From our UK edition
27 min listen
This week Freddy speaks to Dennis Ross, former Middle East coordinator under President Clinton and current Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. They discuss Biden's visit to Israel this week, how his policy towards the Middle East borrows from Trump and Obama, and how we can discern between the public posturing and private desires of Middle Eastern states.
From our UK edition
Joe Biden prides himself on his decades of foreign-policy experience, his ability to talk tough yet be kind, and his talent for bringing opposing sides together. Touching down in Israel today, he gave Bibi Netanyahu a big hug – quite the gesture – and promptly told him he believed that ‘the other team’ – i.e. Hamas, not Israel – was responsible for the bomb that struck a hospital in Gaza last night, killing many of non-combatant Palestinians and inspiring another wave of anti-Israel protests. Biden will now set about trying to help release the hostages held by Hamas and persuading local powers to allow a secure flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel will be grateful for Biden’s show of support.
From our UK edition
31 min listen
This week Freddy speaks to Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor of Harper's Magazine, about America's response to the developments in the Middle East. On the podcast they discuss the 'squad' (a section of Democrats who have been making pro-Palestinian noises), how America and Israel's surveillance system allowed the attack to happen, and the importance of the conflict ahead of next year's presidential election.
From our UK edition
23 min listen
Freddy speaks to Roger Kimball, editor of the New Criterion and columnist for The Spectator's US edition. After Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the House this week, they discuss why the Republican party is such a mess.
From our UK edition
In comparison to the Republicans in the United States, the British Conservative party is a model of unity and discipline. In Manchester this week, for all the blather about Nigel Farage and ‘pandering’ to the far right, the grumbling about nanny-statism and HS2ing-to-nowhere, the Tories held themselves together. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, a small group of right-wing representatives in Congress managed to throw out their own House speaker, Kevin McCarthy. A motion for him to ‘vacate to chair’ was won 216 to 210. That’s never happened before. The trigger for McCarthy’s removal was disgruntlement over the spending deal he struck with President Joe Biden in order to avoid a US government shutdown.
From our UK edition
20 min listen
This week Freddy Gray takes a trip to Planet Biden and imagines what would happen if little green men invaded earth and found a big orange one back in the White House (01:15), Kate Andrews finds herself appalled by the so-called ‘advice’ routinely handed out to women that can be at best, judgemental, and at its worst, slightly bullying (12:51), and Lloyd Evans spills the beans on searching for love on his recent blind date, courtesy of the Guardian (07:13).
From our UK edition
38 min listen
This week Freddy is joined in The Spectator offices by regular contributor and fellow of urban studies at Chapman University, Joel Kotkin. They discuss Biden and Trump's respective attempts to burnish their credentials with the unions this week, how the cultural agenda is alienating voters, and whether technology could prevent the coming of neo-feudalism.
From our UK edition
‘If aliens attacked Earth, do you think we would be safer under Joe Biden or Donald Trump?’ That’s a question in a new poll of American voters, and 43 per cent of respondents opted for Trump, 32 per cent for Biden, while 25 per cent sagaciously picked ‘Don’t know’. It’s fun to imagine President Donald in charge against the extra-terrestrials. ‘Zogblark the Magnificent is a good friend of mine,’ Trump would shout from the White House lawn, as the helicopter blades of Marine One clattered away behind. ‘He’s said some very nice things about me. Believe me. Things you wouldn’t believe… But we can’t have him exerting the supreme authority of the Nebulons over our beautiful planet – the most beautiful planet in the universe, they say.
From our UK edition
Another day in America, another judgment against the Trump family. In the latest, New York state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron has ruled that the Trump Organisation is liable for ‘persistent and repeated fraud’ and stripped the 45th president’s family business of its operating licenses in the Empire State. At first glance, it appears to be a devastating piece of news for the Trumps’ fortunes and a victory for New York’s unabashedly anti-Trump Attorney General Letitia James. And, if the judgment is upheld after appeal, it would be exactly that. But that still could be years away.
From our UK edition
Freddy Gray is joined by Charlie Gammell, a historian and former diplomat who was on the Iran desk at the foreign office. On the podcast they discuss this week's Iran-US deal where six prisoners have been released on either side and $6 billion sent back to Iran. There has been political backlash with the Republicans suggesting the Democrats are 'funding terror', but does this show a thawing of once frosty relations?
From our UK edition
It’s only a matter of time before Russell Brand, backed as he is by Elon Musk, releases his first show on X. I say that because YouTube has just announced that it has ‘suspended monetisation’ on Brand's channel for ‘violating’ something it calls its ‘creator responsibility policy'. Brand has 6.6 million followers on YouTube, which makes the content he pumps out on the platform highly valuable. He posts videos on Rumble, too, where he has 1.4 million followers. But he has 11.6 million followers on X, which is now making ever bigger strides into the online streaming and video market. You do the math, as Americans like to say.
From our UK edition
13 min listen
For the first time since 1992 the US and the UK will have elections in the same year, and – for the first time since 1964 – there is a real chance that those campaigns could overlap. How will they impact each other? Kate Andrews speaks to Katy Balls and Freddy Gray.
From our UK edition
7 min listen
Freddy Gray speaks to author and lawyer Alan Dershowitz who wrote Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law. On the podcast Freddy speaks to Alan about the Republican's formal impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, claiming they have unearthed a 'culture of corruption' surrounding the president.
From our UK edition
America’s wacky Libertarian party, which sadly never gets anywhere in presidential elections, has just filed a petition to put Democratic President Joe Biden, 80, and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, under ‘conservatorship’. The Libertarians claim that America’s ‘geriatric elites’ are evidently unfit for public office and need, for everyone’s sake, to have all decision-making powers taken away. The petition is a clever stunt — funny because it’s so true. There’s something deeply wrong with America’s leadership and everyone knows it.
From our UK edition
36 min listen
This week Freddy Gray speaks to politics lecturer and writer Damon Linker about the ongoing investigations into Hunter Biden. With Trump facing his own criminal charges, will stories about potential Biden corruption muddy the waters for voters?
From our UK edition
Will President Joe Biden be on the ballot in the presidential election of 2024? It’s a question that Biden seemed to answer four months ago when he announced, in an online video, that he would be running for re-election next year. ‘Let’s finish this job,’ he said. ‘Because I know we can.’ Three-quarters of Americans say they’re ‘seriously concerned’ about Biden’s mental and physical competence to do the job Team Biden must have hoped that, after making that announcement, the doubts surrounding his bid for re-election would go away. As the polls increasingly show Donald Trump cruising towards a re-nomination for the Republican ticket, America appears then to be heading – grimly, inevitably – towards a repeat of 2020.
From our UK edition
22 min listen
This week Freddy speaks to Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the National Interest, about Vivek Ramaswamy. What does he stand for? Could he be the ideal candidate for Trump's vice president?
From our UK edition
27 min listen
On the podcast this week: In his cover piece for the magazine, The Spectator’s deputy editor Freddy Gray says that he was hardly surprised that Donald Trump chose not to participate in last night’s Republican candidates debate. He argues that Trump no longer needs the TV networks and joins the podcast alongside Douglas Murray, who profiles the no-hoper Republican candidates looking to pip Trump to the nomination in his column. (01:21) Also this week: Mark Millar, the comic book writer and producer behind Hollywood hits such as Kingsman, Kick Ass and a host of Marvel films, writes The Spectator’s notebook.
From our UK edition
20 min listen
Kate Andrews speaks to Freddy Gray and CEO of Truth Social, Devin Nunes in the week that Donald Trump refused to attend the Republican Fox News debates. Instead, the Presidential candidate who is leading in the polls was interviewed by Tucker Carlson on X, formerly known as Twitter.
From our UK edition
It was hardly a surprise when Donald Trump said last weekend that he would not be participating in the televised Republican candidate debates. ‘New CBS POLL, just out, has me leading the field by “legendary” numbers,’ he declared on his very own Truth Social platform. ‘The public knows who I am & what a successful presidency I had… I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES.’ In other words, I am winning so I do what I want. Trump’s arrogance puts many people off. It’s also compelling because he has a point. On the right of American politics – and, to a large extent, on the left and centre too – there is only one story and it is Donald Trump. We’re still 11 months from the Republican National Convention, when the presidential candidate is confirmed.
