What A Day - Senate Racing Arizona

Episode Date: September 22, 2020

Arizona Senator Martha McSally said she will support a Senate vote when Trump nominates a Supreme Court Justice, but she might not have a chance to participate if she loses her race against Democrat Mark Kelly in November. Since McSally is an appointed Senator instead of an elected one, she could be replaced by Kelly within the year if she loses. We take a look at the race, and what else is at stake.A new report from the Congressional Budget Office forecasts more than a doubling of the national debt by 2050, largely due to COVID-19. In Europe, a second wave of coronavirus is hitting Spain, France, and the UK, and could be worse than the first.And in headlines: Louisville expected to announce grand jury decision in Breonna Taylor case this week, leaked financial documents reveal banks work with warlords and Paul Manafort, and Microsoft buys Bethesda.Show links: votesaveamerica.com/verifyvotesaveamerica.com/everylastvote

it's tuesday september 22nd i'm akilah hughes and i'm gideon resnick and this is what a day where we are still dancing like it's the 21st night of september yeah i feel like i'm still like hung over from all of the events of september 21st you know body uh say that you remember to say it i do remember i remember and I'll never forget. And you heard it here first. On today's show, the economic ramifications of COVID and a resurgence in Europe, then some headlines. But first, the latest. And we'll start with the Supreme Court. So President Trump said that he plans to name his pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday or Saturday following a commemoration ceremony for RBG that is taking place later this week. Senate Majority Leader

Mitch McConnell said again that the nominee would get a vote in the Senate, but again didn't specify exactly when. Meanwhile, we're getting more statements from various other senators about whether they think it's OK to move forward. Yesterday, Senator Joe Manchin, the only Democrat who voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, said that no vote should take place before the election. On the Republican side, Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, who is seen as one of the most endangered senators up for reelection, said that he supports going forward. So, Gideon, let's look at another Republican senator who's also up for election this fall, Arizona Senator Martha McSally. That's right. So McSally has said that she supports a vote, but if she doesn't win her election, she might not get a chance to make that vote a reality. And here's why. In 2018, McSally was the Republican nominee against Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, and she lost that race.

So then our listeners might be asking themselves, how did McSally go from losing this to actually being in the Senate? Well, when Senator John McCain died in 2018, Arizona's Republican governor appointed a temporary replacement who then resigned and was replaced by McSally. And now just two years later, this election in November is actually a special election to complete that term, where McSally is running against Democratic candidate Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and the husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. I think astronauts are dope, and I think we can all agree on that. Correct. But, you know, because it's a special election,

the winner could technically get sworn into office almost immediately. So what do we know about that? So while the rest of the Senate will get seated next year, because this is an election that includes an appointed senator instead of an elected one, if Kelly were to win, election experts believe that he could basically report to work as soon as the results are certified, perhaps within the month of November. In fact, Arizona election law necessitates that results are certified by November 30th. On yesterday's episode, we engaged in some conceivable nightmare scenarios. So with the situation being so fluid, here is a conceivably more hopeful one.

The thought from Democrats is there are only four defections necessary from Republicans in order to stop the nomination. That's with the current makeup of the Senate. But if Kelly wins, that means you would naturally only need three. This all, of course, depends on the confirmation vote taking place in the lame duck session after the election, and three Republican senators actually deciding at that point that they don't want to vote to confirm Trump's nominee. And of course, the biggie Kelly actually winning, but it certainly added another element of urgency to this race. It certainly has. Well, let's talk through some of the dynamics of this Arizona race before and after the

news of RBG's passing. So this race had been one of the more promising Democratic flips for a while. Kelly is averaging around a six to seven point lead in polling and has outraised McSally by around 16 million. They are unsurprisingly taking different positions on the nominating process. McSally supports it. And Kelly said, quote, I believe the people elected to the presidency and Senate in November should fill this vacancy. But before all of this and entering the Senate contest, Kelly was active in gun control efforts after his wife was shot, and the two of them have an

organization called Giffords, which combined with other gun control groups actually outspent the NRA in the 2018 elections. Another ever-present issue is health care, with Kelly highlighting that McSally voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act as a member of the House. And like everywhere else in the country, COVID-19 is playing a big role. Arizona saw a massive rise in cases over the summer due in part to a swift reopening, and Republican Governor Doug Ducey saw his approval ratings plummet. Earlier in the year, McSally, in a Trumpian move, placed a lot of blame on China when she talked about the pandemic, while Kelly was saying the federal government response was too slow. McSally also recently made headlines for saying supporters should consider skipping a meal to be able to possibly contribute money to her campaign, which a spokesperson said after the fact was a joke.

An interesting one at that. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't a funny joke like you want them to be. Yeah, I did not laugh. I raise an eyebrow. But you know, if that's the intent, cool. So this is definitely a race to watch. And if Kelly wins, he will be the second Democratic senator to win in Arizona since 1988. All right. But on the topic of the pandemic, Akilah, let's check in on what is happening here and abroad. Word. So the Congressional Budget Office released a forecast for the United States for the next 30 years of economic growth. And well, it doesn't look great. COVID is a big reason why. So big picture, deaths are way up and births are way down. CBO is forecasting 11

million fewer people in the U.S. in 2050 than in previous estimates. Declining population seems like something a proper immigration policy could fix, but I'm asleep. So outside of the COVID bump, U.S. deaths are up. The report points to increasing deaths from Alzheimer's, suicides and drug overdoses, but also fertility is going down. And CBO says that in the short term, this is COVID related, but it was already trending downward before the pandemic. And now on to the money. The national debt in this country is growing. And by 2050,

CBO believes it will be twice the size of the entire yearly economy. That's because of the massive amounts of spending we're doing right now to combat the pandemic. And then in later years, if interest rates go up, that could start to pile on top of the debt. For now, though, the Federal Reserve, which sets interest rates, has said they will keep them near zero for at least the next three years. But this is the kind of thing that down the road could threaten things like Social Security for those who rely on it most if Republicans call for cuts. The CBO also projects income inequality to grow. That's because incomes for the wealthy are expected to grow faster than the rest of us and their overall tax rates won't. What else is new? Absolutely nothing under the sun. And outside of the United States,

there is a lot of concern growing in one of the COVID hotspots we saw earlier this year. Yeah, things aren't looking so hot on COVID in Europe. If you follow any people who live in France or Spain, you've probably seen Instagram stories at dinners inside, people in close quarters just chilling as if the pandemic is only happening in America and still, you know, even then only kind of. But Europe is securely in their second wave of the virus. So maybe nudge them and tell them to put that mask back on. Last week, the World Health

Organization warned of a very serious situation unfolding again across the agency's European region. Spain and France are now both seeing more daily confirmed cases than they were at their peaks in April. And earlier this month, Spain became the first European country to count half a million total cases. Italy has also seen a rise as well, but not to the same extent. According to the UK's top science advisor, COVID-19 numbers are rising fast and could reach 50,000 cases per day there by mid-October. Lately, the infection rate there has doubled by the week, so it would only take doubling four more times to reach that abysmal 50K number. And Boris Johnson is expected to announce more COVID restrictions today, closing bars and restaurants at 10 p.m. instead of going much later.

Yeah, bad news all around. But hospitalizations are generally lower, and experts think that that has to do with the demographics of COVID-19 diagnoses shifting quite a bit, right? That's right. So let's take Italy as an example. The median age of cases went down from nearly 60 in February to 30 at the end of August. It's back up to 40 already. And the worry about hospitalizations and deaths is that as winter comes and young people are more likely to be

around their family and back at home as opposed to on a beach or at the club, they're more likely to infect their older family members. What's also unfortunate is that attitudes about the pandemic have shifted from hypervigilance at the beginning to an almost indifference about getting sick and what the risk really looks like. So as we move into fall here in the States, we can likely expect that whatever happens over there will happen here, but worse since our leadership is, you know, worse. And that's the latest. It's Tuesday WOD Squad, and for today's Tim Check, we're talking about a classic household wall decoration, fire alarms, which make a lot of noise when they're out of batteries. In Washington, D.C., that noise has been making its way into classrooms as students do virtual learning. That's led the city's fire department to launch a campaign to remind families of the importance of working fire alarms and provide batteries to those who can't afford them. The campaign even has a catchy slogan,

when you hear the chirp, it's time to do the work. So giddy. We both love the slogan. But are you handy and do you personally follow it? I wouldn't say that I'm handy, but I've come up with a good smoke alarm strategy in our apartment, which is when it goes off, which it does every time the oven is on, I have a flag that is on a bookshelf that I reach into the air and wave vigorously underneath the smoke alarm until the smoke dissipates and it stops going off. That is as technologically advanced and as big of a solve as I have created for myself. But it has worked so far and I'm proud of it.

Yeah, honestly, it's innovative. I like it. We've all had the two sensitive alarms before. So I think that it's good that you're awake and you know, awake and alert when it's going off. That's important. But yeah, wild. Yes. And you know, it's nice. You don't always wave a flag.

That's not like a regular day-to-day activity. It's not the most American. It just sounds like a very American way of handling it. Instead of doing anything about this, I'm just going to wave my flag at home. Yes, exactly. Right. Yeah.

Just don't pretend that the problem exists at all and just keep on waving that american flag um but akilah same question to you here are you handy when it comes to these things what's the vibe oh i'm super handy i'm the kind of person who like if there is something broken i have to fix it within a day or i like start to like it starts to affect my self-esteem to be completely honest. I don't like having a bunch of broken shit. And so like, even as recently as like in the pandemic, we've had a fire alarm go off in the house and like, I knew the batteries were out. It was chirping.

It was super loud. And I would just like, finally I went in the house and I was like, I'll just get on the chair and fix it. Cause my housemate was not about that life. And I was amazed that like, it was in his room. He was sleeping in a room where there was like a beeping sound. And I'm like, you're just going to live like this? Your plan was just to wait for the rest of your life? I don't know. It couldn't be me. But yeah, I've gotten really good at standing on chairs, taking things out of

the ceiling, changing the batteries. And then they say that the easiest way to remember to change the batteries is to do it with daylight savings. So I know John Lovett's going to hate this, but it's another good reason to have daylight savings is you remember to do stuff that day that you only do twice a year. Oh, I see. I see the link. You, you closed the loop for me. Cause at the beginning I was like, what are those things I have to do with each other? But now I, now I fully understand it. Um, yeah Yeah, that's what the fire department says. Yeah, that's good advice. I think all of this is also just like, you know, a good chance to learn new skills

that we haven't really been learning, you know, whether it's standing on chairs, whether it's making a circular flag motion, all of it I think is beneficial to our resumes. I agree with that. So just like that, you might be surprised. We've checked our temps. They're cool.

Like people who are waving a flag in their face to stay cool. Stay safe. And we will be back with another tip check tomorrow. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The Louisville Metro Police Department declared a state of emergency as the city waits for a grand jury decision in the police killing of Breonna Taylor. Under the declaration, the department will operate with emergency staffing and has canceled all off days and vacation requests from officers. Barriers and blockades will be set up in the downtown area and federal office buildings, including the district courthouse, are closed to the public this week. In a public memo, police chief Robert Schroeder said this is all in anticipation of Attorney General Daniel Cameron's announcement in Taylor's case, which is expected sometime this week. Many suspect that the police are preparing for renewed protests following this decision.

Thousands of newly leaked financial documents reveal how major banks around the world helped corrupt officials and authoritative regimes move their money. BuzzFeed broke the story earlier this week with documents obtained from the Treasury Department's Financial Crime Enforcement Agency, FinCEN. They found over 2,000 suspicious activity reports filed by banks between 1999 to 2017 that account for $2 trillion in transactions. And here are some of the key takeaways. JPMorgan Chase helped move millions of dollars tied to North Korea's regime and processed huge payments for Trump's 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, despite being warned they were suspicious. Bank of America, Citibank, American Express, and others collectively processed millions of dollars tied to a former

mayor in Kazakhstan who was convicted on charges of bribery and fraud. Lastly, Dubai-based bank Standard Chartered helped move money on behalf of a company tied to the Taliban. This story shows that while bankers and warlords might not always see eye to eye, they both speak the universal language of a million dollars. Microsoft just bought itself something nice to help get over TikTok. It's the video game publisher Bethesda, which owns hugely popular series like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Doom. The deal costs $7.5 billion and is expected to be finalized in the first half of 2021.

Now, Microsoft will be able to debut Bethesda Games on its cloud gaming service Xbox Game Pass, which could give it an edge over the competition, though reps said Bethesda Games could still come out on the other consoles. Moving on to content deals that are more quick and biteable, The Wall Street Journal reported that the streaming app Quibi might be looking for a buyer. Quibi launched in April after raising $1.75 billion, but has struggled to attract subscribers, scoring numbers on par with someone's mom's newsletter about pottery. Quibi declined to comment on the news. I'll also not comment to avoid torching the deal for my Quibi show, Family Feud, a futon and sofa quiz show with Akilah Hughes and Jason Alexander. It's not real,

but I'm down if Quibi is like trying to, you know, spend some more money. Yeah, I will consume that quick bite. Bad news for people in Portland, New York and Seattle who love laws. Those cities were officially designated as anarchist jurisdictions yesterday by Trump's Department of Justice, which is also threatening to withdraw their federal funding. The one thing these three cities have in common is that they all stopped Trump from sending in federal law enforcement during protests this year. And on top of that, Attorney General Bill Barr cited New York's decision to cut $1 billion from the NYPD budget and Portland and Seattle's reluctance to shut down demonstrations against racial inequality and police violence as reasons for the new mostly political classification. Trump has yet to come up with a scary name for supporters of

his who attack and sometimes kill protesters, perhaps snaking up anarchist jurisdictions took a lot out of him. In Florida, pro wrestling crazed Governor Ron DeSantis is following Trump's lead. He proposed legislation yesterday that would impose stiff penalties on protesters for things like blocking roadways, toppling monuments or disrupting restaurants. In cases of felony, this would allow the state to stop activists from voting. Based on Florida's legislative schedule, DeSantis' bill won't be written until March 21, 2021, which also gives the story a strong vibe of, I have a girlfriend, but she goes to a different school. Yeah, he just wants to be a part of it. And those are the headlines.

Quick announcement before we go. Today is National Voter Registration Day. If you've been listening to the show, you're probably already registered to vote. Good for you. But guess what? Now is a great time to double check that you are still registered at votesaveamerica.com slash verify. This is especially important if you've moved since the last election, changed your name, or if you haven't voted in a while. Once you've checked your registration, make sure your friends and family have verified theirs as well. Then head to votesaveamerica.com slash every last vote for volunteer opportunities to get new voters registered and to donate to organizations helping get registration info to people in key places ahead of their deadlines.

That's all for today. If you liked the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, buy us a game studio or streaming service, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just leaked financial documents 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 go check if you're registered to vote.

And check again after that. Keep checking. Reload the page and then print it out. Just vote, okay? What A Day is a Crooked Media production. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan 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 Keshaka.