The Costa Report

Walter "Fritz" Mondale served as Vice President of the United States under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. Mondale worked as the United States Senator from Minnesota from 1964 through 1976.  He was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1984, and the first to select a woman as a Vice Presidential running mate for a major party – Geraldine Ferraro. From 1993 to 1996 Mondale served as the U.S. ambassador to Japan under President Bill Clinton. 

Peter Georgescu is the Chairman Emeritus of Young & Rubicam, one of the world's largest advertising agencies. He emigrated to the United States in 1954 after being held as a political prisoner in Romania. His career spans 38 years, with top management experience both in the U.S. and Europe. In recognition for his contributions he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2011.  Mr. Georgescu is also the author of three bestselling books.

Ben Shapiro is a political commentator, lawyer, author and former Editor-at-Large for Breitbart News. Shapiro’s podcast, The Ben Shapiro Show, is the second most popular iTunes podcast behind Oprah Winfrey's. Owing to his conservative views and writing, Shapiro was the subject of a widely reported protest aimed at preventing him from speaking on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley in 2017. Shapiro writes for Creators Syndicate, is Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire, and is also co-founder of media watchdog, TruthRevolt.

Mr. Paul McDonald has been senior executive director of Robert Half Management Resources, Inc. since 2000. He joined Robert Half International in 1984 as a recruiter for financial and accounting professionals in Boston, following a public accounting career with Price Waterhouse. Mr. McDonald manages operations for more than 145 locations worldwide. He has been interviewed by national media outlets including BusinessWeek, Time, The New York Times, USA Today, Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal. In 2006, he authored, "Effective Recruitment and Retention Strategies" for Executive Reports. 

Matthew "Matt" Taibbi is an American author and journalist. No stranger to controversy, Taibbi is a Contributing Editor for Rolling Stone magazine, writing articles on domestic and international affairs. Taibbi has authored several best-selling books including Insane Clown President, The Divide, Griftopia, and The Great Derangement. His latest book, I Can’t Breathe, describes the police killing of Eric Garner which energized the Black Lives Matter movement.

Dr. Mark Trexler has specialized in climate change for almost 30 years. He has been a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and worked on the first carbon offset program while at the World Resources Institute in Washington, DC.  He founded the first business climate risk consulting firm, and most recently served as Director of Climate Risk for the international risk firm of Det Norske Veritas. Dr. Trexler’s current project is the Climate Web – an open-access resource for exploring climate risks and solutions.

Gretchen Carlson is an award-winning news anchor known for co-hosting The Early Show on CBS as well as Fox and Friends and The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson on the Fox News Channel. Carlson’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox led to the resignation of Fox News founder and CEO, Roger Ailes. Her newest book, Be Fierce: Stop Harassment and Take Your Power Back, has received critical acclaim and Carlson’s courage is being credited with recent charges brought against Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein.

Thomas "Mack" McLarty served as White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton. He currently serves as Chairman of McLarty Associates, an international strategic advisory firm which he co-founded in 1998, and Chairman of the McLarty Companies, a fourth-generation family transportation business.

Robert Shapiro is an acclaimed American civil litigator and the co-founder of RightCounsel and LegalZoom. He was one of the key members of the O.J. Simpson defense team, after which he steered his practice away from criminal defense. Today Shapiro is a senior partner at law firm Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard, Avchen & Shapiro, LLP.

Lewis Black is an American comedian, author, social critic and actor. In addition to being voted one of Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Comedians of All Time, Black is the author of three bestselling books. He is a highly regarded actor who has appeared in films such as Hannah and Her Sisters, Jacob’s Ladder, The Hard Way, etc. Black has served as the “Ambassador for Voting Rights” for the American Civil Liberties Union since 2013.

Robert F. Bauer previously served as White House Counsel to United States President Barack Obama. Prior to this appointment Bauer was the personal attorney for Obama and General Counsel for Obama’s presidential campaign. He also served as General Counsel for the Democratic National Committee. Robert Bauer is a law partner at Perkins Coie.

George P. Schultz served as the 60th United States Secretary of State, 62nd U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, U.S. Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and U.S. Secretary of Labor. He is one of only two politicians to serve in four different cabinet positions. Schultz took a hiatus from government to become the President of Bechtel Corporation until he was tapped by President Ronald Reagan to become Secretary of State. Though he retired from public office in 1989, he continues to advise heads of state and Fortune 500 companies.

John Delaney is the United States Representative for Maryland’s 6th - and the state’s second largest - Congressional District. He is the first individual to declare his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the President of the United States in 2020. He is also the co-founder of two successful publicly traded companies: Health Care Financial Partners (HCFP) and CapitalSource.

Walter "Fritz" Mondale served as Vice President of the United States under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. Mondale worked as the United States Senator from Minnesota from 1964 through 1976.  He was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1984, and the first to select a woman as a vice presidential running mate for a major party – Geraldine Ferraro. From 1993 to 1996 Mondale served as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan under President Bill Clinton. 

Matthew Griswold Bevin was elected Governor of Kentucky in 2015. As Governor, Bevin has been an advocate of permitting insurance providers to compete across state lines, capping damages awarded for pain and suffering, allowing individuals to purchase health insurance with pre-tax earnings, and providing federal block grants to states to allow them to cover individuals with pre-existing conditions. 

Richard Painter served as an Associate Counsel to the U.S. President from 2005 to 2007. During his tenure, he worked as the chief ethics lawyer for President Bush, White House employees, and senior nominees to Senate-confirmed positions in the Executive Branch. He is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota and is currently vice chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Robert David Atkinson is a Canadian-American economist. He is president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a public policy think tank based in Washington, D.C., which promotes policies based on innovation economics. As a respected policy expert and commentator, Atkinson has testified numerous times before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and appears frequently on news programs including BBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, and NBC Nightly News.

Karl Rove is a renowned political consultant and policy advisor. Karl Rove served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2000–2007 and Deputy Chief of Staff from 2004–2007. He oversaw the Offices of Strategic Initiatives, Political Affairs, Public Liaison, and Intergovernmental Affairs and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, coordinating all White House policy-making processes. Since leaving the White House, Rove has worked as a political analyst, strategist and contributor for Fox News, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. 

Deepak Chopra is a prominent advocate of alternative medicine and bestselling author. Chopra studied medicine in India before emigrating to the United States where he became Chief of Staff at New England Memorial Hospital. Chopra is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism and is the author of more than 85 books translated into over 43 languages. In 1996, he co-founded the Chopra Center for Wellbeing.

Peter Georgescu is the Chairman Emeritus of Young & Rubicam, one of the world's largest advertising agencies. He emigrated to the United States in 1954 after being held as a political prisoner in Romania. His career spans 38 years, with top management experience both in the U.S. and Europe. In recognition for his contributions he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2011.  Mr. Georgescu is also the author of three bestselling books.

Jim Lehrer is a journalist best known as the former News Anchor and Executive Editor for the PBS NewsHour. He is also known for his role as a popular moderator in more U.S. Presidential debates than any other journalist. In 1999, Lehrer received the National Humanities Medal and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and into The Silver Circle of the Washington, DC, Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He is the recipient of two Emmys, the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, the George Foster Peabody Broadcast Award, the William Allen White Foundation Award for Journalistic Merit and the University of Missouri School of Journalism's Medal of Honor.

Roger Stone Jr. is a long-time confidant of President Donald Trump, political consultant and strategist. Stone hosts the Stone Cold Truth radio program and is the author of several bestselling books. He has written for the New York Times Sunday Magazine, The New York Times as well as Newsmax, Breitbart, and the FOX Opinion page. He is also a frequent guest on Fox News. Since 2009, Stone's annual "Ten Best and Worst Dressed" list has been featured in the Huffington Post and the New York Post. 

Steven Lynn Beshear was the 61st Governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 to 1980, was the state's Attorney General from 1980 to 1983, and Lieutenant Governor from 1983 to 1987. He founded the consulting firm, Hourglass Consulting, LLC, and recently served as a Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Beshear’s 2017 book - People Over Politics - shares the inside story of how Kentucky made democracy work and how other states can do the same.

Karl W. Eikenberry served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009 until 2011, during the U.S. troop surge. He had a thirty-five-year career in the U.S. Army, retiring with the rank of lieutenant general. Eikenberry is presently the Director of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative and faculty member at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. He is a Stanford University Professor of Practice, and an affiliate at the FSI Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law, Center for International Security Cooperation and The Europe Center.

George J. Mitchell was Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995 and U.S. Senator from Maine from 1980 to 1995. He was the primary architect of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement for peace in Northern Ireland. Mitchell also served as the chairman of The Walt Disney Company and US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999.

Stephen McConnell Case is the co-founder and former CEO of America Online (AOL). In 2000, he negotiated the largest merger in business history, bringing together AOL and Time Warner. Case is the founding chair of the Startup America Partnership—a White House effort to accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation. A member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, Case serves as Chairman of the Case Foundation.

Lawrence Levy is a Silicon Valley lawyer and executive hired by Steve Jobs in 1994 as CFO of Pixar Animation Studios. Levy served on Pixar's board of directors until 2006.   Levy published "To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History" – a book which chronicles the story of Pixar's improbable success. In 2003, Levy cofounded the Juniper Foundation.

Leon Edward Panetta served as United States Secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013, Director of the CIA from 2009 to 2011, White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997, Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1994, and as a U.S. Representative from California from 1977-1993. As Director of the CIA, Panetta oversaw the operation that brought down Osama bin Laden. While Secretary of Defense, Panetta repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and focused on keeping the U. S. military strong in the face of tightening budget constraints. Panetta retired from an esteemed career in Washington D.C. in 2013 and presently serves as Chairman of The Panetta Institute for Public Policy, located at California State University, Monterey.

Former Senator James Warren DeMint is an American politician who was a United States Senator from South Carolina from 2005 to 2013. He also served as the United States Representative for South Carolina's 4th congressional district from 1999 to 2005. DeMint has been a tireless advocate for smaller government, individual liberty, a strong national defense and traditional values. He is the author of several books, the most recent of which, Saving Freedom, focuses on behind-the-scenes actions in Congress that some believe are changing the character of our nation.

James E. Bohannon is known for hosting the popular late night radio program, "The Jim Bohannon Show" on the Westwood One Network. For 31 years, Bohannon hosted "America in The Morning," a widely successful news program which earned him a place in the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Talkers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. 

Michael Shumway Lee is a United States Senator from Utah - elected to office in 2010. He began his career as a clerk for the U.S. District Court before serving as a clerk for future Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.  Lee worked as Assistant U.S. Attorney for Utah from 2002 to 2005. As Senator, Lee has been a proponent of limiting the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and reforming social security. Lee is the Chairman of the Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee and serves on the Energy and Natural Resources, Armed Services, Judiciary and Joint Economic Committees.

Michael DeWayne Brown served as the first Under Secretary of Homeland Security for President George W. Bush from 2003-2005, and as the Director, Deputy Director and General Counsel for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from 2001-2005. He was a member of the White House Consequence Management Committee following the attacks of 9/11. Brown is the co-author of Deadly Indifference: The Perfect (Political) Storm in which he describes the role of politics in a risk-averse society facing natural and man-made disasters.

David Nabhan, author of "Earthquake Prediction: Dawn of the New Seismology” is an advocate who has been calling for the creation of an earthquake warning system for the U.S. West Coast for the last two decades. He proposes a plan with zero cost and available for implementation tomorrow whereby newspapers and other media might publish higher probability advisories for elevated seismic risks - and has taken that controversial debate public in many media forums with the USGS, Cal Tech, and Southern California Earthquake Center. 

Morton Matt Kondracke became widely popular as one of the regular panelists on The McLaughlin Group.  In addition to regular appearances and commentary on FOX News, Kondracke writes a nationally syndicated column on politics, and domestic and foreign policy, titled Pennsylvania Avenue. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Saving Milly: Love, Politics and Parkinson’s Disease, in which he chronicles his wife’s battle against Parkinson’s disease.

Benjamin Fuchs is a registered pharmacist, nutritionist, and cosmetic chemist. Fuchs has worked as a Registered Pharmacist and Consulting Nutritionist for more than 15 years.  Since 1991, Fuchs has lectured on the importance of nutritional supplementation for healthy skin and bodies.  He holds a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Colorado and BA in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University. Fuchs hosts a popular, nationally syndicated radio program called The Bright Side.

Sheldon Whitehouse is the current United States Senator of Rhode Island, serving since 2007. Prior to his election as Senator, Whitehouse worked as the Attorney General of Rhode Island from 1999 - 2003, and United States Attorney for the District of Rhode Island from 1993 - 1998. Whitehouse serves on he Committee on the Budget, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Committee on the Judiciary, to name a few. In his recent book, Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy, Whitehouse offers an eye-opening take on how corporations influence the business of the U.S. Senate.

Jay Inslee is the 23rd and current Governor of Washington.  Prior to becoming Governor in 2013, Inslee served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Washington’s 1st Congressional District. Inslee also worked as Regional Director for the United States Department of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton. A forward thinker on clean energy and the environment, Inslee co-authored the book, Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean-Energy Economy, - a book which describes the job-creating potential of clean energy.

Christopher Bergin is the President and publisher of Tax Analysts, an ‘independent, nonpartisan multimedia organization dedicated to fostering an open and informed debate on taxation.’ Bergin joined Tax Analysts in 1991, as the editor of its flagship publication, Tax Notes. Under Bergin’s leadership, Tax Analysts is now recognized as a prominent contributor in the fight for transparency in tax systems, both nationally and internationally. Prior to joining Tax Analysts, Bergin managed federal tax products for Prentice Hall, Inc.

Kathleen Sebelius is the former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, serving from 2009 - 2014, and was former Governor of Kansas from 2003 - 2009. She was widely praised as the Democratic respondent to the 2008 State of the Union address. Sebelius currently serves on the board of directors of Dermira, Grand Rounds, Hampton Creek, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Myovant Sciences. An expert on national and global health issues, human services, and executive leadership, Sebelius is the founder and CEO of Sebelius Resources LLC.

Malcolm Stevenson “Steve” Forbes Jr. is an American publishing executive who was a GOP candidate for President of the United States in 1996 and 2000. He is the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes, the nation’s leading business magazine, which has a circulation of more than 900,000 and readership of 6 million. Forbes is the author of several books including his most recent publication, "Reviving America: How Repealing Obamacare, Replacing the Tax Code and Reforming The Fed will Restore Hope and Prosperity," which “shows how the United States can recover the optimism and entrepreneurial dynamism that made it the greatest nation in history.”

Jim Gilmore served as Governor of Virginia from 1998 – 2002, and as a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2008 and 2016 elections. Prior to his work as Governor, Gilmore served as Attorney General of Virginia and as a counterintelligence agent in the U.S. Army. Gilmore is the President and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to "promoting free markets, and limited effective government." Gilmore is presently the President of USA Secure, a homeland security policy ‘think tank,’ as well as a popular commentator on the Fox News Network.

William “Bill” Press is the host of the nationally syndicated radio show, The Bill Press Show, Senior Political Contributor to CNN, columnist, and author. Press served as chairman of the California Democratic Party from 1993 to 1996, as chief of staff to Senator Peter Behr, and as Director of the California Office of Planning and Research under Governor Jerry Brown. He has received numerous awards for his work, including four Emmys and a Golden Mike Award. In 1992, The Associated Press named Press the ‘Best Commentator of the Year’. His most recent book, "Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama let Progressive’s Down," explains ‘the many ways President Obama has failed to live up to either his promises or his progressive potential."

Robert "Bob" Woodward is an American investigative journalist, author, and current Associate Editor of The Washington Post. Woodward is best known for his work with Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. He has authored 18 bestselling books, 12 of which have been #1 non-fiction bestsellers, more than any other contemporary nonfiction author.  His most recent book, The Last of The President’s Men, reveals the untold story of Alexander Butterfield, the Nixon aide who disclosed the secret White House taping system that led to Nixon's resignation.

Hassan Hassan is an author and resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. His most recent book, co-authored with Michael Weiss entitled, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, is a New York Times Best Seller and was chosen by The Wall Street Journal as one of the ‘10 must-read works on the evolution of terrorism in the Middle East.’ He is a columnist, and former deputy comment editor, for The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi. His writing focuses on Syria, Iraq and the Gulf States, as well as the following of Salafist, jihadist and Islamist groups in the MENA region. Hassan has written for numerous publications including the New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Guardian, and Foreign Affairs.

Michael Auslin is an analyst and author. He was a former professor at Yale University and is a current resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.  Auslin is a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and National Review.  His recent book, The End of the Asian Century: War, Stagnation, and the Risks to the World’s Most Dynamic Region describes the legal and economic factors which may derail China’s future growth.

Jill Stein is an American physician and the 2016 and 2012 Green Party nominee for President of the United States. Stein entered politics in 2002, when she ran for Governor of Massachusetts representing the Green-Rainbow Party. She later represented the Green-Rainbow Party in the race for State Representative in 2004, and Secretary of State in 2006. Stein is the co-founder of the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the health and well-being of Massachusetts communities. She is the recipient of the Clean Water Action's "Not in Anyone's Backyard" Award, the Children's Health Hero Award, and the Toxic Action Center's Citizen Award.

Christine Todd Whitman served as the 50th Governor of New Jersey and as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush. Whitman was New Jersey's first and, to date, only female Governor. She is presently the President of The Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm that specializes in helping companies find innovative solutions to environmental challenges.

John King is the anchor of CNN’s Inside Politics. He formerly anchored State of the Union, as well as John King, USA. King joined CNN in 1997, becoming the network’s Senior White House Correspondent and later, Chief National Correspondent.  King is the recipient of the top reporting prize from the Associated Press Managing Editors' Association for his in depth coverage of the 1991 Gulf War.

Howard Dean III served as the 79th Governor of Vermont from 1991 - 2003, and as Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 - 2009. Prior to his election as Chair of the DNC, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election in 2004. Dean is the founder of Democracy for America, and currently works as an independent consultant for Dentons Law firm, focusing on healthcare, early childhood development, and the expansion of grassroots politics around the world. 

Scott Adams is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of satire. His Dilbert series came to national prominence through the downsizing period in the 1990's, and now appears in over 3,000 newspapers, in 57 countries, and in 19 languages. Adams frequently writes about the social and mental landscape of white-collar workers in modern corporations. He won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, and Best Newspaper Comic Strip of 1997. In the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Adams correctly predicted that Donald Trump would win the Republican nomination in a "landslide."

William Bret Baier is the host of Special Report with Bret Baier, on the Fox News Channel, and serves as the Chief Political Anchor for the Fox network. Baier previously worked as Fox’s Chief Whitehouse Correspondent and Pentagon Correspondent for President George W. Bush. During his tenure at the network, Baier has interviewed numerous leaders, including two U.S. Presidents and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Most recently, Baier anchored the first GOP debate of the 2016 Presidential Election.

Robert ‘Bob’ Ney is a former United States Representative from Ohio’s 18th Congressional District. Ney served as Chairman of the House Administrative Committee from 2001 – 2006. As Chairman of the committee, he was known as the "Mayor of Capitol Hill." In 1999, he was a prominent part of the "Stand Up for Steel" campaign, which united the steel unions and steel industry in a fight against low-priced imports.  His most recent book, Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill, recounts the events leading up to his resignation following the investigation into the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal.