Good morning. It's November 22nd. The rain has passed in New York City. It's still gray outside. And this is your Indignity Morning Podcast. I'm your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news. 

On the front of this morning's New York Times, damp and rumpled from the rain, because apparently it's better to risk throwing away an entire newspaper than to introduce one blue plastic bag to the environment, the four-column lead headline is, “Gaetz Withdraws as Justice Department Pick, Seeing He Didn't Have Votes for Approval.” The lead delivers the news and the vibe. “Matt Gates, who faced a torrent of scrutiny over allegations of sex trafficking and drug use, abruptly withdrew his bid to become attorney general on Thursday in the first major political setback for president-elect Donald J. Trump since his election this month.” The Times goes on, “the collapse of Mr. Gates' prospective candidacy, just 16 days after the election appeared to be the earliest such failed cabinet pick in modern history and underscored the haphazard way that Mr. Trump has gone about assembling his new administration. He picked Mr. Gates almost on a whim last week.” Almost? Anyway, “almost on a whim last week without extensive vetting, knowing that allegations were out there, but essentially daring Senate Republicans to accept him anyway.” The new nominee is Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who dropped the investigation into the Trump University scam in exchange for a large campaign donation from Donald Trump. But who's going to ding a person for a little bribe-taking? “What remained unclear on Thursday,” the Times writes, “was whether Mr. Gates's withdrawal would embolden Senate Republicans to challenge other contentious cabinet choices, such as Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host tapped for defense secretary, or Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic selected for secretary of health and human services.” It's hard to say because the way the whole Gates thing played out, no Senator actually challenged him. The rejection happened in the preliminary discussions about the sparing any Republican senators from having to ask hostile questions of a Trump nominee in a hearing or stand up and vote against Trump's pick. 

For a test of Republicans' senators' courage in more public fora, you have to turn to page A17, where a story about the alarming details of the police report about the 2017 sexual assault accusation against Pete Hegseth on his way back to his hotel room with the alleged victim. The Times writes “a hotel staff member said Mr. Hegseth was cursing, very intoxicated and insistent he was exercising his right to freedom of speech.” Also, the Times reports “the woman told police that she remembered seeing Mr. Hegseth's dog tags hanging around his neck as he was over her.” Anyway, all of that is wrapped around the story “Republican senators rally to defend Defense Department pick.” Senator John Cornyn of Texas said the police report is hearsay Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri says listen he denies it. He says there's been no wrongdoing.

And in other news about the courage and convictions of the incoming Republican Senate majority on the facing page the story is “President-elect Donald J Trump on Wednesday instructed congressional Republicans to block the passage of a bipartisan federal shield bill intended to strengthen the ability of reporters to protect confidential sources, dealing a potentially fatal political blow to the measure, even though the Republican-controlled House had already passed it unanimously. Mr. Trump,” the Times writes, “has exhibited extreme hostility to mainstream news reporters, whom he has often referred to as ‘enemies of the people.’ In his first term as president, he demanded a crackdown on leaks that eventually entailed secretly seizing the private communications of reporters including some from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN.” The story continues “after those subpoenas came to light early in the Biden administration, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland issued a rule that banned prosecutors from using compulsory legal processes like subpoenas and search warrants to go after reporters' information, including, by asking third parties like phone and email companies to turn over their data or to force them to testify about their sources. But a future administration could rescind that regulation.” 

Elsewhere in politics, down at the bottom of A17, California Governor Gavin Newsom went out stumping for Gavin Newsom. “Newsom's message to working class voters is that Democrats need to do better,” is the headline. 

Two pages before that, down at the bottom of A15, the story is “the Rockbridge Network, a secretive group of MAGA donors, gathers strength.” While Democrats argue about who among them betrayed working class voters the most, Trump's incoming chief of staff, Suzy Wiles and other key figures in the transition and administration, went to Las Vegas for what the Times describes “as the fall gathering of a secretive group of wealthy tech executives and their allies who have ascended swiftly within the Republican Party's donor class, the Rockbridge Network. The group,” the Times continues, “which was co-founded five years ago by JD Vance, sprouted from an informal set of dinners into a powerful coalition of Republican donors who have given more than $100 million to Rockbridge projects since 2019, according to a person close to the group, helping lead Silicon Valley's march to the right. For Rockbridge, Mr. Vance's election as vice president was a crowning achievement and a tantalizing opportunity to wield new national influence. But,” the Times continues, “Rockbridge has largely kept its activities stealthy, mindful of how groups of wealthy conservatives like the Koch network have drawn attacks from both liberal detractors and Republican wannabes.” The Rockbridge group wants to keep its activities stealthy, the New York Times informs the readers at the bottom of page A15, more than two weeks after the founder of the Rockbridge group was elected vice president. Thanks for the story. 

Back on page one, the big picture of Matt Gaetz running alongside the single column of Matt Gaetz News sort of scrambles the visual hierarchy. But the second column from the right is “Newest missile is dark signal from Russians. Longer range weapon is nuclear capable. President Vladimir V Putin escalated a tense showdown with the West on Thursday, saying that Russia had launched a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine in response to Ukraine's recent use of American and British weapons to strike deeper into Russia.” Tremendous Timesian news ontology there. The lead is a statement by a politician about missile policy. Only in the third paragraph do you get that he manifested this policy by shooting a nuclear-capable ballistic missile at Ukraine. Rhetorical escalations may be alarming, but this was just an escalation-escalation. One actual step up the hierarchy of warfare, closer to a nuclear attack. 

Next to that, “Netanyahu faces arrest warrant by Hague court, alleging war crimes. Ex-Israel Defense Chief is also accused. U.S. rejects charges.” Same news as yesterday morning, just immortalized in print.

Now just above the fold, headline is “Big Autos Plead to Trump, Force Us to Sell EVs. Three of the nation's largest automakers, the Times writes, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis are strategizing with other car manufacturers on how to make a delicate request of President-elect Donald J. Trump. Don't scrap the federal regulations that compel the industry to sell electric vehicles.” Here's a peek underneath the business community's delight at Donald Trump's election, revealing that, in fact, as much as our oligarchs love the idea of a regulatory purge, it's really hard to plan to do business when the rules you operate under get thrown out every four years. People who make stuff would rather just know what kind of stuff they're going to be making rather than constantly having to retool. 

Down below that, there's a really spectacular photograph of more Icelandic volcano action, a front of glowing lava seen from above as it advances on a two-lane road through a desolate landscape with a single vehicle on it. Just a delightful picture to look at. 

And in breaking news this morning, Donald Trump is not even going to get locked up for the crimes he is convicted of doing. The lone successful, competently executed prosecution of Trump his New York State conviction for falsifying business records. Has now been fed into the grinder of presidential unaccountability along with everything else. His sentencing, which was scheduled for next week, has been adjourned indefinitely. The last scrap of the rule of law dissolves and circles down the drain. 

That is the news. Thank you for listening. The Indignity Morning podcast is edited by Joe MacLeod. The theme song is composed and performed by Mack Scocca-Ho. You, the listeners, sustain our podcasting work through your subscriptions and tips. So please do what you can.

Enjoy the weekend on the way into the short week. And if nothing goes too wrong, we will talk again on Monday.

keywords
politics, news, Trump, media, international relations, business, electric vehicles, controversies
summary
In this episode of the Indignity Morning podcast, host Tom Scocca discusses the latest news, focusing on political controversies surrounding Donald Trump's administration, including the withdrawal of Matt Gaetz as a Justice Department pick and the implications for Senate Republicans. The conversation also touches on Trump's relationship with the media, legislative challenges, and international tensions, particularly regarding Russia's military actions. Additionally, the podcast highlights concerns from major automakers about regulatory changes under Trump's presidency and concludes with reflections on the state of the rule of law in relation to Trump's legal issues.