• People in Florida are assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Milton. The storm made landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm just south of Tampa, dropping up to 18 inches of rain overnight. As of late Thursday, around 3 million people in the state were still without power. At least 12 people died, though that number is expected to increase as rescue efforts continue. Hurricane recovery — both from Milton and Helene — is happening right alongside the 2024 election, conspiracy theories and all. Longtime D.C. reporter and friend of the pod Todd Zwillich joins us to talk about how the disinformation from the MAGA-verse is an operating feature of the movement.
• Later, Shaniqua McClendon, head of Crooked’s partner organization Vote Save America, talks about important down-ballot and state legislature races.
• And in headlines: Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh, Harris committed to a CNN town hall event with undecided Pennsylvania voters, and a federal judge set a date for the sex trafficking trial against rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.

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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, October 11th. I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day. The show that would be fine if it’s frontyard got taken over by raccoons. Look, I’m sure the woman in suburban Washington who called the police when she couldn’t enter her home due to a hundred raccoons standing in her way was having a bad time. But I’m built different. If 100 raccoons want to hang out with me, I am absolutely down. [music break] On today’s show, former President Obama gets on the stump in Pittsburgh. Plus, we’re getting another town hall with Kamala Harris, but Trump says he won’t do the same. Sad. But first, people in Florida are assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Milton. The storm made landfall late Wednesday as a Category three storm just south of Tampa. Officials say up to 18 inches of rain fell overnight. As of late Thursday, around three million people were still without power. At least 12 people died, though that number is expected to increase as rescue efforts continue. Five of those reported deaths were caused by a tornado that struck on the state’s Atlantic coast. The opposite side of the state from where Milton landed. Dozens of tornadoes were confirmed in the state Wednesday, spawned by Milton’s strong winds. Still, during a briefing on Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said it could have been a lot worse. 

[clip of Governor Ron DeSantis] What we can say is the storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst case scenario. The storm did weaken before landfall and the storm surge, as initially reported, has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene. 

Jane Coaston: President Biden also gave an update Thursday afternoon. He said Congress would likely have to come back to approve more funding for disaster aid. 

[clip of President Joe Biden] I think the Congress should be coming back and moving on emergency needs immediately, and they’re going to have to come back after the election as well. This is going to be a long haul, tot– for total rebuilding. It’s going to take several billion dollars. It’s not going to be a matter of just a little bit. 

Jane Coaston: Hurricane recovery, both from Milton and Helene, is happening, of course, right along with the 2024 election. And what do those two things have in common? Conspiracy theories that make everything worse and not just the kind that come with the combination of humans and the Internet, the kind that wield lies to do real damage to everyone. We’re joined by journalist Todd Zwillich, who’s been following the disinformation as Donald Trump and Republicans make it an operating feature of literally anything that grabs attention, from Milton to the race for Congress. Todd, both Trump and his vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance proudly lied about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. And Trump has ramped up lies about FEMA, immigrants, false stories about efforts to keep Republicans from voting. How bad is it gotten? 

Todd Zwillich: It’s gotten bad enough that Republican members of Congress have had to go in front of television cameras to tell other Republican members of Congress to knock it off. Like four weeks before an election. That’s how bad it’s gotten. Carlos Gimenez is a member of Congress, Jane, from the 28th District in Florida. That’s like the southern tippy tip of Florida, Florida Keys, sort of south of Miami, all that. And he told a bunch of reporters the other day he put out a press release naming Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying that her theory she has actually said that, yes, they they the government or they can control the weather. This is all by design. This is the bottom of the barrel of conspiracy mongering. Some conspiracy theories have kind of an intellectual tinge or a grain of truth or at least some stereotypes that some people believe. Why? Because these types of conspiracy theories are preventing people from accessing care they need, aid they need, okay. Not just they control the weather, but you can only get $750 of FEMA aid. False. They’re targeting Republican districts so that people don’t vote, false. They’re taking the money and giving it to immigrants. False. And go on down the line. Some of it comes from Trump. Some of it comes from members of Congress. All of it comes from the MAGA sphere online. That amplifies it, and so does Elon Musk. So members of Congress and Gimenez isn’t alone. Ron DeSantis has had to push back on conspiracy theories. His spokespeople have had to push back on conspiracy theories because they have a primary duty to not have people die. So that’s how bad it’s gotten. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. Todd, Republicans getting taken over by conspiratorial thinking isn’t new, and it’s been a real feature of MAGA thinking since Trump came on the scene. Is it impacting races down ballot from Trump? 

Todd Zwillich: How about Kari Lake in Arizona, who lost her bid for governor, has never acknowledged that she lost, has been in court, out of court, in court, out of court. Defamation cases. She is the definition of a MAGA disinformation artist when it comes to election disinformation. Trump didn’t lose. She didn’t lose. Now she’s down in her Senate race, in her debate with Ruben Gallego, the Democratic candidate, she refused to say, just like J.D. Vance, that she lost her election. 

[clip of Ruben Gallego] She’s still in denial about the 2022 election. And now I give you one minute. You have one minute, will you finally tell the people of Arizona, did you win or lose that election? 

[clip of Kari Lake] Can we can I talk about water really quickly? 

Jane Coaston: So Trump is leading with disinformation on immigrants, on hurricane recovery, on 2020, on basically seemingly everything. What does it mean for Election Day next month? 

Todd Zwillich: Well, I think this is the common thread to Trump’s campaign, to disaster recovery, to Election Day and the post-election period, especially if Donald Trump loses. Look, we saw a dry run after Helene in Appalachia. We’re seeing it now with Milton in Florida. Donald Trump pushing hard on conspiracy theories not just to mislead people, but really to try to, it appears, hamper the recovery effort. To try to hurt people and pin that hurt on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and who’s helping him the most? Elon Musk with 200 million followers plus control over the algorithm on X, taking every single little twitch of a conspiracy theory that comes up, retweeting it. Tuning that algorithm so that everybody sees it. And it’s really had enormous penetration among people in Appalachia, Tennessee, North Carolina. We’ve seen the damage and the pervasiveness of the disinformation. It’s preventing people from getting, again, the care they need. So what happens after November 5th? We know what Donald Trump is going to do. He has said he can only lose if there’s cheating. We know that he’s going to say he didn’t lose. But now that he is in such close partnership with Elon Musk, I think you can pretty well predict that Musk is going to be amplifying and tuning up every single claim that you name it. I saw a band of migrants carrying 15 truckloads of ballots. Elon Musk with 200 million followers, retweets that. I saw election workers stealing ballots. Elon Musk retweets that, too. And I don’t think you need me to draw the picture for where that goes. 

Jane Coaston: Todd Zwillich. Thank you so much for joining us. 

Todd Zwillich: Pleasure. 

Jane Coaston: In addition to fighting lies and smears, increasing voter turnout will be another essential part of winning this election for Democrats. And that doesn’t just apply to the presidential race. There are a ton of down ballot races that are also critical in November. To find out more about the House and state legislature elections to watch, I sat down with Shaniqua McLendon, head of Crooked’s partner organization Vote Save America, a political action committee which is separate from the newsroom. Shaniqua. Welcome to What a Day. 

Shaniqua McClendon: Thank you. Hi, Jane. 

Jane Coaston: Hi. To start off, can you explain to our audience what the Biden 18 congressional districts are and why they’re so important? 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah, so the Biden 18 districts are 18 congressional districts that Joe Biden won in 2020 but are represented by Republicans, which means that voters are interested in voting for Democrats in those seats. But for some reason, that didn’t happen in 2020. And so Democrats are really focused on making sure that they are engaging voters in those districts so that we can win those seats back. We do not even need 18 seats to win back the House. So going after those seats creates a huge opportunity. 

Jane Coaston: One of those seats in a blue state is California District 45, where Democrat Derek Tran is running. What should people know about that race? 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah. Um. So this is actually a really exciting one. Derek Tran could become the first Vietnamese American to represent the district. He’s really focused on health care, getting rid of corruption. And he’s also running against Michelle Steel, who co-sponsored a national abortion ban. So, you know, it feels a little crazy that someone from California, even a Republican, would do that. But um that’s why this is a race that we’re really paying attention to, because the House will determine a lot if Donald Trump is reelected, which we hope he’s not. But we need to make sure we have all the protections in place as possible. So flipping that seat will be really important. 

Jane Coaston: And in New York, District 17 Democrat Mondaire Jones is running to unseat Republican Mike Lawlor. I know that race is super close. What’s going on there? 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah, so of course, you have your Republican and your Democrat running, but there’s also a third party candidate that the Republicans have put in there. And this is something that happens. We’ve seen this happen in the past in New York House races. Republicans know they tend to lose in New York. So they throw in these third party candidates in really close races. These are candidates that kind of look similar to Democrats. And uh it’s pretty much to siphon off Democratic votes so that the Republican can win. And it’s not actually like a Democrat. I mean, these people are just random people who agree to put their name on a ballot to, you know, this might be aggressive, but I think it’s a form of voter suppression because it’s like tricks to win unfairly. 

Jane Coaston: Uncool. So there are plenty of races outside of New York and California worth paying attention to. What other districts could help determine control of the House? 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah. So in Colorado, Yadira Caraveo, she’s someone that we’ve helped in the past, but um she’s in a really competitive race. I had a chance to meet with her earlier this year, and, you know, she loves representing her district. There’s Colorado, which is a blue state, but there are some parts of it that are still a little bit red. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, Lauren Boebert like that kind of. 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yes. She–

Jane Coaston: Colorado Springs that kind of–

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: –area. 

Shaniqua McClendon: Lauren Boebert actually came up when we were meeting and now Lauren Boebert has shifted districts because, you know, she didn’t want an actual competition, she almost lost last year. But people are still paying too much attention to Lauren Boebert. And so someone like Yadira still needs people to pay attention to her because she’s actually a seat that we um stand to lose. Also in Nebraska, Tony Vargas, who’s a Latino leader, he’s got a really compelling working class story, but he represents an opportunity to flip a critical state after we lost it last cycle. But Nebraska’s been in the news a lot. Because, one, a lot of people think there might be a chance to win a Senate seat there with an independent that’s running. Um. There’s not a Democrat in the race. Democrats have gotten behind the Independent there. But also Nebraska is one of two states where the Electoral College votes are not winner take all. And so if we can turn out enough voters in that state, we can help with securing that one electoral vote for Vice President Harris, largely and Nebraska is a red state, and that will be really important to winning the presidency as well. 

Jane Coaston: Shifting to talk about state legislatures, why is it essential to flip those this election? 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah, I talk about 2010 a lot. Um. I won’t give a full history of it, but 2010 is when Democrats lost a ton of state legislatures. And right now we’re still feeling the ramifications of that. We’re seeing crazy laws. Be it abortion, gun reform or lack of gun reform at the state level. That’s due in large part because a lot of legislatures flipped and then they gerrymandered both their districts and congressional House districts, which also influenced what our House looked like. So those races are really important for those two reasons, but also most of the policy that we care about that we argue about is coming out of our state legislatures. And it’s not just flipping them. You know, Arizona and New Hampshire present opportunities to flip legislatures, but then you look at a state like North Carolina where there’s the Democratic governor, there will likely be a Democratic governor after this election because people are not voting for Mark Robinson, but they have a supermajority. So if the governor vetoes something, they can overturn it. And in North Carolina, they will not flip it. But they do want to get rid of that supermajority so that the governor will have the power of the veto against any crazy bills that come through there. 

Jane Coaston: Speaking of North Carolina, so much of North Carolina is still reeling from Hurricane Helene. 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Do you think the hurricane and its aftermath is going to have an impact on elections there? 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah, I mean, it could. There are efforts there to make sure that people have the resources they need, the information they need to actually get their um ballots turned in. But even if people have everything they need at their disposal, even voting is a lot to ask of someone who’s lost their home um and lost the resources that they need to do that. It is still really important. Again, North Carolina Republicans passed and blocked a lot of bills that would have improved building code standards in the state, a lot of stuff that could have prevented a lot of the damage in the state. And so it just, again, shows why those races are so important. 

Jane Coaston: We’re in the last couple of weeks before the election. If you’re a Democrat, you’re anxious because that’s how we’re made. 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: What can our audience do to get involved? 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Before the election to help win? 

Shaniqua McClendon: The first thing you should do is make sure that you know what you’re voting on so you can go to VoteSaveAmerica.com/vote and that will bring up a build your own ballot tool. You can go in there and see what’s on your ballot. Make sure you’re all set. You can create a plan a vote so you’re reminded when to vote and where to vote. Do that as soon as possible. We’re encouraging people to vote early and then after that, go to VoteSaveAmerica.com/volunteer and then talk to other people about voting. This is going to come down to turnout and every conversation that you have with someone can make an impact. Also, talk to your friends and family and the people in your community who trust you. People hearing from people that they know and trust goes a long way and it actually increases turnout because, you know, volunteers are important, but it means a lot more when someone that, you know, love, and trust comes and tells you the importance of your vote. 

Jane Coaston: I think also it’s so important for people who live in blue states to remember like there’s still so many competitive races to vote on. 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Like it’s not just the top of the ticket. 

Shaniqua McClendon: No. 

Jane Coaston: And so I think bringing up the New York races, the California races that are so critical for the House. 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: And remembering like you can fill out the rest of your ballot. 

Shaniqua McClendon: Yeah. Especially here in California, there’s a lot of ballot measures. People spend a lot of money trying to confuse you about what each side of those say, so you can find that in our tool too. 

Jane Coaston: Awesome. Shaniqua, thank you so much for joining me. 

Shaniqua McClendon: Thank you for having me. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Shaniqua McClendon, head of Vote Save America, Crooked’s partner organization. We’ll get to the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts. Watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: And now the news. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of Barack Obama] Though I get it, why people are looking to shake things up. I mean, I am the hopey changey guy, so so I understand people feeling frustrated and feeling we can do better. What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you, Pennsylvania. I don’t understand that. 

Jane Coaston: Imagine that, a former president we actually want to see on the campaign trail has finally made an appearance. Former President Barack Obama held a rally in Pennsylvania in support of Vice President Harris on Thursday. He delivered remarks at the University of Pittsburgh in an effort to energize young voters, a key demographic that Democrats are hoping to mobilize amid a tight race for the presidency. He was joined by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. 

[clip of Josh Shapiro] And let me tell you something. I don’t care what the Supreme Court says, we’re not going back to a king in this country. [applause] We are not. 

Jane Coaston: To be clear, that was Josh Shapiro. This is the first of many stops Obama will be making in battleground states to campaign for Harris as we count down the weeks until Election Day. Former first lady Michelle Obama also plans to hit the trail in the coming days. And speaking of Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris will take part in a CNN town hall event with undecided voters in the crucial swing state on October 23rd. The network had originally invited Harris and former President Donald Trump to participate in a debate on that date, which Harris also accepted. But Trump refused. CNN has also invited Trump to do a separate town hall on the 23rd, but did not get an immediate yes from his campaign. That might be because the last time Trump did a CNN town hall in 2023, it was full of unhinged moments like this one when he insulted CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins. 

[clip of Kaitlan Collins] I would like for you to answer the question. 

[clip of Donald Trump] Okay, it’s very simple to answer.

[clip of Kaitlan Collins] That’s why I asked it.

[clip of Donald Trump] It’s very simple that you are a nasty person. I’ll tell ya.

Jane Coaston: Free hint for CNN, maybe don’t pack the town hall with Trump supporters. But if Trump does end up doing another town hall, I’m sure we can look forward to still more evasive non-answers and sexist comments from the former president. Israel continues to target multiple countries with deadly attacks. An Israeli airstrike hit a school used by refugees as a shelter in central Gaza on Thursday. At least 28 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in the attack, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Israeli officials claim they were targeting Hamas militants in the strike, but did not immediately provide any evidence to back up those claims. Also on Thursday, Israel continued attacking Lebanon, where its forces are fighting with the militant group Hezbollah. At least 22 people were killed and over 100 wounded in Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut, according to Lebanese health officials. And in southern Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping mission said that their members have been attacked multiple times this week by Israeli forces and that fire from an Israeli tank injured two of its peacekeepers. Israeli officials say they are looking into the incident. A federal judge has set a date of May 5th for the sex trafficking trial against Sean Diddy Combs. The trial should last about a month. The charges against Combs so far include sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy. Gloria Allred, who represents some of Diddy’s accusers and has also represented victims of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and R. Kelly, says that the trial won’t be easy. Here she is speaking to ABC’s Los Angeles affiliate. 

[clip of Gloria Allred] Consent is a big issue, and it is the government’s burden in a criminal case to prove any charge and all charges beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s a very high burden of proof. 

Jane Coaston: Combs has been held without bail in New York for three weeks and will be detained until the trial starts. Though his lawyers have submitted another appeal, and that’s the news. It’s pretty rare for a movie to debut to simultaneous praise from critics and threats of a lawsuit from a presidential campaign. That that’s what happened to the film The Apprentice, which hits theaters nationwide today, after months of wrangling in the search for a distributor. The film tells the story of Donald Trump’s beginnings in New York, his relationship with mentor and notoriously sketchy lawyer Roy Cohn, and his marriage to his first wife, Ivana. Our producer Michell Eloy, spoke with the film’s director, Ali Abbasi. Michell, you asked him why it took so long for the film to make it to theaters. 

Michell Eloy: Right. And the answer is tons of legal threats, in part from our ever litigious former president, but also from one of the investors in the film. Ali said initially he wasn’t that worried about it. He thought this would add to the hype and he was excited going into Cannes Film Festival. He anticipated this big bidding war coming out of it, you know, because it’s about Donald Trump, uh but was really disappointed with how the film was received after Trump threatened to sue. 

[clip of Ali Abbasi] People are free to hate it, love it, bash it, praise it, whatever. But to sort of put it in the locker and you know lock it there, it’s just not fun, you know? But also depressing for the state of affairs where one guy can bully 350 million people into like you know watching something, not watching something. So I think it’s depressing that in a country that is famous and has a tradition for freedom of speech, we should see this kind of behavior. 

Michell Eloy: And Ali was specifically upset with Republicans who, you know, talk a big game about loving free speech, the First Amendment, all those fun things, and then say uh we should boycott the film. 

Jane Coaston: I can see how that would be disappointing, though, you know, believing in Republicans. Never once. But we are talking about one of the most polarizing figures in the world. And any movie you make about Donald Trump, if there’s any truth to it or if there isn’t, Trump’s not going to like the way he’s depicted. And in this particular film, Ali focused on the relationship between Trump and Roy Cohn. 

Michell Eloy: Right. Roy Cohn. Uh. He was infamously chief counsel for Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose name became synonymous with the conspiratorial anti-communism during the Red Scare. All the hearings. This was around the 1950s. But he was also a really complex figure. And Ali said that the relationship between Cohn and Trump was really transformational for Trump because he met him when he was kind of young and a little bit down on his luck. 

[clip of Ali Abbasi] Roy, you know, he was such an interesting character. Yeah, he was obviously involved in the Red Scare, but he was also involved in the lavender scare, which was–

[clip of Michell Eloy] Right. 

[clip of Ali Abbasi] The anti-gay campaign against like, homosexuals in the government and whatnot. Him himself being openly closeted gay, which is the sort of thing you had in ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, you know, but I think his biggest contribution to Donald was in media. And in terms of like how you manipulate with reality, how do you manufacture your own reality in order to keep power, in order to have power? 

Jane Coaston: And as we mentioned earlier, this wasn’t the most flattering depiction of Trump, but that’s not how Ali would describe it. 

Michell Eloy: No, it’s definitely not a flattering portrait of Trump. And I pushed him a little bit because he, like you said, he disagreed with the characterization that this was unflattering. 

[clip of Ali Abbasi] I’m not sure if I agree with you that it’s a deeply unflattering portrait. I think it’s a fair portrait.  [?]–

[clip of Michell Eloy] Well, I mean, you know, tomato, tomato, maybe. I mean, there’s there’s a scene in the in the movie where he rapes his wife at the time, Ivana. I mean, that’s that’s certainly not flattering.

[clip of Ali Abbasi] There’s also a scene where he gets $200 million of tax breaks, you know. And–

[clip of Michell Eloy] Right. 

[clip of Ali Abbasi] There’s a scene where he builds a great hotel. You know, my point being that I didn’t think that we should do an unflattering, raw version of you know him and bash him or anything. I felt like we should be as non partial in political terms as possible and let the human being come through whichever way that he comes through. 

Michell Eloy: The film is in wide release in theaters this weekend. We are also obviously a couple weeks away from the election. Ali said he doesn’t think the depiction of Trump in the film is going to swing voters either way. And frankly, he’s probably right. I mean, poll after poll has shown that people’s opinions about Trump are pretty set at this point. So flattering or unflattering, it’s probably not going to move the needle very much. 

Jane Coaston: Thanks, Michell. [music break] One more thing before we go. It’s been over a year since Hollywood writers and actors went on strike and the industry still hasn’t been the same. This week, on Assembly Required, Stacey sits down with award winning actor, producer and activist Bryan Cranston to talk about everything from the evolution of Hollywood to the livelihoods of the artists who make it and how the industry is evolving to meet our unquenchable thirst for content. Listen to this episode now, wherever you get your podcasts or catch Assembly Required on YouTube. New episodes drop every Thursday. [music break] That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Try to stay hopey changey and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading and not just whether or not I can have a raccoon in California like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and raccoons are innocent. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded by Jerik Centeno and mixed by Bill Lancz. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michell E loy. We had production help today from Ethan Oberman, Tyler Hill, JoHanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. 

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