What A Day - Not On My Ballot

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

As Israel continues its air and ground offensive into Gaza, its military says it has freed an IDF soldier who was captured by Hamas on October 7th. Meanwhile, Hamas released a video of three other Israeli hostages – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “cruel psychological propaganda,” and rejected calls for a ceasefire.A trial to determine whether Donald Trump can appear on the 2024 presidential ballot in Colorado began on Monday. The case centers on whether the former president is ineligible to hold office again, because of the “insurrectionist” clause in the 14th Amendment. And in headlines: the union representing striking auto workers reached a tentative deal with General Motors, President Biden signed a first-of-its-kind executive order on artificial intelligence, and rapper Flavor Flav’s rendition of the national anthem has gone viral.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 Tuesday, October 31st. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And I'm Trevelle Anderson, and this is What A Day. On today's show, the union representing striking autoworkers has reached a tentative deal with the last of Detroit's Big Three. Plus, President Biden signed a first-of-its-kind executive order on artificial intelligence. But first, an update on the war in Gaza. Another Israeli hostage who was taken captive by Hamas on October 7th, kicking off this stage of a decades-long conflict, is now free and back with her family. Her name is Ori Magdish, and she is an Israeli soldier reportedly rescued by the Israeli military

during their ground operations. No details have been released regarding the circumstances of her release, but as we told you yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a second phase of the war is underway and they are steadily escalating the violence on their end. Meghdi is only the fifth hostage no longer held by Hamas of the now 230 people they kidnapped. The other four were two Israeli women and two U.S. Israeli nationals who were released by Hamas on what the group called humanitarian grounds. I feel so happy for her family that she's home. I mean, just must be a nightmare and glad at least one more person, one more hostage is home. Absolutely. And speaking of those hostages, yesterday,

Hamas posted a video online of three other hostages, with one of them speaking directly to Netanyahu and blaming him for not freeing them. She said in part, quote, you were supposed to free all of us. You committed to free us all. But instead, we are carrying your political, security, military, diplomatic failure. Now, she is referencing the proposed deal that Hamas put forward that it would free all Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of the roughly 6,000 Palestinians believed to be held in Israel prisons. The woman in the video continued, quote, release their prisoners, set us all free, let us return to our families. When all of this first happened, there was a lot of discussion about give Netanyahu more support

from the people of Israel. And it seems like that is not what's happening here. There's still so much disappointment in him as a leader. How did he respond to this video? Well, as you might expect, Netanyahu's office, they condemned the clip, but they also called it, quote, cruel psychological propaganda. And they reiterated that they're doing everything they can to bring people home. But to the point you were just making, the families of the hostages are getting restless and they're starting to complain about the Israeli government and military themselves. They're wondering why after three weeks that hostages haven't been returned home and if that idea to negotiate a prisoner exchange or any other negotiations for release are even on the table anymore, especially as Israel has

intensified their airstrikes and ground operations, which could endanger the lives of the hostages. And Hamas has already said that approximately 50 of the hostages were killed as a result of Israel's bombardments, though, of course, we have no independent confirmation or proof of that claim. Netanyahu also responded to calls for a ceasefire, either to facilitate the release of hostages or to end the war, which he said would be long and difficult. So you kind of already have your answer there. He said, quote, calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas. That will not happen.

In news stateside, a new lawsuit seeks to disqualify Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot in Colorado. Lawyers are arguing that Trump violated the insurrection clause of the Constitution, making him ineligible for the presidency. If the lawsuit succeeds, the Associated Press says it could, quote, break new ground in constitutional law. Arguments in the case began yesterday. Okay, so let's start at the beginning. What is the insurrection clause? What does it say? Why are folks trying to use it here? Yeah, I have to say, Trebell, I went to all those years of law school and did not remember

the insurrection clause because it doesn't actually really come up. It is the third section of the 14th Amendment, and it says that U.S. officials who take an oath to uphold the Constitution are disqualified from future office if they shall have, quote, engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. or, quote, given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. If that sounds straightforward, it is decidedly not, since all the words in there, insurrection, rebellion, enemies, are up for interpretation. And this clause has only been considered really twice since it was enacted in the Civil War era. So it just doesn't end up playing a big part in the law or the legal education. This is pretty new ground. So the court in Colorado and other states where similar lawsuits

are expected to be brought has this big undertaking to interpret these questions. And the judge, Judge Sarah Wallace, has said there are nine topics to be addressed in the case, which is likely to last the entire week. They include, according to the New York Times, quote, whether Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies to presidents, what engage and insurrection mean under that section, whether Trump's actions fit those definitions, and whether the amendment is self-executing, which basically has to do with whether Congress has a role here in determining whether the president violated the Constitution. And there are other questions as well, including this possible amnesty clause that may or may not be relevant, but it's unclear whether everything will be decided in this case or not.

Gotcha. And who are the lawyers that are bringing this lawsuit? Yeah, interestingly enough, the lawsuit was brought by Republican and independent voters, according to CNN, who said that their goal is to, quote, ensure Colorado has a fair election among eligible candidates. The implication being this man is not eligible. However, it's obviously not just Republicans who have like an interest in this suit. In fact, it's mostly not Republicans Republicans who have, like, an interest in this suit. In fact, it's mostly not Republicans, I would say, who have an interest in this suit. The lawsuit itself is being funded by a group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which has been described as a left-leaning watchdog group. And Trump is being defended by the former Secretary of State in Colorado, Scott Gessler. He's argued that the plaintiff's case is, quote, weak, anti-democratic, and fringe,

stating that when it comes to deciding who should lead our nation, it's the people of the United States of America that get to make those decisions, not six voters in Colorado. So far in the case, along with opening statements, a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was there on January 6th has testified, as has Representative Eric Swalwell, who testified about running from the people who stormed the Capitol that day. I would just like to note in that little quote that you just read out about the people of the United States that get to make those decisions. You know, just rich, just a rich statement considering what brought us to this point. Yeah, his client has pretty much spat in the face of democracy at every single possible opportunity.

Yeah, super rich. Interesting. Okay. That does make this case a little bit complicated because while Trump seems to me a pretty straightforward case, you can imagine how like the nebulous language could be used to disqualify people. An unreasonable situation.

That being said, it's truly something when anybody related to Trump talks about democracy. Right, right. Okay, so what's next? What happens after this point? So this case is also being brought in Minnesota, or a similar case, and arguments in that case begin on Thursday. And so ultimately, we can expect this case to be brought in multiple states, including maybe multiple more states. And we can definitely

expect for it to be appealed, whatever the result is. So it's extremely unlikely that whatever the result is in these two cases will be all she wrote. This case will be appealed. It's very possible it ends up in front of the Supreme Court, or at least that the Supreme Court will have to decide whether or not to take the case. And so we could be having this conversation for the near future, at least in the months to come. We will keep you posted, but that is the latest for now. We will be back to some headlines. Headlines. The six-week-long autoworker strike is set to end as General Motors reached a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers Union yesterday. GM is the third and final member of Detroit's big three carmakers to announce a breakthrough deal after Ford and Stellantis reached their own agreements with the union

last Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. The new four and a half year labor contracts, which were based off the first deal stuck with Ford, would offer workers a 25% pay increase, among other wins. Though union members at all three companies must still vote to approve them. UAW President Sean Fain, who is credited with pushing for the aggressive strike, had this to say yesterday. For the past several weeks, analysts and pundits were crying that our union was going too far, that we were demanding too much. We didn't listen to them them and we never let up. The result is one of the most stunning

contract victories since the sit-down strikes in the 1930s. Yeah, Sean Fain has been a true firecracker these past few weeks and clearly knew what he was doing. President Biden, who briefly picketed with striking workers early on, congratulated the union on the deal as well, saying, quote, worker power is critical to building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up. At its peak, about 46,000 autoworkers across several states walked off the job at plants run by all three companies. Rescue and recovery efforts continue in western Mexico after Hurricane Otis devastated the country's southern Pacific coast last week. As of yesterday morning, authorities reported at least 45 deaths, most in the resort city of Acapulco, with another 47 people missing.

Local authorities say the storm has displaced over 1,000 people from their homes. Otis, which made landfall last Wednesday, is reportedly the strongest hurricane on record to ever hit Mexico's Pacific coast. In just 12 hours, Otis strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane, leaving people with little time to prepare. The hurricane also knocked out power and communications to the Acapulco area, though authorities say 65% of the city's electricity has since been restored. Mexico's president said he is working to deliver more food and other supplies to the region, though residents have said that help has been slow to arrive.

And over at the White House yesterday, President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order aimed at putting safeguards and oversight around artificial intelligence. The first of its kind order is meant to be the first step towards regulating the technology. Specifically, it requires AI developers to perform safety tests and share those test results and other information with the government. It also calls on federal agencies to ensure that any AI products are safe and secure before they're released to the public. In his remarks yesterday, President Biden called artificial intelligence the most consequential technology of our time. One thing is clear. To realize the promise of AI and avoid the risk, we need to

govern this technology. Biden administration officials say the order will build on existing voluntary commitments made by tech companies, though it will need additional action from Congress to carry more weight. And speaking of AI, over 1,000 members of the Writers Guild East Union have signed a petition calling on digital media companies to introduce stronger protections for journalists against the rapidly advancing technology. The petition, which went public yesterday, says that journalists working at those outlets must be included in any decision making processes surrounding AI. It also calls on those companies to, quote, publicly commit to never replacing a human worker with an AI tool.

That point was echoed by film and TV writers during their recent strike. The petition goes on to lay out a number of concerns with the technology including the potential it has for introducing factual errors and perpetuating racist and sexist biases. The signatories include writers at CBS News, MSNBC, Gimlet, The Intercept, Vox Media, and a little podcast network called Crooked Media. Maybe you've heard of them. Maybe you haven't. I have. I can personally say I've heard of Crooked Media. And finally, please rise for our national anthem and the home

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to do the honors before the team tipped off against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday evening. And the team captioned a video of his performance on social media with this. Quote, yeah boy, shout out Flava Flav for the flavorful anthem. As you'd expect, there are some who loved it, others not so much. But Flav responded to the haters himself yesterday on X, the health site formerly known as Twitter, by saying, quote, I can't live my life worried about what people might say about me. I won't let that stop me from trying new things and doing things I want to do.

Some people might not like that, but a sure failure is if you stop trying. Everything about this is perfect. Love it. Wouldn't change a single thing. Why have we not had Flav of Flav sing singing the national anthem before is my only question I do love the energy of being like just try and you two will be able to sing the national anthem because national anthem is like famously something that it's not for everybody I mean okay yes I agree with you however I personally love this reframing that Flava Flav is encouraging us to do around the national anthem. Why not have it be, you know, something that everyone can not only dream of performing,

but actually, you know, perform? And, you know, I like to think that perhaps Flava's performance is a reflection of the times that we are living in. Are you saying the quality aligns with the American vibes right now? You mean the shit show of a landscape that we are living through? Yes. And I'll remind you just very briefly when Fergie did her now iconic version back in 2018. So iconic. It too was a reflection of the shit show we were living through.

And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go, we hope you have a safe and spooky oogie Halloween out there. But if the thought of celebrating tonight with a scary movie secretly puts you off your candy corn, ruined is the podcast for you it's hosted by horror aficionado and love it or leave it head writer hallie keifer and her squeamish friend allison lybie they unpack a different horror movie every week and if you're too scared to watch

like allison fear not because hallie will ruin the movie for you let ruined help you survive spooky season with your dignity intact. Listen every week wherever you get your podcasts. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, and tell your friends to listen. Well, today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Trevelle Anderson. And I'm Josie Duffy Rice.

Well, today's a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producers, Itzy Quintanilla, Raven Yamamoto, and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers. And our senior producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gillyard and Kashaka.