June 4, 2026 • 11 mins
Mimi Brown breaks down the day. President Trump signs an executive order that strips civil service protections from eight thousand career federal workers. The Minnesota Republican Party holds a moment of silence for convicted killer Derek Chauvin at a state convention. And BET unveils its first-ever Board of Advisors featuring Bob Johnson, Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, and Troy Vincent. Plus — The Headlines We Didn't Take Seriously Enough. The 1883 law that built the modern federal workforce — and what just happened to it.
From the Black Effect Podcast Network.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FM
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
President Trump just signed an order giving him the power
to fire thousands of career federal workers.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is another executive order on reforms to the federal workforce. Sir.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
The Minnesota Republican Party just held a moment of silence
for Derek Chauvin at its state convention.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
The motion was not out of order, it was seconded.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And b ET just announced a new board of advisors
featuring Bob Johnson, Queen Latifa, and ll Cooljay.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Because I've lived a life, huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's Thursday, June fourth, from the Black Effect Podcast Network.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I Mimi Brown.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
This is front page and here are the day's biggest stories.
Plus on the headlines, we didn't take seriously enough the
eighteen eighty three law that built the modern federal workforce
and why Trump is trying to undo it.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Stay with me.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Imagine showing up to work one day after twenty two
years on the job and realizing that President of the
United States can now fire you immediately, no warning, no
longer review process, no protection, just gone. That's the reality
for thousands of senior federal workers who woke up this week.
President Trump signed a new executive order on Wednesday that
(01:16):
gives him the power to fire some of the highest
ranking career employees in the federal government.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
This is another executive order on reforms to the Federal Workforce, Sir. Currently,
with respect to many policy making positions in the departments
and agencies across government, we lack the ability, because of
existing personnel rules, to effectively discipline or promote people who
are in policy making roles. This executive order follows on
a number of previous executive orders. The end goal is
(01:44):
making the federal workforce more accountable.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Let me break down why this matters to people who
are living outside of Washington. So, the federal government has
about two million civilian workers. Most of our career employees
not politicians. These are people who stay at their job
whether the president is Republican or Democrat. We're talking scientists, attorneys,
senior IRS officials, public health experts, people at agencies handling
(02:10):
everything from your taxes to veteran benefits to food safety. Historically,
those workers had protection, meaning they couldn't just be fired
because someone in power didn't like what they said or found.
This new order removes those protections for about eighty thousand
senior employees, mostly people at the top of the government
pay scale. The White House says this is about accountability,
(02:32):
and the Trump administration argues some powerful federal employees have
too much influence over policy and are too difficult to
remove even if they underperform or resist the president's agenda.
But federal worker unions say this is about something much bigger.
They say this opens the door for politics to completely
reshape the federal workforce and could scare employees away from
(02:54):
speaking up about corruption, fraud, political pressure, or misconduct about it.
If your boss can fire you instantly, are you really
going to challenge his leadership? Are you really going to
blow the whistle? And that's the fear. Federal unions are
already suing, and this fight is expected to end up
in the courts for months, perhaps even years.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I want to talk.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
About something that happened in Minnesota this week that a
lot of people are struggling to understand. The Minnesota Republican
Party held a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin, the
former police officer who is convicted of murdering George Floyd.
This happened during the Minnesota Republican State convention in Duluth
over the weekend. A Republican state lawmaker stood up and
(03:44):
asked the room for a moment of reflection for Chauvin.
He also said he believed Chauvin deserves a retrial or
a pardon. So the room voted on it. Then the
room went silent for Derek Chauvin. And now the Minnesota
Republican Party is trying to soften the backlash. The party
chair later said the moment of silence should not be
(04:04):
viewed as an official party position.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
This particular delegate, and I don't know his name, the
delegate stood up and made a motion for a moment
of silent prayer for Derek Chauvin. He came up and
stood in front of the podium and asked if he
could do it. And I recommended at that point that
he not, but it's his right to be able to
do that, as it is any other delegate at that convention.
(04:28):
And so he did, and the motion was not out
of order. It was seconded. I put it to the body,
The body voted, and we took a very short moment
of silent prayer for Derek Chauvin.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
George Floyd's murder was not some unclear case where nobody
knows what happened.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
The world watched that video.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
People watched George Floyd be pinned to the ground in
Minneapolis in twenty twenty while he repeatedly said he could
not breathe. Derek Chauvin was later convicted of murder in
the state courts. He also pled guilty in federal courts
who violating Floyd's civil rights. His appeals failed, So for
George Floyd's family and a lot of Americans, this moment
(05:06):
of silence felt less like politics and more like honoring
the man responsible for Floyd's death. Civil rights attorney Ben
Crump called it cruel and demanded an apology. Minnesota Attorney
General Keith Ellison, who prosecuted Chauvin, said it was shocking
and disrespectful to both the Floyd family and the justice system.
But critics are saying this happened at the official state
(05:29):
convention on the convention floor after a vote, so people
are questioning how separate the party can really be from it,
And honestly, this says a lot about where the country
still is five years later after.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
The murder of George Floyd.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Every Thursday on Front Page, we pull back to look
at a story that was treated as small or routine
at the time, but ended up shaping the world we
live in right now.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Today's pick.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
January sixteenth, eighteen eighty three, President Chester A Author signed
a law called Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. You probably
never heard of it. I had never heard of it.
Most Americans had never heard of it. But if you
have a federal job, if you've ever applied for a
federal job, if anyone in your family works at the
Post Office, the IRS, Social Security, the VA, the Department
(06:21):
of Agriculture, a military base, a federal hospital, NASA, any
of it, that eighteen eighty three law is the law
that made it possible. So let me walk you through
what happened Before eighteen eighty three. The United States government
ran on what was called the spoil system. The word
spoils comes from the phrase to the victor belongs the spoils.
(06:43):
What that meant in practice was whoever won the presidency
got to hand out federal jobs to whoever they wanted. Friends, donors,
family members, political loyalists. The people who delivered votes for
the winning party got the jobs. When the administration changed,
every federal worker got fired and the new president put
in their own people. It was a system that produced
(07:03):
massive corruption, people who had no idea what they were
doing running federal agencies, bribery, kickbacks, and most importantly, a
government workforce that worked for the politician, not the country.
In eighteen eighty one, President James Garfield was shot and
killed by a disappointed government office seeker, a man who
believed he was old a federal job under the spoil
(07:24):
system and was upset he didn't get one, so Garfield died.
The country reacted, and two years later Congress passed the
Pendulan Act. President Arthur who was Garfield's vice president, signed it.
The law created a merit based civil rights service. Federal
workers would now be hired through competitive examinations. They could
not be fired for political reasons. The federal workforce became,
(07:46):
for the first time nonpartisan. That's the same system that
has built modern American government over the last one hundred
and forty three years. It's the same system that the
world looked at and copied France, Germany, Japan. Most modern
democracies have a nonpartisan civil service today because the United
States showed how it could work. But it's also the
(08:07):
same system that allowed black Americans into the federal workplace
after slavery. Black Americans largely shut out of politics and
political appointments, the merit system created a pathway. By the
nineteen hundreds, black Americans were getting federal jobs through exam
base hiring at a higher rate then they could get
most other jobs in this country postal workers, federal clerks,
(08:28):
federal scientists. Civil service became one of the largest employers
of black Americans in the twentieth centuries. Now, let's check
the math. The executive order signed by President Trump this
week is the first major attack on the pendulum system
in this country in modern history. It reclassifies eight thousand
career federal workers as at will employees. It stripped civil
(08:52):
service protections that have existed since eighteen eighty three, and
if it survives the lawsuits, it sets a legal precedent.
Future presidents Republicans or Democrat could expand it to twenty
thousand workers, fifty thousand workers, two hundred thousand workers. So
the lesson when you hear the White House say it's
just trying to make the federal government quote more accountable,
(09:14):
read the fine print, because a fine print is about
who controls the federal government and whether it works for
the country or it works for the person sitting in
the Oval office.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
That year, a man got.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Assassinated to build the system we have now, it took
ninety years for Black Americans to fully participate in it,
and in twenty twenty six we are watching it get
rewritten with an executive order. That's the throwback. So let's
d the show with something good. B ET just announced
(09:46):
its first ever board of advisors, and honestly, the names
alone say a lot. The board includes BEET founder Bob Johnson,
Queen Latifa, LLL Cooljay NFL executive Troy Vincent, investment banker
Roy MacGuire, and Paramount Television chairman George Cheeks. And if
you grew up on Beet like I did, this feels
(10:07):
bigger than a corporate announcement because these are the people.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Who help shape black culture.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Lokuj helped define hip hop, Queen Latifah helped define what
black women in entertainment could be, and Bob Johnson built
BET from the ground up at a time when black
audiences were largely ignored by mainstream television. B ET says
the board will help guide the network into its next chapter,
and that matters because there's been a lot of conversation
(10:33):
over the years about b ET's future, black ownership and
whether black culture is being truly protected inside these large corporations.
So putting these names at the table feels intentional. It
feels like BET is saying, if we're going to figure
out the future of black media, we want the people
in the room who help build the culture in the
first place. And honestly, a lot of people are hoping
(10:56):
that's a sign of what's to come, and that's your
front page.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
I'm Mimi Brown.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
This podcast was brought to you by the Black Effects
Podcast Network.
President Trump just signed an order giving him the power
to fire thousands of career federal workers.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is another executive order on reforms to the federal workforce. Sir.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
The Minnesota Republican Party just held a moment of silence
for Derek Chauvin at its state convention.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
The motion was not out of order, it was seconded.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And b ET just announced a new board of advisors
featuring Bob Johnson, Queen Latifa, and ll Cooljay.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Because I've lived a life, huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's Thursday, June fourth, from the Black Effect Podcast Network.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I Mimi Brown.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
This is front page and here are the day's biggest stories.
Plus on the headlines, we didn't take seriously enough the
eighteen eighty three law that built the modern federal workforce
and why Trump is trying to undo it.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Stay with me.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Imagine showing up to work one day after twenty two
years on the job and realizing that President of the
United States can now fire you immediately, no warning, no
longer review process, no protection, just gone. That's the reality
for thousands of senior federal workers who woke up this week.
President Trump signed a new executive order on Wednesday that
(01:16):
gives him the power to fire some of the highest
ranking career employees in the federal government.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
This is another executive order on reforms to the Federal Workforce, Sir. Currently,
with respect to many policy making positions in the departments
and agencies across government, we lack the ability, because of
existing personnel rules, to effectively discipline or promote people who
are in policy making roles. This executive order follows on
a number of previous executive orders. The end goal is
(01:44):
making the federal workforce more accountable.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Let me break down why this matters to people who
are living outside of Washington. So, the federal government has
about two million civilian workers. Most of our career employees
not politicians. These are people who stay at their job
whether the president is Republican or Democrat. We're talking scientists, attorneys,
senior IRS officials, public health experts, people at agencies handling
(02:10):
everything from your taxes to veteran benefits to food safety. Historically,
those workers had protection, meaning they couldn't just be fired
because someone in power didn't like what they said or found.
This new order removes those protections for about eighty thousand
senior employees, mostly people at the top of the government
pay scale. The White House says this is about accountability,
(02:32):
and the Trump administration argues some powerful federal employees have
too much influence over policy and are too difficult to
remove even if they underperform or resist the president's agenda.
But federal worker unions say this is about something much bigger.
They say this opens the door for politics to completely
reshape the federal workforce and could scare employees away from
(02:54):
speaking up about corruption, fraud, political pressure, or misconduct about it.
If your boss can fire you instantly, are you really
going to challenge his leadership? Are you really going to
blow the whistle? And that's the fear. Federal unions are
already suing, and this fight is expected to end up
in the courts for months, perhaps even years.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I want to talk.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
About something that happened in Minnesota this week that a
lot of people are struggling to understand. The Minnesota Republican
Party held a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin, the
former police officer who is convicted of murdering George Floyd.
This happened during the Minnesota Republican State convention in Duluth
over the weekend. A Republican state lawmaker stood up and
(03:44):
asked the room for a moment of reflection for Chauvin.
He also said he believed Chauvin deserves a retrial or
a pardon. So the room voted on it. Then the
room went silent for Derek Chauvin. And now the Minnesota
Republican Party is trying to soften the backlash. The party
chair later said the moment of silence should not be
(04:04):
viewed as an official party position.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
This particular delegate, and I don't know his name, the
delegate stood up and made a motion for a moment
of silent prayer for Derek Chauvin. He came up and
stood in front of the podium and asked if he
could do it. And I recommended at that point that
he not, but it's his right to be able to
do that, as it is any other delegate at that convention.
(04:28):
And so he did, and the motion was not out
of order. It was seconded. I put it to the body,
The body voted, and we took a very short moment
of silent prayer for Derek Chauvin.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
George Floyd's murder was not some unclear case where nobody
knows what happened.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
The world watched that video.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
People watched George Floyd be pinned to the ground in
Minneapolis in twenty twenty while he repeatedly said he could
not breathe. Derek Chauvin was later convicted of murder in
the state courts. He also pled guilty in federal courts
who violating Floyd's civil rights. His appeals failed, So for
George Floyd's family and a lot of Americans, this moment
(05:06):
of silence felt less like politics and more like honoring
the man responsible for Floyd's death. Civil rights attorney Ben
Crump called it cruel and demanded an apology. Minnesota Attorney
General Keith Ellison, who prosecuted Chauvin, said it was shocking
and disrespectful to both the Floyd family and the justice system.
But critics are saying this happened at the official state
(05:29):
convention on the convention floor after a vote, so people
are questioning how separate the party can really be from it,
And honestly, this says a lot about where the country
still is five years later after.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
The murder of George Floyd.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Every Thursday on Front Page, we pull back to look
at a story that was treated as small or routine
at the time, but ended up shaping the world we
live in right now.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Today's pick.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
January sixteenth, eighteen eighty three, President Chester A Author signed
a law called Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. You probably
never heard of it. I had never heard of it.
Most Americans had never heard of it. But if you
have a federal job, if you've ever applied for a
federal job, if anyone in your family works at the
Post Office, the IRS, Social Security, the VA, the Department
(06:21):
of Agriculture, a military base, a federal hospital, NASA, any
of it, that eighteen eighty three law is the law
that made it possible. So let me walk you through
what happened Before eighteen eighty three. The United States government
ran on what was called the spoil system. The word
spoils comes from the phrase to the victor belongs the spoils.
(06:43):
What that meant in practice was whoever won the presidency
got to hand out federal jobs to whoever they wanted. Friends, donors,
family members, political loyalists. The people who delivered votes for
the winning party got the jobs. When the administration changed,
every federal worker got fired and the new president put
in their own people. It was a system that produced
(07:03):
massive corruption, people who had no idea what they were
doing running federal agencies, bribery, kickbacks, and most importantly, a
government workforce that worked for the politician, not the country.
In eighteen eighty one, President James Garfield was shot and
killed by a disappointed government office seeker, a man who
believed he was old a federal job under the spoil
(07:24):
system and was upset he didn't get one, so Garfield died.
The country reacted, and two years later Congress passed the
Pendulan Act. President Arthur who was Garfield's vice president, signed it.
The law created a merit based civil rights service. Federal
workers would now be hired through competitive examinations. They could
not be fired for political reasons. The federal workforce became,
(07:46):
for the first time nonpartisan. That's the same system that
has built modern American government over the last one hundred
and forty three years. It's the same system that the
world looked at and copied France, Germany, Japan. Most modern
democracies have a nonpartisan civil service today because the United
States showed how it could work. But it's also the
(08:07):
same system that allowed black Americans into the federal workplace
after slavery. Black Americans largely shut out of politics and
political appointments, the merit system created a pathway. By the
nineteen hundreds, black Americans were getting federal jobs through exam
base hiring at a higher rate then they could get
most other jobs in this country postal workers, federal clerks,
(08:28):
federal scientists. Civil service became one of the largest employers
of black Americans in the twentieth centuries. Now, let's check
the math. The executive order signed by President Trump this
week is the first major attack on the pendulum system
in this country in modern history. It reclassifies eight thousand
career federal workers as at will employees. It stripped civil
(08:52):
service protections that have existed since eighteen eighty three, and
if it survives the lawsuits, it sets a legal precedent.
Future presidents Republicans or Democrat could expand it to twenty
thousand workers, fifty thousand workers, two hundred thousand workers. So
the lesson when you hear the White House say it's
just trying to make the federal government quote more accountable,
(09:14):
read the fine print, because a fine print is about
who controls the federal government and whether it works for
the country or it works for the person sitting in
the Oval office.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
That year, a man got.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Assassinated to build the system we have now, it took
ninety years for Black Americans to fully participate in it,
and in twenty twenty six we are watching it get
rewritten with an executive order. That's the throwback. So let's
d the show with something good. B ET just announced
(09:46):
its first ever board of advisors, and honestly, the names
alone say a lot. The board includes BEET founder Bob Johnson,
Queen Latifa, LLL Cooljay NFL executive Troy Vincent, investment banker
Roy MacGuire, and Paramount Television chairman George Cheeks. And if
you grew up on Beet like I did, this feels
(10:07):
bigger than a corporate announcement because these are the people.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Who help shape black culture.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Lokuj helped define hip hop, Queen Latifah helped define what
black women in entertainment could be, and Bob Johnson built
BET from the ground up at a time when black
audiences were largely ignored by mainstream television. B ET says
the board will help guide the network into its next chapter,
and that matters because there's been a lot of conversation
(10:33):
over the years about b ET's future, black ownership and
whether black culture is being truly protected inside these large corporations.
So putting these names at the table feels intentional. It
feels like BET is saying, if we're going to figure
out the future of black media, we want the people
in the room who help build the culture in the
first place. And honestly, a lot of people are hoping
(10:56):
that's a sign of what's to come, and that's your
front page.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
I'm Mimi Brown.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
This podcast was brought to you by the Black Effects
Podcast Network.
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