What A Day - First Lady's Night

Episode Date: August 18, 2020

This year’s socially-distanced DNC began last night, with speeches from former First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders, and more. Joe Biden went into the convention with a 7-9 point national lead against Trump, but the next few months are still full of unknowns. Watch the convention along with us every night this week at crooked.com/conventionUNC Chapel Hill has decided to pivot to online-only instruction after 130 students test positive for Covid-19. Los Angeles' public schools start remote classes today, and are launching a large-scale testing system for students and staff. And in headlines: Lebanon sees a Covid-19 surge after the explosion in Beirut, California experiences one of its worst heat waves on record, and the Trump administration finalizes plans to drill in the Arctic.

It's Tuesday, August 18th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we follow Bernie Sanders' example and conduct all our Zooms in front of a pile of logs. Yeah, straight up. If you don't have logs behind you, no one's going to take you seriously. Own that meeting. Own logs. That's right. 2020. 2020. 2020. On today's show, UNC Chapel Hill cancels campus classes and more on school in the time of COVID than some headlines.

But first, the latest. It's officially Democratic convention season, so let's get into it. Well, it began last night and featured a ton of different speakers, including former First Lady Michelle Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders. There were montages, children singing, musical numbers and Zoom conversations with voters. And this was historic in a number of ways. There wasn't a huge hall with all the delegates and balloons falling from the ceiling. This was experienced remotely, like most things have been during the pandemic, and even featured some pre-recorded speeches in the CEO of Quibi for some reason. So before we jump into the details, what did you think of this whole strange new experiment? Yeah, I like that, you know, personally for consumption,

I could sort of toggle between this and other screens playing things like NBA playoffs, perhaps. But, you know, no, in all honesty, there was a lot of stuff to pick over in this. I think one of the things that was really interesting was when, you know, they did actually have real people on the screen talking about what was going on in their lives. The powerful example was Kristen Urquiza, who was one of the people who ended up speaking in one of those montages.

And she was talking about her father who had voted for Trump. And, you know, he tragically passed away from COVID-19 earlier this year. In lesser, clearer and great moments, John Kasich, the Republican former governor of Ohio, standing at a literal crossroads in a David Lynch type image was a little perplexing. Yeah, yeah. It's like he was trying to make a point about being at a crossroads as a country, but he had to find the ugliest, least photogenic crossroads to literally stand at. So agreed. I mean, I personally had really low expectations. You know, I was actually really impressed that they had any level of production value. I thought it was going to be Zoom calls and like waiting rooms and clicking links and trying to figure stuff out. So to have like Eva Longoria in studio and like musical performances, which, you know, varying, you know, critical response.

But, yeah, I thought it was really great. It's a really low bar, obviously, but I do not expect Donald Trump to pass it next week. I'm looking forward to his toilet five minutes of stand up about how he subfluxed the toilets all the time. I don't know. But yeah, I definitely think the most powerful thing was the tone. And you sort of got at it with Kristen Arquiza speaking about her father. But seeing the faces of people who've passed away from COVID-19, while we all live in a faces of people who've passed away from COVID-19 while we all live in a world where our president has no plan for COVID-19 just felt more impactful, I think, than just seeing a number on a ticker going up all day. But that's the big picture.

So let's talk a little bit about the speakers. One of the biggest of the night was Senator Bernie Sanders, who came up short in the presidential primary earlier this year. He's been working closely with the Biden team over the past few months, and he had a true banger of a speech that emphasized the importance of voting in this particular election. Yeah, and going into the night, he had done a number of these interviews kind of reflecting on how far things had come and the movement had come over the years, the young diverse coalition of candidates who are running and winning on progressive ideals, and the dire importance of defeating Trump in November. Here's a clip that kind of speaks to that in his remarks. This is not normal, and we must never treat it like it is.

Under this administration, authoritarianism has taken root in our country. I and my family, and many of yours, know the insidious way authoritarianism destroys democracy, decency, and humanity. As long as I am here, I will work with progressives, with moderates, and yes, with conservatives to preserve this nation from a threat that so many of our heroes fought and died to defeat. This president is not just the threat to our democracy, but by rejecting science, he has

put our lives and health in jeopardy. Trump has attacked doctors and scientists trying to protect us from the pandemic while refusing to take strong action to produce the masks, gowns, and gloves our health care workers desperately need. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs. Wow. Bars. Came out swinging. Yeah, I thought it was really moving and saying it plainly that we're living in the rise of authoritarianism. You don't hear that very often. I thought it was really great that his speech was grounded in what is possible now. And so, you know, the importance of, you know, I don't love the idea of reaching across the aisle, but we can't just, you know, have a country that is this fractured. It's

important to bring everybody together. And I think that he really focused on that and, you know, Trump's failure overall and really made sure to point out that like none of this is going to matter if Trump remains in office. Yeah. And I think that the other part that was cool was talking about some of the specific policy that, you know, needs to get enacted and could get enacted and what people can actually vote on in that respect. He was also talking about, you know, federal unemployment benefits and other things that have sort of lapsed over the course of this pandemic. And yeah, to the point of the authoritarianism, I think he did a really good job of connecting the dots on that and sort of a

trajectory almost through history of, you know, what happens when that happens. Yeah, for sure. So Bernie spoke second to last. And then the final speaker of the night was former First Lady Michelle Obama. And for me, it was really the main event. So here's a clip. Being president doesn't change who you are. It reveals who you are. Well, a presidential election can reveal who we are, too. And four years ago, too many people chose to believe that their votes didn't matter. Maybe they were fed up. Maybe they thought the outcome wouldn't be close. Maybe the barriers felt too steep, whatever the reason. In the end, those choices sent someone

to the Oval Office who lost the national popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. In one of the states that determined the outcome, the winning margin averaged out to just two votes per precinct. Two votes. And we've all been living with the consequences. When my husband left office with Joe Biden at his side, we had a record-breaking stretch of job creation. We'd secured the right to health care for 20 million people. We were respected around the world, rallying our allies to confront climate change. And our leaders had worked hand in hand with scientists to help prevent an Ebola outbreak from becoming a global pandemic. Four years later, the state of this nation is very different.

More than 150,000 people have died, and our economy is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for too long. Yeah, I was captivated by it. I forgot to even react to it. Yeah, I, you know, there are tons and tons of things to say about this speech and whenever she speaks. And one of the things I really liked about it and the context that this was done in was you didn't hear other shit in the background. Like this was literally just person to person laying out the stakes. And she did it in a way that was very direct and forceful and also very personable. You felt like this was coming from some place that she had really been processing and maybe even processing it on the spot.

I know it was prerecorded, but that was how it came off to me. And yeah, I thought it was great. Yeah. I mean, I think that Michelle Obama is truly the main event of every event she's ever been a part of. And it was really refreshing to hear from someone who has real perspective. Obviously, Senator Bernie Sanders does as well. But I mean to say, we hear so much from pundits about the virus and what Trump is doing and people just sort of bickering back and forth. But like when you settle all that noise, like you're saying, and someone rises to the occasion of being like an authority on what it's like to be in a White House that is going towards progress and one that is rescinding,

I think it's really, just really beautiful. I appreciated too, in her speech, she spoke about the racism that she faces as a black woman and, you know, being not listened to as just a part of the role. And I'm like, people don't listen to Michelle Obama, but yeah, of course, like it's still America. And so I think that having her say that maybe for the first time publicly was really just astonishing to me. And yeah, I think, you know, her real point and message wasn't just that we need to vote, but hammering home the fact that Trump has had the opportunity to change things in this country in his vision for four years, and this is where we ended up. So we can't keep relying on this Make America Great Again thing when we're consistently worse off day to day because of Donald Trump. Right. But, you know, that's night one of four. So let's get into some of the other

stuff that we're expecting throughout the rest of the week. Yeah. So quickly tonight, we're supposed to hear from former President Bill Clinton, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and Jill Biden, among others. Then Wednesday is quite a wild array of people. You have Senator Elizabeth Warren, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Senator Kamala Harris, who, of course, is the VP pick, and Barack Obama, also Billie Eilish. I'll let people at home decide if one of those names sticks out more than others. And then the last day includes Andrew Yang, Senator Cory Booker, and then it's going to wrap with the formal acceptance speech from Biden himself. Yeah. So one of the things that will be interesting to see is how many people actually watched it and, you know, what, if any, effect this actually has on the race.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, that's a big thing that people talk about with conventions. But, you know, this is a different time. And going into the convention this week, Biden was averaging anywhere in the realm of a seven to nine point national lead against Trump, which no pressure at all here is, per The New York Times, the biggest consistent lead since Bill Clinton was up an average double digits in his 1996 reelection campaign. He, of course, went on to win easily. Also, currently, there are fewer undecideds in these head-to-head polls, which is important. And Biden is hitting at least 50% in a lot of them, which is high at this point for someone running against an incumbent. But we can't make predictions. And the next few months after these conventions will be a series of unknowns. What does campaigning look like? Does Donald Trump hold large events while Biden does not due to public health concerns? What will voting actually look like in a pandemic this fall?

It gets overused, but it's truly an unprecedented time. And on that note, let's talk a little bit about some developments outside of the convention. All right. So the backdrop of everything happening at the convention is the COVID-19 crisis. We've been following all of these school reopenings that quickly have become reclosings. The latest one is UNC Chapel Hill. So just one week into in-person classes, the university has now decided to pivot to online only instruction for the time being. And this comes after 130 students tested positive for the virus and at least five employees also tested positive, which, again, this entire thing is insane to me. On every level, there's no outcome that isn't people getting sick when they get together. But I digress. Chapel Hill was one of the first colleges to go back to campus. So this experience and their response is likely being watched by a lot of

other institutions as they're figuring out their plans. That's right. And one of the biggest ones, too. And staying with schools, Los Angeles public schools are back in session today. They are all remote and launching their own testing system. So what do we know, and that's just going to be for a small set of staff. Then they're going to scale up over the next few weeks to eventually test everyone, plus potentially family members as well. That's hopefully by mid-September, and that's just the goal, according to the superintendent. The district has been working on this plan for several months, and it's partnering with researchers at UCLA. Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and President Obama's former education secretary, Arne Duncan, is helping lead that initiative. Yeah, and this appears to be the biggest testing program that's been put forth by a public school district in the country. And it's on top of testing that is going to be available locally, right? Yeah. So the superintendent basically said that ideally,

the school district wouldn't have to do its own program like this, but without widely available rapid testing and tracing, they really can't wait. The data from the program is meant to help the district understand the prevalence of COVID-19 among the school and staff population and potentially help inform reopening decisions down the line for LA or, you know, be used by other districts in the country to better understand the coronavirus. But that's the latest. It's Tuesday WOD Squad, and for today's Temp Check, we're talking panda bears, specifically one panda bear at the National Zoo in D.C., which veterinarians said could give birth in the next few days. Breeding pandas in captivity is notoriously difficult, with females able to conceive a cub for just 24 to 72 hours every year.

So it's a really big deal. Good job, guys. But still, you know, not a sure thing. So don't go out and buy the congratulations on your baby panda cards yet. I think it's great news. Yeah, I shouldn't have bought them, but that's okay. So Akilah, this is a great animal story. Have you had any memorable animal encounters recently? Yeah, I'm glad you asked. So this week already, there has been several raccoon sightings in my backyard. I did not keep my cool. They were huge. They were the size of Labrador retrievers.

They were trying to open doors. They have full human hands. I hated it. I started barking like a dog, and then I just hit the window, and one communicated to the other that it was time to go. But, yeah, I'm just not here for the wildlife that, you know, wanders into your yard and then eats your trash and makes a mess. Yeah, at least you kind of know a strategy now. To me, I think raccoons are sort of the more city dweller version of the panda bear.

That's not scientifically proven, but they have similar vibes to me. And I like them if they're not trying to get inside. Yeah, for sure. Have you had any animal run-ins? I have problems with birds. It might be something that people are aware of in broader WAD squad community. I have encountered aggressive pigeons. I think they are done with humans and they're at a point now where they own the skies and they own us.

So I don't like being around them. And I also recently in the park saw a hawk land relatively near me, which does not seem right for anything in the world. So there's some conversation that's happening among these animals about taking over. And, you know, I guess it's their time. That's fair. I'm tired of our shit, too. Well, just like that, we've checked our temps. Everybody stay safe and we will check in with you all again tomorrow.

Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Lebanon is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases as the country recovers from an explosion that killed over 170 people earlier this month. Yesterday, the country reported a one-day record of over 450 new cases. More than half of the 55 hospitals in Beirut were out of service after the blast and the rest were overwhelmed with victims. Nearly a quarter of a million people were displaced because of the incident, which also increases the risks of spreading the virus. The country's health minister announced that the country will be closing down for the next two weeks in order to curb the spread. And Lebanon was already experiencing a spike in COVID cases and already had plans to shut down,

but the explosion has exacerbated the problem. It's just terrible. California is experiencing one of its worst heat waves on record in most regions across the state at temperatures in the triple digits over this past weekend. That includes Death Valley, the long stretch of desert bordering Nevada, reaching a record high of 130 degrees, which experts say is the hottest temperature on Earth since 1913. The National Park Service literally told visitors to Death Valley, quote, travel prepared to survive. Good God almighty. The manager of 80% of the state's electric grid, meanwhile, asked major utility companies to cut the power

to hundreds of thousands of customers over the weekend. Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the operator for implementing blackouts with barely any notice and for being unprepared for the heat. The Trump administration finalized plans to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, and it's not because Trump wants to build an ice bunker up there to hide in during the protests. The real target is the largest untapped oil reserve in North America, which is thought to be on Alaskan land that's also home to polar bears and caribou. Republicans have fought for this oil since 1987, but couldn't pass

a bill authorizing drilling until 2017. Joe Biden said he'd protect the land if he's elected president, but that could be difficult if Trump's Department of the Interior has already sold it off to energy companies. Elsewhere in Alaska, plans for ConocoPhillips oil drilling project are running up against an annoying problem called climate change. The company can't build necessary infrastructure like roads and drilling pads on melting permafrost, and instead of taking the hint, they've gotten approval to use thermosiphons or chillers. These huge ground freezing machines would counteract the effects of climate change so they can continue their project that will speed up climate change. Polar bears, if you can, rise up and scare these people away.

Yeah, again, animals take it from here. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is an entirely new kind of bad guy. We can call him a male brute. But as of last night, he has agreed to testify to Congress about operational changes that have slowed down America's postal service. So that appearance is scheduled for next Monday. And by that point, the House may have already voted on a proposal to block further changes to the USPS if things go smoothly. But in other DeJoy news, reporters at the New York Times found out that he earned between $1.2 and $7 million last year from XPO Logistics. That is a shipping company where he was formerly CEO and which often assists the USPS during busy periods. It is good to know that if DeJoy does ruin the postal service,

he will still land on his feet. And it's a lesson for entrepreneurs. If you're running a business, you should always be prepared for the worst by having a huge stake in a second business that does almost the exact same thing. Yeah, so first thing I teach you, and those are the headlines. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just letters that arrive on time like me, 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 don't be a male brute. Please, just give me my fucking mail. Be a male cute, which is the opposite what a day is a crooked media production 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 Kshaka.