• Will the government shut down this week? That’s the big question rocking Washington right now. House Republicans floated a plan over the weekend that would boost funding for the Pentagon and deportations while cutting billions in non-defense spending. Democrats say they’re a ‘no’ on that. But with slim margins in both the House and the Senate, some level of bipartisan support is necessary to keep the lights on. Nicholas Wu, who covers Congress for Politico, explains why there’s a 50/50 chance the government stays open past Friday.
• And in headlines: The Trump administration cancels $400 million in federal grants for Columbia University, Syria sees its worst violence since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, and staff at the Health and Human Services Department have been offered up to $25,000 to resign from their jobs.

• Check out Nicholas’ work – www.politico.com/staff/nicholas-wu
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• Support victims of the fire – votesaveamerica.com/relief
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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Monday, March 10th. I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day. The show recognizing the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, in which 600 people, including the late Representative John Lewis, were viciously attacked and beaten by Alabama law enforcement officials on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for the simple act of marching in support of voting rights for African Americans. Here is Representative Lewis sharing his experience back in 2018 with the Oprah Winfrey Network. 

[clip of John Lewis] I was the first person to be hit. I was hit in the head by a state trooper with a nightstick. I thought I saw death. I thought I was going to die on that bridge. I thought it was my last nonviolent protest. 

Jane Coaston: Fortunately for us, it wasn’t. [music break] On today’s show, the Trump administration cracks down on so-called anti-Semitism on college campuses, and North Korean soldiers help Russia regain territory from Ukraine. But let’s start with Congress. Remember them? You vote for them to represent you in the House and Senate and send them to Washington to do something. Well, while President Donald Trump and co President Elon Musk have been effectively running the government into the ground, in my view, Congress is the only thing standing in the way of a government shutdown. Yes, this Congress, I don’t feel good about it either. On Saturday, speaker of the House Mike Johnson released a version of a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government open until the end of September. But that continuing resolution contains some tough pills for both Republicans and Democrats to swallow. If you’re a Republican who wants to cut government spending, the bill keeps spending pretty much at the same level as President Joe Biden set while adding about $6 billion to defense allotments and border security. And if you’re a Democrat who wants to, you know, help your constituents, there are big cuts to a host of programs that benefit everyday Americans, from substance abuse treatment to workforce training. And because the bill doesn’t say how the money in the bill should be appropriated, many Democrats are worried that this could all be a giant boost for Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to keep trying to fire the people in government who know how to do stuff. The deadline to stop a shutdown is Friday at midnight, and the secret of a government shutdown is that no one really wins one. Shout out to everyone who lives in D.C. who knows this fact intimately, but both Republicans and Democrats could definitely lose on a shutdown. If Republicans get blamed for somehow failing to fund the government when they’re in charge of the whole dang thing. Or if Democrats get blamed for getting the federal workers who still have jobs furloughed, with the added fun of funding gaps for some really important programs. And oh yeah, national parks are closed too. So to talk more about our chances of a government shutdown, what’s in the continuing resolution, and how Democrats are trying to figure out what to do next, I spoke with Nicholas Wu, a congressional reporter at Politico, on Sunday. Nicholas, welcome to What a Day. 

Nicholas Wu: Thanks so much for having me. 

Jane Coaston: Okay. On a scale of one to ten, what would you say is the likelihood that the government shuts down this week? 

Nicholas Wu: Uh. You’re asking me now? I put it at a five, maybe a six. 

Jane Coaston: Okay, so Republicans have floated a plan to avoid a shutdown. What’s in it? 

Nicholas Wu: So this is what we call a continuing resolution that basically kicks the can down the line until September. But it’s not entirely, you know, a totally clean, so we call it continuing resolution. Normally it would be like a two page long bill that just crosses out all the dates and, you know, replaces, you know, March 15th with September 30th. Instead, what this does is it zeros out some programs, it trims other parts. And it also increases funding for Ice and the Pentagon. So these are all provisions that are there to help get Republicans off the fence to vote for it. But at the same time might alienate Democrats. 

Jane Coaston: But not the big DOGE cuts that we’ve been promised. 

Nicholas Wu: Right. Democrats had wanted to put language into the funding legislation that would basically try to undo the DOGE cuts that would, you know, require somehow the president to spend the money that was appropriated. That didn’t make it in. Republicans said no to that. And so what Republican leaders have basically promised is that they need more time to start drafting what codifying the DOGE cuts would look like. And that is where we might see an even bigger fiscal fight in September. 

Jane Coaston: Now, there are a ton of questions swirling around whether the Democrats will help the Republicans keep the government open. Where is the Democratic Party on that right now? Because I’ve heard a lot from both sides. 

Nicholas Wu: So we’ve seen top Democratic leaders come out pretty quickly against this bill. Um. The the top House Democratic leaders, Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar said that they would vote no on it. We saw they have top Appropriations Committee Democrat in the House vote no on it. But the question really is what happens if this bill does actually pass the House this week? And then it goes on to the Senate, because Republicans are hoping to basically pass the[?] house and then leave town, meaning that the Senate would basically be left with passing this bill, which would require at least seven Senate Democrats or, you know, letting it fail and then risking government shutdown. 

Jane Coaston: Some Democrats have described this bill as a power grab or a slush fund for Trump and Elon Musk. Is this, in your view, just kind of typical politicking by the opposition, or are there legitimate concerns here that this bill expands their authority over spending? 

Nicholas Wu: I think the big question among a lot of Democrats is, is, you know, by keeping the lights on, by, you know, endorsing government funding at current levels, that in a lot of ways would would greenlight Elon Musk and Trump to continue what they’re doing with the federal government. That’s why we saw Democrats push so hard for these provisions to really try to hamstring the President and Musk. And so there is some real question of, you know, even if the government is funded with this bill and the lights are kept on through September. What Musk and Trump will continue doing during that time? 

Jane Coaston: What are the risks for Democrats to shut down the government or not shut down the government? What what what are kind of the risks that they’re thinking about? 

Nicholas Wu: So, like we’ve seen with every single one of these fights over the last few years. There’s a lot of worry among Democrats about whether they’ll be blamed for a government shutdown. Um. The other issue for Democrats is that this is a vote that potentially the Democratic base will be watching very closely. You know, we’ve seen, you know obviously, a lot of enthusiasm among Democrats about showing a stiffer spine when it comes to Trump and and standing up more against him. And, you know, if there are any folks that cross uh lines to vote for this legislation, whether that’s something that they could pay a price for later down on if they attract a primary challenger. 

Jane Coaston: What are you hearing from centrist Democrats right now? 

Nicholas Wu: So centrist Democrats, uh I think, are still figuring out how hard of a whip Democratic Party leadership is going to bring down on this bill. If there’s enough centrist Democrats who show that, you know, they might need to vote for this bill just to, you know, be able to go home to their districts and say that they helped keep the lights on. They might gain some leeway from their leadership to do so. At the same time, you know, we saw folks like Tom Suozzi, you know, purple district Democrat. It’s a Trump district, go on TV and say that he would be opposing this bill because of the concerns about the Musk cuts. So I think, you know, you have these competing impulses here among Democrats, one, to show that they do actually oppose these DOGE cuts and these changes in government that are very broadly unpopular across the party or uh, you know, to show that they are being responsible adults in the room. These are, you know, sometimes not always reconcilable differences. 

Jane Coaston: In terms of just numbers, though, Republicans have the votes to pass a continuing resolution without the help of Democrats and the House, but they do need pretty much everyone on board. Do they have everyone on board? You said you put the odds of a shut down at five out of ten, maybe six. So that tells me that maybe somebody needs to be wrangled. 

Nicholas Wu: Yeah, there’s always a few House Republicans who will oppose government funding legislation that doesn’t dramatically cut spending, no matter what. So that includes folks like Thomas Massie [?]–

Jane Coaston: I was about to say Thomas Massie. 

Nicholas Wu: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Is the guy. 

Nicholas Wu: Thomas Massie is your guy there. Um. The Freedom Caucus are not the problem children in this case, the Freedom Caucus is already, you know, top members there have said that they support government funding legislation. You have other folks who could be wild cards um Victoria Spartz of Indiana. Uh. You know, is kind of a moving target. And it’s somewhat of a perennial headache for party leadership in her positions on the bill. But one notable thing in the last few days is that we saw a number of other hardline conservatives who did previously say that they would oppose a funding bill, um come around after meeting with Trump, to say that they wanted to give Trump leeway. They wanted to give him breathing room over the next six months to do his thing in the federal government to keep the wheels moving. You know, to keep the MAGA agenda going. And that’s why I think that this bill could make it through the House. But, you know, with the margin being as small as it is, it all comes down to the attendance of individual members. And, you know, if there’s some House Republicans that are gone somewhere, this vote could fail. Um. If there’s House Democrats that are absent for whatever reason, flights get canceled, life gets in the way. The Republicans might have more leeway uh in trying to get this through on the floor. So we’ll see. Is this is supposed to come up as soon as uh Tuesday. 

Jane Coaston: What would it mean politically for Republicans if they can’t get a spending plan through Congress, let alone one that doesn’t have the massive spending cuts the party keeps promising? 

Nicholas Wu: So Speaker Johnson has kind of put all of his eggs in one basket here to say that, you know, we’ll do this bill we’ll potentially pass it with Republican votes alone and then dare the Senate to act on it. If all this fails, um appropriators in both chambers have worked on a separate plan that could extend government funding for a month or so to give folks more time to keep negotiating. This is not something that Republican Party leadership has signed off on. But, you know, this could be the stopgap plan if everything falls apart. 

Jane Coaston: Nicholas, thank you so much for joining me. 

Nicholas Wu: Thank you so much. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Nicholas Wu, a congressional reporter at Politico. 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 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. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I actually think he’s doing what anybody else would do. I think he’s. I think he once again had stopped and settled. And I think he’s hitting them harder than than he’s been hitting them. 

Jane Coaston: President Trump was asked on Saturday in the Oval Office if he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking advantage of his pause on military aid to Ukraine. Russian forces gained ground over the weekend in the country’s Kursk region, making successful advances against Ukraine’s occupation of the area along its western border. Ukrainian troops seized control of Kursk last year in a surprise offensive attack that shocked the world. It was the first time Russian territory had been occupied since World War two. Ukrainian officials said the region and hundreds of Russian prisoners of war could be used as leverage in peace talks. Russia, with the help of North Korean troops, launched a new offensive in Kursk last week, shortly after the U.S. stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine and suspended all military aid to the war torn country. Ukraine’s army said Saturday that Russian troops walked through an inactive gas pipeline in Kursk to take its soldiers by surprise. The Kremlin said Sunday that its forces have recaptured some villages in Kursk. U.S. and Russian officials began negotiating an end to the war last month without Ukraine. Ukrainian officials are finally set to join discussions in Saudi Arabia this week. In a video posted to Twitter Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes the talks will be productive. [clip of Volodymyr Zelensky speaking plays] Here he’s saying, quote, “we will do everything to ensure that Ukraine’s interests are taken into account just as they should be.” Even though the US has been getting closer to the Kremlin in recent weeks, President Trump said Friday that he’s considering imposing sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire deal is reached. Federal workers at the Health and Human Services Department are being offered up to $25,000 to resign from their jobs. A mass email went out to around 80,000 department employees Friday. That includes staff at the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration. Multiple news outlets reported on the letter, citing anonymous sources. Workers have a Friday evening deadline to respond to the so-called voluntary separation offer. It’s part of a broader mandate from the Trump administration to get federal agencies to drastically slash their staff. In an interview last month with Fox News, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he had a list in his head of people he’d like to see removed from the department. 

[clip of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] If you’ve been involved in good science, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If you care about public health, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If you’re in there working for the Pharmaceutical industry then I’d say you should move out and work for the pharmaceutical industry. 

Jane Coaston: How is Secretary Kennedy, a notorious vaccine skeptic and hater of things like seed oils, who believes HIV can be caused by inhaling poppers, defining good science? That’s not at all clear, and that’s scary. As of our recording time late Sunday night, HHS had not issued a comment. The Trump administration said Friday that it will pull $400 million in federal funding and grants from Columbia University. It accused the school of failing to combat anti-Semitism during student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza. Columbia and a number of other big universities came under fire last year for pro-Palestinian demonstrations on their campuses. Congressional lawmakers grilled Columbia’s former president, Nemat Minouche Shafik, last year about her handling of antisemitism on her campus. She resigned months later. Trump signed an executive order back in January to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. The order also promised to cancel the visas of foreign students perceived to be, quote, “Hamas sympathizers” and deport those deemed, quote, “pro-jihadists.” On Saturday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian grad student at Columbia. He helped organize the encampment protests on the school’s campus last year. Authorities said the State Department ordered them to revoke Khalil’s green card and student visa. Khalil was born in Syria. Columbia is just one of several schools Trump’s Department of Justice is investigating, alleging that they, quote, “may have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty members from unlawful discrimination.” In a statement announcing its cancellation of funding to Columbia, the White House said Friday additional cancellations are expected. More than 1000 people have been killed in Syria over the last few days, sparking fears the country could slide back into all out civil war. The violence started Thursday when gunmen loyal to the country’s ousted leader, Bashar al-Assad, ambushed a security patrol near the port city of Latakia. In the days that followed, more deadly fighting broke out between forces loyal to Syria’s new government and those still loyal to Assad. It’s the worst bloodshed the country has seen since December, when the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, overthrew Assad after 13 years of civil war. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported more than 1300 people were killed in just 72 hours. The group says most of the dead appeared to be from the Alawite sect, a religious minority in Syria to which the Assad family belongs. In a statement Sunday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned, quote, “radical Islamist terrorists for the murders.” Syria’s interim president called for peace. His office said in a statement it’s forming an independent national committee to investigate the fighting. And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing. Let’s talk about conspiracy theories. Now, you don’t need me to tell you that right now is a great time to spread some conspiracy theories. Whether you’re on Instagram or TikTok or God help you Twitter, it takes almost zero effort to get millions of views on a post asserting something completely and totally insane. So many of our informational guardrails are just gone, especially with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg deciding that fact checking is woke or something. Or you can make it easy on yourself and simply appear on one of the most popular podcasts in the world and just make shit up in service of some of the stupidest conspiracy theories of them all. Steeped in antisemitism. While the Trump administration has been laser focused on what it argues is antisemitism on the left. We talked about that earlier in the show. Some of its favorite media outlets have been absolutely fine with pushing anti-Semitic rhetoric on the right. That’s what happened last week on The Joe Rogan Experience. When Rogan invited Ian Carroll to say this. 

[clip of Ian Carroll] Jeffrey Epstein was the world’s most prolific and evil sex trafficker that we know of so far ever. And he very clearly was a Jewish organization of Jewish people working on behalf of Israel and other groups. And so that’s a dark stain on Israel and on the Jewish people. 

Jane Coaston: No, no, it isn’t, because this is bullshit. Now, you should probably know a few pieces of information about Ian Carroll, who you have probably never heard of before. Because he’s a guy with a Twitter account and a podcast. He is not a researcher or an expert. He’s a person with some thoughts. Among those thoughts, quote, “Israel did 9/11,” quote, “when I see an Israeli flag, I immediately know that they support Jeffrey Epstein and want to rape my children.” During his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, he argued that Jeffrey Epstein was an Israeli intelligence plant. Israel was behind the assassination of JFK. And that the Pizzagate conspiracy theory was real. Joe Rogan, of course, offers no pushback and no willingness to ask any questions like, how do you know any of this for sure? Can you cite any sources, or are you just making shit up? Because his show is not about finding answers or working through explanations. It’s about creating content for the internet. Antisemitism is a form of prejudice that thrives on conspiracy theories. While racism accuses nonwhite people like me of being inferior. Antisemitism accuses Jewish people of being the secret masters of the universe, responsible for everything and, critically, everything bad. 9/11, the financial crisis, hell, anti-Semites blame Jewish people for stuff they just don’t like. Like when not very good rock musician Ted Nugent argued on Facebook in 2017 that Jewish people were responsible for gun control measures. Back in the 1950s, racist anti-Semites argued that Jewish people were behind the nefarious acts of desegregation and interracial marriage. One of the hardest things about fighting back against anti-Semitic conspiracy theories is that the people who believe in them have spent way more time thinking about them than you have. They’ve done their own research, even when that means they’ve just spent hours poring over neo-Nazi websites. You cannot fact check your way out of a crisis of conspiracy theories, but you can ask a very basic question. Why? What does anti-Semitism do for the people who believe in it? Believing that Jewish people are united against you in some vast conspiracy doesn’t make you safer or happier or better off. It just puts Jewish people at real risk and makes all of our lives significantly worse. And some of the biggest and most popular voices on the right seem absolutely fine with that. As long as the people saying it are MAGA enough. If you’re like me and you know that forms of hatred are interwoven because we are too, then this is the bad place. Seeing anti-Semites get broad reach to indoctrinate everyday people worries me to my core, and we should have all seen it coming. In the words of a researcher at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism in response to the Rogan interview, it is quote, “the end result of a years long effort to create a permissive environment for anti-Semitism and racism, driven by brain rotted bad faith actors who now have their hands on the levers of power.”

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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Celebrate the fact that it’s not going to be dark at like 5 p.m. and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading and not just about how the sun is nice and cool. And I, for one, appreciate getting to see it when I leave work like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and daylight saving time, you’re cool with me. [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 Clare. 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. 

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