Transcript

7.13.26 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the reading of the
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Speaker 1: Washington Post for this Monday, July thirteenth. And as you know,
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Speaker 1: RADIOI is a reading service intended for people who are
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Speaker 1: blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
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Speaker 1: read printed material. Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton.
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Speaker 1: And as we look the headlines, our top story from
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Speaker 1: the Washington Post is Lindsey Graham died of aortic dissection,
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Speaker 1: preliminary medical report says Senator Lindsay Graham, the Republican of
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Speaker 1: South Carolina, died suddenly on Saturday night at age seventy one,
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Speaker 1: his office said, prompting tributes from President Trump and lawmakers
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Speaker 1: from both sides, who called his record a foreign policy
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Speaker 1: hawk and had deep friendships he forged during his three
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Speaker 1: decades in Congress. A statement Graham's office said preliminary findings
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Speaker 1: from the DC Medical Examiners off IS found that Graham
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Speaker 1: suffered from an aortic dissection, which is a tear that
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Speaker 1: occurs in the inner layer of the main artery. This
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Speaker 1: was caused by arteriosclerosis cardiovascular disease. The statement said. These
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Speaker 1: tears usually occur when there is high blood pressure. A
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Speaker 1: death certificate remains pending until all toxicologial and microscopic tests
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Speaker 1: are finalized. According to Graham's office, at that point, the
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Speaker 1: death certificate will be updated to reflect the cause of
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Speaker 1: death and approximately classify the manner of death. The statement
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Speaker 1: said Graham's death the narrows Republican's majority in the Senate,
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Speaker 1: where they held a thirty five fifty three forty seven edge.
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Speaker 1: He had been running for reelection this year. Emergency medical
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Speaker 1: responders worked to stabilize a man at Graham's home on
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Speaker 1: Saturday night and transport him to a local hospital, according
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Speaker 1: to witnesses and police scanner audio obtained by The Washington Post. Graham,
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Speaker 1: a staunch supporter of Ukraine, The died hours after returning
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Speaker 1: from a trip to Kiev, where he met with President
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Speaker 1: Vladimir Zelensky. State law allows South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster
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Speaker 1: or a Republican to make an immediate appointment to fill Graham's
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Speaker 1: seat for the remainder of his term, which expires in January.
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Speaker 1: Trump praised Graham in social media and a post that
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Speaker 1: said he was a true American patriot and said details
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Speaker 1: on the funeral would follow. The White House flag was
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Speaker 1: lowered to half staff The President, appearing on several Sunday
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Speaker 1: news programs, said that he spoke with Graham on Saturday evening,
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Speaker 1: shortly before emergency personnel recalled, and the Senator told him
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Speaker 1: he was tired, but other than that he was fine.
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Speaker 1: Trump recounted to See and End's Jake Trapper, adding that
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Speaker 1: he was devastated by the news of the death. The
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Speaker 1: President told NBC that his conversation with Graham could have
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Speaker 1: been his last call. I got a message about one
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Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning from one of the people in
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Speaker 1: his office that he had just passed away. Trump told
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Speaker 1: Meet the Press anchor Kristin Welker, I just can't believe it.
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Speaker 1: He was like a member of the family to me.
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Speaker 1: Trump also reflected on Graham's apparent sudden medical condition. Well
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Speaker 1: maybe that's not the worst way to go, he said
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Speaker 1: on NBC. While a close Trump ally on most matters,
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Speaker 1: Graham broke with President on some issues, such as calling
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Speaker 1: for a more hawkish foreign policy, including morrise US support
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Speaker 1: for Ukraine in the war with Russia. Graham, whose seventy
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Speaker 1: first birthday was Thursday, had met with Selensky and other
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Speaker 1: leaders in the Ukraine last week. He told reporters in
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Speaker 1: Kiev on Friday that a bopartisan group of Senators had
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Speaker 1: reached agreement with the White House to fresh sanctions on Russia.
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Speaker 1: Graham delivered the announcement under the blazing sun, but he
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Speaker 1: appeared unbothered by the heat and sounded clear and concise.
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Speaker 1: The Senator spoke at length about his admiration for the
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Speaker 1: Ukrainian people. Several Ukrainian leaders on Sunday expressed condolences, with
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Speaker 1: Prime Minister Yulia Sidirenko saying on x that Graham stood
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Speaker 1: with Ukraine in the defense of democratic values. Emergency medical
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Speaker 1: services reached a call around eight thirty pm Saturday for
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Speaker 1: a person with chest pains at a Capitol Hill home
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Speaker 1: owned by Graham. According to the audio. About twenty five
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Speaker 1: minutes later, emergency personnel said that CPR was in progress
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Speaker 1: and that a man at the house was suffering from
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Speaker 1: cardiac arrest. The person who lives on Graham Street shared
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Speaker 1: photos of a man being taken from Graham's house on
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Speaker 1: a wheeled stretcher and loaded into an ambulance around nine
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Speaker 1: thirty pm. The man was then taken to George Washington
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Speaker 1: University Hospital. Even before Graham's death, Republicans in the Senate
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Speaker 1: were facing the unexpected abnent since of one member, Senator
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Speaker 1: miss McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, who was eighty four, had
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Speaker 1: been in the hospital since last month. On Sunday, McConnell's
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Speaker 1: office released a photograph of the senator alongside his wife
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Speaker 1: at the hospital and a statement saying that he took
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Speaker 1: a fall in June that landed him in the hospital,
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Speaker 1: where he contracted pneumonia. The photo and the accompanying statement
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Speaker 1: were the first extensive details McConnell's office had shared about
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Speaker 1: his condition since his hospitalization. McConnell said he had been
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Speaker 1: moved to a rehabilitation center and that while he won't
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Speaker 1: be able to return to the Senate yet, he's working
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Speaker 1: from the hospital. Graham won South Carolina as GOP senate
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Speaker 1: primary last month, meaning that the state will hold a
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Speaker 1: special GOP primary for the next few weeks to pick
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Speaker 1: a new nominee. Given the quick turnaround, candidates could include
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Speaker 1: some of the same people who are on the primary ballot.
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Speaker 1: South Carolina businessman Mark Lynch was runner up to Graham
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Speaker 1: in the primary, with the incumbent receiving about fifty seven
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Speaker 1: percent of the vote and Lynch about twenty nine percent
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Speaker 1: are the GOP candidates for the seat included Paul Danz,
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Speaker 1: who served in the first Trump administration and helped devise
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Speaker 1: the Heritage Foundation's Project twenty twenty five agenda, which has
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Speaker 1: influenced the president's second term, and Representative Nancy Mace Republican,
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Speaker 1: is eyeing a bid for Graham's seat. Elected to the
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Speaker 1: House in nineteen ninety four and the Senate in twenty
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Speaker 1: oh two, Graham had been a prominent figure in national
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Speaker 1: politics for decades, particularly on foreign policy, and he traveled
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Speaker 1: frequently to conflict zones, including Iraq and Ukraine. He completed
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Speaker 1: successfully and competed for the Republican nomination in the twenty
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Speaker 1: sixteen presidential election. Whoever replaces Graham will only be the
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Speaker 1: third person to hold the seat since nineteen fifty six,
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Speaker 1: when Strom Thurman, one of the longest serving senators in
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Speaker 1: US history, was elected to the post. Graham replaced Thurman
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Speaker 1: in twenty oh three and soon emerged as one of
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Speaker 1: the nation's most prominent Republican lawmakers, serving as a key
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Speaker 1: negotiator on foreign policy, defense, immigration, and healthcare bills. At
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Speaker 1: the time of his death, He led the Senate's Budget
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Speaker 1: Committee and the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign policy spending.
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Speaker 1: He also served as a key member of the Foreign
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Speaker 1: Relations Committee. Graham was chairman of the Judiciary Committee during
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Speaker 1: Trump's first administration, played a key role in the confirmation
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Speaker 1: of conservative judges the remaking of federal courts. He presided
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Speaker 1: over the controversial October twenty twenty confirmation of Supreme Court
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Speaker 1: Justice Amy Coney Barrett, which came three weeks before that
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Speaker 1: year's presidential election. Graham launched his presidential campaign in June
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Speaker 1: of twenty fifteen, but failed to gain supporting polls, facing
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Speaker 1: scrutiny over his conservative bonafides and his personal life at
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Speaker 1: the time that never married, Graham promised a rotating first
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Speaker 1: lady if elected president. He ended that campaign in December
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Speaker 1: of twenty fifteen before any votes were cast. Graham subsequently
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Speaker 1: endorsed former Governor Jim Bush of Florida and later Senator
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Speaker 1: Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, saying he thought Trump was
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Speaker 1: unfit to service president. After Trump won the GOP nomination,
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Speaker 1: Graham said he chose to vote for third party candidate
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Speaker 1: Evan McMullen, but Graham emerged as a key Senate supporter
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Speaker 1: of Trump during his first administration, defending the president's conduct
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Speaker 1: and policies. He also argued that Trump should not be
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Speaker 1: impeached after he was accused of inciting the January sixth,
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Speaker 1: twenty twenty for one attack on the Capitol. McMaster said
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Speaker 1: in a statement that Graham was the fiercest of fighters
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Speaker 1: for South Carolina and America, an a loyal and steadfast friend.
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Speaker 1: Senator Tim Scott, the Republican and junior senator from South Carolina,
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Speaker 1: told CNN on Sunday that the US had lost a
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Speaker 1: true statesman and that he had lost a friend. Scott
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Speaker 1: said Graham made a strong case for his presidential bid
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Speaker 1: a decade ago and was aggressive against Trump, but over time,
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Speaker 1: Graham's clarity and transparency caught the attention of President Trump.
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Speaker 1: They did not always agree, but they always agreed to
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Speaker 1: disagree without being disagreeable. Scott said they figured out how
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Speaker 1: to have a friendship, and their relationship over the next
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Speaker 1: ten years, so to speak, from the time they were
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Speaker 1: running against each other, became something that Lindsey could count
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Speaker 1: on and President Trump could count on too. Several Democrats
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Speaker 1: spoke of the warm relationships Graham had built across the aisle.
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Speaker 1: Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, who said he'd spoken
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Speaker 1: with Graham on Saturday before he died, described him as
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Speaker 1: a strong minded lawmaker march to his own drummer. I
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Speaker 1: was always impressed with his kindness to people we met
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Speaker 1: along the way, Blumenshal said in a statement. We often differed,
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Speaker 1: but he listened to me and others might have opposing
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Speaker 1: views and sought to bridge our differences. Former Minnesota Senator
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Speaker 1: Al Franken remembered Graham as the funniest senator. One Christmas break,
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Speaker 1: I told him my family and I'm we're going to
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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. Frank recalled on an ex post, he said,
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Speaker 1: do two fundraisers, one for those who are pro statehood
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Speaker 1: and one for those who against it. They never talked
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Speaker 1: to each other. Trump, for his part, had turned to
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Speaker 1: Graham as a frequent confidant and golf partner, seeking his
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Speaker 1: counsel on political matters. The two men had extensive conversations
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Speaker 1: about Trump's foreign policy, with Graham offering encouraging Trump to
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Speaker 1: be more aggressive in confronting enemies such as Iran and Russia.
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Speaker 1: He's outstanding. He's been at my side for a long time.
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Speaker 1: Trump said at a Telly rally for Graham last month,
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Speaker 1: acknowledging that the two men had dueled for the twenty
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Speaker 1: sixteen Republican nomination. After that fight was over, we're the
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Speaker 1: best of friends, and he's helped me as much as
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Speaker 1: anybody in the Senate. Graham is survived by his sister,
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Speaker 1: Darling Graham nordone. Graham became her legal guardian when she
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Speaker 1: was twenty one after their parents passed away, and eventually
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Speaker 1: adopted her. The two siblings were very close, with Nordon
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Speaker 1: saying in twenty fourteen ad for Graham that her brother
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Speaker 1: never let me down. I don't see how he did it,
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Speaker 1: taking on the responsibility of raising a little sister, she said.
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Speaker 1: And now the next story mentioned before is about Senator McConnell,
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Speaker 1: who says he was hospitalized due to a fall and
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Speaker 1: contracted pneumonia. Senator Mitch McConnell said Sunday that his hospitalization
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Speaker 1: last month was caused by a fall, providing the first
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Speaker 1: detailed update about the eighty four year old Kentucky and
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Speaker 1: Republicans' health weeks after silence and growing questions about his condition.
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Speaker 1: McConnell said he wasn't healthy enough yet to return to
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Speaker 1: the Senate, and also disclosed that he battled a mild
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Speaker 1: case of pneumonia while hospitalized. In a statement accompanied by
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Speaker 1: a photo of McConnell smiling beside his wife, Elaine Chow,
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Speaker 1: the senator said, my doctors have confirmed that I didn't
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Speaker 1: break any bones or suffer a concussion. He said, I
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Speaker 1: didn't have a heart attack or stroke. I don't have
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Speaker 1: any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and
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Speaker 1: taken to the hospital. Conall said he had undergone a
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Speaker 1: battery of tests as doctors worked to determine what caused
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Speaker 1: the fall. He said recently he had moved from the
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Speaker 1: hospital to a rehabilitation center. Mc connell also acknowledged the
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Speaker 1: unusual lack of detail from his office since he was
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Speaker 1: hospitalized on June fourteenth, seeing people of his generation often
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Speaker 1: hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older,
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Speaker 1: even in the public eye. I feel that same instinct.
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Speaker 1: I just can't help it, McConnell said. McConnell's sent eighteen
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Speaker 1: years as the Senate Republican leader before stipping down last year.
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Speaker 1: He remained in the chamber as a rank and file
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Speaker 1: senator to finish the final two years of his term,
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Speaker 1: which ends in January. The statement Sunday marked an attempt
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Speaker 1: to answer intensifying speculation about McConnell's condition, which had grown
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Speaker 1: as his office refused to explain what caused his hospitalization
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Speaker 1: and provided only limited updates that he was receiving care.
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Speaker 1: It came a day after the sudden death of Senator
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Speaker 1: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who was only seventy one.
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Speaker 1: The two senators health struggles cast spotlight the rising age
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Speaker 1: of lawmakers in what is one of the oldest congresses
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Speaker 1: in US history. McConnell has not cast a vote in
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Speaker 1: the Senate since June eleventh. It has not been a
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Speaker 1: scene in public since his June fourteenth hospitalization, though several
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Speaker 1: McConnell aides said last week that they'd spoken with him
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Speaker 1: over the phone. E MS dispatch audio from the morning
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Speaker 1: of June fourteenth jested that medical personnel attended to an
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Speaker 1: unconscious person in cardiac arrest at McConnell's home. Though McConnell
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Speaker 1: said Sunday that he did not suffer a heart attack.
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Speaker 1: Senate Majority leader John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and
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Speaker 1: Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, McConnell's former top two
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Speaker 1: deputies while he was a Senate minority leader, said last
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Speaker 1: week that they spoke with McConnell. Scott Jennings, a longtime
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Speaker 1: McConnell ally, also sat on social media that he had
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Speaker 1: talked with the senator. None of the accounts, though, included
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Speaker 1: McConnell himself speaking publicly, until his statement Sunday night. The
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Speaker 1: silence around McConnell's condition had prompted rumors and theories among
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Speaker 1: several right wing influencers, many of whom spread unverified claims
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Speaker 1: that the senator he is incapacitated and accused Republican leaders
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Speaker 1: of covering up his condition. Trump Ally far right activist
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Speaker 1: Laura Lumer alleged without evidence that McConnell is in a
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Speaker 1: vegetative state. Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, also replied
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Speaker 1: to a Monday post from a conservative influencer claiming that
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Speaker 1: senators are all in on a cover up by saying
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Speaker 1: that many senators know nothing about his condition, fueling additional speculation.
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Speaker 1: Mcconnald's office had been largely quiet on the matter since
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Speaker 1: he was first hospitalized, not providing much information on what
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Speaker 1: sent McConnell to the hospital or updates on his current health.
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Speaker 1: On June twenty second, eight days after his initial hospitalization,
16:42
Speaker 1: McConnell's office said in a short statement that he would
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Speaker 1: not be voting that week as he continues his recovery.
16:49
Speaker 1: A July second statement, the only other one provided by
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Speaker 1: his office in recent weeks, provided little new information sid
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Speaker 1: McConnell was still in the hospital. He continues to improve,
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Speaker 1: his office said as working closely with staff on Kentucky
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Speaker 1: and Senate matters. In a statement on Sunday, McConnell said
17:10
Speaker 1: that he had been working with his staff in Washington
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Speaker 1: and Kentucky while hospitalized, and that he had been in
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Speaker 1: touch with fellow senators about the appropriations process, midterm politics,
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Speaker 1: and everything in between. In the wake of Graham's death
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Speaker 1: this weekend McConnell's absence, Senate Republicans are governing with a
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Speaker 1: fifty one to forty seven majority, giving them less margin
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Speaker 1: for error. The Senate passed a resolution last month fifty
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Speaker 1: eight to fifty to forty eight to block President Trump
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Speaker 1: from striking Iran again after a handful of Republicans broke
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Speaker 1: rank and voted with Democrats. Senator David McCormick, Republican of Pennsylvania,
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Speaker 1: and McConnell missed the vote. If both of them had
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Speaker 1: been there, it would have failed. McConnell had served in
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Speaker 1: this since nineteen eighty five. He led Senate Republicans from
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Speaker 1: twenty oh seven to twenty twenty five, becaming one of
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Speaker 1: the most visible proponents of Trump's legislative agenda during his
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Speaker 1: first term, before becoming even more willing to oppose the
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Speaker 1: president in recent years. Representative Andy Barr, the sixth district
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Speaker 1: of Kentucky's House of Representative delegation, won the Republican primary
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Speaker 1: to succeed McConnell in May and is heavily favored in
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Speaker 1: deep red Kentucky. McConnell has also faced repeated health issues
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Speaker 1: in recent years. He did have polio as a child
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Speaker 1: and has acknowledged difficulty climbing stairs, and was hospitalized in
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Speaker 1: March of twenty twenty three with the concussion and broken
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Speaker 1: ribs after falling. He then spent six weeks away from
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Speaker 1: the Senate while recovery. In July and August of twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty three, McConnell twice froze mid sentence and distance while
19:00
Speaker 1: speaking with reporters. In December of twenty twenty four, he
19:04
Speaker 1: suffered a sprained wrist and a minor cut on his
19:07
Speaker 1: face after a trip. McConnell fell on the stairs exiting
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Speaker 1: the Senate chamber in February of twenty twenty five and
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Speaker 1: was later seen using a wheelchair, and he fell again
19:18
Speaker 1: in October of twenty twenty five, and most recently, he
19:22
Speaker 1: spent more than a week in the hospital in February
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Speaker 1: with flu like symptoms. His office set Conle referenced to
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Speaker 1: his childhood polio in his statement on Sunday, saying it
19:33
Speaker 1: impaired his mobility in ways I haven't exactly gotten easier
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Speaker 1: to manage with age. His decision not to run for
19:41
Speaker 1: reelection was influenced by the demands of serving in the Senate,
19:44
Speaker 1: he added, though he suggested he did not plan to
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Speaker 1: leave office before the end of his term. I still
19:51
Speaker 1: have unfinished business to complete on your behalf, he said
19:56
Speaker 1: in the statement. And I have every intention of finishing
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Speaker 1: the job you elected me to do. And next, just
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Speaker 1: about this aging Senate, the story is Senate again confronts
20:11
Speaker 1: the challenges of its age. For the members. For the
20:16
Speaker 1: second time in a month, an ambulance was sent rushing
20:18
Speaker 1: to the home of the city US senator. The first
20:21
Speaker 1: arrived on a June morning at the home Senator Mitch
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Speaker 1: McConnell eighty four, the Kentucky Republican and formerly as party's
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Speaker 1: leader in the Chamber, and for weeks his office declined
20:30
Speaker 1: to explain what's sinning there now. On Sunday a month later,
20:34
Speaker 1: McConnell broke his silence, saying in a statement that he'd
20:37
Speaker 1: fallen at his home and was briefly unconscious and had
20:40
Speaker 1: been treated for pneumonia. The second ambulance arrived this weekend
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Speaker 1: at the home Senator Lindsey Graham, who was seventy one
20:47
Speaker 1: South Carolina, who died late Saturday. Both men were members
20:54
Speaker 1: of a Senate that was one of the oldest in
20:56
Speaker 1: American history. The Senate has always been a check chamber
21:00
Speaker 1: of older men and women. It has always had to
21:03
Speaker 1: reckon with the effects of age and illness, but it
21:06
Speaker 1: has never built the necessary rules and procedures to deal
21:11
Speaker 1: with such problems. According to experts in congressional history, its
21:16
Speaker 1: members have served through Comas and Strokes vanished for years
21:20
Speaker 1: and died in office, and each time the Institution has improvised,
21:25
Speaker 1: only to move on without a rule. Agent itself is
21:29
Speaker 1: not the problem, experts say. Graham was working to the
21:33
Speaker 1: end just back from Ukraine, and many Senators serve into
21:38
Speaker 1: their eighties undimmed. But the Senate has provided no answer
21:42
Speaker 1: for when its members inevitably can no longer serve, and
21:46
Speaker 1: no requirement that anyone says so. Members of Congress must
21:51
Speaker 1: by law disclose the stocks they trade, but nothing requires
21:56
Speaker 1: disclosure about their health, whether they can still do the job,
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Speaker 1: whether they are still conscious, or, at least in one
22:03
Speaker 1: case in history, whether they were even known to be alive.
22:09
Speaker 1: Mcconnalll's disclosure came only after a month of unanswered questions
22:13
Speaker 1: and mounting rumors online. His account differed from what emergency
22:18
Speaker 1: dispatch audio from June fourteenth initially suggested that a audio
22:23
Speaker 1: referred to an unnamed, unconscious person in cardiac arrest and
22:27
Speaker 1: his aggress. McColl's letter said he was briefly unconscious after
22:32
Speaker 1: a fall, and the doctors ruled out a heart attack.
22:36
Speaker 1: The average age in Congress has steadily risen with a
22:40
Speaker 1: few sporadic exceptions since the early nineteen eighties. Today, the
22:45
Speaker 1: one hundred and nineteenth Congress is the third oldest in
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Speaker 1: American history, and the three oldest in the nation's history
22:53
Speaker 1: have all convened since twenty seventeen. In the early days
22:58
Speaker 1: of the Republic, being a member of covers was viewed
23:00
Speaker 1: as a temporary occupation rather than a long term career.
23:04
Speaker 1: Historians have noted in the mid eighteen hundreds, for example,
23:08
Speaker 1: the average tenure in the Senate was three to five years,
23:11
Speaker 1: compared with roughly eleven now. The average member of the
23:14
Speaker 1: House was in their mid forties and the average age
23:17
Speaker 1: of senators was around fifty, while now the average House
23:21
Speaker 1: member is fifty eight and the average Senator is almost
23:24
Speaker 1: sixty four. One factor is the perks of incumbency. According
23:30
Speaker 1: to experts, the longer senator stay in office, the more
23:35
Speaker 1: powerful they become was seniority and committee chairmanships, and the
23:41
Speaker 1: more able they are to steer money toward their states.
23:45
Speaker 1: McConnell chaired the Senate Ethics Committee and the Senate Rules
23:48
Speaker 1: Committee before becoming the longest serving party leader in Senate history. Graham,
23:54
Speaker 1: who was running for a fifth term at the time
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Speaker 1: of his death, chaired the Budget Committee. Graham's death temporarily
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Speaker 1: deadlocked that committee, and while his death plus McConnell's absence
24:06
Speaker 1: could deeply complicate the Appropriations Committee, leaving Republicans with a
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Speaker 1: thirteen to fourteen disadvantage until McConnell returns, and until that
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Speaker 1: happens and Graham's replacement is sworn in the Senate, Republicans
24:21
Speaker 1: are governing with a slimmer voting margin of fifty one
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Speaker 1: to forty seven. With age comes greater potential for illness,
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Speaker 1: and the people with the power to make the rules
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Speaker 1: on requiring health disclosures or how to handle situations when
24:36
Speaker 1: a Senator can no longer serve are the same one
24:40
Speaker 1: hundred senators who would have to abide by them in
24:44
Speaker 1: more than two centuries. They never have no law or
24:50
Speaker 1: Senate rule governs how to proceed when a Senator is
24:53
Speaker 1: deemed and incapacitated, and the senator is never expelled a
24:58
Speaker 1: member because they were physically unable to do the job.
25:02
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty six, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was
25:07
Speaker 1: beaten nearly to death with a cane on the Senate
25:10
Speaker 1: floor and returned only intermittently over the next three years,
25:15
Speaker 1: while his state left his chair effectively empty. Senator Carl Munt,
25:20
Speaker 1: Republican of South Dakota, had a stroke in nineteen sixty
25:24
Speaker 1: nine and never returned, holding his seat from home for
25:29
Speaker 1: more than three years until his term expired. Senator Carter Glass,
25:34
Speaker 1: a Genian Democrat, chair of the Senator Appropriations Committee, was
25:38
Speaker 1: gone from Washington from nineteen forty two until his death
25:41
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty six, while keeping his gavel with his
25:45
Speaker 1: wife's zealously guarding access to him only once as either
25:51
Speaker 1: Chamber forced the issue of medical absence. Gladys Noon Spellman,
25:57
Speaker 1: a Maryland Democrat who had served three terms in Hoise,
26:00
Speaker 1: collapsed from cardiac arrest while campaigning in nineteen eighty and
26:04
Speaker 1: fell into a coma. Her district re elected her anyway,
26:09
Speaker 1: but her term expired as she remained comatose, and when
26:13
Speaker 1: the new Congress convened in nineteen eighty one, she could
26:16
Speaker 1: not be sworn in for the next The House declared
26:19
Speaker 1: her seat vacant, the only time either chamber has done
26:23
Speaker 1: so for incapacity for members already sworn in. However, such
26:29
Speaker 1: a tool does not exist. This is definitely something the
26:34
Speaker 1: Senate has dealt with, unfortunately with some regularity, said Michael Thorning,
26:38
Speaker 1: director of the Bipartisan Policy Center Structural Democracy Project. If
26:44
Speaker 1: a member is incapacitated, the only way a senator service
26:47
Speaker 1: ends is their term ends. They die, are they're expelled,
26:52
Speaker 1: or they resign. There isn't really a mechanism short of
26:56
Speaker 1: those for Senator McConnell's Senate service to end. Whilst such
27:01
Speaker 1: a rule might help, it's also difficult to design a
27:04
Speaker 1: solution without the risk of having it used as a
27:07
Speaker 1: political weapon against members who are temporarily ill in recovering,
27:11
Speaker 1: said Georgetown law professor Joss Chafitz. He noted that expelling
27:16
Speaker 1: a senator for incapacity by a two thirds vote are
27:19
Speaker 1: deeming by majority vote that the senator does not meet
27:22
Speaker 1: the qualifications for office, very likely to be ruled unconstitutional.
27:28
Speaker 1: As a result, retirement proposals have been floated. Former Congressman
27:34
Speaker 1: and potential twenty twenty eight presidential candidate Rom Emmanuel has
27:38
Speaker 1: in the past proposed a mandatory retirement of age seventy
27:42
Speaker 1: five for all federal officials, including senators. The Senators faced
27:47
Speaker 1: a version of this question in recent years, and both
27:50
Speaker 1: Graham and McConnell were involved. In twenty twenty three, Senator
27:55
Speaker 1: Dianne Feinstein, the Democrat of California, who was then eighty nine,
28:00
Speaker 1: was absent for nearly three months while she recovered from shingles.
28:04
Speaker 1: Without her, the Judiciary Committee was evenly split between Democrats
28:08
Speaker 1: and Republicans, and some Democrats urged her to step down
28:12
Speaker 1: because the tie was stalling President Biden's judicial nominees. Feinstein
28:18
Speaker 1: asked to be temporarily praised on the committee so its
28:20
Speaker 1: work could go on, but Republicans refused in order to
28:24
Speaker 1: block judicial confirmations. The objection on the floor came from Graham,
28:29
Speaker 1: the committee's ranking Republican, and it was McConnell, then not
28:34
Speaker 1: minority leader, who put the party's position plainly. The Senate
28:39
Speaker 1: would not take part in sidelining a temporarily absent colleague.
28:46
Speaker 1: Feinstein kept her seat, some nominations remained stalled. She returned
28:52
Speaker 1: that May and died in office that September. Now Graham
28:58
Speaker 1: is gone and McConnelly as the temporarily absent colleague. Without McConnell,
29:03
Speaker 1: the Appropriations Committee is deadlocked and will struggle to advance
29:07
Speaker 1: the government's spending bills. As chairman of the Budget Committee,
29:11
Speaker 1: Graham oversaw the reconciliation process, the tool Republicans used to
29:15
Speaker 1: pass major legislation on party line votes. President Trump is
29:19
Speaker 1: pressing for a third reconciliation bill, this one carrying defense funding,
29:24
Speaker 1: and until Republicans fill Graham's seat. The Budget Committee is
29:29
Speaker 1: split evenly between the parties. They will probably move quickly
29:33
Speaker 1: to fill his seat, but any delay narrows the odds
29:38
Speaker 1: of finishing before the mid terms. On age, there are
29:43
Speaker 1: signs the tide is beginning to turn. With the younger
29:46
Speaker 1: generation of candidates running for Congress and the upcoming election.
29:50
Speaker 1: Democratic voters, perhaps chastened by their experience with Biden, and
29:55
Speaker 1: increasingly rejected older establishment candidates by one and hour as
30:00
Speaker 1: the median age of Democratic candidates and competitive Senate races
30:04
Speaker 1: has fallen from sixty three in the twenty eighteen midterm
30:07
Speaker 1: elections to the mid forties. Now. Even the current Senate
30:12
Speaker 1: has become slightly younger with the retirement and death of
30:15
Speaker 1: some members, although it remains near a historic peak in age.
30:20
Speaker 1: In Graham's case, South Carolina law allows Governor Henry McMaster
30:24
Speaker 1: or Republican to appoint a temporary successor until an election
30:29
Speaker 1: fills the seat, resolving the issue quickly. What happens with
30:34
Speaker 1: McConnell's seat is vastly more complicated. Before he was hospitalized,
30:40
Speaker 1: former AIDS and allies had planned to meet at the
30:43
Speaker 1: US Capitol this month to honor McConnell with the unveiling
30:46
Speaker 1: of a portrait of him, but, along with McConnell's other
30:50
Speaker 1: work in the Senate, the portrait event had been postponed
30:53
Speaker 1: in definitely, according to three people familiar with the event.
30:58
Speaker 1: In his statement Sunday nightmc coconnell said he won't be
31:01
Speaker 1: able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet,
31:04
Speaker 1: but he added that he intends to serve out his term,
31:07
Speaker 1: which ends in January, and has continued absence as a
31:12
Speaker 1: reminder of how little recourse the current system offers when
31:15
Speaker 1: a Senator cannot serve. In recent years, as McConnell has declined,
31:21
Speaker 1: his home state in particular, has made it difficult to
31:24
Speaker 1: fill his seat should it ever unexpectedly come open. Twice
31:29
Speaker 1: in four years, Kentucky's Republican led legislator has changed the
31:34
Speaker 1: law for filling the US in Senate vacancy, each timestrooping
31:39
Speaker 1: power from the state's Democratic governor. In twenty twenty one,
31:43
Speaker 1: at McConnell's urgent, lawmakers required the governor to fill any
31:47
Speaker 1: vacancy from a list of three names chosen by the
31:51
Speaker 1: departing senator's own party, a measure designed to keep Basher,
31:56
Speaker 1: the current governor, from handing a Republican seat to a Democrat,
32:01
Speaker 1: And in twenty twenty four they went even further, taking
32:04
Speaker 1: away appointment power from the governor and replacing it with
32:08
Speaker 1: a special election. The result is that no one can
32:12
Speaker 1: quickly fill McConnell's seat. If it came open, it would
32:16
Speaker 1: stay empty until an election. McConnell announced last year that
32:21
Speaker 1: he would not seek election, with his term ending this
32:24
Speaker 1: coming January. Last week, Basher publicly pressed McConnell's office to
32:30
Speaker 1: disclose its condition, saying Kentuckian's deserved to know the condition
32:34
Speaker 1: of their senator. As public office holders, we have made
32:39
Speaker 1: a commitment to our constituents to do the best to
32:42
Speaker 1: represent them, but sheer wrote in a letter to McConnell.
32:45
Speaker 1: In a statement Sunday, Connell acknowledged the unusual silence from
32:49
Speaker 1: his office for the week since June fourteenth, saying people
32:53
Speaker 1: of his generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that
32:56
Speaker 1: comes with growing older. Even in the pub, I still
33:01
Speaker 1: feel that same instinct, McConnell said, I can't help it now.
33:07
Speaker 1: Turning to the conflict in Iran, Ran launches attacks on
33:12
Speaker 1: Gulf States amid heaviest US strikes in months, The United
33:18
Speaker 1: States and Iran exchanged the heaviest fire in months on Sunday,
33:21
Speaker 1: with both sides striking numerous military targets. After Iran announced
33:25
Speaker 1: the closure of the Straight of Horn Moves and disabled
33:29
Speaker 1: the civilian containership. The US military shot down an Iranian
33:34
Speaker 1: cruise missile and one way attacked drone. Captain Tim Hawkins,
33:38
Speaker 1: a spokesman for the US Central Command, told The Washington Post.
33:42
Speaker 1: In a post on x sycom, said the US military
33:47
Speaker 1: carried out more strikes against Iran at five pm Eastern
33:50
Speaker 1: time on Sunday to degrade their ability to attack commercial
33:54
Speaker 1: vessels crossing the Straight of Horn Moves, key route for
33:58
Speaker 1: global supplies of oil and natural gas that has long
34:01
Speaker 1: been considered an international waterway. The strikes followed a statement
34:07
Speaker 1: by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried on state media.
34:12
Speaker 1: It said that the strait was considered closed until further notice,
34:16
Speaker 1: The IRGC accused the United States of interfering in the waterway.
34:22
Speaker 1: US officials, including President Trump, rejected Tehran's claim of control
34:27
Speaker 1: over the state, continuing a cycle of contradictory statements and
34:32
Speaker 1: a stalemate. The President told NBC's Meet the Press on
34:36
Speaker 1: Sunday morning that the strait was open to commercial traffic.
34:40
Speaker 1: It's open. We buy them the hell out of them.
34:42
Speaker 1: Last night, they're very, very evil and sick people, Trump said.
34:47
Speaker 1: He said that the Iranians agreed to a perfect deal
34:50
Speaker 1: for us the prior day. No nuclear this, no that,
34:54
Speaker 1: no nothing. They gave up everything. And then after that
34:57
Speaker 1: and they left the room and within an hour they
34:59
Speaker 1: launched it owned a ship, said Trump. The fresh hostilities
35:05
Speaker 1: add to the questions about the future of peace negotiations,
35:07
Speaker 1: which have been under way since the due country signed
35:10
Speaker 1: a fourteen point memorandum of understanding on June seventeenth. Earlier Sunday,
35:17
Speaker 1: or Anian state media reported new attacks near the Strait
35:19
Speaker 1: of Horn Moves. The Islamic Republic News agency reported that
35:24
Speaker 1: the enemy attacked near the port city of bandar Abbas
35:28
Speaker 1: along the Strait of Horn Moves, as well as Kushim Island.
35:31
Speaker 1: In the strait on Sunday morning. The outlet said that,
35:35
Speaker 1: according to initial reports, a maintenance worker was killed in
35:38
Speaker 1: the attack. Iran's armed forces fired at least three waves
35:43
Speaker 1: of missiles and drones at US military bases across the
35:46
Speaker 1: Persian Gulf in Jordan, Cutter, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman Release
35:53
Speaker 1: Sunday in retaliation for extensive US bombing across southern Iran.
35:58
Speaker 1: According to the semi official Tazzi in the news agency,
36:01
Speaker 1: which is associated with the IRGC, the US military said
36:08
Speaker 1: overnight that it had launched strikes on Iran after the
36:10
Speaker 1: IRGC hit a Cypress flagged container ship attempting to transit
36:16
Speaker 1: the Straight of Horn Moves. The announcement came as Tehran
36:20
Speaker 1: declared the waterway closed once again and claimed that it
36:24
Speaker 1: had fired a warning shot on a vessel attempting to
36:26
Speaker 1: use what it deemed to be an unapproved route. The
36:31
Speaker 1: Strait remains an international waterway. The US forces are positioned
36:36
Speaker 1: and prepared to keep it that way, Central Command said
36:39
Speaker 1: Sunday morning. On x it said the waterway is open
36:42
Speaker 1: to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit through after Iran
36:49
Speaker 1: fired warning shots that containership was passing through the Strait
36:52
Speaker 1: in the past week, raising tensions with Washington. Senior US
36:57
Speaker 1: officials told reporters that they expected Iran to wn ounce
37:00
Speaker 1: shortly that all channels and the straight of horm Moves
37:03
Speaker 1: would be open. Described the warning shots as the actions
37:07
Speaker 1: of a rogue unit within the IRGC. Iran is insistent
37:12
Speaker 1: that all shipping vessels transit the Strait along a northern
37:15
Speaker 1: route near its shores instead of sailing through the south
37:20
Speaker 1: along Oman's coast. On Saturday, Iranian forces disabled the MVGFS Galaxy,
37:28
Speaker 1: a Cypress flag containership, as it passed through the Strait
37:32
Speaker 1: near Oman. The ship suffered significant engine room damage and
37:37
Speaker 1: lost a crew civilian member who remains missing at sea.
37:41
Speaker 1: According to the Central Command. Senkam said late Saturday that
37:46
Speaker 1: in response to the IRGC's attack on the Galaxy, it
37:50
Speaker 1: launched strikes on roughly one hundred and forty Iranian military
37:54
Speaker 1: sites under Trump's orders to degrade Iran's ability to attack
37:59
Speaker 1: civilian mariners in commercial ships freely transiting strait. The extensive
38:07
Speaker 1: US strikes triggered a flurry of retaliatory attacks by Iran
38:11
Speaker 1: against US bases. TASM reported that Iran struck the Prince
38:15
Speaker 1: Hassan Air Base in Jordan, al Udid Air Base and Cutter,
38:21
Speaker 1: and the US Navy's fifth Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain, among
38:25
Speaker 1: other sites. Saul Abdulazad al Obatadi, a spokesperson for the
38:32
Speaker 1: Kuwait Defense Ministry, said the attack damaged three northern land
38:35
Speaker 1: border centers. A drone also hit an offshore drilling platform
38:39
Speaker 1: affiliated with Kuwait Oil Company, injuring a worker and damaging
38:44
Speaker 1: the structure, he said. The United Arab Emirates Defense Ministry
38:49
Speaker 1: also said its air defenses had been triggered, although it
38:53
Speaker 1: was not clear whether the UAE, which has largely been
38:57
Speaker 1: uninvolved in the war in recent weeks, was targeted by
39:00
Speaker 1: the latest Iranian barrage. Over the past week, Trump has
39:05
Speaker 1: escalated his rhetoric against Iran, saying he is allowing talks
39:09
Speaker 1: to continue, but no longer framing them as part of
39:12
Speaker 1: the cease fire. Instead, he has paired diplomacy with sweeping
39:17
Speaker 1: demands over the strait of Horn moves and unusually explicit
39:21
Speaker 1: threats of overwhelming military retaliation, signaling that negotiations remain open
39:29
Speaker 1: even as the risk of renewed escalation grows. In a
39:33
Speaker 1: truth social post Friday, night, Trump said that one thousand
39:38
Speaker 1: missiles are locked and loaded and aimed at Iran if
39:42
Speaker 1: its government were to attempt an assassination against him. He
39:46
Speaker 1: said orders had already been issued and the US military
39:50
Speaker 1: was prepared for at least a year to decimate and
39:54
Speaker 1: destroy all areas of Iran. Earlier that day, he said
40:00
Speaker 1: Iran had asked to resume talks and the United States
40:04
Speaker 1: had agreed, but he emphasized the ceasefire is over. In
40:11
Speaker 1: just over three weeks since Iran and the US agreed
40:14
Speaker 1: to an initial peace accord, Tehran has made the straight
40:17
Speaker 1: of Hormones the central sticking point, refusing to allow maritime
40:22
Speaker 1: traffic to pass through without Iranian coordination. Trump's stated objectives
40:28
Speaker 1: for the war, notably ending Iran's nuclear program, are not
40:32
Speaker 1: a focus. US and Israeli strikes on Iran began in
40:36
Speaker 1: late February with the killing of Iran Supreme Leader, the
40:40
Speaker 1: Ayatola Ali Kamene. Kamene's son and successor, Modtabja Kamane, promised
40:47
Speaker 1: Saturday to avenge the criminals who assassinated our leader and
40:52
Speaker 1: people in the last two wars. According to Iranian state media,
40:57
Speaker 1: on Saturday, the foreign ministers of Our and Oman met
41:01
Speaker 1: in Muscot for talks related to the straight of horn moves.
41:05
Speaker 1: Oman's Foreign Ministry did not convey a clear outcome of
41:09
Speaker 1: the discussions, writing on Acts that both sides agreed to
41:12
Speaker 1: continue the talks at the technical and political levels to
41:16
Speaker 1: reach the necessary agreements in accordance with international law. And next,
41:25
Speaker 1: why your health plan doesn't cover GOLP ones. According to
41:28
Speaker 1: a top insurance executive, consumers will have to wait for
41:33
Speaker 1: broader insurance coverage GLP one weight loss drugs until prices
41:37
Speaker 1: come down and clear evidence emerges that they will reduce
41:41
Speaker 1: health care costs. The CEO of CVS Health, which includes
41:45
Speaker 1: at Insurance, set in an interview Atness corporate customers pay
41:50
Speaker 1: for private employee health insurance are not ready to swallow
41:54
Speaker 1: a high cost of the enormously popular drugs. CEO David
41:58
Speaker 1: Joyner said everybody intuitively believes these medications create long term
42:05
Speaker 1: health benefits, but the evidence hasn't been demonstrated that paying
42:10
Speaker 1: today's prices generates enough downstream savings. He said, the economics
42:15
Speaker 1: simply aren't there yet. While GLP one drugs will bend
42:20
Speaker 1: the health care costs, curved downward is a much debated question.
42:24
Speaker 1: There's no dispute that helping people lose weight reduces cholesterol,
42:29
Speaker 1: blood pressure, and improves hard health. Above the return on
42:33
Speaker 1: investments of covering the drugs in terms of reduced cost
42:37
Speaker 1: medical procedures and hospitalizations has not yet been proved. Johner said.
42:43
Speaker 1: Other fundamental problems is the cost of the drugs, which
42:46
Speaker 1: are sold by Eli Lilly, which makes the zip Bound
42:49
Speaker 1: and Fondeo, and Novo Nordisk, which makes wegovy list. Price
42:55
Speaker 1: of the drugs range above one thousand dollars a month.
42:59
Speaker 1: Companies CVS care Mark, cbs' health pharmacy benefit management division,
43:06
Speaker 1: negotiates discounts called rebates with drug companies. Joiner said the
43:11
Speaker 1: rebates care Mark negotiates bring prices and insurance plans even
43:15
Speaker 1: lower than the cash price of four hundred and fifty
43:17
Speaker 1: dollars that consumers with no insurance can pay on Lily's website.
43:22
Speaker 1: But even that's not low enough for employers who're already
43:26
Speaker 1: struggling with rising premiums. Joiner said, Eli Lilly has become
43:31
Speaker 1: an extraordinarily successful company, the first trillion dollar health care
43:36
Speaker 1: company in the United States. He said they're not going
43:39
Speaker 1: to lower prices until competition forces them to. Joiner sat
43:45
Speaker 1: down for a thirty minute interview in Washington last week
43:48
Speaker 1: after he appeared before the Economics Club of Washington. D C.
43:53
Speaker 1: Johinner rose through the ranks of EDNA and care Mark,
43:56
Speaker 1: and retired from CVS Health at the end of twenty
43:59
Speaker 1: nineteen after roaming the country and an RV with his
44:03
Speaker 1: wife and dog for several years. He was lured back
44:06
Speaker 1: to the growing CVS Health empire in twenty twenty three
44:10
Speaker 1: and rose to the top job in October of twenty four.
44:14
Speaker 1: At the time, CBS Health was struggling financially. He has
44:19
Speaker 1: led a financial turnaround with moves that included pulling ETNA
44:23
Speaker 1: out of the Affordable Health Care Act Marketplaces, or Obamacare.
44:28
Speaker 1: After hundreds of millions of dollars and losses. CVF Health
44:33
Speaker 1: had four hundred billion dollars in gross revenue and twenty
44:37
Speaker 1: twenty five, Joiner's total compensation for the year was twenty
44:41
Speaker 1: one point two million dollars. In addition to its nine
44:45
Speaker 1: thousand drug stores and ETNA, it provides primary care through
44:49
Speaker 1: Minute Clinic and in its stores and Oak Street Health,
44:53
Speaker 1: which is geared toward Medicare beneficiaries. Explaining his decision to
44:58
Speaker 1: exit Obamacare, Joiner ticked off etna's mistakes. We expanded too quickly,
45:04
Speaker 1: we entered too many markets, he said, and we weren't
45:07
Speaker 1: able to price appropriately for the risk profile of the
45:11
Speaker 1: members we enrolled while remaining competitive. Asked about the rising
45:17
Speaker 1: costs of healthcare that are creating an affordability crisis from
45:20
Speaker 1: many Americans, Joiner avoided placing blame on hospitals or drug companies,
45:26
Speaker 1: which are often targeted by insurance executives. Instead, he talked
45:30
Speaker 1: about his own recent colonoscopy. He said he was not
45:34
Speaker 1: happy with the experience, not because of the procedure, but
45:38
Speaker 1: because of the typical cumbersome bureaucracy and he encountered, which
45:42
Speaker 1: he said creates a financial drag on healthcare systems. The
45:47
Speaker 1: doctor's office wanted information about his last procedure ten years ago,
45:52
Speaker 1: which he could barely remember. They wanted to know how
45:55
Speaker 1: his health had changed, since they asked about allergies surgeries
46:00
Speaker 1: at several steps along the way, it seemed he had
46:03
Speaker 1: to answer the same things all over again. Honestly, I
46:07
Speaker 1: didn't even know where to begin, he said. I had
46:09
Speaker 1: no idea what happened when I was fifty two. I
46:13
Speaker 1: didn't have my records. I didn't remember the details. Health
46:17
Speaker 1: systems have been working to disentangle themselves from administrative meyer
46:21
Speaker 1: four decades, but even with wide adoption of electronic health
46:26
Speaker 1: records and information sharing between doctors and hospitals, the healthcare
46:31
Speaker 1: system is still heavily siloed, Joiner said. CVS recently announced
46:38
Speaker 1: a partnership with Google Cloud called Health one hundred, in
46:43
Speaker 1: a bid to use artificial intelligence to give patients more
46:46
Speaker 1: access to their own health stories and get them more
46:49
Speaker 1: engaged in their own care. CVS executives have called stronger
46:54
Speaker 1: patient engagement the holy grail that will drive better patient outcomes.
47:00
Speaker 1: The reality is that records technology hasn't made a meaningful
47:04
Speaker 1: difference for consumers. Joiner said. It's made our operations more efficient.
47:09
Speaker 1: Hospital has become more efficient, but none of those systems
47:13
Speaker 1: were designed around the consumer. CVF Health has a smaller
47:17
Speaker 1: health care conglomerate than United Health Group, but it also
47:22
Speaker 1: has been criticized for its sprawling size and potential conflicts
47:26
Speaker 1: of interests created by its simultaneous roles as an insurance
47:30
Speaker 1: task with controlling costs and a pharmacy and primary care
47:34
Speaker 1: provider seeking to maximize revenue. John Air rejects the criticism.
47:40
Speaker 1: He said such vertical integration at CVS Health lowers costs
47:45
Speaker 1: by improving efficiency across its different divisions. It would be
47:50
Speaker 1: self defeating, he said, the company to leverage consolidation to
47:54
Speaker 1: increase costs. My responsibility is to make sure our prices
48:01
Speaker 1: are competitive, that we're lowering costs, he said. But don't
48:05
Speaker 1: do that, I lose business. And here's a fun article,
48:10
Speaker 1: the surprising health benefits of eating spicy food like it
48:14
Speaker 1: hot your heart, gut, and even your lifespan may benefit.
48:21
Speaker 1: I've heard spicy food can be good for you. Is
48:23
Speaker 1: that true? Well, here's great news for people who love
48:27
Speaker 1: to feel to burn. The purported benefits of spicy foods
48:31
Speaker 1: have a strong scientific basis. In twenty fifteen, a major
48:37
Speaker 1: study published in the British Medical Journal showed an association
48:41
Speaker 1: between consuming spicy foods and living longer. From twenty four
48:45
Speaker 1: to eight, scientists enroll more than half a million adults
48:49
Speaker 1: in China and tract their health over the next several years.
48:53
Speaker 1: Several thousand in the group surprisingly died during that time,
48:58
Speaker 1: but the surprising part even after controlling from multiple possible confounders,
49:04
Speaker 1: such as smoking, physical activity, and the intake of red
49:07
Speaker 1: meat and fresh foods and vegetables. Adults whose spicy food
49:12
Speaker 1: intake averaged six or seven days a week had a
49:15
Speaker 1: fourteen percent lower elevated relative risk of dying than those
49:20
Speaker 1: who intake averaged less than one a week of spice
49:23
Speaker 1: one time a week of spicy foods. Eating spicy foods
49:27
Speaker 1: was associated with a reduced risk of health from cancer
49:30
Speaker 1: and heart and lung disease. Two years later, a similar
49:35
Speaker 1: study done in the United States corroborated those findings. Americans
49:39
Speaker 1: who consumed red hot chili peppers were about thirteen percent
49:43
Speaker 1: less likely to die at any given point during the
49:46
Speaker 1: study compared with those who did not. Scientists think capsasen,
49:52
Speaker 1: the main active component in chili peppers, may be beneficial
49:57
Speaker 1: because of its effect on the receptors and our nerve
49:59
Speaker 1: cells that perceive heat both from temperature and spice, known
50:04
Speaker 1: as trpv IE receptors. They're expressed throughout our bodies, including
50:10
Speaker 1: the skin, gastrointestinal tract, and many immune cells. So move
50:16
Speaker 1: aside peptides. Should we all grab some chili paste from
50:19
Speaker 1: the grocery store to live longer, well, not necessarily, and
50:24
Speaker 1: for the record, peptides should stay on the shelf for
50:27
Speaker 1: now too. While the benefits of spicy foods are backed
50:31
Speaker 1: by strong research, we haven't proved that spicy foods cause
50:37
Speaker 1: this apparent boost and longevity. In some areas, the data
50:40
Speaker 1: is more uncertain. For instance, some though not all, studies
50:45
Speaker 1: have found that an elevated risk of stomach cancer among
50:48
Speaker 1: people who frequently eat spicy foods. But here's what we
50:52
Speaker 1: know about how spicy foods affect our health heart health.
50:58
Speaker 1: Many observational studies any humans have shown an association with
51:02
Speaker 1: spicy food in catake and a lower risk of heart
51:05
Speaker 1: disease and stroke. The mechanisms aren't entirely known, but limited
51:10
Speaker 1: human randomized control trials point to capsasan's ability to increase HDL,
51:16
Speaker 1: or the good cholesterol, low levels of which are known
51:19
Speaker 1: to have a risk heart factor for heart attacks, and
51:23
Speaker 1: it may also help burn calories faster. Also, the spicy
51:27
Speaker 1: or your food, the less likely you are to reach
51:30
Speaker 1: for the salt shaker. Twenty seventeen Chinese study found around
51:35
Speaker 1: six hundred adults that people who preferred spice here foods
51:39
Speaker 1: gravitated towards less salty ones needing about a half teaspoon
51:44
Speaker 1: less salt every day, with corresponding decrease in their blood pressure.
51:49
Speaker 1: The same researchers performed a separate, randomized control trial in
51:53
Speaker 1: which they scan participants' brains after stimulating them with salt mixtures.
51:58
Speaker 1: They found that capsasan apped how intensely people perceive saltiness,
52:03
Speaker 1: meaning the same splash of soy sauce tastes even saltier
52:08
Speaker 1: when you stir chili into the mix. Then there's galt,
52:12
Speaker 1: gut health, ibs, and abdominal pain. And what's fascinating and
52:17
Speaker 1: about TRPV one's receptors is that they're also critical for
52:21
Speaker 1: pain signaling, while they're more concentrated in the colons of
52:25
Speaker 1: people with irritable bowel syndrome, for instance. And that's why
52:29
Speaker 1: seemingly paradoxically, capsation creams actually can help treat pain. Cap
52:36
Speaker 1: Sasin can overwhelm our pain sensing nerves and in doing so,
52:41
Speaker 1: help blunt alarm signals from reaching the brain. Cap sasin
52:46
Speaker 1: has even shown a benefit in small human trials for
52:49
Speaker 1: chronic abdominal pain. For some people, capsasan can make abdominal
52:54
Speaker 1: discomfort worse in the short term, but after a few
52:57
Speaker 1: weeks of habitual consumption, those receptors become desensitized and the
53:03
Speaker 1: discomfort may actually improve. Despite a common misconception, capsasan does
53:11
Speaker 1: not damage a healthy stomach lining, capsasin actually reduces acid
53:16
Speaker 1: production in the stomach. Because of this, and because capsaicin
53:20
Speaker 1: stimulates more blood flow to the stomach, it has been
53:23
Speaker 1: shown to protect against the risk of gastrointestinal ulcers. So
53:28
Speaker 1: why are spicy food's notorious for making acid reflux symptoms
53:33
Speaker 1: even worse? We feel like we have heartburn after eating
53:37
Speaker 1: a spicy meal because capsasin activates TRPV one receptors in
53:42
Speaker 1: the esophagus. This is what causes that unpleasant burning sensation
53:47
Speaker 1: in the chest, which we would normally attribute to acid
53:52
Speaker 1: and then hemorrhoids. While I'm sure I don't need to
53:57
Speaker 1: over explain the meaning of the Hungarian saying break of
54:00
Speaker 1: burns you twice, a twenty oh six randomized placebo controlled
54:04
Speaker 1: trial found that cap sasan did not aggravate hemorrhoid symptoms.
54:10
Speaker 1: So if that's your specific concern, the science has your
54:14
Speaker 1: back side, then cancers Regarding gastrointestinal cancers, The data is
54:21
Speaker 1: a bit mixed. Most studies have found that cap sasan
54:25
Speaker 1: protects against cancer, while some have found that it seems
54:28
Speaker 1: to bolster tumor growth, and this is an area where
54:31
Speaker 1: we still need more research. But the overall trend so
54:34
Speaker 1: far is reassuring that spicy foods may well be protective
54:41
Speaker 1: if you like your spicy foods by all meanings enjoying them,
54:44
Speaker 1: particularly in moderation. Personally, I get a bit of a
54:47
Speaker 1: thrill eating spicy food, enough to make my nose run
54:51
Speaker 1: but not quite cry at the dinner table. But if
54:54
Speaker 1: you're someone who feels ill when you eat chili peppers,
54:57
Speaker 1: this data shouldn't push you to do anything that makes
54:59
Speaker 1: you you uncomfortable. We're all different in how we respond
55:04
Speaker 1: to capsation, so I wouldn't regard vendaloo as the elixir
55:08
Speaker 1: of life. The eating pattern, still most consistently linked to
55:13
Speaker 1: numerous health benefits, including longevity, remains The Mediterranean style diet
55:19
Speaker 1: would emphasizes whole foods, complex carbohydrates, and peptophenols. Chili peppers
55:26
Speaker 1: can definitely be part of that pattern, but they're just
55:31
Speaker 1: one component. And finally, why does cancer seem so common
55:35
Speaker 1: right now we have an oncologist explain cancer is a
55:40
Speaker 1: global problem. It seems like they are more cancer diagnosed
55:44
Speaker 1: than ever. You write in nineteen seventy five, about four
55:47
Speaker 1: hundred per one hundred thousand people in the United States
55:49
Speaker 1: were diagnosed with cancer. In twenty twenty three, the incidents
55:53
Speaker 1: was four hundred and six fifty six per one hundred thousand,
55:57
Speaker 1: though overall rates have been mostly stable since twenty fourteen.
56:01
Speaker 1: While more people are being diagnosed with cancer today compared
56:04
Speaker 1: with fifty years ago because of an increase in actual cases,
56:08
Speaker 1: better detection, or a changing definition of what's considered cancer,
56:13
Speaker 1: and the good news is that fewer people are dying
56:16
Speaker 1: of it. Since nineteen ninety nine, age adjusted cancer death
56:21
Speaker 1: rates failed dramatically, from two hundred and one per hundred
56:24
Speaker 1: thousand and nineteen ninety nine to one hundred and forty
56:27
Speaker 1: two per one hundred thousand and twenty twenty three. To
56:30
Speaker 1: understand how these can both be possible at the same time,
56:33
Speaker 1: and how ultimately the outlook for those diagnosed with cancer
56:36
Speaker 1: is quite positive, it helps to first to understand what
56:40
Speaker 1: cancer is, how it occurs, and how modern treatments have
56:43
Speaker 1: learned to exploit the diagnosis for good. Put simply, cancer
56:49
Speaker 1: involves and then control growth of cells in the body.
56:53
Speaker 1: While there are a number of possible causes that are
56:55
Speaker 1: all related to errors that happen in the cells and
56:58
Speaker 1: genetic constructions of DNA. The cells can make a random
57:02
Speaker 1: mistake when replicating, resulting in a cell that grows faster
57:05
Speaker 1: than others around it, or the cell can be damaged
57:08
Speaker 1: by carcinogens such as ultraviolet light or the chemicals in cigarettes.
57:14
Speaker 1: Some cancers can also occur when a cell's self destruct
57:17
Speaker 1: code malfunctions. Our bodies recognized when the cells are damaged,
57:21
Speaker 1: grow too rapidly or otherwise behave abnormally, and then react
57:25
Speaker 1: by sending out chemical signals to tell the cells to
57:28
Speaker 1: stop growing or self destruct. Errors can alter that signal
57:32
Speaker 1: or affect the body's ability to recognize it, the cell
57:36
Speaker 1: turns a deaf ear to the instruction from the bodies
57:38
Speaker 1: cease and desist. Within the last ten to fifteen years,
57:42
Speaker 1: there's been a revolution in the use of immunotherapy to
57:44
Speaker 1: treat cancer, with drugs that specifically target proteins on the
57:48
Speaker 1: outside of cancer cells, or that harness a patient's own
57:51
Speaker 1: immune system to essentially train it to find and eliminate
57:54
Speaker 1: the cancer. These newer innovative treatments have improved the rates
57:57
Speaker 1: from duration of remission and even survival for a number
58:00
Speaker 1: of cancers that have retooled how we treat cancer. So
58:04
Speaker 1: while it's true there seems to be more cancer than ever,
58:06
Speaker 1: there's more hope than ever as cancer is being detected earlier,
58:10
Speaker 1: eliminated more effectively, or transformed to a chronic condition rather
58:16
Speaker 1: than a life threatening one. And this concludes the reading
58:19
Speaker 1: of the Washington Post for today, which is Monday, July thirteenth.
58:22
Speaker 1: Your reader has been Rod Brotherton. If you have any
58:24
Speaker 1: questions or concerns or comments, please call us at eight
58:27
Speaker 1: five nine four two two sixty three ninety. Thank you
58:31
Speaker 1: for listening, and now please stay tuned for continued programming
58:35
Speaker 1: right here on Radio I