Trump’s New Plan to Target Liberal Groups, and a Shouting Match in the Senate

0:28Some see borders. From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, September 17th. Here's what we're covering.

0:43Could you state your name? Tyler James Robinson. Thank you for being here, Mr. Robinson. I'm Judge Graff. In Utah yesterday, Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, made his first court appearance, joining by video from a county jail while wearing a green suicide prevention vest. For count one, aggravated murder, a capital felony in violation of Utah Code. The judge laid out the charges prosecutors had filed. They'd announced earlier in the day that they will seek the death penalty. And in a press conference, they provided the clearest play-by-play yet of what led to Robinson's arrest and what he said about the shooting in his own words.

1:26On September 11th, the day after the shooting, Robinson's mother saw the photo of the shooter in the news and thought the shooter looked like her son. The Utah County attorney said that after authorities released surveillance footage from the scene of the shooting, Robinson's parents thought they recognized him. And Robinson's father said the rifle authorities described as the murder weapon was the same type he'd given his son as a gift. Robinson's mother explained that over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and had started to lean more to the left, becoming more pro-gay and trans rights oriented.

2:05Investigators said his mother called him to ask where he was. He claimed he was at home, sick, but... Roommate, you weren't the one who did it, right? Robinson, I am. I'm sorry. The county attorney read out text messages Robinson had already sent confessing to the killing to his roommate and romantic partner, who's transitioning from male to female. Roommate, why? Robinson, why did I do it? Roommate, yeah. Robinson, I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out. Eventually, Robinson's parents convinced their son to come to the family home, where he implied to them that he was the gunman.

2:47They reached out to a family friend who was a retired law enforcement officer. He called up the local sheriff to negotiate a surrender, and then drove Robinson over to the sheriff's office so he could turn himself in.

3:02Meanwhile, in the week since Kirk was killed, President Trump and his allies have claimed, without evidence, that the gunman was connected to a dangerous left-wing network and laid out a broad plan to go after the political left. The president said he wants to designate a range of groups as domestic terrorist organizations, without specifying which ones he would target. The administration has also indicated it may go after a number of high-profile liberal philanthropic groups, including the Ford Foundation and George Soros' Open Society Foundations. That could include trying to strip them of their tax-exempt status, a move that could potentially undermine their finances and operations.

3:43In an open letter released this morning, a group of over 100 liberal philanthropies, including Ford and Open Society, accused Trump of trying to exploit political violence to restrict fundamental rights like the freedom of speech. The letter said, quote, Attempts to silence speech, criminalize opposing viewpoints, and misrepresent and limit charitable giving undermine our democracy and harm all Americans.

4:17Now, a few more updates on the Trump administration. I'm not going anywhere. If you want to criticize my 16 years of service, please bring it on. Over to you. On Capitol Hill, FBI Director Kash Patel was called to testify before the Senate amid concerns about his leadership of the bureau. But the hearing devolved into a shouting match with personal attacks. You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate. You're a disgrace to this institution and an utter coward. Patel, who has embraced Trump's combative style, shouted down Senator Adam Schiff and other Democrats, including when he was pressed about the exodus of top agents from the FBI and allegations that he fired some staffers as part of a White House retribution campaign.

5:03Sir, you're making a mockery of this committee. Sir, you don't tell me my time is over. In a recent lawsuit, former top FBI officials portrayed Patel as out of his depth and more interested in posting on social media than on actually running the FBI's day-to-day operations. At the hearing, Patel denied those claims, but refused to directly answer questions about the thousands of FBI agents who've either been fired or retired since Trump took office. Also, President Trump once again pushed back a deadline for TikTok to either separate itself from its Chinese parent company or face a ban in the U.S.

5:40over national security concerns. Well, we have a deal on TikTok. I've reached a deal with China. I'm going to speak to President Xi on Friday to confirm everything up. Trump said yesterday that the U.S. and China have reached the framework for a deal to transfer ownership of the app, which is used by roughly 170 million Americans. While details of the deal are still being worked out, people familiar with the negotiations told The Times, it's likely that TikTok's owner will spin off a new American company to run its U.S. operations, and that it will reduce its Chinese ownership to less than 20 percent.

6:16And President Trump is in the United Kingdom today to meet with King Charles and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Britain and the U.S. are expected to announce billions of dollars in economic deals, including on technology and nuclear power. And the U.K. will be trying to smooth over the tensions that have flared up between the longtime allies over issues like trade and military support for Ukraine. My colleague Mark Landler, the Times' London bureau chief, says Britain is rolling out the red carpet with horse-drawn carriages, royal artillery salutes, and an opulent banquet at Windsor Castle. What the British correctly realize is that the royal family is sort of their secret weapon.

6:56President Trump has this longstanding affection for the royal family, reverence for the royal family. He viewed his first state visit here in 2019 as one of the highlights of his presidency. And I think the British government and the royal family are going to do whatever it takes to stay on his good side.

7:22Furniture, tents, mattresses, rugs, water tanks, containers, kitchen pots and pans, suitcases, clothes. We're seeing all these things piled onto trucks and vehicles as tens of thousands of Palestinians flee their homes in Gaza City heading south. My colleague Mona Bushnack is a photo editor on The Times' international desk. She's been covering the mass evacuation from Gaza City as Israeli forces moved in this week, setting off a chaotic exodus. Our freelance photographer, Sahar Al-Ghura, goes pretty much on daily basis on the coastal road where people are leaving the city and heading south. And we've been seeing people jammed into vehicles and trucks and tractors.

8:07But in the photos and videos, especially the past few days, we're seeing many more doing the journey on foot. And there were many, many people, families, children of all ages also walking, carrying whatever they can. Now in the background, we're seeing the landscape of Gaza City changing as people are leaving it. Towers in Gaza City and landmarks have been targeted and bombed and reduced to absolute rubble. We can also see plumes of smoke rising as people leave their homes. Israel says its military assault is aimed at rooting out Hamas militants in Gaza City, which it claims is one of the group's last strongholds.

8:53The assault there has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the territory. Roughly half a million people are believed to still be sheltering in the city, even as parts of it have been leveled in airstrikes. It's unclear how far Israeli forces have advanced this week. Satellite imagery from yesterday shows armored vehicles on nearly all sides of the city. Israeli military analysts said the troops were expected to move slowly, in part out of fear that they could accidentally kill some of the remaining hostages.

9:30And finally. As an artist, I just can't think of a better life than the one that I've been blessed with. The Hollywood legend Robert Redford died yesterday at 89. People can duke it out over their favorite Redford role. I want to fight him. He'll kill us. Whether it's the handsome outlaw in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Hi, I'm Bob Woodward of the Washington Post. His turn as a crusading journalist in All the President's Men. The grifter in The Sting. The CIA agent caught in the cat and mouse game in Three Days of the Condor. There are just so many. You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?

10:04Redford was born in Santa Monica, California in 1936. And over his career, he turned his screen-idle good looks into a force behind the camera, too, going on to direct the Academy Award-winning film Ordinary People about a family torn apart by grief. He also paved the way for a lot of voices to break through by founding the Sundance Institute in the early 1980s and building up its annual film festival, which became the place for indie films and auteurs. Quentin Tarantino, David O. Russell, Ryan Coogler, Chloe Zhao, Ava DuVernay, they all came up through Sundance, though Redford later bemoaned how much of a zoo and how commercial the festival became.

10:44If you're going to throw yourself a Redford Remembrance movie marathon this weekend, the Times has a list of 15 movies of his to stream. We've got a link to it in the show notes. It includes my absolute favorite movie of all time, The woefully underappreciated 1993 caper about computer hackers trying to do the right thing. The movie is called Sneakers. It really holds up. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.