In This Episode
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TRANSCRIPT
Jane Coaston: It’s Tuesday, December 2nd. I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show excited to find out where we go next on the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Defense Train. We’ve left. We definitely didn’t hit that alleged drug boat a second time station. And now we appear to be arriving at we did hit that alleged drug boat a second time, and that’s Awesome Town. [music break] On today’s show, the second most famous Luigi, but easily the most deadly, allegedly, appears in a New York courtroom. And who’s that charlatan? Her name is Alina Habba. She’s Trump’s ex-personal lawyer, and she’s been moonlighting as New Jersey’s top prosecutor for months without any legal authority to do so. But let’s start with Gaza. It’s been nearly two months since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, brokered by the US, Turkey, and Qatar, went into effect. The ceasefire is intended to be the first phase of an overarching plan to bring peace to the region after two years of war. The next steps in the plan seem murky at best. Over the weekend, the Washington Post reported that countries that had planned to deploy troops to Gaza to keep the peace as part of an international stabilization force, or ISF, have backpedaled on their commitments. While President Donald Trump’s plan had specified that the troops would go into Gaza in early 2026, countries like the United Arab Emirates are worried about quote, “the ambiguity of this whole thing.” Comforting. But as the fragile truce in Gaza holds, the war has prompted significant soul searching among American politicians and voters alike. According to a New York Times poll from September, a majority of Americans now oppose sending additional economic or military aid to Israel. A massive reversal from 2023. And on Monday, Ben Rhodes, Pod Save the World co-host and former Deputy National Security Advisor under the Obama administration, published an opinion piece for the New York Times arguing that it was time for the United States and Democrats to distance themselves from Israel’s far-right government. While Americans continue to wrestle with the country’s relationship with Israel, Gazans are struggling. Al Jazeera recently reported on how residents are reeling from massive flooding and increasingly cold weather.
[clip of unnamed Al Jazeera reporter] In Gaza, a fragile ceasefire may be in place, but Palestinians still face a battle to survive. Among the rubble of shattered homes, families now face a new enemy, the cold. Winter is closing in, and for many here, even finding basic shelter is a daily struggle.
Jane Coaston: For more on the current conditions in Gaza, I spoke with Mohammed Aklouk, a coordinator for the Norwegian Refugee Council who lives in Gaza with his family. Mohammed, welcome to What a Day.
Mohammed Aklouk: Thank you, thank you, Jane. I’m very happy to be joining you.
Jane Coaston: To start off, can you tell me about the aid work you do in Gaza?
Mohammed Aklouk: Okay, I am working as an aid worker from fourteen years. Right now, I am the information management coordinator. So my responsibilities is to collect the information about the people in need, how the situation they are facing, how where is the gap in terms of assistance to provide to the people providing to the people. So we keep trying to follow up where is the people displaced, where is the people suffering and trying to coordinate with the partners, with the donors, to provide them with evidence based information, how they can support these people, let to let them survive from from their situation.
Jane Coaston: What has your work looked like since Israel and Hamas entered into a ceasefire agreement in early October?
Mohammed Aklouk: The problem it’s it’s personal and professional issues. So it’s personal level I already displaced seven times and facing a lot of from displacement. In addition to that, also I trying to to support my people here by providing all the information, by providing the assistance to these people as much as I can. Because the whole population here in Gaza is suffering from everything. They are in need for everything, so trying to do as much as we can to let them cope and adopt their situation to continue their life and still continue the hoping for them.
Jane Coaston: You mentioned the professional and the personal. You and your family fled Gaza City at the beginning of October and went to a town further south. Have you stayed in the same part of Gaza since then?
Mohammed Aklouk: Already my my home totally destroyed from the beginning of October. So I flee and displaced for seven times. Now after the ceasefire I’m back again to the Gaza, but as I told you, my home is totally destroyed, so trying to find an alternative place to trying to start from zero to rebuild my life with my family and to continue our lives.
Jane Coaston: According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than three hundred and fifty Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the ceasefire took effect in October. Have you felt any safer since that agreement went into effect while you’re dealing with everything else?
Mohammed Aklouk: No. The clear answer is no, because while I am speaking with you, there is I am hearing some shooting. One week ago in our neighborhood there is a targeting here and there. So you keep feel not safe. We are afraid to send our kids to any school or educational point. So the situation no is still not safer a hundred percent. But absolutely it’s better than the previous days before the ceasefire announcement.
Jane Coaston: How much more challenging is the colder weather going to make your job?
Mohammed Aklouk: One week ago there is a rainfall. When you find your families, your extended families, your neighbors, all the people are already affected from this winter. So everything is wet. All the all the people, the kids, the children slept on the soaked mattresses. During the night the the the the parents cannot do anything, they feeling powerless to provide any support to their families. In addition to that, we as aid workers, the the requirement or the the required quantities to support these people is more than ten percent from what’s the needed. So there is a huge gap between what’s available at requirement. So also we’re trying to do our best to support our people. We [?] them as much as we can, but all the families, when you see those childrens sleeping on the wet floor, I think this is you cannot imagine this type of pictures when you’re dealing with this with the whole community.
Jane Coaston: Do you feel at all hopeful about what could happen next with the ceasefire agreement?
Mohammed Aklouk: Uh hope hope comes from resilience of people. We are as Palestinians continue hoping. Even after losing everything, families still find the ways to support each other. And every small act make a difference. So we keep the hope, we keep providing the hope for the people. We keep looking for for the future because this we don’t have a choice. We need to build our future to be better with the hope.
Jane Coaston: What actions does the international community need to take in order to make sure Gazans have access to aid and safer living conditions?
Mohammed Aklouk: I think for the international communities they do our best because I am already involved in a lot of discussions, a lot of agreements. They are doing and they support the aid workers, the national aid worker as much as they can. So they they are providing but there is some restriction from out government, they put some restriction, there is now need some pushing in parties here or there. This is what we trying to increase the advocacy between the organization international organization and their governments to increase the advocacy for to to to let them knows that it’s a million of people trying to survive. We need to let them survive. It’s not only headlines. We need to send more advocacy messages to the European American countries, increase their support because already they supported the Palestinian people to to trying to to end this nightmare for Palestinian people.
Jane Coaston: Mohammed, thank you so much for your time.
Mohammed Aklouk: Thank you, thank you, Jane. Much appreciated.
Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Mohammed Aklouk, a coordinator for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Gaza. 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.
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Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today.
[sung] Headlines.
[clip of unnamed ABC news reporter] We’re told Luigi Mangioni is seated inside the courtroom at a table next to his defense attorneys. We’re told by our teams inside court that he’s wearing a gray suit.
Jane Coaston: Well, I’m glad we got that detail settled. Thanks ABC News. Prosecutors opened a crucial evidentiary hearing Monday in the New York State murder case against Luigi Mangioni, the gray suit-wearing 27-year-old accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangioni’s attorneys are challenging key pieces of evidence, which they argue were obtained legally and therefore should be tossed. They say that police found the alleged murder weapon and a notebook in which prosecutors say Mangioni wrote about plans to quote, “whack a health insurance executive” without a warrant. Both items, neither of which scream I’m innocent and misunderstood, were found in his backpack by police. Defense attorneys also want some of Mangioni’s early police statements thrown out, claiming officers questioned him before reading him his rights. If the judge agrees, prosecutors could lose both a potential motive and the gun they say matches the attack. Two things I’ve learned from watching Law and Order are pretty important for a conviction. Mangioni still faces a separate federal murder charge. The next hearing for that case is set for January 9th. Alina Habba is out of a job again. A federal court of appeals ruled Monday that Trump’s personal lawyer turned New Jersey U.S. Attorney has been serving unlawfully for months. Trump originally appointed Habba as the acting U.S. Attorney in March, and in July, nominated her to take over the position permanently, even though she had no prior experience working as a prosecutor or even in criminal law. Sound familiar? Rather than appoint Habba, federal judges picked the career prosecutor who had been serving as her number two. But you know how this administration feels about experience. They don’t want it. So it’s not too surprising that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Habba’s replacement had been fired, then turned around and reinstated Habba in an interim capacity. Habba is not the only U.S. Attorney that the Trump administration has tried to keep in power with untraditional maneuvers. But she may be the first one to reach the Supreme Court. In the meantime, I guess, more chaos.
[clip of Todd Huston] We thought long and hard about it. Obviously lots of discussions. I’ll you know, to be honest with you, when you see what Virginia did and they come in and and don’t think twice about beginning the, you know, right before an election, changing their constitution so they can do redistricting, how that had an impact on me, seeing what California did and and overwhelmingly voting for for for new maps there. I mean I think this is where the political environment is right now and–
Jane Coaston: Republican Speaker of the Indiana House, Todd Huston spoke to reporters from inside the State House on Monday, as State House Republicans barrel ahead with a gerrymandered, I mean newly drawn congressional map. Democrats currently occupy only two of the nine Indiana House seats at the national level. If approved, the map could help hand those two seats to Republicans in the 2026 midterms. Indiana House Republicans dropped said map Monday and are expected to advance it quickly. In the Indiana Senate, Republican resistance has stalled redistricting for months. Senate Republicans have previously refused to even meet on the issue despite heavy pressure from President Trump. The state Senate is set to reconvene December 8th, where leaders say they’ll finally decide whether to adopt the map or defy Trump and his mob. What do we mean by his mob? Well, the fight has unleashed threats against lawmakers. Republican State Senator Jean Leising reported a bomb threat at her home this weekend, saying it stemmed from the national pressure campaign. According to NBC News, at least 11 Indiana state lawmakers say they’ve been swatted or threatened since Trump publicly singled them out for refusing to back his plan. SWATTING is when a terrible person pranks emergency services into sending armed officers to someone’s address. What cool times we live in. The Trump administration has pulled the rug out from under 14 newly reinstated employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to copies of notices reviewed by the New York Times, last week FEMA told the employees, who had been removed after criticizing the Trump administration, that their administrative leave was over. But on Monday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told outlets that those employees were, quote, “wrongly and without authorization reinstated by bureaucrats acting outside of their authority.” Back in August, the employees took part in a letter sent to Congress called the Katrina Declaration. It was written in response to the quote, “dismantling cuts and devastating attacks on FEMA programs emissions.” Of course, 14 of those who attached their name to the letter were subsequently put on administrative leave. Others who publicly signed the letter left or took buy outs. A DHS spokesperson told CNN in a statement Monday, quote, “the 14 employees who signed the Katrina Declaration have been returned to administrative leave.” And that’s the news. [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, celebrate the Oxford University Press Word of the Year or repost it furiously, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how the word of the year is rage bait, defined as content quote, “deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive.” Like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and there’s so much going on to authentically rage about. No bait needed. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Emily Fohr and Chris Allport. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Caitlin Plummer, Tyler Hill, and Ethan Oberman. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of News and Politics is Adriene Hill. We had help today from the Associated Press. 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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