Jim Antle, executive editor of the Washington Examiner magazine, brings to life its pages in the show Inside Scoop. Each episode features exclusive insight from the article authors and expert analysis.
As government control keeps expanding in Washington, D.C., polling shows people are losing trust in national institutions. Antle explains how both parties, but especially Democrats, treat even the smallest majority as a mandate to push sweeping federal agendas.
“Every election feels existential,” Antle says. “Because the losing side may suffer long-term policy defeats as a result of losing the election. The losing side also doesn’t really trust in the legitimacy of the other side. They feel that our politics are broken, and a lot of Americans across the political spectrum feel that way.”
Antle suggests a return to federalism and shifting power back to the states may help lower the temperature as the political divide between red and blue states becomes incredibly polarized.
“This was not the system that the Founding Fathers designed,” Antle says. “They wanted the states to have many powers, and the powers of the federal government to be few and defined. We have gotten away from that.”
Next in the show, a Democratic Senate candidate with a Nazi tattoo, abuse allegations, and a trail of scandals. Jim Antle talks with Editorial Director Hugo Gurdon about Graham Platner’s controversial campaign in Maine. Gurdon thinks it’s an insult to voters for Platner to continue in the race.
“What there isn’t enough of is good character,” Gurdon says. “So he really has not only displayed a bad character, but he’s also shown that he doesn’t understand that good character is something that voters should want.”
Gurdon breaks down Platner’s troubling past, Democrats’ decision to stand by him, and how former President Bill Clinton’s indiscretions in the Oval Office have paved the way for Platner to succeed.
“If Bill Clinton had not defined deviancy down a generation earlier,” Gurdon says. “Not just with the Lewinsky affair, and what happened in the Oval Office, but he was exposed as a serial abuser of women. He behaved in grotesque ways, and this set the precedent for people who behaved abominably to say, ‘Right, I’m just going to tough it out, and I’m going to lie,’ rather than what would have happened in the past, where someone is found out, they hang their head in shame, they resign.”
Lastly in the show, Trump’s UFC Freedom 250 extravaganza is coming to the White House. The timing elevates the evening into the unofficial launch of a summer filled with patriotic reflection and celebration. Daniel Ross Goodman explains that President Donald Trump’s choice to host UFC Freedom 250 on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence creates a distinctly modern parallel.
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“The founding document, signed by farmers, merchants, and tradesmen who risked everything for self-government, represented an act of profound defiance and courage,” Goodman says. “Those men understood that liberty required resolve. Staging a combat sports spectacular on the South Lawn honors that founding temperament by presenting living examples of American resilience and competitive spirit. It offers a new generation a vivid reminder that strength — physical, mental, and national — continues to serve as a virtue rather than a liability.”
Tune in each week at washingtonexaminer.com and across all our social media platforms to go behind the headlines in the Washington Examiner’s magazine show, Inside Scoop.