Super Tuesday aftermath

Make Me Smart March 6, 2024 Transcript

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Kai Ryssdal 

All right. Seriously, we need to figure out a way to get Jay onto the program. No this talk back.

Kimberly Adams 

I know, right? Hello everyone, I’m Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense.

Kai Ryssdal 

I’m Kai Ryssdal. Wednesday today, six March. News, smiles, and then on with our day. Ms. Adams, you go first.

Kimberly Adams 

Yes. My news is the pretty obvious political news of the day, which is in the aftermath of Super Tuesday, Nikki Haley has dropped out of the Republican race, notably declining it seems to openly endorse Trump, but I was reading her statement that she put out, you know, in, in her resignation, or I guess her stepping down or whatever you call when you stop running for president.

Kai Ryssdal

Suspension or whatever.

Kimberly Adams

Yeah, she talked about the national debt, leading with the economy. She said, “Our national debt will eventually crush our economy. A smaller federal government is not only necessary for our freedom; it’s necessary for our survival. The road to socialism is the road to ruin for America. Our Congress is dysfunctional and only getting worse. It’s filled with,” yeah, she said, “it’s filled with followers, not leaders. Term limits for Washington politicians are needed now more than ever. Our world is on fire because of America’s retreat. Standing by our allies in Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan is a moral imperative. But it’s also more than that. If we retreat further, there will be more war, and not less.” And you know, she goes on to say that, “In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July. I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be the American president. Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us. I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee. But on this question, as she did on so many others, Margaret Thatcher provided some good advice when she said, ‘Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind.’ It’s now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him, and I hope he does that.” Wow. I thought that was quite something. There’s a lot more to it. I would encourage people to read it. It’s short. But this was sort of the beginning of all of the dominoes kind of falling into place with Republicans, you know, joining in endorsing Trump, including Mitch McConnell, and we were just talking about this the other day, about whether or not Mitch McConnell would endorse Trump. He has. And he said, “It’s abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee of the United States. It should come as no surprise that as a nominee, he will have my support.” You know, not the most wringing of endorsements. But I guess it goes to that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all. But I want to hear your thoughts on this, but I want to get it and one more news item, which is also within the last 24 hours, the Republican National Committee has basically dropped an effort to stop the RNC from paying Trump’s legal bills. So, they’re going to be meeting on Friday. I’m reading from Politico here. “The Republican National Committee is meeting on Friday in Houston to elect a new chair. But with the 168 members won’t be voting on, is a pair of resolutions that would have put some daylight between Trump and the committee.” One of those was an effort to basically say, we’re not going to use RNC money to pay his legal bills, which means that, you know, not only will the people who donate directly to him, probably be bankrolling his legal cases, but so will the Republican National Committee in all likelihood.

Kai Ryssdal 

I don’t understand. I mean, I guess I understand, but I don’t understand capitulation. Truly now, this is the capitulation to the Trump apparatus, that small dollar donors from everywhere in America are going to take 50 bucks out of their paycheck and pay Donald Trump legal bills. I don’t get that.

Kimberly Adams 

I mean, I think the conversation we had yesterday.

Kai Ryssdal 

Yeah, well, yeah, yeah. And for those who might have missed that one, it was about populism and radical right-wing populism specifically. But yeah, wow.

Kimberly Adams 

Yeah. And it’s about the personality. It’s about latching on to sort of perceived grievances that the others are against us. We have to band together. I’m on text message alerts and many email lists for various Republican campaigns, including Donald Trump’s campaign, and the language is in these messages is very much about they’re out to get us. If you don’t donate to our campaign, you know, they’re going to come for you next, you know, help. It’s very much a personal appeal to fear, and also to the others are out to get you, which is exactly what we were talking about yesterday.

Kai Ryssdal 

Totally. On Mitch McConnell, here’s the thing I don’t get. And look, I’ve said my piece about Mitch McConnell on this program, but I don’t understand why he’s doing this. He loathes Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is not wild about him. They haven’t apparently spoken in three years, right? McConnell, around January 6, made clear that he blamed Trump for January 6. I mean, the whole deal, right. And now McConnell is doing this. And I don’t understand why. Because McConnell does not have personal political power to gain out of this. I guess there’s Republican political power to gain out of this, but why do you think he’s doing it? I don’t know why.

Kimberly Adams 

I think, well, this is pure conjecture because I haven’t, like been chatting with people close to McConnell at anything all. I imagine it is about preserving his own legacy, and the work of conservative Republicans that was accomplished under the Trump administration, and the fact that he and the House Republicans and another Republican administration, even Trump will likely set up for some of the political goals that he still has.

Kai Ryssdal 

So, that’s his institutional reputation, right? But his personal reputation now becomes one of?

Kimberly Adams 

I don’t think that that matters.

Kai Ryssdal

You don’t think he cares about that?

Kimberly Adams

No, because if so, I think, given how he talked about January 6 when it first happened, and then just dialed it back. And given the way he’s talked about Trump in the past, and the fact that he’s still endorsing. I think those sorts of things don’t matter because my guess is in the circles that he runs in, and the life that he’s about to live in his retirement, it’s not going to cause any harm to him, personally or professionally, to be on the side of Trump.

Kai Ryssdal 

God, that’s depressing. Okay, what else? Anything from you?

Kimberly Adams 

No, that’s it. And you know, my bright, uplifting things. What about you?

Kai Ryssdal 

Well, I’ve got a couple of also equally dismal things. I should also say. I don’t have a make me smile today, just because the news, I believe, is a little dismal. So, number one on actual business and economic stuff. New York Community Bank, we’ve talked about a couple of times on this program, they are now looking for a billion dollars of cash infusion to help them with the challenge that they have with their portfolio. So, look out for regional banks. That’s all I’m saying. Just look the heck out it is not done yet. It is not done yet. So that’s number one.

Kimberly Adams 

Do you mean that? It’s obviously it’s a risk for the community banks. Do you think it’s a risk for consumers or for the broader economy?

Kai Ryssdal 

So, look, I think regional banks specifically have been lending heavily into commercial real estate Commercial real estate, as we’ve talked about, I think, is deeply, deeply troubled. They’re taking right down to as much as 50% on some of these really big office buildings here in Los Angeles specifically. So, once that debt becomes actually unrealized, right? Once it becomes unrecoverable, then it’s a real problem for the banks, we’re holding that down on the books. And New York Community Bank is one of them, and there will be others. And I think as we talked about the other day that the other shoe has yet to drop on commercial real estate. And once regional banks get in trouble, then there becomes a whole thing of confidence in the banking system and all of that jazz and that is not good for general stability. That’s number one. Number two item for me on the California Senate primary, which last night saw Adam Schiff as very much expected get the top slot on the on the November runoff. The number two guy in a deeply, deeply democratic state is a Republican. His name is Steve Garvey, former baseball player with the Dodgers and the Padres. And here’s why Garvey is on that number two spot. He’s on that number two spot because Adam Schiff and his campaign and people aligned with him spent more than $10 million running ads to boost Steve Garvey, a Republican, so that Adam Schiff would have an easier time in the general election where it’s Democrat against Republican, instead of the Democrat Adam Schiff going against the woman who finished in the number three spot, congresswoman Katie Porter. I think it stinks that politicians run ads like that. The Dems did in 2022 with Republicans in Congress, most notably Peter Meijer in Michigan. They ran ads backing a very right wing Republican candidate, so that they would have a better time in the general, and this is Adam Schiff version of the same thing. And I just think he’s kind of playing the fire. I think it’s kind of playing with fire. I mean, look, Steve Garvey’s not going to win in California in a Senate race, right? Where Republicans are like, 25% of the population.

Kimberly Adams

That’s what said about Trump.

Kai Ryssdal

Exactly. But one day, it’s going to bite you in the face. I’m telling you; it stinks. I don’t think it’s smart, and I think it’s dirty pool and that’s just me. But whatever. Number three, Elon Musk said today after reports that he had met with Donald Trump down at Mar-a-Lago. The richest man in the world, or actually number two now. Jeff Bezos has edged him by a couple of billion dollars again, but honestly, who cares about that. Elon Musk said today he is not going to donate money to any political, either of the political candidates running for president. Kara Swisher very smartly on Twitter this morning said, “Yes. What about Super PACs, though?” And super PACs, of course, can spend unlimited money without having to reveal their sources on what are not supposed to be aligned with candidates’ campaigns, but on candidates’ campaigns fundamentally. And I think that’s a really good question. I think that’s a really good question.

Kimberly Adams 

I was talking with somebody from Open Secrets the other day about, you know, sort of how fundraising and campaign finances looking so far in this race. And I asked, you know, like, what’s going on with dark money? And she was like, well, you know, it’s dark money, we can’t see it. Like, fair, but she said, actually, it’s looking this year, more like gray money, or some of these famous and larger dark money groups, because they’re getting so much blowback from hiding their donors. They’ll put out a list of donors, but the donors are like, other dark money groups that don’t have to disclose their donor. So, you can go their website and they can rightfully say, “Oh, we do disclose our donors,” but it’s just like adding another layer of garbage.

Kai Ryssdal 

It’s so deeply cynical. It’s so deeply, deeply cynical, you know? Yeah. Anyway, Jay. All right. What is your smile since there’s only one in the program today.

Kimberly Adams 

It’s not an aggressive smile. But I do think it’s useful. As you like to say “history is awesome” trend. This is another one from Smithsonian Mag about World War II rumor clinics. And the headline is: “World War II ‘Rumor Clinics’ Helped America Battle Wild Gossip. Newspapers and magazines across the United States published weekly columns debunking lurid claims that were detrimental to the war effort.” This jumped out at me because it was a reminder that misinformation and disinformation is not new. And, you know, in this case, they were talking about some, you know, rumors and false stories that were being planted by the Axis powers and actually trying to spread disinformation among the American people. And other times, people’s own prejudices and stereotypes would lead them to, you know, come up with a narrative of an event that didn’t have a lot of details out about it yet, and you know, just run wild with it. Like there’s a story of the Queen Mary, which was the ship. And there were so many different stories about it. And that mainly, many of them were focusing on Black men, and then terrible things that they suppose Black men had done. Black recruits or was being done to them. So, newspapers and magazines set up their own kind of room or clinics to combat this, but also a lot of everyday citizens kind of got together to take this work upon themselves. And I liked this story because we are in a very similar era rife with mis- and disinformation. And since we don’t have so many newspapers and magazines anymore, it will fall to all of us to be particularly vigilant when it comes to mis- and disinformation and hopefully help our friends and family you know, to not you know, keep spreading these things. And so, there’s some awesome graphics in the story, including, you know, some cool era, you know. Some cool illustrations from that era, including, you know, one sponsored by the Reno Junior Chamber of Commerce. It says, “the person who’s spreads rumors is a foolish, malicious, or dangerous person.” There are rumors about their victory gardens. And there’s a really cool diagram that the Library of Congress provided about how rumors spread, you know, sketched out and it looks, it’s from obviously World War Two, but it looks so similar to what we’re seeing now. And it’s just like a pencil and pen diagram, so it’s really cool.

Kai Ryssdal 

History matters.

Kimberly Adams 

History matters.

Kai Ryssdal

I’m just telling you.

Kimberly Adams

Yeah. So that’s it. That is what we have for today. We will be back tomorrow. Until then send your thoughts, questions, comments, or any audio you think we should talk about to makemesmart@marketplace.org. Or you can leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Kai Ryssdal 

Oh, Jay Siebold. Make Me Smart. I wonder if people know what we’re talking about when we just say, “Oh, Jay Siebold?” Jay is the only engineer who sneaks the credit music under the credits. I’m just saying. That’s it. Anyway, Make Me Smart is produced by Courtney Bergsieker. Ellen Rolfes writes our newsletter. Today’s program was engineered by Jay Siebold. Thalia Menchaca is our intern.

Kimberly Adams 

Ben Tolliday and Daniel Ramirez composed our theme music. Our senior producer is Marissa Cabrera. Bridget Bodnar is the director of podcasts. And Francesca Levy is the executive director of Digital.

Kai Ryssdal 

I totally hosed you. I totally hosed you. That was my bad. I totally hosed you.

Kimberly Adams

It’s okay.

Kai Ryssdal

Almost. Almost

Kimberly Adams 

It’s all right.