Part Of Special Counsel Report Released; Hegseth Confirmation Hearing
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.4 • 25.7K Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Then, confirmation hearings for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump's pick to run the Department of Defense, took place on Capitol Hill. Hegseth defended himself against accusations of sexual misconduct & alcohol abuse.
This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson, senior political editor & correspondent Domenico Montanaro, congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh, and defense correspondent Tom Bowman.
The podcast is produced by Bria Suggs & Kelli Wessinger, and edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Okay, so does this sound like you? |
| 0:03.0 | You love NPR's podcasts. |
| 0:05.1 | You wish you could get more of all your favorite shows, |
| 0:07.9 | and you want to support NPR's mission to create a more informed public. |
| 0:13.2 | If all that sounds appealing, then it is time to sign up for the NPR Plus bundle. |
| 0:18.6 | Learn more at plus.npr.org. |
| 0:27.6 | Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. |
| 0:32.5 | I'm Carrie Johnson. I cover the Justice Department. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political |
| 0:36.3 | editor and correspondent. |
| 0:38.1 | And part of the special counsel report into Donald Trump's actions trying to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost, has been released. |
| 0:46.4 | Carrie, you got this overnight. And I want to get you to describe what is in it. What did special counsel Jack Smith find? |
| 0:56.0 | The special counsel Jack Smith found that President-elect Donald Trump engaged in or led a criminal |
| 1:03.9 | conspiracy to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden and that he advanced |
| 1:09.5 | that conspiracy allegedly by a pervasive |
| 1:12.0 | pattern of deceit. This involved things like advancing slates of fake electors, leaning on then |
| 1:19.0 | Vice President Mike Pence and all those other allegations that now seem familiar, but are fairly |
| 1:24.4 | chilling when you put them all in one piece, as Jack Smith did. |
| 1:33.0 | Smith said that the evidence existed to convict Trump, but of course there was never a trial because Trump won the last election and the Justice Department has a longstanding policy |
| 1:38.2 | against prosecuting sitting presidents. Trump returns to office on Monday. And as you say, there's this longstanding DOJ policy |
| 1:46.9 | that sitting presidents cannot be indicted. So why does this report matter now? You know, it gave |
| 1:54.2 | Jack Smith and his team a chance to answer some questions and explain why they did what they did. |
| 1:59.7 | It also really is a message for history at a time |
... |
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