Today’s guest is David Corn, the Washington Bureau Chief for Mother Jones, the progressive magazine and website. He is also and MSNBC contributor. He and Bill talk about the slate of cabinet nominees selected by President Trump, highlighting concerns about their lack of qualifications, experience, and potential conflicts of interest. David says Trump has assembled a "crank" cabinet of "cronies and oligarchs" who are unqualified and inexperienced for their positions, such as Peter Hegseth for Secretary of Defense and Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. Many of the nominees, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services, hold extreme ideological views that are at odds with the mission of the agencies they would lead. Key Trump loyalist Kash Patel, who has pushed conspiracy theories about the Russia investigation, could use his position as FBI Director to go after Trump's political enemies. David is concerned that the media and some corporations appear to be pre-emptively caving to Trump, settling lawsuits and making donations to curry favor rather than standing up to his attacks on the press and democratic institutions. He also criticizes Democrats for not doing enough to forcefully oppose these problematic nominations and Trump's broader authoritarian agenda.

David writes a great newsletter, “Our Land,” which you can get here: MotherJones.com/OurLandNewsletter.

Today’s Podcast is supported by The United Food and Commercial Workers Union.  More information at UFCW.com.

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