Every day in every state across the country, our political system is bankrolled by an army of fundraisers, pulling in millions of dollars a race. Sometimes it looks like you might imagine knocking on doors, calling every name in the phone book, and emailsso many emails. But for all those little fish throwing $100 to their local race, it s the whales those campaign fundraisers really need powerful, rich individuals and companies. And when they donate $25,000, $100,000, a million dollars, they want a favor. Or 10. It should be obvious that s corrupt, but with a wink and a nod, political deals toe the bribery line every single day. And we may never have noticed that if a certain illinois governor hadn t flung back the curtain with an unrepentant ego, a political rra pocouption crime spree, and a set of unprecedented audio recordings that shined a bright light on the inner workings of american political power. Ladies and gentlemen, meet rod blagojevich. It was early morning, cause i used
Every day in every state across the country, our political system is bankrolled by an army of fundraisers, pulling in millions of dollars a race. Sometimes it looks like you might imagine knocking on doors, calling every name in the phone book, and emailsso many emails. But for all those little fish throwing $100 to their local race, it s the whales those campaign fundraisers really need powerful, rich individuals and companies. And when they donate $25,000, $100,000, a million dollars, they want a favor. Or 10. It should be obvious that s corrupt, but with a wink and a nod, political deals toe the bribery line every single day. And we may never have noticed that if a certain illinois governor hadn t flung back the curtain with an unrepentant ego, a political corruption crime spree, and a set of unprecedented audio recordings that shined a bright light on the inner workings of american political power. Ladies and gentlemen, meet rod blagojevich. It was early morning, cause i used to g
Time someone told me this package is dead, i would be a rich person. It was dead back in may. It was dea in june. It was dead in july again. All i ve heard is how it s dead and yet amazingly, it continues to advance. New polling from the washington post and abc news shows vaccine hesitancy has gone down in the wake of the delta surge with the percent of americans likely or less likely to get a covid shot now. Just about half of what it was in january. It also comes as president biden s approval rating has dropped. That s down about 10 points since june. Senior adviser to the president reacting this morning. We re not worried about poll number numbers. We re worried about the people in louisiana and new york and nj nmg. This has never been a president who worried about himself. He really worries about the country. Let s go to heidi at the white house for us. Heidi, welcome to you. Is the white house concerned that when extended unemployment benefits end, it will hurt the economy? report
With stephen sackur. Welcome to hardtalk. I m stephen sackur. Hungary s prime minister victor orban seems to regard his increasingly toxic relationship with the eu s brussels hungary s prime minister viktor orban seems to regard his increasingly toxic relationship with the eu s brussels institutions as a badge of honour and a political asset. On a range of issues, from press freedom to lgbt rights, hungary routinely ignores the collective interpretation of eu values. At what cost? my guest is hungary s foreign minister peter szijjarto. Is there room for a authoritarian, illiberal government inside the eu? peter szijjarto in budapest, welcome to hardtalk. Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation. It s a pleasure to have you on the show. Foreign minister, the relationship between your country and the european union, the institutions of the eu, appears ever more dysfunctional. How concerned are you about that? well, what i would say is that we definitely have debates with the insti
Interpretation of eu values. But at what cost? my guest is hungary s foreign minister peter szijarto. Is there room for a authoritarian, a liberal government inside the eu? peter szijarto in budapest, welcome to hardtalk. Good afternoon, thank you for the invitation. It s a pleasure to have you on the show. Foreign minister, the relationship between your country and the european union, the institutions of the eu appears ever more dysfunctional. How concerned are you about that? well, what i would say is we definitely have debates with the institutions in brussels. Actually, we are under continuous attack, whatever we decide european institutions find a way to put some pressure on us and try to blackmail us in order to change our decisions and do not take advantage of the national competencies. I think the major issue is that the european unions future is under debate now. How we can make the european union stronger in the future? and there are two major approaches in this regard. A fed