What A Day - New Year, New War?

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

The US assassinated Iranian Major General Qassim Suleimani via drone strike last Friday. We discuss the repercussions and talk with California congressman Ro Khanna about the legislation he’s introducing to block funds being used for military actions without congressional authorization.  Wildfires have ravaged Australia for the past few weeks, killing 24 people and destroying thousands of homes. We discuss what’s being done and what you can do to help those in need.  And in headlines: reading Lev Parnas' texts, more bad news for Boeing, and Ricky roasts without remorse at the 2020 Golden Globes. 

It's Monday, January 6th. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, the best way to spend the last 15 minutes of your holiday break. You can do this. You have done it before. You can do it again. We believe in you. And we are back. Happy New Year. The news certainly slowed down for a minute there, but wow, lots to get into today. What a day to be back.

Yeah. On the first episode of What a Day back in October, we covered the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and wildfires in California. Well, wouldn't you know it? Our first show back in 2020 is going to hit on slightly similar stories around the globe. History repeats itself in new and disturbing ways all the time. Yeah. Well, we've got the latest on the escalating crisis between the U.S. and Iran, wildfires in Australia, and then some headlines. Okay, so first, on Friday in Iraq, Major General Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike at the Baghdad International Airport.

He was Iran's top security and intelligence commander and led the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The news came, of course, as a surprise to many of the country's allies and lawmakers in Congress and demonstrated a dangerous escalation from President Trump against Iran. And it was yet another military action overseas conducted without the oversight of Congress. So that's what happened on Friday. Everybody was sort of shocked and basically taken aback by this news. And the significance of it was that in the sort of vacuum between Friday and what we know now, people didn't really know where this was going to go. Like, could it go as far as escalating into a war? Now, though, we're beginning to see, you know, some of the fallout of that. Yeah. And in the days since, a number of alarming things have happened as a result. For one, Iran said on Sunday that it was no longer sticking to its commitment under the 2015 nuclear deal to limit its enrichment of uranium.

Trump already withdrew the United States from that deal almost two years ago, but European countries were continuing efforts to keep the deal in place. Right. And additionally, on Sunday, Iraqi lawmakers voted 170 to 0 in favor of expelling U.S. troops from the country. Now, in response to that, Trump, of course, is threatening sanctions against Iraq if they follow through with what they passed. Yeah. And the American-led coalition of forces fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria paused their efforts as they braced for possible retaliation from Iran. Yeah. So this story is far from over, obviously. And what we just described

was in the span of 48 to 72 hours. So lots of questions about how and why the administration did this and whether they can handle the aftermath, what's going to happen to Iran and the United States, who knows? The world. Okay, well, we have people in the streets marching against the war, or a potential war. We've got an administration justifying its actions in the Middle East with quote, unquote, intelligence about perceived threats. Anyway, it's a lot of flashbacks to Iraq and fucking around with other countries. But what are Trump and the administration actually saying about all of this? Yeah. So since the strike happened, Trump tweeted that the administration had picked 52 sites of possible cultural importance in Iran that would be hit if there was retaliation for the drone strike. So basically, if there is a retaliation to our action, the United States action, then there will be another one. Obviously, it should be noted here that targeting cultural sites is against

international law and that Trump didn't care about that and doubled down on it later on Saturday or on Sunday, rather. And then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also on half a dozen Sunday shows saying basically the same thing and warning also that, quote, America will respond if the Iranian leadership retaliates after the drone strike that the United States did. Yeah, we've seen this movie before. So what can Congress do and what are they planning to do? Well, for literally the majority of our adult lives and probably a lot of the adult lives of people that we know, the 2001 authorization of of Use of Military Force, or AUMF, has been used frequently to justify, you know, any kind of military action under the sun in the Middle East, it seems. But at the end of last year, some House Democrats tried to include amendments in the annual

National Defense Authorization Act that they now think, in retrospect, could have curbed Trump's ability to conduct this strike that actually happened. One of those amendments was sponsored by a funny twosome of Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz. Yeah. Sorry. I'm sorry for laughing.

Just, you know, Matt Gaetz. Imagining them co-authoring something or working on something together is the buddy comedy that we would all like to see. But their amendment would have kept Trump from using federal dollars for military action in Iran without congressional approval. But that was removed prior to the passage of the act itself. Yeah. So now they have to revive something like that. Right. Exactly. Before the situation could spiral further out of control. So some urgency to this. There are two major things that we're kind of keeping an eye on that are happening on the congressional front in that respect. First, Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Barbara Lee.

Lee, of course, you know, the only member to vote against AUMF in the first place. Some great foresight on that. They have a resolution that says basically that the United States can't use military forces against Iran without authorization from Congress. Senator Tim Kaine has the similar resolution in the Senate. And then Congressman Khanna and Senator Bernie Sanders have legislation to block funds from being used for military action without congressional authorization. Those are two of the sort of immediate reactions congressionally right now. I spoke with Khanna yesterday about his legislation, as well as the lack of information from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the administration about the drone strike. We saw this with Mike Pompeo on the talk shows today.

I mean, he was asked directly, when was the attack planned? He said he couldn't even say it was a few days or a few weeks away. He just said, well, there was some attack that may have taken place. The burden of the proof to show the legality is on the administration. I mean, it's one thing if they had come to Congress, then the burden of proof wouldn't be on them. But when they are bypassing Congress, then they have the burden of proof to show that there was some imminent attack. And an imminent attack means either an attack that's taking place

or an attack that's about to take place. The second thing they have to show is why killing Soleimani is going to prevent that attack. I mean, Soleimani isn't the person leading the militias. Soleimani is a high-ranking person who may be involved in the plot, but that's not going to deter the actual possible attacks. And they have to explain why capturing him wasn't a better alternative, where you could have actually asked him about the different plans. So it seems that they're scrambling for a justification. They know that this was not legal. And what Congress needs to do now is act. And the biggest way we since, you know, the authority of the president has expanded so much in this regard in the past couple administrations, whether this was all backed up

with a strategy or not. As Khan is saying, the administration obviously has a lot to answer for here. Now, he's expecting that this new legislation is expected to pass in the Democratic House, but that it's also going to require support from Republicans by nature in the Senate to pass there. Well, we had 27 Republicans in the House who supported the Iran amendment to stop any funding for an offensive war in Iran. And there were quite a few senators, Republican senators who were willing to support it. That's why there was a majority support in the Senate. Of course, the Republican support is going to be tougher now, given that Trump has acted and that there is a Republican instinct to rally around the president. But my hope is that the Republicans who voted with us in the House on the original amendment will still support the same amendment.

I mean, they're already on the record supporting it. And my hope is that the senators, Republican senators who had said they would support it will still support it. And my hope is that the senators, Republican senators who had said they would support it will still support it. The reason is that we need to prevent another endless war, long war in Iran. And if anything, they should be more inclined to support this to prevent that. In addition to marching in the street, you can obviously reach out to your member of Congress to let them know you support actions to curb the administration's ability to escalate this into a full-on military conflict. Yes, please. That's exactly what Kana was suggesting as well. We'll obviously be tracking the story as it develops, and we'll let you know what happens in Congress with these various

efforts going forward. Also, check out the latest episode of Pod Save the World for a deep dive on all of this. Wildfires have been ravaging Australia for the past few weeks, and the damage is the worst the country has seen in decades. If you were online over the holidays, you surely saw the devastating images and videos from the region. As a primer, the Australian fire season starts in July and goes through their summer. This year, the fires have been incredibly difficult to contain due to extreme heat. We're talking well over 100 degrees and a year's long drought. 24 people and an estimated 480 million animals have been killed by the blazes. Over 1300 homes have been destroyed. And even with firefighting coming from not just the local districts,

but also several other countries, including the United States, the situation has remained dire. Right. And there's been reporting that the fires have now burned over 12 million acres of land. For comparison, California's wildfires burned less than 2 million acres of land last year. So 12.35 million acres is a landmass the size of Belgium or all of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. So yeah, that's what we're talking about is being burned there. And the costs are expected to be in the billions, maybe even hundreds of billions of dollars. Insane. And even if you are one of the lucky people who is outside of the inferno itself,

the air quality in major cities like Sydney and Melbourne has been measured at 11 times what is considered a hazardous level. The smoke that has blanketed the continent and neighboring New Zealand is even visible from space. In southeastern Australia, fires burned so hot that they created their own thunderstorms and lightning, similar to conditions during a volcanic eruption or atomic bomb blast. If you haven't seen the videos, they are honestly pretty terrifying. I agree, cosine. One obvious culprit for the breadth of these fires is climate change. It's impacting rain and wind patterns across the continent. And the winds have been so extreme in the region the past few weeks

that there have been casualties from trucks being blown over on highways. Australia, obviously, always hot. And fires are a natural part of their ecosystem. But this fire season has been longer and more intense. Dry lightning, which is lightning without accompanying, you know, thunderstorm conditions, that's caused a lot of fires in late December. And just before all of that, a volunteer firefighter was arrested for arson for setting seven fires over a six-week period at the end of November. So there are a lot of factors driving this, and none of them are good.

Yeah, that guy does not seem too great to me. He sucks. He seems like kind of an asshole. Okay, so what is being done about the fires at this point? We mentioned other countries pitching in to help, but what's going on over there in Australia? Yeah, it's pretty interesting. Australia has deployed their navy to fight the fires, and it's the biggest military deployment by the continent since World War II. So it's obviously already being taken very seriously. But if all of this is hard to hear and you feel helpless, don't. We found some good resources for you to donate. And if you can't donate, you can elevate their message online for free. Check out the Australian Red Cross. Also, the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Australia, which is helping evacuated communities find food, shelter, clothing and more in the way of recovery. Also, check out Food Bank Australia.

It's the country's largest hunger relief charity. And finally, there are several fire relief GoFundMes for First Nations communities that have been verified. So throw that money. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Impeachment. You remember that it's been two and a half weeks since president trump was impeached by the house of representatives and nancy pelosi is still holding on to the articles of impeachment in an effort to compel the senate to hold a fair trial and call new witnesses to testify

new polling shows that most americans agree with her 86% say senators should attempt to be impartial jurors and examine the evidence. Hear that, Mitchie? Little Mitch? Little bitch? Okay, so anyway, meanwhile, there is new email evidence that Trump himself ordered aid to Ukraine to be held up, and a federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas can give Congress access to a complete readout of his iPhone. Our hearts go out to Lev and the guy who has to read the thousands of insane texts he probably got from Rudy Giuliani. I want that job. We're just a few days in, but 2020 is already shaping up to be another year of bad airplanes for Boeing. As you probably know, thousands of the company's Air Max 737 jets were

grounded for most of last year following two fatal crashes caused by faulty software. But in scrutinizing the planes to see if they're safe to fly, regulators have discovered new causes for concern, including two bundles of wires that could short circuit and a possible weakness in one of the engine rotors that could cause that part to shatter. These issues threaten to extend the grounding of all 737 MAX jets, which is already costing Boeing billions of dollars. If you are flying today, remember, you have the right to ask the pilot to show you your airplane's rotor. I do it every time I fly. First thing, then neck pillow. All right, and in sports, the New England Patriots lost to the Tennessee Titans this weekend in a historically embarrassing upset.

The game was tied. Tom Brady was all the way back at the Patriots one-yard line with just seconds left in the fourth quarter. He threw an interception, and the Titans ran it in for a touchdown. So that puts the Patriots out of the playoffs, but don't worry. They'll still be at the games in the form of secret cameras they hid all over the sidelines. The Golden Globes were last night,

and if you or someone you love was roasted by Ricky Gervais, please know that he was only taking the piss. Oh, come on. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood won Best Screenplay. Laura Dern won Best Supporting Actress. And Bong Joon-ho's Amazing Film Parasite won Best Foreign Language Film. Now, that should be enough to hold you over until the Oscars on February 9th,

when you'll see all these same awards be given out again, just with slightly more serious speeches. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, give us the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you are into reading and not just golden globe winning comedy or musical scripts 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 we're rising and grinding and watching IG stories all day at work in 2020. Run it back. One more time? 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.