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

and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news. We begin with the woefully unqualified and dangerously out of his depth, Secretary of Defense,

Pete Hagezeth, in the hot seat for ordering a war crime, which he is now trying to blame on the

Admiral in charge of Special Operations Command. Joining us to explain why both Trump and

Hegsef had such an overheated response to a video

by democratic lawmakers, reiterating the fact that members of the military are required to

disobey unlawful orders, now that we know that they knew they were guilty of such a war crime.

Joining us is Thomas Nichols, Professor Emeritus of National Security Affairs

at the United States Naval War College,

who previously taught international relations

and Soviet Russian affairs at Dartmouth College and Georgetown University.

He's the author of The Death of Expertise,

The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters,

and his latest book, Our Own Worst Enemy, the Assault from Within on Modern Democracy.

Currently, a staff writer at the Atlantic, we'll discuss his latest article at the Atlantic.

Pete Hegseth needs to go now.

A man with such contempt for the military should not run the Pentagon.

Then we'll look into the special election for Congress in Tennessee today that has the

Democrats stepping up to support an underdog candidate while Trump and Speaker Johnson

are frantically campaigning for their guy because they can't afford to lose another House

seat given their razor-thin margin.

Joining us is Jonathan Metzell, Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry at Vanderbilt

...