Mona and Jay are joined by Tom Nichols – known on Twitter as RadioFreeTom – professor at the Naval War College, NeverTrumper extraordinaire, Jeopardy champion (though that didn’t come up), and author of the forthcoming book The Death of Expertise. If you think there might be a connection between the declining respect for expertise and authority in America and the rise of Trump, you’d be right. Can he pivot for the general election? Why do people even ask that?

Jay and Mona then mull why Trump’s attack on Judge Curiel had purchase when so many of this other offenses slipped by, and ask what will become of the Republican Party. They close with some praise: Jay lauds Bernard Lewis on his 100th birthday, and Mona raves about Jung Chang’s book, The Wild Swans, that she’s having trouble putting down.

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