Up First from NPR - Suspected D.C. Shooter Charged, Trump vs. Harvard, SCOTUS Ruling On Agency Firings

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

The man suspected of killing two Israeli Embassy employees outside a Jewish museum in D.C. has been charged with two counts of murder, among other crimes. The Trump administration has revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students, sowing confusion for those who are already enrolled. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court said President Trump can fire two members of independent agencies — for now.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, Nicole Cohen, Russell Lewis, Ally Schweitzer and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zac Coleman and Josh Sauvagvau. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The man suspected of fatally shooting two Israeli embassy employees in D.C. has been charged with murder. He could still face additional charges. Police are investigating the killings as a possible hate crime. I'm E. Martinez with Michel Martin and this is Up First from NPR News. The Trump administration has opened a new front in its war against Harvard University by revoking the school's ability to sponsor international students. So how are current students affected?

I think this moment is not just about visas. It's about values. And independent agencies like the Federal Reserve are supposed to be insulated from political influence. But the Supreme Court says President Trump is allowed to fire members of those agencies at least for now. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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Marc Thiessen Law enforcement officials say they're continuing to investigate the attack as a possible hate crime. Danielle Pletka NPR's Jennifer Ludden is with us now with the latest. Jennifer, good morning. Jennifer Ludden Good morning. Danielle Pletka I understand that we now have a lot more information on what exactly happened.

So what can you tell us? Yes, we do. We know now from the affidavit that the suspect, Elias Rodriguez, flew from his home in Chicago to Washington, DC on Tuesday. That's the day before the attack. He declared a firearm in his checked luggage and he bought a ticket to the event that was taking place at this Jewish Museum three hours before it started. It was a mixer for young diplomats. From witness interviews and surveillance video, we also have some pretty gruesome details of the shooting.

Law enforcement officials say Rodriguez shot at the two victims from the back and kept firing repeatedly even as one of them tried to crawl away. He then discarded his nine millimeter handgun and eventually he went inside the museum and told a police officer that he had done this saying quote, I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza. Yeah, and the Washington Post is also reporting that the gunman sat down indoors after the shooting as though he was fleeing the danger. A witness told the Post that somebody even got him a glass of water. So President Trump and others have called this an act of anti-Semitism, but is it correct

that so far he has not been charged with a hate crime? That's right. Not at this point, but Jeanine Pirro, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters that the murder charges and others are only the beginning. Federal agents raided Rodriguez's home in Chicago yesterday. They learned that he expressed admiration for a person who self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy here in D.C. last year. He described them as a martyr.

And Pirro says investigators are going through massive amounts of evidence to learn what motivated him. Violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero. It is the kind of case that we will vigorously pursue. And she says, look, there's going to be additional charges as the evidence warrants. Tell us more about the two people who were killed. They were a young couple. They both worked at the Israeli embassy. What else can you tell us about them?

It's really quite sad, Michelle. Israel's ambassador to the US said Yaron Leshinsky had bought an engagement ring. He was planning to propose to Sarah Milgram next week. They were going to be on a trip to Jerusalem. Leshinsky was a German and Israeli citizen. Milgram next week. They were going to be on a trip to Jerusalem. Leszczynski was a German and Israeli citizen. Milgram was American. She grew up in a Kansas city suburb. A friend of Milgram's, Israeli attorney Ayelet Rezin Bedor, told me she took the embassy job after Hamas attacked Israel a year and a half ago. She was already sensing a rise in anti-Semitism and she wanted to combat that. Not with violence or shoutings or verbal abuse, but in diplomacy with love, with intelligence.

Rosine Bator says it is a painful irony that Milgram lost her life in this way. Finally, Jennifer, very briefly, obviously something like this heightens people's fears, obviously for many Jewish people, but others as well are officials saying something about that. Jennifer Ledin Absolutely. D.C.'s police chief says there's going to be more law enforcement officers around faith-based groups, schools, and places like the Jewish Community Center here. Danielle Pletka That is NPR's Jennifer Ledin. Jennifer, thank you.

Jennifer Ledin Thank you. Thank you. The Trump administration has revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students. For students who are already enrolled, the move is so in confusion. This kind of makes us all very uneasy and sort of fearful and angry, honestly. The school, which has been in a month's long back and forth with the president, says the government's actions are unlawful. NPR's Alyssa Nadwani is covering this story and she's with us now to tell us more about

it. Alyssa, good morning to you. Good morning. What exactly did the Trump administration do? So Kristi Noem, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, sends a letter to Harvard saying, the administration is term Harvard accountable for quote, fostering violence, anti-Semitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party. She encouraged current students to transfer.

I'm not sure if that's a good way to put it, but the administration is doing a good job of doing that. So, I think that's a good way to put it. So, I think that's a good way to put it. So, I think that's a good way to put it. administration is holding Harvard accountable for quote, fostering violence, anti-Semitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party. She encouraged current students to transfer. And what has Harvard's response been? So in a statement Harvard said the action was unlawful, they called it retaliatory and said it threatened serious harm to the Harvard community and our country.

Harvard is already suing the Trump administration over research funding cuts related to accusations of anti-Semitism on campus, and that trial is set to start in July. What sort of impact does this have on Harvard and its student body? The university has nearly 7,000 international students, roughly one-fourth of the student body. We spoke to several of them. One senior from Canada told us she's worried about whether she'll be able to graduate

next week. The students we talked to asked not to be named because they fear retaliation from the U.S. government for speaking out. Another student at Harvard, a third-year undergrad from Europe, told us he came to the U.S. to study to be a professor. I'm very close to graduation. I thought, you know, dang it, if this is the reason that I'm not going to be able to graduate. Like, I really have no idea what I would do if I were to get deported or if I were unable to re-enroll in September here at Harvard. Does this move have implications beyond Harvard? Well it could. I talked with Sean Carver about this. He's the executive director at International House at UC Berkeley. I think Harvard is the canary in the coal

mine as the administration kind of uses them to test what they can and cannot do to influence public and private institutions. It could just be that the administration is having a spat with Harvard. But Carver says other institutions are fearful. Now this isn't the first time that international students have been a target of this administration. Earlier this semester, the government revoked hundreds of student visas, but then reversed that decision. I've been doing this for over 20 years and this is probably the most difficult time for international students.

And you know, Michelle, more than a million international students study at U.S. colleges and universities. They don't qualify for federal financial aid and so for a lot of colleges, they represent a crucial financial lifeline. Carver says international student applications are way down. He says it's likely because students are looking at Europe, Asia, Canada for college and that could ultimately have a big impact on the US. One report found last year international students contributed more than 43 billion dollars to the US economy. Not to mention their intellectual contributions right? Absolutely. All right that is NPR's Alyssa Nadhwini. Thanks for this Alyssa.

You bet. In a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said President Trump can fire two members of independent agencies for now. Yeah, it's not the final say on the matter, but it is an indication of how the Supreme Court views the extent of Trump's power. And Piers, Andrea Schu is here to explain. Andrea, good morning. Good morning.

Could you just start by telling us who are these officials that Trump fired? Yeah. So, Gwen Wilcox was a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and Kathy Harris sat on the Merit Systems Protection Board. That's the board that hears federal employee complaints. And they both sued saying Trump did not have the authority to fire them. In fact, in creating their agencies, Congress wrote into law that members can only be fired for cause like neglect of duty or malfeasance. But the Trump administration has been arguing that those restrictions on the president violate the Constitution. So that's the fight that's been

playing out in the lower courts. And what have the lower courts said? Well, there's already been a lot of ping-ponging back and forth, Michelle. Initially, two judges found Wilcox and Harris's firings not only violated the law, but also ignored Supreme Court precedent, a case called Humphrey's Executor from 90 years ago. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Congress could limit the president's power to remove members of independent agencies. And so Wilcox and Harris actually went back to work for a while. But the government appealed,

there was some back and forth. And last month, Chief Justice John Roberts stepped in and allowed Trump to remove Wilcox and Harris again. And now the entire Supreme Court has weighed in. Yeah. Yesterday, a majority of justices said they think Trump does have the authority to remove Wilcox and Harris again. Lyle And now the entire Supreme Court has weighed in. Beth Dombkowski Yeah, yesterday a majority of justices said they think Trump does have the authority to fire Wilcox and Harris for now anyway. They wrote that the Constitution gives the president the power to fire at will those officials who help him carry out his duties with only narrow exceptions.

And they said Wilcox and Harris probably don't qualify for those exceptions. Okay. So tell me more about this probably. Does that mean that this is not necessarily a definitive ruling? That's right. It's a stay while the appeals court weighs the merits of the case. To be clear, the Supreme Court hasn't yet heard arguments of this case. This order came out of what's known as the emergency docket, which conservatives have increasingly relied on to get quick decisions without a hearing. And this is something that liberal justice Elena Kagan

brought up in her dissent. She wrote, our emergency docket, well fit for some things, should not be used to overrule or revise existing law, meaning Humphrey's executive. She said, what's at stake here is not just someone's job, it's this very idea that Congress embraced when it created independent agencies, that if their members are insulated from political pressure, that they will make sound judgments that benefit the public good.

Now, in recent years, the court has been chipping away at this idea and at Humphrey's executor, but in yesterday's decision, the conservative majority did carve out an exception for one independent agency, the Federal Reserve. Nicole So what did they say about the Fed? Danielle Well, Wilcox and Harris had warned that if the court finds that Trump can fire them, that nothing can stop him from firing Fed chair Jerome Powell. And in fact, Trump did threaten to fire Powell, which tanked the markets. Later, he pulled back and said he had no intention of firing Powell. In any event, the conservative majority disagreed with the notion that their order would affect

the Fed. They wrote that the Fed is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity with a distinct historical tradition. Kagan scoffed at this in her dissent, and she maintained that the Fed's independence rests on the same foundation as other independent agencies. Now, again, this is not, yesterday's order, it's not the final word, but it does give us a pretty good sense of how the justices could roll if and more likely when they hear arguments in this case.

That is, NPR's Andrea Hsu. Andrea, thank you. You're welcome. And finally, last night, President Trump dined with more than 200 investors into the Trump meme coin, the president's personal cryptocurrency venture. The Associated Press reports that at the dinner, hosted at Trump's golf resort in Virginia, the coin's top 25 investors were invited to a private reception with Trump, raising questions about the president's commingling his business interests with his public office. The White House said the president

attended the event in his personal time. While there, he stood at a lectern emblazoned with the presidential seal. No media were allowed access. A lot has changed in higher education since President Trump took office. Students have come to me and just, they feel really scared. Everything that's been going on has kind of changed my life plans. This Sunday on Up First, how members of the class of 2025 are feeling about the state of higher education and their own futures. Listen to the Sunday story right here on NPR's Up First podcast. And that's Up First for Friday, May 23rd. I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Ian Martinez. And just a quick reminder that Up First airs on Saturdays too. Aisha Roscoe and Scott Simon will have the news wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Krishna DeVicalimore, Nicole Cohen, Russell Lewis, Ali Schweitzer, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zianne Butch, Nia Dumas, and Ana Perez. We get engineering support from Zach Coleman in Washington, D.C., and Josh Savagio at MPR in St. Paul. And a big thank you to Jeff Jones and all of our colleagues at MPR for their support this week. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our executive producer is Jay Shaler. We hope you'll join us again Monday.

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