Background Briefing: July 16, 2026

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Will Trump’s Roy Cohn Get Confirmed Since One Republican Senator’s Vote is All It Takes To Tank Todd Blanche’s Nomination? 

We begin with yesterday’s senate testimony by Todd Blanche to become Trump’s AG whose nomination could be tanked by one Republican senator’s vote. In answering a softball question from folksy Senator Kennedy whether he was a friend of the president’s, Blanche replied he IS Trump’s lawyer, then corrected himself saying he was his lawyer. Joining us is Brett Edkins, the managing director of Policy & Political Affairs at Stand Up America where he manages the organization’s political and policy strategy to pass progressive legislation, defend voting rights, and build a more representative democracy. He has held numerous roles in politics, policy, and law, including as a litigation attorney, law clerk in federal district court, and aide to former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.

 

A New DNI Unwilling To Speak Truth To Power in the Reckless Ignoramus’s Oval Office Is a Catastrophe For Our National Security

Then we look into yesterday’s senate testimony by Jay Clayton to become the next DNI replacing Bill Pulte who has lowered the bar so much that Clayton’s inability to acknowledge Biden won the 2020 election will not matter even if Clayton is only marginally more qualified than Pulte. Joining us is Karen Greenberg, an international studies fellow at New America Foundation, a fellow at NYU Law School’s Reiss Center for Security, and a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the cohost of the Spytalk podcast. She is the author of Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State, Subtle Tools: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump, and Our Nation at Risk: Election Integrity as a National Security Issue, co-authored with Julian Zelizer.

 

Trump Will Try to Sell the Save America Act Tonight With Manufactured Intel and Racist Delusions About Georgia’s Black Voters In 2020

Then finally, ahead of Trump’s address to the nation tonight in which he is expected to try to sell the Save America Act otherwise known as the Save Trump Act with manufactured evidence to support his racist delusion the 2020 election was stolen in Georgia by black voters, we speak with Alan Abramowitz, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Emory University. He studies American politics, political parties, elections, and voting behavior and his books include The Polarized Public: Why American Government is so Dysfunctional and The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump.