In 1986, Soviet leaders deliberately lied to the world about the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Putting millions at risk, the government prioritized regime stability over a public health emergency. As the death toll from the coronavirus continues to rise, we likewise see authoritarian systems suppressing information, ultimately facilitating the disease’s spread.

On this episode, Yaroslav Trofimov joined Dany and Marc to compare the Chinese response to the coronavirus with his experience as a 16-year-old boy in Kiev during Chernobyl. The three also discuss how authoritarian regimes like China’s, Iran’s, and North Korea’s contribute to the disease’s fatality rate and whether the virus’s spread will have any impact on Xi Jinping’s rule.

Yaroslav Trofimov is the chief foreign-affairs correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. He joined the Journal in 1999 and previously served as Rome, Middle East and Singapore-based Asia correspondent, as bureau chief in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as Dubai-based columnist on the greater Middle East. He is the author of two books, “Faith at War” (2005) and “Siege of Mecca” (2007).

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In their new bestselling book, “A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America,” Pulitzer Prize winning authors Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker provide detailed reporting on President Donald Trump’s character, his leadership, and his personal and political style.

Leonnig and Rucker recount a number of incidents that have come to shape perceptions of the Trump administration, including the infamous Tank meeting, Trump’s apparent ignorance of what happened at Pearl Harbor, and more. But Dany and Marc also press the authors on the president’s strengths and the qualities that may in fact make him “genius”—though perhaps not always stable.

Carol Leonnig is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and veteran investigative reporter at the Washington Post. Philip Rucker is the White House Bureau Chief at the Washington Post and part of the team of Post reporters who won the Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award for their reporting on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

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After visiting Moscow in 1988, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders praised the Soviet system and established a sister city relationship with his hometown of Burlington, Vermont. Throughout his time in office, Sanders regularly hobnobbed with and supported Communist, anti-American and anti-Israel leaders.

The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin joined the podcast to discuss Sanders’ foreign policy record and what having a democratic socialist as president would mean for American leadership abroad. He also touches on the broader Democratic field, explaining how their proposed national security policies differ from those of Donald Trump.

Josh Rogin is a columnist for the Global Opinions section of the Washington Post and a political analyst with CNN. Previously, he has covered foreign policy and national security for Bloomberg View, Newsweek, the Daily Beast, and Foreign Policy magazine, among other outlets. He was a 2011 finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and the 2011 recipient of the Interaction Award for Excellence in International Reporting.

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The UK recently announced that it would allow the Chinese telecom company Huawei to build portions of its new 5G network. The British decision shocked many US government officials, including President Trump, who had been advising against Huawei’s involvement due to national security concerns.

As members of Congress attempt to convince Parliament to reverse its decision, Dany and Marc sat down with Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) to learn more about the dangers of Huawei and the company’s links to the Chinese government. Rep. Gallagher also explains how the UK decision may affect a US-UK free trade agreement as well as the two countries’ intelligence sharing relationship.

First elected in 2016, Congressman Mike Gallagher represents Wisconsin’s 8th District in the US House of Representatives. He served in the Marine Corps for seven years and as the lead Republican staffer for Middle East, North Africa, and Counterterrorism on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rep. Gallagher holds a PhD in International Relations from Georgetown University.

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Last night, President Donald Trump delivered his third State of the Union address, touching on his administration’s foreign policy and domestic successes. Making history as the first speech delivered by a president who is about to be acquitted in an impeachment trial, Democrats responded contemptuously with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ending the night by publicly tearing up a copy of Trump’s speech.

On this episode of the podcast, Dany and Marc debrief on Trump’s SOTU, the end of the impeachment trial and its implications for Trump in 2020. Finally, with the Iowa caucus results still unannounced, Marc recounts his experience in Des Moines earlier this week and explains how the delayed results might affect Democratic candidates.

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Chinese officials have confirmed thousands of cases of the coronavirus as foreign governments continue to evacuate their citizens from the city of Wuhan, thought to be the disease’s point of origin. With multiple cases identified in America and stock prices plummeting, how worried should we be about the virus’s spread?

Dr. Scott Gottlieb joined the podcast to talk about the severity of the virus, how it compares to other coronaviruses, and the threat of a global epidemic. He also addresses the United States’ general preparedness to handle serious pandemic viruses and how Chinese authoritarianism augments the coronavirus’s spread.

Dr. Gottlieb is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He returned to AEI in 2019 after serving as the 23rd commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. He has a medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and did his residency in internal medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center.

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The Washington Post recently published the Afghanistan Papers, drawing parallels to the Vietnam War’s Pentagon Papers. Throughout the report, the Post alleges that the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations all lied to the public about America’s progress in the war in Afghanistan.

Michael O’Hanlon joined Dany and Marc to explain that the Afghanistan Papers’ narrative is fundamentally wrong. Far from a duplicitous cover up, American leaders and generals never played the war effort up as a great success for public consumption.

Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow, and director of research, in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, where is specializes in US defense strategy, the use of military force, and American national security policy. He is an adjunct professor at Colombia, Georgetown, and Syracuse universities, and was a member of the external advisory board at the CIA from 2011-12.

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In a major rebuke to China, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen won a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election. Despite trailing in the polls mere months ago, record numbers came out to support Tsai in an effort to save the country’s democracy from becoming a second Hong Kong.

Just one day after the historic election, Dany met with Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu to discuss the election results, what they mean for China, and the future of the US-Taiwan relationship. Marc and Dany also reflect on Trump’s Asia-Pacific strategy and whether he has restored deterrence in the region.

Joseph Wu has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan since February 2018. Prior to that, Wu served as the Secretary-General to the President and Secretary-General of the National Security Council. He holds a PhD from the Ohio State University and an MA from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani was killed by a US air strike in Baghdad last week, escalating tensions in the region and sparking an Iranian strike on two military bases in Iraq. Following the attack, President Trump announced new economic sanctions and said that America would no longer tolerate Iran’s campaign of terror.

Dany and Marc invited Gen. Jack Keane back on the show to provide more detail on what’s really going on between the US and Iran. He discussed the retaliatory actions Iran might take, Democrats’ reaction to Soleimani’s killing, the president’s decision-making process, and whether there truly was an “imminent” attack planned against US personnel in the region.

Gen. Jack Keane is foreign policy and national security expert who is a retired 4 star general, former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army and currently serves as the chairman of The Institute for the Study of War as well as being Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst.

Despite various domestic and foreign policy achievements, President Trump made a number of grave mistakes in 2019. He asked the president of Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden, used his emergency authority to circumvent Congress on the border wall, invited the Taliban to Camp David, and gave Turkey a greenlight to invade Syria and attack our Kurdish allies.

With the start of the new year, Dany and Marc once again joined forces to debate the ten worst things that the president did in 2019. But does the bad outweigh the good? Listen to the previous episode on the ten best things the president did in 2019 and decide for yourself!