What A Day - Battle For The Bayou

Episode Date: November 15, 2019

Two candidates for Louisiana Governor face off in a runoff election on Saturday. We introduce you to Republican Eddie “Stickers” Rispone and Democrat and incumbent Governor John “Across The Aisle” Bel Edwards. A high school in Santa Clarita was attacked by student shooter on Thursday. We discuss the gun violence epidemic, and the measures that House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to take to resolve it. And in headlines: Swift wants her songs back, Bevin sulks, and Google Caches Me Outside.

It's Friday, November 15th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, your daily news podcast's favorite daily news podcast. On today's show, the upcoming governor's race in Louisiana and some headlines. But first, another tragic school shooting in America. Yesterday was supposed to be a normal school day for students at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, a town just 40 miles outside of Los Angeles. Instead, students faced their worst nightmare when a classmate brought a gun to school,

killing two students and wounding four, including himself. It was the suspect's 16th birthday. So when we signed on to do a daily news podcast, we knew that eventually, because this is America, a mass shooting would have to be covered at some point. And I really hate that we were right about that inevitability. So the locations change. The number of casualties is never consistent. But the one through line that we have is that Mitch McConnell's reluctance to do his job and pass legislation to limit who has access to guns is like, you know, it's killing us. So right now we want to focus on reform efforts in Congress and why they've been stalled.

That's exactly right. So over the summer, when the El Paso shooting and the Dayton shooting shocked the nation happening in one weekend span of time, there was a feeling that things might be changing. Following those shootings in August, President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to consider new background check requirements on gun purchases, which was a proposal they had both opposed in the past. McConnell said a measure to expand background checks to all gun purchasers would be, quote, front and center when the Senate came back into session in September. He later said he would let Trump take the lead on this. Now, I've always found this weird because you're the person who leads the Senate.

You can decide when a bill comes to the floor. And you're kicking it to the guy who changes his mind on things every single day. That's right. And it's also just like, why would you concede your power to the president? Like, what's the point of having equal branches if you're not going to do your job? Yeah. They want to have a chicken-egg situation where he says, I'm not going to have anything passed the Senate that the president wouldn't sign.

And then the president can say, well, I'm not going to sign anything. Because nothing's passed. Yeah. Right. Also, it's the middle of November. So this was back in September that he wanted Trump to take the lead. No lead has been taken. So after McConnell says he's going to leave it up to Donald Trump, Donald Trump meets with Wayne LaPierre. He's the head of the NRA. After that meeting, Trump then decides to do nothing. The New York Times reported that Wayne LaPierre is holding impeachment support over Trump's head, but the NRA has also contested that part of the article. What's really important, though, is that Mitch McConnell is ultimately the person standing in the way of this popular, life-saving gun reform legislation, and that's his legacy. The House passed the bipartisan background check act

in February. But shock surprise, you know, the Senate is doing nothing. So yesterday, hashtag Massacre Mitch trended because people know that there's legislation that Republicans have refused to pass. And, you know, we can hear gun reform plans from the thousand of Democratic presidential candidates during debates. But that doesn't matter when you get a phone call that there's an active shooter at your kid's school. You know, we can't wait on the change. And there's a body count. So, you know, the ball is in their court. I just don't know.

Right. That's a great point. And the thing is that Mitch McConnell is an outlier in all of this. A recent NPR poll found that 83% of Americans are in favor of background checks. Even 72% of Republicans support background checks, which is why Democrats chose to focus on universal background checks. They have a range of other more aggressive ideas that they've talked about from assault weapons bans to buyback programs. But passing universal background checks is kind of the lowest bar that everybody can meet. And Republicans just won't clear it.

I mean, this is clear that, you know, Mitch McConnell and the lobbyists who pay him, like, that's all he cares about is that money. Like, he's not even like the American public interest isn't being heard at all, which, you know, obviously a red flag. But can you just break down some of the bills that Mitch McConnell refuses to address, even though he's claimed that he's not going to watch the impeachment testimonies and he's going to focus on getting some work done? Like, what are these bills that he's allegedly working on that, you know, have been sitting there forever? Yeah. So the main bill that has come before the Senate in the past is the bipartisan bill

from Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Pat Toomey, and it proposes background checks for firearm purchasing. Now, that bill has failed to pass the Senate repeatedly. The closest that it got to passing was after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2013. They obviously needed 60 votes to pass it in order to overcome a filibuster, but they only got 54. Only four Republicans supported it. Four Democrats opposed it and later lost their seats or are simply no longer in the Senate. But one of the co-authors of the bill, Joe Manchin, says he's not going to bring it up until he knows he'll have the support of the White House. Again, similar McConnell.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, he knows that, you know, Republicans in the Senate are pledging allegiance to Donald Trump. They're not pledging allegiance to America, which I can't reiterate this enough. Like, I can't wrap my mind around doing nothing when you have an option to try to fix the issue. We should explain the universal background check legislation that it would require background checks for gun sales made online at gun shows and by private individuals. So currently there's a loophole there, and that's where a lot of these guns are coming from. And I want to be clear, like, no one is suggesting that these gun reforms are going to stop all gun violence. So I think that, like, you know, listeners, you should probably disregard those bad faith Internet arguments that, you know, in some cases, legislation wouldn't have stopped the shooter. People can access guns if they want to shoot people, whatever.

Like, the point is that there's a gun violence epidemic in this country. And certainly any number of the suggested solutions would make us all at least somewhat safer than we are now. So like, let's try something. Yeah, I mean, we've tried nothing for long enough. It's often easy to feel helpless in this situation. But there are organizations that could use support in the fight to end gun violence. Visit everytown.org and marchforourlives.com to find out how you can help where you are. So everyone else is done and on their way to Thanksgiving. They're tired, I'm tired, you're tired. But there's one

straggler just holding us all up. And, you know, we got to address it. So the final governor's race this year takes place on Saturday. And Democrat John Bel Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South, is fighting to hold on in Louisiana. Once again, the race could be a test of the popularity of President Trump and whether or not he's a curse to Republicans when he appears like a patronus the day before voters go to the polls. That's right. The Republican challenger, Eddie Risponi. I'm Eddie Risponi. That's Eddie Risponi, who advanced to the runoff with Edwards, has closely tied his fate to Trump and is running, like many Republican candidates do, as an extension of the president. Trump held another rally for him on Thursday night.

You're doing lousy compared to others. Look, the whole country's doing great. Okay, that was a little McClunky. I'm not even sure what was supposed to be happening here. He's telling Louisiana that they're bad, but they're also doing fine. Like, I don't know, I think his message is a little hard to understand. Well, Bell Edwards has led the state to its first budget surplus in years, implemented Medicaid expansion and raised teacher salaries. He's also, though, a conservative Democrat. He's anti-abortion and pro-guns. Bell Edwards signed a law banning abortion as early as six weeks. And effectively, you know, that's just banning all abortions because most people don't

know that they're pregnant at six weeks. And it's one of the more strict laws in our country. I'm not asking for your vote for a political party. I'm asking you to vote for the son of a sheriff and a charity hospital nurse, a former U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, a husband of a teacher, a father and an outdoorsman. You know, my opponent thinks his party should define him. I'm very happy to let the life that I've lived define me. Okay, well, that's just, I mean, a cop out, but also just like, is this Democrats in the South? Yeah, I mean, I think this is the calculus that a lot of Democrats think that they have to make in these races. And you actually hear this coming up quite a bit when people talk about, you know, how Democrats could take back the Senate from Republican hands where it's been for so long. But there's evidence that you can be pro-choice in 2017 when he won that race.

And now he's spoken out against this new restrictive abortion law that's in Alabama. Another kind of risky position to take the year before an election. Yeah. And, you know, Andy Beshear, he supports abortion access as well. Yeah, right. And we know how that turned out. Andy Beshear won the governorship in Kentucky last week. The other thing that I always think about with this, though, and maybe this is a bit of a downer note on it, honestly, is that all these races were sort of like special circumstances. You know, highly unusual even for Republican circumstances. Jones beat a Republican who was accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls. Beshear beat a Republican who was accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, Bashir being a Republican who

made life really, really bad for teachers and poor people in his state. And in Louisiana, Governor Edwards himself won in a pretty big upset in 2015. Yeah. So I guess basically what you're saying is we have no idea what the hell is going to happen. Yeah. I mean, we truly do not. But like, you know, glass half full, glass half empty point counterpoint situation here. Point for Democrats, you know, huge surge in early African-American vote in Louisiana, which will likely lean Democratic squad. On the other hand, Trump won in Louisiana in 2016 by 20 points. And he has been there in a bunch in this month alone.

Yeah. I mean, so that's not great. But Trump also won Kentucky. And we saw how that turned out. So there's, you know. this month alone. Yeah. I mean, so that's not great. But Trump also won Kentucky. And we saw how that turned out. So there's, you know. Yeah, exactly. Right. So on the other other hand, Governor Edwards also has a pretty solid 52 percent approval rating. And he was leading in October. Now it's kind of a toss up. OK, so that's pretty cool. Yeah. But for Republicans, the state is just very, very Republican. You know, they have a chance on Saturday to get to a point where they have a super majority in the state legislature.

And then they could overturn possible vetoes if Edwards wins reelection. Whoa. But in Democrats' favor, this is Edwards' opponent. I'm Eddie Rispone. I supported President Trump against Hillary. Gave him money. Put a bumper sticker on my truck. And I support our president more than ever against these liberal lunatics running now. Okay, so this guy has a sticker and that makes him qualified for office? Yes.

I mean, I got to tell my nephew he should run. So obviously Trump supports this guy, but he also won the support of the canceled star of the canceled show, Duck Dynasty. I got it down to this. If you're pro-God and pro-America and pro-gun and pro-duck hunting, that's all I want. Look, I am a single issue voter and that issue is hunting ducks. Yeah. Which is not a thing that has ever been under attack. Like what legislation is, oh God. All right. So this is all sort of weird. Like Rasponi is doing this classic thing where the race is about Trump, you know, he's equating himself to Trump. And now Edwards is trying to say that he's not all that liberal and like, look at my record. Yeah, that's exactly it. And that's sort of the way that these races are run now, right? Like Republicans say, I am a mini version of Trump and therefore you should vote for me.

But the uniqueness of this is, again, Edwards doesn't consider himself a, quote, liberal lunatic. Like he's actually made painful efforts to show like saying, you know, quote, I'm in the middle of the political spectrum and even pointed to White House tweets about the economy being good in his state at a press conference. So he's really like overemphasizing, you know, that middle of the road type of thing. But given what we now know about Edwards, about this whole situation, Akilah, are you taking a shot if you win Saturday? Fuck no. Are you kidding me? I mean, I apologize to the people of Louisiana that you have to make this choice. I am glad that I don't have to. Because look, abortion is not something that should be like the fact that it's something that could be completely taken off the table in both instances is abhorrent and terrible. And like I'm not I'm not celebrating someone who is that conservative and that anti-woman, frankly, getting into office. is basically like, you know, so long as Edwards is there, he can veto stuff that could be

potentially even worse that's coming out of the Republican, you know, state legislature. So that kind of I mean, I guess that brings me to my next point that besides the governor's race, there is a there is a race for the state legislature as well in Louisiana on Saturday. And, you know, at this point, like we said before, Republicans are trying to get that super majority there, which means like if they get that, then it's like, yeah, it doesn't even matter in terms of the governor. Right. So, yeah, it's just important to vote. And it's also like, you know, maybe good is better than worst, even if it's not perfect. It's a sliding scale. Well, we'll know what happens next in the

governor's race and the state legislature races by the time we record our next show. But for now, for more information on this race and others, visit VoteSaveAmerica.com. And now for some ads. Gideon, do you like to work out? I do. You enjoy it? I enjoy running. I know I'm an absolute psychopath for it, but I haven't done anything really besides podcasting. Yeah, podcasting is my sport and I'm Olympic level. Yeah, it's very true. But if we want to get out of that and start getting our asses off the podcasting chairs, Ladder is the product that we can use. It is the product of leading scientists, nutritionists, and trainers who work together over four years to create a line of clean and effective supplements. Oh, interesting. Well, the products are used by athletes in every major

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Google has plans to launch a checking account through Google Play. The project is called Cache, spelled C-A-C-H-E, which is actually a clever play on a technology term. For the record, checking accounts can reveal a whole lot about a person, including data on what they spend money on and how much they make. Google says that it won't sell users' financial data to advertisers, but this comes from a company that is still being investigated under an antitrust probe that was launched in September. Maybe other people will use this, but for me, I will only trust my checking account with Bing. If it's not on Bing, I'm not interested. Most transparent president Donald Trump

has asked the Supreme Court to block a subpoena for his tax returns. His lawyers filed a petition arguing that the president is immune from criminal proceedings while in office. That's kind of Trump's main thing at this point is I'm going to do the crimes. This is the latest of Trump's attempts to block investigations into his tax returns after lower courts ruled that he must turn them over to the Manhattan District Attorney. The lengths that Trump has gone to to hide these tax returns is actually insane. Like, he's been in court for so long, what is he hiding? I know, did he buy like a thousand endangered zebra hides or something? Oh man, I mean, I think it's more like he bought a bunch of flashlights.

How many is a bunch? I don't know. More than one. Taylor Swift is claiming that her ex-label boss and music manager are blocking her from performing her old hits at the upcoming American Music Awards. In June, Scooter Child's name Braun and Scott Borchetta bought the recording rights to every song Taylor made before her latest album, Lover. Yesterday on Twitter, the star called on Swifties to help. Looks like there is some bad blood. Looks like this is not what you'd want to happen in your wildest dreams.

Looks like there will be some teardrops on my guitar tonight. Okay, let's cut it off there. Yeah, we're going to cut it off there before Scooter sues us. Public impeachment hearings continue today with the television debut of Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. As we said before, she's a career diplomat who was caught in the crossfire of Rudy Giuliani, a.k.a. evil short-haired Doc Brown's investigation for aid scheme, leading to her removal from her post in what some Democrats called a political hit job.

In other Ukrainegate news, an employee of the White House's Office of Budget and Management is expected to be the first person from his department to testify in the impeachment inquiry. They call him Mark Sandy. And his job in the OMB may give him unique insights into the way that $400 million in military and security aid was withheld from Ukraine. And if you live in Kentucky and you spot a lonely, sturdy man just wandering around in a blue jacket with Trump's face on it, calling out to no one that teachers get paid too much and looking like he needs a friend. It might be Matt Bevin, who finally conceded the governor's race to Democratic governor elect Andy Beshear. Ever late than never.

Bye, Matt. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. We're new, so if you like the show, make sure you subscribe, give us a rating, leave a review, blow us a kiss, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just the cheat codes for Pokemon Sapphire like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash newsletters. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And we got some duck hunting to do. What a Day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis.

Sonia Tunn is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.