Skullduggery

Biden said this week that domestically, there is nothing more important than voting rights. And yet as with Build Back Better, his nearly two trillion social spending bill, there seems little prospect that a voting rights bill can pass before the end of the year. Not so long as two democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin remain admittedly opposed to changing the Senate's filibuster rules that allow a minority that allow a minority of members to block passage of just about anything. Nobody has been in the middle of the fight for voting rights and much else on the democratic slate then Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. He joins us to discuss the aforementioned bills and the prospects of anything getting down not only before Christmas, but next year as well.

GUEST:

• Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin), Serving the people of Illinois. Majority Whip and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

• Isikoff's story on Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin - 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.

This week, our Yahoo News colleague Jana Winter discovered the existence of a secret investigations unit inside the Department of Homeland Security. It was snooping into the private lives of journalists as well as congressional staff members and others. They were pulling phone records, travel records, personal contacts, and much else. All of this under the guise of cultivating them to help with the legitimate government investigation into, of all things, cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This secret unit launched an initiative called Operation Whistle Pig that targeted journalists. Informally, it called itself W.O.L.F. - way out there in left field. Winter joins us to discuss as well as an ACLU lawyer, Hugh Handeyside, about why this is so alarming.

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.

The Mauritanian is a powerful film about a young man named Mohamedou Slahi who was held for fourteen years in GTMO. He was accused of being an Al-Qaeda operative who recruited the hi-jackers for the 9/11 attacks. He was once viewed as one of the most significant high-value detainees and under direct order of then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld he was subjected to special interrogation methods. He was beaten, kicked, and smashed across his face. Subjected to extreme cold and sexual humiliation by female interrogators. And also threatened with execution during a boat ride where he was force-fed sea water. Slahi himself joins us on this episode of Skullduggery to talk about his experience and his eventual release after wrongful prosecution. 

GUEST:

• Mohamedou Slahi, fmr. detainee at Guantanamo Bay & best-selling author

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 death of Bob Dole this week at the age of 98 has reminded the country just how much Washington and the Republican Party has changed since the days he ruled the roost as Senate Majority Leader. Although a stalwart partisan who was once known as Richard Nixon's "hatchet man," Dole also believed firmly that politics and government had a purpose - to get things done, to pass legislation that actually made a difference in voters. Even if it meant reaching out to the other side, listening and respecting what they had to say and forging compromises. An approach that seems almost entirely foreign in politics these days. We're joined by veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed who managed Dole's 1996 campaign for President.

GUEST:

• Scott Reed, top Republican political strategist and former executive director of the Republican National Committee

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.

Supreme Justice Sotomayor grilled the solicitor general of Mississippi on what it would mean for the court's legitimacy if it does what Mississippi wants it to, overturn Row v. Wade. "Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the constitution and its reading are just political acts." This revealed that the court is deeply divided. Is this a result of Trump getting to name three Supreme Court Justices? If overturned, what happens next on the state level? We discuss with Linda Greenhouse who has been covering said court for over forty years.

GUEST:

• Linda Greenhosue (@GreenhouseLinda), covers The Supreme Court & Law for the @nytimes

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.

After Donald Trump was elected President, the CIA started briefing him on the threats facing the country and other developments the could affect national security interests. From the outset, there was a problem. Trump, while occasionally polite and willing to listen, was rarely impressed with what his briefers had to tell him. He didn’t want his briefing every day. And he wasn’t interested in getting a written brief either. “He doesn’t really read anything,” his chief CIA briefer explained. “In an hour’s discussion, there might only be eight or nine minutes of real intelligence,” said the director of national intelligence. What is remarkable about these comments is that they come from a new book written by a former CIA inspector general and released by the CIA itself. It’s called, Getting to know the President. What does it say about the CIA that it would put out a tome that discloses somewhat embarrassing details of a President it once served? We talk to David Priess, a former CIA briefer himself. 

GUEST:

• David Priess (@DavidPriess), Lawfare Publisher/COO, cohost @ThatWasChatter pod, fmr. CIA

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.

Skullduggery presents an episode of The Climate Crisis Podcast hosted by Yahoo News Senior Editors David Knowles & Ben Adler. In this episode, Adler talks to longtime environmental activist and journalist Bill McKibben about his newest venture: Third Act, an organization intended to mobilize older Americans in the fight against climate change and in defense of voting rights. McKibben tells Adler his thoughts on the outcome of the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, why he is trying to engage Americans ages 60 and older, and how he thinks climate activism must turn towards the private sector.

GUEST:

• Bill McKibben (@billmckibben), Author, Educator, Environmentalist and founder of http://350.org and http://ThirdAct.org

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

• The Climate Crisis Podcast - Here.

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

We all heard the tape of the phone call eleven months ago. President Trump telling Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State, he should overturn the election results and declare that he, not Joe Biden, won the Peach State in last year's election. "President Trump is using what he believes is the power of his position to threaten me if we don't do what he tells us to do Raffensperger writes about the phone call in his new book called Integrity Counts. Essentially accusing then President Trump of criminal conduct. Raffensperger could end up being a crucial witness in the still ongoing investigation of Trump's conduct by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Raffensperger joins to discuss said book as well as his upcoming hopes for re-election.

GUEST:

• Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState)

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

• Trump's infamous phone call to Raffensperger - 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 TV series, DOPESICK, showcases the big lie that a new opioid drug Purdue Pharma was pushing - oxycontin - was safe, effective, and most importantly not addictive. Well, it was. And the new drug had been blessed by an FDA official who later went on to work for, you guessed it, Purdue Pharma. This is the story of the billion dollar drug company run by the Sackler family and how they pushed this product out to the masses creating an addiction to a dangerous narcotic. Danny Strong, the director and writer of the DOPESICK series as well as the author of the book it's based on, Beth Macy, on this episode. Yahoo News' own Jon Ward joins as well to update us on Steve Bannon, who recently appeared in court after originally defying his subpoena.

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.

"His second term is going to start with a bang, that we can guarantee you." So spoke former White House Counselor Steve Bannon on his podcast Jan. 5th, seeming to foreshadow the horrific events of the next day at the US Capitol. The country, he told his listeners, was about to go through a constitutional crisis that would make the impeachment of Donald Trump look like a Sunday picnic. Did Bannon know what was going to happen on that dark day in US history? Did he encourage it? He was issued a subpoena to turn over documents, he denied. Now, he's been indicted on two counts of criminal contempt of congress. How will this all play out in court? And how long will it take? Evan Osnos also joins to discuss his new book Wildland: The Making of America's Fury. A book that charts how we got to Jan. 6th in the first place. A story in which Bannon plays a role.

GUEST:

• Evan Osnos (@eosnos) - Journalist & Author, staff writer @NewYorker

HOSTS:

RESOURCES:

• Buy Osnos' new book Wildland: The Making of America's Fury - 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.