Hey everybody, this is Dan Clydeman, co-host of Skull Duggery.

Before we began recording this episode of the podcast, we had not yet learned that President

Trump had fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Trump, who had repeatedly and very publicly shamed Sessions over his handling of the Russia probe,

announced the news on Twitter.

A nation divided against itself cannot stand. So said Abraham Lincoln, as he stood on the steps

of the Illinois State Capitol in 1858, and warned that the country could not long survive,

half-slaved, and half-free. But more than 160 years later, Lincoln's basic premise that a nation

sorely divided over core issues of governance and morality cannot function is about to be tested

in ways it rarely has since the Civil War. Election night 2018 proved a harsh reminder of just how

divided as a country we really are. In Senate races, Donald Trump's America triumphed.

As Republicans closely aligned with the President, booted out Democratic incumbents in red states,

and strengthened the party's hold on the upper chamber. But in the House, the Democrats,

most of whom fundamentally reject the President and everything he stands for, recaptured control

with a decisive victory, giving them new powers to investigate and subpoena Trump's administration

and hold it accountable. Get ready for the rumble, Washington is now divided against itself.

It's our subject on this episode of Skull Duggery.

There is absolutely no collusion. I didn't make a phone call to Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia.

Everybody knows it. People have got to know whether or not they're President's a crook.

Well, I'm not a crook. I told the American people I did not trade on them.

My heart and my death's intentions still tell me that's true. But the facts and the evidence

tell me it is not. I did not have sexual relations with that one.

...