Q&A

Gerald Blaine and Clint Hill, two former Secret Service agents, spoke about the day that President Kennedy was assassinated. They also talked about the assassination’s conspiracy theories and their lives after retirement from the Secret Service.. Gerald Blaine is author of the new book, “The Kennedy Detail: JFK’s Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence.” Clint Hill wrote the prologue for the book as well as cooperating in interviews for the book’s content.

Gerald Blaine worked for the Secret Service from 1959 to 1964. Blaine worked for several businesses after his time as an agent. Clint Hill was in the U.S. Army for three years before working for the Secret Service from 1958 to 1975. Mr. Hill was the Secret Service agent who jumped onto the trunk of the motorcade seconds after Kennedy was shot. Both men are currently retired. 

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Rosemary Stevens talked about her book, A Time of Scandal: Charles R. Forbes, Warren G. Harding, and the Making of the Veterans Bureau.

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Professors Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick talked about their book, The Original Meaning of the 14th Amendment. They argued that the 14th Amendment, which gave the federal judiciary and Congress new powers over the states, has been misinterpreted by conservative and liberal judges alike since its adoption in 1868.

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Professor Tom Cronin talked about his book, Imagining a Great Republic, a survey of American novels that have helped tell the story of the American political experiment.

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Elizabeth Papez talked about the influence of Chief Justice John Roberts and other high-profile chief justices on the direction of the Supreme Court as well as American life. Ms. Papez is a litigator and partner in the firm of Gibson Dunn who previously clerked for Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and served as deputy assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration. 

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Author Amy Zegart tracked the history of American espionage from George Washington’s Revolutionary War spies to today’s digital world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with intelligence officials, she gave an inside look into the world of spies and spy-craft. The Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California hosted this event.

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Kevin McCarthy earned a place in the history books this week as the first Speaker of the House to be voted out of office. Just 9 months into his term, Speaker McCarthy was challenged by a "motion to vacate" offered by Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz. McCarthy lost by 6 votes; with all Democrats voting against him. 

Kevin McCarthy, a California republican, was the 55th Speaker of the House. Second in line to the presidency, the Speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House of Representatives, and the de facto leader of the Majority. As Republicans mull their choice for a new Speaker, we look back to a Q&A episode from February of 2018 on the historical power and influence of the House Speaker of. Our guest is Michael Green, author of The Speaker of the House: A study of Leadership. You'll learn about the role of the Speaker and the tenures of Henry Clay, Joe Cannon, Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi.

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In a dip into the Q&A archives, an interview from 2017 with former federal prosecutor and George Washington University Law School professor Randall Eliason. He talked about the 2017 trial of Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and other prominent political corruption cases including Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, Sen Ted Stevens and Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell.

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Colleen Sheehan, Arizona State University Professor, discusses the early life and times of the Federalist's three authors. She explains how their lives challenged their writing and thinking. Plus, their lasting legacy today.

In September 1787, the newly drafted Constitution of the United States was sent to the states for ratification. Responding to initial public criticism of the document, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay - under the collective pseudonym "Publius" - wrote a series of 85 essays to promote the ratification of the Constitution. The essays were first published in several New York newspapers and were later combined into a book titled The Federalist. Today, the original essays are commonly referred to as The Federalist Papers. 

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Georgetown University law professor Cliff Sloan, author of "The Court at War," talks about the civil rights and civil liberties cases taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court during World War Two and the influence that FDR had on the justices, the vast majority of whom he appointed. 

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