Background Briefing: February 8, 2021

On By gram

 

Will Mike Pence Confront the Man He Slavishly Served Who Tried to Have Him Killed?

We begin with Senate leaders reaching an agreement today which gives the impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers up to 16 hours each to present their cases with the option for a debate and a vote to call witnesses if the House impeachment managers seek it. This second impeachment trial of Donald Trump appears likely to be speedy and destined to end in a acquittal by the Republicans even though Trump tried to have his own Republican Vice President Mike Pence lynched by the mob Trump had told to “fight like hell” to stop Biden from being certified as president by the Electoral College. Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior advisor to President Clinton and Hillary Clinton whose latest book is All the Powers on Earth, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1856 – 1860 joins us to discuss his article at The Guardian “The Martyrdom of Mike Pence“. We assess whether, short on testifying at the impeachment trial which seems unlikely, Mike Pence could at least make a public statement condemning the man he so slavishly served who tried to have him killed. But true to form Pence will continue to deliver everything to Trump even though Trump delivered him to the mob as a scapegoat, after Pence had shown Trump’s followers how to be the perfect servant.

 

Trump’s Dead-Enders Are Now Getting Sued and Losing Business

Then we speak with Asawin Suebsaeng, an investigative and White House reporter for The Daily Beast and the co-author of Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump’s Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington. He joins us to discuss his latest article “What Became of Trump’s Election Dead-Enders” and we discuss the cast of incompetents, charlatans and fantasists Trump ended up with and how many are being sued while others are seeing their businesses boycotted. 

 

Investing Love and Solidarity, Not in Our Jobs But in Each Other

Then finally we speak with Sarah Jaffe, a Nation Institute fellow whose latest book is Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone.  She joins us to discuss how from unpaid interns to overworked teachers, we have been tricked into buying into the new tyranny of work where instead of workers investing their love and solidarity in their jobs, they should be investing it in each other.