Diane Rehm: On My Mind WAMU 88.5

After a New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 felonies last week, the reactions were swift and vehement. The former president’s calls for vengeance have become louder. GOP attacks on the justice system have become nearly universal, backed by specific threats and proposals. And Democrats seem to be struggling to find a way to respond. Susan Glasser writes a weekly column about life in Washington for The New Yorker, and is co-author of the book, “The Divider,” a best-selling history of Donald Trump in the white house, co-written with her husband, Peter Baker. Glasser joins Diane to talk about what has happened in the presidential race since Trump’s verdict and the starkly different worldviews the candidates are presenting to the American people. 

In 1939 fascism was on the march around the world and America found itself at a crossroads. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed Hitler and the Nazis posed an existential threat to democracy. But the American public, still reeling from the Great Depression, remained wary of getting involved. Fascist sympathizers and powerful right-wing media groups egged on the isolationists. Famed aviator Charles Lindbergh became the voice of this opposition and over the ensuing two years a war of words played out between Lindbergh and Roosevelt. Paul Sparrow, the former director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, tells this story in a new book, “Awakening the Spirit of America.”“Awakening the Spirit” will be on bookstore shelves on June 4, 2024. 

Diana Williams lived a rich life by any measure. She was a wife, a mother, a traveler, and the founder of a job training organization at San Quentin prison in California. But for three decades, Williams was plagued by mysterious symptoms. These included exhaustion, night sweats, brain fog, and throbbing headaches and chills that left her bedridden for days. Specialists diagnosed her with a series of maladies such as multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease, and toxic mold exposure. They prescribed grueling treatments that took up time, money, and ultimately proved unsuccessful. Williams eventually decided enough was enough. In January of this year, she traveled to Dignitas, a “death with dignity” group in Switzerland, and ended her life. In December 2023, just weeks before her “death date,” Williams joined Diane for a conversation about her agonizing choice and why she felt it was so important to tell her story of “a life well lived, a death well planned.”You can read more about Diana Williams’s story in her posthumously published memoir, “Traveling Solo.”

Three years ago, conservative activists took over the school board in a small suburb in Texas. They ended diversity initiatives, rolled back LGBTQ protections, and banned books they said did not reflect their values. Mike Hixenbaugh, NBC News senior investigative reporter, has been following the story ever since. He says what happened in Southlake inspired a movement that threatens to undermine public education in America. Hixenbaugh’s reporting led to the award-winning podcast, Southlake, and the new book “They Came for the Schools.” He joined Diane to talk about one town's fight over race and identity, and the new war for America’s classrooms

About half of American voters say, if given the chance, they would replace both Trump and Biden on the ballot. While nearly two-thirds agree with the statement that “a third major party is needed.”

Given the mood of the country, what will the role of third-party candidates be in the 2024 election? Could, say, Robert F. Kennedy, break through? How worried are Trump and Biden about an independent acting as “spoiler” and handing the race to their opponent?

Michael Scherer is a national political reporter for the Washington Post. He joins Diane to discuss the ways independent and third-party candidates are affecting the campaign -- and could affect the election.

Will Biden and Trump take the stage?

Last week President Biden said he would be willing to debate Donald Trump ahead of this year’s election in November.

This came after months of back and forth between the candidates. Biden’s answers had been coy regarding a face off, citing the “behavior” of the former president. This was likely referencing Trump’s frequent interruptions and name calling in their 2020 meetings.

Meanwhile the GOP turned this reluctance into a campaign talking point, claiming Biden was afraid to face the former president and the American people.

If their commitments to share the stage fall through, this would be the first presidential campaign since 1976 without a debate. But with so many other methods available for candidates to reach potential voters, do debates even matter anymore?

“Candidates control so much of the campaign process with their ralies, ads and conventions,” says Mitchell McKinney, dean of the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Akron and an expert on political communication. “We the votes deserve a moment when they are not in control, and debates provide that.”

McKinney joins Diane to talk about the past, present, and continued relevance of presidential debates.