MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has sharpened her critique of Donald Trump this week.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah. Haley has been making defiant speeches forward of Saturday’s main in South Carolina. She’s trailing far behind the previous president however stated this week she’s staying within the race.
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NIKKI HALEY: Dropping out could be the simple route. I’ve by no means taken the simple route. I have been the underdog in each race I’ve ever run. I’ve at all times been David taking up Goliath. And like David, I am not simply combating somebody larger than me. I am combating for one thing larger than myself.
MARTÍNEZ: All proper, so what’s her case towards Trump, and the way lengthy can she stick with it?
MARTIN: So to listen to extra about that, Haley spoke with our colleague Steve Inskeep yesterday, and he is with us now. Good morning.
STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So it isn’t a secret most Republican voters nonetheless appear to favor the previous president, however Nikki Haley has to make some argument about why that is not the most effective thought. What’s it?
INSKEEP: Properly, she’s seizing on some information that Trump made. He made a rambling assertion just lately about NATO. He is been telling allies in Congress to dam U.S. funding for Ukraine. Some Republicans agree with that, however it’s not the preferred place, and Haley helps the funding. Once I spoke together with her, Haley prompt that Trump’s views would result in a wider conflict. Let’s pay attention.
HALEY: I’d encourage my fellow Republicans to grasp that we have to stop conflict. And the one means we stop conflict is that if Ukraine defeats Russia on this occasion, as a result of in any other case, that places us all at conflict. And the entire focus must be continually to stop conflict. I feel it is horrible that Trump has pulled again from Ukraine, and that is not good for America. It is solely good for Russia.
INSKEEP: Haley is getting much more particular in her critique than previously, Michel. In different interviews just lately, she has mocked Trump for failing to talk up about Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition chief who died in jail final week. Trump, as an alternative, has been evaluating himself to Navalny, since Trump has been indicted 4 instances.
MARTIN: So is Haley going as far as to say she won’t vote for Trump?
INSKEEP: No. She stated at one level in our interview that she has quite a lot of considerations about Trump, however then she stated she had much more about Biden. So I adopted up.
It feels like if in the long run now we have a alternative between Trump and Biden, you are selecting Trump. Is that appropriate?
HALEY: I feel Biden’s extra harmful.
INSKEEP: She talked about socialism. She questioned the president’s psychological competence, though she has additionally questioned Trump’s psychological competence, by the best way. In our dialogue, she didn’t point out a really large distinction between Biden and Trump, which is that Trump is the one who tried to overturn the final election, which he misplaced.
MARTIN: So she – however – OK, so she is critiquing Trump on overseas coverage and another points, although. Realistically, although, how lengthy can she preserve this going?
INSKEEP: She appears solely to be wanting about 10 days forward for now. She stated in a fiery speech on Tuesday that she was going to remain in till the final particular person votes, which gave me a picture of certainly one of these very drawn-out main campaigns all the best way to the summer time. You generally get this – a main rival who doesn’t surrender for precept or no matter purpose. So I requested if that is what Haley meant.
I learn this to imply you are in for each Republican main. Is that proper?
HALEY: Properly, I feel proper now, the furthest we have thought is we have – you already know, actually are going to go previous South Carolina and go into Michigan and go into Tremendous Tuesday states. We’ve not – you already know, I have never sat down and truly considered what comes after that.
INSKEEP: So this can be a step-by-step marketing campaign. She’s going no less than to March 5, when many states vote. However she is arguing that so long as doable, she desires to provide Republican voters a alternative.
MARTIN: And that is as a result of…
INSKEEP: As a result of she thinks that this shouldn’t be a coronation of Donald Trump.
MARTIN: That’s NPR’s Steve Inskeep. Steve, thanks.
INSKEEP: You are welcome.
MARTIN: You’ll be able to hear extra from Steve’s interview with presidential candidate Nikki Haley on at the moment’s MORNING EDITION.
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MARTIN: President Biden’s youthful brother, James Biden, was on Capitol Hill yesterday for a deposition with Home lawmakers.
MARTÍNEZ: His look was a part of the Republican-led impeachment inquiry towards the president. This Home GOP is forging forward with that probe, at the same time as new info is rising in regards to the former FBI informant, who’s charged with mendacity about an alleged Biden bribery scheme.
MARTIN: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is following all of this and is with us now. Good morning, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: OK, so James Biden was questioned behind closed doorways. First query I ask is, why him? Like, why was he referred to as? And do we all know something about what he needed to say?
LUCAS: So Home Republicans have been attempting for a very long time now to construct an impeachment case towards the president. That is largely centered on the speculation that he performed an energetic function or benefited in some way from the enterprise dealings of members of the Biden household. Lawmakers have not turned up concrete proof of wrongdoing on the president’s half, however this explains why Home Republicans wished to listen to from the president’s youthful brother, James Biden, yesterday.
Now, as for what he advised lawmakers, we all know from a replica of his opening assertion that he advised them that his brother, the president, has by no means had any involvement or monetary curiosity in James’ enterprise dealings. He additionally advised them that he by no means requested his brother to take any official motion on his behalf or on behalf of anybody else, for that matter. However once more, that is simply from his opening assertion. He spent hours answering questions behind closed doorways, so we do not know all of what was stated or whether or not any new info was turned up.
MARTIN: Let’s flip now to that former FBI informant. Prosecutors say he has in depth Russian intelligence contacts. What can we find out about that?
LUCAS: Proper. Prosecutors stated that in court docket papers. They stated that this former informant, Alexander Smirnov, has contacts with a number of overseas intelligence companies. However they actually did hone in on his contacts with Russia’s companies. In keeping with the court docket papers, Smirnov advised his FBI handler that certainly one of his contacts was a Russian who controls a gaggle that conducts assassinations abroad. One other contact is described as the top of a unit of a Russian intelligence service. Now, prosecutors say Smirnov did disclose these contacts to his FBI handler, so this isn’t one thing that he was hiding from the FBI. And former FBI people inform me that it is these kinds of contacts that may make Smirnov helpful to the FBI.
MARTIN: OK, but when that is the case, then why are the prosecutors elevating them?
LUCAS: Properly, they introduced all of this up in a detention memo arguing that Smirnov must be locked up pending trial. Finally, on that query, a Justice of the Peace choose ordered him launched on bond. However prosecutors argued that Smirnov’s ties to Russian intelligence usually are not, quote-unquote, “benign.” They stated that after he was arrested final week in Nevada, that he advised authorities that people linked to Russian intelligence have been concerned in passing alongside a narrative in regards to the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Courtroom papers do not specify what that story was, however this does increase questions of whether or not a few of the info that Smirnov was offering the FBI may need been fed by Russian intelligence. Now, we should not have a solution to that query proper now.
MARTIN: So Republicans did give quite a lot of credence to Smirnov’s claims towards Biden. They’re on the file about that. We have seen many interviews the place they did that. So now prosecutors say all that was a lie. So how has this affected this complete impeachment effort?
LUCAS: Properly, within the eyes of Democrats, Democrats – they are saying that it is a demise blow or must be a demise blow for impeachment. However Home Republicans have simply sort of shrugged it off. The Republican chairman of the Oversight Committee, James Comer, has as an alternative criticized the FBI for its dealing with of the investigation. Comer and different Republicans have additionally stated that their impeachment inquiry is not primarily based solely on the bribery allegation. And so what they’ve finished is simply sort of solid proper forward. Speaking to James Biden yesterday may be very a lot part of that. They’re anticipated to speak to Hunter Biden subsequent week, additionally behind closed doorways. And Hunter and his enterprise dealings have actually been a key focus for Republicans of their impeachment inquiry.
MARTIN: That is NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thanks.
LUCAS: Thanks.
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MARTIN: Now we have some new numbers at the moment that present simply how far and large the opioid disaster has unfold in the USA.
MARTÍNEZ: A RAND Company research estimates almost 1 out of each 2 adults is aware of no less than one one that died from an overdose.
MARTIN: Becoming a member of us to speak in regards to the affect that each one these deaths are having on folks, the folks particularly left behind, is reporter Martha Bebinger from WBUR in Boston. Martha, good morning.
MARTHA BEBINGER, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: Would you simply begin by telling us a bit extra about what the researchers realized?
BEBINGER: Yeah. So, Michel, researchers surveyed greater than 2,000 adults, and so they used the outcomes of that survey to estimate what’s taking place throughout the nation. It reveals that 125 million adults know somebody – in lots of circumstances, they know a couple of particular person – who’s died after an overdose. Now, you may think a few of these connections are fairly informal, just like the buddy of a cousin or a highschool buddy you did not keep in contact with, however an estimated 40 million Individuals had sufficient of a relationship to say that the demise had an affect on them. And the research says about 12 million folks proceed to grieve what’s described as a devastating loss.
MARTIN: So it is a survey. It is primarily based on the modeling. However simply even primarily based on the modeling, these are simply fairly devastating figures.
BEBINGER: Yeah.
MARTIN: So is that this true throughout the board or does it fluctuate state by state?
BEBINGER: It does fluctuate, sure. So in states the place there are extra overdose deaths, like Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and in addition all of New England, the place I dwell, there are extra folks with a direct connection as a result of there are extra deaths, proper? So in these areas, researchers fear that the affect of all this collective trauma is likely to be resulting in much more struggling. That is Alison Athey, the lead writer on the RAND research.
ALISON ATHEY: This kind of bereavement is creating vicious circles inside communities the place there is a demise that spurs struggling that spurs extra deaths that spurs extra struggling, and there is an exponential improve.
BEBINGER: So Athey says these communities may have some particular person methods to cease that spiral of grief and despair that she’s simply described that may result in extra deaths. And these methods is likely to be alongside the traces of what is typically provided to households who lose somebody to suicide. So we would kind of have a mannequin to make use of.
MARTIN: And so what would possibly these methods appear like?
BEBINGER: Properly, the researchers are very involved in regards to the households left behind after a demise. They’re involved that they are being left behind in different methods as a result of there’s little or no public consideration or assist to assist them with their trauma. So they need extra assist. And the research authors say we additionally must cease shaming and blaming people who find themselves hooked on opioids as a result of that extends, then, to the family and friends members who survive these deaths.
This is an instance of that. That is Leslie Gomes Preston. She heard some very ugly feedback about her daughter after she died in 2016.
LESLIE GOMES PRESTON: Some folks, they hear medication and so they assume, properly, she should’ve been a nasty particular person. I’ve had folks say that it is my fault. Some individuals are simply merciless.
BEBINGER: So these sorts of messages compound grief. They make folks need to clam up or isolate as an alternative of heal.
MARTIN: And, Martha, earlier than we allow you to go, are researchers involved about any particular teams of survivors?
BEBINGER: Youngsters. Youngsters, Michel. Lots of people who die go away kids behind. They’re residing with grandparents or in foster houses. They weren’t a part of this analysis, which solely sampled adults, however different analysis has proven that charges of childhood suicide are even greater in communities the place there are many overdose deaths. So we all know there are extra ripple results past what’s within the research we have simply been speaking about.
MARTIN: That is Martha Bebinger from WBUR in Boston. Martha, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us.
BEBINGER: Thanks for having me, Michel.
MARTIN: And if you happen to or somebody it’s possible you’ll know could also be contemplating hurting your self or are in disaster, name or textual content 988 to achieve the Suicide and Disaster Lifeline.
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