The Politics Guys

This week’s show starts off with Mike getting all misty-eyed about President Obama’s farewell speech. Unsurprisingly, Jay wasn’t quite so choked up. Mike contrasts what he sees as the grace and eloquence of the outgoing president with the decidedly different style of President-Elect Donald Trump, who recently held his first news conference since winning the election. Mike and Jay talk about Trump’s claim that CNN is fake news, his ethics plan, and his response to unverified allegations that his campaign may have been in collusion with the Russian government. Then it’s on to a look at Senate confirmation hearings of two of President-Elect Trump’s key cabinet nominees: Rex Tillerson and Jeff Sessions. Finally, the Guys talk about the Republicans ‘full speed ahead’ plan to repeal Obamacare, and the perils of trying to quickly replace it.

This week, Mike and Jay start off by talking about the intelligence community’s now-released report on Russian hacking, which concluded that not only did the Russians attempt to influence the presidential election, but that they favored Donald Trump. The report was met with bipartisan acceptance in Congress, and even the President-Elect admitted that the Russians played some role (though he added that it had no effect on the election – a disputable claim).

After that, the Guys talk about the ongoing Trump transition, including the latest Trump appointments, his call to have Congress initially fund the Mexico border wall, the kickoff of the 116th Congress – including a very sketchy move on ethics that the House overturned after public condemnation – how Obamacare is likely to be repealed and whether it will be replaced, and how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (one of Mike’s favorite federal regulatory agencies) is making TransUnion and Equifax pay for defrauding consumers.

This week, Mike and Jay start out by talking more about Russian hacking: What we know, how it may have affected the election, Donald Trump’s response, and if the U.S. should retaliate. After that they look at the latest picks in Donald Trump’s administration, particularly the hard-liner he’s chosen as Ambassador to Israel. Finally, it’s an analysis of what the Federal Reserve’s rate hike means, followed by listener mail.

This week, the Guys start out by talking about ongoing controversies surrounding the 2016 presidential election. Now that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s recount effort has mostly fizzled out, attention has focused on the Russians, who the CIA has concluded attempted to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump. Both Jay and Mike are concerned, but Mike feels that Jay is downplaying the importance of this. Next, they look at – believe it or not -major legislation passed by Congress, in one case, passed with huge bipartisan majorities. After that, it’s a discussion of Donald Trump’s latest cabinet picks, and how the media should cover Trump’s tweets.

This week’s Ask The Politics Guys looks at two election-related questions. The first question – submitted by Alex, from Sandy, UT – is whether ranked-choice voting (sometimes called ‘instant runoff voting)) is a good idea.

The second question is whether the Electoral College – which will have made the popular vote loser the president in two of the last five elections – should be done away with.

This week, Mike and Jay start with a look at the three-state recount effort launched by Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein. The Clinton campaign has reluctantly become involved – reluctantly because they know that there’s essentially no way the recounts will change the result of the election. After that, they talk about Donald Trump’s deal to keep over 1,100 jobs at a Carrier plant in Indiana, look at how the Trump administration is filling out and what it might mean for policy, and talk about the latest incident of Islamic terrorism in the United States – a car & knife attack on the campus of Ohio State University.