The Takeaway

It's Not Just the Special Olympics, Betsy DeVos Takes Heat for Special Ed Cuts 

The Education Secretary has called for cuts to the Special Olympics, as well as programs to help students who are blind, deaf, and otherwise require special education services. 

How a Changing Credit Industry Could Hurt Consumer Privacy

Consumer credit-reporting company Equifax and credit score company FICO are partnering to sell consumer data to banks. But how secure is that data following the 2017 Equifax data breach?

Adjunct Professors are Organizing; Demanding Better Pay, Respect

Facing budget cuts, colleges across the country are hiring less full-time professors and more adjuncts.

Guests:

Emmanuel Felton

AnnaMaria Andriotis

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel

Supreme Court Weighs Arguments Over Partisan Gerrymandering

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard two cases involving the design of congressional maps. The Takeaway looks at how gerrymandering has shaped national politics, particularly since 2010.

Trump Administration Gets Behind New Effort to Overturn the Affordable Care Act

The Department of Justice announced support of a district court ruling that argued the entire ACA was unconstitutional just as Democrats announce new health care legislation.

Ogossagou Massacre: More Than 150 Fulani Villagers Killed in Mali 

Part of the rise in violence against the Fulani herding population has come because of charges that the nomadic herding group has ties to Islamist militant groups.

How Exposure to Gun Violence Can Impact Young People

Recent suicides have drawn attention to the impacts of witnessing a mass shooting, especially in young people. Exposure to any kind of gun violence can have an impact on mental health. 

Guests:

David Daley

Mary Agnes Carey

Corinne Dufka 

Maryse Richards

Sandro Galea

Will the Mueller Report Shift Public Trust in American Institutions?

Following the release of a summary of the Mueller Report, what has the investigation meant for Americans’ trust in our institutions, from the Department of Justice to the media?

How Does the Mueller Report Affect Democratic Agenda?

The Department of Justice exonerated President Trump at a time when House Democrats are ramping up their investigations into the president.

Enforcing Ban on Bump Stocks Will Be Challenging 

The federal regulation set to go into effect Tuesday is based mostly on the honor system. 

Hunger 9 Strike to Raise Awareness on Gun Violence in Miami

Although crime has gone down overall in Miami-Dade County, gun violence disproportionately affects black neighborhoods. 

Guests:

Margaret Sullivan

Aziz Huq

Representative Eric Swalwell

Karen Rouse

Matt Vasilogambros

Nadege Green

The Mueller Report is In; What Does it Mean?

Attorney General William Barr released a letter to Congress detailing the Mueller Report's key findings.

Amy Walter on Congress's Next Moves

Amy Walter joins us to talk about the Democratic response to Barr’s summary.

Who's Entitled to What Information About the Mueller Investigation?

Robert Mueller must stay silent, says former independent counsel Ken Starr. So who is entitled to what information about the Mueller report, and what's behind the rules surrounding him?

Guests: 

Marcy Wheeler

Ilya Marritz

Amy Walter

Robert Ray

After all the drama in 2016, the Democratic National Committee has reformed the nomination process. Today on Politics with Amy Walter from The Takeaway, a look at the new rules and what impact they could have both intended and unintended.

Tom Perez was elected as chairman of the DNC in 2017. Perez's mission is to insure that 2020 isn’t a repeat of 2016. That doesn’t just mean winning, it means re-instilling faith in the system for Democrats. And the DNC has done a lot of work on this front. Amy Walter talks with chairman Perez about the reforms the DNC has undertaken.

Also: we look into the potential unintended consequence of the new superdelegate rule with Dave Wasserman from the Cook Political Report. Julia Azari, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University, gives us the rundown on the new and confusing debate rules. Jeff Link, a longtime Iowa Democratic strategist, explains what’s new for the first caucus state and the role that Iowa plays in the presidential nominating process. We also tackle the unwritten rules on money and fundraising with Maggie Severns of Politico and try to figure out what the role of the DNC actually is these days, and how it’s changed in the last 25 years with Jamal Simmons of HillTV.

Amy's Final Take: 

When it comes to covering a primary, the media spends most of its time focused on candidates - their personalities, their policies, and their blunders. But, winning candidates spend a lot of their time focused on the unsexy stuff - how to leverage the rules to their advantage. For example, Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008 realized early on that the delegate rules meant that caucuses were going to win him a lot of delegates - even if they didn’t garner as much media attention as big primary states like Pennsylvania or Texas.

This year, Democrats have lots of new written and unwritten rules to figure out. How to raise lots of money without looking beholden to corportists and one percenters. How to get on the debate stage - and make the most of that opportunity. And, how to convince primary voters that they won the process fair and square. As we saw in 2016, winning the primary is only one part of the challenge for the nominee. He or she has to keep the party unified and inspired all through the general election too.

Read her latest Cook Political Report here.

No Tap or Toilet: Over One Million Americans Lack Access to Running Water

Most Americans take access to water for granted.

Recovering From The Midwest Floods

Last week, an intense winter storm swept the Midwest. The floods that followed were the worst in 50 years. What can farmers do to protect themselves from extreme weather?

New Threat To Felon Voting In Florida

Last November, Floridians voted to give the right to vote back to felons who had served their sentences. But new bills threaten to disenfranchise almost half of of them again.

Is Jordan Peele's "Us" the First Marxist Horror Film?

Peele tackles race, class, and psycho-doppelgangers from a parallel universe in his follow-up to "Get Out."

Guests:

George McGraw

Ken Anderson

Kira Lerner

Valerie Complex

Rafer Guzman

Who Wins When Public Schools Have Selective Admissions Policies?

A disproportionately small number of black and Latino students were admitted to New York City’s most elite public high schools. 

'Secret' Treatment Centers Holding Special Needs Minors Who Cross Border

In apparent violation of rules on caring for and holding migrant children with special needs, 'secret' treatment centers were not disclosed, even to the minors’ attorneys.

Los Angeles Star Mike Trout Signs Record $430 Million Contract 

Los Angeles Angels star outfielder, Mike Trout, is set to become the highest paid athlete in the history of American sports.

Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: Flowers v. Mississippi Heads to SCOTUS

Curtis Flowers was convicted of murdering four people, and has been tried for that same crime 6 times. Did the D.A. unlawfully strike more prospective black jurors than white?

Guests:

Beenish Ahmed

Alia Wong

Aura Bogado

Dave Zirin

Samara Freemark

How Transportation Can be a Means for Segregation 

Voters will decide whether to add a train line from Atlanta to Gwinnett county, a suburban area northeast of the city. The referendum raises issues of race and access.

Protests Seek to Upend Algerian Politics

Young people have been leading protests against Algeria's ruling government for weeks. The longtime president has agreed not to run for a fifth term, but has canceled the elections. 

Netflix Cancels Cuban-American Family Sitcom "One Day at a Time"

Netflix decision to cancel "One Day at a Time" has been met with criticism and a renewed discussion of the lack of representation in film and television.

Guests:

King Williams

Shin-pei Tsay

Ruth Michaelson

Vanessa Erazo

"I Don’t See How Anyone Can Feel Safe Anywhere": Mosque Shootings in New Zealand Shake the World

The victims range between three and 71-years-old, shedding a light at the horrors of the attack in New Zealand.

ICE Using License Plate Tracker Database to Find Undocumented People

Last January, ICE paid over $6 million to get access to a privately maintained database of license plates, and the movements of the cars they’re registered to.

With Brexit Deadline Approaching, UK Lawmakers Hit Another Legislative Roadblock

Deal or no deal? Or no no-deal?

The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes 

What the now-disgraced founder of the defunct blood testing company Theranos teaches us about the the dark side of Silicon Valley. 

Guests:

Lamia Imam

Khaled Beydoun

Kathleen Belew 

Dave Maass

William Booth

John Carreyrou

Two things happened on the Hill this week. The most high profile of course came on Thursday when the Republican-controlled Senate voted with Democrats, in a rebuke of President Trump’s national emergency declaration for funding of the border wall.

But here’s something that might have gotten lost: The day before seven Republican senators voted along with Democrats to end U.S. support of the Saudi led war in Yemen.

What does this split tell us about President Trump’s relationship with Republicans in congress? Eliana Johnson is a White House Reporter for Politico. She’s been following this and is here to help us make sense of it all.

We also hear from former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld who is considering a primary challenge to President Trump.

Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and an opinion columnist at the Washington Post, thinks Governor Weld or any other ‘moderate’ Republican considering a challenge to President Trump is on a fool’s errand.  

This month, Jay Inslee, the Democratic governor of Washington state, declared he is running for President, and climate change is his number one issue.

According to a recent Pew Research Survey, about 67 percent of Democrats see climate change as a top priority, but only 21 percent of Republicans feel that way. Amy asked Governor Inslee how he plans to bring the country together over an issue that only half of the country views as a priority.

Amy's Final Take: 

Since that day in 2015 when he descended the golden escalator in Trump tower, people like me have wondered whether the GOP would split apart over Donald Trump. His populist, pro-tariff views would alienate business-friendly GOP types. His past support for abortion rights and his multiple divorces would scare off evangelical voters. And, his anti-immigration rhetoric went against the advice of establishment Republicans who warned that unless the GOP expanded its appeal beyond white voters, it would find itself in a demographic death-spiral. Yet, here we are - almost four years later - and the president is as popular with the GOP base as ever.

What keeps the GOP together? The president has given Republicans what they wanted - and avoided (for now) the things they worried about him doing. Many don’t like the steel and aluminum tariffs. But, back in 2016 he warned of imposing a 45 percent tariff on Chinese-made goods. Instead of unilaterally pulling out of NAFTA, as he once warned he’d do, he re-negotiated the trade deal. And, he’s not wavered on cultural or social issues that are important to evangelical voters. In other words, he’s giving most Republicans what they wanted.

Another unifying factor for the GOP: the 2020 democratic candidates. Even if you don’t like Trump, well, the potential Democratic nominee could be much, much worse.  This is why the president is spending so much time and energy labeling Democrats as the party of socialism.

So, the GOP sticks with Trump because he’s giving them most of what they want, but also because the Democratic choice is unpalatable. We should stop asking if Trump is going to lose support from Republicans - he probably won’t. Instead, what we should be looking for is whether he can keep GOPers as motivated to turn out and vote.  Trump had an enthusiasm advantage over Clinton in 2016. In 2018, it was Democrats who were more motivated. Let’s see what 2020 brings.

Read Amy's latest Cook Political report here.