Up First from NPR
National Security Council Shakeup, George Floyd Murder and Political Extremism
Sat, 24 May 2025
Another major shakeup at the White House National Security Council. Officials tell NPR that dozens of staff were fired yesterday. Also, Sunday marks five years since George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. His death triggered a reckoning with racism. But we explore how Floyd's murder also fueled conspiracies and political extremism.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What happened in the National Security Council?
Another major shakeup at the White House National Security Council.
Officials tell NPR that dozens of staff were fired yesterday afternoon. I'm Ayesha Roscoe.
And I'm Scott Simon, and this is Up First from NPR News.
The National Security Council provides advice to the president on the biggest diplomatic and security decisions.
But these firings are seen as a way to eliminate bureaucracy and duplication. What might be the impact on national security?
And tomorrow marks five years since George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. His death triggered large-scale protests across the country. and a reckoning with racism in the U.S.
But how did a moment of apparent national unity generate a backlash? We'll have reporting on how George Floyd's death fueled conspiracies and political extremism. So please stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend.
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Chapter 2: What triggered the protests after George Floyd's death?
We'll say more about that. What was brewing at that time that you say helped lead to the divisions that we see today?
Well, the pandemic. You know, I was in Minneapolis about six months ago meeting with a local named Kimmy Hull. One morning, Kimmy and I were at what's now called George Floyd Square where he died. And she said she thinks the movement wouldn't have launched if the country hadn't been sheltering in place.
Everybody's at home. Everybody can't leave anything. People are getting a lot of feelings just from being locked in your own home and stuff. And then this happens in your community, and it's happened so often that... But now you have a large group of people that are like, you know what? We got nothing to do. We're coming out here, dude. We're going to protest because we're sick of this.
We're in quarantine and you're still killing us.
The thing that gets Kimmy and many others is the earliest days of protest were peaceful. When it was largely locals, many who lived in and were invested in the neighborhood. But two days after Floyd's death, there was a change.
It was the proud boys that came in here we needed help from and protection from.
Kimmy's uncle, Bobby Hull, lives down the street and around the corner.
The community was safe until they started coming in here. Until all these racist Ku Klux Klans and Aryan Nations and Proud Boys, whoever you want to call them, they're racist people that don't belong here.
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Chapter 3: How did the protests evolve into political extremism?
One of the gaping holes that remains five years after Floyd's murder is the AutoZone auto parts store arson. This was the very first structure in the area to burn. It's been cited as the trigger event that turned peaceful protests into lawlessness. The police named a suspect from a suburb of Minneapolis.
An arson investigator's affidavit identified him as an affiliate of organized white supremacist groups, including the Hells Angels and a prison gang called the Aryan Cowboys. To this day, there has been no arrest. The details of it all have faded for some locals.
What hasn't faded is the conviction nurtured among many Americans that summer that actually the violence came only from the left, the side that, in this case, did not set off the chaos.
The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters, and anarchists. The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left-wing groups.
Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project find that at least 27 people were killed during the demonstrations across the nation. Most of them were not tied to any obvious ideological motivation. Instead, they appear to have just been criminal in nature. But of those where the perpetrators had an identifiable ideology, only one was a self-identified anti-fascist.
Six, by comparison, were far-right actors. Still, an internal report from the Department of Homeland Security suggests top officials were interested in a single predetermined narrative. Focusing on the drawn-out rioting in Portland, Oregon… The head of Intelligence Gathering, quote, stated that the violent protesters in Portland were connected to or motivated by Antifa.
This, even though his analysts had no evidence of that. But it wasn't just Trump and some administration officials who manipulated public perceptions of the unrest that summer.
There was a lot of talk on places like Telegram, where some of the more far-right extreme fringe were talking about the protests as a real opportunity to radicalize the MAGA folks.
Pete Simi is a sociology professor at Chapman University. He says extremists did what they always do. They clocked the high level of uncertainty among the public and swooped in. Simi says the movement for racial justice also created its own problems in retrospect. The defund the police slogan ultimately wasn't helpful.
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Chapter 4: What role did the pandemic play in the protests?
And experiments with so-called autonomous zones, areas with no police, produced troubling stories, including a 16-year-old fatally shot in Seattle's.
You know, it was something else the right could point to and say, look, this is ultimately when they talk about police reform. They don't really mean just a little bit of change here. What they really mean is, you know, having this kind of lawless, no control. They really mean something far more dark or sinister.
And that the argument that these protesters were part of a larger, sinister plot has endured.
We need to treat Antifa and BLM like terrorist organizations.
The claim that Black Lives Matter is a Marxist or terrorist organization is now common on the right. It was expressed in a podcast three years ago by Joe Kent, a man who is now Trump's pick to direct the National Counterterrorism Center.
Odette, we've also heard from the Trump administration and others who feel like the fixation on diversity, equity and inclusion was divisive in and of itself. And that if Americans focus less on issues like the country's history of slavery and Jim Crow, that people would relate better to each other.
Yes, and survey numbers suggest that many Americans may agree. A Pew survey this month finds that support for the Black Lives Matter movement has fallen 15 percentage points from where it was five years ago. And on policing, the pendulum has swung as well.
Just last week, the Department of Justice announced that it was ending consent decrees and investigations of police misconduct in multiple cities. including Minneapolis. But this assertion that maybe racism will go away if we stop talking about race, you know, it could be very dangerous. Well, talk to me about that. People see social inequity.
You know, people observe the differences that we live with, with health outcomes. educational opportunities, income attainment. And if we're not talking about the history and current factors, Pete Simi says that this just leaves explanations that are pseudoscientific, disproven, and racist.
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Chapter 5: What were the consequences of the protests for racial justice?
Now on to our final game, lightning fill-in-the-blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as they can. Each correct answer is worth two points. Bill, can you give us the score?
Hardy and Tom each have three.
Dulce has two. All right. That means, Dulce, you are in second place. You're going to go first. Dulce, the clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to pass President Trump's so-called big, beautiful blank. Mega bill. Right.
Voting four to four, the Supreme Court declined to allow state funding for a religious blank in Oklahoma. Charter school? Exactly right. This week, the FDA hinted they would soon crack down on off-brand versions of blank and other GLP-1s.
Chapter 6: How did narratives around the protests change over time?
Oh, semi-glutides?
Oh, yeah. Ozempic? Yeah, ozempic. Yeah, that's right. This week, a teenager in Oklahoma who was caught cashing $500,000 in fraudulent checks said he was doing it to pay for blank. Roblox. No, his lawyer in another fraud case.
Come on, young man.
On Tuesday, Kid Cudi took the stand at the trial of disgraced hip-hop mogul Blank.
P. Diddy.
Yes. After 46 days, a Blank match between Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and 150,000 online opponents working together ended in a draw. Chess? Yes, chess match. This week, visitors to an amusement park in Louisiana are suing after their kids were injured by Blank. No, by a prosthetic leg that flew off someone during a ride.
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Chapter 7: What was the impact of extremist groups during the protests?
According to the parents, the prosthetic leg came flying off one of the roller coasters way up there, hit two of their kids, bounced off the ground, and then hit a third. They're fine, but this is why they always tell you to keep your arms and legs inside the ride.
Bill, how did Dulcet do on our quiz? Five rights, 10 more points, total of 12. Puts her in the lead, right? All right. Very well done.
Let's arbitrarily pick. Harry Kondabolu to go next, so hurry, fill in the blank. On Sunday, Blank revealed he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Joe Biden. Right. During a meeting at the White House, President Trump ambushed the president of Blank with false claims about white genocide in his country. South Africa. Right. On Wednesday, the Blank dropped 800 points. Dow. Yes.
This week, Louisiana authorities said they're searching for 10 inmates who escaped through a hole and left a note that said Blank. See ya. No, it said... That would have been good. What they actually said was, too easy, LOL. After being banned in 2020, hit game Fortnite has been returned to Blank's App Store. iPhone. Yeah, yeah, Apple.
Very good.
Best known for playing Norm Peterson on Cheers, actor Blank passed away at the age of six.
George Wendt.
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Chapter 8: How did public perception shift regarding law enforcement?
Yes, Chicago's own. For the second time in two years, a man in Texas is suing a fast food chain for a million dollars because they blanked. They got his order wrong. I'm going to give it to you because they put onions on his burger. The man is suing Whataburger after he asked for no onions on his burger and got onions. He claims the mix-up caused him personal injuries.
Meanwhile, the employee responsible for cutting the onions is like, if he's the one with injuries, why am I the one crying?
Bill, how did Harry do in our quiz? Six right, 12 more points. Total of 15 puts him in the lead. All right. How many, then, does Tom Papa need to win? Six to tie and seven to win, Tom.
Okay. Here we go, Tom. This is for the game. Citing their continued military offensive in Gaza, the U.K. paused trade negotiations with blank. Israel. Right. On Tuesday, the White House announced plans for a new $175 billion blank defense system. Dome.
Nuclear dome.
Nuclear dome to guard against missiles. The Golden Dome. On Thursday, the Treasury Department announced it would phase out the blank by next year. The penny. Right. On Tuesday, scientists warned that melting ice could lead blanks to rise by 12 inches every decade. Seas. Yes. This week, the Indy Motor Speedway held a race between six souped-up blanks.
Souped-up... Oh, I knew this one. Pass. I don't know.
Souped-up wienermobiles. Oh, it was wienermobiles. It was wienermobiles. On Thursday, the first blood test to diagnose blank was approved. Alzheimer's. On Tuesday, the NFL decided against banning the controversial blank play. Statue of Liberty. No, the controversial tush-push play. After being reunited with the class ring he lost on a trip to Spain over 50 years ago, a man in Georgia blanked.
Lost it? Yes, he immediately lost it again, Tom. It just proves the old saying, if you love someone, let it go. If it comes back, immediately let it go again. Bill, did Tom do well enough to win?
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