U.S. Election | Munk Debates

Laura Ingraham

"America needs renewal. America needs a leader who sees his job solely as making the lives of the average Americans better."

Laura Ingraham is the host of the syndicated talk radio show “The Laura Ingraham Show,” which airs in 225 markets in the United States. She is a regular contributor on Fox News Channel as well as the editor-in-chief and founder of the website LifeZette, which bills itself as a cultural and political news source for conservatives and independents.

Ingraham gave a high-profile speech at the Republican National Convention in July 2016 in Cleveland. She used the opportunity to chastise fellow Republican hold-outs for not supporting Donald Trump in his nomination bid, which was ultimately successful.

Ingraham is the author of No. 1 New York Times bestsellers Power to the People and The Obama Diaries, as well as Shut Up and Sing and The Hillary Trap.

A graduate of New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia Law School, Ingraham has worked as a defence attorney, served as a law clerk for the Supreme Court of the United States and was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan’s administration.

She has three young children—all adopted—and is a passionate advocate for both domestic and international adoption efforts. She and her family reside in Washington, D.C.

Newt Gingrich

"If you want to break up the corrupt bureaucratic, incestuous system of Washington, you had better have somebody who's very willing to get in fights."

Newt Gingrich is a former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, bestselling author and Time magazine’s 1995 Man of the Year. He’s best known as the architect of the Contract with America, which led the Republican Party to victory in 1994 by capturing the majority in the U.S. House for the first time in 40 years.  

Gingrich received his bachelor of arts from Georgia’s Emory University and a master’s and doctorate in modern European history from Tulane University in New Orleans. Before his election to Congress, he taught history and environmental studies at West Georgia College for eight years. 

As an author, Gingrich has published 40 books, including 17 fiction and non-fiction New York Times bestsellers. His latest book, published in June, is Trump and the American Future: Solving the Great Problems of Our Time. He is also the author of a series of historical fiction books, including Gettysburg and Pearl Harbor.  

Gingrich has founded and chaired several policy think tanks, including American Solutions for Winning the Future and the Center for Health Transformation. Today he is the chair of Gingrich 360, a full-service American consulting, education, and media production group  

He is married and has two daughters and two grandchildren.

Jennifer Granholm

"At a moment when we need someone to heal, to bring people together, Trump has alienated women, he has alienated Mexicans, he has alienated Muslims, he has alienated Jewish-Americans, you name it."

Former two-term governor of Michigan, Jennifer M. Granholm, was the first woman to be elected as governor of that state, in 2002. In 2006 she was re-elected with the largest number of votes ever cast for governor in Michigan. She is credited with leading the state though a period of unprecedented economic challenge and change.

As governor, Granholm championed clean energy policies, working with business and labour, Republicans and Democrats, to create new economic opportunities and jobs in Michigan. She led an aggressive strategy to make Michigan the hub of clean-energy development in North America, with a plan that targeted battery manufacturing, bio-energy, solar and wind power.

Granholm also focused on creating jobs, attracting international investment, improving education and training Michigan’s workers to promote the state’s long-term economic health. She advocated for doubling the number of college graduates in Michigan and signed into law a college prep curriculum for every high school student in the state.

Prior to her tenure as governor, Granholm served as Michigan’s attorney general, from 1998 to 2002. After her last term as governor, Granholm began teaching law and public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, where she continues to serve as faculty. Granholm is also a senior research fellow at the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute, a project scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an ABC News contributor and the co-author of the political bestseller A Governor’s Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future. Granholm is also an avid supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, where she is a senior partner on energy policy, and a senior advisor to Correct the Record – a research and response organization created to defend Clinton from erroneous attacks.

Granholm is an honours graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Law School. She and her husband have three children.

Robert Reich

"This man doesn't have the character or the temperament to be president. Trump's election would endanger America and everything we believe in and stand for."

Robert B. Reich is an economist, professor, author and political commentator. He was born in Scranton, Pa., and went to high school in New York. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and won a Rhodes Scholarship to study philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University, where he first met Bill Clinton. He also holds a law degree from Yale Law School, where he was the editor of the Yale Law Journal, and taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 

Reich served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, for which Time magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the 20th century. He was also a member of President Barack Obama’s economic transition advisory board. 

The author of 15 books, including bestsellers Aftershock and The Work of Nations, Reich is also the founding editor of American Prospect magazine and co-creator of the award-winning documentary Inequality for All. 

Currently, Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies.