Stars: 4/5

The last two “Pod Save America” episodes really diss the Republican Party. “Pod Save America,” a liberal political podcast, covers all the recent political fails.

In the two newest “Pod Save America” episodes, presidential runs and Michael Cohen’s testimony are discussed, along with the latest news on 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and former Congressman candidate Beto O’Rourke. While the episodes don’t offer a lot of new information, it’s nice to get some analysis about the political whirlwind going on.

The Feb. 28 episode, “A very revealing Cohenoscopy,” is hosted by Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer, along with Alyssa Mastromonaco. The hosts talk about the highlights of the Cohen testimony and how credible his statements are, along with the Republican and Democratic questioning of Cohen.

The hosts completely burned the entire Republican party, saying that their actions at the testimony — not questioning Cohen and accusing him of faking things for a book deal — showed that the party is fundamentally broken. One of their main points was that they think Republicans should be more concerned about all the accusations against President Donald Trump, instead of protecting him.

I really liked their commentary on Matt Gaetz, the representative that tweeted threateningly at Cohen before the testimony. I didn’t know that he’s now under investigation because of the tweet, in which he talked about Cohen’s wife. It’s nice to know that politicians are being held accountable for unprofessional and unethical conduct.

I also thought one of the hosts made an excellent point about how people are beginning to think about politics in America. He said that since the election, everyone has been spending 90 percent of their time thinking about everything that’s been happening and that he’s not sure how to feel about it.

He said that he was wrestling with two types of thinking about the allegations against Trump: that either people were freaking out about something that would ultimately have no impact or that everyone is waiting for some kind of revelation, some crucial evidence that will cause a dramatic political shift.
This struck a chord with me because it does feel like that’s been happening. Everyone’s increasingly involved with the election details, and it’s hard to tell if any of this will impact the 2020 election. This episode of ”Pod Save America” was interesting and relevant, but the hosts were really cynical and stressed out.

The episode, “2020: Pete Buttigieg on freedom and farting cows,” which aired March 1, was much more relaxing, but a little long-winded. Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, talks about his presidential campaign and his qualifications with Dan Pfeiffer in a very soothing way.

Though I have literally no opinions about Buttigieg, it was really nice to hear coherent plans about issues such as school shootings, public infrastructure and climate change. Buttigieg argued that he’s a millennial and would be able to help with much needed change and reformation in the Democratic party.
In both episodes, I think they did a good job covering current issues, but “A very revealing Cohenoscopy,” while having a great title, was a little too dramatic. The Cohen hearing wasn’t great, but it’s not the demise of the Republican party as we know it.