The Chuck ToddCast
Interview Only w/ Leigh Ann Caldwell - Trump 2.0 Has Made Capitol Hill Irrelevant
22 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Chapter 2: How does independent media differ from legacy media in political coverage?
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Chapter 3: What impact did Trump's first term have on Congress's authority?
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Chapter 4: Why is Speaker Mike Johnson considered one of the weakest in history?
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Chapter 5: What are the potential risks of a government shutdown in January?
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Chapter 6: How are healthcare politics shaping the current political landscape?
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Chapter 7: What challenges do Republicans face without Trump's support?
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Chapter 8: How is fundraising affecting Congress members' effectiveness?
Well, joining me now for a little end of the year, where the hell is Congress headed next, is a good conversation with my friend Leanne Caldwell. She's the chief Washington correspondent for Puck, which is more and more becoming a must read these days.
Puck, one of my, yeah, it's one of my, look, in this day and age of independent, you know, where we have a lot of people questioning corporate owned media, shareholder controlled media, all of that nonsense, you know, Independent-owned news operations, I think, should be having a moment. And let's just say Puck's having a moment. Yeah. I enjoyed it.
I love it. It's great, actually. It's a good place to work. I get to cover what I want to cover. No. Yeah, it's it's great.
It's I don't really have you've been at The Washington Post and NBC. Right. It doesn't get more mainstream media than that. You and I got to know each other at NBC.
You hired me at NBC.
I hired. Well, I wasn't going to be so presumptuous, but I'd like to think I had good judgment here. How do you answer the question of, hey, what's the difference between Leanne Caldwell, the reporter for Puck, and Leanne Caldwell, the reporter for NBC and The Washington Post? How do you answer that question?
Oh, my gosh. No one's actually asked me that question in that way. I would say there is not actually a lot of difference in my, in how I approach my job specifically. Yeah. I still covering the hill, still covering politics. I think what is different is that I have changed my focus completely away from the incremental.
And I now think more deeply about the impacts of what's happening on the hill. I think about the big picture a lot more. And I really get to lean into kind of the conversations that are happening behind the scenes instead of what everyone is just saying publicly, you know? So I think that rather than my approach, it's more kind of the angle that's different.
Yeah.
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