Speaker 1: Who Zone media, welcome back to it could happen here
Speaker 1: a podcast being recorded in Garrison's hotel room, which is
Speaker 1: thirty percent of the shopping bags that they got from.
Speaker 2: The Nazi clothing.
Speaker 3: You can't say that.
Speaker 4: You cannot say that.
Speaker 2: Well, look they don't. They used to be the Nazi
Speaker 2: clothing store. Now they just make suits, right right, buddy,
Speaker 2: Why are you trying to cancel? It's a nice blazer.
Speaker 2: That white blazer you had on last night looks good.
Speaker 3: It is a good blazers.
Speaker 2: It's a good look. He's a good lace. Anyway, we're back.
Speaker 2: We're still in Chicago. We are all just exhausted.
Speaker 4: I feel like death.
Speaker 2: I am missing the unhurried, relaxed pace of war zone journalism,
Speaker 2: full nights of sleep, long rides and humvies.
Speaker 3: Even the RNC felt a little bit more.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll tell you what it is.
Speaker 5: They were so unbelievably scheduled at the art see where
Speaker 5: like you knew nobody was going to be speaking past
Speaker 5: ten pm. It was done by ten pm. We were
Speaker 5: safely back in our very very bad hotel.
Speaker 2: And the actual physical setup of the event was more.
Speaker 2: For one thing, it's smaller, there's more people here, So
Speaker 2: that makes but it was also kind of I think
Speaker 2: better laid out for walking and stuff.
Speaker 4: I agree, everything is very spread out here.
Speaker 2: The entrances here to it especially take a lot longer
Speaker 2: to get into. Now. I think that some of that's
Speaker 2: not even on the DNC. It's just the fact that
Speaker 2: the DNC has the president and vice president at it,
Speaker 2: and so it's going to have more security. But yeah,
Speaker 2: it is. It is just fucking exhausting, and I guess
Speaker 2: probably the main reason why Garrison and I are so
Speaker 2: tired is every day has been many thousands of steps
Speaker 2: of walking around Chicago with different protests. So we'll be
Speaker 2: talking about all of that. But we wanted to get
Speaker 2: into the episode by kind of doing some horse ray stuff,
Speaker 2: like actually talking about what are we seeing and polling
Speaker 2: what are we seeing in like viewers ship numbers. So
Speaker 2: Sophie wanted to start with one of our favorite topics,
Speaker 2: the popularity of the various vice presidential candidates.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and like you know, national polls find that like
Speaker 5: still that both vice presidential nominees are pretty much fighting
Speaker 5: to make themselves known to the US voters. But as
Speaker 5: of this week at least, and this is before Walls's
Speaker 5: speech last night, so they haven't come back with a
Speaker 5: poll just yet. On that pres of this week, Walls
Speaker 5: is viewed more favorably than Dvanced, with twenty seven percent
Speaker 5: of US adults saying Vance is favorable, forty four percent
Speaker 5: find him unfavorable, compared to thirty six percent who think
Speaker 5: Walls is favorable and twenty five percent who find him unfavorable.
Speaker 5: And interesting to note, more Democrats are supportive of Walls
Speaker 5: sixty two percent than Republicans Advance fifty seven percent, which.
Speaker 2: Is wild, but also very consistent with what we saw
Speaker 2: at the RNC, where Like at the Heritage Foundation event,
Speaker 2: which Vance is supposed to be their man, no one
Speaker 2: would say a nice thing at him. Like at the
Speaker 2: Heritage Foundation event, I could not hear a good word
Speaker 2: about JD. Vance the night of his speech, Whereas the
Speaker 2: sheer number of dims that I've seen with Coach Walls
Speaker 2: signs last night, including people like walking up to and
Speaker 2: interacting with folks at the uncommitted demonstration in front of
Speaker 2: the Convention Center was like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds,
Speaker 2: Like I haven't seen any JD.
Speaker 5: Vans people genuinely liked Tim Walls versus I don't think
Speaker 5: I heard a single person at the RNC give any
Speaker 5: inclination that they deeply liked jd Vance. Particularly when he
Speaker 5: was speaking, people were very much asleep.
Speaker 3: Very bored.
Speaker 2: It's I mean, it's reinforced that, so far, outside of
Speaker 2: Biden's stepping down, picking Walls is the best decision I've
Speaker 2: seen the DIMS make this year.
Speaker 4: He got a great reaction from the crowd last night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I wanted to talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: kind of what we're seeing in Poe. At least according
Speaker 2: to Nate Silver's analysis, there's a tiny tick down between
Speaker 2: Tuesday and Wednesday and Kamalis chances Visa v. Trump, just
Speaker 2: based on some polls that had come out. All of
Speaker 2: that's kind of it's you can't really tell if there's
Speaker 2: going to be a convention bump until after the convention,
Speaker 2: so one way or the other, I wouldn't read too
Speaker 2: much into that. What is kind of worth reading into
Speaker 2: is the comparative popularity of the DNC televised speeches with
Speaker 2: the RNC, And so far from Monday through Wednesday, the
Speaker 2: DNC is ahead, and on Tuesday in particular, they were
Speaker 2: well ahead with Barack Obama and Michelle both speaking, that
Speaker 2: got something like five million more viewers than the comparative
Speaker 2: night at the RNC, which is a really significant and
Speaker 2: all of these is obviously beating twenty twenty. It's kind
Speaker 2: of unclear. The biggest night for the RNC was Thursday.
Speaker 2: So we'll see if Kamala can crack the twenty eight
Speaker 2: or twenty nine million viewers that Trump got the height
Speaker 2: of his event, but so far a sizeable, like maybe
Speaker 2: fifteen to twenty percent edge for the DIMS in terms
Speaker 2: of viewership. And obviously you have to keep in mind
Speaker 2: that like half of the people listening to any convention
Speaker 2: are not necessarily supporters of that canon. They're just people
Speaker 2: who want to be informed. But it furthers the narrative
Speaker 2: that there is a lot of energy behind the DIMS
Speaker 2: right now, that kind of like vibe thing that people
Speaker 2: have been talking.
Speaker 5: About, speaking of vibes, speaking of vibes, Boy howdy.
Speaker 2: We wanted to end this segment before we get into
Speaker 2: the pro Palestine protests and the uncommitted set in that's
Speaker 2: still going on at the convention center by talking just
Speaker 2: one more time about jd Vance, who while all of
Speaker 2: this is going on. Yesterday, as Tim Wallas was preparing
Speaker 2: his speech at the DNC, jd Vance visited a donut shop,
Speaker 2: and we're just going to play you audio of him
Speaker 2: talking to employees at the donut shop trying to get
Speaker 2: a photo opportunity or a good video clip. The zoom
Speaker 2: has come to town.
Speaker 5: Thank you for what.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, dude, Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2: She she doesn't want to be on film, guys, so
Speaker 2: just cut her out of anything.
Speaker 5: Appreciate that.
Speaker 3: Man O JD Dance American Vice President. Let's see it.
Speaker 2: Oh, we'll get I mean the beginning as you man. Okay, okay, good?
Speaker 2: How about you, sir?
Speaker 3: And almost two years?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 5: Good?
Speaker 2: Books to everything?
Speaker 4: Yeah, let me a lot of glazed here, some sprinkle stuff,
Speaker 4: somebody seven year roles?
Speaker 2: Just what I'm baking this? I let's click for a run.
Speaker 2: About four years?
Speaker 3: Okay, how have you been here?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 5: Good? Quite literally nobody has ever been worse at interacting
Speaker 5: with ming beings?
Speaker 4: What is wrong with good? Okay?
Speaker 2: Good? Good?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 3: That was by the way in Georgia, Georgia.
Speaker 5: Right, great, I'm jd Vance. I'm running for vice president.
Speaker 3: Okay, if I wanted to win Georgia. That was Trump.
Speaker 3: Jd Vance is the last man I would send to
Speaker 3: the State of Georgia.
Speaker 4: I'm jd Vance.
Speaker 3: Oh God, but I'm jd Vance.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, all right.
Speaker 4: It was like that SNL Pete Davidson skit where he
Speaker 4: just goes.
Speaker 2: Okay, uh huh and he just orders a random assortment of.
Speaker 4: Don't that's how everyone should react to jd Vance.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Like if he loses, that's going to be the rest
Speaker 2: of his life. Is him showing up places going I'm
Speaker 2: jd Vance and people going, all right.
Speaker 3: Please stay away from my children.
Speaker 5: Away.
Speaker 2: You're about to tell me that you can't be within
Speaker 2: one hundred meters of a school. Yeah, seriously, how that
Speaker 2: beard looks anyway? Ads, here's some ads. We're back and yeah.
Speaker 2: So the protests have continued. Garrison and I nearly got
Speaker 2: arrested during a kettle that wound up being about sixty
Speaker 2: It looked like people who were both sighted and arrested.
Speaker 2: Most of those people cited and released on the scene.
Speaker 2: A couple about two dozen or so actually arrested, including
Speaker 2: four members of the press. Pretty nasty scene. Yesterday was
Speaker 2: very different. There was a protest March that moved up
Speaker 2: to the gates of the convention and then marched back.
Speaker 2: There were a couple of moments where like police would
Speaker 2: grab people that happened at the train station and detain them,
Speaker 2: but ultimately did not significant numbers of arrests, at least
Speaker 2: from what I saw, and from talking to people, it
Speaker 2: did sound like they were mostly kind of detaining and releasing.
Speaker 2: We had not intended to do more protests last night,
Speaker 2: just because the first two nights were supposed to be
Speaker 2: the largest, and I had not even been to the
Speaker 2: DNC until last afternoon actually passed the gate, so we
Speaker 2: all went in together. We watched a couple of speeches.
Speaker 2: Thank god I got to catch the Bill Clinton speech.
Speaker 2: I wanted to miss that Barn Berner.
Speaker 4: Affiliate Bill Clinton.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, he sounded almost closer to death than Joe Biden. Yeah,
Speaker 3: which was just shocked.
Speaker 2: Bison sounds a lot better now. Yeah.
Speaker 4: He also spoke very early on in the night, and
Speaker 4: his speech was so long.
Speaker 2: It wasn't great, and it was bad.
Speaker 4: It was bad.
Speaker 2: I don't know why speech.
Speaker 4: Don't speak for that long if your speech is bad.
Speaker 4: But also just like, don't invite him in the first place.
Speaker 2: It's because, probably because of the sheet amount of clout
Speaker 2: that the Clintons have within the Democratic Party still to
Speaker 2: this day. Because if you don't have Bill there, well,
Speaker 2: they also they wanted Hillary, and Hillary did get a
Speaker 2: big reaction. And I'm sure Hillary dislikes Bill Clinton as
Speaker 2: much as anyone. Sure, but for a variety of complicated
Speaker 2: and stupid reasons, you can't both have Hillary Clinton and
Speaker 2: exclude Bill and repeatedly attack Trump for his Epstein connections.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't work very well, which is why they
Speaker 2: shouldn't have had any Clinton's there and hit on Trump
Speaker 2: for being a pedophile. But yes, I don't know.
Speaker 5: He spoke for so long I can't set me over
Speaker 5: the edge.
Speaker 2: It was fine. It was not like he was just
Speaker 2: kind of boring.
Speaker 3: Thankfully, more important things happened, if not inside the DNC,
Speaker 3: just just outside, yes, the actual United Center like stadium,
Speaker 3: still inside the security perimeter.
Speaker 2: So while we were watching Mindy Kaling talk about how
Speaker 2: she should be the ambassador to Italy, which I know
Speaker 2: was a bit but I was just not in the mood. No,
Speaker 2: we start I start getting like updates from there's a
Speaker 2: journalist on the ground, Prem Thacker, who was outside with
Speaker 2: some representatives of the uncommitted movement. So the uncommitted movement
Speaker 2: started as Democrats who were voting uncommitted in the primaries
Speaker 2: in order to make a point about you know, the
Speaker 2: fact that there is significant solidarity among the Democratic voters
Speaker 2: with Gaza and that if Democrats do not do something
Speaker 2: more than a thought and prayers, they won't get those votes.
Speaker 2: And particularly Chicago massive Palestinian population, it could be something
Speaker 2: that you know, matters in some of the swing states.
Speaker 2: So the uncommitted movement has kind of coalesced over the
Speaker 2: last couple of months into a group of delegates who
Speaker 2: are again we're not talking about like the folks marching outside.
Speaker 2: These are not people who are generally like committed radicals.
Speaker 2: They're certainly not communists. I heard a number of folks
Speaker 2: who engaged with people from the DNC who were and again,
Speaker 2: these are members of the uncommitted movement wearing like Palestinian scarves,
Speaker 2: who specifically like would say I think Israel has a
Speaker 2: right to defend itself.
Speaker 4: Describe these folks as moderate Democrats.
Speaker 2: It's a mix of moderate moderate and like radical Democrat
Speaker 2: but give rats right, progressive Democrat. And the point I'm
Speaker 2: making about like I heard a couple of them say, no,
Speaker 2: I think Israel has a right to defend itself. Is
Speaker 2: not that I think that's a particularly valid thing to mention,
Speaker 2: but that it shows you the level of rhetoric which
Speaker 2: they were taking pain to be speaking within the bounds
Speaker 2: of extremely acceptable Democratic Party rhetoric. Right, we are loyal Democrats.
Speaker 2: We were very excited. I listened to a couple of
Speaker 2: representatives of the movement give speeches. One of them was
Speaker 2: Delegate June Rose, which in my initial threat I think
Speaker 2: I went with him, but I believe their pronouns are
Speaker 2: they them? And Rose basically mentioned this is a quote
Speaker 2: from them. When President Biden was the nominee, I felt hopeless.
Speaker 2: And this is both because Biden was providing Israel with
Speaker 2: bombs and because he could not win. This is a
Speaker 2: quote from them. When Harris was chosen, I heard empathy
Speaker 2: in her voice for Palestinian suffering. But then June says,
Speaker 2: they remembered what Democrats give Republicans shit for saying, you know,
Speaker 2: thoughts and prayers after mass shootings. And I thought that
Speaker 2: was a valid point to make. Right a month ago,
Speaker 2: the fact that Dimm's had really changed their messaging on Gaza.
Speaker 2: Sounded like it could be the start of something promising,
Speaker 2: but it hasn't led to any kind of like strong
Speaker 2: commitment for actually thing actionable.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Just saying I support a ceasefire isn't enough when people
Speaker 2: are getting killed. It's not like an actual commitment to,
Speaker 2: for example, stop sending his reel arms now. To be
Speaker 2: totally fair, I don't want to be flattening this too much.
Speaker 2: There have been some significant concessions from the DNC to
Speaker 2: Palestinian solidarity movement. Right, not just a number of mentions
Speaker 2: and embraces of ceasefires from multiple speakers that got massive
Speaker 2: lines of applause, But Sophie, you went to the panel
Speaker 2: that the DNC put on with doctors who had just
Speaker 2: been working in Gaza, and that particularly.
Speaker 4: It was a verse of its kind panel, and that I.
Speaker 2: Would say, more than people advocating a ceasefire and their speeches,
Speaker 2: that's not nothing right like that, that's an actual no.
Speaker 5: And Robert June also posted that over two hundred and
Speaker 5: eighty Harris delegates have signed their letter demanding a permanent
Speaker 5: ceasefire in arms embargo and says not another bomb, which
Speaker 5: is which was one of the signs that they had
Speaker 5: last night. So that two hundred over two hundred eighty
Speaker 5: Harris delegates, that is not insignificant.
Speaker 2: No, that's and those people you know come here representing
Speaker 2: you know, a large, significantly larger number of voters. So
Speaker 2: what had happened outside of the United Center is uncommitted.
Speaker 2: Led by the co founder of the organization, A Boss
Speaker 2: all Away, we're essentially engaging in a sit in. Although
Speaker 2: a Boss was was very open about like, I don't
Speaker 2: want this to be a sit in. I want to
Speaker 2: go home. I'm very tired, my feet hurt. I am
Speaker 2: just waiting for a call. We presented the DNC some
Speaker 2: time ago. The conversations really started about a month ago.
Speaker 2: They were initially trying to get a doctor a five
Speaker 2: minute speaking slot at the DNC to talk about medical
Speaker 2: care for children in Gaza. That has evolved over time
Speaker 2: into they have a list of Palestinian American Democrats who
Speaker 2: they were willing to let the DNC pick from and
Speaker 2: let them vet a.
Speaker 3: Speech, including some who have endorsed Terras already.
Speaker 2: From what I was listening to, all of this was
Speaker 2: very much in the context of and endorsing Harris right.
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of people be like, yeah, but
Speaker 2: what if they come up and you know, attack the
Speaker 2: Democratic Party and call you know them genocide supporters or whatnot.
Speaker 2: And I don't get that feeling from this group of people. Now,
Speaker 2: I understand if you're like, well, that's what they should do,
Speaker 2: but these folks are not coming at this and certainly
Speaker 2: not framing themselves as we are radical leftists. They're framing
Speaker 2: themselves as we are normal Democrats who want to see
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party acknowledge the humanity of Palestinians and also
Speaker 2: start taking real steps to reduce and mitigate the violence
Speaker 2: that is really able to do over there. And that's
Speaker 2: what these people were standing for.
Speaker 3: And at least in terms of the actuality and ce
Speaker 3: like convention at the United Center. The fact that they
Speaker 3: do not want to do this and would rather just
Speaker 3: continue like this big like party you want.
Speaker 2: To be partying with you is really part of the
Speaker 2: vibe that they were getting on.
Speaker 3: Sure, And but the dn Z doesn't even want that
Speaker 3: to like put at risk this whole vibe shift party
Speaker 3: that they have going on, and that is is like,
Speaker 3: you know, a massive issue. And similarly, we had we
Speaker 3: had videos coming out last night of DNC attendees leaving
Speaker 3: the area plugging their ears as people read out like
Speaker 3: names of dead Palestinian children. It just creates this overwhelming
Speaker 3: like atmosphere that these people don't want to be inconvenienced
Speaker 3: by the genocide, and the genocide for them, it just
Speaker 3: is a political inconvenience that's prohibiting them from stopping Trump
Speaker 3: and prohibiting them from just making this big like Kamala party, and.
Speaker 2: It is it is very much an own goal because
Speaker 2: one thing I will say, if I'm trying again, if
Speaker 2: I'm trying to be fair, is when I saw people
Speaker 2: leaving the event, I saw people who got angry. I
Speaker 2: saw people who tried to ignore it. And I also
Speaker 2: saw a decent number of people come up and engage
Speaker 2: politely and with interest in the people who were doing
Speaker 2: a sit in. Yes, and in fact, before the event
Speaker 2: let out, there were maybe one hundred people including press,
Speaker 2: around the un committed cit in, and it was a
Speaker 2: couple hundred when.
Speaker 3: I left, a lot of definitely people who had come out.
Speaker 2: And so it is not it is not fair to say,
Speaker 2: but when you have people reading out the names of
Speaker 2: folks killed in a genocide, leaving an event and you
Speaker 2: get any photos of Democrats leaving plugging their ears, that's
Speaker 2: the image that's going to stick with people, right, and
Speaker 2: that was obvious going into this. It's a sign number one,
Speaker 2: I think of how scared people are of APAC, but
Speaker 2: also of kind of the lack of trust that the
Speaker 2: DNC leadership has in anyone Palestinian being able to balance
Speaker 2: being a Democrat with wanting to end a genocide. And
Speaker 2: you know, again, I think that probably a lot of
Speaker 2: folks who were outside of the event at the more
Speaker 2: radical protests would be frustrated by some of the language
Speaker 2: that I heard uncommitted representatives use. But I think that
Speaker 2: sit in is having more of an impact than any
Speaker 2: of the demonstrations outside right because it's right in the
Speaker 2: middle of the DNC. It's impossible to ignore and you
Speaker 2: cannot write these people off at as protesters who are
Speaker 2: out there breaking the law. You know, there's a guy
Speaker 2: with a hes bulla flag. Why are they walking around
Speaker 2: the HEAs bull of flag. These are people who's messaging
Speaker 2: is as moderated as it could possibly be. They just
Speaker 2: want the reality of a genocide to be acknowledged, which
Speaker 2: is not a big ask in my opinion.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and did you go to any other protests that night, Robert.
Speaker 2: Yes, I shure did. Garrison and I had several drinks
Speaker 2: at the hotel, which we've been doing because you know,
Speaker 2: when you get a chance to sit with your friend
Speaker 2: both wearing your nice suit and act world weary at
Speaker 2: a political convention, it's really nice. I wish we could
Speaker 2: still smoke indoors, Garrison, we'd be four packs of pall
Speaker 2: mall into this by now.
Speaker 3: Once we get back to Vegas.
Speaker 2: Once we get back to Vegas, CS right around the corner, Buddy.
Speaker 4: I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2: So like at one am, and at one am in
Speaker 2: the morning, we go to bed just fucking exhausted, and
Speaker 2: there had been sort of word that was supposed to
Speaker 2: be some kind of radical demonstration, and it was unclear
Speaker 2: exactly what was going to happen. And then right as
Speaker 2: I got up to my hotel room, I saw from
Speaker 2: one of the reporters I cover on the ground here,
Speaker 2: Talia Jane at Talia OTG that a noise demonstration had
Speaker 2: opened up outside of the They'd figured out what hotel
Speaker 2: Kamala Harris is at and had started doing a noise
Speaker 2: demonstration just making as much noise outside of the hotel
Speaker 2: as possible. It was like a block away from us.
Speaker 2: So down the street I went maybe one hundred people
Speaker 2: or so, including one individual with a flute playing as
Speaker 2: badly as they possibly could while standing as close to
Speaker 2: the police riot line as they possibly care. A hero,
Speaker 2: A hero. And yeah, it was interesting because when I
Speaker 2: got there, I expected because the police were telling people
Speaker 2: to move. They were in front of the President's hotel.
Speaker 2: It was one in the morning, and they were being
Speaker 2: very loud in front of people who have money, So
Speaker 2: I kind of expected, Okay, wagons are going to come
Speaker 2: in and people are going to get the absolute shit
Speaker 2: beat out of them. But nothing happened. The cops didn't
Speaker 2: even keep a tight cordon. There was clearly no as
Speaker 2: we saw last night, there was no walling in the protest.
Speaker 2: There was no sign that they considered this something that
Speaker 2: needed to be met with a significant degree of force.
Speaker 2: I kind of think some of it, maybe that they
Speaker 2: were tired too, because they looked exhausted, So I wonder
Speaker 2: how much of it is that. I think it also
Speaker 2: they got surprised, as opposed to yesterday, where they came
Speaker 2: in knowing Okay, this is supposed to be a radical
Speaker 2: militant demo, so we're going to have an overwhelming force response.
Speaker 2: I think they just had some teams show up and
Speaker 2: kind of catches catch can handle the event. But you know,
Speaker 2: they played around outside of Harris's place for thirty or
Speaker 2: forty minutes and then marched on and dispersed, and it
Speaker 2: was fine. No arrests that I saw whatsoever, pretty calm night.
Speaker 3: And I believe the actual hotel she was staying it
Speaker 3: was actually like a one or two blocks over they
Speaker 3: it was fortified. It's a fortress, right.
Speaker 2: You're not going to get that close.
Speaker 3: It's the Secret Service like headquarters essentially. Right, the vice
Speaker 3: president is sleeping in the building. There's not gonna be
Speaker 3: protesters directly outside on the sidewalk. They're gonna have some
Speaker 3: kind of radius. People got as close as they could
Speaker 3: to what they believed the hotel was, but you know,
Speaker 3: it's not like they're going to be thrown eggs on
Speaker 3: the window of the vice president.
Speaker 2: No, And I didn't even see any implication that people
Speaker 2: wanted to do that. I have not, at any of
Speaker 2: these demonstrations seen any sort of cohesive committed property destruction
Speaker 2: or even like a hint that people are thinking of property.
Speaker 2: These are and in part because I think most of
Speaker 2: the people have seen have been younger. They seem to
Speaker 2: be newer to this kind of protest. It seems like
Speaker 2: a younger movement is the core of things here, and
Speaker 2: I don't think if they ever do, I certainly they
Speaker 2: have not yet psyched themselves up to that kind of
Speaker 2: direct action.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, we will go on an ad break
Speaker 3: and come back to hear about a few of the
Speaker 3: other speeches that took place last night at the DNC,
Speaker 3: including Governor Tim Walls to the window.
Speaker 2: Okay, we could, so we're back. I did want to
Speaker 2: note before we get into this that Texas delegate who
Speaker 2: was in the South side of Chicago got robbed last night.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, which is not surprising because the South side
Speaker 2: of Chicago is the baddest part of town. And as
Speaker 2: I was warned before coming here, if you get down there,
Speaker 2: you'd better be aware of a man named Leroy Brown.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 2: Anyways, Garrison stands about six foot four, so this.
Speaker 3: Week has lasted a month.
Speaker 2: I've aged all the downtown ladies call him treetop Lover.
Speaker 2: But before the men just call him sir if you
Speaker 2: were curious about his pronouns. I'm just trying to make
Speaker 2: sure that.
Speaker 3: We refer to the theme for Wednesday Night inside the
Speaker 3: DNC was a fight for our democracy and with like
Speaker 3: a big emphasis on like trying to maintain the freedoms
Speaker 3: that we now have. There's a lot of we're not
Speaker 3: going back chance that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: A lot of speech is focused on redefining freedom.
Speaker 3: Yes, and curious this is this is kind of part
Speaker 3: of like this like liberal reclaim, like Patriot has been
Speaker 3: freedom that I've kind of been talking about these past
Speaker 3: few weeks.
Speaker 2: It's probably the smartest thing they could be doing.
Speaker 3: Yes, So this was kind of the main push not
Speaker 3: only how Democrats will continue to secure these freedoms, but
Speaker 3: if Trump is elected, these freedoms will be gone and people.
Speaker 3: The judge gave an okave speech, you know, talking about
Speaker 3: how his current life being married with kids was like,
Speaker 3: you know, impossible twenty five years ago, and if Project
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five gets enacted, it will be no longer
Speaker 3: possible anymore. So like a lot of stuff kind of
Speaker 3: like that. Oprah Winfrey showed up and gave a very
Speaker 3: long speech.
Speaker 2: I did have a moment of very jarring disconnect where
Speaker 2: as I listened to the boss who was openly weeping
Speaker 2: talking about his grandmother having to flee her home in
Speaker 2: Lebanon as it was bombed. And then I look up
Speaker 2: as this man is crying on the ground talking about
Speaker 2: his grandmother fleeing bombs and there's Oprah Winfrey's giant head
Speaker 2: speaking on the JumboTron above me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, similar to the R and Z.
Speaker 5: What the crowd startage to USA, USA, USA during Oprah's speech.
Speaker 5: I I got one of what those alerts said my
Speaker 5: smart watch that my heart was wast was a little.
Speaker 4: Too high, which again very funny. That's all that it
Speaker 4: takes to trigger my poor little heart.
Speaker 2: I got supplement, Sophie, let's take though.
Speaker 3: And then even though there's just all this like you know, freedom,
Speaker 3: democracy stuff, it was also some of the most conservative
Speaker 3: speakers of the night were also here. There was there,
Speaker 3: There was a few police officers. There was a shriff
Speaker 3: talking about the border and how how Trump killed the
Speaker 3: most secure border bill. Even though they're denying any any
Speaker 3: Palestinian to speak on the main stage, they are inviting,
Speaker 3: like former Trump co workers, a shriff, police officer. So
Speaker 3: all of these guys are speaking, which people are are
Speaker 3: similarly pointing to, is is, you know, showcasing what exactly
Speaker 3: the DNC I think actually cares about right now? But
Speaker 3: I think that's I just want to go straight over
Speaker 3: to mister Coach Walls. Right before he came out, volunteers
Speaker 3: at the convention center were handing out these big Coach
Speaker 3: Walls signs. There must have must have been thousands of
Speaker 3: them just handing them out to like everyone on the floor,
Speaker 3: almost everyone in the stands, just the whole the whole
Speaker 3: stadium was full of people holding these big Coach Walls signs.
Speaker 3: He comes out into stage and people seem to really
Speaker 3: like him. He gave a short but sweet speech. I
Speaker 3: guess he was one of the most efficient speakers of
Speaker 3: the night. He talked a lot about schools and how
Speaker 3: how schools are kind of one of the big battlegrounds
Speaker 3: for freedom right now because he used to be a
Speaker 3: teacher for you know, geography as well as as well
Speaker 3: as football. He had this line that instead of instead
Speaker 3: of banning books, we've been banishing hunger in his schools.
Speaker 3: How he signed that free lunch bill. Meanwhile, all these
Speaker 3: Republicans are just trying to ban science books, ban social studies,
Speaker 3: and he's giving kids free food. So a lot of
Speaker 3: stuff about protecting schools, a lot of stuff about empowering
Speaker 3: teachers that got great reactions from the crowd. So I'm
Speaker 3: sure there's plenty of teachers here at the DNC.
Speaker 4: Sure.
Speaker 5: Speaking of crowd reactions, Joe Biden was very briefly mentioned
Speaker 5: in the thank You Joe chance that normally go on
Speaker 5: for a very long time.
Speaker 3: They've been getting shorter, getting shorter, shorter, getting shorter and shorter.
Speaker 3: It was quite.
Speaker 5: Literally thank you Joe once and then thank you, and
Speaker 5: then he kept talking and the chance ended.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the part along to weaning themselves off of
Speaker 2: hair Joe in so Walls could.
Speaker 3: Walls's approach in his speech was similarly on this like
Speaker 3: freedom and democracy theme. One of the reoccurring talking points
Speaker 3: he used was back in either Minnesota or Nebraska, because
Speaker 3: he's lived in both places. Their golden rule is to
Speaker 3: mind your own damn business, and that's kind of his
Speaker 3: his stated approach to a lot of these things. It's
Speaker 3: like Republicans are trying to get up into your business.
Speaker 3: The Republicans talk about freedom but what they really mean
Speaker 3: is freedom for the government to get involved in your
Speaker 3: own business. Yes, saying that the Democrats are going to
Speaker 3: not do such a thing where we're going to keep
Speaker 3: the government out of your doctor's office. We're going to
Speaker 3: provide reproductive freedom. That that's kind of the messaging that
Speaker 3: he kept using because consistently throughout the night about being
Speaker 3: a good neighbor, calling you know, stuff like Project twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five, an agenda that no one has really asked for,
Speaker 3: but Republican like oligarchs are trying to force upon the
Speaker 3: nation just to get more involved in everyone's lives. And
Speaker 3: this is something that me and Robert we're talking about
Speaker 3: kind of back in the hotels. Everyone really likes like
Speaker 3: libertarian messaging. Yeah, Like this style of messaging always plays
Speaker 3: very well. People just don't like actual libertarians and they
Speaker 3: don't like, you know, lots of like libertarian like you know,
Speaker 3: urban policy, right, but this style of messaging typically plays
Speaker 3: really well. It is something that Republicans have been using increasingly,
Speaker 3: like since like the Tea Party and stuff, and because
Speaker 3: the Republican Party has has gotten much more authoritarian over
Speaker 3: the years. I think it's interesting to see the Democrats
Speaker 3: are starting to realize that they can actually weaponize this
Speaker 3: style of framing themselves to a very good reaction. You know,
Speaker 3: this is where we get these big we're not going
Speaker 3: back chance.
Speaker 5: He in one of his many sports metaphors, he said,
Speaker 5: when somebody draws up a playbook, they're going to use it,
Speaker 5: referred to Project twenty twenty five, and the crowd loved that.
Speaker 3: A lot of sports references that I saw many sports
Speaker 3: reference I did not really get.
Speaker 2: But that's okay, cause you guys don't like the only
Speaker 2: real sport.
Speaker 5: In this line, I was translating all the sports references
Speaker 5: to Robert, you don't know sports.
Speaker 2: I know football, great, sob Anyways.
Speaker 3: He also talked about things that Kamala has helped fight for,
Speaker 3: including fighting big pharma, security rights for workers, healthcare, and housing.
Speaker 3: There's are just a few of the actual kind of
Speaker 3: still not not super big policy things, but hinting towards
Speaker 3: policy things that Democrats had gotten closer to over these
Speaker 3: last few days as they did release their actual like
Speaker 3: DNC party platform. And finally, the kind of last thing
Speaker 3: I want to mention is that with like buddhaj Edge
Speaker 3: and a few a few other like LGBTQ speakers. You know,
Speaker 3: Walls talked about how he sponsored the Gaystraight Alliance in
Speaker 3: the nineties and that under his and Kamala's watch, the
Speaker 3: government's gonna stay out of your bedroom. Similarly, you know,
Speaker 3: going back to this like freedom messaging, but there has
Speaker 3: been these few mentions of like, you know, keeping the
Speaker 3: government out of the bedroom.
Speaker 4: And like doctor's appointments as well.
Speaker 3: Doctors appointments and and and not regressing on LGBTQ rights.
Speaker 3: There's been very little actually talked about positively about helping
Speaker 3: secure the LGBTQ rights that are currently like actually a jeopardy,
Speaker 3: like specifically like trans healthcare. Like there's not been a
Speaker 3: trans speaker at the DNC. I've heard almost no mention
Speaker 3: of trans issues on any of the speeches or any
Speaker 3: of the or any of the panels. And that this is,
Speaker 3: I guess just slightly. I don't know. I guess I
Speaker 3: was expecting something, honestly on this because this is such
Speaker 3: a big topic for Republicans, because there was consistently every
Speaker 3: night mentions of trans people at at the RNC, I
Speaker 3: was expecting at least some degree for the DNC to
Speaker 3: like push back on that. And be like, no, we
Speaker 3: actually are gonna make sure we have health care for
Speaker 3: trans people and make sure that trans people are not
Speaker 3: and fairly discriminated against. And they have just sidesteped this
Speaker 3: whole issue, and that has been that's that's not great.
Speaker 3: That is that is another thing as well as Palestine
Speaker 3: to push them on, because this is like literally one
Speaker 3: of the core parts of the Republican Party right now
Speaker 3: is attacking the ability for trans people to not only
Speaker 3: get healthier, but it's just to exist in public life.
Speaker 2: And it's specifically something Walls has a really good record on.
Speaker 3: Yes, some of these people do have a good recordation.
Speaker 2: Ban and stuff, so it's not something that they have
Speaker 2: shied away from in their own electoral history.
Speaker 3: But at least at the DNC, they're not putting it
Speaker 3: on like the national stage, and maybe they think it
Speaker 3: won't play well. Maybe they think it's a little bit
Speaker 3: too weird for some of the people that they're trying
Speaker 3: to kind of court their votes for. I'm not sure.
Speaker 2: I wonder if the calculation is a little different. The
Speaker 2: only direct references I've heard of trans people have been
Speaker 2: as part of LGBTQ. I wonder if there's a degree
Speaker 2: of strategy where they're thinking, like the smart way to
Speaker 2: play this is to reconnect trans people with LGBTQ as
Speaker 2: opposed to deal with it as if there's some sort
Speaker 2: of like separate thing going on. I wonder if that's
Speaker 2: a calculation that they're making. I don't know, but you're right,
Speaker 2: it is kind of It is very conspicuous in its absence.
Speaker 3: I mean, we just had this massive flare about the
Speaker 3: Olympics with this like increasing like trans panic stuff, and yeah,
Speaker 3: it's just something I've observed the past few days that
Speaker 3: we'll see if we'll see if there's anything Tonight, I'm
Speaker 3: going to try to talk to the people who've been
Speaker 3: at the LGBTQ caucuses these past few days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to end by just as we're recording this,
Speaker 2: it's come out Mother Jones is published at the text
Speaker 2: of the speech that the Uncommitted Movement wanted to give
Speaker 2: it the DNC. This was from rep Rua Roman was
Speaker 2: supposed to be the one giving this and this was
Speaker 2: like specifically turned down by the Democratic Party And I
Speaker 2: want to read a couple of paragraphs from it just
Speaker 2: to give you an idea. Again, make it very clear
Speaker 2: the actual kind of rhetoric, and how modest it is
Speaker 2: that these people are using in this pain. I've also
Speaker 2: witnessed something profound, a beautiful, multi faith, multiracial, and multi
Speaker 2: generational coalition rising from despair within our Democratic Party. For
Speaker 2: three undred and twenty days, we've stood together, demanding to
Speaker 2: enforce our laws on friend and foe alike, to reach
Speaker 2: a ceasefire in the killing of Palestinians, free all the
Speaker 2: Israelian Palestinian hostages, and to begin the difficult work of
Speaker 2: building a path to collective peace and safety. That's why
Speaker 2: we are here, members of this Democratic Party, committed to
Speaker 2: equal rights and dignity for all. What we do here
Speaker 2: echoes around the world. They'll say, this is how it's
Speaker 2: always been. That nothing can change. But remember Fanny lou
Speaker 2: Hamer shunned for her courage, yet she paved the way
Speaker 2: for an integrated Democratic Party. Her legacy lives on and
Speaker 2: it's her example we follow. But we can't do it alone.
Speaker 2: This historic moment is full of promise, but only if
Speaker 2: we stand together. Our party's greatest strength has always been
Speaker 2: our ability to unite. Some say that as a weakness,
Speaker 2: but it's time we flex that strength. Let's commit to
Speaker 2: each other, to electing Vice President Harris and defeating Donald Trump,
Speaker 2: who uses my identity as a Palestinian as a slur.
Speaker 2: Let's fight for the politics long overdue, from restoring access
Speaker 2: to abortions, to ensuring a living wage to demanding an
Speaker 2: end to reckless war and a ceasefire in Gaza. To
Speaker 2: those who doubt us, to the Senate and naysayers, I say,
Speaker 2: yes we can. Yes, we can be a democratic party
Speaker 2: that prioritizes funding our schools and hospitals, not for endless wars,
Speaker 2: that fights for in America, that belongs to all of us, black, brown,
Speaker 2: and white, Jews and Palestinians, all of us, like my
Speaker 2: grandfather taught me together Jesus Christ. Yeah, it's the least
Speaker 2: objectionable thing I can imagine. Yeah. So, anyway, that's what
Speaker 2: the DNC didn't want people to hear.
Speaker 4: Very despicable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's pretty frustrating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, this is how we're going to be closing
Speaker 3: this week of coverage. We will start next week's episodes
Speaker 3: by talking about the final day of the DNC, including
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris's speech. And I also have some kind of
Speaker 3: disjointed thoughts I'll try to put together more about some
Speaker 3: of like the discourse revolving around some of these protests,
Speaker 3: how they've been handled a few like tactics things. But yeah,
Speaker 3: this has been this week at It could happen here, yep.
Speaker 3: Recording from Chicago, Illinois. Nice exhausted, Well.
Speaker 2: You guys, listen to the speeches. I'm going to try
Speaker 2: to find Jake Tapper at the Politico Bar and Grill
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, read him the lyrics of ad
Speaker 2: Badle Roy Brown. Let us know all that baddest man
Speaker 2: in the whole damn town.
Speaker 5: Normally I would I would be against abandoning you at
Speaker 5: a big public event.
Speaker 2: But see you, it's fine. If it turns into a fistfight.
Speaker 2: I feel confident we all do it. I feel very
Speaker 2: confident I can win.
Speaker 3: If you're getting close to Jacapper, it's going to turn
Speaker 3: into a fistfight. We all know this, all right, Bye,
Speaker 3: bye horrible.
Speaker 4: It could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
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Speaker 5: You can find sources for it could happen here. Updated
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Speaker 4: Thanks for listening,