Transcript

11.3.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning everybody, and happy Monday, and welcome to the
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reading of the Washington Post for this Monday, November three.
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As a reminder, Radio I is a reading service intended
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for people who are blind or have other disabilities that
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make it difficult to read printed material. Your reader for
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today is Rod Brotherton, and as you know by listening
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requests on Monday, we begin by reading Paul Prather's weekly
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column from the Lexington Herald Leader. This week's article is
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titled In My Season of Weakness, I am hoping to
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fall upward to grace. Earlier I wrote a column about
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an adventure phil trip I took to the emergency room.
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The time I wrote that piece, I thought we'd solve
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the questions of what was ailing me. Oh well, not
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so fast. Since then, I've experienced what feels like a
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cask of related issues. As far as I'm aware, I'm
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not standing at death's door or they're welcome man yet.
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So I don't want to sound whiny, but I do
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continue to feel perfectly rotten, and every fresh medical report
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sounds grimmer than the preceding ones. It's enough to get
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a guy down, especially a guy unused to illness. I
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keep thinking hey, Hey, I'm too young for this nonsense anyway.
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As a way of attempting to feed my soul and
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calm my frustrated mind, I've been revisiting the most illuminating
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religious book I've read in the past several years, Richard
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ROR's Falling Upward Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.
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If that sounds familiar, it could be because I wrote
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about the same book a couple of years ago. Roor
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is a Francescan priest, founded the Center for Action and
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Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The author of many books,
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He's among a handful of contemporary Christian writers who really
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speak to me. I've never met him, but as I
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said in twenty twenty three, he's helped me make sense
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of the transitions in my life as I go and aside.
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He's discussed in the recent HBO crime drama mini series Task,
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in which Mark Ruffo plays an FBI agent who formerly
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was a Roman Catholic priest. I was pleasantly surprised a
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couple of the characters got into a discussion my own
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personal guru. In Falling Upward, Roar divides our spiritual journeys
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into what he calls the first and second halves of life.
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These don't necessarily correspond with our actual age in the
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first half of life is universally, says but comparatively shallow.
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We're preoccupied with succeeding, providing our and proving ourselves right,
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protecting our careers, establishing who is and isn't part of
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our in group. Mainly, we are controlled by what war
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calls the fear based preoccupations of the lizard brain. And
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then something happens to us. Unfortunately, it's usually something cataclysmic,
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a moral disgrace, the death of a loved one, the
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rebellion of a beloved child. Whatever it is, it destroys
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our previous ego driven assumptions about ourselves, others, and God.
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This is the falling of the book's title. But the
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theme of Falling Upward is that this fall can in
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fact touch off a personal revelation and an inner revel
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Some people find their pain paradoxically moves them to a
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higher spiritual awareness. All concerns becase meaningless, better, deeper things come.
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Having lost what mattered so immensely before, those who fall
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upward are no longer afraid of losing. They don't care
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about defending their turf because they no longer have a turf,
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having had their sacred beliefs demolished. They don't assume they
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know everything or anything. Having been rejected, they reach out
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to other rejected people. Anyway, I love this book and
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find it talking to me again as I wrestle with
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this sudden decline in my health. Here are a few excerpts.
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Maybe one of them will speak to you. So we
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must stumble and fall, I'm sorry to say, and that
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does not mean reading about falling as you are doing here.
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We must actually be out of the driver's seat for
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a while, or we will never learn how to give
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up control to the real guide. And you need a
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very strong container to hold the contents and contradictions that
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arrive later in life. You ironically need a very strong
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ego structure to let go of your ego. Rher writes
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about Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish philosopher who warned his
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European culture it had distorted the meaning of faith by
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aligning it with the Western idea of progress rather than
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with the scriptures. Unamuno equates the notion of faith with
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trust in an underlying life force so strong that it
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even includes death. Faith also includes reason, but is a
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larger category than reason. For unamuno. Truth is not always
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about pragmatic problem solving and making things work, but about
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reconciling contradictions. Just because something might have some dire effects
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does not mean it is not true or even good.
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Life is inherently tragic, and that is the truth that
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only faith, but not our seeming logic, can accept, And
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most of nature seems to totally accept major loss, gross inefficiency,
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mass extinctions, and short life spans as the price of
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life at all. Feeling that sadness and even its full
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absurdity ironically pulls us into the general dance the unified field,
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an ironic and deep gratitude for what is given. Grace
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seems to be at the foundation of everything. And finally,
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the ego clearly prefers an economy of merit where we
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can divide the world into winners and losers, to any
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economy of grace where merit or worthiness loses all meaning.
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In the first case, at least a few of us
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good guys attained glory. The second case, all the glory
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is to God. Aim in my Francescan brother, and as
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you know, Paul Prather is pastor of the Bethesda Church
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near Mount Stirling, and you can email him at pr
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atpd at yahoo dot com. Now, let's turn to the
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Reality News of the Washington Post for this Monday the
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lead story, Trump escalates demands for twenty twenty election investigations
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and prosecutions. President Trump is dialing up pressure on the
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Justice Department to freshly scrutinize ballots from the twenty twenty election,
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raising tensions with administration officials who think their time is
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better spent examining voter lists for future elections. In private meetings,
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public comments, and social media posts, Trump has renewed demands
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that members of his administration find fraud in the five
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year old defeat he never accepted. He recently hired at
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the White House a lawyer who worked on contesting the
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twenty twenty results. Administration officials and allies have asked to
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inspect voting equipment in Colorado and Missouri. Others are seeking
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mail ballots from Atlanta in twenty twenty, when Trump became
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the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Georgia since nineteen
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ninety two. Across the administration, though officials have been more
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focused on forward looking steps, such as the examining state
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voter rolls for people who have moved or aren't citizens.
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Some officials are ready to move on from twenty twenty
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and want to avoid being called election deniers, a term
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for people who claimed without evidence that Trump beat Biden
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in the twenty twenty election. But Trump and some allies
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inside and outside the administration will not let go of
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allegations of widespread election fraud in twenty twenty, even though
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courts have repeatedly rejected their theories. They argue that future
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elections can't be secured without full accounting of twenty twenty.
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I hope the dog pursues with this with as much
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gusto as befitting the biggest scandal in American history, Trump
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posted on truth Social on October twenty sixth. If not,
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it will happen again, including the upcoming mid terms. New
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focus on twenty twenty comes as Trump has begun to
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see results from his demands to prosecute his critics, including
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former FBI director James B. Comy the New York Attorney
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General Letitia James, both Democrats. Last week, and the Justice
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Department also suspended two prosecutors who referenced the January sixth,
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twenty twenty one riot by a Trump supporting mob at
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the Capitol in a court filled related to sentencing a
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participant who Trump pardoned and is now facing unrelated weapons charges.
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Arizona Secretary of State Adrian fonte Is, a Democrat, said
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he views the charges against Trump's political opponents and the
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administration's attempts to acquire voter roles and voting equipment as
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a continuation of Trump's years long effort to question the
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results of an election he lost. Everything that they're doing
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now is a relegation of twenty twenty. He said. They're
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trying to discredit the entire electoral system in the United
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States of America so that Donald Trump can finally be
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able to say, you see, the system is corrupt, My
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lies were actually the truth. Trump is not specified who
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he blames for the alleged fraud in the twenty twenty election,
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but he has named people he wants investigated for the
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prosecutions against him and his supporters during the Biden administrations
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for efforts to reverse his twenty twenty loss. The president's
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calls to investigate or jail former officials, including former President Biden,
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former Attorney General Merrick Garland, and former Special Council Jack Smith.
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Intensified last week after House Republicans released a cash of
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FBI files from twenty twenty to twenty twenty three. The
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two hundred and thirty four pages described the preliminary steps
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to investigate people who falsely certified that Trump won the
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twenty twenty election in Key states. What they did was criminal,
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Trump said in an October fifteenth news conference in the
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Oval Office with Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General
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Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel, the same officials
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who would oversee those investigations. At another point in the
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news conference, Trump responded to a reporter's questions about a
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Senate primary in Georgia by returning to the topic of
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the twenty twenty election. I hope they're going to go
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into that, he said. I hope they go into the
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votes which are being stored in Fulton County. The county,
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which includes part of Atlanta, was the epicenter of false
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allegations of voter fraud during the twenty twenty election, rising
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from a water leak at the ballot counting facility and
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Wheeld ballot containers that were mischaracterized as unauthorized suitcases to
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election workers won a defamation case against Trump lawyer Rudy
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Giuliani for spreading falsehoods about them that led to threats.
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The Fulton County mailed ballots remain a source of interest
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in the MAGA movement because they are still in storage
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five years later. Ordinarily, the ballots are required to be
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kept for twenty two months, but Georgia judge ordered them
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indefinitely preserved during litigation that unsuccessfully challenged the election. The
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state's Republican controlled election board has repeatedly tried to obtain
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the ballots. The county officials say the records are under sealed.
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Fulton County Judge Robert C. I. McBurney will hold a
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hearing on November twenty fourth to consider whether to quash
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the board saboena for the ballots. In July, the board
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asked the Justice Department for help. The next month, Justice
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Department official Ed Martin sent McBurnie a letter requesting immediate
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access the one hundred and forty eight thousand warehoused mail ballots. Martin,
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who previously represented Trump supporters, accused of breaching the Capitol
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on January sixth, twenty twenty one, temporarily became the U
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S Attorney in Washington when Trump returned to office, but
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he lacked Republican support for a Senate confirmation. He went
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on to become Trump's pardon attorney and lead a newly
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created Weaponization working group at the Justice Department. In that capacity,
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he has been convening frequent meetings with officials across multiple
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agencies to address voter fraud. According to a person familiar
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with the meetings who wasn't authorized to speak to reporters,
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I am at present undertaking an investigation into election integrity
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here at the Justice Department, Martin said in a letter
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to McBurney, a copy of which was obtained by The
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Washington Post. A review of the ballots and envelopes is
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imperative for this work. It is not clear whether Martin's
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letter ever reached the judge. The letter says he sent
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it electronically to one email address that was typed in correctly.
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An aide to the judge did not say whether he
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received it, and Fulton County Clerk Shay Alexander and a
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county attorney declined to comment about the letter. Martin did
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not respond to requests for comment. On Thursday, Harmeet Dillon,
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a former Trump campaign legal advisor who now heads the
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Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, followed up by requesting to
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inspect the ballots. The letter, obtained by the Post said
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the division as investigating compliance with federal laws on administering elections.
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Rob Pitts, chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners,
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said he was confused by the Justice Department's involvement and
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efforts to review ballots from an election that has already
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been repeatedly scrutinized. It makes no sense to me to
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continue to look at the twenty twenty elections, he said.
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Audit after audit, review after review, What does it end
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one more time? Two more times? Until now, Billain's division
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was primarily focused on current voter lists rather than revisiting
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twenty twenty ballots. Most states have denied the Department's requests
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for full versions of the roles, but Indiana and Wyoming
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have turned them over, According to a Brennan Center for
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Justice website tracking the requests, The Justice Department last month
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sued eight states, all but one of them led by
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a Democratic governor for not handling over copies of their
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full rolls. Separately, two other Justice Department officials responsible for
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coordinating prosecutors have asked states to share information about voters
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and response to a March executive order on elections. The
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part of the executive order promoting sharing information remains in place,
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but the most significant aspects of the executive order have
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been blocked by courts. One blocked provisions that would have
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changed state's deadlines for returning mail ballots. Another would have
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required people to provide proof of citizenship when using a
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national voter registration form. Another part of the executive order
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that remains in effect directed the Department of Homeland Security
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to share citizenship data with state and local officials to
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verify voter's eligibility, leading Republican United States to run their
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voter rolls against the database administered by the u S
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Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Ohio Secretary of State, a Republican,
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referred one thousand, eighty four suspected ineligible voters to the
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Justice Department for investigation, and his Texas counterpart flagged twenty
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seven hundred and twenty four people the county officials to
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scrutinize voting rights. Advocates cautioned that the database contains incomplete
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and outdated information, resulting in inaccurate matches. This summer, the
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Trump administration and its allies also asked county clerks in
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Colorado and Missouri to turn over voting equipment for inspection
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and testing. The clerks refused the highly unusual requests, citing
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laws that require them to tightly limit who can access
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the equipment. In Missouri, the requests came from Andrew Macwarner,
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a top official in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division
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who previously served as West Virginia's Secretary of State. Warner
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has claimed the twenty two election was stolen by the CIA.
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The Justice Department is committee to upholding the integrity of
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our electoral system and will continue to prioritize efforts to
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ensure all elections remain free, fair, and transparent, a spokesperson said.
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In addition to these efforts at the Justice Department, in
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recent months, Trump tapped Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who worked
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on the twenty twenty election challenges, to work in the
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White House. Olsen was also in touch with Trump during
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the twenty twenty four campaign, irritating some other officials who
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found his advice unhelpful. Olsen declined to comment. Cleta Mitchell,
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another lawyer who tried to contest the twenty twenty election,
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said the administration should take additional steps, including publicly releasing
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more Biden administration records, compensating Trump and his supporters who
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were prosecuted, and revoking tax deductions for charitable contributions that
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funded local election administrators to ease voting procedures during the
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COVID pandemic in twenty twenty. It is high time that
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there was a full and open discussion of what transpired
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in twenty twenty. Mitchell set in an email, those who
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perpetrated these prosecutions and persecutions must be punished to stop
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it from ever happening again. And everyone in the DOJ,
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FBI wh who participated in that grand illegal conspiracy needs
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to be held to account, every single one and next.
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Chinese and US officials tentatively agree agree to avert one
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hundred percent tariffs from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Negotiators have reached
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a framework for a trade deal to avert additional one
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hundred percent tariffs that President Trump had threatened to impose
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on imports from China, setting the stage for the US
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President's highly anticipated meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this
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last Thursday. Treasury Secretary of Scott Descent set in interviews
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on Sunday that constructive meetings with his Chinese counterpart led
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to the deal, with the delegation from Beijing agreeing to
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defer restrictions on rare earth minerals that were poised to
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harm the US economy. The announcement marked a significant de
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escalation of a whiplashing trade war between the world's two
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largest economies, which heated up when Trump threatened to ratchet
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up tariffs earlier this month in response to Chinese restrictions
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on the minerals, which are essential components in most electronics.
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President Trump gave me a great deal of negotiating leverage
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with the threat of the one hundred percent tariffs, and
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I believe we've reached a very substantial framework that will
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avoid that and allow us to discuss many of the
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things with the Chinese, the Scent said on NBC's Meet
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the Pressed. The Scent suggested in an interview with ABC
22:09
News that China would defer the restrictions for about a year,
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although Chinese readouts included no details about a deferral of
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rare earth restrictions. He also said the countries had made
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progress on a deal to bring relief to US farmers
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who have struggled under China's boycott of US grown soybeans. Additionally,
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the SCENT said the countries have reached a final deal
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on TikTok, which Trump had promised to restructure to avert
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a ban of the popular social media app in the
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United States. Congress enacted the ban and President Biden signed
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it to address national security concerns related to the app's
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Chinese parent company, Byte Dance. Trump last month signed a
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deal that would spin off the app to a group
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of mostly American investors, including some of his top political allies.
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The countries will also work together to address the fentonyl epidemic,
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which Trump is called an emergency and used as a
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pretense to implement tariffs against China. The developments appear to
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have lowered the temperature ahead of Trump and Zi's face
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to face meeting, their first of the US president's second
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term and the highlight of his five days wing through Asia.
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The summit in South Korea will mark a critical inflection
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point in an economic conflict that is raged amid the
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President's escalating trade barriers against China and Zi's tit for
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tat responses. The S and U S trade representative Jamison Greer,
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spent Sunday negotiating with top Chinese trade negotiator Lie Chingang
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and Chinese Vice Premier Hi Lafing in Malaysia, while Trump
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also in Kuala Lumpur, signed a Cambodia Thailand peace deal
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and met with resilient President Luis Ignacio lu La di Silva.
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The US and China envoys came to basic consensus after
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negotiating on a wide range of issues, including tariffs, export controls, ventanyl,
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and agricultural trade. According to Chinese state news agencies Xinhua,
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further details must still be finalized and approved domestically. China's
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Vice Premier underscored the benefits of the US China commercial relationship,
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noting that the results of negotiations were hard won and
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need to be jointly upheld, and that he hopes the
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US and China will meet each other halfway further build
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mutual trust and manage differences, according to Xinha. Meanwhile, Lee
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described the negotiations as intense, said that while the US
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officials expressed a strong position, they Beijing is firmly committed
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to safeguarding its interests, according to Chinese state broadcaster c
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c TV. Greer told Fox News Sunday that the US
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and China delegations had constructive conversations in Kuala Lambour, but
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he said only leaders can determine when they have a
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final deal. It's really going to depend on Trump and
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President Xi Jinping, he said. And the next story. Supreme
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Court has expanded presidential powers under Trump? How far will
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it go? For nine months in a flood of emergency orders,
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the Supreme Court has allowed President Trump to expand his power.
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Justices have permitted Trump to slash the federal bureaucracy, fire
25:51
the heads of nominally independent agencies, and exercise powers traditionally
25:56
ascribed to Congress. How much further will the Court go?
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That will be the overriding question Wednesday, when the Court
26:05
hears arguments on the legality of most of the President's tariffs,
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the first case to reach the Justices in a series
26:12
of high stakes tests of Trump's sweeping claims of authority.
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His asserted tariff powers are uniquely dear to Trump, who
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has repeatedly warned of economic devastation if the Court were
26:26
to rule against one of his signature policies, but the
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other tests of presidential power could also have major impact.
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In November, the Court will consider whether to strike down
26:38
a ninety year old precedent that insulates independent agencies from
26:43
White House inference. In January, it will explore whether Trump
26:48
can remake the Federal Reserve with its vast powers over
26:51
the economy. Taken together, the cases will determine the extent
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to which the Supreme Court will embrace Trump's view of
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a pre constrained by few checks and wielding the type
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of authority typically only seen in times of war. National crisis.
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Decisions are expected in the cases by summer. I think
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the Court so far has been more deferential to Trump
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than most Supreme courts in modern times, said Matthew Dallak,
27:22
a political historian at George Washington University. It's very hard
27:27
to point to a significant way in which the Court
27:30
has said stop to the White House, and it raises
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the pressure on the court, it raises the stakes for
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the term ahead. White House spokeswoman Abigail Johnson said in
27:42
a statement that the High Court's rulings have corrected erroneous
27:46
decisions by far left, liberal activist judges, that the president
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is doing what he was elected to do. The President
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will continue implementing the policy agenda that the American people
27:59
vote for in November, and will continue to be vindicated
28:04
by higher courts when liberal activist judges attempt to intervene.
28:09
Jackson said Trump's claim that he can unilaterally impose massive tariffs,
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a cornerstone of his economic agenda, is among his most
28:19
aggressive moves to date. His assertion rests on a nineteen
28:24
seventy seven law that grants the presidency emergency powers to
28:28
regulate international commerce. Trump's argument that the law can be
28:34
used for tariffs is one no other president has made
28:38
in the statute's fifty year history. The administration has asked
28:42
the justices to overturn federal courts ruling that found that
28:45
the law did not convey authority to impose tariffs. Trump
28:50
said the levies, some of which he announced at an
28:52
event dubbed Liberation Day, will help stem the flow of
28:56
fentanyl across the border and restore america and manufacturing base.
29:02
Small businesses and states have sued to block the levies,
29:07
arguing they will cause widespread economic harm. Arguably, no institution
29:13
has set the stage for Trump's efforts to expand his
29:16
powers as much as the Supreme Court, and in particular,
29:19
its chief Justice John G. Roberts Junior, has written decisions
29:24
in recent years declaring the president a uniquely powerful figure.
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In a twenty twenty ruling, Roberts wrote that the entire
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executive power belongs to the president alone. Is also animated
29:38
that the president should have a free hand to fire
29:41
low level government employees, and made it easier for the
29:44
president to remove the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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Last year, Roberts, writing for the majority, granted Trump and
29:53
other president's broad immunity from prosecution for official acts. Roberts
29:59
said such protections was necessary for the president to carry
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out his responsibilities forcefully and fearlessly. Unlike anyone else, the
30:09
president is a branch of government, and the Constitution vests
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in him sweeping powers and duties. Robert's route the decision
30:19
drew a vigorous dissent from the Court's liberal justices. The
30:24
president is now king above the law. Justice Sonya Sutamayor
30:28
lamented for the trio Robert's rulings are in keeping with
30:32
the unitary executive theory, a legal idea embraced mostly by
30:37
conservatives that the president has sole and total control over
30:42
the executive branch, including the right to fire its employees,
30:46
with little interference from Congress of the courts. The theory
30:50
was advanced by the Reagan White House, where young Roberts
30:54
served as an attorney. It has now reached its zenith
30:58
in Trump's second Legal experts said it's not the substance
31:04
of the High Court's decisions that have empowered Trump, it's
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how the justices have made them. The administration has brought
31:13
far more cases to the Supreme Court on the emergency
31:16
docket than any of its predecessors, allowing for quick decisions
31:20
that temporarily clear the way for Trump's priorities to take
31:24
effect while litigation continues. The Court's liberals have frequently criticized
31:30
the conservative majority making decisions on weighty issues without full briefings, arguments,
31:37
or the extended deliberations that a company's cases heard on
31:40
the regular docket. Decision by decision, the emergency docket cases
31:47
have increased Trump's power, albeit on a provisional basis. So far,
31:53
In all, the Court has rule for Trump seventeen out
31:56
of twenty three times, and emergency appeals and extraordinary record,
32:01
the administration is lost in three cases, with some still pending.
32:07
Graham G. Dodds, a professor of political science at Concordia University,
32:13
said the Trump administration was testing the boundaries of the
32:16
law with its actions. Understanding the Roberts Court's expansive views
32:21
of the president's roles, some of Trump's recent additions in
32:26
his second term almost invited court cases, intentionally pushing the
32:31
envelope hoping to provoke a court case, Dods said. Dodds
32:37
pointed to the string of temporary rulings in which the
32:40
Court has allowed Trump to fire without cause members of
32:44
the Federal Trade Commission, Merit Systems Protection Board, National Labor
32:49
Relations Board, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In those rulings,
32:56
they cut against the Supreme Court's main precedent on the
32:59
issue of independent agencies, a nineteen thirty five case called
33:04
Humphrey's Executor, which allowed Congress to shield such agencies by
33:09
limiting the ability of presidents to fire their board members.
33:14
Congress created the protections so the agencies could make decisions
33:18
based on non partisan expertise, not politics. The agencies included
33:24
those that make critical decisions about elections, media, and product safety.
33:30
The Court's conservatives have argued that Humphrey's executor subverts the
33:35
constitutional order. Liberal Justice Helena Kagan wrote in descents that
33:41
its potential demise will greatly expand the President's power and
33:45
could politicize core functions of the government. The majority stay
33:51
order by stay order, has handed full control of all
33:55
those agencies to the president, Kagan wrote in her dissent
33:58
over the firing of an FTC commissioner. He may now remove,
34:04
so says the majority, though Congress said differently, any member
34:09
he wishes, for any reason or no reason at all,
34:13
he may thereby extinguish the agency's bipartisanship and independence. Kagan
34:20
wrote in another descent that it was backward for the
34:23
conservative majority to exceed the Trump's request to fire FTC
34:27
member Rebecca Kelly Slaughter on its emergency docket, even though
34:32
it had not decided to challenge to Humphrey's executor. The
34:35
president the president that protected her, She said, it showed
34:40
a majority raring to take action. Our emergency dockets should
34:45
never be used as it has been this year to
34:48
permit what our own president. President bars Kagan wrote, still more,
34:55
it should not be used as it also has been,
34:59
to t for government authority from Congress to the President
35:03
and thus to reshape the nation's separation of powers. In
35:07
another case, the justices greenlit Trump's effort to gut the
35:12
Education Department by firing more than a third of its
35:15
staff and outsourcing its duties, one of several rulings allowing
35:20
Trump to radically downsize the government. The majority did not
35:24
detail the rationale for its decisions, which is common in
35:28
cases decided on the emergency docket, but the court's liberals
35:32
issued a blistering dissent, noting Congress created the agency by statute.
35:40
The ruling hands the executive the power to repeal statutes
35:45
by firing all those necessary to carry them out. The
35:49
Majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its
35:52
rulings or naive, but either way, the threat to our
35:56
Constitution's separation of powers is great. Such to my oor vote.
36:02
Unlike Trump, nine presidents over the past one hundred years
36:06
in both parties, gotten permission from Congress to reorganize the
36:10
executive branch before moving forward with such plans. Such to
36:14
my oor vote. The High Court has bolstered Trump's power
36:18
in another area traditionally seen as under the purview of
36:22
congress spending, Trump has unilaterally held up billions of dollars
36:28
in appropriations for research, teacher training, and conservation, among other cuts.
36:34
Congressional democrats estimated as of June that Trump has refused
36:39
to allocate more than four hundred and twenty five billion
36:43
dollars mandated by Congress. In one key decision, the Justices
36:49
permitted Trump to freeze more than four billion dollars in
36:53
foreign aid for food, medicine, and development, which officials said
36:57
was not in keeping with the administration's priorities or values.
37:02
The Justices rule that aid groups which sued over the
37:06
freeze probably were not allowed to bring such suits. Mitchill Warrant,
37:11
executive director of the aid's Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, which sued
37:16
the Trump administration over the freeze, said the High Court's
37:19
ruling potentially implies that the administration can disregard congressional power
37:25
of the purse. Cecilia Wang, national litigation director at the ACLU,
37:31
which has challenged the Trump administration in numerous cases, argued
37:35
that the Supreme Court has made it easier for the
37:38
Trump administration to win cases on the emergency docket. Traditionally,
37:43
the High Court has leaned toward preserving the status quo
37:47
in emergency decisions, but Wang said the Court's conservatives have
37:52
shown a greater willingness to upend current policy to allow
37:55
Trump's Virginia to move forward. The justices have also shifted
38:00
how they weigh harms and benefits of blocking a policy,
38:04
one of the criteria for issuing an injunction. She said,
38:09
they have ignored profound harms to plaintiffs, sometimes at the
38:13
risk of their lives, while giving overwhelming preference to the
38:17
president's assertion that he doesn't wish to be delayed in
38:20
implementing his policies, Wang said. Andrew what A Viege, professor
38:27
of government at Boden College, said Trump's steady accretion of
38:31
power is striking because it bucks historical precedent. In the past,
38:36
when you've had the expansion of presidential power, it almost
38:40
always has been because of pretty well agreed upon national
38:44
emergency emergency. What of Age said, the Civil War is
38:49
a big boost for presidential power. The Depression and World
38:52
War II are boosts for presidential power. There is no
38:57
equivalent of that right now. Jeffrey Rosen, who recently released
39:03
a book dealing with presidential power called The Pursuit of Liberty,
39:07
said the current era is also distinct that Congress has
39:11
typically pushed back against presidents who try to expand their power,
39:16
but the Republican controlled legislature has been particularly quiescent during
39:21
Trump's second term. If this pattern continues, of a deferential
39:26
Congress and Court allowing the consolidation of executive power in
39:31
the White House, it may change the balance of power
39:35
in ways that are hard to restore, Rosen said. And
39:40
the next story, Trump and Mamdani, best of enemies, can't
39:45
stop talking about each other. Zoran Mandani stood before thirteen
39:52
thousand supporters and urged them to let our words ring
39:58
out so loud that his opponent, Andrew m cuomo's puppet
40:03
master in the White House, hears them loud and clear. Together,
40:08
New York Mom, Dammy said, We're going to freeze the rent.
40:15
Crowd roared together, New York. We're going to make buses
40:20
fast and free. Together, New York. We're going to deliver
40:28
universal childcare, And how are we going to pay for it?
40:35
Tax the rich? President Donald Trump has spent months listening
40:41
to the thirty four year old mayoral candidate and his
40:44
Democratic socialist message an attempt to subvert it. In his
40:48
own rallying cry, he is called Mom Dummy, terrible, bad news,
40:55
and a total nutjob whom he might rest social media
41:01
posts and public comments. He is threatened that as mayor
41:05
of New York, Mom Dammy would face problems with Washington
41:08
like no mayor in the history of our once great city,
41:12
and insisted New York City won't receive federal funds to
41:15
fulfill what Trump, who's seventy nine, calls Mom Dammi's fake
41:20
communist promises. He's called him Mom Domi, the Kamie, one
41:26
of the best things to ever happen to our great
41:28
Republican Party and one of the most contentious mayoral races
41:33
in New York City's modern history. A state assembly member
41:37
and the forty seventh President, a New York native, have
41:40
emerged as foils in a battle that transcends city Hall.
41:45
What began as a local Democratic primary upset has morphed
41:49
into a national political drama. The fight beneath the benefits
41:55
them both. Trump has sought to portray Mom Damie as
41:58
the face of an extra dreamist opposition, while mam Dami's
42:03
vow to resist Trump has helped unify skeptical establishment Democrats
42:08
against the common foe. Ahead of Tuesday's election, which polls
42:13
show mam Dami is favored to win, members of Trump's
42:18
administration tried to entice incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and Republican
42:23
candidate Curtis Silwa to leave the race by dangling administration jobs,
42:29
marking an unusual intervention by allies of a sitting president
42:33
apparently determined to force mam Dami into a one on
42:37
one showdown with Cuomo. Trump has denied urging candidates to
42:42
bow out to benefit Cuomo. Adams has since dropped out
42:46
of the contest, Sliwat remains in. At the same time,
42:51
Trump and Republicans have rushed to position mam Dami as
42:55
the face of the Democratic Party to paint its members
42:59
as far are left. Trump, the wealthy developer turned president,
43:04
is wielding federal power from Washington to crack down on
43:09
cities and undocumented immigrants. Mam Dami, a populist immigrant, is
43:15
promising to use city hall to resist that power. Yet
43:21
their political trajectories reveal striking parallels. Both are New Yorkers
43:27
who launched insurgent candidacies that their own party establishments establishments
43:33
dismissed as unserious. Both took on controversial stances that defied
43:39
party orthodoxy. Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown and Mamdani's opposition to
43:46
Israel as a Jewish state that energize their bases and
43:51
alienated party leaders. Both focus large parts of their campaign
43:57
on affordability. Each is skilled communicator who has embraced social media,
44:03
has spread his message. Their supporters view them as rare,
44:08
authentic voices in a political landscape of focused, grouped talking points.
44:15
Despite Trump's best efforts to clear the field, Mam Donnie
44:19
is favored to win. He's polling double digits ahead of Cuomo,
44:24
a Democrat running as an independent, and Sliwa, the Republican,
44:29
is a distant third. Mam Donni has declared himself as
44:34
a progressive Muslim who fights for his beliefs, Donald Trump's
44:39
worst nightmare, a mayor who won't need campaign helped le Cuomo,
44:45
whom Trump has said he prefers. The difference between the
44:49
men not only defined the race, but are also likely
44:53
to set the tone for next year's the next several years.
44:57
Trump holds significant power over federal dollars destined for New
45:01
York City, where the twenty twenty six operating budget relies
45:05
on seven point four billion dollars in federal funding, just
45:10
over six percent of the total budget, and a recent
45:14
report from the New York State's comptroller warned that nearly
45:18
all federal operating aid that flows to the city could
45:22
be subject to cuts or elimination. Already, the Trump administration
45:29
has frozen eighteen billion dollars in infrastructure spending as part
45:33
of a broader cut that has an outsized impact on
45:37
major cities. Trump has made fights with democratic run cities
45:42
a defining feature of his second term. The day after
45:46
Adams dropped out of the race, Trump, who had been
45:50
encouraging Adams to step aside and make way for Cuomo,
45:54
said he planned to send federal troops to New York,
45:57
as the administration has done in other cities, to clean
46:00
up the crime in about thirty days. It took twelve
46:04
days to do it in Washington, d c. So New
46:07
York is bigger. In Chicago, We've already made a lot
46:10
of progress despite fighting from the government. Trump added, all
46:14
of these cities. We want to clean them up. The
46:17
Republicans are already making Mom dummy and the face of
46:21
the opposition, planning to use him as a fundraising tool
46:25
for the midterm elections. People don't know who he is,
46:30
so the race will define him, will be on and
46:33
Trump is a master at defining his opponents, said Ron Bonjean,
46:38
a Republican strategist. He just found the perfect target right
46:44
out of the central casting. Mamdani launched his campaign in
46:48
the Bronx in Queen's neighborhoods that swung hardest for Trump
46:52
in the twenty twenty four election, conducting man on the
46:56
Street interviews that went viral. People told old Mamdami they
47:01
struggled to afford child care, transportation, grossrision, rent, and about
47:07
their diminishing faith and democracy. So Mamdani adopted affordability as
47:13
his main message, repeatedly attacking Trump for not delivering on
47:18
his promise to lower costs. For all the attention on Trump,
47:23
Mamdani's campaign has maintained a disciplined focus on the city's
47:28
affordability issue. He proposes paying for his ambitious proposals by
47:34
increasing the income tax by two percentage points on residents
47:39
earning more than one million dollars and by raising the
47:43
corporate tax rate to match New Jerseys. He campaigned in
47:49
mid October in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens with
47:53
Representative Alexandria A. Cassio Cortez, the Democrat of New York
47:58
and Senator Bernie Sanders, the Independent of Vermont. When New
48:03
York Governor Kathy Hochel, Democrat, took the stage earlier that evening,
48:08
the audience immediately chanted tax the Wretch, a rebuke to
48:13
her stated refusal to support mam Donni's proposed tax increases.
48:19
Cuomo has tried to appeal to more mainstream Democrats that
48:24
has attacked Mondami's Muslim identity and called him anti submitted.
48:29
He argued that as a former governor who has already
48:32
clashed with Trump during the COVID nineteen pandemic and cooperated
48:37
with him when necessary, he is the best and most
48:42
experienced person to run America's biggest city. Mam Donnie's youth
48:47
and inexperience were let Trump cut through the young Democratic
48:51
Socialists like a hot knife through butter, Cuomo said. During
48:56
a primary debate, he repeated the same sentiment in the
49:00
most recent general election debate, Trump thinks he's a kid,
49:05
and he's got a knock him on his Tuccis Cuomo
49:08
said of Mam Dami, using Yiddish slang for backside. It
49:14
is a balance, but you're going to have to be
49:17
adversarial when you need to. But you want to co
49:21
operate to get good things done in the city, and
49:24
you need federal help. Mam Damia said he would pick
49:28
up the phone if Trump wanted to help make New
49:31
York more affordable, but would fight him over immigration enforcement
49:35
and budget cuts. Mam Donni's overwhelmingly popularity among young Democrats
49:43
represents an unusual spot of grassroots enthusiasm for a party
49:48
on the ropes for the Republicans sweep last November, but
49:52
that enthusiasm has left establishment Democrats deeply anxious. Hochel Cent
50:00
waited until September to endorse Mom Donnie made it clear
50:05
they had significant disagreements still. She said in her endorsement
50:11
that in a lot of the abhorrent and destructive policies
50:15
coming out of Washington every day, I needed to know
50:18
the next mayor will not be someone who would surrender
50:22
one inch to President Trump was a veiled swipe at Cuomo,
50:27
whom Trump has identified as his preferred victor. Sate Minority
50:32
Leader Charles E. Schumer, who lives in Brooklyn, is not endorsed.
50:36
Mom Donnie House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries, another New Yorker,
50:42
held out until weeks before the election. With the party's
50:46
brand underwater ahead of perilous mid terms, several of Hockel's
50:51
donors have privately expressed alarm at her endorsement. The November
50:56
fourth election has become a referendum not just on New
51:00
York's future, but on whether a progressive populace can withstand
51:05
the full force of presidential intimidation. Trump has repeatedly threatened
51:11
to cut funding to New York and take over the
51:15
city if Madanni wins. Mam Donnie is found to fight
51:20
Trump every step of the way, insisting that too often
51:24
we treat Donald Trump's pronouncements as if they are law.
51:28
He points to cities in California where local leaders work
51:32
together to beat back Trump's attempt to withhold federal funding
51:36
and send National Guard troops into the city. For every
51:40
dollar they spend on legal fees, they retrieve more than
51:44
thirty thousand dollars in federal funds. Mam Donnie is aligned
51:48
with both Hockel and New York Attorney General Letitia James,
51:52
who has sued the Trump administration and has been aggressive
51:55
about fighting the president's policies. Neither woman is on speaking
52:00
terms with Cuomo. At a campaign event in Upper Manhattan
52:05
last month, James, making her first appearance since her indictment
52:10
on mortgage fraud charges brought by Trump's Justice Department, stood
52:15
in solidary with Mom Donnie, whom she called her little
52:19
brother and one of the boldest voices in the history
52:23
of New York City politics. Without mentioning Trump by name,
52:27
she added pointedly, you come for me, You've got to
52:31
come for all of us. Mom Donnie turned to their
52:36
shared political enemy. We are in the period of political darkness.
52:42
Donald Trump and his ice agents are snatching our immigrant
52:47
neighbors from our city right before our eyes. His authoritarian
52:52
administration is waging a scorched earth campaign of retribution against
52:58
any who dared to poe him. His supporters say they
53:03
aren't intimidated. Siema Malik, who works for the city's Economic
53:08
Development Cooperation, attended the rally in Upper Manhattan because we
53:13
need new energy in politics. Ask about Trump's attacks should
53:18
Mamdani become mayor, she replied, we can't get scared of that.
53:24
Trump will say whatever he wants and who knows what
53:28
he might do even if Cuomo is elected. So let's
53:34
take it one challenge at a time. And finally, why
53:38
this clinical trial is offering some young cancer patients hope.
53:44
Years of caring for children with solid tumors and looking
53:48
into the eyes of parents starved for hope have led
53:52
Catherine Bollard to what she calls the most important moment
53:55
of her career. Children's National Hospital were bothered to see
54:00
your vice president and chief research officer is poised to
54:04
start recruiting children with pediatric sarcomas and other solid tumors
54:09
that have resisted chemotherapy radiation for a clinical trial that
54:14
will use an inventive new technique to combat one of
54:17
the most persistent problems in cancer care. For thirty years,
54:23
as medicine advanced in the treatment of breast cancer and
54:26
chronic myeloid leukemia, progress on children's solid tumors has remained dismal.
54:32
Bollard sein, there just hasn't been the same amount of
54:35
effort financial support around really understanding the biology of pediatic
54:41
pediatric cancers that there has been for adult cancer. She said,
54:46
we have not gone fast enough as a field. But
54:49
this time Ballard and her team will attack the cancer
54:52
with two pronged approach never tried before. The twelve children
54:57
in the trial will receive a treatment using their own teas,
55:01
one specifically engineered to counter cancer's skill and escaping medications
55:06
aimed at a single target. The treatment will attack two
55:10
targets on the children's tumors simultaneously, one called prame, a
55:16
protein that promotes tumor growth, and the other B seven
55:20
dash H three, a protein that helps cancer evade the
55:24
immune system. Cancers are really clever, Ballard explained, and one
55:30
of the ways they get clever is they get rid
55:33
of one of their targets. The cancer cell detects the treatment,
55:37
like t cells is focusing on one target, she said,
55:40
then the cancer cell can just Okay, I'm going to
55:42
get rid of that target. But because our product is
55:45
targeting two, it's much harder for the tumor cell to
55:49
catch up and delete the boat. The idea for the
55:53
design of the new treatment came to Bollard one day
55:56
in August or September of twenty twenty four. As she
55:59
was driving to the High Hospital, she told a research
56:02
team they would need to add a few last minute
56:04
experiments to prove the new product's potency before they can
56:08
submit their clinical trial application to the Food and Drug Administration.
56:13
Preparing each child's t sales will take about two to
56:16
three weeks, plus another week for testing to ensure no
56:20
pathogens are present. The clinical trial at the Children's National
56:24
is one of three testing therapies for pediatic solid tumors.
56:28
The others are taking place at University College of London
56:32
and Boston's Children Hospital. All are part of a message
56:36
four hundred and seventy million dollar project called Cancer Grand Challenges,
56:41
launched in twenty twenty by the National Cancer Institute and
56:45
Cancer Research Research UK, a London based charity that supports
56:51
cancer research. A tumor's micro environment, the ecosystem that surrounds
56:57
it includes immune cells and endothelial cells that line blood vessels.
57:03
But in pediatic pediatric cancers, unlike those afflicting adults, the
57:09
micro environment has not had decades of experience encountering viruses
57:14
and learning to fight them. Abe Panucci, a lab manager
57:18
at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who will be
57:21
serving as patient advocate for the clinical trials at Children's
57:24
National as a personal stake in the fight against children's
57:28
solid tumors. To this day, Panucci, who is twenty five,
57:31
has no idea why she was one of the lucky
57:33
children who survived such a tumor. Her rabdo domo sarcoma
57:38
was stage four meeting, it had already spread, she was
57:41
ten years old, and her five year outlook was thirty
57:44
percent or less. I think a lot about that, honestly,
57:47
said Pantucci. I'm dedicating my survivorship to making a difference
57:51
in all of the advocacy and research. I'm kind of
57:55
creating my why. And this concludes the reading of the
57:59
Washington Post for today, Monday, November three. Your reader has
58:02
been Rod Brotherton. If you have any questions, comments, or
58:06
suggestions concerning the program, please feel free to call us
58:09
at A five nine four two two sixty three ninety.
58:12
Thank you for listening, and now please stay tuned for
58:14
continued programming right here on Radio LI