What A Day - Votin’ Up On A Tuesday

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

Today is Super Tuesday, where 14 states and one territory will vote. It’s the biggest day of the presidential nominating contest so far… and 1,357 delegates are up for grabs. Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a major abortion rights case out of Louisiana, over a law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. We explain.And in headlines: Uber and Lyft do political activism in California, astronauts wanted, and the return of Batterygate.

It's Tuesday, March 3rd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick. And this is What A Day, where we're hopping on the bandwagon and officially suspending our campaign for president. Yeah, honestly, I just like to throw my support behind sleeping. I simply can't risk getting coronavirus. On today's show, the Supreme Court is set to hear a major abortion case, then some headlines, but first, a Tuesday that is super. That's right. Today is Super Tuesday, where 14 states and one territory will vote. It is the biggest day of the presidential nominating contest so far, and 1,357 delegates are up for grabs out of almost 4,000. We've got massive

states like California and Texas having their say. Senator Bernie Sanders is expected to do well and potentially build a large delegate lead. And now many elected Democrats are rallying around former Vice President Joe Biden as the primary alternative to Sanders. So lots of endorsements. We're going to get into it. But what is the latest on all of it, Gideon? Yeah. So first of all, all of this happening now shows a little bit of the urgency that some of these folks felt to try to blunt Sanders going into today. And it's definitely a late gambit from everyone. On Monday, Senator Amy Klobuchar exited the race and quickly endorsed

Biden. Global warming that we declared just a few weeks ago officially abated at this point. She appeared at a rally for Biden in Dallas on Monday night. Here's some of what she said. It is up to us, all of us, to put our country back together to heal this country and then to build something even greater. I believe we can do this together. And that is why today I am ending my campaign and endorsing Joe Biden for president. Yeah, we spoke about the fact that Buttigieg did not see a path for himself in the race anymore when he dropped out. And for Klobuchar, the reality was Justice Stark. She surprised a lot of people by coming in third in New Hampshire following a good debate performance. But Klobuchar just wasn't able to build support from voters of color and only earned seven delegates total. Also, we should add, you know, in addition to Klobuchar, Buttigieg formally endorsed Biden on Monday as well. Yeah, so it was definitely a big day. So we've got Pete, we've got Amy, they're both Team Biden. Now their delegates could eventually go to him at the convention,

which, you know, would matter if the race ends up being kind of close. Definitely. Yeah, it could be way later in the year. Right, right. But back to endorsements. Run us through the rest of the spree we saw yesterday. Yeah. So in addition to those two, Biden has been basically landing endorsements from elected officials left and right. One other notable one is from former presidential and Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke. He was also at the Texas event. Harry Reid also backed Biden after declining to endorse before the Nevada caucus, where it could have been impactful for whoever he ended up picking. A couple more endorsements. Democracy for America, a progressive group that started the Run Warren Run movement in 2016 to try to get her left the race, which meant that just Warren and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, remember her, are the only women that are left running for president. So after all of this, Super Tuesday is kind of the closest thing to a national primary with a lot of different kinds of voters. And we're going to find out if things like organization and endorsements and staffing are the things that end up being

truly impactful. Yeah, we just have to see. We ought to take a deep breath and find out how all the cards fall. So all of a sudden we have five remaining Democratic candidates. Gideon, give us some sense of the important things to be on the lookout for tonight. Yeah, so zooming out for a second, as we've said on here before, a candidate needs to get 1,991 delegates to have a majority and get the nomination at that convention. Because so many of them are given out on Super Tuesday, it turns into the first decisive moment in this campaign. Here are some of the broader things that we know for now. Sanders has shown strength in California, Texas, and the Northeast, but he could be viable in most or all the states that are voting. He has money and organization and had a head start. Biden is playing

catch up following a really, really strong showing in South Carolina, and he's keeping things close, especially in other important states like Virginia and North Carolina. Broadly speaking, he has endorsements, like we've said, and momentum going into this. But it's important to acknowledge that there are a range of possible outcomes that we might begin to see when the dust settles after today. Anything from a large Sanders delegate lead to a tie between him and Biden is certainly within the realm of possibility. Oh, man. Twitter is going to continue to suck. Yes. Get off while you can. That's due to two key factors here. One is that Warren and Mike Bloomberg are in the race still, and early votes may have

been cast for a number of recent dropouts in addition to those other candidates. And two, no one knows how many of all these candidates in each state are going to hit that magic 15% number. Yeah, let's get into it with these numbers again. Oh, yes. Abacus out and at the ready. So without overcomplicating things, the easiest way for a person to win the most delegates in the state is to just win big, the same as it would be for the popular vote. But let's just say, for instance, that you're in California. There are four candidates who break 15%. That's the amount that you need to get delegates.

If you're the candidate that is leading by a lot, your amount doesn't translate to as many delegates because it's being divided by four, those four candidates. Now, if you are leading and only one other candidate was viable, then the delegates are being divided by two people, meaning that the person ahead gets more. So a lot of sort of uncertainty within that. Basically, you want to break 15 everywhere. But the difference between a good night and a really, really, really good night for some of these candidates depends on how many of them are doing that. Right. So you just want to win big, hope as many competitors as possible, don't break 15%. But we really still have no idea what exactly is going to happen. Yeah, we've heard a lot about contested conventions, pluralities versus majorities, all of that jazz. What is

today going to tell us about the likelihood of any of that? Hopefully a lot in theory, knock on as much wood as you can. Per someone at Vox's better math than me, if say a candidate wins about 40% of the Super Tuesday delegates, that individual would only have to win 56% of the rest of the delegates throughout the year to get a majority. So that's not too difficult to pull off. And it's even easier if you're just trying to win that plurality, which I think a lot of the candidates are thinking is definitely a possibility. What that also means is that if you're behind after Tuesday, it is incredibly difficult to catch up. So the margin of victory is going to be really important here. And that's what we're going to be watching for, as well as sort of where all the candidates

end up in the grand scheme of things. But one last thing for all of us to keep in mind, so we don't tear our hair out about everything. There might be a lot of late counting specifically in California because of mail-in ballots, which might mean that not everything is conclusive there by the end of the night. Yeah. So it's not just Iowa. Sometimes you just got to wait. Yeah, right. Imagine patience. All right. Well, if you are in the Super Tuesday states and have yet to vote, get out there, do it, feel like you're a part of society. But if you are voting later, just know that there's more time and your vote is still going to matter. So please stay engaged in the meantime. And stay engaged with us later for our live stream special tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. Head on over to

youtube.com slash Crooked Media. It'll be a way better time than cable news. Do not miss it. Don't miss it. Or I'll cry. Since tomorrow's episode is going to be overwhelmed by Super Tuesday coverage, we want to give you a preview of something important happening in D.C. on Wednesday, a reprisal of the assault on abortion rights. I hate reruns. Yes, especially these kinds. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case out of Louisiana over a law that would restrict abortion providers. If the court decides to uphold the law, it could poke major holes in Roe v. Wade. Akilah, do you want to take us through some of the details here? Here goes. All right. So the case is called June Medical Services versus Russo, and it has to do with admitting privileges. Louisiana passed a law requiring abortion

providers in the state to have admitting privileges, and the abortion providers are suing, saying that creates an undue burden on people who are seeking an abortion. They also say that this question has already been settled by the Supreme Court and are pointing to another case from 2016 called Whole Women's Health, in which the Supreme Court struck down a similar admitting privileges law in Texas because it found that it created an undue burden. Okay, so can we explain for a second the admitting privileges thing? This is going to get tossed around a lot in the coming days. For sure. So essentially in the case on Wednesday and the 2016 case, admitting privileges were used as a way to curb abortion rights. For example, if I was getting an abortion and there was a medical

emergency that arose, most of these outpatient facilities just don't have the ability to fully admit me to a hospital close by. They'd probably just send me to the emergency room. But medical emergencies during abortions are rare. And what Texas and now Louisiana both want or wanted was to say if an abortion provider does not have admitting privileges to a hospital within a certain number of miles, they would not be cleared to perform an abortion. So essentially, it's just an extra hurdle for abortion providers to jump over. In Louisiana, this law would leave literally just one doctor in the entire state able to perform abortions. Yeah, that's insane. I mean, so why is it that these abortion clinics can't get admitting privileges?

Yeah, well, it's because hospitals largely just want to stay out of it. They don't want to be a part of the abortion debate. And the easiest way to stay out of it is to not give a doctor from an abortion clinic the same abilities as doctors that are on their payroll. And we've seen historically how this can gut abortion rights. For example, doctors at the last abortion clinic in Mississippi applied for admitting privileges to seven hospitals in the area, and they were refused at every single one. And something that I was thinking as I read through arguments from both sides was that the Supreme Court already ruled on this very issue.

So why is it being brought again? And Louisiana's argument is that they think the previous ruling only applies to Texas, and so they're basically just trying to poke holes in that prior case. Also, a big difference now is that we've got two new justices on the court. Since 2016, that could rule differently than the previous ones. Right, right. More ramifications of the fact that, you know, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh being appointed. Yeah.

Okay, so what do we know about how the court typically votes in these instances? All right, well, we don't want to get into predicting what will happen because I don't want to be responsible for your disappointment. But here's what we do know. In that whole women's health case, the four more liberal justices were joined by Anthony Kennedy in striking down the Texas law that restricted abortions. So Kennedy has now been replaced with Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh supported allowing the law in Louisiana to remain in effect while this got hashed out in court. He was overruled, thank God, but it gives you a sense of where he stands. It's uncertain whether the Supreme Court will explicitly overrule Roe v. Wade in this case,

but even if they don't, they could simply just whittle it down to, you know, to a point where it's just not effective, unenforceable, just making it pretty much meaningless. If there is any silver lining, though, it's that SCOTUS tends to vote with precedent, and Chief Justice John Roberts is very much of the opinion that the rule of law is what's important, so if he is still of that mindset, we have a sense that maybe he will be on the right side.

But we're just hoping. I don't know what else to say. Well, keep your eyes open. We will, too. And expect the decision on this this summer when we get a lot of big SCOTUS decisions back. Oh, and please go to votesaveamerica.com and make sure you're registered

so we don't have to deal with this for the rest of our lives, but especially not for the next four years. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. In more SCOTUS news, today the justices will hear arguments on whether or not the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is constitutional. The CFPB was designed to protect consumers from abusive financial industry practices, things like student loans and credit cards. Experts say a decision on this case could affect federal regulatory power across the board.

The court is also set to determine the future of Obamacare in the fall. Just some small agenda items. The justices announced they'll be hearing an ongoing lawsuit to overturn the program, making this the third time the Affordable Care Act has been challenged in court. A decision to determine whether or not parts of the ACA or the entire law itself are unconstitutional is expected in June of next year. Uber and Lyft are essentially seeking their revenge on California lawmakers who passed a law that could classify their drivers as full-time employees. This is what we've come to expect from rideshare apps, where the idea is basically taxi, but make it anti-worker.

Lyft threw down $2 million on a campaign account to defeat lawmaker Tyler Diep, who voted for the law. Uber gave $230,000 to a PAC that opposes him. Lyft and Uber are also spending $30 million each to sponsor a November ballot initiative that would exempt them from the freelance law. When companies spend money like this, you know they're just doing it to be nice. Very sweet of them. Yeah, for sure, for sure. That's why.

If you don't want to drive for Lyft or Uber, we just heard about a pretty exciting job opening. It's at a place called Outer Space. NASA is accepting applicants for aspiring astronauts yet again. They plan to send another man and the first woman to the moon by 2024 and to Mars, of which the moon is part by the mid 2030s.

Astronaut jobs are not easy to lock down. You need an advanced science degree and lots of flight time to be considered. And when NASA last accepted applications in 2015, only 11 people were selected from the 18,300 that applied. If you're looking to set yourself apart, you could say that you've eaten all the flavors of astronaut ice cream, even banana. Applications will be accepted from now until March 31st.

It's amazing that that many people are like, I would like to be off of Earth as soon as possible. Get me out of here ASAP. Please. All right. Well, big news for anyone whose iPhone sucked in 2017. Apple has tentatively agreed to pay out $500 million for the scandal called Batterygate, where they secretly throttled the performance of iPhone 6s and 7s to conserve battery life.

If you owned one of those phones, Apple might pay you $25. That sounds cool, but it's a small reward for not having the juice to send adorkable bitmojis back when Snapchat was at its absolute peak. French and Italian authorities have already taken Apple to court over the same controversy. The tech company got hit with a 25 million euro fine in France last month. Sacre Bluetooth. I know, I'm canceled. It's done. It's over. And those are the headlines.

That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, compliment us on our fits, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just doctor's eye charts 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. And good luck with your application to be an astronaut. I'm not going to apply.

Got to eat more ice cream before I do it. 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.