Political Gabfest - Spectacular Night for Democrats
Political Gabfest
Slate Podcasts
4.4 • 8.5K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss how Tuesday’s decisive election results give a legitimate boost to Democrats’ prospects as they work toward the midterms, whether the Supreme Court justices will finally draw a line on presidential power and protect Congress’s power of the purse in the consequential tariffs case, and how the Trump administration is using SNAP recipients as pawns in a cruel political game.
For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss the life and legacy of former Vice President Dick Cheney, including his expansive views of presidential power, his role in the War on Terror, and the irony of his stance against Donald Trump during the 2024 election.
In the latest Gabfest Reads, Emily talks with Yale law professor John Witt about his new book, The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America. They explore the remarkable story of the Garland Fund—a small 1920s foundation that bankrolled early work by A. Philip Randolph, and others who would go on to shape the civil rights and labor movements.
Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Kevin Bendis
Research by Emily Ditto
You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. |
| 0:04.9 | Earlier this year, the Trump administration and Congress passed a law to defund planned |
| 0:09.6 | parenthood, jeopardizing care for 1.1 million patients across the country. But Planned |
| 0:15.2 | Parenthood isn't backing down, and you can be part of the fight by donating at |
| 0:19.4 | plannedparenthood.org slash defend. |
| 0:22.2 | So as this year closes, be someone who shows up, be someone who fights back. |
| 0:27.4 | Donate to Planned Parenthood today by visiting planparenthood.org slash defend. |
| 0:42.9 | Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest. |
| 0:56.5 | November 6th, 2025, a spectacular night for Democrats edition. |
| 1:01.6 | I'm David Plotz of CityCast here in Washington, D.C.C., we've overcome technical difficulties. |
| 1:06.9 | We are moving forward, like America itself or something. |
| 1:09.8 | That was that cackle. |
| 1:10.7 | That wasn't a cackle. |
| 1:13.3 | Cackle's a pejorative word. That, that giggle, |
| 1:19.2 | that laugh, that intake of breath was Emily Bazelon, of course, of the New York Times Magazine and Yale University of Law School. Hello, Emily. Hello, David. And co-anchor CBS Evening News |
| 1:25.9 | in New York City, John Dickerson. |
| 1:29.3 | Hello, John. |
| 1:30.1 | Hello. |
| 1:31.8 | I was the one causing the technical difficulties, by the way. |
| 1:34.2 | Let's just get that straight. |
| 1:36.3 | This week on the Gab Fest, Democrats had a clean sweep in Tuesdays off-off-year election, winning everything they could possibly win. |
| 1:44.2 | Why did it happen? |
... |
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