What A Day - Trump's Unappealing Appeal

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Donald Trump was back in court on Tuesday for the federal case against him for trying to overturn the 2020 election. This time, however, Trump tried to make the argument that he cannot be charged at all. Plus, Trump on Monday requested that a Maine judge put a pause on deciding whether he should appear on the state’s ballot for now.The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing today about how artificial intelligence could impact journalism. One of the committee’s members – Sen. Amy Klobuchar – discusses a bill she introduced that protects local news. We’re joined by the Senator to discuss that bill and the larger effort to crack down on A.I.And in headlines: The White House ordered cabinet secretaries to tell them if they might not be able to perform their duties, New York City started evicting migrant families that hit their 60-day shelter stay limit, and powerful storms swept across the country on Tuesday.Show Notes:What 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 Wednesday, January 10th. I'm Juanita Tolliver. And I'm Priyanka Arabindi, and this is What A Day, where we are saying sorry to Dean Phillips, who had absolutely no one show up to his campaign coffee event yesterday in New Hampshire. Are we saying sorry? I don't think I'm saying sorry. No, it was in the script, but we are not saying sorry. Maybe he could have gotten people there if he'd handed out lattes in those pink Stanley cups that people are fighting over at Target. Maybe. Even then. On today's show, Senator Amy Klobuchar warns us about AI in journalism and elections.

This is really about keeping the First Amendment alive and local journalism alive. Plus, scientists have made it official. 2023 was the hottest year ever on record. But first, Trump was back in court yesterday for the federal case against him for trying to overturn the 2020 election. This time, he was trying to say he shouldn't be charged at all. His attorney struggled through their oral arguments before a three-judge panel in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals judges pressed Trump's lawyer to defend his claim that Trump is entitled to absolute immunity from facing criminal charges for acts that fell under his official duties as president. In this case, they're implying that Trump's official duties included sending an armed mob to attack the Capitol on January 6th.

I mean, just all in a day's work, right, Priyanka? Apparently. Take a listen to how Judge Florence Pan checked Trump's attorney, D. John Sauer, during oral arguments. I asked you a yes or no question. Could a president who ordered SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival who was not impeached, would he be subject to criminal prosecution? If he were impeached and convicted first. So your answer is no? My answer is qualified yes. There is a political process that would have to occur under our structure,

our constitution, which would require impeachment and conviction by the Senate. In these exceptional cases, as the OLC memo itself points out from the Department of Justice, you'd expect a speedy impeachment and conviction. Okay, one, you hear her tone, right? Judge Pan's tone was like full of skepticism. Like she was not having it at all. Absolutely not. And two, I'm just like, oh, wait, wait, you need Congress to impeach and convict before he could face any criminal charges for having SEAL Team 6 kill a political opponent. Like what is this craziness? What is this craziness? We won't even get into his voice,

which actually grew on me by the end of that clip. Did it? Did it? Yeah, no, it was kind of like gravelly and like, it's mysterious. I want to know his story. Anyways, what other reactions did the judges have to Trump's legal arguments? And how did the DOJ perform in court? Well, the judges took turns poking holes in the arguments laid out by Trump's legal team. Judge Pan told Trump's attorney that, quote,

once you concede that presidents can be prosecuted under some circumstances, your separation of powers argument falls away. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson poked another hole in their arguments when she said, quote, I think it's paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate criminal law.

Meanwhile, the DOJ attorneys reiterated that Trump's actions to overturn the election, scheme with fake electors across the country, and attempt to force former Vice President Mike Pence to reject electoral votes did not count as official duties. Yeah, I mean, this does not seem like a tough day at work for those DOJ attorneys. That's all pretty straightforward. When should we expect a ruling in this case? It's unclear when the appeals court judges will issue a ruling, but legal analysts are suggesting that the ruling will be issued pretty quickly as the case was already on an expedited track and the judges had to review the relevant briefs before oral arguments. Also, no matter how the appeals court rules, we can expect either party to appeal this case to the Supreme Court immediately after an opinion is

released because this ruling will dictate whether or not prosecutors can proceed with their federal January 6th case. And this isn't the only court case that Trump has on his schedule this week. You know, tell us more about what else he is dealing with right now. So up in Maine, Trump requested that a state judge put a pause on deciding whether he should appear on the ballot for now. Trump wants to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a ruling in the Colorado ballot case, which would have national implications. Also, in New York, closing arguments are set for Thursday, January 11th, in Trump's civil fraud trial. As a reminder, the judge has already ruled in this case that Trump engaged in fraud behavior for years, so the next ruling will be related to

the penalties for that fraud, which could include a $300 million fine and a ban on Trump doing business in New York at all. Okay, let's just get that straight really quick. You said $300 million, not three, 300. $300 million. They are coming for all of this man's money. Yeah. Didn't even know he had that much, to be honest. I thought he was lying about all of it.

Right. And just to be clear, Trump is not required to show up at any of these court dates, but he will because he views them as campaign opportunities that he can fundraise off of. And it's all just a game to this man. That is true. But listen, those penalties, that fine and the ban on him doing business in New York, kind of delicious. Kind of would love to see it. But anyways, thank you so much for that update. We're going to turn now to a story about the controversy around the rise of artificial intelligence, specifically around reporting and even our elections. So today, the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing about how AI could impact journalism. One of the committee's members, Senator Amy Klobuchar, will discuss a bill that she introduced that protects local news. That bill would make sure that local journalists are better compensated by platforms like Facebook and Google that make a profit from distributing their content. That way, they can keep making that content

that is so vital for our understanding of what goes on in the world for years to come. The alternative is that some publications have actually been caught using ChatGPT to write up articles for free rather than pay journalists to go get the story. No. But we need those journalists, as I said, to keep us informed about what's happening on the ground

in states like Texas, Minnesota, all over. What is going on in your neighborhood, your town? That is their job. It is of vital importance. Otherwise, we'd have no idea what's going on. And without protections, they'd have no idea if they still have jobs, because there just isn't a lot of money in local news funding in it. And there hasn't been for quite some time. It's been a real crisis. I also think this is a very relevant topic right now, especially as we see generative AI being used in political campaign ads ahead of this year's election. Absolutely. I mean, so many people have been talking about AI and their fears around it in so many different arenas. And we know how much of an impact misinformation specifically has on our elections.

So very right for the alarm bells to be going off when we talk about AI, especially in an election year. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced legislation last year to ban generative AI from being used in federal elections. She's also behind the bill that supports local journalism being discussed today. I actually got a chance to speak with Senator Klobuchar yesterday about her bill and the larger effort to crack down on AI. And she told me that this issue is very personal to her because her late father was actually a local journalist in Minnesota. This is really about keeping the First Amendment alive and local journalism alive. My dad grew up in a hardscrabble iron ore mining

town in northern Minnesota, started out in North Dakota and Bismarck, and then went to the Twin Cities where he became a major columnist, sports columnist first, and then major columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. And he really believed that you tell the stories of people. And sometimes those stories are tragic. Sometimes they're sad. Sometimes they're funny. News organizations have a way of grabbing people by actually having real people tell their stories. Maybe it's a quote, maybe it's a whole interview. You just lose that fabric of life if you lose local news. And my dad wrote when he retired after being a national newspaper columnist of the year, writing tens of thousands of columns and words, he talked about when he asked himself, is it worth it? You know, was it worth it to be tear gassed outside the Republican convention in Miami and outside in Chicago? Was it worth it to keep a widow of a Marine on the phone to hear the story while she sobbed? And at the end,

he said, God, yes, it was worth it because people have a right to know these stories. They have a right to know what's happening. Our democracy depends on a free press. I'm really curious to hear what you think about the challenges of doing this and trying to support and bolster journalism, especially after the past few years where, I mean, it's been happening for a while, but the erosion of trust in media, what we had with our last president and politicians who, you know, demonize journalism and media. I imagine there's a lot less public support for the people who do this really important work. How do you view that challenge as you approach this?

Well, it is a huge challenge on the AI front. We're going to have this big hearing because it's really important that people know all the facts when it comes to journalism, all the misinformation out there. And also talk about other things we're concerned about, like fake weather reporters who aren't the real person. AI can produce that. So it's not only having the content that's been ripped off for a while, even before AI and false content, it is also actually having the people that are very trusted in communities, just like you saw what happened with Tom Hanks with dental office or whatever it

was, or what we've seen with some of the political ones. That's another bill I have to stop the deep fakes. You can also see it with news leaders who people really trust. They trust their local TV news anchor who reports their news every day, what the crimes are, what's happening, what the weather is. You could just imagine the mischief, and that's putting it lightly, that could occur if people are faking that they're even the voice, much less the face of these trusted news leaders. Right. On that topic, and just zooming out a bit from journalism, over the past year or so, there's been so much more fear around AI, the implications of this technology, so many

different arenas. You know, what do we risk if we don't step in to regulate its use, especially as we approach our next elections? I think people should see AI as some opportunities, clearly healthcare and the like. You're going to be able to really get some new innovations, but I think they should be also scared if we don't put any guardrails in place. The first place to be scared is security. You don't want people copying sensitive recipes for various weapons. You don't want to, and nuclear capabilities, you don't want them to be able to copy the blueprints of what's going to happen in some kind of war setting. The next part for the guardrails is on innovation. America has always

been built on innovation. So we have a lot to lose if people are going to steal intellectual property and not just the images, but also the intellectual ideas. And then the final thing is just the democracy itself. And that's political ads and making sure that you know if AI is used. And then for some of them, when you have a fake Elizabeth Warren, which happened this last year, saying, hey, Republicans shouldn't be able to vote. That's not true. She didn't say that. That wasn't her. But there were hundreds of thousands of shares of this video. And so that's why the images of politicians, can you imagine if you have someone that pretends they're

Joe Biden, an image telling people there's some kind of emergency going on. It's chaos. We have to ban these things. You can't just say at the end, by the way, this was created by AI. Right. I just don't think that's enough. For some things, that's enough, right? But not for these when they're faking that they're the people.

And so that's going to be a big challenge to get that done. But that's got to be part of the solution. That was my conversation with Senator Amy Klobuchar. We'll keep following this story, but that is the latest for now. We'll be back after some ads. Let's get to some headlines. Headlines. The White House yesterday ordered cabinet secretaries to tell them if they might not be able to perform their duties. Yes, it's normal for most people to call out sick to their bosses. But the administration had to speak up because, as we've reported, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spent several days in the hospital last week without telling President Biden or his staff.

Yikes. Walter Reed National Military Center announced on Tuesday it treated Austin for complications due to prostate cancer. Center officials also said he's recovering well but remains in the hospital. But because of this ordeal, Axios reported that the White House is now reviewing protocols for how cabinet secretaries delegate powers when they are out. Yeah, it makes sense to have some sort of protocol here. You know, wish Secretary Austin the best in the speedy recovery. But it feels like high time maybe to review.

We'll see how that works. New York City started evicting migrant families yesterday that hit their 60-day shelter stay limit. You may remember that New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that shelter cap last October. And yesterday, the first wave of about 40 families with children were supposed to check out of The Row, which is a hotel in Times Square

that is serving as a shelter. If they had nowhere else to go, the families had to go to the Roosevelt Hotel about 15 minutes away, walking distance, to reapply for shelter. That hotel is currently acting as the city's main migrant intake center. And according to the New York Times, migrant families started arriving at the hotel yesterday, some with their children. Anthony Gomez told the Times that he and his wife, who is pregnant, were notified that they had to leave when they heard banging on their door a day prior,

saying, quote, they knocked on our door like they were police. We don't know what happens now. We have no clue. Okay, so the heads up isn't even there. It's very abrupt. It sounds incredibly jarring and really scary. Yeah.

In total, officials said that around 4,400 families have received these 60-day notices that will go into effect the next couple of weeks. Like, it's one thing to issue a notice. It's another to scare the living daylights out of people who are already in a precarious situation and not treat them with basic humanity. Like, come on, get it together. Yeah, seriously. We hope that they all find shelter ASAP because there's severe weather all around the United States. Powerful storms swept across the country yesterday, causing tornadoes, blizzard conditions, heavy rain and snow, and at least three weather-related deaths. Starting in the south, the National Weather Service said there's been at least 10 reports of tornadoes.

Severe thunderstorms and high winds tore through the Florida Panhandle yesterday, and in Panama City Beach, a reported tornado flattened buildings and ripped roofs off of some homes. In Alabama, an 81-year-old woman was killed when her mobile home was pulled off of its foundation. Up north, heavy rain, strong winds, and potential flooding hit the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic. In New York City, the forecasted high winds led the city to relocate nearly 2,000 migrants from the tent shelter at Floyd Bennett Field. And over in the Pacific Northwest, a cold front brought heavy snow and blizzard conditions to the area, specifically the Cascades. And speaking of extreme weather, we're here to officially report that last year was the hottest year on record. I mean, given all the coverage we did about record-breaking heat last year, we're really not all that surprised. Nope. And now scientists have confirmed it.

The European Union Climate Monitor announced yesterday that worldwide temperatures were 2.66 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the second half of the 19th century. And that's apparently a lot warmer than the last hottest year we experienced back in 2016. Y'all, we have been saying this. I feel like this is yet another weekly reminder. Climate change is real. Right. Investments in climate mitigation are essential because if we don't do anything, one, this extreme weather is going to continue and it's going to get worse. And two, more and more people across the country are going to lose their lives as a result. Right. Democrats are fronting $35 million

to get more voters of color out to support them in 2024. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced the initiative yesterday. Most of the spending will target Latino, Black, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian voters in key congressional districts. The money will be used for organizing, voter protection efforts, and more. And the hope is that this cash will help reverse the trend of declining support for Democrats by communities of color. For instance, a CNBC poll last month showed Trump with a five-point lead over Biden among Hispanic and Latino voters. Meanwhile, a survey from GenForward said two out of five Black Americans

would either vote for Trump or someone else other than Biden. So yes, Democrats, if you want to win elections, you are going to need to start listening to and reaching out to more communities of color. Here's hoping this infusion of cash helps you start. Yeah, we love an investment. We love an early investment, no less. Like, spend that money yesterday, actually. Yes, please. And talk to these voters.

Yeah. And finally, a belated happy 40th birthday to Kim Jong-un. I mean, at least we think. Despite being a world figure, the B-Day of the North Korean dictator is a complete mystery. The country has never celebrated nor acknowledged it officially. It's believed to be on January 8th

because back in 2014, the NBA's Dennis Rodman sang him happy birthday at a public event. Of course, Dennis Rodman is all up in this. Great. Great. Great. Also around this time of year in 2020, then President Trump wished Kim a happy birthday.

Of course he did in one of his love letters. Right. But if he was bored on January 8th, that makes him a Capricorn. And a Capricorn can be ambitious, persistent, unforgiving, and relentless. So does Kim sound like a Capricorn to you, Priyanka? Listen, I'm going to avoid insulting

all the lovely Capricorns who listen to our program and say that he does not check the boxes. Yeah, we will not lump you in with this authoritarian dictator in an isolated nation. Yeah, we're not going to put you in there. And we will not be wishing him a happy birthday. I, for one, hope he does not have a happy birthday. I don't care when it is. Completely agreed. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. In a

Trump-dominated GOP primary, is this year's Iowa caucus just a formality or something more pivotal? With some Iowa power brokers predicting a possible shakeup in the Republican leaderboard, Pod Save America's Tommy Vitor is heading to the Hawkeye State to talk directly to voters and experts on what this Iowa caucus means for the election year ahead. Tune in to On the Ground in Iowa, a special two-episode series in the Pod Save America feed, starting today, January 10th, wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. You don't look a day over 60, Kim Jong-un. And tell your friends to listen.

And if you are into reading and not just the horoscopes of dictators like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. I'm Juanita Tolliver. And sorry you got stoned up, Dean Phillips. I mean, sorry, not sorry. I'd say I feel bad for you, but I don't.

No, I think this is testament for why you should have never started this campaign. What a waste of resources. Maybe think about why you're getting stood up. And that feels like maybe that would help you avoid that in the future. Right. Like as you're sitting on the bumper of your empty coffee service van, just reflect. Yeah. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producer is Itzy Quintanilla. Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers. And our showrunner is Leo Duran. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.