Welcome to the political scene, a weekly discussion about the big questions in American

politics. I'm Jane Mayer, and I'm joined by my colleagues Susan Glasser and Evan Osnos.

Hey, Susan. Hey, Van. Hi, Evan. Great to see you guys. I don't think people

quite understand what it's like to be in Washington right now. Our neighbor across the way is being

forced out of her job. She has to retire early because she works for the government. Her brother,

who has one heading to college and another heading to college next year, just lost his job. They've got no income. The teacher in an exercise class I go to every week. Her husband just got laid off as a contractor to USAID. She's in the middle of an IVF cycle. She's got no insurance. Suddenly, they've got nothing to pay the mortgage with other than her part-time work as an exercise teacher. All over Washington, things are collapsing. The dry cleaner is talking about dropping a couple days a week from being open because business is just going to create her and it already has sort of dropped off. In our little town, these are

great people who care about the world who did not choose careers to make money.

Totally.

It's a lesson in what the federal government actually does if anybody connects the dots and

they're going to see that these are really important jobs that people have that help an awful lot of people.

I don't know. I don't know if the reality is going to break through. And that's kind of what we're talking about today, actually.

We're talking about the media and what's happening to the free press in this country.

This week, we watched with kind of horror as Donald Trump crossed a line that may not mean a lot to people who are watching from the sidelines, but what we understand is that he broke an institution and he did it in a certain way. The White House Correspondents Association for 100 years has decided as a press organization which ones of its members are

going to cover the president in small groups called press pools. And this week, Donald Trump

and his minions decided that they are going to choose who gets to cover them. The government,

the president are going to dictate to the press cover them. The government, the president, are going to dictate

to the press how they get covered rather than the press, the free press deciding to cover

the president and his administration the way they want. This was, in some ways, just

an incredibly important turning point, I think. Do you guys feel the same?

It does strike me as a red line being crossed. It's something that is at the top of the

authoritarian playbook list, you know, go after the independent press. And I think, you know, we totally

get it. It might seem like inside baseball. It's a, you know, sort of self-interested. But the bottom

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