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The Late Show with Joe Biden · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm Tommy Vitor. We are here live in Chicago. for
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the Democratic National Convention.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Are we live?
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I guess we're live.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're alive.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: We're barely alive.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: We're always live having a conversation.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: On tonight's show, Joe Biden addresses the Democratic Convention and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump apparently thinks he's still running against him. Plus,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker stops by to talk about hosting
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the convention and why he's had so much success fighting
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: back against Republican candidates. attacks.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: And the Bears.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And the Bears.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: And the White Sox sucking.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And the White Sox sucking.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: And the Cubs.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It was a wide-ranging interview. He's a good time.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: He was fun to talk to.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: You guys had a good time?
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: He gave us beers.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: He did?
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we drank with him.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: We had a couple beers.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's fun. Well, Lovett and I went to go
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: drink with some Vote Save America volunteers.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Also good. Everyone wins. That was really special. You guys
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about the convention first?
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: What it's been like being here? It feels like we've
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: been here for, what, 96 hours straight without sleeping?
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's just tonight's program.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: Should we paint a picture? We're in a box made
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: of blue pipe and drape directly adjacent to the Newsmax
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: TV studio.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: They're right there. For those of you watching, right there.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: There's our Newsmax friends.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: We're surrounded by plants, some real, some fake.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: That's true. You have to guess which.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: We've run into a lot of people, a lot of
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: friends of the pod. We love that.
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: These guys had a good time. John and Lovett had
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: a good time with Dean Phillips.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: We did. We had a great reunion with Dean Phillips.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: And Lovett, what did you say? Oh, what did I say?
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I said, Dean Phillips, you son of a bitch. How
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: dare you be right before. What did I say? You
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: were right too early. Shame on you.
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: Fuck you for being right too early. And then some
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: random person came up and screamed, it's the retribution gang.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I don't even know what that means.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: I don't either. But you know what? It's a good time.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: It's joyous here.
• 2:04
  Speaker 6: It is.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: People are fired up.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: People are fired up. There's energy. There's excitement. Everyone's got
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: a smile on their faces. We love that.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Let's start with the first night is in the books
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: of the most surprising and consequential Democratic National Convention of
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: our lifetimes. There were many, many speakers. Some might say
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: too many speakers. But the headliners, of course, were Joe
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton. Kamala Harris made a
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: surprise appearance on stage. There were some really powerful testimonials
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: from women whose pregnancies became nightmares under Dobbs. And also
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: AOC and Steve Kerr gave fantastic speeches. But let's start
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: with the man himself, Joe Biden. Quite a balancing act
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: for him, celebrating and also saying goodbye. Unfortunately, some of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: you might have missed it because the pre-program went so
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: long that he got knocked out of primetime.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Ridiculous.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I was mad on behalf of Joe Biden.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: They bumped James Taylor to make room for Joe Biden,
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: which means... They gave James Taylor's spot to Jamie Raskin.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Tough town.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: Or Chris Coons or somebody.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Chris Coons. Yeah, Chris Coons. Anyway, if you did miss
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden's speech, here are the highlights.
• 3:14
  Speaker 6: I stand before you now on this August night to
• 3:17
  Speaker 6: report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy. Democracy has delivered. And
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: now democracy must be preserved. I've got five months left
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: in my presidency.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I've got a lot to do.
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: I intend to get it done. It's been the honor
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: of my lifetime to serve as your president. I love
• 3:54
  Speaker 6: the job, but I love my country more. Selecting Kamala
• 4:03
  Speaker 6: was the very first decision I made before I became—
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: when I became our nominee. And it was the best
• 4:09
  Speaker 6: decision I made my whole career. We've not only gotten
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: to know each other, we've become close friends. She's tough,
• 4:23
  Speaker 6: she's experienced, and she has enormous integrity— enormous integrity. Her
• 4:30
  Speaker 6: story represents the best American story.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: And like many of our.
• 4:36
  Speaker 6: Best presidents, she was also vice president. That's a joke.
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: I promise I'll be the best volunteer Harrison Waltz.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Has ever seen. All right, let's talk about Joe Biden's speech.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: What you guys thought was the only speech where he
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: went down to the floor. We were standing on the
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: floor for the speech. He was... A little emotional. When
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: he first came out, he followed his daughter, Ashley Biden,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: who gave a very moving speech. And he didn't start
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: for a while just because the crowd was, there was
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: so many, we love you, Joe. Thank you, Joe. So
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: it took a while for him to get going. And
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the crowd was really, the crowd was very generous, which
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: was nice. But what did you guys think of the speech?
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: I think the most beautiful moment came later when he said,
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: you know, I love this job, but I love my
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: country more.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: And it was genuinely moving. These are all Biden delegates.
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: These are all people that if Joe Biden hadn't stepped
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: aside would have disregarded anyone who said otherwise and thrown
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: their support behind him. And it was just the capstone
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: of his presidency and a reminder that he did something
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: very selfless. But it was great that we all had
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: a moment to do that. And then this was his night,
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: I think, to really sort of declare victory of his presidency.
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: And I think we all want this campaign to be
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: about the future. But I think for Joe Biden, this
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: was his moment to say, I'm really proud of what
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: we got done. I was proud to seek reelection based
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: on my record. I would like to extol the virtues
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: of my politics. And I think it's also incumbent on
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: everybody to say, all right, that is the vision of
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: democratic politics that Joe Biden has been shaping. And now
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: we're going to carry it forward.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Dan?
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, Joe Biden did an incredibly important thing for
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: this country when he came out of retirement to beat
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. He accomplished a ton of things. and was
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: a great president. And this was his moment. There's a
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: moment for that to be celebrated by the people who
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: voted for him or chose him to be, to run again, right?
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: This was, these were his people. And these are the,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: and just to be specific, he handpicked these delegates. They
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: were picked by his people. And it was a moment,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: a time for the moment for the country to celebrate
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden. What he was trying to do. And like
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: you said, the tricky thing to navigate was lay out
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: all that had been accomplished as a way to say
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: that you can trust Kamala Harris to build on that success.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: You're trying to both let Joe Biden have his moment
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: and also use that moment as a way to propel
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: her campaign forward.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, on a personal level, I do think Joe Biden
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: deserved a moment to be celebrated, to get round after
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: round of applause from that audience tonight. I think as
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: a political matter, as a political messaging opportunity, it was
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: a lot of, it was a missing so far as
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: it was a lot of relitigating accomplishments. It felt a
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: lot like the stump speech. There was less of a
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: contrast with Donald Trump or an argument made for Kamala
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: Harris as early and as strong as I would have
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: personally liked to have seen. But look, I mean, Joe
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: Biden did something that very few political leaders in world
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: history have ever done, which is willingly step aside and
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: pass the torch. I think he deserved his moment in
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: the sun, though I don't know that that was the speech. Look,
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: I think it was the speech he might have given,
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: were he the nominee, less than an argument for Kamala Harris.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was remembering when he was speaking in Playbook today,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: there was a quote from Anita Dunn, who we all
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: worked with and is a very close advisor of Joe Biden,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: who just left the White House, and now she's at
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Future Forward, which is the pro-Kamala Harris super PAC. She's
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: talked about the speech. She said, this is not a
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: time for legacy. This is a time for arguing why
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Kamala Harris is the best candidate. Seems like Anita did
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: not really know the speech. But it was legacy. And
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I do think that in Biden's defense, it was every
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: president gives a farewell address. And I think that his
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: farewell address, whether it's Kamala Harris who wins or Donald Trump,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: God forbid, It's not going to get as much coverage
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: because there's two other candidates. This is probably the biggest
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: audience he'll get until the end of his presidency. And
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: so I think he wanted to make sure that he
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: had this opportunity to tell the country what he accomplished.
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm trying to be generous and show grace to
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: this person that did something extraordinary that a lot of
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: people asked him to do and many people said he
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: wouldn't do. If your goal is to give a speech
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: that does the most that you can to help Kamala
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: Harris win, that was not the speech. And I hope
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: when he's on the stump, That's the speech we get.
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: I hope when he's out there over the next couple months,
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: that's the speech we get. He said he wants to
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: be their best volunteer.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: I love that line.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: I really love that.
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: But that means making it about the most effective version
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: of the argument. And this was much more about legacy
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: than it was about, I think, winning.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: I agree with that. But I also think it is
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: totally okay for him to have his moment. This is
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: not a situation where it's, He's leaving at the end
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: of two terms, like Obama with Hillary Clinton.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: It's extremely unusual.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: It's extremely unusual. Up until one month ago, this was
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: his convention. He would be speaking on Thursday night. He
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: spoke on Monday night. He got a chance to deliver,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: as you said, I don't know what the audience was.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: It's obviously not as large as it would have been
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: if they'd actually gotten it in before the network coverage.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: But the audience of this, I'm sure, is larger than
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: whatever farewell address he would give in January of 2020.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: And so let him have it. He deserves it. It's fine.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: And I don't even know how like what is the
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: speech he would give that would be of massive strategic
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: importance to Kamala Harris.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: So I think that at some point on the stump
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: and I agree that like it was good that he
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: he deserved to give the speech he did tonight for sure.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I think at some point on the stump over the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: next couple of months, he can talk about what it
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: was like to. work with Kamala Harris over the last
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: four years and why she should be president, why he
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: thinks she should be president, what she helped him accomplish,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: just personal stories about her, what it was like working
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: with her, what it's like being her governing partner for
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the last four years. I think that would be useful.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, there obviously could have been more of that
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: in this speech, for sure. There were times where he
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: weaved in, Kamala and I did this, Kamala and Tim
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Walz will do this. Yeah, for sure. And there is
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: a segment of voters where he has value for her.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: I do just imagine, I mean, listen, we're nitpicking and
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: I'm not trying to upset anybody, but he did this
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: extraordinary thing where he stepped aside, he passed the torch, right?
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: No one thought it was possible. No leader ever does this.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: If that had been maybe upfront, the central focus of
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: the speech, the moment, why he did it, why he
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: believes in her, it could have, I think, really been
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: something unique in political history and rather than, Hey, look
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: at all this stuff we did. And look, maybe that
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: maybe Joe Biden is right. That like talking about prescription
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: drug prices and what voters want to hear and dumb
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: pundits like us want to hear the political new thing.
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: I also like we, we, a lot of it was
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: like a, uh, uh, like a collage of things he
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: said before. I almost said pastiche and I stopped myself.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Uh, but, uh, but I didn't, uh, but I do
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: think like the speech.
• 11:43
  Speaker 7: They don't let me, uh, I keep asking, but, uh,
• 11:48
  Speaker 7: There are some of the best moments I do think
• 11:50
  Speaker 7: were about policy and might be the kind of thing
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: that gets shared.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Like when he said it was always infrastructure. He didn't
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: build a damn thing.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: That's a good line. The damn thing was a good line.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I like that. I liked infrastructure decade. I liked infrastructure decade.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: You didn't like it as much. I liked it. I'm
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: just saying I liked it. We can disagree.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: That's fine. That's fine. The new line was Trump didn't
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: build a damn thing.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: I love that. I like that.
• 12:12
  Speaker 8: That I love.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: But I liked infrastructure decade.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: As I was listening to the speech, I was thinking
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: in my head, I have heard all of this before,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: both the campaign event or policy event he did with
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Kamala last week, the farewell address. But then I thought,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: in my head, how this plays out is, if I
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: was working, like I did this with Obama all the time,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: is some reporter would tweet, nothing new here. And I'd
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: be like, hey, dumb asshole.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: It's not for you.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Not for you. The people we care about are the
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: ones who don't pay attention every day. And that is true.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about the people who might not have
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: seen it because the program went far too long tonight.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: We're in day two.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: As a fellow speechwriter, should we go on a harangue
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: about this?
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: I'm like genuinely outraged about what's happening. Like, People are
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: speaking too fucking slow, and I don't know what to
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: do to address it. I've talked about this on multiple...
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: I can't stop talking about it. Once you see it,
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: you can't stop. But people are not speaking over the applause.
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: They're speaking at under 100 words per minute. When you're
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: watching at home... You can't hear the crowd. And so
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: people are just standing up there interminably. People's attention spans
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: are lower than they used to be. I don't know
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: why speakers are slower now than they were four years
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: ago or eight years ago.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: It makes no fucking sense. Everybody pick up the goddamn pace.
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: Everybody's on TikTok and watching cooking videos next to explainers
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: about Reddit AMAs. So everybody's got to pick up the
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: goddamn pace.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: We were all actually remarking on this at the Republican convention,
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: which which was At home, watching on TV, it sounded
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: quiet in the hall. Now, we were just down on
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: the hall. It was actually quite loud down there. People
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: say that you could barely hear Hillary Clinton during her
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: speech because the applause was so loud, but it just
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: doesn't come through on TV. They have to talk over
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: the applause.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: But that is like the number having sat in sessions
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: where there is speech coaching. for speakers at conventions and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: elsewhere it's like the number one thing they teach you
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: it's what they i remember they taught obama this you
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: know for why he was so good for ever working
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: for him because he did not know how to ride
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the applause riding the applause is people start applauding but
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: you just keep going because again your audience is the
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: people at home not the people in the room and
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: so i think that was an issue there was also
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the speeches were just too long and now just for
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I know there is an army of outstanding speechwriters back
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: there trying mightily to cut those speeches down. And the
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: other challenge is you try to cut the speeches down.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: And the speaker, who is an elected official, is like, no, no, no.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do what I want to do because
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I'm an elected official.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: I know what the people want.
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: I have to say, if one more person goes out
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: there and asks, are you ready to elect Kamala Harris
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: to get a round of applause?
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Fucking cut it. Fucking cut it. There's too much rhetoric.
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: There's too much bullshit in these speeches. Nobody can pay
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: attention to this shit.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Nobody cares.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: So we're recording this Monday night. I guarantee that the
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Tuesday night speeches are going to be a lot tighter.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: And then Wednesday. And then definitely Thursday. Because you cannot
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: push Kamala Harris.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: If you think bumping James Taylor is bad.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: It'll be like Animal House when the guy smashes the
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: guitar against the wall.
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: But it's not just cut. Yes, they should cut down
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: the speeches. But also people should go faster. AOC gave
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: an awesome speech. They were an awesome speech.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Steve Kerr. I know how to pronounce it.
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: It's the third time we've corrected you.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: It's spelled with an E. It's phonetic to me. But, like,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: they gave really great speeches. They really moved.
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: AOC was awesome. She was speaking over incredible applause.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: She was passionate. Content aside, like, I thought it was
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: a great speech. But just as an effective speaker and communicator,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I thought she was maybe the best.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: She rode the applause. She was passionate. She was direct.
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: She, like, She engaged with a crowd, but she was
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: always moving. And more people need to emulate that because,
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: by the way, you'll be able to make a longer
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: and stronger argument if you just keep moving through these speeches.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: The idea of a speech with a beginning, middle, and
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: end that proceeds sequentially instead of just in a random
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: array of various lines.
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: I know.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: So, obviously, ton of love for Joe Biden in the hall.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Of course, there's a whole subtext here that he appeared
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: in front of a party that, as he thinks and
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: has said, has forced him out of the race. an
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: idea that Nancy Pelosi didn't exactly dispel when she spoke
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to Jake Tapper today. Let's listen. It does seem like
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: there's some residual bad blood or resentment, and I'm wondering
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: if you've spoken to him and what your response is
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: to that.
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: Sometimes you just have to take a punch for the children.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: I'm just kidding.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I cannot believe you can deliver that line with this script.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: But sometimes you have to take a punch for the children.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: And she's said it on multiple occasions now.
• 16:40
  Speaker 8: I know.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: It's like a line she's using.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: Is the implication that someone's going to punch the kid?
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: No, no, no.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: You take a punch so you can help the children. Yeah,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: she's fighting for the... We're all fighting for the children.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And so if you want to punch her for that,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: that's okay.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: But the visuals, you know.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: No, I know. That's why I'm laughing.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: But, no, look, I.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: So how much of a killer is Nancy Pelosi?
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: Nancy Pelosi, I've said it before, I'll say it again, she's...
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: What would happen if a Prada bag with a gun
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: in it became a person?
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: And I fucking love it.
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: I've always, you know, I used to end every episode
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: of Love It or Leave It by thanking Nancy Pelosi.
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: And people said I was a neolib fucking shill. And
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: now everybody's back on board. And I just want to say, welcome.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: The Dean Phillips of Nancy Pelosi?
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I am.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: The Dean Phillips of Nancy Pelosi.
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: That's a sentence that makes sense to anybody whose.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Brain isn't fucking broken. The other main speaker tonight was
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: your old boss, Hillary Clinton.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: You bet.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Who brought back a lot of Lovett's favorite lines. She
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: also situated Kamala Harris's run alongside her own. Let's listen.
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: He's mocking her name and her laugh. Sounds familiar. But
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: we have him.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: On the run now. Lovett, I'm thrown to you.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: So that was my favorite moment of the speech. Listen,
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: I've had a drink.
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: I was feeling very wistful watching Hillary Clinton speak because,
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: you know, she made the speech about suffs.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: She made the speech.
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: No, she made the speech about breaking the glass ceiling. And, again, like,
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: you're thinking, like, what is the most effective argument that
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: Hillary Clinton could make? Would it be as focused on
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: history as much as the future? I don't know. I
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: actually genuinely don't know. I thought it was clearly... very
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: authentic to her that this is what she wanted to say.
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: But I also just found myself feeling like, like there
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: was moments in the speech where she was saying some
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: version of like, I can see it happening now. Like this,
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: something is changing in America. We're really going to do it.
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: And her voice, there was one point where it like
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: didn't crack exactly, but there was real emotion carrying through that.
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: Like she genuinely believes like this is a speech she
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: is giving at the convention before we finally elect the
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: first woman president of the United States and And so
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: I had two feelings.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: But that was my feeling the whole time.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Like, like, like, you know, we've got Trump on the run.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: It makes me really nervous.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: She did say right after that, like, but no matter
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: what the polls say, we got to work hard. So
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: give her that.
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: Which I really appreciate it. But I was like, turn around,
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: throw salt over your shoulder.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: What are we doing here? But like it was it
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: was personal for her.
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: And I think similar to Joe Biden, like this is
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: the speech she wanted to give as a person who
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: beat Donald Trump in the popular vote. But for James Comey,
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: would have been president. I just believe that. So, yeah, again,
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: another speech where I feel like it was more about
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: the personal argument that the person wanted to make. But
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: who the fuck am I to say don't make that argument?
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, we also think about this always through the
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: persuadable voter who might be watching. But there's also just
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: an element of Democrats love Hillary Clinton. They love Joe Biden.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Let him give their speeches. And there is this element
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: when you talk to people over the last month since...
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Kamala Harris has taken off, people are so excited. Then
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden, they're just like, but what about Hillary?
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Because that is the.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the subtext.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: The subtext of everything. And so she addressed that tonight
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: and her at least saying that this time is different
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: for these reasons or it can be different if we
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: do the following things. And believe it can be different.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Believe it can be different.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: That she believes it's different is meaningful. That's not how
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: you're getting someone who's choosing between Trump and... There's not
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: a voter who's choosing between Trump and Harris right now
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: who is just like, one Hillary Clinton speech away from
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: moving into the Harris column.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: That's how you're citing anxious volunteers, right?
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're preaching to the choir. And so much of
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: the convention is about preaching to the choir, and that's okay, too.
• 20:24
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: All right, let's talk quickly about the two other speeches
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: that really grabbed people's attention. We mentioned AOCs already, and
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: also Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors and
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the men's national team.
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: And a longtime Bulls player speaking in the United Center
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: in Chicago.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Also true.
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: This was the ultimate home game for Steve Kerr.
• 20:42
  Speaker 9: Right.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: And here's a sampling.
• 20:44
  Speaker 10: Ever since I got elected, Republicans have attacked me by
• 20:49
  Speaker 10: saying that I should go back to bartending. But let
• 20:55
  Speaker 10: me tell you, I'm happy to any day of the
• 21:00
  Speaker 10: week because there is nothing wrong with working for a living. I,
• 21:06
  Speaker 10: for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit
• 21:11
  Speaker 10: union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot
• 21:14
  Speaker 10: than the woman.
• 21:15
  Speaker 11: Who fights every single day to rip working people out
• 21:21
  Speaker 11: so much as a boot to breed traveling on our
• 21:24
  Speaker 11: way of life.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Coach to coach, that guy's awesome. Although, I have to say, Coach.
• 21:33
  Speaker 12: Walz, way too much reliance on the blitz in 99
• 21:37
  Speaker 12: against Mankato East. You had a strong defensive line. I
• 21:40
  Speaker 12: would have played more press coverage with your corners and
• 21:43
  Speaker 12: then dropped the safeties into a Tampa 2.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Sorry.
• 21:47
  Speaker 12: I wanted you to know how I feel every day
• 21:49
  Speaker 12: of the NBA season. After the results are tallied that night,
• 21:54
  Speaker 12: we can, in the words of the great.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Steph Curry, we can tell Donald Trump.
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: Night-night!
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: Do you know how good a sports joke has to
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: be for it to fucking kill with me? Our audience
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: might not be sports junkies. Steve Kerr making a joke
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: about how specific the criticism is of professional coaches after
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: literally every game is very very funny and will play
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: extremely well with like a big swath of i mean
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: and the steph curry night night thing is a which
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: just happens more people may know it because it happened
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: at the end of the olympics right explain it explain
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: it is that when steph curry makes a three-pointer that
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: basically is the final dagger that puts the game away
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: he does night night like that and he did it
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: after making the most insane that's not good sportsmanship that's.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: I don't like that.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: You did it to the country of France.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: He did it to France. Okay, then it's cool. Yeah,
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, I thought it was... There's
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of Donald Trump hits tonight, obviously. And I
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: think in some speeches, they can get a little like,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: we get it. We're going back to something Trump said
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: three years ago and we're rehashing the same thing. And
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I think that mocking Trump or a light touch on Trump,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I think the night-night thing was the right tone to
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: go after Trump. I also think, in a different way,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: AOC's the two-bit union buster who acts like... And it's
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: interesting that she's... You know, the whole speech was about, like,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: economic populism, right? But she didn't say he thinks he's
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: a populist or he doesn't think he's a working populist
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: because he thinks he's a patriot, more patriotic than the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: woman who fights people every day. And the fact that
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: she worked in and she sort of combined patriotism as, like,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: lifting people up who are working people in this country,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: I thought was really smart.
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: There is... First of all, I just, AOC is one
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: of the greatest politicians any of us will ever see.
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: The evolution of how she has, like, her rhetoric during
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: this speech, the fact that she was somebody that, like,
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: really defended Biden, which I think gives her a lot
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: of credibility, not just from the left, but, like, in
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: the broader party, like, the way her, like, that speech,
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: you know, there are people on the right that just
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: identify her with the sort of, you know, DSA, the
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: kind of, the leftism that they view as incredibly unpopular, but, like, Man,
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: has she found a way to speak?
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get her in trouble by the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: neolib PSA guy saying that she didn't sound like a
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: DSA member, but she did not.
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: She is a political celebrity, right? So she gets treated
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: that way by the left, for better and for worse,
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: by Republicans. But you almost forget about her bio, which
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: was she was just a normal person like six years ago.
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: And whenever I hear her talk about who she was
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: so recently, I remember it takes me back to 2007.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: and driving around Iowa with Michelle Obama, and her being like,
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: you know what? Me and Barack, we paid off our
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: student loans a couple years ago, and we still live
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: in a condominium. We're able to be normal in rooms
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: like this because it wasn't that long ago that we
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: were literally just like you.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? We were normal not that
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: long ago.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: And Tommy will know this, but we used to call
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: Michelle Obama the closer because they would put her in
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: a room with undecided Iowa caucus goers, and she would
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: close the deal. And one of the things she would
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: say is a lot of people were like, we love Obama.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: I think he's amazing, but is he's not ready yet.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Or I want to vote for this person now. And
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: she would say four years from now is not going
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: to be the same because we're going to be four
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: years further removed from being normal, from paying our student loans,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: from paying our mortgage and all of that. And AOC
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: has it in the way she gave that speech into
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: redefine patriotism as economic populism. As it's, I mean, it
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: is a, we could look back at that moment just
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: as a just a very memorable moment in democratic messaging
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: as a, just a, uh, something new that has not
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: happened before.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: I think it also like lays the groundwork. Like Kamala
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Harris could do the same thing. In fact, she has
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: been doing, uh, something very similar, which is her message.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: If you listen to Kamala Harris, the stump speech, and
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll hear this Thursday night as well, does
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: combine a lot of economic populism with patriotism.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: And she sort of wraps it together.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: And I think that that is like maybe the most
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: potent message, uh, that a Democrat can deliver. And, also
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I'm glad that she highlighted that the stupidest critique Republicans
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: could make of AOC is that she used to be
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: a bartender. And then I saw the dumbest, like, like
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: that does not land with any voters.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: I saw people even falling for the trap. I saw
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: some like right wingers being like, then I'll have a
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: whiskey soda, make it snappy. Like people being like super
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: fucking sexist and gross about it. There's something about to like,
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: there's something about the transition from Biden to Kamala. And
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: there's a moment to like, like this like moment of enthusiasm, like,
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: reclaiming the word freedom and reclaiming patriotism.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: I think we're something a lot of people talked about.
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: Like, can we do it?
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Should we do it?
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: How do we do it? And then this sort of
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: hinge point, let's say like, we're just fucking doing it.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: We're taking these, we're taking these, these symbols back. We're
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: taking this word back. And I, I love it.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: From God's lips, Dan's message box.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Message box was crucial in this. And we've always,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: many people are saying that.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Message Box was the Dean Phillips of the Patriots.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And the Freedom Message, frankly. I was doing that
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: since 2021.
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: Look, we've always said that Dan Pfeiffer is the Dean
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: Phillips of Substack.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: We've been awake too long.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: The other thing I'd just say is, Tim Walls, Steve Kerr.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: There is something about coaches and public speaking. And you
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: can just see, like, we saw this with veterans in 2006. Yeah.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: Where the DA Triple C is going to be out
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: recruiting football coaches going forward.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Coaches and bartenders.
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: Steve Kerr should run for office. I mean, he's incredibly talented.
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: He's a great speaker. He's a great leader. He's a
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: great motivator.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: As longtime friends of the pod know, back in 2017,
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: he was on Positive America. That's right. Yeah, you went
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: up there. You went courtside. Elijah and I went to
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Warriors practice, and we interviewed Steve Kerr. And we asked
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: him if he would run for office. And he said,
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: definitely not.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: Okay, well.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's what you said. But you know where
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Steve Kerr is from? Arizona.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: Oh, come on, Steve.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Steve! All right, so while Democrats were legitimately thrilled about
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: their party and bursting with more energy than we've seen
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: in years... Donald Trump was in York, Pennsylvania with a
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: pretty dry message at a manufacturing plant. You know, they
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: had a few surprises off script a couple times. According
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: to the reporting, his advisors really, really wanted him to
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: stick to the script. And he did. He got a
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: lot of plaudits for doing some of the economic talking
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: points off the prompt.
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah, he makes it through a speech without saying the
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: C word.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: He gets a fucking pat on the back.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: It's unbelievable.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: But then he also did a lot of this.
• 28:45
  Speaker 9: You know, he said, we're weird, that J.D. and I
• 28:49
  Speaker 9: are weird. I think we're extremely normal people, like you,
• 28:52
  Speaker 9: exactly like, he's weird.
• 28:55
  Speaker 8: While Biden and Harris have been impoverishing our country, they
• 29:02
  Speaker 8: have been getting rich, very rich at your expense. According
• 29:08
  Speaker 8: to a 292-page report from the House Oversight Judiciary and
• 29:14
  Speaker 8: Ways and Means Committees in Congress.
• 29:16
  Speaker 9: So sad because he's going to be making a speech tonight.
• 29:20
  Speaker 9: And they don't call him Crooked Joe for no reason.
• 29:23
  Speaker 9: They said President.
• 29:24
  Speaker 8: Biden engaged in impeachable conduct.
• 29:29
  Speaker 9: I would have made billions of dollars in this job
• 29:33
  Speaker 9: if I wanted to play that game the way they
• 29:35
  Speaker 9: played it. But instead, I took the job very seriously.
• 29:40
  Speaker 9: and very importantly.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I can't believe that that was covered as partially normal.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: Such a whiner.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: He's reading off the prompter, though. That's in the prompter.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. And he's talking about a House
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Republican bullshit report and just making up what's in it
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: that Joe Biden made money He did not that Kamala
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: Harris made money at the job. He did not. The
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump was just, uh, you know, uh, on the
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: up and up when he was president. I mean, it
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: was crazy.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: There's been some discourse about whether Democrats need to move
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: on from the weird framing about Republicans in particular, JD
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: Vance and Donald Trump. And I agree on some level
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: that like voters are going to want more. It was
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: a great way to define JD Vance in the near term,
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: but voters are going to want to hear more about
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: like what we're going to do.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: For their lives.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: But it is so deeply in Donald Trump's head after
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: just a couple weeks of this. It clearly makes him
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: so mad. He's mad we're calling him weird. He's mad
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: that J.D.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Vance is weird.
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: He's probably getting all the memes from his buddies saying.
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: Why did you pick this guy?
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: It's got him off his game. He does that every day.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Authoritarians hate being mocked. And weird is also a type
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: of mockery. And Donald Trump doesn't like getting made fun of.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: He doesn't like being mocked. And the fact that the
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Harris-Walls campaign, the way they are treating him, even though
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: we all believe he is an existential threat to democracy,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: that is not necessarily the rhetoric we're hearing. What we're
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: hearing is he is a washed-up entertainer who picked a
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: fucking weirdo for his VP and look at them running
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: around the country acting like idiots.
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: I think the most effective part of what Wallace has said,
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: put the word weird aside, the, the part where he,
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: he comes back to this over and over again, which
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: is some version of, could you imagine Donald Trump or
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: JD Vance doing normal things, making a McFlurry, whatever it
• 31:33
  Speaker 5: might be laughing, smiling, laughing, smiling. The, it, it's such
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: a smart, like Tim Walls just screams fucking normal. Just
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: like I'm a normal dad. You know, there was a
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: moment tonight where his two kids were doing the, uh,
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: the rabbit ears behind him. And, and you just know,
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: like you, you can't, you can't teach it. You can't
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: pretend you can't make, you can't fake it. Like he
• 31:53
  Speaker 5: is that guy. Like that is, Kamala Harris also schools normal.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: And that's why throughout this, she grew up middle class,
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: she worked at McDonald's.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: These are just two normal people. I think in part,
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: she escaped.
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: Some of the misogyny that hit Hillary Clinton in part
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: because this was kind of thrust upon her. So she
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: retained some of her kind of normalcy. And Donald Trump,
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: the otherness of him, the strangeness of him, really is
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: a direct hit on the populism he's trying to claim.
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: It really is an effective way to blunt Um, the
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: power that I think he had and he just doesn't
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: know what to do with it.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Can I slowly disagree here?
• 32:30
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: I am very resistant to strategies that are about triggering
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: Trump to do something because you've got to get a
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: persuadable voter's attention twice. You basically have to get them
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: to pay attention to what you're saying and you've got
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: to get them to understand what Trump is responding to.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: And that's just too much context. I fundamentally agree that
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: the beauty of the strategy to the extent, sort of
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: underlying weirdness, is mockery. And that is a thing that
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: I think Harris has done, and Walz obviously has done
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: incredibly well, is when Trump attacks them, they smile and laugh.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: They don't just get all serious and stentorian and, like, just...
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Because we have... And this is... I've been really thinking
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: as we've... Over the last couple weeks, particularly as we've
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: been here today, like, what is different? The difference is
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: that Kamala Harris has made politics about something other than
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Like, she... Like Perry said, right? Just like when he
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: questioned her racial identity and said she lied about being black.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: And her response was to smile, kind of laugh, dismiss
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: it right away. And that is the way you do this.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: It's the way Obama would do it. And instead of
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: just like go into this, you could just see a different,
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: an alternative world where it's you go into, you give
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: a full speech about what he did. And everyone responds
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: to what he did.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: Which, by the way, is what Hillary Clinton did a
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: lot in 2016. And Biden did in 2020.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: The strategy has worked in the past. We won in 2020,
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: we won in 2022, we won in 2018. There is
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: an element to it. But I think that feeling has
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: grown so tired where Democratic messaging is the mere image
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: of Trump. And it'd be something totally different now.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: It's also an understandably tempting strategy.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a great way to get engagement.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Those of us who are Democrats and liberals and pay
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: close attention to politics, we genuinely believe that Donald Trump
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: poses a threat and is dangerous, right? And so when
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: he says something very offensive or something that seems quite threatening,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: we want to respond by, you know, going to the
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: barricades and doing that kind of stuff. But for most
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: people in the country who do not like Donald Trump,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: which most people don't, but, you know, are sort of
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: maybe open to voting for him or open to just
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: not voting at all, holding him up as a subject
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: of mockery as a clown is an easier way in
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: to persuade them that, yeah, he's not the guy for you.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: The way you beat a wannabe strongman is to expose
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: them as weak, not to herald and worry about their strength.
• 34:57
  Speaker 9: Right. Right.
• 34:59
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: And I think it's interesting that he has not been
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: able to settle on a message about Kamala Harris that
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: is both effective and one that he feels comfortable owning
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: and delivering. He can't even pick a nickname. He can't
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: even pick a nickname. You know, he was doing the, like, okay, well,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: she was vice president for the last four years, so
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: she's talking about lowering inflation and cutting costs, but, like,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: why hasn't she done that for the last four years?
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: And it was, like, the first time when he said something,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, okay, I could see that being
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: a message that, of all the messages about her, could resonate, right? Because,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: you know, Joe Biden is... an unpopular president, not just
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: because of his age, but people are still upset about
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: high prices and everything. But he can't, for some reason,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: he can't stay on that message.
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: It's, well, you know, Trump's strength is not that he's
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: some great, you know, like nickname or some like sort
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: of idiot savant about that. It's that he throws his
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: opponents off their game. And all of this is a
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: reminder that Kamala Harris is not being thrown off her
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: game by Donald Trump. And that really shakes him. And
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: then it also gets it like this sort of, look,
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: we know what the Republican vices are.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: They are stoking.
• 36:08
  Speaker 5: Fear and hatred and bigotry, appealing to cruelty and all
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: the rest. Like Democrats, we have our vices too. And
• 36:14
  Speaker 5: it's a piousness, a negativity, a kind of like self-righteousness.
• 36:23
  Speaker 5: And Trump invites that because it's fucking deserved. It's fucking deserved.
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: But like the way Tim Wall says, the way Kamala
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: Harris says, they're just rejecting that as a kind of politics.
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: The joy is both an antidote to Trump, but also
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: an antidote to democratic vices.
• 36:37
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Just after the break, JB Pritzker sits down with Tommy
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and Dan for a very fun interview.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Very fun.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: Where I guess you guys had beer. Yeah. That's awesome.
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: Sorry, you guys skipped it.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: But before we do that, a lot of talk here
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: at the convention about what's going to happen in the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: swing states this fall. You know what's going to be
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: happening in the.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Swing States this fall? What's going to be happening, John?
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Tell us, John.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: Two things.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Two things? First, Pod Save America is going back on tour.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: Where are we going?
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Join us in Phoenix on September 7th, Ann Arbor on
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: October 5th, and Philadelphia on October 6th.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: Sandwich Town.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: You can get your tickets at crooked.com slash events. The
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: other thing that's going to be happening in the Swing States,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: all of us are going to be out there volunteering, calling,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: door knocking, doing everything we can to persuade all those
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: voters who are still on the fence. And if you
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: want to be as informed as possible about where those
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: voters are... May I suggest this season of The Wilderness?
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: I don't even know that. It's full of incredible insights.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Not from me. From all the very smart.
• 37:27
  Speaker 8: People I talked to.
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: Hey, hey, hey.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Come on, John.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: Hey.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Final episode, talk to David Plouffe, senior advisor, Paris Walls campaign.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: Also, Lynn Vavrick, my favorite political scientist.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Lynn Vavrick, excellent. The episode before that, talk to Anat
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Shankarosorio and Michael Podhorzer about messaging. Great final two episodes.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: And now I'm done with The Wilderness.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: Hey, you know what? If this election goes right, are
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: we just done? Is there no more season? We're out
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: of the wilderness. Fingers crossed. Look, this is what this
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: election is like. Season finale or series finale?
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: That's right. That's what the choice is in this election.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: When we come back, Governor J.B. Pritzker.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: We are here in Chicago on the first day of
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: the Democratic Convention. And joining us now is Illinois Governor J.B.
• 38:18
  Speaker 8: Pritzker.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: Governor Pritzker, welcome to Pod Save America.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: Thank you. Great to see you guys.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: I know you have been planning this convention for a
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: long time now. You've spearheaded getting it here in Chicago.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: You've planned it. And then one month ago, something no
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: one could have foreseen, we had a switch of candidate.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: How has that affected the planning? What did you guys
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: have to do to account for that?
• 38:37
  Speaker 13: Well, let me start by complimenting all the people who
• 38:39
  Speaker 13: put this together because Mignon Moore, for example... Alex Hornbrook
• 38:43
  Speaker 13: from the DNC, and then, of course, our host committee.
• 38:46
  Speaker 13: So they deserve a lot of credit. And they were
• 38:48
  Speaker 13: going to put a great convention on either way. But
• 38:51
  Speaker 13: I think what you're asking about is, you know, maybe
• 38:53
  Speaker 13: two months ago, it was questionable. People would call me
• 38:58
  Speaker 13: up and say, I don't know if I want to come.
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
• 39:01
  Speaker 13: Should we throw a party? I don't really think so.
• 39:03
  Speaker 13: I mean, there were a lot of people like that,
• 39:04
  Speaker 13: I hate to say. And I have to say in
• 39:06
  Speaker 13: the last 20 days, there's been a lot of change.
• 39:09
  Speaker 13: People literally calling me up like, how do I get
• 39:11
  Speaker 13: a credential? My seven relatives want to come with me.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: Everybody's throwing a party now.
• 39:17
  Speaker 13: So I mean, just to give you an idea, I mean,
• 39:19
  Speaker 13: the electricity, the enthusiasm is high and you can feel
• 39:23
  Speaker 13: it in this building and we haven't even gaveled in yet.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can feel it on the street for sure
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: walking around today.
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, people are excited. The hotel's excited. Also, we should
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: say thank you very much for bringing us some J.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Beers.
• 39:33
  Speaker 8: Yes.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: Some local beers. So Dan and I are boozing during
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: this interview.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: As we should.
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: It's great. Well, they're specialty beers.
• 39:39
  Speaker 13: So save the can at the end because it was
• 39:42
  Speaker 13: my staff that put the label together, J Beer, but
• 39:44
  Speaker 13: it's actually made by, well, we've got an IPA made
• 39:48
  Speaker 13: by Alter Brewing here in Chicago and a lager made
• 39:51
  Speaker 13: by Sketchbook.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, these are actually really good beers.
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So enjoy it and keep it as a souvenir.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: I would just note that Tommy and my beers are open.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: The governor's is closed. He's got a lot to do today.
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: He's a busy guy. I'll crack it around 630.
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: We're podcasters, so we got some free time. So there's
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: a lot of history for the Democratic Party in Chicago
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: and for the Democratic Convention in particular. There were some
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: really awful images from the DNC that have haunted the
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: party for years. And a lot of Democrats have been
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: worried about History repeating itself this year.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: You're talking about the Macarena.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: You're the governor of Illinois.
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: You just created my joke. Can you pledge that no
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: one will be doing the Macarena tonight or ever?
• 40:29
  Speaker 13: Well, I was at that convention, so I actually did
• 40:32
  Speaker 13: the Macarena at that convention, and I have done one
• 40:36
  Speaker 13: recreation for somebody, so no, I cannot promise that.
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: That has already happened.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: Do you feel like it's fundamentally dishonest to invite thousands
• 40:44
  Speaker 4: of people to Chicago in August and not have them
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: experience a lake effect winter snowstorm?
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: What do you mean? It is 74 degrees like this
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: all year round. It's perfect all the time. I don't
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: know what you, have you not been to Chicago before?
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: I guess I must have blacked out. The great part
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: about working on campaigns in Illinois, as we were talking before,
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: is they're over in November. So you get to, you know,
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: figure it out.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, we were here for a couple of winters.
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: And I would say we appreciated working in a building
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: that was connected to all the other buildings with an underpass.
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: So you could get to work in the morning, leave
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: late at night, and never go outside.
• 41:16
  Speaker 13: Look, you don't appreciate a spring and a summer unless
• 41:19
  Speaker 13: you've gone through a Chicago winter.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: It's true.
• 41:21
  Speaker 13: And Chicago summers are spectacular. I'm not exaggerating when I
• 41:25
  Speaker 13: say that. I am a little biased. But honestly, these
• 41:29
  Speaker 13: are some great summers. But yeah, January, February, my brother
• 41:32
  Speaker 13: who lives in L.A. always calls me up and says,
• 41:34
  Speaker 13: you know, how's the weather? And I always remind him
• 41:37
  Speaker 13: that I love everything about L.A.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: Except the people.
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: Don't hit on an L.A.-based company.
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: My brother, my brother.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: So jokes aside, there are a lot of protesters in
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: this city. Some of them are pro-Trump. A lot of
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: them are concerned about the war in Gaza. How do
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: you balance their constitutional right to protest with with the
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: need to keep the city running, to keep this function going.
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: Tell us about how you plan for that and allow
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: those voices to be heard.
• 42:02
  Speaker 13: Well, we started out with, of course, the principle that
• 42:04
  Speaker 13: people are allowed to protest. And I've been to almost
• 42:07
  Speaker 13: every Democratic convention since I was able to vote. So
• 42:10
  Speaker 13: that's an awful long time. And there have been protests
• 42:13
  Speaker 13: at every single one of them. And so it's our
• 42:15
  Speaker 13: job to protect the protesters and their right to protest.
• 42:19
  Speaker 13: What we aren't going to protect, of course, is the troublemakers,
• 42:21
  Speaker 13: the people who are trying to cause mayhem or violence, right?
• 42:26
  Speaker 13: And we haven't seen any of that, and I don't
• 42:28
  Speaker 13: expect that we'll see any of that. I do think
• 42:30
  Speaker 13: we're going to have vigorous protests. They're loud sometimes. Some
• 42:33
  Speaker 13: guys walk around with a loudspeaker just hooked to themselves,
• 42:36
  Speaker 13: you know, around their neck. Just love it, yes.
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 42:42
  Speaker 13: And our goal is to protect them, but it's also
• 42:45
  Speaker 13: the residents of Chicago who and the 50,000 people that
• 42:48
  Speaker 13: are coming to visit, making sure they have a great
• 42:50
  Speaker 13: time while they're here, that they don't have any problems.
• 42:53
  Speaker 13: And I have to say that the superintendent of police
• 42:56
  Speaker 13: here in Chicago, a very experienced guy, he's well-liked by
• 43:00
  Speaker 13: the department and everybody in the department. And so far,
• 43:05
  Speaker 13: the planning here has been amazing, right? Every level of
• 43:08
  Speaker 13: law enforcement is engaged, Secret Service, FBI, ATF, and then
• 43:13
  Speaker 13: Of course, the Cook County Sheriff's Office, the Chicago Police Department.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: Itself, Illinois State Police.
• 43:19
  Speaker 13: And then we've got surrounding police from surrounding states as
• 43:22
  Speaker 13: well as surrounding communities in Illinois. So there's a lot
• 43:25
  Speaker 13: of law enforcement. There's also, this is a national security event.
• 43:28
  Speaker 13: So people who have this thing in mind about 1968,
• 43:31
  Speaker 13: it was a whole different ballgame back then, right? We
• 43:35
  Speaker 13: didn't live in a world where there was this kind
• 43:37
  Speaker 13: of terrorism that you sometimes see. So there's a lot
• 43:39
  Speaker 13: of protective engagement, protective equipment. people, keeping things orderly on
• 43:46
  Speaker 13: the ground. And then, you know, our job is to
• 43:48
  Speaker 13: make sure we got a great convention for people who come.
• 43:50
  Speaker 13: And as you've seen already, it's a beautiful place, United Center,
• 43:54
  Speaker 13: and it's been put together so that I think everybody
• 43:57
  Speaker 13: watching at home is going to enjoy the show.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: You sort of built a reputation as a very direct,
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: pugnacious messenger for the Democratic Party, sort of willing to
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: call Trump and MAGA Republicans out on their BS. It
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: used to be in the party that we were we
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: sort of when they went low, we went high. What's
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: your take on the tone so far you've heard from
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: the Harris-Walls campaign?
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: I thought I was going high.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: High by non-Chicago standards.
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: Okay, all right.
• 44:25
  Speaker 13: Look, the fact is that we live in a world
• 44:29
  Speaker 13: where the Republicans apparently know there is no nadir to
• 44:36
  Speaker 13: the low that they'll take. And so it's unfortunate, but
• 44:40
  Speaker 13: we've got to make sure that people understand how dangerous
• 44:44
  Speaker 13: the guy on the other side is to democracy. and
• 44:48
  Speaker 13: the danger that he poses to working class families across
• 44:52
  Speaker 13: the United States. I mean, I don't think anybody actually
• 44:54
  Speaker 13: believes that he's in this for them. He's in this
• 44:58
  Speaker 13: for himself. He's in this for Elon Musk. He's in
• 45:00
  Speaker 13: this for the wealthiest people in America. And we just
• 45:05
  Speaker 13: have to keep reminding people of that. And I've, you know, yes,
• 45:08
  Speaker 13: when I ran for governor in 2017, 2018, every speech
• 45:10
  Speaker 13: I gave, I'm not exaggerating, And you remember, he had
• 45:16
  Speaker 13: just taken office. So every speech I gave started, you know,
• 45:20
  Speaker 13: with everything we care about is under siege by a racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic.
• 45:26
  Speaker 13: And I wasn't predicting anything. He'd already shown all of that.
• 45:30
  Speaker 13: talked about him as somebody who is genuinely just a narcissist.
• 45:37
  Speaker 13: And so I haven't stopped because he's still a narcissist.
• 45:41
  Speaker 13: He's not changing. Apparently, even the threat to his own
• 45:44
  Speaker 13: life that occurred hasn't changed him. I think we all
• 45:47
  Speaker 13: had hoped maybe he might change, but no. So this
• 45:51
  Speaker 13: is Donald Trump, you know, and we all have to
• 45:53
  Speaker 13: call it out and make sure that we're saying it
• 45:55
  Speaker 13: over and over.
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: And we have to remind people, because here's what happens.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: You know, the media.
• 46:00
  Speaker 13: You know, when you've got a week where Donald Trump
• 46:02
  Speaker 13: acts normal, and I can't remember a full week of that.
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a long weekend.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: Monday and a half of Tuesday.
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: Barely that.
• 46:10
  Speaker 13: You know, maybe a couple hours in the middle of
• 46:11
  Speaker 13: the night when he's sleeping. But, you know, the media
• 46:14
  Speaker 13: forgets or they say, oh, my, look how normal he is,
• 46:18
  Speaker 13: you know, and. But we can't forget, I mean, this
• 46:21
  Speaker 13: is a guy who spent his entire career lining his
• 46:24
  Speaker 13: own pockets and frankly defrauding a lot of other people.
• 46:27
  Speaker 13: Now he's been convicted of it 34 times. So I
• 46:31
  Speaker 13: think we just have to keep reminding everybody. And have
• 46:34
  Speaker 13: I ever thought this way before in my life?
• 46:36
  Speaker 8: No.
• 46:36
  Speaker 13: Before 2015, I never thought we'd be in a political
• 46:40
  Speaker 13: system where we're literally name calling, right? I mean, on
• 46:43
  Speaker 13: the other side, he's calling people names, making things up
• 46:46
  Speaker 13: like it's eighth grade or the fifth grade, you know, recess.
• 46:49
  Speaker 13: And so, look, I hate that politics have turned into this.
• 46:55
  Speaker 13: I grew up in an environment, you know, my parents
• 46:58
  Speaker 13: were Democrats through and through, but we knew Republicans. We
• 47:01
  Speaker 13: had Republican relatives. I mean, Bob Dole, you know, Howard Baker,
• 47:08
  Speaker 13: Jack Kemp, right? That all seems tame. You know, George W. Bush,
• 47:13
  Speaker 13: as wrong as he was about the Iraq war. I mean,
• 47:16
  Speaker 13: a tame, you know, somebody who's like a patriot, but
• 47:19
  Speaker 13: just disagrees with us.
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: We live in a whole other world now. We got
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: a lot of work to do.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: What do you make, speaking of name calling, what do
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: you make of the new Democratic message calling J.D. Vance,
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: MAG Republicans weird?
• 47:32
  Speaker 13: I mean, I think it's a good summation of a
• 47:34
  Speaker 13: lot of stuff that we've heard about them and a
• 47:37
  Speaker 13: way for people to kind of put it all together.
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: And, you know, and I do think.
• 47:43
  Speaker 13: There's some weird things that I've heard about both of
• 47:46
  Speaker 13: the candidates, of course, over time. But it's not something,
• 47:49
  Speaker 13: it's not a campaign theme that we can carry through
• 47:51
  Speaker 13: for the next 79 days until election. I just think
• 47:54
  Speaker 13: it's a good way for everybody to sort of stop
• 47:56
  Speaker 13: and think, like, maybe not those guys.
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: This is not normal.
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: Kind of pause, put them on the couch for a minute,
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: evaluate them.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: Maybe a little more catharsis than constructive, perhaps.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fair.
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: It feels good. Yeah, I mean, it's a short-lived minute,
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: but yeah.
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: Republicans love to attack Chicago. I mean, we experienced this
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: when we were working for Obama. They talk about crime.
• 48:17
  Speaker 4: They talk about, you know, the Democratic Party stealing votes
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: for Kennedy in 60. We were talking earlier about how
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: four of the last 10 Illinois governors wound up in
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: the pokey.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: Congratulations for not.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: Congratulations.
• 48:28
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 48:29
  Speaker 13: Really appreciate you guys giving me a microphone that has
• 48:31
  Speaker 13: crooked on it here in Chicago.
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: So, yeah.
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: In hindsight, that was a mistake. Rod Blagojevich's hair, also
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: a mistake. Everyone, Chicago, Illinois is being showcased this week.
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: What do you want people to take away about this city,
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: this state that they might not know or that might
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: not kind of be the caricature they see on Fox News?
• 48:50
  Speaker 13: Well, I hope the first and most noticeable thing is
• 48:52
  Speaker 13: it's a beautiful city, right? We're on a lakefront. We've
• 48:56
  Speaker 13: got beaches here. You know, some of the best blues
• 48:59
  Speaker 13: you can find anywhere in the world. We have great
• 49:02
  Speaker 13: Chicago pizza and hot dogs. And of course, you know,
• 49:06
  Speaker 13: the bear has shown everybody we can do Italian beef
• 49:09
  Speaker 13: better than anybody. So there's a lot to be said
• 49:11
  Speaker 13: just for like, it's a great city to come visit
• 49:14
  Speaker 13: and certainly to live in. I think the other thing
• 49:16
  Speaker 13: that I'd like people to know is that, you know,
• 49:18
  Speaker 13: one of the reasons we got chosen. for this convention
• 49:22
  Speaker 13: is because we've carried out the basic values of the
• 49:25
  Speaker 13: Democratic Party, which are the basic values of everyday Americans, right?
• 49:29
  Speaker 13: Here in Illinois, we have protected reproductive rights here and
• 49:34
  Speaker 13: workers' rights, which we put into our Constitution. And voting
• 49:37
  Speaker 13: rights and civil rights. We've stood up for our LGBTQ community.
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: And then guess what? We've created jobs.
• 49:44
  Speaker 13: And I want to give Joe Biden a lot of
• 49:46
  Speaker 13: credit because a lot of jobs have come back from
• 49:49
  Speaker 13: overseas as a result of some of his policies. And
• 49:52
  Speaker 13: here in Illinois, we're winning a lot of those companies
• 49:54
  Speaker 13: coming here. And also union jobs, right? And people getting
• 49:58
  Speaker 13: a good wage for a good day's work at So
• 50:01
  Speaker 13: those are all things that Democrats stand for.
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: The Republicans do not. They are against every single one
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: of the things I just said.
• 50:07
  Speaker 13: And so here, if you stand on top of the
• 50:09
  Speaker 13: United Center where we're sitting right now, you literally could
• 50:12
  Speaker 13: point to seven things that happened because Democrats made them happen.
• 50:18
  Speaker 13: I'm talking about improving our economy, building our roads and bridges, right, broadband, just,
• 50:25
  Speaker 13: I mean, lifting up communities that have been left out
• 50:28
  Speaker 13: and left behind. Those are all things that are fundamental
• 50:30
  Speaker 13: principles of the Democratic Party that here in Chicago and
• 50:33
  Speaker 13: in Illinois we have carried out.
• 50:36
  Speaker 4: You mentioned the Bears. I want to talk about the Bears,
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: Chicago Bears. You've got a great new quarterback. I think
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: you're 3-0 in preseason. Are you ready to predict a
• 50:45
  Speaker 4: Super Bowl victory?
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: 100%.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: This year? In your lifetime?
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: What are we talking about?
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: I didn't say when.
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: Just going to happen at some point?
• 50:52
  Speaker 13: It's going to happen, yeah. Remember, I'm also a Cubs fan,
• 50:56
  Speaker 13: so we waited 108 years. for that, and it finally came.
• 51:01
  Speaker 13: I don't think we have to wait that long for
• 51:02
  Speaker 13: the Bears, I might add, but it has been a
• 51:04
  Speaker 13: little while since we were in a Super Bowl.
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: Now, the White Sox are 30 wins, 95 losses. Do
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: you take responsibility for that, too, or is this you
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: pushing them off to somebody else?
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: As a Bears fan, are you okay with it? We're
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: in the politics here.
• 51:17
  Speaker 13: I take responsibility for the teams that every Illinoisan loves.
• 51:23
  Speaker 13: And I'm talking about even Cardinals fans. That's hard to
• 51:28
  Speaker 13: do for a Cubs fan. But but meanwhile, I'm a
• 51:30
  Speaker 13: Cubs fan through and through. But I want the White
• 51:32
  Speaker 13: Sox to do well because we've had a lot of
• 51:34
  Speaker 13: years where Cubs weren't doing well.
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: White Sox were.
• 51:37
  Speaker 13: And so we need you know, we want parody at
• 51:40
  Speaker 13: least or maybe Cubs doing a little bit better.
• 51:42
  Speaker 8: But.
• 51:43
  Speaker 13: Um, but I, I'm, you know, I'm a Sox fan
• 51:45
  Speaker 13: and we want to make sure they do well. And,
• 51:47
  Speaker 13: you know, people who live on the South side and
• 51:49
  Speaker 13: love the Sox.
• 51:50
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: You're shaking your head. Like you can't imagine wanting the
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: Sox to do well.
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: Obama was a White Sox fan.
• 51:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 51:55
  Speaker 4: He's a White Sox fan. In 2005, Jon Favreau and
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: I were sitting in his Senate office. Uh, and you
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: guys swept us and he found a broom, came over
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: to our desk and started sweeping off our desk just
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: to talk shit directly to his two lowly little employees.
• 52:09
  Speaker 4: We swept the red, us as the Red Sox in this?
• 52:11
  Speaker 4: The Red Sox were swept by the Chicago White Sox
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: and Barack Obama decided to rub our faces in it.
• 52:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 52:17
  Speaker 13: Yeah. Well, I would do that too if it had
• 52:19
  Speaker 13: been the Cubs.
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: As you should. Yes.
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: And also the Red Sox. Come on guys.
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: Greatest franchise in history. Everyone knows that.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought up the bear because Chicago is
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: a great food city. We had famous Chicagoan David Axelrod
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: on this podcast last week.
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: And Jon Favreau, our co-host, asked him for some restaurant
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: recommendations for people here visiting Chicago. And Axelrod... turned into
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: some sort of politician and refused to name a single restaurant.
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: Wishy-washy garbage.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he thought he wouldn't offend anyone. I don't know
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: what happened to him. What advice can you have a
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: little more political courage in Axelrod and give people some
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: good advice on where to eat in this great city
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: over the next several days here?
• 53:02
  Speaker 13: Well, should I start with I love all the restaurants,
• 53:04
  Speaker 13: as evidenced by my size, I might add. We have
• 53:07
  Speaker 13: some great restaurants, and it is a foodie town, right?
• 53:10
  Speaker 13: We got a lot of James Beard Award winners and, frankly,
• 53:13
  Speaker 13: you know, some of the best.
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: Food you can find in the whole world.
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: Wiener Circle, yeah.
• 53:17
  Speaker 13: Wiener Circle, yes. I love the way you think, yeah. So,
• 53:23
  Speaker 13: you know, there are a lot of places to recommend.
• 53:25
  Speaker 13: You know, I must say that if you're a steak eater,
• 53:28
  Speaker 13: which we get a lot of great steak joints in town, I'll.
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: Name a couple, but I'm not going to get them all, right?
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: Chicago Cut.
• 53:35
  Speaker 8: Mm-hmm.
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: Gibson's is a classic.
• 53:37
  Speaker 13: I think everybody who's visited here as a tourist might
• 53:40
  Speaker 13: have at least stopped there once. And then, you know,
• 53:43
  Speaker 13: we got 77 neighborhoods of Chicago. So you can imagine
• 53:47
  Speaker 13: we've got, you know, a cultural delight anywhere you go
• 53:51
  Speaker 13: in the city of Chicago. So rather than, you know,
• 53:54
  Speaker 13: and I, by the way, I took some friends out
• 53:56
  Speaker 13: and we did a steak crawl.
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's aggressive.
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: I like this concept. It's aggressive. Tell me more.
• 54:00
  Speaker 13: I will say there was a lot of alcohol involved also,
• 54:04
  Speaker 13: but we did a steak crawl. And no, we did
• 54:06
  Speaker 13: not each have a steak at each of the five
• 54:08
  Speaker 13: restaurants that we went to.
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: But we got one steak at each place. They thought
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: we were crazy.
• 54:12
  Speaker 13: We walked in the door and said, could you give
• 54:14
  Speaker 13: us a New York strip, medium rare, and cut it
• 54:16
  Speaker 13: into this number of pieces.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Did you mix different cuts at every restaurant?
• 54:20
  Speaker 8: No.
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 54:21
  Speaker 8: No.
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: It's exactly the same.
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, New York strip at every place.
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: And we had a scorecard.
• 54:27
  Speaker 13: Yeah, and so I'm not going to tell you which
• 54:28
  Speaker 13: one won because that really would be taking sides. But
• 54:31
  Speaker 13: Axe is not wrong to have difficulty naming one restaurant
• 54:35
  Speaker 13: for your couple.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: In Axe's defense, he did imply that Manny's Deli is
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: the one place you should go.
• 54:41
  Speaker 13: Certainly if you're in politics, I've got to say every
• 54:44
  Speaker 13: one of my election victories has been preceded by a
• 54:48
  Speaker 13: visit to Manny's.
• 54:49
  Speaker 6: That's good.
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: It's a good tradition.
• 54:51
  Speaker 4: When Mike Ditka briefly pretended he was going to run
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: against Barack Obama in 2004— He would only do TV
• 54:57
  Speaker 4: interviews from his restaurant, which I believe is called Ditka's
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: in the kind of Gold Coast area, which I thought
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: was a savvy marketing move.
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: I don't think so.
• 55:03
  Speaker 9: No.
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: I think it went bankrupt. But then he backed Trump,
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: I think. He did. Boy, did he. That sort of
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: goes hand in hand, Trump. You're on the hard way. Bankruptcy.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: Well, Governor, thank you so much for being here.
• 55:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: Great to see you guys.
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: Good luck this week.
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: Thank you. You too.
• 55:17
  Speaker 6: Thank you.
• 55:22
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