Tennessee Voices, Episode 334: William Cooper, attorney and opinion contributor

President Joe Biden delivered his 2023 State of the Union Feb. 7 before a politically divided Congress. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic president of the Senate, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican speaker of the House, sat behind him.

Democrats applauded the president's statements throughout the evening while most Republicans typically stayed silent – with occasional outbursts from some rowdy GOP members of Congress.

The topic of democracy was big on Biden's agenda, and I share this because sustaining democratic institutions was an issue I discussed with my guest William Cooper on this episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast.

Cooper is an attorney and prolific authors of guest opinion columns who has contributed to The Tennessean, USA TODAY, the Wall Street Journal and The Baltimore Sun, among other publications.

For The Tennessean, he has written on issues such as the first impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump and how American federalism would stop Trump from assuming dictatorial powers – a fear of his critics.

We discussed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the recent assault on Brazil's federal government, and political personalities including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-George, who was one of the louder hecklers during the State of Union speech.

Cooper also discussed the important of citizens getting out of their echo chambers and consuming diverse sources of information to get at the truth.

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About Tennessee Voices

The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.

Watch past episodes:Tennessee Voices videocast

Please email your ideas for future guests to me at dplazas@tennessean.com. Thank you for watching.

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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network - Tennessee. He is of Colombian and Cuban descent, has studied or worked in several Spanish-speaking countries, and was the founding editor of Gaceta Tropical in Southwest Florida. He has lived in Tennessee since 2014. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Video podcast: William Cooper, attorney and opinion contributor