Elliott Abrams narrowly missed out on the State Department's No. 2 job under President Trump, and it wasn't just because of his sharp criticism of Trump, the candidate. In his book, Realism and Democracy, he argues that the U.S. should stay involved ­in the Arab world, going against the Trump administration's "America First" doctrine. Abrams also sounds off on Trump's use of the presidential pardon.

In the Spiel, Mike weighs the New York Times' coverage of your run-of-the-mill American Nazi.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.