April 30, 2025

A Strong Letter from Chuck Schumer (Guest: U-M Law Professor Sam Bagenstos)

58 minutes

Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

This week’s show is sponsored by:

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MIRS News

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Democrats remain divided on how to take on the increasingly unpopular Trump, ranging from Schumer’s very strong letter, Gretchen Whitmer’s balancing opposition to Trump with the state’s need, to a full out denunciation from Illinois Governor J.D. Pritzker. Governor Whitmer’s politically risky Oval Office visit may have been embarrassing, but pays off with a big win in Macomb County. The announcement of new support for Selfridge Air National Guard base came just an hour before Trump’s nostalgia tour hit the stage at a 100-days-in-office Macomb rally.

Trump’s campaign-style rally was more of the same: a 90-minute rant with Trump whining about being a victim, backing off some of his jobs-crushing tariffs on autos and auto parts, and a lot of empty seats according to the Detroit News. But the big political news came earlier in the afternoon, with Governor Whitmer standing side-by-side with Trump to take credit for the new federal commitment to Selfridge…in the process taking the spotlight away from Congressman and GOP gubernatorial candidate John James.

Also this week:

The Trump tariffs begin to take their toll on Michigan, with GM announcing reduced profit projections for 2025

U.S. consumer confidence hits its lowest point since the beginning of the COVID pandemic

The nation’s leading universities launch a mutual defense pact to fight back against Trump’s attacks

A Saran-wrapped car leads to another moment of political pettiness from state House Speaker Matt Hall

There’s been a mass exodus at the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division. We’ll be joined later in the podcast by a former #2 attorney in that division, University of Michigan law professor Sam Bagenstos.

Returning to the podcast this week: University of Michigan law professor Sam Bagenstos, who was a senior staffer at what it now Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services, the Project 2025-driven office of Management and Budget, and the probably-soon-to-be shuttered Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights. From Inauguration Day 2021 to June 2022, he served as general counsel to the Office of Management and Budget where his responsibilities included working on President Biden’s Day One executive orders; helped respond to COVID-19, including implementing several crucial aid programs; and helped craft and implement the American Rescue Plan as well as the Inflation Reduction Act;.

From 2009 to 2011, Bagenstos was the principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, the No. 2 official in the Civil Rights Division. Just this week, dozens of senior attorneys in the Civil Rights Division resigned in protest of the protect-white-privilege priorities of the Trump administration.

Edith Pritchett:The Washington Post

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