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Speaker 2: It's the honor of my life to accept your nomination
Speaker 2: for Vice President of the United States.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your.
Speaker 2: Passion, thank you for your determination, and most of all,
Speaker 2: thank you for bringing the joy to this fight.
Speaker 4: The Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walls on his big night
Speaker 4: the running mate of course, holding forth on night three. Here,
Speaker 4: welcome to the Thursday edition of Balance of Power. We're
Speaker 4: live in Chicago on what is now day four, culminating
Speaker 4: all of this exercise this week. The speech is the
Speaker 4: organizing everything, leading us up to the moment that Kamala
Speaker 4: Harris will accept her party's nomination in prime time, assuming
Speaker 4: things Kaylee go on schedule.
Speaker 5: Well, that might be a big ass considering the way
Speaker 5: the convention has gone thus far, but it is worth
Speaker 5: noting this is a very different convention than Democrats thought
Speaker 5: they would be throwing just one month ago. It would
Speaker 5: have been Kamala Harris that gave the vice presidential acceptance
Speaker 5: speech last night. Instead, she is accepting the Democratic nomination
Speaker 5: for president tonight, and in doing so becomes the first
Speaker 5: ever woman of color to claim that title as Democratic nominee.
Speaker 4: We're in an historic period of time here in American politics,
Speaker 4: with a whole new reason here, and you're right, just
Speaker 4: four weeks ago, imagine the extent to which this race
Speaker 4: has changed leading us up to this moment today. There
Speaker 4: are thousands of delegates here in Chicago at a fever
Speaker 4: pitch coming off the last couple of nights of speeches
Speaker 4: Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Tim Walls, and now of course
Speaker 4: the Vice President Kamala Harris.
Speaker 5: Well, and it raises the question of who else is
Speaker 5: going to speak tonight because you don't yet know, We
Speaker 5: have no idea who will introduce Kamala Harris or whether
Speaker 5: there will be a surprise musical guest. After John Legend
Speaker 5: gave a nice rendition.
Speaker 3: Of you can just say Beyonce out loud, well, yeah.
Speaker 5: That's what everybody's hoping for, whether or not the Queen
Speaker 5: comes to town. That's correct, And the beehive inside the
Speaker 5: United Center goes Wild joining us now for more as
Speaker 5: we look ahead to this evening's festivities. Bloomberg's Gregory Cordy, So, Gregory,
Speaker 5: I think it is a valid question. We have seen
Speaker 5: the most elevated people in democratic politics, frankly speak already
Speaker 5: last night included former President Bill Clinton speaker married and
Speaker 5: Nancy Pelosi, Hockey, Jeffrey's, Pete Boudajete, Josh Shapiro. They have
Speaker 5: all spoken. So who's left that's going to tee up
Speaker 5: build the momentum to Harris's big speech.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And one of the things, in contrast to the Republican Convention,
Speaker 6: which was really Donald Trump's convention, and you've got a
Speaker 6: speaking slot based on your orbit around Donald Trump, Democrats
Speaker 6: have had former presidents, former nominees, and it's been embarrassment
Speaker 6: of riches for them trying to squeeze all of the
Speaker 6: different speakers in. I haven't seen the formal list for tonight,
Speaker 6: but I think you can expect, you know, some some governor,
Speaker 6: some senators. I'm thinking people like Gretchen Whitmer, the governor
Speaker 6: of Michigan, mar Kelly, the senator from Arizona, you know,
Speaker 6: really trying to show off the full breadth of the
Speaker 6: Democratic Party and also emphasize some of these key Senate races.
Speaker 6: They are going to be so important to Kamala Harris
Speaker 6: if she does get elected, she's going to need support
Speaker 6: from the Senate in the House to pass her agenda.
Speaker 4: Brought up show has been a problem. This thing's going
Speaker 4: way over every night. They're cutting videos, in some cases speeches.
Speaker 4: Last night was not an exception. It's been very difficult
Speaker 4: to get the headliner in prime time and reports say
Speaker 4: the DNC is not fooling around tonight.
Speaker 3: Well, people on the East coast see Kamala Harris.
Speaker 6: Yeah, one of the problems we had last night is
Speaker 6: that Bill Clinton spoke, and of course he probably holds
Speaker 6: the unbreakable wreckord that's got most minutes spoken at. But
Speaker 6: Joe and I were talking last night about his nineteen
Speaker 6: eighty eight speech where the biggest appause line the Clinton
Speaker 6: said in conclusion, and so it's sort of a breath
Speaker 6: of fresh air. Though to hear Tim Walls last night
Speaker 6: give a what fifteen to sixteen minute speech? I saw
Speaker 6: him again this morning at the Minnesota delegation breakfast. It
Speaker 6: was maybe a three or four minute thank you. This
Speaker 6: guy is going to be for reporters easy to watch
Speaker 6: because we can get in and out pretty quickly. But yeah,
Speaker 6: it has been a challenge just because everybody wants to
Speaker 6: have their say. This is everybody for any politician, this
Speaker 6: is the most important moment. It's a career making moment potentially,
Speaker 6: and they all want to make the most of it.
Speaker 6: And when you squeeze in all these performances, the pop culture,
Speaker 6: everything that the DNC is going to trying to do
Speaker 6: to make a very slick produced television event, it's going
Speaker 6: to run long, and it's going to run past prime.
Speaker 4: I was on the floor for Bill Clinton last night, Kayley,
Speaker 4: among some other speakers. He went off the prompter at
Speaker 4: one point for twelve minutes and we were looking at
Speaker 4: the prompter. It's not moving and he's vamping. He's still
Speaker 4: getting applause lines. But it does remind us that just
Speaker 4: because things are produced a certain way, the show does
Speaker 4: an always go.
Speaker 5: The way you plan it well, And don't we know
Speaker 5: that we're in broadcast television and radio. But of course,
Speaker 5: as you just alluded to, it's a big night for
Speaker 5: anyone who gets to speak on that stage. But it
Speaker 5: is perhaps the biggest night of all for Kamala Harris,
Speaker 5: probably the most important one of her entire political career
Speaker 5: thus far. Yes, she's been vice president for over three
Speaker 5: and a half years, but this could still be an
Speaker 5: introduction to many Americans to who Kamala Harris really is.
Speaker 5: What does at stake for her this evening?
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, And I wish I could come here and
Speaker 6: tell you that I have a whole bunch of reporting
Speaker 6: about what it is she's going to say. I don't
Speaker 6: think any of us know. We're waiting to see what
Speaker 6: does who is Kamala Harris and what does she sound
Speaker 6: like when she's not in the immediate shadow of Joe Biden.
Speaker 6: Because when you're a vice president, the job is to
Speaker 6: be joined at the hip on policy, and so the
Speaker 6: question tonight is how does she differentiate herself from Joe
Speaker 6: Biden in subtle or not so subtle ways, especially on
Speaker 6: issues of the economy. She's already seemed to be maybe
Speaker 6: going a little bit to the left in terms of
Speaker 6: her taxing and spending policy, but also on Gaza is
Speaker 6: going to be the real tight rope where we're going
Speaker 6: to watch how she talks about that, and of course,
Speaker 6: as you suggest, she's got to reintroduce herselfself to the
Speaker 6: American people. Even among the delegates that I've talked to,
Speaker 6: they don't know as much about her as they feel
Speaker 6: like they should, and they're going to want to hear
Speaker 6: her introduce herself to the American people as the former prosecutor,
Speaker 6: the former attorney general, and Joe Biden's loyal vice president.
Speaker 6: And because it's only seventy five, seventy four days until
Speaker 6: the election and she's a brand new candidate.
Speaker 3: That's true.
Speaker 4: It's been really interesting to watch Democrats leverage celebrity entertainment.
Speaker 4: The influencers, we talked a lot about it, two hundred
Speaker 4: of them in the hall Oprah Winfrey was the late
Speaker 4: ad last night. We thought she might speak, but wasn't
Speaker 4: on the initial schedule. They're trying to get the element
Speaker 4: of surprise, get the element of culture involved here in
Speaker 4: a different way than Republicans seized with Kid Rock and
Speaker 4: Paul Cogan.
Speaker 6: Point last night, I had to think to myself, am
Speaker 6: I watching a political convention on my watching the oscar?
Speaker 3: Isn't that something? It wasn't MC and the whole bit. Yeah.
Speaker 6: Stephanie Cutter is the is the Democratic strategist who had
Speaker 6: to put together a virtual convention four years ago because
Speaker 6: we were in the middle of COVID it had to
Speaker 6: be a televised event. They brought her back this year
Speaker 6: to really continue that. You saw it with that with
Speaker 6: the role Call of the States, which is for quirky
Speaker 6: and fun and different, and they've really turned this into
Speaker 6: a television show. It has been for many decades, but
Speaker 6: now I feel like it's turned the corner that this
Speaker 6: is a full on, over produced extravaganza.
Speaker 5: Well, and to this exact point, someone else who stood
Speaker 5: out to me last night was Keenan Thompson. They brought
Speaker 5: a comedian in specifically with a giant prop book of
Speaker 5: Project twenty twenty five to talk to everyday Americans who
Speaker 5: could be affected by that. Instead of like painting it
Speaker 5: as this very dark, scary thing, which we've heard Democrats
Speaker 5: do a lot of, they tried to make it funny
Speaker 5: and perhaps more accessible in.
Speaker 7: That way, and I thought that was a really maybe
Speaker 7: getting a bachelor little leader do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, by the way, they had some zoom problems. Couldn't
Speaker 3: hear people? It happens to the best of us. I
Speaker 3: think it's the Yeah.
Speaker 4: I went there Kayley rat to have Gregory cording with
Speaker 4: us here reporting for Bloomberg here on the ground in Chicago. Gregory,
Speaker 4: thank you so much for joining us. Of course, it
Speaker 4: was a big night for the Democrats last evening. It
Speaker 4: wasn't just the celebrities involved here, a lot of folks
Speaker 4: speaking about the element of joy.
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris.
Speaker 8: Is the only candidate in this race who.
Speaker 9: Has the vision, the experience, the temperament, the will, and yes,
Speaker 9: the sheer joy. That kind of politics also just feels
Speaker 9: better to be part of. There is joy in it
Speaker 9: as well as power.
Speaker 2: Most of all, thank you for bringing the joy to
Speaker 2: this fight.
Speaker 10: Let us choose joy.
Speaker 3: That's twining us now.
Speaker 4: Our signature panel Rick Davis, partner at Stone Court Capital,
Speaker 4: at the table, of course, longtime Republican STRATAG just had
Speaker 4: Jeanie Shanzano as well, Democratic strategist, senior democracy fellow with
Speaker 4: the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress
Speaker 4: Democratic strategist. As I mentioned, Bloomberg Politics contributors here. We
Speaker 4: all are the big day. This is why we're here.
Speaker 4: I want to start with last night though, before we
Speaker 4: start asking you guys, what Kamala Harris is going to
Speaker 4: say Later Oprah Winfrey the secret weapon for the Democrats
Speaker 4: in this convention.
Speaker 11: Absolutely, Now, why did Rick and I not get an
Speaker 11: intro like she gave to Kamala Harris?
Speaker 12: Right?
Speaker 4: That needs for the special tonight.
Speaker 11: You know, absolutely one of the great speakers. I mean,
Speaker 11: this is the thing as we look forward to tonight,
Speaker 11: Kamala Harris has.
Speaker 1: A huge bar to leap over.
Speaker 11: You know, Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, Tim Walts, who I
Speaker 11: thought did an amazing.
Speaker 3: Job, did I short speech?
Speaker 11: It was a touchdown Joe Matt But I thought, yeah,
Speaker 11: but that was it?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 11: What did Mark Twain say? I rid have written a
Speaker 11: shorter letter if I had the time. I mean, thank
Speaker 11: god for Governor Waltz Coach Walts for keeping it brief.
Speaker 11: Other people did not. They have a problem with the
Speaker 11: timing on this convention to a certain extent. But you know,
Speaker 11: Oprah absolutely a huge star of the show. I thought
Speaker 11: it might have been Bill Clinton. I think she may
Speaker 11: have outshined him, but he did a great job as well.
Speaker 11: But yeah, I thought Tim Waltz stole the show. And
Speaker 11: his son Gus, how sweet was that?
Speaker 5: Very emotional, very proud of dad's Yeah, she watched him
Speaker 5: from the floor. But you mentioned Oprah. Certainly, a lot
Speaker 5: of moments of Oprah's speech have gone viral, including a
Speaker 5: little bit of a dig at jd vance over the
Speaker 5: whole cat lady thing.
Speaker 10: We are not so different from our neighbors. When a
Speaker 10: house is on fire, we don't ask about the homeowner's
Speaker 10: race or religion. We don't wonder who their partner is
Speaker 10: or how they voted. No, we just try to do
Speaker 10: the best we can to save them. And if the
Speaker 10: place happens to belong to a childless cat.
Speaker 2: Lady, well.
Speaker 1: We try to get that cat out too.
Speaker 5: Clearly, quite the reception to the words of Oprah Winfrey
Speaker 5: last night, Rick, But it raises the question of if
Speaker 5: there's a little element of stealing the show here, is
Speaker 5: it good for the ticket If the speech of those
Speaker 5: who are teeing up the vice presidential nominee might stand
Speaker 5: out just as much as the speech of the vice
Speaker 5: presidential candidate himself.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think they have any risk of that.
Speaker 8: I mean, Wednesday Night's you know, a different audience probably
Speaker 8: than what we're going to see tonight, and voters have
Speaker 8: short memories. They're not going to compare Oprah to Harris.
Speaker 8: I don't think that's a big risk. If anything, you
Speaker 8: want to have as many eyeballs on each night as
Speaker 8: you can get. And as we heard from Gregory, this
Speaker 8: is a you know, a bunch of really well known
Speaker 8: speakers the Democrats have thrown out there. They they all
Speaker 8: exceed the whole Cogan factor. I mean, it's a it's
Speaker 8: a it's a it's a good group. But I would
Speaker 8: say I think it's been way too subtle. Right conventions
Speaker 8: are about putting that red meat out on the table.
Speaker 8: You know, it's hard to get Americans attention and a
Speaker 8: subtle dig at vice president nominee or vice president can
Speaker 8: Advance about cat ladies that have no name ID. I mean,
Speaker 8: if you took a poll today and said what do
Speaker 8: you think about cat ladies, They's like, what are you
Speaker 8: talking about? So like, I think the whole thing was
Speaker 8: way too subtle. I mean, there's it's it's not over selling,
Speaker 8: it's under selling. I mean there were very few direct
Speaker 8: attacks on Donald Trump, direct attacks on JD.
Speaker 3: Vance.
Speaker 8: This is the opportunity to speak to twenty million people,
Speaker 8: and it was almost like, oh, we're just going to
Speaker 8: be kind of cool, and you know, I actually think
Speaker 8: that on a messaging front, totally fun, great eye candy,
Speaker 8: you know, hooplaw for the crowd. But making progress in
Speaker 8: this campaign is about leveling your message and directing attacks,
Speaker 8: and there were very little messaging there that is going
Speaker 8: to be good for voters, especially swing voters in key states,
Speaker 8: and very few attacks are going to stick to the
Speaker 8: president and JD Vans.
Speaker 4: Bill Clinton tried to get to that at some point.
Speaker 4: He seemed to be the attack dog.
Speaker 3: Last night.
Speaker 4: He was through we the people versus me myself, and
Speaker 4: I called Donald Trump al winer. He even got to
Speaker 4: Hannibal Lecter with some pretty good laughs for the crowd.
Speaker 4: But to Rick's point, does Kamala Harris need to name
Speaker 4: Donald Trump tonight and talk about him directly?
Speaker 10: See?
Speaker 11: I don't think so. And this is where we disagree.
Speaker 11: You know, the job for the Democrats is to try
Speaker 11: to win over these moderate voters in these swing states,
Speaker 11: some of whom are very attracted to Donald Trump and
Speaker 11: particularly where he stands on these issues. And so I
Speaker 11: think attacking Donald Trump front on is not the way
Speaker 11: to go. And I thought, speaking of Bill Clinton, his
Speaker 11: remark yesterday was brilliant when he said, stop telling us
Speaker 11: how much he lies and start counting how much he
Speaker 11: talks about I because the reality is, voters know that
Speaker 11: Donald Trump lies quite frankly, they think all politicians lie.
Speaker 11: So that's no big message. What is is this argument?
Speaker 11: It's all about him, and that's what Bill Clinton tried
Speaker 11: to underscore last night. So I don't think she should
Speaker 11: take Donald Trump on in the front on attack. I
Speaker 11: think she should let voters know that this is a
Speaker 11: party that is open to them, and particularly on the
Speaker 11: all important issue of the economy, which still reigns supreme.
Speaker 11: So I think they don't have to attack him straight on.
Speaker 11: There's been enough subtle attacks. And by the way, on
Speaker 11: the cat lady, did they have to swing to that
Speaker 11: one woman in the audience and stare at her?
Speaker 1: I love cat? This was not right?
Speaker 3: Yes, it'd be a dog leader.
Speaker 5: Well this is very true. That definitely got some attention
Speaker 5: on social media. But to this point, Rick, and I'll
Speaker 5: let you respond to what Genie said. But also, isn't
Speaker 5: it worth pointing out voters do know Donald Trump. They
Speaker 5: know him probably better than most anyone else. He was
Speaker 5: president for four years. He has not left the forefront
Speaker 5: of American thought. Frankly, political thought, at least since he
Speaker 5: left office. So do you really need to go after
Speaker 5: a man that voters.
Speaker 1: Know so well?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think that there's a difference between being well
Speaker 8: known and being well known for something that is going
Speaker 8: to come up over the next four years. I mean,
Speaker 8: his record on the economy is ahead of where Kamala
Speaker 8: Harris is. She cannot win this election if we go
Speaker 8: into election day and Donald Trump is more popular on
Speaker 8: the economy than she is.
Speaker 3: How much of the economy did we hear about? This
Speaker 3: is Bloomberg.
Speaker 8: We actually think that those things matter. We think Donald
Speaker 8: Trump's economic plans are in and add enormous amount of
Speaker 8: money to the national debt. Did you hear any of
Speaker 8: that at this convention?
Speaker 3: Not a peep.
Speaker 6: You don't have to attack that.
Speaker 8: The personality contest, you're always going to lose against Donald Trump,
Speaker 8: because he's always going to say something more outrageous, more
Speaker 8: inflammatory than any normal person's going to do. But he
Speaker 8: has a policy that he has actually articulated, and it's
Speaker 8: not just a big book called twenty twenty five, and
Speaker 8: they've done a good job of demonizing that. Why don't
Speaker 8: you crack it open, start talking about some of the
Speaker 8: things that are in there. I just think that this
Speaker 8: was an opportunity the last three days to lay out
Speaker 8: what the Democratic attack against Donald Trump's next four years
Speaker 8: are going to be. And it's not about cat ladies
Speaker 8: and it's not about you know, Donald Trump is a
Speaker 8: person that's a settled case. Voters have already made their
Speaker 8: minds up. What they want to know is how am
Speaker 8: I going to live better? And if his policies are
Speaker 8: going to make that worse, you should be talking about it.
Speaker 4: We have less than a minute. Can that be fixed tonight?
Speaker 4: When Kamala Harris gets on the stage.
Speaker 8: I would be shocked, based on what we saw last
Speaker 8: week when she articulated her own tax policy, her own
Speaker 8: economic plan, that they're going to go anywhere near that.
Speaker 8: So they will have missed this opportunity with millions of
Speaker 8: Americans looking in for the first time saying what's this
Speaker 8: all about?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 5: Rick Davis and Jeanie Shanzino, our signature political panel who
Speaker 5: will be with us for the duration today on this
Speaker 5: final day of the Democratic Convention.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens
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Speaker 4: Kamala Harris speaking in primetime. At least that's the plan tonight,
Speaker 4: assuming all things stay together, and we expect maybe some
Speaker 4: surprises along the way as well. Having heard from many
Speaker 4: Democratic luminaries over the course of this week, Barack Obama,
Speaker 4: Michelle Obama, Blue Clinton, They've all had a chance to speak,
Speaker 4: Nancy Pelosi, and a lot of questions about who might
Speaker 4: grace the stage.
Speaker 5: Tonight, indeed, but we do know we will hear from
Speaker 5: Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, the
Speaker 5: first woman ever, of course, to hold that title. She
Speaker 5: will now become tonight officially the first woman of color
Speaker 5: ever to become and accept the nomination for president from
Speaker 5: the Democratic Party. And we have a few questions about
Speaker 5: her speech tonight, Joe, the extent to what she attacks
Speaker 5: her opponent, Donald Trump, how much of this is a
Speaker 5: reintroduction to the country, a relisting of her resume, if
Speaker 5: you will, and also whether or not she's going to
Speaker 5: get in to real specific policy we've been warned not
Speaker 5: to expect too much in terms of substance.
Speaker 4: Well, remembering the hour and a half long stem winder
Speaker 4: we got from Donald Trump on his fourth night of
Speaker 4: his convention in Milwaukee, there is a thought that maybe
Speaker 4: keeping this efficient would be helpful and not going too
Speaker 4: deep into details. There'll be time for that as we
Speaker 4: move closer to a presidential debate on the tenth of September.
Speaker 4: But of course, Kaylee, when it comes to issues like
Speaker 4: the economy, when it comes to the border, we could
Speaker 4: hear about that. And energy policy is going to of
Speaker 4: course be a major theme in this campaign, and I
Speaker 4: suspect we're going to hear about it tonight.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's already shaping up to be a top issue
Speaker 5: on the campaign trail, but we haven't received many details
Speaker 5: yet when it comes to Kamala Harris's plan. Bloomberg Tyler
Speaker 5: Kendall has more on what we do know.
Speaker 13: Tyler, Yeah, Hey, Cayley, We're still waiting for additional details
Speaker 13: from the Harris campaign when it comes to their energy agenda.
Speaker 13: But for the Trump campaign's part, they have been capitalizing
Speaker 13: on this issue on the campaign trail, urging more domestic
Speaker 13: drilling in a bid to lower energy pricing. For a
Speaker 13: sense of the messaging from the former president, take a
Speaker 13: listen to him on the campaign trail this week as
Speaker 13: part of his counter programming to the DNC.
Speaker 14: What they've done to inflation, and they close it with energy.
Speaker 14: If we were there, with our energy, we would be
Speaker 14: so dominant all over the world. Right now, we were
Speaker 14: already energy and dependent. I make you energy and dependent,
Speaker 14: but we would be energy dominant.
Speaker 13: Trump has also repeatedly highlighted and then candidate Harris's twenty
Speaker 13: nineteen comments she would support a BI on fracking. The
Speaker 13: Harris campaign says that's no longer her stance, alleging this
Speaker 13: is instead part of Trump's quote attempt to distract from
Speaker 13: his own plans through enriched oil and gas executives. We
Speaker 13: should note US oil output has reached record highs under
Speaker 13: the Biden administration, but it's becoming a key issue in
Speaker 13: some energy producing battleground states like Pennsylvania, which is the
Speaker 13: second largest producer of US natural gas. It's also where
Speaker 13: Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle is from. You two had the
Speaker 13: chance to catch up with him yesterday on Balance of
Speaker 13: Power and ask him about Vice President Kamala Harris's reverse
Speaker 13: when it comes to fracking.
Speaker 7: I would expect and certainly hope for an evolution on
Speaker 7: certain issues. I think it's appropriate, and in the end
Speaker 7: of the day, I think she arrived at the right place,
Speaker 7: both in terms of policy and politics.
Speaker 13: Harris's campaign is expected to shepherd a more progressive energy
Speaker 13: agenda and vice presidential pick. Minnesota Governor Tim Wallas is
Speaker 13: considered to be an aggressive advocate when it comes to
Speaker 13: climate policy. Even so Joe and Kelly without so many details.
Speaker 13: Climate groups this week actually pledged a fifty five million
Speaker 13: dollar advertising campaign to the Democratic ticket.
Speaker 3: Tyler, Thank you so much, Bloomberg.
Speaker 4: Tyler Kendall setting us up for an important conversation now
Speaker 4: with former Environmental Protection Agency administrator and former White House
Speaker 4: National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, straight from Dorchester. It's great
Speaker 4: to see you in Chicago. Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 4: We'd like to get specific with you, because you can
Speaker 4: clearly get the sense that people are looking for details.
Speaker 3: But I want to start more broadly.
Speaker 4: Are we going to hear about climate and energy policy tonight?
Speaker 4: When she speaks to people not just in the hall
Speaker 4: but those who.
Speaker 15: Are at home, well, clearly you're hearing from a ton
Speaker 15: of climate advocates, and it was already mentioned that it's
Speaker 15: a fifty five million dollar plan that they're putting out
Speaker 15: to invest in Kamala Harris and Tim Walls because they
Speaker 15: are climate champions and they.
Speaker 1: Have approven record that we can rely on.
Speaker 15: So just how much she wants to get into details
Speaker 15: on policies and including climate change really is not a
Speaker 15: concern for all of us who know where she lands
Speaker 15: on climate and how much effort she's going to take
Speaker 15: to actually address the climate challenge and accelerate our ability
Speaker 15: to advance claim energy.
Speaker 5: Well, and certainly she's attached to this current administration which
Speaker 5: got flew the inflation reduction actually, of course, and her
Speaker 5: role as vice president had to be active on the
Speaker 5: Senate floor for that one, but that has passed and
Speaker 5: they were able to do so because they did with
Speaker 5: her tie breaking vote. Have both chambers of Congress. We
Speaker 5: don't necessarily know that will be the case even if
Speaker 5: she does win the presidential election, which would leave much
Speaker 5: more up to regulators say, given that the Chevron doctrine
Speaker 5: has now been reversed without control of Congress, what really
Speaker 5: is going to be the power of the presidents and
Speaker 5: the regulators they appoint to lead agencies like the EPA
Speaker 5: to do things on their own.
Speaker 15: Well, I think it's really important to recognize that Chevron
Speaker 15: doctrine often applied to EPA requirements and rules and regulations,
Speaker 15: and EPA is very good at figuring out how to
Speaker 15: address those challenges and move forward with the kind of
Speaker 15: protections we need, not just on climate, but air and water,
Speaker 15: all the kinds of pollution that families care about. But
Speaker 15: we also have to recognize that Kamala Harris has really
Speaker 15: been a champion on this issue, and I fully expect
Speaker 15: and I have seen already from a release that was
Speaker 15: put out just two days ago, between Biden and Harris
Speaker 15: to talk about what's next. So we are not worried
Speaker 15: that we're going to stand still. And frankly, I'm not
Speaker 15: worried about the American public really getting behind these climate
Speaker 15: actions because they say families money.
Speaker 1: They grow jobs.
Speaker 15: You see the unions there at the DNC, they're excited
Speaker 15: about how much is being built again. So we've already
Speaker 15: seen a great shift, and remarkably, it almost looks like
Speaker 15: the IRA is bipartisan.
Speaker 1: Now hopefully it was and it will be.
Speaker 15: But you have Republicans now who recognize that most of
Speaker 15: the money is going to the districts in the as
Speaker 15: signing letters saying we're not going to get rid of
Speaker 15: the IRA. So there is something very new afoot, and
Speaker 15: I think it's all about the shift from talking about
Speaker 15: anybody's personal interest to actually the interests of the people
Speaker 15: in the United States of America, and that is beginning
Speaker 15: really to grow.
Speaker 4: What do you make of this whole fracking flat Republicans
Speaker 4: have seized on this urn by Kamala Harris having at
Speaker 4: one time called for a federal ban on fracking and
Speaker 4: obviously has turned away from that. Now you heard what
Speaker 4: Brendan Boyle said in an awfully important state like Pennsylvania.
Speaker 4: Are you disappointed that Kamala Harris has turned away from
Speaker 4: her original stand on this? Or is fracking an essential
Speaker 4: component of our energy infrastructure?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 15: I think this is all being put in the context
Speaker 15: of trying to figure out how the shift to clean
Speaker 15: energy and away from oil and gas can become some
Speaker 15: kind of a platform for the Republican Party. None of
Speaker 15: this is a fight right now. What we need to
Speaker 15: talk about is how do we make that shift to
Speaker 15: clean energy and how do we keep people people's energy.
Speaker 1: At a lower cost.
Speaker 15: And we can't shut off oil and gas today tomorrow.
Speaker 15: We have to make that transition forward. And part of
Speaker 15: the challenge is that I think the oil and gas
Speaker 15: sector hasn't actually responded well to the climate crisis. In fact,
Speaker 15: they're supporting a lot of the Republican sort of platforms
Speaker 15: that seem to make it a controversy, when in the end,
Speaker 15: it's very simple. You know, people need to have clean
Speaker 15: energy because they need cheaper electricity costs. People need to
Speaker 15: have vehicles that they can move forward in that won't
Speaker 15: pollute them and kill their kids. There's a whole range
Speaker 15: of opportunities here. And part of the excitement today is
Speaker 15: that the DNC has never been more hopeful. You know,
Speaker 15: I've seen a lot of these conferences, and honestly, we
Speaker 15: now seem to have an ability with the Vice President
Speaker 15: and with the governor to actually land together to bring
Speaker 15: unity here in the United States again, to get away
Speaker 15: from the bipodisan nonsense, to bridge the gaps that we
Speaker 15: have seen before. And that's what makes us so hopeful
Speaker 15: and such an opportunity moment.
Speaker 1: And I just hope we can all grab.
Speaker 5: It well as we consider what is going to happen
Speaker 5: next in the United States. Who's potentially going to become
Speaker 5: president here is worth noting when it comes to these
Speaker 5: issues and the pursuit of net zero. Different countries are
Speaker 5: on different timelines, but this is a global issue, and
Speaker 5: criticism that frequently comes from Republicans is that the US
Speaker 5: can't do this alone as long as China and India
Speaker 5: are still polluting as much as they are. So how
Speaker 5: much should we be considering not just the policy that
Speaker 5: these candidates would bring domestically, but how they would interact
Speaker 5: with adversaries and allies alike in the pursuits of a
Speaker 5: cleaner environment.
Speaker 15: Well, I'm not sure that the Republicans are really that
Speaker 15: interested and talking about climate change in a way that's
Speaker 15: really much more reality based. Look, they've tipped their hand
Speaker 15: with Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 15: That plan is all about not just minimizing and challenging
Speaker 15: our democracy itself, but it's all about going back to
Speaker 15: oil and gas is the winner here, right, It's all
Speaker 15: about getting rid of the effort of clean energy. And
Speaker 15: we now know that climate change is such a global
Speaker 15: problem that we have to bridge gaps between the United
Speaker 15: States in every country that's out there. And I don't
Speaker 15: frankly think that any administration has done a better job
Speaker 15: of trying to make sure that we are investing in
Speaker 15: the future.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 15: Part of it is engaging the private sector, and private
Speaker 15: investors are waking up to both the challenge of climate
Speaker 15: that they know they can see and we can all
Speaker 15: feel and taste and touch. But it's all about building
Speaker 15: resilience at home. But it's also about engaging the private
Speaker 15: sector to invest not just in developed worlds but in
Speaker 15: the developing world, in the global South, and.
Speaker 1: The opportunities to do that are enormous.
Speaker 15: And so I am seeing a shift not just in
Speaker 15: politics around this, but really in the fundamental way in
Speaker 15: which our country and others are looking at their economic
Speaker 15: opportunities moving forward. We don't have to invest in a
Speaker 15: way that's going to disadvantage our country. We need to
Speaker 15: invest in a way that provides opportunities to our country.
Speaker 15: But more broadly, that makes this the global challenge and
Speaker 15: opportunity of our lifetime. It is every country that needs
Speaker 15: to engage, but the US, frankly, because of curmudgeons on
Speaker 15: the Republican side in Congress, and I used a nice
Speaker 15: term that they just have blocked our ability to actually
Speaker 15: vest in a way that really shows the United States
Speaker 15: leadership and what we're trying to do.
Speaker 1: So hopefully that can get.
Speaker 15: Corrected as well as we advance some other races in
Speaker 15: a way that will make this an opportunity for us
Speaker 15: as well.
Speaker 4: You hear from the other campaign. Of course, it's not
Speaker 4: just Republicans in Congress. Donald Trump largely seems to think
Speaker 4: that your movement is a hoax. He's questioned the role
Speaker 4: of evs, despite his new relationship with Elon Musk. He
Speaker 4: says that wind mills don't work, that kill birds and
Speaker 4: cause cancer, Solar doesn't work when the sun isn't out,
Speaker 4: you can't watch TV at night. A lot of people
Speaker 4: take him at his word there. How do you go
Speaker 4: up against a message like that.
Speaker 1: I think you just have to tell the truth, you know.
Speaker 15: Plus the other exciting thing is, first of all, wind mills. Seriously,
Speaker 15: wind mills. I feel like we're back in Holland from.
Speaker 1: That fifteen years ago. But the issue is that people are.
Speaker 15: Beginning to see both the threat but they're also of
Speaker 15: climate change. But they're also seeing that it makes a
Speaker 15: difference in their lives. We already have three point four
Speaker 15: million homes that have grabbed Inflation Reduction Act monies in
Speaker 15: order to reduce the costs associated with putting solar in
Speaker 15: their homes and making their homes more efficient. When people
Speaker 15: start seeing these benefits, I mean we are talking about
Speaker 15: four hundred billion dollars in private sector investment. That is
Speaker 15: thousands and thousands of jobs, and that is real human
Speaker 15: beings getting a shot at being in the middle class
Speaker 15: because they have a job again.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 15: So it's that excitement that we have to really amplify.
Speaker 15: We need people to understand that it's not about the planet.
Speaker 15: It is about the people and them, their families, their communities,
Speaker 15: and as money get gets invested, we are really seeing
Speaker 15: significant opportunities for individuals to sort of feel it themselves.
Speaker 15: That's when it's going to take off. And frankly, the
Speaker 15: outline of new proposals and how much we can do
Speaker 15: that was just delivered by Biden and Harris really show
Speaker 15: you the path.
Speaker 1: Forward, all right.
Speaker 5: Gina McCarthy, great to see you here in Chicago, of course,
Speaker 5: the former administrator of the EPA. Thank you so much
Speaker 5: for your time.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens
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Speaker 5: Now, as we consider the messaging we have gotten out
Speaker 5: of this convention, in this conversation around freedom, whether it
Speaker 5: be reproductive rights or otherwise, there also has been another
Speaker 5: message surrounding American democracy. And this is actually something we
Speaker 5: heard about from House Speaker America Nancy Pelosi, as she
Speaker 5: on the stage last night recalled the of January sixth,
Speaker 5: twenty twenty one.
Speaker 16: January sixth was a perilous moment for our democracy. Never
Speaker 16: before had a president of the United States so brazenly
Speaker 16: assaulted the bedrock of our democracy, so leeffully embraced political violence,
Speaker 16: so wilfully betrayed his oath of office. Let us not
Speaker 16: forget who assaulted democracy on January sixth, he did, But
Speaker 16: let us not forget who saved democracy that day. We did,
Speaker 16: and thank god we had a democratic House of Representatives.
Speaker 16: Then we returned to the capital that very same night,
Speaker 16: we insisted on certifying the election results on the floors
Speaker 16: of the House and the Senate, and we demonstrated to
Speaker 16: America and to the world that American democracy prevailed.
Speaker 5: Joining us now here in Chicago is Senate Majority Whip
Speaker 5: and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin of Illinois.
Speaker 5: We are here in his home state for this Democratic
Speaker 5: National Convention. Sir, thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 5: on Bloomberg TV and radio. It's great to see you.
Speaker 17: Good to be here.
Speaker 5: And this is, as we've been remarking upon all week,
Speaker 5: a very different convention than maybe some expected just four
Speaker 5: weeks ago. Certainly we have a different candidate, but it
Speaker 5: also feels like we have a bit of a different message.
Speaker 5: Joe Biden was making his campaign very much about democracy,
Speaker 5: talking about January sixth, as we heard Nancy Pelosi do
Speaker 5: last night. Certainly Donald Trump hasn't shied away from that.
Speaker 5: Either he's calling them patriots or prisoners in the case
Speaker 5: of some of those who have been convicted. It feels
Speaker 5: like that's not getting focused on as much now that
Speaker 5: Harris is at the top of the ticket. And I
Speaker 5: wonder what you think about that. Is that actually still
Speaker 5: the winning message for Democrats.
Speaker 17: The message is freedom and so many different aspects of it.
Speaker 17: Certainly when it comes to reproductive choice, we've found all
Speaker 17: across the United States, so called safe red states are
Speaker 17: voting for women's rights, women's right to have the freedom
Speaker 17: to decide the future of their bodies and their families.
Speaker 17: I think that is an underlying theme you continue to hear.
Speaker 17: So freedom is the heart of the issue of this campaign.
Speaker 3: Freedom is pretty broad.
Speaker 4: And I'd like to stay at a thirty thousand foot
Speaker 4: level with you here, because you've been doing this longer
Speaker 4: than some of the people in this hall. Where told
Speaker 4: the economy is the number one issue. We're told that
Speaker 4: people are very concerned about the border. But when you
Speaker 4: look at this broadly, this election, what is the choice
Speaker 4: beyond freedom when it comes to the actual issues that
Speaker 4: people will make their decisions on here.
Speaker 17: Well, I think the choice spoils down to a very
Speaker 17: simple phrase, do we want to go back to the
Speaker 17: era of Donald Trump as president and all that that
Speaker 17: brought us? We kind of laugh it off now when
Speaker 17: he suggested somehow another bleach was going to be the
Speaker 17: answer to the COVID crisis that had just disappear and
Speaker 17: some of the other things that he did as president.
Speaker 17: We really destrugged our shoulders and said that may not
Speaker 17: be normal for the rest of the world, but it's
Speaker 17: normal for Donald Trump. I think the American people, if
Speaker 17: they watched this convention, understand there's going to be a
Speaker 17: clear choice here whether we're moving forward with a new
Speaker 17: outlook that's more positive towards relationships of Americans, are returning
Speaker 17: to that Trump.
Speaker 5: Era well, And part of the Trump era was marked
Speaker 5: by his ability to appoint a number of conservative justices
Speaker 5: to the Supreme Court, some of whom, of course, have
Speaker 5: come under fire or have been looked into by the
Speaker 5: Judiciary Committee within the last years. There's been concerns raised
Speaker 5: about ethics. How much of this election is also about
Speaker 5: the next president's ability to potentially change the shape of
Speaker 5: the court. Knowing that one of the things Joe Biden
Speaker 5: wants to do before leaving office, or has suggested being done,
Speaker 5: is Supreme Court reform.
Speaker 17: Dobbs' decision was a grim reminder to the American people
Speaker 17: that the selection of a Supreme Court justice can affect
Speaker 17: their lives personally. I mean, just look at the reaction
Speaker 17: across the United States of repealing Roe versus Wade. Donald
Speaker 17: Trump brags about that, but I can tell you most
Speaker 17: Americans don't brag with him. They think this is a
Speaker 17: serious problem, and it is a serious problem for women
Speaker 17: and their families all across the country. So it's a
Speaker 17: reminder too that that basic freedom needs to have someone
Speaker 17: to protect it. And Kamala Heiris will do that.
Speaker 4: When I think Dick Durban, I think Chicago, and I'd
Speaker 4: like to hear from you on what this convention means
Speaker 4: for the image of this city, maybe the economy as well.
Speaker 4: You've got thousands, tens of thousands of people from around
Speaker 4: the country in town here, and Donald Trump is comparing
Speaker 4: Chicago to Afghanistan. He says it's more dangerous than Afghanistan,
Speaker 4: pointing to one hundred and seventeen shootings on the fourth
Speaker 4: of July. What do you want people to take away?
Speaker 4: People are watching this from all over the country about
Speaker 4: Chicago that they might not know this week.
Speaker 17: Well, crime and gun violence is an American problem. It
Speaker 17: is just a Chicago problem. And they can try all
Speaker 17: I wish to blame this administration or the Democrats because
Speaker 17: of the political makeup in Illinois. The bottom line I'm
Speaker 17: hearing from conventioneers is they've been dazzled by the city. Luckily,
Speaker 17: the weather couldn't be better for in August in Chicago.
Speaker 17: But in addition to that, the mayor has done a
Speaker 17: great job and cleaning up the city and a terrific
Speaker 17: job with law enforcement to make sure that we give
Speaker 17: people their First Amendment rights, but to stop them short
Speaker 17: of violence or vandalism. It really makes me sick to
Speaker 17: my stomach when I hear JD. Van's going up to
Speaker 17: Wisconsin and talking about the terrible situation with crime in Chicago.
Speaker 17: It was JD. Advance personally stop the appointment of a
Speaker 17: permanent US Attorney to the City of Chicago. Jdevans personally.
Speaker 17: They confronted him on the floor of the Senate several
Speaker 17: times over that decision. He said he wanted to grind
Speaker 17: the Department of Justice to a halt. You tell me
Speaker 17: that's a law and art of candidate. I think it's
Speaker 17: a weird candidate, to be honest with you. It suggests
Speaker 17: that closing down the Department of Justice is the right
Speaker 17: thing to do, and he did it.
Speaker 5: Senator, you just alluded to some of the protests we
Speaker 5: have seen since being here in Chicago, they have been
Speaker 5: I think it's fair to say smaller in scale than
Speaker 5: many expected or even feared coming into this week when
Speaker 5: it comes to the protests over the war ongoing in Gaza,
Speaker 5: has it surprised you the degree to which they haven't
Speaker 5: been as disruptive or as robust, And do you think
Speaker 5: that may be attributable to the change in candidate? This
Speaker 5: isn't Biden's convention, it's Harry.
Speaker 17: I think that's it. I think you put your finger
Speaker 17: on it. Plus, there was a conscious effort by the
Speaker 17: mayor and other leaders to work with the demonstrators and say,
Speaker 17: we will protect your First Amendment rights, but we're not
Speaker 17: going to condone violence and vandalism. We just not accept it.
Speaker 17: We're not going to accept that. And so the police
Speaker 17: have done a good job here, I think, and when
Speaker 17: you consider past conventions, that is a very positive thing
Speaker 17: to say. But the bottom line, as far as I'm
Speaker 17: concerned is we understand, and they understand if the alternative
Speaker 17: is Donald Trump in making these foreign policy decisions, they're
Speaker 17: willing to work with Kamala Harris to see if there's
Speaker 17: a reasonable way to resolve.
Speaker 3: These Is that right?
Speaker 4: And Joe Biden has struggled to reach a ceasefire here.
Speaker 4: It was back in May when you rolled out that
Speaker 4: initial six point plan, and he says he's going to
Speaker 4: make this the priority for the rest of his term.
Speaker 4: If he cannot secure a cease fire, is Kamala Harris
Speaker 4: going to have an easier time doing well.
Speaker 17: It's a big challenge for whoever as it coming up
Speaker 17: with the agreement and then enforcing it. But we all know.
Speaker 17: At least I feel I was with the first Senator
Speaker 17: to say so that there should be a cease fire
Speaker 17: and stop military operations and release the hostages. That I
Speaker 17: think was a starting point to eventually finding some solution
Speaker 17: in the Middle East. I've been disappointed with mister Nett
Speaker 17: Yahoo when it comes to a two state solution. I
Speaker 17: believe in it. I think that's been a all seeing
Speaker 17: the past and should be again.
Speaker 5: Well, obviously he wants to see that done. As I
Speaker 5: mentioned earlier, he had also would like to see reforms
Speaker 5: to the Supreme Court, something that would take congressional cooperation.
Speaker 5: And I'm not sure, sir, how realistic you think that
Speaker 5: may be, which brings us to the point of whether
Speaker 5: or not you have more faith now than you would
Speaker 5: have maybe four weeks ago, for your party to retain
Speaker 5: control of the Senate, for you to be able to
Speaker 5: retain your place as the majority.
Speaker 17: There is no question there is a new spirit and
Speaker 17: energy in the Democratic Party for this election. It started
Speaker 17: when the decision was made by Joe Biden to step aside,
Speaker 17: a selfless decision that I respect him for very much.
Speaker 17: And that new attitude and approach is something that Donald
Speaker 17: Trump's been unable to match. He just can't do it,
Speaker 17: and he's frustrated by it. That's why he says these
Speaker 17: bizarre things about We'll have one election, this will be
Speaker 17: the last one. What in the hell is he talking about.
Speaker 17: This is America. He doesn't get to dictated. The Constitution
Speaker 17: makes it clear what the law is. And he's reaching
Speaker 17: out in every direction, flailing away because this is a
Speaker 17: new candidate he didn't anticipate.
Speaker 4: I suspect that you've had a chance to talk with
Speaker 4: your old colleague from the Senate about his decision to
Speaker 4: drop out of the presidential race.
Speaker 3: Did you give Joe Biden any advice? Did he have
Speaker 3: words for you?
Speaker 17: We did not, And I made a point, after thirty
Speaker 17: years of friendship not to make a public statement, but
Speaker 17: be in contact with him and talked to him. And
Speaker 17: I've done that since after he made that decision. But
Speaker 17: what it boiled down to her two sentences and his
Speaker 17: speech to this convention, I love this job, but I
Speaker 17: love this country even more. And I think that really
Speaker 17: spelled out his resignation to the fact that he is
Speaker 17: now going to be moving on and has to live
Speaker 17: with his record, which I think has been one of
Speaker 17: the best in history.
Speaker 4: Well, it's great for you to come and see us
Speaker 4: in Chicago. Thanks for showing us around.
Speaker 17: So good to have here. Come back sometime when there's no.
Speaker 4: Absolutely weather like this, might see a little more of
Speaker 4: the city that way as well. Senator thank you. We'll
Speaker 4: see you back in Washington. That's Dick Durbin of course,
Speaker 4: if Illinois. Thank you for the time today.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
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Speaker 5: We've already heard from a lot of the powerhouses within
Speaker 5: the Democratic Party, including some others who were on the
Speaker 5: vice presidential shortlist as we understood it. We heard last
Speaker 5: night from Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. We also heard
Speaker 5: from the former South Bend, Indiana mayor and Transportation Secretary
Speaker 5: Pete Budajech.
Speaker 9: When the dog is barking and the air fryer is beeping,
Speaker 9: and the mac and cheese is boiling over, and it
Speaker 9: feels like all the political negotiating experience in the world
Speaker 9: is not enough for me to get our three year
Speaker 9: old son and our three year old daughter to just
Speaker 9: wash their hands and sit at the table. This kind
Speaker 9: of life went from impossible to possible, from possible to real,
Speaker 9: from real to almost ordinary in less than half a lifetime.
Speaker 9: But that didn't just happen. It was brought about through
Speaker 9: idealism and courage, through organizing and persuasion and storytelling, and yes,
Speaker 9: through politics, the right kind of politics, the kind of
Speaker 9: politics that can make an impossible dream into an everyday reality.
Speaker 5: Joining us now here on set in Chicago at the
Speaker 5: Democratic National Convention is Tara Setmeyer, co founder and CEO
Speaker 5: of the Seneca Project, and Krystal McCrary maguire, Seneca Project's
Speaker 5: national finance chief. The Seneca Project is a bipartisan super
Speaker 5: pac led by women with their goal of mobilizing women
Speaker 5: voters in support of Kamala Harris. Welcome to you both.
Speaker 5: Great to have you here on Blueberg two and Radio Terror.
Speaker 5: Just speaking with you because you're trying to elect Kamala
Speaker 5: Harris as someone who up until a few years ago
Speaker 5: the Republican Party. So how does it feel being here
Speaker 5: in Chicago, surrounded by some of the most faithful Democrats
Speaker 5: that there are, and to be in this moment right now?
Speaker 12: Yeah, it's frankly, it's very surreal, but you know what,
Speaker 12: this is what happens when you're on the right side
Speaker 12: of history and the right side of our democracy. And
Speaker 12: for women, this is our moment. We have really never
Speaker 12: seen a moment like this for women, the impact that
Speaker 12: this election will have on women and what's at stake
Speaker 12: for women. So when Michelle Kinney and I my co
Speaker 12: founder of the Seneca Project, decided to do this and
Speaker 12: embark on this, coming from a bipartisan perspective was important
Speaker 12: because what's happening to women in this country impacts all
Speaker 12: of us. It doesn't matter whether you have a D
Speaker 12: or an R next to your name. If you are
Speaker 12: bleeding out in a lobby of an emergency room in
Speaker 12: a state that has now criminalized women's healthcare, that's what
Speaker 12: we're facing, on top of other extremist agendas trying to
Speaker 12: take women back. So the idea of us at Seneca
Speaker 12: we have an ad called we Won't Go Back that
Speaker 12: we made even before Kamala Harris was in the race.
Speaker 12: So we felt like, well, we're on the right track here.
Speaker 12: But that's the vibe we were getting from women, women
Speaker 12: regardless of their political affiliation. So seeing this and being
Speaker 12: here and being in this environment is markedly different than
Speaker 12: the Republican Party. And the joyful warriors that are here,
Speaker 12: the camaraderie, the energy, the enthusiasm. It's inspiring and we
Speaker 12: firmly believe that if you galvanize women, we'll save this democracy.
Speaker 12: And that's our goal at Seneca Project.
Speaker 4: Well, we spent a lot of time talking the last
Speaker 4: couple of weeks about the rapid turn that this election
Speaker 4: has taken. This campaign, it was just a couple of
Speaker 4: months ago people were talking about suburban women breaking for
Speaker 4: Donald Trump, that this whole thing was falling apart for Democrats.
Speaker 3: And because it's happened so fast. We haven't had so much.
Speaker 4: Of a conversation about the historic nature of this candidacy
Speaker 4: or this election.
Speaker 18: Have we No, we haven't. And that's something that is
Speaker 18: so compelling to me in so many women.
Speaker 1: I look at my mother.
Speaker 18: We're Michiganders. She's ninety eight years old, and she was
Speaker 18: talking to me actually a few months ago about how
Speaker 18: we're angry. And I was like, who's angry?
Speaker 5: And she's like, me and my.
Speaker 18: Crew are girls that are like seventy five to one
Speaker 18: hundred and three years old. I said why, and she said,
Speaker 18: because they're trying to take away our rights. They're trying
Speaker 18: to take away our rights to choose. And I was like, mom,
Speaker 18: you're ninety eight. You talk about reproductive justice or reproductive
Speaker 18: freedom And she said, do you know how many women
Speaker 18: I knew pre row who died during childbirth? And that
Speaker 18: hit me in the core. And what I love about
Speaker 18: the Seneca Project is that it's bipartisan. We are all Americans,
Speaker 18: we are women in this organization, and we are trying
Speaker 18: to fight and make sure that women ultimately have the
Speaker 18: right to reproductive justice. And that is one of the
Speaker 18: things that the Seneca Project is going to ensure across
Speaker 18: the country we're getting the messaging out that this just
Speaker 18: doesn't affect Democratic women, independent women, or Republican women. The
Speaker 18: issues around IVF, the issues around contraceptives, that is something
Speaker 18: that affects all families, and that is one of the
Speaker 18: things that really appealed to me about the Seneca Project.
Speaker 5: Well, and of course you serve as the finance chief,
Speaker 5: and as you talk about getting the message out, most
Speaker 5: of the time that requires money. And we've had a
Speaker 5: conversation not just about the re energizing of female voters
Speaker 5: and the attention they're paying to this race, but the
Speaker 5: way in which more people are donating. The Harris campaign
Speaker 5: says sixty percent of the three hundred and ten million
Speaker 5: dollars they raised in July was from women. And I
Speaker 5: just wonder if you think that's sustainable, If that money
Speaker 5: is going to keep flowing.
Speaker 18: Oh yeah, I not only think it's sustainable, but I
Speaker 18: think it's going to continue to grow as we see
Speaker 18: more and more what is actually at stake when we
Speaker 18: continue to see the rights of women that are being attacked.
Speaker 18: That's something that I've continued to see a trend, and
Speaker 18: not just with registered voters, which we are seeing more
Speaker 18: women registered to vote, but we're seeing it with young people.
Speaker 4: Well, so we leave the convention tomorrow and it's the sprint.
Speaker 4: We've got a debate in the beginning of September, and
Speaker 4: it's going to be amazing how fast this goes by.
Speaker 4: To think we have seventy five days is somewhat scary
Speaker 4: to consider right now. So what's the strategy for Seneca
Speaker 4: to seize on that very short window.
Speaker 3: What's the roadshow going to look like? What do you
Speaker 3: have planned?
Speaker 12: Yeah, so I think that this truncated timetable actually benefits
Speaker 12: us because the enthusiasm level is so high that post
Speaker 12: Labor Day is really when everyone starts to pay attention.
Speaker 12: And so now when ballots start getting sent out and
Speaker 12: women particularly are paying attention to all of the things
Speaker 12: that are under attack and under assault that transcends party lines,
Speaker 12: they're going to go, Okay, what do we need to do?
Speaker 12: So what our plan is. We're focusing on the battleground
Speaker 12: states because that's where this is going to be one
Speaker 12: and you're only talking about one hundred thousand voters in
Speaker 12: about four states. That's it. This is going to be
Speaker 12: one in the margins. So as we're speaking to these
Speaker 12: moderate women, giving them the permissions structure that it's okay
Speaker 12: for you to vote Republican this time. You don't have
Speaker 12: to agree on everything because about the privacy aspect of this.
Speaker 12: It's your ballot, your choice, just like with your bodies,
Speaker 12: your body, your choice. It's your ballot, your choice, and
Speaker 12: no one.
Speaker 5: Else's well in on the ballot in some of these states,
Speaker 5: including battlegrounds. Arizona is literally abortion right, and it's also
Speaker 5: on the ballot in a state like Florida, which you
Speaker 5: don't consider to be a battleground. But some Democrats, including
Speaker 5: Congressoman w Washerman Schultzeo we spoke with here yesterday, has
Speaker 5: suggested Florida might actually be in play and abortion could
Speaker 5: be a reason. Why will you spend resources there?
Speaker 12: Well, it depends. I mean, obviously, Florida is almost a
Speaker 12: white whale for a lot of reasons, like Texas is too.
Speaker 12: But what's interesting is that Florida is even in the conversation.
Speaker 12: You have eight states with abortion on the ballot, with
Speaker 12: women's rights on the ballot. Those ballot initiatives are getting
Speaker 12: there because of bipartisan signatures. This is not just coming
Speaker 12: from one party, particularly places like Arizona, which is critically
Speaker 12: important too. Five hundred and seventy seven thousand signatures. It's
Speaker 12: a record that means that these are women from all
Speaker 12: across the board and men who were looking at the situation.
Speaker 12: We also talk to the girl dads because we know
Speaker 12: that girl The relationship between dads and daughters is a
Speaker 12: very powerful one and a very persuadable one. So we'll
Speaker 12: also be targeting those girl dads, explaining to them what's
Speaker 12: at stake and do they really want their daughters in
Speaker 12: a future where they don't have the same rights as
Speaker 12: their grandmothers. So that is all part of our comprehensive
Speaker 12: strategy of targeting those women in battleground states and places
Speaker 12: where they have initiative. Ballot initiatives is even better because
Speaker 12: the ground operations there keeps people.
Speaker 18: Everyone's welcome, that's right, Everyone's welcome.
Speaker 10: That's right.
Speaker 18: Come one, come all, this is for women. We want
Speaker 18: you to help the Seneca Project get some of our
Speaker 18: ads on the air in the battleground states and beyond,
Speaker 18: because this affects all Americans.
Speaker 3: You said something important.
Speaker 4: Though we're talking about one hundred thousands, we'll think of
Speaker 4: what that is on a percentage. This is like a
Speaker 4: basis point of the entire Americans margins.
Speaker 9: Yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: So why waste time in anything other than the seven ballot.
Speaker 12: It's like a Michigan home game, right, that's.
Speaker 13: House.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: Why would you look outside the swing states though, when
Speaker 4: you're fighting over that smaller number, Well.
Speaker 18: That is what we're doing at the Seneca Project. We
Speaker 18: are within the swing states, to your point, and it
Speaker 18: will be decided there and we are deeply committed to
Speaker 18: getting the messaging across around reproductive freedom for all women,
Speaker 18: all families.
Speaker 5: Do you really feel like you're being competed with on
Speaker 5: this messaging or the counter messaging rather, Because when Joe
Speaker 5: and I were in Milwaukee last month, listening to those
Speaker 5: who were on the stage, a lot of them white men,
Speaker 5: specifically the issue of reproductive rights kind of being ignored.
Speaker 5: We had a lot of conversations with this notion that
Speaker 5: the Republican Party seems to have abandoned the attempts to
Speaker 5: court suburban women, and that's unfortunate.
Speaker 18: Will take the suburban women great, but.
Speaker 5: Do you think you're having to fight them for that
Speaker 5: vote or do you think that vote actually you're the
Speaker 5: only one with that, with that audience that they're targeting.
Speaker 18: I think we're not taking anything for granted, right would
Speaker 18: you say that, Tarah, I mean anything for granted?
Speaker 12: I would agree with that. This is going to be
Speaker 12: a tough RaSE. This is by far you know we're
Speaker 12: going to win it. No, no, no, we're confident that there's
Speaker 12: a path of victory. But this is going to be
Speaker 12: incredibly close, which is why every vote matters here. And
Speaker 12: the fact that the Republicans chose a ticket that wasn't
Speaker 12: exactly friendly to women's needs or rights, and that they're
Speaker 12: taking that for granted and almost just respectfully insulting women
Speaker 12: like this. They're almost doing our job for us as
Speaker 12: far as messaging is concerned, because women can see through this.
Speaker 12: They can see through the insults, They see through the
Speaker 12: childless cat lady comments, and you know, every week it's
Speaker 12: a different set of insults for women, different demographics of women,
Speaker 12: and that mobilizes women, and you know they're looking at
Speaker 12: this and saying, we are not going to put up
Speaker 12: with this anymore, and you're not going to take our
Speaker 12: vote for granted. We make up the largest propensity of
Speaker 12: voters in this country and we're the majority in this
Speaker 12: we're coming out so that there so if Mago wants
Speaker 12: to continue to do that, it's at their own risk.
Speaker 4: I wonder what you expect to hear on this specific
Speaker 4: issue tonight from Kamala Harris. It was noteworthy Joe Biden
Speaker 4: didn't like to say does not like to say the
Speaker 4: word abortion out loud?
Speaker 3: He does, should she?
Speaker 18: I think the Vice President has been an incredible spokesperson
Speaker 18: and advocate for women's rights writ large and specifically women's
Speaker 18: rights around abortion care, which is healthcare indeed, and I
Speaker 18: think that she has made that case extremely well to
Speaker 18: the American people, and I think that she will continue
Speaker 18: to make that because it is something that is so
Speaker 18: critically important. I mean, our lives are on the line,
Speaker 18: the lives of our daughters, the lives of our children. Mean,
Speaker 18: the fact that jd Vance does not believe that a
Speaker 18: person raped, a child raped has the right to an
Speaker 18: abortion is disgraceful and tragic for women and families across
Speaker 18: this country.
Speaker 12: I mean, the messaging around freedom, I think is the
Speaker 12: most important thing. And as a former Republican that appeals
Speaker 12: to the constituency, we're talking to you because it's bigger
Speaker 12: than just abortion. We've seen that they're coming for contraception,
Speaker 12: for IVF, for no fault divorce. Do you trust women
Speaker 12: to make the best decisions for their families, for their bodies,
Speaker 12: for their daughters, and their futures. And Republicans don't seem
Speaker 12: to do that. But I think what Kamala Harris is
Speaker 12: doing messaging everything around the idea of freedom is taking
Speaker 12: that back. Republicans do not own the concept of freedom
Speaker 12: and individualism, and so that's what I think has been
Speaker 12: a very smart pivot in the messaging that's appealing particularly
Speaker 12: to those right of center women who are looking for
Speaker 12: that permission structure to vote for Kamala Harris.
Speaker 18: Republicans don't own what it means to be a patriots, correct,
Speaker 18: And I think that that's something with the Seneca Project.
Speaker 18: We are patriots and this is for all Americans again,
Speaker 18: no matter what your political affiliation is.
Speaker 4: Tarah set Mayor Crystal McCrary McGuire of the Seneca Project,
Speaker 4: what a great conversation.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for being with us today. Thanks
Speaker 3: for listening to the Balance of Power podcast.
Speaker 4: Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already an Apple, Spotify,
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