Month: February 2021

Background Briefing: February 24, 2021

 

Further Investigations of the Capitol Riot Could Involve Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Mike Flynn and Steve Bannon

We begin with where investigations into the January 6 storming of the Capitol are likely to lead following yesterday’s Senate testimony from the top Capitol police officials with the Chair of the Senate Rules Committee Senator Klobuchar promising to follow up with investigations into why the Pentagon stalled in dispatching the National Guard to help out the overwhelmed Capitol police.  Adele Stan, the Director of Right Wing Watch, joins us to discuss the lunacy of Senator Rob Johnson’s claims the mob that attacked the Capitol were left wing imposters dressed up as Trumpsters and the likelihood that further investigations will focus on the roles of Trump’s closest allies, Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Mike Flynn and Stephen Bannon. They appear to have worked with Trump to plan the event and coordinate with QAnon, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers to execute the assault on the Capitol.

 

Relief For the 45 Million Americans Drowning Under $1.7 Trillion in Student Loan Debt

Then we look into the pressure on President Biden to increase his promise to cancel individual student loan debts from $10,000 to $50,000 and speak with Persis Yu a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and director of its Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project. She joins us to discuss her article at CNN “Big student loan debt is not a ‘Harvard, Yale, Penn. problem” and the growing pressure on Biden to help out mostly minority students among the 45 million Americans drowning under $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.  

 

More Evidence About to Emerge On MbS’s Role in the Murder of Khashoggi

Then finally, on the eve of the release of the U.S. government’s declassified report on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, we speak with Justin Scheck, a New York-based reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Pulitzer Prize finalist who is the co-author of the new book Blood and Oil: Mohammed bin Salman’s Ruthless Quest for Global Power. We discuss evidence emerging in a suit in Canada against a former Saudi spymaster that private jets used to transport the killers of Jamal Khashoggi were owned by companies seized by Mohammed bin Salman in his shakedown of rivals.