What A Day - Vote Free Or Die

Episode Date: February 10, 2020

The New Hampshire primary is on Tuesday and we’re on-the-ground describing what the 2020 candidates are doing there. We’ll also talk you through a new law passed by the state’s Republican controlled legislature that is causing confusion amongst young voters. The death toll of Wuhan’s coronavirus continues to rise in China. We talk you through the actions that the Chinese government is taking to control the spread and how it’s affecting the people of China and beyond. And in headlines: Weinstein’s defense team, Carson defends Trump, and The Oscars get taken over by a Parasite.

It's Monday, February 10th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, coming to you from the frozen voting tundra known as New Hampshire. Wow, how are you staying warm out there, Gideon? You know, I'm cozying up to the roaring fire of democracy. It's not that warm. It's a pretty dim candle of democracy at this point. On today's show, the state of the 2020 race from New Hampshire, as well as a look at a new and confusing voting rights law in the state, then an update on the coronavirus in China,

and you know it, some headlines. The New Hampshire primary is on Tuesday and hopefully will not last a week like the Iowa caucuses did. It's a high stakes contest as some of the front runners in the primary try to take control of the race. So Gideon, you're there. What's going on? For me personally, surviving on Wendy's and hotel coffee. But for the candidates this weekend, you know, we were at a number of candidate events and these two really large cattle calls for the whole field. We sort of knew going into the weekend that, you know, polling in the state showed Senator Sanders was leading with South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg gaining quickly on him in second place. Then you have Warren, Biden, and Klobuchar are the next three sort of toggling around 8% to 15% each of the vote, depending on the poll. But a few observations from the ground of what we saw, Senator Amy Klobuchar is sort of getting larger crowds and potentially threatening to chip away at that moderate vote, which could be at Buttigieg and or Biden's expense.

There isn't a ton of evidence of it yet, but she definitely was drawing a lot of people over the weekend. And then speaking of Biden, we saw him go really negative in a digital ad this weekend and at an event that I was at. And it was focused on the lack of experience that Buttigieg has. And, you know, that could obviously reflect Biden's position in the race. He's perceived to not be doing so well. But it also reflects some of the frustrations that other candidates have about Buttigieg's rise. And then, you know, Buttigieg responded at a packed event. I saw him at it in Nashua on Sunday, that, you know, this different perspective is what many voters are looking for. Like he was arguing they want somebody who doesn't have a quote unquote, Washington perspective. And then about all the packed events, it's sort of funny. Everybody's trying to read what they

mean. But there are just so many tourists, like, many of the events, we're trying to talk to people about, you know, who they were going to pick on Tuesday. And the first thing you had to ask them was, are you from New Hampshire, Because so many people from Connecticut and Massachusetts drove out to see these candidates. So even though we're seeing a couple of the folks, specifically Buttigieg, Sanders and Klobuchar getting really, really big crowds, it's sort of hard to judge exactly what the enthusiasm is because a lot of those people are out-of-towners. Right. Well, we'll obviously be hearing more about the race this week, probably all week. But you've also been looking into a state voting law in New Hampshire that has some college students confused. So can you explain what's happening with that?

Yeah, confusing is right. So the law is called House Bill 1264, and it could impact students and other people that are newly registering to vote that have moved to New Hampshire recently by making them change over their license and car registration to a New Hampshire one within a 60-day period of registering to vote. Now, changing your license and registration, of course, comes with a fee plus a trip to the DMV and penalties if you don't do it on time. So it's largely just cumbersome to have to do. And this was passed by the state's Republican controlled legislature after the 2016 election, where, what do you know, Trump lost New Hampshire by less than 3000 votes, and Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte lost by 1000. Then it was signed into law by Republican Governor Chris Sununu in 2018. And even though on its face, this bill was not presented saying, you know, we're targeting students or suppressing voters. One Republican state senator said after 2016, quote, if you're

from Boston, and you're up here eight months out of the year, you shouldn't be able to vote here, which is insane, because, you know, he's just saying the quiet part out loud. I mean, why would you not be able to vote in a state where you're spending most of your time? I don't really understand that logic. Yeah, exactly. And that's what some students have also been saying about all of this. Specifically, two students at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, have sued the state over the law. They are represented by the ACLU, and they argue that this law is effectively a poll tax, and it works to target young people who might be moving to New Hampshire to attend college and registering to vote for the first time. You know, particularly when you're a freshman in college, you're probably 18 years old.

I spoke with one of them, Caroline Casey, a junior at Dartmouth, about why she's challenging the law. involved with Planned Parenthood a good bit since I got to college and College Democrats and was particularly interested in the Executive Council, which is a group in New Hampshire that is like five elected officials that determine state contracts, but that includes Planned Parenthood funding. And that really stuck out to me as something that was actively going to affect me while I was living in New Hampshire, and made me really, like, feel even more strongly about voting in New Hampshire while I'm a student here. We also spoke with Bill Christie, legal counsel for the New Hampshire Democrats, who is also part of the legal challenge.

But the other issue is that it has caused just great confusion in general. We're hearing from a lot of young people that now believe you need a New Hampshire driver's license in order to vote in this state, which isn't the case even under 1264. So it's both the practical effect of the statute when people register to vote, but it's also the problem is basically the great confusion that's been caused by the law and a lot of the propaganda around the law. That's something that Caroline Casey echoed as well when we spoke to her. She said she felt the law was intimidating her and her classmates. Yeah, I mean, it definitely sounds like it. So what can we tell the good people in New Hampshire before they go to the polls on Tuesday? Yeah, so first thing is, we haven't seen significant enforcement of this law,

and it's unclear we will actually see it given the legal challenges to it. And New Hampshire has same-day voter registration. And to be clear, there should be no worry or confusion here. If you are 18 years of age, go to the polls and vote. You don't even need a New Hampshire license to actually do it. And then, you know, come back later this year so that people who govern you don't make choices like this. You have a say in the matter. Otherwise, we'll keep reporting on this and stories impacting voters here in New Hampshire, as well as the 2020 primary over the next couple of days. Stay tuned for that. There have been some updates on the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak with the death toll now surpassing the SARS death toll. As of 10 o'clock on Sunday night, the coronavirus death toll is just over 900. Now that's compared to a final tally of 774 for SARS. So Akilah, how do we begin to understand these new death toll numbers and what they mean? Well, the first thing to note is that while the death toll from this coronavirus is higher now than the SARS death toll, and it's also still expected to rise, just to be clear,

but the fatality rate of this strain is much lower. According to the latest data from China's National Health Commission, about 40,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide. So the death rate in this case is 2.1%, while with SARS, it was a much higher 9.6%. All these numbers can change. But one thing to be aware of is that consistently, authorities have claimed that the number of people infected with the virus has been underreported, which could mean that the fatality rate is even lower. Okay, got it. And so 99% of recorded cases of coronavirus are in China. The government has been taking drastic measures, restricting travel and implementing massive quarantines of the entire Wuhan region. Walk me through here the government response and where it stands right now. Right. Okay. So as we mentioned before, China's first big move to stop the spread of coronavirus

was back in January when they suspended all air and rail departures from Wuhan, which was effectively placing that city under quarantine. The surrounding areas within the Hubei province were locked down soon after. The way that China and especially Wuhan is approaching this outbreak is definitely aggressive, although there are some critics that say that they could have intervened earlier to help prevent the outbreak from growing. So authorities in Wuhan have gone door to door checking temperatures and forced suspected coronavirus patients to stay in stadiums and exhibition centers. So these makeshift quarantine camps have minimal medical care, and it's not clear that these extreme tactics even work. In Wuhan, the death rate among patients with coronavirus is far higher than the rest of the country or anywhere else in the world. There have also been several hospitals built over the

span of less than two weeks to house the sick in Wuhan. One of the reports that I read said that, you know, they house 1,500 and 1,000 respectively. So that's, you know, that's no joke. That's a lot of patients. China's also closing schools temporarily in many parts of the country. And Wednesday of last week, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $100 million to fighting the virus and funding research to create a vaccine, which China has accepted. And just yesterday, China announced that they would dedicate more than $10 billion, and that's USD, to fighting the virus. Those funds will reportedly go towards helping citizens afford treatment. And that money is important because there have been medical supply shortages

across the region since this whole thing began. Right. And obviously, this is a health emergency. We want to be clear, many people are sick, hundreds of people have died. But what are some of the other ramifications of this as well? Well, there was a major news story over the weekend about a Carnival-owned cruise ship company. They quarantined more than 3,700 guests off the shore of Japan for four days after 20 guests, 14 of whom were Americans, were diagnosed with the virus. And that's kind of where the economic problems begin. So travel industries have been hit incredibly hard by this virus. New data shows that air travel in the region

has dropped by as much as 40% in the wake of this outbreak. Factories in China have also been ordered closed by the government. So automakers, luxury good makers, and other industries that rely on Chinese manufacturing have taken a hit worldwide. Experts say that even if the outbreak slows and factories reopen soon, the end result of the outbreak economically

is going to be a hit to China's first quarter economy. And it's obviously going to have a dent in growth globally. So as we all know, I care way more about the human cost. But this is what things look like from an economic perspective. Right. Yeah, as do I on that front, too. Well, thank you for the update. And remember, even though we've been hearing a lot about coronavirus lately, it doesn't mean that you need to be panicking about it. The best precautions are staying informed with real information and washing your hands often. I hope you do already. All the time, please. And now for some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines.

Headlines. And now for some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. The trial of disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein continues on its third week as the prosecution's presentation comes to a close. Six women have taken the stand to share their accusations of rape and sexual assault. Weinstein's defense team has been relentlessly vicious, making arguments to suggest that the encounters were consensual or that the women were after something. Over the weekend, one of Weinstein's lawyers, Donna Rotuno, spoke on an episode of The Daily about why she was defending him. She basically spoke straight from the victim-blaming playbook, which made a lot of people rightfully mad. Hundreds of people in Thailand attended a public vigil over the weekend

to mourn the victims of the worst mass shooting the country has ever seen. 29 people were killed and 57 were injured after a gunman fired bullets in various locations and went on a shooting spree inside a busy shopping complex. The ordeal lasted for 17 hours before police were able to kill the gunman. He mirrored tactics from previous perpetrators of mass shootings by posting on Facebook, but the site took the account down within minutes. Mass killings in Thailand are rare, despite high levels of gun ownership in the country. Housing Secretary and weekend brain surgeon Ben Carson spoke up for Donald Trump last Friday, telling crowds at an event in North Carolina that the president isn't racist because, quote,

you know, talking to the people who drive the cars and park the cars at Mar-a-Lago, they love him, the people who wash the dishes, because he's kind and compassionate. Yikes. This was four days ago. I'm still cringing. Carson's comments about race seemed to be unscripted, but they fit in with the president's recent efforts to attract black voters as part of his reelection campaign. Trump has touted rising employment numbers among African-Americans and criminal justice reform legislation as a part of these efforts. Another good option would be for the most visible black person that works for you to stop referring to minorities as the people who wash the dishes. Happy Black History Month. Yikes. Okay. Hollywood's biggest night was last night. And no, I'm not talking about how i watched

all 209 minutes of the irishman for the fourth time by myself it was the oscars and in between billy porter stunning the red carpet with a scary feathered top that would make birdman proud and janelle monae bringing big tony awards energy to the opening act some very talented people got recognized for their work laura dern got Best Supporting Actress for Marriage Story, American Factory won for Best Documentary, and Bong Joon-ho's Parasite just annihilated winning Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best International Feature, and Best Picture. Hell yeah, I just learned about that.

We just found out. Hell yes. Thanks to everyone who kept us entertained last year, and to the real star of every Oscar night, the amazing ability of the human mind to tell stories. How sweet. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, throw snowballs at me with some vigor and tell your friends to listen.

By the way, if you're into reading and not just the beautiful blinking arrival signs at the airport like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And that's how you do a cross-country salute to Bong Joon-ho. This is never going to work.

Why did we think this? 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.