Thank you Theresa Smalec, John Stoehr, and many others for tuning into my live video with Ryan James Girdusky!

At the end of last week, I had a chance to do a Substack live with Ryan Girdusky, a conservative political junkie who has many balls in the air at any given time. Ryan’s book with Harlan Hill, They’re Not Listening: How the Elites Created the National Populist Revolution (Bombardier Books, 2020) was one of the first to explain to a mass audience how and why national populist movements, from MAGA to Orbán, swept North America and Europe. His Substack, the National Populist Newsletter, tracks this phenomenon from a conservative perspective, including important data and sources, whether you are a reader on the left or the right. If you are a podcast fan, try It’s A Numbers Game, where Ryan breaks down politics according to how he understands the data.

From left to right: Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R, GA-14), Tucker Carlson, President Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump on July 31, 2022, at the LIV golf Tournament, Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster,NJ. Photo credit: L.E.MORMILE/Shutterstock

Together, we talked about Jason Zengerle’s new book, Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind (Crooked Media Reads,2026). A biographical study of Carlson, who rose to national fame as a Fox News pundit in parallel to Donald Trump’s emergence as a presidential candidate, it’s an excellent survey of the interconnections between radio, television, internet publishing as cable TV pushed Americans to extremes—and conservative journalism profited from their relationships to Donald Trump.

Short takes:

* You know by now that Ayatollah Khamenei was killed by an Israeli missile on the first day of Donald Trump’s attack on Iran. He was a pivotal figure in the calcification of Iran’s brutal totalitarianism, policy analyst Karim Sadjadpour writes at the New York Times. For almost 40 years, “this seemingly unqualified cleric who rose to the top almost by chance would become one of the world’s longest-serving autocrats, confounding every American president since George H.W. Bush,” Sadjadpour writes. “He would at one point become the most powerful man in the Middle East, dominating five failing lands — Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Gaza. This ambition and hubris also eventually led to his downfall. He came to govern with the hypervigilance and brutality of a man driven by the idea that much of his own society and the world’s greatest superpower sought to unseat him — which, in the end, it did.” (February 28, 2026)

* Did Representative Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), on track to win the Democratic Senate primary in the Lone Star State, have Atlantic reporter Elaine Godfrey removed from her Lubbock rally last week? Crockett says no, Godfrey says yes. “After Crockett finished speaking, I attempted to join a closed-door press scrum with the congresswoman that was open to the other reporters at the rally,” Godfrey writes. “But I was turned away, so I walked over to interview people in the crowd. That’s when I heard my name from the same woman with the badge at the entrance—and hit ‘Record’ on my iPhone. She asked me to leave, and armed security guards escorted me from the property.” You can listen to the audio if you click the link: the Crockett campaign has yet to issue a full statement on what happened. (February 27, 2026)

* Mary Walsh, a producer and 46-year veteran at CBS News, has left the building. Saying that the newsroom has been “told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum,” she explained; “I don’t know how to do that.” Jeremy Barr at The Guardian broke the story, reporting that “On a staff-wide editorial call on Friday morning, Walsh received a glowing tribute from the CBS News president, Tom Cibrowski, as did another departing veteran producer, Kate Rydell, according to a staffer who participated. The two producers also received an emotional sendoff at the network’s Washington bureau on Thursday.” The CBS News division is now helmed by conservative Bari Weiss, and numerous unnamed sources claim to fear for their jobs if they do not bend the news to her viewpoint. (February 27, 2026)

We had a little trouble with the video upload on today’s podcast: it is inconsistent, so if you will find that annoying, please just listen!

We began our episode with a clip from this video, made by NBC journalist Savannah Guthrie, offering $1 million for the return of her mother. Eighty-four-year-old Nancy Guthrie was reported missing from her Tucson, Arizona home on February 1, 2026, and is believed to have been abducted by persons unknown. The FBI has also offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to her recovery.

Today’s theme music is Mirror by New Alkemi$t.

FBI Director Kash Patel at the head of the table as the task force assigned to Nancy Guthrie’s abduction meets on February 10, 2026. Photo credit: Federal Bureau of Investigation/Wikimedia Commons

In the News:

* With a hat tip to journalist Erin Reed, we have a report from Kansas that a bill passed over Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s veto has invalidated the drivers licenses of trans people across the state, and that licenses are to be surrendered by end of business today. Senate Bill 244 requires that all drivers’ licenses reflect “sex at birth:” there is no grace period for updating credentials, and anyone found driving without a license is subject to fines and imprisonment. The legislation also awards a bounty of $1,000 to anyone uncovering a transgender person using a bathroom that the state deems incorrect.

* Donald Trump gave the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. It was 108 minutes long, soup to nuts, and the longest SOTU ever, breaking the record held by...Donald Trump last year at 100 minutes. You can read a transcript here, and highlights here. Nearly all of the people honored that night were men, including the gold medal Olympic US Ice Hockey team that partied with Kash Patel and laughed when the President dissed the gold medal women’s team. The exceptions were National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, killed near the White House last year, a little girl who was rescued at the Texas summer camp that suffered a deadly flood last year, and a woman who benefitted from IVF.

* On Wednesday, Dr. Casey Means came before a Senate Committee charged with vetting her for the position of Surgeon General of the United States. Means is a wellness influencer and popular author who dropped out of her surgical residency, no longer has a license to practice medicine, and promotes the idea that individuals, not doctors, are the experts on their own bodies. Not surprisingly, she is an influential figure in the MAHA movement; when asked about vaccines, she refused to commit to any position. The United States does not currently have a surgeon general: that role has been temporarily filled by Stephanie Haridopolos, a Florida family practice physician who was appointed as the acting chief of staff and senior advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General. She is married to Representative Mike Haridopolos (R, FL-08). This may be the longest that post—created in 1879 and usually filled by a high-ranking physician in the military--has remained vacant.

* Primary voting is underway in Texas for the Senate seat currently held by Republican John Cornyn. On the Democratic side, the polls are all over the place: YouGov sees Representative Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) in firm command of the race; Emerson gives James Talarico (HD-52) a 9-point lead. The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram poll gives Crockett a comfortable 8-point lead. On the Republican side, John Cornyn is clearly struggling, and ahead by only 2 points in a single poll, with Attorney General Ken Paxton leading the pack in most polls. Cornyn warns that if he is not nominated, and if the primary goes to a runoff (as it is likely to, with three strong candidates, none of whom Trump has endorsed) Democrats will win the seat.

Your hosts:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

Neil J. Young is a historian of religion and politics, a journalist, and a former co-host of the Past Present podcast. His most recent book is Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Image credit: Federal Bureau of Investigation

News focus: the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie

* Last weekend, video of Kash Patel partying with the US Men’s gold medal ice hockey team in Milan once again pointed attention to his use of federal assets for personal travel and entertainment. But it also underlined what he was not doing: overseeing the search for Nancy Guthrie, now well into its fourth week.

* The New York Times has summarized all information that can be known to the public, and a timeline of the investigation here.

* It is unusual for Guthrie not to have been found by now. While murder only has a 61% clearance rate, kidnapping has upwards of a 90% clearance rate; for children, it is 92%, because children are usually snatched by relatives. Kidnappings targeting adults are rare; kidnapping elderly adults is even rarer.

* The New York Post reports that the investigation is at a dead end; the FBI is currently engaged in genetic genealogy, using DNA in a glove found away from the crime scene that seems to match a glove worn by the person who disabled Guthrie’s Ring camera.

* Tip lines are common in a case like this. They can produce useful leads—but they also draw kooks, and require manpower to run down plausible leads. The FBI eliminated 1500 positions in 2025; 18 of 53 Special Agents in Charge were forced out; around 1,000 FBI agents and personnel were reassigned to redacting the Epstein files; and nearly half of the agents across the country (or 23% of the remaining workforce) were reassigned to immigration enforcement.

* Then, the search is complicated by misinformation, volunteers, amateur detectives stoked on CSI episodes, and conspiracy theorists. Influencers and content creators are also a problem: one innocent family who had a degree of separation from Nancy Guthrie was targeted by an internet mob.

* Like many high-profile kidnappings, the Guthrie case has become a media spectacle.

* Are the kidnappers particularly deft—or is the turmoil at the FBI at fault? Donald Trump appointed podcaster Dan Bongino (who recently resigned) as Associate Director and Kash Patel as Director. Neither one had any senior law enforcement or investigative experience; Patel was said last December to be virtually unable to function at an agency paralyzed by chaos and lack of leadership.

What we want to go viral:

* Neil wants you to read Natalia Mehlman Petrzela’s take on the RFK Jr./Kid Rock workout video, “RFK Jr. and Kid Rock’s MAHA manosphere mashup,” MS NOW (February 22, 2026). There are so many questions! By “whole milk,” do they mean “raw milk”—you know, the kind with all kinds of wild bacteria? But most of all—where are the women on MAHA’s agenda, when Trump claimed he was going to forward the interests of women?

* Claire wants you to read Charles Duhigg, “What MAGA Can Teach Democrats About Organizing—and Infighting,” The New Yorker (January 26, 2026), about the difference between community based activism and top-down political organizations.

13-year-old Gerson Lopéz Garcia wrote: “We are all stuck in rooms that can hold 12 people they won’t let us go out to the playgrounds and park and it’s very boring to do every day God touch the hearts of those at ICE let us out We are not criminals I want to go home.” Image obtained by ProPublica

Short takes:

* One of the ways children process trauma is through art, but ICE isn’t having it. During room searches at Dilley Detention Center in Texas, “Guards have taken away crayons, colored pencils and drawing paper,” McKenzie Funk and Mica Rosenberg report at ProPublica. “Guards have taken artwork, too, they said — even one child’s drawing of Bratz fashion dolls.” Detainees are also losing access to Gmail and other computer services, making it harder to contact attorneys. “The detainees and others interviewed for this story said these measures increased after the Jan. 22 arrival of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old in a blue bunny hat, sparked protests and congressional visits. They said the clampdown intensified as children and parents at Dilley wrote letters to share with the public and reporters and relatives recorded video calls with the detainees, including those published by ProPublica this month. The children’s stories, many told in their own words, fueled an outcry over the scope of the Trump administration’s deportation campaign, which the president had promised would focus on criminals.” (February 26, 2026)

* Perhaps you have seen all the Republican influencers and politicians on X promoting the SAVE act, which would require a photo ID to vote in federal elections. “But upon closer inspection, something very strange is going on,” Mark Novicoff writes at the Atlantic. “For decades, the politics of voter-ID battles were based on a simple premise: The voters most likely to be screened out by such restrictions were probably Democrats. In 2024, however, that fact stopped being true.” Well, bring it on! “Republicans’ current voter-ID push seems almost custom-designed to disenfranchise their own voters.” (February 26, 2026)

* “Trump believes he is popular, strong and successful,” New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote after Tuesday’s State of the Union address. “The truth says otherwise. Trump is as unpopular as he’s ever been.” Bouie has a lot to say about Trump’s catalogue of missteps and policy pratfalls, but here’s the truth: “What Trump has, a little more than one year into his second term, is a failed presidency: one that has crashed on the rocks of his ambition to supplant constitutional government with that of his own will. Yes, Trump has done a tremendous amount of damage. And yes, he has degraded American democracy to the point where it is on life support. But he’s failed to make himself a dictator, and the public is poised to punish his party for his transgressions.” (February 25, 2026)

Political Junkie is a reader-supported publication. Don’t miss new drops from Claire and Neil. You can subscribe for free or support us for only $5 a month. You can also become an annual supporter for $50/year and choose Neil’s Coming Out Republican or Claire’s Political Junkies: as a welcome bonus.

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Last week, the federal Health and Human Services Administration website posted a video of HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. working out with Trump-aligned musician Kid Rock. Titled “Rock Out Work Out,” it featured head-banging music and two retirement-age men goofing around, getting in hot tubs, saunas and cold plunges, playing paddle ball, eating healthy food (we think—they were promoting raw milk which can also be really unhealthy), and using exercise machines in a home gym.

RFK Jr. was wearing jeans, his standard workout gear, and Kid Rock a pair of baggy black shorts. Both remove their shirts early in the video: the Secretary reveals his trademark testosterone-pumped torso, while the musician—well, looking like he has been living on Pop Tarts and Kool-Aid in one of ICE Barbie’s detention centers.

But before I lean into the body-shaming, let me just say this: there was virtually nothing in the video that would cause an average American to be inspired to re-up at the Y or join the local food co-op. In fact there was no actionable information at all, other than: men, grab a piece of exercise equipment and go!

Fortunately, historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, the author of Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023) jumped into the fray almost right away from her perch at MS NOW.

“This stunt is more than just a disgusting distraction; it signals the dark reality of what MAHA — Make America Healthy Again — now unapologetically embraces, rather than what it might have been,” Petrzela writes. “Rather than promising a wholesome, if highly idealized, world in which individual fitness and diet choices offer all Americans who are willing to work for it a path to civic and moral salvation, this video makes clear that to Kid Rock, RFK Jr. and the administration behind them, fitness and food are primarily props for alpha-male preening, entirely disconnected from any policy that will actually make more Americans healthier and happier, in their bodies or their lives.”

We used the opportunity this strange video offered to dig a little deeper: what should an administration that really cares about Americans becoming healthier be doing? How and why has RFK Jr. misfired so badly on the common sense advice and policymaking that past presidents, Republican and Democratic, have promoted with grace and skill?

Short takes:

* Trump administration Border flak Greg Bovino deliberately dressed like a Nazi storm trooper in Minneapolis, but he’s not the only one: federal social media seems to be positively dripping with messaging and inside jokes that reference the Third Reich. “So how did a major American political party become a safe space for such people?” Tom Nichols asks at The Atlantic. Looking back as far as the Reagan administration, Nichols argues that the tipping point was the Tea Party movement that arose in 2010, political organizing that advocated for a big tent on the right. Since then, the GOP “has laid out a welcome mat for an ideology that Americans once had to defeat in combat, at the cost of millions of lives. If wannabe Nazis now confidently roam the halls of power—and the streets of American cities—it is because Republican leaders have made them feel at home.” (February 23, 2026)

* While RFK Jr. dithers in the gym and looks for new fringe theories to promote, actual scientists released a study that points in one direction: teenagers should not smoke pot. “As marijuana use among teens has grown in the past decade, researchers have been trying to better understand the health risks of the drug,” Rhitu Chatterjee writes at NPR. “Now, a new longitudinal study finds that cannabis use among adolescents increases risks of being diagnosed with bipolar and psychotic disorders, as well as anxiety and depression, years later.” The numbers go down dramatically as the age of first use goes up. “Teens who reported using cannabis had twice the risk of developing two serious mental illnesses: bipolar, which manifests as alternating episodes of depression and mania, and psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia which involve a break with reality.” (February 21, 2026)

* If you are conservative administration and you have lost the National Review—well, you have lost. Listing the string of disasters that have followed from Trump administration’s military attack on Minneapolis, NR writer Andrew McCarthy points out that “as any experienced law officer knows, a hostile environment calls for a soft touch. It must stress cultivation of relationships with local police; more numerous than the feds, they are also more sympathetic to immigration enforcement than are Democratic pols. Also required: understanding that what can be accomplished is severely limited by the assets available.” Instead, “Instead, Trump entrusted the Minneapolis mission to [Kristi] Noem, a sycophantic former South Dakota governor with presidential ambitions, whom he appointed to run the huge DHS bureaucracy despite her dearth of relevant experience.” (February 19, 2026)

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Some of you may have read last week’s post about how I ended up in the Epstein Files—and what I learned about the sex offenders world when I took a deeper dive into why I was there. Berlin-based journalist Luke Johnson did the same thing, and he invited me into a Substack Live to talk about what we found when we peeked into this strange and ugly world.

Our topics? Why universities held a special interest for him, and vice versa; how Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were similarly marginal in the world of elite academic credentials; and what keeps pushing Epstein back into the news.

Thanks for reading Political Junkie! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Everybody is talking about the Quad God, Ilia Malinen. But the figure skating performance I found most inspiring yesterday was the top pair, Ellie Kim and Danny O’Shea. This is their first Olympics: Ellie is 21, Danny is 35 (which is pushing the edge of the envelope for a figure skater) and they had to come in at least fourth for the United States to be positioned for the team gold medal. They absolutely nailed it, turning in the best performance of their lives, and their joy is inspiring.

In all its wisdom, YouTube has disabled playback on other platforms, but you can watch it here.

Political Junkie is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The show begins with a clip from right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson’s November interview with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem after the NFL announced that Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny would perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. Our theme this week is Ride It Like You Mean It by Kristian Leo.

Image credit: AtlasStudio/Shutterstock

In the News:

* “Melania” opened last weekend to mostly terrible reviews but a decent box office of $7 million, although in Australia 33 theaters reported sales of just over $32,000. But some are questioning how those tickets were sold. One report points to bulk sales and private screenings; other reports show blocks of seats supposedly sold that were not then filled with patrons. Moviegoers who did show up were overwhelmingly white, female and over 55.

* Over the weekend, ProPublica reported that the two men who murdered Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse and Minneapolis ICE observer, are Border Patrol Agent Jesus “Jesse” Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez. Both men are veteran agents normally based in South Texas. Ochoa is a gun enthusiast who owns over 25 weapons, and Gutierrez as a specialist in rapid-response high risk operations.

* On Monday, following the raid on the Fulton County, Georgia, elections office, President Donald Trump told reporters that Republicans should move to “nationalize” elections in at least 15 states. The presser is part of Trump’s attempt to revive 2020 election conspiracy theories prior to this year’s midterms.

* It looks like former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will testify before Representative Jim Comer’s (R, KY-01) Oversight Committee after all: nine Democrats crossed the aisle to hold them in contempt, and the motion was on its way to the full House when the Clinton’s reversed their decision. Comer halted all investigations into Trump that were underway in the last Congress, and has completely dedicated himself to pursuing prominent Democrats.

Your hosts:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

Neil J. Young is a historian of religion and politics, a journalist, and a former co-host of the Past Present podcast. His most recent book is Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

You can get all audio content by subscribing for free on Apple iTunes, YouTube, or Spotify.

News focus: The Super Bowl

* The Super Bowl shows the trajectory of football as a popular sport. The first one was played on January 15, 1967: 61,000 people attended a game between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs, at the Los Angeles Coliseum which the Packers won 35-10.It was not sold out, but it was broadcast on two networks, CBS and NBC, with an audience of 50 million. It also marks the maturity of the AFL, which had been founded in 1960; the two leagues had just merged in 1966.

* Traditions have grown up around the event: the Super Bowl party, wagering on the game, the halftime show, and the broadcast as a showcase for advertising agencies to display their talents and top clients. This Sunday, we will see an advertisement for Trump Accounts.

* Another tradition, since the George W. Bush presidency, is the Super Bowl Sunday Presidential interview: it is so entrenched that Joe Biden’s decision not to do it in 2023 and 2024 was controversial. Donald Trump will do the interview although he will not attend the game as he did last year.

* It’s the biggest television audience of the year, and predominantly North American: last year a record 127.7 million viewers tuned in. Here are the demographics of that audience.

* It’s also a big day for domestic violence, and the most dangerous day of the year to be at home with an abusive partner.

* At least one study by Brianna McNary, a former sociology major at Ohio State and now a sports reporter and news producer in Nashville, argues that because of the sport’s hyper-masculinity, the NFL is also more homophobic than any other men’s professional league. There have been only 16 players who have come out as gay or bi in NFL history, and all but one, Carl Nassib, were retired at the time. The NHL has none, there have been two in the NBA and three in MLB.

* Football began as a segregated sport. Approximately 70% of players are Black, but only 20% of the broadcasters and 30% of the coaches are Black. Only three head coaches are Black. This year, out of 10 open head coaching jobs, only one new hire was not White: Robert Saleh, of the Tennessee Titans, who is of Lebanese descent.

* So, let’s talk about Bad Bunny: born Benito Ocasio, he just won three Grammys (including album of the year for DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, the first time a Spanish-language album to win that award, will perform at halftime. It’s the first time that concert will be entirely in Spanish; the show also calls attention to how few Puerto Rican players there are in the NFL.

* This is really getting under MAGA’s skin: there has been a lot of chatter about Bad Bunny not really being “American,” revealing a great deal about what it means to “belong” in Donald Trump’s America.

* But it isn’t just that Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican, or opposes the form immigration enforcement has taken in the past year, it’s that football is a hyoer-masculine sport and —although he identifies as a straight man—Bad Bunny is an LGBTQ+ ally and presents as gender-fluid.

* Yet, almost 60% of NFL players approve of the league choosing Bad Bunny: two Seahawks players, QB Sam Darnold and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, have stated openly that they are fans.

* Nevertheless, Turning Point USA has created counter-programming: a so-called “All American” halftime show headlined by Kid Rock will stream on YouTube and a handful of right-wing platforms.

* The controversy is perhaps unsurprising, as some observe that the Super Bowl is a snapshot of the nation at a particular moment.

What we want to go viral:

* A blackmailer threatens to release confidences intended to remain in the treatment room unless the ransom is paid. Neil is binging “Ransom Man,” a 2026 BBC podcast about a hack at a Finnish virtual psychotherapy network that combines a real-life thriller with the question: is Finlad really the happiest nation in the world?

* What’s in that spandex? Claire wants you to read “Are ski jumpers enhancing their penises to fly further?” Philip Buckingham’s reporting about the skin-tight aerodynamic were that allow people to fly like birds at the Olympics. (The Athletic, February 6, 2026)

Short takes:

* As The Washington Post implodes, its multi-billionaire owner Jeff Bezos has eliminated parts of the paper he believes perform poorly: one section that has bitten the dust is the Post’s legendary Book World. “But quality had nothing to do with the decision to cut book reviews, just as it had nothing to do with cuts in the paper’s sports and international coverage,” Adam Kirsch writes at The Atlantic. “Rather, the Post was making the same business decision that most other publications have made. People don’t want to read book reviews—at least, not enough people to make publishing them worthwhile. It’s a vicious circle. As people feel less of a need to keep up with new books, they stop reading reviews; publications respond by cutting books coverage, so readers don’t hear about new books; as a result, they buy fewer books, which makes publications think they’re not worth covering.” (February 6, 2026)

* Analysts are starting to unpack the 14-point trouncing Republican Leigh Wambsganss took from Taylor Rehmet in Texas’s SD-09, a district the Democrats have not won since 1990. According to Salon’s Amanda Marcotte, Wambsganss’s Moms for Liberty censorship agenda is a big part of why she lost. “Wambsganss, though, is a type of woman who is instantly recognizable to anyone who has lived in the Bible Belt,” Marcotte writes: “the crazy church lady who wants total control over the lives of her neighbors, dictating what they read, who they socialize with, how they spend their free time and who they have sex with. While most Republicans in the MAGA era either support or at least tolerate giving miserable theocrats that much power, there are still some holdouts who believe in personal liberty and separation of church and state.” (February 6, 2026)

* John McWhorter leads out Black History Month with a complex portrait of Lillian and Amanda Randolph, talented and highly-trained sisters who performed in film, radio, and television during decades when few parts for Black women did not put them in a maid’s uniform. In other words, most of the 20th century. “The early stages of both sisters’ careers — especially Amanda’s — are lost to us because of how expensive and cumbersome cameras and recording equipment were,” McWhorter writes in The New York Times. “In part as a result of that scarcity, we see the Randolph sisters’ work as occurring in a distant and perhaps peculiar past. But they didn’t feel it that way, and when we can get a peek at what they were doing, it can be fascinating to imagine ourselves in the lives they led.” (February 5, 2026)

Political Junkie is a reader-supported publication. Don’t miss new drops from Claire and Neil. You can subscribe for free or support us for only $5 a month. You can also become an annual supporter for $50/year and choose Neil’s Coming Out Republican or Claire’s Political Junkies: as a welcome bonus.

Our show begins with Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, as he disputes the Trump administration’s account of Renée Good and Alex Petti’s murders in the Twin Cities and promises a thorough investigation.

ICE and Border Patrol agents on Nicollet Avenue following the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, MN on January 24, 2026. Photo credit: Chad Davis/Wikimedia Commons

In the news:

* There’s nothing that says investor jitters like the skyrocketing cost of gold—except perhaps the spike in silver prices. The New York Times reported this week that rising precious metal prices are partly due to Trump’s tariff policies and the uncertain effects of Europe’s pivot away from trade with the United States and towards India. But they are also an effect of China choking off silver exports: because of its capacity to conduct electricity, the metal is important to a number of technologies, and crucial to AI infrastructure.

* On Wednesday, FBI agents searched an Atlanta election office and seized ballots at the center of Donald Trump’s false claim that he won Fulton County, Georgia—and the presidential election—in 2020. Trump is supported by allies on Georgia’s State Election Board, and claims to be acting at their request. Coincidentally, the FBI Special Agent in Charge in Atlanta was relieved of his duties just last week.

* The war on trans people continues. This week, Utah moved to enacting a complete ban on gender-affirming care for minors, and the Trump administration has found San Jose State in violation of Title IX for allowing a trans woman to play on the women’s volleyball team between 2022 and 2024.

* Amazon’s Melania documentary debuts in theaters across the nation on Friday, but all is not well. Most of the New York crew “requested that their names not be added to the film’s credits,” Eboni Boykin-Patterson reports at The Daily Beast. Director Brett Ratner, who has not made a film since he was accused of sexual assault in 2017, did it as a rush job, and was described by crew members as personally unclean, rude and generally a d*ck. Melania Trump, while boring, was nice, and revealed nothing about herself. Surprise. In other news: South Africa has canceled the film’s release and did not specify a reason; and Trump issued a proclamation on Truth Social that Melania is the greatest film ever made and will be required viewing in all history classes.

Your hosts:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

Neil J. Young is a historian of religion and politics, a journalist, and a former co-host of the Past Present podcast. His most recent book is Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Our news focus: The Trump administration’s Second Amendment problem

* Jamelle Bouie speculated that Renée Good and Alex Pretti’s murders could be the Trump administration’s Gettysburg moment.

* Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed that Alex Pretti was shot after having “brandished” a gun at Border Patrol agents. There is consensus that is not true. Here is one analysis by Bellingcat, and another by the New York Times.

* Here’s a full timeline of what led up to Pretti’s murder, and a historical account of the 100 year-old Border Patrol, and its routinely violent enforcement tactics. Since 2010, 364 people have been killed by Border Patrol officers, some across the border with Mexico.

* The two agents who murdered Pretti have been placed on administrative leave.

* Donald Trump has uncharacteristically distanced himself from the Pretti coverup, although ss of Wednesday, he continued to insist that Pretti should not have been carrying a weapon. Trump has relieved Greg Bovino of his role and sent Tom Homan, the so-called White House Border Czar to the Twin Cities to negotiate with local authorities. Homan is tasked with extracting concessions from Governor Tim Walz, including turning over Minnesota voter data to the Trump administration. Bovino has also lost access to his social media, and his future as a government employee is unclear.

* Some Republicans have joined Democrats in criticizing Petti’s murder, and warned Trump that the extreme violence of immigration enforcement calls for an investigation. Democrats have responded to the outrages in the Twin Cities by threatening to shut down the government if Congress does not act to constrain ICE and the Border Patrol.

* Vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse has also re-emerged as a lightning rod; the absent player? The Department of Justice.

* Gun rights groups have split with the Trump administration over assertions that Pretti, a licensed gun owner, broke the law by bringing a gun and an extra magazine to last weekend’s demonstration. One of these organizations is the NRA, which did not defend cafeteria worker Philando Castile when he was shot by a police officer in the suburbs of St. Paul in 2016.

* Here is a summary of Minnesota’s gun laws.

* We also have statistics from Pew Research on gun ownership in the United States: about 40% of Americans live in a household with a gun, and 32% personally own one. Around 45% of Republicans and GOP leaning Republicans personally own a gun, as opposed to 20% of Democrats and Democratic Party-leaners. About 38% of White Americans own one and 24% of Black Americans; 40% of men, 25% of women; and 72% say they own a gun for personal protection. Only 20% of adults who live in cities own a gun, as opposed to 47% who live in rural areas and 30% in the suburbs. Whereas 71% of gun owners say they like having one in the home, only 30% of people who live with gun owners do; furthermore 40% of Democrats who do not own a gun can see themselves owning one in the future, compared to 52% of Republicans.

* Another report says that as many as 30% of Democrats own guns, in part because of the volatile political climate.

* Claire mentioned Bruce Springsteen’s new protest song, “The Streets of Minneapolis.”

What we want to go viral:

* Neil wants you to read Devon Provo’s “L.A. is ripping up 1,600 acres of pavement — but is it too little, too late?” (Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2026), about the Southern California city planners who hope to mitigate climate change by replacing pavement with plants and reorienting citizens to investing in living infrastructure.

* Claire is immersed in Katie Benner and Erica L. Green’s new book about TM Landry College Prep in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, Miracle Children: Race, Education, and a True Story of False Promises (Metropolitan Books, 2026), and the story it tells about racism in education.

Short takes:

* FBI Director “Keystone” Kash Patel announced the capture of former Olympic snowboarder-turned-alleged-cocaine-trafficker Ryan Wedding in Mexico by a special Hostage Rescue team on social media. Only problem? It was supposed to be a secret. “Mexican law prohibits foreign law enforcement officers from being physically present in operations on Mexican soil, let alone take part in raids and arrests,” Hafiz Rashid explains at The New Republic. “Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum scrambled to perform damage control, as foreign intervention in Mexico is politically toxic. She said that there was no U.S. involvement in the operation and that U.S. agents in Mexico are limited by law.” (January 29, 2026)

* Remember how MAGA influencers freaked out about being “shadow banned” on social media? Well, unsurprisingly, according to Kaitlyn Tiffany at The Atlantic, TikTok might now be shilling for the Trump administration. “Some people who attempted to upload content about anti-ICE protests or the killing of Alex Pretti alleged that the platform was intentionally blocking them from doing so,” Tiffany writes. “Others were able to get their videos uploaded, but alleged that TikTok was not distributing them. Still others noticed that they were unable to send the word Epstein in a direct message, a quirk so bizarre that it incited California Governor Gavin Newsom to repost a screenshot shared by an anonymous X account using the handle @intelligentpawg.” TikTok denies that any of this was intentional, and blames “the issues on a power outage at one of its data centers, which it said caused a “cascading” systems failure affecting all types of content (not just posts about Minnesota).” (January 28, 2026)

* How’s this for an intriguing data set? As the numbers of women forced to bring pregnancies to term grows, the total number of abortions is also rising. “The increase in abortion numbers has been due not only to the herculean efforts of the provider community but also to the money that poured into clinics and support organizations immediately after Dobbs by Americans incensed by the loss of legal abortion,” David S. Cohen and Carol Joffe write at Ms. “‘Rage spending,’ as these donations became known, brought in millions of dollars needed for the huge costs associated with transporting thousands of people across state lines and paying for the abortion itself along with other costs.” But it is also true that forcing women to travel long distances simply makes the procedure less available to poor and working women. (January 21, 2026)

Don’t miss new drops from Claire and Neil. You can subscribe for free or support us for only $5 a month. You can also become an annual supporter for $50/year and choose Neil’s Coming Out Republican or Claire’s Political Junkies: as a welcome bonus.

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In this emergency episode of the Political Junkie podcast, I am joined by Michael Kazin, a prize-winning scholar and Professor of History at Georgetown University. Michael is an expert in American social movements and politics; his most recent book is What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022), but he has also written extensively about the American peace movement, the Progressive and populist movements, and the New Left. You can see all of his work here.

The episode begins with a clip from a press conference on Sunday, January 25, 2026, in which Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar demands that ICE leave the state.

A protest on January 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, immediately following the murder of Renee Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross. Photo credit: Alejandro Diaz Manrique/Shutterstock

Your host:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

The topics Michael and I touched on in today’s podcast included:

* The murders of two Twin Cities residents: Alex Pretti, a 38 year-old White man, and an ICU nurse, and Renee Good, a 37 year-old White woman and mother of three. Good was shot in the face, and then twice more, as she attempted to leave the scene of a protest, while Pretti was shot in the back multiple times as he was being held on the ground by officers.

* The roots of the Minnesota’s resistance in its long progressive past, and the networks established during the George Floyd protests in 2020. The organizations involved in the anti-ICE protests were clearly prepared--and some of the violence we are seeing from federal officers may be evidence that the activists are effective.

* A recent poll shows that almost 20% of registered Republicans now want to abolish ICE: will this brutal crackdown will be a decisive factor in moving the electorate away from MAGA policies?

* We mention the “credibility gap,” an old phrase from the Vietnam War years, a phrase that speaks to the out of control falsehoods coming out of Washington and the MAGA media. The Trump administration has responded to the crisis by flipping the narrative--claiming that ICE officers are really the victims, stating that they will not investigate the officers involved--and their media allies are pushing the same story. Is this fundamentally different from other Trump lies on some level, or should we expect many Americans to accept this as the “new normal?”

* What Democrats should do right now, and what should those of us who are bracing for ICE in our own communities be doing.

You can also get all audio content by subscribing for free on Apple iTunes, YouTube, or Spotify.

Short takes:

* Meredith Lee Hill reports at POLITICO that the White House may be pivoting: ICE chief Tom Homan is headed to the Twin Cities in what may be a move to displace the Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino. “A growing number of Hill Republicans have been pushing publicly and privately for a lowering of the temperature, including from the federal government, after DHS agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday,” Hill writes. “GOP lawmakers largely view Homan as a more practical enforcer of Trump’s mass deportation plans as some grow increasingly wary of how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino are handling the campaign, according to six GOP lawmakers granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations.” (January 26, 2026)

* “It’s not clear why the Trump regime chose to invade Minneapolis,” Jonathan V. Last writes at The Bulwark, speculating that the Trump administration could be having its Gettysburg moment. “But when the regime’s forces occupied the city they were surprised by the resistance they encountered. Not from Democratic politicians, or institutions, or the legal establishment. From ordinary people. The people of Minneapolis organized to protect their neighbors and provide oversight of the regime’s forces that the local government either could not, or would not, perform.” (January 26, 2026)

* “Again and again, I heard people say they were not protesters but protectors—of their communities, of their values, of the Constitution,” Robert F. Worth writes in The Atlantic about what he observed in the Twin Cities. “As in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Minneapolis has seen a layered civic uprising where a vanguard of protesters has gained strength as many others who don’t share progressive convictions joined in feeling, if not always in person. I heard the same tones of outrage from parents, ministers, school teachers, and elderly residents of an affluent suburb. Some of the quarrels that divided Minneapolis city leaders only a few weeks ago, over policing or Gaza or the budget, have faded as people have come together to oppose ICE.” (January 25, 2026)

Items left at the site where Alex Pretti was murdered on Sunday. Photo credit: Darth Stabro/Wikimedia Commons

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We begin with this clip: Bari Weiss, newly named chief of the CBS News Division and founder of The Free Press Substack, reintroduces herself and the network prior to a Town Hall with Turning Point USA’s Erika Kirk on December 14, 2025. Today’s theme music is Never Say Never, by Afternoonz.

In the news:

* The Department of Justice made it official on Sunday: despite the fact that a federal agent on the ground recommended a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, it is Good herself who is being investigated for allegedly assaulting a federal officer. Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor James Frey, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and three other elected officials are also being investigated for interfering with ICE’s operation. In addition, five federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned after being tasked with an investigation of Good’s partner; so have several DOJ prosecutors in Washington who have been excluded from the investigation. Because the FBI has taken over the case, and the evidence, the state of Minnesota has also been barred from investigating Good’s death. Radley Balko writes about how many conventions are the Trump administration is violating.

* At Davos, President Donald Trump continued to insist on the United States taking possession of Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump appears to have ruled out military action, threatened tariffs instead, and now claims to have a deal. This roller-coaster ride sparked a sell-off of Treasury bonds by European investors. Although some Republicans have gotten on board with the United States annexing the territory, a bipartisan Congressional delegation traveled to Greenland to reassure its government, and meet with EU President Ursula von der Leyen.

* Representative James Comer (R, TN-01), chair of the House Oversight Committee, pushed for a vote to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in contempt of Congress and got one. Democrats on the committee crossed the aisle to rebuke the former first couple for refusing to appear to testify in the Epstein investigation. The Clintons argue that the subpoenas are invalid, even as their attorneys try to negotiate backstage for an off-ramp to the legal standoff.

Your hosts:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

Neil J. Young is a historian of religion and politics, a journalist, and a former co-host of the Past Present podcast. His most recent book is Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Image credit: OpturaDesign/Shutterstock

Don’t miss new drops from Claire and Neil. You can subscribe for free or support us for only $5 a month. You can also become an annual supporter for $50/year and choose Neil’s Coming Out Republican or Claire’s Political Junkies: as a welcome bonus.

You can also get all audio content by subscribing for free on Apple iTunes, YouTube, or Spotify.

News Focus: Bari Weiss—Free Speech Activist? Journalist? Media Disruptor?

* We start with a profile of Bari Weiss that sketches her biography, education, and professional accomplishments.

* A staunch Zionist, Weiss graduated from Columbia University in 2007, having founded The Current, a campus magazine of politics and culture focused on Jewish affairs. She also waged a highly publicized campaign against Middle Pastern Studies Professor Joseph Massad, which spurred the creation of a special committee, Columbians for Academic Freedom, to examine the state of free speech on campus.

* Weiss cut her teeth as a journalist at Haaretz, The Forward, and Tablet. From 2013-2017, she worked for Bret Stephens at The Wall Street Journal, with whom she was also having an affair. She followed him to the New York Times: it was part of an effort to diversify the editorial page following the departure of James Bennet, a resignation forced by staff outrage over the publication of an opinion piece by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR).

* When Weiss resigned from the New York Times editorial page in July 2020, she sent publisher A.G. Sulzberger a stinging letter of resignation, saying that the atmosphere at the paper was illiberal, that the editorial policy was determined by what left media critics on Twitter found acceptable, and that she had been bullied for her views.

* Shortly after leaving the Times, Weiss married tech reporter Nellie Bowles, which she announced on Megyn Kelly’s podcast over a year later. Bowles now writes a column for The Free Press and is the biological mother of their two children.

* In 2021, Weiss and Bowles co-created a Substack called Common Sense, which became The Free Press, a home for contrarian writing and an engine behind what became the pandemic-driven anti-woke politics that ultimately found a home in the MAGA movement.

* In 2021, she also became one of the co-founders of the University of Austin, which accepted its first class in 2024. Since the institution has begun to stumble, she has distanced herself from the institution.

* In 2022, Weiss was one of five pundits and four reporters (all from The Free Press) invited by Elon Musk to review internal Twitter archives relating to content moderation.

* In late 2025, after David Ellison bought Paramount Skydance, he purchased The Free Press for $150 million, and installed Weiss as chief of the news division at CBS, believed by many to be a sop to the Trump administration.

* Weiss’s tenure has been marked by early stumbles. In December, she pulled a 60 minutes segment on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, recently aired in full.

* On January 6, Tony Dokoupil, former CBS Mornings co-host, made a disastrous debut in the anchor chair, replacing John Dickerson. The “Five Principles” Dokoupil articulated as the News Divisions guiding principles included “We Love America,” a sentiment that many though had little to do with reporting the news.

What we want to go viral:

* Neil had a lot to say about a series that has already gone viral, HBO Max’s “Heated Rivalry,” a show about two closeted, gay hockey players—one Russian, one Canadian—competing to be the best at the game, and having a secret affair.

* Claire wants you to read Vijay Khurana’s The Passenger Seat (Biblioasis, 2025), a novel about two alienated, teenage, White teenagers who light out for the Territory and find themselves sucked into a dark and violent scenario of their own making.

Short takes:

* Political scientists call it the “ratchet effect:" that political power acquired is rarely relinquished, and becomes a permanent feature of any state institution. “There’s been no nation-halting constitutional crisis. No rupture dramatic enough to force a reset,” Theodore R. Johnson writes at The Washington Post. “It’s mostly business as usual for today’s branches: the executive flexing its authority, the legislature shrinking from its own and the judiciary shielding the presidency and loosening federal protections for the people. But the resulting imbalance makes it increasingly difficult to check an emboldened executive, especially when partisan loyalties trump most everything else. The greatest risk isn’t that the system will fail, it’s that its institutions — and the public — will grow accustomed to presidential excess.” (January 21, 2026)

*

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At the beginning of this episode, we hear a clip from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about strategic uncertainty on February 12, 2002, as the Bush administration falsely argued that the United States was compelled to go to war in Iraq to seize weapons of mass destruction.

Protesters march to the Pentagon on March 21, 2009 as part of an anti-war march and rally in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: Rena Schild/Shutterstock

Show notes:

* Jeremy discusses the movement against the War on Terror as a moral obligation, one that he participated in, but which he could not fully understand the dimensions of at the time.

* Claire mentions the role that the War Resisters League, founded in 1923, played in the antiwar movement.

* Jeremy and Claire discuss the significant participation of women, many of whom had extensive social movement experience, in the resistance to the war on terror.

* Code Pink was a particularly effective and energetic feminist anti-war group that devoted itself to international civil society activism and highlighting the ways women’s experience in war provides a broader lens into the harms of state violence.

* Jeremy points to Hillary Clinton’s support for the war, which was dismaying to many feminist organizations. You can read more about women’s participation in the War on Terror here.

* The extreme violence of the War on Terror was, in some ways, epitomized by the sexualized torture and brutality inflicted on Iraqi prisoners by American men and women at the Abu Ghraib prison.

* Claire and Jeremy discuss the violence of President Trump’s deportation agenda, and the administration’s assertions that ICE agent have absolute immunity, as a domestic extension of the War on Terror.

* Jeremy outlines how the movement to stop the first Gulf War set the stage for strategies and groups that would oppose the War on Terror.

* In a conversation about the moral injuries of war, Jeremy discusses the many ways in which soldiers suffer for their participation in war.

* In a conversation about the forms of fellowship, friendship, and community in peace movements, Jeremy mentions Benjamin Heim Shepard’s book, On Activism, Friendships, and Fighting: Oral Histories, Strategies and Conflicts (Common Notions Press, 2025).

Your host:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

Short takes:

* It’s called “Blaxit”(short for Black Exit): Black Americans leaving the United States in higher than usual numbers. Historically, African Americans have often felt safer and freer abroad, but the trend of Black professionals seeking out relocation experts is growing. “This modern migration is seeing Black expatriates settle in countries like Thailand, Dubai, Ghana, Portugal, South Africa, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, and more,” Karen Juanita Carillo writes. Predictably, MAGA hates dual citizenship. “In December 2025, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno,” an immigrant from Colombia, “introduced the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, which aims to prohibit dual citizenship. It requires Americans with multiple nationalities to renounce their foreign citizenship(s) within one year or face automatic revocation of their U.S. citizenship.” (January 15, 2026)

* Can prediction markets change history—or allow insiders to profit from political decisions? Democrat Ritchie Torres (NY-15) says yes. “Hours before U.S. Army Delta Force commandos captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife during a nighttime raid in Caracas, an anonymous trader, using a newly created account on the prediction market Polymarket, wagered more than $30,000 that Maduro would be out of office by Jan. 31, 2026. The trader walked away with more than $400,000 in profit,” Torres writes in The Washington Post about government insiders finding yet another way to profit from the Trump presidency. “On Jan. 7, traders wagered on whether the White House press briefing would last longer than 65 minutes. The market assigned a 98 percent probability that it would. Then, with seconds to spare, the briefing was abruptly ended — delivering massive, near-instant payouts to those betting against the odds.” (January 15, 2026)

* Former Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has been named as a correspondent in a divorce proceeding. “In a complaint filed in North Carolina, the ex-wife of Matthew Ammel, who worked on Ms. Sinema’s staff for two years, accused the former senator of seducing him and breaking up their marriage,” Anni Karni reports at The New York Times. Heather Ammel asserts that Sinema sent her husband Matthew, her bodyguard, “suggestive photographs on Signal, the encrypted messaging app; chose him to accompany her on trips to Napa Valley and to the Sphere, an events venue, in Las Vegas; paid for him to enter psychedelic treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues; encouraged him to bring drugs on work trips so she could guide him through a psychedelic trip; showered him with gifts and concert tickets; and eventually entered into a sexual relationship with him that caused him to leave his family.” Sinema has been divorced since 1999, left the Senate in 2024 about a year after the affair with Ammel allegedly began, and is openly bisexual. (January 15, 2026)

Don’t miss new drops from Claire and Neil. You can subscribe for free or support us for only $5 a month. You can become an annual supporter for $50/year and choose Claire’s most recent book, Political Junkies: as a welcome bonus.

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News Summary:

* Yesterday, 37 year-old Renee Nicole Good, a poet, mother of three, and a United States citizen was murdered by an ICE officer identified as Jonathan Ross, a ten-year veteran of the service. Good was confronted by ICE vehicles, and for unknown reasons, Ross ordered Good to get out of the car, where she was accompanied by her wife and dog. As Good she attempted to leave the scene, Ross shot her three times. Trump and other administration officials have repeatedly lied about the events surrounding Good’s death. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem labeled the victim a “domestic terrorist” and falsely claimed that the ICE officer had been endangered; as of today, Democrat-sponsored articles of impeachment are circulating in the House to remove her from office.

* In the wake of an alleged multi-billion dollar scheme to divert federal dollars intended for Minnesota’s subsidized child care, Governor Tim Walz has dropped his bid for a third term. The state’s popular Democratic Senator, Amy Klobuchar, is said to be almost certain to run in 2026; if she wins, she or Walz will pick someone to fill her seat who could run in the special election to replace her. Will that person be from the Congressional delegation? Perhaps it will be the popular mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey? Or Keith Ellison, the former Representative from 05 and currently attorney general?

* Donald Trump added his own name to the Kennedy Center, not only outraging the ginormous Kennedy family, but causing numerous artists scheduled to perform there to cancel.

* In a 4-1 ruling, Wyoming’s Supreme Court has struck down two laws banning abortion in the state as unconstitutional, including the first law in the nation to ban chemical abortions. The court, all appointed by Republicans, cited a 2012 amendment approved by voters in the wake of the ACA empowering adults to make their own health decisions.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House in Washington DC, April 7, 2025. Photo credit: noamgalai/Shutterstock

News focus: Marco Rubio, Venezuela, and the “Donroe” Doctrine

* On the evening of Saturday, January 3, a special forces team from the United States supported from the air penetrated the compound in Caracas where Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores lived. After killing 31 members of a Cuban bodyguard, the team kidnapped Maduro and Flores. They were charged this week in New York with narco-terrorism.

* While the official justification for Maduro’s kidnapping is unclear, as is Trump’s plan for “running the country,” Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has been sworn in as president—but is she on the same page as Trump? Yesterday, the New York Times obtained a 90-day emergency order issued by the government commanding the police to take into custody anyone who supports the “armed attack” by the United States.

* Trump threatened attacks on two other sovereign nations in the hemisphere, Colombia and Cuba; and revived plans to annex Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. Marco Rubio has amended Trump’s statements to say that the plan, for now, would be to purchase Greenland.

* On Thursday, the Senate passed a bill invoking the War Powers Act with five Republicans voting aye: Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Todd Young of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

* Who is Marco Rubio? The son of Cuban exiles, he is only 54: he rose swiftly in Florida politics, becoming speaker of the Florida House of Representatives at 35. He was elected to the Senate in 2010, replacing Republican Mel Martinez, the first Cuban American in the Senate, and became well-known on the Foreign Policy Committee as a centrist.

* But Rubio has always been a Cuba hard-liner. A challenger to Trump for the presidential nomination in 2015, he was once seen as the future of the GOP. But after Trump became president, as Secretary of State, Rubio has had to toggle between conservative principles and gaining influence in a now-populist and ideologically rudderless party.

* President Trump and Secretary Rubio are now directly threatening Cuba’s sovereignty. Trump has suggested that cutting off Venezuelan oil will cause a fragile regime to collapse on its own, whereas Rubio represents a return of an exile opposition community that has remained organized in the last 60 years in Miami and Madrid.

* Some see the pursuit of an aggressive foreign policy as a make-or-break moment for Rubio: insiders say he was responsible for pushing Trump to act aggressively on removing Maduro. There are implcations for the 2028 nomination: the heir apparent, Vice President JD Vance, has become almost invisible at a key moment; whereas Rubio, who was not very visible in Year 1, is everywhere, and seemingly in charge of Trump’s expansionism in the Western hemisphere.

Your hosts:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

Neil J. Young is a historian of religion and politics, a journalist, and a former co-host of the Past Present podcast. His most recent book is Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

What we want to go viral:

* Neil wants you to read Ruth Graham’s “Philip Yancey, Prominent Christian Author, Admits to Extramarital Affair” (New York Times, January 7, 2026) about a best-selling Christian author whose books in the 1990s compelled a general audience to think about grace and who has now fallen from grace.

* Claire wants you to think about Vivek Ramaswamy’s “Social Media is a Trap for Politicians,” in which Ramaswamy cautions about the fast and inaccurate information that is reflected back to politicians from a platform populated by extremes. (The Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2026.)

You can also get all audio content by subscribing for free on Apple iTunes, YouTube, or Spotify.

Short takes:

* The Heritage Foundation has produced new proposals to incentivize marriage and childbearing, including state-funded marriage boot camps. This “represents a sharp pivot for the organization away from its tradition of small government and free-market conservatism toward an ideology that embraces government intervention in affairs as private as procreation,” Brianna Tucker and Jacob Bogage report at The Washington Post. “Some of the proposals in the family report are part of the upheaval that’s shaken Heritage, an august institution with offices on both sides of the U.S. Capitol. Policy experts clashed over ideas that some staffers felt eschewed traditional conservatism or ventured so far into new territory that they made others uncomfortable, according to three people familiar with the paper.” (January 8, 2025)

* MAGA’s latest obsession is that the United States can acquire Greenland through an arranged marriage between 19-year-old Barron Trump (who has taken to looking like a porcelain doll) and Denmark’s Princess Isabella, just turned 18. “While her post-graduation plans are unknown, it is unlikely the Nordic country is willing to barter its first princess in 60 years,” Laura Esposito writes at The Daily Beast. “For Barron’s part, this is hardly the first time MAGA has thirsted over his teenage love life. Last year, the New York University student made headlines for shutting down an entire floor of Trump Tower for a date.” (January 8, 2026)

* The Pentagon has begun a review of women in combat roles, framed as an effectiveness study, but probably a prelude to excluding them from front-line jobs that convey the highest prestige, pay, and possibility for promotion. “Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, opposed women in ground combat units while he was a Fox News host and author,” Tom Bowman writes at NPR. Hegseth withdrew these comments during his confirmation hearings. “Kris Fuhr, a West Point graduate who worked on gender integration for the Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., said an Army study between 2018 to 2023 found that women performed well in ground combat units and, in some cases, had higher scores than male soldiers,” Bowman reports. “She called the upcoming Pentagon study ‘a solution for a problem that doesn't exist.’” (January 7, 2026)

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