Background Briefing

Bandy Lee / Rachel Bitecofer / Lara Friedman

The Author of the Goldwater Rule, Which Gagged Psychiatrists, Now Calls For Trump to Be Evaluated For Dementia

We begin looking into how the last remaining author of the 1973 “Goldwater rule,” by the American Psychiatric Association, which prevented psychiatrists from diagnosing politicians unless they have treated them, is now going public to repudiate the Goldwater rule. Dr. Allen Dyer, a retired George Washington University psychiatry professor, is now offering his diagnosis that Trump’s recent behavior warrants medical evaluation for dementia. Dr. Dyer has observed that Trump seems to be progressively cognitively impaired, commenting that, “I find it concerning that he doesn’t complete his sentences, seems to lose track of the question he is trying to answer, or avoid, and that one thought doesn’t lead to another, but appears to veer tangentially off track.” Joining us is a victim of the Goldwater rule who was fired from Yale at the urging of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein’s friend Alan Dershowitz, Dr. Bandy Lee, a medical doctor, forensic psychiatrist, and a world expert on violence. She taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School for 17 years and became known to the public by leading a group of mental health professional colleagues in breaking the silence about Donald Trump’s dangerous psychology and publishing the New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President. She is currently president of the World Mental Health Coalition and her latest books are The Psychology of Trump Contagion: An Existential Danger to American Democracy and All Humankind and The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 40 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Warn Anew. She also blogs at bandyxlee.substack.com

Trump’s Plans To Round Up Enemies Into Concentration Camps are the Same as Those of Hitler, Who Quickly Turned Democracy Into Dictatorship

Then we compare the countdown from democracy to dictatorship under Hitler that accurately mirrors the countdown for Trump’s new regime to implement Project 2025 and create concentration camps and round up political enemies. Joining us is Rachel Bitecofer, a political scientist and election forecaster turned political strategist. She worked with Democratic Party candidates and organizations to implement negative partisanship strategy in the 2022 midterms and is the author of Hit ‘Em Where It Hurts: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game. She writes regularly at thecycle.substack.com. We discuss her latest article, “What (Really) Happens If Trump Wins? Like Hitler, Trump Has Made Clear His Plan is Dictatorship, Not Democracy.”

The Abraham Accords Are Becoming a Pipe Dream, as Netanyahu Drives Saudi Arabia and Iran Together

Then finally, we speak with Lara Friedman, the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Previously she was the Director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now, after serving as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis, and Beirut. Lara is a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with particular focus on the Israeli-Arab conflict, settlements, and Jerusalem, and on the role of the U.S. Congress. We discuss the Middle East realignment underway, shifting away from Netanyahu and the Abraham Accords, as Saudi Arabia and Iran are apparently being driven together; meeting with Putin at his BRICS summit; and announcing joint naval drills in the Gulf.