According to most major surveys, Republican candidates for the US House of Representatives have a tough hill to climb in November in districts   without overwhelming support for the President. Attempting to put some daylight between them and Trump to appeal to independents, while not alienating the President’s core base of supporters is no small task.  But in an article published Oct. 2 entitled “The double lives of vulnerable House Republicans: A recording obtained by POLITICO highlights the conflicting advice GOP members in tough districts are getting,” Rachael Bade reveals that some members of the House’s right-wing Freedom Caucus, namely Virginia Congressman Dave Brat, appear to be attempting to have it both ways—painting themselves as moderate Republicans while praising extreme right views and personalities at private campaign rallies. On this week’s TrumpWatch, Rachel considers what this phenomenon means for the 2018 election.

Much of the mainstream news coverage about President Trump’s second address to the United Nations General Assembly focused on the waves of  laughter heard in the audience of world leaders after he made the claim that he “has accomplished more than almost any administration in the  history of our country.” But, after telling the crowd he “didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s okay,” the President proceeded to lay out a plan for US foreign policy more isolationist than anything seen from the US in decades. On this week’s TrumpWatch, White House reporter David Nakamura of the Washington Post examines the greater significance of what was said in President Trump’s speech and what it means for US foreign policy moving forward.

Back in July, when President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, he appeared poised to sail through his Senate confirmation hearing thanks to a solid Republican majority. Yet, days before the Senate vote on Kavanaugh ascending to the high court, a confidential letter sent to Sen. Diane Feinstein written by Clinical Psychology Professor at Palo Alto University Christine Blasey Ford alleged that  the Supreme Court nominee attacked her and tried to remove her clothing  while he was drunk at a party in 1982 when they were both high school students, allegations Kavanaugh has told Reuters were “completely false." On this week’s TrumpWatch, Stef W. Kight of Axios considers whether the allegations could sink Kavanaugh's nomination. 

Though his backstory is largely unknown, Vice President Mike Pence is often portrayed as the rational tactician, a mirror image to President  Trump’s unrestrained id. But in his new book "The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence,” co-written with Michael D'Antonio, Peter Eisner  pushes back on this public perception and fleshes out the VP’s backstory with results that are illuminating. A former political editor for the Washington Post, Peter looks at exactly who Mike Pence is and what has motivated him in his career path in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

On this week’s TrumpWatch, health and environment reporter Sharon Lerner of The Intercept discusses her latest article “How a DuPont Spinoff Lobbied the EPA to Stave Off the Use of Environmentally Friendly Coolants” and explains how a new generation of DuPont coolants could threaten public safety for decades to come. 

On Tuesday, US Court of Appeals judge for the DC Circuit Brett Kavanaugh will head to Capitol Hill for his Senate confirmation hearing to become  the next US Supreme Court justice. But as Kavanaugh appears poised to sail through the Senate thanks to a narrow Republican majority in the Senate, a new report from the nonprofit organization Public Citizen has uncovered a striking pattern of deference to corporate power in his 12 years as an appellate judge. In this episode of TrumpWatch, Mother Jones staff writer Stephanie Mencimer discusses her August 29 article “Study says Brett Kavanaugh Inevitably Rules for Whoever Is More Powerful” and examines the ways that the Supreme Court could shift if he is confirmed.

“I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew  [President Trump’s senior advisor for policy Stephen Miller], an educated man who is well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country,” writes Dr. David S. Glosser in his August 13 op-ed for the online publication POLITICO entitled "Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle." A retired neuropsychologist and former faculty member of Boston University School of Medicine and Jefferson Medical College, Dr. Glosser felt he could no longer remain silent on the Trump administration's immigration policies which Miller helped to formulate and that he felt would have kept his own relatives out of the country. On this week's TrumpWatch, Dr. Glosser talks about what drove him to write a scathing indictment of his own nephew and shares the migration story of of Stephen Miller’s family.

In this episode of  TrumpWatch, Professor of Politics at Occidental College Peter Dreier discusses his article for the nonprofit online publication Rewire.News entitled “Want White Working Class Voters to Support Democrats? Strengthen Unions” and explains why statistical data prove that labor unions hold the key to  Democrats succeeding at the ballot box in 2020 and beyond.

President Donald Trump tweeted back in March that “trade wars are good and easy to win.” But from alienating America’s closest allies to his increasingly hard-line rhetoric towards China and Iran, is the President making irreversible changes to the global economy? On this week’s TrumpWatch, US economics editor for The Economist and co-host of the weekly podcast “Trade Talks” Soumaya Keynes considers what it means that “the world trading system is under attack,” as the title of one of her recent articles reads, and what the permanent fallout could be.

In less than two weeks, Republicans in Congress have put forth 12 different measures aiming at loosening enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. As reported by Mother Jones assistant editor Jackie Flynn Mogensen, “on Thursday, the House passed an Interior appropriations bill that would  cut funding for environmental and science programs by $400 million, prohibit funding to introduce grizzly bears into the North Cascades (one of only five grizzly ‘recovery zones’) and remove the gray wolf from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife under federal law.” On this week’s TrumpWatch, Jackie describes multitude of ways that GOP lawmakers are attempting to loosen protections for animals facing extinction.