Transcript

2.28.26 · Washington Post

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for Saturday,
0:05
February twenty eighth of twenty twenty six. As you remember,
0:10
today is the last day of the month and tomorrow
0:14
begins March. Pretty amazing already into the third year of
0:19
the year, third month of the year. Your reader is Alastaina,
0:24
with the reminder that RADIOI is an organization for those
0:27
blind with difficulties holding and reading printed material. So I
0:34
will begin with the front page of the Washington Post
0:38
on the far left, in bold letters, in black Bill Clinton,
0:46
no idea of Epstein's criminality, ex President compelled testimony to Congress,
0:54
sets a new president, Megan Vesquez, and yes men abutile.
1:04
And then in the middle a picture of a group
1:06
of women with two gentlemen in fatigues. And it's obviously
1:13
very rough territory background of trees and shrub scruffy shrubs,
1:20
and it's of searching mothers of Sonora flanked by Mexico
1:26
law enforcement walking through a canyon. Wednesday in Nogali's Mexico
1:33
Mom's group joins hunt for Nancy Guthrie. The women who
1:39
have located hundreds of drugs and gang victims, say officials
1:44
aren't doing enough by Annie Gowan, who is in Megali's Mexico.
1:51
And to the right of that picture, in bold and
1:54
bigger letters, trump regime change possible. He's not thrilled with
2:02
around talks signs of imminent war, as mediator says deal
2:07
Neil by Karen de Young and John Hudson, And below
2:13
the picture of the women searching for Nancy. President orders
2:19
government to stop using anthrops anthropics AI tech by Ian Duncan,
2:27
Tarn Copp and Elizabeth Dwaskin Pentagon declares the startup a
2:34
threat to national security. And then to the left below
2:39
the fold, a picture of a woman in a bright,
2:43
pretty yellow coat, grayish pants, black hat with the reflection
2:50
of a lamp post in the background, walking in downtown Washington,
2:56
moves through a pedestrian in downtown Washington moves through warm sunlight. Friday,
3:03
as me or logical winter near's end. Today has may
3:09
be as warm as the mid sixties, giving weary residents
3:13
a respite from what has been a brutally cold season.
3:17
And the picture is entitled A Dream of Spring. And
3:22
then finally, on the front page, to the right below
3:26
the fold, our heroes are dying Why Jackson's death leaves
3:32
avoid there is no clear successor generation with the power
3:37
to rally the black community and people in the civil
3:40
rights movement. By Gregory as Schneider and Michelle Bornstein. Well,
3:48
this article is from yesterday, and I have a word
3:55
that the US has already attacked Iran or moved into
4:00
Iran as well as Israel. But I am looking for
4:04
other sources of information and I don't see it. So
4:08
I will read this, but know that this is already started.
4:14
Trump moves toward Iran attack as mediator says nuclear deal
4:19
is close. Amid arising signs of conflict. The US Embassy
4:24
in Jerusalem advised non essential staff to urgently flee the country.
4:31
By Karen Deyong and John Hudson, a US military attack
4:36
on Iran could result in regime change, President Donald Trump
4:40
said Friday. Nobody knows. It would be nice if we
4:46
could do it without military force, Trump said, but sometimes
4:50
you have to do it with Trump, speaking with the
4:54
reporters before his morning departure from the White House for
4:57
Texas and Florida, said he was not thrilled with how
5:01
negotiations with Iran we're going over his demand that it
5:07
not have nuclear weapons. A mere rising hints that war
5:11
might be imminent. Amani Foreign Minister of Badir Abu Sadis,
5:16
who mediated a Thursday negotiating session between the US and
5:21
Iran and Geneva Lads, said in an interview with CBS's
5:26
Faced the Nation that substantial progress had been made on
5:30
key US demands and a deal on the broad parameters
5:35
actually can be reached tomorrow with tomorrow's today and it wasn't. Iran,
5:40
he said, had agreed to irreversibly dilute its stockpile of
5:46
near weapons grade uranium highly enriched to sixty percent to
5:52
a neutral level, a natural level. CBS report released a
5:57
transcript of the interview schedule for the broadcast on Friday afternoon.
6:03
Abu Said Saidi said agreement had also been reached on
6:08
Iran's zero accumulation of enriched material in the future and
6:13
submission of all of its nuclear facilities to international inspection.
6:17
A plan that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragucci brought to
6:23
Geneva on Thursday had proposed allowing uranium to be enriched
6:28
to one point five percent to fuel a civil research reactor.
6:32
According to people familiar with the proposal, but Trump, around
6:36
the time that CBS transcript became public, said in Texas
6:40
that he wanted no enrichment. I'm not happy. Asked when
6:46
he would make a decision on whether to attack, Trump
6:49
declined to say, telling reporters that you'd have the greatest
6:53
scoop in history. The US deployment of air and c
6:57
military assets to the Middle East, the largest since the
7:01
two thousand and three evasion of Iraq, continued Friday. Israeli
7:06
media reported the arrival of merely a dozen air fueling
7:09
tankers at Ben Gurian Airport in Tel Aviv, following the
7:13
position of F twenty two fighter jets at a base
7:17
in southern Israel. Trump has never specifically cited removal of
7:23
Iran's Islamic theocracy as a goal of US military action,
7:28
but he has often spoken of the need for a
7:30
new government there, and said two weeks ago that regime
7:34
change would be the best thing that could happen. Earlier Friday,
7:41
the State Department authorized non emergency staff and family members
7:46
at the US Embassy in Jerusalem to leave Israel, warning
7:49
that they should consider acting while commercial flights are available.
7:55
An updated travel advisory posted on the embassy website said
7:59
that further alerts may be issued in response to security
8:04
incidents and without advanced notice. Iran has warned that any
8:10
attack on its territory would be met with retaliation against
8:14
Israel and US forces in the region. The departure notice
8:18
made no direct minchine of Iran, instead speaking a rising
8:23
terrorism and civil unrest in Israel and the West Bank.
8:27
It also referenced terrorism and armed conflict in Gaza along
8:33
its border with Israel and on the tense frontiers with
8:37
Syria and Lebanon. In a separate emailed embassy stair Friday,
8:42
Ambassador Mike Huckabee said to those wishing to leave should
8:46
do so today, booking that's in caps and booking any
8:53
flight available to any other country. According to a US
8:57
official who spoke on the condition of in unity to
9:01
discuss internal communications, Huckabee wrote, focus on getting a seat
9:08
to any place from which you can then continue to
9:11
travel to d C. But the first priority will be
9:14
getting expeditiously out of the country. Huckerby added that the
9:20
government would cover evacuation caused under a policy that applies
9:24
when US nationalist interest or imminent threat to life requires it,
9:30
said the official. Huckaby's email to the staff was the
9:34
first reported by The New York Times. During his first administration,
9:40
Trump authorized moving the Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv
9:44
to Jerusalem, parts of which are claimed by both Israeli
9:47
and Palestinians as they are capital. Although it initially occupied
9:52
a small Jerusalem footprint, plans were authorized in twenty twenty
9:56
one to significantly expand the facility. The encouragement of embassy's
10:02
staff departure came as the State Department announced that Secretary
10:06
of State Marco Rubio would visit Israel on Monday and
10:09
Tuesday to discuss a range of regional priorities, including Aaron
10:15
Lebanon and ongoing efforts to implement President Trump's twenty point
10:20
peace plan for Gossip. Following Thursday's negotiating session in Geneva,
10:27
the third indirect of money mediated meeting in recent weeks,
10:32
Aragachi said that good progress was made during two lengthy
10:38
sessions and that the two sides achieved a close understanding,
10:43
despite remaining differences in some areas. During his State of
10:48
the Union address Tuesday, Trump spoke briefly about the Iranian
10:52
nuclear threat, repeating the claim that USA strikes in June
10:56
had obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program, but warning that the
11:01
Iranians were starting to rebuild it and are at this
11:05
moment pursuing their sinister ambitions. On Friday, Iranian military spokesman
11:13
Brigadier General Abu Falso Shikarachi called Trump's threats against Iran baseless, boastful,
11:21
and delusional, according to Iranian media reports, He described the
11:27
US military presence in the region as psychological warfare, blackmail,
11:33
and bullying. In an interview Thursday with The Washington Post,
11:38
Vice President J. D. Van said that he did not
11:41
know whether Trump would decide to attack Iran, but that
11:44
the US would not become involved in a drawn oat war.
11:49
While regional experts in some lawmakers have warned that a
11:53
US attack could spark widespread regional conflict, band said the
11:58
idea that to be in a Middle Eastern war for
12:02
years with no end in sight, there is no chance
12:06
that will happen. Prior to the CBS interview, Abusaid said
12:13
the Omani minister met with Vance at the White House.
12:17
An official Amani statement following that meeting said Albuseidi had
12:22
clarified to Vance that the negotiations have thus far achieved
12:27
significant important and unprecedented progress, which could form the cornerstone
12:33
of the desired agreement. The House and Senate are considering
12:38
measures that would attempt to block the administration from attacking
12:41
Iran without lawmakers consent, with at least one bill coming
12:46
up for a vote next week. Congress has already voted
12:50
down half a dozen such war powers resolutions in the
12:54
past year, including one last summer focused on Iran. In
12:59
a statement Friday, Senator Jack Reid Rhode Island, the senior
13:04
Democrat on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, called on Trump
13:07
to explain the risks and cost of US military action
13:11
in Iran. Trump's cyberratal saber rattling for war dot is
13:18
taking the country down a dangerous path without a clear
13:22
strategy or end game, Reid said, noting that the President
13:27
barely mentioned Iran during the longest State of the Union
13:30
speech in history. Reid said Trump failed to define the objective.
13:36
Congress has received no real briefings or intelligence, and it
13:41
is hard to justify action without rationale. Trump and administration
13:46
officials have charged that Tehran is intent on building a
13:50
nuclear weapon and is developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capability
13:55
to reach US territory. The Iranian government has said for
13:59
years that it has no intention of producing a nuclear bomb,
14:03
and international inspectors have said they detect no active plan
14:07
to do so. US Intelligence and mass last year that
14:11
it would take until twenty thirty five for Iran to
14:15
build an ICBM should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.
14:24
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said it has no
14:28
evidence or reason to believe that Iran has an active
14:32
nuclear weapons program or has restarted uranium enrichment and nuclear
14:36
facilities struck by the US last summer. But according to
14:41
news accounts from Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered, a
14:45
confidential new report circulated Friday among member states said that
14:51
Tehran has not allowed AAA inspectors access to those facilities.
14:57
The agency, it said, and I provide any information on
15:02
the current science composition or whereabouts of the stockpile of
15:06
enriched geranium in Iran. The possibility of imminent war between
15:11
the US and Iran has overshadowed other conflicts over the
15:15
past several weeks in Gaza, in the West Bank, and
15:18
on Israel's other borders. While steps have been put in
15:22
place to move forward with Trump's ambitious Gaza peace plan.
15:26
Few have been implemented beyond the release of hostages and
15:29
a ceasepire that has been repeatedly violated by both sides,
15:34
with more than six hundred Palestinian deaths from Israeli attacks
15:38
since the truce was declared in October, according to Gaza
15:43
health authorities. Amid an increase in settler attacks in the
15:48
West Bank and military restrictions on Palestinian civilians there, Israeli
15:54
Prime Minister Benjamin Natiyahu's government has moved to annex more
15:58
of the occupied territory. The US Embassy Updates said the
16:06
security environment is complex and can change quickly, and violence
16:12
can occur in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza without warning.
16:16
Increased regional tensions can cause airlines to cancel and slash
16:22
or curtail flights into and out of Israel. Meanwhile, as
16:28
The Sun said in Washington on Friday, State Department officials
16:34
or the State Department designated around a state sponsor of
16:39
wrongful detention, saying that anyone who uses an American as
16:45
a bargaining chip will pay the price. At least four
16:49
Americans are believed to be wrongfully detained in Iran. Mom's
16:57
group says they had to step in to help search
17:01
for Nancy Guthrie. The searching mothers of Sonora are looking
17:05
for Nancy Guthrie in Arizona and Mexico. They said officials
17:10
aren't doing enough to find the missing eighty four year old.
17:14
I describe the picture above, but there are bigger details
17:18
in this picture I am looking at. The two lead
17:22
women are both carrying shovels, and the two of them
17:25
are in white sweatshirts with pictures. Each has a different picture,
17:31
but of their missing sons that they have been searching for.
17:36
The woman. The first Mexican law enforcement person has an
17:42
entire long necklace of bullets around his neck with what
17:49
looks like a launcher instead of a gun. It looks
17:55
like a launcher that he's carrying in his fatigues. I
17:58
mean it is wow. Of these necklace. At this necklace
18:05
literally of bullets around his neck. Behind him two other
18:09
women and then to the writing. In the back is
18:13
another man with a big scarf tied around his shoulders.
18:17
He's not in fatigues, but he's in gray all the
18:20
way with a cap around his head. And the first
18:25
guy has looks like a military headlight on his helmet
18:36
by Annie Gowan Edam Magaulis, Mexico. Lydia Hernandez has been
18:41
searching for her son lost to drug violence in Mexico
18:45
for seven years, but she spent this week scarring rocky
18:49
dirt for clues in the disappearance of a far more
18:52
well known crime victim, Nancy Guthrie. On Sunday, Hernandez posted
18:58
flyers on the mailbox at Guthrie's home in the Catalina
19:01
Foothills north of Tucson. On Wednesday, she lived a group
19:05
of other searching mothers in prayer across the border in
19:09
Mexico as they tried to find out whether Guthrie had
19:12
been taken there. On Thursday, she returned to Guthrie's neighborhood
19:17
once again. Hernandez said her group, the searching Mothers of
19:22
Sonora Fields, authorities aren't doing enough to find Guthrie, the
19:27
eighty four year old mother of today Anka Savannah Guthrie,
19:31
who was reported missing on February first, that is twenty
19:36
eight days ago. It's a common refrain for the mothers
19:40
who have used pickaxes and shovels to locate hundreds of
19:44
bodies of victims of drug and gang violence in Mexico
19:47
themselves over the years, decrying government in action, all the
19:53
while they are not looking for her. Hernandez sixty six
19:58
are retired through ser worker from the galley's Arizona's head,
20:03
so we have to step in. As the investigation entered
20:07
its fourth week, unauthorized search parties have exacerbated the chaos
20:12
surrounding the high profile case, which has gripped the nation
20:16
and attracted media, true true crime streamers and curiosity seekers
20:22
to the area around Guthrie's spacious home. The Pima County
20:26
Sheriff's Department has tried to calm the situation, asking in
20:30
the statement Saturday that volunteer search us back off and
20:34
let the investigators do their jobs. On Thursday, they instituted
20:39
new parking restrictions around the hosts. The Sheriff's office said
20:44
on a post on x we appreciate their concern and
20:49
we all want to find Nancy, but this work is
20:52
best left to professionals. Despite the Sheriff's office admonitions, the
20:59
informal church parties have continued, including members of the United
21:06
Cajun Navy, a volunteer group that normally responds to hurricanes,
21:11
arriving in town midweek with sniffer dogs and drones. The
21:16
Sheriff's office referred additional questions about the new searches back
21:21
to its Saturday post. This week, the pace of the
21:28
investigation appeared to slow as investigators await the results of
21:32
a complicated DNA test that could take weeks, authorities have said. Separately,
21:39
ABC News reported that the FBI was scaling down its
21:43
operations in Tucson and moving Asians back to Phoenix, but
21:48
thousands of citizens continued to call in tips to the FBI,
21:53
more than twenty three thousand so far. Authorities said the
21:58
Guthrie family is off with a million dollars private reward
22:04
for information about their mother's wearboats. We still believe in
22:08
a miracle, Savannah Guthrie said in an Instagram video. Amateur sleuths,
22:14
especially those analyzing clues in web forms, have proliferated in
22:19
recent years and sometimes do more harm than good, experts say.
22:24
In the Guthrie case, for example, some have continued to
22:28
speculate online that the Guthrie family could be involved, despite
22:32
the fact that Pemac County Sheriff Chris Naos cleared them
22:37
as suspects. Tricia Arrington Griffith, who manages the web form
22:42
for true crime buffs called web Sleuths, attributes the intense
22:47
interest in the case to Savannah Guthrie's fame and the
22:50
possibility that her mother could still be alive. Griffith said,
22:59
time is of the efsence. You tell people somebody out
23:04
there is in trouble and with the bad guy and
23:06
might die, people will move heaven and earth to try
23:09
and help. On Wednesday, Hernandez said the searching mothers traveled
23:16
on a dirt road deep with ruts, about an hour
23:19
south of Guthrie's home to a remote area with cacti
23:23
and mesquite trees near the US Mexico border. The border
23:28
wall a rust colored ribbon unspooned in the northern distance
23:32
over the sun dun colored landscape. Hernandez led the group
23:38
in prayer before they hoisted shovels and metal rods and
23:41
began combing the earth, looking for disturbed ground which might
23:45
indicate a burial. If they saw a telltale disturbance, they
23:50
began immediately diving metal ruds into the ground and pulling
23:55
them back, sniffing the ends for the smell of a decomposing.
24:01
There's a picture of the lion of the women walking
24:04
along the river and desolate looking territory sort of a
24:11
hill above them with those scrub trees and and I
24:17
guess it's the Sonoran desert in the Gullies. For Hernandez,
24:23
the grim work has been a boon, a constructive activity
24:27
she has embraced in the pain and uncertainty she has
24:32
lived with since her son, Jorge twenty eight, disappeared in
24:37
the Gals on November fourth, twenty nineteen. Like other mothers,
24:42
she wears a white T shirt with a purple logo
24:45
and photo of her son above the word disappeared. Okay,
24:49
that's what I described as the picture on the front.
24:53
Each woman has a different one. But there is also
24:56
a picture of the searching mothers who inspected the backpack
25:01
found in the canyon commonly used by border crosses. So
25:05
they discovered a backpack, and you see them with the shovels.
25:10
Reh names the Guthrie Vanish. She felt an immediate infinity
25:14
for the Guthrie family. It was pain and sadness, the
25:20
same feeling that the mothers go through every day, every week,
25:24
every year. The pain is permanent, Hernandez said the searching
25:32
mothers had received an anonymous tip. The group's leader see See,
25:36
Patricia Flores Amenta, said, pointing to them to this area,
25:41
a swath of forested land crisscross with narrow pathways used
25:45
by migrants and drug traffickers. They told us if they
25:50
wanted to take her across to Mexico, this would have
25:53
been the best way to take her. Hanandez said. She
25:57
broughshed off criticism from authorities at the volunteer searches are
26:00
at risk of hampering the investigation. The police are not
26:05
searching underground, they're during investigations. They're waiting for someone to
26:10
hand her over alive, or she's in a place where
26:13
they won't be able to find her. Flores said, if
26:16
we manage to find her with their technology, which is
26:19
only a shovel in a bar, I think they'd end
26:22
up embarrassed. She continued. They say we're violating the investigation,
26:28
but what investigation. They've had a month and they haven't
26:32
been able to resolve the case, and so they must
26:34
let the mothers participate. Investigators from Mexico's lead criminal agency
26:40
do not believe Guthrie has been taken across the border.
26:43
According to agent Alberto Assuno Guerrero, who was at the
26:48
scene of the mother's search Wednesday, Osana Guero said, the
26:53
truth is it's very difficult to transport a person against
26:58
their will and cross them into Mexico. The mothers might
27:02
find a body, he said, but likely not the one
27:05
they're looking for. Flores founded the group in twenty nineteen
27:10
to search for the tens of thousands of missing, more
27:13
than one hundred and thirty thousand, according to the government's
27:16
last count, victims of drug cartels and gained violence who
27:20
are left in shallow graves or burned. She has two
27:24
sons who have disappeared, have been kidnapped, and despite her
27:29
public pressure, authorities have given her no indication of their whereabouts.
27:36
Mothers don't try to find the perpetrators of crimes, instead
27:40
focused on uruniting reuniting families of providing closure when they
27:45
find remains, which they call treasures. They've had some success.
27:51
Volunteer mothers groups in Floridaes's home state of Sonora have
27:54
found five missing people just this year, according to the
27:58
state's Commission on Missing Peace People. In twenty twenty four,
28:03
Flores and other mothers searching outside Mexico City found a
28:07
clandestine dumping ground filled with human remains, and was criticized
28:12
by a local prosecutor for disturbing evidence. According to Associated
28:18
Press account of the discovery, her response, do your job.
28:23
On Wednesday near the border, Flores and other volunteers found
28:28
us spent shellcasing on the ground. Flores directed them where
28:32
to dig here, this is where they would have fallen,
28:37
she said. As the volunteers began swinging pickaxes around, the
28:41
sound of metal hitting rock resonating through the small grove
28:45
of trees, but after digging for an hour, they found nothing.
28:52
Other searches, including Yolanda Veronica Paradies, a local resident who
28:58
also lost her son and the kid, followed a stream
29:01
bed deep into the hills. Totting their shovels. They passed
29:05
a small lake, the bleached ribs of a dead cow,
29:09
a shrine to the Virgin Mary and the detrius, and
29:12
wanderers along the narrow path, a sock, an empty palm
29:17
all package, a discarded bottle of orange soda. They reached
29:23
a trash pile in the woods and began to dig. Soon,
29:27
Parides pulled up a clump of earth and sniffed deeply.
29:32
I smelled something dead, she said. She and other searches
29:36
began digging and pulled up more trash, including a fraying
29:39
windbreak up, but eventually they reached a point that required
29:43
stronger tools than what they had brought with them. They
29:46
conferred and decided to return the following day with a pickaxe.
29:50
As the search wrapped up for the day, Fernandez said
29:53
she would continue looking for Guthrie as long as her
29:56
disappearance remains unsalt, but she said her hope in finding
30:01
her alive was waning and believed her spirit has left
30:04
the earth. She is not there, Fernandez said, sadly. When
30:12
Gary and I were in this Sonora does it. A
30:14
few years ago we found York bottles painted water bottles
30:20
painted black so they would not reflect the sun, and
30:23
discarded along paths. I'm just noticing two little items I'm
30:29
not going to read, but I should note. Neil Sedaka, singer,
30:33
songwriter and pop hit maker in two Eras, dies at
30:37
eighty six, and the last marine to leave Vietnam has
30:43
died one Valdez was eighty eight. And the front page
30:49
article of which we have so much of these days,
30:53
Bill Clinton tells gop led panel he had no knowledge
30:57
of Epstein's crimes. The appearance in New York marks the
31:02
first time a former president has been compelled to testify
31:06
before Congress under a subpoena Chaproqua New York Megan Vasquez
31:14
and Yasmin Abu Talibu. Former President Bill Clinton sought to
31:21
distance himself from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a
31:27
lengthy closed door deposition here Friday, saying he had no
31:32
knowledge of Epstein's crimes and stopped associating with him years
31:38
before his first guilty plead. I had no idea of
31:43
the crimes that Epstein was committing. No matter how many
31:47
photos you show me, I have two things that, at
31:50
the end of the day, matter more than your interpretation
31:53
of those twenty year old photos, Clinton said in his
31:57
opening statement, which he shared on social media, adding I
32:01
saw nothing. I did nothing wrong. He added, but even
32:07
with twenty twenty hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave
32:10
me pause. We are only here because he hid it
32:14
from everyone so well for so long. Clinton's appearance before
32:19
the host Oversight and Government Reform Committee was the first
32:24
time a former president had been compelled to testify before
32:28
Congress under a subpoena, it may set a precedent that
32:32
could one day affect President Donald Trump, whose own ties
32:38
to Epstein are also under scrutiny. Trump has been uncharacteristically
32:43
muted about Clinton's appearance, saying that he did not like
32:47
the attacks on Clinton, despite years of political conflict between
32:51
their parties. I don't like seeing him deposed, but they
32:56
certainly went after me more than that, Trump said the
33:00
White House on Friday before his departure to Texas. That
33:04
has not stopped hece Republicans who have issued subpoenis to
33:08
several people, mostly Democrats, mentioned in the Justice Department's release
33:13
of millions of files related to the federal government's Epstein investigation.
33:19
The Fed Oversight Committee deposed former Secretary of State and
33:23
one time Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for hours Thursday.
33:28
The panel plans to release video and transcripts from the
33:32
depositions of both Clintons in the coming days. Clinton blasted
33:37
the committee for forcing his wife to testify even though
33:40
she had no known association with Epstein. Hillary Clinton said
33:45
Thursday that she had known Epstein associate Euslaine Maxwell only
33:50
casually as an acquaintance. Before we start, I have to
33:56
get personal. You made Hillary come in. He had nothing
34:00
to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. Whether you subpoena ten
34:06
people or ten thousand, including her, was simply not right.
34:10
Clinton said in his opening statement. Host Oversight Committee Chairman
34:15
James Como, Republican of Kentucky, said that Bill Clinton had
34:19
been cooperative during the deposition, telling reporters after Friday's proceedings
34:26
that the former president answered every question or attempted to
34:30
answer every question. Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina,
34:37
added that Clinton continued to answer the question even when
34:41
his attorneys told him to shut up. Clinton did not
34:45
address reporters Friday after his deposition, as Hillary Clinton did
34:49
on Thursday. He was deposed at the same venue as
34:52
his wife, a performing arts center in Chappaqua, New York,
34:57
a suburban town they have long called home. The former
35:02
president has denied any wrongdoing in connection to Epstein and
35:06
said he had no knowledge of Epstein's criminal activities. He
35:11
took about a half a dozen trips on Epstein's private
35:15
jet in two thousand and two and two thousand and three.
35:18
He also appeared in Epstein related photographs released by Congress
35:22
and the Justice Department, including one in which he's in
35:26
a bubbling pool with a woman whose face is redacted.
35:30
Epstein pleaded guilty in two thousand and eight to to
35:33
charge of soliciting prostitution, including one involving a minor. He
35:39
was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in twenty nineteen
35:43
and died in federal custody later that year. His death
35:47
was ruled a suicide. Justices and judges and law makers
35:52
say that over decades, he abused traffic and molested scores
35:57
of girls, many of whom have come forward in court
36:00
and in other public forms. Clinton is referred to tens
36:06
of thousands of times in the trope of Epstein related documents.
36:10
The Justice Department has released. None of those. Mentions in
36:14
the document include direct correspondence between the two or rebut
36:18
claims by the former president's aids that he several tires
36:22
with Epstein years before his twenty nineteen federal indictment. Coma
36:27
told reporters this week that Republicans on the panel plan
36:30
to ask the Clintons how Epstein accumulated his wealth, how
36:35
he was able to surround himself with some of the
36:38
most powerful men in the world, and whether the financier
36:43
was he an asset for our government or any other government.
36:47
Democrats on the committee repeatedly claimed Friday that Bill Clinton's
36:51
appearance set a new precedent of bringing presidents and former
36:55
presidents to testify. We are now asking and demanding that
37:00
President Trump officially come in and testify in front of
37:04
the Oversight Committee, said Representative Robert Garcia California, the top
37:09
ranking Democrat on the committee. Trump had a long standing
37:14
friendship with Epstein. He has said that he knew Epstein's
37:17
socially in Palm Beach, Florida, and that they had a
37:21
falling out in the mid two thousands. Trump has maintained
37:24
that he did not know about Epstein's criminal behavior. During
37:29
Friday's proceedings in Chappaquah, Democrats and Republicans alike signal they
37:35
plan to pursue additional testimony beyond what's already on the
37:39
committee's calendar. Coma told reporters We're going to bring more
37:45
people in. Were not finished. We didn't want to announce
37:49
names before today. It was so hard to get the
37:52
Clintons in. I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize
37:55
losing them. The committee has already scheduled depositions for Darren
38:01
en Dyke and Richard Kahn, the co executives of Epstein's
38:06
estate in March. Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida,
38:13
said Friday that she plans to ask the committee to
38:16
bring in some of the Epstein co conspirators that were
38:20
given lesser sentences that were known to have traffic young girls. Notably.
38:25
Committee members from both parties also signaled that they could
38:29
have enough support to subpoena Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik to
38:33
appear before the panel. Lutnick, who was once Epstein's Manhattan nabe,
38:40
is based in growing scrutiny over the connection to the
38:44
deceased financier. Testifying before Congress earlier this month, Lutnick said
38:50
he and his family had lunch with Epstein on his
38:52
Caribbean Allen in twenty twelve, after previously claiming that he
38:56
and his wife had distanced themselves from Epstein around two
39:00
thousand and five. When asked Friday about Nick potentially facing
39:05
a subpoena from the committee, Trump said, Howard would go
39:09
in and do whatever he has to say. He's a
39:11
very innocent guy. He's doing a good job. Another email
39:16
in the files showed that that bet Oz, administrative for
39:19
the Sinners for Medicare and Medicaid Services, invited Epstein to
39:23
a Valentine's Day party in twenty sixteen. CMS did not
39:27
respond to real request for comment. Hillary Clinton said Thursday
39:32
that Republicans line of questioning went beyond the panel's mandate,
39:36
telling reporters that while she was under oath, lawmakers asked
39:40
her about UFOs and the baseless story that a child's
39:44
sex traffic and ring involving high ranking Democrats was operating
39:49
out of a Washington pizza restaurant. The Clintons initially resisted
39:54
complying with the committee's subpoenas, which they called invalid and
39:59
legally uninf but capitulated days before the House was expected
40:04
to hold them in criminal contempt of Congress. They then
40:08
asked to be allowed to testify in public. The committee declined,
40:13
opting instead for closed door proceedings. Hillary Clinton blasted her
40:18
appearance Thursday before the committee as political theater and sharply questions,
40:24
while the Republican led pannel insisted upon deposing her as
40:27
part of its investigation. I don't know how many times
40:32
I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein,
40:36
Clinton told reporters after hours of closed door testimony, adding
40:41
I never went to his island, I never went to
40:44
his homes, I never went to his offices. Maxwell Epstein's associate,
40:50
has taken credit for having been very central to the
40:54
establishment of the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual philanthropic gathering
40:59
sponsored by the Clinton Foundation that began in two thousand
41:02
and five. The Clinton Foundation has said it received only
41:06
one donation for twenty five thousand dollars from an Epstein
41:11
affiliated foundation in two thousand and six. And at the
41:16
bottom of the front page, our Heroes are Dying Why
41:21
Jesse Jackson's death leaves a void civil rights icon. Jesse
41:27
Jackson leaves behind a movement that lacks a single unifying leader,
41:32
but his legacy of inclusion could help carry it on.
41:37
And there is a picture of people arriving to pay
41:40
their respects to the civil rights leader Jesse Jackson as
41:44
he lies in repose in Chicago on Thursday. And I
41:48
gathered that his funeral procession taking him back to his
41:54
hometown is coming through Kentucky and Governor Basher has ordered
42:02
flags at half staff that day. I think it's tomorrow,
42:06
but I can't remember. Greg Rischnada and Michelle Bornstein related
42:14
to this article wrote this article in the early mornings
42:19
after the Jesse Reverend Jesse Jackson died on February seventeenth.
42:25
His family called another prominent pastor for prayer and solace.
42:30
A mighty lion has passed. Bishop William Barber recalled the family, saying,
42:37
I've been thinking about that imagery, said Barber, who leads
42:40
Repairs of the Breach, an organization that aims to bring
42:44
moral and religious language to causes such as safeguarding voting
42:48
rights and alleviating poverty. Because lyons they protect the pride,
42:56
but they also expand the territory of the and Jackson
43:03
expanded the notion of civil rights in America. He said,
43:06
from the black community to the full spectrum of people
43:10
seeking justice. Thousands are expected to pay respects Friday as
43:18
Jackson's remains lie in repose at Rainbow Slash Push headquarters
43:23
in Chicago, following the decision by House Speaker Mike Johnson,
43:27
Republican of Louisiana, to decline to allow Jackson to lie
43:32
in honor at the US Capitol. Jackson's death at age
43:36
eighty four comes at a perilous time for the civil
43:39
rights crusade he helped lead for decades. Most of his
43:43
iconic contemporaries are gone as President Donald Trump attacks their
43:48
hard for principles, declaring war on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives,
43:55
while the found national achievement of the civil rights movement,
44:00
the nineteen sixty five Voting Rights Act, may be on
44:03
the verge of being overturned by the US Supreme Court.
44:08
Our heroes are dying, and the question has to be asked,
44:12
who comes next or what comes next? This new era
44:16
of regression, this new era of trump Ism, has shown
44:20
clearly that that got our new leaders are not able
44:24
to meet the moment, said author and political commentator by
44:29
Carrie Sellas. It's a major test of the movement in
44:33
a fragmented landscape of social media and political division, with
44:38
no clear successor generation to rally a response. The wellspring
44:43
that produced leaders such as Jackson and the right Martin
44:47
Luther King Junior. The Black Church no longer plays the
44:51
same rule. Institutional religion doesn't have the authority of power
44:56
it once did. In the United States, experts said, and
45:00
the religious right for decades has been more loudly and
45:03
successfully merging its view of Christianity and politics. The Black
45:11
Church isn't as important as it was. It's harder to
45:14
have a figure come out of that tradition and command
45:17
the power and respect that Jesse Jackson did, said Chaflin
45:22
University historian Robert Greene. The second, it's hard to manage
45:27
to imagine someone today being able to enter the political
45:31
realm already seen as a moral authority. If there is
45:36
to be a robust defense of civil rights, many believe
45:39
it'll come from Jackson's legacy of expansion, using the voting
45:43
rights to act to get more people of color into
45:46
voting booths and into elected office, broadening the definition of
45:50
civil rights to include all marginalized communities such as LGBTQ
45:56
people and people with disabilities in a common cause, and
46:01
pushing beyond political rights to economic rights. In some ways,
46:07
the fact that there is no obvious individual to take
46:10
the mantle is part of Jackson's legacy, say civil rights activist,
46:16
elected leaders and scholars. He advocated for leaders at all
46:21
levels of government and activism carrying different parts of the mission.
46:26
Virginia law maker Don Scott said, we have democratized leadership
46:32
in the civil rights movement and spread it throughout the country.
46:37
Scott said his own life found a new purpose when
46:39
he was a college sophomore in nineteen eighty four and
46:42
met Jackson, who was running for president. Forty years later,
46:47
Scott became the first black person elected Speaker of the
46:51
Virginia House of Democrat Delegates. That's the legacy of Jesse Jackson.
46:57
He empowered a whole lot of folks to lift up
47:00
their voice, Scott said. Brian Stevenson, a lawyer and founder
47:07
of the Equal Justice Initiative, said it's important to remember
47:10
the historical arc of the civil rights movement. After the
47:15
Civil War, black men had a brief moment when they
47:18
were able to participate in democracy. Then Jim Crow swooped
47:23
in and defranchised black voters in the South for more
47:27
than half of the twentieth century. During that time, without
47:31
access to elected office, black Americans looked elsewhere for leadership
47:35
and resistance. Black churches filled that void, giving rise to
47:40
the civil rights movement. Stephenson said, exemplified by King and
47:44
other figures such as Claudette coven, John Lewis, and Fanny Lowhammer,
47:50
who blended the tone of the pulpit with politics. Younger
47:55
generations of pastors, including those from more conservative traditions, were
48:01
inspired to be not just pastors, but profits as well,
48:06
said Tyler Burns, a Florida pastor and director of Witness,
48:10
a multimedia organization aimed at elevating the voices of Black Christians. Today,
48:17
there are some figures who echo Jackson in their focus
48:20
on combining Black Christianity and politics to serve the disenfranchised,
48:27
including US Senator Raphael G. Warnock, Democrat of Georgia, and
48:32
Barbara a North Carolina organizer who founded the Center for
48:36
Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale University. But Jackson
48:42
was one of a kind, said Jamar Tisby, a historian, writer,
48:46
and podcaster on race and religion. He represented the longer
48:52
black freedom struggle, Tisby said, and harnessed a blend of charisma, ambition,
48:57
and eloquence to an unusual moment political opportunity. The Voting
49:03
Act were Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five, and
49:07
Jackson's immediate recognition of the door that had opened radically
49:12
changed the opportunity for black leadership. Stevenson said Jackson was
49:17
particularly effective at voter registration, preaching the power of politics.
49:23
It's a different landscape today as a result. Stevenson said,
49:28
the Supreme Court has already weakened much of the nineteen
49:31
sixty five Voting Rights to Act and will rule on
49:34
whether to strike down its last major pillar in the
49:37
coming months. The Court could further limit the use of
49:40
race in drawing legislative maps, which would most likely lead
49:44
to a decline in the number of minorities holding public office.
49:49
Maryland Governor's Wes Moore, the state's first black governor among
49:54
only three African Americans ever elected governor of any state,
49:59
said that an attack on the VREA Voting Rights Act
50:04
is in many ways an attack on decades of progress.
50:11
Jackson's pivot after the passage of the law, which helped
50:14
black officials win congressional and legislative seats, spurred the movement's success.
50:19
More said he was able to make the transition from
50:23
demanding change to saying, I want to be one of
50:27
the people to help make it right because he understood
50:30
that part of the power of the civil rights movement
50:33
was the fact that they were able to get into rooms.
50:38
The Brennan Just Center for Justice that the New York
50:41
School of New York University School of Law has tracked
50:46
efforts to roll back access to the ballot box around
50:51
the country, including imposing voter ID laws, making registration more difficult,
50:57
and aggressively purging voter roles. Those actions are part of
51:01
what Georgia politician Stacy Abrams calls the exercise of diminishing
51:07
democracy and a wholesale attack on the pluralism of America. Abrams,
51:13
a former Georgia state lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate, said Jackson's
51:18
legacy is key to fighting back. His Rainbow Slash Push
51:21
coalition framed the fight for civil rights broadly as how
51:26
do we make americamediate's obligation to all its people. Abram
51:31
said that not only brought more marginalized groups into the struggle,
51:36
she said, but it expanded the idea of civil rights
51:40
beyond the political realm. Now that we had voting rights
51:45
and civil rights, we also have to have access to
51:48
economic rights. Abram said, for all the years Jackson carried
51:53
on his fight, the through line was always that he
51:57
worked to bring more people into the process so that
52:02
as many people as possible believe they have the right
52:06
to participate, Abram said. Former Richmond mayor LeVar Stony, who
52:13
until term limited out of office in twenty twenty five,
52:18
was part of a new generation of young black mayors
52:21
around the country, said the effectiveness of Jackson's work can
52:25
be seen in state and local offices in the South,
52:29
Rare minorities and women have made huge strides in representation.
52:36
The phenomenon cuts across generations, Stoney said, pointing out that
52:42
in Virginia, eighty two year old Louise Lucas is the
52:47
first black woman to serve as President pro tem of
52:52
the state Senate, Scott sixty is the first black speaker,
52:56
and Jay Jones is the first black person elected as
53:00
the state's attorney general. Apart from President Barack Obama, Stoney said,
53:07
I can't foresee us ever looking to one singular leader.
53:11
There's a collective of leaders now, and we expect to
53:13
be represented by someone who looks like us. Stoney said.
53:19
What might be lost, though, is the unifying emotional resonance
53:22
of a figure such as Jackson. One element that gets overlooked,
53:26
Sellas said is that Jackson, King and other leaders of
53:29
the day were more patriotic than most. They were able
53:33
to look at this country and call it its failures,
53:37
call it its broken promises, and then try to reimagine
53:41
her for what she should look like, which is an
53:43
inclusive society built in the image of us all. Jackson
53:48
was able to lend that statute to others, which is
53:52
what several remembered this week and the lead up to
53:54
his memorial services. Stevenson said he regularly conferred with Jackson
53:59
increase ciating the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama,
54:04
which recognizes more than four thousand African Americans lynched during
54:09
the Jim Crow era. At the dedication for an affiliated
54:13
memorial in twenty twenty four, Jackson had traveled to the ceremony,
54:17
but by then was using a wheelchair and had difficulty communicating.
54:22
As Stevenson spoke before the crowd, he looked at and
54:25
saw Jackson, who held his fingers in the shape of
54:28
a heart. It was so moving to me, Stevenson said,
54:32
and I told him, you know, you had me almost
54:34
in tears. Abrams recalled the night of twenty eighteen when
54:38
it became clear that she had narrowly lost the election
54:41
for Georgia Governor. Jackson was on hand as she prepared
54:44
to secede before supporters and some of her staff tried
54:48
to get him to move into a VP area backstage.
54:52
He refused. He said, I want to be here when
54:56
she comes downstairs. I know what defeat looks like, and
55:00
I need her to know that the work she's done
55:02
continues and she should still be prode Abram said. Barbara
55:07
said he intends to honor Jackson's legacy by convening a
55:10
group in the coming weeks to study his speech at
55:13
the nineteen eighty eight Democratic Convention, when his performance in
55:17
the primaries brought him closer to the presidential nomination than
55:21
anyone thought possible to galvanize a new voter movement. In
55:26
the speech, Jackson called for unity to keep hope alive
55:30
and said he cherished America not as an uniform blanket,
55:34
but as a quilt. My prayer and hope, Barbara said,
55:38
is that we're working toward at an end and bringing
55:41
folks together, and that the dying of Jesse will not
55:45
cause us to say woe is us? And oh, just
55:49
look at what he did, because commemoration is not how
55:52
you remember people like him. You remember people like him,
55:56
by engagement, by recommitting yourselves. Gary and I went to
56:04
Brian Stephenson's incredible National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama,
56:13
and the pictures of this statue that is there of
56:19
enslaved people in chains is absolutely it was electrifying. And
56:27
the names of all those lynched on the walls of
56:31
one of those areas was completely also horrifying. And there
56:39
were quite a few, even in Fayette County. And I
56:44
happened to know about Virginia because that's where I'm from,
56:48
and my father was both mayor of Richmond a long
56:52
time ago and part of their state legislature. So yes,
56:56
I was raised with politics, and I knew that that
57:00
statue of Lee being taken down in Richmond. There's a
57:06
picture here of Ralph Norbumb then governor of Virginia, and
57:10
then Maya Levarstony on hand in twenty twenty one where
57:14
the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was taken down,
57:18
and it was in a huge roundabout in Richmond, and
57:23
right there, right where my grandparents lived and looked at
57:29
that monument every day. Quite something it was. That is
57:36
today's reading of the Washington Post for the final day
57:40
of February twenty twenty eight, of twenty twenty six, I
57:44
will be back next week. Have a good weekend, enjoy
57:48
the warmth and the sunshine. It is the official beginning
57:53
of the media teriological spring. Thank you for listening and
57:58
continue listening to Wrotegrams on radio app that