The NPR Politics Podcast - December's Politics Podcast Trivia Game

Episode Date: December 17, 2023

Susan Davis and Ron Elving quiz an NPR Politics Podcast listener on recent political news and trivia. Listen to this episode to play along and to find out how you can enter for a chance to be our next contestant!Our politics trivia game is normally a bonus episode that only NPR Politics Podcast+ supporters can hear and play. Today, we're making it available for everyone. To hear more episodes like this, and to hear the NPR Politics Podcast without sponsor messages, support the show by signing up for NPR Politics Podcast+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/politics.Connect:Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics. And I'm Ron Elving, editor correspondent. And it's another edition of our politics podcast trivia game. Normally, this would be a bonus episode that only politics podcast plus supporters can hear and play. But since it's the season of giving today, we're sharing this one with everyone. So if you want more bonus content like this, and you'd like to find out how you can be a contestant in a future politics trivia game, sign up for PLUS at plus.npr.org. And of course, by joining PLUS, you're also supporting the work of NPR. Okay, Ron, I think it's time to bring on our contestant. And as always, it's a plus listener. Welcome to the podcast. And please introduce yourself.

Hi, this is Melissa from Mountain View, California. What's the best part about living in Mountain View? The weather. Hello, Melissa. Hello. We want to thank you for your support. And we hear that you're a parent of a teen who is a competitive Irish step dancer. Indeed, I am. Yes. He's now almost 17 and has been doing Irish step dancing since he was about nine. And the highlight of that journey was in 2022, he went to the World Championships in Belfast, which was very exciting.

And when you say Irish step dancing, maybe describe it for people who might not know what that is. So I think most people know it as the dance where your arms don't move. Is this also like Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance? It is exactly like Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance, although he jazzes up a little and lets people move their arms more. In competitive dancing, the arms are very important and they cannot move. Scandalous arm movement. Yes. All right, Melissa, let's get ready to play some trivia. We're going to do that right after this quick break.

OK, so this is our politics podcast trivia game. Melissa, I'm going to ask you five questions. They are all from the past month or so of political news. Ron Elving is going to be here to help you just in case you need a hint or a little bit of help along the way. So thank you, Ron. Always happy to help. All right, Melissa, you ready to play? I'm ready.

All right, let's get started. Earlier this month, New York's George Santos became the sixth U.S. House member to be expelled from Congress. He is facing multiple federal charges, including money laundering. Our question, though, is about the first three representatives ever expelled by the House. What was the reason? I believe it was because they supported the Confederacy. Yay! All right.

Yay. You know, the answer is all three House members were expelled in the same year, 1861, for disloyalty to the Union or actually fighting for the Confederacy. And then before Santos, the most recently expelled House member in more modern times was James Traficant of Ohio. This was in 2002 after he was convicted of multiple crimes, including bribery. I always feel like when you get the first question right, you're off to a good start. So we've set the bar high, Melissa. Okay. Question two. Two distinguished Washington figures recently died.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and former First Lady Rosalyn Carter. Both have very long biographies. However, only one of them wrote this book, Lazy Bee, Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch. Who wrote that book? I think that was Sandra Day O'Connor. Did I get that right? Yes, yes, you did. Sandra Day O'Connor. And you know, we actually made this question a little trickier than it probably had to be because the full title of the book is Lazy Bee Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest. Okay, so that would have been a bit of a giveaway. And that was the name of her family

ranch in Arizona. And she co-wrote the book with her brother. All right, two on the path to five. Question number three. This past Thanksgiving, we got another turkey pardoning at the White House. Actually, President Biden pardoned two turkeys named after an iconic American symbol. What was the symbol? This one's tricky. Oh, I'm going to need help with this one, Ron. Okay. Well, there are going to need help with this one, Ron. Okay.

Well, there are two turkeys, two names. But if you put the two names together, they make a phrase. And that phrase would be resonant in Sue's own old stomping grounds of Philadelphia. Oh, gosh. I'm not sure I know this one. Is it something crazy like Liberty Bell? Oh! Hey! not crazy at all. And here I thought you were going to say cheesesteak sandwich. Pats and Gino's, an iconic duo.

You are correct, Melissa. The answer is Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. One turkey was named Liberty and, of course, the other was named Bell. This is actually the third time that President Biden has pardoned a pair of turkeys for Thanksgiving. Last year, the turkeys were named Chocolate and Chip. And in 2021, it was Peanut Butter and Jelly, which at the time, President Biden said he likes for lunch. Peanut Butter and Jelly is still a good sandwich. I'm going to defend the president on that one.

All right. Question number four. It was reported that during a recent closed-door Republican lunch in the Capitol, Senator Rand Paul performed the Heimlich maneuver on a fellow senator who was choking on food. Who was that senator? Oh, I heard about this, but I don't know her name. Hmm. You're close. It was a woman. Help, Ron. She is a person who has talked a good bit about food in her career as a senator because she comes from a famous food producing state. Oh, gosh. I don't know. This one, I don't know. I know the story, but I'm never going to remember her name.

Her first name rhymes with Tony. I'm really trying to give it to you here, because you're on a roll. Rhymes with Tony. Joni something? Yes. You're halfway there. Joni. Oh, gosh. I don't know. This is going to haunt you the rest of your days. It is. I was going to say the last name is a quality that everybody would like to have in their politicians, sort of.

I'm playing games with the last name a little bit there. It's like the importance of being this. Ernest? Joni. Joni. Joni Ernest? I would give it to you. Joni Ernesto? Joni.

Well, her name is Joni Ernst. Oh. And she does come from the famous food producing state of Iowa. And she later thanked Senator Paul on that site formerly known as Twitter. And the incident recalls a similar one from 2018 when Senator Joe Manchin performed the Heimlich maneuver on then-Senator Claire McCaskill when she began choking. She, of course, is a Democrat from Missouri. This was also at a Capitol Hill lunch, which begs the question, what are they serving at these lunches? You know, Ron, the funny part about the Joni Ernst incident, it was actually Iowa Day for Senate lunches. And she may have choked on some Iowa pork, which is, you know, maybe even good home state politics.

Wow. Well, maybe there was some corn involved. I will say this. It's hard to choke on a peanut butter sandwich. I remember everything about that story. Except her name. Except her name. But now you'll never forget it. No. All right. Last question. Vice President Kamala Harris

recently broke a nearly 200-year-old record. What was it? Most tiebreakers. There you go. That is correct. No hints needed on this one. The answer is casting the most tiebreaking votes in the Senate. Now, this is a sole power situation that the vice president has this special right to break a tie vote. Harris's 32nd tie-breaking vote in this case, and it was to advance the

confirmation of a new federal judge. Casting that vote beat the previous record, which was set, oh boy, here it'll be a tough one. You could beat a lot of American history professors with this one. The last record was set by John C. Calhoun. Wow. Melissa, congratulations. You got four out of five, but I'm going to say like four and a half out of five. Oh yeah, it got to be 4.5.

And we're going to say you won just by being here and your prize will be that you get to record your very own timestamp for an episode of an upcoming show. Excellent. And before we wrap up, we've already asked you a lot of questions. But Melissa, do you have any questions you'd like to ask us? I do. So I thought of two. One is a softball and one is more serious. Do you have a preference? I'll take the softball. You give Ron the hard one. So the softball is of the people that you have worked with or interviewed in the course of your careers, who's the person you'd most like to buy a beer? Oh, gosh, that is hard. Don Gagne.

That's going to be my answer. That's a good one. I'm thinking of all the people who could use a beer that I've interviewed over the years. But, you know, like, you know, Jimmy Carter or people like that, if you want to go that far back. But one person that I miss here in Washington and I'd like to buy a beer for is Jim Leach, a former congressman from Iowa. He served in Congress a number of years ago as a Republican and was known as someone who had friends on both sides of the aisle, but, you know, so far beyond that, who really had relationships with people in Washington and brought a kind of large-mindedness to everything that he did. And the hard question. The hard question is more serious. And Ron, it's probably more relevant to you since you spend more time

on college campuses, but I was interested to hear your thoughts around the current questions going on around university freedom of speech and how you're reporting on that? It's an extraordinarily difficult question, and it is a good time not to be a university president. I think we can all agree. But let us just say that there is no easy way out of this particular question. Freedom of expression has never been absolutely limitless. There are forms of expression in certain contexts that are going to need to be restrained in one way or another, and an institution has some rights to protect itself by setting that kind of limit. I think that these events, when they happen, are good things. And by that, I mean, it is good for people living in a healthy democracy to have confrontations and lessons over free speech, over the right to

demonstrate, over living with people that have views differently than yours are. And civics lessons can continue, obviously, in your educational life, but throughout your life. And that's a good thing. Thank you. And thank you for listening. And thank you for being a PLUS supporter. You're welcome. This was fun. All right. That is it for us today. I'm Susan Davis. I cover politics. And I'm Ron Elving. And I want to say thank you to Melissa as well.

And thank you for listening and supporting the NPR Politics Podcast.