16 episodes

Follow this year’s extraordinary US presidential race with the BBC’s Jon Sopel in Washington.

Sopel's Soapbox BBC World Service

    • News
    • 5.0 • 1 Rating

Follow this year’s extraordinary US presidential race with the BBC’s Jon Sopel in Washington.

    The Final Sopel's Soapbox

    The Final Sopel's Soapbox

    President Donald Trump has just completed his first week in the Oval Office. He's been busy - swiftly signing a handful of executive orders, undoing some of President Barack Obama's policies, and picking fights with the press over reports of inaugural crowd sizes.

    What other challenges does Donald Trump face? Political author Henry Olsen contributes.

    Also on the programme: the reasons for the Women's March on Washington.

    Politics reporter Anthony Zurcher presents the final episode of Sopel's Soapbox. We might be back at some stage in the future - but for now, our elections coverage is over as we concentrate on the new administration. Thank you all for listening!

    • 21 min
    Bracing

    Bracing

    If you listen to Donald Trump's speeches, it's all about deals. So how will this play out in the world of international diplomacy?
    Jon Sopel talks to Steven Erlanger, New York Times London bureau chief, about how the world is bracing for a Trump presidency, and who says,"Everyone is very anxious and some countries are angry and in general everyone is holding their breath and saying to themselves, oh it'll be all right, because he's just a Twitter nut and it's not policy yet."
    Also on the programme: can Donald Trump unite the United States?

    • 17 min
    Out With the Old

    Out With the Old

    Barack Obama leaves with a squeaky clean reputation - in terms of personality, at least. In terms of policy President Obama himself says "The United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient commonsense gun safety laws even in the face of repeated mass killings."
    Jon Sopel visits Charlestown, South Carolina, to meet religious leader and civil rights organiser Elder James Johnson to find out whether things had changed for African Americans over the last eight years.
    Elder Johnson says, "When he said he's the President for all the people, and we ask ourselves here in South Carolina are we better off now than we were eight years ago. And I think things still the same. I'm disappointed, but I'm glad to see a black President in my lifetime, but I'm very disappointed in some of the things he said and some of the things that he did."
    Also on the programme: the dramatic scenes at President elect Donald Trump's first press conference.

    • 16 min
    Adversaries... Continued

    Adversaries... Continued

    President-Elect Donald Trump made it clear throughout his campaign that he’s no lover of the press – he banned the Washington Post from attending rallies, threatened to expand libel laws, and has even ditched the media pool. One of his recurring rallying cries called journalists the most dishonest people he’s ever encountered. Some are wondering how – and whether – he’s going to co-operate with the White House Press Corps as President.
    "No president since Nixon has been so open in their contempt and hatred for the news media," says former investigative correspondent Mark Feldstein, author of Poisoning the Press. This week Jon Sopel talks to Feldstein about the last president who was open about his loathing for the media – President Richard Nixon.
    Also on the programme: former ABC White House correspondent Ann Compton on presidential transparency.

    • 21 min
    Conflicts of Interest and Russia

    Conflicts of Interest and Russia

    "Mr Trump is choosing to be wilfully ignorant of events around the world," says Tim Weiner, a journalist specialising in security issues and author of Legacy of Ashes, a history of the CIA.
    He speculates about Russia's influence on the US election and how it sought to disrupt American democracy, as well as gathering intelligence to use against Hilary Clinton and to discover information about Donald Trump to save for later use.
    He adds, "If we have a president of the United States living in a state of vincible ignorance, then the world will be more dangerous than it already is."
    Also on the programme: with its close proximity to Russia, Alaska's residents share what they think of the idea of the nation affecting the US election.

    • 19 min
    The Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court

    "The Supreme Court ends up having the last word on a lot of issues that people care deeply about that affect their religious beliefs and moral beliefs," says law professor Kermit Roosevelt III at the University of Pennsylvania. This week Jon Sopel finds about the court's influence over America, the appointment of a new Chief Justice and who the candidate is likely to be.
    Social issues such as gun control and immigration reform are decided by the Supreme Court as the highest judicial authority in the US, it interprets the constitution and can undo past decisions made by the Supreme Courts including those on abortion.
    There's a vacancy on the panel and other members are elderly. It is now President-elect Donald Trump who will be choosing the next candidates.
    Also on the podcast is Claudia from Bolivia who moved to the US when she was 11 and Kevin Johnson, Dean of Davis School of Law, who talk about the immigration policy, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

    • 20 min

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