Episode 726: CHIP BERLET(2017)-We look at extremism in early days of Trump One [Chip died in January]

Here’s my 2017 conversation with CHIP BERLET, investigative journalist, research analyst, activist - and friend - who died January 30, 2026. Over the last 50 years, Chip was one of a handful of folks who consistently tracked and organized against right-wing extremism. As MAGA grew and metastasized from its roots in the Silent Majority and the Tea Party, Chip was on the beat. Can’t say he didn’t warn us. Berlet was part of a team at the National Lawyers Guild who revealed the COINTELPRO program, in which US security and military forces disrupted left-wing movements for years, and co-authored (with Matthew N. Lyons) Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort a year before 9/11. We recorded this conversation two months into Trump One and five months before Tiki Torches in Charlottesville.