What A Day - Adiós Impeachment!

Episode Date: February 5, 2020

We are on to day three of the never-ending PTA meeting also known as the Iowa caucus and as of yet there is still no declared winner and the state’s Democratic party has not released 100 percent of the vote totals. We do a post-mortem on the event and look ahead to New Hampshire. Today is the final day in the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump. We discuss the mental gymnastics Republican senators have gone through to admit Trump did wrong, but not wrong enough to convict. And in headlines: Amazon drones, outsourcing the American dream to Finland, and blowing up the Tesla bubble.

It's Wednesday, February 5th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day. And Akilah, wow, we have just missed you so damn much. I missed you all too. I was spending the time at Disney World riding rides, so I missed you a little differently, but I missed you anyway. On today's show, more from Iowa and the caucuses, as well as the end of the impeachment trial and then some headlines. So we are on to day three of the never ending PTA meeting, also known as the great Iowa caucus debacle of 2020. And as of yet, there's still no declared winner and the state's Democratic Party has not released 100% of the

vote totals. The candidates have moved on to New Hampshire, where the next primary is set to take place. And we have more reporting about what went wrong on, you know, the night of the caucus. But first, let's get into what the Iowa Democratic Party shared on Tuesday afternoon. Gideon, give us that scoop. Here it comes. As if this entire process couldn't have gotten any weirder, the Iowa Democratic Party decided to release results from 62% of precincts counted on Tuesday afternoon. Is that like a really specific number or something? I don't know how they came up with it.

I mean, I guess that's what they had and what they were willing to share so far. We did get a bit more later in the day. So by midnight on the East Coast, we're at 71% of the results in. And within that breakdown are the popular vote numbers and state delegate equivalents, which is kind of what Iowa does to assign a value to the vote totals. If you want to hear more about how that breaks down, listen to Monday's episode or go ahead and read it. The easiest comparison I could make is the differentiation between how an electoral college works on a national level and how the popular vote works on a national level.

But what we have seen showed the following. For the popular vote, Senator Bernie Sanders was leading, followed closely by South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, then Senator Elizabeth Warren, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden. In the state delegate equivalence, however, Buttigieg narrowly led Sanders, a reflection of the allocation of delegates, like we said, in some areas where perhaps there were fewer caucus goers to the number of delegates that were assigned. But in all this mess, outlets aren't making calls yet because it is so close and there are a lot of outstanding votes from some of the more populated counties. So the race remains in this weird spot where a lot of candidates ended up declaring victory on caucus night without knowing the full results. I guess that's just how things are now. It's one way to do it. Some candidates, though, like Warren, who is currently sitting behind Buttigieg and Sanders,

expressed a degree of frustration that only some of the results were being released. I just don't understand what that means, to release half of the data. So I think they ought to get it together and release all of the data. So they should wait until they have it all. Well, they should get all of the data. We're doing what we can to help, and we have called on other campaigns to do the same. We've taken photographs of places where we know you can use it for getting accurate counts, and we're hoping that that will at least help them uh in terms of making sure that they've

got a complete and accurate count now we only have part of the data but we're hoping if other campaigns will do the same that maybe that will help them get to the right place get it together is the most gentle way that you could yeah true address this entire situation um two other things that we should note while we wait to see what the final results say. If this stands, this is a poor showing for Biden. And the effects of that could be seen in the weeks ahead. We don't know what this would mean for the remainder of his campaign and if it will affect his standing in the other states. But this is definitely, you know, a poor showing as it stands. And the other thing is, this doesn't appear to be near the historic turnout of the caucus in 2008. I think that was a little point of small concern

for Democrats looking at this right now. Yeah, I mean, you know, in their defense, I'd say the past four years have been exhausting. It was, you know, it was a Monday evening. We're all tired. Post-Super Bowl. Yeah, you know, maybe we're hungover. We don't know. Well, at this point, we know more about what went wrong than who the actual winner is. And at the center of it, all of it is this app that seemed to have wreaked havoc on caucus night. So do you want to explain a little bit more about that? Yeah. So the primary cause of the delay in reporting the winner in Iowa was due to this app created by a company called

Shadow Inc. And reporting indicates that that was initially founded by veterans of the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign. And these companies like Shadow Inc., Shadow Inc. does voting tech, organizing tech. They're all part of this broader push from Democrats and donors to these organizations to showcase how they're competing with Republican digital efforts. There's a sense Democrats have that they're a little bit behind on that front and they want to catch up. And at least in Iowa, the tech from this company just drastically failed on every single level. Basically, Iowa Democrats said that the app, which we have learned was built in less than two months. Oh, man.

So it's a beta version. It's a beta version given to people who are, you know, administrating something that is already kind of complicated. The Iowa Democrats were saying it was difficult to download and to use and was giving even you know wrong tallies of the caucus results as they were putting them in and so they had to begin a manual tally of the caucus as a result which has slowed everything down shadow apologized but didn't explain what exactly went wrong and quickly after that, Nevada, which also holds a caucus later this month, said it would not be using the app now, which I think makes a lot of sense. So a little more background on what's been reported about Shadow. It had apparently also

worked with the campaigns for Biden, Buttigieg, and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and was financially backed by the progressive digital firm Acronym, which was founded by former journalist Tara McGowan and former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe is a board member and advisor for them as well. So it's easy to see how this app became an issue with volunteers who weren't trained on how to use it, who help at these caucus sites,

not necessarily knowing how to deal with this. And when it wasn't working, instead, you had folks calling in results or trying to get help from the state party. And when they're calling the hotline, the state party hotline is getting backed up. Oh, God. So it's just Fyre Fest. Everybody's there eating cheese sandwiches when they thought it would be different. Well, we had spoken previously on the show about questions regarding Iowa's role in the nominating process. I mean, it only gives out 41 delegates and the electorate is way, way wider than the broader Democratic electorate.

So now this news is obviously calling its status into question even more. But what's going on with other caucuses nationwide? Yeah, I think to that point about the questions that remain about Iowa, you know, this is definitely another point on the board for folks saying this needs to either be scrapped or we need to really reconsider how we're doing this. But there were already states that were phasing out caucuses compared to 2016. In 2016, there were 14 states that had caucuses. And in 2020, there are four, including Iowa, then Nevada, North Dakota, and Wyoming. So if you combine all that information and sort of the general mayhem that occurred on Monday night, it does have a feeling like this is a little bit of a death knell for Iowa.

Yeah, well, cosign on not wanting to do that anymore. Caucuses, they're very confusing. Well, we're obviously in this weird spot with an unresolved race. There's another around the corner. What can we expect next? Honestly, I don't know. I mean, I wish I knew. But, I mean, the most immediate thing that I and I think everybody else can hope for is a final count and an official winner in this race. Put it in the rear view. But also on the docket is the next Democratic debate on Friday in New Hampshire,

quickly followed up by the primary in that state next Tuesday, which, depending on the results of Iowa, will be important for who is kind of gaining momentum going forward. But we'll be keeping track of updates out of Iowa as well as the rest of the 2020 race as it's all quickly unfolding before our eyes. Today is the final day in the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump. We made it. The past two weeks have been filled with reiterative arguments from the House managers and relative deflection from Republican senators. I think we both have a sense of how this is going to end. But what are we expecting today? All right.

Well, barring any backlash from the State of the Union or some sort of Freaky Friday scenario, it would appear President Trump will remain in office and the Senate will acquit Trump on his charges. Those were obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. The vote will be held this afternoon, and it's wholly unlikely that two-thirds of the body will vote to convict. It is expected that votes will fall mostly along party lines, with the possibility of one or two or maybe even three defections. Hey, you never know. And even though it is expected, it's sort of a bummer that these Republican senators are finally admitting that there was wrongdoing on the part of the president. And in some cases say that the wrongdoing was impeachable, but they'll just let the election decide. Can you run through some of what they had to say about this?

For sure. So Susan Collins, soon to be former senator of Maine, said, quote, I do not believe that the House has met its burden of showing that the president's conduct, however flawed, warrants the extreme step of immediate removal from office. And then she went on to tell CBS that Trump had, quote, learned from this case and that he will be, quote, much more cautious in the future. Definitely buying that one. Right. In my house growing up, we had to at least apologize to get off the hook. But I guess, you know, posting perfect phone call in all caps every day on Twitter

is enough of a display of remorse for most Republicans. And for no relevant reason at all, I just wanted to let you all know that Collins' opponent in Maine, Sarah Gideon. No relation at all. Right. That Gideon put out a statement on Twitter that she would have voted to convict Trump and that Collins voting against further witness testimony was, quote, not a process that Mainers and Americans deserved. Okay, so already seeing how this is going to play out in these Senate races. Worth noting here, too, that, you know, Sarah Gideon has outraised Collins in the most recent fundraising data that we have in that race. Yeah, there were a few more statements from Republicans that made news. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said, quote, the question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did.

So Alexander believes it should be left up to voters in the upcoming election. But before I move on, I just want to be clear that that is really not true. And displaying this level of misunderstanding of your role as a juror is at best embarrassing, at worst, a reason to never have a position in government again. I mean, how do you leave it up to an election when an election, like the election interference is at the center of this case? You know, the American people aren't voting about whether the president committed a crime. They're voting about who they want to be president. So it is the Senate's responsibility to figure out the crime shit. I just, I don't understand. Yeah. We don't have all the time in the world. What else do you have from these senators?

All right. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida's statement is probably the most frustrating of the bunch. He said, quote, just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a president from office. OK, so it's like if your home security system said, hey, we know someone is breaking in and stealing your TV, but maybe it's not in your best interest to make him leave. Right, right. So Senator Rob Portman of Ohio is another one that admitted the actions were wrong, but didn't really want to do anything about it. Stop asking him to work, etc. Yeah, you know, the most important thing is the president clearly learned his lesson.

He'll be on his best behavior in the future. So this will probably not be the last we'll be hearing about Ukraine or the Bidens and corruption in Trump's White House. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton's book is coming out in March. Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas will stand trial just weeks before the presidential election. Yeah. And the big question I think about all of this is sort of how voters will judge it. You know what they're going to think about what impeachment accomplished, how it could affect Trump in 2020, if,

if at all, you know, and only time and a lot of long reads or Twitter threads will, will tell that tale. But for old time's sake, let's hear that beautiful impeachment blast sound. Wow. Really,

really brings me back. We had some good times with that. And now for some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The State of the Union happened last night, and if you didn't watch it, you are not alone. Even Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Maxine Waters and others made the active decision not to show up. Typically, the State of the Union is an opportunity for the president of the United States to tell Americans how the country is doing.

And Trump filled his speech with exaggerated claims about the economy and plenty of made for TV moments, like giving Rush Limbaugh, a conservative yelling man slash radio host that was recently diagnosed with cancer, a presidential medal of honor in the middle of his speech. Some Democrats who showed up ended up walking out. The night's most gif-able moment went to Nancy Pelosi, who ripped a printed copy of Trump's speech into pieces after the whole thing was done. It's me looking at the Iowa results. If anyone gives me any more numbers about it, that's what I'm doing.

The drones I use to get epic shots of my friends and I doing parkour are about to have some company. Federal aviation regulators are taking steps towards approving the widespread use of delivery drones. The new proposals lay out plans to regulate the design and reliability of the drones like they would for other normal aircrafts. This is a big win for Amazon and other companies who have been fighting to get your online orders delivered at even scarier and more disconcerting speeds. You won't see flying robots in UPS shorts at your door anytime soon, though. Big bummer. Regulators say routine drone deliveries to average consumers are still years away. Oh, man. Well, I'm kind of happy about it. I'm just saying they're going to be taking weird pictures of us. You know it's true. Yeah. All right. Well, in a newly published interview, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told the Washington Post that people in Finland have a better shot than Americans do at achieving the American dream.

This is how it always happens. First, foreign countries take your jobs. Then they take your dreams. Marin said that Finland's comprehensive education system, health care, and social welfare system help give citizens the opportunity to become whatever they want. This is why Finland gets ranked the happiest country in the world, according to Marin, with other Nordic countries that have

similarly robust social programs filling out the top four. The U.S., on the other hand, comes in at 19 on the list, which I honestly think is better. You know, we don't have time to be happy because we're too busy honking on our Ford trucks and cooking delicious hamburgers. Yeah, that's right.

When I'm in my F-150, that's business time. That's not happy time. If your unemployed live streamer roommate recently showed up with a new top-of-the-line gaming chair, he could be holding stock in Tesla Inc., whose shares rose by 14% on Tuesday and 56% over the last week. Wow. The electric car company's rally began after they published their quarterly report, which showed record deliveries in the fourth quarter. This was followed by a flurry of trading and attempts at short selling,

which drove the price up and made everyone who laughed at Elon Musk's big pointy truck feel a little bit stupid. Only a little, though. Only a little. Still, some experts think there's more to this picture. Tesla's fundamentals don't support the huge gains they made. The company consistently loses money each year. And the recent surge has an eerie resemblance to many bubbles we've seen in the dot-com age, like Bitcoin in 2017. Some experts are saying that the probability of a crash in Tesla stock is 80%, based on a model by Harvard researchers.

Wow. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, rip up any one of our terrible speeches and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just men's mind like Taraji P. Henson in the movie What Men Want, 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 thanks for joining us for the State of the Wad. Tear on that paper and I eat it and spit it at you.

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