DSR's Words Matter

Over the last few weeks, Donald Trump has left no doubt that he is a racist. He has also made it clear -- race will be perhaps THE biggest issue in 2020. The question is: Can racism win?This week Katie and Joe talk to Keith Boykin. Keith is a CNN political commentator, New York Times best-selling author, and a former White House aide to President Bill Clinton. Keith teaches at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York and previously taught at American University in Washington, D.C. He is a co-founder and first board president of the National Black Justice Coalition.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we sit down with Lauren Moxley, the host of The Ginsburg Tapes Podcast -- which chronicles Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s oral arguments before the then all-male United States Supreme Court from 1972 to 1978 —before she became #Notorious RBG.The Ginsburg Tapes allows the listener to be a fly on the wall for some of the most important cases in American jurisprudence as future Justice Ginsburg challenged laws treating men and women differently. In between the actually Supreme Court recordings, Lauren puts the cases, the law and even the Justices themselves in historical context and explains how as a lawyer, RBG really did change the World.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few know more about the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation than our guest this week, former Justice Department and FBI senior official James A. Baker. From 2014 to 2017 Mr. Baker was general counsel of the FBI and was involved in the initial and some of the most important aspects of the investigation into Russia's attack on the 2016 presidential election. We talk to Jim Baker about that, Robert Mueller's testimony and if our government is doing enough to ensure that the 2020 election is free from foreign influence.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller prepares to testify in front of Congress the week, Katie and Joe previewed his testimony with National Security expert Jeremy Bash in last week's episode.Some things are worth repeating. So in case you missed this important preview, here it is again.From 2009 to 2011, Jeremy served as Chief of Staff at the CIA under Director Leon Panetta and from 2011-2013 as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense under then Secretary Panetta.A graduate of Georgetown and Harvard Law School Jeremy was the policy director for national security issues 2000 Gore-Lieberman Campaign and also served as the Chief Minority Counsel for the House Intelligence Committee under Ranking Member Congresswoman Jane Harman.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katie and Joe talk to two journalists to go beyond the tweets and find out what's really going on race and immigration in Donald Trump's America.Eugene Scott covers identity politics for the Washington Post. He joined the Post from CNN Politics, where he covered the 2016 presidential election and was the senior reporter on the website’s breaking news team. He’s a regular on-air contributor, providing analysis on MSNBC, CNN, CBS and NPR. Eugene is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.Molly O’Toole is an immigration reporter for the Los Angeles Times based here in Washington. Previously, she was a senior reporter at Foreign Policy covering the 2016 election and Trump administration. Molly has covered immigration and security from Mexico, Central America, West Africa, the Middle East, the Gulf, and South Asia.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Barbara Jordan was a lawyer educator politician and a leader of the civil rights movement a Democrat and Houston native. Jordan was the first African-American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first southern African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives.On July 25th 1974 Congresswoman Jordan delivered a televised opening statement as the House Judiciary Committee began consideration of articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. It is regarded by historians as one of the greatest speeches in all of American history. Congresswoman Jordan offered a passionate and powerful defense of the United States Constitution. A document, she noted, did not include people like her when it was written and completed in 1787.Congresswoman Jordan also provided thoughtful and well documented explanations of our system of checks and balances which were designed to stop any politician from abusing their power. She stuck to the facts and the law and noted the seriousness and the solemn duty she and her fellow members were about to undertake. As she quoted extensively from the founders Congresswoman Jordan explained that those who had drafted and ratified the Constitution anticipated actions like Nixon's and had created the check of impeachment to guard against such executive overreach and abuse of office. So this week we give Congresswoman Barbara Jordan the Final Word.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is scheduled to testify in front of Congress next week. Katie and Joe preview his testimony with National Security expert Jeremy Bash.From 2009 to 2011, Jeremy served as Chief of Staff at the CIA under Director Leon Panetta and from 2011-2013 as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense under then Secretary Panetta.A graduate of Georgetown and Harvard Law School Jeremy was the policy director for national security issues 2000 Gore-Lieberman Campaign and also served as the Chief Minority Counsel for the House Intelligence Committee under Ranking Member Congresswoman Jane Harman.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William D. Cohan is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair and is one of the most meticulous and intrepid journalists working today – a truly great reporter covering the intersection between Wall Street and Washington.Bill has also written for The Financial Times, The New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Atlantic, The Nation, Fortune, and Politico.In addition, Bill is the author of: The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co., House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street; about the last days of Bear Stearns, Wall Street Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World; The Price of Silence: the Duke Lacrosse Scandal; And Why Wall Street Matters.Bill joins us today to talk his latest book – Four Friends: Promising Lives Cut ShortSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Katie and Joe review the Trump Family's Excellent Adventure: Part II - Ivanka Trump's prominent role at the G20 and the photo-op diplomacy in North Korea. They also discuss how Donald Trump tried to turn a national celebration into a celebration of himself.And last week Gold Star parent Khzir Khan welcomed new citizens to this country as he delivered the keynote address in Charlottesville Virginia at Monticello’s annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. Khan and his wife Ghazala moved to the United States in 1980 and became citizens six years later, in 2004. Their son U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan was killed while serving in Iraq. This week we give proud American and Gold Star parent Khzir Khan the Final Word.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On July 4th we celebrate the birth of the American Experiment. The Declaration of Independence -- written in the Spring of 1776 by a 33 year old Thomas Jefferson -- is America’s mission statement. And like all mission statements, the words represented not what we were, but what we aspired to be. In fact, the author himself was a gifted writer, but a deeply flawed person who – like his country -- did not embody the ideas and ideal of that document.For more than two hundred and forty years, the story of America has been the struggle between those who want to move us close to the words of our mission statement – and those who want to stop them.It is often forgotten that the Declaration itself was meant to be spoken. In 2004 the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library released a previously unknown 1957 recording of then-Senator Kennedy reading the Declaration of Independence in New York on July 4th.So this week to honor Independence Day -- And to remind ourselves that as a country must continue the struggle to turn America’s founding words into reality – we give John F. Kennedy’s reading of the Declaration of Independence the final word.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices