• In Texas, Democratic Congressman Colin Allred is making Republican Ted Cruz work hard to keep his Senate seat, with polls showing the race within three percentage points. Cruz’s campaign seems to think the best strategy for winning re-election is to lean into anti-trans messaging. Semafor politics reporter Dave Weigel joins us from the campaign trail in Texas to talk about how Cruz and other Republicans are leaning into anti-trans fearmongering this election cycle.
• Later, Grace Panetta, political reporter for The 19th, talks about how voter ID laws make it more difficult for trans people to vote.
• And in headlines: Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall as soon as tonight, former President Donald Trump has reportedly spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘as many as seven’ times since leaving office, and the Supreme Court flirts with putting restrictions on one specific type of gun.

• Dave Weigel’s reporting: https://www.semafor.com/article/10/08/2024/anti-trans-ads-didnt-work-in-2022-republicans-think-this-time-will-be-different
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• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast

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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Wednesday, October 9th. I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day. The show where we are sending out our ’90s kid bat signal because Limited Too announced that it’s making clothing for adults. Yes, the iconic brand that is traditionally aimed at preteens has launched an adult line because, as I can attest, the desire to dress like you did when you were in sixth grade is extremely strong. I’m not thinking about frosted lip gloss right now, but I’m not not thinking about frosted lip gloss. [music break] On today’s show, how Republicans are using anti-trans messaging on the campaign trail. Plus, adult film stars launch a swing state campaign to stop Trump and Project 2025. But first. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of Mayor Jane Castor] This is literally catastrophic. And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die. 

Jane Coaston: Wow. That’s Tampa Mayor Jane Castor speaking with CNN Tuesday about just how dangerous Hurricane Milton could be. The storm is expected to make landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast as soon as tonight or early Thursday. It will be the southeast’s second powerful storm in less than two weeks. As of Tuesday evening, Milton was on course to hit the city of Tampa. It had also restrengthened to a Category five storm. More than 5.5 million people in the Tampa Bay area have already been told to evacuate. Some are headed inland to Orlando. That’s where Amanda Billings lives with her family. They got a room in a hotel ahead of the storm. She talked to us on Tuesday. 

[clip of Amanda Billings] Being in a tourist area. It’s hard because we’re just trying to get our lives together and make sure that we’re good because we live here. While tourists are still trying to come down and have a vacation and they’re eating up resources we need. I currently have my gas light on in my car and can’t seem to find gas anywhere, which is unnerving. I don’t plan to evacuate, but I do need to have gas to get back and forth. We’ve still been expected to come to work and live our normal lives while also trying to pack everything up and just make it work. So it’s been stressful. 

Jane Coaston: Word to the wise. If you were thinking about going on vacation in Orlando this week, don’t. Milton is coming right on the heels of Helene. And if you’re thinking that two major catastrophic hurricanes seems like a lot for early October, you’re right. Here’s Matt Burke, author of our sister publication, The What a Day Newsletter. 

[clip of Matt Burke] Yes, there is a link here to climate change. Scientists say warmer weather doesn’t necessarily make hurricanes more frequent, but warmer water does make them more intense. Think higher wind speeds, more rain, stronger storm surges. 

Jane Coaston: The Supreme Court seemed to signal support for a Biden administration effort to curtail one particular type of gun, one particular type of gun. On Tuesday, the court heard arguments in a case over whether the federal government can regulate ghost guns. These are guns that are typically assembled from kits that can be bought online or 3D printed at home. And they’re called ghosts because they don’t have serial numbers, making them hard to trace back to their owners or run a background check. The case is centered around a rule enacted by the Biden administration in 2022 that expanded the legal definition of firearms to include unassembled gun part kits. And the court seemed open to upholding it. At one point, Pete Patterson, the attorney for gun rights groups who had sued to block the rule change, tried to compare assembling a ghost gun to car maintenance. But Chief Justice John Roberts didn’t seem to buy it. 

[clip of Pete Patterson] And just like some individuals enjoy the working on their car every weekend, some individuals want to construct their own firearms, so the purpose of selling it is to allow– 

[clip of Chief Justice John Roberts] Well that would be, I’m sorry go ahead.

[clip of Pete Patterson] –is to assist and provide individuals with material with which they can do that. 

[clip of Pete Patterson] Well, I mean, drilling a hole or two, I would think doesn’t give the same sort of reward that you get from working on your car on the weekends. 

Jane Coaston: It’s unclear when the high court will issue its ruling. Vice President Kamala Harris is on a media blitz this week, trying to reach as many voters as possible. During her 60 Minutes interview with correspondent Bill Whitaker that aired Monday. Harris managed to navigate around tough questions about a wide range of topics like the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, the economy and immigration. Here she responds to Whitaker pushing her on border security. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] Fast forward to a moment when a bipartisan group of members of the United States Senate, including one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate, got together, came up with a border security bill. Well, guess what happened? Donald Trump got word that this bill was afoot and could be passed and he wants to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem. So he told his buddies in Congress, kill the bill. Don’t let it move forward. 

Jane Coaston: Harris’s interview was supposed to air alongside a similar interview with former President Donald Trump, but Trump backed out. Here’s the network’s Scott Pelley. 

[clip of Scott Pelley] The campaign offered shifting explanations. First, it complained that we would fact check the interview. We fact check every story. 

Jane Coaston: Oof! On Tuesday, Harris joined The View and spoke about the devastation from Hurricane Helene she saw while traveling in North Carolina and Georgia last week. She also managed to get in a few digs on Trump and the lies he’s been spreading about the federal response. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] People are losing their home with no hope of ever being able to reconstruct or return. 

[clip of unnamed host from The View] Yeah. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] And the idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself, but this is so consistent about Donald Trump. 

[clip of unnamed host from The View] Yeah mm hmm. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] He puts himself before the needs of others, I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level. 

Jane Coaston: Next, she sat down with radio host Howard Stern. During the interview, he told Harris that she won his vote. 

[clip of Howard Stern] It’s really weird, too, because to me, you’re the law and order candidate. And yet. They try to paint you like you’re some leftist who wants to have people running through the streets committing crimes. You were a prosecutor. 

[clip of Vice President Kamala Harris] I have put a lot of people in jail. 

Jane Coaston: She finished up Tuesday with an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She’ll also sit for a town hall with Univision Thursday. Taken together, it shows how the Harris campaign is trying to reach as broad an audience as possible, which is, you know, smart for an election that’s national. Meanwhile, Trump continues to pander to his base and call in the safe spaces to whine about Harris like he did Tuesday with the Ben Shapiro Show on Twitter or X, as Elon Musk would like you to call it. 

[clip of Donald Trump] And the woman doesn’t know what she’s doing. I watched her. I got to watch her last night, 60 Minutes. And she’s she answers questions like a child. 

Jane Coaston: Says the man who is afraid of a fact check and a television network whose most popular shows are about cops. Trump has bragged about his great relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin for years, like how he did in September in front of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. You know, the guy actively fighting to get Russia out of his country. 

[clip of Donald Trump] We have a very good relationship. And I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin. And I think uh if we win l I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly. Very [?]. I really think we’re going to get it resolved[?]– 

[clip of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy] I hope we have– 

[clip of Donald Trump] [?] 

[clip of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy] More good relations [?]. [banter]

[clip of Donald Trump] Oh I see yeah. But but, you know, it takes two to tango, you know? 

Jane Coaston: So it should come as no surprise then in a new book, veteran journalist Bob Woodward reports that Trump has spoken with Putin, quote, “maybe as many as seven times since leaving the White House.” Woodward also writes that in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Trump quote, “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott point of care Covid test machines for personal use.” In response, Trump campaign spokesman Steve Chung said, quote, “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome.” Chung also said Trump did not give Woodward any access for this book. All of these quotes sound like they were said by Trump, but that’s just me, and that’s the news. Now to Texas, where Democratic Congressman Colin Allred is making Republican Ted Cruz work hard to keep his Senate seat. Polls show the race is within three percentage points. And because this is Ted Cruz we’re talking about, his campaign has decided that one path to winning reelection could be anti-trans messaging. Here’s a transphobic ad from a pro Cruz superPAC released late last month. 

[clip of anti Colin Allred ad] Colin Allred could have stopped men from competing in women’s sports, but instead he voted against our daughters. What kind of man does that? 

Jane Coaston: The GOP bill Allred voted against, which this ad is completely misrepresenting, would have banned trans girls and women from playing on sports teams aligned with their gender identities at federally funded schools and colleges, and showing a male actor in an all red jersey tackling a girl in this video is a gross way of depicting the issue. As always, trans girls are depicted in this kind of media as evil adult men. But Cruz is far from alone in using anti-trans fearmongering to court voters this election cycle. Here’s a bit of an ad from the Trump campaign that’s currently airing nationwide. 

[clip from Trump campaign ad] Kamala’s agenda is they them, not you. 

[clip of Donald Trump] I’m Donald J. Trump and I approve this message. 

Jane Coaston: Fuck you. Semafor politics reporter Dave Weigel joined us from the campaign trail in Texas. Dave, welcome to What A Day. 

Dave Weigel: It’s good to be here. Thank you. 

Jane Coaston: So you’ve been on the trail with Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz this week. How has he been using anti-trans messaging at his campaign events? 

Dave Weigel: How has he not been using them [laugh] is a better question because I was surprised. I was working on something about this topic. And then I saw Cruz and I said, well, I’m not I’m not wrong. This is taking a bigger place in his messaging than I’ve seen it ever take before. And he’s only on the ballot every six years. But this is pretty new. He’s got Colin Allred, the congressman from the Dallas area he’s running against, Allred signed a letter urging the Senate to take out NDAA riders to do things Republicans inserted in defense spending that would say military funding cannot go to gender reassignment medicine. It cannot go to flying the LGBT pride flag, etc.. And Cruz has a whole riff in his stump speech where he says, here’s what he supports. We need to ensure that all military bases can have drag shows and the whole audience booed. We need the taxpayers to pay for sex change surgeries. Boo. We need taxpayers to pay for sterilization of minors. Boo. You know, when he’s trying to get boos in the crowd, uh by far, the juiciest red meat he had was, can you believe that Colin Allred did this? When I talked to Allred he said, yeah, I did it. I don’t think we should be messing with the military and telling them they can’t do these things. 

Jane Coaston: So most polls have Cruz leading, as you mentioned, Democratic Congressman Colin Allred by about three points at this moment. In your view, is this fixation on trans folks going to make a difference in this race? It seems odd to be doing this now. 

Dave Weigel: Right. So it’s late in the game and the evidence here for that working, it doesn’t really exist that, I’ve covered iterations of this for five years. I talked to the groups that run these ads and they’ve been kind of pointing to the rainbow that is coming rainbows a [?] to put it, like once people understand this issue is a social conservative message, they are going to vote with us. And the Republicans, I really think, have come around to agree with this. There is polling, the Times Siena poll did some of this where if you asked people, hey, should we respect people’s gender identity, most people say yes and what Republicans say is yes well, with anything, if you take the most extreme example you can find and elevate it, you will find people are against that. And what they’ve seen in focus group and polling is that this is correct. If you say that my opponent wants sex changes for minors, that’s unpopular. And if there is a Trump voter who’s considering splitting his vote, tell him that again and again and again, that is the theory. And again, I talked to Allred and his position was what I’ve heard [?]. Do they go and rebut every single line of an ad? No, they say, I believe in parents making these choices. I’m not getting involved. I believe in these in respecting people’s gender identity. That’s it. 

Jane Coaston: The thing is that when you talk to people kind of across the spectrum about these specific issues, it’s like if they are made to care about it, they have some opinions on it. But this isn’t like a top line issue for most people. So when you talk to people in Texas, when you ask them about like, what are the issues you care about, what are they saying? 

Dave Weigel: Well, the for Republicans, this is who I was talking to at Cruz events, it is the border. It is immigration. I talked to Cruz’s gaggle after the event yesterday. He was saying to rebut a reporter who is saying that voters care about abortion. Cruz is saying, what’s the top issue, the economy? What’s the number two issue? Immigration. What’s the number three issue? Crime. And I said to Senator Cruz, well you were running ads about gender and accusing your opponent of wanting girls to be out played by boys in sports, you didn’t say that was a top issue. And so they don’t deny this is not a top issue. If I have an open conversation with a Republican voter, they don’t lead with this. There is an effect, if you see something on TV again and again and again, I’ve seen this in my career, people will start to say, oh yeah, the thing I saw on TV, that’s my top issue and I didn’t hear that yet. 

Jane Coaston: So there’s a lot there, but something I keep thinking about and you mentioned this like they tried this in 2022. Part of the Red Wave theory was that people were going to be so outraged about critical race theory and trans kids that they were obviously going to hand the House and Senate to Republicans. And that’s not what happened. Why do you think the GOP is doubling down on this now? 

Dave Weigel: Yeah. What is the evidence that this will work when it didn’t in 2022? It is just that people hear about it more now. There is not something that has turned. Republicans do say they’ve just done more research in the last two years. They have more points of attack. They’ll say, well, Democrats supported funding this. So they have more specific attacks. But on the basis of I’m at home and I was told that this is the inflation election or the immigration election. And now I should be care about this. Yeah, it really is just the theory that, well, it’s in the conversation more than it used to be. So people might become aware of this and they’ll vote for us. 

Jane Coaston: Dave, thank you so much for joining me. Enjoy the rest of your trip. 

Dave Weigel: Of course. Thanks. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Dave Weigel, politics reporter for Semaphor. We’ll link to Dave’s story on this in our show notes. We’ll be back with more 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: When voters head to the polls in the next few weeks, tens of millions will face new voter ID laws that were enacted in the wake of the 2020 election, mostly in states dominated by Republicans. Republicans love voter I.D. laws because historically the party has done better when fewer people vote. And while many voter I.D. laws are pretty explicitly targeting immigrant communities, there’s another voting bloc that feels the effects, trans people may not look or dress in a way that matches the gender marker on their ID. And election workers enforcing these rules may not know that those two things don’t have to match. Not to mention, many states like Texas are making it harder for trans people to update their gender on things like driver’s licenses and birth certificates. So how do you make sure, trans or otherwise, that you know your rights in the voting booth? Do these things affects cis people too? I spoke with Grace Panetta, political reporter for the 19th. Grace Panetta, welcome to What A Day. 

Grace Panetta: Thank you so much for having me, Jane. 

Jane Coaston: So what are the kinds of laws that could have a chilling effect on trans voters this election? 

Grace Panetta: Yeah. So really over the past four years and especially in recent years, we have seen states, either legislatures pass statutory requirements or state agencies that are in charge of issuing driver’s licenses state that trans people can no longer update their gender markers on their driver’s licenses. We’ve seen this, particularly in Republican controlled states, the two biggest ones in terms of population being Florida and Texas that have sort of erected these barriers to trans people getting an accurate and affirming I.D.. And of course, you see the overlap with a lot of these same states also require you to show an I.D. at the polls. 

Jane Coaston: Mm hmm. And obviously, if your ID does not match who you look like, that’s going to be a giant issue for a trans voter. 

Grace Panetta: Yes, there are some states, including North Carolina and Wisconsin, that have what are called reasonable resemblance requirements that require you to reasonably resemble the photo on your license. 

Jane Coaston: I mean, I got a haircut once and didn’t wear glasses in a different ID photo, and people were attempting to clock who I was, and I cannot imagine how challenging that would be for a trans voter. 

Grace Panetta: Yeah, both sort of at the polls. These requirements are kind of very vague. And then also just it can be dangerous for a person to be at risk of being outed or being questioned as to their gender identity, especially in these states where you have anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation ramping up in the lead up to the 2024 election. 

Jane Coaston: What other communities and voting blocs would this kind of law discourage from voting? Because it sounds like it’s not just a challenge for trans people, it’s a challenge for anyone who does not 100% resemble their ID all the time. 

Grace Panetta: Right. Yeah. And this thing about voter I.D. laws is the evidence shows like on balance, on the whole, they’re kind of a wash. They don’t meaningfully promote election security on the whole. But when it comes to specific groups, having to show ID can be kind of a mitigating factor. There’s some research that was done earlier this year um finding that nearly 21 million voting eligible citizens do not have a current driver’s license. Um. That’s according to the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland. And it’s, you know, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, you know lower income people who are less likely to have valid ID to vote. So it’s definitely not just transgender people who are affected by these laws. 

Jane Coaston: And I think a big part of this is that, like who is going to be enforcing these laws? What does that look like? Would it be up to poll workers and volunteers? 

Grace Panetta: So, yes, voter I.D. laws are up to poll workers. Who are the volunteers who sign up to work an election to enforce as well as the sort of reasonable resemblance requirements. And yeah, a lot of it is falling onto this volunteer work force to enforce the law. And that’s where you kind of see advocacy groups like the ACLU stepping in proactively ahead of the election to say, listen, you don’t need to affirm you say what your gender is to cast a ballot. Your gender marker doesn’t need to match or correspond to your gender expression in Kansas, for example. 

Jane Coaston: I want our listeners to be as informed as possible and to first and foremost, not be afraid of voting. So what are the most important things our listeners need to know about their rights in the voting booth? 

Grace Panetta: Yeah, yeah. I think it’s really important that the rise of these policies don’t discourage people from casting a ballot and exercising their right to vote in this election. Even if you are in a state where there are new rules prohibiting you from updating your gender marker on your driver’s license, you can still get a passport or a passport card. All you have to do is just attest your gender identity and you don’t need to provide underlying documentation as it stands. But really, what these laws are is a chilling effect, um but they should not dissuade people from casting a ballot. 

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

Grace Panetta: Thank you so much for having me. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Grace Panetta, political reporter for the 19th. [music break] Finally, let’s talk about pornography, a topic I’m sure you’re thrilled to hear me discuss while you drive to work. But hear me out. The New York Times has reported that a group of adult film performers have launched an ad campaign aimed at swing states entitled Hands Off My Porn. The campaign points to Project 2025, which does indeed state, quote, “pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.” As one performer told the Times. Project 2025’s ban on pornography is the most extreme proposal I have ever seen, and voters have to take that threat seriously. Yes, Project 2025 does want to outlaw pornography, and folks in the adult film industry understandably do not want pornography, a massive multibillion dollar business that millions of Americans enjoy to be outlawed. But there are some very basic question that’s even more interesting and concerning that I think needs to be asked. What is pornography? Really? What is it? I know that seems like a weird question to ask, but it’s actually pretty critical. The courts have been trying to figure out this question for half a century, and the best they’ve been able to do is some combination of quote, “I know it when I see it” and, quote, “appeals to the prurient interest.” But what is pornography is actually the most important question we can ask. Because the scariest part of Project 2025’s demand to ban porn isn’t the porn ban part. It’s the sentence that comes just a little earlier in the document. It reads, quote, “Pornography manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology.” Did you catch that? The people behind Project 2025 aren’t just arguing that porn is bad because porn is bad. They’re arguing that pornography is responsible for trans people because the people behind Project 2025 believe that being trans is bad. See, the real issue with banning pornography is not that pornography is secretly super awesome all the time. It isn’t. Or that the impact of watching porn is great for our brains. Probably not. Or that banning pornography is both legally and logistically impossible. It probably is. It’s that no one can really define what pornography is, and the people who do want to define it sure seem like the kind of people I wouldn’t want to define a four course brunch for me. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Dust off those low rise joggers you wore as a teen. And tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading and not just the fascinating history of obscenity laws like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston. Thanks for listening. [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 Eloy. 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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