What A Day - No Winner, No Cry

Episode Date: November 4, 2020

Yesterday was Election Day, and it ended as we expected it to: without an official call on the presidential race. There wasn’t a Biden landslide like we hoped, but as we went to record last night, he still had a path to victory. We discuss that path, some surprising and less surprising calls, and how the two presidential candidates treated the results. Looking at Congress, Democrats retained control of the House, adding some cool new progressives including Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, and Marie Newman. The jury’s still out on who will control the Senate. And in headlines: the US is no longer part of the Paris Climate Agreement, record-setting COVID numbers in the US, and Trump destroys Lil Wayne’s relationship.

it's wednesday november 4th i'm akilah hughes and i'm gideon resnick and this is what a day where we have aged 10 years since yesterday and a thousand since 2016 yeah thank god black don't crack because i would look as dead as i feel i do look as dead as I feel. On today's show, election results, then some headlines. Okay, welcome to our recap of last night's results. Top line, we still don't have an official call on the presidential race. This is something we expected going into the night, given that many states said they would need more time this year to process a huge surge in mail-in votes due to the pandemic. So take a deep breath.

This could take a while, and we're going to help you through what we know and what we don't know at this point. We're recording at 2 a.m. Pacific, 5 a.m. Eastern. We only have calls in a couple battleground states, and the rest are still counting. With that in mind, let's go through some of the biggies, starting with Arizona and Florida. 5 a.m. Eastern is what I'm feeling. OK. Yeah. So we had talked about some different scenarios going into the night and one that we can rule out is a quick and easy landslide. Instead,

you know, we're in this still counting scenario that you talked about and the one in which Trump is acting like an authoritarian. More on that soon. You know, either Biden or Trump could win at this point. But let's start with what we know. Let's start with Arizona. The Associated Press called that race for Biden in the wee hours of the morning on the East Coast, though there are still votes set to be counted. He held about a five point lead overall at this time of recording. And this state is hugely significant for a number of reasons.

One is that the last time a Democrat at the presidential level won the state, it was Bill Clinton in 1986. So a win for Biden is really signaling a shifting and potential realignment of the politics in this state. Two is that it would significantly help Biden on his path to 270 electoral college votes, even if he ends up dropping a Midwest state, which we'll talk about later. And again, we don't know. Trump won Arizona in 2016. So, you know, if you take it away from him, it makes his path a lot tougher. And the Arizona results

started to come in much later last night and definitely had Democrats breathing a little easier after a scarier start to the night, which brings us to Florida. The AP called it for Trump by a slightly larger margin than he won it in 2016. And when Florida results started to come in at the beginning of the night, this was when Democrats were really sweating, particularly about the way in which Biden appeared to be losing at that point. Experts were pointing out a big, big early warning sign that Biden was underperforming Hillary Clinton's margins in Miami-Dade County, which is usually heavily Democratic. That in turn seemed to mean that Trump's investment in turning out Latino voters there,

including Cuban Americans, had worked to a degree. And this was something that some Democrats were worried about going into the night. For example, Chuck Rocha, who worked on the Sanders campaign and who we talked to in September, was ringing alarm bells about this. But also want to emphasize here that no voting group is monolithic by any stretch. So we're going to have to dig into all this nationally later to understand what else happened. Yeah, right. That was not a fun part of the night for sure. But a reminder that these Sunbelt states are seen as must haves more so for Trump than for Biden, who is really more just trying to win one or two so that he could squash Trump early and decisively. That obviously didn't happen.

But let's talk about a few of the other Sunbelt states where things are still uncertain. Okay, moving on to North Carolina, Trump is leading with at least 95% of the vote in, but it is a tight race, so it hasn't been called at this point. And we also know that the state has an extension for receiving mail-in ballots through next week, so that's something we'll continue following. Then there's Georgia, which also has a Trump lead, but hasn't been called as well. And one difference here is that the outstanding vote could be crucial as it is anticipated to come from areas that could favor Biden. There was reporting that part of the delays were due to a pipe burst in Fulton County, which is part of Atlanta metro area, because we ask ourselves what else could possibly go wrong this year. And that delayed, you know, some of the processing of mail ballots that could be ultimately determinative in figuring out what

is happening in the state overall. Then lastly, there's Texas, which has been called for Trump. Democrats were reaching to flip this, but it held for Republicans. And at the time of recording, Biden was leading in Nevada, but that also has not been called yet. That's right. And that brings us back to the Midwest, which is now going to end up determining who ultimately wins this thing. Right, back where we all started. So just as a reminder to everyone, many of these Midwest states weren't allowed to count mail votes until Election Day or just before. So the vote tallies are coming in more slowly. Michigan and Pennsylvania are still counting, and we don't have calls for those.

These are the states that Clinton lost in 2016, and Biden was trying to win back to rebuild the so-called blue wall. Trump is currently up in both, but that's with a lot of mail votes left to be counted. So this is kind of like that red mirage scenario where the totals will shift as more results come in. We'll have to see. This is going to be very important and could be close. And then in Wisconsin, they are further along in their tally of all the votes. And just before we actually hopped on to record, there were more mail ballot results coming in from places like Milwaukee, heavily favoring Biden. But we still don't have a call because it's still too close with more to count. Biden is projected to win the second congressional district in Nebraska worth one electoral vote, which could actually end up mattering down the road. So this certainly continues at the very least until later tonight, if not farther into the week. We will stay on it, of course, but let's also talk a little bit about what we know in terms of the makeup of the House and Senate. All right. Yes. Well, according to NBC News and Fox News, heard of them because I

definitely have, Democrats are going to keep control of the House. The House was expected to remain blue, so it's obviously good news. But for people hoping to see major gains, it doesn't really look likely. Republicans actually have picked up some seats as of now, but some bright spots. The squad was all reelected, plus some cool new progressives like Cori Bush, Jamal Bowman, and Marie Newman will be joining them. For the Senate, we don't know yet which party is going to be in control. Remember, Democrats need to net three seats to get a majority.

So far, we've had to flip from Republican to Democrat with John Hickenlooper winning in Colorado and Mark Kelly, who is our favorite astronaut winning in Arizona. But in Alabama, Doug Jones lost, flipping the blue seat to red, which was expected. And that means Dems need two more wins, and we're still waiting on some races. In North Carolina, it hasn't been called yet, but currently the Republican is winning. Losing there would make it much harder for Dems to ultimately take the Senate. And in Georgia, NBC is projecting a special election runoff with the Democrat Raphael Warnock advancing to hopefully get rid of Republican Kelly Loeffler, who you may remember from coincidentally being married to the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and selling all of her stocks at the beginning of COVID.

The other Senate race in Georgia has not been called, and neither has Maine, a state that Biden won. Unfortunately, undead Senator Mitch McConnell remains the representation for Kentucky, despite my best efforts. It also appears that Lindsey Graham defeated Jamie Harrison in South Carolina. It was a really hard fought battle. And I think we should all be really proud of the work we put in there, even if it unfortunately wasn't enough this time. Control of the Senate is really important in terms of actually getting laws passed and stopping more of these goddamn SCOTUS appointments. So we will keep tracking this. We will. And at this point, we've heard from Biden and we've heard from Trump, obviously, very different responses. So let's start with we've heard from Biden and we've heard from Trump, obviously, very different responses. So let's start with what we heard from Biden.

Yeah. So Biden spoke at 1230 a.m. Eastern with a message that, you know, he still believes that he can win. Here's a clip from that speech. Look, you know, we can know the results as early as tomorrow morning, but it may take a little longer. As I've said all along, it's not my place or Donald Trump's place to declare who's won this election. That's the decision of the American people. But I'm optimistic about this outcome. Yeah, it's amazing that this is this is the level of discourses like if we count the votes, that'll be right. The American people have spoken. This is where we're at in America. Trump shortly after that statement, though, falsely tweeted, quote, We are up big, but they are trying to steal all caps the election.

We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the polls are closed. In the first iteration of this tweet, polls was spelled the wrong way. And in the second iteration, Twitter flagged the tweet as misleading about an election or civic process. Metal. And then he followed it up with a disgusting authoritarian rant at the White House in which he threatened to take legal action against the normal counting of votes at the Supreme Court. So no one is surprised, but we are all very disappointed. Yes, I think that's right. And at that point, he was basically saying, keep counting in Arizona where it looks like at that stage I'm behind, but stop counting in other states where it looks like I'm winning. I also don't follow the logic.

Right. Also, would this mean that the votes for Republican Senate candidates were illegitimate, too? Anyway, so as we go forward, we can anticipate more anti-democratic ranting and then just more counting. Yes, more counting. So according to The New York Times, we'll get more definitive results from Michigan later tonight, as in Wednesday night. And in Pennsylvania, officials have said they expect most votes will be counted by Friday. It's important to be patient, everybody. We knew this was going to be a long process, and it could be longer than we

expect. But for what it's worth, Biden is ahead in the popular vote, and he's won more total votes than Clinton did last time when she won the popular vote. For his part, Trump also gained votes over his 2016 total, which I guess was to be expected in such a high turnout election. But, you know, whatever. Deep breaths, everyone. We'll have more in the coming days. But for now, that's the latest. And now for some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The United States is officially no longer part of the Paris Climate Agreement,

which unites almost 200 countries in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Trump formally announced his decision to withdraw last year, but there was a mandatory year-long waiting period before withdrawal could happen. That period presumably exists to let member nations decide if they really hate the planet or they were just acting out due to being hangry. The U.S. has overall produced more carbon dioxide than any other country in history and is currently the second highest emitter behind China. Emissions rose under the first two years of Trump's presidency, partly because his administration rolled back lots of limits on pollution. Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement also means that the U.S. will no longer be contributing to a global fund to help smaller, poorer countries deal with the effects of climate change. The U.S. pledged $3 billion to that fund

under Obama, but in 2017, Trump decided not to provide the $2 billion we still owed. If Biden does get elected, he's promised to rejoin that agreement. While we were furiously sketching electoral outcomes last night with old magic markers and string, coronavirus continued to rage across the U.S. The five days leading up to the election were the five highest days of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. Yesterday ranked fourth with about 85,000 new reported cases. Hospitalizations have been surging, too, topping 50,000 nationally yesterday for the first time since early August. On Monday, coordinator of the White House COVID Task Force, Dr. Deborah Birx, sent a

memo to White House officials contradicting Trump's recent claims that the country is, quote, rounding a corner. This is also contradicted by data. And Birx also called for a more aggressive approach to fighting the pandemic, which she said is in its, quote, most concerning and most deadly phase. Yikes. Getting back to the election, dead-eyed progressives who were desperately seeking joy last night

could find it in some exciting down-ballot results. Florida voted yes on an amendment that will raise the state's minimum wage to $15 from $8.56. Hell yeah. That makes them the eighth state in the country to move their minimum wage to $15 an hour in a move that's expected to affect 2.5 million workers. Utah and Nebraska voted to remove language from their constitutions that says slavery and forced labor can be used as punishment for crimes. That brings those states well into the late 19th century.

But hey, a win is a win. And lastly, we're welcoming New Jersey and Arizona to the Chill States Club after voters there chose to legalize marijuana. They'll be joining 11 other states where you can't go to jail for doing something that pretty much everyone has done. In historic news, Sarah McBride won a state Senate seat in Delaware, making her the first openly trans state senator and the highest ranking trans legislator in American history. Hell yeah, go off, Sarah. One result from yesterday that only the most skilled analysts predicted, Lil Wayne's relationship imploded. This came after the New Orleans rapper and voice of 2007 endorsed Trump last week. At the time, Wayne applauded Trump's

platinum plan for black Americans. Hard to imagine what was in that. Maybe it involves, I don't know, making racists feel so comfortable they fall asleep while driving and fly off bridges. Anyway, soon after Wayne's announcement, gossip bloggers noticed that he and his girlfriend model Denise Bedeau unfollowed each other on Instagram. Bedeau also made an IG story post that read, quote, sometimes love just isn't enough. Could be about little Wayne, could also just be a summary of the movie Marriage Story, which had a lasting impact on us all. Friends of Bedeau said it wasn't just Wayne's Trump support that caused the breakup, but that was a big part. If you left your partner because they supported Trump, please contact your local Democratic Party, Black Lives Matter or DSA chapter and ask to see the list of the hottest,

most single volunteers. That is a great plan. Take it to the bank list of the hottest, most single volunteers. That is a great plan. Take it to the bank. Yeah, I might be on there. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, keep the damn faith and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just key race alerts 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 we'll know when we know. We just don't know yet. We just don't. 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.