Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with President Biden's opening campaign speech in the 2024 election on Friday

at Valley Forge, the historic side of the Revolutionary War in 1777, that was preceded by a lunch

with a small group of historians at the White House on Wednesday.

Joining us as an historian who attended the lunch, Sean Wollens,

the George Henry Davis, 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University,

where he has taught since 1979.

His books include The Rise of American Democracy, Jefferson to Lincoln,

The Age of Reagan, a History, 1974 to 2008, Bob Dylan in America, and the politicians and the egalitarians.

His latest book is No Property in Man, Slavery and Anti-Slavery, at the Nation's founding.

Then, following the recent anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, we'll assess the cowardly

caving in by corporate America and trade groups who three years ago pledged not to give

campaign donations to insurrectionist members of Congress who voted against certifying

the 2020 presidential election.

Joining us is Anna Masalia, a researcher editor and writer based in Washington, D.C., at the

Center for Responsive Politics, where she studies foreign influence, digital and political

ads, and is responsible for Open Secrets, Dark Money's data bait as well as its foreign

lobby watch.

Trained as a lawyer, she was appointed by the U.S. Treasury Department to be a member of the

Taxpayers Advocacy Panel, a federal advisory committee to the IRS, and has held additional

roles with the D.C. Superior Court Senior Judges Chamber, the Lawyers Committee for Civil

Rights Underlaw Voting Rights Project, the D.C. Council Committee on Government Operations, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Voting Rights Project,

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