House adjourns without new speaker, ex-NFL doctor talks Hamlin cardiac arrest: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: House adjourns without a new speaker as McCarthy loses three rounds of voting

Plus, Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy failed Tuesday to win the House speakership. Voting is expected to resume Wednesday, former NFL Doctor David J. Chao reflects on NFL player Damar Hamlin's cardiac arrest (read more at sicscore.com), Bills Mafia co-founder Del Reid talks about unity in Buffalo, USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise has the latest from San Francisco where more severe weather is expected, and natural gas prices in Europe have fallen to below pre-war levels despite initial fears of an energy crisis amid the war in Ukraine.

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

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 4th of January, 2023. Today, Kevin McCarthy's failure to win the House speakership, plus how NFL teams prepare for medical emergencies, and California faces another wave of severe weather.

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House Republicans had a turbulent first day in the new Congress yesterday as they failed to elect a speaker to lead the chamber. Their more-narrow-than-expected majority in the chamber after last fall's midterms allowed far right conservatives to prevent Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy from rising to the speaker role. It was the first time in a century that a speaker's election took multiple ballots to decide, and there was still no speaker as the House adjourned for the night. They'll reconvene at noon today, and in the meantime, no other business can begin in the House. In the first two ballots, McCarthy secured 203 votes, well short of the 218 he needed as 19 Republicans chose other members. He lost a vote in the third and final ballot. Each time he received fewer votes than House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Though he also fell short of enough votes to win the speakership himself.

A new generation of conservative Republicans, many aligned with former President Donald Trump, were committed to stop McCarthy's rise. A potential GOP alternative is Jim Jordan. He has allies in both the party's far right and McCarthy's more moderate inner circle. Jordan nominated McCarthy and voted for him as speaker, but Jordan also drew the most votes from anti-McCarthy Republicans. Second ranking House Republican, Steve Scalise, could be another choice. Meanwhile, things were smoother on the other side of the Capitol. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell became the party's longest serving leader in history. Democrat, Chuck Schumer will remain majority leader.

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Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin remains in critical condition after being resuscitated twice following a cardiac arrest during Monday night's game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Hamlin's heartbeat was restored on the field before he was transferred to the hospital. His uncle said last night that Hamlin was sedated on a ventilator and that there are concerns of lung damage. But he told CNN that it seems like he's trending upwards. For more on how the league prepares for medical emergencies, like what happened with Hamlin, producer PJ Elliott spoke with former NFL team doctor and injury expert, Dr. David J. Chao.

PJ Elliott:

Dr. Chao, thanks so much for joining 5 Things.

Dr. Chao:

Yeah, no problem.

PJ Elliott:

Well, it was obviously a very scary situation on Monday night in Cincinnati with Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin going into cardiac arrest on the field. I want to start off by asking you how common these events are in sports?

Dr. Chao:

Well, I mean, depends on your definition of common. It does happen at different levels, but it's not very common. I mean, I don't think anyone else can cite an NFL example like this. It's horrific. It's frightening when it does happen, but this is why you drill for it. Every NFL team does a pre-season drill, emergency drill for neck, spine, head, and also for the heart ready for this occasion. And the Bengals were ready. They were the host home team, so they had greater responsibility for some of that care and they came up in spades. It was a great job on their part.

PJ Elliott:

Well, you sort of touched on my next question with teams drilling in the off season for medical events like this during a game. How prepared are these medical staffs on all the NFL teams?

Dr. Chao:

Well, first of all, every team, when you're on the road, travels typically three physicians and five athletic trainers and a physical therapist in all, and whatever else that you need. The home team has even more. Different specialists, you have emergency physicians, an airway physician, et cetera. So people who can run a code in an emergency cardiac situation. And obviously they were very, very, so far, successful, thankfully. I mean the Buffalo Bills tweeted that his heart was restarted on the field, and that was a very, very big thing to have happened. So kudos to them.

Not only do they drill this, but usually 90 minutes ahead of time before the game, both teams, the team physicians, head athletic trainers, the emergency physician, the paramedics all meet up. And look, the NFL sometimes gets rightfully criticized for the concussion protocol, but I think they should be commended that they got this one right. For years, for decades they've been preparing for something that has not happened, and yet they were ready. And so I think kudos need to be given specifically to the Bengals and the Bills, but also to the NFL. It's their protocol. And it's only fair to say that.

PJ Elliott:

Dr. Chao, I want to get your opinion on the timeline of events from Monday night. It was reported that the medical staff performed CPR on Hamlin for nine minutes and it was 30 minutes from the time he went down, to the time he left the field in an ambulance. Are you concerned about those numbers?

Dr. Chao:

Not at all. Of course, I'm not trying to speculate or know the circumstances of what was going on, but the timeframe doesn't bother me at all. And here's why. First of all, they responded there in less than 30 seconds. I mean within seconds CPR was started. You probably have a four-minute window before brain damage, maybe two to be safer, but they were there early. The Bengals' people were there in less than a minute. And when you jump into action, it's not about how quickly you can get the ambulance on the field and into the ambulance and out of sight, out of mind. The principles medically are to stabilize the patient, then transport the patient.

Now, if you don't have the ability to stabilize the patient, then your best option is to scoop and run. But stabilize is the deal. And when you have over two dozen medical professionals and all these specialists and the devices and everything on the field, you are better off stabilizing on the field. And I have zero complaints or criticisms. If anything, only kudos to what they have done there so far. And why I had some early cautious optimism is how ESPN kept saying that the ambulance stopped in the tunnel to pick up Mom. If the patient wasn't stable or they were actively doing CPR, they're not slowing down to open the door to bring Mom in. They're not bringing Mom in. They're not doing anything but running to the hospital. So they did a good job stabilizing.

PJ Elliott:

Dr. Chao, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Dr. Chao:

All right, thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Buffalo is a city that rallies around each other and is known as the city of good neighbors. Buffalo is also known for the Bills Mafia. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with Del Reid, co-founder of the Bills Mafia, and also the founder of 26 Shirts, a Buffalo-based t-shirt company that raises money by selling Bills themed t-shirts. Del explained why the city always seems to come together when they need it the most.

PJ Elliott:

Dell, thanks so much for coming on 5 Things today.

Del Reid:

Yeah, thank you for inviting me on.

PJ Elliott:

So Buffalo has had more than its share of bad news over the last seven months or so. There was the grocery store shooting back in May. You guys have seen an insane amount of snow this winter, even for Buffalo, an insane amount of snow. And now this horrific incident Monday night with Damar Hamlin. It seems like Buffalo and Bills Mafia are a unique fan base where the team is just as much part of it as the fans are when it comes to the community. Can you talk about how the city is coming together through just all of the things that have happened over the last seven months?

Del Reid:

I mean, I've seen a lot of narratives about all these things keep happening to Buffalo, and I think it's really important to mention that what happened in May at the Tops market didn't happen to Buffalo. It happened to the families in that area. They were specifically targeted. The city wasn't targeted. It was a very specific demographic that was targeted by a very hateful person. But the story that Buffalo brings into that is, we rally around our own. We rally around people who are hurting. In terms of the snow last week, that did affect all of us. But it was really great to see last week families or different individuals helping other families that were in maybe tougher situations when it came to their ability to dig out of that snow. We all rallied around each other and helped each other out. And then what happened with Damar Hamlin is just, it's heartbreaking just to see that happen. I mean, you see how the, I mean they came back from commercial and you see Josh Allen with his hands over his face, his hands over his mouth. And then you see the tweets about how they were administering CPR there on the field and it was just, it's an awful thing. And while that is not something that affects us - it affects specifically Hamlin, Hamlin's family, teammates, the people around him - the Bills are a big part of our community. They're part of the fabric in Western New York. So it's really great to see something like that happens and almost immediately people are tweeting like, okay, what are we going to do? How are we going to help out here?

PJ Elliott:

So even a couple weeks ago we saw video of players returning from the game against the Bears in Chicago, a bunch of snow on top of cars and neighbors were helping dig out the cars from those parking spots. What is it about the city of Buffalo that's just different than other cities around the country where neighbors are helping neighbors and they just so happened to be NFL players?

Del Reid:

It's hard to say. I've only ever lived in Western New York, but I can tell you growing up, every weekend you see a different Legion post or a different fire hall doing some kind of fundraiser for a family in need, some kind benefit event. It's just part of our who we are. Not a lot of people move to Buffalo. If you're living in Buffalo, there's a good chance you grew up in Buffalo. So it's an area, it's a region, Western New York with very strong family ties. We all know each other. If you live in Western New York and I haven't met you, I'm no more than two degrees away from you in terms of just relationships and everything, because it's just such a tight-knit community. That's always been my explanation for that. It's just really who we are. The city of Buffalo is called the City of Good Neighbors, and I think we really live up to that. That's not some cute catchphrase that they wanted to put on signs. "We need something, call ourselves 'good neighbor.'" No. That's really who we are.

PJ Elliott:

Del, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it and keep up the great, great work that you're doing.

Del Reid:

Oh yeah, no, for sure. I appreciate the invite and just the opportunity to talk about how awesome Western New York is and how great the city of Buffalo is.

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Taylor Wilson:

Another massive storm is set to hit California this morning. Swamping a state already dealing with widespread flooding in recent days. For more, I'm now joined by USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise, who joins me from San Francisco. Elizabeth, thanks for coming on.

Elizabeth Weise:

You're so welcome. We're still drying out here, so it's nice to be inside and not wet.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, I bet. Well, let's start with that recent weather across California, obviously San Francisco, where you are, got slammed. How is the city in California as a whole dealing after already being hit with flooding in recent days?

Elizabeth Weise:

Boy, we got walloped on New Year's Eve and what we got is when I first came to the state 20-some years ago, they used to call a Pineapple Express and now it's got a fancier name of an atmospheric river. But basically what's happening is there is this river of warm air coming over from near Hawaii that's got all this moisture in it. It hits the coast, which is cooler and it drops all that rain. And the National Weather Service had one note someplace that it can carry as much moisture as the Mississippi River, and that's what it felt like on New Year's Eve and it's likely that's what it's going to feel like again on Wednesday when we get another one of these and there's two more backed up. So the good news is at least for the coast, the drought may be over, but the bad news is we're really wet.

Taylor Wilson:

Beth, what can we expect from this next system?

Elizabeth Weise:

The Weather Service is calling this a cyclonic event, and it's going to bring all of this rain, plus in some areas high winds. And the concerns are, seeing as we've just had this huge storm, the soil is just saturated, it is drenched. So the concerns are smaller river flooding, a lot of urban flooding, and then landslides and mudslides.

Taylor Wilson:

I'm curious, Beth, as someone who doesn't live in California, this seems like a complete freak event. What are climate scientists saying about weather events like these?

Elizabeth Weise:

Historically winters should be very wet in California. I mean, in the time I've been here, which is going on 30 years now actually, winters are very wet and they should be wet and then we get periodic droughts. But these kind of intense rainfall events is not unknown. That's the reason we have the phrase, Pineapple Express, because it happens. What's changing, because global temperatures are increasing, we're getting more of what's colloquially termed, "weather weirding." And so the patterns that we're used to are starting to shift and they're getting a little more erratic. I mean, you used to be able to count on certain things happening around the same time and around the same way. That's starting to change. The press conference that I listened to with Daniel Swain at UCLA, one of the things he said is that for every degree Fahrenheit that temperatures go up, you get a four percent increase in the water vapor holding capacity of air, which means that warmer air can hold more water.

If you've ever been to Florida, the rains are different there, because it's warmer air, it holds more water. So what happens is you're getting storms that bring a lot more water and tend to bring it faster, and it's creating at the same time as we're having deeper and more intense droughts. So actually Northern California may be out of our drought now because we've gotten so much water, but things are oscillating back and forth. So we get these droughts and then we get these really heavy weather events.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. That's USA TODAY National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise. Thanks as always.

Elizabeth Weise:

Thank you so much.

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Taylor Wilson:

Natural gas prices in Europe soared over the past year amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But they've now fallen back below their pre-war levels, according to the New York Times. Yesterday, the wholesale price for European natural gas was selling for around 76 euros a megawatt hour. On the eve of Russia's invasion last February, that price was 88 euros, measured by a benchmark contract in the Netherlands.

One contributing factor is a warmer than expected start to winter in much of the world, along with alternatives to Russian energy. Germany, for example, is expected to produce near record wind power today, according to a Bloomberg model. And as many European countries have prepared for possible gas shortages, gas storage across the continent is better off than expected. According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, gas storage there is 84% full above the seasonal norm of 70%.

Still, despite new optimism that Europe will avoid a full energy crisis this winter, gas prices there remain historically high and the price of natural gas is around five times the cost in the US. Energy prices have also contributed to generationally high inflation across much of Europe.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. We're here every morning of the week right here, wherever you're listening right now. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: McCarthy's speakership fail, more bad weather in CA: 5 Things podcast