Are the checks and balances that define American democracy breaking down? Ankush Khardori, an attorney, former federal prosecutor, and senior writer for Politico, joins to help us take stock of this moment — and where we go from here. Plus, Trump signed an executive order aimed at dismantling the Department of Education, former high-ranking government officials had their Social Security numbers leaked in the JFK assassination documents, and a woman was elected to lead the International Olympic Committee for the first time. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What are the current threats to American democratic norms?
Good morning. It's Friday, March 21st. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, growing concerns that our democratic norms are eroding, what Trump's order to close the Department of Education actually means, and a big privacy breach in the JFK assassination papers. We begin with growing concerns that the checks and balances that define American democracy are breaking down.
At least that's the warning coming from the Varieties of Democracy Project, which measures the health of democracies around the world. The head of that program warns that, quote, if it continues like this, democracy will not last another six months.
His warnings come as President Trump's administration is taking actions that, historically and constitutionally, have been outside of the executive branch's power, like significantly shrinking or trying to eliminate agencies established by laws passed by Congress. The legality of some of those moves are being challenged in multiple lawsuits.
But while normally the courts would adjudicate disagreements over what the Constitution allows, the Trump administration has flirted with ignoring court orders. And last weekend seemed to outright defy an order from a federal judge to turn around a plane deporting migrants.
That judge gave the administration a Thursday deadline to hand over flight data and yesterday described the administration's response as, quote, At the same time, Trump and some Republicans have called for impeaching judges who slow or stop the administration's proposed policies, a threat that was met with a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.
To help us take stock of this moment and where it goes from here, I called up Ankush Kadori. He's an attorney, a former federal prosecutor, and senior writer with Politico. And I started by asking him how close he thinks we are to a crisis point.
I think we're right on the cusp of it, sort of teetering, actually. I mean, first of all, he's absolutely right. Justice Roberts gives a state of the judiciary speech, issues a report.
But a comment like this, sort of right in the middle of a news cycle, the only real precedent I can recall is during the first term when Roberts issued a statement sort of chastising Trump for describing judges as Obama judges. And Roberts issued a statement saying, well, we're just all judges. We're not Obama judges. We're not Bush judges. We're not Trump judges. And this is very comparable.
but I'm sure it wasn't made lightly. So it really, I don't think it could be emphasized enough how kind of extraordinary Robert's intervention is.
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Chapter 2: How is the Trump administration challenging constitutional norms?
It is harmful to our democracy even to be doing what they are doing.
Ankur, thank you so much for speaking with me again.
Thanks for having me. Thank you.
Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following, starting with President Trump's move to close a federal agency.
Today, we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making. In a few moments, I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the Federal Department of Education once and for all.
Yesterday's executive order called for moving education policy to the states, even though state governments are already primarily in charge of things like curricula. Trump's order doesn't completely eliminate the Department of Education. Since it was created by Congress, only Congress has the authority to eliminate it.
Instead, the order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take, quote, all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the department. And it leaves in place what the administration calls critical functions like student loan management and funding for special education. Trump's order is expected to run into legal challenges.
The response from the president of the American Federation of Teachers, a major teachers union, was, quote, see you in court.
In other news, earlier this week, when the Trump administration released tens of thousands of unredacted files about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, it also released the social security numbers and other private sensitive information belonging to several hundred former congressional staffers and others.
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