What A Day - My Fair Juror (Starring Lindsey Graham)

Episode Date: December 16, 2019

The location of Thursday’s Democratic presidential primary is in question because food service workers at Loyola Marymount are striking. We discuss who will be on the stage (if there is one! We don’t really know!).  Trump will probably be impeached this week in the House. You're making history, dude! From there, it’s on to the Big Bad Senate. And in headlines: Hallmark’s wild weekend, Purdue plays both sides, and an UNproductive climate congress.

It's Monday, December 16th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, the office party that was too fun of daily news podcasts. My throat hurts. I literally can't talk right now. Show's over, folks. On today's show, the latest on impeachment and then some headlines. But first, it's debate week for Democrats. Welcome back to the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, where everyone is once again having a debate about debates.

There were two big developments in the past few days on the topic of when, where and how all the candidates will debate each other before the first votes are cast. The first development is about an ongoing labor dispute at the site of the next debate in Los Angeles on Thursday. And the second is about how the DNC should structure next year's debates and qualifying criteria. Gideon, let's start with this week's debate that's scheduled for Thursday in LA. Let's do it. So basically what happened is on Friday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, followed closely by Senator Bernie Sanders, tweeted that they would not participate in this Thursday debate at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles if it meant that they were crossing a picket line. OK, so the backstory here is that workers represented by Unite Here Local 11 have been picketing since November and they're in an ongoing labor dispute with Sodexo, which employs more than 150 service workers at the university. And Sodexo also recently, according to the union's co-president, just canceled contract negotiations. So that's sort of why this is still going on. And after

those two senators said that they'd risk skipping the debate in order to make sure they're not crossing a picket line while this is happening, all the other candidates that were supposed to go also said the same thing. Yeah, which, I mean, makes sense. Yeah, yeah. You don't want to be the one asshole said, and they're like, I actually don't care about you. Exactly. But what you're saying is we get to go home early on Thursday now, because the debate's not gonna happen. We'll see about that. The position from the Democratic National Committee right now is that they're working on it. They obviously have a limited time span to figure it out.

You know, Chairman Tom Perez said that he didn't want to cross the picket line. The other interesting thing about Perez's position is that he was former labor secretary. So this is kind of in his wheelhouse, you'd think, to be able to figure something like this out. And the crazy thing is that this isn't the first time that there was a labor dispute that has impacted one of these debates. And it's not even the first time that that's happened for this specific one. Before this debate was scheduled, it was supposed to be at UCLA and a separate labor dispute got it moved to here. And that's all to say that it's interesting that the issues that often come up in the campaign are manifesting themselves in real time. Yeah, got it. So I think the natural resolution here

is to host a what a day debate with all the candidates. I agree. Yeah. We would like to formally invite the qualifying presidential candidates to join us for our inaugural WOD debate. Yeah, but probably got to get that budget approved. We're going to do it.

It's Thursday. Probably need to get some cameras in here that could properly show the creases in everyone's faces in HD. Standing room only. No parking validation. Let's move on from the possible December debate at Loyola Marymount and the maybe hopefully one day one right here in the studio to talk about the ones that are coming up in January and February.

Yes. So over the weekend, Senator Cory Booker's campaign circulated a letter asking the Democratic National Committee to reconsider its debate criteria for next year. This obviously comes after Booker failed to make Thursday's debate and after Andrew Yang was the only candidate of color to qualify. Senator Kamala Harris did qualify, but as we all know, she dropped out. So what happened after that letter was drafted? Yeah, so all the other candidates got on board pretty quickly. And basically what Booker's

campaign was saying, what they're asking the DNC, is that they want to go back to the qualifications that they had earlier in 2019, which was you can either have donors that help you get into the debate, or you can have polls that help you get into the debate, but you don't necessarily need both. The most recent ones have required that candidates have 200,000 unique donors and at least four polls showing them with at least 4% in the early state or national polls. And so this is an easy tack for Booker to take because he has the donors, but he doesn't have the polling numbers. I spoke with his campaign manager, Adesu Demessi, on Sunday about all of this. And he said, quote, there's just not enough time now to potentially qualify if the criteria were the same. And the other point that he made in that conversation was they don't really have control over who is polling what and when. And if they're not seeing that

stuff come in, as they haven't been for the last 15 to 20 to 30 days in this qualifying period, then they're kind of at a point where it's like, well, we can't hit those numbers you want us to hit if we're not seeing the polls. Yeah, good point. So given that a lot of the other candidates got on board with Booker's proposal, you know, what do we think? Is the DNC actually going to go back to the old criteria or we're just going to be stuck with the same? I kind of think that they're not going to. And I mean, Perez told the New York Times that at least for the next debate in January, they're going to stick with this polling and donor requirement.

But he also said that the ones that are coming up in February at a point where people will start voting in caucuses and primaries, that they're going to start including some of the early results in how they decide who gets to make it on stage. Yeah.

So hypothetically, it's like, you know, if Booker does really well in Iowa, then maybe after that he finds a way in via that result. And it's interesting because throughout all of this, right, like this is the constant griping that people have during a primary when things are going well for them or when things are not going well for them. And it's like there are two sides. Like to Perez's point, I think a lot of the campaigns and Democrats take the view that everybody has had a lot of time to figure this all out and to do well and move up in the ranks.

And, you know, the more successful people move on. That's how it works. And then to Booker's point, I think a lot of the campaigns and Democrats are also frustrated that after a historically diverse primary has taken place, that these are the people that people have been left with at the quote unquote top tier and that, you know, some of the other diverse candidates have struggled to gain traction. All part of the sort of broader conversation that we could have until the dang cows come home. Sure. Well, we will be tracking the story as it develops and will tentatively be at whatever debate takes place this week. If it happens, maybe it'll be here, you know? We don't know.

Welcome. And now for an impeachment news blast. Delayed but blasty. It's the holiday season. Later this month, we'll have Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, New Year's Eve, no clue what Boxing Day is. And sooner than all that, we'll sit around the fire, drink some eggnog, and watch the impeachment of the President of the United States in the House of Representatives. Yeah, impeachment is one of those holidays that doesn't have presence, but I'm going to settle. It's fine.

On Friday, the House Judiciary Committee confirmed the two articles of impeachment after debating for a day and a half. They are officially abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On Tuesday, the House Committee on Rules will debate to decide on, you know, do you want to take a guess, Gideon? Rules? Yeah, it's rules. Yeah, they're debating the rules that will govern the final impeachment

vote in the House. The Rules Committee will decide how long the debate will last and how many amendments, if any, will be allowed. The Rules Committee has nine Democrats and four Republicans, so the rules are expected to reflect that. This is very process-y. What you actually need to know is that there's going to be voting sometime this week. Yeah, that's right. The full House vote, rather, will likely happen on Wednesday, and the outcome of the vote is not particularly in question. As we've known for a while, Democrats hold a majority of seats in the House, 233 to 197. Yeah, so in all likelihood, Trump will be impeached this week. Wow. It's crazy to say it out loud. It's just, yeah, it's hitting. But that would also give him the same track record as President Bill Clinton,

who was impeached in the House. And I'm sure Donald Trump hates that. It's the culmination of weeks of inquiry by the House Dems. Very historic. Well, you know, now it is time to stock up on that goddang jiffy pop. We have only a couple of days. And once the vote is done in the House, there's going to be this big transition time to hearing the impeachment case in the Senate. That's, you know, the trial period. Akilah, the process in the Senate hasn't even begun, and it's already rife with accusations

of partisanship and even further obstruction. What on earth is going on there? Yes. So last night, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that said that the Dems want to hear testimony from four Trump administration witnesses, including Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former National Security Advisor John Bolton. The other witnesses are Robert Blair, that was an aide to Mulvaney, and Michael Duffy, who works at the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB for short. Listeners, you will likely hear this acronym in the media going forward for the rest of this debacle, so just take note, OMB.

Is this testimony likely to happen? No, probably not, considering the players involved. Senate Republicans, as you know, have so far settled on a strategy of hearing the opening argument from Trump's lawyers and then House Democrats with the option to call witnesses later. Schumer is not really into that approach. He says that witnesses should be called, documents turned over, and trial parameters should be agreed upon in a bipartisan way. Yeah, and I mean, that obviously seems optimistic, given that just last week, Mitch McConnell basically gave the whole game away, telling Sean Hannity that he was in close coordination with White House counsel about the whole Senate trial. Yeah, which is not how trials are supposed to be done, if you're wondering.

This isn't even a partisan point either. You know, if you were a juror and you told the judge that you were working with the defense to decide if they're guilty or not, you get discharged from that sweet, sweet 40 bucks, which is, I think, what the going rate is for being, you know, having jury duty. But hey, it's 2019. It's America. What are norms and standards anymore? We don't know. Can't find them. In a Moscow Mitch, which I'm allowed to call him that because Crooked lets us be real people. So shout out. But also I have suffered through him being the senator for Kentucky my entire life. So Mitch isn't the only Republican in Senate pledging not to do their job loud as fuck in public. Senator Lindsey Graham, he's also the chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, said on Saturday that he will do everything in his power to quickly end an expected impeachment

trial in the Republican led Senate. Gideon, thoughts? Just throwing the towel away before the game even starts. It's what I expect, but it's still, you know, if he had shame, he would have demonstrated it years ago. Asked if it was appropriate for him to be voicing his opinion before impeachment even reaches the Senate. Graham replied, quote, Well, I must think so because I'm doing it. Okay. He went on to say, quote, I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here, which I just feel like how are you allowed to have this job and you can't uphold the basic part of the job description. Do your job. You are tasked with this. Rise to the occasion, please. I would never be a good football coach. Rise to the occasion, please. Anyway.

Pleading with the linebacker. Come on. Do your job. Well, on that note, even more weird impeachment stuff is happening right now. New Jersey Democratic Representative Jeff Van Drew, not Andrew, has decided to switch parties to become a Republican, just as the House is about to vote. He's been staunchly anti-impeachment from the jump, and now he'll be the same party as his haircut, which has been Republican for a very long time. I mean, look him up. You know, just Google it. He looks more like Hank Hill's dad than Mike Pence. It likely won't change the outcome in the House, though. And a little bit of background on Van Drew. It's pretty moderate. He ran as a Democrat and won in his district, partly because his Republican opponent made a bunch of racist remarks and

lost backing from the RNC. So, you know, moderate. Yeah. What's even more sort of galling about Van Drew's decision is that it came after polling indicated that he was in trouble with Democratic voters in his district because for weeks he's been going on Fox and saying he's against impeachment. So, you know, basing a decision on what is right and wrong purely on your own electoral prospects. Welcome to the Republican Party. You are going to fit in great. Well, the impeachment news is not letting up and we are going to keep you posted on all of the news as it rains down this week. And that was your Impeachment News Blast. I need a cough jab.

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Headlines. meant to lower emissions, because I guess they know about a second backup earth that the rest of us don't. For their part, the Trump administration even actively blocked proposals to help developing countries with the costs of dealing with climate change. This was technically the last year the United States will be part of these talks, since Trump made the decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. A man who was seen groping a reporter during a December 7th news broadcast was arrested last Friday on charges of sexual battery. Thomas Calloway was participating in a Georgia 5K and thought it'd be really cool and funny

to slap reporter Alex Bozargian's, but as he ran past her, it really wasn't. No one laughed. Here's Bozargian on how she experienced the assault. He took my power, and I'm trying to take that back. And I think what it really comes down to is that he helped himself to a part of my body. Callaway was arrested after turning himself in and has been released on a

$1,300 bond. A company that helped fuel the country's opioid crisis is now selling a cure for opioid overdoses. Money makes you evil. Purdue Pharma manufactured the highly addictive drug OxyContin, and now their foreign affiliate Mundi Pharma has been approved to sell an opioid antagonist called Naloxone in Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. The drug has been available in a generic form for years, but now they're selling it in a nasal spray form called Nyxoid for nearly twice the price. Critics say it's pretty messed up that the same people who marketed highly addictive painkillers are now cashing in on the cure, and I consider myself one of those critics.

Wow. A real rollercoaster for the Hallmark Channel this weekend. The company, known for holiday classics like The Christmas Princess and A Princess for Christmas, was criticized for pulling commercials for the wedding registry company Zola because the ads featured two women kissing. Hallmark's decision came after the conservative group One Million Moms wrote a petition that

said, quote, family entertainment is not the outlet in which to be politically correct by forcing tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality. Side note, One Million Moms has 4,000 followers. Where are all the moms? Where they at though? Also, weird take because if two moms is gay, a million moms seems like it's way gayer. Anyway, Hallmark saw the light amid pressure from LGBTQ advocacy groups like GLAAD, and on Sunday night they announced that they are reversing their bad decision

so they can stop appeasing homophobes and go back to making that one movie that they do best. The Christmas Princess. A princess from Christmas. Christmas Princess, Christmas Holiday Princess. The Princess from Christmas. Christmas Princess, Christmas Holiday Princess. The Princess Christmas,

Christmas Princess. Diaries. Diaries. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, give us a rating, go on our Instagram and like our oldest posts, and tell your friends to listen.

By the way, if you're into reading and not just original pilot scripts for quick video bites you can watch on your phone, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And that's how you pull yourself together on the last week before vacation. 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 Gileard and Kashaka.