Month: October 2021

Background Briefing: October 28, 2021

 

Biden Implores His Fellow Democrats to Accept the Slimmed-down $1.85 Trillion Reconciliation Bill

We begin with President Biden’s last-ditch attempt to get House Democrats on board the framework of a deal with Senate Democrats for a $1.85 trillion reconciliation bill passed alongside a previously voted-on $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. However the two Democratic hold-outs Senators Manchin and Sinema have still not made clear what they support in the slimmed-down reconciliation bill leaving progressives in the House leery of supporting a package they still don’t have all the details on. Joining us is Jim Manley, a DC-based independent public affairs consultant, Democratic strategist and 21 year veteran of the U.S. Senate where he served as senior advisor to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the last six of those years and, before that, served 12 years as an aide to the late Senator Ted Kennedy. We discuss how it is uncertain Biden will get the support he needs as the country’s leader abroad at the U.N. Climate summit on Monday in Glasgow after almost begging his fellow Democrats to help him out imploring them, “I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week.”

 

The Real John Eastman Praises His Memo For the Trump Coup Attempt

Then we speak with Lauren Windsor, the executive producer of The Undercurrent, a grassroots political news program, who on Saturday, attended an event hosted by the Claremont Institute at which she posed as a Trump supporter and recorded Trump lawyer John Eastman defending the January 6th coup attempt and praising his memo to overturn the election. This after Eastman had lied to the National Review about his memo not being “viable” and “crazy” while the Claremont Institute were defending him saying the memo was “maliciously misrepresented and distorted by major news outlets.”

 

Oil Executives Deny Global Warming Disinformation While Funding Attack Ads Against Democrats Who Support Climate Change Initiatives

Then finally we speak with Tracey Lewis, policy counsel in the energy group at Public Citizen where she works at the intersection of climate policy and financial regulatory policy. She joins us to discuss the testimony of oil company executives today before the Congress at which the heads of the major oil companies and the American Petroleum Institute denied funding misinformation about climate change even as the American Petroleum Institute is busy funding Facebook ads attacking vulnerable Democratic incumbents for supporting climate change initiatives.