What A Day - MTG Get Off The Air

Episode Date: February 5, 2021

The House voted to strip Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments for spreading conspiracy theories and endorsing violence against Democrats on social media. President Biden announced that the United States will end its support of Saudi Arabia’s military campaign in Yemen. A war that has helped create what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. We spoke to California Representative Ro Khanna about the decision, what led to it, and what it means for progressives and activists who want their voices heard on issues of US foreign policy.And in headlines: McKinsey to pay states nearly $600 million for its role in the opioid crisis, another voting tech company sues conspiracy-mongering Trump allies, and Trump won’t testify in his Senate impeachment trial.

it's friday february 5th i'm akilah hughes and i'm gideon resnick and this is what a day the podcast that helps snowmen learn about the world before they melt away yeah go take this podcast out to your snowman and let him listen all right his life is so short thank you sir for filling our hearts with winter joy yeah Yeah. Hope you come back next year. On today's show, President Biden makes a big foreign policy speech, then some headlines. But first, the latest. And we're going to focus today on what's happening in the tin hat part of the Republican Party. And if you're not exactly sure what part I'm referring to, that makes sense. The line between regular Republican elected officials and unhinged conspiracy theorists is razor thin these

days. Today, I'm talking about freshman Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who you may know as the woman who harasses school shooting survivors, fellow Representative Cori Bush, and thinks Democrats harvest babies dreams to inject them or some shit, or at least, you know, she used to, but she says she doesn't believe that anymore. I am incredulous. Yeah, quite a resume to have in one paragraph. In social media posts before she was elected as well, Greene endorsed serious violence against Democrats. And so Democrats have pushed Republicans to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments or have the House do so by vote. Earlier this week, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy basically said that she was a loony tune in effect, but also made clear the Republican Party doesn't believe in consequences for that.

So the vote was yesterday. What happened? Well, Marjorie got her ass thrown out on the Education and Labor Committee when it's no secret that she called the Sandy Hook shooting that left 26 people, including 20 little kids dead, quote, staged, should be criticized until the end of time, but I digress. Eleven Republicans crossed the aisle to make it happen, making the final tally 230 to 199. And before we celebrate bipartisanship, let's just remember that this was mostly voted along party lines. And this is a QAnon membership-toting woman who denied 9-11, called the shooting in Las Vegas a, quote, false flag, and way more than that. I mean, she's just a morally devoid idiot with a bad dye job.

That's who all but 11 members of the Republican Party decided to stand behind yesterday. And for her part, Greene made a speech on the floor before the vote saying that she believed 9-11 actually happened and school shootings are real and QAnon is not. Wow. So brave. So, so brave. Go off, Marjorie. You know, you're not in a good place when those are things you have to say in the workplace. Just a note of quick clarification. An apparent attempt to save herself in those remarks and definitely a bad day for the Republican caucus. Greene now becomes the only member of Congress with no committee assignments and therefore basically no formal influence on legislation or oversight. But Republicans had some hand-wringing about the so-called precedent it sets. Don't they always love to wring their hands?

Well, here's the thing. There's already a precedent for moving people from committees. It's just new to have it done by vote. Mr. McCarthy himself in 2019 stripped then Iowa representative, neo-Nazi supporter and racist Steve King of his committees after an interview with the New York Times in which King argued that white supremacy is good, actually. And beyond that, there have been lawmakers in the midst of criminal investigations or indictments that lose the privilege to be on these committees. So, you know, she can cry me a river, build me a bridge and get over it. So that's the state of things in Congress just a couple of weeks into the Biden administration.

But Congress is thankfully not the world. So let's talk about President Biden's foreign policy goals. Yesterday, he visited the State Department. Here's a clip of what he had to say. America is back. America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy. As I said in my inaugural address, we will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again, not to meet yesterday's challenges, but today's and tomorrow's. Wow, America's back.

I don't necessarily feel like, I don't feel like I'm back, but maybe the rest of it is. All right, but that was, you know, his big picture message, diplomacy, we're back. But he also got more specific and announced that the United States would end its support of Saudi Arabia's military campaign in Yemen. Gideon, walk us through what that news means. Yeah. So first off, this was expected from Biden and was a campaign promise that he is,

you know, quickly fulfilling. And just to bring everybody up to speed, there has been an ongoing civil war in Yemen and lots of outside countries have gotten involved in the year since it started. Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened in 2015 after the Houthis, an Iranian-backed rebel group, ousted the country's president. Beginning under President Obama and continuing under Trump, the U.S. has supported the Saudi intervention with weapons sales, intelligence, and more, even as the Saudi airstrikes often targeted civilians. A 2019 report found that American and British bombs killed or injured almost a thousand civilians over the course of just three years. And since then, the situation in Yemen has been called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world by the UN. And by the end of 2020 resulted in the deaths of almost a quarter million people,

including many from indirect causes like, quote, lack of food, health services, and infrastructure. The UN Secretary General said last year that Yemen was in, quote, imminent danger of the worst famine the world has seen for decades. Yeah, and this announcement from Biden comes just weeks after the previous administration was taking a very different approach. Indeed. So just weeks ago, the previous Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named the Houthi rebel movement a foreign terrorist organization. So aid groups at the time and the UN had warned that that would just worsen the situation in the country. But back to Biden, the new administration has reportedly frozen sales of more weapons to the Saudi coalition and named a new US envoy for Yemen. But Politico reports, it's somewhat unclear what else will directly change about the US involvement, given that a

lot of the support had been pulled back. For instance, as the Washington Post notes, in 2018, the US stopped aerial refueling of Saudi jets. Still, the announcement is signaling to some progressives that they are being heard on the issue and that a peaceful resolution could actually be reached under new leadership with these reoriented priorities. That is the ultimate goal here. Yeah. And over the years, Democratic members of Congress like Representative Ro Khanna and Senators Chris Murphy and Bernie Sanders had been introducing measures to bring an end to the crisis. So how are they responding to the news? Positively. This has been a big issue for Khanna and these other folks you mentioned. He sponsored a measure in 2018 to end U.S. involvement in Yemen. It passed in Congress

with bipartisan support and was the first War Powers resolution to do so. Then unsurprisingly, President Trump vetoed it, but it may still have had an impact overall. I spoke with Connie yesterday to get his reaction to the news. Yes, I mean, it's a huge shift in American foreign policy. When I started four and a half years ago, I introduced a resolution to end our support for the Saudi war and had to take on my own leadership. I mean, there was a consensus that we had to support Saudi Arabia. So we passed for the first time a historic war powers resolution, Senator Sanders and I, in 2018. That led to Trump actually stopping the refueling, but he didn't make a public declaration of it. And the policy remained that we would be supporting the Saudis. President

Biden has taken a decisive step in reversing that policy and saying any support for an offensive war against Yemen is not going to exist from the United States. And that policy, as I understand it, is immediate. And so it's going to force the Saudis to come to the bargaining table, strengthen Griffith's hand, the UN envoy to bring peace. Yeah, so he's referring there to UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths, who's been working to try to bring parties to the table to figure out a peace deal. And it was also really interesting when I was talking to Khanna, he was reflecting on how he views all of this as a really big victory for activists. The only reason we were able to pass the War Powers Resolution is because of

the groups, advocacy, high school students advocating, college students advocating, mobilization on the internet, talking to members of Congress. So I just hope anyone listening to this will be encouraged that there are moments when our democracy works, that online activism can work, and that Americans do have the ability to change American foreign policy in a more just direction. Yeah, I do think that this is very encouraging. So did he signal where we go from here? Yeah. So going forward, Khanna said that he hopes that there is a swift reversal of the Trump designation on Houthi's lifting of the Saudi blockade, which has pushed Yemeni citizens into starvation, and of course, ultimately work towards a peace deal. We'll keep following this

story and other foreign policy updates out of the administration, but that is the latest for now. It's Friday WOD Squad. And as we all all know because this podcast is a pro sports podcast at heart it's the super bowl this weekend the tampa bay buccaneers are facing off against the kansas city chiefs in florida it's tom brady's 10th super bowl and his first since he left the patriots after 20 years on the team he's 100 years old i guess the weekend is doing the halftime show and dr f Fauci doesn't want any of us to have watch parties at our apartments. So Giddy, my question for you, will you be watching and what are you looking forward to? I believe we are going to be working during this time, but I'll probably have it on. I feel like I'm looking forward to the weird ad

strategy. Like I feel like we were talking about the Anheuser-Busch thing and they're not going to do horses but then they have other ads that are happening. There's always like... There used to be the day after the Super Bowl where everybody's like, I can't believe they had the gecko in the ad do this. That's crazy.

And this just seems like it's not... That's not going to be a feature at all. So that seems like it's going that's not going to be a feature at all so that that seems like it's going to be weird yeah i mean especially since we've all been streaming more shows than ever it's like what are ads yeah what do you mean i have to watch a commercial like go back to playing football stop taking breaks you know bridgerton doesn't take breaks exactly exactly when the characters in bridgerton are tackling each other, you know, getting concussions, they're not taking breaks. People are going to interpret that in a lot of different ways. I don't know the plot of the show.

But yeah, same question for you, Akilah. What are you thinking about? What are you going to be looking at during the Super Bowl? So I am still really excited for Amanda Gorman to perform her poem just because I'm like, wow, a place for poetry at the Super Bowl. I think that it's going to be really divisive online. But I also think that The Weeknd is going to have a real uphill climb to, you know, fill the time for his performance. I like The Weeknd. I'm a fan. But I just don't know that he has, like, 20 minutes of hits that, like, you know, aren't just, like, B-sides or, like, you know, ballads. I can't feel my face in Starboy.

Blinding Lights, is that the new one? Yeah, that's three. Yeah. That's, like, that's close to a whole set. I think that he should go back to the House of Balloons thing and just do all of that and just really freak people out be like I'm sad and I'm on Xanax

way back it's just a very different mood from his more like poppy stuff now it just would not make sense in a superhero and I'm just curious like you know all the other halftime shows, I guess, you know, excluding just the Timberlakes, which was a disaster to me, were like really high production

value and really interesting and had like, you know, guest performers. Like what guest is going to guest for the weekend? I don't know. You know, I don't know for sure. I'm curious, probably Dua Lipa or someone else who's also, you know, has a few hits that we all know about, but maybe not like the discography of someone like Beyonce or Lady Gaga who performed in the past. I feel like The Weeknd's guests will be the prosthetics that he wears on his face.

He's been doing, have you seen these like Letty Professor? Who is putting that on this man? I don't know. I feel like we're in a weird time for music videos and I'm just, I'm, look, I'm watching them. So I guess they're working. Yeah I'm just, look, I'm watching them. So I guess they're working. Yeah. But yeah, you know, a lot to look forward to this weekend.

Yeah, I hope he does at least five minutes as the Nutty Professor. That's what I want. Just do it for us. Well, just like that, we've checked our timps. Stay safe the weekend. If you're listening to this, just do the Nutty Professor thing. We're all banking on it. And we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Consulting giant McKinsey will pay out a nearly $600 million settlement

for its role in the opioid crisis. According to legal documents, the firm advised OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma on how to sell more painkillers and helped boost the sales of higher risk prescriptions, even as more and more people across the country were dying from overdose. More than 470,000 deaths since 2000 have been linked to opioids, and the addiction crisis has only gotten worse under the pandemic. McKinsey worked extensively with Purdue for 15 years, which led to skyrocketing profits for both companies. Under the new settlement, McKinsey agreed to make public

all communications related to its opioid work. The money from the settlement will go to local governments of almost all U.S. states and territories to pay for treatment and rehab programs in communities that were hit hard by the crisis. A misinformation supergroup formed by Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, the Fox News Network and some Fox News hosts is getting sued for spreading lies about a voting $2.7 billion with a B dollar lawsuit yesterday, accusing the voting machine truthers of lying about the company in an effort to mislead the public that the 2020 election was fraudulent. The lawsuit reads, quote, The earth is round.

Two plus two equals four. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election of president and vice president of the United States. I love that poem. I'm going to read it on my birthday. Well, some of the conspiracies blamed Smartmatic for manipulating votes in swing states, even though the company operated only in Los Angeles. To be fair, it was kind of suspicious that the liberal cesspool called Hollywood didn't go for Trump.

This isn't even the first time this year that Giuliani and Powell have gotten sued by a voting tech company. Dominion Voting System sued them both last month for promoting similar conspiracies. Let's see if they can go three for three and get another one soon. I believe in them. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with top financial regulators yesterday, presumably to discuss whether it's good or bad that the stock market is a video game now. The question regulators are facing is whether newly democratized and social media driven markets would benefit from new rules to protect investors. Experts say the Securities and Exchange Commission will likely focus on the role hedge funds and trading platforms

like Robinhood played in creating volatility, and that it will be more difficult to make determinations about retail investors on places like Reddit. There is one guy in Massachusetts facing inquiries from state regulators, though. I can't say that word, so I just pronounce it that way now. He's a YouTuber named Roaring Kitty, who helped cheer on the rise of GameStonk and made millions in the process. Mr. Kitty was also employed as a financial wellness education director at a Boston insurance company up until January 28th. So he might have broken his company's rules and maybe some state securities regulations by offering investment advice online. So I happen to think he did. And the only fair solution is to start this whole GameStop thing over from the

beginning. Only I know it's happening this time. Yeah, just like wake us up if you're going to be making things go to the moon. All right, well, Trump will remain in his hot Floridian shame cabana for at least a little while longer with the news that he will refuse to testify at his Senate impeachment trial starting next Tuesday. House impeachment managers requested Trump's testimony yesterday, stating that it was needed because he had denied factual allegations from the House that he incited the raid on the Capitol. Trump's lawyers promptly disagreed and described the request as a public relations stunt,

which is a subject area that Trump knows very well. House managers could move to subpoena Trump, but it's unlikely they'd succeed because they'd need the support of the majority of the Senate and senators from both parties have already said they're opposed to the idea. As far as the trial goes, 17 Republicans would need to vote with Democrats in order to convict Trump, so that's even more remote of a possibility. Personally, I'm still holding out hope for impeachment three, the last crusade. Sometimes you do need a trilogy, you know.

We love a trilogy and those are the headlines. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, protect Roaring Kitty, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just voting machine lawsuits 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 go build a snowman. While there's still snow and it's not all yellow or brown. Give him a hug after. Put some AirPods in his ears. Film us in a wad. Aw. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.