The Daily - Impeachment Through the Eyes of a Child

This week, “The Daily” is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened since the stories first ran. After we sat down with Leo, a third grader, to talk about the impeachment inquiry, we were flooded with emails expressing gratitude for our guest. So we called Leo back and asked him about what he’s been up to while the impeachment inquiry has unfolded. Guests: Michael S. Schmidt, who covers national security and federal investigations for The New York Times; Bianca Giaever, a producer for “The Daily”; and Leo, a third grader who was obsessed with the impeachment inquiry. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading:Leo predicted President Trump would be impeached in the House of Representatives. He was right.The impeachment process was paused after Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would wait to see what the trial in the Senate would look like before sending the two charges there.

Duration: 29m
Broadcast on: 26 Dec 2019
Audio Format: other

Background reading:

Leo predicted President Trump would be impeached in the House of Representatives. He was right.
The impeachment process was paused after Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would wait to see what the trial in the Senate would look like before sending the two charges there.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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So I heard that you are interested in the impeachment. Is that true? Yes. I'm trying to figure out a lot more about it, so I can be very interested in it. So Monday, I went to Leo's house, and we talked a bit more. Where are you with understanding the impeachment now? Do you feel like you understand everything that's going on? Most of it. Most of it. And where was this? In New Jersey.

Stop. Leo doesn't really have other kids he can talk about the impeachment with. So I came up with an idea. I was thinking that since you have more questions, you could come to the New York Times and talk to one of our political reporters. I can ask my mom about that. I talked to her and she said it's okay. Okay. And then, yeah.

I was thinking the person you could talk to is this political reporter named Mike Schmidt. Okay. And we started doing research. Mike Schmidt, S-M-I-T-C-H, the New York Times. We were checking out his accomplishments. Pulitzer, Pulitzer, Pulitzer. We spent 45 minutes coming up with his top questions. What is quid pro quo? How many people are listening when the president makes a phone call? What are the hearings? And then we spent another 45 minutes picking out his outfit. What's the temperature out tomorrow? Expect a high of 50 and a low of 21. And what did he end up going with? Long sleeves and long pants.

Hi, Leo. Welcome to the New York Times. How are you feeling? Did you work on your questions anymore? Are you good? I'm going to practice them once. Great. Well, so Mike is on a train from Washington, D.C. that gets him right at 10 and he's got a rush here. And so, yeah. Do you want to come in? Great. So, are you feeling nervous? Yes. Do you remember the name of the host? Michael, let's start with the B. Michael, I forget. Barb, Barb.

From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bolvaro. This is the Daily. Today. The House of Representatives begins public hearings this morning in the impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Before those hearings get underway, Mike Schmidt sits down with someone who's unafraid to ask all the questions we've been too embarrassed to ask.

It's Wednesday, November 13th. Barbo. Do you feel like you're at the right height? Do you want anything? No, I'm okay. Okay. You're a very, um, unfussy guest. So, how is it that you got interested in the impeachment? Well, I was in the car with my mom and I was driving to my grandma's house and she was listening to the radio and I heard them talking about it on the radio. I asked my mom about it and I think I asked like, can you explain what's happening to me? Because I don't really understand. There were a lot of words I didn't really know. At first, I didn't know what the whistleblower was. That word. Yeah. And she explained it in a really good way. So, now I know. What's your understanding of what a whistleblower is? It could be anyone. A whistleblower can be anyone who was either in the room or doing something that let him hear what the president was

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