0:00

It's Monday, December twelve. I'm

0:02

Oscar Rameriors in Los Angeles, and this

0:04

is the daily dive shake

0:10

up for the Democrats in the Senate. After

0:12

clinching a forty nine majority with

0:14

Raphael WARNOCKX win in Georgia, Senator

0:16

Christen Cinema announced she would be leaving the

0:18

Democratic Party and register as an independent.

0:21

While the impact may be minimal when trying to pass

0:24

legislation, it means a lot when we look

0:26

ahead to four and how the two parties

0:28

will fight to win that seat. Julia

0:30

Manchester, national political

0:32

reporter at the Hill, joins us for how this decision

0:35

plays out. Carry Lake files an election

0:37

lawsuit in Arizona, and the big fight of

0:39

the week, Congress struggling to fund the government

0:41

and avoid a shut down. Next,

0:44

a look into the hyper competitive world of bodybuilding

0:46

and the extremes it takes to get those outrageous physiques.

0:49

There's hours and hours of training, strict

0:51

diets, and then there are the drugs

0:54

steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.

0:56

It's leaving athletes with irreparable damage to

0:59

their bodies, with some having heart problems,

1:01

needing kidney transplants, and worst

1:03

case debt Jen Abelson,

1:06

investigative reporter at the Washington Post, joined

1:08

us for how the extreme sport of bodybuilding is

1:10

pushing some to the edge. It's

1:13

news without the noise. Let's dive in. This

1:16

should be no surprise to focus across Arizona.

1:19

I've been serving as an independent voice

1:21

for our state for quite some time. Just made

1:23

it official with a party registration change. Joining

1:25

us now is Julia Manchester, national

1:27

political reporter at the Hill. Thanks

1:29

for joining us, Julia, Thanks for having

1:32

me. Well, we got some interesting

1:34

news this past week as

1:36

Senator Christen Cinema decided

1:39

that she was going to leave the Democratic Party and

1:41

register as an independent. So we also

1:43

got the news obviously that Raphael Warnock

1:46

secured his Senate seat. They're giving

1:48

Democrats a fifty one to forty nine advantage

1:50

there in the Senate, So now this

1:53

kind of throws a bunch of stuff into

1:55

the air. We don't know how Kristen

1:57

Cinema is going to be voting with Democrats now.

2:00

This also kind of throws a curveball into the

2:02

Senate race for Julie.

2:05

What are we seeing with this decision by Christian

2:07

Cinema? Yeah, yeah, look,

2:09

I think in a way, this was a surprise,

2:12

and that um, you know, we just didn't

2:14

know when she was going to do this. But a

2:16

lot of political watchers, Republicans

2:19

and Democrats already considered here Cin

2:21

Cinema to be an independent

2:23

in many ways, she very much bucks

2:25

her own party most of the time, and

2:27

she you know, has you know, very much

2:30

sometimes sided with the Republicans, but she will side

2:32

with Democrats as well. So I think the fact,

2:34

you know, when it came was a bit of a surprise because

2:36

it just the announcement came days after

2:38

Democrats secured that you know, fifty

2:41

one seat majority. Now what

2:43

lately won't impact dealmaking

2:46

in the Senate and you know, business

2:48

in the Senate Um since here since Cinema

2:51

has said she will keep her uh committee

2:53

assignments, which you know, would suggest she

2:55

will caucus with Democrats, sort of like Angus

2:57

King and Bernie Sanders caucus with them. The

3:00

question is, how does this impact the Senate

3:02

race in Arizona.

3:04

We don't know whether she's going to run again for

3:06

re election, and she did run, she'd

3:08

have to run as an independent in the

3:11

Democrats presumably would have to

3:13

nominate another UM candidate

3:15

in that race. So that's really where

3:17

the big question is. Yeah, and then

3:20

you know, we're also looking She made an appearance

3:22

on CNN over the weekend talking

3:25

a lot about the border, saying the federal government

3:27

has failed the southern border. There. Um,

3:30

obviously a big issue that Republicans

3:32

take very closely. So just an

3:34

interesting look at how you know, the

3:36

next couple of years will go for her switching

3:39

over to being an independent staying

3:42

in Arizona. I did want to mention very

3:44

quickly Republican Kerry Lake there.

3:46

She was running for governor against

3:48

Katie Hobbs. She lost that race. Arizona

3:51

has already certified those election

3:53

results, but keeping with the

3:55

president former president Trump playbook, she

3:57

has filed a lawsuit now saying

4:00

that she received the greatest

4:02

number of votes and that she's entitled to be named

4:04

the winner. How far is this thing going

4:06

to get? It likely will not

4:09

get far in Arizona. We see

4:11

that, Um, you know, very clearly Katie

4:13

Hopps won even though it was a very narrow

4:15

majority. And um, you know,

4:18

multiple officials, Republicans and

4:20

Democrats have you know, agreed

4:22

with you know, the voters decision in that

4:24

case. What this show is is Essentially, Carrie

4:27

Lake is keeping with President Trump's playbook

4:29

and contesting the elections. It likely will

4:31

not go far. It will be taken

4:33

to the courts. But this isn't going to be

4:36

UM. You know, it likely will

4:38

not be successful because we've seen so much

4:40

support for you know, the election results

4:43

right exactly, and you know, that's largely one of those

4:45

things we've seen a lot of people move on

4:47

from now. People a little tired of that

4:49

old playbook. We saw a bunch

4:51

of backers of President Trump and people

4:54

that he was supporting lose in the mid term

4:56

elections. Uh. It seems by and

4:58

large like most people are kind of over that. But you

5:00

know, we'll see if this does anything. I

5:03

didn't want to talk about what's going to be

5:05

happening this coming week. So Congress

5:08

has to pass a funding bill by Friday to avoid

5:10

a government shutdown. UM, it

5:12

looks like there, you know, might not be as close

5:14

as some may want. They're probably have to pass

5:17

a CR a continuing resolution is what

5:19

they call it, to continue funding

5:21

the government while they work out a deal. And

5:24

I guess Democrats want to attach some

5:26

type of election reform bill to this

5:28

bill. UM, just to be able

5:30

to sneak it in before the end of the year basically,

5:32

So this is kind of the impasse that the

5:35

Senators are at, our Congress is at right

5:37

now, right right, and this

5:39

is you know, probably one of the

5:41

last big things we've seen

5:43

we get to see don in this Lane duck

5:45

Congress. I mean, we've already seen the Respect

5:48

for Marriage Act passed through

5:50

you know, both chambers, and we are seeing

5:52

um, you know, Nancy Pelosi and Democrats

5:54

really trying to pass as much as they can before

5:57

Republicans come in and take the majority

5:59

in the House. It normally happens in the lane

6:01

duck session when you have these continuing resolutions

6:04

and these bills to fund the government.

6:06

Um. You know, right now, I think you're you're going

6:08

to see maybe some pushback from conservatives

6:11

um in the House on this pushing back.

6:13

But um, you know, we'll we'll have to

6:15

see what's more in this legislation. Democrats

6:18

will definitely want to speak the sneak in that election

6:20

reform um, you know that

6:23

measure in here, Um, you know, to make

6:25

a final statement, like I said, before

6:27

Republicans take over. Yeah, And that

6:29

election reform bill is basically

6:31

designed to help prevent another January

6:33

six, it will make it harder for losing candidates

6:36

to claim victory. One of the interesting things

6:38

on this one, though, is you mentioned

6:40

it right. Republicans are going to be coming to power

6:42

in the House. So there's a lot of pushback

6:45

from House minority leader, soon to

6:47

possibly be majority leader, Kevin McCarthy,

6:50

and you know he's trying to urge uh,

6:52

the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell

6:54

to walk away from this deal. He says, hey,

6:56

let's wait until we come into power. Then we

6:59

have much more to go shading uh

7:01

leverage there. And so this is kind of

7:03

the game that's being played with this, uh, this whole thing

7:05

right now. Yeah, yeah, and we'll

7:07

have to see. I mean, it is possible that someone

7:09

like Mitch McConnell may want to start off

7:12

the year next year with a clean slate, not

7:14

having to deal with you know this, you

7:16

know, kicking the can down the road with

7:19

funding the government. Um. But you know, Kevin

7:21

McCarthy very much trying to push back, and he

7:23

himself is you know, under a lot of

7:25

pressure right now as he potentially

7:27

could become speaker because he is

7:29

facing pushback within his own party.

7:31

We know that conservative Congressman Andy Biggs

7:34

has launched a challenge against him for

7:36

the speakership, so you know he's

7:38

trying to I guess walk of fine line

7:40

to use that cliche. Um, you

7:42

know, as they prepare to

7:45

take the majority and you know start off

7:47

um, you know the next year. Yeah, alright,

7:49

well, we'll see the this week. The fight

7:52

to fund the government will be one of the big

7:54

stories will be following. Julia Manchester,

7:57

National political reporter at The Hill, Thank

7:59

you very much for joining us. Thank you for

8:01

having me. They're

8:10

using fat burners that are really meant as

8:13

medication for horses. They're using

8:15

you know, underground sometimes unknown

8:17

substances from labs online

8:20

or labs, and you know that they're finding things from China,

8:22

and it's really left athletes in a fairly

8:24

vulnerable position. Joining us now is Jen Abelson,

8:27

investigative reporter at the Washington

8:29

Post. Thanks for joining us, Jen, Thanks

8:32

for having me. Well there at the Washington

8:35

Post, you and some colleagues are are doing

8:37

investigation into the world of bodybuilding.

8:40

I have to say I've read through a few of these

8:42

already, and men, is it a crazy

8:44

world there, And you know, you kind of see it if

8:46

you're seeing it on TV or in pictures whatever, you

8:49

you know, it's an extreme sport already,

8:51

the amount of preparation and dedication

8:54

that a lot of these athletes go through to get

8:56

the physiques that they come out with. But

8:58

the world behind it is so interesting,

9:01

and a lot of it is plagued by steroids

9:04

and diuretics play a huge part

9:06

in this and this kind of body

9:09

building under the umbrella of health and fitness,

9:11

but some of these people are just not healthy

9:13

when they're going through it. So Jen tell us a little

9:16

bit. Start us off by telling us about Built

9:18

and Broken, the investigative series, and then we'll

9:20

get into some more specific

9:22

things, like you I didn't.

9:24

I knew very little about the body building world

9:26

before I joined this investigation,

9:29

and it began out of a tip from

9:32

a colleague's father. Um was

9:34

very involved in the bodybuilding world as a he had

9:37

helped was involved in making pumping

9:39

iron back in the seventies, and sort

9:41

of had gotten a tip after his father died about

9:44

some some really um

9:46

you know, potentially devastating allegations about

9:48

the world. And so we sort of launched into this investigation

9:51

into different areas looking at sexual

9:53

exploitation of women in my area, focused

9:55

on looking at the health risks to

9:58

athletes, and so that is the air you

10:00

that I sort of really dug into, and it

10:03

was really eye opening to really

10:05

understand the intimate details of what these

10:07

athletes do in order to be prepared to

10:10

compete. Yeah, and that health aspect

10:12

obviously super interesting. I mean, it gets

10:14

to the point that some of these athletes are dying

10:17

because of the supplements, these steroids,

10:19

all the things that they're taking to prepare

10:22

for competitions and to get those

10:24

physiques. You know, there's so many You have a

10:26

lot of examples in your piece on this where

10:29

there's signs that these athletes are

10:31

going through I'm experiencing cramping, I'm you

10:33

know, i haven't had a drink of water in hours. But

10:35

still they push forward, and you know, with

10:37

the help and encouragement of their coaches, which

10:40

is another whole angle to this, they're really

10:42

doing a lot of damage to their bodies in a lot of cases.

10:45

Yeah, I think one of the things that really struck us is just

10:47

the way is in which is really distinct

10:49

from other professional sports, in that

10:52

at the when they are ready to compete,

10:54

when they're going to get on stage and be judged.

10:56

It is when they are at their weakest and most

10:59

fragile state they have been, you know, depleting,

11:01

dehydrating themselves. They're incredibly lean.

11:04

When we first started looking into this, there

11:06

was a lot of focus on and talk around just steroids.

11:08

But it's so much more than the steroids they're doing.

11:11

There's this whole host and cocktail of dangerous

11:13

performance enhancing drugs. They're using fat

11:15

burners that are really meant as medication

11:18

for horses. They're using you know, underground

11:21

sometimes unknown substances from

11:23

labs online or labs, and you know

11:25

that they're finding things from China, and it's

11:27

really left athletes in a fairly vulnerable position.

11:30

In addition to the steroids and the drugs and the supplements,

11:32

it's like the severe dieting and the diuretics

11:34

and the training hours of cardio

11:37

a day. Yeah, the diuretics is an interesting

11:39

part of it too, because you know they're taking this to

11:41

remove water so their muscles look quote

11:43

unquote dry, more defined, And I

11:46

mean that's one of the biggest health problems

11:48

that people get left with kidney issues

11:50

because you're just depleting your body of

11:53

liquids. Yeah, we've seen some UM.

11:55

You know, a number of athletes over the year who have suffered

11:58

severe kidney problems, have had kidney transplants,

12:00

sometimes multiple kidney transplants, UM

12:03

and and athletes have died because

12:05

of diuretic overdose as well, and

12:08

that was the case. There was suggestion that that

12:10

was likely the cause of UM. There

12:12

was an athlete in two thousand thirteen. Her name was Terry

12:14

Harris. She was had two

12:17

days after competing in her first professional

12:19

bodybuilding show in Tampa, Florida.

12:22

She went into cardiac arrest on a

12:24

stair master and the corner

12:27

you know, said an electrolyte disturbance could

12:29

not be ruled out. She was having severe cramping before

12:31

the show. And there was another athlete that we

12:33

talked to, Jody angel Um, who's still

12:35

alive, but she's thirty one, she's

12:38

a single mom. She's but she's facing

12:40

a lifetime of kidney issues and her doctors have told

12:42

her that she's going to need a transplant. Talk

12:45

to me a little bit about the coaches and their involvement

12:47

in all of this, because in a lot of times they're

12:50

pushing the athletes to obviously

12:52

pushed their bodies to the limit, but they're also giving

12:54

them the access to the the steroids

12:57

and and other things that they're giving them the

12:59

dosage that they should be taking. A lot of times

13:01

they're not necessarily licensed

13:03

for that. You know, they're just coaches. Maybe they've

13:05

done it in the past for themselves, and so

13:07

they're just giving them a lot of advice and and really

13:09

pushing them to keep on track to a lot

13:12

of these programs. Yeah, I think what's

13:14

really interesting is there's just a whole various

13:16

levels of accountability. I mean, at the end of the day, you

13:18

know, these these athletes are saying, you know, I took

13:20

the drugs. I personally am responsible for what I put in my

13:22

body. However, I will tell you that I was relying on

13:24

people who I thought were experts. I was paying them

13:27

for advice on what I need to do to win.

13:29

And what they're being told to do by these

13:31

coaches and by the judges who are ultimately

13:33

rewarding them, is that they're being

13:35

advised to take, you know, stacking

13:37

on so many different steroids, stacking

13:39

on various performance enhancing drugs and diuretics

13:42

and um fat burners and

13:44

and so and we've seen both.

13:47

You know, these people often do not have any sort of formal

13:49

training, do not have medical licenses. They're

13:51

supplying their clients in some cases with illegal

13:53

stero steroids or fat burners. They're

13:56

they're giving them detailed plans of how

13:58

much. We saw Daniel Alexander, his

14:00

coach in the days before he was UM.

14:03

He died of SARA induced cardio

14:05

mapthy like he was being told to increase

14:07

his doses of windstraw, which is a powerful steroid,

14:09

and and other other steroids that he

14:11

was taking and UM. It's

14:14

just when you see this, it's like a laundry

14:16

list of drugs. These people are being told to take

14:18

UM and sometimes are being advised not to seek medical

14:21

care. Daniel Alexander is one of those cases

14:23

where he was um.

14:26

He was concerned about seeking medical

14:28

care because he was worried that it was going

14:30

to ruin his physique, that he would end up getting

14:33

filled and pumped with fluid because like we've been talking

14:35

about, it's all about coming and dry and to find

14:37

and he was worried he wouldn't be that way if

14:39

he went and sought medical care. And ultimately

14:42

it was a it was a fatal decision. He ended up

14:44

dying that overnight. He's

14:46

such an interesting case. So he died at age

14:48

thirty, Daniel Alexander. And you know,

14:50

throughout this investigation you were able

14:53

to access a lot of text messages

14:55

and emails and for Daniel and

14:57

a lot of other of these athletes too, they

14:59

have some similar cases. But Daniel

15:02

texted a friend who worked as a nurse

15:04

practitioner and said, five percent body fat right

15:06

now. Lots of stems have a very irregular

15:08

heartbeat for over an hour, becoming painful,

15:11

still hard to breathe worry

15:13

like should I be worried? And you know

15:15

a lot of times you know you're going contrary

15:18

to what your own body is telling you. Just reading

15:20

that that sounds super worrisome. But as

15:22

you mentioned, he didn't want to go to

15:25

the doctor, get liquids and ruin

15:27

what he had been preparing for. Yeah,

15:29

I think there's someone described

15:32

them as contest blinders, which I think is

15:34

a good way to think about it. That they are so

15:37

focused on winning, so focused on

15:39

showing up in a certain condition. They've

15:41

spent a lot of time, they spent a lot

15:43

of money. These are very expensive sports to compete

15:45

in that getting all of these drugs and supplements,

15:47

and these people talk about describing

15:49

it sometimes as an addiction that they're willing to do whatever

15:52

it takes in order to win. It

15:54

becomes an addiction to see how far they can take

15:56

their body um to an extreme,

15:58

and I think they sometimes

16:00

lose sight of like what is the

16:03

you know, a potentially life

16:05

threatening emergency that's happening with their

16:07

bodies. Now, body building has been around

16:10

for a long time, and you know, the eighties and the

16:12

nineties was a big hey day for

16:14

this, and you know, there was a lot of steroid

16:16

use, a lot of diuretics obviously back

16:18

then. To what has change or what has

16:20

stayed the same since that time, what

16:23

we've been hearing from the athletes and coaches

16:25

and judges is that over time

16:27

there has really been this push to

16:29

an extreme that the bodies. And there's a great

16:32

story today by my colleagues that looks

16:34

at the science behind what bodybuilders are doing

16:36

near their bodies, and you just see them getting

16:38

bigger and more massive and trying

16:41

to build be as lean as possible

16:43

and so you know, physiques. There

16:45

was a story today was talking about how Arnold would

16:47

not be able to win with his condition. Arnold Schwarzenegger

16:50

would not have been able to win, you know, the Olympia

16:52

or other body building competitions with the physique he showed

16:54

up. And you know, back decades ago,

16:57

people have described it to me as like a freak show.

16:59

And coaches when they brag about their

17:01

athletes online. There was a coach, Shelby Starns

17:04

who um was very well known for

17:06

working with female athletes and especially

17:08

the women the bodybuilding division, which is like the largest,

17:11

most extreme of the sport that goes

17:13

from bikini to bodybuilding, and he,

17:16

you know, would complement his athletes online as freak

17:18

freak show, freak zoid and that that is the direction

17:21

in which the sport in some instances has

17:23

gone. Yeah, he worked with Jody Angle,

17:25

who you mentioned earlier, who possibly

17:27

facing kidney transplants and just

17:29

long term damage from the programs

17:31

that she was set in. What do we know or what have we heard

17:34

from the governing bodies for

17:36

these competitions. You made mention

17:38

in the article how they don't really

17:40

test a lot of the athletes for some of these

17:43

substances. What has their

17:45

reaction been to all of this? In the

17:47

US, the two largest bodybuilding

17:49

federations. It's the National Physique Committee

17:52

runs the amateur and the Inner

17:54

i FBB PRO is the

17:56

the professional division, and they do not

17:58

do any kind of routine drug

18:01

testing at all there it's not considered a drug tested

18:03

league. There are certain shows, you

18:06

know, certain show promoters may advertise

18:09

and and promote individual quote

18:11

unquote natural shows where they do test,

18:13

sometimes by polygraph or sometimes

18:16

by urine, but by far and away that that

18:18

is not the regular at these shows that they are not subjected

18:20

to any of it. So they have essentially opted

18:23

out of of of knowing what their

18:25

athletes are doing in order to show up on stage.

18:27

UM there's another major

18:29

body building federation UM that's based

18:32

in Spain that they say that

18:34

they do drug testing. However, they

18:36

were recently sanctioned by the

18:38

World Anti Doping Agency for failing

18:40

to UM you know, spend

18:42

enough money on testing and for failing to

18:44

do effective testing. So and

18:46

I think there's other places around the world where it's

18:49

it's sort of the people are looking the other way and kind

18:51

of turning a blind eye, and so it

18:53

is. It is as as Luke Sando's

18:56

mother, um Luxando is an athlete

18:58

from the United Kingdom who died already

19:00

one and she said to us,

19:02

you know, she said, it's an absolute free for all.

19:04

There's just real destruction and devastation and destroyed

19:07

lives. And I think describing as an absolute

19:09

free for all is something I've heard from other people

19:11

as well. Jen Abelson,

19:14

investigative report at the Washington Post. Thank

19:16

you very much for joining us. Thank

19:18

you so much for having me. That's

19:26

it for today. Join us on social media

19:29

at Daily Dive Pod on both Twitter and Instagram.

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19:44

engineered by Tony Sarantino. Hi'm

19:46

Oscar Ramirez, and this was

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your Daily Dive