Transcript

2.4.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Tuesday,
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February fourth, twenty twenty five. As a reminder, RADIOI is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Your reader for today is Cindy Fraser. Today's front page
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headlines from the Washington Post are Trump agrees to pause
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tariffs on Mexico Canada, Nations vowed a bolster border security
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leader's last minute calls over trade war. For now, our
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next headline, Trump preps order to dismantle Education Department plans
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are set in motion as DOGE agents probe sensitive internal data. Next,
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Musk does dirty work to enact Trump agenda. Our next headline,
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work is halted at c FVP on acting heads orders.
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Consumer watchdog agency staff told to stop crafting and forcing rules. Next,
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prosecutor issues legal threat over DOGE in unusual statement, US
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attorney pledges to protect Musk's initiative. On the final headline
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from today's front page, jailed for jokes in the age
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of the gun. After Georgia's shooting, police cracked down on
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students who made threats. Now, let's turn to our first
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item from Today's front page entitled Trump agrees to pause
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tariffs on Mexico Canada, Nations vowed a bolster of border security.
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Leader's last minute calls over trade war for now by
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David J. Lynch and Marybeth Sheridan. President Donald Trump agreed
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Monday to grant Mexico and Canada a thirty day reprieve
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on the U S tariffs that were scheduled to take
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effect Tuesday, after both countries pledged to intensify their efforts
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to prevent illicit drugs and migrants from crossing into the
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United States. The President's decision, which followed separate telephone conversations
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with the Mexican and Canadian leaders, averted, at least for now,
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an economic shock that was expected to push both U
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S neighbors into recession while slowing growth and raising inflation
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in the United States. Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum was the
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first to secure a teriff's extension when she promised to
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rush ten thousand National Guard troops to the border to
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block the flow of fetnyl and other drugs in the
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United States. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needed two calls
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of Trump before securing a delay in return for implementing
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a border security package, including the appointment of a fetnahl
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Zar and several previously announced initiatives. I am very pleased
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with his initial outcome, and the tariff's announced on Saturday
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will be paused for a thirty day period to see
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whether or not a final economic deal with Canada can
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be structured Fairness for all, the president wrote on a
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social media site, truth Social. The presidential pause for Canada
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came hours after US Customs and Border Protection issued its
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official guidance for importers on the new twenty five percent
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import taxes, which was scheduled to take effect on Canadian
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products at twelve o one a m. Eastern time Tuesday.
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Tariff on China went into effect as planned on Tuesday,
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imposing an additional ten percent levy on all Chinese goods.
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On Monday, Trump told reporters that he would be speaking
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to China, probably in the next twenty four hours. The
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flurry of diplomatic activity cooled financial market on ease, but
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left unresolved key questions about Trump's ultimate aims in reshaping
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relations with US neighbors and global commerce. It causes massive
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havoc for our industry. There is no bigger killer for
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industry than uncertainty, said Kip Idelberg, senior vice president for
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Government Relations with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. As a
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negotiating tactic, this is not advisable at all. Damage will
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be done every time there's another tariff temperatentrum. The down
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Jones and Dutch Law average sank six hundred thirty points,
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or one point four percent in early trading, before rebounding
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to end the day down one hundred twenty two points.
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The administration hailed Mexico's border reinforcement as vindication of the
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president's aggressive stance for three days. A lot of the
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far left has actively rooted against America and argued we
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get nothing out of President Trump's demand that Mexico secured
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its country. Vice President JD Vance posted on X well,
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how do you like them apples? But the past week's
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trade policy showdown triggered outrage in Mexico and Canada. Spectators
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at National Hockey League and NBA games in Canada over
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the weekend booed the US national anthem lee on again,
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off again trade war left companies throughout the United States
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puzzling over how much of Trump's tariff talk was negotiating
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for Vada and how much of it was real. Increased
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tariffs on China are just the opening salvo, and additional
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import taxes will be levied on European goods pretty soon,
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the President told reporters Monday, repeating a threat he made
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shortly after being inaugurated. On Wall Street. Analysts in recent
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days scrambled to reassess economic forecasts that generally assumed Trump
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would use TAARFF threats as a club to coerce other
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countries into offering policy concessions, but would stop short of
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disrupting trade ties. Saturday's blitz of executive orders announcing tariffs
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on imports from China, Mexico, and Canada rattled that confidence.
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The United States top three trading partners were complicit, the
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President said, in a flood of illicit drugs and migrants
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that represented a national emergency. Economists at JP Morgan Private
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Bank initially thought tariffs on Canada and Mexico were unlikely.
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Trump tendency to talk tough and then bargain, as he
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did with Columbia over its acceptance of migrant deportation flights,
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and with Mexico and Canada on Monday supports that view,
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according to Joseph sidel senior markets economist at JP Morgan
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Private Bank, but that assessment now looks less solid. If
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actually implemented, the tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China would
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trim up to one percentage point from the US economy's
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growth rate, nearly cutting it in half. Sideal said, the
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odds of a wider trade war than we had anticipated
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are actually going up, he said. Across North America on Monday,
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businesses scrambled to prepare for whatever emerged from the last
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minute White House talks with the Mexican and Canadian leaders.
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Among those that would be hardest hit are manufacturers of
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passenger cars and heavy duty equipment. Regional supply chains cross
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US national borders as easily as the lines on the
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map that separate Ohio and Indiana. Idelberg's association represents major
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equipment makers such as Caterpillar and John Deere, whose products
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traversed the borders with Mexico and Canada an average of
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fourteen times before being completed. If those tractors, loaders, and
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excavators were assessed a twenty five percent tax on each journey,
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they would quickly become unaffordable. Ideberg said Trump's first term
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tariffs on imported steel and Chinese good raised equipment maker's
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costs by eight to ten percent, costing thousands of jobs.
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Amid the threat of new tariffs, Idelberg's members are pausing
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investment and hiring plans. This seems like a great self
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inflicted wound, he said. Home Builders, already under pressure from
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high mortgage rates, had asked the administration to exempt building
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materials from its tariff plans, but the request was denied,
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said Jim Tobin, president of the National Association of home Builders.
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Using industry relies heavily on lumber from Canada, gypsum from Mexico,
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and electronics from China, Trump's plan to taxes imports is
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at odds with his promise to lower housing costs, The
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group said. Builders have generally cheered Trump's return, hoping for
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streamlined regulations that will make projects more efficient, but thin
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margins mean more companies will probably start writing contracts that
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allow them to adjust prices. As material costs keep climbing,
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Tobin said there isn't a room that won't be affected
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by these tariffs. He said, it's a whole house tariff. Monday,
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began with Shinebound, posting on x that after a good
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conversation with Trump, Mexico would deploy ten thousand National Guard
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troops to its border to block the flow of drugs
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into the United States. The United States pledged to stop
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the illegal trafficking of weapons to Mexico. She said. Trump's
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accounted the agreement on True's Social made no mention of
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a commitment, but said the deployment of Mexican troops will
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be specifically designated to stop the flow of fetnyl and
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illegal migrants into our country. Scheinfound told reporters that she
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had reached out to Trump on Friday, but they were
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only able to speak Monday morning. During the roughly forty
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five minute call, she proposed suspending the tariffs while the
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two sides worked out an agreement on security and trade,
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the Mexican leader told in these conference, Trump asked how
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long she wanted to hold on the tariffs. I said,
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let's pause him forever, she told reporters, laughing when he
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repeated the question, she agreed to a month long delay.
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I'm sure in a month we can provide results, she said.
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In announcing the terraffs, Trump had emphasized his concern about
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the smuggling of fentanyl over the border. The highly addictive
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opioid has killed tens of thousands of Americans in recent years.
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US authorities say Mexican cartels manufacture the drug using chemicals
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imported from China and and other countries. Mexico already has
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thousands of troops stationed near the US border as part
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of a broad effort to contain irregular migration to the
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United States. It's unclear how much the additional Mexican troops
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can do to halt the trafficking of fetnah, which is
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difficult to detect. Unlike heroin, cocaine, or marijuana, it is
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highly compact. It is generally produced in small, informal laboratories,
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some of them in apartment buildings. Trudeau's announcement Monday repeated
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a nine hundred million dollar border plan the government unveiled
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in December, which featured the deployment of new helicopters, surveillance
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systems and personnel. In new commitments, the Prime Minister agreed
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to designate international drug cartels as terrorists and signed an
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intelligence directive without providing details. Trump's tariff threats United Canadians
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in an unusual anti US sentiment. Trudeau said Saturday that
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Canada would impose retaliatory on one hundred six billion dollars
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worth of US products. Several provincial leaders yanked US alcohol
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from store shelves and said they would limit procurement opportunities
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for American companies. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday that
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he would pause the province's retaliatory measures, but added that
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the thread of terrace had not gone away. Whether it's tomorrow,
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in a month, or a year from now when we're
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renegotiating the United States Mexico Canada agreement, President Trump will
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continue to use the thread of teriffts to get what
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he wants, he said in a post on x Amendo
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Coletta in Toronto and Valentino Muno's Castillo in Mexico City
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contributed to this report. Our next item from Today's from
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Pages entitled Trump prep's order to dismantle Education Department plans
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are set in motion as DOGE agent's probe sensitive internal
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data by Laura Meckler, Danielle Douglas Gabriel, and Hannah Nettissen.
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President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order aimed at
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eventually closing the Education Department and in the short term,
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dismantling it from within. According to three people briefed on
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its contents, the draft order acknowledges that only Congress can
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shut down the department and instead directs the agency to
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begin to diminish itself, these people said, speaking on the
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condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak
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publicly about internal issues. The work is already under way.
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The new administration has been trying to reduce the workforce
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by putting scores of employees on administrative leave and pressuring
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staff to voluntarily quit, and roughly twenty people with Elon
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Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, had begun
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working inside the Education Department looking to cut spending and staff.
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According to three people familiar with the situation and records
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obtained by The Washington Post, at least some DOG staffers
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have gained access to multiple sensitive internal systems, the people said,
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including a financial aid data set that contains a personal
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information from millions of students enrolled in the federal student
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aid program. The DOGE probe, which began last week, is
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a prelude to a more dramatic effort to make good
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on one of Trump's campaign promises, eliminating the Education Department altogether.
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A White House official confirmed that it is preparing for
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executive action later this month that will fulfill Trump's campaign
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pledge to defund the department. Some Republicans have argued that
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it would be better to wait until after Trump's choice
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for Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, appears before the Senate for
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her confirmation hearing. Scheduling has been held up as the
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Government Ethics Office reviews her paperwork. A Senate aide said
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the expected executive order would not shut down the agency,
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as there is widespread agreement in both parties that doing
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so would require congressional action. The people familiar said the
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Education Department was created by Congress, and only Congress can
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eliminate it. Such congressional action is unlikely. People in both
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parties say legislation would require supermajority of sixty votes in
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the Senate, meaning at least seven Democrats would need to
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support the plan, which observers say is inconceivable. A twenty
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twenty three vote in the House to abolish a department
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considered as an amendment to a parent's Right bill, garnered
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one hundred sixty one yes votes, but sixty Republicans join
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every Democrat in voting no. The bill was defeated. I
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would not hamelike Breath that closing the department would ultimately
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become law, Representative Tim Wahlberg, Republican from Michigan, chairman of
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the House Education Committee, said in an interview last month.
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He said he supports closing the agency, but that such
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a plan does not have sufficient support in the Senate,
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so such legislation would not be his highest priority absent
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a plan from Trump to move the bill forward. So
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in the meantime, Wahlberg said, my efforts would be defined
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any means by which we may depower the Department of Education.
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The order is expected to direct the Education Department to
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develop a legislative plan to present to Congress, but it
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will also instruct the department to come up with a
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plan to diminish its staff and functions. It was unclear
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how detailed the order will be, but people briefed and
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others who follow the Education Department closely said they expect
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the agency will try to move various functions to other
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federal departments. Project twenty twenty five, the conservative blueprint for
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a second Trump term detailed where different pieces of the
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department might land if it were closed. For instance, Project
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twenty twenty five recommended that the student Loan program moved
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to the Treasury Department and Civil Rights Enforcement shift to
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the Justice Department, but even those moves would require congressional action,
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experts said. The nineteen seventy nine law that established the
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department specifies that the agency shall include many of its
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major responsibilities, including an Office for Civil Rights and an
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Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. A separate statute, the
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Higher Education Act, specifies that the Federal Student Aate Office
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be housed in the Education Department. There has been some
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bipartisan interest in moving some of these functions out of
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the Department in the past, but it is unclear if
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Democrats would go along. In this environment, Trump and his
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team probably understand they will not be successful in tearing
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the Education Department to pieces by executive order, said Michael Petrelli,
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president of the Thomas B. Fordam Institute, a conservative think tank,
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But he said the move will please Trump's face and
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test the limits of presidential power. What will be interesting
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is if he orders parts of the department to be
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moved to other agencies in violation of the statues, Petrelli said,
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then that'll be a test and will see what happens
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in the courts. Already, the National Student Legal Defense Network,
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an advocacy group, is exploring legal challenges to any effort
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to dismantle the agency. Effectively shutting down the Apartment of
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Education through executive order or mass firings is a recipe
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for chaos that will disrupt the lives of students across
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the country, said Aaron Emmont, a former Obama administration official
17:27
who is present to the group. Trying to do so
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without Congress is not only short sighted, but illegal and unconstitutional. Still,
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Petrelli pointed to the ongoing saga at u SA, which Trump,
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working through Musk, effectively closed and merged with the State
17:44
Department over the week end. He can't do this on
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his own. He can't actually dismantle the Apartment of Education,
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Petrolie said. But boy, everything feels up in the air
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right now. It's been a disorienting couple of days. So
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who Closing the department has been an off and on
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Republican goal since it was created in nineteen seventy nine.
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During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to return responsibility for
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education to the states, a miss leaning sentiment echoed by
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many other GOP candidates. States in school districts, not the
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federal government, operate public schools. The department administer's federal grant programs,
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including the eighteen point four billion dollar Title I program
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that provides supplemental funding to high poverty K through twelve schools,
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as well as the fifteen point five billion dollar program
18:38
that helps cover the cost of education for students with disabilities.
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The department also oversees the one point six trillion dollar
18:46
federal Student Loan program and sets rules for what collegists
18:50
must do to participate, and the agency is charged with
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enforcing civil rights laws that bar discrimination in federally funded
18:58
schools on the basis of race, sex, and other factors.
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Executive orders signed after Trump took office suggests the department
19:07
will use its authority to deny federal funding to schools
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that teach certain things about race and gender. Another executive
19:14
order banning transgender girls and women from competing on women's
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sports teams is expected as soon as this week. Americans
19:21
have mixed and partisan views of the Education Department, according
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to a twenty twenty four survey, conducted by the Pew
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Research Center. It found that forty four percent had favorable
19:32
views of the agency and forty five percent had unfavorable views.
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But among Republicans and those who lean Republican, sixty four
19:40
percent viewed the agency unfavorably, compared with twenty six percent
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of Democrats and those who lean Democratic. Moves to shutter
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the agency are certain to draw a widespread opposition. Parents
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aren't asking for more chaos, said Carry Rodriguez, president of
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the National Parents Union. We are demanding leaders whose strengthen schools,
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protect our economy, and stop treating our children's futures like
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crops In a political performance, Donald Kettle, Professor Emeritus at
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the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, question whether
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Congressional Republicans will expend the political capital to unwind the
20:20
agency when they are tasked with carrying out so many
20:24
other aspects of Trump's agenda, particularly extending his twenty seventeen
20:28
tax cuts. Breaking up the Education Department would offer little
20:33
savings to offset the tax cuts, making the effort largely meaningless,
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he said. Is the House speaker willing to invest political
20:41
capital to not save any money to simply shift the
20:45
boxes around? And have very little to show for it
20:48
except for saying the apartment was abolished Kettle said. Donald K. Sherman,
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executive director and chief counsel for legal advocacy group Citizens
20:58
for Responsibility and Washington, said Trump could weaken the Department
21:03
without moving a single function. Pushing senior staffers out, gutting budgets,
21:08
and firing the Department's inspector general, he said, could make
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the agency a shell of its former self. Trump has
21:16
done a lot already to weaken the Department, Sherman said.
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People are demoralized. They are being driven out with the
21:23
end goal of destroying a critical arm of the government.
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Matt Viiser and Alice Krit's contributed to this report. Next
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article from today's From page is entitled Musk does dirty
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work to enact Trump Agenda by Isaac Arnsdorf and Jacqueline Olimany.
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After being almost inseparable between election day and Inauguration day,
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President Donald Trump and billionaire donor Elon Musk are starting
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to divide and conquer. Trump, who spent the weekend at
21:54
his Florida club, left Friday amid a massive potential purge
21:58
of federal prosecutors and FBI agents involved in cases against
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him and supporters who attacked the capital. On January sixth,
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twenty twenty one. On Saturday morning, he ordered air strikes
22:09
on an Islamic state leader in Somalia and posted video
22:13
of the explosions online. He golfed, then started a trade
22:17
war with United States neighbors and closest trading partners. Musk,
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the richest man in the world whose election spending to
22:25
help Trump topped two hundred eighty eight million dollars, dove
22:29
into a stated mission of cutting four billion dollars a day.
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His Department of Government Efficiency team took control of the
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Treasury Department's payment system, federal personnel files, and the agencies
22:41
that Handel's government contracts. Real estate and equipment. Officials who
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raised concerns about access to sensitive systems were put on
22:50
leave or retired. Trump is not closely monitoring musk smooths,
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according to people close to the president, who spoke on
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the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.
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But the people said Trump views Musk as doing the
23:04
task assigned him, and that the president benefits from letting
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someone else take the heat for drastic and controversial measures.
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One advisor described Musk as doing their dirty work, noting
23:15
that his approval ratings were dropping. Elon Musk and our
23:19
friends at DOGE are working very hard to find a
23:22
lot of waste and fraud in the use of government.
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Vice President J. D. Van said on Sunday Morning Futures
23:27
with Maria Bartiroma on Fox News. We are committed to
23:31
getting America back on a sustainable fiscal pathway. Part of that,
23:35
we really think the President believes is a terif equation.
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Part of that is cutting spending significantly, especially the wasteful bureaucrats.
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Musk's scroll and reach are particularly extraordinary given that he
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is a private citizen and the biggest donor in the
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twenty twenty four election who has been granted extensive access
23:56
to information with no formal hearings or congressional comment information,
24:00
and no defined oversight. The quasi agency he runs was
24:05
created outside a congressional process, and as a Musk pursues
24:09
his agenda. He is also aggressively attacking critics, including Republicans,
24:15
and bolstering his own views on his social media site
24:18
x The double impact of Trump's trade war and musk
24:22
swore on the federal administrative infrastructure risked spooking investors who
24:26
had interpreted promises for tariffs and spending cuts as political
24:30
posturing or negotiating tactics. Canada and Mexico immediately responded with
24:36
their own tariffs, while affected companies such as Musk's Tesla
24:40
are clamoring for exemption. Trump acknowledged the likelihood of blowback,
24:45
but said it would be worthwhile. Will there be some pain, yes, maybe,
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and maybe not, he wrote Sunday on his Truth social website,
24:55
It will all be worth the price that must be paid.
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Shock at the speed audaciousness of Doze interventions has spread
25:02
through the federal workforce in recent days, with some calling
25:06
the newcomers setting up in executive suite muscabytes. But the
25:10
coercive tactics have also stiffened the resolve of some civil
25:13
servant to stay rather than take Must's offer to resign
25:17
at the end of the fiscal year. On September thirtieth,
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that open invitation branded as a fork in the road,
25:25
the same as an offer from Musk. After his takeover
25:28
of Twitter bypassed Key White House budget officials, Trump brushed
25:33
off concerns that encouraging departures could hobble Key agencies such
25:38
as the Federal Aviation Administration, whose staffing of air traffic
25:41
control towers is under scrutiny after Wednesday's collision over the
25:45
Potomac that killed sixty seven people. Everybody's replaceable and will
25:51
get very good people to replace them, Trump told reporters
25:54
in the Oval Office on Friday. The Musk team's interest
25:58
in the Treasury Department's payment system picked up where the
26:01
White House Budget Office left off on Wednesday with the
26:04
reversal of a government wide directive to freeze all financial assistants.
26:09
Trump officials had suspected agencies of continuing payments that they
26:13
thought should have been blocked by executive orders against foreign
26:16
aid and diversity programs. White House officials acknowledged that the
26:21
resulting budget member was poorly worded and briefly disrupted operations
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from medicaid to special education and housing subsidies. The Treasury
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payment system, part of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service
26:33
that acts as the government checkbook, potentially presented Musk and
26:38
his team a way of cutting out agencies and more
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directly taking over the mechanism for paying or not paying
26:44
bills and grants. On x Musk has been portraying routine
26:48
payments as fraudulent or illegal, without specifying what or why.
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He did not respond to a request for comment. They
26:57
will make it sound like we're cutting funding to say
27:00
baby pandas, when we're actually cutting funding to fraudsters, wastrials,
27:04
and terrorists. He wrote. This is only possible because of
27:07
President Trump. Musk's stated goal of saving one trillion dollars
27:12
would mean having total annual outlays almost a third goost
27:16
of Social Security and Medicare, which Trump has promised not
27:19
to cut, and twenty percent funds the military. In other words,
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Musk's target would be equivalent to every other dollar the
27:27
government spends. Normally, a small number of treasure officials use
27:32
the system to execute payments that other agencies authorize, not
27:36
to assess the proprietary information themselves. Widening access could risk
27:41
exposing sensitive national security and personal information. It could also
27:46
introduce errors into the clunky technology. These payment systems simply
27:51
cannot fail, and any politically motivated meddling in them risks
27:56
severe damage to our country and the economy. Senator Ron Wysteen,
28:00
Democrat from Oregon, the ranking democrat on the Senate Finance Committee,
28:04
wrote in a letter Friday to Treasury Secretary Scott Passet.
28:08
I can think of no good reason why political operators
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who have demonstrated a blatant disregard to the law would
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need access to these sensitive, mission critical systems. Trump praised
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Musk after arriving at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland
28:24
on Sunday. I think Elon is doing a good job,
28:27
he said. Smart guy, very smart. As DOGE officials found
28:31
out across federal agencies, government websites shut down, and the
28:36
National Transportation Safety Board said it would start communicating only
28:40
on x Musk's platform. Trump and Musk's tag team played
28:45
out in December. During the standoff over funding the government.
28:49
Musk publicly assailed the Republican negotiated spending package, leaving lawmakers
28:54
scrambling for a new agreement to averted shutdown. At the
28:57
last minute. Trump declared victory, even though the resulting package
29:02
did not include his stated top priority of addressing the
29:05
debt sealing. Jeff Stein, Anla Nakashima, and Marianna Alfaro contributed
29:11
to this report. The next item from today's front page
29:15
is entitled work is halted at c f BP on
29:20
acting heads orders, Consumer watchdog agency's staff told a stop
29:25
crafting enforcing rules. By Tony Rahn, the Consumer Financial Protection
29:31
Bureau halted much of its work to investigate and penalize
29:34
corporate wrongdoing Monday, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, tapped to
29:39
lead the watchdog on an acting basis, ordered an agency
29:43
wide review to promote consistency with a new Trump administration.
29:48
Shortly after assuming a post, Bessentenna's aides ordered the bureau's
29:52
staff in an e mail to cease crafting regulations, enforcing rules,
29:57
conducting probes, or providing public communications of any type, According
30:03
to a copy obtained by The Washington Post, which said
30:06
he had instituted the ban effective immediately. The missive appeared
30:11
to herald a stark shift for the CFBP, a powerful
30:14
agency formed in the wake of the two thousand eight
30:17
banking crisis to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or predatory
30:22
financial practices. It came on the same day the President
30:25
Donald Trump named Secretary of State marcor Rubio at the
30:29
administrator of another agency, the US Agency for International Development,
30:34
which the administration moved to shutter as part of a
30:37
broad and contested effort to slash government spending and regulation
30:43
much like USAID. The financial watchdog is a long time
30:47
target of Republican's scorn Party. Lawmakers have threatened for years
30:52
to defund the CFBP or neuter its powers, and tech
30:56
billionaire Elon Musk, who was advising Trump on his reconfiguration
30:59
of American government, has called on Congress to delete the
31:03
bureau entirely. Under President Joe Biden, the CFPP was active
31:09
and aggressive. Its leader, row Hit Chopra, issued a wide
31:13
array of rules to crack down on creditory lending, reduce
31:17
the burden and medical debt, and cut fees that customers
31:20
pay when they fall behind on their credit card bills
31:23
or over extend their checking accounts. Chopper also expanded the
31:27
bureau's watch over Apple, Google and other tech giants as
31:32
their digital payment apps grew more popular with consumers. But
31:36
Trump fired Chopper on Saturday before his term was scheduled
31:39
to end, pleasing Chopper's Republican critics who had long accused
31:43
him of engaging in regulatory overreach. Banks, tech giants, and
31:48
other businesses similarly delighted in Chopper's departure and Besson's ascension
31:53
as acting director After years of fierce legal and political
31:58
flashes with the Bureau the extent of its oversight. We
32:02
urge Secretary Besson to begin reversing the damage caused by
32:06
these misguided regulatory actions and stand ready to support his
32:10
efforts to chart a better course for the Bureau. Rob Nichols,
32:14
the president of the American Bankers Association and industry lobbying group,
32:18
said in a statement Monday. A CFPP spokesman did not
32:22
immediately respond to requests for comment. I look forward to
32:26
working with the CFPP to advance President Trump's agenda to
32:30
lower costs for the American people and accelerate economic growth,
32:34
Besson said in a statement after Trump designated him for
32:37
the role. The President has not yet nominated a permanent director,
32:41
who must be confirmed by the Senate. On Capitol Hill,
32:45
some Democrats assailed Bason for pausing the bureau's work, stressing
32:49
in particular that an interruption to its investigations would leave
32:53
Americans exposed to scams. Shutting down CFBP enforcement actions that
32:59
are on the verge of delivering money into the pockets
33:02
of working people is at odds with President Trump's claim
33:06
that he wants to lower costs for families, which has
33:09
done next to nothing on so far, said Senator Elizabeth
33:13
Warren from Massachusetts, a top Democrat on the Senate Banking
33:16
Committee who helped create the agency. For now, Besson's instructions
33:21
appear to halt virtually all of the agency's activities, including
33:25
implementing policies that were finalized at the end of the
33:28
Biden administration. Last month, the agency under Chaper moved to
33:33
eliminate unpaid medical debts from millions of Americans credit reports
33:38
in rules set to take effected March. The Bureau also
33:41
enacted limits on banks overdraft charges, a policy schedule to
33:45
enter full force in October. They are trying to strangle
33:49
rules that have already been lawfully finished as part of
33:52
the broad deregulatory agenda of Trump two point zero, said
33:56
Carter Doherty, communications director for Americans for Financial Work Reform,
34:01
which added that the administration is responding to the pressure
34:04
of the big banks. The Treasury Secretary on Monday also
34:08
ordered CFBP lawyers to cease defending their existing regulations in court,
34:14
except to seek a delay in ongoing trials. The pause
34:17
could set the stage for the Bureau to stop defending
34:20
its most contested rules, including those targeting so called junk
34:24
fees against lawsuits brought by the banks, tech giants, and
34:29
others that have sought to weaken the cfbp's mandate. Trump
34:33
similarly moved to restrain the CFBP during his first term.
34:37
His acting director, then former Congressman Mif Mulvaney, at one
34:41
point requested no new money for the agency and settled
34:44
its pending enforcement actions, sometimes for as little as one dollar.
34:49
This time, Republicans have promised to pursue even more significant
34:53
changes to the CFBP, targeting its leadership, structure, investigative powers,
34:58
and funding source. The bureau gets its money from the
35:01
Federal Reserve. Last week, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican from Texas,
35:06
unveiled the latest bill to curtail it's funding, describing the
35:10
CFPP as an unelected, unaccountable bureaucratic agency. The final itemp
35:17
from today's from page is entitled Jailed for jokes in
35:21
the Age of the Gun. After George's shooting, police cracked
35:25
down on students who made threats by John Woodrow Cox
35:29
and Hannah Maddison from Belusa County, Florida. The dragnet first
35:34
snagged a girl named Laurie who was lying in bed
35:37
admit her stuffed unicorns and Hello Kitty dolls. When the
35:40
ninth grader had what she thought was a funny idea,
35:44
she opened Instagram and, over a hot pink background, began
35:47
to type blowing the school up tomorrow. It was September tenth,
35:53
six days after another fourteen year old was accused of
35:56
gutting down two students and a pair of teachers at
35:59
Appalachi High in Georgia. At Laurie's home in Florida, she
36:03
posted the message and forgot about it until a few
36:05
hours later, when a friend urged her to delete what
36:09
he'd written. It was too late, of course, because the
36:12
Internet is forever, and because, unbeknownst to Laurie and hundreds
36:17
of other kids, law enforcement's tolerance for threats of any
36:20
kind made anywhere by any one was nearing zero. The
36:26
next day, the girl, fourteen, was placed in handcuffs that
36:30
barely fit her wrists, charged with a felony, and taken
36:34
to a Valusa County detention center for three weeks. The
36:38
day after that, another fourteen year old was charged for
36:41
a comment on Instagram quote, if y'all cry babies, don't
36:45
shut up, I'm as shoot up your school. The day
36:48
After that, a thirteen year old was charged for a
36:51
post on TikTok quote I will be shooting up Heritage
36:55
Middle School On nine thirteen, twenty four more threats would
36:59
wrap up followed in Belusa County and across the country,
37:02
as if a pathogen had been set loose. An analysis
37:06
of news reports by The Washington Post found that least
37:10
four hundred seventy seven people, ninety percent of them students,
37:14
were arrested in the two weeks after the Georgia massacre.
37:17
That's nearly one hundred more than in the aftermaths of
37:21
the three previous mass school shootings combined. But Louisa's elective sheriff,
37:26
Mike Chitwood, a registered independent and brash Philadelphia native, decided
37:31
he'd had enough. In the past week. He deployed dozens
37:35
of deputies and spent an extra twenty one thousand dollars
37:38
in taxpayer money. On the previous night alone, his office
37:43
had received fifty four tips. This is absolutely out of
37:48
control and it ends now, he announced in a news conference.
37:52
In the same moment, his investigators were tracking down two
37:55
more children, one thirteen and the other twelve. Since parents,
38:00
you don't want to raise your kids. I'm going to
38:02
start raising them, he continued. Every time we make an arrest,
38:06
your kid's photo is going to be put out there,
38:09
and if I can do it, I'm going to purp
38:11
walk your kid. His ultimatum was a hit on social media.
38:15
In the weeks ahead, children, parents, teachers, administrators, and police
38:20
officers would all wrestle with what it meant. In real life,
38:25
a boy named Armando, who was eleven, was sleeping with
38:29
his tan baby blanket when his mom rubbed his shoulder
38:31
until he opened his eyes. The police are at the door,
38:35
she told him, just past four am on September sixteenth,
38:39
so he slid on sweatpants and waited in the living
38:42
room of their Port Orange home while a team in
38:44
black vest searched his room for guns. Bodycam footage shows
38:49
what happened next to the boy, who, with his mother's permission,
38:53
the post is identifying only by his middle name, Amando,
38:57
a bright, round faced kid who tends to lose his
39:00
breath when he talks too fast, sat on the bed
39:03
beside his mom and listened. The detectives who had worked
39:07
the case through the night knew he had showed off
39:10
his collection of knives and airsoft guns during a FaceTime
39:13
call with three other kids. That weekend. Detectives had already
39:17
interviewed each of the children, who disagreed on whether Armando
39:20
claimed the guns were real, or if he threatened to
39:22
shoot up a school, or if a hit list he
39:25
had composed was a joke. He told the investigators, in
39:29
a voice yet to reach puberty, that he was pretty sure.
39:32
He'd mentioned to his friends that the guns were toys,
39:35
but he figured they could spot the orange tips that
39:37
indicate they're not real. Armando swore he didn't threaten to
39:41
attack any schools. Did you write a list down, asked
39:45
his mom, Jessica. I didn't know, he said, before acknowledging
39:50
that wasn't true. I did, yes. The detectives had already
39:55
found a notebook with names jotted down in black marker.
39:58
Did you joke and that it was a hit list
40:01
or a kill list? One of the masts. I jokingly
40:04
said it was a hit list in a joking manner,
40:06
but then m Armando said his mom interjected, does this
40:11
look like a joke to you, no, ma'am. Twelve minutes later,
40:17
one of the detectives told Armando that they would have
40:20
to arrest him. The boy's mouth fell open, but no
40:23
words came out. He slumped forward onto the bed and
40:26
cried into a blanket. Breathe. His mom told him, I can't,
40:32
he said in a whisper. Later in the kitchen, Armando,
40:37
coughing and hyperventilating, placed his hands behind his back. Oh,
40:42
his mom moaned, a hand covering her mouth as a
40:45
handcuffs cliff shut. In a video released later that day,
40:49
he steps from the back of an suv, his wrists
40:52
still cuffed. Rite this way, young man, a deputy says,
40:57
as the boy quietly shuffles down the sidewalk, his white
41:01
Nike flip flops scraping the pavement. Inside the building, his
41:05
ankles are shackled before he is ushered into an empty
41:08
holding cell. You have any questions, the man asks, No, sir,
41:14
he says, voice quavering. The video, posted by the Belusa
41:19
Sheriff's Office to YouTube and Instagram, has been viewed more
41:23
than one hundred seventy thousand times, and nearly all of
41:26
the most liked comments praised the sixth grader's public shaming.
41:31
On another day, on another campus and another part of Belusa,
41:36
another educator was reckoning with the same epidemic. Principal Jason
41:40
Watson opened the email just before one p m. His
41:44
heart beat loud in his ears. I will be going
41:47
to Atlantic High School and shooting every cisgendered person I
41:50
see with my dad's guns. The message read. In fact,
41:54
I am already parked near by in a red Honda
41:56
Civic with some handguns. When this is all over, the
41:59
entire country shall remember my name. There was no time
42:03
to read it twice. The principal clicked a series of
42:05
keys on his computer, placing Atlantic High into a hole,
42:10
while alarms throughout campus flash purple, part of the security
42:14
operation that costs the district six point nine million dollars
42:17
per year. Alerts buzzed on computers and phones, telling students
42:22
to stay inside their classrooms, asking teachers to close their
42:25
doors and check the locks. Watson yanked the walkie, talking
42:29
from his belt. Where are you guys, he asked his
42:31
crisis team. I got something when unfolded. That day now
42:36
happens so often it has become part of the landscape
42:39
of American education. Educators by expensive alert technologies, they hire
42:45
large staffs or even create departments devoted to security. They
42:49
start the school year with assemblies, teaching students where and
42:53
how to hide. It's putting a huge drain on school
42:57
administrators who are already overloaded. Kenneth Trump, president of the
43:01
consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services. Inside Atlantic High,
43:08
staff and students didn't know the threat was fake or
43:11
that the person who made it would never get caught.
43:15
April Travis paused her lesson on the principles of teaching.
43:18
She looked out at the room of seniors who signed
43:21
up for the class because they might want to become educators.
43:24
What if this time she thought someone really had a gun.
43:29
On the opposite side of campus, math teacher Caleb Bridge
43:33
crossed his classroom door. As he pulled the black shade
43:36
over the window, he pictured Atlanti's campus, its tall chain
43:40
link fencing, its single entry point protected by a security guard,
43:45
the heavy metal door against his palms. In her theater class,
43:49
seventeen year old Ariah Wallace put down her mechanical pencil.
43:54
She mouthed the phrase she repeats during every lockdown, everybody
43:58
is safe until we're told otherwise. And senior Dominic Nash,
44:03
eighteen recalled all the times he'd seen Atlantic hide locket
44:06
stores or hall class for threats, starting when he was
44:09
a freshman and a boy showed up to campus with
44:12
a pistol tucked in his pants. By this his senior year,
44:16
he knew exactly what to do when the walelans blaze
44:19
different colors. Purple like today meant stay where you are,
44:24
Green meant evacuate, Red, a lockdown meant leave your desk
44:29
and huddle beneath the Shark sticker, a tiny version of
44:33
the Atlantic mascot placed in the area of every classroom
44:36
where students are most protected from gunfire. On his first
44:41
day behind bars, Armando ate goldfish crackers and learned that
44:45
most of the other boys were there for stealing guns
44:48
or beating people bloody. One teenager threatened to kill him,
44:52
Armando said, but he didn't really mean it. Nearly all
44:56
the other inmates were older than he was. To him,
44:59
some of them looked like grown ups. In his cell
45:02
at the Luser Regional Juvenile Detention Center, Armando said he
45:06
found Haile Satan written on the wall, a message he
45:10
covered in tooth paste and toilet paper. When he noticed
45:13
an upside down cross above the door, Armando, just over
45:17
five feet tall, stepped backed and jumped then kept jumping
45:20
until he knocked it down. He placed the cross over
45:23
his bed, right side up. Armando, who said he'd never
45:28
thrown a punch or taken one, got slapped in the
45:31
back of the neck by a cell mate who wanted
45:33
to annoy him. Another team pete in a soap bucket
45:37
the boys all shared. Armando witnessed at least three fights,
45:41
he said, and during one caught a stray fist in
45:44
the chest. Every day he sat on his bed and cried. Eventually, though,
45:51
he learned how to get by, figuring that just being
45:54
nice and existing was the best approach. Gave away milk
45:57
and oatmeal and once a brownie, hoping the generosity would
46:01
help him make friends who at least avoid enemies. Other
46:05
children ordered his cell mate to stop bothering him, he said,
46:08
and the teen who'd threatened to kill him instead looked
46:11
out for him, promising to leave Armando his bank of
46:14
phone minutes if he got out first. He learned how
46:17
to shuffle cards and play spades, and he liked the guards,
46:21
who sometimes gave him kick cat bars when he volunteered
46:23
to mop or pick up trash. One of them nicknamed
46:27
him Dorrito after mispronouncing his last name that made him laugh.
46:32
Each morning, an older teen who called himself a preacher
46:35
prayed with Armando, and each night he talked to God alone.
46:39
Please keep me safe, he asked. By then, his arrest
46:43
had made national news, drying widespread praise online in comments
46:47
that included I support this one hundred percent. Get this
46:51
thug out of here, and don't ask him if they're
46:53
all right, Just book them. Experts in child's psychology and
46:57
criminology condemned Chitwood's approach. There's absolutely no evidence that this
47:03
is going to be helpful in reducing the level of threats,
47:06
said Deborah Weisbrote, a psychiatry professor at Stoningbrook University and
47:11
author of a twenty year study on students who make
47:14
school threats. I do think it's possible that could further
47:18
humiliate and embarrass a child, and they could go further
47:21
underground in whatever the distress was that led them to
47:24
make the threat in the first place. Chit would anticipate
47:28
a blow back, but dismissed what little he heard profane
47:33
and mustachiode. The sixty one year old had long welcomed controversy.
47:37
In twenty twenty three, he led a public campaign against
47:40
white supremacist he frequently referred to as scumbags to critics
47:46
of his approach with the accused children. He pointed to
47:49
the precipitous drop at arrests after he began publicizing names
47:52
and faces, from five the week of to seven to
47:57
two to one to zero. I have to worry about
48:01
the ninety nine percent of students her going to school
48:04
to do the right thing. I have to worry about teachers, administrators,
48:07
and parents. Somebody else could worry about little Johnny or
48:11
little Janie, he said. I cannot have schools and after
48:14
school activities and parents and teachers running around in fear.
48:19
At Armando's home, his mom, Jessica, struggled to process what
48:23
had happened. Along with his purp walk video, the Sheriff's
48:27
office had shared images of the array of airsoft guns
48:30
he'd spent years collecting. Jessica resented that her son, an
48:34
honorable student not allowed to watch our rated movies, had
48:38
been branded as a would be school shooter, potentially for life.
48:43
She rejected the notion popular among online commenters that she
48:46
was to blame or had given her son an irresponsible
48:49
number of weapons. It wasn't illegal, she noted, for Armando
48:53
to own the airsoft guns or plunk hands with him
48:56
in the back yard. Several didn't fire anyway. They tried
49:00
to make him out to be this little monster, she
49:02
said of the Sheriff's office. His treatment galled her in
49:06
large part because of an incident that had happened the
49:09
year before. In late March twenty twenty three, according to
49:13
an instant report, a teacher at his elementary school had
49:16
found another kill liss and the only name on it
49:20
was Armando's. In that case, the report said, the sheriff's
49:25
office determined the girl who made the list had no
49:28
history of disciplinary issues and may not have understood what
49:31
she had done. Case closed. Jessica can't understand why the
49:36
same sheriff's office treated two similar allegations so differently. What
49:41
occurred this year has nothing to do with what happened
49:44
the year before. Chitwood said, this year it was out
49:47
of control, and we announced what we were going to do.
49:50
They were all given a warning in the detention center.
49:54
Armando knew nothing about the other case because his mom
49:57
had never told him he'd been named on a pos
50:00
it killless. She wanted to preserve his innocence. As the
50:04
days passed, Armando began to wonder how long he would
50:08
remain there. He tried to ignore the kid who told
50:10
him he'd never go free. One day, he said, a
50:14
guard approached. You're on the t V, the man said.
50:19
It had been two days since the video of Armando's
50:21
arrest began to spread online, and the leaders of Belusa
50:25
County schools had decided to leave no doubt for the
50:27
rest of their students about what would happen if they
50:30
too threatened a campus. Early on the afternoon of September eighteenth,
50:36
the principal at T. DE. Whitt Taylor Middle High School,
50:39
in a rural swath of the county twenty five miles
50:41
from the beach, announced over the intercom that teachers were
50:45
about to play a clip of Chitwood from the recent
50:47
news conference. The teens watched and listened as the sheriff
50:52
delivered his ultimatums, zero tolerance felony charges, faces on posters,
50:58
arrests recorded and shared. Just then, the deputy assigned to
51:02
the school, Christopher Newman, got a call from the Sheriff's office.
51:06
The FBI, which has spent millions to monitor social media
51:10
for Potential Danger had detected a threat against Taylor made
51:14
minutes earlier by some one on campus. Newman radioed the
51:19
principal and the school was placed on a hold. The
51:22
cell phone used to make the threat was traced to
51:24
an address where four of Taylor's students lived at the time.
51:28
Newman said, each was in a different class room. He
51:31
knew two of them. They were cousins, a boy and
51:34
a girl. Newman decided to start with a boy, rushing
51:38
toward a distant red brick building where the sixteen year
51:41
old attended classes. On his way, it struck him just
51:45
how brazen these students had been. A threat made against
51:49
the school at the school immediately after a warning about
51:53
the consequences of threatening a school. Good God, he thought,
51:57
are you kidding me? The boy's classroom, He snatched his
52:01
backpack and ordered him outside. Newman took the teen's phone.
52:06
I m as shoot at the school. His cousin, the girl,
52:08
had joked on Snapchat, sending him an identical note in
52:12
a direct message, his reply saying Newman left him with
52:17
another deputy and headed across campus to retrieve his cousin.
52:21
He unlocked the door to a classroom five one fifteen
52:24
and spotted the girl, who was seventeen, in the middle
52:27
of the room. According to bodycam footage, Newman knew her
52:31
she had anger issues and used to get in fights,
52:34
but he'd seen her make progress. Newman sighed and gathered
52:37
her bag. I need your computer too, he said. She
52:41
stood and walked to the classroom door, pausing next to
52:45
a sign that read dream Big. She placed her hands
52:48
behind her back. She laughed, this is not even the
52:52
time to ever joke about that. He told her. Me
52:55
and my cousin were texting by herself. She said, when
52:59
you use word word, it's like I must shoot up
53:01
the school. The FBI picks up on that, he replied,
53:04
as she was led down the hallway. Newman, a school
53:08
resource deputy for eighteen years, had never wanted any other
53:12
role in law enforcement. Bearded and broad tested the father
53:16
for knew he could look intimidating, so Newman wore googly
53:20
eyes on his body camera. The kids called him Depp.
53:24
Nothing had change in the dynamic among students or the
53:27
complexities of his work more than social media, and the
53:30
episode of Taylor reminded him yet again just how easily
53:34
it could be weaponized. To paralyze the campus. What motivates
53:39
students to menace schools online is typically trivial, a desire
53:43
to impress classmates they like, or frighten ones they don't,
53:47
or in many cases, just to get a day off
53:49
from classes. Only in the rarest cases do they intend
53:53
to harm anyone. People will say things to a computer
53:57
they would never say directly to another person in front
54:00
of them, said Robert Trustman, a psychiatry professor of Virginia
54:04
Tech Killian School of Medicine. Certainly teenagers and preteens act
54:09
without really understanding the consequences of their behavior. Increasingly, though,
54:15
law enforcement officials have more sophisticated tools to trace the
54:18
threats and less willingness to let them go unpunished. There
54:23
is such a frustration. People are frustrated about not being
54:26
able to just stop these once and for all, said
54:29
Kenneth Trump, the school security expert. So it becomes we're
54:34
going to arrest everybody, whether they're eighteen or their nine.
54:38
Much of that frustration, Newman understood stemmed from the profound
54:42
effect these threats could have on other students. Days before
54:46
the incident at Taylor, he'd responded to a lockdown in
54:49
the middle school where someone reported seeing a gunman there
54:52
was none, but that news hadn't reached the boy who
54:55
burst out of a classroom, so overcome with panic that
54:58
it triggered an asthma attack. Now, as Newman sorted through
55:02
what came next with the cousins, he worried how the
55:05
upheaval they provoked would impact the thousand other students on campus.
55:11
One of them, Journey Cope, was in science class when
55:14
she heard that a girl had showed up to school
55:16
with a gun and a list of kids she didn't like.
55:20
The rumor wasn't true, but the thirteen year old didn't
55:23
know that. She froze at her desk because a week before,
55:27
the girl had texted Journey, calling her fate, the angry
55:31
texts turning to angry calls, and now Journey couldn't stop
55:35
wondering if her name was on the list. Journey had
55:39
no space in her mind for science. She closed her
55:41
eyes and put her head on the desk. Some days later,
55:46
her mother called her over and hit play on a
55:48
Facebook video posted by Chitwood. There with the girl she
55:52
bickered with and a boy her cousin her hands, shackled,
55:56
stepping from the back of a van and trailing down
55:59
the same path Armando had walked. Think you made a
56:02
wise decision to day? A deputy asked the boy. He
56:06
shook his head, bend over her mom's iPhone journey, smiled
56:10
it felt good to watch. Armando returned home to a
56:15
slipping slide party, a new dog named Honey, and, after
56:19
twelve days behind bars, a mother convinced he shouldn't have
56:22
served a single one. Another boy on the FaceTime call
56:26
with him had since been arrested, accused of telling other
56:29
children in the group chat that Armando planned to kill them.
56:33
When detectives confronted him, the eleven year old acknowledged that
56:37
he'd lied, he'd wanted to scare people. His arrest didn't
56:41
exonerate Armando. A spokesman for the sheriff's office said, though
56:45
Armando has always denied threatening to shoot up a school,
56:49
he confirmed to detectives that he'd written up a hit
56:51
list as a joke. Now four months later, Armando says
56:55
he thinks the list was the other boy's idea. Whether
56:59
the rest of the chi encouraged him to go through
57:01
with it, the spokesman said, did not matter. A prosecutor
57:06
offered Armando a diversion program that would wipe the fudderly
57:09
charge from his record with no admission of guilt if
57:13
he completed community service, said his mom, Jessica. She considered
57:17
going to trial, but an attorney told her he could
57:20
face three years in a juvenile facility seven hours away.
57:24
She couldn't bear the risk. Armando switched to home schooling
57:28
and tried to stay busy. He signed up for a
57:31
flag football team with kids who didn't judge him. He
57:34
discovered the Harry Potter movie series and became so infatuated
57:38
that he started fashioning elaborate wands out of paper towels, glue,
57:42
and paint. He imagined joining the rodeo and moving to
57:45
the country. I wish I was younger, he said, because
57:50
he wanted to be the kid he used to be.
57:53
A week after his release, his family took him to
57:56
a seafood restaurant that overlooked the water, but he had
57:59
to leave, convinced that every one there knew who he was.
58:03
He had a recurring nightmare imagining himself drowning in the
58:06
hull of a ship. He refused to sleep in his
58:09
own bed, instead spending each night on the couch next
58:12
with his dog. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we will
58:16
not be able to complete this item. This concludes the
58:19
reading of the Washington Post for to Day, Tuesday, February fourth,
58:23
twenty twenty five. Your reader for to day has been
58:27
Cindy Fraser. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions
58:31
concerning this program, please feel free to call us at
58:34
eight five nine four two two sixteen nine zero. Thank
58:38
you for listening, and now please stay tuned for continued
58:41
programming on Radio I