What A Day - It's The Companies You Keep

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

The business community is responding to the siege on the Capitol by suspending contributions to lawmakers who didn’t vote to certify the election results, or in some cases, suspending political donations altogether.Security concerns continue to arise following the events of last week, including armed protests that the FBI says are being planned in all 50 state capitals between now and the inauguration. We talk about the effort to ramp up security around the country.And in headlines: Rudy Giuliani’s license to practice law is at risk, the State Department re-designates Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, and Patriots coach Bill Belichick won’t accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump.Show Links:"More corporations suspend donations to Republicans who objected to Electoral College vote"https://popular.info/p/update-more-corporations-suspend

It's Tuesday, January 12th. I'm Akili Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we are still living in the brief, beautiful moment when the State Department website said Trump was done being president. I loved it. I was on Twitter and everybody was like, is this real? And I'm like, yeah, why don't we just live in that moment forever? I don't need to know if it's true or not. I just like to question it. Plenty of people believe fake shit that gets them into way worse trouble. So, you know.

Exactly. On today's show, which corporations are pulling money out of politics and why, plus an update on the ongoing security situation at the Capitol and around the country, then some headlines. But first, the latest. and we'll start with updates on removing Trump from office. House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against Donald Trump on Monday for, quote, inciting violence against the government of the United States. Not great. They're expected to vote on it tomorrow, and we'll have more on that then. Yesterday also brought more resignations. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf stepped down with just days to go until Biden's inauguration

and continued concerns about our homeland security. So really great job deserting just days before you are supposed to be relieved. But for what it's worth, Wolf didn't say he was stepping down because of the Capitol siege, but instead he cited court rulings that challenged his authority over the agency. So a coward too. Well, we're going to get more into security in a moment, but let's start with some of the responses we're seeing outside of government from the business community. Yeah, collectively, they're all trying to slowly back away from this, like the Homer Simpson going into the Bush gif. But among the recent announcements,

Morgan Stanley suspended PAC contributions to lawmakers who didn't vote to certify the results. Marriott did the same with its own PAC, and AT&T did as well, among many others. The newsletter Popular Information is a good resource for keeping track of all of these, and we'll put that link in our show notes. And it's nice to see these responses to the Capitol attack, but also strange to kind of think about the influences these companies wield in the show notes. And it's nice to see these responses to the capital attack,

but also strange to kind of think about the influences these companies wield in the first place. But yeah, such is the beautiful capitalistic political system we have created for ourselves. That is for another day. Some of these companies haven't quite specified also how long this is going to last. But there are a few who have gone farther or at least been more specific about what they're doing here. For instance, Dow, the chemical company, specified that their ban on political donations to the 140 plus Republican House members and senators would last for an entire election cycle. So that means two years if you were in the House and six for the Senate. Quite a long time. And then there's Hallmark Cards, which people might be surprised to learn

has a pack, but they do. And apparently one that the Kansas City-based company used to give money to Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Roger Marshall of Kansas. Now, Hallmark is reportedly actually asking for a return of the money that they gave, which was $7,000 to Hawley's campaign and $5,000 to Marshall's in the last two years. Damn, Hawley owes all that book money now since the advance got revoked. And now it's another $7,000 to Marshalls in the last two years. Damn, Holly owes all that book money now since the advance got revoked, and now it's another seven grand. I think he's going to have to get a second job. But those are the companies that are focused on Republicans,

but there's also companies that are just pausing contributions altogether. Yeah, so according to the Washington Post, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft said that they are suspending all political donations while they review their processes. OK, and the same goes for banks Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Citigroup, which overall annoyed some Democrats who rightfully said, why would you both sides a situation like this? But the upside, I guess, is no time like the president to go to a full small dollar donor model and say goodbye to PAX.

Anyway, see you later. It appears as though these companies are going to reassess whether to get back into the game after the first quarter of this year, most likely. All right. So let's talk about whether this is actually going to have a material impact or not. It's a good question. And there are kind of varying views and different levels of impact depending on what the companies are saying and doing. There's also quite a bit of skepticism that these actions will actually last, given the fact that these companies could see potential future political threats to their bottom lines and may step back into the fold before the next elections in 2022. They need to make money. And if there is a threat to it, they will find a way to stop it.

But the counter to that is that some of the pressure for Republicans to stick with Trump in the first place on these fraud lies was to keep raising money for themselves. So this course of action actually suggests that at least from the corporate side of things, that's not really panning out. Sucks to suck. What can I say? According to the AP, though, corporate sponsored PACs are limited to giving $5,000 per candidate each year, which is a small fraction of the millions that get raised and spent in Senate races, for one example. But there are going to be increased pressures going forward for all of these folks. For instance, Senator Rick Scott of Florida is chairing the Republican Senate Campaign Committee for the next cycle. That is the main Republican Senate fundraising arm. And

he just so happens to be one of the senators who voted to reject the Pennsylvania results. Stupid. Well, outside of the corporate PAC story, there's also a few other economic ties being cut. That's right. So the PGA of America, the officially named golf people, as I call them, announced on Sunday night that it had terminated an agreement to play the PGA championship at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster in 2022. Honestly, a hilarious side

story to all of this. Yeah. And it's really crazy because I saw a tweet from a New York Times reporter that of all of the things that are happening, the PGA thing was the thing that made Trump the most upset. So yeah, a guy who has really great priorities even now as he's trying to overturn the government. Yep. Just still thinking about the sweet, sweet carts he can ride on. Also, the talk radio company Cumulus Media reportedly told its employees in a memo, quote, is warranted ever. Some of the network's hosts include far-right personalities Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino, and Mark Levin. Even Peloton is apparently

blocking users from making hashtag stop the steal tags in the app. That's according to The Verge, which I think we can all agree is quite a bit different than hashtag Peloton moms in Austin, who seem lovely.

There's a lot more there that we didn't get into and certainly more likely to come. But Akilah, let's get back to some of the more immediate security concerns that have sprung up here. Yeah, they are some pretty big concerns, you know. I think it's always going to be the other statement of the century because this is some unprecedented stuff. But according to an FBI bulletin, armed protests have been planned at all 50 state capitals and in D.C. between now and the inauguration.

The bureau also receives information about one group calling to storm government courthouses and administration buildings in the event that Trump is removed prior to the inauguration, but also on Inauguration Day if Biden is sworn in. So it's pretty obvious to me, at least, that the way we can perhaps unite the country and tamp down on some of the planned bloodshed is to have Republicans in Fox News state unequivocally, once and for all, that Joe Biden won the election. And after numerous hand recounts and audits, nothing has changed in that direction. He's the president. I doubt that they will do it.

I would like for them to do it, but I don't know. Yeah, yeah. But in the meantime, there have been a number of security threats, including, quote, credible threats to visitors and park resources at the Washington Monument yesterday that led to its closure. And it's going to remain closed until January 24th.

That is a damn shame. And there was a flurry of info coming out yesterday about ramping up security. So how is that actually coming together? Well, there's a lot being done, thankfully, to try to keep elected officials safe and to stop all of these insurrectionists. So we're going to start with D.C. For the 20th, the National Guard plans to deploy 15,000 troops to the nation's capital. The district is also seeking the assistance of 3,000 police officers from departments across the country, with 200 coming from the NYPD alone. So definitely not going to be a small presence. And all of the state capitals are on alert and have heightened security right now. In Michigan, where terrorists plotted to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, concealed carry has been suspended inside the

capitol, finally. Democratic lawmakers have demanded this change for months, but after seeing the terrorist attacks last Wednesday, they decided to finally take the threat seriously. And in Wisconsin, the windows of the capitol building have been boarded up. Hope that does something and everybody stays safe. And lastly, the conversation continues about what went wrong at the Capitol last week with security and preparation. Anything to highlight on that?

Yeah, so there's still a lot of reporting being done on those specific security failures that we are monitoring. At this stage, there's a lot of finger pointing about who did or didn't authorize what and when. There are also calls for a congressional investigation, which I personally would really love to see. There are at least two Capitol Police officers who've been suspended with more than a dozen others under investigation in the wake of the siege. And across the country, police departments in Seattle, Philadelphia, Rocky Mount, Virginia, and fire departments in New York and Florida are investigating members of their own squads taking part in the attack. Meanwhile, there was new reporting in the New York Times yesterday detailing more about the violence experienced by Capitol Police officers that day. Video shows at least three officers were assaulted and dragged down the Capitol stairs.

So there's a lot more to come in the fallout of this hideous uprising, but that's the latest for now. It's Tuesday, WOD Squad, and for today's Temp Check, we're talking about party planning. The theme of Joe Biden's inauguration was announced yesterday. It'll be America United in reference to the President-elect's pledge to bring the country back together. Weird timing. How this will look isn't really clear. One feature we know about is an art display on the National Mall made of pillars of light, thousands of American flags and flags representing each state and territory. So Giddy, this all sounds good, but definitely kind of traditional. So my question for you is what alternate theme besides America United would you propose for the inauguration? I would say let's do America vaccinated.

Yeah, it's just vaccines. It's just like, you know, a t-shirt canon of vaccines. Yep. We are firing Moderna into the crowd. Catch it with your hands. Stick yourself up in the arm and have a good time. No, I think if they had something that I'm sure this will be part of the speech and everything. But if they had something that, you know, for the folks who are going down there,

presumably they're going to have to be in cars or it's going to be much smaller. They're going to have to be very far away that, you know, want to see the inauguration, not people who want to overthrow the government. It would be nice to have some sort of thing about make sure you're vaccinated and,

you know, maybe even set up the opportunity to get it. If you are there because you can kill two birds with one stone. That's just my pitch. I hope Joe is listening. I have to say that is like a really great pitch, but it's also like the worst theme of anything ever. Like if your birthday party was vaccines, I'd be like, I'm not going. Like, I mean, you know, in regular times now I'd be desperate to be on the list.

But to be clear, to be on the list. But to be clear, to be clear, this is only this is only because this already sounds like it's going to be deeply sad. Yeah. And so if it is going to be deeply sad, let's add a little pep in the step and get shot up with some Pfizer. Get something out of it. That's fair. Yeah. That was my thought. But yeah, a vaccine-themed party would be brutal in other situations. Same question for you, Akilah. What would you propose for this upcoming inauguration? I think it's a really good question. And as I think about it, I get that a sad answer would match the tone. But I was more thinking from from Never Been Kissed,

meant for each other, like famous couples throughout history. And then you've got Joe Biden there dressed as like Sonny Bono and Jill is Cher and we just like have a good time. I mean, this is why I'm like a party planning person because I'm looking out for the fun. That would be deeply fun and disturbing. If I saw the new president dressed as Sonny Bono taking the oath of office, I would be freaked out and compelled. I love it.

Like Kamala and Doug could go as like Barbie and Ken or like, you know, just any number of things. I feel like there's just so many options. It worked out well in the movie. I think that like America could use a prom. They didn't have a prom last year at all, pretty much. So like, let us have one real celebration, you know? It's true. Yeah.

And if you combined these events that we're talking about, you could have various famous couples getting vaccinated at all, which would also be... Teddy Roosevelt! Yeah. A great PR campaign on top of the crazy images. I mean, I'm not opposed to doing a

joint birthday party, if that's what you're asking. But just like that, we have checked our temps. Stay safe. Enjoy the inauguration from the comfort of your own home and dress up like Cher if you want to and we'll be back after some ads let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Perpetually disgraced former mayor Rudy Giuliani is at risk of getting deloyered for his role in inciting the failed insurrection last week. Whoops.

Yesterday, a New York state senator requested that the court system strip Giuliani of his law license, and the New York State Bar Association opened an inquiry into removing him from their group. I said that intentionally to be weird. The bar said they'd received hundreds of complaints about Giuliani in recent months, but in particular, they're objecting to his speech to an angry pre-Capitol Hill riot mob last Wednesday, where he said, quote, let's have trial by combat, dear lords. Telling people to overthrow the government is unfortunately for Giuliani against the law association's rules. And also facing criticism for their role in promoting the riots is Ginny Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Now, Thomas has never been shy about spreading MAGA gospel on the internet, but she may have crossed the line when

she posted, quote, God bless each of you standing up or praying in the hours before the attack that killed five people. Some say this could open up ethical issues for her husband and that Democrats might even pressure Justice Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving the insurrection. Wow. Well, in yet another 11th hour decision before Biden takes office, the Trump administration has decided to redesignate Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. Really bad timing. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the decision yesterday, citing Cuba's harboring a handful of U.S. fugitives and the country's support of Venezuela's socialist president,

Nicolas Maduro. No word on whether the U.S. will get added to the terrorist list for supporting Donald Trump. President Obama took Cuba off the blacklist in 2015, fully restoring diplomatic relations decades after the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro. Trump, throughout his presidency,

tried hard to chip away at U.S. relations with Cuba, and Democrats have described this latest designation as blatantly political. It is blatantly political. The move will put in place hard sanctions barring travel

and transfers of money between the two countries, which could have a huge impact on Cubans who depend on income from their American family members. So really great job, Miami, voting for Trump. Mm, yep. Patriots coach Bill Belichick has announced

he won't accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an honor that was complicated by the fact that the guy giving it is in presidential timeout for telling the nation to destroy itself. Belichick has led the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins and is a longtime friend of Trump's and a Mar-a-Lago regular. Had he accepted the medal, he probably would have gotten it in private

since Trump has forgone the ceremonies normally held for honorees ever since he lost the election. See, no one is allowed to celebrate until he gets his rightful title of America's most special little boy. Many called on Belichick to refuse the award after news of its offer broke on Sunday. And late last night, he made a statement saying

he would pass, citing the attack on the Capitol as the reason why. It's kind of surprising since Belichick is known for overlooking ethical concerns in pursuit of a big trophy. Badum ching Belichick. Of the 25 medals of freedom Trump has given or announced 15 have been for people from the world

of pro sports, suggesting a strategy that's been honed by countless guys trying to make conversation with their girlfriend's dad. Oh, man, that's too real. Well, actress Cate Blanchett is living through every homeowner's worst nightmare. Can't renovate due to bats. The two-time Oscar winner has lived for years in a $7 million mansion in East Sussex, England, but her plan to build a garden office and meditation room on the property was derailed when surveyors discovered a colony of rare bats living there.

The common pipistrelle bats and brown long-eared bats that are Blanchette's roommates are both protected species, so the dilapidated buildings where they roost can't be demolished without permission from wildlife officials. Some people would have called the plan off after witnessing the awesome destructive power of bats last year, but Blanchette persisted.

As of this week, she has the permission she needs to proceed with the renovations, provided that she finds the animals she displaces a new home. In other words, the actress will face her most challenging performance yet in the role of real estate agent for bats. Blanchette is still required to incorporate a special bat box or bat loft into her new building. It's seeming very likely at this point that a relaxed British bat wrote these laws.

And honestly, like, this is why we have COVID, because people won't just stop encroaching on animals' land. The new variant is in Cate Blanchett's house, I'm sorry to say. Oh, God. Well, those are the headlines. That is all for today. If you liked the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, be kind to your bat roommates, and tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading and not just wholesome hashtags on Peloton like me, well, today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And obey local bat laws. All right, if the bat signal's not on, you can't talk to them. Leave them alone.

That's how it is. I mean, there's some differences in certain jurisdictions, but that's the basic law. You got to follow it. Right. Their office hours are from from dusk till dawn. are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.