Powell's Last Stand, King Charles at the White House, and Late Night's Big Exit

Maya: Good morning and welcome to the Morning Rundown. I'm here with David, and wow, do we have a packed show today. David: Yeah, no slow news days around here, that's for sure. We've got a big one. Maya: Okay, so here's the thing. First up, the Fed. Jerome Powell holds rates steady, and according to NPR, this could be his last meeting as chair. Gas prices are sitting at $4.18 a gallon, a four-year high for the Guardian. David: Feeling that at the pump. Maya: Right? And markets are shaky. S&P slipped from record highs. We'll get into what's behind all of it. David: Then we've got some real political drama. King Charles actually addressed Congress yesterday. King Charles! And James Comey? Fox News is reporting a second indictment. Maya: Wait, a second one? David: Yeah, yeah. Plus, a federal judge just tossed the Trump DOJ's Arizona voter data lawsuit. Busy day in D.C. Maya: And we'll close out with culture. Stephen Colbert is calling it quits after 11 seasons, and the Michael Jackson biopic is already stirring up serious pushback. David: Plus a foiled terror plot at a Taylor Swift concert. I mean, come on, that story is wild. Maya: So much to get into. Let's start with your wallet. Okay, so real quick before we get into anything else, how much did you pay to fill up your tank this week? David: Don't remind me. It hurt. Maya: Right? I mean, come on, according to the Guardian, gas prices just hit a four-year high. We're talking $4.18 a gallon on average. David: Four-eighteen. That's not a small number. Maya: No, it's not. Here's the thing. Oil prices are surging because those talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz Those are completely gridlocked. Prices are about a dollar higher than they were this time last year. David: That's wild, right? A dollar more per gallon than last year. And it's almost summer, so people are driving more, road trips, all of that. Maya: Exactly. I mean, come on, the worst timing. You've got families already stretched, and now every trip to the gas station is just another gut punch. David: And here's the thing, this isn't just about inconvenience. This feeds into broader inflation. Gas prices touch Touch everything. Groceries, shipping, you name it. Maya: Totally. Which actually connects to the other big story today, the Fed. David: Oh yeah, big day. Maya: So NPR's Scott Horsley put out a piece this morning noting that today is almost certainly Jerome Powell's last meeting as chair. They're expected to hold rates steady, but the real story is what comes after. David: Kevin Warsh is looking set to replace him, and CNBC's Jeff Cox pointed out that Powell and the policymakers are sticking to their... in their cautious approach, which honestly, what else can they do right now? Maya: Yeah, here's the thing. You've got inflation still hanging around, gas prices spiking, and a market that's on edge. Not exactly the moment to make bold moves. David: And look, part of why the Fed is in this spot at all, years of government spending, deficits piling up, it created conditions where inflation got baked in. Now you've got Powell trying to thread a needle on the way out. Maya: Right. And the markets know it. CNBC's Sean Conlon and Lisa Han. They reported S&P 500 futures are flat going into today. Traders are bracing. David: Which flat isn't terrible, but it's not confidence either. Maya: No, and it comes right after the S&P slipped from record highs on Tuesday. Sarah Min and the CNBC team noted chip stocks took a hit after a report pointed to some weakness at OpenAI. David: Wait, OpenAI knocking chip stocks? How does that work? Maya: So the thinking is, if OpenAI's numbers look soft, Soft? That raises questions about how much AI hardware demand actually holds up, and chip companies live and die on that demand. David: Okay, okay, that tracks. So you've got gas prices up, the stock market wobbling, the Fed in transition mode. David, this feels like a lot of moving parts hitting at the same time. Maya: It really does, and none of it is exactly comforting for regular people trying to plan their summer. David: Here's my question, though. With Powell leaving, does the new chair come in with a different playbook? Book, do rates finally start moving? Maya: That's the big unknown, right? Warsh has historically leaned more hawkish, meaning tighter monetary policy, but he's stepping into a genuinely complicated moment. David: Yeah, the hand he's being dealt is not easy. Maya: Not at all. I mean, come on, whoever is in that chair, the pressure from both the market and from Main Street is only going to grow as summer rolls on and gas stays high. David: Mm-hmm, it all kind of circles back to the same thing. Washington decisions have real consequences for real people's wallets. Wallets. Maya: And speaking of Washington, you want to talk about consequences and power. All eyes are in D.C. this week for reasons that go way beyond the Fed. So who's watching the watchers? David: Oh, we've got some stories for that. Maya: All roads lead to Washington this week, and I mean that literally. David: Right? Because we've got a king in town. Maya: King Charles and Queen Camilla at the White House, which is already a spectacle on its own. But here's the thing. What made it genuinely interesting was what Charles said when he addressed Congress. David: Yeah, the Washington Post covered this. He gave what sounded like a pretty pointed message on checks on executive power. Diplomatic, but pointed. Maya: Diplomatic is doing a lot of work in that sentence. David: Fair, fair; but look, he's not going to walk into Congress and just lecture anyone; it's more a nudge. He's got his own complicated relationship with institutional power, so it's not nothing. Maya: And CBS News reported he addressed a joint meeting of Congress, which is rare for a foreign head of state. Here's the thing. Beyond the pomp, Charles apparently tried to keep Trump's attention on Ukraine, according to reporting from Politico. David: Which makes sense. The UK has real skin in the game on Ukraine, so a little royal diplomacy wrapped in pageantry is actually useful. Maya: Sometimes the ceremony is the point, right? OK, shifting gears a bit, we've got two. Two legal stories, and they're pretty different in flavor. David: Start with the voter data one. Maya: So here's the thing. A federal judge tossed the Trump administration's lawsuit against Arizona. The Justice Department had been pushing for access to Arizona voter data. CBS News reported the judge dismissed it on Tuesday, calling it another defeat for the administration's national push for voter information. David: And this isn't the first time that effort has hit a wall. Maya: No, it's been a recurring thing. Courts keep pushing back. The judge didn't say the goal is wrong, just that this particular legal avenue didn't hold up. David: Got it. And then there's Comey. Maya: Yeah, so Fox News reported, citing sources, that James Comey has been indicted again. A second indictment. The DOJ probe apparently deepened after Comey posted a now viral Instagram photo captioned, mentioned 8-6-4-7, David: Wait, he posted that publicly? Maya: publicly, on Instagram. Diagram. I mean, come on. For anyone who doesn't know, 86 is slang for getting rid of something, and 47 is Trump's presidential number. So the DOJ read that as potentially threatening and started digging. David: I mean, that's not a subtle post. Maya: Not even a little. Look, whether you think the DOJ is being heavy-handed or you see this as accountability in action, the guy posted it publicly. That's a choice. David: And Comey's been around long enough to know how these things get read. Red. So, yeah, consequences. Maya: The probe is ongoing. We'll watch how it develops. And look, one more thing worth mentioning. There was also an attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday. David: Yeah, NPR's Odette Yousef reported on that. The suspect apparently had no clear radical footprint, which actually makes it harder to categorize. Maya: Right. And that murkiness is kind of the whole story. No easy explanation. Political violence keeps showing up in weird corners. and it's unsettling. David: No clean narrative on that one. Just a reminder that the climate out there is... something. Maya: Yeah, heavy week in Washington, and honestly, when you've got a king giving speeches about accountability and a former FBI director getting indicted, it's a lot of figures in the public eye facing some kind of reckoning. David: Which, speaking of public figures facing scrutiny, we've got some culture news that has that same thread running through it. Maya: Oh, for sure. Stephen Colbert hanging it up, a foiled terror plot at a Taylor Swift show, and the Michael Jackson biopic stirring up a fight that just won't quit. Shifting gears a bit, Let's talk late-night TV, because things are getting shaky over there. David: Yeah, Stephen Colbert is officially hanging it up. The New York Times broke it. 11 seasons and next month, the Late Show is done. Maya: 11 seasons. I mean, that is a long run. And here's the thing. Colbert leaned hard into politics, especially anti-Trump stuff, ratings slid toward the end. So, not a... Not a total shock, right? David: No, not really. And it's not just him. Kimmel's got his own situation. The Trump administration literally challenged ABC's station licenses this week. Maya: Wait, the FCC going after ABC's licenses? David: And Kimmel's response on air was basically, quote, the show goes on. Did not even mention the license thing directly, just kept doing his monologue. Maya: Bold move! Okay, here's the thing. Late night is in this weird moment. Colbert out, Kimmel under pressure, the whole landscape is shifting. David: Big reshuffling. Anyway, moving on, because this next story is genuinely alarming. The Daily Beast reported that a 21-year-old Austrian man identified as Baron A just pleaded guilty to plotting a terror attack at a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert in Vienna back in August of 2024. 24. Maya: Wait, he pleaded guilty? David: Yeah, admitted to planning to kill as many people as possible, knives, homemade explosives, CIA intelligence caught him the day before it was supposed to happen. Maya: The day before. That is, I mean... Come on, so close. And 50,000 plus people were at those Vienna shows. Security stopped something catastrophic. David: Exactly. Credit where it's due, the intelligence worked, but it's a reminder that these huge events are targets. Maya: No question. Okay, last thing, and this one is going to keep people arguing for years. The Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, just dropped, and the director of Leaving Neverland is furious. David: Dan Reed told Variety the film basically recasts the abuse accusers, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, as liars. He called it a false narrative around a, his words, pedophile. Maya: And look, here's the thing. The film's backers would say they're telling Jackson's side, right? Both versions exist. The Guardian covered Reed's criticism today. David: Right, and neither side is going away. This debate has been running since 1990 minimum. The biopic just poured fuel on it. Maya: I Speaker 3: Yeah! Maya: mean, come on, probably intentionally, honestly, controversy sells tickets. David: Doesn't it always? Maya: Okay, that's a wrap on a packed one. Here's the thing, the Powell exit story is the one I keep coming back to, honestly. David: Right, end of an era, whatever you think of him. And gas prices keeping that pressure on everyday wallets, you know? Maya: Yeah, bottom line today, I'd say, here's the thing, the big institutions are shifting and regular people are feeling it at the pump. David: Well put. Hey, if you're enjoying the show, subscribe wherever you listen and leave us a review. It genuinely helps. Maya: It really does. Thanks for hanging with us this morning, David. David: Always a good time, Maya. See you tomorrow. Maya: See you then.