Month: February 2019

Background Briefing: February 20, 2019

 

Breaking Stories on the Mueller Probe and Trump’s Efforts to Thwart It

We begin with news that the new Attorney General William Barr is preparing to release the Mueller report as early as next week but may hold back the results of the two-year-long investigation until after Trump meets with the North Korean dictator in Hanoi. Asha Rangappa, a lecturer at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University who served as an FBI counterintelligence agent in New York City and is now a Legal and National Security analyst at CNN, join us to discuss a number of breaking stories surrounding Trump and Russian collusion. We assess whether the Mueller report could be that close to being released to the Congress, not the public, given the enormous trove of information recently scooped up with the arrest of Roger Stone. And also look into the New York Times investigation of how Trump has been trying to thwart the Mueller probe behind the scenes, going as far as ordering the Acting AG Whitaker to assign a Trump-friendly AUSA to the Cohen case in the SDNY. Then there is the explosive remark by the former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe that it is possible Trump is a Russian asset. And finally there are concerns that Trump may soon fire the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats who recently testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the threats facing America but did not include Trump’s made-up “invasion” on our southern border and he contradicted Trump’s ridiculous claims his bromance with the North Korean dictator has led to nuclear disarmament.

 

An Analysis of Putin’s State-of-the-Nation Address Today

Then with Putin’s annual state-of-the-nation address today, we get an assessment of the nuclear saber-rattling on display with Cold War-like threats from Putin to target American decision-making centers with brand new invincible Russian nukes. Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at The New School and author of the new book just out, “In Putin’s Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia’s Eleven Time Zones”, joins us to discuss her journey across a far more diverse and complex country than the one depicted as a looming threat led by a diabolical evil genius in the Kremlin.

 

Revelations of McKinsey & Company’s Fall from Grace

Then finally we examine the recent revelations in the press that the prestigious world-wide consulting firm of McKinsey & Company has been involved in nefarious activities such as helping as a state-owned Chinese firm built an artificial island in the South China sea, helping Purdue Pharma boost its sales of OxyContin while countering the DEA’s efforts to reduce opioid use, and operating a secretive Hedge Fund involving conflicts of interest. James Henry, the former chief economist at McKinsey & Company and Caitlin Rosenthal a former consultant with the firm join us to explore why and how much the company went off the rails.