What A Day - Replacing The Con In Congress

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Tuesday is Election Day for the race to replace George Santos in New York’s third congressional district. The candidates running for the seat include former Democratic congressman Tom Suozzi and Nassau County legislator Mazi Pilip who’s been selected as the nominee for Republican and conservative parties. With Republicans holding a narrow 219-212 majority in the House, the stakes are high. We’re joined by Gabby Seay, the campaign director of Battleground New York, to learn more about what it would take to flip this seat and others in the state blue.And in headlines: the Senate advanced a bill that would provide $95 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel, a series of Israeli strikes hit Rafah, and Vox’s Ellen Ioanes tells us about the significance of last week's parliamentary election in Pakistan.Show Notes:Vox: Everything is chaotic about Pakistan’s election — except the outcome - https://www.vox.com/2024/2/8/24066427/pakistan-imran-khan-nawaz-sharif What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/

It's Monday, February 12th. I'm Traevel Anderson. And I'm Josie Duffy Rice, and this is What A Day, the podcast that is not afraid to confess that Usher's halftime performance last night was incredible. Yes, we will walk you through that amazing performance later in the show, but let's just say there was definitely some love up in this club, Josie. I felt like Atlanta was in the Super Bowl. Absolutely. It was giving that was in the Super Bowl. Absolutely. It was giving that.

It was giving that. On today's show, the Senate advanced a bill that would provide $95 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel. Plus, we discuss the significance of Pakistan's parliamentary election. But first, tomorrow is election day for the race to replace Joanna Scammer, I mean, George Santos, in New York's third congressional district.

Early voting for the special election started earlier this month on February 3rd, and polls are set to close at 9 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night. Yes, and we will be watching that very closely. But remind the peoples, Josie, how exactly did we get here? So as I'm sure you remember, last December, George Santos was expelled from the House by his colleagues after a scathing House ethics report found, quote, substantial evidence of lawbreaking by Santos and concluded that he, plain and simple, quote, cannot be trusted. That's putting it lightly. The vote to kick him out of Congress made him the sixth House member

to ever be expelled by colleagues in the chamber's history. So it was a pretty big deal. Yeah. How can we forget? That's also the report that details Santos's use of campaign funds on things like Botox, some hotel nights, a little OnlyFans action was in the mix. He spent money at Sephora. You know Sephora ain't cheap. It is not cheap.

Well, he is out of office now. And the special election to fill his vacated seat is happening tomorrow. Yeah, and it's a pretty important election, given that right now Republicans hold a narrow 219 to 212 majority in the House. So the stakes are pretty high here. You know, one vote means a lot. Absolutely. And so to learn more about the candidates running to fill Santos' seat, as well as what it would take to flip this seat and others in the state, I called up Gabby C.

She's the campaign director of Battleground New York. They're a coalition of organizations and unions working to flip New York's five Republican-held House seats and take back the House. Welcome to What A Day, Gabby. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Thank you for being here. Okay, so tomorrow is the special House election to fill George Santos' seat. Let's set the stage for those who aren't there, right, on the ground. Tell us about the candidates running to fill his seat. Let's set the stage for those who aren't there, right, on the ground. Tell us about the candidates running to fill his seat. So there are two candidates running. There's former Congressman Tom Suozzi, who is the former county executive for Nassau County on Long Island, has been a local

mayor, has been delivering for the district for a couple of decades now. He is running as a Democrat. And then there is a Republican running, Mazzie Pullip, who is currently a county legislator. I believe she's in her second term. So fairly new to politics and public service. And you can tell. I know that's right. On the campaign trail. That's right. And speaking of the campaign trail, this is New York's third congressional district. Talk to us a little bit about who makes up the district, who makes up the voter base there. How have they voted in the past? The Third Congressional District is a true battleground district. And it's not a battleground district in the way that we think about it a lot of times. We think about battleground districts

being places where you win on the margins. No, this is a battleground district that makes big swings. Joe Biden won this district in 2020 by about eight points. Two years later, Lee Zeldin, running for governor, won it by 12. And so this is a place where voters make their gripes, they make their ambitions, they make their hopes and dreams really, really clear in the way that they vote. And so we expect this to be a pretty close election, closer than we typically see in a district like this. This is a pretty diverse district. You know, about 18% of the district are API voters. It is made up of both Queens and New York City and Nassau County on Long Island.

Lots of people of color right now are doing a program in English and Spanish and Hindi and in Chinese and Cantonese. And so like that's the kind of campaigns that you have to run. You have to be able to speak to people where they are on their doorsteps in their language. And the candidate we're supporting, Tom Swasey, has been doing that his entire career. So it's a super diverse district.

Democrats have the voter registration advantage, but this is a special election in the winter when people are used to voting. So turnout is going to be the name of the game. And already we have seen, we think this is going to be a record turnout election for a special election. Two days into early voting, 21,000 people had already voted, which is pretty unheard of for an off-cycle special election like this. I would like to ask you specifically about you all's work and efforts with Battleground New York to flip this seat and win back the House. What does that look like? So if we flip these five seats in New York, that's the whole ballgame, Battleground New York. There are two seats on Long Island that we're going to be working with, three seats in the

Hudson Valley. One of those is to protect Congressman Ryan. And then there is a seat, 22nd Congressional District in Syracuse. You know, when people think about New York, they usually think about New York City. And they think about it being a super democratic, although we can have a conversation about our democratic mayor right now another time, come back another time for that. But what we know for folks that do work in New York and have for many years is that these districts have always been battleground districts. We've just never had this margin of victory come through New York. And so part of what we're trying to do is make sure people understand that this indeed is a battleground state right now. It may not be a battleground state for the

presidential election, but it is certainly a battleground state when it comes to Congress. If we win here, we flip Congress and we make my Congressman Hakeem Jeffries Speaker of the House, which I would love to have a speaker named Hakeem who lives around the corner for me. And so we believe that we are going to flip Congress by doing two things. One, holding these elected officials accountable, because whether your name is Dias Bozzito or Mike Lawler, or any of these Republican congressmen, Mark Molinaro, these are all people who are one way when they're in New York talking to their constituencies, or sometimes not talking to their constituencies. And then when they go to Washington, D.C., they vote with Maggie Mike Johnson and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

And so we want to make sure that voters understand and that we deeply invest in these districts that will be battleground seats no matter what. And then the other thing is that we got to build a super robust turnout operation across the state. We understand that turning out voters is not just about registering them once and then talking to them during the get out the vote time. It is about registering to vote, building a relationship with them, giving them tools to hold their elected officials accountable and turning them out. We're building the largest field campaign we believe that the state has ever seen, investing $11 million in turning out voters

of color, young people, new registrants, and folks that are typically left out of big campaigns. So we think about, you know, going to the people who vote every single cycle. No, our work is to engage folks that are often forgotten and left out of political process. Absolutely. And so what would you say is your message to voters who are heading to the polls before they close tomorrow night? What do you want them to know? I want them to know that we all deserve a functioning Congress. We deserve elected officials that fight for lower prescription drug prices for us, that will protect the border, that will invest in communities, that will invest in people,

that have a track record of producing results and not of chaos. And there's only one person in this race who has a record of delivering for people of color, for working class voters, for his entire career, and that is Tom Suozzi. And so I want voters to understand what is at stake here. And honestly, you don't have to tell people of color and working class people what's at stake. We know what's at stake every single day when we walk out the doors, when our children go to school, when we're putting gas in our cars. We don't need to tell people what's at stake. What we need to tell people is who to blame.

And right now, they got to blame Republicans, the party of chaos, the party of MAGA extremists. And we need to bring some order and some real work back to Washington, D.C. That was my conversation with Gabby C. of Battleground New York. You can learn more about how you can help win back the House at votesaveamerica.com. And that is the latest for now. Let's get to some headlines. Headlines. The Senate advanced a bill on Sunday that would provide $95 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel.

That's about $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel. The deal also includes $10 billion toward humanitarian assistance for civilians caught in war zones. The vote was bipartisan, with 18 Republicans joining Democrats during a rare Sunday session. Senate leaders are hoping to get a floor vote on the bill as soon as tomorrow. But the bill continues to face opposition from Trump's allies in the chamber, who believe that quote-unquote protecting the southern border is more important than supporting Ukraine or aiding vulnerable civilians. These are the same Republicans that killed an earlier version of the same bill last week. And for the latest on the war in Gaza, U.S.

President Joe Biden has warned Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch a military operation on the border town of Rafah in Gaza, quote, without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than 1 million people sheltering there. It's one of the stronger stances that Biden has taken in recent days. Rafah, which is on the border with Egypt, has become one of the last refuges for people displaced in Gaza. But despite all of this, a series of Israeli strikes hit Rafah Monday morning local time, according to reporting from the Associated Press. And the human impacts are beyond dire. A six-year-old Palestinian girl named Hind Rajab, along with the two rescuers who went looking for

her after she went missing, were found dead on Saturday. That's according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, or PRCS. The rescuers were sent out almost two weeks ago to find Hind, who was believed to be trapped in a car with dead family members. She'd been fleeing the war in northern Gaza with her uncle, his wife, and four children when they came under Israeli fire, the PRCS said. According to the Washington Post, which interviewed family members and members of the PRCS and also reviewed audio of phone conversations, Hind's 15-year-old cousin first spoke with a dispatcher and warned that a tank was nearby.

Then came a burst of fire, and then the line went dead. Dispatchers called back, and Henn answered. In a recording released by the PRCS, her voice could be heard saying, Come take me. Will you come and take me? I'm so scared. Please come. One of the most haunting stories, and a sea of haunting stories from the past few months. Absolutely.

And speaking of foreign aid, we all know that former President Trump says a lot of foolish things, but he definitely outdid himself a bit on Saturday when he said that he'd encourage Russia to do, quote, whatever the hell they want and attack NATO countries if he wins the White House in November. Take a listen to his remarks during a rally at Coastal Carolina University. In this clip, he's recalling a conversation he had with a world leader who asked him what he'd do as president if another NATO country was attacked but failed to meet the alliance's requirements for defense spending. One of the presidents of a big country stood attacked, but failed to meet the alliance's requirements for defense spending. One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said,

well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us? I said, you didn't pay? You're delinquent? He said, yes, let's say that happened. No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want you gotta pay you gotta pay your bills wow you gotta pay your bills that's a really rich statement it's tough to believe on all levels including coming from this person this is obviously against natal rules right which require member countries to aid one another if

they're ever attacked. Since, you know, that's the whole point of being in an alliance. But we can't be too surprised since Trump has made similar remarks in the past. In 2022, he claimed to have told world leaders the same thing during the 2018 NATO summit. He's also long said that he doesn't think the U.S. should even be in nato to begin with so just another preview of what this florida man would do to our foreign policy if he wins another term in office and finally yesterday was the 58th super bowl the san francisco 49ers went head-to-head with the kansas city chiefs in las vegas on sunday things kicked off when players and coaches from the lahaina luna high school football team hit the field to serve as honorary captains for the coin

toss. We told you last week that the NFL flew the Lunas out as special guests to honor their team's resilience ever since the Lahaina wildfires ravaged their hometown six months ago. The league is also helping replace all of the team's gear and equipment. Honestly, if you watch one thing from the Super Bowl, it shouldn't be the game. It should be this moment at the very beginning, the bit that they did on what happened in Lahaina. I thought it was very moving. I cried.

Reba McEntire sang the national anthem. Taylor Swift was in attendance to support her man, Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelsey, as expected. But in unexpected news, Beyonce seemingly hinted at a new album and a verizon commercial that aired during the game she later followed up on instagram with some visuals like suggest the queen may be coming out with like a country vibes record very soon josie i actually

have some breaking news for you stop there's a new single out right now stop it it's called Texas Hold'em. Stop it! Stop! I'm gonna cry. I'm getting the text messages as we literally record right now, Josie. Oh my god. Oh my god. Okay. Sorry, we have to go.

That's all the news. Talk to you guys at some point. Okay. Compose ourselves. Yeah, we gotta compose ourselves because other things happen. Let's talk briefly about the halftime show. Usher wowed audiences when he took the stage for his highly anticipated performance.

He did several of his greatest hits, including Confessions and Love in This Club. He brought some iconic guests. Alicia Keys made a surprise appearance to duet their hit song, My Boo. Her came out to do a guitar solo. Lil Jon and Ludacris got the crowd going with yeah for those of us who may have been in high school in the 2000s it was incredible it was amazing

the skates like don't even get me started it was so good it was so good and i hear there was also a football game and to top it all off the chiefs declared victory over the 49ers. Listen, this was a very eventful Super Bowl. Not just because of the amazingness that is Usher. I was very entertained. Let's put it like that. Yeah. Watching him do what he does. But now we have new Beyonce as well.

I mean, come on now. I mean, stop. It's crazy. Happy Black History Month to us. This one has 29 days and we're going to make every single one of them count. Absolutely. And those are the headlines. We'll be back after some ads. And now it's time for a democracy temp check. 2024 is a huge year for elections,

not just for the US, but around the globe as well. And one of the big ones is the parliamentary election in Pakistan that took place on Thursday last week. And the results are actually pretty surprising. Isn't that right, Josie? Yeah, to say the least. It's a big deal because there's something interesting about Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, whose party won the most seats in the parliamentary elections. His party beat out the Pakistan Muslim League party led by military-backed longtime politician Nawaz Sharif. For more on the election results, our producer Natalie Bettendorf called up Ellen Ionis to break all of this down. She's a world and general assignment reporter for Vox. Here's Ellen. Imran Khan is in jail and his party pulled out a victory in these elections. They did really well.

That's pretty shocking given how hard the government worked to prevent that from happening. I think we can't discount the power of social media. He was still campaigning for his party powerfully from jail. And he's also this very, very charismatic person. He's a cricket star, which is, of course, really important in South Asia. Really good looking still, even in his 70s. He's a populist. So he's got this strong base. He appealed a lot to young people, which were a huge part of the electorate, and also had a broad base of support among women.

And what's important to understand here is how integral the military is to Pakistan's government. So they were backing Sharif and working really, really hard to make sure that Khan did not win. And they cracked out on protests. They put members of Khan's party in jail. They scrubbed his name from mainstream media. I mean, they did basically everything they could. They even suspended mobile phone services nationwide on election day. There was generally a lot of political violence surrounding this election and dozens of people were killed. In terms of the role of the U.S. in all of this, how would we

describe that? Yeah, it's a good question, especially because promoting democracy around the world has been a self-proclaimed big goal of the Biden administration. So here's how Ellen explained it. The U.S. hasn't really come out very strongly against the charges against Khan, against his imprisonment. We haven't been very forceful in saying like, listen, this is really interrupting democracy and you have to prove that these charges are legitimate. It sort of exposes the

hollowness of U.S. foreign policy if we're not really willing to be critical of these sort of liminal states of democracy. If we're not really willing to say like, listen, Imran Khan maybe is not perfect, but having the military really run Pakistani politics is not a solution. And the thing is, as we're talking about the state of democracy here in the U.S., it's important to look outside of the U.S. as well. That's what Trumpism represents to me is this sort of mocking of democracy, essentially, and this sort of twisting of it. if we allow that to occur uncritically in other places, because we think the United States is different, that somehow our institutions are stronger, we're lying to ourselves. We are seeing one candidate, Donald Trump, face a lot of legal troubles, and he sort of makes himself a martyr with his base. And if you look at how successful Imran Khan was from prison, there's no real reason

to imagine that Donald Trump couldn't pull off something similar. This is a person who also uses the tools of democracy, whether it's the courts or the electoral system, or tries to use the tools of democracy to entrench an undemocratic power. Thanks so much to Ellen Ionis. We'll link her coverage of the Pakistani election below in the show notes. One more thing before we go. It is 2024, abortion, trans and gay rights, and oh yeah, whether our planet remains habitable for humans, all of it is on the ballot. We know it's a lot, but Vote Save America's got you covered with a new initiative to help

streamline your political giving for the year. It's called the Anxiety Relief Program. Just donate what you can each month and VSA will take care of distributing 100% of your dollars where they're needed most. So far, over 500 recurring donors have joined the program and trusted VSA to make their dollar go further. But we still have a long way to go, so head to votesaveamerica.com to sign up now. Paid for by Votesave America, votesaveamerica.com,

not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, go out and vote, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just about Beyonce's new single, like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. So check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. I'm Traevel Anderson. And Beyonce for president.

President of my heart. That's all that matters, Josie. I just don't want to like sully her by forcing her to. You said actually stay out of politics, please. And thank you. Actually stay out of politics, my love. What a day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producer is Itsy Quintanilla.

Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers. And our showrunner is Leo Duran. Our theme music is by Colin Gillyard and Kashaka.