Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hello, Deep background listeners. Noah Feldman here. I've recently
Speaker 1: started making regular appearances on Axios Today, the daily news
Speaker 1: podcast from Axios. I always have great conversations with host
Speaker 1: Nila Boodoo, and I hope I'm able to shed light
Speaker 1: on the legal issues that are making headlines. Here's my
Speaker 1: latest interview on Axios Today. If you like getting smarter faster,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: I've made it a daily habit, and I hope you
Speaker 1: will too. Good morning, Welcome to Axios Today. It's Friday,
Speaker 1: December fourth. I'm Nila Boodoo. Here's how we're making you
Speaker 1: smarter today. President Trump wants to auction drilling rights in
Speaker 1: Alaska's Arctic wildlife refuge. Plus, there's a new genealogy database
Speaker 1: dedicated to enslaved people and their stories. But first, the
Speaker 1: test of our electoral system. Today's one big thing. That
Speaker 1: was two weeks ago when the Wayne County Board of
Speaker 1: Canvassers in Michigan met to certify presidential election results and
Speaker 1: both Republican members refused. A few hours later, the Republicans relented.
Speaker 1: There was another vote in the certification. Happened. It wasn't
Speaker 1: just these Republicans in Michigan. A Republican secretary of State
Speaker 1: in Georgia, a Republican county supervisor in Arizona, and Republican
Speaker 1: appointed judges in Pennsylvania were among the state and local
Speaker 1: officials who ended up validating the voters choice of Joe
Speaker 1: Biden over Donald Trump in the presidential election. Noah Feldman
Speaker 1: is a constitutional law scholar at Harvard and host of
Speaker 1: the Deep Background podcast from Pushkin. Noah, So, we talked
Speaker 1: before the election about your concerns about the democratic process.
Speaker 1: I wonder in the end, did it all come down
Speaker 1: to these few people. Those officials mattered a lot, but
Speaker 1: it did come down to more than just them. Had
Speaker 1: they ultimately gone down the Trump rabbit hole, that alone
Speaker 1: would not have necessarily caused the next steps that Trump
Speaker 1: was hoping for. That would have taken a lot of people.
Speaker 1: But those folks were crucial because had they gone down
Speaker 1: that road, it was possible that the democratic process would
Speaker 1: genuinely have unraveled. So would you say, as a constitutional
Speaker 1: law scholar, the process worked. Ultimately, the process worked in
Speaker 1: the sense that we got the right outcome. It's not
Speaker 1: a process that you or I would have designed in
Speaker 1: the first place. The good news is the overwhelming majority
Speaker 1: ninety nine point nine percent of state bureaucratic officials actually
Speaker 1: just did their jobs in the ordinary way, and that's
Speaker 1: great news. No, you and I have also talked in
Speaker 1: the past about all the unwritten rules that govern our
Speaker 1: election process. Do you feel like there's been irreparable damage
Speaker 1: because of the way President Trump continues to attack what
Speaker 1: an overwhelming majority of government and other officials say was
Speaker 1: a free and fair election. Major damage has already been
Speaker 1: done at present. I would not say the damage is irreparable,
Speaker 1: but it's only reparable with a lot of work, a
Speaker 1: lot of time, and a lot of logic and reason
Speaker 1: being used against many, many, many arguments that are really
Speaker 1: grounded a conspiracy theory, and they aren't so easy to
Speaker 1: refute with facts. So what work has to be done? Then?
Speaker 1: Some of that work can be done by making what's
Speaker 1: already a fairly transparent process even more transparent in this
Speaker 1: day and age. Probably there should be a video camera
Speaker 1: on every polling place, every pile of ballots. That would help,
Speaker 1: but it's not enough. There need to be officials who
Speaker 1: are trusted public leaders saying the process is legitimate, and
Speaker 1: that starts from the top. So in the end, how
Speaker 1: are you feeling about all of this? I guess what
Speaker 1: I would say is Donald Trump came close to breaking
Speaker 1: the norms of the system in a way that shows
Speaker 1: the vulnerability of the system. And in that sense, we
Speaker 1: learned a lot about how precarious our constitutional democracy is.
Speaker 1: And that's very, very sobering for anyone whose job, like
Speaker 1: mine is involves looking at the system and judging its strength,
Speaker 1: judging how capable it is. So we have a lot
Speaker 1: of serious challenges that we need to address going forward.
Speaker 1: Noah Feldman is a constitutional law scholar at Harvard and
Speaker 1: he's also hosts of the Deep Background podcast from Pushkin.
Speaker 1: Thanks Noah, thanks for having me. We'll be back in
Speaker 1: fifteen seconds with the latest plan to drill for oil
Speaker 1: in Alaska. Welcome back to Axios today. The Trump administration
Speaker 1: announced yesterday it will auction off drilling rights in Alaska's
Speaker 1: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if those rights are sold before
Speaker 1: January twentieth. That's a big step towards drilling in what
Speaker 1: has been a decades long battle in the region. What
Speaker 1: could President elect Joe Biden do to reverse this once
Speaker 1: he takes office. Ben Gamon is an energy reporter for Axios.
Speaker 1: Then the drilling rints in this area have been fought
Speaker 1: over for such a long time. Can you just tell
Speaker 1: us what's going on here? Yeah, that's right. And what's
Speaker 1: happened here is that as a result of some gop
Speaker 1: led legislation in twenty seventeen, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
Speaker 1: or the coastal plane of it, a part of it
Speaker 1: has theoretically thrown open to drilling. What's going to happen
Speaker 1: now is that early in January they're going to auction
Speaker 1: these drilling rights to oil companies and that would make
Speaker 1: it much more difficult, but hardly impossible. I should stress
Speaker 1: for Biden to prevent drilling from ever occurring there. So
Speaker 1: this is a significant step, but the fight is hardly over.
Speaker 1: So we know that Biden opposes this, what could he
Speaker 1: do to stop it? To some extent? Their hands are
Speaker 1: going to be tied because the leases will have already
Speaker 1: been sold. But that said, there's any number of different
Speaker 1: levers that the Biden administration could attempt to pull to
Speaker 1: either thwart or at the very least massively slow down
Speaker 1: this process. And that could be anything from no longer
Speaker 1: defending the Trump administration's position in ongoing litigation over prior
Speaker 1: parts of this effort. They could impose different types of
Speaker 1: permitting requirements that would make things very difficult for the industry.
Speaker 1: That said, I do think we will see some level
Speaker 1: of industry interest in the sale of simply because the
Speaker 1: resources there are believed to at least potentially be incredibly large.
Speaker 1: Can you just tell us about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
Speaker 1: what kind of ecosystem is it and would it be
Speaker 1: damaged by drilling? Yeah, certainly any type of industrial development
Speaker 1: in this ecosystem is going to have some impacts and
Speaker 1: cause some level of harm. Now, advocates of development think
Speaker 1: that this can be done in a way that is
Speaker 1: quite manageable and minimizes the risks. Opponents of its say
Speaker 1: that's essentially a fantasy, that just the level of development
Speaker 1: that's going to be needed to create well pads, pipelines,
Speaker 1: other infrastructure will badly harm and jeopardize the region. And
Speaker 1: this is a very pristine, remote and ecologically sensitive place.
Speaker 1: It's home to species including caribou, polar bears, other types
Speaker 1: of animals and species that people are very fearful would
Speaker 1: be greatly disrupted by this. Thankiemon is the author of
Speaker 1: the axios Generate newsletter, one of the most comprehensive it's
Speaker 1: on slavery is now using technology to help millions of
Speaker 1: descendants learn more about their ancestors. It's called enslaved dot
Speaker 1: org and Russell contrast excuss Race Injustice Reporter is here
Speaker 1: to tell us all about it. Russell, how is this
Speaker 1: database different than say, ancestry dot com. Well, an answerstry
Speaker 1: dot com there's a lot of information, but there was
Speaker 1: a void on its history of slavery. A lot of
Speaker 1: people have discovered documents in their own personal research about
Speaker 1: their own family members, and so what this website is
Speaker 1: doing is encouraging people to submit these documents so they
Speaker 1: could be vetted by scholars and be included in this database.
Speaker 1: How else does it fill in these holes that are
Speaker 1: in a lot of family narratives. I took some time
Speaker 1: was looking at it, and I, of course, you type
Speaker 1: your own name. And what was shocking is that I
Speaker 1: found two folks who had my last name who were
Speaker 1: slave traders. They came from Portugal, and as I read them,
Speaker 1: I realized, not only do I have some ancestors who
Speaker 1: were connected to the enslavement of other people. I have
Speaker 1: connections to people who were enslaved and so enslaved. Dot
Speaker 1: org really brings home this legacy. Russell Controros is the
Speaker 1: race and Justice reporter for Axios. Thank you, Russell, thank you.
Speaker 1: Let's end this week with a little story. In nineteen eighteen,
Speaker 1: in the middle of that pandemic, a baby was born
Speaker 1: on a ship carrying immigrants from Italy to New York City.
Speaker 1: Her mother's guy giving birth, but the baby, named Angelina,
Speaker 1: survived and she's still around. This year, she turned one
Speaker 1: hundred and two. That's her daughter Joanne telling her story
Speaker 1: to CNN. That's because this year Angelina Friedman conquered another pandemic,
Speaker 1: the coronavirus. She was admitted to a New York hospital
Speaker 1: in March, where she first tested positive. Months later, in October,
Speaker 1: she tested positive again. She's recovered both times, and her
Speaker 1: daughter thinks Angelina might just be the old person to
Speaker 1: have survived COVID twice. My mother is not human, Una,
Speaker 1: it certainly seems that way. Axios Today is brought to
Speaker 1: you by Axios and Pushkin Industries. We're produced by Carol
Speaker 1: Wu Nuria Marquez Martinez, Karashillen, and Naomi Shavin. Our mixed
Speaker 1: engineer is Alex Sugiara. Dan Bobcoff is our executive producer.
Speaker 1: Sarah Kahalani gu is our executive editor and special thanks
Speaker 1: to Axios co founder Mike Allen at Pushkin. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers are Leta mullat In Jacob Weisberg. We love feedback.
Speaker 1: Share your thoughts by writing us at podcasts at axios
Speaker 1: dot com or to me directly on Twitter at Nila Budoo.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, Stay safe and enjoy your weekend.