The X-Ray

The drip-drip of revelations surrounding Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is sabotaging the legitimacy of the nation’s highest court. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury gifts have gone undisclosed. It’s a troubling pattern of shady behavior at an institution that is considered a cornerstone of American democracy.

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a longtime critic of the Supreme Court’s approach to policing itself, joins Fernando for an eye-opening conversation about the escalating ethics scandal at the Supreme Court.

Senator Whitehouse is the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and a member of the Judiciary Committee. He was previously elected Rhode Island’s Attorney General after serving as a U.S. Attorney.

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Two drones explode over the Kremlin. Giant fuel depots blow up in occupied Crimea. Mysterious detonations hit several cities deep in Russia. Are these the first attacks in Ukraine’s much anticipated spring counteroffensive? Will this campaign finally start liberating Ukraine from Vladimir Putin’s bloody invasion? And why should Americans care about yet another war in a faraway nation?

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta joins Fernando for a reality check – is Ukraine and its allies on the brink of victory or facing a long, costly war with no obvious end in sight?

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram! For more information, check out thexray.org.

Here we go again. Congress is facing a June 1 deadline to avoid a totally preventable “debt ceiling” crisis. If no one flinches in this dangerous game of chicken, the U.S. economy will be dragged into a cataclysm, destroying America’s global reputation and unleashing unfathomable pain for every American family.

An artifact from World War I, the debt ceiling comes back every few years to provide existential drama — the battlefield of partisan politics. It all sounds a bit insane, but it’s only the latest crisis to be spawned by our increasingly dysfunctional political system. 

On this week’s episode, Fernando is joined by Washington uber-insider Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, to discuss her mounting fear that a “default is possible” and what we can do about it.

Also, Fernando chats with Nellie Gorbea, former Rhode Island Secretary of State, for the latest installment of the X-Ray Vision interview. In this quirky conversation, Nellie shares her dream superpower, transformative leadership vision, and why Puerto Rican rum is superior to scotch.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram! For more information, check out thexray.org.

Andrew Yang is at it again. Starting with his debut on the national stage in the 2020 presidential election, the entrepreneur without government experience jumped into the political arena with a fresh message and camera-ready charisma. And though he lost his quest for the presidency, he gained a national following and reputation for deep thoughts.

Now, Yang is taking another big leap — creating a new political party that wants to inject more democracy and accountability into our sometimes shambolic political system. It’s a big, ambitious vision.

Yet, Yang has been criticized for setting in motion a third party vote-splitting process that may — inadvertently — hand the White House back to Donald Trump in 2024. 

So, which is it? In an intense and surprising conversation, Fernando and Yang explore whether his latest Big Idea is a solution for political dysfunction — or a threat to American democracy.

Like a party guest that won’t leave, Donald Trump is the rare losing presidential candidate that is making another run at the White House. Twice impeached and now indicted, Trump is nevertheless the favorite candidate to win the Republican nomination, according to recent polls. But what does this mean for our political system overall? And what’s the impact on a divided Republican Party? Former Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI) joins Fernando for a conversation about the future of the Republican Party and much more.

And on The X-Ray Vision, our offbeat interview seeking to discover the real person behind the political title, Fernando chats with former Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN) about who’s his hero, what his Sunday morning passion is, and why “scotch or bourbon?” is totally the wrong question.

Since Donald Trump entered the presidential race in 2015, his MAGA movement has grown exponentially, attracting millions of fervent followers and directly influencing political leaders across the country. In this episode of The X-Ray, Fernando and Greg Sargent, an opinion columnist at The Washington Post who covers national politics, have a wide-ranging conversation about Trump’s movement, analyzing what Greg calls "the Fortress MAGA phenomenon." They also dig deep into recent political developments, repercussions from the Ukraine war, and the 2024 elections.

When Donald Trump is arrested and formally charged this Tuesday for alleged crimes in New York, it will be a historic spectacle. As we all know, no U.S. president or former president has ever been charged with a crime. This unprecedented event puts the nation in uncharted, and some say, dangerous territory. To understand what this all really means, and what we can expect after Donald Trump’s historic day in court, Fernando speaks with Norm Eisen, one of Washington’s most respected legal experts.

Now an analyst with CNN, Eisen was the Special Counsel for Ethics and Government Reform in the Obama White House. He also served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic and was later appointed special counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee where he drafted the first articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. He is now a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

No one has done more to expose social media‘s threat to democracy than Frances Haugen, globally famous as the Facebook Whistleblower. Frances exposed how Facebook’s secret algorithms generated engagement by stoking hate, division, conspiracy theories and sometimes even violence.  Fernando and Frances discuss the risks social media poses to our democracy, the unique power of algorithms that shape human perception, and the ongoing risk these platforms present to a successful, democratic 2024 election.

Is the rise of authoritarianism in America real? Is democracy at risk? Just a few years ago, this would have been ridiculous. But after the rise of Donald Trump and the January 6 insurrection, fascism is no longer an old idea from history, some experts say it is a clear and present danger. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of the bestseller “Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present,” joins Fernando for a fascinating exploration of authoritarianism in the U.S. – its rising menace and what we can do about it.

Fernando also chats with Former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and political pundit Michael Steele. In the first installment of the “X-Ray Vision” interview, Steele answers an unusual battery of questions – revealing the real person behind the political title. And whether he’s a Scotch or Bourbon man.