[MUSIC]
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faced a Senate confirmation hearing today. >> Democrats accused him of weaponizing the Justice Department for President Trump. A few Republicans have concerns about his track record, does Blanche have the numbers.
>> Oh, you are Tennis, that's Laila Fottle, and this is a first from NPR News.
[MUSIC] A deal between the U.S. and Iran was supposed to mean that the three to four moves is open for business. Now President Trump has ordered a blockade. He says the military will take control the waterway, but is that possible without boots on the ground? >> An ice is putting a temporary pause on most traffic stops after agents shot and killed two
“people in a week. Stay with us, we'll give you the news you need to start your day.”
[MUSIC] >> Of all the protests in the summer of 2020? >> For a moment there, it was Utopia. >> One took a unique turn. >> Somebody over there, say it's in order, he's a gun.
>> This is the story of how violence came to occupy an anti-violence occupation in Seattle. Listen to we keep us safe, a new true crime series on the embedded podcast from NPR. [MUSIC] >> This week on NewsMakers, I'm a surprise you even had me on. [LAUGH]
>> Convenient bill, Mar, on its Mark Twain Award and the lost art of political debate, just engaged with the argument. Tell me if I'm wrong about something. And then we're going to be cool, but that's not what either extreme does in this country anymore. >> Bill Mar on this week's NewsMakers, watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts. >> Hi, it's Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air.
Hey, take a break from the 24-hour news cycle with us and listen to long-form interviews with your favorite authors, actors, filmmakers, comedians and musicians, the people making the art that nourishes us and speaks to our times. So listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY. >> Acting attorney general Todd Blanch will be on Capitol Hill today for his confirmation hearing
to lead justice department on a permanent basis. >> It is a high stakes moment for Blanch, given that he has a narrow path to confirmation in the Senate, where Republicans have a razor thin majority. >> NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this, Ryan should be a spicy one today.
>> Yeah, I'd expect this to be a tense hearing today and that's because in this second Trump administration,
the justice department has been in turmoil. It has been at the center of a number of political firestorms and Blanch himself has been in the thick of all of it. He is seen as a Trump loyalist. He previously served as Trump's personal attorney and then when Trump returned to office, he named Blanch to be the number two official at the Justice Department.
Blanch then became acting attorney general in April after Trump pushed out his first attorney general, Pam Bondi, Trump has liked what he's seen from Blanch in the past couple months. He nominated him for the job full time, but Democrats and it has to be set at few Republicans have concerns about Blanch's track record over the past 18 months at the department. And so I expect him to get tough questions about that today.
“>> What do you think will be the focus of what the senators will try to grill him about?”
>> Well, like Democrats have a whole bunch of issues that they're going to want to get into with Blanch. They say that he has destroyed the Justice Department's traditional independence from the White House. They say that he's made it subservient to the president, weaponized it to go after Trump's perceived political enemies. And there's a long list of Trump critics who have faced DOJ investigations or prosecutions.
Perhaps most notably former FBI director James Komi, who has been indicted twice by this Justice Department. Democrats also have questions about Blanch's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, whether the Justice Department and Blanch specifically did anything to try to shield President Trump from embarrassment in those files.
And then there's the $1.8 billion anti-repidization fund that the Department agreed to set up as part
of a settlement with Trump to end his lawsuit against the IRS. >> Yeah, and that's the anti-repidization fund that the Justice Department says is not going forward. That's right, the fund has been scrapped, yes, but the part of the settlement that shields Trump and his family from audits of past tax returns, that remains in place in Democrats view that as exhibit a of what they say as Blanch working in Trump's interest instead of the public interest.
It's also worth noting here that a federal judge this week blasted both Trump and the Justice Department over the settlement. The judge said Trump's lawsuit was brought in bad faith in order to manipulate the judicial process and try to use the court to provide a degree of legitimacy to the eventual settlement. >> You know, right, I remember Republicans were opposed.
There were summantly, so we're opposed to this anti-repidization fund.
“Does that mean that Todd Blanch might be in trouble?”
>> Well, look, you're right. There were Republicans who pushed back forcefully against the anti-repidization fund. And that played a big part in Blanch's decision to declare the fund dead. One Republican Senator who spoke out against that fund was North Carolina's Tom Tellis. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that Blanch is going to be appearing before
Today.
But what is clear is that Democrats are united in opposition and that means that Blanch
doesn't have a lot of room for air here.
“Remember, Republicans have a very slim majority in the Senate.”
Even more so since Kentucky's Mitch McConnell remains out because of health issues. And so that means that only a couple of GOP defections could kill Blanch's nomination. So I'm going to be watching for how Blanch tries to thread that needle to keep every Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. And those in the full Senate as well, on-side with his appearance today.
>> All right. That's NPR's Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thanks. >> Thank you. >> Since the start of the conflict with Iran, President Trump has said a lot of things about the straight of harm lose.
>> He said the key waterway was in great shape after U.S. forces decimated Iran's navy.
Later, he said the straight was not America's problem and other nations needed to sort it out. And more recently, that a preliminary peace deal meant the straight was open for business. But Iran has stymied the administration at every turn. Now, a U.S. naval blockade is back in place. And Trump says he will take over the straight, though he backtracked on the administration
charging a kind of transit fee. >> We've got Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman here with us to sort it all out. Good morning, Tom. >> Good morning. >> Okay, so Trump says he wants to take over the street.
What would that mean, Tom, from a military perspective?
“>> Well, full control for the U.S. would mean that you have to eliminate or severely reduce”
Iran's power to fight drones or missiles at commercial ships. Iran has hit at least seven commercial ships in the past week damaging some. And the U.S. says nearly a dozen crew members are killed, wounded, or missing. That has predictably led to ship transit's slowing to Iran. It does in each day, down from 30 or 40 a day, several weeks ago in well below the 130 before
the war started. Now, the U.S. in the last few days has hit Iranian drone bases, missile sites, radar, other military sites, but retired military officers and analysts, I talk with say, you'd have to increase those attacks by a factor of three or four times for weeks to maybe get that reduced to a level where commercial ships can start moving at decent level.
So, will that happen? You know, we'll have to see, but recent U.S. strikes really have not accomplished enough because Iran is not only attacking those commercial ships, but also U.S. bases and Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain. Those countries have said their defenses have knocked out those Iranian missiles and no word in any damage from the U.S.
You know, Leila, a guy I know in Capitol Hill said it's like two bucks locking horns.
“Can the U.S. drastically reduce that Iranian drone and missile threat with more intensive bombing?”
You know, it's hard to say Iran has thousands of drones and missiles as well as fast boats that can lay mines. Again, it may take weeks or longer for a stronger bombing campaign. And the big question, if I'm a shipowner or an insurer, do I feel comfortable moving through the straight is a threat reduced enough. Only they can answer that. Here's another thing, Leila. The U.S. is now guiding ships through this southern path in the straight of foremost, just off
Oman, not escorting them. But basically, in the area and saying, hey, here's a safer route.
That's the route Iran is attacking, saying ships have to come through their approved route closer to their shoreline. And it'll tell me that the U.S. will have to expand that Oman route for ships. And they may have to actually escort the commercial ships like we saw during the tank war in the 1980s during the Iran Iraq War that's very time-consuming and takes probably a lot more ships to serve as escorts. Realistically, Tom, how much is feasible
without boots on the ground? You know, President Trump and others have raised that possibility. The Marines have studied this for decades, including seizing the main Iranian oil facility in Carg Island. You know, it's doable, and you could take out the military facility, sees the oil infrastructure as a bargaining chip. You might have casualties, though. Others say you don't have to put boots in the ground, but simply blockade it or bomb the military targets.
We're not NATO getting involved in helping open the street. Well, friends and Britain have talked about this. A multi-national maritime mission to secure the straight. They will only do that. They say when the conditions stabilize. And, of course, they're not stable now. I've sent PR's Pentagon correspondent, Tom Bowman. Thank you, Tom. You're welcome.
The immigration and customs enforcement agency says it's pausing most vehicle stops in its enforcement operations. Those are the kind of stops that led to two killings in a week. Fathers in Texas and Maine were killed after ice officers fired into their vehicles. And PR's Sergio Martinez Beltran joins us to talk about all this. Hi, Sergio.
Hey, Leyla.
Yeah, I mean, this could mark a significant change. The last two deaths stemmed from traffic
“stops that includes the federal shootings of Juan Sebastián Durang Guerrero in Maine this week.”
And that of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas last week. The Department of Homeland Security accused Durang Guerrero of being a public safety threat and Salgado Araujo of weaponizing his car to run over an ice officer. Neither of them was the intended immigration enforcement target. And no video evidence has been presented to backup the HSS claims. Yesterday, NPR confirmed that the agency will pause at least for now conducting traffic stops.
The HSS told NPR it will not discuss enforcement tactics. So we don't yet know all the details of this change, but the office of U.S. Senator Angus King tells us this is happening. No, there have been a lot of big questions as you kind of mentioned here about whether deadly force should have been used in these cases and whether these men pose any danger. What's the HSS policy on the use of deadly force?
So the HSS has accused Durang Guerrero in Maine of attempting to flee the scene. The agency's policy says deadly force cannot be used solely to prevent someone from fleeing unless the person poses a significant threat. Bolhunker is a former chief counsel for ice in Dallas. The standards and principal are clearly a person has to pose an imminent threat of harm
to use deadly force. Hongkers says whether the person poses an imminent threat is always from
the perspective of the officer. Why were the agents in both Texas and Maine not wearing body
“cameras? I mean, that was the expectation after other killings. That was, as you might remember,”
after the deadly shootings of U.S. citizens were in a good and early spread in Minneapolis, the HSS was going to quickly deploy body cameras to agents across the country. Well, that hasn't happened. Only about half of the field officers have body cameras according to the HSS. The agency is blaming Democrats in Congress and the partial government shutdowns for these. But the agency is, once again, vowing to deploy body cameras for all agents
in the next 60 days. Still, Leyla advocates, politicians and community members are calling for independent investigations into these shootings. Sir, here, the interesting thing that you mentioned is that the victims in Texas and Maine were not the intended targets of ice when the officers attempted to pull them over. Is that a coincidence? Not really. This is a result of a shift in approach by the Trump administration on their previous president's collateral arrests were not happening as much.
“That is the arrest of people who were not the intended targets of the federal immigration agent.”
So, for example, agents would go to a home to arrest a specific person. If others around them were undocumented, but not criminals, ice officers typically ignore them, but because President Trump has an ambitious goal of arresting millions of immigrants, I say, didn't have been feeling the pressure of arresting anyone who is undocumented and of pulling over anyone who might be suspected of being in the country illegally,
and that could lead to killings like this. That's NPR, Sergio Martinez, Beltran. Thank you, Sergio. You're welcome. Before we go, we'd love if you joined the thousands of people who are helping create a time capsule of American stories. One edition and story core are teaming up for connect 250 and experiment in human connection. Meet someone new, share a meaningful conversation. You can sign up right now at connect 250.org.
And that's up first for Wednesday, July 15th. I'm Leila Faldon.
And to me, Martina's today's up first was edited by Andrew Sussman, Anna Yucananoff, Alina Hartunian, Mohamed Elvar D.C., Alice Wolfley and Zia Boucher was produced by Page, Waterhouse, and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Heines, our technical director is Carly Strange, and our supervising producer is my lip and join us again tomorrow.
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