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America’s Deadliest Air Crash in Years
Update: 2025-01-30
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An American Airline flight carrying dozens of passengers crashes into a military Blackhawk helicopter, before dropping into the Potomac River. The Trump Administration rescinds its funding directive that sowed chaos. And Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. tries to recast his past comments on vaccines and medical practices.
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Transcript
00:00:00
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00:00:26
It's Thursday, January 30th.
00:00:30
A commercial flight hadn't crashed on American shores in a decade, until now, we start here.
00:00:36
An American Airlines flight smashes into a military helicopter over Washington, D.C.
00:00:44
This is going to be an extremely difficult rescue and recovery operation.
00:00:49
With rescue crews fearing the worst, pilots immediately began asking, "How did this happen?"
00:00:54
President Trump's memo writers want a redo.
00:00:57
All of these organizations were questioning what was gonna happen next.
00:01:01
- But even if there are funds to disperse, will there be any government employees left to disperse them?
00:01:06
And senators give RFK Jr.
00:01:08
a full exam.
00:01:10
- I've had nothing to do with this.
00:01:11
- Are you supportive of these onesies?
00:01:13
- They had receipts, quotes, and baby onesies walk through the biggest moments.
00:01:18
From ABC News, this is Start Here.
00:01:23
I'm Brad Milky.
00:01:24
(dramatic music)
00:01:28
It was just after 9 p.m.
00:01:30
Eastern last night.
00:01:32
When we heard there had been some sort of accident near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.
00:01:38
And when you looked at a web stream from the Kennedy Center near the river, you could see air traffic coming in and out.
00:01:44
- Take a look.
00:01:45
You see that flash in the distance right there?
00:01:48
- But if you looked really close, low to the ground,
00:03:01
just over the river, there was this burst of light.
00:01:54
And right there, you'll see that horrific fireball.
00:01:58
- You can clearly see a plane hitting something.
00:02:01
But what?
00:02:02
Well, soon we learned this was a regional jet carrying dozens of people and a black Hawk helicopter, a commercial flight hitting a military chopper.
00:02:11
And what's just as terrifying is what happens right after that initial explosion.
00:02:15
If you look really close, you see the plane fall and then splash into the icy waters of the Potomac.
00:02:22
Initial reports were that dive teams were coming the area.
00:02:26
The word deaths reported, but it quickly became clear.
00:02:29
There would be many more fatalities.
00:02:31
Let's go straight to ABC, Sam Sweeney.
00:02:33
He's our lead transportation producer.
00:02:35
He's based in D.C., Sam.
00:02:37
Still a lot of moving parts here.
00:02:38
What can you tell us about how this unfolded?
00:02:41
- This American Airlines regional flight was on final approach to runway 33.
00:02:46
That's a smaller runway at Reagan National Airport that really isn't used for the bigger aircraft more.
00:02:52
So for the regional aircraft, there was a nearby military army helicopter and air traffic control was talking to both of these aircraft.
00:03:01
- F2F, F2F, F1, F2F, F2F, F1, F2F, F2F, F2F, F2F, F2F.
00:03:06
- Let's go with the aircraft that's like a Christmas ship.
00:03:10
- And the army helicopter, we hear on the air traffic control, it acknowledges that it sees this incoming plane and then somehow something goes terribly wrong and they collide.
00:03:21
And that's what investigators are gonna have to try to figure out why this happened.
00:03:24
- Crash, crash, crash.
00:03:26
This is a letter three, crash, crash, crash.
00:03:28
This is a letter three.
00:03:30
- Reagan National Airport is bordered by the Potomac River and this runway, at the right at the end of the runway, is the water.
00:03:37
So this plane was on final approach when it had that mid-air collision and then the wreckage falls into the water.
00:03:43
- There was a collision on the approaching to 33.
00:03:48
We're gonna be shutting down operations for the indefinite future if you want to go back to the gate.
00:03:52
- It has been extraordinarily cold in the DC area recently.
00:03:56
There are ice chunks in the Potomac River floating right now.
00:03:59
This is going to be an extremely difficult rescue and recovery operation.
00:04:04
And immediately dive boats, rescuers from all across the area, we're talking Virginia, Maryland, DC, all coming in and converging on this area for a rapid response,
00:04:17
law enforcement agencies from across the country.
00:04:20
- The conditions out there are extremely rough for the responders.
00:04:24
It's cold.
00:04:26
They're dealing with relatively windy conditions, wind is hard out on the river.
00:04:32
- These are some of the most well-qualified highly trained individuals to take on this operation, but it is extremely difficult with the frigid cold temperatures.
00:04:41
Who was on each of these aircrafts?
00:04:42
What did we know about the flights themselves?
00:04:44
- We know there were 60 passengers on the American Airlines flight and four crew members, two pilots, two flight attendants.
00:04:50
- Have any survivors been found in how many bodies have been recovered?
00:04:54
- All we can confirm tonight is the number of people on each aircraft.
00:04:59
- On the helicopter, there was at least three members of the military.
00:05:04
And we now know that this was a training mission for the military and they were flying around the DC area when they crashed.
00:05:10
- Did they just, how did this happen?
00:05:12
Sam, like, did they just not see each other?
00:05:14
'Cause I'm just thinking we know it's congested air space, but it's highly regulated air space as well.
00:05:18
- These types of incidents don't happen because of one thing.
00:05:21
This is a perfect storm that likely took place here.
00:05:25
But these aircraft, we know they saw each other because they acknowledged it on air traffic control.
00:05:30
They got warnings in their cockpits in the flight deck.
00:05:34
They're called T-CAST warnings.
00:05:36
There are anti-collision systems that are onboard these aircraft.
00:05:39
So they have to figure out, they got the warnings.
00:05:41
They communicated to air traffic control that they saw each other.
00:05:44
Why did they collide?
00:05:45
What went wrong?
00:05:47
- Right, although what's interesting is you also have some aviation analysts like our own Colonel Stephen Ganyard was basically saying, like, there's a possibility you say, yeah, yeah, I see him and you're not looking at the right light or you're not looking at the right plane or you can't,
00:05:58
your death perception is off because of the black, black sky.
00:06:01
So like you said, the question's gonna be, how did these two aircraft wind up at the exact same spot at this exact same time?
00:06:07
The other thing, Sam, that I hadn't even considered until you brought it up to me was, we have seen commercial airliner crashes in recent years, but none of them have been on U.S.
00:06:16
soil.
00:06:16
It's always been a foreign country area, over in ocean, this happened here.
00:06:21
What does that mean for American air carriers?
00:06:23
- Brad, this period in time has been the safest time for aviation in American history.
00:06:30
We have not had a significant incident on a U.S.
00:06:33
airliner, on U.S.
00:06:34
soil in more than 15 years.
00:06:36
There has been so much work done over the decades to make aviation safer for all of us through NTSB investigations,
00:06:47
through FAA regulations.
00:06:49
But last night, all of that ended and now we need to figure out what happened.
00:06:53
- And just difficult to wrap your mind around kind of the tragedy and desperation here.
00:06:58
Like you said, in this cold river with people just pulling out whatever they could, statements already from President Trump and other elected leaders describing this as the tragedy that it is.
00:07:06
And meanwhile, overnight in Wichita, families gathered at the airport knowing that their loved ones were on this flight that headed towards Washington, DC.
00:07:15
Sam Sweeney, our transportation producer, thank you so much.
00:07:18
- Thank you.
00:07:19
We told you yesterday about an executive order from President Trump that made it clear he plans to deny federal funding to programs he doesn't think deserve taxpayer money.
00:07:33
To make it happen, the Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to agencies telling them not to disperse any funds until certain programs had been approved.
00:07:43
Well, when the OMB sent this memo around, it caused mass chaos.
00:07:47
Think about it, when you add up all the entities that use federal funds, we're talking not billions, but trillions of dollars.
00:07:53
Judges paused this and actually seemed inclined to strike down this directive.
00:07:58
But yesterday, the Trump White House did something we have rarely seen.
00:08:01
In the face of anger and confusion, they threw up their hands and said, "Actually, forget it."
00:08:07
- In a high stakes act of take backsies, the Trump administration rescinded this memo.
00:08:12
ABC's Chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce is there at the West Wing right now this morning, Mary.
00:08:18
My head is still spinning, what happened yesterday?
00:08:20
- Welcome to the club, Brad.
00:08:21
It has been a whirlwind several days, trying to figure out what exactly is going on here.
00:08:26
So let me try as best I can to unpack this.
00:08:29
Yesterday, after what was really this whirlwind 48 hours of questions and concerns and panic and legal challenges, we then saw what, as you noted, was a really stunning and rare about face from the Trump administration,
00:08:42
rescinding this sweeping directive to temporarily freeze trillions of dollars in federal funding that, of course, had the potential to impact millions of Americans.
00:08:50
Now, this freeze, which was announced on Monday, was designed to follow through on President Trump's executive orders to overhaul government spending and try and root out programs that don't align with his priorities,
00:09:02
but the move sparked mass confusion.
00:09:04
- Funding that supports our transportation system and infrastructure is now in danger, thanks to Donald Trump.
00:09:11
Hospitals, particularly rural hospitals and community health centers are now in danger because of Donald Trump.
00:09:18
- The White House tried to clarify saying, they weren't freezing direct payments to Americans, things like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamp programs and the like, but still there are plenty of organizations that receive government funding,
00:09:29
right?
00:09:30
Everything from meals on wheels that 2.2 million seniors rely on, the hundreds of thousands who rely on head start for childcare, so many organizations, things that affect veterans,
00:09:41
children, seniors, all of these organizations were questioning what was gonna happen next.
00:09:46
But even yesterday morning, the White House was adamant, the press secretary telling a bunch of us reporters that the American people should not be confused about this.
00:09:54
- This is a temporary pause on federal assistance and grants so that the office of management and budget here in the executive office of the president can review all federal assistance that is going out the door.
00:10:07
- But then just hours later, in a two sentence memo, the administration rescinding this freeze and funding.
00:10:13
But the White House is still insisting that the president's plan to identify spending that doesn't align with his agenda, things like diversity, equity and inclusion programs, climate initiatives and foreign aid, though that will still be rigorously implemented.
00:10:24
They're basically just saying that they're not gonna do it with this federal freeze that sparked so much chaos.
00:10:30
- I see.
00:10:30
So like they're the executive orders from Trump himself that say like we're freezing stuff like foreign aid and then we're also gonna try to freeze other stuff like these nonprofit programs that we don't like.
00:10:41
The foreign aid, like that's still frozen and you've had foreign countries being like our HIV assistance programs, like rely on the US, our food aid programs rely on the US.
00:10:48
They're still not getting that money, but the nonprofits and stuff and the loan programs here in the US, they are gonna get their money for now because the order that told them, wait, wait on everything.
00:10:58
That's the thing that's being held up.
00:10:59
- Yes, but there's still a lot of concern and a lot of major questions about what comes next as the administration tries to do this real top to bottom review and overhaul federal spending.
00:11:09
And in fact, a federal judge is bowing to block any kind of funding freeze going forward.
00:11:14
In fact, the judge sort of struggling to decipher what the White House's intention is here.
00:11:18
- Well, and so then, Mary, can we talk, not just about federal aid, but also federal employees 'cause the other big thing that's happened this week that has not been rescinded, is federal employees got these weird letters,
00:11:29
these weird emails saying, hey, we'd like you to quit, basically, like we'll buy you out the way that a company sort of starts to lay people off.
00:11:36
Is that, am I getting that right?
00:11:37
- Brad, more than two million federal employees are now facing this choice, right?
00:11:41
Resign and be paid until the end of September or risk losing their jobs.
00:11:45
They were all sent this email with the subject line, "Fork in the Road," and they were told that if they were interested in this buyout, they needed to hit reply and write just one word, resign.
00:11:55
- We're requiring them to show up to work or be terminated.
00:12:00
We think a very substantial number of people will not show up to work, and therefore our government will get smaller and more efficient, and that's what we've been looking to do for many, many decades, frankly.
00:12:10
(audience applauding)
00:12:12
- The White House says this will save money, that it is really an effort to get federal workers back into the office that they're trying to cancel remote work, and they are now giving everyone a week to decide.
00:12:23
Do they want to leave their job, take what is essentially a buyout and be paid through September, or risk losing their position entirely?
00:12:31
- The thing about this letter, by the way, it apparently seemed to echo language that Elon Musk has used before when he was offering some of his Twitter employees' buyouts.
00:12:40
Am I supposed to take this to mean that Elon Musk might have been involved here, that he is behind the strategy of scaling down this workforce?
00:12:46
- Look, it's a very good question.
00:12:47
What role has Elon Musk played here?
00:12:49
What kind of influence has he had?
00:12:51
Of course, we know he's become this increasingly influential confidant in the president's world.
00:12:55
Of course, he's been tasked with leading this new office of government efficiency, and he similarly slashed Twitter's workforce when he took over that company.
00:13:04
He was posting on his platform X, actually seeming to mock workers, encouraging them to go ahead and hit that send button.
00:13:12
Of course, the unions representing federal workers don't think there's anything to laugh at here.
00:13:16
They say this isn't a voluntary buyout, but they say it's a purge.
00:13:20
Those who are critical of this move and critical of the president say this isn't just about streamlining government efficiency, it isn't just about saving money.
00:13:26
They say this is really an effort by the president to push out programs and people who aren't in lockstep with his agenda.
00:13:33
- Really, while moments here for the federal government.
00:13:35
Okay, Mary Bruce at the White House, thank you.
00:13:37
- Thanks, Brad.
00:13:38
- Next up on Start Here, can you reinvent yourself over the course of a two-day hearing?
00:13:43
RFK Jr.
00:13:44
is trying after the break.
00:13:46
(soft music)
00:13:49
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00:13:53
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00:15:31
(upbeat music)
00:15:35
When you think of a testy confirmation hearing, there are usually one of two things happening.
00:15:39
One is a hearing that centers around qualifications.
00:15:42
That was the big issue around defense secretary Pete Hankseth.
00:15:45
Yes, there were allegations about sexual assault and workplace behavior he denied at all, but the more fundamental concern from senators was none of his prior leadership experience came close to leading the Pentagon.
00:15:56
Then there were hearings that revolve around someone's philosophy, like when their views about the role of the agency are just fundamentally at odds with federal norms.
00:16:04
That'll be the thing Tulsi Gabbard will contend with later today.
00:16:07
She has seen as someone who's much, much cozier with American adversaries, then your usual director of national intelligence.
00:16:14
Well yesterday, as Robert F.
00:16:15
Kennedy Jr.
00:16:16
arrived for his confirmation hearings as he seeks to become the next health in human services secretary, both of these things were at play.
00:16:23
He hasn't served in government since 1982, when he was sworn in as a prosecutor, but resigned when he failed the bar exam.
00:16:30
Since then, he has spent his career questioning public health agencies that he now seeks to lead.
00:16:35
He has a long, long track record to parse, and yesterday, senators came ready to ask him about it all.
00:16:42
ABCs and Flarity covers federal agencies and was watching all of this, and you previewed these hearings for us yesterday.
00:16:48
Can you just walk us through how it actually played out?
00:16:51
Well, Brad, it was a charged atmosphere on Capitol Hill.
00:16:54
There was a very long line to get in the door.
00:16:56
Robert F.
00:16:57
Kennedy, he's a celebrity in his own right.
00:17:00
He's got that famous name.
00:17:01
He has a lot of supporters.
00:17:03
People who say that not enough has been done to question the traditional medical establishment, and they were there to see their guy go up ahead before the Senate and to deliver the truth.
00:17:17
I'm humbled to be sitting here as President Trump's nominee over the U.S.
00:17:22
Department of Health and Human Services.
00:17:25
Mr.
00:17:25
Kennedy sat down at the table, and he almost reinvented himself, and what he makes clear throughout his testimony is he is not anti-vaccine.
00:17:36
Vaccines play a critical role in healthcare.
00:17:39
All of my kids are vaccinated.
00:17:41
I've written many books on vaccines.
00:17:44
Now, this is a little bit different from the message that we've been hearing from him for years now.
00:17:49
To be clear, Kennedy founded a foundation that questions and disparages vaccines given to children.
00:17:55
He's earned millions of dollars writing books, running his own law firm questioning the drug industry.
00:18:03
He was described to me by a fellow lawyer as a galvanizing force in the movement to really question the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
00:18:13
But when he arrived on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, he was very measured in what he was saying to these senators.
00:18:19
We need to end the old-boy system.
00:18:22
We need to have replicable science and be completely transparent about raw data.
00:18:27
He was saying things like, you know, look, I am only here to make things more transparent.
00:18:32
I want more studies on vaccines.
00:18:34
I am not going to take away anyone's vaccines.
00:18:37
And it was just a very different Kennedy than we've seen in the past.
00:18:40
Well, and so Democrats were immediately seizing on this.
00:18:43
And it sounded like some of them were trying to pin him down on comments.
00:18:46
He himself has made, right?
00:18:47
So I mean, what were the most galvanizing ones?
00:18:50
Well, so, you know, Senator Bernie Sanders was somebody that a lot of people had been watching because, you know, the independent from Vermont, he obviously has question industry on the environment.
00:18:59
You know, he's somebody you could see having a lot of common ground with somebody like RFK.
00:19:03
We thought that, you know, he might try to find a little bit of that common ground, he did not.
00:19:08
His health care are human right.
00:19:11
In the way that frees beat the human right, yeah, I would say it's different.
00:19:17
Sanders really zeroed in on Kennedy's vaccine skepticism.
00:19:22
And, you know, at one point he brought up this picture of these onesies that Kennedy's foundation had been selling to people that, you know, would advertise if your baby hasn't been vaccinated.
00:19:33
And saying, you know, do you support this?
00:19:35
Is this what you're all about?
00:19:37
I've had nothing to do with you.
00:19:38
Are you supportive of these onesies?
00:19:40
I'm supportive of vaccines.
00:19:41
Kennedy, of course, deferred.
00:19:43
And he would not answer that question directly.
00:19:45
And he kept trying to go back to this message of look.
00:19:47
I'm not going to take away your vaccine.
00:19:50
I just want more study of it.
00:19:52
Other Democrats absolutely were not buying it.
00:19:54
Kennedy can kill off access to vaccines and make millions of dollars while he does it.
00:20:01
Kids might die, but Robert Kennedy can keep bashing in.
00:20:05
Senator Warren brought up the fact that he does make money with his vaccine skepticism.
00:20:10
You know, he ran this foundation, he writes books, and he's even in line to receive these referrals from other law firms in a very large vaccine lawsuit that's working its way through civil court right now.
00:20:21
So I know you and I have talked about that in the past.
00:20:23
She says, you know, look, if you become a health secretary, are you going to make it easier to sue companies on the vaccines that they develop?
00:20:30
And then go leave your post and make money doing that.
00:20:33
The only thing I want is good science, and that's it.
00:20:37
How about then say you won't make money off what you do as Secretary of HHS?
00:20:41
That would be a direct conflict of interest.
00:20:43
He didn't answer the question directly.
00:20:45
He said, I'm not going to make money off of that while I'm health secretary.
00:20:48
But you know, that's not what I'm about.
00:20:50
I'm just here about transparency.
00:20:52
But you kind of previewed exactly how this would play out and that Kennedy would present himself as someone who, quote unquote, just wants to ask questions.
00:20:58
I'm just asking questions.
00:20:59
I guess the issue is whether they're honest questions and whether he listens to the answers to the questions.
00:21:05
I mean, how did senators press them on that?
00:21:07
Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people identify with Kennedy on this because a lot of people have questions about the medical establishment and how much we should trust people.
00:21:16
And they were frustrated after COVID.
00:21:17
So there are certainly legitimate questions that people have.
00:21:21
But I think one of the things that came up was his role in, for example, in the Samoan measles outbreak.
00:21:29
So back in 2019, there was this measles outbreak in the country of Samoa.
00:21:34
It had led to about 5,700 cases, 83 deaths.
00:21:39
And the Ministry of Health there cited a visit by Kennedy as one of the reasons why families were refusing to vaccinate their children.
00:21:47
Now, Kennedy denies this.
00:21:49
You cannot find a single Samoan who will say, I didn't get a vaccine because of Bobby Kennedy.
00:21:57
I went in June of 2019, the measles outbreak started in August.
00:22:01
But when you talk to people on the ground there, they said that what his role in this was going into the country and speaking very passionately, his a lot of charisma, really questioning the safety of vaccines.
00:22:11
And once you, you know, that gets into the water, essentially, of a community, it becomes very hard for health professionals to walk that back and to convince people, look, this is a safe vaccine.
00:22:22
It's been well studied.
00:22:23
And by then, it was too late.
00:22:25
We do know these 83 people had died.
00:22:27
And health officials directly attribute Kennedy's activism in the country at the time as contributing to that.
00:22:34
- We've just had a measles case in Rhode Island, the first since 2013.
00:22:40
And frankly, you frighten people.
00:22:43
- And it wasn't just a vaccine spread.
00:22:45
I mean, Democrats had a lot of questions about Kennedy's past comments.
00:22:49
You know, Kennedy has repeatedly suggested that environmental toxins, including those in drinking water, are linked to gender identity in children, saying, you know, essentially pesticides lead children to become transgender.
00:23:00
He denied that he had ever said that.
00:23:02
- Did you say Lyme disease is a highly likely, militarily engineered bio-weapon?
00:23:09
- I probably did say that.
00:23:10
- Did you say that?
00:23:12
- That's what the fact is.
00:23:13
- I want all of our colleagues to hear Mr.
00:23:16
Kennedy.
00:23:16
- Another issue that was brought up by Senator Michael Bennett was that Kennedy had said in the past, Lyme disease is, quote, "highly likely "a military engineered bio-weapon."
00:23:26
So to be clear, Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria.
00:23:31
It spreads through tick bites, according to the CDC.
00:23:34
It is not a military engineered bio-weapon.
00:23:37
That came up at the hearing.
00:23:38
You know, it was sort of like this, you know, greatest hits of Kennedy in the past.
00:23:42
And in the past, oh, I listened to his podcast.
00:23:45
I've listened to his past interviews.
00:23:46
And he is very animated when talking about these things.
00:23:50
And the person that I saw sitting at that senate table testifying on Wednesday, I did not recognize him when you compare him to his past public comments.
00:24:00
That he was very measured.
00:24:02
He was very careful in his words.
00:24:04
And we do know from talking to our sources that he had worked for a long time with lawyers and advisors of the Trump administration on how to handle exactly this moment.
00:24:14
- What did Republicans think of him?
00:24:16
- So, you know, Kennedy is somebody who Republicans would have outright rejected, I think, in years past.
00:24:22
But now he proved to them that he is going to be a faithful lieutenant of President Trump.
00:24:28
- I expect you to leave agricultural practice regulations to the proper agencies.
00:24:34
And for the most part, that's USDA and EPA.
00:24:38
- Senator Chuck Grassley, for example, he's somebody who has advocated heavily for the agriculture industry.
00:24:43
You know, he alluded at one point to this promise that he had gotten from Kennedy in a private meeting saying, I know you're going to leave agricultural food policy to the other agencies.
00:24:54
Basically, you're not going to mess with my farming industry and my state because that is not going to be in your jurisdiction.
00:25:02
So you can make America healthy again, but you're not going to, you know, upend farming in Iowa.
00:25:07
We also heard Senator Cassidy was somebody who a lot of people were interested in hearing from.
00:25:12
He's a Republican doctor from Louisiana.
00:25:15
He says that he had spoken privately to Kennedy in the past about his vaccine stance.
00:25:19
Cassidy's obviously somebody who is very supportive of vaccines being a doctor.
00:25:24
But he used most of his time on Wednesday to press Kennedy on how he'd manage Medicare and Medicaid.
00:25:29
- Republicans, again, are looking at ways to potentially reform Medicaid to help, you know, pay for President Trump's priorities, but to improve outcomes.
00:25:39
What thoughts do you have regarding Medicaid reform?
00:25:42
- Well, Medicaid is out working for Americans.
00:25:46
And specifically not working for the target population.
00:25:51
Most Americans like myself, I'm on Medicare advantage and I'm very happy with it.
00:25:56
- Various points, Kennedy seemed to confuse the two.
00:25:59
He didn't seem to understand some of the basic programming with that, that could be a problem with Cassidy going forward because, you know, of course, that's a major part of overseeing,
00:26:09
HHS is overseeing those programs of Medicare and Medicaid.
00:26:13
But for the most part, Republicans didn't seem very bothered by that.
00:26:17
- I think I know the personal and political price you've paid for this decision.
00:26:20
I want to say publicly, I thank you for that.
00:26:24
I truly appreciate what you're doing here.
00:26:28
- Senator Ron Johnson speaking very favorably of Kennedy and saying, you know, I know what's in your heart.
00:26:34
You know, I think overall the headline here is that a lot of the Republicans, they really want to give Trump the people that he wants for these cabinet positions.
00:26:43
They're not going to be throwing up roadblocks for them.
00:26:47
I don't know that somebody like Kennedy is a sure thing yet.
00:26:52
He still has to go through the committee vote and then go on to a full Senate vote.
00:26:55
But, you know, I did not see anything from that hearing yesterday that would make me think that Republicans aren't going to back him.
00:27:03
- Yeah, and a lot of this is about signals, right?
00:27:04
Like he was signaling that he had concerns about abortion medications, that abortion rights advocates say are absolutely crucial.
00:27:11
He signaled support for sort of the privatization of Medicare in these Medicare Advantage plans that use private insurers.
00:27:18
And of course, we'll hear from him more today 'cause he's got the second day of these hearings and flirty there in Washington.
00:27:24
Thank you so much.
00:27:25
- Thanks, Brad.
00:27:25
- Okay, one more quick break.
00:27:29
When we come back, forget scoring goals.
00:27:31
The goal should just be to make sure ticket holders can get in.
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00:28:43
And one last thing.
00:28:45
We talked earlier this week about how sports can alienate their audiences.
00:28:50
Whether the games take too long or tickets are too expensive, you don't wanna lose the fans that made you popular in the first place.
00:28:57
Well, over the next couple of years, more global audiences will be watching sporting events in the US than ever before.
00:29:04
Canada, Mexico, and USA have been selected by the FIFA Congress to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
00:29:13
In 2026, the World Cup will take place in stadiums across North America.
00:29:18
In 2028, Los Angeles will host the next summer Olympics, but put American laws literally alienate people from coming to watch them.
00:29:27
Take Columbia, one of the most soccer mad countries on Earth.
00:29:31
A few years ago, when the World Cup was in Russia, Colombians purchased more tickets than all but two other nations.
00:29:37
However, while most Americans can just buy a ticket to something show up in that country and get their passport stamped, a Colombian needs to apply for a US tourist visa, well in advance.
00:29:47
According to the US State Department, the current wait time for visas in Bogota have stretched to 700 days.
00:29:54
If you live in Morocco, you need to go to an interview at an American consulate.
00:29:58
In Casablanca, the wait time to meet with someone there is 332 days.
00:30:03
In Angaro, Turkey, it's 560.
00:30:06
And guess what?
00:30:07
This week, just marked 500 days until the World Cup.
00:30:10
Tickets aren't even on sale yet, but in some countries, it's basically already too late to apply.
00:30:17
This difficulty in foreign visitors getting tourist visas has become a concern for soccer and the Olympics officials for a while now.
00:30:24
Last year, the head of Soccer's Global Federation, his name is Gianni Infantino, met with President Biden's Homeland Security Secretary as these wait times grew impossibly long.
00:30:34
The United States is on the verge of becoming the soccer power in the world.
00:30:40
But going back years, Infantino has tried to cultivate a personal relationship with President Trump.
00:30:45
I want to thank you very much.
00:30:46
You've been my great friend, and it's an honor.
00:30:49
Thank you.
00:30:49
During Trump's first term when the US was bidding for these events, he signed letters assuring Infantino he'd streamline things for fans.
00:30:56
This year, Infantino showed up to Trump's inauguration.
00:30:59
We also have the World Cup.
00:31:01
And I understand Gianni is in the room in Infantino.
00:31:06
He was very instrumental in helping us get it.
00:31:09
But some officials are worried this could get worse before it gets better.
00:31:12
Not only are immigration laws getting more rigid, but we just talked about mass firings and hiring freezes in the US government.
00:31:20
Even if you made an exception for the World Cup or Olympic ticket holders, there simply aren't enough government workers to process all these applications.
00:31:27
It's not just tourists either.
00:31:29
Athletes are going to need visas.
00:31:31
You'd imagine they'd be prioritized, but under the new Lake and Riley Act, which President Trump signed yesterday, individual states can sue the federal government, demanding we deny visas to countries that aren't accepting our deportees.
00:31:43
So theoretically, if Iowa wants to make sure no Guatemalans could fly to Los Angeles, things could get thorny.
00:31:50
And ahead of the largest World Cup in history, expected to generate billions of dollars, you'd hate to score a bureaucratic own goal.
00:31:57
I'm realizing all these countries that have these long wait times, Colombia, Morocco, Turkey.
00:32:04
They are all countries that have been heavily featured on things like 90-day fiancee.
00:32:08
It's probably why they picked them in the first place.
00:32:10
Finally, I'll have someone to bring to the table when my wife turns on these shows.
00:32:13
I love when foreign policy mixes with reality television.
00:32:16
And honestly, that's basically what sports are, right?
00:32:19
Hey, thanks for the love on Apple Podcast this week.
00:32:21
Martha Ann called us a daily must in the reviews.
00:32:24
A user called Buttercup said we're like a good friend.
00:32:27
That's nice.
00:32:28
Sam and Hannah are very upset that we did a story about Patrick Mahomes flopping in the NFL playoffs.
00:32:33
Guys, come on, you're in the Super Bowl.
00:32:35
Everyone just calm down.
00:32:36
Hopefully someone will write a nice review to make up for that one.
00:32:39
I'm Brad Milky.
00:32:40
I'll see you tomorrow.
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