Episodes

  • Trump’s War on Truth and Science (with James Morone)

    Trump’s War on Truth and Science (with James Morone)
    Apr 30 2026
    Trump briefly talked about “cooling things down.” Then came the escalation.

    This week on The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang look at how President Trump is using political violence not as a reason for restraint, but as a weapon against his opponents. Jimmy Kimmel and Trevor Noah are targeted for jokes. A 60 Minutes interview becomes another venue for attacking the press. And the administration’s suit against the Southern Poverty Law Center raises a larger question: is law enforcement being turned into a tool of political retaliation?

    We also turn to the Supreme Court’s major Fourth Amendment case over geofence warrants and cell location data. The old law-school hypotheticals about government surveillance no longer feel hypothetical. With companies like Palantir helping build the modern surveillance state, the threat of databases tracking protesters, dissidents, and political opponents is suddenly very real.

    Then Corey is joined by James A. Morone, Professor Emeritus at Brown University and one of the country’s leading political scientists, to discuss his new book with David Blumenthal, "Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science". The book tells the inside story of how Obama, Trump, and Biden transformed health care politics, from the fight over Obamacare to COVID, Operation Warp Speed, anti-poverty policy, and Trump’s war on science itself.

    Get the book from Yale University Press:
    https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300263480/whiplash/
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    58 mins
  • Trump’s Supreme Court, the Shadow Docket, and the New Normal (with Aaron Parnas)

    Trump’s Supreme Court, the Shadow Docket, and the New Normal (with Aaron Parnas)
    Apr 23 2026
    Has Trump changed American politics so deeply that what once seemed dangerous now feels normal?

    In this episode of The Oath and The Office, we begin with the Supreme Court: the shadow docket, Clarence Thomas, and a judiciary that increasingly operates with extraordinary power and too little accountability.

    We then turn to the case against the former CIA director, along with the resignation of a Justice Department prosecutor, and ask what these developments reveal about the state of law, accountability, and political pressure inside the justice system.

    Then Aaron Parnas joins us. Parnas has built a massive audience by reporting breaking political news to a younger generation in real time, often outside traditional media. We ask him a bigger question: can the news be reported outside the wider context of the threat to democracy? And when Parnas argues that much of this feels normal to people who grew up in the Trump era, Corey asks what it means when democratic crisis starts to feel ordinary.

    We also discuss Trump’s reported pressure on the IRS, the questions surrounding Kash Patel and the FBI, and why these stories may be part of a much broader pattern.

    This is a conversation about power, accountability, and the risk of treating democratic erosion as the new normal.
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    52 mins
  • Trump vs. the Pope

    Trump vs. the Pope
    Apr 16 2026
    Trump says the pope should stay out of politics. But when Trump posts himself as Jesus, attacks independent moral authority, and demands loyalty from every institution, the real goal is not religious neutrality. It is control.

    In this episode of The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang begin with Trump’s clash with the pope and what it reveals about the authoritarian impulse: not keeping religion out of politics, but bending religion to serve power.

    Then they turn to Hungary, where Viktor Orbán’s loss offers a real sign of hope. Even after gerrymandering and years of democratic erosion, autocrats can still be challenged and defeated.

    They also break down two more revealing stories: a judge throwing out Trump’s defamation suit over the Epstein birthday-card report, and the administration’s move to abandon civil-rights settlements protecting trans students. Taken together, these stories show the same pattern: attacks on truth, attacks on vulnerable people, and attacks on any institution unwilling to bend to raw power.

    This episode is about more than one controversy. It is about the larger authoritarian playbook — and why resistance still matters.
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    45 mins
  • Is Trump Committing War Crimes? Lawrence Douglas on Hegseth, Nuremberg, and the Criminal State

    Is Trump Committing War Crimes? Lawrence Douglas on Hegseth, Nuremberg, and the Criminal State
    Apr 9 2026
    Can a president commit war crimes? Can a defense secretary? And what would it take to hold either one accountable?

    Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang open with the Supreme Court showdown over Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship. After Trump became the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer faced tough questioning from several justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, who delivered the line of the day: “It’s a new world. It’s the same Constitution.” Corey and John break down why the administration’s argument looked weak, why Wong Kim Ark remains the key precedent, and what the hearing may signal about the fate of Trump’s effort to gut birthright citizenship.

    They also discuss the latest chaos inside Trump’s Justice Department after Pam Bondi was pushed out as attorney general and replaced, for now, by Todd Blanche, another Trump loyalist. From there, they turn to the Supreme Court’s move that could wipe away Steve Bannon’s contempt conviction, and what it says about accountability in Trump’s Washington.

    Then Corey and John are joined by Lawrence Douglas of Amherst College, professor of law, jurisprudence, and social thought, and author of "The Criminal State", for a chilling conversation about whether Trump is committing war crimes, whether Pete Hegseth could face exposure as a war criminal, and how leaders who authorize brutality can be held to account. They explore the continuing relevance of Nuremberg, the legal meaning of crimes carried out by the state, and whether American institutions still have the power to confront criminality at the top. This is a sober, urgent discussion about impunity, presidential violence, and the future of the rule of law
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Before Project 2025: How the Right Built Trump’s Power Grab (with David Sirota)

    Before Project 2025: How the Right Built Trump’s Power Grab (with David Sirota)
    Apr 2 2026
    Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship is only part of the story. The bigger danger is a decades-long effort to free the presidency from constitutional limits.

    Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang begin by breaking down Trump’s latest argument against birthright citizenship, why it misreads the Constitution, and what is really at stake in the legal fight.

    Then David Sirota joins to trace the deeper roots of Trump’s power grab: the conservative blueprints that helped lay the groundwork for Project 2025, the lessons of Nixon and Reagan, and the long campaign to expand executive power.

    In this episode:
    • Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship
    • why the constitutional case against it fails
    • the antecedents of Project 2025
    • Nixon, Reagan, and the growth of presidential power
    • why the No Kings protests matter
    • what reforms could restore real limits on the presidency

    This episode is about more than one policy fight. It’s about how the presidency was reshaped, and whether American democracy can still impose meaningful limits on executive power.
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Mueller Warned Congress. Trump Celebrated His Death.

    Mueller Warned Congress. Trump Celebrated His Death.
    Mar 26 2026
    Trump’s reaction to Robert Mueller’s death was grotesque. But the deeper question is what Congress failed to do when Mueller was alive: why didn’t it impeach Trump based on the Mueller report? Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang revisit Mueller’s findings, the Nixon parallel, and the constitutional failure that still shapes Trump’s presidency.

    Then: a major Supreme Court voting-rights case out of Mississippi, ICE at airports as a new front in Trump’s immigration crackdown, and a federal judge’s ruling against Pentagon restrictions on defense reporters.

    Plus, a listener from the U.K. asks a question many Americans are asking too: could Trump really defy the Constitution and try for a third term?

    This week’s episode connects the week’s biggest legal and political stories into one urgent question: how many constitutional guardrails are still holding?

    Learn more about the ACLU and its upcoming Supreme Court case at aclu.org/barbara.
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    45 mins
  • Stacey Abrams on the SAVE Act: The New Voter Suppression Threat

    Stacey Abrams on the SAVE Act: The New Voter Suppression Threat
    Mar 19 2026
    Is the SAVE Act really about election security — or is it a new blueprint for voter suppression?

    On this episode of The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang break down the latest fight over the SAVE Act, why its proof-of-citizenship requirement could make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to register and vote, and what this battle reveals about the future of democracy.

    Then Stacey Abrams joins the show to explain what the bill would do, why it is so dangerous, and how the broader attack on voting rights fits into the Trump-era push to undermine democratic institutions.

    Also in this episode: Gregory Bovino is out, Judge Boasberg pushes back against politically charged legal tactics, and Trump lashes out at the courts yet again.

    This is a conversation about voter suppression, constitutional democracy, and who gets to decide the future of the country.

    Learn more about the ACLU and its upcoming Supreme Court case at aclu.org/barbara.
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Trump’s War and the Imperial Presidency

    Trump’s War and the Imperial Presidency
    Mar 12 2026
    Trump’s shifting war aims are a warning sign of the imperial presidency. We examine how changing justifications for war weaken democratic accountability, whether Congress can still use the power of the purse to stop an illegal war, how the Anthropic story reflects resistance to expanding executive power, why the growing influence of billionaires in American elections is making constitutional democracy even more fragile, and why Kristi Noem’s exit at Homeland Security was a rare reminder of how congressional oversight is supposed to work—even if her replacement may not be better.

    This episode is sponsored by Princeton University Press. Learn more about Mark Peterson’s new book, The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History, here: https://hubs.ly/Q0432vyk0
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    54 mins