AirTalk explores USC's response to an investigation into the clandestine exploits of the University's former medical school dean. We also get the latest on Kushner's Russia hearing; speak with a stand-up comedian who scored a show on Comedy Central with his killer impersonation of Donald Trump; and more.
Week in politics: What to watch for as Kushner, Manafort, Trump Jr. testify before Congress, plus what’s next for health care
It’s a busy week on Capitol Hill and it got started in full force Monday morning as President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed door hearing.
He released a prepared statement as well, denying any collusion with Russia in order to affect the 2016 election. Kushner will testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. Also set to be questioned this week are former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort and the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., though their hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee will be private after the two reached a deal with Senators on Friday to keep the hearings private.
Meanwhile, President Trump is doing his own digging into the probe into potential ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 election. His aides are looking into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators, hoping to gain some leverage. In a wide-ranging interview last week with the New York Times, Trump wouldn’t go as far as to say he’d fire Mueller but has said that it’d be a ‘violation’ of the scope of the probe if Mueller dug into his business transaction records.
Following Friday's shakeup in the White House communications department that saw the resignation of now former press secretary Sean Spicer after the White House announced New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as the new communications director, we'll also look at how the new White House comms team will look to reshape the president's message and what, if anything, the media can expect to see change. Scaramucci made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows this past weekend.
We’ll also hear the latest on what’s happening this week with regards to an Affordable Care Act repeal vote and preview an announcement set for this week regarding a ban on U.S. tourism to North Korea.
Guests:
Caroline Heldman, associate professor of politics at Occidental College and author of the forthcoming book, “Protest Politics in the Marketplace: Consumer Activism in the Corporate Age” (Cornell University Press, 2017); she tweets
Lanhee Chen, research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and former policy director for the Romney-Ryan 2012 presidential campaign; he tweets
On the heels of USC's med school dean resignation, will the university's brand hold up?
Last week, the LA Times broke a story about the clandestine exploits of USC’s former medical school dean, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito.
Four days later, USC announced its plans to fire Puliafito for his conduct, which allegedly included methamphetamine use while overseeing medical students, professors and clinicians, according to the Times investigation. He was also a prolific fundraiser for the university, with estimated donations totaling more than $1 billion. Arguably one of the most egregious allegations against Puliafito is his presence with a 21-year-old woman who overdosed in a Pasadena hotel room. She later recovered.
The L.A. Times said in a recent article that they had reached out to USC repeatedly over the course of the last 15 months. The university never responded to the Times’ inquiries. It’s unclear whether the Times investigation led to the end of Puliafito’s role as dean.
So what do you think of USC’s handling of Puliafito’s conduct? Will this hurt USC’s brand in the future?
We reached out to USC’s Office of the President, as well as their media relations office. They were unable to join us on-air, but provided the following statement:
The University of Southern California (USC) believes it is imperative to let the inquiry by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher run its course so as to not impede its progress or cloud the recollections of those who may have information to share. Our priority now is to obtain a clear picture of exactly what happened and to ensure the well-being and trust of our students at USC, the patients at the Keck School and our entire university community.
Guests:
Paul Pringle, Los Angeles times investigative reporter; he is the lead reporter on this story; he tweets at
Simon Barker, managing partner at Blue Moon Consulting Group, crisis management firm based in Denver; he focuses on crisis management and reputational risk in higher education
Ann Fromholz, a Pasadena-based employment lawyer who has conducted hundreds of workplace investigations; she is also a USC law school alumna
Being President Trump: An interview with comedian Anthony Atamanuik
The election of Donald Trump energized the stand-up and comedy world.
President Trump has inspired many impersonations, and one of them (and arguably the best in AirTalk’s humble opinion) is by stand-up comedian Anthony Atamanuik.
Atamanuik started his Trump impersonation as a one-off gag, and it quickly went viral. Now, Atamanuik is starring in his own Comedy Central show built around the act.
Guest host Libby Denkmann speaks with Atamanuik on playing Trump, and more.
Guest:
Anthony Atamanuik, stand-up comedian and star of Comedy Central’s “The President Show”