How firing hundreds of employees this year has transformed the Justice Department

"In an era where false claims are the norm, it's much easier to ignore the fact-checkers." Those are the final words of the final column of Glenn Kessler, who has been The Fact Checker at the Washington Post these last 14 years.Kessler is one of many journalists making high-profile exits from the Post, some of whom cite the new direction the paper's leadership is taking as the reason they're leaving.In an interview, Kessler reflects on the arc of the project, why he's leaving, and the value of fact checkers — even if politicians ignore them.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This year, hundreds of employees at the Justice Department have been fired, sometimes over clashes with the Trump administration, and other times for unknown reasons.Those departures are spreading fear across the workforce and transforming the Justice Department.NPR Justice correspondent Carrie Johnson spoke with a few of the career civil servants who have lost their job for reasons they say are illegal or improper. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Donald Trump is aiming to fundamentally shift how the country manages homelessness with a new executive order he signed last week. It calls for changes that would make it easier for states and cities to move people living on the street into treatment for mental illness or addiction, and in some cases, potentially force people into treatment. Consider This: The Trump administration says the federal government has spent tens of billions of dollars on housing without addressing the root causes of homelessness. But critics worry this new executive order won't solve those root causes, either.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

New light has emerged between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump, with the latter disputing Israel's claim that there is no starvation in Gaza. But Consider This: Even as global outrage and assistance grows, aid agencies say only a total ceasefire will allow all the necessary aid in to get to those who desperately need it in Gaza.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Trump traveled to Scotland to talk trade with the EU and play golf. But as soon as he landed he was asked about Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender.The pressure on the Trump administration has continued to intensify over its handling of the Epstein files, and who-knew-what-when. Pressure that's also coming from within his party.And as those calls have ramped up, so has messaging from the administration about a range of other issues, including a rehashing of the 2016 election, and Russia's involvement in it. Trump has lobbed serious claims, like treason, at former President Obama.To get at why these two complicated and dated stories are intersecting and to understand what we can learn from it about the president's governing style, NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro and cybersecurity correspondent Jenna McLaughlin.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

At least 135 people died earlier this month when floods swept through the Texas Hill Country. As in any other natural disasters, journalists from around the country soon arrived to cover the catastrophe. For this week's reporter's notebook series, NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán and Kat Lonsdorf speak with host Scott Detrow about their experiences covering the floods and the importance of interviewing people affected by the disaster with empathy and respect. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Before he entered politics, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a career out of stoking doubt about vaccines, promoting theories contradicted by mountains of scientific evidence on common vaccines which have been studied for decades and safely administered to hundreds of millions of people.Now, six months in as head of Health and Human Services, he has instituted a number of policy changes on access to vaccines for both children and adults. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly and health correspondents Rob Stein and Pien Huang talk through how these changes could impact public health and the public's wallets. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Federal education policy has seen a lot of changes since President Trump's inauguration. For example, the Department of Education itself, which Trump has vowed to close.But that hasn't stopped the Trump administration from also wielding the Department's power. Most recently, by withholding billions of dollars for K-12 schools.The Trump administration has drastically changed the federal government's role in education. What does that mean for American classrooms? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Since returning to office, President Trump has moved swiftly to upend decades of federal policy—from education to healthcare to vaccines...but nowhere more aggressively than immigration. Congress just passed tens of billions in funding for immigration enforcement...It's the largest domestic enforcement funding in U.S. history, fueling Trump's mass deportation campaign of migrants living in the U.S. illegally. President Trump campaigned for office promising the largest deportation in history.Six months into his second term, how has immigration enforcement changed.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected]. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As a candidate in 2024, President Trump promised – often – to end what he and other conservatives describe as "woke" policies.On his first day in office, he signed executive orders rolling back policies around diversity, equity and inclusion — and those policy changes have continued over the last six months of the second Trump administration.One of the oldest civil rights organizations in the country now warns that the administration's policies have thrust Black Americans — and the entire country — into a "state of emergency." NPR's Juana Summers speaks with Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy