Chris Riback's Conversations

Richard Clarke: Democracy Is On the Ballot

The countdown to Midterms is on. With less than three weeks to go, many questions remain and the stakes couldn’t be higher. How high? According to my guest today, “the nature of our democracy is on the ballot.” I’m not sure I disagree.

You may remember Richard Clarke for his 30 years in the U.S government, including 10 continuous years as a White House official, serving three consecutive presidents as Special Assistant to the President for Global Affairs, Special Adviser to the President for Cyberspace, and National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism.

His first book, "Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror," was a New York Times #1 bestseller, and he has stood on the front lines warning us about the risks and realities of cyber attacks.

Now he’s got a new outlet – a podcast (c’mon, who doesn’t have a podcast these days?) called Future State. The 10 episode run started last month and ends the day before the Midterms. Once you’re done listening to all of my podcasts, I really recommend listening to Clarke’s. I’m just kidding of course. You don’t have to listen to all of my conversations first. Just most of them.

Clarke and I discussed the important news of the day – Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, and of course, cyber.

Michael Lewis: Who’s Actually Running Our Government?

How do you make the most arcane, overlooked, eyes-glaze-over – and most critical – aspect of the U.S. government – interesting? How do you help folks understand that the so-called deep state – the parts of the bureaucracy that some people ignore and belittle – is actually vital to our safety, well-being and, frankly, our future?

Simple: Have Michael Lewis write about.

And now he has. In his new book, The Fifth Risk, goes inside several government departments – Energy, Agriculture, Interior, EPA – and reveals the truths that might seem funny if they weren’t so scary: Not only was the Trump Administration unprepared to run the government, the plan may have been crafted and executed by design. 

Want to shrink government? The easiest way is simply not to staff it.

And why does this matter? Well, do natural disasters like hurricanes or fires matter? Is it important to find black market uranium before terrorists do? What if we no longer feed kids at school?

Lewis does for government bureaucracy what he’s done for the unsung part of a football team’s offensive line, credit default swaps and a baseball executive’s approach to talent: He pulls it apart and exposes the fascinating, essential elements.

Lewis does what no politician has taken the time – or, seemingly, has the ability to do: Make clear why government matters. Reagan famously said, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."  Maybe that’s because Reagan never read Michael Lewis’ new book.

Rebecca Traister: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger

One thing is sure about the extraordinary, once-in-a-generation Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing last week: There was a lot of anger in the room.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh: Angry. Senator Lindsay Graham: Angry.

But it might have been the anger outside the room that changed everything. You’ve seen the video – two women somehow got hold of Senator Jeff Flake in an elevator, and they unleashed: “Look at me when I’m talking to you,” one shouted. “Don’t look away from me!”

For many, watching that scene felt uncomfortable – not just the cornering of a U.S. Senator. The scene of women getting mad in public. But for others, including author Rebecca Traister, the scene was a remarkable, appropriate and much-needed display of what they already knew: Women have been angry for a long time – in fact, very likely as long as there have been women.

Most of the time, as Rebecca Traister wrote in Sunday’s NY Times, “female anger is discouraged, repressed, ignored, swallowed.” That time, Traister argues in her landmark, must-read new book “Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger,” that time should be fully behind us.

Keep your eyes open – something massive and important is happening again in America. The role and impact of women’s anger is evolving.

The anger has always been there, of course. Even before Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton and the women’s suffrage movement, there was Abigail Adams and others. We saw it in the 60s and 70s. We saw Anita Hill.

But something new has been developing – through movements like #MeToo  and new voices like Emma Gonzalez. And now, certainly, through Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

A note: I spoke with Rebecca last week, before the hearings occurred. But as you’ll hear, if you want to understand what’s happening – where we’ve been and where we’re going? Rebecca Traister is the one to explain.

Major Garrett: What’s It Like to Cover the Trump White House

Think your life is crazy? How’d you like to be a White House correspondent with Donald Trump in the Oval Office?

After all, if your daily schedule doesn’t get turned around multiple times, you always could get cursed or threatened at a campaign rally. 

In fact, just 60 minutes before my conversation with CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett began, news broke that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had resigned. Or was fired. Either way, he was gone. Then, 20 minutes after the recording, Rosenstein was back – and meeting with Trump later in the week to figure things out.

It’s a perfect example of what Major means and writes about in his terrific book “Mr. Trump's Wild Ride: The Thrills, Chills, Screams, and Occasional Blackouts of an Extraordinary Presidency.” 

The book itself is a great ride: Major is a professional storyteller. And as you’ll hear, he brings new details and drama to the events we all lived through. He brings the reality show to life: What’s it really like to cover Donald Trump?

Doris Kearns Goodwin: Trolling Trump on Leadership

Doris Kearns Goodwin. Do I need to say more?

Seven books; multiple New York Times’ best sellers; Pulitzer Prize. She is simply one of our nation’s great presidential historians.

And Doris has spent much of her career studying four of the best – Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ. Now she takes a new look at all of them through a lens that – as you’ll hear – feels as much a commentary about today as it does on history. It’s titled “Leadership in Turbulent Times.”

Doris explores the early signs, growth, and active display of leadership for each of them, exploring not only the green shoots sprouting early in their lives, but also how that leadership took over during the key – if not most important – moments of their presidencies:

• Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
• Teddy Roosevelt’s handling of the Great Coal Strike of 1902
• FDR’s First Hundred Days
• LBJ and Civil Rights

 A great historian writes about yesterday, of course, but with a keen eye on today – making clear why earlier lessons, actions, and events help guide us in current times. Doris hits this one, too.

It’s impossible to read her book and not think about our current president. In fact, I asked her directly whether a book titled “Leadership in Turbulent Times” was an entire trolling of Trump himself. And she answered.

David Kaplan: The Most Dangerous Branch of Government

How important has the Supreme Court become in American life?

From gun rights to personal relationships, from money in politics to healthcare, whether it’s access to abortion, the voting booth or even our borders, the Supreme Court increasingly dominates how we work, live, and play – it defines, quite often, what kind of country we are.

You could argue that it was the deciding factor for millions of voters in the last Presidential election – potentially the deciding factor in the election itself.

And this week, of course – between anonymous New York Times op-eds and Bob Woodward book drops – the Senate held confirmation hearings for our likely next Justice, the one who many believe will turn this purple Court decidedly red for the next generation.

How did this happen? In Alexander Hamilton’s words, the Court would be based “neither on force nor will, but merely judgment.” While the president “holds the sword” and Congress “commands the purse,” the court would be “the least dangerous branch.”

How did it all change? How have we we’ve transitioned our toughest political issues into judicial ones?

That's the question and American challenge that David A. Kaplan addresses in his new and outstanding book, “The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court's Assault on the Constitution.”

In writing the book, Kaplan talked with a majority of the sitting Justices – incredible access. He tracks the shifts, outlines how the Justices took more and more political power, and explains why that is flat out dangerous for our country.

Also, as we discuss, Kaplan top-ticked it in terms of timing – who else has been able to perfectly time a Supreme Court book with a Supreme Court confirmation? Even if you don’t like his analysis, which I think you will, you’ve got to admire his commercial sense.

Michael D’Antonio and Peter Eisner: Who Is Mike Pence?

Who is Mike Pence?

It seems strange, but more than two years after he entered our national stage, how much do you feel you know about the Vice President? He’s a man of faith – we know that… but what exactly does it mean?

He has acted as something of an economic libertarian – he’s a favorite of the Koch Brothers. But again, what does that mean – and how does it connect with his religious beliefs?

And then there’s his treatment of Donald Trump – George Will notably called Pence a “sycophantic poodle.” And we all remember the Cabinet roundtable in 2017 where Pence, as the Washington Post noted, offered “one expression of gratitude or admiration every 12 seconds” over three minutes of “impromptu praise.”

How do these strands – faith, economics, and his exceptional handling of Donald Trump – come together? Who, in fact, is Mike Pence?

That’s what Michael D’Antonio and Peter Eisner cover in their new biography “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence.” It’s an extraordinary and revealing story, tracing Pence from his youth in Columbus, IN through his religious awakening and political climb. It’s also an important story – Pence, of course, is a heartbeat away.

About my guests: Michael D'Antonio is an author, journalist, and CNN commentator. He shared the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting with a team of Newsday reporters and has written over a dozen books, including the 2015 biography The Truth About Trump. 

Peter Eisner has won national and international awards as a foreign correspondent, editor and reporter at The Washington Post, Newsday, and the Associated Press. He also was nominated for an Emmy in 2010 as a producer at PBS World Focus.

As you’d expect from practiced storytellers, it was a terrific conversation.    

Jason Kander: Lessons In Everyday Courage

Jason Kander has a lot going on.

To begin, he’s running for mayor of Kansas City. For most of us, that would be a full-time job. But as you’ll hear, Jason Kander is most definitely not the rest of us. 

It’s not just that he can rebuild a combat weapon while blindfolded, as he proved in a 2016 political ad.

It’s also not simply that in reaction to 9/11, he did what only a few other brave and patriotic people did – volunteered for US military service and got himself sent to Afghanistan.

It’s not even the crazy volume of meaningful activity he sustains simultaneously — in addition to the Kansas City race, he started Let America Vote, a PAC that aims to end voter suppression across the U.S.; he hosts Majority 54, the Crooked Media-backed podcast that debuted at No. 1 when it launched last November; and now he’s written a new book, Outside the Wire: Ten Lessons I’ve Learned in Everyday Courage. As you’ll hear, the book is less about life lessors and more of a call to arms.

Beyond that, what sets Jason apart — he connects with people. All kinds of people — including, as he describes in our conversation, ones who don’t agree with him on all the issues. Listen to Jason now… It surely won’t be the last you hear from him.

Rick Wilson: A GOP Strategist on the 'Worst President Ever'

Rick Wilson doesn’t expect you to like him.

For the last 30 years, Rick has been part of the underbelly of American politics: A self-described “Republican political strategist and infamous negative ad-maker.”

And he’s done it for Republicans at all levels – state, local, & national, ranging from George H.W. Bush to Rudy Giuliani. As he says, he’s the one you called when you needed an attack.

Not that feels his Democratic competitors were any better. But among them all, they helped make our politics nasty, bitter, angry, and mean.

Now we have a divided country and Donald Trump is President. And Wilson – who, as you’ll hear, feels some guilt about the mess we’re in – is trying to do something about it.

And he’s written all about it in his new book: Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever.

If you’ve seen Rick on TV, you know he’s a live wire. Just this week Morning Joe had to use 7-second delay and literally mute one of his colorful rants. So, buckle up.

In fact, one note about that in terms of this conversation: Some of the audio went haywire – Rick started to digitize with our internet connection. I let some of it go, because the guy delivers gold – I didn’t want to stop him. About halfway through I gave up on the Internet and called him on his landline, so definitely stay with it.

Catherine Rampell: What, Exactly, is Trumponomics?

The latest economic numbers are out, and by the time you hear this podcast, Donald Trump surely will have told us all why they are great, why tariffs work, and why this economy is the best ever.

But you know better. Or at least Washington Post opinion columnist Catherine Rampell does. While we may have one or multiple months of strong GDP, the key question remains: Is that growth sustainable? And as she wrote, “Right now, under Trump’s policies, the answer looks like a big fat no.”

So today my goal was to better understand Trumponomics, and whether bad economics might just be good politics.

After all, we’re running up debt, collecting fewer taxes, destroying free trade, fighting with trade partners, implementing tariffs, and then bailing out farmers with $12 billion of handouts to pay for the results. As I seem to ask every week: What is going on?

About Catherine Rampell: As you surely know, her columns focus on economics, public policy, politics and culture, with a special emphasis on data-driven journalism. Before the Post poached her, she previously wrote for the New York Times.