Will the War of Words Between Trump and the Iranians Lead to a Real War?
We begin with the war of words between Trump and the Iranian regime which is likely to explode into a real war at any moment as Trump calls the Iranian negotiators “scum” and “They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people and they’re vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they’d use it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.” Joining us to discuss whether the MoU is over or the war is about to resume with Trump saying we will “very probably hit” Iran tonight, then adding that he doesn’t think the war will restart, is Emma Ashford, a senior fellow at The Stimson Center, a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University and a nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point. With expertise in the politics of the Middle East, Russia, Europe, her work focuses on questions of grand strategy, international security, and the future of US foreign policy. She is author of First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World and Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates, and she has an article at Responsible Statecraft, “Gulf State Catch-22: Time to drop US as chief security guarantor?”
The Scramble to Replace Platner Who Appears Reluctant to Step Down
Then we look into the scramble in Maine to replace Graham Platner who appears reluctant to step down and speak with Bill Scher, the politics editor of the Washington Monthly. He is 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 article at The Washington Monthly, “If Graham Platner Won’t Quit, Democrats Need to Quit Him.”
The Lack of Vetting and Opposition Research in Choosing Candidates to Run in Democratic Primaries
Then finally we assess the lack of vetting and opposition research in choosing candidates to run in Democratic primaries as the Platner campaign implodes while the two most must-win senate seats for the Democrats in Maine and Michigan have progressives at war with centrists. Joining us is John Pitney, a Professor of American Politics at Claremont McKenna College. He was a volunteer opposition researcher for the 1988 presidential campaign of George H.W. Bush and, from 1989-1991, was deputy director of research at the Republican National Committee. He is the author of a number of books including The Art of Political Warfare, Un-American: The Fake Patriotism of Donald J. Trump and The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics.