Skullduggery

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy addressed the Senate on Tuesday afternoon after the gut-wrenching news out of Texas. Another school massacre in which twenty-two people were killed, nineteen of them young children. Murphy could barely control himself. It was in his state where ten years ago there had been another slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School where twenty-six people were killed, twenty of them school children. Yet no matter how many of these senseless tragedies, the congress of the United States remains hopelessly deadlocked when it comes to passing sensible gun control measures that might, at least might, make even a small difference. Is there nothing that could change the iron-grip of the gun lobby on the United States Congress? We're joined by Ryan Busse, who once worked in the gun industry himself and is now the author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America.

GUESTS:

• Ryan Busse, (@ryandbusse), Author of the book Gunfight.

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

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].

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spoke to a small group of supporters Tuesday night explaining how he pulled off his surprise victory for re-election over a Donald Trump backed opponent. It was a truly extraordinary comeback for Raffensperger, barley a year ago his chances were viewed as hopeless. After refusing Trump's entreaties to find just enough votes to flip Georgia's electoral tally, Raffensperger was denounced by the ex President as an enemy of the people. And he got death threats from Trump's supporters. But Raffensperger stood his ground, and as he put it, refused to buckle under the pressure. Even while, at the same time, he quietly and methodically courted conservative voters with talk about protecting election integrity in the future. The result, combined with Brian Kemp's landslide victory in the governor's race, was a stinging rebuke to Trump. What does all this say about Trump's standing in the Republican Party and how to assess the high-stakes battles in the general election? Not just in Raffensperger's race but in the big contest for governor, Kemp vs Stacy Abrams, and US Senate, Warnock vs Hershel Walker. We are joined by two savvy Georgia political consultants, Republican strategist Brian Robinson and Democratic strategist Chris Huttman.

GUESTS:

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

• Isikoff's story on Raffensperger's victory over Trump-backed opponent - Here.

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].

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The new podcast series Will Be Wild focuses on the run up to and the aftermath of the January 6th assault on the US Capitol. It's a deeply reported and at time astonishing series that explores the violent undercurrents that were circulating amongst far-right circles in the years leading up to the attack. The encouragement that those activists got from Donald Trump, and the catastrophic failure of law enforcement and intelligence officials to connect the dots and protect the US Congress from a mob hellbent on trying to overthrow the results of an American Presidential election. As we get closer to next month's long awaited hearings from the January 6th Committee, the Will Be Wild podcast offers an alarming preview of what the country maybe about to hear. Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, the hosts of the aforementioned podcast, join to discuss.

GUESTS:

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

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].

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Recent tapes of Senator Lindsay Graham talking to New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin on the afternoon of Jan. 6th, 2021 have now been released. It reaffirms what many Republicans were thinking that day about the riot that Donald Trump had just unleashed upon the US Capitol. And expressed hope that the new Democratic President, Joe Biden, could lower the temperature and bring the country together. But as Martin and his Times colleague Alex Burns document in their new book, This Too Shall Pass, that sentiment amongst most GOP lawmakers, Graham prominent among them, didn't last long. And Graham's prognosis that the trauma of Jan. 6th would lead to great national unity couldn't have been more wrong. The United States according to Martin and Burns is facing a political emergency with two parties, who authors write, are not merely advisories but enemies in a domestic cold war that had started to run hot. How hot can it get? And is there any way at this point to cool things down? Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns join to discuss.

GUESTS:

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

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].

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Politico dropped a bombshell story that stung the political and legal world last week after obtaining a leaked draft opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito that would appear to be an overturning of Roe v Wade, the 1973 opinion that gave women the constitutional right to abortion. The story was astonishing on multiple levels. It showed that a majority of the court was in fact preparing to discard a core freedom that has been relied on by American women for nearly half a century. But it was also the first time anybody can remember when a draft opinion report had been leaked and published before the court had announced it, making POLITICO's story the mega-scoop of the year if not decade. Josh Gerstein, one of two POLITICO reporters who broke the story, joins to discuss. Then, Carolyn Shapiro, a former clerk to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer weighs in on how the court has operated and may operate differently in the future.

GUESTS:

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

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].

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

JD Vance spoke recently at a Donald Trump rally in Delaware County Ohio last weekend. He was publicly boasting about the endorsement he had just gotten from "the big man," touting his newfound benefactor as the future 47th President of the United States. Trump's backing of Vance, author of the best-selling Hillbilly Elegy, was a head-spinning moment in the wild and woolly Ohio Republican primary. Just six years ago, when Trump was first running for President, Vance excoriated him, writing in one recently revealed text message to his former college roommate, "I go back and forth thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad and might even prove useful or that he's America's Hitler." But that was then, and whatever Vance thought of Trump's politics at the time, he's abandoned those views of yesteryear seeing in a full embrace of Donald Trump the key to victory in the Senate race. Next month starts a wave of primaries in Ohio, Georgia, and Pennsylvania that will provide the strongest clues yet on just how much of a hold on Republican voters that Trump still has. Yahoo News' Tom LoBianco joins to discuss the recent Trump rally. Then Kyle Kondik, the Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball Newsletter that tracks congressional elections.

GUEST:

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

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].

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The battle for Donbas has begun. This week fresh Russian troops poured into the eastern region of Ukraine in what is shaping up as a major offensive aimed at ceasing full control of a substantial slice of the embattled country. At the same time, Vladimir Putin's forces appear to be intensifying their bombardments throughout Ukraine killing civilians, choking off evacuation routes and committing what US officials say are war crimes. What is the Biden Administration doing in response? And is there any hope left for a diplomatic solution? State Department Counselor Derek Chollet, one of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's top advisors, joins to discuss.

GUESTS:

• Derek Chollet (@derekchollet), Counselor of U.S. Dept. of State

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

• Yahoo News' Alexander Nazaryan's piece on Donbas - Here.

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].

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When former Hong Kong Minister Patrick Ho was flying in to New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport in November of 2017, he was arrested by the FBI for bribery and money laundering charges. The first call he made was to James Biden, brother of the then former Vice President and now President. James Biden later said the call was a mistake, that Ho was actually trying to reach his nephew, the President's son Hunter Biden. And for good reason, newly authenticated documents show that Hunter Biden had gotten a million dollar retainer from Ho, just one tranche of as much as five million dollars that flowed to both Hunter and James Biden from the former Hong Kong official and his boss Ye Jianming, a billionaire oil tycoon with past ties to a front for the people's liberation army. The details of the Biden's relationship with Chinese interests emerged in fits and starts. Much of it originally dismissed because they were found on an abandoned laptop that former US intelligence officials suggested may have been a product of Russian disinformation. No evidence of that has yet been found on the material and recent reporting on the subject has caused some former counterintelligence officials to raise an intriguing but important national security question. Were the Biden's a target of a Chinese influence operation that needs to be fully investigated by the FBI. Coming during the same week that new disclosures that Jared Kushner former President Trump's son-in-law had secured two billion dollars in Saudi money for his investment fund. We talk to former FBI counterintelligence chief Frank Figliuzzi about the questionable dealings of Presidential family members and why they matter.

GUEST:

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

• Michael Isikoff & Zach Dorfman's latest piece on Hunter Biden/Jared Kushner - Here.

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].

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The horrors in Ukraine only get worse. Russian forces fired missiles at a train station where thousands of civilians had gathered to flee the fierce fighting in the eastern region of Dunbas. At least fifty people were killed including five children and around one hundred were injured. Coming during a week that Western leaders led by President Biden accused the Russians of war crimes and Ukrainian President Zelensky charged that the Russians were engaged in genocide. The rocket attack on a train station only underscored the most pressing issue at the moment. What more can the United States and its allies do to stop Putin's aggression? Few have more consistently called for the US to provide more weapons and military aid to Ukraine than Evelyn Farkas, a former top Pentagon official under President Obama. She joins us to discuss.

GUESTS:

• Evelyn Farkas (@EvelynNFarkas), Fmr. Dep. Asst. Secretary @DeptofDefense, ExecDir, WMD Commission, senior Senate staffer, professor

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

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].

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.