What A Day

Trump’s rhetoric glorifies an America where men are in charge and women are subjugated. Rights that many of us took for granted for decades—no fault divorce, access to contraception and abortion—as well as newer rights like access to gender-affirming health care and same sex marriage are now in the crosshairs of an empowered conservative bloc. Project 2025 calls for the government to stop barely short of forcing women back into a state of subservience, gay people back into the closet, and America back to the 1950s. But can the government actually do that? This week on How We Got Here, Erin interviews author and New York Magazine Writer Rebecca Traister to understand how sexual politics will evolve over the next four years.

There are only two weeks left for the 118th Congress to legislate. And there’s a lot to do. Lawmakers must pass a federal spending package to prevent a government shutdown, approve a defense budget, and decide how much money to set aside for relief after a rough year of natural disasters—no big deal. In the Senate, Democrats also need to confirm as many as President Joe Biden’s remaining judicial nominations before they lose power. Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen joins us to discuss what’s on the Senate Democrats’ agenda for the remainder of the year. And in headlines: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy paraded around Capitol Hill to push their vision for DOGE, the Justice Department says the Memphis Police Department violates residents' constitutional rights, and Republicans face a historically small House majority in the next Congress. Show Notes: https://tinyurl.com/5n6vpvcuhttps://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth was on Capitol Hill Wednesday to meet with senators, trying to salvage his nomination to be the next defense secretary. His nomination is hanging by a thread amid a drip, drip, drip of sordid details about his very messy personal life. But if Hegseth does manage to win Senate confirmation, he'd oversee the largest U.S. government agency with a nearly $900 billion budget. Paul McLeary, Pentagon and national security reporter for Politico, breaks down the job of the defense secretary and how Hegseth fits into President-elect Trump's larger vision for national security. There's a lot of hand-wringing about where Democrats went wrong and why they lost the White House. And a big part of that conversation is how the party lost the support of many working-class voters while Trump gained ground. Max Alvarez, Editor-in-Chief of The Real News Network, talks about the shift among the voting bloc. And in headlines: The Supreme Court appeared poised to side with Tennessee over its law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, Trump moves to have his Georgia election interference case dismissed, and Senators grilled airline executives over excessive fees. Show Notes: https://tinyurl.com/muja9fhzhttps://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

The Supreme Court will hear a landmark case over trans rights today. In U.S. v. Skrmetti, the justices will weigh the constitutionality of a 2023 Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for trans minors. A group of families, a doctor, the Biden Administration, and civil rights groups are challenging the law. Sruti Swaminathan, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV project, talks about what’s at stake in the case. And in headlines: South Korean President Yoon Suk Seoul reversed his earlier decision to declare martial law, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested he’s open to negotiating a peace deal with Russia, and Iowa officials sued the Biden administration to get the citizenship status of more than 2,000 registered voters. Show Notes: https://tinyurl.com/3824j4bmhttps://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to staff his next administration have been…questionable. His selection over the weekend of Kash Patel to lead the FBI fits into that mold: Patel is a MAGA enthusiast, a 2020 election denier, and a conspiracy theorist who says he’s ready to go after Trump’s political enemies! Ken Klippenstein, a national security reporter, helps us dig into how Patel could help Trump reshape the agency and its mission. And in headlines: Republicans and Democrats blasted Biden for pardoning his son Hunter, a New Yorker article details more damning allegations against Trump’s Defense Secretary pick Pete Hegseth, and the Supreme Court looks poised to side with the FDA in a case around vaping. Show Notes: KenKlippenstein.comhttps://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

With fewer than 50 days until Inauguration Day, President-elect Donald Trump spent the long holiday weekend inviting more people to join his administration. But for Democrats, the conversation is still very much backward looking, as the party litigates why it lost the 2024 election despite delivering on a lot of its promises from four years ago. Matt Yglesias, who writes the Substack newsletter ‘Slow Boring,’ explains why ‘deliverism’ didn’t deliver for Democrats in 2024. And in headlines: President Biden pardoned his son Hunter, a new drug to seek authorization to fight the AIDS epidemic, and The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees suspended deliveries into Gaza through a key crossing. Show Notes: https://www.slowboring.com/https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

The What A Day team is off this week, but we're excited to share an episode of Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams. In this episode, Stacey speaks with historian Heather Cox Richardson to see what history can teach us about moving forward after Trump’s reelection. They discuss strategies for countering disinformation, how Democratic leaders are preparing to use states’ rights to their advantage to challenge Trump’s federal overreach, and how the era following William McKinley’s presidency can be a guide for progressives. Then, Stacey answers questions from the audience on how to get involved in politics, and how to respond to the community in this post-election environment. If you liked this episode, subscribe to Assembly Required wherever you get your podcasts: crooked.com/assemblyrequired

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, and many of us will celebrate with full tables. But for millions of Americans, food insecurity is a daily problem, year-round. According to government data from 2023, roughly 14% of American households didn’t know where their next meal was coming from, or whether they could afford to feed everyone in their home. Politician, voting rights activist, and ‘Assembly Required’ host Stacey Abrams has spent years talking about how food insecurity affects communities of all kinds. She joins us to talk about what she’s learned. Later in the show, YouTube star Brian Tyler Cohen shares tips on how to talk politics with your family during the holidays. And in headlines: President Biden announced a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, President-elect Donald Trump gets mixed reactions to his plan to immediately enact sweeping tariffs on the top three U.S. trading partners, and the Biden Administration says it wants Medicare and Medicaid to cover the cost of weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound. Show Notes: www.youtube.com/@briantylercohencrooked.com/podcast-series/assemblyrequired/https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

It’s been just three weeks since the election, and President-elect Donald Trump has already named most of his cabinet picks, including all of the big ones to head executive departments. They are, in a word, eclectic. A mix of traditional Republican establishment types, MAGA diehard and… former Democrats? It’s an open question whether Trump’s picks will find common cause beyond just wanting a seat at Trump’s table. Burgess Everett, Congressional bureau chief for Semafor, talks about how Trump Administration 2.0 could work. And in headlines: Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped both of his criminal cases against Trump, California says it found bird flu in raw milk that’s available in stores, and Drake uses the courts to get petty. Show Notes: www.semafor.com/author/burgess-everetthttps://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to declare a national emergency – and maybe even use the military – to deport around 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. The consequences could be dire: millions of families separated, livelihoods upended, an even bigger backlog of immigration court cases, and a bill that could top $350 billion. Dara Lind, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, helps us separate facts from fears when it comes to Trump’s plan. And in headlines: Trump announces a flurry of final cabinet picks, Israel’s Defense Forces traded more fire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and the annual U.N. climate summit wraps up with a controversial $300 billion deal. Show Notes: https://tinyurl.com/769bxjxchttps://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

If there’s something that many of Trump’s cabinet nominees have in common, it is being credibly accused of sexual assault. Why is Trump—and MAGA world more widely—so enthusiastic about not just tolerating but elevating men with sordid, even criminal, pasts? There’s Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for US Attorney General, who withdraw from consideration on Thursday after yet another allegation of sex trafficking Then there’s Pete Hegseth, Trump’s slimy nominee for Secretary of Defense—not to mention Trump himself! Kavanaugh, RFK Jr., Herbster…the list goes on. This week on How We Got Here, Erin and Max interrogate why MAGA is appealing to sexually abusive men, and to what extent voters pulled the lever for Trump despite his rampant misogyny, versus because of it.

In news that was somehow both genuinely surprising and 100 percent predictable, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration to be the next U.S. Attorney General on Thursday. If President-elect Donald Trump was upset about the whole thing, he didn’t show it. Within hours, he had a new pick for the job: Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, another longtime MAGA devotee. Still, it’s also not like Gaetz was Trump’s only problematic nominee, and it’s not clear how many of the others will actually make it through the Senate confirmation process. Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark podcast and a former Republican strategist, explains what Gaetz’s withdrawal means for the rest of Trump’s nominees. And headlines: The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, CNN released old tape of RFK Jr. comparing Trump to Hitler, and the Justice Department wants Google to sell off Chrome. Show Notes: https://www.thebulwark.com/https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

The reality show that is President-elect Donald Trump’s White House appointments keeps on rolling. In the last few days, Trump has picked World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon to be his Secretary of Education, former acting Attorney General and toilet scammer Matthew Whitaker for U.S. ambassador to NATO, and billionaire former finance executive Howard Lutnick for Secretary of Commerce. Can any of these people win confirmation from the Senate? TBD! But Trump’s team says it doesn’t really matter because they want to force the president-elect’s unqualified picks through with recess appointments. Casey Burgat, director of the Legislative Affairs program at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, explains how that would work. And in headlines: Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders forced a Senate vote to stop the U.S. from selling weapons to Israel, more details emerge about the sexual misconduct allegations against former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Texas has offered up thousands of acres of land to the Trump administration to construct deportation facilities. Show Notes: https://tinyurl.com/mphevfxbhttps://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

Tuesday marked 1,000 days since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, plunging the European continent into its largest and deadliest conflict since World War II. The milestone was marked by yet another major escalation of violence, when Ukraine launched U.S.-made long-range missiles into Russia for the first time. Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by issuing a new nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. It all comes at a tense time for Europe, as leaders prepare for the return of President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to wind down U.S. support for Ukraine. McKay Coppins, senior staff writer at The Atlantic, explains how Europe is preparing for Trump’s return to the White House. And in headlines: South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace introduced a resolution to ban transgender women from female bathrooms in the Capitol, Trump picked Dr. Oz to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the White House says this year’s Christmas tree will come from North Carolina. Show Notes: https://tinyurl.com/2u862wvfhttps://tinyurl.com/bdfc8j38https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

President-elect Donald Trump made a lot of questionable promises on the campaign trail. But one of the biggest ones was his promise to improve the economy by imposing at least a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods. For goods from China, he wants a minimum 60 percent tariff. Never mind that some economists say these tariffs, if imposed, could cost the average U.S. household an extra $2,600 a year. Stacey Vanek Smith, senior story editor at Bloomberg Audio, helps us break down what Trump’s tariff plans could mean for all of us. And in headlines: Trump confirms in an early morning retweet that he will try to use the military to mass deport millions of immigrants, momentum builds around the potential release of a House Ethics Committee report about former Rep. Matt Gaetz, and a new report finds 20 percent of Americans get their news from social media influencers. Show Notes: www.staceyvaneksmith.com/audiohttps://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

In 2016, Donald Trump’s presidential win came as a surprise to many people, which inspired resistance and energized liberals and progressives across the country: from the ubiquitous pink hats of the Women’s March, to striking cab drivers fighting Trump’s attempted Muslim ban, scores of people came together to push back against unconstitutional policies. But after Trump’s 2024 win, that energy doesn’t seem there. Are people tired? Numb? Resigned? What does resistance look like when we have to do it all over again? For groups like the ACLU, the battle will take place in the courtroom, where they had several big wins against the last Trump administration. AJ Hikes, ACLU Deputy Executive Director for Strategy and Culture, joins us. And in headlines: Vivek Ramaswamy says his and Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” will “delete” entire agencies via executive order, President Joe Biden authorizes Ukraine to use US-made long-range missiles against Russia, Israeli airstrikes kill nearly 100 Palestinians in Gaza, and a top Hezbollah official in Beirut, and the Democratic Party is still blowing up your phone with fundraising texts. Show Notes: www.aclu.org/campaigns-initiatives/project2025https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

Trump would love to be a dictator. His affinity for strongmen like Victor Orbán and Vladimir Putin is no secret. But will he actually take the country down that road? What does authoritarianism look like in 2024? This week on How We Got Here, Max and Erin examine the president elect’s blustering and ask: will Trump really try to become an autocrat? Or is this just a lot of hot air from someone who doesn’t really understand how to work the levers of power. Cornell political scientist Tom Pepinsky weighs in on what we should be looking out for, and what we can learn from countries like Malaysia, Hungary and Turkey.

Republicans clinched a governing trifecta late Wednesday after a handful of congressional race calls cemented the party’s House majority. As for Democrats, officially losing the House means the party will be shut out of power for at least the next two years. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said earlier this week the party will have to figure out how to strategically wield its influence while in the minority, while also figuring out how to gear up for the next election. Brianna Tucker, deputy campaign editor for The Washington Post, stops by the WAD studio to talk about what voters told her on the campaign trail, and how the Post is gearing up for a second Trump administration. Also on the show: Trump picks anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, senators voice skepticism about whether Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz can win confirmation to be the next attorney general, and The Onion buys Infowars. Show Notes: www.washingtonpost.com/people/brianna-tucker/https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

The Trump cabinet pageant continues! And we’re all about to find out which of the judges – aka our elected U.S. senators – are willing to let President-elect Donald Trump run the show. On Wednesday, Trump selected Florida Rep. and contender for most hated member of Congress Matt Gaetz to serve as attorney general of the United States. Gaetz has little relevant experience, but he is one of Trump’s most loyal — and vocal — supporters in Congress. At least one senator is already expressing skepticism. Ken White, a former federal prosecutor and current criminal defense attorney who writes the Popehat newsletter, games out what an Attorney General Matt Gaetz would mean for the Justice Department. And in headlines: President Joe Biden and Trump had an awkward meeting at the White House, South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune is the new Senate majority leader, and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars media empire is auctioned off to anonymous bidders. Show Notes: www.serioustrouble.show/podcasthttps://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday

President-elect Donald Trump announced more appointments on Tuesday, giving us a fuller picture of what his incoming administration is going to look like (tl;dr: It's bad). One cabinet spot that’s still open, though: Secretary of Education. Whoever gets the job, they’ll likely be tasked with implementing Trump's campaign promise to close the Department of Education, a long-time GOP goal that dates back to the Reagan Era. Erica Meltzer, national editor at Chalkbeat, explains why keeping that promise will be pretty difficult. And in headlines: Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego is headed to the Senate, the New York judge overseeing Trump’s hush money trial delayed a decision on dismissing the president-elect’s conviction, and the chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil says the incoming Trump administration should avoid drastic changes to American climate policy. Show Notes: chalkbeat.org/authors/erica-meltzer/https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcasthttps://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/crooked.com/whataday