Episodes
New episodes every Thursday at 5 AM ET — five issues, in roughly thirty minutes.
Episode List
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Episode 007
Liars, Losers, and Lousy Presidents
Episode seven. House Judiciary Democrats release a 53-page report on Trump and Epstein and call for an independent special counsel; Sloane says the remedy they want doesn’t exist, since under the Justice Department’s own rules the attorney general appoints, scopes and fires the counsel, and Congress has subpoenas, hearings and impeachment of its own; Eli says nobody indicted Nixon either, and hearings ended his presidency anyway; Grant says a system that runs on one man’s spine is a prayer and Todd Blanche should recuse; and Nora says nobody sits above the attorney general to enforce it. Israel’s election ends in deadlock after Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu, with the Arab parties at a historic seventeen seats; Eli says the voters Washington never courts are now the arithmetic, Nora says a bench doesn’t score unless the coach sends it in, Sloane says Rabin is the cautionary tale and outside votes can carry a bill but not a mandate, and Grant says the old smear only works if Eisenkot agrees to wear the costume. Vivek Ramaswamy spends $4 million on an ad in which Amy Acton’s estranged mother calls her a liar; Grant says it digs up a twelve-year-old’s worst year and buys television time for it, Sloane calls it an ambush without cross-examination and says, on the record, that it is indecent, Nora says voters cross-examine for free, and Eli says a verdict on the ad’s effectiveness is not a verdict on its decency. In the lightning rounds: Obama’s Cheesecake Factory jab at the renovated White House and the AI-generated menu the White House posted in reply, where Sloane says the only winner is the restaurant and Eli says three casts of the same line is a strategy, not a fumble; and Trump’s 1,323-word Truth Social post on Bill Maher, where Nora calls it a director’s cut, Sloane calls it a refund, Eli finds a landlord’s notice about the briefing room buried in it, and Grant says a thought on a Sunday is not a work order. Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-six minutes.
On the table
- Democrats’ Epstein report. On October 26 House Judiciary Committee Democrats release a 53-page staff report titled “We Have Certain Things in Common, Jeffrey”; it discusses accounts involving 11 women, says five directly accused Trump of rape or sexual assault in Epstein’s company or direct physical presence, and calls for an independent special counsel to investigate alleged Trump-Epstein ties and possible Justice Department obstruction, arguing Attorney General Todd Blanche is conflicted because he previously served as Trump’s personal attorney; the White House rejects the allegations as untrue and calls the report largely recycled; the table argues Part 600 of Title 28, Morrison v. Olson, the Saturday Night Massacre and United States v. Nixon.
- Israel’s election deadlock. On October 18 President Trump endorses Benjamin Netanyahu, nine days before Israel’s October 27 election; with nearly 86 percent of votes counted on the morning of October 28, Netanyahu’s bloc is projected at 53 Knesset seats and Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition bloc at 48, both short of the 61 needed for a majority, with the Arab parties at a historic 17; Trump credits his endorsement and says a tie is “sort of considered a win”; the table argues Ra’am’s turn in the 2021 coalition, Rabin’s Oslo votes and the Nation-State Law.
- Ohio’s family-feud ad. On October 20 Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign confirms it produced the ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, and will spend $4 million to promote it on television and streaming; in the 60-second ad Arthur calls Acton a liar and urges voters not to elect her; court records show Acton’s stepfather was charged with raping her in 1978, when she was 12, and Acton has said she has not seen her mother since; on October 22 President Trump calls the ad “very powerful” and urges Ramaswamy to keep running it; Nikki Haley calls Ramaswamy “a bad guy”; a Republican group’s internal poll of 800 likely Ohio voters, October 23 to 26, has Acton leading 50 to 42.
- Lightning round: the Cheesecake Factory wars. On October 24, at a campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan, former President Barack Obama compares President Trump’s White House renovations to Saddam Hussein opening a Cheesecake Factory; on October 26 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent eats at a Washington Cheesecake Factory and urges the “Martha’s Vineyard set” to try it, and Trump tells reporters the comparison shows why Obama was a “lousy president”; on October 27 the White House posts an AI-generated Cheesecake Factory-style menu featuring “The Border Security Special” and “The American Energy Feast”; the chain’s third quarter, closed September 29, was a record $1,033.4 million.
- Lightning round: Trump dumps Bill Maher. On October 15 Trump hosts Maher at the White House for the second time, with Kid Rock and Stephen A. Smith at the table; on October 23 Maher describes the evening on his HBO show — disagreements, he says, with a host who never lost his temper; on October 25 Trump answers with a 1,323-word Truth Social post, the longest he has written by CNN’s count, opening with “complete and total loser,” disputing the dinner’s running time, denying any plan for a swimming pool in the briefing room while writing that he is “thinking about moving the Press,” and ending “Bill: Don’t call anymore.”
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Episode 006
Sanctions, Snubs, and Sketchy Sponsorships
Episode six. Trump waives the Graham Act’s Russia and Iran sanctions two days before they take effect; Sloane says Congress built the escape hatch and now acts scandalized that someone climbed through it, Eli says a waiver clause is standard equipment and blaming the drafters is blaming the brakes, Grant wants Rubio under oath on day sixty-one, and Nora says an order with no clock isn’t a study, it’s a sabbatical. Trump endorses Netanyahu nine days before Israel votes and vows to “finish the job” in Iran; Eli calls the post a ballot with a missile stapled to it, Sloane says the threat is real but Eli has it pointed the wrong way, Grant says “not inclined” is a mood and moods bind no one, and Nora says a cheer from the visitors’ section rarely moves the home crowd. Alina Habba accuses Ric Grenell of steering her husband’s $17.6 million wire toward a Kennedy Center donation that never arrived; Grant says the boss is grading his own hire, Nora says a buyer of access is a witness with exposure, not a victim, Sloane says vanity isn’t a felony or Washington would be empty, and Eli wants a prosecutor with subpoena power, not the President’s lawyer. In the lightning rounds: Jan Crawford’s deleted post about Abdul El-Sayed, where Sloane calls the question a religious test in town-hall form and Grant says the sin was the gloating, not the question; and Matthew McConaughey’s pitch for independents, where Grant wants a bill, not a voiceover, and Sloane says no statute legislates away apathy. Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-seven minutes.
On the table
- Sanctions, passed then parked. On October 16 President Trump issues Executive Order 14436, “Implementing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026,” waiving the Act’s specified duties, sanctions and restrictions until the President or the Secretary of State decides otherwise, two days before the measures were to take effect; the Act itself authorizes the waiver; Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the administration will take up to 60 days to assess the measures’ economic impact; in the same week Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not approved transferring Patriot interceptors that European allies had already bought and paid for, and on October 19 Trump says someone else should negotiate on Ukraine’s behalf, to which Zelenskyy says he feels betrayed.
- Trump endorses Netanyahu, Vance demurs. On October 18 Trump endorses Benjamin Netanyahu for re-election in a post on Truth Social, nine days before Israel votes on October 27, and writes in the same post that the United States will soon “finish the job” in Iran unless Iran rapidly changes its ways; on October 19, on Mark Halperin’s “2WAY Tonight,” Vice President JD Vance declines to endorse Netanyahu, saying he endorses American candidates and is not getting involved in Israeli elections.
- Habba, Grenell, a phantom donation. On October 9 Alina Habba meets President Trump at the White House and accuses former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell of steering her husband, Turhan Mildon, into a payment that included a donation to the center that never arrived; a financial record dated May 29, 2025, reportedly shows $17.6 million wired to Houston-based Texas Armament & Technology, with roughly $5.6 million allegedly intended for the Kennedy Center, and a text dated May 3, 2025, reviewed by Axios, allegedly shows Grenell promising the donation and VIP access, which Grenell denies sending; Trump directs White House Counsel Will Scharf to investigate; Grenell calls the accusations “absurd” and says he received no payment from Mildon.
- Lightning round: a deleted tweet at CBS. On October 17, at a town hall in Caro, Michigan, a questioner named Tommy asks Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee, to disavow the Muslim Brotherhood; El-Sayed agrees on the spot and then challenges the premise, saying it implies “dual loyalties”; CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford thanks Tommy in a post on X and calls the response a “spectacular self own”; on October 18 she deletes it, writing that it was “a violation of CBS News standards,” and apologizes.
- Lightning round: McConaughey pitches independents. On October 18 Matthew McConaughey posts a six-minute video on X urging voters to consider independent candidates in the 2026 midterms, saying he is endorsing “fairness and reality” rather than a candidate or a party, and citing a figure that 87 percent of U.S. House seats in 2024 were effectively decided in party primaries by 7 percent of eligible voters; the table argues California Democratic Party v. Jones against Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party, and whether safe seats come from the mapmakers or from where people choose to live.
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Episode 005
Warrants, Waivers, and Woodchippers
Episode five. Trump posts on Truth Social that the United States won’t attack Iran before the November 3 midterms; Grant, checking his own pulse, says a window you can see is the only kind anyone can use, Eli calls it a campaign schedule with missiles attached, Sloane says a visible pause is a logistics calendar printed for the enemy, and Nora says three weeks of nobody firing is the only real thing in the story. Federal agents search Ilhan Omar’s home three weeks before her election; Sloane says a warrant with a badge is just a warrant, Eli says lawful and timed aren’t opposites, Grant offers Rule 41(g) as the courtroom, and Nora finds a room where someone swears to a date and nobody swears to a reason. Treasury licenses Russian diesel through April 7, 2027; Eli calls it a campaign subsidy paid in rubles, Sloane says the discount is the sanction, Grant says the going-out-of-business sale just signed an anchor tenant, and Nora says the license moved diesel from Mumbai to Houston and left Putin’s ledger where it was. In the lightning rounds: the ICC sanctions Rubio announced the afternoon Navi Pillay won the Nobel and the sanctions order Judge Furman enjoined four days later, where Grant says the grudge needed a target and the only one in reach was us; and the one-dollar bond at East Potomac Golf Course, where Sloane says process is the one thing the Park Service can’t categorically exclude. Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-five minutes.
On the table
- Trump’s Iran ceasefire-by-calendar. On October 8 the president says on Truth Social that the United States will not attack Iran before the November 3 midterms and calls the talks with Tehran “productive”; on October 10 a missile attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport kills 12 people and injures 309 by Saudi count, and asked whether the U.S. might join Saudi strikes on the Houthis, Trump says, “We may”; on October 13 he accuses the Houthis of trying to raise oil prices before the election, while some Iranian hardliners urge Tehran to strike first in the three-week window.
- Federal agents at Ilhan Omar’s door. On October 12 Homeland Security Investigations agents execute a judicially authorized search warrant, secured by the Department of Justice, at Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington-area home as part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation; Democracy Defenders Fund asks the Office of Special Counsel to investigate under the Hatch Act, which bars federal officers and employees from using official authority to interfere with or affect an election’s result.
- Putin’s diesel waiver. On October 9 the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issues General License No. 135, authorizing the sale, delivery, offloading and importation of Russian-origin diesel through April 7, 2027, as Trump announces more than 300,000 tons immediately, 500,000 in November and millions more after that; on October 13 twelve senators, six Republicans and six Democrats, urge him to withdraw from the deal, rescind the license and use the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 instead; Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemns the deal as revenue for Moscow’s war.
- Lightning round: Nobel, Norway, and the ICC. On October 9 the Nobel Committee awards the Peace Prize to Navi Pillay, the South African jurist and former International Criminal Court judge; the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces new sanctions blocking the court’s U.S.-jurisdiction assets, and Trump tells a Syracuse rally, “We will not forget, Norway”; on October 13, in Democracy for the Arab World Now v. Trump, Judge Jesse M. Furman of the Southern District of New York grants a preliminary injunction against Executive Order 14203, finding the First Amendment challenge likely to succeed.
- Lightning round: the Lorax stops the chainsaws. On October 13, in DC Preservation League v. Department of Interior, Judge Ana C. Reyes issues a temporary restraining order barring further tree-felling at East Potomac Golf Course through October 26, on a one-dollar bond, finding the plaintiffs likely to succeed on their claim that the Park Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act; about 430 healthy, non-invasive trees were already down by October 10, the Mall’s superintendent testified there was no urgency to keep cutting, and the opinion’s footnote on irreparable harm reads, “Just ask the Lorax.”
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Episode 004
Blockades, Ballots, and Bald Eagles
Episode four. Trump rejects Iran’s seven-day offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with four words at a gaggle, “I reject their proposal”; Eli calls it a fork in the road where the president refused both roads, Nora says Tehran’s sequencing pays the closer before he throws a pitch, Sloane finds Article I nowhere in the sequence, and Grant, expecting to be yelled at by his own side, wants a counteroffer with a Senate behind it. Seven House Republicans vote for a war-powers resolution and Trump answers a Miami congresswoman’s ad with a dozen posts demanding her replacement; Grant says you don’t primary the smoke detector, Sloane says the design is working, not failing, and Eli says Federalist 51 is getting fired. The White House moves to let $810 million lapse five days before the fiscal year ends; Nora calls it the Holy Roller, Grant calls it permission asked on a form that self-destructs, and Sloane says a rule nobody enforces is a suggestion with a lapel pin. In the lightning rounds: the fuel-economy rollback to 34.5 miles per gallon, which Sloane says was never law, only mood, and Xi Jinping’s state visit, which buys sixty days of truce and two pandas with the longer contract. Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-four minutes.
On the table
- Trump rejects Iran’s offer. On September 26 the president tells reporters “I reject their proposal”; Tehran’s terms call for lifting the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, waiving sanctions on oil sales and a ceasefire that includes Lebanon, with the strait reopening on day six and nuclear talks beginning on day seven.
- Republicans break on Iran. The House passes an Iran war-powers resolution 220 to 204 on September 15, with seven Republicans joining Democrats; Senate candidates Ashley Hinson of Iowa and Mike Rogers of Michigan call for the war to end; on September 26 Trump amplifies more than a dozen posts attacking Rep. María Elvira Salazar over her ad, one demanding a “NEW Republican to Replace Salazar.”
- Collins cries lawbreaking. On Friday, September 25, the White House announces it will withhold $810 million Congress appropriated; the fiscal year ends September 30, and the Impoundment Control Act gives Congress 45 legislative days to act; Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins calls it “a clear violation of the law,” citing GAO’s finding that pocket rescissions aren’t permitted.
- Lightning round: the fuel economy rollback. The Trump administration finalizes its rollback of the federal fuel-economy rules: 34.5 miles per gallon fleetwide by model year 2031, down from 50.4 under the Biden-era standard; its own estimate puts a $930 average cut in new-vehicle cost against about 100 billion additional gallons of fuel through 2050, with regular gasoline at a national average of $4.48.
- Lightning round: Xi comes to Washington. Xi Jinping’s three-day state visit runs September 23 to 25, with a White House meeting on September 24; the trade truce is extended two months, from November 10, 2026, to January 10, 2027; two pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, go to Zoo Atlanta.
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Episode 003
Deals, Data Centers, and Due Process
Episode three. Trump tells the General Assembly he is deciding whether to deal with Iran or “annihilate” it, Witkoff and Kushner sit three hours with Iranian officials through mediators, and Pezeshkian answers that Iran will talk “without accepting the language of force”; Grant calls the ultimatum a menu with two items and no prices, Nora says Tehran has published a price list and Washington has answered with a verb, and Sloane names the real bluffer as a Congress that has neither declared the war nor funded it while the Treasury keeps paying. CNN, MS NOW and Politico sue for a restraining order restoring their White House access on the day the White House launches “Trump TV”; the table agrees Sherrill v. Knight forbids a ban for the coverage, then splits on whether a judge restoring the chairs is running an Article II building. Greg Abbott halts every Texas data-center permit until ERCOT finishes a grid audit with no date attached; Nora wants to know when the precaution ends, Eli says the governor read a meter, not a poll, and Sloane notes the directive names three agencies and zero enabling provisions. In the lightning rounds: Paramount settles with twelve attorneys general and the Writers Guild to clear its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, and Trump and Zohran Mamdani spend an hour at Gracie Mansion over Sunnyside Yard. Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-three minutes.
On the table
- Deal or annihilate. Trump tells the General Assembly he is deciding whether to deal with Iran or “annihilate” it if the seven-month war continues; Witkoff and Kushner sit roughly three hours with Iranian officials on the sidelines, through mediators; Pezeshkian rejects surrender but says Iran is ready for talks “without accepting the language of force.”
- The press corps sues. CNN, MS NOW and Politico file in D.C. federal court on September 21 for a temporary restraining order restoring their access; the same day the White House launches “Trump TV,” a 24-hour livestream; ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CNN suspend the White House television pool.
- Abbott freezes the data centers. The governor orders the TCEQ to halt all data-center permits until ERCOT finishes its grid audit, which may run through December, with no date for permits to resume; an August UT/Texas Politics Project poll finds 57 percent of Texas voters opposed to a data center in their community, including 43 percent of Republicans.
- Lightning round: Paramount swallows Warner Bros. Paramount Skydance settles with twelve state attorneys general and the Writers Guild on September 21, clearing its roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery; the states do not get the full divestiture of CNN and CBS News they asked for.
- Lightning round: Trump meets Mamdani. Roughly an hour at Gracie Mansion on September 21; the Sunnyside Yard proposal covers about 12,000 homes and 30,000 jobs, and Mamdani says it needs at least $21 billion in federal grants.
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Episode 002
Barricades, Ballistics, and Ballot Boxes
Episode two. The White House bans CNN, MS NOW and Politico and deactivates their reporters’ badges at the gate; the table agrees that Sherrill v. Knight, D.C. Circuit 1977, forbids it, then splits on the remedy — Sloane wants a judge, Nora wants the press pool to make the ban worthless, and Grant wants the imperfect court order first. A Houthi ballistic missile is intercepted over Riyadh and an Aramco fuel tank burns at the airport after Trump twice declines the Crown Prince’s request for American strikes; Eli won’t hand him a medal for a no he could reverse by Tuesday, Grant calls it a separate peace, and Sloane says the targeting help was hostilities without a vote. The NAACP sues DHS, ICE, the FBI and the Justice Department under Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act after Kash Patel tells the Senate he doesn’t know that the Bureau can’t send agents to the polls; Grant, from the center-right, calls that turnout suppression with a badge. In the lightning rounds: Trump recasts his 250-foot arch beside Arlington as a “top grade Military Complex,” and Maria Elvira Salazar scolds the president on camera, then calls him “very receptive.” Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-two minutes.
On the table
- The White House press ban. CNN, MS NOW and Politico banned “effective immediately”; three reporters turned away at the gate with credentials confiscated or deactivated; Sherrill v. Knight (D.C. Cir. 1977) says a press pass cannot be denied arbitrarily or without a compelling reason.
- Saudi vessels excluded. The Crown Prince asks twice for American strikes and gets intelligence and targeting help instead; an Omani-brokered Houthi pledge spares American, Israeli and commercial ships but not Saudi ones; a ballistic missile is intercepted over Riyadh and an Aramco fuel tank burns at the airport.
- The NAACP sues over ICE at the polls. A Section 11(b) suit against DHS, ICE, the Justice Department and the FBI, three days after Kash Patel told Senate Judiciary “I don’t know that we can’t legally do it”; a UC San Diego poll finds 40 percent of voters expect immigration agents at their polls.
- Lightning round: the triumphal arch goes tactical. The 250-foot arch near Arlington becomes a “top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch” with drones and snipers, citing a military request; the veterans who sued in February say the new justification doesn’t cure its “fundamental illegality.”
- Lightning round: Salazar scolds Trump on camera. A thirty-second bilingual ad outside the White House says some enforcement has gone too far and that roughly 50,000 people detained in July had no criminal record; three days later she calls the phone call “very good” and the president “very receptive.”
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Episode 001
Ballots, Basis Points, and Bipartisan Bedfellows
The premiere. The Supreme Court blocks, seven to two, the administration’s plan to have the Postal Service police mail ballots, and the panel splits over whether Kavanaugh’s timing opinion is a rebuke or a road map. The Fed raises rates a quarter point — the first hike since 2023 — over the president’s demand for cuts, and Nora and Eli disagree about whether interest rates can fight a war-driven diesel price. Thomas Massie files eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Hegseth and the Speaker sends the House home; Sloane and Eli argue Article I against Article II. In the lightning rounds: the Kennedy Center’s board closes the main building for up to two years, and Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon share a stage against artificial superintelligence. Plus The Herald with Simone Hargrove, and four predictions with dates attached. Thirty-two minutes.
On the table
- The Court spurns the Postal Service. A 7–2 vote against the mail-ballot rule, Thomas and Alito dissenting; Kavanaugh writes that election officials were out of time.
- The Fed defies Trump. A quarter-point hike to 3.75–4 percent on a 12–0 vote, the first increase since July 2023.
- Massie moves to impeach Hegseth. Eight articles, a 220–204 war powers resolution with seven Republicans in favor, and a House sent home early.
- Lightning round: the Kennedy Center goes dark. The board votes to close the main building for up to two years; the chief financial officer resigns the same day.
- Lightning round: Sanders and Bannon versus the machines. The first Pro-Human Assembly, and a pledge to ban artificial superintelligence.
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Trailer
Five voices. Five issues. One republic.
Ninety seconds at the table. Arthur Kline introduces the show, then Eli Navarro, Grant Mercer, Nora Kessler, and Sloane Barrett take one lightning-round question and disagree about it. The Agora premiered Thursday, September 17, 2026; new episodes arrive Mondays and Thursdays at 5 AM ET.
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