What A Day - Trump Is Losing With Ladies

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

Polls have shown that former President Donald Trump is increasingly weak when it comes to support from women. Recent Wall Street Journal polling found that Vice President Kamala Harris has a 13 point lead over Trump among women. In an attempt to reverse those trends, Trump went on Fox News to speak to a crowd of all women where he called himself the “father of IVF.” Erin Ryan, host of Crooked’s Hysteria and the weekend edition of What A Day, joins us to debrief.And in headlines: Democratic Representative Colin Allred dragged Republican Senator Ted Cruz during the Texas Senate race debate, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his “Victory Plan” to his country’s Parliament, and an abortion rights group in Florida sued the state after Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration ordered TV stations to stop airing their pro-abortion ad.Show Notes:Check out Hysteria – https://crooked.com/podcast-series/hysteria/Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, October 17th. I'm Jane Koston and this is Water Day, the show that's absolutely stunned at a fake whistleblower letter alleging that ABC News gave Vice President Kamala Harris her debate questions ahead of time has been officially debunked as, well, fake. Good thing that the world's richest man, Elon Musk, and multiple members of Congress didn't share it without asking a single question. Oh, wait. On today's show, abortion rights activists fight the state of Florida over an ad. Plus, Trump has lots of opinions on his biggest enemies. But first, time and time again, polls have shown that former President Donald Trump is increasingly weak when it comes to support from women. Recent Wall Street Journal polling found that Vice President Kamala Harris is a 13-point lead over Trump among women.

And that's not only due to women of color. CNN's Harry Enten reported this week that Trump only has a one-point lead over Harris among white women, down significantly from Trump's totals in 2016 and 2020. So in an attempt to reverse those trends, Trump went on Fox News to speak to a crowd of all women, many recruited by Fox from Republican groups in Georgia. Moderated by the network's Harris Faulkner, the town hall event was recorded on Tuesday in a suburb of Atlanta and aired Wednesday morning. And it opened off with this insulting comment towards the family of Amber Thurman.

Thurman was a Georgia resident who died in 2022 after doctors denied her care for 20 hours due to the state's abortion ban. Thurman's family has been featured in ads by the Harris-Walls campaign as a symbol of the consequences of Republican abortion policies. Amber Thurman's family have come out on a press call, and they're doing what's called a pre-buttle two-hour town hall right now. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. And I want to get... We're going to get better ratings, I promise.

Ew. That was far from the only gross moment during the town hall. And to talk through this event that went about as poorly as it could possibly sound on paper, I spoke with Erin Ryan, host of Crooked's Hysteria on the weekend edition of What A Day. Erin, thanks for coming back to What Aia on the weekend edition of Whataday. Erin, thanks for coming back to Whataday. Thank you so much for having me.

So the idea of Donald Trump talking to a room full of women sounds like a nightmare I've had once. How did this town hall go? About how you would expect, despite the fact that it seemed like Fox News kind of put their thumbs on the scale a little bit. Yeah, as far as I could tell, everyone in the room was a Trump supporter, and a couple of them appeared to be actual Republican Party officials. Yes, yes, yes. It feels like the thumb was put on the scale a little bit, and it also seemed to me that Trump was, if you could ever call him prepared, he had been prepped. He had been prepped until his brain was pink and raw. But still, despite that, he did not keep it together in a way that made him sound like he can appeal to women

who are not already on his side. It wouldn't be a town hall without some unhinged moments talking about immigration. So the former president was asked what he'd do about sanctuary cities, and here was his response. We are going to end all sanctuary cities

immediately. We're going to end them. Because they're really... Is that an executive order you do that with? Really, I can do it with an executive order. I have to do it with an executive order. You can do it with the Aliens Act of 1798. We can do things in terms of moving people out. So I have to ask, one, why does Donald Trump think that bonkers immigration policies appeal to white suburban women, clearly the audience?

And secondly, does it? The Trump campaign right now, I think, is understanding that they are in deep, deep trouble with women, with demographics of women that they normally could win, could count on. And I think that's the whole purpose that they had this town hall. But in order to win trouble with women, with demographics of women that they normally could win, could count on. And I think that's the whole purpose that they had this town hall. But in order to win with these women, they have to kind of shift the conversation to an issue they think they can win

on. They can't win on abortion and reproductive rights. They can't. They can't win on like kitchen table economy stuff, I don't think, because they don't seem to have a grasp or an understanding or an even a desire to understand the lived reality of women's financial lives. But what they can do is appeal to a manufactured fear of migrants coming in and hurting them. So they're trying to shift the conversation from safety means being able to decide what to do with your own body, safety means being able to make health care decisions on your own. To safety means we kick the migrants out. So Trump was asked about the child tax credit and gave an answer that seemed mostly centered on praising his daughter, Ivanka. Let's listen. My daughter, Ivanka, she said, Dad, we have to do tax credits for the child tax credits. She was driving me crazy.

Then I did it and I got it just about done. Dad, you've got to double it up. I said, Ivank, it was actually more complicated than the entire bill, but I got it done. And what we're going to do, and I'm going to because I understand exactly what you're saying. We're going to readjust things so that it's fair to everybody because it's really not fair to everybody. What did Trump actually do with the child tax credit during his first term? And what does his campaign say he will actually do if reelected? OK, first of all, him taking credit for the child tax credit is egregious. Representative Rosa DeLauro would like a word.

She's been working on this for literally her entire political career, which much predates Donald Trump's political career. Connecticut representative and longtime advocate for reduction in child poverty through the child tax credit and other measures. So here's what happened. In 2017, Donald Trump was trying to, like, hulk through this massive tax overhaul, right? And included in that tax overhaul was a doubling of the child tax credit to $2,000. So it was $1,000 before, but it was $2,000 after. And that was partly because of work that Ivanka Trump did on a bipartisan basis. But here's the thing.

The $2,000 tax credit from the 2017 tax overhaul only applied to families that make enough money to pay income taxes. And so the people that needed that tax credit the most, the lowest income families, I think like 40% of families in the US do not pay income taxes. Because you don't make enough money. Because you don't make enough money. They were not seeing any benefit from that. Some people were seeing something like $150 over the course of a year. Like it wasn't enough to make a difference to the people who needed it the most. So doubling the tax credit to 2000 and expanding it to families that made up to 400,000 was what Trump did back then. But it really didn't benefit low income families. Now, during pandemic, there was an expanded child tax credit that applied to everybody with kids, and it reduced the child poverty rate by like 50% in this country. And in

2021, Republicans and Joe Manchin refused to extend it indefinitely. And as a result, the amount of child poverty went way back up. Donald Trump hasn't issued a coherent child tax credit plan. You know, he hasn't talked about anything specific when it comes to his plans for a second term. And frankly, I don't believe that he has any real plans for a child tax credit that actually doesn't leave out low-income families. So IVF also came up during the town hall, and Trump gave himself this title. Oh, I want to talk about IVF.

I'm the father of IVF, so I want to hear this question. I'm the father of IVF? What the want to hear this question. I'm the father of IVF? What the fuck are you talking about, my dude? What? That makes literally no sense. Okay, in what sense? Like, this is an example of Fox News handing him an alley-oop. Like, why was there no follow-up to that?

What do you mean you're the father of IVF? Harris Faulkner was like, you don't hear that every day. I'm like, yeah, because he's— Because you're not. What? You shouldn't hear it any day. It's a complete lie. No, no. Trump's claim is that the GOP is, quote, the party for IVF. Is IVF actually safe under the GOP? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. So let me rewind a little bit. Prior to Roe v. Wade being overturned,

the anti-choice pro-life forces in the U.S. were united behind one single goal, and that goal was to overturn Roe v. Wade being overturned, the anti-choice pro-life forces in the U.S. were united behind one single goal, and that goal was to overturn Roe v. Wade. Now, then they became the dog that caught the car and the movement sort of splintered. And so there is a majority of people who consider themselves pro-life do not want to see IVF outlawed. But there are important, highly moneyed, and very politically active factions of the former pro-life monolith that think IVF is sinful. The Catholic Church, six members of the Supreme Court are Catholics. They think that IVF is a sin against nature. The Pope says it.

And there are other extremely right-wing evangelicals that believe destroying an embryo at all is a form of murder, akin to pushing a two-year-old off a building. Like, it's the same thing. IVF inherently involves the destruction of embryos. And even if you're only creating as many embryos as you want to implant, it will lead to unavoidable miscarriages and embryos that are being frozen for indefinite amounts of time. Now, I don't think that most people who have frozen embryos are comfortable with those being treated legally like children, but that's what the Alabama Supreme Court earlier this year said they needed to do. So there was one question during the town hall on abortion, and Trump did his whole I'm a hero because I let the states decide spiel. Let's take a listen.

Nobody wanted it to be in the federal government uh five or six or seven years ago they started talking about weeks and this then but what they wanted is they wanted it back in the states for a vote of the people and that's where we have it and the states are now voting for it and honestly some of them are going much more liberal like in ohio i would have thought it might some of them are not different and some are not but it's going to be redone it It's going to be redone. You end up with a vote of the people. And some of them, I agree, they're too tough, too tough. And those are going to be redone.

Okay, first of all, zero states. In zero states have they chosen to go more conservative. When it's been put up for a vote to the actual voters and not to the gerrymandered state legislatures, in zero states have pro-abortion access, pro-reproductive freedom measures failed. And so when Trump talks about how states are being too tough on abortion, one, that seems to me that he knows somewhere that this is a bad issue for him. He knows that. But also, it's interesting because one of the people who really loves an abortion ban is his own vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, who, when he ran for Senate before he deleted it from his website, said, you know,

he wants to end abortion. So what did you make of that response, and especially of Trump trying to play it both ways about how everyone wanted it back to the states, but now the states are making the wrong choice. I mean, it's patently untrue. First of all, 80 to 90 percent of Democrats polled did not want Roe v. Wade overturned. And the overall rate of people who didn't want Roe v. Wade overturned was something like 76 percent. It is completely not true. He just made that up. So that to me is just him trying to create an argument to support an unwinnable position. And I also thought we should take a step back. And when he says leave it up to the states, just reflect on that. Like as a woman, he thinks that the best way for decisions

to be made about the female body, about a woman's body, about anybody with a uterus's body, is to give it to a committee of elected officials. Like, in what world is that not creepy and weird? I think people need to understand that the scariest abortion bans are the ones that, like, put a time limit on it. Because it is completely inhumane to imagine that a condition that medically cannot be discovered until after 16 weeks or even after 20 weeks is something that a woman is just going to have to carry and deliver in a hospital and live with and possibly threaten her future fertility and her future family and months of her life and not be able to move on with her. It is an inhumane, ridiculous, like offensively flippant way to think about

dealing with what people are allowed to do with their bodies. It's like, it's super gross. It's incredibly gross. And the obfuscation is driving me nuts. But Erin, thank you so much. Someday you're going to come on the show and it won't be about something that drives us both insane. Oh, good. I can't wait. That was my conversation with Aaron Ryan, host of Crooked's Hysteria and the weekend edition of Whataday. We'll get to the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star

review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. And now, the news. Headlines. When he ran for president in 2016, he supported the personhood amendment. You know what that means? That would make something like IVF illegal, but also ban certain forms of birth control.

You did. You did when you ran for president in 2016. Democratic Representative Colin Allred wiped the floor with Republican Senator Ted Cruz in a debate for the Texas Senate race Tuesday night. And I'll just say this. I know, it's Texas. But if someone had a chance to beat Ted Cruz, this is how you would do it.

You can look it up, folks. You don't have to believe me. Again, you've been seeing him lie to you for 12 years. Let's have a senator who doesn't. Allred called out how Cruz responded to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. I was prepared to defend the House floor from the mob. At the same time, after he'd gone around the country lying about the election, after he'd been the architect of the attempt to overthrow that election,

when that mob came, Senator Cruz was hiding in a supply closet. That was cold. And Allred brought up how Cruz is all talk and no action. This is a pattern. He talks tough, but he never shows up. We have a phrase for this in Texas, all hat and no cattle. That's what Senator Cruz is. Six more years of this? Come on, he's had 12 years to do it already. I don't know about you, but I'm guessing Senator Cruz was thinking about a certain Cancun vacation right about then. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced last month it was investing in a multimillion dollar ad buy in Texas and Florida after Montana Senator John Tester's prospects started to look bleak.

And after Tuesday's debate, the Allred campaign saying he earned a million dollars. Now, normally that wouldn't be nothing. But a Texas Senate seat for Democrats is like Charlie Brown thinking Lucy's finally going to let him kick that football. But if anyone were to have a chance, Allred is sure making a good run at it. To be there is full of justice. To be there is legitimate for us. Glory to Ukraine! public announcement. The plan includes five main conditions for Kyiv's victory, the first of which is Ukraine finally joining NATO. The alliance has said in the past that it will allow Ukraine to

join the ranks amid Russia's years-long invasion, but it is yet to extend a formal invitation. Other provisions of Zelensky's plan include bolstering Ukraine's defenses and charting out a plan for Ukraine's economic growth for after the war ends. According to Zelensky, his plan could bring an end to the war in Ukraine, quote, no later than next year, with the support of its allies. Ukrainian officials told Reuters on Wednesday that they're seeking membership with NATO before Biden leaves office. Great news for ballot access.

Nebraska's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that convicted felons in the state can vote immediately after completing their prison sentences. The state previously required former felons to wait two years after serving their time to vote, but state lawmakers from both sides of the aisle voted to throw out the waiting period earlier this year. Other state officials appealed to the state's Supreme Court, arguing that allowing felons to vote was unconstitutional, but the court disagreed, siding with lawmakers. Huge win. But the clock is ticking for convicted felons who want to vote this November. The deadline to register online to vote in Nebraska is tomorrow. Folks can also register in person until October 25th.

A group campaigning in favor of abortion rights in Florida is suing the state after Governor Ron DeSantis' administration ordered TV stations to stop airing this ad. When I saw the tumor on the MRI, my first thought was, am I going to be able to see my daughter again? The doctors knew if I did not in my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life, and my daughter would lose her mom. Earlier this month, the Florida Health Department threatened TV stations with criminal prosecution for airing it. The ad encourages people to vote yes on a ballot measure that would protect the right to an abortion until fetal viability, which is around 20 weeks. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group that produced the video, says the action violates their First Amendment right to free speech. The ballot measure would overrule Florida's current abortion law, which bans abortion in most cases after six weeks, which is before most women know they're pregnant.

And that's the news. One more thing. If you want to hear what Donald Trump cares about, you could listen to his spokespeople or the people who have endorsed him. But if you want to hear what Donald Trump actually cares about, you could just listen to him. Take, for example, Trump's belief that America's biggest enemy is the enemy within. It's a big deal for him. He talks about it a lot. Here he is speaking in Aurora, Colorado on the 11th. We have the greatest military in the world, but you have to know how to use them. deal for him. He talks about it a lot. Here he is speaking in Aurora, Colorado on the 11th. We have the greatest military in the world, but you have to know how to use them.

And who does he want to use them against? It's the enemy from within. All the scum that we have to deal with that hate our country, that's a bigger enemy than China and Russia. And here he is in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, making it clear that he thinks the military should handle radical left lunatics. In terms of election day, I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by national guard or, if really necessary, by the military. And who are the radical left lunatics? Amazing question.

By radical left lunatics who need to be handled by the military, he means Adam Schiff, as he detailed on Fox News on Wednesday. And it is the enemy from within. And they're very dangerous. They're Marxists and communists and fascists and they're sick. I use a guy like Adam Schiff because they made up the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. And then, of course, there's his favorite California congresswoman, who apparently requires intervention from the National Guard. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are,

you know, the Pelosi's, these people, they're so sick and they're so evil. That's what Trump thinks. That's what Trump believes. You and I can both hear and see what he's saying. He doesn't spend his time discussing how he's going to make America healthy again or do something about our waterways. He believes that the people who oppose him are evil, sick criminals who should be dealt with by the state. And he has no problem with saying so. But throughout the last eight or nine years, there have been a host of people supporting Donald Trump who nevertheless refuse to listen to the words he actually says. Remember, take Trump seriously, but not literally.

Now it's just take him, please. Like Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper on Monday about the words that Donald Trump actually said, while apparently not hearing them. I'm talking about Donald Trump saying that he wants to use the National Guard and the military to go after the left. That's what he's saying. I don't believe that's what he's saying. But listen, you and I are going to argue about that. But I would suggest if you would also... I played the quote and I read it to you. If you would also balance that. I mean, you can wish that he weren't saying that, but that's what he's saying. Jake, all the time, people

are taking little snippets of contact and turning it into a big narrative. I don't believe that's what he's saying. It's been nine years of this. Nine years of Donald Trump saying something and then a bunch of people either saying that he didn't say the thing he said or saying

that we are all simultaneously mishearing him. We didn't, and we aren't. These are his words, and these are his plans. Before we go, this fall the election could reshape the Supreme Court for generations. The president holds the power to appoint justices, and those justices will make critical decisions on everything from reproductive rights to voting laws. Stay calm and stay informed by tuning in to Strict Scrutiny. Armed with three law degrees and plenty of sharp opinions, Melissa Murray, Kate Shaw, and Leah Littman break down every case and

decision, so you can head to the polls informed and confident. Listen to Strict Scrutiny every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts, and now on YouTube too. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, listen to the words that Donald Trump is saying, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just Zelensky's plan for victory for Ukraine like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston. And sometimes, Elon Musk, stuff on the internet isn't true. What A Day is a production of Crooked Media.

It's recorded by Jarek Centeno and mixed by Bill Lance. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michelle Aloy. We have production help today from Ethan Oberman, Tyler Hill, Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adrienne Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gillyard and Kashaka.