Heather McGhee on Trump’s Wars on DEI and Immigration

The Al Franken Podcast

Government, Progressive, Politics, Senate, Liberal, Senator, Minnesota, Franken, News, Saturday Night Live, Comedy, Snl

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Trump administration is waging war on DEI. But what does that mean? We ask one of our favorite guests, Heather McGhee, to break down how and why DEI has become such a focus for Trump and his allies. Heather wrote the groundbreaking book “The Sum of Us” and is an expert in economic and social policy. She explains that diversity is the backbone of America and that it’s unquestionably better for everyone when we embrace more diverse voices.

We also discuss the appalling ICE raids in Los Angeles and around the country and the economic and moral impact of the war on immigrants. Heather sees many parallels between this and the disgusting actions of segregationists, who chose to fill in and close public pools rather than let everybody have access to them.

Read more about Heather: https://heathermcghee.com/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody. We got a great one today, you know, for a change. And this time, this time I mean it, because Heather McGee, from our pantheon of great guests, returns. Well, it's been quite a week. You should know that I'm taping this opening on Friday,
0:22.1	so I don't know how Trump's birthday.
0:25.0	I mean, the Army's birthday parade went,
0:28.7	and the nationwide no-Kings protests.
0:32.8	But I have a great conversation with Heather,
0:35.4	who is the best, so I'll get to that quickly.
0:39.1	But we've had a week of protests in L.A. and now all around the country, and Fox keeps playing
0:45.0	the same clips of the driverless cars on fire. Somebody an idiot or idiot started those, and the LAPD
0:53.2	is arresting the morons who commit violent or
0:57.0	destructive acts, but of course the vast majority of protesters have been nonviolent, and they're
1:02.3	speaking out against a very violent thing. And the whole point of Trump calling out the National
1:09.1	Guard and the Marines was to escalate the
1:11.3	situation and that they did. What's not surprising is how Americans are reacting. Trump is underwater
1:18.4	by 11 points, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll. And I predict that it will get worse for him,
1:25.3	as Americans understand who they are sweeping up in these raids.
1:30.2	ICE is arresting hardworking people who contribute to their communities. They're raiding garment
1:36.2	factories, the Home Depot parking lot where day laborers are finding work so they can feed themselves
1:43.1	and their families and keep a roof overhead.
1:46.0	We heard that ICE was going to arrest criminals, but it turns out that immigrants are less
1:51.8	likely to commit crimes than citizens who are born in America. So they're picking up immigrants
1:57.0	who are valued members of their communities. I'm no doubt saying stuff you've already heard.
2:03.2	So I'll go now to our conversation with Heather McGee on a host of issues, including immigration.
	...

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