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Hayley Smith

Hayley Smith

Fictional character

Oct 29, 2026

6:03
How did my name get on this? So how did you deduce how their name got on there? Yeah.
6:08
OK, so in this campaigns and elections dot com article, the consultant who ran this campaign said that he used a company or a platform called Civic Click to run this campaign.
6:21
So what is Civic Click? Civic Click advertises itself as a digital advocacy platform.
6:26
So these are things, I mean, they're fairly common.
6:28
You know, they might run petition campaigns, you know, add your name to this here or fill out a form letter to reach out to your senator, things like that.
6:36
But this company, Civic Click, advertises itself on its website as the first and best AI-powered grassroots advocacy platform.
6:45
So among the many tools that they offer are custom AI letters, you know, bespoke writing, things of that nature.

19 MINS LATER

26:05
What did they do? Tell me what happened.
18:22
So Donald Trump hasn't made it a secret that he is not a fan of offshore wind, but at what point did we get an inkling that him and his administration were going to get involved in these projects in the way that they have?
18:37
The steps that this administration has taken around wind are unprecedented.
18:43
In a sea of unprecedented actions, these really stand out to me.
18:47
So the first deal was announced back in March, where the Trump administration, the Department of the Interior specifically announced, said that it had struck a $1 billion agreement with this French company Total Energy to walk away from their offshore wind leases off the coast of North Carolina and New York.
19:08
And in exchange, Total Energy was going to take the $1 billion and invest instead in fossil fuel projects.
19:16
This sent such a shockwave, not just through the offshore wind community, but even through the legal community of like, how can this administration essentially use taxpayer dollars to pay off these companies to walk away from projects that the states and their residents were invested in? So everyone was like really blown away when they did this.
19:38
And now, in the months since then, they've done it several more times.

6 MINS LATER

25:45
Have California officials had the chance to consider what they can do or what their next steps are?
William Brangham
William BranghamCORRESPONDENT
18:05
What does your reporting tell us about what's going on within FEMA right now?
18:09
Yeah, so just in the five or six months since President Trump has taken office, there's been a number of changes or turmoil, as you said, within the agency.
18:21
Um, that includes layoffs and budget cuts, grant cancellations, leadership changes.
18:27
Um, my reporting has shown that at least 2,000 staffers have either taken a buyout or been fired already this year.
18:36
That's an estimated 30% of FEMA's workforce.
18:39
Um, so big changes there, and it's worth noting that all of that is happening against this larger backdrop of climate disasters getting worse and more frequent and more expensive here in the United States.
18:52
Um, you've got the tornadoes in Kentucky and Missouri.
William Brangham
William BranghamCORRESPONDENT
19:14
What does your reporting indicate about the states' ability to pick up that slack?

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