The New Washington

The Senate majority leader has had a challenging few weeks. The Republican from Kentucky spoke to Carl Hulse about his complicated relationship with the president, why the Democrats didn’t strike as good of a spending deal as they let on and his non-reaction to Steve Bannon’s attacks.

The Democratic leader of the Senate is riding a political high, days after striking a deal with President Trump in the Oval Office on government funding and the debt limit, much to the chagrin of his Republican counterparts. He spoke with Carl Hulse about how the whole thing went down and what it might mean for the future of bipartisan governing.

The provocateur, political consultant and subject of a new Netflix documentary is one of President Trump’s oldest advisers. Michael Barbaro and Maggie Haberman listen to and discuss Barbaro's recent conversation with Mr. Stone about his views on the internal White House battle between globalists and nationalists, why he promotes conspiracy theories and mistruths, and what he sees as one of the worst things in politics — being boring.

The Republican from Arizona is one of the latest people to draw fire from President Trump on social media and in his campaign-style rally speeches. Mr. Flake, who is mounting a reelection campaign, spoke with Carl Hulse about surviving Mr. Trump’s criticism and writing his new book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” which argues that the right has given into the “politics of anger.”

The White House press secretary is one of the most visible jobs in American politics. Michael Grynbaum, a media correspondent for The Times, spoke with Ms. Sanders about growing up as the daughter of a prominent politician, inheriting her position after her celebrity predecessor Sean Spicer quit and trying to manage coverage of a tumultuous White House while mollifying a boss who believes he is his own best spokesman.

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian tampering in the election is the premier inquiry on Capitol Hill. The Republican senator from North Carolina, the committee’s chairman, opens up about its progress, his relationship with President Trump and a distant relative who made his last name famous.

The health care debate is not over on Capitol Hill. The folksy Republican senator from Tennessee is leading a new charge to fix the Affordable Care Act through a bipartisan approach. He talks with Carl Hulse about his journey from voting to repeal it to calling hearings to make it better.

Who are the characters remaking Washington? Michael Barbaro, the host of "The Daily," and Carl Hulse, The Times's chief Washington correspondent, discuss the key political figures that we’ll be hearing from on this show.