What A Day - Milking Impeachment For All It’s Worth

Episode Date: January 22, 2020

The Senate impeachment trial for President Trump began on Tuesday, featuring debates over the rules, furrowed brows, at least one Senator who fell asleep, and no liquids besides water or milk. We discuss other highlights from a long day in court. Cases of a new strain of coronavirus have been detected in China, plus nearby nations like Thailand, Japan, and South Korea, along with one case in the US. We tell you what coronavirus is and what you can do about it besides worrying yourself crazy.  And in headlines: Bezos hacked, Greenwald “hacks,” and Bloomberg’s big ad buys.

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slash whataday today and get 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A bombas.com slash what a day today and get 20 off your first purchase that's b-o-m-b-a-s.com slash what a day for 20 off bombas.com slash what a day sucks sucks it's wednesday january 22. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, an official no drama zone for all things related to the 2016 election. What did Mary J. Blige say?

No more hateration, holleration in this dancery. She didn't want no more drama. No more hateration. On today's show, a deadly virus spreads in China, then some headlines. But first, you guessed it, impeachment. The Senate impeachment trial for President Trump began on Tuesday with statements from his legal team and the House managers who were making the case for the president's removal from office. There were theatrical cases made, debates over the rules, furrowed brows, one senator fell asleep for 15 minutes, and absolutely no liquids besides water or milk. More on that later, but Gideon, let's begin with a bit of a shift in the rules from Senate Majority Leader Midnight Mitch McConnell.

Maybe he felt some of that heat? It's possible. This was a notable thing that happened early in the day, especially for a person who often doesn't seem to care what other people think or be impacted by that. There were two small but important changes McConnell made to his rules that he presented, the resolution that he put forward, that is about the framework of this trial. One, instead of giving just two days for the 24 hours or arguments from the two legal sides, that is now expected to take place over three days. That means things won't necessarily need to be stretched out as long. These older men and women can go home earlier and be automatically entered into the Senate record of the trial, which, crazily enough, was not in the earlier planned draft of the rules. This came after some scathing remarks from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has been fighting like a true champ despite the odds being stacked against him.

If the president is so confident in his case, if Leader McConnell is so confident the President did nothing wrong, why don't they want the case to be presented in broad daylight? On something as important as impeachment, the McConnell resolution is nothing short of a national disgrace. This will go down, this resolution, as one of the darker moments in the Senate history, perhaps one of even the darkest. This marks a minor shift, obviously, but not what Democrats are fully asking for in this trial. Yeah, well, I'm going to assume that McConnell wasn't doing this because of Schumer or that,

you know, his heart suddenly grew three sizes bigger, Grinch style. So what was driving the actual decisions? It's a great question. I mean, McConnell is obviously not sacrificing that much here. But we know a couple of things. One, Senator Susan Collins, viewed as one of the more vulnerable senators up for reelection this year, raised concerns privately, and so did Senator Rob Portman. That's probably the most immediate cause for this move from McConnell. If you have members of your own caucus that are a little wary of what you're doing, you change it up a little bit. But big picture, public opinion does impact the way that senators think and what they do and their opinions. And McConnell only has a slim majority, obviously, in the Senate

and needs to keep everybody in line. So this moment kind of gives us a good chance to go through some of the recent polling on impeachment and how we think that the public is viewing the trial so far. First, on the general question of removal overall, a recent CNN poll found that 51 percent of respondents wanted the Senate to convict Trump, while 45% said they did not. That's a pretty big deal, though, because, you know, it's the first day of the trial. Yeah. And everyone's like, yeah, all right, give it to them. Yeah. So 51% is definitely high and significant. We see polling for removal hovering in the high 40s, still mostly along party lines. Yeah, we're divided. Yeah. In that same CNN poll, though,

69% nice said that they wanted the Senate to hear from more witnesses while only 26% did not. So that's one of the numerical points where you could see why some of these senators might be thinking, hey, we may as well, you know, make sure that we do hear from witnesses so people aren't extremely angry with us. And another recent Monmouth University poll found that 57% said that the new evidence should be allowed. This is kind of a long winded way of saying McConnell's engaging in unpopular loser behavior. Yeah. As we expected, Republicans blocked efforts on Tuesday to issue new subpoenas and get more documents. That's right. And that's the bigger takeaway from the day than the slight rule changes. It's more of Republicans saying, we're effectively good to move this along as fast as we can because our minds are made up and they have been from the start. So among the things that

were knocked down, first, a Schumer amendment to subpoena White House documents went down along party lines, 53-47. Then a second one for State Department documents suffered the same fate, and another to force acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to testify, and so on and so forth throughout the day. We can kind of expect this pattern to continue because Democrats want to make it clear that even if and when there is a point when Trump is acquitted, which is the likely scenario, given this numerical game we've been talking about, that Democrats didn't just roll over and kind of, you know, accept their fate early. And they also want to be able to stack up these votes from

Republicans and be able to demonstrate them in later elections in 2020 and say, this is what, this is how you guys voted on issues of even just having more evidence in this trial. Yeah, that all checks out. And we saw Democrats like Senator Brian Schatz urging constituents to call and put pressure on Congress and those vulnerable senators. So we'll see how that pans out. But there's one thing we promised the listeners that we haven't gotten to yet. You want to let them know? Yeah. Somebody got some milk? Thank you, Akilah, and of course, Shaq, for the reminder. Yes, milk.

We know it. We love it. Some of us can't have it or choose not to. That's me. And the reason that we're talking about milk is that apparently, in addition to the senators not being allowed to speak or use their phones in the chamber during all of these proceedings, they are restricted on their beverage options as well. They can only drink milk or water. Listen, if you're up for

reelection, definitely don't do the milk thing. You don't want a milk stash. Yeah, so some milk, napping, adults talking for a really long time. It sounds a lot like kindergarten. Yeah, tomorrow in the hearing, they're all going to learn their ABCs, maybe get into cursive. One other thing before we go. Yesterday was the first day that we got a glimpse at what it will be like for some of these senators to have to run presidential campaigns and be in D.C. for the trial at the same time. The trial, you know, could be bumping up very closely to the Iowa caucuses. While Senators Sanders, Warren and Klobuchar were in D.C. Tuesday, Biden and Buttigieg, who are not part of the trial, were in Iowa. The senators Tuesday. Biden and Buttigieg, who are not part of the trial,

were in Iowa. The senators will still, of course, be able to campaign hard over the next couple of weeks and still hold events. And there's all these surrogates and volunteers going out to help. But it's still going to be an interesting challenge nonetheless. We'll keep you updated as the trial If you're looking for a relaxing comedown from all of the impeachment coverage, do not look to cable news. They're all talking about the same thing. The mysterious coronavirus. The coronavirus in China. Deadly new strain of coronavirus. Endangers coronavirus from China. More than 200 cases of coronavirus. Coronavirus. Yes, the deadly, mysterious coronavirus. When there's a new viral infection, it tends to be sensationalized to bird box proportions, but do not panic. We're going to give you all the info

you need to know about this respiratory virus that seems to have originated in China and also ways to stay healthy and safe. So, Akilah, what do we know about this virus so far? Well, it's the coronavirus, haven't you heard? No, not at all. Well, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a.k.a. the CDC, is closely monitoring an outbreak caused by a novel or new coronavirus in Wuhan. That's central China.

More accurately than calling it just coronavirus would be calling it 2019's coronavirus or Wuhan coronavirus because coronavirus is an umbrella term that applies to lots of viruses with similar cold-like symptoms. So SARS, for example, was a kind of coronavirus. I have heard coronavirus 500 times in the last 30 seconds. What are some of the symptoms of this? All right, so according to the World Health Organization, signs of coronavirus infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, the infection can cause pneumonia, kidney failure and even death. But death is rare. And it's important to note that there have been more than 300 confirmed cases of this coronavirus in China. And to date, only six people have passed away from the infection.

Health officials say it's not spread as easily as other diseases, and the director of the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine told CNN, quote, this isn't anywhere near in the same category as measles or the flu. Okay, well, that's good. And so most of the infections have been in China, but the virus isn't contained to just China. What do we know about how and where it's spreading? Okay, so to answer your first question about how it's spread, the virus is considered zoonotic, meaning it can be spread between animals and humans.

So that's how the scientists think that this virus was initially spread through contaminated meat. It can also be transmitted between humans. But the second answer is that outside of China, the virus has been noted in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan. And yesterday, the CDC confirmed the first case in the U.S. A person in Washington state who had visited Wuhan returned to America with symptoms prior to the travel screenings that have now been implemented all over the place. And that person is currently quarantined in a hospital. Right. Okay. And now major airports in LA, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Atlanta have all implemented these screenings for passengers coming from Wuhan to the United States. Internationally, Russia, India, Australia, and the Philippines have also implemented screenings

at major travel hubs. So are loads of people just traveling from the Wuhan region? Is it all just precaution right now? Yeah, well, obviously, you know, the World Health Organization is invested in stopping this from becoming a pandemic in the way that SARS and MERS did in the early 2000s. But all of this is happening just before the Chinese Lunar New Year. And that's when millions of people travel around China to see family and celebrate. So the emphasis is on containing the spread of the virus by stopping people before they travel if they're infected. Okay. And then on an individual level for you and me and people listening, any precautions that we should be taking?

Yes. Treat it like you treat cold and flu season or if you're like me, every season because, you know, people be gross. All right. So wash your hands often. Avoid hugging up on people who are sick. Don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands. And, you know, help your immune system out by sleeping, staying hydrated, and taking immune-boosting supplements. Also, make sure your food is thoroughly cooked. You know, we always want to clown people who eat their steak well done, but you're less likely to get foodborne

illness if you make sure everything's cooked. All of these suggestions come from the CDC and the World Health Organization. I'm going to go eat some crispy steak. And now for some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. A new decision from the United Nations aims to protect people fleeing from the climate crisis. The ruling deems it unlawful for governments to force climate refugees to return to their home country. The decision comes after the case of a man who fled his home in the Pacific nation of Kiribati,

which is currently at risk of becoming the first country to disappear due to rising sea levels. The UN ruling might not have an immediate impact on refugees. It didn't even really help the man from Kiribati specifically because the U.N. deemed the situation there wasn't dire enough. But it could provide a bedrock for future claims as the impacts of climate change worsen. Federal prosecutors in Brazil are charging American journalist Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes. This all has to do with a series of reports published last year

by The Intercept, an online news site Greenwald co-founded. And the reports presented leaked text messages from law enforcement that revealed how a major anti-corruption probe in the country was actually corrupt. Now, Brazilian prosecutors are accusing Greenwald of helping the hackers get into authorities' phones, even though he was already cleared from those same charges just last month. Greenwald responded on Tuesday, stating that this is an obvious attack on free press. Scary situation. Amazon CEO and former Six Flags dancing man Jeff Bezos was allegedly hacked in 2018 by Saudi crown prince and truly awful person Mohammed bin Salman. Bezos might have become a target for MBS because his newspaper, The Washington Post, published unfavorable coverage of Saudi Arabia,

some of which was written by murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The hack occurred when Bezos clicked a link that MBS sent him in a WhatsApp chat, thereby giving up access to the data that was on his phone. That data included text messages Bezos sent during his extramarital affair, which led to his divorce when they were published nine months later in the National Enquirer, a magazine that is operated by, you guessed it, ride-or-die friend of MBS, David Pecker. Jeff, please be more careful. You have access to my Amazon Echo, and I've said things around her that could have me

excommunicated by my friends and roasted by my haters. Stop clicking weird links, sir. Yeah, stop it. In other billionaire news, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's massive ad buys have driven up costs for everyone else running for office this year. Magic Mike has already spent $248 million on commercials, the price of one and a half do-littles, and prices for political ads have risen by 20%. He's also locked down all the best time slots, pushing your favorite down-ballot candidates to advertise during CSI reruns at 2.30 p.m. We'll see if this pays off for Bloomberg,

who could afford to heat his house with burnt money for the next one to two million years. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, wash your hands because we live in a society, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just books you got

from non-Bezos bookstores 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 that's how you spend a couple of do-littles. Looks like a travesty. Our DJ doesn't need to do this.

No. 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.