What A Day - Ghosts Of Impeachments Past And Present

Episode Date: November 13, 2019

The impeachment inquiry makes its television debut today. We discuss how previous impeachments were understood once they hit the small screen (TV). Stephen Miller’s emails got leaked and the results are in: they suck! We talk about his correspondence with Breitbart editor Katie McHugh, and how white supremacist ideology has influenced Trump policy. And in headlines: Sonic looks normal again, Kap works out with the NFL, and a Trump official pulls a ‘Catch Me If You Can.’

It's Wednesday, November 13th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, the blue raspberry freeze pop of daily news podcasts. Those are the best ones. On today's show, a look at the ghost of impeachments past and present. We talk about Stephen Miller, even though we'd rather never have to. And then some headlines. Today at 10 a.m. Eastern, it's the fourth installment of an American classic, Impeachment.

If this were a Star is Born, we'd be on the Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga edition. Of the three televised impeachments in our country's history, one resulted in resignation, that's Nixon, one resulted in nothing, Clinton, and one we don't really know what's going to happen, and that's Trump. In each of them, people talked about whether or how the medium of television impacted the outcome. But before we preview the first moments of Trump's impeachment inquiry later today, let's look to history to see how this version compares to previous ones. Okay, so of the three that we're focusing on, sorry, Andrew Johnson, when did these all take place during their presidencies?

Yeah, so for Richard Nixon, it was actually during his second term. He had won a landslide reelection. And that was after the Watergate break-in had actually happened. So it was bubbling up, but he still won. And then the impeachment came later. For President Clinton, it was also about midway into his second term after he had been reelected in 1996. And as we know, for President Trump, it's obviously this really perilous time because it's deep into his first term, and it's right before he's up for reelection. Yeah. And what are the approval ratings like for all three of them going into these impeachments? Yeah. So it's been sort of a mixed bag. The approval ratings of Nixon, Clinton, and we'll see for Trump before, during, and after they got impeached are sort of an interesting case study into how the country viewed the impeachments at those various times and how they viewed the actual presidents. So if we start with Tricky Dick, he had an insane 68% approval rating at the start of his second term in 1973.

That's according to Gallup. And by the time he announced his resignation just the following year, impeachment's gone on throughout that entire time, it had fallen to 24%. Yeah, it's honestly crazy to think about, you know, given the current climate. In that case, though, TV and Nixon's sort of destructive actions throughout that whole time really played a big role in driving down that public perception. For Clinton, though, it was a bit of a different story. The impeachment was viewed less positively and some at the time didn't think that his actions warranted his removal from office. Who knows if that would have been interpreted the same way today. But Clinton throughout ended up having high approval ratings that he maintained.

That brings us to the ghost of impeachment present, Donald Trump. Support for his impeachment has risen over time, but his approval ratings through every scandal that you could name in the book have been basically the same. They have all floated around an average 40 percent. So the big unknown that we are waiting to find out is, you know, once this goes on TV today and once this goes through this process over the next couple of months, is that rating of his ever going to fall enough that, you know, people start taking political risks? Yeah. Well, right now we have social media.

So everyone's going to be spinning this, including Trump himself. Yeah. And that's the other huge unknown. You know, people in the Nixon impeachment process were famously relying on seeing it on television to the point of either boredom or excitement, depending on how you look at it, because that's the only place that they were airing. That's the only way that you could see it. Now, that's obviously not going to be the case. I'm sure people will, you know, clip this in every which way possible, just the first day. So it's important to sort of acknowledge that the TV played that

important role. Here's an example of how it sounded to the public at that time. What did the president know and when did he first know it? You were closer to the president of the United States more often than probably any other person in the world outside his immediate family. I want to know what you can tell me in that respect. What did the president know and when did he know it? Yeah. Well, how long did these go on for in total? How many times am I going to have to wake up early and listen to Devin Nunes? Unfortunately, we don't really know because they've all been different. The Nixon impeachment formally lasted from 1973, October of 1973 to August of 1974. He actually resigned before the final votes were even

cast that sealed his fate. He's the only one to have resigned as a result. Clinton's ran from October 98 to February 99. At that point, the Senate actually acquitted him because it went through the House, but the Senate did not get to that two-thirds majority that it needs to remove him from office. Now, Trump's one is appearing like it's going to move pretty quickly as well. Democrats in the House have been signaling that they're aiming to actually have a vote to send it over to the Senate before Christmas. So quite a gift for the White House. Yeah, well, we know you won't want to watch these impeachment hearings alone, and you don't have to. You can follow along with us at Crooked where John Lovett, Jon Favreau, Tommy Vitor, and others will be slacking together. It's like

Twitter, but it's in the office. So go to cricket.com slash group thread. The Southern Poverty Law Center's Hate Watch blog received more than 900 leaked emails that senior White House policy advisor Stephen Miller sent to an employee at the alt-right website Breitbart in 2015 and 2016. If you had, of course, these emails were just a torrent of racist shit on your bingo card, congratulations. For more on what was specifically in those emails, we have Akilah. Great. So Stephen Miller trended on Twitter all day yesterday, but not for the reason that I had hoped. Instead, it was his weird fetishist emails. The emails were filled with white supremacist hits like white genocide is coming and Hitler's ideas on immigration are probably worthwhile. And a weird obsession with pointing

out that a mass shooter was like only kind of white if you squint. Obviously, that's paraphrased. What he said was way worse. Look, it's not breaking news that this guy is racist and trash, but this story has much larger implications. So I want to deep dive into the horrible policies that he's championed in his tenure in the White House. But I also think we have to mention that Facebook included Breitbart in its high quality news tab just last month. How high quality is the news if it's unfounded garbage from losers like Stephen Miller? I mean, I think that Facebook should have to answer for that. Yeah. And you mentioned that Miller obviously had these policy contributions to the White House. What has his agenda looked

like? Yeah. So just like in the emails, they have been explicitly to terrorize and ruin the lives of immigrants and people of color. Here's a quick rundown of positions he either championed or lobbied for. The travel ban against six Muslim-majority countries, the decision to accept fewer refugees, child separation at the border that the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General said is causing intense trauma in children, fear-mongering on unfounded election fraud claims about immigrants, the whole DACA thing being hashed out in the Supreme Court, the hiring of 10,000 additional ICE agents, the ousting of Kirstjen Nielsen as Secretary of Homeland Security because she disagreed that the U.S. should fully close the Mexico border, the ousting of senior White House official Jennifer Arangio because she believed that

the U.S. should remain in the global compact for migrations, which is a U.N. plan to make immigration more comprehensive and easier worldwide. She also defended the State Department Refugee Bureau that Stephen Miller wanted to defund. Also, maybe her greatest sin was correcting misleading information about refugees that Miller was giving directly to Trump. So, you know, women, why you got to keep correcting men? Like, let him be stupid and wrong. So obviously, the official policy of the White House is inseparable from the unscientific ramblings of an ignorant bigot. And the interesting thing, too, is that emails came from a former Breitbart employee, Katie McHugh, who says that she used to be a white supremacist. Yeah, I know. When is the white supremacist on white supremacist

violence going to end? So BuzzFeed profiled her back in May in a piece titled A Former Alt-Right Member's Message, Get Out While You Can, where she detailed how she became radicalized and desensitized to the suffering of other human beings. About those emails specifically, though, she said, quote, What Stephen Miller sent to me in those emails has become policy at the Trump administration. But yeah, it does sort of seem like for Katie McHugh, you either die a villain or live long enough to see yourself become the hero. I mean, the emails were leaked just two months after she was profiled. So thanks, I guess. Well, okay. So, you know, we knew that Stephen Miller was a racist. We now have even more evidence of the fact that he was a racist. What do you think should happen next? I'm so glad you asked. A few things. I think White House reporters should ask and never stop asking why Stephen Miller should still have a job in our government. I think this administration should

fire him, obviously, but if they don't, they should go on the record as to why he maintains his position and why any policy suggestions from him should even be considered. Not just for our understanding currently, but for future generations who are going to wonder why we didn't hold the White House accountable for this. We should also continue taking Facebook to task for this. Breitbart cannot be a trusted news source. It's just not realistic. It's not news. It's just racists with a blog. also think that all of the publications that have gone out of their way to humanize specifically

white conservatives in the middle of the country who voted for Trump because of the cruel policies he proposed should take a look in the mirror and ask themselves if they really needed 900 emails for them to believe that Stephen Miller and in tandem this White House is racist. Trump didn't win because of economic anxiety. He won because at some point along the way, it was decided that calling something racist was worse than being racist. And all of the hand-wringing and desperation for hard evidence of racism because, God forbid, we trust lived experience, was just a distraction from the millions of lives that have been ruined

because of these legal policies that have never been scrutinized to the same extent. I also just want to say, everyone listening, you have to remember this next year. We have to vote this administration out. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States elected their first Latino president on Tuesday. Archbishop Jose Gomez will preside over the entity that represents Catholic priorities when lobbying Congress and working with the White House. Gomez's nomination represents the changing landscape of Catholicism in the U.S. According

to Pew, almost 40 percent of American Catholics are Hispanic. A senior Trump administration official has been outed for lying on her resume. Deputy Assistant Secretary Mina Chang, who makes six figures working for the State Department, falsely claimed that she graduated from Harvard Business School, served on a U.N. panel, and testified before Congress. She even had herself photoshopped onto a Time magazine cover. Caroline Calloway is shaking. She could never. The Trump administration has failed to vet candidates like Mina before,

so it's never too late to get hired and just release a ton of bugs in there. Drop that cricket box. Yeah. Sonic's buff legs will torture us no longer, a country rejoices. A new trailer for the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie came out on Tuesday featuring a fully redesigned hog after his initial look sparked backlash earlier this year. The adorable blue running guy from our childhoods is back. The evil half-man half-rat from May 2019 has been put to rest. Shout out to the animation team that made it happen. Dr. Robotnik will finally be defeated thanks to you. Yeah I'm gonna see that. Legendary quarterback Colin Kaepernick will

participate in a private workout hosted by the NFL this Saturday. The former 49er hasn't played in the league since 2016, the season where he first kneeled through the national anthem to protest police violence against black Americans. Saturday's workout will give him the opportunity to interview with teams and potentially rejoin the league this is just a plea to the cincinnati bingles just hire colin kaepernick we are oh for nine we have lost every single game this season we need cap please don't fuck this up it could not get worse for the bangles it literally could not get worse a new streaming service disney plus came out on tuesday with a catalog that includes every profitable franchise.

This company probably owns me at this point. But there are some deep cuts that are on there, too. Akilah, do you think that you can tell the real Disney Plus title from the fake ones? I think I could do okay. All right. Well, we shall see. The first one, The Ugly Dachshund. The Ugly Dachshund? The Ugly Dachshund?

Like Dachshund. Doesn't that mean wiener dog? Is that how you say it? Yeah, I think it's Dachshund. I don't know. I don't have any dogs. I think that's fake. It is real.

Really? It's about an ugly dog? That's apparently what it is. An ugly Dachshund. I've never even seen an ugly Dachshund. In my opinion, they're all cute. So this is fake to me. Dachshund. Dachshund. i've in my opinion they're all cute so this is this is fake to me dachshund dachshund all right all right well uh well that's uh that's a flick i'm gonna have to catch later

uh learn how to say the name of the dog the second movie is mango mango that sounds fake it is fake indeed um the third is mr flagstaff's hall of treasure mr flagstaff's Hall of Treasure. Mr. Flagstaff's Hall of Treasure. Can you give me a tagline for this show? It is, you'll never know the wonders inside Mr. Flagstaff's Hall of Treasure. I think no. I think it's fake. It is fake. My tagline was not convincing.

The last movie is The Cat from Outer Space. That seems right. Yeah, that's real. Seems like something I'd watch. All sound pretty sick to me. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. We are new, so if you like the show, make sure you subscribe.

Give us all the stars. Leave a review. Put us in your family plan. and tell your friends to listen by the way if you're into reading and not just lifters supporting lifters on bodybuilding forums 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 beat emerald hill zone 2 sonic the hedgehog Emerald Hill Zone 2. Sonic the Hedgehog. 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.