Political Gabfest - I'm His Lawyer
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how the confirmation hearing for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is yet another example of Trump trying to force Congress to bend the knee, what is behind the horrific ICE killings of two men this week and what can be done about it, and the details of a new multi-state antitrust lawsuit to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger led by guest California AG Rob Bonta.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss what voters deserve to know about the health and aging of our lawmakers, including the nuances of missing legislators versus executive officers, how political pressure from voters could encourage transparency and accountability, and possible solutions like term limits.
In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily Bazelon talks with Senator Chris Murphy about his new book, Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America. Murphy lays out a provocative agenda for Democrats to call Americans to national service, break up corporate power, rebuild local communities, and create a bigger tent that reaches disaffected conservatives hungry for change.
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Jay Cockburn
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.
Find out more about David Plotz's monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.
Follow
@SlateGabfest on X / https://twitter.com/SlateGabfest
Slate Political Gabfest on Facebook / https://www.facebook.com/Gabfest/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest. |
| 0:12.0 | July 16th, 2026, the I'm His Lawyer edition. |
| 0:21.0 | I am David Plotz of CitCast in steamy Washington, D.C., steaming with the power of his intellect |
| 0:29.5 | somewhere in probably in New York, maybe in some other part near New York is John Dickerson. |
| 0:36.2 | Hello, John. |
| 0:40.7 | Hello, David. Thanks for responding so quickly. No, no, I was, I was being abstemious. What we've got up here is the, is the smoke from the |
| 0:49.9 | wildfires in the Midwest being held, held down by the heat dome. |
| 0:58.0 | Also in the smoke, in the smoke, I can barely see her. |
| 1:03.0 | The smoke has entered her New Haven home, not visible in the smoke. |
| 1:08.0 | Oh, yeah, she's very, very, very visible is Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine, Yale University of Law School. |
| 1:08.6 | Hello, Emily. |
| 1:10.3 | Hello, hello to both of you. |
| 1:16.4 | This week on the Gab Fest, the farcical spectacle of Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing, farcical yet tragic spectacle of Todd Blanche's AG confirmation hearing. |
| 1:22.2 | Then ICE is killing people again at a shocking rate, what can be done about it. |
| 1:33.1 | Then we're going to talk to California Attorney General Rob Banta about his lawsuit to stop Paramount and David Ellison from buying Warner Brothers Discovery. |
| 1:36.6 | Plus, we will have cocktail chatter. |
| 1:38.4 | You know, So Todd Blanche, who's the acting attorney general, keep that in mind, sat for a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday, a hearing that is continuing |
| 2:01.4 | on Thursday as we're taping, not with him. Blanche has done his testimony. It was in many ways a |
| 2:06.7 | ridiculous affair because he is the appointed acting attorney general. He can do anything the |
| 2:11.3 | attorney general can do. And for some reason that John or Emily needs to explain, he can |
| 2:15.7 | serve in this role for the rest of President |
| 2:18.1 | Trump's term. So effectively, for basically three years in this role without any confirmation. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 17 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.