Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm me and Masters,

and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the greatest failure of federal law enforcement in American history

and look into how, if Trump had faced accountability for his crimes,

he may not have appeared on the ballot, let alone be given so much power to enact political revenge.

Joining us is Ancush Kedori, a senior writer for Politico magazine and a former federal prosecutor

at the Department of Justice, where he specialized in financial fraud and white-collar crime.

We will discuss his latest article at Politico.

Trump got away with it because of the Biden administration's massive missteps.

Then we'll assess the extent to which the Democrats lost because, as Bernie Sanders has said, quote,

it should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people, would find that the working class

has abandoned them. We'll discuss the seconding of this analysis coming from Connecticut

Senator to Chris Murphy, quote, when progressies like Bernie aggressively go after the elites that

hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base.

Joining us is Jeet here, a national affairs correspondent for the nation and host of the weekly

nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column morbid symptoms, and we'll discuss

his latest article at the nation. Bernie Sanders is right. Democrats have abandoned the working class.

Then finally we'll assess the extent to which Saudi Arabia and Iran are getting closer,

with the military heads of the two rival countries meeting as a Saudi leader,

Mohammed bin Salman, calls what is happening in Gaza genocide at a summit of Arab leaders he is hosting.

Joining us is Adam Weinstein, who is the Deputy Director of the Middle East Program

at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Stakecraft.

...