October 23 - Trump's New Low as He Attacks the Widow of a Fallen Green Beret; Niger and Why It Is Suddenly in the News; How the Adults in the Room Are Enabling Trump

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Part 1	We begin with a new low for Donald Trump who in effect called the widow of the slain Green Beret killed in Niger a liar, following her remarks on ABC’s “Good Morning America” where she supported what Congresswoman Wilson had said about Trump’s botched condolence call, saying Trump “made me cry because I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it. He couldn’t remember my husband’s name”. A highly decorated combat veteran who was awarded 2 Silver Stars, 2 Legions of Merit, and 2 Purple Hearts, Phillip Butler, who was shot down over North Vietnam and spent 8 years as a POW, joins us. Now that we are in day 8 of the continuing scandal over Trump’s handling of Gold Star families, we will discuss the national wound Trump opened when he accused his predecessors of not making condolence calls to the fallen, and the escalating war of words between Trump and Senator McCain. Having known McCain since they graduated together from the US Naval Academy in 1961 and later as Phil Butler spent 8 years in captivity compared to McCain’s 5, which Trump disparaged during the campaign, we will assess how Trump will react to being called a draft-dodger, which was clearly implied in McCain’s remark that rich kids avoided the Vietnam war by claiming to have bone spurs.
Part 2	Then we look into Niger, the country suddenly in the news, and the growing questions surrounding the US military mission there and the apparent failure of intelligence that led to the ambush of the four Green Berets whose deaths have led to frictions between our military and civilian authorities and between Trump and the family of one of the fallen. Laura Seay, a professor of Government at Colby College who studies African politics, conflict, and development with a focus on central Africa, joins us to discuss the activities of AFRICOM and Senator Lindsay Graham’s announcement that there will be more US aggression on the continent.
Part 3	Then finally we speak with John Feffer, the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies whose latest article at Foreign Policy in Focus is “Trump’s Enablers Should Be Shamed Out of Public Life”. He joins us to discuss how the generals, the so-called “adults in the room”, are in fact enabling militaristic policies around the world and are only restraining Trump’s personality defects and impulses, not his policies.