On Thursday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: The first Senate Democrat has called on President Joe Biden toleave the presidential race. Plus, Biden campaign officialswill meet with Senate Democrats Thursdayas concerns spike over his reelection bid. USA TODAY Breaking News and Education Reporter Zach Schermele breaks down a Supreme Court ruling thatcurbed federal oversight of schools. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has filedarticles of impeachmentagainst Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. AnIsraeli strike hit a Gaza soccer match, killing dozens, witnesses say. USA TODAY Congress and Campaigns Reporter Savannah Kuchar discusses how Democrats are taking aim atProject 2025. Team USA's rosteris set for the Paris Olympics.
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 Thursday, July 11th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, President Biden's dam begins to crack, plus how a Supreme Court decision will impact American schools. And Democrats take aim at Project 2025.
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Democratic Senator Peter Welch became the first senator to call for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race yesterday, arguing the move would be for the good of the country. He outlined his concerns in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post last night. His piece follows comments from Senator Michael Bennet on CNN on Tuesday, warning that former president Donald Trump could beat Biden "by a landslide and take with it the Senate and the House." And yesterday Democratic former house speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to question whether Biden should remain the Democratic nominee During an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Still, she said that it's up to him to decide if he's going to run.
Congressional Democrats are frozen over the decision on whether to pressure President Joe Biden to step aside to be replaced by a new nominee. Making the wrong decision could have lasting ramifications for the party and the country. At stake is not just the White House or control of the House and Senate, but the future of democracy itself, Democrats say. Congressman Ro Khanna has been one of Biden's top surrogates said "the passion of the conversation is because you don't have a Mitt Romney on the other side, you have Donald Trump and a radical agenda firing civil servants, and restricting abortion, and deporting immigrants. And the party wants to make sure that we're putting forward our best shot for victory."
And it's not just lawmakers speaking out this week, actor George Clooney, a high profile supporter of President Joe Biden, argued in a New York Times op-ed published yesterday that the Democratic Party needs a new nominee. Today, democratic senators will meet with a handful of President Joe Biden's campaign officials as lawmakers determine how and whether to continue to support Biden's reelection bid. Another test is set for the president tonight when he hosts a press conference from the NATO Summit. You can follow along with usatoday.com.
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The Supreme Court may have fundamentally altered American schooling. In a decision handed down just over a week ago, the court reigned in federal oversight of schools. I spoke with USA TODAY breaking news and education reporter, Zach Schermele, to put the ruling in context. Zach, thanks for hopping on.
Zach Schermele:
Thanks for having me, Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
So Zach, the High Court's conservative justices rejected this precedent known as the Chevron Deference, a standard set by a 1984 case, Chevron versus Natural Resources Defense Counsel, which gave federal agencies latitude to clarify ambiguous laws passed by Congress. So what exactly did the court decide here?
Zach Schermele:
The case was brought by herring fishermen actually who objected to being forced to pay for federal inspections of their catch. But like many Supreme Court cases, the case is actually about something much broader. It centers more so around a 40-year-old precedent that gives federal agencies pretty wide latitude to interpret vague laws written by Congress. In the Supreme Court's majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts concluded that it's the job of the judicial branch of government to interpret the law, not government bureaucrats. Conservatives have really touted this as a long overdue curtailing of big government.
What this means practically is still an open question, Taylor, but a pretty vast array of current and former staffers in the federal Education Department are pretty alarmed. Essentially, the ruling could give judges the power to potentially make really complex policy decisions. Though it affects every federal agency, the Education Department is uniquely impacted, I would argue because federal education policy isn't always something that Congress is quick to put at the top of its to-do list. K-12 education policy is largely left to state and local governments, and oversight of colleges isn't something Congress has been too concerned with in recent years.
One of the most immediate concerns is how the decision could affect LGBTQ plus students who have been waiting on the Biden administration to officially codify anti-discrimination protections under the federal law, commonly known as Title IX. That guidance was vulnerable to legal challenges before. It's blocked, in fact, from taking effect in many states at this very moment as you and I are talking and now this ruling could open it up to even more litigation.
Taylor Wilson:
Another issue you and I have talked about here on the show, Zach, student debt relief. What does this ruling mean for that?
Zach Schermele:
I think that's a huge question here. We've talked about it ad nauseam it feels like, but same thing as with Title IX. A lot of the statutory authority the Biden administration is relying on to enact the billions of dollars in student debt relief for millions of Americans that it has enacted can be traced back in some way to Chevron Deference. So this decision could jeopardize some of the many avenues Biden has been taking to lift those burdens on borrowers going forward. Remember, the Supreme Court already struck down his first major plan last summer. We could see some of those same types of decisions, I think, in the future.
Taylor Wilson:
Who are the main supporters and detractors of this Supreme Court decision and what do they argue on either side?
Zach Schermele:
Overturning Chevron was the culmination of really a decades long push by conservatives to dismantle what they deem the administrative state. Republicans, along with advocates of for-profit colleges think the education department has just become too powerful in recent years and they think that power needs to be reigned in. But detractors, especially folks inside the government, Taylor, and students waiting on help say that Congress hasn't stepped up to do its job to regulate in recent years. As we speak, Taylor, Federal lawmakers still haven't passed the Education Department's next annual funding bill, and that's just to keep the lights on in the agency, let alone pass more laws.
Taylor Wilson:
So going forward, what's next on this issue? And will we hear about this again in the courts?
Zach Schermele:
We're just going to have to wait and see really how this all plays out in the court system, but I would expect more lawsuits not less, to come down the pike. Justice Elena Kagan, a member of the court's liberal minority, warned in her dissenting opinion, that shutting out the government's vast reserve of experts could come at a cost. I'll just paraphrase some of her words here, which were, "In every sphere of current or future federal regulation, expect courts from now on to play a commanding role."
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Zach Zach Schermele covers breaking news and education for USA TODAY. Thanks, Zach.
Zach Schermele:
Thanks, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Meanwhile, in other Supreme Court news this week, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has filed articles of impeachment against Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito over alleged ethics violations and political bias. The move is an expression of liberal frustration with ethical and ideological issues on the court, but has no chance of success. The impeachment articles focus on missing financial disclosures along with Thomas and Alito's refusal to recuse themselves from multiple high profile cases. Democrats have accused both justices of being biased in favor of former President Donald Trump in cases related to his attempts to overturn 2020 election results. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.
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Israel struck a tent encampment in southern Gaza on Tuesday just as displaced people gathered there to watch a soccer match at a school, according to eyewitnesses yesterday. Palestinian officials say at least 29 people, mostly women and children were killed in the strike. The Israeli military said it was reviewing reports that civilians were harmed. It said the incident occurred when it struck with a precise munition, a Hamas fighter who took part in the October 7th attacks on Israel. Israeli forces continued their offensive in north and central Gaza yesterday and pushed deeper into two Gaza City districts, carrying out house to house searches. Hamas said the renewed Israeli campaign threatened to derail efforts for a ceasefire with talk set to resume in Qatar this week.
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President Joe Biden and Democrats have taken aim at Project 2025, a broad conservative plan. It includes policy proposals with right wing priorities for everything from America's education system to the border and abortion restrictions. I spoke with USA TODAY congress and campaigns reporter, Savannah Kuchar, to learn more about the project and how Democrats are going after it. Savannah, thanks for hopping on.
Savannah Kuchar:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Savannah, starting with the basics, what is Project 2025?
Savannah Kuchar:
So Project 2025 is very broad. For starters, the creation was led by the Heritage Foundation, which is a conservative think tank in D.C. Just to note, several authors behind Project 2025 are Trump allies or former members of the Trump administration. And it's a over-900 page plan of basically a playbook for the next conservative president of the country to follow. And it includes ideas to target the executive branch and it really lays out several proposals that cover so many different areas of policy from getting federal agencies like the FBI to eliminating the Department of Education and then also banning abortion drugs like Miltefosine.
Taylor Wilson:
And you mentioned it's a conservative plan. Are all conservatives on board here? And how does former president Donald Trump view this plan?
Savannah Kuchar:
So I think it's fair to say that you can't say all conservatives are behind it. And certainly we've seen Republicans who have previously opposed Trump are also coming out against Project 2025, including the Lincoln Project just this week released a new video illustrating what they say would happen under a Trump administration that follows Project 2025. And Trump himself has sought to distance himself from the project. He's gone on social media and said that he knows nothing about it and even saying he disagrees with it. So he's tried to put that distance there.
Taylor Wilson:
And meanwhile, how are President Joe Biden and Democrats going after this project?
Savannah Kuchar:
So for starters, they are countering Trump's claims where he tries to put distance between himself and Project 2025. And they're also really trying to raise the alarm, say that it is a threat to democracy, say that it is a dangerous plan, and that includes President Biden as well as other lawmakers like Jamie Raskin and also progressive groups like the Center for American Progress.
Taylor Wilson:
Savannah, in terms of the voters, what has polling found about Americans' views when it comes to this project?
Savannah Kuchar:
There was some recent polling done by the Center for American Progress as well as another left leaning group, Accountable.US. Of course, they are trying to raise awareness, but in their polling, they are saying that they found general public opinion is against Project 2025 and some of the specific proposals like eliminating overtime pay for workers or a national abortion ban. They're saying that those are among some of the most unpopular proposals.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, interesting stuff. Savannah Kuchar covers Congress and campaigns for USA TODAY. Thank you, Savannah.
Savannah Kuchar:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Team USA is officially set for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee yesterday unveiled the full final roster for its team, a group of nearly 600 athletes who will represent the United States across 31 different sports in Paris. Gymnast Simone Biles, swimmer Katie Ledecky, and sprinter Noah Lyles, are among the returning Olympians and presumptive gold medal favorites who headline Team USA. And the team is expected to bring one of the largest delegations to the Paris games. You can follow along with USA TODAY Sports for the build-up and throughout the games, which begin July 26th.
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It's been four years since pandemic lockdowns transformed how we work, spurring The Great Resignation, quiet quitting, and higher rates of burnout. And we still haven't quite figured it out. What are we still getting wrong? My colleague, Dana Taylor, spoke with Harvard professor and best-selling author, Arthur Brooks, about how we navigate the future of hybrid work. Catch their conversation right here on this feed beginning at 4:00 PM Eastern Time today.
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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 USA TODAY.
