Transcript

10.27.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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Speaker 1: October 27, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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Speaker 1: other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: Your reader for today is Julie Shaw. Today's front page
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Speaker 1: headlines from the Washington Post are, First, GOP money shifts
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Speaker 1: from DC Hotel to Mar-a-Lago. Next, Execs who cozied up
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Speaker 1: to Trump fear a reckoning. Next, $ 80 billion loss for
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Speaker 1: Claude Maker. Next, Netanyahu could lose but stay in power. Next,
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Speaker 1: a closed border and a lost campaign issue. And last,
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Speaker 1: inside Lula's race to revive campaign. The first article from
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Speaker 1: the front page of today's edition is titled, Trump's D.C.
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Speaker 1: Hotel is Gone. Republicans still pay millions to his businesses.
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Speaker 1: A post analysis found that Republican campaigns and political groups
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Speaker 1: have spent nearly $ 3 million at Trump businesses since he
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Speaker 1: returned to office with spending shift to Palm Beach, Florida,
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Speaker 1: by Merrill Kornfield and Kevin Crow. Republican campaigns and political
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Speaker 1: action committees have spent nearly $ 3 million at President Donald
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Speaker 1: Trump's businesses since since he returned to office according to
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Speaker 1: a Washington Post analysis of federal campaign finance records. The
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Speaker 1: spending has continued even after Trump's Washington Hotel, once the
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Speaker 1: hub of his first-term political and fundraising orbit, stopped operating
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Speaker 1: under the Trump Organization. Instead, GOP money has shifted south
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Speaker 1: to Mar-a-Lago. Spending at the Florida club has more than tripled,
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Speaker 1: adjusted for inflation, compared with the same period of his
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Speaker 1: first term. From January 2025 through last month, Republican Senate
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Speaker 1: and House campaigns and political groups spent $ 2. 9 million on fundraisers, rooms, meals,
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Speaker 1: and other expenses at Trump's resorts, the Post found. That
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Speaker 1: is down from $ 3. 3 million in inflation-adjusted dollars during the
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Speaker 1: comparable period of Trump's first term. But the decline came
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Speaker 1: despite the loss of the Washington Hotel, a property that
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Speaker 1: once accounted for much of the spending. While overall spending
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Speaker 1: has decreased slightly, the continuing money spent shows an enduring
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Speaker 1: financial link between the Republican Party's political apparatus and the
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Speaker 1: private businesses of the president who leads it. At Mar-a-Lago,
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Speaker 1: spending has more than tripled since the first term in
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Speaker 1: today's dollars, according to the analysis, which included the most
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Speaker 1: recent publicly reported data through September. And though Trump still
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Speaker 1: derives income from his Florida properties, Those profits in his
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Speaker 1: second term have been eclipsed by his more lucrative cryptocurrency ventures.
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Speaker 1: The fact that the D.C. hotel doesn't exist now makes
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Speaker 1: it all the more astounding that they're generally keeping up
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Speaker 1: with their spending from the first term, said Robert McGuire,
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Speaker 1: the research director for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics,
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Speaker 1: who reviewed the Post's analysis. They don't even have a
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Speaker 1: place that's close to Congress anymore, and they're still making
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Speaker 1: their way down to Florida as much as possible. The
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Speaker 1: spending has included fundraisers at Mar-a-Lago, meals and rooms at
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Speaker 1: Trump resorts. Campaigns have bought gifts from Trump's merch shops
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Speaker 1: and wined and dined donors at Trump properties. Lawmakers and
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Speaker 1: lobbyists are willing to fly hundreds of miles from their
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Speaker 1: districts and Washington to spend money at properties the president owns.
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Speaker 1: The pace of spending has slowed in recent months as
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Speaker 1: Trump's approval rating has dropped to lows and polling has
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Speaker 1: shown Democrats are likely to win control of the House.
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Speaker 1: From June to the end of September, Republican groups spent $ 336, 000
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Speaker 1: at Trump businesses, down from $ 949, 000 during the comparable period
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Speaker 1: of Trump's first term, or $ 1. 3 million in today's dollars.
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Speaker 1: The analysis excludes spending by Trump's campaign and his related
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Speaker 1: affiliated political committees. Federal filings also do not capture unreported
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Speaker 1: spending by so-called dark money groups. The Republican National Committee
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Speaker 1: was the largest spender, with nearly $ 1. 8 million in charges
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Speaker 1: at Trump properties, followed by Trump's flagship super PAC, MAGA Incorporated,
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Speaker 1: and the National Republican Congressional Committee. Next on the list,
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Speaker 1: the PAC and House committees supporting Representative Ronny Jackson of
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Speaker 1: Texas and GLP candidate Joe Mitchell of Iowa, two of
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Speaker 1: Trump's most ardent backers. The RNC and NRCC said Trump's
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Speaker 1: properties are the best venues for their fundraising efforts. From
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Speaker 1: donors to members to grassroots supporters, our stakeholders love these venues,
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Speaker 1: and their popularity is part of the reason the RNC
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Speaker 1: has been able to raise a record-setting war chest this cycle,
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Speaker 1: RNC spokeswoman Natalie Baldessari said in a statement. We hold
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Speaker 1: events where donors want to show up, and that's Mar-a-Lago.
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Speaker 1: NRCC spokesman Mike Marinelli said. Every one of those events
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Speaker 1: raised far more than it cost. Perhaps that's why the
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Speaker 1: NRCC has repeatedly broken fundraising records as we continue to
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Speaker 1: out-raise the Democrats. Jackson, who used to be Trump's personal physician,
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Speaker 1: has maintained a close relationship with Trump, receiving a nomination
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Speaker 1: to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs in the first term.
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Speaker 1: He withdrew from consideration amid allegations of misconduct, including alcohol abuse.
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Speaker 1: Team Ronnie Pack, a joint fundraising committee with Jackson's campaign,
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Speaker 1: Texas Red, and the NRCC, has spent more than $ 120, 000
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Speaker 1: at Trump businesses. The Pack had one tab over $ 48, 000
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Speaker 1: at the Mar-a-Lago Club in April, the week of Jackson's
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Speaker 1: birthday party that featured a cake topped with a stethoscope
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Speaker 1: and a poolside bar. Trump did not attend. Jackson's spokeswoman
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Speaker 1: did not respond to requests for comment. Mitchell's campaign spent
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Speaker 1: nearly $ 90, 000 at Trump businesses, mostly at Mar-a-Lago. Mitchell is
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Speaker 1: running in Iowa's competitive 2nd Congressional District, where Democrats have
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Speaker 1: cited the spending at the Palm Beach Resort as evidence
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Speaker 1: that he's out of touch with voters. Drew Johns, Mitchell's
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Speaker 1: campaign manager, said Mitchell traveled to raise money for his
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Speaker 1: campaign and accused his Democratic opponent of courting out-of-state donors.
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Speaker 1: He traveled to raise money for his campaign just like
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Speaker 1: his opponent, who frequently goes to the East and West
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Speaker 1: Coast to convince radical leftist donors to try and buy
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Speaker 1: a congressional seat that belongs to the people of Iowa,
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Speaker 1: Johns said in a statement. Less media attention has been
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Speaker 1: paid to campaign spending at Trump properties than in his
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Speaker 1: first term, as it has grown less novel and bigger
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Speaker 1: conflicts compete for the public's attention. Trump's reported income, more
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Speaker 1: than $ 2. 2 billion in 2025, has largely come from new
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Speaker 1: ventures rather than his properties this time around. The president
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Speaker 1: took in more than $ 1. 4 billion from cryptocurrency, digital tokens,
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Speaker 1: and related partnerships last year, according to his most recent disclosure.
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Speaker 1: The numbers in the billions have frequently been thrown around
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Speaker 1: with respect to the crypto companies dwarf all the spending
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Speaker 1: at his hotels and restaurants. said Andrew Mayerson, a researcher
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Speaker 1: at Open Secrets, which ran a tracker of campaign spending
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Speaker 1: in the first term. The next article from the front
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Speaker 1: page of today's edition is titled, Powerful Executives Cozied Up
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Speaker 1: to Trump, Now They Fear a Reckoning. Firms that aligned
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Speaker 1: with the president are preparing for a political pendulum swing
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Speaker 1: and a potential barrage of investigations by Pranshu Verma and
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Roskin. Cooper Tebow's phone won't stop ringing. As Democrats
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Speaker 1: gain ground ahead of the midterms, defense and tech firms
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Speaker 1: have flooded the Silicon Valley-based Democratic strategist with calls. Many
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Speaker 1: of these companies spent the past two years building ties
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Speaker 1: to President Donald Trump's administration, he said. Now they're calling
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Speaker 1: Tebow in a panic to ask which Democrats to donate
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Speaker 1: to or recruit for their boards. They essentially made the
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Speaker 1: cardinal sin of forgetting that pendulums reliably do one thing,
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Speaker 1: and it swings back most of the time, Thiebaud said.
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Speaker 1: They've got a very rough couple years ahead. As Trump's
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Speaker 1: approval rating plummets, Silicon Valley companies that ingratiated themselves with
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Speaker 1: Trump's Washington are bracing for the possibility of a Democratic Congress,
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Speaker 1: and with it, congressional investigations targeting their dealings with the
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Speaker 1: president and his administration. Democrats are preparing to investigate some
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Speaker 1: defense technology firms, as well as manufacturing and mining companies
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Speaker 1: that serve the military supply chain, according to conversations with
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Speaker 1: nearly a dozen congressional staffers, political lobbyists, lawyers, investors, and executives,
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Speaker 1: some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because
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Speaker 1: they were not authorized to speak publicly about pending plans.
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Speaker 1: The firms make a tantalizing target for Democrats because of
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Speaker 1: their close ties to the Trump administration, and mounting public
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Speaker 1: anger over unregulated AI, autonomous weapons, and data centers, the
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Speaker 1: people said. Every committee is going to want a piece
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Speaker 1: of this, said Brandon Rios, co-lead of the Congressional Investigations
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Speaker 1: Group at the law firm DLA Piper. Companies in this
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Speaker 1: ecosystem are going to face multiple fronts of investigations. Lawmakers
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Speaker 1: have learned less from when they controlled the House in
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Speaker 1: the first Trump administration and ran out the clock following
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Speaker 1: polite protocol, said Jamie Baer, who leads the congressional investigations
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Speaker 1: practice at the law firm Crowell & Mooring. If Democrats
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Speaker 1: take control, he said, they will probably not burn anywhere
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Speaker 1: near as much time on the ramp-up. It's going to
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Speaker 1: get pretty intense pretty quickly, Baer added. Firms such as Palantir, OpenAI,
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Speaker 1: and Meta have been targets of Democratic ire over the
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Speaker 1: past two years. But with Republicans in power, official inquiries
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Speaker 1: into their operations have yielded little impact given that congressional
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Speaker 1: subpoenas and hearings require majority approval. Senior leaders at some
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Speaker 1: prominent defense tech companies, including Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, and
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Speaker 1: Palantir's Shyam Sankar have also used their public profiles to
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Speaker 1: support the president's agenda and have donated to his campaign
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Speaker 1: or controversial ballroom project. With electoral headwinds tipping toward Democrats,
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Speaker 1: lawmakers are making it abundantly clear they will be on
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Speaker 1: the attack if they win control of Congress. Representative Jim
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Speaker 1: Himes of Connecticut, the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee,
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Speaker 1: told a defense lobbying group in a letter last month
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Speaker 1: that it may ask firms to turn over documents related
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Speaker 1: to donations they've made to Trump's ballroom for potential probes.
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Speaker 1: These matters are topics upon which we are likely to
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Speaker 1: take future investigative steps, Himes wrote. Congressional lawmakers are developing
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Speaker 1: priorities for whom they want to investigate, firms with ties
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Speaker 1: to Donald Trump Jr., that have received Pentagon funds will
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Speaker 1: be prioritized for probes, according to four people familiar with
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Speaker 1: congressional lawmakers' plans. Companies with ties to Elon Musk and
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Speaker 1: his U.S. Doge service may also be high on the
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Speaker 1: list for scrutiny, with emphasis on whether the firms financially
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Speaker 1: benefited from information and relationships they had access to while
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Speaker 1: running Doge, two of the people added. Companies that received
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Speaker 1: non-compete contracts and equity stakes from the U.S. military may
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Speaker 1: also be prioritized, those two people said. Rios said these
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Speaker 1: hearings may hit a sweet spot for Capitol Hill staff
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Speaker 1: and lawmakers because they will touch on policy issues such
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Speaker 1: as accountability that may resonate in future elections. They're looking
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Speaker 1: to make the case for 2028, Rios said. Pretty intense.
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Speaker 1: Since Democrats have been in the minority, Their efforts to
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Speaker 1: unearth potential corruption in the Trump administration have been largely fruitless.
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Speaker 1: Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut,
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Speaker 1: and Andy Kim of New Jersey wrote a joint letter
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Speaker 1: in January to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking for information
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Speaker 1: about how deals came together involving companies that received money
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Speaker 1: from Donald Trump Jr. 's venture firm, 1789 Capital. In August,
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Speaker 1: several Democratic lawmakers asked the Pentagon's inspector general to open
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Speaker 1: an investigation after the Washington Post revealed that 15 companies
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Speaker 1: with investment from Trump's sons received $ 3. 2 billion in federal contracts, investments,
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Speaker 1: and loans, most after Trump took office the second time.
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Speaker 1: The potential for corruption is obvious, the lawmakers wrote. We
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Speaker 1: have repeatedly sought and failed to obtain an explanation from
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Speaker 1: the DOD and White White House of the decision-making criteria, processes,
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Speaker 1: and ethics obligations associated with recent awards to companies with
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Speaker 1: ties to the Trump family. If Democrats take control on
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Speaker 1: Capitol Hill, they will chair congressional committees and that often
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Speaker 1: comes with more power to issue subpoenas and direct who
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Speaker 1: is called in for televised hearings. Their budgets to hire
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Speaker 1: staff and investigate companies would also swell. In the second
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Speaker 1: Trump administration, leaders such as Palantir CEO Alex Karp and
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Speaker 1: Durrell's lucky and open AIs Sam Altman have ingratiated themselves
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Speaker 1: with the Trump White House. Many of these companies have
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Speaker 1: reaped millions in government contracts to provide their AI software
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Speaker 1: and autonomous weaponry to the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security,
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Speaker 1: raising concerns from watchdog experts and Democratic lawmakers that they
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Speaker 1: are unduly benefiting. Thiebaud said the souring public view of
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Speaker 1: technology companies has created an appetite among voters to see
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Speaker 1: them held accountable. Folks now look at Silicon Valley and
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Speaker 1: they see a number of oppressors, he said, adding that
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Speaker 1: if Democrats are on the side of holding tech accountable,
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Speaker 1: that it is fantastic, fantastic politics for them. In some
14:54
Speaker 1: investor meetings at defense tech startups, the number one conversation
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Speaker 1: has been, You have to build something that will thrive
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Speaker 1: in any administration, said one person familiar with the conversations
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Speaker 1: at the startups. Companies associated with Musk's Doge effort and
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Speaker 1: those that receive backing from the Trump family and are
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Speaker 1: seeking federal contracts have started discussing how to prepare for
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Speaker 1: the prospect of Democrats retaking Congress in internal company meetings,
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Speaker 1: said three people familiar with the conversations. Executors and executives
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Speaker 1: investors have discussed mitigating the appearance of partisanship by recruiting
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Speaker 1: Democrats to join as board members or leaders, one of
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Speaker 1: the people said. Rios of DLA Piper said preparation has
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Speaker 1: already begun for clients that expect to be targets of subpoenas.
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Speaker 1: Smaller AI firms and emergency defense technology firms that don't
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Speaker 1: have large communications and government affairs teams must begin reaching
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Speaker 1: out to Hill staff to explain their story now Rios added. Regardless,
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Speaker 1: he said, the simple act of an investigation could hinder
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Speaker 1: financial opportunities. You can come in and get out clean,
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Speaker 1: and investigations could still have a huge business impact, he said.
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Speaker 1: The next article from the front page of today's edition
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Speaker 1: is titled, Trump Started a Trade War with Canada. GOP
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Speaker 1: Candidates Became Casualties. High tariffs on Canadian goods have turned
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Speaker 1: into a liability for Republicans in key races by Kat Zashefsky,
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Speaker 1: Nancy Cook, and Riley Began from Port Huron, Michigan. Only
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Speaker 1: the St. Clair River separates this Michigan city from Canada,
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Speaker 1: and residents have long crossed the Blue Water Bridge to shop, work,
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Speaker 1: and dine. But as President Donald Trump hosted a rally
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Speaker 1: here on Sunday, Canadian license plates have become a rarer
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Speaker 1: sight in local parking lots. Trump became the first sitting
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Speaker 1: president to visit this town of less than 30,000. Aides
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Speaker 1: say his travel to the state's reddest congressional district aims
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Speaker 1: to drive turnout in a battleground state that could determine
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Speaker 1: control of the U.S. Senate. His venue choice is also
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Speaker 1: drawing attention to a major political liability, the economic fallout
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Speaker 1: from his trade war with Canada. Often, presidents suffer from
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Speaker 1: events they didn't cause. The coronavirus pandemic in Trump's first term,
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Speaker 1: for example. This year, by contrast, Trump has been some
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Speaker 1: of the lowest presidential approval numbers ever recorded, and his
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Speaker 1: decisions have driven the plunge. The tariffs of up to
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Speaker 1: 50% on Canadian goods that Trump announced in July provide
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Speaker 1: a prime example. At a time when voters are acutely
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Speaker 1: focused on the cost of living, Tariffs are a visible
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Speaker 1: step that drives prices higher, and the trade war with
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Speaker 1: Canada has hurt residents of border states especially hard. In August,
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Speaker 1: the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, a group that supports conservative
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Speaker 1: fiscal policies like lowering taxes, released a report saying that
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Speaker 1: tariffs have cost Michigan households an additional $ 5, 619 compared with
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Speaker 1: what they were paying in 2024. That was the largest
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Speaker 1: impact felt by any state, the report found, and the
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Speaker 1: statistic has had an effect on Michigan voters, said Richard Zuba,
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Speaker 1: the founder of the Glengariff Group, which frequently polls the state.
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Speaker 1: The impact goes beyond costs. Port Huron's economy has taken
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Speaker 1: a drop because of the bitter tensions ignited by Trump's
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Speaker 1: feud with the United States' northern neighbor, said Port Huron
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Speaker 1: Mayor Anita Ashford. Canadians who were once key patrons of
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Speaker 1: the city's businesses are staying on their side of the border.
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Speaker 1: The tariffs have become a heavy burden for Republicans across
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Speaker 1: the northern tier of the U.S., where economies are deeply
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Speaker 1: integrated with Canada. In key battleground states, including Michigan, New Hampshire,
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Speaker 1: and Maine, Republican candidates have distanced themselves from Trump's policy.
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Speaker 1: And here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not
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Speaker 1: our enemy. Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers says in a
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Speaker 1: widely aired ad, drinking a Labatt beer in a bar.
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Speaker 1: We need to end this tariff war now. Rogers, who
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Speaker 1: is locked in a close race with Democratic Senate nominee
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Speaker 1: Abdul El-Said, joined Trump at Sunday's rally, even as he
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Speaker 1: runs a seven-figure advertising campaign opposing the president's trade war
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Speaker 1: with Canada. Mike's made his position clear. If the tariff
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Speaker 1: is good for Michigan, he is for it. Rogers campaign
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Speaker 1: spokeswoman Abby Ronson said in a statement, If it's bad
19:42
Speaker 1: for Michigan, he's against it. At the event, the crowd
19:45
Speaker 1: loudly cheered for Rogers as he talked about his recent
19:48
Speaker 1: efforts to work with the Trump administration. to impose tariffs
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Speaker 1: on Canadian garbage trucks. On Friday, Rogers said in a
19:55
Speaker 1: video on social media that he told administration officials that
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Speaker 1: Michigan needs relief from Canadian tariffs, but that if the
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Speaker 1: administration is going to impose levies on the country, It
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Speaker 1: should apply them to trash trucks that cross the border
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Speaker 1: from Canada into the state. Rogers said the administration enacted
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Speaker 1: tariffs on Canadian trash trucks following his request. Rogers is
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Speaker 1: looking forward to continuing to build on that success in
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Speaker 1: the U.S. Senate, Ronson said. There are signs the White
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Speaker 1: House recognizes that the tariffs on Canada have become a
20:27
Speaker 1: political albatross. On Friday, the administration lifted tariffs on some
20:32
Speaker 1: Canadian products in an apparent bid to help Senator Susan Collins,
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Speaker 1: a Republican from Maine, who requested exemptions for products including
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Speaker 1: blueberries and apples. The partial role could also benefit Rogers
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Speaker 1: and former Senator John Sununu, who has criticized tariffs in
20:49
Speaker 1: his race for New Hampshire's U.S. Senate seat. During an
20:53
Speaker 1: interview with Fox 2 Detroit during his visit to Michigan,
20:57
Speaker 1: Trump claimed that Canada has taken advantage of the United
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Speaker 1: States for years, but he did not give a specific
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Speaker 1: timeline for reaching a deal with Canada to end the
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Speaker 1: trade war. He said the people of Michigan and Maine
21:08
Speaker 1: could benefit greatly from the negotiations. We're getting close to
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Speaker 1: a deal, Trump said. A deal could happen that is
21:14
Speaker 1: going to be good for everybody, especially the United States.
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Speaker 1: Democrats have employed the tariffs as a weapon against Trump.
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Speaker 1: On Saturday, former President Barack Obama ridiculed Trump's trade war
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Speaker 1: at a rally for Democratic candidates in Ohio. The big
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Speaker 1: trade war he's starting now is with that well-known evil empire, Canada,
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Speaker 1: Obama said. Canada? I mean, these are the people who
21:38
Speaker 1: gave us maple syrup and Martin Short. They're like our
21:41
Speaker 1: friendly neighbors to the north, and he's like picking a
21:43
Speaker 1: fight with them. Trump's view of Canada is far more antagonistic.
21:48
Speaker 1: His frustration with America's northern neighbor dates to his first
21:52
Speaker 1: term and was formed in part by rocky interactions with
21:55
Speaker 1: then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to a former White House
21:59
Speaker 1: official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they
22:02
Speaker 1: were not authorized to speak publicly. What initially started out
22:07
Speaker 1: as a personality clash between two world leaders soon morphed
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Speaker 1: into a more substantial rift as Trump began to view
22:13
Speaker 1: Canada as a country that historically undercut U.S. industries, including
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Speaker 1: wheat and liquor, with its economic protectionism. Canada's tough negotiating
22:23
Speaker 1: tactics during the development of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement in
22:28
Speaker 1: Trump's first term further angered Trump and his aides. Ultimately,
22:32
Speaker 1: Trump came to see Canada as a weak country and
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Speaker 1: one Republican strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity
22:39
Speaker 1: because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly,
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Speaker 1: contrasting that with his view of China or Russia as strong.
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Speaker 1: This perception carried into his second term when Canada was
22:51
Speaker 1: one of the only countries to retaliate after what Trump
22:54
Speaker 1: called Liberation Day. Other neighbors, including Mexico, have tried to
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Speaker 1: placate Trump by cooperating on immigration policies or other parts
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Speaker 1: of the Trump agenda. Canada has not. Mexicans get it
23:08
Speaker 1: in a way the Canadians do not, said the former
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Speaker 1: White House official. In August, after trade talks between the
23:15
Speaker 1: countries collapsed, Trump imposed tariffs of up to 50% on
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Speaker 1: about $ 20 billion in Canadian goods. Canada responded with retaliatory tariffs,
23:25
Speaker 1: which have especially hit Republican states that are important for Trump.
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Speaker 1: The U.S. Embassy in Ottawa recently accused Canada of interfering
23:34
Speaker 1: in the midterm elections with these retaliatory levies, an accusation
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Speaker 1: Prime Minister Mark Carney has dismissed. The White House has
23:43
Speaker 1: defended the tariffs as part of its efforts to protect
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Speaker 1: American workers and raise wages for families in the U.S.
23:50
Speaker 1: White House spokesman Matthew Middleton said the U.S. offered Canada
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Speaker 1: a generous trade deal, but Canada rejected it. The president
23:58
Speaker 1: will continue to lawfully exercise his authority, along with all
24:02
Speaker 1: other tariff authorities authorized by Congress to put the American
24:06
Speaker 1: people first, Middleton said in a statement. Voters don't see
24:11
Speaker 1: it that way, said Brent Buchanan, the founder and CEO
24:15
Speaker 1: of the Republican polling firm Signal. Few are supporting Democrats
24:20
Speaker 1: solely because they disagree with Trump's tariffs, but they are
24:23
Speaker 1: shifting their votes because they think Trump is not focusing
24:26
Speaker 1: on the affordability challenges they elected him to fix. 67%
24:32
Speaker 1: of Michigan voters oppose the tariffs on Canadian goods, according
24:35
Speaker 1: to a New York Times-Siena poll taken in September. Roughly
24:40
Speaker 1: one-third of Trump's 2024 voters in Michigan opposed the tariffs
24:44
Speaker 1: the poll found. Trump won the presidential election in 2024
24:49
Speaker 1: in part because voters who were not ideologically aligned with
24:52
Speaker 1: him were frustrated with the economy and they wanted to
24:56
Speaker 1: return to the economic success they enjoyed in Trump's first
24:59
Speaker 1: term before the pandemic, Buchanan said. They're frustrated now and
25:04
Speaker 1: they blame it on him, he said. They gave him
25:07
Speaker 1: the credit in 2019 for that amazing economy, and they
25:10
Speaker 1: give him the blame for this one. If Trump wanted
25:13
Speaker 1: to help Republicans on the ballot, he would announce an
25:16
Speaker 1: end to the Canada trade war during his Michigan stop,
25:20
Speaker 1: Buchanan said. Part of the political problem for Trump is
25:25
Speaker 1: simply that most Americans hold positive perceptions of their northern neighbor,
25:29
Speaker 1: especially in key battleground states along the border where people
25:33
Speaker 1: commonly work, worship, and shop alongside Canadians. Michiganders view Canadians
25:39
Speaker 1: far more favorably than they view Donald Trump, said Zuba.
25:43
Speaker 1: The only place I'm seeing a modicum of support on
25:46
Speaker 1: tariffs is with the MAGA base, and even there you
25:49
Speaker 1: start to see them peel off. Michigan's auto industry is
25:53
Speaker 1: deeply integrated with Canada's, built up over decades of advantageous
25:58
Speaker 1: trade conditions that encouraged cross-border cooperation. The tariffs on raw materials, parts,
26:04
Speaker 1: and equipment have driven up costs for Michigan manufacturers, which
26:08
Speaker 1: include the Detroit Three automakers, General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis,
26:13
Speaker 1: as well as hundreds of auto parts suppliers and machinery companies.
26:18
Speaker 1: Those costs have been passed along to consumers as car
26:21
Speaker 1: prices climb. The trade instability has also slowed down businesses'
26:26
Speaker 1: investment decisions, said Glenn Stevens, Jr., executive director of MISH Auto,
26:32
Speaker 1: an advocacy organization for the auto industry within the Detroit
26:36
Speaker 1: Regional Chamber. There's no question it has impacted the cost
26:40
Speaker 1: of producing a vehicle and that it has made its
26:42
Speaker 1: way to the showroom, he said. You've got to look
26:45
Speaker 1: at what the consumer is dealing with, from ground beef
26:47
Speaker 1: to the fuel pump to the average transaction price of
26:51
Speaker 1: a vehicle. The pressure is real and people talk about it.
26:56
Speaker 1: Republicans chose Port Huron as the site of the president's
26:59
Speaker 1: Sunday rally because it spans a handful of media markets,
27:03
Speaker 1: said one official with the Republican National Committee. Trump found
27:07
Speaker 1: an enthusiastic audience in the packed arena where supporters booed
27:11
Speaker 1: and cheered along with him as he attacked al-Said. But
27:15
Speaker 1: outside pollsters and strategists questioned why the White House would
27:19
Speaker 1: position the president there. The venue where he is scheduled
27:22
Speaker 1: to speak has a capacity of less than 5,000. which
27:26
Speaker 1: is far smaller than the crowds he previously drew in
27:28
Speaker 1: the state. He spoke at the rally less than 90
27:31
Speaker 1: minutes before kickoff in a highly anticipated football game between
27:35
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers. You're taking
27:39
Speaker 1: him to an area that is not even competitive during
27:42
Speaker 1: a major football game, Zuba said. It really begs the
27:46
Speaker 1: question of what are they trying to accomplish with this
27:49
Speaker 1: other than just getting it over with. The next article
27:54
Speaker 1: from the front page of today's edition is titled, Cheap
27:58
Speaker 1: Water is Over. A $ 500 bill shows a southwest suburbs dilemma.
28:04
Speaker 1: City leaders in Arizona's Queen Creek say water fee hikes
28:08
Speaker 1: are necessary to secure their water supply for the next
28:12
Speaker 1: 100 years as the Colorado River continues to shrink. By
28:16
Speaker 1: Hannah Knowles. Out of Queen Creek, Arizona. Ron Rios treasures
28:22
Speaker 1: his backyard pool that makes Arizona's triple-digit summer heat more tolerable.
28:28
Speaker 1: So he was furious to learn that his Phoenix suburb
28:30
Speaker 1: might hike his water bill from $ 130 to, eventually, more
28:35
Speaker 1: than $ 500 a month. City leaders said it was necessary
28:40
Speaker 1: to fund sweeping investments that would secure their water supply
28:43
Speaker 1: for the next 100 years. The Colorado River was shrinking,
28:47
Speaker 1: they said, and they had to adopt. But Rios, the
28:51
Speaker 1: 52-year-old owner of an artificial turf company, didn't want to
28:55
Speaker 1: get water bills on par with the monthly payments on
28:58
Speaker 1: his Suburban. People can't afford that, he said. Give me
29:01
Speaker 1: a break. Queen Creek, one of America's fastest-growing cities, shows
29:07
Speaker 1: the challenges facing communities around the Southwest as the Colorado
29:11
Speaker 1: River dwindles and the remaining water gets more expensive. Rios
29:16
Speaker 1: uses an unusual amount of water and his bill is
29:19
Speaker 1: an outlier. but it reflects a broader reality. Mark Skosipik,
29:25
Speaker 1: Queen Creek's utility director, put it this way at a
29:28
Speaker 1: recent town meeting. Cheap water is over. To officials, Queen
29:33
Speaker 1: Creek is a model of how to confront the Southwest's
29:36
Speaker 1: water woes head-on. The city expects to ultimately spend $ 730
29:41
Speaker 1: million to tap into faraway groundwater, insulating themselves from drought
29:47
Speaker 1: for decades to come. But a proposed water resource fee
29:51
Speaker 1: to fund the project has brought furious pushback from the
29:54
Speaker 1: highest water users in town. in a conservative place where
29:58
Speaker 1: leaders pride themselves on lowering taxes. It's also renewed long-standing
30:04
Speaker 1: tensions over whether Queen Creek is expanding too fast for
30:07
Speaker 1: its resources, as city officials say they expect their population
30:11
Speaker 1: to nearly double by around 2050. Other southwest metropolises are
30:17
Speaker 1: facing similar questions about how to keep growing in arid
30:20
Speaker 1: places where water is scarce and getting more so. Arizona's
30:25
Speaker 1: desert cities are in an especially tough position because they
30:28
Speaker 1: hold more junior water rights than other cities that draw
30:32
Speaker 1: on the Colorado River, such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas,
30:35
Speaker 1: and San Diego. Arizona has extensive groundwater reserves to fall
30:41
Speaker 1: back on, but they are considered non-renewable and carefully guarded.
30:46
Speaker 1: Tapping into new water sources will require more expensive investments.
30:51
Speaker 1: and more debates like the one playing out in Queen Creek.
30:55
Speaker 1: The really difficult thing I think that we face is
30:57
Speaker 1: having the political will and consensus around investing for future generations,
31:02
Speaker 1: said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyle Center for Water
31:06
Speaker 1: Policy at Arizona State University. Queen Creek officials were worried
31:11
Speaker 1: the cost of their water would keep going up as
31:14
Speaker 1: the Colorado River grew unreliable, so they borrowed money to
31:18
Speaker 1: buy a hundred-year supply of groundwater from the Parkwahala Basin
31:23
Speaker 1: to their west and carry it through an existing canal.
31:27
Speaker 1: To pay off the debt, officials proposed charging residents an
31:31
Speaker 1: extra fee for each 1,000 gallons they used, starting at $ 3. 07
31:35
Speaker 1: and escalating to an estimated $ 10. 74 after several years. They
31:44
Speaker 1: say the plan will pay off in the long term
31:47
Speaker 1: by locking in the city's water expenses. Other Arizona communities
31:51
Speaker 1: are now looking at buying water from the same basin,
31:54
Speaker 1: at quadruple the rate that Queen Creek negotiated when it
31:58
Speaker 1: struck its deal several years ago. Everybody is chasing water,
32:03
Speaker 1: Skosipic said. Basins like Harcahala have their limits and can
32:09
Speaker 1: only be part of the solution. The solutions to the
32:12
Speaker 1: Colorado River crisis are going to be piecemeal ones that
32:16
Speaker 1: are cobbled together, said Catherine Sorensen, director of research at
32:20
Speaker 1: the Kyle Center for Water Policy. There's just frankly not
32:24
Speaker 1: one big replacement source out there. The Queen Creek Town
32:28
Speaker 1: Council will vote on the first phase of their water
32:30
Speaker 1: fee in November. In the meantime, officials are trying to
32:34
Speaker 1: sell the plan to residents. The average single-family home would
32:38
Speaker 1: pay an extra $ 57 or $ 138 a month once the
32:39
Speaker 1: water fee is fully phased in, officials said. depending on
32:47
Speaker 1: the details of their usage. At the town meeting this month,
32:52
Speaker 1: one man grumbled that the costs could balloon and speculated
32:55
Speaker 1: without evidence that someone was getting kickbacks. He whispered to
32:59
Speaker 1: the man seated behind him, it's a complete sham. Rios
33:04
Speaker 1: walked out of the meeting frustrated. It just makes me mad,
33:08
Speaker 1: said his wife, Holly Rios, as they left. Despite their complaints,
33:12
Speaker 1: Rios stood to gain as Arizonans cut back on water
33:17
Speaker 1: because of his synthetic turf company. He'd already installed fake
33:21
Speaker 1: grass in most of his backyard near a sign that read,
33:24
Speaker 1: Welcome to our pool patio, where the neighbors listen to
33:28
Speaker 1: good music whether they want to or not. But Rios
33:31
Speaker 1: still had some real lawn and citrus trees, and he
33:34
Speaker 1: said he uses more than 30,000 gallons of water a month,
33:38
Speaker 1: triple the average household. Rios didn't understand why the city
33:42
Speaker 1: couldn't just tap into the groundwater below them. It's strictly
33:46
Speaker 1: regulated by the state. And he was considering spending tens
33:50
Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars to drill his own well. He
33:53
Speaker 1: wondered if Queen Creek would backtrack and sell the water
33:56
Speaker 1: it just purchased at a markup. Sell it to Cave Creek,
34:00
Speaker 1: Rios said, thinking of a tiny town particularly reliant on
34:04
Speaker 1: the Colorado River. They're panicking. Sell it to them for
34:08
Speaker 1: three times what we bought it for and walk away.
34:11
Speaker 1: The biggest pushback to the water fee came last month
34:14
Speaker 1: at a city council meeting. Some people had orchards and
34:18
Speaker 1: horses and they used flood irrigation, a water-intensive technique common
34:22
Speaker 1: in farming. They were panicking. By the time the fee
34:26
Speaker 1: was fully phased in, they would be paying tens of
34:28
Speaker 1: thousands a year. Some would pay six figures. One woman
34:33
Speaker 1: said her water bill would be more than her property
34:35
Speaker 1: tax bill. A man said he might not be able
34:38
Speaker 1: to retire. The cumulative cost for all six years is
34:43
Speaker 1: over $ 83, 000. I'm going to have to sell both my
34:47
Speaker 1: kidneys at that point, said Gary Ellers, age 63, who
34:52
Speaker 1: grows pecan, orange, lime, plum, and pomegranate trees on his lot.
34:58
Speaker 1: Mayor Julia Wheatley said she didn't take the changes lightly.
35:02
Speaker 1: It is the first thing I think about when my
35:04
Speaker 1: eyes pop open in the morning, she said. It is
35:07
Speaker 1: the last thing I think about when I go to
35:08
Speaker 1: bed at night. A little over two weeks ago, city
35:12
Speaker 1: officials presented a solution for the irrigators with orchards and
35:16
Speaker 1: animals who'd be hardest hit. The city would transfer flood
35:20
Speaker 1: irrigation to another water provider, meaning it wouldn't be subject
35:24
Speaker 1: to the new fee. The town would still be able
35:26
Speaker 1: to cover its costs, if water would just go further.
35:30
Speaker 1: But tensions lingered over Queen Creek's broader trajectory. incorporated in
35:36
Speaker 1: 1989 as an agricultural community of just a couple thousand people,
35:41
Speaker 1: the city's population has grown to about 90,000, and the
35:45
Speaker 1: water issue stoked doubts among some longtime residents that the
35:49
Speaker 1: rapid change was good for them and the town. At
35:52
Speaker 1: what point does the town, or any town, turn around
35:55
Speaker 1: and say, particularly in the southwest and in the desert,
35:59
Speaker 1: where water is gold, at what point are you going
36:02
Speaker 1: to turn around and say, we can't grow anymore? said
36:05
Speaker 1: Eric Kerr, age 65, who was born and raised in
36:09
Speaker 1: the area. All the growth is maybe putting the cart
36:12
Speaker 1: before the horse, echoed his son-in-law Elias Slover. Queen Creek
36:18
Speaker 1: officials are quick to emphasize that long-time residents won't be
36:21
Speaker 1: subsidizing newcomers. New developments will pay additional one-time water fees,
36:27
Speaker 1: yet the water issue hangs over the town plants. New
36:30
Speaker 1: home building in Queen Creek was held up in recent
36:33
Speaker 1: years because of more stringent requirements to show the area
36:37
Speaker 1: has sufficient water. And when a developer recently sought to
36:41
Speaker 1: turn a dirt lot into a 150-unit gated community, residents
36:45
Speaker 1: pushed back. Water security must come before continued expansion of
36:49
Speaker 1: residential development, one man said at a council meeting. The
36:54
Speaker 1: Queen Creek Planning Commission had unanimously recommended approval of the project.
36:59
Speaker 1: The lot sat empty for years. But council members said
37:03
Speaker 1: they struggled to approve the plans over so much opposition
37:06
Speaker 1: from constituents. They voted it down. Officials said people have
37:10
Speaker 1: flocked to Queen Creek for much-needed affordable housing. Wheatley said
37:15
Speaker 1: in an interview that the city has plenty of water
37:17
Speaker 1: to keep growing with their big investment and that officials
37:20
Speaker 1: make sure that growth pays for growth through fees on
37:23
Speaker 1: new developments. Arizona has reduced its water use even as
37:28
Speaker 1: it's grown, she added. Even as residential comes in, we're
37:32
Speaker 1: using far less than agriculture did, she said. At the
37:35
Speaker 1: town meeting, someone suggested rising water costs might turn people
37:39
Speaker 1: away from the city. Officials had a simple reply. Queen
37:43
Speaker 1: Creek wouldn't be the only place raising its bills. The
37:48
Speaker 1: next article from the front page of today's edition is titled,
37:52
Speaker 1: He Resigned from CDC Leadership. Now He's Fighting RFK Jr.
37:57
Speaker 1: from the Outside. Dimitri Daskalakis, CDC's top immunization official, resigned
38:05
Speaker 1: in 2025 to protest Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
38:10
Speaker 1: then became one of his loudest critics, by Lena H. Sun.
38:16
Speaker 1: In late August 2025, Dimitri Daskalakis, CDC's top immunization official,
38:24
Speaker 1: submitted his resignation letter. He was fed up as the
38:28
Speaker 1: nation's vaccine system crumbled around him. That evening, he entered
38:33
Speaker 1: his eighth-floor office at the Centers for Disease Control and
38:36
Speaker 1: Prevention to collect mementos of a decades-long career in public health.
38:41
Speaker 1: The room still bore the scars of an attack almost
38:44
Speaker 1: three weeks earlier by a gunman incensed by coronavirus vaccines,
38:49
Speaker 1: a bullet hole in the window, a fine dusting of
38:52
Speaker 1: shattered glass that covered the awards on his shelf. As
38:56
Speaker 1: he picked up one that honored his service at New
38:58
Speaker 1: York City's health department, he cut his hand drawing blood.
39:02
Speaker 1: Daskalakis had uprooted his life in New York to join
39:06
Speaker 1: the CDC's senior leadership in Atlanta for what he once
39:10
Speaker 1: saw as the pinnacle of a public health career. Then
39:13
Speaker 1: he watched as the anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
39:18
Speaker 1: took charge of health agencies and undercut his life's work.
39:23
Speaker 1: Daskalakis watched with growing anger as Kennedy called public health
39:28
Speaker 1: agencies dishonest about vaccines. when asked how to prevent another attack.
39:33
Speaker 1: He had spent months weighing whether to remain in his
39:36
Speaker 1: post overseeing vaccination for respiratory viruses, hoping to protect staff
39:41
Speaker 1: and the agency's work. He reached his Suzanne Monarez, a
39:52
Speaker 1: career scientist who resisted Kennedy on vaccines. Enough is enough,
39:57
Speaker 1: Descalacas wrote that evening in a 1,200-word resignation letter that
40:03
Speaker 1: accused the Trump administration of politicizing science. He packed his
40:08
Speaker 1: awards into a duffel bag, including a large piece of
40:11
Speaker 1: glass from the floor. He felt sad leaving work he loved,
40:15
Speaker 1: but also a clarity that walking away was the only
40:18
Speaker 1: way to remain faithful to the principles that had defined
40:21
Speaker 1: his career. The following day, he left the headquarters with
40:25
Speaker 1: two other top CDC leaders who had also resigned in protest,
40:30
Speaker 1: hundreds of former and current CDC staff stretching for blocks
40:34
Speaker 1: surrounding them. Many ran up to give hugs and flowers.
40:39
Speaker 1: Some carried photos depicting the three as saints. Daskalakis wrestled
40:44
Speaker 1: with the fear that leaving would make colleagues already under
40:47
Speaker 1: pressure feel less supported, depriving them of an ally willing
40:51
Speaker 1: to fight for them. He also worried that his departure
40:54
Speaker 1: would make it harder for the CDC to provide clear
40:57
Speaker 1: science-based guidance that millions of Americans rely on, from foodborne
41:02
Speaker 1: outbreaks and infectious diseases to the childhood immunization schedule. But
41:07
Speaker 1: he ultimately saw staying as crossing a personal line and
41:11
Speaker 1: legitimizing the politicization of science. Public health officials throughout Trump's presidency,
41:18
Speaker 1: including during the COVID-19 pandemic in his first term, faced
41:23
Speaker 1: a similar dilemma. Whether stepping down would amplify their ability
41:27
Speaker 1: to speak out or sideline them when their voices might
41:30
Speaker 1: matter most. The question facing Daskalakis was more basic. What
41:36
Speaker 1: can such acts of resistance ultimately accomplish? During the next year,
41:41
Speaker 1: Daskalakis said, spent months unsure what his resignation would amount to.
41:46
Speaker 1: He uprooted his life again, looking for a job. He
41:49
Speaker 1: also became one of the administration's most outspoken public health critics.
41:54
Speaker 1: The resignation letter he wrote that night surfaced in a
41:57
Speaker 1: consequential fight over Kennedy's vaccine policies. Whether any of it
42:02
Speaker 1: meant he had accomplished more by leaving than by staying
42:05
Speaker 1: proved harder to answer. Like a chess game. Deskalakis, age 53,
42:12
Speaker 1: a D.C. native, wanted to become a doctor ever since
42:15
Speaker 1: his Greek immigrant parents gave him a Fisher-Price medical kit
42:19
Speaker 1: when he was a boy. The outspoken infectious diseases physician
42:23
Speaker 1: started his career as a frontline doctor and became a
42:27
Speaker 1: prominent advocate for gay men's health and an HIV prevention
42:31
Speaker 1: leader who helped guide New York City's response to HIV.
42:36
Speaker 1: He dispensed HIV prevention and sexual health advice on his
42:40
Speaker 1: personal Instagram page, peppered with shirtless photos showing off his
42:44
Speaker 1: extensive tattoos, including an image across his abdomen of the
42:49
Speaker 1: resurrected Jesus wearing an elaborate crown, his hands elevated in
42:53
Speaker 1: a blessing. He first joined the CDC under President Joe
42:58
Speaker 1: Biden to lead its HIV-AIDS division, but his responsibilities quickly grew.
43:06
Speaker 1: He co-led the national response to a 2022 outbreak of mpox,
43:12
Speaker 1: previously known as monkeypox, largely affecting gay men. Then he
43:17
Speaker 1: took charge of the agency's Immunization and Respiratory Disease Center,
43:22
Speaker 1: a pivotal role as the country shifted to treating coronavirus
43:25
Speaker 1: as more of an endemic threat. CDC was no longer
43:29
Speaker 1: in full-scale crisis mode, but the agency was navigating skepticism
43:34
Speaker 1: about vaccines and public health authorities. When Kennedy gave his
43:38
Speaker 1: first speech to staff after taking office in 2025, Deskalakis
43:44
Speaker 1: held out cautious hope that he could work with his
43:46
Speaker 1: new boss. He expected that he and his team could
43:50
Speaker 1: brief Kennedy on measles, flu, and COVID-19. Deskalakis never got
43:55
Speaker 1: that meeting. Instead, he spent the following months trying to
43:59
Speaker 1: anticipate Kennedy's moves and limit their damage, and it got
44:02
Speaker 1: harder each time. It was like a chess game, he said.
44:07
Speaker 1: In February, Kennedy wanted to push an unproven vitamin A
44:11
Speaker 1: treatment for measles as an outbreak struck West Texas. Descalacus
44:17
Speaker 1: and other leaders managed to keep it out of a
44:19
Speaker 1: CDC alert to doctors. In May, Kennedy bypassed career scientists
44:25
Speaker 1: to announce the CDC no longer recommended COVID vaccines for
44:29
Speaker 1: healthy children and pregnant women. Deskalakis' team crafted deliberately ambiguous
44:35
Speaker 1: language on the CDC website so doctors could still feel
44:39
Speaker 1: comfortable administering the shot. In June, Kennedy hired allies from
44:44
Speaker 1: the anti-vaccine movements to fulfill his longtime goal of removing
44:49
Speaker 1: a preservative from flu shots. Deskalakis and a team of
44:53
Speaker 1: officials worked on a document reaffirming the preservative's safety by
44:58
Speaker 1: summarizing research. but Kennedy's office quickly ordered its removal from
45:02
Speaker 1: the CDC website. The administration moved forward with banning the
45:07
Speaker 1: preservative and questioned more than a dozen CDC staff to
45:10
Speaker 1: find out who was behind the document. Daskalakis recalled an
45:15
Speaker 1: official telling him the document was seen as an act
45:18
Speaker 1: of aggression to make the secretary look dumb. Still, Daskalakis stayed,
45:25
Speaker 1: hoping that Monteres would be a bulwark against political inference.
45:30
Speaker 1: but that possibility vanished when she was forced out after,
45:33
Speaker 1: by her account, refusing to be a rubber stamp to
45:36
Speaker 1: Kennedy's vaccine policies. I am unable to serve in an
45:40
Speaker 1: environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate politics
45:44
Speaker 1: and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are
45:48
Speaker 1: designed to hurt rather than improve the public's health. Daskalakis
45:53
Speaker 1: wrote in his searing resignation letter posted on X, at
45:57
Speaker 1: one point accusing Kennedy of promoting eugenics. An intense backlash followed.
46:04
Speaker 1: Senator Rand Paul, Republican from Kentucky, said the physician had
46:08
Speaker 1: no business being in government because of his lifestyle, citing
46:12
Speaker 1: Duskalakis' public embrace of kink culture, including bondage. Callie Means,
46:19
Speaker 1: then a White House advisor to Kennedy on health, said
46:22
Speaker 1: Duskalakis encouraged orgies as a normal Friday night activity. After
46:28
Speaker 1: leaving the CDC, Deskalakis reported to Atlanta police that he
46:32
Speaker 1: was inundated with anti-gay comments and threats of violence. He
46:37
Speaker 1: also filed a report with the Department of Homeland Security,
46:39
Speaker 1: but said officials told him their options were limited unless
46:43
Speaker 1: the threats became more concrete. DHS said other agencies were
46:48
Speaker 1: the appropriate ones to handle threats of that nature. The
46:52
Speaker 1: threats were unsettling, but not new. Daskalakis has dealt for
46:57
Speaker 1: years with being bullied about his immigrant background growing up
47:01
Speaker 1: and later over sexual orientation. He often cites his grandfather
47:06
Speaker 1: and namesake who fought in the Greek resistance during World
47:09
Speaker 1: War II as a reminder not to be intimidated. A
47:13
Speaker 1: different kind of exposure. During Trump's first administration, health officials
47:18
Speaker 1: such as Deborah Birx, coordinator of the Coronavirus Task Force,
47:23
Speaker 1: remained in the administration even as she appeared aghast at
47:27
Speaker 1: moments when the president suggested injecting disinfectant to beat the virus.
47:32
Speaker 1: Years later, she argued that she was able to do
47:35
Speaker 1: more to protect Americans by staying rather than resigning and
47:38
Speaker 1: losing her influence. Jerome Adams, Trump's first Surgeon General who
47:43
Speaker 1: has since become a fierce critic of Trump's pandemic response,
47:47
Speaker 1: said in a text message that everyone's moral and emotional
47:51
Speaker 1: slash mental health tolerances are different and some may rightly
47:55
Speaker 1: choose to serve or stay while others leave. There is
47:58
Speaker 1: no single correct path, he added. Descalacus was suddenly juggling
48:03
Speaker 1: a new role as an outspoken critic of federal vaccine
48:07
Speaker 1: policy and the realities of life outside government. He had
48:11
Speaker 1: no job and no certainty about where he and his
48:13
Speaker 1: husband of 13 years would live. Daskalakis found himself in
48:18
Speaker 1: a new role, explaining Kennedy's vaccine agenda from the outside.
48:24
Speaker 1: The day before the September 2025 meeting with the federal
48:27
Speaker 1: vaccine advisors to revisit the hepatitis B shot given to newborns,
48:32
Speaker 1: his phone buzzed nonstop as reporters reached out. From a
48:36
Speaker 1: chair in the corner of his bedroom, his new office,
48:40
Speaker 1: he reviewed the material to be discussed at the meeting.
48:43
Speaker 1: He joked that he was able to figure out how
48:45
Speaker 1: to download the PowerPoints tasks his executive assistant used to handle.
48:51
Speaker 1: On a call with a health reporter, he described the
48:53
Speaker 1: Hepatitis B proposal as apeshit crazy. Newborns can contract Hepatitis
48:59
Speaker 1: B from household contacts who might not know they are infected,
49:03
Speaker 1: he told her. At the same time, he was putting
49:06
Speaker 1: off a call with his health insurance agent, even though
49:09
Speaker 1: his coverage would expire in 11 days. After a rare
49:12
Speaker 1: break for a salad and Diet Coke at a nearby restaurant,
49:16
Speaker 1: he rushed home to prepare for the first of several
49:18
Speaker 1: television interviews that day. He pulled on a striped shirt, tie,
49:23
Speaker 1: and black jacket over gym shorts and sandals. He posted
49:27
Speaker 1: on X a long recap of the two-day meeting that
49:30
Speaker 1: ended with the advisors postponing a vote. He noted the
49:33
Speaker 1: panel did not conduct the analysis of data that typically
49:36
Speaker 1: takes place before a change to vaccine guidelines. When scientific
49:41
Speaker 1: process is not followed, the science that make the foundation
49:44
Speaker 1: for decisions is suspect and the decisions are therefore not valid,
49:48
Speaker 1: he wrote the day after the meeting. The vaccine panel
49:53
Speaker 1: had become an ideology machine, he wrote. I stand by
49:56
Speaker 1: my justification for resignation, sending strength to the scientists being
50:01
Speaker 1: held hostage at CDC. Private uncertainty, public praise. Daskalakis' increasingly
50:09
Speaker 1: pointed critiques of decisions emerging from CDC came to be
50:12
Speaker 1: seen as attacks on the institution itself. Some agency staff
50:17
Speaker 1: were initially upset that his criticism of the CDC, including
50:21
Speaker 1: saying it could no longer be trusted, did not distinguish
50:25
Speaker 1: between political leaders and career scientists, he said. The, you
50:30
Speaker 1: can't trust anything the CDC says anymore, was a bit hurtful.
50:35
Speaker 1: said one CDC career scientist who spoke on the condition
50:38
Speaker 1: of anonymity to share private concerns. Deskalakis acknowledges that some
50:44
Speaker 1: people inside CDC felt he was damaging the institution. His
50:48
Speaker 1: response was to change the order of the argument. I
50:52
Speaker 1: used to say CDC can't be trusted, and the career
50:57
Speaker 1: scientists that are on the inside are doing amazing work,
51:00
Speaker 1: he said. So I flipped it and say, The career
51:04
Speaker 1: scientists inside CDC are doing amazing work, but the agency
51:08
Speaker 1: can't be trusted because it's hijacked. Help us. By early December,
51:13
Speaker 1: Daskalakis was back in New York juggling an AIDS conference
51:17
Speaker 1: and apartment hunting. While waiting for his turn to speak
51:20
Speaker 1: on a Zoom panel, he got pre-approved for a mortgage.
51:24
Speaker 1: At the same time, in Atlanta, Kennedy's vaccine advisors were
51:28
Speaker 1: gathering for their final meeting of the year. That night,
51:31
Speaker 1: Daskalakis sat in a Chelsea hotel room in gym clothes,
51:36
Speaker 1: drinking a sugar-free Red Bull. On his laptop, he watched
51:39
Speaker 1: a recording of the advisory committee meeting. He already knew
51:43
Speaker 1: where it was headed. The following day, the panel voted
51:47
Speaker 1: to abandon a decades-old recommendation that all newborns receive a
51:51
Speaker 1: hepatitis B vaccine at birth, the first significant alteration of
51:55
Speaker 1: the childhood immunization schedule since Kennedy became health secretary. Months earlier,
52:01
Speaker 1: Deskalakis would have been inside the system trying to influence
52:05
Speaker 1: the outcome. Now he saw his role differently. Scientists still
52:10
Speaker 1: inside CDC, he said later, were sending him smoke signals
52:15
Speaker 1: for help. When concerns reached him, such as dropping the
52:18
Speaker 1: hepatitis B birth dose, he tried to amplify them. After
52:22
Speaker 1: that vote, Deskalakis blasted the committee as a wolf in
52:26
Speaker 1: sheep's clothing in a message to the Washington Post. On X,
52:31
Speaker 1: he posted, science is defeated yet again by the zombie ACIP.
52:36
Speaker 1: Oust this committee. Congress need to act now. But from
52:41
Speaker 1: the outside, Deskalakis could only sound the alarm. The recommendation
52:45
Speaker 1: went forward. Back to patients. It has been more than
52:50
Speaker 1: a year since Deskalakis left government. He has traded conference
52:53
Speaker 1: rooms at CDC for a clinic in New York, but
52:57
Speaker 1: he remains deeply engaged in the public health fights that
52:59
Speaker 1: drove him out. His television appearances have become far less
53:03
Speaker 1: frequent since the period immediately after his resignation, but Deskalakis
53:08
Speaker 1: still speaks on social media and is regularly quoted challenging
53:12
Speaker 1: Kennedy in articles. When the Trump administration announced changes to
53:17
Speaker 1: the childhood immunization schedule in January, May, and again in August,
53:24
Speaker 1: Deskalakis called them dangerous and political theater. When Ebola and
53:28
Speaker 1: Hantavirus emerged as new challenges for federal health officials this spring,
53:33
Speaker 1: Deskalakis wrote on X in May, let's see if they
53:37
Speaker 1: can solve this with a quip on a podcast. He
53:41
Speaker 1: remains unsparing in his assessment of the agency's political leadership.
53:46
Speaker 1: He was skeptical when audio leaked of the new CDC
53:49
Speaker 1: director Erica Schwartz assuring staff in August that she would
53:53
Speaker 1: seek truth to power and tell Kennedy when she disagreed
53:56
Speaker 1: with him. but privately, not in front of the media.
54:00
Speaker 1: Speaking truth to power behind closed doors assumes that the
54:03
Speaker 1: power listens and reinforces the fallacy that public health works
54:07
Speaker 1: best when it is invisible, he posted on social media.
54:11
Speaker 1: That's how we got into this pickle. Emily Hilliard, a
54:15
Speaker 1: spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, defended
54:19
Speaker 1: Schwartz and the administration's approach, saying the CDC director highly
54:23
Speaker 1: values all CDC scientists and staff and engages with them daily.
54:28
Speaker 1: She added that HHS is focused on her mission to
54:32
Speaker 1: reform a public health establishment that had lost Americans' trust
54:37
Speaker 1: rather than litigating a former official's grievances and disputed recollections
54:41
Speaker 1: through the press. Speaking out did not immediately stop Kennedy's
54:47
Speaker 1: vaccine policies, but Deskalakis' resignation letter became part of a
54:53
Speaker 1: lawsuit that, for now, has put many of them on hold.
54:57
Speaker 1: In December, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical
55:00
Speaker 1: groups cited his criticisms of Kennedy bypassing traditional scientific processes
55:06
Speaker 1: in an update to their lawsuit challenging the health secretary's
55:10
Speaker 1: vaccine agenda. Three months later, in March, a federal judge
55:14
Speaker 1: found officials unlawfully altered vaccine policy. The judge temporarily blocked
55:20
Speaker 1: much of Kennedy's overhaul to the childhood immunization schedule, including
55:24
Speaker 1: the hepatitis B newborn dose. The administration has appealed. Deskalakis
55:31
Speaker 1: and his husband have returned to Brooklyn. He is the
55:34
Speaker 1: chief medical officer at Callen-Lorde, the New York community health
55:38
Speaker 1: center that grew out of the AIDS epidemic and became
55:42
Speaker 1: one of the country's best-known providers of LGBTQ plus health care.
55:47
Speaker 1: One day a week, he is back caring for patients,
55:50
Speaker 1: splitting his time between an underserved community in the Bronx
55:54
Speaker 1: and a clinic in Chelsea, a return to the kind
55:57
Speaker 1: of medicine that first drew him into public health. The
56:02
Speaker 1: shift might seem like a retreat from the national stage.
56:05
Speaker 1: Deskalakis sees it differently. He has lost faith in the
56:09
Speaker 1: leadership of the CDC, but still has faith in the
56:12
Speaker 1: scientists and career civil servants. The country still needs a
56:16
Speaker 1: national agency to take the lead in global health to
56:19
Speaker 1: coordinate responses to outbreaks that cross state lines, he said,
56:23
Speaker 1: but he believes more authority and accountability should rest with
56:26
Speaker 1: state and local health departments. Let's build the next thing,
56:29
Speaker 1: Deskalakis said, because there's nothing there that you can fix.
56:34
Speaker 1: For Deskalakis, rebuilding public health now starts closer to the ground,
56:39
Speaker 1: in clinics, neighborhoods, and on the front line. closer to
56:42
Speaker 1: the people public health is supposed to serve. This concludes
56:47
Speaker 1: the reading of the Washington Post for today, Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
56:53
Speaker 1: Your reader for today has been Julie Shaw. If you
56:56
Speaker 1: have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program, please
57:01
Speaker 1: feel free to call us at area code 859-422-6390. Thank
57:07
Speaker 1: you for listening, and now please stay tuned for continued
57:10
Speaker 1: programming on Radio Eye.