The whitewashing of Jan. 6

Summary

Apple News Today: The Whitewashing of Jan. 6 Hosted by Shemitah Basu | Released on January 24, 2025

Shemitah Basu delves into the contentious aftermath of President Donald Trump’s mass pardons related to the January 6th Capitol riot, explores ongoing crises such as the wildfires and housing price gouging in Los Angeles, examines the precarious future of TikTok in the United States, and touches upon notable developments in the entertainment and sports worlds. This comprehensive episode provides listeners with in-depth analysis, expert opinions, and timely updates on these pressing issues.

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1. The Aftermath of President Trump’s Pardons and the January 6th Riots

The episode opens with a critical examination of President Donald Trump’s recent distribution of over 1,500 pardons to individuals involved in the January 6th Capitol riot. Basu highlights the divisive reaction these pardons have elicited from both the public and the individuals affected.

Pam Hemphill’s Rejection of the Pardon Pam Hemphill, a former participant in the riots, expressed her refusal to accept the pardon. Speaking to NBC, Hemphill stated:

“Think about it. The message is if I took a pardon, that what I did that day was okay. They were criminals. They broke the law. I broke the law, pay the price.”
(00:05)

Trump’s Narrative on January 6th Contrasting Hemphill’s stance, Trump has reframed the events of January 6th, describing it as a "day of love" and labeling the rioters as "patriots." This rhetoric underscores his attempt to reshape the historical narrative surrounding the incident.

Tom Jackman on Rewriting History Tom Jackman, a crime and justice reporter at the Washington Post, provides a stark counterpoint to Trump’s narrative. He emphasizes the concrete evidence of the riot:

“This is not somebody's word against somebody's word. This is, we can see what happened. We can see these individuals attacking the police, overrunning the police, using stun guns on the police, throwing flagpoles and fire extinguishers at the police. It happened. It's real.”
(01:16)

Public and Political Response Public opinion remains largely unfavorable towards the pardons, with a Reuters and Ipsos poll indicating that 58% of respondents disapprove of broad pardons. In response, Speaker Mike Johnson has announced the formation of a House subcommittee aimed at investigating and countering what he perceives as false narratives about January 6th.

Concerns Over Rising Extremism Jackman voices significant concerns about the potential for these pardons to embolden extremist groups:

“That's a serious fear that a lot of terrorism type folks are looking at that. People, people will think, heck, I can go out and attack a liberal judge or a liberal prosecutor or a liberal reporter that I don't like because this political violence has been approved and sanctioned by the president. And so even if I get caught, he'll let me out.”
(02:16)

Statements from Militia Leaders Leaders of extremist groups are reacting to their pardons with calls for retribution. Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys addressed his supporters alongside Alex Jones, declaring:

“Success is gonna be the. Is gonna be retribution, okay? And it's up to us. And when I say us, I include your listeners on there. You know, we gotta do everything in our power to make sure that the next four years sets us up for the next hundred years.”
(03:06)

Insights from Josh Kaplan In a recent interview with Josh Kaplan from ProPublica, Basu explores how these pardons are perceived within militia movements. Kaplan explains:

“There's a lot of excitement about it. You're seeing people who feel confident that this is going to be great for their organizations, that there are people that have been keeping their distance still out of fear of potential legal repercussions, and those people are now going to feel kind of invincible... That is what a lot of people, including a lot of people in the militia movement, thought would happen after January 6th. So this reshaping of the narrative, it really matters.”
(03:34)

Kaplan further draws parallels to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, underscoring the historical significance and potential long-term consequences of the current political climate.

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2. Wildfires in Los Angeles and Housing Price Gouging

Shifting focus to Los Angeles, Basu reports on the ongoing battle against multiple wildfires and the subsequent issue of price gouging in the housing market. Despite expectations of rain providing relief, the city continues to grapple with widespread destruction and displacement.

Legal Action Against Price Gouging California Attorney General Rob Bonta has taken decisive action by filing charges against a real estate agent near Altadena for raising rental prices by 38%, a clear violation of state law that caps increases at 10% during a state of emergency. Reporter Liam Dillon of the LA Times elaborates:

“You have 11,000 or more homes that have been destroyed in these two major fires in Los Angeles. That means tens of thousands of people who could be looking for immediate housing... landlords taking advantage of needy folks and raising prices on their rental units.”
(05:39)

Reactions from the Real Estate Community Jason Oppenheim, a prominent figure from the reality TV show Selling Sunset, expressed outrage over the illegal price hikes:

“I couldn’t believe it, so I started taking screenshots and posting them on social media... I've just been trying to get some press to let landlords know that what they're doing is not only immoral, but also illegal and they need to stop.”
(07:03)

Potential Deterrent Effects While only one individual has been prosecuted so far, Dillon suggests that these actions could serve as a deterrent:

“As much as one individual prosecution may be a drop in the bucket for the circumstances that are going on. I think he hopes there will be a deterrent effect for some of the sort of the bad actors that are out there.”
(07:40)

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3. The Uncertain Future of TikTok in the U.S.

Basu delves into the tumultuous situation surrounding TikTok, which serves approximately 170 million Americans. Following a brief blackout after failing to secure a new buyer by Congress's deadline, TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains in flux.

Trump’s Influence and Executive Order Trump has played a pivotal role in the app’s uncertain status. Though he promised a resolution, the executive order only instructs the Attorney General to refrain from enforcing Congress's ban, leaving TikTok absent from U.S. app stores for the time being. Tom Jackman comments on the irony of Trump’s stance:

“And the irony in all this was Donald Trump was the first guy to point out this problem. Matter of fact, his administration had to convince me. They did a great job of convincing me and the overwhelming members of Congress.”
(09:38)

Potential Solutions and Legislative Efforts Several pathways could potentially restore TikTok’s presence in the U.S.:

• Legislative repeal: Senators Rand Paul and Ro Khanna have introduced a bipartisan bill to overturn the ban. However, given the strong initial support for the ban rooted in national security concerns, the bill faces significant opposition.

• Corporate Sale: Trump has suggested partial ownership by a U.S.-based company. Potential buyers include high-profile figures like Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Frank McCourt (backed by Kevin O'Leary), and social media creator Mr. Beast, among others. Additionally, firms like Perplexity AI have shown interest.

International Negotiations Interestingly, China’s foreign ministry appears more amenable to joint ownership with an American entity, possibly as a strategic response to escalating trade tensions, including threats of additional tariffs on Chinese products.

Future Uncertainties If no viable solution materializes within the next 70 days before Trump’s executive order expires, TikTok could face a prolonged hiatus or permanent ban in the U.S.

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4. Additional News Highlights

Social Media Account Transfers Basu addresses a puzzling phenomenon where Facebook and Instagram users noticed their feeds beginning to follow new accounts, including President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance. These alterations are attributed to the standard procedure during political transitions, where account management shifts from outgoing to incoming officeholders. However, some users have reported difficulties in unfollowing these accounts. A Meta spokesperson clarified that follow and unfollow requests might experience delays during such transitions.

Academy Awards and AI in Film The podcast shifts to the entertainment industry, noting the record-breaking nominations for the non-English language film Emilia Perez, which has garnered 13 nominations. Other notable contenders include Wicked and The Brutalist. The discussion raises ethical questions about the use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking, particularly concerning performances. Basu highlights a controversy where AI was used to enhance the Hungarian accents of actors Felicity Jones and Adrien Brody in The Door, prompting debates on the fairness of evaluating such performances.

Super Bowl Preview Concluding the episode, Basu provides a preview of the upcoming Super Bowl matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders. The Commanders, underdogs with a remarkable playoff run, will face off against the Eagles in what promises to be a thrilling encounter. Additionally, the rivalry between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs is highlighted, noting their frequent postseason clashes and the Chiefs’ history of triumphing over the Bills.

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Conclusion

Shemitah Basu wraps up the episode by directing listeners to stay tuned for her in-depth interview with Josh Kaplan from ProPublica, which delves deeper into America’s militia movements and the ongoing implications of the January 6th pardons. She encourages listeners to follow all updates through the Apple News app, ensuring they remain informed on these critical national and international issues.

Notable Quotes Recap:

• Pam Hemphill (00:05): “The message is if I took a pardon, that what I did that day was okay... I broke the law, pay the price.”
• Tom Jackman (01:16): “We can see these individuals attacking the police... It happened. It's real.”
• Tom Jackman (02:16): “People will think... this political violence has been approved and sanctioned by the president.”
• Enrique Tarrio (03:06): “Success is gonna be retribution... we gotta do everything in our power.”
• Josh Kaplan (03:34): “The last event similar to January 6th... the militia movement did not recover from that for over a decade.”

This detailed summary encapsulates the multifaceted discussions of the episode, providing listeners with a thorough understanding of the key issues and perspectives presented.

Transcript

[Shemitah Basu]

Good morning. It's Friday, January 24th. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, reports of price gouging in the midst of the wildfires in LA after TikTok briefly went dark. Where it might go next. And the Oscar goes to AI. How to judge an actor's performance when it's been digitally enhanced. But first, of the more than 1500 pardons President Trump handed out earlier this week for people who rioted at the Capitol on January 6th. At least one woman has rejected the offer. Pam Hemphill told NBC that it would send the wrong message. Think about it. The message is if I took a pardon, that what I did that day was okay. They were criminals. They broke the law. I broke the law, pay the price. But Trump has been clear he doesn't see it that way. He's referred to January 6th as a, quote, day of love and described the rioters as patriots. Tom Jackman is a crime and justice reporter at the Washington Post. He says what we're seeing is a rewriting of history.

[Tom Jackman]

I have sat in the court for four years and watched the evidence and watched the videos. It's on video. This is not somebody's word against somebody's word. This is, we can see what happened. We can see these individuals attacking the police, overrunning the police, using stun guns on the police, throwing flagpoles and fire extinguishers at the police. It happened. It's real.

[Shemitah Basu]

The pardons are not popular with the public, according to a number of recent national polls. One conducted by Reuters and Ipsos during Trump's first two days in office, found 58% of people surveyed disapproved of the idea of broad pardons. Parents. But Trump and his loyalists are eager to change the history books. In fact, Speaker Mike Johnson announced the House would form a subcommittee to investigate false narratives about January 6th. Jackman told us he's heard concerns from people that the pardons could embolden extremists to carry out other politically motivated attacks.

[Tom Jackman]

That's a serious fear that a lot of terrorism type folks are looking at that. People, people will think, heck, I can go out and attack a liberal judge or a liberal prosecutor or a liberal reporter that I don't like because this political violence has been approved and sanctioned by the president. And so even if I get caught, he'll let me out.

[Shemitah Basu]

Stuart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio, the leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, respectively, received some of the harshest sentences for their roles in the violence on January 6th. Now they're out of prison and they're already talking about retribution. They've spoken this week about going after witnesses, jury members, prosecutors, and judges that worked on their cases. Here's Tarrio speaking to far right activist and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

[Enrique Tarrio]

Success is gonna be the. Is gonna be retribution, okay? And it's up to us. And when I say us, I include your listeners on there. You know, we gotta do everything in our power to make sure that the next four years sets us up for the next hundred years.

[Shemitah Basu]

I recently sat down with Josh Kaplan, who covers America's militia movement for ProPublica, and he told me how militias like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers feel like the pardons give them a pass.

[Josh Kaplan]

There's a lot of excitement about it. You're seeing people who feel confident that this is going to be great for their organizations, that there are people that have been keeping their distance still out of fear of potential legal repercussions, and those people are now going to feel kind of invincible. I mean, to give a little historical perspective here, the last event similar to January 6th in the history of these movements in America was the Oklahoma city bombing in 1995, when a man with militia ties blew up a government building and killed more than 100 people. It's one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history. The militia movement did not recover from that for over a decade. That is what a lot of people, including a lot of people in the militia movement, thought would happen after January 6th. So this reshaping of the narrative, it really matters.

[Shemitah Basu]

Kaplan is my guest on this week's episode of Apple News. In conversation, we talk about the future of militias and one man who took it upon himself to become a mole within these groups just so he could spill their secrets. We'll queue up that episode to play next, or you can find it in the podcasts app. And now to Los Angeles, where authorities continue to battle multiple wildfires. Rain is expected over the weekend, which may bring some relief to a city that's seen thousands of structures destroyed and many more residents displaced as authorities attempt to get these fires under control. There have been widespread reports of price gouging in the housing market, which is illegal in California during a state of emergency. And this week, California's Attorney General, Rob Bonta, filed charges against a real estate agent in a community near Altadena. It's the first lawsuit of its kind related to these fires. Here's Liam Dillon, a reporter who covers housing for the LA Times.

[Liam Dillon]

The AG alleges that this real estate agent raised the price on a rental home by 38%, which was, according to the AG, in violation of state law that says you can't raise prices after a natural disaster by more than 10%.

[Shemitah Basu]

The real estate agent who was charged with price gouging told Dylan it was all a misunderstanding. He says he raised the price after learning the property was in a desirable school district and eventually rented it to fire victims for what he claims is below market value. Attorney General Bonta is under a lot of pressure to go after price gougers. As fires rage in the city. People in the community have been compiling spreadsheets documenting price changes for rentals. As of midweek, the AG's office said it sent out 500 warning letters in response to tips. Dillon told us the LA Times has seen increases ranging from 20 to as much as 60%.

[Liam Dillon]

You know, you have 11,000 or more homes that have been destroyed in these two major fires in Los Angeles. That means tens of thousands of people who could be looking for immediate housing. And what we've been finding in the market is reports of bidding wars and reports of, you know, frankly, landlords taking advantage of needy folks and raising prices on their rental units. And so there's been a lot of pressure on the Attorney General.

[Shemitah Basu]

Big price jumps in the housing market have even caught the attention of celebrity real estate personalities.

[Jason Oppenheim]

I couldn't believe it, so I started taking screenshots and posting them on social media.

[Shemitah Basu]

That's Jason Oppenheim, one of the stars of Selling Sunset, a show about luxury home sales in Los Angeles, talking to NBC News.

[Jason Oppenheim]

And then I did some research, and it was pretty obvious that they were breaking the law. I mean, there's a penal code out there. The government created a state of emergency. So since then, I've just been trying to get some press to let landlords know that what they're doing is not only immoral, but also illegal and they need to stop.

[Shemitah Basu]

Dhillon, meanwhile, told us even though the AG has so far gone after just one landlord, there is a chance it'll serve as a warning.

[Liam Dillon]

And I think, you know, as much as one individual prosecution, you know, may be a drop in the bucket for the circumstances that are going on. I think he hopes there will be a deterrent effect for some of the sort of the bad actors that are out there.

[Shemitah Basu]

Now to the chaos involving what happens next to TikTok, the app used by around 170 million Americans. After hitting up against Congress's deadline to either find a new buyer or be banned in the U.S. the app went briefly dark on Saturday, only to re emerge on Sunday when Trump promised a way forward. And TikTok was pretty vocal in crediting Trump with the turnaround. But numerous outlets have reported it's not clear whether he actually has the power on his own to save TikTok. The executive order only directs the attorney general to not enforce the ban passed by Congress. That's why you're not seeing TikTok return to app stores yet. But there are some viable avenues to save TikTok that have emerged. The most obvious and legally, Congress would have to repeal the ban. Republican Senator Rand Paul and Democratic Senator Ro Khanna have introduced a bill to do exactly that, but the Verge says their efforts will surely face opposition. The ban was passed by Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support, and there are members who still fear that the Chinese government may use the app to spy on Americans or disseminate disinformation. It was their primary motivation for giving TikTok this ultimatum in the first place. And that fear, you might remember, really originated with Trump in his first term. He led an effort to ban TikTok in 2020 over national security concerns, and his 180 on this issue has been confusing for lawmakers. Virginia Senator and Chairman of the Intelligence Committee Mark Warner recently spoke about the president's change of heart.

[Tom Jackman]

And the irony in all this was Donald Trump was the first guy to point out this problem. Matter of fact, his administration had to convince me. They did a great job of convincing me and the overwhelming members of Congress.

[Shemitah Basu]

Another possible avenue we could go down TikTok gets sold in the next 70 some odd days before Trump's executive order expires. Trump has suggested that the US or a US based company take ownership of 50% of the app. Although China had previously opposed the sale of TikTok, in recent days it seems like its foreign ministry has warmed up to the possibility of joint ownership between ByteDance and an American company. Beijing's change in tune may have to do with tariffs. Since taking office, Trump has threatened an additional 10% tariff on Chinese products, and Chinese officials may be trying to bring the temperature down by cooperating on other fronts. Trump has also said he is open to Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle co founder Larry Ellison making the purchase, although neither of them have said they plan to do so. A group including Billionaire entrepreneur Frank McCourt and backed by Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary has made an offer. Social media creator Mr. Beast is part of a group of investors that have expressed interest in buying. There's also perplexity AI in an artificial intelligence startup that's put an offer in. But if none of these options materialize, we might have another moment in April when Trump's executive order expires and when the app could go dark again, this time possibly for good. A few other stories we're watching today. A lot of people on Facebook and Instagram this week were questioning why, seemingly out of the blue, they were following President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President J.D. vance. There's an easy explanation. Those accounts, which are managed by the White House, transfer from the person who held the title before to the next person. This practice started during the Obama Trump transition, but since it happens so infrequently, it's not surprising we forget about it when these transitions roll around. We what's more confusing, though, and something we don't have a good answer to yet but will be following, is why some users are reporting issues with unfollowing these accounts. For what it's worth, a Meta spokesperson said it may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands. Now to the Academy Awards. Nominees have been announced. The movie Emilia Perez is leading with 13 nominations, setting a record for a non English language film. Tied for second with 10 nominations each were Wicked and the Brutalist, a film about a Jewish Hungarian architect who flees Europe after World War II. I'm sorry, have I upset you? No. The Door did not realize these images were still available, much less of any consequence. The film is getting attention for its use of artificial intelligence to enhance the Hungarian accents of stars Felicity Jones and Adrien Brody, who you heard in that clip before. This has raised new questions around how to fairly evaluate an actor's performance when they're up for an award if their performance was enhanced somehow with AI. And finally, this weekend, the super bowl matchup will be set. The Philadelphia Eagles play the Cinderella Washington Commanders, who were quite the underdogs heading into the season but made a historic playoff run. And we'll see a battle of two of the league's top quarterbacks, Josh Allen versus Patrick Mahomes, as the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs add another chapter to their historic rivalry. It'll be the fourth time over five seasons they have played in the postseason, and every time so far the Chiefs have sent the Bills packing. We'll see what happens this time. You can follow all of that NFL action in my Sports in the Apple News app, and if you're already listening in the app, don't go anywhere. My full interview with Joshua Kaplan from Propublica about America's militia movement is coming up next. Enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.