Transcript

9.29.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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Speaker 1: September 29, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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Speaker 1: other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: Your reader for today is Cindy Fraser. Today's front page
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Speaker 1: headlines from the Washington Post are Case of Alleged Rape
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Speaker 1: Being Reopened Civil suit against Cornell. Seven fraternity members drew
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Speaker 1: national attention. Next. This Texas crooner wants to help Democrats
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Speaker 1: win Congress. Bobby Polito is campaigning for a battleground House seat,
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Speaker 1: one quinceanera.
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Speaker 2: At a time. The next headline. Price fixes hit a wall.
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Speaker 2: Efforts continue to face resistance. Trump attempts to placate inflation-weary voters.
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Speaker 1: The next headline. Mistrial declared for D.C. Council's Treyon White.
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Speaker 1: Pirro says she'll take federal bribery case to another jury.
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Speaker 1: And the final item from today's front page is entitled,
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Speaker 1: Once a warrior of the far right, then its target.
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Speaker 1: A conservative content creator is grappling with the dark side
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Speaker 1: of fame. Now let's turn to our first item entitled,
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Speaker 1: Case of Alleged Rape Being Reopened. Civil suit against Cornell
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Speaker 1: and seven fraternity members drew national attention by Amy B.
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Speaker 1: Wang and Susan Sferluga. New York state prosecutors have reopened
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Speaker 1: an investigation into an alleged rape at Cornell University in
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Speaker 1: 2024 after a civil lawsuit filed earlier this month drew
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Speaker 1: national attention. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Hooten confirmed
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Speaker 1: Monday that he had begun the process of pursuing criminal
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Speaker 1: charges against seven alleged perpetrators and would present the case
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Speaker 1: to a grand jury. In a lengthy statement that in
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Speaker 1: part sought to explain why his office had not pursued
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Speaker 1: charges earlier, Van Hooten said that the accuser, identified in
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Speaker 1: the civil lawsuit only as Jane Doe, did not allege
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Speaker 1: in her sworn statement to police in 2024 that she
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Speaker 1: was drugged against her will or gang raped. On the contrary,
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Speaker 1: Jane Doe's statement described her participation in drug use and
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Speaker 1: sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual, Van Houten wrote.
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Speaker 1: My office obviously did not and could not have based
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Speaker 1: our November 2024 decision on the allegations in a civil
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Speaker 1: lawsuit that would not be filed until nearly two years later.
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Speaker 1: Van Houten said he also recognized the reality that it
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Speaker 1: can take years of therapy and healing for victims of
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Speaker 1: sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them.
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Speaker 1: The allegations in the lawsuit sparked outrage at the district
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Speaker 1: attorney and the Ivy League University and renewed attention to
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Speaker 1: the problem of sexual assault on college campuses. In less
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Speaker 1: than a day, an online petition created by a Cornell
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Speaker 1: graduate in support of Doe has received more than 1,400
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Speaker 1: digital signatures. It pledges to withhold donations to the school
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Speaker 1: until there is accountability for administrators, transparency into investigations, a
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Speaker 1: public apology, and policy changes. Earlier this month, Doe filed
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Speaker 1: the civil lawsuit against Cornell University and seven members of
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Speaker 1: the Chi Phi fraternity, among others, alleging that she was
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Speaker 1: the victim of a gang rape at the fraternity house
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Speaker 1: when she was incapable of consent. The complaint contends that Doe,
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Speaker 1: then a 20-year-old student at Cornell, was plied with alcohol
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Speaker 1: and drugs to the point of intoxication at the fraternity house,
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Speaker 1: then sexually assaulted and raped by members of the fraternity.
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Speaker 1: It also alleges that the housemother employed by the sorority
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Speaker 1: where Doe lived observed her in an intoxicated state and
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Speaker 1: nevertheless took her to a bar in downtown Ithaca where
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Speaker 1: Doe was served more alcohol, despite not being of legal
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Speaker 1: drinking age. About 11 p.m. on October 19, 2024, she
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Speaker 1: left another bar and went to the Kaifai house to
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Speaker 1: hang out with a friend, according to the complaint. It
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Speaker 1: states that she was visibly intoxicated after consuming the equivalent
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Speaker 1: of 10 drinks in about three hours and that her
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Speaker 1: friend handed her a beer. The complaint alleges that he
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Speaker 1: and another member of the fraternity pressured her into ingesting ketamine, marijuana,
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Speaker 1: and liquor. It contends that two men assaulted her and
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Speaker 1: that one of them later sent a Snapchat message to
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Speaker 1: fraternity members effectively inviting them to join in the assault,
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Speaker 1: and several did. The 101-page complaint includes graphic details about
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Speaker 1: an alleged assault that lasted for hours. Doe reported what
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Speaker 1: had happened to campus police on November 8, 2024, according
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Speaker 1: to the complaint, and the fraternity chapter and seven students
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Speaker 1: were placed on temporary suspension that day. The lawsuit brings
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Speaker 1: multiple claims, including sexual assault and battery, and seeks a
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Speaker 1: jury trial to determine damages. A leader of Kaifai did
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Speaker 1: not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. Doe's lawyer
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Speaker 1: and the Ithaca Police Department did not immediately respond to
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Speaker 1: requests for comment Monday. Jeremy Salmond, an attorney for Scott Creshwa,
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Speaker 1: one of the seven alleged perpetrators, said rape allegations should
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Speaker 1: be taken seriously and sexual assault is never excusable, but
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Speaker 1: called the lawsuit intentionally dishonest and morally repugnant. while Scott
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Speaker 1: responded to and made an immature comment on Snapchat. He
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Speaker 1: did nothing else. Nothing, Salon wrote in an email. For
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Speaker 1: the few minutes he was in the room with the
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Speaker 1: plaintiff and confirmed she was all right, Scott did not
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Speaker 1: see her in duress or undress, was involved in no
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Speaker 1: sexual activity, nor touched the plaintiff in any way, and
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Speaker 1: ingested no ketamine. He said a hair follicle test proved
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Speaker 1: that Kreshmar had not taken ketamine. Another investigation, he said,
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Speaker 1: will lead to the same conclusion about Scott's innocence. An
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Speaker 1: attorney for one of the men denies the allegations in
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Speaker 1: full and says no finding of probable cause was ever
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Speaker 1: made against him, according to a statement from Doe's lawyer,
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Speaker 1: Thomas Giuffura. Giuffura also wrote that Doe said she left
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Speaker 1: Cornell as a result of the alleged assault. On Monday,
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Speaker 1: Cornell University said in a statement that it supports the
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Speaker 1: district attorney's decision to provide an opportunity for Doe's allegations
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Speaker 1: to be heard by a criminal grand jury. The university
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Speaker 1: said in its statement that it conducted a thorough Title
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Speaker 1: IX investigation over several months and issued a range of sanctions,
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Speaker 1: including suspensions and expulsions. None of the individuals charged were
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Speaker 1: offered the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence
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Speaker 1: of their involvement, university spokesman Kyle Kimball wrote. The fraternity
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Speaker 1: chapter was closed and barred from campus. Any suggestion that
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Speaker 1: the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved
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Speaker 1: is false, Kimball said. A continuation of the false narrative
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Speaker 1: that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible,
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Speaker 1: will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will
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Speaker 1: perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault. In a statement last week,
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Speaker 1: Kimball noted that a presidential task force on campus sexual
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Speaker 1: assault launched shortly after the incident. issued a report in
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Speaker 1: March of this year, and the university has implemented several
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Speaker 1: of the recommendations. We take sexual violence extremely seriously, he said.
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Speaker 1: This item is accompanied by a photo captioned, A View
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Speaker 1: of the Cornell University Campus in Ithaca, New York. Matt
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Speaker 1: Burkhart gave the images. The next item from today's front
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Speaker 1: page is entitled, This Texas Crooner Wants to Help Democrats
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Speaker 1: Win Congress. Bobby Polito is campaigning for a battleground House
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Speaker 1: seat one quinceanera at a time. Patel Armas, from far Texas.
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Speaker 1: As they lined up for selfies and cheered in excitement,
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Speaker 1: the high school football fans on the bleachers welcomed Bobby
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Speaker 1: Pulido like a celebrity. That's because here in Texas' Rio
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Speaker 1: Grande Valley, he's not all that far from being one.
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Speaker 1: A Democrat seeking a battleground House seat, Pulido made his
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Speaker 1: name on the radio in the 1990s, creating Tejano music
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Speaker 1: hits like his father had done beforehand. Now seeking to
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Speaker 1: unseat Representative Monica de la Cruz, a Republican, and help
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Speaker 1: Democrats win back Congress, the two-time Latin Grammy winner has
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Speaker 1: leveraged that regional fame as he barnstorms a district, often
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Speaker 1: singing his hits or playing with other well-known groups like
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Speaker 1: Ferza Regida. But Pulido's unusual profile for a candidate has
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Speaker 1: also given Republicans fodder for attacks. De La Cruz, a
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Speaker 1: two-term congresswoman and insurance agent, has called attention to off-color
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Speaker 1: posts on social media and tried to tie him to
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Speaker 1: a sex offender who played in his band. She's also
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Speaker 1: said the job of serving in Congress is no song
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Speaker 1: and dance, pushing voters to question how seriously they can
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Speaker 1: take a singer on their ballot. In the age where
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Speaker 1: a reality TV host is president, a reality TV star
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Speaker 1: is one of his cabinet secretaries, and a sports talk
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Speaker 1: host is seen as a legitimate candidate to take over
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Speaker 1: the White House, Polito's race in South Texas has offered
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Speaker 1: a curious case study in the politics of fame. After
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Speaker 1: De La Cruz said earlier this year that Polito should
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Speaker 1: stick to quinceañeras, he turned it into a campaign staple.
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Speaker 1: He now performs at as many as a half dozen
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Speaker 1: such birthday celebrations in the district each weekend. Polito may
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Speaker 1: not have the national name recognition of Trump or even
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Speaker 1: Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, but Democrats desperate for relatable
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Speaker 1: candidates are looking to Polito as they try to recapture
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Speaker 1: lost voters especially in a heavily Latino district, where many
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Speaker 1: say relationships are just as important as political party. At
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Speaker 1: the football game, Bonnie Vasquez, 37, said she voted for
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Speaker 1: De La Cruz four years ago, but was now so
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Speaker 1: upset with Republicans that she refused to even say the
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Speaker 1: congresswoman's name. Pulido, whose music reminded her of hunting trips
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Speaker 1: with her family, seemed more authentic, she said. He's here
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Speaker 1: from the 956. She's known as a cua, she said,
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Speaker 1: using the local area code and regional slang for a
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Speaker 1: close friend. The celebrity part's done. That's not him anymore.
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Speaker 1: Make quinceañeras great again. Pulido, 53, grew up in a
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Speaker 1: well-off and well-connected family in Edinburgh that voters in the
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Speaker 1: district remembered for their influence in entertainment. His maternal grandfather
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Speaker 1: played with a trailblazing guateño group, Los Doleños. His uncle
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Speaker 1: was a county judge, and his father, Roberto Pulido, known
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Speaker 1: as El Primo, became an icon of Tejano music, which
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Speaker 1: blends traditional Mexican genres with blues, jazz, and rock. The
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Speaker 1: younger Pulido started studying political science at St. Mary's University
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Speaker 1: in San Antonio. intending to pursue a career in government,
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Speaker 1: but dropped out after he recorded a hit song with
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Speaker 1: his father and landed a recording contract. By 2000, the
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Speaker 1: Tejano Music Awards had named him Male Entertainer of the
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Speaker 1: Year three consecutive times. Yet he decided to pivot to politics,
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Speaker 1: he said, because of frustration with the rising cost of
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Speaker 1: living in South Texas. Voters in the state's 15th congressional district,
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Speaker 1: a thin strip stretching north from the U.S.-Mexico border toward
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Speaker 1: San Antonio, have in recent years strayed from its democratic
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Speaker 1: roots to back Trump and De La Cruz, the first
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Speaker 1: Republican to ever hold that seat. Yet, Pulido said he
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Speaker 1: could win back the Mexican-American voters now turning away from Trump.
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Speaker 1: Under new gerrymandered Texas maps meant to help Republicans secure
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Speaker 1: their House majority, More than half of the 15th district
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Speaker 1: was new turf. Thanks to his music career, Pulido said
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Speaker 1: he is better known in the district than she is,
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Speaker 1: even as an incumbent. It's a foot in the door,
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Speaker 1: he added, because of the success I had in music
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Speaker 1: that piques curiosity. Weeks after Pulido had won the Democratic primary,
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Speaker 1: De La Cruz began to mock his background. In March,
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Speaker 1: she said in a video on social media that the
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Speaker 1: race isn't about who you want performing at your niece's quinceanera.
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Speaker 1: He turned that jab into a campaign strategy. On social media,
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Speaker 1: he offered to perform free at any of these birthday celebrations,
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Speaker 1: a milestone for Mexican-American girls turning 15. Within 24 hours,
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Speaker 1: Pulido's campaign had received nearly 1,000 invitations. His two-song set
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Speaker 1: at quinceañeras around the district and the Make Quinceañeras Great
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Speaker 1: Again hat he gives out to the birthday girl is
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Speaker 1: now as much a staple of his campaign as traditional
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Speaker 1: political rallies. The student council at PSJA Memorial Early College
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Speaker 1: High School, whose Friday night football game Pulido was attending,
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Speaker 1: also invited him to its end-of-year dance. The students all
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Speaker 1: got up to dance when he appeared. For them, Bobby
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Speaker 1: Pulido is not as much a candidate as a household name,
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Speaker 1: said Jorge Aaron Lozano, a 44-year-old teacher at the school.
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Speaker 1: It's the same music we were listening to. Corrupt liberal celebrity.
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Speaker 1: At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month,
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Speaker 1: De La Cruz took the stage to thunderous applause and
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Speaker 1: again attacked her opponent as a corrupt liberal celebrity. Her
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Speaker 1: seven-minute speech focused heavily on Pulido's longtime accordion player, Frankie Caballero,
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Speaker 1: who was put in prison for indecent contact with an
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Speaker 1: eight-year-old girl. He knowingly spent years bringing a convicted child
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Speaker 1: sex predator around our families, the congresswoman said. Not only
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Speaker 1: did my opponent bail this predator out of jail, he
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Speaker 1: took this man to a middle school in our community.
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Speaker 1: Pulido has, at times, denied bailing Caballero out of jail,
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Speaker 1: but said he only learned about the accordionist's sex charges
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Speaker 1: after a New York Post report this spring. He has
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Speaker 1: also acknowledged performing with Caballero at a middle school benefit
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Speaker 1: concert in 2018, and said he would not have allowed
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Speaker 1: the accordionist to join him, knowing more about the charges.
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Speaker 1: He and his campaign have alternately said Polito thought Caballero
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Speaker 1: was jailed for addiction issues or violating parole and transferring
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Speaker 1: illegal aliens. The singer's campaign says he cut ties with
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Speaker 1: Caballero after learning of a domestic abuse charge five years ago.
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Speaker 1: De La Cruz has also called attention to some of
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Speaker 1: Polito's posts on social media, including one in which he
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Speaker 1: photographed himself peeing on Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk
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Speaker 1: of Fame. Polito cast those attacks as distractions. Even in
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Speaker 1: the more salacious world of entertainment, I never had a scandal,
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Speaker 1: he said in an interview. Different crowds. At a campus
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Speaker 1: launch in a park in nearby Enberg the following morning,
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Speaker 1: volunteers in red and white shirts emblazoned with De La
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Speaker 1: Cruz's name awaited her in blistering hot weather. Michelle Burton,
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Speaker 1: a 60-year-old logistics manager, said she had signed up to
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Speaker 1: knock on doors for the congresswoman because she admired her
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Speaker 1: record of bipartisan work in Washington. De La Cruz's background
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Speaker 1: outside the spotlight also helped, she said. It's not about
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Speaker 1: fame and glory or whatever, Burton added. What have you
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Speaker 1: done for our community? It's about that. In an interview,
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Speaker 1: De La Cruz said Pulido has a nice singing voice,
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Speaker 1: but questioned whether his resume allowed him to represent the
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Speaker 1: region in Congress. This is a serious position for a
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Speaker 1: serious leader, she said, and I have shown that I
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Speaker 1: have a record of real results. She pointed to her
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Speaker 1: efforts to help military veterans find housing, boost clean water
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Speaker 1: infrastructure in South Texas, and pass bipartisan legislation to fight fentanyl.
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Speaker 1: After addressing the group of about two dozen volunteers, she
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Speaker 1: expressed confidence that her campaign would reach voters across the
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Speaker 1: 15th District. Wearing a belt buckle displaying the number 15
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Speaker 1: inside the shape of Texas, she said, You can see
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Speaker 1: from today's turnout that people are motivated. Later that night,
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Speaker 1: Polito performed for hundreds more people as he crisscrossed the
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Speaker 1: Rio Grande Valley with what was once his tour van,
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Speaker 1: now with new film wrapping that read Bobby Polito for Congress.
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Speaker 1: The effort, run by his former music manager, is now
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Speaker 1: down to a nightly routine. Two young volunteers hand out
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Speaker 1: pamphlets listing his priorities, including expanded desalination and irrigation efforts,
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Speaker 1: smart and secure borders, and lower prescription drug prices. Another
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Speaker 1: volunteer goes through the crowd with a clipboard, collecting emails
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Speaker 1: and phone numbers they can later reach with campaign blasts.
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Speaker 1: And then Polito comes out in a custom-made cowboy hat,
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Speaker 1: serenading the crowd. At the final celebration that Saturday, Irene Contu, 58,
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Speaker 1: sat up in her chair when Pulido walked in the room,
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Speaker 1: bringing the birthday girl in a floor-length green and gold
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Speaker 1: dress to tears. Nursing a beer at a table in
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Speaker 1: the corner of the event hall, Contu said, she has
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Speaker 1: long voted Republican, but I'm voting for Bobby. Monica, she
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Speaker 1: just doesn't grab my interest. Pulido's hit single, Desvalado, gave
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Speaker 1: her fond memories of an ex, she said. Then Pulido
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Speaker 1: began singing his next song, and Cantu sat back in
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Speaker 1: her chair, mouthing the words. This article is accompanied by photos.
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Speaker 1: The first is captioned, Bobby Pulido takes photos with cheerleaders
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Speaker 1: on September 11 in Pharr, Texas. Gabriel V. Cardenas for
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Speaker 1: the Washington Post. Next photo is captioned, Representative Monica de
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Speaker 1: la Cruz takes the stage at the Republican Midterm Convention
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Speaker 1: in Dallas on September 9th. Tony Gutierrez, AP. The next
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Speaker 1: photo is captioned, Bonnie Vasquez, 37, poses for a photo
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Speaker 1: during a high school football game on September 11th in Pharr, Texas.
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Speaker 1: Gabriel V. Cardenas for the Washington Post. The next photo
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Speaker 1: is captioned, a Polito campaign sign in Enberg, Texas. Gabriel V.
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Speaker 1: Cardenas for the Washington Post. The sign shows a photo
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Speaker 1: of Mr. Pulido and reads, Bobby Pulido for Congress. The
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Speaker 1: next photo is captioned, Pulido sings and dances with Melody
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Speaker 1: Silva during her Quinceañera celebration in Donna, Texas on August 1st. Reuters.
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Speaker 1: Next is a photo captioned, Pulido, in gray, watches a
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Speaker 1: high school football game on September 11th in Florida, Texas.
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Speaker 1: Gabriel V. Cardenas for The Washington Post. Next, a photo captioned,
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Speaker 1: People hold signs in support of De La Cruz during
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Speaker 1: the Republican midterm campaign. on September 9, AP. The photo
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Speaker 1: shows several individuals holding signs that read, Monica De La
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Speaker 1: Cruz for Congress. There's an outline of the shape of
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Speaker 1: the state of Texas on the sign. The last photo
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Speaker 1: accompanying this article is captioned, Polito sings as Emmanuel and
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Speaker 1: Kayla Patterson dance during their wedding in Enver, Texas, on
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Speaker 1: September 11th. Gavril V. Cavdenas for The Washington Post. Now
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Speaker 1: let's turn to our next item from today's front page, entitled,
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Speaker 1: Price Fixes Hit a Wall. Efforts Continue to Face Resistance.
20:25
Speaker 1: Trump Attempts to Placate Inflation-Weary Voters by Riley Beggin. First
20:31
Speaker 1: came a proposal to permit tariff-free beef imports, but that
20:35
Speaker 1: immediately angered America's farmers and ranchers. Then came a plan
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Speaker 1: to ban exports of domestic diesel fuel, but that met
20:44
Speaker 1: with pushback from major oil companies. In between, President Donald
20:48
Speaker 1: Trump pitched the idea of simply cutting $ 5, 000 checks to
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Speaker 1: adult Americans, frustrated polls show, by high food and gas prices.
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Speaker 1: if the GOP maintains control of Congress. But that idea, too,
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Speaker 1: has come under fire, even from some Republican lawmakers concerned
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Speaker 1: about the potential hit to the budget deficit. With just
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Speaker 1: five weeks until Election Day, the White House has thrown
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Speaker 1: out multiple ideas for combating persistent inflation, which has outpaced
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Speaker 1: wage growth. But experts say it is unclear whether Trump
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Speaker 1: can execute any policy that would placate inflation-weary voters and
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Speaker 1: help the GOP maintain control of Congress. These are symptoms
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Speaker 1: of panic in the administration about problems that they have,
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Speaker 1: in part, created, said David Wessel, director of the Hutchins
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Speaker 1: Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution.
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Speaker 1: Inflation has been running over the Federal Reserve's target rate
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Speaker 1: since 2021, but an array of Trump policies have fed
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Speaker 1: the problem, economists say. Trump's decision to join Israel in
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Speaker 1: going to war with Iran has disrupted the global oil supply,
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Speaker 1: leading to elevated energy rates. His tariffs have reduced higher
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Speaker 1: prices for some imported goods. and his administration's immigration crackdown
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Speaker 1: has made low-cost labor harder to find, keeping price pressures
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Speaker 1: on domestic companies high. Consumer frustration is reflected in polling.
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Speaker 1: The gap has steadily widened between voters who approve and
22:28
Speaker 1: disapprove of Trump's performance as president, and 73% of Americans
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Speaker 1: said they disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy in
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Speaker 1: a recent poll conducted by SSRS for CNN. only 27% approved,
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Speaker 1: his lowest approval rating on the issue ever recorded by
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Speaker 1: the survey. Against that backdrop, Trump has floated a parade
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Speaker 1: of ideas for cutting prices. President Trump pledged to lower
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Speaker 1: costs and raise real wages for everyday Americans, and the
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Speaker 1: administration continues to rigorously evaluate every option on the table
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Speaker 1: to deliver, White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.
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Speaker 1: On top of the political hurdles, however, these policies have
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Speaker 1: been small in the grand scheme of things, if they're
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Speaker 1: helpful at all, said Mark Sandy, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.
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Speaker 1: So it's not like it's moving the dial on the
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Speaker 1: affordability crisis. Douglas Holtz Eakin, president of the American Action Forum,
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Speaker 1: a conservative-leaning think tank, said it's not uncommon for politicians
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Speaker 1: to try to bring down prices in the run-up to elections,
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Speaker 1: especially when their party's control of Washington is at risk.
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Speaker 1: President Joe Biden did the same ahead of the 2022 midterms,
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Speaker 1: notably by calling for a federal gas tax holiday and
23:49
Speaker 1: releasing millions of barrels of oil from the nation's Strategic
23:52
Speaker 1: Petroleum Reserve in an effort to bring down sky-high gas prices.
23:57
Speaker 1: This whack-a-mole with particular prices is something the Biden guys tried,
24:02
Speaker 1: said Holtz-Eakin, who was a senior economic advisor to President
24:05
Speaker 1: George W. Bush and the 2008 presidential campaign of then-Senator
24:10
Speaker 1: John McCain, Republican from Arizona. It doesn't solve the economic problem,
24:16
Speaker 1: and it doesn't seem particularly politically successful. For Trump, time
24:21
Speaker 1: is running out, said Rebecca Patterson, a senior fellow at
24:24
Speaker 1: the Council on Foreign Relations. The U.S. economy is so
24:29
Speaker 1: big and so complex that improving affordability is simply not
24:34
Speaker 1: something anyone can do in a month, Patterson said. Actions
24:38
Speaker 1: taken today might help in the medium and longer term,
24:42
Speaker 1: but between now and the election, the best you can
24:46
Speaker 1: hope for is that voters appreciate that you're trying. One
24:50
Speaker 1: idea the administration has executed is buying back Treasury bonds.
24:55
Speaker 1: But so far, the payoff has been minimal. In part
24:59
Speaker 1: because of the competition for cash from massive private sector
25:02
Speaker 1: spending on artificial intelligence, investors are demanding higher interest rates
25:07
Speaker 1: for treasury bonds. Higher bond yields, in turn, raise interest
25:12
Speaker 1: rates for consumer loans such as mortgages. The average 30-year
25:16
Speaker 1: fixed mortgage rate hit 7% last week for the first
25:20
Speaker 1: time since January 2025. In August, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant
25:26
Speaker 1: announced he would intervene in the bond market by buying
25:29
Speaker 1: back longer-term Treasury bonds to try to slow the rise
25:33
Speaker 1: in yields. That has not yet worked in bringing down yields,
25:37
Speaker 1: though Besant contended in a recent congressional hearing that it
25:41
Speaker 1: is nonetheless a success because we then proceeded to have
25:45
Speaker 1: the two most successful Treasury options that we've had in
25:48
Speaker 1: 20 years. While Besant was wrestling with the bond market,
25:52
Speaker 1: Trump decided to tackle meat prices. In late August, the
25:56
Speaker 1: president signed a proclamation that rolled back tariffs on foreign
26:00
Speaker 1: beef trimmings for 90 days in an effort to boost
26:03
Speaker 1: imports and lower ground beef prices, which have risen almost
26:07
Speaker 1: 25% since the beginning of Trump's second term. But that
26:12
Speaker 1: drew rare pushback from farm state Republicans, including Senator Chuck
26:16
Speaker 1: Grassley from Iowa, Senator Pete Ricketts from Nebraska, Senator Roger
26:21
Speaker 1: Marshall from Kansas, and Representative Ashley Hinson from Iowa, who
26:26
Speaker 1: is running in a competitive Senate election in her state.
26:30
Speaker 1: The lawmakers argued that a flood of cheap foreign beef
26:33
Speaker 1: would undermine American farmers and ranchers, who are already struggling
26:37
Speaker 1: with high fuel, grain, and fertilizer prices due to the
26:41
Speaker 1: Iran war and other factors. Trump issued a follow-up executive
26:46
Speaker 1: order aimed at helping ranchers, and the Agriculture Department announced
26:50
Speaker 1: new policies aimed at supporting American beef producers. The administration
26:54
Speaker 1: is now reportedly considering reversing course on beef imports, though
26:59
Speaker 1: the White House has denied that. Then came the Republican
27:03
Speaker 1: midterm convention in Dallas, where Trump made his biggest pitch yet.
27:08
Speaker 1: If Republicans keep both the House and Senate on November 3rd,
27:12
Speaker 1: Trump said he would give every adult American a $ 5, 000
27:16
Speaker 1: dividend to spend within the United States. Some Republican lawmakers
27:21
Speaker 1: applauded the idea, but others were skeptical, saying the checks
27:26
Speaker 1: not only could exacerbate inflation, but also could increase historically
27:30
Speaker 1: large budget deficits. The proposal could cost more than $ 1
27:34
Speaker 1: trillion at a time when concern is growing about the
27:38
Speaker 1: nation's outsized debt, which recently surpassed $ 40 trillion. Public interest
27:44
Speaker 1: groups blasted the idea. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the left-leaning
27:49
Speaker 1: consumer watchdog Public Citizen, called it an explicit and desperate
27:54
Speaker 1: attempt to buy votes. And voters largely have not been swayed.
27:59
Speaker 1: A YouGov poll released earlier this month found that 64%
28:03
Speaker 1: of U.S. adults felt they would probably or definitely not
28:07
Speaker 1: receive the dividend if Republicans were to win the election.
28:12
Speaker 1: So far, there have been few signs of interest on
28:15
Speaker 1: Capitol Hill, where lawmakers would have to draft legislation to
28:19
Speaker 1: authorize the checks and vote to approve it. Last week,
28:23
Speaker 1: after diesel prices hit a record high, Trump and Besant
28:27
Speaker 1: announced a new idea for tackling soaring fuel prices, a
28:32
Speaker 1: ban on diesel exports. Their theory was that a ban
28:36
Speaker 1: would boost the diesel supply for American consumers, lowering the
28:40
Speaker 1: price at the pump. Several Republican candidates in competitive congressional
28:44
Speaker 1: races supported the idea. But major oil companies and Energy
28:49
Speaker 1: Secretary Chris Wright objected, arguing that such a policy would
28:53
Speaker 1: incentivize companies to lower diesel production, which would further raise
28:58
Speaker 1: fuel prices. By midweek, the fate of the diesel export ban, too,
29:03
Speaker 1: seemed uncertain. Wright said any new limits on diesel exports
29:08
Speaker 1: were likely to be voluntary. Scott Clement contributed to this report.
29:13
Speaker 1: This article is accompanied by photos. The first is captioned,
29:17
Speaker 1: Cattle in holding pens eat hay in Ramsey, Montana earlier
29:21
Speaker 1: this month. Holly Pickett for the Washington Post. The next
29:25
Speaker 1: is captioned, Gas prices at a Shell station in Carson,
29:29
Speaker 1: California on Tuesday. Patrick T. Fallon, AFP, getting images. The
29:35
Speaker 1: photo shows regular gasoline $ 6. 19. 9 cents. And the final photo
29:54
Speaker 1: accompanying this article is captioned, Treasury Secretary Scott Besson testifies
29:59
Speaker 1: September 15th before a House committee on Capitol Hill. Chip Somodavila,
30:04
Speaker 1: Getty Images. Next from today's front page, an item entitled,
30:10
Speaker 1: Mistrial Declared for D.C. Council's Trayon White. Pirro says she'll
30:15
Speaker 1: take federal bribery case to another jury. Basalvador Rizzo, Ben Conark,
30:21
Speaker 1: and Liam Bowman. A federal judge declared a mistrial Monday
30:25
Speaker 1: in the case of D.C. Councilmember Trayon White Sr., who
30:29
Speaker 1: was charged with taking bribes from a city contractor who
30:32
Speaker 1: handed him envelopes of cash during four meetings in 2024,
30:37
Speaker 1: all of them secretly videotaped by the FBI. Jurors deliberated
30:42
Speaker 1: for more than three days, first saying Friday that they
30:45
Speaker 1: could not agree on White's innocence or guilt. U.S. District
30:49
Speaker 1: Judge Rudolph Contreras declared a mistrial Monday morning after the
30:53
Speaker 1: jury sent a final note saying further discussions had only
30:57
Speaker 1: cemented their views. A Democratic lawmaker who was first elected
31:02
Speaker 1: in 2016 to represent the city's poorest ward, White had
31:06
Speaker 1: maintained his innocence since his August 2024 arrest. His attorney
31:11
Speaker 1: said he was framed by a confidential FBI informant who
31:15
Speaker 1: had previously donated to White's campaigns. White, 42, remains under indictment.
31:21
Speaker 1: In a statement, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said she would
31:25
Speaker 1: retry the case before another jury. White, meanwhile, said he
31:30
Speaker 1: remains focused on serving his constituents. We want to accept
31:34
Speaker 1: the jury's decision today, regroup, and get back to work
31:38
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of work around the city to
31:41
Speaker 1: ensure equity and inclusion in a $ 20 billion budget, White
31:45
Speaker 1: said outside the courthouse. The Ward 8 council member has
31:49
Speaker 1: built a reputation in D.C. politics and neighborhoods as a
31:53
Speaker 1: champion of the violence interruption programs that prosecutors said he
31:57
Speaker 1: sought to cash in on. He was charged with accepting $ 35, 000
32:01
Speaker 1: from a D.C. government contractor, Aliyah Kamara, who was working
32:06
Speaker 1: as an undercover FBI informant during their meetings in 2024.
32:11
Speaker 1: In return for the cash, prosecutors said, White agreed to
32:15
Speaker 1: pressure D.C. officials to renew contracts worth millions of dollars
32:20
Speaker 1: that Camara's companies had previously obtained for violence interruption services.
32:25
Speaker 1: White's cut of the deal was expected to grow, according
32:28
Speaker 1: to prosecutors, to $ 156, 000, or 3% of the contracts. Camara's companies,
32:35
Speaker 1: Life Deeds and District Services Management, mostly operated in three
32:40
Speaker 1: wards outside White's Ward 8, according to prosecutors. The mistrial
32:45
Speaker 1: was the latest high-profile setback for Pirro, who has struggled
32:50
Speaker 1: since taking office last year to obtain convictions of some
32:53
Speaker 1: defendants charged with federal crimes. We have video showing piles
32:58
Speaker 1: of cash being given to a D.C. council member as
33:01
Speaker 1: part of a $ 156, 000 bribe, Pirro said Monday in his statement.
33:07
Speaker 1: Rest assured that we will retry this case and every
33:11
Speaker 1: corruption case to verdict. The D.C. Council voted 12-0 to
33:16
Speaker 1: expel White last year after he was federally charged. He
33:20
Speaker 1: won the seat back in a special election months later,
33:23
Speaker 1: and his supporters have said White should be allowed back
33:27
Speaker 1: on council committees and in leadership positions. He had been
33:31
Speaker 1: barred from those roles after being charged. Last week, D.C.
33:36
Speaker 1: Council Chairman Phil Mendelsohn, a Democrat, said the council would
33:40
Speaker 1: await a verdict before deciding what if any, steps to
33:43
Speaker 1: take on White's role. Lindsay Walton, a spokesperson for Mendelsohn,
33:48
Speaker 1: said after the mistrial was declared Monday that council members
33:52
Speaker 1: would have to meet to consider their options, but that
33:55
Speaker 1: committee assignments were not expected to shift by year's end.
34:00
Speaker 1: In remarks to his supporters gathered outside the courthouse, White
34:04
Speaker 1: thanked God, his defense team, and all those who played
34:08
Speaker 1: a part in this victory. It's been over two years
34:11
Speaker 1: of me being patient and hoping to get to this moment,
34:14
Speaker 1: White said. White declined to answer a question about why
34:19
Speaker 1: he had accepted cash from Camara and what he had
34:22
Speaker 1: planned to do with it, saying there was no there there,
34:26
Speaker 1: that the prosecutor didn't submit sufficient enough evidence to convict
34:30
Speaker 1: of crime, there was no crime in the first place,
34:33
Speaker 1: and so I leave it at that, he said. Ron Moten,
34:37
Speaker 1: founder of the Go-Go Museum and Cafe in Ward 8,
34:40
Speaker 1: and a longtime community leader, said that it's sad that
34:44
Speaker 1: you didn't get a conclusion and that White still has
34:47
Speaker 1: to deal with the cloud over his head. We need
34:50
Speaker 1: to support him until this is resolved, one way or another,
34:54
Speaker 1: Moten said of White. We can't afford to have a
34:57
Speaker 1: divide in Ward 8. During the trial's opening days, jurors, lawyers,
35:03
Speaker 1: courthouse spectators, and the council member's supporters said watched in
35:07
Speaker 1: rapt silence as 87 minutes of video, secretly recorded by
35:11
Speaker 1: the FBI and played on courtroom screens, showed White's unguarded
35:16
Speaker 1: interactions with Camara inside a Cadillac Escalade. An assistant U.S. attorney,
35:21
Speaker 1: Rebecca Ross, said the video provided a front-row seat to
35:25
Speaker 1: public corruption. White and Camara can be heard discussing which D.C.
35:30
Speaker 1: officials the council members should approach about the unrenewed contracts.
35:34
Speaker 1: White can be seen taking envelopes of cash in the
35:37
Speaker 1: first four meetings. A fifth video ends with White's arrest
35:41
Speaker 1: in front of his Navy Yard condo. I don't want
35:44
Speaker 1: to feel like you got to give me something to
35:46
Speaker 1: get something done, man, White says in the first video
35:49
Speaker 1: from June 26, 2024, while pocketing an envelope with $ 15, 000
35:53
Speaker 1: in cash that Camara handed him. Camara pleaded guilty to
35:59
Speaker 1: bribery and bank fraud conspiracy. and began cooperating with the
36:03
Speaker 1: FBI in 2024. On the witness stand, Kamara described how
36:09
Speaker 1: FBI agents wired his SUV with hidden recording equipment and
36:13
Speaker 1: provided the cash for the bribe payments before each meeting
36:17
Speaker 1: with White. Trayon has a gambling problem, a serious gambling problem,
36:22
Speaker 1: Kamara testified, adding that White asked for money over and
36:26
Speaker 1: over again. White, who during trial breaks logged on to
36:31
Speaker 1: a council meeting from the courthouse cafeteria and attended a
36:34
Speaker 1: ribbon-cutting ceremony at an elementary school, declined to testify in
36:38
Speaker 1: his own defense. His attorneys did not dispute that he
36:42
Speaker 1: took the $ 35, 000. They argued there was no crime because
36:47
Speaker 1: White never intended to pressure D.C. officials to renew Kamara's contracts.
36:52
Speaker 1: Three officials White told Kamara he was in touch with
36:55
Speaker 1: over the contract renewals testified at the trial that the
36:58
Speaker 1: council member never pressed contractor issues with them. They were
37:03
Speaker 1: Deputy Mayor Lindsay Appiah, Queely Sneed, who led a D.C.
37:07
Speaker 1: agency in charge of violence interruption programs, and Anwar Walker,
37:12
Speaker 1: a former contracting specialist. Treyon White actually did nothing, defense
37:17
Speaker 1: attorney Gary Coleman said during closing arguments. He had no
37:21
Speaker 1: intent other than to look into the status of the
37:23
Speaker 1: contracts that Camara had. Prosecutors said White broke the law
37:29
Speaker 1: when he agreed to take cash to advocate Kamara's contracts,
37:32
Speaker 1: regardless of whether his advocacy worked. They point to White's
37:36
Speaker 1: remarks on the video, in which he tells Kamara he
37:39
Speaker 1: would not vote for Sneed's confirmation to her position full-time
37:43
Speaker 1: unless she supported his initiatives. John Fishwick Jr. a former U.S.
37:48
Speaker 1: attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said that recent
37:52
Speaker 1: Supreme Court decisions have narrowed the legal pathways to convict
37:56
Speaker 1: public officials of bribery, and that the jury in White's
38:00
Speaker 1: case seemed to be hung up on the fact that
38:02
Speaker 1: the council member did not appear to pressure any D.C.
38:06
Speaker 1: government officials to renew Kamara's contracts, despite taking the cash.
38:11
Speaker 1: At least some of the jurors reached the conclusion that
38:14
Speaker 1: he didn't do anything with it. He didn't pressure anybody.
38:17
Speaker 1: Fishwick said. The jurors asked the judge Thursday in a note,
38:22
Speaker 1: is it bribery if the defendant received money to perform
38:25
Speaker 1: an official act but had no intention of fulfilling the agreement?
38:30
Speaker 1: Contreras said no. Contreras said that he would find out
38:35
Speaker 1: how the jury had split on whether White was guilty
38:38
Speaker 1: or not guilty and convey that to attorneys, but he
38:41
Speaker 1: said he was hesitant to reveal the jurors' identities. The
38:46
Speaker 1: FBI began investigating Kamara in 2024 over allegations that he
38:50
Speaker 1: was bribing lower-level D.C. officials and defrauding a federal pandemic
38:55
Speaker 1: relief program, according to the trial evidence. When those crimes
38:59
Speaker 1: were discovered, Coleman said, Kamara told the FBI he had
39:03
Speaker 1: previously bribed White around 2020 and offered to help the
39:07
Speaker 1: feds build a case against a sitting council member. He's drowning.
39:12
Speaker 1: He's got one option, and that is reach out Grab Mr.
39:16
Speaker 1: White and drown him instead, Coleman said. The defense maintained
39:21
Speaker 1: throughout the trial that Camara was White's brother-in-law, a claim
39:25
Speaker 1: that Camara denied. The two men traveled to the Dominican
39:29
Speaker 1: Republic together as friends in 2019, according to the trial evidence.
39:33
Speaker 1: Camara said he first met White about 15 years ago
39:37
Speaker 1: and had donated to his campaigns. Paul Schwarzman contributed to
39:41
Speaker 1: this report. This item is accompanied by photos. The first
39:46
Speaker 1: is captioned, D.C. Councilmember Trayon White Sr. departs court after
39:51
Speaker 1: a federal judge declared a mistrial in his case. Michael A.
39:55
Speaker 1: McCoy for the Washington Post. The photo shows Mr. White
39:59
Speaker 1: with his right fist raised. The final photo accompanying this
40:03
Speaker 1: item is captioned, White addresses the media outside court after
40:07
Speaker 1: a federal judge declared a mistrial in his case. Michael A.
40:11
Speaker 1: McCoy for the Washington Post. The final item from today's
40:16
Speaker 1: front page is entitled, Once a Warrior of the Far Right,
40:20
Speaker 1: Then it's Target. A conservative content creator is grappling with
40:24
Speaker 1: the dark side of fame. By Drew Harwell from Sarasota, Florida.
40:30
Speaker 1: She'd done everything she thought men expected of women on
40:33
Speaker 1: the far right. So when the hatred came for Amy Dangerfield,
40:38
Speaker 1: she felt so depressed she could barely stand. She'd moved
40:42
Speaker 1: from Australia to the United States in 2017 with a
40:46
Speaker 1: dream of spreading her internet-inspired beliefs online. that women had
40:50
Speaker 1: driven men to madness through rejection and disrespect, that society
40:54
Speaker 1: needed strong men to survive. She'd worked to distinguish herself
40:59
Speaker 1: from the glut of women she thought had been conned
41:02
Speaker 1: by the poisonous promises of feminism, recording dozens of videos
41:06
Speaker 1: on their and her biological inferiorities as she fought to
41:10
Speaker 1: build a 100,000 subscriber YouTube page and a self-made career.
41:16
Speaker 1: She'd even met a nice Christian man and, after a
41:20
Speaker 1: few months of dating, had gotten married, hosting a spiritual ceremony,
41:25
Speaker 1: as she called it, in a small chapel on the
41:27
Speaker 1: Las Vegas Strip. Within a few weeks, at age 30,
41:32
Speaker 1: she'd gotten pregnant, believing she could grow both a baby
41:35
Speaker 1: and a lifestyle brand simultaneously, two beautiful creations intertwined. The
41:42
Speaker 1: long hours on camera had earned her and her husband
41:45
Speaker 1: the provisional low six-figure income of a middle-class content creator.
41:50
Speaker 1: But it was the wedding that had made her go viral.
41:54
Speaker 1: In photos, she wore a white dress she bought from
41:56
Speaker 1: Macy's for $ 80 and a blue America First hat, the
42:00
Speaker 1: emblem from the online show of Nick Fuentes, a far-right
42:04
Speaker 1: video streamer who has said that the Holocaust is fake,
42:08
Speaker 1: that most Blacks need to be imprisoned, and that women
42:11
Speaker 1: are made to be effed. It was a signal of
42:14
Speaker 1: her commitment to Fuente's digital fan base, the Groypers, so
42:18
Speaker 1: named for the chubby, smug-faced cartoon frog and alt-right meme
42:23
Speaker 1: they use as avatars. It was a sign, also, of
42:26
Speaker 1: her new lifestyle as one of Fuente's most loyal female acolytes,
42:31
Speaker 1: known as Groypets. In the first days of her marriage,
42:34
Speaker 1: she said, time to make some mini Groyps in an
42:37
Speaker 1: ex-post viewed 1.8 million times. When the Groypers posted on
42:43
Speaker 1: X and Telegram that women belonged in breeding gulags or
42:47
Speaker 1: were too stupid to vote, she defended them, telling her
42:52
Speaker 1: own audience that the edgy jokes made inconvenient truths more
42:56
Speaker 1: digestible for a new generation of conservative men. When Fuente
43:01
Speaker 1: said women made men want to cut their heads off,
43:04
Speaker 1: she defended that too, calling it a natural reaction to
43:08
Speaker 1: the modern thinking that taught women to push men away.
43:12
Speaker 1: He shows a lot of respect for the women who
43:14
Speaker 1: are respectable, she said in an interview. For a time,
43:19
Speaker 1: she was celebrated. Fuentes toasted her wedding on a live stream.
43:24
Speaker 1: This is a movement. This is a community, he said,
43:27
Speaker 1: and called women like her his strongest soldiers. It's crazy, Fuentes, 28,
43:33
Speaker 1: said during one of his near nightly shows. I have
43:36
Speaker 1: done nothing my whole life and career but attack women
43:40
Speaker 1: and have negative attitudes toward women. And it's women that
43:43
Speaker 1: are really backing me up. Then this spring, she tried
43:47
Speaker 1: to do something on her own. She organized a small
43:50
Speaker 1: political event in Ohio called America First United, believing she
43:55
Speaker 1: could help spin Fuentes' online movement into offline activism. But
44:01
Speaker 1: within hours of the first panel, the Groypers turned on her,
44:05
Speaker 1: labeling it a disloyal attempt to undermine Fuentes' leadership. To Fuentes,
44:11
Speaker 1: it was a coup. In messages to the roughly 100,000
44:14
Speaker 1: subscribers of his Telegram channel, he intimated that she was
44:19
Speaker 1: part of a broad conspiracy to subvert him. If all
44:22
Speaker 1: of these people are who they say they are, he wrote,
44:26
Speaker 1: why would they dedicate so much energy to knocking me off?
44:31
Speaker 1: She was stunned by how quickly her fellow believers condemned her.
44:36
Speaker 1: Faceless ex-accounts with Groyper slogans in their profiles and names
44:40
Speaker 1: such as Baked Groyper and Zoomer Zane posted doctored images
44:45
Speaker 1: and cartoons showing her weeping or being strangled. Others rushed
44:50
Speaker 1: into the comments sections of her YouTube videos and wedding
44:53
Speaker 1: photos to call her a traitor, whore, or spy. The
44:58
Speaker 1: people she'd catered her life and career to now seemed
45:01
Speaker 1: eager to destroy them both. These people... They're so vindictive.
45:07
Speaker 1: They're so vicious, Amy said one recent afternoon from the
45:11
Speaker 1: podcasting studio in her apartment, where she and her husband,
45:15
Speaker 1: Daniel Dobrynkat, had hung a painting depicting Jesus cradling a
45:19
Speaker 1: modern man who held the hammer and nails of his crucifixion.
45:23
Speaker 1: One antagonist, she said, vowed to continue harassing me until
45:28
Speaker 1: I effing die. As for comment on Amy's experience, Fuentes
45:33
Speaker 1: responded with a crying laughing emoji, and said he believes
45:37
Speaker 1: some women supported him for the same reason they like
45:40
Speaker 1: serial killers. Women love problematic men, he added. I don't
45:45
Speaker 1: even think it's particularly ideological. It's personal. Amy and other
45:50
Speaker 1: goypats have played an increasingly visible role on the political
45:54
Speaker 1: battlefield of social media, working to give the movement's message
45:58
Speaker 1: of contempt for women a veneer of cultural momentum. Some
46:02
Speaker 1: have gone viral on X and TikTok by posing in
46:05
Speaker 1: t-shirts from Fuente's online store or promising to try to
46:09
Speaker 1: please men by staying thin. And dozens of viewer donations
46:13
Speaker 1: have appeared on Fuente's live streams from fans identifying as Groypets.
46:18
Speaker 1: Hey Nick, single Groypet mom here watching with my eight-year-old tonight,
46:22
Speaker 1: one had said in January. Some, like Amy, have been
46:26
Speaker 1: inspired by a generation of Instagram traditional wives or tradwives.
46:32
Speaker 1: who exploded in prominence by draping right-wing politics in influencer aesthetics,
46:37
Speaker 1: attacking the failures of a, quote, feminized society, while building
46:41
Speaker 1: independent businesses and media brands. Amy said she believed the
46:46
Speaker 1: market for content urging women to choose their husbands over
46:49
Speaker 1: themselves was only growing. In a CNN poll this past
46:54
Speaker 1: spring asking Americans what would happen if men and women
46:57
Speaker 1: returned to 1950s gender roles, 60% of Republicans said the
47:02
Speaker 1: country would be better off. But after pushing patriarchal politics
47:07
Speaker 1: for a frenetic audience of the young and hyper online,
47:11
Speaker 1: Amy said she had become disillusioned. Success for women online,
47:16
Speaker 1: she said, seemed to require grinding through an ever-changing set
47:20
Speaker 1: of expectations from strangers she'd never met. Submit to her husband,
47:25
Speaker 1: manage her home, grow her family, spread the message. all
47:29
Speaker 1: while dutifully denigrating her own kind. She believed her fellow
47:34
Speaker 1: culture warriors had agreed with her on the basics, that women,
47:38
Speaker 1: though differently skilled from men, were still meaning-seeking beings who
47:43
Speaker 1: contributed value through their families, femininity, and sometimes work. Yet
47:49
Speaker 1: all that these men seemed to care about, she said,
47:52
Speaker 1: was putting women down. Lauren Southern, a former far-right influencer
47:57
Speaker 1: who was similarly attacked, and has since disavowed her past views,
48:01
Speaker 1: writing a book about her experience called This Is Not
48:05
Speaker 1: Real Life, said in an interview that she understands why
48:09
Speaker 1: women like Amy join anti-feminist movements. Their rarity lends them
48:14
Speaker 1: status and a rush of adoration. For some, it's a
48:17
Speaker 1: feeling of attention and economic promise they've never experienced before.
48:23
Speaker 1: But it's a deal with the devil, Southern said. because
48:27
Speaker 1: most women are held to impossible standards and eventually ripped apart.
48:32
Speaker 1: I always tell these women, she said, you've got a
48:34
Speaker 1: shelf life of maximum three years in this movement before
48:38
Speaker 1: it eats you. Become warriors. For as long as she
48:43
Speaker 1: could remember, Amy had believed that male-led families were what
48:47
Speaker 1: had made the Western world special, even if she hadn't
48:51
Speaker 1: experienced one herself. Her father had died when she was three,
48:56
Speaker 1: and she suffered a turbulent home life after her mom
48:59
Speaker 1: met another man. She left home and moved in with
49:02
Speaker 1: friends when she was 14. I recognized that it was
49:06
Speaker 1: hardening me, so I tried to do a lot to
49:09
Speaker 1: bring my humanity and femininity back, she said. She regularly
49:14
Speaker 1: wondered how different her life would have been with a
49:17
Speaker 1: mom being able to be there during the day. not
49:20
Speaker 1: having to work, and a dad still being around as
49:23
Speaker 1: a protector and provider. She'd enjoyed debate club at her
49:27
Speaker 1: Catholic school and had wanted to become a lawyer, but
49:31
Speaker 1: she needed money, so she began working as a saleswoman,
49:35
Speaker 1: hawking timeshares and health products. She met a man and
49:39
Speaker 1: left her hometown in Queensland when she was 22 to
49:42
Speaker 1: move to Hawaii, where she started making YouTube videos to
49:45
Speaker 1: boost her sales. The couple married and divorced within a year,
49:49
Speaker 1: leaving Amy alone in her early 20s on the island
49:52
Speaker 1: of Maui, working an unfulfilling job and spending her nights
49:57
Speaker 1: erasing her bleak expressions using the Facetune app so in
50:01
Speaker 1: her selfies she could look happy. When local COVID restrictions
50:05
Speaker 1: trapped her indoors, She retrenched further online, growing angrier at
50:10
Speaker 1: the ways that people in power kept intervening in her life.
50:14
Speaker 1: I've witnessed firsthand that people are not loyal to you,
50:18
Speaker 1: but their need of you, and as their needs change,
50:21
Speaker 1: so too does their loyalty, she wrote then in a
50:24
Speaker 1: Facebook post. She followed a sales job to South Florida,
50:28
Speaker 1: and as she met new people, her videos shifted in tone.
50:32
Speaker 1: She shared increasingly somber views about her belief that society
50:37
Speaker 1: had entered the height of the culture war. Wearing muted
50:41
Speaker 1: dresses and turtlenecks, she talked into the camera about how
50:44
Speaker 1: men should be alpha males, unbound by the hindrances of
50:48
Speaker 1: gender equality, and how women should be what the men
50:51
Speaker 1: needed them to be. In 2023, she was invited into
50:55
Speaker 1: the Miami studio of the right-wing men's podcast Fresh and Fit,
51:01
Speaker 1: Widely clipped and promoted on social media, the show had
51:04
Speaker 1: become a hit on the male-oriented internet fraternity known as
51:08
Speaker 1: the Manosphere. Its simple formula consisted of bringing young women,
51:13
Speaker 1: mostly aspiring models and influencers, onto a panel with Manosphere influencers,
51:18
Speaker 1: such as Andrew Tate, for raucous cultural debates in which
51:21
Speaker 1: the women were openly ridiculed. Amy endeared herself to the
51:25
Speaker 1: host by saying she had taken the red pill. the
51:29
Speaker 1: far-right term for the belief that American society is biased
51:33
Speaker 1: against men. During one show, she said career-driven women often
51:37
Speaker 1: took on more masculine characteristics that made them less empathetic
51:41
Speaker 1: and caring as mothers and wives. Her female co-panelists often disagreed,
51:47
Speaker 1: but the invites kept rolling in. The men, she said,
51:51
Speaker 1: seemed to like hearing the women say what they already believed.
51:56
Speaker 1: A friend that year told Amy to check out Nick Fuentes,
51:59
Speaker 1: saying the streamer, who had recently dined with then-former President
52:03
Speaker 1: Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort, had some lessons she
52:06
Speaker 1: needed to hear. She turned on his most recent three-hour
52:10
Speaker 1: podcast interview, where he said that feminists were a hate
52:13
Speaker 1: group and that the Holocaust was a Jewish mafia lie,
52:18
Speaker 1: and she couldn't look away. She started watching his streams
52:21
Speaker 1: when she was cooking dinner and late into the night.
52:24
Speaker 1: peering at the screen in the dark. She found him
52:27
Speaker 1: convincing and charismatic, as if he'd figured out the secret
52:31
Speaker 1: to keeping an audience transfixed. She'd been told grim things
52:35
Speaker 1: about Jews when she was a kid by her Hungarian grandfather,
52:39
Speaker 1: but never like this from someone her age. Amy was
52:43
Speaker 1: invited onto a debate panel for the show in 2023
52:47
Speaker 1: on the conservative podcast network Valuetainment, where she sat next
52:51
Speaker 1: to Fuentes, as he argued that women shouldn't go to college. Offstage,
52:56
Speaker 1: when she pulled him aside to compliment his show, he
52:59
Speaker 1: gave her brisk advice, get married and start pumping out
53:02
Speaker 1: babies as quickly as she could. In 2024, Amy was
53:07
Speaker 1: hired by Valuetainment and began working long hours behind the camera,
53:11
Speaker 1: helping manage his online talk shows. But she wanted more
53:15
Speaker 1: time on camera, too. At night, she started recording her
53:19
Speaker 1: own shows, with names such as Dangerous Conversations, where she'd
53:23
Speaker 1: talk about how women had been trained to suppress their
53:26
Speaker 1: natural femininity and were biologically incompatible with stressful work, like voting.
53:33
Speaker 1: Last year, Amy grew closer to her co-worker, Daniel, a
53:36
Speaker 1: devout Christian and video editor who said he'd been in
53:40
Speaker 1: the YouTube game since she was eight. After months of
53:43
Speaker 1: working together, they confessed that they liked each other in August.
53:47
Speaker 1: One month later, he proposed. Amy had begun looking to
53:52
Speaker 1: Fuente's show for inspiration in her life and career, sending
53:56
Speaker 1: him on-screen donations, God bless you, Nick, and defending him
54:00
Speaker 1: in videos. So last year, Amy and Daniel left Valuetainment
54:05
Speaker 1: and struck out on their own, hoping to build an
54:08
Speaker 1: independent brand in Fuente's mold. Over the next few months,
54:13
Speaker 1: Amy's YouTube following soared as the couple focused on frequent
54:17
Speaker 1: social media posts and video essays. in which she decried
54:20
Speaker 1: ideas such as the, quote, war on gender roles. Femininity
54:25
Speaker 1: is not weakness. Submission is not slavery, she said into
54:29
Speaker 1: the camera as a clip played from a 1950s TV
54:32
Speaker 1: commercial showing a doting housewife. Needing a man is not shameful.
54:37
Speaker 1: It's human. Some of Amy's viewers called out the contradictions
54:42
Speaker 1: in building a public business urging women to disappear into
54:45
Speaker 1: domestic life. The tension is a common one for far-right
54:50
Speaker 1: women online, who often frame themselves as different from other
54:54
Speaker 1: women who haven't seen through feminism's lies, said Alex DeBronco,
54:59
Speaker 1: a researcher who studies modern misogynist movements. It gives them
55:03
Speaker 1: status and elevates them over the oppression they would otherwise face,
55:07
Speaker 1: DeBronco said. But one of the hypocrisies is that these
55:11
Speaker 1: women who are influencers promoting these traditional ideologies are essentially
55:16
Speaker 1: business people. They have careers. As Amy's following was growing,
55:22
Speaker 1: other prominent women on the right-wing internet were facing sudden
55:25
Speaker 1: periods of shunning and shame. Sarah Stock, a far-right blogger
55:30
Speaker 1: who cultivated an online image centered on her Catholic faith
55:33
Speaker 1: and chastity, vanished from social media in February after being
55:38
Speaker 1: accused of having an affair with a reactionary podcaster, a
55:42
Speaker 1: father of two who posted frequently about family values. In
55:47
Speaker 1: an ex-post, Stock apologized for some, quote, unwise decisions, but
55:52
Speaker 1: said that a lot of the online discussion about her
55:54
Speaker 1: was untrue. Please pray, logging off now, she added. Her account,
56:00
Speaker 1: and much of the rest of her social media footprint,
56:03
Speaker 1: was later deleted. Stock did not respond to requests for comment.
56:08
Speaker 1: Amy wasn't worried, believing herself to be different. She was red-pilled,
56:13
Speaker 1: newly engaged, and on the cusp of motherhood. and she
56:17
Speaker 1: believed she had a strategy to do it all, make
56:20
Speaker 1: the money and the family, be pregnant and podcast, elevate
56:25
Speaker 1: her husband, but also, by the demand of creator economy, herself.
56:31
Speaker 1: To Kathleen Blee, a sociologist who embedded with far-right groups
56:34
Speaker 1: during the 1990s and 2000s, the Groypets resembled the women
56:39
Speaker 1: she met in neo-Nazi circles, who had risen to positions
56:42
Speaker 1: of power within predominantly male movements that valorized female degradation.
56:48
Speaker 1: Many saw their internal influence as a way to elevate
56:51
Speaker 1: themselves beyond other women who had not awoken to society's
56:55
Speaker 1: hidden truths, and they helped bind the groups together by
56:59
Speaker 1: softening their rough edges, boosting recruitment, and leaving them a
57:03
Speaker 1: sense of widespread appeal, Blee said. But after years of
57:07
Speaker 1: promoting women's subjugation, many of them had become inured to
57:11
Speaker 1: their own experience of it. They found themselves absorbed in
57:15
Speaker 1: cultures that despised them, continually reminded of their perceived uselessness,
57:20
Speaker 1: but still expected to make lunch, she said. Horrific things
57:25
Speaker 1: would happen to them, and they'd excuse them and rationalize them,
57:29
Speaker 1: Blee added. They'd say, we have to become warriors, and
57:33
Speaker 1: part of being a warrior is learning not just to
57:35
Speaker 1: inflict pain, but to take pain. Fuentes, in a text message,
57:40
Speaker 1: said in response, So it's an article about how my
57:43
Speaker 1: female fans are like women who are neo-Nazis? Imaginative. Influencers dream.
57:50
Speaker 1: In the first months after going independent, Amy and Daniel
57:54
Speaker 1: optimized their lives around the constant creation of content. They
57:58
Speaker 1: moved to Florida's Gulf Coast, near the headquarters of the
58:01
Speaker 1: right-wing video platform Rumble, where they met with a creative
58:05
Speaker 1: success manager. Using the more than $ 7, 000 worth of cameras, lights,
58:10
Speaker 1: and microphones, that Daniel had accumulated from his freelance editing business,
58:15
Speaker 1: they converted an apartment bedroom into a podcast studio, hanging
58:19
Speaker 1: slatted wood paneling and a sign that read, Blessed, Not Stressed.
58:24
Speaker 1: And they took on an unpaid intern eager for on-the-job
58:27
Speaker 1: YouTube training, a University of Florida student who liked making
58:31
Speaker 1: science videos but believed they made no money, so had
58:34
Speaker 1: switched to influencer work. Due to time constraints, we will
58:38
Speaker 1: be unable to complete this item. This concludes the reading
58:42
Speaker 1: of the Washington Post for today, Tuesday, September 29, 2026.
58:47
Speaker 1: Your reader for today has been Cindy Fraser. If you
58:50
Speaker 1: have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program, please
58:55
Speaker 1: feel free to call us at 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening,
59:02
Speaker 1: and now, please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.