The House Impeachment managers began to make their case against Trump yesterday, showing graphic and never-before-seen video footage that illustrated the scale and severity of the attack on the Capitol. We talk about our key takeaways from the day. The CDC updated its information on masks, saying that double masking can greatly reduce Covid transmission. Meanwhile, the Biden administration announced its plan to organize new mass vaccination sites that are meant to serve communities of color. And...
Feb 11, 2021•17 min
The second impeachment trial began yesterday, with Senators voting 56 to 44 to uphold the trial as constitutional and move forward. House managers presented video of the siege on the Capitol paired with Trump’s inflammatory speech to rally-goers beforehand, while Trump’s lawyers tried and failed to frame Trump’s impeachment after leaving office as a “slippery slope.” A team from the World Health Organization has been in China investigating the origins of the coronavirus and they released prelimi...
Feb 10, 2021•18 min
Trump’s Senate impeachment trial begins today. Trump’s team continues to argue that the trial itself is unconstitutional… that’s what they’ll be debating with House managers today. Many of the country’s largest retail and grocery chains have suspended “hero pay” to essential workers, despite having a profitable 2020. Now cities and counties are trying to increase wages with local ordinances, but the businesses are fighting back. And in headlines: rescuers in India are working to find people afte...
Feb 09, 2021•17 min
Coronavirus cases in the US are in decline from last month, and the daily speed of vaccinations has picked up. But concerns over variants continue. A new study supports the idea that the new, more contagious strain first discovered in the UK could become the dominant strain the US by March. Democrats are working to include expanded child tax credits in the Covid relief bill. The inclusion of a minimum wage hike to $15 an hour is in question, with Biden saying he’s not sure the rules of the Senat...
Feb 08, 2021•18 min
The House voted to strip Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments for spreading conspiracy theories and endorsing violence against Democrats on social media. President Biden announced that the United States will end its support of Saudi Arabia’s military campaign in Yemen. A war that has helped create what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. We spoke to California Representative Ro Khanna about the decision, what led to it, and what it means ...
Feb 05, 2021•17 min
Amazon faces its first unionization vote in the country in seven years next week in Bessemer, Alabama, and if the workers decide to unionize, it could spark waves of action across the country. We interviewed Christian Smalls, a former Amazon employee, who led a walkout last March at a warehouse in Staten Island and was subsequently fired. He told us about his experience, his thoughts on the union push in Alabama, and what's next for essential workers. And in headlines: Andrew Cuomo signs a bill ...
Feb 04, 2021•21 min
Trump’s second impeachment trial starts next week in the Senate, and yesterday we got a preview of the arguments both sides will be making. We go through the details of legal filings from the House Managers, and the response from Trump's team. Democrats in the Senate voted yesterday to get the budget reconciliation process started, which they could use to pass coronavirus relief. Meanwhile, Biden signed three executive orders focused on immigration, including one to reunite families that were se...
Feb 03, 2021•16 min
The daily pace of vaccinations is picking up, with some states working faster than others. We talk about states that have given the most shots per capita, and what’s led them to succeed relative to the country at-large. Following the 2020 election, Republicans at the state level are doing all they can to pass laws to suppress the vote, particularly vote-by-mail. It’s also a redistricting year. We explain. And in headlines: police in Rochester pepper sprayed a Black 9-year-old girl while she was ...
Feb 02, 2021•20 min
A group of Republican Senators are sending Biden a counter-proposal on Covid relief. They want to slash the bill by over a trillion dollars, and limit the size and scope of stimulus checks. They’re framing it as a bipartisan solution, but Democrats are reportedly planning to move forward with their own plan using budget reconciliation. The average number of new cases in the US has dropped off significantly since peaking three weeks ago, but January was still an awful month in the pandemic, and t...
Feb 01, 2021•19 min
The COVID strain first discovered in South Africa was found in the United States for the first time in the state of South Carolina. This strain is more contagious, and there’s some concern that it might be slightly more vaccine resistant than the strains we’ve been dealing with thus far. Robinhood and similar trading platforms restricted purchases of Gamestop stock and other companies targeted by Redditors yesterday, and the values of those stocks dropped off dramatically. We talk through the st...
Jan 29, 2021•18 min
At the Biden team's first public health briefing, officials noted that the number of COVID cases and hospitalizations in the US is on a downward trend, and they also emphasized the importance of genomic sequencing for detecting coronavirus variants. Over 10 million people are still out of work due to the pandemic, and recent data suggest that the economy isn't getting any better. We spoke to people who have lost their jobs about what they are going through right now, months and months into the c...
Jan 28, 2021•20 min
Impeachment is moving forward in the Senate despite a Republican effort to dismiss it yesterday, but a conviction next month doesn't seem likely. Meanwhile, Senate leaders finally came to an agreement on Monday on how the 50-50 chamber would run, with the filibuster intact. For many of President Biden’s larger goals, he will need Congress to cooperate. We spoke to Crooked Media’s Editor in Chief and host of Rubicon, Brian Beutler, about the new Congress and Biden’s first 100 days in office. And ...
Jan 27, 2021•24 min
Pfizer and Moderna say their vaccines may be less effective against a new coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom somewhat inexplicably lifted statewide stay-at-home orders… that decision received quick backlash given the dire state of the pandemic, especially in Southern California. Ice loss around the globe is accelerating at a record pace according to a new study, and is line with the worst case climate change scenarios that scientists projec...
Jan 26, 2021•18 min
The House is expected to send the article of impeachment to the Senate today, with the trial set to begin the week of February 8th. There’s a distinct lack of harmony right now in the GOP, with House members who voted to impeach Trump facing backlash from local party officials, and national Republican leaders trying to hold things together. The US surpassed 25 million COVID cases this weekend, with some researchers saying the latest surge may have peaked… but where it has leveled off is a disast...
Jan 25, 2021•20 min
Biden released a 200-page national plan yesterday to centralize the COVID response effort, along with a flurry of executive orders and directives targeted at the health crisis. Plus, a more candid Dr. Fauci did his first press briefing under the new administration. The vaccine goal for the Biden administration is 100 million shots in the first 100 days. We spoke with Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health about that plan, whether it’s fast enough, the threat of new va...
Jan 22, 2021•23 min
Yesterday was inauguration day, which saw President Biden give his first speech as president on themes of unity, the division in our country, and a need to get back to telling the truth. Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first woman ever to be Vice President, and the first Black woman and Indian-American woman as well. Biden signed a total of 17 orders, proclamations, and memoranda on his first day in office, including directives to rejoin the World Health Organization, halt construction of Trum...
Jan 21, 2021•19 min
Trump leaves office today after four years of hellish incompetence. We reflect on the challenges President Biden and Vice-President Harris will inherit as they takeover. The Senate trial for Trump’s impeachment still looms, as do Cabinet confirmations. Plus, Biden plans to send Congress a major immigration bill today, which is expected to include a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants living in the US without legal status. And in headlines: the SAT’s will no longer have optional essays ...
Jan 20, 2021•21 min
Over the weekend, Biden’s team announced the president-elect’s agenda for the first ten days of his term, plus a dozen or so executive actions Biden intends to sign on Inauguration Day. We discuss. Tomorrow's inauguration will have a massive security presence, with tens of thousands of National Guard troops headed to DC. Across the country, authorities continue to arrest people who participated in the January 6th attack, and states remain on high alert for any violent demonstrations. And in head...
Jan 19, 2021•20 min
Biden unveiled his proposal for a $1.9 trillion COVID rescue package yesterday, which includes $1,400 stimulus checks, an increase in federal unemployment benefits, plus $160 billion for a national vaccine program. New York attorney general is suing Mayor Bill De Blasio and the NYPD for excessive force against protestors this summer. This marks the first time in history that the state AG has sued the NYPD. And in headlines: US Capitol Police are being investigated for failing to keep a pro-Trump...
Jan 15, 2021•20 min
The House voted to impeach Donald Trump for the second time yesterday, making him the first president to be impeached twice. Soon-to-be minority leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate won’t take up the impeachment until after Biden takes office, and whether Republicans will convict him remains unknown. There were over 4,400 deaths from COVID-19 in the US on Tuesday, and hospitalizations are still exceeding 130,000. Experts are cautioning that the new, more transmissible variant of the virus firs...
Jan 14, 2021•21 min
The House is planning to vote on impeachment today. Democrats and some number of Republicans are expected to support it, like Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney. The FBI and DOJ held the first press conference since the attack on the Capitol yesterday. Their investigation will likely be a months long process that could lead to hundreds of charges. The Trump administration will move to release all available doses of COVID vaccines instead of reserving some for booster shots. As of Monday, about 9 ...
Jan 13, 2021•20 min
The business community is responding to the siege on the Capitol by suspending contributions to lawmakers who didn’t vote to certify the election results, or in some cases, suspending political donations altogether. Security concerns continue to arise following the events of last week, including armed protests that the FBI says are being planned in all 50 state capitals between now and the inauguration. We talk about the effort to ramp up security around the country. And in headlines: Rudy Giuli...
Jan 12, 2021•19 min
This week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will try to pass a resolution to get Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, and if he doesn’t, the House plans to begin the process of impeaching Trump for a second time. We spoke to Representative Mondaire Jones of New York, who experienced the violent siege on his fourth day on the job, and was one of the first to call for impeachment. The FBI reportedly arrested two men yesterday who were pictured in the Senate chamber last week with ...
Jan 11, 2021•22 min
After Trump incited an attack on the nation’s Capitol, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi want Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President, and a second impeachment of Trump by Democrats is also on the table. Resignations abound in Trump-world right now. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned yesterday, along with others responsible for security at the Capitol building. Plus, writer and comedian Grace Parra joins us for headlines: Elon Musk b...
Jan 08, 2021•22 min
Violent mobs broke into the nation’s Capitol yesterday in a failed coup attempt, which was incited and encouraged by President Trump and many other Republican politicians who continue to reject the results of the election. By evening, lawmakers resumed their effort to certify the election. The two Georgia Senate runoff races were called for Democrats Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock. Organizers like Stacey Abrams worked tirelessly in Georgia to stop gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, and...
Jan 07, 2021•22 min
Votes are coming in from the Georgia runoff elections, with the results generally looking positive for Democrats… but we’re still waiting on the final calls. Congress meets today to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory, with about a dozen Republican senators and more House Republicans set to object and add hours of needless debate. Yesterday, the Surgeon General said that the CDC guidelines for the order of vaccinations should not be used to allow doses to sit in freezers. This runs counter ...
Jan 06, 2021•17 min
Today's Senate runoffs in Georgia will determine control of Congress, the future of economic relief, and the country’s response to existential threats like climate change. We spoke to Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey about the Georgia races, what Biden can do on his own on climate, and how to deal with Republicans who want to erase the will of voters. And in headlines: the UK says Assange can’t be extradited to the US, hundreds of Google workers unionize, and Florida counties use EventBrite for v...
Jan 05, 2021•23 min
In a leaked phone call from this weekend, Trump used every line he could to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to overturn the state's election results. About a dozen GOP senators say they’re going to raise objections during the congressional vote to certify the presidential election this week, in a show of election theater that will lead nowhere. A more-contagious coronavirus variant first discovered in the UK has been identified in California, Florida, and Colorado. Despite...
Jan 04, 2021•22 min
The future of our democracy hinges on the outcome of two Senate races in Georgia, a state that shocked the nation by flipping for the first time in nearly three decades. In this multi-part podcast, visit the frontlines with two of Atlanta’s own - journalists Rembert Browne and Jewel Wicker as they detail the struggles and triumphs that led to this moment, and hear from the organizers, strategists, and voters hoping to change the South forever. Our new podcast, “Gaining Ground: The New Georgia” i...
Dec 22, 2020•2 min
Congressional leaders are putting together the final pieces of an emerging deal on COVID relief, but the negotiations could continue into the weekend. We spoke to Congressman Ro Khanna about the relief bill, the Biden transition and what gives him hope for next year. This year saw the largest-ever racial justice uprisings since the 1960s, following the racist killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many other Black Americans. We looked back at some of the conversations we’ve...
Dec 18, 2020•23 min
