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“Well that was terrible.” · Pod Save America

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: On today's pod, the gang's all here to talk about
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump's acceptance speech in the entire Republican National Convention,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: which I think has been going on for about three
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: months now?
• 0:34
  Speaker 5: Four? Five?
• 0:35
  Speaker 6: Forever.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: One quick note before we start. Vote Save America's Adopt-A-State
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: program is hosting a special weekend of action over the
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: next few days to help Democrats take back the Senate.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Sign up to Adopt-A-State at votesaveamerica.com slash adopt. And we'll
• 0:49
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• 0:50
  Speaker 2: from home. If you haven't adopted a state yet and
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast, what the fuck is wrong
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: with you? Adopt a state.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It's really extraordinary, actually. Like, I actually, like, I actually
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: am starting to have a problem with you. Like, I'm
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: not even, I'm sorry to get, like, I'm actually fine
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: with it, sincerely, if you found another way to help.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Maybe you have. And so I apologize.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: But if you haven't signed up for anything yet and
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: you haven't signed up for Vote Save America yet and
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you listen to this, what do you do?
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: The fuck is wrong with you?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Now, nearly 200,000 of you, actually over 200,000 of you
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: have signed up. So to you, thank you. You can
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: keep listening.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Lovett is not telling you to fuck off. He's telling
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the other people to fuck off. And by the way,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I was careful about what I said. I did not
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: tell anyone to stop listening.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: And I won't.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Order of operations. Download promo code.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Use that code.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Then volunteer.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say, use that code crooked still, please.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: So the best news I have for all of you
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: today is the Republican National Convention is over. In the
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: middle of a pandemic and a recession, Donald Trump delivered
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: a fairly low energy acceptance speech on Wednesday night that
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: lasted well over an hour in front of about 1,500
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: mostly unmasked supporters who were crowded together on the South
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Lawn of the White House. Here is a clip.
• 2:11
  Speaker 7: My fellow Americans, tonight with a heart full of gratitude
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: and boundless optimism, I profoundly accept this nomination for President
• 2:23
  Speaker 7: of the United States.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, profoundly. He profoundly accepted. I want to spend most
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: of our time on the substance and message of the speech,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: but I do think this is a case where the
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: setting and the optics were part of the intended message. Uh,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: what did you guys think?
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Did you say, say the medium is the message, John?
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: I can't believe I'm saying this, but the optics of
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: it look impressive, right?
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: It is.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: If you are just, if you're just seeing images of it,
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: it looks grandiose and presidential because he's standing in front
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: of the president's house, which is illegal, obviously. Um, But
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: I want to separate sort of like the people who
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: just see the image of it from people who will
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: see coverage of the image of it, because those are
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: two separate things that have different impacts. If you're someone
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: who just happens to pick up a newspaper and you
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: see a picture of Trump standing before the White House
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: with a crowd before him, I think that evinces some
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: measure of strength to some number of people. If you
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: are reading coverage of it, I think that is a
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: much messier deal where you were reading about the potential illegality,
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: the norm breaking of it, the unprecedented nature of it,
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: and the huge non-socially distanced, unmasked crowd, which I think
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: muddled his message a little bit. He would have been
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: much better off doing this like Pence did somewhere other
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: than the White House. I don't think the optics were
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: worth the noise since the overwhelming majority of people will
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: consume coverage of the speech, not the speech itself.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Tommy, I'm more wondering about people like most of
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: us who are watching the speech from their homes, which
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: they have not been able to leave in months, And
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: when they do leave them, have to wear masks and
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: socially distance and not see their friends and family. And
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: then they see the speech with just a couple thousand
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: people on the White House lawn, all crowded together with
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: no masks on.
• 4:19
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, look, we'll get into this even more
• 4:22
  Speaker 8: when we talk about his message. But like last night,
• 4:24
  Speaker 8: the White House lawn looked like the coronavirus does not exist.
• 4:28
  Speaker 8: And maybe projecting normalcy makes people feel like there's light
• 4:31
  Speaker 8: at the end of the tunnel. But given how bad
• 4:33
  Speaker 8: his COVID handling numbers are, I would worry about making
• 4:36
  Speaker 8: that bet.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, so, yeah, I don't know. I mean, look,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: what I saw.
• 4:41
  Speaker 8: Watching him and Melania walk down the stairs in that
• 4:45
  Speaker 8: long boom shot, it looked to me like some fascist
• 4:49
  Speaker 8: leader who has used the entire power of the state
• 4:52
  Speaker 8: to benefit himself politically.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: That was my takeaway. Yes, it's pretty. The White House
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: is gorgeous, but it hit me in a dark way.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Love it.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: What'd you think?
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I felt the same way. I think it was
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: a fascist event. I think we should be very angry
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: and upset about the Hatch Act violation. I think we
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: should be angry and upset about reporters diminishing it or
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: dismissing it because of assumptions about.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: What works and what doesn't work.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: That said, I also think we live in a country
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: that doesn't fetishize.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: The White House as much as Donald Trump thinks we do.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: I think that he used the bully pulpit.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: There are plenty of images of Donald Trump giving speeches
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: in front of, around the White House. He was denied
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a big convention moment, but I don't know that being
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: on the South Lawn is that much more impressive or
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: presidential in terms of what it projects than if you
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: were doing it in a convention hall or to Dan's
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: point somewhere else. But so that was sort of my
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: feeling on it. I think what makes it important is that,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: you know, consistently Donald Trump is, you know, he's a
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: raptor testing the fences and this is yet another way
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: he is showing that he can.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Abuse his office.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Even the language that we use around it, you know,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Trump blurring the lines between the Trump campaign and the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: White House. It's not really true. He's not blurring the lines.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: He's using the White House to do a campaign event.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: The White House did not become part of his campaign.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: He just abused the White House. If we manage to
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: get Trump out, we won't have to reassess whether or
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: not the White House continues to be part of Trump's campaign.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: There's no blurred line. There's an abuse of power.
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: Love it.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: Are you saying that we shouldn't call theft blurring the
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: lines of ownership? That's right.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right. Yes. That's a great way to put it, Dan.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: What a smart communication of what I was trying to say.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: I'm so grateful. So grateful.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I guess what bothers me more than all the Hatch
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Act problems is just like, I'm watching him at the
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: end of the speech. Like, look at his name be
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: spelled out in fireworks over the Washington Monument. There's like
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: tens of millions of people unemployed, millions of people sick
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: with the deadly virus. We've lost 180,000 people to this pandemic. Like,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: it's the most out of touch thing I've ever fucking
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: seen a president do in the middle of a reelection.
• 7:06
  Speaker 8: Hugo Chavez on a balcony cheering for himself as fireworks
• 7:10
  Speaker 8: go off and millions of people live in poverty. It
• 7:13
  Speaker 8: was it was nuts. I can't believe that happened.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: You know, it's like, I just, I almost, I want
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: us to go at it. I want more Democrats to
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: go at it from the, like, you are fucking over
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: the working people of this country who are also sick
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: and scared of getting sick so that you can live
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: in your fucking, you know, with all of your rich
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: friends on a lawn watching fireworks. I'd rather that be
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: the argument than like, you're violating the Hatch Act.
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: I think the COVID part is probably the most politically
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: significant part of it. Just in the way that the, the,
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: Abnormal setting in the Democratic Convention reinforced the message about
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Trump's mishandling of the pandemic. Seeing all of these unmasked
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: people sitting together in ways no one has seen anyone
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: sitting anywhere, not at a Trump event for six months.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: It reinforces the great critique of Trump that he is
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: not taking the virus seriously enough. And they did do
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: work over the first three days of the convention with
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: videos about testing and people talking about the China ban
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: and all of that. And they undid that and more
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: with the images of those events.
• 8:17
  Speaker 8: Yeah, just a last quick thought. I just don't think
• 8:19
  Speaker 8: it's either or, right? Like we're not the Biden campaign
• 8:21
  Speaker 8: and like picking a message. I think that yesterday, the
• 8:24
  Speaker 8: Washington Post reported that over the course of the first term,
• 8:27
  Speaker 8: Taxpayers have paid Trump $ 900, 000 at his personal resorts because
• 8:32
  Speaker 8: he takes trips there all the time. Like the Hatch
• 8:34
  Speaker 8: Act violation, that self-dealing, it all rolls into one narrative
• 8:37
  Speaker 8: that I think is a story we should be telling
• 8:39
  Speaker 8: and should be part of this coverage. On top of that,
• 8:42
  Speaker 8: having a fireworks display for yourself in the midst of
• 8:45
  Speaker 8: 30 million people unemployed is nuts for an entirely different reason.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: It's completely out of.
• 8:49
  Speaker 6: Touch, as you said.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: I think it's a very good point that it is
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: all one story for sure. And I do want to
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: note that a senior White House official also said to
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: CNN last night about the non-socially distanced crowd that was
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: sitting there, everybody is going to catch this thing eventually,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: which is like- Which is the plan. This is the
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: White House. This is Donald Trump's plan for the coronavirus
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: is everyone's going to catch it eventually. It is herd immunity.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: That is the policy of this country.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: Goes to Herman Cain is like, oh.
• 9:25
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: But still tweeting. From a speech writing standpoint, from a
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: technical standpoint, what did you think about the overall quality
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: of the speech and the delivery?
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: So the delivery was terrible. It was very halting. He
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: kind of does his teleprompter voice.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: He seemed tired. He seemed hot.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: You know, everybody was baking. It was like, you know,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: it was 90 degrees, very humid in D.C. Seemed like
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: he was feeling it. I've been trying to articulate this.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: It's hard to get right. But, there's something about him saying,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: I profoundly accept your nomination that I think captures the
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: reason his speeches are so terrible. And you realize, what
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: is that speech? Well, it's Stephen Miller, kind of a
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: vicious little creep, no empathy, no kind of real deep
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: appreciation for any sort of positive values, channeling Donald Trump,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a similar kind of person with really kind of no
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: ability to capture the grandeur of the presidency, the importance
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: of the presidency, the actual stakes, the actual profundity of
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: what's happening in our country and in this moment. And
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: so what happens when these two people try to do
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: an impression of big, emotional, patriotic ideas, you end up
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: with just actual gibberish, just big words. It's like somebody
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: went through the kind of history of presidential speeches, took
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: out the words that Lincoln and Eisenhower and Reagan, Obama
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: would use, and then just like, well, that's your vocabulary.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: See what you come up with.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: But of course, they don't have the ability to use
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: those words to tell any kind of moving or real
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: grounded story because they're terrible human beings who don't know
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: how to empathize with anybody.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: So we're left with shit. That's what I think.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: It was more than three times the length of Joe
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Biden's speech. It was the second longest convention speech in history.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: The longest speech in history was Donald Trump in 2016.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: That's actually another thing, too.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: It was actually shocking how much it bounced around, how
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: many times it came back.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: It had a terrible, lazy structure.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: He kept coming back to crime, circling back to Joe Biden,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: circling back to earlier messages.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: It ended three or four times. It was just a mess. Structurally,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: it was not a story.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: It was just a series of the hits they were
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: trying to deliver over what felt like an eternity.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: There were two reviews that he definitely won't like. Surprisingly
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: flat and didn't seem to have the bite he usually
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: has in his speeches. That was Fox News' Chris Wallace.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: And then Chris has a point. Brit Hume said the
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: speech was very long. It's a tough, tough two weeks
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: for Trump when Fox News says that Biden gave a
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: great speech and he gave a bad one.
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: Not ideal.
• 11:51
  Speaker 8: I mean, listen, like I thought it was boring too.
• 11:53
  Speaker 8: I think that my reaction to having watched the whole
• 11:55
  Speaker 8: speech or the whole RNC is probably much less important
• 11:58
  Speaker 8: than the narratives that spin out. And my takeaway was,
• 12:02
  Speaker 8: Trump does seem to finally have settled on a message,
• 12:04
  Speaker 8: which is that no one will be safe in Joe
• 12:06
  Speaker 8: Biden's America. And the evidence is violence currently happening in
• 12:10
  Speaker 8: Donald Trump's America. And time will tell if that cognitive
• 12:14
  Speaker 8: dissonance plays. But, you know, Kellyanne Conway admitted again that
• 12:18
  Speaker 8: they want more violence because they think it helps them politically.
• 12:20
  Speaker 8: I think that's a risky bet to prioritize crime when
• 12:24
  Speaker 8: polling from like this month shows that The coronavirus is
• 12:28
  Speaker 8: like at 35 percent the most important issue people see.
• 12:31
  Speaker 8: I think crime was four percent. And it's just not
• 12:34
  Speaker 8: the thing voters are most worried about. But like maybe
• 12:37
  Speaker 8: they can shift the numbers. But like, you know, my
• 12:39
  Speaker 8: biggest personal takeaway from his speech was just exhaustion.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Watching the Tulsa rally. Hey, that was kind of fun, right?
• 12:47
  Speaker 8: Like this was a brutal four day slog. Every minute
• 12:50
  Speaker 8: of the event was like littered with constant brazen lying.
• 12:54
  Speaker 8: And the big picture, very sad political takeaway is if
• 12:58
  Speaker 8: you lie all the time about everything, it's impossible to
• 13:01
  Speaker 8: hold you accountable.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: So he's going to keep doing it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 8: And then if you break the law by violating the
• 13:05
  Speaker 8: Hatch Act or other ethics rules, the media will kind
• 13:08
  Speaker 8: of give you a pass. And that just sucks. That's
• 13:10
  Speaker 8: the reality we live in.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Trump's Trump's challenge is that when he reads prompter speeches,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: it's clear that he's only read them for the second
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: time at most, maybe the first time. And so you
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: can get him on message, but then his delivery is
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: pretty boring because he hates the speech. Or you can
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: get him at the Tulsa rally where he's interesting to
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: listen to and keeps the crowd's attention, but says 85
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: crazy fucking things during the speech that gets you off message.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: So it is sort of a, but Tommy, you mentioned
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: sort of the larger takeaway. Let's talk about how Trump
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: attempted to frame the race as an existential choice about
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: the future of the country. We have a clip.
• 13:45
  Speaker 7: This election will decide whether we save the American dream.
• 13:49
  Speaker 7: or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our
• 13:53
  Speaker 7: cherished destiny. It will decide whether we rapidly create millions
• 14:01
  Speaker 7: of high-paying jobs or whether we crush our industries and
• 14:06
  Speaker 7: send millions of these jobs overseas, as has foolishly been
• 14:11
  Speaker 7: done for many decades. Your vote will decide whether we
• 14:16
  Speaker 7: protect law-abiding Americans or whether we give free rein to
• 14:21
  Speaker 7: violent anarchists and agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens.
• 14:30
  Speaker 7: And this election will decide whether we will defend the
• 14:34
  Speaker 7: American way of life or whether we will allow a
• 14:37
  Speaker 7: radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: That won't happen.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, Dan. Who do you think the intended audience was
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: for Trump's speech and what was sort of the overall
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: strategy behind it?
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: That is a great question, John, that frankly no one
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: knows the answer to. I mean, there were– the Republican
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: convention was largely a mess, but there were some relatively
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: effective moments throughout the week. I don't think Trump's speech
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: was one of them. He seems to be speaking to–
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: at the same time in two different ways, the voters–
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: who had been with him in 2016 or were open
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: to him as recently as a few months ago, who
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: have left him to try to bring them back into
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: the fold and to try to fire up the base,
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: and particularly the non-voting or sporadic voting likely Trump voters
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: in the Midwest. And so it's this, it is equal parts,
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: I'm not as bad as you think, and I'm even
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: worse than they let you know. So wink, wink, come
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: support me, right? So, you know, it's like, For the
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: people in the suburbs, I'm less racist. For those other
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: base voters, I'm even more racist. So I'm not sure
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: that works. I do think, to Tommy's point, is they
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: have a narrative about Joe Biden now that they are
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: running with that I don't know if it'll work, but
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: it could.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:06
  Speaker 8: I thought this was a suburbs message, especially suburban women,
• 16:09
  Speaker 8: because he's been saying for weeks on Twitter– hey, you
• 16:12
  Speaker 8: like that suburban neighborhood you live in with only single
• 16:15
  Speaker 8: family homes? It'd be a damn shame if something happened
• 16:17
  Speaker 8: to it when Joe Biden installs low income housing in
• 16:21
  Speaker 8: your neighborhood, right? I mean, the subtext has become the text.
• 16:23
  Speaker 8: Chris Murphy, US Senator Chris Murphy tweeted, our president is
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: now a proud vocal segregationist. And we know Biden is
• 16:31
  Speaker 8: up 16 points among registered women and 13 points with
• 16:35
  Speaker 8: suburban women. So I thought he was maybe trying to
• 16:37
  Speaker 8: close that gap.
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: I agree.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: And I think it was more of a cohesive message
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: than- I even thought at first, which is like Joe
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Biden and the radical left are going to destroy the suburbs.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: They're going to let crime run rampant. There's not going
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: to be law and order. And they're going to tell
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: you that if you worry about that, you're racist, but
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: you're not racist. And neither am I, because here's all
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: the black people speaking at my convention.
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: But also here are the racist things I'm.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Going to say. But it's like, I can say these
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: things and they're not racist. And the proof of them
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: not being racist is the people I've surrounded myself with
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: at the convention. And the fact that I have pardoned
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Alice Johnson and done other criminal justice reform stuff that
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: should show you that I'm not racist. And this is
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: just purely a law and order chaos issue, right? That
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: is sort of the whole thing they've been trying to
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: put together.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: And I would just add that if they can, and
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: if as part of that sort of broader strategy, they
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: can muddy the waters enough to pick off just a
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: small number of Democratic-based voters, just get enough people to
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: stay home or come along, right? Just win just enough
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: of the black vote in Wisconsin, win enough of the
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: black vote in Pennsylvania, they could potentially, potentially eke out
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: a win because this is going to be potentially so close.
• 17:45
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: So he did have a couple different arguments about Joe
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Biden in the speech. Tommy, you mentioned, you know, no
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: one will be safe in Joe Biden's America was sort
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: of the main argument. And he actually spent the majority
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: of the entire speech, not just his attacks on Joe Biden,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: his entire speech on the issue of crime, lied again
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: about Biden being for defunding the police, all that kind
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: of stuff. And, of course, Mike Pence also had the line,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: no one will be safe in Joe Biden's America in
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: his speech. So it was a conservative message. There were
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: a few other messages about Joe Biden in the speech.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: He accused him of being a tool of Washington who, quote,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: spent his career outsourcing the dreams of American workers, offshoring
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: their jobs, opening their borders and sending their sons and
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: daughters to fight in endless wars. He said Joe Biden's
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: agenda was made in China. He accused him of socialism.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: What do you guys think? What do you guys think
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: is the most effective argument against Joe Biden? Do you
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: think it's the main argument about crime or do you
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: think it was some of these others?
• 18:49
  Speaker 8: I mean, I remember Robert Gibbs once taught me early
• 18:52
  Speaker 8: on in my career that the first rule of spin
• 18:54
  Speaker 8: is it has to be believable. And I would go
• 18:56
  Speaker 8: with the argument, hey, the economy was rocking. I'm a
• 18:59
  Speaker 8: business guy. I know how to do this. We got
• 19:01
  Speaker 8: hit with a once in a century pandemic. We're climbing
• 19:03
  Speaker 8: back out. Give me the keys.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I'll get us back there fast.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: D.C.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Joe will give you more of the same.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: I found myself the same. I thought when he was
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: getting to the Washington stuff that he's been there for
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: 47 years. I was like, well, that's an argument. It's
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: very hard, I think, to say Joe Biden has been
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: there for 47 years and he hasn't done anything. But
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: now he will destroy the country by partnering with the
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: radical left. It's just a hard message.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: I don't want to over give them more credit than
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: they think. I think they work together because saying Joe
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: Biden has been there for 47 years is part that
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: he is part of the establishment. It's also saying he's old.
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: They're not trying to say that he has this vigorous
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: desire to make America socialist. It's just that he is
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: old and weak and therefore AOC, the squad, Bernie Sanders,
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: Nancy Pelosi, pick your Fox News bogey person du jour
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: will drive the agenda. And it's what they're looking at
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: there and it's not a crazy strategy.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Like all things– It's a little complex.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Well, I think the idea that Joe Biden is old
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: and weak, and therefore the people calling the shots are
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: the Democrats you don't like, not like Joe Biden, who
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: you think might be okay, who's a Democrat who might
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: be acceptable to you. That's not a crazy message that
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: can't bring some of his voters back. I don't think
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: it's executed particularly clearly in this speech or throughout this convention,
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: but it could absolutely work if it's not responded to appropriately.
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: So Trump did acknowledge the raging pandemic in his speech,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: though it was mostly to say that actually his administration
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: has handled everything perfectly. Joe Biden has a plan to
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: shut down the entire country, which is not true. He
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: did not for much of a plan to actually control
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: the virus other than to say that we'll have a
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: safe and effective vaccine this year. Good news, everyone. And
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: then he said this, quote, we are focusing on the science,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: the facts, and the data. We are aggressively sheltering those
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: at highest risk, especially the elderly, while allowing lower risk
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Americans to safely return to work and school, which really
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: is just another way of saying everyone's going to get
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: it eventually. Do you guys love it? Do you think
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: he did anything in the speech or this week to
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: fix his COVID problem, knowing that it's the top concern
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: for voters, if not tied with the economy, and that
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: large majorities believe that he's handling the issue poorly.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, that's what's so absurd about this whole
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: conversation about the incredible threat Joe Biden poses to the
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: country when we're in the midst of a massive crisis
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: that has leveled the country.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: We're in as deep a hole as we've been in
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: in our lives.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine that that super spreader event is going
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: to help people believe that Donald Trump is taking the
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: virus seriously. You know, super spreading lies, if you will,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: just workshopping it. And, you know, the event itself is
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: like an epidemiological version of the lies that they told
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: throughout the campaign, which is just a kind of brazen
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: disregard for anybody who takes the virus seriously, takes the
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: truth seriously. It's, I think, one of the reasons that
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: it felt so painful to watch this convention. I think
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: to Tommy's point, like why it was so like enervating
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and depleting is because it's not that they don't know
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: that what they're saying isn't true. And it's not that
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: they don't know that liberals and some in the media
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: will try to make them pay a price for it.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: It's that they're saying to all of us, they don't care.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: They don't care that you're going to call this a
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: super spreader event. They don't care that it's morally reprehensible.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: They don't care at all because they're trying to tell
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: us that this is no longer a conversation. It's no
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: longer a conversation about the law. It's no longer a
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: conversation about what's best for the country. It's no longer
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: actual debate. about solving problems. It's about power. It's about subjugation.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: It's about winning at all costs, even if they have
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: to do it illegally or by stealing the election. That
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: is what to me is so ultimately scary about this
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: political event. It is the combination of the law breaking
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: and the lack of respect for the pandemic because it's
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: sending everyone a message that they don't care about anything
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: but power.
• 22:59
  Speaker 8: Here's my question for you guys. So like our lives
• 23:02
  Speaker 8: in LA and San Francisco are they are unrecognizable to
• 23:05
  Speaker 8: what they were last year, right?
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: I'm still locked in my house. We never worked together.
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: I was talking to a friend yesterday who had just
• 23:11
  Speaker 8: gotten back from Michigan and she said, kind of felt
• 23:13
  Speaker 8: like things were all back open, like gyms were still closed,
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: but like people were acting like the world was moving
• 23:21
  Speaker 8: on a little bit. I can't confirm that, but I
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: guess my point is, I don't know how things feel
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or Milwaukee right now. Like the
• 23:30
  Speaker 8: national polling suggests that 60% of the country is worried
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: about social distancing ending too soon versus 30% who worry
• 23:38
  Speaker 8: it will go on too long. But that could change
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: over time. I mean, Trump's kind of rolling the dice
• 23:44
  Speaker 8: on one, projecting things being better through this event, through
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: his rhetoric, could maybe make you think it's better. And two,
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: that he can roll out some like snake oil miracle
• 23:54
  Speaker 8: cure between now and election day.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: Those are big bets, but we'll see. I agree.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: I think that's, I mean, I think about that more
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: than I even think about the effect of, you know,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: some of these protests and some of the violence that
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: has taken place in some of the protests in some
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: of these cities and how that will have an effect
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: on the race. I think of sort of like the
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: shape of the pandemic and where it's going. Like, are
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: we in another period like we were in, in May,
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: in June, where it seemed like things were calming down
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: and everything went back to normal. And then around the
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: 4th of July, there were outbreaks around the South and
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: the Southwest and here where we live in Los Angeles,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: there was one, right? So like, you're starting to see
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: that too with some of these schools opening, like colleges
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: are opening and then they're closing down again, schools are
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: opening and then like hundreds of people are testing positive.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Like the one thing that the virus has shown from
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: the beginning is that like the virus is incredibly patient
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: and it can wait us out. And the only thing
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: that's changing are policies around social distancing and closing things
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: down or opening them. The virus isn't changing, right? We're
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: getting a little better at treating the virus, right? Like
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: When people do, the hospitalizations are improving. When people do
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: go to the hospital, they're less likely to die, like
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: just because we're getting better at treating it. But the
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: virus isn't, the virus is going to keep spreading if
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: you give it the oxygen to spread.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would just also add that too, that like
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: it is also true that sort of the risk ebbs
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and flows in the sense that, you know, there have
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: been outbreaks, places have opened and had to close, as
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: John's saying. But the aggregate is more and more people
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: in the country, no people who have had it, no
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: people who have died from it or faced serious consequences
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: from it. And like the order of magnitude now, like
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: we're not talking about something that's rare. We're talking about,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: you know, places in like Arizona where like one in
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: 30 people have.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Had it, right?
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Like that's a huge percentage of people in a population
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: to have had something because that means everybody knows people
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: that have had it. So like, I don't, you know,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: I think it's a totally fair question, but like, you know,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: all evidence that I have seen makes me think that
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Trump is underestimating people's fears about this virus.
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: So- As far as sketching out a second term agenda,
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: the speech was fairly short on specifics. Trump made a
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: vague promise to create 10 million jobs, reduce taxes and regulations,
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: appoint more judges, keep out immigrants, kick the shit out
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: of China, battle cancel culture. One of the best lines
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: in the speech, in a funny way, was at the
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: end when he said cancel culture never created America.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: So good.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Or like America wasn't built by cancel culture. It was
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: something ridiculous.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: It kind of was, though. It kind of fucking was.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: The Declaration of Independence is canceling King George III. The
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence is a declaration of cancellation. And it's
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: time we talk about it.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: He also proposed putting the first woman on the moon.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: That was just thrown out there.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Hillary Clinton. That's who he thinks we should send.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Good one. Dan, did Trump say enough about his second
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: term agenda? How much do we think it matters?
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: I don't think it matters that much. I mean, he
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: gave people an impression of what a second term of
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: Trump would be like, which is the first term up
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: until six months ago. If you like that, then you
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: should want four more years of that. And he didn't
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: really have any plans when he ran the first time
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: other than the wall. That's still the centerpiece of his agenda.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: I wish we had a president who had some desire
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: or idea of what he would do with the power
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: given to him to improve the country one way or
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: the other. But Trump has never been that person, and
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: he won despite being that person in 2016. So it's
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: not about necessarily, for the vast majority of voters, the
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: specific policies. It's about whether you have a vision of
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: what it looks like. And I think he did paint that.
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: Whether that is a broadly acceptable enough vision to win re-election,
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: that's a very debatable point. But he's not someone who
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: is known for or needs a laundry list of policies
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: because he's a moron, basically.
• 27:50
  Speaker 8: It's such a weird choice. I agree with you, Dan.
• 27:53
  Speaker 8: His message has always been bet on me. I alone
• 27:55
  Speaker 8: can fix it. That was literally the slogan. But build
• 27:59
  Speaker 8: the wall, lock her up, end the wars. He's delivered
• 28:02
  Speaker 8: on none of those specifics, but he used to say them.
• 28:04
  Speaker 8: But wouldn't you want to have a 10-part plan to
• 28:09
  Speaker 8: make America great again and again continued, like that is
• 28:12
  Speaker 8: full of proposals that are more popular than your 41%.
• 28:16
  Speaker 8: It could be simple lies like the rest of it,
• 28:18
  Speaker 8: like get all troops out of Afghanistan and Syria, cut
• 28:21
  Speaker 8: taxes for the middle class, a billion new jobs.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: Why not just roll that out?
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: I mean, he did put out that bullet point document
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: last week or.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: 100 years ago, whatever that was. But he never says it.
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, he's incapable of, right? I think it is
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: much more about painting a vision of what your second
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: term would look like for voters. And I think he
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: did accomplish that. There's definitely many better ways to run
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: his campaign than he is currently doing it. Like, yes,
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: you would certainly adopt policies. And I think this is
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: the one thing that is a fair– critique of him
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: is that in 2016, he had a bunch of rhetoric
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: that alluded to policies that indicated that he was a
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: different sort of Republican, right? That's what trade was about.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: I mean, he promised not to cut entitlements. He said
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: publicly that he would raise taxes on the wealthy, even
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: though his tax plan cut taxes for them. But he
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: said a bunch of things that made people think he's
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: not like the Republicans I don't like. And the danger
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: for him is that he has governed much more like
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: the Republicans you don't like. And he could have ways
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: to hearken back to that that he doesn't. So I
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: think that's fair.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I noticed that he did combine the message of
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: the whole week basically combined like traditional Republican policies and
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: hot topics. issues for them like abortion with Donald Trump,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: sort of the outsider anti-establishment guy who's going to fight
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: the system with the like. more Trumpian sort of insane
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Fox News cancel culture, like all the stuff that drives
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: the base, which is not really issues today, which drives
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Trump's base. Yeah, exactly. So he put all those two
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: things together. Let's talk about the final night of the
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: convention where the two and a half hours of programming
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: was both heavy on Trump's message about crime and on
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: his criminal justice reform record. It also featured a number
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: of former Democrats, black Americans and Latino Americans talking about
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: how they're now supporting Trump. One of the big speeches
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: was from a woman named Alice Johnson, whose life sentence
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: for drug trafficking, Trump commuted. Lava, what did you think
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: of the final night and particularly the message from people
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: like Alice Johnson?
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, there was there was Alice Johnson. There
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: was also the family of Kayla Mueller, who, you know,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: who was killed by ISIS in Syria. And it's like
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: it's harrowing and difficult to watch. You know, Alice Johnson's
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: story is powerful. That family story is incredibly tragic and powerful.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And I don't know what it means for this convention
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: to be effective. But I think what struck me is
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: ultimately examples, stories that are told during these events are
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: meant to elucidate a deeper set of policies and goals
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: and interests. They're not just supposed to be trying to
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: pick off constituencies or attack people or score points. They're
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: meant to tell a story, right? That Alice Johnson's story
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: is meant to convey the fact that Trump is somehow
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: sympathetic or against mass incarceration. The naturalization ceremony is meant
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: to convey that Donald Trump actually wants naturalization to take
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: place as opposed to what he's actually doing, which is
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: trying to stop it at every turn. And so what
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I took away from it is that just inside of
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the very obvious lies that have been told throughout this week,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: there is a kind of deeper bit of misinformation going
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: on throughout the convention. which is they are using examples
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: not to show us who Donald Trump is, but to
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: hide who Donald Trump is, right? To pretend he's a
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: good person, to pretend he cares about these issues, to
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: pretend he's been some kind of a leader on foreign policy,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: to pretend that he actually believes in any kind of immigration.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: And so that was sort of my takeaway in what
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: happened last night.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Tommy, what'd you think?
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, there were like kind of two parts, right?
• 31:58
  Speaker 8: You had the weird like Rudy Giuliani sweat plus impeachment
• 32:03
  Speaker 8: variety show section. You had like Lou Holt's coming out
• 32:07
  Speaker 8: of nowhere to remind us why everyone hates Notre Dame football.
• 32:11
  Speaker 8: Dana White, the MMA guy, probably did a decent job.
• 32:15
  Speaker 8: There were those really searing emotional moments, though. Kayla's parents
• 32:20
  Speaker 8: offering a testimonial about how basically Trump killed Baghdadi, who
• 32:24
  Speaker 8: had raped their daughter.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: Just a horrific story.
• 32:28
  Speaker 8: We think that their argument that if Trump had been president,
• 32:32
  Speaker 8: she would have been rescued alive. It's obviously unprovable. I
• 32:35
  Speaker 8: suspect it's over the top, but it's incredibly emotional. We
• 32:38
  Speaker 8: also heard from Deborah White, whose husband, David Dorn, was
• 32:41
  Speaker 8: a retired police officer who was murdered in St. Louis
• 32:44
  Speaker 8: when he tried to stop people from robbing a store
• 32:47
  Speaker 8: after a protest. That was another incredibly dark, intense law
• 32:51
  Speaker 8: and order moment. I think the day after coverage will
• 32:55
  Speaker 8: be complicated by the fact that David Dorn's daughters asked
• 32:59
  Speaker 8: her not– she's their stepmom– not to politicize their father's
• 33:02
  Speaker 8: death because they said their father didn't.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: Like Trump, thought he was ruining the country, thought he
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: was a racist.
• 33:08
  Speaker 8: So it was very intense is I guess kind of
• 33:12
  Speaker 8: like the best way I could describe it.
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's effective. I don't know if
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: it's smart. But I do think it was a recognition
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: that he is losing partly because of the view that
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: he is a racist asshole.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Like it was very it was a very defensive convention
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: in many ways. It was them recognizing that part of
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: the reason he is losing right now is because people
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: think there is something faulty about his character and they
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: think that he is xenophobic. They think he is racist,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: whatever it may be. And so much of the convention,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: I actually thought the convention would be heavier on anti
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: Biden stuff like they got. They certainly got some of
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: that done. But they spent most of it, they spent
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: most of the convention trying to build up Trump and
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: telling people he's not racist and you're not racist for
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: supporting him. That was like the main message to me.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Even the speech at the White House itself is still,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: there's this implicit desire for them to be like, it's
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: actually not that crazy that we made him president. You know,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: it's actually not that big of a deal.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: It seems okay.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: That's sort of, it's the same, it's him taking pictures
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: behind the desk as well. It's like, he belongs there.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: It's fine. It's fine that he's president. Don't worry about it.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Dan, what did you think?
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, the whole night, like.
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: The rest of the convention, was sort of a mess
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: of very different messages that were relatively conflicting. I agree
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: with what Favs, what you and Lovabow said about sort
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: of what the message was, is that he's not a racist.
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: He's not as bad as you think. There is a
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: better version of that message that Ivanka, in her pretty
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: terrible speech, did do, which is one that was actually
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: in the very first ad of Trump's reelection, which is
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: that he He's kind of an asshole, but he's an
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: effective asshole. He's your asshole, which is a better message
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: than Trump is this empathetic, nice person, because that's just
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: not believable. Even if you convince people of that in
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: the moment, he is going to do something moments after
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: leaving that stage that will undo that work. So you
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: might as well just spin the benefits of his assholery
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: as opposed to trying to convince people he's not. Trump
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: is not a racist, and we're going to prove it
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: by finding every single black person and Latino Republican we
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: can possibly find and give them very prominent speaking spots
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: within the convention is probably pretty effective for people who
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: want to be Republican but are concerned about that. And
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: they did it with, like with all Trump things, it lacks,
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: it has no, there's no subtlety to it, right? It's just,
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: they're gonna, the brute force of it is probably actually
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: effective because it's so shocking because what you hear all
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: the time is what a racist Trump is. And all
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: of a sudden you have all these people from Alice
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: Johnson to the Attorney General of Kentucky and everyone else
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: out there speaking about him. And I imagine that that,
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: to the extent that people saw that, that probably had
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: some impact on some voters that Trump needs to get back.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: You mentioned Ivanka's speech. I think we have that clip
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: that you're referring to. Can we play that?
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: I recognize that my dad's communication style is not to
• 36:08
  Speaker 6: everyone's taste. And I know that his tweets can feel
• 36:12
  Speaker 6: a bit unfiltered. But the results, the results speak for themselves.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: What do you guys think of Ivanka's speech? She was
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: one of two potential presidential candidates in 2024 who spoke
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: last night. Tom Cotton was the other.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: You know, it's funny this idea that like, he's a
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: little unfiltered, but he gets results. Like that would have
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: been the heart of their message if there hadn't been
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: a pandemic. Like when we were first having conversations about
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: what Donald Trump was gonna campaign on last year, he
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: said that thing of, like me or hate me, you
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: have to vote for me, right? That was gonna be
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: the core of his message. It's now though, it's like,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: I'm an asshole, but look how good things are, has
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: been now just reduced to, I'm an asshole. It's pretty tough.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: It's a pretty tough message. Yeah, the results do speak
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: for themselves, Ivanka.
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: They do, they do. We're trapped in our fucking houses.
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: Yeah, the Biden new theme of like, does Trump even
• 37:09
  Speaker 8: know he's president? I think is really- great because the
• 37:12
  Speaker 8: truth is he is impotent. He tweets about violence. He
• 37:15
  Speaker 8: tweets about COVID. He doesn't do a goddamn thing to
• 37:18
  Speaker 8: stop it. There is no way he is going to
• 37:20
  Speaker 8: turn this around. He's bad at the job. He doesn't
• 37:23
  Speaker 8: get shit done. He rode an Obama economy for three
• 37:25
  Speaker 8: months until it tanks because he couldn't deal with COVID.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: That is the truth.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: I'm an asshole. It's so crazy that I remember being,
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: we were all sort of worried about that ad, right?
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: Because it is a, It's, you know, he's not nice.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: You don't like him, but he gets stuff done. It
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: doesn't work when you haven't gotten anything done. Not only
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: not get anything done, but the fucking, you know, the
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: country's falling apart.
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: Well, I think that's where he's betting on the normalization
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: in people's views of the pandemic. Either it gets better.
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: There is a vaccine, which seems unlikely, obviously, or people
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: grow more numb to it. The thing that I have,
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: I watched pretty carefully is in the navigator survey, they
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: do word clouds for the conversation and, And how big
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: COVID is in the word cloud has a lot to
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: do with where Trump's COVID approval rating is. And there
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: is a world where it doesn't flare up. It just
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: stays at this steady, terrible place where we are. And
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: people are a little more used to it by the
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: time November comes. And if that happens, that's sort of,
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: I think, maybe what Trump's betting on. If it's not
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: going to get better, it will recede slightly in people's concerns.
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: And then he's got a shot.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: So Tom Cotton also spoke. He was one of the
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: other big speakers of the night. He delivered a four
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: minute speech that focused primarily on Trump's supposed foreign policy
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: wins and how Joe Biden will be weak on China.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Here is a clip.
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: Joe Biden would be as wrong and weak over the
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: next four years as he has been for the last 50.
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: We need a president who stands up for America, not
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: one who takes a knee. A strong and proud America
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: is a safe America, safe from our enemies and safe
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: from war. No one who's seen the face of war
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: desires to see it again. Too many of our fellow
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: Americans are already honored at the hallowed grounds of Arlington.
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: But if we want peace, we must be strong, Weakness
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: is provocative. Ugh.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Tommy, how much do you love Tom Cotton?
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: Give that guy a cup of coffee.
• 39:38
  Speaker 8: That was a Breitbart comment section version of a foreign
• 39:41
  Speaker 8: policy speech. And I expected to be really pissed at
• 39:44
  Speaker 8: it when I read the excerpts because it's so full
• 39:46
  Speaker 8: of lies. The whole bit on Biden and China Um,
• 39:50
  Speaker 8: is it's a absurd and B we know from John Bolton,
• 39:54
  Speaker 8: the former national security advisor that Trump asked Xi Jinping
• 39:57
  Speaker 8: to help him get reelected. We know that Trump told
• 40:00
  Speaker 8: Xi that building concentration camps for Uyghurs, a million of
• 40:03
  Speaker 8: them to be reeducated or worse is the right thing
• 40:06
  Speaker 8: to do. And we know that, uh, he gave China
• 40:10
  Speaker 8: cover as they strangle Hong Kong's democracy.
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 40:12
  Speaker 8: So like that policy throat clearing aside. Tom Cotton is
• 40:16
  Speaker 8: just a bad speaker. It was not compelling. Eric Trump
• 40:20
  Speaker 8: was better than Tom Cotton. And honestly, I felt better
• 40:23
  Speaker 8: after it was over because it made me go from
• 40:24
  Speaker 8: thinking this guy is like a serious threat in 2024
• 40:26
  Speaker 8: to like, this guy is kind of a mediocre goober.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: That was my non-foreign policy expertise view of the Tom
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Cotton speech too. I was just like, man, all this
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: time we were worried about Tom Cotton 2024. I suppose
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: we still should be worried, but like, that guy has
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: the charisma of a fucking shoe.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, look, I think what we saw in
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Tom Cotton's speech is the danger of what happens when
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: someone like Kim Guilfoyle uses up all the cocaine.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: On night one.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: And also it's just like, look, Tom Cotton is not
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: a famous speaker. He's a famous op-ed columnist. And now
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: we see what happens when he... Is what he tries
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: to translate that to a new medium.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: Harvard educated New York times columnist, Tom Cotton. Um, before
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: we go, uh, let's talk about where the campaign goes
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: from here. We won't really know how, or even if
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: the conventions will affect the race until we see more
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: polling next week. Again, the polling this week is still
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: not got to wait till next week. Uh, we also
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: know the convention bounces usually fade away, but I do
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: think conventions are a good indicator of where each campaign
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: is going and how they think about the final homestretch. Um,
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: We've talked about how Trump's all in on the message
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: that Biden will make America unsafe. Kellyanne Conway told reporters
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: that more violence helps their campaign. So the question now
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: is how does the Biden campaign respond to this going forward?
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: George Packer has a much-talked-about, tweeted-about piece in The Atlantic
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: today saying that Biden should immediately go to Kenosha and
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: give a speech about bringing the country together. There is
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: a lot of angst in Democratic circles, a lot of
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: discussion in media circles about what the Biden campaign will
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: do in response to this. Dan, what do you think
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: about how the Biden campaign should respond to the RNC
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: and Trump's latest line of attack here?
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: I'm somewhat mystified by the entire conversation around this. And look,
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: I obviously come at this from the perspective of worry
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: about everything. So people are definitely worried about this. But
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: we had this exact conversation two months ago. Is it
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: possible for Joe Biden to speak out against violent protests
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: and keep his base? Yeah, he did it after George Floyd.
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: Is it possible for Joe Biden to say he's not
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: for defund the police and keep his base?
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, we know that because.
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: He did that two months ago. Of course, images of
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: chaos have potential to be weaponized by Trump and the Republicans.
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: This is one place where there are a lot of
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: unknowns in this campaign, but how Biden responds to this
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: is something we know because he has done it once
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: before and he has done it successfully. And so I
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: think everyone is looking for things to worry about. And
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: if we find a well or overwritten piece in The
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: Atlantic that speaks to those deep concerns, maybe people will
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: freak out about it. But I think Biden has demonstrated
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: how to handle this. And we saw a member of
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: Jacob Blake's family say either last night or today that
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: Biden called and spoke to them for an hour. Donald
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: Trump did not mention them.
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: Where Biden has.
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: The ability to demonstrate his empathy and decency and the
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: part of his story that is about dealing with grief
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: and helping others deal with grief, that is a place
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: of strength for him. It's a place, a huge comparative
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: avenge against Trump. And so I think he has been
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: doing that and will continue to do that. And I
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: think we know how that will play out.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: Tommy, what do you think?
• 43:42
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I was a little surprised by the George Packer
• 43:46
  Speaker 8: freak out this morning. I mean, I think we all
• 43:48
  Speaker 8: need to remember that as yo-yoed as we feel by
• 43:51
  Speaker 8: the presidency and by the campaign and the news cycle,
• 43:54
  Speaker 8: because we watch it obsessively, Donald Trump's numbers have been
• 43:57
  Speaker 8: the most stable of like any president ever in recorded history, right?
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: He's always in the same place.
• 44:03
  Speaker 8: And I think the Biden people, are presumably have polls
• 44:08
  Speaker 8: in key swing states like on a daily or weekly basis.
• 44:11
  Speaker 8: And they're tracking these number and they can closely watch
• 44:14
  Speaker 8: these law and order attacks. And if those numbers move,
• 44:17
  Speaker 8: they will need to respond in some way. But I
• 44:19
  Speaker 8: would wait before I take the bait on bad faith
• 44:22
  Speaker 8: attacks from Donald Trump. Biden should speak about racial justice
• 44:27
  Speaker 8: and police reform in his own way, on his own
• 44:30
  Speaker 8: terms at the time that he sees fit. In the interim,
• 44:34
  Speaker 8: I think that the entire country is incredibly worried about COVID.
• 44:37
  Speaker 8: They're really worried about the economy. I would not let
• 44:40
  Speaker 8: Donald Trump suck me away from talking about those core,
• 44:44
  Speaker 8: far more important issues to people in polling.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: Love it. Yeah, no, I agree with all that.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Fundamentally, what Donald Trump is saying and trying to imply
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: is that that the people protesting, fighting for equality, fighting
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: for dignity for black people is a threat to you, right?
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: That's what he's basically saying, that if these people succeed,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: if they're able to achieve any kind of victory in
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: this fight against racial injustice and racial injustice in policing,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: that will cost you.
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: It'll affect you. It'll hurt you.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: And I think Biden can be much bigger and he
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: can talk about the fact that equality doesn't hurt anybody.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: It's not going to hurt you. It's not going to
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: hurt you to allow everybody to have dignity, that there's
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: enough dignity to go around. There's enough America to go around, right?
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: Like that's been a kind of core part of what
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: he's been saying. And I think he can make that
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: a big part.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: Of what he's saying.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: He can speak to the protests. He can speak to
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: what's happening in Kenosha without giving in or taking the
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: bait from Trump.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been trying to think of what happened to
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: public opinion between the protests after George Floyd's murder in
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: June and today. And what you can see in the
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: numbers is that opinion around the protests and specifically around
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: instances of looting and violence has begun to polarize around
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: on party lines. And so most of the decrease in
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: support comes from Republicans, Republican-leaning independents, people who watch Fox News,
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: which since June has been running footage on loop of
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: fires and violence and everything else. So it's not terribly
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: surprising that the public opinion would change a bit. And so,
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: you know, you see some evidence in some focus groups
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: already that people have been talking about where there's people
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: who voted for Trump in 2016 who say they're undecided now,
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: who are now tending to think maybe they'll go back
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: to Trump because of some of the things they've seen
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: in Kenosha or Portland or elsewhere. You're hearing anecdotal evidence
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: of this. We may see it in polling in the
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: next couple weeks. But it is on the margins and
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: it is sort of like Trump voters who were thinking
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: about leaving and maybe coming back and you would almost
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: expect polls to tighten as things become polarized closer to
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: election day anyway, regardless as like some Republicans come home.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: I think the question is to what extent that happens.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: I think in terms of what Joe Biden should do, he,
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: he's been doing the right thing so far. He, you know,
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: like you said, he's, he's called Jacob Blake's family. He
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: has stood on the side of the, of the protests
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: and racial justice and police reform while still saying, obviously,
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: you know, uh, burning down a city is bad.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: Like, and I'm sure he will continue to say that,
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: but I tend to agree with Tommy, which is he can't,
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: he can't let the conversation get away from the pandemic and, and,
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: and fixing the economy. And the more he talks, the
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: more he's like wraps himself in an axle, trying to
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: figure out exactly how to comment on every instance of violence.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: The more that the media conversation will be about Trump
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: versus Biden and on crime and violence as opposed to
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: Trump versus Biden on the pandemic, which is where the
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: Biden campaign wants to be. And you can tell that
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: with all of their statements and all of their responses
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: to the convention. They keep bringing it back to COVID
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: because they know that's the best fight to have with
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump.
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: I mean, ultimately, the trick with Trump is always to
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: call out his game. Don't play his game, right? And
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: so explain what he is trying to distract from. Explain
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: why he is trying to divide people and who benefits
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: from that is the best way to handle it because
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: that gives you the ability to bring.
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: It back to home base.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, like this morning, Trump tweeted about how
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Governor Evers in Wisconsin sent in the National Guard. And
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: he's like, and Wednesday was a perfectly peaceful night. It's like, well,
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: you know what? Governor Evers, the Democratic governor of Wisconsin,
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: made that decision on his own. You didn't do shit.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Your top advisor went out and said that the violence
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: helps your campaign. That's what you did. He continues to
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: pour gas on the fire. And Joe Biden needs to
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: say that. You want four more years of this guy
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: putting gas on the fire and screwing up the pandemic
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: and everything else. that's go for it. If you want
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: to change, if you want to go, if you want
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: things to be calm again, you want competent government, let
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: me know.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: The other way to make the connection to me is
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: that they're going out there and saying, oh, they're burning businesses,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: they're destroying businesses. And if COVID were arson, right, you know,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump has lit 20 million jobs on fire, right?
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Like the damage that he has done to the economy
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: is so much so far beyond at a scale so
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: much greater than anything anybody can point to with these protests.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: If you are worried, about this kind of destruction. Look
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: at the destruction Donald Trump has wreaked.
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, like, safe in Joe Biden's America? Do
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: you feel safe? safe in Donald Trump's America right now?
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: We can't fucking leave our houses. We're not safe in
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump's America.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: This isn't crazy. It's crazy.
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's the way to flip all of this
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: messaging on Trump is Trump. Like in Tommy point this
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: out earlier is that Trump is saying that look at
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: all of this, these horrible things that are happening under
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: my presidency in the first term. I will stop them
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: in the second term.
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: But all the.
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: Imagery about the White House, the fireworks, the safe in
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: Joe Biden's name, that's all about Trump the strongman. He's
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: trying to say that I am the one who can
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: protect you.
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: I alone can fix me.
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: Yes. And it is a not very subtle message to
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: white people that I'm the one who can protect you
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: from black protesters, brown immigrants, terrorism, all the things. It's
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: all about driving up white fear, the classic Republican strategy
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: of the year is But there's a way that Biden
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: can take all of this and use it to undermine
• 50:12
  Speaker 4: Trump's strength. And when you undermine Trump's strength, all of
• 50:15
  Speaker 4: his argument falls at the bottom.
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: All right, guys, we did it. We're at the end
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: of the two convention weeks.
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: Thank God.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: The takes have all been offered. The conventions are over
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: and now 68 days, I believe.
• 50:30
  Speaker 5: 67?
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: I think we're at 67. 67 days until the election.
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: So go to votesaveamerica.com slash adopt. Pick a state. Let's
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: get to work. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye, everyone.
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: Bye, everybody.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: producer is Michael Martinez. Our associate producer is Jordan Waller.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin is
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou,
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: Caroline Reston, and Elisa Gutierrez for production support. Into our
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: digital team, Elijah Cohn, Nar Melkonian, Yale Freed, and Milo Kim,
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: who film and upload these episodes as videos every week.