What A Day - Requiem For A Mango Vape Pod

Episode Date: February 6, 2020

Yesterday afternoon the Senate voted to acquit President Trump of two articles of impeachment. Senator Mitt Romney had his “Mitt savior” moment when he voted to convict, drawing the ire of Trump and GOP loyalists. A nationwide partial vape ban goes into effect today, as a result of an earlier decision by the Trump administration to go after e-flavored cigarettes. And in headlines: end of NYC broker fees, , No More Deaths gets permission to do good at the border, and Iowa results are still coming in.

It's Thursday, February 6th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, the sweet sugary coating that makes our president beating impeachment easier to chew on. So we're M&Ms? Yeah, that's what we are. I call green. On today's show, the final, final, final impeachment vote. A new ban on flavored e-cigarette pods goes into effect. Then, as always, some headlines.

Yesterday afternoon, 134 days since the impeachment kicked off, the United States Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump of two articles of impeachment, obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. Well, we called it. We don't feel good that it shook out this way, but silver lining, being right isn't the worst thing on earth. Akilah, so the dust is slowly settling. And even though the outcome was not surprising, let's talk about some notable surprises in the final vote. Yeah. All right. Well, first, let me give you the vote tallies. So listeners at home, remember, you need 67 votes to convict. That's just two thirds of 100. So for obstruction of Congress, the final vote was 53 to 47. It fell entirely along party lines. And for abuse of power, the vote was 52 to 48. So on that charge, the vote to convict was bipartisan. Interesting. The most notable vote to convict came from Republican Utah Senator Mitt

Romney. The jury is still out on how much credit should be given to Ol' Mittens. You know, after all, he knew that this vote wasn't going to sway the outcome and he was technically just doing his job. I mean, like, that was his job. Yeah, that's what he said for him. Yeah. Well, anywho, it was a speech for the ages and he's likely to be remembered as one of the last Republicans to support the country over the grand old party, at least in this era we're living through. Here's a clip. The grave question the Constitution tasks senators to answer is whether the president committed an act so extreme and egregious that it rises to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Yes, he did. The president asked a foreign government

to investigate his political rival. The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The president delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders. The president's purpose was personal and political. Accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust. What he did was not perfect.

No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security, and our fundamental values. Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine. Yeah, the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine. Strong words from Romney. The most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine. Strong words from Romney. The speech is definitely worth watching in its entirety. Yeah. It's interesting how he made the case so forcefully, like in a way that I think a lot of his peers had not. It's like refreshing to be like, oh, OK, that that is what this is all about.

Worth noting a couple other things, too. This makes Mitt Romney the first senator in history to vote against his party in an impeachment trial. You know, this guy was also the former Republican presidential nominee. That's kind of like if John Kerry had stayed in the Senate and voted to convict Barack Obama. Yeah. And just to be clear, Barack Obama was never on trial in the Senate, but it's the only one-to-one we can come up with. Yes, it's the closest we can get. Right. So also in Mitt Romney's speech, he said he expected Donald Trump to personally attack him. And what do you know, at 645 p.m. Eastern, Trump tweeted a pretty cheaply edited video calling Mitt Romney a, quote, Democrat secret asset, complete with footage of the night Romney

lost the election to President Barack Obama in 2012. Posing as a Republican, he tried to infiltrate Trump's administration as Secretary of State. I love the soundtrack from 1996. The NBA street loading music is really good. Yes. And one more thing that's worth a mention. Democratic Senator Doug Jones of Alabama also voted to convict,

and he's facing a tough re-election this year in Alabama, so that's definitely going out on a limb, and it seemed to have been based on his principles. Yeah, it's good for him. You know, don't don't fall to that. You got to have some standards. Yeah, if you're gonna go out, go out swinging. Well, we all survived impeachment. What's next? All right. Well, like you said yesterday, time's gonna tell if there this has a major effect in the future. But there are some events on the calendar that are still pretty relevant to Donald Trump's impeachment. So first, there's a throwback from the Mueller investigation with a court of appeals set to drop a decision soon on the House's subpoena of former White House counsel Don McGahn. If the House wins that decision, we should be expecting some outrage, you know, re-obstruction of Congress, since at the center

of that charge is Trump's belief that he's not really beholden to subpoenas from Nancy Pelosi. We also mentioned John Bolton's book that you definitely don't have to buy because journalists are going to be excerpting that shit all over the place. And he's still a guy who wanted to send us to war with Iran. So yeah. Also, my book, obviously, Stories from My Timeline, no doubt, way better written, more thoughtful. It's also available everywhere right now. You don't even have to wait if you want it. Okay, so anything else?

That I'd like to plug. No, just on the topic, impeachment. Got it. Okay, well, fine. Back on the Bolton tip. Representative Nadler says the House will likely subpoena him still. And in June, we can expect the final word from the Supreme Court on Trump's immunity, not just in the impeachment case, but in defying subpoenas in reference to

his tax returns. Lastly, according to FiveThirtyEight, it would appear that more Americans supported the impeachment process than didn't. So it would be a bold move to continue claiming that this trial was a sham and was so unpopular. But Trump is a known liar and will be making a speech today. So on Twitter, he's already calling his acquittal a victory for the country. And I think we can expect more gloating from only the third president in American history to be It is a historic day. This might be the last time the WOD studio is filled with the vapors of our writer John's mango jewel pods. He is a sick puppy. Yeah, that's true.

The reason is that a nationwide partial vape ban goes into effect today as a result of an earlier decision by the Trump administration to go after flavored e-cigarettes. So let's explain, Gideon. How does this ban work? First of all, I'm very sorry we made a joke at John's expense. Yeah, sorry, John. He doesn't deserve it. He only has mint jewel pots. Or raspberry on occasion as well, not mango.

So here's what we know. This partial ban is going to affect most e-cigarettes that are using these pre-filled pods. Those are the one-time use ones that are often smoked or vapored, if you will, by the teens. Vapored. So sales of fruit, dessert, and mint-flavored pods are going to be outlawed while menthol and tobacco flavors can stick around. Yeah, but even if this deters kids who haven't started vaping, aren't a bunch of kids already

addicted to tobacco because of this? So I don't know. I just doubt that gross flavors are going to be as powerful as like the truth campaign and turning them around the tobacco addiction. Yeah, I don't know. That's a real, you know, parent to teen conversation. I don't feel like I'm prepared to have. But the stated goal of this ban, at least, is to reduce youth vaping if they can.

I mean, according to federal data from last year, almost 28% of high school students had vaped in the previous 30 days, which was up from less than 12% in 2017. Interestingly, though, the biggest name in the vaping game, Juul, already stopped selling these flavored pods, so they won't be affected. Yeah. So do people actually think this is going to be effective? It's a great question. Advocates are concerned about what isn't being banned here, including thousands of flavored e-liquids that don't come in pod form,

like some refillable liquid devices are still allowed. But the FDA is also saying they're going to keep monitoring what, if any, of the products teenagers are consuming and might take additional steps down the road. Another question here, though, is how aggressively this gets enforced right away and how to even keep track of all these products. It's very easy for major retailers to make changes, but for convenience stores and smaller shops, they might not all comply right away, right after this happens. It might be hard to regulate, you're right. Well, all of these products kind of came out of nowhere and now regulators are finally catching up. Anything else major that we can

expect coming up? Yeah, in May, the FDA is actually going to start making vape manufacturers submit applications for sales authorization. So up until this point, the products weren't actually approved by the FDA because the FDA had delayed the deadline for these applications. And now you have places like Juul actually reportedly hiring former FDA employees and researchers to help with this. It's the cramming before a final test of, you know, vape manufacturers. But the company has seen a valuation drop given all the backlash to vaping overall and not related to Juul directly. But the lung injury spree of last year that was linked to these unregulated vapes with vitamin E, acetate, also has hurt the entire industry. And then on top of that, these companies are also drawing intense heat from Congress.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to say a little disclaimer here. I heard all of you over and over again say you were responsible men, men of integrity. That is not true. People who have integrity and responsibility don't sell products which, after listening to Ms. DeGette's questions, you admit make people sick, probably kill people. If you wanted to be men of integrity and responsible men, you would not be selling this product. You'd do something else. So I just want you to understand I'm very upset by hearing this constant reference to your integrity and responsibility. It's just false. God damn. The most lit hearings our energy committee wants about e-cigs apparently. So that was Democratic

Rep. Frank Pallone yesterday in a hearing with executives from the five largest e-cig manufacturers. He seemed upset. We'll keep following this story as it develops and promise not to blow vape smoke in anyone's face. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Human Rights Watch released a report that provides a chilling look into what happens to asylum seekers forced to return to El Salvador from the U.S. They uncovered 138 people who were killed by gang violence after being turned away by the U.S. government and 70 more people who were subject to human rights abuses. The majority of the deaths happened within less than a year of deportation.

HRW says the report is the first to actually monitor what happens to people when they return to El Salvador. It's honestly something we should all be keeping our eyes on, as Trump's White House continues to ignore very real threats to asylum seekers from Central America while pushing stricter immigration policies. Let's move to a rare moment of hope at the southern border. A federal judge just reversed the convictions of four women arrested for leaving food and water for migrants. They are a part of a faith-based group called No More Deaths that leaves food and water

for migrants making the dangerous journey across the desert. They argue that their actions to prevent death and suffering were a sincere exercise of religion, which is protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Prosecutors tried to argue that what they were doing would encourage more migrants to cross the border. Yes, I too often uproot my family and leave behind everything I've ever known for a swig of delicious fruit Dasani. Luckily, the judge didn't buy this argument. Yeah. Late on Tuesday night, New York State effectively eliminated broker fees for tenants. So peace, guys. L.A. was good while it lasted. But the concrete jungle where dreams are made of just got another tally in their corner. If you're unfamiliar with broker fees, it's a fee of as

much as 15 percent of the annual lease that brokers can demand in one lump sum before tenants move in. That comes out to more than a month's rent, which on your average New York City apartment is approximately $90 million. The new rule will still allow for broker fees, but requires them to be paid by the landlord unless the tenant sought out the broker themselves. Word of advice, don't seek out a broker. Their apartment's not the lost city of Atlantis. They're not that hard to find. Brokers and landlords are unsurprisingly opposed to the new rule.

I want my money back. We still don't have the full results from Iowa, thanks in part to a hell app that was designed by the same people who make the software on the front of pumps at gas stations. But the Iowa Democratic Party has released data from 97% of the state's precincts as of midnight on the East Coast. Those results show Buttigieg and Sanders in a virtual tie in state delegate equivalents and Sanders leading with the popular in state delegate equivalents, and Sanders leading with the popular vote of the first and final alignments.

Warren is still in third place. We know Biden took a beating in Iowa with a fourth place finish. He acknowledged that at a campaign event on Tuesday in New Hampshire. I am not going to sugarcoat it. We took a gut punch in Iowa. As we know from Biden's lifeguarding days, when he regularly went toe-to-to toe with soaking wet bullies, he won't be taking this hit lying down. He's already taking shots at his opponents, calling Sanders too liberal and Buttigieg too inexperienced. Some within the Biden camp have come very close to challenging the accuracy of the reported results in Iowa. We'll see how long they stick to this historically very good tactic. And those are the headlines.

That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, sign my cast to cheer me up, and tell your friends to listen. He's not wearing a cast. By the way, if you are into reading and not just beautiful clocks like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe.

I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And that's how you rent out the lost city of Atlantis. The room rates are insane. They're too high. What a Day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tun is our assistant producer.

Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.