THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent Greg Sargent
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Every weekday, The New Republic’s Greg Sargent brings you a fresh way of thinking about the biggest political stories of the moment, offered up in an entertaining, information-packed conversation with a leading lawmaker, journalist, or newsmaker. We go deep into the stories behind the headlines leading TNR and other news outlets—while making it fun and fast.
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Trump Exposes the Truth About His “Leave It to the States” Scam
In a new interview, Donald Trump gave away the game: If he wins the White House, he’d be fine with anti-choice crackdowns in red states going to horrific extremes. Trump vowed (unconvincingly) to leave abortion to the states, but when pressed, he suggested he’d be okay with prosecutions of women who get abortions and even with states monitoring their pregnancies. In addition to revealing what Roe v. Wade’s demise has wrought, that could give Democrats a boost in this fall’s state-level elections. We talked Arizona state senator Eva Burch about how the future of reproductive rights will raise the stakes in these contests—and about her own personal and emotional experiences with the issue.
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Elon Musk’s Weird Obsession With “Low Birth Rates” Takes an Ugly Turn
Recently Elon Musk triggered outrage by promoting a vicious speech by a Dutch activist that pushed virulent white nationalist ideologies. Musk added that Europe is threatened by “population collapse” that could lead to “dead civilizations.” What often gets lost amid such controversies is that Musk is pushing ideas that are part of a genuine political movement shaped around long term demographic anxieties. We chatted with reporter Gaby Del Valle, author of a great new Politico piece about the first ever “Natal Conference,” in Austin, Tx., and the far-right movement to get (some) people to have more babies, who helped place Musk’s talk about low birth rates in a global political context.
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How Trump’s Insane Rant About “Gutless” Bill Barr Unmasks GOP and MAGA
Over the weekend, a CNN interview with former attorney general Bill Barr went viral after Barr performed a spectacular on-air capitulation to Donald Trump. The former president had posted an unhinged rant that mercilessly belittled Barr, yet Barr affirmed his endorsement of Trump and downplayed the threat he poses, including a bizarre aside about Trump talking about “executing” rivals. We chatted with Amanda Carpenter, the prominent Never Trumper and an editor at Protect Democracy, about what this whole saga says about today’s GOP and its broader capitulation to MAGA.
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Inside the Nasty Shadow War Between The New York Times and Team Biden
A new Politico report has exposed deep tensions between The New York Times and the White House. President Biden’s team believes The Times isn’t adequately capturing the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy, while The Times responds that Team Biden is out to micromanage the paper of record’s coverage. We think this debate is badly muddled and in need of some major clarifications. So we chatted with Substacker Brian Beutler, a frequent media critic, about today’s flawed conventions of political reporting, why they aren’t meeting the challenge of this moment, and what’s needed to change them.
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MAGA Rage at Mike Johnson Suddenly Takes a Dark and Dangerous Turn
Now that the House has passed military aid to Ukraine, MAGA personalities like Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson have joined Marjorie Taylor Greene in attacking House Speaker Mike Johnson as a traitor to the cause. Yet this isn’t just typical right wing ranting. It reveals very specific expectations of what Donald Trump would do to our international alliances if he wins back the White House. We talked to A.B. Stoddard, columnist at The Bulwark and author of a new piece digging into these dynamics, about what this MAGA vision for the world really looks like—and why a second Trump term would be so dangerous.
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Don’t Be Fooled: Here’s How We Know RFK Jr. Is Tacitly Boosting Trump
New polls this week offered something of a surprise: They show Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential run pulling more support from Donald Trump than from President Biden. And even some Republicans are publicly insisting that they fear the same. One person who is deeply skeptical of this reading is veteran Democratic strategist and podcaster Joe Trippi. We chatted with Trippi about his grand theory of the election, why he thinks the only threat RFK poses is to Biden, and how Trump and Republicans are attempting to disguise all of it with a clever bait-and-switch.
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Customer Reviews
Love the show!
Great show for daily listening! Good topics and guests, and Greg is a good interviewer. I do have to skip over the opening music because it’s just so harsh on the ears in the morning.
Excellent
Quick hit with excellent guests.
Democrats bible code
Christians that vote Blue 💙
This is the reason why I’m changing my VOTE to ❤️
SATAN’S name spelled in Hebrew שנט has a numerical value number of 359. Also the word Democrat in Hebrew דמוקרט has the same numerical value as the word Satan 359 in Hebrew numerics.
If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to look it up.