Background Briefing: September 9, 2025
With a September 30 Government Shutdown Looming, Do the Democrats Get Blamed or Do They Walk Away and Let the Republicans Own it Since They Don’t Negotiate in Good Faith?
We begin with the looming September 30th shutdown of the U.S. government. Democratic leadership is inclined to pursue a bipartisan budget agreement — but if history is any guide, Republicans are not negotiating in good faith, and any deal could be undone with a rescission. Yet Democrats fear they could be blamed for a shutdown if they don’t strike an agreement by the end of the month. Joining us to discuss another option — walking away from the table and letting the GOP own the consequences until they are willing to negotiate in good faith — is Bill Scher, politics editor of The Washington Monthly. Scher is also the host of the history podcast When America Worked and the co-host of the bipartisan online show and podcast The DMZ. We discuss his latest articles at The Washington Monthly, “A Government Shutdown Looms. Prepare for Democrats to Disappoint” and “Ezra Klein (Almost) Gets It Right.”
Did the US Allow Israel to Strike an Allied Country That Hosts the Biggest US Base in the Middle East?
Then we go to Amman, Jordan, to speak with Daoud Kuttab, an award-winning Palestinian journalist, media activist, and TV producer active in media freedom efforts in the Middle East. A former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, he established the Arab world’s first internet radio station, AmmanNet, in 2000. He is also the author of State of Palestine Now and has an article at The New Republic, “The World Is Recognizing Palestine. The U.S. Is Banning Its Leader.” We discuss the Israeli strike on Hamas negotiators in Qatar and assess the U.S. role in enabling Israel to attack an allied country that hosts the largest U.S. base in the Middle East.
The US Tells the Europeans We Will No Longer Work With Them Against Russian, Chinese and Iranian Disinformation Warfare
Finally, with the U.S. telling its European allies it will no longer work against Russian, Chinese and Iranian disinformation warfare, we speak with Olga Lautman, a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. She is also the creator and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast series, which features expert discussions on the Kremlin’s internal affairs, global operations, and tactics used from their hybrid warfare toolkit to destabilize Western democracies. Her Substack newsletter, Unmasking Russia, covers Russia, Ukraine, Eastern, and Central Europe with a focus on Russia’s intelligence operations and is available at olgalautman.substack.com. Today we discuss her recent articles, including, “Active Measures: The Kremlin’s Troll Factory” and “War Criminal Erik Prince Was Just in Ukraine”.