Transcript

12.18.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of today's Washington Post. It is
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December eighteenth of twenty twenty five. Your reader is Alastainer
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with the reminder that RADIOI is a service for those
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blind with difficulties holding and reading printed material. And I
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start as usual on the top left hand column of
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the Washington Post, above the fold How Israel devastated the
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Iranian Brain Trust frontline post probe details June operation against
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nuclear scientists by Saud Mhennett, Warren P. Strobel, Nilo Tabreezi,
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and John Hudson. In the middle, as usual, there is
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a picture and it's entitled Honoring the Fallen, and there's
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a picture of President Donald Trump and others paying their
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respects Wednesday to two Iowa National Guard members and a
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US civilian interpreter who were killed last week in an
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Islamic State attack in the Syrian desert. The remains of
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Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres Tuvar twenty five are carried at
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Odova Air Force Base in Delaware. And it shows well,
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it's four members of the services in their desert fatigues
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carrying a flag draped coffin. You don't see the whole then,
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you just see the four of them, and that's on
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the left hand side of the picture. And on the
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right hand side you see President Trump standing a little
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bit apart from the Secretary of the Department of Defense
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or wall Pete Hegseth, and then another medaled member of
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the Services to the right of heg Seth, and then
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people behind. It's a very clear day blue sky to
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the right of that builder with Hegseeth. Penalty prevails press
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his release a boat strike video, Pentagon budget clears Senate
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heads to Trump and this is by Nowhere Robertson. And
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below the picture of the remains of the fallen soldier
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you see this news what kirk suspect told friends by
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Samuel Oakford, Evan Hill, Sarah Blankie, and Aaron Schaeffer. And
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then below the volt on the left a portrait that
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inspired the one dollar bill could fetch one million dollars
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by Ben Brash, and then a picture of a woman,
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Nabisa Moosa's life has been deeply affected by the Pearliar
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River which flows near her home in India, and she
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is underneath hanging of trees. It looks like it's holding up.
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I don't know what it is. I honestly don't know
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what it is, but she's in a purple top with
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the pretty lovely reddish purple skirt over her. And in India,
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one damn shapes the fate of millions. Manny rely on
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the Mula Pierre River. Many fear it too by Sarah Kaplan,
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Srik and Cibden and Parna Ganson, and then below the picture.
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Widespread use of plastic puts harmful chemicals in nearly everyone's
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diet by Shannon Osaka and Nama Ahmad. Senate passes Pentagon
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bill pressing Hegseeth to disclose boat strike evidence. The sprawling
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legislation includes a provision seeking video and other materials detailing
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the Trump administration's military activities in Latin America by Noah Robertson.
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The Senate on Wednesday passed Congress's nine hundred billion dollar
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Defense Policy Bill, advancing a bipartisan effort to force the
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Pentagon to disclosed footage of a controversial military strike on
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an alleged drug smuggling boat near Venezuela. The legislation advanced
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by a vote of seventy seven to twenty. It cleared
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the House last week, and President Donald Trump is expected
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to sign it into law. A measure in the bill
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withholds twenty five percent of Defense Secretary Pete Hagzeth's travel
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budget until he provides Congress with a video of the
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September second operation and other materials related to the Trump
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Administration's unprecedented campaign against Latin America narcotics traffickers. Eleven people
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were killed in that attack, including two men who survived
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the US initial strike on their vessel. The footage is
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seen as essential evidence as lawmakers seek to determine while
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the military officials violated the law of armed conflict by
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targeting the folk's wreckage with survivors present. Military law grants
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special protection to people who are adeemed shipwrecked, meaning they
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are in peril and not engaging in hostilities. The commander
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who oversaw the operation has sought to defend his decision
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in order to order the subsequent strike that killed the
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two survivors. Hag Seth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio
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appeared Tuesday on Capitol Hill with a brief descendate and
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hosts on the September second attack and the administration's broad
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narcotics campaign. To date, US forces have targeted twenty five votes,
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suspected of fearing illicit drugs, killing ninety five people. According
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to the Trump administration's public disclosures. In bf re marks
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two reporters, Haig's said he is ruled out releasing the
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September second video, citing a need to protect US military secrets.
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Members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee viewed
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the footage Wednesday and spoke with Admiral Frank M. Bailey,
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who led the operation. The National Defense Authorization Act in
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da A largely focuses on making it easier for the
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Pentagon to buy weapons, eliminating bureaucracy that Republicans and Democrats
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agree has become an unacceptable obstacle amid the arms race
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with Russia and China, But the legislation also represents the
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GOP controlled Congress asserting its authority over US defensive policy,
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after some Republicans have complained that the Pentagon under Hegseth,
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has withheld critical information all the year. The bill would
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force the Defensive Department to consult with lawmakers before withdrawing
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troops from South Korea and Europe, and before restructuring military
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commands around the world. The legislation includes other areas of
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bipartisan pushback against the Trump administration, including measures that extend
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security aid to Ukraine and the Baltic nations that border Russia.
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The Pentagon had intended to cancel the initiatives. In a
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win for lawmakers skeptical of open minded, open ended US
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military commitments, the bill repeals decades old legislation authorizing the
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use of military force during the Gulf War and the
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Iraq War. It also includes a nearly four percent pay
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raise for service members. Still, while many of the most
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partisan parts of the bill were cut away during negotiations
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between the House and the Senate, some Democrats nevertheless reacted
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with frustration at parts of the final text. In particular,
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bipartisan provisions that would have restored the work of a
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commission tasked with renaming military bases that had once honored
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the Confederacy were struck from the final bill. In regard
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to last summer's murder of Charlie Kirk and there is
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an article and an exclusive for The Wall Washington Post.
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You see this news what Charlie Kirk's alleged killer told
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friends after the attack. A patchwork of social interactions and
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a trail of online posts provide a view into Tyler
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Robinson's life and his beliefs. A post examination found and
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there's a picture of Tyler Robinson, the alleged killer of
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Charlie Kirk, at his outdoor meeting last summer. Fifty five
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minutes before he allegedly shot and killed right wing political
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activist Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson was bragging about his success
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playing the online puzzle game Wordle. It was the morning
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of September tenth. Robinson had guessed the answer putti on
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his third attempt. He sent his results in a celebratory
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meme to a friend, who responded with the meme of
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his own and conceded that he had taken him five tries.
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By then, according to prosecutors, Robinson had already driven three
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hours from his home in southern Utah with a high
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powered rifle. He was about to make his way onto
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the campus of Utah Valley University, where Kirk was set
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to speak to a crowded outdoors. The Quoditia exchange ahead
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of the killing for which Robinson would later turn himself in,
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was a striking example of the compartmentization the twenty two
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year old exhibited in his interactions with friends in the
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days before the shooting. A Washington Post examination fund and
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in the years leading up to that day, friend said
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Robinson betrayed no sign of passions that might suggest a
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capability for violence, much less murder. To many, he appeared
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to hold unremarkable political opinions, and he told some he
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was no fan of either major party. The examination draws
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on interviews with twenty one people who knew Robinson, as
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well as hundreds of messages he exchanged online over the
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past five years. President Donald Trump and his inner circle
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have claimed that Robinson was radicalized by left wing extremists.
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Prosecutors alleged Robinson targeted Kirk for his political expression, but
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there is no publicly known videotaped statement or lengthy missive
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to better understand the high profile killing. For now, a
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patchwork of social interactions and a trail of online posts
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provide a view into Robinson's life and his beliefs. The
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ammunition he allegedly loaded into the rifle was etched with
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gamer memes and online jokes whose meanings had become a
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matter of public debate, and that even his friends said
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they cannot interpret. Some people said they noticed changes in
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Robinson over roughly the past year. His mother told police
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that he had become more pro gay and transwrite oriented,
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and had started dating a roommate who was undergoing Agenda transition.
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Friends confirmed the pair's romantic involvement and said the roommate
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was distressed about anti transsentiment. After the presidential election, According
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to one person who was close to him at the time,
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Robinson began to voice concern for the rights of transgender
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people and to express disapproval of the new administration, though
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the person said he was not strident in those views.
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Robinson sent the roommate an apparent confession that suggested a
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possible explanation for Kirk's killing. Quote, I had enough of
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his hatred. Some hate cannot be negotiated out, Robinson wrote
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in a message in the hours after the killing, according
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to charging documents, and there is a picture of Charlie
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Kirk hand make America Great Again hats before his shooting.
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He's wearing a white T shirt with black letters freedom
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written across the front. He's behind a b area with
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a separation between two barriers, actually, and he's behind the
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second barrier. There are hats number forty seven on a
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table behind him, and there is American. Oh, the approved.
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There's a tent above him. It's just a square tent
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above him, not with no sides. The Post reached Robinson
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by video call in mid October in the Utah County jail,
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where he is being held on murder and related charges.
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The camera appeared to be covered, and he did not
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make himself visible. I can't answer any questions, he said,
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You're welcome to talk. In four calls spanning about forty minutes,
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he maintained that disciplined approach, listening silently as a reporter
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described what friends and acquaintances had said about him. He
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did not audibly react to hearing that Kirk's wife, Erica,
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had publicly forgiven him, or that Trump had posthumously awarded
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kirk Kirk the Medal of Freedom. Eventually, Robinson asked that
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reporters communicate with him only in writing. He did not
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respond to messages sent through the jail's email system, and
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his attorneys declined to answer questions for this report. Eighteen
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minutes after Kirk was shot, the Post found Robinson wrote
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to his word old friend on the messaging platform Discord.
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He seemed egot to discuss the attack. Later that day,
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Robinson joined two other friends in a Discord voice chat
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and asked whether they knew about the shooting. He was
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short of breath and seemed to be outside, recalled one
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of the friends, who liked many others interviewed for this report,
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spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not
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want to be publicly associated with the killing or concerned
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for their own safety. In this politically charged moment, Robinson
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asked his two friends if they knew Kirk's condition. They
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were unsure. He got hit pretty bad, the friend told,
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recalled Robinson, saying, I'm pretty sure he's dead. Growing up online,
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on Election night twenty twenty, as Joe Biden tried to
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unseat Donald Trump, one of Robinson's friends tagged him on
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discord with a question who is winning the election? The
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friend wrote, you would note Robinson's response was dispassionate. Biden
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is in the lead electoral votes wise, but there are
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still some swing states that haven't finished voting, as well
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as most of the West Coast, he wrote, adding raw votes,
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Donald is in the lead by a little over one
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million votes. Robinson was seventeen at the time, a high
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school senior who took an interest in current events, friend said,
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but he shared no partisan biases. He said that both
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Democrats and Republicans had failed to help regular people. According
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to fellow student Xander Luke, twenty two, who said he
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and Robinson occasionally discussed their political views, he didn't think
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either of the options were good. Luke said. Robinson also
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didn't like hateful people. Luke recalled he didn't like bullies
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because they looked down on people for just living their lives.
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Robinson had grown up in what friends said was a
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conservative family in Saint George, a predominantly Mormon city in
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southern Utah. He was scary, smart, sweet, with an awesome
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sense of humor, his mother wrote on Facebook years before
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the shooting. She praised Robinson's good grades and posted his
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dream of smiling family photos. At school, he came off
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as funny but awkward, a person who made himself hard
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to know, said Eric Wagner, twenty two, who often hung
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up with him at lunch. Robinson didn't seem to want
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to spend time together outside of school, and they started
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to grow apart during their junior year, partly because Wagner said,
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he didn't feel comfortable being around my new girlfriend by
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the time COVID lockdowns closed schools in the spring of
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twenty twenty, Robinson had already seemed to spend as much
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time with friends online as in person. Wagner said Robinson
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was connected with a growing group of friends in a
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Discord server, a group of private chat rooms called the Corruption,
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the name of reference to a video game called Terraria Terraria.
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The Post spoke to people who participated in the Servant
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and obtained an archive of its chat rooms dating back
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to January twenty, as well as archives of two other
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private Discord servers in which Robinson was active. The messages
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reviewed by the Post occasionally touched on politics, but consisted
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mostly of chit chat memes and crude jokes. Robinson's written
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messages tended to focus on gaming and offering advice to friends.
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The Post found no sign that he had written about
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Kirk and the chats, though the archives made weeks after
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the shooting did not preserve all of the images and
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videos that had been posted, and it is possible for
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Discord users to delete their own messages, or for those
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with administrative privileges to delete any messages. Many of those
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who spoke with The Post agreed that Robinson was dedicated
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to video games and obviously skilled at them. He was,
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said one of his long term online friends, a gaming
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savont One of Robinson's online profile shows he spent thousands
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of hours on some of his favorite games, including twenty
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one hundred and forty eight hours of playing Sea of Thieves,
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in which players explore a vast and open ocean, fighting
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battles or hunting for treasure. One of Robinson's favorite things
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to do in the game was fisch, something his friends
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said he liked to do in real life but obsessed
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over online. There used to be this in game achievement
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for catching a thousand of each type of fish. Another
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longtime friend said, recalling how Robinson built spreadsheets to calculate
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how many he needed to catch every day to meet
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the quota. He treated it like a job, the friend said.
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Robinson used the same handle on multiple platforms craft in
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two four seven that spelled crafti n two four seven,
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a reference to how much time he spent playing Minecraft.
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According to another friend, members of the Discord service, some
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of whom Robinson knew only online, said most of their
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conversations took place not in text, but in voice or video. Calls,
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which left no record. The slim history of Robinson's written
21:19
thoughts reveals little of his inner life or deeply held views.
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There were exceptions, including in the fall of twenty twenty,
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when the pandemic was in full swing. Robinson told a
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friend online that he was exasperated by misinformation circulating in
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conservative circles. His grandfather believe COVID was Democrats controlling sheeple,
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he wrote, and his grandmother had refused to meet his
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baby cousin because the doctor required her to wear a mask.
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The exchange continued, Uh, well, a friend, I wish there
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was a simple solution against fake news, but there isn't.
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I have my own opinions, but that's it. Robinson pretty
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much see if there are any sources cited and check
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the accuracy. If really any of it's not true, then
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it's fake the friend. I understand freedom of speech, and
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it's cool, but it makes it so media can lie
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about anything. Robinson. I wish at least as like anti
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VACS wasn't protected under freedom of speech because it's speech
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that actively harms people. Robinson entered Utah State University in
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the fall of twenty twenty one, where he was a
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pre engineering major record show, but he grew restless after
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starting classes. According to two of his friends, he left
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after one semester and didn't return. Back in Saint George,
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he apprenticed for local electrical contractors while training as an
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electrician at Dixie Technical College. Two former coworkers remembered him
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as a proficient novice electrician who mostly kept to himself
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and seldom talked about his personal life. Robinson had a
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habit of walking around with his hands clenched. One of
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them said, you're good, Tyler. Your first are all balled
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up like you're upset, he recalled saying to Robinson, He's like,
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oh no, I just do that, the former coworker said.
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The former coworker recalled that Robinson often set alone at
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lunch and rarely joined in his colleague's bantam, though once
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when a coworker brought his new pistol to show off,
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Robinson perked up and volunteered that he once hit a
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four hundred yard shot. Tyler liked guns and thought they
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were cool, said one friend, who recalled Robinson rattling off
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facts about various weapons. He said Robinson just kind of
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nerded out about anything that caught his interest and learned
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as much as he could abet it, whether it was games, guns,
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or politics. A year of change. In the beginning of
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twenty twenty four, Robinson moved into an apartment on the
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south side of Saint George with two fellow gamers who
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had been part of his circle on Discord for years.
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Friends regularly came to the apartment to play the card
24:21
game Magic the gathering. According to Discord messages and four
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men who took part, they described Robinson as a generally
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quiet presence who came across as libertarian or conservative, a
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fairly typical person in their southern Utah world. He had
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a revolver, according to two people who remembered him showing
24:43
it off. One of them said he liked to practice
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shooting on public lands near the Arizona border. He loved
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his guns, he loved his beer. He hated the government.
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That's the impression that I got, said another of the
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regular Magic players. He said Robinson, like many of the
25:02
other young men who gathered at the house, had a
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f bah blah black both of them attitude toward the
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United States two major political parties. He was registered to
25:13
vote unaffiliated with any party in Washington County, but he
25:17
never cast a ballot there. According to the county clerk
25:21
and auditor, a few times when he was drunk, Robinson
25:26
would joke about right wing politicians. One person recalled, like
25:31
that guy's going to catch a bullet one day, or
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something like that. No one took it seriously, he and
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another friend said, noting that it was the kind of
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flippant remark any one in the group might make during
25:43
a night of drinking. In July of twenty twenty four,
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Robinson reacted on discord to the news that someone had
25:51
shot Trump with the message that his friends understood to
25:55
be a joke. Friend assassination attempt on Trump up. Robinson
26:02
snowflake liberals can't shoot straight because they're too busy being gay.
26:08
Robinson did not openly discuss his sexuality with people who
26:12
spoke to the Post, but some started noticing that he
26:15
was getting close with one of his two roommates, a
26:18
person who had been assigned male at birth. Two of
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the Magic players said they thought Robinson was straight until
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he and that roommate grew openly affectionate, cuddling and kissing
26:29
in the apartment. The roommate posted Halloween pictures with Robinson
26:34
on a private Instagram account, writing, according to a screenshot,
26:39
my BF is the best love you. Around that same time,
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the roommate quietly began coming out to some people as transgender,
26:49
according to three ten friends. Two others said they were
26:53
not aware that the roommate was transitioning. One person who
26:57
spent a significant amount of time at the apartment in
27:00
twenty twenty four and early twenty twenty five said the
27:04
roommate approached him after a magic game and declared, just
27:08
so you know, I'm trans now. You don't have to
27:12
change anything, like, don't change pronouns or whatever. Just treat
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me like you normally would. The person recalled the roommate,
27:19
saying Robinson's roommate increasingly complained about right wing politicians, about
27:26
trans of anti transcendiment in Utah, and about receiving funny
27:31
looks from coworkers. The person said. Discord messages show that
27:36
the roommate asked friends whether they wanted to attend an
27:39
anti Trump protest after the twenty twenty four election. Archives
27:44
do not show any reply from Robinson. The roommate viewed
27:48
Trump's election as a loss for trans rights and was distraught,
27:52
According to the person more than once. The person said
27:56
he saw Robinson cradling his sobbing roommate in his arms.
28:01
In February, the roommate erupted at a friend who was
28:04
visiting from out of town and came to the apartment
28:07
for a magic game, According to two people who were there,
28:11
as the visitor began to say something about transgender athletes,
28:15
the roommate erupted him from another interrupted him from another room,
28:19
and shout it repeatedly to shut up, as Robinson sat
28:23
silently on a nearby couch. The two people said the
28:27
group went quiet before play eventually resumed. The roommate, who
28:32
has not been charged and who has cooperated with the
28:35
investigation into Kirk's killing, officials said, did not respond to
28:40
the Post outreach by telephone or to detailed questions sent
28:44
by email. The person who spent a significant amount of
28:48
time at the apartment in that period said that after
28:51
Robinson started dating his roommate, Robinson began criticizing conservatives for
28:56
fear mongering on trans issues. Robinson also complained about right
29:01
wing figures in the news, including Trump, whose tariffs he
29:06
believed would tank the economy. The person said Robinson's mother
29:11
told investigators that he recently had started to lean more
29:16
to the left and day his roommate. According to a
29:19
summary filed by prosecutors in support of the criminal charges,
29:23
this led to discussions between Robinson and his father, who
29:28
have very different political views, prosecutors wrote. Other friends told
29:33
the Post they noticed no such changes in Robinson's politics
29:37
and never heard him talk about transgender issues. Several regular
29:42
attendees of the Magic Games said they saw less of
29:45
Robinson in his roommate, beginning in the early spring, when
29:48
the other roommate moved away. In the in person games,
29:52
Peter Day friends told the Post what little they knew
29:56
of Robinson in recent months came from online interactions, and
30:00
even those grew sporadic. It would be occasionally a little
30:05
talk playing a game online, one Magic player said, and
30:10
then he killed Charlie Kirk a stupid venue. Kirk amassed
30:17
a huge following for his brand of Christian conservatism by
30:21
creating viral moments as he debated college students across the country.
30:26
Millions viewed is made for TikTok takes on topics including race, abortion,
30:32
and lb LGBTQ plus rights. He was credited with building
30:37
a youth GOP movement that helped elect Trump last year.
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He was also accused of bigotry and bullying by some
30:45
students and civil rights groups. On August twenty seventh, Kirk's
30:51
organization Turning Point USA announced he would appear September tenth
30:57
at Utah Valley University. Robinson told his father it was
31:01
a stupid venue for the event and accused Kirk of
31:06
spreading hatred. According to prosecutor's court filings, Robinson would later
31:12
message his roommate that he began planning the attack a
31:16
bit over a week before Kirk's campus appearance. Prosecutors allege
31:22
half a dozen people who talked with Robinson around that
31:25
time said they detected nothing unusual. He'd gone to a
31:29
party with high school friends, he told one person on
31:31
the last day of August in what the person described
31:35
as an unremarkable discord voice chat, who was exchanging scores
31:40
with his word old friend, as he'd been doing a
31:42
few times a week. That friend lives in New England,
31:45
had never met Robinson in person, but the two of
31:49
them had hungered online since high school, and on the
31:51
afternoon of September third, when the New England friend needed
31:55
to talk to someone about his difficult living situation. It
31:59
was Robinson he called. As his friend vented, Robinson listened
32:04
and commiserated. The call lasted nine minutes. Robinson did not
32:10
mention Kirk. Other friends said Robinson joined them on discord.
32:15
Days later, on September seventh, they played Peak, a cartoonish
32:20
cooperative mountain climbing game that had been released just a
32:23
few months earlier. Robinson was, of course, already an expert.
32:28
He played with them for more than an hour, and
32:31
none of them sensed anything out of the ordinary, they
32:34
told the Post about the morning of September tenth, Three
32:38
days later, Robinson had made the drive north to Utah
32:42
Valley University in aorum. According to prosecutors, he texted his
32:47
world score to his friend at eleven twenty eight That morning,
32:51
at eleven fifty one, he allegedly walked onto campus and
32:55
then made his way on to the roof of a
32:57
building in the courtyard low A crowd had gathered to
33:02
hear Kirk speak. At twelve twenty three pm, came the
33:06
crack of a single shot. As a student pressed Kirk
33:10
on his views on transgender people and mass shootings. Kirk
33:14
slumped backwards, and there's a picture of a young woman
33:19
in great tears, and she's married because there's rings on
33:22
her fingers, in a Make America Great Again blue hat
33:27
with the American flag on the side, and she's wearing
33:30
a white shirt with a circle of stars and tr something.
33:38
She has a tattoo on her left forearm at the
33:43
elbow area. Authorities have provided a few details about Robinson's
33:49
alleged whereabouts in the hours after the shooting appeared, in
33:53
which law enforcement focused on two other potential suspects. He
33:58
ran into a police officer on campus that evening, according
34:01
to the Utah Department of Public Safety, and the next
34:04
morning was captured by a surveillance camera at a gas
34:07
station in Cedar City along the highway to Saint George.
34:12
About nine am that morning, Robinson's New England friends sent
34:16
Today that Day's wordle results he'd gotten chair in just
34:20
two tries, Robinson replied twenty one minutes later it had
34:25
taken him three. It was their last exchange. Within an hour,
34:30
the FBI relieved security camera images of a person of interest.
34:36
Robinson's mother thought the person resembled her son. His father agreed,
34:41
and they asked them to come to their home and
34:44
talk in their pictures of him mounting stairs on campus.
34:50
By the evening, Robinson had been persuaded to turn himself in,
34:54
a decision he relayed to his friends on discord, along
34:57
with an apparent confession, it was me at UVU yesterday.
35:04
At a news conference the next day, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Republican,
35:08
announced Robinson's arrest and described the messages engraved on bullet
35:13
casings Robert had allegedly left behind. Asked what the messages meant,
35:18
Cox singled out one hey fascist catch, followed by five arrows.
35:25
I think that speaks for itself, Cox said. Robinson's friends disagreed.
35:32
The arrow sequence mirrors a code used to drop a
35:35
bomb in Hell divers I, a satirical game that pits
35:40
a totalitarian Earth empire against aliens. Robinson had played it
35:45
for hundreds of hours. I can't say for certain that
35:49
the fascist he was referring to was Charlie Kirk, or
35:52
if it was literally just like a reference from the game,
35:55
said Robinson's wordal friend. I don't know what he means
36:00
meant by it, and that is the end of the article.
36:04
And I said that Kirk had died during the summer.
36:07
It was obviously in September a fun article National News.
36:13
George Washington portrait that helped inspire the one dollar Bill
36:18
will go to the highest bidder. The painting, by an
36:22
artist who had recently been released from Dada's prison, has
36:27
passed through the hands of a founding father, a gold
36:30
rush tycoon, and some frat boys. Christie's Will auction it
36:36
in January by Ben Brash. The image is so familiar
36:43
that it often goes unnoticed. The powdered hair, the ruffled shirt,
36:49
the stoic smile. George Washington's rendering on the one dollar
36:54
bill may be the most widely distributed portrait in US history,
37:00
and now one of the original painted portraits that inspired
37:04
the U. S Mints engraving can be yours if you
37:07
have five hundred thousand to a million Washingtonians to spare.
37:14
Washington's to spare a million one dollar bills. On January
37:19
twenty third, in New York, the auction host Christie's Will
37:22
put up forbidding an eighteen o four oil portrait of
37:26
Washington by the famed and I added the famed Gilbert Stewart.
37:32
The painting commissioned by James Madison, has a storied history,
37:37
passing through the hands of the founding father and a
37:40
gold rush tycoon. Stuart turned out more than a hundred
37:45
paintings of Washington that later served as the model for
37:48
the image on the dollar bill, including the piece on offer.
37:54
The image isn't just deeply ingrained in the American psyche,
37:59
said Carara Bora Barrett, who co curated a Stuart respective
38:05
retrospective for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
38:09
It also is also the kind of magnificent story of
38:14
America that collectors of American aren't want. Here are some
38:19
of the key events in the portrait's long, colorful history.
38:25
Seventeen ninety three, Stuart plots to paint his way out
38:29
of debt. Stuart, a Rhode Island native, hatched a plan
38:34
to paint Washington for a simple reason. He needed to
38:37
pay off debts incurred during a decade in Europe. His
38:41
profiligacy had even briefly landed him in a Dublin Debtis prison.
38:49
I expect to make a fortune by Washington alone, Stuart
38:52
wrote to a friend, J. D. Herbert, whose writings memorialized
38:57
the extravagant innists drew it through in Dublin, featuring a
39:02
French cook seventeen ninety four A Supreme reference opens doors.
39:09
After his release from an Irish debtors prison, Stuart sailed
39:13
from Ireland to New York, where he painted John Jay,
39:17
the first Chief Justice of the United States. And there
39:21
is a picture of John Jay and Oil in seventeen
39:25
ninety four, and he has on robes with large areas
39:29
of red around the neck and down the front and
39:33
on the sleeves, and his left hand is on the
39:36
top of an upright book. And Jay had served as
39:42
President of the Continental Congress and would later be elected
39:45
New York's second governor. And he gave the painter a
39:49
letter of introduction addressed to Washington in Philadelphia. Stuart secured
39:54
commissions for thirty nine Washington portraits before he left New York.
39:59
Brazi said, seventeen ninety six, Martha Washington comes calling. Stuart
40:07
was unhappy with his first portrait of Washington, but he
40:10
got another chance through a commission from then first Lady
40:14
Martha Washington. Experts say this is when Stuart captured George
40:18
Washington perfectly, a distinguished farmer who had reluctantly stepped in
40:23
to lead the nation, reckoning with his role at sixty four,
40:28
just a few years before his death, Stewart never gave
40:33
Martha Washington the painting now known as the Anthoneum portrait,
40:38
instead keeping it to make tens of copies. Seventeen ninety nine.
40:44
George Washington dies the first President's death on December fourteenth,
40:50
at age sixty seven. Goodness, that was only four days ago.
40:54
In twenty twenty four, tat five helped create even more
40:58
demand for Stuart's work. He had more access to the
41:02
father of the Nation than any other artist. Eighteen o four,
41:07
Madison buys the portrait at the center of their story.
41:12
By this point, Stewart had perfected making reproductions. Gone with
41:16
the decorative Bushington's and flashy background. Now the focus was
41:21
on Washington's face. More than a century before Henry Ford
41:26
invented the assembly line, Stewart streamlined his portraits to maximize profit.
41:33
He gets to a formula with the Anthoneum, said Adam Irby,
41:37
executive director of Historic Preservation and Collections for George Washington's
41:43
vernon his estate near the nation's capital. And there's a
41:48
portrait of James Madison as well. The portrait owned by
41:52
Madison is masterful because it shows how rapidly it was created,
41:57
said Martha Willoughby, a special list American Art with Christie's
42:02
the brushstrokes are so quickly and hastily done, but in
42:07
that haste he captures it beautifully. Madison loved the painting
42:12
of his friend turned political opposite so much she said
42:17
that some who visited his Montpelia estate wrote letters saying
42:21
Washington's portrait was predominantly displayed, while Madison's was tucked behind
42:27
a door. Eighteen fifty one, a gold Rush era tycoon
42:32
buys the artwork. The portrait was sold for three hundred
42:36
dollars to businessman William Henry Aspinwall. Willoughby said, Aspenwall's company
42:43
built the America's first transcontinental railroad. Another Aspenwall venture operated
42:49
steamships that transported precious metals unearthed during California's Gold Rush.
42:56
An Abbot art collector, Aspinwall would later help phond the
43:00
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The only piece single vote in
43:05
his will was the Washington portrait, Willoughby said, eighteen fifty
43:11
one to nineteen twenty nine, The portrait changed his hands
43:17
again and again. The painting would eventually be sold by
43:22
Aspinwald's grandson, changing hands at least seven times by nineteen
43:27
twenty nine. Notable owners include James W. Ellsworth, a chief
43:33
organizer of the eighteen ninety three Chicago World Speare, and
43:38
Saint Louis philanthropist William K. Bixby, who from the artseller M.
43:44
Kodler and Company, made a two hundred and fifty thousand
43:47
dollar profit adjusted for inflation, by selling it to him
43:52
after acquiring it just a month earlier. Willoughby said nineteen
43:58
fifty one the portrait franzis stable home. In February, Robert
44:04
Livingston Clarkson gave the portrait to Clarkson University, a school
44:08
in New York State that had been founded by other
44:11
members of his prominent Hudson Valley family. According to a
44:15
university publication, he donated the painting during the National Engineer's Week,
44:21
which the universities then president noted was particularly appropriate inasmuch
44:27
as George Washington had been called at first Engineer nineteen
44:32
sixty eight. Fraternity brothers crashed the party. A trio from
44:38
the Theta Shih fraternity were split between stealing a pedestal ashtray
44:46
and what they thought was a reproduction portrait of Washington
44:49
from Clarkson University. The two pledges and a brother, all
44:54
from Rochester Institute of Technology, were planning a Pledge Week prank.
45:00
And there's a copy of Stuart's painting that the Theta
45:05
Kha brothers called Pledged George and hung in the fraternity house.
45:11
And it is a portrait with the beanie on and
45:15
a shirt with Theta car on it with the oe
45:19
symbols in Greek. We in our brilliants chose the painting,
45:24
said Stephen Paisen, one of the pledges. The seventy six
45:28
year old retiree, still wishes they'd gone for the ashtray.
45:31
The group took the art back to their campus and
45:34
quickly learned either from a newspaper article or from the
45:38
nightly news. Payson says that it was an American treasure
45:42
insured for one hundred and twenty five thousand. We had
45:46
the moment he recalled nineteen sixty eight. The law gets
45:52
involved and attorney told them to return the painting immediately.
45:57
Paison doesn't remember how they landed on their next place,
46:00
I am, but they drove seventy miles west and left
46:02
the portrait unharmed behind a pew on the side altar
46:06
of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Buffalo. And
46:10
there's a newspaper article showing that that portrait had been
46:14
found in the church. The three frat boys were quickly
46:19
arrested by local authorities on charges of second degree grant
46:23
larceny and taken to jail. Payson said, with help from
46:28
an attorney, they were released and the charges were downgraded
46:31
and eventually expunged. He said, And now to twenty twenty six,
46:37
do you have a spare six or seven digits lying around?
46:42
Clarkson University isn't exactly a natural home for the portrait.
46:46
The twenty five hundred graduate student private school is focused
46:51
entirely on technical and engineering education. It has no art museum,
46:55
and it limits display of the Washington painting to protect
46:59
the work. With Americans two hundred and fiftieth birthday coming up,
47:03
the school's board of trustees decided a few years ago
47:07
it might be time to sell the painting, said Clarkson
47:10
University president Michelle Larson. We thought it would probably find
47:14
a good forever home somewhere, she said. The school plans
47:19
to use the sale money to continue its educational mission
47:25
in continuing the article. Having survived a long chain of
47:29
custodians from Gilbert Stewart to James Madison to a trio
47:34
of fun seeking frat boys, the painting is now poised
47:38
to change hands yet again. It would be on view
47:41
at Christie's in New York from January sixteenth to the
47:45
twenty second and auction January twenty third. Only seventy to
47:50
eighty of Stuart's anthoneum portraits of Washington remain, according to experts.
47:57
The top price recorded for one of the knee and
48:00
portraits was a million, six hundred sixty two thousand, five
48:06
hundred dollars in twenty fifteen, said Deborah Force, a former
48:10
head of American Paintings at Christie's and current owner of
48:14
Deborah Force Fine Art Gallery. For the coming auction, foresaid
48:18
the fact that the portrait was commissioned by Madison should
48:22
help to carry this to the upper reaches of this
48:25
estimate and beyond. Force diates the purchaser would be a museum, because,
48:31
she said, most that Warner Stuart have one. She said
48:34
that among private individuals, the usual specifects would be Walmart
48:39
heiress Alice Walton and Microsoft co sounder Bill Gates, both
48:45
known American art collectors, along with two more low profile collectors.
48:50
One is based in Philadelphia and the other in Roanoke, Virginia.
48:55
But foresaid, the thrill of an auction is what makes
48:58
the paintings next chapter is so exciting. There will be
49:02
no prebidding for the portrait, so all the action will
49:06
be live. Ha. That sounds interesting. I wish I had
49:10
the ability to purchase one, but I don't. And on
49:15
the front page. These kitchen items may be contaminating your
49:20
food with chemicals. See the thousands of plastic chemicals in
49:25
What We Eat by Shannon Osaka and Nima Ahmed. When
49:32
Americans see the burger, they aren't just biting through bun, lettuce, tomato,
49:37
and cheese. Instead the burger, or it's packaging or the
49:42
utensil used to cook it also likely contains a blend
49:46
of chemical scientists believe harm human health pfas pathacylates, BPA,
49:56
flame retardants. These chemicals on the body in multiple ways,
50:02
confusing hormones, disrupting immune systems, and boosting cancer cells. But
50:08
they oil have one thing in common. They are intimately
50:12
linked to plastic. Couch cushions, rugs, and carpets are made
50:16
of polyester fibers. Furniture and flooring is coated in plastic laminates.
50:23
The vast majority of food is wrapped in plastic patrickaging,
50:27
and Americans cooked with plastic spatulas on plastic coated pans.
50:33
Plastic ushered in a new era of convenience and filled
50:37
homes with cheap, disposable goods, but it also has exposed
50:42
ordinary people to tens of thousands of chemicals that slip
50:46
out of those items into household dust, food, water, and
50:51
from there into bodies. Some of these chemicals are known
50:55
to disrupt pregnancies, triggering birth defects and fertility problems later
51:00
in life. Others have been linked to cancer and developmental problems.
51:06
The Washington Post use a comprehensive database built by scientists
51:11
in Switzerland and Norway of sixteen thousand chemicals linked to
51:15
plastic materials to see how people interact with chemicals in
51:19
their everyday lives. Of those, scientists say more than fifty
51:24
four hundred chemicals are considered hazardous to human health. Researchers
51:29
believe that many of these chemicals are harming Americans even
51:33
at typical levels of exposure. Here's how some of the
51:38
most dangerous chemicals go from every day items in a
51:42
kitchens into our bodies. Many plastic chemicals are found in utensils,
51:48
food packaging, and cookware that come in close contact with
51:51
the food we eat. The chemicals are added to plastic
51:54
to make it more flexible or hard, more slippery, or
51:58
stained resistant. Flame retardants, for example, are generally found in
52:02
household furniture or electronics, but thanks to plastic recycling, they
52:08
are also increasingly coming in close contact with food. Black plastic,
52:13
like the plastic that forms this tray or plastic spatula,
52:18
is often made from recycled to electronic waste. It can
52:22
contain high concentrations of bromide flame retardants, which have been
52:26
linked to lowered iqes and neurodevelopment problems in children. Nonstick
52:33
pans and compostable plates and culturally called cutlery are often
52:40
often contained perr and polyfluorakyly substances known as PFASs or
52:47
forever chemicals. Wow, we can't do anything, can we? These chemicals,
52:52
which take years to break down in the environment or
52:55
in human bodies, have been linked to kidney and testicular
52:59
cancer and developmental problems like autism in ADHD in children.
53:05
Studies show that philithates, a class of chemicals added to
53:10
plasket to make it stretchy and soft, are present in
53:14
the vast majority of foods purchased at grocery store, especially
53:18
highly processed foods. In one study by an independent research
53:24
group in California, researchers found the chemicals in three quarters
53:28
of the food tested. Manufacturers say that they began phasing
53:32
fi athletes other food packaging starting in the two thousands,
53:36
but the chemical could still be used in equipment used
53:39
for storing or processing food. Fisphenol A or BPA, a
53:46
chemical that was first used as an artificial form of estrogen,
53:50
was once the main ingredient in plastic water bottles and
53:54
the lining on the inside of cans. Despite manufacturer phase,
54:00
research shows that many foods, including canned foods and canned drinks,
54:04
still contain BPA or other similarly structured chemicals like BPS
54:10
or BPF a stayback. Consumer reports last year, for example,
54:14
found these chemicals and seventy nine percent of foods tested,
54:18
though the levels have fallen over the past two decades.
54:21
They have been linked to fertility problems and obesity. Chemicals
54:27
are what give plastics its unique and varied properties. A
54:30
single type of plastics, say polyvinyl chloride, could be treated
54:35
with fought fiphathylates to make it soft and flexible, stabilizes
54:42
to keep it from breaking down in high temperatures, flame
54:44
retardans to prevent fire, and colorant or dyes. Some of
54:48
these chemicals uses beyond plastic. PFAS, for example, can also
54:54
be used in pesticides and firefighting foams, but researchers have
54:59
found that the vast majority of their uses come back
55:01
to plastic. According to one study led by researches at
55:06
New York University, ninety three percent of the exposure to PFOA,
55:11
one of the most widely studied pfas's, stems from plastic.
55:16
Many of these chemicals have been doctrine disrupting properties, meaning
55:21
they confuse the bout these hormones, particularly in developing children.
55:26
When you're talking about rakin disrupting chemicals, a lot of
55:29
it is plastic. Sid Leonardo Trasandi, a professor of pediatrics
55:34
and Population Health at Ray Engrossman School of Medicine, and
55:38
one of the authors of the study, the Chemical Industry
55:42
points said that these chemicals play key roles in human society. Phathelates, bifessenos, pfas,
55:50
and flame retardants serve critical functions that help protect health
55:54
and safety in everyday life, Robert Simon, vice President of
55:58
Chemical Products and technolog g at the American Chemistry Council,
56:02
said in an email. For example, some are used in
56:06
critical health care applications to improve product durability or provide
56:11
essential fire protection. Some added that FDA has found that
56:17
pathylates in BPA BPA are safe in the amounts found
56:22
in American diets. Typical consumer exposure to BPA in food
56:26
packaging is far below safe limits set by government agencies,
56:31
he said. But scientists say that this blend of chemicals
56:35
adds up to a stew of potentially toxic materials that
56:39
fill our homes and the food we eat. The world
56:42
produces an estimated four hundred and fifty million metric tons
56:46
of plastic every year. Almost all of that plastic comes
56:50
with some sort of chemical additive. Something that is one
56:54
percent of plastic or zero point one percent of plastic
56:58
is being produced in unfat volumes that are going into
57:02
consumer products, said Christos Simenides, a developmental pediatrician at the
57:09
Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, including food packaging and children's toys
57:15
and the clothing we were we to. According to the
57:22
data for the Centers for Disease Control, more than ninety
57:27
percent of Americans are exposed to key chemicals in various groups.
57:32
In total, there are more than fifty four hundred chemicals
57:35
and plastics that meet the criteria for chemicals of concern
57:39
to human health, according to government and industry data. That
57:42
means chemicals that persist in the environment, accumulating human and
57:46
animal bodies, spread easily in the environment, are known to
57:50
be toxic to human or animal life, and just one
57:55
hundred and sixty one are classified as non hazardous. And
57:59
with that horrifying article in my opinion, I conclude today's
58:04
reading of The Washington Post for Thursday, the eighteenth of
58:08
December of twenty twenty five. I will be here Saturday,
58:12
and then I am gone for the rest of this year.
58:15
Take care, stay and enjoy well. Enjoy this warmer weather,
58:20
but the rain is on the way. Bye.