Mark Halperin

Welcome in, everybody.

Welcome to NextUp.

I'm Mark Halperin, the editor-in-chief of the live interactive video platform Two-Way, the host of this ye olde program available on YouTube and as a podcast.

And grateful to you all for tuning in to be a Nexter is to understand and appreciate what we try to do here, which is to tell you

What's coming next up?

You've got good judgment if you like this show, my mom says, and I'm glad to have you here.

First up today, next up will be my reported monologue.

Trying to make sense of this week where there's this weird dichotomy where almost every political pundit and strategist will say President Trump needs to focus more on what's going on at home.

that part of what's ailing his poll numbers is over focus on foreign policy and national security.

And yet the president spent much of this week in Davos dealing with a bunch of foreign policy issues.

So I've talked to folks who've worked for past presidents who served two terms and talked to them about what causes a president

to spend so much of a second term focus on national security foreign policy.

It's an interesting story about the psychology and the practical realities of being a second term American president.

So I will bring my reporting to you there and eager to hear what you think about what I found.

And then later in the program after that, two strategists, Smarties, who will tell us what's going on in American politics, their perspective.

Melissa DeRosa, Democratic strategist, and Mark Bednar, a Republican principal at Monument Advocacy.

They will both be here.

And then Michael Knowles, back on the program, host of the Michael Knowles Show on The Daily Wire, is going to talk to us about his perspective on life, happiness, and other stuff.

Anyway, excited to talk to all three of them, excited to do that business, but also excited

Before they join us again in just a moment, my reported monologue.