Background Briefing: September 24, 2020

On By gram

 

Trump’s Refusal to Commit to a Peaceful Transition of Power

We begin with Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power saying “we’re gonna have to see what happens.” Having already conditioned his base to believe that Democratic votes equal fraud, Trump is setting the terms and conditions for his own reelection in which HE, not the American people, decide who the next president is. Joining us is Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell who now teaches at the College of William and Mary. We discuss the role of Trump’s chief enabler, the Attorney General William Barr who is a moral authoritarian serving an immoral president and look into his plans to help get Trump reelected in spite of what the voters decide.  With Trump poised to nominate another one of the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo’s picks for the Supreme court following Leo’s successful placement of Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the highest court, we will look into the role of the secretive Catholic fringe sect of Opus Dei. Given the diversity within the Catholic faith and in the country at large, how does one man representing such an extreme but narrow minority worldview have so much power and influence to shape the lives of Americans for decades?

 

Trump’s Plan to Steal a Close Election or Contest a Biden Landslide

Then we examine further Trump’s coup in plain sight as he lines up the elements for a continuation of minority rule in the Senate, the courts and state legislatures to steal an election if it is close, and contest an election if it is a landslide for Biden. Norm Ornstein, a contributing editor at The Atlantic and a columnist for the National Journal whose latest book is One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported, joins us to discuss the ruthless disregard for the law and traditions that Trump and his toadies like the Florida governor are engaged in to deny and diminish a majority vote by Democrats in key states.

 

An Election Expert on Why He’s Never Been More Worried

Then finally we speak with an expert on election law Richard Hasen, the Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine whose latest book is Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy. He joins us to discuss his article at Slate, “I’ve Never Been More Worried About American Democracy Than I Am Right Now. The preemptive attack on the vote count is a five-alarm fire.”