Political Gabfest | DOJ is DOA

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss a new oral history of President Trump’s Department of Justice, the complex transactional nationalism of this week’s visit from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with guest Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor and co-host of the new podcast The Long Game, and what is likely to happen now that Trump has signed the bill to release the Justice Department’s Epstein files. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the sordid scandal around the tangled relationships of political reporter Olivia Nuzzi and the complex questions it raises about relationships between journalists and their sources. In the latest Gabfest Reads, John talks with journalist and author Andrew Ross Sorkin about his new book, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation — the story of speculation, debt, and the human drives that fueled the Wall Street crash that changed everything. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected]. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Nina Porzucki Research by Emily Ditto You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here. Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My camera got stuck.
0:05.2	Hello, and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest.
0:16.9	November 20th, 2025, the DOJ is D-O-A edition.
0:26.2	I am David Plotz, CityCast in Washington, D.C.
0:29.0	Look at my face.
0:30.3	Look at my face.
0:31.4	Did you even know what I looked like?
0:33.5	Were you happier when you didn't know what we looked like?
0:36.3	Don't answer that question.
0:38.9	As I've always said, when people say I have a nice voice, I'm like, I've got a face for radio.
0:46.6	Face for radio.
0:47.5	Face for podcasting.
0:49.1	But now, unfortunately, I have a face for YouTube, as does Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine in Yale University Law School.
0:54.9	Hello, Emily.
0:56.2	That's Emily, the one waving.
0:58.4	She's not waving.
1:00.0	I can wave.
1:01.5	Oh my God, you have a little flower in your background.
1:04.5	I do.
1:05.0	I have a pansy that somehow made it to this point in the fall outside until I rescued it to come and keep me company up here. We'll see how long I can keep it alive. Okay. Hold on. Oh, wait. Oh, John Dickerson. He's actually leaving to go find his pansy. He's going to get a pansy. Okay. John's never been on camera before, listeners. I know. He's not used to.
1:27.8	John literally has never been on a camera before.
1:29.3	He doesn't know what a camera is.
	...

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