Background Briefing: November 21, 2024

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Gaetz Withdraws AG Nomination as Trump’s Pentagon Choice Faces Sexual Assault Allegations 

We begin with today’s withdrawal by Matt Gaetz from facing confirmation as Trump’s nominee for US Attorney General ahead of damaging evidence sure to emerge of Gaetz’s drug-fuelled parties involving sex with underaged girls with possibly more witnesses coming forward. With shocking details emerging about Trump’s nominee to head up the Pentagon, it would seem that being guilty of sex crimes appears to be a necessary qualification to join Trump’s cabinet along with having performed on television. Joining us is James Zirin, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and the host of the critically acclaimed television talk show, Conversations with Jim Zirin, which airs on PBS. He is the author of Supremely Partisan: How Raw Politics Tips the Scales in the United States Supreme Court and Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3500 Lawsuits. He is a contributing editor at The Washington Monthly and regular contributor to The Hill where his latest article we discuss is “Who will stand up to Trump’s unqualified nominees?”

 

The International Criminal Court Issues Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, His Former Defense Minister and an Hamas Leader Presumed Dead

Then we examine the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israel’s PM Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister along with an Hamas leader who is presumed dead and speak with Richard Falk, who, during forty years at Princeton University, was active in seeking an end to the Vietnam War, a better understanding of Iran, a just solution for Israel/Palestine, and improved democracy elsewhere. He is currently the Chair of Global Law at Queen Mary University London, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967 from 2008 to 2014 and is the author of several books including This Endangered Planet, Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim, and most recently Liberating the United Nations: Realism with Hope.

 

An Update on the House Vote To Give Trump the Power to Shut Down Nonprofits

Then finally we get an update on today’s 219 to 184 vote in the House to approve a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” anti-terrorism bill that would give Trump the tools to silence his critics by removing the tax exemption for nonprofits following the model of his hero Vladimir Putin who has banned and shut down NGO’s in Russia that don’t tow the party line. Joining us is Craig Holman, who serves as Public Citizen’s Capitol Hill lobbyist on ethics, lobbying and campaign finance rules. Previously, he was Senior Policy Analyst at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.