What A Day - Impeachment Rules and Facebook Drools

Episode Date: October 29, 2019

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces a resolution that will formalize the impeachment inquiry. Expect more Rudy. You know who else isn’t cool with Facebook’s policy of allowing politicians to lie in paid ads? Facebook employees. We discuss their open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerburg.  And in headlines: car companies side with Trump, Missouri’s last abortion clinic fights to stay open, and a cancelled comedian goes on tour.

It's Tuesday, October 29th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day. Sometimes we like to start with a question from a set of conversation cards we bought online. So, Gideon, what do you value most in a friendship? I think it's when people fave my tweets about airline travel. They're not good or interesting. I think it's when people fave my tweets about airline travel. They're not good or interesting.

In fact, they provide little to no service, really, but they ultimately matter to me. That's sweet. On today's show, the impeachment inquiry is about to enter a new phase. Facebook employees write a letter to their CEO and then some headlines. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Monday that the House will vote on a resolution later this week to formalize the next phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. It's the first official vote in the inquiry so far. So, Gideon, what are the big takeaways? Yeah, the first big one, as you said, is that this is going to be the first time that the House votes to formalize the inquiry. It's expected to pass, obviously. Up until now, there has not been a vote, and that has allowed the White House to argue that the inquiry has been

invalid. Pelosi is hoping that this resolution strengthens her hand legally to get witnesses to testify and get documents turned over. Also, Pelosi explained that the resolution will set the terms for how the House goes forward on impeachment, including plans for public hearings and the release of interview transcripts. Now, this is new because for weeks now, witnesses have been deposed in private hearings as congressional investigators have sought to determine whether and how President Trump leveraged military aid as a means of getting Ukraine to investigate his political opponents. Early signs, of course, point to yes. Yeah. And reports from those closed doors testimonies have been pretty incendiary.

So why is Nancy Pelosi doing this right now? First off, Pelosi wants to ensure that the White House stops stalling here. For weeks, the Trump administration has said that they are not going to comply with the inquiry, i.e. prevent witness testimonies and the like, because the House had not voted. That's what their excuse was. So Pelosi in the House is like, let's vote. Like, get this over with. Second, when it comes to the public hearings, basically, at some point, we could see these testimonies play out on the president's preferred medium, primetime television. That's huge. There will be some tweets. Up until now, in order to follow this impeachment inquiry,

you and I and other people at home have had to seek out and read about it in bits and pieces versus, say, when we have these big viral media moments that these hearings can produce. And lastly, taking the inquiry public could also answer one of the big sticking points that Republicans have been complaining about, that this inquiry has been happening behind closed doors. They've been talking about the process even more than the 76ers did when they signed Joellen Bede. I don't understand what that means, but I'm going to Google it. I'll just Google it. Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah. Okay. So I'm sure this move from Pelosi has now completely changed the White House's mind about cooperating, right? Like they're just going to offer up Rudy Giuliani with

unlimited truth serum. He hasn't needed truth serum to speak his mind recently. But in reality, the White House said that they are not going to fully comment until they see the actual text of the resolution, which is expected as soon as later today. Up until now, of course, the White House has not cooperated with the impeachment inquiry at all. Republicans in Congress also said that changing the process now was an admission by Democrats that the current process was bad. So if we pause here for a second, Democrats are now saying we're going to take away this main stupid process argument that you've been using for so long. And Republicans have responded basically with na-na-na-poo-poo. OK, let's get into the process for a second.

So far, the inquiry has gone on behind closed doors, which I'm pretty sure is legal and fine. But a lot of people have been behind those closed doors. Yeah, that's right. There have been three committees in Congress that have been conducting the private question and answer sessions with witnesses. That's the Intelligence Committee, the Oversight and Reform Committee, and the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Democrats and Republicans are both eligible to participate. And according to a tally from The New York Times, more than 100 of the 435 total members and the Foreign Affairs Committee, Democrats and Republicans are both eligible to participate. And according to a tally from The New York Times, more than 100 of the 435 total members were eligible to attend thus far. All right. Well, do we think that this resolution from Pelosi is going to strengthen Democrats' hand legally, like in terms of forcing the White House to cooperate and hand over documents and allow staffers to testify? That's the goal, because right now there have been mixed results on that front. For instance, on the one hand, a federal judge ruled last Friday unequivocally in favor of House Democrats allowing them to keep going with the impeachment inquiry.

Yet, on the other hand, one of the witnesses from this week still doesn't see this as settled. That person, Charles Kupperman, a former deputy to the National Security Advisor John Bolton, declined to appear for testimony on Monday. Kupperman filed a lawsuit on Friday, basically asking a different federal judge which one of his parents he should listen to. The executive branch had said he would be grounded if he testified, or Congress, which said he would be grounded if he didn't testify. Because there hadn't been a ruling, Kupperman didn't listen to either of his parents and decided not to show. Got it. So to bring this whole convoluted picture together,

Pelosi is saying that this new resolution will make the legal case for calling witnesses, getting documents, and having people comply with subpoenas much more clear. Game blouses. Wait, is that the Prince sketch from the Chappelle show? Someone is going to put Pelosi's face on that gift now. Just get

it over with. It's fine. For sure. Well, also, if you are super into all of the play by play of impeachment news, impeachment.fyi is a great resource from my friend and journalist Dan Sinker that updates daily and is a neat little newsletter so you don't get lost in all the details. That's impeachment.fyi. Today's sponsor is Babbel, the language learning app that will get you speaking a new language with confidence. So I speak a little French, but I do wish I was fluent. Sacre bleu. That's pretty good. Yeah, but with Babbel, you can speak a new language with confidence. Babbel teaches real-life conversations, and you can choose from 14 different languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, and German.

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That's right. Enter code CROOKED at checkout to take 10% off your order of $50 or more. One time use per customer. Online purchases only. Nordstrom Rack. It's where it's at. A million problems isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion problems. Mark Zuckerberg is flush with problems. Last week, the Facebook CEO appeared before Congress about his cryptocurrency idea Libra, but no one really asked about that. And instead,

he was grilled mercilessly about his company's stance on allowing lies to run in paid political ads on the social media platform. Listen to this exchange between Zuckerberg and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It's just brutal. So you won't take down lies or you will take down lies? I think it's just a pretty simple yes or no. Congresswoman. I'm not talking about spin. I'm talking about actual disinformation. In a democracy, I believe that people should be able to see for themselves what politicians that they may or may not vote for... So you won't take them down. Okay, Akilah, can you explain for listeners who might not be super familiar with this story,

what the hell is going on with political ads on Facebook? Sure thing. So, Senator Elizabeth Warren brought this issue to the forefront in a Facebook post earlier this month where she claimed, quote, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have endorsed Donald Trump for reelection. She goes on to basically say, psych, this is a lie I'm telling because Facebook don't care about politicians telling the truth as long as they're getting paid. It doesn't sound like her. Yeah. OK, so obviously I'm paraphrasing, but in my defense, the post was really long. So the whole thing started this Twitter war between the multi-billion dollar company and the 2020 presidential hopeful. So this is exactly what AOC was referring to in the line

of questioning we just heard. Right now, Facebook's stance is to allow paid political ads to run on their site that are just not fact-checked. Not great if you think about how misinformation affected the 2016 election. The real heart of the issue isn't like policing what regular users post. It's really about politicians blatantly lying or bending the truth to confuse or mislead targeted populations on the site. Right, right, right. So that was last week's news. But the big story this week is that 250 Facebook employees sent a letter to the executive board expressing dissent and dismay

over the company's choice to allow lies and propaganda to go unchecked in paid political advertising. All this is according to The New York Times, which published the letter yesterday. Akilah, can you summarize what they were saying? Yeah, it's honestly pretty straightforward. The employees want Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook execs to change their policy on allowing misinformation in political ads. They said, quote, we strongly object to this policy as it stands. It doesn't protect voices, but instead allows politicians to weaponize our platform by targeting people who believe that content posted by political figures is trustworthy. So now Facebook is getting pressure from lawmakers outside the company, but also its own staff inside the company, which is significant. Yeah. And what is Facebook's official policy? All right. So the legalese is a little much. But according to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's stance is that its users should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.

Katie Harbath, Facebook's public policy director for global elections, responded to a complaint that came directly from the Biden campaign on this issue and spelled it out. She said, quote, our approach is grounded in Facebook's fundamental belief in free expression. The company doesn't want to be in the business of fact checking paid political speech, even though that's its policy around other types of advertising. Yeah, I mean, it all makes sense to me. I don't think I have any further questions. Yeah, you know, fundamental belief in free expression is a funny way to say fundamental belief in you fighting in the comments of your idiot cousin's posts for hours on end, thus keeping you on the site longer so Facebook can serve you more ads and make more money.

But okay, Harbath, sure. The employees did go on in their letter with a list of demands. It's pretty jargony, but I'll do my best highlight reel. First, they want the political ads held to the same standard as other ads on the site. Just like you can't pay to put out a Facebook ad that says, like, I have the cure to cancer. Click through. You also shouldn't be able to put out an ad that says Sleepy Joe and Hunter Biden are teaming up with the lying media to conduct another all caps witch hunt and call for my all caps impeachment, which is a real ad that Donald

Trump has been running on Facebook since October 9th. Oh, and millions of people have seen it. Yeah, I mean, my uncle most definitely has. So your unfounded claim shouldn't be excused just because you're rich and running for president. That's exactly it. Next, they want political ads to look different than regular ads, saying, quote, We should apply a stronger design treatment to political ads that makes it easier for people to establish context. If Facebook is married to having misinformation on their site, which they seem to be, the least they could do is color code it. And finally, Facebook employees want to create a spending cap on individual politicians regardless of the source. Imagine that the cap is a million dollars. So if you run the Donald Trump campaign and you want to spend a million in ad dollars on the official Donald Trump re-election page,

your campaign can't also spend a million dollars via another Facebook page like Dick Weeds for Trump. A million would go another Facebook page like Dick Weeds for Trump. A million would go a long way on Dick Weeds for Trump for sure. The memes. Gosh, the memes. But the reasoning for this is to level the playing field. The employees believe that the exorbitant spending by some campaigns completely drowns out the messages of others. And how do you combat misinformation if you can't afford to? The employee letter begins with, we are proud to work here and ends with, this is still our company, which I think is pretty baller. Seize the means of production.

I imagine Elizabeth Warren felt pretty vindicated when she saw the New York Times had published the employee letter. In a tweet last night, she said, quote, Mark Zuckerberg should listen to them, and I applaud their brave efforts to hold their own company accountable. You love to see it. Yeah. And I was briefly texting with Congressman Ro Khanna, a Democrat who serves the 17th District in California, which is where Silicon Valley is. He's been very focused on these issues. In response to the letter, Khanna told me in part, quote, we can neither have the Wild West where anything goes in political advertising, nor can we have corporate elite or government bureaucrats censoring speech. So a lot of gray area within that to figure out still. Yeah. Well, the ball is now firmly in Mark Zuckerberg's court. And with this recent

statement from his own staff that this policy is damaging not only to Facebook's mission, but the world entire, the pressure is on for him to, you know, stop hurting democracy. Cut it out, Mark. And now let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Comedian Louis C.K. has announced a new 14-city international tour, his first since admitting to sexual misconduct in 2017. Yes, you know, it's almost Halloween when the cancelled rise from their graves to haunt us once again. Louis was one of

the first abusers spotlighted by the Me Too movement. In an instant, we took away everything from this man, except for his ability to make money doing what he loves off of thousands of fans. Look, Mr. CK, I apologize, but there's only one Louis Tour I care about. That's Louis Anderson from Family Feud. A coalition of international automakers, including GM, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler, announced that they'll be siding with the Trump administration on the issue of fuel economy standards rather than adopting the more rigorous standards set by the state of California and agreed to by Honda, Ford, and Volkswagen. Watch out, because if Trump gets more control over what's in our cars, sunroofs will be outlawed due to their hair concerns, and steering wheels will

get way smaller so they fit hands better. A nice steering wheel that doesn't go whip out of your hands while you're driving. Boeing CEO Dennis Mullenberg will testify to Congress today about the two fatal crashes of the company's now-grounded 737 MAX, which led to 346 deaths. Mullenberg is expected to take responsibility for his company's role in the crashes and to highlight improvements they're making to prevent them from happening again. In my opinion, that's a good call, Mr. Mullenberg. For their part, lawmakers are expected to press Mullenberg to answer lingering questions about the MAX's flight control system and whether Boeing knew it wasn't ready when

they rushed jets to market. Missouri's only abortion clinic is defending its existence in court this week as the state refuses to renew its license. The state government says their concerns are about patient safety, but won't be specific, seems legit. And their consistent anti-choice bias makes this all feel pretty political. If the clinic does close, Missouri would become the first state without an abortion clinic since Roe v. Wade. So I guess this Halloween, Missouri wants to go as 1973. Old-ass sexist costume. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. Thank you guys so much for making us number one. We're new,

so if you like the show, make sure you subscribe, give us a rating, get What A Day tattooed on your neckline or above, and tell your friends to listen. Tattoo your friends. By the way, if you are into reading and not just the Wikipedia page for rare and dangerous snakes 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 the game blouses. 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.