The Back Room with Andy Ostroy

Allan J. Lichtman is Distinguished Professor of History at American University and a leading geopolitical expert. He has provided expert testimony in some 110 civil rights cases. He has written 13 books, many hundreds of scholarly and popular articles, and provided worldwide media commentary. His recent books include The Case for Impeachment, The Embattled Vote In America, Repeal the Second Amendment, and 21 Cracks: Repairing American Democracy After Trump. His Keys to the White House prediction system has successfully forecasted the results of presidential elections since 1984, including Donald Trump’s win in 2016.

The professor is back in The Back Room, and this time he's discussing his prediction for the 2024 presidential election!

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of global investment firm SkyBridge, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio. He's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation....and the author of five books, including his latest, From Wall Street to the White House and Back. He's best known for the 11 rollercoaster days he served in the Trump WH as Communications Director, after having served on Trump's Finance Committee and then on his Presidential Transition Team.

We love when The Mooch brings his unique perspective into The Back Room on the pathological thinking and behavior of Trump and its impact on the campaign.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Joe Trippi is a pioneer in bringing campaigns into the digital age. As National Campaign Manager for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign, his vision of using the Internet to connect directly with supporters transformed the way campaigns have been waged since. He currently serves as a senior strategist for several nonprofit and corporate clients, is a Sr Adviser to The Lincoln Project, and a Sr Advisor to MI Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. He began his political career working on Ted Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1980 and has since led efforts on a number of presidential, gubernatorial, senate, and congressional campaigns including Reps Ro Khanna, Kweisi Mfume (‘Kwyzee Mfoomay’), former CA Gov Jerry Brown and former AL Sen. Doug Jones. Joe is also the host of the podcast "That Trippi Show" and the author of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet and the Overthrow of Everything” and has served as a political commentator and analyst for MSNBC/NBC, CBS, FOX and CNN.

Joe takes us back to the 2024 Howard Dean presidential campaign, the political/campaign changes since, and weighs in on the current campaign.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Max Boot is a historian, best-selling author and foreign-policy analyst. He is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a weekly columnist for The Washington Post. He just released the critically-acclaimed new book "Reagan: His Life and Legend". His previous biography, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

Max discusses his new book about Ronald Reagan and weighs in on the current presidential campaign.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Michael Cohen is the former personal attorney for Donald Trump and served for years as an executive in the Trump Organization. He is host of the Mea Culpa With Michael Cohen podcast and co-host of Political Beatdown with Michael Cohen and Ben Meiselas podcast, and is a 2x NYT best-selling author. His latest book is “Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Department of Justice Against His Critics. He’s also Principal of crisis management firm Crisis-X.

It's always both insightful and fun when Michael's in The Back Room! He joins us this week to share his unique perspective on Tuesday night's debate, Trump's increasingly unhinged, dangerous behavior, and what it all means these next two months as we race towards the election.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Modi Rosenfeld was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and at 7 emigrated with his family to the United States and was raised on Long Island. After graduating from Boston University, he worked as an investment banker until he fell in love with stand-up comedy during his first open-mic performance. He’s a regular at the New York and Los Angeles comedy clubs and headlines around the country and across the globe.

His current 'Pause For Laughter' tour includes stops in Zurich, London, Chicago, St. Paul, Montreal, and Denver before finally concluding at the iconic Beacon Theatre in NYC. His debut special, "Know Your Audience", is available on YouTube.

Modi is one of the funniest humans on the planet! I hope you enjoy this chat as much as I did!

Check out Modi's "Know Your Audience" comedy special here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPF3GkKuPVc. And find him on Instagram @Modi_Live!

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Jesselyn Cook is an award-winning investigative reporter and journalism lecturer who has written extensively about online conspiracy theories and their offline harms. Prior to covering the tech beat at NBC News, she was a senior reporter on HuffPost's national enterprise desk. Her new book is The Quiet Damage: Q Anon and the Destruction of the American Family.

Jesselyn shares her fascinating and at times chilling insights into the QAnon conspiracy phenomenon and its devastating effects on its followers' families. Her book is rare, intimate look into the psychology of how and why ordinary people come to believe the unbelievable.

More about the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706443/the-quiet-damage-by-jesselyn-cook/

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

S.E. Cupp is a CNN political commentator and host of the daily TV show Battleground. She was most recently host of CNN's S.E. Cupp Unfiltered. Before joining CNN she co-hosted MSNBC's The Cycle. She's a nationally syndicated political columnist, culture critic, author and consultant who regularly writes for the New York Daily News, Glamour and CNN.com. She was previously a consultant for Apple TV+'s The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell and HBO's hit series, The Newsroom.

It's always fun when S.E. stops by The Back Room! We discuss Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and the presidential campaign and the battleground states, the impact (or lack thereof) of RFK Jr on the election, and the upcoming debate. And, she reveals whether or not she'll be reading Melania's new memoir!

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Jeremy Sisto is a film, television and theater actor currently starring in the hit CBS show FBI. He is also a writer, producer and musician. His past tv credits include SIX FEET UNDER, LAW AND ORDER and the hit ABC sitcom SUBURGATORY. 
His extensive film credits include the 1995 classic CLUELESS, WAITRESS, the tennis comedy BREAK POINT, which he co-wrote and produced, the Oscar-nominated animated hit FROZEN II, and the Oscar-and Golden Globe-nominated animated film FERDINAND.

Jeremy's Los Angeles theater credits include “Take Me Out,” which earned him a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Featured Performance, Sidney Kingsley’s “Dead End”, and the one-man show “Sanguine”. In New York, he made his Broadway debut in “Festen,” a stage adaptation of Thomas Vinterberg’s film THE CELEBRATION, and starred in Beau Willimon’s “Spirit Control”, about a man’s 30-year struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.

It's a truly fun, in-depth chat about Jeremy's early years, his diverse career, and his experience raising kids!

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Deja Foxx, a speaker at the recent Democratic Convention in Chicago, is 24 years old and leading thought at the intersection of social justice and social media. She is the founder of GenZ Girl Gang, a Graduate of Columbia University, and a Digital Creator with Ford Models who got her start advocating for reproductive justice after experiencing homelessness in her teenage years.

At just 19, Deja worked for Kamala Harris as the Influencer and Surrogate Strategist and became one of the youngest presidential campaign staffers in history. She is the recipient of Planned Parenthood's Catalyst of Change award, the Global Citizen Prize, and Gloria Steinem's Ms. Foundation's 'Free to Be You and Me' Woman of Vision award. She is currently living and working in her home state of Arizona where abortion is on the ballot.

Deja discusses her incredibly inspiring journey from homeless teen to nationally-recognized advocacy and activism...and the critical importance of the November election on reproductive rights and women's bodily autonomy.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud