Political Theater

In Political Theater, Jason Dick and the Roll Call team spotlight the spectacle, the players and what’s going on behind the curtain in Washington’s long-running drama: Congress.

  • 26 minutes 28 seconds
    A very judgy lame duck

    If you're paying attention to the Senate, you know they're voting on a lot of judges, as happens during lame duck congresses. There are also a lot of partisan broadsides being fired about it all. How did we get to this point and why?

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    21 November 2024, 11:00 am
  • 39 minutes 47 seconds
    Who are these guys? The Congress-to-Cabinet revue

    President-elect Donald Trump has picked several current and former members of Congress for his Cabinet and senior staff. Here’s a quick and dirty on the roster, which includes former Democrats, former critics and one avowed dog killer. 

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    14 November 2024, 8:22 pm
  • 13 minutes 48 seconds
    5 big questions about this election with Nathan Gonzales

    So, we have questions in the aftermath of this election. Who is the leader of the Democratic Party? What lessons do Republicans take from their victories? Do we have to keep calling it a "Blue Wall." And more!

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    7 November 2024, 6:56 pm
  • 33 minutes 11 seconds
    The last Most Vulnerable Incumbents lists of the 2024 cycle

    Roll Call looked under every nook, cranny and poll to round off the Most Vulnerable Incumbents lists for the 2024 cycle. Find out how and why who got where!

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    31 October 2024, 2:38 pm
  • 22 minutes 32 seconds
    But is it art? Unpacking ‘The Apprentice’

    For many film buffs, October is Scary Movie Month, when we go to the vault to watch "Last House on the Left" or head to the theater to catch "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." It is also election season. So does "The Apprentice" fit in here? It’s a biopic about the relationship between Roy Cohn and a young Donald Trump and how Cohn helped shape the future president’s no-holds-barred approach to business, politics and life.

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    23 October 2024, 6:51 pm
  • 27 minutes 14 seconds
    What it means for an electoral race to be unstable

    The 2024 campaign is in the home stretch, and there are several races that are defined by a high degree of instability. How do we mean? It starts with the campaigns themselves not even agreeing on the basic contours of the race. From there things can get weird. Nathan Gonzales walks us through a few races that fit the bill — and that are incredibly significant in determining which party will be in the majority in the Senate and House.

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    18 October 2024, 9:00 am
  • 33 minutes 57 seconds
    ‘War Game’: Rehearsing the uncomfortably plausible

    What happens when a veterans organization conducting an unscripted role-playing simulation with real political figures about an attempted coup on Jan. 6, 2025 joins forces with filmmakers who have “Dr. Strangelove” and Nathan Fielder on the brain? The experimental but highly relevant documentary “War Game.” Co-director Jesse Moss and Vet Voice’s Janessa Goldbeck talk about their project.

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    9 October 2024, 10:00 am
  • 25 minutes 32 seconds
    "Sleepy" but consequential term awaits Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court starts its new term this coming Monday, October 7th, and while the docket does not include such high-profile cases as the last two years, when the justices overturned Roe v. Wade and granted presidents wide immunity over official acts, the high court will still consider matters of constitutional rights that could reverberate for years — and also might be called upon to referee any lingering fights over the current election season.

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    2 October 2024, 9:18 pm
  • 22 minutes 18 seconds
    Tales of the three-headed incumbent: Biden/Harris/Trump

    The 2024 presidential race feels a bit "incumbenty." A former president, Donald Trump is running against first the current president, Joe Biden, and now the current vice president, Kamala Harris. There aren't a lot of parallels.

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    25 September 2024, 9:57 pm
  • 30 minutes 44 seconds
    One last journey down Roll Call's Jersey Turnpike

    All good things come to end, even the tenure of Roll Call Politics Editor Herb Jackson, who wraps up his time here talking congressional granularity, leadership PAC names, FEC data and various whangdoodles and fartleks.

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    19 September 2024, 10:00 am
  • 40 minutes 23 seconds
    The surprises, lessons and exhaustion of the congressional primaries

    Back in March, Alabama, Arkansas, California, North Carolina and Texas held their congressional primaries, kicking off a mini-epoch of intra-party contests (mostly, with some exceptions), that has just now concluded with Tuesday’s primaries in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware (sort of; thanks Louisiana). So what’s it all about? What can we learn from this past six months?

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    12 September 2024, 10:20 am
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