Between Mitch McConnell sucker-punching his home state of Kentucky and the Department of Health and Human Services tapping a 37-year-old former dog breeder with no public health experience, it’s been an interesting week in the swamp.

In Episode 2 of The New Abnormal, The Daily Beast’s podcast for a world gone off the rails, co-hosts Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast tackle those what-the-hell moments and more. They contemplate Mitch McConnell in a bodice, Judge Jeanine Pirro in a lovely Korean pink hanbok, and Georgia governor Brian Kemp with a modicum of gray matter.

Then the duo talks to Dr. James Hamblin about how Trump's chaotic approach to COVID is turning traditional epidemiology on its head. “There was never any situation where you didn't have a basically good idea of who was infected and who wasn't,” he says. “Did they not understand? Did they choose to disobey? But we didn't assume that the leadership might be downplaying the problem or trying to hide it.”

Hamblin also touches on an antibody issue that could make finding a vaccine that much harder and how long it may actually take to get it. 

Plus: Rick eyes an incoming tornado: "We should hurry because my lights are flickering and the wind is blowing like insanity out there."

Listen to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.