser, staff writer for The New Yorker, CNN global affairs analyst and co-author, with Peter Baker, of The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III (Doubleday, 2020), reflects on the President's tenure, including the norms he blasted through, the major policy decisions, the two impeachments and the insurrection he incited. Plus, callers weigh in on how their political thinking has changed over the course of the Trump administration.

When insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, Rep. Watson Coleman caught COVID-19 after sheltering with a GOP colleague who refused to wear a mask. Talk about workplace hazards. On Today's Show:Bonnie Watson Coleman, U.S. Representative (D, NJ-12), discusses the fallout from last week's siege at the US Capitol, the unprecedented second impeachment of President Trump, her case of COVID, racial justice and Dr. Martin Luther King, and the federal executions the Trump administration is trying to push through before he leaves office.

With Democrats in control of both houses of Congress, and the White House, questions of how to balance public health and the economy will fall to them. On Today's Show: Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ 9), talks about this past week in Congress and looks ahead to the new term.

The House impeached Trump yesterday, which means that now, the ball is in the Senate's court. On Today's Show:Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York talks about what happens now that the House has impeached Trump, and what's first on the docket for the first Senate session under Biden's administration.

As the House debates and votes on the second impeachment of President Trump, we talked to a legal expert about whether he could be criminally charged, and what evidence would be at play. On Today's Show:Jessica Roth, Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law and former federal prosecutor answers legal questions related to impeachment proceedings against President Trump.