Wow. What a start to the year. For those of you hoping high-stakes political drama might be confined to the 2020 presidential election, think again. In the year's opening week alone, we've heard a raging president, caught on tape, bullying state officials to fake the election result; witnessed a band of would-be coup-plotters launch an unheard-of attack on democracy; and watched a runoff election in Georgia that will decide the fate of the US Senate—and Biden's agenda. To explain the meaning of these dizzying, concurrent developments, host Jamilah King is joined by Washington DC Bureau Chief, David Corn, who provides much-needed historical background to the civil war brewing inside the Republican Party, and more.

"The guy who goes on about election fraud has been caught red-handed, trying to induce election fraud!" Corn explains during the show. "What Trump is doing is he’s trying to create a loyalty test.”

What does this Trump loyalty test mean for the future of the Republican party? Are there parallels between the Whig party’s implosion in the 1800s and the rift within today’s GOP? Could Trump face criminal charges for trying to coerce the Georgia Secretary of State to find him more votes? "What we see here is the coddling of a coup," Corn concludes. "I mean: that’s what they’re trying to do."