Lovett or Leave It - Zoom and Gloom

Episode Date: March 21, 2020

Ronan Farrow stops by to take calls from couples working from home. And Adam Schiff calls in to give us an update on the congressional response to the virus and his struggles with veganism during impeachment. Plus, listeners call in with their own personal high notes and Ronan tells me why he doesn't consider Cheetos a staple food. Back in the Closet, Week 2. Hang in there, everybody.

Hey, everybody. We're here. It's happening. We've got a skeleton crew in the studio. Before we get to the show, if you're looking for a way to help those in need, Crooked's Coronavirus Relief Fund spreads your donation equally to groups providing critical support for food banks,

healthcare workers, restaurant workers, seniors, kids who depend on school lunches, and more. We knew that there was a lot of people out there saying, there are so many good causes,

where do I direct my donation if I can donate? And we just put it all in one place. If you donate to this fund at crooked.com slash coronavirus, it just gets split up equally and goes to a bunch of worthy groups. We've already crossed, as of today, over 100,000 by the time you're hearing that. We're hoping to get above 200. We've set a goal of 250, but if we smash that goal, we'll just do another goal. Crooked.com slash coronavirus.

Welcome once again to Love It or Leave It, Back in the Closet. John's going, going back, back in the closet, closet. That is only the second time I've had to hear that, and I don't know how long we're going to be doing this, but I don't want to hear it again. If you, noble listener, would like to record a new version of our Love It or Leave It, Back in the Closet sound effect, please do. The bar is low. The bar is so very, very low. Today we'll be joined by Adam Schiff on the latest from Congress, and I'll be joined by a very special guest. It's Ronan. You've already heard him laugh several times. Hi, guys. Hi, Jonathan. It's not your time yet. All right.

I'll shut up. But first, let's get into it. What a week. Obviously, this is an incredibly difficult time, and I think we all need to give ourselves a moment to look in the mirror, take a deep breath, and admit to ourselves that the smell is us. It's time to wash the sweatpants. There are a lot of people out there. Look, this is the face Rona has given me.

There are a lot of people out there who have lost their jobs, their bartenders, restaurant workers, many more who are worried about their jobs. There are a lot of people out there who are working from home and figuring out the good laptop camera angle for their chin while trying to keep their kids from destroying the house. And these are kids who until last week were loved. And there are a lot of adult kids trying to figure out how to take care of their parents from afar, which includes saying things like, face it, dad, you're old, you have to stay home. And the woman from OAN News will literally kill you to become Kent State gun girl level famous. That's how little your life means to her. And there are a lot of us who are also getting up and going to work from hospitals to urgent care clinics,

to grocery stores, to Amazon warehouses, to food banks, to assisted living facilities, who collectively are not only holding our society together, but doing so while being asked to confront the many ways our society fails the vulnerable every single day. And so is it important that I'm pretty sure I've already gained five pounds? He's looking at me for an answer, but I'm not answering that question. That is a trap question. Well, the answer is it's not important. You look spectacular, Jonathan. Get away from the microphone. The point is it's not important. I wasn't asking if you thought it was true. I was asking if you thought it was important. That actually is an easy one.

Well, it's clearly not important, and you shouldn't be asking. The point is, I bought a 31.5-ounce bag of Hershey's Nuggets. That's almost two pounds of nug. It's gone. It's gone. So we're going to... Don't you... No, get away.

I can confirm that. It's true. No, I wasn't looking for journalism. I can multiple source that. me and Pundit. How many nuggets did you have? I had, I would conservatively estimate four. I would say you've had all the rest of the nuggets, Jonathan. He works very hard.

He's earned the nuggets. I mean, he's here playing in an empty room. It's tough. It reminds me of my cable news days. No, no, no, it doesn't. Hey, hey, our ratings are the same now. We do better than Dayside Cable. So we'll talk to Adam Schiff about what Congress can do right now to help get us out of this crisis and hold Trump accountable. I'm going to figure out how to hold myself accountable because I'm not going to let Trump's failure to manage this crisis mean that I lose all the gains I've made at the gym. Just because he's unfit, Ronan,

doesn't mean I have to be unfit. Anyway, back to the very serious story at hand. Look at how much damage Trump did by failing to take this seriously. We have it totally under control. We think we have it very well under control. Very well under control in our country. We have it so totally under control. We think we have it very well under control. Very well under control in our country. We have it so well under control. And then on Monday, Trump said this. If you're talking about the virus, no, that's not under control.

So that leads us to today. The State Department announced that Americans should not travel internationally. The highest level of advisory usually focused on individual countries in the midst of wars. There was a photo making the rounds today that showed Trump crossing out the word corona and replacing it with Chinese on his talking points so that he could call it the Chinese virus because as always, he'd rather talk about political correctness than about how he's fucking up. Ronan, what did you think of the moment where Donald Trump brought a goat into the briefing room and said, this goat is the cause. This goat is the reason we're in this mess.

We ought to send it away to die because it's to blame. Do you think that it was fair of the Times to have a headline saying Trump says a goat's to blame, but others disagree? Well, look, as you know, I am an impartial investigator. I don't even want to hear the rest of it. I don't even want to hear the rest of it. I am a fierce stand for the free dissemination of information. Oh, my God. That is the worst sentence I've ever heard. I stand for the freedom of press.

I used to until five seconds ago. And I would say that there's a fairly good case to be made that there was not a free and open dissemination of information when there perhaps should have been. Thank you for that startling insight. Don't call it banal. I came here as a favor. No one said banal. You thought banal. You projected it onto me. I called it a startling insight. I came to this empty studio as a favor to you. Oh, wow. Wow. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. I'm a fan of the show. Late last week, the Democratic House worked late into the night to pass a bill, and a perfect bill that had relief, including sick leave for some workers. They passed it in the middle of the night and sent it to the Senate.

But Mitch McConnell had already gone home for the weekend, and Sherrod Brown, Lion of Ohio, husband to Connie Schultz, who rules, he was pissed. I asked Senator McConnell on this floor, I opened this door, Mr. President, and I pointed down the hall and I said, Senator McConnell should come back here and let's work on this bill. Whether they're actually finished in the House down the hall doing it or not, we should be working this. Now we've had four more days. Senator McConnell had to go back to Kentucky. I don't really know what he went back for. It's three more days of people worrying. It's three more days of people self-quarantining.

It's three more days of businesses in Columbus and Dayton shutting down. It's the anguish that you feel if you think one of your loved ones is sick. But after an unnecessary delay, the Senate passed the bill. Trump signed it. And Congress went to work on a larger stimulus bill, necessary delay. The Senate passed the bill. Trump signed it. And Congress went to work on a larger stimulus bill, which somehow amazingly may include some form of temporary universal basic income. Jared Leto goes into silent meditation and he comes out two weeks later. Joe Biden's the nominee. Mitch McConnell's in the Yang gang. And there's no more toilet paper. And Jared Leto says, I don't need toilet paper. It's hard to explain, but when you

have my personality, you don't poop. Then he said, now I have an idea. What if I got a bunch of my celebrity friends together and we sing Imagine into our phones? We're like, we already did that, Jared. And it worked. The Gal Gadot video worked. It did exactly what it set out to do. It made us all feel better. It's a Lisa's ringtone. We have been doing Zoom conference calls where you see what's going on in the homes of your colleagues. Travis, who's currently on mute

and cannot actually chime in on the broadcast. We got to see the art in his home. We got to see the Van Gogh poster behind the intern's wall. Do you think August will be bummed that I called him the intern? And then we got to see that Alisa's has actually her the focus point of her wall is the thermostat. There's nothing. Meanwhile, a shocking story broke today by ProPublica about North Carolina Senator Richard Burr. He was receiving daily corona briefings in the Senate, but while he was publicly reassuring his constituents that the administration had it under control, privately he was warning Republican donors that the coronavirus, and I

quote, is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic. And so while he was saying that privately, he was also dumping $1.6 million in stock just a week before the markets tanked. But in his defense, he also voted against a bill that would have made what he did illegal. So what's your problem? Maybe we should socially isolate Richard Burr into, what do you call them, stocks. You finding the punchline there, sweetie? Let's call this episode, You Finding the punchline there, sweetie. Let's call this episode You Finding the Punchline There, Sweetie?

The point is what I was going to say is we should take Richard Burr and bring him to the center of the town square and make him put his hands in that thing where everyone gets to walk around and go what the fuck's your problem? You know, the stocks. Those are stocks.

There is a joke there. There is a joke there, Ronan. Thank you so much for being there. Someone can power everybody up in post. Hey, he Ronan went deep on this story, spent months getting sources, and he found the punch line. We'll have Adam Schiff on the show later. So I'm going to talk to him about the failure of the Trump response and the congressional response to meet the economic crisis that's upon us. But it's worth remembering we had our first case of coronavirus

on the exact same day as South Korea. South Korea immediately took it seriously, jumped into action, began testing right away and has already begun to curb the spread of the virus. America sat around, didn't stack up on ventilators, didn't get tests to people, and told Americans to go about their business spitting in the mouths of strangers they met on Bumble. And now the only live television left is this. Give me a hell yeah. I said, give me a hell yeah. That was Stone Cold Steve Austin talking to an empty arena. Stone Cold, of course, is allowed outside because it's just a stone cold. And he does not have any symptoms of the stone flu. Boo.

Anyway, before we get to our illustrious guests and Ronan, I was really struck. What did I do to deserve that? By what Governor Cuomo of New York said about this crisis after speaking about not being able to see his daughter. I mentioned my daughter. I haven't seen my daughter in over two weeks. There's a distance between me and my daughter because of this virus. It saddens me to the core and it frightens me to the core. I just said it to her. I said, I can't tell you how hard this is for me not to be able to be with you, not to be able to hold you in my arms,

not to be able to kiss you all over your face, which she hates anyway. And that plays out a thousand different ways. It is a hard time on every level. It is a frightening time on every level. At the same time, it is this much time. Is it three months? Is it six months? Is it nine months? I don't know, but it's this much time. We will get through this much time. This much time. Obviously, this is a really uncertain moment, and I know it's scary, and I know nobody knows what's going to come next, and all I will say is here's a small step I took today. If you are my friend and you text me, within seconds your phone's ringing.

And guess who it is? It's me calling you because I know the phone is in your warm little purelled hand and there's nothing you can do but answer and talk to me except for one friend who just responded pooping who shall remain nameless that's funny because i text you frequently from the next room over and do not get this fable responsiveness. Is your supposition, Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker, is your claim that you think the two of us

as we are working from home and together virtually 24 hours a day, excluding the one respite where I come to this studio, a respite in which you are currently apart. Are you saying we are not currently talking enough? I think it depends on whether I'm asking for something or not.

If it's like, could you walk the dog this time? Then suddenly there's no call from you. It's like I'm waiting and there's a call from my agent. Excuse me. Excuse me. Are you going to claim here right now that you're constantly asking me if I'll walk Pundit this time? Let me just say something to everyone at home. Pundit loves Ronan deeply.

However, there's something that comes out of this dog when it's time for one of us to walk the dog. When I say that Pundit does not want to walk with anyone but me, I mean that if Ronan says, Okay, Pundit, let's go for a walk, she buries herself behind me on the couch. So yeah, does Ronan get a better hello? Because he's fun weekend dad who goes to the ball pit and Chuck E. Cheese, and I'm

weekday dad who has the kids during school and makes sure they do their homework. Yeah. I'm not a regular mom. I'm a cool mom. Mean girls. I don't get the reference. liked it she got it this is all trimmed down nicely he every time i say something uh he chimes in with we're gonna delete all this like you're david fincher and i'm jake gyllenhaal that's a deep cut that's you can look up the gawker article jake gyllenhaal jake gyllenhaal told this story which

is so funny which is how difficult it was to work with David Fincher because they would do 30 takes, 30 difficult emotional takes, and then Fincher would loudly say, that's a cut. Delete the last 10 takes. When we come back, we're going to take some questions from you, the listener. Is it time for my segment? It is right now. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

And we're back. Every week during these Back in the Closet episodes, we want to check in with you over the phone. And this week, we want to try a segment we're calling Love in the Time of Corona. So we're going to talk to a few folks over the phone and ask them how the coronavirus and social isolation has been affecting their relationships, whether it's a couple, roommates, siblings, what's been going well, what's been going poorly, what's been a strain, what's been a breakthrough. I'm getting a lot of eye contact on some of these words from Jonathan. And here to help is the king of consent himself, Ronan Farrow. I don't know about that title.

The Me Too Avenging Angel. That one you like. The Robin to your Batman. The Mika to your Joe. Those are the same kinds of relationships, right? Okay. Well, you know. You guys realize it took a global pandemic to have him bring me on to do this first of all you've been

on several times how hard up did you have to be to put me in this and it's fine to reference mika and joe but i'm just a little uncomfortable that you bring up our uh role-playing dynamic in the office i mean they'd be flattered i think if that were true. It is not true. Full disclosure, it's not true. We've lingered on it too long. Too long. Move on. Uncomfortable. Ronan, how long? Ronan, so Crooked went to work from home last week. You and I have spent about 22 to 24 hours a day together ever since. Any feedback, roses and thorns? I'm sensing some ambivalence in that tone. I would have read the line like this. We've been spending 23 hours a day together. I wasn't really looking for notes on how I asked.

I'm just curious, what have you learned being cooped up with me for this week, week one? Well, I think it's instructive that when you began freaking out appropriately, given the gravity of the situation, and purchasing emergency supplies, the list went like this. Pringles. Cheetos. Chocolates. What did you want?

I'll tell you, dear listeners. I don't know, some produce? Don't say produce. You sound like a feudal lord. I was putting in an order for some groceries to sustain us. Okay. And yeah, I wanted the staples. Your white cheddar cheese puffs.

Your Hershey's nugs. Your Diet Coke. Your caffeine-free Diet Coke. Your Cherry Coke Zero. But then Ronan said, well, we need some of my staples. And I said, what are those staples? And he said, cottage cheese and bristling sardines. That is a classic combo you eat like an alien inhabiting a human body you eat like Smeagol I get a lot of this is the answer to the

question it's like this all day so much criticism okay how do you think we've been doing on alternating on the PlayStation 4? Pretty well. It's been pretty equitable. I mean, there have been some days where you wind up playing. Excuse me. To suggest that I'm the PS4 hog, first of all, it strains credulity. Accurate is what I would say. I mean, I think people trust my reputation for accuracy more than yours.

Nobody in this room is disputing it. Sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you. Alisa is laughing on the floor she agrees she definitely agrees I think that what she's saying is if I just could read the shrug I would think she's saying well obviously Ronan has a

world famous he's well known for journalism and exposing the truth. And I am a podcaster, narcissist clown. Who cares deeply about the truth? Who does care about the truth?

As readers of a little book called Catch and Kill. Oh, do not plug the book. Do not plug the fucking book. I come all the way to your empty office and I can't plug my damn book. People need reading material during this crisis, Jonathan. Hey, Lisa, can we go to the phones? Okay, so this caller says,

the biggest challenge of working from home with my fiancé is that he goes on a damn run every single day, and I feel guilty if I don't work out too. Like, at least when we're in our own separate workplaces, there is some plausible deniability about our respective commitment to fitness. Gabby from Philly. Oh, oh, Gabby is touching a nerve here because this is an important part of our interpersonal dynamic. Let's call Gabby.

Okay. Let's get Gabby on the blower. Hello. Hi, is this Gabby? It is. Hi, Gabby. This is John Lovett. I'm the host of a podcast. It's called Love It or Leave. This is John Lovett. I'm the host of a podcast.

It's called Love It or Leave It. Oh, Lovett, I knew who you are. And we're calling to talk about this relationship challenge you face. I've actually brought my own relationship expert, Ronan Farrow. He's here as well. Hi, Gabby. Oh, my God. Hi, Ronan.

How are you? Oh, thank you for that response. That, Gabby. Oh, my God. Hi, Ronan. How are you? Oh, thank you for that response. That's so nice. Oh, great. Yeah. Yet one more person to be delighted to see Ronan. That's perfect. Gabby, so we've come to understand that your boyfriend, fiancé, brother, fiancé.

Fiancé. Fiancé is going on a run every morning, and it's making you feel bad. I will say it doesn't sound to me as though you have a couple problem. It seems to me that you have a problem. Which is that either you need to go for a run or you need to get the fuck over it. Jonathan, you have no bedside manner. Gabby, you're doing great. And it's incumbent on your partner to accommodate your need to be in sync fitness-wise

and he should hold out on his run until you're ready to run jointly. Thank you, Ronan. You're the reasonable one. I knew that already. That's what people say, yes. It's my fucking show, Gabby. You wrote in. Sorry. What did you want? You just want... It's the best part of my week. If it makes you feel better, it's the best part of my week. Gabby, are you working from home now? What's the situation? I am working from home, yes. We're both stuck in the house all day. And then every day at 1 o'clock, he gets up and he's like, I'm going to go for a run.

And then that's when I feel guilty because that means that I have to do something too, right? He's really rubbing it in your face. He really is. He really is. He says he would love me anyway, but I'm starting to doubt that. Wow. Wow. Here is my proposal.

He's kidding. He's kidding. We know you're kidding. We know the state of your union is strong. However, my advice would be, from our test run this past week, in which we have yet to commit a murder-suicide, either of us, I would suggest that by ensuring once a day you have some kind of a joint fitness activity, then that frees you each up to do an isolation activity as well. And both can be valuable. So

he can have his little alone time, he can leave and walk around. Roman, are you encouraging us to have more sex? I mean, always. That is my mindset. Gabby. Gabby. Your mind is in the gutter. It's not what I was thinking of right there. He was talking about burpees. He was talking about burpees. I really literally

was talking about burpees. But sex, too. But I think the sex is separate. That's recreation. But I think you guys should do fitness and actual cardio, not sex too. But I think the sex is separate. That's recreation. But I think you guys should do fitness and like actual cardio, not sex cardio. And then you should also understand that it's valid for him to want a little alone time. I think as long as you're doing both. You know what? I didn't think of it that way.

That's absolutely reasonable. Thank you. Wow. That's what we should do too, Jonathan. He refuses to do fitness with me. I keep offering. I'm just blown away by the, I don't even want to get in the way of the connection Gabby and Ronan have now created. Like it runs deep.

John, you're perfect the way you are. I see you, Gabby. That is the least helpful thing I could have heard, Gabby. Gabby, thank you so much. I never want to hear I'm perfect the way I am. That is pity and I reject it. I just wish you all the best, Gabby. You guys are doing great, we believe in you Gabby Thank you so much, I wish you guys all the best too

Thank you for calling me, you made my night Alright, stay safe out there Alright, let's do another Next one, I'm going to let them describe the problem to you Okay Hello, this is Kate Hi, Kate, it's John Lovett From a podcast Love it or leave it, how you Kate. It's John Lovett from a podcast, Love It or Leave It.

How are you doing? Good. Hi, Lovett. So you wrote into the void, as it were, and you wanted to talk about a challenge you've had in your relationship. Tell us about it. Let me put you on speaker real quick so my fiance can also chime in. I love it.

Hi. Hi. What's your name? I'm Brian. Brian. It's Brian and Kate. Where are you guys from? We're in Philly. All right. Well, tell us what's been on your minds. We were supposed to get married April 25th, and that has been officially postponed, which sucks. I bet. Oh, that's terrible. I think for me, the worst part is the like uncertainty because things change so fast. Maybe everything's going to be OK. Maybe everything's not going to be OK. It's like, well, how do you plan going forward for something that is changing like every six

hours? So our hope is we can get married in a really small ceremony on that day and postpone the actual party. But then we don't know when would be okay to have that. Has it been like really expensive to cancel? No, actually all of the vendors have been wonderful. Our photographer offered to come if we do have the small ceremony to take pictures then. And then again, when we have the party and she wouldn't charge us if it took an extra hour or two, wedding vendors have been amazing. That's so amazing. I should say, I meant to tell you, I'm here with my fellow wedding planner, Ronan Farrow, to help us through these challenges. Hi, Kate.

Hi, guys. I think your plan is great. I think that everyone in these trying times should embrace even the possibility of, like, a Skype elopement with some kind of a non-denominational minister. Kate, Brian, I want you to know that what Ronan just said, somewhere, my mother in Florida, when I say that a shiver just ran down her spine, she just said like, I think there's been a disturbance in the forest. I think Alderaan may have been destroyed. Something terrible has happened.

The idea of Ronan and I eloping, it will kill her dead. I mean, she's going to love the party later. She can come to Kate's party, too. We just invited John's mother to your party. You guys and your mom are fully invited. Oh, that's so nice. Thank you. So what? So so you're thinking about doing a smaller ceremony on that day? And actually, our wedding coordinator said they have a videographer who's offered to do live streaming for both his clients and not his clients, which, again, so nice. That's amazing. I think even in the best of times, separating out the ceremony and the party has a lot of virtues.

I support all of this. Are Catholic priests still doing the, what's it called? I'm Jewish. It's where they feed you a cracker. The host? Does it have to be one kind of cracker? In a pinch, could you use Ritz? That's a good question. That is a good question. There are gluten-free crackers. There's the normal wafer, but then if you have a gluten-free allergy, they make rice ones.

They've got keto wafers these days. Just as long as a priest does it, you know know so what i'm learning here is a ritz cracker can become the bodily manifestation of jesus christ if necessary in a pinch in a pinch the only problem we have on this call is there's no problem you have no problem kate you guys i mean they had to cancel their wedding that sucks i like let's not be dismissive triumphed over it listen to how they're doing the best they can during a difficult time. Brian, Kate, thank you so much. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you so much. Best of luck, guys. The next one comes from James Brandt. He says, Social distancing for couples. My girlfriend and I live together and both work for the same research institution. During the crisis, I was designated an essential employee,

where she was designated an essential employee where she was designated not essential. This has created a rift between us because I now refer to everything I do as the actions of an essential employee. All right, let's get this fella on the horn. What's his name again? James. All right, James. Hello? Hi, is this James? Yes. Hi, this is John Lovett from the podcast Love It or Leave It. I'm here with my fellow relationship counselor, Ronan Farrow. Hi there. And we're calling because you wrote into our...

Oh, hi, Ronan. We wrote into your... Oh, he gets such a nice hello. Thank you for that, James. James, James... Hi, John, too. You know what? You know what, James?

We're going to have a conversation now because we saw what you wrote in. And what you basically said is that you are constantly rubbing it in. What's your girlfriend's name? Kim. Kim. You are constantly rubbing. She's actually here right now. Oh, hi, Kim.

Hi, guys. We are on your side. The fact that James is constantly referring to his own work as essential. So basically, James, you have to go in and go to work. Kim is at home, and she's not currently working. Obviously, that was going to create a strain. But I do think constantly referring to the work you do as essential is really not very loving. So it's not only I'm constantly referring to as my work is essential, her work is also emailing her and telling her that she's non-essential, like, all the time also. How many times does it take to get that message?

Was Kim under a misapprehension? Was she showing up at odd hours? No, I actually think they won't let her show up anymore. We actually work for the same company. We work for the same, like, big research institution, and I guess I'm just too low on the totem pole to be allowed to go to work right now. All the more reason why it's incumbent

on James to not reinforce that messaging. James, listen, I understand. Sometimes in a couple, one party's work is more essential than the other. I swear to God. You take those words out of your mouth. And if that should be the case in a given relationship, one must be gracious about it.

Hey, Kim, what are you doing later? Kim, how are you doing not going to work? I've started a 30-day yoga challenge, and I'm training for a 10K. Wow. So I'm trying to do that. I'm going crazy. Okay, okay.

I work in clinical research, so I'm used to spending my day talking to, like, hundreds of just old people. And being alone in my house in our, like, tiny apartment is driving me up a wall. Wow. Kim is a hero. That is, I mean, we are definitely not training for any 10Ks or doing yoga challenges. No, the yoga challenge that I would have to participate in would really be very sad. We really only change the position of our bodies to better accommodate video games. I feel as though I'm developing a... My back is going to be just fully C-shaped by the time this is over

because of how I'm sitting on the couch with my laptop. It's really, really brutal. Actually, while I have been calling her non-essential a little too much... James, James, let me stop you right there. Once was too many times. You never had to do it even once. It never had to happen even one time. Well, all of that is a preface to say that actually us playing video games together has been one of the benefits of all this free time.

Because neither of us are really gamers. But on my little MacBook, I downloaded a Super Nintendo emulator. But on my little MacBook, I downloaded a Super Nintendo emulator. So as a couple, we're actually playing through Super Mario World together right now. Oh, that's delightful. That's delightful. You get to meet, you know who I think is pretty essential? Yoshi.

Kim, James, thank you so much for letting us call you. Kim, I just want you to know that I think you're great. And James, it's been good to talk to you. We should all be more like Kim. Thank you, Kim, I just want you to know that I think you're great, and James, it's been good to talk to you. We should all be more like Kim. Thank you, Kim. Have a great night. Bye, guys. We love you.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, we're huge fans of yours. Thank you. Bye. Thank you, Ronan. That was good advice. Should I say goodbye? You're going to goodnight me without my participation?

Sorry. Sorry. You're right. You're right. Jonathan was about to wrap up the segment without so much as a courtesy goodbye to me. I swear to God, Ronan. He proposed adding it in post without me present. We have spent so much time together.

I have a fantasy of saying goodbye to you. There are a lot of dropped jaws in this room and there would be even more if you had an actual audience. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I love you very much. Supportive spouses out there, you need to know I came here as a favor. Stop calling it a favor. Just stop doing that. It's awful. You're constantly calling it a favor. You know, I can't even look at it. Joe and Mika would never treat each other this way.

I'm not sure that's true. Ladies and gentlemen, Ronan Farrow. Thank you, Jonathan. Thanks, non-existent audience and cricket team. treat each other this way. I'm not sure that's true. Ladies and gentlemen, Ronan Farrow. Thank you, Jonathan. Thanks, non-existent audience and cricket team. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. Joining us today, he is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and he is my congressman. Please welcome back to the show, Chairman Adam Schiff. It's great to be with you. Thanks for having me on. So first of all, how are you? You know, you yourself have been extremely cautious as former staff reviewers tested positive for COVID-19. Several of your House colleagues have had positive tests or in

isolation. How has this affected you? How's it affected your family, your job? Well, we had to take a lot of precautions when Dan Goldman, my former staff member, came down with the virus. We think that he came down with it after he was exposed to it, after he left our office, but we took precautions nonetheless. We're mostly teleworking like much of America right now. I'm doing telephone town halls. I have another one coming up this Thursday night at seven o'clock that people can dial into or my constituents will be dialed from our office. But doing my best to take the same kind of social distancing precautions that we're urging the rest of the country. We're trying to figure out how Congress can meet and do its business, which pose particular logistical challenges since presently we can't remote vote, and so we all have to get on planes to fly to D.C.

and all congregate on the House floor, none of which is probably very wise practice at this point. So we're trying to do workarounds. We're trying to do as much as we can by unanimous consent and on suspension, but we won't be able to do everything that way. And so we're trying to be mindful of the CDC guidelines and setting a good example, while also making sure that the very important work we have to do right now gets done in an urgent fashion. So, you know, I want to actually talk about the ongoing negotiations, but you raised this issue of members of Congress needing to travel. Norm Ornstein is someone who has worked on a lot of these issues about plans for emergencies,

for preparedness, for what the government does for continuity in the event of various kinds of catastrophes. And he's talked about the need for there to be ways for Congress to meet remotely, and even perhaps to vote remotely in the event of a pandemic like this. What do you think Congress should do to secure Congress's ability to do its job, given that there's a possibility that this may go on for an indefinite period of time? I know there's been a lot of interest on Norm's part. One of my former colleagues, Representative Baird from Washington State, worked for a number of years on legislation that would allow the continuation of government if there were a mass casualty event and we could no longer form a quorum in Congress, for example.

This is a bit different in that the major impediment is the gathering together to cast our votes, and we may likely have to work around that. Frankly, it's something that I've been resisting up until now. There are some things that it's just very difficult to do by telephone. As a chair of the Intelligence Committee, for example, I need access to classified information. I can't do that, for the most part, remotely. So there is some work we're going to have to do from the Capitol, but I think we are in the process of gauging our members right now

about what they think is best. We're obviously talking to the CDC, trying to manage the travel requirements that would be necessary if we're going to have to vote in person, but also see whether we can undertake a different process here, vote remotely here, without setting a precedent that Congress will ultimately fall back on less emergent circumstances, which we don't think would be in the Congress or the country's best interest. If we do undertake remote voting, this ought to be the exception, not a new rule. So you've been part of these House discussions regarding the coronavirus relief bill. There were stories today about some

conflict between Republicans, including Lindsey Graham and Trump's own chief of staff, around whether or not a stimulus bill will include direct payments, a kind of temporary UBI. What is the latest on that, and what do you see as taking shape as the stimulus? I think there will almost certainly be direct cash payments to individuals, and I think it makes a great deal of sense to get money out to people right now to help pay the bills and put food on the table, make sure people can keep a roof over their head. I think a lot more is going to be required. Whatever we do in the next week or two, much like the last two bills that we passed, will be quickly overtaken by events. So I imagine that the next bill, the economic relief bill component, will probably be just a down payment.

There will be some opposition to the cash payment, so there already is, as you mentioned, Lindsey Graham, Mark Meadows, the new president, the president's new chief of staff, but there's also a lot of bipartisan support for it. The question is, how will it be structured? I think there's an emerging consensus that it ought to be phased out at certain income levels, above which you wouldn't get the cash payment. But the Republican proposal would phase it out for lower income levels, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and is a complete non-starter. So I think the size of the cash payments and what limits will be placed in terms of upper income will have to be debated. My guess is that as part of a broader package, the more contentious issues will come around the president's proposal that we bail out certain industries like the airline industry. Many of us are determined that any relief given to industries like the

airline industry be done with new and stringent conditions attached such that it cannot be used for stock buybacks, it can't be used for bonuses or executive compensation. It has to be used to maintain the workforce. And there has to be a maintenance of effort and requirement of some kind to make sure that funds they would otherwise be paying in salary are not diverted to executive compensation or other purposes for which this crisis is not seen as an opportunity. So we have some bad examples to learn from in the past, but those will be hotly debated. The administration and Republicans apparently also want $150 billion, essentially, corporate slush fund where they can pick what industries or companies they want to

reward. I think that should be a non-starter. We're going to have to be very careful with the taxpayer dollars that we have, since by virtue of that trillion-dollar tax cut for corporations and wealthy families, we don't have the resources that we should during this crisis. What do you make of proposals? So with the airlines, for example, you know, there's sort of, I think, a lot of hand-wringing, even for people who recognize the emergency is not the fault of the airlines, that, you know, these are companies that, in periods where they do well, they reward their executives, they do stock buybacks, and then when there's a period of crisis, which has come relatively frequently, whether because of external forces or dynamics in the industry, that they've required these bailouts.

What do you make of those calling for taxpayers to get some kind of a stake in these companies for the bailout, that they take some kind of ownership stake for doing this national work? I think that proposal should absolutely be on the table and others as well. I would be very supportive of a proposal where the workforce has a representative on the board of these airlines. These airlines didn't maintain much by way of cash reserves for a crisis like this one or any other. They put that cash into compensation, executive compensation, the value of their stocks. And as a result, they have very little to draw upon in a crisis like this. Those management practices aren't good for the public. They aren't good for the airline employees. And there needs to be, I think, governance changes to make sure that they're

more responsible stewards. You know, we dealt with a crisis in which banks were deemed too big to fail. These industries are now being deemed too important to fail. And while they certainly didn't bring on this crisis the same way Wall Street did, and had they put more in their rainy day fund, had they kept more in reserve for a crisis like this, they wouldn't need quite as much support from the government. And so I think there should be very stringent conditions attached to any industry that gets federal support. I also don't think that this should be in the form of grants. I'm much more disposed to the degree that we provide financial relief to have that in the form of

loans that are set with certain conditions. But this should be, I think, an opportunity to make sure that the airlines don't put themselves or the public in this position again. So I want to talk about the Trump administration response. You know, the Trump administration is currently withholding the worldwide threat assessment from Congress. Among other things, it apparently includes warnings about our nation not being prepared for a pandemic. Do you know more about what's in this report? And more broadly, how important is it to remain focused on how the Trump administration dropped the ball here? There are a lot of people saying, oh, that's just politics. We can't deal with that right now. Do you agree with that? No, I think we have to level the country. We have to acknowledge

what we're doing right. We have to acknowledge what the government has done wrong. We lost precious time when the president and administration dawdled during this crisis, tried to happy talk about it, that this was going to go away on its own, that this really wasn't that serious, that we weren't going to have to make any sacrifices, that everything was going to be perfectly okay, that we were well prepared in terms of our response. You know, the abolishment of the pandemic office at the White House by this administration cost us very dearly. They viewed it as unimportant as somebody else's problem. Well, in a small global world that we live in, a pandemic is everyone's problem. And this virus moved like wildfire throughout the

world. And the fact that the administration took so long to come to grips with how serious it is, and even today, doesn't show the requisite, I think, sense of urgency in terms of using the Defense Production Act and other facilities at its command, the length of time it took to get FEMA fully engaged, the persistent shortages. I don't care what the president says. I just talked to the hospital CEOs and the clinics in my district. None of them have the protective gear. None of them can get it. All of them are talking to their suppliers.

None of them have adequate tests, or if they have the tests, they still can't get the results for five days to a week. So it's important that we hold ourselves accountable, hold the administration accountable, but also level with the American people. When they hear the president making claims about the wide availability of testing, and they know that not to be true, then they wonder whether they can rely on anything else the administration says. You said this on the Senate floor. You said, you can't trust this president to do what's

right for this country. You can trust that he will do what's right for Donald Trump. Obviously, he's been lying about this disease for months, trying to downplay it. Even today or the last few days, he has lied about the availability of tests, as you mentioned. But he's also, you know, he says in the briefing that the comfort ship will be available. It's not. He says that there are new treatments that will be available. They are not. What is the role of Congress when you have someone like Donald Trump looking out for himself in these briefings and not looking out for the country? What can you do from your perch to try to keep them honest or at least point out to the American people when they're being dishonest? on us? We can push out good information to our constituents in every way possible,

through telephone town halls, through social media, in our interactions with the press, on podcasts. In every way we can, we can make sure that our constituents get good information. And when they're not getting a straight scoop from the president, and often they're not, we can make sure that our constituents have the truth. They need to understand exactly what's going on, what the risks are, how long this virus will be with us, what the real timeline is like for vaccines and treatments. The American people can handle the truth. They crave it. And we need to make sure that we play our part in getting good information out to them because it will help save lives and mitigate the severity of all this. But sadly, what I said on the Senate floor I think is going to be all too true now, and as long as he's in the Oval Office, and that is he will look out first and foremost for himself.

It's part of the reason why his initial concern with all of this was what it was doing to the stock market, because he viewed a high stock market as the key to his reelection. It's why you can tell he has such a passionate concern about one industry above all others, and that's the travel and leisure industry, because that's his own own business and his businesses are impacted. And so in Congress, we're going to need to make sure that we put the country first, not the president, the person of the president first, that any package that comes out of Congress that we negotiate with the White House is good for all the American people, not just the ones that Donald Trump cares about that run the companies that stand

behind him at the press conferences or run other companies where the CEOs are willing to say nice things about him, which seems to be the only true way to endear yourself with the president. So I think we have a responsibility as truth-tellers and a responsibility of making sure that the legislation that comes out of this process benefits all the American people. Last question. You know, you just led an impeachment inquiry into this president. We're now in the midst of a global pandemic, and it's an incredibly difficult, stressful time for people. Are you still vegan?

I am. I am, although if I can let you in on a terrible lapse, during the impeachment trial, we would have food brought in during the course of the day when there wasn't time to go out and get anything ourselves. And one day, all that was brought in was some barbecue, and it was either eat that or go hungry, and I'm afraid I had a lapse. Are you... This is breaking news. We don't have a banner. We're a podcast in a small,

empty studio. You're telling me in the midst of the impeachment, you broke veganism. Was that the first time in years? How long had you gone without barbecue? I had not had barbecue in years, but I must confess that I do cheat occasionally, but I have very narrow rules for cheating, and the way that I justified and rationalized this was I said to myself, I will allow myself to have barbecue during any impeachment trial of the president of the United States. That's a good rule. That's a good rule. That doesn't prove to be the exception as well as the rule. Three times every 230 years. That's a good rule of thumb. Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you.

Thank you for letting us in on this lapse that you've had. I feel like we've cracked the facade of your professionalism and really seen what's underneath. And I'm grateful to you. But thank you for everything that you're doing in the midst of this fight. Thank you for being my congressman. And thank you for keeping that you're doing in the midst of this fight. Thank you for being my congressman, and thank you for keeping up the fight. Thanks so much. You take care now. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It

coming up. Thank you to Congressman Adam Schiff. Thank you to Ronan Farrow for joining me, and hopefully continuing to talk to me, because as of now, he's the only person I do get to talk to on a daily basis. Before we go, I did want us to end on a high note. You know, it's hard to look at the bright side right now when we are stuck in our homes and

there's so much uncertainty around how long this will last and how bad it will be. And I know that that's hard and I know that it's terrible. But I do think everyone is trying to be generous with each other and patient with each other and kind to each other because no one has the answers and no one knows where this is going to end. And it's hitting just about everyone in this country in different ways. So we wanted to ask everybody listening to provide us with the high notes that they're seeing in their own lives, in their work, in their homes, in their communities.

And we got some really great responses. And if you want to send us a high note, you can do it for next week, too. The number is 424-341-4193. And we'd love to hear from you. But for now, let's end on a high note. Hi, this is Thomas from Illinois. I work with our local homeless services system and I've been so proud and glad about everyone working together to help out our society's most vulnerable. Thanks for keeping the show going. Hi, this is Maggie. I'm from Fort Worth, Texas.

Fort Worth, Texas. And something that's given me hope this week is that my mom is a school teacher, and she is writing postcards and decorating them and sending them to all her students, telling them that she's excited to see them whenever they can and to keep reading and everything's going to be okay. Hey, John. My name is Matt. I am living in Rochester, Minnesota. I am living in Rochester, Minnesota.

And on a less serious note, the thing that's giving me hope is I just started Schitt's Creek, and it's nice to see the Rose family become less shitty over time. Hey, Lovett. So my name is Bethany, and I live in Boston, Massachusetts. In my neighborhood, someone tried desperately to get the neighborhood to sing Sweet Caroline as was expected, and it failed miserably, which was just truly Boston and made my heart happy. Hi, John Lovett. My name's Jackie, and I'm calling from South Lake Tahoe, California. I work at a restaurant here that just closed down a couple days ago. And one thing that's bringing me a lot of hope during this stressful time is just me and several of my co-workers are in a group thread and we're all just trading tips on how to navigate the state's unemployment website and, you know, what kind of things we'll need to make

that application successful. And it's just a really, really happy little group thread. In this time where we're supposed to be distancing each other, I think that it's really important to focus on togetherness. Hi, my name is Sandy, and I'm an American living in Valencia, Spain. I came here for graduate studies, but I'm kind of trapped here now with the country being on lockdown and everything. And what gives me hope, the thing that I look forward to most every day is at night, we all lean out our windows and balconies and give a massive round of applause to all the health care workers and all the officials running this, as well as ourselves, for stepping up and coming together as a community and as a society and getting through this with a brave face. Hi, John Lovett and Crooked Crew. My name is Cassidy, and I live in the Bay Area, and I'm a mechanical engineer who designs HVAC systems. And this week, I've been working on a really cool project to retrofit existing rooms at a nearby hospital so that they'll be suitable for coronavirus patients.

This has given me a lot of hope because I know that all the people that I'm working with are using every single resource they have available to them to make sure that coronavirus patients are in safe and clean and well-cared-for environments. Making sure that patients are getting the care that they need is really important, and it's really special to think that I will have played a tiny role in making that happen. Hi, this is Carissa. I'm from New Hampshire. I'm a recently divorced mom who stays at home with my three kids for the last 16 years managing their lives, and I'm currently in grad school hoping to reenter the workforce soon. In the meantime, budgets are tight.

My credit is really extended. My kids go to a small, public, Montessori school where there's not a cafeteria, and so there's no school lunches. For families like us who qualify for free reduced lunch, the school runs a food program that's setting pantry items and a few fresh fruits and veggies home with the kids a couple times a week. The program is run by volunteers. Before school was even closed, they vowed to keep it going somehow.

Today, four bags of groceries arrived on my doorstep. I almost cried from gratitude. I couldn't even believe it. Hope you all are doing well. Bye. And almost cried from gratitude. I couldn't even believe it. Hope y'all are doing well. Bye. And that's our show. I want to thank Ronan Farrow. I want to thank Congressman Adam Schiff, who invariably provides incredible insight and intelligence. And as hard as I try, cannot get him to crack at all. But one day I'll succeed. Thank you for being here. Thank you to Elisa and Milo and Steven in the studio. Thank you to everyone out there who is doing the jobs that have to be done

right now, whether you're in a grocery store or hospital or Amazon warehouse or anywhere else. And thinking about everybody who's a bartender, works in a restaurant or runs that coffee cart outside of our office that's really struggling right now. And we'll see you next week. Love It or Leave It is a product of Crooked Media. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, Elisa Gutierrez, Lee Eisenberg, and our head writer, former Mike Bloomberg speechwriter, Travis Helwig. Jocelyn Kaufman, Alicia Carroll, and Peter Miller are the writers. Thank you.