Podcast / The Time of Monsters / Feb 4, 2024

The Abortion Battle Needs a Fighting President

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Moira Donegan on Joe Biden’s need to embrace pro-choice politics.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

US-Ukraine Tension, RSF in Sudan, and Trump's Proposed Defense Budget Cuts | American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Danny and Derek are back with the news, but without much of a choice. This week's American Prestige News Roundup: the US and Russia meet in Riyadh to discuss future bilateral discussions to end the war in Ukraine (0:38); Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump feud in public comments (3:38); The Daily Telegraph reports on a US mineral rights deal that Zelenskyy rejected (8:22); in Israel-Palestine news, Saturday’s hostage exchange was successful (12:49) and Hamas offers an expedited hostage release schedule (15:08); Israel decides to ignore the withdrawal deadline in Lebanon (19:26); the US State Department decides to change the wording on a fact sheet about Taiwan and China responds negatively (21:58); in South Korea, former president Yoon goes on trial (24:43); the RSF militia in Sudan attempts to form a government and controversy ensues (26:35); in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, M23 (supported by Rwanda) takes Bukavu while continuing to advance north and south (31:10); Argentinian president Milei is accused of a rug pull after the cryptocurrency he endorsed collapses (33:34); and in the United States, Trump and Musk fire National Nuclear Security Administration workers without understanding what their jobs meant (35:34), and Trump proposes cutting the defense budget (39:09).

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Protesters hold a huge banner reading "We Are Taking Abortion Pills Forever" in front of the Supreme Court.

Demonstrators protest in front of the Supreme Court as the justices hear arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

Abortion will be one of the top issues in the 2024 presidential race and will also be crucial for control of the Senate and House of Representatives. The good news for Democrats is that the public is four-square pro-choice. The battle over abortion has energized Democratic voters and helped the party consistently outperform for the last two years. The bad news for Democrats is that Joe Biden is, at best, a reluctant warrior on the issue.

Writing in The Guardian, Moira Donegan looked at Biden’s history on reproductive freedom and his continued preference for a nonconfrontational approach to the issue.

I spoke to Moira about this and we had a wide-ranging conversation on how the politics of abortion have changed and about the dangers of having a party leader who doesn’t voice the passion of the base. A columnist for the Guardian, Moira is a frequent guest of the podcast. As always, she brings a fierce clarity to the topic on hand.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Project 2025 For Real w/Chris Lehmann | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

Running for president last year, Donald Trump disowned Project 2025, the laundry list of radical demands gathered together by right-wing think tanks. Trump claimed Project 2025 had no influence on him and was only being raised by Democrats as a political attack. But now Trump is in power, he’s enacting an agenda of dismantling the welfare state that is following Project 2025 in close detail, as my Nation colleague Chris Lehmann documented in a recent column.

Chris and Jeet Heer talk about Trump’s mobilization of Christian nationalist ideologues in the service of a making the state subservient to big business. We also take up the remarkable supine Democratic Party response, and also possible sources of resistance in the courts, the federal government and, most crucially, from outraged public opinion mobilized into protest.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Subscribe to The Nation to Support all of our podcasts

Jeet Heer

Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.

More from The Nation

x