Ashley Lopez

Agency officials say over the next two weeks, they're going to transition to a process that, quote, strengthens the identity proofing procedures for people seeking Social Security benefit claims and direct deposit changes. Instead of doing this on the agency's website, which has an online identity proving system, people will have to go in person to a local Social Security office.

Agency officials say this is an effort to prevent fraud. But advocates say these changes will make it harder for Americans to collect their earned benefits and force seniors and people with disabilities to travel in person at a time when the Social Security Administration is closing local offices across the country and reducing staff. Ashley Lopez, NPR News.

Frank Bisignano fielded questions about a host of problems facing the Social Security Administration. That includes office closures, wait times for phone services, and staffing shortfalls. Democratic senators also pressed the nominee on the role of billionaire Elon Musk's team known as Doge at the agency.

Bisignano told lawmakers he thinks current problems at the Social Security Administration stem from the interim commissioner who has been working closely with Musk's team.

Democratic senators argued during the hearing that much of the recent chaos at the agency has been created by Musk in particular. Ashley Lopez, NPR News.

For folks who don't remember this, right after the 2020 election, Krebs, who, by the way, has described himself as a lifelong Republican and he had been appointed by Trump, basically refuted Trump's big lie about the election being stolen. As you can imagine, Trump didn't like that.

He fired Krebs at the time, and now he's ordering the attorney general, the director of national intelligence, and other agency leaders to immediately suspend any active security clearances held by him and entities associated with him.

Shiya He Weixian. 不是同中方打交道的

It's good to know that there are people who are really thinking about Medicaid, who are thinking about... People who really need the services that our government provides in order to survive.

The White House says the Social Security Administration has identified immigrants who it says are ineligible for benefits. So the agency has moved their Social Security numbers into a master file titled ineligible or death. White House spokesperson Liz Huston told NPR in a statement that, quote, President Trump promised mass deportations.

And by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport, end quote.

Okay, like some of the titles are not suitable for a podcast, but there were all these music videos that came out in the aughts with Andy Samberg and then Akiva Nyarma were like part of his comedy group. And they had, remember like that video about getting cupcakes and Chronicles of Narnia and all of those little segments with Justin Timberlake.

This was like such a specific time in SNL history, but it was like... Every time these videos came out, they were such a big cultural moment when I was in college that seeing all that stuff played again just remind me how like older millennials have gotten because Andy Samberg looks like such a dad now. And it's just so I just cannot stop thinking about like how big of a deal that

those SNL they were called I think SNL shorts or something that came out it was like they were moments and they had like some pretty big stars to come on I'm remembering I'm remembering this now because I remember as you said Andy Sandberg and they did the the one I remember the most is Lazy Sunday is that right yeah that's the one you're talking about yeah that was like one of the first big digital sketches to come out of SNL um it was a big moment

All right, Domenico, what can't you let go of this week?

Yeah. Can you talk to me more about what concerns people had going into his confirmation process?

Oh, my gosh. Well, he is kind of a germaphobe, right?

All right. That's all from us today. Our executive producer is Mithoni Maturi. Casey Morrell edits the podcast. Our producers are Bria Suggs and Kelly Wessinger. Special thanks to Krishna Dev Kalimer. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover voting. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics.

And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. We're recording this at 1225 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, February 21st, 2025. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover voting.

Yeah. Given those concerns that were mentioned, what do we expect from him as director?

Yeah. Well, Ryan, thank you so much for being here today.

OK, let's take a quick break. And when we come back, how China is responding to the cuts at USAID.

And we're back. And we're now joined by international correspondent Emily Fang. Hi, Emily. Hey, Ashley. So Donald Trump is undertaking efforts to slash spending at the federal government level, which includes a lot of international pro-democracy and human rights groups. Emily, can you just start with the basics here? Why did the U.S. start funding these programs to begin with?

Kash Patel was confirmed as the new FBI director yesterday. Despite questions about his qualifications, Ryan, this was a pretty tight vote, even though it seemed like his confirmation was never really in doubt, right?

Yeah. And why is it that the Trump administration is reversing this long held position of the U.S. when it comes to diplomacy abroad?

And Domenico, I wonder what you think this means for sort of having the end of quote-unquote soft power in U.S. foreign policy, what this sort of means going forward.

Yeah. And Emily, I think it's worth mentioning like a good portion of this funding has actually supported Chinese dissidents. I wonder how China is seeing this. Is this welcome to them?

And Domenico, I wonder if you have a sense of how this would actually affect Americans, because this all does seem a little bit abstract. But I'm wondering if there's a way in which Americans could actually feel the end of this funding back home.

All right, Emily, thank you so much for bringing your reporting to the pod. Thanks so much for having me on. It's time for one quick break, and when we get back, can't let it go. And we're back, and it's time for everyone's favorite Friday segment, Can't Let It Go.

That's the part of the show where we talk about the things from the week that we just can't stop thinking about, politics or otherwise. And we have with us political correspondent Sue Davis. Hey, Sue. Thanks for joining us.

Well, we're going to start with you. What can't you let go of this week?

I think I only get them from younger, maybe Gen Z folks, but also just some people who have like, they're really bought into it. Like they refuse to text any other way. And I do talk to those folks less because it's too much for me to, it takes too much of your time.

What's old is new again. I will say, I think we're the wrong audience for this because we have to deal with audio forms of people's voices all day, and other people maybe just want to hear actual people's voices, but not us, clearly.

So what I can't let go of this week is, for those who didn't catch it, there was a concert

a concert event basically to celebrate saturday night live's 50th anniversary um i didn't watch the whole thing it was three hours long which this is the same reason i haven't watched the brutalist yet i cannot commit to something that long but i was really happy to catch parts of it because the thing that i can't let go of is i saw the like a mash-up of all the lonely island songs like some of the the hits do you guys know what i'm talking about no no

So this order broadly accuses Christopher Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, also known as CISA, of weaponizing his government authority when running that agency some years ago. Specifically, Trump's order claims that Krebs was misusing his office by censoring conservative viewpoints under the guise of combating misinformation.

Yeah. So, well, it's a slew of conservative grievances we've been hearing in the past several years. So Hunter Biden's laptop and the origins of COVID-19. But most notably, this is about the 2020 election.

For folks who don't remember this, right after the 2020 election, Krebs, who, by the way, has described himself as a lifelong Republican and he had been appointed by Trump, basically refuted Trump's big lie about the election being stolen. Here he is on NPR in December of that year.

As you can imagine, Trump didn't like that. He fired Krebs at the time, and now he's ordering the attorney general, the director of national intelligence, and other agency leaders to immediately suspend any active security cleanses held by him and entities associated with him. And what about Miles Taylor? Yeah, so Miles Taylor is a former Department of Homeland Security official.

And in 2018, he wrote this pretty high-profile anonymous op-ed criticizing Trump. He later wrote a book and lifted his anonymity. In yesterday's order, Trump accused Taylor of treasonous behavior. And now Taylor will be the subject of an investigation by the department he once worked for.

Yeah, I mean, this has been a theme throughout the first few months of his administration. A lot of what Trump has been focused on is political retribution, whether it's law firms that are not aligned with his interests or university leaders who don't share his worldview. Trump has been directly focused on dealing with all of these perceived enemies.

Well, I mean, if nothing else, it seems like a lot of his priorities right now have a lot to do with his first term. He remembers who had his back at the time and who didn't.

It's worth noting that this is an example of the Department of Justice being weaponized against people who criticized Trump in the past, which was a fear that many Democrats vocalized ahead of the election and something that Republicans accused Democrats of doing while in office, specifically around January 6th.

Yeah, thank you.