michael isikoff
Yahoo News'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Crime and punishment' (with Bill Bratton) — June 17, 2021
What is the cause of the nationwide rise in violent crime? Veteran New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton joins hosts Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti to discuss the rise in crime and to comment on the national conversation about the role of police. Bratton shares his thoughts on what reforms are needed, which ones he’s against and the impact of the “defund the police” movement on officer morale. He also has some things to say about his former boss Rudy Giuliani.
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'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'The untaxed rich (with ProPublica’s Stephen Engelberg)' — June 11, 2021
The ultrarich have ways of avoiding paying income tax that regular people simply don’t have access to. This unfair balance-tipping is the subject of new reporting by ProPublica investigators, whose sources furnished them with a trove of data revealing the secrets of the megawealthy. ProPublica editor in chief Stephen Engelberg joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti to discuss their reporting.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'The "enemy of the people" (with Len Downie)' — June 5, 2021
Len Downie's career at the Washington Post lasted more than 40 years and culminated with a stint as executive editor, ending in 2008. In light of the shocking news that Trump's DOJ pursued the acquisition of email data from several New York Times reporters, and a gag order on Times leadership, Downie joins Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman on this episode to discuss the role of the free press, the evolving nature and technology of the media, and the Trump administration's antagonistic relationship with the media — as well as to look back on highlights from his storied career.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Let’s play Hardball (with Chris Matthews)' — June 3, 2021
Chris Matthews surprised his audience one evening in March 2020 by suddenly stepping down from MSNBC’s “Hardball,” the political roundtable he’d hosted for more than 20 years. Matthews, whose new book, This Country: My Life in Politics and History, comes out this week, joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti to discuss the role of the media in politics, how the political polarization of today compares to the Reagan era and Matthews’s abrupt departure from his program.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'America the Fallen (with Ben Rhodes)' — May 29, 2021
Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security advisor to Barack Obama, co-host of the "Pod Save the World" podcast, and author of the new book "After the Fall," joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss many aspects of domestic and foreign policy, including the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, the global influence of presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, and several of the sweeping legislative proposals before Congress today.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Inside the Secret Service' — May 27, 2021
Washington Post reporter and author Carol Leonnig has spent years talking to individuals inside the Secret Service, and her new book, "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service," paints a picture of a toxic and confused culture inside the agency. Leonnig joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'The Postal Service's surveillance program' — May 20, 2021
Based on the dogged reporting of investigative journalist and Yahoo News contributor Jana Winter, Americans have recently learned about the covert internet surveillance operation being inexplicably run out of the U.S. Postal Service. The operation, charmingly dubbed “iCop,” targets citizens’ social media posts, and both the exact ends of this invasive effort and the legal authority under which it exists are unknown. Winter joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss the fruits of her reporting and the implications of her findings and to ask why Democrats have not risen to the occasion to protect their constituents. Plus, author Brad Stone joins to talk about his new book, Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'The Republican party’s civil war' (with Barbara Comstock) — May 15, 2021
Former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, R-Va., joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss this internecine struggle in the GOP, as well as to give her take on the ostracization of Liz Cheney and coronation of Elise Stefanik, based on her personal relationships with both women. She details her vision for a reformed, policy-driven post-Trump Republican party. But is that what Republican voters want?
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'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Did Eddie Gallagher cross the line?' (with Dan Taberski) — May 11, 2021
The 2019 trial of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher gripped the nation due to the heinousness of the crimes of which he was accused. And though the SEAL platoon leader was charged with the 2017 murder of an Iraqi detainee, he was acquitted of all charges but one — posing in a photo with a young dead Iraqi man. However, over the course of the six episodes of the new podcast “The Line,” written and produced by Dan Taberski, the story of how that man died becomes much, much more complicated. Taberski joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to discuss his podcast and its shocking new revelations, as well as the culture of the military’s elite special operators that Taberski spent so much time learning about firsthand through the community of SEALs he spoke with for the show. What are the true costs of a 20-year war on the psyches of the men and women who fight it? And what responsibility do we, the American people, have for how they draw the line between what is acceptable and what is forbidden in war?
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'The GOP’s flight from facts (with Jon Meacham)' — May 8, 2021
Presidential historian, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham has a new podcast called “Fate of Fact,” in which he investigates how American politics — particularly in the Republican Party, as Meacham says — became detached not only from our constitutional system of checks and balances but from reality itself. Meacham joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode, which contains a deep and important conversation about history, our tumultuous present moment and where the country might go from here.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Right-wing extremism and the FBI' — May 6, 2021
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by Michael German, a former FBI special agent who spent years undercover infiltrating violent right-wing extremist groups in the 1990s. He talks about why the FBI seems to ignore the violent deeds and threats posed by these groups while simultaneously going after environmentalists, antiwar activists and Black Lives Matter protesters.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Biden's hundred days (with Douglas Brinkley & Jonathan Alter)' — April 29, 2021
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by esteemed historians and authors Douglas Brinkley and Jonathan Alter to break down Biden's first address to Congress and place Biden’s nascent presidency in important historical context.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Biden's refugee problem' — April 24, 2021
The Biden administration has failed to facilitate the admission of more refugees into the United States, which was a campaign promise and a much longed-for change from the punitive policies of the Trump era. Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by Mark Hetfield, the president and CEO of HIAS, the Jewish-American refugee advocacy group, to talk about the refugee resettlement program and what the Biden administration could — and should — do to serve this humanitarian need. Then investigative journalist and Yahoo News contributor Jana Winter joins to talk about her recent bombshell story about a covert operation to monitor citizens’ social media posts being run by the United States Postal Service.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Guilty, guilty, guilty: Processing the Chauvin verdict' — April 21, 2021
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by Yahoo News reporter Crystal Hill, who covered the Chauvin trial, and then by Nakia Gordon, a neuroscientist and a psychology professor at Marquette University, who talks about the range of emotional responses to what was at the core of this trial: the denial of a person’s humanity.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'The Threat of QAnon (with Ali Soufan)' — April 20, 2021
Former FBI special agent, author, and counterterrorism expert Ali Soufan joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti to talk about his organization’s shocking new report about the spread of the Q conspiracy.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Will Afghanistan end like Vietnam?' — April 17, 2021
President Biden has announced his plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 and end America’s longest war — but is it too soon to leave?
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Sen. Murphy's Law' — April 14, 2021
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti on this episode to talk about his renewed push for gun control legislation now, in the wake of recent shootings in Atlanta and Boulder.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: 'Q: Unmasked' — April 10, 2021
The writer-director of the stunning new six-part investigative documentary series “Q: Into the Storm,” Cullen Hoback, joins Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti to talk about his project.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: ‘Florida-Georgia Line’ — April 7, 2021
Reporter Jon Ward joins to talk about the corporate response to Georgia's new restrictive voting laws, and Florida State Attorney Dave Aronberg joins to talk about all the Florida skullduggery in the news right now.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: ‘Gaetz-gate’ — April 2, 2021
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti sit down to untangle the twisted web that the congressman himself preemptively dubbed “Gaetz-gate” (or maybe just “Gaet”?).
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: Prosecuting the police — March 31, 2021
The trial of Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd is underway in Minneapolis, and it represents a moment of grave importance in the fight against police brutality and abuse of power.
- Yahoo News
'Skullduggery' political podcast: Jim Eagle: Biden's first press conference — March 26, 2021
Michael Isikoff, Dan Klaidman and Victoria Bassetti are joined by national political correspondent at the Washington Post Olivier Knox and Yahoo News reporter Caitlin Dickson to break down President Biden's first news conference.
- Yahoo News
‘Skullduggery’ political podcast: This doleful ritual — March 25, 2021
Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver and Rep. Elissa Slotkin talk about the cycle of inaction on gun control, and the threat of domestic terrorism.
- Yahoo News
‘Skullduggery’ Political Podcast: For the People, with Rep. John Sarbanes — March 20, 2021
How can we save our democracy from partisan gerrymandering, the influence of big money in politics, voter suppression, and the spread of disinformation? Congressman John Sarbanes says it is through the pro-democracy reforms of the bill he authored: the For the People Act, which is H.R. 1 and S. 1 in the current Congress.
- Yahoo News Video
Skullduggery TV: Weld’s Case Against Trump
Presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld joins co-hosts Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman to discuss why he's throwing his hat into the ring for 2020, how he really feels about our current president, why he's running as a Republican this time around and where he'd like to take the party moving forward. They also talk about the extraordinary situation in 1988, when Weld, alongside some of his former colleagues at the DOJ, quit because of their mounting concern about the legal problems and leadership of Attorney General Edwin Meese.
“Like it or not, inside American politics, you’re on one side or the other. There is no in between.”
“Were a centrist coalition to arise in service of ‘bipartisan’ policy objectives, it would shift the political center of gravity.”
“Purported constituents for a centrist third party aren’t as large a group as is often imagined and aren’t really centrists, either.”
“A successful third party is one that integrates itself or its program into one of the two major parties.”
“Favoritism for party candidates is a tough mountain to climb … Americans prefer to vote for a candidate they believe can win.”