To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes

Retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling served as commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe during the Obama administration. In this episode, he tells Charlie that it's very difficult for the military to draft a campaign plan for Iran when the end state goal is unclear. He also discusses his new book: “If I Don’t Return: A Father’s Wartime Journal.”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jonathan Rauch is a Brookings Institution Senior Fellow and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. In this episode, he makes the case that the Trump administration is, as a whole, psychotic, erratic, and unpredictable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phillips O'Brien is a historian and Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. In this episode, he joins Charlie to discuss the different ways Trump could operate in Iran right now and the biggest obstacle to it all — the fact that Trump is only motivated by personal gain and that many people have given up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former Congressman and Substack superstar, Adam Kinzinger, joins Charlie to discuss the economic implications of the Iran war, Trump's response to the death of Robert Mueller, and ICE deployment at airports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On today’s episode, Charlie welcomes author, journalist, political commentator and former Congressional candidate, John Avlon. The two discuss the stark contrast between the decorum of past presidents and Trump, along with the broken incentive structures at the heart of the American political system, and how all this has brought political extremists to the forefront of American politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.