''Capital Gang'' was an American weekly political talk show on

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

which aired on Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. ET. The show debuted in the fall of 1988 and ran until CNN cancelled it in 2005. The original panel was Pat Buchanan,

Robert Novak Robert David Sanders Novak (February 26, 1931 – August 18, 2009) was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the ...

Al Hunt Albert Reinold Hunt Jr. (born December 4, 1942) is an American journalist, formerly a columnist for Bloomberg View (from which he retired at the end of 2018), the editorial arm of Bloomberg News (which is a subsidiary of Bloomberg L.P.). Hunt ...

, and

Mark Shields Mark Stephen Shields (May 25, 1937 – June 18, 2022) was an American political columnist, advisor, and commentator. He worked in leadership positions for many Democratic candidates' electoral campaigns. Shields provided weekly political anal ...

Mona Charen Mona Charen Parker (; born February 25, 1957) is a columnist, journalist, and political commentator in the United States. She has written three books: ''Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First'' (200 ...

and

Margaret Warner Margaret Garrard Warner (born February 12, 1950) is a senior correspondent for ''The PBS NewsHour''. Before joining the ''NewsHour'' in 1993, she was a reporter for ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'', the ''Concord Moni ...

joined the panel in 1992, when Buchanan left the show to run for president in 1992. In 1993, Warner left the program to join PBS and was replaced by Margaret Carlson, and

Kate O'Beirne Kate Walsh O'Beirne (September 23, 1949 – April 23, 2017) was the President of National Review Institute. She was the Washington editor of ''National Review''. Her column, "Bread and Circuses," covered Congress, politics, and U.S. domesti ...

replaced Charen when she moved to ''Capital Gang Sunday'' in 1995. Typically four of the commentators were featured along with a prominent public official from either party. Buchanan, O'Beirne, Charen and Novak were the

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

panelists, while Shields, Hunt, Warner and Carlson were the

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

commentators. ''Capital Gang Sunday'' was hosted by James Glassman in the mid-1990s. It featured panelists

Juan Williams Juan Antonio Williams (born April 10, 1954) is a Panamanian-born American journalist and political analyst for Fox News Channel. He writes for several newspapers, including ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The Wall Street ...

Howard Fineman Howard David Fineman (born November 17, 1948) is an American journalist who is global editorial director of the AOL Huffington Post Media Group. Prior to his move to Huffington Post in October 2010, he was Newsweek's chief political corresponde ...

, Ruth Conniff, James Warren, and

. The show did not feature any guests and was more cerebral than combative, in contrast to the Saturday version. In 1998, it was canceled, along with CNN's Sunday edition of ''

Crossfire A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I. S ...

''. In 2005, after overall declining ratings at the network, CNN attempted to shake up its programming by cancelling several of its politically oriented shows, including the ''Capital Gang'' and ''Crossfire''. The ''Capital Gang'' panelists appeared together again on NBC's ''

Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...

'' with

Tim Russert Timothy John Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Wa ...

on February 17, 2008. With the Democratic presidential nomination race still very much undecided, and the role of the superdelegates in question, Hunt, Carlson, Shields, Novak and O'Beirne gathered to discuss the issues.

References

External links

Video of the Capital Gang on ''Meet the Press''
CNN original programming 1988 American television series debuts 2005 American television series endings 1980s American television talk shows 1990s American television talk shows 2000s American television talk shows {{US-nonfiction-tv-prog-stub