Night 1 of the 2024 Democratic National Convention is in the books and Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman are here to provide in-depth analysis you won't find anywhere else. Jared starts the episode by going over the night's events and messaging, including wrestling with the narrative that the Democratic Party is undergoing a massive generational shift. Nick spent the night onsite in the United Center and joins with his experiences on the ground floor as President Joe Biden passed the torch to Kamala Harris.
To gain access to the rest of the week's events, including three exclusive episodes and reactions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and also episodes where Jared and Nick are in the same room (!) for only the third time, head over to Patreon and become a patron today.
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There's an old saying in politics that what can swing undecided voters in a place like Wisconsin is whether you seem like somebody they would like to have a beer with.
Why would people in Wisconsin want to have a beer with you?
Well, I guess they'd want to have a beer with me because I actually do like to drink beer.
I probably like to drink beer a little bit too much, but that's okay.
I'm sure the media won't give me too much crap over that.
That's right.
You've heard your moment of J.D.
Vance sin.
What a charismatic individual that is.
That means that yes, Joe J. Sexton has control of the Muckrig podcast tonight on night one of the Democratic National Convention.
My friend, my compatriot, and my co-host Nick Haussleman is at the Democratic National Convention tonight in the very halls of the DNC.
I assume that he is trying to make his way out of the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
And make his way to the place where we will be recording, not just tonight, but I'm going to be heading to Chicago tomorrow, and we will be reporting live from the DNC for the next few nights.
But as of tonight, we're waiting on him to get out of there so we can hear what it was like in the United Center at the first night of the Democratic National Convention.
A reminder if you want to listen to all of our exclusive coverage over the next few nights.
And let me tell you, there is so much to talk about from night one, and there is so much coming down the pike right now, you're going to want to hear exclusive Muckrake podcast reactions, analysis, and reportage from the DNC.
You're going to need to go over to patreon.com slash muckrake podcast.
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How much do you appreciate what we're bringing to you?
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This community is growing.
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So the first night of the Democratic National Convention had no shortage of highlights and things to talk about.
I have a list a mile long of my reactions and my analysis.
This was actually a pretty momentous night.
Some of these conventions are absolute snoozes.
For me, it was strange.
Watching the convention and hearing one of the people giving a speech, a state senator from Michigan, going after Project 2025, referring to a viral tweet of mine from years ago.
I have to be honest with you, life is very, very weird.
That was a Twilight Zone moment for me.
But there are more important things to talk about.
So before we begin, cheers!
All right, so there is a whole host of things from the first night of the DNC.
There was a lot to get done in this opening night.
The torch needed to be passed from President Joe Biden to Kamala Harris.
That is the major story coming out of this first night.
Joe Biden's speech was energetic.
If you didn't watch it, he actually, while talking about gun violence in this country, which is one of the biggest blights on the United States of America, he shook his fist in anger.
It was it was really wild, honestly.
He kind of nailed the speech.
It was long.
There's a variety of reasons why that might not have worked out as well.
Biden took the stage at 11.26 p.m.
Eastern Time.
He spoke until 1219 Eastern Time.
A pretty good long speech, which more or less is one of his final speeches before he exits the stage on his political career and his presidency.
There are a variety of reasons for this.
I'm sure Nick and I are going to talk about this later when we finally get in touch with each other.
There are rumblings that Biden's speech was pushed out of the primetime hour.
There are a lot of reasons why this possibly could be.
One might have been the fear that Joe Biden, who is at the disastrous debate, Back in June might have shown up that it might have been an unseemly affair.
Those fears were unfounded.
This was a very coherent, save for a couple of moments, speech.
Very, very energetic.
But there were a few extra speakers who were slotted in.
We'll get to those speakers in a little bit.
It was an effective presentation all the way around.
Biden, at every single turn, even while defending his presidency and making the case for his legacy, never missed a moment to tie himself to Kamala Harris and give her credit for the successes of the Biden administration.
You don't see a lot in politics where people
Sort of give up the spotlight a little bit in a gracious manner There were a couple of moments in the DNC night one where we actually saw that We'll get into that in just a couple of minutes another instance of it, but it was very gracious It was very much tuned to giving Kamala Harris her just due for her position in the administration and setting her up for success as the Democratic nominee and
There are reports that not every one of these instances was necessarily written into the speech and that Biden ad-libbed it quite a bit.
It seemed important to him, not just out of political duty, but in importance to set Harris up for the final stretch of the campaign.
There was a little bit of ugliness within the United Center as Joe was speaking.
There was a pretty intentional effort to show Biden love and appreciation from the DNC as he was planning on exiting his presidency.
A lot of banners and stuff reading I love Joe and chants of thank you Joe.
During the speech, there was a moment where it appeared that some protesters of the ongoing war crimes in Gaza unfurled a banner.
It was reported to have said, stop arming Israel.
Maybe perhaps some chanting or shouting.
And there have been some videos leaked of somebody within the audience actually hitting one of the protesters with an I Love Joe banner.
Really ugly.
And I tell you, American politics supplies its fair share of apt metaphors.
And this was one of them.
To Biden's credit, he did speak about the tragedies in Gaza saying that the war needed to end and that he wanted it to end and that innocent people were being killed unnecessarily.
So tip of the hat there.
Although if you were paying attention to the quote-unquote peace process in Israel and Gaza, it does not appear to be moving forward very much.
It doesn't appear as if there's very much momentum for a variety of reasons.
This will go down as one of, if not the biggest blight on the Biden presidency.
And it's not surprising that it made an appearance during his address.
After he spoke, he was surrounded by his family and Kamala Harris.
And her husband got on the stage and of course gave everybody the ubiquitous picture of the two of them together.
Basically the handing over of the torch.
Really well done political theater.
There's not much to argue with rhetorically.
While I'm on the subject, some really incredible work done by the Democratic Party in terms of media.
variety of videos that were incredibly effective and not just um uh communicating kamala harris and the party as as um you know uh benefactors and and deserving of the trust of the voters also some really really um some some really damning attacks of donald trump throughout uh
The thing was fresh and looked new, which is hard to do with political conventions.
It seems like the actual convention itself, in terms of presentation, was top-notch.
It does sound like the logistics of getting people in and moving people around, and I'm looking forward to asking Nick about this, but it does seem like that sort of fell through.
There are really, really big stories from this, but while we're on the subject of passing torches, A really interesting speech given by Hillary Clinton, of course, the failed nominee back in 2016 who lost her election to Donald Trump.
It was inevitable that Clinton was going to get a speaking slot at this convention, but was also in a weird position.
One of the things that has been prioritized lately, and I've heard about this in my own calls and my own discussions in meetings, there has been an intentional effort to downplay the possibility of Harris being the first woman president.
This has been done for a variety of reasons.
A lot of strategists I've heard have tried to link this, of course, with the fight to restore reproductive rights and abortion rights for women around the country, while others have argued that that issue speaks for itself and there's actually a danger to going ahead and repeating some of the rhetoric that surrounded the Clinton campaign of 2016.
But at the same time, Clinton, who was the first female nominee of a major party, and at times seemed destined to be the first female president, she was going to speak at this convention in some way, shape, or form passing the torch to Harris, which is what night one of the convention was about, which I think actually was a masterstroke rhetorically, and we'll get to more of that in just a minute.
Clinton actually gave a decent speech.
I want to point out one thing in this for the people who listen to this podcast, and I think this is something to consider in the future.
Clinton's ability to speak when unburdened from candidacy It's a marked difference.
I do not think that Clinton is comfortable being the center of attention in terms of being a nominee.
It's always sort of hampered her ability to communicate.
There are a lot of reasons why this could be, including pressure, which is, I think, pretty evident looking back on the 2016 candidacy.
She told a story that began with suffragettes fighting for the right to vote in the United States.
It's still amazing and needs reminded that women did not gain the right to vote in the United States of America until the 20th century.
Just shameful.
Talked about that, but you know, and talked about glass ceilings a little bit, but never once mentioned the possibility of having a female president, which I think actually shows that the Harris campaign and the group around her Probably do have control over the Democratic Party at least heading into the November elections.
This is something that we need to take notice of because that was not always a foregone conclusion.
As I reported about when Harris became the presumptive nominee, we did not know What was going to happen whether or not the party was going to retain control the old guard if they were going to navigate this campaign or if Harris and the people around her and potentially the new generation of Democrats if they were going to be the ones to determine how this thing was run?
This is an interesting little moment here, because beyond Biden and Hillary Clinton, and there were a couple of others, including Chris Coons and Clyburn, it was a night that showcased a new Democratic Party.
It was presented both in speeches and appearance and lineups as a generational shift, which is something that I've been reporting on and analyzing for the past few weeks.
And it does appear as if that is the direction the party is going in.
That doesn't necessarily mean that there's going to be a seismic shift in terms of how the Democratic Party operates, but it does appear as if the balance of power is shifting.
The question, of course, is what will this new generation of Democrat, what will they do if given that power?
We saw a whole host of younger Democrats tonight contrasted with Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.
We saw Raphael Warnock, who is an incredible speaker, really gave a showcase of a speech.
It's the nearest thing that I have seen to the now fabled Barack Obama 2004 address, which of course landed Obama on the political landscape and prepared him to become the presidential nominee and eventually the president in 2008.
Ornick killed it and, you know, called Donald Trump a plague on the conscience of America.
He talked about rising authoritarianism.
He went ahead and did what so many Democrats struggle to do, which was make the case for a religious purpose that is beyond the Christian nationalism of the right wing.
It was a really important piece of business.
Jamie Raskin was his usual self.
He attacked Donald Trump and J.D. Vance like only he can.
Andy Beshear took a turn.
It does not seem as if he was scheduled to be on the original program.
He gave a speech in defense of reproductive rights, immediately following a group of young women and families who had been hurt by the Supreme Court overturning of Roe v. Wade.
More on that in just a couple of minutes.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got a really huge speaking slot on the first night of the Democratic National Convention.
And I want to tell you why this is important.
And by the way, her performance was superb.
She is growing into her role.
She's no longer the new kid on the block.
She has her own base of support.
She has firmly established herself as belonging in the Left and progressive part of the Democratic Party alongside Bernie Sanders.
This, I think it's important to point out, stands as a stark counterbalance to how Marjorie Taylor Greene, and if you'll remember this was something I talked about on this podcast, Marjorie Taylor Greene more or less sold out her like absolute crazy caucus And became a mainstream Republican while still saying all the crazy shit she says.
But look where this is going.
The Republican Party has moved towards Marjorie Taylor Greene and irresponsible conspiracy theorism and know-nothingness, basically.
And the Democrats are now embracing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as part of the mainstream Democratic Party.
Again, it doesn't mean that the party is completely shifting or that something, you know, some major seismic shift is happening here.
But whenever we're doing analysis and we're looking for trends and trajectories, it's stuff like this that we need to pay attention to.
This could be a moment where we look back in years and we say, wow, remember back in 2024 when the Democrats brought AOC into the fold a little bit?
I think that's telling.
But what was on display tonight was the generational shift between the old Democratic Party and the new Democratic Party, or what I suppose is being sold as the new Democratic Party.
Really, really interesting moment here and something that we're going to be keeping our eyes on going forward.
Related to that, and this is a quiet thing that not a lot of people are going to be reporting on or talking about, there was also a tribute to Jesse Jackson within the first night of the DNC.
And you know, Jesse Jackson is pretty much beloved in Democratic and liberal circles.
But one thing that always gets forgotten is that the development of the Democratic Party that we have all come to know, the neoliberal aspect of the Democratic Party, which of course was forwarded by Bill Clinton and his associates with the DLC, who looked at Ronald Reagan's re-election in 1984, and said, you know, we have to move to the right.
We have to embrace neoliberalism, and that's simply how it is.
In the process of doing that, and in the process of Bill Clinton cementing his control over the Democratic Party and eventually becoming the nominee in 1992, Bill Clinton went after Jesse Jackson hard and discredited him.
And Jesse Jackson was sort of exiled from the Democratic Party and disrespected.
I don't think it's a coincidence that on the same night where all of this took place, the branding of the passing of the torch, the generational change that I've been talking about, I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesse Jackson was given this honorific within the convention.
And I also think that with Kamala Harris now becoming the standard bearer of the Democratic Party, I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesse Jackson was given at least some token appreciation and restoration within the party.
This is something nobody's going to be talking about, but I think is quite important.
The actual night of the convention, message and rhetorically wise, I think it's also important to pay attention to the tonal difference from the RNC.
You might remember that the RNC convention was an absolute debacle, embarrassing, full of bloodlust, conspiracy theorism.
Just cultish evangelical heresy towards Donald Trump as being anointed by God.
And if you remember, they were so convinced that they were going to win this election against Joe Biden.
It was just absolutely oozing out and almost like the vapors of it were coming off the presentation.
It's incredible how much that's changed.
But that fear mongering, like every single second of that convention was about, you know, the immigrants are coming to kill you.
How many genders are there?
You know, this dangerous gender ideology and wokeness and, you know, what the Biden administration is going to unleash on America.
This was a really meticulously put together message.
And this is how it worked.
This is this is how you develop these rhetorical messages and framings.
It was focused on Kamala Harris as a person and as a candidate and what she would offer as president.
Donald Trump as a felon and a danger to democracy.
His support by the billionaire class, which is a pretty well done thing and a running theme throughout this, they relied on everyone from Sean Fain, who we'll talk about in a second, the head of the UAW, to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and eventually Joe Biden.
There was a repudiation of neoliberalism, even though the word neoliberal never came up.
Of course, they talked about trickle-down economics and You know, giving tax cuts to billionaire friends and the billionaire class running things.
But it was a through thread within this entire night.
I will say that there were some missteps.
By my count, the Supreme Court only got mentioned two or three times.
Of course, the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the assault on a woman's right to choose Was done multiple times throughout the night, but there was a missed element here.
The Supreme Court, as we've reported on, is wildly unpopular.
80% of the country roughly disagrees with not only their decision, but the direction of the court.
They see them as corrupt and dangerous.
The fact that the Democratic Party did not attack the Supreme Court even more was not just a missed opportunity.
And I'll be watching over the next couple of nights to see if that that messaging actually gets fixed.
But it tells me this.
They're not interested in presenting court reform up in up in front of the public.
Now, you might remember when Joe Biden was fighting for his candidacy, he talked about court reform, but it hasn't been mentioned since then.
My advice to the Democrats over and over and over again, anytime I've been in one of these meetings or had the ear of somebody in the halls of power, you have to use the court as the opposition.
You have to go after them.
You have to use their unpopularity against them.
And you have to put something forth.
And I think one of the reasons why this happened here Is because they don't want to talk about court reform.
They don't want to talk about what is necessary to get it done because maybe it seems too radical or it seems too dangerous or maybe they don't want to promise something they can't deliver.
A real, real missed opportunity.
That, along with the logistics of the day, which not only includes the people getting into the crowd, but also putting Biden at such a late spot.
I think that they were hoping that if things fell apart, that maybe the news media would clip together the best moments of it and at least give them something in the morning for people to watch and hear.
But the logistics of that were not well handled whatsoever.
Other than that, a pretty successful night of political propaganda and pageantry.
I'm really interested to see how this thing gets brought together, how the messaging continues to evolve.
I think what we saw, Harris was greeted as a beloved hero.
Tim Walz was treated as a beloved member of the party.
The affection show Joe Biden, I think, was well choreographed and I think it got its point across.
And by the way, the fact that Biden showed up effectively as he did, I think is really, really noteworthy.
I'm going to talk to Nick here in just a bit.
But before I do.
I just want to talk about one issue that I want to get on the record and I want to talk about because I think it's going to become more and more important over the next few weeks and months, especially as Donald Trump and the Republican Party gets more desperate over the past couple of days in the past week.
Trump has started referring over and over to AI manipulation of images.
You might remember, and maybe you hadn't heard of this, but he claimed that the Harris campaign had been generating AI.
I think he actually said, quote, she AI'd it, these images of large crowds, because of course he cares about crowds.
But I said at the time that Donald Trump was telegraphing like he usually does.
Somebody's in his ear, they're telling him about something and then he can't help but talk about it.
This is one of the pitfalls of having Donald Trump as a standard bearer of a party.
I think his association with Elon Musk and the tech fascist and this desperate campaign, I think he was also telegraphing that they were going to plan on using AI produced materials.
We've seen that now.
We've seen Donald Trump throwing around AI-produced materials claiming that Taylor Swift has endorsed him, which is pathetic and sad and sweaty and desperate and just sad.
On top of that, he started using images of Kamala Harris addressing the DNC with an unfurled Soviet banner, basically calling her a communist.
I think we're going to see more of this.
I think we're going to see more A.I.
images.
I think we're going to see more artificial images, which, by the way, Trump has relied on forever.
The campaign has said, you know, he goes to black neighborhoods and then produce these absolutely laughable, terrible images that are A.I.
produced.
I would not be shocked if we see more of these.
And we even see some deep fakes rolled out because this desperation and this alliance with the tech fascist, I think, is guaranteed to breed more of it.
I wouldn't be shocked if, as the convention goes forward, if it is successful and it continues landing the way it did tonight, that we might see some more of those images or even some of those deepfakes unfurled here coming up shortly.
All right.
We're going to take a break and we're going to come back and we're going to talk with Nick Halseman, the man in the arena, about his experiences at the Democratic National Convention.
Hang tight.
And as promised, I am here with my friend, my compatriot, my co-host Nick Hausman, who spent all night, it is so late, at the Democratic National Convention, night one.
Nick, before we get into what actually occurred tonight, the analysis, all of that, what was the experience like for you?
This was your first convention.
I gotta tell you, it was, I mean, it was everything.
It had everything wrapped into it because there was interminable amounts of just waiting and doing nothing.
You know, the whole process of like getting the credential and getting over there and having to deal with, you know, traffic, whatever.
I will say my experience as I was there early was pretty good compared to some other people, I think, who had to wait a long time to get through the security data.
But first off, I was hoping I'd be running into people in the concourse that you could talk to, maybe get some content interview.
Yeah.
Jared, that does not happen.
You're not going to see AOC walking through the concourse of the United Center, you know, randomly and then grab her and say, hey, let's talk for two minutes on camera.
You know, that won't happen.
But I mean, OK, so first of all, I had I had heard I talked to a few people who were there.
Supposedly the logistics of this are a disaster, which I think is really interesting because the actual product that made it on television was incredibly slick, like very, very well done.
And we need to talk about that.
But I heard that the actual logistics of how the whole thing was put together and worked behind the scenes was not great.
I mean, I think it's a personality type issue as well.
Like, depending on how you are and how you can roll with things, then, you know, because I saw people who were irate and were losing their shit.
Like, and I was just like, you know, either A, chill or B, it sounds like you screwed this up.
Like you didn't go and follow directions like you're supposed to.
And so why are you getting, you know, and now you're getting upset about it.
So either way, a lot of this is being run by, you know, mid 20 something people.
Not a lot of experience and so, you know, but I guarantee tomorrow will be better.
But as far as even just when they got gaveled in and they were doing speeches and we were in I was in there and with a good seat and watching and feeling the energy.
I mean, I think I kind of was going to ask you, like, who you thought was the best speaker from the TV side, because I had some thoughts about that as far as who was best conveyed and who best worked the audience well.
So who do you think maybe had the best speech tonight?
Well, you know, I think there's a lot to talk about here.
Obviously, we got to get into the Biden speech.
We got to get into the Hillary Clinton speech.
But I actually think that it was obvious that, first of all, I said this in my earlier recording, this was very obviously Kamala Harris's convention.
The message throughout this is that the younger Democrats were front and center, that the torch was being passed over to a new generation of Democrats.
We kind of texted about this.
Joe Biden got pushed out of the main speaking slot, and there are a variety of reasons.
I've had a few conversations since we talked about why that was.
I think my instincts that they were trying to get him out of the national eye, which by the way, Performed really well, actually, which we can get to in a second.
I think Raphael Warnock walked away from this thing as the best performer.
But I also, man, I gotta tell you, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sean Fain of the UAW, I think that they blistered this thing.
For sure.
Sean Fain came in there with his t-shirt on and like, you know, ready to go.
Yeah, really did well.
In the stadium, AOC was head and shoulders above everybody else.
She understood tempo and she understood how to wait for the applause lines.
You know what I mean?
She was really good with all of that.
Well, Nick, by the way, on AOC, I think it's important to note she has been an outsider in this party.
She was welcomed into the fold tonight.
This is not what you would expect from the old Democratic Party.
Like she was she was given a primetime slot.
She was shown as being like an important member of the party.
And I think she delivered.
Oh, absolutely.
And yeah, because you were telling me, I don't, I don't remember this, but I guess she had a very short time slot in the last, um, in 2020.
So, uh, yeah, she, I mean, she's really good.
I've seen her speak like this before and she just rose to the occasion in a way that was really great to see.
Um, and again, the crowd was just like, you know, there's, there's an elevation or a levitation, you know, factor that I like to talk about when you can just feel the, the, the crowd and the, and the whole arena sort of lift.
Warnock in person, It was uneven.
It felt like he had a couple moments where he did it really well and then back and forth in a preacher style, which worked.
And the other times where it was a little bit less... What's the word?
They weren't inciting us as much as I think he... The middle of his speech, I thought, was a little uneven.
And he even got lost a couple times.
I think his cadence got off.
But when he went into the preacher cadence at the very end of it, it really took off.
Which I think is what will be remembered for the record.
OK, good, good, good.
Yeah, you know, because Jamie Raston came on and he was he was OK.
You know, I thought I was expecting him to be better.
I know I might want to jump in ahead of myself here, but what was glaring to me, I mean, clearly this was this night was dedicated towards reproductive rights and women's rights and abortion without any real talk of guns.
So I suppose that's going to be tomorrow.
Right.
What do you think?
Well, I thought and by the way, like one of the best things I've seen from Joe Biden as a speaker was the righteous anger that he had towards gun violence.
I actually think that's where he shined the most.
I was actually shocked and I was interested to hear were you because let me ask this question for ask my main question.
Were you in the hall for the the brunt of the presentation like the entire time?
Well, so, okay, because I was under the guise of thinking I could get some content by, you know, grabbing people around, I wore a hole, or what's the word, you know, of a circle in the concourse for probably two hours.
Well, I mean, you assaulted Claire McCaskill.
I assaulted Claire McCaskill.
She walks fast, man.
I had to really catch her.
Spike Lee did not want to take a selfie with me.
But, you know, so I missed The beginning, you know, I don't know, probably 45, 50 minutes of it where I was doing like my walkthrough to try and find people.
So yeah, I didn't see the very beginning stuff.
And I don't know, I was sensing that maybe, you know, I did see Jamie Harrison speak.
And then other in around there.
I don't know if I did I miss much.
Well, by the way, on the subject of Jamie Harrison, I hope that he has some boxes in his office because his tenure as the head of the DNC is not long for this world.
Is that right?
There's going to be some movement happening pretty shortly.
Well, I was wondering, because what got on television, and I watched a feed that got most of the speeches, reproductive rights and abortion were mentioned all the time.
I only heard two explicit mentions of the Supreme Court.
Which I thought was actually wild.
Like the Supreme Court did not get mentioned by name, which I was talking about in the earlier part of the programming, says to me that the Democratic Party is not interested in talking about the court because that would necessitate talking about court reform.
And I don't think that they want to talk about it at the convention or maybe even the election.
Did you hear more than that or was it just like a couple of times?
Yeah, no, I think Biden mentioned it late at the end.
I think it was Biden and maybe it was Raskin, I think, who called them a kangaroo court.
Yeah, right.
You know, all these speeches are vetted.
They're like everyone's, you know, they're coordinated, so it's not like anyone's speaking out of turn.
But it's interesting.
I mean, in my mind, I would give them benefit of doubt and say, OK, they're saving it.
For another night, but I'm not so sure you're right.
It's the Supreme Supreme Court would be something you save for a whole night like guns or like abortion because and there you know, what would be the third one?
What would be Wednesday night?
I don't know.
You know what I mean?
But like defending democracy or something.
Yeah.
And then they report it.
So But it was it was interesting.
It was very clear.
It was very touching.
So I was wondering if they did show on TV.
They had these personal stories.
Yeah, they have these three different stories, which I believe they did.
Incredible.
Actually, I thought that was an incredible thing.
And by the way, I thought it stood in stark contrast.
If you remember at the RNC, they kept having families that had been subjected to quote unquote immigrant violence.
Yeah.
And by the way, like that's not like, yes.
Are there crimes that are committed by immigrants?
Absolutely.
But like reproductive rights are actually things that really affect millions of Americans.
You know, there was a scary article that my wife was reading at some point months ago that I can't call the exact number, but it was a staggering number of women who had been raped and gotten pregnant in states that will not allow abortions for those instances.
It was staggering how many.
It was like over 100,000, you know, in six months.
And so, you know, these are the stories when they when they get out that when you and there wasn't, there wasn't, you could hear a pin drop, you know what I mean?
It was silent.
And everyone was sort of just like, you know, emotionally invested in these stories.
They were told very well with video, pre-edited video stuff beforehand.
Um, and it was poignant and touching.
Uh, and, and just like that was probably some of the bigger cheers they got, you know what I mean?
Everybody was there, was willing to stand up and, and make their voices heard, uh, to let everyone know that women's reproductive rights are, are, are the key here.
And then, you know, Biden acknowledged that, and then they were acknowledged throughout the whole night of like, you know, how women are going to, to decide this election.
Well, I think the two major speeches tonight were Joe Biden passing the torch to Kamala Harris, and I think Hillary Clinton's address.
Before we get to those two major speeches tonight, Nick, I wanted to ask you, what kind of feeling did you get from the crowd, from talking to people?
Like, what is the overall vibe right now within the Democratic convention?
How do people feel about tonight?
How do people feel about the Harris Balls campaign?
Extremely positive.
It's like everybody feels like an anvil was lifted off of their chest.
Everybody.
And, you know, you don't want to get too ahead of your skis or too cocky, but everyone seems to feel like this has been, it's almost like, by the way, I heard a little, you know, Verdi was trying to tell me that there was some notion that maybe Biden had decided he wasn't going to run, like, much earlier.
You know, in like in like April.
That's what I mean.
He fought like hell for somebody who didn't plan on running.
You know, I didn't sound right to me.
But then I was like, well, that's the most evil genius thing.
Like, imagine if he saw him in April and then they put her in because like everything is timed perfectly.
Right.
When she takes over and then they announce the walls and then they have a Democratic measure.
Now they're going to have the debate.
Like, it's all perfectly timed out in a way that, by the way, this is probably the timing we should always have.
Right.
One hundred thousand percent.
Yes.
Should all be like a four-month, whatever.
So at any rate, but yes, I think everybody is very upbeat.
It's just like a weight off of everyone's shoulders.
And we talked about this before, like, is it Kamala specifically or just the fact that it's not Biden?
And I think you're right.
I think we both said it was both.
But to see Kamala nail this, You know what I mean?
Without any mistakes, really, since she took over, has been A, crucial, but B, just a perfect way to do this and, you know, continuing everybody, everyone's excited, and I have a feeling it's going to continue to ramp up as we get closer to Thursday.
I think that's right.
And I want to say real fast before we get to these two major speeches and final thoughts, Nick, something that occurred to me tonight, and it took me a while to get to this.
Did you notice that there was nothing down ballot about the presentation tonight?
There was nothing in terms of anybody below the presidential ticket who is running for anything.
And it kind of made me think for a second, and I kind of made note of this.
The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign is taking off like gangbusters.
I mean, fundraising is through the roof, the trajectory and momentum is on their side.
I think that this right now is in danger of being a little top-heavy.
And unless it starts developing coattails for sort of the potential future Democratic members, I think that might have some problems in the House and the Senate.
Or maybe even the governor races.
It feels, already tonight, and this probably, there should have been a couple people mixed in, and these things are hard to plan, but it feels a little top-heavy right now, doesn't it?
It was interesting, yeah, because I was looking at, like, okay, who's left, right, to throw in there, because we have the Obamas.
Yep.
Clinton.
Bill, you know, and then you have Kamala, and then you have Walls.
Walls is, I think, Wednesday, right?
And Whitmer, I assume, will have a slot, sure.
Yeah, so, I mean, no, I think that they probably had an eye toward, like, you know, how can they balance this out a little bit?
So, I don't know if it'll feel that way by the time we get to the end, because there are, you know, for the first time in a long time, probably, a number of Democratic politicians who have weight, right?
And we have the kind of gravitas that we want to hear from, you know, Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, you know what I mean?
There are that this is probably got a little bit longer than we might realize.
And so I think that they're going to probably do a pretty decent job of spreading that out.
Um, and then, you know, if we talk about, like, even Hillary's speech tonight, uh, here on Earth 2, um, are we Earth 2?
And then it would have been Earth 1 if she won?
Is that what it is?
I'm so glad you brought this up because, first of all, we gotta talk about the Clinton thing and we'll save the Biden speech for last, chronological order.
Nick, I said in the earlier part of this, one, I was really stunned and reminded that Hillary Clinton performs best when she doesn't have expectations on her, when she's not a nominee, you know, when she's just out there talking.
I actually thought it was a really effective speech that she gave.
But did you notice, Nick, That it was Hillary Clinton's job to come out as the failed nominee in 2016 to basically pass the baton.
Her and Biden were both passing the baton to Kamala Harris.
Biden, of course, is the next president.
And Hillary Clinton basically saying that Kamala Harris would be the first female president.
Did you notice that she never said explicitly?
The first female president?
She never actually said the words.
And one of the things that I've been hearing in calls recently with Democratic strategists and consultants is that the Harris campaign doesn't want to play up the gender factor.
They do not want to talk about her being the first female president, in part because of 2016 and also misogynistic elements in the country.
But I think it's very fascinating and telling that Hillary Clinton, who is one of the most decorated Democratic politicians that there is, obviously got the memo from the Harris campaign, went along with it, which tells me, number one, this is Harris's Democratic Party now, and number two, that she was able to do the job that was given to her and do it effectively.
Yeah.
That is all very, very fascinating.
And I agree with that, I think.
Maybe they don't want to jinx it.
You know what I mean?
It was like they put so much weight on it in 2016 and it built up this whole thing.
And let's face it, it had nothing to do with that in 2016 as far as being the first woman president.
It was fucking James Comey.
It was pretty much the reason why we're here.
Thanks, Jones.
American hero.
You know, and so it was like, you know, for whatever you want to say about Hillary Clinton, her candidacy, and whether she was a good candidate or not, she did what she needed to do.
Like, did she go to Michigan or not?
She had that.
She had it.
She did enough to win that race until Comey steps in twice.
Well, she didn't go to Michigan, Wisconsin, or Minnesota, but yes.
But even still, it took Comey to do it, right?
I think that's a chunk of it.
It didn't help that she passed out at the 9-11 memorial and that she didn't go to the firewall states, yeah.
But, okay, so to talk about her speech a little bit, though, I mean, it was heartfelt.
It was really well-written.
I mean, these are some really good- They were well-written.
It was well-written, yeah.
Really good speechwriters, I gotta tell you.
But it was also poignant and melancholy, right?
I was getting choked up a lot.
I'm so glad you used that word, Nick, because something that, like, we're doing this, like, well, I guess an hour and a half after things wrapped up.
Something that has occurred to me, and I don't know that anybody, maybe they thought about this and maybe this was planned or maybe they didn't, There was a melancholiness undertone to the major speeches of the night.
Hillary Clinton, who was planned to be the first female president in 2016, now handing the baton to Kamala Harris to finish the job.
Joe Biden, stepping away from his re-election campaign, ending as a one-term president, handing the baton to Harris.
There is a melancholiness to that.
Do you think, and it occurs to me, the only thing that they could have thought of was, we have to do this.
We have to communicate it.
Let's get it done on night one.
Yeah.
Get it out of the way.
Right.
And knowing that, right.
And by the way, there's nothing wrong with poignancy.
I agree.
Yeah.
Right.
And you know, you're best at this when we talk about these things in terms of charting.
The emotional rollercoaster that they're trying to create right and they have some and they might not always have control over that but this one I think that they do they did and they and they are able to this is what their thought is going to be so I think that the it's going to slowly ramp back up and continue to be more and more positive uh as well so I I think that was right get it out of the way early uh but again it was a really good speech it was really an important speech and she said
She just kind of was able to to put her stamp on that and and let us transition even if she's not going to say first woman president or whatever although I think you're saying that she didn't say it?
I thought maybe she didn't say it explicitly she talked about breaking the glass ceiling but she never said the words.
Okay okay so you know but again it was just uh it was nice it's it was nice to see her you know it's gonna be nice to see Bill you know it's gonna remind us about how good he was as a politician And it was also like this, the notion of where we should be.
We should be on Earth One right now without ever having had Trump as a president and all those different things.
And Roe v. Wade would still be in place.
You know what I mean?
All these different things.
I will.
I will say, by the way, and I'm glad you brought it, Bill.
And there's one more thing about the Hillary Clinton thing I wanted to talk to you about, which I want to hear about what it was like in the room.
The Bill Clinton presentation, and you're right, Bill kills at these things outside of his original convention speech, which was one of the biggest disasters of all time.
But actually, I thought one of the main themes of this night was moving away from the neoliberal consensus, trickle down economics, getting away from that.
Bill Clinton, of course, was like one of the biggest pushers of that.
It will be interesting to see what happens with it, whether or not that sort of cognitive dissonance and tension gets done away with.
And Nick, one thing I talked about earlier, there was a tribute package to Jesse Jackson at this thing.
And nobody did more to hurt Jesse Jackson's political ambitions than Bill Clinton and the group around him at the DLC.
They pushed Jesse Jackson basically out of the party as they moved towards neoliberalism.
There is a tension within the party.
It'll be interesting to see how Bill Clinton, I guess, performs, how he's treated, how his legacy is handled and all of this.
It feels like, at this inflection point with the party, that it feels a little tense and I don't know exactly how it's going to play out.
Absolutely.
Especially in the backdrop of having a guy like Trump serving in the White House, considering the issues that Bill Clinton had, that many people were up in arms over and maybe would not be now because Trump has sort of destroyed any notion of how you're supposed to behave or what's okay and what's not.
But I'm sure they'll do a good job to distract us.
That won't be on the forefront and we'll just be able to enjoy you know him in his folksy you know way i think that's right now i'm assuming he's you know he's had health issues and he hasn't always had the energy to really to have that you know talent that we always had seen him but i feel like he's been better recently i haven't seen him too much but i feel like he'll be better now right yeah i i agree with that and i think you're right i
I think it'll be like the folksy, welcome back bill type thing, and he'll give a great speech, I think.
I have a quick question for you, going back to the Hillary thing before we move on to the Biden finale.
Nick, during Clinton's speech, and this has been a problem that Harris has had to deal with on the campaign trail, which is the lock him up chant.
Personally, I have a huge problem with it.
You don't at a rally call for a political opponent to be thrown into jail no matter how many felonies they're convicted of.
You let the courts take care of that.
Kamala has effectively said, let's let the courts take care of that.
We deal with the election.
Clinton looked like she saw a ghost.
When that happened, did you hear these chants?
Was this like a regular thing throughout the convention?
Oh, that's fascinating.
That's how it played out for you on TV, because she kind of dropped whatever mention of that, and then Lock Him Up started happening, and it was a big section of the arena, so it was definitely, we could hear it.
She paused and I started to be like, no, no, no, this is not okay.
We couldn't be doing this.
And then she had a little bit of a glint in her eye and the slightest bit of a nod.
You didn't see that?
Oh, I did not see that.
I have it on video.
I can show it to you.
I can text you.
She kind of starts to nod like, like yes oh that's wild yeah and i thought that was way too far i really did but you know what give her you know throw her a bone i suppose if they can do it against her and that was a lot of her speech was not like grievance but certainly like i had to deal with this crap now he's doing it to kamala right all this sounds familiar right she's been talking about insulting her laugh and her looks um but no she there and she milked it
she milked that moment and let them do it and and almost half encouraged it and i thought that was a little bit a little bit off i I did too.
Okay, so let's get to the main entree here.
First of all, Joe Biden pushed to 11.26 Eastern Time before he started speaking.
I told you that I had a feeling they were trying to get him out of the primetime spot, so if they needed to, they could chop this up for morning news.
We got what you would refer to as good Biden.
He was energetic.
I think he gave one of his best speeches that he's given in a long time.
I also thought, Nick, it sounded like an acceptance speech, which is really odd.
But I will also go ahead and say that I thought I think John Meacham helped put this together.
Parts of it, especially sort of the soaring thing.
I gave the country everything that I had, all of that.
He he gave Kamala Harris credit for literally everything that his administration accomplished.
What was the emotion like in the arena?
It seemed, again, poignant.
It seemed very, very emotional towards him.
How'd you feel about the speech?
How'd you feel about the reaction?
Well, a couple of quick things.
Like, we had gotten the lineup, you know, earlier in the day, and they kept throwing more and more people on it, which made him go on later and later.
Jasmine Crockett, by the way, came on and she was terrific.
Another one of those candidates who, you know, as a Congresswoman, she's running and so is AOC.
So there is a little bit of that.
They helped make campaigns.
Steve Kerr spoke and had a pretty good.
Oh, you had to drop in your boy, Steve, of course.
But interestingly enough, you know, he didn't mention guns, which is like his biggest political issue that he's been completely outspoken for.
Very strange to me on that one.
But so as a result, yes, he got pushed way late.
And now it was a pretty good speech.
And there were a lot of moments where he was, you know, he had the energy you're talking about, but it went on way too long.
How tired were people in the arena, for the record?
Yeah, so he did a campaign acceptance speech and a State of the Union speech, basically, and won.
It went on for, was it, it was 30 minutes, right?
No, no, no, no, no, Nick.
It was 53 minutes.
Sorry, I forgot.
That's too long.
That's too long.
Yeah, because everyone else spoke for, you know, 5, 6, 7, and then maybe Hillary got 10.
So he should have had more than like 15 tops.
So, and not that he ran out of gas.
I thought he kind of was able to go through it all.
But I got to tell you, 40 minutes into this thing, people were getting restless.
I was getting restless at home.
Yeah, we're like, okay, where are the buses?
When do we get... I'm telling you, so that was unfortunate, because you don't want that to end on that, especially when you're late.
Like, maybe if they were on time and didn't add the other people, you can get away with 35, but no, whatever, 53 was just at least 15 minutes too long.
I think, well, I mean, we know who Biden is.
And this was, if it's not Biden's swan song, it's the penultimate swan song, right?
especially for him at that late.
You know what I mean?
I think, well, I mean, we know who Biden is.
And this was, if it's not Biden's swan song, it's the penultimate swan song, right?
Like he probably has a handful of addresses as president left.
He'll have his goodbye address and that's when he finally says goodbye to the country.
I don't think he wanted to let go.
I think he wanted to cement his legacy.
How was the emotions when he came out?
Because I want to point out, it would be irresponsible if we didn't point out that this is all propaganda.
This is a slickly produced television program that's meant to assure everybody no hard feelings.
Joe Biden is handing things over to Kamala Harris.
Everyone's happy.
They needed them to hold hands and we're in this together and him to do all of that.
How was the emotional propaganda of the moment in the arena?
Well, let's not forget that they were sprinkling in a lot of little praise for Joe throughout the whole night.
Oh, I did.
And when they handed out right when he came out, these big vertical signs to say, "I love, I heart Joe." Did you see that on the TV? - Oh, I did, yeah. - And so, of course I didn't get one.
I was filming, so I guess they thought I was busy.
I'm sorry, but I Heart Joe is an embarrassing relic.
You don't want to take that home from the convention.
Oh, I'm not a relic.
I wouldn't have taken that home.
But they had Jill signs, too, which I didn't get either.
But I Heart Joe.
Wait, real fast.
If I don't ask you this, I'm going to forget.
Did you see the altercation with the protesters and the signs?
Nothing.
Not at 101.
Oh, inside?
Yeah, during Biden's address, some delegates unfurled a sign that said, stop arming Israel.
And there was a skirmish with the protesters and Biden supporters.
And one of the Biden supporters actually beat somebody with an I love Joe sign, which if you ask me, Nick, is like one of the most apt metaphors for what's been going on over the past year.
It's a little too on the nose, really, but you didn't see any of it.
There was a whole bunch of green security people that kind of appeared down there.
Actually, that might have been a little bit earlier before we started speaking, but something happened.
We could hear somebody yelling something at some point in the middle, but it was on the other side and I couldn't figure it out.
Oh, but then, you know what it must have been?
The lights, one of the sections where the delegates were was dark because everyone else was lit.
They had spotlights everywhere.
That's when it was.
They turned it off because they didn't want to show the banner.
So I saw that and I was wondering what that was.
And they were in the back, so it wasn't close.
And I was on the other side of the arena.
But I wasn't aware of that.
But most of it was all geared toward, let's reassure Joe.
Let's let him hear us.
Let him know you love him.
That was that whole thing.
Like, give grandpa a hug, kind of thing.
And so-- but when he came out, everyone was really gracious.
I think everyone there was so happy that he stepped down.
Let them know that you put the country at first.
So that was pretty much the big push.
We Love Joe kept popping up while he was speaking.
And he couldn't speak for the first, I don't know, it was a while, right?
We kept cheering and everyone was cheering for him.
So, it was nice.
It was the grandpa, let's give grandpa a big send-off, you know, kind of thing.
So, that was, for the most part, really, really good, and I think he fed off of that.
It's just unfortunate Meacham decided to write a, you know, combine a State of the Union and a campaign extension.
A stem-winder, yeah.
So, okay.
So, understanding that a convention is a slick—and by the way, I thought the production of it was very good.
The Democrats have upped their game.
I think it's very clear that they've moved on from the Biden campaign to the Harris campaign, and they have a whole new team.
The media was very, very slick.
In terms of political propaganda, how do you rate this one?
Like, having experienced it, obviously that sort of slants things a little bit.
I think it was an effective night of propaganda.
How do you feel about it?
Being there really does affect it, you know what I mean?
Because it is much more visceral and emotional for certain things.
So like, for instance, when they were really effective with women's reproductive rights and abortion, that's not, it doesn't feel like propaganda.
That's, that's, this is a really... Oh yeah, no, that's like, that's pulling the curtain back and being like, hey, we're going to talk about real shit.
Right, right.
So like there, you know, the signs and that kind of stuff becomes, is definitely propaganda as well.
But there is a bit of an earnestness, I think probably born out of like the collective trauma that we had to go through for four years with Trump, that just sort of feels real.
Like, you know, we aren't just sort of saying, you know, democracy, yeah, like we really are afraid of what could happen if he does win again.
Um, so, you know, I would probably give it a, you know, there's there's enough earnestness for me, even knowing and being that cynical jerk that I would probably be analyzing politics.
I would give it a I would give a lower mark.
I don't think it was as propaganda as.
As maybe you would say or, you know, I would think it would be a nice balance.
And so I don't even know how to phrase it.
I think the secret to propaganda, and it's all propaganda, like we've now come to the point where we use the word propaganda and it's, you know, manipulation.
It is manipulation.
That's what this is.
But it doesn't mean that it's like sinister.
I do think that effective propaganda mixes earnestness and intimacy and honesty with a rhetorical slant.
And I'll say this, and Nick, you know, I am, we've done this for a few years now, I am a harsh critic of the Democratic Party when they deserve it.
I actually thought this was a really, really well done presentation.
I think they had a lot of needles to thread, a lot of emotional roller coasters and movements to get through.
I actually thought it was very, very well done.
Yeah, I think it was well done.
I just don't understand why they decided to cram in so many extra people.
I mean, I guess your answer would be to get Biden to come out.
I think they were trying to get Biden out of the spotlight, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Which they didn't need to.
I mean, he, he, he actually did well outside of going way too long.
And we were worried because, you know, remember at some point Biden's like, I'm going to go to bed at nine o'clock.
And we're like, before he had stepped down, we were like, this is late, man.
He's going on.
It's going to be, you know, it was, uh, he probably started speaking at 10, uh, or something like that.
Right.
Or 10, 15.
So there was some apprehension on my end, and we were all sort of wondering because it was like all of a sudden his daughter was speaking, and then she wasn't on that list, and then all these different people.
But I agree.
I thought he did really well, and it just needed to be shorter.
But overall, a really good positive opening night, and I think the kind of thing that they're looking for as far as a bump, I think that they're on pace to get the normal bump, if not anything higher, come Thursday.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the two nominees from 2020, one of whom is no longer in the race and the other is unfortunately still in the race, they both went past midnight.
I think that's important to point out, that they both spoke for way too long, and I think that provides a pretty good comparison and contrast.
I would say, and I'll tell anybody who's on a strategy call with me as I'm driving up to Chicago tomorrow, keep Harris's address Relatively short.
Keep her, like, away from midnight.
Like, do not trouble the next day with any of this stuff.
Very quickly, Nick, before we close the shop on this thing.
You were there for night one.
This is a four-night story that's being told.
What do you need to see over the next three nights that builds off of this night and gives this story a full thrust?
I've got some thoughts on this, but I'm interested in what you think.
Yeah, I mean, I guess what my mind goes to are the issues.
They have to hit gun control.
There were no issues discussed tonight.
Yeah.
Well, I mean abortion.
Well, right.
The idea that abortion rights need to be reinstated.
But other than that, no real issues were addressed.
Yeah.
So they need to do the guns.
I mean, they talk a little bit about, you know, housing and how they should they want to help, you know, people getting, you know, make things more affordable.
But certainly, I mean, the economy obviously is going to be one, probably one the other, I suppose.
But for me, the gun thing, I think I would like to see more, especially because we're in Chicago, where, you know, there are a lot of gun murders and from guns.
And, you know, or at least that's sort of the what Trump likes to make everyone think.
Remember, don't forget, I, full disclosure, I'm from Chicago and I grew up here.
And, you know, whatever the sensational headlines sound like, Doesn't necessarily feel like you're living in a war zone in Chicago, per se.
But by the way, I did detect a little bit on Twitter of, like, you know, the Fox News people trying to make it seem that, you know, Chicago's burning down right now, which is, like, silly.
So yeah, so that would be the big thing I'm looking for there.
And then just continue the feel-good vibes, the positive vibes.
The sign I have is, when we fight, we win.
So the speaker will say, we fight, and then everyone in the crowd saying, we win.
And I don't mind that.
I want to fight for that.
But I also want to make sure that it does stay positive as well.
And there is a sort of notion of, they go low, we go high.
I think that there's something we can get back to doing that that's more inspiring to me.
Yeah, I agree.
I think there needs to be, and conventions are sometimes low on policy, it wouldn't be the worst idea to sort of sharpen the agenda that started to be rolled out.
And it is incomplete, do not get me wrong.
But give a vision for what America would look like outside of a Donald Trump second term.
Because that was, I mean, it was beginning to be hinted at, and I gotta hope that the story gets told moving forward.
There are a lot of things like that, as well as the thing that was hinted at tonight was this is a new generation of the Democratic Party.
I would love to hear more about that.
Like, what is the major change in the party?
One last question, Nick, before we wrap up.
Did you eat at the convention?
I did.
What'd you eat?
I'm not proud of it.
Uh, I had a, I had a hot dog.
All the concessions.
You're not proud of it.
A hot dog's great.
What are you talking about?
I was proud I got a hot dog because they had like, um, uh, fried, uh, you know, like chicken tenders and then like, I know it was going to feel like hell if I ate too many of those.
So yeah, I had a, I had a little, you know, Chicago dog.
Not bad.
Not bad.
With all the stuff on it?
You know, it was a little bit weird.
Like, they had stuff that they put on it right there, versus me putting it on the thing.
So I did some weird, like, tomato, onion, pickle... Dude, that's the Chicago dog.
I want to make it clear, I am anti-Chicago dog.
What's... how could that be?
Like, what's not to be in favor of?
All that crap on it?
Give me ketchup and mustard.
Send me on my way.
Well, it's funny because I'm actually, when I'm here, I usually get a Polish sausage.
And in Chicago, if you get a Polish with everything, at least where I go, everything simply is grilled onions, mustard, and tomato slices.
All right.
I love your city.
I'm looking forward to getting up there.
By the way, just a reminder, we're going to be hanging out the next few nights.
We're going to be doing late night coverage.
You need to go over to patreon.com slash muckreg podcast.
You'll get it Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night.
I mean, we're going to be cooking with gas.
Nick, I'm so excited to hang out and do this thing.
Absolutely.
Can't wait.
Please, please drive safely.
All right, man.
We will see you tomorrow night over at patreon.com slash montcraigpodcast.
In the meantime, you can find Nick at CanYouHearMeEstimate.
