Each week, we’re bringing you a new episode of one of our favorite podcasts, Deep State Radio. Deep State Radio, hosted by David Rothkopf, produces new episodes 2-3 times per week and brings together top experts, policymakers, and journalists from the national security, foreign policy, and political communities. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you become a member of the DSR Network, you’ll receive benefits such as ad-free listening via private feed, discounts to virtual events and Deep State Radio Swag, and access to the member-only Slack community. This is one of the most closely followed podcasts among the people influencing the most important decisions in Washington and worldwide today. You can learn more by visiting thedsrnetwork.com. Listeners to Words Matter will receive 25% off of the regular membership price. Use code wordsmatter at checkout.

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Last week, as the House Managers presented their Impeachment case -- a step-by-step, rigorous, fact-based prosecution that clearly drew the connection between Donald Trump’s words and the violence that ensued in that very chamber little more than a month earlier - we thought back to the stirring words of the Senate Chaplain, Rear Admiral (Ret.) Barry C. Black following that failed insurrection.

At 4:45am on the morning of January 7th - just hours after an angry mob had violently attacked the US Capitol - a joint session of Congress certified the free and fair election of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States.

As the proceeding drew to a close - Vice President Mike Pence, who just hours earlier was targeted for execution by the mob in that very building - recognized the Senate Chaplain to give the final invocation.

Let’s listen to the powerful prayer offered by the Senate Chaplain, Rear Admiral (Ret.) Barry C. Black.

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Each week, we’re bringing you a new episode of one of our favorite podcasts, Deep State Radio. Deep State Radio, hosted by David Rothkopf, produces new episodes 2-3 times per week and brings together top experts, policymakers, and journalists from the national security, foreign policy, and political communities. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you become a member of the DSR Network, you’ll receive benefits such as ad-free listening via private feed, discounts to virtual events and Deep State Radio Swag, and access to the member-only Slack community. This is one of the most closely followed podcasts among the people influencing the most important decisions in Washington and worldwide today. You can learn more by visiting thedsrnetwork.com. Listeners to Words Matter will receive 25% off of the regular membership price. Use code wordsmatter at checkout.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter.

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Barbara Jordan was a lawyer educator politician and a leader of the civil rights movement a Democrat and Houston native. Jordan was the first African-American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.

On July 25th 1974 Congresswoman Jordan delivered a televised opening statement as the House Judiciary Committee began consideration of articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. It is regarded by historians as one of the greatest speeches in all of American history. Congresswoman Jordan offered a passionate and powerful defense of the United States Constitution. A document, she noted, did not include people like her when it was written and completed in 1787.

Congresswoman Jordan also provided thoughtful and well documented explanations of our system of checks and balances which were designed to stop any politician from abusing their power. She stuck to the facts and the law and noted the seriousness and the solemn duty she and her fellow members were about to undertake. As she quoted extensively from the Founders, Congresswoman Jordan explained that those who had drafted and ratified the Constitution anticipated actions like Nixon's and had created the check of impeachment to guard against such executive overreach and abuse of office. So this week we give Congresswoman Barbara Jordan the Final Word.

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Each week, we’re bringing you a new episode of one of our favorite podcasts, Deep State Radio. Deep State Radio, hosted by David Rothkopf, produces new episodes 2-3 times per week and brings together top experts, policymakers, and journalists from the national security, foreign policy, and political communities. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you become a member of the DSR Network, you’ll receive benefits such as ad-free listening via private feed, discounts to virtual events and Deep State Radio Swag, and access to the member-only Slack community. This is one of the most closely followed podcasts among the people influencing the most important decisions in Washington and worldwide today. You can learn more by visiting thedsrnetwork.com. Listeners to Words Matter will receive 25% off of the regular membership price. Use code wordsmatter at checkout.

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As it looks more and more likely that the Republicans in the Senate will not hold former President Donald Trump accountable for his actions in inciting an insurrection against the United States, we thought it important to remind our listeners why it matters.

And we could think of no more articulate voice than the duly elected Speaker of the People's House.

Let's remember what happened.

The President of the United States encouraged his supporters to launch an attack on the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from certifying the free and fair election of Joe Biden. Six people were killed and dozens more permanently injured.

We have seen such things happen in other countries. But for those who think that America is exceptional, it was a rude awakening.

"It can't happen here," they said

It did.

On January 13th, as the House of Representatives began considering the Article of Impeachment now before the United States Senate, Speaker Nancy Pelosi reminded those gathered in the very chamber that had been violently attacked by an angry mob just one week earlier, that words matter, truth matters and accountability matters.

We could not agree more.

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Each week, we’re bringing you a new episode of one of our favorite podcasts, Deep State Radio. Deep State Radio, hosted by David Rothkopf, produces new episodes 2-3 times per week and brings together top experts, policymakers, and journalists from the national security, foreign policy, and political communities. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you become a member of the DSR Network, you’ll receive benefits such as ad-free listening via private feed, discounts to virtual events and Deep State Radio Swag, and access to the member-only Slack community. This is one of the most closely followed podcasts among the people influencing the most important decisions in Washington and worldwide today. You can learn more by visiting thedsrnetwork.com. Listeners to Words Matter will receive 25% off of the regular membership price. Use code wordsmatter at checkout.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter.

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Last week, after 4 long, divisive and tragic years, we witnessed the continuation of a 244-year-old American tradition.

It was not a peaceful transfer of power. As incoming White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain correctly noted, “there was nothing inevitable about this day.”

Nonetheless - last Wednesday we watched a quadrennial ceremony that Ronald Reagan once called both “commonplace and miraculous” - commonplace because it has happened every 4 years for the 244 - and miraculous because it has happened every 4 years for the last 244.

It was, as John F Kennedy said exactly 60 years earlier- “not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom.”

It is a ritual that in the past many of us had taken for granted. Not this year - if the last 4 years have taught us anything it is that words truly do have power and they have consequences.

Not since Abraham Lincoln, had a new president given an inaugural address to a more divided nation while under the real threat of armed conflict.

And Joe Biden rose to the occasion.

Let us never forget how close we came to last week NOT happening and as Lincoln said at Gettysburg – rededicate ourselves to a new birth of freedom – where truth, facts and power of words are given their proper place. #WordsMatter

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Each week, we’re bringing you a new episode of one of our favorite podcasts, Deep State Radio. Deep State Radio, hosted by David Rothkopf, produces new episodes 2-3 times per week and brings together top experts, policymakers, and journalists from the national security, foreign policy, and political communities. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you become a member of the DSR Network, you’ll receive benefits such as ad-free listening via private feed, discounts to virtual events and Deep State Radio Swag, and access to the member-only Slack community. This is one of the most closely followed podcasts among the people influencing the most important decisions in Washington and worldwide today. You can learn more by visiting thedsrnetwork.com. Listeners to Words Matter will receive 25% off of the regular membership price. Use code wordsmatter at checkout.

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Last week would have been the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 92nd birthday. Given all that has happened over the last year and the last few weeks, we wanted to highlight one of the most significant and consequential calls for racial equality and social justice in American History - “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

On Good Friday, April 12, 1963 - the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and fellow civil rights leaders were arrested in Birmingham, Alabama as they lead a now famous Campaign of non-violent direct action to protest racial segregation and oppression in that Southern City.

In the early 1960s, Birmingham was one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States - enforced by both law and culture. Black citizens faced legal and economic oppression, and violent retribution when they attempted to even draw attention to these conditions

The Birmingham Campaign would become a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. President Kennedy’s Address to the Nation on Civil Rights, the August 1963 March on Washington and many other events were a direct result of this campaign and Dr. King’s now famous letter. 

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