Background Briefing: September 10, 2020

On By gram

 

Trump’s Minions Bury Intelligence on How the Russians Are helping Reelect the Boss

We begin with the latest whistleblower complaint made available today by the House Intelligence Committee in which the former head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of intelligence and Analysis, Brian Murphy, complains that the acting head of DHS Chad Wolf and his deputy Ken Cuccinelli pressured him to downplay Russian election interference and instead blame it on China and Iran. When he refused to alter the intelligence which is meant to inform state and local police forces and election officials, Murphy was sidelined and demoted.  Michael Greenberger, who is the director of the Center on Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland joins us to discuss how these two unqualified Trump loyalists in charge of DHS also pressured their intelligence analysts to downplay the domestic terrorist threat posed by white supremacist militias and dangerously delusion groups like QAnon and the Boogaloo movement while exaggerating the activities and influence of Antifa and mischaracterizing peaceful protest movements like Black Lives Matter.

 

Trump is Losing His Base Who Are Suffering in the Healthcare Crisis He is Worsening

Then we speak with veteran pollster Stanley Greenberg who is the co-founder with James Carville of the Democracy Corps and co-author with him of the bestseller It’s the Middle Class Stupid!. His latest book is RIP GOP: How the New America Is Dooming the Republicans and he joins us to discuss his article at The American Prospect “How Trump is Losing His Base: Focus groups with working class and rural voters show the deep health care crisis in America, and trouble for Trump’s reelection.”

 

How the Germans Confronted Their Past Evils Compared to Us Facing Our Legacy of Slavery and Racial Hatred Which Trump is Reviving

Then finally we go to Berlin to speak with Susan Neiman the director of the Einstein Forum who was a Professor of Philosophy at Yale and Tel Aviv Universities about her latest book just out in paperback, Learning From the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil. We discuss the difference between how the Germans confronted their history of the holocaust and how Americans, particularly in the South, have yet to deal with the country’s shameful past and the legacy of slavery and racial hatred which our current president is reviving.