Bob Schieffer's "about The News" With H. Andrew Schwartz

In this episode, we talk to the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos about his New Yorker piece “The Risk of Nuclear War with North Korea.” Osnos spent 5 days in late August visiting Pyongyang. His reporting on the “historic uncertainty” surrounding the U.S. and North Korea and the nuclear equation are the subject of this podcast. Download transcript here.

In this episode ABC's Jonathan Karl calls in from New York, where he's covering President Trump's visit to the UN plus a discussion about the Muller investigation.

Politico’s Josh Dawsey reported today that as a top official on President Donald Trump’s transition team, former Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn actively promoted a private-sector scheme to build dozens of nuclear reactors across the Middle East known informally in the transition as the “Marshall Plan.” But he did not publicly disclose that backers of the plan had paid him at least $25,000. We spoke with Dawsey about his scoop and about the current state of the Trump White House.

When we really want to know what’s going on deep inside the Trump White House and with the President himself, there is no one better to turn to that New York Times White House correspondent Glenn Thrush. In this interview we discuss the changes in the White House structure under new chief of staff John Kelly, the aftermath of Charlottesville, Hurricane Harvey, DACA, compromise with Chuck and Nancy and how the President is “living his life in 15 minute increments.”

Sean Spicer infamously said Politico’s star White House correspondent Tara Palmeri was “an idiot with no real sources.” We beg to differ! In this wide ranging discussion taped on the eve of President Trump’s August vaction, Bob Schieffer and Andrew Schwartz learn just how strong Palmeri’s sources are. Download transcript here.

In this episode, Bob sits down with prominent political scientist and professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Graham Allison. Allison discusses his recent book, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?, the culture of “dysfunction” in Washington, and the delicate relationship between prominent and rising world powers. Download transcript here.

In this episode we sit down with Ruth Marcus, an accomplished political columnist who has been with the Washington Post for 33 years. Ruth tells us why the Post seeks to challenge the “self-imposed siloization” of American news habits with their op-ed page, how newspaper competition is fueling good journalism, and what it’s like to write about the first “improv White House.” Download transcript here.

In this episode we talk to Playbook’s Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman, two members of the team that took the reins from Playbook’s creator Mike Allen a year ago this month. Since that time, Anna and Jake, along with Daniel Lippman, have taken Politico’s signature product and transformed it to an even larger franchise. This is a discussion about how they did that, the Trump White House and what they think is the hottest story in town—Capitol Hill. Download transcript here.

In this episode with Vox’s Ezra Klein, we discuss the Donald Trump, Jr. emails, what “collusion means” and what Klein calls “a dark time” in Washington. Download transcript here.

Reuters’ White House correspondent Jeff Mason serves double duty. In addition to covering President Trump, Jeff is the current White House Correspondents Association President. This episode of our podcast was recorded just after President Trump’s first 100 days in office when Jeff landed a key interview with the President in which he discussed the rigors of his job. It also came just after President Trump and his staff broke with tradition and declined an invitation to attend the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner. Presidential access is always a key issue for the reporters who cover the White House. This discussion with Jeff was recorded at a time when access was better than it currently is. But if we have learned one thing about the Trump White House, it’s that access is constantly changing. Download transcript here.

National Journal's George Condon has covered 9 Presidents of the United States including President Trump. Condon is regarded as the "Dean" of the White House Press Corps and we asked for his impressions of the Trump White House. Recorded on the eve of former FBI director James Comey's Capitol Hill testimony, Condon described what he calls President Trump's "Top Ten Unforced Errors" and much more. Download transcript here.

Politico's Annie Karni covers the freewheeling Trump White House, where Jared and Ivanka have their own communications apparatus and it's often hard to know who is in charge of what because it appears to change minute by minute. Annie is new to the WH beat, and is covering it with fresh eyes. Download transcript here.

The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman asks President Trump the tough questions. And while the President isn’t always a fan of the New York Times or of Maggie’s reporting, he does like Maggie as a person—he even says there are “two Maggies, the one who talks to me and the one who writes about me.” We found both Maggies to be fascinating in our interview with her. Download transcript here.

Veteran White House and investigative reporter Adam Entous of the Washington Post broke two explosive stories over the past week—that President Trump asked two of the nation’s top intelligence officials in March to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government, and, that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a private Capitol Hill conversation captured on audio tape “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia. In this riveting conversation, Entous takes us through the details of his reporting. Download transcript here.

This morning President Trump tweeted, “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” We spoke with New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker about the tumult in Washington and about the President’s upcoming foreign trip, his first as President of the United States. Download transcript here.

Just two days after President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the Washington Post White House correspondent talks about being in the hot seat as the Comey story and associated news unfolds. Download transcript here.

Less than 18 hours after the shocking news that FBI Director James Comey had been fired by President Trump, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius discusses his reporting on the White House’s action and the aftermath of its historic decision. Download transcript here.

This week, Donald Trump told Bloomberg’s Senior White House Correspondent Margaret Talev he would meet with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, that he may propose a gas tax to pay for bridge and road repairs, that he was exploring whether to break up the big banks and even suggested a health care plan more generous than Barack Obama’s for those with preexisting conditions. All in a 30 minute Oval Office interview! We asked Margaret what this whirlwind week was like and what it’s like covering President Trump. Download transcript here.

A candid conversation with authors Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen about what went wrong with Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the reporting for their best-selling book out this week “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign.” Download transcript here.

Covering the Trump White House may be the most exciting beat the New York Times’ Glenn Thrush has experienced in a career choice full of exciting assignments. In this wide ranging conversation about President Trump and his senior staff, politics and journalism, Thrush tells it like it is. Download transcript here.