A collection of several of our best Political Junkie episodes, covering noteworthy political moments and featuring some of Ken’s favorite interviews.
The election is over and, in case you missed it, Donald Trump won. Lisa Desjardins of the PBS NewsHour and Greg Giroux of Bloomberg explain what happened, how it happened, and what’s next. A more detailed conversation with Neal Conan follows which, before the edits, was mostly he and Ken saying “wow” to each other …
With the vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Tim Kaine now history and the second presidential debate just days away, NPR’s Ron Elving makes a special visit to the Political Junkie to assess the campaign, the media coverage and how much he misses working with Ken. Then we hear from two surrogates for the …
Presidential debates don’t necessarily decide who will occupy the White House. But history has shown that regardless of what effect they do have, they are often memorable — for better or worse. Our “Great Moments in Presidential Debates” special starts with Alan Schroeder, an expert on the subject, assessing Ronald Reagan‘s great lines in his 1980 …
Republicans, who fear that controversial comments made by Donald Trump will benefit his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, are now concerned that a Trump defeat could cost the GOP its majority in the Senate.  Greg Giroux of Bloomberg sizes up the vulnerable Senate seats for 2016. And if the Clinton-Kaine ticket is elected this year, then a new senator will …
Were this a normal political year, the presidential candidates would be out trying to unite their party and hope to woo voters from their opponent. But Donald Trump continues to keep up his feuds, not only with the Muslim family of a slain U.S. soldier but many of his fellow Republicans as well.  Neal Conan is with us this …
The Democrats made history in Philadelphia, nominating Hillary Clinton for president … the first woman to head up a major-party ticket. It was a week of tears and joy, but also of conflict and recrimination. And we were there to record the moment. The week started disastrously for the party. With the hacking of Democratic National Committee …
Presidential nominating conventions may be scripted and not newsworthy, but there have been enough dramatic happenings that call for a “Great Moments in Convention History” special program. We hear from Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, who attended the 1952 convention in Chicago as Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) lashed out at former presidential nominee Thomas Dewey for …
Mathematically, it should all be over on Tuesday. But realistically, the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, is expected to go on, possibly all the way to the convention in Philadelphia.  Neal Conan makes his monthly visit to the Political Junkie with analysis and observations. He may be the presumptive nominee, but Republicans are …
The State of the Union is strong, Barack Obama said on Tuesday evening, delivering his final State of the Union address as president. Unlike the usual laundry list of items a president wants Congress to work on, Obama instead focused on an economy he insisted was in good shape and a foreign policy he said …