The episode riffs on Jared Kushner’s closed-door interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and his claim that he didn’t fully read the email thread describing Russian “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. It then shifts to Donald Trump and his legal team discussing the scope of presidential pardon power, including the possibility of pardoning associates or even himself, and Trump’s tweet framing the investigation as “fake news” and insisting the only crime is leaks. Overall, it uses satire to underline the perceived implausibility of key explanations and the legal and political stakes of the Russia investigation.

The episode riffs on Donald Trump’s frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation and explores reports that Trump has discussed replacing Sessions, potentially via a recess appointment to sidestep Senate oversight. It highlights bipartisan pushback from senators like Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham, and Chuck Grassley, who warn against firing Sessions or interfering with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and suggest the Senate could block any new attorney general confirmation. Through satire, the segment underscores the political stakes and the mounting tension between the White House and congressional Republicans over the Justice Department’s independence.

Stephen Colbert riffs on developments in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, focusing on the FBI’s pre-dawn no-knock raid of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s home and what it could signal about potential money laundering and foreign-account reporting violations. He also discusses reports that President Trump privately exchanged friendly messages with Mueller despite publicly denouncing the probe as a “witch hunt,” using the contrast to highlight perceived hypocrisy and tension around the investigation.

The episode takes stock of the early Trump presidency, focusing on how a norm-breaking president tests the resilience of American institutions and the Republican Party. Legal scholar Jack Goldsmith argues that courts, the press, the bureaucracy, and civil society have so far constrained some of Trump’s most extreme impulses, while warning that Trump’s real long-term damage may come from provoking other institutions into abandoning their own norms. The conversation then shifts to the GOP’s internal struggle between establishment leaders and a Trump-aligned base, with Mindy Finn describing how Trump has reshaped party incentives, primary politics, and attitudes on issues like Russia and identity. Finn and the hosts discuss what, if anything, Trump has clarified for Republicans about economic...

The episode examines Jared Kushner’s rise through the lens of his family, including reporting on how major charitable donations by his father, Charles Kushner, coincided with Jared’s admissions to elite universities and reflected a broader pattern of wealth shaping access and influence. It traces the Kushners’ roots from Rae and Joseph Kushner’s Holocaust survival and refugee journey to their building of a New Jersey real estate empire, then follows Charles Kushner’s political giving, federal prosecution, and conviction for witness retaliation and financial crimes. The reporting then shifts to the family’s high-stakes bet on 666 Fifth Avenue, their struggle under massive debt, and how Jared Kushner’s White House role complicated efforts to secure foreign financing and raised conflict-of-in...

Juli Briskman, a 50-year-old cyclist photographed giving the middle finger to President Donald Trump’s motorcade near a Virginia golf resort, says she was fired from her communications job at government contractor Akima LLC after posting the viral image on social media. She contends the gesture occurred off work hours and that she did not reference her employer, but was told the photo was considered lewd or obscene and violated company social media policies. Briskman also alleges unequal treatment, saying a male colleague kept his job after deleting an offensive post, and questions why she was dismissed immediately. While protests and obscene gestures toward presidential motorcades are common, she says she does not regret the act and viewed it as a way to express her political anger.

The episode examines Paul Manafort’s career arc from Republican political consultant to global fixer, focusing on how he helped corporations, oligarchs, and authoritarian leaders “launder” their reputations and secure influence in Washington. Franklin Foer argues that Manafort both exploited and accelerated the erosion of political norms, using tools like lobbying, PR, and quasi-democratic elections to make corrupt actors seem legitimate, with Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska as central examples. The hosts connect Manafort’s personal and financial unraveling to his decision to join the Trump campaign, framing his indictment as both an exposure of long-running practices and a potential deterrent that has already prompted belated compliance with foreign-agent d...

Current and former White House officials say Chief of Staff John Kelly has hurt West Wing morale by privately insulting President Trump’s intelligence, portraying himself as the person preventing disaster, and making comments some staffers found inappropriate, including remarks about women being more emotional than men and sympathetic statements about former aide Rob Porter during the domestic abuse controversy. They describe a gap between Kelly’s public image as a disciplined stabilizer and what they see as an undisciplined, indiscreet leadership style that has contributed to reduced influence and speculation about his departure. The White House and Kelly deny or downplay key allegations, saying he has a candid relationship with the president, staff still respects him, and any contentious...

The episode looks at how prepared the world is for the next major pandemic, using the 1918 flu as a benchmark and contrasting today’s medical advances with modern vulnerabilities like dense urban living, global air travel, and the rise of new pathogens. Ed Yong reports from places including the Democratic Republic of Congo and U.S. public health labs and hospitals to show how frontline preparedness depends on underfunded, often invisible systems and workers, and how crises repeatedly trigger a “panic and neglect” cycle as political attention and money surge and then fade. The conversation explores how fear, misinformation, and xenophobia can worsen outbreaks and distort policy, arguing that border closures and demagoguery are counterproductive compared with calm leadership, trust-building,...

The episode centers on Trump’s Helsinki press conference with Vladimir Putin, focusing on how Trump publicly cast doubt on U.S. intelligence, created moral equivalence between the U.S. and Russia, and then issued shifting, implausible walk-backs that raised questions about presidential judgment and credibility on the world stage. The hosts debate whether Trump’s behavior reflects insecurity about the legitimacy of his election or something more sinister, and they explore how even “just words” can have real geopolitical consequences by aiding Russia’s broader effort to undermine Western alliances and democratic ideals. They also examine the muted response from Republicans in Congress and discuss what meaningful oversight or election-protection actions might be possible, while doubting the e...

Stephen Colbert riffs on Donald Trump’s claim that “what you’re seeing and reading is not what’s happening,” using it to frame a broader critique of the administration’s dishonesty and escalating authoritarian instincts. The segment focuses on Trump’s consideration of stripping security clearances from former officials who criticize him, why those clearances matter for national security continuity, and the White House and GOP responses, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ defense, Rand Paul’s insinuations about “monetizing” access, and Paul Ryan downplaying it as mere trolling. Through satire, Colbert argues the issue is less about ethics or secrecy and more about using government power to punish dissent and demand loyalty.

Chris Hayes talks with law professor and New York attorney general candidate Zephyr Teachout about how corruption should be defined and why modern legal standards—especially the Supreme Court’s narrow quid pro quo approach in cases like Bob McDonnell and in campaign finance—have weakened tools to prevent public officials from using office for private gain. They connect those ideas to Trump-era conflicts of interest, focusing on the emoluments clauses, foreign and domestic spending at Trump properties, and why New York’s attorney general could play a pivotal role in investigating and prosecuting corruption tied to Trump’s business empire. The conversation also touches on historical anti-corruption reforms, how money in politics reshapes priorities through dependency and “servility,” and wha...

Early reports from Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book depict senior Trump administration officials privately describing President Trump as unintelligent, erratic, and difficult to brief on basic national security and policy matters. The accounts include aides intervening to block impulsive actions, such as Gary Cohn removing a draft letter withdrawing from a trade agreement, and quotes attributed to John Kelly, James Mattis, and Rex Tillerson expressing contempt for Trump’s grasp of issues. Woodward also reports Trump’s lawyers argued he should not testify in the Mueller investigation because he could not reliably tell the truth and would damage U.S. credibility if a transcript leaked. The article adds an example of Trump misstating John McCain’s Vietnam service and argues Woodward’s reportin...

The episode examines whether democracy is in decline by comparing the United States’ constitutional design with recent democratic backsliding in Europe. Jeffrey Rosen argues that James Madison’s “cooling” mechanisms meant to curb mob passion have been eroded by polarization, social media, and a more direct, personality-driven presidency, making deliberation and cross-party compromise harder. Anne Applebaum traces how polarization in Poland (and parallels like Brexit) shifted politics from economic debates to fights over identity and national belonging, showing how democracies can be weakened when a determined minority changes rules to entrench power. The conversation explores how disinformation, echo chambers, and distrust of shared facts intensify these trends, and whether American instit...

Chris Hayes replays a conversation with legal scholar and former Obama White House counsel Kate Shaw about how the Trump administration’s approach to governance has repeatedly run into legal trouble, from courts blocking major initiatives like the travel ban and the DACA rescission to broader ethics and compliance problems inside the White House. They argue these setbacks reflect rushed, poorly run policymaking and a weak transition that left basic institutional processes and legal guardrails underdeveloped, while also exposing how much of government relies on enforceable law versus informal norms. A central theme is how Trump’s public statements and tweets—especially around issues like the travel ban, Justice Department independence, and even blocking users on Twitter—create legal and ins...

Chris Hayes interviews Michael Lewis about his book The Fifth Risk, using the Trump transition and early administration to explore what federal agencies and civil servants actually do and why their work is largely invisible until it breaks. They frame government as a system for managing low-probability, high-impact risks—from nuclear security and weather forecasting to consumer protection—and discuss how neglect, ideological sabotage, and conflicted appointees can quietly raise those dangers while the public mostly experiences bureaucracy as frustrating “red tape.” The conversation also argues that the absence of immediate catastrophe can normalize incompetence, even as long-horizon threats like climate change demand precisely the kind of expert, mission-driven governance being undermined.

The episode traces how Mitch McConnell navigated Donald Trump’s rise in 2016, publicly condemning Trump’s rhetoric at times while ultimately choosing to support him as the path to conservative policy wins, especially on the Supreme Court. It explores how McConnell’s priorities—winning elections, maintaining Republican power, and reshaping the judiciary—led him to align with Trump through controversies like Charlottesville, the 2019 government shutdown, and Trump’s emergency declaration for border wall funding. A central theme is McConnell’s long-term strategy of using Senate procedure to confirm large numbers of young conservative federal judges, and the tension between his self-image as an institutionalist and his willingness to bend or change norms to achieve durable results.

Juli Briskman, a Virginia cyclist photographed giving President Donald Trump’s motorcade the middle finger in 2017, was fired from her job at government contractor Akima after informing them she was in the image amid media attention and threats. She sued, arguing wrongful termination and First Amendment violations, but the case was dismissed and later settled through a severance agreement. The incident pushed her into political activism, including work on Jennifer Wexton’s 2018 congressional campaign, and she later ran for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. Briskman defeated the incumbent Republican by nearly nine points to win a seat representing a district that includes Trump National Golf Course, as Democrats celebrated broader statewide gains in Virginia.

The CDC is dispatching experts to Samoa at the government’s request as a measles outbreak has sickened 2,437 people and killed 32, mostly young children, with cases still rising and nearly half occurring in children under 5. The agency will help with case tracking and vaccination efforts in a country where immunization rates are among the world’s lowest, weakened by distrust after two infants died from a nursing error during vaccine preparation and amplified by anti-vaccine activism. Samoa has imposed strict measures including school closures and limits on children’s gatherings while accelerating a mandatory vaccination campaign, but health experts say the response came late and the outbreak has not yet peaked. The crisis reflects broader regional and global resurgence of measles, with spr...

In late 2019 Samoa faced a catastrophic measles outbreak that led the government to impose a two-day national lockdown, ban non-essential movement, and deploy vaccination teams to homes marked with red cloths, eventually making immunisation compulsory. With thousands of cases and a death toll rising into the dozens, mostly among children under five, the country’s limited hospital capacity and shortages of intensive care resources intensified the trauma for families. The article describes widespread grief and the strain on local services despite international medical support, while highlighting how delays in vaccination and the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation worsened the crisis. It also situates Samoa within a global resurgence of measles and notes the arrest of a prominent vaccine o...