Episodes
In the wake of one of the worst storms in US history, Huffpost national reporter Roque Planas talks to Zach Young about what it was like to report from Houston during Hurricane Harvey and witness the destruction firsthand. Then, former Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis talks about how Texans are responding to the storm -- and how the state's politics make a bigger-picture reckoning with the dangers of unchecked urban sprawl difficult. Finally, Huffpost reporters Marina Fang and...
Published 08/31/17
President Donald Trump read what he pretended was an excerpt of his own speech this week in order to claim he'd been wrongly criticized, except he omitted the part that caused all the criticism. You know, the part in which he excused white supremacists for domestic terrorism in Charlottesville. Journalist and former NFL veteran Donte Stallworth joined "So That Happaned," the HuffPost Politics podcast, to talk Trump and also the phenomenon of NFL players refusing to stand for the national...
Published 08/24/17
President Trump this week spoke of "very fine people" among the Nazis and Ku Klux Klanners who staged a violent protest that resulted in the deaths of three people on Saturday. Trump's comments drew cascades of condemnation, but we already knew he had white supremacist tendencies. Jamelle Bouie, the chief political correspondent for Slate.com, joins So That Happened to talk about what has really changed, and whether Nazis are now in a real position of power. Also, HuffPost reporter...
Published 08/17/17
This week, we turn the show over to the New York office and HuffPost reporters Jeff Young and Sam Levine. First, they’re joined by our editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen to talk about the HuffPost “Listen to America” bus tour. Starting in September a whole bunch of HuffPost reporters are going to be touring the country on a bus, starting in St. Louis, then heading through the South, up to the Midwest, over to Montana, down to Arizona, and finally back east to New Orleans. They’re going to be...
Published 08/10/17
This week, we take a little break from things that happened this week to head to Pasadena, California, for Politicon! Over the weekend, So That Happened producer Zach Young attended the "unconventional political convention" and talked with Symone Sanders, National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders campaign, and Austin Petersen, runner-up to Gary Johnson in last year's Libertarian presidential primary. As Cenk Uygur and Ben Shapiro debated loudly in the adjacent auditorium, we had an...
Published 08/03/17
Donald Trump rose to power thanks in large part to his fame from having done a TV game show in which he ceremoniously "fired" contestants. Candidate Trump vowed to shake up Washington with this hard-hearted business persona, and yet faced with an attorney general he seems to want to fire, Trump can't do it. Bok bok! Republicans in the U.S. Senate are on the verge of finally repealing Obamacare, but they're not sure if they really want to go through with it after seven years of promises. The...
Published 07/27/17
This week on So That Happened: Zach Carter takes a break from book leave to return and host the show! He’s joined by ProPublica reporter Jesse Eisinger and Huffpost’s Alexander Kaufman to talk about why bankers never seem to go to jail. Then, Michelle Kuo stops by to talk about her book Reading With Patrick, a memoir about a teacher’s relationship with a gifted student who ends up jailed for murder. It's an exploration of race, class, justice, and coming of age in the South. Finally, Mike...
Published 07/20/17
For months, President Trump and his supporters said it was all just a political witch hunt, that his campaign had not colluded with the Russian government's interference in last year's presidential election. This week Donald Trump, Jr. revealed that he had, in fact, sought incriminating information on Hillary Clinton from a Russian government source. On this week's "So That Happened," HuffPost money-in-politics reporter Paul Blumenthal explains the several federal laws that Junior might have...
Published 07/13/17
Did CNN screw up this week by seemingly threatening to reveal the identity of a Reddit user who made a silly gif that President Trump tweeted? The Washington Examiner's Tim Carney says the episode represents the kind of media excess that gives rise to Anti-Anti-Trumpism, a sort-of movement animated by the belief that Trump's critics somehow lie more than Trump does. The Anti-Anti-Trump argument loses credibility, Carney says, the minute it serves as an excuse to avoid criticizing the...
Published 07/06/17
Republicans in the U.S. Senate completely boofed their health care bill, so this week on "So That Happened" we discuss the politics of their failure as well as how the underlying policy could change when the zombie Senate bill rises from the dead next month. President Trump continues to seem completely unaware of what's in the legislation, and even resigned to its failure. And we also take a look at the increasing concentration of corporate power and the failure of both parties in the U.S. to...
Published 06/29/17
Senate Republicans finally released their secret Obamacare repeal bill, so this week on "So That Happened" we explore the real possibility that this thing could actually pass and become law. We also take a look at Democrats' total fecklessness in special elections and the several high-profile acquittals of police officers who killed civilians for no good reason.
Published 06/22/17
So, that happened. This week, we discuss the assassination attempt on members of Congress, which has left House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) grievously injured. Fallout from the shooting included efforts to blame political opponents, as well as a familiar debate over whether it's appropriate to question permissive gun laws for gun violence, which it always is. Still, we have two important takeaways that hold true whether or not you like your society heavily armed: 1) Don't shoot...
Published 06/15/17
So, that happened. This week, the White House celebrated Infrastructure Week. Or at least, they wanted to, but couldn't because this week was James Comey-A-Go-Go in the Senate Intelligence Committee. Yes, the former FBI director debuted his testimony in front of an eager gaggle of Senators and he seemed pretty bent on making sure everyone knew that President Donald Trump was a serial liar. The White House struck back, accusing Comey of leaking privileged information and telling falsehoods of...
Published 06/08/17
So, that happened. This week, we're going in search of a Trump Doctrine. President Donald Trump has returned from his first lengthy trip abroad. You've heard the speeches, you saw the photos, you know about the orb. Now it's time to consider the ways Trump's dealings with our European allies and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia point to a coming shift in American foreign policy, and illustrate the way Trump wants to reshape the world and the United States role in it. Buckle up, it's gonna get...
Published 06/01/17
So, that happened. This week, while President Donald Trump was away on foreign business, the wider world got a look at the latest White House budget proposals and the experience was like staring into a moral void. Broadly targeted for elimination: just about anything that offers assistance to the poor and vulnerable. Cashing in big time: rich income earners. There are education cuts that could decimate profitable research, new burdens on food stamp providers that could result in fewer in the...
Published 05/25/17
So, that happened. This week, President Donald Trump had another one of those weeks where Donald Trump is president. By which I mean, total omnidirectional omnishambles. Building off the controversy of last week's controversial firing of James Comey, Trump revealed highly classified intelligence from a source in Syria to two high-ranking Russian officials, touching off yet another self-immolation. He's ended the week with more trouble from Comey, more indefensible deceptions, fewer allies...
Published 05/18/17
So, that happened. This week, Donald Trump fired James Comey. And that's been the implacable news event of the week, so much so that we are just going to surrender to it entirely. This single decision is the apotheosis of Trump. It has everything: a stumbled over decision that landed with a kersplat on the news-cycle, constantly shifting rationales that change by the hour, massive leaks from the White House, the usual concerns over temperament, and the unalterable impression that the White...
Published 05/11/17
So, that happened. This week, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a bucket of garbage, placing the lives of some 24 million people at risk. Quite a spectacle really. We'll have fifteen minutes of flabbergasted gasping for you to enjoy. Meanwhile, for some reason we'll also talk about other things. For example, just how populist is the Trump White House going to get? The new head of the SEC will be Goldman Sachs' bailout lawyer, Jay...
Published 05/04/17
So, that happened. This week, we've reached the end of Trump's first 100 days. How will it be remembered? In many ways, it's been like watching someone's body reject an organ transplant. Somehow, Trump has managed to hit the century mark at the threshold of a government shutdown fight with his own party. Nevertheless, some things never change, and 100 days into the Trump presidency we can report with confidence that everything remains really, really great for people who are really, really...
Published 04/27/17
So, that happened. This week, President Donald Trump issued another one of his patented executive orders, this time endeavoring to bring jobs back to America through a "Buy American, Hire American" policy. Trump immediately went back out on the campaign trail to signal that great changes were now afoot in the land, but are they really? We've dug down into the details and discovered that it's a blend of activity masquerading as achievement. And guess what: it's a trend. Meanwhile, the...
Published 04/20/17
So, THAT happened! Remember all that stuff about draining the swamp and taking down the Washington establishment? Well, President Trump talked to some guys from Goldman Sachs and has decided to be Jeb Bush instead. HuffPost reporter S.V. Date joins us to discuss the latest contours and convulsions of the Trump presidency. But some things never change, including The Democratic Party, which just blew a chance to pick up a House seat in deep-red Kansas. Party leaders -- they actually said this...
Published 04/13/17
So, that happened. This week, we are joined by the host of MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes," who in case you haven't figured it out is named Chris Hayes. We'll be talking about his new book "A Colony In A Nation," which documents how white fear has led to America's frustratingly unjust two-tiered justice system -- where some get to live peacefully as citizens, and others get treated by the state as if they were under the bootheel of an occupying force. Meanwhile, have you been wondering how...
Published 04/06/17
So, that happened. This week, Washington lawmakers began crawling out from under the wreckage of the failed American Health Care Act, better known as the bill that finally emerged from the GOP's seven-year effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. The bill largely foundered because of deep divides within the House Republican caucus, with House Speaker Paul Ryan and establishment leaders on one side, and the insurgent House Freedom Caucus on the other. But now, they have a common enemy at least,...
Published 03/30/17
So, that happened. This week, Neil Gorsuch made his confirmation hearing debut as Donald Trump's prospective Supreme Court nominee. And he came to DC with a long and concerning history of putting his finger on the scales of justice in favor of entrenched monopolies of money and power. What's really at stake here, is your money, and we're joined by law professor Zephyr Teachout, to explain what you stand to lose if Gorsuch is confirmed. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has promised to boost the...
Published 03/23/17
So, that happened. This week, President Donald Trump moved forward on a number of policy fronts. He also moved backward on a number of policy fronts. Very typical week, to be honest. But we now have the first Trump budget, and as you might expect, it really does a number on several high profile domestic policy projects. We'll lay out where negotiations with Congress are likely to begin. We'll also bring you up to speed with the Congressional Budget Office's evaluation of Trumpcare (it wasn't...
Published 03/16/17