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--:-- Leila Fadel: The 2024 election is over, and as a new administration prepares for the White House, it's our job across the entire NPR network to report on that transition and to report on what this administration does with its power.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That's right, Leila. And we're here to help you understand what's going on.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Information is power for you. Your support makes it possible for us to break down big stories, to fact-check, and to make sure you understand what's going on.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: When you donate, you make a difference in our ability to do that work. If you're already a supporter, we're taking this moment to say thank you. And if you're not, go to donate.npr.org to give.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Donate.npr.org.
--:-- Leila Fadel: President-elect Trump has begun choosing the people who will make up his new administration. Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo, who sometimes criticized him, are out. Who else is heading in to work for a president who prizes loyalty?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Leila Fadel. That's Stephen Skeep. And this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Will the new president take aim at the Affordable Care Act again? Healthcare professionals think some cuts may be coming.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The math is inescapable that Medicaid and ACA cuts will then be on the table.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And in Israel, the now-fired defense minister told hostage families that he blames the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for holding up ceasefire talks this summer.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Yoav Galan also said there's nothing left for the Israeli military to do in Gaza.
--:-- Leila Fadel: What does his exit mean for that ongoing and deadly war? Stay with us, we'll give you the news you need to start your day.
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--:-- Steve Inskeep: We're in a transition period when the next president of the United States draws overwhelming attention. But a lot depends on the people who surround him.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Yeah, President-elect Trump has begun choosing members of his staff and also saying who will not be on board.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Aside from that, he doesn't know yet how much power his party will have in Congress.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Republicans will take the Senate and choose their leader this week.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: They are close to a narrow majority in the House, but that depends on ballots still being counted.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Well, we do know a few people who he will or won't be working with in his White House.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here with the latest.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Good morning, Danielle.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Good morning. So some new official election results over the weekend. We now know that Trump won all seven battleground states.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He's on track to be the first Republican to win the popular vote in two decades.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Well, depths is an interesting way to ask the question because it's certainly a broad win.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Six of those seven battlegrounds you mentioned, he flipped from Biden in 2020.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: And like you also noted, it's the first time that Trump won the popular vote.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now Trump for his part has claimed his win is a historic and unprecedented mandate.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Now it is not unprecedented. Many presidents have won the presidency by far more.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Right now Trump is ahead in the popular vote by just shy of two and a half points.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: But as far as a mandate, yeah, I mean, it appears possible or even likely that voters will have empowered him to pass big parts of his agenda.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Republicans have won 53 seats in the Senate. They're close to winning the House.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: But to that mandate point, we do have an evenly divided and a deeply divided country.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Trump's words and actions on January 6th, his promises for political retribution, those have inspired deep anger and fear among the nearly half who didn't vote for him.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: So whatever he does try to do, it is going to be met with fierce opposition.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So you mentioned Republicans are close to winning the House. How close? How many districts are we waiting on?
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Well, at latest count, Republicans have 213 seats and you need 218 to win the House.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Democrats have 203, so Republicans are closer, there are still 19 seats left to be called.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Now, it could be days until many of those are counted.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Half of those House districts, for example, around half are in California.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: And counting votes just takes a long time there because, first of all, there's just a lot of voters, meaning there are also a lot of same-day and mail-in ballots in that huge state.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But as my colleagues Domenico Montanaro and Hillary Fung have recently reported, if the GOP wins the House, it would be with a slim majority.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: So not a lot of wiggle room for passing those Trump priorities.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: By the way, we are waiting on one Senate seat as well in Arizona.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: As of right now, Democrat Ruben Gallego is leading.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, that race has been called for the Republican Dave McCormick, but incumbent Democrat Bob Casey has not conceded.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Now, we haven't heard that much from Trump since his speech on election night.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: What do you know about what's coming next for him?
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Well, we do know a few people who he will or won't be working with in his White House.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben.
--:-- Danielle Kurtzleben: Thank you, Danielle.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: OK, so for all the words he spoke while campaigning, it is not entirely clear what the president-elect will do in a second term.
--:-- Leila Fadel: To give one example, it's not clear how far he will go to make good on a promise to use federal power to seek retribution from his personal and political enemies.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And here's another. The new president's approach to health care is vague.
--:-- Leila Fadel: During his first term, Republicans tried and failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but never came up with a replacement.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So what now?
--:-- Leila Fadel: NPR's Selena Simmons Duffin is here to talk about that.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: Good morning.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: OK, what is the law that Trump tried to repeal the first time?
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: That would be the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It was passed in 2010 and it transformed lots of aspects of the health care system.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: And for years, Republicans wanted it gone.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: In Trump's first year as president, Republicans tried many, many times to repeal and replace Obamacare, but they failed to do that in part because they had no clear plan on what to replace it with.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: This campaign, Trump spoke very differently about the law.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Here he is during the presidential debate on ABC in September.
--:-- [Clip of Trump speaking]
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: I had a choice to make. Do I save it and make it as good as it can be, or do I let it rot and I saved it?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Then moderator Lindsey Davis followed up.
--:-- [Clip of moderator speaking]
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: So just a yes or no, you still do not have a plan?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I have concepts of a plan.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: Interesting line and interesting that he said that he saved Obamacare when he explicitly called for its repeal.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Just failed in the Senate by a vote.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: What about policy once Trump is back in power again?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, that really hard to pin down because the signals from Trump and Republican lawmakers have been kind of unclear.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: It going to depend a lot on whether Republicans retain control of the House since they won the presidency and the Senate.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It also going to depend on who Trump chooses to run his health policy team.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: But all that said, it seems like the political appetite to go all in again on repeal and replace just isn't there.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: There still could be changes, though.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: Larry Levitt of the health research organization KFF said in a press briefing he thinks cuts will be coming to some federal health programs.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Trump has said Medicare, Social Security and defense cuts are off the table.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: With Republicans looking for spending reductions to help pay for tax cuts, the math is inescapable. The Medicaid and ACA cuts will then be on the table.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: What are some of the conservative think tanks and Republican lawmakers, people who think in depth about this, saying about what they want to cut?
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: I reached out to the Heritage Foundation, but they said they're declining interview requests right now.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: They did put together the somewhat famous Project 2025 document, and there are also budget priorities from a House GOP committee.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: Sabrina Corlett, who runs the Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms, says it's clear from these documents what Republicans would like to do in this space.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: They want to lift some of the regulations that govern insurance companies, including some of the protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: There is also interest in reducing the amount of federal spending.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Corlett told me even as an academic health insurance expert, she's been getting emails from regular people recently who were worried about these changes.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: They're petrified. Like, I got an email just earlier today from a guy whose wife has got a serious chronic illness.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And he's like, is she going to lose her coverage? What should I do?
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: Well, you can hear there why it is that people do get nervous about changing health care laws, which is what President Obama found out the first time.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So how many people would be affected by changing them now? Millions.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: I mean, more Americans have health insurance at the moment than ever before.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Enrollment in healthcare.gov, those Obamacare health plans, is really high now at more than 21 million people.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: That's almost doubled since President Biden took office.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And the insurance industry, hospitals, and doctors groups, they all like that.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: They're going to be very resistant to major changes.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And regular people could mobilize again to resist changes to the ACA.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: So there's a lot to watch in this space.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Pierce, Selena Simmons-Duffin, thanks so much.
--:-- Selena Simmons Duffin: Thank you.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Israel's ousted defense minister, Yoav Gallant, says there's nothing more for the Israeli military to achieve in Gaza.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Gallant also says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for holding up a ceasefire deal back in July.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: That's what Gallant said, a deal that could have ended the war and gotten the remaining hostages home.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He told all of that to family members of hostages in a closed-door meeting on his last day in office.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: NPR's Kat Lonsdorf spoke with one of the family members in that meeting, and she joins us now.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Good morning, Mila.
--:-- Mila: Hey, good morning, Kat.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: So what did you hear about that meeting?
--:-- Mila: Well, so Gallant was fired by Netanyahu on Tuesday of last week and basically given 48 hours to leave the position.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: So on his last day in office, last Thursday, he invited some of the family members of Israelis who were taken hostage last October by Hamas to meet with him.
--:-- Mila: Gallant has been the defense minister during this whole war in Gaza.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: I spoke with Gil Dickman. He was in that meeting with Gallant.
--:-- Mila: Gil's cousin, Karmel Gat, was taken hostage and later killed by Hamas in Gaza in August.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Gil has been to many meetings like this that Gallant has held, but he told me that this one felt different, that it seemed like Gallant was finally able to speak freely.
--:-- Mila: So he says it felt different.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: What did Gallant actually speak freely about?
--:-- Mila: Basically, Gallant told them that the Israeli military had accomplished all it can in Gaza.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Here's Gil.
--:-- Gil: What he said is that there's so much that you can do with force. And they've done it.
--:-- Mila: He says Gallant also told them that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is responsible for holding up a ceasefire deal in July.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: And this was specifically really heartbreaking for Gil to hear because his cousin Carmel could have still been alive if that ceasefire deal had gone through.
--:-- Mila: We reached out to both Gallant and the Prime Minister office for comment on this.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Neither responded.
--:-- Mila: But NPR did later obtain a recording of this meeting and it matched what Gail Dickman told us.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: You know, I should also point out that since July, thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, bringing the death toll up to more than 43,000, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
--:-- Mila: And several more Israeli hostages have been confirmed dead, too.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Yeah, I mean, the repercussions of continuing this war have been huge.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: If Gallant wanted to end it, what does it mean now that he's no longer in the government?
--:-- Mila: Many Israelis are worried about just that.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: They see Gallant as a big leader in this war.
--:-- Mila: You know, thousands took the streets to protest his firing, demanding a ceasefire.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: They see this as Netanyahu trying to get rid of anyone who disagrees with him.
--:-- Mila: Many we've talked to feel as if their democracy is at stake.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: You know, and I want to mention here, too, even though they differ, both Gallant and Netanyahu are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza.
--:-- Mila: Israel has challenged that.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Now, over the weekend, Qatar suspended its role as mediator for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which has been playing for months now, that mediator role.
--:-- Mila: Does this relate, if at all, to Galant's firing?
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Well, Qatar says it made this decision about two weeks ago.
--:-- Mila: So these aren't necessarily related.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: But Qatar said it's done mediating these talks until both sides are willing to come to the table with, quote, the necessary seriousness needed to actually come to an agreement, which kind of goes along with what Gallant said, that Netanyahu is using the war for his political gain and isn't serious about stopping it.
--:-- Mila: You know, Qatar and Egypt have openly blamed Netanyahu and his far-right government before for refusing to commit to talks and changing the terms of agreements that have been reached.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Israel has been blaming Hamas.
--:-- Mila: So talks seem to have stalled pretty significantly right now.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: And meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians are being killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza every day.
--:-- Mila: And the remaining 101 Israeli hostages, about a third of whom are confirmed to be dead, continue to languish there as well.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Thanks, Kat.
--:-- Leila Fadel: And that's a first for Monday, November 11th.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Leila Fadel.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Your next listen is Consider This from NPR News.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: We learn about the legendary librarian of the financier J.P. Morgan.
--:-- Leila Fadel: Listen to Consider This from NPR.
--:-- Announcer (Voiceover): Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Diane Webber, Ryland Barton, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
--:-- Announcer (Voiceover): It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Julie Depenbrock.
--:-- Announcer (Voiceover): We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent.
--:-- Announcer (Voiceover): And our technical director is Zac Coleman.
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--:-- Announcer (Voiceover): Join us again tomorrow.
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