The Back Room with Andy Ostroy

Ashley Allison is a media entrepreneur, creator, advocate, organizer and thought leader, who seamlessly bridges the gap between culture and politics. She is the Founder and CEO of Watering Hole Media, a social impact media company. Ashley is also a political commentator for CNN. She previously served as a senior advisor in the Obama-Biden White House. As the National Coalitions Director for the Biden-Harris 2020 presidential campaign, she led nearly 500 staff to activate the most robust coalition of voters in modern history. She’s also served as Executive Vice President for The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, where she spearheaded campaigns to protect the right to vote for millions of Americans and helped to get the citizen question removed from the 2020 census form.

Join me and Ashley as we take a hard, honest post-election look under America's hood and discuss the challenging road ahead.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Frank Bruni has been a prominent journalist for more than three decades, including more than twenty-five years at The New York Times, in roles as diverse as op-ed columnist, White House correspondent, Rome bureau chief, and chief restaurant critic. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers. In July 2021, he became a full professor at Duke University, teaching in the school of public policy. He currently writes his popular weekly newsletter for the Times and produces additional essays as one of the newspaper’s Contributing Opinion Writers.

Frank and I discuss his latest columns about the recent election, what the Democrats must do going forward, and who the likely 2028 candidates might be.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

The inimitable Rick Wilson is a renowned political strategist, infamous ad-maker, writer, speaker, political commentator, podcaster, co-founder of the political action committee The Lincoln Project and media company Resolute Square, and a two-time New York Times best-selling author.

Join Rick and I for a frank discussion about the recent devastating election, Trump's crazy cabinet nominations, and the dark, challenging road ahead.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Jamal Simmons is a political commentator on CNN and co-host of the new podcast Trailblaze. He’s previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Communications Director to Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House. Before that he was a political contributor for CBS News and NPR and hosted digital interviews for HillTV. He is a veteran of the Clinton Administration, Congress and several political campaigns. He’s also been a communications consultant, digital entrepreneur, appeared on every major television network and written opinion pieces for many newspapers.

First it was the devastating election. Then came the barrage of Trump's crazy cabinet nominations. Jamal and I get into the stunning events of the last 10 days and what it all means going forward.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Julie Roginsky is a founding partner of Baro Strategies and has nearly three decades of public and private sector experience as an adviser on strategic communications, political strategy and public relations…working on behalf of corporate and political clients which include Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, non-profits and dozens of politicians. She is also the co-founder of Lift Our Voices, a national non-profit organization dedicated to transforming the American workplace by banning forced arbitration clauses and non-disclosure agreements for toxic workplace issues. And she is a former contributor at Fox News Channel, where she was a frequent co-host of Outnumbered and The Five. Prior to that, she was a contributor at CNBC, the financial news network.

Julie joins me for a frank 'what the hell happened' chat about last week's devastating election.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Kimberly Atkins Stohr is a senior opinion writer and columnist for The Boston Globe with over 20 years of experience covering politics, policy and law. She is an on-air political analyst for MSNBC, a frequent panelist on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and co-host of the popular Politicon legal news podcast #SistersInLaw. She has appeared as a political and legal commentator on a host of national and international television and radio networks, including CNN, Fox News, NBC News, PBS, NPR, Sky News, and CBC News. Before launching her journalism career, she was a civil trial and appellate litigation attorney in Boston, where she argued in a number of courts, including the Massachusetts Appeals Court and the federal 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the wake of the devastating election, so many Americans are feeling anger, frustration and despair as we try to reconcile what happened and how we move forward as Americans and as a party in the face of so much sexism and racism and the abandonment of the party by several core constituencies. Kimberly and I take an honest and gut-wrenching look under the hood...

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

For forty years, Ron Reagan has been a television and radio correspondent, host and political commentator with ABC, MSNBC and Air America among others. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller My Father at 100. Ron shares his keen insights into the election, the status of the two political parties, and the legacy of his father, Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States. We also chat about God, religion and Ron's "unabashed" atheism.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

Michael Cohen is host of the YouTube Channel "The The Michael Cohen Show". And he's brought his unplugged wit and wisdom back in The Back Room to discuss his former boss Donald Trump, VP Kamala Harris, and tomorrow's historic election!

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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.

The always-insightful and fun S.E.'s back in The Back Room for a homestretch chat about the most critical, consequential election in United States history.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud

George Conway is an attorney, political activist, and legal and political commentator. He is president of the Society for the Rule of Law, the executive director of the Anti-Psychopath Political Action Committee, and a founder of the Lincoln Project. He is a host of The Bulwark’s podcast George Conway Explains It All (to Sarah Longwell), and he is a contributing writer to The Atlantic. He previously worked as a litigator for three decades at the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City.

With the most important, consequential election in American history just four days away, we're thrilled to have George back with us to share his unique homestretch analysis.

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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud