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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, June 13th. Ooh. I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day, the show that once again asks for one 24 hour period where nothing weird or horrifying happens. 24 hours, that is all I ask. [music break] On today’s show, the House votes take back billions of dollars earmarked for foreign aid and public broadcasting. And despite the president’s threats, droves of people are expected to hit the streets across the country tomorrow for no King’s protests. But let’s start with how Congress is reacting to what happened to Senator Padilla for the crime of trying to ask the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security a question. There are a lot of moving parts to this story, but here’s what we know at the time of our recording Thursday night. On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was in Los Angeles in response to protests against immigration and customs enforcement. Or at least, that’s what she was allegedly supposed to be doing. She also went along on an immigration raid, because of course she did. During a press conference, however, it appeared that her aim was to occupy Los Angeles because it has bad politics. 

[clip of Kristi Noem] We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into this city. 

Jane Coaston: During this press conference, California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla approached the secretary, identified himself, and attempted to ask a question. That’s when this happened. 

[clip of Senator Alex Padilla] I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary, because the fact of the matter is a half a dozen violent criminals that you’re rotating on your on your [sounds of struggling] Hands off! 

Jane Coaston: If you’re watching this on YouTube, you can see Senator Padilla be manhandled by security. He was then forced out of the room, pushed to the floor, and placed in handcuffs before ultimately being released. Here’s Senator Padilla speaking to journalists after the incident. 

[clip of Senator Alex Padilla] I will say this. If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California. And throughout the country, we will hold this administration accountable. 

Jane Coaston: The response from Democrats was fast and furious because, yeah. Here’s Hawaii Democratic Senator Brian Schatz. 

[clip of Brian Schatz] This is not some thing on the internet for us to argue about. We all know what we saw. We all know what we all saw. I remain hopeful that Leader Thune and other Republicans can walk us back from the brink. But I am not so sure anymore. 

Jane Coaston: For their part, Republicans are saying that Senator Padilla didn’t identify himself when you can hear and see in the clip that he did. And they also seem to have gone with the, we are very offended by senators trying to ask questions angle, with House Speaker Mike Johnson raising a possible censure as a response because, of course he did. So to talk more about what happened to Senator Padilla and why what happened to Senator Padilla is just so terrifying for every American. I spoke with California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff on Thursday afternoon, just after he left the Senate floor. Senator Schiff, welcome to What a Day. 

Adam Schiff: Well, what a day it was. 

Jane Coaston: Your counterpart, Senator Alex Padilla, was forcibly removed and aggressively handcuffed earlier today, Thursday, June 12th, from a press conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for attempting to ask Noem why the administration is so insistent on militarizing California. What does he have to say about this entire episode that was both unprecedented and terrifying? 

Adam Schiff: Uh, he and I’ve been trading calls that we have not caught up with each other yet. I was calling really to see uh if he’s okay. I have to imagine it was a really traumatic experience uh just watching it was traumatic um he is a wonderful friend and colleague, so well respected in the senate and a person of great integrity and decency and to see him mistreated that way to see him uh essentially uh physically forced out of the room, to the ground, arms pinned behind his back. Um. It was disgraceful, and I think it demonstrates just the kind of hostility that the administration has to any form of oversight, uh the indifference it shows to the historic nature of the separation of power and the co-equal branch of government that is the Congress of the United States, but just a shocking display and uh there needs to be a a full investigation of this conduct and an accounting uh Kristi Noem in my view is uh never should have been appointed to that office uh and ought to resign from that office.

Jane Coaston: You were just speaking on the Senate floor and you said, quote, “What is becoming of our democracy? Are there no limits to what this administration will do? Is there no line they will not cross?” You led president Trump’s first impeachment inquiry in the house of representatives. Do you think there will be consequences for the administration for these actions? And how should not just Democrats, but Americans respond to this kind of aggression against a member of the Senate? 

Adam Schiff: There absolutely should be consequences for this whether there will be consequences will depend a lot on the people who were not on the center floor just now uh and that is the republicans. I’ve yet to see a republican take to the center floor to express even the most mild disconcern over what just took place uh and instead we see statements like that issued by the speaker of the house. Uh. Essentially applauding or proving of the conduct of the security detail that uh tackled or brought to the ground a US senator so um there should be consequences, whether there are consequences in the era of Donald Trump uh when there seems to be no bottom to the floor but which below which uh the GOP will go uh I really I really don’t know, I guess time will tell us. 

Jane Coaston: And how should Americans respond to this, do you think? 

Adam Schiff: I think Americans need to recognize that if they’re going to treat a U.S. senator this way, then what protection could they possibly have? What protection for a farm worker? What protection a garment worker? What protection for an ordinary U. S. citizen going about their business? What opportunity will they have if they are grabbed and tackled to the ground to to fend for themselves? To make a case to a judge that uh they shouldn’t be mistreated in this way. What due process will be offered to anyone? So this should be alarming to people, and it’s part of a very steady degradation of our democracy, a disrespect of our institutions, you know, attacking anyone who stands in opposition to the president, the kind of drunken arrogance of power that you see exhibited in the White House these days. It is I think really a a rubicon we are crossing in the history of our democracy 

Jane Coaston: And to that point, are you concerned about arrest? Trump has already called for Governor Gavin Newsom’s arrest, apparently for being elected governor. So there’s a pattern emerging and it’s disconcerting to say the least. I mean, the federal government has already indicted a member of Congress on trumped up charges for an incident with ICE officers while she was conducting a congressional oversight visit at an immigration detention facility, which is her right as a US representative. So are you concerned personally? 

Adam Schiff: I’ve been on the president’s enemies list for years now. He’s threatened to arrest me, to jail me. He’s called me a traitor. He’s suggested there are ways of dealing with traitor uh and the threats that it produces as a result of these inflammatory statements, we’ve also seen in threats to my life and threats to my family, now that the Justice Department is run by former Donald Trump criminal defense lawyers. Who have demonstrated no adherence to the rule of law, no principle except the principle of obedience to Donald Trump, yes, we all have to be concerned about the administration coming after us in one way or another. 

Jane Coaston: This weekend, President Trump is hosting the 250th anniversary parade of the Army and his birthday. He has already warned protesters, any protesters, that they will be met with quote, “very big force.” Senator Padilla urged Americans to get into the streets and protest peacefully. When Americans see this happening to a U.S. Senator, should they be going to rallies this weekend? 

Adam Schiff: I think it’s more important than ever that the American people speak out. We cannot be intimidated into silence. We need to protest and we need do so peacefully. Yes, we have to be careful, and there are risks from a repressive administration, but the only way we’re going to get through this period as a democracy is if we all play our part. We can’t simply say, well, we’re gonna leave it to the politicians. And yes, to speak out on behalf of our friends and our neighbors who are being mistreated and separated from their their children and their spouses by the heartless enforcement of this indiscriminate immigration policy so I agree with senator Padilla, this is yet another reason why Americans need to speak out 

Jane Coaston: Speaking of you and Senator Padilla, last weekend, Trump federalized California’s National Guard, deploying thousands of members in response to protests in the LA area, where I am right now. Then he mobilized the Marine Corps. There were reports that there are now more troops in LA than there are currently in Syria and Iraq combined. You and Senator Padilla sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth essentially asking the Pentagon to explain itself for these actions. Have you gotten a response? 

Adam Schiff: We’ve not gotten a response, and I think part of what Alex Padilla was trying to do today in attending the press conference with the Secretary of Homeland Security was to get answers to some of those very questions. So no, we haven’t got answers. And I think the reason we haven’t got answers is that there are no good answers to those questions because their actions violate the law. They are relying upon a section of the the code title 10 which allows the federalizing of a guard, but only with the approval of the governor through the governor, which they don’t have here. So what they have cited, they can’t rely on. They, you keep throwing around the term insurrection, but it does not apply here, nor does rebellion. And I think it was precisely these questions that Alex Padilla was seeking to get answers from, and the answers they clearly don’t want to give. 

Jane Coaston: What do you think these actions say in regards to how the Trump administration is wielding the power of the federal government? 

Adam Schiff: Well it says to me that they’re willing to violate the law, they’re willing to violate court order they’re willing to do anything in pursuit of more power in pursuit of their agenda uh it also I think part of what they’re after in Los Angeles with the mobilization of these troops is to distract from the failure to uh respond to the primary campaign promise the president made which was he was going to prove the economy was going bring prices down, he was going to lower the cost of living. Instead, prices have just continued to go up. His tariff policy is in tatters. Our trade partners are not coming to the table for some big, beautiful agreements. They’re boycotting American goods like Canada is doing. And his big, beautiful bill is in big, bad trouble with a huge price tag that will cost the American people $2.4 trillion in new debt. He’s basically trying to borrow from our kids and our grandkids to fund this tax cut for rich people. So for Donald Trump militarizing Los Angeles, holding a birthday military parade for himself, these are desired distractions from the failure of his immigration and economic policies. 

Jane Coaston: In a video you posted to Twitter earlier this week, you explained how these ICE raids are no longer about deporting criminals, and that the disorganization of the raids has meant, quote, “including grabbing U.S. citizens who appear to be of Mexican origin.” And it’s not just citizens, it’s taxpayers, mind you, who are going through the process of becoming permanent residents, who’re getting picked up in these raids, and then sometimes having their papers discounted. So what’s happening here with regard to people getting picked in these raids. 

Adam Schiff: Well, it’s so indiscriminate that they’re picking up citizens and non-citizens alike. And it’s been, in some cases, very difficult for the U.S. citizen to get themselves released. There was someone in Florida, for example, a U. S. citizen, I think it took them days to get out of ICE custody because when they’re brought into custody, they’re often not given the rights to which they’re entitled. They have little access to the outside world and to even phone their family of where they’ve been taken. In some cases, we’re seeing masked ICE agents run down the streets and grab people. The video footage, for example, from Worcester, Mass of ICE agents in masks, grabbing a woman or a teenage daughter, screaming terrified about what’s happening to her mother. You see that kind of footage and you wonder what country is this? This was what Trump began telling us the moment he descended that golden escalator in 2015. And now, because his effort to deport people with criminal records isn’t turning up very much. He’s immediately resorted to these indiscriminate raids. Their goal is to deport 3,000 people a day. It doesn’t matter to them who they are, what they do, what they’ve done for the country, what it does to their family, what it those to our communities. They just want to engage in this heartless indiscriminate policy. 

Jane Coaston: Senator Schiff, thank you so much for taking the time to join me. 

Adam Schiff: Thank you so much for having me on. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. The full interview is available on our YouTube channel. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube to see more of my conversation with Senator Adam Shiff, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

Speaker 10 When they realized they had the wrong house, it was no remorse. It was just like everybody rally up and let’s just go to the right house. 

Jane Coaston: This is Katrina Martin, who sued the federal government after the FBI mistakenly raided her Atlanta home back in 2017. On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion about a case she filed. In October 2017, an FBI SWAT team smashed in her front door, set off a flash grenade, and pointed guns at her and her family before realizing that they made a potentially deadly mistake when they busted the wrong house. When the federal government makes this kind of error, it can be hard to sue, because agents are protected from litigation when their job involves discretion, like figuring out which house is which. But the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the Martin family. They cited the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows for suits against the government under certain circumstances. The family can now go back to lower courts and continue their suit against the federal government. Another of the six opinions released by the court on Thursday was AJT vs. Osseo Area schools. The family of Ava Tharp argued that her high school near Minneapolis had not done enough to accommodate her needs as someone with severe epilepsy. The case hinged on how strict the standard of proof should be when it comes to discrimination. Ultimately, the judges ruled in favor of the lower standard of proof. If the court had gone the other way, it might have become harder for Americans with disabilities to successfully bring discrimination challenges to court. This just in. House Republicans hate Daniel Tiger, and All things considered, and also, saving lives. The House voted on Thursday to pass a package rescinding about $9.4 billion in spending that had already been approved by Congress. This would mean slashing funding for the organization that funds NPR, PBS, and more than a thousand public radio and TV stations. The bill would also cut foreign aid targeted by DOGE. A few Republicans voiced their concerns over possible cuts to an HIV AIDS relief program launched by then-President George W. Bush in 2003. According to a State Department fact sheet from December, the program has saved over 26 million lives. Democratic Representative Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico emphasized ahead of the vote that the rescissions package would ax life-saving programs around the world. 

[clip of Representative Melanie Stansbury] This is a full scale attack on our international system, global peace and security, the health and welfare of millions of children across the world and on public television. And we will fight back every step of the way. 

Jane Coaston: No Democrat voted for the package. It passed by just two votes. It now heads to the Senate. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] They said it couldn’t be done, but boy, it’s been it’s had us tied up in knots for years and they passed these crazy rules in California. 

Jane Coaston: California is being hit hard by the Trump administration this week. On Thursday, the president signed a flurry of resolutions that put a dent in California’s climate and clean air goals. One of those goals was for California to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, and two other resolutions covered air pollutant rules. California’s rules were leading other states to take action against climate change, so this seems like a big step back. Of course, the state jumped in immediately with legal action. California Attorney General Rob Bonta very nonchalantly announced the lawsuit in a news conference. 

[clip of Rob Bonta] We made a promise that if the president attempted to illegally interfere with our clean air standards, we’d hold him accountable in court. Today, we are making good on that promise. 

Jane Coaston: California is already battling the administration on a slew of other legal fronts. It comes amid a broader fight with state lawmakers over immigration enforcement across Los Angeles. Israeli strikes on Gaza Thursday morning killed at least 52 people. Around half of the victims were killed by drones while waiting for food from an aid site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The GHF has only been around for a few weeks, but critics have already questioned its bona fides and transparency. Gazans traveling to the foundation’s aid sites have come under Israeli fire multiple times. What’s more, on Wednesday night, the GHF blamed Hamas for killing five of its Palestinian volunteers during an attack on a bus on its way to its distribution center. Fourty other Palestinians were also killed by Israeli strikes yesterday while waiting for aid. An Al Jazeera reporter spoke to a survivor of Wednesday’s attack. 

[clip of translated survivor of Israeli attack] We went to get some aid, we thought it’s safe and a lot of people were there in order to get some humanitarian aid and we were shocked to be targeted. The victims were all over the place. We don’t have any food at home. We don’t know how to feed our children. 

Jane Coaston: There is no apparent progress on a ceasefire in Gaza, but on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported Hamas seems to have a new leader. According to the journal, his name is Izz al-Din al-Haddad, but he also goes by the ghost of al-Qassam because he’s managed to keep a low profile during the war. He’s the third person to hold the deadly role in seven months, and he has a $750,000 Israeli bounty on his head. And just as we were about to record, Israel announced that the country had launched a preemptive strike against targets in Iran. We will have more on this developing story next week. And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing. President Trump will be spending his weekend enjoying his birthday parade. A parade that, oddly enough, a bunch of Republicans are avoiding because, oh no, they’re moving that weekend, or, uh, it’s their wedding anniversary. Look, as someone who spent a lot of their late 20s getting out of plans with excuses varying from it’s a religious holiday for a religion I do not celebrate, to I plan to be asleep that day, I get it. But lots of people, including a lot of you, are going to be doing something else on Saturday. Hundreds of protests against the Trump administration are planned in cities and towns across the country, all part of the No King’s Day of Defiance against all of this. There’s a good chance there’s a protest near you. And if you’re in DC and want to avoid the delights of tanks going down Pennsylvania Avenue in 83 degree temperatures and 99% humidity, there’s a flagship protest taking place in Philadelphia. To talk more about the No Kings protests and what they hope to accomplish, I spoke to Leah Greenberg. She’s the co-founder of Indivisible. One of the groups helping to support the protests nationwide. Leah, welcome to What a Day. 

Leah Greenberg: Great to be here. 

Jane Coaston: So why is Indivisible organizing these protests? What are you protesting or rallying against? 

Leah Greenberg: We’re protesting an administration that has been attacking our rights, our neighbors, and our democracy. Donald Trump right now, he is sending the National Guard into California to attack and go after anybody who opposes his agenda. He is sending tanks to Washington, D.C. for a birthday parade in his own honor and to make himself feel better. He is deploying an entire authoritarian playbook to crack down on dissent across society, and he’s employing fascist theatrics in DC. And it’s a moment we really feel like for everybody in the country who can collectively agree that he has gone too far, that he needs to be checked and that we stand with our neighbors, with our communities and for our democracy to come together and push back. 

Jane Coaston: I was just talking with some of my team here about how I have a friend’s mom who’s going to an event this weekend, someone who probably has never attended a protest in her life. And a May press release from Indivisible says over 100 events have already been mobilized and there are more to come. I’ve seen the map with all the dots. 

Leah Greenberg: Yup. 

Jane Coaston: How many events across the country can we expect to see on June 14th? 

Leah Greenberg: Our expectation is that we will have 2,000 events across the country, and we have already exceeded the number of RSVPs that we had for the last major coalition mobilization that we supported hands-off, which ended up with about 3.5 million people showing up around the country. 

Jane Coaston: There is no event planned for DC itself where Trump’s army celebration slash birthday party is taking place. Why is that? 

Leah Greenberg: When we were setting out to do this, we wanted to create contrast rather than direct conflict. Right. We have a moment in which Donald Trump is going to try to focus the camera, focus the attention on his show of course in DC. That is because he wants to look strong. What we want to show is that real power and real energy comes from the people. It’s about de-centering a show in Washington DC and re-centring the story of the American people coming together. And celebrating each other and celebrating our own collective strengths. Now we will have a flagship rally in Philadelphia. We’ll be live streaming nationally. We’re encouraging folks in the DC area to either join our partners and friends at Free DC who are having a community event away from the rally in DC or to come to Philadelphia and be part of that event there. 

Jane Coaston: What do you think the role of the protest movement is in this administration? We’re in a funny moment in which so many people oppose what’s going on, but Republicans hold both the House and Senate. And so the chance of being able to stop it through politics as usual seems somewhat remote. So what does protesting do now?

Leah Greenberg: I would take a step back and I would think about it in the broader political context not just Congress but kind of the how how democracies work and how democracies collapse because our analysis is that we have been since Donald Trump won in November in this period of what what all the poly sci people call autocratic breakthrough. It’s a period when the would-be the would- be dictator rushes to consolidate power, attempts to crack down on any alternate source of power that might oppose them, chills dissent, and just generally tries to consolidate before the collective weight of how unpopular what they’re doing is, how illegal what they are doing is catches up to them in the form of a big, broad pro-democracy coalition that pushes back. And it’s kind of a race. It’s a race to consolidate that coalition for democracy before they have collectively consolidated their own power. What we’ve seen since November is a lot of institutions, a lot of elite collapse, where, you know, businesses, all kinds of institutions have collectively kind of like shrunk back or have done the bidding of the administration or have just generally tried to tried to secure their own safety rather than collectively pushing back on these attacks. That’s a phenomenon that we know happens in authoritarian breakthrough periods, right? And what we can do collectively with mass mobilization, with the kind of big broad opposition that we are trying to build collectively is disrupt that aura of inevitability, is expose that as a lie, is demonstrate that there is, in fact, massive popular opposition, that Trump’s hold on power is more fragile than it is, he portrays it to be, and that he is facing accountability from people sooner or later. And so that is the role of mass mobilization in this moment. It doesn’t solve everything. It’s a tactic, not a strategy, right? It is part of a broader process of societal defiance. It’s the kind of big process of mobilizing everyone in society to figure out what’s my power and how do I push back. And that is the thing that ultimately gets us out of a period of democratic collapse and back into something that looks more like the democracy that we have experienced to date. 

Jane Coaston: Leah, thank you so much for your time. 

Leah Greenberg: Thank you, it’s great to be here. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, think about how the Secretary of the Army told Fox News that we have a soldier on the moon, and we don’t, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was trying to tell Fox viewers about speaking to someone on the International Space Station, but what he said was, quote, “the country gets to see all of the amazing things that the Army has done, whether it’s helping with floods in North Carolina, or wildfires in California, or we talked to an astronaut yesterday who’s on the moon, who’s a soldier, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter, check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and we do not have a soldier on the moon. At least, as far as we know, we don’t. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Fohr. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]

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