Blanche Rescinds 'Anti-Weaponization Fund', Iran Strikes Off, Midwest Primaries

About this episode

Todd Blanche, President Trump’s nominee for attorney general, is rescinding an order to create a $1.8 billion fund for Trump’s political allies. Is that enough to persuade senators who blocked his nomination to back him? And President Trump is backing off additional attacks on Iran as negotiations resume today. Why is Trump willing to give diplomacy another go? Also, are progressive candidates poised to win big in this year's midterm election? Upcoming primaries may offer clues.<br/><br/><em>Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? </em><a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/news"target="_blank" >Subscribe</a><em> to the Up First newsletter.</em><br/><br/>Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Tina Kraja, Jason Breslow, Megan Pratz, Arezou Rezvani and Lindsay Totty .<br/><br/>It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.<br/><br/>Our director is Christopher Thomas.<br/><br/>We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.<br/><br/>Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at <a href="http://plus.npr.org/"target="_blank" >plus.npr.org</a>.<br/><br/>(0:00) Introduction<br>(01:58) Blanche Rescinds 'Anti-Weaponization Fund'<br>(05:32) Iran Strikes Called Off<br>(09:23) Midwest Primaries<br/><br/>See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>