What A Day - Get In Loser, We're Doing Budget Reconciliation

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

Trump’s second impeachment trial starts next week in the Senate, and yesterday we got a preview of the arguments both sides will be making. We go through the details of legal filings from the House Managers, and the response from Trump's team.Democrats in the Senate voted yesterday to get the budget reconciliation process started, which they could use to pass coronavirus relief. Meanwhile, Biden signed three executive orders focused on immigration, including one to reunite families that were separated by Trump's immigration policies.And in headlines: Russia’s COVID vaccine is highly safe and effective, Wikipedia rolls out new code of conduct, and Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon’s CEO.

It's Wednesday, February 3rd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What the Day, the official companion podcast to whimsical snowball fights that actually get pretty heated. Yeah, you know, you try to maintain your composure and stay cool, but sometimes you just be heated about the snow. Yeah, I need to pop off occasionally when I'm snowball fighting, okay? You gotta let me do it. On today's show, how negotiations over the COVID relief bill are going, then some headlines. But first, the latest. The second impeachment trial starts next week in the Senate, and we got a preview of the arguments both sides will be making.

So it's time for another impeachment news blast. Here we go. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What you all need to know is that we do not hear them in advance. It is genuine laughter all around. Well, let's get it. Okay, so dual filings, not dual as in two, although it was two, but dual as in 10 paces, shoot at the sky if you're Hamilton, that sort of thing. So they both dropped yesterday and they responsible for the January 6th insurrection attempt at the Capitol. Trump's defense team is arguing the na-na-na-na-boo-boo defense, also known as the he-didn't-do-it-and-you-can't-try-a-former-president-we-hope defense. So that's the game.

Right. That's the best that they got, I guess. And let's just remind people, with Trump already removed from office by the voters, what exactly are the House managers saying that they're hoping for? It's two things. So the first of which is accountability. We've talked about it at length. It's now a buzzword. But it's really important that our government send a message that insurrection and political violence isn't chill or okay. You know, it's not just a Wednesday romp. It's actually illegal.

But beyond that, this trial is important because if the House managers succeed, the Senate could vote to ban Trump from ever holding public office again. That might come with a side effect of Republican representatives no longer feeling like they have to stay in the good graces of someone who might run for president again. So win for everybody. Yes, they can move on to Josh Hall and try that. Okay, let's dig into the actual filings, though. So Trump's team is notably not saying the election is stolen in writing, something that Trump has reportedly said he wanted to be the central argument in his defense. They're good enough lawyers to not do that, but they're also doing what all malicious internet trolls do, hiding behind the First Amendment. Yes, so that's what Trump's team is saying. As for the House managers, they're arguing that Trump is for sure responsible for inciting the riot that left five people dead and scores injured

and traumatized. They're also saying that the First Amendment doesn't shield Trump from responsibility for inciting violence. They also counter Trump's team's claim that the Senate doesn't have power to try and convict a former president, writing, quote, a president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last. This idea over the constitutionality of the trial is a big part of Trump's defense, so it is very likely to come up next week, so listen out for that. Right. And the trial officially kicks off on Tuesday. And then in the meantime, we are still getting more details about January 6th and what led up to it. Yeah. So if you didn't see Monday night, AOC did an Instagram live where she explained in detail

exactly how it felt that day as the insurrectionists were storming the Capitol. There are clips everywhere, but one of her big takeaways is that we can't just move on without taking account of everyone's actions. It was incredibly intense and raw and true, and I just think that it's kind of required viewing at this point. So if you see a link, click it. So that's where things stand on the last president. But now to focus on our new president.

The last time we talked about all things STEMIs, there was a proposal from 10 Republican senators to significantly whittle down President Biden's COVID relief package. Over the last couple days, Biden has been talking with Republicans and Democrats about the bill, and we're watching for signals of where the White House might be open to negotiating with Republicans and where they're not. So Gideon, take us through what we've learned. All right. So yesterday, there was reporting from the Washington Post and elsewhere that Biden talked through all of this, the Senate Democrats on the phone, and continued to make a strong argument for his $1.9 trillion bill. That came after his meeting with Republican senators who have been wanting that much smaller $618 billion deal.

So the important thing from all of this for now seems to be that the White House is holding firm on their top line number, but that doesn't mean that there hasn't been any wiggle room that is below that. For instance, the White House is reportedly open to tightening the eligibility for the $1,400 stimulus checks, but not lowering that actual figure. You have a whole range of positions on these relief checks that are bouncing around right now. Some progressive Democrats not only want it to be $2,000, but also recurring on a monthly basis.

During the Georgia runoffs, Biden and the new Georgia senator said $2,000 payments would be sent, quote, immediately if they were elected. Then, of course, part of the GOP counterpitch to Biden was lowering the income thresholds for people who qualify for this and also lowering the number to $1,000. So that's a lay of the land on that so far. Yeah. And meanwhile, Democrats are starting to get the ball rolling in Congress. Right. So they're starting to reconcile that freaking budget like we've been talking about. On Tuesday, in a 50 to 49 vote, the Senate basically decided to go forward with this vote to get the reconciliation process started, i.e. not waiting until Republicans have a

come to Jesus moment. They don't seem super confident that's going to happen. If that all progresses as planned, Democrats would hypothetically have the numbers to pass the originally planned bill from the White House without the assistance of Republicans. And even Senator Joe Manchin, yes, that one, said that he supported the process given the urgency of the situation in the United States. So that appears to be on the way with some of the major outstanding questions being how to just fit this all in via the reconciliation process, including measures that are in the bill, like raising the minimum

wage. Will we all get into some fun conversations about the amazing Senate parliamentarian? Only time will tell. Whatever has to happen, I guess I'll learn. But the Senate's got this. They've got impeachment. And in the meantime, we're seeing more executive orders from Biden. So yesterday, we got three more focused on immigration. What do we need to know about them? Yeah, so one directs the head of DHS, which is the recently confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas, to lead a task force in charge of trying to reunite families that have been separated by the family separation policy of the last administration. According to the New York Times, that's going to involve either bringing parents to the US or returning children to

parents living abroad, depending on what the families want and the immigration laws that will dictate all of this. The other two orders amount to attempted rollbacks of Trump policy, but reportedly don't immediately reverse them. For instance, the Post says that one of the orders will, quote, review policy that had forced migrants seeking asylum to stay in Mexico while waiting for court hearings. That's often called the Remain in Mexico policy. Then there's also a review of Title 42, which had been used as a way for authorities to quickly expel asylum seekers using the pandemic as a reason for doing that. All right. So big picture, these directives aren't the halts or immediate reversals that some advocates had been looking for, but mostly reviews as the White House figures out how to go

forward, right? Yeah, that seems to be it for now. So according to reporting, officials in the administration say that they need more time to build their own immigration and asylum processes. And already, we've seen how executive orders can run into other kinds of legal roadblocks. So last week, a Trump-appointed federal judge temporarily blocked another Biden order that sought to halt most deportations for 100 days. So we'll keep following all these important developments and what the federal government is and isn't doing, along with our Senate parliamentarian. But that's the latest for now. it's wednesday wad squad and today i've got a pretty big update or um pup date so there's a new member of the hughes household he's a five month old jindo sapsali mix named dog tour uh

starfox fauci i named him and i can't even say it all together, but super cute. He is basically perfect and he's already the star of the WODpod Zoom calls. So giddy, a scale of one to ten. How jealous are you of my dog? How jealous am I of the dog or you having a dog? Both. Interesting. I'm not jealous at all. You know, I don't I don't I don't want to have wonderful companionship with a lifelong friend, a furry friend who I can, you know, take out for walks, get to know, cuddle up next to while I'm sleeping.

No, I'm good. I'm fine. Definitely don't want. No, I'm I'm very I'm very, very happy for this dog, for the the trials and tribulations that he went through to get there, and also for you and your trials and tribulations. He's great, and this is going to be great. And yeah, part of the reason I'm going so hard on dog clothes is because I saved a whole year waiting to get a dog and being catfished by dog owners.

So now's the time to make it rain on the little pup. Yeah, all's well that ended well. So same question for you then. How jealous are you of your own dog? Oh, I'm so jealous of my own dog. Yeah, so Fauci is literally sleeping right now as I work. He currently is kind of pooping wherever he wants, which is not great, but like pretty, pretty solid life. And he's super cute. And everyone wants to talk to him and about him in a way that I'm like re-evaluating my friendships. I'm like, oh, so now everybody's coming out the woodwork to talk.

We haven't been in a pandemic this whole time. But, you know, it's fine. The one person who does the random Instagram comment on all the pictures is now like, ooh, I would love to get to know more about you, like via this dog. Totally. Yeah, I think the dog is going to be both my primary content and also he has his own Instagram. It's fauci.kpop.

So if you're looking for a Korean pup to follow, it's like K-pop, but pup. There he is. So yeah. It's good content. And there'll be more of it because this you know, this is a brand new situation. There could be there could be a lot of improvisations on what is actually shown there. We never know. He's still finding his voice. Yeah. There's also like nothing else to take pictures of.

I feel like that it's going to be most of what I post for the rest of my life. But yeah, I am super psyched about little Fauci. And just like that, we've checked our temps. Stay safe. If you got a dog, maybe ask him to follow like Fauci, like he needs followers. And we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. efficacy rate and was completely protective against severe forms of COVID. There was a lot of skepticism around the Russian vaccine last year since it was approved before clinical trials even fully concluded, but it seems like it all worked out. Though the vaccine's approval was fast,

the production and rollout have been moving slowly, with only 2 million people worldwide getting the Sputnik shot so far. A dozen countries have already approved the vaccine for emergency use, including Bolivia and Argentina, and Mexico is on the verge of approving it and has ordered 400,000 doses. Sputnik is the third vaccine to complete late stage trials with an efficacy rate of over 90%, along with Pfizer and Moderna. I'm going to wait for those two, I think. Just, you know, because of Putin. All right, well, the main website for checking to see if a celebrity has done something bad and you can't support them anymore, Wikipedia, is about to get more polite.

The company introduced a new universal code of conduct yesterday to help fight harassment and ensure a diverse, inclusive, and accessible community of contributors. The code, like all things Wikipedia, was a crowdsourced project involving over 1,500 volunteer contributors from around the world. It first outlines how contributors are expected to behave, covering things like constructive editing and respecting pronouns. Yeah, we have the content parents' phone numbers on deck. First attempts by the site to follow up on their promise to enact formal policies against harassment and inappropriate behavior last year. Yeah, we have the content parents phone numbers on deck. So you are warned. Freshman Georgia representative and rude novelty face mask pioneer Marjorie Taylor Greene is already making a big splash on Capitol Hill with House Democrats calling for her to be stripped of her committee assignments because of her history of spreading conspiracies and supporting violence. Majority leader Senny Hoyer told Kevin McCarthy that Republicans have until Monday to remove

Greene from two committees or Democrats will bring the issue to the House floor. McCarthy met with Greene last night about her statements and probably asked her to just tweet them from an alt account from now on. Members of the House GOP also reportedly met last night to discuss stripping Greene of her committee assignments, but no decision was made public as we go to record. Some Senate Republicans have bravely stepped up and said, actually, their party needs to break with Q altogether. Mitch McConnell said that, quote, loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party. Loony lies. That's not a phrase that gets thrown around that often. And Mitt Romney said yesterday that, quote,

our big tent is not large enough to both accommodate conservatives and kooks. Could have fooled me. Green, for her part, shows no remorse and says that Trump fully supports her and the two plan to meet in Florida soon. Yeah, wow. Loony lies. I always thought that Mitch McConnell sounded like a very tired foghorn leghorn. So his tracks exhausted from watching numbers next to dollar signs go up all day long. Human piggy bank man Jeff Bezos announced yesterday that he's stepping down as Amazon CEO. Current head of Amazon Web Services Andy Jassy will take over, though Bezos will stay on as executive chair and remains the company's biggest shareholder. Bezos said he hopes to focus on philanthropic projects like his Day One Fund and the Bezos

Earth Fund, plus the Washington Post and his aerospace company Blue Origin. Note that Bezos, Elon Musk and Sir Richard Branson all own multiple rocket ships, while the average American family can barely afford one. Also, in forward-thinking business ideas from Amazon, the company was hit with a $61.7 million fine yesterday from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for stealing from its Flex delivery drivers. Those drivers were told that on top of their base wage of $18 to $25 per hour, they'd receive 100% of the tips they earn for deliveries. It turned out that really,

Amazon was paying below that minimum and using tips to cover the difference. The FTC will distribute the $61.7 million to drivers who got shortchanged. Jeff, if you are looking for a new job, I'd advise you not drive for Amazon Flex because it seems like they can be pretty shady. Yeah, that's just what we're hearing right now. We want to confirm it first to give you good advice, but that's what we're hearing. Yeah, a lot of people are saying, and those are the headlines. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, wear a polite novelty face mask, please, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just all the zeros next to Jeff Bezos' net worth like me, What Today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe

at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And call your content parents. They're worried about you. Yeah, they're worried about what you're posting. They're worried about what you're spray painting. And we don't want to have to make this call. Right. Just be better. 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. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kshaka.