What A Day - Here We Joe Again

Episode Date: March 11, 2020

It was another good night for former Vice President Joe Biden, who has taken command of the race for the democratic presidential. He won overwhelming victories in Mississippi and Missouri plus a victory in Michigan and Idaho. We discuss the results and where we go from here. COVID-19 cancel culture is in full swing, with some events like Coachella getting pushed and others like the democratic presidential debates going forward without an audience. The current approach aims to “flatten the curve”—we’ll talk about what that means. And in headlines: the second person to ever be cured of HIV, a very independent dragon, and Putin’s forever presidency.

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Get 15% off your order at buyraycon.com slash whataday. That's buyraycon.com slash whataday for 15% off Raycon wireless earbuds. Buyraycon.com slash whataday for when you're flying and when you're not. It's Wednesday, March 11th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day coming to you with very full tummies because Postmates accidentally delivered extra burritos. Honestly, maybe they should refund us because they got the order wrong.

And I think we should just get those for free. You know, the way that I look at orders is like this. I shouldn't pay for it and I should get extra food. On today's show, we tell you how to flatten the curve, then some headlines. But first, results from another humongous Tuesday. That song makes everything better. All right. Well, it was another good night for former Vice President Joe Biden, who has taken command of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He won an overwhelming victory in Mississippi and Missouri, as well as a significant victory in Michigan, the biggest delegate hall of the night, and the state where Senator Bernie Sanders had campaigned hard and was looking for a win. Biden also snagged Idaho. And as on Super Tuesday, Biden demonstrated major strength with African-American voters, suburban voters, and won

back a lot of counties with rural white voters that Sanders won in 2016. My first campaign when I was a kid, a long time ago, I had a billboard that said one thing on it. It had a picture of my wife and children, and it said, for all our families. That's all it was, for all our families. That included Democratic families, families of independent voters, Republican families, every one of every stripe, for all our families. And look, that's what we're able to accomplish in South Carolina. That's what we did on Super Tuesday. And it appears, although it's a little premature, it appears that's what we're able to do tonight. All right, so let's go through the states and some of the main takeaways.

Okay, so we can start in Mississippi. It was the earliest state that was called. Biden won massively with over 80% of the vote per exit polls, which I always caution are preliminary estimates. They just kind of give you a sense of what's going on. The electorate in the state was over 60% black, and Biden won over 80% of those voters, hence the lopsided victory. In Missouri, Biden earned about 60% of the vote. That state had an extremely close margin during the 2016 primary, so another example of strength from him there. And in Michigan, Biden is leading by double digits, though we don't have all of the vote in. In Idaho, it was a little closer with Biden winning by about

five or 6%. And as of recording time, we don't have calls for the other states that were voting on Tuesday. Those are North Dakota and Washington State. Yeah. One other dividing line we've seen is age. And we saw more of that last night based on these exit polls. So can you talk about that? Yeah, absolutely. So we can start by looking at Michigan for an example on this. And again, we're using these exits that the New York Times has. But Sanders won about 77% of voters ages 18 through 29 and about 55% of voters 30 through 44. That all sounds great. But the problem is they made up a smaller percentage of the electorate than those 45 and older where Biden was much more dominant. But as was the case last week, the places where turnout went up and there was high turnout again on Tuesday often benefited Biden. For instance,

you look at Oakland County in Michigan, which is a Detroit suburb that had way higher turnout than in 2016. And that's one of the places where Biden did very well. But another interesting wrinkle that we've seen in a lot of these exit polls is support from voters for single payer health care. It seems like it gets, you know, pretty significant support in many of these states that have voted so far. And so the ideas appear to be winning out, even if Sanders isn't always the full beneficiary of them. Yeah. So, you know, the message is popular. It's just it's just not translating into votes. Well, we've seen a rapid turnaround for Biden in the last week and a half beginning in South Carolina. So what does this all mean for the state of the race going forward? Yeah. So this is a contest to win 1,991 delegates, which would be a majority and earn a candidate the nomination at the convention.

We are about halfway through, which is kind of crazy in a lot of ways. It both seems like we've been doing this forever and that it's just begun. But after Tuesday's results, we're looking at Biden being ahead by roughly 150 delegates or so pending other complete results. This is at the time of recording. It'll likely go up. It's going to be very tough overall for Sanders to catch up to that for reasons that we've discussed on the show before. All these delegates in these states so far and the ones that are coming up are awarded proportionally. So in order to erase the lead that another candidate has, a candidate needs to win with somewhat healthy margins. You need to be netting these delegates every single time these states

vote. But the counter to that is there are still a number of big states left on the board. There are a few challenges that Sanders has run into that he'll have to address going forward if he wants to win. They've been the major stumbling block so far. He's having difficulty expanding out his base. While there has been a lot of consolidation towards Biden, we referenced some of the kind of key groups that we're seeing in a lot of these states come out and support Biden. And the states that are voting next week are not necessarily any more favorable to Sanders as far as we know right now. That's based on some polling that we've seen. And if the trends in demographics keep up in those states as they have in the states that voted already.

Yeah, I mean, I saw a stat from NPR last night that said Sanders would have to win at least 57 percent of the remaining delegates in order to beat Biden. So, you know, like we said, that could happen. It just seems really difficult. All right. So what is immediately next in this very all over the place race? Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing that we're going to see even more of is how the coronavirus is going to impact traditional campaigning. More on that in a little bit. But on Sunday, there is a debate. It's the first time that the debate will feature just Biden and Sanders. And that is a real opportunity for them to contrast ideas in a way that doesn't involve half a dozen people tagging in and out. These are the two guys that the race has come down to. One of them is going to be the nominee.

And Biden and Sanders haven't been all that acrimonious towards each other. And they often speak favorably of one another on a personal level. But Sanders has brought up prior Biden positions on trade as well as Social Security and Medicare. Those things are likely to come up. And Biden has brought up prior gun legislation votes that Sanders has made. So those could be some of the kind of fault lines we'll have to see. The debate also could kind of put Biden in the hot seat because it'll be the first time in a very long time, maybe not even since some of the first debates, you know, what seems like five years ago now, where Biden will be treated like the front runner. So it'll be important to see how he performs in that environment as well. Following that, we're going to have another busy Tuesday of voting with even more delegates awarded, where states like Arizona, Florida, Illinois,

and Ohio will all go to the polls. Wow. Well, if you're in those states, make sure you have a plan to vote. And by the way, we are going to be covering the debate live on Sunday, as we always do. So please watch with us at cricket.com slash group thread. That's going to be starting at 8 p.m. Eastern. We're the only live audience. Yes, we are doing another COVID-19 segment because news is happening. The mysterious coronavirus. The coronavirus in China. Deadly new strain of coronavirus. Endangers coronavirus from China. More than 200 cases of coronavirus. The coronavirus in China. Deadly new strain of coronavirus.

Endangers coronavirus from China. More than 200 cases of coronavirus. Coronavirus. It would appear that cancel culture is real, at least in regards to COVID-19. I apologize for that one. Many schools are canceling in-person classes. Governor Inslee in Washington state is looking to ban gatherings with 250 or more people, according to the Associated Press. And Coachella is officially postponed until October.

Yeah, we're trying to make Cello-ween happen. We are trying, certainly. And a slew of other crowd heavy events are being canceled or going forth without a live audience. Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have canceled events in Ohio and are going to be reevaluating whether to hold more on a case-by-case basis, you know, based on conversations with public health officials. The next Democratic debate on Sunday will go on as scheduled, but CNN announced there will be no live audience. That's probably for the best, a good precedent. And the jury is still out on what's next for the NBA, March Madness, and opening day for baseball. Akilah, what do we make of all these measures? All right. So the big question with COVID-19 is how big it will get and how fast. And that's just really what public health officials

are trying to control and figure out. There's something called leveling the curve or flattening the curve that's been making news this week. You've probably heard about it. But the idea is this. If we wait too long to close things down, more people are going to be exposed to the virus. And if more people are exposed, more people will go to the hospital. And too many people go to the hospital at once, then more people are going to die because our doctors and our systems just are going to be overloaded and we just don't have we don't have the space. So if we take preventative measures, hospitals and pharmacies can keep up with the demand for treatment consistently for a longer period of time, i.e. a flat curve. But if the outbreak spikes because we couldn't just isolate ourselves for a short clip and get away from one another, you know, the death rate is going to go up and the situation will become more dire.

But I know, you know, it's kind of a drag to be talking about death so always. But, you know, at least these are better odds. Yeah. And is there a tangible example we can talk about since, you know, this is not a visual medium? I can see what you're doing when you're fighting the curve with your hands, but other people can't. Yeah. I mean, just imagine that I'm a graph. Okay, well, let's try it. So let's just look at this strategy in regards to hospital beds. According to the Center for Health Security, U.S. hospitals have about 46,000 beds in their intensive care units. If the outbreak is relatively moderate, experts predict about 200,000 patients may need to stay in the ICU. But under a more severe outbreak, that number could reach nearly 3 million.

And even if 3 million aren't all sick at once, right, we still have to account for people who are already in the ICU for other non-coronavirus related illness. Hospitals generally aren't just full of open beds anyway. So, you know, the best case scenario is making sure the virus isn't spreading massively at these arena events. Right. And so we saw a big spikes of coronavirus in China, of course, and then in South Korea. But now both of those countries are seeing a decline in new cases. So there is some positive evidence here that these measures can be effective, right? Yeah, I mean, that's correct. And, you know, hopefully Italy, which is currently on a nationwide travel restriction and social isolation program,

is also going to see a drop. As for China and South Korea, though, we've gone over some of their social distancing measures on the show before, but keeping sports fans home, canceling weddings and movie premieres, and more practical things like, you know, encouraging drive-through testing facilities or, you know, testing at all, America. It's really just all slowed the spread considerably. Well, you know what I'm going to say here? You got to wash your damn hands like your trash bag just leaked something gross and stinky on you. 20 seconds, soap and water, make a plan for staying home, and we're going to keep you updated as the news rolls in. Let. went up on a Tuesday. There it is again, just a day after the stock market saw some of its worst losses since the

2008 financial crisis. The jump signals that investors are feeling pretty optimistic about a stimulus package that could prop up the economy amidst these very coronavirus times. However, President Trump and Congress have not yet come to a clear consensus on what should be in that package. Trump hasn't released specifics or a timeline for his plan, but he's been pushing for payroll tax cuts and federal assistance for oil and gas companies, according to reporting by the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Democrats in the House have been working on drafting their own package, which includes paid sick leave, expanded unemployment insurance and social safety net programs. I would also like some of that money because I spent my life savings on silver medicine that has been rejected by science.

All right. Well, two and a half years after undergoing an experimental procedure, the second person to ever be cured of HIV is still free of the virus. Adam Castillejo was known to the world as the London patient after a bone marrow transplant cured him of HIV. Earlier this week, he decided to go public to share his story and his optimism for the millions of people living with the virus. Currently, there isn't a widely available cure for HIV. According to a Lancet study released yesterday, Castillejo's progress represents a huge step forward in the fight against HIV. Russia's lower parliament approved a proposal Tuesday that would reset presidential term limits to zero so that President Vladimir Putin wouldn't have to step down in 2024 and could instead remain in office until 2036. Lovely. At that point, Putin would be 84 years

old, which is actually meaningless because he exists outside of time and space in a place where the only constant is rigging elections. He has no age and derives his power from strange glowing cubes. Putin has also recently proposed a ban on gay marriage, which, like this new bit of legislation, will need to be approved by Russia's constitutional court. Surely they will stand up to this guy who everyone else is scared of. Surely they will. All right. An extremely independent Komodo dragon has pulled a Virgin Mary and given birth to three children without the help of a male partner. You go gila monster. Charlie is a girl Komodo dragon who lives in Tennessee's Chattanooga Zoo, and she's now a

first-time mother through a process called parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis occurs when an egg, rather than sperm, fertilizes another egg. It's observed in just 0.1% of all vertebrates and often during extreme conditions or isolation. When I develop this power during my precautionary coronavirus self-quarantine, I will become unstoppable. Me and my babies are taking over the world. God bless the Hughes family. And those are the headlines.

That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, give us an elbow bump, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just secret messages written in Disney movies 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 may you be blessed by the power of the

cubes. We're going to be president for a hundred years. Once I solve this Rubix, it's over for you. What a day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn 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.