What A Day - Kevin Knows I'm Miserable Now

Episode Date: October 4, 2023

In an unprecedented move led by far-right Republicans, Kevin McCarthy was voted out of his job as Speaker of the House. He later said he would not seek the position again, leaving the House GOP fractured and scrambling to find a new leader for their slim majority. The Supreme Court heard arguments in a major case against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The fate of the agency, which was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, is on the line – though the justices appeared skeptical of the argument brought by payday lenders. And in headlines: Donald Trump was hit with a gag order in his civil fraud trial, Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones filed a federal lawsuit against leaders of the state’s House of Representatives, and the entire run of “Mean Girls” is now on TikTok. Show Notes:Sixth & I: Roxane Gay in conversation with Juanita Tolliver – https://www.sixthandi.org/event/roxane-gay/What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday 

It's Wednesday, October 4th. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Juanita Tolliver and this is What A Day, where we would like a word with whoever started the shrugging Kevin James meme. Yeah, we gotta know, why do you have so many photos of Kevin James on your phone? It's a little weird. I'm just being real, I have no idea who this man is. Kevin James is the first time I'm hearing that name. Sorry to this man. Sorry to this man. Sorry to this man. On today's show, Donald Trump has been hit with a gag order in his civil fraud trial for doxing a court clerk. Plus, get in losers. There is another way to watch Mean Girls.

But first. The office of Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant. October 3rd is no longer just Mean Girls Day. It's also the day now former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy got the boot after he told Florida man Representative Matt Gaetz to, quote, bring it on. And it was also exactly nine months to the day that the many rounds of voting started that eventually put McCarthy into the role. So wild start, wild finish, you know, just poetic, really. So set the scene on the House floor for us. How did this go down? In a word, shambles. The House Republican conference was in pure shambles as they spent hours bashing each other in debate, which included Matt Gaetz speaking from Democratic microphones

because McCarthy and his allies blocked him from the GOP side. Great. And in the end, eight Republicans voted to oust McCarthy. It's like they wanted to turn back time all the way to January 2023 when the GOP took 15 separate votes to pick a speaker in the first place. Meanwhile, prior to the vote, the entire What A Day team was chanting this right along with Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost. I love that song. Beat is tight. Every bit of it. That's not even the one I'm familiar with. Wow. You said remix.

Yeah. Learning so much. Anyways, back to Kevin McCarthy. How did we even get to this point? Give us the backstory here. Plain and simple. McCarthy brought us here. He's the one who empowered every single member of the GOP House conference when he negotiated away every bit of his power back in January. He's the one who encouraged their antics during the debt limit fight, the sham impeachment investigation and the government funding fight just last week. And when I say he negotiated away his power, I am not exaggerating. In an effort to become Speaker of the House, McCarthy agreed that it would only take one Republican member to call

for a motion to vacate, which made it ridiculously easy to fire him, just like Republicans did yesterday. So what were Democrats up to while the Republican House conference was busy tearing itself apart? It was a classic split screen situation, because while this was going on, Senate Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris swore in now Senator LaFonza Butler as the third black woman to serve in the upper chamber, you know, making some casual history. And on the House side, Democrats stayed completely united in this mess. They made it clear that they would not be the ones to help McCarthy. And the best summarization of that position came from progressive caucus chair, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. Take a listen. Just let Republicans deal with their own problems.

I mean, they can let them wallow in their pigsty of incompetence and inability to govern. This is a Republican problem. They supposedly have the majority. They should be able to pick their own speaker. Our speaker is Hakeem Jeffries. She said wallow in your pig style of incompetence like I'm here for it. Representative Jayapal went on to add this to nobody trust Kevin McCarthy. And why should we? He has broken his commitment over and over again. And it's not just the deal with President Biden. It's not just the Ukraine funding, which apparently was also a deal, but then it wasn't a deal on, you know,

unless we secure the border. It's also going back to January 6th. And I think for a lot of us, we were here. It is still deeply emotional for us because it is about our country. It's about why we came to Congress. Yeah, they have absolutely no reason to trust this snake of man. So I'm glad that they did not do anything to help him out here in a situation of their own making. You know,

Republicans made this chaos and they have to live with it. Right. Be responsible to the American people for it. I didn't detect a single lie in what Representative Jayapal said. And politically, this makes 100 percent sense because getting McCarthy out was the move for Democrats as they wanted to emphasize all of the chaos and all of the disruptions that come when Republicans are elected and when they hold the majority in the House. So you better believe that all that footage from yesterday will be all over ads in 2024. Absolutely, as it should be. So what happens next? Where do Republicans go from here? Once again, Republicans have brought Congress into uncharted territory. And in terms of next steps, McCarthy's emergency contact, Representative Patrick McHenry, will step in as Speaker pro temp to handle votes for a new speaker and implement House rules and

apparently ask Nancy Pelosi to vacate her hidden office because his petty knows no bounds. And Kevin McCarthy made a statement to the Republican conference that he will not attempt to run for speaker in the House again. So homie is done, done, done. Like, done. And as he should be. He's lost that vote enough times.

Like, you probably should have thrown in the towel 10 times ago, but sure. And considering that Gates didn't do any intentional planning or give this any forethought, the Republican conference has no clear succession plan. So get ready for them to go around and around in circles next Wednesday when they hold elections to choose the next speaker, because there are no clear alternatives within their conference who at this moment have nearly unanimous support to become the next speaker. I mean, I've heard some whispers about Steve Scalise, but we have no idea if he has near unanimous support right now. And of course, that's horrible news for things that have to get done, like government funding, which is set to run out again in about 40 days. So we're not even

back to where we started on government funding. We're worse off than we were last week. Got it. Okay. To wrap that up, Republicans, totally rudderless, utterly unprepared to lead the country at no plan at all and completely disorganized. So that just is how they're doing this, ladies and gents listening to this from home. Anyways, thank you, Juanita, for that update. Very helpful.

Switching now to some news from elsewhere in Washington, the Supreme Court, as we told you earlier this week, started their new term. And to kick things off yesterday, they heard arguments in a major case against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Yeah, I feel like anyone coming for the CFPB is bad news. So before we get into the case, can you walk us through what the CFPB does? Yes. So the CFPB was created in 2011 after the 2008 financial crisis in order to protect consumers. It's very aptly named. It was proposed and led originally by now Senator Elizabeth Warren with the goal of protecting people from predatory or dishonest practices by banks and other financial institutions,

and also to serve as the central agency overseeing consumer protection. Previously, that wasn't the main focus or area of authority of any federal agency. So they kind of were created to step up and fill that role. It has regulatory authority over banks, security firms, credit unions, debt collectors, and other companies in the financial sector that operate in the US. So it so it's really important work. But not everybody is happy with them. Turns out that taking advantage of lowly consumers like us is pretty profitable business-wise, so people not so thrilled. This case against the CFPB was brought by perhaps the worst of them all, payday lenders, which basically make money off of people who need short-term loans of

relatively small amounts usually by charging them really egregious fees and interest. Yeah, you'll probably recognize this on some of those apps that are like, hey, you want to get paid now or you want to transfer that money now? Here's like a 10% fee, right? Like that's what we're talking about. And these systems thrive off of people living paycheck to paycheck, which is wild at this moment with the economy that we have right now. So it's clearly a problem. It's another trademark of capitalism that we need to deal with. Totally. The main goal of these payday lenders is to exploit poor people. So obviously the CFPB is not okay with that. They're trying to protect consumers,

especially the poor ones in our community. So anyways, the lenders here challenged a rule by the CFPB that limited some of their ability to do these exploitative practices and charge these fees. And they have actually lost repeatedly in their previous attempts to challenge the rule in court. But through one federal appeals court, the Fifth Circuit, which you might know out of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, they were able to get a ruling in their favor that said that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is unconstitutional. Stick with me here. It's a little complex, but I'll walk you through their argument. Basically, they're saying that because the CFPB gets money from the Federal Reserve, which is funded by bank fees, banks are the same institutions that are being regulated by the CFPB,

they're saying that's not okay. They argue that the agency should be funded through annual appropriations by Congress. And the fact that it's not, they say, is unconstitutional. All right. So walk us through some of the potential consequences of a decision against the CFPB here. Yeah. So if the court sides with the payday lenders, the consequences could be huge. Not only would it threaten the vital work of a CFPB, it could eliminate the critical regulations that it has established over the last decade plus. Even groups that you might not expect, like mortgage bankers, home builders, and realtors associations, have all kind of come out of the woodwork here to warn that ruling against the CFPB could push the housing market in this country into chaos. A decision like that could also threaten other federal agencies that aren't funded via annual appropriations by Congress,

like the Federal Reserve, or even Social Security and Medicare. So some really huge negative potential consequences here for everybody if the court sides against the CFPB. Yeah, and looking at the right-leaning constitution of the current Supreme Court, I'm not getting my hopes up because we know they love to throw out precedent and make decisions that are horrible for regular people. They do. But how did the justices respond to the arguments yesterday? For once, it's always surprising when something goes our way. The justices actually seem pretty skeptical about this idea that the CFPB is funded unconstitutionally.

Even Justices Kavanaugh and Thomas were not seeming to buy it. The ultimate ruling here isn't out until June of next year, so we won't see an official end to this for a little while. But for now, we can be maybe perhaps cautiously optimistic or maybe just not completely terrified that we will be losing these protections. Maybe just won't freak out quite yet. Anyways, we will continue to follow this. Maybe just won't freak out quite yet. Anyways, we will continue to follow this case and the rest of the ones that the Supreme Court is hearing. But that is the latest for now. We'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. in a social media post. That means that everybody involved in the case is barred from posting or speaking publicly

about court staff, which honestly, probably a great idea. Judge Arthur Engeron issued the order after the former president posted a photo of the clerk with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, claiming she was, quote, Schumer's girlfriend and even linked to an Instagram account, apparently connected to her.

This is the former president of the United States with millions and millions of rabid, crazy fans. That's not great. The post was then recirculated a few minutes later in a Trump campaign fundraising email. So not just on Truth Social here, just go into millions more. The original post was later deleted after Judge Engeron ordered it taken down. He even said in the courtroom, quote, personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances. Earlier this year, the judge overseeing the separate criminal case against him in Manhattan issued a protective order,

which bars Trump from getting any information about who works for D.A. Alvin Bragg until a jury is seated for that case. And in another New York City courtroom, in a separate financial crimes trial, jury selection started yesterday in the fraud trial of Sam Bankman Freed, the founder of now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He's accused of misleading investors and lenders and stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers to bankroll his hedge fund, purchase real estate, and make big political contributions. Prosecutors have called it one of the largest financial fraud cases in U.S. history, and that's a hell of a lot of stealing after someone like Bernie Madoff set records. Yeah, seriously. Jury selection will continue today today and both sides are also expected

to give opening arguments. If convicted on all the counts against him, Bankman-Free could face more than 100 years in prison. The trial is expected to last up to six weeks. Yeah, I mean, between this man, Donald Trump, the New York's courtrooms are booked and busy. Hot mess. A member of the Tennessee Three

has filed a federal lawsuit against the leaders of the state's House of Representatives. Justin Jones, who represents the Nashville area, says that his constitutional right to free speech was violated earlier House floor back in April, and he and Representative Justin Pearson were later expelled from the chamber over it, drawing heavy backlash across the country. He and Pearson were eventually reappointed and reelected during a special election, but in August, Jones was censored by Republicans again during a special legislative session about gun violence. As part of the damages Jones is seeking, he wants to be reinstated to his old committee assignments and have his other pre-expulsion benefits restored. As obviously should have happened already. Like, it makes a lot of sense that if it didn't happen,

yeah, I would be pissed too. If you're still mourning the old days of paying $9.99 a month for Netflix or mooching off your friend's mom's account with their password, we've got another reason for you to grieve. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Netflix plans to raise the subscription price of its ad-free service again once the Hollywood actor strike ends.

Like, they want us to pay for these new residual fees and stuff. Like, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Yeah. It's unclear exactly how much the price hike will be, but Netflix has been on this track for a bit. Remember that the streaming service cracked down on password sharing earlier this year and tacked on an extra $7.99 per month just to share your account with someone outside your household.

And since this is reportedly tied to whenever a new labor deal is inked with actors, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing them, will go back to the bargaining table with the studios later today. Jeez, okay, Netflix, how much do you think we are willing to pay for another season of Love is Blind? Y'all finna get canceled.

Yeah. Look, after The Crown drops, the final season of The Crown, cut. I'm out. Cut. Done. Donezo.

And finally, it is Wednesday. We are wearing pink and also here to tell you that Paramount Pictures uploaded the entire run of Mean Girls to TikTok for free. The company posted the film in 23 parts to the short form video platform on Tuesday, October 3rd. Naturally, if you know, you know why this date is significant. And if you haven't seen this 2004 gem, you can scroll through it three minutes at a time right from your phone. And while this is the first movie that has gone up on TikTok, I'm pretty sure it is by, you know, posted by Paramount. Like normally it's just

random TikTok users doing this. The move is drawing criticism from screenwriters who are voting this week to ratify their new contract with the major studios. One of their chief demands was to revamp how writers get residual pay when their shows or movies are watched repeatedly on streaming platforms. That was ultimately met under the tentative agreement that they recently reached, but some writers are saying that posting an entire movie to TikTok could be a way for studios to avoid paying writers while still profiting off of their work. For what it's worth, the Mean Girls TikTok account has already racked up hundreds of thousands of views collectively. All right, Paramount, you got to

stop trying to make fetch happen here and pay these writers. If you're going to put shit on TikTok that was written by writers better make sure they are getting paid for that yeah pay the writers also justice for gretchen wiener fetch should have happened just the way fugly did i think they're equal par they're good they're good but also i feel like i can hear the lawyers already responding to the writers being like well tikt TikTok is not a streaming platform or some other type of BS like that, you know? No, no. Blow it up. Get what you need. Blow it up if you don't. And those are the headlines. A couple of things before we go.

This week's episode of Pod Save the People is all about overdue justice from the long-awaited arrest in the killing of Tupac Shakur to the appointment of LaFonza Butler to the U.S. Senate. Plus, you'll hear authors Roger A. Mitchell Jr. and J.D. Aronson talk about their new book, Death in Custody, how America ignores the truth and what we can do about it. Tune in to Pod Save the People every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to pencil in me and author Roxane Gay

for a fancy chat about her new book, Opinions, on Thursday, October 12th at 7 p.m. Eastern. I know I'm freaking out. This is so cool. Oh, my God. Super excited to talk to her. And if you're part of the DC area WOD squad, I'd love to meet you in person at 6th and I. And of course, Roxane will be there, too. But, you know, come see me.

And if you're not in the area, don't worry. Everyone can join the event virtually. So get your tickets today at 6thandI.org slash event, and we'll drop the full link in our show notes. I really hope to see y'all there. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, apply to the newest job opening in the House of Representatives, check the LinkedIn on that one. And tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just the Netflix terms of service like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter.

Check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe. I'm Juanita Tolliver. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And justice for Gretchen Wiener. Just so y'all know, I said Gretchen Whitmer earlier, but definitely justice for Gretchen Wiener. Just so y'all know, I said Gretchen Whitmer earlier, but definitely justice for Gretchen Wiener. Wait, Juanita, it's Gretchen Wieners with an S. I didn't want to correct you earlier, but it is.

But it is. You got to call that stuff. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producer is Itzy Quintanilla. Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers.

And our senior producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. you