Transcript

10.20.26 · 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 20th, 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 Cindy Fraser. Today's front page
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Speaker 1: headlines from the Washington Post are Patriot Missiles Are Upheld
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Speaker 1: by U.S., Transfer to Ukraine delayed amid worsening Trump and
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Speaker 1: Zelensky rupture. Our next headline. DOJ to probe jail in district.
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Speaker 1: Lawsuit alleges mice and bugs in food. Investigation into condition
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Speaker 1: of facilities. The next headline. French leaders face scrutiny for
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Speaker 1: handling of riots. Curfews imposed after rioters torched buildings and
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Speaker 1: smashed storefronts. Next headline. Election 2026, suburban women are souring
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Speaker 1: on Paxton. Impact could doom him in tight Senate race
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Speaker 1: versus Tallarico in Texas. Next, how a small Justice Department
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Speaker 1: unit is playing a large role. OLC is approving some
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Speaker 1: of Trump's most controversial policies. And the final headline from
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Speaker 1: today's front page, West Virginia halts nuclear waste storage proposal.
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Speaker 1: When residents learned of the undisclosed plan, backlash was intense.
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Speaker 1: Now let's turn to our first item entitled, Patriot Missiles
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Speaker 1: Are Upheld by U.S. Transfer to Ukraine Delayed Amid Worsening
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Speaker 1: Trump-Zelensky Rupture by Michael Birnbaum, Francesca Ebel, and John Hudson.
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Speaker 1: The Trump administration has not approved the transfer of interceptor
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Speaker 1: missiles to Ukraine until that are needed to protect the
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Speaker 1: country from Russian missile and drone attacks, officials said Monday,
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Speaker 1: a delay that comes as President Donald Trump has embraced
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Speaker 1: Russia and slammed Ukraine in recent weeks. At least some
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Speaker 1: of the transfers of Patriot interceptor missiles are from countries
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Speaker 1: friendly to Ukraine that require Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to
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Speaker 1: approve the handoff, according to a U.S. official and three
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Speaker 1: additional people familiar with the situation. who spoke on the
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Speaker 1: condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic exchanges. The United States
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Speaker 1: retains control because the weapons are made by it and
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Speaker 1: are shipped abroad under the agreement that transfers to other
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Speaker 1: countries require a U.S. sign-off. A Ukrainian official told the
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Speaker 1: Washington Post last week that only a couple of interceptor
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Speaker 1: missiles remain in Ukraine's stockpile. Officials said Hexeth has not
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Speaker 1: formally rejected the transfers, but also has not completed the
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Speaker 1: required steps to approve them. Hegseth has continued to approve
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Speaker 1: some U.S. assistance to Ukraine, they said. Trump has repeatedly
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Speaker 1: blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in recent days as relations
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Speaker 1: between the two leaders have deteriorated in ways that recall
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Speaker 1: the low point early in Trump's second term when he
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Speaker 1: ejected the Ukrainian leader from the White House. Relations had
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Speaker 1: bounced back since then and were positive as recently as
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Speaker 1: last month, when the two men met in New York. Trump, however,
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Speaker 1: increasingly appears to have settled on Zelensky as a person
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Speaker 1: to blame for his struggles with high energy prices and
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Speaker 1: worsening political prospects ahead of the midterm elections. Ukraine has
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Speaker 1: been striking Russian oil refineries for months, one of its
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Speaker 1: main strategies for imposing pressure on the Kremlin. Now, Trump
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Speaker 1: and Zelensky are fighting publicly at the same time that
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Speaker 1: the administration has taken steps to withhold assistance, moves that
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Speaker 1: Ukrainian officials say are costing lives by making it harder
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Speaker 1: to defend against attack. Once again, there was a Russian
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Speaker 1: ballistic missile attack in several waves overnight. And once again,
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Speaker 1: there was no warning from our partners, Zelensky wrote on
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Speaker 1: Telegram on Monday. He said Russia launched 16 ballistic missiles
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Speaker 1: against Ukraine. We have welcomed, literally, every attempt by our
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Speaker 1: partners to end this war with dignity, he wrote. It
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Speaker 1: is very important to call things by their proper names.
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Speaker 1: We must call the aggressor an aggressor and help Ukraine
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Speaker 1: protect lives. When deliveries of missiles for Ukraine's air defense
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Speaker 1: are blocked, while Russia receives sanctions relief or delays, this is, unfortunately,
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Speaker 1: a denial of reality on the part of our partners.
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Speaker 1: Trump has repeatedly criticized the Ukrainian leader, suggesting he should
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Speaker 1: be replaced. Zelensky is not helping matters much. I think
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Speaker 1: he doesn't want to stop it, Trump told reporters at
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Speaker 1: the White House on Monday. I think it's time for
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Speaker 1: somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine. The comments
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Speaker 1: were sure to inflame Kyiv, which has been suffering from
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Speaker 1: years of war. and where public sentiment widely favors ending
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Speaker 1: the war in a manner that doesn't lead to defeat.
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Speaker 1: Since the summer, Ukraine has been running critically low on
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Speaker 1: Patriot missiles, leaving its population exposed to Russia's near-daily ballistic attacks.
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Speaker 1: Russia aims to make Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities unlivable
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Speaker 1: by winter, targeting power plants, substations, and other infrastructure critical
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Speaker 1: for heating and water supplies. Ballistic missiles, high-powered, fast-moving, and
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Speaker 1: difficult to defend against without high-tech assistance, are a key
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Speaker 1: weapon in that effort. The U.S. war in Iran has
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Speaker 1: put enormous pressure on the world's stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles,
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Speaker 1: and Ukraine has begun to face critical shortages each month.
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Speaker 1: The U.S. tends to send shipments of the interceptors in
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Speaker 1: small batches, often a few at a time, as they
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Speaker 1: are produced. Ukraine and its partners are also have been
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Speaker 1: searching the world for other stockpiles, pushing countries to offer
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Speaker 1: up whatever interceptors they can spare. The Kiev Independent first
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Speaker 1: reported that the Pentagon hadn't signed off on foreign transfers
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Speaker 1: of interceptors to Ukraine. A White House official, speaking on
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Speaker 1: the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said the U.S.
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Speaker 1: continues to play a constructive role in speaking to both
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Speaker 1: sides in working towards bringing the war to an end.
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Speaker 1: At the same time, Ukraine has experienced repeated disruptions to
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Speaker 1: its systems that provide early warnings of ballistic missile attacks,
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Speaker 1: which rely on U.S. intelligence. Asked whether the U.S. is
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Speaker 1: still sharing intelligence with Ukraine, Trump said Monday that We
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Speaker 1: share intelligence. We share a lot. We've given a lot
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Speaker 1: to Ukraine. You know what? We've given a lot to Ukraine.
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Speaker 1: They've given nothing to us. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
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Speaker 1: insisted Monday that There has been no pause in U.S.
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Speaker 1: intelligence sharing with Ukraine. What we want to be focused
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Speaker 1: on is bringing an end to this war. That's what
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Speaker 1: he should be focused on, he said of Zelensky, answering
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Speaker 1: questions from reporters in Uzbekistan, where he is on a visit.
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Speaker 1: When asked about Ukrainian claims that there were no early
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Speaker 1: warnings for recent attacks, Rubio said a software problem occurred
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Speaker 1: a couple of nights ago that the U.S. European command
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Speaker 1: was looking into. In a statement, A senior Pentagon official
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Speaker 1: said that there has been no change to Department of
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Speaker 1: War policy regarding intelligence sharing or any capabilities we are
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Speaker 1: enabling Europeans to provide to Ukraine. The official, speaking on
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Speaker 1: the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues, said
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Speaker 1: the program through which NATO allies provide U.S.-built weapons to
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Speaker 1: Ukraine continues unaltered. Relations between Trump and Zelensky have been
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Speaker 1: up and down for years. But they took a major
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Speaker 1: downturn this month during talks in Miami between representatives of
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Speaker 1: the two governments when Ukrainian officials rejected White House efforts
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Speaker 1: to get them to stop hitting Russian energy targets, including
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Speaker 1: diesel refineries, said U.S. and Ukrainian officials. While that meeting
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Speaker 1: was underway, Trump announced that the U.S. has struck a
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Speaker 1: deal with the Kremlin that lifted U.S. sanctions on Russian
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Speaker 1: diesel exports. Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to sell
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Speaker 1: more than a million tons of diesel to the American
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Speaker 1: and global marketplace, Trump wrote. Oil analysts expressed doubt that
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Speaker 1: the deal would make a meaningful impact on U.S. diesel prices.
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Speaker 1: They noted that while the Ukrainian strikes have helped drive
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Speaker 1: up the global price of diesel, the bigger factor behind
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Speaker 1: the price hikes has been the U.S. war with Iran
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Speaker 1: and disruptions to global oil supplies caused by Iran's efforts
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Speaker 1: to block the Strait of Hormuz. The deal, however, has
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Speaker 1: given Trump a direct stake in keeping Ukraine from hitting
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Speaker 1: the Russian refineries, inflaming tensions between Kiev and Washington, and,
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Speaker 1: in effect, partly aligning the Trump administration with Putin. Zelensky's
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Speaker 1: public remarks that Trump is choosing the other side and
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Speaker 1: that the White House is not on the right side
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Speaker 1: of history have exacerbated tensions, U.S. officials said. On Monday,
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Speaker 1: Zelensky spoke to U.S. senators on a group call in
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Speaker 1: which he discussed challenges Kiev is facing amid the sharp
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Speaker 1: downturn in relations with Trump. Several prominent Republicans have grown
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Speaker 1: increasingly critical of Trump's recent concessions to Russia, especially his
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Speaker 1: Friday decision to waive sanctions established under a bipartisan bill
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Speaker 1: passed in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, a
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Speaker 1: firm GOP supporter of Ukraine. Representative Michael McCaul from Texas,
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Speaker 1: the former Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee,
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Speaker 1: joined members of both parties last week in decrying Trump's
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Speaker 1: diesel deal. The recent lifting of sanctions on Russian oil
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Speaker 1: will only fuel the Kremlin's violence and destruction, McCaul said
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Speaker 1: in a letter to the White House, co-signed by 20
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Speaker 1: House colleagues. Senator Roger Wicker, Republican from Mississippi, chair of
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Speaker 1: the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued an unusually direct statement Sunday,
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Speaker 1: urging Trump to affirm support for Ukraine after the senator
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Speaker 1: met with Zelensky in Kiev. Zelensky would end the attacks
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Speaker 1: on Russian refineries if Russia stopped attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure,
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Speaker 1: Wicker wrote. President Trump can lower prices at the pump
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Speaker 1: today by simply agreeing to this deal, he said. Mr. President,
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Speaker 1: please take this win. Ebel reported from Kiev. Noah Robertson
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Speaker 1: and Tara Kopp in Washington and Susanna George in Samarkand, Uzbekistan,
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Speaker 1: contributed to this report. This item is accompanied by photos.
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Speaker 1: The first is captioned, A Kiev shopping mall badly damaged
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Speaker 1: by a Russian missile attack on Monday. Gleb Goranich, Reuters.
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Speaker 1: The photo shows two women and one man in front
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Speaker 1: of the mall. They're carrying shopping bags. The next photo
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Speaker 1: is captioned, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump
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Speaker 1: on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New
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Speaker 1: York on September 22nd. Brennan Smielowski, AFP, getting images. The
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Speaker 1: next photo is captioned, a man hangs Ukrainian flag in
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Speaker 1: the balcony of his damaged apartment after a missile strike
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Speaker 1: in Kiev on Wednesday. From Lukavsky, AP. The next photo
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Speaker 1: is captioned, Rescue work Saturday on the debris of residential
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Speaker 1: buildings hit in a Russian missile attack in Zaporizhia. Darya Nazarova, AFP,
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Speaker 1: getting images. The next photo is captioned, Plumes of smoke
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Speaker 1: rise from fires at a Moscow oil refinery attributed to
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Speaker 1: a Ukrainian strike on September 20th. Reuters. And on the
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Speaker 1: front page accompanying this item is a photo captioned, A
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Speaker 1: policeman helps an elderly woman to walk out from a
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Speaker 1: residential building damaged by Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Saturday.
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Speaker 1: Ukrainian leaders are waiting to receive Patriot interceptor missiles to
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Speaker 1: protect the country from incoming Russian attacks. The next item
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Speaker 1: from today's front page is entitled, DOJ to probe jail
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Speaker 1: and district. Lawsuit alleges mice and bugs in food. Investigation
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Speaker 1: into conditions of facilities. By Liam Scott, Sophia Solano, and
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Speaker 1: Ben Conark. The Justice Department on Monday announced a federal
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Speaker 1: investigation into whether conditions in the D.C. jail violate the Constitution.
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Speaker 1: The investigation comes days after the Washington Post wrote about
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Speaker 1: inmates who filed a class-action lawsuit against a city in
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Speaker 1: the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The
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Speaker 1: suit alleges that the jail repeatedly fed inmates food containing
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Speaker 1: mice and insects. The Justice Department said it notified D.C.
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Speaker 1: Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, a Democrat, of the investigation into D.C.
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Speaker 1: Department of Corrections facilities. A spokesperson for the mayor's office
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Speaker 1: declined to comment. The Constitution protects the rights of every
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Speaker 1: incarcerated American, including those held in custody in our nation's capitol.
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Speaker 1: Assistant Attorney General Harmey K. Dillon of the Justice Department's
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Speaker 1: Civil Rights Division said in a news release. We are
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Speaker 1: committed to upholding our federal civil rights laws so that
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Speaker 1: no inmate is confined in unconstitutional conditions or subject to
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Speaker 1: unconstitutional mistreatment at the District of Columbia Department of Corrections,
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Speaker 1: Dillon added. The DCDOC did not respond to a request
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Speaker 1: for comment on the investigation. The jail garnered national attention
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Speaker 1: when defendants charged in connection with the January 6, 2021
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Speaker 1: attack on the U.S. Capitol complained about inhumane conditions while
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Speaker 1: being held in the facility. For years before that, reports
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Speaker 1: detailed poor conditions in the Southeast Washington facility, including rampant mold,
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Speaker 1: substandard plumbing, and inadequate health care. The Justice Department said
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Speaker 1: its new investigation will examine conditions at the jail, and
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Speaker 1: other D.C. DOC facilities starting January 1, 2021. The department
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Speaker 1: said it has received numerous allegations about conditions in D.C.
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Speaker 1: DOC facilities, including from D.C. 's auditor. Among them, it said,
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Speaker 1: were failures to protect inmates from use of excessive force,
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Speaker 1: provide adequate medical care, provide safe and sanitary physical conditions
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Speaker 1: of confinement, and provide adequate nutrition. The department said it
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Speaker 1: has not reached any conclusions regarding allegations in this matter.
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Speaker 1: If any systemic violations are identified, the agency said in
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Speaker 1: the letter, it would attempt to work with the corrections
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Speaker 1: department to address them. In our many years of civil
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Speaker 1: rights enforcement, the good faith efforts of jurisdictions to work
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Speaker 1: with us have routinely enabled us to resolve our claims
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Speaker 1: without resorting to contested litigation, Dillon said. In a statement, D.C.
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Speaker 1: Councilmember Brooke Pinto, Democrat from Ward 2, who chairs a
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Speaker 1: public safety committee, said she was deeply alarmed by the
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Speaker 1: Justice Department's allegations of constitutional rights violations. Every Washingtonian, including
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Speaker 1: residents who are incarcerated, has a constitutional right to safety
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Speaker 1: and humane treatment, Pinto said. We owe every resident in
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Speaker 1: our custody a habitable and safe experience, and to make
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Speaker 1: that a reality, we must prioritize building a new facility
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Speaker 1: to address the alarming conditions at our jail. Pinto said
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Speaker 1: she urged the district's next mayor to prioritize and fund
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Speaker 1: a new facility. The class action suit filed last week
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Speaker 1: alleges that the frequent presence of vermin in food served
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Speaker 1: to inmates in the D.C. jail constitutes a violation of
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Speaker 1: the Fifth Amendment, which offers protections and standards for people
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Speaker 1: in pretrial incarceration. The complaint cites rodent droppings and grits,
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Speaker 1: dead mice in a salad, and cockroaches in oatmeal. The
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Speaker 1: complaint also accuses jail staff members of repeatedly dismissing, denying,
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Speaker 1: or undermining inmate concerns about food quality and sanitation. In
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Speaker 1: interviews with the Post, plaintiffs and other people currently and
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Speaker 1: formerly held at the D.C. jail described being chronically hungry
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Speaker 1: because meals were small and lacked adequate nutrition. Several recounted
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Speaker 1: finding bugs, mice, and rodent droppings in their food. The
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Speaker 1: poor food quality, they said, harmed their mental and physical health.
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Speaker 1: In 2024, the D.C. Council passed an omnibus that included
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Speaker 1: mandates for improved nutrition and food quality at the D.C. jail.
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Speaker 1: But last year, the Council's Public Safety Committee said it
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Speaker 1: could not fund the nutrition mandates because of budget cuts.
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Speaker 1: Jesse Silverman, a registered dietitian and deputy director of the
17:24
Speaker 1: Center for Science in the Public Interest, who studies food
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Speaker 1: service in jails, said the Justice Department investigation validates long-time
17:33
Speaker 1: concerns of people incarcerated at the jail. There have been
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Speaker 1: complaints about the food served at the D.C. jails for years,
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Speaker 1: she said. There's been a more intense advocacy effort in
17:43
Speaker 1: the last five years or so, and it's come to
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Speaker 1: very little. This seems to be the next escalation of oversight.
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Speaker 1: so I'm hopeful that it will finally lead to some changes.
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Speaker 1: Last week, a DOC spokesperson said that the department takes
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Speaker 1: concerns regarding food quality seriously and remains committed to ensuring
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Speaker 1: that residents receive meals that meet USDA nutritional standards. In 2025, D.C.
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Speaker 1: Auditor Kathleen Patterson wrote in a report that the jail's
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Speaker 1: conditions were endangering the lives of inmates and staff and
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Speaker 1: that there was an urgent need for a new facility.
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Speaker 1: The building itself is crumbling. Parts of the building have
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Speaker 1: been used as weapons. The fact that there is rodent
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Speaker 1: infestation is a facility issue, Patterson said in an interview Monday.
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Speaker 1: She said the most constructive thing the federal government can
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Speaker 1: do is work with the D.C. government to build a
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Speaker 1: new jail. Kristen McGough, a pro bono attorney at Winston-Taylor
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Speaker 1: who filed the class action lawsuit, said she was thrilled
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Speaker 1: that the Justice Department was looking into conditions at DOC facilities.
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Speaker 1: For decades, this population has been languishing in the shadows
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Speaker 1: under the guise of public safety and cost savings, she said.
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Speaker 1: McGuff pointed to studies repeatedly showing that the way individuals
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Speaker 1: are treated while incarcerated correlates to their success after they
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Speaker 1: are released. She said she looks forward to working with
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Speaker 1: Justice Department investigators to ensure that our jails are clean, safe,
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Speaker 1: and rehabilitative, and that our neighbors emerge better, not worse.
19:18
Speaker 1: The corrections department's facilities include the D.C. Jail, which is
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Speaker 1: also known as a central detention facility, as well as
19:25
Speaker 1: a smaller correctional treatment facility and a community correctional center.
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Speaker 1: Last month, five current and former D.C. Jail inmates sued
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Speaker 1: the jail, alleging that the staff failed to prevent and
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Speaker 1: adequately respond to a series of fires set in 2023
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Speaker 1: by another inmate, who said he was going to kill himself.
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Speaker 1: Michael Deitch, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas
19:49
Speaker 1: and expert on jail and prison oversight, said federal investigations
19:53
Speaker 1: into conditions in correctional facilities are extraordinarily rare, particularly since
19:59
Speaker 1: an exodus of attorneys who had worked in the Justice
20:01
Speaker 1: Department's Civil Rights Division after President Donald Trump took office
20:05
Speaker 1: in 2025. In December 2025, the Justice Department opened a
20:11
Speaker 1: civil investigation into the conditions of 21 prisons and 12
20:15
Speaker 1: residential youth centers in Colorado, looking into whether the state's
20:19
Speaker 1: Department of Corrections was violating inmates' rights in medical care
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Speaker 1: and sanitation. It also said it would consider whether the
20:26
Speaker 1: state was violating religious freedom by housing biological males in
20:30
Speaker 1: units designated for females. This spring, the department also began
20:35
Speaker 1: investigating corrections departments in Maine, Washington State, and California for
20:39
Speaker 1: housing transgender women in female facilities. Deitch said she suspected
20:45
Speaker 1: the Trump administration has been lobbied by people who were
20:48
Speaker 1: held in D.C. 's jail facility over their connection to
20:51
Speaker 1: the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. She also
20:55
Speaker 1: said that tensions between the federal government and D.C. officials
20:59
Speaker 1: could have contributed to the selection of the district's corrections
21:02
Speaker 1: department as an investigative target. However, Deitch added, Just because
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Speaker 1: there may be political reasons why it's being investigated does
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Speaker 1: not mean it's necessarily wrong to do so. There's every
21:15
Speaker 1: reason to think that the conditions there are problematic, she said.
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Speaker 1: What's concerning is the selectivity of the decision-making, because there
21:23
Speaker 1: are so many facilities around the country that would warrant
21:26
Speaker 1: that kind of investigation and review. Misty Thomas-Zaleski, Executive Director
21:32
Speaker 1: of criminal justice reform non-profit Council for Court Excellence, said
21:36
Speaker 1: that as the jail population grows and plans to replace
21:40
Speaker 1: the aging facility are delayed, the city should address existing
21:44
Speaker 1: gaps in oversight. The problems with D.C. 's jail are
21:48
Speaker 1: well documented, and the new DOJ investigation does not change
21:52
Speaker 1: the fundamental responsibility of D.C. leaders to ensure safe and
21:56
Speaker 1: humane conditions for the people who live and work there,
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Speaker 1: she said in a statement. Harold Cunningham, an inmate serving
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Speaker 1: as an advisory neighborhood commissioner for the D.C. jail, told
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Speaker 1: the Post he was pleased to hear about the investigation.
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Speaker 1: Living in conditions like this can leave you with scars
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Speaker 1: deeper than the eyes can see, Cunningham wrote in an email.
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Speaker 1: It's inhumane. Simple as that. This item is accompanied by
22:23
Speaker 1: a photo captioned, A View of the D.C. Jail in 2020.
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Speaker 1: Jonathan Newton, The Washington Post. Next is an item entitled
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Speaker 1: French Leaders Face Scrutiny for Handling of Riots. Curfews Imposed
22:37
Speaker 1: After Rioters Torched Buildings and Smashed Storefronts by Ellen Francis
22:42
Speaker 1: and Aoife Walsh from Paris. French leaders confronted mounting scrutiny
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Speaker 1: on Monday over their handling of a weekend of riots
22:50
Speaker 1: that stunned the country. The government has ordered curfews in
22:55
Speaker 1: some neighborhoods of Paris and other cities. as it rushes
22:58
Speaker 1: to restore order after France's worst unrest in years. Nearly 2,500
23:05
Speaker 1: people were detained after rioters torched public buildings and smashed
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Speaker 1: storefronts in cities across France. Officials on Monday acknowledged failure
23:15
Speaker 1: to contain the chaos and looting that left streets strewn
23:18
Speaker 1: with debris. The disorder followed weeks of demonstrations that began
23:23
Speaker 1: with student walkouts over school funding. but grew with the
23:26
Speaker 1: backing of labor unions. The protests transformed into a broader
23:31
Speaker 1: display of anger about cuts to public spending and other
23:34
Speaker 1: grievances with French President Emmanuel Macron's administration in a fraught
23:39
Speaker 1: political climate as a far left and far right gained
23:42
Speaker 1: traction ahead of next year's presidential election. Interior Minister Laurent
23:48
Speaker 1: Nunez conceded that police had lost control over the weekend.
23:53
Speaker 1: There was a lack of anticipation. and police were not
23:56
Speaker 1: sufficiently prepared to contain the nighttime rioting that spiraled from
24:00
Speaker 1: scheduled protests on Saturday, Nunez said Monday. He offered his
24:05
Speaker 1: resignation to Macron. The president rejected it, however, his office
24:09
Speaker 1: said in a statement, to maintain continued leadership of law enforcement. Instead,
24:15
Speaker 1: Macron ordered a security review to ensure transparency over the
24:19
Speaker 1: failures in planning and intelligence that led to the violence.
24:23
Speaker 1: After the cabinet convened Monday, Prime Minister Sébastien Le Corneau
24:28
Speaker 1: vowed an absolute determination to reassert order and deploy all
24:32
Speaker 1: the tools at the government's disposal. Le Corneau announced the
24:37
Speaker 1: curfews on Monday night would be limited to particular areas
24:40
Speaker 1: for the protection of people, but also shops, without specifying where.
24:45
Speaker 1: Two areas in Paris would be under curfew from 11 p.m.
24:48
Speaker 1: Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday, police said. Authorities also barred
24:53
Speaker 1: protests beginning Monday evening in several parts of the capital,
24:56
Speaker 1: including near train stations and government buildings such as the
25:00
Speaker 1: Élysée presidential palace and the parliament. As ministers accepted liability
25:05
Speaker 1: for the government response, Le Corneille focused blame on what
25:09
Speaker 1: he described as a shadowy movement of ultra-left agitators orchestrating
25:14
Speaker 1: profound disorder in the country ahead of the April election.
25:18
Speaker 1: While we witnessed very difficult scenes involving violence against property,
25:23
Speaker 1: no one was killed and that is a miracle, Le
25:25
Speaker 1: Cornu said. He pledged a huge law enforcement operation to
25:29
Speaker 1: round up vandals with practically 200 investigators in Paris. More
25:34
Speaker 1: than half a million people had marched over rising costs
25:37
Speaker 1: of living and energy prices on Saturday before the demonstrations
25:41
Speaker 1: gave way to mayhem. Officials said mobs on the fringes
25:45
Speaker 1: clashed with police while looters seized on the chaos to
25:48
Speaker 1: ransack shops and restaurants. Massed rioters broke into city halls
25:53
Speaker 1: or defaced businesses late Saturday night in cities including Marseille, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lyon,
26:00
Speaker 1: and Lille. The government has blamed the hard-left leader and
26:04
Speaker 1: presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon for stirring up violence. Mélenchon called
26:09
Speaker 1: on the Prime Minister Monday to show proof or keep
26:13
Speaker 1: quiet and stop fueling the disorder. Some analysts said the
26:16
Speaker 1: dramatic scenes could give a boost to far-right leader Marine
26:20
Speaker 1: Le Pen, who is already leading in the polls and
26:23
Speaker 1: has leveraged the unrest to promote her presidential campaign. In
26:27
Speaker 1: a video taking aim at the extreme left and the
26:30
Speaker 1: president's leadership, Le Pen sat at a desk Sunday night,
26:34
Speaker 1: casting herself as a right candidate to bring back stability.
26:38
Speaker 1: She said popular sentiment was hijacked by thugs sowing chaos
26:42
Speaker 1: in French cities. In six months, Le Pen added, the
26:45
Speaker 1: French people will be able to choose a different path,
26:48
Speaker 1: that of restored authority and security. The tensions in France's
26:52
Speaker 1: streets come as the government is trying to approve budget
26:55
Speaker 1: cuts and reassure markets that are jittery about the state
26:58
Speaker 1: of the country's finances. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said on
27:03
Speaker 1: French television Monday that authorities had undeniably failed during the
27:08
Speaker 1: weekend's rioting and were working to understand what went wrong.
27:12
Speaker 1: He pointed in part to a failure in intelligence. In Marseille,
27:16
Speaker 1: on France's southern Mediterranean coast, local officials had announced a
27:20
Speaker 1: ban on demonstrations Monday. Overnight curfews for minors were also
27:25
Speaker 1: announced in parts of four northern cities, including Lille, as
27:29
Speaker 1: well as the center of the Mediterranean city of Nice
27:31
Speaker 1: on Monday night. The mayor of Nice, Eric Ciotti, said
27:35
Speaker 1: the restriction would remain in place every night until next Sunday.
27:39
Speaker 1: Some local officials have called for the government to declare
27:42
Speaker 1: a national state of emergency. while mayors issued scathing criticism.
27:47
Speaker 1: Marseilles' Benoit Payan described a near-total loss of control, while
27:51
Speaker 1: Lyon's Gregory Duchesne demanded a complete diagnosis of what happened.
27:56
Speaker 1: The interior minister said more police officers would be deployed
28:00
Speaker 1: around the country next weekend. There are already calls from
28:04
Speaker 1: some protest groups for another day of demonstration on Saturday,
28:08
Speaker 1: and French trade unions have called for a new round
28:10
Speaker 1: of strikes on November 5. Walsh reported from London. This
28:15
Speaker 1: item is accompanied by photos. The first is captioned, Riot
28:20
Speaker 1: police assemble Sunday during civil unrest in Paris on a
28:23
Speaker 1: weekend of demonstrations against the cost of living and rising
28:27
Speaker 1: fuel prices. Abdul Sabour, Reuters. Ranks of police wearing helmets
28:33
Speaker 1: with face shields can be shown with flames on a
28:37
Speaker 1: city street behind them. The next photo is captioned, Prime
28:42
Speaker 1: Minister Sébastien Lecarnier and Interior Minister Laurent Nunez leave a
28:46
Speaker 1: meeting at the Interior Ministry in Paris on Monday. Julien Desroses, Reuters.
28:52
Speaker 1: Next is a photo captioned, People enter a ransacked store
28:56
Speaker 1: Sunday in central Paris. Mathieu Rondel, AFP, Getty Images. And
29:03
Speaker 1: the final photo accompanying this item is captioned, Fire ravaged
29:07
Speaker 1: City Hall in Limoges, one of several French cities that
29:10
Speaker 1: saw unrest. AFP Getty Images. The photo is an aerial
29:16
Speaker 1: image that shows that much of the roof of the
29:19
Speaker 1: apparently three-story tall building has been destroyed. The next item
29:25
Speaker 1: from today's front page is entitled Election 2026. Suburban women
29:30
Speaker 1: are souring on Paxton. Impact could doom him in tight
29:34
Speaker 1: Senate race versus Tallarico in Texas. By Molly Hennessy Fisk.
29:39
Speaker 1: From Cypress. Texas. There's something missing in this conservative Houston
29:44
Speaker 1: suburb on the eve of early voting next Monday. Visible
29:47
Speaker 1: support for Republicans, particularly the embattled Senate candidate. In the
29:53
Speaker 1: sprawling Bridgeland subdivision, yard signs appear to favor Democratic State
29:57
Speaker 1: Representative James Tallarico over his rifle GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton.
30:02
Speaker 1: The signage gap matches recent polling, which shows Tallarico a
30:06
Speaker 1: four-term state representative either tied or several points ahead of Paxton,
30:11
Speaker 1: who has never lost an election in 25 years. Nowhere
30:15
Speaker 1: is that more clear than on Bridgeland's Inspiration Drive, where
30:19
Speaker 1: voters on both sides of the political aisle say that Paxton,
30:23
Speaker 1: dogged by corruption scandals and accusations of infidelity, has lost
30:27
Speaker 1: support from a crucial segment of the electorate. suburban women.
30:31
Speaker 1: Interviews with these female voters, who tend to outvote men
30:35
Speaker 1: and therefore carry extra sway in growing communities, reveal a
30:39
Speaker 1: combination of apathy toward Paxton's candidacy and an active shift
30:43
Speaker 1: by some conservatives toward his Democratic opponent. Republican Tess Eugenio,
30:50
Speaker 1: who works in human resources, said there is a split
30:53
Speaker 1: on her street between the vocal supporters for Tallarico and
30:57
Speaker 1: those whom she suspects will vote for Paxton. even if
31:00
Speaker 1: they're not advertising it. People don't want to talk about
31:04
Speaker 1: whether they're going to vote for him, but they will, Eugenio, 57,
31:07
Speaker 1: said of Paxton. The question is, will it be enough?
31:12
Speaker 1: Across the street, Maria Costeca, a retired preschool teacher, said
31:16
Speaker 1: female friends and neighbors have approached her expressing enthusiasm for Tallarico,
31:21
Speaker 1: especially after she posted his campaign yard sign. I start
31:25
Speaker 1: to feel like it's this secret underground club who don't
31:28
Speaker 1: want Paxton in office. said Costeca, 66. She said she's worried, though,
31:33
Speaker 1: that people will stay home because they do not like
31:36
Speaker 1: the choices they have. In a race that veteran political
31:40
Speaker 1: observers say will be decided by small margins, incremental shifts
31:44
Speaker 1: that eluded Democrats in recent cycles could be building in
31:47
Speaker 1: the suburbs. In 2022, Democratic Representative Beto O'Rourke made gains
31:52
Speaker 1: in the suburbs, but in the end, Governor Greg Abbott,
31:55
Speaker 1: a Republican, still won 60 percent of suburban precincts to
32:00
Speaker 1: O'Rourke's 38%, according to the Texas Politics Project. Unlike O'Rourke,
32:05
Speaker 1: polls have Tallarico leading his GOP opponent by four to
32:08
Speaker 1: six points, and he's far outpaced Paxton in direct fundraising,
32:12
Speaker 1: including a record-breaking $ 64 million in the third quarter compared
32:16
Speaker 1: to Paxton's $ 18 million. Tallarico leads even more among women.
32:21
Speaker 1: 56% of women said they would vote for Tallarico. 40%
32:25
Speaker 1: for Paxton, according to a University of Texas Texas Politics
32:29
Speaker 1: Project poll released Tuesday. That margin exceeds the gap among
32:34
Speaker 1: all suburban voters, according to the same poll, which shows
32:37
Speaker 1: Tallarico leading Paxton 54 to 44. Paxton recently received an
32:42
Speaker 1: infusion of $ 158 million in campaign funding via Senate PAC
32:47
Speaker 1: from Texas-based tech billionaire Elon Musk, but he's still saddled
32:51
Speaker 1: with President Donald Trump's low approval ratings and his own
32:55
Speaker 1: checkered history. In 2023, Paxton was investigated and impeached in
33:00
Speaker 1: a bipartisan vote of the Texas House for bribery, abuse
33:04
Speaker 1: of official capacity, and obstruction of justice. While Paxton was
33:08
Speaker 1: ultimately acquitted by the GOP-controlled state Senate, the trial detailed
33:12
Speaker 1: allegations Paxton had used his office to help a wealthy
33:16
Speaker 1: donor retaliate against whistleblowers and confessed to staff that he'd
33:20
Speaker 1: cheated on his wife. Last year, a state judge in
33:23
Speaker 1: Houston dismissed a 2015 felony securities fraud case against Paxton
33:28
Speaker 1: after he completed a pretrial diversion program without admitting guilt.
33:33
Speaker 1: He knows that gap exists, and he's trying to make
33:35
Speaker 1: it as small as possible. Mark Jones, a political science
33:38
Speaker 1: professor at Rice University, said of Paxton's support among women,
33:43
Speaker 1: Republican primary voters made the decision to nominate the most
33:46
Speaker 1: deeply flawed Republican statewide candidate in modern history. And that's
33:51
Speaker 1: bearing fruit right now, because Paxton has trouble winning anyone
33:55
Speaker 1: but the core Republican voters. Like other conservative suburbs ringing Houston, Dallas,
34:01
Speaker 1: and Austin, the Cypress-Fairbanks region has diversified during the past
34:05
Speaker 1: decade as it grew to nearly 700,000. It's now 45% white,
34:07
Speaker 1: 25% Latino, 12% Asian, and 12% Black, according to the
34:10
Speaker 1: latest census. In the 2018 midterm Senate election, O'Rourke won
34:21
Speaker 1: surrounding Harris County and made unprecedented gains in historically conservative
34:26
Speaker 1: suburban Fort Bend County to the south, flipping precincts in
34:30
Speaker 1: competitive congressional districts. He narrowed his margins in some western suburbs,
34:35
Speaker 1: but lagged in others, including Cyprus, and ultimately lost to
34:38
Speaker 1: Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican. During the 2020 presidential race,
34:43
Speaker 1: some Cyprus neighborhoods shifted 10 to 30 percentage points more
34:47
Speaker 1: Democratic compared to 2016. And Joe Biden won the county
34:51
Speaker 1: by 13 points. But no Democrat could pull off a
34:55
Speaker 1: statewide win. There are signs this year that could be changing.
35:00
Speaker 1: Even though 57% of the Cypress electorate has voted Republican
35:05
Speaker 1: and 43% Democrat, according to an analysis earlier this year,
35:09
Speaker 1: there has been a recent upswing in progressive activism. Control
35:13
Speaker 1: of the local MAGA-controlled school board flipped last year, building
35:17
Speaker 1: support among independents. During the March primary, more Democrats voted
35:22
Speaker 1: than Republicans for the first time in four years in
35:25
Speaker 1: Harris County and statewide, driven in part by voting in
35:29
Speaker 1: the suburbs, experts said, and that could help decide the
35:33
Speaker 1: Senate race. It's an election of increments, and the suburbs
35:37
Speaker 1: are where the voters are, said James Henson, who leads
35:40
Speaker 1: the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin,
35:44
Speaker 1: noting that some of those votes are still in play.
35:48
Speaker 1: There will be a lot of people who will make
35:50
Speaker 1: up their mind in the last weeks. Last month, Paxton
35:54
Speaker 1: appeared at Glorious Way Church, which serves the Cypress area,
35:57
Speaker 1: to speak with supporters about the economy and his plans
36:00
Speaker 1: to lower costs for Texans, including tax deductions for medical
36:04
Speaker 1: expenses and first-time homebuyers. I'm going to fight so every
36:08
Speaker 1: Texan can buy a home, raise a family, and live
36:11
Speaker 1: a healthy life without struggling to make ends meet, Paxton said.
36:15
Speaker 1: touting his Protecting the Texas Promise plan to address costs
36:19
Speaker 1: of living, housing, and health care costs through tax relief
36:23
Speaker 1: and upfront pricing from hospitals and insurers. Tallarico noted on
36:28
Speaker 1: X that when Paxton posted about the Cypress event, that
36:31
Speaker 1: Cypress spelled C-Y-P-R-E-S-S, he misidentified the area as Cypress, C-Y-P-R-U-S,
36:41
Speaker 1: a European country. implying the error may have been due
36:44
Speaker 1: to Paxton's luxury European vacations. Eugenio said she supports Paxton
36:50
Speaker 1: because she opposes gender transition care for minors, worries about
36:54
Speaker 1: child trafficking, border security, and other public safety issues Paxton
36:58
Speaker 1: has championed. Even though he has personal issues, that's not
37:02
Speaker 1: my business, she said. I still feel like he would
37:05
Speaker 1: be a good fit. Eugenio said she declined to be
37:09
Speaker 1: polled recently and suspects other Paxton supporters have done the same,
37:13
Speaker 1: leading to undercounts. There's always a possibility that the polls
37:17
Speaker 1: are undercounting Republicans, Jones, the political science professor, said. Although,
37:23
Speaker 1: even in that case, the problem for Paxton is it's
37:26
Speaker 1: probably only two or three points. Paxton's campaign appears to
37:31
Speaker 1: be attempting to solidify support among conservatives and right-leaning suburban women.
37:36
Speaker 1: with appeals by his family. He posted video speaking with
37:40
Speaker 1: his adult daughter about child-rearing. GOP State Senator Angela Paxton,
37:44
Speaker 1: with whom he is embroiled in a contentious divorce, appeared
37:48
Speaker 1: in a campaign ad that did not name her husband,
37:51
Speaker 1: but urged voters to support the Republican ticket. Such ads,
37:55
Speaker 1: Jones said, are a rear-guard attempt to stem the flow
37:59
Speaker 1: of women supporters and win back some of the conservative
38:02
Speaker 1: women who can't bring themselves to vote for Ken Paxton.
38:06
Speaker 1: They're potentially persuadable if you can soften the aspect of
38:09
Speaker 1: Paxton that has you believing he's treated his wife and
38:12
Speaker 1: family poorly, Jones said, so that they revert to their
38:16
Speaker 1: traditional behavior and vote for the party. Tallarico has proposed
38:20
Speaker 1: an affordability plan he calls the New American Dream that includes,
38:24
Speaker 1: among other things, universal child care and down payment assistance
38:28
Speaker 1: for first-time homebuyers. But Republican strategist Kristen Davison said, Many
38:33
Speaker 1: suburban voters remain unconvinced Democrats could address their affordability concerns.
38:39
Speaker 1: Democrats are not offering a lot of what suburban women
38:42
Speaker 1: are looking at. How they are going to pay for
38:44
Speaker 1: soccer camp for two kids, keeping their family budget intact,
38:47
Speaker 1: she said. In Cyprus, Nina Senas, 36, who leads a
38:52
Speaker 1: volunteer network canvassing for Tallarico and other Democratic candidates, said
38:57
Speaker 1: it's been contentious. If you run into a diehard Republican,
39:01
Speaker 1: they will slam the door in your face. In her
39:03
Speaker 1: own family, she said she has conservative religious relatives who
39:07
Speaker 1: plan to vote for Paxton, but at least one plans
39:10
Speaker 1: to abstain from voting due to Paxton's infidelity. Angela Paxton's
39:14
Speaker 1: divorce filing last year cited biblical grounds and adultery. In Bridgeland,
39:20
Speaker 1: Maria Smith, a mother of two who works in medical
39:23
Speaker 1: content sales, said she fears that if Ken Paxton is elected,
39:28
Speaker 1: more corruption allegations will surface. Smith, 48, said she voted
39:32
Speaker 1: for Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary, but now
39:36
Speaker 1: plans to vote for Tallarico because, unlike Paxton, he always
39:40
Speaker 1: answers questions directly. Angela Paxton's ad, she said, was an
39:45
Speaker 1: even bigger turnoff. It's Do as I say, not as
39:49
Speaker 1: I do, she said, adding that she expects some conservative
39:53
Speaker 1: neighbors to stay home on Election Day. Watching her son's
39:57
Speaker 1: flag football game nearby, Michelle Birch described herself as independent,
40:02
Speaker 1: conservative on fiscal policy, liberal on social issues. Her husband,
40:06
Speaker 1: who like many in the area works in the oil
40:09
Speaker 1: and gas industry, plans to vote for Ken Paxton for
40:12
Speaker 1: economic reasons. But Birch, 42, an elementary school teacher, said
40:17
Speaker 1: she was voting based on the candidate's character. I'm teaching kids,
40:21
Speaker 1: here's what you do, here's what you don't do, and
40:25
Speaker 1: Paxton is not someone you can look up to, she said.
40:28
Speaker 1: She mentioned Paxton's theft of a pen from a courthouse,
40:31
Speaker 1: caught in security video that Tallarico highlighted in a campaign ad.
40:36
Speaker 1: How you treat people should matter, Birch said, describing Paxton
40:40
Speaker 1: as not trustworthy. A few streets over, McKenna Nevers, an
40:44
Speaker 1: independent fiscal conservative who didn't vote in the primary, said
40:48
Speaker 1: she's still undecided. Nevers, 39, a data consultant, said she
40:53
Speaker 1: was bothered by Paxton's smear campaign, including a flyer opposing
40:58
Speaker 1: gender transition care that she was afraid her two young
41:01
Speaker 1: children might see. Nevers, whose husband is a doctor, said
41:05
Speaker 1: parents should make decisions about care for transgender children in
41:08
Speaker 1: consultation with their doctors, particularly on hormones children might need
41:12
Speaker 1: for other reasons. and never said it's not the main
41:16
Speaker 1: concern deciding her vote. Maybe because I'm a mom, it's,
41:20
Speaker 1: what's your position on how you're going to make our
41:22
Speaker 1: life better, she said. She said Tallarico promised to address
41:26
Speaker 1: issues that concern her, public schools, safety, affordability, taxes. But
41:32
Speaker 1: she wasn't sure he could work across the aisle to
41:35
Speaker 1: get results in Washington. I generally like the way he talks,
41:39
Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean I'm going to vote for him,
41:41
Speaker 1: never said. Can he get what he's talking about done?
41:45
Speaker 1: This item is accompanied by photos. The first is captioned,
41:50
Speaker 1: Democratic State Representative and U.S. Senate candidate James Tallarico poses
41:54
Speaker 1: with supporters at a campaign event in Houston in March.
41:58
Speaker 1: Danielle Villasana getting images. The supporters standing next to Mr.
42:03
Speaker 1: Tallarico are wearing blue t-shirts which read, Make America Kind Again.
42:10
Speaker 1: The next photo is captioned, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, left,
42:15
Speaker 1: who is in a tight race against Tallarico, poses with
42:18
Speaker 1: Senator Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas, and a supporter at
42:21
Speaker 1: Glorious Way Church last month. Antronik Tavishan getting images. The
42:27
Speaker 1: photo shows the three individuals, flanked by an American flag
42:30
Speaker 1: and a Texas flag, standing in front of a background
42:33
Speaker 1: that says Cypress Republicans. The supporter is wearing a dress
42:37
Speaker 1: that resembles a U.S. flag. And the final photo accompanying
42:42
Speaker 1: this item is captioned, Attendees carry campaign signs at a
42:45
Speaker 1: rally for Paxton and other Republicans at Glorious Way Church.
42:50
Speaker 1: Antronik Tatvian, Getty Images. Some of the signs read, Paxton
42:55
Speaker 1: for U.S. Senate. Another reads, Bonk. And a final says,
42:59
Speaker 1: Cypress Republicans. The next item from today's front page is entitled,
43:07
Speaker 1: How a small Justice Department unit is playing a large role.
43:11
Speaker 1: OLC is approving some of Trump's most controversial policies. By
43:17
Speaker 1: Perry Stein and Mark Berman When White House officials wanted
43:21
Speaker 1: to know if President Donald Trump could send the U.S.
43:24
Speaker 1: military to help capture President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, a
43:28
Speaker 1: special unit in the Justice Department assured them it was legal.
43:32
Speaker 1: When the administration was preparing to strike suspected drug traffickers
43:36
Speaker 1: boats on the open sea without congressional approval, the same
43:40
Speaker 1: small unit declared the action permissible. When the White House
43:44
Speaker 1: asked if the Presidential Wreckers Act was constitutional, the office
43:47
Speaker 1: ruled it was not, giving Trump the apparent green light
43:51
Speaker 1: to save fewer wreckers from his second term. As the
43:54
Speaker 1: Trump administration pushes the bounds of executive power, the Justice
43:58
Speaker 1: Department unit known as the Office of Legal Counsel, or OLC,
44:03
Speaker 1: has affirmed some of its most high-profile and controversial actions,
44:08
Speaker 1: even as many experts question their legitimacy and some are
44:11
Speaker 1: later struck down by the courts. Tucked away on the
44:15
Speaker 1: Justice Department's fifth floor, the two dozen or so lawyers
44:18
Speaker 1: at the OLC are charged with assessing the legality of
44:21
Speaker 1: actions the executive branch wants to take, especially those that
44:25
Speaker 1: are novel or likely to be contentious. Much of its work,
44:29
Speaker 1: particularly on national security matters, remains shielded from public view.
44:33
Speaker 1: But some of the office's conclusions have emerged in often
44:37
Speaker 1: dense legal opinions. The OLC, during Trump's second term, is
44:41
Speaker 1: not the first to be accused of adopting shaky reasoning
44:45
Speaker 1: to justify a president's policies. Under President Barack Obama... the
44:49
Speaker 1: OLC wrote a controversial rationale for launching a deadly drone
44:53
Speaker 1: attack on a U.S. citizen overseas. Under President George W. Bush,
44:57
Speaker 1: the office justified the use of enhanced interrogation, what some
45:02
Speaker 1: call torture, against enemy combatants, including waterboarding. But because Trump
45:07
Speaker 1: has advanced so many controversial policies, including imposing global tariffs,
45:13
Speaker 1: refusing to spend congressionally allocated funds, and pushing to more
45:17
Speaker 1: broadly deploy the National Guard, the OLC now faces particular scrutiny.
45:23
Speaker 1: Critics contend that during Trump's second term, the OLC is
45:27
Speaker 1: sometimes responding to legal questions that appear personal to Trump,
45:32
Speaker 1: rather than addressing live policy debates, as is typical. For instance,
45:37
Speaker 1: Trump had quibbled over the Presidential Records Act after he
45:40
Speaker 1: was indicted in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified materials. These
45:46
Speaker 1: critics said the OLC opinion on this act seemed aimed
45:49
Speaker 1: at Trump's prior issues with the law rather than any
45:53
Speaker 1: active policy issues. It is not inconsistent with the type
45:57
Speaker 1: of advice OLC of any flavor, Democrats or Republicans, would
46:02
Speaker 1: give to other presidents, said Carlos Uriarte, a Justice Department
46:06
Speaker 1: political appointee during the Biden administration who worked closely with
46:09
Speaker 1: the OLC. What's different is that this administration seems to
46:14
Speaker 1: be more willing to go into theoretical questions that are
46:17
Speaker 1: not before them. Trump's OLC is headed by T. Eliot Gazer,
46:22
Speaker 1: a 37-year-old former Solicitor General of Ohio described by current
46:26
Speaker 1: and former colleagues as a constitutional originalist who, like Trump,
46:31
Speaker 1: has an expansive view of executive power. Gazer, who represented
46:35
Speaker 1: Trump's losing presidential campaign in 2020 and refuses to acknowledge
46:40
Speaker 1: Joe Biden won that election, said his role in the
46:43
Speaker 1: Justice Department is to provide honest legal advice, not push
46:46
Speaker 1: for any particular outcome. We're the least interested in advocating
46:51
Speaker 1: and the most interested in saying, here's our frank view
46:54
Speaker 1: of where we think we stand in respect to the law,
46:57
Speaker 1: Gazer told the Washington Post in a rare interview. His
47:01
Speaker 1: sparsely decorated office is filled with bound books of legal opinions.
47:05
Speaker 1: which surround a desk Gazer proudly says is believed to
47:09
Speaker 1: have once been used by former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia,
47:13
Speaker 1: who headed the OLC under President Gerald Ford. People who
47:17
Speaker 1: know and have worked with Gazer spoke positively about him,
47:20
Speaker 1: with former associates describing him as brilliant. Gazer clerked on
47:24
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court for Samuel A. Alito Jr. when the
47:28
Speaker 1: justice wrote the landmark opinion restricting abortion access. As OLC head,
47:33
Speaker 1: Gazer has written conservative opinions backing restrictions around abortion access,
47:38
Speaker 1: expanded gun access, and greater White House authority. Gazer said
47:43
Speaker 1: he has not hesitated to tell the White House when
47:46
Speaker 1: its ideas should not be enacted, though he declined to
47:48
Speaker 1: share specifics. Gazer, and others familiar with the office, noted
47:53
Speaker 1: that the president is not required to listen to the OLC.
47:57
Speaker 1: Much of OLC advice is shared privately. As a result,
48:01
Speaker 1: public perceptions of the OLC are largely shaped by the
48:04
Speaker 1: opinions it releases, even as they represent only a portion
48:08
Speaker 1: of its work. The office's role could become even more
48:12
Speaker 1: central if Democrats take control of Congress. The office recently
48:16
Speaker 1: approved an expanded view of executive privilege, for example, which
48:20
Speaker 1: Democrats fear will be used to shield Trump's associates from
48:23
Speaker 1: testifying before Congress. Gazer's office could also get asked to
48:27
Speaker 1: provide legal advice if outcomes are challenged during and after
48:31
Speaker 1: next month's midterms. The office has already determined that the
48:35
Speaker 1: executive branch can legally seek a state's voter rolls and
48:39
Speaker 1: share them with immigration authorities, a key part of the
48:42
Speaker 1: Trump administration's strategy to identify non-citizen voters as it tries
48:47
Speaker 1: to argue that voter fraud is rampant. Asked during the
48:51
Speaker 1: interview in his office who won the 2020 election, Gazer demurred,
48:55
Speaker 1: citing his work as a lawyer for Trump's campaign that year.
48:58
Speaker 1: He cannot say publicly who won, Gazer said, because that
49:02
Speaker 1: would reveal too much about the privileged legal advice he
49:05
Speaker 1: gave Trump campaign officials when he was their attorney. Joe
49:08
Speaker 1: Biden was sworn in as a president. He was certified
49:11
Speaker 1: the winner of the election by the Congress, Gazer said.
49:14
Speaker 1: What I privately think happened in the 2020 election, what
49:18
Speaker 1: advice I provided to the president as a head of
49:20
Speaker 1: the campaign or to others in the campaign, the other
49:23
Speaker 1: campaign lawyers, that's the kind of stuff I just really
49:26
Speaker 1: can't get into. Although many Trump appointees display sharp elbows
49:30
Speaker 1: and make frequent appearances on cable news shows, Gazer takes
49:34
Speaker 1: a lower profile. Even as his work is attracting increased attention,
49:39
Speaker 1: including from Democratic lawmakers and federal courts. After the OLC
49:43
Speaker 1: declared in April that the Presidential Records Act was unconstitutional,
49:48
Speaker 1: a federal court responded to lawsuits and said that, at
49:51
Speaker 1: least for now, the White House had to preserve records
49:54
Speaker 1: as normal. Advocacy groups are fighting to unseal the OLC's
49:59
Speaker 1: memo justifying the deadly boat strikes in international waters. One
50:04
Speaker 1: former OLC attorney, speaking on the condition of anonymity to
50:07
Speaker 1: offer a sensitive assessment, said the office's opinions are based
50:11
Speaker 1: on shoddy legal arguments. Under previous administrations, you have opinions
50:17
Speaker 1: that at least try to grapple with counterarguments. But that
50:20
Speaker 1: is not the case today, the former OLC lawyer said.
50:24
Speaker 1: Kayser sharply disputes the assertion that his office's opinions are
50:28
Speaker 1: not high quality, saying he and his lawyers deliver honest,
50:32
Speaker 1: accurate assessments. There is a continuum with the advice you give.
50:36
Speaker 1: You can say, this is lawful but risky. This is
50:39
Speaker 1: lawfully safe. This is unlawful, Gaiser said. OLC has a
50:44
Speaker 1: measure of independent counsel that we offer. During the first
50:48
Speaker 1: Trump administration, the OLC pushed back on some of the
50:51
Speaker 1: president's most explosive actions. Steve Engel, then head of the OLC,
50:56
Speaker 1: testified about the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S.
51:00
Speaker 1: Capitol that he had advised Trump appointees, that some of
51:03
Speaker 1: their plans to question the results of the 2020 presidential
51:07
Speaker 1: election were not legal. Under Engel, the OLC also advised
51:12
Speaker 1: that an executive order ending birthright citizenship, the legal principle
51:16
Speaker 1: that virtually everyone born on U.S. soil is a citizen,
51:20
Speaker 1: would be unconstitutional, according to multiple people familiar with the matter,
51:25
Speaker 1: and the president did not issue one. But when Trump
51:28
Speaker 1: became president a second time, He issued an order to
51:31
Speaker 1: end birthright citizenship on his first day in office. The
51:35
Speaker 1: OLC did not review it or the other executive orders
51:38
Speaker 1: Trump issued immediately upon his return, according to two people
51:42
Speaker 1: familiar with the matter. The Supreme Court later affirmed birthright
51:46
Speaker 1: citizenship in a ruling that Trump called a miscarriage of justice. Geyser,
51:51
Speaker 1: who was confirmed in July 2025, had not taken office
51:53
Speaker 1: at that point. and said his office had since reviewed
51:58
Speaker 1: all of the president's executive orders before they are issued.
52:02
Speaker 1: The OLC attracted a burst of attention in August when
52:06
Speaker 1: it issued an opinion on executive privilege, which can shield
52:09
Speaker 1: communications between presidents and their aides. The office declared that
52:14
Speaker 1: the doctrine covers not only official advisors, but can also
52:18
Speaker 1: expand to cover outside associates consulted by the president in
52:22
Speaker 1: certain circumstances. The opinion was released as the American Bar
52:26
Speaker 1: Association was suing the Trump administration over its efforts to
52:30
Speaker 1: sanction law firms that hired Trump's perceived foes or took
52:33
Speaker 1: on cases he disliked. The ABA is seeking testimony from
52:37
Speaker 1: Boris Epstein, one of Trump's outside advisors. The ABA assailed
52:43
Speaker 1: the OLC opinion as self-serving and suspiciously timed. But Michael Edney,
52:48
Speaker 1: who worked at the OLC under Bush... said the opinion's
52:51
Speaker 1: reading of executive privilege was not unreasonable, given the importance
52:55
Speaker 1: that some presidents place on outside consultation. It's not all
53:00
Speaker 1: that crazy to me, he said. Most experts said that
53:03
Speaker 1: while OLC lawyers are not required to be blind to
53:07
Speaker 1: the president's agenda, they cannot simply interpret the law to
53:10
Speaker 1: suit his priorities. Former OLC employees said the office should
53:15
Speaker 1: not be a rubber stamp, regardless of whether the president
53:18
Speaker 1: heeds its opinions. In the executive branch, like everywhere else
53:23
Speaker 1: in the world, lawyers give advice and clients make decisions,
53:27
Speaker 1: Edney said. Their job is to provide legal advice. This
53:32
Speaker 1: article is accompanied by photos. The first is captioned, T.
53:37
Speaker 1: Elliot Gazer, who heads the Office of Legal Counsel, poses
53:40
Speaker 1: for a portrait inside his office at the Justice Department.
53:44
Speaker 1: Maxine Wallace, The Washington Post. The next photo is captioned,
53:49
Speaker 1: Gazer's sparsely decorated office does include a framed photo of
53:52
Speaker 1: him and President Donald Trump on one of his desks.
53:56
Speaker 1: Maxine Wallace, The Washington Post. The next photo is captioned, Gazer,
54:02
Speaker 1: a former Solicitor General of Ohio, refuses to acknowledge Joe
54:05
Speaker 1: Biden won the 2020 presidential election. Maxine Wallace, The Washington Post.
54:12
Speaker 1: The photo shows the torso, arms, and hands of a
54:15
Speaker 1: man wearing a suit. The hands are resting on a desk.
54:19
Speaker 1: One cannot see the man's face. And the final photo
54:24
Speaker 1: accompanying this item is captioned, Gazer, pictured during an interview
54:28
Speaker 1: in late September, says he and his lawyers at the
54:30
Speaker 1: OLC deliver honest, accurate assessments. Maxine Wallace, The Washington Post.
54:36
Speaker 1: The final item from today's front page is entitled, West
54:40
Speaker 1: Virginia Halts Nuclear Waste Storage Proposal. When residents learned of
54:44
Speaker 1: the undisclosed plan, backlash was intense. By Evan Halper, from
54:50
Speaker 1: Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The jagged limestone rocks of Old
54:55
Speaker 1: Standard Quarry have weathered many eras of history. The property
54:59
Speaker 1: was the site of a Civil War battle, then a quarry,
55:02
Speaker 1: and is now a popular destination for bungee jumping. is
55:06
Speaker 1: dark green water fed by a natural spring. Recently, the
55:09
Speaker 1: state proposed yet another use for the land, as storage
55:13
Speaker 1: for radioactive nuclear waste from around the country. I thought
55:17
Speaker 1: it was a joke, said Pasha Majdi, president of the
55:20
Speaker 1: Jefferson County Commission. It doesn't make any sense. It wasn't
55:26
Speaker 1: a joke. Without consulting residents or local officials, Governor Patrick
55:31
Speaker 1: Morrissey's Energy Office submitted a detailed pitch to the Trump administration,
55:36
Speaker 1: offering the Jefferson County Quarry and three other sites for
55:39
Speaker 1: a potential nuclear lifecycle innovation campus. The Trump administration has
55:44
Speaker 1: said such campuses would need to agree to store spent
55:48
Speaker 1: nuclear fuel, one of the nation's most vexing environmental problems,
55:52
Speaker 1: in exchange for federal support for research, development, and production
55:56
Speaker 1: facilities that aim to modernize and grow the country's nuclear
56:00
Speaker 1: power infrastructure. The administration claims the campuses could create 25,000
56:05
Speaker 1: jobs and generate tens of billions of dollars in private
56:08
Speaker 1: investment and tax revenue. Those economics are alluring to states
56:13
Speaker 1: eager for development. 26 expressed some manner of interest. before
56:17
Speaker 1: the federal government chose Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Idaho, and
56:23
Speaker 1: West Virginia as finalists. West Virginia is intentionally beginning with
56:28
Speaker 1: nuclear initiatives that are actionable and high value, particularly those
56:32
Speaker 1: tied to the spent and partially spent fuel stream and
56:35
Speaker 1: back-end services, areas where the state can quickly demonstrate success
56:39
Speaker 1: and build momentum, the state's pitch promised, It assured that
56:44
Speaker 1: West Virginia recognizes that for any project with potential community impacts,
56:48
Speaker 1: social buy-in and community alignment are foundational. But the way
56:53
Speaker 1: things played out in West Virginia underscored how community anxiety
56:57
Speaker 1: around nuclear waste is not easily overcome. That anxiety is
57:02
Speaker 1: why there is no comprehensive plan for permanently disposing of
57:06
Speaker 1: the tens of thousands of tons of spent fuel that
57:10
Speaker 1: already exists in the United States. much less for getting
57:14
Speaker 1: rid of the waste that could be generated with the
57:16
Speaker 1: quadrupling of nuclear power capacity President Donald Trump envisions. As
57:21
Speaker 1: soon as details of the West Virginia proposal were disclosed,
57:25
Speaker 1: thanks to a public records request by the Charleston Gazette-Mail,
57:28
Speaker 1: the backlash was intense. Days after dismissing the report as
57:33
Speaker 1: fake news, Morsi, a Republican, withdrew the state from consideration altogether.
57:40
Speaker 1: The Morrissey administration did not respond to requests for comment.
57:44
Speaker 1: Energy Department spokesman Ben Dietrich said in an emailed statement
57:49
Speaker 1: that the program has proven to be a huge success,
57:52
Speaker 1: with more than 25 states applying to participate. Much of
57:55
Speaker 1: that success can be attributed to allowing states and local
57:58
Speaker 1: communities decide for themselves if an innovation campus is right
58:02
Speaker 1: for them. The West Virginia episode, though, left communities bewildered,
58:08
Speaker 1: the governor politically wounded, and the nuclear waste problem unresolved.
58:12
Speaker 1: The nuclear life cycle campus competition comes after the federal
58:16
Speaker 1: government tried, and failed, to create a repository for spent
58:20
Speaker 1: fuel for decades. Due to the constraints of time, we
58:24
Speaker 1: will be unable to complete this item. This concludes the
58:27
Speaker 1: reading of the Washington Post for today, Tuesday, October 20, 2026.
58:31
Speaker 1: Your reader for today has been Cindy Fraser. If you
58:35
Speaker 1: have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program, please
58:39
Speaker 1: feel free to call us at 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening,
58:45
Speaker 1: and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.