What A Day - Necessity Is The Mother Of Convention

Episode Date: May 14, 2020

Former vaccine chief Dr. Rick Bright will testify before a house subcommittee today—he’s the guy who says he was removed from his job because he didn’t want to push for widespread use of unproven anti-malaria drugs as a treatment for coronavirus. Bright’s pre-released statement said we’ll be in trouble if we keep following Trump off a cliff. In their latest show of unity, Former VP Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders announced the members of their joint policy task forces. Names include: Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep Pramila Jayapal, and Former Secretary of State John Kerry. And in headlines: local governments in Brazil are issuing mandatory lockdowns since their president won’t, Flynn’s “unmasking” was normal, and glittery worms of the deep blue sea.

It's Thursday, May 14th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, the only daily news podcast that's on the soundtrack of the new Tony Hawk game. Yeah, it's right there next to everything from Blink-182 and a song called Superman by Goldfinger. You can't miss it. Yeah, I've always thought of myself as part of the extended alien ant farm universe. On today's show, an update on the 2020 election, then some headlines. But first, the latest. Later this morning, Dr. Rick Bright is going to testify before a House subcommittee. Now, he's the former vaccine chief that we've talked about, who says that he was removed from his job because he didn't want to push for widespread use of anti-malaria drugs to treat

COVID-19. And that's what Trump has been promoting, but they were never proven to actually fight the virus and its effects and are actually potentially dangerous. Bright put out an advanced copy of his statement. Akilah, what did he have to say in there? Okay, so it is a fire statement. It's all bars. There's no skips. Firstly, he said, and I quote, our window of opportunity is closing.

If we fail to develop a national coordinated response based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities. Unprecedented illness and fatalities. Unprecedented illness and fatalities. That's, I mean, wow. He went on to say, quote, without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be the darkest winter in modern history.

You know, Bright says that he warned the health department about coronavirus back in January, but they didn't act on his call to ramp up equipment and medical supplies. The health department denies this. And now he's basically warning that if we keep following Trump off a cliff, we're going to be in the dark ages again. So wonderful. Please vote. Yeah. I'm interested to see where this all goes with Bright today and into the future.

This is serious stuff he's talking about. And what else is happening in government? All right. A bunch of stuff stuff as usual. So the head of the Federal Reserve, who was appointed by Trump, says Congress must do more in the way of the stimulus bills Republicans keep rejecting. Long story short here, the Fed has been taking unprecedented steps to prop up the economy, but they don't think it's going to be enough. And more data from the Federal Reserve shows that 40% of the job losses

at the start of the crisis in the U.S., so that's March, 40% of those job losses occurred in households making less than $40,000 a year, which just goes to show how important those stimulus checks are and how a one-time payment of $1,200 is just insufficient. Looking at you, Mitch McConnell, you stupid idiot. All right, there is more news, though. So the Wisconsin Supreme Court has rejected the stay at home order that Governor Tony Evers was trying to extend. The conservative majority court, and I only mentioned that so you know who to blame when the shit hits the fan, decided in a four to three vote that the state's public health officer exceeded her authority in making the order. Wisconsin's Republican legislature argued in this case that businesses would die if the state were to remain under the order to stay home until May 26th. No word on all the people who will die if they don't, but I'm sleep. You know, there have been legal challenges to stay at home orders in other states like Michigan, California, Kentucky, and Illinois, but none of those were successful. So Wisconsin really is an outlier there. But all right,

you know, that that just goes to show how much is riding in this next presidential election. So you want to talk about 2020? Yeah, I mean, yesterday, we got an update from the Biden campaign on some work that they're doing as this pandemic goes on and on. So last month, Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination. Around that same time, they announced that they would be putting together these joint policy task forces on six key issues, those being climate change, criminal justice reform, education, health care, the economy, and immigration. It was one aspect of how Sanders explained how he came to his endorsement and how the two of them discussed their plans to work together in the future. Yesterday, though,

we found out the names of the people who would be in these groups. It's a mix of Obama administration alums, progressive leaders that backed Sanders, union voices, activists, policy experts. Here's just a few of the more high-profile names. There's Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who's on the Climate Change Group. She's the original House sponsor of the Green New Deal. Former Secretary of State John Kerry is also on the Climate Change Group. She's the original House sponsor of the Green New Deal. Former Secretary of State John Kerry is also on the Climate Change Group. He's co-chairing with AOC. She will be the one to teach him about Animal Crossing. And on the health care group,

there's Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, both of whom are prominent Medicare for All advocates, a policy that Biden has not yet supported. Right. So, you know, you can see from those names and the longer list of names that this is meant to signal that Sanders and Biden are working together and they're trying to unify the Democratic Party for November. So what do we know about what these groups are actually going to be doing? Yeah, so essentially they're coming up with policy plans that are going to be presented to Biden and the DNC platform committee before the convention that's scheduled for August. There's been some talk also from Biden and reporting about his

campaign that he's thinking about a presidency that would include bigger social programs and reforms, which is definitely a departure from where he started this campaign, which seems like decades ago, as a kind of solely return to normalcy candidate. The idea is that these groups will guide what Biden will eventually campaign on in the general election. And the people on these committees could even have a say on who would be in a potential Biden administration, talking about personnel. So we'll see how it all develops in the coming months and which policies end up winning out. Additionally, on the policy front, we've got a little hot tip that later today,

former staffers from Governor Jay Inslee's presidential campaign, which was focused on climate change, are going to be launching an advocacy group called Evergreen. It's intended to push Biden and Congress to go bigger and bolder on climate change. Specifically, they have a petition for House Democrats to prioritize clean energy in the next stimulus bill. So we'll be watching all of this. And you know, this is the moment when we can really expect to see a lot of activity from groups that are trying to push Biden's campaign and work with him to embrace all these policy ideas. Yeah. And you mentioned the convention. So the DNC, which is set to take place in Milwaukee, has already been pushed back from July to August.

But it's seeming unlikely that we'll see thousands of people gathered in one place like even then, right? I mean, yeah, that would be my I'm not going. Yeah. And you know, the DNC appears to be acknowledging that to this week, the Rules Committee voted to allow for convention planners to look at alternative voting methods, which could include a virtual option. The language was kind of broad and didn't lock them into a decision yet, but it could mean that the convention takes place with either limited attendees or is entirely done virtually. We'll have to see. Republicans are still publicly talking about having their convention in person in Charlotte, North Carolina in late August, though conventions this summer, underscoring, you know, how they're even expressing concerns about these sorts of events. In the meantime, as everybody tries to think about how to do this, a lot of people have been throwing out some innovative ideas about how to conduct these conventions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she recently suggested that the normally week-long DNC could be held in an outdoor stadium with people socially distanced and take place on a single day. Well, you know, I'm just going to chalk that up to it being the

brainstorming part of all this because it's not a good idea. But it's interesting. All right. And before the elections in November, there were also some special elections on Tuesday that we now have the results of. Yeah. So two losses for Democrats is the top line. In Wisconsin's 7th District, Republican State Senator Tom Tiffany easily defeated Democrat Tricia Zunker. So this was a district that Trump carried by 20 points in 2016, always seen as a long shot. Tiffany ended up winning by about 14 points, though, so slimmer margin than Trump. And in California, even though not all the votes are in at this point, Democrat Christy Smith conceded to the Republican in that race, Mike Garcia, and that was to represent the 25th district, which we may

remember was the seat that Congresswoman Katie Hill resigned from last year. So the outcome here is a bigger disappointment to Democrats since it's a swing seat and it was formally won by a Democrat as well as Hillary Clinton. But Garcia and Smith are going to face each other again in November for the next full term of Congress. And that is the latest we have for you now. Happy Thursday, WOD Squad. Hope you're hanging in there and feeling chill. You know, we have another minute to check in, so here we go. There have been shortages and surpluses all around the world, and the latest comes from France,

where the government is asking people to please just eat more cheese. Now, this is a fantasy of mine. But Giddy, what item would you hope our government would encourage us to eat? Tabasco Cheez-Its, buffalo chicken dip. Oh, wow. Yeah. They were like, we have a buffalo chicken surplus. That would be lit. I'm bathing. Um, sushi. Oh man, I could go, I could do endless sushi rolls. But a surplus of that would smell terrible.

Yes, that's correct. You don't want a surplus. You want the exact amount of sushi. Yeah, I want the fresh amount today. That is, that's a very good point. But those are probably the three. I don't want them all in the fresh amount today. That is that's a very good point. But those are probably the three. I don't want them all on the same meal, though. What are you encouraging? What do you want the government to encourage you to stock up on in your belly?

I mean, ice cream. So really, we're back on the dairy tip. But like I I mean, I have been just on a tear all week because I don't have ice cream and there's just like no world where I'm going to risk my life to get some. No. But it would make my life better if there was just like a factory filled with just ice cream and you could come and pick it up. And like that made you a patriot. Sign me the fuck up. I'm doing my diligence.

Use DPA for Ben and Jerry's. You know, I think at a certain point, that's where we're all going to have to be as a country and we'd be better for it. Yeah, the Dairy Production Act. I dig it. Well, just like that, we checked our temperatures. Hope you're not, you know, lactose intolerant and that the cheese surplus is working out in your favor.

But we will catch up with you tomorrow. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. State and local governments in Brazil are issuing their own mandatory lockdowns because far-right President Jair Bolsonaro refuses to do so. Local authorities across the country are implementing strict lockdown measures, including closing down non-essential businesses and issuing fines or criminal charges to violators. Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus and has criticized governors and mayors for adopting restrictions to curb the spread. He tried to classify certain businesses as exempt from lockdowns, but 10 governors said they would

not comply. His administration has not issued mandatory stay-at-home orders, despite the country's death toll currently being the highest in Latin America. Just yesterday, the country experienced its highest jump in COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of Latin America. Just yesterday, the country experienced its highest jump in COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Well, apparently this is a problem everywhere. All right. Well, the Senate failed to pass a bipartisan amendment to prevent the FBI from accessing people's web browsing histories without a warrant. Uh-oh. The amendment, written by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and Republican Senator Steve Daines, modifies a bill that would renew federal surveillance authorities.

A majority of senators voted in favor of the amendment, but it was just one vote shy of the 60 votes needed to pass. Now the bill is one step closer to being signed into law without changes, and many civil liberty advocates, including the ACLU, claim that the bill without the amendment infringes on individual privacy and freedom. More amendments intended to add additional protections for people from federal surveillance will also be voted on this week. Yeah, they will not be seeing my browsing history of just searching free cheese global over and over. Some Senate Republicans are getting fired up about a newly declassified list of Obama officials, including presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who requested the unmasking of Trump's former national security advisor, Michael Flynn.

To explain what that means, between Trump's election in 2016 and 2017, Flynn made calls to the U.S. ambassador to Russia that were monitored by intelligence agents, calls that would eventually lead him to lie to the FBI and plead guilty during the Mueller investigation. Obama officials would have had access to intelligence reports about these calls that omitted Flynn's name. Unmasking is asking the NSA to identify a person in a report to provide context. It's very routine. It's something the NSA does thousands of times each year. Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley are spearheading the effort to turn this normal thing into a scandal. So when Trump talks about Obamagate, this is what he's

talking about, assuming he even knows what he is actually talking about. Yeah, it is riveting to watch Republicans learn how the government works in real time. All right, well, don't know how to say this, so I'm just going to say it. Worms with glittery skin were discovered at the bottom of the ocean. The fashionable bugs are called scale worms because they have scales, and they were identified by marine biologists at the University of California, San Diego. The worms eat dead whales and other sunken sea beasts. And what's interesting is, even though they possess a gorgeous sparkle that would make everyone in Sephora jealous, they're found so deep in the ocean that no sunlight reaches them at all.

Some scientists think that their pretty glowy scales create reflections that could help them evade bioluminescent predators. Others think that they're just an evolutionary coincidence. Either way, they're making me feel bad about myself and I don't even want to talk about them anymore. I refuse to even look at those scary little devils. Thank you, Solidarity. And those are the headlines.

Okay, before we go, we heard you loud and clear, WODheads. New WOD merch is here. Check out our tees, long sleeves, and more at cricket.com slash store. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, tell us we're as beautiful as a deep sea worm, don't you dare, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just the amazing catchphrases on WOD merch 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 please hire us to eat cheese. It's my calling. I volunteer. I was born for brie.

That's what they always said. 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.