Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff

Afleveringen

• 
  Veterans Sue New York Over Closed Primaries. Hegseth Purges 20% of Generals. Iraq Ends After 20 Years — Iran Just Beginning. Media Blitz Pod 04.10.2026 14min

  The rigged two-party system just picked a fight with the wrong people. Paul Rieckhoff and Independent Voter Project attorney Chad Peace are taking New York State to court over closed primaries that force 270,000 New York veterans — and 2.7 million nationwide — to surrender their independence just to cast a meaningful vote. It's a First Amendment fight, a constitutional fight, and a fight that starts in New York but is built to go national. If you've ever walked your kid past a public school on primary day and had to explain why dad can't vote, this episode is for you.
• 
  Friday Football: Connell McShane. How to fairly cover Trump’s America on TV. 02.10.2026 35min

  Pete Hegseth just labeled the press treasonous. The White House calls reporters the enemy of the state. And somewhere between the hot takes and the hate mail, working journalists still have to show up every day and tell Americans the truth. On this Friday Football edition, Paul sits down with News Nation anchor Connell McShane — one of the most fair, prepared, and genuinely decent people in cable news — to pull back the curtain on how a centrist newsroom actually operates in Trump's America. McShane breaks down his daily discipline, the independent media bias ratings he uses as a north star, and why he believes a free press is both a privilege and a right.
• 
  Let vets vote. 3.1 million New Yorkers locked out of primaries. Rieckhoff & IVA files landmark lawsuit to blow up closed primaries. 01.10.2026 17min

  Paul Rieckhoff is on the courthouse steps in Foley Square, filing suit against the state of New York. The question in front of the court is as old as the republic and as urgent as this news cycle: does the right to vote derive from citizenship, or from joining a political party? In New York, 25.4% of the electorate — 3.1 million voters — is shut out of the primaries that actually decide most elections. Public schools. Public workers. Public machines. Private party gatekeeping. It is unfair, un-American, and the plaintiffs argue, unconstitutional.
• 
  Trump’s Iran quagmire meets the Midterms. Independent vets lead the charge while Democrats play catch up. Latino Voters in Texas Turning on the GOP. Media Blitz Pod 30.09.2026 19min

  Paul Rieckhoff joins the MSNBC table with Nikki McCann Ramirez of Rolling Stone and former Harris senior advisor Mike Nellis to break down the political sucking chest wound of Trump's Iran war — and how it is bleeding into every corner of the 2026 midterms. From Texas, where Republicans are burning nine figures to defend a state that was never supposed to be competitive, to Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, and Alaska, where independent veterans are running as kryptonite to GOP incumbents, this is the clearest read yet on why Trump is now more unpopular with true independents than Nixon at the height of Watergate.
• 
  “Why I’m Suing the State of NY.” The #1 threat to America isn’t Trump — it’s AI. OpenAI meddles with three federal sites. Iran War sucking chest wound hits GOP at the pump. 29.09.2026 23min

  The number one threat to America isn't Donald Trump — it's AI. That's Paul Rieckhoff's argument on episode 635, and the New York Times just handed him fresh evidence: OpenAI's own technology went rogue this summer and meddled with three US government websites without the lab's knowledge. NATO, the UN, Congress, the World Bank — the institutions built to hold the line — can't keep up. Congress isn't even in session. This is a failure of imagination on par with the run-up to 9/11, and it demands bipartisan regulation and international cooperation before AI touches the grid, the military, or the vote.
• 
  Will Trump’s Iran War drag down the whole GOP? Tillis, Murkowski, Collins, Rand Paul break ranks. 28.09.2026 10min

  The Iran war isn't just a foreign policy story anymore — it's the political story that's about to reshape 2026. Trump's own base is fracturing, GOP pollsters in Iowa are quietly warning that R+15 districts are within the margin of error, and a war powers vote just came within a single vote of passing as Tillis, Murkowski, Collins, and Rand Paul crossed the aisle. Meanwhile, John Fetterman lined up with the president. The rigged two-party system is showing its seams, and independents — now the largest voting bloc in America — are the ones deciding where this goes.
• 
  Iran’s President in NYC. Xi in DC. AI Without Guardrails. 27.09.2026 9min

  Iran's president is on U.S. soil, giving a UN speech and taking shots at America — while Iran is actively trying to kill Americans in the region. Xi Jinping is inbound to Washington for meetings with President Trump. And at the same UN, the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic are warning the world that AI is racing ahead without guardrails. Paul Rieckhoff joins the show for his weekly hit and refuses to let any of it slide past as normal. Is there any precedent for allowing the leader of a country at war with us to hotel up in Midtown? What actually comes out of a Trump–Xi sit-down when the last three years of "deals" with Putin produced nothing? And why is the industry itself begging Washington for regulation the White House won't give?
• 
  Friday Football: The collision of sports and politics with Joshua Robinson, Wall Street Journal Sports editor. 25.09.2026 39min

  Sports may be the last thing left in American life that everyone watches at the same time. Eight of the top 10 live broadcasts last year were the NFL. That kind of reach is why politicians, presidents, luxury conglomerates, and the MAGA machine have all decided the field is the new front line — and why what happens there increasingly refuses to stay there. Wall Street Journal sports editor Joshua Robinson joins Paul from Montreal, where he's covering the World Road Cycling Championships, to unpack a moment when the White House is reaching down into games, rosters, and referee decisions in ways that used to be unthinkable.
• 
  Bob Chew: Colorado’s Independent Navy Vet taking on Hickenlooper — and the Republicans and Democrats. 52% reject the duopoly. $8T in debt and counting. 24.09.2026 32min

  Colorado has become one of the clearest case studies in America of what happens when voters lose faith in the rigged two-party system. A mere 25% of the state is registered Democrat. 23% is Republican. The remaining 52% — a majority — reject both. Into that opening steps Bob Chew: former Navy officer on a nuclear submarine during the Cold War, engineer, entrepreneur who grew a company from four employees to hundreds, and now the independent candidate for U.S. Senate challenging John Hickenlooper head-on. Paul Rieckhoff sits down with Chew for the latest installment of the Meet the Independent Candidate series to talk about why a lifelong problem-solver decided he could no longer sit on the sidelines.
• 
  Hurricane Season 2026. Trump hits the UNGA. Cuba, Iran, the media—all in the path of the storm. 23.09.2026 22min

  Hurricane season is here, and the biggest storm making landfall this week is Hurricane Trump. Paul Rieckhoff opens episode 630 from New York City as the UN General Assembly turns into a global stage for threats, propaganda, and pressure campaigns. From the UNGA lectern, Trump floated annihilating the Islamic Republic, telegraphed Cuba as the next target, mocked the very concept of artificial intelligence, and kept pushing the rigged two-party system further into authoritarian territory. Then he banned CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House and rolled out Trump TV "a predictable next step in the MAGA machine's propaganda buildout.
• 
  AI is THE national security issue. Is Trump gonna hit Cuba now? Is space war next?!? 22.09.2026 26min

  Paul Rieckhoff is solo from New York City with Trump, Zelensky and Netanyahu all in town for UNGA, and the news cycle already on fire. AI researchers are sounding the alarm that models are breaking containment. The Pentagon quietly undercounted American military deaths in the Middle East by at least four. Reaper drones are being shifted to Southern Command as Trump and Rubio keep Cuba on the vision board. And the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is openly telling troops to prepare for war on the moon. When Congress is out and Trump is losing in the polls, that is precisely when the most reckless moves get made.
• 
  Trump’s Iran War a “Sucking chest wound.” Seven Republicans break on war powers. Canada to the EU. Diesel over $6. 45% of US voters now Independent. Media Blitz Pod 21.09.2026 22min

  The Iran war has cascaded from the Strait of Hormuz to the Bab el-Mandeb to your grocery bill, and the president has two bad choices left: capitulate or escalate materially. Paul Rieckhoff runs the ground truth with a sharp panel breakdown of what's actually happening at the pump, in the Freedom Caucus, and inside a House that just adjourned two weeks early while calling itself the most productive Congress since 1789. Seven Republicans just voted for a war powers resolution. Andy Harris is picking public fights over gas prices. Karl Rove says he's voting for a Democrat. This is not spin — this is a party fracturing in real time.
• 
  Is Trump losing control of everything? Massie moves on Hegseth. The Fed hikes rates. Ukraine goes all-in. Plus: Ed Sheeran walks into a buzzsaw. Media Blitz Pod 20.09.2026 22min

  Is Trump losing control of everything? That's the through-line this week as the system starts pushing back on multiple fronts at once. Paul Rieckhoff breaks down Thomas Massie's articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — a Pentagon leader more obsessed with grooming standards and fitness optics than with getting the job done in Iran or telling Congress the truth. Inside the building, morale is cratering and the leaks are coming from senior officers who want him out. Meanwhile, Kevin Warsh — the man Trump handpicked to replace Jerome Powell and slash rates — did the opposite. He hiked. Because inflation is real, the bond market doesn't lie, and even a Trump loyalist has to answer to Economics 101.
• 
  Can Ed Sheeran bring peace to the Middle East? Congress shuts down two weeks early. 19% Approval for Trump. The Iran War Grinds On. PLUS: Friday Football! 18.09.2026 21min

  Congress has left the building — for two months. No AI legislation, no check on an Iran war the American people never signed up for, no oversight while Trump threatens Cuba, threatens Greenland, watches the Fed raise rates, and lets his son throw a Russian-funded wedding party. Trump sits at 19% approval. J.D. Vance and Pete Hegseth are already jockeying to succeed him. Republicans are scrubbing him from their own ads. And the Democrats aren't exactly filling the vacuum. That's the opening for independents — and Paul Rieckhoff lays out exactly where the movement is building, from Brian Bengs in South Dakota to Dan Osborn in Nebraska to Seth Bodnar in Montana to Todd Achilles in Idaho.
• 
  “They’re getting rich, you're getting screwed.” Russia feeding Iran intel to kill Americans. LSU, Lane Kiffin, and the death of College football. Media blitz pod 17.09.2026 15min

  Russia is quietly feeding Iran the intelligence it needs to kill American service members, the munitions stockpile the administration swears is full is demonstrably empty, and the sailors on the USS Lincoln haven't seen their commander in chief set foot on the deck. Meanwhile the president's son is accepting gifts from a foreign "close friend," the attorney general is running interference instead of investigations, and the Iran war is now polling worse than the data centers inside MAGA itself. This is a media blitz episode — Paul Rieckhoff stitching together the sharpest moments from four national cable hits in eight hours into one no-BS conversation about what's actually breaking in America right now.
• 
  Polygraphs, Purges, and the Snake Pit Inside Hegseth’s Pentagon. What is the Pentagon Doing About AI? 16.09.2026 57min

  The Pentagon has gone dark. No press conferences since May. No real embeds in an active shooting conflict. Four-star generals pushed into retirement with a short phone call and no explanation. An Army Secretary out. Polygraphs on the table. And a 60 Minutes segment that played less like accountability journalism and more like a Hegseth highlight reel. Washington Post national security reporter Dan Lamothe returns for his 11th appearance to walk Paul through what it actually looks like to cover Pete Hegseth's Pentagon in 2026 — and why the propaganda machine is only getting louder.
• 
  Hegseth’s Hollowing Out Of The Pentagon. 80 Generals Purged. A Downed Jet, A $100k Missile, And A 60 Minutes Propaganda Play. Media Blitz Pod 15.09.2026 14min

  An institution at war is being hollowed out from the inside. As many as 80 generals and admirals have been fired or had their promotions blocked. Trusted mentors with decades of combat leadership have been purged with no explanation. Key positions sit empty for months while deployments stretch to record lengths and munitions run short. Paul Rieckhoff joins MS NOW's Alicia Menendez and Pentagon reporter Priya Sridhar to lay out what's really happening under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — and why it should alarm every American, regardless of party.
• 
  25 Years Later, The Truth Finally Drops. 170,000 Pages, A Seventh Bell, And Cancer Cases Tripling. If They Lied, They Should Go To Jail. Media Blitz Pod 14.09.2026 29min

  Twenty-five years. That's how long it took for the truth about the air at Ground Zero to finally reach daylight. This week New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani released more than 170,000 pages of city records confirming what first responders, downtown residents, and Stuyvesant High School kids have known in their bodies for a generation — the air was not safe, leaders knew it, and they lied. Paul was there in September 2001 as a National Guard officer working the pit. He's spent the years since watching friends die of cancers and illnesses that never should have been a mystery. This episode brings you inside two of the most important conversations he had over the 9/11 weekend — with Katy Tur from Ground Zero and with Ali Velshi on The Eleventh Hour — as the country marked a somber anniversary and rang a seventh bell for the more than 9,400 who've died since the attacks.
• 
  “The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Seen. And The Most Beautiful.” 9/11 - 25 Years Later With Connell McShane. 13.09.2026 14min

  Twenty-five years later, Paul Rieckhoff finally tells his own 9/11 story in full. Sitting at Ground Zero with Fox Business correspondent Connell McShane, Paul walks through the days he'd quit his Wall Street job, linked up with fellow New York National Guardsmen, and searched the shattered bottom of the Winter Garden while truck horns signaled another possible collapse. It is the worst thing he has ever seen. It is also, he says, the most beautiful — because of the unity, the volunteers, the fire crew from Arkansas that just got in the rig and started driving. Retired combat pilot Glenn Ignazio joins from the other side of the world he was on that day, in a wartime footing on the Iraqi border when the second plane hit.
• 
  9/11 - 25 Years Later with Rob Serra. The Air Was Never Safe. Mamdani Docs Reveal What They Knew And When. Why Trump and All Politicians Should Stay Away. 11.09.2026 45min

  Twenty-five years on, the story of 9/11 is being hijacked again — by politicians running for cover, by a president inventing himself into the rubble, and by an algorithm that feeds our kids conspiracy theories instead of history. FDNY firefighter and first-responder advocate Rob Serra returns to Independent Americans for the conversation we've had every year since this show started, and this one hits different. Newly released documents confirm what Rob and every first responder already knew: the air was never safe, hundreds of thousands of civilians were lied to, and Stuyvesant students were sent back to eat lunch in a room that had been a morgue three days earlier.