Biden says he expects Iran to attack Israel 'sooner rather than later' | The Excerpt

On Saturday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: President Joe Biden said Friday that an Iranian attack on Israel is imminent. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Joey Garrison looks at efforts by Biden allies to stop Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The House passes a controversial spying bill after infighting. USA TODAY Investigative Data Reporter Austin Fast explains how millions of Americans rely on drinking water systems that have recently exceeded new limits for toxic “forever chemicals." President Joe Biden announces new student loan relief.

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 Saturday, April 13th, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, Biden is warning Iran against an expected attack on Israel, plus how Democrats are mobilizing against a Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amid fears by some he could be an election spoiler, and millions of Americans get their water from systems with forever chemicals above new EPA limits.

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President Joe Biden is warning of an imminent Iranian attack on Israel, asked by reporters how close Iran may be to launching an attack on Israel, Biden said yesterday that, "My expectation is sooner than later." He declined to go into details.

And the President said his message to Iran was, "Don't." Iran's leaders avowed revenge after a suspected Israeli air strike on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria, killed seven Iranians, including a leader of its revolutionary guards. Israel has not admitted responsibility for the strike. Biden's comments came after the State Department issued a security alert for US government employees in Israel. Meanwhile, two senior officials told USA TODAY, yesterday, that the US will move more troops to the Middle East ahead of any possible attack which could target Israeli or US interests in the region.

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President Joe Biden's democratic allies have mobilized efforts to stop Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his independent presidential bid from hurting Biden this fall. I spoke with USA TODAY White House correspondent Joey Garrison to learn more. Joey, thanks for making the time today.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, thanks for having me on.

Taylor Wilson:

So Joey, how has President Joe Biden approached RFK Jr. so far on the campaign trail?

Joey Garrison:

Well, so you're not hearing the Biden campaign or the candidate himself mention Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the campaign trail. And that's understandable. I mean the main focus he has obviously his Republican opponent, Donald Trump, but behind the scenes, the DNC has begun to start mobilizing kind of an anti-Kennedy operation. And that's really happening on two fronts. They have brought in a team of lawyers including Dana Remus, who used to be White House legal counsel for Biden to really monitor and scrutinize the process in which the Kennedy campaign is qualifying to get his name on the ballot in various battleground states.

Each state has different laws in terms of numbers of signatures you have to get when those have to be turned in, really goes into... Depending on the state, just a wide variety of different rules in which this has to be done. And then secondly, they've really started with their attacks on Kennedy. There's been some billboards, mobile billboards on vehicles at Kennedy events as well as some print ads. And they're really kind of starting to ramp that up ahead of possibly we'll see whether there could be TV ads attacking Kennedy as well.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah. So why are they so focused on Kennedy specifically and why now?

Joey Garrison:

Well, I mean, if you look at polling right now, Kennedy has about 10 to 11% of the electorate, and there's been sort of a debate whether he's taking more votes away from Biden or Trump. I think most people though think he probably hurts Biden a little more. I mean, keep in mind, Kennedy has that iconic last name, the Kennedy brand. He was previously running in the Democratic primary, and he's not getting the amount of support to win any state far from it. But we're talking about a few thousand or even less votes that could ultimately decide the outcome in some of these states like Arizona or Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia. And as we've seen in past elections, you can have what are often known as a spoiler where that person takes votes away from one of the candidates and ends up sort of flipping it. And so they have to take this very seriously.

Taylor Wilson:

And from the Kennedy campaign themselves, Joey, what are we hearing from them and how are they responding to this approach from the Biden camp?

Joey Garrison:

Well, I mean, the Kennedy campaign rejects this idea that he's out there as a spoiler to help Trump and they say, "Hey, we were trying to be a spoiler for the whole two party system where we think Kennedy is the best person for the job and an independent is needed in this. Now, Democrats are quick to point out that the leading fundraiser for RFK Jr. Super PAC is also their businessman, who is one of the leading fundraisers for Donald Trump. So that's one of the items that they're really trying to flag to voters is, "Hey, Kennedy is doing nothing else other than helping Trump. That's what this candidacy is all about." So there's some obviously friction here from the Democratic camp and the Kennedy camp as to what his ultimate goal is here.

Taylor Wilson:

On the other side, Joey, how does the Trump camp view RFK Jr. at this point?

Joey Garrison:

Well, the Trump campaign really seems to be trying to elevate the candidacies, the voices of these various third party independent candidates. Trump himself in a video released by the campaign said, "Hey, if I was a Democratic voter, I think I would probably support RFK," pretty blatantly trying to flag his candidacy for people on the left who might not like Joe Biden. And we know really a lot about Trump's electorate at this point. He's been the presidential candidate now twice. And so he's really kind of maxed out at that high 47, 48% of the electorate. So I think their campaign is looking at it, Hey, the more of these third party candidates that are in the race that are viable, that stands to benefit the Trump campaign as they might potentially take votes away from Biden.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Joey Garrison covers the White House for USA TODAY. Thank you, Joey.

Joey Garrison:

Hey, thanks for having me on.

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Taylor Wilson:

The house yesterday approved reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA by a vote of 273 to 147. Most of the bills dissenters come from the chamber's civil liberty minded, ultra conservative, and progressive factions. And its strongest advocates come from the intelligence community who say, FISA's warrantless surveillance provisions are essential to protecting national security. Among the major sticking points that created headaches was a part of the law called Section 702, which allows US authorities to surveil communications of foreigners outside the United States.

That surveillance is later collected into a database for authorities to search without a warrant. But because those foreigners often contact Americans, domestic data is also often brought into collection. Section 702's opponents heavily pushed for a warrant requirement claiming it was necessary for Americans' privacy rights. The law supporters though pointed to other reforms made to FISA to prevent abuses and argued a warrant requirement would neuter the program. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.

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Tens of millions of Americans get their water from systems that reported high levels of PFAS chemicals in at least one test last year. But fixing the problem is costly. I spoke with USA TODAY investigative data reporter, Austin Fast for more. Austin, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.

Austin Fast:

Yeah, I'm happy to share reporting on PFAS.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, so let's start here, Austin, what are PFAS chemicals and what are they used in?

Austin Fast:

Yeah, so PFAS, it's a wide range of synthetic chemicals. There's actually thousands of different types of them, and you probably have encountered all sorts of products in your house, in your office that have used them in the past. I mean, it was starting in the '50s. They really started to get put into things whenever companies wanted to make products that were stain resistant, water resistant, take out food containers or popcorn bags, cosmetics, anytime you didn't want something to stick.

Taylor Wilson:

And so what did we learn now from the EPA this week about how many Americans are exposed to these toxic chemicals? And also Austin, what areas in particular saw high levels in their water supply?

Austin Fast:

So on Wednesday this week, the EPA made some official limits that set the bar for what PFAS... How much can be in public drinking water systems. And so there's never been any national enforceable limits for these types of chemicals before, largely because a lot of them are relatively unstudied. We don't know all the effects. I mean, there are studies that show several types of them can contribute to different types of cancer and developmental issues, but it's taken a while to get these limits just because the science is new and still developing. And so now that we have these limits on these six different types of PFAS, the EPA, they estimate that it's going to affect and improve the water quality for about a hundred million Americans. So my colleagues, Cecilia Cecilia Garzella and I, we looked really closely at some data from the EPA where they've been requiring water systems to measure about two dozen types of PFAS in their water.

And so when we looked at that data, we found over 600 water systems that went over one of these new limits at least once in the last year. That's just one time. It's not saying that those 600 systems are going to have to immediately install treatment equipment. They're going to be looking at running averages, so over time. We spoke with a PFAS expert who compared it to when you go to the doctor and you get your blood pressure taken, if you have high blood pressure, is it that one day because you're nervous about the doctor and your blood pressure is spiking or is it a long-term over days, weeks, months?

And so what's really important is over the long-term is your water system detecting this PFAS, and that's when they would have to make a change. And so we looked at places that saw throughout all of 2023 repeatedly measured over the limits, and we found about 250 of them did do that. And its places includes Dallas, Texas, Fort Worth, Suffolk County, which is on Long Island, New York, Cincinnati, Ohio, Tampa, Florida, Raleigh, North Carolina. So really it runs the gamut all the way across the country.

Taylor Wilson:

Austin, you mentioned these EPA limits, just how costly is it to meet these rules and what other barriers are in place here?

Austin Fast:

It is not cheap, unfortunately. I mean, water treatment in general is extremely costly. And then PFAS is even more so just because it's a newer field and less studied like I said before. And so I've seen estimates that it could cost 400 billion to remove PFAS from all the drinking water systems nationally. The EPA this week said they estimate it'll cost about one and a half billion dollars each year for all the systems just to monitor their water, to tell their customers about the results. So we spoke with a PFAS expert and he told us that it could cost approximately $3 million, was his estimate for a medium-sized city to install the proper treatment equipment.

The EPA and the White House have been touting that the bipartisan infrastructure law has about 20 billion to help improve drinking water systems. So it's really going to take a lot of investment over the next several years for some places to address this. There are carve outs in that funding for the rural places, the disadvantaged places, but it's just a lot of expense over the next several years for places that do have to address it. And one place that these limits don't even cover is people who rely on a private well, and they're responsible for testing their own well and addressing that on their own. And there's a lot of people like that across the country.

Taylor Wilson:

Austin Fast is an investigative data reporter with USA TODAY. Austin, thanks so much.

Austin Fast:

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

You can find out what the water's like in your neck of the woods as it pertains to PFAS with a link in today's show notes.

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And if you're one of the many Americans with student loans, you might have some good news to start your weekend with. President Joe Biden yesterday announced another batch of student loan forgiveness for 277,000 borrowers with canceled debt adding up to $7.4 billion. Most of those borrowers signed up for the president's signature income driven repayment plan, saving on a valuable education or SAVE. Through SAVE, people who originally borrowed a small amount $12,000 or less and have been paying it off for at least a decade are eligible for relief.

Others affected are more than 65,000 borrowers participating through other income driven plans who should have qualified for relief but didn't because their loan servicers wrongfully put them into forbearance. And relief applies for a few thousand borrowers participating in public service loan forgiveness that relieves loans for people working in government jobs or positions that give back to the community.

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Be sure to stay tuned to The Excerpt tomorrow for a special episode as eating disorder expert Meredith Nisbet joins my colleague Dana Taylor to talk about how we see ourselves and our body image in the age of Ozempic. You can find the episode right here beginning tomorrow at 5:00 A.M. Eastern Time. And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden says he expects Iran to attack Israel 'soon' | The Excerpt