Pushback On Trump's Russia Policy, Competitive Midterm Races, DOJ Noncitizen Voting

A bipartisan group of lawmakers pushes back on President Trump's overtures to Russia. Ukraine's president brought his concerns to some of those members of Congress he told him the Pentagon is delaying already paid for missile shipments. I'm Steve Inskip with A. Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News. We're two weeks until Election Day, Republicans are pouring money into races in Kansas, Mississippi, and other places they've rarely had to fight for. Democrats are spending their two, so where is each party deciding to go all in? And the Justice Department is escalating its fight with California over allegations of non-citizens voting. Last week, it sued the state to stop thousands of ballots. How is that connected to a series of new criminal cases, state with us who got the news you need to start your day? Democrats and Republicans are opposed to President Trump's friendlier stance toward Russia. Senators from both parties are criticizing Trump's decision to lift diesel sanctions. The president said that move was meant to head off high energy prices ahead of the mid-term elections. He's also paused sharing military intelligence with Ukraine. In a moment we'll discuss all this with former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFull. We begin with the news. NPR's Emily Fang is with us this morning. Emily, so first run through what President Trump has done to roll back pressure on Russia. OK, here's just a brief list. He's had the Treasury Department lift sanctions on Russian diesel. He's effectively suspended as sanctions bill. He just signed into law that was named in honor of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. He said yesterday he was willing to sit down with China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin to talk about the war in Ukraine, even if Ukraine's leader is not there. And then he cited Ukraine woman here to speak about the loss of lives as a reason to end the war. She blamed Zelensky. She said he's killing our men. And the fact is she said that it was very poignant. She said our men are dying. Our men have no legs. Also last week Ukrainian officials say they lost connectivity for a few days to star shield and starlink. These are satellite services which Ukraine uses for battlefield communications. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky says he thinks the U.S. was behind that. And he also made the extraordinary move of lobbying of bipartisan group of senators and House members about this starlink issue this week. Emily, do you have any sense why Trump, who really has repeated accusations of favoring Russia, is now seemingly courting Russia again? Trump wants a deal. He wants a foreign policy win in Ukraine and he told reporters yesterday he is negotiating with Russia on a number of issues, on energy, on American hostages in Russia, and he also wants to keep Russia from not helping Iran. So he said he doesn't want to drive Russia away from the bargaining table. I spoke to Bill Taylor about this. He was a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine until 2009. In Taylor notes, the U.S. is no longer giving much direct financial and military assistance to Ukraine. We're down 95 percent. The only thing we continue to provide, which is very valuable, is to come up in the last couple of days, is this military intelligence. And the ability for the Europeans to buy weapons from the United States. And Iran must be able to provide starlink. But now the U.S. has shown Ukraine cannot rely on the U.S. for that intelligence either. And in that meeting I mentioned with members of Congress on Monday, Zelensky said that the administration, the U.S. government, is the one holding up weapons for his country. We also know that unfortunately, the Pentagon is delaying the delivery of missiles that our partners have already paid for. Secretary of State Marker Rubio also spoke on this, speaking in Mumbai, India today, Rubio said it could be accurate that a batch of interceptors purchased for Ukraine has not been delivered. Rubio, however, told reporters that the important takeaway was, quote, "there has not been some deliberate political directive to go out and harm Ukraine." Right. So Emily, there's been a bipartisan fallout that's followed this. So tell us about that. Yes. Notably, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are criticizing the U.S. for buying Russian diesel. For example, on top of the lawmakers that Zelensky briefed, you have a Republican representative Mike Lawler saying that the diesel puts money in Russia's pocket. Notably, Darlene Graham, sister of the late Senator Graham, whose namesake sanctions law was just signed into law by Trump, spoke out against the U.S. buying Russian diesel. And this follow is illustrative of the buying that Trump has put in self-in, by starting a seemingly intractable conflict with Iran. He is driven of energy prices for Americans. That's put more leverage in Russia's hands to push the U.S. for a quick resolution on Ukraine. That's MPR's Emily Fang, Emily Fanks. Thanks, A. Okay, an NPR team is reporting from here in Georgia today. I'm at our station, W-A-B-E, in Atlanta. Georgia, as a big Senate race and a governor's race, President Trump campaigned here last Friday and returns this weekend. The President's travel schedule says something about the party's desperation. The Republican is trailing in Georgia, and Trump is even campaigning in red states, such as Kansas, Iowa and Florida. Now, two weeks before election day, both parties are now deciding which race is to cut loose and where to push all in. And P.R. Stephen Fowler is with us here in Atlanta, Stephen, you brought your NPR sweatshirt, nice fashion statement like that. Good morning. Good morning. Good to talk with you. And I know you're going to be traveling to some of the states we just mentioned. One of the President's travel plans tell us about the state of play. On paper, this is not really where the leader of the Republican Party should be spending his time in energy. Kansas hasn't elected a Democratic Senator in nearly a century, and yet polls suggest it's possible. There's a trip to a conservative corner of Iowa. It's a state where Democrats could flip the governor's office three of four house seats and the Senate seat because of how unpopular Republicans are. Trump is visiting North Carolina as many Republican outside groups have basically gone dark on the airwaves because the Senate race is viewed as a lost cause. So in many ways, it's rallying the troops to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic. Well, we're in Georgia, which was supposed to be a marquee Senate race, and now it's not so competitive. Nope. And that's because of Democratic Senator John Assoff. He raised well over $100 million this cycle. He raised his profile with a very strong anti-corruption attack in the campaign message. And his poll numbers have risen too, thanks to crossover support from some Republicans. However, there is still a competitive governor's race here. Former Atlanta Mayor Keishan Lance Bottoms is in a toss-up race with billionaire healthcare executive Rick Jackson. He's funneled over $100 million of his own money to try and beat back the rising tide of Republican unpopularity. And also in Georgia, demographically, you have basically every major group that swung towards President Trump in 2024, young people, Latino voters, people who don't show up to vote very much. Now they're swinging back. Okay. So President Trump's travel schedule tells us something. Then there's the money where money goes and where money is drawn back. What does that tell us about the party priorities? For Republicans, it looks like there's more of a priority to save their Senate majority than House. That's where more money is. And Democrats are seizing on openings in very conservative places. Over the last three weeks, data shows Republicans have doubled, tripled, even quadrupled their investment in places like the Senate races in Kansas and Mississippi. Mississippi, please go on. Deep red house districts in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and they've pulled back at the same time from the Georgia and North Carolina Senate races. And one time toss-up races in Iowa, Ohio, and Nebraska that are not as competitive anymore. Meanwhile, the Democrats have a long list of flipped targets that have actually been accompanied by millions of dollars in spending to leading Republicans to scramble and respond in places like Arkansas. So as we've been going around the Atlanta area the last couple of days, we've been seeing people going to the early polling sites, early voting. What can you read into the early voting numbers across the country? What we're seeing right now is that Democrats appear to be changing how they vote away from mail-in ballots to in-person early voting or election day. It's also going to be notable to see where else Trump goes in his final days and with more than a million people already voting here in Georgia so far, I am watching what appears to be higher than usual black turnout in Georgia and other key races across the South. And Pierce Stephen Fowler, thanks for the insights. Thank you. The Trump Administration's fight with California elections officials over the voter rolls is intensifying. On Monday, the Department of Justice filed charges against more than two dozen people for voting crimes in previous elections. Just last week, the Department of Justice sued the state and Los Angeles County because local officials declined to investigate the administration's non-citizen voting allegations. So with election day coming, where's all this heading? Let's bring an NPR voting correspondent, Miles Parks, to answer that question. Miles, let's start with that LA lawsuit. What's the latest there? So the Department of Justice filed an emergency motion just yesterday asking a federal court to force LA County and the state of California to do what it wants as soon as possible. This all began about a week ago last Tuesday when the DOJ delivered a thumb drive to Los Angeles County that contained the names of 20,000 people all over California who were on the state's voter rolls and who the federal government says are likely non-citizens. Now I should say there are a lot of reasons to be skeptical of that number. The DOJ once California to segregate the ballots of everyone on this list and for them not to be counted until those people have been investigated. The state, and since the federal government has not provided evidence for its claims, and doing what the DOJ asks would probably violate state and federal law. - What are the chances that DOJ will be successful? - Election law experts are pretty skeptical. I mean, this DOJ has tried a bunch of different ways to compile states to change how they vote and there just hasn't been much success. It would be pretty shocking if two weeks before an election when ballots have already gone out of that changes. - All right, so we mentioned the charges that were filed yesterday against non-citizens in California for alleged voting crimes. Are these two things related somehow? - Yes, so the 28 people charged yesterday were supposedly on this broader list of 20,000 names that was provided to local officials. These were all green card holders who allegedly registered to vote. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter announced the charges at a press conference yesterday. - This Department of Justice will not look the other way while non-citizens vote in federal elections. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for California and LA County. - I should say there's still a lot we don't know about these cases. Research has found that in many of these cases where legal, permanent residents do register to vote, it's often found to be because of bureaucratic errors or because they didn't realize it was illegal. It just usually does not make that much sense that someone would risk their chance at permanent citizenship to cast one vote. - And so on that, Miles, because 28 people, I mean, that doesn't sound like this big grand conspiracy that the president has talked about for so many years. - Exactly, I mean, just for context, 28 people is roughly 0.001% of California's registered voters. But election experts I talked to say announcing charges like this, and this is something we've seen more and more in recent days, as early voting is beginning across the country, it allows the Trump administration to give the impression that this idea of non-citizen voting is happening more than it is. - All right, so two weeks short of election day, here's what are people worried about. - So the number one fear from election experts is that these sort of accusations could be leveraged in some way by federal law enforcement to potentially confiscate ballots in the period after voting ends during counting. But I should say voting officials are preparing for that. Dana Lewis is a Republican election official in Penal County, Arizona, and she told me election officials everywhere are watching this legal process play out in California and making plans as though they'll be next. - When this impacts another administration, you know, or jurisdiction, you automatically have to feel that. If it's happening in Georgia, if it's happening in Colorado or California, we're all watching. - Local officials I talk to say they have their county attorneys on speed dial right now, just in case the DOJ comes knocking at their door. - All right, we'll have you on speed dial as well, MPR's, Myles Parks, thanks a lot. - Thanks, Ay. - That's up first for Tuesday, October 20th, I'm Emartita. - And I'm Steve Innscape. Today's up first was edited by Rebecca Metzler, Megan Pratt, Shannon Bond, Mohamed El Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Iman Mahani and Nia Dumas. Our director is the long-suffering Christopher Thomas. - When we get engineering support from Nisha Hinas, our technical director is Zach Coleman, and our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow. (gentle music)