Background Briefing: September 16, 2020

On By gram

 

Trump Chokes on ABC’s Town Hall Facing Real Questions From Ordinary Americans

We begin with Trump’s pathetic performance last night on ABC’s Town Hall where instead of the adoring MAGA-hatted crowds at his rallies, he faced real questions from ordinary Americans which he could not answer, and after trotting out his hollow talking points which fell flat, all he could do was lie. Paul Waldman, a columnist at The Washington Post’s Plum Line and a senior writer at the American Prospect joins us to discuss his latest article at The Washington Post, “Trump’s latest healthcare lies reveal what a second term would look like.” We explore the extent to which Trump is inside a comfort zone of his own unreality and can’t handle the truth or reality itself. Leaving us to wonder whether his followers have an infinite amount of gullibility believing he will protect Americans with preexisting conditions and that his much-promised healthcare plan will be out next week.

 

Silence From the White House and GOP on Caputo’s Call to Arms For a Civil War in November

Then we speak with David Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic where his latest article is “A Paranoid Rant Says a Lot about Where Trumpism is Headed: A bizarre video posted by Michael Caputo may be a sign of things to come.” We discuss how Caputo’s call to arms and to stockpile ammunition for a civil war in November has not resulted in a peep coming from the White House and the Republicans. Instead Caputo who admitted he has mental health problems, has been given a medical leave of absence from HHS where he was trying to shave the numbers of the Covid death count.

 

The GOP’s Affinity for Putin Who Runs a Regime Republicans Want for America

Then finally with Caputo being yet another unqualified Trump appointee with ties to Russia, we speak with Ryan Cooper, a national correspondent with The Week where his latest article is “How the Trump-Russia story was buried.” He joins us to discuss how today’s Republicans actually have an affinity with Putin and not only would like to see a similar regime in the U.S. of powerful oligarchs overseen by a corrupt despot, but are working on ensuring that Trump gets four more years to entrench the oligarchy they serve.