Israeli strike in Beirut kills five; U.S.-led diplomacy progresses | The Excerpt
On Tuesday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Israel has intensified its bombardment in and around Beirut, and Hezbollah has kept up missile fire into Israel, while U.S.-led diplomacy progresses. Paste BN National Immigration Reporter Lauren Villagran discusses President-elect Donald Trump's comment about using the military to carry out mass deportations. President Joe Biden asks Congress for $100 billion to aid recovery from hurricanes and other disasters. President-elect Donald Trump picks Fox host Sean Duffy for Transportation secretary. Paste BN Wellness Reporter Charles Trepany talks about why some Gen Z men are shifting to the right.
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.
Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more Paste BN podcasts right here
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, November 19th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, we take a look at some new developments in Lebanon. Plus Donald Trump says, he'll use the military for mass deportations. Can he? And we discuss why some Gen-Z men are shifting to the right.
♦
An Israeli airstrike killed five people in Beirut yesterday, according to Lebanon's health ministry, marking the second day in a row Israel has hit a target within the capital, as it continues its campaign against the Iran-backed armed group, Hezbollah. The strike came after the group confirmed its media relations chief was killed by an Israeli strike in Beirut on Sunday. Israel has intensified its bombardment in and around Lebanon's capitol in recent days, and Hezbollah has continued missile fire into Israel. But Lebanon and Hezbollah have agreed to a US ceasefire proposal, a top Lebanese official told Reuters yesterday, describing the latest progress as the most serious yet to end the fighting.
♦
President-elect Donald Trump says he'll use the military for mass deportations. What would that entail, and would he be allowed to do so? I spoke with Paste BN national Immigration Reporter, Lauren Villagran for more. Hello, Lauren.
Lauren Villagran:
Hey, Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
So Lauren, what exactly did Donald Trump say yesterday with regards to his deportation plans?
Lauren Villagran:
He actually said one word with three exclamation points, which was truth. And he was responding to a post by a conservative activist a couple of weeks ago, basically saying that President-elect Donald Trump intended to declare a national emergency and used the military to execute on his promise to massively deport immigrants in the country illegally.
Taylor Wilson:
So Lauren, is this on message for what we've heard from him this past year on the campaign trail, some of what you and I have discussed as well? And why has he argued that such actions are needed as it pertains to deportations, and if we heard any other specifics when it comes to the military side of this?
Lauren Villagran:
Yeah, 100%. I mean, he's been talking about this a lot on the campaign trail, but of course it's one thing to hear from Former President Trump on the campaign trail, and another to hear plans outlined, even in brief, by President-elect Trump. President Trump last time around, during the first administration, also declared a national emergency related to migration. He did that at that time in order to repurpose funding for the Department of Defense and move it over to build what he was billing as a border wall, the thirty-foot steel fencing at the border. This time around, it looks like he wants to declare a national emergency, again related to migration, but to use that in order to put the military to work executing on those plans. Now, it's not exactly clear yet what soldiers would be doing, or to what extent he would attempt to federalize National Guard, which belong to the States, but this was the next step that we've seen from him in terms of his plans.
Taylor Wilson:
And how are immigration experts or advocates responding to the idea of using the military in this way?
Lauren Villagran:
Well, to start, there is a concern that there continues to be a conflation between enforcement actions at the border and what would be required of a mass deportation, which would be interior enforcement. The US military is limited in what it can do in civilian communities. It's called the Posse Comitatus Act, Taylor, and I think we're all going to be hearing a lot more about that, but that prevents the military or soldiers from, for example, arresting a civilian, even if that person is an immigrant. So I think that there is a lot that remains to be seen about how President-elect Trump will outline his plans for the mass deportation, but we're seeing the details drip out now.
Taylor Wilson:
Right. Lots still to be decided on this. Lauren Villagran covers immigration and the border for Paste BN. Thank you, Lauren.
Lauren Villagran:
Thanks, Taylor.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
The Biden administration is asking Congress to approve nearly $100 billion in emergency funding to help it respond to a series of disasters this year. The request submitted yesterday includes 40 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide aid in the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton, which caused catastrophic damage in the Southeast this fall. Some of the additional funding the administration is requesting would also be used to respond to other emergencies like last year's wildfires in Maui, tornadoes across the Midwest, and the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. "FEMA has enough money to respond to recovery efforts for Helene and Milton through the end of the year, assuming there are not any other large disasters," FEMA Administrator, Deanne Criswell said, "but the agency is running out of money and won't have enough to get through the remainder of the fiscal year, which stretches through the end of next September, without additional funding" Congress, which returned to work last week following the election, must decide whether to take up the request through standalone legislation or as part of an end-of-year spending package.
♦
Donald Trump yesterday said he's nominating Sean Duffy, a Fox Business host and former Wisconsin Republican Congressman as Secretary of the Department of Transportation in his incoming administration. Duffy, currently a co-host of The Bottom Line on Fox Business, served as a congressman for Wisconsin's seventh District in the northwest part of the state from 2011 to 2019, overlapping with the bulk of Trump's presidency. Duffy, an ardent Trump defender and a regular Fox News guest while in Congress, started as co-host of his Fox Business show during its debut in January 2023. And Duffy's wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, is a host of FOX & Friends Weekend. The former district attorney in Ashland County, Wisconsin emerged on the national scene in pop culture before politics as a cast member of the MTV Show, The Real World during the 1997 season.
♦
President-elect Donald Trump won with Gen-Z men at the polls. What's that say about our culture, masculinity, and how young men feel about the country? I rang up Paste BN wellness reporter Charles Trepany to discuss. Charles, thanks for making some time on this.
Charles Trepany:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Charles, tell us about this new kind of voter we saw this election, the Gen-Z men, or as some call them, the Gen-Z bros. Really, who are these folks?
Charles Trepany:
Yeah, it's interesting, because I think there's been a lot of discourse in the weeks leading up to the election and after about the "bro vote." I think every four years brings a new kind of young voter who's voting for the first time, and what's interesting about the people voting for the first time in the most recent election is, they're much more online, and I think that they're less tapped into traditional ways that people get their news and get their election information, which I think really had a big impact on the way that they voted this election.
Taylor Wilson:
So really, how did they impact things? Who did they ultimately go for?
Charles Trepany:
Trump gained a lot of ground with Gen Z as a whole, and he gained a lot of ground specifically with Gen-Z men. Overall, Gen Z women still went for Harris, so he gained ground with them too, but for Gen-Z men, according to NBC News exit polling, about 49% went for Trump and 47% went for Harris, which is very interesting, because I think it goes against conventional wisdom when it comes to elections, which is that young people tend to vote for Democrats and older people tend to vote for Republicans. Obviously, that's not entirely true, there's young conservatives and older liberals, but in general, that tends to be conventional wisdom. But this election really flew in the face of that.
And it's interesting because I talked to men's psychology experts to find out, well, what are young men going through right now that might push them more further to the right than in previous elections? Something that I heard was that young voters tend to favor the quote "rebellious" candidate, and in previous generations, those candidates were seen as liberal, the countercultural candidates, the candidates going against major institutions. Now, a lot of young people perceive that candidate to be Trump. A psychologist was telling me that a lot of men feel disenfranchised right now, they're dealing with loneliness, a lot of them are struggling financially, and in general when people feel disempowered, they also tend to support more subversive political movements. And in our current political moment, that subversive movement right now is the MAGA movement.
Taylor Wilson:
In terms of the Trump side of things, Charles, how did he really lean into this group on this podcast media tour he went on before the election? I found this fascinating. Why were some of these media spaces maybe unique compared to more mainstream circuits, and how did that really, I guess uniquely benefit Trump and help him cater to this group of voters?
Charles Trepany:
A lot of these podcasts are extremely popular among young people and Gen Z specifically, but I think for a lot of people over 30, they've never heard of them before. The Full Send Podcast with the Nelk Boys, This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von, Six Feet Under with Mark Calaway. And these podcasts specifically appeal directly to young men. They're very off the cuff, they're very informal, it's a lot of joking, it's a lot of bro talk, that kind of thing. And I think Trump knew specifically that, according to one of his campaign advisors that I spoke with, basically a lot of these voters are tuned out of legacy media. They don't watch CNN, they don't watch Fox, they don't watch MSNBC, they don't really read major newspapers, but they do tap into culture through these podcasts.
And I think Trump knew that if he could just get on these podcasts, he could speak to them directly in a way that no other politician currently was. And according to men's psychologists, this matters a lot to young men because a lot of them feel like as a group, whether or not it's justified or not, they do feel as if their issues aren't being talked about in mainstream media, so to have a candidate go on the podcast that they like, that they listen to, and speak directly to them, made them feel seen in a way that they haven't by other politicians. And I think that really helped clinch him the vote for that demographic.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. This was a terrific piece. I implore the listeners to go check out the full version with a link in today's show notes. Charles Trepany covers Wellness for Paste BN. Thank you, Charles.
Charles Trepany:
Thanks for having me.
♦
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of the Excerpt from Paste BN.