Weekly Wrap | Ro Khanna’s Search for the Epstein Files, Stuart Stevens’ Aid Trip to Ukraine & Amy McGrath on her Uphill Senate Bid

Welcome back to the Weekly Wrap, where we compile highlights from Lincoln Square’s top interviews and shows from the last week. From Anchor Watch to Protect & Serve, we’ve got it all for you right here.

Releasing the Epstein Files Isn’t a Partisan Issue | Rep. Ro Khanna Joins Susan J. Demas

Congressman Ro Khanna is one of our elected officials leading the fight in the release of the Epstein files. As the government is shut down, the American people have grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of transparency on one of the biggest scandals in our nation’s history. Lincoln Square executive editor, Susan Demas, sat down with Rep. Khanna to discuss the latest in the push for more information.

Susan Demas: How did you and Thomas Massie (R-KY) form this bipartisan alliance on this (Epstein)? How did that come together?

Rep. Ro Khanna: You know, Thomas Massie and I have worked together on a number of issues, largely on matters of war and peace. We’re both constitutionalists. We both criticize presidents of both parties for getting us into overseas wars without coming to Congress. We did a war powers resolution that stopped our refueling Saudi Arabia that was bombing Yemen.

We have partnered on saying that the United States shouldn’t be just striking down boats, Houthi boats, without coming to Congress. And we had done a resolution just before the Epstein [files] that we shouldn’t be getting into a war with Iran without coming to Congress. And so we had just worked on this.

Massie saw that I tweeted out and was introducing something calling for the release of the Epstein files. He said, “Why don’t we work together on this?” And we never thought it would capture the attention to Congress and the country in the way that it has.

But it’s a story of rich and powerful people in this country getting away with the most horrific crimes while an ordinary person says, “I can’t get away with a parking ticket. I can’t get away with running a red light.” How do we have a country of two different tiers of justice?

Susan Demas: Thomas Massie, of course, is extremely conservative. He’s not known as a moderate member of Congress. So what kind of message do you feel that sends to have Thomas Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Nancy Mace – very conservative members – that are uniting with Democrats for this fight for transparency?

Rep. Ro Khanna: I think it sends one message that standing with survivors of rape and sexual assault is not partisan. Protecting America’s children is not partisan. And that the anger against a government that has screwed over a lot of Americans, that has protected a rich and powerful elite across the nation.

Seventy percent of Americans don’t believe in the American dream, that traditional political alliances are no longer operational. This idea of like the Mitt Romney Republican who just thinks let’s tinker with things and everything is fine. That’s out of date. People have been shafted on the American dream.

Our party is either going to become a progressive populist party that recognizes that we need a massive change to restore the American dream, or we’re going to keep losing if we become the party of the status quo. And I think the American politicians are going to appeal on the right or the left

are those who are going to be change agents. We’re going to say the establishment has harmed this country, that we need a new generation, throw the old guard out. And that’s sort of what Massey and I are appealing to.

Read more of the interview here.

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MAGA Endgame: Killing the Voting Rights Act to Rewrite the Constitution | Sam Osterhout LIVE with Mike Cortese and Amir Badat

Lincoln Square host and executive producer Sam Osterhout was joined by Amir Badat and Mike Cortese for this live interview. They traced a clear line from the 2013 SCOTUS decision in Shelby County to the edge of Constitutional collapse with the Voting Rights Act. This has left systems to default to those with the most power – leaving discriminatory practices for the voting rights of the American people.

Amir Badat: Both of these pieces of Congressional legislation would significantly expand the protections that we have at the federal level for voting rights. I think that those efforts would be completely stopped in their tracks if we have a Congress that is controlled by Republicans and openly hostile to voting rights – which is what we are seeing right now.

[...]

That’s why I think it’s so crucial for us to be laser focused on these midterms, because in many ways, these midterms could be our last opportunity to enforce the protections of the 15th Amendment, which specifically bars racial discrimination in the context of voting, and they could use that authority to enhance our protections. But if we don’t have a Congress that’s interested in doing that, then we could see a significant rollback of those protections.

Sam Osterhout: If the decision comes down any day, could this impact the midterms?

Amir Badat: Absolutely. I think that if we have a decision that comes down in the next couple of months, even going into the spring of next year, what we are going to see is a mad scramble at the state legislative level to pass new redistricting maps that will decimate Black and minority voting power, particularly in the South.

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Mike Cortese: Hypothetically, if it is rolled back or weakened and then they do gain the majority. If you feel your rights are infringed upon, will you have less ability to claim in court and actually fight for your (voting) right?

Amir Badat: If the Supreme Court undermines Section 2, then yes. Black voters and voters of color across the country will have fewer protections to challenge discriminatory redistricting maps at all levels. Again, that’s not just Congress, but that’s state, legislative, everything. There are still other protections. You still have the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

Read more of the interview here.

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It’s a Trap: The Illusion of Bipartisanship | The Strategy Session with Joe Trippi, Stuart Stevens, and Matthew Dowd

The great grey area of American politics, the ever talked about bipartisanship is an illusion. Matthew Dowd, veteran political reporter and journalist joins Lincoln Square’s Joe Trippi and Stuart Stevens to discuss what’s left when institutions have failed. Is democracy worth the mess it makes? What does rebuilding look like going forward? They answered it all in this week’s episode of The Strategy Session.

Matthew Dowd: The president’s job approval numbers today are lower than they were when he went into election day in 2018. Even then, even having bad job approval numbers, he at least had one thing keeping him afloat, which is that he had a positive rating on the economy. He doesn’t have that anymore. His worst numbers on any issue are inflation and the economy, and that’s why you see a generic ballot advantage, not huge, but a consistent generic ballot advantage for the Democrats in this. I think there’s more enthusiasm today among Democrats as there usually is in opposition to what’s going on.

Those are good indicators. I think this November, in the elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York – I expect Democrats to win every single one of those. I don’t think New Jersey and Virginia are going to be as close as some people are trying to make them out to be. I don’t think they’re going to be that close. I think they’re going to be a pretty standard election.

The mayor’s race in New York is going to be interesting. I expect Mamdani to basically walk away with it. I think it’s going to be a fairly large victory for him, which is some good education for us. The problem is that the structure of our democracy keeps getting broken. And what I mean by that is that we have very few swing Senate seats left in our politics. Unlike what happened in the 80s or even the swing of 15 seats, those days are gone.

[...]

But even with a president with horrible job approval numbers and Republicans at a disadvantage, it’s no guarantee because of how the Republicans have gained the system in a way that we’ve never seen before. So, I think all of the indicators among the country, if we were a true democracy, we don’t have a Senate that is representative of the country because of redistricting and gerrymandering.

Stuart Stevens: I can add to that. In the history of the Supreme Court, there are five justices that have been confirmed with senators representing less than a majority of the population. All five are on the court today.

Joe Trippi: It also leaves out things like ICE in front of polling places to intimidate people on the claim that they’re looking to arrest anybody who is illegally trying to vote when they’re not a citizen. Particularly in those close places that could be a real problem and impact. We’re not in a representative democracy. You literally have to get even when you look at the generic vote, it’s got to be much higher than it is somehow. I just don’t think we’re in a fair fight anymore.

Read more of the interview here.

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Amy McGrath Joins Anchor Watch with Bobby Jones | Heads, Billionaires Win. Tails, We All Lose.

Kentucky Senate candidate Amy McGrath has first hand experience not only as a Marine but a congressional candidate. She’s warning that Kentucky’s hospitals, farmers, and families are being gutted by policies which enrich billionaires and placate foreign interests. She joined Anchor Watch’s Bobby Jones to discuss.

Bobby Jones: Let’s talk a little bit about the Commonwealth. What are you seeing happening to the great people of Kentucky based on the policies of the Trump administration? I can imagine the fallout is significant there.

Amy McGrath: The first thing is the economy, right? These Republicans that a lot of my fellow Kentuckians voted for, including the president, they didn’t just fail to make things better because a lot of people voted for these Republicans and Donald Trump to make things better for them. What do we see happening? They are intentionally making things worse with these tariffs.

My message to my fellow Kentuckians is, this guy Donald Trump, he sold you out. These Republicans have sold you out. They are not making things better. This tariff is a double tax on Kentuckians that none of us asked for, that nobody wants.

The President is not only imposing these across-the-board tariffs, which are just flat-out dumb. There’s no economist in the world that says we should do this. It hurts our industries in Kentucky. It hurts our bourbon industry. The production has plummeted since these tariffs have gone into effect. It hurts our farmers. Our soybean farmers are losing their crop. Meanwhile, the administration and these Republicans are bailing out Argentina, who is undercutting our farmers – and Trump wants to buy beef from them – it’s insane.

I’m hearing that enough is enough – and that’s not even getting into health care. That’s another big issue that really affects Kentucky. When the Republicans passed the bill this summer, it’s the worst bill for Kentucky in my lifetime. And again, it goes back to promises made, promises broken. Donald Trump and these Republicans said they would not go after Medicare. Guess what they did? They went after Medicare. He said he wouldn’t go after Medicaid. Well, they’re cutting Medicaid. They’re cutting Connect which is our equivalent of the Affordable Care Act and now we are looking at 200,000 Kentuckians at risk of losing their health insurance.

Read more about the interview here.

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Stuart Stevens LIVE on Ukraine and the Global Battle for Freedom

Lincoln Project and Lincoln Square leader, veteran political strategist, and invaluable source of information Stuart Stevens has returned from Ukraine – carrying a clear warning for the American people: Democracy’s front isn’t just in Kyiv; it’s wherever the free world decides to stop paying attention.

Stuart Stevens: There is a high survival rate among Ukrainian military because they care about their soldiers and they pay attention. There’s tremendous training and stress on immediate first aid and one of the things that the group I was with – we delivered first aid kits and we replaced the tourniquets that came with them with state-of-the-art tourniquets because that’s been a big issue.

We went through this process taking out the old tourniquets and putting the new ones in and closing up the kits to give out to soldiers. There is a high rate of soldiers losing limbs in Ukraine and part of that is because of how long it is taking to evacuate them and get them to hospitals. You start to notice and you see an unusual amount of people with amputated legs and arms.

That’s just a little insight of what it’s like there. I think our future is being determined in Ukraine. If Russians are able to launch the largest ground war against democracy in Western Europe since World War II, and if they were able to crush Ukraine, it would be the end of the world as we know it. For all this America First stuff, the reason America is the wealthiest country in the world is because of the post-war Pax Americana that has allowed Europe to flourish.

It’s not a zero-sum game like this felon from Queens in the White House seems to think. When Europe does well, America does well. They’re a solid trading partner. It’s a general transfer of wealth both ways. It creates wealth. And if they were able to take Ukraine, you can hold your breath til they want to go into Poland. This idea that we take for granted now that you can fly to Paris, get in a car and drive to Warsaw, that won’t be possible. The whole world will be different. And I don’t think the Biden administration did nearly enough.

Read more of the live show here.

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The Father, Son, & Holy Host | God & Jesus Join Punching Up with Maya May

We may be a little biased – but come on, it doesn’t get much better than this. Lincoln Square’s holy host, Maya May, was joined on Punching Up by God and Jesus themselves. Sky Daddy and his favorite son joined Maya to discuss being misquoted by people who have never cracked the good book open, mutual aid, and baby goats. Yes, you read all that right – and you don’t want to miss it.

Jesus Christ: Oh no, you got muted, Maya.

Maya May: Did you just smite me? Did I get smited?

God: You know that ever reliable Amazon Web Services never goes down.

[...]

Maya May: The ceiling is in the basement, apparently. And it’s hard to stay upbeat these days. A lot of what’s happening right now hits really close to home for me. I feel like my life is at the intersection of everything that the Trump regime is targeting and hates. And I know last time you were on, God, we were talking about ballrooms in the age of hunger globally – and now it seems like they’re okay with also starving children locally. I see you’ve got your angry brows…

God: Exactly. It’s enough to make your head explode. My head just exploded, did you see that? I got a smoking hole where my head used to be. Happy Halloween, everybody. You’re gonna wind me up okay. He’s taking away people’s food right before thanksgiving and he thinks this is gonna work out for him.

Jesus Christ: Oh, F yeah, I get angry. I mean my head doesn’t explode like that, but this is disgusting. He goes against everything that I stood for back in the bible. They don’t read what I said in the bible. They twist my words around to create their own narrative. It’s disgusting, and I hate that they use my good name to make excuses for how they behave.

Read more of the interview here.

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Trump’s Dirty War on Protest | Protect & Serve with Michael Fanone & Maya May

Lincoln Square’s superhost, Maya May, and her law enforcement expert/hero co-host, Michael Fanone are back with this week’s episode of Protect & Serve where they discuss the line between law enforcement and state sanctioned violence.

Maya May: That is so fucking insane. This idea that there are criminals roving around the streets of Chicago harassing kids on Halloween of all nights – and I’ve done Chicago Halloween a couple of times with my daughter, and it’s one of these things where… Hyde Park is an area where all the kids go, on the south side of Chicago, near the University of Chicago. And there’s a street where the houses basically compete against each other with these insane displays of giant spiders and just the coolest things – and kids from all over the city, everybody goes.

So this idea that somehow an added element should be masked men with assault rifles roving around is somehow going to… When you see that, how pissed off are you right now? Because I’m fucking pissed. You can’t tell because I’m smiling when I’m pissed.

Michael Fanone: You’re such a happy, positive person. Kristi Noem is a liar. She’s a liar and a scumbag. When she appears in front of the cameras, like everyone in this administration, it’s so choreographed. She seems sure of herself but it’s just performative. When she’s under oath testifying before the Senate Oversight Committee hearing, it’s because she’s under oath and she knows there’s legal ramifications for lying in those situations.

So it continues to perpetuate the same racist lie that the vast majority of people that are here undocumented are violent criminals and rapists and drug dealers. It has been proven with their own statistics to be abjectly false. 85% of the people that they are taking into custody have no criminal record whatsoever. Again, let me remind those MAGA folks who probably aren’t tuned into this, but maybe you’ll catch a clip of this later down the line: coming to this country undocumented is not a criminal offense… it’s a civil infraction. That is the moral equivalent of receiving a parking ticket or a moving violation. These are not criminals.

They are people who are here in an undocumented status or came here in a legal status and then had that revoked by this administration, giving them absolutely no warning whatsoever before they scooped them up in some violent, inhumane fashion. This is state-sponsored violence. These are thugs.

Anyone that is a part of these organizations, whether it’s ICE or CBP or DHS, I no longer have any grace for you whatsoever, regardless of whether you’re engaging in this activity or not. Your participation in these organizations is your complicity in the behavior conducted and committed by these people.

Read more of the interview here.

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Dr. Deb Houry on Why She Resigned from the CDC | It’s the Democracy, Stupid with Edwin Eisendrath

On It’s the Democracy, Stupid, host Edwin Eisendrath was joined by former CDC official Dr. Deb Houry. In this new Trump regime, pseudoscience and unfit officials at HHS and the CDC have caused chaos for the well-being and health of Americans. Dr. Houry is the former Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She discussed these realities and more:

Edwin Eisendrath: When you reflect back on the attack on CDC, it began during COVID. Maybe it was just an easy target because the country was hurting so much – what do you think about that? You’re out there every day at risk trying to save the country during a terrible pandemic, and suddenly the guns are turned on you. What was that like?

Dr. Deb Houry: I think a lot of it is this was really an unprecedented pandemic where CDC as well as other agencies were still learning what the virus was, how you protect yourself, and the vaccine. Science was evolving. Some guidance that was issued early on needed to change when there was more information. I think that really led to distrust of the CDC, when our director was saying one thing and then it would change a few months later.

That’s really the principle of crisis communication and there were some missteps. There were some lab issues. But what I can tell you, I was brought up to the office of the director midway through COVID to look at what the lessons learned were and how we could improve going forward. CDC really looked at lab quality. They have new measures in place and are working much more with the private sector. They also looked at data timeliness. There were faxed reports and we didn’t have access to state health department data for some of these things. That was all put in place during COVID so that going forward, it wouldn’t happen again.

But my concern now is we are backsliding as a nation with a lot of these improvements.

[...]

I was disappointed – I saw that that (CDC website) changed shortly after I left. In my mind, CDC should be just folks on data and science and not have any political priorities or agenda items on there. Because you want people to understand how to protect yourself and you want everybody to feel comfortable looking at the website and see themselves in the guidance.

Many of the things that were put on the website don’t even have to do with CDC. It makes people automatically start to step back and not trust CDC. There’s still amazing stuff at CDC, but I almost call it a hostile take over because the front office has allowed some of these changes.

Read more of the interview here.

That does it for this week’s Weekly Wrap. Be sure to subscribe to Lincoln Square to get notified or updated on each interview and show as they happen throughout the week! Thanks again for all your support!