Jeh Johnson, a former top Pentagon official under President Obama, told Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast that the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan — now slated for the end of next month — is “not going to be a pretty picture” and that the Afghan government is unlikely “to hold its own” against the Taliban.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
A top election official in Georgia rebuffed claims that his office is not cooperating with prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of last November’s election.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Former White House adviser Richard Clarke said that there is a “high probability” that President Biden’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 will result in the collapse of the Afghan government and a takeover of that country by the Taliban.
Speaking on the Yahoo News podcast “Skullduggery,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., applauded President Biden’s move to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 as the only reasonable step after 20 years of frustration and failure.
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.
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.
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.
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”?).
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.
“Whether we call it a housing bubble or not, the current situation is untenable.”
“This has not been a bubble. A bubble is not simply rising prices, but demand not justified by fundamental economic factors.”
“Not only is the Fed further inflating the U.S. housing market bubble but it is also inflating the global everything bubble.”
“There's evidence that buyers are providing the cure, staying away from the high prices and cooling the market.”
“Soaring home prices may not be as destabilizing … as they were in the last bubble, but they do contribute to rising inequality.”