Trump's Defense Pick, United Healthcare CEO Killed, Mass Deportations And Jobs

Summary

Up First from NPR: December 5, 2024

NPR's "Up First" delivers the three biggest stories of the day with in-depth reporting and analysis. In this episode, hosted by Michelle Martin and Tamara Keith, the primary discussions revolved around President-elect Trump's controversial defense secretary nominee, the targeted killing of United Healthcare's CEO, and the implications of potential mass deportations on the U.S. job market.

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1. President-Elect Trump's Defense Secretary Nominee Under Fire

Nominee in the Spotlight

President-elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is embroiled in controversy amid allegations of heavy drinking, mistreatment of women, and financial mismanagement of veterans' charities. Hegseth, a former Fox News host and a decorated veteran, has been a vocal proponent of purging "woke" culture from the Pentagon.

Defense and Support

In his efforts to salvage his nomination, Hegseth has adopted a multifaceted strategy:

• Public Denials and Commitments: He has publicly denied having a drinking problem, stating, "I don't have a drinking problem, but I did promise to stop drinking if I'm confirmed" (Tamara Keith, 03:09).
• Engagement with Media and Senators: Hegseth participated in an interview with Megyn Kelly on Sirius XM and has been active on social media and in Wall Street Journal op-eds to sway public and senatorial opinion.
• Family Support: His mother appeared on Fox and Friends to appeal directly to female senators, emphasizing that her son is a "changed man" (Tamara Keith, 03:25).

Trump’s Involvement and Transition Issues

Despite Hegseth’s statements, President-elect Trump has remained largely silent publicly, with only private assurances of support: “Hey, Pete, I got your back” (Michelle Martin, 02:46). The Trump transition team has faced criticism for its rapid pace and lack of thorough vetting, leading to multiple nomination setbacks:

• Additional Nomination Challenges: Besides Hegseth, Trump's pick for the Drug Enforcement Administration withdrew, and Matt Gaetz had to step down from the Attorney General race due to insufficient support (Tamara Keith, 04:08).
• Expert Insights: Max Steyer from the Partnership for Public Service highlighted the unprecedented speed and ensuing chaos of the Trump transition, stating, “Haste makes waste” (Tamara Keith, 05:06).

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2. Targeted Killing of United Healthcare CEO Raises Alarms

The Incident

Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare—the largest health insurer in the United States—was tragically killed in what authorities describe as a premeditated and targeted attack. The incident occurred on the morning of his company's annual investors conference in Midtown Manhattan.

Details of the Shooting

• Premeditated Action: NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed, “Every indication is that this was a premeditated, pre planned targeted attack” (Maria Aspin, 07:01).
• Method and Motive Unclear: The shooter was identified through surveillance footage as wearing dark clothing and a mask, using a pistol with a silencer. The motive remains under investigation, with no immediate ties to corporate disputes or personal vendettas revealed.

Impact on United Healthcare

Brian Thompson’s leadership was pivotal in expanding United Healthcare’s dominance in the health insurance sector. Under his tenure:

• Corporate Expansion: United Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, reported nearly $300 billion in revenue last year and manages tens of millions of customers.
• Broad Influence: The company owns Optum, which manages pharmacy benefits, and is the largest employer of doctors in the U.S., employing around 90,000 physicians (Maria Aspin, 08:16).
• Regulatory Scrutiny: UnitedHealth has faced significant criticism and legal challenges, including a recent antitrust lawsuit by the Justice Department aiming to block its $3 billion acquisition.

Public Sentiment and Threats

Healthcare executives, particularly those from large insurers like UnitedHealth, frequently face public anger and threats due to widespread dissatisfaction with the U.S. healthcare system's high costs and perceived inefficiencies (Maria Aspin, 09:20).

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3. The Implications of Mass Deportations on the U.S. Job Market

Trump’s Deportation Strategy

President-elect Trump has advocated for mass deportations, positing that removing millions of undocumented workers will free up jobs and improve opportunities for U.S. citizens. However, historical data presents a more nuanced picture.

Economic Analysis

NPR immigration correspondent Jasmine Garst interviewed economist Chloe East, who provided critical insights into the actual impact of mass deportations:

• No Job Creation: Contrary to the administration’s claims, increased deportations do not result in more job opportunities or higher wages for American workers. In fact, East estimated that “for every half a million people deported, there were 44,000 fewer jobs for American born workers” (Jasmine Garst, 11:06).
• Trickle-Down Effect: Immigrants often enable business growth by filling essential roles that allow companies to expand. For instance, a Florida roofing company owner explained that hiring immigrant workers allowed him to take on more jobs, necessitating the hiring of additional managers and accountants—positions that went to U.S. citizens (Jasmine Garst, 11:11).

Impact on Essential Industries

• Agriculture: In California’s Central Valley, over 90% of farm laborers are foreign-born and mostly undocumented. Mass deportations could severely disrupt food supply chains, leading to shortages and increased prices. For example, fewer tomato pickers and transporters would result in limited availability and higher costs for consumers (Chloe East, 12:23).

Resource Allocation Concerns

While policymakers argue that undocumented immigrants strain resources and housing, the economic reality suggests that deportations may have the opposite effect by hindering business growth and job creation (Jasmine Garst, 12:13).

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Conclusion

This episode of "Up First" highlights significant national issues:

• The turbulent confirmation process of Trump’s defense secretary nominee amid allegations and inadequate vetting.
• The alarming targeted killing of a major healthcare executive, shedding light on the vulnerabilities within high-profile corporate positions.
• A data-driven examination of the proposed mass deportations, revealing potential negative repercussions on the U.S. job market and essential industries.

For listeners seeking a comprehensive understanding of these topics, NPR's "Up First" provides timely and insightful coverage to inform and engage.

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This summary was compiled based on the transcript provided and aims to encapsulate the key discussions, insights, and conclusions presented in the podcast episode.

Transcript

[Michelle Martin]

The embattled nominee for secretary of defense quotes President elect Trump is offering support.

[Steve Inskeep]

It's a fight. They're coming after you. Get after it.

[Tamara Keith]

So how is Pete Hegseth answering claims about his conduct over the years?

[Michelle Martin]

I'm Michelle Martin. That's Steve Inskeep. And this is up first from NPR News. New York City police are searching for the person who killed the head of America's largest health insurer.

[Jessica Tisch]

This was a premeditated, pre planned targeted attack.

[Michelle Martin]

What do we know so far about the shooting?

[Tamara Keith]

Also, we look at some of the side effects of mass deportations.

[Chloe East]

When there is an increase in deportations in a county that does not lead to more job opportunities or higher wages for U.S. born workers.

[Tamara Keith]

Stay with us. We've got the news. You need to start your day.

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This message comes from HubSpot. Growing a business means a lot of audience, attracting lead scoring and long days. But with HubSpot, it's easier than ever for marketers to remix content, boost leads and score customers fast. Learn [e-mail] marketers President elect Trump's pick.

[Tamara Keith]

For defense secretary is fighting to save his nomination.

[Michelle Martin]

Pete Hagseth is defending himself against allegations of heavy drinking, mistreatment of women and the financial mismanagement of two veterans charities. The former Fox News host sat yesterday for an interview with another former host at that network, Megyn Kelly, for her show on Sirius xm. He insisted that Trump pledged his support in these words, hey, Pete, I got your back.

[Steve Inskeep]

It's a fight. They're Coming after you get after it. I think he'll be delighted that we're talking today and we're going to do more talking.

[Michelle Martin]

Hegseth is a veteran who wrote in books about purging woke culture from the Pentagon. Now he's the latest of Trump's nominees to run into trouble.

[Tamara Keith]

NPR senior White House correspondent Tamra Keith is covering all this. Tam, good morning.

[Jessica Tisch]

Good morning.

[Tamara Keith]

How is Hegseth defending himself when he steps out in public?

[Jessica Tisch]

He's saying that all of these allegations are part of a smear campaign from anonymous sources who don't like what he would do with the Defense Department. He also said he doesn't have a drinking problem, but he did promise to stop drinking if he's confirmed.

[Tamara Keith]

Okay.

[Jessica Tisch]

He's meeting privately with the senators who will decide his fate. And he's also doing something very unusual for a nominee. He's posting on social media, published an op ed in the Wall Street Journal, and did that Megyn Kelly interview. Even his mom sat for an interview on Fox and Friends yesterday to make a direct appeal to female senators, saying her son is a changed man. My colleagues on the Hill are right reporting that while no Republican senators have said that they are a no vote, enough have expressed reservations to potentially sink his nomination.

[Tamara Keith]

Well, now the question is, I guess, how far Trump wants to push this fight. We heard Hegseth quote Trump as purportedly offering support in private. What's he saying in public?

[Jessica Tisch]

Trump hasn't said anything in public. He hasn't weighed in. But yesterday he did announce more than a dozen other picks for administration jobs, continuing what has been just this incredibly fast pace of making these announcements. Hegseth isn't the only headache, though. Trump's pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration withdrew this week. And then of course, there was Matt Gaetz for attorney General, who had to withdraw because he didn't have the votes to be confirmed.

[Tamara Keith]

How does that record compare with past presidents?

[Jessica Tisch]

You know, it's almost expected that at least one of a president's initial nominees will fail before getting to a Senate vote. It happened with Trump. It happened to Biden, Bush, Clinton. Obama actually had three picks withdraw, but this really, really early for two picks to be out already. Part of the reason is Trump has bypassed some of the typical vetting procedures. Max Steyer heads the Partnership for Public Service, which has long worked to improve presidential transitions.

[Max Steyer]

Haste makes waste. There's been some attention paid to the speed of the intended appointments, but you don't actually go fast if you don't do the necessary preparation work. To make sure you're going well. And there is no prior incoming administration that has seen intended nominees blow up at the speed at which we've seen so far.

[Jessica Tisch]

You know, the Trump transition only just agreed to FBI background checks earlier this week, more than a month late. Usually this sort of vetting is done quietly before picks are named to avoid embarrassment. And this time you have a cloud of self inflicted chaos around the Trump transition because of the way they chose to do it.

[Tamara Keith]

I'm interested in hearing that they've agreed to the FBI background checks. They initially seemed not interested at all. And then senators quietly said we will be hearing from nominees who have been vetted only. And I guess they changed their minds.

[Jessica Tisch]

Yep.

[Tamara Keith]

NPR's Tamara Keith in West Palm Beach. Thanks so much.

[Jessica Tisch]

You're welcome.

[Tamara Keith]

Police in New York City are searching for the person who killed the CEO of United Healthcare.

[Michelle Martin]

Brian Thompson led the largest health insurer in the United States and he was shot the morning of his employers annual investors conference. Authorities said he was targeted and the shooting was planned.

[Tamara Keith]

NPR's Maria Aspin is covering this story. Maria, good morning.

[Maria Aspin]

Good morning, Steve.

[Tamara Keith]

What have you learned?

[Maria Aspin]

So this was shocking. Yesterday morning just before 7am Brian Thompson was shot as he approached a hotel in midtown Manhattan. And I have to say a lot of companies use this place for big meetings. I've been there for these sorts of events many times. Police say this wasn't a random act of gun violence. The person who shot Thompson was waiting outside specifically for him. This is NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

[Jessica Tisch]

Every indication is that this was a premeditated, pre planned targeted attack.

[Maria Aspin]

Police released surveillance footage and pictures of the alleged gunman. He was wearing dark clothing and a mask and he used a pistol that appeared to have a silencer. Police say the gunman was waiting on the sidewalk for Thompson and shot him several times from behind as he walked by.

[Tamara Keith]

Thanks for the detail about the silencer. I looked at that weapon on the video and thought, wow, that's a long barrel, and wondered if that's what that was. So thank you for that. Now, as far as the victim, who was Thompson?

[Maria Aspin]

So he was 50 years old. He lived outside Minneapolis with his wife and two kids and he was a longtime executive at UnitedHealth Group. He joined that company two decades ago and worked his way up as the company grew bigger and more powerful. Three years ago, Thompson took over the unit called UnitedHealthcare, which is the largest health insurer in the United States. It has tens of millions of customers and it made almost $300 billion in revenue last year. But it's important to point out that as big as this insurance business is, it's just part of the larger UnitedHealth parent company, which isn't a household name necessarily, but it's one of the largest companies in the United States.

[Tamara Keith]

Yeah. And of course, we're asking these questions because we don't know who the gunman was. We don't know what the motive was. But of course, you look into the affairs of this person who was shot. So what else does UnitedHealth own?

[Maria Aspin]

It touches pretty much every part of the US healthcare experience, Steve. Another big business it owns is Optum, which manages pharmacy benefits, or you might remember the change healthcare hack earlier this year. That's also owned by UnitedHealth. United is also the largest employer of doctors in the entire country. It said last year that it employs us affiliated with 90,000 physicians. That's one out of every 10 doctors in the country. So with this size and scale, UnitedHealth has drawn a lot of criticism and scrutiny from consumers and regulators and lawmakers, sometimes over how it wields its power. Just last month, we saw the Justice Department file an antitrust lawsuit trying to block UnitedHealth from buying yet another business for $3 billion.

[Tamara Keith]

Health insurance companies make a lot of people angry. They reject claims. They do a lot of things that enrage people. Isn't that. Don't they get a lot of threats?

[Maria Aspin]

Yes, healthcare executives receive a ton of threats. And part of that, Steve, as you said, is the general anger and frustration so many feel over healthcare in the United States. The country has the most expensive healthcare in the developed world and some of the worst health outcomes. And since United Health is the biggest healthcare company, it's a key part of that system. So it gets blamed by a lot of people when the system doesn't work.

[Tamara Keith]

NPR's Maria Aspen in New York City, thanks so much.

[Maria Aspin]

Thank you.

[Tamara Keith]

Okay. If President Elect Trump succeeds in deporting millions of people from the United States, his administration will not be the first.

[Michelle Martin]

Yes. In fact, the US has deported millions of people in the past. And that gives us a chance to answer a question. When you deport a lot of workers who are not citizens, does that improve the job market for people who are and other people in the US legally?

[Tamara Keith]

NPR immigration correspondent Jasmine Garst has been studying that. Hi there, Jas.

[Jasmine Garst]

Hi.

[Tamara Keith]

What does the history show here about this idea, which is one of the reasons that the new administration gives for a mass deportation?

[NPR Marketing]

Yeah.

[Jasmine Garst]

So the Obama administration did a historic number of deportations, more than 3 million removals. I spoke to economist Chloe east at the University of Colorado in Denver. She studied the effects of many of those deportations.

[Chloe East]

So we see really clearly that when there is an increase in deportations in a county, that does not lead to more job opportunities or higher wages for US Born workers.

[Jasmine Garst]

Her work also focused on something we rarely hear about, which is immigration as a way to create new jobs for American born workers.

[Tamara Keith]

How could immigrants, whether they're here legally or illegally, create jobs for American workers?

[Jasmine Garst]

Yeah, so let me give you an example. Earlier this year, I was interviewing business owners in Florida, and the owner of one roofing company told me if I could hire more immigrant workers to do the roofing, then I could take on more jobs, which means I would need to hire a manager, I would need to hire and expand my accounting team, and all those jobs would go to U.S. citizens. So we don't talk about this a lot, but economists do talk about this trickle down effect.

[Tamara Keith]

Okay, so that doesn't mean that it is right or proper that you have to agree with people coming here illegally or through asylum or anything else. But in any case, it doesn't seem to cost Americans jobs. It may actually add American jobs if there are more people here and working.

[Jasmine Garst]

Exactly. So what professor east says is that for every half a million people deported, she estimates there were 44,000 fewer jobs for American born workers.

[Tamara Keith]

The presidential campaign also touched on the idea that people here illegally are using resources, taking up housing, that this affects citizens. Are there findings about that?

[Jasmine Garst]

So we don't know what mass deportations are going to look like. Right. But I wanted to bring it down to the day to day. We know immigrant labor is inextricably linked to our food supply. So consider farm workers in California, where a lot of US vegetables come from. Now, over 90% of those workers are foreign born, mostly undocumented. I asked professor east what could happen to, for example, the price of tomatoes, most of which come from California.

[Chloe East]

Mass deportations in the Central Valley in California would reduce the number of people who are able and willing to pick tomatoes and also reduce the number of people who will drive the trucks from the tomato farms to the grocery stores. And when there are fewer of both types of workers, there will be fewer tomatoes at the grocery store at all, which will make the price of tomatoes go up.

[Jasmine Garst]

So basically what she's saying is if you're worried about the price of food now, you should be worried about mass deportations.

[Tamara Keith]

NPR's Jasmine Garst, thanks so much.

[Jasmine Garst]

Thank you.

[Tamara Keith]

And that's up first for this Thursday, December 5th. I'm Steve Inskeep.

[Michelle Martin]

And I'm Michelle Martin. For your next listen, why not consider Consider this from npr. We Hear It up first, give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider this colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you in just 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcast.

[Tamara Keith]

Today's up first was edited by Roberta Rampton, Russell Lewis, Alfred Alfredo Carbajal, Lisa Thompson, and H.J. mai. It was produced by Ziad Bach, Nia Dumas, and Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us tomorrow.

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