--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Leila Faldil: Last night, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump attacked each other's presidencies in their first debate.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But what defined a night where the falsehoods Trump spewed while Biden at times just didn't make sense.
--:-- Leila Faldil: I'm Leila Faldil, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- [Sound effects: Debate crowd]
--:-- Leila Faldil: The two men took jabs at each other during the 90-minute debate.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This place, the whole world is blowing up under him.
--:-- Leila Faldil: This guy's three years younger and a lot less competent.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And somehow the night ended with Biden and Trump trashing each other's golf game, who scored more points with the American public.
--:-- Leila Faldil: And Oklahoma's top education officials have ordered public schools to begin teaching the Bible in classrooms.
--:-- [Sound effects: Debate crowd]
--:-- Leila Faldil: What does this mean for students and teachers? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
--:-- [Sound effects: Upbeat music]
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--:-- Fernando Madeira: For me, sometimes I just need to go and talk to somebody that is not going to judge me, right? Is going to be there and going to listen to me. And I can start just saying, look, I'm not feeling right today. And it feels natural. I love it.
--:-- Announcer: To get matched with a therapist, visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from Lisa. Lisa mattresses are meticulously designed and assembled in the USA for exceptional quality.
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--:-- Announcer: Support for this podcast and the following message come from Enbridge.
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--:-- [Sound effects: Debate crowd]
--:-- Leila Faldil: Democrats and Republicans alike are absorbing what they saw in last night's presidential debate.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President Biden and former President Trump took questions from CNN moderators.
--:-- Leila Faldil: Biden's voice was raspy and he was sometimes hard to follow.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That alarmed prominent Democrats about a president who is 81.
--:-- [Sound effects: Debate crowd]
--:-- Leila Faldil: Asked a question about the national debt, the president said he would wipe it out.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And then he said his administration would also help with child care and health care.
--:-- Leila Faldil: Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with, look, if we finally beat Medicare.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thank you, President Biden.
--:-- [Sound effects: Debate crowd]
--:-- Leila Faldil: On his turns at the mic, Trump confidently and repeatedly made assertions that were often factually wrong.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He also repeated parts of his campaign speeches with little pushback or rebuttal, and each candidate described the other's presidency as a failure.
--:-- Leila Faldil: Our country doesn't have a chance, not even a chance, of coming out of this rut.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We probably won't have a country left anymore. That's how bad it is.
--:-- Leila Faldil: He is the worst in history by far. Thank you, President Trump.
--:-- Michelle Martin: President Biden? We are the most admired country in the world.
--:-- Leila Faldil: We're the United States of America. There's nothing beyond our capacity.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We have the finest military in the history of the world the finest in the history of the world No one thinks we weak No one wants to screw around with us Nobody
--:-- [Sound effects: Debate crowd]
--:-- Leila Faldil: President Biden and former President Trump trashing each other's golf game, who scored more points with the American public.
--:-- [Sound effects: Upbeat music]
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from Albert I.O. Albert I.O. started in 2011 to help students get ready for high-stakes tests like AP, SAT, and ACT.
--:-- Announcer: Now, teachers can take advantage of completely free adaptive learning products for math and ELA.
--:-- Announcer: Go to www.albert.io to get started.
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--:-- Announcer: This message comes from the NPR Wine Club, which has generated over $1.75 million to support NPR programming.
--:-- Announcer: Whether buying a few bottles or joining the club, you can learn more at nprwineclub.org slash podcast.
--:-- Announcer: Must be 21 or older to purchase.
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--:-- Announcer: Support for this podcast and the following message come from Betterment.
--:-- Announcer: Start investing in a better future.
--:-- Announcer: Whether it's saving for today or building wealth for tomorrow, Betterment helps people and small businesses put their money to work by automating to make savings simpler, optimizing to make investing smarter, and building innovative technology backed by financial experts.
--:-- Announcer: So be invested in yourself. Be invested in your business. Be invested in better with Betterment at Betterment.com.
--:-- Announcer: Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed.
--:-- [Sound effects: Upbeat music]
--:-- Leila Faldil: President Biden and former President Trump took questions from CNN moderators.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Biden's voice was raspy and he was sometimes hard to follow.
--:-- Leila Faldil: That alarmed prominent Democrats about a president who is 81.
--:-- [Sound effects: Debate crowd]
--:-- Leila Faldil: Our colleague Steve Inskeep anchored NPR coverage of the debate.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And we have on hand some of the NPR politics team who was watching with me, Daniel Kurtzleben and Domenico Montanaro.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Good morning to you both.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Hey there. Hey.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: What did you take away from this meeting?
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Well, I mean, first and foremost, I mean, the elephant in the room was that Democrats really were very nervous about the performance that Joe Biden gave.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: You know, people close to him on the record were talking about how this was a disappointing effort.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: You know, his campaign said that he had a cold. That's why his voice was hoarse.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: He sounded weak, somewhat feeble.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: And the problem with that is it plays into his key vulnerability, which is his age and his competency to do the job.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: And it didn't do anything to reassure the very voters that he needs to be reassured that he needs to go out and vote for him.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: I guess we should note the elephant in the room in this case would be a donkey.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: But Danielle, what were your impressions?
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Well, I'll take the Trump side of this here.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Let me just say that looking at my inbox, looking at Twitter, I guess we now call it X, Republicans especially are sort of doing a victory dance, saying that Trump looked so strong compared to Biden, who just looked old.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: But let's also keep in mind here that this is Trump.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: So he said a lot of things that are flat out not true.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Let's go through some of the issues that were discussed In the last several days on NPR News, we had debate prep.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: We went through various big issues we expected to come up, and they did, so we brought back some of our correspondents who were listening.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Scott Horsley. I cover the economy for NPR.
--:-- Scott Horsley: And what struck me about the debate tonight is how little we heard from either candidate about where they want to take the economy from here.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: A lot of finger-pointing, a lot of dubious claims, and very little in terms of where these two men want to take an economy that has performed well but where people are still anxious.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Every time they have to buy groceries or pay the rent.
--:-- Scott Horsley: Danielle, what do you make of that?
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Scott's right on that. Viewers watching this just probably didn't get great ideas of what these two want to do on the economy.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Now, on Trump's side, here are a couple bullet points.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: He favors 10% tariffs, a blanket across the board, which economists say would raise prices on U.S. consumers, meaning it would add to inflation, which is one of consumers' biggest economic concerns.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Now, Trump was asked about this, and he denied it, But tariffs very much do raise prices.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Now, one other plan that Trump has is to extend the 2017 tax cuts that he and Republicans in Congress imposed, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: That expires next year and the next president would have to work with Congress to extend it or not.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: Now, this is one area where they really differ.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Now, Biden wants to extend the tax cuts for people earning under $400,000 a year, which is to say the overwhelming majority of Americans.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: But that also means he wants to raise taxes on high-income Americans, which is a very popular policy idea.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Let's hear from another of our correspondents who is listening in.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Sergio Martinez Beltran, and I cover immigration for NPR.
--:-- Sergio Martinez Beltran: And one thing that I found interesting about this debate was the part when President Trump was asked whether he was going to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and he didn't respond.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: And I thought that was interesting because that has been a promise that President Trump has made.
--:-- Sergio Martinez Beltran: And this was his moment to arguably explain what would that look like.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: And he didn't respond to that.
--:-- Sergio Martinez Beltran: Why is that significant?
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Well, immigration has been the top issue for Trump and Republicans, certainly blaming Biden for the surge of migrants who've come into the country.
--:-- Sergio Martinez Beltran: But there are millions upon millions of people in the country who've been here for a long time, pay taxes.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: And it not quite as popular to say we going to deport everyone who is in the country outright carte blanche as opposed to keeping people out Yes Trump did pivot away from deportation.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: But on multiple other questions, he did bring things back to immigration.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: And these are questions about things that a lot of Americans care about. Child care, addiction, also lingering concerns about January 6th.
--:-- Sergio Martinez Beltran: And on all three of those, Trump pivoted back to immigration, tried to talk about immigrant crime that has happened while Biden has been president.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: This is, of course, one of Trump's big lines in his rally speeches in pretty much any interview he gives.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: So that's where he's comfortable.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: It's a thing that he just wanted to keep talking about.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: And that means he did not really answer questions about January 6th.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: They're about accepting a free and fair election.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Let's hear another of our correspondents who sent a voice memo.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the Trump campaign.
--:-- Frank Ordonez: And what I noticed in the debate was while Biden struggled with a raspy voice throughout the debate, he really perked up when Trump started to attack him on foreign policy.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Biden started to speak more forcefully when addressing his son, Beau Biden.
--:-- Frank Ordonez: But he also pushed back when talking about Ukraine and taking on Putin and bringing allies together.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Did we hear the things that Biden really cares about there?
--:-- Frank Ordonez: Well, I mean, arguably, there's no greater cleavage than foreign policy between these two men, because they just feel completely differently about how to handle it, how to appear on the world stage, how to unite allies together, whether or not you should even be involved in NATO at all.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: And this is something that Biden has dealt with for decades.
--:-- Frank Ordonez: He was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee while he was a senator.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: He feels very strongly about this.
--:-- Frank Ordonez: He's traveled all over the world, takes it very personally, especially when Trump attacks him, saying that he doesn't care about veterans or veterans don't like him.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: And he's able to use that to sort of talk about his son, Beau, who had died, and to sort of throw that back at Trump to make Trump look like somebody who doesn't care.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR's Domenico Montanaro and Daniel Kurtzleben. Thanks to you both.
--:-- Domenico Montanaro: You're welcome.
--:-- Daniel Kurtzleben: Yeah, thanks.
--:-- [Sound effects: Upbeat music]
--:-- Leila Faldil: We're going to go from the debate stage to Oklahoma, where a new mandate requires all schools to teach from the Bible.
--:-- Michelle Martin: State Superintendent Ryan Walter says the requirement will ensure students grasp the, quote, core values of our country.
--:-- Leila Faldil: But the announcement brought an immediate backlash.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Beth Wallace is an educational reporter for State Impact Oklahoma, which is a nonprofit reporting collaboration among NPR stations.
--:-- Beth Wallace: Good morning, Beth. Good morning.
--:-- Leila Faldil: So what exactly does this new requirement say?
--:-- Beth Wallace: So Walters originally announced that every classroom would have a Bible and every teacher would teach from the Bible.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But those details began to evolve throughout the day.
--:-- Beth Wallace: In a memo to schools and when pressed by reporters, he clarified that it would only be for 5th through 12th graders and only for social studies and English.
--:-- Leila Faldil: I should also say Walters is a conservative who has made a name for himself nationally by vowing to get wokeness out of the classroom.
--:-- Beth Wallace: So this is very on brand for him.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But the obvious question here is, can he do that?
--:-- Beth Wallace: I mean, separation of church and state, you know, the prohibition against the sort of promotion of one state religion, those are core American values, not to mention constitutional requirements.
--:-- Leila Faldil: So can he do that?
--:-- Beth Wallace: Well, so in Oklahoma, our social studies standards say you should teach religion as part of history.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And it outlines several ways religious history should be incorporated.
--:-- Beth Wallace: For example, the role of Christianity in colonial America or the significance of religion in world geography and borders
--:-- Leila Faldil: And Walters did clarify that he wants teachings on the Bible impacts to be quote strictly from a historical perspective, which that's pretty close to what the academic standards say anyway.
--:-- Beth Wallace: But he's also not leaving out of his argument these very common refrains we've heard a lot from him about what he considers to be leftist influence in schools.
--:-- Michelle Martin: What we have done is taken God out of schools, taken the Bible out of schools, and it doesn't make sense to teach American history without understanding what the founders were saying as they were doing these momentous things.
--:-- Leila Faldil: You know, I also think it's important to note that Oklahoma law is very clear on decisions about textbooks and curriculum and instructional materials.
--:-- Beth Wallace: Those decisions fall exclusively under the purview of school districts and not the State Department that Walters is in charge of.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Given all that, what's been the reaction?
--:-- Beth Wallace: So I talked to the State Attorney General's office, and they said they've looked at the letter to schools.
--:-- Leila Faldil: They actually don't read it as requiring the Bible to be taught.
--:-- Beth Wallace: I also spoke with a Democratic state representative, Jacob Rosecrans.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He used to be a middle and high school history teacher.
--:-- Beth Wallace: And he said he's been reached out to by hundreds of teachers who are concerned and confused.
--:-- Leila Faldil: And they're like, OK, this is really, really bad. Like, why would somebody even do this?
--:-- Beth Wallace: We already had the freedom to do this. Why would somebody mandate this happen?
--:-- Michelle Martin: You know, we're also seeing civil liberties groups come out against this.
--:-- Beth Wallace: The group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, they already have a few lawsuits against Walters.
--:-- Leila Faldil: They said in a statement that they would do everything in their power to stop the mandate.
--:-- Beth Wallace: That is Beth Wells with State Impact Oklahoma.
--:-- Beth Wallace: Thank you so much.
--:-- [Sound effects: Upbeat music]
--:-- Leila Faldil: And that's Up First for Friday, June 28th.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I'm Michelle Martin.
--:-- Leila Faldil: And I'm Leila Faldil.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Don't forget, Up First airs on the weekend, too.
--:-- Leila Faldil: Aisha Roscoe and Scott Simon have the news.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It'll be here in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Leila Faldil: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Andrea DeLeon, Megan Pratz, H.J. Mai, Jenea Williams, and Lisa Thompson.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It was produced by Paige Waterhouse, Ziad Butch, Chris Thomas, and Katie Klein.
--:-- Leila Faldil: We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott and our technical director is Zach Coleman.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Our executive producer is Erika Aguilar.
--:-- Leila Faldil: Join us again on Monday.
--:-- [Theme music starts playing]
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from Albert I.O. Albert I.O. started in 2011 to help students get ready for high-stakes tests like AP, SAT, and ACT.
--:-- Announcer: Now, teachers can take advantage of completely free adaptive learning products for math and ELA.
--:-- Announcer: Go to www.albert.io to get started.
--:-- [Theme music continues]
--:-- Announcer: This message comes from the NPR Wine Club, which has generated over $1.75 million to support NPR programming.
--:-- Announcer: Whether buying a few bottles or joining the club, you can learn more at nprwineclub.org slash podcast.
--:-- Announcer: Must be 21 or older to purchase.
--:-- [Theme music continues]
--:-- Announcer: Support for this podcast and the following message come from Betterment.
--:-- Announcer: Start investing in a better future.
--:-- Announcer: Whether it's saving for today or building wealth for tomorrow, Betterment helps people and small businesses put their money to work by automating to make savings simpler, optimizing to make investing smarter, and building innovative technology backed by financial experts.
--:-- Announcer: So be invested in yourself. Be invested in your business. Be invested in better with Betterment at Betterment.com.
--:-- Announcer: Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed.
