Transcript

5.23.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of today's Washington Post newspaper. Your
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reader is Alice Stainer, with reminder that RADIOI as a
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service for those blind with other disabilities being unable to
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really hold or read printed material. It is Saturday, May
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the twenty third of twenty twenty six. Memorial Day is Monday,
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and the weekend looks pretty dreary. We have had lots
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of much needed rain in our yard and i had
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just planted all my pots, so I'm pretty happy about
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the watering, although it might be too much in those pots.
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So we will start with the front page of today's
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Washington Post, and a picture on the far left, covering
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four columns is America's newest crop of military offices. There
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is a picture of the graduates of the US Naval
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Academy in Annapolis, Maryland tossing their hats into the air
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Friday at the conclusion of their graduation and commissioning ceremony
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in Annapolis, Maryland, where General Dan Cain, Chairman of the
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Joint Chiefs of Staff, served as keynote speaker instead of
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President Donald Trump, who spoke at the Coastguard ceremony on Wednesday.
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Speaker 2: And you see lots of white uniforms.
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Speaker 1: There are two looked like two or three marine uniforms
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smattered in the front part. Just hats all over everywhere,
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and I'll never forget that type of graduation. Gabard abruptly
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resigns her job as intelligence chief. She cites husband's cancer diagnosis.
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Departure ends a stormy fifteen month tenure by Warren P. Strobel,
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John Hudson and Ellen Nakashima. Below that confidence in economy
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sinks as cost keep rising by Olivia George and Scott klement.
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Speaker 2: In.
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Speaker 1: Below the Annapolis picture on the left, AI leaders public
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dole for masses as jobs fade, Critics question where the
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billionaires were backfunding of welfare state by Fayez Sidiqui, and
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then Judge Toss's criminal case on a Brago by Jeremy
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Roebuck and Mark Berman human smuggling charges ruled vindictive in
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high profile legal fight. And then the very last article
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below the fold. Across five columns in fifty hours of
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TV sports, gambling ads are detected everywhere. Billions of dollars
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spent yearly by betting companies have profoundly changed the viewing
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experience analysis shows by Jeremy B. Beryl Merrill, Jonathan O'Connell,
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and Luke Connors.
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Speaker 2: And I see these all.
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Speaker 1: The time by a man who says I'm a lifelong
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gambler and better and I think, yeah, sure, But there
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are companies that just bet three sixty. Circus Sports is
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the one I think. I usually see the draft Kings
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fan duel fanatics and others that I can't something casino
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elite casino things. But that's an article about how gambling
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has taken over a lot of TV ads. Let's start
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with Telsea Gabbard resigns as Director of National Intelligence. In
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a statement posted online, Gabbert said she was leaving the
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post due to her husband's diagnosis of a rare bone cancer.
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And there is a picture of Telsea Gabbert, who's Director
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of National Intelligence, as she testified during a Senate hearing
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last year. She has dark hair with a wonderful white
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streak that just lines the edge of her hair and
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then is fuller towards the back over her left ear.
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She's in a beige suit with a white shirt, teardroped
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necklace on and looks like silver earrings little hoops. Bau
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Warren Strobel, John Hudson and Ellen Nakashima. Director of National Intelligence,
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Telsey Gabbert is resigning from the Trump administration, she said Friday,
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after her husband was diagnosed with an extremely rare bone cancer.
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Cabot informed the White House that June thirtieth would be
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her last day as the US Intelligence are. Her departure
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ends a stormy fifteen month tenure in which the former
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Democratic congresswoman was largely excluded from President Donald Trump's inner
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circle or international security circle, even as she pushed his
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political priorities on election security, declassification, and Russia's role in
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the twenty sixteen presidential contest. Unfortunately, I must submit my
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resignation effective June thirtieth, twenty twenty six My husband, Abraham
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has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of
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bone cancer. At this time, I must step away from
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public service to be by his side and fully support
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him through.
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Speaker 2: This battle, Gabbard wrote in a letter to Trump.
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Speaker 1: Gabbert's husband, Abraham Williams, is a cinema photographer. Two married
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in twenty fifteen. Williams is from Hawaii, where Cabot was raised,
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in which she represented in Congress for eight years. Gabbart
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is the latest of several cabinet officials, all women, who
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have exited the Trump administration in recent weeks. Trump fired
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Attorney General Pambondi and Homeland Security Secretary Chris d'elnome, while
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Labor Secretary Laurie Chavez Durima resigned. A person familiar with
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his situation said that William's diagnosis notwithstanding, Gabbert had been
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pressured to depart by White House officials increasingly unhappy with
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her actions, which have been brought unwelcome publicity or diverted
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detention from Chump's messages. The person, like some others interviewed,
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spoke on the condition of Anne and Ymi to discuss
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internal administration dynamics. Trump and his social media statement praised
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to Gabbert, saying she has done an incredible job and
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we will miss her. Aaron Lucas, her top deputy, will
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serve as acting Director of National Intelligence, he wrote. Gabbard,
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an Iraq war veteran who has long voiced opposition to
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US intervision abroad, never seemed to click with the President
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or a top security advisors. She was not included among
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key decision makers for critical meetings with President Trump or
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military action against Iran or the raid that seized format.
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Venezuelan President Nicholas maduro An oft repeated administration joke that
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DNI Department of National invest Investigation, the abbreviation of her
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title stood for do not invite. On other matters, she
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took actions highly unusual for the U. S Intelligence are,
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a position that generally focuses on foreign threats, and at
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least two domestic instances in Georgia and Puerto Rico. She
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and her office were involved in the seizure of voting
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material related to the twenty twenty presidential election, which Trump
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falsely claims he won. For months, senior administration officials speculated
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about wind Capped would apart because of widespread frustration within
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the White House about how O D and I has
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been run under her leadership. Among the early frustrations was
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a messy declassification process surrounding files related to the assassination
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of President John F. Kennedy, which resulted in the dissemination
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of people's private information, including social security numbers, said as
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senior US official.
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Speaker 2: In a statement, Senator Mark R.
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Speaker 1: Warner of Virginia, ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee,
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said his thoughts were with Gabbard and her husband. He added,
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at a time when the boundaries between verified intelligence and
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politically convenient claims have too often been blurred, it is
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critical that the Department of National Intelligence Office remained grounded
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in fact's independence and the rule of law. The next
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d n I must be committed to restoining trust in
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the office. Gabbard's departure appears to increase the clot of
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CIA Director John Ratcliff, who is closer to Trump. The
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CIA and o d and I have jockeyed over authority
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for years, and there has been significant friction among the
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two organizations in Trump's second term. Gabbard was no longer
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viable as an intelligence chief, said Mark polymer Populos, a
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former CIA officer.
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Speaker 2: She had no role anymore.
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Speaker 1: If you don't have the presidentcial, if you don't have
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his trust, you can't be effective. That's intel chief one
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oh one in Washington, he said. Because the DNA's role
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is principally one of overseer, Gabbard's departure has little impact
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on intelligence operations such as electronic intelligence gathering or human spying.
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In essay, cyber Command and the CIA will continue to
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be hard at work, said Polymeropolis, a non Resident Fellow
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at the Atlantic Council. Gabard's office, meanwhile, has been beset
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by major departures in recent months, and Marilla's Fox Kennedy,
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a deputy and ally, stepped down this week. Joe Kent,
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head of the National counter Terrorism Center, resigned in March
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in protest of the around rule. One name that is
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circulated is Gabber's replacement is that of Michael Ellis, Ratcliffe's deputy.
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Three people familiar with the matter said Lucas, fifty five,
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now the acting dn I, is a former undercover CIA
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officer and station chief who served in the National Security
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Council staff during Trump's first term.
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Speaker 2: Though Lucas is somewhat.
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Speaker 1: Junior, he came up through the CIA's Director of Operations,
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so has real field experience and appreciation for operations instead
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of bureaucracy, said Ralph Goff, a six time CIA station chief.
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That would be a first for anyone serving in the
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DNI role. Gabbott and her allies claimed successes during her tenure,
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including what they said is a forty percent cut in
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O D and I size, declassification of nearly five hundred
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thousand pais ages of historical documents and a reorientation of
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the counter Terrorism Center to focus on global drug cartels.
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The Intelligence are A one time presidential candidate, spent much
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of her time publicly and privately campaigning against what she
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alleged as a deep state of a national security professional
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was determined to undermine Trump. Early in her tenure, Gabat
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purged the director and Deputy Director of National Intelligence Council
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after the Council wrote an assessment that contradicted Trump's rationale
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for invoking the Alien Enemies Act and depoting alleged Venezuelan
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gang members without due process. Last July, Gabbat took the
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unprecedented step of appearing in the White House briefing room
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to allege that Russia's interference in the twenty sixteen presidential
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campaign was manufactured by President Barack Obama and his aides
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as part of our treasonous conspiracy. The allegations came despite
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a year's long bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee probe, a Special
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Council investigation in the US by agency assessment that all
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concluded Russia had meddled in the election, probably with the
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goal of helping Trump. Gabbert's anti foreign, anti war foreign
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policy views regularly found her out of step with the president.
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Last June, she posted a video on social media in
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which she described a recent visit to Hiroshima, Japan, which
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the United Sate States struck with a nuclear weapon at
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the end of World War Two. As we stand here
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today closer to the brink of nuclear annaledge they annihilation
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than ever before. Political elite warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear
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and tensions between nuclear powers.
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Speaker 2: She said in the video.
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Speaker 1: The video appeared days before the US and Israel struck
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Around's principal nuclear sites. Trump confronted Gabbett at a White
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House meeting with others present, telling her I saw the
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video and I didn't like it, an outside White House
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advisers said, and a correction to the article. In an
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earlier version of this report incorrectly stated that the reason
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for Joe Kent's March resignation it was over the war
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in Iran. Next article, Pole shows voter confidence in economy
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plummeting to a nearly four year low. Concerns about rising
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cost or problem for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections
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as Trump struggles to deliver on affordability pledges and there
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is a picture of Donald Trump in his standard blue
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suit red tie standing near the construction of his proposed
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ballroom Tuesday at the White House, and you see easels
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with two pictures of the proposed.
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Speaker 2: Ballroom.
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Speaker 1: Olivia George and Scott Clement wrote the article. America's confidence
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in the economy has hit a nearly four year low,
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according to a new poll, underscoring a growing problem for
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Republicans ahead of the midterm elections as President Donald Trump
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struggles to deliver on his campaign pledge to make life
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more affordable. Just sixteen percent of you as adults rate
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the economy excellent or good, according to the Gallop Pole,
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which was released Friday. An additional thirty four percent rate
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the economy as only fail, while forty nine percent say
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it is poor. Economic confidence has declined steadily in recent
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months among Americans.
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Speaker 2: Across the political spectrum.
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Speaker 1: As the Warnerran drives a sharp increase in inflation and
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gas prices.
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Speaker 2: Three out of four.
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Speaker 1: Americans say economic conditions are getting worse, while Gallup found
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that Republicans still remain positive overall. Their economic confidence in
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May reached its lowest since Trump returned to office, but
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their confidence remains much higher than it was shortly before
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he left office in January twenty twenty one, in the
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midst of a global pandemic. Overall, the share of US
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adults saying conditions are getting worse is at its highest
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points since May twenty twenty three. Joss twenty percent of
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Americans say conditions are improving. Summarizing America's assessment of their
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economic outlook, the Gallop Economic Confidence Index also has registered
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the decline to minus forty five, the lowest reading since
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twenty twenty two, when inflation surged as high as nine percent.
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The top rating in the index is plus one hundred.
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Gallup's findings were echoed by University of Michigan data released
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Friday that showed consumer sentiment falling to its lowest point
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since the survey began in nineteen fifty two. Despite a
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campaign pledged to address cost of living concerns, Trump said
17:28
this month that he does not consider the economic effects
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of the war in iranis having on Americans, not even
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a little bit. His remarks in response to a question
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about whether such concerns were motivating him to reach a
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deal the end of to end the war drew swift
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criticism from America from Democrats, who are hoping that voter
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anxiety about the economy booies their chances in the November
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mid terms. As Americans begin the Memorial Day one weakened,
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the average price for a gallon of gas is around
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four dollars and fifty six cents, according to gas Buddy,
18:07
up from two dollars and ninety cents in February before
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the war began. Americans are increasingly listing gas prices as
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the nation's top problem, with four percent listing it in
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the gallop pole.
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Speaker 2: That number includes ten.
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Speaker 1: Percent of Republicans and three percent of both Democrats and Independence.
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The poll also found more Americans listing inflation and the
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cost of living. Overall, Americans still identified the government most
18:38
often as the nation's top problem, another potential headache for
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Republicans who controlled the House and the Senate in addition
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to the White House in the midterms. Meanwhile, Trump continues
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to tote the construction of his planned White House ballroom,
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a project widely rejected by the American people, according to
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a Washington Post a News if so's poll. This week,
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Trump offered reporters a closer look at the construction behemoth.
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Among the spotted details a walkway emblazoned with gold lettering
19:13
reading forty five dash forty seven, nodding to his role
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as the nation's forty fifth and forty seventh president. The
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thing I do best in life is build. I'm a
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great builder, and I build beautiful product, Trump said Tuesday.
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His approval rating has declined to thirty six percent according
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to a Post average of national polls, this month, his
19:39
worst month since returning to office, and down from forty
19:43
percent in January. In connection with the economy, AI leaders
19:49
see mass job lost coming.
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Speaker 2: They want governments help solving it.
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Speaker 1: Critics question whether billionaires would support the massive redistribut she
20:00
needed to find an AI welfare state.
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Speaker 2: Elon Musk has.
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Speaker 1: A plan for a future with jobs or wiped out
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by artificial intelligence. A benevolent government will provide.
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Speaker 2: This is by Fayes sidique.
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Speaker 1: Universal high income via checks issued by the federal government
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is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by
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a Musk said in an ex post. Musk has pushed
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government issued checks not as a temporary stop gap, but
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a long term plan for a world of amazing abundance
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he expects AI to create.
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Speaker 2: Musk added, AI.
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Speaker 1: Slash robotics will produce goods and services far in excess
20:48
of the increase in the money supply, so there will
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not be inflation. Musk is a fierce critic of public
20:57
spending who has long railed against government law through his
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insight of the US Doge Service. He once sought to
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cut two trillion dollars from the federal budget, but his
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latest push proposes a radical expansion of the social safety net,
21:16
dramatically exceeding Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Mosque is among
21:22
a cohort of tech leaders arguing that AI's coming upheaval
21:27
may demand massive infusions of cash to everyday Americans, a
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striking reversal for some tech circles, where many have expressed
21:36
long standing hostility to public benefit programs. Anthropic CEO Dario
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Amodi has called for similar public relief measures, including potentially
21:48
universal basic income or UB.
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Speaker 2: Eventually, our current.
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Speaker 1: Economic setup will no longer make sense, Emodi wrote in
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a blog post, adding that there will be a need
22:05
for a broader societal conversation about how the economy should
22:09
be organized.
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Speaker 2: Though Open AI.
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Speaker 1: CEO Sam Altman once championed universal basic income, he has
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since embraced a news structure where the public has collective
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ownership of aspects of AI. According to Business Insider, I
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think any version of the future that I can really
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get excited about it means that everybody's got to participate
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in the upside, Altman said in a recent podcast interview.
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Speaker 2: In April, Open.
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Speaker 1: AI laid out a set of policy proposals aiming to
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address the upcoming upheaval, referencing the Transition to the Industrial
22:50
Age and the New Deal as points of comparison for
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what's on the horizon.
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Speaker 2: The transition will require an.
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Speaker 1: Even more ambitious form of industrial policy, one that reflects
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the ability of democratic societies to act collectively at scale
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to shape their economic future so that superintelligence benefits everyone.
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He read or it read the article read. The positions
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prompted criticism that the company which underpins much of the
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AI boom was effectively calling for socialism. The expanse of
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interventions aimed to solve a problem the Mongols or Moguls
23:32
argue will rise from their industry's success. Tesla is seeking
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to build billions of humanoid robots, making humanly but effectively obsolete.
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Another Musk lead company, space X, is set to debut
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on the stock market in coming weeks, with a plan
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to buttress the AI boom by adding putting data centers
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in space. Anthropic, whose claud chatbox has surged in popularity,
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released in analysis marking vast swaths of the workforce vulnerable
24:05
to displacement from AI, including management, business, and arts and
24:10
medium But some experts question whether tech billionaires who spent
24:16
decades resisting regulation, unions and higher taxes, would support the
24:21
kind of massive redistribution such programs would require. The only
24:27
way to pay for UBI is to massively tax those
24:33
enormously rich people who owned the UBI machines, said Jeth C. Rothstein,
24:40
a professor of public policy and economics at the University
24:43
of California at Berkeley who served as chief economists at
24:47
the US Department of Labor, adding it's a nice surprise
24:52
to hear Elon Musk advocating for that. Musk did not
24:58
respond to her request for comment. Open AI and Anthropic
25:03
declined to comment. Rostein said Muck's proposal, which floats a
25:08
version of UPI far more generous than even optimistic versions
25:12
from years past, requires business leaders to commit to paying
25:17
more taxes, a concession they have not indicated they're willing
25:20
to make. Musk appeared to complain about he said was
25:25
a ten billion dollar tax bill, more than anyone in
25:29
history earlier this month on X. Overall, I will probably
25:35
end up paying trillions in taxes, he concluded. Rothstein co
25:40
authored a study in twenty nineteen that estimated granting a
25:44
small income to the entire country would cost a massive amount,
25:49
nearly double the total spending of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
25:54
To issue payments of about twelve thousand a year to
25:58
as adults, for example.
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Speaker 2: Would require nearly doubling.
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Speaker 1: Federal tax revenues, according to the paper. Though Musk's plan
26:07
doesn't give an exact figure for universal high income, it
26:11
would likely require exponentially more funding. Some UBI advocates are
26:17
conflicted by the newfound interest.
26:20
Speaker 2: While the tech mogul's.
26:21
Speaker 1: Enthusiasm could help spread the gospel of UBI, they are
26:25
skeptical of the messengers. I think it's a marketing tactic,
26:30
sind Scott Santons, a universal basic income advocate who is
26:35
CEO of the nonprofit Income to Support All Foundations, adding
26:40
he's trying to thread this needle of I want to
26:43
solve this stuff that will potentially put a lot of
26:45
people out the work, and how do you avoid getting
26:49
people getting angry, really angry at that. Well, okay, you're
26:54
still going to get money. Everything will be great. It's
26:57
just you won't have to work anymore. Some conservatives, including
27:02
those who publicly toted Doge's work, have taken umbrage with
27:06
the entrepreneur's position. The new AI prophits of Doomed suffer
27:11
from a failure of imagination. They simply cannot envision what
27:15
work the future will bring, so they conclude it will
27:18
bring none, wrote J. W. Richards, vice president of Social
27:23
and Domestic Policy and senior research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation,
27:28
adding in the real world, Washington, which Stacker ubi a
27:32
top existing programs, adding trillions to a budget already careening
27:37
toward insolvency. Economists appeared abroad a support other solutions beyond redistribution,
27:45
such as job retraining. A working paper published this spring
27:49
by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago showed economists support
27:54
more nearly tailored solutions to the economic distribution. In late April,
28:00
Meta appeared to embrace that path, announcing a multi year
28:04
initiative that provides free rapid training to turn thousands of
28:08
Americans with no prior experience into high paid fiber technicians
28:14
for projects including data centers. In the eyes of Santince,
28:19
an ally of entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who defined his twenty
28:23
twenty presidential campaign by UBI.
28:27
Speaker 2: Musk could convince people of.
28:29
Speaker 1: The sincerity of his position easily commit to funding to
28:33
the idea himself. The lack of seriousness of them really
28:38
doing something about it leads people to believe that it
28:41
isn't true, Santin said, adding if he were to announce
28:46
He's suddenly putting up one hundred and fifty million into
28:49
some super pack to push UBI candidates and get something
28:53
going as soon as possible dot that dot, it would
28:56
be a totally different feeling of this is for real,
28:59
This is for real.
29:05
Speaker 2: And now.
29:06
Speaker 1: Judge drops criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, deeming it vindictive.
29:13
The Maryland man was charged with human smuggling after a
29:17
high profile legal fight in which courts ruled he had
29:20
been illegally deported to El Salvador.
29:24
Speaker 2: By Jeremy Roebuck and Mark Berman.
29:28
Speaker 1: A federal judge on Friday dismissed the Justice Department human
29:32
smuggling case against k Abrego Garcia, ruling that the Trump
29:37
administration improperly brought it to punish him for successfully challenge
29:42
his illegal deportion last year deportation last year. US District
29:48
Judge Waverley D. Crenshaw, Junior in Tennessee wrote that evidence
29:53
before this court sadly reflects and abuse of prosecuting power.
29:58
The decision delivered in extraordinary defeat for the administration, which
30:02
marshaled the resources of multiple federal agency to publicly malign
30:07
Abrego after court rulings concluded that officials had unlawfully deported
30:12
him to his native El Sevador in a violation of
30:15
a twenty nineteen immigration court order. Quinchhaw's ruling also marked
30:21
the first time a judge validated what has become an
30:24
increasingly common defense raised by high profile defendants targeted by
30:29
the Justice Department in Trump's second term, the claim that
30:33
they are being prosecuted not in pursuit of justice, but
30:37
rather for political revenge.
30:40
Speaker 2: In a decision.
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Speaker 1: Released Friday afternoon, the judge acknowledged the incredibly high bar
30:46
defendants must meet to warrant a case's dismissal on those grounds.
30:51
It requires defense attorneys to prove that charges would not
30:55
have been brought but for improper vindicative of vindicative moves,
31:03
vindictive motives on the part of government attorneys.
31:07
Speaker 2: Let me read that again.
31:09
Speaker 1: It requires defense attorneys to prove that charges would not
31:13
have been brought but for improper vindictive motives on the
31:17
part of government attorneys.
31:20
Speaker 2: Crenshaw, who was.
31:22
Speaker 1: Appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that in Abrago's case,
31:27
it was clear that the investigation into him was tainted
31:31
with a vindictive motive. The judge wrote in a thirty
31:35
two page opinion that while he found insufficient evidence of
31:40
actual vindictiveness, he also concluded that the Trump administration failed
31:46
to rebut the presumption of vindictiveness. Greenshaw said he did
31:52
not reach the conclusion lightly, but the evidence, he wrote,
31:56
showed that if Abrego had not challenged his deportation and
32:00
the Trump administration would not have brought this case.
32:04
Speaker 2: The Justice Department assailed the decision.
32:07
Speaker 1: Another activist judge has placed politics about public safety. The
32:12
judge's order is wrong and dangerous, and we will repeal,
32:17
a spokesperson said in a statement. Despite Crenshaw's decision, US
32:22
immigration authorities have previously signaled they still intend to deport Abrego,
32:28
thirty one, who ended the country illegally from Elsavador as
32:33
a teen, but the ability to do so has been
32:36
temporarily blocked by federal court ruling from Maryland, where Abrego
32:40
lives with his wife, a US citizen, and children.
32:44
Speaker 2: Abrago praised the judge's ruling. Justice is a.
32:48
Speaker 1: Big word and an even bigger promise to fulfill it,
32:51
and I am grateful that today justice has taken a
32:55
step forward, Abrego said, in a statement released by We
32:59
Are CASA, an immigrant advocacy group. Sean Hecker, an attorney
33:04
for Abrego, said his client was the victim of a politicized,
33:09
vindictive White House and its lawyers at what used to
33:12
be an independent justice department. We are so pleased that
33:16
he is a free man, justifiably so as this administration
33:21
continually chips away at our democracy, we remain grateful for
33:25
an independent judiciary that will dispassionately apply binding precedents to
33:32
the facts, Hecker said in a statement. The high profile
33:38
legal saga that ensnared Abregos since officials deported him to
33:42
a notorious terrorism prison in the El Salvador in March
33:46
twenty twenty five, has for many critics come to epitomize
33:51
what they view as some of the worst aspects of
33:53
the Trump's administration's aggressive deportation agenda. Abrego, who before his
33:59
deplot potation was working as a sheet metal apprentice, has
34:03
said he came to the United States as a teenager
34:06
to flee death threats from the Barrio eighteen gang. An
34:10
immigration judge in twenty nineteen barred officials from deporting him
34:14
to El Savado because of that gang threat. Multiple courts
34:18
have found that when the Trump administration redetained him and
34:22
sent him to the Central American Nation anyway last year,
34:26
he did so in violation of that autumn Still, for months,
34:31
the administration resisted demands from the courts, including one from
34:35
the Supreme Court, to facilitate Abrego's return to the United States.
34:40
Officials publicly derided him as an animal, a gang member,
34:44
and a domestic abuse, accusations he has repeatedly denied. Abrego
34:50
was brought back to the country only last June, after
34:53
federal investigators reopened a previously shuttered investigation and secured a
34:58
two count indictment against him. The case was based on
35:02
evidence from a twenty twenty two traffic stop in Tennessee,
35:06
in which authorities alleged to Brago was caught driving nine
35:09
undocumented immigrants through the state as part of a human
35:12
smuggling conspiracy. They opted not to pursue charges at the time.
35:19
In a ruling last year finding that there was a
35:22
realistic likelihood that the investigation was reopened in retaliation for
35:27
embarrassment Abrego had caused the administration, Crenshaw cited an interview
35:32
then Deputy General Todd Blanche gave to Fox News about
35:37
the case the day the indictment was unsealed. Blanche is
35:41
now the acting Attorney General. Blanche had said then that
35:45
the department launched its probe of Abrego after the federal
35:49
court in Maryland found the Trump administration had no right
35:53
to deport him.
35:54
Speaker 2: What should we.
35:55
Speaker 1: Do, is the Department of Justice, when a judge is
35:58
accusing us of doing something wrong, we have an obligation
36:01
dot dot to investigate it. And that's exactly what we did,
36:05
Blanche said. Though Robert McGuire, the acting former acting US
36:11
Attorney in Nashville, maintained that the decision to prosecute Abrego
36:15
was his and his alone. Emails from top deputy's in
36:19
Blanche's office later surfaced showing that officials at the highest
36:24
level of the Justice Department took an interest in the
36:27
case from the beginning. Messages made public as part of
36:31
Abrego's legal fight show McGuire was in near constant communication
36:36
with Blanche's office about the investigation. Department of Homeland Security
36:41
officials referred to the human smuggling matter for possible prosecution
36:45
in late April twenty twenty five, just days after the
36:49
Supreme Court ordered the government to facilitate a Brego's return
36:52
to the United States, and even before McGuire had informed
36:57
his superiors in Washington that he was opening his his
37:00
own investigation, A top Blanche aid already had taken steps
37:04
to facilitate a potential prosecution. Associate Deputy Attorney General Akash Singh,
37:12
who oversees matters involving US Attorney's offices around the country,
37:17
email to McGuire the same day. The Tennessee prosecutor has
37:20
said he learned of the twenty twenty two traffic stop
37:24
to set up a conversation about a potential witness who
37:27
might have information about Abrego's alleged choirmes.
37:33
Speaker 2: Singh also helped flag potential.
37:35
Speaker 1: Evidence from Maguire that the then US attorneys said he
37:38
was previously unaware of. In one email, he described bringing
37:43
a case against Obrego as top priority for the Justice Department.
37:48
In his opinion Friday, Crenshaw sharply rebuked the chain of events,
37:52
saying the Trump administration effectively handled the case backward. Blanch
37:57
started the investigation to implicate Abrego, Crenshaw wrote.
38:02
Speaker 2: Crenshaw wrote that.
38:03
Speaker 1: McGuire was a talented, gifted prosecutor brought into a tainted investigation,
38:10
and while federal officials argued McGuire alone decided to indict
38:14
Abrego without influence or direction from Blanche and Trump administration agencies,
38:19
Crenshaw wrote, the persuasive, credible, objective evidence shows otherwise. Crenshaw's
38:26
decision is one of the first to address the proliferation
38:29
of indictive prosecution motives motions challenging Justice Department cases during.
38:35
Speaker 2: Trump's second term.
38:37
Speaker 1: Of the top Trump administration targets, including former FBI Director
38:43
James B. Comy, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and
38:49
Lamonica mcaverr, Democrat of New Jersey, and voting machine companies
38:53
Smart Mattic have all sought the dismissal of criminal cases
38:58
filed against them, saying they were brought to satisfied Trump's
39:01
personal grievances. Charges against Comye and James were thrown out
39:06
last year before they could fully advance in court. The
39:10
cases were dismissed over issues with the appointment of the U.
39:13
S attorney overseeing them. A judge is not yet ruled
39:17
on the vindictive prosecution claim filed in Smartmatos case. Annie
39:23
Mcca Mike Carver's case. A federal court in New Jersey
39:27
ruled in November that she had not proved that charges
39:31
alleging she had assaulted federal officers during a visit to
39:34
a New Jersey immigration detention center were brought in retaliation
39:39
for her critical statements about the Trump administration.
39:43
Speaker 2: She has appealed that decision.
39:46
Speaker 1: For Brago, it was not immediately clear how Crenshaw's ruling
39:49
would affect his ability to return to the life he
39:52
led before his deportation last year. He has been under
39:57
house arrest in Maryland due to the Tennessee case, but
40:00
the order restricting his movements was vacated Friday along with
40:04
the indictment. Abrego has stated he is willing to voluntarily
40:08
leave the country for Costa Rica if immigration authorities would
40:12
permit him. However, the Trump administration so far has refused
40:17
that offer and threatened to send him to countries in
40:20
Africa instead. I'm not going to read the gambling article,
40:25
but it really says that ads are detected everywhere, like
40:30
behind gold post on the things streaming around an arena
40:35
during a ballgame or a baseball game or whatever. It's pervasive.
40:40
Gambling ads are pervasive, So I'm going in. The paper
40:46
bone found by uturbuer searching for Nancy Guthrie was around
40:52
seven hundred and fifty years old.
40:55
Speaker 2: The bone is believed to.
40:57
Speaker 1: Have belonged to a member of the Jojokum people, an
41:01
ancient group considered to be ancestors to modern Navid Americans
41:06
in Arizona. And there's an aerial view of Nancy Guthrie's
41:10
home in Tucson, Arizona by Daniel Wu. A YouTuber who
41:17
stumbled upon a human bone this month while searching a
41:20
few miles from Nancy Guthrie's home in Arizona, did not
41:24
discover a cram scene, but a set of remains thought
41:28
to date back around seven hundred and fifty years. According
41:32
to police and an archaeological expert who reviewed the discovery.
41:37
The aj Wasserpaul, a Tucson resident who was among several
41:42
individuals and groups to join the search for Guthrie after
41:46
being drawn to the case of her kidnapping, was filming
41:49
on his phone as he hiked through a dry river.
41:51
Speaker 2: Bed the morning of May seventh.
41:54
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's a bone, why, Sir Paul thirty eight,
41:57
told people watching his live stream when he came across
42:00
a white object sticking out from the dirt.
42:03
Speaker 2: What the heck?
42:05
Speaker 1: WHYSA Paul poked at the bone with a hiking stick
42:08
and tried to dig around it. He then stopped and
42:11
called nine to one one. Viewers left a torrent of
42:15
comments on the YouTube's dream, reacting and shot body.
42:19
Speaker 2: Wow, good job. I have the chills.
42:23
Speaker 1: Police and reporters flocked to the scene, eager for an
42:26
update in the Guthree case that has done the country
42:29
since the eighty four year old mother to Today's Show
42:33
host Servannah Gunthrie, was abducted from her Tucson home in February,
42:38
but the discovery was not the breakthrough some had hopeful.
42:42
Pima County's Medical Examiner's office quickly determined that the remains
42:46
were too old to be from a recent death. According
42:49
to James Watson, the curator of Bioarchaelology at the Arizona
42:55
State Museum who inspected the remains, Tucson police and in
42:59
state went to The Washington Post that the bone was
43:02
not part of a crime scene. Watson said the bone
43:05
had been buried at least three feet below the ground surface.
43:09
This is perenn He suspects rainwater in the area could
43:12
have exposed the bone in perrind and that the river
43:15
bed is near a known archaeological site. He surmised the
43:20
remains dated to between six fifty and twelve fifty a d.
43:26
And probably belonged to a member of the Hocokum people,
43:30
an ancient group considered to be ancestors to modern Navive
43:34
Americans in Arizona. Watson's assessment was first reported by The
43:39
New York Times. The hohokumbe described by the National Park
43:44
Service as one of the largest and most complex societies
43:48
in the Southwest, were prolific farmers who used sophisticated canals
43:53
to irrigate the Arizona Desert. Watson said the discovery of
43:57
their remains in a river bed likely reflected a hohokumb
44:01
community that once lived near the water, he said. Watson
44:06
added that he thought it was unfortunate that the century's
44:09
old remains had been uncovered in a private search for Guthrie,
44:13
particularly for the Tohono odom Nation, the descendants of the Hohokumb.
44:21
It is a disturbance of their ancestors, just like if
44:24
a modern cemetery got dug up, he said. An official
44:29
with the Tohono tahodem Nation did not immediately respond to
44:33
a request for comment Thursday. Wasappaul said he did not
44:38
know the area he was searching, around a ten minute
44:41
drive from Guthrie's home, was near an archaeological siton didn't
44:45
intend to disturb it. He has kept up his live
44:48
streamed searches for Guthrie at of frustration that her case
44:52
remains unsolved and a desire to help. He said, I
44:56
try to do things the right way. Wassappaul said the
45:00
motion on May seventh, as police and reporters descended on
45:03
the river bed, drew the attention of Pamela Stone, who
45:06
lives near the bone was discovered. Stone seventy three, said
45:11
she was shocked by the discovery and feared for a
45:13
moment that it was linked to Guthrie's case, which has
45:16
unsettled her communities since the abduction. She was said to
45:21
learn where the remains actually came from, it brings tears
45:25
to my eyes. Stone said, these are human beings that
45:28
walked on this earth hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
45:32
Watson said the remains, which were retrieved by the Arizona
45:36
State Museum, of being repatriated to the Jhono Odom nation.
45:42
The Pima County Sheriff's Department said in his statement to
45:45
the Post that searching for Guthrie is best left to professionals.
45:50
Why Sir Paul was back out in the desert Thursday morning,
45:53
continuing his search for an audience of about twelve hundred
45:56
viewers on YouTube. Around two hours into his lives, he
46:00
came across what appeared to be several pieces of bones
46:03
scattered in the grass. It looks like it's a deer
46:07
or cow was Sappold told his viewers. Well, here's about
46:12
the fourth of July. Record breaking eight hundred and sixty
46:18
thousand fireworks planned for Trump's July fourth show, The display
46:24
featuring fifty times the typical number of fireworks that light
46:28
up d C's sky will last about forty minutes, double
46:33
the usual time. By Joe Heeme, The nation's official two
46:39
hundred and fifty fifth birthday celebration in Washington on July
46:44
fourth will culminated in red, white, and blue tinged fireworks
46:49
display unlike anything the world has ever seen or heard.
46:53
Speaker 2: That's the plan, anyway. The company in.
46:56
Speaker 1: Charge of the fireworks on the National Mall for this
46:59
year's Fourth of July celebration says it will launch more
47:03
than eight hundred and sixty thousand shells in an attempt
47:06
to set a Guinness World Record for the largest fireworks displayed.
47:11
That number dwarfs previous Fourth of July fireworks shows in
47:15
Washington where typically seventeen thousand to twenty thousand shells launched.
47:21
In recent years, the National Park Services has the cost
47:24
of fireworks for those shows was approximately two hundred and
47:27
seventy thousand dollars and the event lasted seventeen to twenty minutes.
47:33
Freedom two fifty, a public private partnership launched by the
47:37
White House in December, is producing the July fourth celebration
47:41
on the Mall. A spokesperson for Freedom two fifty said
47:45
that planning for the event is ongoing and that a
47:48
final cost for the fireworks was not yet available.
47:53
Speaker 2: This year's show is.
47:55
Speaker 1: Expected to last approximately forty minutes and will be not
48:01
only a once in a generation patriotic spectacle.
48:04
Speaker 2: But a landmark landmark moment in fireworks history.
48:09
Speaker 1: Pyrotechnico, the Pennsylvania based venda responsible for the show, set
48:14
in a statement sent to the Post on Friday, sorry
48:18
I was about to sneeze. A spokeswoman for Pyrotechnico did
48:22
not respond to her request to provide the cost of
48:25
the event. The current record for a display is about
48:29
eight hundred and nine thousand fireworks that were launched on
48:33
a New Year's even ban in Manila in twenty sixteen.
48:36
According to Guinness Worth Records, that display lasted a little
48:40
over an hour and took place in a driving rain.
48:44
More than fifty trucks will transport this year's fireworks to Washington,
48:48
and a crew of about sixty workers will manage the performance.
48:52
According to the Pyrotechnico statement, fireworks will launched from the
48:56
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, West Potomac and eight barges on
49:01
the Potomac River. Concerns had been raised in the past
49:05
about the shier number of fireworks and how they could
49:09
affect air quality in the district, where they can often
49:12
be a factor in trapping smoke and limiting the spectacle.
49:16
That was the case at the Fourth of July fireworks
49:19
in Washington in twenty nineteen, when an invasion where a
49:24
cap of warm air sits on top of cooler air
49:26
at the ground, trapped fireworks smoke in the low levels
49:30
of the atmosphere. The lack of wind worsened the situation
49:34
and views of the fireworks were largely blocked by the
49:37
heavy smoke in the air. Many people who went to
49:40
the mall to watch the fireworks were put into experiencing
49:44
burning eyes and coughing inside. Military of fishers are worried
49:51
about Trump's oil drilling plan.
49:54
Speaker 2: His why a.
49:55
Speaker 1: Draft proposal would allow for drilling off the coast of
49:59
Florida and California, including two of the largest areas used
50:04
for ocean based military training.
50:08
Speaker 2: By Jake Spring.
50:10
Speaker 1: If the United States went to war and the South
50:13
China Sea, there would be no but a place to
50:16
stimulate it or simulate it than America's southeastern coast. The
50:21
US coast line along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
50:25
Ocean nearly matches up to China's minus the Florida Peninsula,
50:29
with island nations dotting both waters. The region acts as
50:33
a training zone, allowing troops to deploy from Virginia toward
50:37
the Gulf, similar to how they would launch from bases
50:40
in Japan to travel south toward a potential enemy. There
50:44
are hundreds of open miles for Tomahawk missiles and other
50:48
weapons to be tested before they are used in combat,
50:52
but that critical training ground.
50:54
Speaker 2: Could soon be at risk.
50:56
Speaker 1: Military leaders and bipartisan lawmakers say that had a Trump
51:00
administration plan to allow oil platforms in an empty expanse
51:05
of the Golf of Mexico and off of southern California
51:09
would obstruct some of the largest military operations areas in
51:13
the country. Now, this group, which includes Florida's entire thirty
51:19
member congressional delegation, is scrambling to overhaul the administration's five
51:24
year leasing plan before it's finalized in October. It's almost
51:29
strategically backwards, said Rick Miller, a retired Navy captain and
51:33
vice chair of the Florida Defense Alliance, a state advisory body,
51:38
adding for a modest potential increase in oil production capacity,
51:42
we'd be giving up a tremendous amount of national defense capability.
51:48
Last year, the Interior Department issued its draft plan for
51:52
when and where it would auction offsite oil and gas leases,
51:56
proposing to expand drilling into a part of the golf
51:59
nearer to Florida in twenty twenty nine, as well as
52:02
the entire California coast in twenty twenty seven, where no
52:07
new drooling has taken place in more than fifty years.
52:12
There are maps of where the leases may be offered,
52:15
and you can see it in California at the whole
52:20
coastline of California, expanding into the Pacific Ocean and into
52:27
the Gulf of Mexico below the panhandle of Florida and
52:34
Alabama into the Gulf of Mexico. The plan drew immediate
52:40
backlash from politicians in California and Florida, who feared oil
52:45
spills that would affect communities relying on tourism and fishing well.
52:49
The oil industry has defended the plan. The retired military
52:53
leaders and armed forces efficacy groups say an overlooked concern
52:58
is the overlap between areas of drilling expansion and military
53:02
tests and draining training zones off the coast of both states,
53:07
something that concerns both Republicans and Democrats.
53:11
Speaker 2: The US Army, Navy, Marines, Air.
53:14
Speaker 1: Force, Space Force, and the Coastguard all use at least
53:18
one range off of California or in the Gulf, and
53:21
at least two dozen military bases rely on them in
53:24
some capacity. Interior is expected to release its second drive
53:30
of the plan in the coming weeks and will take
53:32
public comment before The Department aims to issue a final
53:36
version by October. At any stage, Interior could revise what
53:40
areas are included.
53:43
Speaker 2: No final decisions have been made.
53:46
Speaker 1: The proposal simply identifies the areas that remain under consideration
53:50
as analysis continues, Interior spokeswoman Elizabeth Peace said in a statement,
53:57
Interior is coordinating with the Department of a War to
54:01
ensure that offshore energy activities in military operations can coexist.
54:07
Speaker 2: P sadded.
54:08
Speaker 1: Florida's congressional delegation, led by GOP senators Rick Scott and
54:13
Ashley Moody, wrote President Donald Trump in December that they
54:17
opposed any attempts to expand offshore oil and gas drilling
54:22
off Florida's coast. The Golf Test Range is the largest
54:28
multi do main military training and testing complex in the country,
54:33
and its unique geographic characteristics enable critical preparation for real
54:38
world contingencies.
54:40
Speaker 2: The letters said.
54:43
Speaker 1: And here's a picture of President Donald Trump speaking to
54:46
the press last year before the signing a proclamation renaming
54:51
the Golf of Mexico as the Golf of America. And
54:54
he was aboard Air Force one when you see the
54:57
map of the new Golf of am America. In a statement,
55:02
Scott said that while he supports Trump's efforts to boost
55:05
American energy production, he totally opposes drilling off Florida's coast.
55:11
California Governor Gavin Newsom, Democrat, and state lawmakers have also
55:16
objected to any oil expansion off of their state. In
55:20
a joint letter, Newsom and the governors of Oregon and
55:23
Washington wrote that a major spill could affect military operations
55:28
as well as fishing, shipping, and tourism. We'll do anything
55:33
and everything we can to stop it, says Senator Alex Paedilla,
55:37
Democrat of California. The oil industry has defended Interia's plans
55:42
in the Golf. The American Petroleum Institute an industry lobby group,
55:48
sees the expansion into that portion of the Eastern Gulf,
55:51
which it calls the South Central Gulf of America, as
55:55
one of the most promising regions for domestic energy production,
56:00
said Dustin Maya, its senior vice president of Policy, Economics
56:05
and Regulatory Affairs. Our industry has a long history of
56:09
operating safely alongside our neighbors in the Golf, and we
56:12
will continue to work with the administration to assure we
56:16
can meet both our national security and energy security goals
56:20
in the Gulf of America, he said in a statement.
56:24
The offshore expansion is part of Trump's efforts to produce
56:27
more oil and gas in the US. After declaring a
56:31
national emergency on his first day in office on the
56:34
grounds that inadequate domestic energy sources threaten national security, the
56:40
administration has sought to boost fossil fuel production while curbing
56:44
sola and wind power. The administration can have it both ways.
56:50
They can't argue national security concerns when it comes to
56:53
win energy and ignore them for their proposed offshore drilling.
56:57
Pridias said how the military training zones are used. Four
57:04
retired military leaders described the ranges off Florida and California
57:08
as some of the last places in the US where
57:11
they can conduct of the variety of key exercises.
57:15
Speaker 2: Major General H. D.
57:16
Speaker 1: Palumbo, a former fighter pilot who retired from Air Force
57:20
leadership in twenty fifteen, said they would regularly test weapons
57:24
in the Eastern Gulf test and ranging range an open
57:28
square of ocean roughly five hundred miles across. He described
57:32
shooting missiles as unmanned aircraft. It's like a car wreck,
57:36
both going one hundred miles an hour. That's a pretty
57:39
hack of an explosion, even though.
57:41
Speaker 2: There's no warheads.
57:42
Speaker 1: He said new weapons needed to be tested before they
57:46
incorporated into the U s Arsenal, and that means finding
57:50
bigue open areas to fire them at their maximum range.
57:54
Speaker 2: He said, if the missiles.
57:56
Speaker 1: Went a hay wire and it turned ninety degrees to
57:58
the left and went fifty miles was left.
58:00
Speaker 2: I needed to make sure I.
58:02
Speaker 1: Could guarantee nobody would get hurt, said Palombo, who was
58:06
also flown in southern California military areas. And with that,
58:12
I conclude today's reading of The Washington Post for Saturday,
58:16
the twenty third of May of twenty twenty six, have
58:19
a good weekend and continue on with Radio II programming
58:24
throughout the day by