The Excerpt podcast: Republicans face party turmoil, snow's impact on water in the West

On Saturday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: Former President Donald Trump and Republicans are facing party turmoil before next year's elections. Israel continues slamming Gaza with airstrikes, as some allies push for Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians. USA TODAY National Correspondent Trevor Hughes breaks down the potential impact of this winter's snow on water in the West. USA TODAY Network Taylor Swift Reporter Bryan West talks about Taylor's Grammy nominations - and his new job. School board elections saw a rebuke of culture war politics. On this Veterans Day, revisit our September episode looking into high rates of suicide by U.S. veterans.

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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 today is Saturday, November 11th, 2023. This is The Excerpt. Today, what a tough week for Republicans might indicate for 2024. Plus Western allies increasingly push Israel to do more, to protect Gazan civilians and what this year's snow season could mean for water in the West.

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Many Republicans are confident they can topple President Joe Biden and take back the Senate in 2024, but they also know that internal turmoil could sink their chances. Former President Donald Trump and Republicans began the week with good poll numbers, but they then suffered big election losses around the country on Tuesday. A day later, Trump skipped his latest debate with opponents, the same angry event that saw candidates get personal. Nikki Haley called Vivek Ramaswamy, scum after he mentioned that Haley's daughter uses TikTok, and at one point Ramaswamy said that Republicans have become a party of losers, but most of the friction continues to center on the front-runner, Donald Trump. While skipping the debate, he held a competing rally in Florida, again, denouncing anyone who challenges him as a so-called Rhino or Republican in name only, and declaring that they should drop out. But during the debate, GOP challengers suggested Trump and his movement are among the reasons that Republicans lost in many of the off-year elections this week.

That included a governor's race in Kentucky and an abortion rights referendum in Ohio. Other candidates said results revealed the dangers of a Trump led party that lost elections in 2018, 2020 and 2022. Still, while rivals question whether Trump can win a general election against Biden, polling seems to point to yes. An Emerson College poll out Thursday shows Trump leading Biden in five of the six states that will probably determine the winner of the electoral college, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin. Biden leads in the sixth state, Michigan. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Israeli airstrikes continued slamming Northern Gaza yesterday. Blasts were reported near several hospitals, including Al-Shifa, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip. Civilians have been seeking refuge there for weeks. Gaza medical officials said Israel was responsible for the blasts while Israeli officials blamed at least one explosion on a misfired Palestinian rocket. The Israeli military says the Hamas command center is located inside and under the Shifa Hospital complex. Hamas denies that and says Israel is using the claims to justify its airstrikes. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back earlier today against growing calls from allies to do more to protect Palestinian civilians. He said the responsibility for harm to civilians lies with Hamas. His comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron, pushed for a ceasefire and urged other leaders to join in.

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The American West is running out of water. A heavy snow season could help, but what's the long-term prognosis. I caught up with USA Today, national correspondent Trevor Hughes for more. Trevor, always good to have you on.

Trevor Hughes:

Hey, there.

Taylor Wilson:

So Trevor, it's November and we're approaching the winter months. What are the snow predictions right now for the Rockies and the Western US this winter?

Trevor Hughes:

This is the thing. I live here in Denver and we've already had seven and a half inches of snow. It's one of the earliest snowiest winters so far, and it really put us all kind of in the mood for thinking about what the rest of the winter is going to look like and what the spring is going to look like. And right now, there seems to be this level of cautious optimism. Last winter was really good here, the Colorado River, the Green River in Wyoming. We had really great runoff, which meant levels in Lake Powell, levels in Lake Mead went up and we're really hopeful the same thing is going to happen again this year, but it's a little too early to tell.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. Trevor, can you help us understand what snowfall and the Rockies means for water, really writ large in the American West?

Trevor Hughes:

If you live in the East Coast, water is everywhere really. But here in the West, so much of our water comes in the form of runoff from snow. The Colorado River, which serves something like 40 million Americans all the way out from Colorado to California, as much as 70% of the water in that river comes from the snow that falls on Colorado's mountains. And so that water is used for drinking, for irrigation, for making sure that cities have enough water to run their industries. It's hugely important. It's not like the East Coast where a lot of the water just comes out of a well.

Taylor Wilson:

So we may get a good year or two of snow in the West, but what are the long-term predictions for snowfall and also this ongoing fight around water in the Western US?

Trevor Hughes:

There's a phrase you're probably going to start hearing a lot more in the next few years, and that's called aridification. For a long time, we've been talking about how the West has been in a drought, right? We haven't been getting as much water as expected. Well, eventually when the water stops coming and it stops coming year after year, it's no longer a drought. It's just the way things are. And so that's what we're seeing here in the West, is we are seeing in general a decrease in the amount of precipitation that's been falling in the form of snow. And warmer air, warmer soil, all of that contributes or takes away from... I suppose is a better way to put it, from the amount of water available to the West.

Taylor Wilson:

Trevor, we know there was a deal brokered this past spring surrounding use of the Colorado River. What else is the Biden administration doing to prepare for future shortages and just generally, what's the latest on the water legislative front?

Trevor Hughes:

The deal from the Biden administration is really a short-term solution. It pays people tens of millions of dollars to not use waters. That could be farmers who are not planting crops, that could be communities that install low flow showers or toilets. But going forward, there's going to really have to be a structural reckoning on how much water we use here in the West. I mean, you go to places like Las Vegas and there's just an enormous amount of water that gets used every single day for all those hotel rooms, all of those buffets, heck, even those fountains that are melting water as far as I would look at it into the air in the hottest of days. And I think we're going to see ultimately some water restrictions that will be widespread. Although the more people that help out with those watering restrictions, the less the burden will be on any one person.

And that could be as simple as reducing the amount of certain kind of crop. Almonds, for instance, consume a huge amount of water. Alfalfa, which is a huge lifestyle crop that consumes a huge amount of water. Those are issues that the Biden administration is tackling head on, and they have been coming for decades and everyone knows this is a problem. It's really taking this tightening crisis to really get people to pay attention and to start to come to the table and really have those conversations about what they're willing to give up and what they're willing to change.

Taylor Wilson:

USA Today, national correspondent, Trevor Hughes. Thank you, Trevor.

Trevor Hughes:

Good to be here.

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Taylor Wilson:

Well, first came the Classroom Culture Wars, now the backlash, conservative activists pushing for parents to have more of a say in what their children are taught in school suffered a series of high profile losses in Tuesday's election. That deals a blow to a movement that has advocated for book bans and restrictions on classroom discussion about issues of race and gender. Just over a third of the candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty won their races on Tuesday. The Florida based nonprofit has been at the heart of many battles over school curriculum. Tiffany Justice, a Moms for Liberty founder said, she felt good about election results even though candidates backed by the group lost more races than they won. Another group, the 1776 Project did better saying 58% of candidates it endorsed won. Though many of those wins were in conservative areas. Since the run-up to last year's midterm elections, the GOP has worked to strengthen its grip on local elections by targeting school board races, but teachers unions, education activists, and others portrayed the less-than-stellar showing this week by Moms for Liberty and other like-minded groups as a repudiation of their far right agenda.

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Taylor Swift's big year continues. The 2024 Grammy nominations were announced yesterday, and Swifties probably won't be disappointed. That's the same week as Apple Music named Swift, Artist of the Year. So what better time to get acquainted with Bryan West, the Taylor Swift reporter for the Tennessean and USA Today Network. Bryan, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt.

Bryan West:

Thank you so much for asking me to come on.

Taylor Wilson:

So Bryan, let's just start here talking the Grammys at the top. The nominations are out. How did Taylor Swift do?

Bryan West:

It was a big day for Taylor Nation and Taylor Swift. So this year is a tie for her third-best year, which is six nominations. She last had that during the Folklore era in 2021. Second best was in 2016 for 1989 one, she had seven nominations. She won three of those, and then her best year was in 2010 with eight nominations where she won four times. But six categories we're talking about Pop Solo Performance, Pop Duo/Group Performance, Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year. So Midnights, Anti-Hero and Karma.

Taylor Wilson:

Bryan, let's talk about this job. I know you're relatively new to it, but the Wisting went viral when it came out, and needless to say, it was an extremely hot gig. As far as I know, you're also now the only dedicated Taylor Swift reporter in the country. What made you interested in applying and what do you think put you over the top to get this job?

Bryan West:

When I left news about five years ago, it was a focus on mental health and sobriety, and a friend of mine, my best friend Sean, asked, would you ever return to news? And I said, only if I could report on Taylor Swift every day, which I never thought would actually come to fruition. So when this job posting went viral, I had it sent to me on Instagram through text message and email saying, "You've got to apply for this." I was at CrossFit at the time, I love CrossFit, and I was thinking of my application video while I was finishing out the workout. When I was driving home, I thought, okay, I'm going to do 13 reasons why they should hire me, and then I'm going to talk about maybe some story ideas that I would have. It was about a two-month process where they slowly put us through beat tests, video tests, answering questions in front of panelists, and then I got the news that I had made it.

Taylor Wilson:

That's amazing, Brian. So in the application video, you mentioned that you're both a journalist and a Swiftie. Let's take a listen.

Bryan West:

I may be a huge swiftie, but I can report on Taylor objectively. I'll tell you right now, three songs I can't stand by her. Stay Stay Stay, False God, and It's Nice to Have a Friend.

Taylor Wilson:

What does that balance look like for you, being both a Swiftie and a journalist covering this beat?

Bryan West:

I think it's no secret at this point that I am a fan of Taylor's music. I followed her since 2006 when I graduated and first listened to Tim McGraw. For everyone who has an opinion about this job and me, I would just ask them, "What makes a good candidate? Is it being too much of a fan? Is it being too much of a hater? Is it someone who has a decade of journalism experience, someone who's won awards? Does me being a fan lead to a threat I guess, of journalism?" I'm going to file reports and stories that still have to go through editors for a major prominent institution like USA Today because there is a huge need. So I guess a question that I would put back to everybody who's saying, you're being a fan but also you're a journalist, is, "Well, where do you find that balance?"

Taylor Wilson:

You've started the gig, what has the job been like so far? What have you been covering?

Bryan West:

It has been so much of just trying to cover this beat that is constantly producing news. So even look at this week, she was named Apple Music Artist of the Year. The CMAs I went in was on the red carpet asking some of the country stars about her and stories that they had. She's gone back on tour in Argentina. So Taylor has no shortage of news, and really the majority of this position is just trying to hammer out print bylines, online bylines, social media videos, doing it all.

Taylor Wilson:

This is such a hyper specific beat to cover. Why do you feel it's important at this moment in time?

Bryan West:

I think this position just really is innovative. This has never been done before. It's unprecedented. Taylor has a global and societal impact, and I think there's a huge unsatiated craving by Swifties and by the general public just to know what's going on.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Bryan, as you mentioned, there's a lot going on surrounding Taylor Swift these days. What do you have coming up next on the Taylor trail?

Bryan West:

One story in particular that I'm working on is Taylor Swift influencers. So since there hasn't been this Taylor Swift beat, the Swiftie community has become kind of its own news source. So there are several prominent influencers that have found their niche and they are delivering news to hundreds of thousands of followers. And I'm talking with them. You have the style Swiftie who every outing that she has, the style Swiftie will go out and find the exact accessories she's wearing, earring she's wearing, T-shirt she's wearing. You have the tailored tour tips Swiftie that will tell you all the tips on the different stops. So for example, in Argentina, I didn't realize until I talked to her that they don't have assigned floor seats. So people will camp out for days, weeks, months ahead of a concert so they can run and get a primetime spot at the show. And so I'm going to be talking to them and that comes out on Monday.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, amazing stuff. Bryan West, dedicated Taylor Swift reporter for the USA Today Network. Joining us here on The Excerpt. Thank you, Bryan.

Bryan West:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Today is Veterans Day, a time to recognize the vets who have served their country in the US military. Earlier this fall, my colleague Dana Taylor hosted an episode looking into the issue of tragically high rates of suicide among US veterans. You can listen to the episode with a link in today's show notes, and be sure to listen to Dana tomorrow when she'll discuss how many Americans lack access to safe drinking water. You can find the episode right here on this feed.

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And before we go, did you know that The Excerpt is on YouTube? All of our episodes, podcasts and vodcasts are posted to our YouTube playlist. We have a link in today's show notes. And you can get The Excerpt wherever you get your podcasts. If you use a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. You can hear Dana tomorrow right here on this feed, and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.