286: American Authoritarianism with Professor Steven Levitsky
Politics War Room with James Carville & Al Hunt
Politicon
4.7 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2024
⏱️ 84 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
James and Al debate President Biden’s pardon of Hunter, analyze his legacy, and tear apart Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel. Then, they welcome democracy scholar and Harvard Professor Steven Levitsky to expose Trump’s threat to the rule of law, lament the decline of civics, examine the basis for the global anti-incumbency wave, and blast our judiciary for failing to defend the system from rising right-wing authoritarianism. They also look at the potential for social media to serve as a safety valve for dissent and explore recent developments in Colombia.
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Steven Levitsky
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Politics World Room with James Carville, and I'm Al Hunt. |
| 0:14.8 | This week, our guest is the director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard and the foremost expert on |
| 0:22.6 | authoritarianism, Steve Levitsky. Now remember, we love taking your questions, so write into |
| 0:28.8 | politics worldroom at gmail.com or send a tweet for at Politicon for next week's show. We'll get |
| 0:35.8 | to as many as we can, but don't forget to tell us where you're from. |
| 0:39.1 | And other exciting news, the documentary Carville, winning is everything stupid, is now streaming |
| 0:45.7 | on Max. |
| 0:47.0 | Get updates and some great behind-the-scenes content by following James on Twitter at James Carville |
| 0:53.7 | and on his new TikTok at real James Carville. |
| 0:58.3 | You also can get text updates about what's next for Politicon and Politics Warroom by signing up at politicon.com. |
| 1:07.0 | Tell your friends about us and remind them to subscribe on apple podcast spotify or wherever |
| 1:13.2 | you get your podcast and please check out the links to our sponsors the washington post |
| 1:18.7 | zbiotics and hello fresh we thank you for supporting these sponsors because it really helps |
| 1:24.4 | make this podcast happen james uh the big news was that Joe Biden, after insisting he would not pardon, a full pardon, |
| 1:34.8 | one of the most comprehensive ever, maybe the most, his son, Hunter Biden. |
| 1:41.7 | If this pardon were issued under the very same circumstances with Nikki Haley or Mitt Romney |
| 1:48.2 | as president, I would be outrage. |
| 1:50.6 | It would be an indefensible act of nepotism after he said, after doing something he said |
| 1:56.0 | he wouldn't do. |
| 1:57.0 | I don't like pardons of big shots no matter who the president is. |
| 2:01.1 | The sleazyest of all, of course, was Donald Trump in 2021. |
| 2:06.0 | I think Hunter Biden illicitly treaded on the family name. |
... |
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