Dispatch Live: GOP Primary Updates and a Dispatch From Ukraine

Join us for our weekly livestreamed conversation.

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Join Jonah, Andrew, and Audrey for the latest reporting from the Dispatch Politics team, including the latest on the debt ceiling, Ron DeSantis’ campaign launch, and a few days on the trail with Vivek Ramaswamy. Stay tuned for discussion of Kevin’s special report from Ukraine.  

Grab a drink (or a few), get your questions ready, and join us at 8 p.m. ET on YouTube for this week’s Dispatch Live.

Dispatch Live recordings are made available as a members-only podcast on select platforms. If you can’t make it for the live broadcast, see below for information on how to access the podcast. 

Q&A: We want to hear from you during the show. To ask questions of our panelists and interact with other members you can use the YouTube Live chat feature or simply comment on this post during the broadcast.

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Comments (15)
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  1. Pohl

    Enjoyable segment with Kevin. Whereas his Ukraine article’s observations were merely tainted by his conclusions, I’ll now say they’re being ruined by his continued insistence on an awful Realpolitik. Whether it’s his talk of the war being an “opportunity” or Jonah’s desire to “bleed” Russia, TD needs to bring in some other voices on the war. Our aid should look the same as if some other nation had attacked Ukraine (also a nuclear power in this hypothetical). Our aim is not merely peace, which is a charge more reasonably leveled at someone more vacillating, at least rhetorically, like Scholz, but a durable peace, which means on acceptable terms. In the meantime, it can’t be throw everything and the kitchen sink over there, just to defeat our “enemy,” Russia. I prefer to say great power rival (or Ukraine’s enemy, or a current enemy of the peace . . .), but I don’t want to get distracted by semantics. There’s enough principle at stake here, which is that it’s not our role to exploit wars. We either have a just reason for providing aid, as we do, or we should abandon the endeavor. No additional cynical motive is required or should change our calculus one iota. Aid Ukraine until a good peace can be achieved or is essentially mandated by events, and don’t cause one drop of blood to be shed more than is necessary, no matter who is bleeding. Blessed are the peacemakers.

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      Ben Connelly

      The path to enduring peace is to crush Russia. If Putin gets a temporary peace and can go kick his wounds, he’ll be back.

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      1. Pohl

        Not to resurrect this too much, but I disagree that the US should have such thoroughgoing aims, but I’ve also said many times that I prefer to arm Ukraine in peace. Both sides can lick their wounds then. But one side is quickly moving towards NATO membership. The other is going nowhere fast. Of course, it’s all in flux. And Ukraine could conceivably have a breakthrough, but this is all a matter of probability. We can argue about how to change the odds in Ukraine’s favor, though. I’m still pretty fine with the status quo, for now. I think attrition is unsustainable, but it’s not at a tipping point yet.

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          Ben Connelly

          Yeah I mean I’d like to end the war quickly but the only way I see that happening is if we give the Ukrainians F16s so they can establish air superiority.

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          1. Pohl

            I don’t think that will establish air superiority in the numbers the West is likely to provide. I’m not sure they will be useful against drones swarms, for example. I could be wrong. But there are reasonable arguments for them. The Russian Air Force has not been a huge factor in Ukraine, so I don’t think the F16 is as valuable as more land-based missile defenses would be.

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    BWG

    Why is it so frickin hard to get to the podcast??? The links take me to old podcasts. Why is it not on Spotify with others? Why can’t I just access it from the Dispatch website?
    Rant over, I feel marginally better.

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  3. Rickhneedham

    Where’s the link to the recording?

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  4. Bigdonmck

    Andrew is a very bright fella. But he continued to step all over the other partipant. Once he apologized for going too long and on another occassion he began to answer a question directed to Audrey before stopping himself.
    I could be wrong ( count the words or screen time of Andrew vs Audrey ), it wouldn't be the first time I spoke out of turn. Both Audrey and Andrew are well versed....Audrey is a helluva lot more concise. Still an enjoyable podcast.

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      BWG

      I didn’t get that impression. The one time Audrey and Andrew started talking at the same time he stopped immediately and apologized. Andrew did have lots to talk about because Jonah had lots of questions about Vivak, and Andrew spent time following his campaign. I thought Audrey had good insights about Capitol Hill, glad she’s on that beat so I can get smarter about it listening to her.

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      1. Bigdonmck

        My impression was that Jonah directed his comments to Audrey, and yet Andrew began to talk. He DID apologize. Well mannered fella with a fine upbringing, no doubt. As for Jonah having more questions for Andrew than Audrey....let's blame Jonah. It's now HIS fault.
        I know someone else who can dominate a conversation. Me. A personal flaw, I'm afraid. In the grand scheme of things, this issue is rather trivial. Lots more important things going on this planet.
        Still, both participants are a helluva lot smarter than I and I repeat it was an enjoyable podcast. Thanks for the post.

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  5. Kyle C

    Do you think Kevin Williamson could clean the Vaseline off of his camera next time?

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  6. Rune485

    I’d love to know what MBD’s “usual standard” is, because I’ve read quite a few of his articles and “standards” were non-existent.

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    Christophe

    Would like to know whether you agree or disagree with David French's NYT piece on Desantis.

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  8. Mike Liveright

    1) I'd like you to have your moderator for the Disapatch Live put a Date/Time clock in the background of his Zoom panel so that when we log in we can see which Day, Time is being played back. and probably start the Real-time session 15 minutes early so that we can open it up and not get the previous session.

    2) I don't know if the Book sessions could benefit from Zoom sessions, but I'd like theme to be Video with the Audio being available as a podcast, if it seems reasonable.

    Thanks.

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