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 latest evidence of Trump's collusion with Putin, revealed in the new book by Bob Woodward,

and examine the record of how the mountains of evidence against Trump have been sidetracked,

ignored, and misrepresented to the point the press appears to have no interest in further investigation, as not just Trump, but much of the Republican Party have become willing handmaidens of Putin.

Joining us is Christopher Steele, who began his 22-year career working as a diplomat, intelligence

professional and Soviet Russia expert within the British government.

In 1987, soon after graduating from Cambridge University, he was posted to Moscow,

where he served through the fall of the Soviet Union before returning to London to become one of

the government's senior political and intelligence experts and advisors on Russia and the former Soviet Union. In 2009 he founded the private

intelligence company Orbis Business Intelligence and he's the author of the new book

Just Out, Unredacted, Russia, Trump and the Fight for Democracy. Then we'll examine how the Democratic Party could repair its frayed connection to the working class

as Republicans make inroads into what was the New Deal Coalition

by appealing to grievance and portraying Democrats as educated elitists,

while the MAGA GOP serves the interests of a moneyed elite of oligarchs

who fund them. Joining us is Timothy Schenk, an assistant professor of history at George Washington

University, a senior editor at Dissent Magazine. He has written for the New York Times,

The Nation, the New Republic and Jacobin, among other

publications. And we will discuss his new book, Just Out, Left Adrift, What Happened to Liberal

Politics. And before we begin, as we count down to America's most fateful election, which will

decide if we keep our democracy or lose

it and end up in a world run by Trump's favorite dictators and kleptocrats. We are

...