[MUSIC] Hey everybody, it is July 23rd. You're listening to the Mo News podcast on Mo Schwannoona. And I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you just the facts. And we read all the news. We try to keep up with the news. We read between the lines. You don't have to. Operative word is we try to keep up with the news. Jill, it's a fire hose right now. It is a fire hose right now. You know, I'm just trying to, you know, in some days, there were days in that service memory before June 27th, debate day, where we'd have to dig around and be like, well, what should we do in the news today? Like, did not much happen today? Like, oh, that's an interesting story. That could be the lead. That could be a lead story. Like, can we get away with that? Does that feel important enough? And now it's like, are we missing anything? We didn't even care if we led with, yeah. And so that's where we're at, trying to track everything that's going on here. In significant news, Jill, it's a big week for ice cream, I want to say. Sunday was National Ice Cream Day. Today is National Vanilla Ice Cream Day and Sprinkle Day. So if you want to really celebrate today, July 23rd, you can have sprinkles on your vanilla ice cream, but who gets a vanilla ice cream, really? That's a very boring choice, don't you think? - Not if it has sprinkles on it. I think that the beauty of vanilla is kind of like a blank slate. So it's wonderful if you're a toppings person as I am. Of vanilla ice cream or even vanilla frozen yogurt, pile on the toppings, and you bet yourself a treat. - All right, well, we're making a case here for vanilla ice cream at the top of the pod. - Okay, so let's get to some headlines here. In just about 24 hours after the president withdrew from the presidential race, it appears Kamala Harris has effectively locked in the nomination. We'll tell you what's next. The Secret Service Director testifies about the assassination attempt of Donald Trump. And no one on either side of the aisle seems happy about her answers or lack thereof. - Yeah, they agree on very little in Washington Democrats and Republicans, but one thing they all agree on is the Secret Service isn't answering their questions, Joe, and both sides are calling for the director to go. - Net IT breakdown we told you about for the past couple of days. Still having ripple effects, Delta Airlines, in particular, canceling even more flights as it struggles to recover from the outage. And Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is in the United States. He's slated to give a speech to Congress on Wednesday, but with the political landscape so uncertain, a lot of questions about which leaders he'll be meeting with and who he's not going to be meeting with. He's probably like, "What did I sign up for?" - Like, I have a war going on in my country on multiple fronts, but wow, you guys in America are keeping busy. Those McDonald's $5 meals, helping to bring in the customers. And you may have seen that meme of Kamala Harris talking about a coconut tree, and you might have thought, "What is happening? "What is that? "So we're gonna break it down." - Yes, we're here to break down the viral meme that is breaking social media right now. - And how's this for a job? Charging hundreds of dollars an hour to be a baby name consultant? - Moshe, I would do it for free for my friends. And not even my friends, it's fun. Plus, Moshe is on the same history. - Jill, as we get ready for the Summer Olympics starting this weekend, we take you back to 1996, Kerry Strugg and the USA Gymnastics. ♪ Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo ♪ - Thank you for that. - LeBron. - All right, so far it's looking like smooth sailing to the Democratic nomination for Kamala Harris. Less than 24 hours after President Biden said that he would not seek reelection and endorsed Vice President Harris for the nomination, the Democratic Party is coalescing around her as well. Harris has called hundreds of party leaders and donors to shore up support and they are quickly uniting behind her. Beyond nearly 200 Democrats in Congress, she now is the support of all 23 Democratic governors in the United States. On Monday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also endorsed Harris. She was very influential as we were reporting in pushing Biden out and her endorsement also appears to have effectively helped to lock in Harris as the next nominee. Moshe Nancy Pelosi really is the king or queen maker here. - Yeah, don't mess with Nancy Pelosi. She still has that party wired. And many would say that between her and Barack Obama, they're probably the smartest Democratic strategist in the party. And I mentioned donors, Harris raised $81 million in the first 24 hours since announcing her bid for president. That is a record breaking number. Her campaign said that 888,000 donors had contributed in her first day. 60% of whom were making their first contribution of the 2024 contest. So we're talking about a lot of small donations here, a lot of grassroots support. And that is on top of the $96 million war chest that she'll get from Biden. And then there's the super PAC future forward, which received $150 million in new commitments from major Democratic donors in the 24 hours since the president announced that he would step aside from the race. So there's the money. And then there are the competitors or the lack thereof. And at this point, the only person who had publicly said that they would even consider running for the nomination on the Democratic side was Joe Manchin. Remember, he changed parties from Democrat to independent. Well, he came out Monday and said, no, thanks. That quote, I don't need that in my life. (laughing) - Well, many Democrats would say if they don't need Joe Manchin in their life either, but still would have been interesting to see him at the convention. - Well, bottom line, he's out. And most of the other names that have been floated as potential presidential nominees have also come out to support Harris. That includes Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, California governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro. On Monday, Harris had her first public appearance since President Biden endorsed her. She was speaking at a planned event at the White House with NCAA athletes. She took time to praise President Biden, reinforcing what she said in her written statement on Sunday. - Joe Biden's legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history. In one term, he has already, yes, you may clap. (laughing) In one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who have served two terms in office. - Most, there certainly was a lot of excitement surrounding this entire event. Certainly more than there would have been if it was just a normal NCAA athletes coming to the White House to meet the vice president. So far, it looks like Harris, while not quite the official nominee just yet, has really injected some new excitement into the Democratic campaign, and that is something that we're hearing from the Monuse community. - Yeah, well, going into Sunday at 1.46 p.m. Eastern time when Biden dropped out, you couldn't have had less excitement in the Democratic party, especially following the debate June 27th, the war that was happening among Democrats, the overall lack of excitement, especially among young voters, among party activists, I was hearing from people, they were having trouble getting basic volunteers, like loyal volunteers who've helped out with Democrats, many elections passed coming out for Biden. So I think no matter what, whether it was Kamala Harris or anyone not named Joe Biden, you were gonna have a certain level of excitement. But certainly here, off the news on Sunday, in the way that it was done, you're seeing it with the grassroots fundraising here, a remarkable number, just by way of comparison, the $81 million figure that Kamala Harris raised in 24 hours, Biden's first quarter, a three month period raised $72 million. They thought that was pretty good. So they did in one day more than what the Biden campaign did in a three month period earlier this year. So we're hearing from Democrats from Independence, Jill, we heard from people in the Monuse community who were on the border here who saw fatal flaws with both candidates who've decided they want something different. They just didn't want a Biden Trump election and they were gonna sit out or vote third party. And they're like, you know what, Harris is somebody new. She's 20 years younger than a Trump. I wanna learn more about her. Now there are those that have also reached out and say they're skeptical. They don't know what she stands for. She didn't go through a primary process. Will she stand for everything that Biden stands for? Or does she have her own views? That's something that she will have to lay out in the coming weeks and months through interviews and speeches. Is she wedded to Biden's policies? Will she differ? Will she zag where he's zig? She has, of course, the big convention speech coming up in August and other venues where she's gonna have to make clear where she stands on foreign policy, on key domestic issues, priorities that he laid out. She's a different person. Now she's the top of the ticket. So where will she stand? Notably, Jill, she's been working the phones here and moving about. She talked to President Clinton, President Obama, Secretary Clinton, Senator Schumer, the head of the Democrats in the House, Jeffries. She spoke the key constituency group, the progressives, the Hispanic caucus, the Black caucus, a whole number of governors here. So she really has been trying to consolidate support. Very quickly, they put out, her team put out on Sunday that she was in a hoodie eating anchovy pizza with her staff, making 100 plus phone calls in a matter of a few hours. - And Jill, we learned on Monday night that Kamala Harris has officially achieved a majority of the pledged convention delegates. They have officially endorsed her, which effectively makes her a the nominee here. Now it's not official, but she has received the endorsements and she did it in a matter of 30 hours. Democratic convention delegates across a number of states quickly endorsed her. They were initially pledged to Biden. He released his delegates and they quickly turned towards Harris. And the DNC has not officially finalized its rules, but it does appear that there's been a coalescing here of the party and she already has more than 2,000 of the pledged delegates, more than half of the pledged delegates as of Monday night, which means unless something crazy happens, which we can't rule out given this campaign cycle, she will be the next Democratic nominee. She then went on Monday to Delaware campaign headquarters. The campaign is located in Delaware because the president's home isn't Delaware. - Jill was very interesting to hear her first remarks to the campaign staff on Monday. She effectively laid out her contrast with Donald Trump. She appears to be relying on her experience as the former Attorney General, and former prosecutor in laying out this case. - And all as I've mentioned to California, before that I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women. Broadsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump's type. (audience cheering) She now inherits that team. So she went to go visit it. It's probably too late in the game to change locations. So Kamala Harris will have to pop up to Delaware for campaign visits if necessary, the rest of this cycle. She's got 105 days left before election day. Early voting begins in September, just over a month away. We'll let debate happen on September 10th, still up in the air. Apparently Trump is debating it. He has toied with calling her an illegitimate candidate because of the process here, but can he stop himself from not engaging that debate? Does he not want to elevate her? That's going to be an interesting thing here to watch. Among the many things that we're watching in the coming weeks, I mentioned her views. We're going to wait to see if any have evolved over the last couple of years. But we should note that she rarely strays here from party orthodoxy. She is to the left of Joe Biden. She started off as what's called a California moderate by Democratic standards, but to the left of pretty much the rest of the party. She was tough on crime. She was the attorney general. She was putting people behind bars. Then she involved to become what she called a progressive prosecutor. Calling for investigations of the police shootings, opposition to the death penalty, dealing with racial inequality is in the criminal justice system. So she likes to play on the prosecutor part of her biography here, certainly because of course Donald Trump has been convicted of a felony and faces other charges. So she's going to talk about how she puts people away and she's facing a felon. They'll be part of her schtick here. At the same time, you've Donald Trump saying, so much for a prosecutor, you were in charge of the border. Biden put you in charge of the border. And we've seen a surge of undocumented migrants, people legally coming across the border, some of whom are committing crimes. So what have you done about that? He's also coming at her from the left where he is trying to draw a wedge between Harris and elements of the black community where he makes a point of noting that 10 years ago that she was incarcerating minorities, black criminals in an unfair way. So those are some of the things that she'll run on. Potentially, we'll see where she stands on foreign policy issues. We'll see where she stands on other domestic issues. She's pretty traditional here on democratic issues when it comes to climate change and abortion. And she stands by how Biden here has fought inflation. So that's where things stand there. As far as weaknesses here, we did mention yesterday that she did drop out of the Democratic primary back in 2020 before a single vote was cast, had trouble managing her campaign, figuring out where she stood. She flipped on a bunch of issues. She did struggle to find a voice and a role early on in her vice presidency. By the way, we should mention that this happened with other vice presidents. There are questions as to her early staffing and why she had a whole bunch of people leave her in the beginning. And then of course, there's the issues. In particular, again, immigration. She was assigned the border. There were the record levels of the surge of migrants over the last few years. There are questions is how seriously she took that role, how infrequently she visited the border, if at all. And so that's where Republicans will hit her, along with everything else on the Biden record, as well as the fact, and they're trying to make this a thing here, is that they want to paint Democrats as deceitful on Biden's health, that they were covering up Biden's health issues. And can you trust Kamala Harris? Can you trust senators and congressmen who had private time with President Biden only for, they say, to see a version of Biden, they assume that we saw at the debate in June. So look for that as well. - All right, now to a very contentious hearing on Capitol Hill Monday, the head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheetall, appeared in front of the House Oversight Committee to answer questions about what went wrong leading up to and on the day of the assassination attempt against former President Trump. The issue, there were a lot of questions and she didn't have a lot of answers, Mosh. She was short on specifics, and it was frustrating for both Democrats and Republicans providing very little detail about the timeline and who was responsible for there not being a law enforcement official on the roof of the building, where he would be assassin, fired a shot at Trump and had that straight line of vision, just 150 yards away. As we reported on this podcast, Cheetall had told ABC News that there was no Secret Service agent on the roof because the roof was sloped and it wouldn't be safe. So she was asked about that on Monday and seemed to walk back that claim. - Especially since the slope was so subtle, a lot of members of Congress were questioning her on it, saying that slope was so slight that you could actually wheel a wheelchair on it and they were comparing various degrees here and she didn't have much to say about that. - Yeah, all in all, Mosh. I listened to most of the hearing and she wouldn't even answer some of the more basic questions. I wanna play this one clip. It's housed judiciary chair, Jim Jordan, the Republican of Ohio. He questioned Cheetall and the agency about whether they denied additional resources to Trump's detail. It's something that we've talked about on this podcast. The Secret Service acknowledged on Saturday that it had turned down requests for additional federal resources that were sought by Trump's security detail in the two years leading up to that attempted assassination and it was a reversal from earlier statements by the agency which denied that such requests had been rebuffed but Cheetall maintaining that the Secret Service did not deny resources, at least for the rally where the shooting took place. Here's a bit of that exchange. - They asked for additional help in some form or another. You told them no. How many times did you tell them no and what did you tell them no to? - Again, I cannot speak to specific incidents but I can tell you in general terms, the Secret Service is judicious with their resources based on-- - What does some requests mean? How many times? Some indicate request is plural. So more than once they ask for additional help and you turn them down. What they ask for and how many times you turn them down? Pretty basic questions. - So again, without having all of the details in front of me, sir, what I can tell you is that there are times-- - You didn't get briefed on how many times you turned down the Trump detail when they asked for additional help? - I'm sorry. - You didn't get briefed on that before you came to this hearing and you were gonna get asked that question? - What I can tell you is that in generic terms, when people, when details make a request, there are times that there are alternate ways to cover off on that threat. - But Moshe, that was really the vibe throughout the entire meeting. This feeling of why did Cheetah come with so few answers, with so few things that she was able to talk about? She kept just saying, "We're nine days into the investigation. "We'll get back to you." And that was extremely frustrating for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. - Yeah, I mean, nine days seems like a lifetime given everything we've experienced. The same time, there are legal ramifications and other elements here that she needs to consider. They were asking for more time. They were asking to do this behind the scenes and Congress said, "No, no, no, this is a big deal. "A president almost died and we need answers "and the taxpayers pay your salary and we want answers." So she went out there and she just didn't have much. Either unable or unwilling to answer a number of these questions here. So one of the headlines for me out of this, Jill, is that we're talking about the House Oversight Committee. This is the committee run by Republicans that's been trying to impeach Joe Biden. This is super contentious. They're at war with each other. The Democrats are Republicans. And this is one of those rare moments where you have Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamie Raskin, Democrats, agreeing with Jim Jordan and James Comer Republicans, they all agree with what? That the Secret Service is not answering the questions and there is a problem here. Jill just minutes after that hearing completed, a letter came out from Comer and Raskin, Cosine. That's also a rarity given how these two feel about each other. And they said, "Listen, you need to resign. "You did not have the answers that we needed." They write that her resigning will be the first step to allow new leadership to address the crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people. Jill, there was another moment where a member of Congress said, "Listen, would you call this the most serious attempt "on a president's life since the Ronald Reagan "assessination attempt in '81?" She goes, "Yeah, absolutely." And so the Congressman said, "So what did the director do in that case "in back in '81?" And the director, Chidl, says, "Well, you know, he stayed on the job "and made sure to fix things." Congressman says, "No, he resigned." It's quite a moment among many moments at that hearing. So a lot of questions came up as to why Trump wasn't removed from the stage, why the rally wasn't even put on pause. It was just a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. And they had what appears to be up to a half an hour of an alert that there was a suspicious person going around. And they were trying to draw a distinction between a danger and suspicious still. And this is questioning here from a Democrat. This is a representative Raja Krishnamurthy from Illinois, a Democrat asking Chidl about what took place. He made a point of playing one of the videos we've shared on our Instagram accounts of people pointing at the guy on the roof minutes before he shot, saying there's a guy on the roof. There's a guy on the roof. Apparently he got the law enforcement and nothing was done. Here's the exchange. - The shooter began shooting at 6.11 p.m. Eastern on July 13th. NBC reported that at 5.51 p.m., 20 minutes before the shooting began, the state police informed the Secret Service of their concern. Now the rally was not paused at that point, correct? - No. - And according to NBC, just two minutes later at 5.53 p.m., the Secret Service notified its snipers about the gunman. The rally wasn't paused at that point either, correct? - No. - Let me show you some video footage by rally goer. This was taken two minutes before the shooting started. You could turn up the volume. - Danger is leaving. - Crap it on us. - We have Crap it on us. - We have Crap it on the roof. - We have Crap it on us. - We have Crap it on the roof. - We have Crap it on the roof. - Crap it on the roof. - It happened. - You went on the roof. - Up here. - It doesn't look like suspicious behavior. That looks like threatening behavior to me. And the rally wasn't paused at that point either, correct? - I can tell you as I stated earlier, sir, that the moment that the shift surrounding the president were aware of an actual threat. - That's a threat right there. The guys on the roof and everybody's yelling at him. - Yes. - And directing the officers' attention to him. The rally was not paused at that point, correct? - We are currently still combing through communications and when communications were passed. - Jill, a lot of difficult moments there where again, very few specifics from the Secret Service, a lot of questions here. We talked on yesterday's podcast about how they have a lack of resources. How she actually said at the hearing that they have about 8,000 agents. They actually need 9,500 agents. They think to actually deal with the amount of protectees they have now. The informal presence, their families, just to deal with all the threats these days. And so there's a huge resource issue here which leads to the question, have they asked for more from Congress? How has that gone down? So I mentioned more of that will come out in the days ahead. But in the meantime, still a lot of questions about what to place in July 14th. All right, I wanna 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. They are a global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business, whether you're just launching your first online shop, whether you're creating a real-life store based on that, or you are brushing it and you need to take things to the next level and help manage all of that. Well, Shopify is there to help you grow. They help you sell everywhere. They are an all-in-one e-commerce platform, wherever, and whatever you're selling. They help you turn your browsers into buyers. They also have some new AI features, including Shopify Magic. So if you're looking to grow, we have a special Mo News deal to get you started with Shopify so you can check it out. You can sign up right now for just the $1 per month trial period over at Shopify.com/MoNews that is Shopify, S-H-O-P-I-F-Y.com/Mo News, all lowercase, to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in, one more time, Shopify.com/Mo News. (bell ringing) - And, Mo, we're always talking about health trends and food trends and how hard it is to get all of your nutrients. Well, one way to get all the important ones is HE-1 powder. It is just one scoop with a glass of water in the morning. It is easy and quick. So you can replace multiple health supplements, like multivitamins, digestive aids, immune support, and more with just one simple scoop. There's things like folate, magnesium, my favorite, ashwaganta for stress support, vitamin C and zinc, all through your immune system. It's good to know that you could cover your nutritional bases and just set yourself up for success in just 60 seconds. So with your first purchase of HE-1, they are giving Mo News listeners a free one-year supply at their vitamin D and five free travel packs of HE-1. Visit drinkAG1.com/Mo News to take advance to this offer. You can get a discounted monthly subscription or try it one time for just a month. Again, that is drinkAG1.com/Mo News, 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 New York Times, three days after planes around the world were grounded by a technology outage, Delta Airlines is still struggling to get stranded passengers to their destinations. As of Monday, it was the only carrier still canceling hundreds of flights as it raced to update its systems. The company's performance was much worse than other large US air carriers like American and United Airlines, which were both operating with few cancellations and it appeared to stem from decisions that Delta made when these systems first went down according to analysts. So experts say that Delta's strategy in the wake of these software outages differed from that of the other major US airlines. So instead of leaning more heavily on delays, Delta canceled many flights and that means that they now have defined open seats on flights that are already pretty packed and heavily booked. And then they have to re-accomitate hundreds of thousands of customers whose flights were canceled as we are in the middle of peak travel season. - So a reminder here, the tech outage that we talked about that hit globally airports around the world, hit airlines especially hard, a flawed update from CrowdStrike whose software is used around the world. Of course, Delta, American, Spirit, United, they're all around their flights. Turns out Southwest, by the way, wasn't impacted here. People are sharing the meme that it's 'cause Southwest hasn't updated their software since the '90s, so they're good. - Yeah, the fax machines were not impacted. - If you're still working off of DOS, you're good. MS DOS, you're good. Anyway, Delta apparently has been the slowest resource operations. American and United are back up to mostly full speed here. Delta now has to find open seats for already heavily booked flights to re-accommodate. Whole bunch of passengers, so heads up folks. If you are flying on Delta, which is a note to myself, I'm flying on Delta on Thursday, make sure to refresh your app and make sure that everything is good with your flight. - From the Associated Press, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in Washington before his major address to Congress tomorrow with ongoing efforts to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, rising concerns about the war spreading to Lebanon and Yemen and the wild rollercoaster of the US election, Netanyahu's speech will be closely watched before stepping on the plane. Netanyahu said that he would be emphasizing the theme of Israel's bipartisanship in his speech and said that Israel would remain America's key ally in the Middle East regardless of who the American people choose as their next president. There is also the question though of who Netanyahu will be meeting with while he is here in the United States. Netanyahu believed that he was going to be meeting with Biden at the White House today. It is unclear though, if that meeting is gonna happen as Biden is recovering from COVID-19. Again, Netanyahu's scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday tomorrow. - Jill will be closely watching those remarks on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. As far as the meeting with Biden, we're told that that could happen Wednesday or Thursday now. The Israelis thought it would happen today. So we'll wait to hear final details on that. Netanyahu is also set to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris at some point. Of course, she looks like she'll be the next nominee here. And we should note, she's been more critical of Netanyahu than Biden has. So let me just see if she decides to take a different policy when it comes to Israel and the conflict there if she was to become president. In the meantime, of course, Biden remains president so it remains his policy. As far as that address to Congress, sometimes you have vice presidents who attend those speeches when foreign heads of state speak before a joint session. Kamala Harris is not. Remember, when you're vice president, you're also the president of the Senate. That's the ceremonial role. So you sit in that slot behind the speaker. She had plans prior to this, and she's decided to keep those plans. So, Nanyo will be addressing a larger group of Congress, but there's a lot of members who are sitting out, particularly on the Democratic side, who are unhappy with his leadership and his execution of the war here. As far as Netanyahu's audience is here for the speech tomorrow, a lot here domestically in the US of foreign partners, as well as everyone in Israel will be watching for clues as to what comes next here, when it comes to the ceasefire, when it comes to the overall campaign, what happens next. You know, the relationship has been extremely contentious between Netanyahu and the Biden administration for a number of months here. They're feeling that he's not listening to them, that he is continuing to conduct the war in certain ways for his own domestic liberal purposes. In fact, there's some people around Biden who are saying, look at the contrast. You know, Joe Biden has stepped back for the sake of his country. Netanyahu, despite his unpopularity, despite being the Prime Minister who was in charge when the worst strategy in Israeli history happened on October 7th, has remained as Prime Minister and intends to remain. As Prime Minister, the last time Netanyahu addressed Congress back in 2015. At that time, it was at the invitation of the Republican Party. He made a point of being particularly critical of the Obama administration, President Obama, and at the time, Vice President Biden, we're not very happy about that. And so I'm sure that's in the backdrop here. As Netanyahu addressed his Congress now nine years later, Netanyahu has asked for a meeting with former President Trump while he's in the country. That could happen as soon as today or tomorrow in North Carolina, so we'll look out for that. - From CNBC, McDonald's will extend its $5 value meal beyond its initial four-week window in most U.S. markets. The fast food company saying it has been driving traffic back to restaurants, execs, say nearly every business unit encompassing 93% of its restaurants voted to extend the promotion. The $5 value meal rolled out on menu boards starting on June 25th, and it was initially set to last just about a month. It includes a McChicken or a McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets fries in a drink, and the combo costs substantially less than purchasing those items individually. - This speed read brought to you by McDonald's. No, I'm kidding. - I was gonna say shocking. People actually are flocking to somewhere that they can get-- - A $5 meal, there you have it. It turns out that people are into the whole cheaper food, so there you have it. It does come as McDonald's is among the many fast food establishments and restaurants that are trying to offer deals to get consumers back in as they all face inflation-fueled hikes in recent years, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, even Starbucks have offered deals in recent weeks and months here looking to bring prices back down to earth. - Grocery prices have not been on my radar at all, Moshe, so. (laughs) - This issue, you can say, Joe, didn't just fall out of a coconut tree. - No, and that is a very nice transition Moshe, this story from NPR, and an answer to a question many of you have been asking, what does Kamala Harris have to do with a coconut tree? Okay, in the weeks before President Biden announced that he would not be seeking reelection, some Democrats online rallied behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party's new nominee, and their symbol became the coconut tree. Not long after Biden announced on Sunday that he was dropping out of the race, Colorado Governor Jared Polis tweeted out just three emojis, a coconut, a palm tree, and an American flag, Emily's list, which is the pack focused on electing Democratic women, explicitly endorsed Harris in a tweet, adding the tree and the coconut to its username and Democratic Senator Brian Shatz of Hawaii posted a picture of himself climbing up a coconut tree, adding, "Madam Vice President, we are ready to help." Okay, so what is this all about? The coconut tree meme originates from a May 2023 speech that Harris gave at the White House. It was an event for advancing opportunities for Hispanic Americans. At one point near the end of her remarks, she talked about how the initiatives work would be focused on young people, but it should also take into account the needs of their families, teachers, and communities, quote, "Because none of us just live in a silo, but in the context of the world, take a listen." - Everything is in context. My mother used to, she would give us a hard time sometimes and she would say to us, "I don't know what's wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?" (laughing) You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you. - So many of you may have heard that Soundbite or seen it on social media, more likely. The moment was first memed in earnest in February. So the remarks happened last May and then they sort of blew up over the winter when for a period of time you probably couldn't open Twitter if you're a Twitter, sorry, X user without saying clips or references to those remarks. Now initially it was right-wing Twitter. It was conservative Twitter mocking her laugh, but now the Democrats have taken ownership of the remarks saying actually there's nothing to mock her about. The quote is pretty straightforward. And so the meme took on a new life this summer after Biden's debate as there was speculation about whether he would drop out. Harris supporters who apparently are not known as the K-Hive, Jill, the K-Hive or the Kamala Harris supporters were waiting in the wings. And so they embraced the coconut tree. Everyone was meaning the coconut tree. So while it was initially conservatives trying to mock Kamala Harris, now it is Democrats taking pride in being members of the coconut tree or all things coconut tree. Charlie XCX, the singer. There's been a remix now of first song Von Dutch with coconut tree. There's a Britney Spears Gini Moore remix with coconut tree. Democratic operatives are talking about being coconut pills here. So apparently this whole thing is blowing up. Google searches for coconut tree are climbing. So we're here on the Monus podcast. Tell you why that is. And here I thought this was all about the children's book "Chick-a-chick-a-boom-boom." If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about. (laughs) - The coconut tree, Jill. Be ready to hear-- - And be told B and be told C. - And this speaks to a couple things, which is Kamala Harris, they've memed her in a number of ways. And so she's trending on TikTok and on social media in a way that you never saw Joe Biden trend. And you often see Donald Trump trend. So with that excitement now around Kamala Harris, they're pulling sound bites from her and you're starting to see her meme-ified. I think Charlie XCX referred to Kamala Harris as brat, which is what the kids are saying these days about a woman who is hip, who sort of does their own thing, isn't boring, isn't stayed, is fun. Anyway, I'm just here to tell you that Jill, I also think you're brat. - Thank you, Moshe. Before you explained what brat was, perhaps would have not taken that as a compliment. - No, no, because brat, the way that we know it is like a child not behaving being a brat. In this case, brat is now good. How sort of years ago, bad became good? Like, you bad. - Right, right. - There we go. Or something sick, something sick is awesome. Well, no brat is also good. - Okay, from the New York Post, what's in a name? A few hundred bucks. If you are an increasingly in-demand baby name consultant, couples are no longer naming their precious offspring after loved ones or casually flipping through books for inspiration. Instead, moms and dads who want to give their children any edge that they can in an increasingly competitive world are paying experts hundreds of dollars to give their kiddos the perfect name. One such baby-namer, Colleen Slagan, had always been fascinated with baby names, but didn't consider the possibility of making it a full-time gig until her friends expressed how helpful her commentary had been when they chose names for their children. - So apparently, in this example, she quit her job as a nurse practitioner and began helping parents choose baby names full-time. She takes on a number of clients throughout the year. She shares them $300 to $400 a piece. She earns more than 60 grand, telling you, suggesting to you potential names for your baby. Apparently, her slots open at the beginning of the month. They fill up within an hour. But sounds like easy work here. She says can be a challenge. You got to fit extremely specific qualifications. Some people want to start with a certain letter or have certain family names. She's also gotten requests in the past that the name could only be used 25 times the previous year or have specific sounds in it, especially if they're naming a second or third child. They've already used their favorite names. They're having a difficult time here and they want something that they love. And so apparently, she says she prefers to keep her three children's names private. So we don't know what the baby names consultants, baby names are for her own children, but she said she chose their monikers using Celtic classics and family staples. - And in case you're wondering some rare but popular girls names these days. Harry, Daley and Scotty and some rare but popular boys names, Crosby, Rocky and Merrick. - There you go. And we're not charging you for that. You just have to listen to the podcast and leave us a review. (upbeat music) All right, now it's time for On This Day in History on this July 23rd. The Ford Motor Company, you might have heard of them, on this day in 1903 sold its first car, the Model A. It was an $850 car at the time. The first RVs opened up on this day in 1964. On this day in 1984, Vanessa Williams, the first black woman to receive the Miss America title was forced to resign as Miss America after Penthouse Magazine, the pornographic magazine, announced plans to publish unauthorized nude photos of her. Over the three decades later, Miss America would apologize to Williams for the way they handled that scandal. On this day in 1996, as I told you, Olympic history in the Summer Olympics were being held in Atlanta and the US Women's Gymnastics team wins its first ever gold on this day in '96. This is a big deal. If you were around during that time, you might remember the Magnificent Seven, you had Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, Carrie Strugg, Dominique Mosiano, Carrie Strugg, of course, injured herself, executing a near-perfect vault landing. She would appear on SNL. It was a whole thing, but it was a big deal because until then, we would lose the Soviets every single time and we'd never won a gold before. The hope is that we won a gold again this year in Paris. And we end here with music. ♪ After the heart and you're too lame ♪ ♪ You give love for bad name ♪ - Bon Jovi released "You Give Love" a bad name on this day in 1986. Jill apparently was a combination of two songs, one written by Richie Sambora, another written by the writer there, Desmond Child. John Bon Jovi was there, they were in a basement. One of them had a song called "Shocked Through the Heart." The other one had a song called "You Give Love" a bad name. They combined it, music history. - If you can't choose one, do both. - You do both! - Well, we told you yesterday about Bohemian Rhapsody on this day, the July 22nd on this day. In that case, the lean singer Freddie Mercury comes in and says, "I have three songs on my head. "I'm gonna combine them all into one for Bohemian Rhapsody." In this case, it was a combination of two. - A true Gemini song. - There you go. - All right, everyone. Thank you for listening to the "Mo News" podcast. If you like what you hear, share this with your friends. It helps us grow, follow us, subscribe, so you don't miss an episode. And as always, please review us in the app store. - Thanks for listening, everyone. Tomorrow, Joe, wider day than today? - Well, now it won't be enough. You've said this. (laughing) All right, stay tuned, everybody. - Bye. - Thanks for listening to the "Mo News" podcast. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (gentle music)
