Eye on Congress:The Big Story

When we started this podcast in January 2018, we were not thinking about whether it would make it to 200 episodes. Then again, we didn’t think we get reprimanded by Werner Herzog, either. So, borrowing from the “How it Started, How it’s going” meme, here’s Episode 200! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heading into the 2022 midterm elections, history and redistricting favor House Republicans. But even with built-in advantages, there are some wild cards to consider, particularly former President Donald Trump’s effect and some internal party drama that threatens to spill into public view. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark McKinnon, long-time political adviser and current co-host of the Showtime political documentary series The Circus joins Political Theater to discuss President Joe Biden’s approach to the art of the possible, the president's move from transitional to transformational figure, the “Manch Cam” focus on West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III and how politics has “snorted a bag of methamphetamines.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jaime Harrison gained national attention last year when he broke fundraising records running against South Carolina incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham. While Harrison didn't win the election, his candidacy gave notice that the Old South is now the New South. Curtis sits down with the DNC Chair and talks race, his grandfather's life lesson, and what 2022 -- yes 2022 -- may hold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's no secret that in the corridors of power there is a struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party. While Joe Biden won the presidency, there certainly wasn't a blue wave. Moreover, House Democrats lost seats, and while they hold a slim-majority in the Senate, infighting in the party has presented challenges in President Biden's agenda. CQ Roll Call's Shawn Zeller speaks to Donna Shalala and Ben McAdams, Democrats who lost their seats, to talk about why and what's next for the party. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United States is amid a period of self-reflection and contentious debate on race relations and President Joe Biden is leaning into it. Rashawn Ray, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and sociology professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, discusses Biden’s practical and personal approach to race relations, from executive orders to listening, from promoting legislation to grieving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rep. Mike Johnson is emblematic of the Republican Party of which he is now, in his third House term, and a leading member. He joined fellow Republicans in January in backing the former president's campaign to overturn state election results. More than 60 percent of voters in his northwest Louisiana district voted for Trump and Johnson views Trump as the party’s most important voice. He sits down this week with CQ Roll Call's Shawn Zeller, in for Jason Dick, who originally had this conversation for CQ Future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Unified control of the White House and Congress does not happen all that often. We are in one of those periods now, with President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats in the majority in the House and Senate. And they are pursuing policy like they know they know their time is limited. Political Theater host Jason Dick discusses why unified control is so rare and what are the political consequences with Molly E. Reynolds of the Brookings Institution and CQ Roll Call Politics Editor Herb Jackson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week marks the 11th anniversary of Barack Obama’s signing of the Affordable Care Act, something Joe Biden, then the vice president, now the president, famously described as a “Big F-ing Deal.” He was right. It is one of the signature moments in American health care policy, along with the passage of Medicare and Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Political Theater host Jason Dick and CQ Roll Call Health Editor Rebecca Adams discuss those big moments and their public health and political effects in the latest podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Native Americans have long had a contentious relationship with the Interior Department. Now one of their own is at the helm of it, Deb Haaland, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna. It was only in 2018 that the New Mexico Democrat made history as one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. Now she is the first Native American to head a Cabinet department. Carla Fredericks, executive director of the Christensen Fund and an expert on indigenous people’s rights, discusses the significance of Haaland’s stewardship of the department that holds vast sway on land use, energy and Native American issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Political Theater takes stock of the changes in Congress and how it operates, which of those will be lasting, which are fleeting, and what are some of the lingering uncertainties of political life as lawmakers figure out how to keep responding to the pandemic and its challenges while keeping safe and trying to get us to the next phase of our lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Look no further than Congress to hear gripes about gridlock and the lack of bipartisanship. But based on whom the voters are sending to Washington, it’s not a big shock: Barely a statistically significant number of members of Congress represent House districts or Senate seats that voted for someone in the other political party for president. CQ Roll Call Elections Analyst and Inside Elections Publisher Nathan Gonzales and Political Theater host Jason Dick discuss a trend that is pushing the partisanship and punishing problem solvers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been a busy few years for Rep. Madeleine Dean, the Pennsylvania Democrat elected to the House in 2018. The lawyer and professor was part of a historic wave of women elected who put the chamber back in Democratic control. She wrote a book with her son about his opioid addiction. She served as an impeachment manager for the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. And she is now being mentioned as a possible Senate contender for the seat that retiring Republican Pat Toomey is vacating in 2022. Jim Saksa talked to Dean and her son Harry Cunnane about their new book, “Under Our Roof.” And then we discuss with Saksa and Bridget Bowman about where Dean fits into Pennsylvania politics on the latest Political Theater podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite the high drama and hard feelings associated with the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, it’s unclear it will have an effect on the political coin of the realm: The next election. Senior politics correspondent Bridget Bowman and Political Editor Herb Jackson discuss some of the remaining questions about whether their votes during this latest impeachment round will come back to haunt any senators or members of the House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Showtime’s political documentary series “The Circus” wants to capture, in the words of co-host John Heilemann, the “big, giant chaotic, nightmarish stew” of our politics. At Political Theater, we’re pretty down with that. Heilemann and co-host Jennifer Palmieri join the podcast to discuss their approach to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, political violence and democracy’s “second chance.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amid a pandemic, an impeachment trial, an economic crisis and the fallout over the Jan. 6 armed attack on the Capitol, Congress is trying to figure out how much enhanced security, and in what form, is necessary to protect lawmakers, staff and eventually the public, who at some point will be let back onto the complex. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton speaks to us about balancing the needs of security and access. And Katherine Tully McManus talks about her discussions with House Appropriations Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro about how to fund what Congress needs to stay safe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris discusses his latest movie, "My Psychedelic Love Story," history as chaos, whether Donald Trump believes his own lies, the power of first person narrative and whether any of us can ever be reliable narrators. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The presidency of Donald Trump is over. The presidency of Joe Biden has started. The inauguration happened -- against all odds, is how one staffer succintly put it. Despite a pandemic, an attack on the Capitol, unprecedented security and uncertainty, the show went on. Listen to the members of Congress, guests, volunteers, staffers and our own team about the long transition that is now, officially, over. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Presidential inauguration historian Jim Bendat discusses the unprecedented preparations of Wednesday's inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, from the unnerving amount of security in the wake of the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol to Donald Trump's decision to snub the ceremony, from the symbolism of some of the performers to the importance of persevering in democracy's rituals amid tragedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Washington gears up to host the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States next week, the country is on edge. After the insurrection on January 6 on the Capitol and lawmakers, security officials are leaving nothing to chance. The city is in lockdown. So on the last Friday of President Trump's term we ask what next? CQ Roll Call's Jim Saksa speaks to election analyst Nathan Gonzales about the future of the GOP. We also speak to chief Washington correspondent Niels Lesniewski about what to expect from President-elect Joe Biden after he is sworn in.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices