On the first full day of his presidency, Donald Trump defended his decision to release high-profile prisoners jailed over the Capitol riots and to pardon nearly 1,600 people in connection with Jan 6th. Marianna, Sarah and Anthony are together in DC as they discuss who has been released, what the reaction has been, and how Trump is changing the narrative over who was responsible for the riots.
Also, Trump’s former advisor Bryan Lanza joins the pod with an inside view on why the immigration raids are more about PR than deportation.
HOSTS:
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Correspondent
• Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
GUESTS:
• Bryan Lanza, Former senior advisor to Donald Trump
This episode was made by George Dabby with Purvee Pattni, Rufus Gray and Claire Betzer. The technical producer was Jonny Hall. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including The Global Story, The Today Podcast, and of course Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too.
See links below.
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The Today Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r
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Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm
