--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Good morning. It's Thursday, January 6th. I'm Duarte Giraldino. And I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, we're looking at the long-term impact of what happened at the Capitol one year ago. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore. And that's what this is all about.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: They've got the gallows set outside this Capitol building. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal. If I give this up, they're going to have the right doctor. You're looking at them now, extraordinary images of tens of thousands of pro-Trump supporters, all encouraged by the president who said he will not concede, he will not accept defeat.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The tip of the spear has entered the Capitol building. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Slated we start hunting them down one by one this is treason this insurrection this is rebellion period all this week we've been bringing you some of the best reporting on the aftermath of January 6.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, we're taking stock of where our country is a year later, how the events of last January 6th tested our democracy. We reached out to five journalists who've done extraordinary work covering this moment and reflecting on where our country is headed.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: We spoke to Philip Bump from The Washington Post. Our democracy is a lot more wobbly than we would have thought.
--:-- Philip Bump: [speaking] Our democracy is a lot more wobbly than we would have thought.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Maya King from Politico. We saw the will of the people nearly overturned due to a lie about the election's outcome.
--:-- Maya King: We saw the will of the people nearly overturned due to a lie about the election's outcome.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Sabrina Siddiqui at The Wall Street Journal. One year later, we're seeing that democracy is still very much at risk.
--:-- Sabrina Siddiqui: One year later, we're seeing that democracy is still very much at risk.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Susan Glasser from The New Yorker. I have to say the state of our democracy seems in many ways more perilous, if that's possible, than it did even amid the shattered glass and horror of watching that day unfold.
--:-- Susan Glasser: I have to say the state of our democracy seems in many ways more perilous, if that's possible, than it did even amid the shattered glass and horror of watching that day unfold.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And Zach Beauchamp from Vox. I mostly come away concerned, truly concerned. For Beauchamp, the events speak to just how big the political divide is in America.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: I mostly come away concerned, truly concerned. For Beauchamp, the events speak to just how big the political divide is in America. No other advanced democracy has ever seen anything like this in terms of the scale of our sustained polarization crisis, which is at the root of what causing increasing skepticism of American elections and never seen the length or the intensity of this kind of polarization.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So we in uncharted territory right now and I think that should worry all of us.
--:-- Sabrina Siddiqui: [speaking] For there to be a real effort pushed by the sitting president at the time to reverse the outcome of an American election is simply something we hadn't seen before. And even after the January 6th insurrection, think about it, 147 Republicans still voted to overturn the election results.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's a new NPR Ipsos poll, which shows fewer than half of Republicans say they're willing to accept the 2020 election results. About two-thirds of Americans believe U.S. democracy is, quote, in crisis and at risk of failing.
--:-- Sabrina Siddiqui: I think it just goes to show how successful former President Trump and his allies were in eroding faith in our democracy.
--:-- Susan Glasser: [speaking] You know, if you told me then that Liz Cheney, not Donald Trump, would be the one purged from GOP leadership, I really, I frankly don't think that I would have believed you.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Glasser says, reflecting back on the past year, January 6th wasn't the culmination of efforts to overthrow democracy. It might have just been the start.
--:-- Susan Glasser: The scary scenario is that what if January 6th marks the beginning of something that we're only in early stages of, the beginning of some kind of irresolvable, irreconcilable conflict between red America and blue America?
--:-- Philip Bump: [speaking] There is no evidence that there was rampant fraud in the 2020 election, and yet millions of Americans think that there was, that there was much, not only fraud, but solid evidence of fraud, which simply isn't the case. And I don't know how you reconcile that.
--:-- Maya King: [speaking] This moment immediately after January 6th, to me, compares pretty straightforward to the end of Reconstruction, where we saw these immediate threats and, in fact, backlash to what was a growing multiracial democracy and gains on behalf of a party that largely represents people of color.
--:-- Zach Beauchamp: [speaking] So we need to be concerned about this going forward, remembering that we have a very, very long-running history of political violence in the United States, a very, very long-running history of people threatening democracy, right? Arguably, according to some historians and political scientists, the country didn't become a real democracy until the end of Jim Crow in the South.
--:-- Shamita Basu: These journalists have serious concerns about our future. There are indicators that America is engaged in what's called democratic backsliding. in which we step away from free and fair democratic elections and towards something that is closer to an autocracy
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And I simply hope that either we take a new path or that the country is redirected by the younger generation before we get there.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's now this separate crisis around voting rights and whether or not there is fair and free access to the polls. And so all of this just means that U.S. democracy is being tested in a way it hasn't been before. And in many ways, January 6th was just the beginning.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The consequences of January 6th have been to strip away any remaining veil of uncertainty about the lengths to which Trump and his supporters would go to attack even the institutions of our government itself.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I think that that is actually cause for some optimism because naming and understanding the problem is a first prerequisite for being able to do something about it.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And now, here are a couple of other stories we're looking at today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Imagine waiting all year and then lining up for hours to see a dentist. For some Americans, that's real life.
--:-- Bobbi Dempsey: [speaking] Every year, thousands of people line up in Philadelphia at a dental fair hosted by a non-profit. So often people will start camping out in the parking lot a day or two ahead of time and just sleep there to hold their place in line.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's Bobbi Dempsey. She went to this free clinic for people who can't afford dental services, and she wrote about it for The New Yorker.
--:-- Bobbi Dempsey: One story that stuck with her was of a 64-year-old man who said he'd gotten there at 6.20 in the morning. But when he saw this massive line, he wished he'd arrived hours earlier. She could tell this was a big deal for him. He was completely put together for such an early hour of the morning, dressed in black, head to toe, with a coordinated outfit and silver accessories. So he looked very stylish and ready to tackle the day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Dental care is hard to come by for low-income Americans. Medicare mostly doesn't cover it. Medicaid varies from state to state, and many dentists don't accept it. And tens of millions of Americans don't have insurance.
--:-- Bobbi Dempsey: Nonprofits are trying to fill the gap. The one that runs this dental clinic is called Mission of Mercy in Pennsylvania. It says it's provided around $6 million worth of care over the past nine years. The medical professionals involved, they all volunteer their time.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is personal for Dempsey. She said she felt a kinship with the people standing in line. She grew up in poverty without access to quality dental care.
--:-- Bobbi Dempsey: So I had you know multiple teeth at this point that had to be pulled because they had just gotten so bad from lack of treatment or had gone so long without being treated that they basically could only be pulled at that point I actually have on at least one occasion, had root canal without anesthesia because it took me so long to scrape up the money for the root canal itself and the anesthesia was extra that I didn't have. So I would just forego the anesthesia just to at least get the root canal done.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can read the full story in the Apple News app. Just tap that notification we send you midway through the show.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For a long time, it didn't look like basketball player Alfonso McKinney was ever going to get his big break. He had a modest college career, but with no true NBA prospects, he found himself playing for a team in a country that he couldn't point to on a map, Luxembourg.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The gyms there were subpar. The pay was low. He bounced around different teams and eventually came back to the U.S. and landed in the NBA's minor league, the G League. And all the while, he kept hustling. He kept dreaming.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Then came COVID, which it turns out was exactly the break he needed. Because so many star players are testing positive for COVID, the NBA is pulling people from the minor leagues so games can go on.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This is why guys like McKinney are getting a shot. They only get 10-day contracts, but McKinney, he was so ready for the moment when he suited up for the Chicago Bulls.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And here's McKinney, knocking it down. I like Alfonso McKinney. I've been saying it. The team liked him, too. They signed him for the full season. He went from earning $37,000 a year as a minor leaguer to potentially making more than a million dollars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal looks at some of the other underdog stories happening right now because of COVID. These players, they always had the skills and they had the passion, but the pandemic finally gave them the chance to prove it.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: There's Greg Monroe. He suited up for the NBA after time playing in Russia and Germany. There's also Zylam Cheatham. He canceled his Christmas plans when he got the call. His mom was still stoked he was getting to play in the big league.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Of course, not everyone is going to score big contracts like McKinney. Some will just play a few games, make some good money, and have some good stories to tell.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: McKinney says growing up on the west side of Chicago, now playing for the Bulls, it's been the biggest dream come true.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Just being able to come out and, you know, just compete, you know, on the highest stage in my hometown. on my favorite side of the city, the West Side. It's been surreal, to be honest. Just putting that jersey on, you know, it's meant everything for me.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Thank you.
