Guess what? We are officially phasing out The Takeaway's Politics with Amy Walter.  We are still making our weekly politics show, but it will officially be housed on The Takeaway Podcast feed starting this week.  So, what should you do? Subscribe to The Takeaway's podcasts and news feeds using iTunes or your favorite podcast client so you'll always have the latest episode. Listen to podcasts on your computer or transfer the files to your mp3.file player to take them with you anywhere. Be...

The Inscrutable Senator Kyrsten Sinema During Sinema's brief time in office, she has gained a reputation for being particularly inscrutable. She is known for rarely holding town halls with constituents or taking questions from the press. Last week, five members of Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s Veterans Advisory Council publicly stepped down, calling her “one of the principal obstacles to progress.” The Takeaway talks to one of those members, Sylvia González Andersh, a U.S. Air Force Veteran, to...

State Politics Heating Up Across Country Jessica Taylor, the Senate and Governors Editor for The Cook Political Report, and Zach Montellaro, state politics reporter at POLITICO take a look at state politics and gubernatorial races around the country where candidates are debating issues around education, police reform, and abortion rights. New Analyses Show Potential Undercount of Black Population During 2020 Census The findings have brought up concerns that some jurisdictions and civil...

Debt Ceiling Deal Extended but For How Long? Join us for this week's political round up with Michael Steele, former Lt. Gov. of Maryland and previous chair of the RNC and Christina Greer, Associate Professor of Political Science at Fordham University, co-host of podcast FAQ NYC, and author of the book “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration and the Pursuit of the American Dream." Michael and Christina share their thoughts about the debt ceiling extension and reproductive rights as well as the...

Biden Outlines Agenda To Boost the Middle Class President Joe Biden delivered a speech geared toward a tax plan for the middle class. California had its recall election in which Governor Gavin Newsom beat out Republican frontrunner and recall candidate Larry Elder. The Takeaway hosts a politics roundtable with Dave Weigel, a national reporter covering politics for the Washington Post. Brendan Buck is a Republican strategist at Seven Letter and a former aide to Republican speakers of the...

Millions of Americans Lost Unemployment Insurance This Week This past Monday — Labor Day — 7.5 million workers lost their COVID-era expanded unemployment benefits, even as the pandemic continues on.  President Joe Biden decided not to extend the benefits before they were set to expire. For more on this, The Takeaway spoke to Heather Long, economics correspondent for the Washington Post, and Annelies Goger, Fellow at the Brookings Institution.  How Islamophobia Has Impacted Sikh...

Texas Abortion Providers Grapple with New Reality Under Restrictive Law On Wednesday, one of the most restrictive ever abortion rights laws in the U.S. went into effect in the Lone Star state. Called SB8, it bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before most people even know they’re pregnant. While it doesn't’ reverse Roe v Wade, it does circumvent it.  The Legal Questions Surrounding Texas's Restrictive Abortion Law  At midnight on Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the United...

The Supreme Court Reinstated Trump's 'Remain in Mexico' Policy  This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration must reinstate the Trump-era immigration policy known as 'Remain in Mexico,' which forces many asylum seekers to live in Mexico while they wait for the date of their asylum hearings.Many migrants seeking asylum have had to endure unsafe and inhumane conditions in Mexico during that interim period. How the Biden Administration is Responding to Deadly Terrorist...

A Look at What Happened to Capitol Hill Bomb Threat Suspect  On Thursday, 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry of Grover, North Carolina surrendered to Capitol Police after an hours-long standoff at the Library of Congress. Earlier in the day, Roseberry posted a video to social media claiming he had explosives. In a press conference following his surrender, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, indicated Roseberry had suffered personal losses in his family.  Should Politician's Apologize? On...

Does Bipartisanship Still Work? A conversation on the history of bipartisan legislation, changes in ideology, and whether true bipartisanship is actually dead. Fights Over Voting Rights and Mask Mandates Heat Up in Texas This week, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan signed arrest warrants for 52 Democrats who have refused to return to the state Capitol during the two special sessions called this summer. What the July Jobs Report Tells Us About Economic Recovery Last week, the U.S. Bureau of...

What the Cuomo Sexual Harassment Report Means for Democrats Nationwide This week, the New York attorney general released a report detailing allegations that Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women and created a culture of “fear and retaliation.”  Politics, Power, and Abuse In 2019, Professor Vanessa Tyson publicly accused Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax of sexual assault. The Ohio Special Election and the Future of the Democratic Party On Tuesday, Shontel Brown, the...

Pandemic-Era Expanded Government Benefits Drive U.S. Poverty Rate Down Roughly 20 million people in the U.S. are expected to be brought out of poverty this year, according to a recent Urban Institute research report. Advocates Win Unemployment Case in Arkansas as Republicans Try to Strip Benefits Many Republican-led states have halted the extra $300 per month unemployment insurance payments, but lawsuits around the country might change that. House of Representatives Holds First Hearing on...

Democratic Strategy Ahead of 2022 Midterm Elections Six months into Biden’s presidency, The Takeaway looks at the administration's strategy ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Conservatives Are Changing Their Tune on Vaccines A significant number of high-profile members of conservative media are now urging their audiences to get vaccinated. What the U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan Will Mean for Veterans Many veterans of the war in Afghanistan will face physical, emotional, and...

Rep. James Clyburn on Voting Rights, the Filibuster and More Top Democratic lawmakers, including House Majority Whip James Clyburn, are urging their colleagues in the Senate to reform the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation. Inflation Is On the Rise in the U.S. As cities and states across the country reopen, inflation is on the rise. The Future of the Child Tax Credit On Thursday, families across the United States began receiving a monthly child tax credit...

President Biden Looks to Address Crime On Wednesday, President Biden laid out his plans for addressing the nationwide rise in violent crime and homicides. Amid Decline in Vaccination Rates, Biden Visits North Carolina Plus, how community organizers are leading the charge with culturally relevant outreach.    Who Will Be New York City's Next Mayor? While the general election is still months away, the winner of the Democratic primary is expected to come out on top in November.   Guest...

This week, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law officially establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Juneteenth marks the day that enslaved people in Texas found out they were free, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. For some people, including guest host Melissa Harris-Perry, Juneteenth is a celebration of Black culture and freedom. With that in mind, The Takeaway revisits a conversation from earlier this month about Black Music Month,...

Guest host: Melissa Harris-Perry.

This week marked the start of June, which is the last month of the Supreme Court’s current term. That means we’ll be seeing a number of important rulings in the coming days and weeks on everything from voting restrictions to LGBTQ+ rights to the Affordable Care Act.  In total, SCOTUS has at least 20 cases left to decide before the end of the term. Already this week, there have been decisions in a handful of cases. In a unanimous ruling on Tuesday, for example, SCOTUS affirmed the authority...

This week marked the start of June, which is the last month of the Supreme Court’s current term. That means we’ll be seeing a number of important rulings in the coming days and weeks on everything from voting restrictions to LGBTQ+ rights to the Affordable Care Act.  In total, SCOTUS has at least 20 cases left to decide before the end of the term. Already this week, there have been decisions in a handful of cases. In a unanimous ruling on Tuesday, for example, SCOTUS affirmed the authority...

Breaking Down President Biden's $6 Trillion 2022 Budget The president's budget attempts to incorporate plans on infrastructure, housing, and healthcare, and is likely to receive conservative backlash for raising the federal deficit. Biden's Child Care Tax Credit: What It Does and Who It Leaves Out The American Rescue Plan that President Joe Biden signed into law in March sought to remedy the lack of a strong child care infrastructure by expanding the child tax credit. The Tulsa Race...

Breaking Down President Biden's $6 Trillion 2022 Budget The president's budget attempts to incorporate plans on infrastructure, housing, and healthcare, and is likely to receive conservative backlash for raising the federal deficit. Biden's Child Care Tax Credit: What It Does and Who It Leaves Out The American Rescue Plan that President Joe Biden signed into law in March sought to remedy the lack of a strong child care infrastructure by expanding the child tax credit. The Tulsa Race...

President Biden Signs COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act Into Law The legislation aims to address the uptick in hate crimes targeting the Asian Americans and Pacific Islander population during the pandemic.    House Votes to Establish Bipartisan Commission Looking Into Capitol Attack The idea to form a commission—in the style of the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks—has been fraught since day one.  New York Attorney General Announces Criminal Investigation Into the Trump Organization The...

President Biden Signs COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act Into Law The legislation aims to address the uptick in hate crimes targeting the Asian Americans and Pacific Islander population during the pandemic.    House Votes to Establish Bipartisan Commission Looking Into Capitol Attack The idea to form a commission—in the style of the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks—has been fraught since day one.  New York Attorney General Announces Criminal Investigation Into the Trump Organization The...

A Look at Covid-19 Vaccine Incentives: Will They Work? There's a long history of using incentives to promote public health.   Some Republican-led States Plan to End Enhanced Unemployment Benefits Early A look at the growing number of red states opting out of the pandemic era unemployment program.     New Deal-Inspired Program Would Pay Writers to Document the Pandemic Earlier this month, Congressman Ted Lieu of California introduced a bill that would create a 21st Century Federal...