What A Day - How Dems Can Play To Win

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

A mass shooting at Wednesday’s Super Bowl parade for the Kansas City Chiefs left one person dead and 21 more injured. Authorities said they had three people in custody.Democrats took home some important wins earlier this week, including Democrat Tom Suozzi flipping the Congressional seat that once belonged to New York Republican George Santos. We’re joined by Shaniqua McClendon, Vice President of political strategy at Crooked Media, for more on what the victories could mean for Dems’ chances in November.And in headlines: President Biden blocked the deportation of Palestinians from the U.S. for the next 18 months, the ACLU of Colorado sued Children’s Hospital Colorado because the center discontinued gender-affirming surgeries for trans adults, and thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers and DoorDash delivery workers went on strike.Show Notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, February 15th. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Juanita Tolliver, and this is What A Day, the pod that might be burned out by Marvel movies, but our love burns bright for Pedro Pascal. Yeah, it was just announced that he will play Mr. Fantastic in an upcoming Fantastic Four movie. There are a lot of thoughts on our team.

I'm so hyped. Look, I know the script is likely to be questionable, but I have seen Pedro Pascal carry entire cast on his back. I'm excited. On today's show, Crooked's Shaniqua McClendon tells us what Democrats should learn from Tuesday's wins in New York and Pennsylvania. But first, we have details on the mass shooting at yesterday's Super Bowl parade for the Kansas City Chiefs.

As of our record time at 9 30 p.m. Eastern, one person was killed and 21 others were injured near Union Station in Kansas City. Authorities said eight victims had immediate life-threatening injuries. Here is Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves speaking at a press conference shortly after the shooting. I'm angry at what happened today. The people who came to this celebration should expect a safe environment. Yeah, it's so striking just how many of these mass shootings happen at places that not only where people have the reasonable expectation of safety, but environments that are supposed to be celebratory and fun. This was a Super Bowl parade. The city is celebrating and something so devastating happens.

It has become the reality in so many American cities and so many facets of American life. She went on to say that there were more than 800 officers on the scene to keep people safe ahead of the event. It is just devastating. Devastating, tragic, and let's be real, policy could help us avoid these situations. But first, what else do we know about what happened? Yeah, the shooting happened towards the end of the parade in a parking garage near Union Station. Police told people to evacuate the immediate area and medics treated victims on the scene, according to Axios. We do know that authorities took three people into custody. And according to the Gun Violence Archive, this is the 49th mass shooting so far this year and the third one in Kansas City.

We are halfway through February. Right. We're not very far into this year at all. And there have been more mass shootings than days. Truly. And this just keeps happening again and again. And that reality was captured in a heartbreaking moment on CNN. Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and the

parents of Joaquin Oliver, who was killed, were on set to discuss their fight for gun reform when their segment was interrupted by breaking news of this shooting. Take a listen to the reaction by Manuel Oliver, Joaquin's dad. Not surprised at all. It's like literally we interrupt this interview because we have another mass shooting going on. And then you might be interrupting that one because it was going to be another one. So it never stops. It never stops. Truly. This is just fully avoidable. And I also think about the fact that it's a Missour an open carry state where we hear statement from the Kansas City Mayor, Quentin Lucas, at the end of a press conference when he said, that's what happens with guns.

We'll bring you additional updates on this story in tomorrow's episode, so stay tuned for more. But turning now to elections, Democrats took home some important wins earlier this week. We wanted to go deeper into what it could mean for their chances in November. As we mentioned yesterday, Democrat Tom Suozzi took the W in New York's special House election this week, flipping the seat that once belonged to George, Joanne the Scammer, Santos. My goodness, we miss the nicknames.

And that's it. That is it. That's all we miss. Take a listen to what Suozzi had to say during his victory speech Tuesday night. We won this race. We, you, won this race. Because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions. Yeah, really exciting win. some momentum to get us into election season. Tell us more. Yeah, it's a huge victory for Democrats and for all New Yorkers in the third congressional district because they no longer have a serial liar representing them.

Absolutely something to celebrate regardless. But in all seriousness, the win is important because it also narrows the Republican majority in the House, and it could offer a glimpse into what we can expect in the presidential election come November. And better yet, on the same day that Swazi won, local Democrats in Pennsylvania also took home another victory when voters elected Jim Prokopiak in the state's House special election. That means Dems now hold a majority there. So the energy going into November's presidential election is high, and for more on what's at stake this election year, we're joined by Shaniqua McClendon, vice president

of political strategy here at Crooked Media. I started by asking her about the takeaway from Democrats' win in New York's third congressional district on Tuesday. I would take away happiness. I am really happy about it. But, you know, honestly, it's a big deal. And I think it also just shows that voters are like really aware of what's at stake. They are paying attention and showing up. And I also say volunteers are too. Our volunteers filled 202 canvas and phone bank shifts. Wow.

Yeah. So which is really encouraging to see this early in the cycle. So I think it just shows us that people are paying attention. And, you know, Republicans, I don't want to jinx anything. I'm not predicting anything, but the House is up for grabs. Got it. Heard you loud and clear. As always, there is so much at stake in this election. Let's start with some of the issues that are animating voters as we head into this year, including abortion access, climate change, immigration, and so much more. What is the president's message on these

issues been so far? And how do you anticipate that these concerns will impact voters as they head to the polls this November? You're right. A lot of these issues are top of mind for voters and the things that they'll be focused on when they vote. I think the economy is another one that people are really paying attention to. I know there's this huge debate about what the data says versus what people think. I think what people feel is always going to be what they're thinking about when they go to the polls. And so I think voters will also be thinking really deeply about where each of them has done. We are able to hear what they say they will do. Trump effectively overturned Roe, and he continues to brag about it. And if he's elected and Republicans are able to take over both chambers of Congress, we will probably see a national abortion ban. You know, some of them are trying to run from that, but they can't when Donald Trump is

running around saying, hey, I'm the reason that Roe was overturned. But across the country, you can see Democrats are doing the opposite. They're trying to restore it in the places that they can, and in some instances, even expanding it so that if people need to come to their state to access these services, that they're able to do that. We see it with things like climate. Donald Trump withdrew us from the Paris Climate Accords while Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which made a historic investment in fighting climate change. So I'm hopeful that people will pay attention to those things and think about those things. And I think they will. And I think these issues also will drive how people make

decisions about how they want to get involved beyond voting. Is this something that's important enough for me that I'm going to donate my time, donate my resources to help the election go in the ways that they want? Absolutely. One thing we've also talked a bit about on the show, I know we'll be talking about this more, is the response to the war in Gaza, particularly towards President Biden. President Biden joined TikTok earlier the week. All of the comments are basically people really unhappy with the situation in Gaza. And that, you know, carries over into real life events as well, certainly a concern of many people. What do you make of the White House and the administration's messaging? I'm just curious to hear what you think and how they will maybe be

able to change that or turn that around before the election. Yeah, I mean, time is of the essence. I honestly think that is what has plagued them the most. I mean, obviously, a lot of people have been killed in Gaza and people are paying attention to it. Something I thought was really interesting to see a week or two ago is that a lot of black pastors are now weighing in on this. And something we hear from the president very often is that that's the core. You know, older black voters, which pastors typically fall into, are the core of who helped get him elected in 2020. And so when I kind of am talking about timing, it feels they've been a little bit behind on getting to where they should be. I think they need to be better meeting the

moment. What we're seeing now is they're condemning what Netanyahu's doing, but maybe they could have done that a long time ago when people were calling for that. You know, I think Congress plays a role here too. Now they're looking to see some more conditions put on our funding. But I don't know, it just seems really clear to me that Netanyahu's not going to listen anyway. And so the administration should be doing all it can to use the leverage it has. People are not happy with the response and not to sound like an old record or broken clock. But I think something else to keep in mind is that Joe Biden has moved, even if delayed with this messaging and what he wants to do. But that is something that's not going to happen under Donald Trump. There were some conservative political leaders

in Israel saying that if Donald Trump was president, they wouldn't have to deal with all the resistance that they're getting from the Biden administration right now. And so I think it's really important for people to remember that they have been loud about this. And that is a big part of why the administration is shifting on their messaging and has continued to shift over this time. And that won't be the case if Donald Trump is reelected. And when you say they, we're talking about Muslim Americans, we're talking about Arab Americans, we're talking about young voters who have been a core muscle for the Democratic Party. So that's critical. Yeah, absolutely. And that is why they should be listened to and have been, but need to be listened to more. congressional district, which was a winning issue for Swazi, was immigration. Senator Chris Murphy has made a full memo to Democrats about going on the offense. The fact that all of this issue

should be laid at the feet of Republicans who are standing in the way of the bipartisan border deal, which took months to negotiate. But because Donald Trump told them to shut it down, they did. And as a result, this crisis is still looming. So talk to me about how you think Democrats are going to apply lessons on immigration messaging going ahead in 2024. I think they're going to take his advice. The DS put out an ad that just strung together a bunch of news clips. And it was reporters, anchors, pundits saying this is the thing that Republicans have been saying they've wanted forever. And it was literally laid at their feet. And Donald Trump said no. So they said no. And it's purely for political gain. And something that scares me a little bit is if you get exactly what

you wanted and you still say, no, I want the power. It's like, well, what do you want the power for if it's not the thing you said you wanted? It makes me a little scared. But I mean, we already should be scared if they get full control. It just really lays bare what Republicans are focused on right now. And it's just power grabs. They want Donald Trump back in office. I don't know why. But for whatever reason, they want to give him power again.

And it's just something now that Democrats can keep pointing to. They did what they were asked to do. They did the thing that Republicans, I guess, thought they would never do because they were focused on actually getting to a solution. Finally, tell us more about how Vote Save America can help listeners get involved leading up to November. What should we all be doing right now? Everyone should be doing something. But you can start by going to VoteSaveAmerica.com. We just relaunched the

site a couple weeks ago, and we have two very new things that I think are really cool. Oh, congrats. The first thing we have is our Action Finder, where you can literally check a few boxes about where you want to get involved, how you want to get involved, and then we'll serve you up the best options for you to take action. And you can do that now. And then we have our Anxiety Relief Program, which is a monthly recurring donor program. And we took the guesswork out of it. And we basically vet all these organizations and are directing these dollars toward them at the times that make sense.

I want to share where we are right now. I'm really excited. So thank you to everyone. And right now we actually have 1,437 unique donors who have signed up. And we are right now at $57,000 a month coming in for this program. That's going to be able to help so many organizations. When you sign up each month, we'll send you an email with where the money is going and what it's going to be used for. So you can just really see the impact of your dollars.

So that is what you can do. I love us ending on a positive note about how Vote Save America is doing the work, helping people connect to opportunities and amplifying critical messages. Shaniqua, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. That was our conversation with Crooked Media's own Shaniqua McClendon. Don't forget to visit VoteSaveAmerica.com to find out how you can make a difference this election year. That's the latest for now.

We'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. First, we have some updates on the war in Gaza. President Biden signed an executive order yesterday to block the deportation of Palestinians from the U.S. for the next 18 months. In a statement, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that they will be protected under what's called deferred enforced departure, which grants protections for around 6,000 Palestinians living in the United States. That will make sure that they don't have to return to the increasingly dangerous situation in Gaza for at least the next year and a half. Meanwhile, the Israeli military launched extensive

attacks on Lebanon yesterday. Lebanese security forces told the BBC that the strikes killed at least seven civilians. Israel's strikes were a response to an attack from Lebanese security forces told the BBC that the strikes killed at least seven civilians. Israel's strikes were a response to an attack from Lebanese-backed soldiers that killed an Israeli soldier on Tuesday. Elsewhere, families of the around 100 Israeli hostages who are still being held by Hamas went to the International Criminal Court to demand stronger action. They have filed a legal complaint accusing Hamas of war crimes after the October 7th attack, and we will be following how that case unfolds. The leaders of two major political parties in Pakistan agreed to join forces on Tuesday to keep candidates from former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party out of the country's parliament,

even though they were democratically elected. We told you earlier about how Khan's party dominated the country's parliamentary election last week, winning the most seats. The Pakistan Muslim League, another major political party backed by the country's military, did everything it could to keep that from happening, including jailing members of Khan's party and cutting off cell service on Election Day. Now, the league is merging with the Pakistan's People Party to form a coalition government. Together, representatives from the two parties make up two-thirds of the country's newly elected parliament, giving them the power to nominate a new prime minister of their choosing. This is the same strategy the two parties used to oust Khan from office in 2022. According to a statement from the League, the coalition's nominee will be Shabazz Sharif, the younger brother of three-time prime minister and the leader of the Muslim League party, Nawaz Sharif.

The move essentially guarantees that the military will remain influential in Pakistan's government as it enters a new term. The ACLU of Colorado sued Children's Hospital Colorado on Wednesday because the center discontinued gender-affirming surgeries for trans adults in the state. The federal lawsuit was filed on behalf of an 18-year-old unidentified patient who was scheduled to get chest reconstruction surgery or top surgery at the hospital. He was diagnosed with gender dysphoria under the hospital's care when he was 16. He was cleared for top surgery by his providers after an eight-month assessment period. But last summer, the hospital said that it would no longer offer gender-affirming surgeries to trans patients. It cited the main reason was because of an uptick in patient referrals after multiple states enacted bans on various forms of gender-affirming care. I don't really see

how that is a valid reason. None. People want more procedures at your hospital. That is what you're there for. The result is that this 18-year-old patient will likely have to get his top surgery done at a different facility that he's never been to by providers he has never met before. And that is if another facility will take his family's insurance. He has to go through this lengthy, lengthy process all over again with no guarantees of success. The ACLU lawsuit alleges that Children's Hospital Colorado discriminates against its trans patients by canceling procedures with little to no notice. Procedures, by the way, that are still available to the hospital's cisgender patients. The center currently still provides chest reconstruction to cis men, many of whom seek out the procedure because they suffer from hormonal imbalances that cause excessive breast tissue growth.

And they still provide breast reductions to cis women who want them. Can you imagine the trauma of going through eight months of clearances, insurance checks, evaluations, and then you're seeing your appointments canceled while someone else is literally being rolled back to surgery for the same procedure? Yeah. I think the targeted attacks on trans people just trying to live. Live their lives. Is evident yet again. And it's is evident yet again and it's everywhere evident and it's everywhere and as we previewed on the show earlier this week thousands of uber

and lyft drivers along with door dash delivery workers went on strike yesterday in 10 major cities to demand fair pay and better working conditions on the same day uber shares hit a record high after the company announced a seven billion billion stock buyback. That's a big win for shareholders. And that's why Donald Trump was really pushing for that 2017 tax bill, which does nothing for workers and everything for corporations. A lot of workers argue that the platforms take disproportionate sums of their fares as fees. Last year, Uber and Lyft agreed to pay a combined $328 million to settle claims by New York State Attorney General Letitia James

that the company systematically cheated drivers out of wages and benefits. In related news, Lyft shareholders got a bit of whiplash. On Tuesday, the company released a 2024 earnings report, but there was a minor error. Well, a major typo. A press release said Lyft was going to see a margin expansion of 500 basis points, which is 5% in 2024. The reality? The actual increase was just 50 points or 0.5%.

Shares initially skyrocketed, but after Lyft's correction, they went down. This is why you need proofreaders, people, like, wow. Yeah, big yikes. But it seems like a lot of people made money yesterday. And hopefully a lot of people in these big cities where their drivers were striking for better pay and working conditions honored that strike and didn't use those services yesterday because they can clearly afford them. Even if you tried to use it, nobody was delivering your food, honey. Dinner service was shut down during this strike. So there you go.

And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. Cricket's collaboration with Kariuma's Love It or Leave It sneakers are 20% off now through Sunday. These are almost never on sale. So now is your chance to get a deal and treat your feet to a pair of comfy, cool shoes. Not only does each pair plant two trees in the Brazilian rainforest, but they're also covered in pictures of pundit surfing, rant wheels ranting,

and other things that will seem even more insane if you don't listen to the pod. Head over to Cricut.com slash store and make sure you check out before Sunday night. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, call your congressperson about gun control, and tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading and not just tech company reports that need a copy editor like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe. I'm Juanita Tolliver. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And stretch your way into our DMs, Pedro. Just for the record, I'm fully married. I'm fully happy.

So Priyanka, I guess that's all for you. I mean, Pedro, I like am not as familiar with your work as everyone else is. But like maybe if you slide in the DMs,

I could get familiar. I don't know. I'm not really making an appealing case for myself. That sounds like you just shot your shot, friend. Maybe. Maybe.

What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producer is Itzy Quintanilla. Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers. And our showrunner is Leo Duran. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.