Background Briefing: February 28, 2021
Trump’s GOP Weaponizes the Big Lie of “Stop the Steal” to Steal the Next Elections
We begin with the transformation of the party formed by Abraham Lincoln into an anti-Democratic cult on display at the CPAC conference underway in Florida where conservatives are now turning a failed coup against American democracy into the launch of a 2024 presidential campaign for the leader of the insurrection against the U.S. government. Dr. Allen Frances, a Professor Emeritus and former Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Duke University and author of Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump, joins us to discuss how Trump’s GOP is turning the big lie of Trump’s “stop the steal” claims into voter suppression against the real winners of the election as the Republican Party establishes a “Committee on Election Integrity.” With 253 Republican bills to restrict voting pending in state legislatures, Dr. Frances argues that Congress should form an independent, bipartisan commission to combat this Orwellian deception and power grab with facts and truth.
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