What A Day - We Have Issues With This One

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

The latest battle over abortion rights is set to begin in Ohio. On August 8th, voters in the Buckeye State will decide on Issue 1, a ballot initiative about ballot initiatives (yes, you read that right). The outcome will determine whether or not Ohioans can decide in November whether to enshrine abortion access into the state's constitution.And in headlines: Russia's military says it brought down three Ukrainian drones over Moscow, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago charged in the Trump classified documents case will appear in federal court, and rapper Cardi B threw a microphone at a fan who tossed a drink at her on stage in Las Vegas.Show Notes:Vote Save America: Ohio – https://votesaveamerica.com/state/ohio/What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday 

It's Monday, July 31st. I'm Traebell Anderson. And I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And this is What A Day, where we are actively questioning why J.K. Rowling gave Harry Potter the same birthday as Traebell. Now, you know, I don't want to give her too much credit, but she may have been on to something, you know? Yeah, said like a true Leo.

And that is a birthday compliment. On today's show, Russia's military says it shot down three Ukrainian drones over Moscow. Plus, Cardi B responded to a concert goer throwing a drink at her in just the way you'd expect. But first, you may have heard from our friends at Vote Save America that there are no off years, and 2023 is living up to that. As the month of July comes to a close, we wanted to put the spotlight on a special election that's coming up in Ohio. On Tuesday, August 8th, voters in the Buckeye State will head to the polls to decide on a ballot measure known as Issue 1, which will ultimately affect whether Ohioans can enshrine

abortion rights protections within the state's constitution. In a nutshell, Issue 1, which will ultimately affect whether Ohioans can enshrine abortion rights protections within the state's constitution. In a nutshell, Issue 1 would make it harder to change or amend Ohio's constitution. Right now, it takes just 50% of voters plus one vote to pass a new constitutional amendment. But if Issue 1 succeeds, it would raise that threshold and make it more difficult to put measures like these on the ballot. I do not like the sound of any of this at all. Not feeling democratic to me. Right? But tell us how exactly does this tie into abortion rights? Yeah, it's a good question. And our co-host Priyanka Arabindi recently talked to Crooked's

VP of Politics, Juniqua McClendon, to get a better picture of what's going on here. So take a listen to their conversation. So what I want to talk to you about is this upcoming election. The people of Ohio are heading to the polls on August 8th to vote on a ballot measure called Issue 1. I wanted to ask you a little bit more about Issue 1. What exactly is included in this and why is this so important? Democrats have, or progressives, I should say, or people who think people should have access to abortion, have successfully gotten a ballot initiative on the November ballot that will put abortion access in Ohio's constitution.

So that's a good thing. But what we saw last year were there were several ballot measures on ballots throughout the country and red states that actually, you know, depending on what they said, it was either to make abortion access less accessible or more accessible. But all of those went in progressives favor last year. Right. And so Republicans know that despite how red their state is, there are people on both sides in both parties who want to protect abortion access. So progressives were able to get this on the ballot in November. So Republicans decided to try to put a roadblock in the way, which is the ballot measure that is taking place on August 8th. That ballot measure, what it will do right now in Ohio, if you get a ballot measure on the ballot, voters vote. If it gets, you know, more than half of the votes, then it's passed and it's passed into law. Right. Republicans are trying to raise that threshold from 50 percent to 60 percent, saying now you need 60 percent of the vote if you want to pass a ballot measure, which if this ballot measure

passes on August 8th, that means the November ballot initiative that would protect abortion in the Constitution would go from needing a 50% threshold to a 60% threshold. And guess what support for the November ballot initiative is roughly around? 60%. Oh, God. Yeah. So that's why it's important. And that's everything that's going on. Okay. So what does, you know, I think the verbiage of these ballot measures is very important. As you highlighted, it's not always like a yes is good and no is bad. What does a yes or a no vote mean specifically on issue one? I don't want people to kind of get tripped up on the semantics here. Like what side are we on? So in this situation, on August 8th for issue one, voting yes means that you do want to raise the threshold to 60%

to pass future ballot measures. Got it. And that means in November, it will be harder to pass protections for abortion. So you want to vote no, not to raise that threshold and maintain it at 50%. Got it. So we are team no, totally understand. I suppose we can imagine here, but who have been like the biggest supporters and opponents of issue one here? Who are the people who are trying to get this raised? And who are the people who are like, this does not sound like what we signed up for? I mean, this is kind of running along partisan lines, especially because this exists only to stop the ballot measure at the end of the year

that would protect abortion access. Right. Republicans actually got rid of August elections because turnout was so low. And that was earlier this year. And then once Democrats said, we're going to work on this abortion measure, they completely reversed course and put an August ballot measure. You know, that kind of tells you where it is. But generally, people who are interested in protecting abortion access are trying to make sure that this ballot measure does not pass.

And Republicans who want to make sure that it's harder to protect abortion access are trying to make sure that this ballot measure does not pass. And Republicans who want to make sure that it's harder to protect abortion access because they know people support it are for raising the threshold right now. And this has implications beyond just the ballot measure that we see coming at the end of the year. It means that unlike our normal elections, where, you know, if you have two candidates, the person who gets the most wins. Now we're, you know, raising the bar and making it even harder to pass some of these laws. And that just means that the things that people want, it doesn't take a simple majority. You know, now you have to like get a lot more people to support these things.

Right. What is expected to happen here? Like what does the polling look like so far? Is this something we need to be really worried about? How are you feeling? I would never tell people not to worry about tricks that a Republican, you know, legislature is trying to pull. But typically, voter turnout in these August elections have been around 8%, which is why Republicans initially said we don't need to have elections now. Enough people are not participating. But early voting has already surpassed that 8% mark. And it's already surpassed early voting for 2022. So, you know, people are paying attention. And again, people who want to protect abortion access, which we've seen in places like Kansas and Kentucky are not just Democrats, because there's not enough Democrats

in those states to do it, are paying attention and working hard to make sure that the threshold remains at 50%. Got it. Is there anything that Ohio voters need to know in advance? I know August 8th is rapidly approaching. You know, when do they have to be registered by? If you're interested in voting, you're not quite sure if you're registered and all set up. What do you need to know if you're in Ohio? People should know that voting has already started. They should go out to their polling location and cast their vote. And so, you know, the actual election is on August 8th and they have a little bit more time in early voting to participate. But if you want more information on what you need to do to vote,

if you live in Ohio, you should go to votesaveamerica.com slash Ohio and you can get the information you need to vote. And if you are just interested in helping and you don't live in Ohio and you want to donate to these efforts or you want to volunteer, you can also go to votesaveamerica.com slash Ohio and find information there to do that as well. That was What A Day co-host Priyanka Arabendi with Shaniqua McClendon, Crooked's vice president of politics. And we also want to mention that shortly after we recorded that conversation, Ohio Republicans filed a new lawsuit to try to block the abortion rights measure in November. By the way, Ohio Secretary of State already gave the amendment the green light to appear on the ballot last week. So this is what we like to call a last ditch effort. Essentially, they argue that the abortion

amendment does not specify which existing laws would be whirled back if it passes, it's not like a stellar legal argument for a lot of reasons, including like laws are willy-nilly, man, and nobody knows the answer to that question for basically anything. But here we are. They're doing what they can, and it's not a lot, but they're doing what they can. We will, of course, bring you any updates on this story as we get them and link to some resources in our show notes.

In the meantime, that is the latest for now. We will be back after some ads. Now let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. attack was the fourth such incident in the Russian capital in just the past month, which the Kremlin has blamed on the Ukrainian government. And while Kyiv hasn't directly confirmed this or previous drone strikes within Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted in his nightly national address on Sunday that, quote, the war is gradually returning to Russia's territory, and this is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair process. Gotta say, don't really feel like Putin gets to complain that people are entering his territory.

Mm-hmm. Especially Ukrainian people. You started it. Right. Started it. If he hadn't started it, we wouldn't have been here. Right.

We wouldn't be here, boo-boo. Over a year later, you know? Right. Oy-oy-oy. At least 44 people were killed and nearly 200 others were hurt after a suicide bomber attacked a political convention in northwestern Pakistan yesterday. It happened in a region close to the border with Afghanistan and appeared to target members of the country's Islamist political party, the JUIF.

Police said the attack happened near the convention stage, close to where senior party officials were gathered. As of our record time on Sunday evening, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, though investigators suspect it may have been carried out by the Islamic State group. It's one of the worst attacks on Pakistani soil in recent years and comes as political parties in that country are gearing up for elections later this year. Carlos de Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago

property manager who is now the third person charged in connection with Donald Trump's classified documents case, is set to appear in federal court in Miami later today. Prosecutors allege that he helped move boxes of documents and even asked an IT worker to delete recordings of security video at Trump's resort after the Justice Department issued a subpoena for it last year. We don't know much about de Oliveira, except that he doesn't appear to be part of Trump's inner circle. CNN and other outlets have reported that he was involved in a strange incident last summer where a drained pool at Mar-a-Lago ended up flooding the room where surveillance video servers were kept. However, that incident was not brought up in Thursday's superseding indictment, which added De Oliveira

as a defendant and tacked on new charges against Trump and his longtime aide, Walter Nauta. Look, it's tough when you work for the former president. The former president says, do this, it's cool. You probably assume it's cool. Then again, you work for Donald Trump. So maybe your judgment has been compromised along the way. But you know.

You know. And finally, consider this a textbook case of fucking around and finding out on saturday rapper cardi b struck back against an audience member in las vegas who threw a drink at her during a performance of her 2018 hit bodak yellow keeping with the spirit of that iconic track which is all about hitting back at haters, Cardi responded by chucking her microphone at the drink thrower. Now, I don't know what folks were expecting here, but it seems like an appropriate response to me. But what do I know? Using your judgment when making decisions is very important. And I can think of very few people I'm less likely to throw water at than Cardi B.

Listen, I am right there with you. Videos of the exchange from different angles have been making the rounds on social media, though it's not clear if Cardi's mic actually hit anyone. It is, however, the latest in a string of incidents where performers have been hit by things thrown at them by concert goers. Singer Bebe Rexha needed stitches after she was struck in the face by a cell phone while performing in New York City last month, and Harry Styles was smacked by objects at least twice while on tour this summer. Of course, we here at WOD do not condone violence against anyone.

But really, people, do not pick a fight with someone who is both ambidextrous and has good aim. Just ask Nicki Minaj. Just ask Nicki Minaj. When you throw the first hit, you can't get mad that you get hit back.

Okay? Some of these rappers might be playing around. Listen, Cardi B is from the streets as they say right um now some of y'all's favorite internet rappers these days may be faking it and just playing along in the words of you know the great songwriters crime mob run up get done up correct and here we are and here we are don't do this yeah just don't do this. Yeah, just don't, y'all. Just don't. Don't.

And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. If your summer goals include fighting for bodily autonomy, reversing dumb book bans, and rooting for orcas to take down yachts, you might as well let everyone know, and we can help you out with that. Check out some of the new additions to the Crooked store. We have tees, stickers, magnets, and tote bags to show the world where you stand.

Plus, a portion of each sale helps support organizations doing incredible work across the United States. Head over to crooked.com slash store to shop now. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, keep your drink to yourself, and tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just Mar-a-Lago security camera logs like me, well, today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Trevelle Anderson. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And it's Leo season, baby. Listen, that means I'm celebrating all month long.

You will deal with it and you will be happy. I'm ready. And today may be your birthday. Happy birthday. We love you. But I will continue to celebrate you through the month of August. As you should. Period.

Period. Period. Well, today's a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Our show's producers, Itsy King-Denia, Raven Yamamoto, and Natalie Bettendorf are our associate producers. Our intern is Ryan Cochran, and our senior producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gillyard and Kashaka.