Marcus and Madeline break down exactly why the Ossoff questioning worked: he didn’t jump in when Hegseth dodged. He waited. Then he repeated the question. Then he noted, calmly, that Hegseth still hadn’t answered it. No grandstanding, no viral moment hunting — just accountability doing what it’s supposed to do. Accountability doesn’t care about your machismo. Senator Shaheen’s approach — “shut up, I’m not listening to your speech” — also gets full marks.

On the war itself: Madeline lays out what she believes, backed by research, is the actual reason we’re in Iran. It’s not about nuclear weapons. It’s about rebuilding a country and who gets to cash in when you do. The Board of Peace is a board of war profiteers — Jared Kushner pitching the Gaza rebuild at Davos, sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia and Qatar as the financing vehicle, and contractors to be named later. Sound familiar? It should. It’s the same function Epstein served, now done in the open.

Also this week: the New Jersey voter roll story is not what Trump says it is, the major networks skipping his primetime speech may have given Brendan Carr a gift, and Madeline won a debate about birthright citizenship by doing something radical — reading the 14th Amendment.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is a hit, people are seeing it at 3 AM in IMAX, and John Leguizamo is out here trying to connect advocates doing good work with a bigger platform. If you know someone quietly doing remarkable things who deserves a spotlight, send a comment their way.

Spain won the World Cup in extra time. It was a great game, a worthy champion, and a genuinely joyful moment — until Trump wandered onto the stage and wouldn’t leave, milling around while players waited to celebrate, getting booed audibly on international television.

Marcus spent 20 years overseas. He remembers when other countries looked at America and wanted to be us. Madeline is in Belize this week, and a local told her the same thing unprompted: we used to think the United States was the place to be. That’s changed.

The chair of the EEOC says the reports promote racial stereotyping and cost companies too much. The sole remaining Democrat on the commission called it a return to the pre-civil rights era. They’re both right about what it is. Only one of them is right about whether that’s a problem.

Madeline traces this back to the people actually running the policy agenda — Thiel, Yarvin, the Heritage Foundation, Opus Dei — and their shared worldview: that a hierarchy to society is natural, that those at the top deserve to be there, and that DEI messes up the order. Marcus traces it back further: to Reconstruction, to sharecropping, to redlining, to the GI Bill that built generational wealth for white veterans while Black veterans got nothing. The wealth gap didn’t happen by accident.

DEI programs that got canceled — like research into why Georgia has the highest Black maternal mortality rate in the country — didn’t disappear because they were wasteful. They disappeared because they had the wrong label. And without the EEOC data, it gets harder to see what’s happening and easier to pretend it isn’t.

Want to know if a policy is racist? Look at who it hurts. Every time.

Marcus brings his compliance background — outcomes, findings, rubrics — and Madeline brings her legal training, and together they go category by category through what actually matters in an AG confirmation hearing: independence from the president, ethical track record, commitment to the rule of law, handling of conflicts of interest, and more. What they find isn't pretty.

Blanche's Freudian slip at his own confirmation — calling himself Trump's lawyer instead of the people's lawyer — becomes the centerpiece of a larger argument Madeline makes with real precision: his attorney-client confidentiality obligations to Trump don't expire, and at some point those obligations will directly conflict with his duty to the American people. That's not a future risk. It's a present disqualification.

Marcus tries to be objective. Madeline gives Blanche an F-minus-minus and says he broke the scale. They agree he'll probably be confirmed anyway — and that the Democrats didn't do a good enough job holding his feet to the fire when they had the chance.

Iran hostilities are back on. A helicopter was shot down. Trump says a deal is close. The global economy is rattled. And the administration that promised transparency is being anything but, because they know they’ve lost the narrative on this one.

The House voted to end the war, which matters legally even if this administration ignores it. ICE got funded after 115 days of Democratic resistance that did, actually, put some things on the record. And Madeline’s midterm map analysis is worth reading twice: the MAGA base that’s left is loud, but it’s smaller than it was. The defectors don’t show up in Republican primary polls. And in Georgia and across the country, 2-3% is all it takes.

Also: Mamdani is out here governing like it’s normal to just solve problems and tell people about it. The billionaires are still in New York. The tax works. More of this, please.

New articles still dropping on Thursdays. Madeline’s series continues. They’ll be back after the Fourth — and there will be plenty to talk about.

The good: Nancy Mace finished dead last in South Carolina. The bad: Graham Plattner won in Maine, and a lot of Democrats cheered for a candidate with a documented history of domestic violence allegations, extremist tattoos, and a growing pile of red flags — because they wanted to win.

Madeline’s take is worth sitting with. When Democrats lower the bar to match Republicans, they don’t gain a seat. They lose the one thing they’ve been trying to rebuild since 2024: trust. Independents don’t come back because you won a race. They come back because you stood for something even when it cost you.

There’s also Trump’s sundowning caught on camera, Lady G with a bubble wand at Disney World, the California vote-counting conspiracy that isn’t, and Van Jones finally giving the definitive explanation of why the LA wildfires had nothing to do with DEI and everything to do with a dry hurricane scientists warned us about for six years.

This week on With All Due Respect, Marcus and Madeline sat down with Kristina Knickerbocker — Air Force veteran, oncology nurse practitioner, mom of two, and the Democrat who just won her primary to take him on.

Kristina got into this race the same way a lot of great candidates do: she called her rep, told him the Big Beautiful Bill was going to kill her patients, got no answer, found out nobody was running, and said why not me?

What followed is a conversation about healthcare, veteran services, servant leadership, and what it actually means to show up for a community that’s been ignored for three decades. Kristina brings something rare to this race — a decade of military process improvement experience, years of fighting insurance companies on behalf of cancer patients, and zero corporate PAC money.

She’s not running to play the game. She’s running to change it.

Visit KristinaKnickerbocker.com and chip in what you can.

Nico’s path into politics started at 16, when he became a poll worker during the height of COVID and spent an 18-hour Election Day falling in love with the front lines of democracy. From there it was voter registration drives, language equity advocacy, legislative internships, and eventually a grassroots campaign funded not by PACs or corporations but by the neighbors he grew up with.

Marcus and Madeline dig into what it actually feels like to run without money, without a machine, and without anyone handing you a roadmap — and why the doors Nico knocked on, and the hour-long conversations that happened on those porches, were the fuel that kept the campaign going. They talk about the issues that cut across every party line in Gwinnett: property taxes, school quality, gun safety, and the simple desire to afford a life.

The conversation closes on something Marcus has been saying for years and Nico lives every day: that politics, at its best, is just community. And the people trying to break it know exactly what they’re doing.

Then Madeline floats a counterintuitive strategy borrowed from Sun Tzu: build your enemy a golden bridge to retreat across. Her argument — that Democrats might actually win by letting Trump play the victim of the forces that used him — gets a real hearing from Marcus, who agrees that the people who’ve been plotting this since FDR deserve accountability even if the mad king himself didn’t fully know what he was signing up for.

And Pope Leo keeps coming up. Madeline makes the case that a pope declaring no war is just may be the single most dangerous thing that could happen to the military industrial complex right now — and that the cross-religious response has been overwhelmingly, surprisingly united.

The episode closes on a quiet note, with Madeline honoring Marcus and the veterans for whom Memorial Day is anything but a long weekend.

The conversation moves to Stone Mountain, Georgia, where Madeline’s early city council work gave her a firsthand look at how Klan ideology quietly migrated into mainstream political structures — rebranded, but still very much operational.

Then Marcus asks Madeline about Pope Leo’s letter on AI, and they dig into the tension between efficiency and accountability. Marcus’s compliance background gives him a clear-eyed take: anytime you remove the human factor, you introduce new categories of error and abuse. The question isn’t whether AI is useful — it’s whether the people in charge of deploying it are asking the right questions before they do.

They open on Ken Paxton’s win over incumbent John Cornyn in the Texas Senate primary, and while nobody’s putting a Cornyn bumper sticker on their car, the implications are significant. A MAGA-endorsed candidate with a criminal rap sheet facing a general electorate that’s increasingly fed up? Marcus and Madeline have seen this movie before — and it ended with Raphael Warnock winning a runoff in Georgia while Herschel Walker became a nightly comedy segment.

Madeline breaks down why Trump’s primary endorsements are actually self-defeating in general elections: the MAGA base dominates primaries precisely because the disillusioned stay home, but those same defectors — the ones Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene are now courting — don’t disappear in November, they vote Democrat.

Then there’s California, where Trump’s premature endorsement in a top-two primary may have single-handedly rescued a Democratic candidate from elimination. The word they’re both looking for is “dumb.”

The bottom line: Republicans are going to burn a mountain of money propping up Paxton in Texas — money that won’t be going to defend vulnerable Senate seats elsewhere. And if Democrats show up, organize, and start donating now, flipping both chambers isn’t a fantasy anymore.

Chris’s résumé is almost hard to believe: BS in physics and mathematics from Morehouse, MS in nuclear engineering from MIT, PhD in urban planning also from MIT, NASA physicist, nonprofit leader, and ordained minister. But as he makes clear, none of that is the point — the point is that he’s a seventh-generation Arkansan who grew up believing that serving people and solving problems are the same thing.

Marcus and Madeline dig into what his 2022 governor’s race taught him about Arkansas and its people — including why he intentionally walked a mile at sundown through a former sundown town — and how that experience shapes the way he’s running now. They talk about the deliberate cracking of Little Rock’s district to protect French Hill, why that same banker just voted to raise overdraft fees on constituents who can barely make ends meet, and why Chris is already up three points in the polls.

The conversation goes deep on faith, leadership, and bridge-building — how you actually reach Republican voters without asking them to abandon their values, why genuine empathy beats partisan messaging every time, and what it means to show up for everyone in your district, MAGA voters included.

Chris’s campaign platform is simple: AAA — Affordability and Accountability for All. Find him at ChrisJonesForCongress.com and on social at JonesforAR.

She opens with a sharp take on the Kamala question Democrats keep getting wrong: fear isn’t a message, and identity alone doesn’t move non-voters. What actually works — and what Obama and Zohran Mamdani understood — is painting a concrete picture of a better future and showing your work.

Then things get deep. Madeline pulls a thread that starts with Steve Bannon, Cambridge Analytica, and data harvesting, and traces it all the way back to an 800 AD theological dispute about the nature of the Holy Trinity. She connects the dots between Charlemagne’s power grab, the 1053 split between Rome and Constantinople, the Crusades, Opus Dei’s founding in fascist Spain, and the Vatican’s wartime deal with the Nazis — all to explain why a small but powerful coalition of Catholic integralists, traditionalists, and war profiteers has been at war with the modernizing reforms of Vatican II ever since.

Along the way: why Peter Thiel’s early Facebook investment wasn’t about social media, what Dario Amodei’s refusal to work with Pete Hegseth may have to do with a bombed girls’ school, and why the people running things behind Trump aren’t ideologues — they’re risk assessors with a very long game.

This one goes places. Take notes.

Then it’s on to Trump’s state visit to China. Marcus isn’t impressed. Xi Jinping negotiates. Trump gives things away. And with Russia, China, and Iran all pulling in the same direction, Madeline connects the dots on why the Ukraine war endgame may be the one prize keeping Trump on board with everything else.

The economy gets its due too — sky-high gas prices, grocery costs, inflation at a three-and-a-half-year high, and a president who literally said out loud he doesn’t think about your financial situation. Plus: why billion-dollar corporations paying less in taxes than teachers should be the easiest argument in the world to make.

And finally — the Drunk Cabinet. Boxwine Shapiro. Whiskey Pete. And the newest addition: Cashtini. Why does this administration keep sending people to Capitol Hill who can’t hold it together, and what would real congressional accountability actually look like?

Marcus and Madeline start with Trump’s stunning admission that he simply doesn’t think about how his decisions affect everyday Americans, and break down why that matters so much to the working-class voters who put him in office. The economy isn’t abstract — it’s groceries, gas, energy bills, and a generation of young people who can’t afford a home or a future.

Then the conversation gets personal. From data centers threatening historic communities like Social Circle, Georgia, to the slow erosion of rights that both Marcus and Madeline once thought were permanent — they reckon with the unsettling realization that the civil rights fights their grandparents lived through aren’t as far behind us as they believed.

Madeline also previews her investigative article series connecting Peter Thiel, Jeffrey Epstein, the military industrial complex, and Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” — and explains why Trump posting an AI Jesus photo and attacking the Pope isn’t random noise. It’s a thread, and she’s pulling it.

Plus: Team Pope Leo. Full stop.

They cover the collapse of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and what it means for elections at every level of government, from Congress down to your local school board. Bob breaks down his day-one plan to create a Voting Rights Division within the Department of Law, his commitment not to prosecute women or doctors under Georgia’s abortion law, and his vision for using the AG’s consumer protection powers to go after crypto scams, corporate polluters, and the fraudsters targeting Georgia seniors.

Plus — what running for office looks like when your eight-year-old wants to ride along.

Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Mara Keller has seen what happens when nobody listens — paralyzed veterans waiting months for a working wheelchair, patients left unattended, problems kicked up the chain and buried. So she's running for Congress in Georgia's Third District to do something about it. Marcus Flowers and Madeline Somerville sit down with the Democratic candidate and HTL endorsee to talk about 26 years of military service, her time at the Atlanta VA, why she carries binders full of constituent concerns, and why she thinks Congress is going to hate her — and why that's exactly the point. Plus: what it means to be a Democrat in an 80% Republican district, why swing voters are the real target, and the core values that got her through years of military retaliation after doing the right thing.

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Esteves makes his case simply: health, wealth, and opportunity. From his days as a middle school teacher in a low-income community to cooking bacon at his Macon restaurant when the crew called in sick, he’s the kind of candidate Walsh has been waiting for the Democratic Party to produce — real, direct, and fluent in the concerns of working people. They dig into why Democrats lost touch with everyday voters in 2024, why the biggest opponent in Georgia isn’t Trump — it’s the couch — and why the trades deserve just as much celebration as a college degree.

With Georgia’s Democratic primary on April 27th and a runoff almost certain to follow, Esteves explains why he believes he’s the only candidate who can build the coalition it takes to actually win. Learn more and get involved at jasonesteves.com.

Thank you Melissa Amour, T. Thomas Lewis, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

They also dig into the administration’s use of memes as a foreign policy tool — and why veterans like Marcus find it not just ridiculous, but dangerous. War is not a game, and desensitizing people to conflict has real consequences.

Ojeda brings the kind of straight-talk that’s hard to find in politics — from his roots in a West Virginia coal mining town, to 24 years of military service at Fort Bragg and beyond, to his frontline perspective on what it really costs to send Americans to war. He doesn’t hold back on the gutting of the VA, the hypocrisy of chicken-hawk politicians, and why cutting veterans’ benefits while deploying troops is nothing short of cruelty.

The conversation covers his bold policy agenda — making the first $45,000 of income tax-free, tying minimum wage to the cost of living, bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, and taxing the wealthy to fund healthcare for first responders, teachers, and public servants.

Plus: why unaffiliated voters are the key to flipping this seat, what’s really behind the push toward war with Iran, and why this lifelong Democrat believes the political winds are shifting.

To support Richard Ojeda’s campaign, visit OjedaForNC.com.

Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Marcus Flowers and Ryan Shead break down the opening battles of the midterm cycle, starting with the Texas primary that saw James Talarico defeat Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nomination. The hosts discuss turnout, the role of money in modern campaigns, and the debate inside the Democratic Party over messaging, electability, and leadership. They also highlight key upcoming races—including a critical special election in Georgia—and urge voters across the country to get involved as the fight for control of Congress intensifies.

Marcus Flowers and Ryan Shead break down the controversy surrounding Stephen Colbert, Paramount, and renewed debate over the FCC’s equal time rule. The hosts examine what they see as growing political pressure on media networks, corporate preemptive compliance, and the broader implications for free speech and election coverage. From special elections in Georgia to the rising national profile of leaders like Jasmine Crockett.

Marcus Flowers and Ryan Shead reflect on the life and legacy of Robert Duvall, the legendary actor whose decades-long career left an indelible mark on film and on generations of fans. From Apocalypse Now and The Godfather to the deeply personal impact of The Judge, the conversation explores how Duvall’s performances connected to family, memory, dignity, and the complicated bonds between fathers and sons.

Marcus Flowers and Ryan Shead sit down with Texas Attorney General candidate Tony Box to discuss his extraordinary journey from Army officer and FBI SWAT agent to Harvard-educated attorney and prosecutor. Box shares why he believes the Attorney General’s office must be guided by integrity, constitutional duty, and service to the people—not partisan politics—and outlines how his background in law, accounting, and public service shapes his vision for Texas. The conversation also reflects on the legacy of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and the responsibility of a new generation to carry forward the work of justice and accountability.

Thank you PJ Schuster, Leslie in CA, Elizabeth, Nicole, Jeffrey H Tyler, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

The discussion dives into the real-world impact of tariffs, job losses, rural hospital closures, rising health care costs, and what’s at stake for Kentucky families as economic pressures mount. From military leadership to political accountability, this episode explores what it means to “be the change” in a moment when many Americans feel the system isn’t working for them.

Thank you Deb, Sharrell, Amy Smith, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Thank you Cris Waddell, Rebecca, T. Thomas Lewis, Elaine Waite, Valerie Saalbach, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Thank you Peter Sukowski, DebbieDeb 🩷✨, Hilary Steinberg, Valerie Saalbach, Amy Smith, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Thank you Melissa Amour, Ms.Yuse, Stacey, T. Thomas Lewis, Darold K Smith, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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In the debut episode of With All Due Respect, hosts Ryan Shead and Marcus Flowers—both military veterans—launch their unfiltered political podcast with a bold call to action for the next generation of Democratic leadership. They take aim at MAGA extremism, expose political hypocrisy, and reflect on the state of American democracy, all while mixing in humor, personal stories, and a deep sense of urgency. From Trump’s shady jet deal to the party’s need for fighters like Jasmine Crockett, this episode sets the tone for a raw, unapologetic conversation about what’s at stake in 2024 and beyond.