Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gap Fest for August 9th, 2018, The War on Your Mind Edition.

I'm David Plotz of Atlas Obscura, Emily Bazelon.

The New York Times Magazine is New Haven.

Hello, Emily.

Hello, hello. And John Dick Magazine is New Haven. Hello, Emily. Hello, hello.

And John Dickerson is on vacation.

But boy, oh boy, is this long overdue?

We have finally on the Gab Fest, I don't know how long it has been that we want to do this.

It's been a really long time.

It's Ben Wittes, the empressario behind the wonderful

site, empire, lawfare. Hello, Ben. Hey, I'm going to do my best John Dickerson imitation.

If that was it, it's not, it's really bad. Yeah, no, I mean, I was going to, you know,

talk about the historic presidency, but no, I'll, I was going to, you know, talk about the historic presidency.

But no, I'll just be me.

So I'm excited because in Ben and in Emily, I feel like we can have a great competition.

It doesn't have to be a competition between the, I think of you, the two of you, as the people who are best able to explain legal concepts to lay audience incisively,

and you each do it so brilliantly and in a different style. You have a different approach.

Right. Emily does it. Emily's style is knowing what she's talking about and actually reading the

cases and mine is is winging it. Oh, that is not true at all. I think of you as firmly grounded in the facts, Ben with us.

Firmly grounded in something, I suppose. We will find out at the end of the show. People can pass judgment after they've heard Ben.

On this week's Gab Fest, the latest in the Manafort trial and the Mueller investigation, then yet another, even more appalling immigration proposal oozes out of the Trump White House.

We will talk about it.

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