What A Day - If The Quid Didn’t Hit, You Must Acquit

Episode Date: December 2, 2019

The Supreme Court will hear a major gun rights case today, which could lead to the expansion of the Second Amendment. We discuss how we got here, and where we’re headed. Impeachment moves to the House Judiciary Committee this week, marking the triumphant return of Jerry “Scary” Nadler. We review some greatest hits from the hearings so far, and the ways Republicans have tried to spin Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. And in headlines: protests and resignations in Iraq, Sondland sexual misconduct allegations, and NBC blows it with Gabrielle Union.

It's Monday, December 2nd. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, the Frank Sheeran-level house painter of daily news podcasts. I haven't seen The Irishman yet, but I feel like even if I had, that would be pretty confusing. Yeah, it's a bit of a reach. On today's show, surprise, an impeachment update and some headlines. But first, an NRA-backed gun rights case reaches the Supreme Court. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a major gun rights case, the first in almost a decade. Their decision isn't expected until June, but they'll hear arguments regarding a New York City case that, according to legal experts and New York State, should be moot. Akilah, what's the background on this case?

Okay, so it's an interesting one for sure. Back in 2013, the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, which is part of the NRA, filed a lawsuit along with three city residents who were told by authorities they couldn't participate in a shooting competition in New Jersey or bring their guns to a home elsewhere in the state. One of the plaintiffs had two homes and wanted to move the gun from one to another. But he only had what New York calls a premises license, which didn't allow for him to transport the gun from place to place like that. The resident and the NRA argued that the premise license therefore violated the Second Amendment

right to bear arms. Well, in 2018, the Manhattan-based Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the regulation did not violate the Constitution and advance the city's interest in protecting public safety. The plaintiffs are appealing that decision. But that's not the interesting part of all this, right? No, it's not. So, in July of this year, New York actually changed the law to permit people with premises licenses to do exactly what these plaintiffs want to do, move their guns around from home to home and other authorized

places. And that should render the case moot, which basically means, you know, there's no further discussion necessary. We all did it. But, you know, didn't happen that way. After all, you know, the guys sued about this particular provision. The state updated the law to address that exact concern. And SCOTUS has rules about this sort of thing. The Supreme Court's rules say lawyers may not raise additional questions or change the substance of the questions originally presented to the court. Yeah, which means that the Supreme Court's job is to rule on the previous ruling. It's like if, in more lighthearted terms, you sued a state for, I don't know, banning alcohol on your street. Been there.

Because you believe it infringes on your 21st Amendment right, which repealed prohibition. Let's go 10th grade U.S. history. So you sue and you lose because your state says their law isn't unconstitutional. Then a year later, the state's like, you know what? We'll just change our law to allow alcohol on your street. So long story long, the thing you were suing for isn't a thing you could sue for now in the state because your concerns were addressed. Well, New York State asked Godis to drop the case

for the reasons I just laid out, and the Supreme Court declined. Okay, got it, got it, got it. So the case is being heard today. What could potentially happen here? Several things. There's still a chance that the court could say the case is moot and drop it,

but so far the court has put off dismissing the case. And as we all know, the court has a conservative majority. It's 5-4. I should also mention that Brett Kavanaugh, the newest justice on the court, has a history of wanting to expand the Second Amendment beyond previous SCOTUS rulings. So it's likely that he's going to want to hear the full case. If they do hear the case, the ruling could end up extending beyond just this law in New York. Gun control advocates say that the justices could decide to expand the scope of the Second Amendment and place limits on gun restrictions. That could jeopardize the progress that local and state governments have made

regarding gun control in the past decade. Things like background checks and confiscating weapons from those who've been deemed dangerous by the court. I'd also just like to point out, you know, conservatives tend to love saying that the Civil War is about states' rights and not slavery. And they, you know, champion states' rights. But they seem really content to let the government step on states' rights to uphold their own laws regarding, you know, the Second Amendment. So just a little hypocritical. Yeah, yeah. Noted. According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 45 states and D.C. have passed more than 300 gun

control laws. Now, deliberate inaction by congressional Republicans obviously has stopped the passage of federal laws. Yeah, this is obviously an area of interest to Americans who have overwhelmingly supported background checks and not allowing domestic abusers to have firearms. So it seems pretty clear then that the NRA doesn't actually care about what's happening in New York since that's been settled, but it is pushing this case forward if only to make guns more accessible and have their membership go up. We'll keep following along, but I cannot stress this enough. Vote in the next election and not for Donald Trump, okay? RBG isn't going to live forever and we can't let Trump appoint more justices and lower court judges.

OK, these are lifetime appointments. So this is bigger than any of our feelings about who the perfect dim candidate is. OK, it has to be. I want it to be your pick. I really do. But I also don't want you to check out if it isn't. Have you been to VoteSaveAmerica.com yet? You know, it's got some really good info on how to vote next year and how to help stop the madness. This week, the impeachment inquiry moves from the House Intelligence Committee to the House Judiciary Committee, where Democrats will finally answer the question,

what to impeach when you're impeaching? Every time. I truly forgot that that was the sound. I don't think that we've brought that back in a while. So Democrat Adam Schiff, who ran the intel phase, is set to deliver a report to the new master of ceremonies, MC Democrat Jerry Nadler, as soon as today, that will lay out the findings from the hearing so far. Nadler is going to hold a judiciary hearing on Wednesday with legal scholars about the constitutionality of impeachment. And the White House said late on Sunday that it won't be participating in Wednesday's proceedings. And Republicans, meanwhile, have until Friday to decide

if they want to participate and call additional witnesses to testify. So we've got a new phase. We've got some new faces. And Republican members of Congress have been amping up their criticisms of the process that Democrats have followed thus far. That's right. Congressman Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, complained in an interview on Fox on Sunday that Republicans were not going to be given enough time to go through the findings of the Intelligence Committee's report. I have a question. Why are they hiding this stuff from us? If they think they have such a case, give us all the materials and don't let Jerry Nadler write a crazy letter that says on the 6th, let us know who your

witnesses are. We don't even have the information from the Intel committee yet. This is why this is a problematic exercise and simply a made for TV event. Now, this harkens back to process arguments that we've heard time and time again. Yeah. And ahead of another week where Republicans will be making those process arguments or may even try something new, we decided to look back at some of the more inventive ways the Republicans have defended Trump so far in a segment we're calling If the Quid Didn't Hit, You Must Acquit. Very good. Love the person who came up with that. For example, number one, we're going to journey back to October 6th for some of the original arguments about the basis of the entire impeachment inquiry. Congressman Jim Jordan said that there was no quid pro quo at the time and used Ambassador Gordon Sondland and text messages between him and other American officials as an example to back that up.

And when Sondland made his statement, George, the EU ambassador, Ambassador Sondland, made his statement where he said, it's crystal clear, Bill, there is no quid pro quo of any kind. When he made that text message, you guys don't, you never highlight that one. When he made that, you know what Ambassador Volker told us about that text message? He said, we knew that was the truth, and he was speaking for us all, and that had been the case throughout the negotiations. Now, of course, that came before Sondland revised his testimony to say the exact opposite, and a bunch of other witnesses confirmed as much in a series of public testimonies. The result of that was that some Republicans got more creative in the way that they mounted defenses for President Trump. Yeah, that brings us to example number two. On November 6th, Senator Lindsey Graham argued that basically the White House was too incompetent to execute a quid pro quo.

What I can tell you about the Trump policy toward the Ukraine, it was incoherent. It depends on who you talk to. They seem to be incapable of forming a quid pro quo. So, no, I find the whole process to be a sham and I'm not going to legitimize it. Wow. We love the president's a big dumb baby defense. He couldn't do it. Well, this is one of the bigger reaches presented by Republicans around this time who had mostly continued to say that the Democrats process was flawed and tried to

undermine the witnesses they had brought in to testify. This point in the timeline, we've moved from it didn't happen to it didn't happen because the president is just stupid. Yeah, right. And then came a kind of acceptance from some other Republicans. If the quid pro quo happened, it wasn't necessarily that bad, like a trading of two Pokemon cards or when you rake your grandfather's lawn and in return he pats you on the head. Here's example three. On November 10th, Senator John Kennedy wonders aloud whether Trump knew that Joe Biden is just a random guy in the United States or if he's Joe Biden, a potential political rival. The quid pro quo, in my judgment, is a red herring. Here are the two possible scenarios. Number one, the president asked for an investigation of a political rival. Number two, the president asked for an investigation of possible corruption by someone who happens to be a political rival. The latter would be in the national interest. The former would be in the president's parochial interest and would be over the line.

All right. So that is similar to what White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said during an October 17th press conference in which he changed his tune on whether a quid pro quo happened and said, quote, I have news for everybody. Get over it. Mulvaney then had to put out another statement after that, basically saying disregard previous message. Yeah, I'm just playing. Yeah, I CC'd everyone on the email. I did not mean to do that. Republicans have also argued as well that because the investigations never got announced and because the aid was eventually released, it's all just no biggie. Yeah, I really can't wait to see how they jump through the hoops this week.

Yeah, they're limbering up. Now that we've seen how the defenses have shifted over time, you, the listener, will have the exciting opportunity to see what new wonders await this coming week. Will it be President Trump has never used a phone? He has been too busy watching Jean-Claude Van Damme action scenes to ask for anything besides the little clicker that moves that buff man on the screen? Or maybe simply Donald Trump does not exist. I have never even heard of that person before in my life. I love option three. And now to some ads.

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That's right. For $20 off your Buffy bedding, visit Buffy.co and enter WODPOD. That's Buffy.co with the code W-A-D-P-O-D for $20 off. And now back to the show. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. One person has been detained. This is the sixth shooting in New Orleans involving 10 or more victims since 2013. The city's mayor, Latoya Cantrell, came out with a statement saying, quote, When people resort to gun violence to resolve problems, it never creates solutions, only innocent victims and trauma. Right now, open carry is legal in Louisiana without a permit, but banned from certain public areas in New Orleans. The prime minister of Iraq, Adel Abdul Mahdi, officially stepped down over the weekend.

His resignation comes after almost two months of unrest in the country. Protesters are frustrated by Iran's influence on Iraqi politics and their own government's violent crackdown on demonstrations. Mahdi's resignation was good news for protesters, but now it's up to Iraq's parliament to find someone to fill his shoes. Just one year after hiring her to host America's Got Talent, NBC announced that they would not renew Gabrielle Union's contract two weeks ago. Since then, there have been multiple reports that Union's dismissal came after she spoke up about a toxic work environment and multiple racist incidents on set. Union reportedly received numerous notes on her appearance and was told that her hairstyles were, quote,

too black for NBC's audience, which is crazy. But I guess NBC can't afford to lose their audience of seven people who accidentally tuned in when they were trying to find young Sheldon. Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, who you may remember from his role in the impeachment hearings, has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women in incidents that allegedly occurred between 2003 and 2011. Accounts of the incidents were published last Wednesday by ProPublica and Portland Monthly, and in each case they described Sondland making unwanted sexual advances on women who sought to do business with him.

When the women rejected Sondland, he retaliated by withdrawing his business or pulling some other move from the classic bad man in power playbook, i.e. screaming at them over the phone. For his part, Sondland called the claims untrue, saying, quote, they have no basis in fact, and I categorically deny them. Call me Garfield, guys, but I don't like Mondays. But I love Cyber Monday. Okay, so everything in the Cricut store, including our brand new merch,

is 10% off today with code REDACTED. Yeah, REDACTED is the actual code. Great. Plus for today only, you can get a bag of holiday cheer for $5 just because. What is a bag of holiday cheer exactly? Well, the answer is on crooked.com slash store. So head over there. The answer is a tote bag. You guys are my friends and I just, I don't like keeping secrets from you.

And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, give us a rating, buy us a Fitbit for Cyber Monday, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading, and not just the Wikipedia entry for a list of people who disappeared at sea 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 why I hate Mondays and love lasagna. Lasagna. Lasagna, lasagna, lasagna. 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.