Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the role the National Inquirer played in helping to elect Trump in 2016,

which emerged from today's testimony from the tabloids publisher David Pecker,

who operated a catch-and-kill policy of burying damaging stories about Trump and his extramarital affairs,

including Trump's sexual encounter with a porn star.

Joining us to discuss Trump's tawdry history of using and abusing women is Nina Burley,

a senior editor at the New Republic, bestselling author, documentary producer and publisher

of the Substack American Freak Show. A professor at New York University's Arthur J. Carter Journalism

Institute, she's written seven books, the latest of which is virus, vaccinations, the CDC,

and the hijacking of America's response to the pandemic and golden handcuffs, the secret

history of Trump's women, and she is the producer of a recent documentary series on Apple TV,

Epstein's Shadow.

Then we'll explore the extent to which the pathetic man on display in the Manhattan courtroom

is undermining the superhero mystique Trump and he's

enabled us have manufactured that Trump is the Maga Faithful's warrior, not an offender.

Joining us is Sidney Blumenthal, the former assistant and senior advisor to President Bill

Clinton and senior advisor to Hillary Clinton.

He has been a national staff reporter for the Washington Post, the Washington editor

and staff writer for the New Yorker, and 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 to 1860,

...