A Reagan Forum Podcast

LtGen McMaster was the 26th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. Upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1984, McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018. He is currently the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. During today’s conversation with Reagan Foundation and Institute Executive Director John Heubusch, HR McMaster discusses his brand-new book, “Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free world” which is a bold and provocative re-examination of the most critical foreign policy and national security challenges that face the United States, and an urgent call to compete to preserve America’s standing and security. Let’s listen.

Sean Spicer is a lifelong Republican. His role in reshaping the Republican National Committee’s PR strategy helped the party rebuild after losses in 2012. He implemented his same strategies in 2014 and lead the party to sweeping victories. In 2016 prior to the must-see Republican primary debates, Sean worked on behalf of the party to restructure debate formats creating more informative and fair debates. Sean’s efforts as the RNC’s Chief Strategist and Communications Director landed him a spot in PR Week’s Power 15 list for 2016. During today’s conversation with Reagan Foundation and Institute Executive Director John Heubusch, Sean Spicer discussed his brand-new book, “Leading America,” which examines the upwards battle conservatives have to face from the media, Hollywood, academia, and big tech. Let’s listen.

New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser has written an unmatched case study in the acquisition, exercise, and preservation of power told through an account of one of the most significant and influential leaders in modern American government never to serve as president of the United States in their new book, The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker, III.   The book is the byproduct of more than two hundred interviews with sources including three former presidents, two former vice presidents, and a variety of former secretaries of state. James Baker has provided significant access to himself and his family members, along with never-before-revealed documents, memos, diaries, and letters. During today’s conversation with Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute executive director John Heubusch, Peter and Susan discuss the man who ran Washington. Let’s listen.

Matt Pottinger currently serves as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor under Donald Trump. He was the Senior Director for Asia in the Trump Administration since January 2017. In that role, Mr. Pottinger advised the President on Northeast and Southeast Asia, and coordinated U.S. policy for the region. Mr. Pottinger lived and worked in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China from 1997-2005, reporting for Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. He then joined the US Marines, at age 32, with active duty in Japan and three combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, followed by reserve duty at the Pentagon and the Defense Intelligence Agency. In a 2005 essay in the Wall Street Journal about his career change from journalism to the military, he said, “living in China … shows you what a nondemocratic country can do to its citizens.  I’m not an uncritical, rah-rah American.  Living abroad has sharpened my view of what’s wrong with my country, too.  It’s obvious that we need to reinvent ourselves in various ways, but we should also be allowed to do it from within, not according to someone else’s’ dictates.” During today’s conversation with Reagan Institute director Roger Zakheim, Mr. Pottinger discusses the increasingly tense US – china relationship.

Gerald Seib is the executive Washington Editor of the Wall Street Journal.  He joined the Dallas bureau of the WSJ as a reporter in 1978 and transferred to the DC bureau in 1980.  He covered the Ronald Reagan White House in 1987 and 1988 and won the Aldo Beckman award for coverage of the White House and the presidency.  Mr. Seib was also part of the team from the Wall Street Journal that won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in the breaking news category for its coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. On August 25, 2020, Gerald Seib’s book, “We Should Have Seen It Coming; From Reagan to Trump – a Front Row Seat to a Political Revolution” was published.  The book chronicles the rise, climax, and decline of one of the great political movements in American history—the forty-year reign of the conservative movement, from the election of Ronald Reagan to the Republican Party's takeover by Donald Trump During today’s conversation with Reagan Foundation and Institute executive director, John Heubusch, Gerald Seib discusses his book, which Rahm Emanuel calls a “thoughtful analysis of the recent historical trends that led us to today.”

During today’s conversation with Reagan Foundation and Institute Executive Director John Heubusch, Sarah Huckabee Sanders discusses her new memoir, “Speaking for Myself: Faith, Freedom and the Fight of Our Lives Inside the Trump White House,” a book she summaries as the story of her challenges of being a working mom at the highest level of American politics, and her role in the historic fight raging between the Trump administration and its critics for the future of our country.” Let’s listen.

In this week’s “A Reagan Forum” we bring you Dr. Jamel Wright, who joined us in a virtual conversation on September 4, 2020.Dr. Jamel Wright is the 27th President of Eureka College, Ronald Reagan’s alma mater. She is also the first woman and African American to lead the 165-year-old institution. Dr. Wright has led the effort to update Eureka College’s strategic plan, enhance communications, overhaul the Title IX policy and processes on sexual discrimination, work collaboratively with human resources to examine and refine hiring practices and establish strategic community partnerships. During the virtual conversation with Ronald Reagan Institute Director of Learning and Leadership, Janet Tran, Dr. Wright discusses President Reagan’s formative years at Eureka, President Reagan’s early advocacy for racial equality, and the challenges posed by COVID19 to higher education.

In this week’s “A Reagan Forum” we present bestselling author and Fox News Host Sean Hannity who joined us in a virtual conversation on August 5, 2020.  This was a long-awaited event for us, as his last visit was in 2010 when he launched his previous book, “Conservative Victory.” Let's Listen. 

As we think of 9-11, we cannot forget, we cannot be complacent, and we most certainly cannot let the terrorists win.  Ronald Reagan said it best:“When terrorism strikes, civilization itself is under attack; no nation is immune.  There’s no safety in silence or neutrality.  If we permit terrorism to succeed anywhere, it will spread like a cancer, eating away at civilized societies and sowing fear and chaos everywhere…the United States can be proud of the role that it plays in that struggle…In our time, it’s terrorism that must be overcome.”

In this week’s “A Reagan Forum” we present former Trump Deputy National Security Advisor KT McFarland who joined us in a virtual conversation on August 10, 2020. The Reagan Foundation had been working with her office since 2016 trying to create an event and one had finally been planned for July 2020 when the Coronavirus pandemic shut down event venues and we had to postpone our event.  Thankfully for us – and all our listeners -- she agreed to do it virtually and earlier this month she joined the Reagan Foundation and Institute Executive Director to discuss her bestselling book, “Revolution: Trump, Washington and ‘We The People.’ Let’s listen.

In this week’s “A Reagan Forum” we present our virtual conversation with Congressman Carl Curbelo, the son of political refugees who fled tyranny and oppression in Cuba, rising to hold office in the U.S. House of Representatives as the Congressman representing Florida’s 26th congressional district. Congressman Curbelo joined our Reagan Institute Policy Director Rachel Huff for a conversation on how conservatives should approach climate change and how his bipartisan approach to politics stems from Reaganite principles. Let’s listen.

In this week’s “A Reagan Forum” we present the Chairman of the National Governors Association and the Governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan.  This podcast is from our virtual conversation with Governor Hogan from July 28, 2020 – the actual launch date for his brand-new book – entitled, “Still Standing: Surviving Cancer, Riots, a Global Pandemic, and the Toxic Politics that Divide America.” Let's listen

Our next event in our virtual series was with New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor, who has written twenty thrillers including Blowback which was named “one of the top 100 killer thrillers of all time” and The Lions of Lucerne which was named “one of the best political thrillers ever.” In his latest book, Near Dark: A Thriller, his hero, Scot Harvath, discovers that the world’s largest bounty has been placed on him.  His only hope for survival is to outwit, outrun, and outlast his enemies long enough to get to the truth. During this virtual conversation with the Reagan Foundation and Institute’s executive director, Brad Thor discusses his latest book, as well as real threats facing the world today. Let’s listen:

Congresswoman Cheney represents Wyoming’s at-large congressional district and was elected by her colleagues to serve as the House Republican Conference Chair, the third-highest position in GOP House leadership, in 2018. During this virtual conversation, led by Reagan Institute Director Roger Zakheim, Congresswoman Cheney discussed how the GOP can better engage young and women voters, the ongoing protests engulfing our country, and the importance of U.S. leadership in the world.Let’s listen:

The Reagan Foundation continues to release new virtual programming almost every week.  On June 23, 2020, the launch date for his new book, the Reagan Foundation hosted former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to discuss his brand new book, Trump and the American Future: Solving the Great Problems of our Time. During our virtual discussion with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute’s executive director, Speaker Gingrich discuss the spread of the coronavirus, the highs and lows of the economy and the 2020 election. Let’s listen: