What A Day - A Time For Chaos

Episode Date: September 28, 2023

The second 2024 GOP presidential debate took place yesterday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The pool of candidates was smaller compared to the last round, but it wasn’t any less chaotic. Erin Ryan, host of Crooked Media’s “Hysteria” podcast, and Brian Beutler, founder of the Off Message newsletter, join us to break it all down.And in headlines: the American soldier who crossed into North Korea in July was transferred to U.S. custody, a federal judge in Texas blocked that state’s ban on public drag shows, and late-night TV is gearing up for its comeback.Show Notes:Substack | Off Message – https://www.offmessage.net/What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, September 28th. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Juanita Tolliver, and this is What A Day, sending our sincerest condolences to the fact-checkers who were working during the GOP presidential debate last night. Y'all put in work. Seriously, we salute you. You are the true American heroes.

But please, you deserve a day off. Please take it. Legit, you wouldn't see me. Please take it. Legit, you wouldn't see me till Monday if I had that job. On today's show, some much needed victories against two anti-LGBTQ laws. Plus, late night TV is gearing up for its comeback. But first, the normally sleepy suburb of Simi Valley, California, had one of its wildest nights in recent memory. We have a lot of ground to cover, so please keep it civilized. I mean, that's how it all started at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which hosted the second Republican presidential debate last night.

And, well, it ended up sounding something more like this. I think you of anybody who's involved. Some of us are. Excuse me. Excuse me. Thank you were about to pay for it. Some of us are paid to go to the bottom line when you say about to pay for it. Thank you for speaking while I'm interrupting. Literally. You said about to pay for it.

If I may finish. You can't be on both sides. And what you've got, I honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say. Period. Like, I rarely agree with her on anything, but that applied to the entire stage for me. I gotta say it was the most memorable line

of the whole night for me in particular, but probably because I was relating a little bit. But anyways, though the pool of contenders on the stage this time around was smaller, it definitely was not any less chaotic up there. As we previewed for you on yesterday's show, the candidates did in fact spend some time talking about issues like the economy,

but the debate also led to some seriously crazy shit. And knowing how this crowd operates, it's really saying a lot. So to cut through all the chaos, we brought in our friends Aaron Ryan and Brian Boitler. Aaron is the host of Crooked's Hysteria podcast, and Brian is the founder of the newsletter Off Message. Aaron and Brian, welcome to the show. It's good to be here. Hey, good to see you. All right, y'all, we're going to do this rapid fire. And I really want to start with who do you think spewed the most hateful, heinous rhetoric during tonight's debate? I mean, after the first debate, we discussed how Vivek Ramaswamy blasted his opponents and climate change. Did he outdo himself tonight? Or did Chris Christie's comment about Biden being in bed with a teacher, aka Dr. Jill Biden, take the cake?

I would say that Christie's was like sort of the most classless, but it also you could think of it as like a joke in poor taste that didn't land. I think that like the crueler thing was when Mike Pence seemed ashamed about having to confess that he sleeps with his wife, who is also an educator. It was easy to be kind of distracted by those moments, like the curtain fight and, you know, Nikki kind of going Amy Klobuchar on Vivek. I found the rhetoric around immigration to be just very unhinged

because they weren't yelling as loud when they were talking about that, but they were suggesting things that were literally non-starters. They also got really, really over their skis when it came to talking about drugs and dealing with fentanyl. I didn't hear any candidate talk about how we are going to handle the fact that so many Americans have gotten addicted to painkillers and have turned to heroin and fentanyl and street drugs. I didn't hear anything about how we're going to tackle any mental health issues stateside. All I've heard is they're going to invade Puerto Vallarta or whatever. They're going to take on the cartels. Okay, well, that doesn't really help anybody

who's dealing with addiction right now or who has a family member who's struggling with it. I found time and time again in the debate that the people on stage demonstrated a profound lack of normalcy and understanding of things that people actually face. Like there was a question that Dana Perino asked really early in the debate. She brought up child care. There is a child care worker credit that's going to expire on September 30th. Millions of children are going to be caught in a lurch and lose their child care providers, which a child care provider enables parents to work. They kind of talked about it for like 30 seconds and then moved on to stupid bullshit that doesn't really impact that many people, just like slap fighting. My overall vibe was that these people have no idea what it's like to be a normal person in any way. Absolutely. I want to circle back to

one of the topics you mentioned, immigration. It was a big topic throughout the night. Candidates were describing some really inhumane policy proposals. We actually have a few clips. Let's take a listen to the first one. Let's go back to remain in Mexico policy. Instead of catch and release, let's go to catch and deport. Vivek Ramaswamy in particular had this to say when asked about what he'd do to curb immigration. I favor ending birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal immigrants in this country. We had a taste of your reaction to that, Aaron, earlier. But Brian, what was your reaction to that mess? And then Aaron, if you want to go a little further as well, please do. I have to will myself out of

becoming desensitized to it, right? Like it is simultaneously true that all of that is crazy. And also that this debate broke new ground and that the Republican Party has planted itself in this crazy place where there's like an emerging consensus that the right way to deal with immigration and drugs flowing across the border to the extent that they are is to go to war, essentially, is to like bomb Mexico or invade. And that like you should just strip birthright citizenship as written out of the Constitution. These are the sorts of policies which, if adopted as prescribed, lead to ethnic cleansing. I mean, they're- Right, that part. Like, totally unacceptable for a humane society to even consider.

But, like, they get mentioned in the first debate, and their eyes bug out of their head. And then it's not like it brings about the collapse of the Republican Party, so they say it again at the second debate. And then they'll say it again at the third debate. And eventually, like, it gets harder and harder for people like us who understand how inhumane all of that is to remain exercised about it so i have to will myself almost to like remain upset about it i mean the overton window shifting is so extreme and it's happening right in front of us when it comes to the way republicans talk about immigration you have one person that's like so extreme they're like fire immigrants out of a cannon or whatever you know and then another person that's like so extreme, they're like, fire immigrants out of a cannon or whatever, you know, and then another person that's like, hmm, I don't think we

should fire them out of a cannon, but we definitely should keep them in cages. Then that person's voice is like the moderate voice. And it's like, no, no, no, none of these people are suggesting anything A, workable, and B, humane. A lot of this this is just theater but the type of theater that they choose to whip up their base into a frenzy is very uh telling about the types of people that live in this country right now yeah another component of that theater is culture wars which the candidates weighed in on as per usual this time with some really disturbing takes. This was Ramaswamy's deranged rant about trans kids and across-the-board push for parental rights. I have to be very clear about this.

Transgenderism, especially in kids, is a mental health disorder. We have to acknowledge the truth of that for what it is. When I tell you, this pains me deeply, but I need y'all's reactions to the way he just so casually deployed that anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. It literally flowed off his tongue. Erin, you go first. I tell you what, I would rather have five kids that were trans

than one kid that was that big of a dweeb. Come on. He is a huge goober and a dweeb, and we're not talking enough about that. He is raising his hand at the end of class to ask the teacher why they didn't get a pop quiz. He is just an absolute dweeb. He's an evil dweeb who demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what the experience of trans people is like in the U.S. and what the reality is of medical care for trans kids. There is a lot of like fear-mongering about stuff that doesn't really happen except in Barry Weiss's

newsletter. Kids are going to the doctor when they're tiny children and getting gender-affirming care that forever alters their bodies. That's not something that we really see evidence of it actually happening. It's kind of a ghost story that conservatives tell around the Fox News campfire, but it's become fodder in debates, and people think it's really happening, and they're using this fantasy about what's really happening, even though it's not happening, to craft laws. And it's ridiculous and silly. And yes, he is a huge dweeb. But it's also at the base of it is a hate that is something we need to reckon with. I wrote an off message on Wednesday about the special disdain I have

for people who engage in cynical cruelty. There are plenty of just sadistic, cruel people in the country, and that's also bad. But the people who know better, who recognize that there's just cruel people out there and decide, I want to whip that up so that they like me, is like a very unique kind of evil? And I feel like the trans issue is one that kind of exposes it most clearly because none of the Republican candidates today who are pretending to be so upset about trans healthcare or trans girls playing sports ever cared about girls' sports, ever particularly cared about who used which bathroom until they realized that that got them feedback from like a subset of Americans who want to be cruel to people who like have the least amount

of power. I think that's the thing that I find like most upsetting about it is knowing a flip switch on their heads and they decided that they were going to beat up on children for votes. Absolutely. There were also lots of potshots against the guy who wasn't on the stage, Donald Trump. He was busy railing against electric cars at a non-union truck parts supplier in Michigan. So which of those attacks, if any, do you think were successful

and will actually stick to Trump? I was actually surprised. I mean, not surprised because I've become used to it, but I thought it was notable how little the candidates went after Trump as per usual. We heard DeSantis for the first time kind of attack Trump, call him out by name. That part. Kind of used to Chris Christie saying the guy's actually corrupt, like the guy, he's bad and he shouldn't be president. DeSantis has danced around this for a long time.

He finally decided, okay, I should attack Donald Trump. And it was like, for the budget deficit and like what he said about abortion, like, he still thinks that like, okay, I can attack Donald Trump. But it should be to try to convince Americans that I'm even crazier and less likable than he is. And so like, I'm sure Donald Trump welcomes that like, if Ron DeSantis attacking him for like responding to COVID and also saying that six week abortion bans are bad as a way to try to jockey for like support in the Republican primary, he thinks that's going to help me in the general election. So what does he care?

I think the only reason he said Trump's name today was because Trump's been in the news. We know he was found guilty of fraud allegations earlier this week. So I feel like that made him feel OK. Like, OK, he's getting hit by other people. I can slide this in, right? The election is more than a year away. And people have a lot of time left to backtrack and backpedal, pretend they didn't say things and obfuscate and, you know, make nice or whatever. This time in, you know, 2016, Kevin McCarthy was talking about Donald Trump being paid by Putin. And then,

you know, he ended up being one of Trump's most ardent toadies during the entirety of the Trump administration. Mitt Romney was out there speaking out against Trump. Ted Cruz was out there speaking out against Trump. This stage in the election, speaking out against Trump is a calculated decision for how these people can get the support that they need or raise the money that they need i don't believe anything that they say actually will translate to any kind of long-lasting policy position any kind of long-lasting moral position because there's so much time for them to who just put a bunch more crap in between voters and the memory of tonight so yeah like ron desantis came out and then you know chris christie had his weird donald duck joke and which was horrid like he was doing

so well up until the moment he said donald fucking duck i'm like sir you can't close horrid horrid i know i know and i want to look at that camera right now and tell you donald i know you're watching you can't help yourself i know you. OK, and you're not here tonight, not because of polls and not because of your indictments. You're not here tonight because you're afraid of being on the stage and defending your record. Reactions to that. He's not wrong. I mean, it's true. He's the only one who has the insight that if what he did could create a snowball effect among other Republican candidates, Donald Trump might actually have problems, right? Like Ron DeSantis, I don't think is like attuned to what Donald Trump's vulnerabilities are. He's only

attuned to his own. And that's why he's like, I need to change. I need to mix it up a little bit and attack Donald Trump for the budget deficit or whatever. But if he was really interested in the fact that a judge basically said the Trump organization can't operate in New York anymore because of all the fraud, he could have said that. Trump said in a deposition, like a sworn deposition, it was revealed that he can accept bribes from Saudi Arabia if he wants his properties to be valued at a high level. Ron DeSantis could have said that. The only person on the stage who actually knows any of this stuff is Chris Christie, he's correct that if more Republicans on the stage were like him, then Trump would have a problem. But as it turns out,

as it seems to always turn out, there's only ever one Republican who's ever willing to criticize Donald Trump at one time. And they do, and they become horribly unpopular among Republicans, and they get booted from whatever race they're in. And then somebody else takes their place, and the same thing happens. They they need to do it together, but they just won't. Yeah, it's Red Rover, Red Rover strategy. They got to send more than one guy over at the same time. I think that a lot of them like grumble privately about Trump, but are afraid of the possibility of soundbites being used against them in the near future. Because I don't think that any candidate on that stage has anywhere near the diehards that Trump has.

Right. I don't know anybody who's like, I like Nikki Haley so much, I'm going to go to a whole rally for her. I'm going to dress up. I'm going to stand in line. I'm going to storm the Capitol for her. Exactly right, Priyanka. I'm going to show up on January 6, right?

Like, that was the vibe. Yeah, nobody loves the governor of North Dakota enough to storm the U.S. Capitol. What's his name again? Doug? I'm joking. I'm joking. Bergen. Last question for you both.

Dana Perino tried to get at this at the end of the debate. She was cut off. But we will circle back here because I would actually like to hear it from you guys more than I would from those people on stage. If you had the chance, out of everybody on the stage, not including Doug, because that's just an easy answer, whose mic would you cut? Who would you take out of this primary running? You can be strategic about it.

Erin, why don't you start? Vivek Ramaswamy, 100%. He's so annoying. He had me cheering for Nikki. Honestly. roma swami 100 he's so annoying he had me cheering for nicky so honestly i cannot stand nicky haley and i was like cheering nicky using a dusty line from billy madison as like a comeback to him oh you stole that from me and i'm gonna say that that was a billy madison it is a billy madison quote you're not the only one who's seen billy madison brian it was a popular film i thought it was a popular film for people was a popular film.

For people our age. Yes, yes. I mean, we're all dumber for having heard you say that. It's something we all yelled at someone on the playground in seventh grade who was saying something dumb. That's how annoying he is, though. I was like, wow, that's great. She quoted a movie that I liked at one point in my life, and she smacked down this really annoying guy. I also really liked Christy being like, knock it off, man. Yeah, still my time. Him just on account of the fact that he is so annoying that I feel like I lose the ability to reason.

I feel like I'm going to black out when he raises that dumb little finger. I can't think. I can't focus. I am pure id right now. He's annoying. Get him out of there. What about you, Brian?

My backup, as I was puzzling over what to say when she was talking about Ramaswamy, was Nikki Haley for stealing the line from Billy Madison. So I now, again, seat of my pants, will say Mike Pence. My rationale, I'm like, he actually comes across as like maybe the most dignified person on the stage in Republican adjusted terms. But you know, he knows he across as like maybe the most dignified person on the stage in Republican adjusted terms. But, you know, he knows he's not going to be vice president, just like Christie knows he's not going to be vice president. In theory, that should free him to be a little bit more frank about. Come on now. Come on now.

Still not willing to go much further than like Donald Trump was wrong to say I should have been hanged for not overturning the election. He is squandering the opportunity, the freedom that his being on the outskirts with Donald Trump should afford him to speak a little bit more candidly about why Trump shouldn't be president again. And unlike Christie, he's just not taking it. So to hell with him. Yeah. All he's doing is claiming he has sex with his wife in perhaps the least convincing way possible. But anyways, Brian and Erin, thank you so much for making this night a little bit more bearable for both of us. It's always a pleasure having you two on. Thanks for having us. Always fun to be on. Let's wrap up with some headlines.

Headlines. U.S. Army Private Travis King, the American soldier who crossed into North Korea more than two months ago, was transferred to U.S. custody yesterday. Officials said that he was on his way back to the United States on Wednesday thanks to negotiations facilitated by Sweden and transport provided by China. Before his release was secured, North Korean state media said that he faced expulsion and claimed that he, quote,

confessed that he illegally intruded into the reclusive authoritarian state. Biden administration officials, for their part, made it clear that they did not give any concessions to North Korea's government to guarantee his release. As we told you earlier this summer, King crossed the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea back in July after he reportedly joined a civilian tour group of the area. A week before this bizarre incident, he was supposed to board a plane to the U.S. to face disciplinary action

following an assault charge in South Korea. He is expected to face additional disciplinary action, but will be given physical and mental health assistance and will be reunited with his family before those next steps. In other diplomatic news, the Biden administration said yesterday that Israeli citizens can now enter the United States without a visa. That's part of an agreement with Israel, which was made in exchange for Israel allowing American citizens, including Palestinian Americans, to enter the country visa-free for short-term stays. It follows a pilot program that launched in July.

The State Department says it's working out some details, but as of November 30th, Israeli citizens will be able to travel to the U.S. visa-free for up to 90 days. And all U.S. citizens, regardless of their religion or ethnicity, can fly directly into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Before, many Palestinian Americans were forced to go to Jordan first before crossing into the West Bank by land. And at long last, some good news in the ongoing fight to protect trans rights. In Texas, a federal judge permanently blocked that state's ban on public drag shows, deeming it unconstitutional. The law, which went into effect on September 1st, was similar to Tennessee's drag

ban, which characterized those performances as sexually explicit and inappropriate for minors. The ACLU ended up suing Texas on behalf of a group of drag performers and LGBTQ rights groups saying that the ban was discriminatory and too vague to be enforced, and the judge hearing the case agreed. This comes after more than a dozen states have tried to restrict drag shows over the past year. Meanwhile, a Montana judge blocked that state's ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth. Montana's law, which was set to take effect on Sunday, would have banned medical professionals from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or gender-affirming

care to minors. The judge in that case granted a preliminary injunction against the measure, writing that it is, quote, unlikely to survive any level of constitutional review and that it would harm trans kids both physically and mentally. As a reminder, gender-affirming care for trans adults and minors has been endorsed by every major medical organization. And finally, the Hollywood writer's strike has officially come to an end, and that means late-night TV is coming back. The Writers Guild of America called off the 148-day strike just after Midnight Wednesday, just a few days after it announced its new three-year agreement with the major Hollywood and TV studios.

Guild members will have from October 2nd to October 9th to vote on whether or not to approve the deal, but in the meantime, writers can get back to work, which means the return of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Fans of HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

can expect a brand new show this Sunday. And for the diehard Late Night fans out there, that also means the end of the limited series podcast Strike Force 5, which was hosted by Fallon, Meyers, Colbert, Kimmel, and Oliver during the strike. They donated the profits from the pod to their teams out on the picket lines.

I love seeing the guys leading out front, but let's be real, it's not lost on me. They're all men and they're all white. So bring Amber Ruffin back, pretty please. Let's get her back on the scene here. Absolutely. We need some more color. We need some more women in the late night lineup.

That is for sure. But one thing to be thrilled about is that all these people who work on these shows are heading back to work and doing the work that they were meant to be doing. So I am so happy for them

and for all the writers, so many writers in my life and in the lives of our friends who work on the show seem really excited about this deal. So that is so positive. I'm just happy to see it. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go, the Supreme Court is about to begin its new season next week. And once again, civil rights in the U.S. are on the

line. This time it's over a case involving hotel websites. But don't freak out just yet, because the hosts at Strict Scrutiny have you covered to unpack what's on the docket this term and to help you keep up with the next wave of legal news that's heading our way. Make sure you subscribe to be the first to hear about the latest SCOTUS drama each week, wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, take a break from the news about Republican presidential candidates, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just articles about what Amber Ruffin is up to like me, what it is, also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe.

I'm Juanita Tolliver. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And thank you, fact checkers. Oh, it's a tireless, thankless job that will never end with these Republicans. Truly. But I almost wonder if it's easier with these people versus Democrats because like you have less of an expectation that they're telling the truth. And you don't have to dig deep to find the lie either.

Right, right. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producer is Itzy Quintanilla. Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers. And our senior producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.