Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast
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Daily thoughtful conversation about the latest news and politics.
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Explosive reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle made public sexual assault allegations against California Representative (and erstwhile candidate for governor) Eric Swalwell.
On Today's Show:Jane Manning, director at Women's Equal Justice and former sex crimes prosecutor, explains why the Manhattan D.A. is investigating him, and how this case may shed light on what she says are New York's antiquated sexual assault laws.
Prompted by unfounded internet speculations, the First Lady made a public statement last week that she had no ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
On Today's Show:Vicky Ward, investigative journalist, host of the Chasing Ghislaine podcast and author of books including Kushner, Inc. (St. Martin's Press, 2019) and, with James Patterson, The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy (Little, Brown and Company, 2025), talks about Melania Trump's announcement denouncing Jeffrey Epstein and delves into the relationship between the First Lady, Epstein, and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
Two days into a ceasefire with Iran, we take stock of how the conflict has reshaped the region's geopolitics.
On Today's Show:Ishaan Tharoor, a contributor to The New Yorker, formerly a foreign affairs columnist at The Washington Post, discusses Trump's approach to Iran, how the White House has 'never fully understood' the war it started, and what it could mean for the success, or failure, of the ceasefire.
There are limits of conflict jurisprudence and how leaders in the U.S., Israel and Iran think about following, or skirting, the rules about what constitutes 'war crimes.'
On today's show:
Former Lt. Col. Rachel E. VanLandingham, national security law expert, law professor at Southwestern Law School, and former chief legal advisor for international law at U.S. Central Command, where she advised on operational and international legal issues related to the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Eliav Lieblich, faculty of international law at Tel-Aviv University, explain international law as it applies to the war with Iran.
President Trump recently said it was "not possible" for the federal government to fund Medicaid and Medicare, despite a White House budget proposal that boosts defense spending to $1.5 trillion.
On today's show:
Maya Goldman, healthcare reporter at Axios, unpacks what that means for the millions of Americans who rely on those programs and the states who'll have to fill the gaps.
On Today's Show:Sarah Fitzpatrick, staff writer at The Atlantic covering national security and the Department of Justice, discusses the latest news from the U.S. military, including President Trump's revised deadline and some of the risks of the current Pentagon strategy.
Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after participating in protests near Columbia University, was recently released on bond after a year in at the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas.
On Today's Show:
She discusses what she endured in the detention facility under conditions that she describes as "horrific," joined by her attorney Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a clinical associate professor at Boston University School of Law.
President Donald Trump spoke to the nation about the war in Iran on Wednesday evening. He said that the war was nearing completion and threatened to bomb Iran "back to the stone ages." On today's show: Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) reacts to those remarks.
On Today's Show:Jonathan Lemire, co-host of Morning Joe on MSNOW, writer for MSNOW and contributing writer to The Atlantic, talks about the latest developments in national politics, including President Donald Trump's executive order attempting to change rules for mail-in voting.
As Passover begins, a look at the divergent views on Israel from within Jewish American communities and families.
On Today's Show:Eyal Press, contributing writer to The New Yorker, shares his reporting on how disagreements over Israel, Gaza and Zionism itself are dividing synagogues, Jewish families and communities across America.
With all the national and international politics at play, an influential local senator shares his thoughts and takes calls from constituents on the issues.
On Today's Show:
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, author of Stand (St. Martin’s Press, 2026) weaves history, personal stories and current politics into a defense of principles as a way of facing crises.
The Senate voted overnight to fund key parts of the Department of Homeland Security, including TSA.
On Today's Show:Evan McMorris-Santoro, national politics reporter at NOTUS and co-author of the NOTUS daily newsletter, and Mary Clare Jalonick, congressional reporter for The Associated Press and the author of Storm at the Capitol: An Oral History of January 6th (PublicAffairs, 2026), talk about what has to happen next to end the crisis at airports, the status of the SAVE Act and more.
Ceasefire negotiations over the war in Iran continue, and so do reports of possible escalation.
On Today's Show:Kian Tajbakhsh, Iranian-American scholar, visiting professor of international relations at New York University, fellow of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University and former political prisoner, and William Christou, Middle East reporter for The Guardian, break down the latest on U.S.-Iran negotiation efforts, and offers analysis and insight into the state of the war.
After Tuesday's oral arguments in Watson v. Republican National Committee on Tuesday, the Supreme Court appears likely to overhaul the way many states count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day but are postmarked before the deadline.
On Today's Show:Carrie Levine, editor-in-chief of Votebeat, talks about the impact of that change.
Donald Trump's relationship with the rule of law, and with various investigative bodies has always been tense, at best.
On Today's Show:Andrew Weissmann, professor of practice at NYU School of Law, co-host of the podcast Main Justice and and the co-author of The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024), draws on his experience working with Robert Mueller to reflect on his legacy after his death this past weekend at age 81, and discusses President Trump's recent actions through a legal lens.
Oil prices jumped after overnight attacks on energy facilities in Iran and Qatar.
On Today's Show:John Heilemann, chief political columnist at Puck and host of the podcast "Impolitic with John Heilemann, " and senior national affairs analyst for MS NOW, talks about the latest developments in the war in Iran and the Trump-Netanyahu relationship.
On Today's Show:Daniel Immerwahr, historian, contributing writer at The New Yorker, the Bergen Evans Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University and the author of How to Hide an Empire (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019), offers historical context on the war in Iran and Trump's overall foreign policy.
With leadership changes at the Department of Homeland Security, how have conditions changed for migrants in detention centers?
On Today's Show:Jonathan Blitzer, New Yorker staff writer and the author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis (Penguin Press, 2024), talks about the scale of the U.S. immigrant detention program, health and safety issues and expansion plans, following the firing of DHS Sec. Kristi Noem.
As the war in Iran enters its third week, how have structural changes at the Pentagon impacted the U.S. military apparatus?
On Today's Show:Dan Lamothe, U.S. military and Pentagon reporter at The Washington Post, shares his reporting on the latest U.S. military actions in Iran, especially what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz, and more.
With President Trump's agenda including massive priorities like the SAVE act, and the war in Iran, a look at recent news from Congress.
On Today's Show:Burgess Everett, congressional bureau chief for Semafor, talks about the latest news out of Congress this week, including a bipartisan housing bill that passed the Senate, the president's push for the SAVE Act and more.
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because Dems love voter fraud
I am very confused. why did we just listen to him say the days and dates?
seems to me that if they weren't a danger to anyone, then they should have never been incarcerated in the first place.
we need to support our health care workers who have children and other family responsibilities
trump's Russian playbook
3 minutes in and I am very confused.....
i call false equivalency. the dems level of desire for witnesses in the clinton impeachment versus the trump impeachment are apples and oranges, and not, as you say, a product of political expediency. the clinton impeachment senate had special prosecutor starr's ~massive~ investigation to work from, which included an enormous number of depositions from any and all witnesses, along with infamous reams of documents. in the trump case, the house was forced to do the investigation on their own, and were denied access to almost every single document and witness. so obviously, witnesses are a magnitude more essential now than before.
I'm thinking that when trump says to his sycophants that he needs a big tough guy event that segways into his rallies , a kickoff to his 2020 campaign, they think this Iranian general is the ticket. they could blow him up, surgically, with no collateral damage, and insto presto trump's next political ad shoots itself. how shortsighted...this one act has taken a divided Iran and unified them under 1 bloody ideology of America's destruction. way to go trump.
Jesus of Nazareth was accused of blasphemy, not treason.
yes
This Is true Xmas cheer! “When this comes out...Ukraine will look like spilt milk“ Michael Moore.
she sounds rational but I don't trust it
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
who knows what the truth is but this is seriously the craziest saga with really bad actors who keep acting bad
Ok...so does this mean Michael Isikoff is saying "nevermind" to his own book? Since apparently nothing in the Steele dossier is corroborated?
just found this show and I must say that in the midst of severe division and ugliness that pervades us currently, this show presented a constitutional perspective that really adds to this conversation of impeachment. thanks and great work.
Hilarious and expected that you only interview liberals. Can you get anymore biased??? #FakeNews #Trump2020 #AMERICAFirst #BuildTheWall #EndLiberalism
Just say something for something else. Translate the Latin & have done with it.