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A 'Zig-Zag' Edition of Politics Day

Ben Terrett

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says it is difficult to govern with what he calls a president "zigging and zagging" on his support of bipartisan efforts to make changes to the Affordable Care Act. In this politics Wednesday edition of River to River, host Ben Kieffer is joined by professor of political science at Iowa State University, Jim McCormick.

In the second half of the show they are joined by assistant professor in the Department of political science at the University of Northern Iowa, Evan Renfro. Renfro is also a former U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst. 

They talk through the latest politics including the bipartisan deal on Obamacare, the latest court blocks of Trump’s travel ban, the GOP budget deal and efforts at tax reform, the president’s decision not to re-certify the Iran nuclear deal, and developments in Iraq and Syria in the fight against ISIS.

The U.S.–backed Syrian Democratic Forces are in the process of kicking ISIS out of Raqqa, which has been the de-facto capital of ISIS. Renfro says they've lost about 90 percent of the land the previously controlled, but it's not as through they are all going away.  

"As ISIS is degraded, it's not going to be peace and love and rainbows and no more terrorism ever. They'll definitely grow into some other terror network. However ISIS–they were very good at recruiting jihadists from around the world, and their ability to recruit and attract new fighters has significantly dissipated due to these losses," Renfro says.

He says one question for the future involves what Russia's role in the region will be.

Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River