WEBVTT - Black Voters vs. The 2024 Election 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:05.480 Welcome to Crash Course, the podcast about business, political, and 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:09.000 social disruption and what we can learn from it. I'm 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:13.680 Tim O'Brien. Today's Crash Course. Black voters versus the twenty 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.960 twenty four election. When last we visited, we talked about 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.520 the central role Latina voters could play in the twenty 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.599 twenty four election. The same, of course, is true of 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:26.920 the black community. Joe Biden secured a victory in the 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.319 Democratic primary in twenty twenty after Representative Jim Clyburn through 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.240 his support and that of his black constituents in South 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:38.080 Carolina behind the candidate. Biden went on to take the 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:41.120 presidency away from Donald Trump, and the pair now seems 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:45.280 headed for a rematch. Black voters and young black voters 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:49.080 in particular, appear to be much less enthusiastic about Biden 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:53.040 these days. They're the most unenthusiastic they've been about a 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:58.680 Democratic president in decades. Multiple polls suggest as much. Some 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.360 of this is due to the Democratic Party deploying policy 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:06.119 drive bys during elections. Promises made are too frequently unkept. 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.040 Black voters, who represent more than twelve percent of total 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.120 eligible voters in the US, have come to expect it 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:18.080 Republicans have also intentionally thrown roadblocks in front of efforts 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.880 to mobilize the full power of the black vote. Think 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:26.640 jerry mandering, voter id laws, and the like. Most local 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.440 legislatures won't be addressing it anytime soon, and the Supreme 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.960 Court has empowered states to do as they please around 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:39.000 voting access. Joining us today is Nia Malika Henderson, a 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.440 political columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and a savant when it 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:47.440 comes to decoding the forces royaling the American political landscape. 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.440 That was Nia laughing at my description of her, because 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:53.000 she just doesn't apparently know the highest theme in which 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:53.480 I hold her. 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:55.200 This care will too. 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.120 By the end of this conversation, because she's a smarty Henia. 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.559 Hey there, I love that inagury deduction, and I've gotta 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:02.240 I'm gonna let my mom hear this. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.480 I'll record it for her. Yeah, So let's just jump 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.760 into it, you know, in a very broad way. What's 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:10.560 at stake for black voters in this election. 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:16.639 Well, listen, I think if you think about the state 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.160 in which African Americans were living under a Trump presidency, 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:27.560 the sort of psychic toll, the emotional toll of living 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:32.639 in a country led by someone who really engages in 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:37.160 the kind of bigotry and race bating that he engaged in, 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:40.280 you know, in the lead up to his election, where 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:44.800 he was talking about Barack Obama and the whole Birtherism thing, 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:50.480 and just the rhetoric he employed throughout his presidency, calling 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:55.800 African nations shithold countries, and any number of incidents that 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.680 just showed, I think, to African Americans and listen to 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:02.120 other groups as well, sort of gave a feeling that 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.480 Black Americans were other that he was perfectly fine using 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.640 race and blackness as a kind of wedge issue. So 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:13.960 that's part of the conversation that I think African Americans 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.600 are having, and part of the conversations with somebody like 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.280 Jim Kleibern is having too, is he goes around to 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:23.160 African American communities, particularly in South Carolina, and talks to 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.080 them about white supremacy, about what it was like to 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:28.639 live in a country that was led by Donald Trump. 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.560 So that's sort of the sort of emotional tool that 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.960 I think was at play in Trump's administration and is 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.880 part of what I think people are calculating as they 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.680 think about who they're going to vote for moving forward. 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.800 Don't forget. Also, when he was calling majority black countries shitholes, 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.280 he was also waking up new names for countries in Africa, 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.800 like Nambia, which doesn't exist right, right, And he's never 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.720 been very good at like finding things on maps, but yeah, 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.520 but he was inventing, you know, African country's whole cloth, 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:00.840 which was yes, I don't think any press has done that. 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:03.880 I think that's right. And so you think about the 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.880 assaults on democracy, the assaults on freedom, whether it's the 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.360 literal assault on democracy that we saw on January sixth, 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:14.480 and just the continued undermining of institutions, and then issues 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.240 like abortion, which get it sort of freedom and liberty. 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.280 And so if you think about the way in which Biden, 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.640 some of his surrogates, somebody like Vice President Harris, is 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.920 trying to frame these issues to African American voters, it 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.279 is about white supremacy. It is about the economy, it 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.240 is about freedom, It is about this idea of do 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.599 you want to return to the days of living in 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.320 a country led by such an erratic And some people 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.240 would obviously say racist president. 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:43.880 Well, and we'll get into some of those issues, but 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.880 I am perplexed given that Trump is an overtly hostile 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.800 person to people of color, right, and he doesn't really 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.560 hide it, and he's also enabled other people to be 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:59.680 openly hostile. Our civic dialogue has degraded. It's translated into 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.599 pow to see positions that I don't think are in 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.160 the interests of communities of color. And yet all of 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:10.400 the kind of polling around turnout suggests that a lot 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.279 of black voters are thinking of just staying home, that 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.120 they're not going to turn out. So you would think 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.880 if Trump was that bleak of a prospect, that that 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:24.599 would translate into more enthusiasm for Biden. And there's quite 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:26.800 a bit. I think Iden got ninety two percent of 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.560 the black vote in twenty twenty, more or less, and 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.960 then Trump got eight percent, and it's still black voters 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.039 prefer the Democratic Party. I've got no doubt that Biden 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.839 will get a big majority of black voters again. But 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.640 it's really important, actually in swing states that black voters engage. 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.240 And there appears, I think, and I'm always a little 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.440 bit tentative with polls, right, but it appears that there's 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.640 this lack of enthusiasm, and I think that that could 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.160 actually have a destructive impact on the interests of black 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.440 voters if they don't turn out. So why is that, 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:01.159 Why is there lack of enthusiasm? 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.360 Well, listen, I think there was never a huge enthusiasm 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.400 for Biden, right, There was always an enthusiasm for kicking 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:12.040 Trump out of office. So we of course remember when 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.360 it was finally declared that there was a President Biden, 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.320 that he had won, there was dancing in the street, right. 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.039 I mean, it was like a dictator had fallen. People 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:24.160 were so kind of relieved to see him lose. And 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:26.920 so you think about the polls now, and I think 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.440 about Cornell Belcher, who's this great after American pollster. 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:30.599 I'm sure you're familiar with. 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.720 He is a polster, he does focus groups, but he's 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.640 also very mindful of the fact that the campaign has 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:43.279 just begun. Right. Campaigns are built to persuade voters, to 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.840 make them enthusiastic, to give them a binary choice, and 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.359 that is what's happening now. I talked to some folks 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.680 at the Biden campaign, and listen, they are very aware 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:55.640 of what the polls showed. 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:56.040 Now. 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.039 They're very aware of what you mentioned, which is that 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:03.039 historically it's been like sols to the polls. You know, 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.400 a couple of weeks before November, not a lot of 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:11.560 money put into GOTV efforts, And they're doing something very 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.320 differently this go around. They're putting a lot of money 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:18.200 in early and seeing those voters as voters they have 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.160 to persuade and mobilize, not just the voters who are 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.720 going to automatically show up. I will say this, I 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.440 do think that the polling and I hate to be 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:30.320 sort of a polling truther, but the polling has been 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:31.360 really off. 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.000 In terms of African American voters, and off for quite 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:34.400 a while. 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:36.560 Yeah. Like, if you think about the lead up to 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.440 twenty twenty to twenty eighteen, there's all these like, oh 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.560 my gosh, Republicans are going to get twenty percent of 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.880 African American voters, and it just it hasn't really materialized. 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:52.120 I think there obviously has been a shift, very very minimally, 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.560 but it is not as much as the polls suggest. 0:07:55.840 --> 0:08:02.760 But again, we talk about these swing states, places like Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.680 those margins manager Georgia. Yeah, exactly all of this is 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:11.040 going to matter. But listen it's ramping up now. I'm 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.880 actually going to South Carolina in the lead up to 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:18.559 the Democratic primary, where Biden, of course will win. Kamala 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.280 Harris will be there. She's going to an HBCU South 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.480 Carolina state in Orangeburg, and so it'll be interesting to 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.160 see what her message is to those voters in particular, right, 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:33.240 young educated African American voters who have lots of discontent 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.559 with Joe Biden. And again, they were never huge Joe 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:41.280 Biden fans, right, there were Obamocrats, right, There is no 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:45.400 parallel to that when it comes to Biden supporters. Older 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.600 members of the African American community love Biden. My mom 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.480 is one of those folks. She's eighty six, eighty five, 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.360 and she'll be pulling the lever for Joe Biden as 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:56.360 well all of her church friends. But then there is 0:08:56.440 --> 0:09:02.599 this other, younger, more working class population of African Americans 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.400 that have some you know, skepticism, and they're going to 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.359 need to be convinced and mobilized. 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:10.920 And you know, you just invoked the secret weapon of 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.199 Barack Obama, right, which has not been activated yet by Democrats, 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:19.360 and you know, marching Barack Obama with his myriad gifts 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:23.280 as an orator and a truth teller and a very 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:28.120 unusually charismatic politician. In all those states, maybe he would 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.720 campaign with Taylor Swift, and you could just have like 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:36.400 this twin engine, like a jet engine of voter enthusiasm push. 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.559 So it'll be interesting to see how and when and 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.960 where Obama gets activated, because I can't imagine he won't be. 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.200 But I want to come back and even within the 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.960 flaw of the polls about the percentage of votes Republicans 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:53.040 might or might not get, that data point concerns me 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.280 less than turnout does. And I just want to turn 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.200 to this in a second, because I think of twenty sixteen, right, like, 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:02.560 obviously Obama turns out black voters like no candidate has 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:05.400 I think ever, at least since in the post World 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.920 War two era. And then in twenty sixteen, you know, 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.520 black voters did not really turn out for Hillary Clinton. 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:14.160 And you could pinpoint the states in which that created 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:18.120 tipping points Michigan, Wisconsin, et cetera, et cetera. I was 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.960 in both states in twenty twenty talking to black voters, 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:23.360 and one of the things that came up repeatedly in 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.040 conversations I had with them is you know, Hillary flew 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.400 in here at the last minute, like she didn't come 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:32.320 to Detroit until the last week of October or something 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.480 like that, and they all said, we just didn't feel 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:38.559 we felt taken for granted. And in fact, that's how 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.360 her campaign ruled. They thought they were going to flip Texas, 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:45.559 Georgia and Florida, and they didn't campaign in Michigan, Wisconsin, 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:49.160 and Pennsylvania. And I just you know, this is possibly 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.360 this election this year, the twenty twenty four election will 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.079 turn on a knife's edge in terms of pluralities, is 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.840 in a handful of states, and so I wonder less 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.840 about the total vote going to the Republicans and more 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:03.920 about just people showing up for Democrats. 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:08.920 I think it's a huge concern. Democrats obviously mindful of it. 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.000 And sort of add to that, you do have Republicans 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.120 campaigning for black. 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.360 Voters in a way that they haven't before. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:19.319 I mean, some of it is sort of cynical, and 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.040 the ultimate goal is to have black voters stay home 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.480 not necessarily vote for Republican candidates, but you do have 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:27.480 some real efforts. I think it was Matt Gates, So 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:30.199 I hate to quote, but here I am said that, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.400 you know, for every maybe college educated white person that 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.240 a Republican might lose, they would gain a jamal Or 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:38.120 I think you said. 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.200 Jose because he's such a sensitive person. 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.439 Yes, exactly, and this is true, right. I mean, there 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.240 is this resorting of the parties, right, and some of 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.280 this is along class lines and some of it is 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.960 along racial lines as well. Sort of the sorting, particularly 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:57.400 among Hispanics, is much more noticeable going from the Democratic 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:01.000 Party to the Republican Party. It isn't is noticeable yet 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.320 among African Americans, particularly African American working class men. But 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:07.240 that is what's going on. And to me, I mean 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:12.400 sort of the argument that you hear Donald Trump making 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:15.079 is one I think that is in some ways wrapped 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.520 up in his masculinity, right, in his strength. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.480 He gave some speech recently where he was. 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.160 Like, you know, a country needs a strong man, and 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.319 I think he meant it in both ways, right, and 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.440 that does I think resonate with young men, particularly young 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.840 working class men, who have also been sort of told 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.560 that their masculinity is you know, under assault. That there's 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.040 sort of feminization. I mean, listen, if you watch ESPN, 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.960 there are all these commercials about this generation of men 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.960 having the lowest testosterone ever. I would know, but you know, 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.880 those are the kind of messages that I think could 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.600 resonate with any number of groups and lead either to 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.840 kind of low turnout among those groups who are Democrats, 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.520 or actually some of these groups that have traditionally been 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.880 voting for Democrats voting for Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, not 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:06.400 necessarily sort of down ballot, but just seeing in Donald 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:11.200 Trump somebody who they admire, the strength, the pretty wife, 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:15.360 the beautiful kids, whatever it is, and obviously a billionaire status, right, 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:16.120 I mean that is all. 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.440 Live in the dream exactly, dream, yeah, rolling like he 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:21.960 wants to jet like exactly. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:24.760 Yeah. And you know, I know you're a hip hop fan, tim, 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:29.120 and Donald Trump was hugely popular in hip hop in 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.920 the nineties and in two thousand, just as a symbol 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.320 of bling and success and sort of the lavish life. 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:37.040 And so some of that stuff still resonates. 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:39.800 Yeah. Russell Simmons said to me once that he called 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:41.360 Trump the bling, bling white man. 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:42.240 Yeah. 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.080 And you know they were welcome at marl Lago and 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:47.720 they'd be in the steam room and Donald show up 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.160 with a tray of orange juice. In his red tie 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:54.280 and blue suit, even the steam room. That's not a 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.080 subject for our discussion today. Yeah, but you know, it 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:02.720 is interesting that that sector of the black community venerates them. 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.360 But I think it's because of celebrity and wealth. Right, 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.520 it's not really about politics, right, policy at all, But 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.240 it's this image, and I think that has a lot 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:12.800 of attraction with working class white voters too. 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.240 That's exactly right. I mean this kids to the personality, 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:20.080 the cult of personality built up around Donald Trump, which 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.120 has been so effective. You know, the idea that he's 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.640 a successful millionaire, a billionaire. Excuse me, he's not, even 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.080 though he probably is only just a millionaire. But listen, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.680 you know this success of him and sort of the 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.040 lavishness and the gold toilets and the supermodel wife who 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:37.840 isn't really a supermodel, nor does she speak seven languages, 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:38.480 but never mind. 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:40.880 And she's an immigrant, by the way, which is point 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.720 out he married an immigrant. Yes, yes, and some of 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.760 them are nice people. But on this issue again of 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.640 turn out. You know, just in the statistics, black voters 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.360 about twelve percent of eligible voters in twenty twenty, they 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:58.480 maybe fourteen percent and twenty four white voters are about 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:03.400 sixty eight percent of eligible voters, but end up being 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:07.480 seventy five percent of the voters who cast balance. Those 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:10.920 numbers are always so fascinating to me because they speak 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.680 to people's sense of how their vote empowers them or not. 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:21.720 It sometimes pains me to see that the black community 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.000 doesn't have as much faith in the power of their 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.240 vote as clearly the white community does. I think we 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.280 know the reasons for some of those things, but it's 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.320 undoubtedly at work in this election too. 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:36.640 I think that's right. You think back to two thousand 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:41.200 and eight and all of the joy and pride among 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.640 African Americans that the country had elected a black man, 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:49.000 a black man named Barack who say Obama, And there 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.560 was a lot of hope, right. There was some just 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.960 silly hope about, you know, a post racial America, but 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:59.840 then there was real hope about conditions in black communities 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.960 being changed because of Obama being in office. And I 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:07.400 think you look around and that didn't really happen, right, 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.320 And even I think some of the discontent among say 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:16.120 thirty something black folks forty something black folks, there is 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:21.400 kind of looking back at Barack Obama with some disappointment, right, 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:26.200 that we put so much, African Americans will say into 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.560 having him in office, but what do we get in return? 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:30.880 Right? 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.800 And so then Hillary comes and obviously Trump gets in office, 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.880 and then Biden and there's obviously some discontent, specific discontent 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:42.920 right about promises not met, whether it's around voting rights 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:47.120 or student loans. So, you know, and now I think 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:51.920 a real sort of animating conversation for this group of voters, 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:57.360 young African Americans is what's going on with the Palestinians 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:01.000 and the idea. You know, Joe Biden has gone to 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:02.680 some events and there will be people and some of 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.560 these are African Americans who are standing upholding signs and 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:10.000 calling him genocide Joe. So this is a a real 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:14.040 kind of animating force and animating conversation that's going on, 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:16.840 and not in a good way for Joe Biden's re 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.919 election prospects among young African Americans. 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:22.680 On that note, I want to take a quick break 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:24.600 so we can hear from our sponsor, and then we 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:32.840 will come right back to this conversation. I'm back with 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:37.560 Nia Malika Henderson, a political columnist with Bloomberg Opinion. Nia, 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:42.160 we were just talking about black voters disappointment with Biden, 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.520 and I wanted to just dig into some of the 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:49.879 highlight policy issues, the things that are most important to 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:53.280 the black community, and from a policy perspective, the things 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:57.800 that are fueling some of their disappointment. Voting rights and 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:00.280 the enforcement of voting rights and the access to the 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.520 voting booth seems to me to be something well worth 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.520 focusing on in this But you can dissuade me if 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:05.760 it's not. 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.200 No, I think that's right. This is something that Joe 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:14.120 Biden campaigned on. This is something that people believed that 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.359 a needed to get done and could get done right, 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.600 particularly in the aftermath of George Floyd. Right, you remember 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.040 those sort of hidy days of the racial recogning and 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.560 this idea that the country and companies wanted to get 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:32.280 right in terms of race, and so what happened. 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:33.719 For police reform. 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.480 I think that's exactly right. And so there were conversations 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.640 around that. But one of the big hopes around that 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.360 was that there would be some sort of voting rights bill. 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.320 So there was one that went to senate, it past 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.119 the House and it failed, right, it failed. 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:50.920 And there was also the John L. 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.119 Lewis Voting yeah, there were two separate ones, right, and 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.639 ultimately failed because Democrats. Two Democrats in particular who I 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.600 don't think will be in the Senate going forward, Christen 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.120 Cinema and Joe Manchin. 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.960 They were too, they really democrats, right. 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:08.159 Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, And so you know, there's an 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.360 idea that maybe they could scuttle the philibuster just for 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.200 this bill to pass, and it turns out that they 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:15.879 didn't want to do that. And of course we know 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:19.359 the philibuster has been used to scuttle lots of civil 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.840 rights legislation historically. That's sort of the point of it. Yes, 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:27.680 and so that history repeating itself. So sure, there's that 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.760 lack of movement on that. And listen, you're gonna hear 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.359 from Biden on this again, right, You're going to hear 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.480 from Kamala Harris on this again. I'm sure when there's 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:40.200 another anniversary of the Bloody Sunday in March, right, they'll 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.639 make a big deal about pushing for this and voting rights. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.160 But the fact of the matter is it didn't get done. 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.640 Nothing really has been done on police reform. 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:54.720 Voting rights. Yeah, black community blame the Biden White House 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:59.720 for not getting legislation through a Senate that has repeatedly 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:04.200 torpedoed any legislation that would be helpful to Biden politically. 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:06.000 We're in the middle of this right now. In immigration, 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:10.320 a bipartisan tax bill didn't get through Chuck Grassley and 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.200 I owe Republicans said, yeah, might be a good bill, 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.720 but it would help Biden in the election. So reason 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.800 to do this? Yeah? Yeah? And and voting rights. Are 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.280 black voters seeing past the fact and maybe the answer 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.679 to this is obvious, but are they seeing past the 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:29.880 fact that this is something they do and should care 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:33.040 deeply about, and the fact that the White House might 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.200 be sort of handcuffed because they have a racalcia tren Congress. 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.200 Right, you know, listen, I think sure, I mean, I 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.439 think there is some recognition that there is a huge 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.520 roadblock in the Republican Party in terms of advancing any 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.639 number of you know, democratic causes, progressive causes. And that'll 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:53.080 be part of what Biden talks about, right, and Harris 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.399 talks about when they go before these audiences, when they 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.240 talk about abortion, for instance, the idea that they need 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:03.200 a more democratic House and democratic Senate, so send more 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.280 Democrats and he can get things done. But there is 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:08.800 I think, and this isn't specific to the Black community. 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.400 I think there is a sense among average voters that 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.760 presidents are sort of all powerful, right. It is the 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:21.240 office that most people are familiar with. They don't necessarily 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.960 pay attention to who their local congress person is or 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.399 their senators. But there is a sense, I think among 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.640 just average voters that presidents, through their power of persuasion 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:32.560 and we voted for you, that you should be able 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:35.679 to deliver on these issues, and if you don't, it 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:40.120 is demoralizing. It could be a failing on your part, 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.199 and it could mean that we stay home because I 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:44.000 haven't seen. 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.760 Any deliverables for giving you my vote. 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.479 So you know, this is a conversation that is going 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:51.680 to have to be had in all sorts of ways, 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:54.600 sort of the traditional ways of campaigning, but then on 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:57.920 Facebook and TikTok and the Gram and all of those 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.399 social media platforms and the View and Charlemagne the God 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:06.080 places like that where we're African Americans, particularly young African Americans, 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.240 are very tuned into those sites and those folks. 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:13.880 He wrote a great column about Nikki Haley and her 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:17.679 effort to sort of I guess disappear slavery as a 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:20.720 factor in the Civil War. We are in the midst 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:26.000 of this, I think, literal whitewashing of African American history 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.480