A authorities shutdown seems to be more and more doubtless on the finish of the month, and a memorial service for Charlie Kirk is because of be held in Arizona.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A authorities shutdown seems to be doubtless after Senate Republicans and Democrats blocked one another’s plans on Friday to maintain the federal government open past the tip of this month. Comes as many Republicans, together with President Trump and Vice President Vance, put together to journey to Arizona for Charlie Kirk’s memorial service tomorrow. NPR senior political contributor Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks a lot for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: And we’ll flip fairly quickly to the developments and divisions following the Charlie Kirk assassination. However let’s start with the essential query of funding the federal government. Can the Congress do it?
ELVING: At this second, a shutdown is the default situation for the tip of this month. The Home has handed a stopgap spending measure and gone on recess till October. The Senate tried to match that measure yesterday, but it surely wanted 60 votes, which meant it wanted some Democrats to go alongside, and only one did. Many of the Democrats stood agency towards this invoice, which they are saying will probably be a catastrophe for folks on Obamacare or Medicaid or counting on rural hospitals. So the stopgap failed. And until the Senate can collect itself once more and discover a approach ahead, how the fiscal yr will finish in 10 days with no new set of directives for spending, and far of the federal government will shut down.
SIMON: Nation, in fact, is deeply divided. Divisions seem to have been hardened within the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. What stood out to you this week?
ELVING: The divisions and the depths of these divisions, Scott – it isn’t good and left, Republican, Democrat. We’re in an perspective of grievance, reactions of shock. It is changing into all too acquainted. A big portion of the nation is enraged in regards to the killing of Charlie Kirk and one other in regards to the cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel. And a 3rd group is questioning why these two occasions are tearing the nation aside. There are tens of millions of People who do not reside to argue on social media. They do not need to be at odds with their neighbors. And polls present the nationwide temper within the wake of latest occasions is plummeting, and that is all throughout the political spectrum.
SIMON: President Trump applauded ABC’s choice to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air indefinitely after he made feedback after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The president additionally mentioned federal regulators ought to contemplate revoking licenses of different broadcasters who’ve reported or mentioned issues he believes to be important of him. Presidents of each events have groused about what they take into account to be unfair reporting and mock, however have we ever seen something like this earlier than?
ELVING: We now have seen presidents sue newspapers earlier than. They haven’t had a lot luck with that, and Trump has not both, a minimum of to date. We now have additionally heard president’s rail towards the published media. Richard Nixon, particularly, battled the press and the TV information. He regarded for methods he might withdraw broadcast licenses owned by newspapers he thought-about hostile, akin to The Washington Submit. However, in fact, for each story of a courageous newsroom standing as much as bullying, there are lots of extra we by no means hear about how newsrooms have been intimidated or constrained. And within the modern media panorama, the place we reside immediately, with this fragmentation, it is getting more durable and more durable to regulate the narrative for anybody, particularly if it is pushed by people on social media.
SIMON: And now new guidelines for reporters on the Pentagon.
ELVING: Yeah. We’re being instructed by a U.S. official not licensed to talk – instructed Tom Bowman, or NPR, that the Pentagon would require journalists to pledge to not collect any info, together with unclassified, that hasn’t been licensed for launch.
SIMON: And tomorrow, the memorial service for Charlie Kirk. What do you assume we are able to anticipate?
ELVING: In a democracy, folks of all political sympathies are entitled to specific these emotions and most particularly to grieve their fallen heroes. For Charlie Kirk’s supporters, will probably be an event for his or her sense of righteous anger and is prone to gasoline their willpower to pursue Kirk’s concepts and agenda and also will be an event for different outstanding figures to determine with Kirk and attempt to seize a few of what he had, his message and his following as nicely.
SIMON: NPR’s Ron Elving. Thanks a lot.
ELVING: Thanks, Scott.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might range. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its authentic broadcast or publication. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
