On Thursday’s RealClearPolitics podcast, Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon respond to the disappearance of NBC “Today Show” anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, as the president pledges to use “all resources” to bring her home. The panel unpacks Vice President JD Vance’s explanation of the Trump foreign policy doctrine in a new interview with Megyn Kelly and examines President Trump telling NBC News what he learned from the standoff over federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. RealClearInvestigations editor Peder Zane joins the show to talk about tomorrow’s RealClearInvestigations podcast exploring the decline of the city of Portland, and the rise of the “Greater Idaho” movement, where 13 counties in eastern Oregon want to change states. Finally, with the Winter Olympics opening Friday, the panel weighs why protests tied to U.S. deportation policy are expected to follow Team USA to Milan. You can listen to the show live each day at 11:00 a.m. on SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly Channel 111 and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** The show opens with the case of Nancy Guthrie, which captured national attention after multiple news outlets received apparent ransom notes and the president pledged to “deploy all resources” to bring her home. “I hope the FBI was helping all along,” Cannon said about Trump’s pledge to devote the full resources of the federal government. “The idea that an 84-year-old woman would get abducted out of her home in the middle of the night is horrifying,” Bevan added. “The odds that it would be just random seem pretty low.” *** In the next segment, around minute 8, the group debates whether Vice President Vance’s comments in a new interview with Megyn Kelly about the “New World Order” the Trump administration is trying to build made any sense. “I didn’t think it was a worldview at all,” Cannon said. “I thought it was interesting, but because it seemed to me to just be sort of babble.” “Donald Trump sees the world differently than past presidents,” Bevan said about Vance’s articulation of the Trump doctrine. “Trump will often just say stuff without laying out the rationale, and JD Vance does a pretty good job of that on a pretty consistent basis.” *** After that, at minute 16, the panel looks at President Trump telling NBC News that after the showdown in Minneapolis, he now appreciates the need for a “softer touch” on immigration enforcement. “An interesting sort of admission there-that he learned something. You don’t hear that from him very often,” Walworth commented. “That’s Trump at his best,” Bevan added. “He doesn’t do enough of this. If Trump would more publicly and more often say he’s learned or changed, instead of the full-on bull charging through the china shop, it helps humanize him.” Cannon quipped: “Are we going to use the second big phrase from the George H.W. Bush administration? We already used ‘new world order.’ Are we going to use ‘kinder and gentler’ Trump?” *** After that, at minute 22, RealClearInvestigations editor Peder Zane joins the show to talk about the new RealClearInvestigations podcast that will be published on the RCP YouTube channel every Friday, and the topic of tomorrow’s show: Mark Hemingway’s latest piece on the decline of Portland: “Model City: Portland’s Journey From Symbol of Chic to Shabby” “Portland is a great test case because as recently as 2009, it was a hipster paradise – a city that worked, a place people wanted to move to,” he explained. “And in the years since, for a variety of reasons, including the embrace of progressive policies that were often ineffective at creating safety and jobs, the city declined in a measurable way.” “Just like Chicago, San Francisco, and other cities dealing with urban problems, many people are having wonderful lives in Portland. But that does not negate the pattern of decline that makes it harder for many people to live there,” Zane said. Zane and the RCP panel also discuss the Greater Idaho movement, where 13 counties in eastern Oregon are seriously talking about leaving the state to join Idaho. “In Oregon, Washington, and California, you see progressive urban centers control state governments and impose policies on large parts of the state who don’t agree,” Zane explained. “The Greater Idaho movement is partly saying: We don’t know how to resolve this tension.” *** Also, 43 minutes into the show, anti-deportation protests are expected to follow U.S. athletes to Milan, where the opening ceremonies for this year’s Winter Olympics will take place on Friday. “There are photos of ‘ICE out of Minneapolis’ signs in Milan. I’m sure that’s very spontaneous,” the panel jokes. “I’m sure Italians are deeply upset about Minneapolis.” “The U.S. government did say there would be no ICE agents accompanying the Olympic team, which I don’t even understand why that would be a question. But they put it out there anyway,” Walworth added. “No ICE on the ice,” Cannon joked. *** Don’t miss an episode of the RealClearPolitics radio show – subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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