What A Day - Hello, Goodbiden

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

Trump leaves office today after four years of hellish incompetence. We reflect on the challenges President Biden and Vice-President Harris will inherit as they takeover.The Senate trial for Trump’s impeachment still looms, as do Cabinet confirmations. Plus, Biden plans to send Congress a major immigration bill today, which is expected to include a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants living in the US without legal status. And in headlines: the SAT’s will no longer have optional essays or subject tests, corporations pause donations to GOP lawmakers who voted not to certify the election, and North Carolina Senator Richard Burr won’t be charged with insider trading.

It's Wednesday, January 20th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, where we are calling for a complete shutdown of government flights from D.C. to Florida today until we can figure out what is going on. Yeah, best to just reroute them to a remote island somewhere until we have all the facts, you know? Yeah, and please, cut communications to that island for the next five to 10 years. You know, make it 20. Who's counting? On today's show, what Congress will be doing in the first days of Biden's administration,

then some headlines. But first, the latest. Ah, yeah, that was JoJo's banger. Get out, parentheses, leave. Because guess what? Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States starting today. Bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm super high. Yeah, I'm telling him boy bye for all of us.

That's great. I think we should communicate solely through songs for the rest of the show. Totally. About all of our feelings on this. Okay, so yeah, on that note, this is the day of transition and just wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the state of things as Trump leaves office,

as we tell him, boy, bye, after four years of hellish incompetence. So let's start with the state of the pandemic. Yeah, as well we should. So this week marks one year of COVID cases in the United States with the first recorded case being found in Washington state.

And yesterday marked the darkest milestone yet with 400,000 confirmed COVID deaths in America. America was not always the epicenter and in fact had several months heads up before the crisis got out of control. But without any leadership coming from the top, our bad response got even worse. There was little federal support for localities.

They often loosened restrictions too soon and no consensus was available for anything from mask usage to lockdown enforcement. And here we are with cases still at record highs and a vaccine rollout that's fallen behind. Yes, it is far from over. And at the same time that COVID-19 is ravaging communities throughout the country, the country is also in the midst of a racial reckoning that was stoked by Trump. The fever pitch was maybe the January 6th insurrection attempt at the nation's capital. So where do things stand now on that issue as Biden takes office? Yeah, so one of my favorite cliches of 2020 was the sort of disaffected influencers saying that

they were, you know, taking the time to listen and learn. And now I think that we are actually starting from a place of action. We obviously saw that with the day one agenda for President Biden. But the truth is, we just can't move on from this persistent white nationalist domestic terror threat. It is ongoing. So case in point, much of D.C. is closed off for the inauguration. And there's a so-called green zone with thousands of troops that has been set up to protect the Capitol and Biden from this very threat. Yeah, so not like anything we have seen before, to say the least. But let's talk about the inauguration.

It is Inauguration Day. And leading up to it, there were some events last night to actually set the tone for what we're about to see. That's right. So soon to be President Biden and Vice President Harris, which I just love saying. I just love it. I think it's so much better than Trump and Pence. We should just keep it. So they visited the Lincoln Memorial yesterday in what was the first national mourning ceremony that we've even had during the pandemic and surely won't be the last.

But here's a clip. To heal, we must remember. It's hard sometimes to remember. But that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a nation. That's why we're here today. Between sundown and dusk, let us shine the lights in the darkness along the sacred pool of reflection. Remember all we lost. Yeah, so the event honestly broke my heart, you know, not only for the people who've lost loved ones and never even got a word of condolence from the president, but also for the fact that, like, for years, we've just sat through all kinds of tragedies that were in and out of the news cycle within a day. And, you know, I kind of just forgot that functioning democracies don't ignore what's happening.

They actually face it. So facing it was hard, but it was a really beautiful tribute. Yeah. And the light display to represent lives that have been lost was also there. And it's all kind of fitting the somber mood and the emphasis Biden has been having on healing as he goes forward. Yeah, that's right. So if you're listening before the inauguration, you should expect that the festivities will be more muted than ever, given everything we just mentioned. You know, Biden is expected to keep his speech to a short 20 to 30 minutes with a focus on unity. And there'll be no parade, as is usually the case, and no crowds because pandemic. Biden will take his oath of office from Chief Justice John Roberts.

And Harris will be sworn in by the first woman of color to sit on the nation's highest court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor. And we mentioned heightened security, but just another couple updates on it. So 12 National Guard members have been removed from inaugural duties following additional vetting that took place in recent days. Of those, two had possible links to right-wing extremist movements. You want that number to be zero, but it was two. That's according to the Defense Department. The rest had other flags in their background checks, but the department didn't exactly specify what those were. And this comes as the Defense Department is also working to step up its efforts to identify and root out extremism within its own ranks. So far, investigations into

the Capitol attack have identified at least six people with military links out of the 100 or more that have been taken into custody. Yeah, and speaking of arrests having to do with the Capitol attacks, we got our first conspiracy charges this week after the U.S. attorney had been promising that. Yes. So U.S. officials have charged Thomas Edward Caldwell on four counts, including conspiracy. He's a 66-year-old white man from Virginia and a leader of a far-right militia group called the Oath Keepers, which, again, terrible at naming things. Like, maybe get one skill set. Anyway, he's also a U.S. Navy veteran. According to court documents that were released yesterday, authorities are alleging that he and two others organized a group of 30 to 40 people

to storm the Capitol and disrupt the electoral process. The FBI also lays out evidence that they planned this in advance, had equipment, did scouting, recruitment, and even received Facebook messages from unspecified others during the attack, updating them on the location of lawmakers. One message read, quote, All members are in the tunnels under the Capitol. Seal them in. Turn on gas. Yeah, just horrific. So very disturbing stuff that would back the assertion that these attacks weren't just a spontaneous riot, but organized in some capacity. But it's just I mean, I don't even

know what to say. Yeah. So let's switch now to what comes next in Congress. You know, yesterday we talked about Biden's plan for a busy first set of days. Congress also has its hands full, starting with impeachment. Yes, that is still a thing. After last week's House vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held onto that article of impeachment rather than send it right away to the Senate, that would have kicked off a trial. And as we talked about, there's been some back and forth among Democrats about how and when to actually hold that trial. So according to a recent ABC News report, Pelosi could send that article as soon as the end of this week, which would dictate that a Senate trial would begin at 1 p.m. the following day. Oddly specific from the founders, but you know, they did their thing.

According to this report, one of the things that has been discussed is how long a trial would last and whether it would involve witnesses or document requests that could shed further light on Trump's incitement. The balance that you're hearing is sort of if the trial is prolonged, Democrats think that they'd be impeding on how quickly Biden can get cabinet appointees approved and pass much needed coronavirus legislation. Also, I personally wager based on the arrest news that we just talked about and all the developments in the federal investigation of what happened, day by day, more is going to come out anyway. There is probably going to be more evidence, but they already have a lot of it in

the form of social media and those formal charges we've seen. So no matter how the trial ends up looking, Democrats have to get 17 Republicans to vote to convict in a 50-50 Senate, which is pretty tough, even though some Republican senators have at least criticized Trump on his way out. Well, you know, I can't imagine Republicans putting their country before the party. Never happened. But first time for everything. So yesterday, Mitch McConnell on his last full day as Senate Majority Leader, which I love, you know, it's good to not have him be the Majority Leader anymore. Well, he finally publicly criticized Trump for his role in the Capitol attack, even though he spent much of the past four years helping Trump. So let's take a listen.

The last time the Senate convened, we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty. The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like. Yeah, so all the reporting in his own remarks there suggests that he is actually mad about what happened. But, you know, we don't know what that means beyond getting headlines for being mad about what happened. It's still unclear as to how McConnell would actually vote in a trial, but maybe this clears the way for some other Republican senators. Not holding my breath just yet. Yeah, and in the meantime, McConnell reportedly met with the incoming Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, yesterday to talk about the

impeachment trial and Senate rules. So what did we learn from that? Yeah. So Schumer, according to the New York Times after this meeting, was talking about kind of trying to do everything at once here. That's cabinet confirmations, impeaching the outgoing president and the next COVID relief bill. Good luck with all that. But the other thing that came out of this conversation and is likely going to be a wonky thing we get into as time goes on is that McConnell wants Schumer to promise not to nuke the legislative filibuster in this whole agreement. That's according to Politico. So there wasn't a resolution or an endpoint on this conversation. But if Schumer does agree to keep the filibuster part in this arrangement, we'd be talking about a lot of legislation needing 60 votes to pass, i.e. 10 Republicans.

So we'll see what happens there in the days ahead. Yeah. And in addition to everything else, Biden is also planning to send Congress a pretty significant immigration bill today. So what do we know about that so far? Yeah, it seems pretty big. We'll probably get into this more tomorrow and of course down the road. But according to the Washington Post, we are expecting the new White House to offer a bill that includes an eight-year path of citizenship for about 11 million estimated immigrants living in the country without legal status at the moment. More on that soon as we get the details, but that is the latest for now. It's Wednesday WOD Squad, and today is obviously a huge day for our country, with Biden taking office and four years of Trump finally over.

All this has us thinking of other huge days. So, Giddy, do you have memories of previous inaugurations that stick out for you? Oh, yeah. So I have been fortunate or unfortunate enough to have gone to two. 2012, I went, I remember being very cold. And also, like that was the first I think that was the first time that must have been the first time that I voted as well. So like I was working, but I was also like very excited about the fact that it wasn't President Romney at the time because I remember that one being close. And then 16, I just remember total chaos. Like it there there were protests against Trump.

And then there was all sorts of, like, other shit that was going on in the street. And I remember, like, there was a certain stretch where I was, like, in an alley trying to type something out and, like, send it on, like, a hotspot on my phone. And then there was, like, a thing, like, a couple blocks away where, like, they're like, somebody threw a brick. And then, like, there was this tussle with like police at the time i remember like you know typical of this administration it started off as fucking chaos so yeah i mean but also like how lucky would we be for somebody who threw a brick to be the extent of the damage done by this administration i'm like wow imagine if that was the worst of it that was just a beginning yes in, yes. But I remember the day, like the weather was bad. It just had like a whole like very movie-like

bad energy all about it. Totally, yeah. But yeah, same question for you, Akilah. What are some of the other memories here that stick out? Okay, so I think about 2008 because it was so historic and I was always like I just remember being very upset that I didn't

get to go, but I was watching it, I just remember being very upset that I didn't get to go, but I was watching it at home with my mom because my school had like trimesters. And so for that one, I decided to like take it off and just stay home for January. Um, cause you get one free one and that was mine. So, uh, I was like, I remember just watching it with her and like, for one being like, Oh my God, Beyonce. And then also just like, wow, look at how great the kids look. And then like, you know, being very scared for Barack Obama when he stepped out of the motorcade to like walk with the parade. I'm like, why would you do that? Get back in the car. Like, you don't understand this country is crazy. Like you're from Hawaii. Things are better there. You know, a lot of feelings like that, that day. And then, you know, the inauguration balls where

it was like all night long, just like outfit changes and famous people singing. I was just like, this is so elegant and like just extravagant. It was so awesome. And I guess I can contrast that with 2016 where I guess it was 2017 in January. And I knew that there was like the Women's March in D.C., but I was like so mad at white women at the time in hindsight, you know, that was a lot of rage. It was not necessarily productive. And so I was like, I'm not marching, you know, to make some statement right now. Uh, so I flew to Disney world, uh, cause my sister was talking at some conference and her kids were there. And so I was like tight, like we'll go to Disney world for the

first time with them. I remember like being on the plane watching like as Trump was sworn in and I was like, I hate this and I want to like get off of this plane. And yeah, so I spent the rest of the day on Space Mountain. It was pretty tight. That's great. Yeah. Highly recommend, but I guess not this year, you know? Yeah, that is time well spent.

Maybe this year, I don't know. The other thing that I remembered was somehow in 2012, there was somebody who had like snuck me into the inaugural ball and I don't remember how this actually went down like I think it was like a very loose connection where it was like a friend of a friend worked on the re-election campaign like do you want to come in and meet this person somewhere to pick up your ticket it was super sketchy but um Alicia Keys sang Obama's on fire to the tune of

This Girl is on Fire and I remember at the time thinking that was like the goofiest thing but also being like really excited about it as she was doing it so that was fun too yeah I hope that I hope that today's situation

is a fun memorable one but I'll probably at least take pictures of my TV to be like, I was in Los Angeles in the epicenter of the pandemic watching Joe Biden get sworn in. Just tell my kids, they'll be like, we don't care. Yeah, yeah. They're like, we're fighting for water. What are you talking about?

Exactly. Get on the spaceship to Mars, Mom. Shut up. That's what I expect. Well, just like that, we've checked our tips. Stay safe, make some memories you can take with you to Mars, and we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines.

Headlines. On the last full day of Trump's presidency yesterday, a federal appeals court threw out his administration's attempt to lower restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. The affordable clean energy rule would have allowed power plants to emit more while making it harder for future administrations to make rules to fight climate change. Now that it's been struck down by the court, the plan will be added to a long list of failed deregulation efforts by Trump's EPA law, which experts say has one of the worst legal records in the agency's history. The latest decision also reaffirms that the federal government does have the power to

establish regulations on emissions and to create other rules to combat climate change. That is very good news for Biden's incoming administration, which promised to eliminate fossil fuel emissions from the power sector by 2035. The SATs will no longer have its optional essays or subject tests. The company behind the standardized test, College Board, announced the change yesterday, saying they wanted to reduce pressure on students who are also dealing with a global pandemic, just like the rest of us. Some critics say the decisions were made for financial reasons, which makes sense, considering that the SATs bring in over a billion dollars for the company every year, and they were forced to cancel a significant portion of in-person tests due to the pandemic.

Administering fewer tests means spending less money, and the company said it would work on developing a digital version of the test soon, though they tried to do that last year and ultimately failed. Several major universities have already gotten rid of their SAT requirements, so maybe we should just throw it out altogether. Riling up suburban dads to do extreme self-guided tours in the capital can be expensive, it turns out, as the 147 GOP lawmakers who voted not to certify the presidential election have now lost the support of many of their largest corporate backers. The Washington Post is reporting that 20 of the 30 companies that gave the most money to these lawmakers through PACs have suspended some or all of their donations.

Even defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman and Raytheon are currently telling lawmakers to find their blood money elsewhere. Northrup Grumman. I'm going to think about that for the rest of my days. The size of these contributions shouldn't be overstated, though. PAC donations are capped at $5,000 per election and represent a small portion of political fundraising for candidates. Also continuing our inciting and insurrection cost benefit analysis we are conducting here at WOD, Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl's said yesterday

they've stopped selling MyPillow products after the company's CEO, Mike Lindell, a.k.a. the Trump of Beds, supported the raid and continued to spread conspiracies in its aftermath. Lindell said the products were pulled in response to social media pressure, while Bed Bath & Beyond said it was because of decreased demand. Turns out, not everyone wants to buy a pillow

that formally supports a second Civil War. Yeah, also I think we all have pillows now. We're good. Yeah, we're fine. We're fine, Mike. Maybe do something else. He didn't invent pillows or anything. He just had another brand. Anyway, well, fair warning to senators who intend to trade on inside information. You will probably not face consequences. North Carolina Senator Richard Burr found out yesterday he won't be charged with insider trading by the Department of Justice for selling off stocks in February, just weeks before the market crashed.

Burr was the subject of a months-long investigation into a sale of between $630,000 and $1.7 million in stocks after he received senators-only briefings that made the severity of the COVID threat clear. Four other senators were also implicated, including Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, but they were absolved of wrongdoing by August of last year. That freed up the Georgia senators to get back to their first priorities of wearing jeans to try and look normal and still losing runoff elections. Burr's investigation went on longer, involving grand jury subpoenas and even the FBI seizure of his cell phone. He stepped down from his position as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee during that process, though he had already announced his plan to retire when his term ends in 2022, presumably to spend more time with his flawless portfolio.

Yes. Keep looking at those beautiful stocks, Richard. You earned it. And those are the headlines. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, tell the outgoing president boy bye, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just Gaga set list for today 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 happy inauguration day. We made it. We did. Now I'm sure nothing will go downhill from here. Yeah, exactly. It's all up from here. COVID will go away like a miracle. It will go away. What a Day is a production 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 executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes and me.

Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.