Susan Del Percio (crisis communications expert) joins host Ron Steslow to examine what becomes of a populist movement once it captures the institutions it was built to attack.
They begin with the Epstein files and a new book from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about the White House’s behind-the-scenes scramble to respond, including a Situation Room damage control meeting, and why the leaked recording of that meeting is more alarming still.
Next, they widen the lens to populism’s paradox, what...
Susan Del Percio (crisis communications expert) joins host Ron Steslow to examine what becomes of a populist movement once it captures the institutions it was built to attack.
They begin with the Epstein files and a new book from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about the White House’s behind-the-scenes scramble to respond, including a Situation Room damage control meeting, and why the leaked recording of that meeting is more alarming still.
Next, they widen the lens to populism’s paradox, what happens when a movement built to distrust institutions takes them over and whether these movements need a single figurehead to lead them.
Then they turn to Maine, where Democrats nominated Graham Platner, a self-described socialist with a Nazi tattoo and allegations from former romantic partners describing him as volatile and demeaning toward women, including one ex-girlfriend’s accusation that he physically intimidated and restrained her.
Finally, they weigh the economics underneath the populist rhetoric, from Platner’s “Epstein class” framing to a leftist turn toward capping growth and redistributing wealth, and why the politics of stagnation is a hard sell.
In Politicology+, they dig into “jawboning”— the way governments lean on private platforms to suppress speech they can’t legally suppress themselves—and a new bipartisan bill to stop it.
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