What A Day - Biden Bets on South Carolina

Episode Date: February 28, 2020

South Carolina goes to the polls on Saturday. There are 54 delegates at stake and it’s the first state where black voters make up a majority of the electorate.More coronavirus updates: a whistleblower says more than a dozen federal employees in California weren’t given proper training or protective gear when they were assigned to interact with quarantined Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan. And Gavin Newsroom says 8,400 California residents are being monitored for the virus after one woman there tested positive.Plus, we’re joined by assistant producer Sonia Htoon for headlines: the moon’s little brother, Clearview AI is watching, and Scotland offers free pads and tampons.

it's friday february 28th i'm akilah hughes and i'm gideon resnick and this is what a day the only daily news podcast that promises never ever to summon the candy man i'm not even gonna say his name one time i'm calling him seaman jordan peele why are you so obsessed with giving me nightmares did i just say semen? On today's show, we'll have a preview of South Carolina's primary on Saturday, then some headlines. But first, coronavirus. People wondering what we would talk about every day after impeachment can rest easy knowing that coronavirus has gotten a full season order. The mysterious coronavirus. The coronavirus in China.

Deadly new strain of coronavirus. Endangers coronavirus from China. More than 200 cases of coronavirus. Coronavirus. That is it. Akilah, you're out here doing the Lord's work, researching all the details in the spread of the virus and what's being done to contain it. What is the latest on this? Dude, let's start with California. And something even more impeachment-like,

a government whistleblower is claiming that more than a dozen federal health employees were not given proper medical training or protective gear when they were assigned to interact with the quarantined Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan. And then the health workers just came back into the general population. Like that was a totally fine thing to do. They were not tested for the virus either, according to the complaint. The whistleblower has been described as a senior leader at the Department of Health and Human Services. Within the complaint submitted to the Office of the Special Counsel is the allegation of

at least one person staying at a nearby hotel and then leaving on a commercial flight. Just as one does. Definitely not at all like the movie Contagion. Yeah, wonderful. At a news conference yesterday morning, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that 8,400 California residents are being monitored for the virus after a woman in the northern part of the state tested positive despite having no relevant travel or known exposure. We don't know whether this is a coincidence, but that case is in the same region where those allegedly untrained and unprotected health care workers came in contact with people in quarantine. So, you know, anyway. And speaking of tests, the governor went on to say that California has a COVID-19 testing kit shortage.

There are only 200 kits in the whole state. He's hopeful, though, that more kits will be coming from the CDC in the next few days. So fingers crossed. Yeah, 200 is 200 too few for such a large state as California. Well, let's talk about the efforts to develop a vaccine. The White House press conference earlier this week focused on the potentiality of a vaccine in the next 12 to 18 months. But there was also a lethal controversy after the administration couldn't promise the vaccine would be affordable. What is that all about? Okay, I'll tell you about it. So on Wednesday, the Secretary of Health and Human Services,

Alex Azar, said he couldn't promise that the price of the vaccine would be affordable for most Americans. We affirm that you're saying it will for sure be affordable for anyone who needs it. I'm saying we would we would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest. Naturally. Yeah, the private sector. God bless. Yeah, wonderful. Well, naturally, most Americans didn't like hearing that only Gwyneth Paltrow and the goof adjacent would be saved in the event of pandemic.

So yesterday, Azar walked back the statement and said he would guarantee public access to the vaccine. For what it's worth, Azar is a former drug company exec turned pharma lobbyist turned cabinet official. So how those revolving doors turn. Indeed, one thing I did want to ask about as a man with facial hair, there's this infographic going around, I'm sure our listeners have seen from the CDC that says which hairstyles I should avoid in order to properly wear a face mask right now. What is the deal with that? I shaved yesterday. I'm thinking this might not have been a good idea. Yeah, I think that the answer is no. I think you look like a little baby and we all miss the facial hair. I walked right

into that. You did. Let me just set the record straight though. That graphic is actually from 2017 and was meant as a guide for CDC workers who might have to wear respirators. If you go to the CDC's COVID-19 website, they don't recommend that people who are well wear a face mask to protect themselves. According to the CDC, face masks should be used by people who do show symptoms of COVID-19, as well as healthcare workers. So it's mutton chops for me. All right. Any more details that we can share right now?

So many. One is that mutton chops are sideburns and not facial hair. It's still the same. It's on your face. Yes. All right. On your face. In the face region.

I'll allow it. But nothing really pertinent to share currently. Just going to remind everybody, stay vigilant, check the CDC site, and keep listening to What A Day because a daily five-minute segment is less likely to drive you crazy than the internet rabbit hole. Don't go down. South Carolina goes to the polls on Saturday. There are 54 delegates at stake there, and it's likely to be the first state where Black voters make up a majority of the electorate.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has consistently led in polls with Senator Bernie Sanders in second, and yes, Tom Steyer behind them in third place. What else do we know about what's going on over there? Yeah, so this week has been interesting in terms of how the narrative has landed on south carolina biden is kind of getting which is good for him this underdog story uh you know that he's going to come back and take south carolina and then the race changes but ironically he has been consistently leading for much of this race uh if not the start and at times he has staked his entire candidacy on doing well in South Carolina. So that's why it is important. But, you know, overall, the former vice president polls very well with African-American voters. But in comparison to last time, he hasn't performed

as well as Hillary Clinton did. For instance, in South Carolina, she clobbered Sanders overall in 2016, winning over 73 percent of the vote in the state and led him among black voters in South Carolina by a crazy 71 points. I think most people are not anticipating those margins. I mean, also, there's just so many people in the mix. How can you defeat anybody without any points? Yeah, for sure. And Biden could do very well on Saturday, though, and be on his way to winning, which would be his first primary or caucus victory in his three runs for the presidency, which is kind of crazy to think about, even if the margin isn't as overwhelming as it was in 16. One of the stories that sort of drove the week on Biden in South Carolina was him earning the support of Jim Clyburn,

who is this influential political figure in South Carolina politics and the highest ranking black member of Congress. We know Joe. But most importantly, Joe knows us. That's right. And I've been saying to the media, I've known for a long time Roger before. But I had not decided, well, not to share it with the public. But I want the public to know that I'm voting for Joe Biden. South Carolinas should be voting for Joe Biden. Our challenge is making the greatness of this country accessible and affordable for all.

He has such a beautiful speaking voice. Yeah, he's great to listen to. I was mesmerized. And, you know, the Biden campaign is hoping that if it does pull off this win in South Carolina, that he can emerge as this Sanders alternative, as other candidates in the race just have not been able to gain traction with voters of color. Yeah, it's super important. Well, we've mentioned Steyer before on the show and in the context of South Carolina. He doesn't really have much of a path to the nomination,

but he has a unique situation where he could do well in South Carolina. So what exactly is going on with him? He has been all over the place in this campaign in more ways than one. In South Carolina, though, Steyer has spent more than every other presidential campaign combined. And it's been specifically cultivating support from African American voters in some ways that have also raised eyebrows. And we'll get to that in a second. But he has also spent a lot in the contests that came before South Carolina this cycle and hasn't earned any delegates from it. So it's sort of a wait and see approach if what he's doing is actually going to work. Now, he might be remembered for the debate moment where Steyer said, quote, I just want to say hi to Bernie.

It's ridiculous and memed frequently. But more recently, he has started running negative contrast ads and saying, quote, a socialist can't win. So Steyer clearly seems to no longer want to say hi to him. In South Carolina, though, Steyer has campaigned on climate change in the state, arguing that black and brown communities in places like South Carolina will feel the impact of climate change first and worst. It's not an approach that is specific to him, but it's one that he has been able to significantly amplify because of his considerable resources. He's a billionaire. Yeah. And you mentioned something about Steyer spending and raised eyebrows. What's that?

Yeah. A lot of people have been throwing these accusations at Steyer that because he has all of these black lawmakers on his payroll as advisors, that there is all this ad money coming in, mailers coming in, and that even his campaign headquarters are rented from a daughter of Clyburn, that there's something there that relates, you know, people are coming very close to saying he's effectively buying votes. But for that specific story about renting the office, I mean, she has batted down the notion that, you know, doing business with Steyer is impacting her or her father's political decision. It clearly did not. But overall, Steyer has spent an estimated 14 million on local broadcast ads between July and late January. And that is about 70% of the total

spent on political ads in South Carolina by all candidates. He is omnipresent there. And all of this, the on the ground stuff, the campaigning, the money, the ads, is putting Steyer in third place in an average of the polls and threatening the strength of Biden's lead. If you look at some polls that have Steyer in double digits, it means that Biden has a narrower lead. But one interesting footnote to that, for all polls, there are caveats. Pollsters in at least two previous Democratic primaries in South Carolina appear to have undercounted African-American support. For instance, in 2008, Obama was up by an average of 12 points and ended up winning by 29. Then in

2016, Clinton was pulling ahead of Sanders by 28 points and went on to beat him by 48. Yeah, well, you know, maybe they should get more information on black people. What I'm hearing is that, you know, maybe they should get more information on black people. What I'm hearing is that, you know, there's obviously more people that are going to vote, and we don't know where they're going. Yeah. Great. Well, we'll come back to it again before Tuesday. But in addition to South Carolina, what does this race look like over the next few days? Frenetic for them and for us, to be perfectly honest. A lot of these states have early voting options, though. And that's another thing to mention here. Because so many people have, in fact, early voted, it's going to be hard to get a complete sense of what individual news story or result is going to move things next week.

One thing, though, that will be interesting to see is if Biden wins in South Carolina, how well is he able to actually capitalize on it for Super Tuesday? There is a really tight window between when those primaries happen. And additionally, there's some reporting that indicates that Biden's on the ground operation in a number of these upcoming states is just tiny compared to what Sanders and Bloomberg are working with. In one story from the New York Times, the reporters visited this East LA office for Biden the day before in-person early voting was set to begin. And they found a gate outside that was padlocked shut and a missed delivery notice from the Postal Service, which was a bit of a red flag the day before early voting, to say the least.

And historically now, Biden has had to throw everything at Nevada and South Carolina to stay in this race after he had those bad results in Iowa and New Hampshire. And they've even moved staff around from Super Tuesday states to those ones. So now he's really going to have to quickly make up for lost time. Yeah. And then on the flip side of the money story is Bloomberg. Yes. And, you know, every time that we talk about this primary, we're forgetting Super Tuesday is the first time Bloomberg is actually going to be on the ballot and earn votes. And he has spent roughly $410 million already on television ads alone. And that is more than what Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spent on ads during their entire respective presidential campaigns.

Honestly, like you guys are still watching commercials. It just couldn't be me. I pay for the ad free option. So like, really, I only see him during the debates. I see him during the debates and in my dreams. We'll talk to you next after South Carolina votes and catch up on what's happening with the other candidates as we go into Super Tuesday. And if you live in South Carolina, please get out and vote on Saturday. Have fun. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. So we are here today joined by Sonia Tan, our producer. Welcome, Sonia.

What's goody? Hi, sup, Wadheads. I still think Wadhead Squad is where it's at but i'm glad that wad heads is catching on okay i refuse to believe that all right well let's get into it scotland is about to become the first country in the world to provide its citizens with free menstrual products zero dollars or pounds for tampons and pads across the board the bill passed through its first stage in parliament with overwhelming support, and it's expected to succeed. That's great news for the

lawmakers behind the bill, Monica Lennon, who wanted to put an end to what she called period poverty, where women and girls have difficulty accessing or affording mental products. Here in the U.S., several states are considering outlawing taxes on pads and tamps, but they're far from being free. Go ahead. Keep charging me. I am not afraid to bleed in public or on you. There it is. Anyway, huge kudos to Scotland, which is the only country brave enough so far to set a precedent against the pink tax. Yes, I love that, Akilah. Bleed on them. That's our new chant as a unit.

The former mayor of Baltimore was just sentenced to three years in prison. That's our new chant as a unit. The former mayor of Baltimore was just sentenced to three years in prison. Catherine Pugh pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy after she used her self-published children's book, Healthy Holly, to scam $800,000 from local nonprofits and health care centers. Last year, Pugh made lucrative deals to sell thousands of copies of the book to orgs like University of Maryland Medical Center. But the books never showed up and were later found in her homes and offices. Marie Kondo, if you're listening, I'm sorry.

After her court appearance yesterday, Pugh said, quote, it's not the last you'll see of Catherine Pugh. So it sounds like she's already getting deep into character as an animated Disney villain. She's killing it. She's Hook. Captain Hook. Guys, the moon has a little brother,

and he's actually really cool. Okay. A so-called mini moon. Don't dismiss him. I guess he's coming to the party. He is. A so-called mini moon was discovered orbiting the Earth by scientists in Arizona.

It's been named the catchy 2020 CD3. It orbits the Earth every 47 days, and it's about the size of a car. Aw. But, but, but, but, I swear to God, if it's just Bumblebee from Transformers playing tricks again, I will never be able to trust another astronomer. Those trustworthy individuals. Many moons like this one occur when an asteroid that's been heading towards Earth gets caught perfectly in our gravitational pull. They're so rare that the only other confirmed mini moon was spotted back in 2006.

2020 CD3 is set to leave our orbit in April. We're going to hate to see it go, but we'll love to watch it leave. That's right. We're talking about the moon's ass. Vicky. Vicky, Vicky, Vicky. When are we not? Seas.

Social media is awesome, and I totally agree with that. It lets us stay informed, connect with friends, and it's given over 3 billion of our photos to a facial recognition company that now knows everything about us. Love that. That company is called Clearview AI, and they recently experienced their first data leak. Previously, Clearview said their product was only available to law enforcement. But according to their leaked client list, they've worked all over the private sector with companies like the NBA, Best Buy, Macy's, and even some private investigators.

That's scary given the power of Clearview's technology, which basically lets you upload a photo of anyone's face to find out who it is. Macy's, my grandparents loved your store, but why do you need this? Facebook, Google, and Twitter have sent cease and desist letters to Clearview AI for harvesting their data. Meanwhile, some law enforcement agencies have said Clearview's products let them solve previously unsolvable cases. It's a real catch-22 in the fight for our privacy

that I think we probably lost five years ago. Absolutely. I've been waving this white flag, but they just keep stealing my shit. That's what the Dido song was about when she actually wrote it. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show show make sure you subscribe leave a review summon us using a ouija board and tell your friends to listen and if you're into reading and not just circular ink blots created by the aliens from a rival like me what a day is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at crooked.com subscribe i'm akilah hughes i'm gideon resnick and we'll

see you on the dark side of the mini moon. 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.