Welcome to Talking Feds, a round table 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. We are finally, barely, pulling into port after a four-year

series of storms that nearly sent the ship of state on multiple occasions, and what a battered

wreck we are. The country on lockdown for the upcoming inauguration, out of fear of terrorist acts

by violent extremists loyal to President Trump. Trump himself ending his term, disgraced,

impeached for a second time, and awaiting trial in the Senate. 400,000 Americans dead from a virus

that has been completely mismanaged, a dysfunctional political life, a middle class in economic

shambles, and the country humiliated around the world by the bedlam at the Capitol. The President

is going out as he came in, screaming, lying, and acting like a jerk. The first President ever to

be impeached twice and the first in over 150 years to boycott his successor's regularly

scheduled inauguration, which President Alec Biden called one of the few things he and I have

ever agreed on. But he has a return ticket for his second impeachment trial, which has the

genuine prospect of returning the first Senate conviction of a President in U.S. history.

After a tenure in which he lied and bullied his way out of trouble again and again,

the President has gotten mulled in his last days in office, and growing numbers of Republicans

and Democrats are determined to keep him from ever serving in political office again.

So on the one hand, we're a mess. But on the other, we've weathered the Trump years and returned

an adult to the White House. Things are looking up. To work through the implications of another

tumultuous week and assess where things stand at the advent of one of the most important transitions

of government in U.S. history, we have three great guests, all brilliant commentators,

friends of the podcast, and proven warriors for the rule of law. And they are Natasha Bertrand,

...