On Friday’s RealClearPolitics radio show, Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon review last month’s disappointing employment numbers and news that New Orleans may be the next focus of Trump’s anti-crime campaign. They also consider prominent liberal author Malcolm Gladwell recanting his support for transgender athletes in women’s sports, and share their favorite ridiculous headlines of the week. Later, RCP contributor Greg Orman speaks about his new op-ed about “Elon Musk’s Unclaimed Political Power,” and RCP’s Susan Crabtree discusses her new reporting on “Jewish Teachers Fighting Unions in Court.” You can listen to the show weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** First, the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows unemployment rising to 4.3%-the highest since 2021. Will the Federal Reserve finally give Trump what he wants by lowering interest rates? “I think it’s a definite now. Powell, in his recent speech, already hinted that a rate cut was coming,” Tom Bevan said. “The question is how big.” “If Joe Biden had had numbers like this, Trump would have called for his immediate impeachment,” Carl Cannon commented. “Remember, even amid this tumultuous time with the immigration debate, we need to add around 100,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with population growth.” *** And then, at minute 7, after weeks of speculating that Chicago may be the next city to get federal troops on the streets in the president’s campaign to stop street crime, now the governor of Louisiana is inviting them to New Orleans. “JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, said Trump only wants to send National Guard to states with Democratic governors. It’s a non sequitur, but that line seems to have irritated Trump. This is his way of answering Pritzker,” Cannon suggested. *** In the next segment, around minute 11, prominent liberal intellectual Malcolm Gladwell says he’s “ashamed” of his support for allowing transgender people to play in women’s sports. Is this a sign that the culture is turning a corner on the issue? “He feels like he got it wrong and should have been more courageous,” Bevan said. “But the people who did speak out at the time, took those slings and arrows, were canceled or lost jobs or opportunities, must look at Malcolm Gladwell, sitting atop elite culture, still getting invited to those parties all these years, and think he deserves a little of the approbation that’s coming his way.” “He didn’t say he made a mistake, he said he chickened out,” Cannon added. “He said he was ashamed of what he’d done-that suggests he knew he was wrong… The point is the pendulum is moving toward the middle, back where it should be.” *** And then, at minute 20, RCP contributor Greg Orman speaks to Carl Cannon about his new op-ed, “Elon Musk’s Unclaimed Political Power,” arguing that Musk has all the tools to reshape American politics, if he wants it. “Musk has X/Twitter-which is a megaphone,” Orman said. “He also has universal name ID-everybody knows who he is. He’s widely admired among certain voters — about 35% of Americans approve of him. If he galvanized even a fraction of that 35%, used X to amplify the policies he wants to see changed, and directed those people to engage in political campaigns where votes on the margins can change outcomes, he could quickly make it dangerous-particularly for Republicans-to be fiscally irresponsible.” *** Finally, at minute 30, RCP’s Susan Crabtree joins Andrew Walworth to discuss her new reporting on “Jewish Teachers Fighting Unions in Court.” She discusses how Jewish teachers and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) claim the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, is restricting pro-Israeli symbols and discouraging Holocaust coverage while supporting pro-Palestinian causes. The NEA says they have a right to present multiple perspectives, while the ADL says the union should stay out of political activism. “What we saw at the Ivy League campuses over the last two years-the fight over Palestinian causes and anti-Israel protests-has now come to the public schools,” Crabtree said. “These Jewish teachers are frustrated because their money for years was going to support causes they see as hostile to Israel. They want to fight it all the way up to the Supreme Court.” *** Don’t miss an episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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