On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with RCI contributor Paul D. Thacker whose blockbuster new article details the fault lines being exposed as the United States seeks to deport a key ally of Prime Minister Keir Starmer for allegedly censoring American citizens and news outlets. In our round-up of the week’s best investigative reporting, Zane and Varney discuss a New York Times article detailing the Obama administration’s articles troubled surprise at Donald Trump’s rise, a Reason magazine article on how the FBI bent rules to spy on 1,100 people and a Guardian report on the collapse of Cuba.
YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/2YcAFTe3L_A
Articles discussed in this podcast:
Paul D. Thacker for RCI: Deporting Censorship: US Targets UK
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/02/18/deporting_censorship_us_targets_key_ally_of_british_government_over_free_speech_1165667.html
New York Times: Obama Took On Recession, Health Care and Iraq. What He Didn’t See Coming Was Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/us/politics/obama-trump-oral-history.html
RCI: Obama’s Fingerprints All Over Investigations of Trump And Clinton | RealClearInvestigations
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/01/22/obamas_fingerprints_all_over_investigations_of_trump_and_clinton_1160121.html
Reason: Report: The FBI bent its own rules to spy on 1,100 'sensitive' targets
https://reason.com/2026/02/16/the-fbi-bent-its-own-rules-to-spy-on-1100-sensitive-targets/
Guardian: No water or electricity, and children begging in streets filled with rubbish – but this is why I won’t leave Cuba | Cuba | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/13/no-water-or-electricity-and-children-begging-in-streets-filled-with-rubbish-but-this-is-why-i-wont-leave-cuba