What A Day - Iowa's Participation Awards Go To...
Episode Date: January 16, 2024The Iowa caucuses are officially over. Donald Trump won as expected with just over 50 percent of the vote, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in second and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley came in... third. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy finished in fourth place, and suspended his campaign just minutes after the polls closed and then endorsed Trump. We’re joined by Eugene Scott, senior politics reporter for Axios, to break down the results and turnout in Iowa.And in headlines: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was released from the hospital, the Biden Administration sent a cease-and-desist to Texas officials to stop blocking Border Patrol agents from the border, and we recap last night’s Primetime Emmy Awards.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
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It's Tuesday, January 16th. I'm Josie Duffy Rice.
And I'm Trevelle Anderson. And this is What A Day, where we hosts could be the world's first
trillionaire. Yeah, the organization Oxfam said yesterday that the wealth gap is growing
so fast that the first trillionaire will appear in 10 years. And it's looking like it might be us.
Well, maybe it's gonna be you. My bank account does not particularly say that,
but everything is possible. Okay. Everything is possible.
On today's show, the deadly extreme cold continues to grip the country. Plus defense
secretary Lloyd Austin is finally out of the hospital. But first y'all, the Iowa caucuses
are over. Praise the Lord. And as as expected Trump is the winner he came through
with over 50 percent of the votes here he is during his victory speech last night well I want
to thank everybody this has been some period of time and most importantly we want to thank the
great people of Iowa thank you we love you all oh my god really could have done without
ever hearing not again fine fine fine the interesting thing here though is trump's
victory was called so early that some caucus goers got a push notification on their phones
that he had won iowa before they had even cast their vote okay that's how wide of a lead
that he had but let's be honest the real reason we were all tuned in was the race for second and
third place aka the participation awards and Ron DeSantis took second with just over 20 percent of
the vote and barely eked ahead of Nikki Haley, who came in
third. And after Vivek Ramaswamy finished in fourth place, he called it quits just minutes
after the polls closed, suspended his campaign, and you guessed it, endorsed Trump. And remember,
Iowa is basically the Arctic Circle right now. It was the coldest Iowa caucus ever. Turnout was in the dumps,
as they say, and a lot of caucus sites were giving Dean Phillips' New Hampshire campaign event where
not a single voter showed up. In one precinct in Cedar Rapids, there were 225 voters in 2016.
At that same site last night, only about 30 people were there 20 minutes before the start,
according to the New York Times.
Our producer, Leo, had more people at his cat's birthday party than that.
So not a great sign for the caucuses or maybe a great sign for Leo's cat.
Who knows? One or the other. Listen, I'm not going to comment on somebody having a birthday party for a cat.
I'm just going to keep reading and say that even though all of this feels really irrelevant, okay, there are still
bigger picture ideas that we got from the caucuses last night. Trump got the expected big win. But if
Democrats can learn anything, what can they lean into about the fracturing within the GOP?
Joining us to break this down a bit more is Eugeneugene scott he's a senior politics reporter for axios
eugene thank you for joining us thanks for having me all right eugene most importantly
what were you drinking while watching the caucuses was it hot tea was it an espresso shot
another kind of shot how do you make it through negative gazillion degree weather i'm pretty boring it's
just seltzer just lime seltzer was it warm seltzer no i wish i would love a hot toddy right now yeah
we'll send you one it won't get there for a while but um absolutely okay so obviously trump was the
landslide winner here but with roughly 20 of iowa voters going with DeSantis and another 20 or so going for
Haley. What does this say to you about GOP voters right now? It's a reminder that the base of the
GOP is perhaps as far right as people outside of it have warned and believed. We know that the two individuals who have put forward the most arguably unwinsome argument when it comes to independent voters are doing the best with voters who are identified as Republican right now.
Nikki Haley has really based her campaign on trying to be the most winsome candidate for independence. And that's
not who voted this year in the Iowa caucus. Yeah. I mean, related to that, let's talk a
little bit about last night's turnout. So how did the weather affect those numbers? And what do you
attribute to the turnout that we saw last night? Well, I certainly think the weather affected the
numbers, but it's also possible, we don't know for sure,
that some people set out just because it was very clear very early on that Donald Trump was going to
win. And so if you were a Haley supporter and you were facing snow, at some point you probably asked
yourself, is it really worth me stepping outside to make my voice heard? And, you know, obviously more than
20,000 people say yes, but it's possible that some said no. And it'll be interesting when we have,
you know, do a final autopsy, should I say, on why these numbers were so much lower than they
were the last time there was a competitive GOP Iowa caucus. Yeah. So weather aside, I want to kind of do, you know, let's put
our democratic strategist hats on. How do you look at Iowa and think about where to go from here?
If you are a democratic strategist, and you're looking at these numbers and how things have
shaken out? Democrats for a while have recognized that Iowa isn't what the
rest of the country is. That's why there was such a push, I think, perhaps from Biden to move South
Carolina up. I've been on the ground in Iowa during past presidential elections and, you know,
very nice, kind people, but it is not what America looks like. And so this is, I think, why so many Democrats
are saying, you know, Iowa is not to be ignored, but this is not the place you want to look when
you want to make a decision about who should be the leader of an increasingly diversifying country.
And finally, Eugene, do you have any words of reassurance or the opposite of reassurance
that Iowa is not going to dictate the rest of the primaries? I mean, you just made the point
that it doesn't actually reflect what America actually looks like. But to everybody who sort
of thinks this is the ultimate bellwether, what do you expect to see in the next couple of months?
A long time ago, I covered the presidential campaigns of Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, and they both
won Iowa. I had forgotten that they both won Iowa. Wow. They won Iowa, you know, and I think we get
excited about Iowa sometimes because, you know, Obama won Iowa. And that was the turning point
for him. But you know, I mean, Trump didn't even win Iowa in 2016 and Ted Cruz won, I believe.
So it's this place that matters, but it is not always definitive.
I would not encourage some people to look at this race who haven't done well tonight
and determine that, you know, they are the exception.
This is where the GOP is right now.
We should expect Donald Trump to be the nominee.
Absolutely.
Eugene Scott, senior politics reporter for Axios. Thanks so much for joining us.
Thanks for having me.
That was Eugene Scott. He's a senior politics reporter for Axios. And now that Iowa's done, New Hampshire is up next on January 23rd. Obviously, we will have you all covered on
that chaos as well. But that is the latest for now.
We'll be back after some ads.
Let's get to some headlines.
Headlines.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was released from the hospital yesterday after spending two weeks there for complications from surgery for prostate cancer.
You will remember that he was hospitalized on New Year's Day, but didn't notify the White House about it for several days.
And officials didn't learn about his cancer diagnosis until last Tuesday. The Defense Department said in a statement that Secretary Austin will work remotely as he recovers and will return to the Pentagon full time. And his doctor
said that the secretary, quote, progressed well throughout his stay and his strength is rebounding.
President Joe Biden said that Secretary Austin had a lapse
in judgment when he failed to notify him about his hospitalization, but he continues to have
confidence in him. The secretary's secrecy around the whole thing sparked so much criticism and
scrutiny, rightfully so, I'd add, and also prompted the White House chief of staff to order cabinet members to give notification if they might not be able to perform their duties, which I thought was something that we all already knew to do.
Like, I got to do that at my job.
Do you have to do that at your job, Chelsea?
I feel like you have to tell people when you can't do your job.
I thought that was just something we all...
You know?
We were all on the same page about, but, you know, I learn something new every day.
Who knew?
Who knew?
Turning to immigration, the Biden administration sent a cease and desist letter to Texas officials
on Sunday, ordering them to stop blocking Border Patrol agents from the southern border.
This comes after a woman and two children tragically drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday as they were trying to cross the border. This comes after a woman and two children tragically drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday
as they were trying to cross the border. U.S. Border Patrol approached the river,
asking to be let through in hopes of saving the migrants, but Texas officials refused
and physically blocked them from entering. The Mexican government recovered the migrants' bodies
the next morning. Just unbelievably tragic. The Biden administration's cease and desist letter
condemned Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other state officials for the incident, demanding that federal agents be given full access to the border moving forward.
White House spokesperson Angela Fernandez Hernandez told reporters on Sunday, quote,
While we continue to gather facts about the circumstances of these tragic deaths, one thing is clear.
Governor Abbott's political stunts are cruel, inhumane,
and dangerous. It's pretty bad if Border Patrol is doing the most humane thing in the situation.
Yeah. Now to an update on the Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft. Following the incident earlier this
month when a door panel blew off of an Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight,
Boeing said yesterday that it plans to add more quality inspections of MAX 9s at its own factory and at its supplier, Spirit Aerosystems.
That's the company that makes and installs door plugs like the one that was involved in the mid-flight incident. Both Boeing and Spirit
Aerosystems will also open their facilities to airlines that use 737s to allow them to conduct
their own inspections. And Boeing will also send a team to Spirit Aerosystems to inspect and approve
the installation of door plugs before fuselages are sent to Boeing. In a memo sent to employees yesterday,
the president and CEO of Boeing's commercial plane unit, Stan Deal, said, quote,
we are taking immediate actions to bolster quality assurance and controls across our factories.
Deal also said that Boeing is cooperating with the government's investigation into the Alaska Airlines incident.
Meanwhile, the FAA said yesterday that it's investigating the collision of two Boeing planes
Sunday evening at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. The ground collision happened when one
aircraft taxiing for takeoff clipped another plane, and thankfully no injuries were reported.
And now to a quick update on the cold
weather across the country. The U.S. experienced another day of wind chills and cold temperatures
yesterday. And as we mentioned earlier, yesterday's Iowa caucuses were the coldest ever,
with widespread wind chills and temperatures below zero across the Hawkeye State. A meteorologist
with the National Weather Service told the Associated Press that about 150 million people across the country were under a windchill warning or advisory due to the cold and wind.
Meanwhile, around 150,000 homes and businesses in the U.S. were without power yesterday.
And according to NBC News, there have been at least seven weather-related deaths since Friday.
And we are back, back, back again with some award show news, starting with last
night's Primetime Emmy Awards. As we went to record on Monday night, the Bear won big in the
comedy categories with Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Adebri winning their first ever Emmys for Best
Lead Actor and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. And the icon icon herself quinta brunson the star and
creator of abbott elementary won best lead actress in a comedy becoming the first black woman in 42
years to win the award yeah that's a long time quinta is the second black woman overall and the
first black woman okay just to let you all know is Isabel Sanford for the Jeffersons in 1981. Take a listen
to Quinta's acceptance speech. I am so happy to be able to live my dream and act out comedy.
I say it every time, but I just love comedy so much that I am so happy to be able to get this.
GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis also took the stage to accept the Governor's Award on behalf of the LGBTQ Plus Advocacy Organization.
And in her speech, she spoke of the big strides that have been made for LGBTQ Plus representation in entertainment in the past year and beyond,
as well as the need for more trans characters on screen amid the legislative assault on trans rights in this country. And meanwhile, the Critics
Choice Awards were on Sunday night, where we saw a lot of the same trends we've seen so far
throughout awards season. Oppenheimer dominated the overall film categories with a whopping eight
trophies, while Barbie was close behind with six. And then in the overall tv categories the bear and beef took home four
awards each succession was close behind with three and there was some variety when it came to the
acting awards that were handed out emma stone was crowned best actress for her performance in poor
things while paul giamatti won best actor for his role in The Holdovers. Also shout out to Jonathan Bailey
who's recognized for best supporting actor
in a limited series for his
role in Fellow Travelers.
It's a great show that I feel like
a lot of people haven't seen.
We haven't heard folks talking about
it. Josie, you need to add
it to your viewing list.
It's really good and also
kind of spicy.
Look, every time the Emmys come on,
I have to add a
lot more to my list.
And I feel like I watch a lot of stuff.
But I'm going to put this at number one. If you
endorse it, I'm ready. Yes, it's really
good. Also, producer Raven also
endorses this show.
Oh, that's big. It's huge,
okay? Huge. And those are the headlines.
One more thing before we go.
Vote Save America is about to kick it into high gear,
so now is the perfect time to get yourself some VSA gear.
Grab a brand new tee or crew neck that's perfect for wearing to your next volunteer shift
or just around the house while you rant about gerrymandering to your dog or whoever.
Plus,
100% of the profits from the Votes of America collection will go to support VSA and grassroots
organizations working to give Americans the tools they need to have an impact.
Head to crooked.com slash store to shop VSA.
That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review.
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And if you're into reading and not just the growing list of Emmy-winning shows I need to watch,
but don't have time to, like me,
What A Day is also a nightly newsletter,
so check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe.
I'm Josie Duffy Rice.
I'm Traebell Anderson.
And on to New Hampshire.
I don't have any jokes.
I'd like to wrap this up.
We're at the beginning.
I got nothing.
That was so funny.
What a day is a production of Crooked Media.
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