Tag: 2020

Briefings

Background Briefing: August 25, 2020

On By gram

 

RNC Fantasy Night Has Trump a Decisive Leader Against the Pandemic

We begin with an assessment of last night’s Republican National Convention which tried to rewrite the history of the Covid -19 pandemic claiming Trump is a decisive leader. We speak with Thomas Nichols, a U.S. Naval War College University Professor who is the author of The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters and discuss how a fantasy like last night’s presentation of Trump’s leadership could be believed but alas in post-truth America with propaganda not unlike that in Putin’s Russia, nothing is true and everything is possible in post-truth America. An expert in Soviet/Russian affairs, Tom Nichols is a former Republican who cannot believe his party is ignoring the threat of Russian meddling in both the 2016 and 2020 elections but instead, the GOP has done a masterful job in making the perfidy of Trump’s suspect ties to Putin a non-issue with most Americans.

 

RNC Diversity Night Showcases a Few Minority Faces Without the Usual 95% White Crowd

Then we speak with Harold Meyerson, an editor-at-large for The American Prospect where he has an article “Unconventional: The Republicans, Night One Even Diversity Night Was Nutcase Right“. Having covered six previous Republican National Conventions, he critiques diversity night which featured token minorities like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott who, because the convention is virtual with no crowd present, were not upstaged by the usual 95% to 99% all white Republican crowds in the prior arenas.

 

Bannon Hopes For a Pardon Which is Unlikely to Come From Trump

Then finally we examine the legal problems facing Stephen Bannon who was recently arrested for bilking donors who gave him $25 million to build Trump’s wall, and speak with Joshua Green a senior national correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller, Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency and he joins us to discuss how Bannon’s claim that he is a victim of a political hit job is not likely to win him a pardon from his former boss who has not forgiven him for insulting the Trump family.