The Back Door to a National Abortion Ban

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Glennis Meagher: No polls,

Brian Derrick: No pundits.

Glennis Meagher: just vibes, and the vibes this week,

Yamiche Alcindor: this is really the most consequential abortion case to come before the Supreme Court since this court overturned Roe v. Wade back in 2022.

Brian Derrick: That’s the case involving Mifepristone, or the abortion pill as it’s known, which the Supreme Court heard this week.

Glennis Meagher: we’ll talk about the case and how it made its way up to the high court and /how justices reacted to oral arguments.

Brian Derrick: And,

I find the decision to put her on the payroll inexplicable, and I hope they will reverse their decision.

It seems they’ve done just that. That, by the way, was Rachel Maddow on NBC’s decision to hire Rona McDaniel. We’ll talk about the whirlwind week for the network, and the election denying former RNC chair.

Glennis Meagher: Then we’ll give you a Trump date on a few of the trials that the former president is facing.

Brian Derrick: Stick around for It’s Giving, our group chat convo, and a good vibe to carry you through the week. Let’s get into it.

Glennis Meagher: Well, Brian, I didn’t think we’d be talking about my favorite topic first thing, but here we are again. SCOTUS.[00:01:00]

Brian Derrick: Back, back, back again.

Big day though.

it is a big day because currently in front of the Supreme Court we have potentially, I would argue, the most important case on abortion since Roe v. Wade.

Glennis Meagher: Right.

Brian Derrick: Potentially.

Glennis Meagher: why do you say that?

Brian Derrick: Well,

Glennis Meagher: the way, but for the audience.

Brian Derrick: so Dobbs was the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, and obviously you can’t sort of overstate the importance of that ruling, which has totally transformed our political landscape and caused real world harm to millions of people.

today’s case is specifically about Mifepristone and the FDA’s approval of that drug, which is, according to the most recent data, Now used in 63 percent of all abortions. So most abortions use. abortion medication, and Mifepristone is the most common medication.

if today’s ruling rolls back Mifepristone, it’s not just doing it in red states, it’s doing it nationally.

It’s

Glennis Meagher: It’s [00:02:00] essentially a national ban. And for those who don’t know, if you want an abortion, there’s two ways that you can do it. One, you can have a surgical operation or you can have a self managed abortion, which is when you take medication at home, or you can take it in a healthcare clinic. and this is one of the pills that you would take to do that.

So essentially it would outlaw this pill, making it virtually impossible to have a self managed abortion.

Brian Derrick: That would be like the most dramatic Outcome possible, right? Would be if they reverse the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone, which it’s been on the market for 20, almost 25 years. it’s like an incredibly safe drug, but they’ve manufactured this case to say that, it shouldn’t be allowed. And the most dramatic outcome would be that they restricted access entirely, but also it could just be rolled back where they refuse to, allow it to be mailed using something like the Comstock Act, which we can get [00:03:00] into, but like they could say, you’re not allowed to mail this.

It has to be prescribed in person. They could ban tele health medicine visits. They could, there are many ways that they could restrict access without entirely. banning the drug. But according to oral arguments, which we’ve talked about this before, oral arguments are just sort of like a vibes check based on the questions that people are asking.

it seemed like the justices, conservative and captured as they are, were skeptical of the argument that this, this drug needed to be restricted, and a lot of them were questioning whether the plaintiffs, the conservatives who manufactured this case, actually had standing to sue in the first place.

Glennis Meagher: Right. And you know, what I was thinking about today is, you know, there’s, I see on the subway here in New York, like all of these ads for like hymns, right. Which is, you know, uh, mail order. Viagra, right? Yeah. And it’s like, well, this isn’t really about the access to the abortion pill. It’s [00:04:00] about control over women’s bodies,

Brian Derrick: We, we are well on our way to, um, the Glenis Mahar nomination for Supreme Court justice, because you just nailed what KBJ’s argument was, which is, do we really want courts to be the ones deciding what drugs are and are not safe for the public? Because Usually it’s like boards of certified professionals who understand, like, advanced pharmaceutical science who are making those kinds of judgments.

Do we really want every individual drug, exactly like you’re saying, like ED medication, to go before court of,justices? to have them decide whether we should have access?

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. And I think we can all collectively say no, no, we do not. Uh, maybe some drugs, I guess, but no.

Brian Derrick: No, no, no, actually, actually none. Actually, I’m good with them deciding on none. I think that it’s a, it’s a healthcare decision that I do not trust Clarence Thomas, your, your [00:05:00] buddy. I don’t trust him with that at all.

Glennis Meagher: For sure. It goes back to, you know, two months ago we were talking about the Chevron deference and what that would do if we consolidated power to the Supreme Court and how government agencies that have hired, you know, subject matter experts who make decisions. On policy. We, we don’t want that either.

’cause we want those subject matter experts advising the policy, not the Supreme Court. so this is just like a larger, you know, example of the consolidation of power. And, and again, for me, this, I view this as a control over women’s bodies, not an actual, let’s look at the drug and see if it’s safe or not.

Brian Derrick: a hundred percent. so, fun fact, if you didn’t catch it, one of the lawyers arguing in favor of restricting access to Mifflin Preston is Missouri U.

S. Senators Josh Hawley’s wife. her name is Erin Hawley and she’s like a big deal in the far right and to group for groups like Alliance Defending Freedom who are [00:06:00] pushing this really far right agenda. And the New York Times did a profile of her because she’s arguing this case. And I have to tell you that I was tickled by this quote talking about her and how this case was a Quote, similar to her fights against government interference, rooted in her experience of ranch life.

Glennis Meagher: Huh?

Brian Derrick: was like, wait a second, how on earth is this case rooted in, your fight against government interference? This is the definition of government overreach, to have them run back 25 years and ban something in. Because they don’t like it, and they took power that they didn’t have before. That’s absolutely bonkers, and I like, that really, I was shook.

Glennis Meagher: It also, I mean, just the name Alliance Defending Freedom. Freedom? For who? And from what? Or for what? Like,

Brian Derrick: Not, not queer people. ADF is like, people should recognize ADF from all of the [00:07:00] anti LGBT stuff that they push in front of the courts. it’s them, and the Family Research Council, and a few other groups who really scour the country looking for, plaintiffs looking for people who will have standing or potentially have standing to sue so that they can try to get the most restrictive rulings in the most conservative courts.

We have to remember that this case came from Kazmark, which is the ultimate right wing judicial shopping target in Texas. It’s this like, rural district where if you file in this specific place, you’re guaranteed to get this specific judge. And that is who originally issued a ruling on Miffa Prifstone that led to this decision.

case being in front of the Supreme Court.

Glennis Meagher: to that point, it is a hyper hyper decades long coordinated movement. This is not just like one day the Supreme Court was like, we’re going to hear this case about this abortion pill. No, this was targeted. They found the judge they knew would rule in their [00:08:00] favor and they took that case there.

And it went up the chain. So I, I just don’t want people to forget that this is not just a one off. It is a very well coordinated conservative movement against basic human rights for Americans.

Brian Derrick: Precisely. And I will add some, a silver lining here.

Glennis Meagher: Hmm.

Brian Derrick: for those who follow me on Instagram, you’ve definitely heard me talk about this in the last couple of weeks, but the judicial conference of the United States has since issued a new guideline that will make the kind of judicial shopping that gave us this case.

impossible in the future, or at least much, much, much, much less likely where you will no longer be able to pick which federal judge you want to hear your case by, by geography. now it will be randomly assigned within a certain like sub circuit kind of thing. And so no more. Sorry, ADF.

Glennis Meagher: awesome. Yeah. That was major. You did. You did do that [00:09:00] Instagram post and it was actually something that I had never heard of. So I appreciate you doing that. The Lord’s work there.

Brian Derrick: Those are the kinds of battles for democracy that we like have to be vigilant on because they have a deep bench of lawyers and political operatives that are funded by dark money groups, like the billion plus dollars that Leonard Leo just got, and that’s all they do is sit around and look for like how they can game the system to rule as a far right wing minority.

And we have to be on top of it. And so this was an incredible move by DOJ pushing the judicial conferences to do this. They made the change. And now moving forward, we can expect better rulings as a result. And I hope that we don’t see another case like this that’s so obviously

politically motivated, in front of the court again soon,

Glennis Meagher: Period.

Brian Derrick: period.

Glennis Meagher: Okay, Brian, there was big news at NBC Networks this past week.

Brian Derrick: the waves, the boat was a rockin Because, [00:10:00] Rona McDaniel came a knockin

Glennis Meagher: I know you took it out of my mouth. You took the fun out of my mouth. so, okay, let’s get into this because it is a little like, huh? What was that hire? What were you thinking there in that boardroom when you made that decision? NBC news, Carrie Brown announced the hiring of the former RNC chair to the network.

She wrote in a staff memo. It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Rona’s on the team.

Brian Derrick: A liar.

Glennis Meagher: Literally, uh, liar. it doesn’t make any kind of journalistic sense to me. I do understand, and we talk about this, uh, on the pod. There is a importance of having, opinions that are not your own, and having discussions with those people, and having, you know, an understanding of, like, fair communication, and, like, whatever, but, like, she lied about the election,

Brian Derrick: Right. And so, for people who are not getting the drama, or who don’t see the other side of it in the inverse direction, like, Rona McDaniel’s a controversial figure. She’s been the head of the RNC, of the Republican National Committee, for a decade. Many years. She’s overseeing their losses in 2018 when they [00:11:00] lost in 2020, when they lost in 2022, when they lost in 2023, when they lost, she’s overseeing a lot of losses.

And therefore she became a punching bagand Trump pushed her out. Once he secured the nomination, he said, you’re going to go. And I’m going to bring in some, sycophants who will do what I want and hand me the cash basically.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah,

Brian Derrick: and as soon.

Glennis Meagher: a larger, a larger, like, culling he did at the RNC, correct? Where he just won the nomination and he was like, you’re all out or you have to reapply for your jobs because I want my people ass in seats doing what I want them to do.

Brian Derrick: right. And he wanted to cut the overhead because he, he sees the RNC as just a way to funnel money into his own operations and

Glennis Meagher: Legal

Brian Derrick: pay his legal expenses, which he has spent 76 million on in the last two years. Um, and so Rona was left unemployed. in the, in this economy, how could she, the unemployment’s like the lowest it’s been in 50 years, but she was unemployed and so NBC came along and picture up and said, Why don’t we pay you 300, 000 a year [00:12:00] for you to occasionally appear on TV and spew your, and like, and give your opinion, let’s be fair, and, and give your political perspective, because that’s the job of a paid contributor.

Many contributors on these platforms that you see are not paid.

Glennis Meagher: And they do have Michael Steele currently, I believe, as a contributor, and he is the former, former, former, like, RNZ chair from many moons ago.

Brian Derrick: Grand Pepe!

Glennis Meagher: yeah, sorry, Michael, but like, you know, an old timer. So maybe they thought that it would land with the NBC community?

Brian Derrick: And so that brings us to your point about who are the right people, who should be in these seats, like who, who should be representing, because There should be a Trump supporter like speaking and representing that perspective of tens of millions of Americans on the show.

Glennis Meagher: Mm hmm.

Brian Derrick: I think what has caused so much outrage and what we’ve heard from every single NBC host over the last 72 hours is that There are [00:13:00] plenty of people who represent that wing of the party who did not actively aid and abet fake elector schemes and, illegal plots that overstepped from,pushback and audits into criminal, Attempts to overturn elections where she is on the record supporting those efforts and so to hire not just someone who echoed Trump’s lies, but actively participated in the attempt to undermine the 2020 election is like antithetical to what NBC claims that they are about, which is like fair and honest reporting.

Glennis Meagher: Totally. There’s some quotes that, uh, we have to prove, some receipts as we call

Brian Derrick: What they be sayin what they be sayin

Glennis Meagher: So at one point she said that Cheney and Kinzinger crossed the line when joining the January 6 hearings and said they chose to join Nancy Pelosi and a Democrat led persecution of ordinary [00:14:00] citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol. No, it was violence at the Capitol. That that was what happened. And there was no political discourse when they were singing, hang Mike Pence. Um,

Brian Derrick: we have eyes and TV subscriptions, so.

Glennis Meagher: That you could, I

Brian Derrick: We all saw it.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Like what? on a call with Trump and Michigan election officials in 2020 when Trump pressured them not to certify McDaniel said, if you can go home tonight, do not sign it. We will get you attorneys, which is like a wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Don’t certify the election.

We’ve got you covered.

Brian Derrick: Right. I mean, she acknowledged that the RNC helped put the slates of fake electors together. Um, and I feel like that is exactly why there’s been rightfully so much pushback

it feels really gaslighting, you know, like to have NBC telling us about like the horrors of January six and reporting on, you know, [00:15:00] how bad it is for democracy. And then to give someone a 300, 000 a year contract to talk about their role. Um, no, we see you NBC.

So things really started sparking when she appeared on NBC.

Kristen Welker: Do you disagree with Trump saying he’s going to free those who’ve been charged?

Ronna McDaniel: I do not think people who committed violent acts on January 6th should be freed.

Kristen Welker: So you disagree with that? He’s been saying that for months. Ronna, why not speak out earlier? Why just speak out about that now?

Ronna McDaniel: When you’re the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team, right?

Now I get to be a little bit more myself, right? This is what I believe.

Glennis Meagher: She’s saying the quiet part out loud.

Brian Derrick: Wait, that’s horrendous.

Glennis Meagher: Horrendous. When your RNC chair, what?

Brian Derrick: When you’re, so essentially what she’s saying.

she’s claiming that being RNC chair would basically justify her engaging in potentially criminal, but at a minimum, but at a minimum, immoral, [00:16:00] acts in order to advance the needs of her party and of her candidate being Donald Trump.

And so she’s really trying to imply like, Oh, I never believed in the first place. That was part of my job. And it should never be part of someone’s job working in the political establishment to like work against the interests of the United States and against the Constitution. That’s on its

Glennis Meagher: And the American people. Yeah. Not great. And then, you know, there was. Silence from NBC Universal And The anchors took it upon themselves to just start digging into NBC Universal.

Nicole Wallace: In this instance, NBC News, either wittingly or unwittingly, is teaching election deniers that what they can do stretches well beyond appearing on our air in interviews, but that they can do that as one of us. As badge carrying employees of NBC News. It’s saying that we have to entertain the idea that the election was stolen on an equal level as we entertain the idea [00:17:00] that we should be a multiracial democracy.

Joy Ann Reid: That these things should be made equal so we’re being quote unquote fair. That is not fairness and balance. That is capitulating to an autocrat in advance by saying, yes, we will take your apparatchik and allow them to be elevated and platformed with us. This isn’t about Republicans vs. Democrats, this isn’t about red vs.

Jen Psaki: blue, this is about truth vs. lies. Service to the country vs. service to one man committed to toppling our democratic system. That is the type of experience that Ronna McDaniel brings to the table.

Mika Brzezinski: We hope NBC will reconsider its decision.

Brian Derrick: It was literally, it was fight night. Like every hour on the hour we had a new person going off on NBC leadership and executives for how poorly they’ve handled the situation.

Glennis Meagher: but we have kind of a breaking news update. NBC News plans to drop ex RNC chair, Ronna McDaniel, [00:18:00] as a paid contributor.

Brian Derrick: Wait, I’m finding this out live.

Glennis Meagher: Oh, you are? I thought that

Brian Derrick: Yeah, I did not know that.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, the execs are deliberating over details, announcement is pending, and meanwhile McDaniel is seeking legal representation.

Brian Derrick: Oh my god, they’re gonna get, they’re gonna give her a golden parachute.

Glennis Meagher: For sure. They’re going to be like, let’s settle.

Brian Derrick: That’s so infuriating.

Glennis Meagher: But you know what? Maybe it’ll just be like a, her year contract. Like there was,

Brian Derrick: mean,

Glennis Meagher: there were so damages again, I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t need to be to be on the

Supreme court, but there’s, there’s no bye. See ya.

Brian Derrick: I mean, yes, bye. First and foremost, it is good news. It makes me angry that she’s gonna profit from it, but it is good news that she will not have the platform to, like, And it sets a good precedent, I think, that these people who actively engaged and helped the insurrection should not be considered part of the political mainstream, even as representatives of the right.

Glennis Meagher: now does she go to like, [00:19:00] X and get a streaming deal with Elon, you know?

Brian Derrick: I, I think she’s kind of toxic on the right, too.

Because she’s so bad at her job. That’s like the other thing, that’s like the thing that we’re not saying, is she’s like terrible. She was a terrible RNC chair. The RNC is like, has the worst fundraising they’ve had in years. They’ve lost every single major election in the last six years.

Um, like, she’s not good. So, um, I don’t know where she’s gonna, maybe she will be unemployed. but thank, thankfully for her, the safety net is stronger today than it was four years ago. Thanks to Joe Biden.

Glennis Meagher: Thanks to Joe Biden and thanks to everyone for speaking up. So she, so she got booted.

Brian Derrick: Wow. We’re going to end all of these really like intense stories on a high, which I am definitely here for.

Glennis Meagher: yeah. So later, see you later. McDaniel.

But we have kind of a breaking news update. NBC News plans to drop ex RNC [00:20:00] chair, Ronna McDaniel, as a paid contributor.

Brian Derrick: Wait, I’m finding this out live.

Glennis Meagher: Oh, you are? I thought that

Brian Derrick: Yeah, I did not know that.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, the execs are deliberating over details, announcement is pending, and meanwhile McDaniel is seeking legal representation.

Brian Derrick: Oh my god, they’re gonna give her a golden parachute.

Glennis Meagher: For sure. They’re going to be like, let’s settle.

Brian Derrick: That’s so infuriating.

Glennis Meagher: But you know what? Maybe it’ll just be like a, her year contract. Like there was,

Brian Derrick: mean,

Glennis Meagher: there were so damages again, I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t need to be to be on the

Supreme court, but there’s, there’s no bye. See ya.

Brian Derrick: I mean, yes, bye. First and foremost, it is good news. It makes me angry that she’s gonna profit from it, but it is good news that she will not have the platform And it sets a good precedent, I think, that these people who actively engaged and helped the insurrection should not be considered part of the political mainstream, even as representatives of the right.

Glennis Meagher: yeah. So later, McDaniel.

you do keep me sane with the Trump stuff because it’s, [00:21:00] it’s I get a news alert maybe like every day about it, and I don’t know what, which case we’re on. I don’t know what’s going on. Um, there’s only a couple that I know we need to actually care about. Uh, these are two of them we’re going to talk about today.

Brian Derrick: Yeah. Honestly, I was thinking over the weekend, I was like, do we need a new podcast segment just called Yep, and it’s us just saying stuff that we’ve already said is gonna happen and then it happens and then we just say yep because Yesterday, Trump had 454 million dollars due, it was the deadline of all deadlines, and then at the last second,

Glennis Meagher: I said it naturally.

Brian Derrick: he gets away with it, because of course he does.

Glennis Meagher: Okay.

Brian Derrick: do and gave him 10 extra days to get it. He like cried [00:22:00] poverty. He said, Oh, we can’t get 454 million. We asked all these people and they wouldn’t help us.

We asked all these bonds. and they wouldn’t help us with 454 million. So we can’t do it. And so you’ve given us a thing that’s impossible. And the court kind of accepted that is my understanding of it. I’m not a bankruptcy or whatever attorney, but, um, and They instead said you need to put up 175 million and you have an extra 10 days and he’s totally gonna be able to do that.

So, no,

Glennis Meagher: has an extra 10 days for the 175.

Brian Derrick: correct. And that means that Tish James, who was literally outside of Trump Tower with the paperwork ready to take it over, is not going to be putting liens on his properties, We’re not going to have an episode of repo men where they take back all of Trump’s properties.

Unfortunately, that’s not what we’re headed forward this year. He’s probably going to post this and then he’s going to continue appealing this decision, to see if he can get it reversed entirely. So he doesn’t [00:23:00] owe anything and like gets to keep even the 175, but we won’t know that for many months. I don’t, maybe years.

I don’t know.

Glennis Meagher: Well, that’s disappointing.

Brian Derrick: It is, it is disappointing. I was pissed. He’s a slippery snake. And we’ve said all along, I like try not to get my hopes up because we’ve said always like all along that we have to hold Trump accountable at the ballot box because we cannot count on these cases to do it.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah, he’s basically like a business grifter, so he’s grifting his way through the legal system as well. another trial, the Hush 20 trial, this is a, this is when he will be the first former president to face criminal trial,

Brian Derrick: Right.

Glennis Meagher: 15th.

Brian Derrick: So, Out of the four criminal trials, federal Mar a Lago, federal January 6th, Georgia, election interference, and New York, election campaign finance violation. This is the New York campaign finance violation where he paid all this money to Stormy Daniels and then, like, lied about it and all kinds of other [00:24:00] stuff that complicated it as a criminal.

You’ve

Glennis Meagher: he asked for, a postponement, a significant postponement because Trump’s lawyer said that the 100, 000 pages of potential evidence, it’s just, it’s too much. It’s, it’s, they need the postponement to read the papers. which is like,

Brian Derrick: the papers. You have the papers.

Glennis Meagher: Also hire people, hire people.

Read

Brian Derrick: GPT is available. Um, no, so They did set a trial date. April 15th, one week after the eclipse, things are going to get even spookier and we’ll see. I mean, we’ll see if it holds because as we just noted, things have a way of collapsing. The justice system has a way of bending around Trump, to, to fit his will.

But if all goes well, we will officially be on our way with a, uh, Criminal trial against our former president for the first time in American history,

Glennis Meagher: And this is breaking news also, at time of recording is that the judge did put a gag order on [00:25:00] Trump saying, you cannot talk about any upcoming witnesses to this hush money payment. So let’s see if Donald listens to the, the judge and shut up

Brian Derrick: famously a good listener,

How do you think that this is going to impact the race? Because that’s probably what matters more than anything.

Anything at this point, if he has a path to the path to the white house

Glennis Meagher: It’s kind of, it’s not actually funny, but it’s funny that there has to be so many cases for people to finally be like, Hmm, maybe he, he is a criminal. half of the country believes that Trump is guilty in the, in this, uh, case, in the, in the hush money payment.

44%, said that a conviction in Manhattan would have no impact on their likelihood to support Trump president.

So, okay. Thanks for that. But 32 percent of respondents said that a conviction would make them less likely to support Trump as opposed to more likely more than a third of independence said it would reduce their likelihood to support Trump. Okay. Good that you don’t want to support a criminal.

Brian Derrick: I think that independents in [00:26:00] general act more like partisans than most of us. Think, or like give, give credence to. And so many of these people were gonna vote for Trump, no matter what. And many of these people were going to vote against Trump no matter what.

Not every independent is like winnable. and so, To me, The most compelling numbers when we look at his, his criminal Proceedings and how they’re going to impact the race come down to Trump voters. What percent of Trump voters or, or Republicans that he needs to win over in the Nikki Haley camp, because he has to win some percent of those.

what percent of those people say that a conviction or like ongoing criminal trial would be damning or, would preclude them from voting for him? And those are the numbers that I think are. The most give me the most optimism about the direction that our political landscape is headed over the next six months as Biden is going up and up and up, the [00:27:00] comeback is real.

It is sustained. It is measurable. And then Trump is literally in the paying the price for his criminal activity over the last four years. It’s not just that he’s in court, it’s that he’s actually being held to account for the things that we all have watched him do.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. And, and Trump, by the way, said that he has no problem testifying

Donald Trump: I would have no problem testifying. I didn’t do anything wrong. It could also make me more popular because the people know it’s a scam.

Brian Derrick: it will be good for his fundraising for

Glennis Meagher: for sure. Causeis going to cover Trump’s trials left and right. And if he’s sitting in, in, you know, a witness stand and he’s doing the Donald Trump special, it’s going to be on air. It’s free ad time for him. He doesn’t have to, cause you know, Trump supporters to your point are going to support him regardless.

So, you know, for some people they might view it and they see it and they’re like, Oh my God, he’s actually like, he’s on well, like this, this person can’t leave the country. And if we get some of those Haley voters over, but he loves the microphone. He loves the podium.

Brian Derrick: Yeah, we’re back to the Trump show. And we talked about it last week, but welcome [00:28:00] back to The Trump Show. He’s going to be in the news all the time saying outrageous things and offending people and doing what he does. And that is going to have an impact on the presidential race because he’s been notably absent and quiet for the last few weeks.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. If you could get a gag over, gag order for every single trial that he was in, that would be immensely helpful for my brain.

So sticking with our theme of ending Kind of bad stories on a high. we are seeing a ton of movement in the Biden camp around preparing for all the different ways that the far right and Trump could try to steal the 2024 election the same way that he tried to overturn and steal the 2020 election.

Brian Derrick: and so they’ve put together this team that’s literally like running drills. It’s giving soccer

Glennis Meagher: Like, like legal [00:29:00] drills.

Brian Derrick: like drills where somebody comes up with a circumstance and like hands it over to lawyers and it says like, this just happened. Republican members of the House of Representatives just voted against certifying the election or like certifying the electoral college vote.

they’re rejecting the votes in these six states or whatever. What do you do next? Like, like what are you going to file? Who’s going to write it? What do you do? Like, like those kinds of,

Glennis Meagher: So they can just like, they it’s like literally football and the coach has all the plays, they call the play and they know exactly how to run it.

Brian Derrick: yeah. Exactly. And, and that is, and that is what they’re building up. They’re calling it a superstructure where it, because it cuts across like, it’s not just the campaign. It’s like cutting across multiple different parts of the political ecosystem in order to have all of the pieces in place to prevent Mischief, but I’ll say like, especially criminal mischief, but like, mischief of any kind in undermining the [00:30:00] election before, during, or after.

Glennis Meagher: Good. I don’t want to like get into like the, the thoughts that keep me up at night sometimes about like this mischief that you refer to, but it’s good to know that the Biden administration and like the government parties are planning And being strategic about how they will respond should they need to, I’m reading the notes here.

And this is funny to me because I’m obsessed with hanging chads. but team Biden’s in house counsel and network of outside lawyers are currently prepping these legal strategies for scenarios involving like recounts, et cetera. And in the words of a Biden official would make Florida in 2000, look like child’s play.

Brian Derrick: That’s what I want to

Glennis Meagher: chat. no for sure. Like that was so stressful. I was like, uh, I forget how old I was in 2000, but I, Oh, I was like a, an eighth grader or something like the hanging chats, the hanging chats. I’m like, how are we like a democracy where we’re like literally looking at like scantrons and like, for those who are maybe not my age in 2000, there was an insane [00:31:00] recount because of this recount in Florida.

And imagine like a scantron with like, The holes punched out like it was a disaster and Al Gore,

Brian Derrick: what you actually need to understand is that this is a core memory

for

Glennis Meagher: I, yes,

Brian Derrick: And as one of her friends, I hear about it every six months.

Glennis Meagher: the hanging chads, like what a nightmare, like, thank God that we’re not like doing that anymore. But, uh, because of that, Al Gore did not win the

Brian Derrick: Yeah, it decided the election, likely, in 2000.

So, To, to your point, it’s good news that they’re preparing for these kinds of scenarios, that they’re putting the resources, experts, and team in place, in order to be able to respond quickly, because as we talked about earlier, the far right has I A deep bench of people seeking to exploit every loophole available in order to secure more power.

And so we have to be just as prepared to prevent them from doing that and making sure that the system runs as it’s [00:32:00] supposed to and that whoever gets the most votes, electoral votes, wins.

Glennis Meagher: yes. That is how our democracy works.

Brian Derrick: As part of Trump’s reaction to him finally having his feet held to fire, even a little bit, he had some words about his. a criminal case starting on April 15th. It’s giving excuses excuses.

Glennis Meagher: Excuses, excuses, excuses. And this is very niche. This is for my millennial women. It’s giving concealer as lipstick circa 2005 for the audio only people like he, he looks like he has concealer on his lips, which was a trend for about 12 months in 2005, 2006. He looks awful.

Brian Derrick: It looks like you ripped a hole in a brown paper bag.[00:33:00]

Glennis Meagher: Literally, it’s giving what, do you have a mouth? Sorry. I know this was like about like his campaign. I was like, just drawn to the concealer lips.

Brian Derrick: yeah. It’s giving senior moment. You can’t have an election in the middle of a political season. What are you supposed to have? That’s the only time you have an election.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah.

Brian Derrick: it’s political season. He obviously meant to say a criminal trial. well, if he is going to have this criminal case proceed against him, it seems like he might be doing a lot of praying about the outcome. [00:34:00]

Glennis Meagher: giving Christian nationalism.

Brian Derrick: It’s giving, this prayer is sponsored by

Glennis Meagher: Literally, Mark Wahlberg.

Brian Derrick: Viagra.

Glennis Meagher: It’s also giving he hasn’t read the book, like I assure you, Donald Trump has never read the Bible. In fact, I know this because four years ago he was interviewed by, I forget who, and they were like you know, what’s your favorite verse? You know, what’s your favorite book?

And he’s like, Oh, I like both of them.

Brian Derrick: yeah.

For audio only listeners. I think that it was giving. QVC. he’s sitting there holding this leather bound Bible that has the American flag stamped into it.

Glennis Meagher: Brian, Brian, Brian, we have, we have a listener voice memo that I’m, I’m going to say is definitely directed at you and not me.

Brian Derrick: I feel very attacked.

Glennis Meagher: Yeah. Yeah, I defended, um, I, I think I’m probably aligned with the voice memo. I haven’t heard it yet, but I think maybe we’re going to play it. [00:35:00] [00:36:00] Silence. Love it. Cat moms from Minnesota also valid. A good point that I hadn’t thought of, which is like so much of politics is, uh, name and face recognition. Mission knowing someone is generally on the good side of policy. so

Brian Derrick: T, I came for Lieutenant Governor’s pretty hard, if you didn’t listen to last week’s episode. I will say that I generalized my opinion about lieutenant governors and it’s not about the people. I actually know a lot of people.

I don’t know, Peggy, Peggy, I’m sure is fantastic in Minnesota. Let’s, I would love to meet her

Glennis Meagher: Lieutenant governor Peggy to you.

Brian Derrick: governor and I’m sure she’s fantastic. And maybe she will go on to be governor. That would be great. my. Issue is not with the individuals because I also think that Antonio Delgado in New York, [00:37:00] incredible leader Mandela Barnes was lieutenant governor in Wisconsin.

Awesome leader helped him run for U. S. Senate, but the office itself. I stand by I stand by that in most states. It is a useless office. It is the appendix of our elected head. system of government. And in most cases, it’s useless. Of course, if the governor is forced to step aside, that changes. And then it’s very important who your lieutenant governor is.

But for most of the time in most states, It’s kind of useless office. So cat moms, I love you and thank you for the voice memo. You guys can always, I love getting yelled at in a voice memo. That’s like my kink. Let’s

Glennis Meagher: Yeah.

Brian Derrick: Send us more.

Glennis Meagher: what’s going on in your group chat above and beyond Lieutenant Governor’s?

Brian Derrick: Well, for me, one thing that was in the group chat, not to bring the vibe down, was that the government did not shut down because we passed a budget, um, which did even make the cut because we’ve talked about it so many times, but part of the budget that passed included a ban on [00:38:00] pride flags flying. At embassies overseas that like outside of us embassies in some countries, they’ve been known to fly pride flags along with the American flag as sort of like a way

Glennis Meagher: or any,

Brian Derrick: I usually, usually during June.

Yeah,

Glennis Meagher: the one allocated pride month.

Brian Derrick: And like people are pissed is, is the bottom line. People are really upset that this policy got included. The other side that didn’t get reported on was that we defeated another like 93 anti LGBT writers that they tried to include in the budget. And there were a lot of them were like, I would, I would argue were much worse and did real harm and like defunded programs that are important to LGBTQ plus people.

And so I think that it was the least bad option, but it, it does still suck. And I I do think of the young queer kid in a country that stigmatizes LGBT identities and he sees they, she sees [00:39:00] that flag and it like feels like a calling to a community maybe that they can’t reach in that moment, but can someday and that makes me sad, but I hope that we can Pass another bill to undo that in, in the future.

What was in your group chat this week?

Glennis Meagher: I know you don’t want to make this a survivor chat, but I found out another one of my friends was watching the wrong season of Survivor.

So I have to make an announcement to all listeners that we realized at the end of the podcast last recording That Brian and I were talking about Two separate seasons of survivor. I thought I was watching the most recent season.

So when we’re like shocking, shocking, shocking, we’re talking about two different seasons, characters, challenges, immunity, whatever. So we wrap and we realize, Oh my goodness. Cause I’m like, season 45 is crazy. And Brian’s like, we’re on 46, babe. And then I put two and two together and realized, Oh my goodness, I’m watching the wrong season.

So my group chat. Was [00:40:00] one me recognizing with another friend that we were watching the wrong season. And then eventually this was a group chat. This was one on one Brian Glenn has me texting you. Cause I caught up to the new season, but then you texted me

Brian Derrick: I did text you and I told you that my mom was dragging you for being on the wrong season and thinking that you were watching in real time.

Glennis Meagher: in real time. I was like, wow, like all I, wow. I must be watching like a month late

Brian Derrick: Can’t wait to see next week.

Glennis Meagher: So whatever. And then this season I’m like, now I’m caught up because I like just liked an admin this weekend. And, Now I can actually be like, wow, I’m shooketh by this season.

Brian Derrick:

Are you ready for a good vibe?

Glennis Meagher: I sure am. [00:41:00] Um,

Brian Derrick: emissions from passenger cars and light trucks to help accelerate our clean energy goals and make sure we have clean air and clean water, not just now, but for like many years to come. And we’re able to be combating climate change, which, as we all know, is like one of the gravest threats we face.

And so this is going to require automakers to really ramp up sales of electric vehicles and slash the carbon emissions from the gasoline, the gas powered vehicles that they’re selling. ultimately, this new rule is going to prevent 7. 2 billion metric tons of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere through 2055. That’s like, more than the amount

of sky I ate in Ohio all weekend.

And it will also reduce the fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. Preventing up to 2, 500 premature deaths from air pollution annually. That’s a lot of people.

2, 500 people saved per [00:42:00] year.

Glennis Meagher: That’s a lot. And I don’t, I’ve never once thought about the fine particulate matter in my air, and now I’m going to be every day. This is objectively good as I call it.

Brian Derrick: Hundo P.

Glennis Meagher: Good vibe, baby.

Brian Derrick: Good vibe. Thanks for listening.

Glennis Meagher: Those are the vibes this week. Thank you for listening. If you have questions, comments, concerns, feelings, et cetera, send us a note or better yet, be like cat moms from Minnesota and send us a voice memo at vibes at courier newsroom. com. Thanks again. And join us next week. Same time, same place.