In a win that has sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party, an unabashedly left-wing epidemiologist has been chosen as the Democrat nominee to fight for a senate seat in Michigan in November.

Some see it as a desperate move at a time when the Republican Party is moving full steam ahead to prosecute opponents such as Dr Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden's former COVID tsar, who was browbeaten just over a week ago in a heated Senate hearing.

Today, North America correspondent Michael Koziol discusses why Democrats are gambling their ability to regain power in November on an insurgent who has argued for the US to cut military aid to Israel. And why Republicans are grilling Fauci on his decisions during the COVID pandemic.

The Morning Edition brings you the story behind the story with the best journalists in Australia. Join host Samantha Selinger-Morris from the newsrooms of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, weekdays from 5am.

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