Systemic Error Podcast

What happened AlterNet, citing a ProPublica investigation, reports that federal judges dismissed all 26 resolved Justice Department lawsuits seeking unredacted state voter rolls. Four cases remained pending, one state settled, and the administration appealed most dismissals; the only appeal decided at the time upheld dismissal of the Michigan case. Since September, the Justice Department’s Civil R...

What happened Katie Zacharia was reportedly pushed out of the White House press secretary role after only several days—roughly “half a Scaramucci,” in the joke adopted by critics. AlterNet cites Wall Street Journal reporter Meredith McGraw and an unnamed White House official as reporting that Zacharia was “transitioning out.” President Donald Trump told reporters he had encouraged her to reconside...

What happened AlterNet reports that Trump biographer Seth Abramson interprets rumors of a possible post-midterm White House chief-of-staff change as preparation for an effort to “launch a civil war.” That is Abramson’s warning, not an established plan. The article provides no direct evidence that President Donald Trump has decided to replace Susie Wiles for that purpose. According to the report, T...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump mocked the weight and gender of Blake, a 29-year-old protester who called him a “fascist” and wore a homemade “release the Epstein files” shirt at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on October 12. Blake told PunchUp that three men grabbed her, hit her, and pulled her hair before she was forcibly removed from the area, while her calls for help we...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump’s administration and political network are consumed by overlapping personnel fights, leaks and public recriminations. Politico reported that Trump had privately discussed replacing White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and considered possible successors; Trump denied the report and declared his “COMPLETE confidence” in her. The turmoil ex...

What happened Donald Trump abandoned a plan to livestream the December 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Hasan after overwhelming public opposition made the spectacle politically costly. AlterNet reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the broadcast on October 8 and called it a “no-brainer”; Trump initially approved, then announced on October 15 that the execution would proceed witho...

What happened AlterNet argues that Republican-led states are removing large numbers of registrations through confirmation notices, database matching and other list-maintenance procedures that can leave eligible voters missing from election-day rolls. The article warns that these practices could influence future elections, but it does not establish that the next election has already been decided. T...

What happened AlterNet reports that CBS News foreign editor Shayndi Raice warned journalists during a Tuesday staff meeting that refusing management directives could constitute insubordination and provide legal grounds for firing. Leaked audio captured Raice telling employees that CBS was not their personal publishing platform and that senior editors controlled what the network aired. The confront...

What happened AlterNet reports that Jami Floyd, a former friend and colleague of Kimberly Guilfoyle, considers Guilfoyle’s public trajectory a warning about choosing proximity to power over earlier principles. Floyd knew Guilfoyle as a rising San Francisco lawyer in the 1990s and later watched her politics and public persona change during her years at Fox News. According to Floyd’s Daily Beast opi...

What happened AlterNet reports that Trisha Hope, a Houston resident who attended 42 Donald Trump rallies, broke with him after his response during a July 8, 2025 cabinet meeting to a question about a missing minute in Jeffrey Epstein’s jailhouse surveillance footage. Trump replied, “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Hope told CNN that the remark made her conclude he did not care about...

What happened AlterNet, citing reporting by The Bulwark, says concerns about Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s ability to serve have grown after several public incidents: a rambling answer about Judge James Boasberg, reportedly mistaking a staffer for a journalist, and apparent difficulty following prepared questions during hearings. The reporting does not establish a medical diagnosis or prove inc...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump has asked allies whether he should replace White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and has discussed possible successors, including Stephen Miller, Steve Witkoff and Bill Pulte. Politico attributed those conversations to four people it said had direct knowledge; Trump denied the report and declared that Wiles retained his “complete confiden...

What happened AlterNet, citing emails obtained by POLITICO, reports that Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau repeatedly ordered special representative Paolo Zampolli to stop conducting foreign-policy work beyond cultural diplomacy. Zampolli nevertheless met foreign officials about energy, investment, aviation, and other commercial matters, while insisting that he answered directly to Pres...

What happened AlterNet reports that none of the rural and suburban Iowa voters in a focus group—all of whom voted for Donald Trump in 2024—said they were supporting or leaning toward Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Hinson. Some were considering Democrat Josh Turek, though they wanted clearer explanations of his plans. Participants called Hinson “out of touch” and a longtime Trump “yes” vot...

What happened AlterNet reports that former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele called President Donald Trump an “immature child” and a “man child” after Trump posted an AI-generated video of himself playing with a tiger. The post followed Trump’s comment on the October 10, 2026, death of former child actor William Chapman, who was killed after entering a Siberian tiger enclosure...

What happened AlterNet argues that President Donald Trump’s strategy for silencing critics is selective intimidation: use federal investigations, prosecutions, employment actions, regulatory pressure, and private legal threats against visible opponents so others anticipate the cost of speaking. Its central example is a reported Homeland Security Investigations raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington...

What happened AlterNet columnist D. Earl Stephens argues that Donald Trump’s campaign appearances were hurting Republican candidates shortly before midterm elections. He calls the schedule a “Torture Tour”: Republicans had tied themselves to Trump, could not restrain him and, in Stephens’s telling, were losing voters whenever he spoke. The column describes Trump arriving in Anchorage, Alaska, on a...

What happened AlterNet reports that a 60 Minutes episode featuring Secret Service director Sean M. Curry drew 6.061 million viewers, including 767,000 adults ages 25–54, and finished behind the CBS dramas that followed it. The reporting does not establish that Curry’s interview caused the weak audience, so the headline’s claim that it “tanked” the ratings exceeds the evidence. The episode’s perfor...

What happened Trump donor Eric Deters told Daily Beast podcast host Joanna Coles that he plans to sue Kimberly Guilfoyle for defamation and, through that lawsuit, seek subpoenas and depositions from Donald Trump Jr. and others. As AlterNet reported, no suit or subpoena had yet been filed; Deters was describing what he intended to do “in the coming months.” The dispute followed leaked messages that...

What happened AlterNet reports that the State Department fired Paolo Zampolli, a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, on Thursday after Politico exposed his monthslong feud with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. A U.S. official told ABC reporter Shannon Kingston that Zampolli’s envoy status had been terminated and that he was no longer a government employee. Emails obtained by Po...

What happened Republican pollster Frank Luntz told CNN that President Donald Trump had squandered what Luntz called an extraordinary political recovery. He blamed Trump’s confrontational rally rhetoric, failure to show empathy over economic anxiety, and recent dismissal of affordability concerns as a “hoax.” AlterNet reported that Luntz cited 36 percent overall approval and 29 percent approval of...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump had four gold chandeliers installed in the West Wing for his June birthday through a $50,000 no-bid contract awarded to a small firm after the White House bypassed normal procedure. The “sleeping giant” in the headline is the American public: the article argues that polling shows voters increasingly connecting Trump’s personal enrichment a...

What happened AlterNet reports that Bill Kristol and Andrew Egger of The Bulwark believe removing White House chief of staff Susie Wiles could accelerate disorder inside the Trump administration. Their assessment is speculative: Politico reportedly said President Donald Trump had asked whether Wiles should be replaced and by whom, but the article does not establish that he decided to fire her. Egg...

What happened AlterNet reports that Democratic lawmakers introduced the Epstein Wall Street Records Act, which would require federal regulators to publish supervisory records and internal communications concerning Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell within 120 days. The proposal would also direct regulators to investigate possible banking, securities, and anti-money-laundering violations involvin...

What happened AlterNet reports that former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she resigned in August because the job required more than 60 hours a week, worldwide travel, and constant availability—conditions she could not reconcile with raising two children. On October 14, she rejected the suggestion that occasional television appearances contradicted her stated reason for leaving,...