Grounded with Jon Tester & Maritsa Georgiou

Schooled

JT and MG weigh in on the Signal scandal and take up the Trump executive order to dismantle the Department of Education (which officially takes an act of Congress). So now what? Randi Weingarten, the President of the American Teachers Federation, joins Jon and Maritsa to break down what it means for you.
 
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Bad Signal

Former Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta unpacks SignalGate with JT and MG, including the questions he would ask if he were leading the investigation. The three also discuss foreign policy related to Iran and Greenland, and how Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts compare to the balanced budget Sec. Panetta helped craft when he was the director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Bill Clinton.
 
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Honoring Our Pact

After a wild political week that included a 25+ hour speech on the Senate floor and sweeping new tariffs, former VA Sec. Denis McDonough joins JT & MG to explain the importance of the programs he helped implement, and what's at stake for our veterans with proposed cuts to staff and those very programs.
 
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Free Fall

It's the economy, stupid! Jon and Maritsa dig into what's happening with tariffs, Wall Street and your finances with former White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein, who also chaired the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers under President Joe Biden. How did the Trump administration come up with this tariff formula? Are we heading for a recession? What should we be doing right now? We ask all of these questions and more!
 
This is a free episode of Grounded! If you'd like to get exclusive content or chat with other subscribers, please visit our Substack! 

Simplifying SAVE

Ahead of a scheduled US House vote on the SAVE Act, JT and MG discuss its potential impacts with Greta Bedekovics with the Center for American Progress. What will the SAVE Act mean for voters across the country if it passes through Congress? What impact will it have on married women who took their husband’s last name? How is it different than President Trump’s executive order on elections? We break it all down.

Tariffied

Economic concerns over tariffs and the markets persist and JT and MG chat all about it with University of Michigan economist and public policy professor Justin Wolfers (who sometimes goes by his alter ego Fed Lasso). Hear why he says we’re in the middle of two economic crises and his predictions for what’s ahead. Will prices ever come down? What about accusations of market manipulation in the Oval Office? What does the U.S. stand to win in this trade war? A fascinating conversation you don’t want to miss!

Public Lands, Public Hands

Former Bureau of Land Management director (and Montanan!) Tracy Stone-Manning joins JT and MG to dissect new concerns over threats to public lands. They get into the weeds on the difference between proposals to sell public land for tax breaks and affordable housing solutions. The conversation also covers what DOGE cuts could mean for our great outdoors and what people can do to keep public lands in public hands.

Margaritaville Mirage

Fresh off his return from El Salvador to visit a Maryland man deported in error, Sen. Chris Van Hollen joins JT & MG to for an inside look at what led up to his meeting, the “margaritas” placed at the table for social media optics, and why he thinks this is a constitutional crisis. CVH and JT explain why every American should care about this case and the precedent it sets.

Passing the Torch

Sen. Dick Durbin, who announced his retirement last week, joins JT & MG to chat about that decision after more than four decades in Congress, his experience at Pope Francis' funeral, the future of the Democratic party and more. Plus, what he fears will be the “most serious constitutional crisis since the Civil War.”

Inside Out

JT & MG chat with Olivia Troye, who worked as a national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence. They unpack the latest Trump interview on Meet the Press, what’s likely happening behind closed doors at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and the reasons she left the Trump 1.0 administration in the summer of 2020. Olivia also tells JT & MG what keeps her up at night and what gives her hope moving forward.