What A Day - London’s Burning (Uber’s License)

Episode Date: November 26, 2019

A judge rules that White House lawyer Don McGahn must testify to congress despite Trump's efforts to block him. Impeachment: Season 2 is gonna be good. The city of London is taking away Uber’s license to operate in London. Looks like you’re gonna have to take the Tube. And in headlines: SHS on the campaign trail, a good day for animals, and the intense, destructive power of Cameo.

It's Tuesday, November 26th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, the double-stuffed Oreo of daily news podcasts. Oreo, please sponsor us. It's a podcast. No one's even going to know if we have Oreos in our teeth. Like, do it. On today's show, an impeachment progress report and Uber gets booted out of London. Then, some headlines. Impeachment season two was confirmed yesterday, and we can't wait to binge watch more riveting testimony. A federal judge ruled on Monday that White House lawyer Don McGahn must testify to the impeachment investigators in the House despite efforts from the White House to block him and others from cooperating.

So Democrats may hear from McGahn, which could prove crucial to exploring Trump's possible obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation. You remember that one? And this could have implications for other people who have been dragging their feet in the more recent Ukraine matter, like former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has delayed testifying until a court weighed in on something like this. feet in the more recent Ukraine matter, like former National Security Advisor John Bolton,

who has delayed testifying until a court weighed in on something like this. Yeah, but obviously the White House is likely to appeal this, which could kick the McGahn can down the road. White House lawyers have argued that McGahn and some others are protected from testifying because they could reveal information protected under executive privilege. Now, McGahn, our listeners might remember, was a crucial witness in the Mueller investigation, telling Mueller's team that Trump had ordered McGahn to fire Mueller and that the day after that was reported in the news, Trump asked him to write a letter denying that Trump had wanted Mueller fired. Well, Trump never did end up firing him. And here's a clip of Mueller taking questions about that whole ordeal. Your investigation found that President Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to fire

you. Isn't that correct? True. And the president claimed that he wanted to fire you because you had supposed conflicts of interest. Isn't that correct? True. Now, you had no conflicts of interest that required your removal. Isn't that a fact? That's correct. And in fact, Don McGahn advised the president that the asserted conflicts were,

in his words, silly and not real conflicts. Isn't that true? I refer to the report on that episode. I love the way he said silly. Yeah. Silly. Well, this whole legal sitch works itself out. The House impeachment show must go on. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff said on Monday that investigators plan to send a report on Trump to the Judiciary Committee next month when members return from the holidays. A big,

beautiful report card about a beautiful, perfect phone call. Yes, indeed. And Schiff wrote in a letter that obviously this report is going to include information from the multitude of witnesses who testified about a quid pro quo involving Trump withholding military aid from Ukraine before agreeing to a White House meeting and seeking investigations from the newly elected president into the Bidens, but also that the White House's stonewalling of witnesses could be considered for another article of impeachment. Yeah, here's a quote from Schiff's letter. He says, quote, We will catalog the instances of noncompliance with lawful subpoenas

as part of our report to the Judiciary Committee. He went on to say, quote, Such obstruction was the basis of the third article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. Consider yourself warned. Schiff also said that the committees are open to hearing from more witnesses. So the ruling from the judge on the McGahn case could be significant in that regard. And one of the other things that Democrats may have more questions about relates to recent reporting about emails between Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and officials at the Office of Management and Budget

trying to come up with a justification for withholding the Ukraine aid after the fact. So, there were all these emails of them coming up with a rationale for a decision after the deed was done. Seems not good. Right. Well, next week, Schiff's report could come out and the Judiciary Committee could announce public impeachment hearings for December, which is intended to allow them to hear all of the facts and start figuring out the potential articles of impeachment. In the proverbial words of our founding fathers, it's going down for real. Yeah, that felt good. That felt groovy. That worked for me.

Fullerida, read some headlines with us. If you're looking for a ride in London, plan on getting a Hackney, the bus, or figuring out the tube because Uber Technologies has officially lost its license to operate in London. A real bollocks of a situation for Uber, innit? A real heap of rubbish, gov.

There are a bunch of real cheesed-off blokes about this, mate. Oy! Okay, that's enough. I've been told I'm cut off. This is happening because regulators found numerous instances of unauthorized drivers using the app to pick up customers, and they aren't confident that it won't continue happening. Technically, the app can still operate in the city while the company appeals this decision, but man, 2019 has not been a great year for Uber.

It sure hasn't, Gideon. If you thought your 2019 was just a never-ending mishmash of bad news and retrogrades, Uber's requesting that you hold its beer. The tech startup that was once the guiding light for all of Silicon Valley has spent the year going through a revolving door of executives. A pretty crappy initial public offering back in May. Continued criticism of their unwillingness to let their drivers unionize. The pipeline of stories surrounding drivers not passing background checks and doing horrible things. Several fiascos about airport pickup locations in cities across America. Increased criticism of the gig economy, which has taken workers back to

the Stone Age. You know, that's just to name a few. Stop, stop. They're already dead. So in those terms, though, what what are the business implications for Uber here? Yeah, well, London is one of the largest worldwide markets for Uber in the largest market that they have in all of Europe. And so this decision from Transport for London, which regulates taxi and private hire services in the city, you know, the worldwide implications are kind of not great for Uber. If a city as big as London gets rid of Uber, what's that mean for, you know, a place like New York, which has already had strikes and bills about reducing or eliminating the service? You know, what's Uber going to look like in the next decade? I genuinely don't know.

It is seriously a good question. And it seems like one that largely depends on how Uber can somehow make themselves more appealing to investors, riders and drivers. Everybody. Yeah, everybody. Basically, they're starting to be held accountable and the way that they respond will dictate their success in the next decade. Now, Uber could start with ensuring full-time drivers make a living wage and also have basic workplace protections like scheduled breaks for lunch using the restroom, health insurance, and car insurance for when they aren't driving for the app. Yeah, I mean, currently they only have car insurance coverage while they're driving for the app, which is, I guess, great if you get in an accident while you're on the job. But since the car is necessary for the job, you think they'd just pony up the money for

drivers so that they could meet those hourly requirements. Everything you just mentioned was addressed in a bill that passed in California back in September called AB5 that requires these driving apps to treat drivers as employees rather than independent contractors if they're working full-time hours. Companies that thrive in the gig economy like Fiverr, Seamless, Handy, all of them will likely be affected. The law goes into effect on January 1st and would affect an estimated 1 million drivers. Naturally, there's been some pushback from Uber and other gig platforms. You want to explain how those companies are trying to fight back? Oh, yeah. So they launched a campaign called the Protect App-Based Drivers and Services.

For sure, man. The campaign filed paperwork to put a referendum on California's 2020 ballots next November. The ballot measure will ask voters to give ride-hailing companies an exemption to AB5. That's the California law that makes gig workers employees. DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and Postmates have put $110 million in cash into this initiative. They'll be gathering signatures to get it on the ballot. Now, part of what Uber and the other platforms are offering is to up worker pay and benefits a bit, but still less than what the California law would call for.

Yeah, that just seems like a lot of time and money and effort, you know, just to avoid having to treat their contractors as employees. And I get it. Employees are expensive. You know, having employees triggers federal and state tax withholding, anti-discrimination, health care, pension, workers' comp, and unemployment insurance obligations. But by the way, just because you call someone an independent contractor doesn't mean that the IRS, labor departments, and even the ACA sees it that way. So, for example, let's say you work 30 hours a week for Uber and get hurt on the job and you can no longer drive. So you sue Uber for workers comp, and you'd probably have a really

good case to make under current laws. Even if Uber is able to get around this new California bill, it's really just going to put us back where we are now. Anyway, what's Uber's rationale for not wanting to go legit? So their campaign's official stance is that the California bill's protections make the rides less available and more expensive because there will be set shift times, which would completely change the on-demand nature of the services. They go on to blame the law for the company's inability to offer the protections we mentioned for independent contractors. A misdirection that gives them cover to say, if laws surrounding independent contractors give us the ability to give them these benefits, we'd be happy. But since it doesn't, we are being forced to make them employees, which we don't want to do either. So it's a sort of, we'd be better to drivers if we could, but your dumb independent contractor laws make it too hard. Yikes. Well, the London situation is still unfolding. And while things do look grim for

Uber, the company has historically gotten back into cities after they'd been banned. If you get a moment, I would say look up what happened in Austin, Texas, where they similarly overrode a law with a competing ballot initiative. Anyway, we'll continue following the progress of the companies like Uber and their efforts to overcome labor laws in 2020. Pip pip cheerio. And now for some ads. So about a month ago, I got to try out these Third Love bras, because that's a perk of working here. And I tried out two of them.

I gotta say, I wear them all the time. And so I'm excited that I get to tell you more about them. So Third Love, they make bras. And they use data points generated by millions of women who have taken their Fit Finder quiz to design bras with breast size and shape in mind for a perfect fit and premium feel. More sizes than most other brands are offered there. It's kind of like the Fenty makeup foundation of like bras. Yeah, they're including all of us.

I do love it. I don't know that I've gotten necessarily compliments on my boobs, but I'm complimenting them myself. Over 14 million people have taken their quiz to date. It's actually fun. Takes less than a minute to complete. And Third Love knows that there's a perfect bra out there for everyone. So right now they're offering our listeners 15% off your first order. Go to thirdlove.com slash whataday now to find your perfect fitting bra and get another 15% off your first order. Go to thirdlove.com slash whataday now to find your

perfect fitting bra and get another 15% off your first purchase. That's thirdlove.com slash whataday for 15% off. Do it. And now back to the show. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere are at an all-time high. A report released on Monday by an agency within the U.N. measured the levels of gases that cause global warming, and it's not looking great. Greenhouse gases hiked up in 2018, surpassing global averages over the last decade.

The report also says there doesn't seem to be any signs of decline or slowdown. Climate scientists say we have until 2030 to cut current emission levels by half before we'll start to experience things like massive floods, droughts, and heat waves, things that we already have, but imagine them worse. If you want to learn more or want to be part of an initiative that brings light to these issues, check out coveringclimate.org. On a separate note, if you noticed your pet smiling yesterday, it could be because it was a really good day for animals in the old U.S. of A.

Trump signed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, or the PACT Act, which will make animal cruelty a federal crime. It's already outlawed in most places in the U.S., but advocates say that this bill will fill some crucial gaps. And Trump also honored Conan, the hero dog that helped the military track down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi last month. Conan, you're doing amazing, sweetie. Now, there may be a lot of partisan rancor going on down there in the swamp,

but I think we can all agree dogs are angels and spending time with them is like spending time in heaven. All right. Former White House press secretary and dark Sanders, Sarah Huckabee, is back in the news. In a profile in this Sunday's New York Times, Sanders said she's considering a 2022 run for governor of Arkansas, a position that was held by her dad, Mike Huckabee, before he left politics to focus on writing tweets that require a bad jokes degree to interpret. Unfortunately for him, I have one of those. As one of Trump's favorite White House alums, Sanders has a lot of support in Arkansas, a state Trump won in 2016 by nearly 27 points. Speaking of Trump, Sanders made headlines for something she said about him during a

Sunday Fox News interview. She said, quote, he reads more than anybody I know. That's interesting. Does she think that TV is books? I don't know what's worse, that what Sarah said is not true and she's lying. Or, you know, if it is true and all our friends are approximately nine. Sarah, get some literate friends. You have now yeah come on um sad news to report here very sad the internet is now a place where your girlfriend can pay mark mcgrath from sugar ray or anthony scaramucci from the white house to break up with you via selfie video here's mark so cheyenne is

trying to let you know brayden that it's very very tough for her to stay in this relationship Here's Mark. He sounds scarily like Ethan Hawke. And here's the mooch uh brayden cheyenne means the world to you but she cannot stay in this long distance relationship and she wants you to know that you're always going to be friends and she wishes you unbelievably good luck with your thesis wow scaramucci was even worse like i know this is a fake couple but to say cheyenne you really care about Cheyenne. Also, she's dumping you. That's not what was written clearly.

Did not read the notes carefully enough. Mr. Mooch. We can thank Twitter user Sean Appalled for producing these clips, which really do feature Mark and Anthony, and which he made using a grim post-apocalyptic app called Cameo. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, give us a rating, break up with us via a cameo from Fat Joe, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you are into reading more than anyone that Sarah Huckabee Sanders knows,

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 why your pets are smiling today. That parakeet has a devilish grin. Leave his face. 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.