Tuesday Morning Politics, with Katy Tur

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone.
This will be a different kind of show today. Beginning around 10.30, we'll have our annual health convening. That's a roughly 90-minute special that we do once a year on a major public health topic with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Today, our health convening takes on ultra-processed foods. What's the actual science about what makes a food ultra-processed, what health risks are actually associated with different kinds? One interesting finding from a researcher who will join us, there seems to be a big gender difference in the colorectal cancer risk from a certain category of ultra-processed foods. We'll get into that. She'll explain why women seem more susceptible. Of course, colorectal cancer, if you've seen these news headlines in recent years, is really rising among younger adults in particular, and ultra-processed foods are suspected, and it's a very general term, and we're going to try to get more specific. We'll also have former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, who's proposing specific new ways to regulate ultra-processed foods and get his take on whether RFK Junior just talks tough on ultra-processed food corporations or is actually doing anything as Health and Human Services Secretary. So we'll have David Kessler and two other guests, and take your questions as well in 2026 Health Convening beginning in about a half hour. But before we talk about ultra-processed foods, let's talk about President Trump and his version of ultra-masculinity. His 80th birthday spectacle on the White House lawn, largely at taxpayer expense on Sunday, was designed to associate him with ultimate fighting or mixed martial arts. That has a particular audience and a particular meaning, right? On a more consequential note, Foreign Policy Magazine had an article last year, which I think we are all living out, called Hyper-Masculinity is Driving US Foreign Policy. Trump's approach to Iran shows that America's crisis of manhood has hit the global stage and that was months before he started the current war, using language as he has in this war like a whole civilization will die.
And the way Trump treats female journalists, well we saw that again in his angry exchange with Meet the Press host, Kristen Welker, last week when he claimed, without evidence, that another election had been rigged, this time the California primary.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:45)
Do you think it's appropriate that they have an election and five days later, they're nowhere close to picking a winner?

**SPEAKER_3** (2:50)
State and local officials acknowledge they are slow, they're urging.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:54)
No, they're crooked.

**Christina** (2:54)
They're urging the votes to be counted quickly.

**Brian Lehrer** (2:56)
That's how they vote in California.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:57)
They're crooked, just like you're crooked. Your press is crooked. And meet the press is crooked.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:01)
To be fair, I'm not crooked, but let's continue.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:03)
Really? Well, you play right into their hands.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:05)
Let's continue. You're either crooked or you're stupid.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:08)
Either crooked or you're stupid. With us in just a minute will be Ms Now anchor Katy Tur, who we might think of as the original female punching bag for Trump in his presidential era.
Remember these moments from the 2016 campaign, criticized as literally putting the journalist in physical danger when he taunted her in front of riled up crowds at his campaign rallies. Here's one.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:35)
There's something happening.

**Katy Tur** (3:37)
They're not reporting it, Katy.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:39)
You're not reporting it, Katy.

**Katy Tur** (3:41)
But there's something happening, Katy. There's something happening, Katy.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:46)
And this one might have been even worse.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:49)
She's back there. Little Katy. She's back there.
What a lie it was.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:57)
No.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:58)
What a lie. Katy Tur.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:01)
Katy Tur survived those taunts, wrote a book about the experience called Unbelievable. Another memoir more recently called Rough Draft, and has been an MSNBC, now called Ms Now, anchor for most of the time since. Her new show on the network called This Moment, airs weekdays 2 to 4 PM Eastern Time. Among other things, she's received the Edward R. Murrow Award for breaking news coverage of the January 6th insurrection, an Emmy for coverage of Hurricane Irene, and a Gracie Award for reporting on the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre in Connecticut. She anchors from New York and the network says she brings a New York angle to the national issues she discusses, including coverage of Trump and mayors Iran Mamdani. We'll touch on some Iran and midterms news, an interesting commentary Katy had yesterday on secession movements brewing in both liberal and conservative states.
And yes, the president's penchant for Smackdown politics, which often seem especially unbound when he's addressing women. Katy, thanks for coming on. Welcome back to WNYC.