The Weekly Wrap | Nick Fuentes & the Future of the GOP, Mike Johnson’s Job Security, & Welcome to Project 2026

We hope you all survived the holidays and are ready to get back into the fight for democracy. We’ve got another edition of The Weekly Wrap to keep you updated on the live shows you might have missed over the holiday break.

Project 2026 is Coming For Your Family | Sam Osterhout & Andra Watkins LIVE

The assault on the rights of Americans continues going into 2026, this time with a narrow definition of “family” and control over sexuality and gender. Project 2026 is the basis for expanding religious doctrine into public policy, Sam Osterhout and Andra Watkins went live to discuss this and more.

Sam Osterhout: So, a couple things. I think the first is that as you’ve told this story, we keep going back to the idea that when you get to the church and the church will say this (the definition of a ‘traditional’ family) to the woman. Now, Project 2026 is an effort to expand the boundaries of the church from California to Virginia Beach, right? And the chimney of Minnesota to Galveston, Texas. That is the church they envision as the church of the United States of America.

So, if you have children, they risk being in an ‘out’ group. I think the most shocking thing that we have to reason with and (the reason) we have do this work is because if they are able to expand the boundaries of their church, or their religion, or their beliefs to the boundaries of the United States and they control the government – then it’s not just about being ostracized from your church community. It’s about not being allowed to have certain services, right? Or being allowed to take certain benefits because you don’t belong to a “traditional family” or your marriage is out of bounds of what they consider normal.

Andra Watkins: I’ll give you an example. You know, right now in the United States, it’s okay for religious groups, religious non-profits, to say, “we’re going to discriminate against,” “we’re not going to hire certain kinds of people.” I have a friend who was very high up in a prominent Christian non-profit, and she was a lesbian. She was closeted. She did not parade that around, but when she decided to marry her partner and came out, they fired her. And she was very accomplished and did an amazing job. They fired one of their biggest assets over her sexual orientation and who she loved because it violated what they believe is the right family structure and the right gender identities that the Bible proclaims.

So, there are all kinds of consequences for these things and they aren’t just those kinds. I wrote an article in Newsweek that was run two and a half years ago about the consequences for me of growing up in this kind of an environment – where I had no sex education. I didn’t know how babies happened. Once I figured that out at 14 from a book at B. Dalton Booksellers that someone showed me. I was like, “well, nobody’s ever going to do that.” So I spent every day trying to tell myself that getting pregnant would be the worst thing that could ever happen to me. Because what the consequences would be for me if I had gotten pregnant as a teenager in that environment was, I would have been kicked out of the Christian school. I would have been dragged up on stage in church and been called a harlot, and a whore, and a slut, and a fallen woman. I would not have been able to continue my education. My parents would have forced me to have the baby and raise the baby because that would have been a consequence of my decision to be promiscuous.

So, those kinds of things follow you into adulthood where you can never say, “well, being pregnant won’t be the worst thing that will ever happen to me.” There wasn’t a switch in my brain that flipped one day where I was like, “Oh, well, now it’ll be a miracle.” That never happened. You have those kinds of long-term consequences from this view of family and this view of how people should live and should be together that don’t really come out in a paragraph like this. But you could talk to person after person who came out of Christian nationalism who would tell you stories like that and how it impacted them.

See more of the discussion here.

Trump’s DOJ Pulls a Fast One on the Epstein Files | The Weekly Assignment: AMA Holiday Edition

The American people deserve a lot more transparency than they’ve gotten with the Epstein files, and they aren’t happy. While demanding the files, they are also going through political fatigue and public disengagement caused by sustained institutional abuse by the Trump regime. Our executive editor, Susan J. Demas, and executive producer Sam Osterhout went live to discuss this and answer some of our Lincoln Loyal’s questions before the holiday.

Sam Osterhout: All of this is just a gut punch at the end of the year. And I think that this has been the story of Trump’s year – I think Democrats and us on the pro-democracy side always feel like victory is just right within our reach. It’s just there, but it’s not. It’s right at our fingertips, but we’re never quite there, right?

That (the Epstein files release) is just another one of those disappointments. But, I think the needle is actually moving. You talked about tariffs and the economy. I think it’s a death by a thousand cuts for him.

Susan J. Demas: I agree. I mean, he is definitely weakened. Pulling a stunt like this, I don’t think it helps him. My heart aches for survivors like Jess, like Annie, and Maria Farmer, and all of the Jane Does out there who have put themselves on the line over and over and over again. It’s one slap in the face after another.

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I think it’s a huge miscalculation on their part and they’re really not listening. They’re not listening to the American people. They’re underestimating how much this issue, not just sex trafficking, but sexual harm against children and adults. They’re really underestimating how many survivors are out there. How many survivors, and I’m talking millions and millions and millions, of survivors that have never shared their story but are supportive of us. Quietly or loudly in their own way. I think that if they don’t handle this correctly, it will blow up in their face.

See more of the discussion here.

Will Johnson Make It Through the Year as Speaker? | Susan J. Demas & Edwin Eisendrath LIVE

An historic amount of discharge petitions running through the House, sordid attempts to cover up the Epstein files through convenient recesses, and a term that has him doing more legislative surrender than oversight – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) might not last the year. Lincoln Square Executive Editor Susan J. Demas and Edwin Eisendrath cover Johnson’s job security and more in this live.

Edwin Eisendrath: It’s kind of weird because you would think that since Donald Trump puts his name on everything, you’d think he would tattoo it on the speaker’s backside.

Susan J. Demas: Oh, like the Nixon tattoo that Roger Stone has? Yeah, I can see that. I believe you’re talking about Trump deciding to name the Kennedy Center after himself. I think we’ve got a story on that. There was a lot that happened last week, but this is the kind of thing that’s a real gut punch.

He has no business trying to insert himself into that. I’ve been thinking a little bit about this, I think he really is obsessed with the Kennedys as a family because they were like a celebrity political family – and that’s how he sees himself and his family. And that probably has something to do with the fact of why RFK Jr. is his HHS secretary. Also, the fact that they’re both deranged conspiracy nuts – that has something to do with it as well. But, he really likes this idea of Trump and Kennedy together, two great American families.

Edwin Eisendrath: Was he putting his name on that building the same day he was making those hideous comments? I believe so. This is what he really thinks of the arts. Anything and everything is about him, and I agree with you. He is whatever patina of stardom that clings to the Kennedys. He’s hoping it is his. But that family’s reputation is now gone because of RFK(Jr.). Young people will remember that – that RFK Jr. is the one who led measles epidemics to return to America, and god knows what else we’re going to find out because of his vaccine madness. Unprecedented madness. Dangerous and unhealthy.

Look, America is economically worse off, we are poorer in health, our relations around the world are worse. Since Donald Trump has been president, the only beneficiaries have been wealthy oligarchs who are going to try and rule by owning things like all the media and then support him. The guys who paid for his ballroom, and Vladimir Putin, and Xi in China, who have done very well with this guy. And Javier Melli in Argentina, who we gave $40 billion to export their food while we’re screwing American farmers.

Susan J. Demas: Well, anybody who has to buy health insurance is a loser under Donald Trump. And of course Mike Johnson decided not to address the problem. Congress is gone for the year and now we’re all left with huge premium hikes going into 2026. They’ve done nothing to fix the Affordable Care Act.

This is going to be a huge problem – huge problem. I think, for Republicans going into the midterms, and I’ve talked a lot with healthcare experts like Charles Gaba – who has been going through Affordable Care Act data since the law was enacted last decade. He writes our health care newsletter every other week here at Lincoln Square.

Dr. Rob Davidson, who is from Paging America on Substack, he’s a West Michigan physician. Both of them have been talking about how devastating this is going to be for people, especially in rural America.

See more of the discussion here.

All Culture War, All the Time | SPECIAL EDITION of The Tim & April Show

Tim Whitaker and April Ajoy of The New Evangelicals are back with their show this week to strip away abstraction and show how culture war contradictions aren’t accidental, but foundational to how the movement operates. Together, Tim and April reveal how Christian language is weaponized to sanctify power while absolving leaders of responsibility.

April Ajoy: If you’ve been watching our show for a while, maybe a month ago, we coerced this civil war that was starting within MAGA because Tucker Carlson had Nick Fuentes on, and then Megyn Kelly had Tucker Carlson on. Nick Fuentes, to be clear, has praised Hitler. He’s a neo-Nazi. He’s a white nationalist. Very problematic. So that civil war that started a month or so ago, is still happening. And it played out on stage at Turning Point.

Tim Whitaker: Yes. So opening night, it’s a Thursday night, I think (that) is when everything kind of starts. Ben Shapiro takes the stage. And don’t forget – Ben Shapiro. Look, I’m gonna be honest with you, okay? … Ben Shapiro, in my opinion, is on the way out of the MAGA conservative movement. If you look at all of his videos, he continually gets ratioed in the comments about being Jewish and all that kind of stuff.

I think Ben, in my opinion, is in thep belly of the beast at events like this – because the young generation that is in the MAGA movement has been sucked into the Nick Fuentes vortex, and really thinks that Jewish people are to blame for a lot of the world’s problems. So, that’s my opinion here.

Ben Shapiro opened the night, and we have a few clips.

[...]

Ben has been staunchly in favor of what Israel’s been doing to the people of Palestine in Gaza.

April Ajoy: That is the thing. That’s so important. We can walk and shoot them at the same time. As we said often, we have condemned what Israel has been doing to the Palestinian people. I mean, it’s a genocide. There’s no way around that. Also, we can say, “no, Jews don’t control the world,” and that people who speak like that should be a red flag, “well, they controlled the banks.” You’re heading into territory that America and the world has been down before that does not end well.

See more of the discussion here.

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Sniffling into 2026: RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vax Crusade | First Draft with Susan J. Demas and Dr. Paul Offit

Merry Christmas from RFK Jr.: COVID, RSV, the flu, and maybe even measles! The anti-vaccine ideology of the Kennedy family’s black sheep has migrated from fringe activism to the head of HHS. Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine who’s served on FDA and CDC advisory committees, joined Lincoln Square Executive Editor Susan J. Demas to discuss the anti-vax crusade.

Susan J. Demas: I know there were just articles of impeachment introduced by a Democratic Congresswoman, Haley Stevens. Obviously, with Republicans controlling the House, nobody expects that to go anywhere. Donald Trump does not seem to have any desire to remove RFK Jr., so he seems really emboldened to just keep going with this agenda.

What I’m wondering is, when you look at some of the actions that President Trump takes – where his top priority has been giving tax breaks to his wealthy friends, he has profited handsomely off the presidency and you can see the logic of what he’s doing – What does RFK Jr. get out of these policies that are making us sicker? That is causing people to die. That is destroying medical research. Is it the thrill of playing god?

It’s hard to understand because disease doesn’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican. It’s coming for all of us if we don’t take certain measures.

Dr. Paul Offit: I think Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a zealot, and his zealotry surrounds vaccines. I mean, for 20 years he’s been saying the same thing. He said it when he ran for president in 2024 – which is that he believes that vaccines have merely lessened the incidence of infectious disease at the cost of causing chronic diseases. And he is on a mission. His mission is to make vaccines less available, less affordable, and more feared.

If given the opportunity, and he’s getting close to being given that opportunity, he would eliminate vaccine use in this country. You’ll hear groups, like his group Children’s Health Defense (at a recent meeting in Austin, Texas) say they want to make it so that no vaccines are manufactured in the United States. That’s where RFK Jr. is coming from.

I don’t think people realize how bad this is. If you read his book, for example, which I don’t recommend The Real Anthony Fauci – in pages 285 to 288, he tells you where he’s coming from. He does not believe in germ theory. He doesn’t believe that specific germs cause specific disease, which is not theoretical anymore. It’s been pretty much established since the mid-1800s. He doesn’t believe that. He believes in the so-called ‘terrain theory’, which is as long as you’re healthy, as long as you’re well-nourished, as long as you take your vitamins, you’re not going to get a serious disease.

When those two little girls died in West Texas of measles, the first child death of measles in this country since 2023, he said they needed to take vitamin A. Which, by the way, is irrelevant in a developed world country. I mean, the incidence of vitamin A deficiency in this country is less than 0.3%. Vitamin A doesn’t work to treat measles. It doesn’t work to prevent measles. And if you’re a pregnant person taking vitamin A, you increase your risk of delivering a child with severe birth defects.

He is just a zealot who is unchecked. The reason he is unchecked is that the only person really paying attention, if he’s paying attention at all, and that’s President Trump, he thinks RFK Jr. knows that he is free of any Congressional oversight. The only person he continues to kiss up to is President Trump, but President Trump is also an anti-vaccine activist.

President Trump recently said he thought the measles mumps rubella vaccine should be separated into its three component parts. He has recently said that he thinks the hepatitis B infections were only occurring in people who are sex workers or people who are intravenous drug users – and that’s not true. Half the children in this country, in 1991, roughly 8,000 children got hepatitis B from coming in contact with someone who had chronic hepatitis B infection, and most of those of whom there are millions in this country, most of whom don’t know it.

That’s how those children got infected. Half got it from their mothers, half didn’t get it from their mothers, and they didn’t get it less than 10 years of age because they were sex workers or intravenous drug users. So, he doesn’t know that. It’s okay that Donald Trump doesn’t know that, he’s a real estate person. RFK Jr. should know – but, he doesn’t know either.

See more of the discussion here.

2026: When Democracy Strikes Back | It’s the Democracy, Stupid with Edwin Eisendrath & The Contrarian’s Norm Eisen

Former Ambassador Norm Eisen joins Edwin Eisendrath on this week’s episode of It’s the Democracy, Stupid where they discuss how courts have become the primary check on executive overreach, how they have slowed authoritarian tactics long enough for public resistance to organize, and more.

Edwin Eisendrath: At stake is whether facts and the law still matter in court. Or whether political persuasion is the only thing that matters.

Norm Eisen: It still matters. Donald Trump has lost hundreds of cases, and the Supreme Court only messes with a small fraction of those, right? About 10%. About 90% of his losses have stopped his bad behavior. We literally get a court order almost every day stopping some or another bad action by Donald Trump.

Edwin Eisendrath: Mostly he is stopped. Although, they told ICE not to continue to tear gas neighborhoods, and they continue to tear gas neighborhoods. So, I think it’s enormously important work, but the rest of us have to do ours, too.

Norm Eisen: We do. And if I may say so, you’re doing your share of the job. You’re the people who follow you. You’re getting the message out. You’re being truthful, not neutral, as one of my CNN colleagues exhorted me to do. So, if the whole democracy movement does that, we’ve got Trump outnumbered.

Edwin Eisendrath: I think so, too. I personally think we will have an election. We will count the votes and they will matter. I know people are worried about that, and I think that’s fair to be worried. But being worried doesn’t mean it won’t happen. I mean, in fact, on the contrary, that worry helps make sure it happens.

Norm Eisen: And it has been an overperformance by the forces of democracy in 2025. And now, as you said when we started, we have to pivot from the successes we’ve enjoyed playing defense to going on offense. And at Democracy Defenders Fund, we’ve already done quite a bit of going on offense.

Edwin Eisendrath: How do we hold this crowd accountable when we win?

Norm Eisen: Well, let me give you some of the seeds that we’ve planted of that ultimate accountability. They kidnapped and abducted, against court orders, hundreds of Venezuelan men to CECOT. And that was completely outside the bounds of the law.

Edwin Eisendrath: There’s a contempt proceeding about that, isn’t there?

Norman Eisen: But that’s not enough. I think those individuals have got, anybody who’s kidnapped, you have recourse. We’ve started that. We filed the first claim by an innocent person. He’s a barber. He didn’t have a gang tattoo. He had a tattoo for his family, and we filed that claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act. We’re going to do much, much more there.

See more of the discussion here.

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