President Donald Trump and Elon Musk escalate their government purge | The Excerpt
On Saturday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Thousands have been fired across the federal workforce, as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk escalate their government purge. In this week's edition of Editor's Note, Paste BN Immigration Editor Karen Weintraub discusses how the newsroom is approaching a shifting immigration landscape. If you have a topic you want to hear from an editor, send us a note at podcasts@usatoday.com. Federal prosecutors drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Trump orders the defunding of schools that mandate COVID-19 vaccines. Paste BN Personal Finance Reporter Daniel de Visé takes a look at the debate over government alcohol guidance. A few minutes of bird watching this weekend can help scientists: Here's how to participate.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Saturday, February 15th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, thousands have been fired as Trump escalates a purge across the federal workforce. Plus in this week's editor's note, we take a look at how the newsroom is covering the current immigration landscape and how many drinks a day are too many.
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Thousands of recently hired federal workers were fired Thursday and Friday as President Donald Trump and top White House official Elon Musk escalated efforts to purge the federal workforce. The cuts targeted probationary workers across all departments. Federal employees, and probationary status have typically been hired in the past year. Probationary workers are easier to fire because they lack the bargaining rights that so-called career employees who have been in the job longer have to appeal their terminations. And firings were government-wide, from the Department of Education and Small Business Administration, to the Environmental Protection Agency, US Forest Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the agency that oversees the nation's fleet of nuclear weapons.
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We've seen weeks of headlines centered around the shifting landscape of immigration in America. That includes news this week that families are suing after their loved ones may have been sent to Guantanamo. And Paste BN has learned that the Department of Homeland Security has ordered its entire investigations division, some 6,000 agents, to divert focus on drug dealers, terrorists, and human traffickers, and shift priority to the Trump Administration's mission of deporting people in the US illegally. For more on how the newsroom is tackling stories on the migration front, I caught up with Paste BN immigration editor Karen Weintraub, for this week's edition of Editor's Note. Karen, thank you so much for joining me on Editor's Note this week.
Kren Weintraub:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Karen, just starting here, immigration reporting has always been a tough topic to cover for many reasons, and I'd like to get into some of those with you here. First, let's just talk about covering deportations. I mean, what kinds of obstacles does your team face here?
Kren Weintraub:
Some of it is just procedural, kind of finding the people we're trying to report about. So our reporter, Lauren was writing about someone this week who we literally couldn't find. He had been in detention in El Paso and then he disappeared and we weren't sure where he was. His tracking number indicated that he was in a place called Plantation, Florida. We looked up this place, it is not a nice detention facility. It's looked to be an administrative office. We looked at it on Google Earth. There was a big parking lot and an office building, so it was not a detention center. His mother believed he had been sent to Guantanamo. Every indication was that he had been sent to Guantanamo, but there's no way to prove that. And his mother was part of a lawsuit that the ACLU filed about people who had been sent to Guantanamo. So we believe that is there, but we couldn't prove it. So things like that.
Taylor Wilson:
And in terms of solutions or workarounds, when you hit walls like that, Karen, I mean, what are you all finding that does work?
Kren Weintraub:
Well, for instance, we had spoken to this mother before the lawsuit was filed, but didn't feel comfortable writing about her story until there was a lawsuit, until there was a paper trail that she was willing to put her name behind and that somebody else was willing to file suit around. It wasn't just one woman's story, it was a lawsuit with a major national organization that made us feel more comfortable writing about this story.
Taylor Wilson:
In terms of the court processes here, Karen, I mean, how do you and your team navigate all that?
Kren Weintraub:
Luckily, we have a number of people, some of whom are more focused on the courts and some of whom are more focused on the people in the field and the advocates and the immigrants themselves. So we are chasing down several court cases. There's a number, for instance, about birthright. So the Trump administration now is trying to challenge the Fourteenth Amendment that says that anybody who is born on American soil is considered an American, and President Trump would like to change that. Said that that's been sort of a back door into this country, and that's something we're following very closely because that would in a way, redefine what it means to be an American. Since the Civil War, that amendment has been in place to the Constitution.
Taylor Wilson:
And Karen, immigration is clearly also a topic where there are heightened emotions really across the issue. And for that reason, there's a lot of fear out there in speaking with reporters. How does your team navigate this part of it?
Kren Weintraub:
For sure, and this has always been an issue where fear comes up a lot. Both federal employees are afraid to talk on the record now for sure, families that are afraid of being split up, things like that. So we are very careful. So this mother, we waited to make sure that she was, like I said, part of this lawsuit and also that we could use her full name in the story. We want people to be accountable for what they're saying, and we try to reflect all sides of an issue. There are emotions on all sides here. There are people who are uncomfortable, unhappy with folks who are in this country without legal status, and we try to reflect that as well as the people who are here for whatever reason that brought them here in the first place.
Taylor Wilson:
So what are some of the other considerations, Karen, that you and your team are bringing to this topic and this conversation?
Kren Weintraub:
So one of the strengths that we have here at Paste BN is a collaboration with our regional papers. So we have papers in Arizona, in Texas, in Florida, in New Jersey, and we're collaborating very closely with them to both see what's going on there and also to see what the trends are nationally, to get a sense from the ground up of what's happening. So not just DC-based. One of our reporters is based in El Paso, but also we're getting a much more national picture now than we would if we were just reporting from the district.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Paste BN, immigration Editor, Karen Weintraub. Thanks so much, Karen.
Kren Weintraub:
Thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
Each week, we sit down with a different editor here on the show for a look at how they're covering some of the biggest stories. If there's anything you'd like to hear about, shoot us an email at podcasts@usatoday.com. We have that address also posted in today's show notes.
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Federal prosecutors dropped corruption charges yesterday against New York Mayor Eric Adams after a Justice Department Directive, questioned the political timing of the case and said it hindered President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. The dismissal closed the first criminal case in history against the sitting New York mayor and set off a flood of resignations among prosecutors who refused to drop the charges. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove had directed the Acting U.S. attorney in New York, Danielle Sassoon, to drop the charges because of potential politics behind the case.,Rather than a lack of evidence. Sassoon and at least six other prosecutors quit instead of dropping the case.
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President Trump signed an executive order yesterday prohibiting federal funds from going to K-12 schools and universities that require COVID-19 vaccinations. The order instructs the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services to issue guidelines to comply and create plans to end COVID-19 vaccine mandates, but the order will likely have a minimal impact. No states currently require COVID vaccinations for students at K-12 public schools, and at least 21 states have actually passed laws banning vaccine mandates. Only 15 colleges, all private institutions still require COVID vaccination shots according to no college mandates, an advocacy group that opposes COVID-19 vaccine requirements. Trump's order came one day after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccination skeptic, was sworn in as the nation's top health official.
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How many drinks a day are too many? A debate is playing out in Washington over what the government should tell Americans about alcohol. I spoke with Paste BN personal finance reporter Daniel de Vise for more. Daniel, thanks for wrapping on today.
Daniel de Vise:
Likewise, thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
Federal dietary guidelines are getting an update this year, which will include guidance on alcohol. But Daniel, where do things stand right now?
Daniel de Vise:
Right now, we have these age-old guidelines that say it's supposedly safe for guys to drink up to two drinks a day. That's like a beer or a glass of wine times two, and for women to have up to one drink a day. I've always thought that was unusual, but it's twice the limit for men as for women, and that's been the guidance for a very long time.
Taylor Wilson:
It seems unusual to me as well. I mean, what are the experts, Daniel, the science, I guess, really say about the current guidance?
Daniel de Vise:
If you're old enough to remember, 30 years ago or so, there was this wave of research saying that moderate amounts of drinking were actually good for you and that they'd actually make you live longer. Well, the thinking has changed over the last 10, 20 years, and now I would say most researchers say the easy quote is that no amount of alcohol to drink is entirely safe. Now, that doesn't mean it's going to kill you necessarily, and there's still apparently health benefits from alcohol, but the trick is figuring out what's the right amount, I guess.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, so we're talking a lot in this current moment about differences between the Biden era to Trump 1.0 to now Trump 2.0. Daniel, are there fundamentally different alcohol messages across the Biden and Trump administrations?
Daniel de Vise:
We don't know, do we? The Surgeon General under Biden came out very recently at the very end of the Biden administration with a sharp warning about the link, although it's a small link, between alcohol and cancer, so that's where the Biden administration stood. They were pushing, I think, for stricter guidelines. With President Trump, who I believe does not drink, and the new Health Secretary RFK Jr. who I also believe does not drink, well, that's interesting. We'll see where that goes. Both of those leaders have apparently gone on record about the dangers of alcohol, so maybe they'll fall in that direction. On the other hand, the Trump administration has shown an impulse toward less regulation, so maybe they won't regulate alcohol consumption. Maybe they won't say anything about it. We'll see.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah. Interesting points there, Daniel. In terms of what's next, where we go with this, I mean, when do we expect those updated guidelines later this year and kind of just what is next for this conversation?
Daniel de Vise:
Yeah. February 14, as I speak to you, it was the last day for public comment. Now the government is going to sit back and look at all these recommendations. They have two big reports that were prepared for them. One report is really pushing more the potential health benefits of alcohol rather than the problems. The other report is a little more cautionary. Some people I interviewed said it would be smart to maybe just make the guideline no more than one drink per day for everyone and just kind of erase that gender difference. But who knows? It's just as possible the regulators will leave it alone and not change the guidelines at all.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Daniel de Vise covers personal finance for Paste BN. Thank you, Daniel.
Daniel de Vise:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
The Great Backyard Bird Count is back this weekend. The event organized by the National Audubon Society, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada aims to help scientists better understand the global bird population. Data collected over a four-day span in February provides necessary information on where birds are living and long-term changes in their populations. People in some 200 countries participated in last year's bird count. If you want to get involved, organizers recommend taking 15 minutes this weekend to take a closer look up at the sky. For more on how to participate, give a click on that link we have in today's show notes.
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Enrique Tarrio, the de facto leader of the Proud Boys, was recently pardoned from his 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy by Donald Trump. What are his future plans?
Enrique Tarrio:
I'm just rifting here, but I run for sheriff. I actually win, and its Sheriff Enrique Tarrio.
Will Carlos:
Stranger things have happened.
Enrique Tarrio:
The stranger things have happened.
Taylor Wilson:
Paste BN national correspondent, Will Carlos spoke with Tarrio in an exclusive interview about the violent insurrection he helped organize on January 6th and his future. You can hear the episode right here beginning at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time tomorrow. And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.