Transcript

2.2.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post for Monday,
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February two of twenty twenty six. Your reader is Alis Stainer.
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I thank you for being here, and let me start
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with the front page of today's Post. On the far left,
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presidents seeking to renovate arts revenue. Donald Trump proposes a
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two year closure for the Kennedy Center. In the middle
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a picture of two gentlemen holding a picture of their relatives,
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each in the Russian front lines on Ukraine in Ukraine,
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and the article is entitled Russia lured Kenyons with job prospects,
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then forced them to Ukraine's front lines. Deceptive recruitment tactics
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are used across Africa, with survivors telling of inhumane treatment
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by Commander's hrrowing scenes of slaughter. To the right in
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bold caps, more kids are in ice custody, thousands held
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in twenty twenty five. Data shows trump deportation effort seizes
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most vulnerable and to the left of the picture, below
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the Kennedy Center article. Google's AI said to have aided
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Israel militarily wistle Blow. It claims company breached own ethics
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rules on weapons.
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Speaker 2: Below the fold and below.
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Speaker 1: The Israel military article trump lets, jokes, gears fly at
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elite dinner, President's punchlines at times fall flat before Alfalfa
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club members. And then in the center of that an
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iconic photo of a tennis player laying flat on the
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tennis court, his racket above him. He is in green,
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black and white outfit with green tennis shoes and black socks,
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and it's entitled Isn't Life Grand? In it's of Carlos
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Alcarez becoming the youngest man to complete the career tennis
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Grand Slam by beating Novak Djokovic at two six six,
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two six three seven five to win the Australian Open
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in Melbourne on Sunday. And then the last article on
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the front page, Minneapolis police chief negotiates federal surge. Brian
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O'Hara fear's progress since murder of Floyd may unravel. First
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article largest headlines judge ordered five year old released, but
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data shows ICE is detaining more kids as family detentions spike.
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The Trump administration is increasingly ensnaring the youngest and most vulnerable,
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lawyers and advocates say. By Arilis Hernandez and Maria Luisa
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paul Out of San Antonio, the five year old boy
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in a blue knit bunny hat and spider Man backpack
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was returning from preschool when immigration officers detained him late
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last month in Minneapolis. A few days later, offices there
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took custody of a two year old girl after breaking
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her family's car window. Liam Canejo Ramos and Chloe Renatta
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tapan Velasis, along with their fathers, were flown to a
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family immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas and our south
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of San Antonio, where detainees face long lines for basic
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supplies and inadequate medical care. According to people who have
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been hosed there. They are among an escalating number of
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children swept up in the Trump administration's enforcement dragnet, which
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has drawn mounting public outrage over its aggressive tactics and
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increasingly indiscriminate ramifications. The US government does not provide direct
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information about children and immigration custody, but federal data on
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family detention and independent analysis of child attentions suggest immigration
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authorities are increasingly ensnaring the youngest and most vulnerable lives
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in President Donald Trump's effort to deport massive numbers of
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undocumented immigrants. There are other operations options, regardless of what
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you believe about immigrants, but you do not have to
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put children in detention, said Diane Garcia, a pastor at
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a San Antonio church that serves an immigrant population. She
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said authorities are trying to insteer fuel in families, so
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they choose to leave the country voluntarily. On Saturday, a
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federal judge agreed that Liam should not be in federal custody.
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US District Judge Fred Berry ordered him and his father released,
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and ambasted the Trump administrations ill conceived and incompetently implemented
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government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently, even if he
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requires traumatizing children. Liam and his father returned to Minnesota
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on Sunday. They were accompanied by Representative Joaquim Castro, Democrat,
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who traveled with them from Texas. In a picture taken
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after the family's arrival in Minneapolis, Leon is wearing the
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same blue knit hat that he had on when he
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was detained. Over the past four months, the average number
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of people including children and adults, held each month in
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family detention has nearly tripled, from four hundred and twenty
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five in October to thirteen hundred and four in January.
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According to the Department of Homeland Security data. An independent
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analysis by the Marshall Project, a non profit news organization,
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concluded that at least thirty eight hundred people under eighteen,
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including twenty infants, were detained in twenty twenty five. In
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Pro Publica found that emigration and Customs enforcement last year
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centibate six hundred children arrested inside the country to federal
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shelters built to hose miners detained at the border. That
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is more than the entire number of children detained in
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federal shelters during the four years of the Biden administration.
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Advocates and attorneys contend that hundreds more youth have been
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affected in areas in which authorities have separated families which
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are not comprehensibly tracked. Those include instances in which parents
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have been deported but children remain in the United States
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and government custody. Over decades, the federal government has relied
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on a patchwork of laws, caught rulings, and policies meant
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to ensure that manners are held in the least restrictive
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setting possible and released as quickly and safely as possible.
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Trump aides have instead prioritized his deportioned goals and treated
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children as collateral damage, said Wendy Young, president of the
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immigrant rights group Kids in Need of Defense. In this
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past year, we've seen a lot of the protections dismantled
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and transformed again into a system that's ruly more punitive
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and aligned with law enforcement goals than it is with
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child protection. Young said DHS did not respond directly to
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questions from The Washington Post asking about the number of
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children in federal detention and conditions described by some migrants
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and their attorneys. In an email, Assistant Secretariatricia McLaughlin said
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the Dailay facility has been retrofitted for families and provides
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for their safety, security, and medical needs. McLachlan said all
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detainees are provided with three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap,
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and toiletries. Authorities do not separate families, McLachlan said, as
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parents are asked if they want to be removed with
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their children or have them placed with someone the parent designates.
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In the cases of Limb and Chloe, authorities said they
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took custody because relatives abandoned or refused to take them. Chloe,
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like Liam, has been released returned to her mother in
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Minneapolis after the Trump administration belatedly complied with another judge's order.
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Four years most children in federal custody were those detained
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at the US Mexico border. As the administration succeeded in
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dramatically reducing border crossings, it has ramped up enforcement inside
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the COT and detained more families who have blutif for years,
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including those whose children attend u S schools. Some families
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were awaiting immigration court decisions on their appeals to remain
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in the country when they were detained. Lawyers said, the
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impact is just really, really damaging and catastrophic because of
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how sudden and swift and violent it is, said Zane Lakhani,
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director of Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women's Refugee Commission,
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adding and because it's targeting a population that is just
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not prepared for this. Family shelters closed then reopened. The
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South Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley, opened by the
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Obama administration in twenty fourteen with the capacity of twenty
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four hundred detainees, ceased operations during President Joe Biden's tenure.
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The Trump administry reopened the facility after authorities began detaining
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families in spring last year. A second facility in carn City, Texas,
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has been used to temporarily hold families, but has primarily
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detained single adults in recent months, according to DHS detention
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data and attorneys representing people in both facilities, The administration
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is moving to purchase and convert up to twenty three
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industrial warehouses into large scale detention centers, and authorities indicated
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in a draft document reviewed by the Post that some
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will include family housing. The federal government has long struggled
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to comply with legal requirements for families and unaccompanied children.
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Many who are detained at the bordaicka solemn protections and
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the Federal Court Settlement does not permit miners to be
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held for longer than twenty days. Families are buffeted by
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politic wins, with their conditions shifting depending on the administration,
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said Elissa Steglitz, a clinical professor at the University of
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Texas School of Law. Steglish added family detention has always
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been a more political device to make a statement about
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either border policy or the asylum system writ large. During
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a votera crisis in twenty twelve, the Obama administration scrambled
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to hold tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors at crowded
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facilities on military basis, ware hoses, and chain link enclosures.
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A public backlash prompted federal officials to move to other methods,
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including releasing the families and using electronic monitoring. In his
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first administration, Trump implemented a zero tolerance policy in which
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authorities separated thousands of children from their family members when
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they arrived at the border and prosecuted parents in an
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effort to determine more migration, but the administration reversed courts.
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Speaker 2: Amid public outrage.
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Speaker 1: The Biden administration closed three of the family detention centers
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as the number of migrants crossed the border soared after
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the COVID nineteen pandemic. However, children and families were huddled
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into cramp tent facilities or hosed in hotels at or
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near the border. The vast majority were released into the
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United States pending their immigrant court proceedings. In his second term,
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Trump has pushed to deport a record number of migrants,
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and authorities ramped up efforts to arrest families in spring
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in Texas after they reported for immigration court hearings or
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mandatory check ins. At I offices at ICE offices. A
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few months later, immigration advocates said the administration began detaining
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families in San Antonio and other major cities. The population
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at the detention facility in Dilley swelled. Immigration lawyers have
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said children have been held well beyond the twenty day
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legal threshold established in nineteen ninety seven under a legal
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settlement known as the Flores Agreement. Many children have been
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detained at routine immigration check ins. Immigration lawyers said, longing
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for home, most of what is known about the day
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to day conditions inside the federal detention center comes from
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a coach provided by those who have been held there.
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In interviews with the Post, migrants and their attorneys described
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a facility that includes the chapel library, commissary, infirmary, infharmacy.
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There are also recreational spaces and a school where children
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can watch educational videos, said Edward, an immigrant from Columbia, who,
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like others, provided first and accounts, spoke on the condition
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of mnemity that only their first names be used at
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a fear of reposals from the government. He and his
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two sons, ages eleven and ten, spent forty seven days
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in the facility after being tained detained during ICE check
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in in December.
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Speaker 2: He said.
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Speaker 1: The living spaces consist of several corridors labeled by color
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and animal names and reserved for different kinds of families.
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The brown Bear hall for two parents with their children,
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the Yellow Frog Hall for single mothers and young children,
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and the Green Turtle Hall for single fathers and sons. Edward,
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who has an act of a solemn case, said he
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slept in a room with twelve bunk beds, where the
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lights stayed on and the tap order tasted like chlorine.
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Two immigration judges held hearings for asylemn seekers to accelerate
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their proceedings, but they often did not result in the
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conclusion into their cases. Every Monday, ICE agents reviewed cases
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with detainees pressuring them to sign deportation papers. According to
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recently released detainees, some said they were told that if
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they refused, they could end up being sent to another
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country where they had never been. I kept telling them
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I wasn't interested. Edwards said his sons had been rehearsing
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for roles in a Christmas play at their San Antonio
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area church and a folkloric dance at school, he said,
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but instead They spent the holiday lining up for roll
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calls in the dissension center. Edward's lawyer was preparing to
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challenge his detention in court, but Athoroli's released him and
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his sons without explanation in January. Ari twenty five, who
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was also released in January with her three young children,
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since she remains in shock over their fifty days in detention.
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They applied for asylumn after entering the country in twenty
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twenty three and were living in an apartment in San
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Antonio as the kids attended school and or awaited a
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resolution to Himmer Emigration's case. I love my Texas home.
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Why are they doing this to me? Ari's ten year
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old daughter wrote in letters she placed on her mother's bunk.
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Authorities offered families of five thousand dollars payment to sign
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a voluntary deportation form. Aori said they wanted us to
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believe none of us will ever leave that place, she said.
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Attorney Eric Lee said he saw children all over the
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facility during a recent visit, some as young as three
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or four. What is happening in these detention centers is
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worse than anybody thinks, he said. One of his clients,
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who is nine, drew a picture with crowns of the
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house she dreams of returning to one day. In recent weeks,
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federal officials have released hundreds of families to a border
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shelter to make space at day facilities for new arrivals
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from Minnesota. Immigration lawyers, said Kristin Etta, an attorney for
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some of the new families, recently met with an Ecuadorian
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mother and her twelve year old daughter who were arrested
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in Minneapolis while on their way to school. The fourth
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gradest spends most of her time in the DAILI facility
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without opportunities for intellectual stimulation. Eda said, we're not talking
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about jailing criminals, sir jailing public safety threats.
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Speaker 2: She said, it's cruelty.
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Speaker 1: Julie, an asylum seeker from Venezuela, said she got close
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to agreeing to leave the country after being held in
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mid November with her three year old son. She described
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inadequate medical care for herself and her titler, who suffered diarrhea,
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and for other detainees who had to wait hours for treatment,
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even for serious illnesses. She and her son were released
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in mid January after her attorney sued the government in
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federal Court. Newly now wears an ankle monitor and Ice
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conducts visits to her home.
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Speaker 2: There is a better way. She said, this was in humane.
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Our next article is.
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Speaker 1: Trump plans to close Kennedy's Center for about two years
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starting in July. Under the proposal, the Kennedy Center could
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close for construction on July fourth, coinciding with America's two
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hundred and fiftieth anniversary. And there's a picture of the
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hall now called the Donald J. Trump and the John F.
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Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts by Janey Kingsbury,
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Travis m Andrews, and Nieha Mashi. President Donald Trump said
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Sunday that he plans to close the Kennedy Center for
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roughly two years for the facility to undergo construction. Proposal
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comes amid a series of cancelations and internal upheaval since
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he took over the arts institution and presidential memorial nearly
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a year ago and remade it in his name and image.
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I have determined that the Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily
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closed for reconstruction or construction, revitalization and complete rebuilding, can be,
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without question, the finest performing arts facility of its kind
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anywhere in the world. In other words, if we don't close,
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the quality of construction will not be nearly as good,
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and the time to concompletion because of interruptions with audiences
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from the many events using facility, will be much longer,
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Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Under Trump's proposal,
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which he has said is subject to board approval, the
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Kennedy Center would close on July fourth, coinciding with America
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two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, with construction beginning immediately financing
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is completed and fully in place, Trump wrote, adding, this
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important decision, based on input from many highly respected experts,
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will take a tired, broken and dilapidated Senna and turn
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it into a world class bastion of arts, music and entertainment,
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far better than it has ever been before. Kennedy Center
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President Richard Grenell confirmed the plans in a Sunday evening
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email to staff obtained by The Washington Post. He wrote,
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we will have more information about staffing and operational changes
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in the coming days. In a post on x, Grennell
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cited the two hundred and fifty seven million dollars designated
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for capital repair, restoration, maintenance backlog, and security structures through
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the one big, beautiful bill last year. It desperately needs
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this renovation, and temporarily closing the center just makes sense.
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It also means we will be finished fast up, Grinnell wrote.
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The Senate has already made some physical changes under the
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new leadership, adding Trump's name to the buildings facade despite
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legal concerns.
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Speaker 2: And painting the outside columns. White.
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Speaker 1: Portraits of the First and second Couples now hang in
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the center's Hall of Nations, and the exterior is sometimes
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lit up in red, white and blue. It was not
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immediately clear what the closure would mean for annual events
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held in the Center, such as the Mark Twain Prize
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for American Humor or the Kennedy Center on Us. The
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Kennedy Centate did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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A White Eyed official referred the Washington Post to Trump's post.
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Three current staffers, who spoke to the Post on the
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condition of anonymity for fear of reposal, said they had
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not been previously notified of any plans to close the Senate,
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though some had long speculated a shutdown was possible. Once again,
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Donald Trump has acted with a total disregard for Congress,
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said Representative Joyce Beatty, Democrat of Ohio, who has sued
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the Trump administration, in December in her capacity as an
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ex officio trustee to stop the name change. The Kennedy
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Center is congressionally funded and Congress should have been consulted
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tobet any decision to shut down its operations or make
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major renovations, especially for two years, she said in a statement.
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And there's a picture of Donald Trump, Millennia and JD.
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Vance and his wife Yusha. The Senateor's Board in December
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voted to add the president's name to the arts venue
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and president to memorials. His news sign now reads the
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Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Sinner
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for the Performing Arts, prompting a fresh rage of cancelations
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and tumult Members of the Kennedy family responded to the
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news of the closure. Jack Sloshburg, John F. Kennedy's grandson,
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wrote on ex that while Trump can take over the institution,
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his grandfather's legacy will endure. Jfk is kept alive by
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us now rising up to remove Donald Trump, bring him
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to justice, and restore the freedom's generations fought for, he said.
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Joe Kennedy, the third Robert F. Kennedy's grandson and a
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former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, called the decision painful, saying
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that the Sinom was built by and for the people
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as a shared point of connection. Do not be distracted
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from what this administration is actually trying to erase connection
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our community, and our commitment to the rights of all,
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he wrote on X. Representative Brendan Boyle, Democratic Pennsylvania condemned
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the move, saying on X that Trump is desecrating our
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national Performing Arts Center. Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey,
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pointed to Trump's bad bet in the late nineteen eighties
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on what was the world's largest casino hotel complex in
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his state. We can't let him do to the Kennedy
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Center what he did to Atlantic City, Kim wrote in
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a tweet. Most recently, the Washington National Opera A nine
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January ninth it would move out of its longtime home,
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citing changes to the center's business model and support. The
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Kennedy sentner said it ended the relationship, but a person
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speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not
24:55
authorized to represent either party.
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Speaker 2: Told the Trump that it was definitely.
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Speaker 1: A WNO decision spurred by the board's vote. US law
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and customs generally bar memorializing living figures. The statute establishing
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the Senate designates it as the John F. Kennedy Center
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for the Performing Arts and requires the board to assure
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that no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of
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memorials shall be disasignated or installed in the public areas
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of the building. The law does not allow plaques and
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inscriptions recognizing major donors. Months before the renaming vote, the
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Senate's board changed its by laws to ensure only members
25:41
appointed by the president had voting powers. The posts previously reported.
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The Senate said it was following long stacking long standing practice.
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Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation and a lawsuit to reverse
25:58
the addition of Trump's name. Since remaking the board of
26:02
trustees and becoming chairman of the Kennedy Center last February,
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Trump has frequently said the building was in poor shape.
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The Kennedys Center is in tremendous disrepair. Is a lot
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of the rest of our country, Trump told reporters in March,
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adding most of it because of bad management. This is
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a shame what I've watched and witnessed. Trump and his
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new leadership have claimed that the Senate has broken elevators,
26:30
was infested with rats, and that the concrete in the
26:33
parking garage was crumbling. They also repeatedly accused the previous
26:38
leadership of financial mismanagement, declining requests from the Post to
26:43
substantiate the claims. Former leaders denied the accusations, and in
26:48
parentheses Senate Democrats of themselves investigating the Kennedy Center, accusing
26:54
Grinell of self dealing, vaporitism and waste, which he has denied.
26:59
In Ranella said the Ciner will rely on common sense programming,
27:06
meaning popular programming that breaks. Even in the past year,
27:10
sales of subscription packages and tickets have fallen dramatically. Empty
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seats became a common sight at the Center. Dozens of
27:19
artists and productions, including composer Philip Glass, soprano Renee Femling
27:25
acclaimed the Banjoe s Bellafleck, and Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz,
27:31
have canceled upcoming events. Meanwhile, almost every head of programming
27:36
has resigned or been dismissed. Ben Folds and Fleming quit
27:41
their roles as artistic advisors earlier next year, last year,
27:46
last week, Kevin Coached, the Senate's senior vice president of
27:50
artistic Programming, resigned less than two weeks after his hiring
27:55
was announced. The Minneapolis police chief tried to repair his force.
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Speaker 2: Can it survive?
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Speaker 1: Ice Chief Brian O'Hara worries that the federal immigration crackdown
28:09
in Minnesota has imperiled gaines police have made since George
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Floyd's murder, Mamali Hennessy, Fiske and Mark Berman out of Minneapolis.
28:22
It was a brisk night last week when Brian O'Hara,
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the Minneapolis Police chief, stood in front of his newest
28:29
crop of officers and acknowledged the tough assiment ahead. The
28:34
Minneapolis Police force had faced extraordinary challenges. O'Hara said he
28:40
did not list them, but people in the room and
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beyond new one an officer murdering George Floyd in twenty twenty,
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sparking unrest and damaging riots, two plummeting morale, a flood
28:54
of departures, and federal investigation detailing rampant civil rights abuses.
29:01
You will not receive deference that other offices in other
29:05
places automatically receive. Our Here told two dozen new offices,
29:09
including police academy graduates and other hires during a ceremony
29:14
Wednesday evening in a gothic downtown Basilica. Every day, you're
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going to be expected to show up in a way
29:22
that earns trust, to prove who you are outside of mammoth.
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Immigration crackdown had flooded Minneapolis, with several thousand federal officers,
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presenting O'Hara in his apartment with its biggest crisis since
29:36
he took over in twenty twenty two. O'Hara fears immigration
29:42
agents tactics and behavior, including fatally shooting two people, could
29:47
exacerbate residents lingering weariness of law enforcement, imperiling a year's
29:52
long push to improve community relations. But according to law
29:57
enforcement veterans, experts, residents, and even some elected officials critical
30:02
of Minneapolis police in the past, or Hera and his
30:06
force have threaded a narrow needle, responding we needed but
30:10
maintaining a distance from the federal surge to avoid ramping
30:14
up tensions, And for now they say that seems.
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Speaker 2: To be working.
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Speaker 1: The MPD is acting like a police department, said Michelle Phelps,
30:26
author of the Minneapolis Reckoning, Race, Violence, and the Politics
30:31
of Policing. In America and a sociology professor at the
30:35
University of Minnesota. But they're doing so with what seems
30:39
to be as much restraint as possible to try and
30:42
not provoke escalation.
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Speaker 2: In a funny way, this.
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Speaker 1: Has been an opportunity for the MPD to build their
30:50
public legitimacy. Compared to what DHS is doing on the streets,
30:56
the MPD looks so incredibly reasonable.
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Speaker 2: Phelps said.
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Speaker 1: That Trump administration, meanwhile, has accused the police of failing
31:05
to protect federal agents, who officials say have been threatened
31:09
and attacked by protesters. The RT the Federal Operation. O'Hara
31:14
has taken on a very public role, appearing alongside community
31:18
leaders to appeal for calm after federal forces shot and
31:22
killed residents Rene Good and Alex Pitty. He has also
31:27
given extensive interviews to expressing expressing concern about the way
31:32
federal agents have behaved locally or operated locally. Federal forces
31:37
actions captured in a widely circulated vedos do not appear
31:43
to show them de escalating situations. O'Hara said, I think
31:47
it's very obvious from a lot of these videos that
31:50
this is not what professional policing looks like in this
31:53
country today, he told The Washington Post in an interview.
31:58
Speaker 2: O'Hara added it should not.
32:00
Speaker 1: Be too much to expect the federal government to be
32:03
able to enforce federal law without causing chaos, a ride
32:08
sped violation of constitutional rights. That shouldn't be too much
32:12
to ask. O'Hara loves challenges. When O'Hara arrived in Minneapolis
32:19
in November twenty twenty two as the city's fifty fourth
32:23
police chief, the physically imposing career police officer with a
32:27
blunt New Jersey accent joined the department familiar with public outrage.
32:33
Fatal shootings by Minneapolis police officers and other uses of
32:37
force had prompted protest anger pleas for reform, and, in
32:41
one case, a week's long occupation outside of police precinct.
32:46
Then officer Derek Chavin was recorded killing Floyd, a black man,
32:52
in May twenty twenty. The city became ground zero for
32:56
a nationwide racial justice movement, and the Department of effectively
33:00
became the public face of police abuse.
33:03
Speaker 2: The police force.
33:04
Speaker 1: Shrank significantly, dropping from almost nine hundred to one officers
33:09
in twenty nineteen to about six hundred and twenty twenty three. Minneapolis,
33:14
like other communities across the country, also spent years grappling
33:19
with a pandemic era surge in killings and violence. After
33:24
Chawn was convicted of murder, the Justice Department launched an
33:28
investigation into the Minneapolis Police and concluded that the agency
33:33
discriminated against residents, used excessive force, and failed to properly
33:39
discipline officers. President Joe Biden's administration and Minnesota officials agreed
33:45
to a consent decree, a courting forced pat that would
33:49
mandate changes to the Minneapolis police force. President Donald Trump's
33:54
administration last year abandoned that agreement. The city also ended
33:58
into a similar agree he met with a Minnesota state
34:01
agency that remains in place. O'Hara came to Minneapolis while
34:07
the Justice Department investigation was underway and brought experience in
34:12
dealing with such situations. He had worked in Newark, rising
34:16
through the ranks to become public safety director and deputy mayor,
34:21
helping that department navigate its own consent decree. An independent
34:26
monitor last year wrote that NewART police had made significant
34:31
strides in implementing widespread reforms, and in November, a judge
34:36
degree to terminate the consent Decree. O'Hara love's challenges, said
34:43
the Reverend Ronald Slaughter, Deputy Director of Community Relations with Police,
34:49
a civilian position he had ushered Newark through the consent
34:54
decree that prepared him for whatever challenge Minnesota would have presented.
35:00
O'Hara has said he arrived in Minneapolis to find a
35:03
department where officers were deeply depressed following the backlash to
35:07
Floyd's killing. He has emphasized reform while also trying to
35:12
rebuild publicly toating the number of recruits and their diversity,
35:16
most recently at last week's academy graduation, where he noted
35:20
they are on track to meet cities staffing mandates, and
35:24
he is pushed to force his force to learn from mistakes.
35:29
After a woman with a restraining order was shot and
35:32
killed allegedly by her boyfriend, O'Hara ordered his entire department
35:37
to undergo training on how to respond to domestic violence calls.
35:42
Rebecca Lucero, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights,
35:47
which oversees the state's consent decree, wrote in a January
35:51
letter that police had made important progress, including developing use
35:56
of force training focused on de escalation, but had that
36:00
significant work remained. O'Hair said federal agents' actions captured on
36:06
video in Minneapolis seemed chaotic and uncoordinated, which he contrasted
36:12
with his own department's approach. Minneapolis was the center of
36:16
the world for all of these issues five years ago.
36:20
Orhare told The Post in an interview the day after
36:23
Pretty was killed, adding, and our cops have been very,
36:27
very intensely training to ensure that they tactically sound, that
36:32
their tactically sound, which makes them safer. It protects their
36:36
safety as well as the safety of the people in
36:39
the community. The federal crackdown that started in December has
36:44
severely taxed O'Hara's force, he said. Late last month, the
36:48
Trump administration said it had sent about three thousand officers
36:52
and agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE
36:57
and Customs and Voter Protection c b P to the
37:02
Minneapolis area, outnumbering o'harre's force by five to one. It's
37:09
absolutely not sustainable, O'Hare told the Post. I keep having
37:13
to do emergency recalls, extended tours, holding people over, canceling
37:18
days off. Hop cops are here are tired. John michaels
37:23
An attorney for Minneapolis Police Federation, said officers feel worn
37:29
down by the heavy workload and caught in the middle
37:32
of a situation that did not create. Some people believe
37:37
local police should be doing more to help immigration agents,
37:41
Michael said, and then there are also people who believe
37:45
that local law enforcement should be looking at and arresting
37:48
ICE agents that are doing things that are illegal and unconstitutional.
37:53
O'Hare said his department was facing such a high volume
37:56
of calls stemming from the federal operation he had devoted
38:00
to lieutenant to screaming them, we can't just constantly drop
38:05
everything that we're doing and run around to literally every
38:07
single call with entriaging things our Harris said. If another
38:12
agency is carrying out in action but there's no public
38:16
safety risk, we're not going to go, he said. We
38:19
just don't have the ability to. We have a job
38:21
we have to do here in the city. You're a
38:25
part of us. Residents offered cautious praise for having Minneapolis
38:30
police have acted amid the federal operation, keeping their distance
38:34
from ICE, but also said they wished the department had
38:38
taken a firmer stand against the crackdown. Mern Gerdies, who
38:44
was protesting in South Minneapolis on Wednesday, said police could
38:48
have done more to show residents that they're in it
38:51
for us. I'm still very distrustful of them since George Floyd,
38:56
said Gerdies, fifty four, who noted that her brother in
38:59
law is and eye officer in another city. Gertie said
39:02
she appreciated that O'Hara had tried to improve the department.
39:06
He has really tried to make changes, and it's tough
39:09
to change a system that's so broken, she said. Elliott Payne,
39:15
the city council president, who has been critical of the department,
39:19
described O'Hara as a reformer and said he wished changes
39:22
could take effect even more quickly. I'm very frustrated the
39:26
pace of change, but looking at where we are today
39:30
compared to how ICE operates, we have at least the
39:33
mechanisms in place, Payne said. Latonia Reeves, a chair of
39:39
the Community Commission on Police over Sight, an independent body
39:43
created after Floyd's killing, said O'Hara was doing his best
39:48
in an environment that is sometimes very very challenging. Minneapolis
39:53
Police Communities Service officers have delivered food to people sheltering
39:57
at home during the crackdown, said hard Burnett. The city
40:01
commissioner for Public Safety, who praised o'haras' work promoting trust
40:06
with residents. Veterans of the Minneapolis Police Force, who shared
40:10
O'Haras fear that gains might be squandered amid the federal surge,
40:15
noted with the relief that that has not happened so far.
40:19
What was unique and I have not seen in certainly
40:22
my tenure, not only as cheap in my entire time
40:26
on the Minneapolis Police Department, as I saw the community
40:30
members rally behind the Minneapolis Police Department and for the
40:33
first time see them as part of the community, said
40:36
Jannet Harteau, a former Minneapolis police chief who traveled to
40:41
the city amid the federal surge. I saw them look
40:45
at us as, no, you're part of us, You're different
40:48
from them. That was shocking to me, actually, but they
40:52
clearly knew the difference, harteu said. As the ceremony for
40:57
two for new police report plutes concluded Wednesday evening, less
41:02
than two miles from where Pretty was killed, Orhara offered
41:06
his newest officers some advice about what awaited them on
41:09
the streets outside. Treat every person, every interaction the way
41:16
you would want your family members behind you to be treated.
41:21
It's as simple as that, or Haarah said, I'm going
41:26
into the paper with mayors look at Minneapolis with concern
41:32
and wonder is my city next. Interviews with a dozen
41:38
from both parties showed dissatisfaction with the Trump administration's immigration crackdowns,
41:43
in dismay with the fatal shootings of two US citizens
41:48
by federal agents by Colby Ikowitz. Jamie Arroyo, the first
41:56
Latino mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, worries about the prospect of
42:00
federal immigration agents descending on his city. I'd be lying
42:05
if I didn't say this didn't keep me a wake
42:07
up at night, the Democrats said in an interview, decrying
42:11
what he sees as a wrong and inhumane strategy by
42:15
the Trump administration. Jerry Dreyer, the Republican mayor of Fresno, California,
42:22
said it's important that he and his counterparts in other
42:25
cities speak out against the Trump Administration's immigration crackdowns.
42:30
Speaker 2: That's really all we can do now.
42:32
Speaker 1: Said Dryer, who served as the city's police chief for
42:35
almost twenty years. Just allow our collective voices to be
42:40
heard as mayas to see if we can't get the
42:42
administration to listen to us so that there's.
42:46
Speaker 2: A different approach.
42:49
Speaker 1: The ongoing unrest in Minneapolis was on the minds of
42:52
many mayors who gathered in Washington for a conference this
42:55
past week. Interviews with a dozen mayors from both parties
43:00
showed distress about the Trump administration's approach and dismay over
43:04
the recent fatal shootings of two US citizens by federal agents.
43:08
Some openly worried about how they could protect their cities
43:12
if the federal government came to theirs next. Many said
43:16
they were working on ways to prepare for the possibility
43:19
of a US Immigration and Customs enforcement presence in their city.
43:24
The federal enforcement operation in Minneapolis has escalated tensions in
43:28
the city and across the country. The deaths of Renee
43:32
Good and Alex Fiddy prompted street protests and broader public
43:36
outage outrage, including pushback from some Republicans troubled by the
43:41
Trump administration's tactics. Trump's Bordazaar said late last week that
43:46
his team was working on a plan to draw down agents,
43:50
but that doing so would require state and local cooperation.
43:54
Such an accord has not yet materialized, and a judge
43:59
on Saturday, de inclined to order the administration to scale
44:02
back at surge in Minnesota. After Pretty's death. Last weekend,
44:07
the US Conference of Mayor's, a nonpartisan organization of cities
44:11
with populations over thirty thousand, released a statement calling what
44:15
occurred in Minneapolis unacceptable and demanding immediate intervention. The president
44:22
of the group, David Holt, the Republican mayor of Oklahoma City,
44:27
addressed the topic several times during the gathering in DC,
44:31
calling what was happening in Minneapolis a crisis and pledging
44:35
support for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fred Democrat, who has clashed
44:40
sharply with the Trump administration. I'm a lay person. If
44:45
you ask me how things should be done, I don't
44:47
know if I can give you that right answer. But
44:49
I think we all have bipartisan agreement that this isn't it,
44:54
he said in an interview. Many mayors have said they
44:59
are taking steps to prepare for the possibility that the
45:02
federal government could target their cities. Several said they have
45:06
instructed their local law enforcement not to work alongside federal
45:10
agents in their immigration enforcement efforts. Matt Trurik, the Democratic
45:15
mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania, said he asked judges to allow
45:19
people to attend immigration hearings virtually to avoid being detained
45:24
when showing up at at the courthouse. Todd Gloria, the
45:29
Democratic mayor of San Diego, said he has held exercises
45:33
with city staff to play out scenarios if federal agents
45:37
increased their presence there. Rudy Cruz Junior, a Democratic mayor
45:42
of SoCoRo, Texas, along the border with Mexico, said he's
45:47
having community meetings with residents to make sure they understand
45:51
their rights. Other mayors talked about what they see as
45:55
the chilling effect of immigration and enforcement on businesses, schools, healthcare,
46:00
in public safety. Elizabeth Cox, the Republican mayor of Burnsville, Minnesota,
46:06
a suburb of Minneapolis, said she carries her passport with
46:10
her because she believes federal agents won't know she's the
46:13
mayor and she could be stopped. You see, if you're
46:17
not Caucasian and you are brown or black, and you
46:20
are being stopped harassed, said Cox, who is part Samoen.
46:26
White Eyed spokesman Abigail Jackson rejected the mayor's criticism ice
46:32
officers are heroically to enforce the law and pro act
46:37
heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities. Local
46:41
officials should work with him, not against them. Anyone pointing
46:45
a finger at law enforcement offices instead of the criminals
46:49
is similarly doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens. Abigail
46:54
Jackson said some Republicans voice support for ICE operations bound
47:00
by limits. Daniel Rickerman, the Republican mayor of Columbia, South Carolina,
47:05
said he supports the federal government removing undocumented immigrants who
47:09
have committed other crimes, but does not think it should
47:13
go after everyone in the country who is here illegally.
47:16
I think we ought to figure out a pathway. If
47:19
you're a productive part of our community, and you've built,
47:22
and you're part of our neighborhoods, you're engaged, you have
47:25
a business, are you working for companies, and you're doing
47:28
well well, why should we not figure out away, he said,
47:32
adding that mayors have a unique vantage point on immigration
47:35
issues because of their time spent in the community. Towns
47:40
just outside Minneapolis are also on edge. Jim Hoveland, the
47:45
Democratic mayor of Indina, Minnesota, a community less than ten
47:49
miles sath, said he wants his residence to know he
47:53
and the other nearby mayors are doing something to combat
47:56
the federal immigration enforcement in his state's most popular city.
48:01
Maya's from thirteen cities around Minneapolis created a task force
48:05
to come up with strategies for how to fight back,
48:08
he said, But Hoveland admitted feeling desperate about the situation.
48:13
He talked about the fraying of trust between people and
48:17
the federal government. Democratic Committee chairman Ken Martin, who is
48:21
also from Media Minnesota, passed back, I've been thinking of you,
48:27
Martin told Hoveland. It's really hard right now with Jacob.
48:32
Hoveland responded, referring to the Minneapolis mayo fray, even though
48:37
he knows we're there for him, it's just chaos. I know,
48:41
I know, Martin said, We'll get through this. Frey, who
48:46
has emerged as an outspoken and sharp critic of the
48:49
Trump administration's tactics, stop out the conference to speak Thursday afternoon.
48:55
His fellow mayors greeted him with a standing ovation. Frey
48:59
told them that they were on the front lines of
49:02
a very important battle. This is not a time to
49:06
bend their heads in despair or to fear that we
49:09
may be next, because if we do not speak up
49:13
if we do not step up, it will be your
49:16
city that is next.
49:18
Speaker 2: Frey said.
49:19
Speaker 1: And now for an unusual article. The chairs from that
49:24
viral photo of the Bidens and Carters. They sold for
49:28
almost eleven thousand dollars. A collected just bought them for
49:33
her home. They became famous from a photo of the
49:37
POEMA presidents and their wives. And the photo is of
49:41
a wide angle lens with Jill Biden and Joe Biden
49:46
kneeling beside the chairs of the former president Jimmy Carter
49:52
and his wife Roslyn. But the photo makes them look
49:56
huge compared to the two in the chairs. They looked
50:00
like just little tiny people in these two chairs because
50:05
of the angle of the photo. I mean, they just
50:08
looked like little miniature people. And it was taken in
50:12
April twenty twenty one. There's a blue rug with soft
50:19
palochet of blue on the walls, with paintings on the
50:23
walls of President Joe Karta and Rosland with her daughter
50:27
Amy on the wall. The article is by Kyle Melnik.
50:33
Julia Jones and her colleagues from Christie's auction House looked
50:37
through hundreds of items that belonged to Jimmy and Rosalind
50:40
Carter paintings, jewelry, photos, silverware, and tables. While turing the
50:45
family storage unit. As they were leaving, Jones saw two
50:49
chairs wrapped in plastic that looked familiar. After a moment,
50:53
she realized where she recognized them from. The Carters, and
50:57
Joe and Joe Biden gathered around the armchairs for a
51:00
photo that went viral in twenty twenty one. The wide
51:03
angle lins made the room look like a dollhouse, with
51:06
the Bidens appearing like giants who towered over the Carters.
51:10
The chairs humanized the Carters, Jones said, showing even they
51:14
could be caught at an odd camera angle. She selected
51:18
chairs to be auctioned, thinking someone would connect with them.
51:22
Sure Enough, when collector Susan Jeffy Taine saw the chairs
51:27
alongside the viral photo a few weeks ago, she said,
51:30
I knew they belonged to me. Tane purchased the aposted
51:35
beige skirted armchairs, which feature a muted hued nature pattern,
51:40
for ten seven hundred and ninety five dollars on Tuesday.
51:45
She plans to place them in the library of her
51:47
Manhattan apartment, where she keeps dozens of books related to
51:51
US presidents. I saw the picture of President Carter and
51:55
his wife, and I don't know it just spoke to me.
51:59
Speaker 2: Tane Hold the Washington Post.
52:02
Speaker 1: Amy Carter, Jimmy and Rosalind, Carter's daughter, said her family
52:06
will donate some proceeds from the auction to the Carter Center,
52:10
a nonprofit Jimmy and Rosalind founded that aims to be
52:14
to promote peace, protect human rights, prevent diseases, and provide
52:20
mental health resources. It's just a nice reminder that my
52:25
parents were meaningful to people, Amy said about the auction,
52:28
especially since we're, you know, in the process of grieving them.
52:34
Taine's passion for collecting began as a child with swizzle sticks, postcards,
52:38
and restaurant menus. In nineteen eighty seven, she began collecting
52:43
books about poet Edgar Allan Poe. At one point, Dane said,
52:47
she acquired a copy of Poe's short story Ms found
52:51
in a bottle that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once owned.
52:56
Taine has long been interested in presidents. She taught her
52:59
grand children the names of them with flashcards when they
53:02
were young, but Poe's short story also made her intrigued
53:06
by books related to presidents. About two decades ago, she
53:10
began collecting books that presidents have written, read, owned, or gifted.
53:14
From a copy of James Renell's memoir of a Map
53:18
of Who Is the Hindustan that President George Washington owned
53:23
to President Donald Trump's Picture Brook memoir Our Journey Together.
53:28
The project became a family affair. Her grandchildren, Natalie and
53:32
Spencer Flaxman, helped her. Now Taine has Thomas Jefferson's annotated
53:38
copies of Homer's The Iliad, Abraham Lincoln signed copy of
53:43
a book containing debates between him and stephen A.
53:46
Speaker 2: Douglas, and George H. W.
53:48
Speaker 1: Bush's childhood copy of Gentle Julia by Booth Tarkington. Taine
53:55
has stored the books in the library of her roughly
53:58
two thousand square frees apartment, along post work. She has
54:03
designated other spaces for more books she has collected, such
54:07
as a closet for Walt Whitman's books in the dining
54:10
room for Mark Twain's writings. Taine, a former vice president
54:15
of marketing for a manufacturing company, said she has spent
54:18
a small fortune on collecting, but enjoys the chase of
54:22
finding and buying rare Memorbidia and meeting fellow collectors. She
54:27
has donated many of her books to libraries, she said,
54:30
in hopes of sharing her interest. Chairs, she said, are
54:34
a first for her presidential memorabilia collection.
54:37
Speaker 2: When they went.
54:38
Speaker 1: Viral in twenty twenty one, people joked that the photo
54:42
shot in the Carter's home in Plains, Georgia was taken
54:45
in the worlds of the Hobbit of the movie.
54:48
Speaker 2: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
54:50
Speaker 1: After Rosalind's and Jimmy's death in November twenty twenty three,
54:54
in December twenty twenty four, respectively, Amy Carter said she
54:59
and her family began deciding what to do with their belongings.
55:03
The armchairs were in a den where her parents hosted
55:06
guest Amy said. A portrait of Amy as a child
55:09
with Roslind hung on the wall behind the chairs, and
55:13
the table by the chairs featured the star shaped teapot
55:17
Amy made for Rosalind for Mother's Day when she was
55:20
in fourth grade. Roslind wanted to keep the room clean,
55:25
Amy said, so she asked her four children and her
55:28
husband not to track any red clay soil from the
55:31
outside onto the blue carpet. When I was a kid,
55:36
Amy said, it was the room you didn't interrupt, you know,
55:39
if something was happening in there. Amy and her family
55:43
kept some items, gave some to the National Park Service,
55:46
which now manages the property, and puts some up for auction.
55:51
She said she hoped the items would inspire people to
55:54
be like her parents, curious, earnest, honest, and ambitious. When
56:00
a Christie's employee called Tane about the chairs a few
56:03
weeks ago, Taine said she wasn't interested. But when Taine
56:07
visited Christie's office in Manhattan, she said the chairs and
56:12
the viral photo gave her an intimate look at the
56:15
Carter's lives and exemplified the warmness Jimmy and Rosalind carried.
56:22
Taine said she plans to read in the chairs and
56:25
invite physisters to sit in them, but she doesn't want
56:28
to wear them out. They're going to get the respect
56:32
they deserve. Tane said, and with this, I am a
56:36
little bit early, but I'm going to end the reading
56:39
for Today's Washington Post for February the second of twenty
56:43
twenty six. Again, I apologize for my miss up last Saturday.
56:49
I wish I were on a plane to see my
56:52
sister right now, which is where I would be, but
56:55
I will be here on Thursday and Friday, reading the
56:58
Washington Post for this week, as I normally would be,
57:03
so stay warm, Please continue listening to programming on Radio I,
57:10
and take care by