The government is on the verge of another shutdown, which is lots of fun for people who like political drama but less so for people who work in government, benefit from government services and think that Congress should be able to do its job. Then we travel to south america: Nicholas Casey from the NYT is here to tell us what the hunt for Venez ...…

Republicans are helping President Donald Trump undermine an investigation into his campaign's collusion with the Russian government, revealing that Trump is now in full control of the GOP. Trump delivered his first State of the Union address, but I had a hard time hearing it because my dog kept barking at the TV for some reason. And you might h ...…

The government's open, but where do we go from here? Democrats want legal status for 700,000 Dreamers, and they'll ultimately need President Donald Trump to make it happen. We talked to Michael Steel, a former aide to House Speaker John Boehner. American infrastructure is a mess, and in Orlando, it's hurting poor people of color. HuffPost's Jul ...…

In this special dispatch, So That Happened takes a look at the Schumer Shutdown. Or was it the Trump shutdown? Did Dems cave? Or was this the best they could have hoped for?

The government might shut down this week and this is the ONLY podcast that can tell you HOW, WHY and also WHO to blame. We interviewed Congressman Ted Yoho, a conservative House Republican who definitely blames the Democrats. Republicans in Congress say text messages between two FBI agents have totally compromised the special investigation into ...…

The government might shut down next week partly because Donald Trump refuses to help Dreamers without getting his wall or other policy changes -- Elise Foley reports from the Capitol. The Trump administration wants work requirements for medicaid, so we talked to health policy reporter Jonathan Cohn about dog whistles. The federal government sto ...…

This week, America gained new insight into the fraught relationship between Donald Trump and his erstwhile white house strategist, Steve Bannon. It's like a Shakespearean drama, but just the parts where people insult and stab each other. SV Date joins to discuss. Then, Huffpost's Luke O'brien breaks down his reporting on Andrew Anglin, one of t ...…

Tax reform is a big deal, but Donald Trump's reshaping of the judicial branch of government might be his biggest achievement of 2017. Republicans say the estate tax hurts farms and small businesses and that Congresswoman Kristi Noem's story shows it -- but it doesn't, and I'll explain why. And if you like Bitcoin, well you're not gonna like our ...…

Republicans Pass Sweeping Tax Plan, Still Working On Basic Governance This week, Republicans succeeded in passing their tax bill. So what did Arthur have for lunch? Republicans won on taxes, but are looking shaky on children's health insurance, keeping the government open, and saving Dreamers from deportation. We talked to Adrian Reyna, a Dream ...…

There are whispers that Paul Ryan might resign -- we asked Matt Fuller why and when this could happen and who could be the next speaker. Accused child molester Roy Moore lost the Alabama Senate race this week. Jen Bendery tells us what she learned when she went there to talk to voters. And the government could be about to crack down on a popula ...…

Al Franken is resigning, which we boldly predicted would happen! But what does it mean for partisan politics? The Supreme Court took up the Masterpiece Cake Shop case. Sam Baker from Axios tells us about the oral arguments. And Donald Trump declared that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel -- why the hell did he do that?…

This week, the U.S. Senate stumbled forward on tax reform with a government shutdown looming around the corner. North Korea launched a missile that could theoretically reach Washington. We talked to Mike Fuchs, a foreign policy expert with the Center for American Progress, about whether we're all going to die. And men continued to be bad. Why a ...…

This week, Donald Trump pardoned some turkeys and endorsed Roy Moore. Then: long ago, legendary British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that in the future, we would only work 15 hours a week. What happened to that? Former co-host and Keynes expert Zach Carter joins to discuss. Finally, what DOES one have to do to get hounded out of Wash ...…

Republicans are really moving their tax reform legislation -- does it have a chance of becoming law? We'll hear from Huffpost reporters Elise Foley, Arthur Delaney and SV Date. This week, men continued to be disgusting, especially a Republican Senate candidate in Alabama. Marina Fang and Jen Bendery help answer whether this is the beginning of ...…

Democrats crushed Republicans in off-year elections on Tuesday, delivering a resounding rebuke to President Donald Trump. Daniel Marans and Elise Foley join the show to talk about whether this is the beginning of the end of Trumpism. The crown prince of Saudi Arabia rounded up his political opponents -- Akbar Ahmed and Jessica Schulberg explain ...…

Republicans say their tax reform plan will massively benefit the middle class, but the most direct beneficiaries of their plan are corporations and wealthy individuals. The plan includes an expanded child tax credit, but the biggest changes to the credit actually benefit people with six figure incomes. Low-income tax payers get nothing. Also on ...…

Two Senate Republicans denounced their party's leader this week, accusing President Donald Trump of "debasing" the United States and betraying its values. That doesn't mean the Republican agenda isn't going strong. The same day Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) denounced Trump on the Senate floor, he joined his Republican colleagues in overturning a ne ...…

During the campaign Donald Trump ridiculed Sen. John McCain for having been a prisoner of war in Vietnam and said he knew more than the generals about fighting terrorists. This week, he told a soldier's widow that her late husband, who'd been killed by ISIS militants, "knew what he was getting into." Trump hasn't shown a lot of respect for the ...…

President Donald Trump has been unhappy lately, according to his own tweets and reports that he "hates everyone in the White House" and is often "consumed by dark moods." HuffPost reporters S.V. Date and Jessica Schulberg join the show to talk about how Trump's whims could affect foreign policy -- especially the Iran deal he might undo. Faceboo ...…

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called a press conference this week to insist that he believes President Donald Trump is "smart," because it had come out that Tillerson once called Trump a "moron."Tillerson's presser appeared to be the latest in a series of attempts by senior White House officials to assuage the feelings of the president, a ma ...…

Earlier this year Donté Stallworth and three other former and current NFL football players spent three days lobbying Congress in favor of criminal justice reform. In other words, they did politics outside of football -- demonstrating that even as players continue to kneel during pregame anthems, there's a deeper commitment to policy than many p ...…

Republicans in the U.S. Senate have been unable to garner enough support within their own conference for their latest bill to repeal Obamacare. One way they could do it, though, is by adding special provisions to woo holdout senators -- like an amendment that would exempt the state of Alaska from the underlying bill's harsh provisions. The Inte ...…

President Donald Trump dined with Democrats repeatedly this week and on Wednesday night struck some sort of agreement with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Nancy Pelosi to avoid the deportation of Dreamers -- immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. But how much can Trump really accomplish by cutting out Republicans, who control both chambers ...…

This week President Trump struck a surprising deal with congressional Democrats to fund the government for only three months. The move was a slap in the face to Republicans but Trump reportedly raved about the news coverage. HuffPost White House Correspondent S.V. Date joins us to explain if there will be more of Trump collaborating with Democr ...…

In the wake of one of the worst storms in US history, Huffpost national reporter Roque Planas talks to Zach Young about what it was like to report from Houston during Hurricane Harvey and witness the destruction firsthand.Then, former Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis talks about how Texans are responding to the storm -- and how the sta ...…

President Donald Trump read what he pretended was an excerpt of his own speech this week in order to claim he'd been wrongly criticized, except he omitted the part that caused all the criticism. You know, the part in which he excused white supremacists for domestic terrorism in Charlottesville. Journalist and former NFL veteran Donte Stallworth ...…

President Trump this week spoke of "very fine people" among the Nazis and Ku Klux Klanners who staged a violent protest that resulted in the deaths of three people on Saturday. Trump's comments drew cascades of condemnation, but we already knew he had white supremacist tendencies. Jamelle Bouie, the chief political correspondent for Slate.com, ...…

This week, we turn the show over to the New York office and HuffPost reporters Jeff Young and Sam Levine. First, they’re joined by our editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen to talk about the HuffPost “Listen to America” bus tour. Starting in September a whole bunch of HuffPost reporters are going to be touring the country on a bus, starting in St. Lou ...…

This week, we take a little break from things that happened this week to head to Pasadena, California, for Politicon! Over the weekend, So That Happened producer Zach Young attended the "unconventional political convention" and talked with Symone Sanders, National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders campaign, and Austin Petersen, runner-up t ...…

Donald Trump rose to power thanks in large part to his fame from having done a TV game show in which he ceremoniously "fired" contestants. Candidate Trump vowed to shake up Washington with this hard-hearted business persona, and yet faced with an attorney general he seems to want to fire, Trump can't do it. Bok bok! Republicans in the U.S. Sena ...…

This week on So That Happened: Zach Carter takes a break from book leave to return and host the show! He’s joined by ProPublica reporter Jesse Eisinger and Huffpost’s Alexander Kaufman to talk about why bankers never seem to go to jail. Then, Michelle Kuo stops by to talk about her book Reading With Patrick, a memoir about a teacher’s relations ...…

For months, President Trump and his supporters said it was all just a political witch hunt, that his campaign had not colluded with the Russian government's interference in last year's presidential election. This week Donald Trump, Jr. revealed that he had, in fact, sought incriminating information on Hillary Clinton from a Russian government s ...…

Did CNN screw up this week by seemingly threatening to reveal the identity of a Reddit user who made a silly gif that President Trump tweeted? The Washington Examiner's Tim Carney says the episode represents the kind of media excess that gives rise to Anti-Anti-Trumpism, a sort-of movement animated by the belief that Trump's critics somehow lie ...…

Republicans in the U.S. Senate completely boofed their health care bill, so this week on "So That Happened" we discuss the politics of their failure as well as how the underlying policy could change when the zombie Senate bill rises from the dead next month. President Trump continues to seem completely unaware of what's in the legislation, and ...…

Senate Republicans finally released their secret Obamacare repeal bill, so this week on "So That Happened" we explore the real possibility that this thing could actually pass and become law. We also take a look at Democrats' total fecklessness in special elections and the several high-profile acquittals of police officers who killed civilians f ...…

So, that happened. This week, we discuss the assassination attempt on members of Congress, which has left House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) grievously injured. Fallout from the shooting included efforts to blame political opponents, as well as a familiar debate over whether it's appropriate to question permissive gun laws for gun v ...…

So, that happened. This week, the White House celebrated Infrastructure Week. Or at least, they wanted to, but couldn't because this week was James Comey-A-Go-Go in the Senate Intelligence Committee. Yes, the former FBI director debuted his testimony in front of an eager gaggle of Senators and he seemed pretty bent on making sure everyone knew ...…

So, that happened. This week, we're going in search of a Trump Doctrine. President Donald Trump has returned from his first lengthy trip abroad. You've heard the speeches, you saw the photos, you know about the orb. Now it's time to consider the ways Trump's dealings with our European allies and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia point to a coming shi ...…

So, that happened. This week, while President Donald Trump was away on foreign business, the wider world got a look at the latest White House budget proposals and the experience was like staring into a moral void. Broadly targeted for elimination: just about anything that offers assistance to the poor and vulnerable. Cashing in big time: rich i ...…

So, that happened. This week, President Donald Trump had another one of those weeks where Donald Trump is president. By which I mean, total omnidirectional omnishambles. Building off the controversy of last week's controversial firing of James Comey, Trump revealed highly classified intelligence from a source in Syria to two high-ranking Russia ...…

So, that happened. This week, Donald Trump fired James Comey. And that's been the implacable news event of the week, so much so that we are just going to surrender to it entirely. This single decision is the apotheosis of Trump. It has everything: a stumbled over decision that landed with a kersplat on the news-cycle, constantly shifting ration ...…

So, that happened. This week, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a bucket of garbage, placing the lives of some 24 million people at risk. Quite a spectacle really. We'll have fifteen minutes of flabbergasted gasping for you to enjoy.Meanwhile, for some reason we'll also talk about other thi ...…

So, that happened. This week, we've reached the end of Trump's first 100 days. How will it be remembered? In many ways, it's been like watching someone's body reject an organ transplant. Somehow, Trump has managed to hit the century mark at the threshold of a government shutdown fight with his own party. Nevertheless, some things never change, ...…

So, that happened. This week, President Donald Trump issued another one of his patented executive orders, this time endeavoring to bring jobs back to America through a "Buy American, Hire American" policy. Trump immediately went back out on the campaign trail to signal that great changes were now afoot in the land, but are they really? We've du ...…

So, THAT happened! Remember all that stuff about draining the swamp and taking down the Washington establishment? Well, President Trump talked to some guys from Goldman Sachs and has decided to be Jeb Bush instead. HuffPost reporter S.V. Date joins us to discuss the latest contours and convulsions of the Trump presidency.But some things never c ...…

So, that happened. This week, we are joined by the host of MSNBC's "All In With Chris Hayes," who in case you haven't figured it out is named Chris Hayes. We'll be talking about his new book "A Colony In A Nation," which documents how white fear has led to America's frustratingly unjust two-tiered justice system -- where some get to live peacef ...…

So, that happened. This week, Washington lawmakers began crawling out from under the wreckage of the failed American Health Care Act, better known as the bill that finally emerged from the GOP's seven-year effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. The bill largely foundered because of deep divides within the House Republican caucus, with House Sp ...…

So, that happened. This week, Neil Gorsuch made his confirmation hearing debut as Donald Trump's prospective Supreme Court nominee. And he came to DC with a long and concerning history of putting his finger on the scales of justice in favor of entrenched monopolies of money and power. What's really at stake here, is your money, and we're joined ...…

So, that happened. This week, President Donald Trump moved forward on a number of policy fronts. He also moved backward on a number of policy fronts. Very typical week, to be honest. But we now have the first Trump budget, and as you might expect, it really does a number on several high profile domestic policy projects. We'll lay out where nego ...…

So, that happened. This week, House Speaker Paul Ryan finally released the Republican alternative to Obamacare plan from the sanctum sanctorum in which he'd been keeping hidden, and as soon as it was seen by the light of day it became something everybody from across the political spectrum instantly hated. Still, Ryan say it's the plan he's been ...…