Background Briefing: August 8, 2024
Trump’s Press Conference Tirade of Child-like Petulance That Biden Had Been Taken Away Like His Favorite Toy and Now He’s Stuck Having to Run Against a Black Woman
We begin with Trump’s press conference today at Mar a Lago at which he rambled on about his grievances starting off with a tirade of child-like petulance that Joe Biden had been taken away from him like his favorite toy and now he is stuck with having to run against a Black woman. Joining us is a biographer of Trump who has known him for almost 40 years, David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and bestselling author of The Making of Donald Trump. A 13 year veteran of The New York Times, he won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting that uncovered loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code and he is now a Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. His latest book is The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family. He’s also the co-founder of DCReport.org and we discuss his latest article, “Donald Trump Is Suddenly Running Scared — And He Ought To Be.”
How Will the Harris/Walz Team Handle More Pro-Palestinian Demonstrations?
Then we look into pro-Palestinian demonstrators disrupting Kamala Harris’s rally in Michigan yesterday with more demonstrations set for the Democratic convention in Chicago and more pro-Palestinian activism expected on campuses as students return, Joining us is Shireen Al-Adeimi, a professor of education at Michigan State University. Having lived through two civil wars in her country of birth, Yemen, she has played an active role in raising awareness about the U.S.-supported, Saudi-led war on Yemen since 2015, and more recently the US-supported Israeli war on Gaza.
Objectives Behind the Ukrainian Incursion into Russia
Then finally we get a military analysis of the Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory which has rattled Putin and has Western strategists wondering about its objectives. Joining us is Aram Shabanian, the Open-Source Information Gathering Manager at New Lines Institute. He recently taught in Non-Proliferation and Terrorism Studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey where his research focused on the Cold War and contemporary histories of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. His latest report at New Lines Magazine is “The Russo-Ukrainian War: In Context.”