Abe Greenwald is senior editor of Commentary Magazine.
The Great Courses
On this week’s second podcast, the COMMENTARY crew takes on the bad choices in North Korea and—gasp—offers a defense of Donald Trump against his knee-jerk critics on the matter. After that, they wonder at the ongoing insistence by fans of Trump that the conservatives and Republicans critical of him should and must bend the knee to the president or be complicit in the ruination of the country. Give a listen.
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On the first of our week’s podcasts, Abe Greenwald and Noah Rothman debate the millennial generation in response to John Podhoretz’s question about whether millennials are as bad as people say (Noah being one). And then things get wild and philosophical on the question of technological advance and the changes in human destiny before the guys return to White House feuds. Give a listen.
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On the second COMMENTARY podcast of the week, Abe Greenwald tells us about new legislation on immigration and what its larger meaning and political effect might be; Noah Rothman discourses on a new Justice Department investigation into unfairness in college admissions; and John Podhoretz just talks and and talks and talks. Give a listen.
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SimpliSafeOn this week’s first podcast, the very popular Abe Greenwald (winner of a Twitter poll you’ll hear about) joins John Podhoretz and Noah Rothman to discuss whether Donald Trump’s political losses over the past week and the chaos at the White House portend a presidency ideologically dissimilar but procedurally akin to Jimmy Carter’s. Give a listen.
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On the second of this week’s podcasts, John Podhoretz gets into it with Noah Rothman on whether the president’s behavior toward his attorney general and the new White House communications director’s conduct toward the White House chief of staff constitute a “plan” of action or whether we are just living through nihilistic chaos. Where does Abe Greenwald come out? You’ll have to give a listen.
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On the first of this week’s COMMENTARY podcasts, Noah Rothman and Abe Greenwald join John Podhoretz to sort through–and they do it systematically, which is a first–what is going on with the Russia investigation and how it divides into three categories. There’s the question of the probe itself, there’s the question of collusion, and there’s the question of obstruction of justice. It’s really good. Really. Give a listen.
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CasperOn the second of this week’s podcasts, John Podhoretz asks Abe Greenwald and Noah Rothman whether the health-care debacle this week is simply a reflection of the same pressures on the conservative coalition Donald Trump saw and conquered by running for president last year–and what it will mean for him and them that he has provided no rallying point for Republican politicians. And then they discuss OJ Simpson. Give a listen.
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The first COMMENTARY podcast of the week finds John Podhoretz, Abe Greenwald, and Noah Rothman wondering what a poll showing the president with 36 percent support could mean when he won the presidency with a 65 percent disapproval rating. Have the rules of American politics changed? And how does this relate to Season 7 of “Game of Thrones”? Promise: No spoilers! Give a listen.
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In the first of this week’s COMMENTARY podcasts, the COMMENTARY crew go through the series of bombshell revelations this weekend about the heretofore undisclosed 2016 meeting between Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law, and campaign manager with a Russian lawyer that evidently began with promises of Kremlin information about Hillary Clinton. Noah Rothman thinks this could be curtains for Trump. John says wanting to collude and colluding are two different things. Abe Greenwald says we’re both right. Then we take up Trump’s Poland speech and its defense of Western Civ and the moral idiocy of those attacking him for doing so. Give a listen.
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On this week’s only podcast, COMMENTARY’s Abe Greenwald and Noah Rothman join John Podhoretz to discuss the unholy choices posed by the North Korea ICBM test and wonder at the fact that the world of political commentary is far more concerned with a CNN story about an anonymous guy posting little films on the Internet than this world-shaking threat. Give a listen.
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On the second of this week’s podcasts, the COMMENTARY crew is scattered far afield—I’m in Vegas, baby; Noah Rothman is at home in Jersey; and Abe Greenwald is in our offices in New York. Perhaps our distance accounts for a greater degree of disagreement and even disgruntlement as we consider the meaning of the Trump war on the media and its convenient crescendo during a moment in which it looks like the GOP hopes of scoring a health-care reform are in the process of crashing and burning. Give a listen.
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On the first podcast of the week, Abe Greenwald, Noah Rothman, and John Podhoretz look at the Supreme Court’s decision to allow parts of the Trump travel ban to go through and the possibility of the passage of the health care bill in the Senate. And we ask: Does this mean that next week we’ll be saying the Trump administration has scored victories and is now far more formidable than it has thus far appeared? Also, John quotes a medieval English song to the mystification of Noah and Abe. Give a listen.
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The COMMENTARY crew is podcasting a day early in order to take the measure of the result in the Georgia special House election. Abe Greenwald, Noah Rothman, and John Podhoretz posit seven possible theories to explain what happened—and then we attack the theories! It’s positively Talmudic. Give a listen.
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On this week’s first COMMENTARY podcast, Abe Greenwald and John Podhoretz say yes and Noah Rothman says no. Noah makes a valiant effort at being sensible but I’m not sure he prevails over my and Abe’s hysteria. Give a listen.
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Is the COMMENTARY podcast a downer? That’s what one reader said, referencing its “crushing morosity.” Well, this one with John Podhoretz and Abe Greenwald isn’t exactly going to lift your spirits, what with its discussion of the shooting at the GOP baseball practice, the shadows looming over the Trump presidency, and other light topics. But it’s interesting! Give a listen.
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CasperIn the first COMMENTARY podcast of the week, Abe Greenwald and I survey the wreckage of Theresa May and point out that her disastrous showing represents the fourth major election in a year in which publics have rejected the idea that political professionalism is something to be sought in a leader. Why? They’ve forgotten, or have never learned, what the world was like until the fall of the Berlin Wall. Give a listen.
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In the last of this week’s Commentary podcasts, the gang (John Podhoretz, Abe Greenwald, and Noah Rothman) break down former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before Congress: The headlines that are bad for Trump, the headlines that are good for Trump, and the revelations that will ultimately haunt the country. On that note, the hosts ruminate on the prospect of America’s norms prohibiting the corruption of federal public officials are gone forever. If they are, how can the country survive as we know it? Cheery stuff! Give a listen.
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The first of this week’s podcasts finds Noah Rothman, Abe Greenwald, and John Podhoretz considering the behavior of the president after the London attacks and the desire somehow to transfer all attention from the jihadis who perpetrated them to the president who attacked the mayor who attacked the president…and a salute to Israel on the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War. Give a listen.
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On the last podcast of the week, John Podhoretz, Abe Greenwald, and Noah Rothman do their best to break down what has to be the single stupidest 36-hour period in American politics in living memory. From the kerfuffle over “covfefe” to ISIS chic, Americans on the right and the left were compelled to debate inanities even more than usual this week. Also, we discussed Noah Rothman’s feature in the June issue, “How to Be a Conservative in the Age of Trump,” and where the right went wrong. Give a listen.
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In the first of this week’s COMMENTARY podcasts, the point is raised: The likeliest explanation is that Jared Kushner and others are inexperienced and incompetent rather than malign—so why do they act like they’re guilty? Why does Donald Trump pick fights with Germany and others and thus cast a shadow on a foreign trip that did him some good in the polling? And why aren’t Democrats angrier with Hillary Clinton? Give a listen as Abe Greenwald, Noah Rothman, and John Podhoretz wonder at the strangeness.
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On the final podcast before Memorial Day, the COMMENTARY crew takes on the horror in Manchester and what it means about security, terrorism, and cultural integration. They move on to the assault perpetrated on a reporter by an out-of-control special-election candidate in Montana before concluding with the most important issue ever covered: Did Melania swat Donald’s hand away? Give a listen.
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On this week’s first podcast, John Podhoretz, Abe Greenwald, and Noah Rothman examine the success of the president’s trip to Saudi Arabia and Israel (thus far) and ask whether this is the beginning of a new foreign-policy push that will seek to take advantage of Barack Obama’s failures—or will just evanesce. Also, they discuss Abe’s article “Is This the End of the ‘Free World?’” and Michael Flynn’s 5th amendmenting. Give a listen.
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The final Commentary podcast of this week finds John Podhoretz, Noah Rothman, and Abe Greenwald arguing over whether the appointment of a special prosecutor might actually be good news for Donald Trump in that it will quiet the scandals down in the short term and allow the administration to get past the 5 pm hour every day without having a boulder fall on its head. John says yes, the other two say no. They also discuss the death of Roger Ailes and the parlous conduct of Sean Hannity in trying to change the news focus in a way that is a monstrous violation of a family’s grief. Give a listen.
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The first Commentary podcast of the week finds John Podhoretz, Abe Greenwald, and Noah Rothman puzzling out the idea that Trump taping people in the Oval Office represents the rise of American totalitarianism rather than an insanely self-destructive act that (if it’s happening) would only hasten Trump’s own demise. We also point out that mainstream media types and liberals (but I repeat myself) are so eager to attach Trump to Republicans that they now deny Trump-resistant Republicans exist. Give a listen.
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