The DSR Network

With the president making even more outrageous remarks about his desire to impede voting by mail and the GOP mobilizing more efforts to spread disinformation, it is clear the weeks before the election will be contentious and American democracy is at risk. But who are you gonna call if the guys who are supposed to be protecting that democracy are the greatest threats to it? We discuss this and the week's other big developments--including why the Kamala Harris VP announcement was such a resounding success--with Washington Post columnist Max Boot, former Obama White House staffer Dr. Kavita Patel and co-editor of Just Security Ryan Goodman. Join us.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We summarize a busy and disturbing week of world events with a bit of free-association between Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law Center, Kori Schake of AEI and David Sanger of the New York Times. It takes us from Bill Barr suggesting Democrats were adherents of French enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the reality that Barr is much more a Hobbesian to other Hobbesians from Minsk to Hong Kong to a president who can't handle the truth and an intelligence community and White House staff that seems scared to give it to him. And then from there we go to why as bad as COVID has been we're grateful for the opportunity to wear gym clothes most of the time. You won't want to miss any of it. Tune in now.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special Agenda 2021 episode, we bring together three of America's top expert commentators on the COVID crisis to discuss where we are in the crisis, what may impact it between now and the election and then what the first 100 days health policy priorities for a Joe Biden Administration ought to be. Pulitzer Prize Winner Laurie Garrett, former Baltimore Health Commissioner and practicing ER physician Dr. Leana Wen and former senior Obama health advisor and practicing physician Dr. Kavita Patel join for a hard-hitting assessment of why things are so bad, why they may get worse and why a Biden Administration will have to be bold in its response to undoing the damage their predecessors have done. Don't miss this crucial discussion.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America has had disputed election results in the past. 2016 comes to mind. So does 2000. So does 1876. But, in all these cases and with all the instances of trying to fiddle with democracy that have marked our history, there has never been a case where the President of the United States and his entire executive branch seemed so committed to rigging the election in their favor or, short of that, to throwing the election results into doubt. Whether it is seeking foreign intervention (again) or threatening to postpone the vote, creating false doubts around mail in ballots or working with the postal service to ensure as many ballots arrive too late to be counted as possible, via disinformation or voter suppression, our democratic processes are likely to be under siege this November. The questions we must grapple with are what might that look like and what is to be done about it. We are joined by a group that has recently participated in scenario exercises on just this subject. Our own Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University was one of the organizers and DSR regular Ed Luce of the FT was a participant. In addition to them, guests include Bill Kristol, editor-at-large of The Bulwark and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson of the College of William & Mary. It's a vital discussion. Don't miss it.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Russia, they refer to Trump as being "theirs." In France, the president muses about how Europe should prepare for an America that is no longer an ally. In China, they know they are gaining with every setback the U.S. faces. But what if Trump is re-elected? What will it mean for the rule of law in America? Will Bill Barr be a kind of Prime Minister of a Trump Junta? Will it be the end for NATO and the international order? Might it mean the end for our domestic institutions? For the American experiment? The answer, in the eyes of our experts, is yes. Join Kori Schake of AEI, Ed Luce of the FT and Tom Nichols of the Naval War College and the Harvard Extension School for a discussion of the unthinkable tomorrow that could very well be right around the corner.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a remarkable 50 year career in government that has seen him as Secretary of Defense, Director of the CIA, White House Chief of Staff, Director of the Office of Management and Budget and in Congressional leadership, Leon Panetta has seen it all. But, he tells us in an exclusive Agenda 2021 interview, he has never seen anything like the situation we're in now. We discuss Trump's COVID leadership failure, his kowtowing to Putin, his ignoring the threat posed by Russian bounties on US troops, and his weakening of NATO. Then we turn to the vital national security priorities that a Biden Administration must address come January--and they go far beyond merely undoing the damage Trump has done. This is a masterclass in government and policy from one of the great master public servants of our time. Do not miss it.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to his trusty personal defense attorney Bill Barr and his defender in the Senate Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump has gotten away with betraying his country, enriching himself at the expense of the public, sidestepping national security rules, quashing his opponents and rewarding enemies of the US around the world. But, for now, we have to view that as water under the bridge. An election is coming up and everything Trump and Barr have said or done this week and over the past few weeks makes it clear that they will stop at nothing to win or to discredit a loss should it occur. They will suppress votes, make it harder to vote, send federal forces into Democratic cities, undermine the Post Office, issue reports targeting the Obama Administration, seek dirt from Ukraine on Joe Biden...and much, much more. We discuss where all this may lead with an amazing panel including former US Attorney Barb McQuade, counsel to House Impeachment Committee Norm Eisen, former US Attorney and creator and host of The Talking Feds podcast, Harry Litman and Ryan Goodman of NYU Law School and co-editor of "Just Security." Don't miss this vital discussion.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Commentator and political pro Zerlina Maxwell's book "The End of White Politics" could not be better timed. It comes in the summer of BLM and COVID when America's racial inequities and their costs could not be clearer. But it also comes as America begins a 25 year transition to becoming a society in which whites are in the minority for the first time in our history. The GOP is seeking to play on the fear those changes instill in white America. Will Democrats step up to seize the moment and become the party that produces the transformational changes America's emerging majority demands? We discuss with Maxwell, one of the smartest observers of American politics and a woman with a vision for the future of American politics that must not be ignored. Don't miss it. (And buy her excellent book.)Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No one has provided the insight into the pathologies that define Donald Trump and his presidency like Trump's niece, Mary L. Trump. Her book, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man" is a brilliantly written, harrowing tale of familial dysfunction and how it produced the most corrupt president in U.S. history. Join David Sanger of the New York Times and Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law Center as they explore with Mary how we got where we are, why the president is so easily manipulated by foreign despots and how much worse things can yet become. From denying the election outcome to a second term in which he so unfettered that as Mary warns, it may well lead to the end of the American experiment. Essential listening. Download this episode now.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Viruses occur in nature. So do epidemics. But where most of the world's leading economies managed the COVID crisis well enough to control it? America under Trump made error after error. What went wrong? Who's to blame other than Trump? Where will this all lead? We discuss with experts Dr. Kavita Patel, former top Obama health advisor, Jeremy Konyndyk, also a former advisor on epidemics to the Obama Administration, David Sanger of the New York Times and co-host Ryan Goodman of "Just Security" and NYU Law School. Don't miss this troubling analysis of how we got where we are and why it may get worse from here. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices