What A Day - Keep Calm And Harrison

Episode Date: October 7, 2020

Trump said yesterday he won't negotiate with Democrats on another Covid relief before the election. He sent a torrent of other tweets too, all while more people in D.C. continued to test positive, including Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller and General Mark Milley.Former South Carolina Democratic party chair Jaime Harrison is tied with Senator Lindsey Graham in a tight senate race according to recent polling. We talk to Harrison about his campaign, his vision for South Carolina, the Supreme Court, and more. And in headlines: the FDA announced its guidelines for vaccines, 4 million people have already voted in the US, and Cole Haan debuts Slack shoes.Show Links:votesaveamerica.com/getmitchcrooked.com/debate

It's Wednesday, October 7th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we are announcing our plan to put a plexiglass barrier around the entire White House. Yeah, out of an abundance of caution, a hundred few sheets of plexiglass is the least we could do. Yeah, if you can please social distance from the White House by a thousand feet, that is actually the public health recommendation we're getting. On today's show, a conversation with Jamie Harrison on his race to unseat Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, then some headlines. But first, the latest. It cannot be that after all this country has been through, after all that America has accomplished, after all the years we have stood as a beacon of light

to the world, it cannot be that here and now in 2020, we will allow the government of the people, by the people and for the people to perish on this earth. That was Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden giving a speech in Gettysburg yesterday as he continues to campaign in key states across the country. He also talked about how tackling the pandemic is not a red state or blue state issue, which co-signed. Meanwhile, in D.C., President Trump, still back at the White House, tweeted that he was, quote, feeling great and wanted to participate in the next planned presidential debate on October 15th. Biden responded that the debate shouldn't take place if Trump is still positive at that point. I mean, yeah. Yeah. One of Trump's other posts from yesterday in which he claimed again that the flu was deadlier than COVID-19 was taken down by

Facebook due to a violation of sharing misinformation. And the number of positive cases in and around Trump and the Capitol continues to rise. That is right. Yesterday, Trump's advisor, Stephen Miller, also was confirmed to have tested positive. General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as other top U.S. military leaders are reportedly quarantining after a top Coast Guard official tested positive. That's according to a Defense Department official.

There are so many cases being identified, it is hard to truly scratch the surface. A lot of reporters were talking about how the Capitol and the White House felt like ghost towns with no one really working there. And there were pictures circulating of a cleanup crew in full protective gear sanitizing the press area, looking like characters in Arrival kind of. The outbreak has even become a broader cause for concern throughout the rest of Washington, D.C. And then in addition to all of this, Trump tweeted yesterday that he will no longer negotiate with Democrats on any further economic relief bill prior to the election,

and that the economy is, quote, doing very well. But Trump's tweet came just hours after the Fed Chair Jerome Powell once again said that more stimulus is needed to assist the economic recovery and avoid, quote, tragic economic consequences. Following Trump's tweet, the stock markets fell. And later in the day, he put out another tweet among a torrent of others that seemed to undercut his first one about the stimulus. So another day in paradise. Yeah, we love to get conflicting information from him all day long. Well, we should also mention that Biden again tested negative for COVID yesterday. And Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence are going forward with their debate tonight because nothing makes sense. If you want to watch along with us, head over to crooked.com slash debate.

And if you don't want to watch, I understand we'll have a recap for you tomorrow. But moving on to another election, the South Carolina Senate race where Jamie Harrison, who is the former state Democratic Party chair and the first black man to hold that position, is running against Lindsey Graham. According to a recent poll, Harrison and Graham are tied. A loss for Graham would be a huge upset in a state that usually goes red. And there's a lot at stake. Harrison hopes to help Democrats take back the Senate so they can pass additional coronavirus relief legislation and so that he can personally kick Lindsey Graham off of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Graham chairs and is currently using to rush Amy Coney Barrett onto the Supreme Court. Gideon and I spoke to Harrison yesterday about his race, his vision for South Carolina,

the court, and everything else in the news. So here's our conversation. Jamie Harrison, thank you so much for being on the show today. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, it's our pleasure. So I want to just get into it. If you win this November, what do you hope to win? When? What do you hope to do first in the Senate? And what would it mean, you know, at this current moment to defeat Senator Graham as we approach these Supreme Court hearings that he's going to be in charge of? Yeah, well, you know, listen, I think it would be a tremendous statement for South Carolina. When you think about it, South Carolina was the first

state to secede from the union. Right. And then we will become the very first state with two African-American senators serving at the same time. And the seat that I am vying for is the seat of Strom Thurmond. It was the seat of John C. Calhoun. It was the seat of a man called Ben Pitchford Tillman, who would go to the floor of the U.S. Senate and talk about the joys of lynching of Black folks. And so that's the weight that this carries and the significance. And what it'll mean is that, you know, we'll close the book on what I call the old South and start a brand new book called The New South, one that is bold and inclusive and diverse. And I think Lindsey is a relic of that old South. You know, he mostly thinks that South Carolina had, you know, the good old days were behind us. I believe that the good days are ahead of us. And so when I go to the U.S. Senate, what I want to do is figure out how we

get move South Carolina from the top of all of the bad lists to get her to the top of all of the good lists. And so we've rolled out what I call my rural hope agenda. And it's an agenda to rebuild and revitalize rural communities in South Carolina, because part of the reason why we're being drugged down as a state is because our rural communities have had historical disparities in health care and education, lack of infrastructure and economic opportunities. And so we have this five part plan to address many of those inequities and disparities faced in those communities. And I believe that if we can do that, then, you know, the sky's the limit for where we can go and what we can be. And I want to ask about some of the stuff that's gone on in this race specifically. So one of the

things that Senator Graham and Republicans have been doing throughout the year, I think, is attempting to link you and Biden to the, you know, quote, radical left, which is a phrase that's that's thrown around so often. So the thing that always comes up for me is, are voters in the state actually leery of progressive Democrats? How do you talk to them about that terminology? And does it does it ever come up in conversations? Well, see, the thing is, I don't spend much of my time talking about other folks. I talk about my values. And it's important, I think, for all of us to demonstrate and speak to the people individually about who we are. So, you know, Lindsey Graham likes to play this boogeyman politics and where, you know, he thinks, well, I'm going to say liberal and I'm going to say this and Hillary Clinton, like, Ooh, you know, Hillary Clinton, right. It's like saying Mufasa or something. Right. Uh, you know, he thinks that's going to be enough to scare people because that was the're fed up because in the end of the day, it was like, dude, what are you bringing home?

What have you done for us? That old adage from Tip O'Neill that all politics are local is that's true. Like, what are you doing? You haven't done an in-person town hall in South Carolina in three years. But if I flip on my TV tonight, I see you right there with Sean Hannity. It tells me what your values are. How are you addressing the fact that 38 percent of the rural communities in South Carolina don't have broadband? Is that an issue of Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton? No, because they don't represent us. You do, dude. So what are you doing to bring it back?

So what I do all the time is I drill it right back. Are you doing your job? We have paid you over five million dollars in your tenure in the United States Senate. Are you doing your job? We have paid you over $5 million in your tenure in the United States Senate. Are you doing your job for us? Are you making or earning the money that we are paying you? And the answer is no. And so you will see in our next debate, just like the first debate, he won't defend his record because it's indefensible. He just hasn't done a good job. And so he may want to talk about Pelosi and AOC and everybody else. That is all noise. Because at the end of the day, it was Lindsey Graham who stood up and said, over our

dead bodies will we allow an extension of the unemployment benefit when 750,000 people in South Carolina are now unemployed. That wasn't Pelosi. That wasn't AOC. That wasn't Jamie. That was Lindsey Graham, the senator from South Carolina. And so I'm going to do what he said. Use my words against me. I'm using them, Senator. And there you go. Eat that pie. Absolutely. Yes. Well, you know, this is a great time to talk about the Supreme Court confirmation process. Lindsey Graham said it's definitely going to move forward next week, despite senators who have tested positive for covid. But in any case, what do you hope senators are going to ask Judge Barrett about in the hearings?

You know, is there anything in particular that you feel South Carolinians really want? Yeah. You know, even before we get to the hearings, I just want to know why the urgency, why not the urgency in another bill for to address COVID? The PPP dollar program has expired. The unemployment benefit has expired. But there is no urgency, none to address that. But oh, my God, you know, we got to get the Supreme Court thing done before everything blows up. No, people people are dying right now. Businesses are shuddering for good. Yeah. Where is the urgency now as it relates to Judge Barrett? Listen, you know, my big thing is when I'm in the U.S. Senate, I'm going to give everybody a thorough consideration because that's what the Constitution says that I have to do.

I'm going to listen to everybody. But for me, the litmus is, are you going to roll back the civil rights of folks? Right. That's my big thing. And so that's the real important thing to me. And I think that's my big metric. Yeah, for sure. And I think, you know, on that relief bill, you know, we did hear that Trump doesn't want to even try to get a deal done before Election Day. You know, what's your reaction to that? And, you know, what do you think that Democrats can do to still try to push for this? Because, like you said, while we're waiting in the balance, you know, we're waiting in the balance. So someone's got to address this. Well, I think the big thing is that ultimately the American people are just going to have to speak. I mean, there's nothing that House, they have passed yet another bill after, you know, five months after the heroes act. And so in the end of the day, I think the American people through

their votes will just have to speak out and say, you know what, we're done with this. We're done with the kicking the can down the road. We're done with you all not prioritizing our lives and our livelihoods. And now we're going to usher in new leadership to do just that. And switching back to the Supreme Court quickly, you know, we talked about things that could be coming up. But earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Republicans in South Carolina to reinstate that witness signature requirement for mail-in ballots. What do you make of that decision and it coming so close to Election Day now? Well, one, I think even to push this to the Supreme Court demonstrated feckless leadership.

You know, we sent our sons and daughters overseas to fight for democracy, for our nation nation to protect our democracy and fight for democracy in other nations, for other folks to get the right to vote. But why in the world do we find every little mechanism that we can to prohibit people from voting in this country? It just doesn't make any sense to me. And so one of the things that I'm going to do when I get to Washington, D.C. as a United States senator, I'm going to tackle, I'm going to grab the bull by the horn as it relates to voting, because I believe that the greatest right we have as American citizens is our right to go and express our thoughts at the ballot box. And anybody that infringes upon that of any party or any position needs to be dealt with sufficiently. And that means severe criminal

penalties for any political, using political means in order to suppress voters from voting. That means purging people from voting rolls. That means setting up unnecessary roadblocks to prohibit people from voting. Some folks, as my grandma used to say, some folks need to just go to jail for a little bit so that they understand the severity of the situation. You don't take anybody's right to vote away because you can't. You don't have that power to do that. And we have to demonstrate that. And I'm going to make sure. One of the things that I work on is getting that John Lewis Voting Rights Act up. But we're going to add some additional teeth to that Voting Rights Act to make sure that we make we criminalize and send some secretaries of state to jail a little bit so that they understand the power of the right to vote.

Well, Jamie, we really appreciate you taking the time. We know you're busy. Wishing you all the luck in the world. And thanks again for talking to us. Thank you so much for having me. That was South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Jamie Harrison. If you want to donate to his race, as well as other competitive Senate races this year, head over to votesaveamerica.com slash getmitch.

And that's the latest. It's Wednesday WOD Squad. And for today's Tim Check, we're talking about two major sets of honors announced yesterday, the first of the Nobel Prize winners and the MacArthur Genius Grant winners. So far, the Nobel winners are the doctors who discovered the hepatitis C virus and a group of physicists for their work on black holes. Among the 21 MacArthur fellows were speculative fiction writer N.K. Jemisin and cultural theorist and poet Fred Moten. So, giddy. The MacArthur Genius Grant is $625,000 to do whatever art or science or work you want. If you got that money, what is one project you'd spend it on?

Okay, so this is maybe a strange idea, but I would want to create a database for every person who's written something online or for like other print publications to be able to find their work, to be able to show people in the future. Because let's say if you work at like a website that a vicious billionaire decides to just like arbitrarily shut down and then you don't have access to your work, it would really suck when you go and look for another job. So someplace kind of like a JSTOR type thing that would make it like searchable based on names where you could just see all of your clips. And like the next time you have to show it to an employer, you don't have to like try to get into an old work email or something or talk to somebody at a place that no longer exists. Honestly, Gideon, you're a MacArthur genius. That is a great idea. It makes all of that stuff easier. And for people who are looking for jobs or looking to change careers,

I'm sure that that would be a helpful thing. So that's really nice of you, yeah. I hope that this doesn't already exist and we discover it when we stop recording. But that would just be something. It also could apply to other works and things like that, videos, et cetera. Um, but same question for you, Akilah, you are given the $625,000. What are you doing? All right. So I had this idea a long time ago. So when winter starts creeping up and it's really dark in your house and if you, you know, live in Brooklyn or somewhere else, maybe you're railroaded in and you don't have a lot of light, there's got to be some way to harness the sun, pull it into those

dark corners. And so I would invest in technology that gave you the actual sunlight within your house. It's not just like outside. It's literally just pulling the sun into the house. And if not, you know, if I have a little bit of money left over, I have a real passion for quiet vacuum cleaners. I really hate those ones that have a quiet button. I think they should be quiet all the time. And so really it's just, you know, retrofitting those vacuums to make them just quiet all the time. This is a good way in the winter to make yourself and your pets happier because when the sunlight's in there, you're probably feeling better. When the vacuums are quiet, your pets are probably feeling better.

I think it's overall just a huge mood booster, and I co-sign it as well. I give you the MacArthur Genius Grant. Oh, my God. Thank you so much. I've always wanted to be a genius, and now it's official. It's official. Well, just like that, we have checked our temps. Stay safe, stay genius, and we'll be back with another chip check tomorrow let's wrap up with some headlines headlines

the fda announced that it will hold vaccine developers to strict guidelines for emergency use after weeks of resistance from White House officials. The new standards aim to ensure that any approved vaccine is shown to be safe and effective for use by the public. One provision blocks developers from getting approval on their drugs until two months from the date that clinical trial participants receive their final dose. That was formerly a huge point of contention for the Trump administration, which was way too eager to get a vaccine out before the election. Though the White House might consider the FDA's guidelines to be strict, 60 of the country's top doctors and public health researchers signed a letter yesterday asking the FDA to implement even tougher standards.

But November 3rd, less than a month away, wow, the United States election project says that more than 4 million people across the country have already sent in their ballots. That's nearly 50 times the number of people who voted by this time in 2016. This year's surge was caused by the expansion of early and mail-in voting in many states, something Republicans have used every tool in their voter suppression toolbox to slow down. And Iowa Republicans fought to invalidate over 100,000 absentee ballot requests, which would have required those voters to request a new ballot or not receive one. Luckily, a state judge ruled to block that directive on Monday,

just in time for auditors to start mailing out the ballots. More vote-by-mail news. The state government in Michigan passed a law that will allow clerks to start processing mail ballots for 10 hours one day before the election, which might get us results just a little bit earlier. I'm going to be refreshing those maps. There's a reason why your smart speaker from Apple, Amazon, Google, or Facebook turned itself on yesterday and started faintly whimpering. All four of those companies were accused of using monopoly style tactics in a new House report, which also called for a sweeping new set of laws to keep them in check. Now, lawmakers don't intend to break up

the companies, but they did compare them to railroad tycoons and oil barons. Fun fact, Mark Zuckerberg also got the idea for the news feed from an ancient sludge that was buried deep underground. The results of Congress's 15-month investigation will also provide fresh evidence to state and federal agencies that are also investigating these companies. Members of the House Antitrust Committee were split along party lines on whether Congress should directly intervene to restructure the companies, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans opposing. Cole Hahn said enterprise communication software, but make it fashion, announcing a new sneaker line with our quarantine arch nemesis Slack. The Slack shoes are white with a blue, green, yellow or red True. over Slack, if that appeals to you, good news, because it also applies to anything that's released in the next one to three years. The shoes come out today, so you can finally throw

out your old MSN Instant Messenger branded clogs. Personally, I won't be happy until Slack isn't just my office and my shoes, but also my food, my house, and my darling husband. I'm marrying the apps. Yeah. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, comfort your smart speaker and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just books by MacArthur fellows 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 I love you, darling slack. Love those ping sounds. That knock brush knocks me off my feet, let me tell you. Yeah, slash Giphy love. Beautiful. Send that two times What a day is a production of Crooked Media It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis

Sonia Tan is our assistant producer Our head writer is John Milstein And our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me Our theme music is by Colin Gillileard and Kashaka.