--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): Vice President Vance is turning Charlie Kirk's death into a mission. We're going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence. He blames the left for political violence.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): I mean, Martinez, that's Michelle Martin. And this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): FBI Director Cash Patel faces lawmakers on Capitol Hill today. His tweets during the Kirk investigation caused confusion.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): Could I have worded it a little better in the heat of the moment? Sure. But do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): Was he being transparent or just reckless?
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): And the Federal Reserve is set to cut interest rates just as President Trump installs a close ally on the board. So is the Fed following the data or folding under the president's pressure?
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.
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--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): When J.D. Vance first started thinking about running for public office, he says one of the first people he called was Charlie Kirk, someone known for organizing young conservative voters. Kirk introduced Vance to some people who would end up running his Senate campaign.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): A few years later, Kirk lobbied publicly and privately for Vance to become Donald Trump's running mate. If it weren't for Charlie Kirk, I would not be the vice president of the United States.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): After Kirk was killed last week, Vance now says he's going to help carry forward his friend's political legacy.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez joins us now. So, Franco, that clip we played was from Vance hosting Charlie Kirk's podcast yesterday. What stood out to you from this two-hour show?
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Yeah, Vance really emphasized that the administration plans to target political violence. And what they say they're talking about is left-wing riots and attacks on law enforcement.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: But Vance and others on that podcast also say that they believe vitriol from the left played a role in Kirk's death.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: And I'll just note that the suspect is due in court on Tuesday. And right now there is little known about the investigation and a possible motive.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Here what Vance said about his mission now: We going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence. That's not okay.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: All right, so he mentions an NGO network there. What's he referring to?
--:-- Franco Ordonez: I mean, it's not really clear, I mean, what NGOs Vance is referring to. And what I even asked President Trump about it later in the day, and he didn't get into details earlier.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: But a few days ago, Trump singled out the Democratic donor, George Soros, who has funded progressive causes. Trump said Soros should be investigated for federal racketeering charges.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Now, Soros and his Open Society Foundations have dismissed these allegations, and they've condemned Kirk's killing.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Okay. Now, it hasn't even been a week yet since Charlie Kirk was killed. What role has J.D. Vance been playing since?
--:-- Franco Ordonez: You know, this is very personal for Vance. After the shooting, the vice president and his wife, Usha Vance, traveled to Utah, and they were a real horse of support for Kirk's widow.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: They flew with her and Kirk's casket on Air Force Two back to Kirk's home state of Arizona.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: And as you guys noted earlier, Vance gives so much credit to Kirk for his own political career.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Vance has been talking about all the things that Kirk did for him, how he believed in him, even when he was pretty much an unknown.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Kirk also connected Vance with donors. He connected Vance with Donald Trump Jr., who also came to champion Vance to become his father's running mate.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: So obviously very, very personal for J.D. Vance. But this is also a political moment as well. So tell us about that.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Yeah, I mean, it really is. I mean, this is Washington, of course, where politics underscore most things.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Vance clearly has ambitions beyond the vice presidency. And there are many eyes watching him in this moment.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Ryan Williams, who is a longtime Republican strategist, told me that Vance is the top official in the Trump White House who has these deep ties to the movement that Kirk was leading.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: The vice president can just very naturally step in and help promote Kirk's message and also console his supporters.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Yeah, Vance is seen as the next generation. He's young. He's only 41 years old.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: And as Williams put it, Vance lives that faith-based lifestyle that Kirk promoted.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Vance is considered a young and upcoming warrior of conservative values. And he's someone who Kirk's followers can relate to.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): All right, that's NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez. Thanks a lot.
--:-- Franco Ordonez: Thanks a lot.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): FBI Director Cash Patel is set to testify today before lawmakers on Capitol Hill. His appearance comes as Patel faces questions about his ability to lead the nation's premier law enforcement agency.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): NPR Justice Correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this, and he's with us now here in our studios. Good morning, Ryan.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Good morning.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): So Patel's appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. It turns out that it was already scheduled, but obviously there's more to talk about now. What are you expecting to hear today?
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Well, you're right. There certainly is a lot to talk about, including, of course, the recent shooting of conservative organizer Charlie Kirk we were just talking about, and the 22-year-old man from Utah who is in custody as the suspected shooter.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: State authorities in Utah are expected to formally charge him later today.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: But in Congress, the FBI's response to the shooting and Patel's actions in particular are likely to come under scrutiny from lawmakers.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: I expect some senators certainly Democrats to press Patel about his post on social media during the manhunt Patel said just hours after the shooting that the subject was in custody only to tweet roughly 90 minutes later that the person had been released and the investigation was still ongoing
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Patel was on Fox Friends yesterday He was asked about those tweets Here's what he said. Could I have worded it a little better in the heat of the moment? Sure. But do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: I was telling the world what the FBI was doing, as we were doing, and I'm continuing to do that.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: So you hear no regrets there. But look, It is highly unusual, if not unheard of, for FBI officials to use social media like Patel did here.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: It leads to mistakes. It leads to public confusion. And in this instance, it has fueled questions about Patel's ability to lead the bureau through high-stakes moments like these.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: So to be clear, there were already questions about Patel's suitability to lead the FBI. Now that he's been in charge for seven months, have any of those questions subsided? Not really, no.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: In many ways, they've only grown. Last week, for example, three senior FBI officials, some of the FBI's most lauded agents, sued Patel and the FBI.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: They argue in their lawsuit that they were fired for improper political reasons, even though Patel had promised at his confirmation hearing that no one would be fired for such improper reasons.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Now, the lawsuit describes Patel and his deputy, former right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino, and their fellow leaders at the Justice Department as partisan, as inept.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: It also says that Patel told one of the fired agents that DOJ leaders and the White House had instructed Patel to fire anyone involved in past investigations of President Trump, and that Patel said his own job depended on doing so.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: So the FBI has declined to comment. It declined to comment when the lawsuit was filed.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: But look, when Trump tapped Patel to lead the FBI, there were a lot of concerns about his temperament because he was seen as a Trump loyalist, as someone who would do the president's bidding, including pursuing his promised campaign of retribution.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: And that line of questioning remains front and center now that Patel's been in the job these seven months.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Ryan, what does your reporting indicate about whether Patel's job is secure or not?
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Well, it's interesting. There's been some reporting that the White House was not happy with Patel's social media missteps during the Kirk investigation.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: Ultimately, law enforcement did catch a suspect within a day and a half, and Patel has been playing that up in his public comments since then.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: He's also been talking up decisions that he said he made that led to the suspect's capture, such as putting out public photos and video.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: President Trump told Fox News over the weekend that he was proud of the FBI and that Patel and everyone else have done a great job in the Kirk investigation.
--:-- Ryan Lucas: And Patel, always the active one on social media, promptly reposted that headline.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): The Federal Reserve begins a two-day policy meeting today that's likely to end with the central bank cutting interest rates for the first time this year.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): But here's the thing. There's been some last-minute scrambling over who will take part in that rate decision.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): And it comes as President Trump has been waging an all-out campaign to get the Fed to lower interest rates.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): And here's Scott Horsey is with us now with the latest. Good morning, Scott.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Good morning, Michelle.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): So what's the Fed expected to do this week? Markets are all but certain the Fed is going to cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point.
--:-- Scott Horsey: That would make it a little bit cheaper to finance a car purchase or bankroll a business or just carry a balance on your credit card.
--:-- Scott Horsey: The Fed has been holding rates steady ever since December, partly out of concern that President Trump's tariffs might rekindle inflation.
--:-- Scott Horsey: That concern has not gone away, but it has taken a back seat for now to worries about the job market.
--:-- Scott Horsey: You know hiring has slowed sharply in recent months So the Fed is expected to start cutting rates again to try to prevent the job market from weakening further
--:-- Scott Horsey: So is Trump getting what he has made very clear that he wants Well he getting a bit of what he wants at his lower interest rates
--:-- Scott Horsey: But you know the president wanted rate cuts months ago, and he continues to agitate on social media and elsewhere for bigger rate cuts now.
--:-- Scott Horsey: He's repeatedly mocked Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for not acting more aggressively.
--:-- Scott Horsey: And now the president is trying to reshape the committee that makes these interest rate decisions.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Here's how Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren described the president's high pressure tactics at a Senate hearing earlier this month.
--:-- Scott Horsey: He wants to install his lackeys so that we will have a Fed that uses its power to please the president, but that can't be trusted to keep inflation under control.
--:-- Scott Horsey: And some of those personnel moves by the president have come to a head in just the last 24 hours or so.
--:-- Scott Horsey: So, Scott, tell us more about that.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Well, the president has just installed one of his allies, White House economist Stephen Myron, to fill a short-term vacancy on the Fed's seven-member governing board.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Myron was confirmed on a mostly party-line vote by the Senate last night in the nick of time to take part in today's meeting.
--:-- Scott Horsey: His appointment has raised eyebrows in part because Myron's not giving up his White House job. He's only taking a leave of absence.
--:-- Scott Horsey: And critics warn that could give the president undue influence over the Fed, which is supposed to operate independently of the administration.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Even more controversial is Trump's effort to oust Fed Governor Lisa Cook over unproven allegations from a Trump loyalist that Cook made false statements on a mortgage application years ago.
--:-- Scott Horsey: Cook has denied any wrongdoing and gone to court to keep her seat on the Fed board.
--:-- Scott Horsey: That also came down the wire. A federal appeals court ruled two to one late last night to allow Cook to remain on the board, at least for now.
--:-- Scott Horsey: So big picture, Scott, what does all this drama at the Fed mean for the economy?
--:-- Scott Horsey: Well, in the short term, not much. Neither Myron nor Cook is expected to cast a decisive vote this week on interest rates.
--:-- Scott Horsey: But longer term, this is a real showdown over how much control the president is allowed to exercise at the central bank.
--:-- Scott Horsey: And the stakes are high. As Senator Warren notes, whenever central banks operate under the influence of politicians, they typically do a worse job of managing inflation.
--:-- Scott Horsey: When the Fed loses its credibility, businesses and consumers stop trusting it to control inflation and start acting like inflation is here to stay.
--:-- Scott Horsey: And that raises prices across the board for American families in the long run.
--:-- Scott Horsey: That's why the Fed and other central banks were set up to be insulated from political pressure. That norm, like so many others, is now being tested by this president.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): And that's Up First for Tuesday, September 16th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm E. Martinez. Thanks for waking up with NPR.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): Your NPR station makes Up First possible each and every morning. Support their work and ours at donate.npr.org slash Up First.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Anna Yukhananov, Rafael Nam, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Olivia Hampton.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
--:-- Host (Michelle Martin): We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.
