Up First from NPR - Democrat In-Fighting; Conservative Media on Trump; Mahmoud Khalil's Wife Speaks

Episode Date: March 15, 2025

The partisan, Republican stopgap budget was narrowly passed by the Senate with the help of a few Democrats. Some Congressional Democrats view that vote as a betrayal. Plus, we look at how the conservative news media, often favorable of President Trump, is covering the economic consequences of his policies. Plus, we hear from Noor Abdalla, wife of Palestinian student and activist Mahmoud Khalil, who is now facing deportation over his role in campus protests.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

No government shutdown. For now. One key Democratic vote from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer helped the Republican bill advance. And some of his fellow Democrats view that as wrong. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I'm Scott Simon and this is Up First from NPR News. The Republican spending bill narrowly passed the Senate last night with help from a few Democratic lawmakers.

That move led to infighting in a party already in turmoil. We'll have more on that. Plus conservative media usually puts a positive spin on President Trump's policies, but how are they covering the economic fallout? And we'll hear from the wife of a Palestinian graduate student and activist who faces deportation. Stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend. This message comes from Wondery.

Kiki Palmer is that girl and she's diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest to have real conversations on her podcast Baby This Is Kiki Palmer. Neuroscientist Ethan Cross says you may think it's healthy to vent about what's bothering you but the problem is you often leave that conversation feeling really good about the person you just communicated with, but all the negative feelings are still there. Sometimes they're even more activated. Tools for managing our emotions. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. On the embedded podcast. No, it's called denying a speech from a speech. It's misinformation. Like so many Americans, my dad has gotten swept up in conspiracy theories.

These are not conspiracy theories. These are reality. I spent the year following him down the rabbit hole, trying to get him back. Listen to Alternate Realities on the Embedded Podcast from NPR, all episodes available now. Another spending cycle, another barely avoided government shutdown after the Senate just managed to pass a partisan stopgap spending bill. But that was only possible with help from a few Democratic lawmakers, which has riled up their congressional colleagues. And pair congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt joins us.

Barbara, thanks for being with us. Hey, thanks for having me. This was an abrupt shift from the minority leader, Chuck Schumer. What happened? That's right. Schumer had said Republicans didn't get input from Democrats when drafting this bill, and so they wouldn't get the Democratic votes they'd need to advance it. Instead, he wanted to pass a one-month funding bill to give them more time to negotiate a

deal. But on Thursday, he made a U-turn and he said he was going to vote to advance the bill. Schumer and the nine other Democrats who ultimately voted alongside him argued the bill was bad, yes, but a government shutdown would be worse. They said it would enable President Trump and his top advisor, Elon Musk, to further gut federal agencies. And their support enabled Republicans to ultimately pass the bill largely along party lines. Barbara, would it be fair to say that Senator Schumer's colleagues just didn't see this coming?

It would be fair. I was at a conference in Virginia with House Democrats when Schumer made this announcement. I saw jaws drop. I saw heads shake. Members were really upset. They said they felt betrayed because they had voted on this same bill earlier this week and all but one voted against it. It was a tough vote for a lot of members, particularly those in vulnerable districts, but the caucus banded together to present a united front and make a strong show of opposition. They said that the bill was essentially a blank check for Trump because it doesn't rein in the administration's efforts to cut spending that was

previously approved by Congress. Here's New York Congressman Joe Morelli reacting to Schumer's comments. I think they're going to ruin the day they make this decision. I think this just gives license to Republicans to continue to dismantle the government. They now have the acquiescence of Senate Democrats. Members told me they were calling and texting their senators,

imploring them not to vote alongside Schumer. So a lot of frustration and anger among House Democrats. Barbara, what's the implication of this rift among Democrats at a time when, after all, Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House? House Democrats felt that they finally had some momentum, you know, as the opposition party. The vote over the shutdown was a rare and big piece of leverage for them.

To have unity in the House and then have the Senate Democrats shift course at this late stage is a breakdown in strategy. And New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that it has implications in her view far beyond this one vote. There will be a day where the Senate will need the House to move on something. And if there is an erosion of trust and a breach of trust,

such as what is being considered right now, it will make cooperation difficult. After the vote, she posted that the Democratic votes in the Senate were a quote, fear-based inexplicable abdication, and that the Senate owns what happens next. You know, I talked to Democratic strategists about this yesterday,

and they said that Senate leadership really misread what constituents want, for Democrats to Democratic strategists about this yesterday and they said that Senate leadership really misread what Constituents want for Democrats to hold the line even if it means a shutdown There's concern that this emboldens the GOP makes it harder for Democrats to present a unified message Now Congress is on recess next week. I expect Democrats will be getting an earful from constituents And here's Barbara Sprunt. Thanks so much. Thank you. President Trump can ordinarily count on the support of more conservative news outlets.

But it's been tough to sugarcoat, nosedivingdiving stocks and consumer confidence, trade wars, and a looming recession. NPR media correspondent David Falkenflich joins us now to tell us more. Good to have you, David. Thanks. Where are we starting to see some of this pushback? Well, let's set aside the Never Trump or Right. Let's start with the most important part of the conservative press, and that's the Murdoch media. There are really four big parts of that.

There's the Wall Street Journal news section, the editorial pages, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and of course, biggest of all, Fox News. All in various ways, some of it quite gentle, some of it less so, are pushing back on Trump on this, reflecting in the terms of the Wall Street Journal's, I think, rigorously reported news pages, reflecting their own coverage, but also in the other elements, fulfilling their brand

promise to various constituencies they're trying to take care of and also reflecting what Rupert Murdoch really wants, which is to kind of gently ease Trump into what he thinks is the right thing, predictable, stable markets, and not trade wars. So what are they saying? Well, you've seen these big headlines in Wall Street Journal reporting, you know, particularly on fears about chief executives and finance chiefs and real concerns about how consumers are hurting up and down the household income levels and how they're accelerating fears about what they can do. Take the New York Post front page last week. You saw this huge cartoon of Trump plunging straight down the incline of a roller coaster

headline, Buckle Up, Markets Plunge. You saw the Wall Street Journal's editorial page talking about tariffs. They called his moves on Canada and Mexico the dumbest trade war in history a few weeks ago and sort of doubled up a few days ago, repeating the line again. And then there's a very gentle explainer by Fox News anchor Brett Baier explaining why tariffs don't really work the way the president claims that they actually end up really hitting the American consumer.

And even Fox host Maria Bartiromo, a true Trump loyalist, here's what it sounds like when she mixed it up recently with Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. I know you said you're not expecting a recession, but investors are on edge over the possibility of a recession this year after the Atlanta Federal Reserve said that it's predicting a 2.4% contraction in the first quarter. And of course, President Trump would not— Wait, wait, wait, wait, say that again. A what? A what? The Atlanta Federal Reserve—2.4% contraction? Correct. And that's somebody who goes out of her way to frame things in the best possible way for Trump most of the time. She just got an appointment from Trump to the board of the John F

Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and how have other pro Trump outlets covered this moment? I think you look at the four D's defend deflect deny disregard You've seen that in a bunch of right-wing pro Trump outlets take Newsmax's Rob Finnerty He recently debated Ontario premier Doug Ford about Canada's reaction to Trump's tariff moves. How is that fair? I think that Donald Trump just wants to get the best deal for the American consumer, even if that means some pain in the short term. There are other right wing and pro Trump sites that simply are focusing the blame on foreign president Joe Biden for whatever is going wrong now or might in the future.

What do you think the impact of this coverage will be? I think these things are both a leading and a lagging indicator. They tell you where these outlets think their audiences are and in the case of Fox, where they hope to get the president to because they know few people are watching Fox and the media more closely than he does. That's NPR Media correspondent David Fokinflick. David, thanks so much for joining us. You bet.

The Israeli government denies that its campaign against Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide. South Africa is arguing in the International Court of Justice that it does. The case is yet to be decided. It's an accusation that rang across the campus of Columbia University last year. Mahmoud Khalil was a prominent part of those protests as a student there. And for his role in those protests, Khalil has been taken into custody by immigration agents and is now facing deportation. His wife, Nur Abdallah, who is pregnant, gave her first broadcast interview to our colleague,

Morning Edition co-host Leila Fadl. Thanks for having me, Scott. Tell us about the scene. Nur Abdallah was with her husband when he was detained last weekend. That's right, she was. And she said they were coming home from dinner, and as they unlocked the door of their apartment building, a man held it open behind them and asked her husband, are you Mahmoud Khalil?

And I'll just play you a bit of what she says happened next. We were both like, what is happening? And he says, I'm with the police. You have to come with us. I think at that point, like honestly, like my heart sank. Like I want to say, Mahmoud tried to prepare me like two days before. He told me like, do you know your rights if ice comes to your door? And I like brush it off. I was like, what are you saying? Like that's not going to happen, you know? But he was like, no, like you need

to know. And so at this point, your heart is sinking. And what is happening in front of you? So Mahmoud is trying to ask the officer, well, first he asked him, like, who are you with? He said Department of Homeland Security. And then he asked him, can I see a warrant? The officer said he has one. He's like, it's on my phone, but never really showed it to us. And then Mahmoud was holding the keys that he had just used to open our apartment. And the officer was like, give the keys to your wife, basically.

And I, I turned to the officer. I was like, I'm not leaving him. Um, and the officer goes, I'll arrest you too. But she's a US citizen, right? Yeah. I mean, that's part of the reason she didn't take Mahmoud's warnings that he might be deported seriously.

She was born here. He's a lawful permanent resident. He has a green card. And she says, as most Americans do, she believed they had the right to say whatever they wanted. And he was using that right to speak up about the treatment of his own people. He's Palestinian. And now Noor is in this position she never could have imagined facing the possibility that she's gonna have this baby while her husband is detained in Louisiana or possibly

deported. Marc Thiessen The government is accusing him of supporting Hamas, which could amount to a violation of US law. What does she say about those accusations? Danielle Pletka Well, she says they've provided no evidence of that accusation because there isn't evidence. He's also never been charged with an actual crime. That would be a crime if he provided support to Hamas. Here's more of what Noor said. I just want to be clear that the smears against Mahmoud are exactly that.

They're smears. He has and always will stand up for what's right and the way that he was taken from his family was was not right. The government's actually arguing they can take his green card under a rarely used immigration provision, not because of a crime. I also asked her if her husband were allowed to return home tomorrow, let's say. Would she feel safe in the US after what's happened?

And here's what she said. I love this apartment. And I love the place that we live. But I think, unfortunately, they, they took away that sense of security and that sense of safety, at least for me. And I wasn't sure if she'd lost her sense of safety in the apartment or the country, so I asked and she said both. And Berta Lafadal, thanks so much for being with us.

Thanks for having me, Scott. And that's up first for Saturday, March 15th, 2025. I'm Ayesha Rasco. And I'm Scott Simon. Martin Patience produced today's episode with help from Ryan Bank and Phil Harrell. Our editors are Dee Purves, Shannon Rhodes, Ed McNulty, Kelsey Snell, and Arisu Razvani. Andrew Craig is our director with support from technical director Andy Huther. And the engineers who help us out, David Greenberg, Zach Coleman, and Arthur Halliday-Lorent.

Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor and Sarah Lucy Oliver is our executive producer. Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on the Sunday story with Ayesha, what's it like to report on a war in a place that is also your home? We'll hear from NPR producer Anas Baba, who has been covering the war in Gaza and covering events that Israel has banned foreign journalists from seeing firsthand.

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