My guest is Col. Morris 'Moe' Davis, who resigned as chief prosecutor of the Guantanamo military commissions in 2007 when he was ordered to use evidence obtained by torture. I first interviewed him about that 16 years ago. Now he lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and ran for Congress there in 2020.
Davis traces today's lack of accountability back through Obama's decision to 'look forward,' Merrick Garland's slow Justice Department and a Supreme Court under John Roberts that he calls a disappointment. He explains why Mark Kelly and other lawmakers were legally correct to remind troops they must refuse unlawful orders.
From Asheville, he describes tariff price hikes, longer food bank lines, about 60,000 people in Western North Carolina expected to lose Medicaid, and why Democrats need to show up at the volunteer fire department, not in 50-page position papers. Recorded February 19, 2026, during a ballistic missile warning in Kyiv.
Chapters
0:00 A conversation that started 16 years ago
0:44 Guantanamo and torture after 9/11
3:34 Obama's 'look forward' and no accountability
5:10 Jan. 6 and the slow pace of accountability
7:24 Loyalty as the only qualification
9:14 The Roberts Court
10:35 Midterms and a Democratic Party that fights
15:17 Air raid in Kyiv, and how Ukraine treats POWs
17:23 Flooding the zone and media silos
23:25 Colbert, the FCC and Mark Kelly's video
26:00 Why Davis resigned at Guantanamo
28:41 The other America: Asheville and Western North Carolina
32:14 Reaching red-county neighbors after Hurricane Helene
34:54 Prices, tariffs and food lines
37:06 Medicaid cuts in North Carolina
39:58 Lost trust abroad: Greenland, Iran, Ukraine
45:01 Independents and grievance politics
49:23 Defense spending and Pentagon waste
52:47 Lessons from Kyiv's power grid
55:21 VA hospitals, health care and profits
57:15 Party establishment versus grassroots candidates
1:01:02 Kitchen table issues and framing
1:04:49 Messaging and news deserts
1:10:15 Closing and the Maidan anniversary
Watch on YouTube: Col. Morris Davis on Guantanamo, unlawful orders and the rule of law | The Wire Tap
