Background Briefing: March 1, 2021

On By gram

 

Trump Makes It Clear He Is the Republican Party and It’s Kingmaker

We begin with the much-anticipated speech by Trump at CPAC where he made it clear he IS the Republican Party and its kingmaker and that while he won’t form a third party, he also won’t rule out running for the presidency in 2024. Joining us is a politics reporter based in Washington who has covered many CPAC events, Ben Jacobs, who currently writes for New York Magazine and formerly for The Guardian and The Daily Beast. He joins us to discuss his articles at New York Magazine, “Trump’s CPAC Blast in the Past” and “The New CPAC Makes the Old CPAC Look Like the #Resistance.” We discuss the biggest applause lines Trump got which were when he claimed he actually won the last election to which the crowd chanted in response “you won” and his denigration of the 17 Republican lawmakers who voted to oust him from office like “Little Ben Sasse” who Trump proclaimed needed to be purged, vindictively shouting to wild applause, “Get rid of them all.”

 

Trump Outlines Voter Suppression Plans at CPAC

Then we speak with David Weigel, a national political correspondent with The Washington Post who was at CPAC before and during the whole event about his latest article “Trump rules out third party as he moves to firm up control of GOP.” We discuss the voter suppression measures Trump outlined based on the “big lie” he won an election the Democrats stole, and how 97% of the attendees approved of his performance in office.

 

Rob Wallace on the Origins of Covid-19

Then finally we speak with Rob Wallace, an evolutionary epidemiologist with the Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps about his new book Dead Epidemiologists: On the Origins of COVID – 19. He joins us to discuss the role of climate change and deforestation by agribusiness which is leading to emergent diseases and the spread of pathogens into local livestock and human communities.