Passing Judgment

Jessica and Joe discuss the death of a young man named Tyre Nichols, who died three days after a violent incident at the hands of Memphis police on January 7th, 2023. After a traffic stop, a pair of "confrontations" occurred with video evidence of the incident showing that Nichols was savagely beaten by five or more officers of Memphis' SCORPION street crime unit. Nichols wound up in critical condition and he died in a hospital three days later. Seven police officers were relieved of duty in the aftermath of the incident, five of whom were fired. Nichols was unarmed. What charges do these officers face in the death of Tyre Nichols? How can video evidence affect the judicial process in the Nichols case? Will the death of Nichols change police tactics? And how does this keep happening?

Author, columnist, and analyst Anand Giridharadas, stops by Passing Judgment to discuss his latest book -- The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy.

What are the best ways to persuade people?

Anand and Jessica discuss all of these questions.

Journalist Philip Bump's day job is as a journalist and correspondent for The Washington Post, where he writes the weekly newsletter, How to Read This Chart - in which he analyses trends in economics, pop culture, politics, and more using the data behind the news. His new book, The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America, examines the ways that America's largest generation has had an effect on manifold aspects of our culture. Who are the Boomers, beyond just a birth year? How do they continue to determine major aspects of our society, and what happens as they age and are eventually replaced by their generational competitor, the equally large generation of Millennials? Bump joins Jessica to talk about his new book on a deep dive into all things Boomer.

The short answer -- It's complicated. Jessica explains why members of the House Select Committee on January 6th and others have claimed that Trump is legally barred from holding federal office again, and why it is not so straightforward.

The House Select Committee on January 6, 2021 just met for the last time. As expected, they referred former President Trump to the DOJ for four criminal charges.

Jessica breaks down those four charges, what they mean, and why this matters.

Democrats padded their midterm elections win tally this week with another victory in Georgia's runoff election to fill the state's second Senate seat. When neither incumbent Raphael Warnock nor challenger Herschel Walker garnered 50% of the vote in November, that set Georgia's voters on an accelerated runoff schedule. One of the strangest races in this year's senatorial elections got even stranger with former football star Walker making comments about werewolves and vampires and dodging additional accusations of allegedly encouraging former girlfriends to get abortions. Although Reverend Warnock won convincingly enough to have the race called mere hours after polls closed, Walker still managed to garner 48.6% of the votes cast. Jessica welcomes journalist Greg Bluestein from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution back to PJP to discuss the runoff, how Warnock won, why Walker lost, why Republicans still voted en masse for a candidate as flawed as Walker, and why Brian Kemp beat Stacy Abrams so convincingly in the Georgia governor's race.

It is another big week of legal news on two-fer Friday! First, Jessica explains why former President Trump is unlikely to keep the special master he asked for in the Mar-a-Lago investigation. Second, Jessica talks through a huge election law case involving the 'independent legislature doctrine' that will be argued before the Supreme Court next week and explains how it could affect your voting power.

The two-week trial against the founder of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and four others for seditious conspiracy in association with the January 6th insurrection just concluded. While we wait for the jury's verdict, Jessica breaks down what is at stake - both for Rhodes and the Justice Department.