Susan Del Percio (crisis communications expert) joins host Ron Steslow to examine what becomes of a populist movement once it captures the institutions it was built to attack.

They begin with the Epstein files and a new book from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about the White House’s behind-the-scenes scramble to respond, including a Situation Room damage control meeting, and why the leaked recording of that meeting is more alarming still. 

Next, they widen the lens to populism’s paradox, what happens when a movement built to distrust institutions takes them over and whether these movements need a single figurehead to lead them. 

Then they turn to Maine, where Democrats nominated Graham Platner, a self-described socialist with a Nazi tattoo and allegations from former romantic partners describing him as volatile and demeaning toward women, including one ex-girlfriend’s accusation that he physically intimidated and restrained her.

Finally, they weigh the economics underneath the populist rhetoric, from Platner’s “Epstein class” framing to a leftist turn toward capping growth and redistributing wealth, and why the politics of stagnation is a hard sell. 

In Politicology+, they dig into “jawboning”— the way governments lean on private platforms to suppress speech they can’t legally suppress themselves—and a new bipartisan bill to stop it.

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