US And Iran Talk At UNGA, Poll Shows Dems Lead Midterm, White House Media Ban Lawsuit

Iranian officials at the United Nations watched President Trump threaten to annihilate their country. Then the president revealed U.S. officials spent three hours talking with Iranians. Is diplomacy back on the table? I'm Leila Faldil, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. The latest NPR survey gives Democrats the lead in the race for Congress. A lot of voters say their choice is a vote against Trump. How much is the president shaping the midterms? Also, three news outlets the president banned from the White House have their day in court today. CNN, MSNOW, and Politico accused the president of punishing them for their coverage. The president affirmed in writing that he is doing exactly that. The question is whether he broke the law. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. Iran's president takes the podium at the United Nations today, a day after President Trump spoke of annihilating Iran. Trump was in New York addressing the U.N. General Assembly, and he spoke of options for Iran ranging from total destruction to a peace deal after the U.S. election. He also finished the speech appealing for international cooperation. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram joins us to discuss. Hi, Deepa. Hey, good morning. Good morning. So first, just catch us up on what Trump said in his speech. Yeah, I will say it was a pretty brief speech overall, as far as Trump's speeches go. He talked about U.S. actions in Venezuela and Iran and essentially used both as examples of America's military might. At one point, he mused on whether he should annihilate Iran, as you all mentioned. And keep in mind, there were leaders from Iran in the audience. And he talked about how the U.S. has benefited from access to Venezuela's oil supply after a military intervention there that led to the capture of the country's leader, Nicolas Maduro. He even used the phrase, quote, referring to U.S. control of Venezuela's oil, though that goes pretty directly against U.S. foreign policy tradition to not explicitly connect military intervention with the acquisition of resources. Overall, it was a speech that highlighted how Trump sees his own role as a world leader. He described himself as someone who takes action when other countries don't, and someone who isn't afraid to use force to protect America's interests. In the past, Trump has been really critical of the United Nations as a body and hasn't shied away from criticizing it. But this year, he mostly stuck to his remarks, though he did accuse the U.N. of, quote, imposing the far-left agenda of globalist bureaucrats who nobody ever elected. And he was also critical of the ICC, the International Criminal Court. Now, he also had back-to-back meetings with world leaders. How did those interactions play out? Yeah, it was a packed day yesterday. Trump met with leaders from Britain, Japan, Venezuela, and the Gulf nations. He signed a deal with Greenland and Denmark to put more U.S. in Greenland. And that was a win for Trump, who's been calling for the U.S. to, quote, take Greenland since he returned to the White House last year. This deal doesn't give the U.S. any ownership of the island, of course, but it does expand U.S. presence, which Trump wanted. He also met with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky to speak about trying to end the war between Ukraine and Russia. But I will say the biggest news out of that meeting actually had to do with Iran. While taking questions, Trump revealed that a U.S. delegation had been meeting with Iranians for three hours yesterday. It's not clear how much progress was made during those talks, but it does mark a significant shift back to diplomacy after talks with Iran broke down over the summer over the Strait of Hormuz. Trump, of course, has been under enormous pressure to find a way to end this conflict with Iran. He says the election is not on his mind as he weighs what to do about this war that he and Israel started. But voters at home are increasingly unhappy. Yeah, I mean, the meetings yesterday are coming as Trump is facing a lot of uphill battles on domestic issues, poor approval ratings. Legal battles, a fight with the press corps. Yeah, not to mention a major summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who's arriving in Washington tonight. But yeah, on the domestic front, several polls show Trump is doing even worse than before. His approval ratings have slid down. Americans are souring on Trump's stance on foreign policy. They're not happy with this war, and they don't think Trump is doing enough to end it. And you're right, there's other battles, too. Trump this week banned three news outlets from covering the White House. Now the administration is facing legal action from those outlets. A judge is expected to weigh in today on that lawsuit. And Trump was asked about this in New York yesterday, and he said he expects the judge to rule against him. That's NPR's Deepa Shivram. Thank you, Deepa. Thank you. Earlier this month, the president asked voters to pretend he is on the ballot. The latest NPR-PBS News Marist poll out today, shows voters are doing that. Though maybe not in the way he was hoping. The poll finds Democrats have a 12-point advantage over Republicans when it comes to who voters want to represent them in Congress. And many say they're voting in opposition to Trump. The survey also finds voters think Democrats would be better at handling top issues like the economy. NPR's Stephen Fowler has been digging into the results. Stephen, good morning. Good morning. Okay, so how is the president, his presence on the scene shaping voter preference? Well, here's where I do the obligatory boilerplate reference to the midterm being a referendum on the party in power and Trump being in power. People aren't happy with how things are going, which is not a surprise. But it was surprising to me just how intense and immovable this displeasure seems to be. And it's also surprising at how much people do say that Trump is actually influencing their party choice. Okay, let's talk about that influence. I guess you would expect Democrats to say they're voting against Trump and Republicans to be voting for Trump. Is that how it works? Is that how it's working out? Sort of. Overall, 45% of voters say their choice is against Trump. That's most Democrats and just over half of independents. But you've got a large number of Republicans, including two in five who voted for him in 2024, who say that Trump is not much of a factor in their vote. I mean, you can read that two ways. One, more people are supporting Democrats, including some people that voted for Trump before. And two, there's a potential for Trump's base to stay home. This year, and or Republicans to break from Trump and back a Democrat in some of these key races. Here's another nugget for you. More people say they want to vote for candidates who bring new ideas or change over experience and a proven record. Okay, so how do these results compare to the last midterms where Trump was president, 2018? In 2018, there was no war in Iran. We weren't several years into concerns about inflation and the economy, affordability, cost of living. And Trump's unpopularity wasn't actually this bad or strong. Case in point, his net approval is twice as bad now as it was then. Wow. The number of people who strongly disapprove of Trump's job performance is the highest it's been in either term at 53%. Trump's lost a quarter of those who said they strongly approve of him last March. And it's reflected in Republicans losing their advantage with voters on issues like the economy, gas prices, foreign policy, even immigration. Okay, so you're saying that Trump is in even. He's in worse shape than he was in 2018 when his party lost control of the House, although they did keep control of the Senate in that case. Now, this survey, again, shows a 12-point advantage for Democrats across the board. But what does that mean when you break it down into individual races? Well, it's important to remember this poll talks to registered voters, not the people who actually are going to show up in a midterm. And while this could be a blue wave, that wave will not crest evenly across states and races and districts. The primary turnout this year and other polls like this show that more people prefer Democrats and Republicans are less motivated. And fewer could show up in traditionally uncompetitive areas. So for the House and Senate, it's why you're seeing competitive races in very red places where Trump won big by 10 or 15 points in 2024. Why some forecasters say Democrats could gain double-digit seats in the House. And why Republicans could lose control of the Senate and seats in places like Iowa, Alaska, Texas, and Ohio. Okay, we'll keep covering the election however it turns out. NPR's Stephen Fowler, thanks so much. Thank you. Three news outlets make their case in court today to get back access to the White House. Lawyers for CNN, MSNOW, and Politico will tell a judge President Trump is infringing on their constitutional rights. And they should be able to cover him whether he approves of their stories or not. Some media organizations, including NPR and Fox News, are not taking audio-video interviews. Or photos from the White House events until further notice. NPR's David Fulkenflik is covering this story. He's on the line. David, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so the Department of Justice, defending the president, filed a response to this lawsuit last night. What is the defense for something that Trump doesn't deny he's doing? Steve, I tell you, I could have told you before reading those filings, the administration would argue that it is a privilege, not a right, to be able to report from the White House. As the president has said publicly. And that certainly was. But they also argued, relying on letters sent to the news outlets after their credentials were revoked, not before, that there were stories that jeopardized national security and spread falsehoods. They include coverage of the White House ballroom construction, the reports that ammunition had been severely depleted from the military during the war with Iran, and that the Republican midterm conventions were just a dud. Here's how Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out the case. case to NBC. The president feels very strongly that why should I have people working in my building and in my office that I believe are not honestly covering my administration. That's how it feels. We're not closing CNN. There aren't a bunch of police officers or soldiers kicking down the doors of MSNBC or MSNOW, whatever it's called, and arresting people and unplugging it from the grid. They're just not allowed to work from the workspace at the White House. So they're arguing that's grounds enough to be able to hold CNN, MSNOW and Politico's reporters away. Very interesting that Rubio there does not say his own opinion. He says what the president feels. What argument will news organizations be making? Well, so let's take it directly. The core of it is a First Amendment argument. They're saying the president is punishing these news organizations for their speech, which is, say, their coverage. The president has made the point publicly that they don't have the right to report from the White House. And that is true, the privilege argument. But once granted under case law that's held up for decades, there's this thing called viewpoint discrimination. The government cannot do retribution against news organizations for how they cover things. That's what they're arguing here. And also the question of due process. That's the Fifth Amendment. The question of, hey, we weren't given a chance to appeal. In these briefs that were filed last night, the administration is saying, look, it's going to be final if they don't rebut these arguments by this Friday. They're kind of presenting it after the fact as though this is a temporary step and that it's still part of the process, not that it's final. Just to be clear, you're telling me like you could say the Oval Office is private and let no reporters in there. But once you start letting a bunch of reporters in there, kicking them out again afterward in retribution, that would be the thing that would be illegal, according to this argument. That's right. Under the arguments of case law and the First Amendment. Okay. And what has the coverage been like of the president this week as he went to the U.N. General Assembly? Well, look, people have withheld showing video clips and audio clips in kind of solidarity. At the same time, Trump insists upon being the dominant figure of the news, for example, musing whether he should annihilate Iran. Caitlin Collins of CNN was there asking questions. He said, you shouldn't be here. You don't have the right to do it. She pointed out she's credentialed by the U.N. to be there. It's a reminder to the president. He may think he may be able to intimidate or stop coverage. It's going to happen either way. And Pierce, David Volkenflik, thanks. You bet. And that's Up First for this Wednesday, September 23rd. Wow. How is it this late in the month? I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Leila Faldin. Today's episode of Up First was edited. by Rebecca Metzler, Megan Pratz, Emily Cobb, Mohamed El-Badisi, and Ali Schweitzer. It was produced by Paige Waterhouse and Ben Abrams. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And our supervising producer is Michael Lipkin. Join us again tomorrow. Up First is a production of the U.S. Department of State.