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 blame game underway where Nancy Pelosi blaming Biden for not stepping down earlier and look into the need for accountability as the Democrats are dazed and confused

following such a resounding defeat by a disastrous former president who should be in jail, not back in the Oval

Office. Joining us is Timothy Shank, an assistant professor of history at George Washington University.

A senior editor of Dissent magazine has written for the New York Times, The Nation, the New Republic

and Jacobin, among other publications. His new book, Just Out is Left Adrift, What Happened to Liberal Politics,

and we'll discuss his article at the New York Times,

It's Time to Resist the Resistance.

Then we'll assess the failure of the legal system to bring a career criminal to justice

before he took over the world and speak with Sean

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

whose books include The Rise of American Democracy, Jefferson to Lincoln, The Age of Reagan,

History, 1974 to 2008, Bob Dylan in America, and the politicians and the

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

founding, and we will discuss his article at Rolling Stone, Trump's Plot Against America.

Then finally we'll examine the implications of the enormous power Trump

will wield as he joins with kleptocratic leaders and autocrats to enrich cronies and empower

a global oligarchy as his bromance with Elon Musk has the world's richest man sharing

phone calls with Trump and Putin and Erdogan.

Joining us is Robert Benson, a senior policy analyst for national security and international

policy at the Center for American Progress.

...