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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MAGA’s Repulsive New Attacks on “Laughing Kamala” Show Hidden Weakness
In recent days, Donald Trump and MAGA media figures have ramped up the attacks on Kamala Harris’s laugh, her personality, and her temperament. That’s vile stuff, but MAGA’s strategy also suggests an inability to entertain a remarkable possibility: What if Harris’s laugh and energy are actually well suited to this moment in American politics? Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, co-founder of the progressive strategy group Way to Win, has been advising Democrats to respond aggressively to racist and sexist attacks on Harris. We talked to Ancona about whether Harris’s temperament might prove to be kryptonite to MAGA’s negativity and hate.
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Pete Buttigieg Destroys J.D. Vance’s Ugly “Childless Cat Lady” Smear
A vile quote from J.D. Vance just surfaced in which he described Kamala Harris and other Democratic leaders as “childless cat ladies,” and spun out a whole theory based on this absurdity. Then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg sharply dressed down Vance for poking his nose into other people’s family decisions. With this response, Buttigieg showed that Vance has invited a much larger national conversation—one that won’t help Vance and Donald Trump. We talked to Melissa Gira Grant, a staff writer at The New Republic who closely tracks Vance’s ideas, for help in illuminating what this saga tells us about the New Right’s tortured views on gender, natalism and nationalism. Listen to this episode here.
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J.D. Vance’s Shocker on Trump and Sexual Assault Unmasks the True MAGA
This week we learned that Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance repeatedly suggested in 2016 that he believed Trump committed sexual assault. Vance has since softened his views, but this saga captures the essential Vance: He knows exactly what he has now attached himself to, but sees Trump as a vehicle to accomplish some truly radical societal transformations. We talked to tech writer Gil Duran, author of a good piece in The New Republic tracing the “techno-authoritarian” worldview driving Vance, about what his evolution from clear-eyed Trump critic to full MAGA devotee says about today’s red-pilled right—and about our politics more broadly. Listen to this episode here.
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Fox News's Awful New Kamala Harris Smears Hit Nuclear Levels of Idiocy
Ever since President Biden suspended his campaign, Fox News and right wing media have been scrambling madly for an effective attack on Vice President Kamala Harris. They’ve ridiculed her laugh. They’ve mocked her as a product of DEI. They’ve attacked her as too soft on crime and too tough on crime. All of which gets at a larger story: Kamala Harris is very hard for the right to pigeonhole. We talked to Elaina Plott Calabro, a staff writer for The Atlantic who reports trenchantly on Harris’ political career, about why the right’s contortions could prove a major dynamic in the presidential race, and how Harris’s own struggle to find her political identity could now loom large. Listen to this episode here.
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Trump's Alarming New Rant About Dictators Exposes Media's Epic Failure
At a rally in Michigan over the weekend, Donald Trump uncorked one of his longest rants ever in praise of the world’s autocrats, strongmen and dictators. He hailed Xi Jinping of China as “brilliant” for controlling 1.4 billion people “with an iron fist,” and described Xi, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban as “tough” and “smart.” We talked to Rick Wilson, the prominent Never Trumper and Substacker, about Trump’s explicit campaign promise of authoritarian rule, the GOP’s enthusiastic embrace of it, and the media’s utter failure to alert voters to what’s coming. Listen to this episode here.
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Matt Gaetz’s Weird “AI Sex Doll” Speech Caps RNC Descent Into Madness
Today’s pod tackles a subject of profound importance: The sheer, inexplicable weirdness of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. There’s Representative Matt Gaetz’s bizarre speech, in which his face was so taut that one Republican derided him as an “AI sex doll.” There are all the ugly “Mass Deportations Now!” signs, the cultish rituals in which attendees treated Trump as their MAGA God King, and much, much more. We talked to Ron Filipkowski, who closely tracks the right wing as the head of Meidas Touch News. He helped us find meaning underneath all the ugliness and insanity. Listen to this episode here.
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Customer Reviews
7.18.24
kari lake we can all agree is a nut job, never graciously accepting her run for office losses but what really is so unstable about her is that while she denigrates the media she seems to think that the rest of us don’t know her little secret. she used to be on az mainstream tv channel as a news presenter. omg kari get some therapy.
Disappointing Interview
I was disappointed in the negativity about VP Harris in today’s show with Elaina Plott Calabro. Greg’s multiple uses of the phrase “She’s not . . . “ rather than phrasing his concerns in a positive way just gives fuel to Republicans. The bulk of the interview was on what the VP can’t do and the President’s lack of care in mentoring her. Yes, the reporter traveled with the VP, but she assumes she knows everything about the VP and how the country views her. Wrong!! I hope you have a guest who can counter all this negativity, or you will just be giving the Republican’s more for their campaign. I can see headlines now from them, “Harris’s Biographer Showcases VP’s Inadequacies.” Do better, Greg!
Reliably unenlightening rant
This is a set of reliably unenlightening rants in which Sargent lays out a long-winded question that frames his argument on an issue then asks his guest, essentially, “Don’t you agree?” Guaranteed to be a waste of time.