Latest / Washington Post / 1.22.26
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of two days Washington Post for Thursday,
- 0:06January twenty second of twenty twenty six. Alas Dainer is
- 0:12your reader, with reminder that radio is an organization for
- 0:16those blind or with other disabilities and unable to hold
- 0:22or read printed material easily. I will start with the
- 0:27front page and on the far left presidents fed powersters
- 0:34out from court Justice's signal they won't allow immediate firing
- 0:40a board official Lisa Cook by Justin Juvenile and Andrew Ackerman.
- 0:47In the middle a picture of Trump at the World
- 0:51Economic Forum. He is in a dark blue suit with
- 0:54his red tie and stand a lapel pen. He is
- 0:59framed by two columns and is at his podium. Above
- 1:06that picture is Trump bends on Greenland demands, and the
- 1:12article on the far right is Canceled Stariff's canceled tariffs
- 1:19rules out seizure. He hails framework of a deal on
- 1:24Arctic security by Emily Davies Katzeuski and Michael Bernbaum. And
- 1:33below the picture of Donald Trump judge Block's government from
- 1:38reviewing Post reporters data by Perry Stein. And on the
- 1:46far left, below the fold Ice launches immigration crackdown across Maine.
- 1:53In recent years, state's two largest cities saw an influx
- 1:57of a solemn seekers Joanna Slater, Perry Stein, Mary and
- 2:03Levine and Theodoric Maya in the middle. It looks like
- 2:10literally a long horn cow that has been stripped and burned,
- 2:17and instead of burnt bones, it's a burnt carcass of
- 2:22a car. And it's the two fenders that are up
- 2:26that look like the long harm cow. It's burned beyond unbelievable,
- 2:34it says. Israeli military kills three journalists in Gaza strike
- 2:42remnants of a car carrying Palestinian reporters, including a CBS
- 2:47News contributor in Alzabra, Gaza. Israel said it targeted several
- 2:54suspects who are operating a drone to the right of
- 2:59the That weekend, tempest of ice snow to hit most
- 3:06of US d C set for six to twelve inches
- 3:11during perilous storm by Ben Noel and then below. The
- 3:17car carcass freed January six. Rioters now seek compensation by
- 3:26Beth Roinhart, Ellie Silverman, and Aaron Schaeffel. The biggest story
- 3:32is Trump Haile's framework of Greenland Deal, reversing tariff threats.
- 3:40The announcement was the latest head spinning twist in his
- 3:43effort to seize Greenland from Denmark, despite Danish and Greenlandic
- 3:48objections that the island is not for sale. By Emily
- 3:54Davi's cat Zarzuski Michael Bernbaum out of Davos, Switzerland, President
- 4:02Donald Trump said Wednesday that he had reached the framework
- 4:07of a deal on Greenland, backing away from his earlier
- 4:10demands to acquire the Danish territory after days of escalating
- 4:15threats and once unthinkable worries about the most powerful member
- 4:20of NATO turning its weapons against one of its oldest allies.
- 4:26Declaring that he would scrap planted tariffs on Europe, Trump
- 4:31said talks were underway with NATO Secretary General Mark Root
- 4:36about bolstering security in the Arctic. The announcement, made on
- 4:41Trump's social media account, was the latest head spinning twist
- 4:45in his effort to seize Greenland from Denmark, despite Danish
- 4:50and Greenlandic objections that the island is not for sale,
- 4:55and it marked a retreat from a push to claim
- 4:58another nation's territory as his own, which had unsettled markets.
- 5:03As the European Union readied economic retaliation. The president offered
- 5:10few details, but the deal was likely to fall far
- 5:14short of the full sovereign possession that he previously demanded.
- 5:18Denmark's top diplomat said that the United States would not
- 5:23own the island and route is not empowered to negotiate
- 5:27the transfer of territory from one NATO member to another.
- 5:34We have formed the framework of a future deal with
- 5:37respect to Greenland and in fact the entire Arctic region.
- 5:41This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for
- 5:45the United States of America and all NATO nations. Trump
- 5:50wrote on truth Socials, saying that the proposed Golden Dome
- 5:54missile defense system was subject to further discussions as it
- 5:59pertains to Greenland. Trump's reversal came after a one on
- 6:04one meeting with rude amid a frenzy of diplomacy at
- 6:07a snowy gathering of global economic elites that aimed at
- 6:12keeping the US president from blowing up relations with Washington's
- 6:15closest and oldest allies. The deal is right now, a
- 6:21little bit in progress, but pretty far along, Trump told
- 6:25reporters and Davos, adding it gives us everything we needed
- 6:31to get separately. He told CNBC in an interview that
- 6:36the deal would last forever, while repeatedly declining to say
- 6:41whether it would involved ownership of Greenland. Danish leaders said
- 6:46the day was ending better than it had started. Trump's
- 6:51removing the tariff threat takes the heat out. Danish foreign
- 6:55minister lara's Loki Rusmussen told a Danish broad cast the
- 7:01US will not own Greenland. He said that is a
- 7:06red line. Discussions will focus on ensuring art security, NATO's
- 7:12spokeswoman Alison Hart said in a statement, including talks among Denmark, Greenland,
- 7:17and the United States aimed at ensuring that Russia and
- 7:23China never gain a foothold economically or militarily in Greenland.
- 7:30Earlier Wednesday, Trump appeared unyielding in his demand that the
- 7:35US acquired greenland ruling a military force, while underscoring his
- 7:40willingness to use economic and diplomatic pressure against allies. In
- 7:45a speech before foreign leaders and business executives gathered for
- 7:50a form meant to foster global cooperation, we want a
- 7:56piece of ice for world protection, and they won't give it.
- 8:00We've never asked for anything else. Trump on Wednesday told
- 8:05a packed room at the World Economic Forum here, adding
- 8:09they have a choice. You can say yes and we
- 8:12will be very appreciative, or you can say no, we
- 8:16will remember. The address underscored a defining feature of Trump's
- 8:22second term, a willingness to wield US power coercively through threats, tariffs,
- 8:29and leverage, even against allies, while showing little interest in
- 8:34persuasion or consensus building. Rather than tailoring his message to
- 8:39an event created to foster international collaboration, Trump delivered a
- 8:45speech that rebuked alliances that have defined US foreign policy
- 8:49for generations and derided Europe's economic policies. He spoke for
- 8:56more than an hour, weaving from the economy, nostalgia for
- 9:01the age of European imperialism, and the backlash to his
- 9:05immigration crackdown in Minnesota during his second speech in as
- 9:10many days, defending policies that have struggled to gain traction
- 9:14at home and abroad. The fallout was swift. Shortly after
- 9:20his remarks concluded, the European Parliament suspended ratification of the
- 9:26EU US trade deal that Trump reached last year. In
- 9:30a statement, Burned Lang, chair of the Legislative Trade Committee,
- 9:36said US threats against Denmark and Greenland left lawmakers no choice.
- 9:42Burned Lang said by threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty
- 9:48of an e new member state and by using tariffs
- 9:53as a coercive instrument, the US is undermining the stability
- 9:58and predictability of EU US trade relations. It wasn't immediately
- 10:05obvious whether Trump's backing down on the tariffs would lead
- 10:09to a renewed effort in the European Parliament to ratify
- 10:13the deal. Danish officials said earlier that Denmark and Greenland
- 10:18had proposed a NATO mission to the territory in a
- 10:21meeting with Route on Monday, possibly providing a way out
- 10:25of the dispute. Danish and NATO diplomats had also signaled
- 10:30they were ready to address Trump's grievances by expanding the
- 10:34presence of US troops or bases in Greenland and offering
- 10:38investment in mineral extraction. Depending trade deal would have eliminated
- 10:44European tariffs on all US industrial goods, while leaving products
- 10:50from Europe facing a fifteen percent tariff imposed by Trump.
- 10:55A structure analysis said favored Washington. The European Union is
- 10:59the nation's largest trading partner. Total two way goods trade
- 11:04each year is roughly one trillion dollars. European lawmakers work
- 11:11on the deal will not resume until the US decides
- 11:15to re engage on a path of cooperation rather than confrontation,
- 11:20Lang said before Trump's more conciliatory announcement. The President is
- 11:26joined in Davos by multiple Cabinet secretaries, including Secretary of
- 11:31State Marco Rubio, whom Trump repeatedly praised during his speech
- 11:35in rare moments that drew applause. In one revealing aside,
- 11:40Trump praised European imperial expansion, saying there was nothing wrong
- 11:45with nations having expanded their territory through empire building and
- 11:49drawing an explicit comparison to his push to acquire agreemand
- 11:55it was a sharp break from the post World War
- 11:57II US foreign policy consents, which has supported country's desires
- 12:03for independence from their colonial powers, then built a globalizing
- 12:08trading system to weave those nations together. Trump and his
- 12:12aides had previewed the Davos appearance as an opportunity to
- 12:17project US strength while addressing domestic economic concerns. American presidents,
- 12:24in part because of the opulent optics, have mostly skipped
- 12:28the forum, but Trump chose to return for the second
- 12:32time this year with the largest and most senior delegation
- 12:35in US history. Trump often delivers such addresses to stadiums
- 12:41full of supporters who roar and cheer whenever he speaks.
- 12:45This crowd listened largely in silence, save for a few
- 12:49laugh lines suys as when Trump referred to the sunglasses
- 12:53French President Emmanuel maccraw war during his speech on Tuesday.
- 13:00On the overnight flight to Davos, White House Chief of
- 13:04Staff Susie Wilds told reporters that Trump will travel next
- 13:08week to Iowa for a speech tailored to energy and
- 13:11the economy, and will make weekly trips ahead of the
- 13:14midterm elections. Trump on Wednesday also discussed the executive order
- 13:20he announced the previous night to keep large investors from
- 13:24buying up single family homes. The action directs federal agencies
- 13:29to join in the effort, tells the Attorney General and
- 13:33Federal Trade Commission to review acquisitions for anti competitive practices,
- 13:39and says the White House will work on legislative recommendations
- 13:42to make the policy's law. Nato Allah and his willingness
- 13:48to lambass the EU overshadowed his effort to focus on
- 13:54his economic policy, at least to the throngs at Davos,
- 13:58who had spent days in public and private weighing how
- 14:02to best all the tension with Trump. Markets have been
- 14:06unsettled by heightened tensions between the US and its NATO allies.
- 14:11Investors appeared relieved that Trump said he would not invade Greenland.
- 14:16Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial average standard in poll
- 14:20five hundred, and the Nasdaq turned higher on the news
- 14:24after posting shallow losses earlier in the morning, with all
- 14:28three indexes ticking up as markets opened during the speech. Overall,
- 14:35it feels like a relatively subdued in dress on the
- 14:38topics everyone anticipated, said one banking executive in a text message,
- 14:44who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional retribution.
- 14:50On stage, Trump's voice sounded hoarse as he described falling
- 14:54gas prices. He appeared to confuse Greenland with its neighbor
- 14:59Iceland four times, attributing the Tuesday's slide in the stock
- 15:04market to Iceland and not the trade war. He started
- 15:07over his demands to purchase Greenland. We withert us right now?
- 15:13You'd all be speaking German and the little Japanese, perhaps,
- 15:17he said to the crowd in Switzerland, where German is
- 15:22one of four national languages and the most commonly spoken.
- 15:27Trump also recreted how he imposed thirty percent tariffs on
- 15:31Swiss imports before a raising them to thirty nine percent
- 15:35after a conversation with the Swiss president rubbed me the
- 15:39wrong way. I'll be honest with you. Eventually he backed down,
- 15:43he said, because I don't want to hurt people. The
- 15:47personal attack on the leader of a country hosting a
- 15:50large US delegation this week underscored Trump's readiness to use
- 15:55US economic power coercively, even against close partners. At a
- 16:00bilateral meeting shortly after this speech, Switzerland's new president, Guy
- 16:06Permelan remained a cordial host. Without you, it's not truly,
- 16:12Davos Permelin said, I agree, Trump responded. Trump met with
- 16:19the leaders of Poland, Belgium, and Egypt on Wednesday, according
- 16:23to White House Press Secretary at Caroline Levitt. He then
- 16:26addressed business executives, mentioning the names of private sector allies,
- 16:31including Apple CEO Tim Cook and FIFA CEO Gianni Infantino.
- 16:39Trump told reporters that he would meet with Ukrainian President
- 16:42Vololod and mcdamir Zelenski, who was still in Ukraine as
- 16:47of Wednesday. On Thursday, Also on Thursday, Trump is scheduled
- 16:52to lead a charter signing of the Board of Peace,
- 16:55which he is marketing as an international peace building organization
- 17:00with permanent seats worth one billion dollars. Nearly three dozen
- 17:05countries have agreed to at least temporarily join the project.
- 17:09As senior Administration official said as Trump walked out of
- 17:14the room, attendee's return to the standard rituals of this
- 17:18economic conference, where access and leverage remains a central currencies,
- 17:23and none mattered more than proximity to the US President
- 17:28our next article, Supreme Court appears likely to allow Lisa
- 17:33Cook to remain on FED board. Such a decision, which
- 17:38would hold while a lawsuit challenging her removal plays out,
- 17:42would prevent Trump from exerting greater influence over the powerful
- 17:46Central Bank. There is a picture of Board Governor Lisa
- 17:51Cook in a black pantsuit walking with her attorney, A Lowell,
- 17:56who was also in sort of a dark navy blue
- 17:58suit with a red s righted tod and white shirt
- 18:02and holding papers leaving the Supreme Court on Wednesday by
- 18:07Justin Juvenal and Andrew Ackerman. The Supreme Court on Wednesday
- 18:13appeared likely to block President Donald Trump from immediately firing
- 18:17Democratic appointed Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board, a
- 18:22move that would prevent Trump from exerting greater influence over
- 18:26the powerful central bank that guides the economy. Nearly all
- 18:31of the justices asked skeptical questions of Solicited General d
- 18:36John Swell during roughly two hours of arguments, taking issue
- 18:41with most aspects of the government's case that the President
- 18:45had met the legal bar to remove Cook while a
- 18:49lawsuit challenging her removal plays out. Such agreement is rail
- 18:54on high profile cases at the deeply polarized Court. Conservative
- 19:00Justice Brent of Brett M. Cavanaugh said the Trump administration's
- 19:05position that it could remove federal governors without review or
- 19:11due process would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of
- 19:15the Federal Reserve. He said presidents from both parties could
- 19:21gin up reasons to fire governors under such a system,
- 19:24with dangerous implications for a central bank that Congress created
- 19:29to operate independently. What are we doing when we have
- 19:34a system that incentivizes that Kavanaugh asked. The President has
- 19:40complained for months that the Fed is not dropping interest
- 19:44rates quickly enough. He has tried to oast Cook, alleging
- 19:49she committed mortgage fraud, and his Justice Department has launched
- 19:53a criminal probe of FED Chair Jerome H. Powell to
- 19:57determine whether he lied to Congress. Both Cook and Powell
- 20:01have denied wrongdoing and have accused Trump of manufacturing pretexts
- 20:06to undermine the independence of the Central Bank to achieve
- 20:11his policy goals. The President's efforts have alarmed many economists,
- 20:16who fear that keeping interest rates artificially low could lead
- 20:20to long term inflation. The Supreme Court's ruling, which is
- 20:25expected in the coming weeks or months, is one of
- 20:28the most significant tests to date of Trump's push to
- 20:32expand presidential powell in place under tighter control parts of
- 20:36the government that for decades have operated independently. It could
- 20:41also have major ramifications for the economy and is being
- 20:46closely watched by business and the markets. In a sign
- 20:51of the stakes, both Powell and Cook attended the arguments,
- 20:55as did FOMA chair Ben S. Spernanki. A ruling for
- 21:00Book could allow her to remain in her position on
- 21:03the FED Board until a final decision is reached in
- 21:06her lawsuit, which could take months or even years. The
- 21:11justices in emergency rulings have repeatedly backed Trump's bids to
- 21:16fire the heads of independent agencies in his second term,
- 21:21but in a major's shift to Weinsta, justices at both
- 21:25ends of the court's political spectrum seemed ready to draw
- 21:29a red line around the FED Mannis signaled that they
- 21:33wanted additional legal proceedings, perhaps in lower courts, before deciding
- 21:39a novel and weighty legal issue on the merits. While
- 21:42Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Said he might favor
- 21:46going ahead in ruling, Conservative Justice Samuel A. Alito Junior
- 21:52asked saua while the Trump administration was asking the Court
- 21:56to resolve such a momentous case in a h manner.
- 22:01Justice Amy Coney Barrett, also a conservative, pointed to a
- 22:05Friend of the Court brief of former FED Governor's warning
- 22:08that removing Cook could trigger a recession and counseled caution.
- 22:14Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the public's confidence in the
- 22:19Court's decision would benefit from a hashing out of significant
- 22:24factual and legal issues before a ruling was issued. We
- 22:30know that the independence of the agency is very important,
- 22:34and that the independence is harmed if we decide these
- 22:38issues too quickly and without due consideration, Sodomayor said. Congress
- 22:45set up the FED to be insulated from a president's
- 22:48control so it could make difficult decisions, such as raising
- 22:52interest rates that might not be politically popular, but that
- 22:57are good for the overall health of the economy. No
- 23:01president in the one hundred and twenty one year history
- 23:06that FED had tried to fire a governor from the
- 23:09board before Trump targeted Cook in August. He alleged that
- 23:14she claimed two homes as primary residences at the same
- 23:18time to get a better mortgage rate. Cook denies the allegations.
- 23:24The issue before the Justices was whether the effort to
- 23:28fire her complied with the Federal Reserved Act, which says
- 23:32FED board members can be removed only for cause. A
- 23:37federal judge and a divided appeals court temporarily blocked Cook's removal,
- 23:43prompting the administration to appeal to the High Court. In October,
- 23:49the Justices allowed Cook to remain in her job while
- 23:52they heard the emergency appeal from the Trump administration. Saua
- 23:57told the justices that the alleged mortgage fraud by Cook
- 24:02met the legal bar for her removal and that Trump
- 24:05had lost confidence in her ability to do the job.
- 24:09He also said courts did not have the authority to
- 24:12review the president's decision, a contention that a handful of
- 24:17the justices disputed. Souers said the American people should not
- 24:24have their interest rates determined by someone who was, at
- 24:28best grossly negligent in obtaining favorable interest rates for herself.
- 24:34Paul D. Clement, Cook's eternity, said judges do have the
- 24:39power to review Cook's oaster. He also said the mortgage
- 24:43fraud allegations, even if true, would not meet the legal
- 24:47bar to fire Cook because she applied for her mortgages
- 24:50before she was appointed to the FED by President Joe
- 24:54Biden in twenty twenty two. He added that Cook was
- 24:58never given an opportunity unity to defend herself. There is
- 25:03no reason to abandon more than one hundred years of
- 25:06central bank and dependence on an emergency application, Clement said.
- 25:13The Justices queized attorneys for both signs about what the
- 25:16removal of a FED governor should entail, what constitutes four cause,
- 25:22whether the governor is entitled to a hearing, and what
- 25:25latitude judges have to review a firing. Judice Keatanji Brown Jackson,
- 25:32a liberal, sounded incredulous when Sauers said it was sufficient
- 25:36due process for the president to have indicated on social
- 25:40media that he intended to fire Cook. Jackson asked how
- 25:44Cook was supposed to defend herself from the allegations without
- 25:48some kind of hearing, Like she was supposed to post
- 25:52about it on social media and that was the opportunity
- 25:56to be heard, justice, asked Jackson asked. David Wilcox, a
- 26:02senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and
- 26:07the director of US Economic Research at Bloomberg Economics, said
- 26:12he expects the justices to send the case back to
- 26:15lower courts. He said the lower courts need to resolve
- 26:19a key procedural question, whether Cook was afforded adequate process.
- 26:25My guess is what the court will do is kick
- 26:28the can down the road, he said, adding that it
- 26:32was risky to predict the outcome of the case based
- 26:35on oral arguments alone. Some legal experts that administration officials
- 26:42may have damaged their chances by launching the criminal probe
- 26:47a Powell this month, creating the impression that Trump's efforts
- 26:51are more but reshaping the FED board and policy than
- 26:55any alleged malfeasance by its leaders. The Justice Department is
- 27:00probing whether the Powell misled Congress of at a two
- 27:03point five billion dollar renovation of the fed's headquarters. Powell
- 27:08has forcefully pushed back on those allegations, calling them pretexts
- 27:13in a video posted on the Fed's website. The threat
- 27:18of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve
- 27:22setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what
- 27:26will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of
- 27:31the President. Powell said the arguments Wednesday were a notable
- 27:36shift from a case in December dealing with the legality
- 27:40of Trump's firing of a Democrat from the Federal Trade Commission,
- 27:44another independent agency without cause that could also affect Hook's
- 27:50job at the FED. In that case, Sah told the
- 27:55justices that Trump had inherent authority under the Constitution to
- 27:59re remove members of independent agency boards, even though Congress
- 28:04set up those agencies to operate at a remove from
- 28:08the executive Some of the Court's conservative justices and many
- 28:13officials in the Trump administration have expressed support for an
- 28:17idea known as the unitary executive theory, which holds that
- 28:24the Congress gives the president broad authority to fire officials
- 28:29and that Congress cannot limit it. Agencies like the FTC,
- 28:35Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Election Commission operate
- 28:40as a headless fourth branch of government, not fully accountable
- 28:45to the voters who elected the president. SAA told the
- 28:48justices in the FTC. The conservative majority on the Court
- 28:53seem to embrace that argument, possibly clearing the way for
- 28:57them to strike down a ninety year president known as
- 29:00Humphreys Executor that says Congress can limit the president's ability
- 29:05to dismiss the heads of independent agencies. Kavanagh said, then,
- 29:12I think broad delegations to unaccountable independent agencies raise enormous
- 29:18constitutional and real world problems for individual liberty. But Kavanaugh
- 29:24also suggested that the court seize the Central Bank is
- 29:28different and might carve out a ruling protecting it, whether
- 29:32or not it affects the FED. A ruling striking down
- 29:35Humphrey's Executor would be one of the largest changes to
- 29:39the structure of government in decades. A decision in that
- 29:42case is also expected by the summer. Some federal watchers
- 29:48said Wednesday that the Cook case appeared unlikely to deal
- 29:52a fatal blow to the Central Bank's independence, but they
- 29:56also warned that the Fed is increasingly on the defensive,
- 30:00reacting to political pressure rather than setting the terms, and
- 30:05that with a pushback from Congress and the markets, Trump
- 30:09could continue reshaping the institution in ways that erode its autonomy.
- 30:15It sounds to me that this case will not be
- 30:18the waterloo for federal independence, said Mark Spindle, an investment
- 30:24manager who co wrote a history of the Central Bank's independence.
- 30:30But the institution is clearly playing defense. And The next
- 30:37article is about the Washington Post reporta Hannah Natanson judge
- 30:43Block's government from searching data seized from Post reporter. This
- 30:49seizure chills speech, cripples reporting, and inflects a reparable harm,
- 30:56the Post said in a statement, and we have read
- 30:58many articles by her. This is vapierry Stein. Government officials
- 31:05may not examine electronic devices seized from a Washington Post
- 31:09reporter until litigations dimming from the search of her home
- 31:13is settled. A federal judge in Virginia ruled winstea. The
- 31:18ruling from US Magistrate Judge William B. Porter was issued
- 31:23hours after the Post demanded in a court filing that
- 31:27federal law enforcement officials returned the electronic devices the government
- 31:32seized from staff report Hannah Nattinson's home last week. The
- 31:38extraordinary search floats the First Amendment and ignores federal statutory
- 31:45safeguards for journalists. The Post told the court federal agents
- 31:51executed a search warrant on January fourteenth at Madison's home
- 31:55in Virginia, seizing a phone, two laptops, a quarto, a
- 32:01portable hard drive, and a garment watch. Law enforcement officials
- 32:06said the search was part of an investigation into a
- 32:09government contractor who was accused of unlawfully obtaining classified materials.
- 32:16In his brief order, Porter wrote that the Post and
- 32:20Natssen had demonstrated good cause in their followings to maintain
- 32:25this datus quote, it would not allow the government to
- 32:29access Naison's data until he is able to fully review
- 32:34and rule on the matter. He ordered the government to
- 32:37respond to the Post filing by January twenty eighth, and
- 32:41scheduled a hearing early next month. It is oberseptionally rare
- 32:47for law enforcement officials to conduct searches at reporters' homes.
- 32:51The law allows such searches that federal regulations intended to
- 32:56protect a free press are designed to make it more
- 33:00difficult to use aggressive law enforcement tactics against reporters to
- 33:05obtain the adudities of their sources. The search marked the
- 33:09first time the government has rated a journalist's home as
- 33:13part of a National Security League investigation. First Amendment Advassy
- 33:18groups have noted the outrageous siega of our reporter's confidential
- 33:24news gathering materials chills speech, cripples reporting, and inflicts a
- 33:30reparable harm every day the government keeps its hands on
- 33:34these materials, the Post said in a statement, adding we
- 33:38have asked the court to order an immediate or the
- 33:41immediate return of all seas materials and prevent their use.
- 33:46Anything less would the license future newsroom raids and normalize
- 33:50censorship by search warrant. The filing was the Post's first
- 33:55court action in response to the seizure. In it, Posted
- 34:00attorneys said they conferred multiple times with federal officials about
- 34:03the sea's data, and the government agreed that it would
- 34:07not begin a substantive review of the SEIS data until
- 34:12the parties met again on January twentieth. On the twentieth,
- 34:16they met again, and when the government rejected a proposal
- 34:20to return the materials, the Post attorneys said they would
- 34:23be filing a request in court. According to Post attorneys,
- 34:29the federal officials appeared to take an increasingly combative approach,
- 34:34citing directives from unnamed more senior officials, and refused to
- 34:40refrain from reviewing the materials until the legation was settled.
- 34:45The Post attorneys from the law firm Williams and Conley
- 34:48noted that in other cases, federal officials volunteer ely have
- 34:53held off of reviewing materials pending a court hearing. The
- 34:58government officials said they was still processing the data from
- 35:01Madison's electronic devices and had not started reviewing. They also said,
- 35:07according to the court filing, that they would not refrain
- 35:12from conducting a substantive review and would not agree to
- 35:16inform us even when it began. The Post filing had
- 35:21requested that the judge wholly hearing on an expedited schedule
- 35:26and prohibit the government from reading through Madison's materials until
- 35:29the litigation is settled. Porter granted the motion and said
- 35:34that for now the government could keep this seized materials,
- 35:37but was prohibited from reviewing them. That warrant that federal
- 35:42agents obtained for the search said it was executed as
- 35:46part of an investigation into Aurelio Perez Lagons, a system
- 35:52administrator in Maryland who has a top secret security clearance.
- 35:57A Justice Department official said that the suspect messaging Madison
- 36:01when he was arrested earlier this month. Perez Lugones has
- 36:06been charged with retaining classified materials, but has not been
- 36:11accused in court of illegally leaking materials to the media.
- 36:17President Donald Trump, in an apparent reference to Perez Lugonis,
- 36:22said after the case became public that a person alleged
- 36:26to a elked information about Venezuela had been arrested. In
- 36:30a personal declaration accompanying the court Follings, Maddison said that
- 36:35she had communicated with Perez Lugones via signal, an encrypted
- 36:40messaging app, and phone. The United States has no law
- 36:45that explicitly makes it a crime for a journalist to
- 36:48obtain a published classified information. In twenty nineteen, when Wiki
- 36:53Leaks founded, Julian Assange was indicted under the Espionage Act
- 36:59for disclosure in classified information. First Amendment scholars warned that
- 37:04his case could set a president that could be used
- 37:07against journalists. That issue was never tested in court because
- 37:12Assigns and the government reached a plea deal in twenty
- 37:15twenty four. The filing Wednesday said that the electronic devices
- 37:20that the government sees from Madison contain years of information
- 37:25about past and current confidential sources and other unpublished news
- 37:29gathering materials, including those she was using for current reporting.
- 37:35The Sea's materials cover essentially her entire professional universe, and
- 37:41almost none of the information is relevant to the search warrant.
- 37:46The filing said the government sees this proverbial haystack in
- 37:51an attempt to locate a needle. The filing said prosecutors
- 37:57also served the Washington Post with the subpoena Sea making
- 38:00information related to the same government contractor. The subpoena asked
- 38:05the Post to hand over any communications between the contractor
- 38:09and other employees. Madison covers the federal workforce and has
- 38:15been a part of the Post's most high profile and
- 38:18sensitive coverage related to government firings, national security, and diplomacy.
- 38:25During the first year of the second Trump administration. Her
- 38:29most recent articles included in depth reporting on topics as
- 38:33disparate as Venezuela and social security. In December, Nadison wrote
- 38:41a first person account about her experience covering the workforce
- 38:44as the Trump administration created upheaval across the federal government.
- 38:49She detailed as she posted her secure phone number to
- 38:52an online forum for federal government workers and amassed more
- 38:56than a thousand sources, with federal workers freak contacting her
- 39:01to share frustrations and accounts from their offices. Madison wrote
- 39:07in her declaration Wednesday that she typically receives anywhere from
- 39:11dozens to upwards of one hundred tips from sources per
- 39:15day on signal, but since the seizure, the number of
- 39:19tips has fallen to zero. In its filings, the Post
- 39:24argues that the government search violates the First Amendment and
- 39:28is an unconstitutional prior restraint because by seizing Madison's devices,
- 39:36it has rendered her incapable of effectively during her job.
- 39:40The seizure, they said, amoungst to blocking her speech before
- 39:44she's able to publish it here. The government has commandeered
- 39:49Addison's reporting record and tools thereby preventing her from contacting
- 39:55her more than one hundred eleven hundred sources and receiving
- 39:59the tips, and generally impairing her ability to publish the
- 40:04story she otherwise would have published but for the raid
- 40:08the following states. Last week, the Reporter's Committee for Freedom
- 40:14of the Press requested that the court make public materials
- 40:17related to the search warrant of Madison's home. Those materials
- 40:22would include Daffi David, which would be prosecuted's explanation to
- 40:26a judge of it why a search in Madison's home
- 40:29is necessary. A judge has not yet ruled on that request.
- 40:34This is the first time in US history that the
- 40:38government has searched a reporter's home in a national security
- 40:42media leak investigation, seizing potentially a vast amount of confidential
- 40:47data and information, said Bruce D. Brown, president of the
- 40:52Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press. The move in
- 40:57peril's public interest reporting and will we'll have ramifications far
- 41:01beyond the specific case. Brown said it is critical that
- 41:07the court blocks the government from searching through this material
- 41:11until it can address the profound threat to the First
- 41:15Amendment posed by the raid. An article on Davos. Governor Newsom,
- 41:25the California governor, says he was blocked from entering the
- 41:29US A House at Davos. The California governor had come
- 41:34to the farm to rebut President Donald Trump on the
- 41:37world stage, and there is a picture of him speaking
- 41:41to reporters after Donald Trump's speech Wednesday by Brianna Tuckham
- 41:47and made residents. California Governor gasm Newsom, a Democrat, was
- 41:53denied entry to a US designating venue at the World
- 41:56Economic Firm in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, following pressure from
- 42:01the White House. His office said Newsom had been invited
- 42:05more than a week ago to participate in a fire
- 42:08said chat at the USA host the official US Pavilion,
- 42:12which also hosted President Donald Trump for a speech earlier Wednesday.
- 42:17Fortune magazine, the organizer for the Newsom event, had begun
- 42:22promoting it. A USA host official contacted the Governor's office
- 42:28Wednesday afternoon, shortly before the event was set to begin,
- 42:32and said they were counseling the Fortune's event, Newsom's office said,
- 42:39backing up its account with screenshots of its communication with
- 42:43the event organizers, Newsom's office said it was told his
- 42:47presence would not align with their afternoon programming. The Governor's
- 42:52office said USA host offered him the option to attend
- 42:56a nightcap reception, instead, which he did. Client. How weak
- 43:02and pathetic do you have to be this scared of
- 43:05a fireside chat, Newsom wrote on x. Newsom, a fierce
- 43:10critic of the president and likely contender for the presidency
- 43:14in twenty twenty eight, had traveled to the firm Igo
- 43:18for confrontation with Trump before his departure, and aid said
- 43:22he planned to use his appearance to confront the global
- 43:26business elite, urging world leaders to stand up to President
- 43:31Trump's abuse of power and economic corruption or be complicit
- 43:35in the collapse of democratic capitalism. Wednesday's fireside chat would
- 43:41have served as a rebuttal to Trump's speech. Newsom is
- 43:45still slated to speak at a separate Semaphore event Thursday
- 43:50morning before flying back home to California. The change in
- 43:55programming Wednesday came after several Trump administration officials participated in
- 44:01events at USA Houst throughout the day. Among them was
- 44:05Secretary Treasury Secretary Scott Bascent, who spoke before Newsom's team
- 44:11was notified that his event would be canceled. According to
- 44:15Newsom's aides, I was told he was asked to give
- 44:19a speech on his signature policies. But he's not speaking
- 44:23because what have his economic policies brought, Bessent said during
- 44:29his remarks, adding he is here hobnobbing with the global
- 44:33elite while his California citizens are still homeless. USA host
- 44:38did not immediately respond to request for comment. Its web
- 44:43page says to be newed does not represent the US
- 44:46government and does not organize official government programming, but he
- 44:51did not otherwise explained to what happened to Newsom's event.
- 44:55The State Department provided the statement from White House spokeswoman
- 44:59Amic Kelly that did not confirm whether the administration had
- 45:03prevented Newsom from entering the venue. No one in Davos
- 45:08knows whose third rate Governor Newsom or news Come of
- 45:15NYWS cum Newscomb is or why he is follocking around
- 45:20Switzerland instead of fixing the many problems he created in California,
- 45:25Kelly said. Patrick Riley, senior vice president of communications at Fortune,
- 45:31said that Newsom had been invited to speak, but that
- 45:34USA Hosts determined it would not be able to accommodate
- 45:39the Governor's participation and communicated that decision to Fortune. Fortune
- 45:45programs all editorial conversations independently, though it is common with
- 45:51high profile international events that participation can be affected by
- 45:57logistical security and the access considerations that involved multiple stakeholders
- 46:04and involve over time, Raleigh said, adding that Fortune looks
- 46:08forward to future conversations with Governor Newsom, as well as
- 46:13leaders from each and every side of these important global conversations.
- 46:19Newsom and Trump have had a combative but occasionally collaborative
- 46:23relationship since they met during Trump's first term when Trump
- 46:27came to California to servey wildfire damage. They worked together
- 46:32at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, but the California
- 46:36governor ultimately became one of the leaders of the resistance
- 46:39to Trump's first term agenda and was one of his
- 46:42chief antagonists on the campaign trial in twenty twenty four.
- 46:47After Trump was elected that November, Newsomb recalibrated his approach,
- 46:53insisting he was offering an open hand and not a
- 46:56closed fist, and he sought help sorry from the government
- 47:02Trump administration for the response to the deadly fires from
- 47:07law in Los Angeles in early twenty twenty five, but
- 47:10the relationship unraveled when the Trump administration began widespread immigration
- 47:15raids in California in June, and the president sent in
- 47:19members of the California National Guard and the Marines over
- 47:22Newsom's objections. In a show of force against protesters, Trump
- 47:28said he thought Newsom should be arrested. Newsom said the
- 47:31president was moving toward creating an authoritarian regime. Newsom now
- 47:37taunts Trump constantly on his social media, trolling the president
- 47:42with satirical messages that plemit the all cap style of
- 47:46Trump's social media post and calling it what he views
- 47:50as misinformation from the administration and its allies. Trump mentioned
- 47:56Newsom during his address Wednesday, saying that the democratic governor
- 48:00should contact the White House, should contact the White House
- 48:04and ask for help with their states. In the audience,
- 48:08Newsom could be seen shaking his head in response. I
- 48:13wish I could find something light and fun to read,
- 48:16but there's none in the paper this morning that I
- 48:19could find that would be of interest. So I'll read
- 48:23maybe the last article. I don't know. Trump's deeply unpopular
- 48:28presidency so far. A year after his inauguration, polls show
- 48:33he is as unpopular as ever, and many Americans dislike
- 48:37his major policies. And there is a picture of demonstrators
- 48:42using signage to protest after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- 48:46agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. And there are
- 48:51two stop signs. One says no Trump No, and it's
- 48:55obviously a handmade one, and the other isn't absolute true
- 49:00stop signed with the word Trump underneath, assigned with shame
- 49:05on it and end ice by Amber Phillips. At the
- 49:10start of President Donald Trump's second term, O Wall Street
- 49:14Journal poll found that voters said they liked his ideas
- 49:17to get tough on immigration and crime and make the
- 49:21federal government more efficient, but they were concerned he'd go
- 49:24too far. As he wraps up his first year in
- 49:28office and embolden, Trump has worked to remake much of
- 49:31American government to be loyal to him, weaken federal agency's
- 49:36ability to respond to national disasters and disease outbreaks, reshaped
- 49:42vaccine childhood policy to suit vaccine skeptics, is using the
- 49:48Justice Department to prosecute his perceived political opponents and try
- 49:53to sallence his critics. Arrested hundreds of thousands of migrants,
- 50:00leverage the military to clamp down on protesters and potentially
- 50:05seize more terroratory and instituted tariffs on goods imported from
- 50:11nearly every country. But most Americans don't like what he's done.
- 50:18Trump has always been a uniquely unpopular president, and he's
- 50:21as unpopular as ever. Two major polls out last week
- 50:26show forty percent approve of how he's doing as president.
- 50:30A Washington Post average of polls in January finds fifty
- 50:34percent of Americans disapprove of how he's handling the country.
- 50:39His support has been low by historical standards, and it
- 50:44hasn't really gotten any better, said Lude Jacobson, chief offer
- 50:49of the Almanac of American Politics. Trump asserts that much
- 50:54of what he's doing will become popular when voters see
- 50:58the end game. Lot of times you can't conceive a voter,
- 51:02he told Ruters recently, you have to just do what's right.
- 51:07And then a lot of the things I did were
- 51:09not really politically popular. They turned out to me when
- 51:12it worked out so well. But it's hard to find
- 51:16a bright spot for Trump in poeing today he is
- 51:19more about half voters feel about Trump one year in.
- 51:26His military actions are particularly unpopular. Right now, Trump is
- 51:31redefining himself as an aggressively expansionist president. He has to
- 51:36Venezuela's leader and asserted the US is running the country.
- 51:40He is considering military strikes against Iran, and is threatening
- 51:44Europe's economy as he tries to take control of Greenland,
- 51:47a Danish territory. An ap RC poll from earlier this
- 51:53month finds more than half believe he's gone too far
- 51:58in using the US military to in other countries. Trump's
- 52:02use of the military at home is also controversial. An
- 52:06October Washington Post ABC News ipso's bhol found that fifty
- 52:12eight percent don't think Trump should be able to send
- 52:15the National Guard into cities over a governor's objections. The
- 52:19White House asserts these or matters of national security, and
- 52:23thus the authority to act recide solely with the President
- 52:28and last Congress or the court step in to assert otherwise.
- 52:32Analysis say he will probably continue to use the US
- 52:35military for his expansionism goals. Two His signature issue, immigration,
- 52:43is getting more unpopular. Trump's administration to set a goal
- 52:48of deporting one million migrants in the first year. He
- 52:52hasn't reached that, but his deportations have been dizzying in
- 52:57scope and speed. A new report from the Nine On
- 53:00Potterson Migration Policy Institute finds he has also stopped a
- 53:05historic number of immigrants from coming into the country. The
- 53:09White House toats record low bolder crossings and says it's
- 53:12deporting both criminals and people who are working in the
- 53:16country illegally. But the more people he deports, it seems,
- 53:21the more unpopular his signature issue becomes. An Associated Press
- 53:26finds that just thirty eight percent approve of how Trump
- 53:29is handling immigration. His deportations are also seeping into the
- 53:34US economy by raising prices on groceries as farms lose
- 53:39their workers. The vast majority arrested by immigration and customs
- 53:43enforcement also have no criminal records. According to the Migration
- 53:49Policy Institute. IS's tactics are also increasingly dominating the national conversation.
- 53:58They have deployed in cities across the nation and recently
- 54:02killed an observer in Minneapolis. Trump defended ice tactics. They're
- 54:07going to make a mistake sometimes, he said Tuesday. It's
- 54:12worth questioning whether we can exercise our rights safely now
- 54:16that there is this level of impunity, said David Beer,
- 54:20director of immigration at the libertarian leaning Cato Institute, three
- 54:26voters don't think he's making the economy better. Last week,
- 54:30Trump called affordability a fake word. We've inherited a mess,
- 54:35he said Tuesday, and we've made it a beautiful, beautiful picture.
- 54:40But the economy is often the most important issue to voters,
- 54:44and a new CNN then SSRIs poll finds that just
- 54:48threetan Americans rate the economy positively, while fifty five percent
- 54:54say that Trump's policies have orsened economic conditions in the country.
- 54:59The last time voters felt mostly positive about Trump's handling
- 55:03of the economy was one month into his administration. Then
- 55:07Trump instituted his widespread tariffs, and prices continued to go up.
- 55:13Manufacturing in America has continued to go down, and overall
- 55:18job growth virtually stalled when tariffs went into effect, said
- 55:22Diane Swank, chief economist with the taxing and consulting firm KPMG.
- 55:29Add To all of this, rising health cost and insurance
- 55:33cost is really difficult, a really difficult economy right now.
- 55:38Swank said. Voters have been clear that their main priority
- 55:42is the economy and prices, and Trump seems focused on
- 55:46anything but said Doug Hay, a former Republican National Committee
- 55:52official who has been critical of Trump. On any given day,
- 55:57he may go on a bizarre, mean field tie raid
- 56:00on Greenland, Minneapolis, Venezuela Awards, Gaza, all ignoring what voters
- 56:07want Trump to fix, and to quick two paragraph aspect
- 56:12on Trump's Board of Peace, of which permanent membership in
- 56:17it is a billion dollars. The Board was initially conceived
- 56:22to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire and peace process
- 56:26in Gaza. The United Nations Security Council authorized the establishment
- 56:32of the Board of Peace as a transitional administration in
- 56:36Gaza for the purpose of coordinating reconstruction efforts, but the
- 56:40Board's charter, obtained over the weekend by the Times of Israel,
- 56:45makes no reference to the conflict in Gaza. The Board
- 56:49of Peace is an international organization that seeks to promote stability,
- 56:54restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in
- 56:59areas affected or threatened by conflict. It reads. Some invitees
- 57:05have bolked at the prospect of joining an international body
- 57:09that might supplant the work of the United Nations. Trump
- 57:12on Tuesday said he wanted the United Nations to continue
- 57:16its work, but took a swipe at the international organization,
- 57:20saying he expected it to do more, and with that,
- 57:25I do in the reading of today's Washington Post. But
- 57:32for sure, please stay warm over the weekend. I will
- 57:37be back Saturday morning, and I'm sure the weather is
- 57:41not going to be very comfortable, so take care. Please
- 57:45continue listening to programming on radio app for the afternoon. Bye.