Up First from NPR - Russia Rejects Peace Proposal, Hegseth Defends Boat Strikes, Tennessee House Election

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

A five-hour meeting between Vladimir Putin and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff ends without a breakthrough, as the Kremlin rejects key parts of the updated Ukraine peace plan.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shifts his account of the U.S. strike on an alleged drug boat, saying he didn’t order the second, lethal attack as lawmakers press for answers.And a special House election in deep-red Tennessee district tightened far more than expected, offering both parties clues about voter energy heading into the 2026 midterms.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Rebecca Rossman, Jason Breslow, Megan Pratz, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Our Supervising Producer is Michael Lipkin.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Did you actually say good morning yesterday? I did, just because Layla constantly wants one, so I figured on Giving Tuesday would be the best day to do it. Well, hold on. I want to hear this before we, I want to hear how this went. Good morning, Leila. What? Did you just say good morning? Yeah, it's getting Tuesday.

I figured I'd give you a good morning. Thank you, and I'm glad you remember. Congratulations. You did it. I did it, I think, hopefully, sarcasticly. Yes, I hope everyone heard it. Yes, it was nice. Good morning.

I could hear the eye roll. So that was Giving Tuesday for you. Yes, handing out Good Mornings all over the world. That's what I did. Congratulations. Well done. So let's think of this now as Giving Wednesday. It is not too late to support Up First and everything that you love from NPR News.

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NPR News keeps me from losing it. So thanks to Lauren and everybody else. We're thankful for supporters like you who help us stay strong after federal funding for public media was eliminated earlier this year, hurting a lot of local stations. Yeah, and you can join Lauren and the growing community of public radio supporters by signing up for NPR Plus sign up today. It's a simple recurring donation that gets you perks when you're listening to NPR podcasts. You can join us at plus.npr.org. U.S. envoy Steve Whitkoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner sat with Russia's president

for five hours. They came away with no deal. So what is the United States gaining from its repeated appeals to Vladimir Putin? I'm Amey Martinez. That is Steve Inskeep. And this is a first from NPR News. Congress was obedient to the administration for months, but now supports an investigation. They want to examine follow-up strikes on a boat in the Caribbean. Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth first denied the story and now said the strikes were appropriate. And by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. Also, a Republican won a Tennessee election, but by far less than Trump won the same area last year.

What are the results revealed? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. So I just want to check in really quick. Are you okay? Or are you suffering from sleep deprivation, a stack of bills, or political propaganda? If so, you may be stuck in the parent trap. On the It's Been a Minute podcast, we're diving headfirst into the anxieties of modern parenting and how that trickles out to all of us, even if you don't have children.

children. Come find some relief. Listen to the It's Been a Minute podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Keeping up with the news can feel like a 24-hour job. Luckily, it is our job. Every hour on the NPR News Now podcast, we take the latest, most important stories happening, and we package them into five-minute episodes so you can easily squeeze them in between meetings and on your way to that thing. Listen to the NPR News Now podcast. now. U.S. Special Envoy, Steve Whitcoth, smiled as he strolled through Red Square in Moscow yesterday. That was on his way in to talks between Russian and American officials over the war in Ukraine.

On the way out, it became clear the two sides did not break through to a peace agreement. They were working from a draft proposal amended by European and Ukrainian negotiators. Europeans had already rejected a plan skewed toward Russia. We go now to NPR's Eleanor Beardsley, who's covering all this from Kiev, Ukraine. Hey there, Eleanor. Hello, Steve. How was the meeting? They lasted about five hours and started three hours late because they were waiting to meet President

Vladimir Putin. And that's when Steve Whitkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was also in attendance, got their tour of Red Square. By the way, this is Whitkoff's sixth visit to Moscow. He has not visited Ukraine. The talks broke up late last night with nothing concrete. Both sides called them constructive and productive. And this morning, the Kremlin says it's ready to sit down with the Americans as many times

is necessary. Actually, the most telling comments came from President Putin himself, speaking separately to the media before the talks concluded. Let's listen. He accuses the Europeans of thwarting President Trump's attempt to bring peace in Ukraine. He says they amended the document, knowing it would be unacceptable to Russia, just so they could block the process and blame it on Moscow. Putin also made veiled threats to Europe, saying Russia didn't want war with Europe, but it was ready if Europe brought it on. And he said such a war wouldn't be, quote, like the surgical one that Russia is conducting in Ukraine. Well, yeah, European news outlets went wild over that comment.

It was the main topic on prime time news. Well, what are the Ukrainians saying? Well, yesterday, President Vladimir Zelensky spoke from Ireland. He's been bathing in European support over the last few days. He was in Paris before that. Zelensky has agreed in principle to this amended document. He didn't comment on the negotiations, but said Europe must keep the pressure on Russia. Here he is.

So that Russia does not believe. It will be rewarded for this war with stolen, Ukrainian land, or thousand kidnapped Ukrainian children. So, Steve, that's a far cry from the big business deals with Russia that President Trump has been talking about. Where does this actually leave the effort for peace, Eleanor? Well, Ukrainians never thought Putin would ever sign any deal. They say he doesn't want peace. He continues to bomb Ukraine and kill civilians on a near-nightly basis.

And I spoke with me, Hilo Samu's, director of. a geopolitical research network in Ukraine. He says not only will Putin never stop, but Ukraine will never give away territory in the eastern Donbass region that the Russians are demanding. He says there is no possibility of a long-term peace document. Here he is. All of these negotiations only about ceasefire on the front line. No withdrawing forces from Donbass, no recognizing that the Russian occupying forces will be legal on Ukrainian territory. Of course not. I'd like to find out here, Eleanor, if there's a mistaken assumption. The president of the United States has assumed that Russia wants to stop the killing. He wants to. Obviously, they must. That leaked phone conversation by Bloomberg with Steve Whitkoff contains in it an assumption that Russia wants to end this and the deal is obvious. That's the U.S. assumption. Has Russia shown it actually sees it that way? No, Putin, the dying doesn't affect him. In fact, Zelensky and analysts confirm this that in the month of October alone, 25,000 Russian soldiers died in Ukraine. That doesn't affect Putin. They hide it from the Russian public anyway. I think Secretary of St. Marco Rubio's comments yesterday from Washington are the most telling. Rubio said the conflict in Ukraine is not our war, and President Trump has a million other things to focus on. So there you go.

And Paris, Eleanor Beardsley, thanks so much. You're welcome, Steve. The Trump administration continues to face questions about a U.S. attack on an alleged drug boat in September in the Caribbean. Defense Secretary Pete Hankseth told reporters at the White House on Tuesday he did not witness the second round of strikes that killed survivors on the boat. I watched that first strike lot. As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. So I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the... the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting. Lawmakers now say they want to look into what happened. NPR congressional correspondent, Deirdre Walsh, is with us.

So we just heard Hague say that he had a lot on schedule the day of that strike. What other details that he talked about Tuesday? He said he gave the initial order to strike the boat and then said he learned the details about the second strike a couple of hours later. And said it was a decision made by Admiral Frank Bradley, who leads U.S. Special Operations Command. While Hegseth stressed he personally didn't make the call for a follow-on strike, he said Bradley had the complete authority to do so. And by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. You know, it's worth noting that Hegseth's comments yesterday are different from his initial response when the Washington Post first reported on these strikes and he criticized their reporting. Now he's acknowledging there was the second strike.

President Trump for his part said he knew the military took out the. boat, but he didn't know whether it was one strike or two or three, and he wasn't involved in it. All right. So what are top Republicans on Capitol Hill saying about the attack? Both House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune say they backed the move by House and Senate Armed Services Committees to review the boat strikes and expect to get answers. The speaker said he wouldn't prejudge anything before they get the facts. Committees are expected to seek video and audio of the operation. Questions on the Hill really center around whether the second strike broke U.S. law or would be considered a war crime if the administration's

claim to be at war with narco-traffickers is accepted. And members of both parties want to review evidence and this timeline. Majority Leader Thune said he backed current U.S. policy, saying he agreed the administration had the authority for these attacks in the Caribbean. But when Thune was asked directly about whether he has confidence in Heggseth, he sidestepped the question. Well, I think that the fundamental question is, is the country safer than it was under the Biden administration? I think the answer to that is unequivocally yes. Thune said the Trump administration's peace through strength policies are working and Hegset is part of the team that put those in place. But he also added that Hegset, quote, serves at the pleasure of the president, not exactly an endorsement of the secretary.

All right. So it seems like both GOP leaders of the House and Senate want, at least some, or is any word on how they'll try to get them? You know, we haven't seen a lot of oversight from Republican committee chairman in the first year of the Trump administration. But I will say on this issue, both chairs in the House and Senate came out really quickly and vowed vigorous oversight of these boat strikes. It's unclear if they're going to have public hearings or classified sessions.

Admiral Bradley's in town and is expected to brief lawmakers later this week. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wants Hexseth to release the video of the attack and he's demanding that he testified publicly. All right, that's NPR congressional correspondent. Deirdreau Walsh, thanks a lot. Thanks, A. Okay, Republican Matt Van Epps has won a special election for a U.S. House seat in Tennessee.

That means the Republican edge in the House of Representatives doesn't get any narrower. But Democrats are also claiming victory after Tuesday night's results. That's because last year, President Trump won Tennessee's 7th Congressional District by about 22 percentage points. Yesterday, Van Epps won by 9. Both parties spent millions of dollars in the final weeks of this race to try and test their campaign message ahead of the 2026 midterms. NPR Stephen Fowler has been following the campaign. Stephen, good morning. Good morning.

Why did this race receive so much attention? Well, it's math. Republicans have a narrow house majority and fractious coalitions. This gives them one more vote until Georgia, Representative Marjorie Taylor Green resigns in a few weeks. Here's more math. In 60 state legislative and congressional special elections this year, Democrats have improved from their 2024 margins by an average of 13%.

Those elections were typically low turnout, low profile contests where Democrats were more likely to vote. So given Trump's margins in this Tennessee district, super PACs from both parties poured more than $6.5 million in recent weeks into making this a high turnout, high-profile contest, where Democrats still ended up improving their margins by 13%. Oh, really interesting result then, and it seems that Democrats turned out a lot of voters. Who's right in declaring victory then? Well, the final margin of the race means both parties can, with a straight face, declare a victory moving forward.

That's because Republicans motivated their base without Trump being on the ballot. Van Ep said in victory remarks that, quote, running from Trump is how you lose, running with Trump is how you win, but he has actually didn't campaign much using the president's name or accomplishments. And Democrats are putting 2024 as losses behind them and have also motivated their base who's been pretty sour on the party as a whole. And they seem to also have persuaded independence that Republican governance won't solve key issues. So in last month's elections, we heard a lot about affordability. I'm thinking about that as a political slogan, six syllables, lots of syllables.

But anyway, the economy is what that was about. How did it factor in? Well, Steve, one candidate decried career politicians and promised to bring down prices, create good-paying jobs, and lower health care costs for working families. The other candidate promised to shake up Washington by making health care more affordable, bringing down the cost of living, and protect workers and small businesses. If you're wondering which one was a Republican and which was the Democrat, you're not alone. It was pretty hard to tell them apart on this issue, which was also notable for the candidate's lack of talking about Trump. Oh, this is really interesting. The Democrat maybe didn't talk about Trump so much because she wanted the votes of former Trump voters

and the Republican didn't talk about Trump so much because he's not so popular at this moment. But with all of this said, I mean, we're reading all of this to look at 2026 and trying to find how we can forecast the future. Is there anything about Tuesday's result that truly matters when thinking about the midterms where things will be different? Well, clearly the economy is top of mind. Republicans are figuring out how to address those concerns about costs without explicitly crossing Trump, and Democrats are also workshopping ways to win back key parts of their coalition. Looking at the election results, the drop-off and turnout in deep blue areas that we saw last year is nowhere to be found, and the rightward leap of young voters and non-white

voters has snapped back towards Democrats. In a midterm year, the dynamics typically see the party out of power do well, so this is another data point in favor of that trend continuing. NPR Stephen Fowler, thanks so much. Thank you. And that's up first for this Wednesday, December 3rd. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I mean Martinez, up first gets you caught up and then morning edition takes you deeper. We're live every morning on your local NPR station with reporting, interviews and the context behind all the headlines. And if you want to listen in the afternoon, you can do that too.

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