Bolton Shut

Talking Feds

Harry Litman

News, Politics, Government

4.8 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Harry talks with a great set of Talking Feds stalwarts—Charlie Sykes, Ali Vitali, and Jacob Weisberg—to get a handle on the fast-changing politics of the shutdown, the worthiness of the case against John Bolton, and the new group chat scandal roiling the GOP. Why is Vice President J.D. Vance calling criticism of leaked racist messages by rising Republicans "pearl-clutching"? Is the indictment against John Bolton just another political prosecution? And are top Republicans gearing up to give into Democrats on healthcare to get the government reopened? Mentioned in this episode: Charlie’s Substack: https://charliesykes.substack.com/ Ali’s interview with Senate Leader John Thune: https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/thune-msnbc-offered-democrats-vote-obamacare-subsidies-rcna237914 Politico’s story revealing a Young Republicans groupchat: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:04.5	Welcome to TalkingFeds, 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 Lintman.
1:20.8	The government shutdown slagged into its third week and hundreds of thousands of federal employees are missing paychecks. In Congress,
1:29.9	both parties are starting to size up a compromise, but without much apparent urgency. Trump's
1:36.5	erratic handling of the shutdown and the threat that he could upend any arrangement for his own
1:42.0	gain make a deal that much harder.
1:45.4	And in a court just north of D.C., the Department of Justice indicted former Trump National Security
1:52.2	Advisor John Bolton on 18 counts of violating the Espionage Act.
1:58.4	The feds alleged that Bolton kept a diary through his email and shared it with
	...

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