SAM SANDERS, HOST:
Is that Yamiche?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Oh, my God, Sam, I might cry (laughter). I miss you so much.
SANDERS: (Laughter) It's so good to - I miss you too. Oh my, God. So people listening on this call might not know, but, like, you were my Bernie buddy. We...
ALCINDOR: Yes.
SANDERS: ...Were on that Bernie bus for months, and I would not have survived that campaign without you (laughter).
ALCINDOR: Not at all (laughter). I would have withered...
SANDERS: We were...
ALCINDOR: ...And died (laughter).
SANDERS: ...In it. We were in it. I knew Yamiche was destined for greatness when I would see her in those Bernie gaggles. One, he didn't do too many gaggles. But when he would show up, Yamiche was always like, oh, I got something for you.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: You gonna hear this question, sir.
ALCINDOR: Oh, my gosh.
AYESHA RASCOE, BYLINE: See, and that's when you know it's good - when you like, oh, I got something for him. I got...
ALCINDOR: (Laughter).
RASCOE: I got something for you today (laughter).
ALCINDOR: Right.
SANDERS: And it's...
ALCINDOR: And now...
SANDERS: ...Equal opportunity. It's going to be hard questions for all of them.
RASCOE: Oh, for everybody.
ALCINDOR: Right, and then...
RASCOE: No, no, no. It's for everybody. Whoever show up, you gonna get it today.
(LAUGHTER)
ALCINDOR: Right. And now, I'm, like, in the briefing room watching Ayesha be like, OK, Ayesha, what are we - what's going on? Are we gonna survive this...
(LAUGHTER)
ALCINDOR: ...Today?
(SOUNDBITE OF FLEVANS' "FLICKER")
AUNT BETTY: Hey, y'all. This is Sam's Aunt Betty. This week, President Biden's year. All right. Let's start the show.
SANDERS: Hey, y'all. You're listening to IT'S BEEN A MINUTE from NPR. I'm Sam Sanders.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN ROBERTS: Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.
SANDERS: It has been almost one year since this happened.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERTS: ...Solemnly swear.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., do solemnly swear...
SANDERS: That we were all reminded that Joe Biden's middle name is Robinette; also that he was sworn in as our 46th president of the United States.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERTS: And will to the best of my ability...
BIDEN: And will to the best of my ability...
SANDERS: That day marked an end to a tumultuous four years under Donald Trump - a four years that ended with an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol just a few weeks before Biden was sworn in. In contrast, Joe Biden's inauguration was pretty quiet and heavily secured.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: I have to tell you, as we've been waiting here - it seems as if they deliberated whether or not he would get out of the car - I was struck by just how quiet it was. You know, I've been along...
SANDERS: But this was the America Joe Biden had to work with, an America that was hurt and divided and in the middle of an ongoing pandemic...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Tonight, the delta variant is COVID's most serious threat.
SANDERS: ...An unsure economy...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NANCY PELOSI: The Build Back Better bill is passed.
SANDERS: ...And a looming deadline in a decades-long war.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: The President defended his decision to end the war in Afghanistan August 31.
BIDEN: I judged that it was not in the national interest in the United States of America to continue fighting in this war indefinitely.
SANDERS: On the show, we're taking some time at the end of 2021 to look back at some of the biggest stories of the year, and this episode is Joe Biden's turn. Nearly one year into his presidency, what has Biden accomplished so far? And what promises has not yet been able to keep? For this chat, I invited two friends and rock stars - Yamiche Alcindor, White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and moderator of "Washington Week," and Ayesha Rascoe, who you hear a lot on this show. She's an NPR White House correspondent and frequent guest host on IT'S BEEN A MINUTE.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLEVANS' "FLICKER")
SANDERS: I want to (laughter) open this conversation about Joe Biden and his almost whole first year with a little game I used to play on the show but kind of stopped. So I used to have my guests - when they came on for the weekly wrap episodes, I had them describe their week of news in three words. And we stopped doing it because everyone stressed out about it, and they would, like, spend hours trying to find the perfect three words. And I was like, it ain't that serious.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: But, as a thought exercise on Joe Biden, I want you both to just think for a second and tell me three words to describe Joe Biden's almost whole first year.
RASCOE: Yeah. Competently chaotic roller coaster.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Is roller coaster one word? I made that one word.
SANDERS: We gonna let it be one word today.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
SANDERS: Tell me what you mean by this three words.
RASCOE: Well, here's the thing. I think Biden came into office certainly with experience and competence. And he has, like, one of the most experienced White Houses of recent memory, right? But then they also came in at this point of just chaos, right? Like - and one big thing that I do want to point out is, like, Trump, when he came in, he came in at a point of relative prosperity. There weren't, like, a lot of crises. Like, for his first three years, all the crises were made by him. So he was able to kind of glide in, whereas you have Biden coming in in a chaotic moment. And then also everything's, like, a roller coaster. Everything's, like, up and down and all around. And so...
SANDERS: Yeah.
RASCOE: ...I think that's what he's been dealing with. Like, it's very - it's a very different scenario than what, you know, say, you know, Trump came into.
SANDERS: It's almost the polar opposite. It's like...
RASCOE: It is.
SANDERS: ...Biden came in projecting efficiency and competence to a world that's kind of on fire.
RASCOE: Yes.
SANDERS: Whereas, Donald Trump walked into a world that was much calmer, but the chaos came from, like...
RASCOE: From him.
SANDERS: ...Inside the house.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: It was like...
SANDERS: Yeah.
RASCOE: It was like he was the bull in the china shop.
SANDERS: It's true. I like that. Yamiche, three words?
ALCINDOR: It's such a great point by Ayesha. And it's, I think, not surprising that I also thought of chaos and big bills.
SANDERS: OK.
ALCINDOR: Because I think the thing that Democrats, I think, are very concerned about is the fact that they did get some really big bills through. They got the American rescue package. They got the bipartisan infrastructure bill. They might get the Build Back Better Act. These are transformational, huge, like, just big, big, big bills. We can't even talk about the idea that trillion-dollar bills were a thing that happened more than once a year, more than once a generation. But here...
SANDERS: Yeah.
ALCINDOR: ...Is President Biden pushing all these big bills through. The problem is whether or not he's going to be able to get credit for some of the good that comes out of these big bills, or if Republicans are going to be able to convince people that while they're struggling and while they are looking for a job, that the federal government's wasting money.
SANDERS: Exactly. Well, and also, you know, when I think of, like, what Joe Biden has faced this year and what all of America is facing this year - this past year - is just, I guess, my three words are lots of confusion. Just the economy, by some metrics, we're doing really well. You know, unemployment is low again. The stock market is up. You know, low-wage workers are making more money now. All of these things sound good, right? But you ask the average American how they feel about the economy - they're scared. They don't know what's happening next, and inflation is going up. And it's, like, literally best of times, worst of times. And the same feeling I have with the pandemic. On the one hand, I know it's getting better. But on the other hand, I keep seeing the whole Greek alphabet with these variants. And I'm like, when does it stop? And so...
RASCOE: It keeps going. Yeah.
SANDERS: Yeah, yeah. And so it just feels like, especially when you're trying to make sense of how a president is doing, it's hard to do that in this kind of upside down, downside up moment that we're in. But I do want to take some time with both of you to unpack what's, perhaps, the biggest accomplishment of Joe Biden's almost first year so far. And that's those big bills that y'all mentioned. Can both of you give our listeners a quick rundown of what the bills that he's passed, as far as spending - what they're actually doing, and how big they actually are?
RASCOE: Well, I'll take the American Rescue Plan, if that's OK, Yamiche (laughter).
ALCINDOR: Yeah, of course.
RASCOE: I would say...
ALCINDOR: Go ahead, Ayesha.
SANDERS: Yeah, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: OK, I'm going to go ahead. Now, so the American Rescue Plan, that was a lot of money out the door to try to help people in the midst of the pandemic. It was meant to be temporary relief. The big thing - one of the biggest things out of that was the child tax credit, the expansion of it, and that it is basically refundable. Starting in July up until this month, families with children who make a certain amount of money have been able - or, you know, below the threshold - have been able to get money directly from the government. Like, the IRS just puts that money into their accounts. That child tax credit has dramatically lowered child poverty in the U.S., especially for Black and brown children. So it did a lot of things, but it's so big and so massive that we have polling out from NPR, the NPR/Marist Poll, and most people do not credit Biden with the American Rescue Plan, nor do they feel like these payments help them. People are saying they don't even know if they're getting the child tax payment and that they don't think...
SANDERS: Really?
RASCOE: ...It's helpful to them. Yes, this is what...
SANDERS: And that's crazy because...
RASCOE: ...The poll is showing.
SANDERS: ...You compare it - well, and, like, I'm just hearing you say that, and I'm comparing that to what Trump did when he sent out the first round of COVID stimulus. He signed every check.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
SANDERS: Remember that?
RASCOE: He sent...
SANDERS: He signed...
RASCOE: He sent letters...
SANDERS: ...Every check.
RASCOE: He sent letters to people, and Biden did, too. Biden sent some letters to people.
SANDERS: OK. OK.
RASCOE: But they are not crediting Biden, or really Democrats, with it. Like, it's not, like, a...
SANDERS: Yeah.
RASCOE: ...Large amount of people. Like, I think the wild thing is 17% of people credited Republicans with direct payments, even though...
SANDERS: Wow.
RASCOE: ...No Republicans voted for it (laughter). And the same amount...
SANDERS: (Laughter) Oh, my goodness.
RASCOE: ...Seventeen percent felt that Biden was most responsible, so - for sending the cash. So that is not...
SANDERS: Oh, my goodness.
RASCOE: ...That's not a good...
SANDERS: That's - wow.
RASCOE: That's - yeah.
SANDERS: Yeah. Not good for Joe Biden. So - all right, so that's one big spending bill. What's the other one?
ALCINDOR: The other one is the trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure bill. And I should say - I call it...
RASCOE: The BIF.
ALCINDOR: It's - the BIF.
(LAUGHTER)
ALCINDOR: BIF - I can't even.
(LAUGHTER)
ALCINDOR: And then there's the - I can't with these acronyms. But then there's - and with the $1 trillion, there's actually $550 billion of actual new funds. But this new spending is going to be for roads. It's bridges. It's expanding broadband access. So this is really, I would say, the hard infrastructure bill. It was also - I have to underscore again, bipartisan Republicans voted for this. That was something that the president campaigned on. So this is a really, really big bill.
The issue, of course, is that there's also this second bill that Democrats are trying to get done. It's the B-B-B, not the B-I-F. It's the Build Back Better Act, which is Democrats wanting to focus more on what they call human infrastructure, and that deals with climate change. It deals with all sorts of - sort of other issues, home health aides and all sorts of things. But this is still this $1 trillion infrastructure bill. It's really, really big. It's going to help Americans. Americans are going to be able to see this.
And much like the American Rescue Act, Republicans are already taking credit for it. Republicans are - and yes, of course, they voted for it. But they're taking credit for it and sort of not giving credit to the president. So it's, in some ways, very interesting. This is, again, another sort of challenge for this administration to really...
SANDERS: Yeah.
ALCINDOR: ...Take credit.
SANDERS: Yeah. You know, and it's so fascinating to see Joe Biden not getting the credit that he wants for these big bills he and his party were able to get through. While on the other hand, a lot of things that he has less control over, he's getting heat for. And I want to kind of pivot and talk about the things that are seemingly outside of a president's control or not as much in his control as some might think. I'm talking about inflation. I'm talking about gas prices. I'm talking about this recent few months of really weird COVID-related supply chain issues. All of those things Biden is getting some flak for, but he really can't control it as much as he wants to or folks think he can. How do those variables that aren't under his control - how are they factoring into what his first year has been?
ALCINDOR: I mean, they're factoring, I think, in a big way into how his first year has gone. And I would add to that list omicron, the new Greek letter...
SANDERS: Yeah.
ALCINDOR: ...That we all had to learn. I'm an Alpha...
SANDERS: Yeah.
ALCINDOR: ...Kappa Alpha Sorority incorporated sister, so...
(LAUGHTER)
ALCINDOR: ...I knew...
RASCOE: Oh, she had to throw that in there.
ALCINDOR: I knew the letter.
RASCOE: She had to throw that in there.
ALCINDOR: Just, you know, I was very...
(LAUGHTER)
ALCINDOR: I was very, very familiar with omicron and how to say it and pronounce it. But other people were - you know, had to learn. And - but what we got from that, I would say, is that he is having to also deal with the backlash of people being exhausted. Add to that, as you said, inflation and all these other things, and really, I think what you get is that he's sort of having to deal with the grief - the president, that is - having to deal with the - sort of Americans just not feeling good about the world and not feeling certain about their futures. Inflation, in particular - Nixon had to deal with it, Jimmy Carter had to deal with it, LBJ tried to deal with it. All of them really failed to deal with the issue of inflation. The president's trying his best. And when it comes to gas prices, he released some barrels. Like, I think it's 50 million barrels.
RASCOE: Fifty million. Yeah.
ALCINDOR: Fifty million...
SANDERS: Wow.
ALCINDOR: ...Barrels from this reserve to try to get gas prices down. But in some ways, he's grasping at things and trying to make people essentially feel better about their lives. And that's a really hard thing to do.
SANDERS: Yeah, yeah. Well, and then when you see presidents, of either party, pass the kind of bills that might drastically reshape the economy, you don't feel the effects for a while. You don't feel it for a few years, you know? And so it's also, though, this larger issue of messaging for Democrats. You know, there are the types of things and policies that Democrats have been talking about - infrastructure, climate change, et cetera. But then there are the big issues that Americans seem to be most into right now - gas prices, inflation, disruptions in buying stuff. And how much of this is a messaging problem and, like, a focus problem? Does it just feel like Joe Biden isn't focusing enough on the stuff people think presidents should focus the most on?
RASCOE: I do think that part of it is absolutely a messaging issue. Like, that second big bill that Yamiche talked about, the BBB, what is that bill? Is it - can we give three words for what that is?
SANDERS: Nobody can.
RASCOE: No.
SANDERS: Jen Psaki can't do it.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
SANDERS: Joe Biden can't do it. Nobody can summarize that bill.
RASCOE: You cannot summarize it because it's so big and massive. And the problem with that is people don't - you cannot just quickly summarize it. It's universal pre-K. It's climate change. It's all of these investments - the care economy. I mean, the same thing happened with Obamacare, really, right? Like...
SANDERS: Yeah.
RASCOE: ...People were all worked up about Obamacare. They didn't like it, duh, duh, duh, duh (ph). And then when states started putting up exchanges, they were like, oh, I like this exchange where I can go get some health care...
SANDERS: Yep, yep.
RASCOE: ...But I hate Obamacare. I don't want none of that. Like...
SANDERS: Yeah.
RASCOE: ...It's just like - it's really the same thing. But I also think there's a difference. When Democrats do certain things, there's an idea that they are helping people, but they may be helping the wrong people.
SANDERS: Explain.
RASCOE: There is an idea - and I think we saw this with health care - where health care was looked at as reparations, right? People didn't like Obamacare because they felt like it was reparations and helping people who were not deserving. And so sometimes when people are giving out checks, and you're giving out child tax, you're like, oh, but it helps everybody. But sometimes people look at that and go, OK, well, I don't know that everyone deserves to be helped.
ALCINDOR: And it's such a great point. Only because we also - I mean, what Ayesha's touching on is also that we live in this country where I think the biggest difference - as someone who's covered Bernie Sanders and then former President Donald Trump - that the biggest difference is not sort of what people think the problems are - it's that they don't have good access to health care or education or they want to make more money - but it's who do they blame for that?
RASCOE: Yes.
ALCINDOR: And on the one side, you had Bernie Sanders, who was blaming billionaires and saying that these are the people that you should really have an issue with. But on the Republican side, and specifically when it comes to the former president, you had Donald Trump saying, well, it's the immigrants. It's the Black people. And I think we have to also just think that - I think race plays a role in that because...
RASCOE: Yes.
ALCINDOR: ...When you - when Ayesha just mentioned that it's like, of course, there are some people who think, like, who are these people that are getting these checks? And of course, it's the sort of ridiculous stereotype of Black people, in particular, being lazy, given the fact that, of course, African Americans built this country for free. So I think that, you know...
RASCOE: Yes.
SANDERS: For free.
ALCINDOR: You know...
SANDERS: Yeah.
ALCINDOR: ...For free.
RASCOE: Yes, for free.
SANDERS: Yeah.
RASCOE: Yes.
ALCINDOR: So I just think that that's part of it, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLEVANS' "FLICKER")
SANDERS: All right. Coming up, more with Yamiche Alcindor and Ayesha Rascoe on President Joe Biden's year.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLEVANS' "FLICKER")
SANDERS: You know, we cannot talk about Joe Biden's first year without talking about Afghanistan and America's withdrawal from that nation under his leadership. A large swath of Americans - Republicans and Democrats - felt that it was handled pretty badly. And some of the images you saw of that withdrawal, they looked bad enough to ruin anyone's presidency. You know, we're now months away from that withdrawal. Does it look, in hindsight, that Joe Biden handled it better or worse than people thought?
RASCOE: What stood out - I mean, when you talk about those images - and Yamiche asked one of the key questions ahead of that withdrawal - and it was his answer - Biden, in his answer to Yamiche, where he said you won't have to worry about seeing people evacuated from the embassy in helicopters, and that did not turn out to be true. Look, what happened in Afghanistan was not just a President Biden issue, right? This was years of...
SANDERS: Decades.
RASCOE: ...Issues - decades of issues. And then he decided to withdraw. Was there a way to withdraw in a - that was better or that was more helpful or that could have saved more people? There are arguments that there were. They certainly did not prepare the American people for what was going to happen and what it was going to look like.
ALCINDOR: Yeah, I mean, I think that the images - I mean, who will ever forget the images of human beings clinging to airplanes and them dying because they fell off the airplane on the tarmac? I mean, those were chilling images. And of course, President Biden was saying, you know, we can't stay here. The Afghans don't want to fight this war for themselves. But at the end of the day, it was his decision. It was on his watch that these images came out, and I think that it really did damage to his presidency.
I also think it did damage his image because I think not only did it, maybe, do the momentary damage of people not liking the way he pulled out - even if in 20 years from now, people will say, well, that was the right decision - there was also just a momentum issue. I think before Afghanistan, there was this feeling, like, from the Biden administration, they got this. They're doing this. We're doing the stuff that former President Trump didn't do. Like, the Democrats are feeling good about all the things that they're doing. Afghanistan happens and that sort of stalls. It sort of becomes, like, oh, my gosh, what are you guys doing? Why is this the best thing that you could have done as the most experienced White House as you build yourself out to be? So I think there became this credibility issue. And I think that he's still trying to shake that.
SANDERS: Yeah, yeah. We're almost done here, but I have to ask both of you veteran reporters covering politics...
ALCINDOR: Well, veteran means old.
SANDERS: ...This first year...
ALCINDOR: I don't know about...
RASCOE: I don't know, veteran. What are you trying to say?
SANDERS: Seasoned.
RASCOE: Oh, we seasoned.
SANDERS: Experienced. Marinated.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: My bad. My bad. OK, the question is - forgive that. The question is - what has surprised both of you the most about Joe Biden's first year?
ALCINDOR: I think what's probably surprised me the most is that there's been so much chaos. Because I thought it would be boring, and they sold it as being boring. But in reality, we've...
SANDERS: They said that. They're like, we're going to be boring. You can forget about us.
ALCINDOR: They, like, ran on boring.
SANDERS: We're going to be so quiet. That was the whole pitch.
ALCINDOR: And I think that I didn't realize that it was going to be chaotic in a different way. Of course, as Ayesha said smartly, this wasn't sort of chaos a lot of times that they were creating for themselves, but it was a lot of just, like, moments where you were like, wait, what? What's going on? And I also think, you know, I have to say, you know, the president said he would have Black people's backs. I think he's done a lot that African Americans have cheered on and feel very, very comfortable continuing to support him. That being said, there are some key issues that still have not had the sort of headway, including voting rights, including policing reform.
And I would also add the Haitian migrant crisis. As someone who's Haitian American, I can tell you that crisis and the image of border officials using horse reigns against Black people and using horses to run down Black people at the border, it did real damage to this administration. And I think that was something that surprised me because I think - I talked to a lot of people who thought this is not what I expected under the Biden administration.
RASCOE: I would say what surprised me the most is like, really - and I don't know whether it also - I feel like it has also surprised the administration - it's just like how COVID it has stuck around, right? Like, I think you went into the new year, and there was that point where people stopped wearing masks. I know people don't - there's...
SANDERS: It was like a good month where you're like, we're free.
RASCOE: Yeah.
SANDERS: And then they're like sike.
RASCOE: Yeah, and I mean, I know a lot of places they don't wear masks. Anyway, but I'm talking about at the White House, like, people stopped wearing masks. And it was like, look, go out. We're going to have Fourth of July. It's going to be fun. And then it all went - then delta hit and it was like, oh, this is not going away. And so - and I feel like this administration is still dealing with that. But he clearly thought they would be in a different place with the virus than they are now.
SANDERS: Yeah. You know, I've been surprised and not surprised because this is a constant truth. But I've just noticed most this year how weird the presidency is and how much they actually cannot do. You know, the president right now cannot control Congress. He cannot control that Supreme Court. He cannot control the economy. But he is tied to all of those things. And I think the story of Joe Biden's first year for me is just this master class of what you can and cannot do. And when I say master class, what I'm saying is life is going to teach every president how much they cannot control. And I want to say that the Biden administration came in kind of saying, well, actually no, and global affairs and domestic affairs are like, actually, yes.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yeah.
SANDERS: You can't run everything, Joe Biden...
RASCOE: No.
SANDERS: ...No president can - like that is the moral of the first Biden year for me.
RASCOE: And that's the thing is that it's, like, a lot of people will forever believe that presidents can create jobs. They really don't. They really don't have that much effect on the stock market or creating jobs. But they get the credit when things are good and they also get the blame when things are bad. And that's just the way it is.
SANDERS: That's just the way it - what a wonderful way to end the segment. And that's the way it is. Cue Celine.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THAT'S THE WAY IT IS")
CELINE DION: (Singing) That's the way it is. That's the way it is.
SANDERS: One of my favorite Celine songs.
RASCOE: It is what it is.
SANDERS: Yes. Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: On that note, Yamiche, Ayesha, thank y'all for breaking it down. Will y'all stick around and play a game with me after this?
ALCINDOR: Yes. Thanks so much.
RASCOE: Thank you. And sure, I'm excited.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THAT'S THE WAY IT IS")
DION: (Singing) And that's the way it is.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLEVANS' "FLICKER")
SANDERS: We're back. You're listening to IT'S BEEN A MINUTE from NPR. I'm Sam Sanders, joined by two guests who have a lot of jobs and titles, so I will just let the two of them introduce themselves.
RASCOE: Ayesha Rascoe, White House correspondent for NPR.
ALCINDOR: Yamiche Alcindor, White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour and moderator of PBS' "Washington Week."
SANDERS: I love it. I love it. So I'm going to ask both of you right now to take off your political reporting hats and put on your pop culture hats so we can play a game called Who Said That?
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA")
KANDI BURRUSS: Who had been saying that?
PORSHA WILLIAMS: Who said that?
KENYA MOORE: Who said that?
RASCOE: That sounds fun. I'm ready.
ALCINDOR: I'm ready to lose because I already know it's going to be rough.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: And actually, I shouldn't have said that so quickly because the first quote is actually kind of political.
RASCOE: OK.
SANDERS: So y'all might be able to get it really quickly. Here is a quote. It's from the news this week. It is, "should we just send a free COVID test to every American?" Who said that?
RASCOE: Jen Psaki.
(SOUNDBITE OF VICTORY TUNE)
SANDERS: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Oh, my goodness.
SANDERS: White House press secretary.
RASCOE: Yeah.
SANDERS: Tell our listeners what happened with that because it was a moment.
RASCOE: So it was our very own Mara Liasson, national political correspondent, who at the White House briefing was asking Jen, basically, why aren't at-home tests more readily available. And then Jen, she got a little - she can be a little snippy sometimes. I mean, I can say that. She, you know, she answers the question...
SANDERS: Yeah, yeah.
RASCOE: ...But she can get a little snippy.
SANDERS: Yeah (laughter).
RASCOE: And so she got a little testy and was like...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JEN PSAKI: Should we just send one to every American?
RASCOE: ...And Mara was, like...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Maybe.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: Yeah. Well, also, I'm like as an American, sure, go ahead, you know. Y'all sent us all checks last year. Send us tests for COVID this year.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
ALCINDOR: It was amazing to watch because Mara didn't back down or blink an eye. She was like, maybe. It's your job to figure it out.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PSAKI: Then what happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost? And then what happens after that?
LIASSON: All I know is that other countries seem to be making them available for - in greater quantities for less money.
(LAUGHTER)
ALCINDOR: It's like, I'm not the president.
SANDERS: Mara said, I said what I said.
RASCOE: And they do, in other countries, send out tests.
SANDERS: Really?
RASCOE: And tests here, as someone who has stockpiled them because, you know, with the kids and everything like that, they're, like, $20 for two tests or $24 for two tests.
SANDERS: Yeah.
RASCOE: If you have a family of five and you're buying boxes and boxes, that quickly adds up.
ALCINDOR: Mmm hmm.
SANDERS: Yeah. I remember last year at one point, I paid for a COVID test that was, like, $200.
RASCOE: Oh, Lord.
SANDERS: And I'm just like, what? How? What? Also, I mean, I guess for me, the lesson here with this Jen Psaki quote is, like, there are moments to be snarky and sarcastic, and there are moments to not be snarky and sarcastic. And when Mara Liasson is asking you a question, don't be snarky and sarcastic with her.
RASCOE: No (laughter).
SANDERS: Mara don't play.
RASCOE: No.
SANDERS: She's not the one, and today is not the day.
Anyhoo (ph), that first point goes to Ayesha. Here is the next quote. This is a famous pop star. Here's the quote. "It was the only picture I ever posted myself, and then they took my password away from me again."
ALCINDOR: Britney Spears?
(SOUNDBITE OF BUZZER)
SANDERS: Another pop star who just put out a really big album.
ALCINDOR: Adele.
SANDERS: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF VICTORY TUNE)
ALCINDOR: Yay. Oh, my god.
SANDERS: Do you know what photo she's talking about?
ALCINDOR: I have no idea.
SANDERS: You got the point. You got the point, Yamiche.
ALCINDOR: You gave me a hint of artist that got a big album. I've been listening to Adele on rotation, so...
SANDERS: You know, I love Adele, but I can't listen to her for too long because it just brings me the sad.
RASCOE: It makes you sad?
SANDERS: And I - it makes me sad. I think I got through half of this album and was like, girl, I feel you. This is beautiful music, but I can't do that right now. I can't go to that place with you right now. Anyhoo...
ALCINDOR: I have been living in that place with her. I've been living...
SANDERS: (Laughter).
ALCINDOR: And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm happily married and I'm still listening to this stuff. My husband's like, are we good? And I'm like, yeah, we're good, I guess. But like, I'm going to go listen to Adele some more.
RASCOE: No, you know it's bad when - because sometimes, you know, if I'm singing, like, Beyonce or something, like, you know, you get real into it. My husband will be like...
ALCINDOR: Yeah.
RASCOE: ...What is going on?
SANDERS: (Laughter) Right.
RASCOE: Like, why are you singing it with that type of emotion? But it's like, I feel it, like...
ALCINDOR: I know. I know. It's tough. I've been having, like, "Woman Like Me" on rotation. My husband's just like, I don't understand.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WOMAN LIKE ME")
ADELE: (Singing) You ain't never had, ain't never had a woman like me. It is so sad a man like you could be so lazy.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: So this quote from Adele, it came from a conversation she had on a YouTube influencer channel called NikkieTutorials. And in this conversation, she was talking about a really controversial photo of her that was on her Instagram last year. If you'll remember, in August of 2020, she posted a photo which was meant to celebrate the Notting Hill Carnival to celebrate Caribbean culture. But in that photo, Adele kind of dressed up in Caribbean drag (laughter). She had her hair...
RASCOE: Yeah. Yes.
SANDERS: ...In Bantu knots.
RASCOE: Yeah.
SANDERS: She had a bikini with the Jamaican flag on it.
RASCOE: Yeah.
ALCINDOR: Yes.
SANDERS: A lot of people on the internet - Black people on the internet - were like, Adele, what you doing? Remember that?
RASCOE: Yeah, it was kind of like - what you call it? - Tom Hanks' son. It was a little like that. Not as bad, but...
SANDERS: A little Chet Hanks.
RASCOE: It was a little Chet. But it wasn't as bad, but it was a little like...
SANDERS: You know, I saw it, and I was like, if I'm going to give any white person the benefit of the doubt on appropriation, it's going to be Adele. I just feel like she's always invited to the cookout. I don't know. I love that woman.
RASCOE: Yeah. I don't think she meant any harm by it at all. Like I said, she wasn't like Chet out there, you know, speaking in patois or whatever. Like, she wasn't doing that.
SANDERS: Right.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: Although I will say, I have heard on more than one occasion, like, reggae remixes of Adele songs. I think the Caribbean vibes with Adele. I'm just saying.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HELLO (REGGAE COVER)")
CONKARAH AND ROSIE DELMAH: (Singing) Hello, can you hear me? I'm in California dreaming about who we used to be.
SANDERS: Who got that point?
RASCOE: Yamiche. Yamiche got that. So now we're tied.
SANDERS: OK, the game is tied. It's tied. Just tell me what story we're talking about when I read this. Quote, "In the morning, of course, we changed the bed linen and bedspreads, and it was ready for customers at 10 o'clock."
RASCOE: Wow.
SANDERS: What store had to change the bed sheets in the store recently because some customers stayed overnight?
RASCOE: (Laughter) What?
ALCINDOR: What are you talking about right now?
SANDERS: Y'all didn't see this?
RASCOE: Pottery Barn?
(SOUNDBITE OF BUZZER, LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: If I ever get stuck in a Pottery Barn, Lord, take me out of here. Yeet (ph) me out of there.
ALCINDOR: Right.
SANDERS: My God.
ALCINDOR: Ikea?
(SOUNDBITE OF VICTORY TUNE)
SANDERS: Yes. Yes.
RASCOE: Oh, wow. They got stuck?
SANDERS: Yeah. Y'all didn't see this?
ALCINDOR: No, I didn't see this at all.
SANDERS: Yeah, yeah. I mean, so this story is so heartwarming, and it's probably going to be a Netflix movie in, like, three months. That quote comes from Peter Elmose. He's a store manager for an Ikea in Aalborg, Denmark. So the story is this - this Ikea in Denmark got hit by a really bad snowstorm, and that meant that, like, 25 workers and six customers got stranded in the Ikea overnight.
RASCOE: Oh, my goodness.
SANDERS: But they made it a fun time. They said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They ate in the cafeteria at the Ikea.
RASCOE: Yes.
SANDERS: They played games. They watched Christmas movies. They had hot cinnamon buns. And they slept in the showroom beds. Kind of sounds like an adult field trip - like adult night camp. I love it. I want it. It sounds delightful.
RASCOE: No, it really does. And I do love Ikea, and I do love being in Ikea. So I could imagine, if, like, there's a place you get stuck, that is a pretty great place to get stuck.
ALCINDOR: I mean, literally, I didn't know anything about this story and I was like, OK, where would I want to spend the night? And I was like, clearly Ikea.
SANDERS: Ikea. Can I confess to y'all?
ALCINDOR: Like, where would I want to sleep?
SANDERS: Yes. So fun fact - when I was covering the election in 2016 - '15, '16 - I would often, if I had time in a strange city, sneak off and have lunch at the local Ikea because it felt familiar. And I will never forget I was chasing Bernie around the Bay Area for one of his campaign stops and I had, like, a 90-minute gap. And I was like, if I don't get me some Swedish meatballs right now, I'm going to lose my mind.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
SANDERS: I, like, left the campaign bus, went to the IKEA, got my meatballs, had a good cry and then went back to work.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Oh, my goodness. Well, that makes sense. But I do find it comforting. Like, it is comforting, right?
SANDERS: Oh, it's so comforting.
RASCOE: It's so comforting.
SANDERS: It's so comforting, yes.
RASCOE: Like, it's very homey.
SANDERS: So both of y'all would do an IKEA overnight.
RASCOE: I would love to do an IKEA overnight. Like, to me, IKEA is, like, a family outing. I got the kids and husband and picture my IKEA life (laughter).
SANDERS: Yeah. Also it feels like Europeans are just better at this, like, being stuck in places overnight because there was that story a few weeks ago about the people in the U.K. who got stuck in a pub in the snow for days. But in the pub, there happened to be an Oasis cover band there as well. So they just, like, kept playing music for folks while they waited to get out of the snow storm.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
ALCINDOR: Wow.
SANDERS: They know how to do it over there. Like, I feel like Europeans are just more chill with that than Americans would ever be.
ALCINDOR: Yeah.
RASCOE: No, Americans would be planning lawsuits.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: They'd be on the phone with the lawyers.
ALCINDOR: Yes.
SANDERS: Yes, yes. Exactly.
ALCINDOR: The bed gave me a crick in my throat. And my back hurts now. I need $50 million from IKEA. Like...
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: Emotional distress.
RASCOE: Yes.
ALCINDOR: Right (laughter).
SANDERS: All that, yeah. Yeah.
ALCINDOR: Oh, my God.
RASCOE: They should've kicked me out earlier. I didn't know it was snowing this bad. It's they fault.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: Well, on that note, it was a close, close game. But, Yamiche, you won.
RASCOE: She did. And she said she was going to lose. She was a ringer (laughter).
ALCINDOR: I'm floored. You don't understand. Last time I was on Sam's show, I, like, lost so badly. But it was just like, I had no answer for any of them.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: It's always so crazy to me that, like, people remember.
ALCINDOR: Oh, I remember because it was a live crowd of people laughing. And I was like, oh, God. Oh, my God.
SANDERS: Oh, you did do our live show.
ALCINDOR: Yes. It was with Evan.
SANDERS: Oh, my goodness. Yes.
RASCOE: Oh, wow.
(LAUGHTER)
ALCINDOR: And I was like, not only did I lose, I had to, like, see the crowd of people see me lose.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: Well, to everyone who was in that audience, wipe that from your memory. Yamiche is now a winner, a champion of Who Said That. Congratulations.
RASCOE: Yes, yes.
ALCINDOR: Thank you.
SANDERS: Yeah.
RASCOE: And this is this is clearly the biggest news for her this week.
ALCINDOR: Right.
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: Hey. Well, thank you both for playing Who Said That. And thank you both for the work you do. I am honored and comforted knowing that two people like you are out there covering politics. I appreciate you both so much. Let's do it again soon. Let's do it again soon.
RASCOE: Yes.
ALCINDOR: Yes.
AUNT BETTY: Now it's time to end the show, as we always do. Every week, listeners share the best thing that happened to them all week. We encourage folks to brag, and they do. Let's hear a few of those submissions.
LILY: Hi, Sam. My name is Lily (ph). I'm a junior in college. And this past weekend, my dance group had our first in-person show in 21 months. And I feel so lucky to be able to see my friends do what they do best for the first time in almost two years and to be able to share it with everyone in the audience.
HUNTER: Hey Sam. This is Hunter (ph). The best thing that happened this week was finding a new primary care doctor for my girlfriend. She is transgender. And her previous doctor decided to discontinue care for their trans patients without any warning. Her new doctor is a bit further of a drive. But I'm so thankful we found one still willing to provide care for the trans community.
AISHA: Hey, Sam, it's Aisha (ph). And, normally, I live in the Bay Area. But this week and the last couple of weeks, I have been in Virginia where I got to marry the love of my life in this beautiful wedding ceremony, which was everything that I wanted. Weddings are about you and your partner. But for me, it was also about my whole family who put so much effort into making this a dream for me, and so I wanted to thank them.
ERICA: Hi, Sam, this is Erica (ph) calling from Cologne, Germany. And earlier this year, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. It's been a pretty tough road with a lot of treatment. And just this past weekend, I had my six-month mark without a seizure. And it's a big milestone. So I hope the next six months go as well.
LILY: Thank you so much for your show.
HUNTER: Thank you for all that you do each week. Take good care.
AISHA: Thank you, Sam, for the show. Bye.
SANDERS: Thanks again to all those listeners you heard there - Lily, Hunter, Aisha and Erica. All right, listeners, you can share with us the best part of your week at any point throughout any week. Just to record yourself and send a voice memo to us via email - samsanders@npr.org - at samsanders@npr.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SANDERS: All right. This week's episode of IT'S BEEN A MINUTE was produced by Jinae West, Anjuli Sastry Krbechek, Liam McBain and Audrey Nguyen. Our intern is Nathan Pugh. Our fearless editor is Jordana Hochman. And our big boss is NPR's senior VP of programming, Anya Grundmann. All right, listeners, till next time, be good yourselves. I'm Sam Sanders. We'll talk soon.
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