San Diego Mosque Shooting, Primaries Test Trump Influence, Trump IRS Suit

[00:02] San Diego authorities are investigating a shooting at the city's largest mosque. Three people were killed and two teenage suspects were found dead in a car. Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime one of the suspect's mothers called police hours before. I'm Laila Faldil, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. [00:21] Primaries in six states today are testing President Trump's grip on the Republican Party. [00:30] for opposing the president. And Massey's ads are highlighting where he and the president align. And President Trump dropped his lawsuit against his own IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Instead, he's creating what he calls an anti-weaponization fund that could award taxpayer money to January 6th defendants. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. [00:49] you [00:54] 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. [01:20] 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.

[01:50] podcasts. [01:51] This message comes from Capital One Commercial Bank. Your business requires commercial banking solutions that prioritize your long-term success. With Capital One, get a full suite of financial products and services tailored to meet your needs today and goals for tomorrow. Learn more at CapitalOne.com slash commercial. Member FDIC. [02:13] San Diego police are investigating what may have motivated two teenagers to shoot at a mosque and kill three people there. The attack is being investigated as a hate crime and police say the two suspects later shot themselves. NPR's Juliana Kim is covering this from San Diego. Juliana, how did this start yesterday? [02:31] So the San Diego Police Department received reports of an active shooter at the Islamic Center of San Diego shortly before noon. The center is the largest mosque in the county and runs a school. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wall said yesterday that officers upon arrival saw three people dead in front of the center. A nearby landscaper was also shot at but not struck, and no children at the center were injured. [03:01] at a second location. Their officers found two people inside a vehicle, both of whom were dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Wall believes the pair were responsible for the shooting at the center. And what do we know about them and also the victims? So authorities have yet to release the identities of the shooters, but we do know that they were two males, 17 and 18 years old. Police Chief Wall said officers got a call earlier that morning from a mother whose son had ran away.

[03:31] her son was suicidal and that her car and weapons were missing. Wall said officers were sent to locations that they believed might be threatened, but there was no specific threat made to the Islamic Center. The motive has yet to be determined, but Wall said authorities are investigating this as a hate crime. He added that, quote, there was definitely hate rhetoric involved, end quote, though he didn't explain further. In terms of the victims, authorities have also not yet released [04:01] did mention that one of the victims was a security guard at the center. Yeah, kids were evacuated from the school inside the mosque and then brought to a nearby church. And Juliana, you were there. Tell us what you saw. [04:12] Yeah, I mean, I saw a lot of families waiting hours to reunite with their children and head home. Manasar Barbak was waiting for his nine-year-old nephew. He told me he was shocked by what happened. At the same time, he's always been worried about the possibility of an attack like this. It's always in your head that it's going to happen someday. You know, when I asked him what he meant by that, he said he felt that places of worship have been increasingly under attack. [04:42] so it doesn't matter what faith [04:45] Any attack on anybody is not acceptable. In 2019, there was a shooting at a synagogue in a San Diego suburb. One person was killed and three people were injured. [04:56] What about reactions from San Diego's Muslim community? What are you hearing? Yeah, the Islamic Center of San Diego's Imam, Taha Hussain, spoke briefly at a press conference yesterday and he said, This is something that we have never expected to take place. But at the same time,

[05:13] Thank you. [05:14] the religious intolerance [05:16] and the hate, unfortunately, that exists in our nation. [05:20] is unprecedented. [05:21] He ended his remarks by asking the public to practice tolerance as his community mourns. [05:26] That's NPR's Juliana Kim joining us from San Diego. Thank you very much. Thank you. [05:39] There are primaries in six states today. The results in those elections will give us more understanding of President Trump's continued influence from the Oval Office, even when he's not on the ballot. NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro is here to talk us through all of it. So, Domenico, what races in particular are you watching today? Well, I mean, as you said, there's six states that are voting from Pennsylvania to the south in Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia, to out west in Oregon and Idaho. [06:09] We're really heading into the heat of primary season here. The race I've got my closest eye on tonight is in Kentucky, a congressional race where Republican Thomas Massey is in a fight for his political life because of his high profile disagreements with President Trump, especially and including wanting those Epstein files released. OK, so where does a president fit in here? [06:40] Trump said all he needed was a, quote, warm body in this race and got one, he said, with a, quote, big, beautiful brain. Massey has tried to address that and still wrap his arms around Trump like in this ad. So there's no sense in trying to avoid it. Let's just talk about the elephant in the room. I agree with President Trump a whole lot more than I disagree with him.

[07:02] So he said he was trying to address the elephant in the room, but I thought it was notable that he never actually addresses the elephant in the room and those criticisms of Trump in that ad. Just what they agree on, like immigration policy, defending the Second Amendment. But all of that could be a tough sell to MAGA fans. And opponents of Massey have been running tens of millions of dollars in opposition to him like this one. Thomas Massey's new ad, The Elephant is Fake, and so is Massey's claim of supporting President Trump. [07:32] And that's referring to the use of AI in Massey's ad. The ad is from the United Democracy Project, or UDP, which is affiliated with AIPAC. That's the pro-Israel lobby. And they see Massey as not being pro-Israel enough. And they've put him in ads next to pictures of Democrats like Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. When you mentioned the ads that have been running, you mentioned tens of millions of dollars. That sounds like a lot of money for a primary election. [08:02] In fact, according to our ad tracking partner, Ad Impact, this race has seen the most money ever spent on TV ads for a House primary, $33 million. So much of it is from groups trying to defeat Massey. So a lot of money being spent on Trump's retribution campaign, and there's hundreds of millions more where that came from. We saw some of it used again successfully over the weekend in Louisiana when incumbent Republican Senator Bill Cassidy went down in the primary there after Trump backed the challenger. [08:32] put their necks out to oppose the president. Is that dynamic playing out in other places? Yeah, it's a key thing in a lot of primaries, especially in places with very conservative primary electorates. Tonight, we'll also be watching results for Senate primaries in Alabama and Georgia, where Republicans are trying to out-MAGA each other. Georgia is going to be particularly important to watch because this is a really important Senate race with Democrat John Ossoff as the incumbent. Republicans would love to flip this seat, but the Republican primary

[09:02] Georgia, which is very conservative, is different than the general election one. You know, Trump and Trump-like candidates have shown great strength in primaries when parties tend to turn out their most loyal supporters, but they have a harder time in general elections. So Republicans have to be careful here not to come across as too extreme if they want to be able to pick up this seat in November. And this is going to be one of the most closely watched Senate races this fall, as is next week's runoff in Texas when the primary will be decided there, too. [09:32] It's NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Thanks a lot, Domenico. You're welcome. [09:42] President Trump often turns to the courts. He'll sue over policy disagreements with states, unflattering news coverage or even business disputes. This week, he walked away from a case he filed. It was against his own government over the leak of his personal tax returns. [10:05] six defendants. NPR's Kerry Johnson has been following the case. So Kerry Trump's a lawsuit against the government he leads was, I guess, the word I'm looking for, maybe unusual to say the least. So it sounds like this settlement is also unusual, too. [10:18] Very much so. No one could come up with an example of a president taking his own administration to court until this year. Trump had sued the IRS for $10 billion after a contractor leaked his tax returns to the press back in 2019. But a judge in the case started asking some tough questions about the president being on both sides of this dispute. And this week, as a deadline loomed for Trump's lawyers to respond, they abandoned the case.

[10:48] but no direct financial payment. Instead, they're creating an anti-weaponization fund, $1.776 billion to compensate people who have been targeted by the Biden administration. Trump talked about this fund with reporters yesterday. [11:05] This is reimbursing people that were horribly treated, horribly treated. It's anti-weaponization. They've been weaponized. They've been, in some cases, imprisoned wrongly. So, Kerry, if the president is on both sides of this case and he says it's over, is anyone going to be able to object to it? [11:22] Nearly [redacted address] papers asking to intervene in this Florida IRS case. Matt Platkin is their lawyer. [11:52] Last night, the federal judge in charge of this case closed the door on it. Since the Trump administration moved to drop it and DOJ did not file any settlement terms with her to review, then after she dismissed the case, DOJ posted the terms of the settlement agreement online. Donald Sherman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says, this is one of the single most corrupt acts in American history. So the new anti-weaponization fund, who is eligible to apply? Okay.

[12:22] The acting attorney general Todd Blanche will appoint members of a board to oversee this fund, and Trump will be able to fire them without cause. Blanche, of course, is a former personal lawyer to Trump. He said in a statement, the machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and DOJ wants to right past wrongs. This fund is going to be created from a pool of taxpayer money. It's not clear the government will have to disclose who receives that [12:52] storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are now going to be in line for compensation. DOJ says this fund is going to finish its work in December 2028. That's shortly before Trump is scheduled to leave the White House. One more thing. Any precedent for this enormous fund? The Trump administration says President Obama did it years ago to compensate farmers who suffered racial discrimination over many decades. But people who worked at the DOJ say there are some [13:22] is three times bigger, and the judge here did not weigh in. Rupa Patacharya worked on these issues at DOJ. She told me Trump officials had moved to abolish these kinds of third-party settlements only to embrace them now, and she says this is an abuse of taxpayer dollars. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general's due on Capitol Hill today for testimony about the budget, and that may give us a hint about how Republican lawmakers will react. That's NPR's Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thanks. Thank you. [13:51] Before we go, you might have noticed a bonus episode drop in your Up First feed yesterday. Check it out if you have not listened to it yet. Our co-host Steve Inskey spoke to Dana White, the president and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. You know, when you get punched in the head, it's not good for you. And everybody going into this knows it's not. You can hear them talk about the health of UFC fighters, immigration, and the upcoming fight at the White House. The conversation was part of NPR's video podcast, Newsmakers. You can watch it as well. Find it on NPR's YouTube channel.

[14:24] And that's Up First for Tuesday, May 19th. I'm Amy Martinez. And I'm Leila Fadil. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Miguel Macias, Natalie Escobar, Dana Farrington, Krishna Duff-Kalamer, Mohamed El-Bardisi, John Stolnes, and Adam Bearn. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas. [14:51] Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow. [14:53] Bye. [14:57] *music* [15:10] This message comes from IXL. With IXL, you get personalized online learning and teaching solutions that help improve achievement, empower teachers, and track progress. This one platform for K-12 helps teachers accomplish what normally would require dozens of other tools. Educators can see how their school is performing in real time to make better instructional decisions. IXL is used in 96 of the top 100 school districts. [15:35] Learn more at IXL.com slash NPR. [15:40] 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.

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