What A Day - To The Left, To The Left

Episode Date: June 22, 2020

New York, Virginia, and Kentucky have primaries on Tuesday. We speak with two progressive candidates for congress: Jamaal Bowman, who’s running against incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel for New York’s 16th congressional district, and Charles Booker, who’s running against Amy McGrath, for senate in Kentucky.COVID-19 is still happening in the US, whether government officials recognize it or not. New daily cases have hit record highs in 12 states, with about 30,000 new daily cases countrywide. And in headlines: an 18-year-old security guard is killed by police in Los Angeles, Bill Barr tries to fire someone quietly and fails, and a new name for Columbus, Ohio.Head to crooked.com/podcast/to-the-left-to-the-left/ to read a transcript of our full interview with Jamaal Bowman.

It's Monday, June 22nd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, where we're calling on Mike Pence to prove that he can drink water. Yeah, I mean, it was good to see the president do it, but we do need to know that the VP can also drink water in case there's some sort of emergency. Yeah, we need all the information we can get. On today's show, a preview of this week's primary elections in New York, Kentucky, and Virginia, then some headlines. But first, the

latest. So COVID-19 is still happening, and we're going to keep telling you about it because it's deadly, there's no vaccine, and we should all continue being vigilant. Here in America, new daily cases have hit record highs in 12 states, with Texas, Florida, and Arizona leading the charge. More on that in a second. And nationwide, we're back to nearly 30,000 new reported cases daily. So we haven't seen numbers like that since early May, but when there's, you know, a complete lack of leadership and a Senate that refuses to subsidize workers in the middle of a pandemic, it looks like people are just being told to go back out and risk it. Yeah, it's awful. Let's talk about Florida for a second, though.

There's a great deal of concern there with some saying that it could be the next epicenter in America. What do we know about that? Yeah, so the numbers are still spiking in Florida, but because it's mostly young people getting ill, the death toll isn't climbing as fast there. According to the Florida Department of Health, the median age of those catching COVID went from 65 at the beginning of March to 36 just this week. Still, hospital beds are a hot commodity, and scientists don't know the long-term effects of the disease on our bodies. And because of all this, the Yankees and Mets are moving their preseason training out of Florida. No word yet if the NBA will continue their push

to resume in Orlando at the end of July. Yeah, and in New York City, phase two of reopening is on the horizon. Just weeks ago, it seemed like the city was fully incapacitated, and now there are some bars and restaurants opening for outdoor service. Yeah, so the city has seen new case numbers dramatically decrease following all of those lockdowns and mask wearing. That's right, so the city has seen new case numbers dramatically decrease following all

of those lockdowns and mask wearing. That's right. All the other places that were too proud to wear masks are now eating into their own summers with spiking cases. But for those of us not in any kind of phase two, here's what that means. A wider range of businesses will reopen, including offices, outdoor dining, places of worship, but that's going to be at like 25% capacity, storefront retailers, and some more stuff. Salons and barbershops will also be able to reopen with limited capacity, as will car dealerships. And as far as retail goes, malls will remain closed. It's all very exciting, but when other areas worldwide have reopened, a lot of them have had to close because the case numbers went back up. So if you are in New York, please, please, please be careful. Yes, please. And besides Trump reminding us of his vendetta against testing at

his rally this weekend, what else is the White House actually saying about the pandemic these days? I mean, they're simply acknowledging that there may be a second wave of coronavirus this fall, which I really don't know what that means. They didn't elaborate. And since we're hitting these peak numbers right now, it's unclear if a new wave means a continuation of what's happening now or something way worse. But White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said yesterday that they are, quote, filling the stockpile in anticipation of a possible problem in the fall. This is completely at odds with Vice President Pence's continued downplaying of the potential for everything to get worse. He even penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week titled,

There Isn't a Coronavirus Second Wave. I do not trust him. All right. We'll keep an eye out on that. But let's switch gears for a second and talk about some upcoming elections this week. Sure. All right. So on Tuesday, there are a bunch of primaries. We're talking New York, Virginia, and Kentucky, with, you know, important down ballot races as well as House and Senate contests. These races have, in most cases, been upended by two epidemics the country's facing, coronavirus and systemic racism and police brutality. Today, we're going to focus on two contests in two very different places. And in both, a central question exists. Who is the right

person to lead in this moment? So let's start with New York's 16th congressional district. Yeah, so this district includes parts of the Bronx and Westchester. And we've got incumbent Elliot Engel, who is white, has been in office for 30 years and currently chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He's now facing a major primary challenge from Jamal Bowman, who is black, and has spent his career working in public education, most recently as the founding principal of a middle school in the Bronx. So it's a race that's reminiscent of the dynamics we saw in 2018 with Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez running against a longtime incumbent in a very, very blue district to represent a more progressive set of policy goals and reflect the demographics of that district. That's right. And the endorsements kind of tell the story. Yeah. So Engel has been endorsed by people like Hillary Clinton and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

And unlike that AOC Joe Crowley race in 18, Engel and the kind of traditional Democrats, as it were, appear to understand the risk of him being unseated here. Bowman has big endorsements, too. He's won the backing of Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, plus Ocasio-Cortez. And he was also endorsed by The New York Times. And in the last few weeks of the race, the momentum has really appeared to be with Bowman. He's criticized Engel for spending a lot of his time in his Maryland home while the COVID-19 pandemic raged in New York City. And there was a pretty bad moment recently where Engel was caught on a hot mic at a press conference about the police killing of George Floyd. He was trying to get a turn to speak and could be heard saying, quote,

if I didn't have a primary, I wouldn't care. He later said he was trying to get a chance to speak because he cared so much about the issue. Yeah, I mean, doesn't make any sense to me since it's the opposite of what he said. So I don't know how he could have meant that, but whatever. I don't quite follow the cleanup either. Nope. But, you know, one of the ultimate questions voters are going to have to answer here is whether they want a new face and a new approach to meeting this moment in our country's history. I spoke with Jamal Bowman late last week about how the pandemic and protests have changed his candidacy and the race overall.

We were running to deal with issues of structural racism and inequality from the very beginning. So this all just affirmed that work and crystallized it maybe to voters throughout the district who didn't think that, you know, Medicare for all was something that was doable or necessary. And now they realize like, wow, you know, over 100,000 dead as a result of this coronavirus. And if we not just provided health care for everyone, but really invested in health care in a very real way, this could have been avoided or averted. Yeah. Engel has tried to draw a contrast with Bowman by emphasizing his decades of experience and powerful positions on House committees. So we're just going to have to see what voters think. Yeah, and Bowman portrays that Engel tenure pretty differently. He's criticized Engel as, quote, coasting in Congress for quite

some time and not using that position on the district's behalf. Bowman has also talked about his personal experience quite a bit and how it helps him inform his connection to the district and his politics. For instance, he's lived in public housing. He's taught in public schools, had a family member with a drug addiction and direct encounters with police brutality himself. Yeah, I mean, everything I've experienced makes me everything I am. And I'm running this campaign as my authentic self. So I had the cops beat the shit out of me, you know, when I was 11 years old. And I've had a lifetime of police harassment and brutality in some form or another. You know, people got to understand that police brutality is not just having the police beat the crap out of you.

It's also being handcuffed and put in a cage when you didn't do anything wrong and then being released without explanation or apology. That's happened to me multiple times in my life. Yeah. And more recently, Bowman has expressed a desire for defunding police and told me that House Democrats currently weren't going far enough on their plans for reform. He and Engel agree in the fact that they both support Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. And throughout this whole process, Bowman also has just seemed like he's having the best time in this race, you know, talking and getting to know people and even posting videos of him dancing seemingly every day. Well, that's really wonderful. But let's talk about the big race in Kentucky, the Senate Democratic primary between Amy McGrath and Charles Booker. The winner of this race will go on to challenge and hopefully unseat Mitch McConnell this November.

And this race has been especially upended in recent weeks by protests and the police killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, where now one of the cops has been fired, but none of the cops have faced any charges. Yeah, that's right. So for a long time, it had seemed like Amy McGrath, who is white, was going to be the Democratic candidate against McConnell. She's a former Marine Corps fighter pilot and a political moderate who has raised just an insane amount of money. And the thought was, even if her chances of beating McConnell were slim, that she could force him and the Republican Party to play defense in a traditionally red state. But as this movement against police brutality and systemic racism gained steam, so did the candidacy of Booker. Booker, who is black, is a state representative from Louisville who talks about growing up in poverty and sometimes homelessness. And he has been a major presence at protests that have swept the state, even in majority white enclaves,

marching on behalf of family members who have been murdered and for Taylor, who he said was actually a family friend. Yeah. Booker was even tear gassed at a protest. Meanwhile, McGrath had previously said that she hasn't been to protests in the state. So a really big contrast. Yeah, for sure. Especially at this moment. And there's other stuff that Democrats were unhappy with McGrath about. She previously said that she supported the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court before reversing that position. And at one point, blame to Mitch McConnell for not letting Trump do more of what he wants to do. So I guess her platform is just replace Mitch McConnell to give more power to Trump,

like she's still trying to get Trump elected. I don't know. It was confusing. But, you know, even before the last couple of weeks and months, Booker has been a staunch progressive who supports Medicare for All, Agreed New Deal, and defunding police. And as was the case for Bowman, the endorsements, money, and momentum are really rolling in for Booker. So the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee recruited McGrath to run in this race. But Booker has recently been endorsed by Sanders, Warren, AOC, two of Kentucky's biggest newspapers, and a host of local elected officials. I also spoke to him late last week about this moment. This is one of those moments where you can feel the climate changing.

You can feel the atmosphere changing. You can feel people and you can see them rising up. And, you know, I've told a lot of folks across Kentucky that right now a lot of the country is looking at us to see how we're going to respond how are we going to lead the path forward right and he also told me that his lived experience and having worked in many different areas of public service would lead him to victory quote we will beat Mitch McConnell and there's nothing he can do about it he said excellent I Excellent. I sure hope so. All right. Well, those are just two of the races to watch. And there are other races as well that we're going to cover in the coming days. And we should note that we might

not get results right away on Tuesday night because of all the voting by mail and with fewer polling places, lines are expected to be really long. But for now, if you're in New York, Kentucky or Virginia, please vote and please do so safely. Yeah now, if you're in New York, Kentucky, or Virginia, please vote and please do so safely. Yeah. And if you want to read a full transcript of my interview with Jamal Bowman about his race in New York, it is going to check our temps. So, Kurt Cobain's guitar from Nirvana's iconic MTV Unplugged performance sold this weekend, and it went for over $6 million, making it the most expensive guitar ever sold.

Giddy, one question for you. Are you surprised? Yeah, I don't know if this is like what the game plan is here. If like this person is, you know, collecting various musical instrument trinkets from ages past, like Miles Davis's trumpet or something like that, or what's going on. But I wouldn't pay that much. I also don't have that much. So it's not really a question for me. Oh that much. I also don't have that much, so it's not really a question for me. Oh, yeah. I mean, that is absolutely, totally fair.

But what would you buy if you could, like if you were looking at the full landscape of music history and money is no object, what are you buying? That is the biggest question anyone has ever asked. I mean, like, it's not just going to be one thing. Like if I'm endlessly wealthy and I could own part of music history. Oh,

I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is like, you know, maybe, um, Amy Winehouse is like vintage microphone. Like the one she's saying, like,

you know, back to black into just recording that. But I'm sure there's like way more than that. You know, any I guess any musician who had like an untimely death and there's lots of them, I would want like a little little something just to be like, oh, honestly, if the person's still alive, like, can I just have like the baseball bat that Beyonce swings and Like, that would be tight. That would be very sick. Or the trunk that Rihanna stuffs people into. That lady into. Yes. This better have my money. That would be useful

for carrying things or stuffing humans into. That's exactly right. I love this. Well, you know what? We checked our temperatures. I hope you have my money. Don't act like you forgot. But if you did, you know what? We're just going to check in with you all again tomorrow. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. body shop last Thursday when he was shot six times in the back by an L.A. County sheriff's deputy. Police say he, quote, produced a firearm and ran away from the officers.

The deputies were not wearing body cameras at the time, and the department is still investigating nearby security camera footage. Guardado's sister demanded justice during rallies over the weekend and said that her brother did not carry weapons. Democratic Congresswomen Maxine Waters and Nanette Diaz-Baragon from Los Angeles released a joint statement also demanding an independent investigation. A state prison in California is experiencing a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases. Over 150 inmates and 37 staff members at San Quentin State Prison tested positive for the virus over the weekend. Criminal justice advocates say the outbreak may have stemmed from the transfer of inmates from a different prison that had 500 active cases. San Quentin had zero confirmed cases before the transfer, which happened two weeks ago. The pandemic has led the state of California to

release some prisoners who are within 180 days of their original release dates, but many argue that it's not enough to save inmates' lives. Across the country, unsanitary conditions and close quarters Awful. Attorney General Bill Barr committed what's known in the legal community as boss's double jeopardy this weekend, firing the same person two times in a row. That man is Jeffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who has investigated and prosecuted Trump allies like lawyers Michael Cohen and Rudy Giuliani. The Justice Department has been weaponized by Trump recently, with Barr acting as the tip of the spear. And it certainly looked that way late

on Friday when Barr announced that Berman had resigned to be replaced by chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton. Now, Clayton is Trump's golf buddy and has never been a prosecutor, which you'd think would be a prerequisite for this job. Berman, for his part, disagreed with Barr, saying he would not resign until the Senate confirmed a new appointee. The will they won't they continued into Saturday when Barr issued a new statement saying Berman had been fired by Trump and would be replaced temporarily with Berman's chief deputy, Audrey Strauss. Apparently satisfied with this more sensible pick, Berman agreed to step down. As communities around the world tear down statues of history's countless awful men,

residents of Columbus, Ohio have an even bigger problem. Their whole city is named after a genocidal loser. Columbus's mayor has already announced plans to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus by City Hall, and some 20,000 signatories of a Change.org petition have proposed a new name. They want to call Columbus Flavortown after their hometown hero, Guy Fieri. Fieri basically achieved sainthood over quarantine when he helped raise more than $20 million for restaurant workers who had lost work due to COVID-19. The man wears a halo of spiked hair and has angel wings of chicken wings. There's no word on what city officials will require to make Flavortown a reality. You can support the effort by signing or calling elected officials in Columbus to express your support for corn dogs.

I'm so there. I love it. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, bid on our guitar, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just Guy Fieri's masterwork, cooking it, living it, loving it 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. 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 please dance with us Jamal Bowman. I've been practicing my dance moves. I have TikTok. Just once. I would love the opportunity. 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.