Michael Isikoff

Journalist, author, podcaster

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

Tulsi Gabbard and I were in Damascus to meet with Bashar al-Assad within a couple of weeks of each other in 2017. We came away with very different takes.
https://t.co/DILzqfMsAW

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

Not to mention @dcsandbrook who is right about almost everything except the Beatles

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

With the inimitable @holland_tom at The Rest is History Festival at Hampton Palace. Happy Fourth!

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

The now private Instagram posts of Christina Norton, the new chief of staff at ODNI, shows her partying with pals on Capitol Hill and boasting of her role supervising GOP poll watchers "standing guard" at polling booths across the country. https://t.co/IGpwE6Xzzb

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

Wielding a “sledgehammer,” acting DNI Pulte has decimated the ranks of the National Intelligence Council, firing senior national intelligence officers for Russia-Ukraine, China, Europe and WMD. My latest in @talk_spy https://t.co/WpZHbPQ3UH

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

.@bradlander campaigns to be the left's version of Lindsey Graham

[Jacob N. Kornbluh @jacobkornbluh]

Lander alongside Mamdani: “As a proud Jewish New Yorker, I will join you in that fight to end occupation and apartheid and genocide.”

#NY10

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

Oh please. They QUOTED somebody saying "spiritual Kristallnacht" in a news story. News flash-- I and other reporters quote people saying all sorts of things all the time. That doesn't mean we endorse or approve of the comments. Duh.

[Joe Wrote @joewrote]

The two reporters on the New York Times Platner story — Katie Glueck and Lisa Lere — are the same reporters who described Zohran Mamdani's July 2025 win as a "Spiritual Kristallnacht."

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

Lively chat with @TVietor08 on Israel, Cuba, Ukraine and the looming battle over the direction of Democratic Party national security policy

[MSW Media @mswmediapods]

ICYMI: @talk_spy 📷 podcast with hosts @SpyTalker, @KarenGreenberg3 & @Isikoff #SpyTalk #MSWMedia

Former Obama speechwriter @TVietor08 talks about energizing Dems on vital US #foreignpolicy issues. #politicalpods

Listen, like & follow: https://t.co/xtm5OFxA3A

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

I'll be there -- with a choice reading for the moment

[Washington Monthly @monthly]

Attention Washington Monthly readers & fans: meet & hear from our Senior Editor Anne Kim at the Foggy Bottom Book Crawl in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 6 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Also speaking will be our past contributor, @Isikoff.

Free tickets at the link below.

https://t.co/Ys2a5GqcHu

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

Perfect line towards the end of @tab_delete ‘s gripping new book, How to Rule the World, about how he got the president of Stanford sacked. “Ruling the world was much less appealing than uncovering how others did it.” Roger that!

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

A lively back and forth with Peter Kornbluh on the Castro indictment and whats next for Cuba

[MSW Media @mswmediapods]

ICYMI: @talk_spy 🕵🏼‍♀️ podcast with hosts @SpyTalker, @KarenGreenberg3 & @Isikoff #SpyTalk #MSWMedia

Guest: @peterkornbluh

Listen: https://t.co/5GEuV9LvEs

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

After reviewing the fine print, it's now clear I went too far in this post. The "forever barred" phrase applies to a ban on audits or prosecutions on taxes filed as of the "effective date of the settlement," in other words this week. That's still a major overreach, given that complex tax filings already submitted now can't even be audited. But the "forever barred" language wouldn't apply to future tax filings.

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

They were find blatant fraud in current or future taxes they couldn’t bring a case either. That goes beyond a pardon which governs past conduct. On its face, this gives Trump and his family a forever license to cheat the government!

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

They were find blatant fraud in current or future taxes they couldn’t bring a case either. That goes beyond a pardon which governs past conduct. On its face, this gives Trump and his family a forever license to cheat the government!

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

Forever Barred? That’s quite the reach. Totally understandable if Trump partisans were to point out that the Biden Justice and Treasury departments had 4 years to bring a case against Trump, his family and company over their taxes - and never did. But this seems to suggest even if…

[Tyler McBrien @TylerMcBrien]

BLANCHE: "The United States...is hereby FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing...examinations or similar or related reviews" against Trump "or related or affiliated individuals," including family members or related companies and trusts.

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

If you’re the scion of a wealthy Maine family, get sent to fancy private schools, your Dad finances your home, pays for you and your wife to fly to Norway and picks up the tab for your fertility treatments AND your Mom is the main customer of your oyster farm, it does undermine the idea you are uniquely attuned to the experiences of the working class.

[Patrick Graber @pggraber]

@Isikoff @nytimes @LuluGNavarro Quick question, are you suggesting that a person is not working class is their parent was well off? I'm not an expert on Platner. Can you clarify, does he have money or does/did his dad, does he live paycheck to paycheck as he says? It seems his Dad's money isn't really relevant

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

https://t.co/yNP1dDa05F

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

This @nytimes story by @LuluGNavarro on progressive fav Graham Platner-he of the Nazi tattoo who presents himself as a working class oysterman- casts him as something of a fraud: a “prep school kid” who went to tony private school and whose wealthy father financed his house and paid for him and his wife to fly to Norway for expensive fertility treatments.

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

In the grand tradition of Marvelous Marv Throneberry

[MD @mike_daddino]

How is this even possible?

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

open invitation for @brhodes and @TVietor08

[John Bunde @oldsparky]

@brhodes @Isikoff @PodSaveAmerica Time for Ben to visit @SpyTalker for a podcast. Allows me to save time and listen to 2 favorites in one pod...

[Michael Isikoff @Isikoff]

So you’ve worked this out with your partner at National Security Action, Jake Sullivan, who signed off on those Saudi Arms sales for offensive weapons despite, not just the Khashoggi muder, but the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Yemen?

[Ben Rhodes @brhodes]

@Isikoff @PodSaveAmerica We did this on Pod Save the World so many times that I couldn't possibly count.