Corrupting the Commonwealth

Now & Then

Vox Media Podcast Network

History, Society & Culture, News Commentary, News

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2021

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of Now & Then, “Corrupting the Commonwealth,” Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman discuss recent reporting that the Trump Department of Justice subpoenaed the metadata of journalists and members of Congress. Heather and Joanne then look at three past reckonings over accusations of presidential corruption: Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson’s back-and-forth over the First Bank of the United States, the break in the 1870s Republican Party over President Grant’s enforcement of voting rights in the South, and President Nixon’s justifications for his notorious “black bag” operations. In the process, Heather and Joanne zero in on the morphing roles of the public and Congress in defining executive overreach and self-dealing. Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. And for a limited time, use the code HISTORY for 50% off the annual membership price. Head to www.cafe.com/history Thank you for listening! Join us each Tuesday for new episodes of Now & Then, and keep an eye out for live events with Heather and Joanne and the rest of the CAFE Team. For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/corrupting-the-commonwealth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From Cafe and the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is now and then.
0:07.0	I'm Heather Cox-Richardson.
0:10.0	And I'm Joanne Freeman.
0:12.0	This week, we have a topic that I have to say we had already decided to talk about.
0:17.0	And then as we were literally talking about it for this episode,
0:21.0	new news broke on this topic, which Heather brought to my attention.
0:26.0	One of the things that's been happening in the last several weeks is more and more information is coming out about things that might or might not have happened in the Trump White House.
0:35.0	And one of the stories that has broken over the last several weeks is the idea that under former President Trump, the Department of Justice began to look into journalists to look for leaks.
0:45.0	But they also, it turned out, began to look into staffers of members of Congress and in the process, at least,
0:53.0	began to sweep in information about Congress people themselves.
0:57.0	And the idea that the Department of Justice was investigating members of Congress, as well as members of the media, is a really, really big story,
1:07.0	particularly given that they're investigating them for the political purposes of the people in power in the administration.
1:16.0	So that is a huge story.
1:18.0	So we wanted to talk about today was corruption. And by that, we don't mean the corruption of some fellow walking into a room with a suitcase full of $100,000.
1:28.0	We just corrupt, but that's also very easy corruption in a sense, because we have laws against that.
1:34.0	But what is interesting in this particular moment is the question of corruption of the body politic.
1:41.0	When, for example, a leader uses the machinery of government, not for the good of the people, but rather to enable his own faction to stay in power.
1:51.0	The idea of using the machinery of government in a way that is designed to benefit that particular party.
2:00.0	So it's using basically an office of public trust.
2:04.0	And I put the emphasis on trust, which in a democracy is what these powerholders are.
2:09.0	Using them not for the public, using them to benefit themselves in one way or another, whether that's personally, whether that has to do in the realm of power in one way or another,
2:18.0	devoting the mechanics and structures of government to themselves.
	...

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