Share This Podcast

• Call Congress – 202-224-3121
• Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8
• What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast

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

TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Wednesday, July 23rd. I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that is celebrating the Republican party’s toughness and anti-establishment attitude that it will have the second a Democrat is back in the White House. For now, though, the GOP is busy demanding that the Kennedy Center’s Opera House be named after First Lady Melania Trump. Might as well wave a tread harder on me daddy flag from the Capitol Dome. [music break] On today’s show, interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, is out of a job. Maybe. And the United Nations delivers a stark warning about mass starvation in Gaza. But let’s start with Congress. Remember Congress? House lawmakers start their summer vacation today. They will be out until September. They’re even leaving D.C. several days earlier than expected. How very French of them. Anyway, they’re leaving early because Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is trying desperately, desperately to avoid holding any votes on releasing materials related to the Jeffrey Epstein case because, per Speaker Johnson, quote, “we’re done being lectured on transparency.” Sure. Here’s Johnson. 

[clip of Mike Johnson] I just explained why. We’re not going to play political games with this. We’ve all been very clear and transparent. The House Rules Resolution sets a good standard and requires all credible evidence to be released, and that’s exactly where the White House is. 

Jane Coaston: The political games he’s referring to is legislation introduced by Democrats and some Republicans to push the Department of Justice to release more materials related to the Epstein investigation. Practically it means Congress is at a standstill over the whole thing. And over at the White House, President Donald Trump did his best Tuesday to turn attention to his latest conspiracy theory du jour. It’s really just a remix of his favorite first-term conspiracy over Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, a.k.a. Russia, Russia, Russia. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] No, no, we caught Hillary Clinton. We caught Barack Hussein Obama. They’re the ones. And then you have many, many people under them. Susan Rice. They’re all there. The names are all there, and I guess they figured they’re gonna put this in classified information and nobody will ever see it again, but it doesn’t work that way. And it’s the most unbelievable thing I think I’ve ever read. So you ought to take a look at that. And stop talking about nonsense because this is big stuff. 

Jane Coaston: A rare, look, over there, in the wild. And of the Epstein conspiracies, I’ll give you one chance to guess what he called it. If you guessed witch hunt, congratulations. You’re a masochist who watches too much news, just like us. But Democrats in the House say, no dice. They view the Epstein investigation as part and parcel of an overarching message. Donald Trump is corrupt, and everything he and the GOP do is part of that corruption. And they’re focused on getting that message out wherever and whenever they can. So to talk more about what Democrats are doing to try to keep the Trump administration in check, I spoke with California Congressman Robert Garcia. He’s the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Representative Garcia, welcome to What a Day. 

Robert Garcia: Yeah, happy to be here, thank you. 

Jane Coaston: House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday announced he’s sending lawmakers home early for the August recess. He wanted to head off votes about releasing the so-called Epstein files saying, quote,  “we’re done being lectured on transparency.” What’s been the reaction among Democrats? 

Robert Garcia: I mean, first, this is total insanity. They’re the ones that wanted to release the Epstein files. Donald Trump campaigned on it. They’ve been obsessed with releasing the files. And now that Donald Trump has reversed course and doesn’t want to do it anymore and clearly hiding something, I think Republicans and Mike Johnson are gonna do whatever they can to try to have Donald Trump escape accountability. And they’re taking now their orders directly from him, who has said they don’t he does not want Republicans talking about this. And Democrats, release the files, like, we don’t care who’s on that list. What powerful people are there? We should, all the files should be released to the public, get it out there, and now Republicans are gonna literally send Congress home early because they don’t wanna take votes and to force the release of these files. 

Jane Coaston: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, where you’re the ranking member, voted with Republicans Tuesday to subpoena Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. She’s currently serving 20 years in prison for recruiting and grooming girls and young women for Epstein. What’s the end goal with her testimony? Because she’s currently asking the Supreme Court to review her case. 

Robert Garcia: I think there’s two pieces that are important. One is, look, Democrats should welcome more information. We should welcome transparency. Let’s get her to testify. That’s important. And at the same time, we should be very clear about who she is, right? This is a bad person. This is someone that actually worked to abuse young girls and women. This is someone that has lied clearly to the court in the past. This is also somebody that wants to curry favor with Donald Trump and maybe get some kind of pardon for what she has done. And so I think we’ve got to take all of that in context that this is someone whose testimony to oversight could be very complicated and complex and there’s different agendas here. Now that should not stop us from kind of shining light on the Epstein files. And what it certainly shouldn’t do is diminish our intensity in a full release of the files. 

Jane Coaston: Looking at the bigger picture, I’m sure you’ve heard the argument that this isn’t where Democrats should be putting their energy right now, that Democrats should be talking about issues that are impacting everyday Americans who are worried about their grocery bills, losing their healthcare, the cost of housing, the kind of kitchen table issues we hear about all the time. How do you respond to them? 

Robert Garcia: So I think we’ve got to talk about all of it. And I think Republicans are ripping away people’s health care, they’re giving tax breaks to billionaires, they’re destroying many of our government programs. That’s all true. It’s also true that Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in history. And part of his corruption is clearly what is here in these Epstein files, the way he wants to handle them, not releasing them, information that he knows. According to him and Epstein, they were close buddies for 10, 15 years. There’s something there, clearly, because he’s now done a complete reversal. He has the power to actually now release them and he won’t. And so I think this argument goes to Trump’s betrayal to his base and the American public, that he won’t do something that he said he was so clearly intent on doing. And so, I think it’s all important. We can’t stop talking about healthcare. We can’t stop talking about tax breaks to billionaires. And we should certainly not stop talking about Trump’s corruption, which is also tied into the Epstein files. 

Jane Coaston: Right. It is a little odd that he suddenly has decided that anyone asking questions about this is a bad person. 

Robert Garcia: Crazy, I mean, crazy, yep. 

Jane Coaston: So as the ranking member of the Oversight Committee, how else can you use your position to pressure the Trump administration? Because Democratic voters are desperate for members of Congress to do more to counter Trump, even if the options for doing so are slim because the party’s in the minority. 

Robert Garcia: We’re gonna go all in all the time and be aggressive. And I think that’s part of it. I mean, the Republicans didn’t expect us to also say, yes, bring her in. They wanted to have their own vote. They thought this would settle our desires to get more information, and it’s not. We are not going to rest until we have a full release of the files. We’re gonna be doing our own investigation work at the Oversight Committee. And you can best believe when we win the majority that we are gonna get all of the information and those files on our desks. And so we’re working really hard to get the information out. We’re gonna continue to bring as much, I think, energy and fire as we can. And I think it’s, we have people on our committee that are doing just that. I mean, you think about folks like Jasmine Crockett and Max Frost and Greg Casar. I mean these people are fighting like hell. And we that’s the approach we’re gonna take on the Oversight Committee. 

Jane Coaston: I want to ask you about the detainee swap the Trump administration made last week. They exchanged more than 200 Venezuelan migrants whom they sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador for 10 Americans detained in Venezuela. The administration has repeatedly insisted they had no control over the fates of these men because they were in Salvadoran custody, but obviously this flies in the face of those claims. What can be done about that? 

Robert Garcia: I think one clearly, I mean, the Trump administration has been lying about this whole situation the entire time. Those folks should never have been in El Salvador. Look, think of someone like Andry Romero, right, that the gay Venezuelan who was seeking asylum. Why was he sent there? 

Jane Coaston: Right, you’ve been in touch with his legal team. 

Robert Garcia: I’ve been–

Jane Coaston: Have you been able to speak with Andry? 

Robert Garcia: I haven’t spoken with him directly. I expect to at some point, hopefully in the next few days. I have, I know that he just got in touch with his family. And so we’re obviously letting him do that. I have been talking to his legal team. His family is very aware of our efforts and so is he. And so um the important thing here is that the Trump administration, as we know, has been hiding those contracts with El Salvador. We have no idea what the actual agreements actually were. We don’t know what happened to these men yet. We want to find out. And so there’s a lot of investigation that needs to happen in this case. We will absolutely be on this as part of as the Oversight Committee. Right now though, we wanna give some of these men the space to actually reconnect with their family and we’re just grateful that they’re alive and that Andry’s alive. 

Jane Coaston: There is another battle brewing over a potential government shutdown at the end of September. Democrats came out bruised from the last one. What do you think Democrats should do differently this time? 

Robert Garcia: Well, I think the most important thing is that we’ve gotta focus on the fact that the people that control the government are the Republicans. So if there’s any sort of shutdown, that’s gonna be on Republicans. We wanna make sure that programs are funded. We wanna to make sure people have jobs. We wanna make sure that when people call Social Security, when people will call any federal office for support, that they actually have someone helping them. And Republicans, unfortunately, don’t care about government as we know. And so I think a lot of them wanna shut the government down. And so we’ve got to be very aware of that fact. And ideally, we can come up with some type of agreement that keeps the government open and funds the programs that need to get funded. So that’s what we’re working towards. 

Jane Coaston: Do Democrats have any leverage to extract concessions from Republicans to keep the government open? Because as you just said, there are a lot of Republicans who probably want the government to shut down too. 

Robert Garcia: I think we do have we have some leverage that’s going to depend, though, on what Republicans that consider themselves uh you know more centrist, which I think is kind of a joke, but that’s what they call themselves, and see if they’re willing to actually work with them on some of these funding packages. I’m not optimistic that we’re actually going to get Republicans to play along. I think that we have to be very concerned that they want a government shutdown, that they’re barreling towards one, and so I think Democrats got to engage. We cannot just settle for for a complete destruction of government programs. We have to stand our ground, but it’s Republicans that will be, in my opinion, completely responsible if we end up having a shutdown. They control every branch of government and they’ve got to be held accountable for that. 

Jane Coaston: But is the party ready to risk a shutdown this time around, though? Because last time I realized that this was the Senate, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer threatened one and then didn’t. Do you think it’ll be different this time? 

Robert Garcia: I think Democrats have to do whatever it takes to stop Donald Trump and save as much of our government and our programs as possible. Everything’s got to be on the table for us. We cannot run away from being able to stand our ground and fight back on what Republicans clearly want to do. We’ve got to push. And so if it’s going to mean supporting our government, I think that’s got to be an option on the tables for us. 

Jane Coaston: Representative Garcia, thank you so much for joining me. 

Robert Garcia: Absolutely, thank you. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with California Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia, ranking member on the House Oversight Committee. 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]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of António Guterres] These failures to uphold international obligations are coming at a time of a widening geopolitical divides and conflicts. And the cost is staggering, measured in human lives, shattered communities and lost futures. We need look no further than the horror show in Gaza, with a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times. 

Jane Coaston: That’s United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warning the Security Council about mass starvation in Gaza. The UN said in a statement posted to Twitter that deadly malnutrition among children in the region has reached catastrophic levels, according to UNICEF, and that aid must be allowed in urgently. More than a thousand people have been killed at food distribution sites since May, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most of those sites are run by an aid organization backed by the U.S. and Israel. The foreign ministers of 25 Western nations have also condemned Israel for what they call the drip-feeding of aid into Gaza, saying it deprives Gazans of human dignity. The Israel Defense Forces have admitted to firing into crowds in some cases, but not in others. In June, the IDF said it was reorganizing its approach to, quote, “minimize friction with the population,” but the death count continues to grow. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] We’re going to be talking about trade, we’re going to be taking about war and peace. 

Jane Coaston: No, unfortunately, President Trump was not talking about the hefty novel by Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Trump hosted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on Tuesday. Marcos spoke highly of the U.S. to reporters in the Oval Office ahead of their private meeting. 

[clip of Phillipine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.] Of course we’re all very happy to be here to once again reaffirm the very strong ties between the Philippines and the United States, ties that go back over a hundred years. And considering the context in which we live these days, especially in my part of the world, this has become, this has evolved into as important a relationship as is possible to have. 

Jane Coaston: And then Trump went and announced on Truth Social, of course, that the U.S. would impose a 19% tariff rate for the Philippines, which is down from a 20% tariff Trump threatened starting August 1st. I mean that’s technically lower. In return, Trump said the Philippines would have an open market and the U.S. would not pay tariffs. I’m no economist, but this loose framework of a deal doesn’t seem super fair. And without further details confirming the terms, it’s unclear how the agreement will impact both countries’ economies. Trump wrote on Truth Social that Marcos’s visit was, quote, “beautiful” and that it was an honor to host such a, quote, “very good and tough negotiator.” The president also said the U.S. and the Philippines would work together militarily. The announcement comes as the two nations seek closer security and economic ties in the face of shifting geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region. Alina Habba is out of a job. Maybe. Depends on who you ask. For those of you lucky enough to not know who Alina Habba is, I’ll remind you. She served as President Trump’s defense lawyer and as a White House counselor. Trump then tapped her to be the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey. But on Tuesday, Habba saw her 120-day interim term as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey end. Sort of. The chief judge for the District of New Jersey said in an order that Desiree Leigh Grace, a career prosecutor, would replace Habba. Grace was named as Habba’s successor under a statute that permits district court judges to name a prosecutor if the president’s nominee has not been confirmed by the Senate after 120 days. But Attorney General Pam Bondi threw everyone for a loop just hours later. She announced on Twitter that the administration wasn’t taking no for an answer. Bondi said Grace had been removed, writing, quote, “this Department of Justice does not tolerate rogue judges.” A White House spokesman said in a statement that Trump has full confidence in Habba and that the administration would work to get her confirmed by the Senate despite opposition from New Jersey Democratic senators. So now what happens? I’m not sure anyone really knows, but I’m pretty sure that this means another fight between the federal judiciary and the Trump administration. If you wanted/really needed to steer the national conversation away from, say, the botched release of a certain someone’s secret files, you might want to try soda. Last week, Trump took to Truth Social to announce that he has fixed what is quite possibly the most important issue of our time, that Coca-Cola will be replacing corn syrup with cane sugar in its signature American drink. Coca-Cola did not confirm this news at first, and now we know why. The company has no plans to actually replace corn syrup in the popular drink, it’s just adding a new line of the product made with American cane sugar. Which is great news for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who famously loves the stuff. 

[clip of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] Sugar is poison, and Americans need to know that. 

Jane Coaston: And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing, Ozzy Osbourne passed away Tuesday at the age of 76, just a few weeks after performing alongside other members of his band, Black Sabbath, at a farewell concert in Birmingham, England, that raised nearly $200 million for charity. There are markedly few recent artists about which you can say they launched an entire genre of music, but you can say that about Ozzy, because before Black Sabbath there was no heavy metal. After Black Sabbath there was. Yes, music dorks, I’m aware that bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple were experimenting with harder edged rock sounds at the same time. But with three albums released in two years, Black Sabbath, Paranoid, and Master of Reality, Black Sabbath launched the genre of heavy metal as we now know it. If you like bands like Metallica or Tool or Anthrax or Pantera, if you spent your high school years listening to System of a Down and Slipknot, and if you’re still listening to Rage Against the Machine and Mastodon and Nine Inch Nails, my favorite band of all time. You can thank Ozzy Osbourne. He kicked the door down for metalheads of all kinds, and he will be very much missed. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today, if you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, celebrate a judge completely ignoring the Trump administration, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how we told you a few days ago about how the DOJ had requested that Brett Hankison, who was involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor back in 2020, serve one day in prison. But a Trump-appointed federal judge sentenced Hankison Monday to serve nearly three years in prison, like me. What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston. And though Taylor’s family deserved so much more, I’m glad that one person showed the ability to just do something. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Fohr. Our producer is Michell Eloy. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Tyler Hill, and Laura Newcomb. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. We had help with the headlines today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]

[AD BREAK]