University of Virginia / US News and World Report
Mary Kate Cary is a senior fellow for presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center and a contributing editor for US News and World Report. From 1989-1992, she served as a speechwriter for President George H. W. Bush.
The 'bully pulpit' in a divided nation After condemning Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan on Monday, President Trump spoke again yesterday of this weekend’s violence at the University of Virginia. The White House scheduled a press conference to change the subject from Saturday’s violence at the University of Virginia to infrastructure repair, but President Trump turned it into another defense of armed white racists and the demonstration they called Unite-the-Right. He seemed to find moral equivalence between armed white racists supporting a Confederate symbol and those who protested. David Duke and other white nationalists say they’re grateful for those words; Republicans are almost unanimous in their outrage. What are the consequences when a President provokes ideas and emotions that go back to the Civil War?
A new president. What comes next? For the 45th time, America has accomplished a peaceful transition of power-- leaving the country with a sense of uncertainty about the future. President Donald Trump's inaugural address repeated familiar themes from his campaign for office. The President painted a dark picture of the nation's current condition, and promised to disempower the Washington elite — but he was short on specifics. Did he reassure the majority of Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton?
Barack Obama Begins His Second Term America's first black president was sworn in for a second term today, on the national holiday dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Barack Obama's traditional call for unity and equality echoed King's words at the same time he acknowledged what he called, "skepticism of central authority." He renewed commitments to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, promised response to climate change and emphasized the equality of gay Americans. Did he reach out to Republicans or challenge them to more political conflict?
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
