You are using an outdated browser.
Please upgrade your browser
and improve your visit to our site.
PODCAST

Jamie Raskin’s Harsh Takedown of Trump-Alito Phone Call Draws Blood

As Trump’s chat with Justice Alito draws scrutiny even as Trump asks the courts for help on multiple fronts, a leading reporter explains why the tangled nexus of all these stories is raising legitimacy issues.

Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
Representative Jamie Raskin in Washington, D.C., on September 10, 2024

This week, we learned that Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito spoke privately with Donald Trump to recommend a former clerk for a job. Jamie Raskin just tore into this news, urging Alito to recuse himself from Trump-related matters. This comes as Trump asked the high court to block a New York judge from sentencing him for his hush money conviction. (After we recorded, the court denied his request.) What Raskin got right is to zero in on the corruption embedded in Trump’s relationship with the Supreme Court. After all, between this and Judge Aileen Cannon ordering Special Counsel Jack Smith not to release his report on the evidence he’s collected against Trump, the courts face a legitimacy crisis. We talked to Politico’s Kyle Cheney, who untangles all these stories and explains what’s coming next. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.