Background Briefing: April 28, 2019
The Deepening Battle Lines Between the House and the White House
We begin with the escalating showdown between the House and the White House over Trump’s defiance of subpoenas and apparent contempt for the legislative branch’s constitutional role of the oversight and speak with Darrell West, the vice president and director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution whose latest book just out, is “Divided Politics, Divided Nation: Hyperconflict in the Trump Era”. He joins us to discuss the latest roadblock thrown up by the executive branch with Attorney General Barr now threatening to not show up at Thursday’s hearing before the House Judiciary Committee because he objects to the format of questioning by Democrats. We assess what options House Democrats have since Trump has now found his Roy Cohn, William Barr, and whether it is possible to dispatch the House Sergeant at Arms to arrest Treasury Secretary Mnuchin for breaking the law in not turning over Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Why Can’t Trump Say Nazis are Bad People?
Then we speak with an award-winning journalist, author and expert on American right-wing extremism, David Neiwert, whose latest book is “Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump”. He joins us to discuss the latest attack on a house of worship by a white nationalist who shot up a synagogue near San Diego, California killing one and wounding three after posting a manifesto online referencing the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and the mosques in New Zealand while taking credit for the recent burning on a mosque in nearby Escondido. We will look into how Trump is trying to have it both ways in condemning the latest display of neo-Nazism and anti-Semitism just days after he tried to whitewash his comments about “fine people” at Charlottesville, again refusing the say that Nazis are bad people.
Has Trump Gone Full-On Fascist?
Then finally we examine the growing delusion among white supremacists that a global white genocide is underway and analyze the broader picture of the rise of right wing nationalism in Europe and the United States with Jason Stanley a Professor of Philosophy at Yale University whose latest book is “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them”. He joins us to discuss the demagoguery of a third world tin-pot dictator who happens to be America’s Commander-in-Chief, ranting about imaginary coups and whether Trump has gone full-on fascist as he did before the NRA, issuing the not-so-veiled threat that if the “deep state” tries to impeach him, the good guys with the guns will take to the streets.