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 begin with House Speaker Johnson refusing to move on the bipartisan bill of aid to Ukraine,

Israel and Taiwan that passed the Senate 70 to 29 and speak with Thomas Khan,

who worked in Congress for 33 years where he served a staff director and chief counsel of the House Budget Committee.

He is a fellow at the Center for the Study of Congress and the Presidency at American University,

and we will assess the chances of a work around Johnson's servility to Trump

to get a bipartisan majority vote on the floor via a discharge petition.

Then, following yesterday's resounding election win for the Democrats in a rebuke of Trump

and the Republicans attempt to make the board of the issue, we will speak with David K. Johnston,

a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and best-selling author of the making of Donald Trump, a 13-year veteran of the New York Times, he won the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and best-selling author of the making of Donald Trump.

A 13-year veteran of the New York Times, he won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting that uncovered loopholes and inequities in the U.S. Tax Code,

and he has uncovered so many tax dodgers that he's been called the de facto tax enforcement officer of the United States.

His latest book is The Big Cheat, How Donald Trump Fleeced

America and enriched himself and his family, and is the co-founder of DCReport.org, where his latest

article, which we will discuss is, will GOP leaders speak truth to Trump? Then finally we look into

whether the far-right Supreme Court

majority are Republican political operatives in robes and will rule to delay the cases he is

facing in federal court. Joining us is Sidney Blumenthal, the former assistant and senior

advisor to President Bill Clinton and a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton.

He's been a national staff reporter for the Washington Post, Washington editor and staff writer

for the New Yorker, and his books include the bestsellers, the Clinton Wars, the rise of

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