What A Day - A More Muted Presidential Debate

Episode Date: October 23, 2020

Last night Biden and Trump faced off in the second and final presidential debate. It was less interrupt-y and the candidates discussed everything from the pandemic to climate change and racism. We break down what Biden and Trump had to say, and the biggest news leading into the night. And in headlines: Remdesivir approved, Pompeo signs an anti-abortion declaration, and a beautiful green dog is born in Italy.Show Links: “What Prop 22’s Defeat Would Mean For Uber and Lyft — And Drivers”https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-10-19/prop-22-explained

It's Friday, October 23rd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we are choosing our president purely based on who claims to know more about wind. Yeah. I mean, can you name the colors of them? Is there a mighty one? Can you explain the waves? We have questions. We need another debate where we ask these questions to both the candidates yeah on today's show the second and final presidential debate then some headlines

they want to knock down buildings and build new buildings with little, tiny, small windows. I mean, and many other things and many other things. Let me have the vice president respond. And we're running out of time and we have a lot. OK, so last night in Nashville, Vice President Joe Biden and President Trump debated for a little over 90 minutes. The candidates discussed Trump's pandemic response, health care, racism, climate change, immigration and more. There was a mute button and maybe the fear of it is what made the debate far more typical than last time. We got to hear at least some uninterrupted answers and strange new phrases from Trump like AOC plus three and a date called November 3rd. Similar to a tribe called Quest,

I guess. We're going to break it all down. But first, a lot has happened in the three weeks since Biden and Trump last met in person for their first debate at the end of September. For one, Trump got COVID-19, likely at a super spreader event he hosted at the White House. That and his wild interrupting performance in the first debate seemed to have damaged him further in the polls. And while he was receiving aggressive treatment to recover from COVID and returning to the campaign trail to continue downplaying the virus and criticizing scientists, the pandemic has only gotten worse. New daily cases in the U.S. are above 60,000. Over 11 million people are out of work and there's still no relief bill. And then there's the election, which is very much happening right now. Over 47 million people have voted compared to just over a million as of the first debate, which is way more than what's normal by this point in the

campaign. It's also more than the total early vote in 2016. Yeah. And so going into last night, Trump, who is behind in the polls, has been attempting a new attack on Joe Biden with a story about his son, Hunter Biden, and files on his alleged laptop about his work in Ukraine. So that laptop is now reportedly in FBI hands. And this is a complicated story and very dubious. But here's what we know so far. The story was published in the New York Post last week by a reporter who didn't want their byline on it. And it centers around an email suggesting that Hunter arranged a meeting between his father and the head of a Ukrainian energy firm while Biden was VP. Other media outlets afterwards had not been able to confirm the story and whether the reported emails are in fact real. And then after the debate, the Wall Street Journal published a

piece that debunked many of the claims. The broader issue was part of a recent Senate Republican investigation that found no wrongdoing on the part of Joe Biden. And Trump, of course, was impeached for trying to seek damaging information from Ukraine on Biden. And then to add to all of this, dozens of former intel officials say the files on Hunter Biden's laptop most likely contain Russian disinfo, though it is not clear the FBI believes that point. Meanwhile, when it comes to news about undisclosed overseas business dealings, this week, the New York Times reported that Trump has a secret bank account in China, where he has been pursuing business deals for years. The bank account has since been confirmed by a lawyer for the Trump organization. And finally, yesterday, there was news from two

upcoming 60 Minutes interviews with the candidates. Joe Biden said he would create a bipartisan commission to look into court reform, which didn't go far enough for some progressives. But it's the most concrete answer Biden has given on the court so far. And President Trump, who tried to scoop 60 Minutes by posting the interview before them, said that he wanted the Supreme Court to end the Affordable Care Act. 4D chess, my friend. Quite a backdrop going into the debate, to say the least. So let's talk about what went down last night.

Akilah, quick first impression here. All right. So I was prepared for this debate to be just as annoying as the first one. And generally speaking, I don't think it was. You know, it was quieter and less interrupty. The mute button function was good for the majority of the first answers to the moderator's questions. But by the end, all those senseless non sequiturs started creeping back in.

I'll also say that the moderator last night, Kristen Welker, was way better, like so, so far ahead of Chris Wallace several weeks ago. You know, she kept the candidates on topic. She forged ahead with better, more relevant questions whenever Trump threatened to devolve into conspiracy theories. And generally speaking, she seemed comfortable being there. So that was the vibe. But Gideon, let's talk about what Trump did last night.

How would you describe what he had to say? Yeah, I definitely agree that it was more toned down. But on the substance, I think Trump still acts in large part like he's running in 2016. He kept trying to cast his opponent as a career politician and one who was corrupt. He brought up that Hunter stuff, for example, but it didn't quite land and it was a little bit hard to follow. And that strategy allows him to evade questions about his own term as well as his vision for the future. He failed, for instance, to offer a coherent message on the biggest crisis of his presidency, COVID-19. And he at times tried to make the Democratic ticket seem more to the left than it is. Trump seems to always have Bernie Sanders on the brain.

And several times he came back to the same point about Biden being a long time politician who hasn't gotten anything done. But there was at least one specific moment where the strategy failed in a pretty remarkable way. Biden turned to the camera and said the debate should be about the families of people watching and not what the two candidates were talking about. And Trump kind of fell into a trap with a terrible answer. Here's a clip of that. and if you're a middle-class family, you're getting hurt badly right now. You're sitting at the kitchen table this morning deciding, well, we can't get new tires, they're bald because we have to wait another month or so. Or are we going to be able to pay the mortgage? Or who's going to tell her she can't go back to community college?

They're the decisions you're making. And the middle-class families like I grew up in Scranton and Claymont, they're in trouble. We should be talking about your families, but that's the last thing he wants to talk about. I want to talk about North Korea. I do want to turn to 10 seconds, Mr. President. That's a typical political statement. Let's get off this China thing. And then he looks, the family around the table, everything. Just a typical politician when I see that. Let's talk about North Korea. I'm not a typical politician. That's why I got elected. Let's get off the subject of China. Let's talk around sitting around the table.

Come on, Joe, you can do better. We're going to. Okay. So if we're following the logic here, Trump is kind of coming off as saying, I'm not a typical politician. I don't care about your families. Almost literally what he's getting at. And that moment, along with one where Trump backed away from raising the federal minimum wage, we're really out of sync with what's going on in the country among working families. So, Akilah, what did you make of Trump last night? So, I mean, personally, I'm not giving a 74-year-old man props for not screaming like an infant during a debate. Like, he's been here long enough. He ought to know how to act by now. But in terms of the content of his answers, there wasn't really much worth talking about. Like you said, Trump didn't really want to talk about his record at

all. At one point, he did say that he takes responsibility for COVID, but then he immediately pivoted to the same old static about how everything is China's fault. At other points, he blamed Democratic governors and criticized Fauci. Overall, he continued to downplay the virus, saying that schools and businesses should fully reopen, but he revealed no plan to deal with the spikes in infections. In fact, he claimed that there is a vaccine that's ready and will be deployed in a few weeks. WOD squad, we know better, OK? So, yeah, this was kind of his tactic the whole night, you know, saying Biden was an all talk, do nothing politician while failing to defend his own record of racism, environmental deregulation, child separation, or even express any sense of

his plans regarding health care, COVID-19, immigration, or election interference if reelected. So that was Trump, but let's talk about Biden. Yeah, so the first chunk of this debate was about COVID, the public health element of it, and the economic one. And that's where Biden has consistently offered one of the best and most obvious contrasts with something that literally everyone can see the impact of with their own eyes. I thought he managed to keep turning the focus throughout the debate to things that have been a staple of his campaign and why he's frankly winning right now, the pandemic, healthcare, things like that. And then in the parts where he did get into discussions of his record on criminal justice, immigration, and more, he could get windy at times, a little bit harder

to follow. Those weren't quite as strong. But the Trump campaign keeps looking and looking for one huge gap or mistake from Biden that is somehow going to change things in the course of this race. And I don't really think that we saw that. Here's a strong section of Biden talking about the pandemic near the start of the debate, following an instance where Trump said Americans were, quote, learning to live with it, referring to the virus. He says that we're, you know, we're learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it. You folks home will have an empty chair at the kitchen table this morning. That man or wife going to bed tonight and reaching over to try to touch their out of

habit where their wife or husband was is gone. Learning to live with it. Come on. We're dying with it because he has never said he said he said it's dangerous. When's the last time? Is it really dangerous still? Are we dangerous? You tell the people it's dangerous now. What should they do about the danger? And you say, I take no responsibility. Let me talk about your. Excuse me. I take full responsibility.

It's not my fault that he came here. It's China's fault. And you know what? It's not Joe's fault that he came here either. It's China's fault. And you know what? It's not Joe's fault that it came here either. It's China's fault. Okay. Well, you know, the contrast between these two candidates is so stark. And I think another incredibly illustrative example of that was the section about race and racism. So Donald Trump's entire campaign has been a broken record about the 94 crime bill, and he continues to conflate Biden and that super predators comment. It's one that Biden didn't make. And Biden owned up to the fact that these at the time, very popular bills did more harm than And he continues to conflate Biden and that super predators comment. It's one that Biden didn't make. And Biden owned up to the fact that these at the time very popular bills did more harm than good. He pointed to the ways the Obama administration tried to address the mandatory minimums and commute prison sentences.

And I'm not saying that it's perfect at all. But hey, at least they can point to like something they tried to do that affected more than just people Kim Kardashian has vouched for. But Biden was also surprisingly thorough on his read of Trump's racism, which he hadn't been so quick about in the past. Here's a short clip. The fact of the matter is in 2000, though, after the crime bill had been in the law for a while, this is a guy who said the problem with the crime bill, there's not enough people in jail. There's not enough people in jail. And go on my website, get the quote, the date when he said it, not enough people. He talked about marauding gangs, young gangs and the people who are going to maraud our cities. This is a guy who in the Central Park Five, five innocent black kids, he continued to push for making sure that they got the death penalty. None of them were, none of them were guilty of what the crime of the crimes they were suggested.

Yeah. Biden also brought up Trump's Muslim countries ban and Trump's comments about immigrants, which Trump weirdly doubled down on. At one point, referring to immigrants as low IQ for following the law and showing up for their court hearings. Sounds like something somebody with a really high IQ would say just days before an election when he's trailing with every group that isn't white men. But I digress. Gideon, this is the end. Do you have any final parting thoughts? Just breathing that in for a second. Joe Biden did not say look here fat during any of these debates.

Thoroughly disqualifying to me. I would have loved a push up contest. Did not get that. Yeah. Look, I truly think the nice thing is we're free from more of these. We learned what we were going to learn and we made it past them. But how are you feeling about it? Oh, my God.

I'm so glad that we're done with the debates. I'm so fucking glad. Also, I do think that, you know, at this point, your campaign slogan is big if true. And you're just pointing the laptops that might have some bad information on them. We'll have to find out. Obviously, you're grasping at straws, and I wish you no love. Yeah, the truth of the matter is my laptop from hell is the one that I work on, and that is the latest. It's Friday WOD Squad, and for today's temp check, we're talking about a strong bug.

A new study in Nature described the defense mechanisms of the so-called diabolical iron-clad beetle, which some describe as, quote, almost uncrushable. Thanks to an exoskeleton that has multiple layers, built-in air pockets, two interlocking lobes, the little bug can withstand forces that would, quote, liquefy most other animals. To put a number on it, these beetles can survive forces 39,000 times their own body weight. That's equivalent to one person being crushed by 25 blue whales.

So, Giddy, if you could withstand these kinds of crushing forces, how would it change your lifestyle? I think I wouldn't be afraid of window air conditioners and walking on sidewalks beneath them and thinking that at a certain point, one is inevitably going to fall and destroy me because I am not a diabolical ironclad beetle. That would be the first thing. I would walk worry-free beneath all of them. I would tempt fate and jump under them and ask. Yeah, honestly.

Fall on my head. I feel like, yeah, just walking down the street is not a change in the lifestyle, but demanding that people throw their air conditionings at your head, that's a change. Yeah, I would say, yeah, push them out. I'm here. I'm waiting to get hit. I'm into it for you. head, that's a change. Yeah, I would say, yeah, push them out. You know, I'm here. I'm waiting to get hit.

I'm into it for you. I think that's great. Same question, though. What are you doing here with your strong exoskeleton? I mean, I think that I would probably join some, like, MMA fighting or something. Like, Ronda Rousey would be, like, out of a job. He's like, go ahead, keep kicking me in the face. I feel nothing.

I'm going to rake in these checks. Like, I mean, I'm assuming that this, this bug bleeds, the bugs bleed. I don't know how bugs work. They don't have blood. So fine. I would probably still be bleeding, I guess, but I'm happy to get kicked in the face for a check if I'm that, you know, resilient. Right. The interesting thing here is that it doesn't really get to the question of pain, I just realized. So like, the air conditioner would still hurt, right? And the kicking would still hurt. I mean, I don't know. I doubt it. I don't think that this exoskeleton diabolical ironclad beetle is really like, worried about it, you know, like, it's not it's not affected. It's fair. I think that I have a lot of lingering questions for these folks that studied this in nature. And I would like to talk to them about it. And I would like to make this my life's work is to figure out, you know, how we can

become ironclad beetle strength. Yeah. Or how they can make a car out of one. Well, just like that, we've checked our tips. Stay safe. If you're a beetle, good for you for being so resilient. And we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The FDA approved the first drug to treat COVID-19 yesterday. Remdesivir is an antiviral medicine that's given to patients that have been hospitalized by the virus. It has already been used to treat patients on an emergency basis since May, as well as our sick president earlier this month. A study by the NIH found that remdesivir can shorten COVID recovery time by an average of five days. Some health experts criticize Remdesivir's manufacturer Gilead for the drug's high price point, which is between $2,000 and $3,000 for one patient's

typical treatment course. The company was previously criticized for failing to prevent a global shortage of Remdesivir, which was driven by high demand for the drug and a patent which gives Gilead the exclusive right to sell it. As if to distract us from the pandemic by reminding us that there's also a war on women's rights, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed the U.S. to an anti-abortion declaration yesterday, which says, quote, in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning. The so-called Geneva Consensus Declaration, yuck, was co-signed by 30 other countries that are largely considered to have conservative or authoritarian governments, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Indonesia. Some of the countries are even on

Georgetown's Women, Peace, and Security Index as the worst countries in the world for a woman to live. USA, USA. We love it. Poland, unsurprisingly, was one of the countries who signed the declaration and they have some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. Just yesterday, Poland's highest court approved a nearly complete ban on abortion in the country. Jeez. Uber pioneered rideshare, but they've also made huge strides in the field of coercion. The company has been sending drivers in California a, quote, constant barrage of in-app messages urging them to support their ballot proposition, and yesterday a group of drivers sued to stop the practice.

The proposition in question is California Prop 22, which Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and other apps have funded to the tune of nearly $200 million. If Prop 22 passes, it'll allow rideshare apps to sidestep California law and treat their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, which for drivers would mean no paid time off, no unemployment insurance, no workers' comp, no overtime pay, and a diminished ability to unionize. The proposition would also require a 7-8 majority to amend. So if California legislators decide later on that apps actually shouldn't write laws, change in course will be almost impossible.

That is not what Uber drivers have been seeing when they use the app, though. Instead, they've seen messages that say, quote, Prop 22 is progress and require them to click either, quote, yes on Prop 22 or OK to continue. Uber used similar tactics on riders as well. Uber drivers say the messages are illegal since the state of California prohibits employers from influencing the political activities of employees. Check the show notes to learn more about Prop 22.

And please enjoy watching Prop 22 commercials from Lyft and Uber since they cost those companies approximately the price of one avatar. Man, they're not nearly as entertaining as a Blue Planet. Well, we hear a lot about Green Means Go, but not so much about Green Means Dog. That all changed earlier this month when a green dog was born in Italy. This is true. It's important. And if you have access to a large amp, now would be a good time to connect it to WOD so your whole apartment complex can stay up to date on this groundbreaking news. The green furred pup was born into a litter of five and all of his siblings have white fur like his mom. Puppies are born green when they have contact with a certain green pigment in the womb.

In related news, the unborn dog who rubbed dye on himself so he came out photo ready is already my main makeup inspiration. Beautiful for the fall. Pistachio is the dog's name, and his green color is already starting to wear off, so any scientist working on a time-stopping device should work faster so we can prolong this fleeting moment of green bliss. Beautiful little green New Deal pup. Honestly, Luigi is a more apt name for an Italian green dog,

but I'm sleep. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, sop up pigment to be born green, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just the screenplay for James Cameron's avatar like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes.

I'm Gideon Resnick. And don't mess with the diabolical ironclad beetle. He's got enough going on right now. He's got a hard exoskeleton and a worse attitude. So stay away. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tun is our assistant producer.

Our head writer is John Milstein and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.