Transcript

7.5.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for Saturday,
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July the fifth of twenty twenty five. Your reader is Alistaina,
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with the reminder that RADIOI has a service for those
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blind with disabilities making it difficult to hold or reprinted materials.
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And I will start on the front page of the
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Washington Post. To the left, Congress Highcourt, seed power to President.
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Critics worry changes are undermining system of checks and balances.
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Banaf tally Ben David in the center, huge boom of
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a firework above the Washington Monument with the Capitol in
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the background and the Lincoln Memorial in the foreground, with
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it looks like people in boats on the basin, and
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it's entitled above fireworks illuminate the sky over the Nation's
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Capitol on America's two hundred and forty ninth Birthday, as
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seen from the top of the town in Arlington, Virginia.
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And at the right, Emily Lee in Mount Vernon, Virginia
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watches the ceremony for new citizens and she has on
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sort of a goldie looking cowboy hat. She's obviously there
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are a lot of people in red shirts holding American
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flags in this crowd of a ceremony for new citizens.
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To the right of that in big bold letters, Trump
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scigens tax bill into law amid pomp, patriotism ceremony caps
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a hard fought GOP win president riding high, trumpets a
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string of successes Matt vinner Weiser and cat zer Kazuski.
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That ICE plans detention blitz with forty five billion dollar infusion.
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Prison contractors could see windfall as agency works to double
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capacity by Douglas McMillan and below the fold and to
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the left a shift by Zuckerberg wife cost four hundred
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kids their school by Caroline O'Donovan and Naomi Nis. And
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to the right of that doctor's death in strike inflames
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Gaza health crisis by Louisa Loveluck, Para Faruk Mafus, Miriam Berger.
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Speaker 2: And Susan had Moose.
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Speaker 1: And there's a picture of the hospital giving people are hiring.
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Account of the healthcare system on collapse in the wall.
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And I will continue with Trump signs a big, beautiful
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bill his sweeping policy legislation. On a day of patriotic
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celebration at the White House, the presidents omitted a signature
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policy bill that contains a collection of his campaign promises,
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and there is a picture of a whole lot of
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congressmen and others standing around the President, who is the
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only one seated. He's holding his gabble and pounding on
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the desk with a happy grimace on his face, people
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looking down at him. And there are only two women
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in this picture, one with two thumbs up and the
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other in the background, but all smiles around. By Matt
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Visor and Kat Krzuski. President Donald Trump on Friday, with
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the nation at Cuckoats and preparing for sparkler filled evenings,
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flooded the south lawn of the White House with a
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mixture of patriotic festival and a celebration of his biggest
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legislative accomplishment. The President, who has signed a historic number
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of executive orders, finally got his dream of signing a
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signature policy bill that contains a collection of his campaign promises,
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then expected by.
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Speaker 2: Dusk the fireworks.
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Speaker 1: It was the culmination of a string of successes in
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recent weeks and a remarkable display of how Trump has
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been able to bend to his will both allies and adversaries,
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world leaders and university presidents, media executives, and judges, even
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after moments When the legislation's passage seemed uncertain, with Republican
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lawmakers vulking at its costs and cuts to safety net programs,
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Trump secured the narrow margins needed through the power of
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persuasion and more than a little intimidation. I think I
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have more power now I do, he said on Thursday,
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when aestimate the difference between his first and second terms.
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Speaker 2: More gravitas, more power.
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Speaker 1: The legislation, which he held aloft after signing it before
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six pm, is the latest signal that other branches of
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government are ceding more influence to the executive branch. Last week,
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the Supreme Court sharply limited the ability of federal judges
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to block a presidential action nationwide, even if they find
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it unconstitutional. The Senate several days ago rejected a resolution
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that would let Congress side whether Trump can attack o'roon again,
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and the White House is expected to make a florry
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of terrorf announcements in the next week as the legislative
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branch declines to assert its constitutional authority on lebes. Trump
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on Friday also welcomed the b two bomber pilots who
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dropped fourteen bunker busting bombs on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities
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in an operation that Trump Is said obliterated the country's
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nuclear program. Some of those same planes flew over the
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White House on Friday, just before he signed the bill,
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alongside host Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, and dozens
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of lawmakers. Johnson gave him a gavel, then he banged
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to mark the signing, before handing a pens to those
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around him. This whole two weeks has been incredible, hasn't it?
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You know, when you think of all of the victories,
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Trump marveled Thursday night before a large crowd in Iowa.
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Twenty minutes later, he still couldn't believe it. This has
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to be the best two weeks. Has anybody ever had
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a better two weeks?
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Speaker 2: He said?
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Speaker 1: On Friday evening, The White House long is filled with
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people for what has been a traditional July fourth picnic.
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Celebrity music played in Many of his cabinet members were gathered.
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I want to wish you a very happy Independence Day,
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he said, with First Lady Malania Trump's standing by his side.
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This is going to be something special. The spirit in
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this country. We haven't seen anything like it in many
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many years and decades. He highlighted many of the congressional
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members in the crowd several times, singling out Senator Lisa Mkowski,
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Republican of Alaska, whose vote was crucial to advancing the
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BILLE after she won a number of concessions for her
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home state. Lisa, thank you very much. I have to
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thank you, Trump said. He also spoke about a number
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of past grievances, including news coverage, democratic criticisms of the legislation,
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and investigations into whether Russia played a role in passed elections.
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Reflecting on the past several weeks, he said, there has
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never been anything like it as far as winning, winning, winning.
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He said the election results gave him a sweeping mandate,
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claiming that the legislation was the result. The people are happy.
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They're happy, He said. There are significant risks ahead, however,
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with a bill that is expected to add trillions of
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dollars to the national debt and could knock millions of
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Americans off Medicaid. The bill also massively infuses funding into
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immigration enforcement agencies. Even as public approval of Trump's sweeping
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deportation agenda tumbles, early polling indicates that most Americans don't
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yet know much about the mammoth bill, which will pit
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Trump's salesmanship against Democrats eager for any policy argument to
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rally around. Some of its provisions, particularly cuts to Medicaid,
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are unpopular, and Democrats are already planning to make it
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a chief argument in the midterm elections. The extension of
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tax cuts that could help the wealthiest Americans, combined with
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cuts to safety net programs, could give them a potent
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case to make This vote will hault our Republican colleagues
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for years to come. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schuma of
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New York said shortly after it passed the Senate. Because
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of this bill, tens of millions will lose health insurance,
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Millions of jobs will disappear, people will get sick and die.
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Throughout the tortuous negotiations in the House and Senate, Trump
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largely rejected warning signs, even from certain members in his
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own party, and has rejected some of the projections from
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budget analysis over some of the far reaching implications of
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the bill. Even as he has secured a signature domestic achievement,
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he faces other challenges abroad. The initial strikes in Iran
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were successful, and Trump has brushed aside any notion, including
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preliminary US intelligent reports that it wasn't total obliteration of
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their nuclear program, but full inspections of the sites had
10:32
not taken place. The decision to intervene in a foreign
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conflict deeply divided. Trump's face in the Middle East remains volatile.
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Trump is hoping to strike a cease fire deal in
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Gaza next week when Israeli Priminister Benjamin Nettignatu comes to
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the White House, but he has also struggled in recent
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days to achieve a cease fire in Russia's war against Ukraine.
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I'm very disappointed with the conversation I had to day
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with President Kutin. I'm very disappointed. I don't think he's
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looking to stop. It's too bad, he told reporters early Friday.
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Trump on Friday morning spoke with Ukrainian President Belodomie Zelensky,
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a conversation that Zelenski's had focused in part in Russian
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airstrikes and possibilities for air defense assistance. The Whiteos did
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not respond to requests for comment on the phone call.
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Trump earlier in the week halted some weapons shipment to
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the war torn country as it places new aerial attacks
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and a surging Russian offensive, but there are few achievements
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in recent weeks that compare to his ability to muscle
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through the legislation that cemented many of his top priorities.
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Trump to date has largely governed through executive orders, which
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could be unwhouned by his future presidents. Since January, he
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has signed one hundred and sixty eight orders, according to
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the American Presidency Project, Biden, over his four years in office,
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signed one hundred and sixty two. Republicans are in control
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of both chambers of Congress, giving him a window of
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partisan power to attempt to pass his priorities, but with
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extremely narrow margins and warring factions within the Republican Party,
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there so far had not been any major legislative movement.
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Trump decided to package everything into one piece of legislation,
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which he branded his One Big, Beautiful Bill. White House
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officials described him as the omnipresent force behind this legislation
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and coached the bills, signing with historic suitep. Not too
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many presidents get the opportunity to have unified the government,
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said the senior White House officials, speaking to reporters on
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the condition of anonimity, after the bill's passage. Not too
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many presidents get the opportunity to enact basically the vast
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majority of their campaign promises in a single piece of legislation.
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Trump had set a deadline of July fourth and managed
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to secure it. He has managed a smattering of signings
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at the White House, including one for the lacan Riley Act,
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but until now, one hundred and sixty five days into
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his presidency, he has not had a major piece of
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legislation to sign. It's the biggest bill ever signed of
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its kind, Trump said, and the Supreme Court and Congress
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seed powers to Trump and the presidency. The High Court
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has given the president immunity and protected him from nationwide injunctions.
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Congress is giving ground on spending in tariffs. It adds
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up to a turmo charged executive by Naftali Ben David.
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The Supreme Court last week sharply curtailed the ability of
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federal judges to block a presidential action nationwide, even if
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they find it unconstitutional. That followed its decision last year
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granting the president broad immunity from prosecution from crimes committed
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in the course of his core duties. The Senate several
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days ago rejected a resolution that would have let Congress
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decide under its war powers if President Donald Trump can
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strike Iran again, and Congress in recent months has repeatedly
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declined to assert its constitutional authority overspending or terroiffs.
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Speaker 2: In a striking.
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Speaker 1: Dynamic of the Trumpet era, analosts say the judicial and
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legislative branches have been steadily transferring many of their powers
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to the executive, or at least acquiescing in the transfers.
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That has shaken up a system that depends on the
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three branches of government jostling sharply as each jealousy guards
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its own prerogatives. Many critics contend when the constitutional framers
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designed a system of checks and balances, they didn't mean
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a system where Congress and the Supreme Court give the
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president a blank check, said Senator Chris Van Holland, Democrat
15:27
of Maryland. That's the not kind of check they had
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in mind. It was intended to create friction among the
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three branches, to produce balance, but the country has become
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so divided. Some scholars say that leaders of the three
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branches are often more loyal to their parties than to
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their institutions. I think the frames envisioned a structure where
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it would take two branches to do anything major go
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to law, pass a law, enforce a law, said Erin Chimersinski,
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dean of the law school at the University of California
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at Berkeley. We have gone away from that. The executive
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can do so much without the other two. Some conservatives
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respond that Trump is only doing what other presidents have done,
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asserting his powers and leaving it to the courts to
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decide whether he has succeeded his authority. Many lower courts
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have done just that, locking his executive orders, only to
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see the Supreme Court scale back or lift many of
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those ruins. I think everyone is getting all storm and
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dumb and go to your bombshelters quick about it, said
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Paul Kamennauer, lead counsel at the Conservative National Legal and
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Policy Center, But he added overall, I don't see that
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Congress of the Court's acceding too much power to the president,
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because at the end of the day, marame Court will
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decide that. White House officials say the Supreme Court is
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restoring a balance between the branches that have been distorted
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by activist liberal judges, democratic presidents, as well as Republican
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ones who come after Trump will benefit from these presidents precedents,
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they say, and they add, the notion that Congress has
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ceded power to the president is belied by his struggle
17:26
to push through his budget bill. President Trump has restored
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the balance of power and our long revered checks and balances,
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marking a monumental shift from the previous administration, which used
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the judicial and legislative branches to perpetuate that Biden Harris
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administration's relentless lawfare and witch guns. White House spokesmhen Harrison
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Field said in a statement, defending the executive branch as
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a coeco branch is a yielding power. It's the constitution
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sound thing to do. Still, it was not always this way,
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not all that long ago. Congress's leaders were more willing
18:09
to assert their power against the White House. Senators such
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as Robert C. Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat who died
18:17
in twenty ten, fiercely depended the role of a Senate,
18:21
occasionally taking on presidents of his own party. It was
18:25
Republican senators who told President Richard M. Nixon that he
18:29
had to resign or the Senate would remooting him. Van
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Holland recalled that when he was a Senate staffer, a
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Republican led Congress overrode President Ronald Reagan's veto of sanctions
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on a park. Height sayth Africa, you would never see
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anything like that today. Van Holland said, I can't imagine
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any universe Senate Republicans and his Republicans overriding and trump veto,
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even if all of Congress's powers were on the line.
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A striking example of a branch pulling back its own
19:05
power came last week when the Supreme Court ruled that
19:08
district judges generally cannot issue nationwide blocks on the president's actions,
19:14
even if they consider them unconstitutional. The ruling came after
19:19
challenges to an executive order Batrump that sought to end
19:23
automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants bawn on US soil.
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Justice Amy Cony Barrett said in her majority opinion that
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the Judiciary Act of seventeen eighty nine, which established the
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US Court system, did not envision nationwide injunctions. Justice Ketanji
19:44
Brown Jackson, in a furious descent, accused the Majority of
19:49
creating a world where the president can break the law
19:52
and no court can stop him. Courts must have the
19:57
power to order everyone, including the executive, to follow the
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law full stop, Jackson wrote. To conclude otherwise is to
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endorse the creation of a zone of lawlessness, within which
20:09
the executive has the prerogative to take or leave the
20:13
law as it wishes. In a sentence that startled some
20:17
court watchers, Barrett accepted the notion that judges may not
20:22
be able to stop a president's illegal acts. No one
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disputes that the executive has a duty to follow the law,
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she wrote, But the judiciary does not have unbridled authority
20:35
to enforce this obligation. In fact, sometimes the law prohibits
20:40
the judiciary from doing so. The decision, in a sense,
20:45
echoed a ruling from a year ago, when the justices
20:48
that presidents are immune from prosecution when performing their core duties,
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and that the other branches cannot do anything about it
20:57
short of impeachment and removal, which Congress seems less inclined
21:01
to pursue these days. Kevinar said the Supreme Court is
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not handing power to Trump, but rather imposing appropriate restraints
21:11
on itself. He cited a line from Barrett's opinion that
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when a court concludes that the executive branch has acted unlawfully.
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The answer is not for the Court to exceed its
21:23
power too. While the opinion effectively strips lower court judges
21:29
of power, Justice Brett M. Kevanagh said in a concurring
21:33
opinion that the Supreme Court would still be there's an
21:37
ultimate decision makeup on whether certain executive actions can be
21:41
blocked to take effect. Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at
21:46
the University of North Carolina, noted that the Supreme Court
21:50
did not haul nationwide injunctions when conservative judges imposed them
21:55
on President Joe Biden. That reveals the decisions partisan under
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He said, it's hard to come up with the judicial
22:04
ideology that it could explain the outcomes. Garrett said, if
22:11
there is a principle at all, it's really hard to
22:14
figure out. In nineteen ninety seven, Gerhart called the Supreme
22:19
Court ruled nine to zero against President Bill Clinton's effort
22:23
to delay Paula Jones's sexual harassment suit, with the two
22:27
Clinton appointed justices joining it. There is not an analog
22:32
to that on the Roberts Court. Gerhart said. The Supreme
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Court's conservative majority, including three Trump nominees from his first term,
22:42
has also issued orders clearing the way for Trump to
22:45
seize power from Congress while litigation continues in the lower courts.
22:50
It has left Trump via independent regulators, even when Congress
22:55
explicitly protected them from Act Will removal. It has the
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US Doege Service access to sensitive Social Security Administration data
23:05
despite privacy laws passed by Congress. Last month, Trump issued
23:12
an order allowing TikTok to keep operating in the US
23:15
for an additional ninety days, his third extension and one
23:19
with a clear legal basis. Congress passed bipois and law
23:24
last year ended at borring TikTok in the US unless
23:28
the video sharing app the best from Chinese ownership, and
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the Supreme Court in January unanimously upheld that measure. On
23:38
a handful of occasions, individual Republicans have spoken out against
23:43
Trump's assertion of presidential power. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky
23:48
took to the Senate floor in an unsuccessful effort to
23:51
end Trump's declaration of Economic emergency, which he was using
23:56
to impose tariffs on Canada. Paul said tariffs are clearly taxes,
24:02
and the Constitution gives the taxation power to Congress. Well Fundamentally,
24:08
he said, the American system of government depends on the
24:11
three branches aggressively checking each other, not one being subservient
24:16
to the other. The founders were so worried about having
24:21
a monarchy, they were so worried about having all the
24:24
power gravitate to the executive that they said we must
24:28
split the power, Paul said. He added, the Constitution doesn't
24:33
give our power away. We can't just say, here, mister President,
24:40
take it. The Senate narrowly passed his resolution that the
24:45
host did not take it up. More recently, Representative Thomas Massey,
24:51
Republican of Kentucky challenged Trump's decision to intervene in the
24:56
Israel around Wall, joining with represent Native roau Kanna, Democrat
25:02
of California, to introduce a resolution blocking the used armed
25:06
forces from unauthorized hostilities in Iran. The Constitution does not
25:13
permit the Executive branch to unilaterally commit an active war
25:17
against a sovereign nation that hasn't attacked the United States,
25:21
Massey said in a statement. Congress has the sole power
25:25
to declare war against Iran. The resolution became moot after
25:31
Israel and Iran agreed to a cease fire fifteen years ago.
25:36
More lawmakers seemed willing to defend their prerogatives, even against
25:41
the president of their own party. At a May twenty
25:44
ten committee hearings and in the Bird spoke against weakening
25:48
the filibuster at a time when Democrats were eager to
25:51
push through President Barack Obama's agenda. We must never ever
25:57
tear down the only wall, the necessary fense this the
26:02
nation has against the excesses of the executive branch, Bird said,
26:08
adding the Senate has been the last fortress of minority
26:13
rights and freedom of speech in this republic for more
26:17
than two centuries. Bird regularly gave lengthy speeches on the
26:25
Senate floor about the chamber's unique history and power, sometimes
26:29
prompting i rolling from his colleagues. In nineteen ninety nine,
26:34
Bird urged fellow senators gathered in the historic old Senate
26:38
Chamber to take seriously their constitutional role in Clinton's impeachment trial.
26:44
No one of either party plays a similar role in
26:47
the current Congress. Some in both parties warned that if
26:52
justices and lawmakers allow president to power to grow out
26:56
of control, a future Democratic president could take advantage of
27:00
the new arrangement as easily as Trump has. Others date
27:04
that future presidents will match Trump's aggressiveness and his willingness
27:09
to test limits, saying the current dynamic may be in
27:13
a cliob Whether this changes the norms of the office
27:18
and this is the frightening new normal, or whether this
27:21
is an apparition, we can't know at this time, said Trevinsky.
27:26
The Berkeley Law Deed a third article ICE prepares detention
27:33
glitz with historic fourty five billion influnding. Much of the
27:39
new allocation from Congress, larger than the tension spending of
27:43
the Obama Brydon and first President Trump administration's combined will
27:50
go to private prison contractors tasked with doubling the nation's
27:55
capacity to lock up migrants, and spending bill passed by
28:03
Douglas McMillan. The tax in spending bill passed by Congress
28:08
on Thursday, were triple federal funding for immigrant detention centers,
28:13
setting the stage for a rapid expansion of these facilities
28:17
and adding to concerns about the treatment of the growing
28:21
numbers of immigrant detainees. Congress allocated forty five billion dollars
28:28
to spend locking up immigrants over the next four years,
28:32
more than the government spent on detention during the Obama,
28:36
Biden and first Trump administrations, combined federal data showed the
28:43
bill also includes forty six point five billion for building
28:47
the wall along the US Mexico border and six billion
28:51
for border technology in surveillance, along with other border security
28:56
and immigration measures.
28:59
Speaker 2: This is the most.
29:01
Speaker 1: Funding we have seen for a border immigration agenda in
29:05
the history of the country, said Lauren brook Eisen, who
29:10
researches criminal justice and incarceration and her role as a
29:14
senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice at New
29:18
York University's School of Law. We are seeing a wholesale
29:23
expansion of ICE detention centers. US Emigration and Customs enforcement
29:30
officials say they plan to use the money to roughly
29:33
double the nation's detention capacity to one hundred thousand bands,
29:38
giving them more capacity to arrest undocumented immigrants targeted for deportation.
29:45
The average daily population of ICE detainees rose to fifty
29:50
six thousand last month, the highest number since ICE began
29:54
releasing those figures during the first Trump administration. And Administration
29:59
of Visuals have acknowledged the surge, and immigrant detainees has
30:04
sometimes outpaced their ability to accommodate all of them. This
30:09
bill would make our communities safer by making a historic
30:13
investment in our border security. Representative Addison McDow, Republican of
30:19
North Carolina, said on the ICE World Thursday morning, no
30:23
more dangerous illegal aliens parading around with no consequences. In
30:29
an email statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department
30:33
of Homeland Security, said the money will help ICE pay
30:37
for additional detention dans and ICE agents. She said the
30:42
added resources and staffing are needed to secure the homeland
30:46
and keep America safe. The US immigrant detention system, the
30:51
largest in the world, grew over the past word decades
30:54
as a way to hold undocumented immigrants while they wait
30:58
for their solemn claims or deeply rootation cases to be processed.
31:02
The network, which is largely composed of dozens of detention
31:06
centers run by private contractors, as well as dozens of
31:10
county jails that contract part of THEIRS facilities to ICE,
31:14
has in the past mostly been populated by border crossers
31:19
deemed a flight risk or migrants charged with the crime.
31:24
During this Trump administration, however, as border crossings have dropped
31:29
and ICE has increased the rest of people throughout the
31:32
interior of the country, the detaining population is changing. As
31:37
a June, about one third of ICE detainees have never
31:41
been charged with the criminal in offense offense, and ICE
31:46
is now arresting people with no criminal charges at a
31:50
higher rate than people charged with crimes, according to Austin Culture,
31:55
a research assistant professor at Syracuse University who studies ration data,
32:02
this year, ICE has already awarded new or expanded contracts
32:06
to at least nine facilities owned by the Geo Group
32:10
or Corcivic, the two largest attention contractors, as well as
32:15
contracts to companies that host immigrants in makeshift ten structures.
32:21
The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee recently called that prior
32:26
spending budgetary mismanagement because it surpassed the agency's budget and
32:32
forced the government to transfer funds that had been allotted
32:36
to other agencies. Together, GOO, Geo, and Corcibic have at
32:43
least fourteen additional unused prisons which could be repurposed to
32:47
hold thousands of ICE detainees in states including California, Colorado,
32:53
North Carolina, and Oklahoma. The companies have said. In some places,
32:59
the terms are already taking applications for hundreds of jobs
33:03
they expect to build when contracts are awarded, such as
33:07
had an unused former prison owned by Corcific in Leavenworth, Kansas.
33:14
Let me look at there is a Myriad Adjustment system
33:19
or center in Kentucky owned by Corcivic, one of many outlined.
33:28
Immigrant rights advocates are imploring the government not to award
33:32
more contracts to GEO and Corcific companies they say have
33:36
failed to provide safe accommodations and adequate medical care to attainees.
33:42
In recent weeks, immigrants protested what they said was a
33:45
lack of adequate food and water at a GEO owned
33:49
facility in Newark, while detainees at a cor Civic facility
33:53
in Torrence County, New Mexico, complained they were notmitted to
33:57
flush toilets for days at the time. Steve Owen, a
34:01
spokesman for Corcivic, said in an emailed statement that a
34:05
water issue at the New Mexico facility was resolved within
34:11
less than two weeks and at no time where residents
34:13
without drinking water or the ability to flush toilets. He
34:17
said Corcivic facilities uphold federal standards and provide detainees with
34:24
three nutritious meals per day and twenty four to seven
34:28
access to medical care. GEO Group spokesman Christopher Ferriera said
34:34
in the email that the company complies with all ICE
34:38
detention standards and that its facilities, which provide around the
34:43
clock access to medical care, food, and other services, are
34:47
never overcrowded. At least ten immigrants died while an ICE's
34:53
custody during the first half of this year, a higher
34:56
number than ICE reported for any foolia since twenty when
35:01
eighteen people died. According to the legacy's mandated disclosures. Were
35:06
glackling to climb the comment on the deaths. The share
35:11
prices of GEO and Corcivic each rosevect three percent Thursday,
35:17
as investors cheered the passage of congressional funding like JATE
35:21
to result in a flurry of new contracts. On calls
35:25
with Wall Street analysts, this year, Geoegroup executives have primed
35:29
shareholders for a government contract bonanza that could boost annual
35:35
revenue by more than forty percent and profits by more
35:38
than sixty percent. Corcivic and GOEO Group threw its political
35:44
donations on each gave five hundred thousand dollars to President
35:49
Donald Trump's inauperation. According to federal Election Commission Data ICE
35:55
is indicated and also plans to rely on an array
35:58
of more unconvinced of vendors to meet its detention goal.
36:03
The agency last month published a list of more than
36:07
forty contractors that it had approved for an emergency acquisition
36:12
process that would help facilitate speedy contract awards. Bloomberg News
36:17
was reported the list included nine providers of tent structures,
36:22
including Deployed Ressources, which in April was awarded three point
36:27
eight billion dollars to build a migrant detention center on
36:30
the Fort Bliss Military base in Texas. While emmigrant advocates
36:36
have raised concerns about living condition in tents, where it
36:40
can be more difficult to provide ventilation and guard against
36:43
harsh weapon, the Trump administration has embraced these makeshift structures
36:48
for the flexibility they offer. In April, when a Miami
36:52
detention center became overcredited, the facility erected a large white
36:57
tent to hold hundreds of people. Trump plan to detain
37:01
thousands of migrants in tense at Guntana Mo Bay Naval Station,
37:06
but so far the facility has been used only sparingly.
37:11
This week, I said it was sending some migrants to
37:14
live in tents at an airstrip in the Everglades. That facility,
37:19
initially funded by Florida, will be in reimburse with funding
37:22
from the Federal Emergency and Management and Agency, Homeland Security
37:27
Secretary christ El Nilm said on Instagram. Also on the
37:34
front page, the Chan Zuckerbergs stopped funding social causes. Four
37:41
hundred kids lost their school. Priscilla Chan's decision to stop
37:47
funding the schools she opened to help struggling families shows
37:51
the risks for communities reliant on wealthy private illus. And
37:57
there's a picture of the Primaries School in East Palo Alto, California,
38:03
opened about Priscilla Chan in twenty sixteen. There's the front
38:08
with a huge blue hand and in the palm of
38:13
white circle with a red heart in the middle and
38:16
the words the primary school next to that, and then
38:21
you see a group of three kids walking outside the
38:26
building and an American flag flying. This is by Caroline
38:31
O'Donovan and Naomi Nicks. When Priscilla Chan opened a school
38:37
for disadvantaged kids in twenty sixteen with her husband, Facebook
38:41
founder Mark Zuckerberg, she took aim at some of America's
38:45
thorniest challenges. A persistent academic achievement gap separates white children
38:52
and children of color, and wealthier children and their lower
38:56
income peers.
38:58
Speaker 2: The school's website said.
39:00
Speaker 1: A similarly large health gap near us these differences, the
39:05
primary school in East Palo Alto, California, offered free tuition,
39:11
as well as free health care and counseling for students
39:14
and parents, in an attempt to show that giving kids
39:17
the right support could lessen those gaps. In twenty eighteen, Chan,
39:23
a pediatrician, told See and Then she was in for
39:26
the long haul to really understand the full impact of
39:30
your work, she said. At her school, you're just going
39:33
to have to be patient. But in April, less than
39:38
a decade after the primary school opened, Chanto staff it
39:42
would shut its two locations after the twenty twenty fact
39:46
twenty twenty six school year. Weeks earlier, its board had
39:50
voted unanimously to close because of lack of funding. The
39:55
billionaire couples for philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative c z I,
40:03
the school's sole donor, was pulling out. Chan and CZI
40:10
declined to say why the couple opted to abandon the
40:14
primary school, but former leaders of the school, who spoke
40:17
on the condition of animnity to discuss private information, said
40:22
Chan had grown distant in recent years as the school's
40:25
academic performance faltered, and the closure comes as she and
40:29
her husband had pivoted CZI away from projects touching on
40:35
social and political issues. The impacts of shuttering on families
40:40
and the local school district show the risk for communities
40:45
that depend on wealthy donors for essential services or support.
40:50
A billionaire's change of heart can destabilize vulnerable families or
40:54
local government finances. Parents and teachers who learned about the
40:59
closing in the last minutes to meeting one Thursday in April,
41:03
many of them by video chat, said they were shocked.
41:07
Several parents told The Washington Post that Chan had broken
41:10
her promise to their children, who attend the school's main location,
41:15
two miles from the campus of her husband's company. Nearly
41:19
ninety percent of the primary school's roughly four hundred students
41:23
in preschool to eighth grade identify as Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, black,
41:29
or multi racial. At Multiracial its separate preschool across San
41:35
Francisco Bay, ninety eight percent of families have incomes that
41:40
would qualify for state subsidized tuition at a conventional school
41:44
that charged fees. Many families will probably turn to the
41:49
local public school district, Ravenswood, which closed two schools around
41:54
the time that the primary school launched. At a board
41:57
meeting late last month, district's Assistant superintendent of Finance, Medium
42:03
Eager said it will face long term financial pressure because
42:08
of the closure, despite czi's committing to cover the cost
42:12
of educating any students from the primary school through twenty
42:17
thirty one. To address the short fall after that, the
42:20
district is considering turning one of its campuses into housing.
42:26
CZI declined to make Chan available for an interview. We
42:30
are hopeful that the most successful elements of the school's
42:33
model will become accessible to more students and families through
42:38
integration with the Ravensword School District, building on its strong
42:42
foundation in health programming and parent engagement, Communications director Jane
42:48
Packers said in an email statement. CZI has promised a
42:53
parting gift totaling fifty million to the community. Parents were
42:58
told that students who will receive one thousand to ten
43:00
thousand dollars for their future education based on age and
43:04
the school district received twenty six point five million in
43:07
branch funds last month. The district declined to comment for
43:12
this article. We're very proud of the work we've done
43:16
at the primary school over the past decade and of
43:19
what our children and families have achieved, Carson Cook, the
43:23
spokesperson for the school, said in an emi. Shannon Todd,
43:28
a parent who has been with the primary school since
43:30
it opened, said its closure will be difficult for her family,
43:34
whose three children attend the school. If provided disability testing,
43:39
coaching and help navigating healthcare, said Todd, who has unsuccessfully
43:44
pushed for Chan to meet with families for her to
43:48
come into Acmune again, give us the hopes of the
43:50
benefitture for our kids, and now just pull the plug
43:54
like that is not fair for these kids, she said.
44:00
School East Palo Alto is neighbor to wealthy Silicon Valley
44:05
towns like Palo Alto, where the children of employees at
44:09
Rule and Mutta, as Zuckerberg's company is now called, can
44:14
receive top rated public education for free because of historical redlining.
44:22
Residents of East Palo Alto are mostly lower income families
44:26
of color. Mani struggled with the region's cost of living.
44:31
The primary school opened in twenty sixteen with forty students
44:36
and a whole child philosophy that offered free healthcare for
44:40
students and families, plus coaching and mental health support for parents. Chan,
44:48
adra of refugees who fled Vietnam and settled in a
44:51
low income Boston neighborhood, hoped to prove that access to
44:55
good health care in schooling could help economically disadvantage students
45:01
achieved more. We're working hard toward a world where every
45:05
child gets an education that gives him a fair shot,
45:08
she said in the twenty nineteen speech. The East Palo
45:12
Alto project was the billionaire Coupps's second major inhibition in
45:17
the city's education system, after a controversial twenty eleven gift
45:22
of one hundred million to the Newark Public schools. Some
45:25
experts and community members claimed that the money was largely squandered.
45:30
In twenty seventeen, a Harvard study funded by CZI found
45:35
that by twenty fifteen, the growth rate of student achievement
45:39
in English had significantly improved, but that there had been
45:43
no significant change for math. Chan's partner on her new
45:48
mission was Educational leader met a view whom she hired
45:53
from Boston's Codman Academy a bottle for her project. People
45:58
thought they were going to get this school of their dreams,
46:01
one former school administrator said, speaking on the condition of
46:05
an imminity to protect her career, Current staffers at the
46:09
primary school were asked to sign non disclosure agreements. In reality,
46:14
the school met stumbling blocks two principles left in its
46:18
early years, which three former STUOL leaders said made it
46:22
difficult to established ability for students. The primary school tested
46:27
innovative ideas, but didn't have some standard features in any schools.
46:32
It didn't have the special education system or dispundinary rules
46:36
that are required of charter schools, the former administrator said.
46:41
But students were recording devices dubbed speech pedometers so that
46:46
software could analyze this speech patterns of children and the
46:50
adults who around them. The technology was designed by nonprofit
46:54
to encourage staffers to talk more with students in ways
46:57
that studies suggest incourage its brain and language development. It
47:03
was beyond now you betay, the former administrator said. It
47:08
was Hubert's an annual reports, the school credited the devices
47:12
with helping staffers track and improve students language development. In
47:17
the primary school's fourth year, the coronavirus pandemic brought disruption,
47:23
especially to the school's liberacy rates. Katherine Carter, a former
47:28
public school administrator brought on in twenty nineteen to assess
47:33
the primary schools of academic struggles, was surprised to found
47:37
that staffists did not use science based methods to teach reading.
47:41
According to a twenty thirteen blog post on the school's website,
47:46
it takes three to five years of consistent leadership for
47:49
a school to really take off, and the primary school
47:53
never had that, the former administrator said. In twenty thirteen,
47:59
twenty three, yu Chan's co founder and the school's president
48:04
died unexpectedly. The two were close. People familiar with the
48:08
school and their relationship said. According to the former administrator,
48:13
view was the visionary. The tragedy caused the primary school
48:18
its closest tide at Chime, and by then it had
48:21
stepped down as the board's chair. In recent years, she
48:25
has been seeing at the school infrequently. Three people familiar
48:28
with its operations, said another former administrator, recall leaders of
48:33
a similar school, advising that it maight twenty years for
48:36
the primary school to deliver that it comes its sought.
48:40
I remember hearing that and thinking we don't need to
48:43
be rushing, We just need to keep at it, the
48:47
former staff is said, also speaking of the condition of
48:50
an Inneti for fear of damaging her career prospects. The
48:54
primary school had been operating for only nine years when
48:57
its voted unanimously enabled to close it because of the
49:01
lack of funding. Any model that leans on one primary
49:06
funder is not something I felt was sustainable, board chair
49:11
Juan Claude Brizard said in an interview with the Post,
49:15
Though he praised the school's work, Cook, the primary school spokesperson,
49:20
said in an email statement that the school's focus on
49:23
literacy saw the percentage of students meeting or exceeding grade
49:28
level reading standards steadily increase. I don't think it was
49:32
enough time, the pomer administrator said, loaned down. Czi's withdrawal
49:40
from the primary school came after a flory of changes
49:43
at the philanthropy in the early months of President Donald
49:46
Trump's second term. They included denouncing layoffs, abandoning diversity policies,
49:54
and pulling out of work on community education and social issues.
50:00
Had been founded alongside the start of the primary school
50:03
project in twenty fifteen, as part of Chan and Zuckerberg's
50:07
pledge to emulate Bill and Melinda Gates in giving away
50:10
the majority of their wealth. Facebook's founding couple have led CZI,
50:16
even as Zuckerberg continues to serve as CEO of Meta,
50:20
possibly meaning their philanthropic ventures could confimcate the company's relationships
50:26
with politicians and regulators. In twenty twenty, during Trump's first term,
50:32
Zuckerberg toted cza's work on racial equality after the death
50:37
of George Floyd. Some employees saw the comments as tone
50:41
deaf in his philanthropic work as insufficiently a bishops, according
50:46
to previous post recording, as well as a person similar
50:50
familiar with the matter. This same year, the couple gave
50:55
four hundred million to help state and local governments run
50:58
the pandemic election that some Republicans called the donation Zuckerbucks
51:04
and claimed it was part of an alleged scheme to
51:06
favor Democrats. Under the new Trump administration, some of zza's
51:12
established programs could appear out of step with news by
51:15
the ways to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Shortly
51:21
after the twenty twenty election, Zuckerberg and Champ began to
51:25
pulic z I back from social issues. Its criminal justice
51:29
reform work were spun off into a separate organization. To insiders,
51:35
it seemed part of a strategy to separate the c
51:38
z I name from a sensitive political topic. Cz I
51:43
launching new racial and criminal justice equity programs, and its
51:48
emigration work moved to Capital f w D dot u S,
51:55
an advocacy group that supports expanding emigration. After Trump's re
52:00
election last year, Zuckerberg reversed some of his previously stated
52:05
positions and diversity and content moderation, ending met US back
52:10
checking programs and many of its diversity initiatives. In parallel,
52:17
more changes came to CZI, which laid off members of
52:20
its community team that worked on affordable housing, supported local
52:25
civil society groups, and helped underrepresented entrepreneurs. Days after it
52:31
public confirmed that the primary school would close, it emerged
52:36
that the philanthropy was also ending its statewide housing program,
52:40
which studied housing policy and tried to spur production of
52:44
affordable homes. As we focused on science, we've wound down
52:49
our social advocacy funding. Chief operating officer Marc Malandro wrote
52:55
in a February email to see zis staff in favor
52:59
of pushing the frontiers of biology and AI. In an
53:04
email statement, Packer Zucker, Czia's director of communication, said the
53:09
initiatives was focused on building technology to help scientists unlock
53:14
a deeper understanding of how the human body works, which
53:18
she said has been a core mission since our earliest days.
53:23
Tremendous impact. Giselle Munno's a twenty four year old mom,
53:28
attended public school in Ravenswood. She was excited to offer
53:32
her kids, ages three and four, something better at the
53:35
primary school. In April, when parents were asked to attend
53:39
an important meeting, she joined via zoom and heard staffers
53:43
announced that the school would close. Some parents were so
53:47
shocked and angry that they hang up. She said, the
53:50
school's closure stresses me out. We'd have to find another
53:54
school and start all over again, Muno said at the meeting.
54:00
Presentation said each family would be allocated a transition specialist
54:04
to help them choose a new school, and it detailed
54:07
the education savings money. Students would receive ten thousand dollars
54:12
for elementary and middle school students, twenty five hundred for preschoolers,
54:17
und a thousand for younger kids. We understand that this
54:21
news has tremendous impact on their family, read a copy
54:25
viewed by the Post. Some parents said in interviews that
54:29
the money promised to their children felt insignificant compared with
54:33
the cost a head. Cower Brown is a fourth generation
54:37
East Palo Alto resident and activists who has written about
54:41
displacement and gentrification caused by the tech industry. She has
54:45
long been skeptical of allowing the community to become dependent
54:49
on billionaires like Zuckerberg. People can promise stuff all day long,
54:55
Brown said, but if nothing is legally binding, they're going
54:59
to pull out and we're going to be left within
55:01
the fallout. When the political comment changed under Trump, Brown surmised,
55:07
so did the chand Zuckerberg commitment to East Palo Alto.
55:12
Speaker 2: Munoz.
55:13
Speaker 1: The young mom said she saw news outlets reporting that
55:16
the closure of her daughter school was related to Trump
55:20
that she was unsure. I really don't really get into
55:25
that politics stuff, she said, I'm too busy trying to survive.
55:32
In the last article, six ways Trump's tax bill could
55:36
shape the battle for control of Congress, the bill is
55:39
deeply unpopular, but Republicans still have an opportunity to influence
55:44
public reception because many Americans know a little about it.
55:48
I'm going to read this six pieces first, and because
55:52
they don't have time to read the whole story. One
55:55
reason increasing heat on GOP numbers in this dish with
56:00
big Medicaid populations.
56:03
Speaker 2: Two the Elon factor.
56:07
Speaker 1: Three promises made, promises kept for a key win for
56:13
GOP lawmakers in New York and California by Senate races
56:19
in twenty twenty six and twenty twenty eight, and advance
56:24
as tiebreaker and top GOP contender for twenty twenty eight.
56:31
Speaker 2: This is by Mae.
56:32
Speaker 1: Reston and Theodoric Maya, And I'm going to read that
56:36
first section that says increasing heat on GOP members in
56:41
districts with big Medicaid populations. Trump has pledged not to
56:46
cut Medicaid and has falsely claimed that the bill simply
56:50
targets waste, fraud, and abuse in the program, But at
56:54
least seventeen million Americans will lose their healthcare coverage according
56:58
to non pottestant estimates result of the bill's cuts to Medicaid,
57:03
the exploration of subsidies for health insurance on the Affordable
57:07
Care Act marketplaces, and other Republican changes that could pose
57:12
a major liability for vulnerable Republicans, such as Representative David G. Vellado,
57:20
who represents a district from California's Central Valley with one
57:23
of the highest numbers of Medicaid recipients in the country
57:27
according to an analysis for KFF. And then it talks
57:32
about California and North Carolina, and it does not mention Kentucky,
57:39
going down to promises made, promises kept. The bill includes
57:45
six thousand dollars deduction for seniors, which stemmed from Trump's
57:49
campaign pledge, but the revision does not benefit tens of
57:54
millions of low income seniors do not have a sufficient
57:58
tax liability to claim that the defection and Senate races
58:06
in twenty twenty six. In twenty twenty eight, Susan Collins
58:10
of Maine, the most vulnerable Senate Republican Republican running for
58:16
reelection next year, voted against the bill, which could burnish
58:20
her biopartisan bona Figue's in a state that former Vice
58:23
President Kama Harris one next year and the other are
58:27
Senate Democrats hoping to pick up next year is North
58:30
Carolina and picking up Texas, Iowa, and Ohio. Hight in
58:38
some states. And with that I have to say I
58:41
am sorry to close today's reading of the Washington Post
58:45
for Saturday, the fifth of July. I hope you had
58:50
a good day. Stay dry and stay cool, and stay hydrated.
58:58
It is going to be another score back next Thursday.
59:02
By