What A Day - Beto's Fate and Bevin Can Wait

Episode Date: November 4, 2019

Democratic presidential candidates continue to fight for Iowa, with one less tall, counter-standing, former member of the band Foss crowding the field. We discuss what’s new in our 2020 primary update. Kentucky elects its governor this Tuesday! We examine Matt Bevin, the state’s current governor and Trump jacket devotee, along with Andy Beshear, the dem vying to take his spot. And in headlines: New Yorkers protest violent subway policing, McDonald’s CEO screws off, and the great impeachment train rolls on.

It's Monday, November 4th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day. Sometimes we like to start with some conversation cards that we bought online. I have the box right here. All right. So, Gideon.

What is the longest you have ever gone without sleep? Nothing crazy. Like a night. I don't know. I like sleep. Nothing crazy like a night. I don't know. I like sleep. On today's show, an update on the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, the governor's race in Kentucky and what it means for the state, and then some headlines, plus a quick update on the impeachment inquiry. Yes. So we are 91 days away from the Iowa caucuses, 99 from the New Hampshire primary, and now just under a year out from the 2020 presidential election.

So this is a good moment to take stock of where things are and where they're going. Over the weekend, the top polling 2020 Democratic presidential candidates spoke at the Iowa Liberty and Justice Celebration. Senator Elizabeth Warren released a plan to pay for Medicare for All, and former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke exited the race. This is a campaign that has prided itself on seeing things clearly and on speaking honestly and on acting decisively. We have to clearly see at this point that we do not have the means to pursue this campaign successfully.

Okay, so really insult to injury that he has to leave the race and also it just sounded like that. That was bananas. Could have got that man a microphone. Yeah. Better microphone. Oh, well, Gideon, you covered O'Rourke before his

2018 Texas Senate run and this presidential race. He was talking about guns in a way that most other candidates really haven't been doing so far, supporting a mandatory buyback program, using curse words. Who's going to replace him on that? I don't know that anyone will immediately because O'Rourke was doing something that was so unique for a couple of months. Ever since the El Paso shooting at that Walmart from a white supremacist, he was sort of reinvigorated. He figured out exactly why he wanted to run for president a little bit too late, obviously, as it sort of panned out. He has been very adamant about the gun buyback program, even inspiring the wrath of Meghan McCain, the daughter of, who's again, a former Senator

John McCain. Yeah, who's her dad? Is it John McCain? Her father's John McCain, right? Just want to be clear that that's her father. Sounds right. I might need a reminder from the listeners. But so what O'Rourke was effectively doing was talking about the gun program that he wanted to institute and also sort of marrying it into this history of violence and sort of racially targeted violence in the United States as well with different campaign stops that he was making at various places, the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial site, San Quentin, et cetera, and so forth, just stops that other candidates wouldn't have been naturally making. But to answer your question, the two other candidates that had sort of focused on guns, or at least had these sorts of programs

where they were agreeing with him, Senator Cory Booker wanted a national gun licensing program. Senator Kamala Harris had talked about using executive orders on guns, and both of them supported the mandatory buyback that O'Rourke was talking about, too. Yeah. And the field is pretty big overall still. But for the longest time, it's just been a small group of candidates that have broken out from the rest of the pack. Beto's out now. Who do you think is going to be next to go? Yeah, I don't really know, but there are some warning signs for some people. The warning sign for O'Rourke

and the warning sign for any candidate that is in this process for as long as some of these people have been, which has been close to a year now, is often, unfortunately, just money. They get to a point where they are spending more than they're bringing in, and they are not sort of generating these big moments where they can break out from these crowded people anymore.

Like O'Rourke's best day of fundraising was when he started. It was crazy, like six million dollar day and he wasn't able to match it since then. Yeah. And so some of the other people that have sort of seemed like they are in these inflection points. Senator Kamala Harris obviously recently said that, you know, she's shedding staff in some of the early states, which is not a good sign. It means she can't afford to pay them to keep going. And, you know, the other times that this stuff kind of tends to happen are around the debates.

So there are nine people that are going to be in the November debate and only five in the December one. Wow. Well, the top Democrats all spoke at the Iowa event we mentioned. There's a lot of mythology about this event. In 2007, Obama spoke there. It was a big event or it was a big moment for his campaign. A lot of people sort of point to that specific speech as how he became the front runner. What about this year? Has a clear leader emerged at all in Iowa? I don't know that there's just one. It's sort of the same thing that we've been kind of hinting at that the primary is still so big that it kind of leaves a situation where a lot of people could potentially have those kinds of Iowa breakouts, if you will. The 30,000 foot view has been for quite some time that, you know,

Warren is doing really well. They're leading some of the polls. Senator Bernie Sanders is doing very well. They're also Biden's been doing well, but has sort of been slipping the beneficiary beneficiary of that seems to be South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg a little bit. So those four are probably the ones that like right at this moment, people would want to keep an eye on. Yeah. But, you know, I'm certainly not going to make predictions. I think that's a bad idea to do that anymore. Yeah. But Biden's campaign manager also sort of had this telling moment where I think he was telling The Wall Street Journal that it's not super necessary for them to to win Iowa, which is a weird message to send people.

Doesn't seem right mathematically, but okay. Right. I understand what he was getting at in terms of the kinds of voters that are going to make up the rest of the primary later and how those voters might respond to Biden. But him saying that right now is like not an amazing signal to send to people. So the thing that I'm going to be curious about personally is sort of how Biden's also going to make up this money math problem that he has where Sanders,

Warren and Buttigieg are way kind of outpacing him on that. Yeah. So there's gonna be a lot more to cover on the Democratic primary, of course, going forward. We are going to be sick of it at some point. But we'll be checking in with developments on it from here. So like we mentioned, we're one year out from the 2020 presidential elections, but we're just one day out from several important local elections across the country. Today, we're talking about Kentucky, a state that has reproductive health care, teachers pensions, the minimum wage and more at stake in their governor's race. Andy Beshear, a Democrat and the attorney general of the state, faces off against Republican Matt Bevin, a one term governor with an approval rating so low that according to polls, he's the second least popular governor in

the country. He's second only to the governor of Rhode Island, which is tiny. So we can assume that Bevin is leading in terms of total number of people he's made unhappy. For sure. Akilah, as the resident Kentuckian on this podcast, what has Bevin done over the course of his term? Like, obviously, things are not going swimmingly for him. Yeah. Republican challenger in this primary literally crossed party lines to vote for Bevin's opponent.

Yeah, it's wild. So just a little primer on Matt Bevin. He's terrible. Everyone in the state pretty much agrees he has just 50 percent of the approval of Republicans, which is wild. Like it's hard to do in this era. If Donald Trump had that approval rating in any or like in Kentucky for among Republicans, like he wouldn't win. Only 33 percent of Kentuckians overall even approve of what he's been doing. He's not from Kentucky originally. So I found out he's from Denver and he grew up in New Hampshire. So if anyone's a coastal elite, Matt Bevin. And he only really moved to Kentucky, you know, according to his Wikipedia, because he

has a business that is manufacturing and he wanted to, you know, take it somewhere cheaper. On a personality tip, he is intolerable. He ran against Mitch McConnell, or at least declared candidacy against Mitch McConnell in 2014 because he didn't think Mitch McConnell was conservative enough. Mitch McConnell is the least popular senator in the entire country. So he basically is just trying to outpace him for being so unpopular. Yeah. Does he want like a negative partisanship?

What is that? What's like the electoral strategy here? I don't even understand. I'm really not sure. Earlier this year, he made big news because he inspired this giant teacher strike statewide because he had this plan to overhaul and cut back on teachers' pensions. Basically, they were promised a certain retirement plan, and he kind of slid it in that they weren't going to get it. Luckily, Andy Beshear, who is the Democrat who's running against him,

sued. He's the attorney general, so he sued Matt Bevin over that bill. The Supreme Court totally was like, yeah, that's unconstitutional. So for now, pensions are safe. But like, that's definitely on a lot of people's minds. But yeah, you know, he's tried to rescind pretty much everything that happened under Steve Beshear, who was the governor before him. You know, they had Obamacare across the state. He tried to, you know, scale that back and create new sort of requirements to get that. So he's really just unpopular and he has bad ideas. And I think that people, you know, obviously the polls are showing like it's not working. Yeah. It seems weird in a state like Kentucky to both antagonize teachers and suggest like when they are leaving school that they're, you know, leaving children subject to violence

and assault. Yeah, that's right. He like was quoted as saying that, you know, leaving children subject to violence and assault. Yeah, that's right. He like was quoted as saying that, you know, because teachers were on their strike, there were kids at home that might be subject to sexual abuse, which is so disgusting and low. He just doesn't have a great public persona. And to say something like that is outrageous. Right. And so obviously we talked a little bit about Bashir Senior, the Medicaid expansion that he signed. I think Kentucky was the only state that did not vote for Obama twice that also did it. So that's sort of an interesting thing in terms of like the population that's there and what they actually want. But tell me a little bit about his son, Andy, who's running in this election tomorrow.

That's right. OK, so Andy Beshear, he's the son of Steve Beshear, who was the governor between 2007 and 2015. I actually canvassed for Steve Beshear when I was in college. First job where I made more than $10 an hour. It was tight. That's actually pretty well paid. It was. Yeah. So his dad did all of that stuff, like we were saying, with Medicaid and Obamacare. And he also, on his way out of office, he signed an executive order to allow some formerly incarcerated people the right to vote. When Matt Bevin took office, he obviously was scaling that back and basically was like, no, it's not going to happen, which leads to Andy to answer your question. So Andy Beshear is from Kentucky originally. He's the current attorney general of the state. Like I said,

he sued Matt Bevin and won, so that's pretty tight. The Courier-Journal, which is a huge newspaper in the state of Kentucky, every election they put out questions to candidates so that they can have a real platform to, you know, get to voters and say what they really care about. And Matt Bevin didn't even give them the courtesy of responding. So, you know, that, again, shows you his character. But within that, Steve Beshear laid out some really great plans. He has a clear plan on raising the minimum wage. He wants to restore voting rights just like his father did.

He supports reproductive health care. Kentucky is a state that has only one abortion clinic left. So, like, if, you know, take all of that into consideration, he's clearly on the side of the public. But, yeah, he even I mean, he's running with a lieutenant governor that's a teacher. So I think that he means what he says. And Kentuckians are pretty excited about him. Yeah. So Bevin is not only antagonistic to poor people in a state, but also the press. Yes. Everyone. Which makes him, you know know a little like his main man uh president trump who uh didn't he wear like a jacket was it like trump's face yeah it was a jacket that was covered

in trump's face and he wore it to this democratic event to like antagonize people which imagine being that petty when you're like as old as him like come on get over yourself i just it's not even like a great own i would just be like that, that's your way. I'm like, you spent money on that. That's so dumb. Yeah. So to talk about Trump for a second, the president is going to come there Monday night for a rally on Bevin's behalf. He obviously won Kentucky by 30 points in 2016.

Yeah. So he's infinitely more popular among Republicans than Bevin is among his party in Kentucky. Yeah. So he could potentially push him over the line. But what are people in Kentucky saying about this? This is kind of still a toss up election. Are Democrats feeling good about it? Yeah.

So they've had several Democratic governors and, you know, the past decades, you know, Steve Beshear won by a lot and got reelected. So he did a full, you know, eight years. The race is really tight, though, and the polls are showing that it's a dead heat. So it would be a really big deal if Democrats could win. But I spoke with my friend Christian Motley about this, you know, how it's going in Kentucky since I don't live there anymore. We went to college together in Kentucky. He's the former director of the Kentucky Democratic Party. He's still super involved with local elections. And he mentioned that there's a huge get out the vote effort in the state. Democrats have knocked on nearly a million

doors this election cycle. They knocked on 40,000 or more this weekend. I talked to him about the mood on the ground. And here's what he said about the current governor, Matt Bevin. Bevin, you have to remember, he was elected as an outsider, never really worked well with folks in the legislature. I'm talking about folks of his party. And what is not, he's just kind of like a mean dude, let's put it that way. His actions, I think, have also stirred folks up who are Democrats who maybe sat out in 2015 just kind of thinking, oh, you know, it's off your election. So those folks are stirred up now. I also think the national context is such that people are finding their levers at the state and local level where they can kind of make change in between time until we find another presidential race.

So you also have a lot of people who sat out in 2016 that are saying, oh, okay, we need to make sure that we're plugged into this race. Yeah, plugged into the race. So the race is really going to come down to turnout, which it always does in Kentucky. So, you know, we'll see. If you are in Kentucky, make a plan to vote. But also there are elections all over the country tomorrow.

Virginia is voting on a new state legislature. Mississippi is also voting for governor on Tuesday. And there are a bunch of other local races. So if you haven't done so already, go to votesofamerica.com to find out what elections are happening near you and how you can get involved. And now to some ads. All right, so when I found out that Third Love was interested in sponsoring the pod, I was excited and scared because I have a bosom. And I've not always found it easy to find bras that fit everywhere right.

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Close to a thousand people flooded streets and subway platforms in Brooklyn last Friday to protest a new city initiative to prevent fare evasion on New York's MTA. The NYPD has cracked down on alleged turnstile jumpers lately by deploying 500 new subway cops and using what some perceive as drastic or racist measures. I guess I'm some. Several instances of which have been widely shared on social media. Friday's protesters jumped turnstile en masse and chanted. Here's how it all sounded.

I spell racist NYPD! I spell racist NYPD! mass and chanted, here's how it all sounded. Swipe people in, it's the Brooklyn way. McDonald's announced that it fired its CEO, Steve Easterbrook, this weekend because of a consensual relationship he had with an employee. When they found out about the relationship, board members grimaced, were not loving it, and voted to super downsize by terminating Easterbrook. Home run. This new source of instability doesn't come at a great time for McDonald's, which has seen stagnating traffic as consumers seek out healthier options. We have some impeachment updates to start your week off feeling nice and Groundhog Day-y. We're still in the closed door phase with public hearings to begin later this month. Here's what else is coming up.

Democratic lawmakers want to hear from Trump's former national security advisor and dedicated upper lip farmer, John Bolton, who reportedly was concerned about U.S. security aid to Ukraine being withheld amid pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democrats. Bolton's lawyer had said he won't appear without a subpoena. And so far, Dems haven't produced one. A new poll from The Washington Post and ABC showed a relatively clean split down party lines on feelings towards impeachment. 82 percent of Republicans oppose it, while 82 percent of Democrats support it. Wonder what the other 18 were up to. And a lawyer for the whistleblower whose allegations kicked off the impeachment said on Sunday that his client will allow Republican lawmakers to submit questions to him directly, rather than making them go through the House Intelligence Committee's Democratic majority. This move was likely intended to placate Republican

leadership who have complained that the impeachment has been unfair and that they don't have enough access to witnesses. But Republicans aren't falling for this attempt to turn their frowns upside down. Through Representative Jim Jordan, they've said they only want to cross-examine the whistleblower in person. Trump's senior advisor for immigration policy, Stephen Miller, and VP Mike Pence's press secretary, Katie Waldman, got engaged this weekend. Here's hoping their marriage lasts, but with Miller, there's always a good chance it'll end in a family separation. 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, put our show name as your AIM away message, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just the nutrition facts on gushers 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 that's how you make a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash newsletters. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And that's how you make a burger with lies.

What a Day is a product 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 senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.