March 5 - Trump's Unverified Smear of Obama; Deflecting the Press's Attention Away From the Russia Story; How Donald Trump Fits Into the Global Pantheon of Dictators, Despots and Authoritarians

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an attempt to understand Donald Trump’s outrageous and unsupported smear of President Obama in an historical context, since calling your predecessor a “bad (or sick) guy” seems almost unprecedented in its crudeness and lack of dignity. Princeton Historian Sean Wilentz, the author of “The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln” whose latest book is “The Politicians and the Egalitarians”, joins us to discuss the pre-dawn flurry of tweets from Trump accusing Obama of “Nixon/Watergate” tapping of his phones in Trump Tower and now the call by the Trump Administration for a Congressional investigation into these charges which appear to be based on Breitbart New conspiracies and the musings of a right wing talk radio host for which no evidence has been forthcoming.

Part 2

Then we examine further the apparent attempt to deflect the press’s focus away from the continuing breaking news of more evidence of the Trump campaign’s involvement with Russian officials and speak with Roger Morris, who served on the senior staff of the National Security Council under presidents Johnson and Nixon until resigning with Anthony Lake over the invasion of Cambodia. We will explore the irony that the current dictator in Cambodia Hun Sen, is using Donald Trump’s attacks on the press and accusations of “fake news” as a way to justify this former Khmer Rouge functionary’s crackdown on the press and the jailing of opposition politicians.  

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Alastair Smith, a professor of politics at New York University who has extensively researched the nature of dictatorship and other forms of bad leadership. He is the author of “The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics” and his latest book is “The Spoils of War: Greed, Power and the Conflicts That Made our Greatest Presidents.” We discuss how Donald Trump fits into the global pantheon of dictators, despots and authoritarians who unfortunately make up the majority of leaders around the world who exploit and oppress their beleaguered citizens.