The Conversation -- January 31, 2025
Donald Trump Is All Surprised That This Happened. Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: “Trump administration officials have forced out all six of the FBI’s most senior executives and multiple heads of FBI field offices across the country, current and former FBI officials told NBC News. They included the high-profile leader of the Washington, D.C., field office, which was involved in the prosecutions of ... Donald Trump. The Justice Department also fired multiple federal prosecutors who conducted criminal investigations of Jan. 6 rioters, sources said. A congressional aide said the number of prosecutors impacted is roughly two dozen. And in a memo to the FBI workforce sent out Friday night, the bureau’s acting director, Brian J. Driscoll, Jr., informed employees that the acting Deputy Attorney General asked him to provide a list of all FBI employees who worked on January 6 cases for 'a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.' 'We understand that this request encompasses thousands of employees across the country who have supported these investigative efforts,' Driscoll wrote. 'I am one of those employees, as is acting Deputy Director Kissane.'
“Asked by a reporter about the removals on Friday afternoon, Trump said he was not aware of them. 'No, but we have some very bad people over there. It was weaponized at a level that nobody has ever seen before,' Trump said. 'They came after a lot of people like me, but they came after a lot of people. No, I wasn’t involved in that. I’ll have to see what is exactly going on after this is finished.'” ~~~
~~~ Evan Perez & Josh Campell of CNN: “The Trump administration is set to expand a purge of career law enforcement officials, with dozens of FBI agents who worked on January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack and Trump-related investigations as well as some supervisors being evaluated for possible removal as soon as the end of Friday, according to people briefed on the matter. The changes highlight how the new administration has moved quickly to deliver on ... Donald Trump’s vow to strike back at the Justice Department and FBI that he claims have been weaponized against him. Trump has falsely accused agents of abuse in their court-ordered search of his Mar-a-Lago home and of their treatment of Capitol rioters. Interim leaders at the Justice Department have spent the past week drawing up lists of people whose work at the bureau has earned disfavor with Trump for a variety of reasons. Agents and analysts have been warned by FBI leadership that they may be asked to resign or face termination.” ~~~
~~~ Jeremy Roebuck, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump’s administration has launched a sweeping effort to potentially fire a large number of FBI agents across the country who worked on investigations targeting the president and his supporters, three people familiar with the plan said Friday.... Officials are working to identify potentially hundreds for possible termination, said the people.... Of specific interest in their review were agents who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents.... One person said agents involved in building cases against rioters in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol also were being considered for termination.
“A former law enforcement official familiar with the situation said FBI employees at the bureau’s downtown Washington headquarters have been asked to turn over internal files of the election-interference and Mar-a-Lago documents investigations. The Trump administration is reviewing those files for the names of FBI case agents and supervisors who were involved, to make lists of personnel they plan to fire, this person said. The FBI’s acting director, Brian Driscoll, a veteran agent who Trump appointed to run the bureau until a permanent director is confirmed, refused to endorse the effort....”
Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to keep taxpayer dollars flowing to 22 Democratic-leaning states for all congressionally approved government programs, including those that could run afoul of ... [Donald] Trump’s ideological tests. The decision, signed by Judge John J. McConnell Jr., is a temporary but significant victory for the Democratic attorneys general from those states and the District of Columbia, who sued the administration in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The order applies only to the states that filed the lawsuit. It requires the administration not to 'pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate' taxpayer money already allocated by Congress. The 13-page order, for which Judge McConnell did not specify an expiration date, adds an obstacle to Mr. Trump’s plans to aggressively reshape the government around his own agenda.... [The order] may create a divide between Democratic states that will continue to have funds flowing and Republican states that will still face uncertainty.” The linked order comes via the court system, so is not subscriber-firewalled.
Roni Rabin & Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: “Federal and state health officials and staff members scrambled on Friday to comply with a 5 p.m. deadline by the Trump administration to terminate any programs that promote 'gender ideology,' and to withdraw documents and any other media that may do so. Federal workers had already been ordered to halt diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, to scrub public references to those efforts and to place employees involved in them on administrative leave.... The directives 'risk dismantling programs that have been built up over decades to serve the needs of Americans,' said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: We already knew how cruel, offensive, counterproductive and confusing the "new rules" were, but as you read through this article, you'll also see how downright stupid and nonsensical they are.
A Victim of Trump's Bigotry Speaks Out. Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: “Jo Ellis, a helicopter pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard, was falsely identified as the captain of the crashed Black Hawk helicopter in thousands of social media posts this week. The flurry of falsehoods were so extreme that Ms. Ellis, who is transgender, posted a 'proof of life' video to Facebook clarifying that she is alive and had not flown the crashed chopper. The falsehoods, which tried to tie Ms. Ellis’s transgender identity to the tragedy, spread online shortly after President Trump and his allies attempted to tie the crash in Washington, D.C., to so-called 'D.E.I. programs,' an array of initiatives meant to boost diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. There is no evidence that such programs played any role in the crash.... Ms. Ellis said in a video posted to her Facebook account[,] 'It is insulting to the families to try to tie this to some sort of political agenda. They don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve this.'”
Kate Kelly of the New York Times: “In a mass email sent to federal employees just before 8:30 p.m. — almost exactly 24 hours after an air crash in Washington that killed 67 people — the Office of Personnel Management encouraged F.A.A. workers, including air traffic controllers, to look for new jobs outside of government, where they might have an opportunity to be more productive. 'We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so,' stated the email, which was reviewed by The New York Times. 'The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector.' The message, in the form of 'F.A.Q.s' — or Frequently Asked Questions — suggested that if the employees agreed to depart, they could take a second job or travel to their “dream destination” while still on the public payroll for months before leaving permanently. But employees have been informed over the years that it is illegal for them to take a second job while working for the federal government, raising questions about whether the government can deliver on that offer.”
⭐ Tim Reid of Reuters: "Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials. Since taking office 11 days ago..., Donald Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.... The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.... Officials affected by the move can still log on and access functions such as email but can no longer see the massive datasets that cover every facet of the federal workforce." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is extraordinary. I doubt the Muskovites have security clearance or legal access to these systems that contain the personal information of millions of federal workers. Still, they have managed to goose-step their way into federal offices & forced authorized personnel away from their desks and the data they need to do their jobs.
Zoe Schiffer of Wired: "Elon Musk’s minions — from trusted sidekicks to random college students and former Musk company interns — have taken over the General Services Administration, a critical government agency that manages federal offices and technology. Already, the team is attempting to use White House security credentials to gain unusual access to GSA tech, deploying a suite of new AI software, and recreating the office in X’s image, according to leaked documents obtained by Wired. Some of the same people who helped Musk take over Twitter more than two years ago are now registered as official GSA employees." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Knowing what I know now, I would lock these SOBs out of my office if I had a government job. This is an insurrection.
Jennifer Jacobs, et al., of CBS News: "The Trump administration plans to scrub some federal government websites in order to remove content contrary to the president's thinking, administration officials told CBS News, and word spread quickly throughout Washington about actions that might be taken to alter the websites.... Guidance had been sent to agencies instructing them to remove 'gender ideology'-related content from their websites by 5 p.m. Friday. However, the administration doesn't plan to shut down websites that have not complied, said McLaurine Pinover, communications director for the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM.... [Donald] Trump, asked by reporters in the Oval Office Friday if websites would be shut down to remove diversity-related content, replied, 'If they want to scrub the websites, that's OK with me.'"
Dangerous & Hateful. Will Stone & Selena Simmons-Duffin of NPR: "At the direction of the Trump administration, the federal Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies are purging its websites of information and data on a broad array of topics — from adolescent health to LGBTQ+ rights to HIV. Several webpages from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with references to LGBTQ+ health were no longer available. A page from the HHS Office for Civil Rights outlining the rights of LGBTQ+ people in health care settings was also gone as of Friday. The website of the National Institutes of Health's Office for Sexual & Gender Minority Research Office disappeared. (Most of these pages could still be viewed through the Internet Archive.)"
Stupid. Zack Colman & Marcia Brown of Politico: “Agriculture Department employees have been ordered to delete landing pages discussing climate change across agency websites and document climate change references for further review, according to an internal email obtained by Politico. The directive from USDA’s office of communications ... could affect information across dozens of programs including climate-smart agriculture initiatives, USDA climate hubs and Forest Service information regarding wildfires, the frequency and severity of which scientists have linked to hotter, drier conditions fueled by climate change. And it is reminiscent of moves made during the first Trump administration to remove references to climate change from federal government websites.”
Stupid & Childish. Selina Wang, et al., of ABC News: "Employees at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon, according to internal memos obtained by ABC News that cited two executive orders signed by ... Donald Trump on his first day in office seeking to curb diversity and equity programs in the federal government. 'Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5.p.m. ET on Friday,' according to one such message sent Friday morning to CDC staff. Federal employees with the Department of Transportation received a similar directive on Thursday, the same day the department was managing the fallout from the D.C. plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.... Employees at the Department of Energy who received a similar notice Thursday were told this was to meet requirements in Trump's executive order calling for the removal of DEI 'language in Federal discourse, communications and publications.'"
Andy Borowitz's Borowitz Report (now on Substack): “Amid the chaos of his first days in office, on Thursday Donald J. Trump accidentally signed an executive order deporting himself to Panama. Elon Musk reassured reporters that Trump’s imminent departure to the Central American nation would have 'no effect whatsoever' on the running of the White House, adding, 'I got this.' But news of Trump’s deportation drew an angry response from Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino, who accused the U.S. of 'trying to offload felons to our shores.'” Thanks to a friend for the lead.
Marie: If you're too busy to read the news today, Jimmy Kimmel covers quite a bit of it for you, and he covers it well in the first part of the monologue:
Comes now Seth Meyers with more newsy input:
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: I just kept on posting right up to nearly 11 am ET, so if you started here earlier, you might want to scan for newer entries.
⭐David Sanger of the New York Times: “... [Donald] Trump blamed diversity requirements at the Federal Aviation Administration and his two Democratic predecessors for the midair collision over the Potomac River on Wednesday night, saying that standards for air traffic controllers had been too lax. Mr. Trump cited no evidence, and even admitted when pressed that the investigation had only just begun. Moments later, he blamed the pilots of the Army helicopter that appeared to fly into a passenger jet that was on final approach to Reagan National Airport, across the river from the capital. Mr. Trump went back and forth between blaming diversity goals that he said were created by President Barack Obama and President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and then saying that an investigation was necessary.
“His instant focus on diversity reflected his instinct to immediately frame major events through his political or ideological lens, whether the facts fit or not.... When asked how he could say that diversity hiring was to blame for the crash even though basic facts about the midair collision were still being sought by investigators, he said, 'Because I have common sense.' 'For some jobs, we need the highest level of genius,' he said.... Mr. Trump named a new acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration during the news conference; none had been appointed by him until Thursday. The appointee did not speak at the news conference, nor did the head of the National Transportation Safety Board, who was also in the room.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: What's the matter with this guy? We could start with "stupid bigoted buffoon," but I think we might get to "evil" and "absence of empathy" pretty quickly. See linked citation yesterday. I find it appalling that the POTUS* immediately blames women and/or minorities and Democrats for a tragic event that occurred near his own back yard. ~~~
~~~ Curtis Bunn, et al., of NBC News: “A week before he took office, Trump said that the FAA website said 'people with severe disabilities are the most underrepresented segment of the workforce, that they want them' to be 'air traffic controllers. I don’t think so.' Later Thursday, a White House memo said the Biden administration recruited 'individuals with “severe intellectual” disabilities in the FAA' under diversity, equity and inclusion hiring. Timothy Shriver, chairman of ... the Special Olympics..., said on Instagram that 'to our knowledge, no persons with profound intellectual disabilities are employed as air traffic controllers in the U.S. or elsewhere.'... The FAA has had a shortage of air traffic controllers for years. Tennesse Garvey, a pilot for 22 years who is Black, previously told NBC News that eliminating DEI may only exacerbate demand.” ~~~
~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: “Where past presidents have sought to project a comforting, paternal presence for a stricken nation in moments of crisis, Mr. Trump’s instinct is to move quickly from grief to grievance. He has long demonstrated that he is more comfortable as the blamer in chief than consoler in chief. His decision to use the bully pulpit of the White House on Thursday to assign responsibility for the crash to his political rivals by name without offering a shred of evidence was, even for Mr. Trump, a striking performance. And it was no off-the-cuff comment. He followed up by signing an order directing a review of 'problematic and likely illegal decisions' by Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden.... The Democratic presidents, he said, made 'a big push to put diversity into the F.A.A.’s program,' leading to Wednesday night’s disaster over the Potomac River. Never mind that the 'problematic' hiring policy language he read had also been in place during his own administration and that he could not say whether it had any connection to the crash. It was not the first time Mr. Trump has exhibited what even his own former aides have called an 'empathy gap.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: If it's any consolation to us (though of course not to the families and friends affected by the air tragedy), even Peter Baker is catching up with us.
⭐ Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) posted a BlueSky thread yesterday, in which she wrote, "No one knows what caused last night's tragic crash outside DCA. Investigations are ongoing, and no one - not Donald Trump or anyone else - should be drawing conclusions until all the facts have been released. But here is what we do know.... On his first day in office, Donald Trump froze the hiring of federal employees — including air traffic controllers.... Also on January 20, Elon Musk pushed out the Chief of the Federal Aviation Administration. Trump didn’t appoint an acting replacement until after last night’s crash.... .... Also on January 22, Trump fired the heads of the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard.... In June 2023, the United States Department of Transportation Inspector General found that 77% of air traffic control facilities critical to the industry's daily operations were short-staffed.... FAA staffing shortages have been exacerbated by House Republicans' repeated near-shutdowns of the government and their refusal to fully fund critical government functions. These programs were only funded because more Democrats than Republicans voted to prevent these shutdowns." Thanks to RAS for the link.
~~~ Marie: As for Trump's blaming minorities, women and people with disabilities for the crash, former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath remarked on MSNBC yesterday that aircraft simulators do not discriminate. They do not know of the color or gender or physical limitations of the pilot in the simulated cockpit. That is to say, simulators test pilots and simulators are equal-opportunity judges. They are as color- and gender-blind as inhumanly possible. (Say, wouldn't it be great if human resources departments started hiring AI interviewers? Then, the most inefficient and unfair means of making the first cull of job applicants could be color- and gender- and disabilities-blind, too. [Hmmm, I doubt the tech bros would like to develop an unbiased HR interviewer.]) ~~~
~~~ Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: “In the aftermath of the deadly collision between a jetliner and a Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan National Airport, Trump ... speculated on the cause of the accident. At length, he attacked former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for imposing what he called 'a big push to put diversity' that he said weakened the Federal Aviation Administration. Reading from a 2024 Fox News report — which he incorrectly identified as being two weeks old — Trump listed conditions that he suggested disqualify people from being air traffic controllers: 'hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.'... But here’s the rub: During Trump’s first term, the FAA began a program to hire air traffic controllers with the conditions that Trump decried....
“Trump’s claim was repeated in an executive order Trump signed Thursday that ordered a review of aviation safety: 'During my first term, my Administration raised standards to achieve the highest standards of safety and excellence.' That’s false. In his first term, Trump left the standards unchanged.” ~~~
~~~ Aaron Rupar & Noah Berlatsky of Public Notice: "... America’s worst aviation disaster since 2001 ... shows the danger of wantonly destroying a federal government whose functioning remains vital for, among other things, keeping air travelers safe.... The federal government is supposed to protect the US in the event of disaster, natural and man-made. But Trump — in his first term and already in his second — operates as if government has no duty to care or protect.... He fires people, destroys capacity, shutters programs, and stampedes about as if his actions have no consequences beyond cable news and his approval ratings.... Trump’s manifest unfitness to be president was on full display both in his actions leading up to it and in his response." ~~~
~~~ Annals of “Journalism,” Ctd. Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: “Even as bodies were still being fished out of the Potomac River, Donald Trump went on a racist, partisan, and dishonest rant on Thursday, blaming diversity hires and Democrats for Wednesday’s calamitous nighttime collision between a passenger jet and a military aircraft outside Washington’s Reagan National Airport. Then the traditional media covered up for his racism. They even made excuses for him.... Neither [David Sanger of the New York Times nor Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post] – nor the AP, nor Reuters, nor USA Today — mentioned anything about racism. They simply said he 'lacked evidence'. Trump said at his Thursday news conference that his conclusion that diversity had something to do with the crash was 'common sense'. But common sense tells us he was being racist.
“Slate writer David Mack wrote: 'the headline is not “trump blames deadly plane crash on DEI” but “trump seizes on deadly plane crash to attack minorities”.’ 'These people are segregationists and their position is that no one who isn’t a white man is qualified to do skilled work of any kind,' New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote on Bluesky.... The traditional media is once again failing a basic test of its competence. They’re just telling us what Trump said. They’re not explaining what it means. They’re not telling us who he is.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Unfortunately, Dan doesn't have much to say about Trump's blaming women and people with disabilities for the crash. We're more than half the country, Dan. Try to keep us in mind. ~~~
~~~ Oriana Pawlyk of Politico: “The United States’ worst aviation tragedy in more than two decades followed years of alarms about the nation’s hallowed air-safety system — and a series of close calls before luck finally ran out over the Potomac. The Covid pandemic worsened a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers, only for demand for air travel to soar once passengers returned. Politically motivated government funding showdowns made it harder to train new workers and replace outmoded safety equipment. And the agency at the center of it all, the Federal Aviation Administration, spent extended stretches without a permanent leader — while investigators expressed warnings about a spike in near-collisions at airports.... NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy had been among those sounding the loudest warnings, telling reporters in late 2023 that the air traffic system needed relief, which could come in the form of increased funding for controllers or improved technology. 'We are sounding the alarm bells, and we need action,' Homendy said at the time. She added: 'I don’t want to hear about summits — goddamn, do something.'”
We don’t need the products that they have. We have all the oil you need. We have all the trees you need, meaning the lumber. -- Donald Trump, defending tariffs he will impose against Mexico & Canada ~~~
~~~ “Tax America First.” Josh Boak of the AP: “... Donald Trump said his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico are coming on Saturday, but he’s still considering whether to include oil from those countries as part of his import taxes.... Costs associated with tariffs could be passed along to consumers in the form of higher gasoline prices — an issue that Trump placed at the center of his Republican presidential campaign as he vowed to halve energy costs within one year.... The United States imported almost 4.6 million barrels of oil daily from Canada in October and 563,000 barrels from Mexico, according to the Energy Information Administration. U.S. daily production during that month averaged nearly 13.5 million barrels a day. Matthew Holmes, executive vice president and chief of public policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Trump’s tariffs would 'tax America first' in the form of higher costs.”
What is at stake is the most important structural foundation of our federal government, which is the separation of powers.... [The power of the purse] is how Congress represents us. -- Stephen Vladeck, Georgetown University Law ~~~
~~~ Tony Romm & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump is laying the groundwork for a landmark confrontation over his authority to strike federal spending and regulation, as the White House looks to reconfigure vast swaths of the U.S. government even without approval from Congress. Only days into his second term, Trump’s extraordinary steps have challenged a fundamental principle of the Constitution: control over the power of the purse, which the president has looked to partly wrest away from lawmakers so that he can shape the federal budget as he wishes.... Separately, infuriated Democrats tried Thursday to block Trump’s selection to lead the White House budget office — Russell Vought — from proceeding to a full Senate confirmation vote. Vought, who has embraced Trump’s aggressive strategy, overcame a brief uprising after Republicans voted to advance his nomination out of committee.... On Thursday, roughly two dozen state attorneys general asked a judge in Rhode Island to prevent the White House from instituting any 'pause, freeze, impediment, block, cancellation, or termination' of federal funds.” ~~~
~~~ Oh, Don't Worry. Congress Will Put Up a Fight, Ha Ha. Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “Congress passed a law shutting down TikTok, and ... [Donald] Trump flouted it. Congress required advance notification for removing inspectors general, and the Trump administration fired them on the spot. Congress approved trillions of dollars in spending, and Mr. Trump ordered it frozen unless the federal programs receiving it passed his ideological litmus tests.... He has sent up a crop of cabinet nominees who would have never passed muster on Capitol Hill in the past.... The new administration is quickly demonstrating that it does not intend to be bound by legal niceties or traditional checks and balances in its relationship with Congress. That has alarmed Democrats but drawn shrugs and approval from Republicans, who say that Mr. Trump is delivering what he promised even if it comes at the expense of Congress’s authority and constitutional status as a coequal branch of government.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
⭐ ~~~ When the POTUS* Is Lawless, Demented and Cruel. Sui-Lee Wee, et al., of the New York Times: “Some of the world’s most vulnerable populations are already feeling ... [Donald] Trump’s sudden cutoff of billions of dollars in American aid that helps fend off starvation, treats diseases and provides shelter for the displaced. In a matter of days, Mr. Trump’s order to freeze nearly all U.S. foreign aid has intensified humanitarian crises and raised profound questions about America’s reliability and global standing.... Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that 'life-saving humanitarian assistance' could continue, offering a respite for what he called 'core' efforts to provide food, medicine, shelter and other emergency needs. But he stressed that the reprieve was 'temporary in nature,' with limited exceptions. Beyond that, hundreds of senior officials and workers who help distribute American aid had already been fired or put on leave, and many aid efforts remain paralyzed around the world.” Read on. ~~~
~~~ John Hudson of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration’s purge of dozens of senior officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development encountered resistance on Thursday when [Nicholas Gottlieb,] the career employee who carried out the original directive, rescinded it, calling the purge an 'illegal' violation of 'due process.' The official was then promptly placed on administrative leave — according to emails obtained by The Washington Post — in the latest convulsion stemming from ... Donald Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign aid, which has ground to a halt humanitarian aid programs around the world and prompted U.S. contractors to furlough hundreds of employees and prepare to let go many thousands more....
“The episode underscores the tumult at a U.S. agency that is the world’s largest provider of food assistance, and the role that DOGE, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, is playing in the sweeping edicts that are attempting to downsize and overhaul swaths of the federal government. Trump’s foreign aid directive, signed on his first day in office, and a 'stop-work' order approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio last Friday have prompted widespread confusion in the aid community.”
~~~ Marie: We are one of the richest countries in the world. Donald Trump is the richest president* in U.S. history. Elon Musk is (at least from time to time) the richest person in the world. And these two miscreants, in the name of the rest of us lucky duckies, are denying aid to starving, desperate people around the world.
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: Donald Trump and his administration are encouraging anti-abortion activities. He already has pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists so they could get back to work. According to RFK Jr., Trump has told him “to study the safety of mifepristone.” “Shortly after pardoning the anti-abortion demonstrators, Trump’s Justice Department announced that it plans to stop enforcing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act, except in 'extraordinary circumstances' or where there are 'significant aggravating factors.'... There is something particularly combustible ... about a situation in which the anti-abortion movement is frustrated on a policy level but given tacit permission to break laws.”
Marie: I've never cared for danishes. But here's one I would enjoy. Thanks to RAS for the link.
You may have to make many "either/or" decisions over the next few years, even where "and" is the most accurate answer. RAS points to one. (Also linked yesterday.)
Follow the Money. Lauren Hirsch, et al., of the New York Times: “When Donald J. Trump sued CBS for $10 billion days before the 2024 election, accusing the company of deceptively editing a '60 Minutes' interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, many legal experts dismissed the litigation as a far-fetched attempt to punish an out-of-favor news outlet. Now ... many executives at CBS’s parent company, Paramount, believe that settling the lawsuit would increase the odds that the Trump administration does not block or delay their planned multibillion-dollar merger with another company, according to several people with knowledge of the matter. Settlement discussions between representatives of Paramount and Mr. Trump are now underway, according to three people with knowledge of the talks.... Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, strongly supports the effort to settle.... Ms. Redstone stands to clear billions of dollars on the sale of Paramount, the media empire founded by her father Sumner Redstone, in a deal with Skydance, an entertainment company backed by the billionaire Larry Ellison and run by his son David.”
Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: “The highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department is departing after a clash with allies of billionaire Elon Musk over access to sensitive payment systems, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.... David A. Lebryk, who served in nonpolitical roles at Treasury for several decades, is expected to leave the agency soon.... Donald Trump named Lebryk as acting secretary upon taking office last week.... The exact nature of the disagreement [between Lybryk & Musk's people] was not immediately clear.... Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people across the country rely on the [payment] systems, which are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions.... The executive order Trump signed creating DOGE also instructed all agencies to ensure it has 'full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,' which would appear to include the Treasury payment systems.”
Duck, Duck, Deny. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: “Kash Patel..., [Donald] Trump’s pick to run the F.B.I., repeatedly evaded the question of whether he would investigate officials on a published list of his perceived enemies during his confirmation hearing on Thursday, even as he sought to allay fears about his fitness to serve and his fealty to ... [Mr.] Trump. In trying to distance himself from far-right associates and his own public statements, Mr. Patel, a cocky and confrontational Trump loyalist, went so far as to suggest he disagreed with Mr. Trump’s decision to pardon Jan. 6 rioters who attacked law enforcement officials.... The nomination of Mr. Patel, 44, has upended the post-Watergate tradition of picking nonpartisan F.B.I. directors with extensive law enforcement experience.... Mr. Patel's hearing ... did not appear to ignite a political conflagration that threatened his nomination by undermining support among the Republican majority. In part, that was because Mr. Patel, like many Trump nominees, employed a deft duck-and-deny strategy: Mr. Patel said he could not remember details about unflattering episodes or damaging alliances. He answered specific queries with sweeping generalizations. He accused his accusers of distorting his words, even after they were read to him verbatim.”
~~~ Adam Goldman & Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “A handful of senior F.B.I. employees have [has!] been told to resign in a matter of days or be fired, as the Trump administration moves to shake up the agency’s upper ranks, according to people familiar with the discussions. The steps came as Kash Patel, the president’s nominee to lead the agency, sought to assure lawmakers during a contentious, hourslong Senate confirmation hearing that he would not begin a campaign of retribution or look backward by pursuing perceived rivals. It is unclear whether he was informed of the decisions, which were disclosed on the condition of anonymity.... The employees given the apparent ultimatum had been promoted under Christopher A. Wray, who stepped down as F.B.I. director this month. In an email to colleagues, one of the senior agents said he had learned he would be dismissed ... as soon as Monday morning.... The move is remarkable in part because it is happening before a director has been confirmed to take charge of the bureau, and the quick and unexpected nature of the requests has left employees badly shaken.” An NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Patel can't face Capitol police ~~~
Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr...., [Donald] Trump’s choice for health secretary, plowed through his second day of confirmation hearings on Thursday, delivering a vigorous defense of his views on vaccination during a contentious three-hour session that was high on drama and revealed that a critical Republican senator still had doubts. The hearing before the Senate Health Committee was raucous and emotional. Mr. Kennedy got into a shouting match with Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, while Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, broke down in tears when talking about her 36-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy. Mr. Kennedy himself did not shy away from confrontation. Here are five takeaways[.]” Do read on. ~~~
~~~ Lauran Neergaard & Mike Stobbe of the AP: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ... repeatedly asked to see 'data' or 'science' showing vaccines are safe – but when an influential ... senator [-- Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician --] did so, he dismissed it.... Kennedy repeatedly refused to acknowledge scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism and that COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives, and he falsely asserted the government has no good vaccine safety monitoring. While appearing to ignore mainstream science, he cited flawed or tangential research to make his points, such as suggesting Black people may need different vaccines than whites.” Read on.
Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “Senators of both parties sharply questioned Tulsi Gabbard..., [Donald] Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, during a tense and at times combative hearing on Thursday that could signal a challenging confirmation fight. Over more than two hours, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sounding by turns skeptical and outraged, pressed Ms. Gabbard about her 2017 meeting with Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator who was ousted in December, and her statements blaming the United States and NATO for provoking the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But it was her refusal to fully denounce Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked reams of classified information about government surveillance programs in 2013, that seemed to elicit the most concern among both Republicans and Democrats.” The Guardian's report is here.
Benjamin Mullin & David McCabe of the New York Times: “The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has waded into the politicized debate over NPR and PBS, ordering up an investigation that he said could be relevant in lawmakers’ decision about whether to continue funding the public news organizations. Brendan Carr, the chairman, said in a letter to NPR and PBS on Wednesday that the inquiry would focus on whether the news organizations’ member stations violated government rules by recognizing financial sponsors on the air. Mr. Carr said that NPR and PBS stations operate as noncommercial broadcast organizations, but that they may be airing 'announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.'” ~~~
~~~ David Folkenflik of NPR: Donald "Trump's new head of the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an investigation of NPR and PBS, with an eye toward unraveling federal funding for all public broadcasting.... The FCC does not directly regulate the two networks. Instead, it evaluates the actions of roughly 1,500 public broadcasting stations across the country, which hold licenses granted by the FCC for use of public airwaves for radio and television, even in the digital age.... [Brendan] Carr's letter fits into Trump's calls for the end of public funding for NPR and for PBS and into the president's broader rhetorical onslaught against media outlets."
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