Background Briefing: October 30, 2024
The October Surprise As a Trump Self-Inflicted Wound
We begin by considering that this year’s October surprise may be self-inflicted wound rather than a dirty trick to get elected, as Trump’s closing argument at his Madison Square Garden rally appears to have backfired while Kamala Harris’s closing argument on the eclipse last night was flawless. Joining us is Justin Higgins, who has worked as a lobbyist for a Fortune 400 Agribusiness, as an immigration policy advisor to a Tea Party, now House Freedom Caucus Member of Congress, and worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign at the RNC, all before becoming a Democrat and an appointed official for the Democratic Governor of Puerto Rico. He now hosts the Politics + Media 101 podcast.
2024 Collusion Between Trump and Putin and Musk and Putin
Then we investigate the collusion between Trump and Putin and Musk and Putin and speak with Sidney Blumenthal, the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. He has been a national staff reporter for The Washington Post, Washington editor and staff writer for The New Yorker and his books include the bestsellersThe Clinton Wars, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment and The Permanent Campaign. His latest book is All the Powers on Earth, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1856-1860, and we discuss his latest article at The Guardian, “We are witnessing the making of a fascist president in real time.”
The Supreme Court’s Latest Partisan Ruling Allows a Voter Purge in Virginia
Then finally we look into the Supreme Court’s latest partisan ruling to uphold Virginia’s purge of its voter rolls looking for largely non-existent non-citizen voters and speak with Richard Briffault, a Professor of Legislation at Columbia Law School where he previously served as vice dean at three different times during his career. His research interests include campaign finance reform, government ethics, gerrymandering, election administration, and fair elections. He is also a leading thinker on “the new preemption,” a critique of states that are increasingly passing ideological laws that override local ordinances and he is the author of a number of books including Dollars and Democracy: A Blueprint for Campaign Finance Reform.