Massie Ousted, Trump, Vance and Iran, San Diego Mosque Shooting Investigation

[00:02] President Trump unseated another Republican incumbent who didn't fall in line. Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massey is out. Democratic voters turned out in force in six states that held primaries last night. What does it all mean for November's midterm elections? I'm Ian Martinez. That's Leila Faddle. And this is Up First from NPR News. [00:22] President Trump said he was an hour away from launching news strikes on Iran this week before calling him off. Yeah, it was all done. The boats, the ships are all loaded. He's now given Tehran a few more days to reach a deal. And police and community leaders have identified the three victims of the San Diego mosque shooting, including a security guard credited with saving 140 children going to school inside. We call them our martyrs and our heroes. [00:50] suspects had ties to a global white supremacist network. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. [00:57] Bye. [01:02] This message is from AT&T with your summer essential, the iPhone 17 Pro. Its center stage front camera auto-adjusts the frame to fit everyone into group selfies. Right now at AT&T, ask how you can get iPhone 17 Pro on them with eligible trade-in. Requires eligible plan. Terms and restrictions apply subject to change. Visit att.com slash iPhone for details. [01:28] Support for NPR comes from IBM. On Smart Talks with IBM, Malcolm Gladwell explores how organizations are using technology to solve complex challenges. I spoke with Sergi Ghosh, Heineken's chief AI officer. If you can connect all the different applications, all the platforms, remove fragmentation, scale very quick, that's what we call the best connected drawer. That's where IBM is really partnering with us.

[01:58] podcasts. [01:59] This message comes from Harvard Business School Executive Education, developing leaders who make a difference in the world. They bring together executives with varied backgrounds from influential organizations around the globe. The viewpoints of a diverse peer group inspire deep learning and challenge your thinking. In their programs, you'll experience the power of these fresh perspectives and connect with a world of new ideas. Learn more at hbs.me slash go. That's hbs.me slash go. [02:29] Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massey is the latest Republican lawmaker to lose his seat for crossing President Trump. The race was another display of the president's hold on Republican voters. Massey lost his primary to Trump-backed candidate Ed Galrine by nearly 10 percentage points last night. That was just one race among six states that held elections Tuesday, the busiest primary day of the midterms. [02:59] midterm elections. NPR's Stephen Fowler stayed up late last night to watch these results and joins us here early this morning. Good morning, Stephen. Good morning. I imagine you have not slept. Did Massey lose because he went against some of Trump's policies? Yes and no. I mean, Thomas Massey clashed with Trump over the Epstein files. He actually led to the release of the files. He clashed with Trump over the Iran war and foreign conflicts. He opposed Trump's one big,

[03:29] So Trump did back a challenger, former Navy SEAL officer Ed Galrine. And what's the latest example of Trump taking out anyone who isn't 100 percent loyal in the last year or so? The last time an incumbent lost was Saturday with Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy. But Massey kept it close. I will also note that yesterday Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to oust incumbent Senator John Cornyn ahead of next Tuesday's runoff. [03:59] indicate his victory would make the general election race more competitive, especially in what's shaping up to be a wave year for Democrats. So let's move to another state with competitive races, Georgia. Tell us how the high profile contest there went down. [04:12] Several of them still won't be decided for another month because of runoffs, like the very, very expensive governor contest where billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson narrowly trailed Trump-backed Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones on the Republican side. You also have Congressman Mike Collins going to a runoff against Derek Dooley, the candidate backed by Governor Brian Kemp. That's for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination to face off against incumbent Democrat John Ossoff. [04:39] There was a bit of a surprise as a late-breaking push to elect Democratic-aligned candidates to the state Supreme Court saw both incumbents appointed by Republicans win, though one of them more narrowly than the other. And what are your big takeaways from the results in these races? [04:56] Well, mainly a sign that Georgia's court races aren't as politicized as a state like, say, Wisconsin, and that the disparity could stem from voters picking one candidate who seemed more Democratic-coded in the technically nonpartisan race. Also, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms winning the Democratic governor's nod, even with some of the baggage from her one term in office, also says a lot about the primary electorate's thoughts.

[05:26] percent for Republicans. That gap is going to be something to watch when looking at these key races in November. Now, several other states held primaries yesterday. What are some of the highlights there? [05:38] Well, Alabama's governor's race will be between current U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican, against former U.S. Senator Doug Jones, a Democrat. [05:47] Several of those U.S. House primaries in Alabama won't count, and there will be a special election in a few months where the state is reverting some districts to old lines more favorable to Republicans. That's because of last month's Supreme Court ruling gutting part of the Voting Rights Act. In Pennsylvania, several key matchups are set as polls there suggest three Republican-held districts are basically toss-ups. [06:10] And in many races around the country and up and down the ballot, the general election was basically yesterday since there's so many uncontested elections and safe seats. [06:20] That's NPR's Stephen Fowler in Atlanta. Thank you, Stephen. [06:23] Thank you. [06:24] Music. [06:30] President Trump says he was an hour away from making the decision to launch new strikes against Iran this week before calling them off. Yeah, it's all done. The boats, the ships are all loaded. They're loaded to the brim. And we're all set to start. [06:45] Trump said Tuesday he's now giving Iran two or three days to reach a deal, maybe a week, extending the state of limbo that has defined the conflict for the last several weeks. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez has been covering the various moves, and he joins us now. Good morning, Franco. Good morning, Laila. I feel like I'm having a little deja vu here. I've heard Trump threaten to attack Iran during the ceasefire just to pull back from the threat in the midst of these negotiations. I mean, what happened this time? What are Trump and others in the administration saying?

[07:15] after giving them a tour of the construction site of his new ballroom. And that's why you could hear all the dinging and clanking in the clip. He said he delayed the strikes because of serious negotiations happening with Iran. Now, J.D. Vance, the vice president, later expanded on Trump's remarks, but he also gave a slightly different characterization of the prospects. But Vance did say there were two pathways for Iran, you know, continue to negotiate or restart the military campaign. It takes two to tango. [07:45] We are not going to have a deal that allows the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon. So as the president just told me, we're locked and loaded. We don't want to go down that pathway, but the president is willing and able to go down that pathway if we have to. And echoing Trump's comments from before, Vance also insisted that this was, quote, not a forever war. OK, he says it's not a forever war, but it is an open ended war. I mean, it's already gone on longer than the president said it would. [08:15] kind of just speaks to that uncertainty that former officials I'm speaking with say could actually extend the conflict for months. Mona Yakubian, a former State of Art official and at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warns it's turning into a, quote, frozen conflict that can reignite at any time. The bigger fear is also just that there is no

[08:45] straight or four moves. [08:47] and Iran being able to continue to be disruptive. And she called it kind of a half solution that, in essence, leads to a prolonged stalemate in which Trump's constant threats really impair any real movement toward economic repair or economic growth in the region. Now, you said earlier that Vance was characterizing the prospects of the negotiations differently. What did you mean? Right. The president says there are serious negotiations happening with prospects of a deal. [09:17] says Iran's negotiating position is not clear. I mean, Vance says the country is fractured, the leadership is fractured, that the supreme leader has one view and other leaders have a different view on the direction they want to go in. And Vance did not say, or he said he did not know if the divisions were due to bad communication or bad faith, but he admits that it's making the process all the more difficult. And that's kind of a problem because it's hard to reach an agreement [09:47] on the issues that you're negotiating about. That's White House correspondent Franco Ordonez. Thank you, Franco. Thank you, Leila. [09:53] Music. [10:01] San Diego authorities are sharing more information about the victims and suspects in the attack at a mosque that killed three people. Community leaders say the three men who were killed sacrificed their lives to save the 140 children inside the school of the center. On Tuesday, Imam Taha Hassan, who leads the center, pay tribute to his friends and colleagues at a press conference.

[10:24] We called them our brothers. [10:26] in the community. We call them [10:28] our martyrs, and our heroes. [10:30] There was Mansour Kaziha, who goes by Abu al-Iz. He'd been at the Islamic Center since they broke ground 40 years ago. He was the handyman. He was the cook. He was the... [10:40] caretaker, he was the store... [10:42] Keeper. [10:44] He was everything. [10:46] I don't know what I'm going to do. [10:49] at the Islamic center without [10:50] His assistance, his daily assistance. [10:52] Nadir Awad lived across the street and ran to help when he heard the gunfire. His wife is a kindergarten teacher at the school inside. Kaziha, the elder, called 911 just before he was killed. He and Awad were trying to help. [11:07] Both of them, they tried to do something. They were hiding in the parking lot next to the kitchen. [11:12] They try to do something. [11:14] And then there was the mosque security guard, Brian Climax, who went by Amin Abdullah. In life, he was known for his welcoming smile in the security vest he wore at work. [11:25] He's the one who stopped them. [11:26] who slowed them down. [11:29] If he didn't do what he did, [11:31] The two suspects, [11:32] would have easily access to every single classroom. Police say he saved the lives of everyone else in that mosque. His daughter, Hawa Abdullah, spoke at a press conference and said he opposed any form of hate. And I hope this moment we can all come together and to be kind to one another and to remember who he truly was. Regardless if you were a Muslim, if you were Christian, if you were Jewish, if you had no faith, he didn't care. He would treat you human to human. He would smile at people he did not know.

[12:02] about writings outlining the beliefs of the two teen suspects who killed these men. They met online. Special agent in charge of the FBI field office, Mark Remily, said they, quote, did not discriminate on who they hated. NPR's domestic extremism correspondent, Odette Youssef, has been looking into materials online that are believed to be tied to the incident, and she joins me now. Hi, Odette. Hey, Layla. So what have you found? [12:28] Well, I've watched a video that the suspects appear to have live streamed of the shooting. And I've read a 75-page document that's attributed to two named individuals. NPR has confirmed that those are the suspects' names with someone who's familiar but not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation. [12:58] systematically replaced. They blame Jews for that. They believe black people are genetically inferior. They believe women are also responsible for everything wrong in the world. And what they want, Layla, is to accelerate the disintegration of our social fabric and bring about civil war. I'll say that everything I looked at in terms of these materials was unfortunately very familiar. Very familiar, as in you've seen it before, they're following some kind of script? [13:28] This shooting recalls the 2019 attack at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, where an Australian white nationalist killed 51 people. Many elements appear to be copied here. You know, the live streaming, the type of clothing, the white handwriting on the guns. And the perpetrator of that attack is revered in the writings that I reviewed, you know, along with many other who've committed racially or religiously driven violence.

[13:58] of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, says this clearly shows the global nature of violence tied to far-right ideology. These movements, they're not confined by borders. They are truly transnational. There have been... [14:11] Killings in multiple countries motivated by the same idea. [14:15] In Germany, in Norway, in the United States, in New Zealand, in Serbia not that long ago, in Bratislava, in Slovakia. Authorities yesterday also said that it appears the suspects in this case were radicalized online. Is that apparent from the materials you looked at? [14:35] Well, those indicators that the suspects were replicating previous attacks, that certainly suggests that they consumed online content that directed how they executed this attack. But something that was different here is that the writings didn't only pull from pseudoscience and conspiracy theories found in obscure online hate spaces. [15:05] Somali daycare fraud in Minnesota. They claimed Islam is incompatible with the West, and they parroted the Great Replacement conspiracy theory. You know, this is not fringe material anymore found only in obscure far-right forums. These are now mainstream talking points in right-leaning media from Republican members of Congress and even the White House. That's NPR's Odette Youssef. Thank you for that reporting, Odette. Thank you.

[15:38] And that's Up First for Wednesday, May 20th. I'm Leila Faldin. And Ami Martinez. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratz, Rebecca Metzler, Andrew Sussman, Mohamed El-Mardisi, and John Stolnes. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And our supervising producer is Michael Lipkin. Join us again tomorrow. [16:05] Bye. [16:08] *music* [16:20] This message comes from Bombas. Your feet hit the ground an average of 2,000 times in a mile. [16:26] Bombas sports socks are designed to support you every step. Sprint to bombas.com slash NPR and use code NPR for 20% off your first purchase. [16:36] This message comes from ZipRecruiter. Finding great candidates to hire can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Unless you use ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you, it finds them for you. That's why four out of five employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And right now, you can try [17:06] Okay. [17:06] Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor-free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get NPR Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.