Obama and the G.O.P.

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Obama and the G.O.P."

The Political Scene | The New Yorker, November 7, 2014
Host: Dorothy Wickenden
Guests: David Remnick (Editor, The New Yorker), Hendrik Hertzberg (Senior Editor and Political Essayist, The New Yorker)

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Overview

This episode takes place days after the 2014 midterm elections, in which the Democratic Party suffered significant losses. Host Dorothy Wickenden, along with David Remnick and Hendrik Hertzberg, discuss President Obama’s leadership style, his relationship with the Republican Party, public perception of his presidency, and the political outlook for both parties heading into the 2016 elections. The conversation also addresses broader issues like Congressional dysfunction, the limits of the "bully pulpit," climate change, and Hillary Clinton’s expected presidential candidacy.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Fallout from the Democratic Losses (01:33–03:11)

• The panel opens with President Obama's notably upbeat post-election press conference, despite Democratic losses.
  • Dorothy Wickenden: “He did seem oddly cheerful.” (02:15)
  • David Remnick: Obama’s aides advised him to acknowledge voters’ dissatisfaction but he “quickly turned on a dime, and… stuck to his guns.” (02:25)
  • Discussion on why, despite Obama's policies being popular (e.g., minimum wage, gun control, gay rights), Democrats lost ground.

2. Congressional Dysfunction and Low-Quality Politics (03:11–03:58)

• David Remnick: “Congress is a mess and filled with more retrograde politicians than is possible to count… The level of the conversation is so low as to be stunning.” (03:11–03:23)
• Dorothy Wickenden: Observes general antipathy toward Congress.
• The mood of the 2014 election is compared to fodder for satire: “It makes you want to weep into your bourbon.” (03:41)

3. The Obama Strategy and the Tea Party’s Rise (05:19–06:06)

• Dorothy Wickenden: Critiques Obama for not taking the rise of the Tea Party seriously in 2009.
• David Remnick: Counters that midterm losses for sitting presidents are common, but outlines how crises (Ebola, Middle East, Ukraine) shaped the negative mood prior to the elections.

4. The Limits of the Bully Pulpit and Obama’s Communication (07:21–08:33)

• Rick (Hendrik Hertzberg): Challenges the efficacy of presidential rhetoric in today’s fragmented media. “The bully pulpit ain't what it used to be.” (07:25)
• David Remnick: Criticizes Obama’s lack of use of traditional presidential addresses: “He never uses the Oval Office as a place to address the nation. Never.” (07:41)
• Both agree the president is expected to master the political system, no matter how broken.

5. Mitch McConnell, GOP Strategy, and Prospects for Cooperation (08:33–09:31)

• Wickenden and Hertzberg: Discuss how the GOP's obstructionism has been practically vindicated.
  • “Oh, yes, completely. It's not a moral vindication, but it's certainly a practical vindication.” (08:47, Hertzberg)
  • Hertzberg: Little will get done with a GOP-controlled Congress, and what does will be conservative priorities (XL Pipeline, corporate taxes).

6. Climate Change and Small-Minded Politics (09:44–12:41)

• David Remnick: Bemoans lack of substantive policy debate, especially on climate change, referencing a major UN report being buried in the news: “It’s not even remotely part of the political discussion.” (09:44–10:21)
• Rick: New Senate committee heads include Inhofe, a climate change denier: “He actually... believes this is all a gigantic hoax.” (11:42)
• Resulting frustration with the intellectual level of political debate.

7. Role of the Media and the "Low Information" Electorate (12:41–13:18)

• Rick: Elections are decided by “essentially low information voters… who don't even know who controls Congress, who don't know anything essentially.” (12:41)
• David Remnick: Emphasizes the triviality of much political media coverage.

8. Obama’s Lame Duck Agenda and the Power of Symbolism (13:51–16:23)

• Wickenden: Wonders if Obama will be more assertive in his final two years.
• Rick: Suggests Obama should “keep hammering away at why things aren’t happening and clear the way for 2016.” (14:04)
• Remnick: Notes Obama resists the "theatrical" aspects of the presidency, which may limit his effectiveness as a communicator: “He is a very tightly wound, tightly controlled political performer.” (15:17)
• Remnick raises the issue of race: “We’ll never know quite fully to what degree… his rhetoric is reined in to any degree by race and the knowledge that he can’t be angry, ‘quote unquote,’ or he can’t say certain things the way certain other people could say them.” (15:17)
• Both guests agree race likely shapes Obama’s public demeanor.

9. Looking Ahead: Hillary Clinton and 2016 (17:02–21:14)

• Prospects for Hillary Clinton:
  • David Remnick: “The notion that Hillary Clinton is inevitable is… ridiculous… Things turn on a dime.” (17:10)
  • Dorothy Wickenden: Reflects on why Clinton lost in 2008: “She ran a lousy campaign.” (17:44)
  • Clinton’s ties to big money and the Clinton Foundation may complicate her candidacy.
  • Discussion of whether the country is "dying for a woman to be president" and the complexity of the political system.
  • Rick: “I do have a kind of sense of low-grade dread about this upcoming presidential election and about Hillary. There doesn’t seem to be any alternative… We are stuck. We are stuck with a system that works poorly. It has always worked pretty poorly and it’s working increasingly poorly now…” (18:36)
• Money in politics—both sides have big, problematic donors (Koch brothers, Wall Street, Hollywood).
• Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision seen as a disaster for democracy (19:44–20:06).

10. Final Thoughts on Gender, Age, and Electability (20:36–21:14)

• Dorothy Wickenden: “And her age will be a big issue too, I think.” (20:36)
• David Remnick: Responds that excitement around electing the first woman president may outweigh age concerns, though Republicans will also be energized. He notes her stronger appeal with white, working-class voters versus Obama’s coalition in the previous cycle.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• David Remnick (on Congressional dysfunction):
  “Congress is a mess and filled with more retrograde politicians than is possible to count… it makes you want to weep into your bourbon.” (03:11–03:45)

• Hendrik Hertzberg (on GOP strategy):
  “It’s not a moral vindication, but it's certainly a practical vindication.” (08:47)

• David Remnick (on media failure):
  “I just think we have to remind ourselves how small the political discussion is… it’s its own satire. That’s the great frustration. It’s so low rent, these conversations.” (10:21–11:40)

• Hendrik Hertzberg (on election dynamics):
  “Elections are decided by essentially low information voters… who don’t even know who controls Congress, who don’t know anything essentially.” (12:41)

• David Remnick (on Obama and race):
  “There is a factor here of… he is a very tightly wound, tightly controlled political performer… reined in to any degree by race and the knowledge that he can’t be angry, quote unquote, or he can’t say certain things the way certain other people could say them.” (15:17)

• Hendrik Hertzberg (on Clinton and 2016):
  “We are stuck. We are stuck with a system that works poorly. It has always worked pretty poorly and it’s working increasingly poorly now…” (18:36)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Obama’s Post-Election Attitude & Public Perception – 01:33–03:11
• Congressional Dysfunction & Political Satire – 03:11–03:58
• Obama, The Tea Party, and Missed Opportunities – 05:19–06:06
• Declining Power of the Bully Pulpit – 07:21–08:33
• GOP Congressional Strategy & Prospects for Compromise – 08:33–09:31
• The Absence of Serious Policy Debate (Climate Change) – 09:44–12:41
• Media, Electorate Disengagement, and Consequences – 12:41–13:18
• Obama as Lame Duck, Communication Failures, and Race – 13:51–16:23
• Hillary Clinton’s Candidacy and Democratic Prospects – 17:02–21:14
• Democratic Fatigue and the Political System’s Limits – 18:36–20:36

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Conclusion

This episode offers a frank, at times gloomy, assessment of the political climate following the 2014 midterms, with a particular focus on the limits of both President Obama’s leadership style and the U.S. political system as a whole. It anticipates the challenges that both parties, and potential presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, will face heading into 2016, emphasizing the dysfunction of Congress, the influence of big money, and the undercurrent of race and gender in American politics.
The tone is deeply informed, conversational, and often wry—embodying The New Yorker’s style. The discussion is insightful for listeners seeking an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the dynamics shaping contemporary American politics.

Transcript

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[Dorothy Wickenden]

Your website this is the Political Scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and editors about Politics. It's Thursday, November 6th. I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of the New Yorker.

[David Remnick]

The American people overwhelmingly believe that this town doesn't work well and that it.

[Rick]

Is not attentive to their needs. And as president, they rightly hold me accountable to do more to make it work properly.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

That was President Obama yesterday after the Democratic Party's rout on Tuesday. David Remnick and Hendrik Hertzberg are here today to talk about Obama and the Republican Party. So David, one of the things that Obama said during the press conference was, I'm having a great time.

[Squarespace Advertiser]

Fabulous.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

He also said the election doesn't make him mopey, but as we've discussed around the office, he's Been mopey for the last two years, and he did seem oddly cheerful.

[David Remnick]

Look, his aides clearly said, you have to come out and you have to say, I hear you. Like in the therapeutic language of modern times, I've heard the message. But then he quickly turned on a dime and as you would expect and probably should, stuck to his guns. But sticking to his guns and forcefulness in the assertion of his message and getting across what he's actually accomplished and the playing of politics is where he's fallen down so severely.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

But one of the things that confuses people is that voters like his positions. They do. I mean, we saw some of that in some of these referendums this week. They like his position on the minimum wage, on gun control, gay rights, immigration reform, taxing the rich, climate change. I mean, just go through the list.

[David Remnick]

Look, Dorothy, let's start with the obvious. Congress is a mess and filled with more retrograde politicians than is possible to count. I mean, the discussion has to really start with that, Right?

[Dorothy Wickenden]

People hate members of Congress and Congress.

[David Remnick]

It's not that they hate members of Congress. It's just that the positions taken and the level of the conversation is so low as to be stunning. If you watch some of these races, it was as if the entire nation was in motion to provide Jon Stewart decent material night after night. I mean, just beginning with the congressional race in Staten island and then just going state by state, it makes you want to weep into your bourbon.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Rick, do you want to weep into your bourbon?

[Rick]

Well, I sort of always want to weep into my bourbon. That's my default position.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Except in 2008, you were.

[Rick]

You did not. For a couple of days. I felt really great.

[David Remnick]

Liberalism was triumphant. It's the new fdr.

[Rick]

Yeah. In Obama's press conference after this disaster, he did reach out, to use my least favorite phrase. He did say, I've heard you to the voters. But he also said, and maybe this is a bit too subtle, as many of the things he says are perhaps a bit too subtle. I also heard the two thirds of you who didn't vote. But then he cited Washington as what doesn't work. Well, it's not really Washington that doesn't work. It's not Congress that people hate, though many, they think they hate Congress, but what they really hate is what the Republicans have done to Congress and what they've done to Obama. And I think that, yes, if Obama were more of a fighter, and that would have given me more emotional satisfaction than the way he's conducted himself, that would have made. Probably made Some sort of marginal difference. I'm not sure it would have made any difference in this election. I mean, the reason that he was so recessive in this election is that keeping that majority Democratic majority in the Senate pretty much required these candidates and these blue candidates in these red states to put distance between themselves and him. So the more he was out there, even when he just said, well, I'm not on the ballot, but my policies are on the ballot, Bam. Ten minutes later, that was a Republican or a Koch brothers Adam.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

But David Obama's admirers used to say that he was able to think three moves ahead of the rest of us. This was a while back, but this really was one of his great attributes as a candidate. But he failed to take the rise of the Tea party seriously in 2009, which led to his shellacking in 2010. And this is.

[David Remnick]

I'm not sure I accept the premise of the question. Yes, midterm elections are not often good for the president and especially a second term president as we know. Look at the summer we've just been through. That was the precursor to this election. Ebola, the complete collapse of the Middle East, Russia invading Ukraine and the seeming inability of the White House and the forces of government to do anything to stop it. It was extremely depressing.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Did these foreign policy issues play a big role in these elections?

[David Remnick]

I think the mood coming out of the summer was one of one catastrophe after another. And since we're now involved in the Middle east yet again in a military way, yes, I do think that has affected. No, it's not the same as bread and butter issues, but there again, I mean, look, the minimum wage is one initiative from the White House, but what else? I mean, if I'm a middle class voter and I am on the fence and sometimes I vote red state Democrat and sometimes I vote for Republicans and I look at the people around me, are my prospects better or are they worse? Yes, unemployment is down and yes, a lot of factors, economic factors are up, but we have a new normal that is not good for the shrinking middle class. And what have been the great initiatives coming out of the White House to solve this? There was much rhetoric about income inequality. Not much got done. You can blame all of this on the Republicans if you like, but in fact, other than the minimum wage, it's going nowhere fast. What else? How effective has the use been of the bully pulpit? How energetic has it been? I can't count Obama blameless in this wholein, this whole landscape.

[Rick]

What about that right there? I can't either But I can make some excuses.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Go ahead.

[Rick]

Well, one of them is the bully pulpit ain't what it used to be. It used to be that the president on dramatic occasions, could command the attention of the entire American people in this solemn way, you know, from the Oval Office, the hush voice, from where he.

[David Remnick]

Never speaks, he never uses the Oval Office as a place to address the nation. Never.

[Rick]

It's true. He goes to that entrance to the East Room, doesn't he? He walks down that long hall.

[David Remnick]

It's very weird. The notion of president saying, you know, why don't I take three or four addresses serially to educate, to talk to the American people about very serious things as a serious man addressing serious issues with a hopefully serious nation has never been taken up. It's all episodic. It's all on the road. There's all this crapola. Fundraising, yes. The system is broken, beginning with fundraising, beginning with the way the Senate is structured, et cetera, et cetera. That's the hand you're dealt. Too bad. That's the world you live in. You're supposed to be the political master. Master it. That's the frustration.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Okay, so Rick, what about Mitch McConnell, who has wanted to be Senate Majority Leader, as I understand, since he was five years old. Now he's almost certain to get the job. Is this election also partly a vindication of his relentless policy of refusing to get any Obama legislation through?

[Rick]

Oh, yes, completely. It's not a moral vindication, but it's certainly a practical vindication. And if there are people who are hopeful that something will get done, that's conceivable because McConnell is completely unprincipled. So if he calculates that it will be better for his side to get something done, which something will be, you know, cutting taxes on corporations, building the XL pipeline, going for trade deal. Well, we'll see about infrastructure, I kind of doubt that. I mean, that's a whole bunch of.

[David Remnick]

Union guys getting jobs and communists getting fast rail, right?

[Rick]

I don't think much will get done. And what will get done probably won't be good for the country.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

But isn't there a danger then that McConnell will assume a lot of the blame that Obama's been getting about gridlock?

[Rick]

It really won't matter whether McConnell gets blamed or not because he's not going to be the presidential candidate. It's going to be an open seat race.

[David Remnick]

I just think we have to remind ourselves how small the political discussion is. Now, you open up page four of the New York Times several days ago, a Week ago with yet another United nations report with great authority telling us that climate change is not just going to make it a little warm, that it is going to cause economic and human disaster on a colossal scale, particularly for the poor nations of this world, but not only everywhere. And it's on page four and it's not even remotely part of the political discussion.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

And why not? Why has Obama allowed himself to be put in? I mean, you've talked a little bit about how he could be using the bully pulpit. Rick disagrees a little, but it is.

[David Remnick]

I think, to Obama's credit, his at least rhetoric and initiatives on the environment are not anywhere near miserable. I think there's some.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

What about the pipeline? I mean there, by the way, I.

[David Remnick]

Think the pipeline is not an unimportant issue. But why the pipeline is the focus of all discussion about the environment is really beyond me. Ryan Lisser wrote brilliantly about this for the New Yorker a couple years ago. It's not a canard, but it's just not the overall most important thing in the world. And a lot of this is a question of global politics too. I mean, how you manage to rein in the rapidly developing countries of particularly China.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

But as you say, this is an issue where the President of the United States should be taking a leading role rather than a recessive.

[David Remnick]

I think he gets some decent marks on these issues actually, Dorothy. But I just find that in the political discussion, whether it's on cable television or in political debates, you're not hearing this, you're hearing just kind of absolute absurdists conversation that's made for, you know, it's like that old line of Philip Ross about why it's so hard to write about America sometimes because it's its own satire. That's the great frustration. It's so low rent, these conversations.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Rick, you're grimacing now.

[Rick]

The chairman of the relevant committee in the Senate is going to be Inhofe, who actually more good news, believes that this is all a gigantic hoax. I mean, most of the deniers don't go that far. They think, oh well, the science is not quite there. Yeah, for Inhofe it's a giant conspiracy to impose burdensome government regulations on the entire planet. That's all that it is conscious.

[David Remnick]

We really have to ask ourselves why we get people of this level seeking the highest offices in the land. The nature of winning them and winning them. I don't want to romanticize the the senates of the 50s or the 60s as if it were filled with Enlightenment kings and queens, but it is so deeply dispiriting. I don't mean to just have an endless bum out session here, but why the hell not? It is so deeply dispiriting to watch the level of conversation and debate and politics on issues that are our future.

[Rick]

Forgive me for saying this, David, but the machine does not deliver. For one thing, elections are decided by essentially low information voters. People who cannot be troubled to figure out whether they're Democrats or Republicans. And most of those centrist voters, those swing voters are not Washington think tank third way types. They're people who arewho don't even know who controls Congress, who don't know anything essentially, and who basically vote on the basis of how things are going. Things are going, going well, though the President's doing a good job. If things are going badly, President's doing a bad job. So I'm going to vote that way.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Okay, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.

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[Dorothy Wickenden]

A lame duck, and yet we hear that he's got a real agenda and he will work with or without Congress. He did seem sort of liberated in the press conference. What can he do? Or what do you expect he'll do? Rick?

[Rick]

I don't expect that he'll do this, but I'd like to see him use the last two years to make up for some of the rhetorical mistakes, you might say, I guess of the last six years he's allowed people to believe that it is all about gridlock, it's all about Congress, it's all about Washington. And it is about those things in the sense, in a systemic sense. It's just that blaming those gets you nowhere. I'd like to see him, I'd like to see him talk big and recommend things that ain't going to happen, but just keep hammering away at why they ain't happening and clear the way for 2016.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

And this is basically the point that David was making about him getting out there and really talking about the big, big important issues.

[David Remnick]

And the tragedy is on Some issues we don't have until 2016.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

No. You know, and interestingly, David, David Axelrod, of all people, lamented last month that there's a. He said there's a theatrical nature to the presidency that Obama resists. And you've written about this, too, that he can be negligent in the symbolism. I don't understand why that man, who has an incredibly powerful command of the English language and he is able to bring people around to his point of view, as we saw in 2008. What has happened to that?

[David Remnick]

Well, I'm going to bring up something that's very unpopular to bring up because to many people it seems like an excuse and somehow reverse racism or whatever it is. There is a factor here of, and it goes to Obama's performative aspects, that he is a very tightly wound, tightly controlled political performer and some aspects of it. And we'll never know quite fully to what degree until he's out of office and he writes a book and if he writes an honest one, to what degree the way he performs his public duties and his rhetoric is reined in to any degree by race and the knowledge that he can't be angry, quote, unquote, or he can't say certain things the way certain other people could say them, not for a minute. Suggesting that this is a holistic explanation for A, why people are so negative on him, or B, how he behaves. Everything is much more complex than that. But to eliminate it from our thinking about Obama is just foolish.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Do you agree with that, Rick?

[Rick]

I do. Yeah. And look at how he became president. He became president in some ways through a series of symbols in his autobiography. Now, they were all, all true. They weren't made up. They weren't calculated symbols. They were just there. And he became president by keeping calm. When he said, a president has to be able to think about two things at once. Remember when McCain wanted to suspend the campaign, the collapse of the economy made his argument for him. All he had to do was be the calm, grown up, unpanicked presence and that put him into the White House.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Final question for both of you. What do you think Hillary Clinton is thinking about right now as she prepares what we assume will be her candidacy?

[David Remnick]

I think the notion that Hillary Clinton is inevitable is. It's always ridiculous to say anything is inevitable. In politics, these things turn on a dime. We have a piece from Ryan Lizza who brings forward people from the Democratic Party who may or may not challenge Hillary Clinton, o' Malley and Jim Webb.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Bernie Sanders.

[David Remnick]

Bernie Sanders.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

This is in the upcoming issue, by the way.

[David Remnick]

Look, I don't think that's her big problem, but remember why she lost last time? She lost because she was. She voted for the Iraq war in the Senate.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

She ran a terrible campaign.

[David Remnick]

She ran a lousy campaign. Also, in an American world where one of the biggest problems is this problem of middle class expectations diminishing and diminishing, I wonder how a person who I think is going to run into money problems when it comes to the campaign. I think the propinquity of the Clintons and big money and the Clinton Global Initiative is going to be a complexity for that campaign. I'm not saying Elizabeth Warren's going to waltz in and win as a result, but all down the line, just the notion that, well, the world is dying for a woman to be president, which I think it is largely and should be. That's just too simple a path, Rick.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Also, both Clintons campaigned in Arkansas, among other places. The Democrats lost the governorship and they lost the Senate seat there. Does that tell us anything?

[Rick]

Not terribly much, I don't think. But I do have a kind of sense of low grade dread about this upcoming presidential election and about Hillary. There doesn't seem to be any alternative and Bernie Sanders is not an alternative. Even Elizabeth Warren, were she to do it, which I think is highly, highly unlikely, would not really be an alternative. She does one thing very, very well, but the presidency is too many other things. I think Hillary is certainly fitted very well for the job. I think she'd be competent. She'd probably be a more in control president than her husband was, though she doesn't quite have his magic, to say the least. We are stuck. We are stuck with a system that works poorly. It has always worked pretty poorly and it's working increasingly poorly now, now that it's up against things like talk radio, Fox News, the Koch brothers, Citizens United.

[David Remnick]

Okay, yeah, Fox News. A couple million people watch that at its zenith. At its zenith, about a million people on the outside watch msnbc.

[Rick]

Way less than that.

[David Remnick]

There's the Koch brothers. There's also people on the Democratic. Let's not ignore the fact that there's money on the Democratic side. There's a lot of Wall street money, there's a lot of Hollywood money. It's not. The score is not 100 to nothing. The system is broken, to be sure. I think that we haven't had as bad a Supreme Court decision since Bush v. Gore as we have with Citizens United. Citizens United is a colossal failure.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

And as you say, Wall street money is going to be a problem for Hillary?

[David Remnick]

Well, I think it's the, it's both the imagery and the reality of propinquity to big money, who in a good cause in many senses, Bill Clinton and the family has been hanging around with for a long time. And the fatigue with that. The idea, oh God, this again. And really, are we going to have to listen to the Republicans again about women?

[Dorothy Wickenden]

And her age will be a big issue too, I think.

[David Remnick]

Less so. I think people will be tremendously excited, a lot of people will be tremendously excited that for the entire history of the United States, we've never decided to elect a member of half our population a woman. I think people are going to come out of the woodwork to make that happen.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

But Republicans will come out of the woodwork with, on every level on this.

[David Remnick]

She's although remember in the last time around, she did much better than Obama in the primary campaign with white working class voters. There is some now she's not Bill again, she's not a Southerner. She really, she's more identified with kind of the Midwest and New York somehow.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

And they do still love her in New Hampshire, as we saw this past week. Okay, thank you both. Hendrik Hertzberg is a senior editor and political essayist for the New Yorker and David Remnick is the editor. He is also the author of the Bridge about President Obama. This has been the political scene from the New Yorker. I'm Dorothy Wickenden.

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[Katie Drummond]

I'm Katie Drummond. I'm Wired's global Editorial director.

[David Remnick]

I'm Michael Coloury, Wired's Director of consumer tech and Culture.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

And I'm Lauren Good. I'm a senior correspondent at Wired. And our show Uncanny Valley is about the people, power and influence of Silicon Valley.

[Katie Drummond]

And right now, Silicon Valley and Washington have never been more intertwined. So each week we get together to talk about a big story, often at the intersection of tech and politics.

[Dorothy Wickenden]

Right.

[David Remnick]

So whether we're talking about Trump, Coin, Doge or Elon Musk, we will always explain how these Silicon Valley forces are.

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