• Reproductive choice is on the ballot in 2024, and Vice President Kamala Harris is making it a central issue in her presidential campaign. Harris has been on the front lines of this fight, and since the start of 2024, she’s been crisscrossing the country on a reproductive freedoms tour, emphasizing personal stories of people impacted by abortion bans. Meanwhile, Republicans have attempted to avoid this issue with equal enthusiasm. To learn more about the role that reproductive choice could play in this election, we spoke with reporter Abigail Tracy.
• And in headlines: Taylor Swift concerts in Austria canceled following terrorist threat, the one-year anniversary of the Maui wildfires disaster, one of Arizona’s phony 2020 electors pleads guilty, and American figure skaters finally collect their 2022 gold medals.

Show Notes:

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TRANSCRIPT

Priyanka Aribindi: It’s Thursday, August 8th. I’m Priyanka Aribindi. 

Juanita Tolliver: And I’m Juanita Tolliver and this is What a Day. The show that never expected former dance mom, company leader and instructor Abby Lee Miller to make her political debut on Kamala Harris’s TikTok account. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Yes, it is an iconic viral sound, and I just got to say, Kamala Harris’s TikTok team, they’re crushing it. 

Juanita Tolliver: Yeah. Shout out to her social media team creating these amazing ads as well. Like top notch. [music break]

Priyanka Aribindi: On today’s show, Taylor Swift cancels concerts in Vienna following the threat of an attack. Plus, an Arizona woman pleads guilty to participating in a plot to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona. 

Juanita Tolliver: But first, abortion rights are on the ballot, both literally and figuratively, in 2024. And the Harris Walz campaign wants to talk about this issue as much as humanly possible. Take a listen to how Vice President Kamala Harris discussed abortion rights and reproductive freedom at her campaign rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] Donald Trump handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court, the court of Thurgood and RBG because he intended for them to overturn Roe v Wade. And as he intended, they did. [crowd boos] And now more than 20 states in our country have a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions, even for rape and incest. [crowd boos] And if he wins, we all know he will sign a national abortion ban to outlaw abortion in every state, even in Wisconsin. [crowd boos]

Juanita Tolliver: What I appreciate most is how she just lays out not only what Trump did with his first term, but what he will do in a second so succinctly. And the crowd is reacting as they should. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Absolutely. You don’t hear it but after this, she goes on to lay out very clearly what she will do in response. It’s very straightforward, and it’s no wonder that in the face of this, Republicans don’t want to talk about abortion rights. 

Juanita Tolliver: Right. Right. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Vice President Harris is clearly so comfortable defending these rights, much more so than President Joe Biden was. And, you know, Democrats are really tackling this issue head on. It is resonant to them and clearly is resonating with voters. 

Juanita Tolliver: 100%. And Vice President Harris has been on the front lines of the fight for reproductive rights for years. And since January 2024, she has been crisscrossing the country on a reproductive freedoms tour, emphasizing personal stories of people impacted by the abortion bans enacted after Roe v Wade was overturned and meeting with state and local officials. And remember, she was the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion provider in March 2024, when she toured a health center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with Governor Tim Walz by her side, no less. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Yes. None other than future Vice President Tim Walz. If you out there, if you have eagle eyes, you may have noticed the clip of that actually in the intro video for Tim Walz when he was being– 

Juanita Tolliver: Yup. 

Priyanka Aribindi: –introduced to this campaign. It is very clear that both of them care deeply about this. 

Juanita Tolliver: To dig into how abortion will be discussed by Democrats, and potentially avoided entirely by Republicans on the 2024 campaign trail. I caught up with Abigail Tracy. She’s a political reporter whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Forbes, and Inc magazine. I started by asking her why reproductive rights advocates are enthusiastic about Vice President Harris being the presumptive Democratic nominee, as opposed to Joe Biden. 

Abigail Tracy: One of the things that happened is after the fall of Roe, Kamala Harris became the point person within the administration to talk about these issues, to try to help legislators, advocates, activists at the state level try to navigate what this political and legal landscape looked like since the Dobbs decision, and since Roe fell. Kamala Harris has been that person in the administration that individuals who are working in the reproductive rights movement have reached out to, have sought advice from, and have shared their stories with. She is such a strong vocal voice on this issue and advocates, activists, lawmakers, doctors, etc. could not be more excited to see her in that position. 

Juanita Tolliver: I mean, it also helps that she doesn’t shy away from saying the word abortion. So– 

Abigail Tracy: Exactly. 

Juanita Tolliver: –that is also a refresh and tone shift here. 

Abigail Tracy: And you’ve already seen that shift in tone. So Joe Biden, you know, he has shied away from using the word abortion in public remarks. When he stepped aside and Kamala Harris stepped up, out of the gate, there was a 30 second ad where she’s saying Trump abortion ban like three times or something along those lines, like advocates and activists really see her as the person that has been kind of holding their hand and with them along for the ride ever since the fall of Roe. 

Juanita Tolliver: And Harris’s vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz also has a strong position on fighting for abortion rights, and he expressed it on Tuesday when Harris introduced him as her running mate to the world. Tell us about Walz’s record on abortion in Minnesota, where he has served as governor since 2018. 

Abigail Tracy: As a Minnesotan myself, you know, this is kind of a wild moment. Governor Walz, he’s passed a very progressive slate of policies since he’s been there. He was, I believe, the first governor after the fall of Roe, to reinforce and codify the constitutional right to abortion through legislative means. So it was already existing in the Minnesota Constitution. He kind of reinforced and re codified it. But also, Governor Walz will talk about his personal journey around other aspects of reproductive rights that we’re seeing kind of come under attack that are in this conversation of what happens now. Both of his children, he talks personally about the fact that his children were the result of IVF treatments. You saw him come out incredibly, incredibly strongly against Donald Trump and JD Vance on that point. Obviously, when Republicans talk about this, they tend to a little bit shy away from it. They’re not really coming out and saying that they’re against IVF. 

Juanita Tolliver: Yeah. Let’s classify this. Here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. Because on the flip side of the Democratic push for broad reproductive rights and reproductive freedom, Republicans have attempted to avoid the issue of abortion. We’ve also seen their attacks on IVF, and all of this has really culminated and come to a head since Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022. But how do you anticipate their messaging on abortion and reproductive rights changes at all with JD Vance on the ticket with Donald Trump? 

Abigail Tracy: There have been reports around JD Vance, you know, saying behind closed doors, describing the decision by Joe Biden to step aside from the ticket as a sucker punch, which is wild. And now they’re dealing with Harris. So the conversation has absolutely switched, because not only is Harris more comfortable than Joe Biden was talking about reproductive rights, talking about the issues of abortion, about IVF, etc. but also the conversation is now about those things. Whereas prior it was really about Joe Biden, it was about Joe Biden’s age, his capacity, whether he could serve, whether he could run and whether he could serve another four years. And unfortunately for Donald Trump, and unfortunately for JD Vance, there are receipts floating around the internet of JD Vance saying wild things on this topic and not even kind of mainstream Republican talking points. We’re talking a little bit more fringe when he’s discussing the idea that individuals, for instance, who don’t have children shouldn’t have the same voting rights as individuals that do. Those are very fringe ideas. And the reality is, is, you know, Joe Biden stepping aside, Kamala Harris stepping up to the top of the ticket has really opened up this space for a conversation to happen. And unfortunately for Donald Trump and for JD Vance, what is filling that vacuum is past comments by both of them on this issue, when in reality, two thirds of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases. 

Juanita Tolliver: And with abortion rights appearing as ballot questions in six states, including Nevada, including Florida big states electorally. Do you expect that abortion and reproductive freedoms will be as mobilizing an issue as it was in 2022 and in 2023, when we saw voters crossing partisan lines, demographic lines to turn out for abortion?

Abigail Tracy: Yes, I will say that with a bit of a caveat. So one of the big things is actually what we saw in some of the polling, kind of because Joe Biden wasn’t this vocal voice on it. You actually saw an erosion of support or approval among individuals who even identified as very pro abortion access, reproductive rights. So there just kind of was an enthusiasm gap. I think people saw that. I think people felt that. The reality is, is like reproductive rights advocates and activists that I spoke with have seen that change. They believe that that has been undone at this point. But one of the key takeaways when we’re looking at this is the Republican National Convention. I was speaking with Christina Reynolds, who works at Emily’s List, and she talked to me about the fact that she has attended so many Republican National Conventions, and she’s certainly noticed that this year they not only weren’t making abortion a top issue, they were not talking about it at all. That means that Republicans are seeing the fact that their positions around abortion bans are incredibly, incredibly toxic and unpopular to the party. 

Juanita Tolliver: That was my conversation with political reporter Abigail Tracy. And you can catch her work in the What a Day nightly newsletter. We’ll link to her most recent write up in our show notes. 

Priyanka Aribindi: That is the latest for now. We’ll get to some headlines in just a moment, but if you like our show, please make sure to subscribe and share it with your friends. We’ll be right back after some ads. [music break] Let’s wrap up with some headlines. 

[sung] Headlines. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna were canceled on Wednesday after Austrian authorities arrested two men who allegedly planned to target one of the shows in a terrorist attack. The shows were set to begin today and were expected to draw nearly 200,000 fans in total. Officials in Austria said that the would be attackers were radicalized on the internet and had taken concrete steps to enact their plan. One of the men is a 19 year old Austrian citizen who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State’s current leader last month, according to police. Police also said that they searched that man’s home and found chemical substances. 

Juanita Tolliver: Today marks one year since the start of the deadly Maui wildfires. On August 8th last year, flames engulfed the historic town of Lahaina on the island’s west side. The disaster killed 102 people and destroyed thousands of homes, and is considered the deadliest wildfire in American history. Hawaii state officials just reached a $4 billion settlement with victims of the fire who sought compensation for the lives and property that were lost to the flames. Federal and state officials have worked to help rebuild Lahaina over the past several months by providing temporary housing to displaced residents and improving fire safety protocols. But the island and its residents continue to struggle against a shortage of affordable permanent housing, which has prompted months long wait times and some residents leaving Maui in search of lower housing costs. 

Priyanka Aribindi: One Republican has now pleaded guilty in connection with a scheme to overturn former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Arizona. Lorraine Pellegrino, which is her real name, was one of the 11 Arizona Republicans who posed as electors and signed a fake Electoral College certificate saying that Trump had won the state. In reality, it was a tight margin. But he did lose to President Joe Biden by just over 10,000 votes. Pellegrino pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a single charge for filing a false instrument. Prosecutors dismissed other felony charges against her, including conspiracy and forgery. In total, 18 people have been charged for their alleged involvement in the Arizona scheme, including the 11 fake electors and several of Trump’s close allies. One member of the latter group, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, struck a deal earlier this week to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for the charges against her being dropped. 

Juanita Tolliver: And we’ll close out with a few quick updates from the Paris Olympics. Where’s our theme music? Dun dun dun.

Priyanka Aribindi: I know our favorite part of the show. [laughter]

Juanita Tolliver: American runner Quincy Hall took gold in the men’s 400 meter final on Wednesday, beating out his opponents by four hundredths of a second. And when I tell you, he did it in the last ten meters by giving his all. It was phenomenal to watch. 

Priyanka Aribindi: It was insane. It was just electric. You have to watch it. I think this race probably happened in a grand total of like 25 seconds, but–

Juanita Tolliver: Right. 

Priyanka Aribindi: An amazing 25 second watch. 

Juanita Tolliver: In women’s pole vaulting, Australian Nina Kennedy took gold, besting American Katie Moon, who won silver. Also in Paris, members of the U.S. figure skating team received gold medals that were aged to perfection for a routine they performed over two years ago at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The reason for the delay is that originally, first place went to Russia in the team competition, with team USA taking second. Since then, Russia has been knocked down to third following the disqualification of their star skater Kamila Valieva for the use of banned substances. Russia did not come out to Wednesday’s medal ceremony to receive their bronzes, naturally. But my question is, did the Olympics committee take away their gold, or are they just going to be able to hold on to those? 

Priyanka Aribindi: This is so embarrassing. I would rather like not win anything than like win and then be like engulfed in this scandal of like you didn’t actually earn it yourself. Like–

Juanita Tolliver: Right. 

Priyanka Aribindi: It’s no fun. It ruins it all for the rest of us. 

Juanita Tolliver: Yeah, it’s truly unfortunate. 

Priyanka Aribindi: But you know what? We are having a fun time at the Paris Olympics anyways, so we’re going to keep keep the vibes high. [laugh] And those are the headlines. 

[AD BREAK]

Priyanka Aribindi: That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, give the Harris campaign social media team a raise. 

Juanita Tolliver: Yeah! 

Priyanka Aribindi: And tell your friends to listen. 

Juanita Tolliver: And if you’re into reading and not just the details of Jenna Ellis’s plea deal, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Juanita Tolliver. 

Priyanka Aribindi: I’m Priyanka Aribindi. 

[spoken together] And drink the sparkling water of justice, Lorraine Pellegrino. 

Juanita Tolliver: I mean it is a good water name. [laugh]

Priyanka Aribindi: That’s a great last name. And I mean sparkling water of justice. Like [laughter] [?] regular sparkling water. I’m not a sparkling water girl. [music break]

Juanita Tolliver: What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Bill Lancz. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. We had production help today from Michell Eloy, Tyler Hill, Greg Walters, and Julia Claire. Our showrunner is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.