October 6 - One of 30 GOP Lawmakers Refusing to Vote for Trump; Washington's Unusually Sharp Rebuke of Israel; Did an Anti-Gay Backlash Help Sink Colombia's Peace Deal?

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the letter today from 30 GOP lawmakers who served in Congress saying they would not vote for Donald Trump in the general election stating “every day brings a fresh revelation that highlights the unacceptable danger of electing Trump to lead our nation”.  One of the signatories, former Republican Congressman Tom Campbell, joins us to discuss why he signed the letter and how he was motivated to do so by Trump’s remark that implied an invitation to violence against Hillary Clinton by so-called second amendment people.  With both moderate and conservative Republican lawmakers having signed the letter, we look into a likely post-mortem conducted by the GOP if there is to be a Trump defeat, to determine the future direction of the Republican Party that could see a return to a more moderate path or a deal between traditional conservatives and the Tea Party wing to pursue less radical and more conservative policies.

Part 2

Then we get an analysis of the unusually sharp rebuke issuedWednesday by the White House and the State Department over Israel’s plans to build brand new settlements on the West Bank with White House spokesman Josh Earnest suggesting the Netanyahu government broke its word, “We did receive public assurances from the Israeli government that contradict this announcement, I guess when we’re taking about how good friends treat one another, that’s a source of serious concern”.  The former spokesman for the late Shimon Peres, Gideon Levy, now a journalist and columnist with Ha’aretz, joins us to discuss how the U.S. does not use its leverage over Israel which would have happened before the generous arms deal Obama just gave the Israelis, not after, when Netanyahu can thumb his nose in Obama’s face.

Part 3 

Then finally we speak with Brendan O’Boyle, an editor of Americas Quarterly where he has an article “Did an Anti-LGBT Panic Help Defeat Colombia’s Peace Deal?” He joins us to discuss how the recent firing of Colombia’s openly gay Minister of Education who had become a lightning rod for the conservative opposition, only to have President Santos appoint her as a coordinator for the “Yes” campaign for the peace deal with the Farc, helped tip the scales in the “No” campaign’s direction in Sunday’s referendum that had an historically low turnout.