Diane Rehm: On My Mind

The term “fascist” has been lobbed at Donald Trump since he entered the race for president in 2015 with talk of Mexican rapists and drug dealers. Now the label has become central to the argument against Trump in the closing days of this year’s election. It’s been used to describe him by his former chief of staff John Kelly, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley and Vice President Kamala Harris. Jason Stanley is a philosophy professor at Yale University. He’s the author of the 2018 book How Fascism Works. His latest is Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future. He joins Diane to talk about what fascism is and why voters should care.

Four years ago, Donald Trump spread the lie that Democrats stole the election. He filed lawsuits, led protests and spearheaded misinformation campaigns in an attempt to overturn the result. Since then, Trump and his allies have been laying the groundwork to question this year’s contest if the numbers don’t go his way. In other words, a Stop the Steal 2.0. “I’m nervous,” says Rick Hasen, a leading expert on election law and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA. “But I’m not as nervous as I was in 2020.” Hasen says the chaos created by Trump’s Big Lie taught the country’s lawmakers and election officials valuable lessons about how to secure the vote. He joins Diane to explain why he feels this year’s election will, indeed, be free and fair.

Does Kamala Harris have a Black voter problem? For nearly four decades Black voters have been among the most consistent voting bloc for Democrats. Yet recent polling suggests that support may not be quite as reliable as it was in the past, particularly among Black men. This week Harris made a push to stop the bleeding, talking to Black radio hosts and announcing policy proposals directly targeting the Black community. “The path to victory for the Harris campaign has always been boosting turnout among base voters,” says Maya King, politics reporter with the New York Times. And because the race for president is so close, she adds, “if she’s underperforming with any corner of that bloc it is sort of an emergency situation.” Maya King joins Diane to talk about Harris’s current focus on Black voters and whether it will work.

It’s been thirty years since Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act. This set of laws revolutionized the way we think about – and deal with – abuse between intimate partners. While advocates celebrate progress made, they worry we might be starting to head in the wrong direction. A recent study showed reduced access to reproductive care can increase risk for women in abusive relationships. Meanwhile, conservatives like vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance have spoken out against no-fault divorce, a proven tool for women to leave potentially dangerous marriages. Rachel Louise Snyder is a journalist who has covered the issue of domestic violence for years. Her 2019 book “No Visible Bruises” looked at the question of when abuse becomes not just dangerous, but deadly. Snyder joins Diane to take stock of progress made over the last three decades to address intimate partner violence, and the work left to do.

Dr. Francis Collins has dedicated his life to easing human suffering – and has often succeeded. He made his mark as the man who led the team that mapped the human genome, unlocking a new world of possibilities in medicine. He went on to head the National Institutes of Health under three different presidents. Collins says he was always guided by an optimism based in his belief in science and his evangelical Christian faith. But that optimistic view of society was shaken during the Covid-19 crisis as he saw people reject a lifesaving vaccine based on profound mistrust. Since then, Collins has embarked on a journey to understand how our divisions became so deep – and how we can bridge them. His new book is titled The Road To Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, And Trust.

The Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1872 might not take up prime real estate in most U.S. history books, but it holds the title as the deadliest the country has ever seen. In the late 1860s, a new South was emerging from the wreckage of the Civil War. The passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments promised an era of multiracial equality in the region. As the 1870s began, white Southern resistance was on the rise and the nation’s political parties became deeply divided. Then came the election of 1872. Though tensions flared throughout the South, in Louisiana chaos ensued – two governors claimed office, warfare broke out in the streets of New Orleans, and hundreds were killed in political violence. Dana Bash, CNN anchor and chief political commentator, says these events changed the course of politics in our country -- and provide a cautionary tale for today. She and her co-writer David Fisher tell the story in a new book titled “America’s Deadliest Election.”

In poll after poll voters say economic issues top their concerns when it comes to this year’s vote. They worry about inflation, the price of housing, whether their family can afford the bill at the grocery store. “Americans are going to want to know how each candidate will help them in their personal situations,” says Damian Paletta. He leads The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of Washington and says that the economy is strong, but on shaky ground, which has complicated Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's messaging around the economy and issues like inflation and taxes. Paletta joins Diane to look at the economic proposals of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and break down what they would mean for our country – and your pocketbook.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris met on stage for their first, and likely only, debate of the campaign Tuesday night, just a week before early voting kicks off in Pennsylvania, one of the most critical battleground states of the election. Over an hour and a half Harris needled Trump on everything from crowd sizes to getting “fired” by the American people. With each jab the former president seemed to become more enraged, his anger distracting him from his own talking points and allowing Harris to set the agenda. Headlines across the country declared a clear victory for Harris and Trump now says that he will not debate her again. But how much will all this matter at the polls? The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser joins Diane to help answer that question.

Donald Trump began his political career with demands to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate, based on the false claim that the he had been born outside of the United States. In other words, a lie. The former president concluded his term in office with an even bigger lie, namely that the 2020 election was rigged. In between, Trump fibbed thousands of times about things big and small. And keeping track of these mistruths and exaggerations were political fact-checkers, journalists whose job it is to call out not only Donald Trump’s lies – but the lies all politicians tell. Glenn Kessler has been the chief writer and editor of the Fact Checker column for The Washington Post since 2011. In it he examines the “truth behind the rhetoric.” Kessler joined Diane to talk about how his job has changed since Donald Trump entered politics and the challenges of covering the 2024 presidential election.

If you’re a reader of the New York Times – or a lover of books – you might know about the paper’s project this summer counting down the top hundred books of the century so far. Number one on the list? “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante. It is the first of four novels that tell the story of the friendship between Lila and Elena, two working class girls growing up in post-World War II Naples. In 2018 HBO adapted the series for television. Diane hosted a discussion of “My Brilliant Friend” as part of her Readers Review series back in 2015 on The Diane Rehm Show. She and her guests dug into the characters, the setting, and the mystery surrounding the author’s identity. Diane's guests included Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, and The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University; Louis Bayard Author, "Roosevelt's Beast." His other books include "The Pale Blue Eye," "The School of Night" and "Mr. Timothy," a New York Times Notable Book. He teaches fiction writing at The George Washington University; and Professor of contemporary Italian culture, Georgetown University; author of "The Tigress in the Snow: Motherhood and Literature in Twentieth-Century Italy" and of the novel "Un Paese Di Carta."

Kamala Harris currently leads Donald Trump in national polls by more than 3 percentage points according to the website 538. But if there’s one thing that recent elections have taught us, it is that a victory in the popular vote does not guarantee a spot in the oval office. This is, of course, thanks to the Electoral College. In two of the last six elections, more Americans punched their ballots for the eventual losers than the men who went on to claim the presidency. And the same could happen again this year. “My opinion is that it is a fundamentally unfair system because of the way it erases so many millions of Americans’ votes,” says Jesse Wegman, a member of the editorial board of the New York Times. In 2020 Wegman joined Diane to talk about his book, “Let the People Pick the President,” and made his case for abolishing the Electoral College. With the 2024 election less than 75 days away, we revisit their conversation.

If you count yourself among the majority of Americans who own at least one pet, you might have noticed that your vet bill is quite a bit bigger than it once was. In fact, over the last decade the cost of pet care has risen by more than 60%. Helaine Olen is a journalist who has written about personal finance and the financial industry for years. In 2020, her aging dog fell ill, and she found herself shelling out big bucks to keep her beloved pup alive. She knew she wasn’t the only one who was willing to open her wallet in a big way for her furry friend and started looking into the big business of veterinary care. What she found was an industry going through a major shift, with a flood of private equity investment and corporate consolidation. Olen joins Diane to discuss what she says can be called the era of Big Vet.

Dr. Anthony Fauci became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic. To many, he was a hero for his efforts to relay potentially lifesaving information. But he also found himself at the center of conspiracy theories -- and became the target of a vitriolic political backlash. He says of the experience that it was “very painful and tragic to see people make decisions that led to their detriment.” Dr. Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022. He has advised seven presidents, guiding the nation’s response to threats like Zika, Ebola, AIDS, and Anthrax. His work on a 2003 plan to address the global HIV/AIDS crisis helped save more than twenty-five million lives. Dr. Fauci’s new memoir is titled “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service”. He joins Diane to talk about his career in public health and share his thoughts on the threats ahead.

President Biden laid out a series of proposals to change some fundamental aspects of our nation’s highest court this week. This included term limits, a code of ethics and a constitutional amendment that would say nobody is above the law. Though the Supreme Court’s approval ratings are stuck at historic lows, Republicans said the reforms are “dead on arrival.” Democrats, on the other hand, see this as a winning issue among the American public for this election cycle, and beyond. “I think Biden and the people advising him are playing the long game,” says Harry Litman. Litman is the senior legal affairs columnist at the Los Angeles Times, a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general, and host of the podcast “Talking Feds.” He joined Diane to break down Biden’s proposed reforms, what impact they would have, and why the president is proposing them now. You can find "Talking Feds" wherever you listen to podcasts or on YouTube.

For years experts have warned of a wave of politically motivated violence in America. And, some might argue, that threat of violence has become a reality. There were the events of January 6th when one woman was killed, police officers were beaten, and the Vice President Pence’s life threatened. There was the foiled kidnapping plot against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer that ended in multiple convictions. And there was the recent assassination attempt of Donald Trump, when bullets narrowly missed ending the former president’s life. “You certainly see by every possible measure that it’s worsening,” says Adrienne LaFrance, executive editor of The Atlantic. LaFrance has written extensively about political violence in the U.S. She joins Diane to talk about her new essay titled “American Fury,” in which she asks if the situation will get worse before it gets better.

The Republican National Convention convention wrapped up last night with a speech from Donald Trump that lasted more than 90 minutes. It capped a week that was heavy on rhetoric, short on specifics. Enter Project 2025. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a document created by the conservative Heritage Foundation that lays out a vision for the next Republican president. “Project 2025 has gotten a lot of attention,” says Andrew Prokop, a senior political correspondent at Vox. He notes that Democrats in particular point to it as “a stand in for a lot of Trump’s extreme plans for dictatorship.” Though Trump has distanced himself from the document, experts say much – or even most of its proposals will likely be on the agenda for a possible second Trump term. Andrew Prokop joined Diane to talk about the myths and the facts about Project 2025.

Sheila Johnson is known as the nation’s first black female billionaire. She first rose to prominence as the co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, or BET. Since then, she has become a widely recognized business leader, a hotel mogul, and the co-owner of three professional sports teams. But, Johnson says, her triumphs masked deep trauma and pain that she carried for decades. That included fear and self-doubt, an emotionally abusive 33-year marriage, and a severe depression following her divorce. Johnson joined Diane in April at WAMU’s Black Box Theater for a special in-person Diane Rehm Book Club Conversation. They talked about her memoir, “Walk Through Fire.”

Judge David Tatel sat on the bench of the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for nearly three decades. Appointed by Bill Clinton, he became a prominent, liberal-leaning voice in the judiciary, widely considered a top candidate for the Supreme Court had Al Gore won the 2000 election. Tatel was known as a brilliant legal mind, whose opinions helped shape laws affecting voting rights, the environment, internet regulations and press freedoms. But he was also known for another reason: he was blind. David Tatel retired from the bench in January. He joins Diane to discuss his new book, "Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice." In it, he opens up about his experience as a blind judge – and his grave concerns about the Supreme Court.

Last night President Biden and former president Donald Trump took to the debate stage. Hosted by CNN, the conversation focused more on personal attacks than policy. Throughout the night, Trump rattled off strings of lies that largely went unchecked. Biden, meanwhile, sounded meandering and unsteady, raising questions about his fitness as a candidate. Jamelle Bouie is a columnist for The New York Times who writes about politics, with an eye towards history. He joined Diane on Friday morning to help make sense of what happened last night and what it will mean for the 2024 election.

Once upon a time television news was dominated by men like Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. Some might call it an old boys club. Today, the sight of a woman in the anchor’s chair is commonplace. For this, we can thank Barbara Walters. In 1976 she became the first female host of a network nightly news program – and it did not go well. She was shunned, ridiculed, glared at by her co-anchor and eventually replaced. Instead of giving up, Walters transformed herself, becoming a legendary long-form interviewer. She talked to presidents, celebrities and, famously Monica Lewinsky. Walters went on to host ABC’s “20/20" for 25 years and “The View” for 17 more. She died two years ago at the age of 93. Journalist Susan Page has long been fascinated by Walters, her drive to succeed, and how she changed our understanding of news. Page wrote about her in the new book, “The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters.”