What A Day - I Felt The Bern In Reno

Episode Date: February 24, 2020

Bernie Sanders had a dominating win in the Nevada caucus on Saturday. As of Sunday night, he had captured nearly 47.1 percent of county convention delegates, with former VP Joe Biden in a distant second, followed by Mayor Pete, Senator Warren, and Senator Klobuchar. We discuss the coalition that led Sanders to victory and what to look for in South Carolina.The Wuhan coronavirus is still spreading, having produced its first major outbreak in Italy, along with South Korea and Iran. Just keep washing your hands and reading real verified reporting and you’ll stay healthy and sane. And in headlines: Florida’s backwards new abortion law, Rihanna’s NAACP speech, and trouble at the Mike Bloomberg status update factory. 

It's Monday, February 24th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is what a day where I am just now getting over my FOMO of not going to Nevada this weekend. I mean, you're not missing much in Nevada. It's true. Could have lost $500 and, I don't know, probably like ate a cigarette. On today's show, the latest on the coronavirus and its spread in other countries, and then some headlines. But first, we'll check out the results of the big bad battle in the desert. Senator Bernie Sanders had a dominating win in the Nevada caucus on Saturday. With 88% of precincts reporting on Sunday night, he had captured nearly 47.1% of county convention delegates. As we await more results, former Vice President Joe Biden is a distant second at 20.9% in the delegate count, followed by South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar.

I think all of you know we won the popular vote in Iowa. We won the New Hampshire primary. And according to three networks in the AP, we have now won the Nevada caucus. That's what happened. Also, his voice sounds like it's going like mine is. All right, well, let's break down a little more of what happened there. Yeah, it's that time of year for everyone.

So we'll know even more when we have everything in over the coming days. But it does look like turnout in Nevada was way up, surpassing 2016, maybe getting close to on par with 2008 levels. And this was a commanding win across the board for the Sanders campaign, kind of further cementing him as the clear leader in the race. And afterwards, you know, like we've seen in the other primaries and caucuses of the season, no one is dropping out. And many of the other candidates are, you know, starting to train their fire even more on Sanders as they, you know, try to slow this down essentially in the next week or so. And we can expect more of that in the debate tomorrow. But in Nevada, specifically per entrance polls, Sanders won across most demographics in the state with big margins specifically for young voters and Latinx voters with whom he led by 34 points more than his nearest opponent.

It is a strong validation for the organizing that they have put together to not only win the primary, but defeat Trump in November. It's sort of the first validation of something that they've been talking about for a while. the powerful culinary union leadership in Vegas being explicitly against the Medicare for All plan that Sanders put forward. They had pamphlets and flyers on it. But there were seven caucus sites on the strip where primarily culinary workers are participating, and Sanders ended up winning five of those. So there may have been a difference of opinion in terms of some of the actual members and some of what was eventually put out. And in an exit poll that was cited in the Post, a quarter of Nevada caucus goers said that they came from union households, and Sanders won those voters by 13 points. I mean, he did say he's the union candidate. All right. Well, this is a crazy busy week coming up with another crucial primary in South Carolina, where African American voters make up a huge percentage of the electorate,

followed quickly by Super Tuesday just next week. What can we expect next? Yeah, so a couple quick things on that. Among the Super Tuesday states are Texas and California. Texas has this enormous, you know, 261 delegate hall and California has an even bigger one at 494. For scale, candidates need to get almost 2000 to win a majority. So this is going to really be where the rubber meets the road for a lot of these folks if they're able to pick things up that day. The Sanders campaign is hoping that the voters that they got in Nevada could be similar to the ones that they could reach in those other two states. That's, of course, a big if at this point,

no voting group is a monolith in any sense. But if it does work, what the other campaigns are saying is that the Sanders folks will get into a position where it's hard mathematically for them to be caught. But back to Biden for a second. There are a lot of positives in the Nevada results for him, but some major caveats. On the one hand, he did come in second in Nevada, which is the best that he's done so far. On the other, it was a very distant second, like we said at the top. On the one hand, according to the entrance poll, Biden won with black voters in the state at 39 percent. But Sanders also did well, and his support with black voters has grown quite a bit. There are indications that that, you know, similarly tightening margin is happening nationwide.

And so going into South Carolina, Biden still does have this opportunity to win that state. And he has kind of claimed it as like the last shot that he has to really muscle his way back into this race. And their campaign is banking on possibly getting this endorsement from Jim Clyburn, who is the number three Democrat in the House and a major figure in the state of South Carolina. He said that he's going to say who he's backing on Wednesday. But there are real indications in polls that outside of Nevada, Sanders and yes, Tom Steyer are giving Biden quite a bit of a run in the state of South Carolina, which is different than where we were at last year, for instance. Steyer has also just made the debate on Tuesday in the state.

So, you know, we'll see the same lineup from last week with one additional billionaire who has invested something to the tune of over $12 million in South Carolina and hiring a lot of locals to work on his campaign. And apparently it is actually working. Yeah, you know, if you got the money, I guess spin it this way. We're sitting here over 24 hours after the Nevada caucuses took place, though. There aren't many issues that we know of, but we still don't have the complete results yet. Is this the end of the road for caucuses? I mean, I think, can it be please?

I think it's about as close as you could get right now, right? I mean, there are just two states and three territories that are going to hold similar caucuses throughout the rest of this primary. They're not massive targets for any of the campaigns, really. And on Sunday, Harry Reid, who's the former Senate majority leader and kind of the baron of Democrats in Nevada, in a way, said that the caucuses shouldn't be used at all throughout the country to nominate presidential candidates. And this conversation has increased in severity over the last month, given what happened in Iowa,

which was leagues worse than anything that happened in terms of the reporting process in Nevada. Reid also said that Nevada, given its diverse electorate, should go before Iowa and New Hampshire. So he's saying all caucuses gone and us first. Pretty big demands, but we'll see. But for now, people are currently early voting in tons of those big Super Tuesday states and the smaller ones as well, with over 1.3 million vote by mail ballots returned in California alone. You should definitely find out if you can early vote and where at at votesaveamerica.com. The Wuhan coronavirus is still top news, and we want to give you an update on the latest, including its spread to countries outside of China and how those countries are combating the virus.

So, Akilah, what is the latest on this? All right. Well, the virus is still spreading, and that's bad news. Italy is rushing to contain its first major outbreak of the virus, which is also the first major outbreak in Europe at all. Italy has locked down more than 50,000 residents across 10 towns. And what that means is that people can't enter or leave these towns for the next two weeks without special permission. Schools, businesses and public transportation are suspended for the time being. And the last two days of Venice Carnival were canceled after more than 20 people in the city were confirmed to have the virus. And the event attracts thousands of tourists from around the world. So this is kind of a big deal. Yeah.

Like, imagine New Orleans pulling the plug today on Mardi Gras. Right. It's really impossible to imagine people are still partying in the streets there. Well, there are more than 150 cases of coronavirus in Italy at the time that we're recording this. But more than 100 of those are in the Lombardy region in northern Italy around Milan. So that's why more and more places are using this lockdown strategy to contain the virus geographically. OK, so that gives us a sense of what's happening in Italy. Iran and South Korea are also seeing outbreaks of their own.

What do we know about what's happening in those places? All right. Here's a rundown. Pakistan and Turkey closed their borders with Iran yesterday after a spike in cases there. The outbreak has killed at least eight people in Iran, according to state television. And that's the largest number of reported coronavirus linked deaths outside of China. And we talked a little bit about, you know, criticism of China's initial handling of the virus and how the true spread of the virus was just underreported. Well, similarly, there's the same criticism of Iran, who just days ago said that there were no cases. Now, allegedly, 43 people are infected,

with eight succumbing to the virus. And scientists think that coronavirus appears to kill, you know, one in 50 people. So if you do the math, the number of cases in Iran is likely much higher. Right. So Iranian officials have started a mass distribution of face masks. They've canceled concerts, movie screenings and other planned large scale gatherings. Afghanistan announced that travel to Iran is now suspended as well. And then there's the outbreak in South Korea that you mentioned. Currently over 700 cases and six deaths. That's what they're dealing with. And it's the largest outbreak in the entire world outside of China. Starting today, Israel is blocking entry to any

non-residents who have recently traveled to Japan or South Korea. Japan is where that contaminated cruise ship was, if you remember. And the U.S. State Department also raised its travel advisories for Japan and South Korea on Saturday to level two of a possible four. So yeah, this is the latest phase right now with the virus. Lots more travel restrictions around the world. Just trying to make sure we're not going to see these China level outbreaks other places. Right. Yeah. And I mean, it all seems sort of daunting when we look at it on the whole like that. But what can we all do about this, if anything? No, we're going to do, we're going to stay vigilant. We're going to wash our hands. We're not going to travel to virus red zones for any reason besides like absolute necessity.

Down with all those. Gideon, you're planning. And also, you know, I had said this before, I'll say it again, look for verified reporting. So you're not going to drive yourself crazy about this. One ray of hope out there is that, you know, as public health officials are trying to contain this thing, scientists are also working on a vaccine. And it may be months away, it may be years away, but at least the work is being done. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The measure would require minors to get written consent from a parent or guardian in the form of a notarized document. To be clear, this means if you're under 18, Florida's lawmakers think you're mature enough to become a parent,

but not mature enough to decide to remain a child. Critics say this process could push some to seek out other, more dangerous methods to terminate their pregnancies. The bill is the latest in a trend of conservative state governments passing restrictive abortion laws. They're hoping that those laws of challenge make it to the U.S. Supreme Court and lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Florida's Supreme Court struck down a similar parental consent law in the 80s, ruling that the state's constitutional right to privacy applies to a woman or a minor's choice to have an abortion. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signs the bill, which is pretty likely it would go into effect this July. Greyhound will stop allowing Border Patrol agents to conduct immigration checks on its buses without a warrant.

Previously, Greyhound had said it thought federal law required compliance with border agents' requests to board its buses with or without a warrant. That all changed two weeks ago when the Associated Press leaked a memo from Customs and Border Patrol saying that agents actually need consent from private bus companies before boarding. It sure seems like information CBP should have shared publicly instead of withholding and causing more confusion about their policies. But then again, Trump's version of America is stupid. The ACLU has been calling for this policy change for a while now, accusing CBP of racially profiling passengers and violating their Fourth Amendment rights, which outlaws unreasonable search and seizure. The NAACP Image Awards were on Saturday, with awards going out to Beyonce's Homecoming

for Outstanding Variety Special. Well fucking deserved. Dolomite is My Name for Outstanding Independent Movie, and Lizzo for Entertainer of the Year. Rihanna got the President's Award for her work with the Clara Lionel Foundation, which she founded in 2012, to fund education and emergency response programs. And then she made a banger of a speech encouraging her audience to demand support from their allies when they need it. I mean, how many of us in this room have colleagues and partners and friends from other races, sexes, religions, show of hands.

Well, then, you know, they want to break bread with you, right? They like you? Well, then, this is their problem, too. so when we're marching and protesting and posting about the michael brown juniors and the tatiana jeffersons of the world tell your friends to pull up that's right pull the f up side note rihanna if you ever want to pull up and just get coffee with me or anything i'm really available for friendship la is hard i second that rihanna uh twitter removed 70 accounts that were posting copy pasted pro mike bloomberg content on friday because they were violating its rules against platform manipulation and spam. This definitely raises questions about how Bloomberg can pitch himself as a job creator when he can't even stop jobs like clone poster for the Bloomberg presidential campaign from being

eliminated. The banned accounts were part of Bloomberg's expansive digital strategy, which involves paying hundreds of, quote, deputy digital organizers $2,500 a month to send daily texts and tweets encouraging people they know to support Mike. A Bloomberg spokesperson said they make these staffers disclose that they work for Mike's campaign and never meant to suggest that these folks were supporting Mike Bloomberg for free. Anyway, look forward to seeing fewer identical Bloomberg posts on your timeline and be kind to anyone you know who lost their job at the Mike Bloomberg status update factory. You'll find another job. Well, and those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review,

toss us a disc out on the quad, man, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just Wikipedia summaries of Fear Factor episodes 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 that's how I lost my job at the Mike Bloomberg Status Update Factory. Anyone hiring?

Yeah, please. I can make a meme ball with this face on it. 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.