What does the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the travel ban say about the extent of the president’s power?
Tag: The Daily
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Rampant Problem of Pregnancy Discrimination | New York Times
A New York Times investigation finds that many pregnant women are systematically sidelined at work, passed over for promotions and fired when they complain.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: What Migrants Are Fleeing | New York Times
For large numbers of migrants making the journey to the U.S. from Central America, staying in their native countries is no longer an option.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The World Cup’s Mysterious Path to Russia | New York Times
The 2018 World Cup is now underway in Russia. How it ended up there involves some names you might recognize: Comey, Mueller and Steele.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Trump Ends His Child Separation Practice | New York Times
The president signed an executive order to keep immigrant parents and children together at the border. What happens now?
🎧 ‘The Daily’: 10 Years After the Financial Crisis | New York Times
A look at how the economic collapse exposed profound problems underlying the American dream.
What a great overview. So little has changed… I’m starting to think that our financial system is even more fragile than I had expected it might be.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Blasey-Kavanaugh Hearing | New York Times
In an extraordinary day of testimony, Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh came to embody a fractured nation.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Today’s Hearing: Trial or Job Interview? | New York Times
Republicans and Democrats are expected to take very different approaches to the questioning of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Revisiting What Happened to Anita Hill | New York Times
The law professor testified against Judge Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings in 1991. What has changed since?
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Conservative Divide Over Kavanaugh | New York Times
We look at three stances taken on the accusations against the Supreme Court nominee.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Rod Rosenstein’s Insurrection | New York Times
In the eight days between the firing of James Comey and the appointment of Robert Mueller, the deputy attorney general faced a crisis.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Father and Son, Forced Apart at the Border | New York Times
A 5-year-old boy named José and his father fled the violence in Honduras and headed to the United States. They were separated at the border. What has happened to them in the weeks since?
On today’s episode:
• Miriam Jordan, who covers immigration for The New York Times.
Background reading:
• Many children who have been taken from their parents as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy end up in shelters or foster homes.
• Federal criminal prosecutions of migrants have skyrocketed, and the volume of cases has prompted rapid-fire hearings in which multiple defendants — in one instance, 40 people — are brought into the courtroom at once.• Republicans in the House and the Senate voiced their intention to halt the practice of separating families at the border — but clashed over how to proceed.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: How Separating Migrant Families Became U.S. Policy | New York Times
President Trump has blamed Democrats for his administration’s practice of taking children from their parents at the border. Why is one of his top aides, Stephen Miller, claiming credit?
On June 7, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and I interviewed Stephen Miller, President Trump’s senior policy adviser, in his West Wing office about the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy at the border, which has led to heartbreaking images of children being forcibly separated from their families. Here are some key points from that interview.
1. The zero-tolerance policy grew out of a desire to end what Mr. Miller calls “crippling loopholes” that attract illegal immigrants into the United States.
From where Mr. Miller sits, illegal immigration is driven by a belief among people outside the United States that those who make it across the border will be allowed to stay indefinitely. “The success rate is the predominant factor that drives illegal migration,” he told us. By instituting a zero-tolerance policy, Mr. Miller said, the administration is sending a message that should reduce the flow of illegal immigration into the country. He conceded that the policy has not reduced the immigration numbers, but said, “It’ll take a few months of sustained effort.”
2. Anything less than zero tolerance at the border creates what Mr. Miller calls “perverse” incentives for lawbreakers.
Mr. Miller used the example of speeding laws in the United States. Imagine, he said, if the police decided that speeding laws didn’t apply to people who have a child in the back seat. “Could you imagine what the consequences of that would be? Well, one thing, a lot more child endangerment,” he said, comparing the situation to the lack of enforcement of illegal border crossings under prior administrations.
3. Continuing policies in place during the Obama administration would cause what Mr. Miller called a “vicious cycle” that would increase illegal immigration.
Mr. Miller said a “giant hemispheric shift in migration patterns” was driving people toward the United States, which he said must respond with tighter borders. He said Obama-era policies would allow the number of immigrants to “spiral upward endlessly.” Using a favorite phrase, Mr. Miller said: “So you have to turn the ship. And so again, it’s a whole-of-government approach.”
4. Zero tolerance at the border will keep out dangerous illegal immigrants who would otherwise “grievously harm innocent Americans,” Mr. Miller said.
Reading from a list of arrests in Philadelphia in May 2017, Mr. Miller recounted the crimes committed by illegal immigrants: murder, child neglect, negligent manslaughter, car theft, prostitution, racketeering, rape. “It is impossible to take moral lectures from people like the mayor of Philadelphia, who dance in jubilant celebration over ‘sanctuary cities,’ when you had innocent Americans, U.S.-born and foreign, who are victimized on a daily basis because of illegal immigration,” Mr. Miller said.
5. Trump administration officials believe Americans will support their zero-tolerance policies over what Mr. Miller calls the “nihilism” of the Democratic agenda.
Mr. Miller said he believed the issue of border security, even with the controversy over family separations, was a “90-10” issue for Mr. Trump and his Republican allies. He predicted that voters in November would reject “the Democrats’ open-borders extremism,” adding that Democrats had adopted “a point of view so radical that it can really only be described as absolute nihilism.”
On today’s episode:
- Julie Hirschfeld Davis, who covers the White House and immigration for The New York Times.
Background coverage:
- President Trump is facing a growing outcry against his administration’s “zero tolerance” border policy, which requires all migrants who enter the United States without authorization to be taken into federal criminal custody, at which point they are separated from their children.
- Stephen Miller, a top aide to the president, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions — two immigration hard-liners who are shaping Mr. Trump’s approach to immigration — have defended the policy.
- As a result of “zero tolerance,” 1,995 children have been separated from adults accompanying them at the border in six weeks.
- This episode of “The Daily” includes excerpts from an audio recording from inside a United States Customs and Border Protection facility, where children are heard crying after being separated from their parents. Listen to the full recording on ProPublica.org.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: Cracking Down on Leaks | New York Times
For a year and a half, President Trump has threatened to crack down on leaks and leakers.
The seizure of emails and phone records from a reporter at The New York Times tells a great deal about what that might look like.
On today’s episode:
• Matt Apuzzo, a reporter for The Times in Washington who had his records subpoenaed during the Obama administration.
Background reading:
• Federal prosecutors seized years of email and phone records from Ali Watkins, a New York Times reporter.
• President Trump wants better press, and he’s blaming leaks for not getting it.
• From 2012: The Obama administration used the Espionage Act to pursue leak cases.
🎧 ‘The Daily’: The Report on the F.B.I.’s Clinton Inquiry | New York Times
The Justice Department’s inspector general released a long-awaited report on Thursday on the F.B.I. investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.
The findings could be both good and bad for President Trump.
On today’s episode:
• Matt Apuzzo, who covers national security for The New York Times.
Background reading:
• The Justice Department’s inspector general painted a harsh portrait of the F.B.I. during the 2016 presidential election, describing James B. Comey, the former director, as “insubordinate,” but finding no bias in his decision to clear Hillary Clinton.
• The report gives President Trump an opening, but it also undercuts his narrative.
• Democrats saw the document as proof that the F.B.I. had wronged Mrs. Clinton, but it also brought new worries.
• The report is more than 500 pages long. Our reporters break it down.