Background Briefing: July 14, 2024
Assassinations That Changed the World or Might Have Changed the World
We begin with Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Trump and look into the history of political assassinations that changed the world or might have changed the world. Joining us is Robert Baer, one of the most accomplished agents in CIA history, and a winner of the Career Intelligence Medal. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul For Saudi Crude and is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Middle East and is an intelligence and national security affairs analyst for CNN. His latest book is The Fourth Man: The Hunt for a KGB Spy at the Top of the CIA and the Rise of Putin’s Russia and he is the author of The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins.
America’s Historical Legacy of Presidential Assassinations and Attempted Assassinations
Then we assess the historical legacy of political assassination in America with presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy assassinated and assasination attempts on Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and Barack Obama and now former President Trump. Joining us is Sean Wilentz, the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979. His books include The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008, Bob Dylan in America, and The Politicians and the Egalitarians and his latest book is No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding.
The Inciter of Political Violence Now Calls For Unity as He Moves Closer to Joining the Illiberal Club of the World’s Despots and Kleptocrats
Then finally we contrast Trump’s many calls for political violence having incited the insurrection and assault on the Capitol with his call for the country to unite following the assassination attempt on him at a rally on Saturday, just two days before the Republican Convention begins in Milwaukee. Joining us is Jared Yates Sexton, the author of American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People and The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore. The host of The Muckrake Podcast, his latest book is The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis.