The rule of law isn’t supposed to be optional in America — but lately Washington seems to have forgotten that. This week, Rick Wilson sits down with JP Cooney, former Deputy to Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, to talk about the growing crisis of lawlessness and why restoring accountability starts with fixing Congress itself. After years inside the Department of Justice working on some of the most consequential federal investigations in modern history, Cooney is stepping into the arena, running for Congress in Virginia’s 7th District in 2026 to bring seriousness, backbone, and respect for the rule of law back to Washington. Rick and JP break down how Congress lost the plot, why consequences in government have become optional, and why the next generation of leaders needs to end the chaos, restore law and order, and rebuild trust in American institutions before the damage becomes permanent.
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You can find J.P. Cooney on X @cooneycongress, and on Bluesky @cooneyforcongress.bsky.social. Check out his campaign website, at www.cooneyforcongress.com.

Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.

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The Elephant in the Room: the “fun part” of Trump’s Iran war is over. The bombs dropped and the headlines rolled — but now comes the reality of a conflict with no strategy, no exit plan, and no adults in the room. Rick Wilson breaks down how Trump, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio stumbled into a rapidly escalating Iran war that could cost billions, risk American lives, and spiral into the next Middle East forever war. And as the conflict grows, so do the questions: Is this about national security — or a convenient distraction from the Epstein files and other scandals closing in at home?
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Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.

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Rick sits down with Jason Zengerle to dissect Hated by All the Right People, a scalpel-sharp look at how Tucker Carlson morphed from bow-tied conservative pundit into the high priest of grievance politics. They trace the Iraq War as the inflection point that cracked the old GOP brain, Tucker’s Fox News era where outrage became currency, and his post-Fox glow-up as a free-range chaos entrepreneur feeding the MAGA algorithm. But this isn’t nostalgia — it’s about consequences. As a new war with Iran explodes into missile and drone retaliation this weekend, Rick and Jason connect the dots between right-wing media radicalization, foreign policy brinkmanship, and the profit model that rewards escalation over truth. Tucker didn’t just witness the unraveling of the conservative mind — he built a business on it. And as 2026 approaches, the rage machine he helped engineer isn’t just warping politics — it’s shaping global stakes.
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You can find Jason Zengerle on X @zengerle, and as a staff writer for the New Yorker. His book, ‘Hated by All the Right People’ is available now, wherever fine books are sold.

Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.