From our UK edition
Remember the tale of Donald Trump and the ‘illegal hoarding’ of the top-secret documents? It was only last summer. On 8 August, the FBI raided the 45th President’s home in Mar-a-Lago to seize back highly classified material. An image of the reclaimed files promptly leaked to the press. Over-excited pundits started talking about Trump’s ‘Al
From our UK edition
27 min listen
President Biden is visiting Mexico this week to meet with President Obrador, and Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada. Biden is expected to bring up illegal immigration with Obrador, and hopes that he can offer him some way out of what is becoming a spiralling crisis. But is any help coming? Freddy Gray speaks to Todd
From our UK edition
23 min listen
Kevin McCarthy’s hopes to be voted House Speaker reaches day four still without a resolution. How much will he have to concede in order to win over the Republican rebels? Freddy Gray speaks to Amber Athey, The Spectator’s Washington Editor.
From our UK edition
43 min listen
On the podcast this week: The Spectator’s deputy editor Freddy Gray writes the cover piece looking ahead to the possibility of another 6 years of President Biden. He is joined by Amie Parnes, senior staff writer at The Hill and co-author of Lucky: How Joe Biden barley won the presidency, to discuss whether anyone can stop Biden running in
From our UK edition
The presidency of the United States is hard work, everybody knows that. It’s also a pretty sweet gig for should-be retirees. The 80-year-old Joe Biden and First Lady Jill just spent six days holidaying on St Croix in the Caribbean. Biden’s critics have been quick to point out that he has so far spent some
From our UK edition
Back in early 2019, my wife discovered that she was pregnant with our fourth child. A few weeks later, we discovered that the child, a girl, had Down Syndrome. The NHS asked if we wanted to abort her. We did not. My wife, brave and stoic, soon accepted the news as a blessing. I wanted
From our UK edition
We’re finishing the year by republishing our ten most popular articles from 2022. Here’s number three: Freddy Gray’s piece from September on Meghan and Harry’s return to Britain. We’ve all spent months bracing ourselves for what our leaders assure us will be a dreadful winter. As the weather turns, we can look forward to ruinous
From our UK edition
If Meghan Markle’s army of digital defenders didn’t exist, we’d have to make them up. Otherwise, the never-ending controversy over Harry & Meghan, the royal-couple-turned-Netflix-show, would not really be controversial — and all the tens of thousands of media articles, such as the one you are now reading, would be not just pointless but defunct.
From our UK edition
Yesterday, a political committee set up in order to condemn Donald Trump condemned Donald Trump. It would have been truly jaw-dropping if the congressional January 6th committee (which consisted of seven Democrats and two Republicans, all of whom thought Trump was guilty as hell) had decided to say that Donald Trump had not criminally abetted
From our UK edition
30 min listen
Freddy Gray and Jacob Heilbrunn reflect on an eventful year, looking back at the response to the invasion of Ukraine, the American economy and the makeup of the new Congress. Plus, will Joe Biden or Donald Trump be making a return to the White House? And will Jacob be buying a Trump NFT..?
From our UK edition
Freddy Gray talks to the Spectator’s contributing editor Chadwick Moore about the release of the so-called ‘Twitter files’ and what they reveal about the extent of censorship and coverup before, during and after the 2020 election campaign. Chadwick Moore’s book ‘So You’ve Been Sent to Diversity Training’ is available now from all good retailers.
From our UK edition
46 min listen
This week: For his cover piece in The Spectator Freddy Gray asks who will win in the battle between the Waleses and the Sussexes. He is joined by historian Amanda Foreman to discuss the fallout Harry and Meghan’s new Netflix documentary (01:00). Also this week: Should the House of Lords be reformed or even abolished? This is
From our UK edition
Wouldn’t it be amusing to see an actual fly-on-the-wall job about Netflix’s new Harry & Meghan documentary? Imagine the scenes behind-the-scenes. The Duchess rehearses her crying face in consultation with her make-up specialist. The Duke glares at himself in a mirror. ‘I had to protect my family,’ he repeats over and over as he fingers
From our UK edition
As I wrote earlier, last week Matt Taibbi, the journalist chosen by Elon Musk to reveal what really happened behind-the-app during the 2020 presidential election, published the first instalment of the ‘Twitter Files’. He did it as a long Twitter ‘thread’ which showed various panicky corporate communications about the ethics of suppressing intriguing political information.
From our UK edition
For weeks now, Twitter’s new chief Elon Musk has been promising to reveal what really happened behind the scenes at the social media platform in the run up to the 2020 presidential election. Well, yesterday, Musk did — through the journalist Matt Taibbi. It’s a big story, one that free speech supporters everywhere should take
From our UK edition
24 min listen
Freddy Gray discusses ‘Ye’ 2024 with writer, musician and host of the podcast Conversations with Coleman, Coleman Hughes. They consider whether Kanye has a messianic complex or if he is simply trolling the nation.
From our UK edition
American conservatives like to say that the way to stop Donald Trump in 2024 is to hit him from the right. Compared with his own political movement, they argue, Trump has always been something of a squish when it comes to issues such as Covid vaccines, gay marriage, criminal justice, or border control. He never
From our UK edition
American conservatives like to say that the way to stop Donald Trump in 2024 is to hit him from the right. Compared with his own political movement, they argue, Trump has always been something of a squish when it comes to issues such as Covid vaccines, gay marriage, criminal justice, or border control. He never
From our UK edition
16 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to the comedian and media and culture editor of American Greatness Tim Young, about Twitter, Donald Trump and the Republican race for president in 2024.
From our UK edition
40 min listen
This week: How long will the pain last? The Spectator’s economics editor Kate Andrews asks this in her cover piece this week, reflecting on Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement. She joins the podcast with Professor David Miles, economy expert at the Office for Budget Responsibility, to discuss the new age of austerity (00:58). Also
