Inside-America

The US and UK accuse Russia of planning further military incursions into Ukraine — but has NATO provoked the current crisis?

Guests: Ivo Daalder, Former US Ambassador to NATO, Brig Gen (ret.) Peter B. Zwack, and Andrew Bacevich, President, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

One year into his presidency, is Joe Biden delivering on his electoral promises to the American people?

Guests:

Bernice King

CEO of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change

Jess O'Connell

Former CEO of the Democratic National Convention

A year after the insurrection on the US capitol in Washington, what is the state of American democracy?

Guests:

Laurence Tribe

Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University

Hogan Gidley

Former Deputy White House Press Secretary

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Author of "Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present"

The United States has had, over the last seventy-five years, the largest defense budget in the world. And it keeps growing. Last week, the US Senate passed the largest military-spending bill since World War Two.

Guests:

Marcy Winograd

Coordinator of Code Pink Congress

Lawrence Korb

Senior Fellow at The Center for American Progress

Gordon Adams

Fellow at The Quincy Institute

A political activist, professor, writer and philosopher. Part Two of our conversation with one of America’s foremost public intellectuals, Dr Cornel West.

Guests:

Cornel West

Professor Emeritus at Princeton University

A political activist, professor, writer and philosopher. We speak to one of America’s foremost public intellectuals, Dr Cornel West.

Guests:

Cornel West

Professor Emeritus at Princeton University

The trials of Kyle Rittenhouse and Ahmaud Arbery’s killers have reignited debates across the United States about racial disparities in America’s criminal justice system and whether it ought to be reformed, especially in respect of self-defense.

Guests:

Joe Feagin

Author of "The White Racial Frame" & Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University

David Bowen

Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (D)

Dontae Sharpe

Spent 26 years in prison for a wrongful conviction & Fellow with Forward Justice

Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell is predicting that his party will have “very good” results in next year’s midterm elections and could possibly win both the House and Senate.

The Republican confidence about the midterms was reflected in a recent survey released earlier this month which showed Republicans leading Democrats by 10 points —51% to 41%— in the 2022 generic congressional ballot. That is the largest margin in the 40-year history of the survey.

Other recent polls show that more Americans want to see the Republican Party take control of the House and Senate next year. And while a majority of registered American voters —71 percent— say the U.S. is "off on the wrong track"; only 22 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction.

But one central —and sensitive— issue that confronts and divides Republicans is Donald Trump.

The former president who has recently signaled a possible presidential run in 2024, has been holding rallies and raising large sums of money. He remains a strong voice, and at the core of the Grand Old Party’s internal politics.

His favorability rating among Republican voters stands at 86%. Just 10% hold an unfavorable view of the former President [poll]. A survey conducted just last month found that 47% of Republican voters would vote for Trump; no other candidate was above 13%. The same poll found that 67% of Republican registered voters want Trump to run again.

So given Trump’s continuing popularity with the base of the party, what should the strategy of the wider Republican Party be?

Guests:

Michael Steele

Former Republican National Committee Chairperson

Ron Nehring

Former California Republican Party Chairperson

It is one of the key provisions in President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, which is expected to be voted on this week in the House of Representatives, and something Democrats have been working on for several decades: how to regulate and lower the price of prescription medication in the United States.

According to a new report, prescription drugs in the US are, on average, 256% times higher overall than 32 other countries. US prices are 170% higher than they are in Mexico and 779% higher than they are in Turkey. For brand-name drugs, the gap is even higher: 344%.

Earlier this month, Congressional Democrats managed to revise and save a reform proposal on prescription drugs that was originally dropped from the Build Back Better Act, Biden’s wide-ranging social spending bill. Under the new plan, the US government would negotiate the cost of 10 drugs starting in 2025, and Pharmaceutical companies would be penalized for price hikes exceeding the inflation rates. The original plan to allow the government to negotiate the price of, first, 25, and then 50 prescription drugs, would have saved, according to the White House, $450 billion over ten years; under the agreed plan, those savings will amount to $250 billion.

Guests:

Raja Krishnamoorthi

US Congressman from Illinois (D)

Saul Anuzis

President of the 60 Plus Association

David Mitchell

President and Founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs

Brad Raffensberger, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, was the target of one of President Trump’s efforts to question the fairness and integrity of Georgia’s election count. In his new book, “Integrity Counts”, Brad Raffensperger, a lifelong Republican, speaks out against Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, and blames both parties for undermining trust in the democratic process.

Also on this show: With just under a year until the critical mid-term elections in November 2022 , Republicans and Democrats are focusing their attention on the crucial forthcoming congressional, gubernatorial, state and local elections. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of 100 seats in the Senate are up for grabs. As it stands today, the Senate is split 50/50 with Vice President Kamala Harris, the President of the US Senate, holding the deciding vote.

Guests:

Brad Raffensperger

Georgia Secretary of State & Author of "Integrity Counts"

Jim Moran

Former US Congressman from Virginia (D)

Sam Rasoul

Member of the Virginia House of Delegates (D)