Politics and views in the United States.

On a Middle East visit, Sen. Richard Blumenthal rejects a Gaza takeover. President's Day protests erupt around the country against White House moves, and another aviation accident draws attention to recent FAA cuts.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

I'll be very blunt.

My view is that the Trump plan is a non-plan.

It's a hot mess.

The possibility of takeover by the United States is a non-starter.

Democratic Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal joins those flatly dismissing President Donald Trump's idea of the U.S. taking over Gaza.

The right-wing Israeli government says it's going ahead with Trump's plan to move the Palestinians out, but Blumenthal says he sees more hope in plans taking shape among the neighboring Arab states.

Saudi Arabia is hosting meetings this week where Trump's Gaza displacement and redevelopment plan will be a main topic.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will take part and also join planned negotiations with Russia on the Ukraine war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited and says they won't accept any deal reached without them.

Demonstrators in St. Paul, Minnesota and other cities protested the legal and constitutional rules they say the Trump administration is breaking.

Retiree Rob Gallagher says democracy itself is in jeopardy.

It affects everybody, the great many.

And for what?

You know, it's incompetently done.

It's done without checks and balances on appropriations that have already been made and without checks and conflicts of interest.

And so it's wrong in every dimension.

Others say Trump advisor Elon Musk is violating ethics rules by leading efforts to purge government agencies while his companies hold multiple federal contracts.

A Delta flight from Minnesota to Toronto crash landed yesterday, the latest in a series of aviation accidents.

Biden administration Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg says that calls into question the layoff of nearly 300 FAA employees during a time of understaffing.

Meanwhile, the Department of Energy is scrambling to rehire just fired employees tasked with maintaining nuclear weapons.

A bill moving in the House would loosen a CFPB rule capping overdraft fees at $5, raising that to $35.

The agency estimated the original rule would save $5 billion for the consumers.

And Rebecca Garrard with Citizen Action of New York says the fees land hardest on families that can least afford it.

It's devastating and it contributes to death that people are unable to remove themselves from and exacerbate a crisis of poverty and affordability that's already problematic.

Finally, Democratic freshman Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego is challenging his party to rethink engagement in voter turnout, specifically with the working class Latino men that voted in higher numbers for Trump last fall.

We're afraid of saying like, hey, let's help you get a job so you become rich.

Like we use terms like bring more economic stability to you.

Right.

And like these guys don't want that.

They don't want economic stability.

They want to really live the American dream.

I'm Alex Gonzalez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.