Transcript

9.21.26 · Washington Post

0:00
Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the reading of the
0:02
Speaker 1: Washington Post for this Monday, September 21st. As you know,
0:07
Speaker 1: Radio Eye is a reading service intended for people who
0:10
Speaker 1: are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult
0:14
Speaker 1: to read printed material. Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton.
0:19
Speaker 1: As we start the new week, our stories are Trump
0:23
Speaker 1: and sons invest heavily in AI economy as he resists
0:28
Speaker 1: calls for a slowdown. President Trump's sprawling family business empire
0:35
Speaker 1: has become increasingly intertwined with the boom in artificial intelligence,
0:40
Speaker 1: at the same time that he has resisted calls to
0:43
Speaker 1: slow the development of the technology, a Washington Post analyst
0:48
Speaker 1: of his financial disclosures and corporate announcements found. Several factors
0:54
Speaker 1: play into Trump's push for rapid AI development. He has
0:58
Speaker 1: surrounded himself with technology executives, and investors who have advocated
1:04
Speaker 1: for the government to accelerate AI development, including venture capitalist
1:08
Speaker 1: David Sachs, NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang, and Meta chief
1:15
Speaker 1: executive Mark Zuckerberg. The president fears ceding an economic technological
1:21
Speaker 1: advantage to China, and he has celebrated the stock market's
1:26
Speaker 1: record highs, which are heavily tied to the performance of
1:30
Speaker 1: AI-related firms. But Trump also has a personal financial stake
1:36
Speaker 1: in industries benefiting from the AI build-out, creating potential conflicts
1:42
Speaker 1: of interest as his administration makes decisions that could affect
1:46
Speaker 1: the value of those investments. Unlike his recent predecessors, Trump
1:51
Speaker 1: has not placed his assets in a blind trust, and
1:55
Speaker 1: he has continued to buy and sell stocks while in office.
1:59
Speaker 1: No president since we've had this regime of conflict of
2:02
Speaker 1: interest statues has ever conducted their finances this way, said
2:06
Speaker 1: Don Fox, a former acting director of the Office of
2:09
Speaker 1: Government and Ethics in the Obama administration. His predecessors in
2:14
Speaker 1: the post-Watergate era wanted the American people, whether they agreed
2:17
Speaker 1: with him or not, to leave the president what was
2:20
Speaker 1: doing in the best interest of his country. White House
2:24
Speaker 1: spokesman Davis Engel said in a statement, that there are
2:27
Speaker 1: no conflicts of interest. Trump's investments are made entirely by
2:32
Speaker 1: independent managers, he said. All holdings are maintained in discretionary
2:38
Speaker 1: accounts and invested through computer-based model portfolios that automatically replicate
2:46
Speaker 1: recognized index such as the Schwab 1000, Engel said in
2:51
Speaker 1: a statement. Neither the president nor any member of his
2:55
Speaker 1: family has any ability to direct, influence, or provide input
3:01
Speaker 1: regarding how the portfolio is invested or when investments are
3:05
Speaker 1: bought or sold. The Trump family's expanding web of investments
3:11
Speaker 1: illustrates how Trump's personal wealth and his family's increasingly technologically
3:16
Speaker 1: focused ventures overlap with one of the most consequential policy
3:20
Speaker 1: debates confronting his administration. How aggressively, government should respond to
3:28
Speaker 1: rapid advances in artificial intelligence. Trump's investment account has disclosed
3:35
Speaker 1: nearly 30,000 security transactions since he returned to the White House,
3:42
Speaker 1: including many purchases and sales of shares in companies supplying
3:46
Speaker 1: the chips, servers, and energy infrastructure underpinning the AI boom.
3:53
Speaker 1: Trump has purchased shares in companies including Dell Technologies, Micron Technology,
4:00
Speaker 1: GE Verona, and government filings show that those companies' profits
4:04
Speaker 1: are tied to the enormous spending on computing and electricity
4:09
Speaker 1: infrastructure needed to develop and operate advanced AI systems. On Monday,
4:15
Speaker 1: shares of all three companies fell amid a broader sell-off
4:19
Speaker 1: in AI-related stocks. after prominent technology leaders warned about the
4:26
Speaker 1: risks of racing ahead with increasingly powerful AI systems. It
4:31
Speaker 1: is not known whether Trump still owns the shares he
4:35
Speaker 1: bought in any of those companies, since he does not
4:38
Speaker 1: have to disclose trades in real time. He has also
4:42
Speaker 1: disclosed buying technology stocks whose shares price went up on Monday,
4:49
Speaker 1: the same time businesses controlled by or tied to Trump's families,
4:54
Speaker 1: are striking deals that will give them greater exposure to
4:58
Speaker 1: the AI economy. Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent
5:03
Speaker 1: company of Truth Social, has announced a merger with a
5:07
Speaker 1: nuclear fusion company that plans to develop power plants as
5:12
Speaker 1: electricity demand surges, in large part because of the rapid
5:16
Speaker 1: expansion of AI data centers. Trump's sons, Donald Jr. and Eric,
5:23
Speaker 1: are investors in a number of AI and data center ventures,
5:27
Speaker 1: primarily through the investment firms 1789 Capital and American Ventures.
5:33
Speaker 1: Trump Jr. is a partner in 1789 Capital, a Florida-based
5:38
Speaker 1: venture capital firm, and announced it had closed a $ 1. 2
5:42
Speaker 1: billion fund that will focus on real estate ventures, including
5:47
Speaker 1: deals aimed at digital infrastructure like data centers. In a statement,
5:54
Speaker 1: a 1789 spokesperson said Donald Trump Jr. was operating as
5:58
Speaker 1: a private citizen, not as a government capacity. A growing
6:03
Speaker 1: number of lawmakers, researchers, and technology executives called for safeguards
6:09
Speaker 1: around increasingly powerful AI systems. With those calls mounting after
6:15
Speaker 1: anthropic CEO Dario Amati opened AI CEO Sam Altman's and
6:21
Speaker 1: ex-AI founder Elon Musk warned that the pace of AI
6:26
Speaker 1: development could outstrip the ability of leading labs to control
6:30
Speaker 1: the technology. The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI,
6:36
Speaker 1: which makes ChatGPT. Trump recently offered a number of responses
6:42
Speaker 1: to concerns about out-of-control AI days ago. He posted that
6:48
Speaker 1: the only necessary guardrail for AI was a strong and smart,
6:54
Speaker 1: high-IQ president. On Saturday, in a Truth Social post, Trump
7:00
Speaker 1: suggested policing bad aspects of the industry through enforcement of
7:05
Speaker 1: existing laws and a new, scantily described AI force. The
7:11
Speaker 1: clash comes as AI is emerging as a political issue
7:15
Speaker 1: ahead of the midterm elections. Multiple polls show a majority
7:20
Speaker 1: of Americans are concerned about the pace of AI development
7:24
Speaker 1: and opposed to the construction of data centers. The past
7:30
Speaker 1: volatile week in the stock market illustrates how Trump's wealth
7:34
Speaker 1: could be affected by AI news developments that he has
7:38
Speaker 1: influence over. After some prominent AI industry leaders spent the
7:43
Speaker 1: weekend advocating for slower AI advancements over their fears of
7:47
Speaker 1: an AI doomsday Technology stocks dropped sharply Monday, even as
7:53
Speaker 1: Trump spent the day ridiculing AI fears as a hoax.
7:57
Speaker 1: Investors worried that an AI slowdown could hit profits of
8:02
Speaker 1: AI-related companies sold off stocks of many companies connected to
8:07
Speaker 1: the mammoth trillion-dollar construction of AI data centers across the country.
8:13
Speaker 1: Trump's financial disclosures this year show that he had bought
8:17
Speaker 1: stock in several of the losers in Monday's stock market decline,
8:21
Speaker 1: including computer chip makers Broadcom and Texas Instruments, and the
8:26
Speaker 1: data center equipment companies Credo Technology and Super Microcomputer. Trump
8:32
Speaker 1: has attributed his income of more than $ 2 billion in
8:36
Speaker 1: 2025 to the highs in financial markets. You know why
8:41
Speaker 1: I'm profiting, because the stock market's going up, Trump told
8:45
Speaker 1: reporters in July after his financial disclosures were released, Everybody's profiting.
8:52
Speaker 1: Thank you, President Trump. U.S. stocks have been on a
8:57
Speaker 1: tear for most of the four years since the public
8:59
Speaker 1: launch of ChatGPT kicked off an AI surge. Stocks related
9:04
Speaker 1: to AI are responsible for about two-thirds of the increase
9:09
Speaker 1: in the S & P 500 index this year. according
9:12
Speaker 1: to calculations by Matt Orton, chief market strategist at the
9:17
Speaker 1: investment firm Raymond James Investment Management. The AI-related market gains
9:24
Speaker 1: have made wealthier, stock-owning Americans richer, and spurred them to
9:29
Speaker 1: spend more money, which has boosted overall U.S. economic growth,
9:34
Speaker 1: economists say. Since Trump's first term, his family businesses have
9:40
Speaker 1: evolved from real estate reality TV to encompass a wide
9:45
Speaker 1: range of technologies at the center of Washington's regulatory debate.
9:51
Speaker 1: As Trump Media and Technology Group, TMTG, prepares for its
9:57
Speaker 1: merger with the nuclear fusion company TAMC, Technologies, its subsidiary,
10:03
Speaker 1: Truth Social, is also investing in AI-related products. TMTG interim
10:10
Speaker 1: CEO Kevin McGurn told CNBC in August, that it was
10:15
Speaker 1: going into the AI world by licensing access to truth
10:19
Speaker 1: social posts to AI labs. AI companies are eager to
10:25
Speaker 1: vacuum up social media posts so they can feed them
10:28
Speaker 1: into AI algorithms in an effort to train those models
10:32
Speaker 1: to mimic human speech patterns. TMTG would provide data through
10:38
Speaker 1: Truth API, a controversial tool that provides companies and investors
10:43
Speaker 1: with access to posts from the president and others. The
10:48
Speaker 1: tool allows investors to access the president's announcements more quickly
10:53
Speaker 1: than the general public, inviting legal and ethical concerns. Truth
10:59
Speaker 1: Social has also rolled out a search tool powered by
11:03
Speaker 1: Answer Engine Perplexity, The tool provides answers to questions based
11:09
Speaker 1: on Trump-friendly media sources such as Fox News and Newsmax,
11:13
Speaker 1: but the Post previously found that it nonetheless frequently contradicts Trump.
11:19
Speaker 1: TMTG did not respond to a request for comment. Much
11:24
Speaker 1: of Trump's income increasingly comes from cryptocurrency-related ventures. Last year,
11:31
Speaker 1: he made more than $ 500 million from World Liberty Financial,
11:35
Speaker 1: a crypto company that Trump founded in 2024 alongside his
11:40
Speaker 1: sons and the sons of Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy
11:44
Speaker 1: to the Middle East. World Liberty Financial has collaborated with WorldClaw,
11:51
Speaker 1: a Hong Kong-based business that provides access to a suite
11:56
Speaker 1: of AI models. Customers are able to pay for access
12:01
Speaker 1: using USD1, World Liberty Financial's token, WorldClaw, offers access to
12:09
Speaker 1: models made by Chinese companies that the U.S. government has
12:13
Speaker 1: flagged for national security concerns, Reuters reported. World Liberty Financial
12:19
Speaker 1: also sold a large stake to investors tied to the
12:22
Speaker 1: United Arab Emirates just before Trump's inauguration. Sheikh Tahun bin
12:29
Speaker 1: Zayed al-Nayan the UAE's national security advisor and chairman of
12:34
Speaker 1: the UAE-based AI company G42, was involved in the purchase.
12:41
Speaker 1: WorldLiberty does not control WorldClaw's product decisions, including which AI
12:47
Speaker 1: models it makes available. WorldClaw is not accessible to users
12:52
Speaker 1: in the United States, David Wachschman, a spokesperson for WorldLiberty,
12:57
Speaker 1: wrote in an email. The company did not respond to
13:02
Speaker 1: the question of whether the Trump family stake posed a
13:05
Speaker 1: conflict of interest, but instead noted that Whirlclaw competed with
13:10
Speaker 1: a similar product operated by Amazon, whose founder Jeff Bezos
13:15
Speaker 1: owns the post. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are involved
13:20
Speaker 1: in firms that have invested in a broad array of
13:23
Speaker 1: AI-related companies, according to news data from PitchBook. Venture Capital
13:29
Speaker 1: Research Database. Within days of Trump's 2024 election win, Donald
13:36
Speaker 1: Trump Jr. announced he was becoming a partner at 1789 Capital,
13:41
Speaker 1: which bills itself as funding the next generation of American exceptionalism.
13:48
Speaker 1: Since Trump returned to office, the firm has made many
13:51
Speaker 1: investments in companies related to AI and the infrastructure underpinning
13:56
Speaker 1: the technology. including Cerebrus Systems, Perplexity, and Musk's XAI, which
14:04
Speaker 1: later merged with SpaceX. Eric Trump invested through American Ventures,
14:11
Speaker 1: a branch of a boutique investment bank called Dominary Holdings,
14:15
Speaker 1: the Post previously reported. He is an investor in companies
14:20
Speaker 1: operating in defense and robotics, including SpaceEyes, the company that
14:25
Speaker 1: uses AI to process streams of data from satellites and
14:30
Speaker 1: other sensors. A month after their father returned to the
14:34
Speaker 1: White House, Trump Jr. and Eric also launched an initiative
14:39
Speaker 1: called American Data Centers, which was intended to support the
14:43
Speaker 1: build-out of AI infrastructure. That company then merged with American Bitcoin,
14:49
Speaker 1: the digital asset mining operation majority-owned by Hut8, a crypto
14:55
Speaker 1: infrastructure company. Hut 8 is developing BeaconPoint, a massive data
15:02
Speaker 1: center project in Texas. And Dominary Holdings did not respond
15:08
Speaker 1: to requests for comment. And our next story on the
15:12
Speaker 1: domestic front, one year into free child care in New Mexico,
15:20
Speaker 1: there are too many kids, not enough slots. from Santa Fe.
15:26
Speaker 1: A year after New Mexico launched free child care for
15:30
Speaker 1: all families, Dakota Rivera still can't find a place to
15:35
Speaker 1: send her kids. The mom of two was ecstatic when
15:40
Speaker 1: the state's Democratic governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, announced last September
15:47
Speaker 1: that New Mexico would expand its daycare assistance program to
15:52
Speaker 1: any family who wanted it. But Rivera lives in a
15:57
Speaker 1: city with an acute shortage of child care centers. She
16:01
Speaker 1: still spends her days piecing together care with the help
16:05
Speaker 1: from family members, canvassing social media, and searching for babysitters.
16:11
Speaker 1: She's on ten different waiting lists. I think the system
16:17
Speaker 1: that they put in are great, but it's just not
16:20
Speaker 1: there yet, Rivera said. She tried to answer work emails
16:24
Speaker 1: while holding her eight-month daughter, who was cooing and waving
16:28
Speaker 1: a plastic giraffe. Five years, maybe. With parents trying to
16:33
Speaker 1: do it now, it's impossible. When Luann Grisham first announced
16:38
Speaker 1: the program in a state with a majority female legislature,
16:43
Speaker 1: it was widely praised as a historic step to address
16:47
Speaker 1: an issue that consumes the lives of parents everywhere. and
16:52
Speaker 1: their incomes. Costs for daycare and caring for an infant
16:57
Speaker 1: can often exceed a year's rent, according to the U.S.
17:01
Speaker 1: Labor Department. But the groundbreaking program, in part funded by
17:06
Speaker 1: the state's sizable oil and gas revenue, has had a
17:10
Speaker 1: rocky debut. The number of children who have enrolled has skyrocketed,
17:17
Speaker 1: far outpacing the capacity of daycare centers in the state.
17:22
Speaker 1: Lujan Grisham has had to grapple with legal challenges, including
17:27
Speaker 1: a whistleblower case from the program's chief financial officer who
17:31
Speaker 1: says she was fired after flagging an $ 83 million budget deficit.
17:38
Speaker 1: Critics have raised concerns that annual costs could balloon to
17:43
Speaker 1: more than $ 800 million, nearly $ 400 million more than when
17:47
Speaker 1: the program debuted. State legislative analysts have also found that
17:55
Speaker 1: newly eligible higher-income families may be squeezing out some of
18:00
Speaker 1: the lowest-income recipients. The state's GOP leaders dubbed the program
18:06
Speaker 1: Nannies for Millionaires. The stakes could not be higher, as
18:13
Speaker 1: more Americans say raising children is too expensive, and as
18:17
Speaker 1: political leaders look to New Mexico. try to address overwhelming
18:23
Speaker 1: child care needs. Vermont, Connecticut already have smaller-scale programs, and
18:30
Speaker 1: New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani, the Democrat Socialist, is rowing
18:37
Speaker 1: out free daycare for thousands of the city's two-year-olds, in
18:42
Speaker 1: a move that has also had a bumpy start. Sarah Mickelson,
18:47
Speaker 1: an early childhood policy expert, former Deputy Cabinet Secretary for
18:53
Speaker 1: New Mexico's Early Childhood Extension and Care Department, said the
18:58
Speaker 1: state's got two big things right when rolling out the plan,
19:03
Speaker 1: the money and the vision. But a subsidy doesn't help
19:07
Speaker 1: parents if there's no program to take it, she said.
19:12
Speaker 1: Families there are still calling around and finding no opening,
19:17
Speaker 1: she said. Lujan Grisham has acknowledged the challenges, telling MSNBC,
19:24
Speaker 1: we're building a rocket ship as we fly it. The
19:28
Speaker 1: governor said in an interview with the Washington Post that
19:31
Speaker 1: she sees the plan as a game changer for her
19:34
Speaker 1: state and a blueprint for the rest of America. She
19:39
Speaker 1: said the program would need more than $ 1 billion from
19:43
Speaker 1: the state's early childhood fund over the next five years.
19:46
Speaker 1: $ 300 million more than the legislature initially had allocated. No
19:54
Speaker 1: one said it was an inexpensive enterprise, and likely it
19:59
Speaker 1: shouldn't be, she said. It should be something that invests
20:03
Speaker 1: in child well-being and development, and that's what we're doing.
20:07
Speaker 1: A report Tuesday from ECECD, touted its success, citing dramatic
20:14
Speaker 1: gains in child care enrollment, growth in higher quality care,
20:20
Speaker 1: and wages for workers topping $ 19 an hour, $ 3 more
20:25
Speaker 1: than the national median. We've stabilized and really strengthened the
20:31
Speaker 1: child care sector in New Mexico in ways that are critical.
20:35
Speaker 1: It's critical that families have choices. These choices reflect the
20:40
Speaker 1: kind of care they need, said Elizabeth Grosinski, the CECD
20:46
Speaker 1: Cabinet Secretary. But, she said, there's more work to be done.
20:52
Speaker 1: The move to universal child care was the culmination of
20:57
Speaker 1: a decade-long journey for advocates in New Mexico, a poor,
21:02
Speaker 1: majority-minority state of 2 million people. whose fourth graders rank
21:08
Speaker 1: last in both reading and math, according to the Biennial
21:12
Speaker 1: National Assessments of Education Progress, or the nation's report card.
21:19
Speaker 1: In 2020, the state legislature created a trust fund with
21:24
Speaker 1: about $ 300 million in oil and gas revenue to support
21:28
Speaker 1: early childhood education and care, in a pot that has
21:32
Speaker 1: since ballooned to about $ 11 billion. New Mexico expanded income
21:39
Speaker 1: limits for Child Care Assistance Program three times. In 2022,
21:45
Speaker 1: more middle-class families became eligible in a change that allowed
21:50
Speaker 1: 80% of families in the state to participate. And last September,
21:55
Speaker 1: Lujan Grisham took the final step, announcing that New Mexico
22:00
Speaker 1: would be the first to open its subsidized daycare to
22:05
Speaker 1: any family. a move estimated to save families $ 13, 000 a year.
22:12
Speaker 1: That was always the vision, she said at the time.
22:15
Speaker 1: It took us this long to realize it, but by golly,
22:18
Speaker 1: we did. The announcement was met with applause and cheers.
22:23
Speaker 1: But behind the scenes, state legislatures, who said they had
22:28
Speaker 1: not been informed that the program would become universal, were confounded.
22:34
Speaker 1: along with some members of the department's own staff. We
22:38
Speaker 1: were all shocked, said State Senator George Munoz, a Democrat
22:43
Speaker 1: and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Nobody knew about
22:47
Speaker 1: it until the day it was in the paper. All
22:50
Speaker 1: of a sudden, we were all calling each other saying,
22:54
Speaker 1: where did this come from? Did anybody from the governor's
22:58
Speaker 1: office talk to you about it? Nope. We were all
23:03
Speaker 1: in the dark. Word of the expansion moved quickly through
23:07
Speaker 1: the young moms' groups of Santa Fe, a picturesque city
23:11
Speaker 1: that is not always easy on parents with its high
23:15
Speaker 1: cost of living and long waiting lists for daycare that
23:18
Speaker 1: can stretch for years. Megan Montabano-Gorman, 33, a mother of two,
23:27
Speaker 1: and a marketing consultant who runs an Instagram account called SantaFam,
23:32
Speaker 1: moved with her husband back to Santa Fe in December
23:35
Speaker 1: of 22 from Denver to be closer to her family.
23:40
Speaker 1: She initially tried to work full-time doing marketing for the
23:43
Speaker 1: Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper, but managing a full-time job
23:48
Speaker 1: and the health of her older son Charlie, who has
23:51
Speaker 1: breathing and speech issues, quickly took a toll. She recalled
23:56
Speaker 1: pacing a presentation one day, but the elation she felt
24:01
Speaker 1: was sliced with kilt because she had to move Charlie's
24:04
Speaker 1: speech therapy to do it. Even if they'd been able
24:08
Speaker 1: to get a spot in daycare, it would have gobbled
24:11
Speaker 1: up most of her $ 35, 000 annual salary. It was untenable,
24:18
Speaker 1: she said. Something had to give, and it was me.
24:23
Speaker 1: I broke through that process. With the support of her husband,
24:27
Speaker 1: an engineer, She left her job to start her own
24:30
Speaker 1: marketing company. Creating her own flexible hours, she cared for
24:36
Speaker 1: her son and second child Max, now two, with help
24:39
Speaker 1: from family members. She said her life changed for the better.
24:44
Speaker 1: They were all able to enroll both kids in a
24:46
Speaker 1: universal daycare this summer before Charlie moved into pre-kindergarten. She
24:52
Speaker 1: was able to pay off Charlie's medical bills and triple
24:56
Speaker 1: her income. I was in shock that this was happening,
25:01
Speaker 1: she said of the new state program. Happy, of course, ecstatic.
25:07
Speaker 1: I had been so in the trenches, with the scheduling, negotiations,
25:12
Speaker 1: wiggling into shape. I didn't fit in to make our
25:15
Speaker 1: lives fit, and this felt too good to be true. Now,
25:19
Speaker 1: she said, I've reclaimed some of my joy because I'm
25:23
Speaker 1: not stressing out all the time. She later invited program
25:27
Speaker 1: organizers to her Santa Fe FAM parent meeting to help
25:31
Speaker 1: spread the word. Enrollment has soared to $ 47, 000 from $ 32, 000
25:40
Speaker 1: since the launch, but so have the costs. In February,
25:45
Speaker 1: the legislature has passed a bill formalizing the program. Only
25:50
Speaker 1: afterwards did lawmakers learn from Lujan Grisham that it was
25:56
Speaker 1: already facing a $ 60 million budget shortfall, Munoz said. The
26:02
Speaker 1: legislature's finance committee said in a report last year that
26:07
Speaker 1: the program could soon cost the state almost $ 849 million annually,
26:10
Speaker 1: a roughly $ 400 million increase from fiscal year 2026 payouts.
26:15
Speaker 1: The governor disputed that finding. saying that the legislature's analysts
26:26
Speaker 1: did not factor in those who would remain in private care.
26:30
Speaker 1: Ismael Torres, the committee's chief economist, warned in a committee
26:34
Speaker 1: meeting last month that such a spike could put the
26:37
Speaker 1: trust fund that helps pay for the program in jeopardy.
26:42
Speaker 1: Jacob Candelaria, a former Democratic state senator, is representing two
26:47
Speaker 1: former New Mexico early childhood education and care department staffers
26:52
Speaker 1: who said they were penalized after raising red flags about
26:56
Speaker 1: the finances. He also represented a trio of Republicans who
27:00
Speaker 1: challenged the program in court and lost. He said Lujan Grisham,
27:06
Speaker 1: who is term limited and will leave office this year,
27:09
Speaker 1: has embraced universal child care as her legacy issue and
27:13
Speaker 1: a stepping stone to the national stage in 2028. She
27:18
Speaker 1: was eyed as a potential running mate Both former President
27:21
Speaker 1: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in this year successfully pushed
27:26
Speaker 1: to have New Mexico become the fourth state to vote
27:29
Speaker 1: in the 2028 presidential primary, a prime slot. Whatever the
27:35
Speaker 1: governor's plan for the next step of her career, this
27:38
Speaker 1: universal child care narrative is a central piece of it,
27:42
Speaker 1: Candelaria said. My clients have had the unfortunate luck of
27:47
Speaker 1: getting in the way. The governor said she expects the
27:51
Speaker 1: whistleblower lawsuit to fail like the GOP suit did. She
27:56
Speaker 1: also expects the issue of child care to be a
27:58
Speaker 1: topic during the presidential debates in 2028. You're going to
28:03
Speaker 1: have this as a signature issue about where the country goes,
28:06
Speaker 1: the governor said. We need a universal approach supporting families
28:11
Speaker 1: who need care. Asked whether she expects to be on
28:15
Speaker 1: the presidential stage herself, she said, I hope I'm in
28:20
Speaker 1: the ears of people on the stages because I know
28:23
Speaker 1: we need this. The state has worked to address the
28:27
Speaker 1: capacity issues by offering low-interest loans to providers and attempting
28:32
Speaker 1: to speed up approvals. New Mexico was short an estimated 15,000
28:37
Speaker 1: daycare slots when the program was launched and added 6,700
28:41
Speaker 1: since then, an ECECD spokesman said. Ann Liley said, the
28:48
Speaker 1: director of the First Presbyterian Child Development Center in Santa Fe,
28:52
Speaker 1: said the majority of families at the center now use
28:54
Speaker 1: the universal system instead of paying privately. Most are families
28:59
Speaker 1: with two working parents whose incomes are just above the
29:02
Speaker 1: previous limit of $ 106, 600. It's been huge for them, she said.
29:10
Speaker 1: When both people are working, trying to get by, and
29:14
Speaker 1: you have two children, half... Your income is going to
29:19
Speaker 1: child care. More than 400 children are now on her
29:23
Speaker 1: center's waiting list, so she's looking for a new space
29:25
Speaker 1: that would allow her to add about 85 infants and toddlers,
29:28
Speaker 1: a critical need. She's still trying to find the right building,
29:33
Speaker 1: which is difficult in Santa Fe with its many historical structures,
29:38
Speaker 1: she said. Critics have said allowing families who make more
29:44
Speaker 1: than $ 106, 600 for a family of three last year to
29:49
Speaker 1: use the universal system has squeezed out low-income families who
29:52
Speaker 1: desperately need care. Sometimes they are seasonal workers who leave
29:57
Speaker 1: and then return, only to find a wealthier family has
30:01
Speaker 1: taken their slot, analysts said. The program serves 3,700 families
30:08
Speaker 1: who make above that amount, according to the ECECD report
30:12
Speaker 1: this month. If you're making that kind of money, you
30:15
Speaker 1: don't really need this, said State Representative Mark Duncan, a Republican.
30:20
Speaker 1: Are we keeping kids who really need it out because
30:24
Speaker 1: they didn't get there first? That's my concern. Lujan Grisham
30:30
Speaker 1: said they did away with income requirements because the state
30:34
Speaker 1: is building for an equitable system. You don't make it
30:38
Speaker 1: for poor people. You don't make it for middle class.
30:42
Speaker 1: And you don't make it for billionaires. You make it
30:44
Speaker 1: for everybody, she said. We're really leaning in the developmental
30:49
Speaker 1: well-being aspect and family stability. When James Krantz, a high-tech executive,
30:56
Speaker 1: and his wife, Caitlin, who owns a marketing company, had
30:59
Speaker 1: their son a little over a year ago. They, too,
31:03
Speaker 1: found lengthy daycare waiting lists in Santa Fe. He said
31:07
Speaker 1: the state is now paying for their babysitter after the
31:10
Speaker 1: couple made the argument that universal child care should include
31:14
Speaker 1: private in-home care. Doesn't universal apply to everybody, he asked?
31:21
Speaker 1: Having the full-time sitter has been magical for the couple,
31:25
Speaker 1: who can work with somebody to closely align with how
31:29
Speaker 1: we want to raise our child. A spokesperson for the
31:33
Speaker 1: state said the caregiver had been registered to care for
31:36
Speaker 1: the child in the home. Munoz said that was going
31:40
Speaker 1: forward with the department's needs to focus its efforts at
31:44
Speaker 1: at-risk kids, low-income kids, and special-needs children to really deliver
31:50
Speaker 1: on the transformational investment the state's making. When Rivera, 29, said,
31:56
Speaker 1: A legal assistant gave birth to her son three years ago.
32:00
Speaker 1: She looked at the cost of daycare and was stunned
32:03
Speaker 1: by the price tag. More than $ 20, 000 a year. She
32:09
Speaker 1: and her husband, a technician, cobble together a complicated schedule.
32:13
Speaker 1: She does her work from home, and other family members
32:17
Speaker 1: are enlisted to help. She makes an online calendar to
32:21
Speaker 1: keep everyone on task. I'm constantly overwhelmed by the process,
32:26
Speaker 1: she said. My kids are seventh generation New Mexicans. To
32:31
Speaker 1: feel like we're not welcome anywhere when the family has
32:34
Speaker 1: been here so long is frustrating. So she and her
32:39
Speaker 1: husband have completely lost hope on finding help for this
32:44
Speaker 1: school year and are looking to 2027 for relief. Maybe
32:50
Speaker 1: she can find a preschool for her son and a
32:53
Speaker 1: daycare for her daughter then. Our next story. A CNN
33:00
Speaker 1: journalist spent years reporting on Al-Qaeda. Now, he's handing over
33:07
Speaker 1: a massive archive. Peter Bergen has a unique collection. Not
33:13
Speaker 1: stamps or coins or baseball cards, but something altogether more lurid.
33:19
Speaker 1: A comprehensive trove. detailing the rise of al-Qaeda. Bergen, 63,
33:26
Speaker 1: a journalist who has covered national security for CNN since
33:30
Speaker 1: the 1990s, produced the network's 1997 interview with Osama bin Laden.
33:38
Speaker 1: Bin Laden's first television interview and has been one of
33:42
Speaker 1: the foremost chroniclers of the U.S. war on terror. In
33:46
Speaker 1: the process, Bergen has amassed stacks of paper photographs, recordings,
33:51
Speaker 1: and artifacts. For the 25th anniversary of the attacks of
33:56
Speaker 1: September 11, 2001, planned and executed by Al-Qaeda, Bergen is
34:03
Speaker 1: donating his archive to Georgetown University's library so it can
34:07
Speaker 1: be a resource for scholars, students, and the public. I
34:12
Speaker 1: believe in history being useful for people trying to understand,
34:16
Speaker 1: Bergen said, not that history repeats itself. It does have
34:21
Speaker 1: a rhyme or two. Georgetown is getting 150,000 pages of
34:27
Speaker 1: printed and digital files, documentation from a lifetime of scouring
34:33
Speaker 1: the Middle East. And then there are some special items.
34:38
Speaker 1: Bergen holds a super rare paper copy of a fatwa
34:43
Speaker 1: issued by Omar Abdel Rahman, known as the Blind Sheik.
34:49
Speaker 1: whom he's called the spiritual guide of the September 11th attacks.
34:54
Speaker 1: Abdel Rahman issued the theological order while incarcerated in the
34:59
Speaker 1: United States and possibly had it relayed by his lawyer,
35:04
Speaker 1: who was later convicted, relaying violent messages he sent from jail.
35:10
Speaker 1: It was then distributed to attendees of what Bergen called
35:14
Speaker 1: the one and only Al-Qaeda press conference in Afghanistan in 1998.
35:21
Speaker 1: Kill them in the sea, on land, and in the air,
35:27
Speaker 1: it read. Bergen did not attend the press conference, but
35:31
Speaker 1: obtained the card with an Arabic message from an attendee afterward.
35:37
Speaker 1: He said the fatwa gave religious permission to Al-Qaeda's members
35:42
Speaker 1: to kill Americans and set the stage for the 2001 attacks.
35:48
Speaker 1: The other crown jewel of the collection is a complete
35:51
Speaker 1: run of Al-Hijjad magazine, a publication that started in 1984,
35:58
Speaker 1: before al-Qaeda was even formed, and was sold around the world,
36:03
Speaker 1: even in Brooklyn. Eventually, it became what Bergen called the
36:09
Speaker 1: in-flight magazine of al-Qaeda, When I teach about it, I
36:14
Speaker 1: say that it's like the Vanity Fair of terrorist publications,
36:18
Speaker 1: said Bruce Hoffman, a leading terrorism scholar and professor at
36:23
Speaker 1: Georgetown School of Foreign Service. It was a glossy. It
36:28
Speaker 1: was wonderful. It had arresting prose and really dramatic photographs. Hoffman,
36:34
Speaker 1: who helped connect Bergen with libraries at Georgetown, said the
36:39
Speaker 1: collection is a one-of-a-kind. It's especially important, he said, for
36:43
Speaker 1: students who are too young to remember September 11th. It
36:47
Speaker 1: makes history come alive, in essence, when you can look
36:50
Speaker 1: at these archival materials and trace this trajectory, this lineage,
36:56
Speaker 1: that led to 9-11, Hoffman said. You can understand how
37:00
Speaker 1: earth-shattering it was. Bergen first traveled to the Middle East
37:06
Speaker 1: in 1983, when he was 20 years old. A student
37:09
Speaker 1: at Oxford University, Bergen and two friends journeyed to Pakistan
37:14
Speaker 1: to film a documentary about Afghan refugees. He worked for
37:18
Speaker 1: ABC News before moving to CNN in 1990. After the
37:23
Speaker 1: 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Bergen went to his bosses
37:28
Speaker 1: at CNN and said he wanted to investigate what was
37:31
Speaker 1: happening in Afghanistan since the bombers trained there. It was
37:36
Speaker 1: not until 1996 that that he even heard the name
37:41
Speaker 1: Osama bin Laden. He was trying to keep a low profile,
37:45
Speaker 1: Bergen said. He was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993
37:51
Speaker 1: Trade Center attacks, which is code for, I don't know
37:55
Speaker 1: what this guy did. He was in the ether. He
38:00
Speaker 1: was a name that came up. That year, a State
38:04
Speaker 1: Department analyst first identified bin Laden, as a financier of
38:10
Speaker 1: a radical Islamic group. By 1997, a CNN team that
38:16
Speaker 1: included Bergen and correspondent Peter Arnett secured an interview with
38:21
Speaker 1: bin Laden. They agreed to be taken from their hotel
38:24
Speaker 1: in Jalalabad blindfolded to an unknown location in Afghanistan in
38:29
Speaker 1: one vehicle, then another, then another, all under the cover
38:34
Speaker 1: of darkness to meet bin Laden and interview him. Bergen
38:39
Speaker 1: was never scared, he said, because he was focused on
38:42
Speaker 1: the job and not the potential danger. The photos, interview notes,
38:48
Speaker 1: and tapes from that day are part of the archive
38:51
Speaker 1: now in Georgetown's care. Bergen wears many hats these days.
38:57
Speaker 1: He's a CNN national security analyst, author of a new
39:01
Speaker 1: book called All the President's Wars, a vice president at
39:05
Speaker 1: Think Tank New America, and is a professor at Arizona
39:10
Speaker 1: State University. Despite his other academic affiliation, he felt that
39:15
Speaker 1: the collection belonged at Georgetown. Not only is it in Washington,
39:20
Speaker 1: a hub for researchers, and has a leading terrorism studies program,
39:26
Speaker 1: but there's a personal reason too. His mother, was one
39:30
Speaker 1: of the first female students at the Georgetown School of
39:33
Speaker 1: Foreign Service. Alan Stipek, the owner of Second Story Books
39:39
Speaker 1: at Washington's DuPont Circle neighborhood, appraised the collection. Stipek, who
39:44
Speaker 1: is an accredited book and manuscript appraiser, whose projects include
39:49
Speaker 1: Henry Kissinger's estate, said Bergen's collection is the most comprehensive
39:55
Speaker 1: from a counterterrorism journalist that he has seen. Bergen declined
40:01
Speaker 1: to share the appraisal value, but Stipek said he stunned
40:05
Speaker 1: Bergen with the value of certain items in the collection.
40:10
Speaker 1: Ryan Stevenson, who worked with Stipek on the appraisal, said
40:15
Speaker 1: the comprehensiveness of the collection is what makes it so special.
40:19
Speaker 1: The real value of the collection is what it means
40:22
Speaker 1: in its totality and what it's going to mean for
40:26
Speaker 1: future generational researchers who are able not just to find
40:30
Speaker 1: one document that they're looking for, but to see how
40:33
Speaker 1: these social networks actually were interacting with each other in
40:37
Speaker 1: real time, he said. You have the individual gems, but
40:42
Speaker 1: the real gem... is the collection. And our next story.
40:48
Speaker 1: Democrats try a novel path to defeat a battleground Republican.
40:55
Speaker 1: Let's move to the left. For years, Democrats have been
41:00
Speaker 1: hell-bent on ousting Representative David G. Valadao, putting up a
41:06
Speaker 1: series of more mainstream candidates to break the Republicans' hold
41:10
Speaker 1: on the district. that sweeps across California's verdant San Joaquin Valley.
41:16
Speaker 1: A state assembly member, the son of a union icon,
41:20
Speaker 1: a Senate chief of staff, all lost and reflected the
41:25
Speaker 1: belief that the way to defeat the entrenched Republican was
41:28
Speaker 1: to tack to the center and appeal to the district's
41:32
Speaker 1: swing voters. Democrats are reluctantly trying something new this year.
41:40
Speaker 1: Randy Villegas, an unabashed progressive professor, has cast his defeat
41:46
Speaker 1: of an establishment Democrat in the primary as not only
41:50
Speaker 1: a victory for progressives, but also a loss for the
41:54
Speaker 1: conventional wisdom around what it takes to win in a
41:57
Speaker 1: district long controlled by Republicans. House Democrats' main campaign arm
42:04
Speaker 1: endorsed 18 Democrats in primary contests this year. Villegas' primary opponent,
42:12
Speaker 1: Jasmine Blondes, was among them, making Villegas only one of
42:17
Speaker 1: three candidates who prevailed despite the party's efforts to defeat him.
42:23
Speaker 1: There are a lot of assumptions about me, about this race,
42:27
Speaker 1: about our communities that I think have been proven wrong,
42:30
Speaker 1: Villegas told the Washington Post in Bakersfield, California this summer,
42:34
Speaker 1: after headlining an event on cuts to the social safety net.
42:39
Speaker 1: This isn't a fight about left versus right. It's really
42:43
Speaker 1: us versus them. Villagas' win set up an interesting political
42:49
Speaker 1: test of the viability of progressive politics in a district
42:54
Speaker 1: that President Trump won in 2024. The test comes as
42:59
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party grapples with calls for more anti-establishment, often
43:05
Speaker 1: progressive candidates, shake up the party's entrenched power and defeat
43:09
Speaker 1: the Republicans. But it also represents a risky bet for
43:14
Speaker 1: the party in a district that nonpartisan prognosticators rate as
43:19
Speaker 1: a pure toss-up. The one reason Valado is actually seen
43:25
Speaker 1: vulnerable in his 2025 vote for the one big beautiful
43:28
Speaker 1: bill which cut about a trillion dollars from Medicaid and
43:31
Speaker 1: food assistance for millions of Americans. While the vote has
43:35
Speaker 1: put scores of Republicans on the defensive, it has been
43:39
Speaker 1: particularly potent against Vellado. 64% of the residents in his
43:44
Speaker 1: district are Medicaid recipients, a higher proportion than for any
43:51
Speaker 1: other district held by a House Republican. 26% receive federal
43:57
Speaker 1: food assistance. Rosie Kidwell, a voter in Vellado's district, attended
44:03
Speaker 1: the Democrats' event outside Kern County Public Services Building in Bakersfield,
44:09
Speaker 1: and discussed with Villegas the importance of food stamp cuts
44:13
Speaker 1: on her aging parents. She said she previously voted for Villado.
44:17
Speaker 1: I believe in him, she said, but now plans to
44:22
Speaker 1: support Villegas, despite acknowledging concerns that he may be too progressive.
44:27
Speaker 1: We need to educate voters, Kidwell said. People say he
44:31
Speaker 1: is too progressive. need to learn how he will change
44:35
Speaker 1: things and how we will be good for our community.
44:39
Speaker 1: I believe in what he has to say. I know
44:41
Speaker 1: where he's coming from, Kidwell said, adding that she connected
44:45
Speaker 1: with his working-class upbringing in the district. Flanked by Diablo
44:50
Speaker 1: Range to the west and the Sierra Nevadas to the east,
44:54
Speaker 1: California's 22nd Congressional District is a valley of hundreds of
44:59
Speaker 1: farms that produce everything from fruits to tree nuts to
45:03
Speaker 1: dairy and cattle. Nicknamed the food basket of the world,
45:07
Speaker 1: the region gave rise to American farm workers' movement and
45:11
Speaker 1: is home to some of the nation's largest agricultural corporations.
45:16
Speaker 1: That dominance has shaped the district's politics, making issues such
45:21
Speaker 1: as tariffs, water rights, and labor laws particularly potent. On paper,
45:28
Speaker 1: Balado's resilience is a political oddity. The district is one
45:33
Speaker 1: of the most Latino in the nation, and Democrats enjoy
45:37
Speaker 1: a double-digit registration advantage. But Republicans have failed to hold
45:43
Speaker 1: a foothold in the district and the region for years,
45:47
Speaker 1: powered by a motivated base of Democratic-leaning voters willing to
45:51
Speaker 1: split their ticket. Balado, for example, took back the area
45:55
Speaker 1: in 2020 by less than a percentage point, while Joe
45:59
Speaker 1: Biden carried the district by double digits. And Democrats were
46:04
Speaker 1: equally hopeful they could defeat the Republican in 2024 before
46:09
Speaker 1: he won re-election by seven percentage points. What happened in
46:14
Speaker 1: 2024 was you had one party, the Democrats, who were
46:18
Speaker 1: saying the economy's great, Villegas said. Meanwhile, you had somebody
46:23
Speaker 1: like Trump, as much of a grifter as he is,
46:27
Speaker 1: who was talking about how the system is rigged against
46:30
Speaker 1: people and who was speaking and tapping into some of
46:32
Speaker 1: the economic anxieties that people, including Latinos in my district,
46:37
Speaker 1: were facing. Establishment Democrats, he argued, own that loss. We
46:45
Speaker 1: can't just offer people not Trump or not Vlado, he said.
46:49
Speaker 1: We actually have to offer people something to believe in
46:53
Speaker 1: and something to fight for. Villegas, who co-owns his family's
46:59
Speaker 1: auto repair shop, has not shied away from his progressive politics.
47:04
Speaker 1: He supports Medicare for All, universal child care, and has
47:09
Speaker 1: been an outspoken critic of Israel, which he labels a
47:13
Speaker 1: genocidal regime because of its actions in Gaza. Republicans have
47:19
Speaker 1: used these views to call him a socialist, and his
47:22
Speaker 1: Democratic opponent in the primary labeled him Radical Randy. But
47:28
Speaker 1: Villegas argued that voters don't give a shit about these
47:31
Speaker 1: labels around progressism or populism or moderate or conservative. That
47:37
Speaker 1: stridency has given Republicans confidence. The GOP-backed Congressional Leadership Fund
47:44
Speaker 1: helped elevate Villegas during the primary, reflecting a belief that
47:49
Speaker 1: they would rather run against a progressive. But in a
47:53
Speaker 1: sign that Republicans know this race could be tight, group
47:56
Speaker 1: also plans to spend close to $ 8 million on ads
48:00
Speaker 1: backing Valado. That's because the Republicans has lost before, and
48:06
Speaker 1: his district got slightly more Democratic as part of California's
48:10
Speaker 1: redistricting that was enacted by voters in 2025. Although the
48:15
Speaker 1: Republican first went to Congress in 2013, he lost his
48:20
Speaker 1: re-election to Democrat T.J. Fox during the 2018 midterms. a
48:26
Speaker 1: wave year when Democrats swept into control of the House
48:31
Speaker 1: after two years of Trump was first elected. Though the
48:35
Speaker 1: Republicans would later defeat Cox in 2020, party operatives in
48:39
Speaker 1: California and nationally know that the 2026 midterms, two years
48:45
Speaker 1: after Trump's 2024 win, could reassemble the year Valado lost.
48:51
Speaker 1: Christian Martinez said, A spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional
48:56
Speaker 1: Committee said Villegas is lying to Central Valley families because
49:01
Speaker 1: he would rather protect benefits for criminal illegal immigrants than
49:06
Speaker 1: preserve Medicaid for those who need it most. That's the difference,
49:11
Speaker 1: Martinez said. Vlado is protecting the vulnerable, while Villegas is
49:16
Speaker 1: defending the radical. Vlado who declined multiple requests for comments
49:22
Speaker 1: on this article, was born and raised in Hanford, California,
49:26
Speaker 1: an agricultural hub in the district. His family owns two
49:30
Speaker 1: dairy farms, according to his congressional biography, and grows almonds, corn,
49:36
Speaker 1: and wheat to feed their dairy cows. background that has
49:40
Speaker 1: helped him connect with voters in the heavily agricultural district.
49:44
Speaker 1: He attended College of the Sequoias, a community college where
49:49
Speaker 1: Villegas teaches political science and spent two years in the
49:52
Speaker 1: state assembly before running to represent the Central Valley in
49:56
Speaker 1: Congress in 2012. The Democratic establishment has come around on Villegas.
50:03
Speaker 1: House Democrats' campaign arm added the progressive, the same program
50:08
Speaker 1: they used to try to defeat him days after the
50:11
Speaker 1: primary this summer. And data from Ad Impact, an ad
50:15
Speaker 1: tracking firm, finds that House Majority PAC, the primary Democratic
50:20
Speaker 1: super PAC tasked with taking control of the House, plans
50:25
Speaker 1: to spend more than $ 8 million on ads in the district.
50:29
Speaker 1: The outside group told the Post it will begin its
50:33
Speaker 1: television ad campaign in the district on Tuesday. C.J. Warnecke,
50:39
Speaker 1: a spokesperson for the group, said its campaign will focus
50:42
Speaker 1: on how Velado voted to raise costs and how Randy
50:47
Speaker 1: Villegas will make their lives more affordable. We're all in
50:52
Speaker 1: to elect Randy Villegas, said Anna Esenaner, a spokesperson for
50:57
Speaker 1: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who hit Velado as vulnerable
51:03
Speaker 1: after he voted for the Medicaid cuts. The contrast couldn't
51:08
Speaker 1: be more clear, said Lasser. That's why this must-win seat
51:13
Speaker 1: is primed to flip. And now moving to Europe. German nationalists.
51:21
Speaker 1: Big win. Sounds alarm for mainstream politicians in Europe. Safely
51:28
Speaker 1: inside the court. Chain-linked fences covered in campaign posters outside
51:33
Speaker 1: the Alternative for Germany's Berlin headquarters. A crowd of supporters
51:38
Speaker 1: had gathered with beer and bratwurst to await and celebrate
51:42
Speaker 1: the results of the biggest election night in the Nationalist
51:45
Speaker 1: Anti-Immigrant Party's history. The angry chants of protesters beyond the
51:52
Speaker 1: fences were drowned out by the TV's news coverage of
51:56
Speaker 1: projections from the eastern state of Saxony and Hult, where
52:00
Speaker 1: the party known as the AFD instantly posted a huge,
52:05
Speaker 1: insurmountable lead more than 40% of the vote. We have
52:10
Speaker 1: achieved exactly what we wanted. We have made history. Uldrich Sigmund,
52:16
Speaker 1: the 35-year-old former salesman turned social media star who led
52:20
Speaker 1: the AFD's campaign, declared in a victory speech at the
52:25
Speaker 1: party's headquarters in Madgesberg, the state capital. The result, he added,
52:30
Speaker 1: would shake all of Germany. And not just Germany. In Berlin, Brussels,
52:37
Speaker 1: capitals across Europe and the Western world. The meteoric rise
52:42
Speaker 1: and first-place finish of the AFD, a party labeled extremist
52:46
Speaker 1: by German intelligence, sent tremors through the establishment political circles,
52:52
Speaker 1: suggesting all politics, once derided as far-right, had moved decisively
52:58
Speaker 1: into the mainstream of the electorate in a state of
53:01
Speaker 1: more than two million people. The AFD on Sunday fell
53:05
Speaker 1: short of winning the outright majority in the Saxony-Anhalt parliament,
53:09
Speaker 1: which would have brought an extremist party to power in
53:12
Speaker 1: Germany for the first time since World War II. But
53:16
Speaker 1: the political trend AFD represents is evident, not just in
53:21
Speaker 1: the former East Germany, but also France, where Martin Lapine,
53:25
Speaker 1: the mainstream of nationalist anti-immigrant politics, is polling at the
53:30
Speaker 1: top of a crowded field. in next year's presidential election.
53:36
Speaker 1: As the results in Germany rolled in Sunday night, President
53:39
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, whose MAGA movement has built strong ties to
53:43
Speaker 1: the AFD, made clear that he was watching, posting an
53:48
Speaker 1: image on Truth Social that showed the AFD far ahead
53:52
Speaker 1: of other parties, including Chancellor Friedrich Mayr's Christian Democrats Union,
53:57
Speaker 1: which finished a distant second. 17.1%. The outcome hit hard
54:05
Speaker 1: at the Chancellery in Berlin. This has shaken us, Merz
54:09
Speaker 1: told reporters on Monday afternoon. It has shaken me personally.
54:14
Speaker 1: I have to admit, this is the most difficult electoral
54:17
Speaker 1: defeat for the CDU that the party has suffered in
54:20
Speaker 1: a very, very long time. Merz sought to reassure Germans
54:26
Speaker 1: that the country's institutions were stable and also said that
54:30
Speaker 1: the CDU cannot simply return to business as usual and
54:34
Speaker 1: urged sweeping national reforms. A lot of credit for the
54:39
Speaker 1: AFD's strong performance is directed at Sigmund. We have a
54:44
Speaker 1: very young main candidate who is very enthusiastic and people
54:48
Speaker 1: love him a little bit, like JFK's image. The young JFK,
54:53
Speaker 1: or Charlie Kirk, said Christian Buchholz, an AFD politician who
54:57
Speaker 1: previously served in Berlin's State Parliament. He makes for really good,
55:02
Speaker 1: fantastic publicity for us, so expect a boost, support, and
55:07
Speaker 1: good pictures, and of course a lot of votes. Even
55:11
Speaker 1: without an absolute majority, the AFD in theory could still
55:16
Speaker 1: end up controlling the state government should cracks emerge and
55:19
Speaker 1: I pledge by other parties not to join a coalition
55:22
Speaker 1: with the AFD for further which for years has been
55:26
Speaker 1: accused of xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia. And in and of itself,
55:34
Speaker 1: the possibility of the AFD seizing power marks a seismic
55:37
Speaker 1: shift in Germany. Since the last election in 2021, the
55:42
Speaker 1: AFD has more than doubled its support, an outcome attributed
55:46
Speaker 1: to Sigmund and other party leaders who largely bypassed traditional
55:51
Speaker 1: media and embraced social media platforms like TikTok to speak
55:56
Speaker 1: directly to voters. Historical grievances and long-standing economic challenges in
56:02
Speaker 1: the former East Germany helped put the AFD gain traction
56:06
Speaker 1: among voters who feel alienated by traditional politicians. This included
56:12
Speaker 1: deep fatigue with Merz's CDU, which has led the state
56:15
Speaker 1: government since 2002. Across the Atlantic, some politicians on the
56:21
Speaker 1: right also celebrated the AFD's success. Republicans in Congress, including
56:27
Speaker 1: Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Representative Annapolina Luna of Florida,
56:32
Speaker 1: congratulated the AFD for its win. They also discouraged the
56:37
Speaker 1: German government from banning the party or its leaders. Germany's
56:41
Speaker 1: chancellor is treating a major opposition party as something to
56:44
Speaker 1: be walled off from the Democratic competition, Lee posted. Is
56:48
Speaker 1: he really that blind to the German stereotype he's feeding?
56:53
Speaker 1: Trump's MAGA movement has widely embraced the AFD. AFD members
56:58
Speaker 1: in the Bundestag, Germany's federal parliament, visited the United States
57:02
Speaker 1: to meet with Republicans last year, who also attended a
57:06
Speaker 1: New York gala for young Republicans. State Department officials have
57:11
Speaker 1: also met with other party members. One factor that's complicated
57:15
Speaker 1: the growing alliance, however, than the U.S.-led war against Iran,
57:20
Speaker 1: which is deeply unpopular among Germans. While campaigning in the
57:24
Speaker 1: state election, Sigmund largely refrained from discussing U.S. connections. But
57:30
Speaker 1: some AFD members in Berlin said they believed that the
57:33
Speaker 1: state-level win could lead to stronger U.S. ties. If other
57:38
Speaker 1: parties ultimately decide to work with the AFD in Saxony-Anhalt,
57:42
Speaker 1: it would represent a break in the so-called firewall the
57:47
Speaker 1: establishment political forces have used to keep extremist parties out
57:51
Speaker 1: of the power since the end of World War II.
57:54
Speaker 1: That also could have major implications for Germany, which is
57:57
Speaker 1: scheduled to hold its next federal elections in 2029. A
58:00
Speaker 1: national vote could happen sooner if Merz's coalition collapses. Whenever
58:07
Speaker 1: a vote occurs, AFD leaders say they will present another
58:10
Speaker 1: decisive moment for the party, allowing it to demonstrate rising
58:15
Speaker 1: strength across the entire country. And this concludes the reading
58:20
Speaker 1: of the Washington Post for today, Monday, September 21st. Your
58:24
Speaker 1: reader has been Rod Brotherton. As always, thank you for listening,
58:28
Speaker 1: and now please stay tuned for continued programming right here
58:33
Speaker 1: on Radio Eye.