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The New Abnormal

How Gerald Ford’s Big Mouth Helped Uncover Insane CIA Abuses

James Risen, author of The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys―and One Senator’s Fight to Save Democracy, joins this episode of The New Abnormal politics podcast to talk about Senator Frank Church, who led what is known as the Church Committee, a group that held Senate hearings in order to hold the intelligence community accountable for its expansive abuses. He shares one particular story with co-host Andy Levy that explains how a few whip-smart journalists, and President Gerald Ford opening his big mouth, finally exposed the CIA and set the hearings against them in motion.

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