Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I'm the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs

Magazine. I am joined today by Maddie Hassan. He is the host of the Maddie Hassan show on MSNBC and

Peacock. He is also the author of The New Book, Win Every Argument the art of debating, persuading, and public speaking.

Medellin, welcome back to current affairs.

Thanks for having me on, Nathan.

Okay, so you are infamous for your interviews.

You are known as the most terrifying interrogator in the business.

You have gone up against such odious people.

That's my characterization, as John Bolton, Stephen Pinker,

Eric Prince of Blackwater, Paul Bremer, and oh my God, Douglas Murray.

I guess the first question is why I argue with these people

at all? It's a good question. I don't argue with everyone. I should put that out there right at the

beginning. I know the book's called Win Every Argument. I'm not actually telling people to go out and

have every argument possible. There are many arguments I walk away from. There are many

interviews I don't do. I would

not do an interview. I've said this before. I'll say it again with a Marjorie Taylor Green,

with a with a person who's pushing Q&on conspiracies or election denialism or climate change

denial. It's not worth it. I'm not going to debate reality. But what I would say is that,

for example, John Bolton is an interesting

one. We're about to mark the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War. He is someone who still believes

in the Iraq War. I don't think he's a Tucker Carlson figure who's texting in private the opposite

of what he's saying in public. I think he genuinely thinks the Iraq War was great and he stands

...