What A Day - The Grand Old Parade of Losers

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

Former Gov. Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence are expected to launch their 2024 presidential campaigns next week, joining the already crowded field of Republican candidates. They’ll be going up against frontrunners Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, both of whom are on the campaign trail in Iowa.The Supreme Court is expected to issue rulings in several cases that will have huge social implications nationwide — from elections and voting rights to student loans, affirmative action, and even free speech.And in headlines: The House approved the debt limit deal between President Biden and House Republicans, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appointed former Secretary of State John Scott as interim attorney general, and high school theater kids in Indiana performed their gender-bending Robin Hood play despite pushback from parents and school officials.Show Notes:The Washington Post: Their high school canceled an LGBTQ play. These teens put it on anyway. - https://tinyurl.com/5n8ee9vaWhat A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram –https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, June 1st. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And I'm Juanita Tolliver, and this is What A Day, the podcast that is brave enough to tell AI we don't want to see what's outside the famous painting. Yeah, we are not looking at Van Gogh's Starry Night and thinking, but what about the rest of the sky? We are actually A-OK.

I need these robots to take a beat and reconsider their choices their programmers are making for them. On today's show, the House has voted to approve the debt limit deal between President Biden and House Republicans. Plus, Samantha Jones is back. I mean, she was the hot one. So here we go. Huge news. But first, the 2024 Republican presidential primary is about to get even more crowded as former Governor Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence are set to launch their 2024 campaigns next Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

Honestly, it's one hell of a choice for Pence to announce on his birthday as though that would gain him points or something. Strange. But he is set to release a video and deliver a speech in Des Moines, Iowa on June 7th. For Christie, he will announce during a town hall event in Manchester, New Hampshire on June 6th. And at this point, it feels like a parade of losers lining up one after the other against Trump.

Yeah, seriously. I mean, this is who you send. But anyways, do either of these people have a shot at all at breaking through against the front runners, Trump and DeSantis here? I mean, when it comes to Pence, he's holding at about 6% in national polls. That's impressive to me.

That is impressive. Way more than I expected. I am gagged, child. This is horrible. You got a national i am way more child this is horrible you got a national profile and all you can do is six percent but he's seen by many republicans as a trump traitor who is disloyal to the man who sent an armed mob that was chanting hang mike pence at the capitol building on january 6th so there's that and it doesn't help at all that Pence still considers standing up to Trump to be a bad thing and has refused to directly and emphatically call him out over the past two years. So when you add that to the predictable Trump attacks that are to come and the reports

that Pence testified before a federal grand jury in D.C. last month, it's not looking like he will be able to peel off any of those 70 percent of GOP voters who are ready to back Trump in 2024, according to a recent NBC poll. For Chris Christie, though, nobody likes this man. And that comes through in his ridiculous unfavorables. According to a recent Monmouth poll, Christie is underwater with 47 percent of Republicans viewing him negatively and unfavorably. And that is a steep hill to climb. I really think the best thing Christie can do at this point is just throw darts at Trump and hope that they land in order for someone else to come and pick up

the few GOP voters who may be seeking an alternative. And let's not forget that the critical 2024 wildcards here are the pending Trump investigations that could lead to charges with a federal probe into the classified documents and the Fulton County, Georgia probe into the 2020 election. So there's a lot at play here that could impact how Pence, Christie and other GOP primary candidates perform against Trump. Right. Definitely. A lot happening. Could get crazy. I'm actually OK if it gets crazy. That's fine by me. But speaking of Trump, you know, he and DeSantis are both in Iowa. They are campaigning this week. What has that dynamic been like? Well, DeSantis has been making

his way through Iowa since Tuesday. And according to Politico, he is, quote, throwing some uppercuts at Trump. But, whoa, I don't think that means what they think it means. Especially when DeSantis still refuses to even say Trump's name during his speeches to audiences of evangelicals. Like, seriously, this man is skirting every opportunity to stand up to Trump. But he seems to speak more casually with small groups and reporters after his speeches. Take a listen to what DeSantis said to a small group once he got off the stage in Iowa. So look, I'm going to respond to attacks. I mean, if you say Cuomo did a better job with COVID than Florida did, first of all, that's not what he used to say. This is like new, like six months ago, he would have never said that, right?

He used to say how great Florida was. Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship. Are you kidding me? I mean, that was still giving very, very weak tea to me. But sure, I guess this is the best DeSantis has got when it comes to Trump. And that's not saying a lot. It's really not. I mean, you're going to have to step this up, my guy. Like, let's fling some mud. Let's do it. Let's go wild. Let's take the earrings off

like we want to see it. Give me that straight into my veins, please. And also, I just need the media to chill the fuck out. If he's not actually swinging, then don't say he is like, yeah, don't say that's an uppercut. Are you serious? Period. Period. Now, Trump made landfall in Iowa Wednesday afternoon and will be doing local television interviews, hosting a lunch with religious leaders and participating in a Fox town hall with Sean Hannity, where I'm sure he will take aim at DeSantis and other candidates like his former VP Pence.

But it is also important to note that some GOP primary voters have said they don't want to see Trump hitting DeSantis. So we'll have to wait and see just how much Trump heeds that perspective, though I doubt he will. He truly can't help himself. And I'm sure Democrats are sitting back

and watching every bit of this and waiting for it to truly actually ramp up while President Biden enjoys a very chill primary season with no real challengers. So there's that. Yeah, I am just sitting here waiting for the chaos to unfold. But anyways, thank you so much for that, Juanita. 2024 is rapidly approaching,

but before campaign season gets into high gear, we have to talk about the Supreme Court. It is officially June, so it is SCOTUS season, whether we like it or not. And in the coming weeks, the Supreme Court is expected to issue rulings in several cases that will have huge implications on everything from elections and voting rights to student loans, affirmative action, and even free speech. And you know I'm watching every bit of this, especially as a UNC Chapel Hill alum and as a black woman voting in this country.

There is so much at stake here, especially knowing the kind of court we have right now. So can you give us a preview of what we're in for this month? Yeah, I mean, it really is a lot. But let's start out with the two affirmative action cases. They are officially called Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College. These specific cases allege that the schools in question discriminate against Asian American applicants and, in North Carolina's case, white applicants as well. Through these two cases, conservative activists are trying to end the consideration of race entirely in college

admissions, and with this court's 6-3 conservative majority, they might just get their way. Affirmative action was introduced to address the long history of discrimination that people of color have faced in this country. Supporters say that it is critical to fostering diversity on college campuses and onwards. But critics take issue with the idea that everyone isn't being treated the exact same way, which is quite interesting to think about. Respectfully, get the fuck out of here. Not respectfully, no. If that's what they want,

we can rewind history a couple hundred years to make, you know, black people not enslaved. Like respect every demographic who actually built this fucking country, but okay. Yeah, I'm pretty sure the reason we have affirmative action is because that wasn't the case, but congrats on your point, I guess. I don't know. But if affirmative action is nixed by this court, schools that care about diversity and find it important will be forced to revise their admissions policies and look for new ways to keep incoming classes diverse, ways that will almost

certainly be less effective than affirmative action is already. And those aren't the only cases concerning college and students that is coming up. There is also a pair of cases about student loan forgiveness. So a lot happening. Now, this is truly a tricky topic right now, knowing that the debt limit deal may move up the date for payments to restart. So tell us about those cases. Yeah. So they are officially known as Biden v. Nebraska and the Department of Education v. Brown. So we know that President Biden has come up with a plan to allow 43 million eligible borrowers to eliminate up to $20,000 in student debt. It would be a massive deal. The administration estimates that 20 million Americans would no longer have any student debt if this went into effect.

You know, people have been critical of this, have said that it doesn't go far enough. But if this does end up going into effect, it really would be transformative in the lives of millions of people. But it has been on hold for months because states claim that Biden doesn't have the authority to implement this without congressional approval, and lower courts have blocked it from going into effect. It's not quite clear how this case will go. On one hand, the state's challenging the program. We'll have to demonstrate how exactly they are harmed by it

to show that they have the legal grounds to sue. But, you know, this is a conservative court. They are not particularly fond of the executive branch using its power so broadly. So it'll be a tough fight for the administration on a huge priority of theirs, one that they have promised that they would make happen, that they campaigned on. And, you know, that will be really heavily scrutinized as we head into the election season that we're talking about. I keep going back to the fact that no one has had to pay for a student loan since Biden took office. And this conservative stacked court doesn't rely on logic or precedent when deciding cases. So there's a lot at stake here. And there

are plenty of other cases we should also talk about. What else should we keep an eye out for? Yeah, I mean, there are so many big ones. We'll be covering them all on WOD. We've talked before about Moore v. Harper. That is the case about Republican-drawn congressional maps in North Carolina. There's also 303 Creative v. Alanis. That one's about whether business owners who are religious can be sanctioned under anti-discrimination laws for, you know, basically discriminating against LGBTQ people. Feels like they know the right answer there, but they just want to try and take advantage of this court that we have to kind of get around that. But these are all very big deals, decisions that have the potential to reshape policy practice and reality for so many people in this country. So the importance of what's to come this month really cannot be overstated. Obviously, we will be keeping an eye on everything and

reporting on all of it throughout the month on WOD. We will have more on all of this very soon, but that is the latest for now. Let's get to some headlines. The House voted to approve the debt limit deal between president biden and house republicans on wednesday averting a default the bipartisan deal suspends the nation's debt ceiling for the next two years and the nail-biting vote comes just days ahead of the june 5th deadline posed by treasury secretary janet yellen as lawmakers began debating the proposal last night it was unclear if speaker kevin mccarthy would clear the 218 vote threshold he needed to pass it. Dozens of Republicans, many of whom refused to support McCarthy's bid for Speaker of the House earlier this year, said that they wouldn't

support the bill. And the only way that the legislation even made it to the floor for debate was because Democrats pushed it through a critical procedural vote earlier in the day. The legislation now heads to the Senate for another vote. And now to the latest on abortion laws across the country, starting in Nevada, where Republican Governor Joe Lombardo enshrined protections for people seeking abortion out of state, as well as in-state abortion providers, making Nevada a safe haven for anyone providing or receiving an abortion. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin,

Republicans introduced legislation that would amend the state's abortion ban, clarifying which medical procedures do not count as abortion. Their Democratic governor, Tony Evers, will likely veto the bill as he supports restoring abortion rights to what they were before the overturn of Roe v. Wade. And finally, Oklahoma's Supreme Court struck down two laws yesterday that would have banned abortion in the state, considering them unconstitutional. However, the state still prohibits abortion in most instances, barring life-threatening emergencies. Abortion legislation remains in flux nearly a year

after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June. Yeah, a lot happening, very clearly in flux. But a lot of this is good news. So very thankful for, you know, the right people being voted in. And we should do more of that. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has appointed former Secretary of State John Scott as interim attorney general while suspended AG Ken Paxton awaits his impeachment trial. As we talked about on yesterday's show, Paxton was impeached by the Texas House on Saturday for misconduct, including bribery, fraud and abuses of power. John Scott comes to the job after serving as secretary of state from October 2021 until he stepped down in December 2022. During that stint, he was tasked with restoring voter

confidence after Republicans passed tougher voting rules. But his efforts failed after nearly 23,000 mail ballots got tossed during Texas's primary in 2022. Before he was Secretary of State, Scott briefly represented Donald Trump when the former president was challenging the 2020 election results. Okay, then. And until this week's appointment, he has been a regular legislative lobbyist in the state. Scott is an unsurprising pick as he and Abbott have been allies for years. And when Abbott was the attorney general, Scott served as deputy AG for civil litigation. Scott will be holding this office until the results of Paxton's trial, which will begin no later than August 28th. And just like that, Kim Cattrall will reprise her role as the iconic Samantha Jones in a one-episode cameo for the second season of Max's Sex and the City revival. Yesterday, Variety broke the news to the delight of the show's fans,

who have suffered through a full season of a world where Samantha exists only in text messages on Carrie Bradshaw's phone. We suffered through a lot more than that, I'll just say. We suffered through a lot more than that, I'll just say. We suffered through a lot more than just that. A reconciliation between the show and actress Cattrall had seemed highly unlikely after her very public fallout with star and executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker. But according to Variety, Cattrall agreed to the cameo after meeting with the chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content. And we imagine a whole lot of dollar signs. Reportedly, Cattrall's scene will air in the finale episode of In Just Like That Season 2,

and will feature Samantha in one side of a phone call with Parker's Carrie Bradshaw. The actress shot her scene on March 22nd, all without seeing or speaking to SJP, and the episode will come out sometime this August. Okay, one, the beef must run fucking deep. Two, this is a lesson in respecting and protecting your boundaries. And three, she clearly secured the bag for this because they wanted her real bad.

I know, love this for Kim Cattrall. But even more than that, love this for me. I devour every episode of this show, each one worse than the last, which is honestly hard to do if you've seen a single episode of this show, each one worse than the last, which is honestly hard to do if you've seen a single episode of this show. But I will be watching. I was going to be watching whether or not she was there, but this is getting me excited. It's not just the return of JDS. Like we have more to live for. So everybody, congratulations. If you are a fan, if you are

not a fan, today is a day to celebrate, I believe. And those are the headlines. We'll be back after the match. It's Thursday, WOD Squad, and today we're doing a segment called WOD Recommends, where we share an under-the-radar news story, movie, book, or even a rude bumper sticker that caught our attention. So Priyanka, take us away. As we all know, today is the first day of Pride Month, and you don't have to be paying that close attention to the news to notice it is a tough time to be young and queer in our country. That is why we are recommending a story from Hannah Nathanson at the Washington Post about a group of high school theater kids in Indiana whose school administration told them that they couldn't perform their gender-bending Robin Hood play, but they decided to do so anyways. This February, the principal of Carroll High School canceled the spring production of Marion, or The True Tale of Robin Hood, after some parents objected to the script's queer content. After some heated debate, the superintendent

ruled that it wasn't in the interest of the students and their safety to proceed, but these kids were not about to lose their spring play. With the help of a few adults who helped produce and direct the show, the students were able to raise over $80,000, rent a theater, assemble a cast, and sell thousands of tickets to their own independent production. And on May 20th, after only three weeks of rehearsals, they performed to a sold-out crowd. There is so much more in this article that we don't have time to cover. But Juanita, what stood out to you about this story? I mean, it's a Pride Month miracle. And there's so many lessons here.

Like, one, fuck the adults who try to bully you. Call them out to their faces. These students did that perfectly. Two, shout out to the adults who reached out proactively to help them. That is the only way they were able to operate outside the parameters of their school system. And I think it's a lesson in find the people who support you and do it any fucking way. I'm so proud of these students. I'm so hyped for them for not shrinking the face of these biggest and religious zealots. But Priyanka, what do you got? Yeah, I mean, this was such a great story. I'm not even like a really a theater kid, but like I have a soft spot in my

heart for that. I like think it's really so fun to be in a performing arts, consume that as a member of an audience. But this was like making my heart very warm to read. And it's such an amazing thing to have pulled off. Like congratulations to them. I mean, also shame on all the people who stood in their way, including like these community members who like thought that it was in their best interest and like a good use of their time to shut down these kids from doing something that they were passionate about and excited about that wasn't hurting anybody or anything. They should be ashamed. And these students should be nothing but so proud of themselves because this is really

awesome. I think the ultimate cherry on top is they performed to an audience of 1500 people, which is way more that could have fit in their high school auditorium. So extra points for that. I mean, $80,000. Like that's really legit.

Yeah. That was WOD recommends. We'll put a link to the story in our show notes so y'all can read it too. One more thing before we go. Crooked's go-to legal podcast, Strict Scrutiny, will be recording live and you can join via live stream on June 9th at 1 p.m. Eastern. Join host Leah Littman, Kate Shaw and Melissa Murray live as they provide in-depth, accessible and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court

and its cases, culture, and personalities. Get your live stream tickets today by heading to cricket.com slash strict live. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, stage your play anyway, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just

about kim cattrall getting what's hers like me what a day is also a nightly newsletter check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe i'm juanita toliver i'm priyanka arabindi and happy pride everyone i love that we got a bright spot at the end of the month by these children who are clearly alright. The kids are alright. The kids are more than, honestly. They're doing great. We can all take a page from them for pride and beyond. Period.

What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producer is Itsy Quintanilla, and Raven Yamamoto is our associate producer. We had production assistance this week from Fiona Pestana. Jossie Kaufman is our head writer, and our senior producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.