Background Briefing (Monday, 5am)

Marilyn Marks / Jonathan Weiler / Sidney Blumenthal

The Republicans Have Stolen the Software for the Voting Machines in Georgia and Can Manipulate the November Results at Will

We begin with the Georgia Election Board’s new rule requiring a hand count of ballots, which is likely to slow down results. However, that is the least of the problems for the Democrats in trying to win the important swing state, since the Republicans have already stolen the software for the voting machines in Georgia and can manipulate the November results at will. Joining us to discuss this little-discussed fact is Marilyn Marks, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Good Governance, a non-partisan non-profit organization dedicated to transparent government and evidence-based elections. She is the driving force behind the much-watched Curling v. Kemp lawsuit against Georgia’s election officials to rid the state of unverifiable, touch screen electronic equipment.

Trump Abandons the “Black NAZI” Gubernatorial Candidate in North Carolina He Recently Referred to as “Martin Luther King on Steroids”

Then, with Trump at his rally in North Carolina on Saturday not sharing the stage with the self-described “Black NAZI” Republican candidate for governor, who Trump recently praised as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” we assess whether Harris can win the state and speak with Jonathan Weiler, a professor in Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics and Prius or Pickup?: How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide. He writes regularly at jonathanweiler.substack.com, where his latest article is “Seven weeks out: The state of the race.”

Can Trump and Vance Win With a Campaign Based on Racist Hatred?

Then finally, we examine whether Trump and Vance’s racist campaign — that is not just a torrent of racist dog whistles but a howl — can win in today’s America. Joining us to assess whether by targeting angry white voters with lurid lies about black people eating household pets, Trump will find a majority of white racists in the U.S. is Sidney Blumenthal, the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. He has been a national staff reporter for The Washington Post and Washington editor and staff writer for The New Yorker. His books include the bestsellers The Clinton Wars, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment, and The Permanent Campaign. His latest book is All the Powers on Earth: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1856-1860. We discuss his article at The Guardian, “Trump and Vance’s Springfield smear is a microcosm of their entire campaign.”