What A Day - Pence Like Nobody's Watching
Episode Date: October 26, 2020At least 5 aides of Mike Pence including his Chief of Staff have tested positive for Covid-19, but Pence still isn’t going to quarantine. The country is seeing record numbers of new cases, with over... 85,000 new cases last Friday… that fits with a recent admission from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that the federal government is “not going to control the pandemic.” Over 59 million people have already voted in the election and far fewer votes are undecided this year than they were in 2016. We take a look at how Trump and Biden are spending their final week on the campaign trail and how polls are looking in key states. And in headlines: police fatally shoot 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette in Illinois, Spain declares a national state of emergency, and HHS blows a deal with Santa.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
It's Monday, October 26th. I'm Akilah Hughes.
And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What The Day, where we are trying desperately to stay
calm in the last eight days before the election.
Yeah, I've told myself not to go and make a run on all the toilet paper like we did
back in March. Just stay calm. And I think that this will be okay.
I am returning 4,000 Crest whitening strips that I bought in the frenzy yesterday for no reason at all.
You didn't need those.
On today's show, the pandemic hits new records in the U.S.
Plus, we look at what's in store for the final week of the presidential campaigns.
Then some headlines.
But first, the latest.
So here's what we have to do. We're not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control
the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation. Why aren't we going to get
areas because it is a contagious virus, just like the flu. But why not make efforts to contain it?
That was White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on CNN yesterday,
basically giving up on controlling the virus. And look, I'm not surprised. Nothing really
surprises me about this anymore. But isn't this kind of like when you get a dumbass in your group
project and they demand to lead it, but instead of somewhere along the way, realizing what we
all realize from jump that they are ill-equipped to lead, they're just like, guys, my idea is we
just go in there and fail. Like, even the dumbest person in the
group project would at least have some response, right? Like at least aim for a D.
Yeah, shoot for the moon. And later Meadows in the interview ended up kind of equivocating when
he was pressed and seemed to land on the idea that they should keep people from dying as opposed to
keeping the virus from spreading wildly. One thing you would think would lead to another, but
it's kind of wild to publicly admit this sort of defeat, especially with the coronavirus drama
hitting the leader of the task force, Vice President Pence. That's right. So by now,
you may have heard that more and more Pence staffers have tested positive for COVID-19.
And it feels a little soon to have a call back to the beginning of October, but the White House is
once again covered in germs. On Saturday night, it was reported that at least five Pence aides had tested positive
for the virus, including his own chief of staff.
But that hasn't stopped Mike Pence from continuing his campaign schedule or from presiding over
the Senate vote tonight to confirm Ainey Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
When asked by all reasonable people why he would do this, he said he's following the
CDC guidelines as a, quote, essential worker,, even though one, he's had close, prolonged contact
with people who just tested positive.
And two, how essential is he?
I mean, he's not even doing his job
as the head of the task force.
Like you can't tell us
that you aren't going to do the homework,
but use the homework as an excuse to go out.
Just make it make sense, Gideon.
I don't really get it.
I wish I honestly could.
And we should say that so far,
Pence has tested negative,
but he may not be out of the window of infection. So we'll keep monitoring this story. And then the
new uptick in cases at the White House is happening at the same time as a pretty explosive uptick in
cases across the country. So, Akilah, where do those daily cases stand now? Yeah, we're breaking
records left and right, Gideon. Not in the way that you want, though. So on Friday, there were
85,000 new recorded cases, according to The New York Times.
That's the highest amount in a single day in the entirety of the pandemic.
And then Saturday hit us with another high number, 78,000 new cases.
That same day, Ohio, Alaska, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Illinois all recorded their most new cases in a single day.
Hospitalizations have grown by 40%
since September. In Utah, frontline hospital workers sent a warning to the governor explaining
that they'll have to start rationing access to the ICU and requesting approval of new criteria
for who will get first priority for those beds, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Some hospitals
in Tennessee have had to put an end to all elective procedures to make space for the uptick
in COVID. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has asked the federal government to authorize the use of
a military hospital outside of El Paso to treat civilians with COVID because they're overloaded
at the moment. And it goes without saying, but this doesn't bode well for a leaderless nation
going into Halloween and the continuation of in-person voting. Yeah, this definitely seems
to be a scary, scary inflection point. So there's
still no leadership from the top, but to what extent are state and local officials coming up
with a strategy here? Well, the politicians who died on the hill of not wearing masks still aren't
instituting mask mandates, even in states with the biggest upticks like North Dakota and South Dakota,
partly because the issue has become so politicized. And even though Dr. Fauci said on Friday that the
U.S. should consider a national mask mandate to save lives, you know, no one's biting. But there are some restrictions
popping up here and there. So, for example, in New Mexico, the Democratic governor is now requiring
any business that has four reports of COVID over a two-week period to close for two weeks.
All retail establishments must close by 10 p.m. Same with all bars and restaurants,
and capacity is limited.
Another more targeted example is Chicago,
where Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced last Thursday that bars which don't serve food
can no longer allow customers inside
and warned that if the numbers continue to rise,
indoor dining may be next on the privilege list to go.
Starting immediately and continuing for the next two weeks,
there will also be a curfew in place
for all non-essential businesses after 10 p.m.
So we will keep you updated as more closings and lockdown orders are expected.
But moving on to the other major thing happening in 2020, the election.
This is, if you weren't aware, the last week of the campaign, which has somehow been pretty stable in polling, despite the relentless curveballs this country has faced all year.
No matter what happens this week, we will get you through it. But Gideon, to start, how have the presidential candidates
handled this new level of severity in the pandemic in the last few days?
Yeah, I mean, I think it's in a way that we could have all expected at this point,
and one that's pretty consistent with how things have been going for the last few months.
But President Trump in the last few days has been in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Florida,
two states he won in 2016 and one that he lost narrowly.
Wisconsin also, we should add, is one of the states experiencing a significant uptick in
cases right now and where large rallies are probably not welcome.
And on the pandemic, the consistent line has been from him that, quote, we're rounding
the turn.
This is despite the fact that many public health officials have talked about these dire,
warnings of this moment in the U.S.
as we continue to break those daily records and cases.
Here is Trump at a rally in New Hampshire on Sunday.
Many of our greatest companies and labs are coming out very quickly with the vaccines.
They're doing great. Very shortly, very quickly.
It's going to be delivered fast. That will quickly end the pandemic.
It's ending anyway. We're rounding the turn, but the vaccine will get it down fast. Because we want normal life to resume, normal life. We just want normal life.
Normal life. We do want normal life. That is the one true part of what he said. But
former Vice President Joe Biden didn't have in-person events yesterday, but he was in
Pennsylvania on Saturday, another typically blue state that Trump won in 2016, which is going to be a big focus this week. And some of his recent
events have been staged as drive-ins as a way to keep himself and others safe with cars that are
there honking kind of goofily instead of traditional applause. Here's Biden at that event on Saturday.
Folks, I have an admission to make. There's so many of you here.
I wish I could go to car to car and meet you all.
I don't like the idea of all this distance, but it's necessary.
I appreciate you being safe.
What we don't want to do is become super spreaders.
We don't want to become super spreaders, that's for sure.
So, yes, there is this massive gulf between these candidates, both in the different way that
they've talked about our current situation, whether there are cases ballooning in the White
House or outside of it, and how they've actually campaigned. And that has been the case for quite
some time now. Yeah, you can definitely tell that one person is taking it seriously and the other
never will. But as of Sunday night, over 59 million people have already voted, and the turnout is crazy high in some places.
In Texas, for instance, about 80% of the total votes cast last time have already been cast with over a week to go.
So with all that being said, what does this final week look like?
It's a great question.
I have a feeling that it'll be different than it has in the past because everything has been different.
But barring any other insane, unpredictable stuff, there are a couple of notable things that are happening. One is that early vote that you were
talking about. And this week, we're probably going to see more polls that take into account
the final debate from last week. But given, you know, the stability of the race thus far,
and all that early voting, it's hard to say if anything significant would change there,
but we'll keep an eye on it. And then this is a very oversimplistic version of the last few weeks of 2016. But back then, there were more undecided voters going into that final
stretch. There was the Access Hollywood tape, there was the Comey letter. And there was as a
result, a lot of late movement from voters that we only really fully comprehended by the time the
election was over. And then on the messaging this time, you're seeing Biden continue to amplify the
pandemic and the president's terrible response to it.
And you're seeing Trump try new tactics yet again, like highlighting a comment Biden made
about a transition from the oil industry during the last debate.
Trump seems to think that could play to his benefit in places like Pennsylvania.
And he's been misconstruing what Biden said, while Biden has tried to clarify by asserting
that he wants to get rid of subsidies for fossil fuels and not ban fracking. There's an inherent tension in that with the Biden campaign trying not to
alienate certain voters who might be in those industries or rely on them while also being the
climate candidate for younger voters. Yeah. And then in terms of travel and events,
one that caught a lot of people's attention was Biden going to Georgia this Tuesday.
Yeah. It's a traditionally red state that Trump
won, although a lot more narrowly than in the past in 2016. But now it's neck and neck at the
presidential level and into Senate races there, according to the polling that we have. And everyone
tries to read into these things like we are doing right this very second. Does this mean that Biden
can and should also go to Texas, for instance, where he is surprisingly running close with Trump?
Does this mean he's being overconfident and will get an unhappy surprise in the Midwestern states
akin to, you know, when Clinton went to Arizona at the end of the 2016 campaign?
Will it ultimately bear no impact except to the good people of Georgia who would like to see Biden
and honk at him? To all of which I say beats me. Yeah, well, beats me too. I know how I wanted to
go, but I don't know how it's going to
shake out. But what we do know for a fact is that based on the last presidential election,
Trump has a really narrow path. And one of the states that is going to be crucial to him and
Biden is Pennsylvania. 100%. And that's why we've been seeing a lot of them and their surrogates in
the state recently, and why we're likely to see more visits soon. Obama, for instance, gave his
first big speech for Biden there last week.
They're really, really focused on this state.
It's because of the three typically blue Midwestern states that went for Trump in 2016,
Biden's average lead in Pennsylvania is comparatively a bit smaller than in Wisconsin and Michigan.
And for Biden's Electoral College outlook, if he holds on to the Clinton-won states
and then he gets back Pennsylvania, Michigan Michigan and Wisconsin, the race is over.
It is done.
Similarly, then, if Trump held on to all of his states from 2016, drops Wisconsin and Michigan, but holds Pennsylvania, he would win.
Hence, it is this tipping point state with a tipping point status and why a lot of the focus, both in rhetoric and time spent, is there, not to mention the legal cases we're seeing as well.
We're going to have a lot more on the election throughout this week, but that is the latest for now. It's Monday WOD Squad, and for today's Tim Check,
we're checking back in with a story from season one of the pandemic,
murder hornets, which were first reported in the U.S. late last year.
Well, as of Saturday, employees of the Washington State Department of Agriculture
have destroyed the first murder hornet nest found in the U.S.
The workers suited up in extremely space-age protective suits and vacuumed out the whole nest,
isolating the extremely poisonous hornets and tubes.
The department will hold a press briefing today to announce their next move in the war on hornets.
So, Giddy, we've all seen the cool protective bee gear.
Do you think if you had the right equipment, you could be a part of team destroying fatal bees?
I think so. I think I've been stung by enough bees and withstood the blows over the years that,
you know, if I had this to block me and let's say they stung, I assume they could still
sting through this because they are murder hornets after all. I think it would be okay.
I don't know that I would be leading the front of the spacesuit formation,
but I think I could see myself being there in the proper gear.
Yeah.
I mean, I could see that for you.
You know, say the election goes sideways
and you got to find a new career that's a little under the radar.
You in a very futuristic bee costume is not unlikely.
I think that's kind of tight.
I think it's a positive way to impact society, potentially, at least on
a local level, you know, maybe, maybe, you know, that's in the cards in terms of conservation.
You probably have to study for this or something.
You probably have to know some environmental thing here to be putting insects in the tubes.
Probably a little bit.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah. So it might, there might be a steep learning curve.
But same question for you, Akilah.
Are you going in with this elite force
to take out these bees?
No.
I don't want to do that.
I don't like the idea of wearing special clothes
to do something I don't want to do.
They could have me completely in a bubble
that the hornets can't,
you know, infiltrate. And I would rather just not do it. That's not my vibe. It's not who I am.
You know, I'm not motivated by ending different bee outfits, you know, if they want to do their
thing, fine. I also think like, it's wild that they created outfits and like have a special
task force for this. That's being more like effective and controlling the spread of these hornets
that we can do with like a disease.
Like how is it possible that we don't all have outfits
that can protect from COVID by now?
There's just nothing.
It's out here with masks doing our best.
Yeah.
You know, it's an interesting thing.
Maybe if like we expanded the hornet fighting unit
by the transitive property,
we'd all end up with these suits and we would all be ending the pandemic as well. Maybe the key to
the end of the pandemic is us going in and getting these suits, fighting the bees and bringing them
back for humanity. I'm just making this Armageddon now. It doesn't really make sense.
Honestly, you know, I appreciate you trying to convince me and I'll leave it there.
But just like that, we've checked our temps.
Stay safe.
If you're a murder hornet, I hope you find somewhere welcoming to live soon.
And we'll be back after some ads.
Let's wrap up with some headlines.
Headlines.
People in Waukegan, Illinois, came out to protest over the weekend following the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager.
Last Tuesday, an unnamed officer opened fire on 19-year-old Marcellus Sinet and 20-year-old Tafara Williams following a traffic stop. Sinet later died from his injuries in the hospital,
and Williams was severely injured and is still in recovery. The police department claims that
the couple's car reversed towards the officer, who then responded by firing multiple rounds into the
car. But family members of Sinet and Williams, as well as a few of the witnesses to the tragedy,
have challenged the police's account. The police department said they won't release squad car or body cam footage
to the public until after a police investigation, but activists are calling for the immediate
release of these videos, as well as the officer's name and a federal investigation. They're also
calling for the officer who has been fired to be arrested and prosecuted. Countries in Europe are
still dealing with a second wave of COVID-19 cases sweeping the
continent. Spain declared a national state of emergency over the weekend, establishing an
overnight curfew that's set to remain in place for six months. This is the second state of emergency
the country has declared since the pandemic began, but the rules are not as restrictive this time
around. Last week, Spain became the first European country to surpass 1 million recorded COVID-19 cases.
France's total hit 1 million hours later.
And France broke its own records for new daily COVID-19 cases twice over the weekend,
with Sunday's total reaching over 52,000 cases.
The country now has the world's fifth highest number of COVID-19 cases,
surpassing Spain and following the U.S., India, Brazil, and Russia.
Scary, scary times. California
wildfire season extended edition could continue this week with conditions today and tomorrow
regarded as the most favorable conditions for wildfires so far this year. It doesn't end.
The northern part of the state is experiencing very dry air and hurricane force winds.
On Sunday, these conditions led energy provider Pacific Gas and Electric to preemptively cut power
to about one million residents. PG&E's rickety infrastructure has been the cause of multiple large fires over
the past few years. So by turning themselves off, they are doing what a good werewolf does when he
handcuffs himself to a fence before a full moon. Hotter air temps and drier soil resulting from
climate change have lengthened California's fire season and made it more destructive.
Cold and rational listeners can take comfort, though, in knowing that large areas of burnt vegetation across the state
from September fires could make it harder for new fires to spread.
So, yay, silver lining. U.S. North Pole relations are once again in free fall after a $250 million
Health and Human Services PSA campaign involving mall Santas was halted in a manner one Santa described as, quote, extremely disappointing. The role of Santas in the
campaign was to promote the benefits of a COVID-19 vaccination, and in return,
they'd get early vaccine access. That would be big for Santas, not just because their job puts
them up close to germ-rich kids, but also because their age and reckless cookie consumption make
them a high-risk group for COVID. For another explanation of why giving Santa's early vaccines made sense,
here's HHS Assistant Secretary Michael Caputo on the phone with the chairman of a national
Santa collective. If you and your colleagues are not essential workers, I don't know what is.
I love you. Folks, that laugh means that for Santa, the hustle never stops.
And frankly, I'm inspired by it.
Anyway, several House Democrats took issue with the larger $250 million campaign,
saying that it felt like propaganda for Trump's COVID response disguised as a public health effort.
Actor Dennis Quaid dropped out of the campaign because of similar concerns.
On Friday, HHS Secretary Alex Azar ordered a review of the campaign to see whether it's serving its purpose.
Rest assured, Santa is doing his own review and Azar will be found naughty.
I agree. Get him on that list. And those are the headlines.
One last thing before we go, in case you missed it, presidential candidate Joe Biden was on Pod Save America over the weekend in a special interview episode.
Pod Save has been chasing this interview with Biden for over a year and it finally happened.
So definitely check it out on the Pod Save America feed and subscribe wherever you get podcasts.
That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, vaccinate Santa, and tell your friends to listen.
And if you're into reading and not just Santa's list of naughty HHS officials like me,
what if there's also a nightly newsletter?
Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe.
I'm Akilah Hughes.
I'm Gideon Resnick.
And we stand with you, Dennis Quaid.
I don't remember which one you are, but you seem like a good one.
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 Kshaka.