The World and Everything in It: July 17, 2024

PREROLL: The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like us. My name is Marcia Bailey. I live in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. I volunteer with CASA: Court Appointed Special Advocate in the Knox County Juvenile Court. I hope you enjoy today's program.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! It’s day three of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

NICK EICHER, HOST: We’ll have a report from the floor of the RNC ahead on Washington Wednesday. Also, World Tour. And later, the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl and ongoing cleanup.

AUDIO: We've seen like lots of devastation from the recent weather and we're trying to respond to it.

And how the U.S. Constitution defines the power of the presidency.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, July 17th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Time for news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: RNC day three » Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance will take center stage tonight in Milwaukee on day three of the GOP convention.

Last night, speakers included Trump’s former rival in a sometimes harsh and heated primary race, former Ambassador Nikki Haley:

HALEY: President Trump asked me to speak to this convention in the name of unity.

Haley said Trump has her full endorsement, and … She made a direct appeal to Republican voters who still can’t see themselves pulling the proverbial level for Trump.

HALEY: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him.

Another former GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis … said not long ago, Florida was deep purple … the biggest swing state in the country … but now, it is solidly Republican.

DESANTIS: Now, electing Donald Trump gives us a chance to do this all across America.

And Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who was a finalist on Trump’s vice presidential shortlist rallied the crowd. He said when Donald Trump was president, Americans had more money and lower prices …

RUBIO: Our borders were secure and our laws were enforced. Iran was broke, the Taliban stopped killing Americans, and Putin didn’t invade anyone.

Secret Service investigations/Trump security threat from Iran » House Speaker Mike Johnson also spoke last night, vowing a thorough investigation into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

According to new reports, a threat against Trump’s life from Iran prompted the Secret Service to add additional security around the president in the days before Saturday’s (apparently unrelated) shooting.

But Republicans say that makes Saturday’s catastrophic security failure that much harder to fathom. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise:

SCALISE:  We're going to have a hearing Monday and we're going to have some serious questions that she's going to have to answer and I'm real concerned about her competence.

The majority leader referring there to the head of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle.

Recent media leaks from the Secret Service seemed to lay blame for the lapse on local police.

SCALISE:  The head of the Secret Service herself will not come and address the public, which is a major concern, but they're leaking, trying to blame this on local law enforcement. Look, if they farmed out their major duties to other agencies, it's still their responsibility.

Despite reports that security around Trump was stepped up, some Republican lawmakers say they’ve heard directly from agents who say requests for additional resources were denied.

Menendez vows to appeal conviction » New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez says he will appeal after a federal jury found him guilty of federal corruption charges.

The 70-year-old was accused of accepting bribes, including cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes in exchange for political favors. He was also accused of acting as a foreign agent for the Egyptian government.

MENENDEZ: I have never, ever been a foreign agent and the decision rendered by the jury today would put at risk every member of the United States senate in terms of what they think a foreign agent would be.

The senator faces sentencing in October. This comes 7 years after he was acquitted of unrelated corruption charges … after a trial ended in a hung jury in 20-17.

The three-term senator has refused calls by fellow Democrats to step down. Instead, he is running for reelection as an independent.

Texas Title IX » A school district in Texas has approved a resolution denouncing the Biden administration’s pro-LGBT activism with its attempts to re-shape Title IX protections.

The Argyle Independent School District near Fort Worth says the administration’s push to allow males who identify as female to compete in female sports poses safety risks to girls.

Superintendent Courtney Carpenter.

CARPENTER: What this resolution does is allows us as a district and as a board to make sure our students know that they will be safe and protected from any attempted elimination of safe and private spaces for girls.

The board’s decision comes days after two federal district judges in Texas temporarily blocked the changes.

Title IX is intended to protect the rights of women and girls and bar discrimination based on sex. The Biden administration wants to expand the rules to cover one’s so-called gender identity.

California Parental notification » Meantime, in California school districts can no longer require teachers or administrators to inform parents if their child starts using a different name or changing their pronouns at school. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports:

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law Tuesday curbing parental rights. He and other state Democrats claim the so-called safety act will protect LGBT kids from “forced outings” to parents.

But many families and school districts say the changes don’t protect kids at all … quite the opposite. The California Family Council said the legislation “violates parents’ rights undermines their fundamental role, and places boys and girls in potential jeopardy.”

California is the first state to enact such a law.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Israel draft protests » While talks continue in the Middle East aimed at achieving a cease-fire agreement in Gaza … hundreds of Orthodox Jewish men have taken to the streets in Israel.

SOUND: [Israel protest]

Demonstrators clashed with police near Tel Aviv …

SOUND: [Israel protest]

as they protested June Supreme Court decision that made them eligible for the country's military draft. Ulta-Orthodox Jews studying the Torah had been largely exempted.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: a report from the Republican National Convention on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 17th of July. Thank you for listening to The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up: the Republican National Convention.

AUDIO: [RNC PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE]

The RNC got underway Monday in Milwaukee.

And then after the pledge each of the states cast their delegate votes, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson made the Republican presidential nomination official:

MIKE JOHNSON: The chair announces that President Donald J. Trump, having received a majority of the votes entitled to be cast at the convention, has been selected as the Republican party nominee for the President of the United States. [APPLAUSE]

REICHARD: Our own political reporter Carolina Lumetta is there at the convention and will be for the duration. Carolina, welcome.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Hi Mary! I’m joining you from the actual convention floor.

REICHARD: Well, the top line news is the announcement of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as Trump's pick as running mate.

AUDIO: It is a great honor to move that J.D. Vance be nominated by acclamation by this Republican National convention as its candidate for the office of Vice President of the United States of America. [APPLAUSE]

So what was the reaction from the convention?

LUMETTA: It was pretty jubilant. Delegates here really like his youth, his experience, the fact that he's from Ohio. A lot of them see this as sort of a passing of the baton. They say that he has a pretty good chance of succeeding Trump as the figurehead of the MAGA movement whenever Trump is no longer in the political sphere.

REICHARD: And what are your sources telling you about what Vance does for the ticket?

LUMETTA: There does seem to be a bit of divide between what delegates and voters like and what analysts say might be politically strategic. For example, I was chatting with a professor who studies the vice presidency—Christopher Devine. He said that it might actually hurt the Trump advance ticket that he's relatively new to politics. He's new to Capitol Hill. He hasn't even completed his first Senate term yet. Delegates like that he doesn't have all the deep—what they call—swamp connections, but that could hinder an administration. I'll read a little bit of what Devine emailed me. He said that this pic shows that Trump is probably, quote, looking for someone who will obey orders in a way that Mike Pence, who was otherwise exceedingly loyal, refused to do so. He said that Vance appeals a lot to the base of the Republican party. He'll be pretty active on the campaign trail. He's a good speaker, great with media interviews, but he's not necessarily going to appeal to people outside of the Trump base. And from an electoral standpoint, Ohio was already pretty much in the bag for Trump. So it's not entirely clear what the voter turnout effect will be with Vance now on the ticket.

REICHARD: Talking about the abortion issue now, we know that pro-life Republicans are divided over what to include in the GOP platform. Carolina, remind us of that controversy and what's the latest on that.

LUMETTA: Right. So I was actually covering this last week when the platform committee met. They drastically cut the pages on the platform planks for the party. Notably, they cut a lot of language in the pro-life and the marriage sections. So the new language simply says that the 14th amendment guarantees the right to life to everybody, but states can make their own abortion policies. And this is pretty much what Trump's new position is on the issue.

It also removes some language that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Delegates from swing states and blue states like this flexibility. They say it might be easier for Republicans to win, but longtime pro-lifers are very concerned about this.

The platform committee passed the rules last week, but it had to come to a floor vote this week. On Monday, there was a voice vote that easily passed. 

AUDIO: The question is on the adoption of the resolution. All those in favor signify by saying “aye.” For those opposed signify by saying “no.”

I heard a couple of scattered nos when they called out the role. But not nearly enough to make much of a difference and nobody came to the microphones to raise an amendment to try to add more to the pro-life plank.

I chatted with one delegate, Gayle Ruzicka, and she's been coming to these conventions since the 80s. And she said that she is very dissatisfied with this language. She doesn't think it's true for the Republican party. But in light of the shooting that happened on Saturday at a Trump rally, she said, it's simply not worth a floor fight. At this point, unity is really important. They didn't want to make a scene. And basically, they're just going to try again in four years to add some more pro-life language to this.

REICHARD: Well, talking about the attempted assassination on Saturday, how has that affected the tone there in Milwaukee? And do you feel safe there yourself?

LUMETTA: Well, Mary, I think that it's added a somber but determined air to the convention. People are definitely still talking about the shooting, expressing grief and prayers for the families that are affected. But delegates are very strongly motivated. There's this coordinated message we're hearing from lawmakers that the country needs to lower the national temperature. And they mostly point to instances when Democrats have likened Trump to Hitler.

But a lot of delegates are also telling me it's hard to reach across the aisle with a party that they say is destroying the country. I did get a chance to catch up with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise yesterday, and he talked to me a little bit about this. I'll play a brief clip of that right now.

STEVE SCALISE: Everybody needs to focus on the issues. We have big issues that divide us in this country and that's not going to change. But let's start talking about those issues between now and November. Not about the personalities. Again, I mean, it's not just elected leaders, it's people in the mainstream media too who have been saying a lot of this hyper charged rhetoric.

LUMETTA: As far as security goes, there is very tight security here. I have seen police officers everywhere. We're told that more than 4,000 law enforcement officials are here from multiple states. There is TSA-like security in what's called the Red Zone immediately around the Convention Center. There's a broader Yellow Zone around there too, where they're doing checks on people. There are bike brigades of police driving around everywhere.

We are told that there have been at least five arrests since Sunday, which is still common for a convention. There have been people arrested for public intoxication, only one or two for trying to breach some barricades. We're not sure what the situation was around there.

I will say Mary, we had an incident yesterday where a man was shot and killed in a police encounter about a mile from the convention center. This was also outside of both of those security zones. It's looking like he was a homeless man staying in a tent city nearby. Witnesses told local news that he had heard voices in his head. Law enforcement said that he was wielding knives But this does not appear to be any sort of concerted or organized attempt. We heard from the Secret Service Director that they have reviewed and strengthened security measures for the convention, but we're not told exactly what those are.

REICHARD: Well, you were there that first moment that President Trump, former President Trump, was first seen after the assassination attempt. What was that moment like?

LUMETTA: It felt like a very historic moment. The crowd went wild as soon as we saw on the screens him come out of this hallway and stand and wait for the Secret Service to clear his path. He does have a bandage over his right ear and it was kind of this big culmination of everyone talking about the attempted assassination on him. People worrying, but also feeling very motivated about the Republican cause. Then seeing him come out of that hallway, I think was very emotional for a lot of people here. Trump himself actually almost looked emotional as he walked onto the floor briefly and then up to his seating where he sat down with JD Vance and some other of his allies. He mouthed, “thank you, thank you” several times. The crowd also chanted “fight, fight, fight” several times throughout the day, but especially when he came out. Which is also what he said right as he was being brushed off of that stage in Butler, Pennsylvania. It was just a really big moment.

REICHARD: Well, while the convention does wrap up tomorrow, what should we expect for the remaining sessions?

LUMETTA: Well, the rest of the convention will have several speeches from party leaders, lawmakers. It all culminates on Thursday where the theme is “Make America Great Again.” We're going to get the Trump speech where he will formally accept the nomination. We're going to get that big classic balloon drop.

I was at an event with campaign manager Chris LaSavita and he said that Trump has been actually rewriting his RNC speech since Saturday. It'll still follow the convention themes, but he teased that we're also going to hear a pretty big unity message.

REICHARD: So what's it like for you being there?

LUMETTA: It's really busy. It's really crowded. It's always go, go, go. Always people to talk to, all these events happening. It's also a big party atmosphere. We've got popular rock music from live bands. I saw someone in a big ball gown made out of a Trump flag and an American flag the other day.

I will say we've had some very interesting speakers this year. Harmeet Dhillon, a lawmaker from California, offered a Sikh prayer to a deity she called the “One True God.”

DHILLON: We thank you for creating America as a unique haven on this earth where all people are free to worship according to their faith.

We also on Monday night had an endorsement from Teamsters Union President Sean O'Brien:

OBRIEN: Today, the Teamsters are here to say, “we are not beholden to anyone or any party.”

And this organization typically endorses left-winging and democratic causes. So he's catching a lot of flak for this. I talked to several delegates on the floor who said that was the most inspiring speech they'd heard thus far, and probably will start winning over a lot of blue-collar votes that are still on the fence about Trump. Overall, I'm running on a lot of coffee and a lot of adrenaline, Mary.

REICHARD: I bet you are, we thank you for that. Carolina is our politics reporter coming to us from Milwaukee. Carolina, thank

LUMETTA: Thank you, Mary.

REICHARD: You can keep up with all of Carolina's campaign reporting at WNG .org and selecting the button, Election Center 2024 on the homepage.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

AUDIO: [Sound of ambulance]

Nigerian school collapse — We start today’s roundup at the rubble of a collapsed school building in central Nigeria.

Authorities said at least 22 people died when the two-story Saints Academy school building in central Plateau state collapsed. More than 130 other people were injured.

The incident happened shortly after the students, who were taking their exams, arrived at school on Friday.

Ruth Habila works as a teacher at the school. She first saw a crack in the wall of her classroom that day.

HABILA: I cautioned the students, what happened, you people noticed this and you did not even report it to the school management, they say they are not aware of it, they are just seeing it now. So, before we realize, the building just collapsed.

State authorities blamed the weak building structure and its proximity to a riverbank for the collapse.

Caleb Mutfwang is the Plateau state governor.

MUTFWANG: Everybody must be responsible for human life. We cannot afford this kind of mishap again, and we have to go back and begin to look at how many of those schools, including even public schools. We are not going to spare anyone.

State officials asked hospitals to treat people injured in the collapse even if they couldn’t pay.

AUDIO: [Sound of ongoing rescue]

Nepal flooding — Over in Nepal, rescuers recovered the bodies of 11 people after a deadly landslide in the central Chitwan district.

The landslide on Friday forced two buses over concrete barriers on a highway and into a steep embankment. Some 50 passengers were inside the buses.

Indra Dev Yadav is the chief district officer in Chitwan.

YADAV: [Speaking Nepali]

He says here that the rescue teams employed metal hooks and underwater and aerial drones in their search operation.

Road travel is more dangerous during the annual monsoon season when heavy rainfall triggers landslides and flooding.

AUDIO: [Protesters]

Ecuador hearing — And in Ecuador, a court in the capital city of Quito has dished out decadeslong sentences to two people over last year’s assassination of a presidential candidate.

Motorcycle-riding gunmen killed Fernando Villavicencio last August after a campaign rally in Quito.

The man and woman convicted of instigating the murder received 34 years and eight months in prison. They must also pay $100,000 each to the politician’s family.

Three other accomplices received 12-year sentences after they were convicted of telling the killers about the victim’s movements.

Alexandra Villavicencio is the victim’s sister.

VILLAVICENCIO: [Speaking Spanish]

She says here that she hopes her brother will continue to get justice.

AUDIO: [Workers on site]

Iraq mass graves — We wrap up in Iraq where authorities are uncovering the remains of victims of the Islamic State terror group from mass graves.

Authorities have found the remains of 139 people in the Alo Antar hole—some 40 miles west of the city of Mosul.

Ahmed al-Assadi works at the Foundation of Martyrs, a government agency tasked with identifying the war victims.

AL-ASSADI: [Speaking Arabic]

He says here that testimonies confirm the victims include Yazidis, Turkmen, and Mosul security officers.

Authorities discovered the mass grave after Iraqi forces reclaimed control of the area in 2017.

They also believe a much larger sinkhole in northern Iraq also contains more victims.

That’s it for today’s WORLD Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER: You know that sinking feeling when you drop something in deep, murky water and it … sinks?

It’s been a year since Megan Beane accidentally dropped her wedding ring into the Stono River in South Carolina. This is her husband, Chris on WCBD-TV:

CHRIS BEANE: I figured that all that sediment and sand being kicked up, it was just going to be buried deep in the sand, and it was gone.

Plot twist: recently, a boy and his dad were out hunting for shark teeth in the same area, and guess what? I’ll let the boy tell it. His name is Rivers Pardee, and he’s 9.

RIVERS PARDEE: It was like, just a little shiny thing sticking up.

So his dad cleaned it up, his mom posted details to social media, and Megan Beane has her ring back. Ed Pardee, the father, said the whole episode was a great life lesson:

ED PARDEE: Just being a good person. Wanted to show my kids, you know, to do the right thing and stuff like that.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 17th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: recovering from Hurricane Beryl. This week, millions of people are still picking up the pieces after the storm hit a handful of Caribbean islands and then made its way to the United States.

EICHER: How are recovery efforts going? WORLD’S Paul Butler has the story.

SOUND: [Neighbors passing buckets]

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER:These Vermont neighbors in the town of Waterbury spent the weekend digging homes out of muck—passing buckets of sludge to the curb in a make-shift fire brigade line. Remnants of Hurricane Beryl hit the state last week, killing two people and taking out bridges, roads, and homes.

Vermont Resident Owen Bradley’s house is near a flooded river.

OWEN BRADLEY: This is the worst I've ever seen. Worst I've ever seen. I have been in this house since 1986 and we've never had water come to our front door.

And Vermont isn’t the only state facing a long cleanup. More than 80,000 are still without power in Texas, down from about a million last week.

SOUND: [TEARING INTO CEILING]

Tracy Hamblin is a volunteer in Houston and is helping a 72-year old resident with house repairs after the storm.

TRACY HAMBLIN: We've seen like lots of devastation from the recent weather and we're trying to respond to it.

But the most devastating damage occurred in the Caribbean. Beryl hit Jamaica as a category 5 hurricane.

TELEVISION JAMAICA: I’m trying to see if I can clear these trees and get this telephone poll removed. 

This man told Television Jamaica that he’s trying to clear debris so his family can reach a shelter.

RESIDENT: We want them to be able to get out and in.

Other islands are even worse off. It could take months or even years to recover from the storm. Samaritan’s Purse Deputy Director of International Projects Aaron Ashoff says it could take months or years to recover from the storm.

AARON ASHOFF: From the sky, it just looks like bombs had been dropped on Carriacou Island, Union Island, Petite Martinique and there, there wasn't a house that was not damaged.

On Carriacou, Beryl took most of the roof off of the health clinic there, so one of the first things Samaritan did was set up an emergency field hospital while sending more medical teams to other islands.

ASHOFF: When I was there, babies were coming in, elderly parents were coming in. There's a 97-year-old woman that was brought in, people who who were on medications for diabetes or heart medication that needed care.

Once the most dire needs after the hurricane are met, crews can begin to move to the cleanup phase.

ASHOFF: A lot of people are now out of the shock phase… of what happened and realized they lost everything.

KJP: The president spoke with Houston mayor Whitmire, and Harris County judge, Lena Hidalgo, about the impacts of Hurricane Beryl, and they both asked for help from the federal government…

Beryl is expected to cost U.S. insurers about $2.7 billion dollars in damages. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for 67 Texas counties.

Due to the intensity of the tropical storm, the damage across the Caribbean was not unexpected. But why did Beryl cause so much damage in Texas when it was greatly weakened by the time it arrived in the U.S.?

Anthony Lupo is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Missouri.

ANTHONY LUPO: As Beryl came ashore in Texas, I think it was a storm that was moving a little bit slower, and for that reason, you may have seen a little more damage than you would if it raced through the area quickly.

NOAA downgraded Beryl to a category 1 by the time it came ashore, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. According to professor Lupo, the current categorization known as the Saffir-Simpson Scale only measures wind speed.

LUPO: There isn't anything that's taking into account storm surge or rainfall or even tornado potential. So, I think there have been some efforts to try to consider more of these other factors, but there's been no consensus on how to do that.

As Beryl slowed down over Texas, it meant more wind and rain for a longer period of time, and with the many other weather related damage earlier in the year, cities like Houston suffered more than expected.

But once the storm moved northeast, it was much more predictable.

LUPO: It really didn't cause a lot of damage once it got out of Texas. In Missouri, we didn't experience much from that storm at all, and then once it got to the northeast, it combined with mid latitude jet streams to produce a very strong, severe weather situation that looked more like the midwest.

SOUND: [TEARING OUT DRYWALL AND INSULATION]

So, now from Waterbury, Vermont, to Houston, Texas, volunteers like Tracy Hamblin are doing what they can to help their neighbors, cleaning up one home at a time:

HAMBLIN: We're trying today, we have a lot of volunteers here that are just helping us remove the wet and moldy materials 'cause at this point, it's been up in there - we know it's been wet for the last week or two…

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Paul Butler with additional reporting from Mary Muncy.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, July 17th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Next up, attorney and WORLD Opinions contributor Elliot Gaiser on filling the nation’s top job.

ELLIOT GAISER: At the 2012 Republican National Convention, actor Clint Eastwood addressed an empty chair as a symbol of Barack Obama’s presidency. The press mocked the shtick, but the visual clicked for voters suspicious that the president was not truly leading the country. Were the act to be repeated at this week’s GOP convention, the symbolism would be more potent following President Joe Biden’s recent debate performance. That debacle revealed that the Oval Office is effectively vacant.

The debate was followed a few days later by a panicked media reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. The two events reveal what is at stake in November: rule by a headless leadership class or leadership by a president as the Constitution envisioned.

Biden’s performance in the debate showed that the country is governed by a political machine run by a committee of aides, media figures, and career bureaucrats. Indeed, the whole conversation about swapping the Democratic nominee now or staying the course with Biden presumes someone other than the president is really in charge. If Biden is forced out now, it will be a relatively small group of people, not the voters at large, who choose his successor. But even if Biden stays at the top of the ticket and wins in November, it is hard to imagine he will still be president at the end of four years. A vote for Biden is a vote for a blank space where the leadership class will get to write in a name.

Like the debate, mainstream criticism of the immunity decision was revealing. The Supreme Court held that a president’s use of core constitutional authorities cannot be criminally prosecuted, but a president’s unofficial acts can be. Beneath the decision was perhaps the assumption that a president, as envisioned by the Constitution, is an actual individual human being burdened with human nature.

The Supreme Court did not hold that the Constitution licenses a president to commit crimes. It merely held that the Constitution provides immunity for official acts to ensure that the incentives of the office and the incentives of human nature align with a republican form of government.

If that is all the court held, then why the meltdown from the left? Because the decision presumes a president will be an individual human being exercising powers that the leadership class would prefer to delegate to a network of aides and experts.

Under this vision, the president cannot be allowed genuine powers and immunity from prosecution for exercising them. Such genuine authority would reverse the fracturing of the executive’s power into the hands of hundreds or perhaps thousands of administrators, lawyers, and staffers.

After the debate and the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, the 2024 election is not just between Trump and Biden (or whoever might replace him). It is between the restoration of the U.S. presidency as described in the Constitution and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court—an office held by an actual human being with virtues and flaws and accountable to us all—or continued rule by the leadership class.

In short, the Supreme Court said that if the American people so choose, they can fill the empty chair.

I’m Elliot Gaiser.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, what does he bring to the ticket? That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible records that children were brought to [Jesus] that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” —Matthew 19:13, 14

Go now in grace and peace.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.