Rational Security: The “Tortured Pundits Department” Edition
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 26 September 2024
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Scott was joined by Natalie Orpett, Anna Bower, and Matt Gluck to talk over some of the week's big national security news, including:
- “Some Assembly Required.” On Tuesday, President Biden gave his fourth and final speech as president to the U.N. General Assembly. He used the occasion to reflect on the many foreign policy decisions of his presidency, including the withdrawal from Afghanistan, opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the (thus far unsuccessful) pursuit of a ceasefire in the conflict in Gaza. What does this speech—and the year’s U.N. General Assembly more broadly—tell us about the state of his foreign policy legacy?
- “Keeping it Peachy.” Georgia’s state election board is in the news for rules changes that some allege could delay finalization of the 2024 election results, opening a possible door for Congress to manipulate the results. But what will these rules changes really mean? And what does it tell us about the potential for (and limits on) efforts to manipulate the outcome of the 2024 presidential election?
- “Memo-ries of the Way We Were.” Last week, the New York Times published excerpts from several memoranda prepared by then-President Trump’s White House Counsel addressing questions he appears to have posed regarding his ability to direct the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute individuals. Given Trump’s repeated pledges of vengeance if he were to return to the White House, what do these memoranda tell us about what he might be able to accomplish? And what obstacles may lie in his way, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s intervening decision on presidential immunity?
For object lessons, Natalie recommended Helen Phillips' new novel “Hum.” Anna stole Scott's object lesson and recommended season two of Rings of Power along with season three of Industry. Scott sang the praises of the best tiny speaker he ever did see (er, hear). And Matt Gluck dug into the sportsball file to urge listeners to begin following the Detroit Tigers' historic playoffs run.
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Transcript
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| 0:16.4 | slash Lawfair. Also check out Lawfair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, lawfare no bull, and the aftermath. |
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| 1:38.0 | So Anna, I think we have to check your audio one more time. Would you just please deliver your favorite Taylor Swift verse as loudly as possible. |
| 1:44.3 | Okay, I am absolutely not singing a Taylor Swift verse, but I gotta say one of my favorite opening |
| 1:52.1 | lines of a Taylor Swift song is |
| 1:56.0 | Draw the Cat Eye Sharp Enough to Kill a Man. |
| 1:59.5 | And it is this song that she, because if you know Taylor Swift she loves wearing cat eye |
| 2:06.8 | liner she wrote this song called Vigilante shit that is an all about her beef that she had with a scooter brawn who is this |
| 2:17.5 | guy who she used to work with and then he bought up all of her masters and she got really mad at him and she wrote this song about how basically |
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