Michael McFaul Pt 2: Autocrats Versus Democrats in Russia, China & America

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.8 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the second installment of a two-parter with former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul on American foreign policy in Donald Trump's second term, Mike and John look back on 2025 and ahead to 2026, focusing particularly on the president's approach to Russia, Ukraine, and China. McFaul also discusses his new book, “Autocrats vs. Democrats," which examines the struggle between authoritarianism and classical liberalism among the world's great powers, and argues that this is also the central battle taking place within the United States in the Trump 2.0 era. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:07.1	Aloha and namaste, everyone, and welcome to him politics with John Howman, a puck and
1:10.9	Odyssey joint featuring lively in-depth conversations with the people who cruise the corridors
1:15.0	of power in America, sculpting and shaping the ebb and flow of our politics and culture.
1:20.0	As I explained at the top of our last episode, aka the first installment of this two-part show,
1:26.8	focusing on foreign policy in the Trump 2.0 era,
1:29.8	with former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFall.
1:33.3	Mike and I sat down for a good long gab just before Christmas, a good long gab that we would have delivered to you as last Friday's episode,
1:41.3	were it not for Donald Trump and his pesky invasion of Venezuela,
1:49.4	his even peskier abduction and exfiltration of its president, Nicholas Maduro, and his
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