What A Day - Look Julian's Talking

Episode Date: December 3, 2019

We talk to presidential candidate and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro about the way the DNC does primaries, whether the Democratic party needs to refocus on poverty, and how he likes his blueberry pancakes. California Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter has pled guilty to spending campaign funds on very necessary purchases like a rabbit’s plane ticket and five extra-marital affairs. We look ahead at his political future. And in headlines: Trump can’t pick a tariff and stick with it, Sanders sticks up for the Dayton Dragons, and Elon’s tweets come back to haunt him.

It's Tuesday, December 3rd. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, the Mario Kart's Rainbow Road of daily news podcasts. I'm going to run you off the track and into space, Gideon. I'm going to throw a banana peel. On today's show, we interview presidential candidate Julian Castro, and then we'll have some headlines. But first, Duncan Hunter decides to plead guilty. California Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter said on Monday that he now plans to plead guilty to misusing campaign funds,

which is a big reversal after he had previously denied the charges. His father previously represented the district, meaning Hunter has been in the seat for a total of 39 years. Should Hunter resign from his position, he would be the second Republican after New York Representative Chris Collins to resign this year after entering a guilty plea to various charges. Hunter says he has three kids, and those are the three reasons he doesn't want the public trial, hence the guilty plea. Okay, so Hunter initially said he was innocent, but now he's changing his tune.

How did he misuse those campaign funds? Well, so Hunter was indicted in 2018 for using more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for personal expenses, and then was also charged with filing false campaign finance records with the Federal Election Commission. The indictment laid out a lot of instances from 2009 through 2016 in which Hunter and his wife were accused of using that campaign money for tons and tons of things. For example, private school tuition, family vacation, dental work, theater tickets, video games, and even one expense to fly one of Hunter's children's rabbits named Egbert on a plane.

I'm like, not just through the air. For, I think, a $600 fund. Wow. Then the indictment also alleges that they went on to mislabel all of this stuff when they were filing FEC reports. For example, calling family dental bills charitable contributions for smiles for life and allegedly tickets for the family to see Riverdance at the San Diego Civic Theater. That became in the filing San Diego Civic Center for Republican Women Federated slash fundraising. Wow. Okay, so I'm just stuck on the Riverdance thing.

Like imagine wanting to see Riverdance so bad that you use other people's money to go. How much are the tickets at San Diego Civic Center? I can't even tell you. All right. Well, then Hunter, according to federal prosecutors, also was using some of his money for his other affairs. Yes. That is the other big part of the story. And it could be why when Hunter was talking about this on Monday that he didn't want his children to be dragged into this whole process. In 2019 court filings, this is after the

initial indictment in 2018, prosecutors alleged that Hunter had began an affair with a lobbyist years ago, I think shortly after he actually entered Congress, and used campaign money to pay for things like a ski trip for them at a resort in Lake Tahoe. Prosecutors also said that Hunter had five affairs between 2010 and 2016. I'm trying not to laugh. I know. But here's the actually very, very bad part of it, including a member of his own staff as well as a woman who was on staff for another House member.

Ay caramba. So Hunter's lawyers had argued that the case throughout this time had been politically motivated and that he was similarly embroiled in a witch hunt as Trump has called his own legal predicaments. Hunter also at one point appeared to subtly blame his wife for the misuse of the funds. So much class. Yeah.

Saying that she had handled his finances and served as campaign manager. Now, his wife also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with her husband to use the campaign money for personal uses and as part of the deal, agreed to testify against him. Yikes.

I mean, that seems like the least she could do given what you just revealed. Given the circumstances, yeah. Hunter said on Monday that he hopes his wife avoids jail time even if he doesn't. What a sweetheart. Yeah. Lovely. Wow.

That's a lot. Okay. Well, I'm assuming this guy's going to resign because you can't govern from a jail cell. Yeah. I mean, that's what it looks like. Hunter didn't say what his plans were on Monday, but he alluded to that happening and reference that the office could be changing hands in the future. It seems like as clear a sign as any that, you know, this is that's the fate that he's going to face. And he narrowly won reelection in 2018 while the scandal was ongoing, despite the district being very, very Republican.

Yeah. So is there any sense of when we can expect a special election? We don't know yet. But even before the news on Monday and, you know, even before we have a sense of what his immediate plans are, Republicans were already planning to challenge him because of all of these weaknesses that we've talked about. Among them are former Republican Representative Daryl Issa and also Hunter's Democratic opponent, Amar Kampa Najjar, is set to be in the race again. So as we follow the 2020 presidential race, What A Day will also be covering some of these interesting contests for the House and Senate going into next November, and we'll keep you updated on what happens with Duncan Hunter. We are about two months away from the Iowa caucuses, which is 62 days to be exact, and 70 days from the New Hampshire primaries. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has leapt to the front of the pack in polling in Iowa and is also competitive in New Hampshire against former Vice President Joe Biden and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

But Mayor Buttigieg is also struggling in polls among voters of color, while Biden has led in states like South Carolina with a large percentage of African-American voters, even as he trends downward in Iowa. That has set off a conversation about which states and which voters get to choose the Democratic presidential nominee. It's the white ones. It's the white ones. It's the white ones. One of the most vocal critics of that process has been presidential candidate and former housing and urban development secretary Julian Castro, who has said that Democrats can't, quote, complain about Republicans suppressing the votes of people of color and then

begin our nominating contest in two states that hardly have people of color. What he's referring to is that Iowa is about 90% white. New Hampshire is about 93% white, according to the last census in 2010. Castro was focused on issues facing vulnerable Americans like hunger, poverty and policing. But he has been stuck at the bottom of the pack and polling and fundraising. This week, he's in California to talk about homelessness and other issues. And we had him in studio to talk through his approach to the race. One of the things that I asked Castro about is when and how he thought the Democratic Party had lost its focus on poverty. What I want is an America where everyone counts. And what I've said is that somewhere along the way, I mean, I was born in 1974. I'm 45 years old. What happened, I think, especially in the 80s, when Reagan articulated this vision, basically that said that if you're poor, there's something wrong with you. People

will remember the welfare queen example, this idea that people were just taking advantage of the system. I think Democrats got snakebitten. And what that turned into was this singular focus on the middle class. Talked about the middle class, enacted policy for the middle class. And that makes sense in the sense that the middle class traditionally has been the largest group of Americans. You want to make sure that the middle class can thrive. And also, politically, that's where the voters have been. However, who in the world is going to fight for the poor if Democrats don't? Republicans aren't. And somewhere along the way, because we were snakebitten by Reagan and this idea that it wasn't good politics to talk about the poor because

people were blaming them, I think a lot of candidates through the years backed off of that. In this campaign, I haven't been afraid to say that, yeah, I'm going to fight for the middle class, but let's also talk about people who are poor. And they also deserve an opportunity to get a good education, get good health care, have good job opportunities, and yes, to have a safe, decent place to live. And just a couple of days ago, I released a plan to make sure that we eliminate hunger in our country, because I believe that everybody should have the food that they need to survive. Right. And when you say snakebitten, are you sort of describing a fear that has been instilled

from having seen the Democratic Party having seen the success of Reagan? Is that what you mean? Yeah, I think it was caught up in all of the politics of that time. And this idea that you need to appeal to a certain type of voter with a certain type of approach. And that approach did not include speaking up for necessarily or centering, you know, in the language that a lot of people use today, centering the most vulnerable or the poorest Americans. Very different from some of the politics that we saw, for instance, I think of Bobby Kennedy and his poverty tour through Appalachia in the 60s. I think of Lyndon Johnson and the war on poverty. And what happened was that I think we, along the way, Democrats

allowed Republicans to just caricature that as if those initiatives made no difference at all, which is not true, completely inaccurate. It did lift a lot of people out of poverty. It did make lives better. What I've done in this campaign is I'm just trying to break through, just bust through those conventions and say, we can fight for the middle class, but we also need to fight for the least among us, people who have the least in our country. And you've talked a lot about the voters that you want to center at the center, if you will, of this campaign, to throw that center term around again. And that has to do both on the lines of class and on the lines of

region as well. And there's obviously been this conversation about, you know, these early voting states. And one of the things I wanted to post to you is, you know, I think that the dialogue has been from candidates like yourself and others that if somebody is at the front of the pack in Iowa or New Hampshire right now, that doesn't necessarily automatically translate to being able to motivate young voters and people of color that would win a Democrat, a presidential election. Is your concern then for somebody like South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who currently leads the Iowa polls, that he would have difficulty against President Trump? Yeah. What happened in 2016 is that Donald Trump won by about 77,000 votes collectively in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. If you

think about for a Democrat, where you're going to have to drive out votes in those states, in those close of margins to make sure that you win. You think about Michigan, Detroit, the Detroit metro area. Think about Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Pennsylvania, it's Philadelphia in that metro area. And you have large African-American populations in each of those places. And black turnout fell from 2012 to 2016 from 66% to 59.5%. That was a big problem in 2016. We can't make that mistake again in 2020. So if you get a top of the ticket Democrat that can't excite, can't draw out black voters, that is a huge problem because you're allowing Trump to do his same playbook from 2016 and get a narrow electoral victory in these states. It's a valid point that he's raising. When people talk about why Democrats lost in 2016, a lot of the focus is on how they can win back white Midwestern voters. But what

Castro was pointing out is that those narrow losses in those states can be attributed to young voters and voters of color just not being engaged by Democrats, those numbers slipping from the previous election. So the question is sort of how do you design a primary process that reflects all the parts of the base the party needs to win in the general? It's a really tough issue. Yeah. And, you know, do you rearrange the states? Do you start with a different state? Do you, you know, how do you how do you rearrange them if, you know, that's the future? Right, right, right. And I asked Castro how he would address this. And for now, he thinks that the Democratic National Committee should reassess which states vote when based on their

demographics, the cost of campaigning there and how accessible they've made voting. I mean, he acknowledged that it is a difficult question to answer, too. And he also threw out this idea of switching it up every four years. Interesting. Yeah, I mean, it could be a cool thing. And we didn't leave it there with Castro. As a morning show, you know, we have a responsibility to settle some very serious morning issues. Cinnamon toast crunch or frosted flakes, if you have to choose. Cinnamon toast crunch. Yeah, because I like cinnamon. Yeah.

Okay. Waffle or pancake? Pancake. And preferably with like blueberries in it or something in it. I hate it when you go to a restaurant and it says like blueberry pancakes and they just put the blueberries on top of it instead of like cooking them inside the pancakes. That's a totally different experience. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's not. I feel like I'm getting ripped off. That's more of like a French toast vibe, right? Where it's on top instead of in. Yeah. Yeah. And what do you put on a bagel? Just cream cheese. Okay. Great. Well, you passed all the tests. Secretary Castro,

really appreciate you joining. Thank you so much. Thank you. We are planning to have other presidential candidates come through for conversations about issues that are animating the primary. The next Democratic debate is December 19th. We'll see if they have the guts to ask the candidates about breakfast foods. And now for some ads. It's the most wonderful time of the year to go shopping because everyone is having a sale and Nordstrom Rack has you covered on all the holiday gifts. Gideon, what's the worst gift you've ever received? I'm not going to get myself in trouble here.

So I'll just say it is always the thought that counts. Okay, well, luckily Nordstrom Rack has better gifts than whatever you're avoiding saying. Shop their fancy brands at less than fancy brand prices. Right now, the Rack is offering free shipping on orders over $49. Yeah, that's right. Enter code CROOKED at checkout to take $10 off your order of $50 or more. One time use per customer, online only. That's code CROOKED for $10 off your order of $50 or more.

Nordstrom Rack. It's where it's at. Pow, pow. And now, back to the show. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. President Trump tweeted yesterday that he was ordering new tariffs on steel and aluminum from Brazil and Argentina. That's a complete 180 from his original agreement with the two countries last year.

Naturally, the news took leaders from both countries by surprise, and the White House didn't follow up with more detail despite the tariffs being, quote, effective immediately. Just a couple hours after the tweet, Trump's chief trade negotiator also released a proposal suggesting more tariffs, some up to 100%, on French goods like cheese and wine. Trump's changing tariffs faster than I changed the channel during the Cats trailer. Trump's just trying to flex his America First trade policy muscles ahead of next year's impeachment, I mean, election.

You heard that. Speaking of the 2020 election, Montana Governor Steve Bullock and former Congressman Joe Sestak have officially dropped out of the race. Steve and Joe. I'm boys with you guys, so I didn't want to say this, but this is probably for the best. Bullock first got the party's attention as a Democratic governor who won in a state Trump dominated in, but never really caught on. Sestak threw his hat in the race four months ago and struggled to raise over $400,000. My moment has finally arrived. I will now be the president. And in more 2020 news, the Trump campaign announced it will no longer

give press credentials to reporters from Bloomberg News. The campaign accused the organization of having a bias against the president following owner Michael Bloomberg's decision to run for president. Bloomberg News had announced that they would extend their policy of not investigating Bloomberg to his Democratic opponents. We reported on that on the show. But they would continue to investigate Trump. If you're a political reporter at Bloomberg who needs a friend right now, hit us up. You have a friend in WOD.

Extremely Randy Newman voice. Elon Musk goes to court today in a defamation suit brought by Vernon Unsworth, a British diver who helped rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a Thai cave in July 2018. Now, if you remember the details of this story, Musk had put his team to work building a future submarine to assist in the rescue. He was posting a lot about it. This diver who was at the cave said the submarine was stupid and Musk responded by calling the man a pedo guy on Twitter.

To win the lawsuit, Unsworth's lawyers will have to convince the jury that Elon's use of the term pedo or pedo guy was as a statement of fact rather than an insult or opinion. But now you're the jury. Tweet at us with the hashtag FredoGuyThePedoGuy if you think Elon should have free reign to defame heroic rescuers whenever he wants. Please don't tweet that at me, please. Senator Bernie Sanders sat down with the commissioner of Major League Baseball to talk about a recent proposal to change the structure of the minor league system.

The proposal would have eliminated up to 40 minor league teams and transferred the ownership of teams from individual owners to Major League Baseball. Sanders says the plan would cost thousands of jobs and hurt local economies. The talk was successful, and the commissioner decided not to go through with the plan so I can stop worrying about my Florence Freedom and Gideon's Dayton Dragons. Fly on, my sweet winged friends. And those are the headlines. your lunchbox like me, 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 you've got

a friend in one. You've got a friend in one. What A Day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn 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.