The Daily Beast Podcast - This Group Gets Unlimited Sick Leave While You Don’t

Episode Date: December 2, 2022

A group of senators with unlimited sick leave voted down a measure on Thursday which would have given rail workers just seven paid days of sick leave—, a fair rise considering where they currently stand: at zero. It’s a “horrific” decision, according to host Andy Levy on this week’s episode of political podcast, The New Abnormal. “My feeling is this is not a win,” said podcast co-host Danielle Moodie. “I don’t know who this is a win for. We all just went through the heights of a global health pandemic. People lost their jobs, people needed to take off because guess what? We needed to quarantine. So the fact that even after going through this for over three years, that members of Congress could vote to deny people access to sick days, it’s draconian, it’s disgusting.” Also on the podcast, Latosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter and is founder of Southern Black Girls Consortium tells Moodie about the Georgia runoff race as it finally nears an end. Then, Daily Beast political reporter, Roger Sollenberger, talks to Levy about his story surrounding Republican megadonors Dick and Elizabeth Uihlein. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Andy Levy, former Fox News and CNN-HLN guy, and current cable news conscientious objector. I'm a former libertarian who now sits pretty comfortably on the left. Hi, I'm Danielle Moody, former educator and recovering lobbyist. But today, I'm an unapologetic, woke commentator on America's threats to democracy. And I'm producer Jesse Cannon, and I'm here to make sure things don't go too far off the rails. We're here to have fun, smart conversations with some of the most knowledgeable and entertaining people in politics, media, and beyond. Our goal is to try and make sense of our current crazy world, our new abnormal, and hopefully even make you laugh through the tears. We have one hell of a show today.

First, we're joined by Black Voters Matters with Tasha Brown, and she's going to tell us about the Georgia runoff race as it finally nears an end. Then we'll talk to Daily Beast reporter Roger Sullenberger about the Uline family, who donates tons of money to Republican causes as well as the latest on Mr. Herschel Walker. But first, let's have some fun. Hi, Daniel. How are you? Hey, Andy. I'm good. How are you?

I'm doing all right. My understanding is we have maybe some rare good type news to start the show off with. Oh, God, give me something. So the Democrats have a new leader in the House, and it's Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Whoop, whoop. He is a very young man of 52. This is a huge generational shift for the Democrats. I'm excited.

I also find it hilarious that we think that 52 is young, but I guess that when we're comparing it to Octanajarians. This is ageism. And you're not going to stand for it. I do not appreciate it. And I'll be filing an HR report after we're done recorded. Oh, okay. Well, love you. Love you.

You know, I think that people in there, 50s should be revered. Delete everything I said earlier. But no, this is good news. I mean, it's a, you know, not to put too final point on it, it's a new looking person in charge of the house Dems and something that feels long overdue. I mean, it's, you know, 2022. No shade at Nancy Pelosi, but she's been there for a very long time. And as she accurately herself determined, it was time for new blood.

Yeah, I think that this is right. And look, while I still cringe at the idea that in 2022 we're celebrating first for black people, for women, for people of color in general, because it still shows you how far we have to go. But when I saw Hakeem Jeffries, you know, flanked by the other two leaders, that are going to be heading up the Democratic Party. I said, this is America. This is what we should be embracing. This is what we should be uplifting.

Because in comparison, my God, when you look across the aisle, which I try not to, but when you look across the aisle, like, it's just a sea of whiteness. It's a sea of old white men. And it looks like 1950. It doesn't at all represent who we are or where we're going. It does represent who they are and where they're going. Yeah, you're right. But no, you're right. You're absolutely right. Picking Jeffries is more than symbolic, obviously. But it is also symbolic. We shouldn't look away from that and we shouldn't discount that because these things are important. And as you said, the fact that it's 22 and we're sitting here going, ooh, there's a black leader of the House Dems is a little like cringy. But, you know, it's better than they're not having been one in 2022. Yeah. And I think, you know, look, I think that Hakeem Jeffries, he is a.

a fighter. I have loved watching him take down Republican bullshit on committees. I have loved following him on Twitter. I've had the opportunity to interview him before. And he comes with that fire and that passion that we need. We need to invigorate the party in that way. So I'm about this move. Also excited about, you know, the Democrats voting in and electing Ted Liu from California to serve as the vice chair of the caucus next year. Him being the first Asian American, the highest Asian American in Congress. So another first for Democrats. I mean, overall, it's a, it's a pretty good look for them. And as you alluded to before, on the other side of the aisle, which we don't have to get into all that much, but it's a shit show. And it couldn't happen to a nicer group of people.

I still think it will be McCarthy, who ends up being speaker, although the rumblings seem to have grown in the last few days that, you know, there's some opposition to that on that side. So who the hell knows? I mean, it's just nice to see. Republicans in disarray for once? I mean, for once, they're going to stay in disarray. And I can't wait until the Freedom Caucus gets a hold of Kevin McCarthy if he becomes Speaker. And then they use him to mop the floor up with the rest of our democracy, because that's

what they're going to do. It's a disgusting group of people. And Kevin McCarthy is so happy to bow to their whims so that he can seem powerful. Yeah. I mean, there is nobody that I would ever feel less sorry for than Kevin McCarthy. so I don't feel sorry for him at all, but, oh, man, that's going to be a job. I think he's going to quickly realize he shouldn't have wished for. Speaking of Congress, there was a vote on Wednesday to end negotiations between the railroads

and the unions that represent railroad workers. There's a couple of aspects to this that are really off-putting. It's being sort of heralded by a lot of Dems up to and including President Biden as a huge step as something that is sorely needed to prevent massive economic problems in this country. And there's a big problem here in that the railway workers, they get no paid sick leave, which is just horrific. And again, it's like with the leadership, it's the same thing. It's 2022. How are we discussing the fact that these workers get no paid sick leave? And that's their sticking point in voting against this contract. And the Democrats have passed.

a bill to avert a strike, and they also passed a bill that would give the workers seven days of paid sick leave, which everyone knows is not going to pass the Senate. So that part is effectively going to be dead. So what we're going to end up with is a whole bunch of railroad workers who apparently are not allowed to go on strike for better working conditions. And this is somehow being heralded as a good thing by a lot of Democrats, which greatly confuses me. You know, what confuses me is that members of Congress have unlimited fucking sick days, okay? Have unlimited sick days. They have 10 federal holidays off per year.

They work ultimately four days a fucking week because they leave the hill generally on Thursdays. So my feeling is this is not a win. I don't know who this is a win for. How in this day and age do we, especially, my God, we just came. off of, not come off of, because there are still 300 people dying a day of COVID, but we all just went through the heights of a global health pandemic. People lost their jobs. People needed to take off because guess what, we needed to quarantine. So the fact that even after going through this for over three years that members of Congress could vote to deny people access

to sick days, it's draconian. It's disgusting. It's like, here I am sitting up high. I can take as many sick days as I need. I can do whatever it is that I want and also have the ability to dictate to you that you should suffer, right? That you should go into work ill, that you don't have time to care for your family if somebody in your family falls ill, but you may raise your wages just a little bit. Yeah. And again, so there's sort of two parts to this, one Democratic and one Republican. On the Republican side, you only had three members who voted for the paid sick leave. So you're talking about an entire party, basically, that voted against workers having paid sick leave. So that's disgusting.

And this is the party that they have been going around for, you know, their new stick is that they are the true party of the working class in America. And here they are not wanting union workers to have paid sick leave. So there's that. The reason that becomes a bigger problem because it did pass the House. But of course, we don't know that it's going to pass the Senate and probably. I mean, it may not, in which case these workers are going to be left without paid sick leave, regardless of what the House did. So all of this sort of starts to feel like a little bit of political theater on the part of the Democrats

in that they now get to say, we're the party that wanted these people to have paid sick leave, but the Republicans stopped it, which, okay, fine, that's good politics. But it's playing politics with real lives. And for the Democrats to be a party to something that may end up forcing these people to accept this deal that, again, no paid sick leave, that's kind of gross. And it kind of goes against the Democrats being the party of the working class. And it's almost starting to feel like neither party is the party of the working class. The reality is that Democrats will come out and say that we have to make compromise, right? That we are the party of compromise.

What frustrates me and what frustrates many progressives is the fact that the compromise, always comes on the backs of the workers. The compromise always comes on the backs of the marginalized. And so while they can use sick days as some type of negotiating chip, there are real life consequences to people not being able to have leave in order to care for themselves in order to care for people around them. We've seen this. We saw this play out over the course of three years with COVID-19. And so it is just, it's so awful of a place that we continue to be in where those that have the most, right, which are members of Congress, because I don't know who else has unlimited fucking sick days. There aren't a lot of places these days, you know, outside of maybe

the tech bubbles and what have you, where people have that considerable amount of unlimited sick days, right? The whole course of work has changed because of going through this global health pandemic, and the reality is that our members are not moved by that. They're not moved in any type of way. And so, yeah, you're right. I don't know which one could be recognized as the party of workers at this particular stage, because this, to me, is not a win. It is not a win to rob people of their ability to care for themselves and then say, hey, but we'll throw you a little bit more money. Here's a couple of more coins, but like you can never take off, while the people that run these freight trains that run these companies are making money hand over fist.

Exactly right. The other part of this is we keep telling these workers and you have everyone from Pete Buttigieg to President Biden talking about how well if the railway workers go on strike, this will be catastrophic for the economy. And so basically what you're telling people is that they are unbelievably important to this country on the one hand. And then on the other hand, you're saying, oh, and by the way, if you get sick, fuck you. And this is something we do. as a country, as you said with COVID, this is what we did to quote unquote essential workers. And a lot of those essential workers were very low paid workers. And we decided that they had to keep going to work and put themselves in danger and put their families in danger because of how

important they were. But again, they are not really rich and famous. And we keep doing this and we don't learn. I'm really upset with Joe Biden on this. His whole thing is how much he loves railroads and all this stuff, well, then show a little love for the workers. He talks out of both sides of his mouth. He sits there and says, you know, well, we can't let them shut down because of the economy. And of course, we support the right. The Democratic Party supports the right of all workers to have paid sick leave, except you do, but you don't. Because when push comes to shove, what you're basically saying is you'll take a deal for them without it in order to keep the economy humming. And I can't even speak because I actually get mad. I get super mad about this and

just realize how bad all this shit is. Because it is bad. Yeah. I won't bore our listeners with the details, but it's this whole strategy that the railways have called precision scheduled railroading that has allowed them to basically cut 30% of their workforce. And because of that, they have obviously fewer workers. And if workers take sick days, it throws everything off. But meanwhile, they're making unbelievable profits. So hire some more fucking workers back to make up for the fact that, you know what, people get sick. But Andy, how can they buy it?

a second and third yacht. I mean, come on. Like, how can they helicopter into the Hamptons? Like, you need to be better and stop being so selfish. I know. I sometimes, I get on these rants and I don't think of the human cost of the helicopter companies. And I apologize to our listeners. I will do better.

Yeah. Be more sensitive to the needs of billionaires, honestly. God. So, once again, in, in, in, looking at where we are in terms of putting the needs of people to the side so that Republicans continue to have their shots fired and hold things hostage. What we know, Andy, is that the debt ceiling, we have another big deadline for the funding of the government coming up on December 16th. And we know that Republicans will take control of the House on January 3rd. So if we do not

raise the debt ceiling once again, when Republicans take control, they are going to do what they do best, which is take the country hostage. Don't ask me why during midterm elections, this wasn't one of the messaging talking points that were being used, which is that you give power to Republicans and Republicans take absolute control and take this country hostage and will chip away at your Medicare and your Social Security, which they have said they want to be renewed or voted on every year so that tens of millions of Americans can't rely on a social safety net that they have earned. I don't know how this vote will go.

I'm assuming it will go the way that it always goes, which is a nail-biter until the middle of the night, and maybe they'll do something about it, maybe before Republicans take control and become the terrorists that they are. I'm going to be perfectly honest. Anytime we get into discussions of debt ceilings and stuff like that, I don't want to say my eyes glaze over,

but it's just I don't get it. It just seems like, such an artificial number that was sort of created by politicians and bureaucrats so that one party can say, well, we can't exceed the debt ceiling because horrible things will happen. But I'm never really clear what those horrible things are. But you're right. Democrats need to make it clearer. So people like me don't sit here and go, oh, the debt ceiling. Shut up. This is meaningless. And it needs to be made more clear that what this is about is cutting programs like Social Security and Medicare. And that basically the Republicans want to cut those programs.

So they come up with whatever excuse they can and the debt ceiling happens to be a convenient one. So that's what they use right now. And they'll use another one if they, you know, when they need that one. I just think we need the Democrats just need to get out there and say, no, we're not letting you take the country hostage on this. And we're making it clear that this is not about you trying to be good fiscal managers because you're not. No, because they're not. This is about you not wanting people to get Medicare and Social Security. Basically, they continue to use the debt ceiling as a prop as a way to negotiate inconsistently bad faith.

And Democrats at times are way too chicken shit to do what they need to do when they have power, which is just raise it to a place that it can't be used as a political prop. Right. Or, as many have said, eliminated all together. Right. But then they don't want to be tagged as being, oh, well, Democrats, you know, they're just spend thrifts and all they do is spend, spend, spend, well, here's the thing. It's our fucking money.

It's our tax dollars, right? Like, so if my tax dollars aren't going to my end of life, like, after work care, then what the fuck am I working for? because you ain't giving me sick days, right? You're not giving me a good 401 case. You're not providing anything. And so what the argument Democrats need to make is that it's our money. It's our money that should be invested back into the people, right?

That it is something that we are entitled to because we've worked for it, period. I just want to point out that the defense appropriations bill for 2023 is over $700 billion. Yep. So please stop telling me we can. can't afford to give people Social Security and Medicare. Yeah. I am so excited to get but a few minutes with the Latasha Brown, who is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter and is founder of Southern Black Girls Consortium and is just on the ground in Georgia doing

the most for the nation. Latasha, just tell me first off, how are you feeling right now with a handful of days until the last day of voting in this runoff election? I should be super tired and I probably am in some ways, but I'm actually really encouraged and inspired. You know, being out on the ground in the community, this has been a long, arduous process. You know, the voter suppression is real.

You know, just because we are showing up does not mean that in the absence of it is in spite of. And so we've been doing a lot of work, talking to communities, going around, creating spaces for people to actually know that there's this runoff election and get people kind of ignited about the election. It's interesting. The last few days I've been going out as I'm approaching people, they're showing me their

sticker. They're like, look, got my sticker or folks are literally coming up to the bus just to show us their sticker. There's a certain kind of collective energy and spirit that I'm not going to say that I feel it in every election, but it's really interesting. It's actually in some ways more amplified in this runoff. in the last few days that I've seen than it wasn't a primary. And I think some of it

has been because as always the Republicans always go a tad bit too far. And I think they went too far with a number of things in Georgia. Talk to us about a couple of things because first of all, it's like Georgia, people are saying, is the new Florida. When we thought that Florida was going to be that

purple state and now it is just hard blood bread, Georgia, because of the apparatus that folks like yourself, Stacey Abrams, and others that have been working on the ground tirelessly for years, for years to build an infrastructure that could combat the kind of voter suppression that Georgia has been known for. Talk to us about what has been built that is allowing us to even have hopefulness, to even have a Reverend Warnock on the ballot in a place like Georgia and us

believe that he can make magic twice? You know, I think that there are three things. The first thing is, and it's similar to what you're saying, just to lift up what you said around the work of Stacey Abrams and others. One, let me just lift that sister up because there are folks that, you know, have been even asking me, you know, aren't you disappointed or you feel defeated because Stacey lost? Let me say this. I am very sad that she lost.

That was a hit. That was a blow. But I don't feel defeated because she's not defeated. The bottom line is, although Stacey did not win the seat that she was seeking, her strategy won. Yes. Her strategy and her vision for Georgia and others, like literally has opened up this pathway of while we're now in this runoff for this Senate seat. And so as well as other things, I think sometimes we have to really recognize that the long-term game is really around how are we building infrastructure for our community. It's never been about one candidate or one race or one campaign.

It is always around how do we get closer and stronger to be a collective power. And so I think there's a number of things. One, I think that we absolutely have more infrastructure now. In the state, the ecosystem has been built out. Still, a lot of work to be done. But I think that we certainly have more infrastructure on the ground. There are more groups that are working together. In the last four years, it is absolutely a beautiful thing to see when you've got LGBTQ groups

and African-Afric groups and Latino groups and indigenous groups and AAPI groups working together. And it's sustained that we literally, we talk to each other daily. We're on threads. We're organizing. We're trying to figure out how we can fill the gaps with each other. And there's something very beautiful and powerful about that because I think there's a realization for us that this isn't just about a campaign or a candidate. This is really around how are we going to shift the future of the state.

The second thing I think is really important in this moment, too, is that we are responding to those that actually have tried to dissuay us from participating. or make it harder for us to participate. You know, folks may recall that in this election, the Secretary of State, who is the officer, that is the constitutional office for the state of Georgia, you oversee the elections, and also a part of their charge is around voter education

and engagement. That's their office charge. Here it is that the office that is supposed to be responsible for keeping voting on our minds, that's supposed to be responsible for making sure that people have access to the ballot, that is actually suing because they did not want early voting. Can you imagine that? It's like an oxymoron, right?

Yes. And so the irony around that is that action, while we saw bad actors having this action of literally not wanting to have a voting date, by the way, because it was Robert Lee's birthday, Confederate General. Like, give me a break. But what people did is the communities responded. What you saw as the Warnock campaign and several other. organizations actually sued the state. And as a result, it opened up early voting. And guess what?

We had one of the highest turnout in the state that you had thousands and thousands of people who voted that day. And on that weekend, like set this trend of early voting, which actually proves the point that there one was a demand and a need for that. It's preponderous to me that the Secretary of State would actually sue to not have a voting day instead of to actually expand and have voter access. But we know the politics at hand and what's behind that. You know, I think the third part, too, is that we're in this moment where we're in a shifting demographic, that in the state of Georgia, what we know is from the last census, that in the last 10 years, 100 percent of the growth in the state of Georgia has been communities of color. And that in itself shifts the political landscape.

It shifts who's involved in the policymaker process, but it also can shift what policies are prioritized and what policies are being made. And I think we're seeing that we're on the cusp of seeing this transition. We're actually witnessing this transition of power. And I think even in leadership in the state of Georgia, you know, and we know that they're younger voters. What we saw that propelled what happened in Georgia in the primaries in the midterms was that there were younger voters, not just in Georgia, but throughout the nation. And so we're in the midst of this shifting demographic that is changing the entire political landscape. So what happened in Georgia in 2020, folks who are listening, like,

Listen, it wasn't a fluke. It is the future of Georgia. You know, and I love that you say that it's not a fluke. It's a future because I think that this is what the Republican Party is afraid of, right? They are afraid of an activated citizenry. They are afraid of young people, of queer people, of black people, recognizing that they have power and they have a voice. When Reverend Warnock, his campaign, were able to get that Saturday voting, you know, the judge had said, there's no standing here, right, from the Secretary of State to be like, you can't vote on

this Saturday after Thanksgiving as that was some type of national holiday that needed to be protected. And it wasn't. You know, Latasha, one of the things that folks have seen over, you know, since the polls opened in Georgia are these absurd lines that still persist. And I can recall that wasn't there a passage of legislation that said that folks weren't going to be allowed to get water, to get food, to get any of those comforts that were going to keep folks in line? So how have you, and Black Voters Matter, how have you all been kind of dealing with that pressure and those really obscene kind of poll watches, some of which we've seen on television, that are armed and are there to intimidate?

Thank you so much for asking that question. You know, I want to reiterate kind of a point that you made. Part of what we also see is, I can't tell you how many folks have said, well, there can't be any voter suppression if we're seeing these record turnout numbers as if they're mutually inclusive. The bottom line is that has taken an enormous amount of people power, an enormous amount of resources, enormous amount of work in ways that literally we should not have to work this hard just to get people to be able to have free and fair access to the ballot. We're doing it because it needs to be done, but we have to really recognize if we're going to say that this is

a 21st century democracy, we shouldn't have to do that. But part of these conditions we know are being created out of some of the law as a result of the SB 202 law. For example, just as you talked about in the lines, there's absolutely no reason why we actually should have long lines waiting to vote. at this juncture. Listen, you can average it out. It's some simple math you could use that we know how many voters are in the districts who are registered and can qualify to vote. We know how many machines normally like the normal time it takes. We can average the normal time it takes people to vote. We can actually do much better. There is absolutely nothing I think that is exciting about people having to stand in line for two, three hours. We actually take a bad situation and

flip it to literally take lemons and made lemonade so that as people are standing in line, we kind of lift up this kind of collective power as best as we can, but it's really unconscionable for people to stand in line for hours. But part of that has resulted for a number of things. And it didn't just start with SB 202. I can go with the stripping of the Voting Rights Act. It started with one, when we actually had Section 5 stripped out of the Voting Rights Act. What we saw with the Shelby v. Holder case, what we saw is the massive closing of polling

sites all across the country, particularly in the South and particularly in these states that have been bad actors. That has had a tremendous impact because what you have now, you have less polling sites for people to vote in. In addition to that, what we've also seen with this SB 202, just to get a little more granular of how it's happened in Georgia, you know, a mail-in ballot voting that the expansion of that during COVID was not just a service around COVID. We know it worked in COVID. why in the world will we not continue to keep that infrastructure in place? Because of lies, that's why, right? For lies, only for lies, right? Because ultimately what we've seen is in the previous election, in the general election in Georgia,

there were 1.2 million voters that used mail-in ballot voting. This year, in the midterms, it was only 0.2 million. That means a million people who accessed that as a tool to be able to vote did not utilize. And I think it's for a variety of reasons. I think a lot of it has been because of misinformation. The other thing is that they reduce drop boxes. I have been riding the last few weeks we have been campaigning. We've been riding all through.

I've not seen a drop box. I know there somewhere, but I don't see them. I mean, we're out campaigning. The bottom line is it is intentional to restrict accessibility for people to be able to go and cast their ballots. In addition to that, one of the things that SB 202 did, that the law in Georgia did, is that we used to have eight to nine. weeks after the election to actually gear back and get people informed and know that they got to vote again. Now that's been truncated to four weeks. And we didn't even have the opportunity to be able to register new voters who may have turned 18 between the last election and this election. They are denied

the opportunity to be able to participate in this election because with the shorter period, there's no opportunity for them to register to vote to participate in this election like we've seen in previous elections. And so part of this, we have to understand it is a compounded effect that it's like death by a thousand cuts. It's shave off a couple of hundred here, a couple of hundred there, make it difficult this way, create this culture of fear, you know, in all of those ways. And so to your question, part of what we've been able to do to address that is I always say, you know, black survival in America has always been based on our ability to actually take those things that have been meant to harm us, to hurt us, to dissuade us, to marginalize us.

And my grandmother used to say, we always find a way when it seems like there's no way, and find a way that we can transfer that energy into something that really is going to make us propel us and make us feel empowered. That has always, that has been the key to black survival, not just in voting. And I can go on and on in a myriad of ways of how we've done that. But we've also taken that same kind of that tactic and that strategy around voting. For example, they said that, you know, part of the law prevents us from being able to give water and food out in line. So what do we do?

What we have been doing is we've been setting up stations. We're called them power building stations. And some of our partners like Georgia stand up, they call them party at the polls. That we've literally been right across the street or right across where the lines are. We actually have power stations where people can get snacks. They can come and get water. We've got people right at the line. Matter of fact, we even took it to the next level.

We actually have food trucks. So you say we can't bring water? We got food trucks. We got hot coffee and donuts. And they're voting around lunchtime. Don't worry. Get a hot catfish sandwich. Right.

For free. In addition to that, we've taken this idea of creating this culture of fear, where that what we know is in some instances, including with one of Black Voters Matter workers, without campaigning one day. And this man just shows up, challenges them about just asking people to vote and takes his gun out and shows his gun and takes the bullet out of the gun as a form of intimidation. And so what we do, we actually come in mass. And what we're doing is flipping it and creating a safe environment and space by having a collective of people there.

And so we are having these party at the polls where we got a DJ. We've got sign waivers. We got three or four organizations that we will escort you to the line. you could come over. Matter of fact, if you got to stand in line for two or three hours, what would probably be the first thing on your mind when you're standing in line for two or three hours? If you like me and you got an iPhone, I need to charge my phone. We actually have charging stations where they can actually come right across the street or we'll take their phone and give them a tag and go charge their phone up for them.

We have always been creative enough to figure out how we can actually deliver and create an environment of community in spite of those that seek to actually try to create. create energy of fear. In addition to that, some of the things that we've done, because it has been a long, long campaign season, we want to make sure that people are feeling inspired and engaged, and particularly those volunteers, that I know they're tired, right? Because we've had to do an enormous amount of voter education work to combat the fact that we've got a shorter voter period to combat all those other changes that we've seen in the SB 202 law. And so what we've done is lack voters matter has rented out 10 theaters. We've actually bought.

out 10 theaters around in our surrounding areas, and we're having a Wakanda votes forever. You're like, you want to talk about some black power. We're like, come on. Let me tell you something about you. You will find a way out of no way. And the thing that I always love about you, Latasha, and Black Voters Matter is that there is no despair. There is only, we're going to figure it out. We're going to keep moving through because I tell you that in these times, there is a sense of helplessness and hopelessness that can take hold and just listening to all the ways that you are maneuvering around, voter suppression that you are maneuvering around, intimidation, and threats of violence to get people to stay in line, to get people to come out. I can't thank you enough.

I could talk to you forever, but I just want to say that I cannot thank you enough for your continued work, for your blood, for your blood, for your sweat, for your tears, for your dancing, for your joy. Because I honestly believe that Georgia is going to do right again. I feel it because of all of the efforts that you have put in, that Stacey Abrams, that the infrastructure that you all have been building over the past couple of years has put in, and that needs to be a model for the nation, that we need to not seed red states, what we perceive as red states to Republicans, that we have an opportunity. And it's about putting in that effort. So Latasha Brown, I just want to be a lot of want to thank you once again for your time and your effort. I hope that we will have something

joyous to celebrate come December 6th, the final day of voting in Georgia. Absolutely. We can't stop, won't stop. Our people's future, our future is on the line. We're going to do what need to be done. I would hear folks say all the time in my family, baby, make it do what it do. We're going to make it do what it do. Appreciate you. Thank you. Dick and Elizabeth Uline are the billionaire owners of shipping supply company U-line and major donors to the Republican Party. And in this past election cycle, a lot of that money went to election result deniers like Ron Johnson, Steve Scalise, and Doug Mastriano. And now it turns out the U-lines gave quite a bit more money than we even thought

through the use of a dark money nonprofit. Here with more info on this is Daily Beast political reporter Roger Salenberger, who's been reporting on the U-lines for some time in between scooping everyone on Herschel Walker. Roger, thanks for coming on. I appreciate it. problem. Thanks for having me. So I guess first explain what a dark money nonprofit is, because it just sounds like three words that people threw together. Dark money is a pretty common term. It derives from the fact that you cannot see who is actually giving money to a group, right? So these are

technically nonprofits, and they're funded by donors, just like, you know, any nonprofit at, you know, the American Heart Association, something like that, right? But, With certain nonprofits, they're not required to publicly list the names of their donors on tax filings. So we see how much money they get. We see that certain donors give a lot of money, as is this case. But we're not able to see everybody. And so that's where the dark part comes from. That's what we're dealing with here.

The interesting thing about the U-Line nonprofit that we're talking about is called Restoration Action. And restoration action is funded by an anonymous donor technically, but it is connected to this U-Line network. And it's not really much of a secret that U-Line himself is, you know, funding this whole network. There was one donor last year that accounted for $19.8 million of the $20.5 million that this group raised. And so it's not a stretch to say, well, that's probably Richard U.Line's contribution. Okay. So I was going to ask how much money we're talking here, but we're talking $20 million just through this one nonprofit. What percentage of that is going to candidates who just basically refused to say that Joe Biden was elected president in 2020? Well, two things. One, Dick gives two candidates directly.

Right. Right. So he gives tons of money. He is this year the top Republican mega donor, the top one. And he gives 80% of that money. I have gone to election deniers or people who have, you know, questioned the integrity or the results of the 2020 presidential election. 80%. That's pretty crazy.

Wow. This nonprofit, though, does not give directly to candidates. Groups like this cannot make a direct contribution to a candidate. Right. But they do give to other groups. So he's got kind of like two arms of contributions here, one going directly to those people. And then this other group, which gives out more money, gives it out to organizations who are working on, quote, election integrity and who are backing these efforts to and subvert democracy generally. Because, you know, you can give to different groups.

You can give a lot more money. So Uline is not only funding candidates. He's actually funding and helping to build and maintain and further the infrastructure that would allow these anti-democratic forces to not only continue to operate, but to expand those operations. So these groups that are getting the money, it's in addition to the groups that you mentioned, we're also talking about other far-right groups, right? I know U-Line is very publicly anti-choice. He's anti-gay. He's anti-trans. He thinks critical race theory is the devil and all that really fun right-wing culture war stuff. So are those kind of groups also getting money from him through this organization? Yeah.

And there's sort of like those organizations do a lot of different things, right? So there's like the Tea Party Patriots, for instance. That's a far right organization that bust people in to January 6th, insurrection, right? And so Uline is giving them money. The interesting thing about this particular year is that he has really focused his efforts, it seems, almost single-mindedly, on what they call on the right wing election integrity efforts, right? Yeah, these groups do a lot of different things, but ULine's money here seems to have a pretty specific purpose behind it. For instance, one of these groups, Susan B. Anthony Foundation, it is a pretty well-known anti-abortion.

group. But Uline gave them $3.2 million, and $2 million of that was allocated to what the group calls a restricted grant. And it doesn't say exactly what that money is for in the documents that I have, these tax documents. But like the month after the insurrection, this group, Susan B. Anthony List, launched what it called an election transparency initiative. And they launched that in conjunction with another U-Line-sponsored group called the American Principles Project, and that group also got money from restoration action, from this same dark money group from U-Line. So he's giving money to his anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List, but the money seems to be for another effort, right? It's a conservative group, and they do different things. And this is what he

is really, it seems to me, almost like, you know, monomeneically. So do you just have in your office or at home, do you just have like a wall that's like Matthew McConaughey had in True Detective where it's just like the conspiracy board, but it's just like all these lines connecting the dots between like you line gave the money this month and then next month this group did that and all this stuff is because that's what it sounds like. It's just amazing how you track this down. I appreciate your uniqueness there. Most people say Charlie Day and his conspiracy board. I appreciate that. But that's why. what my head looks like, I think. And yeah, it's, it's a lot to crack, but the top line that people need to know is that this is a billionaire who came into his money, a lot of his money, pretty recently, right? He's always been pretty wealthy, but because the pandemic increased the demand for shipping products, right, those card boxes, his company, U-line has really turned a healthy profit over the last few years because of the pandemic. And he's taken that money and really ramped up

his giving to anti-election causes. And you can see it in the filings. This group only got like $50,000, as recently as I believe, 2019. And now it's getting $20 million. So you can see what he wants to do. So when you're using U-Line, when you're buying those cardboard boxes, A few cents on the dollar, probably more than that, actually, might be going to fund anti-democratic groups. God, yeah, something that's good to know. So there was a name that was in one of the pieces you wrote for The Daily Beast about this. I was interested in learning more about her. Gina Swoboda, who is she exactly?

Yeah, Gina Swaboda, she's a Republican official in Arizona. And she works for Republican gubernatorial candidate defeated, shall I say, Republican, Republican gubernatorial campaign with Cary Lake. And Cary Lake has tapped her to head her, quote, election integrity division or whatever of her campaign. And Gina is helping Carrie Lake launch this bizarre challenge to the electoral count in the governor's race. She's been out there before or, you know, the past couple of years, ever since the 2020 election, pushing this misleading information that the election results are not to be trusted at face value, right? And Uline brought her on into the fold back in May of 2021.

So she joined a group that is an offshoot of this back money. It's complicated, right? But it's really these little lines are there to just sort of make, you know, partition it a bit. But if you want to speak in general terms, you can sort of erase those lines in your mind. Like this is what this guy is doing, and this woman is helping him do that.

She is tied directly to Carrie Lake. Amazing. Basically, we've got a system set up where there's effectively no limit on how much a rich person can give, if not directly to the politicians of their choice, but to the causes or the groups that support those politicians. That's the whole point of this dark money, right?

This is on both sides. George Soros can spend 120, $28 million on the Democratic side. The U-lines can spend, I think it was like $67 or $68 million. What's his name? Ken Griffin, the hedge fund guy, also gave roughly the same amount to Republicans. And we're now just learning that Sam Bankman Fried, who was being touted on Fox News and all these places as this huge giver to the Democrats, he has now come out and said, well, I actually gave pretty much an equal amount to the Republicans. I just made it dark money to keep it quiet. And that's just the system we have now, right? I mean, the San Bainte-M-Fried example is a perfect example of the dark money, right?

So he gave openly to Democratic candidates. He can only give so much to each candidate. He funded his own PAC also. He gave a lot of money. The co-founder of FTX, his co-founder was funding Republicans directly, just millions of dollars straight to Republican groups. As you pointed out, because there's this dark money thing that Republicans, by the way, are champions of. that these Republicans who are saying, oh, look, he's funding Democrats. Well, their own system came back to bite them right there, right?

It's like, well, actually, he's funding a dark money effort to help Republicans too. And, you know, if this system were more transparent, then you wouldn't be embarrassed by it. And I think that's a great example of exactly why watchdogs and Democrats, other advocates, you know, want to reform the system to bring more transparency to. it because we have just a handful of uber wealthy people in this country are able to put their thumb on the scale by tapping that wealth and funneling it out in any way that they can while maintaining more or less complete anonymity. The only reason we know San Bainteam-Fried funded Republicans is because he came out and admitted it. He could have stayed quiet and no one would know. And again, like, I don't care what side you're on politically. This is just this is not good. I mean,

not great that George Soros can spend $128 million. It's not great that two Republicans can spend roughly the same amount and have that much influence over candidates and on issues. And I'm assuming that U-Line's use of dark money, this is only going to grow for 2024. Is it fair to say that? I mean, if we look at the trend, I mean, he's been doubling the amount of money he's put in. I'm not sure, you know, like how long he's going to be able to keep doubling it, right? But it does seem like there's no slowing down. I guess the next question is, you know, if he used 80% of this money to go towards these garbage election things, does that issue sort of start fading for the next election cycle? I know, obviously, as you pointed out, Carrie Lake is still making

sort of a big deal about this, but unlike with 2020, it feels like even Republicans are kind of rolling their eyes at her. Yeah, I think that's a great point. We're seeing in the wake of the But midterms, Republicans backing away from this election denialism. We saw tons of those candidates just get trounced in the election. You know, in Michigan, Mastriano, like, you know, clearly a very forceful, outspoken election denier, right? Got beat pretty decisively. And it seems that at least in the weeks after the election, Republicans were backing off of this, what had become a key. party plank for them is just saying elections aren't fair. And they might be recalculating now and saying,

well, this is not a winning political message. If that's true, then you have to wonder about in U-Lines case and other mega donors who are funding this effort, are there hearts in it? Are they like Cary Lake? Are they true believers like Mike Lindell in these operations? Because if they are, they'll keep funding them. But they might not have the same kind of political support. So I'm not sure exactly what Uline is going to do, whether he's solely interested in getting in the ear of certain politicians and being able to help try to shape policy to his benefit. And what exactly those policies are. If he is single-minded on election denialism, like somebody like Mike Lindell is, then, yeah, he probably won't slow down with his giving.

But if he recalculates, like, you know, a lot of Republicans seem to be doing, at least now, testing the waters, then we might see some sort of change in the way he funnels his money, right? In the types of groups he wants to support, the types of candidates that he wants to support. I will say that there is, looking at these documents, it is undeniable that he is complete. focused on this issue. This is the thing that seems to drive him. But we'll see if he makes a practical decision in the future. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so before I let you go, I want to turn to a candidate that actually Dick Euline, I believe, bankrolled pretty heavily, and that's Herschel Walker, the candidate for Senate in Georgia, who is now in a runoff. You broke some more news on Herschel Walker.

Can you tell us about that? On my little reported that Herschel Walker's The residence issues in Georgia have another dimension, which is that the house that he has claimed to live in there for 17 years, he says, that he and his wife were actually renting that out for a period very close to when he announced his candidacy. He disclosed this in his financial disclosures. And I went back and I remember that he had disclosed this previously in a financial form in 2021 after CNN reported that his residency issues had flared up again with a homestead exemption he had claimed in Texas. Yeah, I found out that he had not only rented this place out, but it seems that there's, you know, something with his wife's company that's involved and a lot of questions about exactly his status. as a Georgia resident versus a Texas resident. And then there was some other news about an ex- or an ex-girlfriend of Walker's name Cheryl Parsa, who says that she kind of feared for her life a little bit or for her safety at any

rate while dating him. Yeah, I've been speaking with a number of women over the past several months who have had relationships with Herschel Walker. And Cheryl Parsa is one of them. Cheryl came forward this morning. It's Thursday. Cheryl came forward in a piece to. give the first on-the-record allegation of domestic violence since Herschel Walker announced his campaign.

She said that he had taken a swing at her during a fight where she discovered him with another woman. She also details her experience of five years struggling with Herschel and his dissociative identity disorder, how it was mismanaged and what she says manipulated. By him and his doctor, she details accounts of rampant cheating, you know, just lying in general instability. And she is joined in this article by four other ex-girlfriends of Herschels who don't use their names, but tell pretty stunning stories along those same lines. Yeah, it is really stunning. And it's, I mean, it's chilling to read and just, you know, Parsa herself talking about Walker swinging his fists at her.

and her saying she thought he was going to beat her. It's just, it's awful stuff. And this is a guy who may be the next senator from Georgia. Roger, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it, as always. And hopefully we'll talk to you again soon. That would be awesome. Thanks so much.

Look to do the show. Andy Levy. Danielle Moody. So who are we saying fuck that guy to today? The list is long? Yeah. Yeah. As always, it's a dishonor just to be nominated.

But my winner for today is a Florida sheriff named Wayne Ivy. And he is from the Brevard County. And he has decided that he is going to impose what they are calling the most prolific school discipline policy that the district, the Brevard school district has ever had. And among those things are going to be, it sounds like corporal punishment. And in fact, what the sheriff said was that the students are going to have, quote, the cheeks of their ass torn off for not doing right in class. What the fuck? Again, this is 2022. And I don't like to stereotype people.

But if you had to guess what Wayne Ivy looks like, you would be correct. Yosemite Sam. Not far from that. Yeah. Kind of a chunky white guy, buzzcut, just exactly what you would expect from a Florida sheriff who wants to tear the cheeks off of. kids' asses. We need to put a stop on all sheriffs until we figure out what's going on. I think there's a big problem with sheriffs in this country. And I don't know. You just don't, you don't see a lot of progressive sheriffs. But this just sounds absolutely horrific. And for

some reason, they always say this is going to make schools safer and prevent school shootings. One of the things the sheriff did in his announcement was he blamed the shootings in Parkland on the fact that students weren't punished hard enough. I don't understand any of this, again, it's 1950s and it's wrong and it's been proven wrong and yet it appeals to people and I just can't take it anymore. So fuck all these guys and in particular, fuck you, Sheriff, Ivy. Oh, fuck that guy. Like all of them. Yosemite Sam and the rest of them. So Danielle, who was your fuck that guy? My fuck that guy is actually a panel. So it is the New Orleans based fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who has decided to reject the Biden administration's request

to pause the judge's order vacating the $400 billion student debt relief program. So Joe Biden comes out and says, hey, young people who are suffering and struggling under debt, who are going to be less better off than your parents and their parents, the first generation, that is not going to be better off than the generation before them because they have six-figure debt just to try and get an education so that they can try and get a job that guess what? They won't get paid enough for in order to pay off their fucking student loan debt. Joe Biden says, you know what, young people, here's what I'm going to offer to you. I'm going to make good on a campaign promise, which we know is really fucking hard for politicians to do. And I'm going to say,

hey, you're going to forgive up to $10,000 for some folks and $20,000 for those who got money on Pell Grants. And the U.S. Court of Appeals is like, yeah, no. We think that young people suffering, working for 20, 40, 30, 40 years and still not being able to pay off their student loan debt, not being able to buy homes, buy cars, moving back in with their families is the future that we want for America. I just, I don't fucking get it. And it's, it's the, you know, it's the idea that the people that are making these decisions, these judges, right, these politicians, these people went to school back when school cost a fucking dollar. They have no idea what it is like to go in for a four-year education and come out with six

figures worth of debt. When most of them, either their school was free or it was so low in cost, their families had the ability to pay for it because that's the privilege that they had. We know that that is not the case for more than 40% of the population. So the idea that this Court of Appeals would object to relief, then providing people with the opportunity to think about where they want to work, how they want to live, invest back into our economy because they're not living paycheck to paycheck is on some fucking bullshit. So the whole U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, fuck you, all of you.

Amen to that. And I think it's also we should point out, or at least this is my theory. I guess I can't say for sure that it's true. But there's a lot of people on the right who talk shit about college. And it just feels to me like this is part of that where they don't want people to go to college. And they want to make it tough for people to go to college. Because guess what party the people who go to college tend to vote for? Not theirs. Maybe I'm making this up, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but there's been a lot of stuff in the last few years. You see it a lot on Fox News and in other places where people sort of trash in college and we see it a lot now when they throw the word woke around and the whole critical race theory stuff and all the stuff they love to bring up. They want to scare people away from going to college.

And this feels like part of that. And harder they can make it financially for people to go to college, the better chance they have of people not going to college. and maybe not voting against them. But maybe I'm making all of that up. I don't know. But either way, I agree with you. Fuck all those guys. Yeah.

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