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The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line

By: Al Jazeera
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A weekly take on US politics and policies and how they affect the world.2026 Al Jazeera Media Network. All rights reserved. Politics & Government
Episodes
  • How will Iran war fallout impact upcoming US elections? | The Bottom Line

    How will Iran war fallout impact upcoming US elections? | The Bottom Line
    May 24 2026
    President Donald Trump was able to purge his most vocal critics within the Republican Party, as Americans voted for the congressional candidates who will run in November’s midterm elections. One of the most prominent politicians to be unseated was Representative Thomas Massie, who pushed for the release of the Epstein files. The Democratic Party partially released a report about performance that noted “a persistent inability or unwillingness to listen to all voters”. Host Steve Clemons asks former Trump aide Hogan Gidley, and Matt Duss – former adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders – about the challenges facing both parties.
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    25 mins
  • Former US negotiator with Iran: Trump falling into Vietnam trap

    Former US negotiator with Iran: Trump falling into Vietnam trap
    May 17 2026
    When United States President Donald Trump measures success by counting how many Iranian leaders the US and Israel have killed or how many Iranian boats or missile launchers have been destroyed, he’s looking at the “wrong metric”, argues a former US special envoy to Iran, Rob Malley. Malley told host Steve Clemons that the only way out of this war is “a settlement that respects our core interests, but also theirs”. To calculate the odds of a deal, Malley said, psychologists may be more useful than experts because “it really depends on the mindset of President Trump.”
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    25 mins
  • Is the US empire in the middle of a long decline?

    Is the US empire in the middle of a long decline?
    May 11 2026
    When the United States threatens to take over countries and destroy civilisations, “these are the wild gesticulations of a sinking enterprise”, argues Richard Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts. Wolff tells host Steve Clemons that US leaders refuse to face the reality that the US empire is in decline. Around the world, he adds, people are “deeply internalising” the lessons from the US's inability to defeat Iran. The people in the US are becoming “bitterly angry” at their situation, where the richest 10 percent of Americans own 80 percent of corporate stocks, making the stock market “utterly irrelevant” to the masses. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X : https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile
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    25 mins
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