Everything Is Feinstein
A new study shows eight million people have fallen into poverty since May, when the CARES Act money started running out, but lawmakers in Washington still can’t agree on a second relief bill. We review the current state of negotiations, and how the delay is affecting Americans in need.  Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up their confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, ...
24m Oct 16, 2020
24m
Rotten To The Court
Amy Coney Barrett appeared for her last day of Senate questioning yesterday and gave more evasive non-responses. Today is the final day of the hearings, and will feature witness testimony on Barrett’s nomination.  Brian Fallon is the executive director of Demand Justice, a group which pushes for progressive structural reforms and political hardball when it comes to the judiciary. We spoke to hi...
23m Oct 15, 2020
23m
Take On Amy
Yesterday was day two of Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings, when members of the Senate Judiciary Committee got their first public chance to directly question the nominee. There were a lot of questions, but there weren’t many answers. Safety concerns led Johnson & Johnson to pause a large clinical trial of its COVID vaccine candidate and Eli Lilly to pause trials of their antibody drug. ...
22m Oct 14, 2020
22m
If U Seek Amy Coney Barrett
Senate hearings began yesterday to consider Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Democrats tried to keep the focus on the Affordable Care Act, while Republicans treated the day like they were writing a profile of Barrett for a conservative version of Marie Claire.  With three weeks left until November 3rd, we look at recent polling, what it says about swing voters, and the...
20m Oct 13, 2020
20m
Vaccine Nation With Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
Senate confirmation hearings begin today for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's Supreme Court nominee. The president is scheduled to return to the campaign trail today just over a week after being hospitalized with COVID-19, after his doctor released a memo saying he’s no longer contagious, but providing no other information.  Daily new cases of COVID-19 in the US are creeping above 50,000, which...
22m Oct 12, 2020
22m
The Date Debaters
Thirteen men were charged yesterday in connection to an alleged violent plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. This is unsurprising when you consider Trump’s “LIBERATE MICHIGAN” tweets from earlier in the year that encouraged armed protestors to mount anti-government and anti-COVID restriction rallies.  The fate of next week’s debate is in question after an extended back-and-forth b...
16m Oct 09, 2020
16m
Veeping With The Enemy
Last night was the first and only vice presidential debate, with Senator Kamala Harris and VP Mike Pence facing off. Their conversation covered police killings of Black Americans, Trump’s response to the pandemic, Roe v. Wade, and more. We discuss a debate that was a lot more measured than the last one, but still very frustrating.  Trump went back to the Oval Office yesterday and released anoth...
19m Oct 08, 2020
19m
Keep Calm And Harrison
Trump said yesterday he won't negotiate with Democrats on another Covid relief before the election. He sent a torrent of other tweets too, all while more people in D.C. continued to test positive, including Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller and General Mark Milley. Former South Carolina Democratic party chair Jaime Harrison is tied with Senator Lindsey Graham in a tight senate race accordin...
21m Oct 07, 2020
21m
The West Wheeze
Trump is now back in the White House after making a Trumpian and very public return, but doctors say he’s still not "out of the woods." Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tested positive along with two deputies in the communications department, but the White House’s contact tracing effort seems to be negligible at best.  The Supreme Court began its new term yesterday by rejecting an appeals case ...
18m Oct 06, 2020
18m
All The President's Meds
Amidst rosy reports about Trump's condition, we also learned that he received multiple drug treatments over the weekend including dexamethasone, which is typically reserved for patients with severe cases of coronavirus. We look at what his diagnosis, along with other positive cases among Senate Republicans, means for the country and the Supreme Court confirmation process. Following a negative t...
19m Oct 05, 2020
19m
The President Has Covid-19
In a tweet overnight, President Trump said that he and the first lady had tested positive for the coronavirus. The news comes after a White House aid, Hope Hicks, tested positive. She had been traveling with the President in recent days, including to the debate on Tuesday. House Dems passed a new slimmed down relief package yesterday, but Republicans still say it’s too expensive. In the meantim...
22m Oct 02, 2020
22m
Take It Espy
Former Congressman and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy is running for Senate in Mississippi, hoping to be the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate in over thirty years. He’s nearly tied with his opponent, incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde Smith, who’s previously joked about “public hangings” and held up the legacy of Confederate soldiers. We talk to him about his race, Trump’s r...
24m Oct 01, 2020
24m
Presidential Interruption
The first presidential debate took place in Cleveland last night. It was an extremely bumpy ride, with Trump failing to condemn white supremacy and suggesting once again he might not accept the election results. We discuss the highlights and lowlights of a night that was almost all lowlights.  And in headlines: Kentucky’s AG to release grand jury proceedings from Breonna Taylor’s case, the UK a...
18m Sep 30, 2020
18m
Performance Enhancing Debates
Tonight is the first of three debates between Democratic nominee Joe Biden and President Trump. The debate will cover six major topics, which include the economy, the pandemic, and the integrity of the election, but notably, not the environment. We discuss what else to expect and how this debate could affect the election.  Reports have revealed a strategy that the Trump campaigned allegedly use...
17m Sep 29, 2020
17m
The Art Of The Steal
The New York Times published a bombshell report on two decades of Trump’s taxes, showing he paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and in 2017. Trump received massive refunds after reporting losses on his businesses, one of which is currently being reviewed by the IRS, and could cost him $100 million if it’s found to be illegitimate.  On Saturday, Trump formally announced Judge Amy Cone...
19m Sep 28, 2020
19m
Antitrust Me
While Trump is casually threatening to be an all out dictator, the economic crisis he continues not to solve continues. New unemployment data show the recovery is slowing down. We look at whether Congress is any closer to another relief package.  Next week Congress is expected to call in big tech CEOs for another big hearing, this time on Section 230 and the moderation of social media platforms...
19m Sep 25, 2020
19m
Still No Justice For Breonna Taylor
Yesterday, the grand jury in Jefferson County, Kentucky announced that only one of the officers who shot at Breonna Taylor would be indicted… and that officer’s charges don’t have anything to do with Taylor’s killing. Last night following the decision, two police officers were shot in downtown Louisville. We spoke to Kentucky state representative Charles Booker hours after the decision about wh...
16m Sep 24, 2020
16m
Naked Ballots & Afraid
America has passed the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths in the COVID-19 crisis, which was made far worse by Trump’s abjectly poor leadership. The FDA is expected to roll out new, more rigorous standards for approving the coronavirus vaccines following concerns that Trump would try to push out an unsafe drug.  As the election approaches, there have been a deluge of legal cases seeking to address...
17m Sep 23, 2020
17m
Senate Racing Arizona
Arizona Senator Martha McSally said she will support a Senate vote when Trump nominates a Supreme Court Justice, but she might not have a chance to participate if she loses her race against Democrat Mark Kelly in November. Since McSally is an appointed Senator instead of an elected one, she could be replaced by Kelly within the year if she loses. We take a look at the race, and what else is at ...
17m Sep 22, 2020
17m
Ruth And Justice
Supreme Court Justice and gender equality pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87 on Friday. The immediate response online and elsewhere was a mix of grief, fear, gratitude and determination. Within 24 hours of her passing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump both said they would move forward to replace her, despite her dying wish as well as past preceden...
26m Sep 21, 2020
26m
As Easy As Phase 1, 2, 3
Two pharma companies released information about their vaccine trials, including details on their timelines and specific metrics they’ll be using to assess efficacy in early data. It’s all part of a push to gain public trust. We explain what to expect, and when.  While Congress is still stalled on another relief bill, Republicans in the Senate are busy confirming federal judges nominated by Trum...
17m Sep 18, 2020
17m
The Florida Key Demographic
Concerns about whether the Biden campaign is doing enough to speak to Latinx voters have grown in recent days following polling that suggests weakness among this group, particularly in Florida. Political consultant and former Bernie Sanders advisor Chuck Rocha joins to discuss. The director of the CDC says that a vaccine for Covid-19 might not be available until the summer or fall of 2021. He a...
22m Sep 17, 2020
22m
When Police Pay
The city of Louisville, Kentucky has come to a $12 million settlement deal with the family of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed by police officers in her apartment six months ago. The agreement also includes several police reforms. We explain. Over 5 million acres have now been burned across the West. We discuss the poor air quality caused by the smoke, how it's measured, and the effects ...
17m Sep 16, 2020
17m
Let's TikTok Business
Extreme weather continues in the US, with over 4.5 million acres burned across the West Coast and a Category 2 hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Scientists say two Antarctic glaciers are breaking off and could contribute to large-scale sea level rise, underscoring the need for aggressive environmental policy in the US and abroad.  Oracle is close to taking over TikTok’s US operations fo...
16m Sep 15, 2020
16m
Fire, Wind & Fire
Wildfires raged on over the weekend in the West, with millions of acres burned, thousands displaced, and dozens of lives lost. Aside from fighting climate change, one of the most effective ways to manage these fires is regular controlled burns, which is something indigenous tribes were doing for centuries.  Two meat processing facilities were fined a measly total of $29,000 after government reg...
19m Sep 14, 2020
19m
Surveilling The Police
Viral videos of police brutality against Black people have generated outrage, protest, and sustained national attention this year. We talk to Bijan Stephen, a reporter at The Verge, about his latest project called “Capturing The Police,” which examines the impact these videos have on the people who film them. Another 884,000 people filed for unemployment last week, which is more than economists...
21m Sep 11, 2020
21m
Coming Out Of The Woodward
Recorded interviews of Donald Trump by Bob Woodward show he understood the threat of coronavirus in February, while he insisted in public it would “disappear” and was no worse than the seasonal flu. Trump addressed these revelations at a press conference yesterday, confirming that he intentionally downplayed the virus because he’s a "cheerleader" for the country. Wildfires are continuing to bur...
20m Sep 10, 2020
20m
One Simple Trick To Slim Down Your Relief Bill
The Rochester, NY police chief and other high ranking officers all resigned or took demotions yesterday, following protests over the police killing of Daniel Prude. Prude’s case, along with other recent violent incidents, are leading some to propose alternatives to police intervention for mental health emergencies.  Republicans in the Senate are back in session with a new coronavirus relief bil...
18m Sep 09, 2020
18m
Here Comes The Sunrise Movement
College students have returned to campuses, and so has coronavirus. Northeastern University suspended 11 students for partying, and will not refund them tens of thousands of dollars in tuition payments. At University of Kansas, students are striking and demanding that the university shut down the campus and give hazard pay to workers.  Extreme weather over the past few weeks has underscored the...
18m Sep 08, 2020
18m
Vaxxers Without Borders
Joe Biden will visit Kenosha, Wisconsin later today, where he’ll meet with the family of Jacob Blake. We check in on the continued protests happening there, plus the protests that are continuing in Lafayette, Louisiana, where Trayford Pellerin was killed by police just two days before Blake’s shooting. The Trump administration said it’s not going to take part in a global effort to develop a COV...
17m Sep 03, 2020
17m
Mr. Eviction Freeze
The CDC and the Health Department are moving to ban evictions through December for people who can’t pay because of the pandemic. New York City caved to pressure from teachers unions who threatened to strike over school reopenings, pushing back the start of in-person to later this month. Legal battles over mail-in voting saw major developments in Texas, Iowa, and Georgia. An audit from the Inspe...
16m Sep 02, 2020
16m
Class Of Covid-19
Joe Biden spoke in Pennsylvania yesterday, where he condemned violence of any kind at recent protests. Trump spoke at the White House yesterday, where he declined to tamp down violence among his supporters and suggested instead that Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old Wisconsin shooter, had acted in self-defense.  Coronavirus outbreaks are continuing to pop up at colleges and universities in the ...
20m Sep 01, 2020
20m
Critical Mass
One man is now dead after a weekend of violence in Portland, Oregon, in which pro-Trump demonstrators drove through the city’s downtown taunting Black Lives Matter protestors. Jay Bishop was a member of a group called Patriot Prayer, a far-right group with ties to white supremacists. Massachusetts holds its primaries on Tuesday. Alex Morse is a 31-year-old, Justice Democrats-supported mayor of ...
20m Aug 31, 2020
20m
The South Yawn
Trump closed out the RNC last night, with a meandering 70-minute long speech that saw him paint a rosy picture of his administration’s handling of COVID-19 and promise a vaccine before the end of the year. Trump also tried to suggest that Biden would usher in chaos, while tending to ignore or misrepresent the chaos that’s happening under his administration. Later today thousands of protestors a...
18m Aug 28, 2020
18m
Game Off
Police arrested 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse yesterday for killing two protestors and injuring a third at demonstrations in Kenosha, Washington against police brutality. Professional athletes joined in calling for justice for Jacob Blake, with teams from the NBA, WNBA, MLB, and more going on strike. Biden and Trump are averaging a near tie at the moment in North Carolina, which is sort of the s...
19m Aug 27, 2020
19m
Bleakfast At Tiffany's
Last night’s Republican National Convention brought more speeches from Trump’s employees and family members, including First Lady Melania Trump, Tiffany Trump, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The topic of “school choice” has been referenced often during the RNC—that’s part of a major push from Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to privatize education.  In Portsmouth, Virginia, Vice M...
17m Aug 26, 2020
17m
Guilfoyle Salesman
Protestors gathered for a second night in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake, who is reportedly still in intensive care. The three cops that participated in Blake’s shooting have been put on administrative leave, and a state investigation is ongoing.  Milwaukee Freedom Fund: https://bit.ly/mkefreedomfund The Republican Party officially renominated Trump ...
18m Aug 25, 2020
18m
Do You Believe In Plasmagic
The Republican National Convention begins tonight, predominantly featuring speakers who are Trump’s employees or blood relatives. This weekend, Trump announced that the FDA granted emergency use authorization to a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19… we discuss what that means.  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified to the Senate on Friday in his first appearance since the abrupt changes to ...
16m Aug 24, 2020
16m
The Dude Abidens
Last night was the final night of the DNC, featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, former 2020 presidential candidates, and most notably, Joe Biden’s acceptance speech. In a stark contrast to his campaign thus far, Biden barely mentioned Trump by name, talking instead about the enormity of the situation America faces.  The state of Michigan announced a $600 million fund to compensate Flint residents who...
18m Aug 21, 2020
18m
Return Of Barack
Last night was the third night of the Democratic National Convention, featuring marquee speeches from VP pick Senator Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama. Overall, programming was more focused on issues, with segments on immigration, climate change, gun violence, and more.  New coronavirus antibody data from nearly a million and a half people in New York City showed an infection rat...
20m Aug 20, 2020
20m
License To Jill
Last night was the second night of the DNC, featuring beautiful shots of delegates across our gorgeous country, as well as speeches from AOC, activist Ady Barkan, and Dr. Jill Biden. We talk to Crooked’s own Jon Favreau about speech writing for the first digital DNC.  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said yesterday that he would suspend cost-cutting changes at the USPS, but it’s unclear whether t...
22m Aug 19, 2020
22m
First Lady's Night
This year’s socially-distanced DNC began last night, with speeches from former First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders, and more. Joe Biden went into the convention with a 7-9 point national lead against Trump, but the next few months are still full of unknowns. Watch the convention along with us every night this week at crooked.com/convention UNC Chapel Hill has decided to pivot to o...
21m Aug 18, 2020
21m
DeJoy Division
The DNC was set to begin today in Wisconsin, but instead, it’s beginning in Zooms across America. We talked to Wisconsin Democrats Senator Tammy Baldwin and party chair Ben Wikler about the state’s recent electoral history and how Biden can win there this year.  The USPS warned that it may not be able to accommodate last minute mail-in ballots. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to call the House...
18m Aug 17, 2020
18m
No Post On Trump Days
This was the first week since March that the number of new unemployment claims in the US fell below one million. Tens of millions remain jobless and the start of Congress’s August recess means it’s unlikely we’ll see new relief legislation before September. Trump said the quiet part out loud yesterday, admitting that his refusal to provide emergency funding to the postal service would make uni...
13m Aug 14, 2020
13m
Teacher Buffering
The last time we spoke with Monise Seward, a 6th grade special education teacher in Georgia, it was April and schools had just begun to tackle remote learning. It's now the new year, and her class remains completely online. We spoke to her about the challenges of the new normal and her thoughts on in-person classes. Senator Kamala Harris and VP Joe Biden made their first appearance as running m...
20m Aug 13, 2020
20m
Kamala As You Are
Senator Kamala Harris was announced as Biden’s VP pick yesterday, which will make her the first black woman and first Asian American to be a on major party ticket. We discuss her record on the 2020 campaign trail, as an incisive presence in Senate hearings, and as California’s attorney general.  The Big 10 and the Pac 12 college conferences announced yesterday that they will postpone their fall...
19m Aug 12, 2020
19m
Justice Democrats League
Five states hold primaries today, including Minnesota, where Rep. Ilhan Omar is running to keep her seat in Congress. The elections come a week after another progressive, Cori Bush, won a major upset in her race against a longterm incumbent in Missouri. We speak to Bush about her path to politics and check in on Justice Democrats, the political group that backed Bush, Omar, and a handful of oth...
17m Aug 11, 2020
17m
New Executive Order
Trump signed a bunch of executive orders and actions over the weekend that he presented as a fix to our economic problems. But the reality is much less transformative. We explain what his actions do (cut unemployment) and what they don't do (protect renters from eviction). ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, is planning to sue the Trump administration over its ban on US companies doin...
16m Aug 10, 2020
16m
N-R-Ain't
New York’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association. AG Letitia James alleges that the NRA has engaged in years of corruption. In the absence of a federal testing strategy, seven governors have formed a purchasing agreement in attempts to get faster COVID antigen tests. In California, problems with the state’s data system may be creating inac...
16m Aug 07, 2020
16m
Convention Goes Electric
Joe Biden is no longer traveling to Milwaukee for the DNC, and neither are other primetime speakers like President Barack Obama. A sized-down RNC will be held in Charlotte, with Trump planning to deliver his speech from The White House.  Six of the seven largest school districts in the country will begin the school year entirely online, with New York City as the only holdout. One Yale student i...
15m Aug 06, 2020
15m