2672 - The Politics Behind Biden's Sweeping Vaccine Mandates w/ Ryan Grim

It's Casual Friday! Sam hosts Ryan Grim, D.C. Bureau Chief at The Intercept, to discuss his recent bombshell scoop Heather Bresch, Joe Manchin's Daughter, Played Direct Part In EpiPen Price Inflation Scandal and round out the week in news. Ryan and Sam jump into a quick discussion of Biden’s recent vaccine mandate announcement, and speculate on the role it can play in bolstering Biden and Democrats' support going into the midterms with a large majority of Americans both already vaccinated and supportive of a mandate. They dive particularly into the culture war narrative currently driving politics and how that could both help and hurt Democratic midterm success, before touching on what is to be expected with COVID rates. Grim then dives into his scoop on the Manchin family, starting with Joe Manchin’s recent attempt to cut down the infrastructure budget and discussing what the budget actually means when it comes to spending, before moving onto the scandal breaking around Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, and wife, Gayle. Ryan sets up the corruption starting with Heather’s faked diplomas from West Virginia University that helped her reach the office of COO, then President and CEO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals and her mother’s role as a lobbyist for the association of school boards, before he and Sam dive into Bresch’s makeshift monopoly, of both supplier and distributor, of EpiPens alongside Pfizer, resulting in over a 500% increase in price, and a Mylan scheme to force their consumers to choose between literal death or spending mass amounts of money on multi-EpiPen packages, all while Gayle Manchin helped secure requirements for schools to purchase their own supplies of EpiPens. They round out the interview by exploring how Dem leadership can turn these metaphorical scandal lemons into an infrastructure lemonade, and Sam dives a little deeper into Biden’s new vaccine mandate. And in the second half of the show, Matthew Film Guy joins Sam as they reminisce on culture and comedy in the wake of 9/11, before they move onto the effect of 9/11 on general American culture, discussing the shift to the Right in mainstream media and pop culture in the early aughts and what direction today’s artists might shift mainstream political culture, and Matt gives his suggestions. Sam also touches on the deplorable laughter at a boy discussing the death of his grandmother in a Tennessee school board meeting, Rep. Katie Porter’s callout of Joe Manchin and centrist Dems, and Ben Shapiro’s commitment to replacement theory, even when it comes to statues. They also cover Crowder’s return to being a horrible person on YouTube, plus, your IMs! 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