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Diane Rehm: On My Mind

Diane Rehm: On My Mind

WAMU 88.5

Diane Rehm’s weekly podcast features newsmakers, writers, artists and thinkers on the issues she cares about most: what’s going on in Washington, ideas that inform, and the latest on living well as we live longer.

1344 - Trump’s immigration crackdown. How far will he go?
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  • 1344 - Trump’s immigration crackdown. How far will he go?

    Promises of mass deportations were a centerpiece of Donald Trump’s campaign. His fiery – and false -- rhetoric painted undocumented immigrants as murders, rapists and violent criminals. He vowed to throw them out of the country by the millions starting on day one.  Last week’s appointment of Tom Homan as “border czar” and Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy send a clear signal that Trump hopes to follow through on those promises.  “I think we can expect that something dramatic is likely coming,” says Nick Miroff. He covers immigration enforcement and the department of homeland security for The Washington Post.  Miroff joins Diane to explain whether Trump can put his words into action and just how much his policies could transform the nation’s immigration system.

    Thu, 14 Nov 2024 - 35min
  • 1343 - What to expect from a second Trump presidency

    During the run up to the election, Donald Trump made big promises about immigration, about the economy, about remaking the bureaucracy of the United States government.  And now it seems he will get a chance to follow through on those promises.  “This is a much broader rejection than a rejection of Biden and by extension Harris,” says Norman Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “It is a rejection of a larger sense of who has been running the country, all the elites.” Few know the workings of the U.S. government as well as Ornstein and though he says “the elites” (himself included) have much to learn from the extent of Trump’s victory, he warns that people might not understand what they have gotten themselves into.  “For a lot of Americans who think that you can get rid of the bureaucracy, get rid of government and all will be fine," he say Ornstein, "they’re going to discover what it does in terms of disruption to their daily lives.”  Ornstein joins Diane to make sense of what we saw on Tuesday – and what a Trump second term will look like.

    Thu, 07 Nov 2024 - 46min
  • 1342 - What does it really mean to call Trump a "fascist"?

    The term “fascist” has been lobbed at Donald Trump since he entered the race for president in 2015 with talk of Mexican rapists and drug dealers.  Now the label has become central to the argument against Trump in the closing days of this year’s election.  It’s been used to describe him by his former chief of staff John Kelly, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley and Vice President Kamala HarrisJason Stanley is a philosophy professor at Yale University. He’s the author of the 2018 book How Fascism Works. His latest is Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. He joins Diane to talk about what fascism is and why voters should care.

    Thu, 31 Oct 2024 - 38min
  • 1341 - How secure is the 2024 election?

    Four years ago, Donald Trump spread the lie that Democrats stole the election.  He filed lawsuits, led protests and spearheaded misinformation campaigns in an attempt to overturn the result.  Since then, Trump and his allies have been laying the groundwork to question this year’s contest if the numbers don’t go his way. In other words, a Stop the Steal 2.0.  “I’m nervous,” says Rick Hasen, a leading expert on election law and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA. “But I’m not as nervous as I was in 2020.”  Hasen says the chaos created by Trump’s Big Lie taught the country’s lawmakers and election officials valuable lessons about how to secure the vote. He joins Diane to explain why he feels this year’s election will, indeed, be free and fair.

    Thu, 24 Oct 2024 - 37min
  • 1340 - Kamala Harris makes a push to energize Black voters. Will it work?

    Does Kamala Harris have a Black voter problem?  For nearly four decades Black voters have been among the most consistent voting bloc for Democrats. Yet recent polling suggests that support may not be quite as reliable as it was in the past, particularly among Black men.  This week Harris made a push to stop the bleeding, talking to Black radio hosts and announcing policy proposals directly targeting the Black community. “The path to victory for the Harris campaign has always been boosting turnout among base voters,” says Maya King, politics reporter with the New York Times. And because the race for president is so close, she adds, “if she’s underperforming with any corner of that bloc it is sort of an emergency situation.”  Maya King joins Diane to talk about Harris’s current focus on Black voters and whether it will work.

    Thu, 17 Oct 2024 - 34min
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