What A Day - Mayor Pete’s Buttibump

Episode Date: November 18, 2019

Pete Buttigieg is surging in Iowa, and Michael Bloomberg is kicking off his late-blooming campaign by apologizing for his racist “Stop & Frisk” policy. We discuss this and more in our 2020 primary update. Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed was granted an indefinite stay by the courts last week. We look at the evidence that Reed was falsely convicted, and discuss how his case gained traction. And in headlines: impeachment updates, the case of Lizzo v. Postmates, and a goodbye to Eddie Rispone.

it's monday november 18th i'm akilah hughes i'm gideon resnick and this is what a day the baby yoda of daily news podcasts rattle or no rattle there is no try to rattle oh god was that a Yodan project? On today's show, the latest in the 2020 race, what to expect this week in impeachment news, and an update on death row inmate Rodney Reed. There is yet another Democratic debate coming up on Wednesday night, and we thought it'd be a good time to get everybody up to speed on a few developing storylines in the 2020 presidential race. As a rule, I think we're going to try not to chase polls and horse race stuff daily on here,

but it's good to check in on broader themes and trends as we go forward. Yeah, that's right. So lots of pressing news is happening all the time, and I personally just feel like 2020 is it feels further away than it is. I get that. But I just I haven't been following it that closely. But this is your wheelhouse, Gideon. You've been on the trail before. You're super into this stuff. What should we know? Yeah, I mean, I think from this weekend, I mean, you're right in the fact that it is very far away. We should take everything in stride because, you know, things happen.

Yeah, they change like day to day. But I think the theme of the weekend itself was that the Pete bump, the booty bump is sort of real, at least for now. There was another Des Moines Register poll from Iowa that had the South Bend mayor in first place at 25 percent. And then behind him was, you know, Senator Warren at 16, former Vice President Joe Biden at 15, and Senator Sanders at 15. So he's been kind of steadily climbing up in Iowa. Wow, Pete. Yeah, Pete's really doing it. But I mean, it's, it's still early. Yeah. Like, yeah. Am I wrong about this? Well, it's what November? Yeah, especially it is November, especially, especially for for like this kind of race, right?

We don't exactly ever know what's going to happen with Iowa because it is a unique state. It is a unique caucus process. In the past, you know, we've seen polls around this time leading up to it where they haven't exactly matched the final result. And the theme of this particular primary seems to be that everyone is shopping around all the time. Like people lead in polls and then you look at it more closely and it's like, oh, you know, like a massive percentage of people are still making up their minds. And if you made them a casserole at your Cedar Rapids house, like maybe they would come around to you or something.

Okay, got it. So then why is Pete doing so well right now specifically? Yeah, I think they made a big play for Iowa. I think they realized early on, okay, this guy caught on with media through like a cohesive strategy that we had earlier this year. We've really sort of built him up from basically nothing. And I don't mean that in a like offensive way. Like the guy was a mayor of a place where he won,

I think, less than 10,000 votes to be elected. And then they made this huge financial push there. Yeah, he's in the cover story on GQ this month. Is he really? Well, the story's listed on the cover. He's not the cover star, sorry. Basically the same thing. Me neither, if it makes you feel better. So long as he's not on the cover of yeah well you know he's not the cover star sorry basically the same thing um if it makes you feel better so long as he's not on the cover of vanity fair i think his odds will be okay if he's not in a blue button down on a dirt road it's not too

soon i apologize um but i think the other thing that that his unique success in iowa right now is saying to some of the other candidates, particularly because like when you look at all of the polling for, for mayor Pete, um, that's the place where he's doing the best. And then in a lot of these other polls of other States and other national stuff, you go down the line for minority voters and he is clocking like zero or low

single digits. Yeah. And that's sort of bringing up this conversation from people like, uh, Julian Castro, who frankly doesn't have that much more to lose in this race anymore, like really kind of swinging at the fences at him. Like he was saying, like, you know, it's not a good idea to have somebody lead the party who is not going to be able to win minority voters.

And I think it's an interesting conversation that people are having right now about it. Yeah, definitely a legit combo. But also, I think it's interesting to see the sort of mayor on mayor bashing. And speaking of mayors, kind of want to check in on this, our old friend, our old rich billionaire friend, Michael Bloomberg. El Boombito. Who is apparently for real about this running stuff. So can we talk about the headlines from the weekend? Yeah.

So Bloomberg, after last week sort of thinking about running, maybe filing in a couple of places, toying with it, he went out in Brooklyn, I think, on Sunday and apologized for his stop and frisk policy. That was basically, it wasn't a one-off thing, like let's try it for a year type of thing. It was embedded in his legacy as a mayor of the city. Here's what he had to say about it. I got something important wrong. I got something important really wrong. I didn't understand that back then, the full impact that stops were having on the black and Latino communities. I was totally focused on saving lives. But as we know, good intentions aren't good enough. Well, I mean, the evidence has been sort of clear, at least in the last decade or so that, you know, the this policy, the effects that it was having from the New York Times,

of 575,000 stops conducted in 2009, black and Latino people were nine times as likely as white people to be targeted by the police. Oh, wow. Shocking. Right. In 2011, police officers stopped and questioned about 685,000 New Yorkers. Eighty seven percent of those that were stopped were black or Latino. Who'd have thunk? And a federal district judge ruled that the stop and frisk policy had been carried out in an unconstitutional way in 2013. Yeah, it's just horrible. And it's reflective of his policies in New York. You know, Bloomberg pioneered this form

of aggressive policing that sort of spun off from, you know, Giuliani's broken windows policies, which, you know, basically, you just ask questions later, and you invade people's privacy in space now, you know, in a lot of ways that made him a hero among police officers. But it was very scary being like a black or brown person living in the city at that time. And like, you know, I was around in that time as well. But I do think it's interesting that, you know, he realizes and I think everyone realizes that to win the Democratic nomination, you have to have the support of those communities, black and brown communities. And it's a little cliche, but also like often the case that people, you know, who have done something that's widely deemed as racist or at least carried out in a racist fashion, you know, now they're relying on a black church of people to forgive him so that he can like

have their blessing to continue. And yeah, I just think that for one that feels outdated in 2019, like, yeah, that's not how you're gonna get to the community that was most affected by this. But also, I think that it would be right for black people and you know, any people of color to be skeptical about him as a candidate given his actual record. Well, yeah. And also for Bloomberg, it's difficult to know when and how he's being earnest about what it is that he's saying, because part of why this came off as so nakedly opportunistic to a lot of people is the fact that in March, he said that part of the reason why he wasn't running for president then, and this was literally just this year, was because he didn't want to apologize for things like this and turn it into what he was calling a, quote, apology tour. Because he was saying that the other candidates had been basically almost soft, in a sense, because they were reflecting on their own legacies

and what they themselves had done. Wow. Yikes. Well, like we said up top, we've got another debate coming this week. It's being hosted in Atlanta at Tyler Perry Studios, which means we can probably expect a Madea joke from Amy Klobuchar. Will it land? Let's find out. But what should we all be paying attention to for this specific debate? And I'm asking for a friend, not as somebody who has to watch it and yet does not want to.

Yeah, right. Well, I mean, you know, I think probably a lot of more of the same. But I think that given what we said about Buttigieg above, my guess is that he's going to face a lot of new scrutiny whenever somebody is deemed a front runner in a race, and especially a person like him that hasn't necessarily been the focus of a lot of these sort of attacks between the candidates yet. I think I think there's going to be a lot trained at him. I think there's going to be more on health care again, Medicare for all Senator Warren's plans on Medicare for all. Those are

probably the two main flashpoints for now. But on Wednesday, we'll be covering the debate as always. It's probably the last time that there will be 10 candidates on stage at once. Very sad. Until, of course, our own WOD debate to which all are welcome, including 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful Lincoln Chafee, who really wanted to get the U.S. on board with the metric system. Honestly, I don't agree. I like feet. Okay, so someone's going to cut that part of the podcast to say I like feet. You know what I meant.

I think it's a fine unit of measurement. I don't think that, you know, you don't have to fix it. If I understand it, let it be that. Just cut me off. All right. We'll be back with debate stuff later this week. Okay, now it's time for a quick impeachment news blast. It sounded like an ice machine with a big scooper, like someone's just scooping out the ice. The hotel ice. It's a blast. In Ukraine, of course.

We are now in week two of public hearings. And while Trump continues to bully witnesses via his Twitter account, the hearings are picking up speed with eight, count them, eight witnesses scheduled to testify this week. Only three testified last week. Yes, it all starts on Tuesday. We're going to hear from Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. It's the top Ukraine expert on the White House National Security Council. Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a Europe and Russia special expert on the National Security Council. All-star team. Vindman and Morrison were on the infamous and perfect July 25th phone call that was between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky, in which the whole quid pro quo happened, where Trump tried to get the president to look for dirt on Joe Biden's son. Now, this is the first time that we're going to hear publicly from witnesses

with a firsthand account of that call. Now, that is what Republicans last week were saying that they wanted. We'll see how they respond this week. Oh, I think we know. Wednesday is definitely going to bring another triple header of witnesses. We're going to hear from U.S. ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland. That's like the most highly anticipated testimony. And plus the Defense Department official, Laura Cooper, and State Department official, David Hale. They're also going to be testifying. Yeah. And while they're going to be interesting, I think a lot of people are going to be paying attention to Sondland, a.k.a. the rich guy who gave Trump a million dollars so he could become the ambassador to the EU, a.k.a. the rich guy who gave Trump a million dollars so he could become the ambassador to the EU, a.k.a. the same guy who first testified that there was no quid pro quo, but then later reversed his private testimony to say that there was, in fact, a quid pro quo.

And it was one that he explicitly laid out, a.k.a. the same guy who took a really loud phone call from President Trump at a restaurant that could be overheard by people in close proximity, in which Sondland allegedly told Trump that Zelensky, quote, loves your ass, this is a real thing, and will, quote, do anything you ask of him. Yeah, all right. And then on Thursday, we'll hear from another National Security Council official, Fiona Hill. She's expected to get questions about the Ukraine scandal, which she has described as a, quote, nightmare situation, and what her boss, John Bolton, thought about it. And that was your impeachment news blast.

Last week, we told you about Rodney Reed, a black man on death row in Texas who was scheduled to be executed this Wednesday for a 1996 murder he maintains he did not commit. On Friday, after a groundswell of support to reopen his case, and after his lawyers filed new witness testimonies, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted a stay of his execution, which is to say he will not be executed this week. Yeah, it's rare to get good news in these sorts of cases. So I was actually very shocked to find out that his scheduled execution has been postponed. So in terms of what happens next, the case has to go back to Bastrop County, Texas.

That's where the court will review the claims put forth by Reed and his defense team. This is likely going to take several months because, you know, it's a high profile case now. And it also may result in multiple hearings where they actually do comb through the new evidence and details. The trial court judge is then going to make what are known as conclusions of law. And that's where she decides if she's compelled by the new information. Finally, the case is going to go back to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, who will then have the right to decide the next steps if the evidence is exonerating. You know, that's in their wheelhouse.

Right, right, right. And so just take a step back for a second here. For those of us who aren't necessarily familiar with the details of this case, what are the things that they need to know about? Okay, so I'm going to read through these facts. I don't want to get anything wrong, so bear with me. But here are the details you need to know. This entire case revolves around the murder of Stacey Stites. She's a white woman. She was murdered in 1996. DNA evidence showed that Rodney Reed had sexual contact with her and an all white jury convicted him based on that evidence alone. In this case, you know, as it stands now, has been described as like a real life to kill a mockingbird. So Rodney Reed and his defense have contended like a few important things. So the first is that Reid had a consensual relationship with Stacey Stites, even as she was engaged to Jimmy Fennell, who is a white police officer.

Basically, the same officer was convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman while on duty in 2007. He's been behind bars ever since. The Texas Tribune reported that Officer Fennell was initially questioned in the death of his fiance and was found to be, quote, deceptive on two polygraph tests. In a sworn affidavit, an inmate that was serving time simultaneously to Fennell claims that the former police officer confessed to killing Stacey Stites and often complained about how she was, quote, sleeping with a black man behind his back. This is according to the Statesman, which is a local Austin paper. The Austin Chronicle also reported that Fennell's eventual wife, so this is a different woman, not the murdered woman, told a man that she was being abused by Fennell and that she worried that he had murdered his previous fiance. And finally, the Innocence Project, which is an organization whose mission is to exonerate wrongfully incarcerated people through DNA evidence,

claims that Fennell's best friend at the time of the murder, which is Bastrop Sheriff's Officer Curtis Davis, has revealed that Fennell gave an inconsistent account of where he was on the night of the murder. And when he was pressed on the discrepancy in his account, he refused to testify. So I know this isn't a true crime podcast, but with all of these details laid out, it's raising a lot of questions around ex-officer Fennell. Fennell's lawyer has dismissed the new claims as untrue. Just want to put that out there. Okay. Okay. So I heard this from you and I talking about it and we were getting ready for a show, I think a couple of weeks ago, but I mean, how did you originally find out about it? And can you talk a little bit about how it it gained traction sort of naturally?

Yeah. So when we were first discussing it, it was sort of just like tweets I was seeing about it. And that is really how I found out. So a few individuals were tweeting about it. And a few days after that, people started making full Instagram stories saying like, you know, look into this. This seems really messed up. And that was sort of the beginning of this windfall of celebrities. Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Beyonce, Oprah, they shared the petition to stay his execution and review this new evidence. To date, almost three million people have signed the Change.org petition in his name. And I think what's really interesting about how this story picked up traction is that while everyone is doing their own research and forming opinions about it,

there's also this, you know, ticking clock because he was scheduled to be executed on November 20th, which is this Wednesday. And I think that because of that, people felt like their calls to action were more urgent and people sort of heeded them because of it. One thing that is interesting, too, though, about all of this is that, you know, we live in this Internet time, the social media time, and I think influencers get a lot of flack. But we are increasingly relying on influencers to save people's lives, whether that's, you know, an inmate who's on death row or people who have expensive medical emergencies and, you know, they have to make a GoFundMe. I do think that we can't discount the impact of influencers. Yeah. I mean, I think I don't disagree, but I also think it is a sad thing. Oh, yeah, it sucks. It's sort of like, you know, the luck of the draw that this was the guy who ended up being, you know, filtered up to these places.

And, you know, that it takes that amount of kind of rattling people's attention to even get to this point. Well, in this case, it does seem like time will tell if Rodney Reed is fully exonerated. But it is good to know that the courts are actually starting to look into the details of this case. Yeah, for sure. And also, I just want to say a lot of this reporting and coverage took place in local newspaper outlets, the Austin Chronicle, the Texas Tribune, the Houston Chronicle. So without their investigation and reporting, this story may not have stayed in headlines, may not have gotten as much coverage.

So I would encourage everyone to support your local paper. And now to some ads. So it's almost holiday season, unless you're John Lovett, because, you know, for him, the holiday season has been happening since the day after Halloween. Since he rediscovered his hatred for candy corn. Yeah. And you know what? We at Crooked Media are getting a head start on celebrating with some new holiday merch in the crooked store that is right we have your favorite pod save america and friend of the pod t-shirts and sweatshirts uh no friend of the wad yet but maybe at some point coming soon soon and we added a

bunch of new stuff uh all the dan stands out there myself myself included, can now get It's Not Great Dan shirts. And we also have new car magnets, travel tumblers, and more tie-dye to help you get a head start on holiday shopping. How does tie-dye help you get the head start? You know what? We didn't write this. We are just commenting on it. I'm curious what the link is there. Right? Well, there's more new stuff coming every week. But take a look at what we just got in at Crooked.com. The team came up with some really cool stuff, and that is there. Right. Well, there's more new stuff coming every week, but take a look at what we just got in at crooked.com slash store.

The team came up with some really cool stuff and that is true. I read that, but I also mean it. I like all the stuff. Great job. And they hope it will be enough

to get us to upgrade from our usual go-to pods of America shirts, which are still there too. But, you know, check it out. Crooked.com slash store. I'll give you my Venmo.

For what? And now back to the show. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Over the weekend, the New York Times published dark takeaways from hundreds of leaked documents within China's government. The files had details on how the government organized mass detentions of Muslim ethnic minorities in the country's Xinjiang region. Officials were given instructions on how to respond to students asking about missing family members and told to mirror tactics used in America's war on terror after 9-11.

Since 2017, hundreds of thousands of Muslim minorities have been detained in these detention camps. Trump pardoned three men who were convicted or accused of war crimes on Friday. Our president loves to support the troops, but only in ways that are kind of morally ambiguous. Two of the men were responsible for killing unarmed civilians, while one was demoted for posing for a picture with the corpse of a captive. Conservative media outlets were on Trump's side and championed the men as heroes, but some top military leaders pushed back against the pardons. Former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone was convicted on Friday of seven felonies in a false statements and obstruction trial.

The man, who has a massive Richard Nixon back tattoo, apparently does not like to follow rules. Stone's charges arose from the special counsel's Russia investigation, and they describe how he lied to Congress about coordinating with WikiLeaks during Trump's 2016 campaign. He faces up to 50 years in prison, which unfortunately would mean he would have to miss his vaudeville marionette performance next week. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say that your postmates driver stole your food and you want to fight her that's a lesson lizzo learned the hard way this week when a postmates driver she called out to her 1.2 million twitter followers in

september sued her for libel emotional distress and false light invasion of privacy the driver claimed she did try to drop off lizzo's food, but didn't have her hotel number, so she couldn't deliver it. And if that's true and she didn't eat it, the driver kind of messed up in my mind because, you know, eating free food is our civic duty. I know it's going to be my new grift, I think. Louisiana elected its new governor this weekend with incumbent Democrat John Bel Edwards beating out Republican Eddie Risponi. I'm Eddie Risponi. That's Eddie Risponi. And you don't have to think about him ever again. And lastly, guys, I have news for you. There are actually several other podcasts made by our company, Crooked Media.

I know, it's crazy. I thought it was all about the WOD. And one that is really good is America Dissected with Abdul El-Sayed. The last two episodes are about to drop. Check them out to learn about problems with the health care system, along with three plans from top Democratic candidates to fix it. Also, it's open enrollment, so get your ass some insurance for next year. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. We're new, so if you like the show make sure you subscribe give us a rating leave a review beep at us on ways and tell your friends to listen by the way if you are into reading and not just billboards for personal injury attorneys like me selena barnes hello

what a day is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash newsletters i'm akilah hughes'm Gideon Resnick. And that's Eddie Risponi. I'm Eddie Risponi. I'm Eddie Risponi. 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.