Jan. 6 probe shows Trump culpability, tampons are the latest supply shortage: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Jan. 6 panel: Probe shows Trump led effort to overturn 2020 election

Congress reporter Ledge King recaps a busy night. Plus, police waited in Uvalde even while knowing students needed medical attention, the suspect in last month's California church shooting will be arraigned, the latest figures on inflation are here and reporter Jessica Guynn looks into the tampon shortage.

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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 Friday, the 10th of June, 2022. Today, January 6th, plus another development in Uvalde and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. At least three people were killed and three injured in a mass shooting yesterday at a manufacturing facility near Smithsburg, Maryland. A state trooper exchanged gunfire with the fleeing suspect. Both were hit and sent to the hospital.

2. A man who tried to force his way into an Alabama elementary school was shot and killed by police before he could enter yesterday, according to police. It's not clear whether the man was armed or why he may have been trying to get into the school.

3. And two people had to be rescued after falling into a chocolate tank in Pennsylvania. The incident came at a Mars Wrigley factory, and one person was airlifted to hospital by helicopter.

♦

Members of a House committee investigating the January 6th, 2021 attack on the US Capitol began outlining their case yesterday that the insurrection was the final act of a scheme orchestrated by former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election. The committee's chair, Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson, said, "January 6th was the results of an attempted coup."

Bennie Thompson:

January 6th was the culmination of an attempted coup. "A brazen attempt" as one rioter put it shortly after January 6th, to overthrow the government. The violence was no accident.

Taylor Wilson:

During last night's hearing, which aired in prime time on several major networks, many gave their accounts of January 6th. That included several Capitol police officers. One, Carolina Edwards, who was injured in the attack, described a war scene.

[Capitol police radio communication on Jan. 6, 2021]

Taylor Wilson:

For a deeper dive on what we learned in last night's hearing, producer PJ Elliott caught up with Congress reporter Ledge King.

Ledge King:

There were bits and pieces. Former Attorney General Bill Barr, there was video of him from a deposition he gave to the committee in which he talked about how he tried to convince the president that his claims of widespread election fraud, that the election had been stolen essentially were very false. And he said it's one of the reasons that he decided to leave the administration when he did because he didn't want to be in a position to defend that argument.

We also had Ivanka Trump talking about how she accepted what essentially Barr said that there were the findings of no widespread fraud. And we had some testimony about, if you remember there was this chant of "hang Mike Pence" happening, cascading around the Capitol by some of the protestors who wanted the vice president to intervene and de-certify or not certify Biden's win. And there was always some question about whether Donald Trump, what he thought about that. And apparently, in some of the testimony that came out tonight, apparently Trump did not put up much of a argument against that kind of sentiment. Not that he wanted Mike Pence to hang necessarily, but that he was not necessarily defending the vice president. So there was a little bit of that.

In the grand scheme of things, I don't think a lot was learned new or a lot... I don't think minds changed. If you came into this thinking that there was widespread fraud and that these people were somehow justified in doing what they did, I don't think anything that came out took place. But I think for maybe many Americans, it was, especially because it was in primetime, which the committee wanted to make sure that happened and the networks carried it, I think it was a chilling reminder of what happened that day and how much it could have been worse.

PJ Elliott:

So what's next for the committee?

Ledge King:

There's going to be several more hearings. The next hearing is on Monday and there's actually two more hearings after that next week. Monday's hearing is going to focus on how Trump and his advisors knew he lost the election. This is from the committee. On Wednesday, they're going to look at Trump's planning to replace the acting Attorney General, then Jeffrey Rosen, to help sort of prolong his effort to de-legitimize the election. And on Thursday, the panel's going to describe Trump's pressure on Mike Pence. So it'll be a look at how Trump personally intervened at different times in trying to protect or prolong his presidency.

Taylor Wilson:

For more, head to USATODAY.com.

♦

Police waited for protective equipment as they delayed entering the Texas elementary school classroom where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers last month. And according to records obtained by the New York Times, police waited more than an hour to confront the gunman, even as they became aware that some victims needed medical treatment. Pete Arredondo is the Uvalde school district police chief who led the response to the May 24th shooting. And a man believed to be a Arredondo could be heard on body camera footage talking about how much time was passing. The man said, "People are going to ask why we're taking so long. We're trying to preserve the rest of the life."

Taylor Wilson:

According to the report, 60 officers had assembled on the scene by the time four officers made entry. Not all victims were found dead when officers finally did go inside. According to the records obtained by the Times, one teacher died in an ambulance and three children died at nearby hospitals. The family of 10 year old Xavier Lopez said the boy had been shot in the back and lost a lot of blood as he waited for medical attention. His family believes he could have been saved.

A legislative committee tasked with investigating the shooting interviewed the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety yesterday. Steven McGraw previously said our Arredondo made the wrong decision to not order officers to breach the classroom more quickly. Still, despite that, superintendent of the Uvalde school district, Hal Harrell said yesterday that the district will hire more police officers this fall.

Hal Harrell:

We're in the process of developing a list of actions we can take to strengthen security on all of our campuses. In addition, law enforcement officers have been assigned to each campus during summer school, and it is our goal to hire additional officers to be assigned to each campus for the upcoming school year.

Taylor Wilson:

The records obtained by the Times also gave other new details. Some of the officers who first arrived at the school had long guns and The Times reported that Arredondo learned the gunman's identity while inside the school and tried communicating with him through closed classroom doors. Eva Mirales, one of the teachers killed, also made a phone call to her husband, an Uvalde school district police officer during the attack.

♦

The suspect in a California church shooting last month is set to be arraigned today. The Las Vegas resident faces murder and attempted murder charges in connection with the shooting at Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, California on May 15th. Churchgoers eventually subdued and hog tied the gunman, but not before he killed one and injured five others gathered for an afternoon luncheon. Authorities have said they believe the incident was sparked by hatred toward Taiwan. The church hosted a Taiwanese Presbyterian congregation. Authorities said the alleged shooter was a Chinese immigrant living in the US for many years. Though Louis Huang, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, told Taiwan's central news agency that he was born in Taiwan.

♦

The latest figures on inflation are due out today, and economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate that the annual rise in the Labor Department's consumer price index in May was unchanged from the previous month at 8.3%. Some though believe it may have ticked up to 8.4%, while data provider FactSet says other economists predict 8.2%. Whatever the number, inflation is still high. But the CPI is likely down from a 40 year high of 8.5% in March, and many analysts think that was likely the peak. Meanwhile, core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is expected to have fallen to 5.9% last month down from 6.2% in April.

♦

Well, we've already had baby formula and toilet paper shortages. Now tampons are getting harder to find. Senior Tech and Economic Opportunity Reporter Jessica Guynn has more on the latest item that's getting harder to find on shelves

Jessica Guynn:

For months now women have been reporting that they go into their local drugstore or retail chain and head for the shelves of tampons that are usually bursting with products and they're empty, or nearly empty. And what seems to be hitting women the hardest is that they're having a difficult time finding really popular brands and types of tampons. Tampax Ultra apparently is a product that is extremely difficult to get right now.

And the maker of Tampax, Proctor & Gamble says it understands that this tampon shortage is very frustrating to its customers and it's doing everything it can to get more supply on shelves. And retailers like Walgreens say they're doing everything they can to keep their shelf stocked. But one shopper told me that sometimes she gets really excited because she turns the corner and looks at the shelf and there's a box perched right there at the edge. So she goes to get a whole bunch of them and it's only one. It's just pushed to the front. It's disappointing a lot of customers.

The reasons why there's a shortage are complicated as per usual. There's increased demand for tampons, and it's also affected by supply chain issues. So shortages of raw materials, labor shortages, freight bottlenecks, port delays, all the stuff we hear about - and then on top of that, the raw materials themselves to make tampons - are getting more expensive.

The analyst I spoke with who follows these companies very closely said it will probably be another few months, but then consumers can expect to see the shelves full again. A number of the shoppers I talked to had tried to buy these tampons on amazon.com and found exorbitant prices there. So there seems to be some price gouging going on.

The one other point that shoppers made was that they did not think that if men used tampons that there would be a shortage at all.

Taylor Wilson:

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us seven mornings a week on whatever your favorite podcast app is. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show. And I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jan. 6 panel begins, there's now a tampon shortage: 5 Things podcast