Lawfare Archive: Is Trump Creating a Deep State?
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 22 July 2023
⏱️ 50 minutes
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Summary
From November 18, 2020: In the waning days of his administration, the president has attempted to install a political loyalist as General Counsel of the National Security Agency, a position that is traditionally a merits position, not a political position. He has also issued an executive order that gives the executive branch greater control over the civil service, making it easier to hire and fire people in agencies. It all raises the question: Is Donald Trump attempting to create the very deep state that he has spent the last four years denouncing? To talk over this question in its various permutations, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Susan Hennessey, who recently wrote an article about the NSA General Counsel appointment; Scott Anderson, Lawfare senior editor; and Rudy Mehrbani, senior advisor at Democracy Fund Voice, senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, former assistant to the president and director of presidential personnel and former associate White House counsel in the Obama administration.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair, that's patreon.com slash |
| 0:16.8 | LawFair. Also check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:39.6 | I'm Geococotalkas with an episode from the LawFair Archive for July 22nd, 2023. This |
| 0:46.5 | week, the New York Times released an article detailing how Trump and his allies planned |
| 0:51.1 | to restructure and expand presidential power in 2025 should the former president be elected |
| 0:56.4 | again. |
| 0:57.4 | For today's Archive episode, I picked an episode from November 18th, 2020, in which Benjamin |
| 1:03.1 | Wood has sat down with Susan Hennessy, Scott R. Anderson, and Rudy Marbani to discuss Trump's |
| 1:08.5 | expansion of his influence and executive power at the end of his administration, including |
| 1:13.6 | his installment of loyalists and an executive order making it easier for the executive branch |
| 1:18.5 | to hire and fire people in agencies. |
| 1:30.5 | I'm Benjamin Woodess, and this is the LawFair podcast November 18th, 2020. The president |
| 1:38.8 | in the waning days of his administration has attempted to install a political loyalist |
| 1:46.1 | as General Counsel of the National Security Agency, a position that is traditionally a |
| 1:53.5 | merit's position, not a political position. He has also issued an executive order that |
| 2:00.1 | gives the executive branch greater control over the civil service, making it easier to |
| 2:06.4 | hire and fire people in agencies. It all raises the question, is Donald Trump attempting |
| 2:13.8 | to create the very deep state that he has spent the last four years denouncing to talk |
| 2:20.5 | over this question in its various permutations? We got together in the virtual jungle studio, |
| 2:27.0 | Susan Hennessy, whose recent article about the NSA General Counsel appointment has been |
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