Background Briefing: March 1, 2026

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Trump’s Reality TV War and the Prospect He Will Sell Out The Iranian People Just as He Sold Out the Venezuelan People For Oil 

We begin with the ongoing U.S./Israeli strikes on Iran that have already killed the Supreme Leader, the head of the IRGC and members of Khamenei’s family but not the powerful and despised son Mojtaba. While there were celebrations in Tehran, much of the country is in mourning leading to questions about regime change since, while air power alone provides gratification without commitment, it is not clear what kind of government will be left to make a deal with Trump. However, if Venezuela is the model, after getting rid of the top guy but leaving the torturer Cabello in charge of the Interior Ministry, then we can expect the IRGC to be stay in power in Iran. Joining us is Nader Hashemi, the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. A Non-Resident Fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now, he is the author of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future and Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East.

The DoJ Leaks the FBI Reports Bondi Held Back to The Guardian and Breitbart to Discredit Trump’s Then 13 Year Old Rape Accuser

Then, with Trump’s war on Iran a distraction from the Epstein scandal, we will look into the leak by the DoJ to The Guardian and Breitbart of the missing files Pam Bondi held back of FBI reports containing accusations by a then 13 year old girl that Trump raped her which cast doubt of the victim’s credibility. Joining us is Nina Burleigh, a senior editor at The New Republic, best-selling author, documentary producer, and publisher of the Substack American Freakshow. A professor at New York University’s Arthur J. Carter Journalism Institute, she’s written seven books, the latest of which include Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trump’s Women, and she has a new novel, Zero Visibility Possible. The Producer of a recent documentary series on Apple TV, “Epstein’s Shadow”, she has an article at American Freakshow, “Where Are The FBI’s Missing Interviews with a Woman Who Named Trump?”

 

Following the Putin-Orban Playbook, Right Wing Trump-Friendly Billionaires Are Buying Up the Mainstream Media

Then finally, with right wing Trump-friendly billionaires buying up the mainstream media following the authoritarian playbook of Putin and Orban, we will speak with Jessica González, the Co-CEO of Free Press and a public-policy lawyer and activist at the intersection of racial justice, media, technology and democracy. She was a staff attorney and teaching fellow at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation, where she represented public interest and civil rights groups before the FCC and in the courts of appeal. She has testified before Congress on multiple occasions to support Net Neutrality.