• Wednesday was jam-packed with new developments on and around the Democratic campaign trail. The White House announced that President Biden tested positive for COVID. Biden also appeared to give himself room to exit the presidential race, saying in an interview with BET News he’d reconsider running if “some medical condition” emerged. However, Biden remained defiant and said he had no plans to drop out. California Congressman Adam Schiff became the most high-profile Democrat to publicly call on Biden to exit the race, telling The Los Angeles Times he has “serious concerns” over whether Biden can beat former President Trump in November. And the Democratic National Committee announced it plans to move forward with a virtual roll call vote to officially nominate Biden ahead of the convention, despite calls to drop it amid the ongoing debate within the party over the president’s candidacy. Politics reporter Todd Zwillich breaks down what it all means.
• And in headlines: Special Counsel Jack Smith appealed the dismissal of Trump’s classified documents case, investigators looking into the assassination attempt against Trump at a rally this weekend reportedly told lawmakers that Secret Service spotted the gunman on a nearby roof roughly 20 minutes before shots were fired, and ‘Shogun’ and ‘The Bear’ lead this year’s Emmy nominations.

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TRANSCRIPT

Priyanka Aribindi: It’s Thursday, July 18th. I’m Priyanka Aribindi.

Juanita Tolliver: And I’m Juanita Tolliver and this is What a Day. The show where we are begging the universe to stop making us live in unprecedented times. Pretty please. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Yes. Please give us back that sweet, sweet precedent. We have never wanted anything more. [music break]

Juanita Tolliver: On today’s show, new details emerged in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Plus, Emmy nominations have been announced. And we want to know, did your favorite show make the cut? 

Priyanka Aribindi: But first, Wednesday was jam packed with new developments on and around the campaign trail. The White House announced that President Biden tested positive for Covid while campaigning in Las Vegas. As of now, his symptoms have been mild. He did tell reporters, who were shouting questions to him on the tarmac that he was feeling good, but he was forced to cancel a scheduled appearance at the Unidos U.S. convention, where he was planning to speak before an audience of Hispanic voters. That is one of the key constituencies that he hopes will bring him back to the White House for another term. But speaking of a next term, more Democrats have come forward saying that they don’t think Biden should stay in the race, including very notably, California congressman and Senate candidate Adam Schiff, who on Wednesday became the highest ranking Democrat to publicly call on President Biden to leave the race. 

Juanita Tolliver: All right. Tell us more about Schiff’s statement and its significance. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Yes. So Schiff praised Biden and his accomplishments in office, but said that he has serious concerns over whether Biden will be able to defeat Donald Trump come November. And that, quote, “the stakes are just too high.” Schiff is expected to be elected to the Senate in California this fall. He rose to national prominence during the Trump years and is very closely allied with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who side note is 84 years old, and also running for reelection in her district. Pelosi has reportedly been very active behind the scenes in the effort to get Biden to step aside, though she has not said the same publicly at this point. A little understandable why? We also learned that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries both reportedly told President Biden in separate private meetings that his candidacy hurts the ability of Democrats to win the House and the Senate. When asked to confirm this, Schumer’s spokesperson stated, quote, “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.” 

Juanita Tolliver: Just a good old fashioned non-answer answer from the–

Priyanka Aribindi: They said it all really.

Juanita Tolliver: –majority leader’s team, you know. Biden also gave an interview to BET News before his Covid diagnosis, and the interview was released on Wednesday. In it, he said that he would reconsider staying in the race if a doctor told him he had a serious medical condition. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Yes, so it’s unclear if Covid was exactly what he meant by that. He hasn’t said anything to that effect at this point. Obviously answered that question from reporters saying that he felt good. But the timing of that quote being released hours before he tested positive was, of course, interesting. Not a good kind of coincidence, but clearly a lot of developments going on here. Earlier, I spoke about all of them with Todd Zwillich, a longtime Washington reporter and friend of the pod. I started by asking him about how other Democrats reacted to Schiff’s statement. 

Todd Zwillich: Joe Biden and his camp would love to rush to get this cake baked. Yeah, we all know why. Because there’s a lot of Democrats who want him to step aside. Let’s talk about it. So Adam Schiff, you’re right, running for Senate. Look, he’s going to be a senator. He’s going to win in California. I think we’re all pretty comfortable saying that. He has a huge Democratic advantage in blue California. And so it’s a big deal. It’s not the same as the party leaders coming out and really leaning on Trump all together. And I think they’re trying to avoid doing that. But Priyanka, you put your finger on the most important person here, which isn’t Adam Schiff, it’s Nancy Pelosi. Who is actively behind the scenes trying to rally Democrats, rally them, really whip them, convince them. It appears she seems to be convinced that Joe Biden is going to lose. She doesn’t want that to be his legacy, and she has said she doesn’t want him to destroy the Democratic Party in the first place. I think what’s not credible, what I wouldn’t believe if I were you, that Adam Schiff came out and did this without coordinating closely with his friend and California ally Nancy Pelosi. So that’s all we know so far. And, you know, it’s all part of the broader struggle among Democrats about the future of Joe Biden’s struggling campaign. 

Priyanka Aribindi: The DNC has decided to hold a virtual roll call and certify President Biden as the party’s candidate, despite pressure from House Democrats to delay the vote to in-person later next month. Now that Ohio has pushed the certification deadline to afterwards. Why did the DNC decide to stick with its original plan? 

Todd Zwillich: Really, this stems from an effort by the DNC, in coordination with the Biden campaign, to do this virtual roll call that you mentioned. Basically nominate Joe Biden officially before the convention. They have part, legit concern and part let’s get this cake baked so that Joe Biden is the nominee and we can quash all this discussion of him not being the nominee. The legit part is that Ohio has ballot rules. Democrats were worried they have a late convention this year. If they didn’t nominate Joe Biden, sort of like by early August, that he risked not being on Ohio’s ballot. You say, well, who cares? Ohio is not a swing state. Biden’s going to lose there anyway. Yeah, sure. But it’s important. It affects candidates down ballot. It affects Sherrod Brown, who’s running for Senate. It affects people running for the House. It’s a big deal. You got to be on the ballot in all 50 states. He’s the president, for God sake. So it does matter, even though it’s not really in contention for electoral votes. The weird part about this, Ohio Republicans, and they control everything in Ohio, also passed a law that undid all of this. So this deadline that says he won’t be on the ballot isn’t the law anymore. But here’s the other problem. In Ohio, when they changed the law, there’s a 90 day take effect period. So the lawyers are saying you’re going to risk lawsuits. You’re going to risk a massive, weird legal battle if you don’t do this. So that’s the legit part. Like why we have to do this quick. The part that has advantaged Biden is we all know what that is. Get it done. So you can’t be undone because he’s trying to ride it out. So the bottom line is there is a huge chunk of Democrats. Only a couple of them are public. There are way more who are not public, who know that Joe Biden’s losing. They want him to step aside. They’re reading the data set showing that he’s losing. They’re also reading the data starting to suggest that a variety of other Democrats poll better than he does, would have a much better chance of beating Trump and shaking up the race and all the rest of it. So, you know, chess man, everybody’s maneuvering like crazy. We’re watching the moves. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Absolutely. I’m going to go back to that in just a moment. But speaking of Biden, he said in an interview with BET News on Wednesday that he would consider dropping out of the race if a medical issue came up for him, even though he and his doctors have maintained that he is in good health as of now. On Wednesday evening, Biden actually tested positive for Covid, that came out. So what do you make of I mean, not necessarily him testing positive for Covid, but what do you make of his statement, and how does it differ from his past statements about staying in the race and being pretty adamant about that? 

Todd Zwillich: Yeah, I don’t want to entertain any speculation about his Covid diagnosis or anything else, but everybody is looking for little cracks in the absolutism, right? Like Joe Biden’s overall attitude. You read the letter he sent to The Hill last week, is basically like, sorry, everyone shut the f up. I’m the president and I’m running. That’s been it. And then people realize, bro, you’re still losing. So they’re looking for cracks in the rhetoric. So that was a little bit of daylight, he said earlier in another interview, I would step aside if my people showed me strong data that I couldn’t win, but nobody has showed me that data, and everybody’s left to look for the what ifs. I don’t know. I mean, this is really up to Joe Biden. He’s the president. He’s the incumbent. He has the money. He has the delegates. We all know this. It’s nobody else’s decision but him and the first lady’s I suppose. It’s a bummer for him that his popularity does not reflect the success of his presidency. That seems to be the reality. And I think what you’re seeing in Schiff’s statement, and all the rest of it, is an increasingly alarmed realization among professional politicians who understand that it’s never fair. You know, it’s not fair, but that’s the way it is. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Exactly. A new poll from the AP shows that nearly two thirds of Democrats say that Biden should withdraw from the race. Biden has been saying the polls are wrong, and that it’s the elites and the media who are trying to push him out. What is your takeaway from this AP poll and what is new here? 

Todd Zwillich: I hate talking about polls, but you’re right, it’s something that can’t be ignored. And I think that Joe Biden so far has been trying to ignore them. To me you know, there was another piece of data that came out. One of the major Dem superPAC polling firms went out and basically did a test marketing of Kamala Harris, Wes Moore, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, basically alt candidates to Joe Biden, like, hey, Democrats and Republicans too, how would you feel about this alternative ticket? And basically showed that all of them are polling an average of three points, sometimes more, ahead of Joe Biden. Kamala Harris is polling ahead of him. This is like the scenario of how many voters can you take back from Trump or take back from the undecided category? How many do you lose if you do this? If you switch the ticket and some core Democrats would be mad, I guess. Hard to imagine many of them switching to Trump. But okay, you know, basically running that simulation over and over and over and over and showing that the Gretchen Whitmer’s and the Wes Moores and Josh Shapiros are polling three points or more ahead of Biden. Kamala Harris is too, a little bit less, but polling pretty far ahead of Biden. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Why aren’t Democrats being more explicit about the party successor and who that should be? 

Todd Zwillich: I think that’s a minefield, you know, I think that maybe complicates the issue. The real issue is, can Joe Biden win? More and more Democrats, the AP poll, certainly members of Congress believe the answer is no. So like that’s the simple a plus b equals c scenario. Can Joe Biden win? No. We got to switch. I think if that happens then you have to see around the corner what would happen? I think privately, lots of Democrats would have lots of opinions about who should be the nominee. Maybe a lot of them think it’s Kamala Harris because of the benefit of incumbency and all the rest of it, or they want to go swing state and say no it should be Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. It’s not supposed to be this way. And yet it is. [laugh]

Priyanka Aribindi: That was my conversation with Washington reporter Todd Zwillich. 

Juanita Tolliver: That’s the latest for now. We’ll get to some headlines in a moment. But if you like our show, make sure to subscribe and share with your friends. We’ll be back after some ads. [music break]. 

[AD BREAK] 

Juanita Tolliver: Let’s wrap up with some headlines. 

[sung] Headlines. 

Juanita Tolliver: Special Counsel Jack Smith appealed the dismissal of former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case on Wednesday. Judge Aileen Cannon threw the case out earlier this week, arguing that Smith’s appointment as a special counsel was unconstitutional because he was not confirmed to his position by the Senate. But she left the door open for Smith to appeal her decision. Smith’s office filed papers on Wednesday asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to bring back the case and void Cannon’s ruling. As a reminder, this is the criminal case involving the classified documents that were found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in 2022. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Investigators looking into the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a rally last weekend told lawmakers on Wednesday that the Secret Service spotted the gunman on a nearby roof roughly 20 minutes before shots were fired. That is, according to anonymous sources who spoke to ABC after a briefing from law enforcement. ABC also reports that the suspected shooter was identified as a person of interest a full hour before the shooting. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that local Pennsylvania police told the Secret Service prior to the rally that they couldn’t patrol the building that was later used by the gunman. The paper quotes the district attorney of Butler County, where the rally was held. He says the Secret Service was, quote, “informed that the local police department did not have the manpower to assist with securing that building.” The DA’s account was backed up by an anonymous source within the service. It is the latest indication of major security lapses that left Trump injured, a rally goer dead and two others seriously wounded. On Wednesday, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle. A hearing is scheduled for early next week. Also on Wednesday, House speaker Mike Johnson called on Cheatle to resign as the head of the Secret Service and announced plans for a bipartisan task force to investigate the security lapses prior to the shooting. 

Juanita Tolliver: An update to a story we brought you earlier this week out of Atlanta. The new judge appointed to oversee the racketeering case against rapper Young Thug and his crew has recused herself from the case. In a filing Wednesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shakira Ingram wrote that her former courthouse deputy previously had a romantic relationship with one of the co-defendants in the sprawling case, she said that could, quote, “undermine the public’s confidence in the impartiality of the proceedings.” The case had been reassigned to Judge Ingram at random after the judge, who previously oversaw the case was dismissed Monday. Young Thug’s lawyers had asked for the judge’s removal after he held a private meeting with prosecutors and a witness without the defense’s knowledge. It’s still unclear whether the entire Rico case will have to be retried once a new judge takes over. 

Priyanka Aribindi: This is a good thing she recused herself. This didn’t get I mean, it wasn’t her relationship either, it was someone on her staff’s. 

Juanita Tolliver: Right. Emphasis on that. It was one of her former courthouse deputies. Right. Like that’s it. 

Priyanka Aribindi: And then she still recused herself, which is good. Let’s all learn from this everybody. And finally, the Television Academy released the 2024 Emmy Award nominations. And the list can be summed up in two words, FX sweep. The network’s hit drama Shogun landed the most nominations with 25 nods. I think I need to start watching the show. While The Bear trailed close behind with 23. I gotta admit, the Bear has not hooked me. 

Juanita Tolliver: Give the Christmas episode a try. That’s all I’ll say, friend. 

Priyanka Aribindi: I know I’m alone in that take, but it just hasn’t gotten me yet. FX’s Reservation Dogs, What We Do in the Shadows, and Fargo also scored nominations in several categories. And for the first time in decades, Max, the streaming platform formerly known as HBO, was not one of the top two most nominated networks. Other nominees of note include Apple TV’s The Morning Show, Netflix’s The Crown, and Max’s True Detective: Night Country. The Emmys will air in September. Juanita, give us your takes? 

Juanita Tolliver: I am so excited about True Detective: Night Country because that was Jodie Foster and Kylie Ross kicking ass. But the other show I’m really excited about getting Emmy nominations is Hulu’s Under the Bridge. Amazing storytelling, beautiful imagery. You have to check it out and it’s based on a true crime story so.

Priyanka Aribindi: If I’m picking one and one only. 

Juanita Tolliver: Yeah. 

Priyanka Aribindi: What do I watch? 

Juanita Tolliver: Mm. I did tell you The Bear Christmas episode before, but I’m gonna push for Under the Bridge. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Ooh. 

Juanita Tolliver: Under the bridge, Under the bridge. Give it a try. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Okay. I’m intrigued. And those are the headlines. What would I do without you? All my TV recs. 

Juanita Tolliver: This was me in another life before book deadlines. [laughter]. 

[AD BREAK]

Priyanka Aribindi: That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Send President Biden a get well soon card. And tell your friends to listen. 

Juanita Tolliver: And if you’re into reading and not just the Emmy nominations list 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. 

Juanita Tolliver: And take us back to 2000. 

Juanita Tolliver: Pretty please. Oh my gosh. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera. [laughing]

Priyanka Aribindi: Commercials for things you wanted to buy on TV [laughter] and you could call the number and do it in installments. 

Juanita Tolliver: I know. 

Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah, I remember those. 

Juanita Tolliver: I’m pretty sure those are still [laughing] around. 

Priyanka Aribindi: I never got those ads. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Bill Lancz. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Natalie Bettendorf. We had production help today from Michell Eloy, 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.