Skullduggery

How do we rescue American democracy from the corrupt grip of an extremist party, determined to undermine democratic norms and cement minority rule by authoritarian means? This is the problem before us as laid out by Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security advisor to Barack Obama, co-host of the Pod Save the World podcast, and author of the new book After the Fall. Rhodes joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss many aspects of domestic and foreign policy, including the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, the global influence of Xi and Putin, and several of the sweeping legislative proposals before Congress today.

All of this comes on the heels of the failure in the Senate to form an independent commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection on the Capitol, for which 19 more Senators voted in favor, but failed to meet the 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture.

GUEST:

• Ben Rhodes (@brhodes), Fmr. deputy national security advisor to Barack Obama; author

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Given the lack of any successfully carried out assassination attempt on a President in the past 40 years, the Secret Service seems, at a first glance, to be an efficient and effective law enforcement agency. But author and Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig has spent years talking to individuals inside the agency, and her new book Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service paints a very different picture. Leonnig joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss the agency. She takes us through some of their recent newsmaking scandals, the unique relationship between the Secret Service and the Trump administration, as well as what she identifies as a toxic and confused culture, both among the leadership as well as the rank and file.

Plus, an update on the scandal at the Post Office, and some real world effects from Yahoo News' reporting.

GUEST:

• Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig), Reporter, Washington Post; author

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Based on the dogged reporting of investigative journalist and Yahoo News contributor Jana Winter, Americans have recently learned about the covert internet surveillance operation being inexplicably run out of the U.S. Postal Service. The operation, charmingly dubbed “iCop,” targets citizens’ social media posts, and both the exact ends of this invasive effort, and the legal authority under which it exists, are unknown. Winter joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss the fruits of her reporting, the implications of her findings, and to ask why Democrats have not risen to the occasion to protect their constituents.

Plus, author Brad Stone joins to talk about his new book Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire. They discuss some of Amazon’s unlikely successes (like Alexa), and notorious failures (like the Fire phone), as well as the scandalous episode where some of Bezos’s intimate text messages were leaked to the public.

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With a vote taking place on Friday morning, the Republican party officially ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and elected 36-year-old Elise Stefanik (R-NY) to be its new Conference chair. The dramatic leadership change reveals fault lines in a party where a significant — and evidently predominant — portion of its elected federal officials places fealty to Donald Trump above all else. Former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (R-VA) joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss this internecine struggle in the GOP, as well as to give her take on the ostracization of Cheney and coronation of Stefanik, based on her personal relationships with both women. She details her vision for a reformed, policy-driven post-Trump Republican party. But is that what Republican voters want?

GUEST:

• Barbara Comstock (@BarbaraComstock), former Congresswoman (R-VA)

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The 2019 trial of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher gripped the nation due to the heinousness of the crimes of which Gallagher, a SEAL team captain, was accused. And though he was charged with the 2017 murder of an Iraqi detainee, he was acquitted of all charges but one — posing in a photo with the young dead Iraqi man. But, over the course of the six episodes of the new podcast “The Line,” written and produced by Dan Taberski, the story of how that man died becomes much, much more complicated. Taberski joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss his podcast and its shocking new revelations, as well as the culture of the military’s elite special operators that Taberski spent so much time learning about firsthand, through the community of SEALs he spoke with for the show. What are the true costs of a twenty-year war on the psyches of the men and women who fight it? And, what responsibility do we, the American people, have for how they draw the line between what is acceptable and what is forbidden in war?

GUEST:

• Dan Taberski (@dtaberski), writer and executive producer of “The Line” podcast 

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Presidential historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham has a new podcast called “Fate of Fact,” in which he investigates how it is that American politics — particularly in the Republican Party, as Meacham says — became detached not only from our constitutional system of checks and balances but from reality itself. Meacham joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode, which contains a deep and important conversation about history, our tumultuous present moment and where the country might go from here. 

GUEST:

• Jon Meacham (@jmeacham), Pulitzer Prize-winning author; presidential historian

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Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod

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In the wake of the January 6th riot at the Capitol, which itself was preceded by multiple attacks on state governments by right-wing extremists, Attorney General Merrick Garland said publicly that domestic terrorism from white nationalist groups is now as much of a concern as foreign terrorism for the Department of Justice. Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by Michael German, a former FBI special agent who spent years undercover infiltrating violent right-wing extremist groups in the 1990s. He talks about why the FBI seems to ignore the violent deeds and threats posed by these groups while simultaneously going after environmentalists, anti-war activists, and Black Lives Matter protestors.

Plus, our hosts talk about the political implications of the infighting in the GOP, and the renewed attempts to ostracize Rep. Liz Cheney (WY) for her refusal to toe the party line on the “Big Lie” about the 2020 Presidential election.

GUEST:

• Michael German (@RethinkIntel), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice; former FBI special agent

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On the day after President Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress, and to mark the occasion of his first hundred days in office, Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by esteemed historians and authors Douglas Brinkley and Jonathan Alter to break down the speech, and place Biden’s nascent presidency in important historical context. They discuss parallels with both F.D.R. and Jimmy Carter, place Biden in the history of modern progressive presidents, as well as look ahead to possible pitfalls and obstacles that may stand in the way of the agenda that Biden introduced to the nation.

Also, our hosts discuss the latest news in the ignominious downfall of Rudy Giuliani, who once graced the cover of TIME magazine, but who this week had his office and home searched by the FBI as part of an ongoing investigation into his corrupt practices.

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Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod

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The controversial new election law passed in Georgia has been derided by many, including Stacey Abrams and President Biden, and has inspired many high-profile businesses, like Major League Baseball, to relocate interests out of the state. But Gabriel Sterling, the chief financial and operations official in the office of the Georgia Secretary of State, is a defender of the law. Sterling, who was an outspoken critic of former President Trump’s bullying of state officials in the handling of the 2020 election, joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti to talk about what the law does and doesn’t do, whether or not the 2020 election was free and fair, and about whether or not Georgia’s Election Integrity Act of 2021 was, at its core, a Republican party power-grab.

GUEST:

• Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling), COO/CFO, Georgia Secretary of State

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The Biden Administration has failed to facilitate the admission of more refugees into the United States, which was a campaign promise and a much longed-for change from the punitive policies of the Trump era. Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by Mark Hetfield, the president and CEO of HIAS, the Jewish-American refugee advocacy group, to talk about the refugee resettlement program and what the Biden Administration could — and should — do to serve this humanitarian need.

Then, investigative journalist and Yahoo News contributor Jana Winter joins to talk about her recent bombshell story about a covert operation to monitor citizens’ social media posts being run by the United States Postal Service. What do we know about this program, and what more can we find out?

GUESTS:

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Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod

Listen and subscribe to “Skullduggery” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]

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