Biden to make first presidential trip to Ireland, Jon Rahm wins Masters: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Biden heads to Ireland

USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison puts President Joe Biden's trip to Ireland in context. Plus, former Attorney General Bill Barr says the DOJ may have good evidence of possible obstruction by former President Donald Trump, can the White House ignore an abortion pill ruling?, USA TODAY National Correspondent Rick Jervis looks back on an explosion that rocked a Texas town ten years ago, and Jon Rahm wins the Masters.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Monday, the 10th of April 2023. Today, a look at Biden's Trip to Ireland. Plus, might former president Donald Trump face obstruction charges surrounding a classified documents investigation, and it's been 10 years since an explosion rocked a Texas fertilizer plant.

♦

President Joe Biden heads to Ireland this week. It's the latest move for a president who's long made his Irish Catholic heritage part of his political identity. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison explains. Joey, thanks for hopping on the podcast.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

Can you just start off by telling us a little about Biden's Irish roots?

Joey Garrison:

For anyone who's followed President Joe Biden, there's one thing that you learn quickly and that's his love of his Irish roots. Not just Irish roots, but Irish Catholic roots. And as we also know, he's from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He talks about that hometown a lot. And that all his ancestors in that community really can be traced back to Ireland, particularly on his mother's side. And 10 of his 16 great great grandparents all were from Ireland. When he talks about his Irish background, he's telling the truth there. And they all came over, everyone, all 10 of those, during the same period between the 1840s and 1860s during The Great Potato Famine that you probably heard all about, of course, that ravaged Ireland when they could not go to that ... what was a very important crop to them to eat. It really led to over a million deaths in the country, but also around two million people fleeing the country and coming to America.

Taylor Wilson:

Joey, how has Biden used his Irish heritage politically?

Joey Garrison:

Well, he uses it really about every day. I think he's crafted his political persona based on his Irish identity and really he tries to adapt himself, I think, to this long line of Irish politicians. And really, it's kind of an appeal to the common man, to the working class person, to the little guy. He thinks of himself in that light, even though he's worth millions of dollars today, he grew up in humbled beginnings. We're at a time where Democrats are losing a lot of support among white working class voters and that's been played out in elections for over a decade now.

And he's trying to lean into his blue collar appeal, his Irish American persona more than ever right now and trying to make the case to that kind of voter. He's doing it while he's got this domestic agenda right now that is all about building in America, increasing US manufacturing, turning those depleted old factory towns in the Midwest into the hotbeds of the new green economy. I think that it's really an interesting thing when you think about it. He has had this long Irish identity, Irish political identity, and now he's matching that with his policy push.

Taylor Wilson:

Joey, let's get to this week's trip. What does the president have planned and what's the main purpose of this visit?

Joey Garrison:

His first stop is going to be in Belfast, IN Northern Ireland, part of the UK. And there he's going to be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that the Clinton administration helped orchestrate between different factions in Northern Ireland that really stopped three decades of terrible violence that played out in the country on a regular basis between different factions of a pro-Britain protestant group and a group in Northern Ireland that identified more with Ireland, that was Catholics.

That agreement, again, came about in 1998, and he's going to be in Belfast to commemorate that 25th anniversary. It's just going to be a short stop there. He'll then be going to Dublin, and then he's going to be taking excursions to two of the areas that are part of ancestral homes, essentially where the Blewitts, who is one side of his mother's family as well as the Finnegans resided. One's County Mayo, one's County Louth.

He's going to be going there tracing back his family history and talking to people who are still distant relatives. Though there are folks who they don't have the last name Biden, but Blewitt is still a common name over there. And it comes at this time before he gets into, what we expect him to get into the 2024 election. By going over there, he's revisiting the origins of that blue collar pitch that he's making above all right now.

Taylor Wilson:

USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison. Thanks so much.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, thanks man.

Taylor Wilson:

Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who was once one of Donald Trump's most loyal defenders, said an investigation into classified documents could pose a real threat for the former president. He told ABC's This Week that Trump played games with federal investigators as they work to retrieve the documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago Estate. Barr said those so-called games could amount to obstruction of justice. Trump currently faces a probe from the Department of Justice around the documents.

Barr said, "He had no claim to those documents, especially the classified documents. It belonged to the government. I think he was jerking the government around." For his part, Jim Trusty, who has represented Trump in the documents case, told NBC's Meet The Press that the idea of obstruction charges against Trump is nonsense.

♦

New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling on President Joe Biden's administration to ignore a ruling from a federal judge in Texas that suspended approval of a common abortion drug called Mifepristone. She also called the ruling and abuse of power on CNN's State of the Union. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra did not dismiss the possibility of ignoring the court's ruling. He told CNN that everything is on the table.

A judge in Texas last week issued a ruling that halted the FDA from approving Mifepristone potentially blocking access to medication abortion across the country. That's the most common abortion method in the US. At the same time, another judge in Washington state issued a ruling that blocked the FDA from limiting the availability of Mifepristone in several states involved in a separate lawsuit. The two contradictory rulings mean the issue will almost certainly move to the Supreme Court.

♦

It's been 10 years since an explosion rocked a fertilizer plant and an entire Texas town. I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent Rick Jervis to learn more. Hi Rick, thanks for hopping on the podcast.

Rick Jervis:

Yeah, hi. Sure, no problem.

Taylor Wilson:

Rick, what happened 10 years ago at this fertilizer plant in Texas?

Rick Jervis:

10 years ago, on April 17th, 2013, at about 7:50 PM, this fertilizer plant called the West Fertilizer Plant caught on fire and about 50 tons of ammonium nitrate that was sitting in the storage room there caught fire and it created this mammoth explosion. It left a crater about 75 feet across eight feet deep, registered as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake. It was the equivalent of 30,000 pounds of TNT. Just an enormous explosion. Killed 15 people, including 12 first responders, which also included about half of West's volunteer fire department who were there battling the actual blaze. It was just an enormous event and had a lot of repercussions.

Taylor Wilson:

And has the city of West rebounded since this disaster?

Rick Jervis:

The city of West does look much, much better today than it did then. A lot of the homes which were destroyed or badly damaged by the blast have been rebuilt, most of them almost completely from the ground up. They've also passed local ordinances making it a lot harder to store ammonium nitrate in city limits, so the city itself is safer, it looks better.

The thing which you don't see when you go to West is the underlying trauma, which a lot of folks carry there. And it's something that I've talked from the mayor on down to locals, everybody who was even remotely involved with that blast is carrying around some deep-seated trauma.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, absolutely. The photos are horrifying of the incident. So Rick, could what happened in the city of West, Texas happen elsewhere? And what's being done? You mentioned these local ordinances. What's being done statewide or even nationwide to try and prevent similar disasters?

Rick Jervis:

I spoke to scores of experts, some government officials, and the short answer is, no, that we're not any safer today, that there hasn't been any real stringent change in regulation towards ammonium nitrate. In about two and a half years, actually, after the blast, US Chemical Safety Board basically released this really in-depth report on the incident. And in that report they included 19 recommendations. 10 of them have been implemented, but nine have not. Some of those nine are key recommendations including having the EPA adding ammonium nitrate to a list of chemicals that are more strictly regulated. There's a lot to be done still. I talked to one expert who's a former OSHA official who followed this incident closely, and he told me that he doesn't feel like the country's any safer today from a similar blast.

Taylor Wilson:

Rick Jervis, thanks so much.

Rick Jervis:

Thank you.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

John Rahm has a green jacket. The Spanish golfer won the Masters yesterday shooting 12 under par for the tournament. It's his second career major after winning the US Open in 2021, and he's the fourth player ever from Spain to win at Augusta National. It wasn't always clear that the Masters would be able to finish on time. Temperatures dropped into the 40s during play on Saturday with heavy rain, and earlier in the week, two large trees fell on the course near spectators. One of the week's biggest stories came yesterday when 52 year old Phil Mickelson roared back to finish in a tie for second. You can read more from USA TODAY Sports.

And you can find 5 Things every morning right here, wherever you get your podcast. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden's Ireland visit in context, Jon Rahm wins Masters: 5 Things podcast