Transcript

9.10.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of the Washington Post for Thursday,
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Speaker 1: September 10th, 2026. As a reminder, Radio Eye is a
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Speaker 1: reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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Speaker 1: other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: Your reader for today is Roger Hamperian. Today's front page
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Speaker 1: headlines from the Washington Post are as follows. Europeans probing
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Speaker 1: Epstein say DOJ isn't helping. Next. For 9-11 survivors, cancer's
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Speaker 1: toll grows. Next, Trump stumps on his record. Next, nonprofit
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Speaker 1: is quiet as Trump remodels the White House. Next, sweeping
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Speaker 1: census proposal could exclude millions. Finally, the largely hidden force
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Speaker 1: helping drive the weight drug craze. The first article from
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Speaker 1: the front page of today's edition is titled, Europeans investigating
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Speaker 1: Epstein say DOJ has not agreed to requests for help.
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Speaker 1: Some European law enforcement agencies chasing leads spurred by information
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Speaker 1: in the Epstein files say the Justice Department has not
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Speaker 1: responded to their requests. By Megan Vasquez. European law enforcement
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Speaker 1: agencies chasing leads from the U.S. investigative files on deceased
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Speaker 1: convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein say say that one year
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Speaker 1: after the first batch of files was released, the Justice
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Speaker 1: Department has yet to respond to their request for help.
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Speaker 1: In the United States, no charges have resulted from the
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Speaker 1: release of the Epstein files, but the documents expose the
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Speaker 1: financier's relationships with influential people around the world, both before
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Speaker 1: and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges,
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Speaker 1: and have sparked a slew of international investigations. Several European
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Speaker 1: law enforcement officials said in interviews that DOJ has not
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Speaker 1: responded to their request for mutual legal assistance, which could
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Speaker 1: permit foreign investigators to obtain evidence, information, and testimony from
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Speaker 1: the U.S. Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges
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Speaker 1: in 2019 and died in federal custody later that year
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Speaker 1: in what officials ruled a suicide. Judges and lawmakers say
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Speaker 1: that over decades he abused, trafficked and molested women and girls,
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Speaker 1: many of whom have come forward in court and in
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Speaker 1: other public forums. The Justice Department said it doesn't comment
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Speaker 1: on the status of mutual legal assistance requests with foreign
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Speaker 1: law enforcement partners. Last month, a DOJ spokesperson told The Telegraph,
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Speaker 1: the Department of Justice has not refused to assist any
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Speaker 1: jurisdiction investigating potential criminal conduct related to Jeffrey Epstein. The
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Speaker 1: department remains committed to cooperating with all jurisdictions pursuing potential
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Speaker 1: crimes and will continue to do so in accordance with
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Speaker 1: federal law and long-standing practice. Poland says it is continuing
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Speaker 1: to pursue an investigation related to the Epstein files. Polish
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Speaker 1: Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in February that his country
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Speaker 1: would open an investigation that included a focus on possible
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Speaker 1: links between Epstein and Russian intelligence. Przemysław Nowak A spokesman
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Speaker 1: for the National Prosecutor's Office of Poland said in a
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Speaker 1: statement that his office has sought, among other things, the
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Speaker 1: disclosure of unredacted documents from the so-called Epstein files relating
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Speaker 1: to any Polish aspects of the case. The Justice Department
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Speaker 1: has not responded to Warsaw's request in April for mutual
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Speaker 1: legal assistance, Nowak said. In Norway, three prominent figures face
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Speaker 1: corruption charges related to their relationship with Epstein. Former Norwegian
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Speaker 1: diplomats Terje Rod Larsen and Mona Juhl, as well as
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Speaker 1: former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Joglund, all say they are
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Speaker 1: innocent of any wrongdoing. Rod Larsen's lawyer, John Christian Elden
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Speaker 1: of the Norwegian law firm Elden Law, welcomed Norwegian law
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Speaker 1: enforcement efforts to seek additional evidence from DOJ. He said
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Speaker 1: Norwegian authorities had sought additional investigative steps at the International
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Speaker 1: Peace Institute in New York, where Rod Larson previously served
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Speaker 1: as president. The publication of a selectively chosen set of
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Speaker 1: documents from the Epstein seizure is the basis for the
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Speaker 1: investigation of my client. We are therefore very pleased that
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Speaker 1: Norwegian prosecutors have requested surrender of relevant records from DOJ
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Speaker 1: and investigative steps to be taken regarding IPI in New York,
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Speaker 1: Eldon said. Marianne Bender, a state prosecutor for the Norwegian
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Speaker 1: Economic Crimes Investigations Unit, known as OKOKRM, said that her
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Speaker 1: office is cooperating with several European countries on Epstein-related matters,
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Speaker 1: but that the U.S. has not fulfilled its request for information.
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Speaker 1: We are in communication with officials from the Department of Justice,
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Speaker 1: but they have not at this time approved the request,
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Speaker 1: Bender said in a statement. This is very unfortunate for
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Speaker 1: the Norwegian investigation, and Okokrum hoped that the U.S. Department
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Speaker 1: of Justice will approve our request at some point. The
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Speaker 1: state police of Latvia say they are also conducting a
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Speaker 1: criminal investigation in connection with the files and have identified
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Speaker 1: one Latvian victim. Simona Gravit, a spokeswoman for the state police,
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Speaker 1: said investigators have sent several requests for mutual legal assistance
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Speaker 1: to the relevant authorities in the United States. However, no
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Speaker 1: responses have yet been received. In Britain, the Times newspaper
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Speaker 1: reported in May that London had submitted a formal request
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Speaker 1: to the U.S., asking for access to unredacted copies of
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Speaker 1: some Epstein files. Police in February investigated Lord Peter Mandelson,
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Speaker 1: a former British ambassador to the United States, on suspicion
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Speaker 1: of misconduct in public office related to Epstein. The request
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Speaker 1: was made after informal discussions between the Justice Department and
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Speaker 1: British law enforcement did not produce the unredacted information, the
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Speaker 1: Times reported. The Telegraph reported late last month that the
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Speaker 1: Justice Department and the FBI had not responded to the
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Speaker 1: formal request related to Mandelson, who has denied any wrongdoing.
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Speaker 1: The Crown Prosecution Service, the agency responsible for conducting criminal
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Speaker 1: prosecutions in England and Wales, declined to comment. Last September,
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Speaker 1: a House committee began releasing Epstein-related files it had received
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Speaker 1: from the Trump administration. Many lawmakers complained that the information
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Speaker 1: was incomplete, and two months later, Congress voted overwhelmingly to
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Speaker 1: force the Justice Department to release all of its material
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Speaker 1: on Epstein. American lawmakers continue to press the Justice Department
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Speaker 1: to be more transparent about its investigations of Epstein and
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Speaker 1: his associates, saying that relevant documents are still missing and
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Speaker 1: that some of the publicly disclosed material has been unnecessarily redacted.
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Speaker 1: The legal process for obtaining evidence and information through a
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Speaker 1: mutual legal assistance request can be cumbersome and take weeks
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Speaker 1: or months, officials say. The DOJ office responsible for processing
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Speaker 1: legal assistance requests from other countries, called the Office of
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Speaker 1: International Affairs, has long faced operational challenges. A 2021 report
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Speaker 1: from the Justice Department's Inspector General found that the office
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Speaker 1: was hampered by high staff turnover, antiquated technology, and oversized caseloads.
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Speaker 1: Samer Korkor, a white-collar defense lawyer who previously worked within
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Speaker 1: DOJ's Office of International Affairs, said mutual legal assistance requests
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Speaker 1: are inherently complex and that complexity only increases in cases
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Speaker 1: involving voluminous records and contested redaction issues. Korkor explained that
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Speaker 1: requests must meet a legal threshold and and that review
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Speaker 1: time may be extended if the material being requested is
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Speaker 1: the subject of ongoing litigation. In Germany, federal police officials
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Speaker 1: say they remain in contact with American authorities about the
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Speaker 1: possibility of any crimes by Germans that may be suggested
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Speaker 1: by the Epstein files. Two Green Party lawmakers, Konstantin von
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Speaker 1: Notz and Irene Mihalik, have pressed the German government to
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Speaker 1: open an investigation of potential links between Epstein and German nationals.
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Speaker 1: In response, the government has said the criminal police office
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Speaker 1: has no information regarding any criminally relevant links to Germany.
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Speaker 1: Federal criminal police have also been in touch with the
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Speaker 1: FBI and requested that they involve German authorities in any
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Speaker 1: cases with relevant connections to Germany, the government said. The
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Speaker 1: next article from the front page of today's edition is titled,
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Speaker 1: Cancer's Toll on 9-11 Survivors is Accelerating 25 Years Later.
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Speaker 1: The number of victims receiving aid has tripled in recent years,
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Speaker 1: a post-analysis finds, as the illness's toll becomes more apparent.
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Speaker 1: By Daniel Wu and Chris Hacker When Mariamma James returned
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Speaker 1: to her Lower Manhattan apartment on the evening of September 11, 2001,
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Speaker 1: it was covered in dust. She'd left the windows open
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Speaker 1: that warm day, and the clouds of toxic material released
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Speaker 1: when the Twin Towers collapsed had rushed in. Everything was
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Speaker 1: blanketed in white, like after a good snow, James said.
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Speaker 1: A few years later, James developed skin cancer. In 2013,
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Speaker 1: James's mother, Juanita, who was on her way to work
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Speaker 1: in the financial district on the morning of the attacks
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Speaker 1: and covered in the dust, was diagnosed with stage 4
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Speaker 1: colon cancer. She died in 2023. I immediately connected it
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Speaker 1: to 9-11, James said of her and her family's diagnoses.
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Speaker 1: First responders and other New Yorkers around the World Trade
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Speaker 1: Center that day have reported conditions including respiratory issues, mental
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Speaker 1: health impacts, and dementia. Toxins were present in the air
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Speaker 1: soon after the attacks, even though people were assured it
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Speaker 1: was safe, according to a trove of records released this
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Speaker 1: week by New York City officials. 25 years later, attention
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Speaker 1: is increasingly falling on cancer. The number of 9-11 survivors
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Speaker 1: who are receiving aid for cancer has roughly tripled over
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Speaker 1: the last five years, according to a Washington Post analysis
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Speaker 1: of reports from the World Trade Center Health Program, which
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Speaker 1: funds health care for first responders and 9-11 survivors in
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Speaker 1: New York. In June 2021, 8,870 survivors received aid for
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Speaker 1: cancer treatment. jumping to 27,300 survivors in 2026, numbers that
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Speaker 1: sharply outpaced cancer claims among first responders. Of the roughly 54,000
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Speaker 1: survivors enrolled in the health program as of June, about
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Speaker 1: half are receiving aid for cancer. Five years ago, that
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Speaker 1: share was 35%. A recent New York University study of
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Speaker 1: a smaller cohort of 9-11 survivors receiving medical aid as
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Speaker 1: of 2024 reported a similar increase in cancer cases. It
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Speaker 1: found that cases had increased around 2.5-fold between 2019 and 2024.
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Speaker 1: This is something that we are worried about, said Alan Arslan,
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Speaker 1: an associate professor of population health at NYU and one
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Speaker 1: of the authors of the study. We're seeing more and
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Speaker 1: more patients. Matt Karwalski, the WTC Health Program's research and
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Speaker 1: evaluation branch chief, said in a statement to The Post,
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Speaker 1: that the group also expects more patients with serious conditions
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Speaker 1: like cancer to enroll in the coming years as 9-11
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Speaker 1: survivors age. The program has seen record enrollment in recent years,
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Speaker 1: he said. Experts stressed that drawing definitive conclusions about 9-11-associated
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Speaker 1: cancer rates from the WTC health program's data is limited
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Speaker 1: because survivors self-enroll. But the trends that have emerged still
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Speaker 1: shed light on how the disease is impacting a cohort
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Speaker 1: that was exposed to a unique mix of carcinogens in
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Speaker 1: a deadly man-made disaster, researchers said. When we first started
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Speaker 1: looking at cancers in this population, we thought, okay, you'd
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Speaker 1: have smoke inhalation, and therefore what we were going to
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Speaker 1: see was lung cancer, said Joan Riebman, an adjunct professor
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Speaker 1: of medicine at NYU and another author of the study.
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Speaker 1: And instead, what we started seeing was all different cancers.
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Speaker 1: The fumes and debris that blanketed Lower Manhattan after the
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Speaker 1: attacks included asbestos, benzene, and a mixture of other known
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Speaker 1: carcinogens released from the burning rubble, Arslan said. Those chemicals
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Speaker 1: spread long after the attack as some fires continued to
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Speaker 1: burn for months and dust lingered in homes and workplaces.
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Speaker 1: Experts had raised concerns about continued asbestos exposure in Lower
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Speaker 1: Manhattan in the months following the attacks, according to the
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Speaker 1: documents released by New York City this week. Kate Jenkins,
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Speaker 1: an Environmental Protection Agency chemist who would later clash with
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Speaker 1: the agency over allegations it was downplaying health risk for
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Speaker 1: residents near Ground Zero, estimated in a December 2001 memo
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Speaker 1: that a resident who continued to live in a contaminated
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Speaker 1: lower Manhattan building for 15 years after the attacks would
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Speaker 1: face a 1 in 10 risk of mesothelioma, a cancer
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Speaker 1: often caused by asbestos exposure. data from recent years shows
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Speaker 1: the most common cancers among 9-11 survivors include breast and
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Speaker 1: prostate cancer, which mirrors national trends, but breast cancer cases
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Speaker 1: among 9-11 survivors were diagnosed around four years earlier than
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Speaker 1: the national average and included a higher proportion of more
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Speaker 1: aggressive breast cancers, Arslan said. One potential explanation is that
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Speaker 1: World Trade Center exposure contributes to earlier onset for breast cancer,
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Speaker 1: or it can accelerate progression, Arslan said. Lung cancer, the
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Speaker 1: deadliest cancer for Americans, was also among the most common
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Speaker 1: cancer types in the study. Female 9-11 survivors who had
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Speaker 1: never smoked made up a high proportion of lung cancer patients,
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Speaker 1: another abnormal trend, according to the study. Raja Flores, chairman
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Speaker 1: of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Icahn School
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Speaker 1: of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said he has seen an
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Speaker 1: increase at his practice of patients with lung cancer who
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Speaker 1: were 9-11 survivors. I don't know if we've hit our
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Speaker 1: peak yet, Flores said. These cancers can take 20, 30,
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Speaker 1: 40 years to develop. I think we're going to be
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Speaker 1: seeing more. Flores urged that anyone who may have been
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Speaker 1: exposed to dust and debris from the 9-11 attacks contact
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Speaker 1: the WTC health program to discuss cancer screenings and other
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Speaker 1: medical checkups. Officials involved in the program have said that
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Speaker 1: the medical aid it provides is making a difference. A
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Speaker 1: 2021 study by the New York City Fire Department and
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Speaker 1: the WTC Health Program found that the cancer-specific mortality rate
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Speaker 1: for enrollees in the program was 34% lower than that
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Speaker 1: of demographically similar New York residents with cancer. James said
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Speaker 1: her family continues to grapple with health impacts from the disaster.
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Speaker 1: She has regular screenings to check for any recurrence of
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Speaker 1: skin cancer, while her children have sought treatment for post-traumatic
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Speaker 1: stress disorder, as well as for respiratory and gastrointestinal issues.
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Speaker 1: The heightened risk that they could develop cancer weighs on her.
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Speaker 1: Imagine being raised in a family where everyone's sick, and
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Speaker 1: then you're sick too, due to an event that occurred
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Speaker 1: before you were even born, James said. James said support
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Speaker 1: for 9-11 survivors in the years to come should focus
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Speaker 1: on cancer screening, especially for younger generations whose health impacts
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Speaker 1: may only be starting to appear. We want to be
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Speaker 1: sure that our children are educated about this and are
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Speaker 1: getting checked out and staying on top of their health issues,
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Speaker 1: she said, because we expect that something's definitely going to
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Speaker 1: happen to us. The next article from the front page
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Speaker 1: of today's edition is titled, Trump Makes Case for Iran
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Speaker 1: War Promises $ 5, 000 Payouts If GOP Wins Midterms. The president
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Speaker 1: accused Iran of trying to influence the midterm elections as
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Speaker 1: escalating violence in the Middle East loomed over his convention
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Speaker 1: by Isaac Arnsdorf and Natalie Allison. President Donald Trump used
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Speaker 1: the Republican Party's first midterm convention to justify the Iran
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Speaker 1: war rather than trying to put it behind him as
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Speaker 1: escalating violence and spiking oil prices loomed over the elaborate
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Speaker 1: Trump-centered showcase in Dallas. In a speech billed as an
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Speaker 1: opening argument for the peak campaign season, he defended his
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Speaker 1: record and encouraged supporters to vote as if he were
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Speaker 1: on the ballot. He also debuted a new enticement, promising
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Speaker 1: to reward Republican congressional majorities by giving every American a $ 5, 000
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Speaker 1: dividend to spend within the country. But Trump also repeatedly
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Speaker 1: departed from his script to argue that he had to
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Speaker 1: attack Iran to prevent it from building a nuclear bomb.
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Speaker 1: That posture contrasted with his declarations in recent months that
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Speaker 1: the conflict was won and done. We have no choice, right?
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Speaker 1: He said in one riff, warning of possible strikes against
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Speaker 1: another Iranian nuclear facility called Pickaxe Mountain. Can Iran have
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Speaker 1: a nuclear weapon? Absolutely not. Well, then I'm right. Then
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Speaker 1: I win. He also mused that the Strait of Hormuz,
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Speaker 1: the choke point for global oil traffic that Iran has
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Speaker 1: been blocking, should be called the Trump Strait, expanding on
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Speaker 1: his efforts to rename the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario,
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Speaker 1: and seemingly in jest, New Mexico. I should get something
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Speaker 1: out of it, Trump said of the war. Hours earlier,
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Speaker 1: he acknowledged for the first time that the conflict, which
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Speaker 1: he originally said would last four to six weeks, and
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Speaker 1: the higher gas prices it resulted in would continue past
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Speaker 1: the November midterms. The global crude oil benchmark price topped
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Speaker 1: $ 100 a barrel in Wednesday trading as the U.S. sank
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Speaker 1: Iranian tankers and Iran fired missiles at a U.S. base
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Speaker 1: in Jordan. Trump argued that wasn't an accident. Accusing Iran
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Speaker 1: of trying to influence the midterm elections, he extended charges
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Speaker 1: he has previously made against prosecutors, media organizations, social media companies, pollsters, China, Ukraine,
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Speaker 1: mail ballots, and voting machines. The war will be over
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Speaker 1: very shortly after the election, he said on stage, framed
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Speaker 1: by supporters waving American flags. Iran is hanging out for
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Speaker 1: dear life, hoping that we lose so they can deal
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Speaker 1: with dumb, weak Democrats. Trump cast Republican majorities as necessary
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Speaker 1: to preserve and further his policies, dangling what he called
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Speaker 1: a Trump dividend to galvanize voters. The White House did
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Speaker 1: not immediately elaborate on how the benefit would work. As described,
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Speaker 1: the payout could easily total more than $ 1 trillion and
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Speaker 1: add to the national debt. Trump also introduced fresh policy
19:24
Speaker 1: pledges to restrict credit card swipe fees and surprise medical
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Speaker 1: bills without specifying how he would build on a 2020
19:32
Speaker 1: law addressing the practice. He further renewed his call for
19:36
Speaker 1: subsidizing people buying health insurance instead of companies providing it.
19:41
Speaker 1: The new campaign promises came as Americans continued to give
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Speaker 1: Trump poor marks on the country's direction and cost of living.
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Speaker 1: Almost two-thirds say the country is on the wrong track
19:51
Speaker 1: and disapprove of Trump's job performance as president, according to
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Speaker 1: the latest Reuters-Ipsos national surveys. Almost half ranked the cost
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Speaker 1: of living as their top priority in the August poll,
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Speaker 1: and 35 percent said Democrats had a better plan to
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Speaker 1: address it, compared with 26 percent who said so of Republicans,
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Speaker 1: and 28% who said they didn't know. The bizarre Republican
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Speaker 1: midterm convention here can't paper over the fact that Republicans
20:19
Speaker 1: have done nothing to earn your vote, Illinois Governor J.B.
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Speaker 1: Pritzker said at a news conference with fellow Democrats earlier
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Speaker 1: on Wednesday. Donald Trump is hoping that a flashy primetime
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Speaker 1: event will make you forget that, well, his trade war
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Speaker 1: is killing costs for families at the grocery store. Trump's
20:37
Speaker 1: answer was to try to shift the blame to Democrats.
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Speaker 1: It was them that caused the affordability, to use their word, crisis,
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Speaker 1: he said. I'm bringing the prices way down, way, way down.
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Speaker 1: The speech highlighted the Republicans in key Senate battlegrounds just
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Speaker 1: as his political operation expanded its air support by booking $ 47. 8
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Speaker 1: million in ads, according to the tracking company Ad Impact.
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Speaker 1: The reservations were made through a new super PAC, No
21:06
Speaker 1: Going Back PAC, which was formed on September 1st. A
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Speaker 1: person involved in the effort said the group was connected
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Speaker 1: to Trump's flagship super PAC, MAGA Inc., a spokesman declined
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Speaker 1: to comment. Trump also committed to campaigning in every hotly
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Speaker 1: contested race, including in the host state of Texas, where
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Speaker 1: he urged voters to elect Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
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Speaker 1: to the U.S. Senate, despite extensively ribbing Paxton on his
21:33
Speaker 1: clothes and appearance. Some of the loudest cheers and laughs
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Speaker 1: came for Trump's attack on Paxton's opponent, State Representative James Tallarico,
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Speaker 1: including a fictional account of his vomiting after eating barbecue.
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Speaker 1: The crowd booed Trump's mention of Senate Majority Leader John Thune,
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Speaker 1: Republican of South Dakota. The president tried to suppress the jeers.
21:55
Speaker 1: The setup inside the American Airlines Center in Dallas echoed
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Speaker 1: the 2024 Republican National Convention. with special viewing seats set
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Speaker 1: up within the crowd for Trump, his family, and other
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Speaker 1: notable guests. Trump opened the speech, which lasted 105 minutes,
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Speaker 1: by falsely saying the event was the first midterm convention
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Speaker 1: held by either party. Democrats held them from 1974 to 1982,
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Speaker 1: but decided they were too expensive and counterproductive by elevating infighting.
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Speaker 1: He then falsely claimed the arena was packed, when in
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Speaker 1: fact many of the seats in the upper decks remained empty.
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Speaker 1: An hour before he took the stage, ushers shouted in
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Speaker 1: the main concourse asking attendees to relocate their seats to
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Speaker 1: a section just off the stage that remained empty, noting
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Speaker 1: that the president would see. Trump acknowledged that the president's
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Speaker 1: party usually loses the midterms and again urged his supporters
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Speaker 1: to vote as if he were on the ballot just
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Speaker 1: one more time. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican of Georgia,
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Speaker 1: said the convention could boost GOP enthusiasm. Phase one, it's
23:04
Speaker 1: going to rebuild morale among the Republicans and it helps
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Speaker 1: remind people that this is a team election, he said.
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Speaker 1: If this is a team election, we win. If it's
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Speaker 1: a series of individual races, we could lose. Carolyn Atkinson, 66,
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Speaker 1: said she traveled to Dallas from her home state of
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Speaker 1: New America, adopting the term Trump recently began using for
23:27
Speaker 1: New Mexico as he floated changing its name something the
23:30
Speaker 1: president does not have the authority to do. Trump has
23:34
Speaker 1: faced criticism from some Republicans after announcing last month that
23:37
Speaker 1: the U.S. government would begin calling Lake Ontario Lake America,
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Speaker 1: an initiative critics say is a distraction from addressing voters'
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Speaker 1: top concerns ahead of the midterms. Atkinson said she doesn't
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Speaker 1: actually care to see the name of her state changed,
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Speaker 1: saying Trump's proposal was only a joke. and she dismissed
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Speaker 1: concerns about whether the party can appeal to independent and
23:59
Speaker 1: swing voters this fall, insisting, as GOP leaders also have,
24:04
Speaker 1: that Republicans simply need to focus on turning out their own.
24:08
Speaker 1: We have registered people that don't vote, and that's what
24:11
Speaker 1: will hurt the Republicans the most, she said. I don't
24:14
Speaker 1: think the independents matter to us as much. The crowd
24:18
Speaker 1: responded with muted applause for many of the earlier lesser-known speakers,
24:22
Speaker 1: perking up for two UFC fighters and Treasury Secretary Scott Besant.
24:28
Speaker 1: Wednesday's lineup included Attorney General Todd Blanche, who would become
24:32
Speaker 1: the first sitting Justice Department leader in modern history to
24:35
Speaker 1: address a political convention. For decades, department guidelines under administrations
24:40
Speaker 1: of both parties have instructed top political appointees to steer
24:45
Speaker 1: clear of explicitly political events to avoid the perception that
24:49
Speaker 1: partisanship could influence law enforcement. Blanche's predecessor, Pam Bondi, revised
24:55
Speaker 1: those guidelines this year. The Justice Department said Wednesday that
24:59
Speaker 1: Blanche's participation in the midterm convention had been cleared by
25:03
Speaker 1: the department's internal ethics advisors and that he spoke only
25:06
Speaker 1: in his personal capacity. He was listed on the event's
25:10
Speaker 1: official program as the Honorable Todd Blanche. The next article
25:14
Speaker 1: from the front page of today's edition is titled, Trump
25:18
Speaker 1: is Remodeling the White House. The group set up to
25:20
Speaker 1: protect it has stayed quiet. The White House Historical Association,
25:25
Speaker 1: a nonprofit set up by Jacqueline Kennedy to preserve the
25:28
Speaker 1: building's character, has declined to criticize the president's changes. By
25:33
Speaker 1: Dan Diamond. When President Donald Trump tore down the White
25:37
Speaker 1: House's East Wing last October, the public, members of Congress,
25:42
Speaker 1: and even some members of his administration said they were shocked.
25:46
Speaker 1: Leaders of the White House Historical Association were not surprised.
25:50
Speaker 1: A spokesperson said they had understood since at least the
25:53
Speaker 1: end of July that Trump planned to demolish the East
25:56
Speaker 1: Wing to build his ballroom, but opted not to fight
25:59
Speaker 1: the president. The general public learned of the demolition plan
26:03
Speaker 1: only when the wrecking equipment began work nearly three months later.
26:08
Speaker 1: Instead of public comment, the Historical Association staff worked to
26:12
Speaker 1: take photos of the decades-old rooms Trump planned to destroy.
26:16
Speaker 1: including the former office of the founder of the association,
26:19
Speaker 1: First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The group's leaders said they were
26:22
Speaker 1: cataloging the spaces for history. The historical association has remained
26:27
Speaker 1: similarly silent as Trump works to remake much of the
26:30
Speaker 1: White House and its grounds, including paving over Kennedy's Rose
26:34
Speaker 1: Garden and building a 90,000 square foot ballroom. Some of
26:39
Speaker 1: Trump's changes have prompted lawsuits from other associations, and hundreds
26:43
Speaker 1: of preservation groups and assorted allies have denounced the president's
26:47
Speaker 1: unilateral demolition of the East Wing as illegal and damaging
26:51
Speaker 1: to the nation's history. Inside the White House Historical Association,
26:56
Speaker 1: some current and former staff and donors have asked CEO
26:59
Speaker 1: Stuart McLaurin and other leaders whether the group should do
27:02
Speaker 1: more to fight Trump's changes, according to two people who
27:06
Speaker 1: spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
27:10
Speaker 1: But leaders of the association, established in 1961 to preserve
27:15
Speaker 1: the building's character, ensure it remained the people's house, and
27:18
Speaker 1: teach its history to future generations, say it is not
27:21
Speaker 1: their place to resist Trump as he remakes the White
27:24
Speaker 1: House to his taste. Instead, the association has continued to
27:28
Speaker 1: cultivate close ties with Trump, who has publicly championed the organization,
27:32
Speaker 1: helped it with fundraising, and previously donated his salary to it.
27:37
Speaker 1: We have a lot of things in common. We love
27:39
Speaker 1: the White House, right? Trump said last year when visiting
27:43
Speaker 1: the association where, flanked by McLaurin, he touted his renovations
27:47
Speaker 1: to the White House while wearing a hat emblazoned, Trump
27:50
Speaker 1: was right about everything. Asked about the White House Historical
27:55
Speaker 1: Association's posture toward Trump and what Jacqueline Kennedy would have
27:58
Speaker 1: made of Trump's changes, the association said its work was nonpartisan.
28:03
Speaker 1: We cannot speak for Mrs. Kennedy. but our work remains
28:07
Speaker 1: aligned with the mission she laid out, a spokesperson said
28:10
Speaker 1: in an email. The association continues its work in historical research, education,
28:15
Speaker 1: and preservation of the White House collection. White House spokespeople
28:19
Speaker 1: declined to comment about the administration's relationship with the association.
28:25
Speaker 1: First Lady Melania Trump is scheduled to host the association
28:28
Speaker 1: at the White House on Wednesday evening, according to a
28:30
Speaker 1: copy of an invitation obtained by the Washington Post. Past
28:35
Speaker 1: First Ladies, including Jill Biden and Michelle Obama, had also
28:39
Speaker 1: held receptions for the group, the association's spokesperson said. Our
28:43
Speaker 1: mission stays the same no matter who is president, and
28:47
Speaker 1: we are grateful that the majority of association donors have
28:50
Speaker 1: remained committed to that nonpartisan mission, even while political and
28:54
Speaker 1: media climates have heightened, the spokesperson said. The White House
28:58
Speaker 1: Historical Association's silence on Trump's changes has irked some past
29:02
Speaker 1: staff and supporters to as well as fellow preservationists and historians.
29:07
Speaker 1: Some say the 65-year-old association has spent decades raising money
29:12
Speaker 1: with the implication that it was protecting the White House
29:15
Speaker 1: and that its leaders are failing to meet the moment
29:17
Speaker 1: now that a challenge has arrived. Jackie Kennedy founded the
29:21
Speaker 1: organization because she thought the White House should be treated
29:24
Speaker 1: like a museum, said Rebecca Miller, the executive director of
29:28
Speaker 1: the D.C. Preservation League. The White House Historical Association's complicity
29:32
Speaker 1: towards this administration's actions is not in that spirit. Ed Lengel,
29:38
Speaker 1: who worked for two years as a historian, at the association,
29:42
Speaker 1: said the group is wrongly trying to equate Trump's changes
29:44
Speaker 1: with past renovations at the White House. Lengel pointed to
29:48
Speaker 1: a June 2025 essay posted by McLaurin, The Ever-Changing White House,
29:54
Speaker 1: which asserted that many once-controversial changes to the White House
29:57
Speaker 1: were eventually accepted. Media and congressional criticisms have often focused
30:03
Speaker 1: on costs, historical integrity, and timing, yet many of these
30:07
Speaker 1: alterations have become integral to the identity of the White House,
30:11
Speaker 1: and it is difficult for us to imagine the White
30:14
Speaker 1: House today without these evolutions and additions, McLaurin wrote in
30:18
Speaker 1: the essay, which was posted after Trump told reporters he
30:21
Speaker 1: planned to build a ballroom and said he had conducted
30:24
Speaker 1: a site inspection. Administration officials have cited McLaurin's essay when
30:29
Speaker 1: defending the ballroom and other changes to the White House. But,
30:34
Speaker 1: said Lengel, every president who has made a change, and
30:37
Speaker 1: that includes Harry Truman and his gutting of the interior
30:39
Speaker 1: of the White House, has consulted carefully with Congress, with architects,
30:44
Speaker 1: with historians, to ensure that the changes they make were
30:47
Speaker 1: consistent with the founders' vision of what the White House
30:50
Speaker 1: should be, and to ensure that these changes are an
30:53
Speaker 1: organic growth from past developments. This is not the same thing.
30:58
Speaker 1: The association's silence on Trump also may be hindering legal
31:02
Speaker 1: efforts to constrain the president's construction agenda. Five to four
31:06
Speaker 1: majority on the Supreme Court ruled last month that the
31:09
Speaker 1: National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit charged by Congress
31:13
Speaker 1: with preserving historic buildings, likely lacks standing to challenge Trump's
31:18
Speaker 1: ballroom plans. The ruling appeared to clear the way for
31:21
Speaker 1: Trump to finish his project. but the White House Historical Association,
31:26
Speaker 1: with its explicit mission to preserve the White House's character,
31:30
Speaker 1: could have a stronger case for proving it has been
31:32
Speaker 1: harmed by Trump's changes to the building and have standing
31:36
Speaker 1: to sue, according to legal experts in historic preservation. Under
31:40
Speaker 1: the court's ruling, potential plaintiffs may still exist. Sarah Bronin,
31:44
Speaker 1: a George Washington University law professor who chaired the Advisory
31:48
Speaker 1: Council on Historic Preservation during the Biden administration, wrote in
31:52
Speaker 1: a text message, singling out the Historical Association. The Post
31:57
Speaker 1: spoke to eight former White House Historical Association staff and supporters,
32:01
Speaker 1: as well as current supporters of the association. Most spoke
32:05
Speaker 1: on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the association,
32:10
Speaker 1: which is led by a board made up of wealthy
32:13
Speaker 1: and influential Washingtonians. John F. W. Rogers, the White House
32:18
Speaker 1: Historical Association's current chairman and a Goldman Sachs executive, advised
32:23
Speaker 1: Melania Trump during the recent presidential transition. The association declined
32:28
Speaker 1: to comment on Rogers and other leaders' relationships with the
32:31
Speaker 1: White House. Its spokesperson also defended the association's approach to
32:36
Speaker 1: the East Wing demolition, including its decision to commission photographs.
32:41
Speaker 1: Association leadership first learned of the planned demolition to the
32:44
Speaker 1: East Wing when the White House issued a press release
32:47
Speaker 1: on July 31, 2025. announcing the ballroom plans and citing
32:52
Speaker 1: the chosen location of the ballroom as the location of
32:55
Speaker 1: the current East Wing, the spokesperson wrote in an email.
32:59
Speaker 1: The photography began about a week before demolition started. The
33:03
Speaker 1: association learned about the president's plans to demolish the East
33:07
Speaker 1: Wing the same way the public did. The White House
33:11
Speaker 1: news release on July 31, however, did not say that
33:14
Speaker 1: the East Wing would be demolished. Trump himself said during
33:17
Speaker 1: an Oval Office event that day, that his new ballroom
33:21
Speaker 1: won't interfere with the current building. It won't be. It'll
33:25
Speaker 1: be near it, but not touching it, and pays total
33:28
Speaker 1: respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of.
33:32
Speaker 1: It's my favorite. It's my favorite place. I love it,
33:35
Speaker 1: Trump said. In an October 2025 interview with the Associated Press,
33:40
Speaker 1: McLaurin discussed how the association prepared for the demolition of
33:44
Speaker 1: the East Wing, including embedding a photographer at its start.
33:49
Speaker 1: We had known since late summer that the staff of
33:51
Speaker 1: the East Wing had moved out, McLaurin said. The White
33:55
Speaker 1: House Historical Association's leaders and some of its supporters have
33:59
Speaker 1: also drawn a distinction between preserving the White House's internal
34:03
Speaker 1: furnishings compared with protecting the building's structure. We keep the
34:07
Speaker 1: White House inside in order, said Marlene Malek, a philanthropist
34:12
Speaker 1: who sits on the association's board. offering examples such as
34:16
Speaker 1: replacing damaged chairs or purchasing new paintings. I don't think
34:20
Speaker 1: it has anything to do with the outside. The association
34:24
Speaker 1: was created by Jacqueline Kennedy after President John F. Kennedy
34:28
Speaker 1: took office in January 1961. The new First Lady was
34:32
Speaker 1: shocked by the White House's appearance after decades of different
34:35
Speaker 1: administrations imposing their own styles and with no one appointed
34:40
Speaker 1: to safeguard the building's condition or furniture. Past presidents and
34:44
Speaker 1: their staff had even auctioned off items that they found inside,
34:48
Speaker 1: historians have said. She told Letitia Baldridge, her new social secretary,
34:54
Speaker 1: that the place looked like a hotel that had been
34:56
Speaker 1: decorated by a wholesale furniture store during a January clearance,
35:00
Speaker 1: author C. David Heyman wrote in his 1989 biography of
35:04
Speaker 1: Jacqueline Kennedy. The First Lady launched a major White House
35:08
Speaker 1: restoration project which extended to preserving historic buildings in Lafayette Square.
35:14
Speaker 1: the public park across the street from the White House
35:16
Speaker 1: that were at risk of demolition. She also cultivated donors
35:20
Speaker 1: to fund new furnishings and went on television to promote
35:24
Speaker 1: her agenda in a CBS News special. Today, the association's
35:28
Speaker 1: headquarters is located in Decatur House, one of the historic
35:32
Speaker 1: buildings located within the perimeter of Lafayette Square that Trump
35:36
Speaker 1: has fenced off from the public. Outside the building sits
35:39
Speaker 1: a bi-relief rendering of Jacqueline Kennedy above one of her quotes,
35:43
Speaker 1: the White House belongs to the American people. That message
35:47
Speaker 1: has featured heavily in the association's past promotional materials, including
35:52
Speaker 1: serving as the theme of a 2022 conference. The association
35:57
Speaker 1: has traditionally funded its operations through donations and sales of
36:00
Speaker 1: White House-related merchandise, but its ambitions have grown in recent years.
36:05
Speaker 1: A new People's House exhibit offering a life-size recreation of
36:10
Speaker 1: the O-Full office and other White House features has opened
36:13
Speaker 1: in September 2024 across the street from the White House grounds.
36:17
Speaker 1: The $ 85 million, 33,000 square foot project was funded by
36:22
Speaker 1: private donations. Some new Trump appointees fresh to Washington soon
36:27
Speaker 1: visited the People's House, hoping to prepare themselves for the
36:31
Speaker 1: experience of first visiting the Oval Office, according to two
36:34
Speaker 1: administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
36:38
Speaker 1: talk candidly. Trump also visited the exhibit last year. Parts
36:43
Speaker 1: of the exhibit are now outdated. The recreation of a
36:47
Speaker 1: stone path to the West Wing has not been updated
36:50
Speaker 1: since Trump remade the real-life path with black granite earlier
36:53
Speaker 1: this year. The exhibit's oval office lacks the extensive gilding
36:58
Speaker 1: and other golden items that decorate it now. Staffers at
37:01
Speaker 1: the People's House said that they expect to update their
37:04
Speaker 1: version of the oval office to more closely resemble Trump's
37:08
Speaker 1: in the coming weeks. The next article from the front
37:11
Speaker 1: page of today's edition is titled Trump administration proposes changes
37:16
Speaker 1: to census that could exclude millions. They could also reshape
37:20
Speaker 1: congressional representation and federal funding allocations by Amy Wang. Millions
37:27
Speaker 1: of residents could be excluded from the U.S. census. Congressional
37:30
Speaker 1: representation could be reshaped and federal funds could be reallocated
37:35
Speaker 1: across states under changes proposed by the Trump administration. In
37:39
Speaker 1: the proposal posted to the Federal Register Wednesday, the Census
37:43
Speaker 1: Bureau suggested adding a citizenship question to the decennial questionnaire,
37:48
Speaker 1: which President Donald Trump has wanted since his first term.
37:51
Speaker 1: The proposal argues that the census count should exclude any
37:55
Speaker 1: undocumented immigrants and non-citizens without permanent residency because they are
38:00
Speaker 1: not true inhabitants, members of the body politic, or persons
38:04
Speaker 1: with a usual residence in the United States due to
38:06
Speaker 1: their lack of a sufficient tie and allegiance to the
38:09
Speaker 1: United States. Under the newly proposed rules, refugees and asylum
38:15
Speaker 1: seekers would be excluded from the population count. Trump administration
38:20
Speaker 1: officials also want to prohibit the Census Bureau from asking
38:23
Speaker 1: certain demographic questions, including about race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation,
38:29
Speaker 1: claiming the survey should be colorblind and should not be
38:32
Speaker 1: distorted in any way by questions about immaterial personal characteristics.
38:37
Speaker 1: The census has collected data on race and ethnicity since 1790.
38:43
Speaker 1: Trump has for years pushed to alter how the American
38:46
Speaker 1: population is tallied every decade, including unsuccessful efforts to add
38:51
Speaker 1: a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The Supreme Court
38:55
Speaker 1: ultimately froze that plan, saying Trump officials had provided a
38:59
Speaker 1: contrived reason for wanting such information. Trump later said the
39:04
Speaker 1: citizenship question was needed to affect the redistricting process, an
39:08
Speaker 1: argument the Justice Department did not use in its legal defense.
39:13
Speaker 1: Census results every 10 years determine how the House's 435
39:17
Speaker 1: seats are allocated among states. 1. You need it for Congress.
39:22
Speaker 1: You need it for Congress for districting, Trump said in 2019.
39:27
Speaker 1: You need it for appropriations. Where are the funds going?
39:31
Speaker 1: How many people are there? Are they citizens? Are they
39:34
Speaker 1: not citizens? You need it for many reasons. Last August,
39:38
Speaker 1: Trump announced he was directing the Department of Commerce to
39:41
Speaker 1: again overhaul the census amid a nationwide redistricting battle. People
39:47
Speaker 1: who are in our country illegally will not be counted
39:50
Speaker 1: in the census, he wrote on Truth Social then. The
39:53
Speaker 1: Trump administration's latest proposal will almost certainly face legal challenges.
39:58
Speaker 1: The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution mandates that representatives
40:03
Speaker 1: in Congress be apportioned to states based on the whole
40:06
Speaker 1: number of persons in each state without specifying citizenship or
40:10
Speaker 1: immigration status. Currently, the U.S. Census counts native-born U.S. citizens
40:16
Speaker 1: as naturalized U.S. citizens, non-citizen U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents,
40:22
Speaker 1: and temporary migrants, such as foreign students, refugees, asylum seekers,
40:28
Speaker 1: and undocumented immigrants. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who
40:33
Speaker 1: led a lawsuit against Trump's efforts to change the 2020 census,
40:37
Speaker 1: said Wednesday the state is again exploring legal options to
40:40
Speaker 1: fight back against the administration's proposed changes to the 2030 census.
40:45
Speaker 1: The Constitution is clear. Every person living in the United States,
40:49
Speaker 1: regardless of immigration status, must be counted in the census,
40:53
Speaker 1: she wrote on X. Civil rights and public health groups
40:57
Speaker 1: have also warned against the removal of questions about race
41:00
Speaker 1: and ethnicity from the census, saying doing so would hamper
41:03
Speaker 1: officials' ability to address health disparities, starting with how to
41:07
Speaker 1: appropriately allocate federal funding. If you change what the census counts,
41:12
Speaker 1: then you change where the money can help most, I.D.
41:15
Speaker 1: Lee and Melania Klein of the Federation of American Scientists
41:19
Speaker 1: wrote last week. Removing race and ethnicity data does not
41:23
Speaker 1: make health disparities go away, they wrote. It merely makes
41:27
Speaker 1: them harder to find, harder to measure, and harder to fix.
41:31
Speaker 1: The next article from the front page of today's edition
41:34
Speaker 1: is titled, The Largely Hidden Force Helping Drive America's Craze
41:39
Speaker 1: for Weight Loss Drugs. Firms are spending hundreds of millions
41:42
Speaker 1: of dollars to convince doctors to prescribe GLP-1 drugs, like
41:47
Speaker 1: Christopher Rowland, Lydia Sidholm, and Ariana Yunjung Cha. Carlos Campos
41:54
Speaker 1: spends most of his days as a family physician, seeing
41:57
Speaker 1: patients for all manner of conditions, especially obesity and diabetes.
42:02
Speaker 1: But he has built a steady side gig beyond his
42:04
Speaker 1: practice in South Central Texas. Over the past seven years,
42:09
Speaker 1: drug manufacturers have paid Campos nearly $ 1 million to spread
42:13
Speaker 1: the gospel of weight loss and diabetes drugs known as
42:16
Speaker 1: GLP-1s to colleagues in his home state and beyond. I'm
42:21
Speaker 1: a lot like an evangelical preacher, man, Campos said. They
42:25
Speaker 1: hire me to sell the science. Whether speaking in a
42:28
Speaker 1: private dining room at a fancy steakhouse or over bags
42:31
Speaker 1: of Chick-fil-A in a primary care office, Campos is part
42:35
Speaker 1: of a vast effort by drug companies to build sales
42:38
Speaker 1: of their revolutionary weight loss drugs by targeting the prescribers
42:42
Speaker 1: who act as the gatekeepers to the American healthcare system,
42:46
Speaker 1: according to an analysis of public federal government data by
42:49
Speaker 1: the Washington Post and interviews with six physicians involved in
42:53
Speaker 1: the marketing program. The analysis shows that Eli Lilly and
42:58
Speaker 1: Novo Nordisk, the largest manufacturers of the weight loss drugs,
43:02
Speaker 1: have made at least one payment to more than a
43:04
Speaker 1: quarter of a million individual doctors and other prescribers, including
43:09
Speaker 1: nurse practitioners, since 2018, the first full year that Ozempic,
43:13
Speaker 1: Novo Nordisk's blockbuster medicine, was on the market. No other
43:18
Speaker 1: class of prescription drugs was promoted as heavily over this period.
43:23
Speaker 1: In total, companies spent more than $ 270 million on these
43:27
Speaker 1: promotional efforts, according to the data. which is reported to
43:30
Speaker 1: the federal government by the manufacturers. The spending, which the
43:34
Speaker 1: federal government says encompasses both direct payments and in-kind payments
43:38
Speaker 1: for food and beverages, was spread among 140,000 individual prescribers
43:44
Speaker 1: in 2025 alone, the most of any year in the post-analysis.
43:49
Speaker 1: The GLP-1 craze, stoked by TV advertising and word of
43:53
Speaker 1: mouth for the novel class of drugs, including Wagovi and ZepBound,
43:58
Speaker 1: has generated abundant patient demand, but the lesser-known spending on doctors,
44:03
Speaker 1: which is legal and disclosed publicly, represents promotional efforts largely
44:08
Speaker 1: hidden from consumers of the drug's success that some medical
44:11
Speaker 1: experts say pose a conflict of interest. Physicians paid by
44:16
Speaker 1: the drug companies say they are helping colleagues overcome hesitancy
44:20
Speaker 1: and even skepticism among practitioners who may not be familiar
44:24
Speaker 1: with how the drugs work or still view obesity as
44:27
Speaker 1: a matter of patient willpower. In interviews, they said payments
44:31
Speaker 1: don't influence their views of the drugs, opinions they said
44:35
Speaker 1: have been shaped by phenomenal results in their own patients.
44:38
Speaker 1: They described how in meetings with other doctors, they observed
44:41
Speaker 1: government limits on what claims can be made while sharing unbiased,
44:46
Speaker 1: evidence-based data about benefits and side effects. But some doctors
44:50
Speaker 1: warned that these sessions and the money that physicians receive
44:53
Speaker 1: as direct payments on the side carry a number of risks,
44:57
Speaker 1: both to patients and to the health care system at large.
45:01
Speaker 1: The costly drugs, which most users have to take for
45:05
Speaker 1: life to maintain their results, are relatively new, with underappreciated
45:09
Speaker 1: side effects in some patients, the critics say. The patient
45:13
Speaker 1: comes in saying, I want it, and if they don't
45:16
Speaker 1: give it to them, they will find another doctor who will,
45:19
Speaker 1: said Robert Lustig, a doctor and professor emeritus at the
45:22
Speaker 1: University of California at San Francisco. who advocates for reducing
45:27
Speaker 1: sugar and processed foods in the American diet. The problem
45:31
Speaker 1: is getting worse, he said, and now people have taken
45:34
Speaker 1: their eye off the ball. Oh, I can just take
45:37
Speaker 1: a drug, a shot, and eat whatever the hell I want.
45:41
Speaker 1: It's just a Band-Aid. Spending to purchase the drugs by
45:44
Speaker 1: consumers and health insurance companies has exploded. Total sales, excluding
45:49
Speaker 1: rebates and discounts in 2025, eclipsed all other drugs, with
45:54
Speaker 1: Eli Lilly's Monjaro and ZipBound leading the way at $ 63
45:58
Speaker 1: billion and Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wagovi close behind at
46:03
Speaker 1: $ 59 billion. Private health plans are cracking under the burden,
46:08
Speaker 1: and some are beginning to cancel coverage. Federal costs are
46:12
Speaker 1: poised to shoot into the billions now that Medicare, as
46:15
Speaker 1: of July, is covering the drugs for weight loss. Nearly
46:19
Speaker 1: one in five U.S. adults has reported having taken one
46:22
Speaker 1: of the drugs for diabetes or weight loss, according to
46:24
Speaker 1: a survey by KFF, the Independent Healthcare Policy Organization. The
46:30
Speaker 1: drug companies defended their promotional practices as appropriate and important
46:34
Speaker 1: for health. This responsible interaction and collaboration between industry and
46:39
Speaker 1: the medical community benefits patients by advancing care and science,
46:43
Speaker 1: Novo Nordisk spokeswoman Liz Skrkova said. In all our engagements
46:48
Speaker 1: with the medical community, we follow the highest ethical standards
46:52
Speaker 1: as well as all legal and regulatory requirements. Eli Lilly
46:57
Speaker 1: said its programs are grounded in science. These interactions, from
47:01
Speaker 1: medical education to clinical consultation, help ensure health care professionals
47:06
Speaker 1: have accurate, current information to make informed treatment decisions, the
47:10
Speaker 1: company said. All such engagement is conducted under Lilly's rigorous
47:14
Speaker 1: compliance standards and disclosed transparently. lectures over steak dinners. The
47:21
Speaker 1: drugs initially rolled out years ago for diabetes are seeing
47:25
Speaker 1: their fastest prescription growth outside of diabetes clinics. Providers at
47:30
Speaker 1: internal medicine and cardiology practices are writing prescriptions at the
47:34
Speaker 1: highest rate, according to IQVIA, pharmaceutical data and consulting firm,
47:40
Speaker 1: which called GLP-1s the Swiss army knife of healthcare. In
47:45
Speaker 1: addition to diabetes and weight loss, The drugs are now
47:48
Speaker 1: also approved for reducing cardiovascular risk and sleep apnea, and
47:53
Speaker 1: many other indications are being researched. The Post tracked how
47:57
Speaker 1: Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are using the traditional pharmaceutical
48:01
Speaker 1: marketing playbook to boost sales behind the scenes. They are
48:05
Speaker 1: making payments to doctors who serve on the boards of
48:08
Speaker 1: prominent diabetes and obesity medical societies. Those boards shape how
48:13
Speaker 1: medicine is practiced. They are dispatching hundreds of doctors who
48:16
Speaker 1: they pay tens of thousands of dollars a year each
48:19
Speaker 1: to help discuss the drugs at medical conferences and in
48:23
Speaker 1: private meetings with doctors in every corner of the country.
48:26
Speaker 1: A key opinion leader, as industry insiders call these paid ambassadors,
48:31
Speaker 1: Campos said he visits with doctors and physician assistants in
48:34
Speaker 1: their offices over takeout or at local restaurants, often traveling
48:38
Speaker 1: to other states. He is typically accompanied by a sales representative,
48:43
Speaker 1: whose job is to market the drug while Campos explains
48:46
Speaker 1: how it works, he said. His payments placed him among
48:49
Speaker 1: the most handsomely compensated physician GLP-1 promoters in the country,
48:53
Speaker 1: according to the Post review. A review of invitations to
48:58
Speaker 1: doctors to attend promotional dinners shows the broad geographical reach
49:02
Speaker 1: of these efforts. Physician promoters such as Campos extolled the
49:06
Speaker 1: benefits of the drugs over Mexican-inspired fare at a brew
49:09
Speaker 1: pub in Missoula, Montana. plates of pasta in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
49:14
Speaker 1: and in the unmatched grandeur of a Pittsburgh waterfront steak
49:17
Speaker 1: and seafood house. The gatherings often occurred in the private
49:21
Speaker 1: dining rooms of upscale chains such as Ruth's Chris and
49:25
Speaker 1: Capitol Grill. The post review drew from mandatory federal reports
49:29
Speaker 1: by drug companies, data that is posted online for public
49:33
Speaker 1: examination by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In
49:37
Speaker 1: addition to doctors, the The data includes spending on nurse
49:40
Speaker 1: practitioners and physician assistants who also prescribe drugs. The Food
49:45
Speaker 1: and Drug Administration's instructions for use of the drugs say
49:49
Speaker 1: they are supposed to be taken in tandem with a
49:52
Speaker 1: reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity. Marketing materials for Eli
49:58
Speaker 1: Lilly's ZepBound aimed at doctors and obtained by the Post
50:01
Speaker 1: show those elements are mentioned as part of the prescribing regimen,
50:05
Speaker 1: but they are not emphasized as key pillars of treatment.
50:08
Speaker 1: even though a joint advisory from major medical groups in
50:12
Speaker 1: 2025 said doctors should make those elements a priority. The
50:16
Speaker 1: marketing materials display side effects, including nausea and constipation, which
50:21
Speaker 1: cause large numbers of patients to stop taking them. But
50:25
Speaker 1: what is not discussed is a major subject of concern
50:28
Speaker 1: in the medical community, the metabolic dangers of weight cycling.
50:32
Speaker 1: When the fat returns if patients stop taking the drugs,
50:36
Speaker 1: a common occurrence, and the risk of cardiovascular events increases.
50:40
Speaker 1: Eli Lilly said that its promotional materials carefully adhere to
50:44
Speaker 1: the FDA-approved label and that it views obesity as a
50:48
Speaker 1: chronic disease that may need continuous treatment. Otherwise, the weight
50:52
Speaker 1: can return. The drugs are also being prescribed to people
50:56
Speaker 1: with eating disorders, as well as the elderly, who are
50:59
Speaker 1: at risk of falls and fractures if they lose too
51:01
Speaker 1: much bone and muscle mass. a serious concern with the
51:05
Speaker 1: rapid weight loss driven by GLP-1s. The drugs carry black
51:10
Speaker 1: box warnings from the Food and Drug Administration that they
51:13
Speaker 1: can cause cancer in rats and state that they could
51:15
Speaker 1: cause thyroid cancer in humans. Those warnings are prominently displayed
51:20
Speaker 1: in marketing materials. Campos said he believes in the revolutionary
51:24
Speaker 1: nature of the drugs. which are remarkably effective at reducing
51:28
Speaker 1: weight and simultaneously bringing down blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, and
51:32
Speaker 1: reducing inflammation. From his home practice in New Braunfels, Texas,
51:37
Speaker 1: near San Antonio, Campos travels to states such as Ohio, Kentucky,
51:42
Speaker 1: and Tennessee to meet with groups of doctors, he said.
51:46
Speaker 1: Many of his colleagues did not learn how to treat
51:49
Speaker 1: obesity in medical school, Campos said. When he asks for
51:53
Speaker 1: a show of hands, he said, About a third of
51:55
Speaker 1: doctors in a room indicate they do not believe obesity
51:58
Speaker 1: is a disease, even though the American Medical Association recognized
52:02
Speaker 1: it as one in 2013. You need to know this,
52:06
Speaker 1: he said, he tells other doctors, to develop a tremendous
52:09
Speaker 1: empathy for this patient that needs your help. Now we
52:13
Speaker 1: have tools in our toolbox that we can use to
52:15
Speaker 1: help them. Expounding on a clinical trial finding that semiglutide,
52:20
Speaker 1: the key ingredient in Novo Nordisk's Wagovi and Ozempic, can
52:24
Speaker 1: reduce heart attacks, Campos said cardiologists should be writing prescriptions
52:29
Speaker 1: for this with both hands. Drug companies have marketed medicines
52:34
Speaker 1: directly to doctors for decades. It is even recognized by
52:37
Speaker 1: the Food and Drug Administration as an important source of
52:40
Speaker 1: information for prescribers. FDA rules require that promotional claims stay
52:46
Speaker 1: within the boundaries of scientific evidence contained in a drug's label.
52:50
Speaker 1: But the dangers of the practice emerged during the opioid
52:53
Speaker 1: crisis that began in the 1990s, when Purdue Pharma, the
52:58
Speaker 1: manufacturer of OxyContin, and other companies were found to have
53:02
Speaker 1: heavily marketed addictive opioids while minimizing risks. Doctors say that
53:07
Speaker 1: trips to the Caribbean and free booze of the past
53:10
Speaker 1: are no longer common, but free steak dinners and in-office
53:13
Speaker 1: lunches continue to be a staple of the trade. Nowadays,
53:17
Speaker 1: if doctors at the dinners want an alcoholic beverage, they
53:20
Speaker 1: have to purchase their own, participants said. When a drug
53:24
Speaker 1: company is financing it, they present it in the best
53:27
Speaker 1: possible light, said Bruce Rowe, a Wisconsin physician who recalled
53:31
Speaker 1: attending an event about Wagovi led by a colleague at Mr.
53:35
Speaker 1: B's Steakhouse outside Milwaukee. Anytime you go to one of
53:39
Speaker 1: these presentations, you have to have a little bit of skepticism.
53:43
Speaker 1: He said the clinical trial data in the event's slide
53:46
Speaker 1: deck was encouraging, but what really won him over were
53:50
Speaker 1: results in patients who lost weight and had better glucose control.
53:54
Speaker 1: About 25% of his patients are now taking one of
53:57
Speaker 1: the drugs, he said. It's a really important tool in
54:01
Speaker 1: our toolkit right now. Medication for life. Paying physicians has
54:07
Speaker 1: raised questions of conflict of interest. Decades of research has
54:11
Speaker 1: shown that financial relationships between physicians and pharmaceutical companies are
54:16
Speaker 1: associated with higher prescribing rates of the sponsoring company's drugs.
54:20
Speaker 1: Even relatively modest financial relationships can potentially create unconscious bias,
54:25
Speaker 1: making industry payments to influential doctors a persistent ethical issue
54:30
Speaker 1: in medicine, according to researchers who have examined the question.
54:34
Speaker 1: In interviews about GLP-1s, Some physicians, paid by Eli Lilly
54:39
Speaker 1: and Novo Nordisk, said a part of their effort has
54:42
Speaker 1: been helping other physicians overcome hesitancy. Many providers are wary
54:47
Speaker 1: of prescribing a costly new drug that a patient probably
54:50
Speaker 1: will need to take for many years, if not for life,
54:53
Speaker 1: to keep their weight under control. Doctors also ask how
54:57
Speaker 1: and when they can wean patients off the drugs. The
55:00
Speaker 1: first question is always, when do you stop the medications?
55:04
Speaker 1: said Ethan Lazarus, an obesity medicine doctor who practices outside
55:08
Speaker 1: of Denver and has been paid about $ 585, 000 to promote
55:12
Speaker 1: the drugs. He said he tries to reset their expectations.
55:16
Speaker 1: We should go into this with our eyes wide open,
55:19
Speaker 1: that these are long-term treatments. He added, if they want
55:23
Speaker 1: to have a successful practice, they need to understand how
55:26
Speaker 1: to use these drugs. Responding to critics of paid arrangements
55:29
Speaker 1: for key opinion leaders, Lazarus cited American Medical Association ethical
55:34
Speaker 1: guidance that, he said, permits legitimate consulting and educational programs
55:39
Speaker 1: provided the physician offers genuine objective scientific services. Interviewed by
55:44
Speaker 1: phone recently from his car, Long Island Obesity Medicine Dr.
55:49
Speaker 1: Michael Kaplan said he was on his way to meet
55:51
Speaker 1: with four doctors over lunch to promote Fondeo, Eli Lilly's
55:55
Speaker 1: oral GLP-1. He said he would meet an Eli Lilly
55:59
Speaker 1: sales representative for a pregame huddle 10 minutes before the meeting.
56:04
Speaker 1: Kaplan disputes that drugs such as Wagovi and Fondeo are overprescribed.
56:09
Speaker 1: On the contrary, he said just 11% of people with
56:12
Speaker 1: a body mass index BMI over 40 are being treated
56:16
Speaker 1: with a GLP-1. The market is gigantic, he said. Obesity
56:21
Speaker 1: doctors say their field has long been neglected by the
56:24
Speaker 1: medical establishment. Now, Kaplan said, Promotional efforts by Eli Lilly
56:29
Speaker 1: and Novo Nordisk are helping educate physicians on how to
56:32
Speaker 1: treat obesity. Weight loss clinics once operated on the fringes
56:36
Speaker 1: of healthcare, but that began to change after the American
56:40
Speaker 1: Medical Association recognized obesity as a disease in 2013. The
56:45
Speaker 1: medical establishment hasn't stepped up. The pharmaceutical industry has been
56:50
Speaker 1: the only ones trying to make sure that the providers
56:52
Speaker 1: have knowledge, said Kaplan, who was paid about $ 648, 000 between
56:58
Speaker 1: 2018 and 2025 by GLP-1 manufacturers. Critics of these practices
57:05
Speaker 1: say the paid physician ambassadors may not be giving a full,
57:08
Speaker 1: objective picture of the drugs and their side effects. They
57:12
Speaker 1: are generally chosen for their charisma and their willingness to
57:15
Speaker 1: say what the drug company wants them to say, said
57:18
Speaker 1: Stephen Brown, a family physician in Phoenix who has urged
57:21
Speaker 1: doctors to refuse drug company largesse, including meals and free samples,
57:26
Speaker 1: which he said distort physician decision-making. The drugs sell themselves,
57:31
Speaker 1: he said of the GLP-1s. The reason for all this
57:34
Speaker 1: marketing is the competition between the companies to sell more
57:37
Speaker 1: of theirs compared to the others. Doctors interviewed by the
57:41
Speaker 1: Post acknowledged competition between Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk may
57:45
Speaker 1: be boosting the number of meetings, but said competition also
57:49
Speaker 1: is driving innovation and bringing down prices, which is improving
57:52
Speaker 1: clinical outcomes. They disputed the contention they are parroting corporate
57:57
Speaker 1: talking points. Pay-to-play prescribing or accepting compensation just to say
58:02
Speaker 1: what a company wants is unequivocally unethical, Lazarus said, again
58:07
Speaker 1: citing AMA guidelines. Due to time constraints, we'll need to
58:11
Speaker 1: end this article at this time. This concludes the reading
58:15
Speaker 1: of The Washington Post for today, Thursday, September 10, 2026.
58:19
Speaker 1: Your reader for today has been Roger Hampirian. If you
58:24
Speaker 1: have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning this program, please
58:29
Speaker 1: feel free to call us at 859-422-6390. Thank you for listening,
58:36
Speaker 1: and now please stay tuned for continued programming on Radio Eye.