Day: May 4, 2023

Background Briefing: May 4, 2023

Trump’s StormTroopers the Proud Boys Found Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy

We begin with the convictions today of 4 prominent Proud Boys and their chairman all of whom were found guilty of seditious conspiracy with a fifth, who was the first to break into the Capitol on January 6, already found guilty of robbery and assaulting a police officer. Joining us is Andy Campbell, an investigative reporter and editor covering extremism, misinformation, and their intersection with national politics. He is currently based in New York, where he works on the breaking news desk at HuffPost. He is considered an expert on American extremism, having covered the modern rise of the far-right at the ground level, including the neo-Nazi rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. He is the author of We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism, and we discuss his latest article at the Huffington Post, “Proud Boys Leaders Found Guilty Of Jan. 6 Seditious Conspiracy.”

 

The Possibility the Drone Attack on the Kremlin Was Carried Out By Anti-Putin Russian Partisans

Then we examine the possibility that the drone attack on the Kremlin was carried out by Russian partisans opposed to the Putin regime and that in order to deflect the humiliation of a strike on Putin’s residence inside the Kremlin, Putin’s propaganda machine is working overtime to blame it on the Americans. Joining us to assess who is behind what is unlikely to be a staged event is Lucas Webber, a researcher focused on geopolitics, great power politics and transnational militant movements. He is the co-founder and editor at Militant Wire and contributes to Eurasianet, Jamestown Foundation, and The Diplomat. We discuss his article at Unherd, “Kremlin drone attack shows Russian vulnerability.”

 

Why Does the Biden Administration Create Red Lines For Ukraine Then Eventually Deliver the Weapons Months if Not a Year Later?

Then finally we look into why the US has been slow in helping Ukraine defend itself with the weapons that are eventually delivered months if not a year late as the Biden administration creates its own red lines then belatedly undoes them for tanks etc. while creating new red lines for aircraft and longer range missiles. Joining us is Dov Zakheim, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. From 2001 to April 2004 he was Under Secretary of Defense and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Defense. His latest article at The Hill is “How a successful Ukrainian spring counteroffensive could lead to Putin’s downfall and Yevgeny Prigozhin’s elevation to president.”