--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, January 22nd. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Presidents in this country have broad powers, but they are not kings. They do not have the power to unilaterally disregard our laws. That's true for Donald Trump. That's true for every president that came before him and every president who will come after him.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Two days into his presidency, Donald Trump is facing pushback over his avalanche of executive orders. This is an extreme and unprecedented act, and this executive order is an assault on the rule of law.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Twenty-two state attorneys general, including Matthew Platkin of New Jersey, sued Trump on Tuesday over his executive order undermining birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. They called it a clear violation of the 14th Amendment.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We know that the executive order would wreak havoc and chaos. Hundreds of thousands of children who are born in this country to non-citizen parents each year will suddenly have an uncertain legal status. That's at least 420 children born every single day. If the order is not blocked by the courts, it will kick in next month.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump is also facing a lawsuit over his executive order that will make it easier to fire federal workers. Right now, those workers are supposed to be hired based on merit and can't be arbitrarily dismissed. But Trump's order could open the door for career civil servants to be replaced by political appointees.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And a union representing 50,000 government employees has sued, saying that could radically reshape federal agencies and disrupt everything from law enforcement to environmental protection efforts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Also on Tuesday...
--:-- [Audio clip of Bishop Marianne Edgar Budde speaking]
--:-- Bishop Marianne Edgar Budde: Let me make one final plea, Mr. President.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Bishop Marianne Edgar Budde turned to Trump as he was sitting in the front row during the inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral.
--:-- Bishop Marianne Edgar Budde: I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: She called on Trump to consider the impact of his crackdown on immigration. And she said fear was spreading among LGBTQ Americans as Trump rolled back protections for transgender people.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump looked away. But he told The Times, quote, I wasn't necessarily calling the president out. I was trying to say the country has been entrusted to you.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Late last night, Trump berated the bishop on social media, calling her a radical left hardline Trump hater and demanding an apology for the sermon.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, the Trump administration is pushing forward with its plans to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives inside the federal government. They've set a deadline of 5 p.m. today for federal agencies to place all their DEI staff on paid leave and come up with plans to shut down their offices.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They've also said outgoing staff will be questioned when they leave about whether there are any remaining DEI efforts in place. The executive order that outlines the rollback says that DEI initiatives undermine hard work and individual achievement in favor of a pernicious identity-based system.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It marks a 180-degree turn from how the Biden administration saw DEI work as an effort to support underserved communities and address racial inequalities.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And with that, I will welcome you to the Department of State. Colleagues, the 72nd Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
--:-- Marco Rubio: [No dialogue]
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President Trump's first cabinet member, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has officially been sworn in. For the former senator from Florida, the confirmation process was smooth. The Senate voted 99-0 to approve him.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But there's been a new complication for one of Trump's other highest-level picks, Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Yesterday, his former sister-in-law submitted a sworn statement to the Senate, saying she saw Hegseth drinking excessively on numerous occasions, including while in his military uniform.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: She also claimed Hegseth was abusive towards his second wife leading her to hide in a closet on one occasion out of fear and text for help.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: According to the affidavit, she did not witness the abuse firsthand and Hegseth ex said in her own affidavit there was no physical abuse.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But the new allegations are strikingly similar to others that have surfaced about the former Fox News host and Army veteran, including a financial settlement he paid to a woman who accused him of rape.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Hegseth has vigorously denied the allegations against him. And Republicans are still pushing his nomination forward.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma told reporters yesterday that he thinks the allegations are part of a smear campaign.
--:-- Senator Mark Wayne Mullen: Pete is going to be the secretary of defense, period. The Dems can do whatever they want to, say whatever they want to. He's denied allegations.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A full Senate vote on Hegseth could come within days.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Gaza, since the moment the ceasefire took effect this weekend, people have been trying to make their way back to their homes to assess the damage.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Many of the nearly two million people there were displaced at least once during the war, and much of the territory has been destroyed by Israeli forces.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Times spoke with one family from the city of Rafa. Before they were forced to leave, the Dahlez family lived in this two-story, house next to a farm where they kept sheep, rabbits, chickens.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They had olive groves and date palms. This was a house that the father of the family had built back in 1971.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And like a lot of Gazan families, it was several generations living in the same house.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleagues Vivian Yee and Bilal Shabert have been reporting on the family's return home after eight months of living in tents.
--:-- Vivian Yee: As soon as the fighting stopped, they decided to try to see it for themselves. They jumped in a car and set out for their old neighborhood, and they're driving around looking for their house, and they just don't see anything.
--:-- Bilal Shabert: And they realized they had just driven past it without even recognizing it because it was so destroyed.
--:-- Vivian Yee: The grandfather who built the house was just so shocked that he kind of lost his breath and had to be taken back to their tent to recover and rest.
--:-- Bilal Shabert: After absorbing that it was gone, they decided to try to look for anything they could salvage, whether it was winter clothes for their kids or diplomas.
--:-- Vivian Yee: But in the end, they didn't find much.
--:-- Bilal Shabert: Everything they found from this house that three generations of this family had grown up in fit into the back of their car.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Like a lot of Gazans, they would love to rebuild, given the resources, but they're also just not sure, will this ceasefire last? Is the war actually going to end in any kind of stable way?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So if that happens, they're planning to clear some land and kind of camp out there until they can rebuild, but they're not even sure that will happen.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally...
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Yeah, we're talking about snow in Florida, folks. Frosted trees and snow are covering the highway.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A record-breaking winter storm sweeping across the southern U.S., piling up snow where that just does not happen.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Can you believe this picture right now in Baton Rouge, Louisiana?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The first ever blizzard warning was issued for parts of Texas and Louisiana.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: At least 10 people have died in the storm.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Thousands of flights have been canceled, airports closed, and whole stretches of highway, including Interstate 10, have been shut down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Still, the rare sight of any snow at all has brought many people outside.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In New Orleans, people are using the levees as ski slopes, and kids who've never had any reason in their whole lives to own a sled have been out there sliding down hills on cookie sheets.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The last time a lot of the region got this much snow was the Gulf Storm of 1895.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The mayor of Pensacola, Florida, where the snow's been stacking up, said some people have tried to downplay the weather, saying, oh, it's just a few inches.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He asked them, quote, well, how would someone in Michigan or Minnesota react to a Category 2 hurricane?
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, more on Trump's crackdown at the southern border.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
