Trump ‘Wants His Own People’ in Charge of Jobs Data, and the Ex-Fox Host Turned U.S. Attorney

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0:32From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, August 4th. Here's what we're covering.

0:44This is un-American, and this is undemocratic. Republicans are stealing our democracy right before our very eyes. A bitter showdown for the control of Congress is playing out in Texas. Democratic lawmakers have left the state in a last-ditch attempt to stop Republicans from aggressively redrawing the congressional map to their advantage. Not on our watch. We will not have our democracy taken on our watch. If they don't return, the Texas House won't have the quorum it needs to approve the new redistricting, which was requested by President Trump. The new map flips five Democratic congressional districts to favor Republicans, which could help the GOP keep its majority in the U.S.

1:31House in the midterms next year. The Democrats' walkout has infuriated the state's Republican leadership. Texas' attorney general has called the lawmakers cowards, going so far as to say they should be hunted down, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately. And the governor of Texas said if they don't show up for a scheduled floor debate today, he'll take steps to remove them from their positions, which would almost certainly be challenged in court. This is not the first time Texas Democrats have hidden out to try and block Republican legislation. They were gone for almost five weeks in 2021, before a few of them broke ranks and returned.

2:09This time, most of the Democratic lawmakers have gone to Illinois. Let's be clear, this is not just rigging the system in Texas. It's about rigging the system against the rights of all Americans for years to come. They held a press conference with the state's governor, J.B. Pritzker. He's one of several Democratic governors who've said they're considering redrawing their state's congressional maps to respond to Texas. But a lot of blue states don't have a lot of options on that front. Many have independent commissions that redraw the maps. And in states where Democrats do control the process, the maps have already been drawn to extreme Democratic advantages, with little room to squeeze out more seats to offset what may happen in Texas.

3:00In Washington. Mr. President, why did you fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics? Because I think our numbers were wrong. President Trump and White House officials are defending the president's decision to fire the commissioner in charge of collecting data on jobs and inflation. Trump terminated Erica McIntyre for on Friday after her agency released a report showing that employers have sharply pulled back on hiring as they deal with the uncertainty caused by Trump's global tariffs. The president claimed, without citing any evidence, that the report was rigged and phony. So is the president prepared to fire anyone who reports data that he disagrees with?

3:37No, absolutely not. The president wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers, they're more transparent and more reliable. Trump has said he'll appoint a new commissioner in the next few days, but the firing has raised alarms for many economists. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is designed to operate independently, producing detailed nonpartisan data that guides decision making for both the government and the private sector. Economists say Trump's move will likely undermine public confidence in that data, with one telling The Times, quote, quote, if you want people to stop trusting the numbers, firing the person who's confirmed by the Senate to make sure those numbers are trustworthy is a real good way to do it.

4:18There are also fears the firing could lead to a larger chilling effect across the government, putting a broad range of federal experts, from scientists to intelligence analysts, under pressure to put out data that backs up the president's policies or risk losing their jobs.

4:38Now, three other quick updates on the Trump administration. President Trump's been in an online spat with the former president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, and he sharply escalated the argument on Friday by bringing America's nuclear submarines into the conversation. Medvedev, who's a kind of online attack dog for the Kremlin, has been arguing with President Trump over Trump's increasingly hostile stance towards Moscow. and Medvedev brought up an old Soviet nuclear system, telling Trump to picture the apocalyptic TV show The Walking Dead. Trump then responded by saying he was repositioning two of America's nuclear subs.

5:15It was his first explicit reference to the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal since he returned to office. Because the locations of those kinds of subs are such closely held secrets, it wasn't immediately clear if they were actually moved or not. Also, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved to a minimum security prison camp about a week after she was interviewed by a top Justice Department official. Maxwell is serving 20 years for sexually exploiting and abusing teenage girls. And according to federal prison guidelines, she should have been kept at the more secure facility where she'd been held previously.

5:51For the Trump administration, the new interview was an attempt to push back on criticism that it's been withholding information in the Epstein case. Maxwell, however, has made it clear she wants a pardon or for her sentence to be reduced. In a statement, two women who've accused Maxwell and Epstein of abusing them reacted with outrage to the news of Maxwell's move, writing, quote, President Trump has sent a clear message today. Pedophiles deserve preferential treatment, and their victims do not matter. And over the weekend, the Senate confirmed Janine Pirro, the former Fox News host, to be the U.S.

6:28attorney for Washington, D.C., officially giving her a role she'd been filling temporarily. Thank God there is a man who is strong enough to admit to our faults and our weaknesses. Pirro, who is known on TV as Judge Janine, has supported Trump's efforts to go after his political enemies, and she was a leading figure in the push to sow doubts about the 2020 election. Please do not tell me that we cannot pursue these irregularities. That's laughable. Some of her on-air statements were cited in a major lawsuit that Fox eventually settled, where it acknowledged those claims were false. Pira was confirmed to her role on Saturday in a 50 to 45 vote, with Democrats warning that her record was, quote, deeply troubling, while Republicans praised her background as a prosecutor and called her a trailblazer.

7:23In China, more and more public workers are being ordered not to travel abroad. It's part of a push by authorities there to impose greater ideological loyalty to the Chinese government. Travel restrictions for some state employees aren't new, but the scope has expanded rapidly to include kindergarten teachers, health care workers, and government contractors, many of whom have been ordered to turn in their passports. In most provinces, people who have studied abroad are now disqualified from certain public positions. Officials have cited various reasons for the new restrictions, including protecting national security and fighting corruption.

8:02The crackdown comes even as Beijing is promoting itself as a destination for foreign businesses and tourists. One teacher in southern China, who's in her 20s, told The Times, quote, On the one hand, you want foreigners to come to China. She added, but on the other hand, why are you trapping us here, rather than letting us see more of the world?

8:31And finally, for years, when you got on a plane, most of the seats were basic economy, coach. You walked past a few rows of first class at the front, and then there was just everybody else altogether. Increasingly, though, the walk to get back to coach has gotten longer and longer. You're passing first class, business class, premium economy plus, premium premium, premium preferred. Even on budget airlines, premium seating is taking over. The reason? Airlines have found that wealthy leisure travelers are the ones who will keep spending even when the economy gets a little shaky. They're the customers you can count on.

9:07So the companies are trying to cater to them with perks that they're willing to pay extra for. American Airlines, for example, introduced a new layout for one of their planes this summer with redesigned premium economy seats that have water bottle storage and foot and calf rests. And it plans to expand its pricier seating options by 50 percent before the end of the decade. Delta and United Airlines have also said that more premium options are in their futures. Even the no-frills airlines are trying to attract customers willing to pay for upgrades. Frontier is planning to introduce first-class style seats this year.

9:42And the famously ultra-low-cost travel option, Spirit, which had filed for bankruptcy, now has plans to rebrand as a premium airline.

9:56Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.