Off The Record With Paul Hodes

In this crossover edition of Great Ideas and Beyond Politics, we take a closer look at Christian nationalism. Recently, controversial Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said that she’s a Christian nationalist...and the Republican party should be too. In fact, increasing numbers of candidates have embraced the language of Christian nationalism, if not the outright label, in the past year. But what does it actually mean? Is Christian nationalism an extreme religious and political ideology as practiced by Viktor Orbán of Hungary, or simply an expression of patriotic fervor combined with religious identity that fits into long-standing American traditions? Our guest today, Dr. Paul Miller, is a political scientist and a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is a devout Christian, a fervent patriot and military veteran, a conservative Republican, and the author of The Religion of American Greatness: What's Wrong With Christian Nationalism. And he explains why Christian nati

Late last week, a blockbuster report from Jonathan Swan of Axios detailed how former President Trump’s top allies are prepping a plan to purge the federal government. They want to remove thousands of key decision-makers and replace them with MAGA loyalists, all through an Executive Order called "Schedule F."  The report shows that even beyond the usual targets like EPA and the IRS, the Trump shadow team is targeting our entire law enforcement, intelligence, and defense apparatus. The end result? If Donald Trump were re-elected, there would no longer be any guardrail between the American people and Trump’s whims, once the core of the federal service is replaced with a new army of rabid MAGA foot soldiers. The Congressman who has been leading the fight against this threat is Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). He successfully passed an amendment in the House of Representatives to this year’s defense bill to prevent any future president from executing the Schedule F maneuver, but Republicans hope to block it in the Sen

Chris Hill, host of Motley Fool Money, explains what the low earnings reports and downward guidance from major retailers really reflects about the economy.  Does it mean that the biggest sellers see troubled times ahead, or is something else going on?  Also, why is Google forever?  And is now a good time to buy...grills?!?

Did last week mark a major crumbling in Donald Trump's pillars of support? Today, we bring you another episode of our in-depth roundtable analysis show "Balance of Power" in which we look at a not-so-subtle turn in conservative media around the former President.  Also, is it time for both parties to turn the page to a new generation? Why is one of the biggest Senate races in the country swinging toward the Democrat? And do recent revelations show that the media has been messing up the Hunter Biden story all along, or that they mostly got it right? Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash

If you’re like us and most of the Internet, you spent last week goggling at the very first, and absolutely stunning, images from the James Webb Space Telescope. These images lead us right into the most profound questions about the cosmos, and our own existence...and they help to put some of our fights, disagreements, and problems here on this pale blue dot (the kinds of things we normally cover on this show) into some proper perspective.  To give us that perspective, our guest is Dr. John Mather, Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. In 2006, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) which helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe. According to the Nobel Prize committee, "the COBE project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science." In 2007, Mather was listed among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.  ***Note: we had low audio quality on Matt's portion of

Also, have the January 6 hearings been valuable? Are in-party challengers emerging for Trump and Biden? And will the horrifying Ohio case and similar tragedies that are surely coming change the impact of the Dobbs decision for voters?

Mark Bergman has advised some of America's best-known political leaders on effective messaging...and he's worried. We need to do better among non-college educated voters, but he says that "the Democratic Party is not giving them an option and an economic alternative. They agree with us on all these other issues, but the Democratic party needs an economic message. Can you tell me what it is? I couldn't."  Mark and Matt run through how things are shaping up not just for the midterms but beyond, and how Democrats can start to make more inroads with the voters that they desperately need. Photo by Max LaRochelle on Unsplash

Chris Hill of Motley Fool Money explains what's going on with the Elon-Twitter deal meltdown.  Also, the economy is looking up, and expectations are super low, so could we be in for a market surge on even meh earnings reports? And a huge summer movie benchmark for Hollywood.

A spat between the White House and progressives was followed in short order by a slew of stories about whether Biden is too old to run again.  Coincidence? Also, should the nomination process become a reality show? Is there really room for a centrist party in America?  And is there a Constitutional right to eat dinner?

Paul and Kevin Landrigan cover the front page New York Times article about awakening democracy in Croydon, New Hampshire. The town rose up, shook itself off, and organized to confront Free Staters who had taken advantage of citizen complacency. They also cover the race for NH  Governor. A new poll from Democratic candidate Senator Tom Sherman gives him a shot with abortion politics as the driving issue.

Mark Putnam has helped to elect 11 governors, 10 senators and dozens of House members. He may be best known for the fact that when Barack Obama had enough money in 2008 to produce not a 30 second ad but a 30-minute film, he turned to Mark Putnam to direct it. According to the Washington Post, Mark has “a reputation in Beltway circles as the go-to guy for candidates running tough races in red states.” So as the Democrats face down an election cycle with nothing but tough races, Mark joins the show to tell some amazing stories from his decades behind the camera working with America's top leaders.  Plus, he reveals his hints for how to make an effective ad in this day and age and what Democrats need to do in 2022 and beyond.

Privacy experts and pro-choice advocates are trying to get a handle on a new threat in post-Dobbs America: that our online behavior in apps, searches, or even just keeping our phones in in our pocket at the wrong time could send women or doctors to jail. Its a wild west of data collection and sale out there, and the new patchwork of abortion laws across states could mean that our digital footprints create very real legal perils.  What if you need an abortion and you're in a state like Texas that puts a bounty on you?  What if there's a new law that allows prosecutors to go after doctors if they provide care to women crossing state lines from states where abortion is restricted? How much information are we putting out, who might get it, and how might it be used against us?  Rob Shavell, CEO of digital privacy provider Abine, joins to explain this emerging issue. Photo by Rahul Chakraborty on Unsplash

From time to time, Paul and Matt take a step back to look more deeply at a few topics, and in this episode, we examine the narrative about January 6 Committee star witness Cassidy Hutchinson's age, and what role young professionals really play in Washington.  Are they bystanders, or the power behind the thrones? [hint: it depends].  Also, Mitt Romney's widely-discussed piece in the Atlantic claims that "America is in Denial."  Is it actually Mitt who is in denial? Or does he have an important point?

From time to time, we all need a break from the news, current events, and politics.On this show, the way we do that is to go way, way beyond politics every few months and hear about what's going on at the frontier of human discovery in space. Today we talk about the amazing views of all the planets in our solar system available in the sky right now, the first image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy, the plan to return to the moon and send humans to Mars, and a postcard from interstellar space and decades ago from the Voyager spacecraft. Our guest is "The SKYGUY," John S. Gianforte, an Astronomer and Director of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Observatory.

We welcome back two friends of the show, Mario Broussard and Alex Ivey who are senior vice president and vice president of research respectively at Global Strategy Group, one of the premier polling, research, and public affairs companies in America. Mario and Alex have just released the latest edition of their fascinating research project The Melting Pot: An Ongoing Look at Racial Politics in America, which is intended to take the temperature of Black America on political issues, social attitudes, and voting behavior. 

In the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning a constitutional right to abortion, we wanted to re-release a discussion we had two months ago with Dr. Randall Balmer of Dartmouth College about the real history of the religious right's crusade against abortion. Because this moment is the direct result of a tactical decision that religious conservatives almost stumbled into 44 years ago. In fact, Dr. Balmer says that under closer examination, the real driver of the story at the time was not really abortion at all. It was segregation. Dr. Balmer joins us to explain what actually happened, and why it matters so much today.

As we were recording another show, news broke about the Dobbs decision that overturns the right to abortion in America. Our panel -- featuring former Democratic Congressman Paul Hodes, conservative commentator Alicia Preston, and political analyst Matt Robison -- immediately switched in real time to discussing the decision.  Alicia provides a pro-life view, but with an empathetic response from those who will be enraged by the decision. Paul weighs in to ask what rights are next?  And Matt raises the question of just how radical the strict originalist cult on the Supreme Court is.

Ruby Freeman is the new face of the attack on American democracy. She is one of the critical people who helps make elections work.  Donald Trump falsely accused Ruby and her daughter, both former election workers in Georgia, of election fraud. This week, she testified that “There was nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere. Do you know how it feels to  have the president of the United States to target you? The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American, not to target one. But he targeted me.” If we want to preserve our system of elections, we need to have the people in place -- unbiased, patriotic, fair-minded people -- to run them. Two months ago I wrote an article arguing that people who really cared about protecting American democracy needed to start paying a lot more attention to people like Ruby who make our elections work. I pointed out that there are not-for-profit organizations that will help you get involved, say if you are interested in being a poll worker, or helping to k

Right before recording our show yesterday with NBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade, Matt joined legendary West Virginia radio broadcaster Howard Monroe for a quick conversation about the January 6 hearings, in which he previewed the emerging argument that January 6 was a big deal, but from a legal standpoint may now take a back seat to everything that preceded it.  Because as rofessor McQuade argued, there are two ways to prosecute Donald Trump and his co-conspirators that have almost nothing to do with the attack on January 6, and they both have a growing stack of proof to support them.  Howard and Matt get into what that case is and why we may be entering a new phase of thinking about the investigation in this quick bonus pod.  

Last week's Congressional hearings were as riveting and disturbing as any testimony that has ever occurred in the US Congress. The picture has now become much sharper and much uglier about the true danger on January 6, the wild scheme to overturn the election that built for months, the fact that the plot was occurring at the highest levels of government, and most of all that President Donald Trump was told repeatedly, in the words of the former Attorney General of the United States William Barr, that his false election claims and the illegal scheme to keep him in power was all "bullshit." And yet, he tried to stage a coup anyway. In fact, perhaps most surprising, the January 6 attack may not even matter when comes down to the question of whether Donald Trump will be prosecuted. We unpack all of this with Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and the former U.S attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan - the first woman to serve in her position. She’s also a legal analyst for NBC N