That awkward moment when your war plans leave the group chat

KCRW's Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Earlier this week, The Atlantic Editor-In-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that top-level White House officials accidentally added him to a group chat about upcoming war plans. While some administration staffers initially denied the existence of the group chat, Trump and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pivoted to denouncing Goldberg and his publication instead. Is this blunder big enough to send the administration into crisis? Or will Trump’s high favorability polling shield the controversy?

America’s neighbor to the north also faces political leadership shakeups. It’s election season in Canada, and the race for the next prime minister seems to hinge on how the potential PM would engage with U.S. President Donald Trump. This year’s Canadian election partially mirrors last year’s American election: a conservative populist candidate versus a liberal who came in after the previous leader stepped down. Conservative candidate Pierre Poilevre had initially polled well, but recent Canadian polls show a strong aversion to Trump and Trump-lite policies. Is this enough to change the tides of the Canadian election?

The Canadian-American conflict continues with Trump’s intensive tariff plans. Trump previously asserted that strict tariffs against Canada would snuff the fentanyl trade. Is there even enough fentanyl coming from Canada to back that up? While the White House sees tariffs as a method to increase U.S. manufacturing, economists say these moves might hurt American consumers instead. How effective are Trump’s promises to revive the American economy?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to left, right, and center, everybody.
0:03.7	I am here in Washington, D.C. this week in studio with Sarah Isker, with Moel Aethy.
0:08.8	And my first question to both of you is, have either of you ever accidentally added a journalist to a, I don't know, like a secret chat about, you know, campaign secrets and strategizing? Is that a thing? No, but can I tell you my
0:24.0	funny story about that? Please. Yes. So when I was at the RNC, back when Mo was at the DNC,
0:29.7	and we'd watch the White House briefings every day. I'm sure you guys were watching them over there
0:33.6	as well. And sometimes you'd be texting the White House reporters questions that
0:38.3	they should be asking. This was during the Obama year. So I would in particular be sending like,
0:42.9	hey, but they didn't answer that or they dodged your question on that. Here's a good follow-up.
0:46.4	You know, you're just trying to like get your questions answered. Did they listen to you ever?
0:49.1	Did they ever ask the question? Sure. Not like word for word, but like, you know, they're just giving ideas. Given ideas. So at the same time, I'm planning my dinner plans, right? And on the same, on the same chain?
1:03.6	No, no, no, no, just like, you know, like I'm sitting on my phone watching the briefing and like doing my job, but also planning dinner. And with my friends, if we're going out,
1:12.9	it's like we're going out. But if we're staying in, we call it no pants night, meaning like
1:16.5	not, you don't have to wear like hard pants. Okay. So you can see where this is going.
1:22.0	I texted a front row White House reporter. So was it a no-pants night?
1:28.6	Wow.
1:34.1	And it was a male, obviously, of course, because why would I get the good luck to text that to a woman?
1:34.4	Yeah.
1:37.6	And I knew immediately that I'd done it.
1:40.8	And there was just no taking that back.
1:43.9	We did not have that kind of relationship where I could be like, ha-ha. And so then I'm like,
1:45.5	I am terribly sorry for the inappropriate. And, you know, after a few moments, that person writes
1:52.7	back and says, sounds like a fun night, enjoy yourself. Did you see his reaction on television?
	...

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