What A Day - Progressives Explain What They Want Out Of Biden's Big Speech

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

President Biden delivers his third State of the Union address Thursday night ahead of this November’s election. Part of the challenge for Biden is to show voters that he’s still got the energy for another four year term. But he also has to motivate his base, including progressives who are following his campaign with varying amounts of enthusiasm. Activists and organizers across the country told us about the issues they’re most concerned about, and what they want Biden to say when he steps up to the podium.And in headlines: Nikki Haley cedes the Republican primary race to Trump, a Russian missile hits near the President of Ukraine, and a Texas company says it’s one step closer to bringing back woolly mammoths.Show Notes:“Rep. Allred to Host Dr. Austin Dennard at State of the Union” – https://tinyurl.com/24s5646jListen To Michigan campaign – https://www.listentomichigan.com/United We Dream Action – https://unitedwedreamaction.org/Debt Collective – https://debtcollective.org/What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/

It's Thursday, March 7th. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Juanita Tolliver, and this is What A Day, where we're officially strapping in for the reboot of the 2020 presidential election. Yeah, I am usually not a fan of the reboots. We are just going to have to make sure that this one ends the exact same way that the last one did. The same ending would be good, minus, you know, that little bit of insurrection on January 6th. You know, we can go without that part. Right, you are. That is the update I will accept. On today's show, Nikki Haley and Dean Phillips suspended their presidential runs. Plus, scientists apparently learned nothing from Jurassic Park because they say that they are getting closer to reviving the extinct woolly mammoth. But first tonight, President Biden delivers his third State of the Union address ahead of this November's presidential election.

And his audience isn't, well, exactly all in on his vision for the country. It'll include the Republicans who are trying to impeach him through his son Hunter. Axios reports that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson asked GOP members to maintain decorum, but it's almost like he doesn't know who's in his conference. Like, have you seen these people? Have you met these people? Laughable. Truly laughable. The State of the Union is a huge platform with enormous stakes. Because it's the one time where you get a big audience and you can take, like,

however fractured the country is, however frustrated people are, however confusing things are, you can tell a story that tries to get everyone kind of on the same page. You're setting a course for the country. That was former Obama speechwriter Cody Keenan, who recently joined Inside 2024. That is the exclusive series for Friends of the Pod. Part of the challenge for Biden tonight is to show people that he has still got the energy for the job. And as Keenan says, he also has to convince the public that he's the right choice. For the people out there,

and there are a lot who say, why should I vote? Why does it matter? Well, what do you care about? Because I guarantee you, you care about at least three things. And on those three things, I will bet you there is an enormous difference

between the two candidates. And there's a way to set that all up in a way that's not partisan, not political, but that just makes it super clear. And that's the type of thing that I would expect to see. Contrast, contrast, contrast. That's exactly what President Biden's going to be trying to do with his State in the Union address. But Biden's also got to get his progressive base bought in and energized. And there are several key issues where activists will be listening closely to what the president says, from immigration to the war in Gaza and more. And we wanted to know what they were hoping to hear tonight. Absolutely. We started first with abortion, which is a topic that we've covered

extensively for the past few years on the show. Ever since the fall of Roe in 2022, abortion advocates on the state level have been fighting to protect and maintain a person's right to choose. In the audience for Biden tonight will be Texas OBGYN Dr. Austin Denard. In 2022, just after Roe fell, Dr. Denard found out that she was pregnant. But during a checkup at 11 weeks, this happened. I was looking at the ultrasound screen and realizing that our baby had a catastrophic diagnosis of acrania or anencephaly, which is the most severe form of neural tube defect that a pregnancy can have. That is a fatal diagnosis for a fetus, and Dr. Denard found herself needing an abortion. But because she was in Texas, she needed to travel elsewhere to get that kind of care. And she described how careful she had to be given the state's criminal penalties for anyone who assisted her. I worried about whether

or not we should be buying airplane tickets on our family credit card, because does that mean that my husband's aiding and abetting me? I didn't want to go alone. He wanted to come with me to support, but was that considered aiding and abetting me. I didn't want to go alone. He wanted to come with me to support, but was that considered aiding and abetting? We were concerned about the safety of our family, too. If someone found out that I was going out of state for an abortion, were they going to come after my family, my children? They tried to take my license away. On top of getting a fatal diagnosis for her fetus, now she had to deal with the ridiculous harmful laws that Texas has around seeking abortion care. No one should ever have to think about this stuff. Her experience and

the experience of helping her patients who struggle to get important reproductive care push her to become more politically active. And tonight she'll be at the State of the Union as a guest of her representative, Democratic congressman and Ted Cruz's new Senate challenger, Colin Allred. Here is what she is hoping to hear from President Biden tonight. We're at a time now in Texas where we've just hit rock bottom. We have no access to care. We are unable to get any sort of reproductive support. Ab abortion care is essentially abolished in our state. I hope he spends a significant amount of time talking about reproductive care and that there can be change on the federal level because really Roe was just the beginning. So hearing him talk about reproductive care and how important it is for us to have support is going to be key.

Key and a very relatable topic considering the number of states in this country who are trying to push forth abortion bans like we've seen in Texas. Abortion bans and these continued attacks, I imagine Alabama and latest IVF rulings there have even more people interested in this. So certainly something people will be watching for. Another issue progressives are watching is the war in Gaza. You may remember that the Listen to Michigan campaign was wildly successful on Michigan's primary day. More than 100,000 voters cast uncommitted ballots as a way to pressure the Biden administration to take action to prevent more deaths in Gaza. Laila Elabed is the campaign manager for Listen to Michigan. She's a Palestinian-American

and longtime community organizer. She also happens to be the sister of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. She spoke about what it was like seeing the campaign exceed their original goal of 10,000 votes. Just seeing that number rise up more and more throughout the night, I mean, it felt really exciting. It felt really surreal. And it felt really, really emotional, especially it's making me emotional now. And the movement gained more momentum this week. On Super Tuesday, the uncommitted campaign pulled in 19 percent of the Democratic vote in Minnesota, earning 11 delegates at the Democratic National Convention and a similar movement to vote no preference got 13 percent of Democratic votes in North Carolina on Tuesday and nine percent of the vote in Massachusetts. Elabed says that she hopes that tonight Biden will at least acknowledge the uncommitted movement and the strong numbers of these protest votes. But she also wants him to take it a step further. I would hope that at the State of the Union, President Biden would no longer take the stance that risks our democracy, but take the stance of what is right morally and ethically and be on the right side of history and call for the end of our military aid for Netanyahu to carry out his war crimes and to demand that we have a permanent and

immediate ceasefire now to save as many lives as possible. Yeah, it seems like half measures aren't going to appeal to the Listen to Michigan or other voters who voted uncommitted. Definitely. Another issue that has become very important to so much of the electorate is immigration. In a Gallup poll released last week, Americans actually said that it was the top issue facing the country. And immigrants themselves face some of the biggest stakes here. Here is Bruna Solid, a recipient of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. That is the Obama-era program that protects

undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. There's a very real chance that DACA could go away. That's the reality that we're facing when you have right-wing attacks on programs that are so important to so many people. Solid is the political director at the immigrant rights group United We Dream Action. Right now, the legality of DACA is stuck in the courts, and last September, a federal judge in Texas ruled it unlawful. That decision is being appealed, and eventually the case could make its way to the Supreme Court. In the short term, Solid is looking for President Biden to implement administrative

policies that would help immigrants continue to support themselves here. There are things the Biden administration can do, administrative policies, to ensure that people are getting their work permits. A delay in a work permit can mean people are fired. That's a very real thing that DACA recipients deal with when their renewals don't come in in time. A delay in a work permit can mean people are fired. That's a very real thing that DACA recipients deal with when their renewals don't come in in time. A lot of their companies have to let them go. And so what does that look like when you don't have a job and can't pay your bills, can't support your loved ones? So there are administrative things that the administration can do to be supporting immigrants. But she also says that when she hears the president speak

tonight, she doesn't want him to get roped into talking about immigration in the way that Republicans have painted it as just this crisis at the border. We know that oftentimes presidents who are running will go to the middle. They'll try to go out after those voters, especially when you think about President Biden. I'm sure he's thinking about who are the never Trumpers, right? Like, are there folks that would vote for Biden? And so I think his strategy sometimes he's like, okay, well, I can look tough on immigration. The reality is that he actually needs to speak to the progressive voters on the left. The voters who time and time again, over the last few years, whether it was 2018, 2020, 2022, turned out for Democrats based on a progressive agenda that actually excited people.

Those were the same people that turned out and took to the streets when the Muslim ban came out under Trump, when DACA was being taken away by Trump. There were a lot of allies, a lot of voters who came out in support of pro-immigrant policies. And so for him to just focus on the border or to just use, again, talking points from the Trump administration, it doesn't work for the voters, the multiracial class of voters that he actually needs to turn out in November and needs to win. Hey, don't forget about the ones who brung you, right? Like, I think that was the tone of this entire segment. So I appreciate her for saying that. One last issue that we heard from activists on student loans and the economy. President Biden promised to cancel the debt of millions. The Supreme Court blocked plans to make it universal, but Biden has canceled nearly $140

billion in student loans. And Braxton Brewington from the nonprofit Debt Collective said the president should tout that tonight. President Biden has really started to clean up the mess of student debt, public service loan forgiveness, income driven repayment, these types of programs that were not working under the Trump administration and were being held up even under the Obama administration. But Brewington hopes that the president says that he's not done and that he'll continue to fight to end student debt despite obstacles from the court. On top of student debt, however, Brewington said that it's important that Biden speaks to how America has become unaffordable for so many and that he pledges to address that. The truth is, the economy doesn't work for working people. Wages are stagnant and way too low. We have a healthcare, housing,

and education system that riddles people with mountains of debt before they are able to do things like start a small business or start a family or get a home. And so it would be great to hear an affirmation of the economy not working for working people. And when people are gaslit into thinking that this economy is great, when truly people are working two or three jobs to get ahead, people aren't going to want to hear that. Yeah, definitely something he will be needing to address because there are a lot of differing feelings about numbers and figures that we see versus how people feel in the real world. Right. Those are the voices of just some of the many activists who we talked to about the issues that they are passionate about and what they are

looking to hear tonight. President Biden will give his State of the Union address tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. And then right afterwards, Katie Britt, who is a Republican senator from Alabama, will give her party's response. You can join the whole Crooked crew and chat on the Discord tonight if you are a friend of the pod. And tomorrow on the show, Tommy Vitor of Pod Save America and Pod Save the World

joins us to break down his take on the president's address. That is the latest for now. We'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Super Tuesday delivered what we all expected. Donald Trump widened his lead over his former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, who bowed out of the race yesterday morning. In her farewell speech, Haley did not endorse Trump, who has routinely belittled her campaign, her husband, her identity, and so much more. Speaking of which, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did endorse Trump after years of Trump lovingly calling McConnell

names like a, quote, old broken down crow. I feel like that's something out of Game of Thrones, right? It's a little creative. I gotta give that to him. I've never heard that elsewhere. So Trump mostly zipped up the nomination on the Republican side

and President Biden did the same on the Democratic side. Representative Dean Phillips suspended his ultra long shot campaign, but his tone towards Biden was much warmer in his concession remarks, and he endorsed the president. And finally, in one of the night's most-watched Senate primaries, California Representative Adam Schiff and Republican-slash-former Major League Baseball player Steve Garvey advanced to the runoff in November. That race will decide who will fill the Senate seat vacated by the late Dianne Feinstein. A Russian missile strike yesterday

landed several hundred feet from the motorcade of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky was in Odessa, which is a port community on the Black Sea, and he was visiting with Greece's prime minister. Neither of the two leaders were injured, though five people were killed in the strike and more wounded, according to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Navy who spoke with CNN. The Russian military claimed credit for the strike in a statement that they didn't say that they were targeting Zelensky. And another strike just under 2,000 miles away. A missile launched by Houthi militants in Yemen hit a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden yesterday and killed three people. That's according to the U.S. military's central command.

Four others were injured, with three in critical condition. The deadly attack marks the first known fatalities of the rebel group's missile strikes on shipping vessels, which began in the wake of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. Following the attacks, Iran stated that they will seize the $50 million shipment of crude oil that was meant for Chevron Corporation. New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced yesterday that she will deploy 1,000 members of the state police and National Guard to patrol the already over-policed New York City subway system. This decision follows a 13% year-on-year rise in transit crime through March 3rd. Take a listen to what she said at her press conference yesterday.

There's a psychological impact. People worry they could be next. Anxiety takes hold. And riding the subway, which should just simply be part of your everyday life, is filled with stress and trepidation. She thinks that stress and trepidation will decrease with a thousand police officers and national guards. People like stopping and frisking individuals on the subway.

Like what? Make it make any sense. But we can't forget about the role November 2024 plays here. Hochul's decision precedes an election in which state Democrats worry about coming across as soft on crime. And lastly, a Texas-based company is building on the pioneering work of Dr. Frankenstein and attempting to bring a giant back from the dead. Great. The company, Colossal Biosciences,

calls itself a, quote, de-extinction company. Okay, if you never saw Jurassic Park, this is the moment you should be afraid of. What in the world? It claimed yesterday it made progress towards its goal of resurrecting woolly mammoths, or at least making hairy elephants that look like mammoths if you squint real hard. Here are the details. In a paper that has not been peer-reviewed yet, colossal scientists say they managed to make what are called induced pluripotent stem cells

of an Asian elephant. These cells can theoretically differentiate into any animal cell type, and that's a key element to Colossal's plan, which is essentially to create modified Asian elephants with woolly mammoth-like traits, i.e. lots and lots of hair. Many, many steps remain in between stem cells and the 12-foot-tall furry monsters roaming the icy tundra. Colossal thinks it's so called mammoths could help fight climate change by stomping down permafrost in the arctic and stopping it from thawing i'm sorry what works the way they think it works no also this is in texas and they're doing stem cell research in texas i is that allowed? Why haven't they been shut down or criminally charged?

Or you know what Republicans love to do? I don't know. Well, those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. Remember that you can join me and your favorite Cricket staffers tonight for the State of the Union group thread on our Friends of the Pod Discord. You'll be able to submit questions for us in the main chat. Head to cricket.com slash friends to learn more and sign up.

If you're not a friend, you can still watch along with us on the Pod Save America YouTube channel. That is all for today. If you like this show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, leave Frankenstein's legacy alone, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just the genomes of woolly mammoths like me because i'm super smart 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 enjoy the

reboot of 2020 no pandemic please no pandemic no pandemic but also to the 25 of voters who data for progress said didn't know this is what was happening wake up people yeah i wonder have they had themselves a rude awakening today i don't know what a day is a production of crooked media it's recorded and mixed by bill lance our Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf. We had production help today from John Milstein, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare. Our showrunner is Leo Duran, and our executive producer is Adrian Hill.

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