Jesse Wegman

JESSE WEGMAN

Journalist and Member of the New York Times Editorial Board

Jesse Wegman serves on the editorial board for The New York Times where he has written about the Supreme Court and legal affairs since 2013. He was previously a senior editor at The Daily Beast and Newsweek, a legal news editor at Reuters, and the managing editor of The New York Observer.

His recent book has been heavily praised with Publishers Weekly saying "Wegman combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America’s ‘core democratic principles’ and should be done away with…" The New York Times wrote, "People have been arguing against the Electoral College from the beginning. But no one… has laid out the case as comprehensively and as readably as Jesse Wegman does.”

Jesse Wegman participated in Should the People Pick Our President? With Jesse Wegman and Rick Hertzberg, on January 25, 2021.

Clyde Haberman

Clyde Haberman

American Journalist

Clyde Haberman has served as a journalist with The New York Times since 1977. His assignments included staff editor of The Week in Review; Metro reporter; City Hall bureau chief; and foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Rome, and bureau chief in Jerusalem. He is known and received tremendous praise for his coverage of the Attica prison rebellion, the fall of Ferdinand Marcos, the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians, the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the rise of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East. 

He was part of a Times team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News, awarded for coverage of the prostitution scandal that led to Eliot Spitzer's resignation as New York governor. He continues to be a NYT columnist  and writes the Retro Report essays for The New York Times.

Clyde Haberman moderated our event, The White Working-Class Political Revolution with David Kuhn, Charlie Cook, and Jim Webb on January 7, 2021. Kuhn, Webb, Cook, and Haberman discussed how the white working-class was driven away from the Democratic party and towards Republicans and how that schism continues to drive class conflict and political polarization today. The discussion also broached the Democrats inability to make inroads with this demographic and if white working-class voters support Republicans in spite of their own policy preferences.

Michael Schmidt

Michael Schmidt

Michael S. Schmidt is an American journalist, author, and correspondent for The New York Times in Washington, D.C. and national security contributor for MSNBC and NBC News. He covers national security and federal law enforcement and has broken several high-profile stories. The Pulitzer-winning reporter broke news of Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email while secretary of state, and of James Comey authoring a memo that detailed the president ordering him to end the FBI investigation of Gen Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.

All of these are detailed in his most recent book Donald Trump V. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President. Schmidt dives in to his experiences having that he describes as a “front row seat” as these pinnacle events came to fruition. This New York Time Bestseller offers one more startling dissections of the Trump presidency.

Click here for more.

Schmitt discussed his impromptu interview with President Donald Trump on the Late Night Show with Seth Meyers. Describing his interview with President Trump like “unzipping fog” as he unpacks with Meyers the experience. He details the extent of the work and how quickly he had to maneuver to keep up with the constant stream of news coming out day by day.

Michael Schmidt’s vast knowledge of the Trump presidency makes him an ideal panelist to discuss the highs and lows of the Final Presidential Debate. Join The Common Good Friday, October 23rd, 12:00pm EST to for a recap and discussion on the debate. Get your questions answered by Schmidt and our other expert panelists. Click the button to RSVP!

Steve Rattner

Steve Rattner

Businessman

Steve Rattner is the Chairman and CEO of Willet Advisors LLC, which invests former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s personal and philanthropic assets. He is the Economic Analyst for MSNBC’s Morning Joe and is a Contributing Writer for the Op-Ed page of The New York Times.

Rattner wrote the book Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry about his time as Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury leading the Obama Administration’s successful restructure of the automobile industry. Before this, in 2000, Rattner formed Quadrangle Group LLC, a private investment firm that had more than $6 billion of assets under management. He was Managing Principal there until February 2009.

Before the start of his investment banking career, Mr. Rattner worked as a journalist for The New York Times for nine years, mostly as an economic correspondent in New York, London and Washington. In 1982, he joined Lehman Brothers and was then a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley before leaving to become a General Partner at Lazard Frères in 1989. While at Lazard Frères & Co., he served as Deputy Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

Twitter: @SteveRattner

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Read more:

‘Rattner's charts: Examining Trump's economic weak spots’, MSNBC, 9 July 2019

Alex Henderson, ‘“This economy is not working for everybody”: Wall Street financier explains why many Americans are being “left behind”’, Alternet, 9 July 2019