How Republicans and Democrats see Jan. 6 differently

Good morning. It's Friday, January 5th. I'm Mark Garrison in for Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, dangerous winter weather coming to the East Coast, overhauling parking in dozens of American cities, and Esther Perel on the real reasons couples fight.

But first, President Biden is delivering a campaign speech in Pennsylvania today, just before the three year mark of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. It's an effort to frame the upcoming election as a fight for democracy, and argue that reelecting his potential Republican opponent, Donald Trump, could be dangerous for America. "Bloomberg" White House correspondent Akayla Gardner told us about how Biden's approach is similar to his 2020 campaign strategy.

His pitch then, and it's still now, is he talked about the soul of America and the fight for the soul of America and really calling out hate and this rhetoric that he feels that Donald Trump embodies. And he is sort of holding himself as a moral standard.

Of course, voters will also weigh other factors, including economic issues and the various global wars. But Gardner says that the Biden campaign thinks that the health of American democracy is a top concern for Democratic voters.

They feel that, you know, there was certain polls that showed that Americans broadly, especially independents, especially Democrats, felt as though democracy was under threat. And they felt that that helped them keep the Senate, as they did in the midterms.

Which is why Biden is using the anniversary of the Capitol attack to speak to voters. But January 6th has had a very different effect for many Republicans. Recent polling from "The Washington Post" finds that Republicans are now less likely to blame Trump for the January 6th attack and more sympathetic to those who stormed the Capitol. And more than a third of Republicans say they believe the false conspiracy theory that the FBI incited the attack.

Really, Trump has cast himself as a victim, whether it was in that investigation, whether it is in the indictments. And that, I think more than anyone really expected, has really driven support behind him.

In that same "Post" poll, when Democrats and independents are included, a majority of Americans do think that the attack on the Capitol threatened democracy.

Now let's take a quick look at some other major stories in the news.

In Iowa, a sixth-grade student is dead and several other people wounded. A 17-year-old gunman attacked a school before dying by suicide. Student Ava Augustus talked on "NBC" about hiding in the classroom until she got the all-clear.

People are calling their parents, friends, and then we hear, "He's down, you can go out." And I run, and you can just see glass everywhere. Blood on the floor.

Police say they found an improvised explosive device in the school, which didn't go off. The East Coast is in for a major winter storm this weekend. New York and Boston are likely to get snow, and Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia are forecast to at least get frigid rain and dangerous roads. That Biden speech in Pennsylvania we just talked about was originally tomorrow, but the White House moved it up because of the severe weather forecast.

America has a lot of cars, and that means a lot of debate about parking.

Drivers want to park close to their destinations, and for a long time, city planners catered to them. Many communities have had longstanding parking minimums, strict regulations as to how many spots need to be provided for every retail, office or apartment building. But "NPR" looks at how that's changing. A lot of places are ditching parking minimums, saying that the land can be put to better use. Cities like Austin are at the forefront of this movement.

Austin has developed as a low density city without adequate mass transportation system. Austin citizens cannot give up their cars.

Tony Jordan, president of the Parking Reform Network, told "NPR" that people should focus on what's lost when land is taken up by parking lots.

The housing that could have gone in that space or the housing that wasn't built because the developer couldn't put enough parking. So we just lose housing in exchange for having convenient places to store cars.

And there's also a lot of support for the change in Austin and elsewhere. More than 50 other cities and towns have gotten rid of parking minimums, from Alaska to California to Florida.

Finally, the well-known couples therapist, Esther Perel, is Shumita's latest guest on our interview show, "Apple News in Conversation."

They talked just before Shumita's maternity leave about the problems modern couples face. In Esther's view, we're asking too much of our partners these days.

We want one person to give us companionship, economic support, co-parenting, intellectual equal, best friend, confidant, passionate lover. And we also hope to find that person on an app. And the unprecedented expectations come also with unprecedented disappointments.

She has tips for how to navigate this, and she does have some customized thoughts for Shumita.

Well, I would really kick myself if I had had this chance to speak with you, Esther Perel, and not ask you for some advice personally.

I've been feeling it the whole conversation. [LAUGHS]

Um, I'm pregnant with my first child. So, I wanted to ask you, what advice do you have for… for me and my partner, for couples like us, right when they become parents for the first time?

Yes, having a child is a redistribution of resources. Time, money, attention, touch, sensuality, you name it.

Mmm. Mm-hm.

And it demands a lot of attention. It demands real, careful, deliberate attention to not let the couple die on the vine. Especially given that today the survival of the family depends on the happiness of the couple.

Yeah. Yeah.

So, the couple that gives everything they have to their kids and leaves nothing for themselves puts the family at risk, not just the couple. That's something I tell lots of people because there is an unprecedented child centrality at this moment that really demands for the people to abdicate of themselves at a level that has reached an apex of folly.

Hm.

Now you know what I think.

And so, to do that, to have the couple maintain itself, the most important thing I can say is find a community.

Find a community.

Find a community. Don't go at it alone.

Mmm.

You get support, you get adult time…

Mmm.

…and you get a sense that other people care about your kids. That you're not the only ones who have to be there responsible and with your love and your attention. And that liberates you when you know that they have other people. I don't know what kind of extended family you have around you, but if you do, involve them, and if you don't, create a family of choice.

Mm. Mm. Oh, that's such great advice. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

If you're listening in the Apple News app, that full episode is queued up to play next. If you're listening in the Podcasts app, just search for "Apple News In Conversation." Enjoy the weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.