Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the U.S. airstrikes targeting the Islamic State in the besieged city of Sirte in Libya and speak with William Danvers, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress who served as a special assistant for National Security Affairs in the Clinton Administration. He joins us to discuss whether Libya is political kryptonite in this year’s election given the prolonged Republican-manufactured hysteria over Benghazi or whether since the Islamic State, which started out with 6,000 fighters in Libya and are now down to 1,000 holed up in Sirte, can be defeated and Libya put back together with a functioning unified government.

Part 2

Then we examine the role of the Chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign Paul Manafort in Ukraine where he succeeded in getting Viktor Yanukovyich elected, then after the kleptocrat was run out of town and exiled in Russia, tried to bring Yanukovych’s disgraced party back to power, all the while making business deals with powerful Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs. Matthew Rojansky, the director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center joins us to discuss the apparent conflicts of interest that have enriched Paul Manafort and how much Trump’s foreign policy positions on Russia are dictated by Manafort’s business interests which began back in the 1970’s when he advised kleptocratic dictators like Mobuto in Zaire and Ferdinand Marcos in The Philippines.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the recent spate of dramatic court rulings against Republic efforts to suppress the votes of minorities and likely Democratic voters in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas and Kansas. Award-winning investigative reporter Andrew Gumbel, author of “Down for the Count: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America”, joins us to discuss his article at The Guardian “Voting rights rulings could deal a blow to Republicans in 2016 elections” and how, since the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court, efforts to suppress the votes of minorities continue at the state and county levels in many states across the South.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the task ahead for Hillary Clinton in her speech tonight to overcome the lack of trust factor while reaching out to Middle America, at the same time not alienating the “Bernie or Bust” delegates who are poised to make a scene and perhaps walk out on her. Simon Rosenberg, the President and Founder of the New Democratic Network and a former member of the 1992 Clinton War Room, joins us to discuss the tough acts that Hillary has to follow after the soaring rhetoric of the Obamas and others at the Democratic convention who have spoken on her behalf. We will also examine the disadvantage of being a status quo politician in this year of the outsider and whether making history as the first woman running for President as the nominee of a major party will prove to be an advantage.

Part 2

Then we speak with George Lakoff, a Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California Berkeley and the author of “The All New Don’t Think of an Elephant”. We discuss how important framing and semantics are in politics and whether the messages coming from the Clinton campaign so far are more about making her supporters feel good about themselves by reminding them how bad Trump is rather than reaching out to those who do not support her by addressing the issues that concern then which will not be assuaged by a rosy view of an economy that many feel has left them behind.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the accusations of Russian hacking and apparent attempts to interfere with our election with Robert Morgus, a policy analyst at the New America Foundation’s Cybersecurity Initiative. He joins us to discuss where the investigation by U.S. Intelligence Agencies stands into the possible role of Russia’s FSB and GRU Intelligence organizations in the hacks of the DNC, the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s server which Donald Trump has encouraged the Russian’s to hack into to find 30,000 of her emails.