Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

Politico politics bureau chief Jonathan Martin, New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney, and USC Center for the Political Future Director Bob Shrum join Margaret Hoover to discuss challenges facing the media in Donald Trump’s second term, threats to freedom of the press, and the future of journalism.

In a panel recorded at the CPF’s Warschaw Conference on Practical Politics in January, Nagourney says the obligation to call out Trump’...

In September 1994, an 18-year-old musician named Lawrence Perelman sent a letter to William F. Buckley Jr., offering to perform a piano recital for him as a thank you for Buckley’s political work. The friendship that ensued lasted until Buckley’s final moments, all of which Perelman recounts in his new book, American Impresario: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Elements of American Character.

One hundred years after Buckley’s birth, P...

As President Trump wages tariff wars around the world and upends the U.S. alliance with Ukraine, conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat and Margaret Hoover discuss the president’s actions, his address to Congress, and the future of the GOP.

While Douthat defends the Trump administration's goal of achieving an armistice in Ukraine and convincing Europe to take on greater responsibility, he says that calling Zelensky a...

Before Kevin Hassett was named director of President Trump’s National Economic Council, he sat down with Margaret Hoover last September to discuss Trump’s economic record and his second-term agenda.

In this new cut of that interview, Hassett assesses the impact of tariffs in Trump’s first term and defends his threats to impose new ones, including reciprocal tariffs on goods from countries that tax U.S. imports.

Hassett, who previousl...

As President Trump ratchets up trade wars with America’s adversaries and allies, two experts on the economy — Jeff Ferry, chief economist emeritus at the Coalition for a Prosperous America, and Scott Lincicome, vice president of General Economics and Stiefel Trade Policy Center at the Cato Institute — clash over whether tariffs will bolster or crush the U.S. economy and what tariffs mean for Americans.

Speaking before a student audi...

As President Trump and Elon Musk launch an assault on the federal bureaucracy, Will Marshall, the president of the Progressive Policy Institute, and Philip K. Howard, lawyer and author of “Everyday Freedom,” tell Margaret Hoover that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has the right diagnosis, but the wrong cure. 

Speaking before a student audience at Hofstra University, Marshall and Howard agree that the federal bureaucr...

As Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services advances in the Senate, former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona talks to Margaret Hoover about the danger he fears Kennedy could pose to public health.

Carmona criticizes Kennedy’s history of spreading misinformation about vaccines and health care and falsely linking vaccination to autism, but he also acknowledges some valid concerns raised ...

Two veteran strategists–Democrat James Carville and Republican Mike Murphy–sit down with Margaret Hoover to assess the fallout from the 2024 election and the challenges that lie ahead for both parties.

At the USC Center for the Political Future’s Warschaw Conference on Practical Politics, Carville and Murphy discuss the chaotic first weeks of President Trump’s new administration, the muted response from his opponents, and how Democ...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sits down with Margaret Hoover to talk about his new PBS documentary “Journey to America: With Newt and Callista Gingrich,” his longstanding support for legal immigration, and the executive actions President Trump has taken in his first days in office.

Amid rising Republican skepticism of all immigration, Gingrich draws a sharp distinction between legal and illegal immigration, and he explain...

Journalist and author Juan Williams joins Margaret Hoover to talk about civil rights in America as the nation prepares to inaugurate Donald Trump as president on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Williams, who wrote the companion book to the 1987 PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize, discusses his latest book, New Prize for These Eyes, which charts the progress of what he calls the second civil rights movement in the 21st century.

Wi...

Margaret Hoover sits down with three Belarusian dissidents–exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, athlete-turned-activist Katya Snytsina, and theater director Natalia Kaliada–to discuss their fight against Aleksandr Lukashenko’s dictatorship.

Kaliada is co-founder of the Belarus Free Theatre, which recently debuted the play KS6: Small Forward in New York, starring Snytsina and telling the story of her journey from Belar...

Best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Peggy Noonan sits down with Margaret Hoover to discuss the presidential election, Donald Trump’s second term, and her new book, A Certain Idea of America.

Noonan, a former speechwriter for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, details the Republican Party’s evolution since the 1980s and the party’s political and cultural missteps that provided a launching pad for Tru...

Three journalists on the frontlines of the global fight for press freedom sit down with Margaret Hoover at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York to discuss threats to the media around the world and how free countries in the West can help protect the press abroad.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist wrongfully detained in Russia for more than six months, reflects on her captivity, the global campaign fo...

Sebastien Lai, whose father publisher Jimmy Lai is on trial in Hong Kong, and Jonathan Price, a member of Jimmy Lai’s international legal team, talk to Margaret Hoover about their effort to build global support for his release.

Jimmy Lai had been a leading voice in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement before his arrest in 2020 under a controversial national security law. Now 77 and in ailing health, he took the witness stand at his t...

Kori Schake of the American Enterprise Institute joins Margaret Hoover to discuss Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy in his second term and how it may impact the U.S. and the world.

Schake, a defense policy expert who served in Republican and Democratic administrations, makes the case for conservative internationalism and details the flaws she sees in Trump’s “America First” worldview.

Although she has opposed Trump since 20...

After Donald Trump’s historic reelection, presidential biographer Jon Meacham joins Margaret Hoover to discuss what the outcome means for the soul of the nation and what comes next.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian had warned Americans against the “genuine risk” of returning Trump to power, but he explains why he accepts the results. He also reflects on how history can offer inspiration in this moment.

Meacham, who has advised ...

H.R. McMaster, Donald Trump’s second national security advisor, joins Margaret Hoover to discuss his tumultuous experience in the Trump White House, what he characterizes as Trump’s “disruptive” leadership, and what a second term could look like.

McMaster, who recently published At War With Ourselves about his nearly 14 months in the administration, assesses the global threats facing the next president and offers insight into chall...

Margaret Hoover sits down with Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R), Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), and veteran GOP election attorney Benjamin Ginsberg for a bipartisan discussion of the facts about elections and voting in America.

After a screening of “Counting the Vote” at the 92nd Street Y in New York, the experts talk about preparations for the 2024 election and legal and logistical challenges that may e...

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sits down with Margaret Hoover to discuss the state’s pivotal role in the race for the White House and what Kamala Harris needs to do to win it.

At the Abington Arts Center in Shapiro’s hometown, the Democratic governor assesses Harris’ strategy and contrasts her agenda with Donald Trump’s. He also defends Harris’ efforts to distinguish herself from President Biden and to explain her shifting position...