What A Day - Another Brick In The Blue Wall

Episode Date: November 5, 2020

Joe Biden now has the most votes of any presidential candidate in history, and he’s won two more key states in his path to 270 electoral votes: Michigan and Wisconsin. We’re still waiting on calls in five battleground states: Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. We discuss where things stand, and how the two campaigns are responding. Spoiler alert: one is being dignified and the other is trying to derail the democratic process.Meanwhile, things aren't looking so good for Democrats in the Senate. Susan Collins won re-election in Maine, making the chances of a Dem majority much slimmer.And in headlines: the US sees over 100,000 new COVID cases in a single day, passage of California’s Proposition 22 sends ride-share stocks soaring, and re-examining the gender roles of hunter-gatherers.

It's Thursday, November 5th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we are feeling cautiously optimistic that our country may survive another year. Yes, don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but a Civil War II scenario is looking less and less likely. Yeah, I still haven't fully exhaled yet, but you know, I'm close to doing that. Yeah, just, you know, maybe let a little bit of that air out. Just a puff. On today's show, more election results and then some headlines.

Welcome back to another day of counting. Big picture, we still don't have a call on the presidential race, which, again, we expected to take some time. We're recording this at 8.30 p.m. Pacific, 11.30 Eastern. And since our last episode, we now have calls in Michigan and Wisconsin for Biden, bringing him to 253 electoral votes compared to Trump's 214. But we're still waiting on five key battleground states to be called, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Arizona. A note on Arizona, the AP and Fox have called it for Biden, but other outlets haven't seen enough yet. When it comes to the popular vote, according to the New York Times, Biden now has nearly 72 million votes, the most of any presidential candidate in history, and that total

is expected to grow. Trump currently has a little over 68 million votes. But let's get into the status of the race and the vote counting in each battleground state. So Gideon, kick us off. All righty. So starting with those two calls you mentioned in Wisconsin and Michigan, both were called midday Wednesday as more mail ballots were counted overnight and into the morning. And remember, these mail ballots typically skew Democratic, so that's why we're seeing that shift. In Wisconsin, Biden is leading by about 20,000 votes. And then in Michigan, he's ahead by a significantly larger number, about 100,000 votes or more. More on the margins in a second.

But the significance of these wins, even though they were much, much narrower than the polling suggested, are pretty huge. I mean, first, these are two of the three states that have haunted Democrats since 2016, when that so-called blue wall crumbled and Trump narrowly took the presidency. You know the deal. Biden had initially staked his campaign on being able to win them back. And this is the first proof that that strategy is working. Second, those are 26 more electoral votes for Biden, which further complicates the path for Trump to win back the White House.

Broadly speaking, right now, Trump would need to win most of the remaining five swing states that haven't been called yet, whereas Biden only needs one or two more states to win this thing. All right. So let's talk about the remaining states that are still too close to call and still counting, starting with Arizona and Georgia. Yeah. Like we all expected, the race was going to come down to Arizona and Georgia. So in Arizona, Biden is up, but batches of votes are still being reported. And we just got some more votes from Maricopa County last night that narrowed Biden's overall lead. We're anticipating more to be reported later into the night and early morning. Now,

I want to caution, it's possible by the time you listen to this podcast that a call could be made, but it could also take a bit longer. If Biden does lock this up, he needs just one more state. And then another one to keep a very close eye on is Georgia, where a lot of exciting things are happening. So Trump is currently up. But throughout Wednesday, as more votes were counted, Trump's lead significantly narrowed. We let it hear that. Yes. And that's because a big share of the outstanding vote was from places like suburbs around Atlanta and other Democratic vote rich areas trending in Biden's direction. So by

the time of this record, Biden was behind by less than a point with less than 40,000 votes separating him and Trump. Fulton County officials are saying we may get a more complete picture after midnight on the East Coast. So again, it's possible that by the time you hear this, Biden could take the lead, which would be a massive, massive win. And again, just one state shy of victory. Oh, man, this is just feeling worth it. All of the lack of sleep is really coming together. But let's keep it moving. Let's talk about Nevada. Okay, so this is the one that's got everyone biting their fingernails for a couple of reasons. One is that as we go to record, Biden's lead against Trump is just under 8,000 votes.

And two is that the state is worth six electoral votes, meaning that you could conceivably see Biden reaching 270 and the presidency with some combination of Nevada plus Georgia or Nevada plus Arizona and all the other states that he had banked already, which would make the results in the much talked about Pennsylvania a bonus, but not necessarily a clincher. And our lovely friends in Nevada seem to be teasing an update yesterday, but ultimately they decided to release more vote tallies early this afternoon on the East Coast. Instead, keeping us waiting, the Nevada Secretary of State said that the remaining ballots that still need to be counted include mail ballots received on or after Election Day, and some cast

via same-day voter registration. So the expectation I've seen from some experts is that they will be favorable to Biden, but we don't know yet. So we'll keep an eye on that. Yeah. And then the other state in the blue wall, there's Pennsylvania. What do we know about what's happening there? So we knew that Pennsylvania was going to be slower to count. That's because Republicans in the state wouldn't agree to a deal with the governor that would have allowed local officials to start processing these ballots in advance of election day. It could have been a lot easier. And so as the votes came in over the course of Wednesday, it could have been a lot easier. And so as

the votes came in over the course of Wednesday, we were looking at a lot of male absentee votes, which were disproportionately going towards Biden. That was the expectation. To give a sense of how that actually looked, though, throughout the day, the lead that Trump had accumulated on Election Day around 11 points had shrunk to less than three by the time we record. So a huge trend shift there. And that shift with more votes outstanding has Democrats looking at this and thinking the state is looking pretty good for Biden, but we should know a lot more over the course of the next two days. Now, Friday is the day that officials have said they think they'll have most of the vote counted. And if Biden wins

Pennsylvania, he actually doesn't need any of the other outstanding states. Then quickly, the last one here, there's North Carolina, which is still too close to call, but Trump remains ahead. Yeah, so big picture over the course of the day yesterday, the chances for Biden to win the Electoral College went up. And for Trump, they went way, way down. Let's talk a little bit about how their campaigns responded to that new reality. Well, kind of as we would have expected. So Biden sort of threaded the needle in a speech he gave, saying that he wasn't going to preemptively say he won the race before all the votes were counted, but expressed confidence that it would inevitably go his way. Power can't be taken or asserted. It flows from the people.

And it's their will that determines who will be the president of the United States and their will alone. And now, after a long night of counting, it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. I'm not here to declare that we've won, but I am here to report when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. There you go. And meanwhile, the Trump campaign has resorted to a series of desperate acts to try to either

file lawsuits to stop the counting of votes or other sort of last ditch strategies to turn this thing around. In Wisconsin, for instance, the campaign said that they would seek a recount, but that would only take place at a point when results are certified and if Trump is within a point of Biden. So yesterday, they were separated by about 0.6%, which is just about what Trump won by in 2016. Did not hear as many complaints then. And at this stage, you know, no one really expects things to drastically change in Wisconsin. In fact, in 2016, the recount changed a total of 131 votes there. Then elsewhere in Michigan, the Trump campaign filed a suit to halt the counting of votes. And there was this video of a brief incident at a ballot counting center in which Trump supporters were yelling, quote, stop the count outside.

Yeah, at first when I heard it, I was like, are they talking about like Count Chocula or like the count from Sesame Street? Like, what are they doing? Just counting? Oh, then let them count. Like, what are you talking about? They're mobilizing in full force against Count Chocula. They are single-issue voters, and they've had enough. There's also a similar suit from Trump in Pennsylvania, as well as an attempt from the campaign to litigate a Supreme Court case

regarding the counting of ballots received up until three days after Election Day. And then this one is fun. There's one in Georgia that is apparently seeking to bar the acceptance of just 53 absentee ballots in one county. Again, these are not really the hallmarks of a winning campaign. And as of recording time, there was no evidence that it was bearing any impact on the legal counting of votes. So we'll keep an eye on all those shenanigans. But Wednesday also gave us some updates on the Senate where things were not looking very rosy for Democrats to gain a majority just yet. Yeah. So while we were all holding our eyelids open, watching returns come in for the presidential

race, the Senate race seems to be a little more decisive in a lot of ways. So I personally am very concerned that Susan Collins has won reelection in Maine. This was the opposite of what the polls had suggested the last time Susan Collins was even leading, but sometime back early in the summer. And this is obviously a big loss for Democrats because it makes the chances of taking back the Senate a lot slimmer. As we go to record, the Senate stands at 48 Democrats, 48 Republicans. So even though the inroads are fewer and fewer, it is still somewhat possible for Democrats to pick up more seats. The Perdue-Ossoff race in Georgia is still too close to call, wrapped up in the Atlanta votes thing that are still outstanding. We're waiting to see

if that officially goes to a runoff like the Loeffler-Warnock race already has. But if Democrats could force two runoffs, we still have a major chance to take back the Senate. We're just in the midst of a really, really steep uphill battle. Yeah, so no Senator Gideon for now. I might have to take that mantle on myself, put the team on my back. We will see. Any final notes before we go? Yeah, well, one, I would absolutely vote for you.

But two, there's still more counting to be done. So we're still waiting on more to shake out, which is going to give us a really, you know, a much clearer picture of this election. And in the coming days and weeks, there's going to be a lot more to unpack about how we got to these results, what they mean about the politics of the country, and the future of polling, you know, seems like we got a lot to talk about. But for now, that's the latest. It's Thursday, WOD Squad.

And for today's Tim Check, we're talking about what else but the election. So we've talked through the results. We're feeling somewhat optimistic about Biden getting to the 270 electoral votes he needs to win the election. But it's not over for all of us. It's, you know, been a rough couple of days. So Giddy, let's check in. How you doing? I'm okay. I feel like I'm waiting to have some sort of release that I don't know that I'm necessarily gonna get, you know, there isn't going to be like, some, there's there's going to be a declared winner, but I don't know if I'm even going to, I feel like at that, I'm just going to sigh and sort of fall asleep.

I feel like I'm not. I am looking forward to the sleep. Yeah, I feel like I don't have like a huge buildup to it now because I'm just like, here we go, dragging on and on. But other than that, okay. You know, I think we sort of know, like we've been talking about where we stand.

Senate looking a little dicey. We'll keep an eye on that, but otherwise, you know, we're going to end up with a potentially pretty crazy map for, uh, the president where Biden's going to get a lot of stuff that Democrats couldn't get last time.

And maybe some other stuff thrown in there too. Yeah. It's definitely looking pretty fascinating. Yeah, but same question for you, Akilah. How are you dealing with this mentally as we get to maybe the last stretch, knock on wood? You know, this is a great question, Gideon. I'm very tired, so tired.

I've been awake for 100 years. It's starting to weigh on my body, quite frankly. Like I had dinner and I don't feel like I had dinner. You know, like I'm just an empty vessel waiting to find out what's coming next i am very optimistic but i am you know i lived through 2016 it's not like i don't remember how disappointing things can be so i'm just waiting for the call and then i'm waiting for the inauguration and i'm waiting for a lot of things but i feel more relieved than I did the day before the election, which is good. Yeah, it's better to feel better once you see results than the opposite, I think. If they weren't reassuring at all, that would be a net negative. Yeah, I don't remember, uh, what I've eaten, where I've been.

Um, and frankly who I am, um, that's how the sleep deprivation is going for me. Yeah. We are definitely in the, in the mix, but, uh, just like that, we've checked our temps. Stay safe, stay calm, you know, breathe a little bit more today than you did yesterday. And we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Headlines. The coronavirus did not stop to watch returns come in, with new COVID-19 cases exceeding 100,000 yesterday. That is the most new cases recorded since the pandemic began. We are in a big,

big spot of trouble. The Midwest, Mountain West, and the Northeast are experiencing sharp increases in caseloads, with 19 states recording more cases in the past week than any other week so far. And experts say these numbers will continue to rise. Then in Europe, countries are taking action to counteract their second wave. Italy will begin imposing its most drastic nationwide lockdown since the start of the pandemic, sealing off six large regions of the country and limiting travel between them. Today, England begins its strict second shutdown, which is set to last until December. The election brought some major criminal justice developments to some states across the country.

Oregon became the first state to pass a law decriminalizing possession of hard drugs like meth, cocaine, and LSD, and to legalize shrooms for medical purposes. The state will fund more drug treatment and recovery programs on top of that. California passed a measure to restore the voting rights of people on parole and elected a new district attorney in Los Angeles to replace the current D.A., Jackie Lacey, who's been criticized for failing to prosecute officers and police shootings. Good riddance. Voters in Austin and Orlando sent progressive candidates to their top prosecutor's office and Hamilton County. Shout out Cincinnati.

God bless. Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you laws, which is what rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft proved when their ballot proposition passed in California yesterday. So as a reminder, these companies spent a collective $200 million promoting Proposition 22, which will let them pay drivers as independent contractors and deny them benefits. The rideshare company's investment is already coming back to them as Prop 22's approval led stock prices for Uber and Lyft to go up by at least 15 and 18% respectively. I need to check my econ textbooks to be sure, but I don't think investors respond like that when they think something is going to be really good for labor. Lyft's chief policy officer said that Prop 22 has created a structure that could be replicated in other states. Stocks in Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and Facebook also went up by

between 4 and 8% each yesterday. So those four companies were investigated by the federal government for antitrust violations. But now that we're probably heading towards a divided Congress, it's less likely they'll be subject to meaningful regulation, which is more good news for investors. Anyway, congrats to Silicon Valley making the best out of some bad news yesterday. And by the best, we mean millions of American dollars. Woof. A 9,000-year-old skeleton is redefining what it means to be a working cavewoman. The skeleton's discovery in Peru, buried alongside a, quote, big game hunting kit,

has thrown into question the widely accepted belief that among ancient hunter-gatherers, males hunted and females gathered. Sheryl Sandberg said, lean in. What she didn't say was, lean into your primitive spear so it goes through the woolly mammoth's heart so you can eat its raw muscles. Whoa. A study published in Science's Advances yesterday, researchers examined the buried skeleton and compared it to 27 similar specimens discovered in the Americas alongside big game hunting implements. Of this 27, 11 were female and 16 were male, which they interpreted to mean ancient males and females in that area were hunting at about the same rate. Other archaeologists disagreed, saying that ancient burial rites aren't straightforward

and being buried by something doesn't mean it's what you do. I personally plan to take advantage of this uncertainty by being buried with a skateboard, an electric guitar, and a name tag that says coolest person that ever lived. Don't question it. Yeah, that's rad as hell. I approve. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, keep counting those votes, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just lean in to your ancient spear by ancient Sheryl Sandberg,

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 happy GuyFox Day. Remember, remember, hopefully good things. And if they're not, then, you know, block it out of your mind forever. Yeah, forget,

forget. Yeah, forget, forget Fox. Could be the new thing. Could be the new thing. I love it. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me

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