Co-Founder, White House Transition Project
Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he is co-founder and executive director of the White House Transition Project, which provides scholarly information and assistance to secure a successful presidential transition
Barack Obama: Doing Too Much or Too Little? With the motto, "never waste a good crisis," Barack Obama is pushing a broad agenda at the same time he’s trying to stabilize the financial system and restore economic stability. Eight weeks into his four-year term, the new President appears on TV two or three times a day, each time, it seems, with a different challenge. While polls show the public remains on his side, "Obama’s honeymoon in the corridors of power has come to an abrupt end." Now Warren Buffett and other authoritative supporters say he ought to be focusing like a laser beam on fixing the economy -- right now. The White House insists that issues like healthcare, education and global warming are basic to economic recovery, long term. But is Obama addressing the costs and trade-offs honestly?
Obama Names His Nation Security Team Barack Obama's national security team is full of familiar faces, including Hillary Clinton at State and Robert Gates staying on at Defense . Along with former Marine Corps Commandant General James Jones at the National Security Council , they've had many public disagreements with the president-elect. As he introduced them today, the President-elect described himself as a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions. Cautioning against the danger of "group-think and affirming that he welcomed " vigorous debate inside the White House ," he acknowledged that the buck stops with him. We hear about his so-called "team of rivals." Can they implement his vision for combining force and diplomacy?
Obama Names His Nation Security Team Barack Obama's national security team is full of familiar faces, including Hillary Clinton at State and Robert Gates staying on at Defense . Along with former Marine Corps Commandant General James Jones at the National Security Council , they've had many public disagreements with the president-elect. As he introduced them today, the President-elect described himself as a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions. Cautioning against the danger of "group-think and affirming that he welcomed " vigorous debate inside the White House ," he acknowledged that the buck stops with him. We hear about his so-called "team of rivals." Can they implement his vision for combining force and diplomacy?
Ex-FBI Director Comey tells his side of the story Today, former FBI Director James Comey came close to calling the President who fired him a liar. The White House denied the claim and called it insulting, but Republican Senators did not challenge Comey’s truthfulness. Many questions remain: did the President try to obstruct a federal investigation? Later, we’ll go behind the “velvet rope” for a look at 5-Star health care for the richest Americans.
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?
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.