The Excerpt podcast: Biden faces toughest opponent yet — 'uncommitted' in MI primary

On Wednesday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Former President Donald Trump beat former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, while President Joe Biden faced his toughest opponent yet in the Michigan primary. USA TODAY National Correspondent Trevor Hughes looks at the potential impact of Alabama's IVF ruling on voters. President Joe Biden met with lawmakers amid government shutdown talks. USA TODAY Health Reporter Karen Weintraub talks about the lack of treatments for long COVID. A Texas nuclear weapons facility has suspended operations due to nearby wildfires.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  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.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson. And today is Wednesday, February 28th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, a recap of the Michigan Primary. Plus, will Alabama's IVF ruling sway voters? And we look at the lack of treatment options for long COVID.

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President Joe Biden has rolled through challengers in each of the previous Democratic primaries, but his strongest to date uncommitted in Michigan. Biden comfortably beat Congressman Dean Phillips yesterday to win the state's primary. But more than 13% of voters chose to cast their ballots for none of the democratic choices. That was driven in large part by progressive organizations in the state that have criticized US support for Israel. Some left-leaning voters led by Arab-American activists launched a campaign against Biden urging Democrats to protest at the ballot box.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, front-runner former President Donald Trump once again beat out former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, this time by around 40 percentage points. That marks six consecutive defeats for her to Trump, who appears to be the inevitable GOP nominee. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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The Biden administration dispatched its top health experts to Alabama yesterday to meet with fertility doctors and families undergoing in vitro fertilization. The visit from Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, came days after the Alabama Supreme Court effectively halted IVF in the state. After meeting with affected families, Becerra noted that the court's decision was possible only because the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

So what does the decision in Alabama and its aftermath mean for both political parties and might it change how some people vote? I discussed with USA Today National Correspondent Trevor Hughes.

Trevor, thanks for hopping on.

Trevor Hughes:

Hey, good to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

So Trevor, just remind us what this Alabama court decided and what impact is this already having on IVF families?

Trevor Hughes:

Well, this Alabama court basically ruled that embryos created during the IVF process are the legal equivalent of children, of a fetus in the womb or a child that exists on the street. And so it has sent shock waves through the IVF community because if this decision holds up, at least in Alabama, it would more or less halt the process of IVF as we know it today. Some of the biggest IVF providers have halted their services and one of the biggest companies that moves frozen embryos from state to state as people move has also paused transfers in and out of Alabama.

Taylor Wilson:

So on the political side, how might Democratic Party officials use this Alabama IVF court decision to persuade a certain group of conservative women in particular to support President Joe Biden?

Trevor Hughes:

Democrats already know that access to abortion is an important message that can help generate voter support, particularly among women, particularly among people who don't normally vote but could. With IVF, because IVF is more often used by wealthier white women who just tend to be more conservative, Democrats are now looking to these conservative women who get IVF and saying, "Look, you may it not have thought that access to abortion was important, but the loss of Roe v. Wade means these personhood laws are coming in and that means your IVF might be in peril."

Taylor Wilson:

We know former president Donald Trump criticized this decision from Alabama's court. How is Republican leadership grappling with this move politically?

Trevor Hughes:

This is an incredibly tricky situation for Republicans, especially those who would consider themselves pro-life, because pro-life often also means pro-family. They're not quite sure how to respond to this Alabama ruling because on one hand they want to say that personhood begins at conception. On the other hand, they want to support their voters who use IVF.

Taylor Wilson:

Trevor, what lessons can we take from 2022 midterm elections as it pertains to issues around reproductive health kind of writ large?

Trevor Hughes:

Well, that's the thing, right? Democrats saw during the 2022 elections that there was a real bump in voter interest spurred by abortion access. We saw efforts to restrict abortion turned back. We saw efforts to protect abortion enshrined in special elections and in the legislatures. So Democrats know that this is a winning issue for them.

Taylor Wilson:

How does the intersection of religion and politics really factor into this entire discussion?

Trevor Hughes:

Well, I think this is a very tough position because there are a lot of folks who are deeply religious who have those deeply felt convictions about the importance of life, the importance of having children. And to experience the infertility journey and to work through this process, in some ways, it pits a moral conversation about the creation of embryos against the moral conversation about having families.

Taylor Wilson:

As for families going through IVF who don't necessarily want this political magnifying glass on them right now, what are they saying about some of these complicated political questions?

Trevor Hughes:

So you have to understand that IVF is an invasive, difficult, emotionally and financially challenging procedure. This is not something that someone does idly and quickly. And so, these families are in many cases focusing so much on having a child having that IVF baby. And so for them, these outside distractions about politics are really upsetting them.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Trevor Hughes is the national correspondent with USA Today. Thank you, Trevor.

Trevor Hughes:

Good to be here.

Taylor Wilson:

For more on this topic, be sure to stay tuned to The Excerpt this afternoon when my co-host Dana Taylor will be joined by Lindsay Heller, an IVF mom and law firm partner who will discuss how the Alabama decision might impact IVF patients and providers around the country. You can find the episode right here on this feed beginning at 4:00 PM Eastern Time.

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President Joe Biden summoned the top four congressional leaders to the White House yesterday to discuss efforts to avoid a partial government shutdown and pass foreign aid for key US allies. The four, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell met with Biden as government funding expires in a matter of days and the fate of Ukraine aid is uncertain. Government funding related to energy and water, military construction, transportation, housing, and urban development and agriculture expire on Friday. Schumer told reporters after the meeting that the discussion on Ukraine funding was one of the most intense he's had in the Oval Office. He said the other four leaders all made it clear to Johnson that additional aid for Ukraine is vital and that Ukraine will likely lose its war with Russia without it. Johnson told reporters that he assured other leaders the House is investigating all options on Ukraine and that the chamber will address it in a timely manner.

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Many Americans are suffering from long COVID while viable treatments remain out of reach. I spoke with USA Today Health Reporter Karen Weintraub to learn more. Hello, Karen.

Karen Weintraub:

Hello.

Taylor Wilson:

So Karen, just remind us, what is long COVID and how many Americans suffer from it?

Karen Weintraub:

So long COVID are symptoms that are either a continuation of COVID, like loss of taste and smell, or new symptoms that crop up afterwards. It might be a type 1 diabetes say, or it might be absolutely crushing fatigue, or even taking a shower requires four hours of rest before and after. Sometimes it's cardiac problems, racing heart. Sometimes when you sit up, your heart might race, you might feel dizzy. So it's a whole host of things. They've come up with 200 different symptoms that are associated with it. And it's called long because it lasts a really long time, potentially indefinitely. Anybody who has these symptoms that crop up, they have to last or crop up three months after an infection.

Taylor Wilson:

We're now about four years on from the height of the COVID pandemic, where do we stand on available treatments for long COVID?

Karen Weintraub:

A big zero there unfortunately. People have tried to treat some of the symptoms and some people have gotten some relief from that, but there's nothing that's proven to really address these quite debilitating symptoms. And part of the problem is there are so many of these symptoms and part of the problem is there are probably multiple causes and everybody has a different set of symptoms, a different constellation of these symptoms. And so it's very hard to tell. Maybe one treatment is helping a certain subset of people with some symptoms, but not all of them. It's very hard to say who's improving and by how much. The metrics are really difficult. It's not like measuring a fever where it goes down and therefore you're better. It's much harder to measure improvements. And the federal government has been spending so far, we've allocated over a billion and a half dollars for research into this, but the process has been very slow, way too slow according to the patients and the doctors involved in treating these patients.

Taylor Wilson:

And Karen, how has long COVID having an impact on the economy?

Karen Weintraub:

So a lot of people with long COVID are unable to work. One of the people we featured in our story has not been able to work. Basically, he said our 30-minute phone call would pretty much knock him out for the day. That was all he could manage. And so having a full-time job is really just inconceivable for people like this in terms of the energy level. That takes a toll on the economy. A lot of these folks talk about symptoms coming and going. So one day they might feel okay, and then the next day just be flat on their back. So maybe even for people who can technically hold down a full-time job, they might have to take off a day a month, two days a month, a week a month, whatever it is. And so they're much less productive than they used to be.

Taylor Wilson:

And Karen, you mentioned the government is putting some money into this issue. What do advocates want to see happen going forward?

Karen Weintraub:

They want answers and they want them fast. And the pace of science just unfortunately doesn't work that way. There have been a lot of complaints about the way the government is studying these treatments. They're doing it sort of the conventional way, one treatment at a time, one condition at a time. And the thought is that maybe it could be sped up by using sort of more modern treatments and multiple treatments at a time because most people have multiple conditions, maybe there are ways to speed things up, throwing more money, larger trials simultaneously. There's a lot of hope on the part of patients that maybe more can be done.

Taylor Wilson:

Karen Weintraub is a health reporter with USA Today. Thank you, Karen.

Karen Weintraub:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

A massive wildfire more than quadrupled in size in the Texas panhandle yesterday with dry conditions and high winds fueling several big fires. A disaster declaration has been declared in the state and one fire has led to the closure of the nation's main nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility near Amarillo. Plant officials said on social media that personnel were building a fire barrier and all weapons and special materials were safe. The plant performs research and development in high explosives and serves as an interim storage site for plutonium pits removed from dismantled weapons according to the Department of Energy. The Texas fires were among several major weather events yesterday nationwide, including tornadoes in Illinois and record high temperatures in the eastern half of the country.

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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The Excerpt podcast: Biden faces toughest opponent yet — 'uncommitted'