In this episode, with Juliette Kayyem, we discuss the recent disturbing events involving federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security and other governmental agencies going into the city of Portland, Oregon and now threatening to come to Chicago, Illinois and other cities. We also talk about whether this use of federal force is legal, whether it is a wise policy, whether it is an appropriate response to protests in the aftermath of the devastating killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black lives in America.

We are joined by Juliette Kayyem, who is currently the Senior Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where she is faculty chair of the Homeland Security and Security and Global Health Projects. She is also the author of Security Mom, a memoir that explores the intersection, and commonalities, of her life in homeland security and her life as a mother and appears frequently on CNN as their on-air national security analyst. Most recently, she was President Obama’s Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. There she played a pivotal role in major operations including handling of the H1N1 pandemic and the BP Oil Spill response; she also organized major policy efforts in critical infrastructure protection and community resiliency. Juliette has also served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorism, a legal advisor to US Attorney General Janet Reno, and a trial attorney and counselor in the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department.
Intergenerational Politics is a video series created by Jill Wine-Banks and Victor Shi dedicated to engaging all generations in politics with weekly unfiltered conversations with experts across the nation.