Trump’s Dr. Brainworm

Summary

Podcast Summary: What A Day – "Trump’s Dr. Brainworm"

Date Released: November 15, 2024
Host: Jane Coaston
Produced by: Crooked Media

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1. Election Night Results and Republican Triumph

In this episode of What A Day, host Jane Coaston delves into the significant political shift following the recent elections. Republicans have secured a governing trifecta by winning a handful of key congressional races, solidifying their control over the House, Senate, and the White House. This positions the GOP to advance President-elect Donald Trump's agenda aimed at "making America great again" primarily for Republicans and affluent demographics.

Jane highlights that while a few House races remain undecided, the GOP is anticipated to gain an additional one-seat majority, bringing their total to about four or five seats. Conversely, the Democratic Party faces a two-year period in the minority, prompting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to emphasize the need for strategic influence and effective collaboration with the incoming administration.

2. Interview with Brianna Tucker: Analyzing the Democratic Defeat

Jane converses with Brianna Tucker, Deputy Campaign Editor for the Washington Post, to unpack the Democrats' unexpected loss despite favorable conditions that suggested they could have won. Tucker discusses various theories such as inflation, cultural issues, and a global backlash but remains cautious, stating, “I think it's still way too soon” to definitively attribute the loss to any single factor (02:17).

A key point raised is the voters' perception of threats to democracy. Tucker references a poll indicating that while Americans recognize democracy as a serious threat, they did not trust Joe Biden to handle it effectively, favoring Trump instead. She notes, “Most of [the electorate] decided to disregard that. Like that was not important enough based on other issues” (02:33). This disconnect may have influenced voters to prioritize economic concerns, abortion, and immigration over Democratic warnings about democratic threats.

Furthermore, Tucker observes a notable shift of working-class voters towards Trump. She shares insights from the campaign trail, citing an undecided voter who, despite reservations about both parties, felt economically aligned with Trump's promises to improve his rural community in North Carolina (03:46). This underscores the complex motivations behind voter behavior beyond simplistic party loyalty.

When discussing the future for Democrats, Tucker emphasizes the necessity for introspection and recalibration of their messaging to resonate with the broader electorate, particularly the working class. She asserts, “They have to go back to figuring out what their message is” (07:08), suggesting that addressing the needs and concerns of the majority who lack a college degree could be pivotal for future electoral success.

3. News Highlights: Ethics, FEMA Lawsuit, and Media Shake-ups

a. Matt Gaetz and the Attorney General Nomination

The episode covers the controversial nomination of former Congressman Matt Gaetz as Attorney General by President-elect Donald Trump. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin urges the House Ethics Committee to release their report on Gaetz, which alleges inappropriate behavior, including sharing explicit videos and allegations of a relationship with a minor. Gaetz's resignation from a previous post to potentially avoid the Ethics Committee's scrutiny is also discussed.

Republican Senator John Cornyn supports full transparency, stating, “I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation” (13:00). The Wall Street Journal reports that over 30 Republican senators are poised to vote against Gaetz’s confirmation, needing only three more "no" votes to derail his nomination.

b. Florida Sues FEMA for Alleged Discrimination

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has filed a lawsuit against FEMA, accusing the federal agency of discriminating against Trump supporters affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Citing evidence from a conservative outlet, Moody alleges that FEMA supervisors instructed teams to "avoid Holmes advertising Trump" during damage assessments, resulting in at least 20 households with Trump symbols being overlooked. FEMA Administrator Deann Criswell responded, “This type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA” (14:00).

c. Infowars Sold to The Onion

In a surprising media development, The Onion has acquired Alex Jones' Infowars following a $4.5 billion defamation lawsuit related to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting claims. The sale includes all assets of Infowars, leading to its planned relaunch as a satirical news site. Jane offers a cynical take on the situation, suggesting it represents a poignant commentary on America's response to mass shooting misinformation.

4. Trump's Nomination of RFK Jr. and Expert Concerns

The highlight of the episode centers on President-elect Trump's nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Jane Coaston expresses skepticism about the nomination, highlighting Kennedy's controversial stances, including anti-vaccine rhetoric and calls for banning various chemicals and pesticides. To provide expert insight, Jane interviews Dr. Abdul El Sayed, a physician and epidemiologist.

Dr. El Sayed voices significant concerns about RFK Jr.'s potential impact on public health policies. He speculates that the nomination may serve as a political maneuver to present extreme candidates without intending their confirmation, stating, “I wonder whether this is an opportunity for somebody like Trump to give him something without actually giving him something” (18:53). However, El Sayed warns of the real dangers if Kennedy is confirmed, pointing out the threat to agencies like the CDC and FDA: “I worry long term about the implications for the kind of legislation that they might be able to pass... could fundamentally decimate a lot of what we take for granted in life” (21:22).

El Sayed also emphasizes the heightened risk to public health in the event of another pandemic under Kennedy’s leadership, referencing past failures during Trump's administration and the critical role of scientifically driven policies: “We bake the pandemic into the cake as if it was always going to be that way... it's a really, really scary situation” (22:45).

5. Closing Remarks

Jane wraps up the episode by promoting additional content and thanking her guests, ensuring listeners stay informed with continued coverage on the evolving political landscape and its implications for the nation.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Brianna Tucker on Election Analysis:
  “We don't completely disregard that polling. But even now, it's too soon to call all these shots...” (02:17)

• Brianna Tucker on Voter Priorities:
  “Most of [the electorate] decided to disregard that. Like that was not important enough based on other issues” (02:33)

• Brianna Tucker on Working-Class Voters:
  “He was clearly aware that, yes, Trump has said these things... But the economic message that he felt seen by was being delivered from Trump.” (03:46)

• Brianna Tucker on Democratic Strategy:
  “They have to go back to figuring out what their message is.” (07:08)

• Dr. Abdul El Sayed on RFK Jr.’s Nomination:
  “I worry long term about the implications for the kind of legislation that they might be able to pass... could fundamentally decimate a lot of what we take for granted in life.” (21:22)

• Dr. Abdul El Sayed on Public Health Risks:
  “We bake the pandemic into the cake as if it was always going to be that way... it's a really, really scary situation.” (22:45)

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Disclaimer: This summary is based on the transcript provided and aims to encapsulate the primary discussions and viewpoints expressed during the episode.

Transcript

[Jane Coston]

It's Friday, November 15th, and I'm Jane Coston. This is what a Day. The show that stands with Representative Lauren Boebert as she asks important questions as part of the House Oversight Committee. Like is the Department of Defense combining humans and animals to create hybrids with special capabilities? And are there secret alien civilizations at the bottom of the sea? She truly is doing the work of her constituents, really digging deep into the biggest concerns of the voters. On today's Florida sues FEMA for allegedly discriminating against Trump supporters after hurricanes. And it happened Trump picked RFK Jr. As the secretary of Health and Human Services. Let's get into it. Republicans clinched a governing trifecta. A handful of congressional race calls cemented the party's House majority. With control of the Senate and the White House already secured, the GOP is now in a good position to usher in President elect Donald Trump's agenda to make America great again for Republicans and rich people. A few House races still haven't been called, but it looks like Republicans will have about a four or five seat majority at best. The party will improve on its existing tiny House majority by one seat. As for Democrats, officially losing the House means the party is effectively shut out of power for at least the next two years. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said earlier this week the party will have to figure out how to strategically wield its influence while in the minority.

[Brianna Tucker]

And we've got to, as Democrats, work with the incoming administration whenever and wherever possible and strongly disagree when necessary. And that's going to be the approach that we take.

[Jane Coston]

At the same time, Democrats will also need to figure out what went wrong this year in an election they absolutely could have won. I wanted to dig into this a little bit, so I spoke with Brianna Tucker. She's a deputy campaign editor for the Washington Post. And and she also covered the 2024 presidential campaign and congressional races. She stopped by the WOD studio to talk about what she saw on the campaign trail and how her team at the Post is gearing up for a second Trump administration. Brianna Tucker, welcome to what a Day.

[Brianna Tucker]

Thank you. It's good to be here.

[Jane Coston]

So there are a ton of theories, obviously, as to why Trump won and Harris lost. Inflation, cultural issues, a global backlash, a growing class divide. Based on what you saw on the campaign trail, do you see any evidence that bolsters one theory over the others?

[Brianna Tucker]

Yes, but I wouldn't say that any of that is complete. I think it's still way too soon. Right. It's a lot of narratives emerging out right Now, Right.

[Jane Coston]

Narratives, I feel like, got pre written like six months ago, like into the stars.

[Brianna Tucker]

And some of those things we can look at polling we can look at. One thing that I think about often is this notion, or at least the argument that both campaigns were trying to make about the other party as far as threats to democracy. Right. We even did a poll on do Americans feel like one particular person is more equipped to handle threats to democracy? And a majority of Americans do think it's a serious threat, but they didn't think that Biden was the person to actually handle that. They thought that Trump would be better at that. And so now we're looking at this election where one party, the Democratic Party, cast its whole argument, like, centered its argument on this risk. Right. And a large part of the electorate, most of it, decided to disregard that. Like that was not important enough based on other issues that they also logged as important, whether it was the economy, whether it was abortion or immigration. So those are some of the things that were clearly indicators.

[Jane Coston]

Right.

[Brianna Tucker]

We don't completely disregard that polling. But even now, it's too soon to call all these shots and all the autopsies are still being examined of what happened.

[Jane Coston]

Right, Exactly. Yeah. We did see a huge shift of working class voters to Trump. Did you see that happening on the ground too, based on who was attending the candidates rallies?

[Brianna Tucker]

Oh, absolutely. Even the first Trump rally that I had been to, that was not related to the caucuses, primaries, anything at the convention that he was doing in North Carolina. And I was speaking with the voter who was undecided, this is maybe four days before the election, again, working class. And he mentioned that he was not necessarily sure about who he would vote for. He had kind of disdain for both political parties. He was a former veteran. He was a younger, under 30 black male, and was at this rally trying to figure out what the messaging was gonna be. But a lot of the things that he talked about, he was clearly aware that, yes, Trump has said these things, has said things about me, has alleged that I should relate to him. But he was also focusing on, as he called himself, socially liberal, conservative economically. And that was the things that he was worried about. He's like, I have to drive an hour to get to work here. It's one of the only places that pays me a decent wage. Trump, I think, could make my life better here in North Carolina, which is mostly rural. And that was what his selling point was. It's like he was very aware of all the other kind of arguments that Democrats have made against Trump. But the economic message that he felt seen by was being delivered from Trump.

[Jane Coston]

What sorts of questions do the election results raise for you? What are the big ideas that you think reporters should start exploring and investigating?

[Brianna Tucker]

Oof. So many questions. Does democracy matter? I also think about what our role is, especially as like legacy media. What our role really is here in media, especially in a time where a President elect is saying that the media is enemy of the people or directly criticizing our reporting, our integrity. I think some of the other questions that we're asking and thinking about is the voters. People are complex. And I think it's easy to just kind of lump people into one particular bubble and say, oh, like, you know, these people support Trump and here are the reasons why. These people supported Harris and here are the reasons why. And a lot of people I've talked to, they had notions of why they liked both and it was only one particular thing that maybe sold them on the candidate. They could make sense of both candidates arguments. Right.

[Jane Coston]

I think that sometimes in our work we wind up flattening people's politics in a way that is not very helpful. And then every election were super confused by people who voted for raising the minimum wage and for Donald Trump.

[Brianna Tucker]

Yeah, yeah. It's not as complex for them though. And it's kind of the bubble. I think we're also in a lot of the media kind of places that we're in where it's like the East Coast, west coast, thinking about some of those in between places, a lot of more rural places, how our local media is maybe disappearing and what kind of jobs we have here to also get that information, where it is a desert for people who want to know what's going on and what's happening, that impartiality that we need to bring.

[Jane Coston]

I remember 2004 when George W. Bush won reelection and Republicans had control of Congress and there was kind of this idea, there's actually like a John Puthoretz book basically arguing that this is what life's going to be like. Republicans are going to be in charge forever. And then two years later, there was a massive blue wave. Two years after that, Obama was elected. Getting shut out of power can sometimes be good for political parties. So is there any silver lining here for Democrats?

[Brianna Tucker]

I think so. I think they have to go back to figuring out what their message is. I think they have to figure out what it was that got them into power in the first place. But I think it can be beneficial, I think, for the party to look inward and really think about, okay, are we the Party of working class. And what are the messages that we're actually saying to people? Two thirds of the country does not have a college degree.

[Jane Coston]

Right.

[Brianna Tucker]

And that's something that I don't think everyone necessarily thinks about. But when the party is messaging on certain types of business, tax deductions, does everybody want to start a business? Is everybody fitting into that pot that you're trying to cater a message to? How the party really looks at what they've been saying, what they've been doing? I don't think it was necessarily a message of, oh, we focused on abortion too much. But did you also focus on these other issues that people care about and what they want to hear about? So I think that could be an upside, at least for Democrats. But it can definitely be tough, too, because we're looking at one party having, again, control of the presidency, the House and the Senate. And that makes you wonder about what the commitment to bipartisanship will look like.

[Jane Coston]

Just from a practical standpoint, how is the Washington Post and your team specifically gearing up to cover another Trump administration and the onslaught of absolutely batshit news it produces?

[Brianna Tucker]

Like any other administration. Like any other administration. I feel like, if anything, the team that we have is even more prepared because they've already done this once and we have the reporting, but also every indication that this presidential elect is going to have even more acute power this time in the decisions that he's made. There's probably an appointment being made right now that I'm not catching because it's just been flowing all day. But it's clear, even in the last administration, he had appointed people who were some career officials, but were still, at least in his mind, going to be loyal to his cause. And a lot of those people either resigned or stepped down or were fired because of that tension with Trump. And you're seeing now that he's appointing people who are not your establishment type folks who are definitely more of the conservative kind of lawyers and loyalists who will fall in line with his agenda. And I think we, as an organization, like, obviously, I only speak for myself, but I feel like we are prepared to, as any administration, continue to keep asking, okay, what are the consequences here? Who benefits? Who suffers? Continue to hold to account, you know, the rule of law, which is what a lot of people have questioned of. Can someone do this? What happens next? Being really quick to say, okay, don't fall for the shiny object this time, like, what's happening over here? Keep your eyes, you know, on the ball on all the policies, because a lot is a lot is happening.

[Jane Coston]

Brianna Tucker, thank you so much for joining me.

[Brianna Tucker]

Thanks so much.

[Jane Coston]

That was my conversation with Brianna Tucker, Deputy Campaign Editor for the Washington Post. 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 What a Day is brought to you by the Zero Emission Transportation Association Education Fund. The Zeta Education Fund wants Americans to know about the positive economic impact the EV and battery supply chain is having on our communities. Like how it's already created 240,000 jobs and attracted $177 billion of investment. More than a million EVs were sold in the US last year and there are currently over 200,000 public charging locations in the United States. Join forces with the Zeta Education Fund and help spread the facts about what a transition to EVs means for the future of America. Get on board@zeta zeta.org join Waterday is brought to you by Factor. Notice how the days are shorter, but your to do lists aren't. Power through your busy days with Factor's no Prep, no Mess Meals. Head to FactorMeals.com whataday50 and use code whataday50 to get 50% off your first box of delicious food and 20% off your next month. That's code [e-mail] whataday50 to get 50 percent off your first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active. What a Day is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and state. For over 75 years, Americans United for Separation of Church and State has tirelessly defended your right to live as yourself and believe as you choose. From protecting LGBTQIA rights and marriage equality to safeguarding reproductive freedom in our public schools, church state separation is at the heart of our most vital freedoms. Americans United fights for every individual's freedom to believe as they choose, so long as they don't harm others. Join the fight today at au.org crooked and now the News Head of Lines in light of Donald Trump's selection of former Congressman Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General, I'm calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve and share their report and all relevant documentation on Mr. Gaetz with the Senate Judiciary Committee. That was Democratic Senator and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin calling for the House to share what is expected to be a bombshell report on former Representative Matt Gaetz before the Senate begins its Attorney General confirmation hearings. The House Ethics Committee has been investigating Gaetz after members of Congress said he would show them videos of himself having sex with young women. So yes, President elect Donald Trump chose someone to serve as Attorney General who has been accused of showing his sex tapes to his colleagues and allegedly slept with a 17 year old, which is a crime which he also supposedly bragged about to members of Congress. To quote a prominent right leaning commentator referring to Gates, there are pools of vomit with more to offer the earth than this std riddled testament to the failure of fallen masculinity. Gates resigned from his post effective immediately on Thursday morning, and many reports claim he didn't step down to assume the role of Attorney General, but rather to stop the Ethics Committee from releasing the report everyone is now dying to see. House report aside, the Wall street journal has one source saying the no votes for Gates are over 30. He only needs three Republican noes to tank his confirmation. Here's what Republican Senator John Cornyn had to say about the Gates pick. I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee is generally. So you want to see it? Absolutely. If this report doesn't get formally released, it is definitely getting leaked. The state of Florida sued FEMA on Thursday, accusing the federal agency of discriminating against Trump supporters impacted by Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a complaint, citing a recent article from the conservative media outlet the Daily Wire. The article includes a screenshot of a message sent by a FEMA supervisor instructing her team to, quote, avoid Holmes advertising Trump when surveying the damage left behind by the hurricanes. Moody claims at least 20 Florida households with Trump signs and flags have been skipped over by fema. As a result, the supervisor was fired over the weekend. In the wake of the report, FEMA administrator Deann Criswell said in a statement, quote, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at fema and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct. Remember yesterday when we said the Onion was one of the rumored bidders for Alex Jones Infowars media empire? Well, they were and they won. Jones was forced to auction off the company as part of a defamation lawsuit brought by the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims. He called it a hoax, which ended up costing him almost $4.5 billion. Jones took to Twitter in the immediate aftermath of hearing the news about the sale.

[Brianna Tucker]

So this is all happening right now.

[Jane Coston]

This is the tyranny of the New World Order. Desperate to silence the American people The mandate of Trump against all the law Fair.

[Brianna Tucker]

They don't care.

[Jane Coston]

So the system still thinks it's in charge.

[Brianna Tucker]

I'm going live right now from what.

[Jane Coston]

Probably will be the last transmission from this building. The Infowars website was down within hours of the announcement, and the satirical news site plans to relaunch it in January as a parody of itself. They own everything. The sets, the desk, the ip, the social media accounts and trademarks, the video archives, all of it. Congratulations to the families of the Sandy Hook victims. They now get the satisfaction of watching Alex Jones life's work destroyed by people who wrote perhaps the most perfect satire of America's mass shooting problem to ever exist. No way to prevent this. Says only nation where this regularly happens. And finally, if you're interested in helping Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy clean up government waste for free, get on that Twitter app and send the newly created Department of Government Efficiency a direct message as the department, which isn't a real department, put it on Twitter. They want, quote, super high IQ, small government revolutionaries willing to work 80 plus hours per week on unglamorous cost cutting. As Elon Musk added, quote, indeed, this will be tedious work. Make lots of enemies and compensation is zero. What a great deal. End quote. The world's richest man asking for volunteers to do something stupid. Sign me up. And that's the news. One more thing. He did it. He actually did it. It's actually happening. Trump is expected to nominate RFK Jr. For Secretary of Health and Human Services, despite rumors in recent weeks that the incoming administration was distancing itself from him. Trump had this to say about him at the now infamous Madison Square Garden rally in late October. Robert F. Kennedy cares more about human beings and health and the environment than anybody. And he's going to be absolutely. Having him is such a great honor. I've been friends of his for a long time, and I'm going to let him go wild on health. I'm going to let him go wild on the food. I'm going to let him go wild on medicines. The only thing I don't think I'm going to let him even get near is the liquid gold that we have under our feet. See, it's funny he says that because back in 2014, you know, the Before Times, RFK Jr. Had some very strong words for oil executives. I think they should be in jail. I think they should be enjoying three hots and a cot at the Hague with all the other war criminals who are there. Huh? See that's what gets me about this pick. I know the fact that RFK Jr is an anti vaxxer, gets top billing, as it should, but rarely is there a pick for such a massive job. HHS is a huge part of the federal budget that has completely opposite views to the person who selected him. RFK Jr wants to ban a whole host of food colorings and pesticides chemicals. Trump's first administration said we're just fine. And yeah, there's also his anti vaccine stance and how it's connected to the deaths of dozens of children in Samoa and the AIDS denialism and the brainworm and the dead bear and the whale head. So to try and figure out what this could all mean for us, I called up Dr. Abdul El Sayed, a physician, epidemiologist and host of the podcast America Dissected. Dr. Abdul El Sayed, welcome to what a day.

[Dr. Abdul El Sayed]

Thank you so much for having me, Jane. It's always good to speak with you and I'm sorry to have to speak with you under such challenging circumstances.

[Jane Coston]

Well, let's get into it. First and foremost, is this actually going to happen? Is RFK Jr. The deadbear guy, the extramarital affairs diary guy really going to get confirmed to run Health and Human Services?

[Dr. Abdul El Sayed]

Brainworm guy, you forgot about that one. So I'm going out of limb and speculating here. I wonder whether or not this appointment to hhs, considering that he's probably a bridge too far for a lot of even the Republican senators, I wonder whether or not this is an opportunity for somebody like Trump to give him something without actually giving him something. And you know, you put him up for HHS secretary and then if he doesn't get approved by the Senate, then you've you fulfilled your part, but then you don't actually have to deal with him over the long term. That being said, you got to take it seriously when somebody like RFK Jr. He and his nonprofit were responsible for a quarter of the disinformation spread about COVID vaccines in the pandemic. You gotta take it seriously when somebody like this is viable for a position as important as HHS Secretary.

[Jane Coston]

RFK Jr. Is a vaccine denier. He is also a person who wants to ban a large number of pesticides and chemicals from food. He once demanded the arrest of big oil executives. He was even briefly floated by as a potential Obama picked to run the EPA back in 2008. There is an inherent tension of nominating this person to work in an administration that wants to deregulate literally everything. What does that even look like.

[Dr. Abdul El Sayed]

I think we look for ideological coherence. When you look at the Maga 2024 coalition, it really is a lot more of the kind of coalition that, that Democrats have tended to build. People with very different positions that all can kind of fit together under one umbrella, even if uncomfortably. I think the thing about RFK in particular, to zoom in on him, RFK says all the wrong things for all the right reasons. Like he wants to make America healthy, I want to make America healthy. In fact, it's what I've done with my entire career. But I don't think that the problem with pharma is that they manufacture vaccines. I think that the problem with pharmacy is that they manufacture a whole lot of drugs that too many Americans can't afford. But when you divorce yourself from science when it comes to healthcare decision making, you can come up with a bunch of answers that really aren't based in reality. And when you do that, a lot of people get hurt.

[Jane Coston]

If he gets confirmed, what does Trump even mean when he says that he's gonna let RFK Jr. Quote go wild? What kind of power would RFK Jr. Actually have and how would he actually wield it?

[Dr. Abdul El Sayed]

Yeah, there's a lot that an HHS secretary can do. But the problem is that I worry that an RFK junior is going to start gutting a lot of what we rely on the CDC to do, whether it's collecting really high quality data or it's setting the framework for vaccine recommendations, or it's being able to work with local and state health departments to coordinate responses to situations like the COVID 19 pandemic. And by the way, there was a case of H5N1 avion bird flu in Canada in a kid just this week. And so there's a lot moving forward that we're going to need this agency to do. You think about a lot of the way that the FDA works, which would sit downstream of an HHS secretary. And so you think about all of the ways that he can start to change and tinker with the decision making inside of these agencies. And so I actually worry long term about the implications for the kind of legislation that they might be able to pass out of the Senate and House under that kind of leadership in ways that could fundamentally decimate a lot of what we take for granted in life.

[Jane Coston]

You mentioned avian flu a little earlier. Having an anti vaxxer Secretary of Health and Human Services with an impending perhaps pandemic seems bad to me. What would having RFK in office mean for the United states should there be another Covid level public health crisis?

[Dr. Abdul El Sayed]

I mean, we saw what happened the last time Trump was president in the midst of a very huge, serious pandemic that ended up taking over a million lives. And I just want to be clear about something. I think we bake the pandemic into the cake as if it was always going to be that way. Had we had the same mortality rates as Australia, a society that's really quite similar to ours, we could have saved nearly 800,000 lives. And that's what's at stake. It's almost impossible to really understand how this could have worked had we had a president who was interested in actually listening to experts. Now that's not to say that those experts didn't make mistakes, but under somebody like an rfk, it's a difference between mistakes and full on antipathy for the fundamentals of public health. And that is a really, really scary situation.

[Jane Coston]

Dr. El Sayed, thank you so much for joining me.

[Dr. Abdul El Sayed]

Thank you for having me. And look, we just got to put one foot in front of the other and keep working for the kind of America and the kind of world we want.

[Jane Coston]

That was my conversation with Dr. Abdul El Sayed. You can hear more from him on his podcast, America Dissected before we go. This week on Hysteria, Erin and Alyssa assemble a kick ass panel with award winning journalist Erin Haines, activist Julissa Arce and comedian Megan Gailey. They chat about how things are settling post election from what it would really take for a woman to become president to the head scratching choice of voters who voted for abortion rights but still back anti abortion candidates. They've got answers. Listen to Hysteria now and head to their YouTube channel for full episodes and more. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, get your vaccinations and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading on not just about how Melania Trump is going to be a part time first lady and honestly, same like me, what a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and [e-mail] subscribe I'm Jane Coston and seriously, get vaccinated. Let's do it right now. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Raven Yamamoto. Our producer is Michelle Eloy. We had production help today from Tyler Hill, Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters and Julia Clare. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison and our executive producer is Adrian Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Building a business may feel like a.

[Brianna Tucker]

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