Welcome to Talking Feds, a roundtable that brings together prominent former federal officials and special guests

for a dynamic discussion of the most important political and legal topics of the day.

I'm Harry Littman. It was a week in which the pace and the intensity of

Trump's authoritarian agenda spiked. Trump moved to armed National Guard members in the district

and called on additional troops from other states to join the occupation, which he signaled he wants to extend indefinitely.

For their part, D.C. residents found themselves adjusting to a city swarming with law enforcement

in its most prominent and popular public spaces. And Trump carried out another mission in his

reprisal campaign when FBI agents executed

search warrants at the home and office of his former national security advisor turned

harsh critic John Bolton.

The high profile operation will lead at the very least to embarrassment and major legal expenses for Bolton,

but it remained to be seen whether the action was supported by any real wrongdoing on Bolton's part.

Elsewhere, California's tit-for-tat response to a Texas gerrymander signaled a new resolve from at least some nationally

prominent Democrats to fight fire with fire, including a sharp new vitriolic tone to match the nasty

snipes that Trump and Republicans have been launching for years. To try to understand the federal takeover of the nation's capital,

the accelerating gerrymandering arms race,

and the ruthless pursuit of Trump's enemies,

I'm really pleased to welcome three of the most knowledgeable commentators in the country,

talking fed, stalwart's all. And they are.

Jason Kander, the president of National Expansion at Veterans Community Project. After serving

in the Army in Afghanistan, Jason was elected to the Missouri State Legislature and later became Missouri

Secretary of State in 2012.

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