- Hey.
- My script says you're in your feelings. - Because I am 24/7. - Because I'm in Washington, DC, and you're in your feelings. - That's my resting face in my feelings. (laughs)
(upbeat music) - The Justice Department says it will abide by a court order that temporarily blocks President Trump's anti-weaponization fund. - Some Senate Republicans want the White House
to end it for good. - I'm Leila Faldin, that's a Martinez,
and then this is up first from it PR news.
(upbeat music) Iran said it was done negotiating if Israel didn't stop attacking Lebanon. Trump says he called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him to hold off on plans to strike the Capitol
or the U.S. and Israel's interests in the Middle East diverging. - And it's primary day in six states, including California where Democrats hope a new congressional map will help them flip up the five Republican-held seats.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's retiring in her house seat is also a rapstick.
“With us, we've got the news you need to start your day.”
(upbeat music) Richard Reeves is unimpressed by online influencers who peddle ideas about hyper-masculinity. - You're talking about boys and men. Where's your policy agenda?
You're good on podcasts, but we've actually done a bunch of stuff for boys and men, sorry, what have you done? - The idea is about the next era of manhood. That's on the Ted Radio Hour podcast. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- The Trump administration says it will not violate a court order.
The order is about the president's $1.8 billion
pool of money to pay people who claim that past administrations targeted them. Democrat and Republicans in Congress have opposed the funds since it was announced. - A judge temporarily blocked the administration
from creating it last week. And Monday, the Justice Department said it would quote "abide" by that temporary ruling. - Here to make sense of all this is MPR political reporter Elena Moore, so Elena, a lot of back and forth
on this, chop it up for us. - Yeah, so this all connects back to a different lawsuit. Back in February, President Trump announced he was suing his own government over a 2019 leak of his tax records.
So he sued the IRS for $10 billion. But then last month, when a federal judge in Florida overseeing that case started questioning its merits, Trump dropped the case, and the administration announced a settlement where the Justice Department
would start this anti-weaponization fund to compensate people who were allegedly targeted by the government for their political beliefs. And A, that drew by partisan backlash and concerns that it could be used to pay people
who were convicted for storming the capital on January 6th.
“- What did the Trump administration have to say about that?”
- Well, in a statement on X, Monday, the Department of Justice said it strongly disagrees with the courts ruling, the DOJ also defended who would qualify for this fund, saying it was available to anybody who was, quote, weaponized, targeted, or persecuted,
whether they were Democrat, Republican, conservative, independent, or otherwise, and, quote, NPR also reached out to the White House for a comment, but a White House spokesperson pointed to the same statement. - All right, so it's paused, but is paused
going to eventually lead to stopped. - Right. Well, at this moment, that is unclear. Right now, it's on hold and the federal judge in Virginia overseeing the case has to decide whether that temporary restraining order
should be permanent. There's a hearing scheduled for June 12, next week, but we really can't say how the judge will rule and we don't know how the administration will respond. So a bit of a holding pattern right now,
and that's notable because this has caused a lot of headaches for the White House. We don't see Republicans break with the president very often, but this is an issue where there has been some rare pushback within the party.
Even after the DOJ statement yesterday about, you know, abiding by the court's decision, we saw multiple Senate Republicans push for the White House to just end the fund.
“- Yeah, so what might this mean for the president's agenda?”
- Well, remember, the midterms are fast approaching, and Republicans are trying to score some legislative wins, but we've already seen this fund become a distraction. Last month, it derailed Republicans plans
to pass some $70 billion for immigration enforcement,
Senate Republicans want to try again to pass it this week, but the anti-weaponization fund has been complicating that, because Democrats have been promising to introduce amendments that would put GOP lawmakers on the record about the fund.
And that could be a difficult result for the White House. You know, we know that as many as 30 Republicans have indicated, they might support a vote to ban the fund. Also, you know, I said it was rare for GOP lawmakers to break with the president, what's more rare, A,
when his base does. And economists, you've pulled from last week
Found that less than a third of MAGA voters
support this fund.
- That's MPR, political reporter,
Elena Moore thinks lot. - Thanks so much, A. (gentle piano music)
“- Israel has not bombed Bay Route today.”
- The fact that Israel did not attack the Capitol is news, because Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the attack was coming and would target Hezbollah offices in Lebanon's Capitol. Israel's war with Lebanon has complicated President Trump's
negotiations with Iran, which threatened to suspend those talks yesterday. - Here to discuss the latest is NPR International correspondent, I have a try we in Dubai, so while walk us through what happened.
- All right, so it was mid day yesterday in Israel when Netanyahu published a video in Hebrew, saying there would be no situation in which Hezbollah attacks Israeli cities while its offices in South Bay Route remain off limits, and then he said he instructed the military
to bomb targets in the Capitol. And it's part of a broader offensive by Israel Lebanon that's been rapidly expanding. - And watching all of this closely is Iran. - Exactly.
Hezbollah and Iran proxy got into this war when it fired rock, its back at Israel, following months of ceasefire on its end, after Israeli air strikes killed Iran's supreme leader in February.
“And since then, a Israel's invaded southern Lebanon,”
as you know, raising villages, displacing over
million Lebanese and killing hundreds of women in children,
and more than 100 paramedics, according to Lebanese authorities. And then over the weekend, Israel took control of a symbolic and strategic medieval castle in southern Lebanon and its deepest incursion into that country in nearly three decades.
So yesterday, Iran said enough is enough and a semi-efficient news outlet close to Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it was suspending talks via mediators with the U.S. over all of this. And it was only hours earlier,
I'll remind you that Trump had said Iran really wants to deal with the U.S. and told his critics and opposed online to quote just sit back and relax. But after Iran's threats, Trump called Netanyahu and said he asked him not to raid Beirut
and to turn his troops around. He says he also spoke with representatives of his Ebola and got them to agree to stop shooting at Israeli soldiers in South Lebanon. And he said, quote, "Let's see how long this lasts,
"hopefully for eternity." Now, Trump and Netanyahu launched into this war on Iran together. How aligned are they now on how to get out of it? I mean, it's increasingly clear they're not
and that they're actually at odds and this is playing out in Lebanon. We know the two men had contentious calls about Iran with Trump pushing for a diplomatic solution to end the war and reopen the street of her moves
which Iran now controls and Netanyahu pushing back. And keep in mind, both these men are facing elections this year. The Iran war is not popular in the U.S. but it does have broad support in Israel and expanding the war in Lebanon
derails those peace efforts with Iran. And Netanyahu put out a terst statement yesterday after his call with Trump that sounded like he was the one calling the shots. He said he told Trump, Israel would bomb Beirut
if his bullet doesn't hold its fire, that Israel's position remains unchanged and that the military will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon. Now, for its part, his bullet says it wants a complete end
to the war, a full Israeli withdrawal. But it does seem the group has accepted for now this partial ceasefire according to Lebanon's embassy in Washington. But OK, so if, as Netanyahu says, Israel continues
to operate as planned in southern Lebanon, where does that leave talks between the U.S. and Iran? Well, mediators like Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey. You know, they were all pushing yesterday to salvage these talks. There was a flurry of calls between them and Iran yesterday.
But Trump told CNBC in a phone interview yesterday that talks with Iran were taking too long. He signaled he was losing interest. When asked if he thought the talks were collapsing, he said he didn't care and thought, quote,
they started to get very boring.
“He said the only thing he cares about is Iran”
not getting nuclear weapons. But right after that interview, he posted online, quote, talks are continuing at a rapid pace with Iran. That's NPR as I have a throwy in Dubai. Thank you very much.
Thanks, eh. [MUSIC PLAYING] It's primary day in six states today. Voters will decide general election matchups in South Dakota, New Mexico, New Jersey, Montana, Iowa, and California,
where the rules say the top two candidates' advance regardless of party and Democrats hope to put a new map to use. Scott Shafer is with member station KQED in San Francisco. He's keeping an eye on some of the more interesting races. So in November, Scott voters approved new district lines
drawn to give the advantage to Democrats. So how realistic are their hopes to replace the Republicans with Democrats in those new districts? Yeah, well, the new lines were designed to weaken and potentially pick off five current Republican house
members. And those new lines caused one Republican incumbent to retire another Republican switch as party affiliation from Republican to independent.
And then a third Republican who would have
faced a tough road to reelection in the new district suddenly died. So flipping three of the five seats now held by Republicans
Will be fairly easy.
But then there are two, which are not at all grand slams
or slam dunks, I should say.
“Tough races where Democrats could win if things go their way.”
One of those is in the Central Valley, where Republican David Valaddeo is the incumbent. Now he's given Democrats heartburn in the past very tough to beat. And this time around, although the district is somewhat
more favorable to Democrats, it's still very purple. And there are two Democrats fighting it out there. One is an assembly member and a physician. She's the more moderate candidate. And the other is a progressive backed by Senator Bernie Sanders
and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
And then you've got CD48, that includes parts of San Diego County
and Riverside, including liberal palm springs. And we've got two top Democrats slugging it out there. One of them will likely prevail. And they're going to face the main Republican running. He's endorsed by President Trump.
“So come November Democrats could pick it up.”
But it's not at all guaranteed. Now across the country, we've seen some very contentious primaries, where two or more Republicans are facing off. Any of that playing out in California? Yeah, we sure do, because of redistricting
longtime Republican Congresswoman Ken Calvert moved to a neighboring district in Riverside and Orange County. And he isn't a bitter fight with the incumbent Republican. They're young, Kim. She's a bit more moderate than Calvert.
But these two are really pulling out the stops. They're airing ads with each claiming they're more maga than the other. Kim's ads have also targeted some old corruption charges against Calvert, even incident from 25 years ago,
where he was caught in a car with a prostitute.
“Now these two could well face off again in November.”
One little wrinkle, though, polls now show it's possible to come November. There will actually be two Democrats and no Republicans vying for governor. That could drive down Republican turnout
and affect these down ballot races. Right now, speaker, Emerita, Nancy Pelosi, 86-year-old San Francisco Democrat, I'm sure everyone knows her name. She's retiring at the end of her term. What does the race to replace her look like?
- Yeah, well, this is a safe democratic district, but the race to replace Pelosi has been very lively where the future direction of the party is being debated. The front runner is state senator Scott Weener. He's authored legislation to build more housing
and to confront Trump in various ways. Vying for second, our progressive city supervisor, Connie Chan. She's a favorite of unions and Pelosi recently endorsed her, which really should boost her campaign. Also running is Shui-Kat Chakrabardi.
He worked for Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Alcassio Cortez, but neither of them has endorsed him. He's a former software engineer.
He's plowed $5 million of his own money into the race,
a in hopes of at least making it to November. - Scott Sheifers, with member station K, QED and San Francisco, Scott Thanks. - Thank you. (upbeat music)
- And that's a first for Tuesday, June 2nd of May, Martinez. - And I'm Layla Faldel. - Today's episode of Up First was edited by Jason Reslot, Tina Crya, Megan Prads, Muhammad Zedberg, DC, and Taylor Haney. It was produced by Ziyad Bunch and Theo Dumas.
Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carly Strange and our supervising senior producer is his person. Join us again tomorrow.
(upbeat music) - A grassy green lawn might look nice, but it's gonna eat up resources, like drinking water and the gas you put in the mower. - You can do a solid for the environment by ditching
even just some of your lawn and replacing it with a wildlife friendly garden. Life kit has tips to get you started. No green them required. Listen to the Life Kit podcast in the NPR app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
