On today’s show: NBC reports on how Republicans in districts across the country faced furious voters at recent town halls, signaling that the Trump administration’s honeymoon period is waning. Pentagon staffers are concerned that personnel cuts will hurt critical work. The Washington Post’s Alex Horton has the story. ProPublica’s Lizzie Presser explains how pregnancy in Texas has become more dangerous as a result of the state’s abortion ban. Plus, the U.S. voted against a U.N resolution condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine, several of the men convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot are now free, and, after controversy over old tweets derailed her awards-season campaign, Karla Sofía Gascón says she will attend the Oscar ceremony. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Good morning. It's Tuesday, February 25th. I'm Shamitza Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, Republican lawmakers are feeling the heat from their constituents at town halls. A look at how abortion bans affect sepsis rates. And a controversial pick could win the Oscar for Best Actress. But first, to the ongoing fallout from federal job firings.
Yesterday, the Office of Personnel Management, which is effectively the government's HR department, told federal agencies that they can ignore Elon Musk's email, demanding they outline what they accomplished last week or risk losing their jobs. President Trump commented, too, saying some employees work with sensitive information and should be exempt from the email request.
But he also suggested employees could still be fired or, quote, semi-fired for noncompliance. One DOJ employee described the past few days to Politico as massive whiplash all the time. The next large scale cuts are coming for the Pentagon. On Friday, the Defense Department announced plans to cut 5,400 probationary workers starting this week, which would reduce its workforce by up to 8 percent.
The Pentagon also said it plans to put a hiring freeze in place and it's proposed cutting 8 percent of its budget per year over the next five years. That's roughly 50 billion dollars a year. However, the Pentagon says a number of defense priorities will be exempt from cuts, like money that goes toward border security and countering China in the Pacific.
Chapter 2: How are federal job cuts affecting the Pentagon?
The Washington Post examined one agency within the Defense Department where there's a lot of fear about the impact of cuts to staffing and budget.
The small office that handles the recovery of missing in action personnel, otherwise known as the Defense Department, POW, MIA accounting agency.
Alex Horton is a national security reporter for The Post.
It's not really clear to us whether this is a sacred cow that they're willing to lose or if it's going to be overlooked when it comes to sparing some of the federal employees.
The agency has around 700 people on staff, and their backgrounds are quite unique. There's forensic anthropologists, historians, even underwater archaeologists. That's because this agency does the difficult and painstaking work of finding, identifying, and repatriating the remains of Americans who died in wars overseas.
This takes a lot of work, a lot of science. You know, there are historians trying to figure out where people are in the field. Archaeologists have to go to, like, a lot of times these very austere, you know, dangerous environments and there's unexploded ordnance and stuff. So these things take a long time to unfold.
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Chapter 3: What challenges does the POW/MIA Accounting Agency face?
Horton told us about one veteran recovered by the agency during Trump's first term when the U.S. struck a deal with North Korea to repatriate the remains of Americans who died during the Korean War. Master Sergeant Charles McDaniel was last seen in 1950 tending to wounded soldiers in battle.
His remains were identified by the agency in 2018, 68 years later, and parts of his skull, clavicle, and dog tag were returned to his sons. They spoke to the agency that year about what it meant to finally be able to lay their father to rest.
Well, it doesn't answer all the questions about his actual dying, but it certainly lets us have some certitude about that and some gratitude that there is some answer to that now. But it's still amazing to look at that. I actually felt like it's a gift from God to us.
It's unclear how exactly this agency might be affected by upcoming cuts, but staff are bracing for them to be widespread and indiscriminate. One employee of the agency told Horton, "...out of every DOD agency there is, we're the only one above reproach from a moral standpoint. It's not about making weapons. It's about returning loved ones to their families."
While Congress was in recess last week, many Republican lawmakers returned to their districts and held some of their first town halls with constituents since Trump took office. And a lot of them received an earful. People demanded answers about how sweeping budget cuts might impact them locally, about the mass firings of federal workers, and about the authority President Trump has given Elon Musk.
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Chapter 4: How are Republican town halls addressing voter concerns?
Here's how one town hall sounded in Georgia.
Elon was going to be the main topic tonight and he's going to continue to be the main topic tonight because we are all freaking pissed off about this. You're going to hear it and feel it.
President Trump's efforts to expand executive powers came up too.
You can imagine my shock and pure horror when I woke up to find that our president had given himself unprecedented executive powers and then within a few days named himself king to his followers.
Chapter 5: What did constituents say about Trump's executive powers?
Republican Representative Rich McCormick was hosting this particular town hall, and that woman you just heard who introduced herself as Virginia told McCormick she is a descendant of founding father Patrick Henry, and she quoted Henry.
A king is a tyrant. If a wrong step is made now, the republic will be lost forever and tyranny will rise. It's clear from all the writings of our founding fathers that our great republic was never meant to be ruled by a dictator nor a king.
McCormick responded.
When you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected.
He went on to say that he believes executive power should be restricted because it feels out of balance right now with other branches. And he later told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he believes the pace of federal employee firings has been too fast.
In Wisconsin, constituents at one town hall were angry that their Republican representatives weren't pushing back on Trump and keeping executive power in check. On the West Coast, in Oregon, a woman named Sue Oliver expressed similar concerns, speaking directly to her representative, Republican Cliff Bence.
You are an attorney. You are an officer of the court, in addition to swearing an oath to our Constitution. And yet, while you and so many of your colleagues... are just sitting around watching. Well, I don't know. We'll see what happens next month. There won't be a country left to run, sir, if you guys just sit back and are afraid of a primary.
Because I hear President Musk has threatened a primary. Any Republican who doesn't get on board.
The White House said these town hall incidents include just a handful of critics. NBC reports that these contentious town halls could be an early sign that the honeymoon period for the Trump administration is coming to an end. And the New York Times notes that with a slim majority in the House, Republicans are in a precarious position, especially for members in vulnerable districts.
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