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 the narrowest 50 to 51 vote in the Senate to confirm Pete Hakeseth as Secretary of Defense,

requiring Vice President Vance to cast a tiebreaker and assess the disaster ahead.

We'll discuss how an incompetent ideologue and Christian crusader who sees Americans who voted for Democrats as the enemy, not Russia,

will purge the DoD of minorities, women, and gays, resulting in the current recruitment shortfall turning into a crisis,

as our trillion-dollar military runs out of soldiers, sailors, and airmen and women.

Joining us is Michael Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

and a leader of the movement to restore the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state

in the United States military.

He is an attorney who served on active duty in the United States military. He is an attorney who served on

active duty in the United States Air Force and as a judge advocate JAG for 10 years and also

work for more than three years as a legal counsel in the Reagan White House. The author of With

God on our side, One Man's War Against the Evangelical coup in America's military.

The latest book by his wife, Bonnie, is When Christians Break Bad, Letters from the Insane, Inane and Profane.

And we'll discuss the latest article at MRFF.org.

Pete Hegseth, the new Secretary of Defense, is a Christian dominionist.

Then we'll examine the politics of destruction as the Trump wrecking crew, led by OMB director

and Project 2025 head, Russell Vout, begin their deliberate effort to dismantle the American

government and speak with Russell Muirhead, the Robert Clemens Professor

of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College. He is the co-author with Nancy Rosenblum of a lot of people

are saying, the new conspiracism and the assault on democracy, and we will discuss their recent

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