On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: New charges against Trump; Carlos De Oliveira charged in classified documents case
Plus, USA TODAY National Political Correspondent Phillip M. Bailey on Dianne Feinstein getting confused and being told how to vote. Student loan interest crisis? A new bill could eliminate rates for many borrowers. July 2023 temperatures to smash records. Bronny James, cardiac arrest and young athletes: USA TODAY Health Reporter Adrianna Rodriguez on what you need to know.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below.This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Dana Taylor:
Good morning, and welcome to 5 Things. I’m Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, July 28th, 2023. New charges were filed against Donald Trump in the classified documents case, Sen. Dianne Feinstein gets confused and has to be told to vote aye, and a new bill could eliminate rates for many student loan borrowers.
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Special Counsel Jack Smith added new charges against Donald Trump on Thursday and indicted a second Trump aide in the case that accuses the former President of obstruction of justice in the hoarding of classified information. Carlos De Oliveira, an employee of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, is accused of helping indicted aide Walt Nauta hide subpoenaed boxes of classified information around Trump’s home. The revised indictment accused Trump and the two co-defendants of seeking to erase security video of rooms in which boxes were kept. It said they tried to get another unnamed person to delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.
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Yesterday’s news included stories about the health of 81-year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell, who froze mid-sentence during a press gaggle. We’re also talking about the health of 90-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Here to explain is National Political Correspondent Phillip M. Bailey. Phillip, thank you for hopping on the show.
Phillip M. Bailey:
Hey Dana. How are you?
Dana Taylor:
I’m good. How are you?
Phillip M. Bailey:
Pretty good.
Dana Taylor:
So what happened with Sen. Dianne Feinstein yesterday?
Phillip M. Bailey:
She mistakenly started reading a statement during a routine vote, which was another awkward moment at the Capitol and has further fueled questions about whether the 90-year-old lawmaker is in decline. If we remember, Sen. Feinstein was out with the shingles for several weeks and actually held up President Joe Biden’s judicial nominations. She serves on the Judiciary Committee, which is basically evenly split. So it was holding up a lot of his important nominations there. And we should also say that Sen. Feinstein is an icon, but she’s already announced that she’s not going to seek reelection in 2024. But it furthers this conversation that we’ve really been having all year long, Dana, about the age of American elected officials.
Dana Taylor:
So we also have an update on Sen. McConnell’s health. What do we know?
Phillip M. Bailey:
Well, Sen. Mitch McConnell had a very similar situation. He comes to the lectern for the press conference that both the Senate Democrats and Republicans do. He’s talking at first and then he stops. He just stops talking altogether and just is basically standing there for about 28 seconds. Dead silence. The sources who are close to the senator, who are familiar with his work habits, have confirmed with USA TODAY, number one, he has fallen at least two other times this year that we did not know about. We reported back in March that he had a fall at a hotel where he suffered a pretty serious injury. He hit his head, cracked some ribs and suffered a concussion. But there are two other times that he has fallen, this source confirmed with us. Once at a Washington D.C. airport on July 14th and another during a foreign trip to Finland in February. Again, these previous situations were not reported.
We asked Sen. McConnell’s office about that, or I did. They declined to comment on the falls, but they did confirm that he is using a wheelchair at times as a safeguard. They said that’s simply a prudent precautionary measure. But again, that rolling disclosure, we didn’t know that initially.
Dana Taylor:
So clearly there’s still a lot we don’t know about Mitch McConnell’s health right now. This being Washington D.C., there’s a lot of gossip out there. Even though McConnell is a public figure, some say it could potentially be dangerous for his mental health to be the subject of so much speculation. Why is that?
Phillip M. Bailey:
My colleague, David Oliver, wrote that piece quoting experts who said that this sort of gossip can lead to incorrect assumptions and ultimately affect the person’s mental health. But at the same time, as a political reporter, I must say, Dana, that when we ask these questions, we’re asking them because the public, in many ways, has a right to know the health of their elected leaders, particularly when it comes to their mental capacity. And at the end of the day, I think the American people and the public are becoming hyper aware of how advanced in age a lot of our elected leaders are. And polling shows that’s a growing concern for Americans.
Dana Taylor:
Well, I was going to ask you that. I mean, you know that Mitch McConnell is the longest serving party leader in senate history. Is it time for him and Feinstein to just hand the reins to the next generation?
Phillip M. Bailey:
The voters of Kentucky clearly don’t think that Sen. McConnell’s age is a problem. He won his last reelection in a landslide. Sen. Feinstein won her last election pretty decisively as well. But there is a growing concern about the mental capacity when people who, if they were working in any other sector, probably would be retired by now. I think ultimately it’s up to voters.
Dana Taylor:
Phillip, it’s always good to have you on.
Phillip M. Bailey:
No problem, Dana. Thank you very much.
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Dana Taylor:
Tens of millions of Americans who have student loan debt are expected to resume making payments in the fall. The interest that comes with that debt will kick in again, too. For many borrowers, that interest has been the obstacle to paying off their loans. Advocates say the return to payments, for which the Education Department is now preparing after the Supreme Court struck down Joe Biden’s sweeping debt forgiveness plan, could be catastrophic financially. But new legislation written by Democratic representative Joe Courtney of Connecticut and Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont aims to get rid of that interest for current borrowers, while capping it based on a sliding scale for future borrowers. The bill, shared exclusively Thursday with USA TODAY, would also devise a means of paying for the lost interest, one that wouldn’t leave taxpayers covering those costs.
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Will July be the hottest month in 120,000 years? Millions of Americans are under advisories and warnings as extreme heat sears the country. Scientists reported yesterday that unless a mini Ice Age happens over the next few days, July will end up as Earth’s hottest month on record, and quite possibly the hottest single month in 120,000 years. July has already seen the hottest three week period ever recorded with deadly record-breaking heat waves across much of North America, Asia, and Europe, along with devastating heat-driven wildfires in Canada and Southern Europe. The UN Weather Agency said in a statement that the heat has caused major damage to people’s health, the environment, and economies.
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Cardiac events are not uncommon and often fatal, but in the right place and with the right training, lives can be saved. For more on that, I’m joined by USA TODAY Health Reporter Adrianna Rodriguez. Thanks so much for being on the show.
Adrianna Rodriguez:
Thanks so much for having me.
Dana Taylor:
So earlier this week, University of Southern California freshman basketball player Bronny James, the 18-year-old son of NBA star LeBron James, suffered a cardiac arrest while working out at the USC campus. First, what is a cardiac arrest? Is that like a heart attack?
Adrianna Rodriguez:
Yes. So a cardiac arrest is really a heart rhythm issue. Whereas, a heart attack is typically a circulatory issue. So like blood circulating through the body type of issue. A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly loses its normal rhythm and then stops pumping blood. Whereas, one of the most common causes of a heart attack is when an artery is blocked, which would prevent blood and oxygen from reaching organs.
Dana Taylor:
So, 18 seems awfully young for a cardiac arrest. Is this common?
Adrianna Rodriguez:
So the stat is that cardiac arrests are the leading cause of death in young athletes, but I think we should take a step back and look at that little stat with a grain of salt. Right? Because these are young, healthy people at the prime of their athletic lives, so it’s unlikely they’d have any other common health issues that would generally plague the general population. So in reality, experts say cardiac arrests among young athletes are uncommon. Estimates vary, but the data suggests about one in 80,000 young athletes die of a cardiac arrest death each year. Whereas, compared to the general population, which is about one in 1000 people, that’s not a lot.
Dana Taylor:
And does this condition affect all athletes equally?
Adrianna Rodriguez:
So, the most common sports where this typically happens is in basketball, football, and soccer. The data shows that men and also Black athletes are at higher risk for cardiac arrest as well.
Dana Taylor:
And is there anything an athlete can do to guard against this condition?
Adrianna Rodriguez:
So the number one thing which most athletes do before entering a sport is getting a physical and screening for any heart defects. If you have a heart defect, you’re at a higher risk of having heart rhythm issues and leading to a cardiac arrest. Aside from that, though, cardiac arrests are typically very sudden and unpredictable. So the best thing to do in those situations is to really minimize that damage by having people around that know CPR. And what CPR does is it pumps and supplies blood to organs throughout the body when the heart is stopped. That way, organs don’t go too long without blood and oxygen supply. Then, while somebody is doing CPR, you want somebody else to go and get the automated external defibrillator, which is an AED. You want to know where they’re located and how to properly use them. So in the event that you have someone under cardiac arrest, one person is doing chest compressions while another person is retrieving the AED and getting it set up to shock the heart and restore normal heart rhythm.
Dana Taylor:
Adrianna, thank you so much for speaking with me on this really important topic.
Adrianna Rodriguez:
Thank you.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us seven mornings a week on your favorite podcast platform. If you liked the show, please subscribe, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Any comments? You can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. Catch up on all the news you need to know throughout the day at usatoday.com. I’m Dana Taylor. I’ll be back tomorrow filling in for Taylor Wilson with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
