Up First from NPR - SCOTUS Trump Case, U.S. Strikes In Iraq, Pakistani Elections

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

The Supreme Court is set to rule on Colorado's controversial decision to disqualify Donald Trump from the primary ballot, a case with significant implications for the 2024 presidential election. A U.S. drone strike in Baghdad targets a senior commander of an Iran-backed militia, raising questions of escalation in the Middle East. Pakistan is on edge as a contentious election is underway amidst an economic and political crisis.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 Krishnadev Calamur, Miguel Macias, and Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Julie Depenbrock. We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Good morning, friends. Good morning. I'm just listening to Robert De Niro. You talking to me? You talking to me? You talking to me? In my memory, in my mind, it's more stylized than that. You talking to me?

Anyway. Today the Supreme Court holds a historic constitutional debate. Can Donald Trump be barred from running for president under the 14th Amendment? That's the question justices will be weighing. I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Fadal, and this is Up First from NPR News. In Baghdad, a U.S. drone strike took out a leader of an Iran-backed militia. The militia is accused of killing three American soldiers in Jordan, but will this act of retaliation prompt more violence?

Pakistanis head to the polls in a tense election. A popular former leader is barred from the race and sitting in a jail cell, and there's already been political violence that's killed dozens. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. Now, Our Change will honour 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad.

From the skies to Our Change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today over whether to remove Donald Trump from a presidential primary ballot. Colorado Supreme Court disqualified him based on a clause in the Constitution. It says a former official may not return to office after engaging in insurrection or rebellion. Trump gave a speech to supporters who then stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The case turns on many questions, like whether that attack counts as insurrection, and who gets to decide if the rule applies to Trump. The case does have implications for other states, so NPR's Carrie Johnson is following it. Hi there, Carrie. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so what is the law here? The key law is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which was passed after the Civil War to try to keep Confederates out of government. This provision says anyone who swore an oath to the Constitution and went on to engage in insurrection is disqualified from public office unless two-thirds of Congress votes to grant that person amnesty. It's never been applied

to a former president, and it's only been applied about eight times since the 1860s. I talk with Jason Murray, a lawyer who will argue the case today for the Colorado voters, and he says this part of the Constitution remains relevant. Here's more of what Murray had to say. The reason why this case is unprecedented is because Donald Trump's behavior is unprecedented. No other American president has refused to peacefully hand over the reins of power after losing an election. Which is true and does answer one concern, which is why is this amendment being cited now when it's so rarely, or this provision of it, so rarely been cited in the past? What is former President Trump's response?

Donald Trump is making a bunch of arguments. First, he says the president is actually not an officer of the United States because he says presidents are elected, not appointed. And so he says that part of the 14th Amendment should not apply to him. Trump also says he did not engage in an insurrection on January 6th. He's also making the case that barring him from the ballot will open the floodgates. Scott Gessler is one of Trump's lawyers. He says there's going to be a constant stream of litigation if the Supreme Court allows these doors to open. And it's not going to stop. You're going to see attacks on President Biden. You're going to see attacks on Kamala Harris, Vice President Harris.

You're going to see attacks on senators, representatives, other people trying to prevent them from being on the ballot. And if Scott Gessler sounds a little scratchy there, it's because I caught him at the airport where he traveled to defend Trump on another ballot disqualification issue in Illinois. Because there are plenty of cases going on. I'm trying to think this through from the Supreme Court's point of view, though. Chief Justice John Roberts has tried, when possible, to make the court seem a little less political, to keep out of political controversies where possible, to give narrow rulings where possible. And now we have this gigantic question of whether a former president of the United States should be on the presidential ballot, possibly in multiple states. What are the court's options here?

This is a hard one. You know, the court is now at the center of a presidential election, just like it was in 2000, when it stopped the Florida recount and handed the White House to George W. Bush. But in this case, the justices have a few options. They could decide to disqualify Trump just like the Colorado Supreme Court did. Depending on how they rule, it could have a cascading effect in other states at the primary and the general election level. They could decide this is a political question, Steve, one for Congress and voters to answer, not the courts. Or they could side with Trump and dozens of other Republicans in Congress and keep Trump on the ballot. It's kind of hard to predict what the justices might do here. So when do they rule however they may rule? Well, the court's been moving pretty quickly. Experts want them to issue a definitive ruling soon before many more voters

go to the polls on Super Tuesday in early March. NPR's Kerry Johnson, thanks so much. My pleasure. The United States asserts that it gained a measure of justice for an attack that killed three U.S. soldiers. A U.S. airstrike in Iraq killed a leader of a militia whose group the United States blamed for an attack on an American base. This is all part of a multinational conflict. Grab your maps. The Americans were killed at a base in Jordan. The militia leader was killed in Iraq. He was part of a group that's linked to Iran, which in turn is vowed to respond to the Israel-Hamas war. Numerous armed groups have opened fire throughout the region, and the latest incident led to a days-long U.S. response.

NPR's Jane Araf joins us now from Baghdad to talk about all this. Hi, Jane. Hi, Leila. So what do we know about who was killed in this strike? Well, the militia Khatab Hezbollah has confirmed it was one of its commanders. He was called Abu Bakr al-Sadi. And an interior ministry official says he was head of logistics for the Iran-backed group. The U.S., in confirming the strike, said al-Sadi had been directly involved in attacks on U.S. forces.

A bit of confusion still here because initial reports from the Interior Ministry said three people were killed. And it's still not clear whether that was the case and whether there were other militia figures. This was a targeted strike, Leila, using an adapted Hellfire missile with a non-explosive warhead, the kind used by the U.S. for counterterrorism operations in crowded areas, which this indeed was. The vehicle burst into flames on impact of the airstrike. Everyone in the car was killed, but there were no other casualties reported. So a targeted strike in Baghdad by the U.S., pretty dramatic. What's the mood in the capital this morning? Yeah, apprehension, really, and fear,

and waiting for what comes next. And there are really not a lot of good scenarios here. It's a workday here, so people, in fact, did go to work. Shops are opening. It seems relatively normal. But this afternoon is the funeral ceremony in Baghdad for the commander who was killed. Some of the Iran-backed groups have called for protesters to gather near the U.S. embassy, and in the past, those gatherings have sometimes turned violent. And some members of the anti-U.S. resistance coalition that Khatab Hezbollah belonged to

have called for new attacks against the United States. The Iraqi Hezbollah itself halted attacks in deference to the Iraqi government recently, but it could very well announce a resumption and that would signal a new wave of attacks from both sides. So it's possible that this escalates. I mean, let's talk about the wider repercussions though here. I mean, the U.S. and Iraq recently started talks on the future of American forces in that country. Does this killing impact those talks? I think it almost certainly does. An Iraqi military spokesman, Yahya Rasul, said these latest attacks were increasing pressure on the Iraqi government to essentially

expel U.S. forces. Now, this wouldn't be an overnight process. It would be the result of talks and negotiations as the U.S. is still an essential security partner. But after withdrawing after its invasion of Iraq and the occupation, troops came back here in 2014 to fight ISIS at the invitation of the Iraqi government. The U.S. views these recent attacks that it's launched as a response to being attacked by militias. But there's increasing anger in parliament, in the streets, in the halls of government even, at violations of Iraqi sovereignty. And just really quickly, because this is a complicated but important part, these militias that are attacking and being attacked by the U.S., they actually have brigades that are part of Iraqi

government security forces. NPR's Jane Araf in Baghdad. Thank you, Jane. Thank you, Laila. Pakistanis are headed to the polls today, and it's quite an endeavor. Yeah, this is one of the most populous nations on earth. So here are some of the numbers. Tens of millions of people will be eligible to vote at more than 90,000 polling stations, guarded by more than 700,000 police officers and soldiers who are needed because dozens of people have been killed in bombings and attacks in the hours leading up to the election. NPR's Dia Hadid joins us now. She covers Pakistan from her base in Mumbai. Hi, Dia. Hi, Leila. So a big election for a big country. How is it going so far? Well, we have only a somewhat shaky picture because authorities have disrupted cellular services, citing security concerns, you know, as you mentioned, because there's been these deadly

attacks on polling booths and candidates and militant attacks like this have really been on the rise in the past two years. But rights groups worry that there might be a more nefarious purpose because there was a crackdown ahead of these elections that targeted Imran Khan, who's arguably Pakistan's most popular leader. He's the former PM. He was ousted from power after he fell out with the military, and that's Pakistan's most powerful institution. Okay, Imran Khan, former cricket player turned populist politician, but I understand he's not even on the ballot today, right? That's right. He's not on the ballot. He's in prison serving multiple sentences. His party isn't even allowed to participate in the polls, and yet these elections are still very much about him. His party has tried to work around these obstacles his allies are running as independents chatbots tell citizens who to vote

for in the elections they're running campaign rallies on tiktok and they're using generative ai to create khan-like personas to use on social media where he urges his base to vote. One of Khan's allies, Taimur Jagra, explained it to me like this. What we've had is AI-generated messages of Imran Khan so that in the absence of Imran Khan's pictures, Imran Khan's voice being deliberately taken away from the people, that it acts as a source of motivation to his voters. Okay, so AI-generated messages of Khan are being used. He's not on the ballot. Is this actually working?

It seems so. Video messaging is key in Pakistan because literacy rates are really low. And this is an appeal to young voters. They're a huge block. They get their information from social media, and they're a key base for Khan's party. And so in Pakistan's second largest city, Lahore, most people we've spoken to say that they are voting for independence aligned with Khan.

Some folks are even warning each other on WhatsApp groups that if they don't go to vote, someone else will fill in their ballot for them. But it's hard to imagine Khan's allies returning to government in any form because the army is so opposed to Khan. So Khan, it seems pretty clear he's not going to be the prime minister. So who might be? The analysts I've been speaking to

expect a different former prime minister to come to power. His name is Nawaz Sharif. One analyst, Niaz Murtaza, tells me he expects to see a governing coalition that's weak and easily swayed by the military. It's going to be a really hobbled government with the army running the show from behind. But here's the thing, Pakistani politics is cyclical. Today's jailed politician is tomorrow's favourite. So one ally of Khan tells me even if they're excluded from power in this election cycle, they're going to watch and wait

because they know how Pakistan operates. That's NPR's Diya Hadid. Thanks, Diya. Thank you, Leila. And that's Up First for Thursday, February 8th. I'm Leila Faldin. And I'm Stephen Skate. Today's Up First was edited by Krishnadev Kalamar, Miguel Macias, and Mohamed El-Bardisi. It was produced by Ziad Bach,

Ben Abrams, and Julie Deppenbrock. We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Join us tomorrow. And you can listen to this podcast sponsor-free while financially supporting public media with Up First Plus. Learn more at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.