On this week's episode, Tara gives her take on the DNC Convention, the recent arrest of former Trump Campaign Manager Steve Bannon, and the release of the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee final report on Russian interference. Ret. Lt. Cmdr. Greg Keeley, Co-founder and President of The Council on American Security, joins Tara to discuss Trump's shameful non response to Russian bounties on US troops, why the attacks on the postal service hurt veterans, the significance of a National...

On this week's episode, veteran Democratic Strategist, CNN Political Contributor and Author, Paul Begala joins Tara in a lively discussion about his newly released book, "You're Fired, The Perfect Guide to Beating Donald Trump." Great stories, great insight, great conversation. Find out why Tara calls Paul her favorite Democrat. Tara details her recent Twitter spat with the US Surgeon General, the Trump Axios interview and the ongoing Veepstakes.

Another chaotic week in Washington. Attorney General Bill Barr testified before the House Judiciary Committee for the first time and it was doozy. Former SDNY federal prosecutor and CNN Legal Analyst Elie Honig rejoins the podcast to breakdown the ups and downs of the raucous Barr hearing. He doesn't hold back! Tara takes on Trump's insane tweets that suggest delaying the election (he can't) to his support for a quack doctor who preaches demon sperm can impregnate women in their dreams. Not...

Every wonder what the hell Trump is doing during his infamous rallies? Jennifer Mercieca, Texas A&M Rhetoric Professor and author of the new book, "The Demagogue President. The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump," joins Tara to discuss the various techniques Trump deploys when speaking. Yes, there's actually a method to that madness! Tara takes on the ongoing debate around opening schools, the attacks on Dr. Fauci, the Trump campaign shake up and more.

On this week's episode, former Obama speech writer and NY Times best selling author, David Litt, joins the podcast to discuss his latest book, "Democracy in One Book or Less." Litt discusses his view on eliminating the Electoral College, solutions to voter suppression, anecdotes about crashing Mitch McConnell's frat house, compares lines at Disney World to voting, behind the scenes at the White House Correspondents Dinner with President Obama and more. Tara takes on Trump's Fourth of July...

In this week's episode we tackle the national discussion on systemic racism and police reform with Ret. NYPD Lt. Darrin Porcher. He spent 20 years with the NYPD, has a PhD and is currently a Professor of Criminal Justice at Pace University. Porcher gives his take on the recent police shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta from his perspective as a former Internal Affairs investigator and outlines his ideas for meaningful police reforms. Tara tackles the racial history of Juneteenth and...

American cities have been in turmoil for a week after protests erupted nationwide over the horrific killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, protests turned violent in dozens of cities. Trump's response has been despicable, fanning the flames and relishing in the use of brute force. Many warned that a Trump presidency would be a disaster. Did we ever think it would get this bad? Conservative author, VP and Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy...

Trump is at again. To distract from the increasing coronavirus death toll and the mounting evidence of his failed response, Trump has created a new shiny object. Obamagate. But what is it? And why now? Former federal prosecutor, LA Times legal columnist, constitutional law professor and Host of The Talking Feds Podcast, Harry Litman joins Tara to discuss the latest on the damage Bill Barr is doing to the Dept of Justice, the Flynn case, whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright and more. Tara breaks...

This week's episode includes two fantastic interviews. Despite increasing infection rates and a COVID-19 death toll on pace to hit 100,000 in a few weeks, Trump has pivoted to reopening the economy in hopes of saving his re-election. Former DHS official, CNN National Security Analyst and Harvard Professor Juliette Kayyem discusses the alarming failures of the Trump administration's response and why Trump's you're "one your own now" approach to the COVID-19 fight will cost lives. Want to...

As the US surpasses a million COVID-19 cases, including over 56,000 deaths, Trump insists his administration's coronavirus response has been fantastic. It hasn't. Starting with the country's insufficient testing capacity. Former Chief of Staff to Vice President Biden and Ebola Czar under President Obama, Ron Klain is this week's guest. Klain explains the importance of wide scale testing, what steps should be taken before reopening the country, what he learned from his experience as Obama's...

The Honestly Speaking with Tara podcast returns after a COVID 19 hiatus. CNN Senior Political Analyst and The Atlantic Senior Editor, Ron Brownstein is this week's guest. He discusses the pros and cons of mail-in balloting for the upcoming presidential election, which party does it help or hurt and insight into how absentee balloting could impact the six most important Electoral College states. Brownstein also devles into the politics of the pandemic in red vs blue states with less than...

The Coronavirus has officially gone global with confirmed cases on every continent except Antartica. CDC officials have warned about potential community cluster outbreaks in the U.S. As the world is facing a pandemic, unsurprisingly, President Trump is downplaying the virus and claims his administration has it all under control. Does it? Can we trust this administration to handle a looming health crisis and be honest with the American people? Former CIA analyst, spokesman and member of the...

Another extraordinary week in political news as the Senate Impeachment trial drama of Donald Trump ensued as new revelations from John Bolton's book manuscript claim Trump told him directly that Ukraine aid was tied to a Biden investigation. Despite the bombshell revelations, the GOP led Senate voted down new witness testimony. Joe Lockhart, Former Press Secretary during the Clinton impeachment, joins Tara to discuss his perspective as he relives a very different impeachment trial than what...

The historic Senate Impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump is officially underway. CNN Legal Analyst and former federal & state prosecutor Elie Honig joins the podcast to talk impeachment trial thus far. Is this an actual trial? What about witnesses? What role does the Chief Justice play? What's going on with Lev Parnas and the SDNY? Honig breaks it all down in a spirited conversation with Tara. Tara starts off the first podcast of 2020 with her thoughts on the political hot topics of the...

History was made this week when Donald Trump became only the third U.S. president in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. This week's podcast guests include visiting Harvard Law professor Jennifer Taub to discuss the impeachment and Philip Bump, National Correspondent for the Washington Post, to discuss what the hell is Rudy Giuliani up to? Tara gives her take on impeachment and other political hot topics of the week. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

Presidential historian and former Director of the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Tim Naftali joins the podcast to discuss the historical context and comparisons of the Trump impeachment process thus far. Is this worse than Watergate? Should the Mueller findings be included? How are Democrats handling impeachment proceedings? Naftali offers his take on these questions and much more. Naftali is also the co-author of "Impeachment: An American History." Tara gives her take on the latest...

Lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee wrapped up a marathon of public testimony, hearing from a dozen witnesses over the last two weeks in the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Several witnesses provided explosive details that seemingly outline a criminal conspiracy to extort Ukraine at the direction of the president. Have the Democrats made the case? Ryan Goodman, NYU Law Professor, former Dept of Defense Special Counsel and co-founder of JustSecurity.org ,...

For only the fourth time in American history, impeachment hearings have begun. On this week's episode, congressional trailblazer Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY) joins Tara to discuss her experience as a Judiciary Committee member during Watergate and the comparisons to Trump's impeachment hearings. Holtzman brings a candid, first hand, perspective to how Democrats and the Republicans should be handling Trump's abuse of power. She's also written several books including the "Case for Impeaching...

Impeachment inquiry transcripts aren't the only damning documents being released this week. Buzzfeed News Investigative Reporter Jason Leopold, joins Tara to discuss his successful efforts to use Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to obtain primary source documents and evidence used to create the Mueller Report and how he earned the nickname, the "FOIA Terrorist." The first cache is a treasure trove of information that sheds more light on the lengths the Trump campaign was willing to go to...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently said, "All roads with you lead to Putin" when confronting President Trump over his erratic foreign policy decisions. How right she is. This week, information warfare and Eurasian policy expert Molly McKew joins Tara to discuss the extent of Putin's disinformation tactics against the United States and how Trump is playing right into Russia's hands. The level of infiltration and information manipulation by the Russians should alarm every American. A must listen...

The impeachment walls are closing in on Donald Trump. More credible witnesses have testified that a quid pro quo was in fact in place regarding Ukraine security aid and investigations into Trump's political rivals. Coupled with Trump's erratic, irresponsible behavior surrounding recent Middle East foreign policy debacles of his own creation, some Republicans have begun to speak out against Trump's actions. Have they had enough? Former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent (R-PA) joins Tara to...

Honestly Speaking was on the road this week for the CNN/NY Times Democratic debate in Westerville, OH. Politico 2020 campaign reporter, Marc Caputo joins Tara for a discussion on his debate takeaways and the state of the democratic race so far. He's on the Biden beat and is based in Florida, so Marc has valuable insight into the upcoming election. He also talks about his infamous confrontation with conservative talking head, Dan Bongino during the 2016 campaign that resulted in an epic...

Donald Trump is talking an awful lot about rooting out corruption as his excuse for soliciting foreign countries like Ukraine and China to investigate his political rivals. Really? On this week's episode, CNN Senior Reporter and author of Kushner Inc., Vicky Ward joins Tara on the podcast to discuss the conflicts, corruption and greed of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in the White House. Also on this episode, McKay Coppins from The Atlantic, joins the conversation about his October cover...

Now that the whistleblower's complaint has been made public, along with the Ukraine call transcript, the details spell trouble for President Trump. Democrats have now opened up an official impeachment inquiry into Trump's abuse of power. His solicitation of foreign interference from Ukraine to hurt a political rival and the actions taken to that end has set the political world on fire. This week, retired CIA Clandestine Services Officer, John Sipher joins Honestly Speaking to discuss the...

This week, former FBI Special Agent Josh Campbell joins Tara to discuss his new book, "Crossfire Hurricane, Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI." But first, another week, another major scandal threatens Trump's presidency. As more information comes out about the intelligence community whistleblower's complaint against him, Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are waging an all out disinformation campaign against political rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Tara breaks down the...