The NPR Politics Podcast - Weekly Roundup: Thursday, June 20

Episode Date: June 20, 2019

Former Vice President Joe Biden isn't backing down from his comments recalling the "civility" of his working relationships with two segregationist lawmakers. Plus, in a high profile case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a 40-foot World War I memorial cross can stay on public land at a Maryland intersection. This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, Congressional correspondent Scott Detrow, White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe, and political editor Domenico Montanaro. Email the show at [e-mail]. Find and support your local public radio station at npr.org/stations.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, this is Phillip and Casey. And we're on our way home to Cincinnati, Ohio with our brand new puppy, Frankie, and she's about to listen to her first ever NPR Politics podcast. This podcast was recorded at... Yay! Baby's first podcast! I mean, puppy's first podcast. Hey, there are people who would disagree with you that the dog is their baby.

They're both equally appreciated. This is funny. We should leave it in. 12.57 p.m. on Thursday, the 20th of June. Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Keep up with all of NPR's political coverage on the NPR One app or on your local public radio station. Okay. Enjoy the show.

Did she say what kind of puppy? No. I don't think so. Things are going to change for the pillows in their house. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Scott Detrow.

I cover politics. I'm Aisha Roscoe. I also cover the White House. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, political editor. And guys, I have some exciting news to share with you. We are hitting the road. I am headed to Colorado with Asma, Mara, and Danielle. We'll be in Boulder for a live show on September 20th.

So if you're in Boulder or Colorado or the surrounding states, or if you just want to go on like an epic road trip to hang out with us, head to nprpresents.org and pick up a ticket. I was in Boulder for the first time ever, covering the now off-the-rails presidential campaign of Howard Schultz. I loved Boulder. It's such a great town.

Oh, it is awesome. Who doesn't, right? I mean, it's amazing how it's a really nice place to live. Unfortunately, it's so expensive now. Well, there's that. But September is a long way off, and today we need to talk about some remarks that Joe Biden made that are getting him in some serious hot water with some other people who are running for president.

And also a decision handed down by the Supreme Court this week and what we are expecting ahead. So let's kick things off with Biden. Scott, you have been following the twists and turns of this over the last 24 hours. Can you just sort of walk us through how this happened? Yeah. And the reason this is a big deal is because it gets to a lot of the broader differences that Biden has with the rest of the presidential candidate field. And it also gets to a lot of the vulnerabilities that people have expected from Joe Biden when you look at the upsides and downsides of his campaign. So here's what happened. He was in New York City at a

fundraiser Tuesday night. And the Biden campaign, he does a lot of fundraisers and they let a pool reporter in the room who sends out a report to everybody about what he said. He was talking about how he's been criticized for trying to work with Republicans in the past. And he started talking about the fact that he's able to work with people he disagrees with, that he worked with Mississippi Senator James Eastland and Georgia Senator Herman Talmadge. They are both Democrats, but they were staunch segregationists, like really opposed to any civil rights bill. And here's what Biden said about Eastland. He said he never called me boy.

He always called me son. Then Biden goes on to say at least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn't agree on much civility. We got things done. We didn't agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today you look at the other side and you're the enemy, not the opposition, the enemy. We don't talk to each other anymore. Now, some of you make fun of me sometimes for my obsession with Robert Caro's LBJ books, but they were actually newsy and useful here because I was looking up quotes about James Eastland from the civil rights era and found

some of the most violent, disgusting, like I'm not even going to paraphrase it on a podcast, racist quotes at the height of the Montgomery bus boycott. So this was not a subtle person in terms of their views on race. So that statement from Biden then leads to a response from Cory Booker. A lot of responses from across the board. Cory Booker was one of the ones that got a lot of attention. And it was I guess it's surprising in some ways because Cory Booker doesn't lash out against other Democrats that much. But it wasn't surprising because Cory Booker talks about the civil rights movement so much. It's like the heart of his stump speech.

He put out a statement saying, you don't joke about calling black men boys and went on to say that a relationship with proud segregationists, as he put it, are not the model for how we make America a safer and more inclusive place for black people and for everyone. And he said he was surprised and disappointed Biden hadn't apologized for this. Can we just pause to say that the word boy is a really freighted word? Yes. And it's not something that would have been used with Biden anyway. Like that's the issue. Like Biden is a white man. The issue is that white people would use that word with grown black men to degrade them, essentially. So then Kamala Harris, also running for president, weighs in as well.

Yeah, and this is Harris and Booker are two of just three black U.S. senators, along with Tim Scott from South Carolina. So here's what Harris said at the Capitol. I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Biden, but to coddle the reputations of segregationists, of people who, if they had their way, I would literally not be standing here as a member of the United States Senate, is I think it's just it's misinformed and it's wrong. So all day, we're waiting for

Joe Biden to respond to all of this. And he doesn't until he's at another fundraiser, this time in the D.C. suburbs last night. And this is how he responds. He's outside afterwards getting ready to go and reporters go up to him and ask him questions. Are you going to apologize like Cory Booker has called for? Cory Booker has called for it. He's asking you to apologize. He knows better. I'm not a racist bone in my body.

I've been involved in civil rights my whole career, period, period, period. One of the big criticisms when you talk to a lot of Democratic strategists of former Vice President Biden was that they didn't think he could stay disciplined. Right. And this is one of those potential unnecessary missteps when he didn't need to go this far or talk in this direction. Why even bring those guys up? Nobody even knows who they are. You could now they do. You could make the point that he wanted to make in a totally different way. And this is, like I said, a big reason a lot of Democratic strategists have been sort of waiting for the bottom to drop out for Biden. And this is a huge test for him a week before the debate. And this goes to that issue of, is Biden the person of this moment in time to represent

the Democratic Party? Like you said, he's talking about stuff that happened back in the 70s. It's not really clear why he's bringing that up but he it's also this idea of civility and like well yeah back then we got things done well back then uh there was jim crow and back then there was lynching and all of these things and so to kind of say well we need to go back to the good old days is not going to ring the same for everyone. Now, it's not clear what impact this one incident will have on his support from black voters or anyone else, but this is something that people are going to be questioning Biden about. Yeah, and thus far, he's actually, according to polling,

had strong support from black voters or decently strong support. And and he has some really high profile African-American lawmakers and surrogates who are working for him. Absolutely. And some of them defended him yesterday. But I think to me, what jumped out to me from that response was even if you don't want to apologize for the statement, I think there's like a grounded defense of saying like what I'm trying to say is that I worked with people I really disagreed with on everything they stood for. And also making the argument, if you look at his career, he said he got into politics because of civil rights to begin with. He was, of course, Barack Obama's vice president.

But to me, to say, to make that joke, whatever the intention was about the phrase boy, and then to have a black candidate for president say that's deeply offensive and historically loaded. And then to respond to that saying you should apologize to me, I think, is incredibly alienating to a lot of people. And it's just tone deaf. And then to say the not a racist bone in my body. That's that's the kind of go to language for people when they're kind of called out on something that they say about race. And it's all about their bones aren't racist and all of this stuff. It's your mind and the words. And I don't think that people are really saying that about Biden,

but they're just saying that the way that he's talking about this. And I think that's what Booker was trying to say, was that the way that he talked about this, Booker felt was inappropriate. You know, so one of the things, though, about Joe Biden is, again, this very long track record that he has of statements that he's made in the past. I mean, if you think about this is the same guy who said Barack Obama was clean and articulate, right, and that you couldn't go into a 7-Eleven without an Indian accent. And he's also the person who got picked up while in that same cycle of making those comments as the vice president for the first black president, right? So the way Barack Obama,

you know, reacted to Joe Biden, you know, 11 years ago, versus how the Democratic field is reacting to him now really tells you a lot about how the Democratic Party has changed itself, where 2019 Democrats are versus then and what Barack Obama was like and what he felt like he needed to do. So I don't know if we really know at this point where the Democratic Party is or where it's going to land, but like this is what a primary is for. If your front runner doesn't go through the traps of of all the bad stuff coming out in the primary, then it comes out in the general election and then there's nothing that the party can do about it. This is why I've said that I think Biden is good for the Democratic primary overall, because, you know, if Biden wins the nomination, it's because he was able to, you know, overcome all of the things that people said were problematic about him potentially. And because there's such a long primary, he's going to have so many people coming at him. And if he loses, that means that somebody was able to beat the biggest name in the party and a former vice president.

There is another presidential candidate who is dealing with issues related to race, and it's in his day job. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of the city of South Bend, Indiana, who has been rising up in the polls and is now sort of a top tier candidate for the Democratic nomination. Scott, there was an officer involved shooting in South Bend involving a white officer and an African-American man. Yeah. Over the weekend, a South Bend police officer shot and killed a 54-year-old named Eric Logan. The officer said that Logan had a knife and wouldn't drop it when the officer approached him. Police officers in South Bend do have cameras on them. That's something that Buttigieg implemented. But this officer's body camera was not turned on at the time of the shooting. That has been cause of a lot of frustration. Buttigieg canceled several days of campaign events to be back in the city. And he actually gave a speech the other day at the graduation ceremony for several new

South Bend police officers talking about how,, you know, there's there's justified anger and there's a lot of mistrust over the history of policing that they need to work against. But he's gotten a lot of criticism from from from black residents of South Bend. There was a long Washington Post profile of all of this that had some really searing quotes. I should point out, first of all, that that graduating class was all white police officers. There's been several years of tension. Buttigieg fired the black police chief early on in his tenure as mayor. It's a quote from Oliver Davis. And this is in The Washington Post, who's the who's on the South Bend Common Council. How is he handling it? Well, he talked to the media

before the family. He skipped the family vigil full of black residents. And then he gave a speech to the police. So how do you think it went over? Buttigieg in the middle of a presidential campaign with the debate next week, trying to balance some really serious stuff in the city he's the mayor of. And, you know, he has not been having the best time reaching black voters or voters of color. Like he's he does not poll as well with people of color as he does with white people. these tensions run so deep and they feel like Buttigieg, not just Buttigieg, but none of the people in the town who are not black understand and basically said they feel like when a black man calls the police, they end up in the morgue. And so these are very serious conversations. And these are things that were happening as Buttigieg was mayor. So he has to kind of address like, how is he going to how is he going to deal with this issue? And then also on a national level, when all these

issues are going to continue to happen, how do you deal with this? Yeah, what would what would it say about his presidency? What does his mayorality say about his presidency, potential presidency? One other thing before we go to the break. This week over on Capitol Hill, there was a hearing about reparations and presidential candidate Cory Booker was there testifying front and center. Yeah, I mean, and this was a huge moment and I think a really historic moment to have a hearing on Capitol Hill about the issue of reparations. I think it's something that for a lot of people, they thought that they would never see. And to have that as even a serious discussion about it. And so wherever people stand on it, but just to have it seriously weighed, at least in this hearing, was remarkable, really.

Can you give the five second description of what reparations are or would be? Well, so reparations and backers of reparations are quick to say that it's not necessarily a check, although some say maybe it should be a check to to black people who were affected by slavery and and Jim Crow. But a lot of the supporters would like is programs or basically things to counteract like housing discrimination that black people suffered from. So zero interest loans for black people or free college education. So issues so there could be programs and issues like that to kind of address some of those things that happened throughout this country. And we've seen some of them actually enacted in a much more limited way in recent years, like Georgetown University has made a point for, you know, slaves were involved in the building of that university. They made a point that descendants of those slaves, I believe, are able to go to Georgetown

completely for free. Of course, it's very hard to scale that out to a national level, but it's a serious conversation in a way that it wasn't a few years ago. And I mean, because remember, even President Obama did not support reparations. He called them impractical. So this is something and I think that you will get views all over the place. If you have if you talk to a room full of black people, you get lots of views on reparations. I've had these conversations. So lots of thoughts, but just just but you can see how far the party has moved. And think about what it means just in this Democratic primary. I mean, most of the candidates aren't supporting payouts and checks to African Americans for reparations. They've been sort of pivoting. Some people calling for commissions to look at it or studies and et cetera. And Barack Obama, as Aisha points out, didn't support this largely because he was trying to win over people who were swayable in the middle and might have been, you know, even uncomfortable with Barack Obama as being the first black president. He didn't want to step into, you know, really thorny issues of race, which he's gotten some criticism for from the left. And that has been completely ripped apart in this election, especially in the era of

Trump. All right, we are going to take a quick break. And when we get back, the Supreme Court has ruled. Support for this podcast and the following message come from WNET with Amanpour and Company featuring conversations with today's headline makers and tomorrow's change makers. The show brings you in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day. Visit pbs.org slash Amanpour to go beyond the headlines. Weekdays at 11 p.m. on PBS or stream segments at pbs.org slash Amanpour. Check local listings.

Evangelicals play an important role in today's politics. But how and when did this religious group become so political? This week on ThruLine, the history of evangelicals in America. ThruLine from NPR, the podcast where we go back in time to understand the present. And we're back. And the Supreme Court today handed down a pretty big decision that involves the separation of church and state. And it also involves a giant cross on public land that is essentially in your backyard, Aisha. Well, it's behind my neighborhood in a very busy intersection. Right.

That I so I pass it all the time. Tell us about this cross. It's a little strip, like basically a median where they have this big kind of stone looking cross that is, I guess, a memorial. I didn't really even know what it was for. I guess that's bad on me. I just would drive past it. It's like right in front of like a pawn shop. And I drive past it all the time on my way to church. So it wasn't like the talk of the town like, man, it's a big Supreme Court case. No, I didn't realize it until I was reading NPR. And then I was like, look at that picture. That's like my neighborhood. Right. That's like right there. And so it's I don't know that the people in the town were really aware that something had risen to the Supreme Court level about this

memorial. But it is a very prominent landmark. Well, it was a big deal locally, you know, almost 100 years ago, because this is a World War I memorial. And it was these moms in Bladensburg who had lost their sons in World War I. They wanted to create a memorial and they built this, but they ran out of funding for it. And in the 1930s, it was taken over and became part of the Parks Commission that wound up running it. This is public land and taxpayers pay for its maintenance. And the American Humanist Association said, why is this giant cross on public land that taxpayers are paying for its upkeep of? This seems wrong. So they took it to court. The lower court agreed with them and said that this should come down and shouldn't be on public land or taken over by some private entity.

And the Supreme Court today reversed that decision. So what was their reasoning on this? So, you know, it was a 7-2 decision. So it was not actually a 5-4 along ideological lines. Now, among that, there was some disagreement. But what the majority opinion said, what Samuel Alito wrote, he said that it does not violate the Constitution's ban on the establishment of religion because it essentially has become a secular symbol. You know, there were rows and rows during World War One where it became popularized that this was a way to memorialize the dead. Should I say, tell that to Jesus? I was going to say, Tam, do you think a cross is a secular symbol? I don't know. You know, it has a pretty strong biblical New Testament significance.

Obviously. And what, you know, that was part of the dissent as well. So does this ruling say that you can have a giant stone cross in Aisha's backyard? Or does this ruling say you can have a giant stone cross anywhere on public lands? Well, and does this, you know, there I think was a previous Supreme Court decision related to the Ten Commandments monument being in a public building. Does this overturn that? Well, look, first of all, there's a big distinction between public and private land. Right. I mean, when it comes to private land and Aisha's backyard, she can have whatever she wants in her backyard.

Unless I have an old sofa. I really want to know, by the way, like what Aisha personally thinks about the Supreme Court ruling. But in the interest of us all being objective journalists, I will not ask you that. OK, well, I mean not ask you that. Okay. Well, I mean, like I was saying, there's a difference between public and private land. Like you can have anything you want on your private property as long as it doesn't violate some local ordinance, right? Okay, I wasn't being literal. I was meaning like that particular monument.

But on a public land or the metaphoric backyard for Aisha, you know, I hope your kids aren't playing on a median in an intersection. Not that I know of. I don't know what they're doing right now. So what it essentially says, the breadth of this ruling is pretty sweeping for already established historical symbols that could have otherwise religious implication. The Ten Commandments, if it's up somewhere and the intent of why it was put up isn't exactly clear, those folks would have a stronger argument for keeping those as a result of this case. Now, when it comes to establishing a new monument, erecting a giant 40-foot cross somewhere else in the country. Now, there could be an argument that that's put up for religious intent, which is the very fine line that Justice Alito was drawing here. I mean, and that's an interesting thing because even if you look at this as a win

for religious rights groups, essentially the win is by saying that these religious symbols aren't actually religious. So it seems like a weird way to kind of win. So I've been very busy, I will be honest, covering the 23 people running for president and have paid no attention to the Supreme Court term this year. What else is coming in the final days of this session? There are three big cases that we're still waiting on. One, it has to do with the U.S. census and the citizenship question, right? The Trump administration wants to be able to ask people, are you a citizen of the United States? We've had lots of stories about this, lots of controversy over it. Department say that this will lead to a massive undercount. But it looks like the court may be going in the direction of allowing this question on the census, at least as oral arguments went. The other big case is about political gerrymandering when it comes to congressional

districts in Maryland and in North Carolina. That's going to be huge and interesting to watch, especially ahead of the next time they draw these districts and ahead of the 2020 elections. And the third one is outside of politics a little bit, but it's about bias in jury selection when it comes to race. And it centers around this man, Curtis Flowers, who's been on death row for 22 years in Mississippi. He has been tried six times and was finally convicted. And he's appealed that appealed it, appealed it. And, you know, it's going to be interesting to see if the court winds up saying that they seem to say in oral arguments that the prosecutor had overtly racist tactics in trying to

eliminate black jurors. If the court were to say, okay, we're throwing this back to Mississippi, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens to the fate of Curtis Flowers. All right. Well, we are going to take a quick break. And when we get back, it's time to end the show the way we always do with Can't Let It Go.

Support for this. When you're paying for college on your own, there's a lot to balance. To help you get through it all, NPR's Life Kit talked to the real experts, students. Finding a side hustle that works for you and works for your schedule is usually beneficial. Find Life Kit's new guide on how to pay for college in Apple Podcasts or at npr.org slash Life Kit. And we're back and it's time to end the show like we do every week with Can't Let It Go, the part of the show where we talk about the things we just can't stop thinking about, politics or otherwise.

Aisha Roscoe. Yes. So this week, what I can't let go of is this story on BuzzFeed. And this is kind of the story is not in honor of Pride Month, but because it is Pride Month. This was a story about a woman. She and it's called The Time I Went on a Lesbian Cruise and It Blew Up My Entire Life. So this is a woman who went. She is a lesbian. She is a lesbian. She is a lesbian.

She went on a cruise. She had been in a five year relationship with her partner. But they seemed like they were having problems. Right. Like if you read the story, you really got to read the story. But they were kind of open relationship, but she didn't really like it. And she thought that she would just kind of stay in this, you know, relationship, even though they were kind of going in different directions. But then she goes on this lesbian cruise for work. She was covering it, like kind of covering like general generational issues right

but then she meets this woman yes net and she just and lynette is like from london from so from the uk whole other country and she just falls in love. And then she gets home, she waits a week, and then she just, she breaks up with the partner, she moves out of the perfect apartment that she thought she had, and the thing ends with her on a plane going to the UK to be with Lynette. It's pretty dramatic.

So she wrote this, like, as it's happening? She wrote it, well, after it happened. Okay. But it ends with her talking about... So is it working out well? We don't know. wrote it, well, after it happened. Okay. But it ends with her talking about- So is it working out well? We don't know. It ends with romantic pictures of them together. Okay.

It's just kind of like a romantic comedy, not comedy, but a romantic- That is, that has like all the plot points. Yes. Like you're in this, stuck in this relationship. That the viewer is like, it's not working. Yeah, it's not working. And then you meet this new person and then it's like, do you go with the new person to London, or do you stay in your kind of safe life?

And she took the risk. Well, you know what they say, love is love. Love is love. And so that's what she did. Now, I do have to be negative. I don't think it'll work out. We've known each other for like five days. We won't know.

Let's just let this. You know, romantic comedies end with them getting together or in the process of getting together and then it's over and you never know. And that's where this ended. But I'm like waiting for the next story which will be like all

the things I didn't know about Lynette. I don't know if BuzzFeed's gonna publish that one. Okay. That was negative but you know. A minute ago. Well what I can't let go BuzzFeed's going to publish that one. Okay. That was negative, but, you know. There we go. Well, what I can't let go of is a moment in the president's interview with George Stephanopoulos at ABC that was sort of like an outtake that they ran. Why not? It's all on the record, baby.

It is all on the record. I was a little surprised that they wound up running it because the point of what President Trump was doing was to say, hey, let's retake this like we do in the podcast sometimes where we mess something up or, you know, someone coughs. Here's here's a cut of that. Some point up, they get it because it's a it's a fantastic financial statement. It's a fantastic financial statement. And let's do that over. He's coughing in the middle of my answer. Yeah, okay.

I don't like that, you know? You're chief of staff. If you're going to cough, please leave the room. I just wish you could get a shot of, and I'll come over here. You just can't. Just to change the shot. Okay. Sorry.

Okay, do you want to do that a little differently then? Yeah, we just changed the angle. Okay. Yep. Thank you. So at some point. So he finishes his answer. He gives a new answer to this.

ABC sort of changed the angle is what he was talking about there. And you can't see the president. You can sort of hear how perturbed he was. But he really looked perturbed, too, like this. So you just couldn't believe the outrage that Mick Mulvaney, his chief of staff, would have been coughing in it. And frankly, when I first watched it, I didn't notice the cough because it's so natural. It happens. You're in a room with people. But he was really upset by it.

And it just told me that for all we talk about with this president being really aware of how he looks, how he sounds, all those optics and trappings of not just the presidency, but of his life. This was an exclamation mark on that. And boy, the stress you would feel being in a room, you know, and had to work for him. And he's... And you can't cough or sneeze. Yeah. Like if you're Mick Mulvaney, someone who's done a lot for this president, I wonder what's going through his mind right now.

Well, I mean, you know, we work in audio and sometimes you do get to cough in. And that's not good. It's not good for your takes or whatever. It's not good to have that coffin. Well, one other thing about that interview that's worth mentioning is that George Stephanopoulos actually asked President Trump about our interview with Kamala Harris, about what she said in that interview. Which I think is the first time President Trump has been asked about the NPR politics podcast. Well, we know he's a listener.

All right, Scott, what can't you let go of? Mine is about not realizing what you've possibly got until it's almost gone and coming together with age old grievances and turning the page. And it's actually a serious topic. And it is the fact that Red Sox superstar David david ortiz dominica he's not yet been elected to the hall of fame no it can't be because he he hasn't been retired for five years right uh time is just melted in my brain and i wasn't sure how he will certainly be in the hall of fame one day uh david ortiz red socks player led him to three world series uh the bane of my existence for several years as a yankees fan 2004 2004 in particular, when he led them on a historic comeback that made the Yankees look like idiots.

And it was just the worst playoff series ever. But he was... For one team. Yes, for one team, not for the other team. But David Ortiz was in the Dominican Republic, where he's from, on June 9th. And he was shot and really seriously injured. It was very frightening. And I was out in Iowa and all of a sudden I see it on the TV and I was just glued to the TV.

And I was shocked at how, like, devastated and upset I was and just, like, really pulling for him. The Red Sox actually sent a plane to bring him back to Boston. He's doing much better now. And it turns out the whole thing was a fluke. It was a case of mistaken identity. The shooter thought he was someone else. Which is wild because he's got to be a pretty big celebrity. Right.

Everywhere, but especially in his home country. Yeah, don't accidentally shoot David Ortiz in the Dominican Republic. That's what you would think. Yeah. Who would do that? That is like... I was surprised at how much I felt like a deep feeling of sadness and concern and worry about someone who I'd spent a decade aggressively booing and hating on every time I saw him play in person.

Yeah, it's amazing that it was a case of mistaken identity. I mean, this is a guy who's like 6'3", 230 pounds. Like, this is not like someone that's easy to miss. He doesn't blend into a crowd. It's like a very unique profile. Yeah. All right. I'm last. And I think that this is in some ways a very unique profile. All right. I'm last.

And I think that this is in some ways a mea culpa. It is also a story about the dangers of analogies. Oh, no. Yeah. Let's talk. Let's unpack this. Yeah. So on Monday, I was on the PBS NewsHour and I was trying to describe what the president's big campaign relaunch rally would be like.

Because Trump rallies are in some ways like going to see the Grateful Dead. You get to hear the songs you want to hear. And he always plays the greatest hits, if you will. So, Tam, what did we learn from this experience? Oh, well, we learned that the Grateful Dead does not play the hits. No, they don't. They don't play the hits. No.

So it turns out, and I watched this happen in real time, just like hundreds of people yell at you on Twitter. It turns out, first of all, I feel like people were offended that you made the comparison at all, but specifically, the Grateful Dead don't play their greatest hits. So they don't play hits. No, they just jam. It turns out they're a jam band. I've never been specifically the Grateful Dead don't play their greatest hits. So they don't play hits. No, they just jam. It turns out they're a jam band. I've never been to a Grateful Dead concert. You're not a deadhead.

I am not a deadhead. Jerry Garcia died when I was in high school. I'm sorry, everyone. I'm very sorry, especially to the person who said, I hate to be that guy, but you couldn't possibly be more wrong. They're all watching PBS NewsHour, too?

All these deadheads? I was trying to figure out if somebody started up a Reddit chain. I don't know if the deadhead email list server was like, go get her, but they came at me on Twitter, on Facebook, over email. It was everywhere.

Just don't name a specific name. That's a great lesson because in one of our last podcasts that I was in, we were talking about walk-up songs, and I got wrong that One Republic is actually from the state of Colorado. John Hickenlooper

had One Republic's song played, and we were all sort of just joshing on the song, and someone said, oh oh maybe they're from colorado and i was like no i don't think so and turns out people on twitter also knew the one republic apparently is from colorado springs well we we all apologize for the errors all right that is a wrap for today. A reminder that if you want to come hang out with us in Boulder, Colorado,

CSTape the podcast, scold me in person. We will be live on stage. Just head to NPR presents dot org. And next week, the Democratic debates are kicking off. There's going to be 20 candidates over the two nights. So to start getting to know them, go back through our podcast feed and listen to some of the interviews that we've done with the candidates. We are going to be covering these debates on the podcast. So watch your feeds. I'm Tamara Keith.

I cover the White House. I'm Scott Detrow. I cover politics. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Domenico Monsonero, political editor. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast. It's never too late to apologize.