(upbeat music) - Hey everybody, it is Thursday, July 25th. You're listening to the Mo News podcast. I'm Ashwin Nunu. - And I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you just the facts. - And we read all the news and read between the lines so you don't have to. Jill, you'll be driving this train solo for a few days. - Which given the state of the news, Moshe, is kind of a tall order for these days. Normally it's like an NBD, no big deal. But there is a lot going on. So thanks for entrusting me with this podcast for the next week. - Yeah, we are headed off to Montana for a few days for a long planned vacation. Little did we know when we planned this that news would be just going and overdrive. But appreciate you taking the reins here and I'll be back the end of next week. Jill, given what we've just lived through the last two weeks, like what else could happen? Like what do you think about- - Are you serious, you're attempting the news gods, Moshe. Stop. - The news gods have to be exhausted, Jill. - And normally I would promise everybody that I'm going to keep it short and sweet. But it really just depends. If there's a lot going on, there's just so short, I can keep it. - Well, fingers crossed, when I'm back at the end of next week that they will have been gentle and easy for you for a week. - Okay, so let's get to some headlines here. Five days after the big announcement, President Biden delivers a prime time address explaining his decision to not run for re-election. Also in Washington, in a fiery speech to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks to shore up support for the war in Gaza, but sparking large protests outside. - And a couple of protests inside the chamber. A notable Jill, the speech for who was there and who wasn't. - We also have the latest into the tragic police shooting of an Illinois woman in her own home after she called 911 for help. The FBI is revealing some new information about the attempted assassination of former President Trump and what the shooter was searching for on his computer a week beforehand. Salt Lake City awarded the 2034 Olympics under IOC pressure over doping inquiries. - We appear to have made a deal here, Jill, to have the Winter Games. But did we sell our soul? - We'll discuss. - And speaking of the Olympics as the Paris Games is about to kick off, who are the US flagbearers for the opening ceremony? And here's a new one, sharks off the coast of Brazil, test positive for cocaine. You know, this podcast is not gonna be as fun without you. I'll tell you that. - And life imitates art, imitates life. Viewership for the HBO show VEEP jumps more than 300% after Vice President Harris enters the race for president. Plus, Moshe has on the stay in history. - Jill, we'll take you back to when the US invaded Canada and how it went. - Mm-hmm. Exactly. - All right, let's start with our top story. President Biden delivered a rare oval office speech Wednesday night. It was the first time that the country heard from the president about his decision to drop out of the 2024 race and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. The decision came via a statement on Sunday as Biden was recovering from COVID-19 at his home in Delaware. Biden's doctor said he tested negative on Tuesday and was therefore back to work in DC. The president not only outlining why he decided to pass the torch to Harris, but what he plans to get done in the next six months of his presidency. - All right, I just finished watching the address. It must have been a very difficult speech for him to deliver. He was surrounded by his family in the oval office. There are photos now coming out of them, embracing afterwards and tears. His children were there. Hunter was there. Jill was there. A really difficult moment for an 81-year-old who has spent more than 50 years in Washington. His entire life's ambition was to be president. And he said in the speech last night that he believes he's had enough accomplishments in his first term that he deserves a second term. He deserves to run. But what he said was that democracy is more important than his ambition than his title. He didn't mention his health. He did not mention politics. He said he was doing this for the sake of unity in the party, unity in the country, the democracy. Here, take a listen to a bit of his address. - I promise to always level with you, to tell you the truth. The truth, the sacred cause of this country is larger than any one of us. And those of us who cherish that cause, cherish it so much. A cause of American democracy itself. Must unite to protect it. You know, in recent weeks, it's become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America's future, all merit it a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of sacred. When you like to meet at this office, I promise to always level with you, to tell you the truth. And the truth, the sacred cause of this country is larger than any one of us. And those of us who cherish that cause, cherish it so much. A cause of American democracy itself. Must unite to protect it. You know, in recent weeks, it's become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America's future, all merit it a second term, but nothing. So this speech was really an implicit repudiation of former President Trump. He didn't directly call out Trump in the speech, but he has called Trump an existential threat to democracy to the future of this country. And that's effectively what this 10 minute address revolved around. Biden is trying to shape how history will remember him, his one and only term in office. And he did try to frame this as an existential decision. He said that fate of the country and the republic is now in voters' hands. He's made his choice, Kamala Harris, and is now up to voters to decide what country they wanna have. Here's a bit more of the address. Just a few months, the American people choose the course of America's future. I made my choice. I've made my views known. I'd like to thank our great vice president, Kamala Harris. She experienced, she's tough, she's capable. She's been an incredible partner to me and the leader for our country. Now the choice is up to you, the American people. When you make that choice, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin's hanging on my wall here in the Oval Office. Alongside the bust of Dr. King and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez. When Ben Franklin was asked as he emerged from the economy convention going on, whether the founders have given America a monarchy republic, Franklin response was a republic. If you can keep it, a republic, if you can keep it, whether we keep our republic is now in your hands. Now in the speech, he didn't discuss where he was three weeks ago or even one week ago as Democrats were begging him to get out. We were covering it here. Public pressure, private pressure, a full court press. Several of them, including Nancy Pelosi, were set to go public this week in press conferences saying he must step down. Well, he made the call over the weekend, seeing the writing on the wall, senior people saying there was no way he was gonna win and that's what led him to get there that he didn't want his legacy to be, that he was told he couldn't win and that he loses so badly that he was gonna lose the White House, lose all of Congress, all of that. He did make a point that he's president for six more months. He still has an agenda to pursue. He wants to solve the crisis in the Middle East. He's gonna call for some reforms to the Supreme Court, those unlikely to pass given the state of Congress right now. But still, he will move forward there. He's talked about curing cancer. That's one of the initiatives he's been pushing since he was vice president. So still saying he's got a lot of work to do in these final months, even though he has the lame duck status now. I should note Vice President Harris watched from her plane, also flying around the country last night. Donald Trump, who happened to watch it, take photos in front of the TV screen on his plane, what he calls Trump Force One, watching the speech. And here was Trump's reaction. He posted a couple of times on truth social. One read, Crooked Joe Biden's Oval Office speech was barely understandable and so bad exclamation point that he has an all caps social media post. That read, again, Crooked Joe Biden and lion Kamala Harris. That's the nickname he has for Kamala Harris. Now he calls her lion Kamala, or a great embarrassment to America. There has never been a time like this exclamation point. So that is how former president Trump reacted to Biden's speech where he talked about the stakes for the country, et cetera. He just said it was so bad. As far as other former presidents, former president Obama was watching last night. He tweeted just after the address that the quote that struck him was the sacred cause of this country is much larger than any of us. And he thanked Joe Biden, his former vice president for his contributions to the country. We should remind folks, Obama was one of the people working behind the scenes to try to get Joe here. So certainly I imagine he is feeling good about where they got from where they were three weeks ago after that debate. - Now to another major speech happening in DC on Wednesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of Congress for his fourth time, but Wednesday's speech arguably his most controversial outside thousands of protesters took to the Capitol to condemn the war in Gaza. Some calling Netanyahu a war criminal inside the Capitol. Some notable lawmakers deciding to boycott the speech, including former Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, and about 50 other Democrats. About 50% of Democrats in the House and Senate didn't end up attending the speech. And then you had one Democrat, Rashida Tlaib, who is the only Palestinian American in Congress who attended the speech, staring at Netanyahu, but holding up a sign most of the time that read war criminal. Also should mention Kamala Harris, who is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. She was not there. The Vice President typically would preside over such a joint address. Instead, she's on the campaign trail and will meet with Netanyahu later today. Republican Vice Presidential candidate Senator JD Vance, also not in attendance. He as well on the campaign trail. And now to what was going on inside of the Capitol. Netanyahu defending Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, vowing to press on until total victory. He also outlined his vision for Gaza after the war. And he tried to walk this fine line in these very uncertain political times, thanking President Biden for the support and the aftermath of the attacks on October 7th. Also thanking former President Trump for overseeing the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and some Arab nations. Here is a bit of what he had to say about President Biden. - I wanna thank President Biden for his tireless efforts on behalf of the hostages and for his efforts to the hostage families as well. (audience applauding) I thank President Biden for his heartfelt support for Israel. After the savage attack on October 7th, he rightly called Hamas sheer evil. He dispatched two aircraft carriers to the Middle East to deter a wider war. And he came to Israel to stand with us during our darkest hour a visit that will never be forgotten. - You heard him mention the hostages there. Speaking of the hostages rescued hostage Noah Arghamani was in the audience. She received a thunderous applause. He said negotiations were continuing as we speak to bring the hostages home. But most in this area, he likely did not go far enough for other hostage families, some in the chamber, who were hoping he'd announce an actual deal or at least something more concrete. And some were critical of him even coming to the United States in the first place, saying that they would have preferred for him to stay closer to the negotiations, get a deal done and then come to visit the United States. - Yeah, they were actually watching live in primetime in Israel and hostage square. That's where a lot of the families and supporters of the hostage families have gathered. We're now nearly 300 days in to them being held in Gaza. And they were disappointed, some booing at times, some leaving early from the speech. The feeling that this was basically just kind of broad strokes from Netanyahu. There was nothing new here. This was being done for his own political purposes and nothing else. So it did face a lot of criticism from Israel, where by the way, he only has a 30% approval rating. They blame him. It was on his watch that October 7th happened. They feel that the way this war is proceeding is being done in a way that he is thinking about his political future. And so interestingly, the reception he got in Congress, albeit with only 50% of Democrats and the best majority of Republicans, is not even something he would get in his own parliament in the Knesset in Israel. And Netanyahu understands America. He had guests in the gallery. He's watched enough state of the union addresses to know exactly how to do the deal. And you saw him doing that throughout his speech yesterday. This, again, as you mentioned, was the fourth time that he's done this. So he's walking a fine line here trying to praise both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Republicans and Democrats. And there was a time, not so long ago, that Israel was not a partisan issue here in the US, that you had nearly unanimous support for Israel. I'm a Democratic side and a Republican side, but it has increased them to become partisan, especially among progressive elements of the left. You also have some longtime supporters of Israel, including former speaker Nancy Pelosi, who boycotted, because they personally have animists for Netanyahu himself. They say they support Israel, they love Israel, they just don't like him. And over the course of the last decade, you have seen the split among Democrats, a reminder that 10 years ago, Netanyahu gave a previous speech to Congress at the invitation of Republicans. At the time, he was lobbying against the nuclear deal that the Obama administration was trying to strike with Iran. They felt like, oh my God, you're a foreign leader coming into our Congress to lobby against a piece of legislation that we're pushing. We can't have this. And so actually at the time, then Vice President Biden didn't attend the speech. And you had a couple dozen Democrats not attend the speech this time, many, many more. Speaking of protest and frustration outside is where you saw thousands of protesters, anti-Israel protesters moving about Washington. A number of them were protesting outside of Netanyahu's hotel. They then moved to the Capitol. They brought in a whole bunch of extra security. DC police brought in extra support from the NYPD and other police forces across the country. As Netanyahu was speaking, they were actually taking down the protesters taking down American flags outside of Union Station, the translation there, a couple of blocks away, putting up Palestinian flags, a couple of protesters were lighting American flags on fire, burning Netanyahu in effigy. And it's notable because Netanyahu made a point of addressing the protesters during his speech, pointedly noting their connection to Iran. Most recently, the US Director of National Intelligence has said that Iran has been trying to organize and promote protests here in the US that are not only anti-Israel, but anti-US. Here's what Netanyahu had to say about that. That Iran is funding and promoting anti-Israel protests in America. They want to disrupt America. For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building, not that many, but they're there and throughout the city. Well, I have a message for these protesters. When the tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran's useful idiots. Jill, he went on to make a point that, you know, he's noted the people who are saying they're gays for Gaza. He made a point of saying that you don't have freedom as a gay person in Gaza. In fact, you face prison or a death sentence there. And he said being a gay for Gaza is like being a chicken for KFC, which got some applause within the chamber. That said, you know, I found striking the fact that you had Democrats, including Bernie Sanders and others, called Netanyahu a war criminal. Remember, the International Criminal Court has put out an arrest warrant for him for potential war crimes committed during this war. And so you saw that rhetoric both on the streets and among some Democrats, Netanyahu also tried to, as he talked about Iran, note that they are at the forefront of the battle against Iran, which is an enemy of the US as well, fighting against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, all groups that are supported and armed by Iran. Speaking of politics, Chuck Schumer, who did attend, did not shake Netanyahu's hand, to sort of try to split the difference there between Pelosi, who didn't attend at all. Schumer, who attended, no shaking of hands. Today, you'll have meetings between Netanyahu and Biden, Netanyahu and Harris. Harris, as you mentioned, was not there. She gave a speech to a sorority convention yesterday, a Black sorority convention. There are several million Black sorority sisters from the various sororities, who she sees as key to her campaign, both motivating, organizing, and getting folks out to vote. Netanyahu, after his meetings in Washington, will head down to Florida, where he'll meet with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago this weekend. And in a lighter note, some pointed out that in a historic first, Senator John Federman was spotted wearing a suit while attending the Netanyahu speech. He's usually in hoodies. Some breaking fashion news from a capital there, Jill. All right, I want to get to one of our favorite partners here at Mo News. We hear from a lot of you who are entrepreneurs or business owners, and you're looking for ways to increase your revenue, increase your profitability, or you might have a side gig, and you're looking to make it a full-time business. Well, that's why we've partnered with Shopify. 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Again, that is drinkagone.com/monews, M-O-N-E-W-S for this special deal and really start to take ownership of your health. Time for the speed read from the Associated Press. Disturbing new body cam footage shows the police shooting of Sonia Massey, a black Illinois woman who was fatally shot by police after calling 911 because she feared that an intruder was in her home. After the release of the footage, President Biden released a statement to crying Massey's killing and commending the decision by the Springfield State's Attorney's Office to charge Sean Grayson, a former sheriff's deputy with murder. The footage was released by Illinois State Police earlier this week and it showed two deputies arriving at Massey's home in the morning of July 6th. The deputies appeared to search the front of her home and backyard before knocking on her door and following her inside. They then appeared to ask Massey for her ID as she sat on a sofa before she got up to remove a pot of hot water from the stove. When she did, she told the deputies quote, "I rebuke you in the name of Jesus." Grayson responded that she quote, "Better not." And then used some expletives before warning Massey that he would shoot her in the face. Within a couple of seconds, he took out his gun and ordered the woman to drop the pot that she was holding before firing two shots at her. He then took out his radio and reported a woman with a gunshot wound to her head and she was declared dead several hours later. - Jill, this whole situation is so tragic. She had called 911 apparently. Again, innocently thought there were some disturbances aside the home. If you watch the footage, the first 18 minutes, totally normal, cops talk to the door. They say to her, "Listen, we've checked out the premises. Everything seems to be okay. Can we see an ID by the way?" They come inside and as she goes against the ID, that's when there's a pot of boiling water on the stove and she's like, "Oh, I don't want to burn down the place. Let me turn off the stove." And they let her go over there. Then she's holding the pot of boiling water. And that's when they effectively have a freak out when she says I rebuke you in the name of Jesus while holding that pot of hot water. It seemed like she was implying it was a joke or who knows what she was thinking in saying that statement that said, "The cops had covered. They were some distance away from her and they reacted so quickly by shooting her, including in the head there. The authorities have said that Grayson had no business opening fire in the way that he did. After the shooting, by the way, the other deputy who was there told Grayson, "Hey, let me go get a medical kit and see if I can save her." He's like, "Don't bother, her injuries are too tough. Don't even bother trying to save her." Then the other deputy ended up rendering aid anyway, staying with Massey until EMTs arrived. On Wednesday, Grayson wasn't indicted on charges of first degree murder, aggravated battery of the firearm, official misconduct after an investigation by the Illinois State Police and the County State's Attorney's Office. Prosecutors have now denied him bond. They've ordered that he be jailed here and he was fired after the indictment, faces life in prison on the murder charge. The Attorney's Office said in the statement that based on that footage, he was not justified in his use of deadly force here. As you mentioned, President Biden chimed in earlier this week, saying that Massey should be alive today. We should be able to call 911, ask for help without fearing for our lives. It's a reminder, Biden says, that all too often black Americans face fears for their safety in ways that many of the rest of us do not. - From CBS News, some news from a hearing with the FBI Director on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The gunman who nearly assassinated former President Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13th, conducted a chilling Google search about the killing of President John F. Kennedy about one week before the shooting, that is according to FBI Director Christopher Ray. He said that the FBI is still trying to determine the motive of the 20 year old Thomas Crooks, who fired at least eight shots that killed one attendee and wounded Trump and two others. Ray said that investigators have gained access to some of Crooks electronic devices, including his cell phone, but quote, "They have not yielded anything notable in terms of motive or ideology." However, one search that was found on a laptop tied to Crooks did stand out to them on July 6th, the one week before the Trump rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. He had searched, quote, "How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?" The search was a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin who shot and killed John F. Kennedy from a perch on the sixth floor of the Texas schoolbook, Depository in Dallas in 1963. The Warren Commission determined that Oswald was 265 feet from Kennedy when he fired the fatal shot. - Yeah, so clearly that was top of mind here for Crooks about a week out. He then proceeded to register for the event by way of comparison. Oswald was 265 feet away from Kennedy. Crooks was about 400 feet away from Trump earlier this month. The FBI saying here that they still don't know the motive, but this is a significant revelation that gives you a better sense of his state of mind a week out there. We also learned that hearing yesterday that Crooks flew a drone over the area just two hours before the rally. He was flying a drone over the rally area. Apparently it was in the air for 11 minutes. He was watching a live feed from the drone to get a better sense of the premises. Many questions as to why the Secret Service didn't notice that someone was flying a drone over the site two hours before. In addition, we've mentioned this before, he had two explosives in his car at the time of the shooting, one in his home. And what we did learn yesterday is that while the explosives were there, they don't believe he had the ability to detonate them remotely from the roof when he was killed. - From the New York Times, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City on Wednesday, but only after the US agreed to a last minute demand to stop US investigations into doping by Chinese athletes. Organizers of Salt Lake City's bid agreed to the IOC's requested changes. The unexpected twist came amid an escalating dispute between the global anti-doping agency and its American counterpart. And it comes at a time when the Justice Department and Congress are looking into why Chinese swimmers who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs three years ago were not subjected to penalties from the world anti-doping agency. US Olympic authorities had to sign an agreement respecting the authority of the agency moving forward, but the announcement brought fully into the open this clash within the sports world over reports of Chinese doping, the response, and then aggressive efforts by the United States to try to combat it. - So critics of the International Olympic Committee and the anti-doping agency is known as WADA, W-A-D-A, said they saw the developments as a blatant effort to cover up a pattern of suspicious activity in the Chinese swimming program and an unwillingness from the anti-doping agency to actually confront it. It escalates a fight with China and world anti-doping officials, and it all comes against the backdrop of the current Olympics which started this weekend. The head of the US anti-doping agency said, "It is shocking to see the IOC itself "stooping to threats in an apparent effort "to silence those seeking answers "to what are now known as facts." It seems apparent that the world anti-doping agency violated the rules, needs accountability, and there needs to be reform here globally. The New York Times reported back in April that 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the same powerful band substance several months before the Tokyo Games back in 2021. They found that the swimmers were allowed to escape any public scrutiny. They were allowed to continue to compete after top Chinese officials secretly cleared them of doping and that the world anti-doping agency chose not to intervene here. So the US saying, "Hey, something's not right over "with the world anti-doping agency, not right at the IOC." But the folks in Salt Lake say, "We would really like these winter games back in 2034, "so let's make a deal." So there you have it. We'll see if we hear more on this, the controversy as to what sort of deal the US had to make to get the Olympics here. Keep in mind, we have a couple of games coming up, so you'll have Salt Lake Winter in 2034. But before that, we have the next summer games are in LA in 2028. And don't forget, as far as a world sports activities here in the US, we also have the World Cup, the soccer World Cup here in 2026. - Speaking of the Olympics from ESPN, US Open champ Coco Guff will be the female flag bearer for the United States at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony joining four-time NBA champ LeBron James. 20-year-old Guff will be the first US tennis player to carry the flag. Three years after she was forced to miss the Tokyo Olympics when she tested positive for COVID, in a statement, Guff said, "I never thought in a million years "I would have the honor of carrying the American flag "for Team USA in the opening ceremony. "I could not be more proud to lead my teammates "with LeBron as we showcase our dedication and passion. "On the biggest stage there is, Guff and James "earned their selections through a vote "of their fellow US athletes." - Joe, I'm excited for the opening ceremonies this year. It's gonna be a change because typically you have that parade of nations with each march into a stadium. Paris is taking it up a notch. Each country will have its own float, have its own boat effectively floating down the Senn River. So it won't be held inside a stadium. You'll be watching each country float down the Senn, which should make for a very cool visual Friday night. - I love the opening ceremony because I love learning about all of the different countries and seeing all of the athletes from the different countries. So for anyone out there who maybe doesn't normally watch that or thinks it's gonna be boring, it's not. It's actually very well produced and super interesting. - Just a heads up though. It'll air in prime time and NBC starting at 7.30. But if you're waiting for the US, because the US is hosting the next summer games in 2028, we will be the second to last down the river. You just care about the US team. It's gonna be a while with some commercial breaks via NBC before you see the US team, PocoGoth, LeBron James, et cetera floating down the river. Jill, fun fact, one of my first jobs in TV. I was an intern for NBC at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 2004 as a researcher. And so I was mainly with the boxing and Greco-Roman wrestling department covering those games, but got to contribute the various research and fun facts about the athletes to the anchors. - A perfect job for you, I think. - It was amazing, except it was like 115 degrees in Greece. And I was sitting in a truck in a parking lot for most of the games because I was doing boxing, which lasts almost the entirety of the Olympics. Whereas my fellow interns and researchers, like they might work on tennis or basketball, which lasts like four days or five days. And they just got the party the rest of the time. Yours truly had to like go in every single day to get to your Olympics. - Well, while you were doing that, I think I was on overnight shifts. If it makes you feel any better for NBC, working on their foreign desk at the time. - Jill, it's one of the first jobs in TV is they have the kids like us working the overnight shifts. 'Cause, you know, we can manage that at 22, 23 years old. - All right, from the BBC sharks off the coast of Brazil have tested positive for cocaine. Marine biologists tested 13 Brazilian sharp nose sharks taken from the shores near Rio de Janeiro and found that they tested for high levels of cocaine and their muscles and livers. The concentrations were as much as 100 times higher than previously reported for other aquatic creatures. This research is the first to bind the presence of cocaine and sharks. Experts believe the cocaine is making its way into the waters via illegal labs where the drug is manufactured. So the labs perhaps dumping their waste into the water or through excrement of drug users, packs of cocaine lost or dumped by traffickers at sea could also be a source, although researchers say less likely. - So they believe that cocaine has the same effect on sharks as it does on humans. It could lead to hyperactive behavior among sharks, but they do need to conduct more research here. The findings in Brazil add to a growing body of research on marine wildlife and cocaine. Back in 2018 in the UK, they found that eels exposed to cocaine were having trouble mating. In a number of cases here, the sharks are pregnant. They don't know how this will impact the fetuses, the cocaine exposure here. So they'll have to look further into it. But we should note, cocaine, a major problem here, but it's not the biggest problems that sharks face. There was a recent documentary that found just the amount of pollution we're putting out there in the ocean is really wreaking havoc on them. - And finally, from the Hill, Vice President Harris has jumped into the 2024 White House race, has seemingly generated new interest in Veep, with viewership of the show up more than 300% this week. American viewership of the first season of the HBO political spoof was up 353% Monday compared to the previous day. That is according to entertainment data company Luminate. Viewers binged on 2.2 million total minutes of the series on Max Monday compared to Sunday when 486,000 total minutes were viewed. - Well, I heard from a number of you who are rewatching it. Some of you who are watching it for the first time, it's been off the air for about five years now. But for obvious reasons, people are interested. Jill, Max is also making a point of making it the home screen if you go to the Max app. Now, they've put Veep up at the top, trying to attract interest, given that it's about a fictional Vice President and her unlikely assent to the Oval Office after the President on the show decides not to run for another term. Keep in mind, Julie Dreyfuss has also been very plugged into Washington. They used to do spoofs of her and Joe Biden together when Joe Biden was Vice President. And so there are elements of the show that are very realistic. We've talked about this on the podcast before that people wish that their government was West Wing. They fear its house of cards or scandal, but really the government is just a bunch of people winging it. So it's a good watch, though. There's some good jokes from foul language, if that's not your thing, but I'm cool with it. So I think it's very entertaining. At the same time we should mention J.D. Vance's a book, "Hillbilly Elegy," went to number one on Amazon. So people are definitely buying that, now that he's in the news, and viewing of the film version of "Hillbilly Elegy" over on Netflix, also skyrocketed. - Well, given that you're not gonna be here tomorrow, I will mention last week for what we were watching, reading and eating, we both said, I said I was gonna read "Hillbilly Elegy," you said you were gonna watch it. I decided to watch it. I felt like that was maybe the smart move. - The smarter people that the book is much better than the film. - Oh, really? - Yes. - The film was great, though. So that means the book must be really great. - Yeah, it's having an interesting reaction out there. There's often some people from Appalachia who are not happy with the way J.D. Vance depicted them. So it's controversial, don't we? (upbeat music) All right, now time for "On This Day in History" we begin in 1814, "Neuron Niagara Falls" as British troops thwart an invasion of Canada by who else, the US. So the British had declared war on us again in 1812, the war of 1812. They'd lost the first independence war, and they were back to take America back, or at least teach us a lesson. American armies is part of that war, then invade Canada in 1812 at three different points, but all three campaigns end in failure. And so the border is where we left it in 1812. "On This Day in 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world's first baby to be conceived by IVF in vitro fertilization is born in Manchester, England." Now the couple, Louise's parents, would have another daughter via IVF several years later, at the time IVF was banned in almost every state in America. It's considered too experimental, and so it wasn't allowed. And so you do see this first IVF baby in England in 1978, eventually comes to the US. Notably, Louise is the ever sister, Natalie, that second IVF baby, she gave birth to a child of her own in 1999. She was the first IVF baby to then have a child herself. Louise Brown, the original IVF baby, would also give birth. She would do so in 2006. All right, a bit of TV and movie news here, "On This Day in 1980, Catty Shack premiered in theaters." It's in the hole. And on this day in 1992, after 30 plus years, NBC airs its final Saturday morning cartoon, they would hand that time slot over to the Today Show for the Saturday edition of the Today Show, Jill, there was a time when you had to wait until Saturday morning to watch your cartoons. - But they were some quality Saturday mornings. - And as a kid, you had to learn patience. You had to learn patience. You didn't wake up on time. There was no streaming it. And then, you know, you had those messages, like, we'll be right back. After those messages, you had to run to the kitchen, refill your bowl of cereal, and make sure you were back in time. And finally, music history, "On The Day in 1965," in Rhode Island, Bob Dylan went electric. It actually prompted booing at the time. People were like, what is this? He performs like a Rolling Stone. And the audience felt betrayed. They're like, what is this electric guitar? This is not you. It goes, but it is. And there you have it, music history, "On The Stake in 1965." - It's like that scene from "Back to the Future," where Michael J. Fox uses the electric guitar. And they're like, just like, "Oh, I guess you're not ready for this." - You thought your kids will love it. (laughing) - All right, well, that does it for this episode of The Mo News Podcast. Thank you for listening. If you like what you hear, share this with your friends. It will help us grow, follow us and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Review us in the App Store. - And guys, that does it for most. Most have a wonderful vacation. - You'll see me on the gram, likely. And Jill, if like, insane stuff happens, I'll chime in. I hear they have Wi-Fi in Montana. But I'll try to take a break. And depending on how Delta gets his act together, I'll see you out there next Thursday or next Friday. - All right, happy travels and happy Friday Eve, everyone. We'll see you back here tomorrow. - Thanks for listening to The Mo News Podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
