What A Day

Today's Senate runoffs in Georgia will determine control of Congress, the future of economic relief, and the country’s response to existential threats like climate change. We spoke to Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey about the Georgia races, what Biden can do on his own on climate, and how to deal with Republicans who want to erase the will of voters. And in headlines: the UK says Assange can’t be...

In a leaked phone call from this weekend, Trump used every line he could to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to overturn the state's election results. About a dozen GOP senators say they’re going to raise objections during the congressional vote to certify the presidential election this week, in a show of election theater that will lead nowhere. A more-contagious coronavirus...

The future of our democracy hinges on the outcome of two Senate races in Georgia, a state that shocked the nation by flipping for the first time in nearly three decades. In this multi-part podcast, visit the frontlines with two of Atlanta’s own - journalists Rembert Browne and Jewel Wicker as they detail the struggles and triumphs that led to this moment, and hear from the organizers, strategists,...

Congressional leaders are putting together the final pieces of an emerging deal on COVID relief, but the negotiations could continue into the weekend. We spoke to Congressman Ro Khanna about the relief bill, the Biden transition and what gives him hope for next year. This year saw the largest-ever racial justice uprisings since the 1960s, following the racist killings of George Floyd, Breonna Tayl...

Congressional leaders think they could pass a roughly $900 billion stimulus bill by the end of the week, which might include direct payments, but won't include money for states and localities. A deal can’t come soon enough: eight million Americans have been pushed into poverty since this summer, while jobless claims (and COVID cases) are rising. The Supreme Court announced it will hear a case on c...

Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg was announced as Biden’s nominee for transportation secretary yesterday, and former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm is expected to be picked to lead the Energy Department. We discuss those picks, plus other recent Biden nominees, like Marcia Fudge, Tom Vilsack, and Denis McDonough.  The Dolly Parton-backed Moderna vaccine has been reviewed by the FDA and...

The first coronavirus vaccines were administered in the US yesterday, and public education efforts also got underway with the HHS and CDC emphasizing the safety of the drug.  Congress has one week left to agree on a relief bill before they go on recess. The latest proposal splits provisions into two parts, one that everyone can agree on, and one that contains more controversial elements. We explai...

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized by the FDA on Friday evening, and the first shipments went out on Sunday. Most state governments intend to follow CDC recommendations and give the first few batches to health care workers and nursing home residents and staff… members of the Trump White House might also get it early. Today is the official electoral college vote, after which Biden and Harri...

The FDA’s advisory panel voted to approve emergency authorization of the Pfizer-BionNTech coronavirus vaccine. Once it’s authorized, which could be any day now, an initial shipment of about 6.4 million doses is expected to be sent across the country.  The state of the pandemic in the United States is extremely dire, with this week bringing a new record in single day fatalities, and a record number...

Facebook is facing two major antitrust lawsuits, one from the Federal Trade Commission and one from nearly every state in the country. The suits argue that Facebook has turned itself into a social media monopoly by purchasing or unfairly stifling its rivals. As a solution, the FTC is calling for the company to break off WhatsApp and Instagram. An FDA panel is meeting today to vote on whether to ap...

As vaccinations kick off in the UK, the approval process is moving forward here in the US as well. The FDA now says Pfizer’s vaccine offers protection within just 10 days of getting the first dose, though efficacy goes up even further after a second one. Authorization is still pending. The US had planned to rely heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine, having made a deal to buy 300 million doses… but n...

A bipartisan relief bill that had some momentum last week hit a snag after two senators said they won’t support the proposal. We explain. Plus, an update on coronavirus restrictions in New York. The Trump administration has five executions planned between now and January 20th, including that of Brandon Bernard, whose sentence many are fighting to commute. Biden is against the death penalty and sai...

Biden has reportedly selected California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led the defense of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court last month, to lead the department of Health and Human Services. We discuss the pick. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s new lockdown order takes effect today in large parts of the state, and will be in effect for at least the next three weeks but possibly l...

There’s about a month left to go until the two Senate runoffs in Georgia, with Republican Senators Loeffler and Perdue walking the line of campaigning as a check on Biden while also not admitting that he will be the President. Meanwhile, Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are focusing largely on the pandemic and the multi-million dollar stock trades both their Republican opponen...

The UK became the first country to authorize Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine yesterday, with vaccinations expected to begin next week. In the US, the CDC voted to give health care workers and residents of long term facilities access to the vaccine first, if and when it's approved. CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield predicted that the US could see close to 450,000 deaths from COVID-19 by next February,...

Attorney General Bill Barr said what is obvious to everyone, that the Justice Department hasn’t found any election of widespread voter fraud that would change the result of the election. As Trump winds down his presidency, he’s reportedly looking into pre-emptive pardons for Ivanka, Eric, Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and his face-melting lawyer Rudy Giuliani.  A bipartisan group of senators pitched a c...

Biden officially announced several top members of his economic team, including his picks to lead the Treasury, White House Council of Economic Advisers, and the Office of Management and Budget. We talk about the picks and what it says about Biden's economic priorities. Moderna submitted its vaccine for FDA authorization yesterday, following Pfizer’s submission a couple weeks ago. The CDC is holdin...

New York City is opening up elementary schools next week after city officials faced heavy criticism for appearing to prioritize economic activities like restaurant dining over the well-being of children. Across the country, public school closures have led to a spike in private school matriculation, since private institutions have a better chance of staying open.  Trump still hasn’t conceded yet, b...

Michigan and Wayne County have repeatedly been targeted in Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results. In particular, he and his supporters have singled out Detroit, a heavily Democratic, majority-Black city. We talk to Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib about that effort. Plus, we get her take on what’s next for House Democrats and what she’d like to see from the Biden administration.  And in hea...

Yesterday brought more bad news about the current state of the pandemic, even as we got more good news about ending it in the future. The entire public school system in New York City, the largest in the country, is going fully remote as cases rise in the city. Meanwhile, the FDA gave emergency use authorization to the first at-home COVID test, and Pfizer said their vaccine is 95% effective, accord...

The US is in an extremely dangerous period of the pandemic, with cases and hospitalizations at record highs, holidays fast approaching, and little in the way of a federal response. Our guest host for today —epidemiologist and former Detroit health commissioner Dr. Abdul El-Sayed — answers our questions about the current state of affairs, vaccine updates, Thanksgiving, and what gives him hope about...

Pharmaceutical company Moderna announced yesterday that its vaccine is 94.5% effective, according to early data. This comes after Pfizer's announcement last week and raises the prospects that two vaccines could cleared for use on a limited basis by the end of the year. With two senate runoffs set for January, all eyes are on Georgia. We talk about the candidates, the issues, and the organizers ani...

The federal government still hasn’t affirmed Biden's victory, blocking him from the White House access he needs to get a handle on the transition and the government's pandemic response. America has now surpassed 11 million COVID-19 cases, and the virus is still predominately affecting Black and Brown Americans. Some states are taking sweeping actions to slow rising case numbers, like New Mexico an...

Joe Biden’s lead has only grown since major networks projected him to win the presidential election last weekend, and despite that, Trump has continued to baselessly claim that he is the true winner and delay Biden’s transition process. To better understand the nuances of Trump’s lawsuits and whether we have anything at all to worry about, we spoke to Risk Hasen, a law professor at UC Irvine who s...

The US is still in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the number of confirmed cases rising by 70 percent in the past two weeks. The CDC put out a new guidance that said face masks protect the person wearing the mask as well as the people around them—which is one more reason to keep wearing them.  Republicans are still occupying an alternate reality where they largely refuse to acknowledge th...