Eye on Congress:The Big Story

It might be early in the 2024 election season, but that doesn't mean there aren't significant events, candidates, polling and topics to tune into. Nathan Gonzales, Roll Call’s elections analyst and the publisher of Inside Elections, joins the podcast to discuss why it's so important to pay attention to what's going on now.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just when you think the State of the Union address is played out, we get one like Tuesday's: A call and response of political spectacle that very clearly defined differences in policy and approach between Democrats and Republicans, and might have previewed the 2024 campaign ahead for President Joe Biden and the GOP. Niels Lesniewski and Jim Saksa join the podcast to discuss the raucous caucus.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we say “Hollywood,” it’s kind of like saying “Washington.” There’s more that makes up these places than just – these places. In many cases, the people who make things go in Hollywood, like in Washington, come from somewhere else, and they land in those places after long professional or personal journeys that start all over the globe. And sometimes those Hollywood scripts start in a place like Washington, where people toil in a variety of pursuits. Political Theater talks to three of those people today on Political Theater, denizens of the DMV, creatures of Washington, whose work just might land them in Hollywood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s a reliable plotline. Old, battle-hardened wrestler left for dead and in exile mounts a comeback, looking to vanquish the people who always seem to underestimate him. Of course, we’re talking about Donald Trump. Or Vince McMahon. Or both. With us to discuss wrestling in politics and politics in wrestling is Brandon Wetherbee, host of the You Me Them Everybody Podcast, founder of Recommend if You Like magazine and co-author, with Chris Kelly, of the book, The Donald: How Trump Turned Presidential Politics into Pro Wrestling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The flag of the United States is a worldwide icon. It’s a symbol of liberty with a complicated history. “The Flagmakers” a documentary from veteran filmmakers Sharon Liese and Cynthia Wade, profiles the people at Eder Flags in Wisconsin, a major manufacturer of flags and flagpoles in the United States. They are a diverse lot, in an influential, swing state, and they represent the tapestry of American society, all while they literally stitch together the tapestry that is the American flag.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Brent Spence Bridge over the Ohio River has long been a symbol of the country's crumbling infrastructure, a familiar prop politicians used as backdrop to call for needed repairs. Now through bipartisan legislation, the old bridge is finally getting a $1.6 billion makeover. And this week, while the House plunged into chaos over the election of its speaker, President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell gathered at the bridge to tout their records and offer a preview of the bipartisan approach that will be necessary to address the country's difficulties in the months and years ahead.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dror Moreh’s documentary “The Corridors of Power” is a chronicle of the American response to genocide in modern times. It combines difficult footage of atrocities and violence with Moreh’s one-on-one interviews with powerful U.S. officials, from such iconic figures as Colin Powell and Madeline Albright to contemporary ones who are still serving at the highest levels of government like Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Heineman is one of the pre-eminent documentary filmmakers working, and his movies have provided ground level views of the world not available to many: drug cartels in Mexico, journalists working in the Syrian civil war and COVID-19 wards in New York in the early days of the pandemic. His latest project “Retrograde” captures the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan last year, and the ensuing fallout among the Afghan military personnel left to fight the Taliban. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Dec. 6, the last race of the 2022 campaign will conclude, when voting in Georgia ends in the runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. This campaign has been close since the get-go; It is the first time the major parties have nominated Black men to run against each other in Georgia, and who these two are and where they come from means a lot to the state. Joining us on Political Theater is Clyde McGrady, an enterprise reporter at the New York Times (and former reporter at Roll Call), who has deep connections to Georgia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Things we know about the 2022 midterms: There will be a House Republican majority and a Senate Democratic majority. Elections went pretty smoothly. Incumbents for the most part held on. Things we don't know: How big those majorities will be. What governing will look like in the coming 118th Congress. And what lessons public officials will take away from an anomalous campaign. Roll Call Elections Analyst Nathan L. Gonzales joins the podcast.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we prepare for Election Day, what are the things we know that we know about the 2022 midterm election? As the late Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once said, there are known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. Let's apply that to this campaign season with Nathan L. Gonzales, Roll Call’s election analyst and the publisher of Inside Elections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history of The Lincoln Project is a flash point in contemporary politics. A superPAC founded by high-profile Republican strategists who opposed then-President Donald Trump, the group set out to peel away GOP voters and deny Trump a second term in 2020. Filmmakers Karim Amer and Fisher Stevens chronicled their campaign and its aftermath in their documentary series "The Lincoln Project" on Showtime. The two discuss their project and the upcoming midterm election on Political Theater. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There has never been a better time to see how elections work. With intense interest in campaigns, and with the foundations of representative democracy at stake, filmmakers Sara Archambault and Margo Guernsey have brought us “No Time to Fail,” a behind-the-scenes look at the 2020 election that chronicles the experiences of election officials in Rhode Island, from the state level to the cities of Providence, Cranston and Central Falls. Navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, disinformation and threats spurred by former President Donald Trump’s baseless accusations of fraud, the documentary shows how public servants ensure voters are able to just, simply, vote.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress is in its pre-election recess lull. The president is signing a bunch of bills people can’t remember. But the Supreme Court is running at full speed. Its last term is defined by the overturning of Roe versus Wade and the nationwide right to an abortion. The current term will likely continue redefining Americans’ participation in state and federal government and elections. Since the court convened, on the first Monday of October, it has already heard highly significant cases. With us to discuss is Todd Ruger, CQ Roll Call’s Legal Affairs Editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell prefers to work behind the scenes. Rick Scott, chairman of Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is an outspoken, outgoing salesman for the GOP. Like with Neil Simon's "Odd Couple" -- Felix the neat freak and Oscar the slob -- we're asking: Can McConnell and Scott live together without driving each other crazy? Roll Call Editor at Large John Bennett, joins Political Theater to discuss this key duo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elections always come down to a choice. Someone wins, someone loses, and Roll Call has long chronicled the path to Election Day by reporting on Congress' most vulnerable incumbents. It’s an evolving cast, and with roughly a month-and-half to go, we take measure on Political Theater with our Politics Team, Herb Jackson, Kate Ackley and Mary Ellen McIntire.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmaker Sierra Pettengill’s documentary, “Riotsville, USA,” examines the history of the government’s efforts to crack down on protest movements. The title refers to the ersatz towns the military built for counter-protest training, and the film's archival approach is a chronicle and meditation on politics then and now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Politics works in patterns. But we might be in one of those outlier election cycles, when politics don’t always match up with typical narratives. Roll Call Elections Analyst Nathan L. Gonzales joins the Political Theater podcast to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

August can be a strange month, especially in a place like Washington. On one hand, things are slow. Congress goes on recess. People take vacations. On the other hand, kids head back to school. It’s peak political primary season. How different is it from other places? Brandon Wetherbee of Recommend If You Like magazine drops by to riff on the dog days, the Cubs’ microphone system, Michael Keaton, Dan Snyder and lost movies, among other topics.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda Becker is a veteran political journalist. The Washington correspondent for The 19th News has covered a variety of beats here in The Swamp over the last decade-plus for her current newsroom, as well as Reuters, and, once upon a time, for Roll Call. She is about to move to the Boston area to start one of journalism’s most prestigious fellowships, the Nieman, was kind enough to discuss some of her reflections on the job of political reporting, what she hopes to get out of her fellowship and any other odds and ends at this inflection point for her career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices