Left, Right & Center

Joe Biden announced his picks to lead transportation, climate, energy and environmental policy this week and it’s making progressives pretty happy. But what will they be able to get done in a closely divided Congress? Josh Barro talks with panelists K. Sabeel Rahman and Lanhee Chen about the choices and the hope for a big bipartisan infrastructure initiative. Do Republicans want to make good on that? Will Mitch McConnell be open to bringing legislation to the floor for a vote, regardless of the outcomes in the two Georgia senate runoffs? And how good is the COVID relief package that’s getting closer to the finish line this week?

Plus: the panel discusses initial details about the SolarWinds hack and cybersecurity concerns, and Julia Marcus of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Institute joins the panel to talk about pandemic shaming, which isn’t stopping people from gathering at the holidays and might be undermining virus containment.

Joe Biden’s cabinet is taking shape. The names are predictable, but the positions they’re attached to is raising some eyebrows on the Right and Left. Josh Barro discusses the Biden economic team and Janet Yellen as his choice for Treasury Secretary, and his choice of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services with new panelists Lanhee Chen and K. Sabeel Rahman.

Sabeel Rahman says that even if the cabinet head choices are a little confusing, you have to look under the hood to the No. 2’s, the assistant and deputy secretaries to get a better picture of the administration’s priorities and policy direction.

Why have congressional negotiations over more coronavirus relief stalled yet again? One major challenge is that lawmakers are seeing different crises within the bigger crisis. Some see a V-shaped recovery with household balance sheets faring pretty well, and that is leading some representatives to advocate for a smaller package. Others see a K-shaped recovery that has devastated certain industries and sectors of the population, which might point to the need for even more aid.

Aid to state and local governments is another sticking point in the negotiations, right as they have a major logistical task in front of them: distributing the coronavirus vaccine. Juliette Kayyem joins the panel to talk about those logistics and a challenging split-screen reality ahead. For the next few months, there will be a lot of optimism and good news about the vaccine and a return-to-normal, while thousands of Americans continue to die of COVID-19 everyday.

In a dark week for new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, a few high-profile politicians — mostly Democrats — have gotten a lot of attention for disobeying their own pandemic orders and restrictions. Of course, Republican leaders have been far from compliant (up to and including the White House), but is it especially egregious for Democratic leaders caught with their masks down? Are some Republicans unfairly getting a free pass because they have largely ignored the virus in the first place?

There was some better news this week: states are planning for imminent vaccine distribution. It’s a major task, and there are deep trust issues at play. In Washington, it looks like there’s bipartisan agreement on another coronavirus aid bill. The panel is hopeful that this is the beginning of more bipartisan action and a government that is more responsive to national crises.

Finally: more women than ever will take their seats in a new Congress and hold posts in the Biden-Harris administration. Is there reason for the Left to celebrate gains for Republican women representatives? The Biden transition team announced an all-woman communications team. How much does that choice matter? And how should that team restore the relationship between the White House and the press?

Keli Goff hosts this episode of Left, Right & Center with Margaret Hoover, host of Firing Line With Margaret Hoover, and Christine Emba, columnist at the Washington Post.

2020 has been a difficult year. Keli Goff hosts this special episode of Left, Right & Center about how art gets us through tough times, and how it can move us politically too. You’ll hear from four creators and thinkers on the persuasive power of the arts and what pieces they’ve turned to for inspiration and comfort. You might walk away with a new favorite song or play.

Stan Zimmerman wrote one of 2020’s favorite TV series: “The Golden Girls.” In April, Hulu viewers watched nearly 11 million hours of the show. Zimmerman talks about why the show was ahead of its time, and why so many shows are seeing a resurgence during a stressful year.

Musician Nile Rodgers might be the reason some of your favorite songs exist. Rodgers is one of the most successful songwriters and musicians ever. He co-founded Chic, and he has producing and songwriting credits with David Bowie, Diana Ross, Duran Duran, Madonna, Diana Ross, Sister Sledge, Lady Gaga, Daft Punk, and more. He and Goff jam out to “We Are Family” (which he co-wrote) and talk about how certain songs have moved the world.

Award-winning playwright Dominique Morisseau talks with Goff about the power of live performance (something we’re missing right now), why theater is still closed off to many people of color, the role of critics and the canon, “Hamilton,” and more.

And to wrap it up, Goff talks with Rashad Robinson, president of the civil rights organization Color of Change. Rashad talks about the impacts of celebrity on social movements, the power of icons, and why Hollywood and the arts matter to those who dream of and work toward a more equitable future.

One week later, not much has changed. President Trump has not conceded to Joe Biden and continues to fight the election result and national Republicans are largely not acknowledging Joe Biden as the president-elect. As this wears on, is there real damage to American democracy and citizens’ faith in elections? What is the president’s end game? And what about the end game for the Republican party?

Keli Goff hosts this episode of Left, Right & Center with Tim Carney, Christine Emba and it includes a special interview with Rashad Robinson, president of the civil rights organization Color of Change.

The election is over but President Trump doesn’t want to admit it. Does that matter? Why are Republicans going along with this? Is it because they really need him to play an important role after he does leave office? President-elect Joe Biden is moving forward with his transition, whether it’s officially recognized by the Trump administration or not. He named Ron Klain, who managed the Obama administration’s response to the Ebola crisis, to be his chief of staff.

This week brought excellent and terrible news on the coronavirus pandemic. Early results for Pfizer’s vaccine look very promising and it could be widely distributed as soon as the spring. But in the meantime, it’s looking like a dark winter. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are spiking. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but how do we get there from here?

Remember last week, when Josh Barro, Tim Carney, Christine Emba and special guest Gustavo Arellano made some predictions about the election outcome? With votes still being counted in the critical states — with Joe Biden leading the popular vote and the electoral college — the LRC panel revisits its predictions. Why wasn’t this a landslide for the Democrats? Why are we still watching for results on Friday? Why isn’t the Left happier about this outcome? What happened in Florida and South Texas? How did congressional Republicans improve so much over their performance in the 2018 midterms? What do we know about what motivated voters this cycle? How much did the pandemic matter in the end?

Steven Shepard, Politico’s chief polling analyst and senior campaign and elections editor, joins the panel to answer questions about the polls. How wrong were the polls and why were they wrong, and why was it so hard for polling to reflect support for Donald Trump?

*This episode was recorded Friday morning.

There are just days left in the 2020 presidential campaign and Joe Biden and Donald Trump are making their final pitches to voters around the country, but really mostly in Pennsylvania. The poll averages have Biden up five points in the state that should put him over the top, so can Democrats be confident? And what is President Trump’s last pitch for voters to give him four more years?

This is your last Left, Right & Center before the election! On today’s show, Josh Barro talks with Tim Carney, Christine Emba and special guest Gustavo Arellano the president’s falling support with white voters is making it hard for him to replicate his win from 2016, and how he’s making surprising inroads with some Hispanic voters.

Then: the panel makes predictions: who will win and by how much? What will happen with the senate? What will be the surprise of the night? And will one of the candidates have conceded by the time we meet back here for next week’s episode? We’ll see what happens.

It was the last debate of the campaign, and it was less crazy than the last one. NBC’s Kristen Welker kept it on lockdown with some help from a mute button. There was also a lot more policy discussion in this debate than the last. Josh Barro talks with Tim Carney and Christine Emba about President Trump and Joe Biden’s exchanges on schools and the coronavirus, immigration policy, a major hike to the minimum wage, race, criminal justice and corruption.

By the time the debate aired Thursday night, more than 50 million people have already voted. Jessica Huseman of ProPublica talks about whether the long lines and technical issues from the early days of voting have persisted, the litigation over voting practices in Texas and Pennsylvania, and what to expect and when to expect it on election night.

It was the week of dueling town halls. President Trump did not want to do a virtual debate but he’s trailing in the polls. Did his combative town hall with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie make the case that voters should change their minds and re-elect him? Christine Emba says the more people see of Trump being combative, it helps Biden. Or, as Tim Carney puts it, is Joe Biden rising in the polls because there’s been no effective critique of him from the right, the left, or the media?

Josh Barro says Republicans appear to be preparing to lose the election and their last move — instead of working on another coronavirus relief package that might actually help them in this election — is to solidify a conservative majority on the Supreme Court as a bulwark to an impending Democratic majority in government. Tim Carney says that’s not really the whole story: this has always been Mitch McConnell’s aim. What did we learn from Amy Coney Barrett’s hearing? And have both the right and left gone astray with how they articulate the stakes of abortion access and prohibition in the US?

Finally: Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers of the University of Texas at Austin has developed a model to gauge the risks of reopening schools for in-person instruction based on the spread of the coronavirus in communities. She says most localities are taking baby steps based on what they see in the data — could, and should, they be more bold?