Day: July 7, 2026

Briefings

Background Briefing: July 7, 2026

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The Latest Platner Scandal Has Bernie and Mamdani Urging Him to Step Aside

We begin with the latest scandal rocking the Platner campaign for the US Senate in Maine, which is a must-win seat occupied by long-serving Republican Susan Collins if the Democrats are to take control of the senate in November. Joining us to discuss not if but when Graham Platner is to step aside after Bernie Sanders and Mayor Mamdani urged him to do so is, Daniel Shea, the Marson-Moller-McNulty Professor of Government at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He has an article at the Portland Press Herald we discuss, “Maine politics just took a punch to the gut.”

 

What it is Like to Have Russian Missiles and Drones Heading for Your Apartment Building

Then we speak with Tamar Jacoby, the Kyiv-based director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s New Ukraine Project. She was a senior writer and justice editor at Newsweek and, before that, the deputy editor of the New York Times op-ed page. She is the author of The Ukrainian Refugee Experience and as Putin intensifies his bombardment of civilian targets in Kyiv ahead of the NATO summit after a 90 minute phone call with Trump on the 4th of July, we discuss what it is like when Russian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and swarms of drones are heading for your apartment building.

 

The NATO Summit Underway and What Does Putin Want From Trump

Then finally we speak with George Beebe, the Director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He served in government for nearly twenty-five years, including as director of Russia analysis at CIA and as a White House adviser on Russia matters for Vice President Dick Cheney. His latest book is The Russia Trap: How Our Shadow War with Russia Could Spiral into Nuclear Catastrophe and we examine the NATO summit underway in Turkey and assess what Putin is trying to achieve after talking to Trump, who claims to be trying to bring about a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, by unleashing a terror campaign against Ukrainian civilians.