Tag: Audie Cornish

NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with David Brooks of The New York Times and E.J. He laid out a very good case on obstruction but felt he couldn't charge him because of the Justice Department rule that says you can't indict a president. CORNISH: Let me let David jump in here because you looked at this existentially, that there are a broadly kind of three-pronged threat, looking at Russia being one of them, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks another and then the White House itself, Donald Trump. He's always trying to interfere with investigations, do things that are against the rules. And so that undermines our sort of governmental infrastructure. The Russians are undermining our informational infrastructure by introducing falsehoods into the public debate. CORNISH: I want to go back to the attorney general's press conference. BROOKS: Well, I'd given him faith that he was being accurate in what was in the report. There have been some more moves among Senate Republicans. DIONNE: Well, yeah, that's two, right, exactly - maybe David, too.

And it was from these experiences that she learned something important — that she wanted nothing to do with politics. It was very difficult being married to a man that felt like politics was his destiny," Obama says. " Obama says it was "a little destabilizing to be a box-checker married to a serial swerver," and that she started questioning herself because she "could feel the force of his beliefs." Once they were married, and after two young daughters, Barack ran for public office, leaving corporate lawyer Michelle at home with the kids — a period Michelle Obama calls "irritating and hard." And people you love and people you want to build a life with, you're going to have to work through stuff with." It was the first part of that statement that was used as a sound bite, and Michelle Obama was accused of not loving her country, and criticized for being "an angry black woman." She says she was called "Obama's baby mama, and I put all that down [in her book] because I want young people to know there are highs and lows and rough patches and things you have to overcome." And being judged as a black woman was part of it, too. Obama recalls an instance as a child when she was visiting relatives and was asked why she was talking "like a white girl." Asked about her famous statement at the Democratic National Convention in 2016, "When they go low, we go high," Obama says it's still her belief, despite that even some Democrats feel it's out of step with the current political climate.

NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks network, and John Phillips of the Orange County Register CNN, and KABC, about the latest in the nomination process of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. - one of them joining Democrats in calling for further FBI investigation. PHILLIPS: That's right. They can talk to people who were involved. - which was just... PHILLIPS: Well... CORNISH: ...The testimony straightforwardly from the two people who are dealing with the allegations? KASPARIAN: Well, I think it's important to either confirm the innocence of Brett Kavanaugh or, if he did it, to provide that information or any possible corroborating information to the senators so they can make the right decision moving forward. It's about making sure that the country knows that our senators take these accusations seriously... CORNISH: Ana... KASPARIAN: ...And that they're going to vote. But if you go back to the Republican Convention when Ted Cruz gave his speech and didn't say vote for president Trump, he said vote your conscience. CORNISH: John Phillips, for you? PHILLIPS: Exactly.

NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Vox co-founder and editor Matthew Yglesias and Politico reporter Eliana Johnson about embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and the fear of a "blue wave" in Wisconsin. Now let's talk about some of the ways President Trump is changing policy and Washington. YGLESIAS: Well, you know, I think you see on some of these issues that I think what the president is doing is using public statements to force members of his administration to start working on things that they've been trying to slow-walk. CORNISH: Eliana, for you? But this is a case where everybody around the president is telling him that it's time for Scott Pruitt to go, and the president is resisting. CORNISH: Getting out of Washington for a bit, there was an election in Wisconsin this week where the Democratic-backed candidate won a seat on Wisconsin's Supreme Court. But the results garnered a high-profile response in this case from Wisconsin's Republican governor, Scott Walker. YGLESIAS: I mean, you know, this is yet another race in a swing state this time where you see, you know, Democrats just doing really well in down-ballot races. And feelings about the president have driven a lot more interest among Democrats in these kinds of races that were falling below the radar. CORNISH: Eliana Johnson is national political reporter for Politico, Matt Yglesias of Vox.