• Former President Donald Trump cleaned up in the South Carolina Republican primary last Saturday, winning 60 percent of the votes to Nikki Haley’s 40 percent, in spite of the fact that the battle played out in Haley’s home state. For her part, Haley says she’s still not dropping out.
• The race now heads to Michigan which holds its Presidential primary on Tuesday. The results could demonstrate how much support President Biden maintains among a key demographic in the state: Muslim and Arab American voters. Many of these voters pledge to vote “uncommitted” as part of the Listen to Michigan campaign, a statewide effort aimed at pressuring the president to take action to prevent the death of thousands more people in Palestine.
• And in headlines: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 31,000 of his country’s soldiers have died since the start of Russia’s invasion, the former head of the NRA was found liable in a massive corruption lawsuit, and what happened at the Screen Actors Guild and Independent Spirit Awards.

 

Show Notes:

 

• Listen To Michigan campaign – https://www.listentomichigan.com/
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast

 

Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

Tre’vell Anderson: It’s Monday, February 26th. I’m Tre’vell Andersen. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: And I’m Josie Duffy Rice. And this is What a Day, where we’ve decided to never ask President Joe Biden’s advice on what makes a good marriage. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Yes, a new book by Katie Rodgers quotes him as saying the secret is good sex, and while I am happy for him, that is not information that I needed. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: This is an area where I don’t need your leadership. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: At all okay?

 

Josie Duffy Rice: At all. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Keep it to yourself, beloved. [music break] On today’s show, the White House says a temporary ceasefire in the Middle East could be days away. Plus, the stars are aligning for Oppenheimer to win big at the Oscars because the movie won even more awards at two smaller ceremonies last weekend. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: But first, Donald Trump won the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday, defeating Nikki Haley in her own state. 

 

[clip of Donald Trump] There’s a spirit that I have never seen. We ran two great races, [cheers and applause] but there’s never been ever, there’s never been a spirit like this. And I just want to say that I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: That’s Trump speaking obviously, Trump was doing his usual blustering and lying during his speech, but what he just said is actually pretty true. The Republican Party is very unified behind this guy, despite everything. I’m hand gesturing right now. All of it. South Carolina was yet another very decisive victory that once again proves that the Republican Party is in this guy’s pocket. They really, really are. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: I hate it here, Josie. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Mmm mm hmm. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: But tell us, what do you mean by decisive? 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Here’s some evidence that proves just how clearly he swept the race. Trump got 60% of the votes compared to Haley’s 40%. He’s going to receive 47 of the 50 delegates in the state. And the race was called basically, as soon as polls closed, the AP actually projected him as the winner based on a voter survey rather than poll data. That’s how confident they were that he had this in the bag. And again, can’t say this enough. This is Haley’s State. He also got the most votes of any candidate in a South Carolina Republican presidential primary ever. And the primary had the biggest turnout the state has ever seen. More than 750,000 people cast a vote on Saturday, which beat the record by like 10,000 votes. Also, according to The New York Times, Trump won about 73% of Republican votes, compared to Haley’s 26%. And that’s a bigger percentage of the Republican votes that he won than the votes overall, which means that many of her votes came from Democrats and Independents. And it’s hard to win a Republican primary if you’re not winning Republicans. Right? 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: He’d also barely spent any time in South Carolina. He’s visited just four times during the primary season. So overall, this is very embarrassing for Nikki Haley. During his speech, Trump took the opportunity to humiliate South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who was literally booed when he took the stage. And he also did his usual rambling, talking a lot about the border and whatever else. But what he did not do was talk about Nikki Haley. He didn’t even mention her in his victory speech. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: I mean, do you mention the other person when this is basically a race between you and yourself at this point? 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: That’s like a bigger insult, honestly. Just not bringing her up at all. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Just ignoring her altogether. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: So what exactly is she going to do now? 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Well, for now, she’s staying in the race. Here she is during her speech on Saturday. 

 

[clip of Nikki Haley] I know 40% is not 50%, [laughter] but I also know 40% is not some tiny group. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Haley has refused calls to drop out, saying last week in a speech before the vote that, quote, “dropping out would be the easy route” and says that she will continue at least through Super Tuesday, which is next week on March 5th. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Sometimes you do take the easy route. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Right, right. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: You don’t always have to go hard. You know what I mean? 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah, you don’t have to do everything to make your life as difficult as possible. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Huh yi yi yi yi. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: This race is in the bag. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Right? And now the race heads to Michigan, which holds its primary tomorrow on Tuesday. Even though, as we’ve said, it’s been a foregone conclusion, unfortunately, that this will be a Biden and Trump rematch for the presidency. And you know what, Josie? I do think we got to give it to Haley a bit for putting on a brave face and nevertheless persisting because these Republican voters keep playing in her face. And here she is standing on business like the kids say.

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Stand on less business, [laughter] persist a little less. I mean, I guess if you are making Trump’s life harder, I’m fine with it. But Lord have mercy. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah, well, anyway, the Haley campaign did announce that in less than 24 hours after her South Carolina loss, she raised one million dollars quote, “from grassroots supporters alone,” which they say, quote, “demonstrates Haley’s staying power and her appeal to broad swaths of the American public.” And you know what? Sure, we will allow them to spin this however they need to spin it for themselves. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Mm hmm. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Okay. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah. 

 

Tre’vell Anderson: In the meantime, Michigan as a state is one we all should be keeping our eyes on, not just because it is a battleground to watch with Republicans currently polling higher than Biden, but also because in this primary happening tomorrow we’re gonna see how effective President Biden has been or not been at rallying the support of a key demographic in this state, Muslim and Arab American voters. They have vocally disapproved of the president’s stance on Gaza, and many have said they will not vote for him in tomorrow’s primary. Instead, they’re planning to vote, quote unquote, “uncommitted” as part of the Listen to Michigan campaign, a statewide effort aimed at pressuring the president to take action to prevent the death of thousands more in Palestine. And this could prove to be a huge problem for Biden, who only won Michigan by about 150,000 votes in 2020. According to data from the Muslim American voter mobilization group Emgage, there are more than 200,000 Muslim voters in the state. 

 

Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah, we’ve talked about this campaign on the show before, and I understand that late last week, our co-host Juanita actually got to talk to a local activist about the uncommitted movement. Is that right?

 

Tre’vell Anderson: Yes. So she spoke to Abbas Alawieh. He is a Democratic strategist and spokesman for the Listen to Michigan campaign. Juanita started by asking him about what message he and his fellow organizers are trying to send by voting uncommitted. 

 

Abbas Alawieh: What we’re doing through this campaign is instead of embracing the level of disappointment and deep betrayal to keep people at home and not have them vote, we are mobilizing people to vote for something, to vote for a cease fire, to vote for peace, to vote against the war. 

 

Juanita Tolliver: And we know the margins in Michigan are tight. So what would you define as successful turnout for this uncommitted component of the ballot on February 27th? 

 

Abbas Alawieh: Our campaign strategy is twofold. One is to claim the uncommitted box, a box that doesn’t exist in every state that happens to exist here in Michigan. In 2008, pro-Obama people used the uncommitted box to register their support for Obama. We’re using it to register our opposition to war. We’re going to count on Tuesday every single vote that is for uncommitted as a vote for justice, for peace, and for building the power of regular, everyday people who don’t want our politics dragged to a genocidal place ever again by the pro war profiteers. 

 

Juanita Tolliver: And we know that earlier this month, Biden administration officials visited Dearborn, Michigan, to meet with Muslim and Arab leaders of the community. What was it like speaking directly with members of the administration, and did you find that conversation to be productive at all? 

 

Abbas Alawieh: That experience was very interesting. I was a congressional staffer for the last five years since President Biden was elected, indeed before he made it into the White House. I have been working very closely with this White House to champion Democratic policies and wins, like the American Rescue Plan, like the Inflation Reduction Act. 

 

Juanita Tolliver: So you’d been on the other side of these types of conversations before?

 

Abbas Alawieh: Exactly. 

 

Juanita Tolliver: Yeah. 

 

Abbas Alawieh: Exactly. And I urged them. I’ve worked with your teams. You must understand me, at least as a colleague. And if you don’t see me as a colleague anymore, at least you must understand that I am a human. I’m telling you that me and so many people here in the Arab American, Muslim American community are experiencing a level of pain that we cannot even begin to describe to you. We’re not sleeping at night because of the nightmares we are experiencing. And if you see my humanity, I want you to look me in the eye and tell me, have you advised our president to call for an immediate permanent ceasefire privately? Have you advised him to do that? It felt like from their answers that either they haven’t done it or they’re still working up the courage to do it. And my hope is that maybe on their way back to D.C., maybe as they’re sitting in D.C. right now, that they’re still thinking about that conversation, that maybe the people around President Biden ought to be encouraging him to take a different policy approach than the one that he’s taken, because the one that he’s taken, unfortunately, has taken the lives of more than 30,000 people who should still be alive. If there is a group of people in our country who most wants Donald Trump to stay as far away from the White House as humanly possible, count me in that group. I know based on what I’m seeing here on the ground in Michigan, but based on what we’re seeing in poll after poll, that by failing to act on a ceasefire, Biden is losing more and more people here in Michigan. So it would be wise for him so that we don’t lose our democracy to Donald Trump to change his policy on Gaza so that he can engage productively in this mass antiwar movement that we are seeing in our country that is gaining power, including hopefully on February 27th, when people vote uncommitted. 

 

Juanita Tolliver: Now, shortly after the Michigan primary, we know President Biden will be delivering his state of the Union address. How are you hoping he talks about the crisis in Gaza during that address? 

 

Abbas Alawieh: I think we’ve already seen President Biden’s language change a bit, and this is something that those of us who were in the meeting with the Biden officials probably anticipated. You know, Biden officials came and admitted to missteps, admitted that President Biden has not been messaging in a way that is consistent with his values and and with the understanding that Palestinians are humans worthy of life too. It’s also way past time for us to be patting the president on the back for minor language shifts, you know, so in the State of the Union, I do anticipate that he will talk about Palestinian lives in a way that recognizes that every life is precious. 

 

Juanita Tolliver: And earlier you mentioned that you want President Biden to respond to the crisis in Gaza by having a policy pathway that fully differentiates him from Netanyahu, that it sounds like cease fire now is the mission. But if Biden doesn’t do that by November, how will you vote? 

 

Abbas Alawieh: A lot of folks have been asking this, and my response has been the same since we’ve been organizing for a cease fire in October. Those early whispers of, hey, why don’t you shut up and don’t say anything mean about the president. Part of what we’re saying is it’s deeply painful to come to a community that is experiencing an unimaginable level of trauma and say, but what about November? But what about November? What about you join us in pressuring the president to call for an immediate cease fire that saves lives and, quite frankly, saves votes here in Michigan? And then we can turn our sights to November. As far as how I will vote, you can have my commitment from now until the day that I die. At that, I will never vote for Donald Trump. Donald Trump will never get any kind of good energy out of me, because him and his white supremacist buddies tried to destroy our country, and they’ll try to do it again. But what I want and the person who has the power right now is Joe Biden. He needs to do the right thing so that we can save lives and so that we can save our democracy. 

 

Juanita Tolliver: And what do you make of the report