What A Day - The Argument For Still Caring About Impeachment

Episode Date: January 29, 2020

President Trump’s impeachment defense has rested its case before the Senate. This after they only used 12 of 24 allotted hours to argue against the president’s removal, and after many experts pointed out that their defense of the president is extraordinarily weak-sauce. We discuss what's next and why we should continue to care.There was a special election in Texas on Tuesday, where Republican Gary Gates easily defeated Democrat Eliz Markowitz by a double-digit margin for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. We interview former congressman Beto O'Rourke to find out what Texas dems are fighting for.And in headlines: Trump’s “peace plan,” Delta discriminates, Chipotle’s teen problem. Plus, Hysteria's Erin Ryan fills in for Akilah!

It's Wednesday, January 29th. I'm Gideon Resnick. And I'm Erin Ryan, filling in for Akilah Hughes. And this is What A Day, shaking up the news landscape like Mike Bloomberg shakes a dog's face. Watch the video if you haven't already. He has a firm grip on that poor dog's snout. The mark of a true dog businessman. Mr. Pooch, let's make a deal. On today's show, we'll take a step back from the impeachment proceedings to talk about what it all means, then a check in on Texas and its Democratic prospects this year, and of course, some headlines. President Trump's impeachment defense has rested its case before the Senate. This after they only

used 12 of 24 allotted hours to argue against the president's removal from office. And after many experts pointed out that their defense of the president is, and I'm sorry if this is getting technical already, bad and dumb. Too much for me to understand. Gideon, do you feel like they're kind of phoning it in? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it seemed like there wasn't really a game plan. And they didn't care that the argument didn't make sense because it was done in the context of this being sort of a fait accompli, if you will. They were lying. They suggested that perhaps it is President Obama that we should be impeaching as if there are dual presidents right now. Or a time machine.

Yeah. I mean, either or is possible. They denied what Trump did, which I guess is the part that fits into the description of lawyerly defense. And then they said that he also did it, but that, you know, the fact that he did wasn't causal enough to remove him from office. And I'm already confused just explaining step by step what happened. Can I share a wild theory that I have that actually isn't that wild? If it's not that wild, I'm frankly not that interested. Oh, yes. Thank

you for being interested. I'm just reading this pre-written line. Okay, so here's a thing. It feels to me like the president's defense wasn't trying because they know that they're not going to lose. They know that the president is not going to be removed from office as a result of the impeachment proceedings in the Senate. The defense could have been Pam Bondi getting up there, burping the alphabet into the microphone. And then,

and then Jay Sekulow singing a karaoke version of Mambo number five would pay for that. And then a video of president Trump sacrificing a Senate page to the demon Paimon from the movie Hereditary. Good ref. And he wouldn't be removed from office. I mean, am I being overly cynical here? I mean, yes.

OK, explain to me why. Let's talk about the 500 pound cowardly elephant in the room. What are we supposed to do when we know what's going to happen? The devil's advocate argument is sort of like, what other option do Democrats have in this position where they don't have the numbers, but to fight it out and actually push these people into a place where they are uncomfortable and they can use the element of time and they can use the element of pressure and public pressure to actually start to shift and impact these senators. Because obviously, the Republicans are not in a position

where they are weighing the moral grounds of what it is that they are or not doing. They're weighing their electoral prospects and if this is ever going to come back to bite them in the butt. So the best that you can do is to make that happen if you can make it happen. Like, you know, the Quinnipiac poll came out yesterday that showed that 75% of Americans think that the Senate should call more witnesses. That is a lot. 49% of those were Republicans. That's up from previous polling. So this is moving in one direction. The more that people hear this stuff, the more they want to see more of it because they're like, oh, this could be something weird that is going on here. And like as much as we do like to be fatalistic in because, you know, we've been dragged down by years of this.

There are electoral consequences for people's actions. And that, you know, the obvious one that you could point to is 2018, where it was like every single person, almost to a T, that voted to take people's healthcare away. Voters were pretty pissed about it and then voted to take them away. Yeah, I mean, and I guess if you take a look at Susan Collins,

Susan Collins was one of the most popular senators in the Senate. And now she's at a real risk of being unseated in 2020, partly due to the fact that she's been getting a lot of bad PR. Yeah. And I think that that's a fair point, that bad PR and people who aren't responsive to public opinion can force senators to change their minds. But here's the thing. We come in here every day and we've known where this story is going. And it's it can feel a little tiring because we've known since August

when all this started. I mean, it feels like we have always been impeaching the president, like America is Jack Torrance and impeachment is the Overlook Hotel. I've always thought of it more like Hotel Transylvania 3. Oh, yeah. Actually, you're right.t3 hive in the house assemble um and there was another big update in the senate majority leader's plans for a speedy and forgettable impeachment trial mcconnell says he no longer has the votes to block new witnesses thanks in part to some of the stuff john bolton wrote in his book yeah Yeah, it's almost as if Bolton shouted, here's Johnny and slammed that book through a door,

you know, like in the film. Great callback. Thank you. Here's the thing, though. Like when you talk about all of this, this is the type of example of embarrassing new information making an impact. It's impossible to say if McConnell is bluffing about these

numbers, if he's being truthful about these numbers, if there's something that he doesn't know that's going to happen in the span of time between when he was talking about the numbers that he has and the eventual vote that's expected on Friday over witnesses. All that is to say that there is a realm of uncertainty within the trajectory of the kind of certain outcome. So you can still, within that space, have an impact. And ultimately, for voters' sake, it's letting representatives know that if they behave in certain ways, people are not going to forget about that when it comes time to deciding if they should send them back to Congress.

And I guess the longer this goes on, the more footage we have of senators running away from reporters in the Capitol Rotunda like they're afraid of them. It's sort of like an I know what you did last summer. I know what you did last impeachment. This is the fourth horror movie reference. Yeah, right. We're doing PR for what's's the horror movies shutter yes the streaming horror service yeah shutter if

you're listening sponsor wad um but yeah it is it is something that is very scary to uh elected officials the knowledge that things that they do are piling up in the minds of voters that establish them as being sort of chicken. Yeah, I mean, the what they want is to have impunity, and they only have impunity if people have gotten to a point where they say, none of it matters, because if none of it matters, then it's very easy for all of these senators to keep getting reelected with, you know, whatever base and margin that they have, and then go back and do the stuff that they were doing before, because you already told them by not being engaged or paying attention or registering

your feelings that it didn't matter to you. And so that means that they will keep doing it and doing stuff that's against the interests of what you actually want. Right. And speaking of registering your feelings, the Senate switchboard number is 202-224-3121. So you can call and let your senators know that you either approve of them or greatly disapprove of them or somewhere in the middle. And once you've done that, I highly recommend harassing your friends and family and loved ones back home if you're living somewhere where you didn't grow up, and tell them to get in touch with their elected officials too. Like I'm from Wisconsin, and I think I've asked my mom to call Senator Ron Johnson's office and tell him that she's mad more than I've ever asked her for money. So we're all itching to find out what's going to happen in Iowa in less than a week's time. But first, there was a special election in Texas on Tuesday night that we're going to focus on today.

Republican Gary Gates easily defeated Democrat Elise Markowitz by a margin of double digits in this race. Yikes. Markowitz by a margin of double digits in this race. The special election for the 28th district in the Texas House of Representatives, you know, small local election, not always in the spotlight, but it got a lot of attention from presidential candidates and national organizations before the vote. Kind of reminds me a little bit of that race in Georgia that happened shortly after the 2016 election that everybody decided was going to be the barometer for how the entire country was going to go for the next four years. Right. Can you tell me how this race turned into one that everybody was focusing on? I think one of the major reasons why this was a focus was it is late January. There are no other races going on. We're bored. We are bored, as we've said on

the show. And, you know, part of that is because Republican Governor Greg Abbott wanted the race to be late January for maybe this very reason. For cheating reasons, probably. Perhaps. And the other thing is that where it was happening was in the suburbs and a rapidly diversifying suburb outside of Houston. And the suburbs are this sort of battleground part of the country where, you know, files on the suburbs, if you will, to sort of see how that's going to play out later. And it's also coming in a year where Democrats are trying to flip nine seats in Texas. And that would give them control of the state legislature, which is obviously a big deal. And at the end of the day, for this one, it was a special election runoff, and they're going to run again in November. Okay, so the same race is happening again in November. So they, Texans,

if you're listening, and this is getting your hackles raised, you get a do over. So this would be a good place to focus your energy. Just think if I got a do over on the show every day, how much better it could be or worse. Your entire life is due over Gideon. Yeah, I'm taking mulligans on everything. But historically context on this district, it had been reliably Republican in 2016, voted for Trump by 10 points. In 2018, though, only voted for Ted Cruz by just three points over Beto O'Rourke. Okay, so it was trending toward blue we would think it was getting a little purpler yes yes okay indigo if you will okay so it seems like maybe we would have thought that this was gettable for democrats but one thing that sort of bothers me about the way we talk about and by we i mean

like political media yeah us in the no folks us in the no folk, is that we try to extrapolate national results from local races. My point is that different parts of the country are different, have different concerns, and you can't take a suburban Houston district and be like, oh, it's all over for Democrats all over the country. You can say that more work is to be done in Texas and especially in that district. But to try to make it have national implications, I think, is folly. Yeah, and it cuts both ways. But it's difficult to look at this stuff and not have the instinct to say what is to say about stuff more broadly because that's sort of what people are concerned about. But I think it's always good to, you know, take it and look at it in isolation.

I spoke with O'Rourke, though, before the polls closed yesterday about his efforts in this race. He's been doing a lot of stuff in terms of trying to get people involved, obviously, for this race and then, you know, stuff in the future. And this was a conversation we had before Tuesday night's loss. I've knocked on probably seven, 800 doors over the last three weekends. And what we're finding when we talk to someone on their front porch is this still remains the most effective way to compel someone to vote. So we have heard from people, you know, I didn't know that this election was taking place, or I already voted for E-Liz, meaning in the special election in November. I didn't know I had to vote again in a runoff. Our presence helps raise their awareness and the likelihood that they're going to vote. So this stuff works. Yeah, I think an important

thing to remember from this whole thing is that Beto is doing really important work. Without people like him who are going in, knocking on doors in races that we're going to lose or we might lose in a way that's discouraging, there's never going to be any progress made in those districts. Like it's easy to go into a Democratic district and like do a layup and then, you know, back down the court with your follow through up in the air. But it's way harder to go to a place where you're like, okay, the next few cycles are probably going to be losses. But this is laying the groundwork, I think, for important advancements. Yeah. And if there is anything that comes of it later in the year, it's having this focus on what

can be done within Texas specifically, which is what O'Rourke is thinking of. And if you kind of scale this organization up, there are local ramifications, then there are national ramifications. And he talked specifically about what Democrats are wanting out of the state house in Texas. They want to change gun laws, they want healthcare changes, public education, and also, most importantly, this year before 2021, the issue of gerrymandering. So one real obvious one, given the year and the fact the census is taking place in 2020, is that the representative districts in Texas will be redrawn soon. And if they are redrawn by a Republican majority, we'll get more of the same, which is the most racist, gerrymandered state in the union. And to me and other Democrats saying that, you know, judges have found that the congressional maps have been drawn to draw out literally people of color to diminish the power of their vote and then the likelihood that they will vote and it will hear their voice and to concentrate the power of white people.

Yeah. And that's something I think that's happening all around the country. And that's why it's really important for us to stay focused on important races, whether they're local or statewide races going into 2021. But again, luckily, they get to redo this race in November. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, it's possible that you get different outcomes later in Texas this year in this race or in different races. I mean, the most obvious example that you can point to in terms of results changing there or the state steadily changing throughout is

O'Rourke obviously coming close in 2018. There were suburban congressional seats that flipped in 18 as well. And there were a lot of other races where Republicans were winning by these tiny, tiny margins. And so people look at that and say, you know, we can compete there again. And then also a lot more Republicans in Texas have decided to retire since those elections in 18. And then, you know, even on the presidential level, the margin is getting smaller and smaller. Clinton lost by like nine there. And that's like a slightly smaller margin than she lost Iowa by. So like, when people are looking at the national map, they're thinking two things. One, that Texas has 38 electoral votes at stake. So obviously, like a, you know, a big prize

having to still win under an electoral college type system that is obviously archaic and bad. And it's also in a region where the population is steadily, you know, diversifying and expanding, unlike in other places in the country. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the hopes that Democrats have that they will one day flip it. Yes, that was glass half full, half empty, depending on... There's just too much glass for the amount of water.

Yes. It's the problem. Yes, that's exactly it. Please clean up the spill. Well, this goes to show how tough the rest of the House races could be in Texas. So if you are not registered to vote, make sure you do that soon.

Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. A powerful earthquake shook a large stretch of the Caribbean Sea on Tuesday. The 7.7 magnitude quake hit Jamaica and Cuba the hardest and was even felt in parts of Mexico and Florida. It's being considered one of the strongest earthquakes on record in the Caribbean, which was an extremely active quake area last month, as we saw with Puerto Rico. As of now, there have been no reported damages, casualties or injuries and a possible tsunami warning has passed. But fingers crossed that good luck continues.

Yes, that's scary. Yes, indeed. President Trump revealed his peace plan for Israel and Palestine yesterday. The words peace plan and maybe even Palestine are doing some heavy lifting here because this really just does not seem good at all. Many say that the new plan is heavily one sided, pointing to the lack of Palestinian leadership involved in the making of it, and Trump literally dropping the news right next to Israel's, shall we say, problematic Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It's also evident in the meat of the plan itself, which includes establishing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, recognizing Israeli settlements on the West Bank,

and refusing Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes that were lost to Israel. Now, typically, peace plans, as I understand them, require both sides to agree. But in this case, Palestinian leaders have rejected it. And Netanyahu is still looking to speed up the process of annexing a big chunk of the West Bank. Unrelated, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted yesterday on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Wow, Jared Kushner really living up to my expectations for how not smart he is. Yeah, Jay Kush. Great job. Best casual chain and barbacoa mispronunciation hub Chipotle was fined almost $1.4 million on Monday for repeatedly violating Massachusetts child labor laws. In what the Mass. Attorney General is calling the biggest child labor

case in state history. Okay, old state. I know. There were mines. Lots of child labor. There were factories. In olden times. There were like tiny little children doing factory stuff. Wow, it must be pretty bad. Chipotle, if you keep the teens at work like this, where do you expect us to get our dank memes? Or TikToks. Or TikToks. Teenagers told investigators the long hours were stopping them from keeping up with schoolwork. Not worth it for watery pico de gallo.

Or salmonella. Or salmonella. Or salmonella for watery pico de gallo or salmonella. Or salmonella. Or salmonella. Very few things are worth it for salmonella. With unemployment at its lowest level in decades, fast food restaurants face a labor shortage that might lead them to break rules. Next, in corporations behaving badly, Delta Airlines was fined $50,000

for discriminating against passengers for the crime of flying while Muslim. On two separate flights in July 2016, Delta removed three Muslim passengers for things like wearing a headscarf and writing Allah in a text message. What the fuck? What? The airline says the removal of passengers was not discriminatory,

which I guess means it was just a racist coincidence. But they admit that the incidents, quote, could have been handled differently. Yes, Delta, very brave to admit that you could have chosen not to ruin your customers' vacations if you didn't absolutely love ruining vacations. A $50,000 fine is a slap on the wrist for Delta, but hopefully it signals that Islamophobia won't be ignored by the Department of Transportation. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe,

leave a review, shake our face like a dog, and tell your friends to listen. By the way, if you're into reading and not just angry comments on New York Times cooking blogs from people who didn't have the right ingredients and are blaming the recipe instead of themselves, like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter.

Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Erin Ryan. I'm Gideon Resnick. And that's why I'm not supporting the demon Paimon from the movie Hereditary in the 2020 election. You can't see it, but I'm cutting my head off with a string. 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 Kshaka.