What A Day - Not My Debate, Not My Monkeys

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

Eight Republican presidential candidates went head to head for the first GOP primary debate in Milwaukee Wednesday night. Notably absent from the lineup was Donald Trump — the former president instead appeared in a pre-recorded interview with Tucker Carlson that debuted on X at the exact same time as the nationally televised event. We’re joined by Crooked’s Editor-in-Chief Brian Beutler and Alyssa Mastromonaco of Crooked’s Hysteria podcast for their takes on who stood out on the debate stage.And in headlines: Russian authorities said that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the country’s paramilitary Wagner Group, died in a plane crash, South Carolina’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s near-total abortion ban, and Fyre Fest 2 tickets went on sale.Show Notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, August 24th. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Juanita Tolliver. And this is What A Day, the podcast that's giving a toast to 20 years of pumpkin spice lattes. Yes, it is PSL season, baby. They are back at Starbucks starting today. I don't want to hear a peep about how it's too early. The only thing better is a PSL from a unionized Starbucks.

Because, yes. Hell yeah. We want the workers respected. Absolutely. On today's show, the man who led a mutiny against the Kremlin in June is presumed dead in a plane crash. Plus, Fyre Fest 2 is coming and the first round of tickets is already sold out. But first... You don't take somebody like Fauci and coddle him. You bring Fauci in, you sit him down, and you say, Anthony, you are fired. That was just a small clip of the absolute chaos that took place in Milwaukee last night

during the first GOP presidential primary debate of the election season. Yes, plenty more chaos where that came from. But to break it all down, we are joined by Crooked's editor in chief, Brian Boitler and Alyssa Mastromonaco of Crooked's Hysteria podcast. Thank you both so much for joining us. It's great to be here. Thanks, guys. All right, y'all, let's jump right into it. So the debate started on the topic of the economy with Ron DeSantis immediately going in on Bidenomics, saying it must be reversed. Chris Christie largely agreed. And Nikki Haley came in with this bit. The truth is that Biden didn't do this to us. Our Republicans did this to us, too.

When they passed that two point two trillion dollar covid stimulus bill, they left us with 90 million people on Medicaid, 42 million people on food stamps. No one has told you how to fix it. I'll tell you how to fix it. They need to stop the spending. They need to stop the borrowing. They need to eliminate the earmarks that Republicans brought back in. And they need to make sure they understand these are taxpayer dollars. It's not their dollars. All right. So I got to know, what's your take on what she had to say and how did that set her apart from the others on stage? And Brian, let's start their dollars. All right. So I got to know, what's your take on what she had to say? And how did that set her apart from the others on stage? And Brian, let's start with you. I was reminded when she said that, that I think earlier this week, she said something

to the effect of we don't want unions to come pollute the economy in South Carolina. Right. And so that's like a big flank of Bidenomics. And she, I suppose, is going to want to take that message that Bidenomics and his support for unions is poison or toxic in some way to Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, big union states. And she's going to bring the whole Republican Party along with her because the whole Republican Party agrees with her about unions. Their attacks on Bidenomics will possibly ring true in the current moment where

inflation hasn't come all the way down, where people are still adjusting to the fact that their wages are rising faster than inflation. But when it comes to the fall campaign, as long as the economy is continuing on this trajectory, that message is going to fall flat and they're going to be left with things like we need to disband unions, which is not going to help them. I do think it's so interesting how they really seem to hate teachers unions. Oh, my gosh. 100%. What's different, you guys, about teachers unions than the makeup of other unions?

It's so strange why they seem to hate teachers unions so much. But also I thought that, you know, she dipped her toe into the am I going to speak truth to power? Am I going to separate myself from everybody by saying what I know to be the truth instead of saying what I know people want to hear? The one thing that was interesting about the very beginning of the debate, and it did sort of haunt me throughout, I am so surprised any of the campaigns agreed to booing to any reaction from the audience. It would have helped Trump. If Trump were at the debate, his people would have been like, yes, yes, yes, we want it, and they would have gotten it. But it just seems so strange to me that any of them would have wanted the reaction.

It's a very vocal crowd. Yeah. Very interactive. Very interactive. I was like, oh, my God, you guys. Half the time you couldn't even tell what they were actually doing. You're like, are they cheering? Are they booing?

What are they doing? But it was fun because you got to hear, like, what they booed and what they cheered and they would hear things like the January 6th insurrection and like handing Ukraine to Vladimir Putin. Right. Even without Trump there to kind of egg them on, they know what their cues are. And it's those things. Certainly. Another big issue that came up last night was climate change. Let's take a listen to Vivek Ramaswamy on what he had to say. The climate change agenda is a hoax. I believe right before that, he said he was the only candidate on that stage who was not bought and paid for and then came out with that. So what

were some of the responses to that question in general that stood out to you from the debate? Alyssa, let's start with you this time. I think it's incredible to watch an entire stage of people get up there and just say that climate change isn't happening. I wasn't sure what I was going to get out of watching this debate. Vivek is terrifying. Yeah. Wholly terrifying. And I did not know that going into the debate. Nor did I. Yeah. He definitely let us know tonight. Can I set the record straight about what he literally said? Yes, please. I'm the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for. So I can say, you know, without any kind of like fears about who's like going to come back at me that climate change is a hoax. The only people in the world who say climate change is a hoax are like deep conspiracy theorists and people who are

bought and paid for. You do not get money in the world for saying climate change is real or that you want to raise the carbon tax. Nobody pays you money to say that. It's actually the other way around. I guess in a Republican primary field where they're maybe kind of playing footsie with maybe we shouldn't be such climate deniers, it makes sense to try to frame it

that way. But I really think what he's doing is he is just trying to find the Trump wavelength so that Trump, if he's watching me, I say climate change is a hoax because Trump says climate change is a hoax. I say I will pardon Donald Trump because I hope Donald Trump is watching and will know that I'm the only person willing to go there because he made everyone in that auditorium hate him, including people in the audience turned on him. But like, he doesn't care about any of them.

He only cares about Trump. Such a good point. 100%. And when he said it, I was like, oh, he just locked in the VP position if Trump becomes the nominee. Like that's exactly what his mission was. And he delivered, like you said, Alyssa, terrifyingly well. All right, let's pivot now down to the moment when Fox cut to a live view of the Fulton County, Georgia jail last night and asked candidates if they would still

support Donald Trump as their party's nominee, even if he was convicted of election interference in the state. You all signed a pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee. If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party's choice? Please raise your hand if you would. So the hands went up and then Ramaswamy defended Donald Trump going so far as to say this. President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century. So it seems like while DeSantis didn't use that leaked debate strategy, defend Trump, be on his side, stand up for him, clearly Ramaswamy did.

So let's talk about that. Brian, you first. What's your reaction to that? What I found a little disappointing about that section is that I think that there was an opportunity, and like Asa Hutchinson kind of took it, and Chris Christie kind of took it, to say this is all wrong. What Donald Trump did was wrong, even if you don't think that he should go to prison for it. What they didn't do was use that fact, which is it's true, right? Everyone in the room knows it's true, but they weren't able to

parlay that into a way to make all the Trump sycophants from Ramaswamy on down look ridiculous, like look cowardly and look craven. Chris Christie leapt to Mike Pence's defense for having not participated in the coup, but he didn't turn there around to say, and all you people who won't say that, even though you know it's true, are cowards and shame on you. But he could have. And I think that in part it was because Ramaswamy was just shouting at everyone and getting in their heads and frazzling them that he wasn't able to find that pitch. But that was the pitch I was looking for, the one that might have unsettled things in an interesting

way and gotten more people to say, okay, our position on Trump is untenable. But it never really happened. All throughout this debate, I kept like drifting into different television shows, like it felt like succession. I kept hearing people speak in like Martin Sheen's voice. I'm like, maybe if they sounded like Martin Sheen, they'd sound smart. But mostly I thought that that last part was the real like Thelma and Louise, Mike Pence and Chris Christie are like, we're going over the cliff together. But like they hit the brake right before they got to the edge of the cliff. Failure to follow through. Yeah. They were super dramatic. They were like, let's go. And then they're like, you know, like they all had an opportunity and they totally squandered it because they're like pussies, I guess.

Name it. Yeah. That's what happens when you get me in my pajamas, you guys. She said, I just agree. Yeah. So in general, a lot of finger pointing, a lot of interrupting on that stage last night. But when it came to the issues that were discussed from abortion to education to UFOs, bizarrely, who stood out to you? And you know, who faded into the background in this debate? Alyssa, let's start with you. Let's caveat everything with, I don't agree with these people, okay? No, totally. Absolutely. Heavy asterisks.

Just caveat. I feel like Mike Pence had a pretty good night. He did a fairly nuanced job of taking credit for the Trump stuff while saying Trump didn't uphold the Constitution, which is pretty clinical about it too, right? He's like, he didn't uphold the Constitution.

I did. So I thought that Pence had a pretty good night. Honestly, Vivek, for having never debated like this ever, I thought he did a pretty good job. And Chris Christie, of all of them, I think has the most well-reasoned plans, even if I don't agree with them. I think he's the person who's actually thought through from A to Z on like half of it, I think. Anybody that faded into the background that you may have expected more out of? Not that you expected to agree with.

You know, I kind of thought DeSantis was like, you know, Homer Simpson into the head. 100%. He's like, listen, they've all decided to take each other down. So I'm just going to be real, real quiet. You know, he had like the Vaseline on his teeth. He just kept smiling.

He was like, if I don't move, they won't notice me. Exactly. Exactly. What about you, Brian? Any standouts and any flops? I would say that the candidate who had the best night at the debate was Donald Trump. The candidate who was on stage who had the best night for the reasons we've already gone over was Vivek Ramaswamy, not because anyone likes him. Like again, everyone came to hate him because he's just a cock.

He did a better job than anyone else playing to Donald Trump's narcissism. And I think that he might well be rewarded for it in the future. Pence warmed up and he's finally gotten over trying to straddle this line where he's like, I'm going to be like kind of pro-Trump, but also I don't appreciate that he tried to get me killed. And somehow, despite having taken every possible position on Trump three times, Nikki Haley came across very in command and like swatted down Ramaswamy very eloquently and like forcefully. I agree that Ron DeSantis was oddly absent. And I got to say that Doug Burgum makes me think that at some point in our lifetimes,

we could have just kind of normal political debates from time to time. Okay, Brian. It wouldn't be so bad. And it would be like hokey small town Republican versus big city Democrat. And we'll just talk about that instead of whatever all that crap was that we just listened to. His closing statement was the one in my head.

I was like, if Martin Sheen was giving this, I'd be into it. It looks like Martin Sheen, too. You know, I was like, okay. His delivery wasn't good, but in another voice, in moderator voice, it would have been much, much better. But Nikki Haley and Vivek yelling at each other were like Logan and Kendall blaming the chocolate milk in the Range Rover on SHIB. I was like, this is outrageous that this is happening.

I can get with that 100 percent. And of course, we cannot forget Tucker Carlson's interview with Donald Trump that debuted on X at the same time as last night's debate. At the very end, Tucker asked Trump this question. You think we're moving towards civil war? There's tremendous passion and there's tremendous love. You know, January 6th was a very interesting day because they don't report it properly. I believe it was the largest crowd I've ever spoken before.

This is one of the many unhinged things that came out of that interview. So Brian, starting with you, how much will these debates matter to Republican primary voters when Trump looms large, does his own thing and still finds a way to always bring the spotlight back to him? I just think that the challenge for Republicans is like, what do you do when there's somebody in the race who everyone knows shouldn't be president again, shouldn't be the candidate again, but he's polling at 60 percent? Which means unless some part of that dynamic changes, they're all going to lose, right? None of them is going to become president. People like Christie and Asa Hutchison need to figure out how to break this collective action problem that they have so that there's more people in that field talking about how big of a disaster this is going to be. But Trump didn't show up in part because he was scared.

He was scared of Chris Christie. That was a big reason he didn't show up. And correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think at any point anyone on the debate stage pointed out that he's a coward. He ducked the debate because he's scared. No. Nobody. No one said that.

It's the sort of thing where if you get four or five of the people who are polling at 20, 10, 5% to say the same thing, and it just becomes like the lore among the other candidates, you might be able to chip away at that. But if he's at 60% and they're not doing anything to try to undermine that, then the dynamic is not going to change. Something else would have to intercede to make his numbers come down. doing anything to try to undermine that, then the dynamic is not going to change, right? Like something else would have to intercede to make his numbers come down. And unless he gets convicted of a crime and goes to prison, I'm not sure what that would be. Well, they would still ride with him though. They made that clear tonight. Alyssa, jump in on this. What do you think? If I were these Republicans all on the stage, I would just get together and figure out a way

to antagonize Trump to violate the terms of his bond. Like, what are they doing? You guys, there's some low-hanging fruit here, and they are not picking it up. I'm like, guys, what are you doing? This is so easy. Yeah, I guess they're all thinking about the next job, whether it's president or cabinet secretary, vice president, or whatever else. Yeah, totally. If they just accept it, I'm never going to be president. And it's possible that on a kamikaze mission, I might never have a senior job in Republican politics again. But I might be able to help Republicans nominate somebody like Doug Burgum so that the party doesn't just eat itself alive or so that we don't end up with a second Trump term and whatever that would bring the United States. A lot is possible.

They just can't make themselves do it because if they lose his supporters, they don't get that job. Yeah, sadly, only two out of the eight people on stage last night had that kind of altruistic approach, though. Yeah. It's weird to call Chris Christie civic-minded, but there is something civic-minded about what he's doing. Thank you. That is Alyssa Mastromonaco of Crooked's Hysteria Podcast

and Crooked's Editor-in-Chief, Brian Boitler. Thank you both so much for joining us. Always a pleasure to chat with both of you. This was fun. Thanks. Thanks, guys. The next Republican presidential debate is on Wednesday, September 27th from the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, where I'm sure they will only have good things to say about being in that state.

That is the latest for now. We'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Russian authorities said yesterday that Yevgeny Progozhin, the leader of the country's paramilitary Wagner Group, died in a plane crash just outside of Moscow. While U.S. intelligence hasn't been able to confirm reports of Progozhin's death, the military chief was listed as a passenger on the plane that crashed,

killing all 10 people on board. A quick little refresher on who Progozhin is, he was a close ally of Putin's who served as the chief of the Wagner Group, a group of mercenaries for hire that have typically operated in Africa and other parts of the world in partnership with the Kremlin. Wagner has been critical to Putin's invasion of Ukraine ever since last year when they were recruited for the war. But back in June, as you may remember, Prokosin led an armed convoy towards Moscow. He called it a, quote,

march for justice after he accused Putin of launching an airstrike on his own fighters. Prokosin ended up calling the whole thing off before the march actually reached the city, but it was momentous. The move marked one of the biggest threats to Putin's leadership in over two decades, and many were shocked when Russian officials exiled Prokhorin to Belarus without

pressing any criminal charges. But it seems that the military leader may have met a similar end to that of Putin's other enemies. If confirmed, Prokhorin's death could give Russian authorities the opportunity to formally take over the Wagner group. I feel like since June, we have been waiting to see what would happen to this man. And this is exactly as everyone feared. It's the Putin playbook. Absolutely. More of Trump's co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case turned themselves in yesterday, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He was formerly Trump's personal lawyer

and played a key role in pushing claims that the election was stolen from Trump. He faces 13 felony counts. His bond was set to $150,000. And like other defendants, Giuliani was released after booking and taking a pretty fugly mugshot. They can't all be winners.

They can't all be good mugshots. Also Wednesday, a federal judge rejected efforts from two former Trump administration officials, Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark, to avoid arrest if they don't surrender by Friday's deadline. Several other defendants have already surrendered to Fulton County authorities ahead of Friday's deadline, including lawyers Kenneth Chesbrough, Sidney Powell and Ray Smith, former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party David Schaefer, attorney Jenna Ellis, and others. As a reminder, Trump plans to surrender at the Fulton County Jail today,

and one website is already taking bets on his mugshot, from if he'll smile to his weight at booking. Okay, let's be real. No body shaming allowed. Yeah, we're not body shaming the man. Like, it doesn't matter what he does, smile or or frown with that overhead angle and that overhead lighting he's gonna look horrid it is what it is well i fear like he's gonna come out of it like he always does like i feel like he's gonna be smiling i feel like it's gonna be a double thumbs up i feel like it's gonna be on a t-shirt by the end of day we have two big losses in the fight for abortion access.

South Carolina Supreme Court, which is newly all men, just for the record, upheld the state's new near total ban on abortion by a four to one vote. That new law bans abortion after cardiac activity can be detected in the embryo, which is typically around six weeks of pregnancy. The court reversed a decision made in January that struck down a similar ban, which declared that the state constitution's privacy protections include a right to abortion access. And that decision was written by, you guessed it, the court's only female justice at the time. Up until now, South Carolina had allowed abortion until 22 weeks.

Meanwhile, in Indiana, the state's near total abortion ban was upheld on Monday after their state's Supreme Court denied a rehearing on the case. On June 30th, the court ruled that the abortion ban does not violate the state's constitution until it was challenged by the ACLU. But that denial of a rehearing means that the ban will take effect within days. Some updates on the devastating Maui wildfires. As of our recording time at 9.30 p.m. Eastern, the death toll sits at 115, and authorities have identified 27 victims.

Among those who perished in the fires was 14-year-old Kiero Fuentes. His family held a memorial for him earlier this week on what would have been his 15th birthday. Take a listen to what his brother told Hawaii News Now. He had a very kind heart. A very good heart. I wish I could have made more memories with him. He was too young. If we still had time, I know he would have been a very, very, very good man. Oh, this is heartbreaking, not only for the Fuentes family, but the people who are also going to have to repeat this sad, tragic ritual of saying goodbye to their loved ones. Yeah, far too soon.

Meanwhile, the number of people who remain unaccounted for has risen. We told you on Tuesday's show that 850 people were missing, but the FBI has updated that number to over 1,000. Rescue workers have been working with local officials to compile a list of who's missing, and that process has become somewhat easier now that cell phone service is back in Lahaina. But several names on that list don't have a lot of identifying information like gender or age. Some of them are even just first names. Plus, the amount of tourists and unhoused folks in Lahaina complicates things even further because they're harder to trace and get in contact with. Local officials will start releasing names of those unaccounted for in the

coming days in hopes that the community can help find them alive. And finally, Fyre Festival is back. And the first 100 tickets have already sold out. Finding it hard to believe, but it's true. Founder and fraudster Billy McFarland announced Fyre Fest 2 earlier this week without a lineup or a specific location. Of course. All that is known so far is that it'll apparently take place in the Caribbean by the end of 2024. People committed. They don't know anyone who's going to be there. take place in the Caribbean by the end of 2024. People committed.

They don't know anyone who's going to be there. They know that the whole first thing was a scam. Sounds like these people are pretty fucking dumb, but that's okay. The first set of tickets went for $499. And per the website, the next tier of tickets start at $799. And the highest valued tickets are going for $7,999 a piece. No Taylor Swift, no Beyonce. Absolutely no reason to pay this much money

for anything associated with Billy McFarland. Especially when you can literally book your own flight and hotel for these prices and have a grand old time in the Caribbean. And a lovely vacation. Yeah, without putting a dollar into Billy McFarland's pocket, that seems like a win for everybody. McFarlane's first shot at making Fyre Festival happen was back in 2017. And as we all probably remember, it was a total disaster.

The music festival was advertised as the, quote, cultural experience of the decade. But when ticket holders arrived at the Bahamas expecting luxurious accommodations, they were met with cheese sandwiches and disaster relief tents and all those pigs on the beach that, I'm sorry, will never be out of my brain. You might remember the pictures that were posted all over social media. In 2018, McFarlane pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced to six years in prison. He was released last year and was sent to a halfway house in New York. And now I guess he is back for round two.

The only burning question I have about this is, is Ja Rule down? Like, has he promoted this? Like, is he on board? I actually think a hysterical marketing campaign for this would be like to get all the original, like really famous models and influencers to like post about it again. Zero lessons learned, but here we go. I mean, if we're not going to learn, there are several documentaries out at this point. I don't know. You might deserve to get scammed by Bailey McFarland.

And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. Experience doesn't pay the bills, y'all. That's this week's topic on Work Appropriate. Join host Anne Helen Peterson as she sits down with the writer of the starting out newsletter, Alice Wilder, to talk all about internships, the benefits, free versus paid, and more. Listen to this episode and other work-related conversations every Wednesday,

only on Work Appropriate, wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe leave a review douse out fire fest and tell your friends to listen and if you're into reading and not just what's gonna be on the menu for fire fest 2 like me what a day is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe i'm juanita tolliver i'm Priyanka Arabindi. And PSL me ASAP. I love a PSL. You're so into this.

It's nice to get excited about things. For all the haters out there, just try it. Being excited about things feels good. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producer is Itzy Quintanilla. Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers. And our senior producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.