How Biden is testing the limit of presidential powers in his final days

Summary

Apple News Today
Episode Summary: "How Biden is Testing the Limit of Presidential Powers in His Final Days"
Release Date: January 7, 2025
Host: Gideon Resnick (in place of Shamita Basu)

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1. Canadian Political Turmoil: Trudeau's Resignation

The episode opens with a significant political upheaval in Canada as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces his resignation. After nearly a decade in power, Trudeau steps down amidst declining popularity and mounting pressures.

Justin Trudeau (00:45): "My friends, as you all know, I'm a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country. And I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians."

Trudeau's approval rating has plummeted from an initial 63% upon entering office to approximately half that figure. The pressure to pass leadership to a new figure has intensified, especially with the upcoming general election where the Liberal Party faces a formidable challenge from Canada's Conservative Party.

Vox reporter Ellen Ionis provides context on the global trend of incumbent leaders being ousted during major election years.

Ellen Ionis (01:28): "2024 was a huge election year across the world, and we've really seen a lot of incumbents go down. You know, people are ready to turn the tide. And that does look like a move toward, like more of the right wing."

A key factor driving Trudeau's downfall is the rising cost of living in Canada, which resonates with voters grappling with economic hardships.

Ellen Ionis (01:51): "People are really having a hard time and they want something to blame. They want a person to blame, they want a party to blame, they want a policy to blame, and they want somebody to fix it for them."

As Canada prepares for a general election later this year, the new Liberal leader is expected to face Pierre Poilievre, a populist figure anticipated to secure a significant victory.

Ellen Ionis (03:37): "He's also sort of a populist in a Trump-esque mold. So I think that will really be something to watch, and I think that's something that Canadians are actually concerned about."

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2. U.S. Presidential Maneuvers: Biden's Final Acts

As President Joe Biden approaches the end of his term, he is actively seeking to solidify his legacy through several executive actions:

• Social Security Expansion: Biden recently signed legislation to enhance Social Security benefits for millions of public sector workers.

• Environmental Initiatives: He has dedicated two new national monuments in California to protect tribal lands and announced a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling across more than 625 million acres of federal waters, encompassing regions like the Eastern Seaboard, Pacific Coast, and Gulf of Mexico.

These moves have sparked immediate opposition from President-elect Donald Trump, who vows to reverse Biden's environmental policies.

Donald Trump (04:49): "I will unban it. I have the right to unban it immediately. What's he doing? Why is he doing it? You know, we have something that nobody else has. I mean, nobody has to the extent we have it. And it'll be more by the time we finish."

However, legal complexities may hinder Trump's ability to swiftly undo these measures. NBC's White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell explains that reversing such executive actions often requires congressional intervention.

Kelly O'Donnell (05:06): "It is not as easy as it might appear. You would think if one president can authorize something, another president might be able to reverse it, as you indicated. But what we have learned is that case law suggests that it is actually Congress who would have to take action."

Biden's reliance on the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which grants presidents authority to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing, complicates Trump's prospects of reinstating drilling activities. While Trump has previously used this act to protect coastal areas, legal precedents suggest that reversing such actions without congressional support is challenging.

Kelly O'Donnell (05:42): "Now, President Trump can certainly try to unwind this, but he also tried to do that in his first term with an Obama era matter. And the court said that Congress needed to act."

The episode highlights the tension between executive actions and legislative authority, emphasizing the potential obstacles Trump may face in altering Biden's environmental policies.

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3. America's Homelessness Crisis: A Deepening Crisis

ProPublica's investigative reporting delves into the escalating homelessness crisis in the United States, which has reached unprecedented levels in 2023. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, nearly 800,000 individuals experienced homelessness this year—a 20% increase from the previous year.

The Supreme Court's recent decision permits cities to take punitive actions against unhoused individuals, leading to aggressive measures like the sweeping of housing encampments. These operations often result in the confiscation of personal belongings, further exacerbating the struggles of those already facing homelessness.

ProPublica reporter Nicole Santa Cruz shares the harrowing story of Stephanie from Portland, Oregon, who lost all her possessions during a city-led sweep.

Nicole Santa Cruz (07:20): "Her tent, most of her tarps, and her cooking stove weren't there, and her engagement ring and notes from her late fiance were also gone."

Stephanie's plight underscores the emotional and practical devastation caused by these sweeps. Despite her urgent need, including being pregnant and reliant on food stamps and cash stored in her purse, city officials failed to return her belongings effectively.

Nicole Santa Cruz (08:10): "She told us that going through all of that trouble to get her stuff back and then to have nothing that she needed there and to have that be decided by somebody else who doesn't even know her that it was traumatizing."

ProPublica's extensive interviews reveal that only 4% of seized items are reclaimed in Portland, leaving countless individuals like Stephanie without essential items such as medications, identification, and survival gear. Experts advocate for more compassionate approaches, emphasizing communication and ample time for individuals to prepare for encampment removals.

Nicole Santa Cruz (09:07): "Everyone says that you really need to open up the lines of communication with unhoused folks and also give them enough time to pack up what they might need to take with them and doing that well in advance of when an encampment removal might occur."

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4. Additional News Highlights

• Severe Winter Storms: A massive snowstorm has swept across regions from Ohio to Washington, D.C., resulting in several fatalities and dozens of injuries. The storm has caused widespread disruptions, including abandoned vehicles, flight cancellations, and power outages. Although the heavy snowfall is diminishing, forecasted colder temperatures may lead to further travel issues, school closures, and additional power outages.

• Legal Battle Continues for Donald Trump: In legal news, former President Donald Trump faces a pivotal moment as his request to halt sentencing in his hush money case is denied. Convicted on 34 counts related to falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 election, Trump's defense team argues for an appeal based on presidential immunity. However, Judge Juan Merchan's earlier ruling indicates that such immunity does not apply in this case, keeping Trump on a path toward sentencing scheduled for Friday.

• Ilona Marr's Rugby Milestone: Transitioning from her stint on "Dancing with the Stars," Ilona Marr has made a remarkable return to the sports arena by debuting professionally with England's Bristol Bears rugby team. Her first match shattered attendance records, attracting 9,420 fans—more than double the club's previous record. Marr emphasizes the importance of diversifying attention within the sport to foster broader growth.

  Ilona Marr (11:01): "People call me the superstar of rugby, but that's not enough for the sport. We can't just have one superstar. We need to have more. We need to have people connecting with so many different players, and that is what will grow our game now."

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Conclusion

This episode of Apple News Today provides a comprehensive overview of significant political shifts in Canada and the United States, the deepening homelessness crisis in America, and other notable events shaping the current landscape. Through detailed reporting and impactful personal stories, host Gideon Resnick delivers an informative narrative for listeners seeking to understand the complexities of today's news.

Transcript

[Gideon Resnick]

Good morning. It's Tuesday, January 7th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, Biden tests the limits of presidential power on a key issue. What happens after cities, clear homelessness, encampments, and more dangerous weather ahead for millions of Americans. But first, to the political crisis gripping America's neighbor to the north. Yesterday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation, stepping down as the leader of the Liberal Party after nearly a decade in power.

[Justin Trudeau]

My friends, as you all know, I'm a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country. And I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians.

[Gideon Resnick]

Trudeau entered office with a 63% approval rating, but today he has only around half of that support. He's faced mounting pressure in recent months to let someone new lead the party, which will face Canada's Conservative Party in a general election later this year. Vox reporter Ellen Ionis told us that Trudeau's downfall is yet another example of a trend that we've seen in elections worldwide wide over the last year.

[Ellen Ionis]

2024 was a huge election year across the world, and we've really seen a lot of incumbents go down. You know, people are ready to turn the tide. And that does look like a move toward, like more of the right wing.

[Gideon Resnick]

For Canadians, rising costs of living has been a major motivating factor. In fact, a recent poll from Ipsos found that 71% of Canadians said that was their top issue last year.

[Ellen Ionis]

People are really having a hard time and they want something to blame. They want a person to blame, they want a party to blame, they want a policy to blame, and they want somebody to fix it for them.

[Gideon Resnick]

For our American listeners, this story probably sounds familiar. In a 2024 election exit poll, nearly 7 in 10 voters said the U.S. economy was either not so good or poor. About 3 in 4 voters said that inflation had caused their family hardship, and they took that unhappiness out on the party in power. Now Canada is facing similar upheaval, and it comes as the nation is trying to figure out how to work with the incoming Trump administration. The relationship between our country and Canada is vital for both nations. We are each other's biggest trading partners and neighbors. But in recent months, Trump has lobbed insults at Canada, referring to it as our 51st state and suggesting that it should merge with the U.S. now, that trolling aside, he's also promised to impose significant tariffs on all imports from Canada on Day One. In fact, a major turning point for confidence in Trudeau's leadership came just before the holidays. A longtime ally, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, stepped down. She was set to lead Canada's response to the tariffs proposed by President elect Trump, and she and Trudeau had disagreements about how to best respond to that threat.

[Ellen Ionis]

Her resignation and her rebuke of specifically Trudeau's plan for dealing with the Trump relationship kind of put the nail in the coffin, so to speak, for his party leadership for sure, if not his national leadership.

[Gideon Resnick]

Trudeau will remain Prime Minister until his party selects a new leader. But their eventual pick will face Pierre Poilievre, who's expected to win the next general election by a wide margin.

[Ellen Ionis]

He's also sort of a populist in a Trump esque mold. So I think that will really be something to watch, and I think that's something that Canadians are actually concerned about.

[Gideon Resnick]

Now to the US Where President Biden is making last minute moves in the final days of his presidency. He recently signed a bill to expand Social Security benefits for millions of current and former public sector workers. And he's taken several steps to shore up his environmental legacy. Before President elect Trump takes office today, Biden will dedicate two new national monuments in California to protect land that belongs to tribal nations. And yesterday, he announced a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling across more than 625 million acres of federal waters that includes part of the Eastern Seaboard, the Pacific coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Trump quickly responded to the move on Monday, pledging to reverse Biden's order immediately.

[Donald Trump]

I will unban it. I have the right to unban it immediately. What's he doing? Why is he doing it? You know, we have something that nobody else has. I mean, nobody has to the extent we have it. And it'll be more by the time we finish.

[Gideon Resnick]

But reversing the ban will be easier said than done. As White house correspondent Kelly O'Donnell told.

[Kelly O'Donnell]

NBC, it is not as easy as it might appear. You would think if one president can authorize something, another president might be able to reverse it, as you indicated. But what we have learned is that case law suggests that it is actually Congress who would have to take action.

[Gideon Resnick]

That's because Biden relied on a law from 1953 to take this action. It's called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands act, and it allows presidents to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing. Trump himself had used the law in his first term to protect the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Here's O'Donnell again.

[Kelly O'Donnell]

Now, President Trump can certainly try to unwind this, but he also tried to do that in his first term with an Obama era matter. And the court said that Congress needed to act. And when you get Congress involved, certainly with a Republican Congress, he may be able to do that. But at the same time you might also have all the local interests from coastal related members of Congress who would also have concerns.

[Gideon Resnick]

At least one Republican senator said that Congress would try to reverse Biden's move in this next term, but it's unclear if they'll be able to do it during Biden's term. Domestic oil production reached an all time high, but the White House says their administration has conserved more land and water than any other. Let's turn now to reporting from ProPublica on the homelessness crisis in America, which has reached record levels. According to the latest estimate from the Department of Housing and Urban development, close to 800,000 people did not have housing in 2023. That number is nearly 20% more than the year before. At the same time, the Supreme Court recently allowed cities to take punitive action against people who don't have housing. For example, we've seen a number of local governments order sweeps of housing encampments, meaning that officials can take everything from tents and sleeping bags to people's journals, their pictures and mementos. ProPublica spent the last year following some of these stories. Reporter Nicole Santa Cruz told us about a woman named Stephanie. She was living in Portland, Oregon, and lost everything in one of these sweeps.

[Nicole Santa Cruz]

Her tent, most of her tarps, and her cooking stove weren't there, and her engagement ring and notes from her late fiance were also gone.

[Gideon Resnick]

Stephanie begged city officials to at least return one item, her purse, which held her food stamps and cash. She was pregnant and needed the money to survive. Instead, they gave her a business card with a phone number to call to schedule a pickup. Some cities are supposed to store these items and make it simple for people to reclaim their possessions, but ProPublica found that rarely happens in Portland. Over the course of one year, only 4% of items were reclaimed. When Stephanie tried to call the number on that business card, no one answered at first. And when she eventually managed to reach someone and find the transportation to get to the warehouse where her belongings were stored, almost everything was gone, including her purse.

[Nicole Santa Cruz]

She told us that going through all of that trouble to get her stuff back and then to have nothing that she needed there and to have that be decided by somebody else who doesn't even know her that it was traumatizing.

[Gideon Resnick]

ProPublica spoke to nearly 100 other people with similar stories. Only one managed to get all of their belongings back and they all told Santa Cruz that losing everything is devastating.

[Nicole Santa Cruz]

Over and over again. Unhoused people told us that their belongings being taken was a setback. It could be traumatic. It exacerbates health issues when they lose their medication and it can undermine efforts that they've taken to get off the streets. People told us of losing medications, identification, clothing that they need for work, sentimental items, and not to mention just kind of basic survival gear like blankets and tents.

[Gideon Resnick]

Experts on homelessness told her that there is a more compassionate way to approach this issue.

[Nicole Santa Cruz]

Everyone says that you really need to open up the lines of communication with unhoused folks and also give them enough time to pack up what they might need to take with them and doing that well in advance of when an encampment removal might occur.

[Gideon Resnick]

Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app Dangerous weather continues to impact a big swath of the country. Several people are dead and dozens more injured as heavy snow blanketed areas from Ohio to Washington, D.C. thousands of cars were abandoned from Kansas to Virginia. Flights were delayed or canceled, and many in the storm's wake were without power. On Monday, forecasters say the snow will taper off, but colder temperatures are set to move in, which could cause further travel disruptions, school closures and power outages. In legal news, the judge and President Elect Trump's hush money case denied a request to halt sentencing scheduled for this Friday. Trump was convicted on 34 counts for falsifying business records in an effort to cover up a sex scandal in the run up to the 2016 election, Trump's defense team argued that Judge Juan Merchan should halt the sentencing while he appeals an earlier ruling from Merchan that the Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity does not apply to this case. And finally, Ilona Marr may have hung up her dancing shoes after this past season of Dancing with the Stars, but she is back on the rugby field. The US Rugby star made her overseas professional debut with England's Bristol Bears on Sunday, breaking an attendance record for the club. Demand was so high, in fact, that the team had to move to a bigger stadium to accommodate the crowd. Here she is talking to TNT about her popularity.

[Ilona Marr]

People call me the superstar of rugby, but that's not enough for the sport. We can't just have one superstar. We need to have more. We need to have people connecting with so many different players, and that is what will grow our game now.

[Gideon Resnick]

Despite a losing effort, the Bears reported a record 9,420 fans who showed up to see Mars first match, more than double their previous record. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening to the News app right now, we have a narrated article coming up next from New York magazine. Recreational use of nitrous oxide, better known as laughing gas or whippets, has boomed in popularity in recent years, with companies even selling candy flavored versions over the counter through a legal loophole. And this trend has medical experts deeply concerned. If you're listening in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News plus narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.