Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the Democratic Old guard, led by Nancy Pelosi,

sabotaging Alexandria Ocasi-Cortez's attempt to be the ranking member on the Oversight Committee

following an election which was lost because the party's elders held on to power too long,

and young and minority voters

were not inspired. Joining us to discuss how a rising star with 8.1 million followers who appeals

to the youth and Latino vote was shot down by party elders is Alexander Salmon, a politics writer at Slate, who has previously written

for Mother Jones, The New Republic and the American Prospect. We will discuss his latest

article at Slate. AOC should have won this fight. Nancy Pelosi led the charge to keep Alexandria

Ocasia Cortez out of a key house position. It was a bad move.

Then, with the murder suspect of the shooting of the CEO of United Healthcare, Luigi

Mangione, charged with terrorism, we will speak with an expert on domestic and international

terrorism, Tom McItis, a professor of history at DePaul University, where he teaches courses in British, modern European and military history.

His research and writing covers international security, terrorism, unconventional conflict and military history.

He has taught counterterrorism courses at

venues around the world as part of the US Department of Defense's Counterterrorism Fellowship

Program and is the author of six books including new terrorism, myths and reality, violent

extremists, understanding the domestic international terrorist threat and Iraq and the

challenge of counterinsurgency. A regular contributor to the Hill, we'll discuss his latest article.

Is Luigi Mangione a new type of lone wolf and how much Americans are more accepting of political violence?

Then finally, with the extortionist Trump musing about privatizing the post office

...