The Daily Signal - #366: ‘Problematic Women’ on Self-Care in the Digital Age

Episode Date: December 19, 2018

First lady Melania Trump's spokeswoman unleashes a fiery CNN op-ed in defense of the first lady, debunking the media narrative she has faced all year. Plus: one radio station in Kentucky plays "Baby, It's Cold Outside" for two hours straight to make a point.We also cover these stories:- Incoming Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., faces some backlash for her thoughts on self-help. But is she right?- A former NASA engineer devises an epic scheme to find out who was stealing his holiday packages.The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, December 21st. I'm Daniel Davis. And I'm Kate Trinko. Today we're going to be featuring our problematic women, Lauren Evans, Breep Hayden, and Ginny Montalbano, discussing a host of topics. But first, we wanted to let you know that this will be our last episode for a while. The Daily Signal will be on hiatus over the holidays and returning January 3rd. We hope you and your families have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

And now we'll cover a few of the top headlines. Well, the shutdown talks continue. As of this recording, the House is trying to figure out how to add border security to the spending bill. House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy addressed reporters outside the White House Thursday afternoon after speaking to President Trump, who was apparently no fan of the Senate's proposed continuing resolution bill, which would have essentially put off the spending fight until February. We just had a very long productive meeting with the president. The President informed us that he will not sign the bill that came out from the Senate last evening

because of his legitimate concerns for border secured. So what we're going to do is go back to the House and work with our members. We want to keep the government open, but we also want to see an agreement that protects the border. We have very serious concerns about securing our border. So the President said he will not sign this bill. So we're going to go back and work on adding border security to this, also keeping the government open because we do want to see an agreement with that alternative. We believe there's still time we could have border security.

You know, fundamentally that's what America is asking for. It's one of the fundamental jobs, especially for our president as well. We had a great discussion within there. The president said what the Senate sent over is just kicking the ball. Just kicking a can down the road. We want to solve this problem. We want to make sure we keep the government open, and we're going to work to have that done and get something.

Well, Congress fell short of strengthening work requirements in food stamp policy, but President Trump is picking up the slack. On Thursday, the Trump administration unveiled a plan to expand the number of people expected to meet work requirements in order to receive food stamps. Under current law, work-capable adults without children have to either hold a job or participate in work-related activities to be eligible, but states are allowed to waive those requirements in many cases. The new plan will shrink the number of cases where those waivers apply, which will

effectively extend work requirements to roughly 800,000 childless adults. These requirements have proven highly effective in states like Maine and Kansas at helping work-capable adults move off welfare and into work. In tweets Thursday, President Trump addressed his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, writing, getting out of Syria was no surprise. I've been campaigning on it for years. And six months ago, when I very publicly wanted to do it, I agreed to stay longer. Russia, Iran, and Syria, and others are the local enemy of ISIS. We were doing their work. Time to come home and rebuild.

Does the USA want to be the policeman of the Middle East getting nothing but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing? Do we want to be there forever? Time for others to finally fight. End quote. Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced his support for Trump's move, calling it, quote, the correct move per the New York Times. And in another major policy shift, President Trump is changing the process for asylum seekers.

In light of the caravan of migrants who sought to enter the United States through the asylum process, the Department of Homeland Security issued a new policy on Thursday under the Immigration and Nationality Act, saying that those asylum seekers cannot enter the United States until they receive asylum. Instead, they have to stay in Mexico. Under the current policy, applicants are allowed to stay,

in the United States while they wait for a decision. Here's what Secretary Kirsten Nielsen said before the House Judiciary Committee. Individuals arriving in or entering the United States from Mexico illegally or without proper documentation may be returned to Mexico for the duration of their immigration proceedings. They will not be able to disappear into the United States. They will have to wait for approval to come into the United States. If they are granted asylum by a U.S. judge, they will be welcomed into America. If they are not, they will be removed to their home countries.

One American has had enough, Brian Colfidge, who says he is a triple amputee veteran and a Purple Heart recipient, has started a GoFundMe to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. So far, it's raised almost 5.5 million. Quote, I have grandparents who immigrated to America legally. They did it the correct way, and it's time we uphold the world. our laws and get this wall built. It's up to Americans to help out and pitch in to get this project rolling, writes Colfidge. Well, Ann Coulter was one of Donald Trump's most outspoken supporters during the 2016 campaign, but those days are long gone. Her main beef is the wall that still hasn't

been built. On the Daily Callers podcast this week, she said, quote, they're about to have a country where no Republican will ever be elected president again. Trump will just have been a joke, presidency who scammed the American people, amused the populist for a while, but he'll have no legacy whatsoever, end quote. Well, the president did not take too well to those comments, and soon thereafter, he unfollowed her on Twitter. And that was a pretty big statement because, as of right now, he only follows 45 people. I wonder if that's related to him being the 45th president. Maybe. But anyway, problems George Washington didn't face. All right, William Barr, President Trump's nominee for Attorney General and who formerly served as Attorney General under President

George H.W. Bush wrote a memo to the Justice Department about the Robert Mueller probe. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, reports, quote, Barr's memo is peppered with strongly worded phrases about the peril he sees in Mueller's reading of the law as he understood it. He described Mueller's approach as grossly irresponsible with potentially disastrous implications for the executive branch. He also, wrote, Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the president submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction, end quote. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer seized upon the report and in a statement said, quote, the fact that he, meaning Barr, holds these deeply

misguided views and chose to launch them in an unprovoked written attack on the special counsel unquestionably disqualifies Mr. Barr from serving as attorney general again. Well, the Justice Department is going after Chinese intellectual property theft. On Thursday, the DOJ charged two Chinese nationals for perpetuating an extensive hacking campaign against the U.S. government for 12 years, which allegedly affected as many as 45 tech companies and government agencies. The department alleges that the two individuals, Zhu Hua and Zhang Shurlong, were part of a group they call advanced persistent threat 10, or APT-10, and that they worked on behalf of the Chinese government. The lawsuit reads,

quote, throughout the technology theft campaign, the APT-10 group stole hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data and targeted the computers of victim companies involved in a diverse array of commercial activity. It goes on to allege that they gave the Chinese intelligence service access to sensitive business information. Well, CNN has egg on its face. Back in 2014, CNN International gave Klaus for Loshis the Journalist of the Year award.

Now, the German magazine, Dair Spiegel, has revealed that Relocious is literally guilty of fake news, making up interviews and facts in 14 articles at a minimum. According to the Associated Press, CNN International has rescinded the award. Well, America is still growing, but at the slowest pace in decades. The Census Bureau released new figures this week showing the U.S. has reached a population of 327 million, having grown by 0.6% over the last year. That's the slowest rate of growth since 1937, which has records going back to 1901. The South and the West outpaced the North and the Midwest,

and that foreshadows some of the changes to expect in Congress in the coming years. In 2020, Congress will be reapportioned, according to the latest census data. States like Texas, Colorado, and Florida would gain seats, and states like Illinois, New York, and Rhode Island would lose seats, according to the latest trends. Well, next up is our problematic women. If you enjoy listening to the Daily Signal podcast, would you consider a year-end gift to support our work? Your gift enables us to keep doing groundbreaking reporting and the best conservative policy analysis on today's most critical issues.

Just go to dailysignal.com slash donate to make your tax-deductible gift today. Thanks for listening. We appreciate your support. Welcome to Problematic Women. I'm Jenny Malta Bono, joined by the Daily Signals Lauren Evans and the Federalist Brie Payton. Hi, guys. Hey, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. All right, we have a lot to unpack. First up, Melania Trump. Shocker. Well, something pretty extraordinary happened. Melania Trump's communications director, Stephanie Grisham, released a very fiery op-ed on CNN, by the way, through CNN, because a CNN reporter, contributor, not even the person on the Flotus beat, released a statement saying basically that Melania didn't know what it means to be first lady.

At this point, you could tell Melania's office had had enough. So Stephanie Grisham just released the most pure, fiery statement. And what it did is it took apart the fake news narrative point by point and just broke down all of the things she's accomplished, all of the traditional duties. She has done flawlessly, you could say. And I thought it was really powerful, especially after almost two years of this behavior from the mainstream media. What did you guys think? I definitely liked it. I like seeing a lot more backbone coming from the East Wing because I think it is just,

I think that the coverage is a lot worse on her than her husband actually because whenever she does do something, like, okay, when she flew, for example, to go visit hurricane victims, media focused on her high heels instead of what she was doing, right? When she went to go visit kids, they focused on a jacket that she wore instead to kind of like troll them. And I really wish, like, that was the entire article. They just responded and, you know, the jacket said, I really don't care, do you? And I wish that was just the only thing that they wrote. That would have been funny.

Yeah. That would have made a statement. Sorry, Brea, didn't mean to interrupt. Oh, no. I think you're told. That would have been hilarious. But I do like seeing like a stronger position coming from the East Wing just because, you know, it is ridiculous and everyone sees that it is. And sticking up for yourself and saying this, I mean, we're all thinking it, right?

So I think that I just kind of like this posture. And I think it made it really powerful that they have weighted. so long because I encourage everybody to read this op-ed because the number of examples that Stephanie was able to provide makes you realize how out of control the media has been with most recently being the red Christmas trees of death that they've referred to. It's just absolutely ridiculous. I felt kind of bad for the people that actually put together those Christmas trees. Like they probably thought that it looked really good and were like really proud of their work. I did see them in person. They do look better in person. And that's what I've

heard from literally everyone who has seen the trees. It's clear that they're cranberries, not something weird. Well, have you heard that now at all these White House receptions and holiday parties, people are breaking off little pieces as mementos because they become so famous? So actually a Secret Service agent, you know how they guide you through the tour. He was like, don't eat the berries. They're not edible. They must have had some problems. People literally have been trying to eat them and they're styrofoam, so don't eat them. They look beautiful, but don't eat them. All right, next up, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now, there's a lot when it comes to her that we can, you know, make fun of or critique, as you will, especially, you know, when it comes to policy.

But I thought she had some really surprising wisdom. And I know our own Kelsey Harkness wrote a great piece on Bright about this. And it's about, you know, self-care and taking time for yourself. And at first, I think it's really easy to make fun of her for saying that. But we live in work in Washington, D.C. It's a wonderful place, but it is a super high pressure, you know, sort of this combustion that we live in and it's fast-paced. So I think there was actually some really good points she made that everyone could benefit from. Yeah, I totally agree.

She talks about how before she campaigned, you know, she'd do things like yoga four or five times a week. She'd make herself healthy meals. And, Jenny, you're 100% right. And I think it goes outside D.C. Like Americans are busy. And a lot of people don't realize taking time to do things like. yoga or taking time to make yourself a healthy meal while it seems like you're almost wasting your time, it does, it helps you so much in the long run. And I mean, as someone who's lost 60 pounds

this year. What, what? What? What? Yeah. No, NBD. You know, I found taking three hours on Sunday and making myself fresh meals. And that's my self-care time has just, you know, completely changed my life. So, yeah, she's totally right. You know, she kind of goes into like intersection in hell. Yeah, that was the part that I didn't like where she was like, oh, self-care is political because not everyone can afford face masks or something. And it's like, no, like this isn't political, like stopping ridiculous. But I do agree with the overall point. And I actually, so I actually did a hit on Fox business yesterday to talk about it. And I'm not going to say the name of the host, but she was like railing against her and being like, oh, can you believe it? She wants to take time off

and her job hasn't even started. And I'm like, what, like, how would, is that the criticism, right? So anyway, I just kind of overall made the point that listen, there are aspects of her that are really dangerous, the Green New Deal. I think that that would be dangerous to our country because we can't

afford to do it and it would reward bad actors. I think that Medicare for all is a dangerous policy. I think that abolish ICE, also dangerous, right? Those are the things that we should be hitting her on and attacking her. If we're going after her for doing yoga or like posting her face masks on Instagram, like

what are we doing? I like her Instagram behind the scenes. I do too. I found it really entertaining and refreshing. I think this is a trend we're going to see too with as more millennials become politicians. It's going to be like, oh, I'm hashtag so honest. And they're going to, they are going to show a side of view of them where it's them doing face masks or, you know, oh my gosh, I'm so busy. I'm eating a cheeseburger, things like that.

I don't think they're actually going to be more honest in real life. I think they're still going to do like shady backroom deals, but it's still, you know, that's going to be the new thing. Like, look how real I am. Well, and I think she made a really interesting point when she said nowadays that we're all growing up, millennials are growing up, we have all this digital technology. It's really hard to just totally unplug. And that's a problem that people didn't have even 10 years ago. So self-care today, you know, if you're concerned about the financial aspect, it could be something as simple as putting up your phone or phones, going on a walk with your dog in the park and hanging out for an hour or two and just decompressing. Yeah, I definitely

agree. AOC, good job. All right, next up, this is a kind of disturbing piece. There was a New York state senator who tweeted, kill yourself at a GOP aid. Lauren, I know you found this story. Why don't you tell us about it? Yeah, when I first saw it, I was like,

okay, this is kind of a non-story, you know, yeah, everybody gets mad on Twitter. But then when I really looked into it, so this lady saw that this GOP, Democrat Senator, he was illegally parked. He was using his, yeah, he was like using his parking badge, like, wrongly. Like, he was giving his parking permit to someone else, like his special state

senator parking permit, and she caught him and, like, gnarced on him on Twitter. And then he got upset and was like, kill yourself. And then he deleted it a minute later, but she screenshotsed it. But this was his quote unquote apology. He said, my words were not proper to say, and I've apologized for that. But let's understand what? what this is about. She should be spending her time getting her conference in line with the values of the people of the state of New York. I don't know why this is a temperate issue. Did I touch her?

Did I yell at her? It was a tweet. That's all it was. Had I said it to her in a hallway, would we be having this conversation? Probably not. So he couldn't just be like, oh, I'm sorry, this was my bad, you know. I shouldn't have tweeted that. It's just bad form. Yeah, it was like, no, like she should feel bad for being a Republican. And he kept berating her. It was like a series of tweets too. Yeah. Well, it shows a tremendous lack of judgment on multiple fronts. You know, even if something isn't illegal per se, like, do you want someone with that kind of judgment representing you or, you know, with the impact on laws? Kill yourself. Yeah. Especially now, you know, with social media, we see this sensitivity with people who have these outcries on social

media, you know, Pete Davidson the other day. I just think that's a touchy area. And even if you're joking, just best to avoid. Yeah. I definitely think don't tweet. tweets like that. Yeah, don't tweet kill yourself. Just don't do it. Just really don't. Oh man. And if this was a GOP senator in New York, you know this would lead CNN like every hour. GoP state senator.

Yeah. 100%. It would just be, it's ridiculous. But I mean, I don't know. Ultimately, it's good that he deleted the tweet. It's good that he issued an apology. I think that it should have been a more sincere apology and that he probably shouldn't have subsequently berated her also on Twitter. Well, Lauren found another great story that I'm very excited to talk about. It's a little bit more fun.

There was an ex-NASA engineer, and he kept having packages stolen, right? And so he, remember, ex-Nasa. So he designed a glitter bomb for revenge on these thieves. And it's pretty incredible. You should all check out the video. Yeah, he spent six months on this package, and it looks like a Google Home Speaker, so a very popular Christmas gift this year. And inside of it, it has like a little spinner.

So when you take off the lid of the Google Home, it spins around really fast and it sprays this really fine glitter. And I think. And fart spray. Oh, and fart spray every 30 seconds. Yeah. That's supposed to, like, clear a room. And all parents, and I think most people know, glitter, once it gets in something, it's in it forever. Yes.

And most people open the package as soon as they got in their car. because inside the package it had four cell phones. They got a 360 degree view of, so he had actual the criminals pulling the lid off and getting sprayed with glitter. And then they would be like, oh my gosh, what is this thing? And they'd throw it out the window of his car.

So he did it like probably six or seven times and then gave it to his friends. So it was just kind of, I think it shows the American spirit, especially around Christmas of this guy was so sick of stealing packages. He spent six months of his life just to kind of get back at these.

bad guys. Yeah, and it ultimately went viral and you got a lot of more subscribers, I'm sure, from that on his YouTube page. Oh, this is YouTuber Mark Rober by the way. If you want to go check out the video, it's hilarious. I laughed. Everyone at the Federalists laughed. Yeah, it was pretty good. And I love it. He said, the moral of the story is just don't take other people's stuff. It's pretty simple. Simple lesson. And also don't mess with an ex-NASA engineering. Yeah, they're going to get revenge on you with fart spray. Fart Spray. Every 30 seconds. Well, we have an interesting little tidbit. Nevada became the first state recently with an overall female majority in the legislator.

I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, that's awesome. I'm glad that I believe our editor-in-chief Rob Bluey found this fact. It's something that I think more people should be talking about. Yeah, absolutely. Girl power. Okay, for our final story, there was a Kentucky radio station, and it played the very controversial song, Baby It's Cold Outside, on repeat for. hours, just purely defying all these critics who are just so upset that this song exists.

What do you guys think? I think that this is a hilarious way to just tell everyone, you know, stick it. You can stick it somewhere that's not appropriate to say on a podcast. And I think that, you know, it is really funny. I saw, do you guys follow Barstool Sports on Instagram? Yes. Okay, my boyfriend is like, he sends me their memes every single day. He'll like DM share me their memes.

He follows like all of the ones from all the different colleges too. So I get a lot of Barstall memes sent my way. Anyway, there was one where it was like a joke basically being like, oh, like a caller calling into a radio station. And the DJ is like, oh, sorry, we can't take that request. Like we're not allowed to play baby. It's cold outside. Instead, I'm going to play like Bodak Yellow or something like really explicit. But like that's really where things are.

You know what I'm saying? And like you and I were talking about this the other day. where it's like, I don't understand where the lines are of what's appropriate and what's not. Because everything is just extremely confusing right now, right? Like, Baby It's Cold Outside, which is honestly a very innocent and innocuous song. That's taboo. But all these other really, you know, over the top, grotesque rap songs, which I listen to an ampha fan of, by the way. Those are totally fine and aren't going to be a problem, right?

Like guys rapping about destroying different parts of women's bodies, that's completely fine. but oh my gosh, maybe it's cold outside. Forget it. We can't do it. Agnong is not allowed. Yeah. And even if you knew where that line was today, it would be totally different tomorrow. Right. And you're right. The song was written back in like the 40s or something. Yeah.

So we can't apply today's standards. Like, yes, if you don't know a man and he's insisting that you stay in his house and you want to leave in 2018, you should probably leave. Order an Uber. Get out. Just get out of there. But this is, it was a different time. And I just don't know why, like, we're applying 2018 standards to the song and we're not just enjoying Christmas. Yeah.

Also, it's, like, extremely obvious that she doesn't want to leave. That's, like, the whole point is that she doesn't and that she's making excuses and that standards were different back then, right? Back then, it was really, like, a big scandal if you spent the night over at a guy's house or if you stayed, you know, out late and stuff like that. So, you know, she's trying to deal with the framework of like the 1940s, but also like weigh her desires against it. And so what you get is her pretending to object but not really objecting. And also, Michael, as you know, this is what women do. Michael, our producer, who's staring out of us through the glass. This is what women do, right?

You have a wife. You know how this works. Women want something, but they're going to say the opposite, but they're going to say it in a way where you can tell that they want the opposite. I'm not entirely sure I agree with them. I mean, I definitely do it. Well, I also like, too, they played it for two hours straight. And they, so listeners, when they board, they played different versions of the song. Well, that's creative.

Yeah. I mean, that takes some effort. I can't believe there's. Oh, like different people doing the different duets. Doesn't Dean Martin do a version? Yeah, that's my favorite. Yeah, I think he does. I think that's the main version.

Yeah. But there's also the other version from, I think, like, there's different singers who sing it in the movie where it's originally from. I don't know. So let us know what you think. Yes, please do. And Merry Christmas to everyone. Thanks for being on problematic women today, guys. Thank you. Thanks. See you next time. Liberals have pretty much cornered the market on 101-style podcasts that break down tough policy issues in the news. Until now, did you know that every week, Heritage Explains intermingles personal stories, news clips, and facts from heritage experts to help explain some of today's hardest issues from a conservative perspective. Look for Heritage Explains on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud. And please leave us a review or rating on iTunes to give us feedback. And we'll see you again next year. You've been listening to the Daily Signal podcast, executive produced by Kate Tranko and Daniel Davis. designed by Michael Gooden, Lauren Evans, and Thalia Rampersad. For more information, visit

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