Why do some political scandals stick and others don’t? At what point does a scandal do damage to the politicians involved? Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston who studies political scandals, joins the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast to talk about the questions surrounding the Trump administration’s relationship with Russia.

Then, the 2018 midterms are still over a year and a half away, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t elections to watch. Harry Enten shares the latest on the upcoming special elections, and discusses whether they say anything about the electoral direction of the country.

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