Political Gabfest | Is This Martial Law?

Political Gabfest

Slate Podcasts

Politics, Government, News

4.5 • 8.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss Trump’s deepening takeover of Washington D.C. as National Guard troops from red states arrive, what if anything was accomplished in the whirlwind of Putin-Trump-Zelensky diplomacy, and this week’s launch of the new liberal publication The Argument with its Editor-in-Chief Jerusalem Demsas. For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss escalations of the retribution campaigns against Trump’s rivals, spearheaded by Department of Justice officials Pam Bondi and Ed Martin. In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Jonathan Mahler about his new book, The Gods of New York. They discuss the unraveling of Mayor Ed Koch’s New York City; how the city’s current mayoral race is mirroring the past; and more. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected]. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Research by Emily Ditto You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest.
0:06.0	August 21st, 2025, the Is This Marshall Law Edition?
0:27.5	I'm David Plotz of Citycast in Washington, D.C., which has been really interesting, place to be.
0:30.9	Yeah, I want a first-person reportage.
0:32.9	You'll get to that. You'll get to that.
0:34.0	Using reportage, the French-the-Frenchified Jean de Gerson, the co-anchor of CBS
0:41.4	Evening Nevelles, and CBS Evening News Plus from New York City. Hello, John. Hi. Remind me to talk
0:50.8	about how Medvedev referred to the French president Macron, speaking of
0:56.5	French, and just taunting the one world leader to another. Oh, really? Yes, it's, it's incredibly
1:07.3	juvenile and trollish, but, um, oh, exciting.
1:11.4	Has a French cast to it.
1:13.0	So let's let's discuss.
1:14.6	There's a strong historic relationship between Russia and France.
1:18.5	Like there was a French, French was spoken in Russia a lot.
1:21.7	There was a very close relationship up through, I mean, I think really up through the Russian
1:26.6	revolution.
1:27.5	The epicenter, however, was Emily Vazlon of The New York Times and Yale University of Law School.
1:33.3	Hello, Emily.
1:34.3	Hello. So glad you're back.
1:35.9	This week on the Gab Fest, the federal military intrusion into D.C. deepens as National Guard troops pour into my hometown to stop a crime wave
1:46.3	that doesn't exist. Then is the war in Ukraine any closer to ending after a week of wild
1:53.5	travel and gyrations, the Alaska summit with Putin, the White House summit with Zelensky,
	...

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