The Steady State Sentinel

A former U.S. Army officer, diplomat, and ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe on oath, duty, service beyond party, the collapse of institutional guardrails, and why rebuilding trust will take decades.
Host Jim Lawler, a former senior CIA operations officer, sits down with Ambassador Charles A. Ray, a rare polymath who served 20 years in the U.S. Army (including two combat tours in Vietnam) followed by 30 years in the Foreign Service, as Ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe, and as the first U.S. Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City.
Together, they explore what happens when the oath to the Constitution is replaced by loyalty to a single man. Ambassador Ray describes how some first-term officials in the Trump Administration, including Mike Pence, Defense Secretaries, Attorneys General, still functioned as constraints on Trump’s worst impulses, and why he believes the second administration has been stocked with yes people, sycophants, and what he calls a “confederacy of dunces.”
Ray shares a chilling firsthand account of a U.S. Army colonel making overtly partisan political statements in pre‑deployment briefings, and recalls that, when Ray challenged the colonel directly, Ray was the one told he would no longer be deployed there.
He reflects on watching January 6 in tears, calling it something he had only seen in “shithole dictatorships,” and names the 1776 Fund and pardons for January 6 participants as evidence that the country has “already walked through the door” of autocracy.
Ray diagnoses America’s damaged credibility abroad: “our heart and our head have caught up with each other, and they’re both in the wrong place.” He warns that even with a change in leadership in 2028, the work of un‑indoctrinating a politicized national-security workforce, civil service, and new generation of government hires will take two to three administrations. He ends with a sobering message to young people considering government service: go in with your eyes wide open, because silence is consent.

Episode Transcript

Guest info: Ambassador Charles A. Ray served 20 years as a U.S. Army officer, including two combat tours in Vietnam, followed by a 30‑year career in the Foreign Service. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia and to Zimbabwe, and was the first U.S. Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs. He is a prolific author of more than 400 works of fiction and nonfiction, including leadership, history, diplomacy, and Westerns. He remains active in foreign policy work as a trustee and chair of the Africa program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He also teaches in Arizona State University’s School of Public Politics and Global Studies.

Two former federal prosecutors on what the job is supposed to represent at its best, why Bob Mueller was the model, and the prosecutor’s unique duty to serve and protect the system itself.
What does it mean to be a federal prosecutor when the client is the United States and the measure of success is not simply winning, but doing justice and doing it the right way? In the latest Steady State Sentinel podcast, former federal prosecutor and Steady State member Steve Bunnell interviews former federal prosecutor Ken Wainstein, who, among many senior positions, served as U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, General Counsel and Chief of Staff to Bob Mueller, and Homeland Security Advisor for President George W. Bush.
Together, they explore best practices of their prosecutorial craft, using the legendary career of the late Bob Mueller as their North Star. They focus on Mueller's journey from Assistant Attorney General to line homicide prosecutor in Washington, D.C., during one of the city’s most violent periods, earning the admiration of detectives, judges, and colleagues alike.
The conversation unpacks the unwritten values of the ideal prosecutor: integrity over showmanship, public service over personal glory, protecting the rights of the accused while pursuing righteous convictions, parking politics outside the door, and leaving the institution stronger than you found it. With an appearance by homicide Lieutenant Guy Middleton, this episode is both a tribute to Mueller and a reminder that rule of law depends not only on laws and procedures, but on public servants with the character, humility, and integrity to uphold them.
The episode includes a special appearance by Guy Middleton, a homicide lieutenant from the period when Bob Mueller served as a prosecutor in Washington, D.C.
Episode Transcript
Guest info:
Kenneth Wainstein, is a former federal prosecutor who served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and the District of Columbia, including in the homicide section. He later served as General Counsel and Chief of Staff to FBI Director Bob Mueller, then as a U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia and the first Assistant Attorney General for National Security. His career at DOJ spanned approximately 18 years. Ken also served as DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis from June 2022 through January 2025.
Host info:
Steve Bunnell, a Steady State member, is a former federal prosecutor who served more than 17 years at DOJ, including as Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., and at Main Justice. He now practices law as senior counsel at a small firm in D.C.

A former CIA chief of staff and White House Situation Room senior director warns that politicized intelligence can weaken national security by chilling truth telling, hollowing out institutions, and discouraging young talent from entering public service.
Former senior CIA operations officer Jim Lawler sits down with Larry Pfeiffer, former senior director of the White House Situation Room and chief of staff to CIA Director Michael Hayden, who describes the rigors of working in the Situation Room, crisis decision-making, and what it takes to deliver accurate information when seconds matter.
He describes advising Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, helping portray the White House Situation Room with realism and showing audiences what crisis decision-making feels like on “a pretty bad day.” Other discussions center on the dangers of politicizing intelligence, the professional duty to speak truth to power, and the institutional costs of loyalty tests and political pressure.
Drawing on decades of experience across the CIA, NSA, ODNI, and the White House, Pfeiffer explains how fear can chill analysis, drive experienced officers out, discourage young talent from serving, and weaken the systems that protect national security. He recounts a late‑Friday meeting with CIA Director Michael Hayden before a highly sensitive operation, when he urged Hayden to confirm he had the president's backing before giving the go order.
Episode Transcript
Guest info: Larry Pfeiffer is the director of George Mason University’s Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security, where he oversees the center’s operations and public programming. A veteran of the U.S. Intelligence Community, he previously served as senior director of the White House Situation Room, chief of staff to CIA Director Michael Hayden, and in senior roles at the CIA, ODNI, and NSA. He also advised Kathryn Bigelow’s film A House of Dynamite on the realistic portrayal of the White House Situation Room.

The fight to repair public service, Congress, and democratic accountability
In this episode of The Steady State Sentinel, John Sipher speaks with veteran intelligence and counterterrorism official Russ Travers about the state of American democracy, the national security system, and his forthcoming book, Common Sense Take Two. Travers reflects on his 45-year career across the intelligence community, from warning about systemic intelligence failures before 9/11 to helping build the post-9/11 counterterrorism architecture.
The conversation explores how America’s institutions were built for an earlier era and now struggle to address today’s interconnected threats, from terrorism and transnational crime to AI, privacy, and political polarization. Travers argues that defeating Trumpism is necessary but not sufficient, because the deeper crisis lies in weakened institutions, civic disengagement, declining trust, and a Congress unable to solve the problems Americans care about most. At the center of Travers’s argument is a call for the “exhausted majority” of Americans to reengage in democratic life and help rebuild a government capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

Guest info: Russ Travers is a veteran intelligence and counterterrorism official with roughly 45 years of service across the U.S. national security community. His career included senior roles at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Joint Staff, the National Intelligence Council, the National Security Council, and the National Counterterrorism Center, where he later served as acting director. He also served in the Biden administration as deputy homeland security advisor. Travers helped shape the post-9/11 counterterrorism architecture and has written extensively on intelligence reform, national security dysfunction, and democratic governance. His forthcoming book, Common Sense Take Two, argues that America’s democratic crisis requires not only defeating authoritarian politics, but also confronting the deeper institutional failures that have weakened public trust and civic life.
Episode Transcript

This special joint episode of the Steady State Sentinel and Mission Implausible brings together two podcasts focused on separating fact from manipulation, defending democratic institutions, and understanding real-world national security threats. Hosted by former CIA officers John Sipher and Jerry O’Shea, Mission Implausible examines the line between conspiracy theory and actual conspiracy, making it a natural partner for this conversation with national security expert Andy Weber on weapons of mass destruction, Iran, and the evolving dangers of biological threats.
Nuclear weapons-usable uranium, biolabs for biological warfare, secret chemical facilities -- In Operation Sapphire, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Andy Weber found and disposed of them. Where are the current threats? What does Iran still have? Biological threats may ultimately prove even more dangerous than nuclear ones. How do we control them?
Guest info: Andrew “Andy” Weber is a national security expert who has spent decades working to reduce nuclear, chemical, and biological threats. He served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs, where he advised senior Pentagon leadership, oversaw the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and helped lead Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction work. Weber also played a key role in operations to remove weapons-grade uranium from Kazakhstan and Georgia and helped develop the Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks and serves on the Board of the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies International Advisory Council. He has also worked on global health security, including service as Deputy Coordinator for Ebola Response at the State Department. You can find Andy on X @AndyWeberNCB.
Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
Episode Transcript