Join us for an important convo with Jeremy Scahill about his recent major reporting for the Intercept, the creation of his new outlet Drop Site News, the state of national politics, and more. As the will-he-won’t-he drop out surrounding Biden’s 2024 candidacy hits a fever pitch after over two weeks since a disastrous debate, the future of the presidential race looks increasingly unstable. But neither Biden’s detractors nor his supporters can close the deal yet. Watch our discussion below:

Last night (after nearly an hourlong wait) Biden gave a press conference (his first since November ‘23!) that offered plenty of material to the case against him without adequately shoring up the case for his second presidential run. The Biden of last night’s presser was certainly more coherent and self-possessed than the Biden of two weeks ago, when his shambolic, stumbling debate performance ignited serious and organized calls for him to pass the torch. Since then, upwards of 20 Congressional Democrats have raised their voices to suggest Biden drop out of the race; every few minutes, it seems, the New York Times reports that another party official will support these calls and urge Biden to step aside. It’s the main political question at this point in the campaign, and for the Democratic nominee’s standing to seem so tenuous, to hinge upon each press conference, bodes ill for November, to say the least.

Meanwhile, at his and Ryan Grim’s new independent media outlet, Drop Site News, Jeremy Scahill has released not-to-be-missed reporting on Hamas leadership, in the form of a series of interviews between Jeremy and Hamas officials.

Some people will inevitably criticize the choice to interview and publish Hamas officials’ answers to these questions as propaganda. I believe it is essential that the public understand the perspectives of the individuals and groups who initiated the attack that spurred Israel’s genocidal war—an argument that is seldom permitted outside of simple soundbytes. — Jeremy’s note on the interviews, published as “On the Record with Hamas”

In the interviews, the Hamas officials explain their motives behind the Oct. 7 attacks, describe how they view their affiliation with Hamas and the group’s purpose, and discuss years of communications with Israel. Jeremy’s incredible work here, which has since been censored when shared on Instagram, provides insight into the sense of “righteous rebellion” that motivated the Oct. 7 attacks for Hamas operatives, and contextualizes these discussions with insights into the history of Hamas-Israel relations.

All this is to say that Drop Site News is off to a pretty unbelievable start, and in our interview with Jeremy, we talk about where the outlet will go from here. Thanks for tuning in; we hope you enjoy the episode. You can listen to it tomorrow as a podcast on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.