I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Friday, February 19th.

An interesting person in Congress meets an interesting development in digging out from the Trump era. The development is the

news today that the Biden administration is taking steps toward negotiating with Iran about rejoining

the nuclear deal. The person is Democratic Representative Tom Malinowski of New Jersey,

who has been elevated in the new Congress to vice chair of the House Foreign Affairs

Committee because of his unique experience in this area. As the bio on his website puts it,

Malinowski was born in Communist Poland during the height of the Cold War. When he was six,

he and his mother fled to the United States, and he grew up in central Jersey.

Malinowski served as a senior director on President Clinton's National Security Council,

where he worked to end conflicts around the globe.

He then served as the chief advocate for human rights watch,

where he led the bipartisan campaign to end the use of torture by the Bush administration.

Later, he served the Obama administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy,

human rights, and labor, where he helped lead America's fight for human rights around the world.

So now he's in Congress and vice chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

President Biden is looking for a way to get back into the Iran nuclear deal

and improve it at the same time, dealing with Iran's sponsorship of terrorism.

And Congressman Malinowski is also very focused right now on fighting terrorism at home

after what he saw on January 6th. He's also been named to the

Homeland Security Committee and is among those most pressuring the social media giants, the

hardest, to make it harder for violent extremism to spread. Congressman Malinowski, always

good to have you on with us. Welcome back to WNYC.

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