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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Thursday, January 8th, I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day, the show that can think of a shorter answer to this question for Energy Secretary Chris Wright here on CNBC Wednesday. 

[clip of CNBC reporter] Is there a narrative in Venezuela that you are stealing our oil? 

[clip of Chris Wright] I have not heard that narrative. I’ve seen celebrations in the street, libre Venezuela out. I think people are thrilled. They’ve lived under, between Chavez and Maduro, 26 years in a brutal dictatorship that’s only devastated that country and hurt the whole hemisphere. So I’ve not heard that narrative at all. And of course, if it’s that narrative’s out there, it’s untrue. We’re just controlling the flow of revenues from their oil. 

Jane Coaston: Just say yes next time. [music break] On today’s show, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shoots a Minneapolis driver in broad daylight. And the Trump administration moves forward with its plan for Venezuelan oil. But let’s start with Congress. And let’s start out with some very important numbers. There are 435 members of the House of Representatives. And as of today, the GOP House majority is down to 218, after the resignation of Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and the passing of California Representative Doug LaMalfa. With vacancies reducing the total number of House seats, legislation would require 216 votes to pass. That means Speaker Mike Johnson could only lose two Republicans on any party line vote. And then there’s the hospitalization of Indiana Representative Jim Baird following a recent car accident. And Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie being, shall we say, not a sure vote for GOP legislation. The GOP House majority is razor thin, even without discussing the number of Republicans soon to leave office. Whether it’s to run for other positions, or just because being in Congress sucks right now. So keeping the House majority in the midterm seems pretty unlikely, which is tough news for President Donald Trump, for one reason he made very clear during remarks to congressional Republicans on Tuesday. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] You got to win the midterms, because if we don’t win the midtermes, it’s just going to be, I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me. I’ll get impeached. 

Jane Coaston: The funny thing is that it’s not like House Republicans have big plans going forward. On Venezuela, Trump seems to believe that Congress is an obstacle he can avoid entirely. And honestly, he’s right because he’s getting away with it. And on issues like healthcare, the GOP is woefully divided. Even from Trump, who suggested Tuesday Republicans be, quote, “flexible on allowing federal funds, like those that go into Medicaid, be used to pay for abortion coverage.” Republicans are not going to be flexible on abortion coverage.” So what does all of this mean for Congress in 2026? To find out, I spoke to Burgess Everett. He’s a Congressional Bureau Chief at Semafor. Burgess, welcome back to What a Day. 

Burgess Everett: Hey Jane, thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: Congress returned this week after the news that President Trump had captured then Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the middle of the night without telling Congress. What are you hearing from representatives and senators? 

Burgess Everett: Yeah, I mean, it’s been a it’s been a big shock being back. It was a shock to everybody that this happened. I mean even the Senate Majority Leader told us he didn’t know beforehand, which um he said was was appropriate because he basically said this mission’s too sensitive to let members of Congress know. Um. I would say that aspect of it has fallen on party lines a little bit. Um. And now, you know, we’re entering a moment where the Senate, at least, is actually going to have to vote on this. There’s a war powers resolution vote coming up on Thursday that would limit the use of military force in Venezuela, absent an authorization from Congress, which, as you know as a student of politics, Congress has really shirked its duty in terms of uh, weighing in on matters of war and peace, basically since the, uh, Iraq and Afghanistan resolutions 25 years ago. Senator Kaine’s been like really creative in forcing votes on the Senate floor. And that this is kind of his, his baby and his attempt to kind of put Republicans on the record, because as you know, Democrats are in the minority in both chambers of Congress. So this is one of these tools they have to actually force Republicans to vote on some of Trump’s policies. 

Jane Coaston: Now let’s say, hypothetically, in a universe that maybe is on Earth too, that War Powers Resolution actually passed Congress. Would Trump listen to it? 

Burgess Everett: Well I think it’s a great question that I don’t know the answer to. I mean, one of the stories of this Congress has been how little the president seems to care about what Congress wants to do or says, especially when it comes to Democrats. I mean this is an administration that had the Senate rewrite its rules basically to confirm Trump nominees more quickly. So no, I don’t think it’s a given that the president would follow a resolution like that, even if it were passed and sent to his desk, and even if he vetoed it and they overrode that veto, I think it is an open question whether he would follow it. 

Jane Coaston: Now, Congress ended 2025 with a focus on healthcare, healthcare, healthcare, but not a lot has actually gotten done. And they seem, especially the Republicans in that majority seem very divided on the issue of healthcare, despite Trump saying we’re going to own this issue because that’s what’s going to save me in the midterms. What’s the latest on healthcare legislation entering the new year? 

Burgess Everett: So we’ve got kind of a split screen going on here. Um. In the Senate, there’s like a bipartisan group that is talking about reviving these subsidies. It’s an interesting group. Bernie Moreno, who I’m not sure I would have predicted a year ago, this would be a situation he’d find himself in. He’s kind of like the leader on this, him and Senator Collins on the Republican side. He’s trying to revive these subsidies, making some changes to them, income caps and no more zero dollar plans, things like that. And so I mean, people like him are actively working in a bipartisan way. It could pass the Senate. I’m not saying it definitely will, but they’re getting pretty close to putting a draft out, which would honestly in this Congress be a pretty big accomplishment because there really hasn’t been many of these famous Senate gangs doing much. Then across the Capitol and the House, there’s not that much appetite for this, although they have forced the issue onto the House floor. It’s a three year extension of the Affordable Care Act Enhanced subsidies. The Senate’s already voted on this. They rejected it. Four Republicans voted to advance it. So you can see the three-year extension without the changes. That’s not going to become law. But if it passes the House with a pretty big vote and the Senate has some momentum here, I wouldn’t totally rule out the possibility of a deal on these ACA subsidies. 

Jane Coaston: Last year, the government shut down for the longest period in history over health care. We are approaching a deadline for multiple spending bills at the end of the month. Is there any appetite from Democrats for a repeat? 

Burgess Everett: I don’t sense that. I did a bunch of reporting on this recently, talking to Democrats, like, you know, let’s recreate the same scenario that we just had. You don’t revive these ACA subsidies. Is that enough for you to shut the government down? They’re saying no, we’re not talking about doing that strategy again. I think if there were to be a shutdown, it would probably be from more run of the mill congressional ineptitude, waiting too long or losing a vote on the House floor or something like that that surprises. I don’t feel like Democrats are engineering an entire strategy based around using their funding leverage to make health care a big issue. I think they’ve made their point. And then I would also say like, this may give Democratic leaders a little pause on whether to fully engage on the Affordable Care Act subsidies, because I think, they think they won that fight in the shutdown, that Republicans look bad and divided right now, and they may not want to bail them out, frankly. 

Jane Coaston: Congress looks different than it did even a year ago or even a month ago. A lot of people have resigned or retired. We’ve had a California Republican member pass away. There’s an Indiana Republican member who has been hospitalized after a car accident. So considering all of that, does it feel to you like House Republicans aren’t gonna try to do anything because a party line vote is, you know, they can only lose two votes. And you’ve got multiple members of the House who seem like kind of not a sure bet. 

Burgess Everett: I think they’re going to try Speaker Johnson has indicated this week he wants to try to do a reconciliation bill, which is that party line bill that you’re talking about. I think there’s a lot of skepticism in the Senate about whether that can pass given the math that you just talked about in the House is challenging. It’s also challenging in the senate. Um. You have you have a handful of moderates, you got Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, you got retiring YOLO Thom Tillis, and you got retiring Yolo Mitch McConnell. So I just don’t know that it’s guaranteed that you can pass anything through either one. However, there’s a little bit of like buyer’s remorse from the last time Republicans were in charge back in 2017 and 2018, that they didn’t try to implement more of their agenda. So I do think there’s little bit of a feeling among these, a lot of these folks that they should at least try to do more. And also little subtext here, Trump wants to kill the filibuster in the Senate. There’s not the votes for that. So what is the only other way to pass something without democratic votes? It’s these party line reconciliation bills. So that’s kind of what’s leading to this talk about it, but I agree with you. It’s really difficult. I wouldn’t rule it out entirely, but if I had to bet on it, I’d bet against one passing this year. 

Jane Coaston: It’s, uh, it’s funny because I feel like that redistricting conversation to me really changed at the end of last year, especially when you saw one Virginia start to be like, well, Democrats can do it too. And you also saw Indiana stand up to Trump on this issue. But on Wednesday, Florida entered the redistricting conversation because Florida governor Ron DeSantis says he plans to call a special session in April for the state legislature to draw new congressional districts because we all need more to do. This would potentially hand the GOP more house seats. What are the chances this happens ahead of the midterms? And how would it impact the party’s chances, especially given that redistricting was kind of the story of 2025, but it didn’t seem to work in the way Republicans thought it would. 

Burgess Everett: No, I mean, it’s, it’s sort of led a little bit to a stalemate. I think maybe they have like a slight one or two seat advantage as it’s all played out so far, but as you just referenced, Jane, like the story’s not over if Florida moves and appears like it’s going to be successful, I would think like Virginia might get more aggressive, um, I don’t know if you could totally discount Maryland trying to draw out Andy Harris, who’s the one Republican there. So it does feel like it could end up being a wash. I wouldn’t totally rule out Florida redrawing these districts, but that’s awfully late in the process to be doing that. Some states will have already had their primaries over at that point. So I think that would that sounds like an uphill battle for me to me, but they may have the votes to be able to do it. I think there would be an unprecedented late redraw of these districts. And people are going to run out of districts to redraw eventually. I mean, a lot of the country is already pretty damn gerrymandered, if you ask me. 

Jane Coaston: I hope so, because good Lord, it’s just like, at this–

Burgess Everett: It’s very hard to keep track of. 

Jane Coaston: It really is and it’s also difficult to keep saying the word redistricting, but more importantly, what other issues are at the top of Congress’s docket this year? 

Burgess Everett: You know, I never would’ve thought I’d say this a week ago, but like, Greenland is a big issue now, like, I’m not even kidding. Like–

Jane Coaston: Yeah. No, no, no. I know you’re not kidding and I’m only laughing because that’s horrifying. 

Burgess Everett: I mean the Danish ambassador is coming to Capitol Hill this week to meet with senators about the Trump administration’s talk of taking over Greenland and Republicans are pushing back against it. So uh you know I mention this all just to say like, in a typical election year, you know not a lot’s going to happen. But I think things are like fairly unpredictable now. I do think there’s been this bucket of bipartisan bills, like permitting reform um or even new transportation bills that I think like theoretically Congress can kind of look past its divisions and do this sort of routine legislating. Even if it’s not a must pass bill. I’m not sure there’s a lot of appetite for Democrats to make a deal on other small ball issues. So, you know, I wouldn’t totally rule out some bipartisan action, but that has not been the story of this Congress. It’s been partisan power plays, party line bills, and government shutdown. Like that that’s been the history of this congress. So I don’t think we can predict quite what will Congress will be doing five or six months from now, um but you know we’re going to see an early reconciliation play, we’re gonna see where this healthcare goes and whether there’s another government shutdown, and then maybe there’s time to do a handful of other things, but at some point Democrats may feel the wind is at their back and any deal that they cut, they get better terms a year from now. 

Jane Coaston: Burgess, as always, thank you so much for joining me. 

Burgess Everett: Indeed. Thanks, Jane. What a day. 

Jane Coaston: What a day. That was my conversation with Burgess Everett, Congressional Bureau Chief at Semafor. We’ll get to more of the news 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: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines.

[clip of Tim Walz] Do you have no decency? We have someone dead in their car for no reason whatsoever. And [pause] and I don’t I don’t want to be right about this, but I said if they do this, they’re gonna create a chaotic situation where someone innocent’s gonna get killed. And they did it. 

Jane Coaston: Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz was outraged on Wednesday after an immigration and customs enforcement officer fatally shot a driver in Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security defended the officer’s action in a statement, saying the officer, quote, “fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public fired defensive shots.” But the video of the incident doesn’t look like that at all. The victim, Renee Good, was a 37 year old American citizen. She is the fifth reported person killed in ICE operations since 2024. Various bystanders posted different angles of the shooting on social media, which appeared to contradict ICE’s account of what happened. Walz said he’d reviewed the video himself and urged the public, quote, “…don’t believe this propaganda machine.” Democratic mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, flatly rejected DHS’s account of what had happened and didn’t mince words when addressing ICE on Wednesday. 

[clip of Jacob Frey] There’s little I can say again that’ll make this situation better, but I do have a message for our community, for our city, and I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. 

Jane Coaston: Within hours, thousands of protesters gathered in response to Goods’ killing. This is the second time in the last few months that ICE operations have surged in Minneapolis. DHS announced Tuesday that it was sending roughly 2,000 officers into the city. At a press conference, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was asked whether ICE operations are paused as a result of what happened. Noem responded, quote, “No, we’re still out on the streets.” 

[clip of Vice President J.D. Vance] The way that we control Venezuela is we control the purse strings, we control the energy resources, and we tell the regime, you’re allowed to sell the oil so long as you serve America’s national interest. 

Jane Coaston: Vice President J.D. Vance and normal person told Fox News’ Jesse Waters that’s how the U.S. will, quote, “exert incredible pressure on Venezuela without endangering American lives.” His comments come as the White House announced that U.S. Forces boarded two sanctioned tanker ships on Wednesday. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on Twitter that both ships were, quote, “either last docked in Venezuela or on route to it.” One vessel, which had been trying to evade U.S. capture for weeks, was seized in the North Atlantic Sea. According to shipping databases during the pursuit, the vessel had been renamed and flagged to Russia. The second ship was in international waters near the Caribbean. After the announcement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill about the administration’s plans for Venezuela’s oil. I mean, Venezuela. 

[clip of Marco Rubio] Step one is the stabilization of the country. We don’t want it descending into chaos. 

Jane Coaston: Rubio said the U.S. is working on a deal to take up to 50 million barrels of oil, sell it and disperse the money in a way that benefits Venezuelans. For comparison’s sake, that’s about two weeks of oil coming out of the Permian Basin in Texas. He said the second, recovery phase, would involve making sure American companies have fair access to the Venezuelan market. The last step would be a transition phase. I hope I’m alive to see it. Nearly a decade after women were authorized into ground combat roles, the Pentagon confirmed it’s reviewing how effective they’ve been in those roles after NPR obtained a memo. All of this follows Secretary of War/ little boy Pete Hegseth’s September remarks lamenting women and fat soldiers who can’t meet, quote, “the highest male standard of fitness.” About 3,800 women currently serve in the Army’s infantry, armor, and artillery units, including more than 150 who have completed ranger training. Roughly 10 women have also qualified as Green Berets, and I invite Pete Hegseth to tell them they’re not qualified to their faces. A Pentagon spokesperson told the Hill, quote, “The Institute for Defense Analyzes is reviewing the effectiveness of having women in ground combat roles to ensure standards are met and the United States maintains the most lethal military.” Pete Hegseth clearly thinks there are some domains exclusively for men and others for women. Strange for a man who ordered a makeup studio constructed in the Pentagon so that he could look good on TV. And don’t worry. Tax dollars aren’t paying for a makeup artist because, according to a defense official, Pete, quote, “does his own makeup.” The Trump administration took another sledgehammer to the environment, gutting regulations in a major environmental law in the name of hurry up. On Wednesday, the White House scrapped regulations in the National Environmental Policy Act, also known as NEPA, which requires federal agencies to weigh a project’s environmental impact before granting approval. A spokesperson for the council declared that under Trump, NEPA’s quote, “reign of terror has ended.” So yes, Trump is making threats to friends and enemies alike, but don’t forget the real terrorizer. Paperwork asking if a pipeline might poison a river. The action comes as Congress is currently debating legislation. Lawmakers in both parties agree the decades-old law has grown sluggish. The Republican-led House introduced a bill to accelerate project approvals, shorten review timelines, and narrow the ability to challenge decisions in court. Democrats warn the proposal weakens public input on projects and limits judicial oversight. Last month, bipartisan permitting reform stalled when Democrats lost trust in negotiations after Trump paused five offshore wind projects, citing unspecified national security concerns. Knowing him, his national security concern is the wind. And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing, food! Personally, I’m a big fan, and so are most people. But as you may know, figuring out what foods are healthiest and what foods aren’t can be confusing, especially since our media environment advantages loud people on the internet who want to tell you about the horrifying effects of, say oatmeal. 

[clip of unknown speaker] Oatmeal is one of the worst foods that you can put in your body. 

Jane Coaston: So I understand why Health and Human Services Secretary and dead bear enthusiast Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to make life easier for Americans and finally settle, once and for all, what Americans should be shoving into their metaphorical pie holes. On Wednesday, he announced revamped dietary guidelines, including a new food pyramid, which is basically the old food pyramid upside down. 

[clip of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] Today the lies stop, and new guidelines recognize that whole nutrient-dense food is the most effective path to better health and lower health care costs. Protein and healthy fats are essential, and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines. We are ending the war on saturated fats. 

Jane Coaston: That’s right, we’re protein maxing. As Kennedy said in his fallen angel voice, the New Food Pyramid emphasizes meat, dairy, cheese, fruits, and vegetables, and discourages consuming sugar and processed food. Congratulations to CrossFit coaches and people who track their macros everywhere. Actually, I’ll be serious. This is good. But also bad. I’ll explain. Yes, protein is good, especially if you work out a lot, and also if you don’t. Whole foods, as in foods that are not processed or refined, are good. Whole grains, including, yes, oatmeal, are good for you. Fat is also good in moderation. And sugar, as we’ve been learning, is not very good, but also delicious. But there’s a big fly in the high protein ointment. This is the Trump administration, and the Trump Administration does not love nutrition. It loves money. See, if you grew up like I did in the 1990s, you’ll remember that dietary fat was supposedly the worst thing in the history of time, a recommendation that came straight from the government, which resulted in companies trying to make money from it. Sometimes by making fat-free cookies like snack-wells. Here’s an ad from 1993. 

[clip of Snackwell ad person 1] Excuse me? Do you make these delicious, fat-free, snack-well, double-scoop cookies? 

[clip of Snackwell ad person 2] Why, yes, I do. 

[clip of Snackwell ad person 3] You wanna tell us why we can’t find them in the stores anymore? 

[clip of Snackwell ad person 2] Well, what is this? 

[clip of Snackwell ad person 4]  You’ve got some explaining to do, Cookie Man. 

Jane Coaston: Or by making new products, like Olestra, known as Olene, a fat substitute added to products like potato chips in the mid-1990s and promoting it in ads like this. 

[clip of Olene ad person 1] The farmers have been bringing us their harvests for 45 years. Then the farm co-op brought me something different. News! That soybeans like ours could be used to make a cooking oil fry up snack chips without adding any fat or calories. Hey, at Crisco, they figured without all the fat of regular chips, this olene could help lots of people eat a little healthier. Well, all I say is, doing good starts right in your own backyard. 

[clip of Olene ad person 2] New fat free olene, a good place to start. 

Jane Coaston: But it turns out that snackwell’s cookies weren’t any better for you than normal cookies and olene had some extremely unpleasant side effects. Now despite RFK’s rhetoric about quote, “corporate profit taking” he is palling around with dairy corporations who brag about removing food dyes from ice cream. He’s encouraging burger joints to cook their fries and other foods in beef tallow because processed foods like ice cream and fries are fine if they’re make healthy again processed, I guess. So we’re not going to see a burgeoning whole foods revolution. Instead, we’re getting more protein popcorns, and protein waters, and tallow, and pretty much everything. Because money. The real issue with the new food recommendations isn’t the food recommendations. It’s that RFK Jr is full of shit. [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. Congratulations to Mafuko, the Congolese mountain gorilla, who gave birth to twins, which is massive news for the survival of the rare species, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how Mafuko is beating the odds, she’s an endangered mountain gorilla living in Africa’s largest national park, a swath of which is under rebel control as Congo continues to struggle with civil conflict. But observers say her babies look happy and healthy, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and good gorilla news is good news for everyone. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Emily Fohr and Chris Allport. Our producer is Caitlin Plummer. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Ethan Oberman, Greg Walters and Matt Berg. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]

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