--:-- [Theme music fades out]
--:-- Leila Fadel: I was watching a cult documentary. A cult documentary? It's about a sort of like a yoga wellness thing that really ends up being a cult. Yoga wellness? Okay.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Did you watch? Have you watched it?
--:-- Leila Fadel: No, no, no. Have you seen the documentary about the cult that they listen to the radio and have tote bags?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Yeah. That's a good cult, though. That's acceptable. Yeah, exactly. No, they're fine.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Senators will consider President-elect Trump's choice for attorney general.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Florida lawmaker Matt Gaetz is best known as a provocateur who faced an ethics probe and supported a bid to overturn an election.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Do Republicans go along?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Fadel and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- [Theme music continues]
--:-- Leila Fadel: Blue state governors are organizing to resist the new president's promised policies. What we're doing is pushing back against increasing threats of autocracy and fortifying the institutions of democracy.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, but what do they actually do?
--:-- Leila Fadel: And Paris police are on high alert as France and Israel face off in a soccer match.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The precautions come after violence broke out following an Israeli soccer match in the Netherlands last week.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Can French authorities avoid a repeat?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This message comes from BetterHelp. It's only human to ask others for advice, like turning to your barista, hairdresser, or a taxi driver for life advice.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But when you're looking for help about relationships, anxiety, depression, or other clinical issues, they may not have all the right answers.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Instead, get guidance from a licensed therapist online with BetterHelp.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This message comes from Lisa. Lisa mattresses are meticulously designed and assembled in the USA for exceptional quality, and each mattress is designed with specific sleep positions and feel preferences in mind.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Plus, they back it all up with free shipping, easy returns, and a 100-night sleep trial.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Visit Lisa.com for 25% off mattresses, plus get an extra $50 off with promo code NPR.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That's L-E-E-S-A dot com, promo code NPR.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This message comes from Nidhi Health. If you're a woman over 40 dealing with hot flashes, insomnia, weight gain, or brain fog, you don't have to accept it as just another part of aging.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The clinicians at MidiHealth understand what you're experiencing and know how to help.
--:-- Leila Fadel: MidiHealth provides specialized care for perimenopause and menopause, covered by insurance.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Book your visit today at joinmidi.com.
--:-- Leila Fadel: That's joinmidi.com.
--:-- [Theme music continues]
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Allies of President-elect Trump have said his choice for Attorney General was the most important of all his cabinet selections.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Now we know his choice, a Florida lawmaker who's faced repeated investigations.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Congressman Matt Gaetz gained attention in recent years as a provocateur.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Early in the pandemic, he wore a gas mask onto the floor of the House of Representatives.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Later, he took part in the bid to overturn Trump's 2020 election defeat and also played a big role in unseating House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Democrats and also some Republicans immediately questioned Trump's choice and Maine Senator Susan Collins said she was shocked.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR Justice Correspondent Carrie Johnson has been following the reaction, and she's here to talk more about it now.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: Good morning, Layla.
--:-- Layla Fadel: Good morning, Carrie. Okay, so President-elect Trump has made no secret about his disgust with the Justice Department, which sought to prosecute him twice during the Biden years.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: What does the selection of Matt Gaetz say about the direction Trump might be going?
--:-- Layla Fadel: I think it says a lot. Just like Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz has been under investigation by federal prosecutors and the FBI.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: In Gaetz's case for allegations about sex trafficking, Gaetz faced no criminal charges, and he said that federal investigation is over.
--:-- Layla Fadel: But he still been under review by the Ethics Committee in the House of Representatives.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: That ethics probe actually ended when he resigned from the House last night.
--:-- Layla Fadel: The committee had been planning to release their findings perhaps as early as this week but it's not clear that will happen now that Gates has resigned from the House.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: And Layla, it's also worth mentioning Matt Gates actually asked Donald Trump for a pardon in the final weeks of the last Trump administration after the siege on the Capitol, but he did not get one.
--:-- Layla Fadel: So what about credentials? What credentials does Gates bring to the Justice Department?
--:-- Carrie Johnson: Gates has minimal legal experience, but he seems to have the most important credential for the incoming president, and that's loyalty.
--:-- Layla Fadel: Trump called Gates a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney who stands out for pushing for deeply needed reform at the Justice Department.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: And Trump says Gates will root out what he calls corruption within the Justice Department and perhaps carry out what the president-elect has called his campaign of retribution against prosecutors and his perceived political enemies.
--:-- Layla Fadel: As you heard Steve mention, Gates has been a controversial figure in Congress.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: What's the reaction to this idea?
--:-- Layla Fadel: You know, it was surprising to many lawyers in Washington, including some prominent Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: Both senators expressed surprise last night. Matt Gates has really been a firebrand, really a disruptive force, even within the House of Representatives.
--:-- Layla Fadel: Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, says Matt Gaetz will be a disaster, and the interest group Public Citizen called him uniquely awful.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: That group pointed out Gaetz said the Capitol riot was not an insurrection and that Gaetz had actually moved to introduce legislation to support the rioters.
--:-- Layla Fadel: Okay, so if Gaetz manages to get confirmed by Congress, Carrie, just remind us what exactly the attorney general does.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: It's a huge job. The attorney general runs an institution with more than 100,000 people, prosecutes crimes, defends civil rights laws, fights drug trafficking, and oversees the FBI.
--:-- Layla Fadel: This job requires strong judgment and respect for the law.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: Okay, Carrie, so next year Republicans will control the Senate with 53 votes. Are the prospects for Gates to be confirmed pretty high?
--:-- Layla Fadel: You know, it's hard to say at this point. Matt Gaetz is actually not a popular figure on Capitol Hill.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: And many senators who had been critical of him also said last night they respect President-elect Trump and that Trump deserves to have his own people in place for key jobs.
--:-- Layla Fadel: Trump has also floated the idea of forcing Congress into a recess and making cabinet appointments that way if his choices meet with resistance or delay in the Senate.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: We're going to be watching that closely since it could deprive the Senate of its duty of advice and consent and really upset the balance of power.
--:-- Layla Fadel: That is NPR's Carrie Johnson. Thank you for your reporting, Carrie.
--:-- Carrie Johnson: My pleasure.
--:-- [Theme music continues]
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Several Democratic-led states are taking steps to prepare for a second Trump term.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Right. Many blue state governors and attorney generals are forming coalitions and developing plans to try and push back against policies they expect from the incoming administration.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Democratic leaders are making state-level efforts to protect against what they describe as threats to democracy and constitutional norms as Republican states prepare for a more aligned federal government.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Talking about this is NPR's Ryland Barton, who's on the line.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Good morning, Steve.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, so what are the Democratic state leaders doing exactly?
--:-- Ryland Barton: So one of the efforts is this new group called Governors Safeguarding Democracy, led by Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker and Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis.
--:-- Leila Fadel: It's unclear specifically what this group hopes to accomplish, but broadly, they say they're going to work with legal experts and advocates to tackle what they call these challenges facing democracy.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Here's Governor Pritzker on a call with reporters Tuesday.
--:-- Ryland Barton: And together what we're doing is pushing back against increasing threats of autocracy and fortifying the institutions of democracy that our country and our states depend upon.
--:-- Leila Fadel: I should say that nowhere on their website or in their announcement did they say anything about Trump.
--:-- Ryland Barton: One specific thing they responded to on the phone, though, was this idea of Trump's incoming deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, has floated that mass deportations in blue states could be accomplished using National Guard units from red states.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Pritzker called that unacceptable and said he would not cooperate.
--:-- Ryland Barton: In response to the effort from Democratic state leaders, a spokesperson for Trump's transition team wrote to us that the American people gave President-elect Trump a mandate to implement his promises and he would deliver.
--:-- Leila Fadel: That's something that Stephen Miller did say at one time on a podcast.
--:-- Ryland Barton: So I'm trying to think this through. I know that when there's a Democratic president that red states, Republican-led states have often gotten together. They've sued. They've organized in different ways. Texas, for example, has been very prominent.
--:-- Leila Fadel: So what would the blue states do now?
--:-- Ryland Barton: So, so far in California, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has called a special legislative session for lawmakers to, as he put it, protect California values.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Now, Newsom did single out the incoming Trump administration, saying the session would focus on bolstering California legal resources to protect civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action, and immigrant families.
--:-- Ryland Barton: The session begins December 2nd, but the only specific we have so far is that he wants more funding to fight the federal government in court.
--:-- Leila Fadel: California has been a prolific challenger of Trump's, or was a prolific challenger of Trump's first administration. They filed over 100 lawsuits back then on things from climate to health care to immigration.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Courts are a lot more conservative now after a wave of appointments from President Trump.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Several other Democratic attorneys general are also promising similar actions, including Arizona, Minnesota, and Washington state.
--:-- Ryland Barton: It's not unusual, as you just said, for states to file these lawsuits against an administration.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Republican attorneys general filed dozens of lawsuits against the Biden administration over the last four years.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Okay, taking a wild guess, Republican states might have fewer reasons to sue a Trump administration, but how are they preparing for this new term?
--:-- Leila Fadel: Well, Republican state leaders are gearing up for the policies Trump talked about when voters in their states voted for him.
--:-- Ryland Barton: They're ready to chart their own course on things like the environment, education, health care.
--:-- Leila Fadel: It's interesting to think about Republican state leaders like Texas Governor Greg Abbott, whose Operation Lone Star was a direct challenge to the federal government over whether the state could enforce border policies.
--:-- Ryland Barton: He and other GOP governors spent the last four years fighting the federal government. Now they'll likely be aligned with it.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Rylan Barton, thanks so much.
--:-- Ryland Barton: Thank you.
--:-- [Theme music continues]
--:-- Leila Fadel: Thousands of police are being deployed around a Paris stadium ahead of a soccer match tonight between the French and Israeli national teams.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This is a high-security match, which is going ahead despite calls for postponement or a change of venue because of anti-Semitic and anti-Arab violence that took place in Amsterdam last week when an Israeli team from Tel Aviv played there.
--:-- Leila Fadel: We go to NPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Paris to find out more.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: Good morning, Leila.
--:-- Leila Fadel: So this game is being described as high risk over the possible tensions between fans. So why are officials going ahead with it?
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: Well, French officials say they will not back down in the face of anti-Semitic threats or violence.
--:-- Leila Fadel: The French interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said they are able to secure the match so it will go ahead in the Stade de France, just north of Paris.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: That's where they recently held many Olympic events.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Retailleau condemned the attacks against Jewish fans in Amsterdam and said it was a reminder of the worst days of Europe's past and they would have none of it.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: Let's listen to him.
--:-- Leila Fadel: There were also reports of soccer hooliganism on the part of Israeli fans. They were filmed ripping down Palestinian flags on apartment buildings and chanting death to Arabs.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: So how will the French secure the stadium?
--:-- Leila Fadel: By deploying 4 police, that's four times more than usual with double layers of security inside and outside the stadium.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: I was out at the Stade de France yesterday, and they were making a security perimeter with high fences around the stadium.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And all the restaurants and bars that usually make a lot of money on game nights told me they'd been ordered to close tonight.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: You know, Israel has discouraged its citizens from going, and officials say fewer than 13,000 tickets have been sold in a stadium that seats 80,000.
--:-- Leila Fadel: So that's basically a policeman for every three people attending.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: France has the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe.
--:-- Leila Fadel: How do people feel about the war in Gaza after more than a year?
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: Yeah, well, French officials are very wary of this conflict being imported to French streets.
--:-- Leila Fadel: So far, that's been avoided.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: But anti-Semitic acts are up. And increasingly, French Jews say they feel like they're being blamed for the war, especially the longer it goes on.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Last night, there were demonstrations against a planned visit of a far-right Israeli minister who supports the Israeli settler movement.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: He didn't come in the end, but the demonstrations went ahead.
--:-- Leila Fadel: One included a group of Jewish groups. And some of these people said they had not demonstrated since last October 7th when Hamas attacked Israel.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: But they said they felt they needed to come out and denounce this never-ending war.
--:-- Leila Fadel: They were chanting, we want a ceasefire and a two-state solution now.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: Hélène was one of the demonstrators. The young woman said she did not feel safe providing her last name for broadcast.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Let's listen.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: She said we should not confuse the Jews and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And that's the problem right now in the West.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: She said we're making Jews feel guilty for Netanyahu's murderous war in Gaza.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And what are the teams saying?
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: Well, Israeli fans interviewed this morning on the radio said they felt they had already lost with all the security and fear.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Meanwhile, the French coach says, let's try to have a normal match.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: President Macron will go, he says, to support the French team and in fraternity and solidarity.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And two other former French presidents are going.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: It seems to be a point of national pride that this sporting event goes off peacefully.
--:-- Leila Fadel: NPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Paris. Thank you, Eleanor.
--:-- Eleanor Beardsley: Thank you.
--:-- [Theme music continues]
--:-- Leila Fadel: And that's Up First for Thursday, November 14th. I'm Leila Fadel.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Your next listen can be Consider This from NPR.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Democrats are considering their political future after losing last week's election. What do they do to change?
--:-- Leila Fadel: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Ana Yukhananov, Larry Kaplow, Ryland Barton, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Julie Jephan-Brock.
--:-- Leila Fadel: We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Join us again tomorrow.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This message comes from Lisa. Lisa mattresses are meticulously designed and assembled in the USA for exceptional quality, and each mattress is designed with specific sleep positions and feel preferences in mind.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Plus, they back it all up with free shipping, easy returns, and a 100-night sleep trial.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Visit Lisa.com for 25% off mattresses, plus get an extra $50 off with promo code NPR.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That's L-E-E-S-A dot com, promo code NPR.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This message comes from Grainger. For the ones who get it done, Grainger offers access to over a million products and the scale to deliver when and where you need them.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The right tools and supplies are never far away. Call, click Grainger.com, or just stop by.
--:-- Leila Fadel: This message comes from AT&T. Staying connected matters.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That's why AT&T has connectivity you can count on, or they'll proactively make it right.
--:-- Leila Fadel: That's the AT&T Guarantee. Terms and conditions apply.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Visit att.com slash guarantee for details.
--:-- [Theme music fades out]
