Latest / Pod Save America / Obama Night at the DNC (feat. Julia Louis-Dreyfus)

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Obama Night at the DNC (feat. Julia Louis-Dreyfus) · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This week, we're going all out for the Democratic National Convention.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Here at Crooked Media, we're giving Friends of the Pod
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: subscribers access to a ton of behind-the-scenes content and community events,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: including a DNC subscriber live chat, a new subscriber-exclusive segment
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: featuring me, John, Tommy, and Dan, four, count them, four
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: back-to-back ad-free episodes of Pod Save America recapping the biggest
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: convention news of the night, and brand-new episodes of Inside
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: 2024 and Polar Coaster. It's going to be a hell
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of a week for content. And as a bonus, we'll
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: have a Democratic Party nominee by the end.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Pretty good deal.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Get all of our exclusive DNC content and more when
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: you subscribe to Friends of the Pod. Head to cricket.com
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: slash friends to sign up now. Welcome to Pod Save America.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I'm Jon Favreau.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. Tommy Vitor.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: On tonight's show, Barack and Michelle Obama rally the troops
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: at the DNC. The one and only Julia Louis-Dreyfus stops
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: by to talk about why she's involved in the convention
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and all those Veep comparisons with Kamala Harris. And our
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: own Senator LaFonza Butler, a close friend of Kamala, talks
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: to Lovett and me about what the VP is really
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: like and why she decided, like Joe Biden, to serve
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: just one term.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: She also called me pretty weird, but I really like her.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in fairness, it's because you called yourself weird first.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: But anyway. It was a good conversation. He's our J.D.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Vance.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Tune in. Hey, that sucks. What are you doing in
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: that chair, buddy?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Look, you started the interview as J.D.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Vance.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: You ended as Tim Walls.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Nice.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: All right, so.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: We're recording this at... 11 p.m. on Tuesday night.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Better than last night. Which is lovely. We're doing better.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Half an hour better every night.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Half an hour better every night. Who knows what happens
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: by Thursday night. It's just after night two of the convention.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: So tonight is traditionally the night when the big festive
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: roll call happens to officially nominate the presidential and vice
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: presidential candidates. This year, of course, the official roll call
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: happened virtually to make sure we didn't run afoul of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the state ballot deadlines. But you know what? We're the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: party of fun now. So Democrats decided to do the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: ceremonial roll call anyway, and it was actually really cool.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It was a really cool part of the night. As usual,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the delegates cast their votes state by state, but this
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: time they played a state-specific song with at least one
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: surprise in-person appearance from, obviously, Lil Jon, who's from Georgia.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: By tradition, the nominees Home State Delegation California went last
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: to put her over the top. And then there was
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: an unexpected move. Here's a super cut of how it
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: all went.
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: We proudly deliver the Silver State's 48 votes for the
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: next president.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Texas cast three votes for this, and 263 votes for freedom.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: California, we proudly cast our 482 votes for the next president,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Kamala Harris.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: But now, a special surprise.
• 3:21
  Speaker 6: Live from my home state of Wisconsin, Vice President Kamala Harris.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: The Democratic National Convention.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Well, they just completed their roll call.
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: And they have nominated Coach Walls and me to be
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: the next vice president and president of the United States
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: of America.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: What did you guys think of that Milwaukee move?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I think we should set the stage. It's not just
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: here in Milwaukee.
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: They filled the Fiserv Forum, which is where the Republican
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: Convention was last month. And it was a raucous crowd.
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: and a perfect set, and they did it live, which
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: is a risky maneuver.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Two full stadiums.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Well, especially for all the issues last night with going over,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: the fact that they orchestrated the whole thing tonight so
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: that literally the roll call ends And Newsom puts her
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: over the top in California, and then it just cuts
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: to her walking out on stage.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: With a huge crowd.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: It was amazing.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It was so good.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: The stagecraft. A lot of people had a hand in that.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: They probably don't get a lot of credit. That's amazing.
• 4:22
  Speaker 7: We were all watching it, and we were just so
• 4:25
  Speaker 7: earnestly excited. That's so fucking cool.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Don't look at me and Dan. You know we weren't here.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: We were up in a suite. I was sitting right here.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: I missed it all.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: You were talking with your daughter and your wife.
• 4:37
  Speaker 8: Oh, that's what happened. Oh, I was doing itsy bitsy
• 4:39
  Speaker 8: spider with Lizzie. I thought we were in the suite.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Which is fair. It's a good excuse. What did you
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: guys think of the vibes in general before we get
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to the big speakers?
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Vibes are good.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Vibes are good, right?
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Vibes are good. It was a good day. We're drinking now.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: We're having a good time. Vibes are good on day two.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the speeches. Headliners tonight were
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Barack and Michelle Obama. We're
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: just going to take them in order. Let's listen to Doug.
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: I got Kamala's voicemail and I just started rambling.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Hey, it's Doug.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: I'm on my way to an early meeting.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Again, it's Doug.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: I remember I was trying to grab the words out
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: of the air and just put them back in my mouth.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: And for what seemed like far too many minutes... I
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: hung up. By the way, Kamala saved that voicemail. And
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: she makes me listen to it on every anniversary. But
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: that's when she called me back. And we talked for
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: an hour. And we laughed. Well, you know that laugh.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I love that laugh!
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: So, should we talk about why we missed Doug's speech?
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: The laugh part, yeah.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: So.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: We were about to watch Doug, and then our friend
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Ben Krause, who's in the speech writing room, he said
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: he was going to bring us down.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: To the convention floor. To the podium area.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: To the podium area.
• 6:07
  Speaker 8: I've never been down to the podium area. You're literally
• 6:09
  Speaker 8: standing on the podium, but behind the stage that you see.
• 6:13
  Speaker 8: It's very cool. We watched Doug come off and greet
• 6:15
  Speaker 8: his staff, and everyone was elated.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Elated. I think is the best word.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And then we walked down, and we were going to
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: go out to watch the speech, and then.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: And then we were walking down the hall and we
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: saw Barack Obama's assistant, Amos, and he just pulled us in.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: We got to say hi to Obama.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: How are you? Pretty neat. Give him a little good luck.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: He needed that. He needed the good luck from us.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he did.
• 6:40
  Speaker 8: He was like, all right, get out of here. It's
• 6:42
  Speaker 8: so annoying because he did not even seem a little
• 6:44
  Speaker 8: bit nervous.
• 6:44
  Speaker 10: No.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Not a hair. It's his... It's like his superpower. Fifth convention?
• 6:48
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so he was fine. He was fine. Doug's speech
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: was fantastic.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: We watched it when he came back. We have seen
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: the speech.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: He's so charming.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a charming guy.
• 6:59
  Speaker 7: I love how much they, like, it's so authentic how
• 7:04
  Speaker 7: much they love each other. You know, when they were
• 7:06
  Speaker 7: at the State of the Union and they found each other.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And you saw Kama looking up at.
• 7:13
  Speaker 7: Doug up there. I've, I like, I've always loved it. I,
• 7:16
  Speaker 7: I just, I do. I genuinely, they, they just love
• 7:18
  Speaker 7: each other.
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: There is something so relatable and I know this from
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: experience as someone who knows they punched above their weight
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: in getting married. Like Doug knows he got lucky and
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: that Kamala's amazing. And he'd like, he probably wakes up
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: every day. He's like, I can't believe Kamala Harris married me.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Even if she never became my friend.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: It's basically the theme of the speech.
• 7:33
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: And it is, it's so relatable to people in the
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: same way that Tim Walls is this archetype that's relatable
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: to people. Doug Emhoff is exactly like that. Everyone knows
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: Doug Emhoff, right? They understand that relationship. They understand who
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: he is. And this was one of the most effective
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: convention speeches I've seen in a very long time.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: And to get like all political strategic about it, like
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: we've talked a lot here about this like debate over
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: masculinity and like young men and men sort of like
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: leaving the Democratic Party. And I do think like between
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff, like you are seeing in
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: this campaign like models of men who are just like,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: good guys and like good models for like men to be.
• 8:15
  Speaker 7: By their, by, by the success of women aren't all
• 8:18
  Speaker 7: bothered by it. That's, what's been beautiful about Doug from
• 8:20
  Speaker 7: the beginning that you can just see that he, he
• 8:23
  Speaker 7: loves being the plus one.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: He loves it. He loves being, he's on a plus
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: one world tour. I used to be on a plus
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: one world tour.
• 8:32
  Speaker 8: I like calling him Doug. I also like calling walls coach. Oh,
• 8:35
  Speaker 8: just again, a little behind the curtain.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Look here.
• 8:37
  Speaker 8: We were sitting around, we were all talking about how,
• 8:40
  Speaker 8: you know, like, we all had a sense of what
• 8:41
  Speaker 8: Obama was going to say. You could sort of have
• 8:43
  Speaker 8: a sense of what Michelle Obama might say. We're all like,
• 8:45
  Speaker 8: we don't really know what Doug's going to talk about.
• 8:47
  Speaker 8: And the only preview was a message about the need
• 8:50
  Speaker 8: to combat anti-Semitism around the world, which is a very important.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Message, but a very different tone than what we ultimately saw.
• 8:55
  Speaker 7: I am so glad that what we saw was a
• 8:57
  Speaker 7: speech about Doug explaining why he loves Kamala Harris. Oh,
• 8:59
  Speaker 7: one other thing that Doug did that was so beautiful,
• 9:02
  Speaker 7: really reminded me. So Bill Clinton, 1992, he said, this
• 9:05
  Speaker 7: was when they were making fun of like Murphy Brown
• 9:07
  Speaker 7: and single mothers. And he said, if you don't feel
• 9:09
  Speaker 7: welcome in the Republican party, come, going to be part
• 9:11
  Speaker 7: of our family.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful moment. Yeah, that was very nice.
• 9:14
  Speaker 7: For lots of people whose families didn't look like the
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: platonic ideal of 1950s television. It was a big deal
• 9:19
  Speaker 7: that Bill Clinton did that and said, like, there's a
• 9:21
  Speaker 7: lot of people that live like that and, like, deserve
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: to feel loved.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: And.
• 9:25
  Speaker 7: I, there was something so beautiful about Doug, just unapologetically,
• 9:29
  Speaker 7: unabashedly saying we're a blended family.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: They call her Mamala. She's an incredible stepmother. We've, it
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: was complicated.
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: I got, he said, I got divorced and, and we figured, and, and,
• 9:38
  Speaker 7: and I figured out and Kamala took, I thought she'd
• 9:40
  Speaker 7: be good for our family. And she was, and that,
• 9:42
  Speaker 7: that sort of like direct honesty without feeling at all
• 9:45
  Speaker 7: self-conscious that you have to pretend to be some other
• 9:48
  Speaker 7: version just to, to, it was a recognition by the
• 9:51
  Speaker 7: way of like, It's respect for people. It's respect for
• 9:54
  Speaker 7: the viewer, for voters, that I really, really liked.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: It's just like.
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: Being in touch with real life, not the... refracted view
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: of politics that we have, where it's like, you have
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: to have this perfect marriage and your life has to
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: go a certain way. And it's just comfort in your
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: own skin. It's understanding like, this is what everyone knows, right?
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: They know blended families. They know mixed race couples. They
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: know stepkids and stepmoms. And it's like, that's just like
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: normal stuff. just presented to people. And it's not welcome
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: or discussed about in the Republican Party in the same way.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Well, because the primary strategy of the Republican Party, particularly
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: under Trump, has been to otherize their opponents, Democrats, right?
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: They are weird. They are different. Barack Obama wasn't born here.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Now we do the weird thing. Kamala Harris is, you know,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the biracial thing. Is she Indian? Is she black, right?
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: And I think a theme of tonight, we're going to
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: talk about the Obamas as well. But from all three
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: primetime speakers, Doug, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama was like, hey,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: we're pretty normal Americans in the year 2024. This is
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: what the country looks like. This is what we sound like.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Love our families. Love our country. Like it's a really
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: powerful message.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: And it's why it's the way people vote.
• 11:07
  Speaker 8: They don't Google your list of policies and compare them
• 11:11
  Speaker 8: and bust out the abacus and total up what it
• 11:13
  Speaker 8: means for them. They're like, I like this person. They
• 11:15
  Speaker 8: seem like me. They will fight for me, which Barack
• 11:17
  Speaker 8: Obama directly says in his speech. Michelle Obama got at that, too.
• 11:20
  Speaker 8: It's all about values and.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Who you are and your character and how that informs
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: your leadership. That's what people are looking for. The speakers
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: tonight understood the assignment.
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: They knew what they were supposed to do. All of
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: their speeches were not about themselves. Even Doug Emhoff's speech
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: was not about himself. It was all about Kamala and
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: their family and what she did for their family. It's
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: what Obama and the former first lady did. They got
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: it and they executed on it in a very effective way.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: And it's always good to see a strict scrutiny guest
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: make it big.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: A guest and a guest of a guest.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: That's right, yeah.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Kamala Harris went to the strict scrutiny show. Which is
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: also one of the most charming things.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because no one knew. She just showed up at
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the strict scrutiny show, the live show in D.C., sat
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: in the front row to cheer on Doug.
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: We're now three circles removed from the Kamala Harris interview
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: we seek.
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: We're going to get her. We've had it before. We're
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: working on it. She'll be back.
• 12:16
  Speaker 8: I ran into her on an airplane once. She came
• 12:18
  Speaker 8: up and gave me a hug. She couldn't have been nice.
• 12:20
  Speaker 8: She's like a normal person.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: She's friendly.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: She's nice. That's who she is.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Extremely normal.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: So after Doug, Michelle Obama took the stage. High expectations
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: for Michelle Obama, right? Because she always gives the most
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: incredible speeches. She always knocks it out of the park.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: And man, she fucking met them tonight.
• 12:39
  Speaker 9: Incredible.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: If not exceeded them. Let's listen to Michelle.
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: She understands that most of us will never be afforded
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from
• 12:53
  Speaker 6: the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: business or choke in a crisis, we don't get a second, third,
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: or fourth chance. If things don't go our way, We
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: don't have the luxury of whining or cheating others to
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: get further ahead. No. We don't get to change the
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: rules so we always win. If we see a mountain
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: in front of us, we don't expect there to be
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: an escalator waiting to take us to the top.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: No.
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: We put our heads down. We get to work. In America,
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: we do something. Unfortunately, we know what comes next. We
• 13:49
  Speaker 6: know folks are going to do everything they can to
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: distort her truth. My husband and I sadly know a
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: little something about this. For years, Donald Trump did everything
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: in his power to try to make people fear us. See,
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: people who happen to be black.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: So, wow.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: That was.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, that was one of the best... convention speeches
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: I've ever seen.
• 14:27
  Speaker 8: I mean, I think the way she tied Kamala Harris's
• 14:30
  Speaker 8: mother and her own mother and wove their story together
• 14:33
  Speaker 8: to talk about her values was incredible. The way she
• 14:37
  Speaker 8: sliced Donald Trump in half and made him so small
• 14:43
  Speaker 8: and went harder at him than almost any other speaker,
• 14:45
  Speaker 8: but did it in language that was just less harsh
• 14:49
  Speaker 8: and nasty.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: It was unbelievable. There was also.
• 14:54
  Speaker 8: a whole section where she, where there was some very
• 14:57
  Speaker 8: real shade thrown at annoying politicians who demand to be
• 15:02
  Speaker 8: stroked and loved and donors who need to be called.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: That was very funny. And you could felt deeply felt. Really,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: really interesting. Oh, that's what I was actually thinking. We
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: went out, we watched it from the floor, which was awesome.
• 15:13
  Speaker 7: And what I, what I was thinking about when I
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: was watching the speeches, she doesn't like an amazing and
• 15:18
  Speaker 7: very difficult job of speaking both to people that barely
• 15:22
  Speaker 7: pay attention to politics and and the hyper-engaged partisans and
• 15:28
  Speaker 7: pundits and politicians and activists with a message that kind.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Of works for both. Which is really incredibly impressive. It's
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: basically like stop checking 538 and do something.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Which I will not do, but I will do something.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: But I will also check 538.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: You can do both.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I can do both.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Go to votesaveamerica.com. That's right. That would be doing something. 75,000
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: volunteers to show up. We got 40,000 now, we need 35,000
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: more in the next 25 days. VoteSafeAmerica.com slash 2024. Wow,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: look at that one. It's pretty good, pretty good. I'm
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: saying I want 75,000 on top of the 40,000. I
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: like that. It's not inclusive for me.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Dan, what did you think?
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: When they go low, Lovett goes higher. Yeah, that's right.
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: Barack Obama is the best speaker in the Democratic Party,
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: but the second best speaker in his family.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Which he said in his speech as well.
• 16:14
  Speaker 9: Yeah, it is.
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: Just the way, like every person who is in politics
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: should watch all of Michelle Obama's convention speeches, starting in
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: 08 and every single one. And I watched the 2021,
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: which is one of the starkest warnings about Donald Trump,
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: because you remember they were just videos. They were like,
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: they were just two camera remarks. And she talks like
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: a normal person to normal people. There is no speechifying.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: There is no like lofty rhetoric about the founders or
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: you're not like cosplaying the Kennedys in your head when
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: you do it. It's just like, it's, it always sounds
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: like if you've ever had a conversation with Michelle Obama,
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: it sounds like this, right? When she's telling you to
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: do something, she's asking you to do something, she's explaining
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: something to you. It sounds like this and it is
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: just so effective. And in her 2020 speech, she said,
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: you all know I hate politics, right? So me doing this,
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: Tells you how serious, I'm paraphrasing her, the situation is.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: And that's the vibe, right? She's not political. And there
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: was a genuine love.
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: And affection for Kamala Harris that was so powerful in there.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Yes. Like that she understood her life. She understood her experience.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: A kindred.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: And they have become friends. They're close friends.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: They both live in D.C. They hang out. It's just,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: it's very, I thought it was just very, very meaningful
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: the way it was done.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I've been thinking about the reason that the way she
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: went after Donald Trump was so effective. Like why that was.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: And I think it's like we've heard so many lines
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: from politicians, politicians we love over the last however many
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: years now about Donald Trump. And some of them are
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: like really harsh and really slam him. And I think
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: that like her indictment of him was like the most devastating,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: even though it wasn't as sharp. Because she told a
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: story about him and about what he represents versus what
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: Americans actually value in life. And she did it with
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: a certain subtlety. It wasn't very subtle until everyone understood
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: that it was a full frontal attack. But it's always bothered...
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I have this thing where everyone who criticizes now, when
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: they go low, we go high. I think it's a
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: misunderstanding of what that meant. I've always thought it was
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: a misunderstanding. She was not saying... with when they go low,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: we go high, like they get down and dirty and attack.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: And we turn the other cheek and we turn the
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: other cheek and do that. But she, she, she did it.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: She kind of corrected it tonight. She was like, they're
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: really small and we have to go really big. And
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: that's what she did in her indictment of Donald Trump.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: It was much bigger than like cheap applause line attacks.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: It was like, he does not stand for what we
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: value as Americans. And I thought it was like so
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: much more powerful.
• 18:57
  Speaker 7: There's something I, I look, I, Doug's speech into Michelle's
• 19:03
  Speaker 7: speech into Barack Obama's speech were, I think, pound for pound,
• 19:07
  Speaker 7: the three best speeches in a prime time that I've
• 19:10
  Speaker 7: ever seen. And I think it's because each of them
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: started from a place of, why am I here? And
• 19:15
  Speaker 7: what is the single most effective thing I can do?
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: What is the speech only I could give that's the
• 19:20
  Speaker 7: most persuasive speech I can personally give for Kamala Harris?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: What are the strengths I bring to achieve the goal?
• 19:27
  Speaker 7: Every person on that stage tonight cares and understands Kamala.
• 19:31
  Speaker 7: how important it is to fucking win. And what they
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: were focused on is trying to figure out the best
• 19:36
  Speaker 7: and most exquisite case that they can make based on
• 19:38
  Speaker 7: who they are, their values, their experiences, their kind of
• 19:43
  Speaker 7: place in, you know, whatever, American politics, to make that argument.
• 19:47
  Speaker 7: And they each did that, and it was incredibly effective.
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: And one thing I think like, well, it's a feeling
• 19:52
  Speaker 8: I feel when I watch them now post presidency. And
• 19:54
  Speaker 8: I wonder if you guys feel this way, which is
• 19:56
  Speaker 8: that they, I worked for Obama from 2004 to 2013.
• 19:59
  Speaker 8: They endured so much racism and bullshit and just like
• 20:06
  Speaker 8: vicious attacks, especially Michelle.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: And they had to, in some sense, turn the other
• 20:11
  Speaker 8: cheek on those attacks, or at least not directly call
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: them out as racist when they were.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: For example, the birther stuff. We never said, hey, that's racist,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. Stop doing that.
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: Because we knew Barack Obama would be called an angry
• 20:24
  Speaker 8: black man. He'd be accused of playing the race card, right?
• 20:27
  Speaker 8: It'd be the OJ trial over again, right? And he
• 20:29
  Speaker 8: took a high road. But now he's like, I don't
• 20:31
  Speaker 8: have to do that. And she doesn't either. And they
• 20:33
  Speaker 8: can just be brutally honest and respond to him in
• 20:36
  Speaker 8: the way he deserves.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump, that is.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: But even now, they also knew that, like, it's not
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: like they just had to turn the other cheek because
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: they would be accused of playing the race card. They
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: knew that, like, again, to Lovett's point, politically, the best
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: thing to do to actually, like, win the election and
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: advance the cause is to not get yourself baited into
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: what the Republicans want, which is like an argument and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: debate over identity and over race. And even the way
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: she did it tonight, when she said, like, and he is,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: he wants to make people afraid of, of us, of
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: two people who just happen to work hard and become
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: successful and rise to a high station in life who
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: happen to be black, right? Who happen to be black.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: And just the way, that was just like a perfect way.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: It's elegant.
• 21:19
  Speaker 8: It's an elegant phrasing. She's directly calling out the racism
• 21:22
  Speaker 8: in the attack.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Of course, but in a much more elegant way than
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: I think most Democrats do.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: There is just something about the way a lot of
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: the Democrats last night went after Trump.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: That was very... Overly online.
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: It's like referencing something that went viral that Trump did
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: or some controversy only known to political junkies.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: It's very like MSNBC, Twitter. You didn't think the PFFA
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: video was good? Didn't work. Or Positive American Referential, right?
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: And the way the Obamas did it was they talked
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: to people about Donald Trump where you would understand the
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: critique if you don't follow politics.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Because that is our audience.
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: That is the only audience that matters. It is not
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to like send a thrill up the leg of Democrats
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: who are going to vote no matter what and work
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: hard no matter what.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: Those Democrats were thrilled in there, let me tell you.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: And she, again, the reason she's so good is that she,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: like the audience in the room was like just.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: It was crazy. It was electric. And no one wrote
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: the applause better than her. She fought. She shut down
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: so many silly chants and things going on. She's like,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: kept going.
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 22:28
  Speaker 9: All right.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Last but not least, noted Chicago native Barack Obama closed
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: out the night with a speech to the delegates.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Let's listen.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Here's a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: years ago. It has been a constant stream of gripes
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: and grievances that's actually been getting worse now that he's
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: afraid of losing to Kamala. There's the childish nicknames, the
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes. It
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: is one of the oldest tricks in politics. from a
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: guy whose act has, let's face it, gotten pretty stale.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: We do not need four more years of bluster.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: And bumbling and chaos.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: We have seen that movie before, and we all know
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: that the sequel is usually worse. America's ready for a
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: new chapter. America's ready for.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: A better story. We are ready.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: For a president, Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris won't be focused
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: on her problems. She'll be focused on yours. As president,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: she won't just cater to her own supporters and punish
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: those who refuse to kiss the ring.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Or bend the knee. She'll work on behalf of every American.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: All right. I should disclose, I, you know, once a staffer,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: always a staffer. I volunteered to help a little, look
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: at the speech a couple times.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, don't knock the three changes I made in
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: the speech.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: There's one very important change.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: We don't, like, let's not let people be, we don't
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: want to let.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Dan had one very important change that I just put in.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Dan included the dick joke. Oh, Dan did the dick joke.
• 24:32
  Speaker 9: Wow.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: That makes sense.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Just so you all know, that was just in the moment.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: That was just in the moment. He just put his
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: hands on the podium.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe it wasn't. Or maybe he knew
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: all along that that was a dick joke and nobody
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: else did but him.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I will not comment on it. Or what did you
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: guys think of Obama's speech?
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: What is this journalistic ethics you've adopted for one second?
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Journalistic ethics is just weird to be like, oh, well,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: I was talking to him about this speech.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: His badge says reporter. All of a sudden, it's gone
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: to his fucking head. Jake Chappell over here. We all
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: worked for this guy for a long time. We're here
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: because of him.
• 25:04
  Speaker 7: I think our conflicts are well-meaning. Here's what I was
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: feeling when I was watching the speech. First of all,
• 25:08
  Speaker 7: it was very moving. He talked about Michelle's mother and
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: how much it reminded him of his grandmother. It was
• 25:15
  Speaker 7: very emotional. What I was thinking when I was watching
• 25:19
  Speaker 7: the speech is we've spent... I think one of the
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: most frustrating and dispiriting parts of the last decade has
• 25:24
  Speaker 7: been for a lot of people voting against Trump, stopping
• 25:27
  Speaker 7: Trump at all costs.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: It's obvious.
• 25:28
  Speaker 7: Of course, we must stop this man. Of course, this
• 25:30
  Speaker 7: person shouldn't be in power. And for a lot of people,
• 25:32
  Speaker 7: it isn't obvious. It feels like it shouldn't be 50-50.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: And yet it is.
• 25:35
  Speaker 7: And what I really appreciated about this speech is instead
• 25:38
  Speaker 7: of wringing our hands and being like endlessly sort of like,
• 25:41
  Speaker 7: why is Trump here?
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Why is Trump here?
• 25:43
  Speaker 7: This was a speech about why it was obvious, why
• 25:46
  Speaker 7: it should be obvious, right? What are the values that
• 25:49
  Speaker 7: he doesn't uphold that if you think about it, if
• 25:50
  Speaker 7: you're reminded of what you care about, it will become obvious.
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: This was a speech about making it obvious to people
• 25:56
  Speaker 7: for whom it is not, why obviously somebody like Trump
• 25:58
  Speaker 7: shouldn't be in power. And it was an incredibly effective
• 26:01
  Speaker 7: argument for that reason.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: I agree with that.
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: That's great. I think one thing I just need is
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: being in the room because I don't think I came
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: through on TV. is that there was obviously like uproarious
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: applause at times, but people, especially when he was like
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: talking about the country and polarization and the kind of
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: country we can be and should be, like the audience
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: was wrapped. Like they could not take their eyes off.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: It was like a very, very powerful place to be
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: for that conversation. It was like he had the audience
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: in his hand. Just the thing I would say about
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: this speech is, and this has been true of every
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: Obama speech dating back to 2004, is that most people, Politicians,
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: and particularly Democrats, particularly in the Trump era, operate from
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: the assumption that the only thing that keeps people from
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: voting for us is ignorance. And Obama has always understood
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: that people who may not agree with us come at
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: that from a place of experience and knowledge. And it
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: is our job to persuade them. It's not just that
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: we yell our message in their face loud enough they'll
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: get there. It's that they have a set of experiences
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: in their lives that may make them feel not immediately
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: welcome in our party. And it is our job to
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: welcome them in. and this was true of Michelle Obama's speech,
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: it's true of Barack Obama's, is you're starting with a
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: space of persuasion, right? Everyone is someone we have to persuade.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: And if they don't.
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: Agree with us, they don't agree with us on everything.
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: But the reason they don't agree with us is not
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: because they're wrong or they're stupid or they don't follow
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: the news or they're ignorant or they've been hoodwinked or
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: whatever else. It's that something in their lives has not
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: worked out the way they wanted or they just in
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: their life experience don't agree with us on some things
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: and we have to go get them and bring them in.
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: And that is just such a powerful force and it's
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: just so different than I think what we hear a
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: lot in this era from politicians?
• 27:37
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, honestly, it brought me back to 2004
• 27:40
  Speaker 8: and being on the floor of the DNC in Boston.
• 27:43
  Speaker 8: And some of that was like very.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Purposeful and deliberate.
• 27:46
  Speaker 8: There were allusions to those lines, like conventions have always
• 27:49
  Speaker 8: been good to, you know, a skinny guy with a
• 27:51
  Speaker 8: funny name was the line in 2004.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: But it was also a patriotic story.
• 27:57
  Speaker 8: About freedom, about being an American, about things we have
• 28:01
  Speaker 8: in common. shared hopes, shared dreams. It was just like,
• 28:07
  Speaker 8: it's a beautiful vision of America. And of course, like 2004,
• 28:11
  Speaker 8: you got your policy section for Kamala and you got
• 28:15
  Speaker 8: your tough hit on Trump.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Like there was a tough hit on Bush back then.
• 28:19
  Speaker 8: But ultimately, like it was a speech for everyone about
• 28:23
  Speaker 8: bringing people together.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: It was patriotic.
• 28:27
  Speaker 8: Um, and it was a, you know, just like a
• 28:29
  Speaker 8: guy who loves the country and wants you to too,
• 28:31
  Speaker 8: and wants it to be a little bit better, uh,
• 28:34
  Speaker 8: and thinks we can make it better if we try
• 28:36
  Speaker 8: to come together again and get past the last eight
• 28:39
  Speaker 8: to 10.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Years, basically.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: He approaches these speeches like an organizer because he was
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: an organizer. And to, to Dan's point, when he talked
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: about the speech, he, um, he would say one of
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the first things he thought about was towards the end.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: when he said like, sometimes we think that winning is
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: all about like out yelling the other side or scolding
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: people or, I mean, this is what your point, right?
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: And what we really have to do is actually like
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: go out and listen to people and talk to people
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and persuade people and like give people the grace that
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: we would give our loved ones if we don't agree
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: with our loved ones. And similar to Michelle, right? You
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: make political points by talking about relationships and the way
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: that we are with people that we love. and it's
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: about values, but not in the consultant value talk. Talk
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: more about the middle class and optimism.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Just name your values. I value work. Right, yeah.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: But real, actual values, like the way you go through life.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: And the other thing he really wanted to do when
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: he did in the Trump section was, and this has
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: actually been a theme of a lot of the speakers,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: which is, you know, Trump has been seen and talked
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: about as a threat to democracy. We talked about this
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: last night, an existential threat to democracy, which we all
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: believe he is. But you know, nine years into this
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: fucking Trump era, he's also like a clown and a
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: fool and attacking him that way. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus talked
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: about this with us during our interview that you're going
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: to hear. It's like the way to like go after
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the supposed strength of a, of an autocrat or a
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: strong man is to just make them seem foolish because
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: they hate getting made fun of. And he sort of
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: mocked Trump and Michelle mocked Trump. And like the, I
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: think mocking Trump, while still acknowledging, and Obama acknowledged in
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the speech too, that he can be dangerous. Clowns with
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of power can still be dangerous. We've all
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: seen it.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: We all get it, right? That's an important point. And
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: just the exhaustion. The exhaustion of having a person who
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: wants to be a leader, who is in our lives
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: all the time, who only fucking cares about himself, is
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: only complaining about himself, whining all the time, and contrasting
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: that with Kamala Harris, who cares about people, who is
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: like wakes up thinking about people like that is a
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: powerful contrast. And it was it was Biden's contrast as well.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: It's like a through line from the whole campaign.
• 31:04
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it's there's something about what what Obama is doing
• 31:07
  Speaker 7: up there, which is he is he's not saying you're
• 31:10
  Speaker 7: not wrong to be pissed or that there aren't people
• 31:13
  Speaker 7: that you want to scold that are frustrating you. He's
• 31:15
  Speaker 7: saying it's not the most effective thing. And being effective
• 31:18
  Speaker 7: is all that matters. This was a night about being effective.
• 31:22
  Speaker 7: the speeches themselves were models of what it means to
• 31:24
  Speaker 7: be effective. And what he is saying in the speeches,
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: this is how you be. Is Donald Trump a threat
• 31:29
  Speaker 7: to us?
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. But what's the most, the most effective case you
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: can make? And one of the ways that we can
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: be effective.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: What do you do if you're talking to someone who
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't think Donald Trump's a threat?
• 31:39
  Speaker 9: Right.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: You still need to get their vote.
• 31:40
  Speaker 7: And part of what he's saying is, hey, we want
• 31:43
  Speaker 7: to be a party people want to join, right? We
• 31:44
  Speaker 7: want to be a place that everybody feels welcome. Does
• 31:47
  Speaker 7: that mean that people aren't wrong and hold views that
• 31:49
  Speaker 7: we find abhorrent? Of course it does. But what is effective?
• 31:53
  Speaker 7: What is practical? What brings people in? And that was
• 31:57
  Speaker 7: just so refreshing. This was a night about winning.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: There has been so much.
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: Talk over the last month about how the parallels between
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: Kamala Harris 24 and Barack Obama 08, right? Just the
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: packed crowds, the energy. But I think we've known them
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: for a long time. They see those parallels too. Not
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: in any superficial crowd and way, but just in the
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: kind of campaign she's running and the kind of politician
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: she is, right? She is running a fearless campaign where
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: she knows she's the underdog, right?
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: Like do it.
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: It seems like a small thing for most people in
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: the world, but pulling off, going live at your convention
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: is a situation where one person tripping over a wire
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: can embarrass the shit out of you on national television
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: in front of 30 million people, whoever we're watching tonight.
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: But they did it anyway because they, you know, Barack
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: Obama always says, If your name is Barack Hussein Obama,
• 32:48
  Speaker 5: it doesn't matter what the polls say, you're an underdog.
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: And if your name is Kamala Harris, you're an underdog.
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: And she's running like an underdog. And she's also trying
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: to build a movement that's about people, not her, right?
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: It's like Kamala Harris for the people. Kamala for the
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: people is what? Or a future for the people.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: And I just really.
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: Felt their passion for her and what she stands for
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: and the kind of president she would be in those remarks.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: They were putting it on the line. Michelle Obama did
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: not have to speak at this convention. Yeah, she wanted to.
• 33:19
  Speaker 8: And it's 08-like in that people are genuinely excited about
• 33:24
  Speaker 8: her and people are getting involved and reading about politics
• 33:27
  Speaker 8: who normally don't pay a lot of attention.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: I think we're all probably hearing that in our lives.
• 33:30
  Speaker 8: What's different than 08 is, look, I didn't agree with
• 33:33
  Speaker 8: John McCain on a lot of issues, but if he
• 33:34
  Speaker 8: had been president, I was like, well, he's a good man.
• 33:37
  Speaker 8: You know, he's got a core decency to him. He'll
• 33:39
  Speaker 8: do some things that I think are abhorrent, but I
• 33:41
  Speaker 8: don't think that he's going to damage the country. Donald
• 33:44
  Speaker 8: Trump is an existential threat. to the nation, to democracy.
• 33:48
  Speaker 8: And also people are excited about Kamala Harris. That's a
• 33:50
  Speaker 8: pretty potent combination.
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: And the other thing that's similar is that Obama was
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: about turning the page on an era that had been
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: going on for an overly long time. It was basically
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: like Bush is running against Democrats for a long time.
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: And this is Kamala Harris represents an end to this
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: nine fucking years of Donald Trump.
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: And the democratic party has not gone forward since Obama,
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: you know, to his great credit, we went backwards. Hillary
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: Clinton ran, and then Biden stepped up and ran.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: And we've never hit the post-Obama era.
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: We've never turned the page unless we've had almost a
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: decade where every single moment was about Donald Trump. And
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: Kamala Harris, and I think the reason people are so excited,
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: is there is a promise of something different. And her
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: campaign is not about Trump, it's about her. And I
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: think that is very compelling, and that's sort of what
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: you heard in some of Obama's remarks tonight.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I also think AOC last night, Doug Emhoff, Barack Obama,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Michelle Obama. All very different people. Some in politics, some not.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Some different ideological persuasions.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Just shout out, Doug. You're in that sentence, man. Great job.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Incredible.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: An entertainment lawyer. Married up. That would be an amazing
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: dinner party.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: You would not think there's a common thread that binds
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: all those people together, but they all did something similar
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: with their speeches, which is invite people in to this movement,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: to this party, and who may not pay close attention
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: to politics, may not necessarily be with us. And all
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: of them are trying to grab people who just may
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: not necessarily be with us and to bring them in.
• 35:24
  Speaker 7: There's a moment with Doug that I really liked where
• 35:27
  Speaker 7: he said, Kamala Harris is a joyful warrior, but just
• 35:30
  Speaker 7: because you're joyful doesn't mean you're a warrior.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: She's a warrior.
• 35:32
  Speaker 7: And there's something about that, that like, The thing Trump
• 35:36
  Speaker 7: does is throws people off their game and they're just
• 35:39
  Speaker 7: not being thrown off by Trump. She's not running away
• 35:42
  Speaker 7: from being joyful. They're celebrating the laugh. It really is
• 35:45
  Speaker 7: a campaign that also just reflects the lessons of the
• 35:47
  Speaker 7: last nine years.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: It's figuring out.
• 35:50
  Speaker 7: The Democratic Party has adapted to Trump. And in Kamala,
• 35:54
  Speaker 7: for the first time, you really see a campaign that's
• 35:56
  Speaker 7: built around Trump. uh, his moves that, that kind of
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: sees ahead of his moves.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Well, and Michelle did a good job foreshadowing too. At
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: one point she was like, and things are going to
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: get tough and people are going to get nervous. You're
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: going to see the polls and you're going to, it's
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: going to happen. Like everything's feeling great right now, but
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: times are going to get tough. And when they do.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: keep this feeling, keep this work going.
• 36:14
  Speaker 8: She goes so big, but then she also goes real small.
• 36:17
  Speaker 8: And it's like, you are going to get to work.
• 36:20
  Speaker 8: You're going to make that call. You're going to give money.
• 36:22
  Speaker 8: You're not going to whine about God getting touched by
• 36:24
  Speaker 8: the political director.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I love it. She's so actionable with her demands.
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: The last thing I would just say is, if you
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: are a Democratic politician, you're a speechwriter, you're a wannabe
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: communications director, the speeches you just laid out, AOC, Doug,
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, watch those speeches.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: And don't emulate the cadence.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: It's not the cadence.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: It's not about copying them, especially since they're all so different.
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: It is just, look at how they gave the speech.
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: Look at how the speeches weren't about themselves. Look at
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: how they told a story. It's just, look at how
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: they were not trying to go viral. None of them
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: were trying to go viral.
• 36:55
  Speaker 9: Right?
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: No.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: A lot of Barack Obama stuff, like, in the room,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: like you said, it wasn't, like, thunderous applause because he was, like,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: thinking about the audience.
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: It's hard to pick out a moment, too, because it
• 37:03
  Speaker 7: really is, like, an argument made over the course of
• 37:05
  Speaker 7: a speech.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: It's a lot of amens.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 37:07
  Speaker 6: Mind us.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: You guys hear the guy last night when Biden was
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: speaking and kept being like, Joe in his bag. I
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: love that guy.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: So good.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: All right. Enough of that.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Later in the show, you're going to hear our interview
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. But when we come back, our really
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: fun conversation with Kamala Harris's good friend and our senator
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: from California, LaFonza Butler.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: And we came away. We're huge fans.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Joining us tonight, fresh off her convention speech here in Chicago,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: is California's junior senator, our senator, and a longtime close
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: ally of Kamala Harris, LaFonza Butler. Welcome to the pod, Senator.
• 37:54
  Speaker 9: Thank you for having me.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: So you've known Kamala Harris for 15 years. A lot
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: of the country is just getting to know her, even
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: though they know that she's vice president. Can you tell
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: us something about Kamala Harris that not a lot of
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: people know, but should know?
• 38:10
  Speaker 9: I think everybody knows everything, so I'm just going to
• 38:13
  Speaker 9: tell you everything I know about her.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: How's that?
• 38:15
  Speaker 9: So, look, I think she is one of the funniest,
• 38:19
  Speaker 9: fun people that I have ever been around.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:23
  Speaker 9: She is warm in ways that you just couldn't really imagine.
• 38:29
  Speaker 9: She's had to be, you know, an executive in office
• 38:33
  Speaker 9: over and over again, and just to see her with
• 38:36
  Speaker 9: my daughter and to see her, like, you know, hang
• 38:41
  Speaker 9: out and invite my daughter over to a pool party
• 38:44
  Speaker 9: at the VP's residence and show her a good time,
• 38:49
  Speaker 9: but also to see her grab the face of a
• 38:52
  Speaker 9: stranger's kid and tell them how important they are and
• 38:56
  Speaker 9: tell them how much the country is counting on their leadership.
• 39:00
  Speaker 9: To me, that's the best picture of Kamala Harris that
• 39:03
  Speaker 9: I can give to the American people. It's a person
• 39:05
  Speaker 9: who's Fun and fun-loving, but not afraid to make hard
• 39:10
  Speaker 9: choices while having a good time.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: That's great. You were at a side a lot of
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: the 2020 campaign as a senior advisor. What was it
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: like being an advisor to her during that period, and
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: what lessons do you think she learned from that campaign?
• 39:24
  Speaker 9: Look, I think that she has learned very much how
• 39:28
  Speaker 9: to go about interviewing.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Herself to the country.
• 39:32
  Speaker 9: I think that was a critical, objective of her 2020 campaign. Um,
• 39:37
  Speaker 9: I think she did a good job in places where
• 39:39
  Speaker 9: it was, where she was able to sort of dig
• 39:41
  Speaker 9: in and spend some time. Um, and I think this,
• 39:45
  Speaker 9: the way that she's been in partnership with president Biden, um,
• 39:49
  Speaker 9: given her the opportunity to not just travel the country,
• 39:51
  Speaker 9: but travel the world and really understand how, um, to
• 39:56
  Speaker 9: communicate quickly, effectively, um, and, but yet completely, um, about
• 40:01
  Speaker 9: particular issues about herself, And I think that's an incredible
• 40:05
  Speaker 9: skill that she has sharpened. And I think we're all
• 40:08
  Speaker 9: witnessing the execution of this campaign, her ability to do
• 40:12
  Speaker 9: that in a stronger way.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's been, I think, so refreshing and exciting for people.
• 40:18
  Speaker 7: Even people who were excited about Vice President Harris, if
• 40:21
  Speaker 7: Bill Biden steps aside being the candidate, or even people
• 40:23
  Speaker 7: that love her are blown away by how she has
• 40:26
  Speaker 7: just taken on this mantle, this incredible amount of pressure,
• 40:28
  Speaker 7: and performed so well and in such.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: An authentic way.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: And....
• 40:34
  Speaker 7: It reminded me, we interviewed Kamala Harris back in 2017, 2018,
• 40:38
  Speaker 7: and an incredible person on stage. Was there some recognition
• 40:45
  Speaker 7: that I think during that 2020 campaign, whether it was
• 40:48
  Speaker 7: not talking about being a prosecutor or all this sort
• 40:51
  Speaker 7: of politics around lanes and all the rest, is there
• 40:55
  Speaker 7: a lesson there about what not to do, about how
• 40:58
  Speaker 7: to disregard criticism, or what do you think?
• 41:00
  Speaker 9: Look, I think there's, you know, in a crowded primary field,
• 41:04
  Speaker 9: I think that experience was probably one that, you know, maybe.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: Will be unique for that period of time.
• 41:14
  Speaker 9: And we had such qualified, extraordinary candidates in that primary.
• 41:19
  Speaker 9: Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker. It was really the
• 41:23
  Speaker 9: best of the best of the bench of the Democratic Party.
• 41:28
  Speaker 9: And I think all of them were trying to figure out,
• 41:31
  Speaker 9: you know, how best do I make the strongest impression possible?
• 41:36
  Speaker 9: And I think truly the lesson for so many of
• 41:39
  Speaker 9: us that were on that campaign is just forget about
• 41:43
  Speaker 9: all of that. It is just be who you are,
• 41:48
  Speaker 9: show up as authentically as possible, but with clear passion
• 41:54
  Speaker 9: about what it is that you care about and a
• 41:56
  Speaker 9: vision to communicate to the American people and let the
• 41:58
  Speaker 9: chips fall where they may. And so I think what
• 42:01
  Speaker 9: we see in this, in the execution of this campaign,
• 42:04
  Speaker 9: but frankly, I think throughout the vice presidency in service
• 42:09
  Speaker 9: with President Biden, like, since Dobbs and that Dobbs decision,
• 42:16
  Speaker 9: she has just decided that there's so much at stake
• 42:20
  Speaker 9: that she's not going to get it perfectly every time,
• 42:22
  Speaker 9: but she's going to get it right every time because
• 42:25
  Speaker 9: she's going to show up and be who she is
• 42:27
  Speaker 9: and talk directly to the American people. And that's the,
• 42:30
  Speaker 9: to me, the exciting part about where we are.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: So Joe Biden did something pretty rare in politics. He
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: chose to voluntarily give up the chance to stay in power.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: You did the same thing when you chose not to
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: seek reelection. How did you come to that decision?
• 42:45
  Speaker 9: You know, it's interesting. I became a United States senator
• 42:51
  Speaker 9: in 48 hours. Senator Feinstein passed away late Thursday, early
• 42:58
  Speaker 9: Friday morning. The governor, Governor Gavin Newsom, really had to
• 43:02
  Speaker 9: figure out what his options were, and I think he
• 43:04
  Speaker 9: spent a lot of time doing that on Friday. I
• 43:07
  Speaker 9: got into conversation with him late Saturday. My family and
• 43:13
  Speaker 9: I were on a trip in Colorado and were flying
• 43:16
  Speaker 9: back on Sunday when the news broke and my mom
• 43:19
  Speaker 9: found out the same way that everybody else did, that
• 43:22
  Speaker 9: I was going to be a United States senator. And
• 43:26
  Speaker 9: I literally was sworn in on Tuesday morning, October 3rd.
• 43:32
  Speaker 9: And so for me to be able to have the
• 43:35
  Speaker 9: time to think about how do I serve my country
• 43:38
  Speaker 9: and my state in this unprecedented and unpredicted moment is
• 43:45
  Speaker 9: different from do I want to spend my life doing this?
• 43:50
  Speaker 9: And in order to really, I think, show up as
• 43:53
  Speaker 9: the kind of senator that Californians deserve, it's got to
• 43:57
  Speaker 9: be somebody who knows that this is what they want
• 44:00
  Speaker 9: to spend their life doing. And, you know, for me,
• 44:04
  Speaker 9: it was I have a nine year old daughter. She's
• 44:07
  Speaker 9: going to be 10 in two weeks. The commitment that
• 44:11
  Speaker 9: I had already made was that I was going to
• 44:13
  Speaker 9: be the best mom for her. Um, and you know,
• 44:17
  Speaker 9: I had already made a commitment and what I, after
• 44:21
  Speaker 9: going across California and really assessing, could I raise the money?
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Could I get the endorsements?
• 44:27
  Speaker 9: Could I change the playing field by taking endorsements away
• 44:31
  Speaker 9: from folks who are already in the race? Um, the
• 44:34
  Speaker 9: answer to that was yes. And I knew that to
• 44:37
  Speaker 9: be true. And so the question we had to just become,
• 44:40
  Speaker 9: is it something that I wanted to do?
• 44:43
  Speaker 8: And I didn't.
• 44:44
  Speaker 11: And so I didn't.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: That's interesting. You really thought about it. You got into it. Oh, no,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: I did the work.
• 44:49
  Speaker 11: I got into it.
• 44:51
  Speaker 9: I could tell you where the money was going to
• 44:53
  Speaker 9: come from. I could tell you what endorsements I was
• 44:55
  Speaker 9: going to take. Yeah, I did the work. I considered it.
• 44:59
  Speaker 9: I was clear with Governor Newsom I would not accept
• 45:02
  Speaker 9: the appointment if I couldn't. If it was his expectation,
• 45:06
  Speaker 9: then I wouldn't.
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: Because people thought that, right? They thought there was some
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: sort of a deal.
• 45:10
  Speaker 9: I understand that, but that's because they hadn't met me yet.
• 45:16
  Speaker 9: It's not the kind of game I play. It's not
• 45:17
  Speaker 9: how I roll. If I'm going to do something, I'm
• 45:19
  Speaker 9: going to do it my way. And I think the
• 45:21
  Speaker 9: governor appreciated that.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: You've been in politics for a long time, activist, organizer, advisor.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: Having been in the Senate and been in an elected capacity,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: what did you learn about politics being in Washington that
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: you didn't already know from your long career in politics?
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: You know, it's a great question.
• 45:41
  Speaker 9: And I spent a lot of time in my career
• 45:43
  Speaker 9: adjacent to politics. I'd always sort of figured that I
• 45:46
  Speaker 9: was just a step or two removed from those in
• 45:51
  Speaker 9: the seat having to make the decision, but having the
• 45:54
  Speaker 9: influence to be able to persuade, engage, communicate effectively with
• 46:01
  Speaker 9: those who are making the decision. And so now being
• 46:03
  Speaker 9: the person that gets persuaded and engaged and communicated to
• 46:07
  Speaker 9: effectively definitely changes the dynamic, but it has helped me
• 46:14
  Speaker 9: to appreciate what I think is a fundamental element that
• 46:18
  Speaker 9: we need to develop our muscle in, and that is
• 46:22
  Speaker 9: the partnership between the advocacy community and committed elected leaders.
• 46:29
  Speaker 9: We see those old photos of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
• 46:33
  Speaker 9: sitting in the president's office and in negotiation and conversation
• 46:38
  Speaker 9: with folks around the March on Washington. Those conversations, those
• 46:45
  Speaker 9: photos capture the kinds of relationships necessary to produce the
• 46:50
  Speaker 9: Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and the
• 46:53
  Speaker 9: Housing Rights Act. And so I think that we've got
• 46:56
  Speaker 9: to figure out how we bring more strategic collaboration between
• 47:02
  Speaker 9: the advocacy community as well as the elected officials. And
• 47:06
  Speaker 9: that's the thing that actually made it has become more
• 47:10
  Speaker 9: real for me being in this seat.
• 47:12
  Speaker 7: Is there something you think advocates, is there something you
• 47:14
  Speaker 7: came to understand that you realized, oh, this is something
• 47:15
  Speaker 7: advocates are getting wrong or something you wish they understand
• 47:18
  Speaker 7: now that you've been in this seat?
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: I think at the end of the day, it's about power, right?
• 47:23
  Speaker 9: Getting to the outcomes that we want to achieve is
• 47:26
  Speaker 9: about assessing, do I have enough power? Do we collectively
• 47:30
  Speaker 9: have enough power to get there? And what I would
• 47:33
  Speaker 9: love for our advocate community and being a part of it,
• 47:37
  Speaker 9: I put this on myself as well, is that we
• 47:40
  Speaker 9: spend a lot of time talking to the elected officials
• 47:42
  Speaker 9: who we know are on our side. And we don't
• 47:46
  Speaker 9: spend enough time building our power with the folks who
• 47:50
  Speaker 9: need to be persuaded. And so does that make us
• 47:52
  Speaker 9: think about our coalition formation differently in order to actually
• 47:57
  Speaker 9: move the needle and get the next three votes that
• 47:59
  Speaker 9: we need to? Do we change who goes to the meeting?
• 48:03
  Speaker 9: Do we adjust our messaging a bit? And so not
• 48:08
  Speaker 9: just spending so much time with the folks who are
• 48:10
  Speaker 9: with us, but actually doing the hard work to figure
• 48:15
  Speaker 9: out how we find common ground with those who might
• 48:17
  Speaker 9: not naturally.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Be with us. That's a great lesson to learn, I think,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: for all of us. Senator LaFonza Butler, thank you so
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: much for coming on Pod Save America. And thanks for
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: being our senator. Thank you for having me.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: Are you going to run for something else?
• 48:32
  Speaker 9: I am not.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: That's a shame.
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: Are you sure?
• 48:35
  Speaker 9: I am not running for anything else right now.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, I like that right now.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Just going to go be a mom for a while.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I am.
• 48:43
  Speaker 9: Great. Thank you all so much.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, we're about to go to break, and when we
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: come back, you're going to hear our conversation with Julie Louis-Dreyfus.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: But before we do that, I want to call your
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: attention to a moment from Kamala Harris' event in Milwaukee tonight.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: No, no, we haven't already won.
• 48:59
  Speaker 6: 77 days of work to do, my friends.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Someone said you've already won. Like it's a fucking participation show.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: What are you smoking then? Was it Michael J. Fox
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: from the future? I hope so.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: To her point... We haven't already won. That's our job.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: We got to do the work. That's why we're very
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: excited to announce that VoteSaving has set a big goal.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: As we mentioned, 75,000 volunteer signups for their 2024 Organizer
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: Else program by September 17th, National Voter Registration Day. Vote
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Save America is the absolute best at providing the highest
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: impact ways you can take action right now to support
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: down ballot races in must-win districts and build momentum for
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: the Harris-Walls ticket. So we got currently 40,000 volunteers in
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: the program, which means ambitious goal, very necessary, but only
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: achievable with you. So go to votesaveamerica.com slash 2024 to
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: sign up. This message has been paid for by Vote
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: Save America. You can learn more at votesaveamerica.com. And this
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: ad has not been authorized by any candidate or candidates committee.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: When we come back, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Welcome back to Pod
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: Save America, Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 50:17
  Speaker 11: Thank you for welcoming me back.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: It's good to have you back. What are you doing
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: here in Chicago at the convention?
• 50:22
  Speaker 11: I just happened to be here, and I thought I'd
• 50:24
  Speaker 11: pop in. It's a great town. I actually went to
• 50:28
  Speaker 11: college here.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: You did?
• 50:29
  Speaker 10: Yes.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Where'd you go to school?
• 50:30
  Speaker 11: Northwestern.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, nice.
• 50:31
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 50:33
  Speaker 11: I'm here because I am a tried-and-true Democrat, number one.
• 50:37
  Speaker 6: And.
• 50:39
  Speaker 11: I came specifically for a few events, including I am
• 50:44
  Speaker 11: hosting a panel of all the eight Democratic female governors.
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: Nice.
• 50:49
  Speaker 10: I'm doing that, I guess, today, this afternoon, is how
• 50:55
  Speaker 10: I should say it.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: And.
• 50:57
  Speaker 10: The link is in my bio. You guys are going
• 50:59
  Speaker 10: to put the link because you can live stream it.
• 51:01
  Speaker 11: And it should be, hopefully... I mean, you know, to
• 51:05
  Speaker 11: be honest with you, I hope it goes well. But
• 51:07
  Speaker 11: it's eight people.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: What are you guys going to be talking about?
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: You tell me. Are you asking them all questions?
• 51:11
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 51:12
  Speaker 10: Okay. And so I've got a list of things. You know,
• 51:15
  Speaker 10: by the way, they have this complete... You may know
• 51:17
  Speaker 10: this already. But, you know, they have this camaraderie.
• 51:20
  Speaker 11: They've got a text chain going. They're all... It's a real.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: That sounds like a fun text chain.
• 51:24
  Speaker 11: It actually does, right?
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: And.
• 51:27
  Speaker 11: And so they're a very close group.
• 51:30
  Speaker 10: And so I think it's going to be interesting to
• 51:31
  Speaker 10: hear what leadership is like from their point of view.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 51:36
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 51:36
  Speaker 7: I think maybe you start out by really insulting Kathy
• 51:39
  Speaker 7: Hochul so that the rest know to be afraid of you.
• 51:41
  Speaker 11: Or come to her defense. And then we see the
• 51:44
  Speaker 11: sort of the connection.
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: Of the group in action. Or divide them.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: Whichever.
• 51:48
  Speaker 11: Or divide.
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 51:49
  Speaker 11: Well, that'll be easy. Because it's women. It's easy to
• 51:52
  Speaker 11: ruffle up women.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: This is not your first foray into politics. You've been
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: really involved in the last several years in the Trump era.
• 52:00
  Speaker 11: Pre-Trump, too, by the way.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Pre-Trump, too.
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: How did you make the decision to be active in politics,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: which is sometimes tricky for a celebrity of your status?
• 52:11
  Speaker 11: You know what? I had this feeling that if I didn't,
• 52:14
  Speaker 11: I would feel guilty.
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 52:16
  Speaker 11: So I had a feeling of responsibility.
• 52:20
  Speaker 10: And I never, ever, ever, ever purport to be an
• 52:23
  Speaker 10: expert on the issues, because I ain't. But what I
• 52:26
  Speaker 10: do try to do is shine the spotlight on people
• 52:29
  Speaker 10: that I think should have a spotlight on them. And
• 52:34
  Speaker 10: I'm very focused this election, too, on multiple down-ballot races.
• 52:40
  Speaker 10: So I'm doing a lot of work to raise awareness
• 52:44
  Speaker 10: of various... state legislature races and so on in various
• 52:49
  Speaker 10: states uh... because you know sometimes raising funds earn awareness
• 52:53
  Speaker 10: for those rep smaller as it were campaigns not so
• 52:57
  Speaker 10: small anymore in the sense that state legislatures have so
• 53:00
  Speaker 10: much uh... power and authority and uh... and i think
• 53:04
  Speaker 10: it's uh... you know of a few hundred dollars can
• 53:07
  Speaker 10: go very long way in races like that.
• 53:09
  Speaker 7: Do you ever find because there are there are plenty
• 53:11
  Speaker 7: of people That aren't willing to do that.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: They're just like, I stay out of politics. I don't
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: want people to know what I think about politics. I
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: don't want to be involved.
• 53:18
  Speaker 11: I understand that.
• 53:20
  Speaker 7: Do you ever talk to people who feel that way
• 53:22
  Speaker 7: and try to persuade them that they actually should, that
• 53:24
  Speaker 7: it's worth it? Do you have any regrets about doing it?
• 53:27
  Speaker 11: Talking to people about that?
• 53:29
  Speaker 7: Are there any downsides? Have you felt downsides to becoming
• 53:33
  Speaker 7: active in politics? Because there are plenty of famous people
• 53:35
  Speaker 7: who could be shining a light on issues who decide
• 53:37
  Speaker 7: not to.
• 53:38
  Speaker 11: Oh, gosh, that's a good question.
• 53:41
  Speaker 10: No, I don't think, speaking for myself, there hasn't been
• 53:43
  Speaker 10: a downside for me. I just, I do feel frustrated
• 53:49
  Speaker 10: sometimes with certain people that I know who don't sort of,
• 53:53
  Speaker 10: I don't know, use their celebrity for good. You know,
• 53:55
  Speaker 10: I've said this before, but I'm quoting Norman Lear. He
• 53:59
  Speaker 10: used to say, celebrity is something you can spend. And,
• 54:03
  Speaker 10: you know, you can spend too much of it. You can,
• 54:06
  Speaker 10: in fact. And so one has to be careful and
• 54:08
  Speaker 10: thoughtful about where you choose to spend it.
• 54:13
  Speaker 11: I choose to spend it in this way.
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: So what do you think of the switch, the big switch?
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Love it.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: Is it going to be a Biden convention? Now it's
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: a Harris convention?
• 54:22
  Speaker 10: Well, I have to say, first of all, it was
• 54:24
  Speaker 10: absolutely the right thing to do. I'm delighted that it happened.
• 54:29
  Speaker 10: It really, in my view, absolutely cements Biden's legacy.
• 54:35
  Speaker 11: As a hero in American history.
• 54:38
  Speaker 10: This is just an extraordinary moment in politics.
• 54:44
  Speaker 11: I just cannot get over what's happened.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: In such a short period of time.
• 54:48
  Speaker 11: I am so excited. I really am legitimately.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: It's a strange feeling.
• 54:51
  Speaker 11: It's a strange feeling.
• 54:52
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 54:53
  Speaker 10: And isn't it fascinating how they have just tripled down
• 54:58
  Speaker 10: on joy and light?
• 55:01
  Speaker 9: It is.
• 55:01
  Speaker 11: And please, Tim Walz.
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: How great.
• 55:08
  Speaker 11: And the fact that he has taken.
• 55:10
  Speaker 10: He's... How can we say this? He has burst the
• 55:16
  Speaker 10: bully bubble by not empowering him, even though, should Trump
• 55:23
  Speaker 10: be re-elected, please, may it not happen, that would be
• 55:28
  Speaker 10: a terrible thing. But he is letting others know that
• 55:32
  Speaker 10: we mustn't be afraid... We must approach this with strength
• 55:39
  Speaker 10: and humor. We should laugh at this guy. And it
• 55:42
  Speaker 10: really bothers him when we do. And it kind of
• 55:45
  Speaker 10: takes his power away from him. It's just good old-fashioned
• 55:49
  Speaker 10: handling a bully tactics.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about that. So your
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: character on Veep, Selina Meyer, found herself in an almost
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: identical situation to Kamala Harris, but she has the personality
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: of Trump. Or more like Trump, at least. Much more
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: like Trump. Do you have advice for Kamala Harris on
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: how to approach Trump? And you think that the mockery
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: and humor is a good way to approach it?
• 56:14
  Speaker 10: Well, I mean, she's obviously found her voice and her
• 56:16
  Speaker 10: authentic voice. I mean, that is in evidence, I think.
• 56:19
  Speaker 10: I don't know if you guys agree with that.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, for sure.
• 56:21
  Speaker 11: I mean, it is completely... I.
• 56:26
  Speaker 10: Feel like she's found herself in front of our eyes.
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: And.
• 56:32
  Speaker 10: As far as presenting herself and very really and honestly,
• 56:38
  Speaker 10: we can tell this is who she is when she speaks.
• 56:41
  Speaker 10: And she takes him very seriously, but she also takes
• 56:46
  Speaker 10: his behavior not seriously.
• 56:50
  Speaker 11: And I think that's important. She does both at the
• 56:52
  Speaker 11: same time.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: So I want to ask you about your career just
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: a little bit.
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: That's okay.
• 56:58
  Speaker 9: Yeah, sure.
• 56:59
  Speaker 11: It's not that interesting, though. Oh, I think it is. Well, anyway,
• 57:03
  Speaker 11: I was going to talk about our plane ride.
• 57:05
  Speaker 7: Oh, yes.
• 57:06
  Speaker 11: We were on the same flight coming here.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: I heard. I just got Tony Goldwyn. He got you.
• 57:11
  Speaker 11: He got me, and we were almost diverted to Milwaukee.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: Milwaukee because of Air Force One landings.
• 57:16
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: Joe Biden. My God.
• 57:18
  Speaker 11: We were almost.
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: Trump voters by the time we landed. Yeah, exactly. Then
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: we got drinks.
• 57:21
  Speaker 10: I said if we.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: I was very jealous when I heard this.
• 57:25
  Speaker 10: I know. I thought we were going to be renting
• 57:26
  Speaker 10: a car and driving from Milwaukee to Chicago together.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Dream come true.
• 57:29
  Speaker 11: It would have been really good.
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: So, you've led multiple hit shows. Not a lot of
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: people can say that.
• 57:35
  Speaker 11: Okay. Okay, keep going.
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: So, there's a lot of people that they're incredibly funny
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: in one time and place.
• 57:44
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 57:44
  Speaker 7: They don't really evolve. They get kind of stuck. How
• 57:47
  Speaker 7: have you thought about staying curious about... evolving as a
• 57:53
  Speaker 7: performer even in different times. Just, you know, Seinbelt and Veep,
• 57:58
  Speaker 7: as big as it can get, completely different styles, completely
• 58:01
  Speaker 7: different tones.
• 58:02
  Speaker 11: Yeah.
• 58:05
  Speaker 10: Well, at the risk of sounding like an... Can you
• 58:09
  Speaker 10: swear on this show? Oh, yeah.
• 58:11
  Speaker 11: Like an asshole artist type.
• 58:15
  Speaker 10: I have never approached my career by thinking of it
• 58:20
  Speaker 10: like that.
• 58:20
  Speaker 11: I approach it by.
• 58:22
  Speaker 10: I mean, I really like to work and I get
• 58:26
  Speaker 10: very excited by material that provokes me and, um, in
• 58:31
  Speaker 10: a good way. And, um, so that's been the driver
• 58:36
  Speaker 10: and then I've just lucked out.
• 58:37
  Speaker 11: But I mean, that has been the driver.
• 58:39
  Speaker 10: Um, I, there, there are certain, uh, pitfalls to show
• 58:43
  Speaker 10: business that I think I.
• 58:44
  Speaker 11: Haven't fallen prey to.
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: Like what?
• 58:48
  Speaker 11: Um, uh, Celebrity stuff. There's a kind of success that
• 58:55
  Speaker 11: you can't really focus on because it'll fuck you up.
• 58:59
  Speaker 11: It really will. I think it's really about material at
• 59:02
  Speaker 11: the end of the day.
• 59:03
  Speaker 10: And by the way, some things haven't worked out. But
• 59:07
  Speaker 10: I don't have regrets about any of that. And by
• 59:09
  Speaker 10: the way, when I say haven't, worked out, I mean,
• 59:10
  Speaker 10: haven't been huge hits, but that's okay because I have
• 59:15
  Speaker 10: had a, um, really, um, uh, I've had a really
• 59:20
  Speaker 10: good time playing all sorts of different things.
• 59:23
  Speaker 7: Well, the reason I was thinking about it is because like,
• 59:25
  Speaker 7: so JD van says, I love diet Mountain Dew.
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: And I think, That's disgusting.
• 59:31
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: You're gross.
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 59:32
  Speaker 7: Then Tim Walz says, I love Diet Mountain Dew, and
• 59:35
  Speaker 7: I think I should try Diet Mountain Dew.
• 59:38
  Speaker 11: Okay, that's fascinating.
• 59:38
  Speaker 7: Well, it's because he has charisma. Of course, there's a
• 59:41
  Speaker 7: policy difference, but Tim Walz is charming.
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: He has it.
• 59:44
  Speaker 11: He's disarmingly charming.
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 59:46
  Speaker 7: And I think a lot of times we try to
• 59:48
  Speaker 7: make politics objective, but sometimes some people have it, and
• 59:52
  Speaker 7: some people don't have it.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: Correct.
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: You have it. Thank you. You do, but you're beloved.
• 59:57
  Speaker 11: I'm not running for office. I'm not running for office.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 7: You've played some of the biggest jerks. You've played beloved characters.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 7: But the same thing that carries them together is you
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 7: have this charm, this charisma.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: What is it? What is it?
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 11: John, come on.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: No, I want to know.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: What is it?
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: Tim Walls has it. You have it. Kamala has it.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: Some people don't. Ted Cruz doesn't have it. What the
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: fuck is it?
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 11: I can't... I think maybe they are.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 10: sort of to what I said earlier, I think there's
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 10: an authenticity in place. I think you're aware of the
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 10: fact that JD Vance is not telling the truth about
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 10: himself and that you're picking up on that.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 11: Same is true of Cruz. Same is true of Kevin McCarthy.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 10: All of these guys, there is a, and by the way,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 10: we can differ on, uh, policy.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 11: There are, there are Republicans that are affable and, um, charming.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 11: They are.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: There are.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 11: And, uh, but there is a, people can smell a fake.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Veep is one of the greatest shows ever. One of
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: the greatest characters ever. Like I, we are watching it again.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: My wife and I, like for the fifth time, it's
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: like up 350% now, the number of people who are
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: like watching it now because of the situation we're all in. It,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: it really is timeless. Like a lot of political shows
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: tend to sort of, they age differently and, I'm just wondering, like,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: what did Veep, because I also think that it's like
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: the most accurate portrayal of the White House and politics
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: of any political show. What did it teach you about politics?
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 11: You came and spoke to our writers.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 10: Because we had a lot of people come in who
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 10: were in the weeds, as it were, and talk to
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 10: us about that experience. You know, it was just a reminder,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 10: which is both good and bad, that these are really
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 10: honestly just people like you and I are sitting here,
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 10: just people who.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 11: You know, wake up, have their coffee.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 10: Go to the bathroom, you know, do everyday normal people things,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 10: and they just happen to be in positions of government.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 11: And it's really that simple.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it fucks you up.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 11: And sometimes it fucks you up.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it brings out the worst in you.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 11: And sometimes it brings out the best in you. So
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 11: it doesn't... It certainly....
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 10: One thing that was great about doing the show is
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 10: that it gave us access to sort of inside politics
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 10: in a way that was super interesting. And I'm kind
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 10: of a nerd for that.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 9: I love it.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 10: But you did get to meet people who were very
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 10: well-intentioned and well-meaning.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 11: Both sides of the aisle. I really mean that. And so.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 10: Yeah, it was an extraordinary opportunity to meet people really
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 10: trying to make the world a better place. Like, really
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 10: trying to do the right thing. And that can be
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 10: very inspiring.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: Julie Lee Dreyfuss, thank you as always for coming on
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: Hot Save America.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 11: Hey, it's my pleasure.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: So good to see you.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 11: It's so good to see you, too.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: Good luck with all the governors tomorrow.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 10: Oh, God.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 11: What should I ask them for reals?
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a good question.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 11: Yeah, come on, guys. Just give me a little something.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: Ask them... Ask them to all give it, have them
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: give a little advice to Kamala. Because they're all going
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: to be very messagey, right? Every governor, they're going to
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: get their talking points out, which is great. That's their job.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 10: Yeah, but they're not all, yes, but they're not running.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 10: I don't think anybody's on the ballot. And so I'm
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 10: hopeful that maybe we can avoid some of that, but
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 10: I don't know.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 7: Some of these governors are from states where they've been
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 7: able to protect abortion access, and some of them are
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 7: from governors from states where they haven't been able to.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 7: And in the states where we, there are states we
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 7: need to win where, like say Gretchen Whitmer has done
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 7: an incredible job of making sure that abortion access is protected,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 7: but we need abortion to be salient for those voters.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 7: And we found that in like in states where California
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 7: or New York, people didn't feel like it was as
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 7: much of a threat. How do they think about making
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 7: sure people understand the threat Trump poses on abortion when
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 7: they're working so hard to protect abortion access for their people?
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 9: Right.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 11: Or they have a red, red legislature and they're dealing with, yes, exactly.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, I go in too. There has become there's a
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: huge gender gap opening up in this election. There's a
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: gender gap opening up even larger in Gen Z. So
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: these younger voters like there's young men are becoming like
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: more Republican. But people like Gretchen Whitmer, people like Maura Healey,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: they're like governors in states where they have won like.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: there hasn't been as big of a gender gap. And
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: they've been, like, really appealing to, like, both men and women.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: And I think, like, talking about sort of the gender
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: split there is kind of interesting to see how they
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: deal with it. Because Gretchen Whitmer is, like, beloved in Michigan.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 7: Beloved.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: She, like, wins by overwhelming margins.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: Rural areas, cities, everywhere. So it's kind of interesting to
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: know what her secret is.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 11: Well, I think to what we were discussing earlier, I
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 11: think they really pick up on her authenticity.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 10: I just read her book when we were on our plane,
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 10: by the way. And it's... actually a really interesting read.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 11: And it's very.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: Digestible. Can I tell you something that I was embarrassed
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: of on our plane ride?
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 11: You were watching The Real Housewives.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: No, I was watching. I looked over and you were
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: reading a physical book. A physical book.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 7: And I was like, I have to take out my
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 7: iPad and watch House of the Dragon. And I was
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 7: trying to hide my screen. And then finally, your husband
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 7: took out an iPad. And I was like, oh, thank God.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 7: Please don't read a book. Please don't read a book.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: And he didn't. He watched something. And I was like,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: fuck it. We can watch TV. I don't have to
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: feel embarrassed about watching this bad reboot. I can be myself.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: Have a cocktail. All right.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 11: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 9: All right. Awesome.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 11: It was really nice to see you guys.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: That's our show for tonight, but we've got more from
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: the DNC for our Friends of the Pod subscribers. Lovett
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: and I answered some of your questions, did some behind
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